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GENERAL  HISTORY 


NORTH  AND  SOUTH  AMERICA, 


THE   CELEBRATED   WORK 


ROBERTSON; 

CONTINUED  BY  A  COMPLRTK  BISTORT  OF  THE 

UNITED  STATES, 


TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME 


COMPILED  AND  ARRANGED 
**  +  *  " 

Ff    G.**T  O  M  L  I  N  S, 
*> 

Editor  uf  "  ANCIKNT  UNIVERSAL  HISTORY,"    "  THE  HISTORY 
UP  ENGLAND,"  8u:  8cc. 


STEREOTYPE  EDITION. 


LO  N  DON : 
PRINTED,  STEREOTYPED,  AND  PUBLISHED, 

3  Y    ISAAC,    TUCKEY,    AND    CO., 
14,    HENRIETTA    STREET, 

COVENT  GARDEN. 
1836. 


BancicU     '^rfJ 


THE 


HISTORY     OF    AMERICA 


PREFACE. 


IX  fulfilling  the  engagement  which  I   had  come 
under  to  the  public  with  respect  to  the  History  of 
America,  it  was  my  intention  not  to  have  published 
any  part  of  the  work  until  the  whole  was  completed. 
The  present  state  of  the  British  colonies  has  induced 
me  to  alter  that  resolution.    While  they  are  engaged 
in  civil  war  with  Great  Britain,  inquiries  and  specu- 
lations concerning  their  ancient  forms  of  policy  and 
laws,  which  exist  no  longer,  cannot  be  interesting. 
The  attention  and  expectation  of  mankind  are  now 
turned  towards  their  future  condition.     In  whatever 
manner  this  unhappy  contest  may  terminate,  a  new 
order  of  things  must  arise  in  North  America,  and  its 
'     affairs  will  assume  another  aspect.     I  wait  with  the 
r>    solicitude  of  a  good  citizen,  until  the  ferment  sub- 
^    side,  and  regular  government  be  re-established,  and 
then  I  shall  retuni  to  this  part  of  my  work,  in  which 
I  had  made  some  progress.     That,  together  with  the 
history  of  Portuguese   America,  and  of  the  settle- 
>     ments  made  by  the  several  nations  of  Europe  in  the 
4— West  India  Islands,  will  complete  my  plan. 

The  three  volumes  which  I  now  publish  contain 
P    an  account  of  the  discovery  of  the  New  World,   and 
of  the  progress  of  the  Spanish  arms   and  colonies 
there.     This  is  not  only  the  most  splendid  portion 
^   of  the  American  story,  but  so  much  detached,  as,  by 
^  itself,  to  form  a  perfect  whole,  remarkable  for  the 
Q    unity  of  the  subject.     As  the  principles  and  maxims 
kOf  the  Spaniards  in  planting  colonies,   which  have 
jjcieen  adopted  in  some  measure  by  every  nation,  are 
^  unfolded  in  this  part  of  my  work,  it  will  serve  as  a 
*£  proper  introduction  to  the  history  of  all  the  European 
establishments  in  America,   and  convey  such  infor- 
mation concerning  this  important  article  of  policy,  as 
may  be  deemed  no  less  interesting  than  curious. 

In  describing  the  achievements  and  institutions 
of  the  Spaniards  in  the  New  World,  I  have  depart- 
ed, in  many  instances,  from  the  accounts  of  preced- 
ing historians,  and  have  often  related  facts  which 
seem  to  have  been  unknown  to  them.  It  is  a  duty 
I  owe  the  public  to  mention  the  sources  from  which 
I  have  derived  such  intelligence  as  justifies  me  either 
in  placing  transactions  in  a  new  light,  or  in  forming 
any  new  opinion  with  respect  to  their  causes  and 
effects.  This  duty  I  perform  with  greater  satisfac- 
tion, as  it  will  afford  an  opportunity  of  expressing 
my  gratitude  to  those  benefactors  who  have  honoured 
me  with  their  countenance  and  aid  in  my  researches. 
As  it  was  from  Spain  that  I  had  to  expect  the 
most  important  information  with  regard  to  this  part 
of  my  work,  I  considered  it  as  a  very  fortunate  cir- 
cumstance for  me,  when  Lord  Grantham,  to  whom 
I  had  the  honour  of  being  personally  known,  and 
with  whose  liberality  of  sentiment  and  disposition 
to  oblige  I  was  well  acquainted,  was  appointed 
HISTORY  OF  AMERICA,  No.  I, 


ambassador  to  the  court  of  Madrid.  Upon  applying 
to  him,  I  met  with  such  a  reception  as  satisfied  me 
that  his  endeavours  would  be  employed  in  the  most 
proper  manner,  in  order  to  obtain  the  gratification 
of  my  wishes ;  and  I  am  perfectly  sensible,  that 
what  progress  I  have  made  in  my  inquiries  among 
the  Spaniards,  ought  to  be  ascribed  chiefly  to  their 
knowing  how  much  his  lordship  interested  himself 
in  my  success. 

But  did  I  owe  nothing  more  to  lord  Grantham, 
than  the  advantages  which  I  have  derived  from  his 
attention  in  engaging  Mr.  Waddilove,  the  chaplain 
of  his  embassy,  to  take  the  conduct  of  my  literary 
inquiries  in  Spain,  the  obligations  I  lie  under  to  him 
would  be  very  great.  During  five  years  that  gentle- 
man has  carried  on  researches  for  my  behoof,  with 
such  activity,  perseverance,  and  knowledge  of  the 
subject  to  which  his  attention  was  turned,  as  have 
filled  me  with  no  less  astonishment  than  satisfaction. 
He  procured  for  me  the  greater  part  of  the  Spanish 
books  which  I  have  consulted  ;  and  as  many  of  them 
were  printed  early  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  are 
become  extremely  rare,  the  collecting  of  these  was 
such  an  occupation  as  alone  required  much  time  and 
assiduity.  To  his  friendly  attention  I  am  indebted 
for  copies  of  several  valuable  manuscripts,  containing 
facts  and  details  which  I  might  have  searched  for  in 
vain  in  works  that  have  been  made  public.  En- 
couraged by  the  inviting  good-will  with  which 
Mr.  Waddilove  conferred  his  favours,  I  transmitted 
to  him  a  set  of  queries,  with  respect  both  to  the  cus- 
toms and  policy  of  the  native  Americans,  and  the 
nature  of  several  institutions  in  the  Spanish  settle- 
ments, framed  in  such  a  manner,  that  a  Spaniard 
might  answer  them,  without  disclosing  any  thing 
that  was  improper  to  be  communicated  to  a  foreigner. 
He  translated  these  into  Spanish,  and  obtained  from 
various  persons  who  had  resided  in  most  of  the 
Spanish  colonies,  such  replies  as  have  afforded  me 
much  instruction. 

Notwithstanding  these  peculiar  advantages  with 
which  my  inquiries  were  carried  on  in  Spain,  it  is 
with  regret  I  am  obliged  to  add,  that  their  success 
must  be  ascribed  to  the  beneficence  of  individuals, 
not  to  any  communication  by  public  authority.  By 
a  singular  arrangement  of  Philip  II.  the  records  of 
the  Spanish  monarchy  are  deposited  in  the  Archivo 
of  Simancas,  near  Valladolid,  at  a  distance  of  a  hun- 
dred and  twenty  miles  from  the  seat  of  government, 
and  the  supreme  courts  of  justice.  The  papers  rela- 
tive to  America,  and  chiefly  to  that  early  period  of 
its  history  towards  which  my  attention  was  directed, 
are  so  numerous,  that  they  alone,  according  to  one 
account,  fill  the  largest  apartment  in  the  Archivo; 
audt  accordin  £to  another,  they  compose  eight  huu- 


2 


PREFACE. 


dred  and  seventy-three  large   bundles.      Conscious 
of  possessing,  in  some  degree,  the  industry  which 
belongs  to  an  historian,  the  prospect  of  such  a  trea- 
sure   excited  my   most  ardent  curiosity.     But   the 
prospect  of  it  is  all  that  I  have  enjoyed.    Spain,  with 
an  excess   of  caution,  has  uniformly  thrown  a  veil 
over  her  transactions  in  America.     From  strangers 
they  are  concealed  with  peculiar  solicitude.     Even 
to  her  own   subjects  the  Archive  of  Simancas  is  not 
opened  without  a  particular  order  from  the  crown ; 
and  after  obtaining  that,  papers  cannot  be  copied, 
without  paying  fees  of  office  so  exorbitant,   that  the 
expense  exceeds  what  it  would  be  proper  to  bestow, 
when  the  gratification  of  literary  curiosity  is  the  only 
object.     It  is  to  be  hoped,  that  the  Spaniards  will  at 
last  discover  this  system  of  concealment  to  be  no  less 
impolitic  than  illiberal.     From  what   I  have  expe- 
rienced in  the  course  of  my  inquiries,  I  am  satisfied, 
that  upon   a  more  minute  scrutiny  into  their  early 
operations  in  the  New  World,  however  reprehensible 
the  actions  of  individuals  may  appear,  the  conduct  of 
the  nation  will  be  placed  in  a  more  favourable  light. 
In  other  parts  of  Europe  very  different  sentiments 
prevail.    Having  searched,  without  success,  in  Spain, 
for  a  letter  of  Cortes  to  Charles  V.  written  soon  after 
he  landed  in  the  Mexican  empire,  which  has  not 
hitherto  been   published,  it  occurred  to  me,  that  as 
the  emperor  was  setting  out  for  Germany  at  the  time 
when  the  messengers  from  Cortes  arrived  in  Europe, 
the  letter  with  which  they  were  entrusted  might  pos- 
sibly be  preserved  in  the  imperial  library  of  Vienna. 
I  communicated  this  idea  to  Sir  Robert  Murray  Keith, 
with  whom   I  have  long  had  the  honour  to  live  in 
friendship,  and  I  had  soon  the  pleasure  to  learn,  that 
upon  his  application,   her  imperial  majesty  had  been 
graciously  pleased  to  issue  an  order,  that  not  only 
a  copy  of  that  letter,  (if  it  were  found),   but  of  any 
other  papers  in  the  library,  which  could  throw  light 
upon  the  History  of  America,   should  be  transmitted 
to  me.    The  letter  from  Cortes  is  not  in  the  imperial 
library,  but  an  authentic  copy,  attested  by  a  notary, 
of  a  letter  written  by  the  magistrates  of  the  colony 
planted  by  him  at  Vera  Cruz,  which  I  have  mentioned, 
Book  V.  having  been  found,  it  was  transcribed  and 
sent  to  me.     As  this  letter  is  no  less  curious,  and  as 
little  known,  as   th;it  which  was  the  object  of  my 
inquiries,  I  have  given  some  account,  in  its  proper 
place,  of  what  is  most  worthy  of  notice  in  it.     To- 
gether with  it,   I  received  a  copy  of  a  letter  from 
Cortes,  containing  a  long  account  of  his   expedition 
to  Honduras,  with  respect  to  which  I  did  not  think 
it  necessary  to  enter  into  any  particular  detail  ;  and 
likewise    those    curious   Mexican   paintings,   which 
I  have  described,  Vol.  iii.  p.  23. 

My  inquiries  at  St.  Petersburgh  were  carried  on 
with  equal  facility  and  success.  In  examining  into 
the  nearest  communication  between  our  continent 
and  that  of  America,  it  became  of  consequence  to 
obtain  authentic  information  concerning  the  dis- 
coveries of  the  Russians  in  their  navigation  from 
Kamschatka  towards  the  coast  of  America.  Accu- 
rate relations  of  their  first  voyage,  in  1741,  have  been 
published  by  Muller  and  Gmelin.  Several  foreign 
authors  have  entertained  an  opinion,  that  the  court 
of  Russia  studiously  conceals  the  progress  which  has 
been  made  by  more  recent  navigators,  and  suffers  the 
public  to  be  amused  with  false  accounts  of  their 
route.  Such  conduct  appeared  to  me  unsuitable  to 
those  liberal  sentiments,  and  that  patronage  oi 
science,  for  which  the  present  sovereign  of  Russia  is 
eminent;  nor  could  I  discern  any  political  reason 
that  might  render  it  improper  to  apply  for  informa- 


tion concerning  the  late  attempts  of  the  Russians  to 
open  a  communication  between  Asia  and  America. 
My  ingenious  countryman,  Dr.  Rogerson,  first  phy- 
sician to  the  empress,  presented  my  request  to  lu-r 
imperial  majesty,  who  not  only  disclaimed  any  idea 
of  concealment, 'but  instantly  ordered  the  journal  of 
Captain  Krenitzin,who  conducted  the  only  voyage  of 
discovery  made  by  public  authority  since  the  y«-;ir 
1741,  to  be  translated,  and  his  original  chart  to  be 
copied  for  my  use.  By  consulting  them,  I  have  been 
enabled  to  give  a  more  accurate  view  of  the  progress 
and  extent  of  the  Russian  discoveries,  than  has 
hitherto  been  communicated  to  the  public. 

From  other  quarters  I  have  received  information 
of  great  utility  and  importance.  M.  le  Chevalier  de 
Pinto,  the  minister  from  Portugal  to  the  court  of 
Great  Britain,  who  commanded  for  several  years  at 
Matagrosso,  a  settlement  of  the  Portuguese  in  the 
interior  part  of  Brazil,  where  the  Indians  are  nume- 
rous, and  their  original  manners  little  altered  by 
intercourse  with  Europeans,  was  pleased  to  send  me 
very  full  answers  to  some  queries  concerning  the 
character  and  institutions  of  the  natives  of  America, 
which  his  polite  reception  of  an  application  made  to 
him  in  my  name,  encouraged  me  to  propose.  These 
satisfied  me,  that  he  had  contemplated  with  a  dis- 
cerning attention  the  curious  objects  which  his 
situation  (presented  to  his  view,  and  I  have  often 
followed  him  as  one  of  my  best  instructed  guides. 

M.  Suard,  to  whose  elegant  translation  of  the 
History  of  the  Reign  of  Charles  V.  I  owe  the  favour- 
able reception  of  that  work  on  the  continent,  pro- 
cured me  answers  to  the  same  queries  from  M.  de 
Bougainville,  who  had  opportunities  of  observing 
the  Indians  both  of  North  and  South  America,  and 
from  M.  Godin  le  Jeune,  who  resided  fifteen  years 
among  the  Indians  in  Quito,  and  twenty  years  in 
Cayenne.  The  latter  are  more  valuable  from  having 
been  examined  by  M.  de  laCondamine,  who,  a  few 
weeks  before  his  death,  made  some  short  additions 
to  them,  which  may  be  considered  as  the  last  effort 
of  that  attention  to  science  which  occupied  a  long 
life. 

My  inquiries  were  not  confined  to  one  region  in 
America.  Governor  Hutchinson  took  the  trouble 
of  recommending  the  consideration  of  my  queries 
to  Mr.  Hawley  and  Mr.  Brainerd,  two  protestant 
missionaries  employed  among  the  Indians  of  the 
Five  Nations,  who  favoured  me  with  answers  which 
discover  a  considerable  knowledge  of  the  people 
whose  customs  they  describe.  From  William  Smith, 
Esq.  the  ingenious  historian  of  New  York,  I  re- 
ceived some  useful  information.  When  I  enter 
upon  the  History  of  our  Colonies  in  North  America, 
I  shall  have  occasion  to  acknowledge  how  much  I 
have  been  indebted  to  many  other  gentlemen  of  that 
country. 

From  the  valuable  collection  of  voyages  made  by 
Alexander  Dalrymple,  Esq.  with  whose  attention  to 
the  history  of  navigation  and  discovery  the  public  is 
well  acquainted,  I  have  received  some  very  rare 
books,  particularly  two  large  volumes  of  memorials, 
partly  manuscript,  and  partly  in  print,  which  were 
presented  to  the  Court  of  Spain  during  the  reigns  of 
Philip  III.  and  Philip  IV.  From  these  I  have 
learned  many  curious  particulars  with  respect  to 
the  interior  state  of  the  Spanish  colonies,  and  the 
various  schemes  formed  for  their  improvement.  As 
this  collection  of  memorials  formerly  belonged  to 
the  Colbert  Library,  I  have  quoted  them  by  that 
title. 

All  those  books  and  manuscripts  I  have  consulted 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


with  that  attention  which  the  respect  duo  from  an 
author  to  the  public  requires ;  and  by  minute  re- 
ferences to  them,  I  have  endeavoured  to  authen- 
ticate whatever  I  relate.  The  longer  I  reflect  on  the 
nature  of  historical  composition,  the  more  I  am  con- 
vinced that  this  scrupulous  accuracy  is  necessary. 
The  historian  who  records  the  events  of  his  own 
time,  is  credited  in  proportion  to  the  opinion  which 
the  public  entertains  with  respect  to  his  means  of 
information  and  his  veracity.  He  who  delineates 
the  transactions  of  a  remote  period,  has  no  title  to 
claim  assent,  unless  he  produces  evidence  in  proof 
of  his  assertions.  Without  this,  he  may  write  an 
amusing  tale,  but  cannot  be  said  to  have  composed 
an  authentic  history.  In  these  sentiments  I  have 
been  confirmed  by  the  opinion  of  an  author,  whom 
his  industry,  erudition,  and  discernment,  have  de- 
servedly placed  in  a  high  rank  among  the  most 
eminent  historians  of  the  a«re.  Imboldened  by  a 
hint  from  him,  I  have  published  a  catalogue  of  the 
Spanish  books  which  I  have  consulted.  This  prac- 
tice was  frequent  in  the  last  century,  and  was  con- 
sidered as  an  evidence  of  laudable  industry  in  an 
author  ;  in  the  present,  it  may,  perhaps,  be  deemed 
the  effect  of  ostentation  ;  but,  as  many  of  these 
books  are  unknown  in  (treat  Britain,  I  could  not 
otherwise  have  referred  to  them  as  authorities,  with- 
out encumbering  the  page  with  an  insertion  of  their 
full  titles.  To  any  person  who  may  choose  to  follow 
me  in  this  path  of  inquiry,  the  catalogue  must  be 
very  useful. 

My  readers  will  observe,  that  in  mentioning  sums 
of  money,  I  have  uniformly  followed  the  Spanish 
method  of  computing  by  pe*o$.  In  America,  the 
peso  fuerte,  or  duro  is  the  only  one  known;  and 
that  is  always  meant  when  any  sum  imported  from 
America  is  mentioned.  The  peso  fuerte,  as  well  as 
other  coins,  has  varied  in  its  numerary  value  ;  but 
I  have  been  advised,  without  attending  to  such 
minute  variations,  to  consider  it  as  equal  to  four 
shillings  and  sixpence  of  our  money.  It  is  to  be 
remembered,  however,  that  in  the  sixteenth  century 


the  effective  value  of  a  peso,  t.  e.  the  quantity  of 
labour  which  it  represented,  or  of  goods  which  it 
would  purchase,  was  five  or  six  times  as  much  as  at 
present. 

POSTCRIPT. 

Since  this  edition  was  put  into  the  press,  a 
History  of  Mexico,  in  two  volumes  in  quarto,  trans- 
lated from  the  Italian  of  the  Abb6  D.  Francesco 
Saverio  Clavigero,  has  been  published.  From  a 
person  who  is  a  native  of  New  Spain,  who  has  re- 
sided forty  years  in  that  country,  and  who  is  ac- 
quainted with  the  Mexican  language,  it  was  natural 
to  expect  much  new  information.  Upon  perusing 
his  work,  however,  I  find  that  it  contains  hardly  any 
addition  to  the  ancient  History  of  the  Mexican  Em- 
pire, as  related  by  Acosta  and  Horrera,  but  what  is 
derived  from  the  improbable  narratives  and  fanciful 
conjectures  of  Torquemada  and  Boturini.  Having 
copied  their  splendid  descriptions  of  the  high  state 
of  civilization  in  the  Mexican  Empire,  M.  Clavigero, 
in  the  abundance  of  his  zeal  for  the  honour  of  his 
native  country,  charges  me  with  having  mistaken 
some  points,  and  with  having  misrepresented  others, 
in  the  history  of  it.  When  an  author  is  conscious 
of  having  exerted  industry  in  research,  and  impar- 
tiality in  decision,  he  may,  without  presumption, 
claim  what  praise  is  due  to  these  qualities,  and  he 
cannot  be  insensible  to  any  accusation  that  tends  to 
weaken  the  force  of  his  claim.  A  feeling  of  this 
kind  has  induced  me  to  examine  such  strictures  of 
M.  Clavigero  on  my  History  of  America  as  merited 
any  attention,  especially  as  these  are  made  by  one 
who  seemed  to  possess  the  means  of  obtaining  ac- 
curate information  ;  and  to  show  that  the  greater 
part  of  them  is  destitute  of  any  just  foundation. 
This  I  have  in  notes  upon  the  passages  in  my  His- 
tory which  gave  rise  to  his  criticism*. 

COLLEGE  OF  EDINBURGH, 
March  1,  1788. 


THE 


HISTORY     OF    AMERICA. 


BOOK  I. 

THE  progress  of  men  in  discovering  and  peopling 
the  various  parts  of  the  earth,  has  been  extremely 
slow.  Several  ages  elapsed  before  they  removed  far 
from  those  mild  and  fertile  regions  in  which  they 
were  originally  placed  by  their  Creator.  The  occa- 
sion of  their  first  general  dispersion  is  known ;  but 
we  are  unacquainted  with  the  course  of  their  migra- 
tions, or  the  time  when  they  took  possession  of  the 
different  countries  which  they  now  inhabit.  Neither 
history  nor  tradition  furnish  such  information  con- 
cerning those  remote  events,  as  enables  us  to  trace, 
with  any  certainty,  the  operations  of  the  human 
race  in  the  infancy  of  society. 


We  may  conclude,  however,  that  all  the  early 
migrations  of  mankind  were  made  by  land.  The 
ocean,  which  surrounds  the  habitable  earth,  as  well 
as  the  various  arms  of  the  sea  which  separate  one  re- 
gion from  another,  though  destined  to  facilitate  the 
communication  between  distant  countries,  seem,  at 
first  view,  to  be  formed  to  check  the  progress  of 
man,  and  to  mark  the  bounds  of  that  portion  of  the 
globe  to  which  nature  had  confined  him.  It  was 
long,  we  may  believe,  before  men  attempted  to  pass 
these  formidable  barriers,  and  became  so  skilful  and 
adventurous  as  to  trust  themselves  to  the  mercy  of 
the  winds  and  waves,  or  to  quit  their  native  shores 
in  auest  of  remote  and  unknown  regions. 

Navigation  and  ship-building  are  arts  so  nice  and 
complicated,  that  they  require  the  ingenuity,  as  well 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


as  experience,  of  many  successive  ages  to  bring  them 
to  any  degree  of  perfection.  From  the  raft  or  canoe, 
which  first  served  to  carry  a  savage  over  the  river 
that  obstructed  him  in  the  chase,  to  the  construction 
of  a  vessel  capable  of  conveying  a  numerous  crew  with 
safety  to  a  distant  coast,  the  progress  in  improvement  is 
immense.  Many  efforts  would  be  made,  many  experi- 
ments would  be  tried,  and  much  labour  as  well  as 
invention  would  be  employed,  before  men  could  ac- 
complish this  arduous  and  important  undertaking. 
The  rude  and  imperfect  state  in  which  navigation  is 
still  found  among  all  nations  which  are  not  consi- 
derably civilized,  corresponds  with  this  account  of 
its  progress,  and  demonstrates  that,  in  early  times, 
the  art  was  not  so  far  improved  as  to  enable  men  to 
undertake  distant  voyages,  or  to  attempt  remote 
discoveries. 

As  soon,  however,  as  the  art  of  navigation  be- 
came known,  a  new  species  of  correspondence  among 
men  took  place.  It  is  from  this  era  that  we  must 
date  the  commencement  of  such  an  intercourse  be- 
tween nations  as  deserves  the  appellation  of  com- 
merce. Men  are,  indeed,  far  advanced  in  improve- 
ment before  commerce  becomes  an  object  of  great 
importance  to  them.  They  must  even  have  made 
some  considerable  progress  towards  civilization,  be- 
fore they  acquire  the  idea  of  property,  and  ascertain 
it  so  perfectly  as  to  be  acquainted  with  the  most 
simple  of  all  contracts,  that  of  exchanging  by  barter 
one  rude  commodity  for  another.  But  as  soon  as 
this  important  right  is  established,  and  every  indivi- 
dual feels  that  he  has  an  exclusive  title  to  possess  or 
to  alienate  whatever  he  has  acquired  by  his  own 
labour  and  dexterity,  the  wants  and  ingenuity  of  his 
natui'e  suggest  to  him  a  new  method  of  increasing 
his  acquisitions  and  enjoyments,  by  disposing  of 
what  is  superfluous  in  his  own  stores,  in  order  to 
procure  what  is  necessary  or  desirable  in  those  of 
other  men.  Thus  a  commercial  intercourse  begins, 
and  is  carried  on  among  the  members  of  the  same 
community.  By  degrees,  they  discover  that  the 
neighbouring  tribes  possess  what  they  themselves 
want,  and  enjoy  comforts  of  which  they  wish  to 
partake.  In  the  same  mode,  and  upon  the  same 
principles,  that  domestic  traffic  is  carried  on  within  the 
society,  an  external  commerce  is  established  with 
other  tribes  or  nations.  Their  mutual  interest  and 
mutual  wants  render  this  intercourse  desirable,  and 
imperceptibly  introduce  the  maxims  and  laws  which 
facilitate  its  progress  and  render  it  secure.  But  no 
very  extensive  commerce  can  take  place  between 
contiguous  provinces,  whose  soil  and  climate  being 
nearly  the  same,  yield  similar  productions.  Remote 
countries  cannot  convey  their  commodities  by  land 
to  those  places  where,  on  account  of  their  rarity, 
they  are  desired,  and  become  valuable.  It  is  to  na- 
vigation that  men  are  indebted  for  the  power  of 
transporting  the  superfluous  stock  of  one  part  of  the 
earth  to  supply  the  wants  of  another.  The  luxuries 
and  blessings  of  a  particular  climate  are  no  longer 
confined  to  itself  alone,  but  the  enjoyment  of  them 
is  communicated  to  the  most  distant  regions. 

In  proportion  as  the  knowledge  of  the  advantages 
derived  from  navigation  and  commerce  continued  to 
spread,  the  intercourse  among  nations  extended. 
The  ambition  of  conquest,  or  the  necessity  of  pro- 
curing new  settlements,  were  no  longer  the  sole 
motives  of  visiting  distant  lands.  The  desire  of  gain 
became  a  new  incentive  to  activity,  roused  adven- 
turers, and  sent  them  forth  upon  long  voyages,  in 
search  of  countries,  whose  products  or  wants  might 
increase  that  circulation  which  nourishes  and  gives 


'igour  to  commerce.  Trade  proved  a  great  source 
>f  discovery,  it  opened  unknown  seas,  it  penetrated 
nto  new  regions,  and  contributed  more  than  any 
other  cause  to  bring  men  acquainted  with  the  situa- 
tion, the  nature,  and  commodities  of  the  different 
parts  of  the  globe.  But  even  after  a  regular  com- 
merce was  established  in  the  world,  after  nations 
were  considerably  civilized,  and  the  sciences  and 
arts  were  cultivated  with  ardour  and  success,  navi- 
gation continued  to  be  so  imperfect,  that  it  can 
hardly  be  said  to  have  advanced  beyond  the  infancy 
of  its  improvement  in  the  ancient  world. 

Among  all  the  nations  of  antiquity,  the  structure 
of  their  vessels  was  extremely  rude,  and  their 
method  of  working  them  very  defective.  They  were 
unacquainted  with  several  principles  and  operation* 
in  navigation,  which  are  now  considered  as  the  first 
elements  on  which  that  science  is  founded.  Though 
that  property  of  the  magnet,  by  which  it  attracts 
iron,  was  well  known  to  the  ancients,  its  more  im- 
portant and  amazing  virtue  of  pointing  to  the  poles 
had  entirely  escaped  their  observation.  Destitute 
of  this  faithful  guide,  which  now  conducts  the  pilot 
with  so  much  certainty  in  the  unbounded  ocean, 
during  the  darkness  of  night,  or  when  the  heavens 
are  covered  with  clouds,  the  ancients  had  no  other 
method  of  regulating  their  course  than  by  observing 
the  sun  and  stars.  Their  navigation  was  of  conse- 
quence uncertain  and  timid.  They  durst  seldom 
quit  sight  of  land,  but  crept  along  the  coast,  exposed 
to  all  the  dangers,  and  retarded  by  all  the  obstruc- 
tions, unavoidable  in  holding  such  an  awkward 
course.  An  incredible  length  of  time  was  requisite 
for  performing  voyages,  which  are  now  finished  in  a 
short  space.  Even  in  the  mildest  climates,  and  in 
seas  the  least  tempestuous,  it  was  only  during  the 
summer  months  that  the  ancients  ventured  out  of 
their  harbours.  The  remainder  of  the  year  was  lost 
in  inactivity.  It  would  have  been  deemed  most  in- 
considerate rashness  to  have  braved  the  fury  of  the 
winds  and  waves  during  winter. 

While  both  the  science  and  practice  of  navigation 
continued  to  be  so  defective,  it  was  an  undertaking 
of  no  small  difficulty-  and  danger  to  visit  any  remote 
region  of  the  earth.  Under  every  disadvantage, 
however,  the  active  spirit  of  commerce  exerted  itself. 
The  Egyptians,  soon  after  the  establishment  of  their 
monarchy,  are  said  to  have  opened  a  trade  between 
the  Arabian  gulf  or  Red  sea,  and  the  western  coast 
of  the  great  Indian  continent.  The  commodities 
which  tliey  imported  from  the  East,  were  carried  by 
land  from  the  Arabian  gulf  to  the  banks  of  the  Nile, 
and  conveyed  down  that  river  to  the  Mediterranean. 
But  if  the  Egyptians  in  earlier  times  applied  them- 
selves to  commerce,  their  attention  to  it  was  of  short 
duration.  The  fertile  soil  and  mild  climate  of 
Egypt  produced  the  necessaries  and  comforts  of  life 
with  such  profusion,  as  rendered  its  inhabitants  so 
independent  of  other  countries,  that  it  became  an 
established  maxim  among  that  people,  whose  ideas 
and  institutions  differed  in  almost  every  point  from 
those  of  other  nations,  to  renounce  all  intercourse 
with  foreigners.  In  consequence  of  this,  they  never 
went  out  of  their  own  country;  they  held  all  sea- 
faring persons  in  detestation,  as  impious  and  pro- 
fane ;  and  fortifying  their  own  harbours,  they  denied 
strangers  admittance  into  them.  It  was  in  the 
decline  of  their  power,  and  when  their  veneration 
for  ancient  maxims  had  greatly  abated,  that  they 
again  opened  their  ports,  and  resumed  any  commu- 
nication with  foreigners. 

The  character  and  situation   of  the   Phenicians 


THE  HISTOttY  OF  AMERICA. 


were  as  favourable  to  the  spirit  of  commerce  and 
discovery  as  those  of  the  Egyptians  were  adverse  to 
it.  They  had  no  distinguishing  peculiarity  in  their 
manners  and  institutions  ;  they  were  not  addicted  to 
any  singular  and  unsocial  form  of  supersition ;  they 
could  mingle  with  other  nations  without  scruple  or 
reluctance.  The  territory  which  they  possessed  was 
neither  large  nor  fertile.  Commerce  was  the  only 
source  from  which  they  could  derive  opulence  or 
power.  Accordingly  the  trade  carried  on  by  the 
Phenicians  of  Sidon  and  Tyre  was  more  extensive 
and  enterprising  than  that  of  any  state  in  the  ancient 
world.  The  genius  of  the  Phenicians,  as  well  as 
the  object  of  their  policy  and  the  spirit  of  their 
laws,  were  entirely  commercial.  They  were  a  people 
of  merchants,  who  aimed  at  the  empire  of  the  sea, 
and  actually  possessed  it.  Their  ships  not  only  fre- 
quented all  the  ports  in  the  Mediterranean,  but  they 
were  the  first  who  ventured  beyond  the  ancient 
boundaries  of  navigation,  and,  passing  the  Straits  of 
Gades,  visited  the  western  coasts  of  Spain  and 
Africa.  In  many  of  the  places  to  which  they  re- 
sorted, they  planted  colonies,  and  communicated  to 
the  rude  inhabitants  some  knowledge  of  their  arts 
and  improvements.  While  they  extended  their  dis- 
coveries towards  the  north  and  west,  they  did  not 
neglect  to  penetrate  into  the  more  opulent  and  fertile 
regions  of  the  south  and  east.  Having  rendered 
themselves  masters  of  several  commodious  harbours 
towards  the  bottom  of  the  Arabian  gulf,  they,  after 
the  example  of  the  Egyptians,  established  a  regular 
intercourse  with  Arabia  and  the  continent  of  India 
on  the  one  hand,  and  with  the  eastern  coast  of 
Africa  on  the  other.  From  these  countries  they 
imported  many  valuable  commodities  unknown  to 
the  rest  of  the  world,  and,  during  a  long  period,  en- 
grossed that  lucrative  branch  of  commerce  without  a 
rival  (See  Note  1 ). 

The  vast  wealth  which  the  Phenicians  acquired  by 
monopolizing  the  trade  carried  on  in  the  Red  sea, 
inciteil  their  neighbours  the  Jews,  under  the  prosper- 
ous reigns  of  David  and  Solomon,  to  aim  at  being 
admitted  to  some  share  of  it.  This  they  obtained, 
partly  by  their  conquest  of  Idumea,  which  stretches 
along  the  Reel  sea,  and  partly  by  their  alliance  with 
Hiram,  king  of  Tyre.  Solomon  fitted  out  fleets, 
which,  under  the  direction  of  Phenician  pilots,  sailed 
from  the  Red  sea  to  Tarshish  and  Ophir.  These,  it 
is  probable,  were  ports  in  India  and  Africa,  which 
their  conductors  were  accustomed  to  frequent,  and 
from  them  the  Jewish  ships  returned  with  such 
valuable  cargoes  as  suddenly  diffused  wealth  and 
splendour  through  the  kingdom  of  Israel.  But  the 
singular  institutions  of  the  Jews,  the  observance  of 
which  was  enjoined  by  their  divine  Legislator,  with 
an  intention  of  preserving  them  a  separate  people, 
uninfected  by  idolatry,  formed  a  national  character, 
incapable  of  that  open  and  liberal  intercourse  with 
strangers  which  commerce  requires.  Accordingly, 
this  unsocial  genius  of  the  people,  together  with  the 
disasters  which  befell  the  kingdom  of  Israel,  pre- 
vented the  commercial  spirit,  which  their  monarchs 
laboured  to  introduce  and  to  cherish,  from  spreading 
among  them.  The  Jews  cannot  be  numbered  among 
the  nations  which  contributed  to  improve  navigation 
or  to  extend  discovery. 

But  though  the  instructions  and  example  of  the 
Phenicians  were  unable  to  mould  the  manners  anc 
temper  of  the  Jews,  in  opposition  to  the  tendency  o 
their  laws,  they  transmitted  the  commercial  spirit 
with  facility,  and  in  full  vigour,  to  their  own  de- 
scendants the  Carthaginians.  The  commonwealth  o 


Carthage  applied  to  trade  and  to  naval  affairs,  with 
10  less  ardour,  ingenuity,  and  success,  than  its  parent 
tate.  Carthage  early  rivalled  and  soon  surpassed 
L'yre  in  opulence  and  power,  but  seems  not  to  have 
.imed  at  obtaining  any  share  in  the  commerce  with 
ndia.  The  Phenicians  had  engrossed  this,  and  had 
such  a  command  of  the  Red  sea  as  secured  to  them 
he  exclusive  possession  of  that  lucrative  branch  of 
rade.  The  commercial  activity  of  the  Carthaginians 
was  exerted  in  another  direction.  Without  contend- 
ng  for  the  trade  of  the  East  with  their  mother- 
•ountry,  they  extended  their  navigation  chiefly  to- 
wards the  west  and  north.  Following  the  course 
hich  the  Phenicians  had  opened,  they  passed  the 
Straits  of  Gades,  and  pushing  their  discoveries  far 
beyond  those  of  the  parent  state,  visited  not  only  all 
;he  coasts  of  Spain,  but  those  of  Gaul,  and  pene- 
trated at  last  into  Britain.  At  the  same  time  that 
they  acquired  knowledge  of  new  countries  in  this 
part  of  the  globe,  they  gradually  carried  their  re- 
searches towards  the  south.  They  made  considerable 
progress,  by  land,  into  the  interior  provinces  of 
Africa,  traded  with  some  of  them,  and  subjected 
others  to  their  empire.  They  sailed  along  the 
western  coast  of  that  great  continent,  almost  to  the 
tropic  of  Cancer,  and  planted  several  colonies,  in 
order  to  civilize  the  natives,  and  accustom  them  to 
commerce.  They  discovered  the  Fortunate  Islands, 
now  known  by  the  name  of  the  Canaries,  the  utmost 
boundary  of  ancient  navigation  in  the  western  ocean. 
Nor  was  the  progress  of  the  Phenicians  and  Car- 
thaginians in  their  knowledge  of  the  globe  owing 
entirely  to  the  desire  of  extending  their  trade  from 
one  country  to  another.  Commerce  was  followed  by 
its  usual  effects  among  both  these  people.  It 
awakened  curiosity,  enlarged  the  ideas  and  desires  of 
men,  and  incited  them  to  bold  enterprises.  Voyages 
were  undertaken,  the  sole  object  of  which  was  to 
discover  new  countries,  and  to  explore  unknown  seas. 
Such,  during  the  prosperous  age  of  the  Carthaginian  re- 
public, were  the  famous  navigations  of  Hannoand  Hiiu- 
lico.  Both  their  fleets  were  equipped  by  authority  of  the 
senate,  and  at  public  expense.  Hanno  was  directed 
to  steer  towards  the  south,  along  the  coast  of  Africa, 
and  he  seems  to  have  advanced  much  nearer  the 
equinoctial  line  than  any  former  navigator.  Himlico 
had  it  in  charge  to  proceed  towards  the  north,  and  to 
examine  the  western  coasts  of  the  European  conti- 
nent. Of  the  same  nature  was  the  extraordinary 
navigation  of  the  Phenicians  round  Africa.  A  Phe- 
nician fleet,  we  are  told,  fitted  out  by  Necho,  king  of 
Egypt,  took  its  departure  about  six  hundred  and 
four  years  before  the  Christian  era,  from  a  port  in  the 
Red  sea,  doubled  the  southern  promontory  of  Africa, 
and,  after  a  voyage  of  three  years,  returned  by  the 
Straits  of  Gades  to  the  mouth  of  the  Nile.  Eu- 
doxus  of  Cyzicus  is  said  to  have  held  the  same 
course,  and  to  have  accomplished  the  same  arduous 
undertaking. 

These  voyages,  if  performed  in  the  manner  which 
I  have  related,  may  justly  be  reckoned  the  greatest 
effort  of  navigation  in  the  ancient  world ;  and  if  we 
attend  to  the  imperfect  state  of  the  art  at  that  time, 
it  is  diflicult  to  determine,  whether  we  should  most 
admire  the  courage  and  sagacity  with  which  the 
design  was  formed,  or  the  conduct  and  good  fortune 
with  which  it  was  executed.  But  unfortunately  all 
the  authentic  and  original  accounts  of  the  Phenician 
and  Carthaginian  voyages,  whether  undertaken  by- 
public  authority,  or  in  prosecution  of  their  private 
trade,  have  perished.  The  information  which  we 
receive  concerning  them  from  the  Greek  and  Roman 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


authors,  is  not  only  obscure  and  inaccurate,  but,  if 
we  except  a  short  narrative  of  Hanno's  expedition, 
is  of  suspicious  authority  (2).  Whatever  acquaint- 
ance with  the  remote  regions  of  the  earth  the  Phenicians 
and  Carthaginians  may  have  acquired,  was  concealed 
from  the  rest  of  mankind  with  a  mercantile  jealousy. 
Every  thing  relative  to  the  course  of  their  naviga- 
tion was  not  only  a  mystery  of  trade,  but  a  secret  of 
state.  Extraordinary  facts  are  related  concerning 
their  solicitude  to  prevent  other  nations  from  pene- 
trating into  what  they  wished  should  remain  undi- 
rulged.  Many  of  their  discoveries  seem,  accordingly, 
to  have  been  scarcely  known  beyond  the  precincts  of 
their  own  states.  The  navigation  round  Africa,  in 
particular,  is  recorded  by  the  Greek  and  Roman 
writers,  rather  as  a  strange  amusing  tale,  which  they 
did  not  comprehend,  or  did  believe,  than  as  a  real  trans- 
action, which  enlarged  their  knowledge  and  influ- 
enced their  opinions.  As  neither  the  progress  of  the 
Phenician  or  Carthaginian  discoveries,  nor  the  extent 
of  their  navigation,  were  communicated  to  the  rest 
of  mankind,  all  memorials  of  their  extraordinary 
skill  in  naval  affairs  seem,  in  a  great  measure,  to 
have  perished,  when  the  maritime  power  of  the 
former  was  annihilated  by  Alexander's  conquest  of 
Tyre,  and  the  empire  of  the  latter  was  overturned  by 
the  Roman  arms. 

Leaving,  then,  the  obscure  and  pompous  accounts 
of  the  Phenician  and  Carthaginian  voyages  to  the 
curiosity  and  conjectures  of  antiquaries,  history  must 
rest  satisfied  with  relating  the  progress  of  navigation 
and  discovery  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  which, 
though  less  splendid,  is  better  ascertained.  It  is  evi- 
dent that  the  Phenicians,  who  instructed  the  Greeks 
in  many  other  useful  sciences  and  arts,  did  not  com- 
municate to  them  that  extensive  knowledge  of  navi- 
gation which  they  themselves  possessed;  nor  did  the 
Romans  imbibe  that  commercial  spirit  and  ardour 
for  discovery  which  distinguished  their  rivals  the 
Carthaginians.  Though  Greece  be  almost  encom- 
passed by  the  sea,  which  formed  many  spacious  bays 
and  commodious  harbours  ;  though  it  be  surrounded 
by  a  great  number  of  fertile  islands,  yet,  notwith- 
standing such  a  favourable  situation,  which  seemed 
to  invite  that  ingenious  people  to  apply  themselves 
to  navigation,  it  was  long  before  this  art  attained 
any  degree  of  perfection  among  them.  Their  early 
voyages,  the  object  of  which  was  piracy  rather  than 
commerce,  were  so  inconsiderable,  that  the  expedi- 
tion of  the  Argonauts  from  the  coast  of  Thessaly  to 
the  Euxine  sea,  appeared  such  an  amazing  effort  of 
skill  and  courage,  as  entitled  the  conductors  of  it  to 
be  ranked  among  the  demigods,  and  exalted  the  ves- 
sel in  which  they  sailed  to  a  place  among  the  heavenly 
constellations.  Even  at  a  later  period,  when  the 
Greeks  engaged  in  their  famous  enterprise  against 
Troy,  their  knowledge  in  naval  affairs  seems  not  to 
have  been  much  improved.  According  to  the  ac- 
count of  Homer,  the  only  poet  to  whom  history 
ventures  to  appeal,  and  who,  by  his  scrupulous  ac- 
curacy in  describing  the  manners  and  arts  of  early 
ages,  merits  this  distinction,  the  science  of  naviga- 
tion, at  that  time,  had  hardly  advanced  beyond  its 
rudest  state.  The  Greeks  in  the  heroic  age  seem 
to  have  been  unacquainted  with  the  use  of  iron,  the 
most  serviceable  of  all  the  metals,  without  which  no 
considerable  progress  was  ever  made  in  the  mechani- 
cal arts.  Their  vessels  were  of  inconsiderable  bur- 
den, and  mostly  without  decks.  They  had  only  one 
mast,  which  was  erected  or  taken  down  at  pleasure. 
They  were  strangers  to  the  use  of  anchors.  All 
their  operations  in  sailing  were  clumsy  and  unskilful.  , 


They  turned  their  observation  towards  stars,  which 
were  improper  for  regulating  their  course,  and  their 
mode  of  observing  them  was  inaccurate  and  fallaci- 
ous. When  they  had  finished  a  voyage  they  drew 
their  paltry  barks  ashore,  as  savages  do  their  canoes, 
and  these  remained  on  dry  land  until  the  season  of 
returning  to  sea  approached.  It  is  not  then  in  the 
early  or  heroic  ages  of  Greece  that  we  can  expect  to 
observe  the  science  of  navigation,  and  the  spirit  of 
discovery,  making  any  considerable  progress.  Dur- 
ing that  period  of  disorder  and  ignorance,  a  thousand 
causes  concurred  in  restraining  curiosity  and  enter- 
prise within  very  narrow  bounds. 

But  the  Greeks  advanced  with  rapidity  to  a  state 
of  greater  civilization  and  refinement.     Government, 
in  its   most   liberal  and  perfect  form,  began  to  be 
established   in   their   different   communities ;    equal 
laws  and  regular  police  were  gradually  introduced ; 
the  sciences  and  arts  which  are  useful  or  ornamental 
in  life  were  carried  to  a  high  pitch  of  improvement, 
and  several  of  the  Grecian  commonwealths   applied 
to  commerce  with  such  ardour  and  success,  that  they 
were   considered,  in  the  ancient  world,  as  maritime 
powers  of  the  first  rank.     Even  then,  however,  the 
naval  victories  of  the  Greeks  must  be  ascribed  rather 
to  the  native  spirit  of  the  people,  and  to  that  courage 
which  the  enjoyment  of  liberty  inspires,  than  to  any 
extraordinary  progress  in  the  science  of  navigation. 
In  the  Persian  war,  those  exploits  which  the  genius 
of  the  Greek  historians  has  rendered  so  famous,  were 
performed  by  fleets,  composed  chiefly  of  small  ves- 
sels without  decks  ;  the  crews  of  which  rushed  for- 
ward with  impetuous  valour,  but  little  art,  to  board 
those  of  the  enemy.     In  the  war  of  Peloponnesus, 
their  ships  seem  still  to  have  been  of  inconsiderable 
burden  and  force.     The  extent  of  their  trade,  how 
highly  soever  it  may  have  been  estimated  in  ancient 
times,  was  in  proportion   to  this  low  condition  of 
their  marine.     The  maritime  states  of  Greece  hardly 
carried  on  any  commerce  beyond  the  limits   of  the 
Mediterranean  sea.    Their  chief  intercourse  was  with 
the   colonies   of  their  countrymen,  planted   in   the 
Lesser  Asia,  in  Italy  and  Sicily.     They  sometimes 
visited  the  ports  of  Egypt,  of  the  southern  provinces 
of  Gaul,  and  of  Thrace,   or,   passing   through   the 
Hellespont,  they  traded  with  the  countries  situated 
around  the  Euxine  sea.     Amazing  instances  occur 
of  their  ignorance  even  of  those  countries  which  lay 
within  the  narrow  precincts  to  which  their  naviga- 
tion was  confined.    When  the  Greeks  had  assembled 
their  combined  fleet  against  Xerxes  at  Egina,  they 
thought  it  unadvisable  to  sail  to  Samos,  because  they 
believed  the  distance  between  that  island  and  Egina 
to  be  as  great  as  the  distance  between  Egina  and  the 
pillars  of  Hercules.     They  were  either  utterly  un- 
acquainted with  all  the  parts  of  the  globe  beyond 
the  Mediterranean  sea,  or  what  knowledge  they  had 
of  them  was  founded  on  conjecture,  or  derived  from 
the  information   of  a  few  persons,  whom  curiosity 
and  the  love  of  science  had  prompted  to  travel  by 
land  into  the  Upper  Asia,  or  by  sea  into  Egypt,  the 
ancient  seats  of  wisdom  and  arts.     After  all  that  the 
Greeks  learned  from  them,  they  appear  to  have  been 
ignorant  of  the  most  important  facts,  on  which  an 
accurate  and  scientific  knowledge  of  the  globe  is 
founded. 

The  expedition  of  Alexander  'the  Great  into  the 
East,  considerably  enlarged  the  sphere  of  navigation 
and  geographical  knowledge  among  the  Greeks. 
That  extraordinary  man,  notwithstanding  the  vio- 
lent passions  which  incited  him,  at  some  times,  to 
the  wildest  actions,  and  the  most  extravagant  enter- 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


prises,  possessed  talents  which  fitted  him  not  only 
to  conquer  but  to  govern  the  world.  He  was  ca- 
pable of  framing  those  bold  and  original  schemes  of 
policy,  which  gave  a  now  form  to  human  affairs. 
The  revolution  in  commerce,  brought  about  by  the 
force  of  his  genius,  is  hardly  inferior  to  that  revolu- 
tion in  empire,  occasioned  by  the  success  of  his  arms. 
It  is  probable,  that  the  opppsition  and  efforts  of  the 
republic  of  Tyre,  which  checked  him  so  long  in  the 
career  of  his  victories,  gave  Alexander  an  opportunity 
of  observing  the  vast  resources  of  a  maritime  power, 
and  conveyed  to  him  some  idea  of  the  immense 
wealth  which  the  Tyrians  derived  from  their  com- 
merce, especially  that  with  the  East  Indies.  As 
sr>on  as  he  had  accomplished  the  destruction  of  Tyre, 
and  reduced  Egypt  to  subjection,  he  formed  the  plan 
of  rendering  the  empire  which  he  proposed  to  estab- 
lish, the  centre  of  commerce  as  well  as  the  seat  of 
dominion.  With  this  view  he  founded  a  great  city, 
which  he  honoured  with  his  own  name,  near  one  of 
the  mouths  of  the  river  Nile,  that  by  the  Mediterranean 
sea,  and  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Arabian  gulf,  it 
might  command  the  trade  both  of  the  East  and  West. 
This  situation  was  chosen  with  such  discernment, 
that  Aleiandria  soon  became  the  chief  commercial 
city  in  the  world.  Not  only  during  the  subsistence 
of  th<>  Grecian  empire  in  K<:ypt  and  in  the  East,  but 
amidst  all  the  successive  revolutions  in  those  coun- 
tries from  the  time  of  the  Ptolemies  to  the  discovery 
of  the  navigation  by  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  com- 
merce, particularly  that  of  the  East  Indies,  continued 
to  flow  in  the  channel  which  the  sagacity  and  fore- 
sight of  Alexander  had  marked  out  for  it. 

His  ambition  was  not  satisfied  with  having  opened 
to  the  Greeks  a  communication  with  India  by  sea ; 
he  aspired  to  the  sovereignty  of  those  regions  which 
furnished  the  rest  of  mankind  with  so  many  precious 
commodities,  and  conducted  his  army  thither  by  land. 
Enterprising,  however,  as  he  was,  he  may  be  said 
rather  to  have  viewed  than  to  have  conquered  that 
country.  He  did  not,  in  his  progress  toward  the 
East,  advance  beyond  the  banks  of  the  rivers  that 
fall  into  the  Indus,  which  is  now  the  western  boun- 
dary of  the  vast  continent  of  India.  Amidst  the  wild 
exploits  which  distinguish  this  part  of  his  history,  he 
pursued  measures  that  mark  the  superiority  of  his 
genius  as  well  as  the  extent  of  his  views.  He  had  pene- 
trated as  far  into  India  as  to  confirm  his  opinion  of  its 
commercial  importance,  and  to  perceive  that  immense 
wealth  might  bo  derived  from  intercourse  with  a 
country,  where  the  arts  of  elegance,  having  been  more 
early  cultivated,  were  arrived  at  greater  perfection  than 
in  any  other  part  of  the  earth.  Full  of  this  idea,  he  re- 
solved to  examine  the  course  of  navigation  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Indus  to  the  bottom  of  the  Persian  gulf; 
and,  if  it  should  be  found  practicable,  to  establish  a 
regular  communication  between  them.  In  order  to 
effect  this,  he  proposed  to  remove  the  cataracts,  with 
which  the  jealousy  of  the  Persians,  and  their  aversion 
to  correspondence  with  foreigners,  had  obstructed  the 
entrance  into  the  Euphrates  ;  to  carry  the  commodities 
of  the  East  up  that  river  and  the  Tigris,  which  unites 
with  it,  into  the  interior  parts  of  his  Asiatic  domi- 
nions ;  while,  by  the  way  of  the  Arabian  gulf,  and 
the  river  Nile,  they  might  be  conveyed  to  Alexandria, 
and  distributed  to  the  rest  of  the  world.  Nearchus, 
an  officer  of  eminent  abilities,  was  intrusted  with  the 
command  of  the  fleet  fitted  out  for  this  expedition. 
He  performed  this  voyage,  which  was  deemed  an  en- 
terprise so  arduous  and  important,  that  Alexander 
reckoned  it  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  events 
which  distinguished  his  reign.  Inconsiderable  as  it 


may  now  appear,  it  was ,  at  that  time,  an  undertaking 
of  no  little  merit  and  difficulty.  In  the  prosecution 
of  it,  striking  instances  occur  of  the  small  progress 
which  the  Greeks  had  made  in  naval  knowledge  (4). 
Having  never  sailed  beyond  the  bounds  of  the  Me- 
diterranean, where  the  ebb  and  flow  of  the  sea  are 
hardly  perceptible,  when  they  first  observed  this  phe- 
nomenon at  the  mouth  of  the  Indus,  it  appeared  to 
them  a  prodigy,  by  which  the  gods  testified  the  dis- 
pleasure of  heaven  against  their  enterprise  (5). 
During  their  whole  course,  they  seem  never  to 
have  lost  sight  of  land,  but  followed  the  bearings 
of  the  coast  so  servilely,  that  they  could  not  much 
avail  themselves  of  those  periodical  winds  which  facili- 
tate navigation  in  the  Indian  ocean.  Accordingly, 
they  spent  no  less  thati  ten  months  in  performing 
this  voyage,  which,  from  the  mouth  of  the  Indus  to 
that  of  the  Persian  gulf,  does  not  exceed  twenty 
degrees.  It  is  probable,  that,  amidst  the  violent 
convulsion*  and  frequent  revolutions  in  the  East, 
occasioned  by  the  contests  among  the  successors  of 
Alexander,  the  navigation  to  India  by  the  course 
which  Nearchus  had  opened  was  discontinued.  The 
Indian  trade  carried  on  at  Alexandria,  not  only  sub- 
sisted, but  was  so  much  extended  under  the  Grecian 
monarch*  of  Egypt,  that  it  proved  a  great  source  of 
the  wealth  which  distinguished  their  kingdom. 

The  progress  which  the  Romans  made  in  naviga- 
tion and  discovery,  was  still  more  inconsiderable 
than  that  of  the  Greeks.  The  genius  of  the  Roman 
people,  their  military  education,  and  the  spirit  of 
their  laws,  concurred  in  estranging  them  from  com- 
merce and  naval  affairs.  It  was  the  necessity  of 
opposing  a  formidable  rival,  not  the  desire  of  extend- 
ing trade,  which  first  prompted  them  to  aim  at 
maritime  power.  Though  they  soon  perceived  that 
in  order  to  acquire  the  universal  dominion  after 
which  they  aspired,  it  was  necessary  to  render  them- 
selves masters  of  the  sea,  they  still  considered  the 
naval  service  as  a  subordinate  station,  and  reserved 
for  it  such  citizens  as  were  not  of  a  rank  to  be  ad- 
mitted into  the  legions.  In  the  history  of  the  Ro- 
man Republic,  hardly  one  event  occurs  that  marks 
attention  to  navigation  any  further  than  as  it  was 
instrumental  towards  conquest.  When  the  Roman 
valour  and  discipline  had  subdued  all  the  maritime 
states  known  in  the  ancient  world ;  when  Carthage, 
Greece,  and  Egypt,  had  submitted  to  their  power, 
the  Romans  did  not  imbibe  the  commercial  spirit  of 
the  conquered  nations.  Among  that  people  of  sol- 
diers, to  have  applied  to  trade  would  have  been 
deemed  a  degradation  of  a  Roman  citizen.  They 
abandoned  the  mechanical  arts,  commerce,  and  navi- 
gation, to  slaves,  to  freed-men,  to  provincials,  and  to 
citizens  of  the  lowest  class.  Even  after  the  subver- 
sion of  liberty,  when  the  severity  and  haughti- 
ness of  ancient  manners  began  to  abate,  commerce 
did  not  rise  into  high  estimation  among  the  Romans. 
The  trade  of  Greece,  Egypt,  and  the  other  conquered 
countries,  continued  to  be  carried  on  in  its  usual 
channels,  after  they  were  reduced  into  the  form  of 
Roman  provinces.  As  Rome  was  the  capital  of  the 
world,  and  the  seat  of  government,  all  the  wealth 
and  valuable  productions  of  the  provinces  flowed 
naturally  thither.  The  Romans,  satisfied  with  this, 
seem  to  have  suffered  commerce  to  remain  almost 
entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  natives  of  the  respective 
countries.  The  extent,  however,  of  the  Roman 
power,  which  reached  over  the  greatest  part  of  the 
known  world,  the  vigilant  inspection  of  the  Roman 
magistrates,  and  the  spirit  of  the  Roman  govern- 
ment, no  less  intelligent  than  active,  gave  such 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


additional  security  to  commerce,  as  animated  it  with 
new  vigour.  The  union  among  nations  was  never 
so  entire,  nor  the  intercourse  so  perfect,  as  within 
the  hounds  of  this  vast  empire.  Commerce,  under 
the  Roman  dominion,  was  not  obstructed  by  the 
jealousy  of  rival  states,  interrupted  by  frequent 
hostilities,  or  limited  by  partial  restrictions.  One 
superintending  power  moved  and  regulated  the  in- 
dustry of  mankind,  and  enjoyed  the  fruits  of  their 
joint  efforts. 

Navigation  felt  this  influence,  and  improved  under 
it.  As  soon  as  the  Romans  acquired  a  taste  for  the 
luxuries  of  the  East,  the  trade  with  India  through 
Egypt  was  pushed  with  new  vigour,  and  carried  on 
to  greater  extent.  By  frequenting  the  Indian  con- 
tinent, navigators  became  acquainted  with  the  pe- 
riodical course  of  the  winds,  which,  in  the  ocean 
that  separates  Africa  from  India,  blow  with  little 
variation  during  one  half  of  the  year  from  the  east, 
and  during  the  other  half  blow  with  equal  steadi- 
ness from  the  west.  Encouraged  by  observing  this, 
the  pilots  who  sailed  from  Egypt  to  India,  abandon- 
ed their  ancient  slow  and  dangerous  course  along 
the  coast,  and  as  soon  as  the  western  monsoon  set 
in,  took  their  departure  from  Ocelis,  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Arabian  Gulf,  and  stretched  boldly  across  the 
ocean.  The  uniform  direction  of  the  wind  sup- 
plying the  place  of  the  compass,  and  rendering  the 
guidance  of  the  stars  less  necessary,  conducted  them 
to  the  port  of  Musiris,  on  the  western  shore  of  the 
Indian  continent.  There  they  took  on  board  their 
cargo,  and  returning  with  the  eastern  monsoon, 
finished  their  voyage  to  the  Arabian  Gulf  within  the 
year.  This  part  of  India,  now  known  by  the  name 
of  the  Malabar  coast,  seems  to  have  been  the  utmost 
limit  of  ancient  navigation  in  that  quarter  of  the 
globe.  What  imperfect  knowledge  the  ancients  had 
of  the  immense  countries  which  stretch  beyond  this 
towards  the  east,  they  received  from  a  few  adven- 
turers, who  had  visited  them  by  land.  Such  excur- 
sions were  neither  frequent  nor  extensive,  and  it  is 
probable,  that  while  the  Roman  intercourse  with 
India  subsisted,  no  traveller  ever  penetrated  further 
than  to  the  banks  of  the  Gauges  (6).  The  fleets  from 
Eaypt  which  traded  at  Musiris  were  loaded,  it  is 
true,  with  the  spices  and  other  rich  commodities  of 
the  continent  and  islands  of  the  further  India  ;  but 
these  were  brought  to  that  port,  which  became  the 
staple  of  the  commerce  between  the  East  and  West, 
by  the  Indians  themselves,  in  canoes  hollowed  out 
of  one  tree.  The  Egyptian  and  Roman  merchants, 
satisfied  with  acquiring  those  commodities  in  this 
manner,  did  not  think  it  necessary  to  explore  un- 
known seas,  and  venture  upon  a  dangerous  naviga- 
tion, in  quest  of  the  countries  which  produced  them. 
But  though  the  discoveries  of  the  Romans  in  India 
•were  so  limited,  their  commerce  there  was  such  as 
will  appear  considerable,  even  to  the  present  age, 
in  which  the  Indian  trade  has  been  extended  far 
beyond  the  practice  or  conception  of  any  preceding 
period.  We  are  informed  by  one  author  of  credit, 
that  the  commerce  with  India  drained  the  Roman 
empire  every  year  of  more  than  four  hundred  thou- 
sand pounds  ;  and  by  another,  that  one  hundred 
and  twenty  ships  sailed  annually  from  the  Arabian 
gulf  to  that  country. 

The  discovery  of  this  new  method  of  sailing  to  India, 
is  the  most  considerable  improvement  in  navigation 
made  during  the  continuance  of  the  Roman  power. 
But  in  ancient  times,  the  knowledge  of  remote 
countries  was  acquired  more  frequently  by  land 
than  by  sea  (7);  ami  the  Romans,  from  their 


peculiar  disinclination  to  naval  affairs,  may  be  baid  M 
have  neglected  totally  the  latter,  though  a  rnon;  easy 
and  expeditious  method  of  discovery.  The  progresn, 
however,  of  their  victorious  armies  through  a  con- 
siderable portion  of  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa,  contri- 
buted greatly  to  extend  discovery  by  land,  and 
gradually  opened  the  navigation  of  new  and  unknown 
seas.  Previous  to  the  Roman  conquests,  the  civilized 
nations  of  antiquity  had  little  communication  with 
those  countries  in  Europe,  which  now  form  it-,  mo-a 
opulent  and  powerful  kingdoms.  The  interior  parts 
of  Spain  and  Gaul  were  imperfectly  known.  Britain, 
separated  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  had  never  been 
visited,  except  by  its  neighbours  the  Gauls,  and  by 
a  few  Carthaginian  merchants.  The  name  of  Ger- 
main had  scarcely  been  heard  of.  Into  all  these 
countries  the  arms  of  the  Romans  penetrated.  They 
entirely  subdued  Spain  and  Gaul ;  they  conquered 
the  greatest  and  most  fertile  part  of  Britain  ;  they 
advanced  into  Germany,  as  far  as  the  banks  of  tin- 
river  Elbe.  In  Africa,  they  acquired  a  considerable 
knowledge  of  the  provinces,  which  stretch  along  the 
Mediterranean  sea,  from  Egypt  westward  to  the 
Straits  of  Gades.  In  Asia,  they  not  only  subjected 
to  their  power  most  of  the  provinces  which  composed 
the  Persian  and  the  Macedonian  empires,  but,  after 
their  victories  over  Mithridates  and  Tygranes,  they 
seem  to  have  made  a  more  accurate  survey  of  the 
countries  contiguous  to  the  Euxine  and  Caspian  seas, 
and  to  have  carried  on  a  more  extensive  trade  than 
that  of  the  Greeks  with  the  opulent  and  commercial 
nations  then  seated  round  the  Euxine  sea. 

From  this  succinct  survey  of  the  discovery  and  na- 
vigation, which  I  have  traced  from  the  earliest  dawn 
of  historical  knowledge  to  the  full  establishment  of 
the  Roman  dominion,  the  progress  of  both  appears 
to  have  been  wonderfully  slow.  It  seems  neither 
adequate  to  what  we  might  have  expected  from  th« 
activity  and  enterprise  of  the  human  mind,  nor  to 
what  might  have  been  performed  by  the  power  of  the 
great  empires  which  successively  governed  the 
world.  If  we  reject  accounts  that  are  fabulous  and 
obscure ;  if  we  adhere  steadily  to  the  light  and  infor- 
mation of  authentic  history,  without  substituting  in 
its  place  the  conjectures  of  fancy,  or  the  dreams  of 
etymologists,  we  must  conclude,  that  the  knowledge 
which  the  ancients  had  acquired  of  the  habitable 
globe  was  extremely  confined.  In  Europe,  the  ex- 
tensive provinces  in  the  eastern  part  of  Geimany 
were  little  known  to  them.  They  were  almost  totally 
unacquainted  with  the  vast  countries  which  are  now 
subject  to  the  kings  of  Denmark,  Sweden,  Prussia, 
Poland,  and  the  Russian  empire.  The  more  barren 
regions,  that  stretch  within  the  arctic  circle,  wete 
quite  unexplored.  In  Africa,  their  researches  did 
not  extend  far  beyond  the  provinces  which  border  on 
the  Mediterranean,  and  those  situated  on  the  western 
shore  of  the  Arabian  gulf.  In  Asia,  they  w->re  un- 
acquainted, as  I  formerly  observed,  with  all  the  fer- 
tile and  opulent  countries  beyond  the  Ganges,  which 
furnish  the  most  valuable  commodities  that,  in 
modern  times,  have  l>een  the  great  object  of  the 
European  commerce  with  India ;  nor  do  they  se;sn  to 
have  ever  penetrated  into  those  immense  regions  oc- 
cupied by  the  \vanderin2  tribes,  which  they  called  by 
iMieral  name  of  Sarmatians  or  Scythians,  and 
which  are  now  possessed  by  Tartars  of  various  de- 
nominations, and  by  the  Asiatic  subjects  r.f  Russia. 

But  there  is  one  opinion  that  universal  y  prevailed 
among  the  ancients,  which  conveys  a  more  striking 
idea  of  the  small  progress  they  had  made  in  the 
knowledge  of  the  habitable  globe,  than  can  be  derived 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA/ 


from  any  detail  of  their  discoveries.  They  supposed 
the  earth  to  be  divided  into  five  regions,  which  they 
distinguished  by  the  name  of  Zones.  Two  of  these, 
which  were  nearest  the  poles,  they  termed  Frigid 
Zones,  and  believed  that  the  extreme  cold  which 
reigned  perpetually  there,  rendered  them  uninhabit- 
able. Another,  seated  under  the  line,  and  extending 
on  either  side  towards  the  tropics,  they  called  the 
Torrid  Zone,  and  imagined  it  to  be  so  burnt  up  with 
unremitting  heat,  as  to  be  equally  destitute  of  inha- 
bitants. On  the  two  other  zones,  which  occupied  the 
remainder  o£the  earth,  they  bestowed  the  appellation 
"I  I  ernperate,  and  taught  that  these,  being  the  only 
regions  in  which  life  could  subsist,  were  allotted  to 
man  for  his  habitation.  This  wild  opinion  was  not  a 
conceit  of  the  uninformed  vulgar,  or  a  fanciful  fiction 
of  the  poets,  but  a  system  adopted  by  the  most  en- 
lightened philosophers,  the  most  accurate  historians 
and  geographers  in  Greece  and  Rome.  According  to 
this  theory,  a  vast  portion  of  the  habitable  earth  was 
pronounced  to  bo  unfit  for  sustaining  the  human 
species.  Those  fertile  and  populous  regions  within 
the  torrid  zone,  which  arc  now  known  not  only  to  yield 
their  own  inhabitants  the  necessaries  and  comforts  of 
life  with  most  luxuriant  profusion,  but  to  communi- 
cate their  superfluous  stores  tathe  rest  of  the  world, 
were  supposed  to  be  the  mansion  of  perpetual  steri- 
lity and  desolation.  Ac  all  the  parts  of  the  globe 
with  which  the  ancients  were  acquainted  lay  within 
tli'-  northern  temperate  zone,  their  opinion  that  the 
other  temperate  zone  was  filled  with  inhabitants,  wag 
founded  on  reasoning  and  conjecture,  not  on  disco- 
very. They  even  believed,  that  by  the  intolerable 
heat  of  the  torrid  zone,  such  an  insuperable  barrier 
was  placed  between  the  two  temperate  regions  of  the 
earth,  as  would  prevent  for  ever  any  intercourse 
•en  their  respective  inhabitants.  Thus  this  ex- 
.11  it  theory  not  only  proves  that  the  ancients 
were  unacquainted  with  the  true  state  of  the  globe, 
but  it  tended  to  render  their  ignorance  perpetual,  by 
representing  all  attempts  towards  opening  a  commu- 
nication with  the  remote  regions  of  the  earth  as 
utterly  impracticable  (8). 

But,  however  imperfect  or  inaccurate  the  geogra- 
phical knowledge  which  the  Greeks  and  Romans  had 
acquired  may  appear,  in  respect  of  the  present  im- 
proved state  of  that  science,  their  progress  in  dis- 
covery will  seem  considerable,  and  the  extent  to 
which  they  carried  navigation  and  commerce  must  be 
reckoned  great,  when  compared  with  the  ignorance  of 
early  times.  As  long  as  the  Roman  empire  retained 
such  vigour  as  to  preserve  its  authority  over  the  con- 
quered nations,  and  to  keep  them  united,  it  was  an 
object  of  public  policy,  as  well  as  of  private  curiosity, 
to  examine  and  describe  the  countries  which  composed 
this  great  body.  Even  when  the  other  sciences  began 
to  decline,  geography,  enriched  with  new  observa- 
tions, and  receiving  some  accession  from  the  expe- 
rience of  every  age,  and  the  reports  of  every  traveller, 
continued  to  improve.  It  attained  to  the  highest 
point  of  perfection  and  accuracy  to  which  it  ever  ar- 
rived in  the  ancient  world,  by  the  industry  and  genius 
of  Ptolemy  the  philosopher.  He  flourished  in  the 
second  century  of  the  Christian  era,  and  published  a 
description  of  the  terrestrial  globe,  more  ample  and 
exact  than  that  of  any  of  his  predecessors. 

But,  soon  after,  violent  convulsions  began  to  shake 
the  Roman  state  ;  the  fatal  ambition  or  caprice  of 
Constantine,  by  changing  the  seat  of  government, 
divided  and  weakened  its  force :  the  barbarous  na- 
tions, which  Providence  prepared  as  instruments  to 
overturn  the  mighty  fabric  of  the  Roman  power,  began 
HISTORY  OF  AMERICA,  No,  2. 


to  assemble  and  to  muster  their  armies  on  its  fron- 
tier :  the  empire  tottered  to  its  fall.  During  this  de- 
cline and  old  age  of  the  Roman  state,  it  was  impos- 
sible that  the  sciences  should  go  on  improving.  The 
efforts  of  genius  were,  at  that  period,  as  languid  .mil 
feeble  as  those  of  government.  From  the  time  of 
Potolemy,  no  considerable  addition  seems  to  have 
been  made  to  geographical  knowledge,  nor  did  .my 
important  revolution  happen  to  trade,  excepting  that 
Constantinople,  by  its  advantageous  situation,  be- 
came a  commercial  city  of  the  first  note. 

At  length,  the  clouds  which  had  been  go  long 
gathering  round  the  Roman  empire,  burst  into  a 
storm.  Barbarous  nations  rushed  in  from  several 
quarters  with  irresistible  impetuosity,  and,  in  the 
general  wreck,  occasioned  by  the  inundation  which 
overwhelmed  Europe,  the  arts,  sciences,  inventions, 
and  discoveries  of  the  Romans,  perished  in  a  great 
measure,  and  disappeared.  All  the  various  tribes, 
which  settled  in  the  different  provinces  of  the  Ro- 
man empire,  were  uncivilized,  strangers  to  letters, 
destitute  of  arts,  unacquainted  with  regular  govern- 
ment, subordination,  or  laws.  The  manners  and 
institutions  of  some  of  them  were  so  rude,  as  to  be 
hardly  compatible  with  a  state  of  social  union. 
Europe,  when  occupied  by  such  inhabitants,  may  be 
said  to  have  returned  to  a  second  infancy,  and  had 
to  begin  anew  its  career  in  improvement,  science,  and 
civility.  The  first  effect  of  (he  settlement  of  those 
barbarous  invaders  was  to  dissolve  the  union  by 
which  the  Roman  power  had  cemented  mankind  to- 
gether. They  parcelled  out  Europe  into  many  small 
and  independent  states,  differing  from  each  other  in 
language  and  customs.  No  intercourse  subsisted 
between  the  members  of  those  divided  and  hostile 
communities.  Accustomed  to  a  simple  mode  of  life, 
and  averse  to  industry,  they  had  few  wants  to  sup- 
ply, and  few  superfluities  to  dispose  of.  The  names 
of  $trariger  and  enemy  became  once  more  words  of 
the  same  import.  Customs  every  where  prevailed, 
and  even  laws  were  established,  which  rendered  it 
disagreeable  and  dangerous  to  visit  any  foreign  coun- 
try. Cities,  in  which  alone  an  extensive  commerce 
oan  be  carried  on,  were  few,  inconsiderable,  and  des- 
titute of  those  immunities  which  produce  security  or 
excite  enterprise.  The  sciences,  on  which  geography 
and  navigation  are  founded,  were  little  cultivated. 
The  accounts  of  ancient  improvements  and  dis- 
coveries, contained  in  the  Greek  and  Roman  authors, 
were  neglected  or  misunderstood.  The  knowledge  of 
remote  regions  was  lost ;  their  situation,  their  com- 
modities, and  almost  their  names,  were  unknown. 

One  circumstance  prevented  commercial  inter- 
course with  distant  nations  from  ceasing  altogether. 
Constantinople,  thaugh  often  threatened  by  the 
fierce  invaders  who  spread  desolation  over  the  rest  of 
Europe,  was  so  fortunate  as  to  escape  their  de- 
structive rage.  In  that  city,  the  knowledge  of 
ancient  arts  and  discoveries  was  preserved ;  a  taste 
for  splendour  and  elegance  subsisted ;  the  produc- 
tions and  luxuries  of  foreign  countries  were  in  re- 
quest; and  commerce  continued  to  flourish  there 
when  it  was  almost  extinct  in  every  other  part  of 
Europe.  The  citizens  of  Constantinople  did  not  con- 
fine their  trade  to  the  islands  of  the  Archipelago,  or 
to  the  adjacent  coasts  of  Asia ;  they  took  a  wider 
range,  and  following  the  course  which  the  ancients 
had  marked  out,  imported  the  commodities  of  the 
East  Indies  from  Alexandria.  When  Egypt  was 
torn  from  the  Roman  empire  by  the  Arabians,  the 
industry  of  the  Greeks  discovered  a  new  channel,  by 
which  the  productions  of  India  might  be  conveyed 
C 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


to  Constantinople.  They  were  carried  up  the  Indus, 
as  far  as  that  great  river  is  navigable ;  thence  they 
were  transported  by  land  to  the  banks  of  the  river 
Oxus,  and  proceeded  down  its  stream  to  the  Caspian 
sea.  There  they  entered  the  Volga,  and  sailing  up 
it,  were  carried  by  land  to  the  Tanais,  which  con- 
ducted them  into  the  Euxine  sea,  where  vessels  from 
Constantinople  waited  their  arrival.  This  extra- 
ordinary and  tedious  mode  of  conveyance  merits  at- 
tention, not  only  as  a  proof  of  the  violent  passion 
which  the  inhabitants  of  Constantinople  had  con- 
ceived for  the  luxuries  of  the  East,  and  as  a  specimen 
of  the  ardour  and  ingenuity  with  which  they  carried 
on  commerce;  but  because  it  demonstrates,  that 
during  the  ignorance  which  reigned  in  the  rest  of 
Europe,  an  extensive  knowledge  of  remote  countries 
was  still  preserved  in  the  capital  of  the  Greek  empire. 

At  the  same  time,  a  gleam  of  light  and  knowledge 
"broke  in  upon  the  East.  The  Arabians,  having  con- 
tracted some  relish  for  the  sciences  of  the  people 
whose  empire  they  had  contributed  to  overturn, 
translated  the  books  of  several  of  the  Greek  philoso- 
phers into  their  own  language.  One  of  the  first  was 
that  valuable  work  of  Ptolemy,  which  I  have  already 
mentioned.  The  study  of  geography  became,  of  con- 
sequence, an  early  object  of  attention  to  the  Arabians. 
But  that  acute  and  ingenious  people  cultivated  chiefly 
the  speculative  and  scientific  parts  of  geography.  In 
order  to  ascertain  the  figure  and  dimensions  of  the 
terrestrial  globe,  they  applied  the  principles  of  geo- 
metry, they  had  recourse  to  astronomical  observations, 
they  employed  experiments  and  operations,  which 
Europe,  in  more  enlightened  times,  has  been  proud 
to  adopt  and  to  imitate.  At  that  period,  however, 
the  fame  of  the  improvements  made  by  the  Arabians 
did  not  reach  Europe.  The  knowledge  of  their  dis- 
coveries was  reserved  for  ages  capable  of  compre- 
hending and  of  perfecting  them. 

By  degrees,  the  calamities  and  desolation  brought 
upon  the  western  provinces  of  the  Roman  empire  by 
its  barbarous  conquerors,  were  forgotten,  and  in  some 
measure  repaired.  The  rude  tribes  which  settled 
there  acquiring  insensibly  some  idea  of  regular  go- 
vernment, and  some  relish  for  the  functions  and  com- 
forts of  civil  life,  Europe  began  to  awake  from  its 
torpid  and  inactive  state.  The  first  symptoms  of 
revival  were  discerned  in  Italy.  The  northern  tribes 
which  took  possession  of  this  country,  made  progress 
in  improvement  with  greater  rapidity  than  the  people 
settled  in  other  parts  of  Europe.  Various  causes, 
which  it  is  not  the  object  of  this  work  to  enumerate 
or  explain,  concurred  in  restoring  liberty  and  inde- 
pendence to  the  cities  of  Italy.  The  acquisition  of 
these  roused  industry,  and  gave  motion  and  vigour  to 
all  the  active  powers  of  the  human  mind.  Foreign 
commerce  revived,  navigation  was  attended  to  and 
improved.  Constantinople  became  the  chief  mart  to 
which  the  Italians  resorted.  There  they  not  only 
met  with  a  favourable  reception,  but  obtained  such 
mercantile  privileges  as  enabled  them  to  carry  on 
trade  with  great  advantage.  They  were  supplied  both 
with  the  precious  commodities  of  the  East,  and  with 
many  curious  manufactures,  the  product  of  ancient 
arts  and  ingenuity  which  still  subsisted  among  the 
Greeks.  As  the  labour  and  expense  of  conveying  the 
productions  of  India  to  Constantinople  by  that  long 
and  indirect  course  which  I  have  described,  rendered 
them  extremely  rare,  and  of  an  exorbitant  price,  the 
Italians  discovered  other  methods  of  procuring  them 
in  greater  abundance,  and  at  an  easier  rate.  They 
sometimes  purchased  them  in  Aleppo,  Tripoli,  and 
other  ports  on  the  coast  of  Syria,  to  which  they  were 


brought  by  a  route  not  unknown  to  the  ancients. 
They  were  conveyed  from  India  by  sea,  up  the  Persian 
gulf,  and  ascending  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris,  as  far 
as  Bagdad,  were  carried  by  land  across  the  desert  of 
Palmyra,  and  from  thence  to  the  towns  on  the  Medi- 
terranean. But,  from  the  length  of  the  journey,  and 
the  dangers  to  which  the  caravans  were  exposed,  this 
proved  always  a  tedious,  and  often  a  precarious,  mode 
of  conveyance.  At  length  the  soldans  of  Egypt,  hav- 
ing revived  the  commerce  with  India  in  its  ancient 
channel,  by  the  Arabian  gulf,  the  Italian  merchants, 
notwithstanding  the  violent  antipathy  to^each  other 
with  which  Christians  and  the  followers  of  Mahomet 
were  then  possessed,  repaired  to  Alexandria,  and 
enduring,  from  the  love  of  gain,  the  insolence  and 
exactions  of  the  Mahometans,  established  a  lucrative 
trade  in  that  port.  From  that  period,  the  commercial 
spirit  of  Italy  became  active  and  enterprising.  Venice, 
Genoa,  Pisa  rose,  from  inconsiderable  towns,  to  be 
populous  and  wealthy  cities.  Their  naval  power  in- 
creased; their  vessels  frequented  not  only  all  the 
ports  in  the  Mediterranean,  but,  venturing  some- 
times beyond  the  Straits,  visited  the  maritime  towns 
of  Spain,  France,  the  Low  Countries,  and  England  ; 
and,  by  distributing  their  commodities  over  Europe, 
began  to  communicate  to  its  various  nations  some 
taste  for  the  valuable  productions  of  the  East,  as  well 
as  some  ideas  of  manufactures  and  arts,  which  were 
then  unknown  beyond  the  precincts  of  Italy. 

While  the  cities  of  Italy  were  thus  advancing  in 
their  career  of  improvement,  an  event  happened,  the 
most  extraordinary,  perhaps,  in  the  history  of  man- 
kind, which,  instead  of  retarding  the  commercial 
progress  of  the  Italians,  rendered  it  more  rapid.  The 
martial  spirit  of  the  Europeans,  heightened  and  in- 
flamed by  religious  zeal,  prompted  them  to  attempt 
the  deliverance  of  the  Holy  Land  from  the  dominion 
of  infidels.  Vast  armies,  composed  of  all  the  nations 
in  Europe,  marched  towards  Asia,  upon  this  wild 
enterprise.  The  Genoese,  the  Pisans,  and  Venetians 
furnished  the  transports  which  carried  them  thither. 
They  supplied  them  with  provisions  and  military 
stores.  Besides  the  immense  sums  which  they  re- 
ceived on  this  account,  they  obtained  commercial 
privileges  and  establishments,  of  great  consequence 
in  the  settlements  which  the  crusaders  made  in 
Palestine,  and  in  other  provinces  of  Asia.  From  those 
sources,  prodigious  wealth  flowed  into  the  cities 
which  I  have  mentioned.  This  was  accompanied  with 
a  proportionate  increase  of  power ;  and,  by  the  end 
of  the  Holy  War,  Venice,  in  particular,  became  a 
great  maritime  state,  possessing  an  extensive  com- 
merce, and  ample  territories.  Italy  was  not  the  only 
country  in  which  the  Crusades  contributed  to  revive 
and  diffuse  such  a  spirit  as  prepared  Europe  for 
future  discoveries.  By  their  expeditions  into  Asia, 
the  other  European  nations  became  well  acquainted 
with  remote  regions,  which  formerly  they  knew  only 
by  name,  or  by  the  reports  of  ignorant  and  credulous 
pilgrims.  They  had  an  opportunity  of  observing  the 
manners,  the  arts,  and  the  accommodations  of  people 
more  polished  than  themselves.  This  intercourse 
between  the  East  and  West  subsisted  almost  two 
centuries.  The  adventurers  who  returned  from  Asia 
communicated  to  their  countrymen  the  ideas  which 
they  had  acquired,  and  the  habits  of  life  they  had 
contracted  by  visiting  more  refined  nations.  The 
Europeans  began  to  be  sensible  of  wants,  with  which 
they  were  formerly  unacquainted :  new  desires  were 
excited;  and  such  a  taste  for  the  commodities  and 
arts  of  other  countries  gradually  spread  among  them, 
that  they  not  only  encouraged  the  resort  of  foreigners 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


11 


to  their  harbours,  but  began  to  perceive  the  advantag 
and  necessity  of  applying  to  commerce  themselves. 

This  communication,  which  was  opened  betweei 
Europe  and  the  western  provinces  of  Asia,  encou 
raged    several    persons    to   advance   far   beyond    th 
countries   in   which   the   crusaders    carried   on  thei 
operations,  and  to  travel  by  land  into  the  more  remote 
and  opulent  regions  of  the  East.  The  wild  fanaticism 
which  seems,  at  that  period,  to  have  mingled  in  al 
the  schemes  of  individuals,  no  less  than  in  all  the 
counsels  of  nations,  first  incited  men  to  enter  upon 
those  Ion?  and  dangerous  peregrinations.    They  were 
afterwards  undertaken  from  prospects  of  commercia 
advantage,  or  from  motives  of  mere  curiosity.     Ben 
jamin,  a  Jew  of  Tudela,  in  the  kingdom  of  Navarre 
possessed  with  a  superstitious  veneration  for  the  law 
of  Moses,  and  solicitous  to  visit  his  countrymen  inthi 
East,  whom  he  hoped  to  find  in  such  a  state  of  powe 
and  opulence  as  might  redound  to  the  honour  of  his 
sect,  set  out  from  Spain  in  the  year  1160,  and  travel- 
ling by  land  to  Constantinople,  proceeded  through  the 
countries  to  the  north  of  the  Euxine  and  Caspian  seas 
as  far  as  Chinese  Tartary:  from  thence  he  took  his 
route  towards  the  south,  and  after  traversing  various 
provinces  of  the  further  India,   he  embarked  on  the 
Indian  ocean,  visited  several  of  its  islands,  and  re- 
turned at  the  end  of  thirteen  years  by  the  way  o: 
Egypt,  to  Europe,  with  much  information  concerning 
a  large  district  of  the  globe  altogether  unknown  at 
that  time  to  the  western  world.    The  zeal  of  the  head 
of  the  Christian  church  co-operated  with  the  super- 
stition of  Benjamin  the  Jew,  in  discovering  the  inte- 
rior and  remote  provinces  of  Asia  [A.  D.  1246].    Al 
Christendom  having  been  alarmed  with  accounts  of 
the  rapid  progress  of  the  Tartar  arms  under  Zengis 
Khan,   Innocent  IV.,  who  entertained   most  exalted 
ideas  concerning  the  plenitude  of  his  own  power,  and 
the  submission  due  to  his  injunctions,  sent  Father 
John  de  Piano  Carpini,  at  the  head  of  a  mission  of 
Franciscan  monks,  and  Father  Ascolino,  at  the  head 
of  another  of  Dominicans,  to  enjoin  Kayuk  Khan,  the 
grandson  of  Zengis,  who  was  then  at  the  head  of  the 
Tartar  empire,  to  embrace  the  Christian  faith,  and  to 
desist  from  desolating  the  earth  by  his  arms.    The 
haughty  descendant  of  the  greatest  conqueror  Asia 
had  ever  beheld,  astonished  at  this  strange  mandate 
from  an  Italian  priest,  whose  name  and  jurisdiction 
were  alike  unknown  to  him,  received  it  with  the  con- 
tempt  which  it   merited,  though   he  dismissed  the 
mendicants  who  delivered  it  with  impunity.     But,  as 
they  had  penetrated  into  the  country  by  different 
routes,  and  followed  for  some  time  the  Tartar  camps, 
which  were  always  in  motion,  they  had  opportunity 
of  visiting  a  great  part  of  Asia.     Carpini,  who  pro- 
ceeded by  the  way  of  Poland  and  Russia,  travelled 
through  its  northern  provinces  as  far  as  the  extremi- 
ties of  Thibet.     Ascolino,  who  seems  to  have  landed 
somewhere  in  Syria,  advanced  through  its  southern 
provinces,  into  the  interior  parts  of  Persia. 

[A.D.  1253.]  Not  long  after  St.Louis  of  France  con- 
tributed further  towards  extending  the  knowledge 
which  the  Europeans  had  begun  to  acquire  of  those  dis- 
tant regions.  Some  designing  impostor,  who  took  ad- 
vantage of  theslender  acquaintance  of  Christendom  with 
the  state  and  character  of  the  Asiatic  nations,  having 
informed  him  that  a  powerful  khan  of  the  Tartars  had 
embraced  the  Christian  faith,  the  monarch  listened  to 
the  tale  with  pious  credulity,  and  instantly  resolved 
to  send  ambassadors  to  this  illustrious  convert,  with 
a  view  of  enticing  him  to  attack  their  common  enemy 
the  Saracens  in  one  quarter,  while  he  fell  upon  them 
in  another.  As  monks  were  the  only  persons  in  that 


age  who  possessed  such  a  degree  of  knowledge  as 
qualified  them  for  a  service  of  this  kind,  he  employed 
in  it  Father  Andrew,  a  Jacobine,  who  was  followed 
by  Father  William  de  Rubruquis,  a  Franciscan.  With 
respect  to  the  progress  of  the  former,  there  is  no 
memorial  extant.  The  journal  of  the  latter  has  been 
published.  He  was  admitted  into  the  presence  of 
Mangu,  the  third  khan  in  succession  from  Zengis, 
and  made  a  circuit  through  the  interior  parts  of  Asia, 
more  extensive  than  that  of  any  European  who  had 
hitherto  explored  them. 

To  those  travellers,  whom  religious  real  sent  forth 
to  visit  Asia,  succeeded  others  who  ventured  into 
remote  countries,  from  the  prospect  of  commercial 
advantage,  or  from  motives  of  mere  curiosity,  the  first 
and  most  eminent  of  these  was  Marco  Polo,  [A.  D.  1265], 
a  Venetian  of  a  noble  family.  Having  engaged  early 
in  trade,  according  to  the  custom  of  his  country,  his 
aspiring  mind  wished  for  a  sphere  of  activity  more 
extensive  than  was  afforded  to  it  by  the  established 
traflic  carried  on  in  those  ports  of  Europe  and  Asia, 
which  the  Venetians  frequented.  This  prompted 
him  to  travel  into  unknown  countries,  in  expectation 
of  opening  a  commercial  intercourse  with  them,  more 
suited  to  the  sanguine  ideas  and  hopes  of  a  young 
adventurer. 

As  his  father  had  already  carried  some  European 
commodities  to  the  court  of  the  Great  Khan  of  the 
Tartars,  and  had  disposed  of  them  to  advantage,  he 
resorted  thither.  Under  the  protection  of  Kublay 
Khan,  the  most  powerful  of  all  the  successors  of 
Zengis,  he  continued  his  mercantile  peregrinations 
in  Asia  upwards  of  twenty-six  years;  and,  during 
that  time,  advanced  towards  the  east,  far  beyond 
the  utmost  boundaries  to  which  any  European  travel- 
ler had  ever  proceeded.  Instead  of  following  the 
course  of  Carpini  and  Rubruquis,  along  the  vast 
unpeopled  plains  of  Tartiry,  he  passed  through  the 
chief  trading  cities  in  the  more  cultivated  parts  of 
Asia,  and  penetrated  to  Cambalu,  or  Pekin,  the 
capital  of  the  great  kingdom  of  Cathay,  or  China, 
subject  at  that  time  to  the  successors  of  Zengis.  He 
made  more  than  one  voyage  on  the  Indian  ocean ;  he 
traded  in  many  of  the  islands,  from  which  Europe  had 
"ong  received  spices  and  other  commodities,  which 
t  held  in  high  estimation,  though  unacquainted  with 
;he  particular  countries  to  which  it  was  indebted 
or  those  precious  productions ;  and  he  obtained  in- 
brmation  concerning  several  countries  which  he  did 
not  visit  in  person,  particularly  the  island  Zipangri, 
jrobably  the  same  now  known  by  the  name  of  Japan. 
Dn  his  return,  he  astonished  his  contemporaries  with 
lis  description  of  vast  regions,  whose  names  had 
never  been  heard  of  in  Europe,  and  with  such  pomp- 
ous accounts  of  their  fertility,  their  populousness, 
heir  opulence,  the  variety  of  their  manufactures,  and 
he  extent  of  their  trade,  as  rose  far  above  the  con- 
ception of  an  uninformed  age. 

[A.D.  1322].  About  half  a  century  after  Marco  Polo, 
ir  John  Mandeville,  an  Englishman,  encouraged  by 
is  example,  visited  most  of  the  countries  in  the  East 
which  he  had  described,  and  like  him,  published  an 
ccount  of  them.  The  narrations  of  those  early  travel- 
ers abounded  with  many  wild  incoherent  tales,  con- 
erning  giants,  enchanters,  and  monsters.  But  they 
were  not,  from  that  circumstance,  less  acceptable  to 
n  ignorant  age,  which  delighted  in  what  was  mar- 
ellous.  The  wonders  which  they  told,  mostly  on 
learsay,  filled  the  multitude  with  admiration.  The 
acts  which  they  related  from  their  own  observation 
ttracted  the  attention  of  the  more  discerning.  The 
ormer,  which  may  be  considered  as  the  popular 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


traditions  and  fables  of  the  countries  through  which 
they  had  passed,  were  gradually  disregarded  as 
Europe  advanced  in  knowledge.  The  latter,  how- 
ever incredible  some  of  them  may  have  appeared 
in  their  own  time,  have  been  confirmed  by  the  ob- 
servations of  modern  travellers.  By  means  of  both, 
however,  the  curiosity  of  mankind  was  excited  with 
respect  to  the  remote  parts  of  the  earth;  their  ideas 
were  enlarged,  and  they  were  not  only  insensibly 
disposed  to  attempt  new  discoveries,  but  received 
such  information  as  directed  to  that  particular  course 
iri  which  these  were  afterwards  carried  on. 

While  this  spirit  was  gradually  forming  in  Europe, 
a  fortunate  discovery  was  made,  which  contributed 
more  than  all  the  efforts  and  ingenuity  of  preceding 
ages,  to  improve  and  to  extend  navigation.  That 
wonderful  property  of  the  magnet,  by  which  it  com- 
municates such  virtue  to  a  needle  or  slender  rod  of 
iron,  as  to  point  towards  the  poles  of  the  earth,  was 
observed.  The  use  which  might  be  made  of  this  in 
directing  navigation  was  immediately  perceived.  That 
valuable  but  now  familiar  instrument,  the  Mariner's 
Compass,  was  constructed.  When,  by  means  of  it, 
navigators  found  that,  at  all  seasons,  and  in  every 
place,  they  could  discover  the  north  and  south  with 
so  much  ease  and  accuracy,  it  became  no  longer  ne- 
cessary t6  depend  merely  on  the  light  of  the  stars 
and  the  observation  of  the  sea  coast.  They  gradually 
abandoned  their  ancient  timid  and  lingering  course 
along  the  shore,  ventured  boldly  into  the  ocean,  and, 
Telying  on  this  new  guide,  could  steer  in  the  darkest 
night,  and  under  the  most  cloudy  sky,  with  a  security 
and  precision  hitherto  unknown.  The  compass  may 
be  said  to  have  opened  to  man  the  dominion  of  the 
sea,  and  to  have  put  him  in  full  possession  of  the 
earth,  by  enabling  him  to  visit  every  part  of  it. 
Flavio  Gioia,  a  citizen  of  Amalfi,  a  town  of  consider- 
able trade  inthe  kingdom  of  Naples,  was  the  author 
of  this  great  discovery,  about  the  year  one  thousand 
three  hundred  and  two.  It  hath  been  often  the  fate 
of  those  illustrious  benefactors  of  mankind,  who  have 
enriched  science  and  improved  the  arts  by  their  in- 
ventions, to  derive  more  reputation  than  benefit  from 
the  happy  efforts  of  their  genius.  But  the  lot  of 
Gioia  has  been  still  more  cruel :  through  the  inatten- 
tion or  ignorance  of  contemporary  historians,  he  has 
"been  defrauded  even  of  the  fame  to  which  he  had 
such  a  just  title.  We  receive  from  them  no  informa- 
tion with  respect  to  his  profession,  his  character,  the 
precise  time  when  he  made  this  important  discovery, 
or  the  accidents  and  inquiries  which  led  to  it.  The 
knowledge  of  this  event,  though  productive  of  greater 
effects  than  any  recorded  in  the  annals  of  the  human 
race,  is  transmitted  to  us  without  any  of  those  cir- 
cumstances which  can  gratify  the  curiosity  that  it 
naturally  awakens.  But  though  the  use  of  the  com- 
pass might  enable  the  Italians  to  perform  the  short 
voyages  to  which  they  were  accustomed,  with  greater 
Security  and  expedition,  its  influence  was  not  so  sud- 
den or  extensive,  as  immediately  to  Tender  navigation 
adventurous,  and  to  excite  a  spirit  of  discovery. 
Many  causes  combined  in  preventing  this  beneficial 
invention  from  producing  its  full  effect  instanta- 
neously. Men  relinquish  ancient  habits  slowly,  and 
with  reluctance.  They  are  averse  to  new  experiments, 
and  venture  upon  them  with  timidity.  The  com- 
mercial jealousy  of  the  Italians,  it  is  probable,  la- 
boured to  conceal  the  happy  discovery  of  their 
countryman  from  other  nations.  The  art  of  steering 
"by  the  compass  with  such  skill  and  accuracy  as  to 
inspire  a  full  confidence  in  its  direction,  was  acquired 
gradually,  Bailors,  unaccustomed  to  quit  sight  of 


land,  durst  not  launch  out  at  once  and  commit  them- 
selves to  unknown  seas.  Accordingly,  near  half  a 
century  elapsed  from  the  time  of  Gioia' s  discovery, 
before  navigators  ventured  into  any  seas  which  they 
had  not  been  accustomed  to  frequent. 

The  first  appearance  of  a  bolder  spirit  may  be  dated 
from  the  voyages  of  the  Spaniards  to  the  Canary  or 
Fortunate  Islands.  By  what  accident  they  were  led 
to  the  discovery  of  those  small  isles,  which  lie  near 
five  hundred  miles  from  the  Spanish  coast,  and  above 
a  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  the  coast  of  Africa, 
contemporary  writers  have  not  explained.  But, 
about  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century,  the  people 
of  all  the  different  kingdoms  into  which  Spain  was 
then  divided,  were  accustomed  to  make  piratical  ex- 
cursions thither,  in  order  to  plunder  the  inhabitants, 
or  to  carry  them  off  as  slaves.  Clement  VI.  in  virtue 
of  the  right  claimed  by  the  holy  see,  to  dispose  of  all 
countries  possessed  by  infidels,  erected  those  isles 
into  a  kingdom,  in  the  year  one  thousand  three  hun- 
dred and  forty-four,  and  conferred  it  on  Lewis  de  la 
Cerda,  descended  from  the  royal  family  of  Castile. 
But  that  unfortunate  prince,  destitute  of  power  to 
assert  his  nominal  title,  having  never  visited  the 
Canaries,  John  de  Bethencourt,  a  Norman  baron, 
obtained  a  grant  of  them  from  Henry  III.  of  Castile. 
Bethencourt,  with  the  valour  and  good  fortune  which 
distinguished  the  adventurers  of  hi*  country,  at- 
tempted and  effected  the  conquest ;  and  the  posses- 
sion of  the  Canaries  remained  for  some  time  in  his 
family,  as  a  fief  held  of  the  crown  of  Castile.  Pre- 
vious to  this  expedition  of  Bethencourt,  his  country- 
men settled  in  Normandy  are  said  to  have  visited  the 
coast  of  Africa  [A.  D.  1365],  and  to  have  proceeded  far 
to  the  south  of  the  Canary  Islands.  But  their  voyages 
thither  seem  not  to  have  been  undertaken  in  conse- 
quence of  any  public  or  regular  plan  for  extending 
navigation  and  attempting  new  discoveries.  They 
were  either  excursions  suggested  by  that  roving 
piratical  spirit,  which  descended  to  the  Normans  from 
their  ancestors,  or  the  commercial  enterprises  of  pri- 
vate merchants,  which  attracted  so  little  notice,  that 
hardly  any  memorial  of  them  is  to  be  found  in  con- 
temporary authors.  In  a  general  survey  of  the  pro- 
gress of  discovery,  it  is  sufficient  to  have  mentioned 
this  event ;  and  leaving  it  among  those  of  dubious 
existence,  or  of  small  importance,  we  may  conclude, 
that  though  much  additional  information  concerning 
the  remote  regions  of  the  East  had  been  received  by 
travellers  who  visited  them  by  land,  navigation,  at 
the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century,  had  not  ad- 
vanced beyond  the  state  to  which  it  had  attained 
before  the  downfall  of  the  Roman  empire. 

At  length  the  period  arrived,  when  Providence 
decreed  that  men  were  to  pass  the  limits  withia 
which  they  had  been  so  long  confined,  and  open  to 
themselves  a  more  ample  field  wherein  to  display 
their  talents,  their  enterprise,  and  courage.  The  first 
considerable  efforts  towards  this  were  not  made  by 
any  of  the  more  powerful  states  of  Europe,  or  by 
those  who  had  applied  to  navigation  with  the  greatest 
assiduity  and  success.  The  glory  of  leading  the  way 
in  this  new  career,  was  reserved  for  Portugal,  one  of 
the  smallest  and  least  powerful  of  the  European 
kingdoms.  As  the  attempts  of  the  Portuguese  to 
acquire  the  knowledge  of  those  parts  of  the  globe  with 
which  mankind  were  then  unacquainted,  not  only 
improved  and  extended  the  art  of  navigation,  but 
roused  such  a  spirit  of  curiosity  and  enterprise,  as 
led  to  the  discovery  of  the  New  World,  of  which  I 
propose  to  write  the  history,  it  is  necessary  to  take  a 
full  view  of  the  rise,  the  progress,  and  success  of 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERIOAv 


their  various  naval  operations.  It  was  in  this  school 
that  the  discoverer  of  America  was  trained ;  and 
unless  we  trace  the  steps  by  which  his  instructors 
and  guides  advanced,  it  will  be  impossible  to  com- 
prehend the  circumstances  which  suggested  the  idea 
or  facilitated  the  execution  of  his  great  design. 

Various  circumstances  prompted  the  Portuguese 
to  exert  their  activity  in  this  new  direction,  and  en- 
abled them  to  accomplish  undertakings  apparently 
superior  to  the  natural  force  of  their  monarchy.  The 
kings  of  Portugal,  having  driven  the  Moors  out  of 
their  dominions,  had  acquired  power,  as  well  as  glory, 
by  the  success  of  their  arms  agninst  the  infidels.  By 
their  victories  over  them,  they  had  extended  the  royal 
authority  beyond  the  narrow  limits  within  which  it 
was  originally  circumscribed  in  Portugal,  as  well  as 
in  other  feudal  kingdoms.  They  had  the  command 
of  the  national  force,  could  rouse  it  to  act  with  united 
vigour,  and,  after  the  expulsion  of  the  Moors,  could 
employ  it  without  dread  of  interruption  from  any 
domestic  enemy.  By  the  perpetual  hostilities  carried 
on  for  several  centuries  against  the  Mahometans,  the 
martial  and  adventurous  spirit  which  distinguished 
all  the  European  nations  during  the  middle  ages,  was 
improved  and  heightened  among  the  Portuguese. 
A  fierce  civil  war  towards  the  close  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  occasioned  by  a  disputed  succession,  aug- 
mented the  military  ardour  of  the  nation,  and  formed 
or  called  forth  men  of  such  active  and  daring  genius, 
as  are  fit  for  bold  undertakings.  The  situation  of 
the  kingdom,  bounded  on  every  side  by  the  domi- 
nions of  a  more  powerful  neighbour,  did  not  afford 
free  scope  to  the  activity  of  the  Portuguese  by  land, 
as  the  strength  of  their  monarchy  was  no  match  for 
that  of  Castile.  But  Portugal  was  a  maritime  state, 
in  which  there  were  many  commodious  harbours  ; 
the  people  had  begun  to  make  some  progress  in  the 
knowledge  and  practice  of  navigation ;  and  the  sea 
was  open  to  them,  presenting  the  only  field  of  enter- 
prise in  which  they  could  distinguish  themselves. 

Such  was  the  state  of  Portuga',  and  such  the  dis- 
position of  the  people,  when  John  I.,  surnamed  the 
Bastard,  obtained  secure  possession  of  the  crown  by 
the  peace  concluded  with  Castile,  in  the  year  <nu 
thousand  four  hundred  and  eleven.  He  was  a  prince 
of  great  merit,  who,  by  superior  courage  and  abilities 
had  opened  his  way  to  a  throne,  which  of  right  did  not 
belong  to  him.  He  instantly  perceived  that  it  woult 
be  impossible  to  preserve  public  order,  or  domestic 
tranquillity,  without  finding  some  employment  for  the 
restless  spirit  of  his  subjects.  With  this  view  he 
assembled  a  numerous  fleet  at  Lisbon,  composed  o 
all  the  ships  which  he  could  fit  out  in  his  own  king- 
dom [A.  D.  1412],  and  of  many  hired  from  foreigners 
This  great  armament  was  destined  to  attack  th< 
Moors  settled  on  the  coast  of  Barbary.  While  it  was 
equipping,  a  few  vessels  were  appointed  to  sail  alonj 
the  western  shore  of  Africa  bounded  by  the  Atlantic 
ocean,  and  to  discover  the  unknown  countries  situatec 
there.  From  this  inconsiderable  attempt,  we  ma1 
date  the  commencement  of  that  spirit  of  discovery 
which  opened  the  barriers  that  had  so  long  shut  ou 
mankind  from  the  knowledge  of  oae  half  of  the  ter 
restrial  globe. 

At  the  time  when  John  sent  forth  these  ships  or 
this  new  voyage,  the  art  of  navigation  was  still  ver} 
imperfect.  Though  Africa  lay  so  near  to  Portugal 
and  the  fertility  of  the  countries  already  known  01 
that  continent  invited  men  to  explore  it  more  fully 
the  Portuguese  had  never  ventured  to  sail  beyoiK 
Cape  AW.  That  promontory,  as  its  name  imports 
was  hitherto  considered  as  a  boundary  which,  coul< 


iot  be  passed.  But  the  nations  of  Europe  had  now 
cquired  as  much  knowledge  as  emboldened  theni 
o  disregard  the  prejudices  and  to  correct  the  errors 
f  their  ancestors.  The  long  reign  of  ignorance,  tlje 
onstant  enemy  of  every  curious  inquiry,  and  of  every 
low  undertaking,  wag  approaching  to  its  period, 
["he  light  of  science  began  to  dawn.  The  works  of 
he  ancient  Greeks  and  Romans  began  to  be  read 
ith  admiration  and  prpfit..  The  sciences  cultivated 
>y  the  Arabians  were  introduced  into  Europe  by  the 
kloors  settled  in  Spain  and  Portugal,  and  by  the 
ews,  who  were  very  numerous  in  both  these  king- 
doms. Geometry,  astronomy,  and  geography,  the 
cienccs  on  which  the  art  of  navigation  is  founded, 
became  objects  of  studious  attention.  The  memory 
of  the  discoveries  made  by  the  ancients  was  revived, 
and  the  progress  of  their  navigation  and  commerce 
began  to  be  traced.  Some  of  the  causes  which  have 
obstructed  the  cultivation  of  science  in  Portugal, 
during  this  century  and  the  last,  did  not  exist,  or  did 
not  operate  in  the  same  manner,  in  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury (4)  ;  and  the  Portuguese,  at  that  period,  seem 
to  have  kept  pace  with  other  nations  on  this  side  of 
the  Alps  in  literary  pursuits. 

As  the  genius  of  the  age  favoured  the  execution  of 
that  new  undertaking,  to  which  the  peculiar  state  of 
the  country  invited  the  Portuguese,  it  proved  success- 
ful. The  vessels  sent  on  the  discovery  doubled  that 
formidable  Cape,  which  had  terminated  the  progress 
of  former  navigators,  and  proceeded  a  hundred  and 
sixty  miles  beyond  it,  to  Cape  Bojador.  As  its  rocky 
cliffs,  which  stretched  a  considerable  way  into  the 
Atlantic,  appeared  more  dreadful  than  the  promon- 
tory which  they  had  passed,  the  Portuguese  com- 
manders durst  not  attempt  to  sail  round  it,  but 
returned  to  Lisbon,  more  satisfied  with  having 
advanced  so  far,  than  ashamed  of  having  ventured 
no  further. 

Inconsiderable  as  this  voyage  was  [A.D.  1417],  it  in- 
creased the  passion  for  discovery,  which  began  to 
arise  in  Portugal.  The  fortunate  issue  of  the  king's 
expedition  against  the  Moor*  of  Barbary,  added 
strength  to  that  spirit  in  the  nation,  and  pushed  it  on 
to  new  undertakings.  In  order  to  render  these  suc- 
cessful, it  was  necessary  that  they  should  be  conducted 
by  a  person  who  possessed  abilities  capable  of  dis- 
cerning what  was  attainable,  who  enjoyed  leisure  to 
form  a  regular  system  for  prosecuting  discovery,  and 
who  was  animated  with  ardour  that  would  persevere 
in  spite  of  obstacles  and  repulses.  Happily  for  Por- 
tugal she  found  all  those  qualities  in  Henry  Duke  of 
Visep,  the  fourth  son  of  king  John  by  Philippa  of 
Lancaster,  sister  of  Henry  IV.  king  of  England. 
That  prince,  in  his  early  youth,  having  accompanied 
his  father  in  his  expedition  to  Barbary,  distinguished 
himself  by  many  deeds  of  valour.  To  the  martial 
spirit,  which  was  the  characteristic  of  every  man  of 
noble  birth  at  that  time,  he  added  all  the  accomplish- 
ments of  a  more  enlightened  and  polished  age.  He 
cultivated  the  arts  and  sciences,  which  were  then 
unknown  and  despised  by  persons  of  his  rank.  He 
applied  with  peculiar  fondness  to  the  study  of  geoc 
graphy ;  and  by  the  instruction  of  able  masters,  as 
well  as  by  the  accounts  of  travellers,  he  early  ac- 
quired such  knowledge  of  the  habitable  globe,  as  dis- 
covered the  great  probability  of  finding  new  and 
opulent  countries,  by  sailing  along  the  coast  of  Africa. 
Such  an  object  was  formed  to  awaken  the  enthusiasm 
and  ardour  of  a  youthful  mind,  and  he  espoused  with 
the  utmost  zeal  the  patronage  of.  a  design  which 
might  prove  as  beneficial,  as  it  appeared  to  be  splendid 
and  honourable,  ID.  order  that,  he  might  pursue  thui 


14 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


great  scheme  without  interruption,  he  retired  frorr 
court  immediately  after  his  return  from  Africa,  an 
fixed  his  residence  at  Sagres,  near  Cape  St.  Vincent 
where  the  prospect  of  the  Atlantic  ocean  invited  hi 
thoughts  continually  towards  his  favourite  project 
and  encouraged  him  to  execute  it.  In  this  retreat  he 
was  attended  by  some  of  the  most  learned  men  in 
his  country,  who  aided  him  in  his  researches.  He 
applied  for  information  to  the  Moors  of  Barbary,  who 
were  accustomed  to  travel  by  land  into  the  interior 
provinces  of  Africa,  in  quest  of  ivory,  gold-dust,  anc 
other  rich  commodities.  He  consulted  the  Jews 
settled  in  Portugal.  By  promises,  rewards,  and  marks 
of  respect,  he  allured  into  his  service  several  persons 
foreigners  as  well  as  Portuguese,  who  were  eminent 
for  their  skill  in  navigation.  In  taking  those  prepara- 
tory steps,  the  great  abilities  of  the  prince  were  se- 
conded by  his  private  virtues.  His  integrity,  his 
affability,  his  respect  for  religion,  his  zeal  for  the 
honour  of  his  country,  engaged  persons  of  all  ranks  to 
applaud  his  design,  and  to  favour  the  execution  of  it 
His  schemes  were  allowed,  by  the  greater  part  of  his 
countrymen,  to  proceed  neither  from  ambition  nor 
the  desire  of  wealth,  but  to  flow  from  the  warm  bene- 
volence of  a  heart  eager  to  promote  the  happiness  of 
mankind,  and  which  justly  entitled  him  to  assume  a 
motto  for  his  device,  that  described  the  quality  by 
which  he  wished  to  be  distinguished,  the  talent  of 
doing  good. 

His  first  effort  [A.  D.  1418],  as  is  usual  at  the  com- 
mencement of  any  new  undertaking,  was  extremely 
inconsiderable.  He  fitted  out  a  single  ship,  and 
giving  the  command  of  it  to  John  Gonzalez  Zarco 
and  Tristan  Vaz,  two  gentlemen  of  his  household, 
who  voluntarily  offered  to  conduct  the  enterprise,  he 
instructed  them  to  use  their  utmost  efforts  to  double 
Cape  Bojador,  and  thence  to  steer  towards  the  south. 
They,  according  to  the  mode  of  navigation  which  still 
prevailed,  held  their  course  along  the  shore  ;  and 
by  following  that  direction,  they  must  have  en- 
countered almost  insuperable  difficulties  in  at- 
tempting to  pass  Cape  Bojador.  But  fortune 
came  in  aid  to  their  want  of  skill,  and  pre- 
vented the  voyage  from  being  altogether  fruitless. 
A  sudden  squall  of  wind  arose,  drove  them  out  to 
sea,  and  when  they  expected  every  moment  to  perish, 
landed  them  on  an  unknown  island,  which  from  their 
happy  escape  they  named  Porto  Santo.  In  the  in- 
fancy of  navigation,  the  discovery  of  this  small  island 
appeared  a  matter  of  such  moment,  that  they  in- 
stantly returned  to  Portugal  with  the  good  tidings, 
and  were  received  by  Henry  with  the  applause  and 
honour  due  to  fortunate  adventurers.  This  faint 
dawn  of  success  filled  a  mind  ardent  in  the  pursuit 
of  a  favourite  object  with  such  sanguine  hopes  as 
were  sufficient  incitements  to  proceed.  Next  year 
[A.  D.  1419]  Henry  sent  out  three  ships  under  the  same 
commanders,  to  whom  he  joined  Bartholomew  Pe- 
icstrello,  in  order  to  take  possession  of  the  island 
which  they  had  discovered.  When  they  began  to 
settle  in  Porto  Santo,  they  observed  towards  the 
south  a  fixed  spot  in  the  horizon  like  a  small  black 
cloud.  By  degrees  they  were  led  to  conjecture  that 
it  might  be  land,  and  steering  towards  it,  they  arrived 
at  a  considerable  island,  uninhabited  and  covered 
with  wood,  which  on  that  account  they  called  Ma- 
deira. As  it  was  Henry's  chief  object  to  render  his 
discoveries  useful  to  his  country,  he  immediately 
equipped  a  fleet  to  carry  a  colony  of  Portuguese  to 
these  islands.  By  his  provident  care,  they  were  fur- 
nished not  only  with  the  seeds,  plants,  and  domestic 
mnimals  common  in  Europe ;  but  as  he  foresaw 


that  the  warmth  of  the  climate  and  fertility  of  the 
soil  would  prove  favourable  to  the  rearing  of  other 
productions,  he  procured  slips  of  the  vine  from  the 
island  of  Cyprus,  the  rich  wines  of  which  were  then 
in  great  request,  and  plants  of  the  sugar-cane  from 
Sicily,  into  which  it  had  been  lately  introduced. 
These  throve  so  prosperously  in  this  new  country, 
that  the  benefit  of  cultivating  them  was  immediately- 
perceived,  and  the  sugar  and  wine  of  Madeira  quickly 
became  articles  of  some  consequence  in  the  commerce 
of  Portugal. 

As  soon  as  the  advantages  derived  from  this  first 
settement  to  the  west  of  the  European  continent 
began  to  be  felt,  the  spirit  of  discovery  appeared  less 
chimerical,  and  became  more  adventurous.  By  their 
voyages  to  Madeira,  the  Portuguese  were  gradually 
accustomed  to  a  bolder  navigation,  and,  instead  of 
creeping  servilely  along  the  coast,  ventured  into  the 
open  sea.  In  consequence  of  taking  this  course, 
Gilianez,  who  commanded  one  of  Prince  Henry's 
ships,  doubled  Cape  Bojador  [A.  D.  1423], the  boundary 
of  the  Portuguese  navigation  upwards  of  twenty  years, 
and  which  had  hitherto  been  deemed  impassable.  This 
successful  voyage,  which  the  ignorance  of  the  age 
placed  on  a  level  with  the  most  famous  exploits  re- 
corded in  history,  opened  a  new  sphere  to  navigation, 
as  it  discovered  the  vast  continent  of  Africa,  still 
washed  by  the  Atlantic  ocean,  and  stretching  towards 
the  south.  Part  of  this  was  soon  explored ;  the  Por- 
tuguese advanced  within  the  tropics,  and  in  the  space 
of  a  few  years  they  discovered  the  river  Senegal,  and 
all  the  coast  extending  from  Cape  Blanco  to  Cape  de 
Verd. 

Hitherto  the  Portuguese  had  been  guided  in  their 
discoveries,  or  encouraged  to  attempt  them,  by  the 
light  and  information  which  they  received  from  the 
works  of  the  ancient  mathematicians  and  geographers. 
But  when  they  began  to  enter  the  torrid  zone,  the 
notion  which  prevailed  among  the  ancients,  that  the 
heat,  which  reigned  perpetually  there,  was  so  exces- 
sive as  to  render  it  uninhabitable,  deterred  them,  for 
some  time,  from  proceeding.  Their  own  observa- 
tions, when  they  first  ventured  into  this  unknown 
and  formidable  region,  tended  to  confirm  the  opinion 
of  antiquity  concerning  the  violent  operation  of  the 
direct  rays  of  the  sun.  As  far  as  the  river  Senegal, 
the  Portuguese  had  found  the  coast  of  Africa  in- 
habited by  people  nearly  resembling  the  Moors  of 
Barbary.  When  they  advanced  to  the  south  of  that 
river,  the  human  form  seemed  to  put  on  a  new  ap- 
pearance. They  beheld  men  with  skins  black  as 
bony,  with  short  curled  hair,  flat  noses,  thick  lips, 
and  all  the  peculiar  features  which  are  now  known 
to  distinguish  the  race  of  negroes.  This  surprising 
lteration  they  naturally  attributed  to  the  influence 
)f  heat,  and  if  they  should  advance  nearer  to  the 
ine,  they  began  to  dread  that  its  effects  would  be 
still  more  violent.  The  dangers  were  exaggerated ; 
and  many  other  objections  against  attempting  further 
discoveries  were  proposed  by  some  of  the  grandees, 
who,  from  ignorance,  from  envy,  or  from  that  cold 
imid  prudence,  which  rejects  whatever  has  the  air 
f  novelty  or  enterprise,  had  hitherto  condemned  all 
Prince  Henry's  schemes.  They  represented,  that  it 
was  altogether  chimerical  to  expect  any  advantage 
from  countries  situated  in  that  region  which  the 
wisdom  and  experience  of  antiquity  had  pronounced 
:o  be  unfit  for  the  habitation  of  men ;  that  their 
brefathers,  satisfied  with  cultivating  the  territory 
which  Providence  had  allotted  them,  did  not  waste 
he  strength  of  the  kingdom  by  fruitless  projects,  in 
quest  of  new  settlements ;  that  Portugal  was  already 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


15 


exhausted  by  the  expense  of  attempts  to  discover  I 
lands,  which  either  did  not  exist,  or  which  nature  | 
destined  to  remain  unknown ;  and  was  drained  of 
men,  who  might  have  been  employed  in  undertak- 
ings attended  with  more  certain  success,  and  pro- 
ductive of  greater  benefit.  But  neither  their  appeal 
to  the  authority  of  the  ancients,  nor  their  reasonings 
concerning  the  interests  of  Portugal,  made  any  im- 
pression upon  the  determined  philosophic  mind  of 
Prince  Henry.  The  discoveries  which  he  had  al- 
ready made  convinced  him  that  the  ancients  had 
little  more  than  a  conjectural  knowledge  of  the  torrid 
zone.  He  was  no  less  satisfied  that  the  political 
arguments  of  his  opponents,  with  respect  to  the  in- 
terest of  Portugal,  were  malevolent  and  ill  founded. 
In  those  sentiments  he  was  strenuously  supported  by 
his  brother  Pedro,  who  governed  the  kingdom  as 
guardian  of  their  nephew  Alphonso  V.,  who  had  suc- 
ceeded to  the  throne  during  his  minority  [A.  D.  1438]  ; 
and,  instead  of  slackening  his  efforts,  Henry  con- 
tinued to  pursue  his  discoveries  with  fresh  ardour. 

But,  in  order  to  silence  all  the  murmurs  of  oppo- 
sition, he  endeavoured  to  obtain  the  sanction  of  the 
highest  authority  in  favour  of  his  operations.  With 
this  view  he  applied  to  the  pope,  and  represented,  in 
pompous  terms,  the  pious  and  unwearied  zeal  with 
which  he  had  exerted  himself  during  twenty  years, 
in  discovering  unknown  countries,  the  wretched  in- 
habitants of  which  were  utter  strangers  to  true  reli- 
gion, wandering  in  heathen  darkness,  or  led  astray 
by  the  delusions  of  Mahomet.  He  besought  the 
holy  father,  to  whom,  as  the  vicar  of  Christ,  all  the 
kingdoms  of  the  earth  were  subject,  to  confer  on  the 
crown  of  Portugal  a  right  to  all  the  countries  pos- 
sessed by  infidels,  which  should  be  discovered  by  the 
industry  of  its  subjects,  and  subdued  by  the  force 
of  its  arms.  He  entreated  him  to  enjoin  all  Chris- 
tian powers,  under  the  highest  penalties,  not  to 
molest  Portugal  while  engaged  in  this  laudable  enter- 
prise, and  to  prohibit  them  from  settling  in  any  of 
the  countries  which  the  Portuguese  should  discover. 
Ho  promised  that,  in  all  their  expeditions,  it  should 
be  the  chief  object  of  his  countrymen  to  spread  the 
knowledge  of  the  Christian  religion,  to  establish  the 
authority  of  the  holy  see,  and  to  increase  the  flock 
of  the  universal  pastor.  As  it  was  by  improving 
with  dexterity  every  favourable  conjuncture  for  ac- 
quiring new  powers,  that  the  court  of  Rome  had 
gradually  extended  its  usurpations,  Eugene  IV.  the 
pontiff  to  whom  this  application  was  made,  eagerly 
seized  the  opportunity  which  now  presented  itself. 
He  instantly  perceived,  that,  by  complying  with 
Prince  Henry's  request,  he  might  exercise  a  prero- 
gative no  less  flattering  in  its  own  nature,  than  likely 
to  prove  beneficial  in  its  consequences,  A  bull  was 
accordingly  issued,  in  which,  after  applauding  in  the 
strongest  terms  the  past  efforts  of  the  Portuguese, 
and  exhorting  them  to  proceed  in  that  laudable 
career  on  which  they  had  entered,  he  granted  them 
an  exclusive  right  to  all  the  countries  which  they 
should  discover,  from  Cape  Non  to  the  continent  of 
India. 

Extravagant  as  this  donation,  comprehending  such 
a  large  portion  of  the  habitable  globe,  would  now 
appear,  even  in  catholic  countries,  no  person  in  the 
fifteenth  century  doubted  that  the  Pope,  in  the  ple- 
nitude of  his  apostolic  power,  had  a  right  to  confer 
it.  Prince  Henry  was  soon  sensible  of  the  advan- 
tages which  he  derived  from  this  transaction.  His 
schemes  were  authorized  and  sanctified  by  the  bull 
approving  of  them.  The  spirit  of  discovery  was 
connected  with  zeal  for  religion,  which,  in  that  age, 


was  a  principle  of  such  activity  and  vigour,  as  to 
influence  the  conduct  of  nations.  All  Christian 
princes  were  deterred  from  intruding  into  those 
countries  which  the  Portuguese  had  discovered,  or 
from  interrupting  the  progress  of  their  navigation 
and  conquests  (10). 

The  fame  of  the  Portuguese  voyages  soon  spread 
over  Europe.  Men  Ion?  accustomed  to  circumscribe 
the  activity  and  knowledge  of  the  human  mind 
within  the  limits  to  which  they  had  hitherto  been 
confined,  were  astonished  to  behold  the  sphere  of 
navigation  so  suddenly  enlarged,  and  a  prospect 
opened  of  visiting  regions  of  the  globe,  the  exist- 
ence of  which  was  unknown  in  former  times.  The 
learned  and  speculative  reasoned  and  formed  theories 
concerning  those  unexpected  discoveries.  The  vul- 
gar inquired  and  wondered;  while  enterprising  ad- 
venturers crowded  from  every  part  of  Europe,  soli- 
citing Prince  Henry  to  employ  them  in  this  honoura- 
ble service.  Many  Venetians  and  Genoese,  in  parti- 
cular, who  were,  at  that  time,  superior  to  all  other 
nations  in  the  science  of  naval  affairs,  entered  aboard 
the  Portuguese  ships,  and  acquired  a  most  perfect 
and  extensive  knowledge  of  their  profession  in  that 
new  school  of  navigation.  In  emulation  of  these 
foreigners,  the  Portuguese  exerted  their  own  talents. 
The  nation  seconded  the  designs  of  the  prince. 
[A.D.  1446J.  Private  merchants  formedcompanies.with 
a  view  to  search  for  unknown  countries.  The  Cape  de 
Verd  Islands,  which  lie  offthe  promontory  of  that  name, 
were  discovered  [A.D.  1449],  and  soon  after  the  isles 
called  Azores.  As  the  former  of  these  are  above 
three  hundred  miles  from  the  African  coast,  and  the 
latter  nine  hundred  miles  from  any  continent,  it  is 
evident,  by  their  venturing  so  boldly  into  the  open 
seas,  that  the  Portuguese  had,  by  this  time,  im- 
proved greatly  in  the  art  of  navigation. 

While  the  passion  for  engaging  in  new  under- 
takings was  thus  warm  and  active,  it  received  an 
unfortunate  check  by  the  death  of  Prince  Henry 
[A.D.  1463],  whose  superior  knowledge  had  hitherto 
directed  all  the  operations  of  the  discoverers,  and 
whose  patronage  had  encouraged  and  protected  them. 
But,  notwithstanding  all  the  advantages  which  they 
derived  from  these,  the  Portuguese,  during  his  life, 
did  not  advance,  in  their  utmost  progress  towards 
the  south,  within  five  degrees  of  the  equinoctial 
line;  and  after  their  continued  exertions  for  half 
a  century  [A.  i\  1412—1463],  hardly  fifteen  hundred 
miles  of  the  coast  of  Africa  were  discovered.  To  an 
age  acquainted  with  the  efforts  of  navigation  in  its 
state  of  maturity  and  improvement,  those  essays 
of  its  early  years  must  necessarily  appear  feebte 
and  unskilful.  But  inconsiderable  as  they  may 
be  deemed,  they  were  sufficient  to  turn  the  curi- 
osity of  the  European  nations  into  a  new  channel,  to 
excite  an  enterprising  spirit,  and  to  point  the  way  to 
future  discoveries. 

Alphonso,  who  possessed  the  throne  of  Portugal  at 
the  time  of  Prince  Henry's  death,  was  so  much  en- 
gaged in  supporting  his  own  pretensions  to  the 
throne  of  Castile,  or  in  carrying  on  his  expeditions 
against  the  Moors  in  Barbary,  that  the  force  of  },is 
kingdom  being  exerted  in  other  operations,  he  could 
not  prosecute  the  discoveries  of  Africa  with  ardour. 
He  committed  the  conduct  of  them  to  Fernando 
Gomez,  a  merchant  in  Lisbon,  to  whom  he  granted 
an  exclusive  right  of  commerce  with  all  the  countries 
of  which  Prince  Henry  had  taken  possession.  Under 
the  restraint  and  oppression  of  a  monopoly,  the 
spirit  of  discovery  languished.  It  ceased  to  be  a 
national  object,  and  became  the  concern  of  a  private 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


man,  more  attentive  to  his  own  gain,  than  to  the  glory 
of  his  country.  Some  progress,  however,  was  made. 
The  Portuguese  ventured  at  length  to  cross  the  line, 
[A.  p.  1471]  and,  to  their  astonishment,  found  that 
region  of  the  torrid  zone,  which  was  supposed  to  be 
scorched  with  intolerable  heat,  to  be  not  only  habit 
able,  but  populous  and  fertile. 

•  [A.  D.  1481],  John  II.  who  succeeded  his  father 
Alphonso,  possessedtalents  capable  both  of  forming  and 
executing  great  designs.  As  part  of  his  revenues,  while 
prince,  had  arisen  from  duties  on  the  trade  with  the 
newly-discovered  countries,  this  naturally  turned  his 
attention  towards  them,  and  satisfied  him  with  respect 
to  their  utility  and  importance.  In  proportion  as  his 
knowledge  of  these  countries  extended,  the  possession 
of  them  appeared  to  be  of  greater  consequence. 
While  the  Portugese  proceeded  along  the  coast  of 
Africa,  from  Cape  Non  to  the  river  of  Senegal,  they 
found  all  that  extensive  tract  to  be  sandy,  barren,  and 
thinly  inhabited  by  a  wretched  people,  professing  the 
Mahometan  religion,  and  subject  to  the  vast  empire 
of  Morocco.  But  to  the  south  of  that  river,  the 
power  and  religion  of  the  Mahometans  were  unknown. 
The  country  was  divided  into  small  independent 
principalities,  the  population  was  considerable,  the 
soil  fertile,  and  the  Portuguese  soon  discovered  that  it 
produced  ivory,  rich  gums,  gold,  and  other  valuable 
commodities.  By  the  acquisition  of  these,  com- 
merce was  enlarged,  and  became  more  adventurous. 
Men,  animated  arid  rendered  active  by  the  certain 
prospect  of  gain,  pursued  discovery  with  great  eager- 
ness, than  when  they  were  excited  only  by  curiosity 
and  hope. 

This  spirit  derived  no  small  reinforcement  of  vigour 
from  the  countenance  of  such  a  monarch  as  John. 
Declaring  himself  the  patron  of  every  attempt  towards 
discovery,  he  promoted  it  with  all  the  ardour  of  his 
«rrand»uncle  prince  Henry,  and  with  superior  power. 
•The  effects  of  this  were  immediately  felt.  A  power- 
ful fleet  was  fitted  out  [A.  D.  1484J,  which,  after  disco- 
vering the  kingdoms  of  Benin  and  Congo,  advanced 
above  fifteen  hundred  milos  beyond  the  line,  and  the 
Portuguese,  for  the  first  time,  beheld  a  new  heaven, 
and  observed  the  stars  of  another  hemisphere.  John 
was  not  only  solicitous  to  discover,  but  attentive  to 
secure,  the  possession  of  those  countries.  He  built 
forts  on  the  coast  of  Guinea  ;  he  sent  out  colonies  to 
settle  there  ;  he  established  a  commercial  intercourse 
with  the  more  powerful  kingdoms ;  he  endeavoured 
to  render  such  as  were  feeble  or  divided,  tributary 
to  the  crown  of  Portugal.  Some  of  the  petty  princes 
voluntarily  acknowledged  themselves  his  vnssals. 
Others  were  compelled  to  do  so  by  force  of  arms. 
A  regular  and  well-digested  system  was  formed 
with  respect  to  this  new  object  of  policy,  and  by 
firmly  adhering  to  it,  the  Portuguese  power  and 
commerce  in  Africa  were  established  upon  a  solid 
foundation. 

By  their  continued  intercourse  with  the  people  of 
Africa,  the  Portuguese  gradually  acquired  some  know- 
ledge of  those  parts  of  that,  country  which  they  had 
not  visited.  The  information  which  they  received 
from  the  natives,  added  to  what  they  had  observed  in 
their  own  voyages,  began  to  open  prospects  more  ex- 
tensive, and  to  suggest  the  idea  of  schemes  more  im- 
portant, than  those  which  had  hitherto  allured  and 
occupied  them.  They  had  detected  the  error  of  the 
ancients  concerning  the  nature  of  the  torrid  zone. 
They  found,  as  they  proceeded  southwards,  that  the 
continent  of  Africa,  instead  of  extending  in  breadth, 
according  to  the  doctrine  of  Ptolemy,  at  that  time  the 
pracle  and  guide  of  the  learned  iu  the  science  of 


geography,  appeared  sensibly  to  contract  itself,  and  to 
bend  toward  the  east.  This  induced  them  to  give 
credit  to  the  accounts  of  the  ancit-nt  1'hniiriaii  voyages 
round  Africa,  which  had  long  been  deemed  fabulutis, 
and  led  them  to  conceive  hopes,  that,  by  following  the 
same  route,  they  might  arrive  at  the  East  Indies,  and 
engross  that  commerce  which  has  been  the  source  of 
wealth  and  power  to  every  nation  possessed  of  it. 
The  comprehensive  genius  of  prince  Henry,  as  we  may 
conjecture  from  the  words  of  the  pope's  bull,  had  early 
formed  some  idea  of  this  navigation.  But  though  his 
countrymen,  at  that  period,  were  incapable  of  con- 
ceiving the  extent  of  his  views  and  schemes,  all  the 
Portuguese  mathematicians  and  pilots  now  concurred 
in  representing  them  as  well  founded  and  practicable. 
The  king  entered  with  warmth  into  their  sentiments, 
and  began  to  concert  measures  for  this  arduous  and 
important  voyage. 

Before  his  preparations  for  this  expedition  were 
finished,  accounts  were  transmitted  from  Africa  that 
various  nations  along  the  coast  had  mentioned  a 
mighty  kingdom  situated  on  their  continent,  at  a  great 
distance  towards  the  East,  the  king  of  which,  accord- 
ing  to  their  description,  professed  the  Christian  refc- 
gion.  The  Portuguese  monarch  immediately  con- 
cluded, that  this  must  be  the  emperor  of  Abyssinia, 
to  whom  the  Europeans,  seduced  by  a  mistake  of 
Rubruquis,  Marco  Polo,  and  other  travellers  to  the 
East,  absurdly  gave  the  name  of  Prester  or  Presbyter 
John ;  and,  as  he  hoped  to  receive  information  and 
assistance  from  a  Christian  prince,  in  prosecuting  a 
scheme  that  tended  to  propagate  their  common  faith, 
he  resolved  to  open,  if  possible,  some  intercourse  with 
his  court.  With  this  view,  he  made  choice  of  Pedro 
de  Covillam  and  Alphonso  de  Payva,  who  were  per- 
fect masters  of  the  Arabic  language,  and  sent  them 
into  the  East  to  search  for  the  residence  of  this  un- 
known potentate,  and  to  make  him  proffers  of  friend- 
ship. They  had  in  charge  likewise  to  procure  what- 
ever intelligence  the  nations  which  they  visited  could 
supply,  with  respect  to  the  trade  of  India,  and  the 
course  of  navigation  to  that  continent. 

While  John  made  this  new  attempt  by  land  to  obtain 
some  knowledge  of  the  country  which  he  wished  so 
ardently  to  discover,  he  did  not  neglect  the  prosecution 
of  this  great  design  by  sea,  [A.  D.  1488].  The  conduct 
of  a  voyage  for  this  purpose,  the  most  arduous  and 
important  which  the  Portuguese  had  ever  projected, 
was  committed  to  Bartholomew  Diaz,  an  officer  whose 
sagacity,  experience,  and  fortitude  rendered  him  equal 
to  the  undertaking.  He  stretched  boldly  towards  the 
south,  and,  proceeding  beyond  the  utmost  limits  to 
which  his  countrymen  had  hkherto  advanced,  disco- 
vered near  a  thousand  miles  of  new  country.  Neither 
the  danger  to  which  he  was  exposed  by  a  succession 
of  violent  tempests  in  unknown  seas,  and  by  the  fre- 
quent mutinies  of  his  crew,  nor  the  calamities  of 
famine  which  he  suffered  from  losing  his  store-ship, 
could  deter  him  from  prosecuting  his  enterprise.  In 
recompence  of  his  labour  and  perseverance,  he  at  last 
descried  that  lofty  promontory  which  bounds  Africa 
to  the  south.  But  to  descry  it  was  all  that  he  had  in 
his  power  to  accomplish.  The  violence  of  the  winds, 
the  shattered  condition  of  his  ships,  and  the  turbu- 
lent spirit  of  the  sailors,  compelled  him  to  return  after 
a  voyage  of  sixteen  months,  in  which  he  disco-,  ered  a 
far  greater  extent  of  country  than  any  former  navi- 
gator. Diaz  had  called  the  promontory  which  termi- 
nated his  voyage,  Cabo  Tormentoso,  or  the  Stormy 
Cape  ;  but  the  king,  his  master,  as  he  now  entertained 
no  doubt  of  having  found  the  long-desired  route  to  India, 
gave  it  a  name  more  inviting,  The  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


Those  sanguine  expectations  of  success  were  con- 
firmed by  the  intelligence  which  John  received  over 
land,  in  consequence  of  his  embassy  to  Abyssinia. 
Covillam  and  Payva,  in  obedience  to  their  master's 
instructions,  had  repaired  to  Grand  Cairo.  From 
that  city  they  travelled  along  with  a  caravan  of 
Egyptian  merchants,  and,  embarking  on  the  Red  sea, 
arrived  at  Aden  in  Arabia.  There  they  separated; 
Payva  sailed  directly  towards  Abyssinia  ;  Covillam 
embarked  for  the  East  Indies,  and,  having  visited 
Calecut,  Goa,  and  other  cities  on  the  Malabar  coast, 
returned  to  Sofala,  on  the  east  side  of  Africa,  and 
thence  to  Grand  Cairo,  which  Payva  and  he  had  fixed 
upon  as  their  place  of  rendezvous.  Unfortunately  the 
former  was  cruelly  murdered  in  Abyssinia,  but  Co- 
villam found  at  Cairo  two  Portuguese  Jews,  whom 
John,  whose  provident  sagacity  attended  to  every  cir- 
cumstance that  could  facilitate  the  execution  of  his 
schemes,  had  despatched  after  them,  in  order  to  re- 
reive  a  detail  of  their  proceedings,  and  to  communi- 
cate to  them  new  instructions.  By  one  of  these  Jews, 
Covillam  transmitted  to  Portugal  a  journal  of  his 
travels  by  sea  and  land,  his  remarks  upon  the  trade 
of  India,  together  with  exact  maps  of  the  coasts  on 
which  he  had  touched  ;  and  from  what  he  himself  had 
observed,  as  well  as  from  the  information  of  skilful 
seamen  in  different  countries,  he  concluded,  that,  by 
sailm-,'  round  Africa,  a  passage  might  be  found  to  the 
East  Indies. 

The  happy  coincidence  of  Covillam's  opinion  and 
report,  with  the  discoveries  which  Diaz  had  lately 
made,  left  hardly  any  shadow  of  doubt  with  respect 
to  the  possibility  of  sailing  from  Europe  to  India. 
But  the  vast  length  of  the  voyage,  and  the  furious 
storms  which  Diaz  had  encountered  near  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,  alarmed  and  intimidated  the  Portuguese 
to  such  a  degree,  although  by  long  experience  they 
were  now  become  adventurous  and  skilful  mariners, 
that  some  time  was  requisite  to  prepare  their  minds 
for  this  dangerous  and  extraordinary  voyage.  The 
murage  however  and  authority  of  the  monarch 
gradually  dispelled  the  vain  fears  of  his  subjects,  or 
made  it  necessary  to  conceal  them.  As  John  thought 
himself  now  upon  the  eve  of  accomplishing  that  great 
design,  which  had  been  the  principal  object  of  his  reign, 
his  earnestness  in  prosecuting  it  became  so  vehement, 
that  it  occupied  his  thoughts  by  day,  and  bereaved 
him  of  sleep  through  the  night.  While  he  was  taking 
every  precaution  that  his  wisdom  and  experience 
could  suggest,  in  order  to  insure  the  success  of  the 
expedition,  which  was  to  decide  concerning  the  fate 
of  his  favourite  project,  the  fame  of  the  vast  dis- 
coveries which  the  Portuguese  had  already  made, 
the  reports  concerning  the  extraordinary  intelligence 
which  they  had  received  from  the  East,  and  the 
prospect  of  the  voyage  which  they  now  meditated, 
drew  the  attention  of  all  the  European  nations,  and 
held  them  in  suspense  and  expectation.  By  some, 
the  maritime  skill  and  navigations  of  the  Portuguese 
were  compared  with  those  of  the  Phenicians  and 
Carthaginians,  and  exalted  above  them.  Others 
formed  conjectures  concerning  the  revolutions  which 
the  success  of  the  Portuguese  schemes  might  oc- 
casion in  the  course  of  trade,  and  the  political  state 
of  Europe.  The  Venetians  began  to  be  disquieted 
with  the  apprehension  of  losing  their  Indian  com- 
merce, the  monopoly  of  which  was  the  chief  source  of 
their  power  as  well  as  opulence,  and  the  Portuguese 
already  enjoyed  in  fancy  the  wealth  of  the  East. 
But,  during  this  interval,  which  gave  such  scope  to 
the  various  workings  of  curiosity,  of  hope,  and  of 
fear,  an  account  was  brought  to  Europe  of  an  event 
HISTORY  OF  AMERICA,  No.  3. 


no  less  extraordinary  than  unexpected,  the  discovery 
of  a  New  World  situated  in  the  west ;  and  the  eyes 
and  admiration  of  mankind  turned  immediately  to- 
wards that  great  object. 


BOOK  II. 

AMONG  the  foreigners  whom  the  fame  of  the  dis- 
coveries made  by  the  Portuguese  had  allured  into 
their  service,  was  Christopher  Colon,  or  Columbus, 
a  subject  of  the  republic  of  Genoa.  Neither  the 
time  nor  place  of  his  birth  are  known  with  cer- 
tainty (9)  ;  but  he  was  descended  of  an  honourable 
family,  though  reduced  to  indigence  by  various  mis- 
fortunes. His  ancestors  having  betaken  themselves 
for  subsistence  to  a  sea-fearing  life,  Columbus  dis- 
covered in  his  early  youth  the  peculiar  character 
and  talents  which  mark  out  a  man  for  that  profes- 
sion. His  parents,  instead  of  thwarting  this  original 
propensity  of  his  mind,  seem  to  have  encouraged  and 
confirmed  it,  by  the  education  which  they  gave  him. 
After  acquiring  some  knowledge  of  the  Latin  tongue, 
the  only  language  in  which  science  was  taught  at 
that  time,  he  was  instructed  in  geometry,  cosmo- 
graphy, astronomy,  and  the  art  of  drawing.  To 
these  he  applied  with  such  ardour  and  predilection, 
on  account  of  their  connexion  with  navigation,  his 
favourite  object,  that  he  advanced  with  rapid  profi- 
ciency in  the  study  of  them.  Thus  qualified,  he  went 
to  sea  at  the  age  of  fourteen  [A.D.  1461],  and  began 
IM\  career  on  that  element  which  conducted  him  to  so 
much  glory.  His  early  voyages  were  to  those  ports  in 
the  Mediterranean  which  his  countrymen  the  Genoese 
frequented.  This  being  a  sphere  too  narrow  for  his 
active  mind  [A.D.  1467],  he  made  an  excursion  to 
the  northern  seas,  and  visited  the  coasts  of  Iceland, 
to  which  the  English  and  other  nations  had  begun  to 
resort  on  account  of  its  fishery.  As  navigation,  in 
every  direction,  was  now  become  enterprising,  he 
proceeded  beyond  that  island,  the  Thule  of  the 
ancients,  and  advanced  severul derives  within  the  polar 
circle.  Hnvniu'  satisfied  his  curiosity,  by  a  voyage 
which  tended  more  to  enlarge  his  knowledge  of  naval 
affairs  than  to  improve  his  fortune,  ht>  entered  into  th»» 
service  of  a  famous  sea-captain,  of  his  own  name  and 
family.  This  man  commanded  a  small  squadron  fitted 
out  at  his  own  expense,  and  by  cruising  sometimes 
against  the  Mahometans,  sometimes  against  the  Ve- 
netians, the  rivals  of  his  country  in  trade,  had  acquired 
both  wealth  and  reputation.  With  him  Columbus 
continued  for  several  years,  no  less  distinguished  for 
his  courage,  than  for  his  experience  as  a  sailor.  At 
length,  in  an  obstinate  engagement  off  the  coast  of 
Portugal,  with  some  Venetian  Caravals,  returning 
richly  laden  from  the  Low  Countries,  the  vessel  on 
board  which  he  served  took  fire,  together  with  one  of 
the  enemy's  ships,  to  which  it  was  fast  grappled.  In 
this  dreadful  extremity  his  intrepidity  and  presence 
of  mind  did  not  forsake  him.  He  threw  himself  into 
the  sea,  laid  hold  of  a  floating  oar,  and  by  the  support 
of  it,  and  his  dexterity  in  swimming,  he  reached  the 
shore,  though  above  two  leagues  distant,  and  saved  a 
life  reserved  for  great  undertakings. 

A  s  soon  as  he  recovered  strength  for  the  journey,  he 
repaired  to  Lisbon,  where  many  of  his  countrymen 
were  settled.  They  soon  conceived  such  a  favourable 
opinion ,  of  his  merit,  as  well  as  talents,  that  they 
warmly  solicited  him  to  remain  in  that  kingdom,  where 
his  naval  skill  and  experience  could  not  fail  of  render- 
ing him  conspicuous.  To  every  adventurer,  animated 
either  with  curiosity  to  visit  new  countries,  or  with 
ambition  to  distinguish  himself,  the  Portuguese  service 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


was  at  that  time  extremely  inviting.  Columbus  listened 
with  a  favourable  ear  to  the  advice  of  his  friends,  and 
having  gained  the  esteem  of  a  Portuguese  lady,  whom 
he  married,  fixed  his  residence  in  Lisbon.  This  alli- 
ance, instead  of  detaching  him  from  a  sea-faring  life, 
contributed  to  enlarge  the  sphere  of  his  naval  know- 
ledge, and  to  excite  a  desire  of  extending  it  still  further. 
His  wife  was  a  daughter  of  Bartholomew  Perestrello, 
one  of  the  captains  employed  by  prince  Henry  in  his 
early  navigations,  and  who,  under  his  protection,  had 
discovered  and  planted  the  islands  of  Porto  Santo  and 
Madeira.  Columbus  got  possession  of  the  journals 
and  charts  of  this  experienced  navigator,  and  from  them 
he  learned  the  course  which  the  Portuguese  had  held 
in  making  their  discoveries,  as  well  as  the  various 
circumstances  which  guided  or  encquraged  them  in 
their  attempts.  The  study  of  these  soothed  and 
inflamed  his  favourite  passion ;  and  while  he  con- 
templated the  maps,  and  read  the  descriptions  of  the 
new  countries  which  Perestrello  had  seen,  his  im- 
patience to  visit  them  became  irresistible.  In  order 
to  indulge  it,  he  made  a  voyage  to  Madeira,  and 
continued  during  several  years  to  trade  with  that 
island,  the  Canaries,  the  Azores,  the  settlements  in 
Guinea,  and  all  the  other  places  which  the  Portuguese 
had  discovered  on  the  continent  of  Africa. 

By  the  experience  which  Columbus  acquired  during 
such  a  variety  of  voyages,  to  almost  every  part  of  the 
globe  with  which,  at  that  time,  any  intercourse  was 
carried  on  by  sqa,  he  was  now  become  one  of  the 
most  skilful  navigators  in  Europe.  But,  not  satisfied 
with  that  praise,  his  ambition  aimed  at  something 
more.  The  successful  progress  of  the  Portuguese  na- 
vigators had  awakened  a  spirit  of  curiosity  and  emula- 
tion, which  set  every  man  of  science  upon  examining 
all  the  circumstances  that  led  to  the  discoveries  which 
they  had  made,  or  that  afforded  a  prospect  of  succeed- 
ing in  any  new  and  bolder  undertaking.  The  mind 
of  Columbus,  naturally  inquisitive,  capable  of  deep 
reflection,  and  turned  to  speculations  of  this  kind,  was 
so  often  employed  in  revolving  the  principles  upon 
which  the  Portuguese  had  founded  their  schemes  of 
discovery,  and  the  mode  in  which  they  had  carried 
them  on,  that  he  gradually  began  to  form  an  idea  of 
improving  upon  their  plan,  and  of  accomplishing 
discoveries  which  hitherto  they  had  attempted  in 
rain. 

To  find  out  a  passage  by  sea  to  the  East-Indies, 
was  the  great  object  in  view  at  that  period.  From 
the  time  that  the  Portuguese  doubled  Cape  de  Verd, 
this  was  the  point  at  which  they  aimed  in  all  their 
navigations,  and,  in  comparison  with  it,  all  their 
discoveries  in  Africa  appeared  inconsiderable.  The 
fertility  and  riches  of  India  had  been  known  for 
many  ages ;  its  spices  and  other  valuable  commodi- 
ties were  in  high  request  throughout  Europe,  and 
the  vast  wealth  of  the  Venetians,  arising  from  their 
having  engrossed  this  trade,  had  Raised  the  envy  of 
all  nations.  But  how  intent  soever  the  Portuguese 
were  upon  discovering  a  new  route  to  those  desirable 
regions,  they  searched  for  it  only  by  steering  towards 
the  south,  in  hopes  of  arriving  at  India,  by  turning  to 
the  east,  after  they  had  sailed  round  the  further 
extremity  of  Africa.  This  course  was  still  unknown, 
and,  even,  if  discovered,  was  of  such  immense  length, 
that  a  voyage  from  Europe  to  India  must  have 
appeared,  at  that  period,  an  undertaking,  extremely 
arduous,  and  of  very  uncertain  issue.  More  than 
half  a  century  had  been  employed  in  advancing 
from  Cape  Non  to  the  equator ;  a  much  longer  space 
of  time  might  elapse  before  the  more  extensive 
navig atiou  from  that  to  India  could  be  accomplished, 


These  reflections  upon  the  uncert^int y,  the 
and  tediousness  of  the  course  which  the  Portuguese 
were  pursuing,  naturally  led  Columbus  to  co 
whether  a  shorter  and  more  direct  passage  to  the  East 
Indies  might  not  be  found  out.  After  revolving 
loug  and  seriously  every  circumstance  suL'.'.-lcd  by 
his  superior  knowledge  in  the  theory  as  well  as 
practice  of  navigation ;  after  comparing  attentively 
the  observations  of  modern  pilots,  with  the  hints  and 
conjectures  of  ancient  authors,  he  at  last  concluded, 
that  by  sailing  directly  towards  the  west,  across  the 
Atlantic  ocean,  new  countries,  which  probably  fornwl 
a  part  of  the  great  continent  of  India,  must  infallibly 
be  discovered. 

Principles  and  arguments  of  various  kinds  and  d.- 
rived  from  different  sources,  induced  him  to  adopt 
this  opinion,  seemingly  as  chimerical  as  it  was  new 
and  extraordinary.  The  spherical  figure  of  the  earth 
was  known,  and  its  magnitude  ascertained  with  some 
degree  of  accuracy.  From  this  it  was  evident,  that 
the  continents  of  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa,  as  far  as 
they  were  known  at  that  time,  forme;!  but  a  small 
portion  of  the  terraqueous  globe.  It  was  suitable  to 
our  ideas  concerning  the  wisdom  and  beneficence  of 
the  Author  of  Nature,  to  believe  that  the  vast  -.par.- 
still  unexplored  was  not  covered  entirely  by  a  waMe 
unprofitable  ocean,  but  occupied  by  countries  fit  for 
the  habitation  of  man.  It  appeared  likewise  extremely 
probable,  that  the  continent,  on  this  side  of  the  szlube, 
was  balanced  by  a  proportional  quantity  of  land  in  tin- 
other  hemisphere.  These  conclusions  concernin.'  the 
existence  of  another  continent,  drawn  from  the  figure 
and  structure  of  the  globe,  were  confirmed  by  the  ob- 
servations aud  conjectures  of  modern  navigators.  A 
Portuguese  pilot,  having  stretched  further  to  the  u  v-,t 
than  was  usual  at  that  time,  took  up  a  piece  of  timber 
artificially  carved,  floating  upon  the  sea ;  and  as  it 
was  driviMi  towards  him  by  a  westerly  wind,  he  con- 
cluded that  it  came  from  some  unknown  land  situated 
in  that  quarter.  Columbus's  brother-in-law  had  found, 
to  the  west  of  the  Madeira  Isles,  a  piece  of  timber 
fashioned  in  the  same  manner,  and  brought  by  the 
same  wind;  and  had  seen  likewise  cane*  of  an  enor- 
mous size  floating  upon  the  waves,  which  resembled 
those  described  by  Ptolemy  as  productions  peculiar 
to  the  East  Indies.  After  a  course  of  westerly  winds, 
trees,  torn  up  by  the  roots,  were  often  driven  upon  the 
coasts  of  the  Azores;  and  at  one  time,  the  dead  bodies 
of  two  men  with  singular  features,  resembling  neither 
the  inhabitants  of  Europe  nor  of  Africa,  were  cast 
ashore  there. 

As  the  force  of  this  united  evidence,  arising  from 
theoretical  principles  and  practical  observations,  led 
Columbus  to  expect  the  discovery  of  new  countries  in 
the  western  ocean,  other  reasons  induced  him  to 
believe  that  these  must  be  connected  with  the  conti- 
nent of  India.  Though  the  ancients  had  hardly  ever 
penetrated  into  India  further  than  the  banks  of  the 
Ganges,  yet  some  Greek  authors  had  ventured  to  de- 
scribe the  provinces  beyond  that  river.  As  men  are 
prone,  and  at  liberty,  to  magnify  what  is  remote  or 
unknown,  they  represented  them  as  regions  of  an  im- 
mense extent.  Ctesias  affirmed  that.  India  was  as 
large  as  all  the  rest  of  Asia.  Onesicratus,  whom  Pliny 
the  naturalist  follows,  contended  that  it  was  equal  t.> 
a  third  part  of  the  habitable  earth.  Nearchus  asserted, 
that  it  would  take  four  months  to  march  in  a  straight 
line  from  one  extremity  of  India  to  the  other.  The 
journal  of  Marco  Polo,  who  had  proceeded  towards 
the  east,  far  beyond  the  limits  to  which  any  European 
had  ever  advanced,  seemed  to  confirm  these  exagge- 
rated, accounts  of  the  ancients,  By  las  wauuiikx-ut 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


19 


descriptions  of  (he  kingdoms  of  Oi//iai/  and  Cipango, 
and  of  muny  oilier  countries,  the  rv.imes  of  which  were 
unknown  in  Europe,  India  appeared  to  be  a  region  of 
Aast  extent.  From  these  accounts,  which,  however 
defective,  were  the  most  accurate  that  the  people  of 
Europe  had  received  at  that  period,  with  respect  to 
the  remote  parts  of  the  East,  Columbus  drew  a  just 
conclusion.  He  contended,  that  in  proportion  as  the 
continent  of  India  stretched  out  towards  the  east,  it 
must,  in  consequence  of  the  spherical  figure  of  the 
earth,  approach  nearer  to  the  islands  which  had  lately 
been  discovered  to  the  west  of  Africa  ;  that  the  dis- 
tance from  the  one  to  the  other  was  probably  not  very 
considerable :  and  that  the  most  direct  as  well  as 
shortest  course  to  the  remote  regions  of  the  east,  was 
in  he  found  by  sailing  due  west.  This  notion  con- 
cerning the  vicinity  of  India  to  the  western  parts  of 
our  continent,  was  countenanced  by  some  eminent 
writers  among  the  ancients,  the  sanction  of  whose 
authority  \va^  necessary,  in  that  age,  to  procure  a 
favourable  reception  to  any  tenet.  Aristotle  thought 
it  probable  that  the  Columns  of  Hercules,  or  Strain  of 
(Gibraltar,  were  not  far  removed  from  the  East  Indies, 
and  that  there  might  lie  a  communication  by  sea 
between  them.  Seneca,  in  terms  still  more  explicit, 
affirm-,  that,  with  a  fair  wind,  one  might  sail  from 
Spain  to  India  in  a  few  days.  The  famous  Atlantic 
ishnd  described  by  I'iato,  and  supposed  by  many  to 
be  a  real  country,  beyond  which  an  unknown  con- 
tinent was  situated,  is  represented  by  him  as  lying  at 
no  great  distance  from  Spain.  Alter  weighing  all 
these  particulars,  Columbus,  in  \\ho-e  character  the 
mod'".ry  and  dillidence  of  true  genius  were  united 
with  the  ardent  enthusiasm  of  a  projector,  did  not  rest 
with  such  absolute  assurance  either  upon  his  own 
arguments,  or  upon  the  authority  of  the  ancients,  as 
not  to  consult  such  of  hi-,  contemporaries  as  \\ere 
capable  of  comprehending  the  nature  of  the  evidence 
which  he  produced  in  support  of  his  opinion.  As 
early  as  the  year  one  thousand  four  hundred  and 
seventy-four,  he  communicated  his  ideas  concerning 
the  probability  of  discovering  new  countries,  by  sailing 
irds,  to  Paul,  a  plnsician  of  Florence,  eminent 
for  his  knowledge  of  cosmography,  and  who,  from  the 
learn  inn  as  well  as  candour  which  he  discovers  in  his 
reply,  appears  lo  have  been  well  entitled  to  the  con- 
fidence which  Columbus  placed  in  him.  He  warmlv 
approved  of  the  plan,  suggested  several  facts  in  con- 
firmation of  it,  and  encouraged  Columbus  to  persevere 
in  an  undertaking  so  laudable,  and  which  must 
redound  so  much  to  the  honour  of  his  country,  and  the 
benefit  of  Europe. 

To  a  mind  less  capable  of  forming  and  of  executing 
great  designs  than  that  of  Columbus,  all  those  reason- 
ings, and  observations,  and  authorities,  would  have 
served  only  as  the  foundation  of  some  plausible  and 
fruitless  theory,  which  might  have  furnished  matter 
for  ingenious  discourse  or  fanciful  conjecture.  But 
with  his  sanguine  and  enterprising  temper,  specula- 
tion led  directly  to  action.  Fully  satisfied  himself 
with  respect  to  the  truth  of  his  system,  he  was  impa- 
tient to  bring  it  to  the  test  of  experiment,  and  to  set 
out  upon  a  voyage  of  discovery.  The  first  step 
towards  this  was  to  secure  the  patronage  of  some  of 
the  considerable  powers  in  Europe,  capable  of  under- 
taking such  an  enterprise.  As  long  absence  had  not 
extinguished  the  affection  which  he  bore  to  his  native 
country,  he  wished  that  it  should  reap  the  fruits  of 
bis  labours  and  invention.  With  this  view,  he  laid  his 
scheme  before  the  senate  of  Genoa,  and  making  his 
country  the  first  tender  of  his  service,  offered  to  sail 
under  the  banners  of  the  republic,  in  quest  of  the  new 


regions  which  he  expected  to  discover.  But  Columbus 
had  resided  for  so  many  years  in  foreign  parts,  that 
his  countrymen  were  unacquainted  with  his  abilities 
and  character ;  and  though  a  maritime  people,  were 
so  little  accustomed  to  distant  voyages,  that  they  could 
form  no  just  idea  of  the  principles  on  which  he  founded 
his  hopes  of  success.  They  inconsiderately  rejected 
his  proposal,  as  the  dream  of  a  chimerical  projector, 
and  lost  for  ever  the  opportunity  of  restoring  their 
commonwealth  to  its  ancient  splendour. 

Having  performed  what  was  due  to  his  country, 
Columbus  was  so  little  discouraged  by  the  repulse 
which  he  had  received,  that,  instead  of  relinquishing 
his  undertaking,  he  pursued  it  with  fresh  ardour.  He 
made  his  next  overture  to  John  II.  king  of  Portugal, 
in  whose  dominions  he  had  been  long  established,  and 
whom  he  considered,  on  that  account,  as  having  the 
second  claim  to  his  service.  Here  every  circumstance 
seemed  to  promise  him  a  more  favourable  reception : 
he  applied  to  a  monarch  of  an  enterprising  genius,  no 
incompetent  judge  in  naval  affairs,  and  proud  of 
patronizing  every  attempt  to  discover  new  countries. 
His  subjects  were  the  most  experienced  navigators  in 
Europe,  and  the  least  apt  to  be  intimidated  either  by 
the  novelty  or  boldness  of  any  maritime  expedition. 
In  Portugal,  the  professional  skill  of  Columbus,  as  Well 
as  his  personal  good  qualities,  were  thoroughly  known  : 
and  as  the  former  rendered  it  probable  that  his  scheme 
was  not  altogether  visionary,  the  latter  exempted  him 
from  the  suspicion  of  any  sinister  intention  in  pro- 
posing it.  Accordingly,  the  king  listened  to  him  in 
the  most  gracious  manner,  and  referred  the  considera- 
tion of  his  plan  to  Diego  Ortix,  bishop  of  Ceuta,  and 
two  Jewish  physicians,  eminent  cosmographers,  whom 
he  was  accustomed  to  consult  in  matters  of  this  kind. 
As  in  Genoa,  ignorance  had  opposed  and  disappointed 
Columbus ;  in  Lisbon,  he  had  to  combat  with  preju- 
dice, an  enemy  no  less  formidable.  The  persons, 
according  to  whose  decision  his  scheme  was  to  be' 
adopted  or  rejected,  had  been  the  chief  directors  of 
the  Portuguese  navigations,  and  had  advised  to  search 
for  a  passage  to  India,  by  steering  a  course  directly 
opposite  to  that  which  Columbus  recommended  «s 
shorter  and  more  certain.  They  could  not,  therefore, 
approve  of  his  proposal,  without  submitting  to  the 
double  mortification  of  condemning  their  own  theory, 
and  acknowledging  his  superior  sagacity.  After  teasing 
him  with  captious  questions,  and  starting  innumerable 
objections,  with  a  view  of  betraying  him  into  such  a 
particular  explanation  of  his  system,  as  might  draw 
from  him  a  full  discovery  of  its  nature,  they  deferred 
passing  a  final  judgment  Avith  respect  to  it.  In  the 
mean  time,  they  conspired  to  rob  him  of  the  honour 
and  advantages  which  he  expected  from  the  success  of 
his  scheme,  advising  the  king  to  despatch  a  vessel 
secretly,  in  order  to  attempt  the  proposed  discover)-, 
by  following  exactly  the  course  which  Columbu* 
seemed  to  point  out.  John,  forgetting  on  this  occa- 
sion the  sentiments  becoming  a  monarch,  meanly 
adopted  this  perfidious  counsel.  But  the  pilot  chosen 
to  execute  Columbia's  plan,  had  neither  the  genius 
nor  the  fortitude  of  its  author.  Contrary  winds  arose, 
no  sight  of  approaching  land  appeared;  his  courage 
failed,  and  he  returned  to  Lisbon,  execrating  the 
project  as  equally  extravagant  and  dangerous. 

Upon  discovering  this  dishonourable  transaction, 
Columbus  felt  the  indignation  natural  to  an  ingenuous 
mind,  and  in  the  warmth  of  his  resentment  determined 
to  break  off  all  intercourse  with  a  nation  capable  of 
such  flagrant  treachery.  He  instantly  quitted  the 
kingdom,  and  landed  in  Spain  towards  the  close  of  the 
year  one  thousand  four  hundred  ami  eighty-four.  A$ 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


he  was  now  at  liberty  to  court  the  protection  of  any 
patron,  whom  he  could  engage  to  approve  of  his  plan, 
and  to  carry  it  into  execution,  he  resolved  to  propose 
it  in  person  to  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  who  at  that 
time  governed  the  united  kingdoms  of  Castile  and 
Arragon.  But  as  he  had  already  experienced  the 
uncertain  issue  of  application  to  kings  and  ministers, 
he  took  the  precaution  of  sending  into  England  his 
brother  Bartholomew,  to  whom  he  had  fully  communi- 
cated his  ideas,  in  order  that  he  might  negociate,  at 
the  same  time,  with  Henry  VII.  who  was  reputed  one 
of  the  most  sagacious  as  well  as  opulent  princes  in 
Europe. 

It  was  not  without  reason  that  Columbus  enter- 
tained doubts  and  fears  with  respect  to  the  reception 
of  his  proposals  in  the  Spanish  court.  Spain  was,  at 
that  juncture,  engaged  in  a  dangerous  war  with  Gra- 
nada, the  last  of  the  Moorish  kingdoms  in  that  country. 
The  wary  and  suspicious  temper  of  Ferdinand  was 
not  formed  to  relish  bold  or  uncommon  designs. 
Isabella,  though  more  generous  and  enterprising,  was 
under  the  influence  of  her  husband  in  all  her  actions. 
The  Spaniards  had  hitherto  made  no  efforts  to  extend 
navigation  beyond  its  ancient  limits,  and  had  beheld  the 
amazing  progress  of  discovery  among  their  neighbours 
the  Portuguese,  without  one  attempt  to  imitate  or  to 
rival  them.  The  war  with  the  infidels  afforded  an 
ample  field  to  the  national  activity  and  love  of  glory. 
Under  circumstances  so  unfavourable,  it  was  impos- 
sible for  Columbus  to  make  rapid  progress  with  a 
nation,  naturally  slow  and  dilatory  in  forming  all  its 
resolutions.  His  character,  however,  was  admirably 
adapted  to  that  of  the  people  whose  confidence  and 
protection  he  solicited.  He  was  grave,  though  cour- 
teous in  his  deportment;  circumspect  in  his  words 
and  actions ;  irreproachable  in  his  morals ;  and  ex- 
emplary in  his  attention  to  all  the  duties  and  functions 
of  religion.  By  qualities  so  respectable,  he  not  only 
gained  many  private  friends,  but  acquired  such  general 
esteem,  that,  notwithstanding  the  plainness  of  his  ap- 
pearance, suitable  to  the  mediocrity  of  his  fortune,  he 
was  not  considered  as  a  mere  adventurer,  to  whom 
indigence  had  suggested  a  visionary  project,  but  was 
received  as  a  person  to  whose  propositions  serious 
attention  was  due. 

Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  though  fully  occupied  by 
their  operations  against  the  Moors,  paid  so  much 
regard  to  Columbus,  as  to  remit  the  consideration  of 
his  plan  to  the  queen's  confessor,  Ferdinand  de 
Talavera.  He  consulted  such  of  his  countrymen  as 
were  supposed  best  qualified  to  decide  with  respect  to 
a  subject  of  this  kind.  But  true  science  had  hitherto 
made  so  little  progress  in  Spain,  that  the  pretended 
philosophers,  selected  to  judge  in  a  matter  of  such 
moment,  did  not  comprehend  the  first  principles  upon 
which  Columbus  founded  his  conjectures  and  hopes. 
Some  of  them,  from  mistaken  notions  concerning  the 
dimensions  of  the  globe,  contended  that  a  voyage  to 
those  remote  parts  of  the  east  which  Columbus  expected 
to  discover,  could  not  be  performed  in  less  than  three 
years.  Others  concluded,  that  either  he  would  find 
the  ocean  to  be  of  infinite  extent,  according  to  the 
opinion  of  some  ancient  philosophers ;  or  if  he  should 
persist  in  steering  towards  the  west  beyond  a  certain 
point,  that  the  convex  figure  of  the  globe  would 
prevent  his  return,  and  that  he  must  inevitably 
perish,  in  the  vain  attempt  to  open  a  communication 
between  the  two  opposite  hemispheres,  which  nature 
had  for  ever  disjoined.  Even  without  deigning  to 
enter  into  any  particular  discussion,  many  rejected 
the  scheme  in  general,  upon  the  credit  of  a  maxim, 
under  which  the  ignorant  and  unenterprising  shelter 


themselves  in  every  age,  "  That  it  is  presumptuous 
in  any  person,  to  suppose  that  he  alone  possesses 
knowledge  superior  to  all  the  rest  of  mankind  united.'' 
They  maintained,  that  if  there  were  really  any  such 
countries  as  Columbus  pretended,  they  could  not  have 
remained  so  long  concealed,  nor  would  the  wisdom 
and  sagacity  of  former  ages  have  left  the  glory  of  this 
invention  to  an  obscure  Genoese  pilot. 

It  required  all  Columbus's  patience  and  address  to 
negociate  with  men  capable  of  advancing  such  strange 
propositions.  He  had  to  contend  not  only  with  the 
obstinacy  of  ignorance,  but  with  what  is  still  more 
intractable,  the  pride  of  false  knowledge.  After  in- 
numerable conferences,  and  wasting  five  years  in 
fruitless  endeavours  to  inform  and  to  satisfy  judges 
so  little  capable  of  deciding  with  propriety,  Talavera, 
at  last,  made  such  an  unfavourable  report  to  Ferdi- 
nand and  Isabella,  as  induced  them  to  acquaint 
Columbus,  that  until  the  war  with  the  Moors  should 
be  brought  to  a  period,  it  would  be  imprudent  to 
engage  in  any  new  and  extensive  enterprise. 

Whatever  care  was  taken  to  soften  the  harshness  of 
this  declaration,  Columbus  considered  it  as  a  final 
rejection  of  his  proposals.  But,  happily  for  mankind, 
that  superiority  of  genius,  which  is  capable  'of  form- 
ing great  and  uncommon  designs,  is  usually  accom- 
panied with  an  ardent  enthusiasm,  which  can  neither 
be  cooled  by  delays,  nor  damped  by  disappointment. 
Columbus  was  of  this  sanguine  temper.  Though  he 
felt  deeply  the  cruel  blow  given  to  his  hopes,  and 
retired  immediately  from  a  court,  where  he  had  been 
amused  so  long  with  vain  expectations,  his  confidence 
in  the  justness  of  his  own  system  did  not  diminish, 
and  his  impatience  to  demonstrate  the  truth  of  it  by 
an  actual  experiment,  became  greater  than  ever. 
Having  courted  the  protection  of  sovereign  states 
without  success,  he  applied  next  to  persons  of  inferior 
rank,  and  addressed  successively  the  Dukes  of  Medina 
Sidonia  and  Medina  Celi,  who,  though  subjects,  were 
possessed  of  power  and  opulence  more  than  equal  to 
the  enterprise  which  he  projected.  His  negociations 
with  them  proved  as  fruitless  as  those  in  which  he 
had  been  hitherto  engaged;  for  these  noblemen  were 
either  as  little  convinced  by  Columbus's  arguments  as 
their  superiors,  or  they  were  afraid  of  alarming  the 
jealousy  and  offending  the  pride  of  Ferdinand,  by 
countenancing  a  scheme  which  he  had  rejected. 

Amid  the  painful  sensations  occasioned  by  such 
a  succession  of  disappointments,  Columbus  had  to 
sustain  the  additional  distress  of  having  received  no 
accounts  of  his  brother,  whom  he  had  sent  to  the 
court  of  England.  In  his  voyage  to  that  country, 
Bartholomew  had  been  so  unfortunate  as  to  fall  into 
the  hands  of  pirates,  who  having  stripped  him  of  every 
thing,  detained  him  a  prisoner  for  several  years.  At 
length  he  made  his  escape,  and  arrived  in  London, 
but  in  such  extreme  indigence,  that  he  was  obliged  to 
employ  himself,  during  a  considerable  time,  in  draw- 
ing and  selling  maps,  in  order  to  pick  up  as  much 
money  as  would  purchase  a  decent  dress,  in  which  he 
might  venture  to  appear  at  court.  He  then  laid 
before  the  King  the  proposals  with  which  he  had 
been  intrusted  by  his  brother,  and,  notwithstanding 
Henry's  excessive  caution  and  parsimony,  which 
rendered  him  averse  to  new  or  extensive  undertakings, 
he  received  Columbus's  overtures  with  more  appro- 
bation than  any  monarch  to  whom  they  had  hitherto 
been  presented. 

Meanwhile,  Columbus  being  unacquainted  with  his 
brother's  fate,  and  having  now  no  prospect  of  encou- 
ragement in  Spain,  resolved  to  visit  the  court  of 
England  in  person,  iu  hopes  of  meeting  with  a  more 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


favourable  reception  there.  He  had  already  made 
preparations  for  this  purpose,  and  taken  measures  for 
the  disposal  of  his  children  during  his  absence,  when 
Juan  Perez,  the  guardian  of  the  monastery  of  llabida, 
near  Palos,  in  which  they  had  been  educated,  ear- 
nestly solicited  him  to  defer  his  journey  for  a  short 
time.  Perez  was  a  man  of  considerable  learning,  and 
of  some  credit  with  Queen  Isabella,  to  whom  he  was 
known  personally.  He  was  warmly  attached  to  Co- 
lumbus, with  whose  abilities  as  well  as  integrity  he 
had  many  opportunities  of  being  acquainted.  Prompted 
by  curiosity  or  by  friendship,  he  entered  upon  an 
accurate  examination  of  his  system,  in  conjunction 
with  a  physician  settled  in  the  neighbourhood,  who 
was  a  considerable  proficient  in  mathematical  know- 
ledge. This  investigation  satisfied  them  so  tho- 
roughly, with  respect  to  the  solidity  of  the  principles 
on  which  Columbus  founded  his  opinion,  and  the 
probability  of  success  in  executing  the  plan  which 
he  proposed,  that  Perez,  in  order  to  prevent  his 
country  from  being  deprived  of  the  glory  and  benefit 
which  must  accrue  to  the  patrons  of  such  a  grand 
enterprise,  ventured  to  write  to  Isabella,  conjuring 
her  to  consider  the  matter  anew  with  the  attention 
which  it  merited. 

Moved  by  the  representations  of  a  person  whom 
she  respected,  Isabella  desired  Perez  to  repair  imme- 
diately to  the  village  of  Santa  Fe,  in  which,  on  account 
of  the  siege  of  Granada,  the  court  resided  at  that 
time,  that  she  might  confer  with  him  upon  this 
important  subject.  The  first  effect  of  their  interview 
was  a  gracious  invitation  to  Columbus  back  to  court, 
accompanied  with  the  present  of  a  small  sum  to  equip 
him  for  the  journey.  As  there  was  now  a  certain 
prospect  that  the  war  with  the  Moors  would  speedily 
be  brought  to  a  happy  issue  by  the  reduction  of 
Granada,  which  would  leave  the  nation  at  liberty 
to  engage  in  new  undertakings ;  this,  as  well  as  the 
mark  of  royal  favour  with  which  Columbus  had  been 
lately  honoured,  encouraged  his  friends  to  appear 
with  greater  confidence  than  formerly  in  support  of 
his  scheme.  The  chief  of  these,  Alonso  de  Quia- 
linilla,  comptroller  of  the  finances  in  Castile,  and 
Luis  de  Santangel,  receiver  of  the  ecclesiastical  reve- 
nues in  Arragon,  whose  meritorious  zeal  in  promoting 
this  great  design  entitles  their  names  to  an  honour- 
able place  in  history,  introduced  Columbus  to  many 
persons  of  high  rank,  and  interested  them  warmly  in 
his  behalf. 

But  it  was  not  an  easy  matter  to  inspire  Ferdinand 
with  favourable  sentiments.  He  still  regarded  Colum- 
bus's  project  as  extravagant  and  chimerical ;  and 
in  order  to  render  the  efforts  of  his  partisans  ineffec- 
tual, he  had  the  address  to  employ,  in  this  new 
negociation  with  him,  some  of  the  persons  who  had 
formerly  pronounced  his  scheme  to  be  impracticable. 
To  their  astonishment,  Columbus  appeared  before 
them  with  the  same  confident  hopes  of  success  as  for- 
merly, and  insisted  upon  the  same  high  recompence. 
He  proposed  that  a  small  fleet  should  be  fitted  out, 
under  his  command,  to  attempt  the  discovery,  and  de- 
manded to  be  appointed  hereditary  admiral  and  viceroy 
of  all  the  seas  and  lands  which  he  should  discover,  and 
to  have  the  tenths  of  the  profits  arising  from  them 
settled  irrevocably  upon  himself  and  his  descendants. 
At  the  same  time  he  offered  to  advance  the  eighth 
part  of  the  sum  necessary  for  accomplishing  his 
design,  on  condition  that  he  should  be  entitled  to 
a  proportional  share  of  benefit  from  the  adventure. 
If  the  enterprise  should  totally  miscarry,  he  made  no 
stipulation  for  any  reward  or  emolument  whatever. 
Instead  of  viewing  this  conduct  as  the  clearest  evi- 


dence of  his  full  persuasion  with  respect  to  the  truth 
of  his  own  system,  or  being  struck  with  that  magna- 
nimity which,  after  so  many  delays  and  repulses, 
would  stoop  to  nothing  inferior  to  its  original  claims, 
the  persons  with  whom  Cohimbus  treated  began 
meanly  to  calculate  the  expense  of  the  expedition, 
and  the  value  of  the  reward  which  he  demanded. 
The  expense,  moderate  as  it  was,  they  represented  to 
be  too  great  for  Spain  in  the  present  exhausted  state 
of  its  finances.  They  contended  that  the  honours  and 
emoluments  claimed  by  Columbus  were  exorbitant, 
even  if  he  should  perform  the  utmost  of  what  he  had 
promised ;  and  if  all  his  sanguine  hopes  should  prove 
illusive,  such  vast  concessions  to  an  adventurer  would 
be  deemed  not  only  inconsiderate,  but  ridiculous.  In 
tin's  imposing  garb  of  caution  and  prudence,  their 
opinion  appeared  so  plausible,  and  was  so  warmly 
supported  by  Ferdinand,  that  Isabella  declined  giving 
any  countenance  to  Columbus,  and  abruptly  broke 
off  the  negociation  with  him  which  she  had  begun. 

This  was  more  mortifying  to  Columbus  than  all 
the  disappointments  which  he  had  hitherto  met  withl 
The  invitation  to  court  from  Isabella,  like  an  unex- 
pected ray  of  light,  had  opened  such  prospects  of 
success  as  encouraged  him  to  hope  that  his  labours 
were  at  an  end ;  but  now  darkness  and  uncertainty 
returned,  and  his  mind,  firm  as  it  was,  could  hardly 
support  the  shock  of  such  an  unforeseen  reverse.  He 
withdrew  in  deep  anguish  from  court,  with  an  inten- 
tion of  prosecuting  his  voyage  to  England  as  his  last 
resource. 

[A.  D.  1492.]  About  that  time  Granada  surren- 
dered, and  Ferdinandjand  Isabella,  in  triumphal  pomp, 
took  possession  of  a  city,  the  reduction  of  which  ex- 
tirpated a  foreign  power  from  the  heart  of  their 
dominions,  and  rendered  them  masters  of  all  the 
provinces,  extending  from  the  bottom  of  the  Pyrenees 
to  the  frontiers  of  Portugal.  As  the  flow  of  spirits 
which  accompanies  success  elevates  the  mind  and 
renders  it  enterprising,  Quintanilla  and  Santangel, 
the  vigilant  and  discerning  patrons  of  Columbus, 
took  advantage  of  this  favourable  situation,  in  order 
to  make  one  effort  more  in  behalf  of  their  friend. 
They  addressed  themselves  to  Isabella,  and  after 
expressing  some  surprise  that  she,  who  had  always 
been  the  munificent  patroness  of  generous  under- 
takings, should  hesitate  so  long  to  countenance  the 
most  splendid  scheme  that  had  ever  been  proposed  to 
any  monarch;  they  represented  to  her  that  Columbus 
was  a  man  of  a  sound  understanding  and  virtuous 
character,  well  qualified,  by  his  experience  in  naviga- 
tion, as  well  as  his  knowledge  of  geometry,  to  form 
just  ideas  with  respect  to  the  structure  of  the  globe 
and  the  situation  of  its  various  regions ;  that  by 
offering  to  risk  his  own  life  and  fortune  in  the  execu- 
tion of  his  scheme,  he  gave  the  most  satisfying  evi- 
dence, both  of  his  integrity  and  hope  of  success  ; 
that  the  sum  requisite  for  equipping  such  an  arma- 
ment as  (he  demanded  was  inconsiderable,  and  the 
advantages  which  might  accrue  from  his  undertaking 
were  immense;  that  he  demanded  no  recompence  for 
his  invention  and  labour,  but  what  was  to  arise  from 
the  countries  which  he  should  discover;  that  as  it  was 
worthy  of  her  magnanimity  to  make  this  noble  attempt 
to  extend  the  sphere  of  human  knowledge,  and  to 
open  an  intercourse  with  regions  hitherto  unknown, 
so  it  would  afford  the  highest  satisfaction  to  her  piety 
and  zeal,  after  re-establishing  the  Christian  faith  in 
those  provinces  of  Spain  from  which  it  had  been 
long  banished,  to  discover  a  new  world,  to  which  she 
might  communicate  the  light  and  blessings  of  divine 
truth;  that  if  now  she  did  not  decide  instantly,  the 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


opportunity  would  be  irretrievably  lost;  that  Columbus 
was  on  his  way  to  foreign  countries,  where  some 
prince,  more  fortunate  or  adventurous,  would  close 
with  his  proposals,  and  Spain  would  for  ever  bewail 
that  fatal  timidity  which  had  excluded  her  from  the 
glory  and  advantages  that  she  had  once  in  her  power 
to  have  enjoyed. 

These  forcible  arguments,  urged  by  persons  of 
such  authority,  and  at  a  juncture  so  well  chosen,  pro- 
duced the  desired  effect.  They  dispelled  all  Isabella's 
doubts  and  fears ;  she  ordered  Columbus  to  be  in- 
stantly recalled,  declared  her  resolution  of  employing 
him  on  his  own  terms,  and  regretting  the  low  state  of 
her  finances,  generously  offered  to  pledge  her  own 
jewels,  in  order  to  raise,  as  much  money  as  might  be 
needed  in  making  preparations  for  the  voyage.  Sant- 
angel,  in  a  transport  of  gratitude  kissed  the  queen's 
hand,  and  in  order  to  save  her  from  having  recourse  to 
such  a  mortifying  expedient  for  procuring  money, 
engaged  to  advance  immediately  the  sum  that  was 
requisite. 

Columbus  had  proceeded  some  leagues  on  his 
journey,  when  the  messenger  from  Isabella  overtook 
him.  Upon  receiving  an  account  of  the  unexpected 
resolution  in  his  favour,  he  returned  directly  to  Santa 
Fe,  though  some  remnant  of  diffidence  still  mingled 
itself  with  his  joy.  But  the  cordial  reception  which 
he  met  with  from  Isabella,  together  with  the  near 
prospect  of  setting  out  upon  that  voyage  which  had 
so  long  been  the  object  of  his  thoughts  and  wishes, 
soon  effaced  the  remembrance  of  all  that  he  had  suf- 
fered in  Spain,  during  eight  tedious  years  of  solicitation 
and  suspense.  The  negociation  now  went  forward 
with  facility  and  despatch,  and  a  treaty  or  capitulation 
with  Columbus  was  signed  on  the  seventeenth  of 
April,  one  thousand  four  hundred  and  ninety-two. 
The  chief  articles  of  it  were: — 1.  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella,  as  Sovereigns  of  the  Ocean,  constituted 
Columbus  their  High  Admiral  in  all  the  seas,  islands, 
and  continents,  which  should  be  discovered  by  his 
industry  ;  and  stipulated  that  he  and  his  heirs  for  ever 
should  enjoy  this  office,  with  the  same  powers  and 
prerogatives  which  belonged  to  the  High  Admiral  of 
Castile,  within  the  limits  of  his  jurisdiction.  2.  They 
appointed  Columbus  their  Viceroy  in  all  the  islands 
and  continents  which  he  should  discover;  but  if,  for 
the  better  administration  of  affairs,  it  should  here- 
after be  necessary  to  establish  a  separate  Governor  in 
any  of  those  countries,  they  authorized  Columbus  to 
name  three  persons,  of  whom  they  would  choose  one 
for  that  office ;  and  the  dignity  of  Viceroy,  with  all 
its  immunities,  was  likewise  to  be  hereditary  in  the 
family  of  Columbus.  3.  They  granted  to  Columbus 
and  his  heirs  for  ever,  the  tenth  of  the  free  profits 
accruing  from  the  productions  and  commerce  of  the 
countries  which  he  should  discover.  4.  They  de- 
clared, that  if  any  controversy  or  law-suit  shall  arise 
•with  respect  to  any  mercantile  transaction  in  the 
countries  which  should  be  discovered,  it  should  be 
determined  by  the  sole  authority  of  Columbus,  or  of 
judges  to  be  appointed  by  him.  5.  They  permitted 
Columbus  to  advance  one-eighth  part  of  what  should 
be  expended  in  preparing  for  the  expedition,  and  in 
carrying  on  commerce  with  the  countries  which  he 
should  discover,  and  entitled  him,  in  return,  to  an 
eighth  part  of  the  profit. 

Though  the  name  of  Ferdinand  appears  conjoined 
with  that  of  Isabella  in  this  transaction,  his  distrust 
of  Columbus  was  still  so  violent  that  he  refused  to 
take  any  part  in  the  enterprise  as  King  of  Arragon. 
As  the  whole  expense  of  the  expedition  was  to  be 
defrayed  by  the  Crown  of  Castile,  Isabella  reserved 


for  her  subjects  of  that  kingdom  an  exclusive  right  to 
all  the  benefits  which  might  redound  from  its  success. 

As  soon  as  the  treaty  was  signed,  Isabella,  by  h(-r 
attention  and  activity  in  forwarding  the  preparations 
for  the  voyage,  endeavoured  to  make  some  reparation 
to  Columbus  for  the  time  which  he  had  lost  in  fruit- 
less solicitation.  By  the  twelfth  of  May,  all  that  de- 
pended upon  her  was  adjusted  ;  and  Columbus 
waited  on  the  King  and  Queen,  in  order  to  receive 
their  final  instructions.  Every  thing  respecting  the 
destination  and  conduct  of  the  voyage,  they  committed 
implicitly  to  the  disposal  of  his  prudence.  But  that 
they  might  avoid  giving  any  just  cause  of  offence  to 
the  King  of  Portugal,  they  strictly  enjoined  him  not 
to  approach  near  to  the  Portuguese  settlements  on  the 
coast  of  Guinea,  or  in  any  of  the  other  countries  to 
which  the  Portuguese  claimed  right  as  the  discoverers. 
Isabella  had  ordered  the  ships,  of  which  Columbus 
was  to  take  the  command,  to  be  fitted  out  in  the  port 
of  Palos,  a  small  maritime  town  in  the  province  of 
Andalusia.  As  the  guardian,  Juan  Perez,  to  whom 
Columbus  had  already  been  so  much  indebted,  re- 
sided in  the  neighbourhood  of  this  place,  he,  by  the 
influence  of  that  good  ecclesiastic,  as  well  as  by  his 
own  connexion  with  the  inhabitants,  not  only  raised 
among  them  what  he  wanted  of  the  sum  that  he  was 
bound  by  treaty  to  advance,  but  pngaged  several  of 
them  to  accompany  him  in  the  voyage.  The  chief  of 
these  associates  were  three  brothers  of  the  name  of 
Pinzon,  of  considerable  wealth,  and  of  great  ex- 
perience in  naval  affairs,  who  were  willing  to  hazard 
their  lives  and  fortunes  in  th«  expedition. 

But,  after  all  the  efforts  of  Isabella  and  Columbus, 
the  armament  was  not  suitable,  either  to  the  dignity 
of  the  nation  by  which  it  was  equipped,  or  to  the  im- 
portance of  the  service  for  which  it  was  destined.  It 
consisted  of  three  vessels.  The  largest,  a  ship  of  no 
considerable  burthen,  was  commanded  by  Columbus, 
as  Admiral,  who  gave  it  the  name  of  Santa  Maria, 
out  of  respect  for  the  blessed  Virgin,  whom  he 
honoured  with  singular  devotion.  Of  the  second, 
called  the  Pinta,  Martin  Pinzon  was  captain,  and  his 
brother  Francis  pilot.  The  third,  named  the  j\~iunn, 
was  under  the  command  of  Vincent  Yanez  Pinzon. 
These  two  were  light  vessels,  hardly  superior  in 
burthen  or  force  to  large  boats.  This  squadron,  if  it 
merits  that  name,  was  victualled  for  twelve  months, 
and  had  on  board  ninety  men,  mostly  sailors,  together 
with  a  few  adventurers  who  followed  the  fortune  of 
Columbus,  and  some  gentlemen  of  Isabella's  court, 
whom  she  appointed  to  accompany  him.  Though  the 
expense  of  the  undertaking  was  one  of  the  circum- 
stances which  chiefly  alarmed  the  court  of  Spain,  and 
retarded  so  long  the  negociation  with  Columbus,  the 
sum  employed  in  fitting  out  the  squadron  did  not 
exceed  four  thousand  pounds. 

As  the  art  of  ship-building  in  the  fifteenth  century 
was  extremely  rude,  and  the  bulk  of  vessels  was 
accommodated  to  the  short  and  easy  voyages  along 
the  coast  which  they  were  accustomed  to  perform,  il 
is  a  proof  of  the  courage  as  well  as  enterprising  genius 
of  Columbus,  that  he  ventured,  with  a  fleet  so  unfit 
for  a  distant  navigation,  to  explore  unknown  seas,  where 
he  had  no  chart  to  guide  him,  no  knowledge  of  the 
tides  and  currents,  and  no  experience  of  the  dangers 
to  which  he  might  be  exposed.  His  eagerness  to 
accomplish  the  great  design  which  had  so  long  en- 
grossed his  thoughts,  made  him  overlook  or  disregard 
every  circumstance  that  would  have  intimidated  a 
mind  less  adventurous.  He  pushed  forwards  the 
preparations  with  such  ardour,  and  was  seconded  so 
effectually  by  the  persons  to  whom  Isabella  committed 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


the  superintendance  of  this  business,  that  every  thing 
was  soon  in  readiness  tor  the  voyage.  But  us  Columbus 
was  deeply  impressed  with  sentiments  of  religion,  he 
would  not  set  out  upon  an  expedition  so  arduous,  and 
of  which  one  great  object  was  to  extend  the  know- 
ledge of  the  '.Christian  faith,  without  imploring 
publicly  the  guidance  and  protection  of  Heaven. 
With  this  view,  he,  together  with  all  the  persons  under 
his  command,  marched  in  solemn  procession  to  the 
monastery  of  Rabida.  After  confessing  their  sins, 
and  obtaining  absolution,  they  received  the  holy 
sacrament  from  the  hands  of  the  guardian,  who  joined 
his  prayers  to  theirs  for  the  success  of  an  enterprise 
which  he  had  so  zealously  patronized. 

Xext  morning,  being  Friday  the  third  day  of 
August,  in  the  year  one  thousand  four  hundred  and 
ninety-two,  Columbus  set  sail,  a  little  before  sun- 
rise, in  presence  of  a  vast  crowd  of  spectators,  who 
sent  up  their  supplications  to  Heaven  for  the  pros- 
perous issue  of  the  voyage,  which  they  wished  rather 
than  expected.  Columbus  steered  directly  for  the 
Canary  Islands  [August  13],  and  arrived  there  with- 
out any  occurrence  that  would  have  deserved  notice 
on  any  other  occasion.  But,  in  a  voyage  of  such 
expectation  and  importance,  every  circumstance  was 
the  object  of  attention.  The  rudder  of  the  Pinta 
broke  loose  the  day  after  she  left  the  harbour,  and 
that  accident  alarmed  the  crew,  no  less  superstitious 
than  unskilful,  as  a  certain  omen  of  the  unfortunate 
destiny  of  the  expedition.  Even  in  the  short  run  to 
the  Canaries,  the  ships  were  found  to  be  so  crazy  and 
ill-appointed,  as  to  be  very  improper  for  a  navigation 
which  was  expected  to  be  both  long  and  dangerous. 
Columbus  refitted  them,  however,  to  the  best  of  his 
power,  and  having  supplied  himself  with  fresh  pro- 
visions, he  took  his  departure  from  Gomcra,  OIK-  of 
the  most  westerly  of  the  Canary  Islands,  on  the  sixth 
day  of  September. 

Here  the  voyage  of  discovery  may  properly  be  said 
to  begin  ;  for  Columbus,  holding  his  course  due  west, 
left  immediately  the  usual  track  of  navigation,  and 
stretched  into  unfrequented  and  unknown  seas.  The 
first  day,  as  it  was  very  calm,  he  made  hut  little  way ; 
but  on  the  second,  he  lost  sight  of  the  Canaries  ;  and 
many  of  the  sailors,  dejected  already  and  dismayed. 
when  they  contemplated  the  boldness  of  the  under- 
taking, began  to  beat  their  breasts,  and  to  shed  tears, 
sis  if  they  were  never  more  to  behold  land.  Columbus 
comforted  them  with  assurances  of  success,  and  the 
prospect  of  vast  wealth,  in  those  opulent  regions 
whither  he  was  conducting  them.  This  early  dis- 
covery of  the  spirit  of  his  followers  taught  Columbus 
that  he  must  prepare  to  struggle,  not  only  with  the 
unavoidable  difficulties  which  might  be  expected 
irom  the  nature  of  his  undertaking,  but  with  such  as 
were  likely  to  arise  from  the  ignorance  and  timidity 
of  the  people  under  his  command  ;  and  he  perceived 
that  the  art  of  governing  the  minds  of  men  would  be 
no  less  requisite  for  accomplishing  the  discoveries 
which  he  had  in  view,  than  naval  skill  and  undaunted 
courage.  Happily  for  himself,  and  for  the  country 
by  which  he  was  employed,  he  joined  to  the  ardent 
temper  and  inventive  genius  of  a  projector,  virtues  of 
another  species,  which  are  rarely  united  with  them. 
He  possessed  a  thorough  knowledge  of  mankind,  an 
insinuating  address,  a  patient  perseverance  in  execut- 
ing any  plan,  the  perfect  gov'e^nment  of  his  own 
passions,  and  the  talent  of  acquiring  an  ascendant 
over  those  of  other  men.  All  these  qualities,  which 
formed  him  for  command,  were  accompanied  with 
that  superior  knowledge  of  his  profession,  which 
begets  confidence  in  times  of  difficulty  and  danger. 


To  unskilful  Spanish  sailors,  accustomed  only  to 
coasting  voyages  in  the  Mediterranean,  the  maritime 
science  of  Columbus,  the  fruit  of  thirty  years'  ex- 
perience, improved  by  an  acquaintance  with  all  the 
inventions  of  the  Portuguese,  appeared  immense.  As 
soon  as  they  put  to  sea,  he  regulated  every  thing  by 
his  sole  authority  ;  he  superintended  the  execution  of 
every  order  :  and  allowing  himself  only  a  few  hours 
for  sleep,  he  was  at  all  other  times  upon  deck.  As 
his  course  lay  through  seas  which  had  not  formerly 
been  visited,  the  sounding-line,  or  instruments  for 
observation,  were  continually  in  his  harjds.  After 
the  example  of  the  Portuguese  discoverers,  he  attended 
to  the  motion  of  tides  and  currents,  watched  the 
flight  of  birds,  the  appearance  of  fishes,  of  sea-weeds,, 
and  of  every  thing  that  floated  on  the  waves,  and 
entered  every  occurrence,  with  a  minute  exactness, 
in  the  journal  which  he  kept.  As  the  length  of  the 
voyage  could  not  fail  of  alarming  sailors  habituated 
only  to  short  excursions,  Columbus  endeavoured  to 
conceal  from  them  the  real  progress  which  they  made. 
With  this  view,  though  they  run  eighteen  leagues  on 
the  second  day  after  they  left  Gomera,  he  gave  out 
that  they  had  advanced  only  fifteen,  and  he  uniformly 
employed  the  same  artifice  of  reckoning  short  during 
the  whole  voyage.  By  the  fourteenth  of  September, 
the  fleet  was  above  two  hundred  leagues  to  the  west 
of  the  Canary  Isles,  at  a  greater  distance  from  land 
than  any  Spaniard  had  been  before  that  time.  There 
they  were  struck  with  an  appearance  no  less  astonish- 
in^  than  neu.  They  observed  that  the  magnetic 
needle,  in  their  compasses,  did  not  point  exactly  to 
the  polar  star,  but  varied  towards  the  west ;  and  as 
they  proceeded,  this  variation  increased.  This 
appearance,  which  is  now  familiar,  though  it  still 
remains  one  of  the  mysteries  of  nature,  into  the  cause 
of  which  the  sagacity  of  man  hath  not  been  able  to 
penetrate,  filled  the  companions  of  Columbus  with 
terror.  They  were  now  in  a  boundless  and  unknown 
ocean,  far  from  the  usual  course  of  navigation  ;  nature; 
itself  seemed  to  be  altered,  and  the  only  guide  which 
they  had  left  was  about  to  fail  them.  Columbus, 
with  no  less  quickness  than  ingenuity,  invented  a 
reason  for  this  appearance,  which,  though  it  did  not 
satisfy  himself,  seemed  so  plausible  to  them,  that  it 
dispelled  their  fears,  or  silenced  their  murmurs. 

He  still  continued  to  steer  due  west,  nearly  in  the 
same  latitude  with  the  Canary  Islands.  In,  this  course, 
he  came  within  the  sphere  of  the  trade  wind,  which 
blows  invariably  from  east  to  west,  between  the 
tropics  and  a  fewdegrees  beyond  them.  He  advanced 
before  this  steady  gale  with  such  uniform  rapidity, 
that  it  was  seldom  necessary  to  shift  a  sail.  When 
about  four  hundred  leagues  to  the  west  of  the 
Canaries,  he  found  the  sea  so  covered  with  weeds, 
thai  it  resembled  a  meadow  of  vast  extent,  and  in 
some  places  they  were  so  thick,  as  to  retard  the  motion 
of  the  vessels.  This  strange  appearance  occasioned 
new  alarm  and  disquiet.  The  sailors  imagined  that 
they  were  now  arrived  at  the  utmost  boundary  of  the 
navigable  ocean ;  that  these  floating  weeds  would 
obstruct  their  furtherprogress,  and  concealed  dangerous 
rocks,  or  some  large  tract  of  land,  which  had  sunk, 
y  knew  not  how,  in  that  place.  Columbus  en- 
oured  to  persuade  them,  that  what  had  alarmed, 
rather  to  have  encouraged  them,  and  was  to  be 
considered  as  a  sign  of  approaching  land.  At  the 
same  time,  a  brisk  gale  arose,  and  carried  them 
forward.  Several  birds  were  seen  hovering  about  the 
ship  (13),  and  directed  their  flight  towirds  the 
west.  The  desponding  crew  resumed  some  degree  of 
spirit,  and  began  to  entertain  fresh  hopes. 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


Upon  the  first  of  October  they  were,  according  to 
the  admiral's  reckoning,  seven  hundred  and  seventy 
J(vii;ii(\s  to  the  west  of  the  Canaries ;  but  lest  his  men 
should  be  intimidated  by  the  prodigious  length  of  the 
navigation,  he  gave  out  that  they  had  proceeded  only 
five  hundred  and  eighty-four  leagues  ;  and,  fortunately 
for  Columbus,  neither  his  own  pilot,  nor  those  of  the 
other  ships,  had  skill  sufficient  to  correct  this  error, 
und  discover  the  deceit.     They  had  now  been  above 
three  weeks  at  sea ;  they  had  proceeded  far  beyond 
what   former   navigators    had  attempted    or  deemed 
possible;  'all  their  prognostics   of  discovery,  drawn 
from  the  flight  of  birds  and  other  circumstances,  had 
proved  fallacious  ;  the  appearances  of  land,  with  which 
their  own  credulity  or  the  artifice  of  their  commander 
had  from  time  to  time  flattered  and  amused  them,  had 
been  altogether  illusive,  and  their  prospect  of  success 
seemed  now  to  be  as  distant  as  ever.     These  reflections 
occured  often  to  men,  who  had  no  other  object  or 
occupation  than  to  reason  and  discourse  concerning 
the  intention  and  circumstances  of  their  expedition. 
They   made   impression,  at  first,  upon  the  ignorant 
and  timid,  and  extending,  by  degrees,  to  such  as  were 
better  informed  or  more  resolute,  the  contagion  spread 
at  length  from  ship  to  ship.     From  secret  whispers 
or  murmurings,  they  proceeded  to  open  cabals  and 
public  complaints.     They  taxed  their  sovereign  with 
inconsiderate  credulity,  in  paying  such  regard  to  the 
vain  promises   and  rash  conjectures   of  an   indigent 
foreigner,  as  to  hazard  the  lives  of  so  many  of  her 
own   subjects,   in  prosecuting  a   chimerical   scheme. 
They   affirmed  that  they  had   fully  performed  their 
duty,  by  venturing  so  far  in  an  unknown  and  hopeless 
course,  and  could  incur  no  blame  for  refusing  to  follow, 
any  longer,  a  desperate  adventurer  to  certain  dcstru 
tion.     They  contended,  that  it  was  necessary  to  think 
of  returning  to  Spain,  while  their  crazy  vessels  were 
still  in  a  condition  to  keep  the  sea,  but  expressed  their 
fear  that  the  attempt  would  prove  vain,  as  the  wind, 
•which  had  hitherto  been  so  favourable  to  their  course, 
must  render  it  impossible  to  sail  in  the  opposite  di- 
rection.      All    agreed    that     Columbus    should    be 
compelled  by  force  to  adopt  a  measure  on  which  thei 
common  safety  depended.    Some  of  the  more  audacious 
proposed,  as  the  most  expeditious  and  certain  metho( 
for  getting  rid  at  once  of  his  remonstrances,  to  throw 
him  into  the  sea,  being  persuaded  that,  upon  thei 
return  to  Spain,  the  death  of  an  unsuccessful  pro- 
jector would  excite  little  concern,   and  be  inquirec 
into  with  no  curiosity. 

Columbus  was  fully  sensible  of  his  perilous  situa 
tion.  He  had  observed,  with  great  uneasiness,  tin 
fatal  operation  of  ignorance  and  of  fear  in  producing 
disaffection  among  his  crew,  and  saw  that  it  was  now 
ready  to  burst  out  into  open  mutiny.  He  retained 
however,  perfect  presence  of  mind.  He  affected  t 
seem  ignorant  of  their  machinations.  Notwithstand 
ing  the  agitation  and  solicitude  of  his  own  mind,  h 
appeared  with  a  cheerful  countenance,  like  a  mai 
satisfied  with  the  progress  he  had  made,  and  confi 
dent  of  success.  Sometimes  he  employed  all  th 
arts  of  insinuation,  to  soothe  his  men.  Sometime 
he  endeavoured  to  work  upon  their  ambition  o 
avarice,  by  magnificent  descriptions  of  the  fame  an 
•wealth  which  they  were  about  to  acquire.  On  othe 
occasions,  he  assumed  a  tone  of  authority,  an 
'threatened  them  with  vengeance  from  their  sovereign 
•if,  by  their  dastardly  behaviour,  they  should  defea 
this  noble  effort  to  promote  the  glory  of  God,  ai 
to  exalt  the  Spanish  name  above  that  of  every  othe 
•nation.  Even  with  seditious  sailors,  the  words  of 
man  whom  they  had  been  accustomed  to  reverence 


•ere  weighty  and  persuasive,  and  not  only  restrained 
:iom  from  those  violent  excesses  which  they  medi- 
ated, but  prevailed  with  them  to  accompany  their 
dmiral  for  some  time  longer. 

As  they  proceeded,  the  indications  of  approaching 
and  seemed  to  be  more  certain,  and  excited  hope  in 
roportion.  The  birds  began  to  appear  in  flocks, 
i.aking  towards  the  south-west.  Columbus,  in  imi- 
ation  of  the  Portuguese  navigators,  who  had  been 
uided,  in  several  of  their  discoveries,  by  the  motion 
f  birds,  altered  his  course  from  due  west  towards 
hat  quarter  whither  they  pointed  their  flight.  But, 
fter  holding  on  for  several  days  in  this  new  direction, 
rithout  any  better  success  than  formerly,  having  seen 
10  object,  during  thirty  days,  but  the  sea  and  the 
ky,  the  hopes  of  his  companions  subsided  faster 
han  they  had  risen ;  their  fears  revived  with  addi- 
ional  force ;  impatience,  rage,  and  depair,  appewd 
n  eveiy  countenance.  All  sense  of  subordination 
ras  lost :  the  officers,  who  had  hitherto  concurred 
nth  Columbus  in  opinion,  and  supported  his  autho- 
ity,  now  took  part  with  the  private  men :  they  as- 
sembled tumultuously  on  the  deck,  expostulated  with 
;heir  commander,  mingled  threats  with  their  expostu- 
ations,  and  required  him  instantly  to  tack  about 
and  return  to  Europe.  Columbus  perceived  that  it 
would  be  of  no  avail  to  have  recourse  to  any  of  his 
former  arts,  which  having  been  tried  so  often  had  lost 
heir  effect ;  and  that  it  was  impossible  to  rekindle 
any  zeal  for  the  success  of  the  expedition  among  men, 
n  whose  breasts  fear  had  extinguished  every  generous 
sentiment.  He  saw  that  it  was  no  less  vain  to  think 
of  employing  either  gentle  or  severe  measures  to  quell 
a  mutiny  so  general  <md  so  violent.  It  was  necessary, 
on  all  these  accounts,  to  soothe  passions  which  he 
could  no  longer  command,  and  to  give  way  to  a  tor- 
rent too  impetuous  to  be  checked.  He  promised  so- 
lemnly to  his  men  that  he  would  comply  with  their 
request,  provided  they  would  accompany  him,  and 
obey  his  command  for  three  days  longer,  and  if,  dur- 
ing that  time,  land  were  not  discovered,  he  would 
then  abandon  the  enterprise,  end  direct  his  course 
towards  Spain. 

Enraged  as  the  sailors  were,  and  impatient  to  turn 
their  faces  again  towards  their  native  country,  this 
proposition  did  not  appear  to  them  unreasonable. 
Nor  did  Columbus  hazard  much  in  confining  himself 
to  a  term  so  short.  The  presages  of  discovering  land 
were  now  so  numerous  and  promising,  that  he  deemed 
them  infallible.  For  some  days  the  sounding-line 
reached  the  bottom,  and  the  soil  which  it  brought  up 
indicated  land  to  be  at  no  great  distance.  The  flocks 
of  birds  increased,  and  were  composed  not  only  of 
sea-fowl,  but  of  such  land  birds  as  could  not  be  sup- 
posed to  fly  far  from  the  shore.  The  crew  of  the  Pinta 
observed  a  cane  floating,  which  seemed  to  have  been 
newly  cut,  and  likewise  a  piece  of  timber  artificially 
carved.  The  sailors  aboard  the  Nigna  took  up  the 
branch  of  a  tree  with  red  berries,  perfectly  fresh. 
The  clouds  around  the  setting  sun  assumed  a  new 
appearance;  the  air  was  more  mild  and  warm,  and, 
during  night,  the  wind  became  unequal  and  variable. 
From  all  these  symptoms,  Columbus  was  so  confident 
of  being  near  land,  that  on  the  evening  of  the  eleventh 
of  October,  after  public  prayers  for  success,  he  ordered 
the  sails  to  be  furled,  and  the  ships  to  lie  to,  keep- 
ing strict  watch,  lest  they  should  be  driven  ashore  in 
the  night.  During  this  interval  of  suspense  and  ex- 
pectation, no  man  shut  his  eyes,  all  kept  upon  dock, 
gazing  intently  towards  that  quarter  where  they 
expected  to  discover  the  land,  which  had  been  so 
long  the  object  of  their  wishes. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


About  two  hours  before  midnight,  Columbus 
standing  on  the  forecastle,  observed  a  light  at  a  dis- 
tance, and  privately  pointed  it  out  to  Pedro  Gut- 
ticrez,  a  page  of  the  queen's  wardrobe.  Guttierez 
perceived  it,  and  calling  to  Salcedo,  the  comptroller 
of  the  fleet,  all  three  saw  it  in  motion,  as  if  it  were 
carried  from  place  to  place.  A  little  after  midnight, 
the  joyful  sound  of  land  !  land  !  was  heard  from  the 
Pinta,  which  kapt  always  ahead  of  the  other  ships. 
But,  having  been  so  often  deceived  by  fallacious 
appearances,  every  man  was  now  become  slow  of 
belief,  and  waited  in  all  the  anguish  of  uncertainty 
and  impatience,  for  the  return  of  day.  As  s,oon  as 
morning  dawned,  [Friday,  Oct.  12,]  all  doubts  and 
fears  were  dispelled.  From  every  ship  an  island  was 
seen  about  two  leagues  to  the  north,  whose  flat  and 
verdant  fields,  well  stored  with  wood,  and  watered 
with  many  rivulets,  presented  the  aspect  of  a  de- 
lightful country.  The  crew  of  the  Pinta  instantly 
began  the  Te  Dcum,  as  a  hymn  of  thanksgiving  to 
God,  and  were  joined  by  those  of  the  other  ships, 
with  tears  of  joy,  and  transports  of  congratulation. 
This  office  of  gratitude  to  Heaven  was  followed  by  an 
act  of  justice  to  their  commander.  They  threw 
themselves  at  the  feet  of  Columbus,  with  feelings  of 
self-condemnation  mingled  with  reverence.  They 
implored  him  to  pardon  their  ignorance,  incredulity, 
and  insolence,  which  had  created  him  so  much  unne- 
cessary disquiet,  and  had  so  often  obstructed  the 
prosecution  of  his  well-concerted  plan ;  and  passing, 
in  the  warmth  of  their  admiration,  from  one  extreme 
to  another,  they  now  pronounced  the  man,  whom 
they  so  lately  reviled  and  threatened,  to  be  a  person 
inspired  by  Heaven  with  sagacity  and  fortitude  more 
than  human,  in  order  to  accomplish  a  design  so  far 
beyond  the  ideas  and  conception  of  all  former  ages. 

As  soon  as  the  sun  arose,  all  their  boats  were 
manned  and  armed.  They  rowed  towards  the  island 
with  their  colours  displayed,  with  warlike  music, 
and  other  martial  pomp.  As  they  approached  the 
coast,  they  saw  it  covered  with  a  multitude  of 
people,  whom  the  novelty  of  the  spectacle  had  drawn 
together,  whose  attitudes  and  gestures  expressed 
wonder  and  astonishment  at  the  strange  objects 
which  presented  themselves  to  their  view.  Colum- 
bus was  the  first  European  who  set  foot  in  the  New 
World  which  he  had  discovered.  He  landed  in  a 
rich  dress,  and  with  a  naked  sword  in  his  hand.  His 
men  fo. lowed,  and  kneeling  down,  they  all  kissed  the 
ground  which  they  had  so  long  desired  to  see.  They 
next  erected  a  crucifix,  and  prostrating  themselves 
before  it,  returned  thanks  to  God  for  conducting 
their  voyage  to  such  a  happy  issue.  They  then  took 
solemn  possession  of  the  country  for  the  Crown  of 
Castile  and  Leon,  with  all  the  formalities  which  the 
Portuguese  were  accustomed  to  observe  in  acts  of 
this  kind,  in  their  new  discoveries. 

The  Spaniards,  while  thus  employed,  were  sur- 
rounded by  many  of  the  natives,  who  gazed,  in  silent 
admiration,  upon  actions  which  they  could  not  com- 
prehend, and  of  which  they  couki  not  foresee  the 
consequences.  The  dress  of  the  Spaniards,  the 
whiteness  of  their  skins,  their  beards,  their  arms, 
appeared  strange  and  surprising.  The  vast  machines 
in  which  they  had  traversed  the  ocean,  that  seemed 
to  move  upon  the  waters  with  wings,  and  uttered  a 
dreadful  sound  resembling  thunder,  accompanied 
with  lightning  and  smoke,  struck  them  with  such 
terror,  that  they  began  to  respect  their  new  guests  as 
a  superior  order  of  beings,  and  concluded  that  they 
were  children  of  the  sun,  who  had  descended  to  visit 
the  .earth. 

HISTORY  OF  AMERICA,  No.  4, 


The  Europeans  were  hardly  less  amazed  at  the 
scene  now  before  them.  Every  herb,  and  shrub,  and 
tree,  was  different  from  those  which  flourished  in 
Europe.  The  soil  seemed  to  be  rich,  but  bore  few 
marks  of  cultivation.  The  climate,  even  to  the 
Spaniards,  felt  warm,  though  extremely  delightful. 
The  inhabitants  appeared  in  the  simple  innocence  of 
nature,  entirely  naked.  Their  black  hair,  long  and 
uncurled,  floated  upon  their  shoulders,  or  was  bound 
in  tresses  around  their  heads.  They  had  no  beards, 
and  every  part  of  their  bodies  was  perfectly  smooth. 
Their  complexion  was  of  a  dusky  copper  colour,  their 
features  singular,  rather  than  disagreeable,  their 
aspect  gentle  and  timid.  Though  not  tall,  they  were 
well  shaped  and  active.  Their  faces,  and  several 
parts  of  their  body,  were  fantastically  painted  with 
glaring  colours.  They  were  shy  at  first  through, 
fear,  but  soon  became  familiar  with  the  Spaniards, 
and  with  transports  of  joy  received  from  them 
hawksbells,  glass  beads,  or  other  baubles,  in  return 
for  which  they  gave  such  provisions  as  they  had,  and 
some  cotton  yarn,  the  only  commodity  of  value  that 
they  could  produce.  Towards  evening,  Columbus 
returned  to  his  ship,  accompanied  by  many  of  the 
islanders  in  their  boats,  which  they  called  canoet, 
and  though  rudely  formed  out  of  the  trunk  of  a 
single  tree,  they  rowed  them  with  surprising  dexte- 
rity. Thus,  in  the  first  interview  between  the  inha- 
bitants of  the  Old  and  New  Worlds,  every  thing  was 
conducted  amicably,  and  to  their  mutual  satisfaction. 
The  former,  enlightened  and  ambitious,  formed 
already  vast  ideas  with  respect  to  the  advantages 
which  they  might  derive  from  the  regions  that  began 
to  open  to  their  view.  The  latter,  simple  and  undis- 
cerning,  had  no  foresight  of  the  calamities  and  deso- 
lation which  were  approaching  their  country. 

Columbus,  who  now  assumed  the  title  and  autho- 
rity of  admiral  and  viceroy,  called  the  island  which 
he  had  discovered  San  Salvador.  It  is  better  known 
by  the  name  of  Guanaliani,  which  the  natives  gave 
to  it,  and  is  one  of  that  large  cluster  of  islands  called 
the  Lucaya  or  Bahama  Isles.  It  is  situated  above 
three  thousand  miles  to  the  we«t  of  Gomera,  from 
which  the  squadron  took  its  departure,  and  only  four 
degrees  to  the  south  of  it;  so  little  had  Columbus 
deviated  from  the  westerly  course,  which  lie  had 
chosen  as  the  most  proper. 

Columbus  employed  the  next  day  in  visiting  the 
coast  of  the  island  ;  and  from  the  universal  poverty 
of  the  inhabitants,  he  perceived  that  this  was  not  the 
rich  country  for  which  he  sought.  But,  conformably 
to  his  theory  concerning  the  discovery  of  those 
regions  of  Asia  which  stretched  towards  the  east,  he 
concluded  that  San  Salvador  was  one  of  the  is'ea 
which  geographer*  described  as  situated  in  the  great 
ocean  adjacent  to  India.  Having  observed  that  most 
of  the  people  whom  he  had  seen  wore  small  plates  of 
gold,  by  way  of  ornament,  in  their  nostrils,  he  eagerly 
enquired  where  they  got  that  precious  metal.  They 
pointed  towards  the  south,  and  made  him  compre- 
hend by  signs,  that  gold  abounded  in  countries 
situated  in  that  quarter.  Thither  he  immediately 
determined  to  direct  his  course,  in  full  confidence 
of  finding  there  those  opulent  regions  which  had 
been  the  object  of  his  voyage,  and  would  be  a 
recompence  for  all  his  toils  and  dangers.  He  took 
along  with  him  seven  of  the  natives  of  San  Salvador, 
that,  by  acquiring  the  Span  sh  language,  they 
might  serve  as  guides  and  interpreters ;  and  those 
innocent  people  considered  it  as  a  mark  of  distinc- 
tion when  they  were  selected  to  accompany  him. 

He  caw  several  islands,  and  touched  at  three  of 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  largest,  on  which  he  bestowed  the  names  of 
St.  Mary  of  the  Conception,  Fernandina,  and  Isabella. 
But,  as  their  soil,  productions,  and  inhabitants,  nearly 
resemble  those  of  San  Salvador,  he  made  no  stay  in 
any  of  them.  He  inquired  every  where  for  gold, 
and  the  signs  that  were  uniformly  made  by  way  of 
answer,  confirmed  him  in  the  opinion  that  it  was 
brought  from  the  south.  He  followed  that  course, 
and  soon  discovered  a  country  which  appeared  very 
extensive,  not  perfectly  level,  like  those  which  he  had 
already  visited,  but  so  diversified  with  rising  grounds, 
hills,  rivers,  woods,  and  plains,  that  he  was  uncertain 
whether  it  might  prove  an  island,  or  part  of  the 
continent.  The  natives  of  San  Salvador,  whom  he 
had  on  board,  called  it  Cuba  ;  Columbus  gave  it  the 
name  of  Juaua.  He  entered  the  mouth  of  a  large 
iriver  with  his  squadron,  and  all  the  inhabitants  fled 
to  the  mountains  as  he  approached  the  shore.  But 
as  he  resolved  to  careen  his  ships  in  that  place,  he 
sent  some  Spaniards,  together  with  one  of  the  people 
of  San  Salvador,  to  view  the  interior  part  of  the 
country.  They  having  advanced  above  sixty  miles 
from  the  shore,  reported,  upon  their  return,  that  the 
soil  was  richer  and  more  cultivated  than  any  they  had 
hitherto  discovered;  that,  besides  many  scattered 
cottages  they  had  found  one  village,  containing 
above  a  thousand  inhabitants;  that  the  people, 
though  naked,  seemed  to  be  more  intelligent  than 
those  of  San  Salvador,  but  had  treated  them  with  the 
«ame  respectful  attention,  kissing  their  feet,  and 
honouring  them  as  sacred  beings  allied  to  heaven : 
that  they  had  given  them  to  eat  a  certain  root,  the 
taste  of  which  resembled  roasted  chesnuts,  and  like- 
wise a  singular  species  of  corn  called  Maize,  which 
either  when  roasted  whole  or 'ground  into  meal,  was 
abundantly  palatable;  that  there  seemed  to  be  no 
four-footed  animals  in  the  country,  but  a  species  of 
dogs.which  could  not  bark,  and  a  creature  resembling 
a  rabbit,  but  of  a  much  smaller  size ;  that  they  had  ob- 
served some  ornaments  of  gold  among  the  people,  but 
of  no  great  value. 

These  messengers  had  prevailed  with  some  of  the 
natives  to  accompany  them,  who  informed  Colum- 
bus, that  the  gold  of  which  they  made  their  orna- 
ments was  found  in  Cubanacan.  By  this  word  they 
meant  the  middle  or  inland  part  of  Cuba ;  but  Co- 
lumbus, being  ignorant  of  their  language,  as  well  as 
unaccustomed  to  their  pronunciation,  and  his  thoughts 
running  continually  upon  his  own  theory  concerning 
the  discovery  of  the  East  Indies,  he  was  led,  by  the 
resemblance  of  sound,  to  suppose  that  they  spoke  of 
the  Great  Khan,  and  imagined  that  the  opulent  king- 
dom of  Cathay,  described  by  Marco  Polo,  was  not 
very  remote.  This  induced  him  to  employ  some  time 
in  viewing  the  country.  He  visited  almost  every 
harbour,  from  Porto  del  Principe,  on  the  north  coast 
of  Cuba,  to  the  eastern  extremity  of  the  island ;  but, 
though  delighted  with  the  beauty  of  the  scenes  which 
every  where  presented  themselves,  and  amazed  at 
the  luxuriant  fertility  of  the  soil,  both  which,  from 
their  novelty,  made  a  more  lively  impression  upon 
his  imagination  (14),  he  did  not  find  gold  in  such 
quantity  as  was  sufficient  to  satisfy  either  the  avarice 
of  his  followers,  or  the  expectations  of  the  court  to 
which  he  was  to  return.  The  people  of  the  country, 
as  much  astonished  at  his  eagerness  in  quest  of  gold 
as  the  Europeans  were  at  their  ignorance  and  sim- 
plicity, pointed  towards  the  east,  where  an  island 
which  they  called  Hayti  was  situated,  in  which  that 
metal  was  more  abundant  than  among  them.  Co- 
lumbus ordered  his  squadron  to  bend  its  course 
thither ;  but  Martin  Alonso  Pinzon,  impatient  to  be 


the  first  who  should  take  possession  of  the  treasures 
which  this  country  was  supposed  to  contain,  quitted 
his  companions,  regardless  of  all  the  admiral's  signals 
to  slacken  sail  until  they  should  come  up  with  him. 
Columbus,  retarded  by  contrary  winds  did  not  reach 
Hayti  till  the  sixth  of  December.  He  called  the 
port,  where  he  first  touched,  St.  Nicholas,  and  the 
island  itself  Espagnola,  in  honour  of  the  kingdom  by 
which  he  was  employed ;  and  it  is  the  only  country, 
of  those  he  had  yet  discovered,  which  has  retained 
the  name  that  he  gave  it.  As  he  could  neither  meet 
with  the  Pinta,  nor  have  intercourse  with  the  in- 
habitants, who  fled  in  great  consternation  towards 
the  woods,  he  soon  quitted  St.  Nicholas,  and  sailing 
along  the  northern  coast  of  the  island,  he  entered 
another  harbour,  which  he  called  Conception.  Here 
he  was  more  fortunate;  his  people  overtook  a  woman 
who  was  flying  from  them,  and  after  treating  her 
with  great  gentleness,  dismissed  her  with  a  present 
of  such  toys  as  they  knew  were  most  valued  in  those 
regions.  The  description  which  she  gave  to  her 
countrymen  of  the  humanity  and  wonderful  qualities 
of  the  strangers;  their  admiration  of  the  trinkets, 
which  she  showed  with  exultation  ;  and  their  eager- 
ness to  participate  of  the  same  favours,  removed  all 
their  fears,  and  induced  many  of  them  to  repair  to 
the  harbour.  The  strange  objects  which  they  beheld, 
and  the  baubles  which  Columbus  bestowed  upon 
them,  amply  gratified  their  curiosity  and  their  wishes. 
They  nearly  resembled  the  people  of  Guanahani  and 
Cuba.  They  were  naked  like  them,  ignorant  and 
simple ;  and  seemed  to  be  equally  unacquainted  with 
all  the  arts  which  appear  most  necessary  in  polished 
societies  ;  but  they  were  gentle,  credulous,  and  timid 
to  a  degree  which  rendered  it  easy  to  acquire  the 
ascendant  over  them,  especially  as  their  excessive 
admiration  led  them  into  the  same  error  with  the 
people  of  the  other  islands,  in  believing  the  Spaniards 
to  be  more  than  mortals,  and  descended  immediately 
from  heaven.  They  possessed  gold  in  greater  abun- 
dance than  their  neighbours,  which  they  readily 
exchanged  for  bells,  beads,  or  pins  ;  and  in  this 
unequal  traffick  both  parties  were  highly  pleased,  each 
considering  themselves  as  gainers  by  the  transaction. 
Here  Columbus  was  visited  by  a  Prince  or  Cazique 
of  the  country.  He  appeared  with  all  the  pomp 
known  among  a  simple  people,  being  carried  in  a 
sort  of  palanquin  upon  the  shoulders  of  four  men, 
and  attended  by  many  of  his  subjects,  who  served 
him  with  great  respect.  His  deportment  was  grave 
and  stately,  very  reserved  towards  his  own  people, 
but  with  Columbus  and  the  Spaniards  extremely 
courteous.  He  gave  the  admiral  some  thin  plates  of 
gold,  and  a  girdle  of  curious  workmanship,  receiving 
in  return  presents  of  small  value,  but  highly  accept- 
able to  him. 

Columbus,  still  intent  on  discovering  the  mines 
which  yielded  gold,  continued  to  interrogate  all  the 
natives  with  whom  he  had  any  intercourse,  concern- 
ing their  situation.  They  concurred  in  pointing  out 
a  mountainous  country,  which  they  called  Cibao,  at 
some  distance  from  the  sea,  and  further  towards  the 
east.  Struck  with  this  sound,  which  appeared  to 
him  the  same  with  Cipango,  the  name  by  which 
Marco  Polo,  and  other  travellers  to  the  east,  distin- 
guished the  island  of  Japan,  he  no  longer  doubted 
with  respect  to  the  vicinity  of  the  countries  which 
he  had  discovered  to  the  remote  parts  of  Asia  ;  and 
in  full  expectation  of  reaching  soon  those  regions 
which  had  been  the  object  of  his  voyage,  he  directed 
his  course  towards  the  east.  He  put  into  a  com- 
inodious  harbour,  which  he  called  St,  Thomas,  and 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


found  that  district  to  be  under  the  government  of  a 
powerful  cazique,  named  Guacanahari,  who,  as  he 
afterwards  learned,  was  one  of  the  five  sovereigns 
among  whom  the  whole  island  was  divided.  He 
immediately  sent  messengers  to  Columbus,  who,  in 
his  name,  delivered  to  him  the  present  of  a  mask 
curiously  fashioned,  with  the  ears,  nose,  and  mouth 
of  beaten  gold,  and  invited  him  to  the  place  of  his 
residence,  near  the  harbour  now  called  Cape  Francois, 
some  leagues  towards  the  east.  Columbus  dispatched 
some  of  his  officers  to  visit  this  Prince,  who,  as  he 
behaved  himself  with  greater  dignity,  seemed  to 
claim  more  attention.  They  returned  with  such 
favourable  accounts  both  of  the  country  and  of  the 
people,  as  made  Columbus  impatient  for  that  inter- 
view with  Guacanahari  to  which  he  had  been  invited. 

He  sailed  for  this  purpose  from  St.  Thomas  on 
the  twenty-fourth  of  December,  with  a  fair  wind, 
and  the  sea  perfectly  calm ;  and  as,  amidst  the 
multiplicity  of  his  occupations,  he  had  not  shut  his 
eyes  for  two  days,  he  retired  at  midnight  in  order  to 
take  some  repose,  having  committed  the  helm  to  the 
pilot,  with  strict  injunctions  not  to  quit  it  for  a 
moment.  The  pilot,  dreading  no  danger,  carelessly 
left  the  helm  to  an  inexperienced  cabin-boy,  and  the 
ship,  carried  away  by  a  current,  was  dashed  against 
a  rock.  The  violence  of  the  shock  awakened  Co- 
lumbus. He  ran  up  to  the  deck.  There  all  was 
confusion  and  despair.  He  alone  retained  presence 
of  mind.  He  ordered  some  of  the  sailors  to  take  a 
boat,  and  carry  out  an  anchor  astern ;  but,  instead 
of  obeying,  they  made  off  towards  the  Nigna,  which 
was  about  half  a  league  distant.  He  then  commanded 
the  masts  to  be  cut  down,  in  order  to  lighten  the 
ship;  but  all  his  endeavours  were  too  late;  the  vessel 
opened  near  the  keel,  and  filled  so  fast  with  water 
that  its  loss  was  inevitable.  The  smoothness  of  the 
sea,  and  the  timely  assistance  of  boats  from  the 
Nigna,  enabled  the  crew  to  save  their  lives.  As 
soon  as  the  islanders  heard  of  this  disaster,  they 
crowded  to  the  shore,  with  their  Prince  Guacanahari 
at  their  head.  Instead  of  taking  advantage  of  the 
distress  in  which  they  beheld  the  Spaniards,  to 
attempt  any  thing  to  their  detriment,  they  lamented 
their  misfortune  with  tears  of  sincere  condolence. 
Not  satisfied  with  this  unavailing  expression  of  their 
sympathy,  they  put  to  sea  a  number  of  canoes,  and 
under  the  direction  of  the  Spaniards,  assisted  in 
saving  whatever  could  be  got  out  of  the  wreck ;  and, 
by  the  united  labour  of  so  many  hands,  almost  every 
thing  of  value  was  carried  ashore.  As  fast  as  the 
goods  were  landed,  Guacanahari  in  person  took 
charge  of  them.  By  his  orders  they  were  all  depo- 
sited in  one  place,  and  armed  sentinels  were  posted, 
who  kept  the  multitude  at  a  distance,  in  order  to 
prevent  them  not  only  from  embezzling,  but  from 
inspecting  too  curiously  what  belonged  to  their 
guests.  Next  morning  this  Prince  visited  Columbus, 
who  was  now  on  board  the  Nigna,  and  endeavoured 
to  console  him  for^  his  loss,  by  offering  all  that  he 
possessed  to  repair  it. 

The  condition  of  Columbus  was  such,  that  he  stood 
in  need  of  consolation.  He  had  hitherto  procured  no 
intelligence  of  the  Pinta,  and  no  longer  doubted  but 
that  his  treacherous  associate  had  set  sail  for  Europe, 
in  order  to  have  the  merit  of  carrying  the  first  tidings 
of  the  extraordinary  discoveries  which  had  been 
made,  and  to  pre-occupy  so  far  the  ear  of  their  sove- 
reign, as  to  rob  him  of  the  glory  and  reward  to  which 
he  was  justly  entitled.  There  remained  but  one 
vessel,  and  that  the  smallest  and  most  crazy  of  the 
squadron,  to  traverse  such  a  vast  ocean,  and  to  carry 


so  many  men  back  to  Europe.  Each  of  those  cir- 
cumstances was  alarming,  and  filled  the  mind  of 
Columbus  with  the  utmost  solicitude.  The  desire  of 
overtaking  Pinzon,  and  of  effacing  the  unfavourable 
impressions  which  his  misrepresentations  might  make 
in  Spain,  made  it  necessary  to  return  thither  without 
delay.  The  difficulty  of  taking  such  a  number  of 
persons  aboard  the  Nigna,  confirmed  him  in  an  opinion, 
which  the  fertility  of  the  country,  and  the  gentle 
temper  of  the  people,  had  already  induced  him  to 
form.  He  resolved  to  leave  a  part  of  his  crew  in  the 
island,  that  by  residing  there,  they  might  learn  the 
language  of  the  natives,  study  their  disposition, 
examine  the  nature  of  the  country,  search  for  mines, 
prepare  for  the  commodious  settlement  of  the  colony, 
with  which  he  purposed  to  return,  and  thus  secure 
and  facilitate  the  acquisition  of  those  advantages  which 
he  expected  from  his  discoveries.  When  he  mentioned 
this  to  his  men,  all  approved  of  the  design ;  and  from 
impatience  under  the  fatigue  of  a  long  voyage,  from 
the  levity  natural  to  sailors,  or  from  the  hopes  of 
amassing  wealth  in  a  country,  which  afforded  such 
promising  specimens  of  its  riches,  many  offered  volun- 
tarily to  be  among  the  number  of  those  who  should 
remain. 

Nothing  was  now  wanting  towards  the  execution  of 
this  scheme,  but  to  obtain  the  consent  of  Guacanahari; 
and  his  unsuspicious  simplicity  soon  presented  to  the 
admiral  a  favourable  opportunity  of  proposing  it. 
Columbus  having,  in  the  best  manner  he  could,  by 
broken  words  and  signs,  expressed  some  curiosity  to 
know  the  cause  which  had  moved  the  islanders  to  fly 
with  such  precipitation  upon  the  approach  of  his  ships, 
the  cazique  informed  him  that  the  country  was  much 
infested  by  the  incursions  of  certain  people,  whom  he 
called  Carribeant,  who  inhabited  several  islands  to 
the  south-east.  These  he  described  as  a  fierce  and 
warlike  race  of  men,  who  delighted  in  blood,  and 
devoured  the  flesh  of  the  prisoners  who  were  so 
unhappy  as  to  fall  into  their  hands;  and  as  the 
Spaniards  at  their  first  appearance  were  supposed  to 
be  Carribeans,  whom  the  natives,  however  numerous, 
durst  not  face  in  battle,  they  had  recourse  to  their 
usual  method  of  securing  their  safety,  by  flying  into 
the  thickest  and  most  impenetrable  woods.  Gua- 
canahari, while  speaking  of  those  dreadful  invaders, 
discovered  such  symptoms  of  terror,  as  well  as  such 
consciousness  of  the  inability  of  his  own  people  to 
resist  them,  as  led  Columbus  to  conclude  that  he 
would  not  be  alarmed  at  the  proposition  of  any  scheme 
which  afforded  him  the  prospect  of  an  additional 
security  against  their  attacks.  He  instantly  offered 
him  the  assistance  of  the  Spaniards  to  repel  his 
enemies;  he  engaged  to  take  him  and  his  people 
under  the  protection  of  the  powerful  monarch  whom 
he  served,  and  offered  to  leave  in  the  island  such  a 
number  of  his  men  as  should  be  sufficient,  not  only 
to  defend  the  inhabitants  from  future  incursions,  but 
to  avenge  their  past  wrongs. 

The  credulous  prince  closed  eagerly  with  the  pro- 
posal, and  thought  himself  already  safe  under  the 
patronage  of  beings  sprung  from  heaven,  and  superior 
to  the  power  of  mortal  men.  The  ground  was  marked 
out  for  a  small  fort,  which  Columbus  called  Navidad, 
because  he  had  landed  there  on  Christmas-day.  A 
deep  ditch  was  drawn  around  it.  The  ramparts  were 
fortified  with  pallisades,  and  the  great  guns,  saved  out 
of  the  admiral's  ship,  were  planted  upon  them.  In 
ten  days  the  work  was  finished ;  that  simple  race  of 
men  labouring  with  inconsiderate  assiduity  in  erect- 
ing this  first  monument  of  their  own  servitude.  Dur- 
'ng  this  time,  Columbus,  by  his  caresses  and  liberality, 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


laboured  to  increase  the  high  opinion  which  the  na- 
tives entertained  of  the  Spaniards.  But  while  he 
endeavoured  to  inspire  them  with  confidence  in  their 
disposition  to  do  good,  he  wished  likewise  to  give 
them  some  striking  idea  of  their  power  to  punish  and 
destroy  such  as  were  the  objects  of  their  indignation. 
With  this  view,  in  presence  of  a  vast  assembly,  he 
drew  up  his  men  in  order  of  battle,  and  made  an 
ostentatious  but  innocent  display  of  tbe  sharpness  of 
the  Spanish  swords,  of  the  force  of  their  spears,  and 
the  operation  of  their  cross-bows.  These  rude  people, 
strangers  to  the  use  of  iron,  and  unacquainted  with 
any  hostile  weapons  but  arrows  of  reeds  pointed  with 
the  bones  of  fishes,  wooden  sword,  and  javelins 
hardened  in  the  fire,  wondered  and  trembled.  Before 
this  surprise  or  fear  had  time  to  abate,  he  ordered  the 
great  guns  to  be  fired.  The  sudden  explosion  struck 
them  with  such  terror,  that  they  fell  flat  to  the  ground, 
covering  their  faces  with  their  hands  ;  and  when  they 
beheld  the  astonishing  effect  of  the  bullets  among  the 
trees,  towards  which  the  cannon  had  been  pointed, 
they  concluded  that  it  was  impossible  to  resist  men, 
•who  had  the  command  of  such  destructive  instruments, 
and  who  came  armed  with  thunder  and  lightning 
against  their  enemies. 

After  giving  such  impressions  both  of  the  bene- 
ficence and  power  of  the  Spaniards,  as  might  have 
rendered  it  easy  to  preserve  an  ascendant  over  the 
minds  of  the  natives,  Columbus  appointed  thirty- 
eight  of  his  people  to  remain  iu  the  island.  He 
intrusted  the  command  of  these  to  Diego  de  Arado, 
a  gentleman  of  Cordova,  investing  him  with  the  same 
powers  which  he  himself  had  received  from  Ferdinand 
and  Isabella ;  and  furnished  him  with  every  thing 
requisite  for  the  subsistence  or  defence  of  this  infant 
colony.  He  strictly  enjoined  them  to  maintain  con- 
cord among  themselves,  to  yield  an  unreserved 
obedience  to  their  commander,  to  avoid  giving  offence 
to  the  natives  by  any  violence  or  exaction,  to  cultivate 
the  friendship  of  Guacanahari,  but  not  to  put  them- 
selves in  his  power,  by  straggling  in  small  parties,  or 
inarching  too  far  from  the  fort.  He  promised  to 
revisit  them  soon,  with  such  a  reinforcement  of 
strength  as  might  enable  them  to  take  full  possession 
of  the  country,  and  to  reap  all  the  fruits  of  their 
discoveries.  In  the  mean  time,  he  engaged  to  mention 
their  names  to  the  king  and  queen,  and  to  place  their 
merit  and  services  in  the  most  advantageous  light. 

Having  thus  taken  every  precaution  for  the  security 
of  the  colony,  he  left  Navidad  on  the  fourth  of  January, 
one  thousand  four  hundred  and  ninety-three,  and 
steering  towards  the  east,  discovered  and  gave  names 
to  most  of  the  harbours  on  the  northern  coast  of  the 
island.  On  the  sixth  he  descried  the  Pinta,  and  soon 
came  up  with  her,  after  a  separation  of  more  than  six 
•weeks.  Pinzon  endeavoured  to  justify  his  conduct, 
by  pretending  that  he  had  been  driven  from  his  course 
by  stress  of  weather,  and  prevented  from  returning 
by  contrary  winds.  The  admiral,  though  he  still 
suspected  his  perfidious  intentions,  and  knew  well 
•what  he  urged  in  his  own  defence  to  be  frivolous  as 
well  as  false,  was  so  sensible  that  this  was  not  a 
proper  time  for  venturing  upon  any  high  strain  of 
authority,  and  felt  such  satisfaction  in  this  junction 
•with  his  consort,  which  delivered  him  from  many 
disquieting  apprehensions,  that,  lame  as  Pinzon' s 
apology  was,  he  admitted  of  it  without  difficulty,  and 
restored  him  to  favour.  During  his  absence  from  the 
admiral,  Pinzon  had  visited  several  harbours  in  the 
island,  had  acquired  some  gold  by  trafficking  with 
the  natives,  but  had  made  no  discovery  of  any 
importance, 


From  the  condition  of  his  ships,  as  well  as  the 
temper  of  his  men,  Columbus  now  found  it  necessary 
to  hasten  his  return  to  Europe.  The  former,  having 
suffered  much  during  a  voyage  of  such  an  unusual 
length,  were  extremely  leaky.  The  latter  expressed 
the  utmost  impatience  to  revisit  their  native  country, 
from  which  they  had  been  so  long  absent,  and  where 
they  had  things  so  wonderful  and  unheard-of  to 
relate.  Accordingly,  on  the  sixteenth  of  January,  he 
directed  his  course  towards  the  north-east,  and  soon 
lost  sight  of  land.  He  had  on  board  some  of  the 
natives,  whom  he  had  taken  from  the  different  islands 
which  he  discovered ;  and  besides  the  gold,  which 
was  the  chief  object  of  research,  he  had  collected 
specimens  of  all  the  productions  which  were  likely 
to  become  subjects  of  commerce  in  the  several 
countries,  as  well  as  many  unknown  birds,  and  other 
natural  curiosities,  which  might  attract  the  attention 
of  the  learned,  or  excite  the  wonder  of  the  people. 
The  voyage  was  prosperous  to  the  fourteenth  of 
February,  and  he  had  advanced  near  five  hundred 
leagues  across  the  Atlantic  ocean,  when  the  wind 
began  to  rise,  and  continued  to  blow  with  increasing 
rage,  which  terminated  in  a  furious  hurricane.  Every 
thing  that  the  naval  skill  and  experience  of  Columbus 
could  devise  was  employed,  in  order  to  save  the  ships. 
But  it  was  impossible  to  withstand  the  violence  of 
the  storm,  and,  as  they  were  still  far  from  any  land, 
destruction  seemed  inevitable.  The  sailors  had 
recourse  to  prayers  to  Almighty  God,  to  the  invoca- 
tion of  saints,  to  vows  and  charms,  to  every  thing  that 
religion  dictates,  or  superstition  suggests  to  the 
affrighted  mind  of  man.  No  prospect  of  deliverance 
appearing,  they  abandoned  themselves  to  despair, 
and  expected  every  moment  to  be  swallowed  up  in 
the  waves.  Besides  the  passions  which  naturally 
agitate  and  alarm  the  human  mind  in  such  awful 
situations,when  certain  death,  in  one  of  his  most  terrible 
forms,  is  before  it,  Columbus  had  to  endure  feelings 
of  distress  peculiar  to  himself.  He  dreaded  that  all 
knowledge  of  the  amazing  discoveries  which  he  had 
made  was  now  to  perish ;  mankind  were  to  be 
deprived  of  every  benefit  that  might  have  been  derived 
from  the  happy  success  of  his  schemes,  and  his  own 
name  would  descend  to  posterity  as  that  of  a  rash 
deluded  adventurer,  instead  of  being  transmitted  with 
the  honour  due  to  the  author  and  conductor  of  the 
most  noble  enterprise  that  had  ever  been  undertaken. 
These  reflections  extinguished  all  sense  of  his  own 
personal  danger.  Less  affected  with  the  loss  of  life, 
than  solicitous  to  preserve  the  memory  of  what  he 
had  attempted  and  achieved,  he  retired  to  his  cabin, 
and  wrote,  upon  parchment,  a  short  account  of  the 
voyage  which  he  had  made,  of  the  course  which  he 
had  taken,  of  the  situation  and  riches  of  the  countries 
which  he  had  discovered,  and  of  the  colony  that  he 
had  left  there.  Having  wrapped  up  this  in  an  oiled 
cloth,  which  he  enclosed  in  a  cake  of  wax,  he  put  it 
into  a  cask  carefully  stopped  up,  and  threw  it  into 
the  sea,  in  hopes  that  some  fortunate  accident  might 
preserve  a  deposit  of  so  much  importance  to  the 
world. 

At  length  Providence  interposed,  to  save  a  life 
reserved  for  other  sen-ices.  The  wind  abated,  the 
sea  became  calm,  and  on  the  evening  of  the  fifteenth, 
Columbus  and  his  companions  discovered  land ;  and 
though  uncertain  what  it  was,  they  made  towards  it. 
They  soon  knew  it  to  be  St.  Mary,  one  of  the  Azores 
or  western  isles,  subject  to  the  crown  of  Portugal. 
There,  after  a  violent  contest  with  the  governor,  in 
which  Columbus  displayed  no  less  spirit  than  pru- 
dence, he  obtained  a  supply  of  fresh  provisions,  an'd 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


whatever  else  Vie  needed.  One  circumstance,  how- 
ever, greatly  disquieted  him.  The  Pinta,  of  which 
he  had  lost  sight  on  the  first  day  of  the  hurricane, 
did  not  appear ;  he  dreaded  for  some  time  that  she 
had  foundered  at  sea,  and  that  all  her  crew  had 
perished  ;  afterwards,  his  former  suspicions  recurred, 
and  he  became  apprehensive  that  Pinzon  had  borne 
away  for  Spain,  that  he  might  reach  it  before  him, 
and,  by  giving  the  first  account  of  his  discoveries, 
might  obtain  some  share  of  his  fame. 

[Feb.  24.]  In  order  to  prevent  this,  he  left  the 
Azores  as  soon  as  the  weather  would  permit.  At  no 
grent  distance  from  the  coast  of  Spain,  when  near  the 
end  of  his  voyage,  and  seemingly  beyond  the  reach 
of  any  disaster,  another  storm  arose,  little  inferior  to 
the  former  in  violence ;  and  after  driving  before  it 
during  two  days  and  two  nights,  he  was  forced  to 
take  shelter  in  the  river  Tagus  [March  4.J  Upon 
application  to  the  king  of  Portugal,  he  was  allowed 
to  come  up  to  Lisbon  ;  .  and,  notwithstanding  the 
envy  which  it  was  natural  for  the  Portuguese  to  feel, 
when  they  beheld  another  nation  entering  upon  that 
province  of  discovery  which  they  had  hitherto  deemed 
peculiarly  their  own,  and  in  its  first  essay,  not  only 
rivalling,  but  eclipsing  their  fame,  Columbus  was 
received  with  all  the  marks  of  distinction  due  to  a 
man  who  had  performed  things  so  extraordinary  and 
unexpected.  The  king  admitted  him  into  his  pre- 
sence, treated  him  with  the  highest  respect,  and 
listened  to  the  account  which  he  gave  of  his  voyage 
mingled  with  regret.  While  Columbus,  on  his  part, 
enjoyed  the  satisfaction  of  describing  the  importance 
of  his  discoveries,  and  of  being  now  able  to  prove  the 
solidity  of  his  schemes  to  those  very  persons,  who, 
with  an  ignorance  disgraceful  to  themselves,  and 
fatal  to  their  country,  had  lately  rejected  them  as  the 
projects  of  a  visionary  or  designing  adventurer  (16). 

Columbus  was  so  impatient  to  return  to  Spain, 
that  he  remained  only  five  days  in  Lisbon.  On  the 
fifteenth  of  March  he  arrived  in  the  port  of  Palos, 
Seven  months  and  eleven  days  from  the  time  when 
he  set  out  thence  upon  his  voyage.  As  soon  as  the 
ship  was  discovered  approaching  the  port,  all  the 
inhabitants  of  Palos  ran  eagerly  to  the  shore,  in  order 
to  welcome  their  relations  and  fellow-citizens,  and  to 
hear  tidings  of  their  voyage.  When  the  prosperous 
issue  of  it  was  known,  when  they  beheld  the  strange 
people,  the  unknown  animals,  and  singular  produc- 
tions, brought  from  the  countries  which  had  been 
discovered,  the  effusion  of  joy  was  general  and 
unbounded.  The  bells  were  rung,  the  cannon  fired  ; 
Columbus  was  received  at  landing  with  royal  honours, 
and  all  the  people,  in  solemn  procession,  accompanied 
him  and  his  crew  to  the  church,  where  they  returned 
thanks  to  Heaven,  which  had  so  wonderfully  con- 
ducted and  crowned  with  success  a  voyage  of  greater 
length  and  of  more  importance  than  had  been 
attempted  in  any  former  age.  On  the  evening  of 
the  same  day,  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the 
Pinta,  which  the  violence  of  the  tempest  had  driven 
far  to  the  north,  enter  the  harbour. 

The  first  care  of  Columbus  was  to  inform  the  king 
and  queen,  who  were  then  at  Barcelona,  of  his  arri- 
val and  success.  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  no  less 
astonished  than  delighted  with  this  unexpected 
event,  desired  Columbus,  in  terms  the  most  respect- 
ful and  flattering,  to  repair  immediately  to  court, 
that  from  his  own  mouth  they  might  receive  a  full 
detail  of  his  extraordinary  services  and  discoveries. 
During  his  journey  to  Barcelona,  the  people  crowded 
from  the  adjacent  country,  following  him  everywhere 
1rith  admiration  and  applause,  His  entrance  into 


the  city  was  conducted,  by  order  of  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella,  with  pomp  suitable  to  the  great  event, 
which  added  such  distinguishing  lustre  to  their  reign. 
The  people  whom  he  brought  along  with  him  from 
the  countries  which  he  had  discovered,  marched  first, 
and  by  their  singular  complexion,  the  wild  peculiarity 
of  their  features,  and  uncouth  finery,  appeared  like 
men  of  another  species.  Next  to  them  were  carried 
the  ornaments  of  gold  fashioned  by  the  rude  art  of 
the  natives,  the  grains  of  gold  found  in  the  moun- 
tains, and  dust  of  the  same  metal  gathered  in  the 
rivers.  After  these  appeared  the  various  commo- 
dities of  the  new  discovered  countries,  together  with 
their  curious  productions.  Columbus  himself  closed 
the  procession,  and  attracted  the  eyes  of  all  the 
spectators,  who  gazed  with  admiration  on  the  extra- 
ordinary man,  whose  superior  sagacity  and  fortitude 
had  conducted  their  countrymen,  by  a  route  concealed 
from  past  ages,  to  the  knowledge  of  a  new  world. 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella  received  him  clad  in  their 
royal  robos,  and  seated  upon  a  throne,  under  a  mag- 
nificent canopy.  When  he  approached,  they  stood 
up,  and  raising  him  as  he  kneeled  to  kiss  their  hands, 
commanded  him  to  take  his  seat  upon  a  chair  pre- 
pared for  him,  and  give  a  circumstantial  account  of 
his  voyage.  He  delivered  it  with  a  gravity  and 
composure  no  less  suitable  to  the  disposition  of  the 
Spanish  nation,  than  to  the  dignity  of  the  audience 
in  which  he  spoke,  and  with  that  modest  simplicity 
which  characterizes  men  of  superior  minds,  who, 
satisfied  with  having  performed  great  actions,  court 
not  vain  applause  by  an  ostentatious  display  of  their 
exploits.  When  he  had  finished  his  narration,  the 
king  and  queen,  kneeling  down,  offered  up  solemn 
thanks  to  Almighty  God  for  the  discovery  of  those 
new  regions,  from  which  they  expected  so  many 
advantages  to  flow  in  upon  the  kingdoms  subject  to 
their  government  (17).  Every  mark  of  honour  that 
gratitude  or  admiration  could  suggest  was  con- 
ferred upon  Columbus.  Letters  patent  were  issued, 
confirming  to  him  and  to  his  heirs  all  the  privileges 
contained  in  the  capitulation  concluded  at  Santa  Fe ; 
his  family  was  ennobled  ;  the  king  and  queen,  and, 
after  their  example,  the  courtiers,  treated  him,  on 
every  occasion,  with  all  the  ceremonious  respect  paid 
to  persons  of  the  highest  rank.  But  what  pleased 
him  most,  as  it  gratified  his  active  mind,  bent  con- 
tinually upon  great  objects,  was  an  order  to  equip, 
without  delay,  an  armament  of  such  force,  as  might 
enable  him  not  only  to  take  possession  of  the  countries 
which  he  had  already  discovered,  but  to  go  in  search 
of  those  more  opulent  regions,  which  he  still  confi- 
dently expected  to  find. 

While  preparations  were  making  for  this  expedi- 
tion, the  fame  of  Columbus's  successful  voyage 
spread  over  Europe,  and  excited  general  attention. 
The  multitude,  struck  with  amazement  when  they 
heard  that  a  new  world  had  been  found,  could  hardly 
believe  an  event  so  much  above  their  conception. 
Men  of  science,  capable  of  comprehending  the  nature, 
and  of  discerning  the  effects,  of  this  great  discovery, 
received  the  account  of  it  with  admiration  and  joy. 
They  spoke  of  his  voyage  with  rapture,  and  con- 
gratulated one  another  upon  their  felicity,  in  having 
lived  in  the  period  when,  by  this  extraordinary  erent, 
the  boundaries  of  human  knowledge  were  so  much 
extended,  and  such  a  new  field  of  inquiry  and  obser- 
vation opened,  as  would  lead  mankind  to  a  perfect 
acquaintance  with  the  structure  and  productions  of 
the  habitable  globe  (IS).  Various  opinions  and 
conjectures  were  formed  concerning  the  new-found 
countries,  and  what  division  of  the  earth  they 


30 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


belonged  to.  Columbus  adhered  tenaciously  to  his 
original  opinion,  that  they  should  be  reckoned  a  part 
of  those  vast  regions  in  Asia,  comprehended  under 
the  general  name  of  India.  This  sentiment  was 
confirmed  by  the  observations  which  he  made  con- 
cerning the  productions  of  the  countries  he  had 
discovered.  Gold  was  known  to  abound  in  India, 
and  he  had  met  with  such  promising  samples  of  it  in 
the  islands  which  he  visited,  as  led  him  to  believe 
that  rich  mines  of  it  might  be  found.  Cotton, 
another  production  of  the  East  Indies,  was  common 
there.  The  pimento  of  the  islands  he  imagined  to 
be  a  species  of  the  East  Indian  pepper.  He  mistook 
a  root,  somewhat  resembling  rhubarb,  for  that  valu- 
able drug,  which  was  then  supposed  to  be  a  plant 
peculiar  to  the  East  Indies.  The  birds  brought  home 
by  him  were  adorned  with  the  same  rich  plumage 
which  distinguishes  those  of  India.  The  alligator  of 
the  one  country  appeared  to  be  the  same  with  the 
crocodile  of  the  other.  After  weighing  all  these 
circumstances,  not  only  the  Spaniards,  but  the  other 
nations  of  Europe,  seem  to  have  adopted  the  opinion 
of  Columbus.  The  countries  which  he  had  discovered 
were  considered  as  a  part  of  India.  In  consequence 
of  this  notion,  the  name  of  Indies  is  given  to  them 
by  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  in  a  ratification  of  their 
former  agreement,  which  was  granted  to  Columbus 
upon  his  return.  Even  after  the  error  which  gave 
rise  to  this  opinion  was  detected,  and  the  true 
position  of  the  New  World  was  ascertained,  the 
name  has  remained,  aud  the  appellation  of  West 
Indies  is  given  by  all  the  people  of  Europe  to  the 
country,  and  that  of  Indians  to  its  inhabitants. 

The  name  by  which  Columbus  distinguished  the 
countries  which  he  had  discovered  was  so  inviting,  the 
specimens  of  their  riches  and  fertility,  which  he  pro- 
duced, were  so  considerable,  and  the  reports  of  his  com- 
panions, delivered  frequently  with  the  exaggeration 
natural  to  travellers,  so  favourable,  as  to  excite  a 
wonderful  spirit  of  enterprise  among  the  Spaniards. 
Though  little  accustomed  to  naval  expeditions,  they 
were  impatient  to  set  out  upon  their  voyage.  Volun- 
teers of  every  rank  solicited  to.be  employed.  Allured 
by  the  inviting  prospects  which  opened  to  their 
ambition  and  avarice,  neither  the  length  nor  danger  of 
the  navigation  intimidated  them.  Cautious  as  Ferdi- 
nand was,  and  averse  to  every  thing  new  and  adven- 
turous, he  seems  to  have  catched  the  same  spirit  with 
his  subjects.  Under  its  influence,  preparations  for  a 
second  expedition  were  carried  on  with  a  rapidity 
unusual  in  Spain,  and  to  an  extent  that  would  be 
deemed  not  inconsiderable  in  the  present  age.  The 
fleet  consisted  of  seventeen  ships,  some  of  which 
were  of  good  burden.  It  had  on  board  fifteen  hundred 
persons,  among  whom  were  many  of  noble  families, 
who  had  served  in  honourable  stations.  The  greater 
part  of  these  being  destined  to  remain  in  the  country, 
were  furnished  with  every  thing  requisite  for  conquest 
or  settlement,  with  all  kinds  of  European  domestic 
animals,  with  such  seeds  and  plants  as  were  most  likely 
to  thrive  in  the  climate  of  the  West  Indies,  with  utensils 
and  instruments  of  every  sort,  and  with  such  artificers 
as  might  be  most  useful  in  an  infant  colony. 

But,  formidable  and  well  provided  as  this  fleet 
was,  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  did  not  rest  their  title 
to  the  possession  of  the  newly  discovered  countries 
upon  its  operations  alone.  The  example  of  the 
Portuguese,  as  well  as  the  superstition  of  the  age, 
made  it  necessary  to  obtain  from  the  Roman  pontiff 
a  grant  of  those  teiritories  which  they  wished  to  occupy. 
The  pope,  as  the  vicar  and  representative  of  Jesus 
Christ,  was  supposed  to  have  a  right  of  dominion 


over  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth.  Alexander  VI. 
a  pontiff  infamous  jfor  every  crime  which  disgraces 
humanity,  filled  the  papal  throne  at  that  time.  As 
he  was  born  Ferdinand's  subject,  and  very  solicitous 
to  secure  the  protection  of  Spain,  in  order  to  facilitate 
the  execution  of  his  ambitious  schemes  in  favour  of 
his  own  family,  he  was  extremely  willing  to  gratify 
the  Spanish  monarchs.  By  an  act  of  liberality  which 
cost  him  nothing,  and  that  served  to  establish  the 
jurisdiction  and  pretensions  of  the  papal  see,  he 
granted  in  full  right  to  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  all 
the  countries  inhabited  by  infidels,  which  they  had 
discovered,  or  should  discover;  and,  in  virtue  of 
that  power  which  he  derived  from  Jesus  Christ,  he 
conferred  on  the  crown  of  Castile  vast  regions,  to 
the  possession  of  which  he  himself  was  so  far  from 
having  any  title,  that  he  was  unacquainted  with  their 
situation,  and  ignorant  even  of  their  own  existence. 
As  it  was  necessary  to  prevent  this  grant  from  inter- 
fering with  that  formerly  made  to  the  crown  of 
Portugal,  he  appointed  that  a  line,  supposed  to  be 
drawn  from  pole  to  pole,  a  hundred  leagues  to  the 
westward  of  the  Azores,  should  serve  as  a  limit 
between  them ;  and,  in  the  plentitude  of  his  power, 
bestowed  all  to  the  east  of  this  imaginary  line  upon 
the  Portuguese,  and  all  to  the  west  of  it  upon  the 
Spaniards.  Zeal  for  propagating  the  Christian  faith 
was  the  consideration  employed  by  Ferdinand  in 
soliciting  this  bull,  and  is  mentioned  by  Alexander 
as  his  chief  motive  for  issuing  it.  In  order  to  mani- 
fest some  concern  for  this  laudable  object,  several 
friars,  under  the  direction  of  father  Boyl,  a  Catalonian 
monk  of  great  reputation,  as  apostolical  vicar,  were 
appointed  to  accompany  Columbus,  and  to  devote 
themselves  to  the  instruction  of  the  natives.  The 
Indians,  whom  Columbus  had  brought  along  with 
him,  having  received  some  tincture  of  Christian 
knowledge,  were  baptized  with  much  solemnity,  the 
king  himself,  the  prince  his  son,  and  the  chief  persons 
of  his  court,  standing  as  their  godfathers.  Those 
first  fruits  of  the  New  World  have  not  been  followed 
by  such  an  increase  as  pious  men  wished,  and  had 
reason  to  expect. 

Ferdinand  and  Isabella  having  thus  acquired  a  title, 
which  was  then  deemed  completely  valid,  to  extend 
their  discoveries  and  to  establish  their  dominion 
over  such  a  considerable  portion  of  the  globe,  nothing 
now  retarded  the  departure  of  the  fleet.  Columbus 
was  extremely  impatient  to  revisit  the  colony  which 
he  had  left,  and  to  pursue  that  career  of  glory  upon 
which  he  had  entered.  He  set  sail  from  the  bay  of 
Cadiz  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  September,  and  touching 
again  at  the  island  of  Gomera,  he  steered  further 
towards  the  south  than  in  his  former  voyage.  By- 
holding  this  course,  he  enjoyed  more  steadily  the 
benefit  of  the  regular  winds  which  reign  within  the 
tropics,  and  was  carried  towards  a  larger  cluster 
of  islands,  situated  considerably  to  the  east  of  those 
which  he  had.  aVeady  discovered.  On  the  twenty- 
sixth  day  after  his  departure  from  Gomera  [Nov.  2], 
he  made  land.  It  was  one  of  the  Caribbee  or  Leeward 
Islands,  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  Descada,  on 
account  of  the  impatience  of  his  crew  to  discover 
some  part  of  the  New  World.  After  this  he  visited 
successively  Dominica,  Marigalante,  Guadaloupe, 
Antigua,  San  Juan  de  Puerto  Rico,  and  several  other 
islands,  scattered  in  his  way  as  he  advanced  towards 
the  north-west.  All  these  he  found  to  be  inhabited 
by  that  fierce  race  of  people  whom  Guacanahari  had 
painted  in  such  frightful  colours.  His  descriptions 
appeared  not  to  have  been  exaggerated.  The  Spaniards 
never  attempted  to  laud  without  meeting  with  such 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


31 


a  reception,  as  discovered  the  martial  and  daring 
spirit  of  the  natives ;  and  in  their  habitations  were 
found  relics  of  those  horrid  feasts  which  they  had 
made  vipon  the  bodies  of  their  enemies  taken  in  war. 

But  as  Columbus  was  eager  to  know  the  state  of 
the  colony  which  he  had  planted,  and  to  supply  it 
with  the  necessaries  of  which  he  supposed  it  to  be  in 
want,  he  made  no  stay  in  any  of  those  islands,  and 
proceeded  directly  to  Hispaniola  [Nov.  22].  When 
he  arrived  off  Navidad,  the  station  in  which  he  had 
left  the  thirty-eight  men  under  the  command  of 
Arada,  he  was  astonished  that  none  of  them  appeared, 
and  expected  every  moment  to  see  them  running 
with  transports  of  joy  to  welcome  their  countrymen. 
Full  of  solicitude  about  their  safety,  and  foreboding 
in  his  mind  what  had  befallen  them,  he  rowed  in- 
stantly to  land.  All  the  natives  from  whom  he 
might  have  received  information  had  fled.  But  the 
fort  which  he  had  built  was  entirely  demolished,  and 
the  tattered  garments,  the  broken  arms  and  utensils 
scattered  about  it,  left  no  room  to  doubt  concerning 
the  unhappy  fate  of  the  garrison.  While  the  Span- 
iards were  shedding  tears  over  those  sad  memorials 
of  their  fellow-citizens,  a  brother  of  the  cazique 
Guacanahari  arrived.  From  him  Columbus  re- 
ceived a  particular  detail  of  what  had  happened  after 
his  departure  from  the  island.  The  familiar  inter- 
course of  the  Indians  with  the  Spaniards  tended 
gradually  to  diminish  the  superstitious  veneration 
with  which  their  first  appearance  had  inspired  that 
simple  people.  By  their  own  indiscretion  and  ill 
conduct,  the  Spaniards  speedily  effaced  those  favour- 
able impressions,  and  soon  convinced  the  natives, 
that  they  had  all  the  wants,  and  weaknesses,  and 
passions  of  men.  As  soon  as  the  powerful  restraint 
which  the  presence  and  authority  of  Columbus  im- 
posed was  withdrawn,  the  garrison  threw  off  all  re- 
gard for  the  officer  whom  he  had  invested  with  com- 
mand. Regardless  of  the  prudent  instructions  which 
he  had  given  them,  every  man  became  independent, 
and  gratified  his  desires  without  controul.  The  gold, 
the  women,  the  provisions  of  the  natives,  were  all 
the  prey  of  those  licentious  oppressors.  They  roamed 
in  small  parties  over  the  island,  extending  their  ra- 
pacity and  insolence  to  every  corner  of  it.  Gentle 
and  timid  as  the  people  were,  those  unprovoked  in- 
juries at  length  exhausted  their  patience,  and  roused 
their  courage.  The  cazique  of  Cibao,  whose  country 
the  Spaniards  chiefly  infested  on  account  of  the  gold 
which  it  contained,  surprised  and  cut  off  several  of 
them,  while  they  straggled  in  as  perfect  security  as 
if  their  conduct  had  been  altogether  inoffensive.  He 
then  assembled  his  subjects,  and  surrounding  the 
fort,  set  it  on  fire.  Some  of  the  Spaniards  were  killed 
in  defending  it,  the  rest  perishing  in  attempting  to 
make  their  escape  by  crossing  an  arm  of  the  sea. 
Guacanahari,  whom  all  their  exactions  had  not 
alienated  from  the  Spaniards,  took  arms  in  their 
behalf,  and,  in  endeavouring  to  protect  them,  had 
received  a  wound,  by  which  he  was  still  confined. 

Though  this  account  was  far  from  removing  the 
suspicions  which  the  Spaniards  entertained  with 
respect  to  the  fidelity  of  Guacanahari,  Columbus 
perceived  so  clearly  that  this  was  not  a  proper 
juncture  for  inquiring  into  his  conduct  with  scru- 
pulous accuracy,  that  he  rejected  the  advice  of  several 
of  his  officers,  who  urged  him  to  seize  the  person  of 
that  prince,  and  to  revenge  the  death  of  their  country- 
man by  attacking  his  subjects.  He  represented  to 
them  the  necessity  of  securing  the  friendship  of  some 
potentate  of  the  country,  in  order  to  facilitate  the 
settlement  which  they  intended,  and  the  danger  of 


driving  the  natives  to  unite  in  some  desperate  attempt 
against  them,  by  such  an  ill-timed  and  unavailing 
exercise  of  rigour.  Instead  of  wasting  his  time  in 
punishing  past  wrongs,  he  took  precautions  for 
preventing  any  future  injury.  With  this  view  he 
made  choice  of  a  situation  more  healthy  and  com- 
modious than  that  of  Navidad.  He  traced  out  the 
plan  of  a  town  in  a  large  plain  near  a  spacious  bay, 
and  obliging  every  person  to  put  his  hand  to  a  work 
on  which  their  common  safety  depended,  the  houses 
and  ramparts  were  soon  so  far  advanced  by  their 
united  labour,  as  to  afford  them  shelter  and  security. 
This  rising  city,  the  first  that  the  Europeans  founded 
in  the  New  World,  he  named  Isabella,  in  honour  of 
his  patroness  the  queen  of  Castile. 

In  carrying  on  this  necessary  work,  Columbus  had 
not  only  to  sustain  all  the  hardships,  and  to  encounter 
all  the  difficulties,  to  which  infant  colonies  are  ex- 
posed when  they  settle  in  an  uncultivated  country, 
but  he  had  to  contend  with  what  was  more  insuper- 
able, the  laziness,  the  impatience,  and  mutinous 
disposition  of  his  followers.  By  the  enervating  in- 
fluence of  a  hot  climate,  the  natural  inactivity  of  the 
Spaniards  seemed  to  increase.  Many  of  them  were 
gentlemen,  unaccustomed  to  the  fatigue  of  bodily 
labour,  and  all  had  engaged  in  the  enterprise  with 
the  sanguine  hopes  excited  by  the  splendid  and  ex- 
•ggfentod  description  of  their  countrymen  who  re- 
turned from  the  first  voyage,  or  by  the  mistaken 
opinion  of  Columbus,  that  the  country  which  he  had 
discovered  was  either  the  Cipango  of  Marco  Polo,  or 
the  Ophair,  from  Avhich  Solomon  imported  those 
precious  commodities  which  suddenly  diffused  such 
extraordinary  riches  through  his  kingdom.  But 
when,  instead  of  that  golden  harvest  which  they  had 
expected  to  reap  without  toil  or  pains,  the  Spaniards 
saw  that  their  prospect  of  wealth  was  remote  as  well 
as  uncertain,  and  that  it  could  not  be  attained  but 
by  the  slow  and  persevering  efforts  of  industry,  the 
disappointment  of  those  chimerical  hopes  occasioned 
such  dejection  of  mind  as  bordered  on  despair,  and 
led  to  general  discontent.  In  vain  did  Columbus 
endeavour  to  revive  their  spirits  by  pointing  out  the 
fertility  of  the  soil,  and  exhibiting  the  specimens  of 
gold  daily  brought  in  from  different  parts  of  the 
island.  They  had  not  patience  to  wait  for  the 
gradual  returns  which  the  foimer  might  yield,  and 
the  latter  they  despised  as  scanty  and  inconsiderable. 
The  spirit  of  disaffection  spread,  and  a  conspiracy 
was  formed,  which  might  have  been  fatal  to  Colum- 
bus and  the  colony.  Happily  he  discovered  it ;  and, 
seizing  the  ringleaders,  punished  some  of  them,  sent 
others  prisoners  into  Spain,  whither  he  dispatched 
twelve  of  the  ships  which  had  served  as  transports, 
with  an  earnest  request  for  a  reinforcement  of  men 
and  a  large  supply  of  provisions. 

[A.  D.  1494.]  Meanwhile,  in  order  to  banish  that 
idleness,  which,  by  allowing  his  people  leisure  to 
brood  over  their  disappointment,  nourished  the 
spirit  of  discontent,  Columbus  planned  several  ex- 
peditions into  the  interior  parts  of  the  country.  He 
sent  a  detachment,  under  the  command  of  Alonzo 
de  Ojeda  [March  12],  a  vigilant  and  enterprising 
officer,  to  visit  the  district  of  Cibao,  which  was  said 
to  yield  the  greatest  quantity  of  gold,  and  followed 
him  in  person  with  the  main  body  of  his  troops. 
In  this  expedition  he  displayed  all  the  pomp  of 
military  magnificence  that  he  could  exhibit,  in  order 
to  strike  the  imagination  of  the  natives.  He  marched 
with  colours  flying,  with  martial  music,  and  with  a 
small  body  of  cavalry  that  paraded  sometimes  in  the 
front  and.  sometimes  in  the  rear.  As  those  were  the 


32 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


first  horses  which  appeared  in  the  New  World,  they 
were  objects  of  terror  no  less  than  of  admiration  t 
the  Indians,  who,  having  no  tame  animals  them- 
selves, were  unacquainted  with  that  vast  accession  o 
power  which  man  hath  acquired  by  subjecting  them 
to  his  dominion.  They  supposed  them  to  be 
rational  creatures.  They  imagined  that  the  horse 
and  the  rider  formed  one  animal,  with  whose  speed 
they  were  astonished,  and  whose  impetuosity  and 
strength  they  considered  as  irresistible.  But  while 
Columbus  endeavoured  to  inspire  the  natives  with 
a  dread  of  his  power,  he  did  not  neglect  the  arts  oi 
gaining  their  love  and  confidence.  He  adhered 
scrupulously  to  the  principles  of  integrity  and  justice 
in  all  his  transactions  with  them,  and  treated  them 
on  every  occasion,  not  only  with  humanity,  but  with 
indulgence.  The  district  of  Cibao  answered  the 
description  given  of  it  by  the  natives.  It  was  moun- 
tainous and  uncultivated,  but  in  every  river  and 
brook  gold  was  gathered  either  in  dust  or  in  grains 
*ome  of  which  were  of  considerable  size.  The 
Indians  had  never  opened  any  mines  in  search  of 
gold.  To  penetrate  into  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  and 
to  refine  the  rude  ore,  were  operations  too  compli- 
cated and  laborious  for  their  talents  and  industry, 
and  they  had  no  such  high  value  for  gold  as  to  put 
their  ingenuity  and  invention  upon  the  stretch  in 
order  to  obtain  it.  The  small  quantity  of  that  pre- 
cious metal  which  they  possessed,  was  either  picked 
up  in  the  beds  of  the  rivers,  or  washed  from  the 
mountains  by  the  heavy  rains  that  fall  within  the 
tropics.  But,  from  those  indications,  the  Spaniards 
could  no  longer  doubt  that  the  country  contained 
rich  treasures  in  its  bowels,  of  which  they  hoped  soon 
to  be  masters.  In  order  to  secure  the  command  of 
this  valuable  province,  Columbus  erected  a  small 
fort  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  St.  Thomas,  by 
way  of  ridicule  upon  some  of  his  incredulous  fol- 
lowers, who  would  not  believe  that  the  country  pro- 
duced gold,  until  they  saw  it  with  their  own  eyes, 
and  touched  it  with  their  hands. 

The  account  of  those  promising  appearances  of 
-wealth  in  the  country  of  Cibao  came  very  seasonably 
to  comfort  the  desponding  colony,  which  was  affected 
with  distresses  of  various  kinds.  The  stock  of  pro- 
visions which  had  been  brought  from  Europe  was 
mostly  consumed  ;  what  remained  was  so  much  cor- 
rupted by  the  heat  and  moisture  of  the  climate,  as  to 
be  almost  unfit  for  use  ;  the  natives  cultivated  so 
small  a  portion  of  ground,  and  with  so  little  skill, 
that  it  hardly  yielded  what  was  sufficient  for  their 
own  subsistence;  the  Spaniards  at  Isabella  had 
hitherto  neither  time  nor  leisure  to  clear  the  soil,  so 
as  to  reap  any  considerable  fruits  of  their  own  indus- 
try. On  all  these  accounts,  they  became  afraid  of 
perishing  with  hunger,  and  were  reduced  already  to  a 
scanty  allowance.  At  the  same  time,  the  diseases 
predominant  in  the  torrid  zone,  and  which  rage 
chiefly  in  those  uncultivated  countries,  where  the 
hand  of  industry  has  not  opened  the  woods,  drained 
the  marshes,  and  confined  the  rivers  within  a  certain 
channel,  began  to  spread  among  them.  Alarmed  at 
the  violence  and  unusual  symptoms  of  those  maladies, 
they  exclaimed  against  Columbus  and  his  com- 
panions in  the  former  voyage,  who,  by  their 
splendid  but  deceitful  descriptions  of  Hispaniola, 
allured  them  to  quit  Spain  for  a  barbarous  unculti- 
vated land,  where  they  must  either  be  cut  off  by 
famine,  or  die  of  unknown  distempers.  Several  of 
the  officers  and  persons  of  note,  instead  of  checking, 
joined  in  those  seditious  complaints.  Father  Boyl, 
the  apostolical  vicar,  .was  ooe  of  the  most  turbulent 


and  outrageous.  It  required  all  the  authority  and 
address  of  Columbus  to  re-establish  subordination 
and  tranquility  in  the  colony.  Threats  and  promises 
were  alternately  employed  for  this  purpose ;  but 
nothing  contributed  more  to  soothe  the  malcontents, 
than  the  prospect  of  finding  in  the  mines  of  Cibao 
such  a  store  of  treasure  as  would  be  a  recompence 
for  all  their  sufferings,  and  efface  the  memory  of 
former  disappointments. 

When,  by  his  unwearied  endeavours,  concord  and 
order  were  so   far   restored  that  he  could  venture  to 
leave  the  island,  Columbus   resolved  to  pursue  his 
discoveries,  that  he  might  be  able  to  ascertain  whether 
those  new   countries  with  which  he  had  opened  a 
communication  were  connected  with  any  region  of 
the  earth  already  known,  or  whether  they  were  to  be 
considered  as  a  separate  portion  of  the  globe  hitherto 
unvisited.     He  appointed   his  brother,  Don  Diego, 
with  the  assistance  of  a  council  of  officers,  to  govern 
the  island  in  his  absence ;  and  gave  the  command  of 
a  body  of  soldiers   to   Don   Pedro   Margarita,  with 
which  he  was  to  visit  the  different  parts  of  the  island, 
and  endeavour   to    establish   the    authority   of   the 
Spaniards  among  the  inhabitants.     Having  left  them 
very  particular  instructions  with  respect  to  their  con- 
duct, he  weighed  anchor  on  the  twenty-fourth  of  April, 
.with    one    ship,    and    two    small    barks,    under    his 
command.      During  a  tedious  voyage  of  full   five 
months,  he  had  a  trial  of  almost  all  the  numerous 
hardships   to  which   persons  of  his    profession  are 
exposed,  without  making  any  discovery  of  importance, 
except  the  island  of  Jamaica.     As  he  ranged  along 
the  southern  coast  of  Cuba   (19),  he  was  entangled 
in  a  labyrinth   formed   by  an   incredible  number   of 
small  islands,  to  which   he    gave  the    name    of  the 
Queen's  Garden.     In  this  unknown  course,   among 
rocks   and    shelves,    he    was   retarded  by   contrary 
winds,  assaulted  with  furious  storms,  arid  alarmed 
with  the  terrible  thunder   and   lightning  which  is 
often    almost   incessant    between    the   tropics.      At 
length  his  provisions  fell  short ;  his  crew,  exhausted 
with  fatigue,    as   well   as   hunger,    murmured  and 
threatened,  and  were  ready  to  proceed  to  desperate 
extremities  against  him.     Beset  with  danger  in  such 
various   forms,    he  was  obliged  to   keep   continual 
watch,    to    observe  every  occurrence  with   his  own 
eyes,  to  issue  every  order,  and  to  superintend  the 
execution  of  it.     On  no  occasion   was  the  extent  of 
his  skill  and  experience  as  a  navigator  so  much  tried. 
To  these  the  squadron  owed  its   safety.     But  this 
unremitted  fatigue  of  body,   and  intense  application 
of    mind,   overpowering    his     constitution,    though 
naturally  vigorous  and  robust,  brought  on  a  feverish 
disorder,   which    terminated    in    a     lethargy,     that 
deprived  him  of  sense  and  memory,  and  had  almost 
proved  fatal  to  his  life. 

But,  on  his  return  to  Hispaniola  [Sept.  27],  the 
sudden  emotion  of  joy  which  he  felt  upon  meeting 
with  his  brother  Bartholomew  at  Isabella,  occasioned 
such  a  flow  of  spirits  as  contributed  greatly  to  his 
recovery.  It  was  now  thirteen  years  since  the  two 
brothers,  whom  similarity  of  talents  united-  in  close 
friendship,  had  separated  from  each  other,  and 
during  that  long  period  there  had  been  no  intercourse 
between  them.  Bartholomew,  after  finishing  his 
negociation  in  the  court  of  England,  had  set  out  for 
Spain  by  the  way  of  France.  At  Paris  he  received 
an  account  of  the  extraordinary  discoveries  which 
his  brother  had  made  in  his  first  voyage,  and  that  he 
was  then  preparing  to  embark  on  a  second  expedition. 
Though  this  naturally  induced  him  to  pursue  his 
journey  with  the  utmost  dispatch,  the  Admiral  had 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


S3 


sailed  for  Hispaniola  before  he  reached  Spain.  Fer- 
dinand and  Isabella  received  him  with  tho  respect 
due  to  the  nearest  kinsman  of  a  person  whose  merits 
and  services  rendered  him  so  conspicuous  ;  and  as 
they  knew  what  consolation  his  presence  would 
afford  to  his  brother,  they  persuaded  him  to  take  the 
command  of  three  ships,  which  they  had  appointed  to 
carry  provisions  to  the  colony  at  Isabella. 

He  could  not  have  arrived  at  any  juncture  when 
Columbus  stood  more  in  need  of  a  friend  capable  of 
assisting  him  with  his  counsels,  or  of  dividing  with 
lam  the  cares  and  burden  of  government.  For 
although  the  provisions  now  brought  from  Europe 
aiTordcd  a  temporary  relief  to  the  Spaniards  from 
the  calamities  of  famine,  the  supply  was  not  in  such 
quantity  as  to  support  thorn  long,  and  the  island  did 
not  hitherto  yield  what  was  sufficient  for  their  suste- 
nance. They  were  threatened  with  another  danger, 
still  more  formidable  than  the  return  of  scarcity,  and 
which  demanded  more  immediate  attention.  No 
sooner  did  Columbus  leave  the  island  on  his  voyage 
of  discovery,  than  the  soldiers  under  Margarita,  as 
if  they  had  been  set  free  from  discipline  and  insu- 
bordination, scorned  all  restraint.  Instead  of  con- 
forming to  the  prudent  instructions  of  Columbus, 
they  dispersed  in  straggling  parties  over  the  island, 
lived  at  discretion  upon  the  natives,  wasted  their 
provisions,  seized  their  women,  and  treated  that 
inoti'eHsive  race  with  all  the  insolence  of  military 
oppression, 

As  long  as  the  Indians  had  any  prospect  that 
their  sufferings  might  come  to  a  period  by  the  volun- 
tary departure  of  the  invaders,  they  submitted  in 
silence,  and  dissembled  their  sorrow ;  but  they  now 
perceived  that  the  yoke  would  be  as  permanent  as  it 
was  intolerable.  The  Spaniards  had  built  a  town, 
and  surrounded  it  with  ramparts.  They  had  erected 
forts  in  different  places.  They  had  enclosed  and 
sown  several  fields.  It  was  apparent  that  they  came 
not  to  visit  the  country,  but  to  settle  in  it.  Though 
the  number  of  those  strangers  was  inconsiderable, 
the  state  of  cultivation  among  this  rude  people  was 
so  imperfect,  and  in  such  exact  propoition  to  their 
own  consumption,  that  it  was  with  difficulty  they 
could  afford  subsistence  to  their  new  guests.  Tlicir 
own  mode  of  life  was  so  indolent  and  inactive, 
the  warmth  of  the  climate  so  enervating,  the  consti- 
tution of  their  bodies  naturally  so  feeble,  and  so 
unaccustomed  to  the  laborious  exertions  of  industry, 
that  they  were  satisfied  with  a  proportion  of  food 
amazingly  small.  A  handful  of  maize,  or  a  little  of 
the  insipid  bread  made  of  the  cassada  root,  was 
sufficient  to  support  men,  whose  strength  and  spirits 
were  not  exhausted  by  any  vigorous  efforts  either  of 
body  or  mind.  The  Spaniards,  though  the  most 
abstemious  of  all  European  nations,  appeared  to 
them  excessively  voracious.  One  Spaniard  consumed 
as  much  as  several  Indians.  This  keenness  of  appe- 
tite surprised  them  so  much,  and  seemed  to  be  so 
insatiable,  that  they  supposed  the  Spaniards  had  left 
their  own  country,  because  it  did  not  produce  as 
much  as  was  requisite  to  gratify  their  immoderate 
desire  of  food,  and  had  come  among  them  in  quest 
of  nourishment.  Self-preservation  prompted  them 
to  wish  for  the  departure  of  guests  who  wasted  so 
fast  their  slender  stock  of  provisions.  The  injuries 
which  they  suffered  added  to  their  impatience  for 
this  event.  They  had  long  expected  that  the 
Spaniards  would  retire  of  their  own  accord.  They 
now  perceived  that,  in  order  to  avert  the  destruction 
with  which  they  were  threatened,  either  by  the  slow 
consumption  of  famine,  or  by  the  violence  of  their 

HISTORY  or  AMERICA,  No,  5. 


oppressors,  it  was  necessary  to  assume  courage,  to 
attack  those  formidable  invaders  with  united  force, 
and  drive  them  from  the  settlements  of  which  they 
had  violently  taken  possession. 

Such  were  the  sentiments  which  universally  pre- 
vailed among  the  Indians,  when  Columbus  returned 
to  Isabella.  Inflamed  by  the  unprovoked  outrages 
of  the  Spaniards,  with  a  degree  of  rage  of  which 
their  gentle  natures,  formed  to  suffer  and  submit, 
seemed  hardly  susceptible,  they  waited  only  for  a 
signal  from  their  leaders  to  fall  upon  the  colony. 
Some  of  the  caziques  had  already  surprised  and  cut 
off  several  stragglers.  The  dread  of  this  impending 
danger  united  the  Spaniards,  and  re-established  tho 
authority  of  Columbus,  as  they  saw  no  prospect  of 
safety  but  in  committing  themselves  to  his  prudent 
guidance.  It  was  now  necessary  to  have  recourse  to 
arms,  the  employing  of  which  against  the  Indians, 
Columbus  had  hitherto  avoided  with  the  greatest 
solicitude.  Unequal  as  the  conflict  may  seem,  be- 
tueen  the  naked  inhabitants  of  the  New  World, 
armed  with  clubs,  sticks  hardened  in  the  fire,  wooden 
swords,  and  arrows  pointed  with  bones  or  flints ; 
and  troops  accustomed  to  the  discipline,  and  provided 
with  the  instruments  of  destruction,  known  in  the 
European  art  of  war,  the  situation  of  the  Spaniards 
was  far  from  being  exempt  from  danger.  Tho  vast 
supeiiority  of  the  natives  in  number,  compensated 
many  defects.  A  handful  of  men  was  about  to 
encounter  a  whole  nation.  One  adverse  event,  or 
even  any  unforeseen  delay  in  determining  the  fate  of 
the  war,  might  prove  fatal  to  the  Spaniards.  Con- 
scious that  success  depended  on  the  vigour  and 
rapidity  of  his  operations,  Columbus  instantly  as- 
sembled his  forces.  They  were  reduced  to  a  very 
small  number.  Diseases  engendered  by  the  warmth 
and  humidity  of  the  country,  or  occasioned  by  their 
own  licentiousness,  had  raged  among  them  with 
much  violence;  experience  had  not  yet  taught  them 
the  art  either  of  curing  these,  or  the  precautions 
requisite  for  guarding  against  them ;  two  thirds  of 
the  original  adventurers  were  dead,  and  many  of 
those  who  survived  were  incapable  of  service.  The 
body  which  took  the  field  consisted  only  of  two 
hundred  foot,  twenty  horse,  and  twenty  large  dogs, 
and  how  strange  soever  it  may  seem  to  mention  the 
last  as  composing  part  of  a  military  force,  they  were 
not  perhaps  the  least  formidable  and  destructive  of 
the  whole,  when  employed  against  naked  and  timid 
Indians.  All  the  caziques  of  the  island,  Guacanahari 
excepted,  who  retained  an  inviolable  attachment  to 
the  Spaniards,  were  in  arms  to  oppose  Columbus, 
with  forces  amounting,  if  we  may  believe  the 
Spanish  historians,  to  a  hundred  thousand  men. 
Instead  of  attempting  to  draw  the  Spaniards  into  the? 
fastnesses  of  the  woods  and  mountains,  they  were  so 
imprudent  as  to  take  their  station  in  the  Vega  Real, 
the  most  open  plain  in  the  country.  Columbus  did 
not  allow  them  time  to  perceive  their  error,  or  to 
alter  their  position.  He  attacked  them  during  the 
night,  when  undisciplined  troops  are  least  capable  of 
acting  with  union  and  concert,  and  obtained  an  easy 
and  bloodless  victory.  The  consternation  with 
which  the  Indians  were  filled  by  the  noise  and  havoc 
made  by  the  fire-arms,  by  the  impetuous  force  of 
the  cavalry,  and  the  fierce  onset  of  the  dogs, 
was  so  great  that  they  threw  down  their  weapons, 
and  fled,  without  attempting  resistance.  Many  were 
slain ;  more  were  taken  prisoners,  and  reduced 
to  servitude ;  and  so  thoroughly  were  the  rest  inti- 
midated, that  from  that  moment  they  abandoned 
themselves  to  despair,  relinquishing  all  thoughts  of 
F 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


contending  with  aggressors  whom  they  deemed  in- 
tincible. 

Columbus  employed  several  months  in  marching 
through  the  island,  and  in  subjecting  it  to  the 
Spanish  government,  without  meeting  with  any  oppo- 
sition. He  imposed  a  tribute  upon  all  the  inhabit- 
ants above  the  age  of  fourteen.  Each  person  who 
lived  in  those  districts  where  gold  was  found,  was 
olbiged  to  pay  quarterly  as  much  gold-dust  as  filled 
a  hawk's  bell;  from  those  in  other  parts  of  the 
country,  twenty-five  pounds  of  cotton  were  de- 
manded. This  was  the  first  regular  taxation  of  the 
Indians,  and  served  as  a  precedent  for  exactions  still 
more  intolerable.  Such  an  imposition  was  extremely 
contrary  to  those  maxims  which  Columbus  had 
hitherto  inculcated,  with  respect  to  the  mode  of 
treating  them.  But  intrigues  were  carrying  on  in 
the  court  of  Spain  at  this  juncture,  in  order  to 
undermine  his  power,  and  discredit  his  operations, 
which  constrained  him  to  depart  from  his  own 
system  of  administration.  Several  unfavourable 
accounts  of  his  conduct,  as  well  as  of  the  countries 
discovered  by  him,  had  been  transmitted  to  Spain. 
Margarita  and  father  Boyl  were  now  at  court,  and  in 
order  to  justify  their  own  conduct,  or  to  gratify  their 
resentment,  watched  with  malevolent  attention  for 
every  opportunity  of  spreading  insinuations  to  his 
detriment.  Many  of  the  courtiers  viewed  his  grow- 
ing reputation  and  power  with  envious  eyes.  Fon- 
seca,  Archdeacon  of  Seville,  who  was  entrusted  with 
the  chief  direction  of  Indian  affairs,  had  conceived 
such  an  unfavourable  opinion  of  Columbus,  for  some 
reason  which  the  contemporary  writers  have  not 
mentioned,  that  he  listened  with  partiality  to  every 
invective  against  him.  It  was  not  easy  for  an  un- 
friended stranger,  unpractised  in  courtly  arts,  to 
counteract  the  machinations  of  so  many  enemies. 
Columbus  saw  that  there  was  but  one  method  of 
supporting  his  own  credit,  and  of  silencing  all  his 
adversaries.  He  must  produce  such  a  quantity  of 
gold  as  would  not  only  justify  what  he  had  reported 
with  respect  to  the  richness  of  the  country,  but 
encourage  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  to  persevere  in 
prosecuting  his  plans.  The  necessity  of  obtaining 
it,  forced  him  not  only  to  impose  this  heavy  tax 
upon  the  Indians,  but  to  exact  payment  of  it  with 
extreme  rigour ;  and  may  be  pleaded  in  excuse  for 
his  deviating  on  this  occasion  from  the  mildness  and 
humanity  with  which  he  uniformly  treated  that 
unhappy  people. 

'  The  labour,  attention,  and  foresight,  which  the 
Indians  were  obliged  to  employ  in  procuring  the 
tribute  demanded  of  them,  appeared  the  most  into- 
lerable of  all  evils,  to  men  accustomed  to  pass  their 
days  in  a  careless,  improvident  indolence.  They  were 
incapable  of  such  a  regular  and  persevering  exertion 
of  industry,  and  felt  it  such  a  grievous  restraint  upon 
their  liberty,  that  they  had  recourse  to  an  expedient 
for  obtaining  deliverance  from  this  yoke,  which 
demonstrates  the  excess  of  their  impatience  and 
despair.  They  formed  a  scheme  of  starving  those 
oppressors  whom  they  durst  not  attempt  to  expel; 
and  from  the  opinion  which  they  entertained  with 
respect  to  the  voracious  appetite  of  the  Spaniards, 
they  concluded  the  execution  of  it  to  be  very  prac- 
ticable. With  this  view  they  suspended  all  the  opera- 
tions of  agriculture ;  they  sowed  no  maize,  they 
pulled  up  the  roots  of  the  manioc  or  cassada  which 
were  planted,  and  retiring  to  the  most  inaccessible 
parts  of  the  mountains,  left  the  uncultivated  plains 
to  their  enemies.  This  desperate  resolution  produced 
in  some  degree  the  effects  which  they  expected.  The 


Spaniards  were  reduced  to  extreme  want ;  but  they 
received  such  seasonable  supplies  of  provisions  from 
Europe,  and  found  so  many  resources  in  their  own 
ingenuity  and  industry,  that  they  suffered  no  great 
loss  of  men.  The  wretched  Indians  were  the  victims 
of  their  own  ill-concerted  policy.  A  irrcat  multitude 
of  people,  shut  up  in  the  mountainous  orwond.-d 
part  of  the  country,  without  any  food  but  the  spon- 
taneous productions  of  the  earth,  soon  felt  the  utmost 
distresses  of  famine.  This  brought  on  contagious 
diseases  ;  and,  in  the  course  of  a  few  months,  more 
than  a  third  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  island 
perished,  after  experiencing  misery  in  all  its  various 
forms. 

But  while  Columbus  was  establishing  the  founda- 
tions of  the  Spanish  grandeur  in  the  New  World, 
his  enemies  laboured  with  unwearied  assiduity  to 
deprive  him  of  the  glory  and  rewards,  which  by  his 
services  and  sufferings  he  was  entitled  to  enjoy.  The 
hardships  unavoidable  in  a  new  settlement,  the 
calamities  occasioned  by  an  unhealthy  climate,  the 
disasters  attending  a  voyage  in  unknown  seas,  were 
all  represented  as  the  effects  of  his  restless  and 
inconsiderate  ambition.  His  prudent  attention  to 
preserve  discipline  and  subordination  was  denomi- 
nated excess  of  rigour ;  the  punishments  which  ho 
inflicted  upon  the  mutinous  and  disorderly  were 
imputed  to  cruelty.  These  accusations  gained  such 
credit  in  a  jealous  court,  that  a  commissioner  was 
appointed  to  repair  to  Hispaniola,  and  to  inspect 
into  the  conduct  of  Columbus.  By  the  recom- 
mendation of  his  enemies,  Aguado,  a  groom  of  the 
bed-chamber,  was  the  person  to  whom  this  important 
trust  was  committed.  But  in  this  choice  they  seem 
to  have  been  more  influenced  by  the  obsequious 
attachment  of  the  man  to  their  interest,  than  by  his 
capacity  for  the  station.  Puffed  up  with  such 
sudden  elevation,  Aguado  displayed,  in  the  exercise 
of  this  office,  all  the  frivolous  self-importance,  and 
acted  with  all  the  disgusting  insolence,  which  are 
natural  to  little  minds,  when  raised  to  unexpected 
dignity,  or  employed  in  functions  to  which  they  are 
not  equal.  By  listening  with  eagerness  to  every 
accusation  against  Columbus,  and  encouraging  not 
only  the  malcontent  Spaniards,  but  even  the  Indians, 
to  produce  their  grievances,  real  or  imaginary,  he 
fomented  the  spirit  of  dissension  in  the  island,  without 
establishing  any  regulations  of  public  utility,  or  that 
tended  to  redress  the  many  wronsjs,  with  the  odium 
of  which  he  wished  to  load  the  admiral's  administra- 
tion. As  Columbus  felt  sensibly  how  humiliating 
his  situation  must  be,  if  he  should  remain  in  the 
country  while  such  a  partial  inspector  observed  his 
motions,  and  controlled  his  jurisdiction,  he  took  the 
resolution  of  returning  to  Spain,  in  order  to  lay  a  full 
account  of  all  his  transactions,  particularly  with 
respect  to  the  points  in  dispute  between  him  and  his 
adversaries,before  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  from  whose 
justice  and  discernment  he  expected  an  equal  and  a 
favourable  decision  [A.  n.  1496].  He  committed  the 
administration  of  affairs,  during  his  absence,  to  Don 
Bartholomew  his  brother,  with  the  title  of  Adelantado, 
or  Lieutenant-Governor.  By  a  choice  less  fortunate, 
and  which  proved  the  source  of  many  calamities  to 
the  colony,  he  appointed  Francis  Roldau  chief  justice, 
with  very  extensive  powers. 

In  returning  to  Europe,  Columbus  held  a  course 
different  from  that  which  he  had  taken  in  his  former 
voyage.  He  steered  almost  due  east  from  Hispaniola, 
in  the  parallel  of  twenty-two  degrees  of  latitude;  as 
experience  had  not  yet  discovered  the  more  certain 
and  expeditious  method  of  stretching  to  the  north,  in 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


35 


order  to  fall  in  with  the  south-west  winds.  By  this  ill- 
advised  choice,  which,  in  the  infancy  of  navigation  be- 
tween the  New  and  Old  Worlds,  can  hardly  be  imputed 
to  the  admiral  as  a  defect  in  naval  skill,  he  was  exposed 
to  infinite  fatigue  and  danger,  in  a  perpetual  struggle 
with  the  trade-winds,  which  blow  without  variation 
from  the  east  between  the  tropics.  Notwithstanding 
the  almost  insuperable  difficulties  of  such  a  naviga- 
tion, he  persisted  in  his  course  with  his  usual  patience 
and  firmness,  but  made  so  little  way  that  he  was  three 
months  without  seeing  land.  At  length  his  provisions 
be^iii  to  fail,  the  crew  was  reduced  to  the  scanty 
allowance  of  six  ounces  of  bread  a-day  for  each  person. 
The  admiral  fared  no  better  than  the  meanest  sailor. 
But,  even  in  this  extreme  distress,  he  retained  the 
humanity  which  distinguishes  his  character,  and 
refused  to  comply  with  the  earnest  solicitations  of 
his  crew,  some  of  whom  proposed  to  feed  upon  the 
Indian  prisoners  whom  they  were  carrying  over,  and 
others  insisted  to  throw  them  overboard,  in  order  to 
lessen  the  consumption  of  their  small  stock.  He 
represented  that  thev  were  human  homes,  reduced  by 
a  common  calamity  to  the  same  condition  with  them- 
selves, nml  entitled  to  share  an  equal  fate.  His 
authority  and  remonstrances  dissipated  those  wild 
ideas  suggested  by  despair.  Nor  had  they  time  to 
recur ;  as  he  came  soon  within  sight  of  the  coast  of 
Spain,  when  all  their  fears  and  sufferings  ended. 

Colir.nbus  appeared  at  couit  with  the  modest  but 
determined  confidence  of  a  man  conscious  not  only 
of  integrity,  but  of  having  performed  great  service*. 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  ashamed  of  their  own  facility 
in  lending  too  favourable  an  ear  to  frivolous  or 
unfounded  accusations,  received  him  with  such  dis- 
tinguished marks  of  respect  as  covered  his  enemies 
with  shame.  Their  censures  and  calumnies  were  no 
more  heard  of  at  that  juncture.  The  gold,  the  pearls, 
the  cotton,  and  other  commodities  of  value  which 
Columbus  produced,  seemed  fully  to  refute  what  the 
malcontents  had  propagated  with  re.spect  to  the 
poverty  of  the  country.  By  reducing  the  Indians  to 
obedience,  and  imposing  a  regular  tax  upon  them,  he 
had  secured  to  Spain  a  large  accession  of  new  subjects, 
and  the  establishment  of  a  revenue  that  promised  to 
be  considerable.  By  the  mines  which  he  had  found 
out  and  examined,  a  source  of  wealth  still  more 
copious  was  opened.  Great  and  unexpected  as  those 
advantages  were,  Columbus  represented  them  only 
as  preludes  to  future  acquisitions,  and  as  the  earnest 
of  more  important  discoveries,  which  he  still  medi- 
tated, and  to  which  those  he  had  already  made  would 
conduct  him  with  case  and  certainty. 

The  attentive  consideration  of  all  these  circum- 
stances made  such  an  impression,  not  only  upon 
Isabella,  who  was  flattered  with  the  idea,  of  being  the 
patroness  of  all  Columbus's  enterprises,  but  even  upon 
Ferdinand,  who  having  originally  expressed  his  dis- 
approbation of  his  schemes,  was  still  apt  to  doubt  of 
their  success,  that  they  resolved  to  supply  the  colony 
in  Hispaniola  with  every  thing  which  could  render  it 
a  permanent  establishment,  and  to  furnish  Columbus 
with  such  a  fleet,  that  he  might  proceed  to  search  for 
those  new  countries,  of  whose  existence  he  seemed 
to  be  confident.  The  measures  most  proper  for 
accomplishing  both  these  designs  were  concerted  with 
Columbus.  Discovery  had  been  the  sole  object  of 
tho  first  voyage  to  the  New  World  ;  and  though,  in 
the  second,  settlement  had  been  proposed,  the  pre- 
cautions taken  for  that  purpose  had  either  been 
insufficient,  or  were  rendered  ineffectual  by  the 
mutinous  spirit  of  the  Spaniards,  and  the  unforeseen 
calamities  arising  from  various  causes.  Now  a  plan 


was  to  be  formed  of  a  regular  colony,  that  might  serve 
as  a  model  in  all  future  establishments.  Every  par- 
ticular was  considered  with  attention,  and  the  whole 
arranged  with  a  scrupulous  accuracy.  The  precise 
number  of  adventurers  who  should  be  permitted  to 
embark  was  fixed.  They  were  to  be  of  different 
ranks  and  professions  ;  and  the  proportion  of  each 
was  established,  according  to  their  usefulness  and  the 
wants  of  the  colony.  A  suitable  number  of  women 
was  to  be  chosen  to  accompany  these  new  settlers. 
As  it  was  the  first  object  to  raise  provisions  in  a 
country  where  scarcity  of  food  had  been  the  occasion 
of  so  much  distress,  a  considerable  body  of  husband- 
men Avas  to  be  carried  over.  As  the  Spaniards  had 
then  no  conception  of  deriving  any  benefit  from  those 
productions  of  the  New  World  which  have  since 
yielded  such  large  returns  of  wealth  to  Europe,  but 
had  formed  magnificent  ideas,  and  entertained  san- 
guine hopes  with  respect  to  the  riches  contained  in 
the  mines  which  had  been  discovered,  a  band  of 
workmen,  skilled  in  the  various  arts  employed  iri 
digging  and  refining  the  precious  metals,  was  pro- 
vided. All  these  emigrants  wore  to  receive  pay  and 
subsistence  for  some  years  at  the  public  expense. 

Thus  far  the  regulations  were  prudent,  and  well 
adapted  to  the  end  in  view.  But  as  it  was  foreseen 
that  few  would  engage  voluntarily  to  settle  in  a 
country,  whose  noxious  climate  had  been  fatal  to  so 
many  of  their  countrymen,  Columbus  proposed  to 
transport  to  Ilispaniola  such  malefactors  as  had  been 
convicted  of  crimes,  which,  though  capital,  were  of  a 
less  atrocious  nature  ;  and  that  for  the  future  a  certain 
proportion  of  the  offenders  usually  sent  to  the  galleys, 
should  be  condemned  to  labour  in  the  mines  which 
were  to  be  opened.  This  advice,  given  without  due 
reflection,  was  as  inconsiderately  adopted.  The 
prisons  of  Spain  were  drained,  in  order  to  collect 
members  for  the  intended  colony ;  and  the  judges 
empowered  to  try  criminals  were  instructed  to 
recruit  it  by  their  future  sentences.  It  was  not, 
however,  with  such  materials  that  the  foundation  of 
society,  destined'  to  be  permanent,  should  bo  laid. 
Industry,  sobriety,  patience,  and  mutual  confidence, 
are  indispensably  requisite  in  an  infant  settlement, 
where  purity  of  morals  must  contribute  more  towards 
establishing  order,  than  the  operation  or  authority  of 
laws.  But  when  such  a  mixture  of  what  is  corrupt 
is  admitted  into  the  original  constitution  of  tho 
political  body,  the  vices  of  those  unsound  and  incur- 
able members  will  probably  infect  the  whole,  and 
must  ceitainly  be  productive  of  violent  and  unhappy 
effects.  This  the  Spaniards  fatally  experienced  ;  and 
the  other  European  nations  having  successively 
imitated  the  practice  of  Spain  in  this  particular, 
pernicious  consequences  have  followed  in  their  settle- 
ments, which  can  be  imputed  to  no  other  cause. 

Though  Columbus  obtained,  with  great  facility  and 
dispatch,  the  royal  approbation  of  every  measure  and 
regulation  that  he  proposed,  his  endeavours  to  carry 
them  into  execution  were  so  long  retarded,  as  must 
have  tired  out  the  patience  of  any  man  less  accustomed 
to  encounter  and  to  surmount  difficulties.  Those 
delays  were  occasioned  partly  by  that  tedious  for- 
mality and  spirit  of  procrastination,  with  which  the 
Spaniards  conduct  business  ;  and  partly  by  the  ex- 
hausted state  of  .the  treasury,  which  was  drained  by 
the  expense  of  celebrating  the  marriage  of  Ferdinand 
and  Isabella's  only  son  with  Margaret  of  Austria,  an<J 
that  of  Joanna,  their  second  daughter,  with  Philij 
archduke  of  Austria  ;  but  must  be  chiefly  imputed  t« 
the  malicious  arts  of  Columbus's  enemies.  Astonished 
at  the  reception  which  he  met.  with  upon  his  return, 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


und  overawed  by  his  presence,  they  gave  way,  for 
some  time,  to  a  tide  of  favour  too  strong  for  them  to 
oppose.  Their  enmity,  however,  was  too  inveterate 
to  remain  long  inactive.  They  resumed  their  opera- 
tions, and  by  the  assistance  of  Fonseca,  the  minister 
for  Indian  affairs,  who  was  now  promoted  to  the 
bishopric  of  Badajos,  they  throw  in  so  many  obstacles 
to  protract  the  preparations  for  Columbus's  expedition, 
that  a  year  elapsed  before  he  could  procure  two  ships 
to  carry  over  a  part  of  the  supplies  destined  for  the 
colony,  and  almost  two  years  were  spent  before  the 
small  squadron  was  equipped,  of  which  he  himself 
was  to  take  the  command. 

This  squadron  consisted  of  six  ships  only,  of  no 
great  burden,  and  but  indifferently  provided  for  a  long 
or  dangerous  navigation  [A.D.  1498].  The  voyage 
which  he  now  meditated  was  in  a  course  different 
from  any  he  had  undertaken.  As  he  was  fully  per- 
suaded that  the  fertile  regions  of  India  lay  to  the 
south-west  of  those  countries  which  he  had  discovered, 
he  proposed  as  the  most  certain  method  of  finding  out 
these,  to  stand  directly  south  from  the  Canary  or  Cape 
de  Verd  Islands,  until  he  came  under  the  equinoctial 
line,  and  then  to  stretch  to  the  west  before  the 
favourable  wind  for  such  a  course,  which  blows  inva- 
riably between  the  tropics.  With  this  idea  he  set 
sail,  and  touched  first  at  the  Canary,  and  then  at  the 
Cape  de  Verd  Islands.  From  the  former  he  despatched 
three  of  his  ships  with  a  supply  of  provisions  for  the 
colony  in  Hispaniola ;  with  the  other  three  he  con- 
tinued his  voyage  towards  the  south.  No  remarkable 
occurrence  happened  until  they  arrived  within  live 
degrees  of  the  line.  There  they  were  becalmed,  and 
at  the  same  time  the  heat  became  so  excessive,  that 
many  of  their  wine-casks  burst,  the  liquors  in  others 
soured,  and  their  provisions  corrupted.  The  Spaniards, 
who  had  never  ventured  so  far  to  the  south,  were 
afraid  that  the  ships  would  take  fire,  and  began  to 
apprehend  the  reality  of  what  the  ancients  had  taught 
concerning  the  destructive  qualities  of  that  torrid 
region  of  the  globe.  They  were  relieved,  in  some 
measure,  from  their  fears  by  a  seasonable  fall  of  rain. 
This,  however,  though  so  heavy  and  unintermitting 
that  the  men  could  hardly  keep  the  deck,  did  not 
greatly  mitigate  the  intenseness  of  the  heat.  The 
admiral,  who  with  his  usual  vigilance  had  in  person 
directed  every  operation  from  the  beginning  of  the 
voyage,  was  so  much  exhausted  by  fatigue  and  want 
of  sleep,  that  it  brought  on  a  violent  fit  of  the  gout, 
accompanied  with  a  fever.  All  these  circumstances 
constrained  him  to  yield  to  the  importunities  of  his 
crew,  and  to  alter  his  course  to  the  north-west,  in 
order  to  reach  some  of  the  Caribbee  islands,  where  he 
might  refit,  and  be  supplied  with  provisions. 

On  the  first  of  August,  the  man  stationed  in  the 
round  top  surprised  them  with  the  joyful  cry  of  Land  ! 
They  stood  towards  it,  and  discovered  a  considerable 
island,  which  the  admiral  called  Trinidad,  a  name  it 
still  retains.  It  lies  on  the  coast  of  Guiana,  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Orinoco.  This,  though  a  river  only  of 
the  third  or  fourth  magnitude  in  the  New  World,  far 
surpasses  any  of  the  streams  in  our  hemisphere.  It 
rolls  towards  the  ocean  such  a  vast  body  of  water,  and 
rushes  into  it  with  such  impetuous  force,  that  when 
it  meets  the  tide,  which  on  that  coast  rises  to  an 
uncommon  height,  their  collision  occasions  a  swell 
and  agitation  of  the  waves  no  less  surprising  than 
formidable.  In  this  conflict,  the  irresistible  torrent 
of  the  river  so  far  prevails,  that  it  freshens  the  ocean 
many  leagues  with  its  flood.  Columbus,  before  he 
conld  conceive  the  danger,  was  entangled  among 'those 
adverse  currents  and  tempestuous  waves,  and  it  was 


with  the  utmost  difficulty  that  he  escaped  through  ;i 
narrow  strait,  which  appeared  so  tremendous,  that  he 
called  it  La  Boca  del  DragO.  As  soon  as  HP-  emtr 
sternation  which  this  occasioned  permitted  him  to 
reflect  upon  the  nature  of  an  appearance  so  extraor- 
dinary, he  discerned  in  it  a  source  of  comfort  and 
hope,  lie  justly  concluded  that  such  a  vast  body  <»f 
water  as  this  river  contained,  could  not  be  supplied 
by  any  island,  but  must  flow  through  a  country  of 
immense  extent,  and  of  consequence  that  he  was  now 
arrived  at  that  continent  which  it  had  long  been  the 
object  of  his  wishes  to  discover.  Full  of  this  idea,  he- 
stood  to  the  west  along  the  coast  of  those  provim-.--, 
which  are  now  known  by  the  names  of  Paria  and 
Cumana.  He  landed  in  several  places,  and  h:ul  some 
intercourse  with  the  people,  who  resembled  those  of 
Hispaniola  in  their  appearance  and  manner  of  life. 
They  wore,  as  ornaments,  small  plaU'S  of  gold,  and 
pearls  of  considerable  value,  which  they  willingly 
exchanged  for  European  toys.  They  seemed  to  pos- 
sess a"  better  understanding,  and  greater  courage, 
than  the  inhabitants  of  the  islands.  The  country 
produced  four-footed  animals  of  several  kinds,  as 
well  as  a  great  variety  of  fowls  and  fruits.  The 
admiral  was  so  much  delighted  with  its  beauty  and 
fertility,  that  with  the  warm  enthusiasm  of  a  disco- 
verer, he  imagined  it  to  be  the  Paradise  described 
in  Scripture,  which  the  Almighty  chose  for  the  resi- 
dence of  man,  while  he  retained  the  innocence  that 
rendered  him  worthy  of  such  an  habitation.  Thus 
Columbus  had  the  glory  not  only  of  discovering  to 
mankind  the  existence  of  a  new  world,  but  made 
considerable  progress  towards  a  perfect  knowledge 
of  it ;  and  was  the  first  man  who  conducted  the 
Spaniards  to  that  vast  continent  which  has  been 
the  chief  seat  of  their  empire,  and  the  source  of  their 
treasures  in  this  quarter  of  the  globe.  The  shattered 
condition  of  his  ships,  scarcity  of  provisions,  his 
own  infirmities,  together  with  the  impatience  of  his 
crew,  prevented  him  from  pursuing  his  discoveries 
any  further,  and  made  it  necessary  to  bear  away  for 
Hispaniola.  In  his  way  thither  he  discovered  the 
islands  of  Cubagua  and  Margarita,  which  afterwards 
became  remarkable  for  their  pearl-fishery.  When  he 
arrived  at  Hispaniola  [Aug.  30],  he  was  wasted  to 
an  extreme  degree  with  fatigue  and  sickness ;  but 
found  the  affairs  of  the  colony  in  such  a  situation,  as 
afforded  him  no  prospect  of  enjoying  that  repose  of 
which  he  stood  so  mush  in  need. 

Many  revolutions  had  happened  in  that  country 
during  his  absence.  His  brother,  the  adelantado,  in 
consequence  of  an  advice  which  the  admiral  gave 
before  his  departure,  had  removed  the  colony  from 
Isabella  to  a  more  commodious  station,  on  the  oppo- 
site side  of  the  island,  and  laid  the  foundation  of 
St.  Domingo,  which  was  long  the  most  considerable 
European  town  in  the  New  World,  and  the  seat  of 
the  supreme  courts  in  the  Spanish  dominions  there. 
As  soon  as  the  Spaniards  were  established  in  this 
new  settlement,  the  adelantado,  that  they  might 
neither  languish  in  inactivity,  nor  have  leisure  to 
form  new  cabals,  marched  into  those  parts  of  the 
island  which  his  brother  had  not  yet  visited  or 
reduced  to  obedience.  As  the  people  were  unable 
to  resist,  they  submitted  every  where  to  the  tribute 
which  he  imposed.  But  they  soon  found  the  burden 
to  be  so  intolerable,  that,  overawed  as  they  wore  by 
the  superior  power  of  their  oppressors,  they  tsolc 
arms  against  them.  Those  insurrections,  however, 
were  not  formidable.  A  conflict  with  timid  and 
naked  Indians  was  neither  dangerous  nor  of  doubtful 
issue. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


37 


But  Avhile  the  adelantado  was  employed  against 
them  in  the  field,  a  mutiny  of  an  aspect  far  more 
alarming  broke  out  among  the  Spaniards.  The  ring- 
leader of  it  was  Francis  Roldan,  whom  Columbus  had 
placed  in  a  station  which  required  him  to  be  the 
guardian  of  order  and  tranquil  ity  in  the  colony.  A 
turbulent  and  inconsiderate  ambition  precipitated 
him  into  this  desperate  measure,  so  unbecoming  his 
rank.  The  arguments  which  he  employed  to  seduce 
his  countrymen  were  frivolous  and  ill-founded.  He 
accused  Columbus  and  his  two  brothers  of  arrogance 
and  severity;  he  pretended  that  they  aimed  at 
establishing  an  independent  dominion  in  the  country  ; 
he  taxed  them  with  an  intention  of  cutting  off  part 
of  the  Spaniards  by  hunger  and  fatigue,  that  they 
might  more  easily  reduce  the  remainder  to  subjec- 
tion ;  he  represented  it  as  unworthy  of  Castilians,  to 
remain  the  tame  and  passive  slaves  of  three  Genoese 
adventurers.  As  men  have  always  a  propensity  to 
impute  the  hardships  of  which  they  feel  the  pressure, 
to  the  misconduct  of  their  rulers  ;  as  every  nation 
views  with  a  jealous  eye  the  power  and  exaltation  of 
foreigners,  Roldan's  insinuations  made  a  deep  im- 
pression on  his  countrymen.  His  character  and  rank 
added  weight  to  them.  A  considerable  number  of 
the  Spaniards  made  choice  of  him  as  their  leader ; 
and,  taking  arms  against  the  adelantado  and  his 
brother,  seized  the  king's  magazine  of  provisions, 
and  endeavoured  to  surprise  the  fort  of  St.  Domingo. 
This  was  preserved  by  the  vigilance  and  courage  of 
Don  Diego  Columbus.  The  mutineers  were  obliirod 
to  retire  to  the  province  of  Xaragua,  where  they 
continued  not  only  to  disclaim  the  adelando's  autho- 
rity themselves,  but  excited  the  Indians  to  throw  off 
the  yoke. 

Such  was  the  distracted  state  of  the  colony 
when  Columbus  landed  at  St.  Domingo.  lie  was 
astonished  to  find  that  the  three  ships  which  he  had 
despatched  from  the  Canaries  were  not  yet  arrived. 
By  the  unskilfulness  of  the  pilots,  and  the  violence 
of  currents,  they  had  been  carried  a  hundred  and 
sixty  miles  to  the  west  of  St.  Domingo,  and  forced 
to  take  shelter  in  a  harbour  of  the  province  of  Xara- 
gua, where  Roldan  and  his  seditious  followers  were 
cantoned.  Roldan  carefully  concealed  from  the 
commanders  of  the  ships  his  insurrectrtn  against 
the  adelantado,  and  employing  his  utmost  address 
to  gain  their  confidence,  persuaded  them  to  set  on 
shore  a  considerable  part  of  the  new  settlers  whom 
they  brought  over,  that  they  might  proceed  by  land 
to  St.  Domingo.  It  required  but  few  arguments  to 
prevail  with  those  men  to  espouse  his  cause.  They 
were  the  refuse  of  the  gaols  of  Spain,  to  whom 
idleness,  licentiousness,  and  deeds  of  violence  were 
familiar ;  and  they  returned  eagerly  to  a  course  of 
life  nearly  resembling  that  to  which  they  had  been 
accustomed.  The  commanders  of  the  ships  per- 
ceiving, when  it  was  too  late,  their  imprudence  in 
disembarking  so  many  of  their  men,  stood  away  for 
St.  Domingo,  and  got  safe  into  the  port  a  few  days 
after  the  admiral;  but  their  stock  of  provisions  was 
so  wasted  during  a  voyage  of  sueh  long  continuance, 
that  they  brought  little  relief  to  the  colony. 

By  this  junction  with  a  band  of  such  bold  and 
desperate  associates,  Roldan  became  extremely  for- 
midable, <ind  no  less  extravagant  in  his  demands. 
Columbus,  though  filled  with  resentment  at  his  ingra- 
titude, and  highly  exasperated  by  the  insolence  of 
his  followers,  made  no  haste  to  take  the  field.  He 
trembled  at  the  thoughts  of  kindling  the  flames  of  a 
civil  war,  in  which,  whatever  party  prevailed,  the 
power  and  strength  of  both  must  be  so  much  wasted, 


ns  might  encourage  the  common  enemy  to  unite  and 
complete  their  destruction.  At  the  same  time,  he 
observed,  that  the  prejudices  and  passions  which 
incited  the  rebels  to  take  arms,  had  so  far  in- 
fected those  who  still  adhered  to  him,  that  many 
of  them  were  adverse,  and  all  cold  to  the  service. 
From  such  sentiments,  with  respect  to  the  public 
interest,  as  well  as  from  this  view  of  his  own  situ- 
ation, he  chose  to  negociate  rather  than  to  fight. 
By  a  seasonable  proclamation,  offering  free  pardon  to 
such  as  should  merit  it  by  returning  to  their  duty, 
he  made  impression  upon  some  of  the  malcontents. 
By  engaging  to  grant  such  as  should  desire  it  the 
liberty  of  returning  to  Spain,  he  allured  all  those 
unfortunate  adventurers,  who,  from  sickness  and 
disappointment,  were  disgusted  with  the  country. 
By  promising  to  re-establish  Roldan  in  his  former 
office,  he  soothed  his  pride ;  and,  by  complying  with 
most  of  his  demands  in  behalf  of  his  followers,  he 
satisfied  their  avarice.  Thus,  gradually,  and  with- 
out bloodshed,  but  after  many  tedious  negociations, 
he  dissolved  this  dangerous  combination,  which 
threatened  the  colony  with  ruin;  and  restored  the 
appearance  of  order,  regular  government,  and  tran- 
quillity. 

In  consequence  of  this  agreement  with  the  muti- 
neers, lands  were  allotted  them  in  different  parts  of 
the  island,  and  the  Indians  settled  in  each  district 
were  appointed  to  cultivate  a  certain  portion  of 
ground  for  the  use  of  those  new  masters  [A,  D.  1499]. 
The  performance  of  this  work  was  substituted  in  placo 
of  the  tribute  formerly  imposed;  and  how  neces- 
sary soever  such  a  regulation  might  be  in  a  sickly 
and  feeble  colony,  it  introduced  among  the  Spaniards 
the  Repartimientos,  or  distributions  of  Indians, 
established  by  them  in  all  their  settlements,  which 
brought  numberless  calamities  upon  that  unhappy 
people,  and  subjected  them  to  the  most  grievous 
oppression.  This  was  not  the  only  bad  effect  of  the 
insurrection  in  Hispaniola;  it  prevented  Columbus 
from  prosecuting  his  discoveries  on  the  continent, 
as  self-preservation  obliged  him  to  keep  near  his 
person  his  brother  the  adelantado,  and  the  sailors 
whom  he  intended  to  have  employed  in  that  service. 
As  soon  as  his  affairs  would  permit,  he  sent  some  of 
his  ships  to  Spain  with  a  journal  of  the  voyage  which 
he  had  made,  a  description  of  the  new  countries 
which  he  had  discovered,  a  chart  of  the  coast  along 
which  he  had  sailed,  and  specimens  of  the  gold,  the 
pearls,  and  other  curious  or  valuable  productions 
which  he  had  acquired  by  trafficking  with  the  natives. 
At  the  same  time  he  transmitted  an  account  of  the 
insurrection  in  Hispaniola ;  he  accused  the  muti- 
neers not  only  of  having  thrown  the  colony  into  such 
violent  convulsions  as  threatened  its  dissolution,  but 
of  having  obstructed  every  attempt  towards  discovery 
and  improvement,  by  their  unprovoked  rebellion 
against  their  superiors;  and  proposed  several  regu- 
lations for  the  better  government  of  the  island,  as 
well  as  the  extinction  of  that  mutinous  spirit,  which, 
though  suppressed  at  present,  might  soon  burst  out 
with  additional  rage.  Roldan  and  his  associates  did 
not  neglect  to  convey  to  Spain,  by  the  same  ships, 
an  apology  for  their  own  conduct,  together  with  their 
recriminations  upon  the  admiral  and  his  brothers. 
Unfoitunately  for  the  honour  of  Spain,  and  the 
happiness  of  Columbus,  the  latter  gained  most  credit 
in  the  court  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  and  produced 
unexpected  effects. 

But,  previous  to  the  relating  of  these,  it  is  proper 
to  take  a  view  of  some  events,  which  merit  attention, 
both  on  account  of  their  own.  importance,  and  their 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


connexion  with  the  history  of  the  New  World.  While 
Columbus  was  engaged  in  his  successive  voyages  to 
the  west,  the  spirit  of  discovery  did  not  languish  in 
Portugal,  tlie  kingdom  where  it  first  acquired  vigour 
and  became  enterprising.  Self-condemnation  and 
regret  were  not  the  only  sentiments  to  which  the 
success  of  Columbus,  and  reflection  upon  their  own 
imprudence  in  rejecting  his  proposals,  gave  rise 
among  the  Portuguese.  They  excited  a  general  emu- 
lation to  surpass  his  performances,  and  an  ardent 
desire  to  make  some  reparation  to  their  country  for 
their  own  error.  With  this  view,  Emanuel,  who 
inherited  the  enterprising  genius  of  his  predecessors, 
persisted  in  their  grand  scheme  of  opening  a  passage 
to  the  East  Indies  by  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and, 
soon  after  his  accession  to  the  throne,  equipped  a 
squadron  for  that  important  voyage.  He  gave  the 
command  of  it  to  Vasco  de  Gama,  a  man  of  noble 
birth,  possessed  of  virtue,  prudence,  and  courage, 
equal  to  the  station.  The  squadron,  like  all  those 
fitted  out  for  discovery  in  the  infancy  of  navigation, 
was  extremely  feeble,  consisting  of  three  vessels,  of 
neither  burden  nor  force  adequate  to  the  service. 
As  the  Europeans  were  at  that  time  little  acquainted 
with  the  course  of  the  trade-winds  and  periodical 
monsoons,  which  render  navigation  in  the  Atlantic 
ocean,  as  well  as  in  the  sea  that  separates  Africa 
from  India,  at  some  seasons  easy,  and  at  others  not 
only  dangerous,  but  almost  impracticable,  the  time 
chosen  for  Gama's  departure  was  the  most  improper 
during  the  whole  year. 

He  set  sail  from  Lisbon  on  the  ninth  of  July 
[A.  D.  1497],  and  standing  towards  the  south,  had  to 
struggle  for  four  months  with  contrary  winds,  before 
he  could  reach  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  [Nov.  20.] 
Here  their  violence  began  to  abate ;  and  during  an 
interval  of  calm  weather,  Gama  doubled  that  formid- 
able promontory,  which  had  so  long  been  the  boun- 
dary of  navigation,  and  directed  his  course  towards 
the  north-east,  along  the  African  coast.  He  touched 
at  several  ports ;  and  after  various  adventures,  which 
the  Portuguese  historians  relate  with  high  but  just 
encomiums  upon  his  conduct  and  intrepidity,  ho  came 
to  anchor  before  the  city  of  Melinda.  Throughout 
all  the  vast  countries  which  extend  along  the  coast 
of  Africa,  from  the  river  Senegal  to  the  confines  of 
Zanguebar,  the  Portuguese  had  found  a  race  of  men 
rude  and  uncultivated,  strangers  to  letters,  to  arts, 
and  commerce,  and  differing  from  the  inhabitants  of 
Europe,  no  less  in  their  features  and  complexion 
than  in  their  manners  and  institutions.  As  they 
advanced  from  this,  they  observed,  to  their  inex- 
pressible joy,  that  the  human  form  gradually  altered 
and  improved ;  the  Asiatic  features  began  to  predo- 
minate, marks  of  civilization  appeared,  letters  were 
knewn,  the  Mahometan  religion  was  established,  and 
a  commerce,  far  from  being  inconsiderable,  was 
carried  on.  At  that  time  several  vessels  from  India 
were  in  the  port  of  Melinda.  Gama  now  pursued 
his  voyage  with  almost  absolute  certainty  of  sviccess, 
and,  under  the  conduct  of  a  Mahometan  pilot,  arrived 
at  Calecut,  upon  the  coast  of  Malabar,  on  the  twenty- 
second  of  May  one  thousand  four  hundred  and 
ninety-eight.  What  he  beheld  of  the  wealth,  the 
populousness,  the  cultivation,  the  industry,  and  arts 
of  this  highly  civilized  country,  far  surpassed  any 
idea  that  he  had  formed,  from  the  imperfect  accounts 
which  the  Europeans  had  hitheitho  received  of  it. 
But  as  he  possessed  neither  sufficient  force  to 
attempt  a  settlement,  nor  proper  commodities  with 
which  he  could  carry  on  commerce  of  any  conse- 
quence, he  hastened,  back  to  Portugal,  with  an  account 


of  his  success  in  peiTorminii  a  voy:«-re,  tin-  longest, 
as  well  as  most  difficult,  that  .'had  <-vrr  been  made, 
since  the  first  invention  of  ir.»vi.tralinn.  He  landed 
at  Lisbon  on  the  fourteenth  of  September  one  thou- 
sand four  hundred  and  ninety-nine,  l\vo  years  1v, •> 
months  and  five  days  from  the  time  he  left  that  port. 

Thus,  during  the  course  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
mankind  made  greater  progress  in  exploring  the  stiite 
of  the  habitable  globe,  than  in  all  the  ages  which  had 
clasped  previous  to  that  period.  The  spirit  of  dis- 
covery, feeble  at  first  and  cautious,  moved  within  a 
very  narrow  sphere,  and  made  its  efforts  with  hesita- 
tion and  timidity.  Encouraged  by  success,  it  became 
adventurous,  and  boldly  extended  its  operations.  In 
the  course  of  its  progression,  it  continued  to  arquiro 
vigour,  and  advanced  at  length  with  a  rapidity  and 
force  which  burst  through  all  the  limits  within  winch 
ignorance  and  fear  had  hitherto  circumscribed  the 
activity  of  the  human  race.  Almost  fifty  years  were 
employed  by  the  Portuguese  in  creeping  along  the 
coast  of  Africa  from  Cape  Non  to  Cape  cle  Verd,  tho 
latter  of  which  lies  only  twelve  degrees  to  the  south 
of  the  former.  In  loss  than  thirty  years  they  ventured 
beyond  the  equinoctual  line  into  another  hemisphere, 
and  penetrated  to  the  southern  extremity  of  Africa,  at 
the  distance  of  forty-nine  degrees  from  Cape  de  Verd. 
During  the  last  seven  years  of  the  century,  a  New 
World  was  discovered  in  the  west,  not  inferior  in 
extent  to  all  the  parts  of  the  earth  with  which  mankind 
were  at  that  time  acquainted.  In  the  east,  unknown 
seas  and  countries  were  found  out,  and  a  communi- 
cation, long  desired,  but  hitherto  concealed,  was 
opened  between  Europe  and  the  opulent  regions  of 
India.  In  comparison  with  events  so  wonderful  and 
unexpected,  all  that  had  hitherto  boon  deemed  great 
or  splended  faded  away  and  disappeared.  Vast 
objects  now  presented  themselves.  The  human  mind, 
roused  and  interested  by  the  prospect,  engaged  with 
ardour  in  pursuit  of  them,  and  exerted  its  active 
powers  in  a  new  direction. 

This  spirit  of  enterprise,  though  but  newly  awakened 
in  Spain,  began  soon  to  operate  extensively.  All  the 
attempts  towards  discovery  made  in  that  kingdom  had 
hitheito  been  carried  on  by  Columbus  alone,  and  at 
the  expeiice  of  the  sovereign.  But  now  private  ad- 
venturers, allured  by  tho  magnificent  descriptions  he 
gave  of  the  regions  which  he  had  visited,  as  well  as  by 
the  specimens  of  their  wealth  which  he  produced, 
offered  to  fit  out  squadrons  at  their  own  risk,  and  to 
go  in  quest  of  new  countries.  The  Spanish  court, 
whose  scanty  revenues  were  exhausted  by  the  charge 
of  its  expedition  to  the  New  World,  which,  though 
they  opened  alluring  prospects  of  future  benefit, 
yielded  a  very  sparing  return  of  present  profit,  was 
extremely  willing  to  devolve  the  burthen  of  discovery 
upon  its  subjects.  It  sei/ed  with  joy  an  opportunity 
of  rendering  the  avarice,  tho  ingenuity,  and  efforts  of 
projectors,  instrumental  in  promoting  designs  of  cer- 
tain advantage  to  the  public,  though  of  doubtful 
success  with  respect  to  themselves.  One  of  the  first 
propositions  of  this  kind  was  made  by  Alonso  de 
Ojeda,  a  gallant  and  active  officer,  Avho  had  accompa- 
nied Columbus  in  his  second  voyage.  His  rank  and 
character  procured  him  such  credit  with  the  merchants 
of  Seville,  that  they  undertook  to  equip  four  ships, 
provided  he  could  obtain  the  royal  licence,  authorizing 
the  voyage.  The  powerful  patronage  of  the  bishop 
of  Badajns  easily  secured  success  in  a  suit  so  agree- 
able to  the  court.  Without  consulting  Columbus,  or 
regarding  the  rights  and  jurisdiction  which  he  had 
acquired  by  the  capitulation  in  one  thousand  four 
hundred  and  ninety-two,  Ojeda  was  permitted  to  set 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


out  for  the  Now  World.  In  order  to  direct  his  course, 
the  bishop  communicated  to  him  the  admiral's  journal 
of  his  last  voyace,  and  his  charts  of  the  countries 
which  lie  had  discovered.  Ojeda  struck  out  into  no 
new  path  of  navigation  [May],  but  adhering  servilely 
to  the  route  which  Columbus  had  taken,  arrived  on 
the  coast  of  Paria.  He  traded  with  the  natives,  and 
standing  to  the  west,  proceeded  as  far  as  Cape  do 
Vela,  and  ranged  along  a  considerable  extent  of  coast 
beyond  that  on  which  Columbus  had  touched.  Having 
thus  ascertained  the  opinion  of  Columbus  [October], 
that  this  country  was  a  part  of  the  continent,  Ojeda 
returned  by  way  of  Hispaniola  to  Spain,  with  some 
reputation  as  a  discoverer,  but  with  little  benef.t  to 
those  who  had  raised  the  funds  for  the  expedition. 

Amerigo  Vespucci,  a  Florentine  gentleman,  accom- 
panied Ojeda  in  this  voyage.  In  what  station  he 
served  is  uncertain  ;  but  as  he  was  an  experienced 
sailor,  and  eminently  skilful  in  all  the  sciences  sub- 
servient to  navigation,  he  seems  to  have  acquired  such 
authority  among  his  companions,  that  they  willingly 
allowed  him  to  have  a  chief  share  in  directing  their 
operations  during  the  voyage.  Soon  after  his  return, 
lie  transmitted  an  account  of  his  adventures  and  dis- 
coveries to  one  of  his  countrymen  ;  and  labouring  with 
the  vanity  of  a  traveller  to  magnify  his  own  exploits, 
h>>  had  the  address  and  confidence  to  frame  his  narra- 
tive, so  as  to  make  it  appear  that  he  had  the  glory  of 
having  first  discovered  the  continent  in  the  New 
Wor.'d.  Amerigo's  account  was  drawn  up  not  only 
with  art,  but  with  some  elegance.  It  contained  an 
amusing  history  of  his  voyage,  and  judicious  observa- 
tions upon  the  natural  productions,  the  inhabitants, 
and  the  custom  of  the  countries  which  he  had  visited. 
As  it  was  the  first  description  of  any  part  of  the  New 
World,  that  wai  published,  a  performance  so  well 
calculated  to  gratify  the  passion  of  mankind  for  what 
is  new  and  marvellous,  circulated  rapidly,  and  was 
read  with  admiration.  The  country  of  which  Amerigo 
was  supposed  to  be  the  discoverer,  came  gradually  to 
be  called  by  his  name.  The  caprice  of  mankind,  often 
as  unaccountable  as  unjust,  has  perpetuated  this 
error.  By  the  universal  consent  of  nations,  America 
is  the  name  bestowed  on  this  new  quarter  of  the  globe. 
The  bold  pretensions  of  a  fortunate  impostor  have 
robbed  the  discoverer  of  the  New  World  of  a  distinc- 
tion which  belonged  to  him.  The  name  of  Amerigo 
has  supplanted  that  of  Columbus  ;  and  mankind  may 
regret  an  act  of  injustice,  which  having  received  the 
sanction  of  time,  it  is  now  too  late  to  redress  [22]. 

During  the  same  year,  another  voyage  of  discovery 
was  undertaken.  Columbus  not  only  introduced  the 
spirit  of  naval  enterprise  into  Spain,  but  all  the  first 
adventurers  who  distinguished  themselves  in  this 
new  career,  were  formed  by  his  instructions,  and 
acquired  in  his  voyages  the  skill  and  information 
which  qualified  them  to  imitate  his  example.  Alonso 
Nigno  who  had  served  under  the  admiral  in  his  last 
expedition,  fitted  out  a  single  ship,  in  conjunction 
with  Christopher  Guerra,  a  merchant  of  Seville,  and 
sailed  to  the  coast  of  Paria.  This  voyage  seems  to 
have  been  conducted  with  greater  attention  to  private 
emolument,  than  to  any  general  or  national  object. 
Nigno  and  Guerra  made  no  discoveries  of  any  import- 
ance ;  but  they  brought  home  such  a  return  of  gold 
and  pearls,  as  inflamed  their  countrymen  with  the 
desire  of  engaging  in  similar  adventures. 

[A.  D.  1500,  JAN.  13.]  Soon  after,  Vincent  Yanez 
Pinzon,  one  of  the  admiral's  companions  in  his  first 
voyage,  sailed  from  Palos  with  four  ships.  He  stood 
boldly  towards  the  south,  and  was  the  first  Spaniard 
who  ventured  to  cross  the  equinoctial  lijac  J  but  he 


seems  to  have  landed  on  no  part  of  the  coast  beyond 
the  mouth  of  the  Maragnon,  or  river  of  the  Amazons. 
AH  these  navigators  adopted  the  erroneous  theory  of 
Columbus,  and  believed  that  the  countries  which 
they  had  discovered  were  part  of  the  vast  continent 
of  India. 

During  the  last  year  of  the  fifteenth  century,  that 
fertile  district  of  America,  on  the  confines  of  which 
Pinzon  had  stopped  short,  was  more  fully  discovered. 
The  successful  voyage  of  Gama  to  the  East  Indies 
having  encouraged  the  king  of  Portugal  to  fit  out  a 
lleet  so  powerful,  as  not  only  to  carry  on  trade,  but 
to  attempt  conquest,  he  gave  the  command  of  it  to 
Pedro  Alvarez  Cabral.  In  order  to  avoid  the  coast 
of  Africa,  where  he  was  certain  of  meeting  with  vari- 
able breezes,  or  frequent  calms,  which  might  retard 
his  voyage,  Cabral  stood  out  to  sea,  and  kept  so  far 
to  the  west,  that,  to  his  surprise,  he  found  himself 
upon  the  shore  of  an  unknown  country,  in  the  tenth 
degree  beyond  the  line.  He  imagined  at  first  that  it 
was  some  island  in  the  Atlantic  ocean,  hitherto 
unobserved;  but  proceeiing  along  its  coasts  for  seve.al 
days,  he  was  led  gradually  to  believe,  that  a  country 
so  extensive  formed  a  part  of  some  great  continent. 
This  hitter  opinion  was  well  founded.  The  country 
with  which  he  fell  in  belongs  tb  that  province  in 
South  America,  now  known  by  the  name  of  Brazil. 
lie  landed  ;  and  having  formed  a  very  high  idea  of 
the  fertility  of  the  soil,  and  agreeableness  of  the 
climate,  lie  took  possession  of  it  for  the  crown  of 
Portugal,  and  dispatched  a  ship  to  Lisbon  with  an 
account  of  this  event,  which  appeared  to  be  no  less 
important  than  it  was  unexpected.  Columbus's 
discovery  of  the  New  World  was  the  eflbrt  of  an 
active  genius,  enlightened  by  science,  guided  by 
experience,  and  acting  upon  a  regular  plan,  executed 
with  no  less  courage  than  perseverance.  But  from 
this  adventure  of  the  Portuguese,  it  appears  that 
chance  might  have  accomplished  that  great  design 
which  is  now  the  pride  of  human  reason  to  have 
formed  and  perfected.  If  the  sagacity  of  Columbus 
had  not  conducted  mankind  to  America,  Cabral,  by  a 
fortunate  accident,  might  have  led  them,  a  few  years 
later,  to  the  knowledge  of  that  extensive  continent. 

While  the  Spaniards  and  Portuguese,  by  those 
successive  voyages,  were  daily  acquiring  more  en- 
larged ideas  of  the  extent  and  opulence  of  that  quarter 
of  the  globe  which  Columbus  had  made  known  to 
them,  he  himself,  far  from  enjoying  the  tranquillity 
and  honours  with  which  his  services  should  have 
been  recompensed,  was  struggling  with  every  distress 
in  which  the  envy  and  malevolence  of  the  people 
under  his  command  or  the  ingratitude  of  the  court 
which  he  served,  could  involve  him.  Though  the 
pacification  with  Roldan  broke  the  union  and  weak- 
ened the  force  of  the  mutineers,  it  did  not  extirpate 
the  seeds  of  discord  out  of  the  island.  Several  of  the 
malcontents  continued  in  arms,  refusing  to  submit  to 
the  Admiral.  He  and  his  brothers  were  obliged  to 
take  the  field  alternately,  in  order  to  check  their 
incursions,  or  to  punish  their  crimes.  The  perpetual 
occupation  and  disquiet  which  this  created,  prevented 
him  from  giving  due  attention  to  the  dangerous 
machinations  of  his  enemies  in  the  court  of  Spain. 
A  good  number  of  such  as  were  most  dissatisfied 
with  his  administration,  had  embraced  the  opportu- 
nity of  returning  to  Europe  with  the  ships  which  he 
despatched  from  St.  Domingo.  The  final  disappoint- 
ment of  all  their  hopes  inflamed  the  rage  of  these 
unfortunate  adventurers  against  Columbus  to  the 
utmost  pitch.  Their  poverty  and  distress,  by  exciting 
compassion,  rendered  their  accusations  credible,  aw* 


40 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


their  complaints  interesting.  They  teased  Ferdinand 
and  Isabella  incessantly  with  memorials,  containing 
the  detail  of  their  own  grievances,  and  the  articles  of 
their  charge  against  Columbus.  Whenever  either  the 
king  or  queen  appeared  in  public,  they  surrounded 
them  in  a  tumultuary  manner,  insisting  with  impor- 
tunate clamours  for  the  payment  of  the  arrears  due 
to  them,  and  demanding  vengeance  upon  the  author 
of  their  sufferings.  They  insulted  the  admiral's  sons 
wherever  they  met  them,  reproaching  them  as  the 
offspring  of  the  projector,  whose  fatal  curiosity  had 
discovered  those  pernicious  regions  which  drained 
Spain  of  its  wealth,  and  would  prove  the  grave  of  its 
people.  These  avowed  endeavours  of  the  malcontents 
from  America  to  ruin  Columbus,  were  seconded  by 
the  secret  but  more  dangerous  insinuations  of  that 
party  among  the  courtiers  which  had  always  thwarted 
his  schemes  and  envied  his  success  and  credit. 

Ferdinand  was  disposed  to listen.not  only  with  a  will- 
ing but  with  a  partial  ear,  to  these  accusations.  Notwith- 
standing the  flattering  accounts  which  Columbus  had 
given  of  the  riches  of  America,  the  remittances  from  it 
had  hitherto  been  so  scanty,  that  they  fell  far  short  of 
defraying  the  expence  of  the  armaments  fitted  out. 
The  glory  of  the  discovery,  together  with  the  prospect 
of  remote  commercial  advantages,  was  all  that  Spain 
had  yet  received  in  return  for  the  efforts  she  had 
made.  But  time  had  already  diminished  the  first 
sensations  of  joy  which  the  discovery  of  a  New  World 
occasioned,  and  fame  alone  was  not  an  object  to  satisfy 
the  cold  interested  mind  of  Ferdinand.  The  nature 
of  commerce  was  then  so  little  understood,  that  where 
immediate  gain  was  not  acquired,  the  hope  of  distant 
benefit,  or  of  slow  and  moderate  returns,  was  totally 
disregarded.  Ferdinand  considered  Spain,  on  this 
account,  as  having  lost  by  the  enterprise  of  Columbus, 
and  imputed  it  to  his  misconduct  and  incapacity  for 
government,  that  a  country  abounding  in  gold  had 
yielded  nothing  of  value  to  its  conquerors.  Even 
Isabella,  who  from  the  favorable  opinion  which  she 
entertained  of  Columbus,  had  uniformly  protected 
him,  was  shaken  at  length  by  the  number  and  boldness 
of  his  accusers,  and  began  to  suspect  that  a  disaffec- 
tion so  general  must  have  been  occasioned  by  real 
grievances,  which  called  for  redress.  The  Bishop  of 
Badajos,  with  his  usual  animosity  against  Columbus, 
encouraged  these  suspicions  and  confirmed  them. 

As  soon  as  the  queen  began  to  give  way  to  the 
torrent  of  calumny,  a  resolution  fatal  to  Columbus 
was  taken.  Francis  de  Bovadilla,  a  knight  of  Cala- 
trava,  was  appointed  to  repair  to  Hispaniola,  with 
full  powers  to  inquire  into  the  conduct  of  Columbus, 
and  if  he  should  find  the  charge  of  mal-administration 
proved,  to  supersede  him,  and  assume  the  government 
of  the  island.  It  was  impossible  to  escape  condem- 
nation, when  this  preposterous  commission  made  it 
the  interest  of  the  judge  to  pronounce  the  person 
whom  he  was  sent  to  try,  guilty.  Though  Columbus 
had  now  composed  all  the  dissensions  in  the  island  ; 
though  he  had  brought  both  Spaniards  and  Indians 
to  submit  peaceably  to  his  government ;  though  he 
had  made  such  effectual  provision  for  working  the 
mines,  and  cultivating  the  country,  as  would  have 
secured  a  considerable  revenue  to  the  king,  as  well 
as  large  profits  to  individuals,  Bovadilla,  without 
deigning  to  attend  to  the  nature  or  merit  of  those 
services,  discovered,  from  the  moment  that  he  landed 
in  Hispaniola,  a  determined  purpose  of  treating  him 
as  a  criminal,  He  took  possession  of  the  admiral's 
house  in  St.  Domingo,  from  which  its  master  happened 
at  that  time  to  be  absent,  and  seized  his  effects,  as  if 
his  guilt  had  been,  already  fully  proved ;  he  rendered- 


himself  master  of  the  fort  and  of  the  king's  stores  by 
violence  ;  he  required  all  persons  to  acknowledge  him 
as  supreme  governor  ;  he  set  at  liberty  the  prisoners 
confined  by  the  admiral ;  and  summoned  him  to  appear 
before  his  tribunal,  in  order  to  answer  for  his  con- 
duct ;  transmitting  to  him,  together  with  the  summons, 
a  copy  of  the  royal  mandate,  by  which  Columbus  was 
enjoined  to  yield  implicit  obedience  to  his  commands. 

[October.]  Columbus,  though  deeply  affected  with 
the  ingratitude  and  injustice  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella, 
did  not  hesitate  a  moment  about  his  own  conduct. 
He  submitted  to  the  will  of  his  sovereigns  with  a 
respectful  silence,  and  repaired  directly  to  the  court 
of  that  violent  and  partial  judge  whom  they  had  au- 
thorized to  try  him.  Bovadilla,  without  admitting 
him  into  his  presence,  ordered  him  instantly  to  b« 
arrested,  to  be  loaded  with  chains,  and  hurried  on 
board  a  ship.  Even  under  this  humiliating  reverse 
of  fortune,  the  firmness  of  mind  which  distinguishes 
the  character  of  Columbus  did  not  forsake  him. 
Conscious  of  his  own  integrity,  and  solacing  himself 
with  reflecting  upon  the  great  things  which  he  had 
achieved,  he  endured  this  insult  offered  to  his  cha- 
racter, not  only  with  composure,  but  with  dignity. 
Nor  had  he  the  consolation  of  sympathy  to  mitigate 
his  sufferings.  Bovadilla  had  already  rendered  him- 
self so  extremely  popular,  by  granting  various  immu- 
nities to  the  colony,  by  liberal  donations  of  Indians 
to  all  who  applied  for  them,  and  by  relaxing  the  reins 
of  discipline  and  government,  that  the  Spaniaids, 
who  were  mostly  adventurers,  whom  their  indigence 
or  crimes  had  compelled  to  abandon  their  native 
country,  expressed  the  most  indecent  satisfaction 
with  the  disgrace  and  imprisonment  of  Columbus. 
They  flattered  themselves,  that  now  they  should/enjoy 
an  uncontrolled  liberty,  more  suitable  to  their  dispo- 
sition and  former  habits  of  life.  Among  persons  thus 
prepared  to  censure  the  proceedings  and  to  asperse 
the  character  of  Columbus,  Bovadilla  collected 
materials  for  a  charge  against  him.  All  accusa- 
tions, the  most  improbable,  as  well  as  inconsistent, 
were  received.  No  informer,  however  infamous,  was 
rejected.  The  result  of  this  inquest,  no  less  indecent 
than  partial,  he  transmitted  to  Spain.  At  the  same 
time,  he  ordered  Columbus,  with  his  two  brothers, 
to  be  carried  thither  in  fetters  ;  and,  adding  cruelty 
to  insult,  he  confined  them  in  different  ships,  and 
excluded  them  from  the  comfort  of  that  friendly 
intercourse  which  might  have  soothed  their  common 
distress.  But  while  the  Spaniards  in  Hispaniola 
viewed  the  arbitrary  and  insolent  proceedings  of 
Bovadilla  with  a  general  approbation,  which  reflects 
dishonour  upon  their  name  and  country,  one  man 
still  retained  a  proper  sense  of  the  great  actions  which 
Columbus  had  performed,  and  was  touched  with  the 
sentiments  of  veneration  and  pity  due  to  his  rank, 
his  age,  and  his  merit.  Alonzo  de  Valejo,  the  captain 
of  the  vessel  on  board  which  the  admiral  was  confined, 
as  soon  as  he  was  clear  of  the  island,  approached 
his  prisoner  with  great  respect,  and  offered  to  release 
him  from  the  fetters  with  which  he  was  unjustly 
loaded.  "  No,"  replied  Columbus,  with  a  generous 
indignation,  "  I  wear  these  irons  in  consequence  of 
an  order  from  my  sovereigns.  They  shall  find  me  as 
obedient  to  this  as  to  their  other  injunctions.  By 
their  command  I  have  been  confined,  and  their  com- 
mand alone  shall  set  me  at  liberty." 

[November  23.]  Fortunately,  the  voyage  to  Spain 
was  extremely  short.  As  soon  as  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella  were  informed  that  Columbus  was  brought 
home  a  prisoner,  and  in  chains,  they  perceived  at 
once  what  universal  astonishment  this  event  must 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


41 


occasion,  and  what  an  impression  to  their  disadvan- 
tage it  must  make.  All  Europe,  they  foresaw,  would 
be  filled  with  indignation  at  this  ungenerous  requital 
of  a  man  who  had  performed  actions  worthy  of  the 
highest  recompence,  and  would  exclaim  against  the 
injustice  of  the  nation,  to  which  he  had  been  such 
an  eminent  benefactor,  a-s  we'll  as  against  the  ingra- 
titude of  the  princes  whose  reign  he  had  rendered 
illustrious.  Ashamed  of  their  own  conduct,  and  eager 
not  only  to  make  some  reparation  for  this  injury, 
but  to  efface  the  stain  which  it  might  fix  upon  their 
character,  they  instantly  issued  orders  to  set  Columbus 
at  liberty  [December  17],  invited  him  to  court,  and 
remitted  money  to  enable  him  to  appear  there  in  a 
manner  suitable  to  his  rank.  When  he  entered  the 
royal  presence,  Columbus  threw  himself  at  the  feet 
of  his  Sovereigns.  He  remained  for  some  time  silent ; 
the  various  passions  which  agitated  his  mind  sup- 
pressing his  power  of  utterance.  At  length  he  recovered 
himself,  and  vindicated  his  conduct  in  a  long  dis- 
course, producing  the  most  satisfying  proofs  of  his 
own  integrity  as  well  as  good  intention,  and  evidence, 
no  less  clear,  of  the  malevolence  of  his  enemies,  who, 
not  satisfied  with  having  ruined  his  fortune,  laboured 
to  deprive  him  of  what  alone  was  now  left,  his  honour 
and  his  fame.  Ferdinand  received  him  with  decent 
civility,  and  Isabella  with  tenderness  and  respect.  They 
both  expressed  their  sorrow  for  what  had  happened, 
disavowed  their  knowledge  of  it,  and  joined  in  promis- 
ing him  protection  and  future  favor.  But  though  they 
instantly  degraded  Bovadilla,  in  order  to  remove  from 
themselves  any  suspicion  of  having  authorized  his 
violent  proceedings,  they  did  not  restore  to  Columbus 
his  jurisdiction  and  privileges  as  viceroy  of  those 
countries  which  he  had  discovered.  Though  willing 
to  appear  the  avengers  of  Columbus's  wrongs,  that 
illiberal  jealousy  which  prompted  them  to  invest 
Bovadilla  with  such  authority  as  put  it  in  his  power 
to  treat  the  admiral  with  indignity,  still  subsisted. 
They  were  afraid  to  trust  a  man  to  whom  they  had 
been  so  highly  indebted,  and  retaining  him  at  couit 
under  various  pretexts,  thejr  appointed  Nicholas  de 
Ovando,  a  knight  of  the  military  order  of  Alcantara, 
governor  of  Hispaniola. 

Columbus  was  deeply  affected  with  this  new  injury, 
which  came  from  hands  that  seemed  to  be  employed 
in  making  reparation  for  his  past  sufferings.  The 
sensibility  with  which  great  minds  feel  every  thing 
that  implies  any  suspicion  of  their  integrity,  or  that 
wears  the  aspect  of  an  affront,  is  exquisite.  Colum- 
bus had  experienced  both  from  the  Spaniards ;  and 
their  ungenerous  conduct  exasperated  him  to  such  a 
degree,  that  he  could  no  longer  conceal  the  sentiments 
which  it  excited.  Wherever  he  went  he  carried 
about  with  him,  as  a  memorial  of  their  ingratitude, 
those  fetters  with  which  he  had  been  loaded.  They 
were  constantly  hung  up  in  his  chamber,  and  he 
gave  orders,  that  when  he  died  they  should  be  buried 
in  his  grave. 

[A.  D.  1501.]  Meanwhile,  the  spirit  of  discovery, 
notwithstanding  the  severe  check  which  it  had  receiv- 
ed by  the  ungenerous  treatment  of  the  man  who  first 
excited  it  in  Spain,  continued  active  and  vigorous. 
Roderigo  de  Bastidas,  a  person  of  distinction,  fitted 
out  two  ships  [January]  in  copartnery  with  John  de 
la  Cosa,  who  having  served  under  the  Admiral  in  two 
of  his  voyages,  was  deemed  the  most  skilful  pilot  in 
Spain.  They  steered  directly  towards  the  continent, 
arrived  on  the  coast  of  Paria,  and  proceeding  to  the 
west,  discovered  all  the  coast  of  the  province  now 
known  by  the  name  of  Tierra  Firme,  from  Cape  de 
Vela  to  the  gulf  of  Darien.  Not  long  after,  Ojeda, 

HISTORY  OF  AMERICA,  No,  £. 


with  his  former  associate,  Amerigo  Vespucci,  set  out 
upon  a  second  voyage,  and  being  unacquainted  with 
the  destination  of  Bastidas,  held  the  same  course, 
and  touched  at  the  same  places.  The  voyage  of  Bas- 
tidas was  prosperous  and  lucrative,  that  of  Ojeda  un- 
fortunate. But  both  tended  to  increase  the  ardour  of 
discovery  ;  for  in  proportion  as  the  Spaniards  acquired 
a  more  extensive  knowledge  of  the  American  conti- 
nent, their  idea  of  its  opulence  and  fertility  increased. 

Before  these  adventurers  returned  from  their 
voyages,  a  fleet  was  equipped,  at  the  public  expense, 
for  carrying  over  Ovando,  the  new  governor,  to 
Hispaniola.  His  presence  there  was  extremely 
requisite,  in  order  to  stop  the  inconsiderate  career  of 
Bovadilla,  whose  imprudent  administration  threatened 
the  settlement  with  ruin.  Conscious  of  the  violence 
and  iniquity  of  his  proceedings  against  Columbus,  he 
continued  to  make  it  his  sole  object  to  gain  the  favour 
and  support  of  his  countrymen,  by  accommodating 
himself  to  their  passions  and  prejudices.  With  this 
view,  he  established  regulations  in  every  point  the 
reverse  of  those  which  Columbus  deemed  essential  to 
the  prosperity  of  the  colony.  Instead  of  the  severe 
discipline,  necessary  in  order  to  habituate  the  disso- 
lute and  corrupted  members  of  which  the  society  was 
composed,  to  the  restraints  of  law  and  subordination, 
he  suffered  them  to  enjoy  such  uncontrolled  license, 
as  encouraged  the  wildest  excesses.  Instead  of 
protecting  the  Indians,  he  gave  a  legal  sanction  to  the 
oppression  of  that  unhappy  people.  He  took  the 
exact  number  of  such  as  survived  their  past  calamities, 
divided  them  into  distinct  classes,  distributed  them 
in  property  among  his  adherents,  and  reduced  all  the 
people  of  the  island  to  a  state  of  complete  servitude. 
As  the  avarice  of  the  Spaniards  was  too  rapacious 
and  impatient  to  try  any  method  of  acquiring  wealth 
but  that  of  searching  for  gold,  this  servitude  became 
as  grievous  as  it  was  unjust.  The  Indians  were 
driven  in  crowds  to  the  mountains,  and  compelled  to 
work  in  the  mines,  by  masters  who  imposed  their 
tasks  without  mercy  or  discretion.  Labour  so  dis- 
proportioned  to  their  strength  and  former  habits  of 
life,  wasted  that  feeble  race  of  men  with  such  rapid 
consumption,  as  must  have  soon  terminated  in  the 
utter  extinction  of  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  the 
country. 

The  necessity  of  applying  a  speedy  remedy  to  those 
disorders,  hastened  Ovando's  departure.  He  had  the 
command  of  the  most  respectable  armament  hitherto 
fitted  out  for  the  New  World.  It  consisted  of  thirty- 
two  ships,  on  board  of  which  two  thousand  five  hun- 
dred persons  embarked,  with  an  intention  of  settling 
in  the  country.  Upon  the  arrival  of  the  new  governor 
with  this  powerful  reinforcement  to  the  colony, 
Bovadilla,  resigned  his  charge,  and  was  commanded 
to  return  instantly  to  Spain,  in  order  to  answer  for 
his  conduct.  Roldan,  and  the  other  ringleaders  of 
the  mutineers,  who  had  been  most  active  in  opposing 
Columbus,  were  required  to  leave  the  island  at  the 
same  time.  A  proclamation  was  issued,  declaring 
the  natives  to  be  free  subjects  of  Spain,  of  whom  no 
service  was  to  be  exacted  contrary  to  their  own  incli- 
nation, and  without  paying  them  an  adequate  price 
for  their  labour.  With  respect  to  the  Spaniards  them- 
selves, various  regulations  were  made,  tending  to- 
suppress  the  licentious  spirit  which  had  been  so  fatal 
to  the  colony,  and  to  establish  that  reverence  for  law 
and  order  on  which  society  is  founded,  and  to  which  it 
is  indebted  for  its  increase  and  stability.  In  order  to 
limit  the  exorbitant  gain  which  private  persons  were 
supposed  to  make  by  working  the  mines,  an  ordinance 

was  published,  directing  all  the  gold,  tq  be  brought  to 
G 


42 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


a  public  smelting-house,  and  declaring  one  half  of  it 
to  be  the  property  of  the  crown. 

While  these  steps  were  taking  for  securing  the 
tranquillity  and  welfare  of  the  colony  which  Columbus 
had  planted,  he  himself  was  engaged  in  the  unpleasant 
employment  of  soliciting  the  favour  of  an  ungrateful 
court,  and  notwithstanding  all  his  merit  and  services 
he  solicited  in  vain.  He  demanded,  in  terms  of  the 
original  capitulation  in  one  thousand  four  hundred 
and  ninety-two,  to  be  reinstated  in  his  office  of 
viceroy  over  the  countries  which  he  had  discovered. 
By  a  strange  fatality,  the  circumstance  whicli 
he  urged  in  support  of  his  claim,  determined  a 
jealous  monarch  to  reject  it.  The  greatness  of  his 
il-scoveries,  and  the  prospect  of  their  increasing  value, 
made  Ferdinand  consider  the  concessions  in  the  capi- 
tulation as  extravagant  and  impolitic.  He  was  afraid 
of  intrusting  a  subject  with  the  exercise  of  a  juris- 
diction that  now  appeared  to  be  so  extremely  exten- 
sive, and  might  grow  to  be  no  less  formidable.  He 
inspired  Isabella  with  the  same  suspicions  ;  and  under 
various  pretexts,  equally  frivolous  and  unjust,  they 
eluded  all  Columbus's  requisitions  to  perform  that 
which  a  solemn  compact  bound  them  to  accomplish. 
After  attending  the  court  of  Spain  for  near  two  years, 
as  an  humble  suitor,  he  found  it  impossible  to 
remove  Ferdinand's  prejudices  and  apprehensions ; 
and  perceived,  at  length,  that  he  laboured  in  vain, 
when  he  urged  a  claim  of  justice  or  merit  with  an 
interested  and  unfeeling  prince. 

But  even  this  ungenerous  return  did  not  discourage 
him  from  pursuing  the  great  object  which  first  called 
forth  his  inventive  genius,  and  excited  him  to  attempt 
discovery.  To  open  a  new  passage  to  the  East  Indies, 
was  his  original  and  favourite  scheme.  This  still 
engrossed  his  thoughts ;  and  either  from  his  own 
observations  in  his  voyage  to  Paria,  or  from  some 
obscure  hint  of  the  natives,  or  from  the  accounts  given 
"by  Bastidas  and  De  la  Cosa  of  their  expedition,  he 
conceived  an  opinion  that,  beyond  the  continent  of 
America,  there  was  a  sea  which  extended  to  the 
East  Indies,  and  hoped  to  find  some  strait  or 
narrow  neck  of  land,  by  which  a  communication  might 
he  opened  with  it  and  the  part  of  the  ocean  already 
known.  By  a  very  fortunate  conjecture,  he  supposed 
this  strait  or  isthmus  to  be  situated  near  the  gulf  of 
Darien.  Full  of  this  idea,  though  he  was  now  of  an 
advanced  age,  worn  out  with  fatigue,  and  broken  with 
infirmities,  he  offered,  with  the  alacrity  of  a  youthful 
adventurer,  to  undertake  a  voyage  which  would 
ascertain  this  important  point,  and  perfect  the  grand 
scheme  which  from  the  beginning  he  proposed  to 
accomplish.  Several  circumstances  concurred  in 
disposing  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  to  lend  a  favourable 
ear  to  this  proposal.  They  were  glad  to  have  the 
pretext  of  any  honourable  employment  for  removing 
from  court  a  man  with  whose  demands  they  deemed 
it  impolitic  to  comply,  and  whose  services  it  was 
indecent  to  neglect.  Though  unwilling  to  reward 
Columbus,  they  were  not  insensible  of  his  merit,  and 
from  their  experience  of  his  skill  and  conduct,  had 
reason  to  give  credit  to  his  conjectures,  and  to  confide 
in  his  success.  To  these  considerations,  a  third  must 
be  added  of  still  more  powerful  influence.  About 
this  time  the  Portuguese  fleet,  under  Cabral,  arrived 
from  the  Indies  ;  and,  by  the  richness  of  its  cargo, 
gave  the  people  of  Europe  a  more  perfect  idea  than 
they  had  hitherto  been  able  to  form,  of  the  opulence 
and  fertility  of  the  East.  The  Portuguese  had  been 
more  fortunate  in  their  discoveries  than  the  Spaniards. 
They  had  opened  a  communication  with  countries 
where  industry,  arts,  and  elegance  flourished ;  and, 


where  commerce  had  been  longer  established,  and 
carried  to  a  greater  extent,  than  in  any  region  of  tin- 
earth.  Their  first  voyages  thither  yielded  immediate 
as  well  as  vast  returns  of  profit,  in  commodities 
extremely  precious  and  in  great  request.  Lisbon 
became  immediately  the  seat  of  commerce  and  wealth  ; 
while  Spain  had  only  the  expectation  of  remote 
benefit,  and  of  future  gain,  from  the  western  world. 
Nothing,  then,  could  be  more  acceptable  to  the 
Spaniards  than  Columbus's  offer  to  conduct  them  to 
the  East,  by  a  route  which  Ke  expected  to  be  shorter, 
as  well  as  less  dangerous,  than  that  which  the  Portu- 
guese had  taken.  Even  Ferdinand  was  roused  by 
such  a  prospect,  and  warmly  approved  of  the  under- 
taking. 

But  interesting  as  the  object  of  this  voyage  was  to 
the  nation,  Columbus  could  only  procure  four  small 
barks,  the  largest  of  which  did  not  exceed  seventy 
tons  in  burden,  for  performing  it.  Accustomed  to 
brave  danger,  and  to  engage  in  arduous  undertakings 
with  inadequate  force,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  accept 
the  command  of  this  pitiful  squadron.  His  brother 
Bartholomew,  and  his  second  son  Ferdinand,  the 
historian  of  his  actions,  accompanied  him.  He  sailed 
from  Cadiz  on  the  ninth  of  May,  and  touched,  as 
usual,  at  the  Canary  islands ;  from  thence  he  pro- 
posed to  have  stood  directly  for  the  continent  ;  but 
his  largest  vessel  was  so  clumsy  and  unfit  for  service, 
as  constrained  him  to  bear  away  for  Hispaniola,  in 
hopes  of  exchanging  her  for  some  ship  of  the  fleet 
that  had  carried  out  Ovando.  When  he  arrived  at 
St.  Domingo  (June  29),  he  found  eighteen  of  these 
ships  ready  loaded,  and  on  the  point  of  departing  for 
Spain.  Columbus  immediately  acquainted  the  gover- 
nor with  the  destination  of  his  voyage,  and  the 
accident  which  had  obliged  him  to  alter  his  route. 
He  requested  permission  to  enter  the  harbour,  not 
only  that  he  might  negociate  the  exchange  of  his 
ship,  but  that  he  might  take  shelter  during  a  violent 
hurricane,  of  which  he  discerned  the  approach  from 
various  prognostics,  which  his  experience  and  sagacity 
had  taught  him  to  observe.  On  that  account,  he 
advised  him  likewise  to  put  off  for  some  days  the 
departure  of  the  fleet  bound  for  Spain.  But  Ovando 
refused  his  request,  and  despised  his  counsel.  Under 
circumstances  in  which  humanity  would  have  afforded 
refuge  to  a  stranger,  Columbus  was  denied  admittance 
into  a  country  of  which  he  had  discovered  the  exist- 
ence and  acquired  the  possession.  His  salutary 
warning,  which  merited  the  greatest  attention,  was 
regarded  as  the  dream  of  a  visionary  prophet,  who 
arrogantly  pretended  to  predict  an  event  beyond  the 
reach  of  human  foresight.  The  fleet  set  sail  for 
Spain.  Next  night  the  hurricane  came  on  with 
dreadful  impetuosity.  Columbus,  aware  of  the 
danger,  took  precautions  against  it,  and  saved  his 
little  squadron.  The  fleet  destined  for  Spain  met 
with  the  fate  which  the  rashness  and  obstinacy  of  its 
commanders  deserved.  Of  eighteen  ships,  two  or 
three  only  escaped.  In  this  general  wreck  perished 
Bovadilla,  Roldan,  and  the  greater  part  of  those  who 
hadbeen  the  most  activein  persecuting  Columbus,  and 
oppressing  the  Indians,  Together  with  themselves, 
all  the  wealth  which  they  had  acquired  by  their 
injustice  and  cruelty  was  swallowed  up.  It  exceeded 
in  value  two  hundred  thousand  pesos;  an  immense 
sum  at  that  period,  and  sufficient  not  only  to  have 
screened  them  from  any  severe  scrutiny  into  their 
conduct,  hut  to  have  secured  them  a  gracious  recep- 
tion in  the  Spanish  court.  Among  the  ships  that 
escaped,  one  had  on  board  all  the  effects  of  Columbus 
which  .had  been  recovered  from  the  ruins  of  his 


THE'  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA.      ' 


fortune.  Historians,  struck  with  the  exact  discrimi- 
nation of  characters,  as  well  as  the  just  distribution 
of  rewards  and  punishments,  conspicuous  in  those 
events,  universally  attributed  them  to  an  immediate 
interposition  of  Divine  Providence,  in  order  to  avenge 
the  wrongs  of  an  injured  man,  and  to  punish  the 
oppressors  of  an  innocent  people.  Upon  the  ignorant 
and  superstitious  race  of  men,  who  were  witnesses  of 
this  occurrence,  it  made  a  different  impression.  From 
an  opinion  which  vulgar  admiration  is  apt  to  enter- 
tain with  respect  to  persons  who  have  distinguished 
themselves  by  their  sagacity  and  inventions,  they 
believed  Columbus  to  be  possessed  of  supernatural 
powers,  and  imagined  that  he  had  conjured  up  this 
dreadful  storm  by  magical  art  and  incantations,  in 
order  to  be  avenged  of  his  enemies.  [July  14.] 
Columbus  soon  left  Hispaniola,  where  he  met  with 
such  an  inhospitable  reception,  and  stood  towards 
the  continent.  After  a  tedious  and  dangerous  voyage, 
he  discovered  Guanaia,  an  island  not  far  distant  from 
the  coast  of  Honduras.  There  he  had  an  interview 
with  some  inhabitants  of  the  continent,  who  arrived 
in  a  large  canoe.  They  appeared  to  be  a  people  more 
civilized,  and  who  had  made  greater  progress  in  the 
knowledge  of  useful  arts,  than  any  whom  he  had 
hitherto  discovered.  In  return  to  the  inquiries  which 
the  Spaniards  made,  with  their  usual  eagerness,  con- 
cerning the  places  where  the  Indians  got  the  gold 
which  they  Avore  by  way  of  ornament,  they  directed 
them  to  countries  situated  to  the  west,  in  which 
gold  was  found  in  such  profusion,  that  it  was  applied 
to  the  most  common  uses.  Instead  of  steering  in 
quest  of  a  country  so  inviting,  which  would  have 
conducted  him  along  the  coast  of  Yucatan  to  the  rich 
empire  of  Mexico,  Columbus  was  so  bent  upon  his 
favourite  scheme  of  finding  out  the  strait  which  he 
supposed  to  communicate  with  the  Indian  ocean,  that 
he  bore  away  to  the  east,  towards  the  gulf  of  Darien. 
In  this  navigation  he  discovered  all  the  coast  of  the 
continent,  from  Cape  Gracias  a  Dios,  to  a  harbour 
which,  on  account  of  its  beauty  and  security,  he 
called  Porto  Bello.  He  searched  in  vain  for  the 
imaginary  strait,  through  which  he  expected  to  make 
his  way  into  an  unknown  sea ;  and  though  he  went 
on  shore  several  times,  and  advanced  into  the  country, 
he  did  not  penetrate  so  far  as  to  cross  the  narrow 
isthmus  which  separates  the  gulf  of  Mexico  from  the 
great  southern  ocean.  He  was  so  much  delighted, 
however,  with  the  fertility  of  the  country,  end  con- 
ceived such  an  idea  of  its  wealth,  from  the  specimens 
of  gold  produced  by  the  natives,  that  he  resolved  to 
leave  a  small  colony  upon  the  river  Belen  [A.  D.  1503], 
in  the  province  of  Veragua,  under  the  command  of 
his  brother,  and  to  return  himself  to  Spain,  in  order 
to  procure  what  was  requisite  for  rendering  the 
establishment  permanent.  But  the  ungovernable 
spirit  of  the  people  under  his  command,  deprived 
Columbus  of  the  glory  of  planting  the  first  colony  on 
the  continent  of  America.  Their  insolence  and 
rapaciousness  provoked  the  natives  to  take  arms,  and 
as  these  were  a  more  hardy  and  warlike  race  of  men 
than  the  inhabitants  of  the  islands,  they  cut  off  part 
of  the  Spaniards,  and  obliged  the  rest  to  abandon  a 
station  which  was  found  to  be  untenable. 

This  repulse,  the  first  that  the  Spaniards  met  with 
from  any  of  the  American  nations,  was  not  the  only 
misfoitune  that  befell  Columbtis ;  it  was  followed  by 
a  succession  of  all  the  disasters  to  which  navigation 
is  exposed.  Furious  hurricanes,  with  violent  storms 
of  thunder  and  lightning,  threatened  his  leaky  vessels 
with  destruction ;  while  his  discontented  crew, 
exhausted  with  fatigue,  and  destitute  of  provisions, 


was  unwilling  or  unable  to  execute  his  commands. 
One  of  his  ships  perished ;  he  was  obliged  to  abandon 
another,  as  unfit  for  service;  and  with  the  two  which 
remained,  he  quitted  that  part  of  the  continent, 
which  in  his  anguish  he  named  the  Coast  of  Vexation, 
and  bore  away  for  Hispaniola.  New  distresses 
awaited  him  in  this  voyage.  He  was  driven  back  by 
a  violent  tempest  from  the  coast  of  Cuba,  his  ships 
fell  foul  of  one  another,  and  were  so  much  shattered 
by  the  shock,  that  with  the  utmost  difficulty  they 
reached  Jamaica  [June  24].  where  he  was  obliged  to 
run  them  aground,  to  prevent  them  from  sinking. 
The  measure  of  his  calamities  seemed  now  to  be  full. 
He  was  cast  ashore  upon  an  island  at  a  considerable 
distance  from  the  only  settlement  of  the  Spaniards  in 
America.  His  ships  were  ruined  beyond  the  possi- 
bility of  being  repaired.  To  convey  an  account  of 
his  situation  to  Hispaniola,  appeared  impracticable; 
and  without  this  it  was  vain  to  expect  relief.  His 
genius,  fertile  in  resources,  and  most  vigorous  in  those 
perilous  extremities,  when  feeble  minds  abandon 
themselves  to  despair,  discovered  the  only  expedient 
which  afforded  any  prospect  of  deliverance.  He  had 
recourse  to  the  hospitable  kindness  of  the  natives, 
who,  considering  the  Spaniards  as  beings  of  a  supe- 
rior nature,  were  eager,  on  every  occasion,  to  minister 
to  their  wants.  From  them  he  obtained  two  of  their 
canoes,  each  formed  out  of  the  trunk  of  a  single 
tree  hollowed  with  fire,  and  so  mis-shapen  and 
awkward  as  hardly  to  merit  the  name  of  boats.  In 
these,  which  were  fit  only  for  creeping  along  the 
coast,  or  crossing  from  one  side  of  a  bay  to  another, 
Mendez,  a  Spaniard,  and  Fieschi,  a  Genoese,  two 
gentlemen  particularly  attached  to  Columbus,  gallantly 
offered  to  set  out  for  Hispaniola,  upon  a  voyage  of 
above  thirty  leagues.  This  they  accomplished  in  ten 
days,  after  surmounting  incredible  dangers,  and 
enduring  such  fatigues  that  several  of  the  Indians 
who  accompanied  them  sunk  under  it,  and  died.  The 
attention  paid  to  them  by  the  governor  of  Hispaniola 
was  neither  such  as  thoir  courage  merited,  nor  the 
distress  of  the  persons  from  whom  they  came 
required.  Ovando,  from  a  mean  jealousy  of  Colum- 
bus, was  afraid  of  allowing  him  to  set  foot  in  the 
island  under  his  government.  This  ungenerous 
passion  hardened  his  heart  against  every  tender  sen- 
timent, which  reflection  upon  the  services  and  mis- 
fortunes of  that  great  man,  or  compassion  for  his  own 
fellow-citizens  involved  in  the  same  calamities,  must 
have  excited.  Mendez  and  Fieschi  spent  eight  months 
in  soliciting  relief  for  their  commander  and  associates, 
without  any  prospect  of  obtaining  it. 

During  this  period,  various  passions  agitated  the 
mind  of  Columbus  and  his  companions  in  adversity. 
At  first  the  expectation  of  speedy  deliverance,  from 
the  success  of  Mendez  and  Fieschi's  voyage,  cheered 
the  spirits  of  the  most  desponding.  [A.  D.  1504.]  After 
some  time  the  most  timorous  began  to  suspect  that 
they  had  miscarried  in  their  daring  attempt.  At 
length,  even  the  most  sanguine  concluded  that  they 
had  perished.  The  ray  of  hope  which  had  broken  in 
upon  them,  made  their  condition  appear  now  moro 
dismal.  Despair,  heightened  by  disappointment, 
settled  in  every  breast.  Their  last  resource  had  failed, 
and  nothing  remained  but  the  prospect  of  ending 
their  miserable  days  among  naked  savages,  far  from 
their  country  and  their  friends.  The  ssamen,  in  a 
transport  of  rage,  rose  in  open  mutiny,  threatened  the 
life  of  Columbus,  whom  they  reproached  as  the  author 
of  all  their  calamities,  seized  ten  canoes,  which  he 
had  purchased  from  the  Indians,  and,  despising  his 
remonstrances  and  entreaties,  made  off  with  them  to 


44 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


a  distant  part  of  the  island.  At  the  same  time  the 
natives  murmured  at  the  long  residence  of  the 
Spaniards  in  thoir  country.  As  their  industry  was 
not  greater  than  that  of  their  neighbours  in  Hispaniola, 
like  them  they  found  the  burden  of  supporting  so 
many  strangers  to  be  altogether  intolerable.  They 
began  to  bring  in  provisions  with  reluctance,  they 
furnished  them  with  a  sparing  hand,  and  threatened 
to  withdraw  those  supplies  altogether.  Such  a  reso- 
lution must  have  been  quickly  fatal  to  the  Spaniards. 
Their  safety  depended  upon  the  good-will  of  the 
Indians  ;  and  unless  they  could  revive  the  admiration 
and  reverence  with  which  that  simple  people  had  at 
first  beheld  them,  destruction  was  unavoidable. 
Though  the  licentious  proceedings  of  the  mutineers 
had,  in  a  great  measure,  effaced  those  impressions 
which  had  been  so  favourable  to  the  Spaniards,  the 
ingenuity  of  Columbus  suggested  a  happy  artifice, 
that  not  only  restored  but  heightened  the  high  opinion 
which  the  Indians  had  originally  entertained  of  them. 
By  his  skill  in  astronomy  he  knew  that  there  was 
shortly  to  be  a  total  eclipse  of  the  moon.  He 
assembled  all  the  principal  persons  of  the  district 
around  him  on  the  day  before  it  happened,  and,  after 
reproaching  them  for  their  fickleness  in  withdrawing 
their  affection  and  assistance  from  men  whom  they 
had  lately  revered,  he  told  them,  that  the  Spaniards 
were  servants  of  the  Great  Spirit  who  dwells  in 
heaven,  who  made  and  governs  the  world ;  that  he, 
offended  at  their  refusing  to  support  men  who  were 
the  objects  of  his  peculiar  favour,  was  preparing  to 
punish  this  crime  with  exemplary  severity,  and  that 
very  night  the  moon  should  withhold  her  light,  and 
appear  of  a  bloody  hue,  as  a  sign  of  the  divine  wrath, 
and  an  emblem  of  the  vengeance  ready  to  fall  upon 
them.  To  this  marvellous  prediction  some  of  them 
listened  with  the  careless  indifference  peculiar  to  the 
people  of  America  ;  others,  with  the  credulous  asto- 
nishment natural  to  barbarians.  But  when  the 
moon  began  gradually  to  be  darkened,  and  at  length 
appeared  of  a  red  colours  all  were  struck  with  terror. 
They  ran  with  consternation  to  their  houses,  and 
returning  instantly  to  Columbus  loaded  with  provi- 
sions, threw  them  at  his  feet,  conjuring  him  to  inter- 
cede with  the  Great  Spirit  to  avert  the  destruction 
with  which  they  were  threatened.  Columbus,  seeming 
to  be  moved  by  their  entreaties,  promised  to  comply 
with  their  desire.  The  eclipse  went  off,  the  moon 
recovered  its  splendour,  and  from  that  day  the 
Spaniards  were  not  only  furnished  profusely  with 
provisions,  but  the  natives,  with  superstitious  atten- 
tion, avoided  every  thing  that  could  give  them 
offence. 

During  those  transactions,  the  mutineers  had  made 
repeated  attempts  to  pass  over  to  Hispaniola  in  the 
canoes  which  they  had  seized.  But  from  their  own 
misconduct,  or  the  violence  of  the  winds  and  currents, 
their  efforts  were  all  unsuccessful.  Enraged  at  this 
disappointment,  they  marched  towards  that  part  of 
the  island  where  Columbus  remained,  threatening  him 
with  new  insults  and  danger.  While  they  were 
advancing,  an  event  happened,  more  cruel  and  afflicting 
than  any  calamity  which  he  dreaded  from  them.  The 
governor  of  Hispaniola,  whose  mind  was  still  filled 
with  some  dark  suspicions  of  Columbus,  sent  a  small 
bark  to  Jamaica,  not  to  deliver  his  distressed  coun- 
trymen, but  to  spy  out  their  condition.  Lest  the 
sympathy  of  those  whom  he  employed  should  afford 
them  relief,  contrary  to  his  intention,  he  gnve  the 
command  of  this  vessel  to  Escobar,  an  inveterate 
enemy  of  Columbus,  who,  adhering  to  his  instructions 
with  malignant  accuracy,  cast  anchor  at  some  distance 


from  the  island,  approached  the  shore  in  a  small  boat, 
observed  the  wretched  plight  of  the  Spaniards,  deli- 
vered a  letter  of  empty  compliments  to  the  admiral, 
received  his  answer,  and  depai  tod.  When  the  Spaniards 
first  descried  the  vessel  standing  towards  the  island 
every  heart  exulted,  as  if  the  long-expected  hour  of 
their  deliverance  had  at  length  arrived;  but  when  it 
disappeared  so  suddenly,  they  sunk  into  tho  deepest 
dejection,  and  all  their  hopes  died  away.  Columbus 
alone,  though  he  felt  most  sensibly  this  wanton  insult 
which  Ovando  added  to  his  past  neglect,  retained 
such  composure  of  mind  as  to  be  able  to  cheer  his 
followers.  He  assured  them,  thatMendez  and  Fieschi 
had  reached  Hispaniola  in  safety ;  that  they  would 
speedily  procure  ships  to  carry  them  off;  but,  us 
Escobar's  vessel  could  not  take  them  all  on  board, 
that  he  had  refused  to  go  with  her,  because  he  was 
determined  never  to  abandon  the  faithful  companion* 
of  his  distress.  Soothed  with  the  expectation  of 
speedy  deliverance,  and  delighted  with  his  apparent 
generosity  in  attending  more  to  their  preservation 
than  to  his  own  safety,  their  spirits  revived,  and  he 
regained  their  confidence. 

Without  this  confidence  he  could  not  have  resisted 
the  mutineers,  who  were  now  at  hand.  All  his 
endeavours  to  reclaim  those  desperate  men  had  no 
effect  but  to  increase  their  phrenzy.  Their  demands 
became  every  day  more  extravagant,  and  their  inten- 
tions more  violent  and  bloody.  The  common  safety 
rendered  it  necessary  to  oppose  them  with  open  force. 
Columbus,  who  had  been  Jong  afflicted  with  the  gout, 
could  not  take  the  field.  His  brother,  the  adelantado, 
marched  against  them.  [May  20.]  They  quickly  met. 
The  mutineers  rejected  with  scorn  terms  of  accomo- 
dation,  which  were  once  more  offered  them,  and 
rushed  on  boldly  to  the  attack.  They  fell  not  upon 
an  enemy  unprepared  to  receive  them.  In  the  first 
shock  several  of  their  most  daring  leaders  were  slain. 
The  adelantado,  whose  strength  was  equal  to  his 
courage,  closed  with  their  captain,  wounded,  dis- 
armed, and  took  him  prisoner.  At  sight  of  this,  the 
rest  fled  with  a  dastardly  fear  suitable  to  their  former 
insolence.  Soon  after,  they  submitted  in  a  body  to 
Columbus,  and  bound  themselves  by  the  most  solemn 
oaths  to  obey  all  his  commands.  Hardly  was  tran- 
quillity re-established,  when  the  ships  appeared 
whose  arrival  Columbus  had  promised  with  great 
address,  though  he  could  foresee  it  with  little  cer- 
tainty. With  transports  of  joy,  the  Spaniards  quitted 
an  island  in  which  the  unfeeling  jealousy  of  Orando 
had  suffered  them  to  lauguish  above  a  year,  exposed 
to  misery  in  all  its  various  forms. 

When  they  arrived  at  St.  Domingo,  the  governor, 
with  the  mean  artifice  of  a  vulgar  mind,  that  labours 
to  atone  for  insolence  by  servility,  fawned  on  the  man 
whom  he  envied,  and  had  attempted  to  ruin.  He 
received  Columbus  with  the  most  studied  respect, 
lodged  him  in  his  own  house,  and  distinguished  him 
with  every  mark  of  honour.  But  amidst  those  over- 
acted demonstrations  of  regard,  he  could  not  conceal 
the  hatred  and  malignity  latent  in  his  heart.  He  set 
at  liberty  the  captain  of  the  mutineers,  whom  Co- 
lumbus had  brought  over  in  chains,  to  be  tried  for 
his  crimes ;  and  threatened  such  as  had  adhered  to 
the  admiral  with  proceeding  to  a  judicial  inquiry  into 
their  conduct.  Columbus  submitted  in  silence  to 
what  he  could  not  redress  ;  but  discovered  an  extreme 
impatience  to  quit  a  country  which  was  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  a  man  who  had  treated  him,  on  every 
occasion,  with  inhumanity  and  injustice. 

[September  12.]  His  preparations  were  soon 
finished,  and  he  set  sail  for  Spain  with  two  ships. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


45 


Disasters  similar  to  those  which  had  accompanied  him 
through  life  continued  to  pursue  him  to  the  end  of 
his  career.  One  of  his  vessels  being  disabled,  was 
soon  forced  back  to  St.  Domingo;  the  other,  shattered 
by  violent  storms,  sailed  seven  hundred  leagues  with 
jury-masts  [December],  and  reached  with  difficulty 
the  port  of  St.  Lucar. 

There  he  received  the  account  of  an  event  [Nov.  9.] 
the  most  fatal  that  could  have  befallen  him,  and  which 
completed  his  misfortunes.  This  was  the  death  of 
his  patroness  queen  Isabella,  in  whose  justice,  hu- 
manity, and  favour,  he  confided  as  his  last  resource. 
None  now  remained  to  redress  his  wrongs,  or  to  reward 
him  for  his  services  and  sufferings,  but  Ferdinand, 
who  had  so  long  opposed  and  so  often  injured  him. 
To  solicit  a  prince  thus  prejudiced  against  him,  was 
an  occupation  no  less  irksome  than  hopeless.  In 
this,  however,  was  Columbus  doomed  to  employ  the 
close  of  his  days.  As  soon  as  his  health  was  in  some 
degree  re-established,  he  repaired  to  court ;  and 
though  he  was  received  there  with  civility  barely 
decent,  he  plied  Ferdinand  with  petition  after  petition, 
demanding  the  punishment  of  his  oppressors,  and 
the  restitution  of  all  the  privileges  bestowed  upon 
him  by  the  capitulation  of  one  thousand  four  hundred 
and  ninety-two.  Ferdinand  amused  him  with  fair 
words  and  unmeaning  promises.  Instead  of  granting 
his  claims,  he  opposed  expedients  in  order  to  elude 
them,  and  spun  out  the  affair  with  such  apparent  art, 
as  plainly  discovered  his  intention  that  it  should  never 
be  terminated.  The  declining  health  of  Columbus 
flattered  Ferdinand  with  the  hopes  of  being  soon 
delivered  from  an  importunate  suitor,  and  encouraged 
him  to  persevere  in  this  illiberal  plan.  Nor  was  he 
deceived  in  his  expectations.  Disgusted  with  the 
ingratitude  of  a  monarch  whom  he  had  served  with 
such  fidelity  and  success,  exhausted  with  the  fatigues 
and  hardships  which  he  had  endured,  and  broken 
with  the  infirmities  which  these  had  brought  upon 
him,  Columbus  ended  his  life  at  Valladolid  on  the 
twentieth  of  May,  one  thousand  five  hundred  and  six, 
in  the  fifty-ninth  year  of  his  age.  He  died  with  a 
composure  of  mind  suitable  to  the  magnanimity  which 
distinguished  his  character,  and  with  sentiments  of 
piety  becoming  that  supreme  respect  for  religion, 
which  he  had  manifested  in  every  occurrence  of  his  life. 


BOOK  III. 

WHILE  Columbus  was  employed  in  his  last  voyage, 
several  events  worthy  of  notice  happened  in  His- 
paniola.  The  colony  there,  the  parent  and  nurse  of 
all  the  subsequent  establishments  of  Spain  in  the 
New  World,  gradually  acquired  the  form  of  a  regular 
and  prosperous  society.  The  humane  solicitude  of 
Isabella  to  protect  the  Indians  from  oppression,  and 
particularly  the  proclamation  by  which  the  Spaniards 
were  prohibited  to  compel  them  to  work,  retarded, 
it  is  true,  for  some  time  the  progress  of  improvement. 
The  natives,  who  considered  exemption  from  toil  as 
supreme  felicity,  scorned  every  allurement  and  reward 
by  which  they  were  invited  to  labour.  The  Spaniards 
had  not  a  sufficient  number  of  hands  either  to  work 
the  mines  or  to  cultivate  the  soil.  Several  of  the  first 
colonists,  who  had  been  accustomed  to  the  service  of 
the  Indians,  quitted  the  island,  when  deprived  of 
those  instruments  without  which  they  knew  not  how 
to  carry  on  any  operation.  Many  of  the  new  settlers 
who  came  over  with  Ovando,  were  sei/ed  with  the 
distempers  peculiar  to  the  climate,  and  in  a  short 
space  above  a  thousand  of  them  died.  At  the  same 
time,  the  exacting  one  half  of  the  product  of  the 


mines  as  the  royal  share,  was  found  to  be  a  demand 
so  exorbitant,  that  no  adventurers  would  engage  to 
work  them  upon  such  terms.  In  order  to  save  the 
colony  from  ruin,  Ovando  ventured  to  relax  the  rigour 
of  the  royal  edicts.  [A.  D.  1505.]  He  made  a  new 
distribution  of  the  Indians  among  the  Spaniards,  and 
compelled  them  to  labour,  for  a  stated  time,  in 
digging  the  mines,  or  in  cultivating  the  ground ;  but 
in  order  to  screen  himself  from  the  imputation  of 
having  subjected  them  again  to  servitude,  he  enjoined 
their  masters  to  pay  them  a  certain  sum,  as  the  price 
of  their  work.  He  reduced  the  royal  share  of  the 
gold  found  in  the  mines  from  the  half  to  the  third 
part,  and  soon  after  lowered  it  to  a  fifth,  at  which  it 
long  remained.  Notwithstanding  Isabella's  tender 
concern  for  the  good  treatment  of  the  Indians,  and 
Ferdinand's  eagerness  to  improve  the  royal  revenue, 
Ovando  persuaded  the  court  to  approve  of  both  these 
regulations. 

But  the  Indians,  after  enjoying  respite  from 
oppression,  though  during  a  short  interval,  now  felt 
the  yoke  of  bondage  to  be  so  galling,  that  they  made 
several  attempts  to  vindicate  their  own  liberty.  This 
the  Spaniards  considered  as  rebellion,  and  took  arms 
in  order  to  reduce  them  to  subjection.  When  war  is 
carried  on  between  nations  whos'e  state  of  improve- 
ment is  in  any  degree  similar,  the  means  of  defence 
bear  some  proportion  to  those  employed  in  the  attack  ; 
and  in  this  equal  contest  such  efforts  must  be  made, 
such  talents  are  displayed,  and  such  passions  roused, 
as  exhibit  mankind  to  view  in  a  situation  no  less 
striking  than  interesting.  It  is  one  of  the  noblest 
functions  of  history,  to  observe  and  to  delineate  men 
at  a  juncture  when  their  minds  are  most  violently 
agitated,  and  all  their  powers  and  passions  are  called 
forth.  Hence  the  operations  of  war,  and  the  struggles 
between  contending  states,  have  been  deemed  by 
historians,  ancient  as  well  as  modern,  a  capital  and 
important  article  in  the  annals  of  human  actions. 
But  in  a  contest  between  naked  savages,  and  one  of 
the  most  warlike  of  the  European  nations,  where 
science,  courage  and  discipline  on  one  side,  were 
opposed  by  ignorance,  timidity,  and  disorder  on  the 
other,  a  particular  detail  of  events  would  be  as 
unpleasant  !as  uninstructive.  If  the  simplicity  and 
innocence  of  the  Indians  had  inspired  the  Spaniards 
with  humanity,  had  softened  the  pride  of  superiority 
into  compassion,  and  had  induced  them  to  improve 
the  inhabitants  of  the  New  World,  instead  of 
oppressing  them,  some  sudden  acts  of  violence,  like 
the  too  rigorous  chastisements  of  impatient  instruc- 
tors, might  have  been  related  without  horror.  But, 
unfortunately,  this  consciousness  of  superiority 
operated  in  a  different  manner.  The  Spaniards  were 
advanced  so  far  beyond  the  natives  of  America  in 
improvement  of  every  kind,  that  they  viewed  them 
with  contempt.  They  conceived  the  Americans  to 
be  animals  of  an  inferior  nature,  who  were  not  entitled 
to  the  rights  and  privileges  of  men.  In  peace,  they 
subjected  them  to  servitude.  In  war,  they  paid  no 
regard  to  those  hftvs,  which,  by  a  tacit  convention 
between  contending  nations,  regulate  hostility,  and 
set  some  bounds  to  its  rage.  They  considered  them 
not  as  men  fighting  in  defence  of  their  liberty,  but  as 
slaves  who  had  revolted  against  their  masters.  The 
caziques,  when  taken,  were  condemned,  like  the 
leaders  of  banditti,  to  the  most  cruel  and  ignominious 
punishments  ;  and  all  their  subjects,  without  regard- 
ing the  distinction  of  ranks  established  among  them, 
were  reduced  to  the  same  state  of  abject  slavery. 
With  such  a  spirit  and  sentiments  were  hostilities 
carried  on  against  the  cazique  of  Higuey,  a  province 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


at  tho  eastern  extremity  of  the  island.  This  war  was 
occasioned  by  the  perfidy  of  the  Spaniards,  in  violat- 
ing a  treaty  which  they  had  made  with  the  natives, 
and  it  was  terminated  by  hanging  up  the  cazique, 
who  defended  his  people  with  bravery  so  far  superior 
to  that  of  his  countrymen,  as  entitled  him  to  a  better 
fate. 

The  conduct  of  Ovando,  in  another  part  of  the 
island,  was  still  more  treacherous  and  cruel.  The 
province  anciently  named  Xaragua,  which  extends 
from  the  fertile  plain  where  Leogane  is  now  situated, 
to  the  western  extremity  of  the  island,  was  subject 
to  a  female  cazique,  named  Anacoana,  highly 
respected  by  the  natives.  She,  from  that  partial 
fondness  with  which  the  women  of  America  were 
attached  to  the  Europeans,  (the  cause  of  which  shall 
be  afterwards  explained,)  had  always  courted  the 
friendship  of  the  Spaniards,  and  loaded  them  with 
benefits.  But  some  of  the  adherents  of  Roldan 
having  settled  in  her  country,  were  so  much  exaspe- 
rated at  her  endeavouring  to  restrain  their  excesses, 
that  they  accused  her  of  having  formed  a  plan  to  throw 
off  the  yoke,  and  to  exterminate  the  Spaniards.  Ovando, 
though  he  knew  well  what  little  credit  was  due  to 
such  profligate  men,  marched,  without  further 
inquiry,  towards  Xaragua,  with  three  hundred  foot 
and  seventy  horsemen.  To  prevent  the  Indians  from 
taking  alarm  at  this  hostile  appearance,  he  gave  out 
that  his  sole  intention  was  to  visit  Anacoana,  to 
whom  his  countrymen  had  been  so  much  indebted, 
in  the  most  respectful  manner,  and  to  regulate  with 
her  the  mode  of  levying  the  tribute  payable  to  the 
King  of  Spain.  Anacoana,  in  order  to  receive  this 
illustrious  guest  with  due  honour,  assembled  the 
principal  men  in  her  dominions,  to  the  number  of 
three  hundred,  and  advancing  at  the  head  of  these, 
accompanied  by  a  great  crowd  of  persons  of  inferior 
rank,  she  welcomed  Ovando  with  songs  and  dances, 
according  to  the  mode  of  the  country,  and  conducted 
him  to  the  place  of  her  residence.  There  he  was 
feasted  for  some  days,  with  all  the  kindness  of  simple 
hospitality,  and  amused  with  the  games  and  spec- 
tacles usual  among  the  Americans  upon  occasions  of 
mirth  and  festivity.  But  amidst  the  security  which 
this  inspired,  Ovando  was  meditating  the  destruc- 
tion of  his  unsuspicious  entertainer  and  her  subjects  ; 
and  the  mean  perfidy  with  which  he  executed  this 
scheme,  equalled  his  barbarity  in  forming  it.  Under 
colour  of  exhibiting  to  the  Indians  the  parade  of 
an  European  tournament,  he  advanced  with  histroops 
in  battle  array,  towards  the  house  in  which  Anacoana 
and  the  chiefs  who  attended  her,  were  assembled. 
The  infantry  took  possession  of  all  the  avenues  which 
led  to  the  village.  The  horsemen  encompassed  the 
house.  These  movements  were  the  object  of  admira- 
tion without  any  mixture  of  fear,  until,  upon  a  signal 
which  had  been  concerted,  the  Spaniards  suddenly 
drew  their  swords,  and  rushed  upon  the  Iudh«ns, 
defenceless  and  astonished  at  an  act  of  treachery 
which  exceeded  the  conception  of  undesigning  men. 
In  a  moment  Anacoana  was  secured.  All  her  at- 
tendants were  seized  and  bound.  Fire  was  set  to 
the  house ;  and  without  examination  or  conviction, 
all  these  unhappy  persons,  the  most  illustrious  in 
their  own  country,  were  consumed  in  the  flames. 
Anacoana  was  reserved  for  a  more  ignominious  fate. 
She  was  ca  ried  in  chains  to  St.  Domingo,  and,  after 
the  formality  of  a  trial  before  Spanish  judges,  she 
was  condemned,  upon  the  evidence  of  those  very  men 
who  had  betrayed  her,  to  be  publicly  hanged. 

Overawed  and  humbled  by  this  atrocious  treatment 
of  their  princes  and  nobles,  who  were  objects  of  their 


highest  reverence,  the  people  in  all  the  provinces  of 
Hispaniola  submitted,  without  further  resistance,  to 
the  Spanish  yoke.  Upon  the  death  of  Isabella,  all  the 
regulations  tending  to  mitigate  the  rigour  of  their 
servitude  were  forgotten.  The  small  gratuity  paid  to 
them  as  the  price  of  their  labour  was  withdrawn,  and 
at  the  same  time  the  tasks  imposed  upon  them  were 
increased  [A.  D.  1506].  Ovando,  without  any  re- 
straint, distributed  Indians  among  his  friends  in  the 
island.  Ferdinand,  to  whom  the  queen  had  left  by 
will  one  half  of  the  revenue  arising  from  the  settle- 
ments in  the  New  World,  conferred  grants  of  a  similar 
nature  upon  his  courtiers,  as  the  least  expensive 
mode  of  rewarding  their  services.  They  farmed  out 
the  Indians,  of  whom  they  were  rendered  proprietors, 
to  their  countrymen  settled  in  Hispaniola  ;  and  that 
wretched  people,  being  compelled  to  labour  in  order 
to  satisfy  the  rapacity  of  both,  the  exactions  of  their 
oppressors  no  longer  knew  any  bounds.  But,  barba- 
rous as  their  policy  was,  and  fatal  to  the  inhabitants 
of  Hispaniola,  it  produced,  for  some  time,  very  con- 
siderable effects.  By  calling  forth  the  force  of  a 
whole  nation,  and  exerting  it  in  one  direction,  the 
working  of  the  mines  was  carried  on  with  amazing 
rapidity  and  success.  During  several  years,  the  gold 
brought  into  the  royal  smelting-house  in  Hispaniola 
amounted  annually  to  four  hundred  and  sixty  thousand, 
pesos,  above  a  hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling  ; 
which,  if  we  attend  to  the  great  change  in  the  value 
of  money  since  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century 
to  the  present  times,  must  appear  a  considerable  sum. 
Vast  fortunes  were  created,  of  a  sudden,  by  some. 
Others  dissipated,  in  ostentatious  profusion,  what 
they  acquired  with  facility.  Dazzled  by  both,  new 
adventurers  crowded  to  America,  with  the  most  eager 
impatience  to  share  in  those  treasures  which  had 
enriched  their  countrymen  ;  and,  notwithstanding  the 
mortality  occasioned  by  the  unhealthiness  of  the 
climate,  the  colony  continued  to  increase. 

Ovando  governed  the  Spaniards  with  wisdom  aud 
justice  not  inferior  to  the  rigour  with  which  he  treated 
the  Indians.  He  established  equal  laws  ;  and,  by 
executing  them  with  impartality,  accustomed  the 
people  of  the  colony  to  reverence  them.  He  founded 
several  new  towns  in  different  parts  of  the  island,  and 
allured  inhabitants  to  them,  by  the  concession  of 
various  immunities.  He  endeavoured  to  turn  the 
attention  of  the  Spaniards  to  some  branch  of  industry 
more  useful  than  that  of  searching  for  gold  in  the 
mines.  Some  slips  of  the  sugar-cane  having  been 
brought  from  the  Canary  Islands  by  way  of  experi- 
ment, they  were  found  to  thrive  with  such  increase 
in  the  rich  soil  and  warm  climate  to  which  they  were 
transplanted,  that  the  cultivation  of  them  soon  became 
an  object  of  commerce.  Extensive  plantations  were 
begun ;  sugar-works,  which  the  Spaniards  called 
ingenios,  from  the  various  machinery  employed  in 
them,  were  erected,  and  in  a  few  years  the  manufac- 
ture of  this  commodity  was  the  great  occupation  of 
the" inhabitants  of  Hispaniola,  and  the  most  consider- 
able source  of  their  wealth. 

The  prudent  endeavours  of  Ovando  to  promote  the 
welfare  of  the  colony  were  powerfully  seconded  by 
Ferdinand.  The  large  remittances  which  he  received 
from  the  New  World  opened  his  eyes,  at  length,  with 
respect  to  the  importance  of  those  discoveries,  which 
he  had  hitherto  affected  to  undervalue.  Fortune,  and 
his  own  address,  having  now  extricated  himout  of  those 
difficulties  in  which  he  had  been  involved  by  the  death 
of  his  queen  [A.  D.  1507],  and  by  his  disputes  with 
his  son-in-law  about  the  government  of  her  dominions, 
he  had  full  leisure  to  turn  his  attention  to  the  affairs 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


47 


of  America.  To  his  provident  sagacity,  Spain  is 
indebted  for  many  of  those  regulations  which  gradually 
formed  that  system  of  profound  but  jealous  policy,  by 
which  she  governs  her  dominions  in  the  New  World. 
He  erected  a  court  distinguished  by  the  title  of  the 
Casa  de  Contratacion,  or  Board  of  Trade,  composed 
of  persons  eminent  for  rank  and  abilities,  to  whom  he 
committed  the  administration  of  American  affairs. 
This  board  assembled  regularly  in  Seville,  and  was 
invested  with  a  distinct,  and  extensive  jurisdiction. 
He  gave  a  regular  form  to  ecclesiastical  government 
in  America,  by  nominating  archbishops,  bishops, 
deans,  together  with  clergymen  of  subordinate  ranks, 
to  take  charge  of  the  Spaniards  established  there,  as 
well  as  of  the  natives  who  should  embrace  the  Christian 
faith.  But  notwithstanding  the  obsequious  devotion 
of  the  Spanish  court  to  the  papal  see,  such  was 
Ferdinand's  solicitude  to  prevent  any  foreign  power 
from  claiming  jurisdiction  or  acquiring  influence  in 
his  new  dominions,  that  he  reserved  to  the  crown  of 
Spain  the  sole  right  of  patronage  to  the  benefices  in 
America,  and  stipulated  that  no  papal  bull  or  mandate 
should  be  promulgated  there,  until  it  was  previously- 
examined  and  approved  of  by  his  council.  With  the 
same  spirit  of  jealousy,  he  prohibited  any  goods  to 
be  exported  to  America,  or  any  person  to  settle  there, 
without  a  special  licence  from  that  council. 

But,  notwithstanding  this  attention  to  the  police 
and  welfare  of  the  colony,  a  calamity  impended  which 
threatened  its  dissolution.  The  original  inhabitants, 
on  whose  labour  the  Spaniards  in  Hisponiola  depended 
for  their  prosperity,  and  even  their  existence,  wasted 
so  fast,  that  the  extinction  of  the  whole  race  seemed 
to  be  inevitable.  When  Columbus  discovered  Hispa- 
niola,  the  number  of  its  inhabitants  were  computed  to 
le  at  least  a  million.  They  were  now  reduced  to 
sixty  thousand  in  the  space  of  fifteen  years.  This 
consumption  of  the  human  species,  no  less  amazing 
than  rapid,  was  the  effect  of  several  concurring  causes. 
The  natives  of  the  American  islands  were  of  a  more 
feeble  constitution  than  the  inhabitants  of  the  other 
hemisphere.  They  could  neither  perform  the  same 
work,  nor  endure  the  same  fatigue,  with  men  whose 
organs  were  of  a  more  vigorous  conformation.  The 
.listless  indolence  in  which  they  delighted  to  pass  their 
days,  as  it  was  the  effect  of  their  debility,  contributed 
likewise  to  increase  it,  and  rendered  them,  from  habit 
as  well  as  constitution,  incapable  of  hard  labour.  The 
food  on  which  they  subsisted  afforded  little  nourish- 
ment, and  they  were  accustomed  to  take  it  in  small 
quantities  not  sufficient  to  invigorate  a  languid  frame, 
and  render  it  equal  to  the  efforts  of  active  industry. 
The  Spaniards,  without  attending  to  those  peculiarities 
in  the  constitution  of  the  Americans,  imposed  tasks 
upon  them,  which,  though  not  greater  than  Europeans 
might  have  performed  with  ease,  were  so,  dispropor- 
tioned  to  their  strength,  that  many  sunk  uoder  the 
fatigue,  and  ended  their  wretched  days.  Others, 
prompted  by  impatience  and  despair,  cut  short  their 
own  lives  with  a  violent  hand.  Famine,  brought  on 
by  compelling  such  numbers  to  abandon  the  culture 
of  their  lauds,  in  order  to  labour  in  the  mines,  proved 
fatal  to  many.  Diseases  of  various  kinds,  some  occa- 
sioned by  the  hardships  to  which  they  were  exposed, 
and  others  by  their  intercourse  with  the  Europeans 
who  communicated  to  them  some  of  their  peculiar 
maladies,  completed  the  desolation  of  the  island.  The 
Spaniards,  being  thus  deprived  of  the  instruments 
which  they  were  accustomed  to  employ,  found  it 
impossible  to  extend  their  improvements,  or  even  to 
carry  on  the  works  which  they  had  already  begun. 
[A.D,  1508.]  In  order  to  provide  an  immediate  remedy 


for  an  evil  so  alarming,  Ovando  proposed  to  transport 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Lucayo  islands  to  Hispaniola, 
under  pretence  that  they  might  be  civilized  with  more 
facility,  and  instructed  to  greater  advantage  in  the 
Christian  religion,  if  they  were  united  to  the  Spanish 
colony,  and  placed  under  the  immediate  inspection  of 
the  missionaries  settled  there.  Ferdinand,  deceived 
by  this  artifice,  or  willing  to  connive  at  an  act  of. 
violence  which  policy  represented  as  necessary,  gave 
his  assent  to  the  proposal.  Several  vessels  were  fitted 
out  for  the  Lucayos,  the  commanders  of  which  in- 
formed the  natives,  with  whose  language  they  were 
now  well  acquainted,  that  they  came  from  a  delicious 
country,  in  which  the  departed  ancestors  of  the  Indians 
resided,  by  whom  they  were  sent  to  invite  their  de- 
scendants to  resort  thither,  to  partake  of  the  bliss 
enjoyed  there  by  happy  spirits.  That  simple  people 
listened  with  wonder  and  credulity ;  and  fond  of 
visiting  their  relations  and  friends  in  that  happy 
region,  followed  the  Spaniards  with  eagerness.  By 
this  artifice,  above  forty  thousand  were  decoyed  into 
Hispaniola,  to  share  in  the  sufferings  which  were  the 
lot  of  the  inhabitants  of  that  island,  and  to  mingle 
their  groans  and  tears  with  those  of  that  wretched 
race  of  men. 

The  Spaniards  had,  for  some  time,  carried  on  their 
operations  in  the  mines  of  Hispaniola  with  such 
ardour,  as  well  as  success,  that  these  seemed  to  have 
engrossed  their  whole  attention.  The  spirit  of  dis- 
covery languished ;  and,  since  the  last  voyage  of 
Columbus,  no  enterprise  of  any  moment  had  been 
undertaken.  But  as  the  decrease  of  the  Indians 
rendered  it  impossible  to  acquire  wealth  in  that 
island  with  the  same  rapidity  as  formerly,  this  urged 
some  of  the  more  adventurous  Spaniards  to  search 
for  new  countries,  where  their  avarice  might  be 
gratified  with  more  facility.  Juan  Ponce  de  Leon, 
who  commanded  under  Ovando  in  the  eastern  district 
of  Hispaniola,  passed  over  to  the  island  of  St.  Juan 
de  Puerto  Rico,  which  Columbus  had  discovered  in 
his  second  voyage,  and  penetrated  into  the  interior 
part  of  the  country.  As  he  found  the  soil  to  be 
fertile  and  expected,  from  some  symptoms,  as  well 
as  from  the  information  of  the  inhabitants,  to  dis- 
cover mines  of  gold  in  the  mountains,  Ovando  per- 
mitted him  to  attempt  making  a  settlement  in  the 
island.  This  was  easily  effected  by  an  officer  emi- 
nent for  conduct  no  less  than  for  courage.  In  a  few 
years  Puerto  Rico  was  subjected  to  the  Spanish 
government,  the  natives  were  reduced  to  servitude ; 
and,  being  treated  with  the  same  inconsiderate 
rigour  as  their  neighbours  in  Hispaniola,  the  race  of 
original  inhabitants,  worn  out  with  fatigue  and 
sufferings,  was  soon  exterminated. 

About  the  same  time,  Juan  Diaz  de  Solis,  in 
conjunction  with  Vincent  Yanez  Pinzon,  one  of  Co- 
lumbus's  original  companions,  made  a  voyage  to  the 
continent.  They  held  the  same  course  which  Co- 
lumbus had  taken,  as  far  as  to  the  island  of 
Guanaios ;  but,  standing  from  thence  to  the  west, 
they  discovered  a  new  and  extensive  province, 
afterwards  known  by  the  name  of  Yucatan,  and  pro- 
ceeded a  considerable  way  along  the  coast  of  that 
country.  Though  nothing  memorable  occurred  in 
this  voyage,  it  deserves  notice,  because  it  led  to  dis- 
coveries of  greater  importance.  From  the  same 
reason,  the  voyage  of  Sebastian  de  Ocampo  must  be 
mentioned.  By  the  command  of  Ovando,  he  sailed 
round  Cuba,  and  first  discovered  with  certainty  that 
this  country,  which  Columbus  once  supposed  to  be  a 
part  of  the  continent,  was  a  large  island. 

This    voyage   round  Cuba  was  one   of  the  last 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


occurrences  under  the  administration  of  Ovando.  Ever 
since  the  deatli  of  Columbus,  his  son  Don  Diego  had 
been  employed  in  soliciting  Ferdinand  to  grant  him 
the  offices  of  viceroy  and  admiral  in  the  New  World, 
together  with  all  the  immunities  and  profits  which 
descended  to  him  by  inheritance,  in  consequence  of 
the  original  capitulation  with  his  father.  But  if  these 
dignities  and  revenues  appeared  so  considerable  to 
Ferdinand,  that,  at  the  expense  of  being  deemed 
unjust  as  well  as  ungrateful,  he  had  wrested  them 
from  Columbus,  it  is  not  surprising  that  he  should 
be  unwilling  to  confer  them  on  his  son.  Accordingly, 
Don  Diego  wasted  two  years  in  incessant  but  fruit- 
less importunity.  Weary  of  this,  he  endeavoured  at 
length  to  obtain,  by  a  legal  sentence,  what  he  could 
not  procure  from  the  favour  of  an  interested  mo- 
narch. He  commenced  a  suit  against  Ferdinand 
before  the  council  which  managed  Indian  affairs,  and 
that  court,  with  integrity  which,  reflects  honour  upon 
its  proceedings,  decided  against  the  king,  and  sus- 
tained Don  Diego's  claim  of  the  viceroyalty,  together 
with  all  the  other  privileges  stipulated  in  the  capitu- 
lation. Eren  after  this  decree,  Ferdinand's  repug- 
nance to  put  a  subject  in  possession  of  such  extensive 
rights,  might  have  thrown  in  new  obstacles,  if  Don 
Diego  had  not  taken  a  step  which  interested  very 
powerful  persons  in  the  success  of  his  claims.  The 
sentence  of  the  council  of  the  Indies  gave  him  a  title 
to  a  rank  so  elevated,  and  a  fortune  so  opulent,  that 
he  found  no  difficulty  in  concluding  a  marriage  with 
Donna  Maria,  daughter  of  Don  Ferdinand  de  Toledo, 
great  commendator  of  Leon,  and  brother  of  the  Duke 
of  Alva,  a  nobleman  of  the  first  rank,  and  nearly  re- 
lated to  the  king.  The  Duke  and  his  family  espoused 
so  warmly  the  cause  of  their  new  ally,  that  Ferdinand 
could  not  resist  their  solicitations.  He  recalled 
Ovando,  [A.  D.  1509,]  and  appointed  Don  Diego  his 
successor,  though,  even  in  conferring  this  favour,  he 
could  not  conceal  his  jealousy;  for  he  allowed  him 
to  assume  only  the  title  of  governor,  not  that  of 
viceroy,  which  had  been  adjudged  to  belong  to  him. 
Don  Diego  quickly  repaired  to  Hispaniola,  attended 
by  his  brother,  his  uncles,  his  wife,  whom  the  courtesy 
of  the  Spaniards  honoured  with  the  title  of  vice- 
queen,  and  a  numerous  retinue  of  persons  of  both 
sexes,  born  of  good  families.  He  lived  with  a  splen- 
dour and  magnificence  hitherto  unknown  in  the  New 
World  ;  and  the  family  of  Columbus  seemed  now  to 
enjoy  the  honours  and  rewards  due  to  his  inventive 
genius,  of  which  he  himself  had  been  cruelly  de- 
frauded. The  colony  itself  acquired  new  lustre  by 
the  accession  of  so  many  inhabitants  of  a  different 
rank  and  character  from  most  of  those  who  had 
hitherto  migrated  to  America,  and  many  of  the  most 
illustrious  families  in  the  Spanish  settlements  are 
descended  from  the  persons  who  at  that  time  accom- 
panied Don  Diego  Columbus. 

No  benefits  accrued  to  the  unhappy  natives  from 
this  change  of  governors.  Don  Diego  was  not  only 
authorized  by  a  royal  edict  to  continue  the  reparti- 
mientos,  or  distribution  of  Indians,  but  the  particular 
number  which  he  might  grant  to  every  person,  ac- 
cording to  his  rank  in  the  colony,  was  specified.  He 
availed  himself  of  that  permission,  and  soon  after  he 
landed  at  St.  Domingo,  he  divided  such  Indians  as 
were  still  unappropriated,  among  his  relations  and 
attendants. 

The  next  care  of  the  new  governor  was  to  comply 
with  an  instruction  which  he  received  from  the  king, 
about  settling  a  colony  in  Cubagua,  a  small  island 
which  Columbus  had  discovered  in  his  third  voyage. 
Though  this  barren  spot  hardly  yielded  subsistence 


to  its  wretched  inhabitants,  such  quantities  of  those 
oysters  which  produce  pearls  were  found  on  its 
coast,  that  it  did  not  long  escape  the  inquisitive 
avarice  of  the  Spaniards,  and  became  a  place  of  con- 
siderable resort.  Large  fortunes  were  acquired  by 
the  fishery  of  pearls,  which  was  carried  on  with  ex- 
traordinary ardour.  The  Indians,  especially  those 
from  the  Lucayo  islands,  were  compelled  to  dive  for 
them  ;  and  this  dangerous  and  unhealthy  employment 
was  an  additional  calamity,  which  contributed  not  a 
little  to  the  extinction  of  that  devoted  race. 

About  this  period,  Juan  Diaz  de  Solis  and  Pinzon 
set  out,  in  conjunction,  upon  a  second  voyage.  They 
stood  directly  south,  towards  the  equinoctial  line, 
which  Pinzon  had  formerly  crossed,  and  advanced  as 
far  as  the  fortieth  degree  of  southern  latitude.  They 
were  astonished  to  find  that  the  continent  of  America 
stretched  on  their  right  hand,  through  all  this  vast 
extent  of  ocean.  They  landed  in  different  places, 
to  take  possession  in  name  of  their  sovereign  ;  but 
though  the  country  appeared  to  be  extremely  fertile 
and  inviting,  their  force  was  so  small,  having  been 
fitted  out  rather  for  discovery  than  making  settle- 
ments, that  they  left  no  colony  behind  them.  Their 
voyage  served,  however,  to  give  the  Spaniards  more 
exalted  and  adequate  ideas  with  respect  to  the  di- 
mensions of  this  new  quarter  of  the  globe. 

Though  it  was  about  ten  years  since  Columbus 
had  discovered  the  main  land  of  America,  the  Spani- 
ards had  hitherto  made  no  settlement  in  any  part  of 
it.  What  had  been  so  long  neglected  was  now  seri- 
ously attempted,  and  with  considerable  vigour; 
though  the  plan  for  this  purpose  was  neither  formed, 
by  the  crown,  nor  executed  at  the  expense  of  the 
nation,  but  carried  on  by  the  enterprising  spirit  of 
private  adventurers.  This  scheme  took  its  rise  from 
Alonso  de  Ojeda,  who  had  already  made  two  voyages 
as  a  discoverer,  by  which  he  acquired  considerable 
reputation,  but  no  wealth.  But  his  character  for 
intrepidity  and  conduct  easily  procured  him  associ- 
ates, who  advanced  the  money  requisite  to  defray  the 
charges  of  the  expedition.  About  the  same  time, 
Diego  de  Nicuessa,  who  had  acquired  a  large  fortune 
in  Hispaniola,  formed  a  similar  design.  Ferdinand 
encouraged  both ;  and  though  he  refused  to  advance 
the  smallest  sum,  was  extremely  liberal  of  titles  and 
patents.  He  erected  two  governments  on  the  con- 
tinent, one  extending  from  Cape  de  Vela  to  the  Gulf 
of  Darien,  and  the  other  from  that  to  Cape  Gracias  a 
Dios.  The  former  was  given  to  Ojeda,  the  latter  to 
Nicuessa.  Ojeda  fitted  out  a  ship  and  two  brigan- 
tines,  with  three  hundred  men  ;  Nicuessa,  six  vessels, 
with  seven  hundred  and  eighty  men.  They  sailed 
about  the  same  time  from  St.  Domingo  for  their 
respective  governments.  In  order  to  give  their  title 
to  those  countries  some  appearance  of  validity,  several 
of  the  most  eminent  divines  and  lawyers  in  Spain  were 
employed  to  prescribe  the  mode  in  which  they  should 
take  possession  of  them.  There  is  not  in  the  history 
of  mankind  any  thing  more  singular  or  extravagant 
than  the  form  which  they  devised  for  this  purpose. 
They  instructed  those  invaders,  as  soon  as  they 
landed  on  the  continent,  to  declare  to  the  natives 
the  principle  articles  of  the  Christian  faith ;  to  ac- 
quaint them  in  particular,  with  the  supreme  juris- 
diction of  the  pope  over  all  the  kingdoms  of  the 
earth ;  to  inform  them  of  the  grant  which  this  holy 
pontiff  had  made  of  their  country  to  the  king  of 
Spain ;  to  require  them  to  embrace  the  doctrines  of 
that  religion  which  the  Spaniards  made  known  to 
them  ;  and  to  snbmit  to  the  sovereign  whose  autho- 
rity they  proclaimed.  If  the  natives  refused  to 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


comply  with  this  i  equisition,  the  terms  of  which 
must  have  been  utterly  incomprehensible  to  unin- 
structed  Indians,  then  Ojeda  and  Nicuessa  were 
authorized  to  attack  them  with  fire  and  sword ;  to 
reduce  them,  their  wives  and  children,  to  a  state  of 
servitude  ;  and  to  compel  them  by  force  to  recognise 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Church,  and  the  authority  of 
the  Monarch,  to  which  they  would  not  voluntarily 
subject  themselves  (23). 

As  the  inhabitants  of  the  Continent  could  not  at 
once  yield  assent  to  doctrines  too  refined  for  their 
uncultivated  understandings,  and  explained  to  them 
by  interpreters  imperfectly  acquainted  with  their 
language ;  as  they  did  not  conceive  how  a  foreign 
priest,  of  whbm  they  had  never  heard,  could  have 
any  right  to  dispose  of  their  country,  or  how  an 
unknown  prince  should  claim  jurisdiction  over  them 
as  his  subjects;  they  fiercely  opposed  the  new 
invaders  of  their  territories.  Ojeda  and  Nicuessa 
endeavoured  to  effect  by  force  what  they  could  not 
accomplish  by  persuasion.  The  contemporary  writers 
enter  into  a  very  minute  detail  in  relating  their 
transactions ;  but  as  they  made  no  discovery  of  im- 
portance, nor  established  any  permanent  settlement, 
their  adventures  are  not  entitled  to  any  considerable 
place  in  the  general  history  of  a  period,  where 
romantic  valour,  struggling  with  incredible  hardships, 
distinguishes  every  effort  of  the  Spanish  arms.  They 
found  the  natives  in  those  countries  of  which  they 
went  to  assume  the  government,  to  be  of  a  character 
very  different  from  that  of  their  countrymen  in  the 
islands.  They  were  fierce  and  warlike.  Their 
arrows  were  dipped  in  a  poison  so  noxious,  that  every 
wound  was  followed  with  certain  death.  In  one 
encounter  they  slew  about  seventy  of  Ojeda's  fol- 
lowers, and  the  Spaniards,  for  the  first  time,  were 
taught  to  dread  the  inhabitants  of  the  New  World. 
Nicuessa  was  opposed  by  people  equally  resolute  in 
defence  of  their  possessions.  Nothing  could  soften 
their  ferocity.  Though  the  Spaniards  employed 
every  art  to  soothe  them,  and  to  gain  their  confidence, 
they  refused  to  hold  any  intercourse,  or  to  exchange 
any  friendly  office,  with  men  whose  residence  among 
them  they  considered  as  fatal  to  their  liberty  and 
independence  [A.  D.  1510].  This  implacable  enmity 
of  the  natives,  though  it  rendered  an  attempt  to 
establish  a  settlement  in  their  country  extremely 
difficult  as  well  as  dangerous,  might  have  been 
surmounted  at  length  by  the  perseverance  of  the 
Spaniards,  by  the  superiority  of  their  arms,  and  their 
skill  in  the  art  of  war.  But  every  disaster  which  can 
be  accumulated  upon  the  unfortunate,  combined  to 
complete  their  ruin.  The  loss  of  their  ships  by 
various  accidents  upon  an  unknown  coast,  the  diseases 
peculiar  to  a  climate  the  most  noxious  in  all  America, 
the  want  of  provisions,  unavoidable  in  a  country 
imperfectly  cultivated,  dissension  among  themselves, 
and  the  incessant  hostilities  of  the  natives,  involved 
them  in  a  succession  of  calamities,  the  bare  recital  of 
which  strikes  one  with  horror.  Though  they  received 
two  considerable  reinforcements  from  Hispaniola,  the 
greater  part  of  those  who  had  engaged  in  this 
unhappy  expedition  perished,  in  less  than  a  year,  in 
the  most  extreme  misery.  A  few  who  survived, 
settled  as  a  feeble  colony  at  Santa  Maria  el  Antigua, 
on  the  gulf  of  Darien,  under  the  command  of  Vasco 
Nugnez  de  Balboa,  who,  in  the  most  desperate  exi- 
gences, displayed  such  courage  and  conduct,  as  first 
gained  the  confidence  of  his  countrymen,  and  marked 
him  out  as  their  leader  in  more  splendid  and  successful 
undertakings.  Nor  was  he  the  only  adventurer  in 
this  expedition  who  will  appear  with  lustre  in  more 

HISTORY  o?  AMERICA,  No,  7« 


important  scenes.  Francisco  Pizarro  was  one  of 
Ojeda's  companions,  and  in  this  school  of  adversity 
acquired  or  improved  the  talents  which  fitted  him  for 
the  extraordinary  actions  which  he  afterwards  per- 
formed. Hernan  Cortes,  whose  name  became  still 
more  famous,  had  likewise  engaged  early  in  this 
enterprise,  which  roused  all  the  active  youth  of 
Hispaniola  to  arms  ;  but  the  good  fortune  that 
accompanied  him  in  his  subsequent  adventures,  in- 
terposed to  save  him  from  the  disasters  to  which  his 
companions  were  exposed.  He  was  taken  ill  at  St. 
Domingo  before  the  departure  of  the  fleet,  and 
detained  there  by  a  tedious  indisposition. 

Notwithstanding  the  unfortunate  issue  of  this 
expedition,  the  Spaniards  were  not  deterred  from 
engaging  in  new  schemes  of  a  similar  nature.  When, 
wealth  is  acquired  gradually  by  the  persevering  hand 
of  industry,  or  accumulated  by  the  slow  operations 
of  regular  commerce,  the  means  employed  are  so 
proportioned  to  the  end  attained,  that  there  is 
nothing  to  strike  the  imagination,  and  little  to  urge* 
on  the  active  powers  of  the  mind  to  uncommoa 
efforts.  But  when  large  fortunes  were  created 
almost  instantaneously  ;  when  gold  and  pearls  were 
procured  in  exchange  for  baubles  ;  when  the  countries 
which  produced  these  rich  commodities,  defended 
only  by  naked  savages,  might  be  seized  by  the  first 
bold  invader;  objects  so  singular  and  alluring; 
roused  a  wonderful  spirit  of  enterprise  among  the 
Spaniards,  who  rushed  with  ardour  into  this  new 
path  that  was  opened  to  wealth  and  distinction. 
While  this  spirit  continued  warm  and  vigorous, 
every  attempt  either  towards  discovery  or  conquest 
was  applauded,  and  adventurers  engaged  in  it  with 
emulation.  The  passion  for  new  undertakings,  which 
characterizes  the  age  of  discovery  in  the  latter  part, 
of  the  fifteenth  and  begirming  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  would  alone  have  been  sufficient  to  prevent 
the  Spaniards  from  stopping  short  in  their  career. 
But  circumstances  peculiar  to  Hispaniola,  at  this, 
juncture,  concurred  with  it  in  extending  their  navi- 
gation ani  conquests.  The  rigorous  treatment  of 
the  inhabitants  of  that  island  having  almost  extir- 
pated the  race,  many  of  the  Spanish  planters,  as  I 
have  already  observed,  finding  it  impossible  to  carry 
on  their  works  with  the  same  vigour  and  profit,  were 
obliged  to  look  out  for  settlements  in  some  country 
where  people  were  not  yet  wasted  by  oppression. 
Others,  with  the  inconsiderate  levity  natural  to  men, 
upon  whom  wealth  pours  in  with  a  sudden  flow,  had 
squandered  in  thoughtless  prodigality,  what  they 
acquired  with  ease,  and  were  driven  by  necessity  to 
embark  in  the  most  desperate  schemes,  in  order  to 
retrieve  their  affairs  [A.  D.  1511].  From  all  these 
causes,  when  Don  Diego  Columbus  proposed  to 
conquer  the  island  of  Cuba,  and  to  establish  a  colony- 
there,  many  persons  of  chief  distinction  in  Hispaniola 
engaged  with  alacrity  in  the  measure.  He  gave  the 
command  of  the  troops  destined  for  that  service  ta 
Diego  Velasquez,  one  of  his  father's  companions  in 
his  second  voyage,  and  who,  having  been  long  settled: 
in  Hispaniola,  had  acquired  an  ample  fortune,  with 
such  reputation  for  probity  and  prudence,  that  he 
seemed  to  be  well  qualified  for  conducting  an  expe- 
dition of  importance.  Three  hundred  men  were 
deemed  sufficient  for  the  conquest  of  an  island  of 
above  seven  hundred  miles  in  length,  and  filled  with 
inhabitants.  But  they  were  of  the  same  unwarlike 
character  with  the  people  of  Hispaniola.  They  were 
not  only  intimidated  by  the  appearance  of  their  uewr 
enemies,  but  unprepared  to  resist  them.  For  though, 
from  the  time  that  the  Spaniards  took  possession  of 
H 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  adjacent  island,  there  was  reason  to  expect  a 
descent  on  their  territories,  none  of  the  small  com- 
munities into  which  Cuba  was  divided,  had  either 
made  any  provision  for  its  own  defence,  or  had 
formed  any  concert  for  their  common  safety.  The 
only  obstruction  the  Spaniards  met  with  was  from 
Hatuey,  a  cazique,  who  had  fled  from  Hispaniola, 
and  had  taken  possession  of  the  eastern  extremity 
of  Cuba.  He  stood  upon  the  defensive  at  their  first 
landing,  and  endeavoured  to  drive  them  back  to  their 
ships.  His  feeble  troops,  however,  were  soon  broken 
and  dispersed ;  and  he  himself  being  taken  prisoner, 
Velasquez,  according  to  the  barbarous  maxim  of  the 
Spaniards,  considered  him  as  a  slave  who  had  taken 
arms  against  his  master,  and  condemned  him  to  the 
flames.  When  Hatuey  was  fastened  to  the  stake,  a 
Franciscan  friar,  labouring  to  convert  him,  promised 
him  immediate  admittance  into  the  joys  of  heaven, 
if  he  would  embrace  the  Christian  faith.  "  Are 
there  any  Spaniards,"  says  he,  after  some  pause, 
"  in  that  region  of  bliss  which  you  describe?" — 
"  Yes,"  replied  the  monk,  "  but  only  such  as  are 
worthy  and  good." — "  The  best  of  them,"  returned 
the  indignant  cazique,  "  have  neither  worth  nor 
goodness  :  I  will  not  go  to  a  place  where  I  may  meet 
with  one  of  that  accursed  race."  This  dreadful 
example  of  vengeance  struck  the  people  of  Cuba 
with  such  terror,  that  they  scarcely  gave  any  oppo- 
sition to  the  progress  of  their  invaders  ;  and  Velas- 
quez, without  the  loss  of  a  man,  annexed  this 
extensive  and  fertile  island  to  the  Spanish  monarchy. 

The  facility  with  which  this  important  conquest 
was  completed,  served  as  an  incitement  to  other 
undertakings.  Juan  Ponce  de  Leon,  having  acquired 
both  fame  and  wealth  by  the  reduction  of  Puerto 
Rico,  was  impatient  to  engage  in  some  new  enterprise. 
[A.D.1512.]Hefittedoutthreeships  at hisown expense 
for  a  voyage  of  discovery,  and  his  reputation  soon 
drew  together  a  respectable  body  of  followers.  He 
directed  his  course  towards  the  Lucayo  Islands  ;  and 
after  touching  at  several  of  them,  as  well  as  the 
Bahama  Isles,  he  stood  to  the  south-west,  and 
discovered  a  country  hitherto  unknown  to  the 
Spaniards,  which  he  called  Florida,  either  because 
he  fell  in  with  it  on  Palm  Sunday,  or  on  account  of 
its  gay  and  beautiful  appearance.  He  attempted  to 
land  in  different  places,  but  met  with  such  vigorous 
opposition  from  the  natives,  who  were  fierce  and 
warlike,  as  convinced  him  that  an  increase  of  force 
was  requisite  to  effect  a  settlement.  Satisfied  with 
having  opened  a  communication  with  a  new  country, 
of  whose  value  and  importance  he  conceived  very 
sanguine  hopes,  he  returned  to  Puerto  Rico,  through 
the  channel  now  known  by  the  name  of  the  Gulf  of 
Florida. 

It  was  not  merely  the  passion  of  searching  for 
new  countries  that  prompted  Ponce  de  Leon  to 
undertake  this  voyage ;  he  was  influenced  by  one  of 
those  visionary  ideas,  which  at  that  time  often 
mingled  with  the  spirit  of  discovery,  and  rendered  it 
more  active.  A  tradition  prevailed  among  the 
natives  of  Puerto  Rico,  that  in  the  Isle  of  Bimini, 
one  of  the  Lucayos,  there  was  a  fountain  of  such 
wonderful  virtue  as  to  renew  the  youth  and  recall 
the  vigour  of  every  person  who  "bathed  in  its  salutary 
waters.  In  hopes  of  finding  this  grand  restorative, 
Ponce  de  Leon  and  his  followers  ranged  through  the 
islands,  searching,  with  fruitless  solicitude  and 
labour,  for  the  fountain  which  was  the  chief  object 
of  their  expedition.  That  a  tale  so  fabulous  should 
gain  credit  among  simple  uninstructed  Indians  is 
not  surprising.  That  it  should  make  any  impression 


upon  an  enlightened  people,  appears,  in  the  present 
age,  altogether  incredible.  Tho  fact,  however,  is 
certain ;  and  the  most  authentic  Spanish  historians 
mention  this  extravagant  sally  of  their  credulous 
countrymen.  The  Spaniards,  at  that  period,  were 
engaged  in  a  career  of  activity  which  gave  a  romantic 
turn  to  their  imagination,  and  daily  presented  to 
them  strange  and  marvellous  objects.  A.New  World 
was  opened  to  their  view.  They  visited  islands  and 
continents,  of  whose  existence  mankind  in  former 
ages  had  no  conception.  In  those  delightful  countries 
nature  seemed  to  assume  another  form :  every  tree 
and  plant  and  animal  was  different  from  those  of  the 
ancient  hemisphere.  They  seemed  to  be  trans- 
ported into  enchanted  ground ;  and  after  the  wonders 
which  they  had  seen,  nothing,  in  the  warmth  and 
novelty  of  their  admiration,  appeared  to  them  so 
extraordinary  as  to  be  beyond  belief.  If  the  rapid 
succession  of  new  and  striking  scenes  made  such 
impression  even  upon  the  sound  understanding  of 
Columbus,  that  he  boasted  of  having  found  the  seat 
of  Paradise,  it  will  not  appear  strange  that  Ponce 
de  Leon  should  dream  of  discovering  the  fountain  of 
youth. 

Soon  after  the  expedition  to  Florida,  a  discovery 
of  much  greater  importance  was  made  in  another 
part  of  America.  Balboa  having  been  raised  to  the 
government  of  the  small  colony  at  Santa  Maria  in 
Darien,  by  the  voluntary  suffrage  of  his  associates, 
was  so  extremely  desirous  to  obtain  from  the  Crown 
a  confirmation  of  their  election,  that  he  dispatched 
one  of  his  officers  to  Spain,  in  order  to  solicit  a  royal 
commission,  which  might  invest  him  with  a  legal 
title  to  the  supreme  command.  Conscious,  however, 
that  he  could  not  expect  success  from  the  patronage 
of  Ferdinand's  ministers,  with  whom  he  was  un- 
connected, or  from  negociating  in  a  court  to  the  arts 
of  which  he  was  a  stranger,  he  endeavoured  to 
merit  the  dignity  to  which  he  aspired,  and  aimed  at 
performing  some  signal  service  that  would  secure 
him  the  preference  to  every  competitor.  Full  of  this 
idea  he  made  frequent  inroads  into  the  adjacent 
country,  subdued  several  of  the  caziques,  and  col- 
lected a  considerable  quantity  of  gold,  which 
abounded  more  in  that  part  of  the  continent,  than  in 
the  islands.  In  one  of  those  excursions,  the  Spaniards 
contended  with  such  eagerness  about  the  division  of 
some  gold,  that  they  were  at  the  point  of  proceeding 
to  acts  of  violence  against  one  another.  A  young 
cazique  who  was  present,  astonished  at  the  high 
value  which  they  set  upon  a  thing  of  which  he  did 
not  see  the  use,  tumbled  the  gold  out  of  the  balance 
with  indignation ;  and,  turning  to  the  Spaniards, 
"  Why  do  you  quarrel  (says  he)  about  such  a  trifle? 
If  you  are  so  passionately  fond  of  gold,  as  to  abandon 
your  own  country,  and  to  disturb  the  tranquillity  of 
distant  nations  for  its  sake,  I  will  conduct  you  to  a 
region  where  the  metal  which  seems  to  be  the  chief 
object  of  your  admiration  and  desire,  is  so  common, 
that  the  meanest  utensils  are  formed  of  it."  Trans- 
ported with  what  they  heard,  Balboa  and  his  com- 
panions inquired  eagerly  where  this  happy  country 
la}',  and  how  they  might  arrive  at  it.  He  informed 
them  that  at  the  distance  of  six  suns,  that  is,  of  six 
days'  journey,  towards  the  south,  they  should  dis- 
cover another  ocean,  near  to  which  this  wealthy 
kingdom  was  situated;  but  if  they  intended  to  attack 
that  powerful  state,  they  must  assemble  forces  far 
superior  in  number  and  strength  to  those  with  which 
they  now  appeared. 

This  was  the  first  information  which  the  Spaniards 
received  concerning  the  great  southern  ocean,  or  the 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


opulent  and  extensive  country  known  afterwards  by 
the  name  of  Peru.  Balboa  had  now  before  him  objects 
suited  to  his  boundless  ambition,  and  the  enterprising 
ardour  of  his  genius.  He  immediately  concluded  the 
ocean  which  the  cazique  mentioned,  to  be  that  for 
which  Columbus  had  searched  without  success  in 
this  part  of  America,  in  hopes  of  opening  a  more 
direct  communication  with  the  East  Indies  ;  and  he 
conjectured  that  the  rich  territory  which  had  been 
described  to  him,  must  be  part  of  that  vast  and  opu- 
lent region  of  the  earth.  Elated  with  the  idea  of 
performing  what  so  great  a  man  had  attempted  in 
vain,  and  eagor  to  accomplish  a  discovery  which  he 
knew  would  be  no  less  acceptable  to  the  king  than 
beneficial  to  his  country,  he  was  impatient  until  he 
could  set  out  upon  this  enterprise,  in  comparison  of 
which  all  his  former  exploits  appeared  inconsiderable. 
But  previous  arrangement  and  preparation  were 
requisite  to  insure  success.  He  began  with  courting 
and  securing  the  friendship  of  the  neighbouring 
caziques.  He  sent  some  of  his  officers  to  Hispaniola 
with  a  large  quantity  of  gold,  as  a  proof  of  his  past 
success,  and  an  earnest  of  his  future  hopes.  By  a 
proper  distribution  of  this,  they  secured  the  favour 
of  the  governor,  and  allured  volunteers  into  the 
sen-ice.  A  considerable  reinforcement  from  that  island 
joined  him,  and  he  thought  himself  in  a  condition  to 
attempt  the  discovery. 

The  isthmus  .of  Darien  is  not  above  sixty  miles  in 
breadth;  but  this  neck  of  land,  which  binds  together 
the  continents  of  North  and  South  America,  is 
strengthened  by  a  chain  of  lofty  mountains  stretching 
through  its  whole  extent,  which  render  it  a  barrier 
of  solidity  sufficient  to  resist  the  impulse  of  two  op- 
posite oceans.  The  mountains  are  covered  with  forests 
almost  inaccessible.  The  valleys  in  that  moist  climate, 
where  it  rains  during  two-thirds  of  the  year,  are 
marshy,  and  so  frequently  overflowed,  that  the  inha- 
bitants find  it  necessary,  in  many  places,  to  build  their 
houses  upon  trees,  in  order  to  be  elevated  at  some 
distance  from  the  damp  soil,  and  the  odious  reptiles 
engendered  in  the  putrid  waters.  Large  rivers  rush 
down  with  an  impetuous  current  from  the  high 
grounds.  In  a  region  thinly  inhabited  by  wandering 
savages,  the  hand  of  industry  had  done  nothing  to 
mitigate  or  correct  those  natural  disadvantages.  To 
march  across  this  unexplored  country  with  no  other 
guides  but  Indians,  whose  fidelity  could  be  little 
trusted,  was,  on  all  those  accounts,  the  boldest  enter- 
prise on  which  the  Spaniards  had  hitherto  ventured 
in  the  New  World.  But  the  intrepidity  of  Balboa 
was  such  as  distinguished  him  among  his  countrymen, 
at  a  period  when  every  adventurer  was  conspicuous 
for  daring  courage.  [A.  D.  1513.]  Nor  was  bravery 
his  only  merit ;  he  was  prudent  in  conduct,  gene- 
rous, affable,  and  possessed  of  those  popular  talents 
which,  in  the  most  desperate  undertakings,  inspire 
confidence  and  secure  attachment.  Even  after  the 
junction  of  the  volunteers  from  Hispaniola,  he  was 
able  to  muster  only  an  hundred  and  ninety  men  for 
his  expedition.  But  they  were  hardy  veterans,  inured 
to  the  climate  of  America,  and  ready  to  follow  him 
through  every  danger.  A  thousand  Indians  attended 
them  to  carry  their  provisions  ;  and  to  complete  their 
warlike  array,  they  took  with  them  several  of  those 
fierce  dogs,  which  were  no  less  formidable  than  de- 
structive to  their  naked  enemies. 

Balboa  set  out  upon  this  important  expedition  on 
the  first  of  September,  about  the  time  that  the  peri- 
odical rains  began  to  abate.  He  proceeded  by  sea,  and 
without  any  difficulty,  to  the  territories  of  a  cazique 
whose  friendship  he  had  gained  j  but  no  sooner  did 


he  begin  to  advance  into  the  interior  part  of  the 
country,  than  he  was  retarded  by  every  obstacle, 
which  he  had  reason  to  apprehend,  from  the  nature 
of  the  territory,  or  the  disposition  of  its  inhabitants. 
Some  of  the  caziques,  at  his  approach,  fled  to  the 
mountains  with  all  their  people,  and  carried  off  or 
destroyed  whatever  could  afford  subsistence  to  his 
troops.  Others  collected  their  subjects,  in  order  to 
oppose  his  progress,  and  he  quickly  perceived  what 
an  arduous  undertaking  it  was  to  conduct  such  a 
body  of  men  through  hostile  nations,  across  swamps, 
and  rivers,  and  woods,  which  had  never  been  passed 
but  by  straggling  Indians.  But  by  sharing  in  every 
hardship  with  the  meanest  soldier,  by  appearing  the 
foremost  to  meet  every  danger,  by  promising  confi- 
dently to  his  troops  th§  enjoyment  of  honour  and 
riches  superior  to  what  had  been  attained  by  the  most 
successful  of  their  countrymen,  he  inspired  them  with 
such  enthusiastic  resolution,  that  they  followed  him 
without  murmuring.  When  they  had  penetrated  a 
good  way  into  the  mountains,  a  powerful  cazique 
appeared  in  a  narrow  pass,  with  a  numerous  body  of 
his  subjects,  to  obstruct  their  progress.  But  men 
who  had  surmounted  so  many  obstacles,  despised  the 
opposition  of  such  feeble  enemies.  They  attacked 
them  with  impetuosity,  and  having  dispersed  them 
with  much  ease  and  great  slaughter,  continued  their 
march.  Though  their  guides  had  represented  the 
breadth  of  the  isthmus  to  be  only  a  journey  of  six 
days,  they  had  already  spent  twenty-five  in  forcing 
their  way  through  the  woods  and  mountains.  Many 
of  them  were  ready  to  sink  under  such  uninterrupted 
fatigue  in  that  sultry  climate,  several  were  taken  ill 
of  the  dysentery  and  other  diseases  frequent  in  that 
country,  and  all  became  impatient  to  reach  the  period 
of  their  labours  and  sufferings.  At  length  the  Indians 
assured  them,  that  from  the  top  of  the  next  mountain 
they  should  discover  the  ocean  which  was  the  object 
of  their  wishes.  When,  with  infinite  toil,  they  had 
climbed  up  the  greater  part  of  that  steep  ascent, 
Balboa  commanded  his  men  to  halt,  and  advanced 
alone  to  the  summit,  that  he  might  be  the  first  who 
should  enjoy  a  spectacle  which  he  had  so  long  desired. 
As  soon  as  he  beheld  the  South  Sea  stretching  in 
endless  prospect  below  him,  he  fell  on  his  knees,  and 
lifting  up  his  hands  to  heaven,  returned  thanks  to 
God,  who  had  conducted  him  to  a  discovery  so  bene- 
ficial to  his  country,  and  so  honourable  to  himself. 
His  followers,  observing  his  transports  of  joy,  rushed 
forward  to  join  in  his  wonder,  exultation,  and  grati- 
tude. They  held  on  their  course  to  the  shore  with 
great  alacrity,  when  Balboa,  advancing  up  to  the 
middle  in  the  waves  with  his  buckler  and  sword, 
took  possession  of  that  ocean  in  the  name  of  the  king 
his  master,  and  vowed  to  defend  it,  with  these  arms, 
against  all  his  enemies. 

That  part  of  the  great  Pacific  or  Southern  Ocean, 
which  Balboa  first  discovered,  still  retains  the  name 
of  the  Gulf  of  St.  Michael,  which  he  gave  to  it,  and 
is  situated  to  the  east  of  Panama.  From  several  of 
the  petty  princes,  who  governed  in  the  districts  adja- 
cent to  that  gulf,  he  extorted  provisions  and  gold  by 
force  of  arms.  Others  sent  them  to  him  voluntarily. 
To  these  acceptable  presents,  some  of  the  caziques 
added  a  considerable  quantity  of  pearls;  and  he 
learned  from  them,  with  much  satisfaction,  that  pearl 
oysters  abounded  in  the  sea  which  he  had  newly 
discovered. 

Together  with  the  acquisition  of  this  wealth,  which 
served  to  soothe  and  encourage  his  followers,  he 
received  accounts  which  confirmed  his  sanguine  hopes 
of  future  and  more  extensive  benefits  from  the  expe- 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


ilitioii.  All  the  people  on  the  coast  of  the  South  Sea 
concurred  in  informing  him,  that  there  was  a  mighty 
und  opulent  kingdom  situated  at  a  considerable  dis- 
tance towards  the  south-east,  the  inhabitants  of  which 
Jhad  tame  animals  to  carry  their  burthens.  In  order 
to  give  the  Spaniards  an  idea  of  these,  they  drew 
upon  the:_sand  the  figure  of  the  llamas  or  sheep,  after 
•wards  found  in  Peru,  which  the  Peruvians  had  taught 
to  perform  such  services  as  they  described.  As  the 
llama  In  its  form  nearly  resembles  a  camel,  a  beast  of 
burthen  deemed  peculiar  to  Asia,  this  circumstance 
in  conjunction  with  the  discovery  of  the  pearls,  another 
noted  production  of  that  country,  tended  to  confirm 
the  Spaniards  in  their  mistaken  theory  with  respect 
to  the  vicinity  of  the  New  World  to  the  East  Indies 
But  though  the  information  which  Balboa  received 
from  the  people  on  the  coast,  as  well  as  his  own  con- 
jectures and  hopes,  rendered  him  extremely  impatient 
to  visit  this  unknown  country,  his  prudence  restrained 
him  from  attempting  to  invade  it  with  a  handful 
of  men,  exhausted  by  fatigue,  and  weakened  by 
disease  (24).  He  determined  to  lead  back  his  fol- 
lowers, at  present,  to  their  settlement  of  Santa  Maria 
in  Darien,  and  to  return  next  season  with  a  force 
more  adequate  to  such  an  arduous  enterprise.  In 
order  to  acquit  e  a  more  extensive  knowledge  of  the 
isthmus,  he  marched  back  by  a  different  route,  which 
lie  found  to  be  no  less  dangerous  and  difficult  thau 
that  which  he  had  formerly  taken.  But  to  men  elated 
with  success,  and  animated  with  hope,  nothing  is 
insurmountable.  Balboa  returned  to  Santa  Maria, 
[A.  D.  1514],  from  which  he  had  been  absent  four 
months,  with  greater  glory  and  more  treasure  than 
the  Spaniards  had  acquired  in  any  expedition  in  the 
New  World.  None  of  Balboa's  officers  distinguished 
themselves  more  in  this  service  than  Francisco  Pizarro, 
or  assisted  with  greater  courage  and  ardour  in  open- 
ing a  communication  with  those  countries,  in  which 
he  was  destined  to  act  soon  a  most  illustrious  part. 

Balboa's  first  care  was  to  send  information  to  Spain 
of  the  important  discovery  which  he  had  made  ;  and 
to  demand  a  reinforcement  of  a  thousand  men,  in 
order  to  attempt  the  conquest  of  that  opulent  country, 
concerning  which  he  had  received  such  inviting  intel- 
ligence. The  first  account  of  the  discovery  of  the 
New  World  hardly  occasioned  greater  joy  than  the 
unexpected  tidings,  that  a  passage  was  at  last  found 
to  the  great  southern  ocean.  The  communication  with 
the  East  Indies,  by  a  course  to  the  westward  of  the 
line  of  demarcation  drawn  by  the  pope,  seemed  now 
to  be  certain.  The  vast  wealth  which  flowed  into 
Portugal  from  its  settlements  and  conquests  in  that 
country,  excited  the  envy,  and  called  forth  the  emu- 
lation, of  other  states.  Ferdinand  hoped  now  to  come 
in  for  a  share  in  this  lucrative  commerce,  and  in  his 
eagerness  to  obtain  it,  was  willing  to  make  an  effort 
beyond  what  Balboa  required.  But  even  in  this 
exertion,  his  jealous  policy,  as  well  as  the  fatal 
antipathy  of  Fonseca,  now  bishop  of  Burgos,  to  every 
man  of  merit  who  distinguished  himself  in  the  New 
World,  were  conspicuous.  Notwithstanding  Balboa's 
recent  services,  which  marked  him  out  as  the  most 
proper  person  to  finish  that  great  undertaking  which  he 
had  begun,  Ferdinand  was  so  ungenerous  astooverlook 
these,  and  to  appoint  Pedrarias  Davila,  governor  of 
Darien.  He  gave  him  the  command  of  fifteen  stout 
vessels,  and  twelve  hundred  soldiers.  These  were 
fitted  out  at  the  public  expense,  with  a  liberality  which 
Ferdinand  had  never  displayed  in  any" former  arma- 
ment destined  for  the  New  World ;  and  such  was  the 
ardour  of  the  Spanish  gentlemen  to  follow  a  leader 
who  was  about  to  conduct  them  to  a  country,  where, 


as  fame  reported,  they  had  only  to  throw  their  nets 
into  the  sea  and  draw  out  gold,  that  fifteen  hundn.-d 
embarked  on  board  the  fleet ;  and  if  they  had  not 
been  restrained,  a  much  greater  number  would  have 
engaged  in  the  service. 

Pedrarias  reached  the  gulf  of  Darien  without  any 
remarkable  accident,  and  immediately  sent  some  of 
his  principal  officers  ashore  to  inform  Balboa  of  his 
arrival,  with  the  king's  commission,  to  be  governor 
of  the  colony.  To  their  astonishment,  they  found 
Balboa,  of  whose  great  exploits  they  had  heard  so 
much,  and  of  whose  opulence  they  had  formed  such 
high  ideas,  clad  in  a  canvass  jacket,  and  wearing 
coarse  hempen  sandals  used  only  by  the  meanest 
peasants,  employed,  together  with  some  Indians,  in 
thatching  his  own  hut  with  reeds.  Even  in  this 
simple  garb,  which  corresponded  so  ill  with  the 
expectations  and  wishes  of  his  new  guests,  Bnlboa 
received  them  with  dignity.  The  fame  of  his  disco- 
veries had  drawn  so  many  adventurers  from  the 
islands,  that  he  could  now  muster  four  hundred  and 
fifty  men.  At  the  head  of  those  daring  veterans,  he 
was  more  than  a  match  for  the  forces  which  Pedrarias 
brought  with  him.  But  though  his  troops  murmured 
loudly  at  the  injustice  of  the  King  in  superseding 
their  commander,  and  complained  that  strangers 
would  now  reap  the  fruits  of  their  toil  and  success, 
Balboa  submitted  with  implicit  obedience  to  the  will 
of  his  sovereign,  and  received  Pedrarias  with  all  the 
deference  due  to  his  character. 

Notwithstanding  this  moderation,  to  which  Pedra- 
rias owed  the  peaceable  possession  of  his  government, 
he  appointed  a  judicial  inquiry  to  be  made  into 
Balboa's  conduct,  while  under  the  command  of 
Nicuessa,  and  imposed  a  considerable  fine  upon  him, 
on  account  of  the  irregularities  of  which  he  had  then 
been  guilty.  Balboa  felt  sensibly  the  mortification 
of  being  subjected  to  trial  and  to  punishment  in  a 
place  where  he  had  so  lately  occupied  the  first 
station.  Pedrarias  could  not  conceal  his  jealousy  of 
his  superior  merit :  so  that  the  resentment  of  the 
one,  and  the  envy  of  the  other,  gave  rise  to  dissen- 
sions extremely  detrimental  to  the  colony.  It  vras 
threatened  with  a  calamity  still  more  fatal.  Pedra- 
rias had  landed  in  Darien  at  a  most  unlucky  time  of 
the  year  [July],  about  the  middle  of  the  rainy 
season,  in  that  part  of  the  torrid  zone  where  the 
clouds  pour  down  such  torrents  as  are  unknown  in 
more  temperate  climates.  The  village  of  Santa 
Maria  was  seated  in  a  rich  plain,  environed  with 
marshes  and  woods.  The  constitution  of  Europeans 
was  unable  to  withstand  the  pestilential  influence  of 
sueh  a  situation,  in  a  climate  naturally  so  noxious, 
and  at  a  season  so  peculiarly  unhealthy.  A  violent 
and  destructive  malady  carried  off  many  of  the 
soldiers  who  accompanied  Pedrarias.  An  extreme 
scarcity  of  provisions  augmented  this  distress,  as  ren- 
dered it  impossible  to  find  proper  refreshment  for  the 
ick,  or  the  necessary  sustenance  for  the  healthy.  In  the 
space  of  a  month,  above  six  hundred  persons  perished 
'n  the  utmost  misery.  Dejection  and  despair  spread 
through  the  colony.  Many  principal  persons  soli- 
cited their  dismission,  and  were  glad  to  relinquish  all 
their  hopes  of  wealth,  in  order  to  escape  from  that 
pernicious  region.  Pedrarias  endeavoured  to  divert 
those  who  remained  from  brooding  over  their  misfor- 
tunes, by  finding  them  employment.  With  this 
view,  he  sent  several  detachments  into  the  interior 
parts  of  the  country,  to  levy  gold  among  the  natives, 
and  to  search  for  the  mines  in  which  it  was  produced. 
Those  rapacious  adventurers,  more  attentive  to  present 
gain  than  to  the  means  of  facilitating  their  future 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


progress,  plundered  without  distinction  wherever  they 
marched.  Regardless  of  the  alliances  which  Balboa 
had  made  with  several  of  the  caziques,  they  stripped 
them  of  every  thing  valuable,  and  treated  them,  as 
well  as  their  subjects,  with  the  utmost  insolence  and 
cruelty.  By  their  tyranny  and  exactions,  which 
Pedrarias,  either  from  want  of  authority  or  inclina- 
tion, did  not  restrain,  all  the  country  from  the  gulf 
of  Darien  to  the  lake  of  Nicaragua  was  desolated, 
and  the  Spaniards  were  inconsiderately  deprived  of 
the  advantages  which  they  might  have  derived  from 
the  friendship  of  the  natives,  in  extending  their 
conquests  to  the  South  Sea.  Balboa,  who  saw  with 
concern  that  such  ill-judged  proceedings  retarded 
the  execution  of  his  favourite  scheme,  sent  violent 
remonstrances  to  Spain  against  the  imprudent  govern- 
ment of  Pedrarias,  which  had  ruined  a  happy  and 
flourishing  colony.  Pedrarias,  on  the  other  hand, 
accused  him  of  having  deceived  the  King,  by  magni- 
fying his  own  exploits,  as  well  as  by  a  false  repre- 
sentation of  the  opulence  and  value  of  the  country. 

Ferdinand  became  sensible  at  length  of  his  impru- 
dence in  superseding  the  most  active  and  experienced 
officer  in  the  New  World,  and,  by  way  of  compensa- 
tion to  Balboa,  appointed  him  adelantado,  or  lieute- 
nant-governor, of  the  countries  upon  the  South  Sea, 
with  very  extensive  privileges  and  authority.  At 
the  same  time  he  enjoined  Pedrarias  to  support 
Balboa  in  all  his  operations,  and  to  consult  with  him 
concerning  every  measure  which  he  himself  pursued. 
But  to  effect  such  a  sudden  transition  from  inveterate 
enmity  to  perfect  confidence,  exceeded  Ferdinand's 
power.  [A.  D.  1515.]  Pedrarias  continued  to  treat  his 
rival  with  neglect;  and  Balboa's  fortune  being  ex- 
hausted by  the  payment  of  his  fine,  and  other 
exactions  of  Pedrarias,  he  could  not  make  suitable 
preparations  for  taking  possession  of  his  new  govern- 
ment. At  length,  by  the  interposition  and  exhorta- 
tions of  the  bishop  of  Darien,  they  were  brought  to 
a  reconciliation ;  and  in  order  to  cement  this  union 
more  firmly,  Pedrarias  agreed  to  give  his  daughter  in 
marriage  to  Balboa.  The  first  effect  of  their  concord 
was,  that  Balboa  was  permitted  to  make  several  small 
incursions  into  the  country  [A.  D.  1516].  These  he 
conducted  with  such  prudence  as  added  to  the  repu- 
tation which  he  had  already  acquired.  Many  adven- 
turers resorted  to  him ;  and  with  the  countenance 
and  aid  of  Pedrarias,  he  began  to  prepare  for  his 
expedition  to  the  South  Sea.  In  order  to  accomplish 
this,  it  was  necessary  to  build  vessels  capable  of 
conveying  his  troops  to  those  provinces  which  he 
purposed  to  invade  [A.  D.  1517].  After  surmounting 
many  obstacles,  and  enduring  a  variety  of  those 
hardships  which  were  the  portion  of  the  conquerors 
of  America,  he  at  length  finished  four  small  brigan- 
tines.  In  these,  with  three  hundred  chosen  men,  a 
force  superior  to  that  with  which  Pizarro  afterwards 
undertook  the  same  expedition,  he  was  ready  to  sail 
towards  Peru,  when  he  received  an  unexpected 
message  from  Pedrarias.  As  his  reconciliation  with 
Balboa  had  never  been  cordial,  the  progress  which 
his  son-in-law  was  making  revived  his  ancient 
enmity,  and  added  to  its  rancour.  He  dreaded  the 
prosperity  and  elevation  of  a  man  whom  he  had 
injured  so  deeply.  He  suspected  that  success  would 
encourage  him  to  aim  at  independence  upon  his 
jurisdiction ;  and  so  violently  did  the  passions  of 
hatred,  fear,  and  jealousy,  operate  upon  his  mind, 
that,  in  order  to  gratify  his  vengeance,  he  scrupled 
not  to  defeat  an  enterprise  of  the  greatest  moment  to 
his  country.  Under  pretexts  which  were  false,  but 
plausible,  he  desired  Balboa  to  postpone  his  voyage 


for  a  short  time,  and  to  repair  to  Ada,  in  order  that 
he  might  have  an  interview  with  him.  Balboa,  with 
the  unsuspicious  confidence  of  a  man  conscious  of 
no  crime,  instantly  obeyed  the  summons  ;  but  as 
soon  as  he  entered  the  place,  he  was  arrested  by 
order  of  Pedrarias,  whose  impatience  to  satiate  his 
revenge  did  not  suffer  him  to  languish  long  in  con- 
finement. -Judges  were  immediately  appointed  to 
proceed  to  his  trial.  An  accusation  of  disloyalty  to 
the  King,  and  of  an  intention  to  revolt  against  the 
Governor,  was  preferred  against  him.  Sentence  of 
death  was  pronounced ;  and  though  the  judges  who 
passed  it,  seconded  by  the  whole  colony,  interceded 
warmly  for  his  pardon,  Pedrarias  continued  inexo- 
rable; and  the  Spaniards  beheld,  with  astonishment 
and  sorrow,  the  public  execution  of  a  man  whom 
they  universally  deemed  more  capable  than  any  who 
had  borne  command  in  America,  of  forming  and 
accomplishing  great  designs.  Upon  his  death,  the 
expedition  which  he  had  planned  was  relinquished. 
Pedrarias,  notwithstanding  the  violence  and  in- 
justice of  his  proceedings,  was  not  only  screened 
from  punishment  by  the  powerful  patronage  of  the 
bishop  of  Burgos  and  other  courtiers,  but  continued 
in  power.  Soon  after  he  obtained  permission  to 
remove  the  colony  from  its  unwholesome  station  of 
Santa  Maria  to  Panama,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
isthmus  ;  and  though  it  did  not  gain  much  in  point 
of  healthfulness  by  the  change,  the  commodious 
situation  of  this  new  settlement  contributed  greatly 
to  facilitate  the  subsequent  conquests  of  the  Spaniards 
in  the  extensive  countries  situated  upon  the  southern 
ocean. 

[A.  D.  1515.]  During  these  transactions  in  Darien, 
the  history  of  which  it  was  proper  to  carry  on  in  an 
uninterrupted  tenor,  several  important  events  occurred, 
with  respect  to  the  discovery,  the  conquest,  and 
government  of  other  provinces  in  the  New  World. 
Ferdinand  was  so  intent  upon  opening  a  communi- 
cation with  the  Molucca  or  Spice  Islands  by  the 
west,  that,  in  the  year  one  thousand  five  hundred, 
and  fifteen,  he  fitted  out  two  ships  at  his  own  expense, 
in  order  to  attempt  such  a  voyage,  and  gave  the 
command  of  them  to  Juan  Diaz  de  Solis,  who  was 
deemed  one  of  the  most  skilful  navigators  in  Spain. 
He  stood  along  the  coast  of  South  America,  and  on 
the  first  of  January,  one  thousand  five  hundred  and 
sixteen  entered  a  river  which  he  called  Janeiro, 
where  an  extensive  commerce  is  now  carried  on. 
From  thence  he  proceeded  to  a  spacious  bay,  which 
he  supposed  to  be  the  entrance  into  a  strait  that 
communicated  with  the  Indian  Ocean  ;  but  upon 
advancing  further,  he  found  it  to  be  the  mouth  of 
Rio  de  Plata,  one  of  the  vast  rivers  by  which  the 
Southern  Continent  of  America  is  watered.  In 
endeavouring  to  make  a  descent  in  this  country,  De 
Solis  and  several  of  his  crew  were  slain  by  the 
natives,  who,  in  sight  of  the  ships,  cut  their  bodies 
in  pieces,  roasted  and  devoured  them.  Discouraged 
with  the  loss  of  their  commander,  and  terrified  at 
this  shocking  spectacle,  the  .surviving  Spaniards  set 
sail  for  Europe,  without  aiming  at  any  further 
discovery.  Though  this  attempt  proved  abortive,  it 
was  not  without  benefit.  It  turned  the  attention  of 
ingenious  men  to  this  course  of  navigation,  and 
prepared  the  way  for  a  move  fortunate  voyage,  by 
which,  a  few  years  posterior  to  this  period,  the  great 
design  that  Ferdinand  had  in  view  was  accomplished 

Though  the  Spaniards  were  thus  actively  employed 
in  extending  their  discoveries  and  settlements  in 
America,  they  still  considered  Hispaniola  as  their 
principal  colony,  and  the  seat  of  government.  Don 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Diego  Columbus  wanted  neither  inclination  nor 
abilities  to  have  rendered  the  members  of  this  colony, 
who  were  most  immediately  under  his  jurisdiction, 
prosperous  and  happy.  But  he  was  circumscribed 
in  all  his  operations  by  the  suspicious  policy  of 
Ferdinand,  who  on  every  occasion,  and  under  pretexts 
the  most  frivolous,  retrenched  his  privileges,  and 
encouraged  the  treasurer,  the  judges,  and  other 
subordinate  officers,  to  counteract  his  measures,  and 
to  dispute  his  authority.  The  most  valuable  prerogative 
which  the  Governor  possessed,  was  that  of  distributing 
Indians  among  the  Spaniards  settled  in  the  island. 
The  rigorous  servitude  of  those  unhappy  men  having 
been  but  little  mitigated  by  all  the  regulations  in 
their  favour,  the  power  of  parcelling  out  such  neces- 
sary instruments  of  labour  at  pleasure,  secured  to  the 
governor  great  influence  in  the  colony.  In  order  to 
strip  him  of  this,  Ferdinand  created  a  new  office,  with 
the  power  of  distributing  the  Indians,  and  bestowed 
it  upon  Rodrigo  Albuquerque,  a  relation  of  Zapata, 
his  confidential  minister.  Mortified  with  the  injustice 
as  well  as  indignity  of  this  invasion  upon  his  rights, 
in  a  point  so  essential,  Don  Diego  could  no  longer 
remain  in  a  place  where  his  power  and  consequence 
were  almost  annihilated.  He  repaired  to  Spain  with 
the  vain  hopes  of  obtaining  redress.  Albuquerque 
entered  upon  his  office  with  all  the  rapacity  of  an 
indigent  adventurer  impatient  to  amass  wealth.  He 
began  with  taking  the  exact  number  of  Indians  in  the 
island,  and  found,  that  from  sixty  thousand,  who,  in 
the  year  one  thousand  five  hundred  and  eight,  survived 
after  all  their  sufferings,  they  were  now  reduced  to 
fourteen  thousand.  These  he  threw  into  separate 
divisions  or  lots,  and  bestowed  them  upon  such  as 
were  willing  to  purchase  them  at  the  highest  puce. 
By  this  arbitrary  distribution,  several  of  the  natives 
were  removed  from  their  original  habitations,  many 
were  taken  from  their  ancient  masters,  and  all  of 
them  subjected  to  heavier  burdens,  and  to  more 
intolerable  labour,  in  order  to  reimburse  their  new 
proprietors.  Those  additional  calamities  completed 
the  misery,  and  hastened  on  the  extinction  of  this 
wretched  and  innocent  race  of  men. 

The  violence  of  these  proceedings,  together  with 
the  fatal  consequences  which  attended  them,  not  only 
excited  complaints  among  such  as  thought  them- 
selves aggrieved,  but  touched  the  hearts  of  all  who 
retained  any  sentiments  of  humanity.  From  the 
time  that  ecclesiastics  were  sent  as  instructors  into 
America,  they  perceived  that  the  rigour  with  which 
their  countrymen  treated  the  natives,  rendered  their 
ministry  altogether  fruitless.  The  missionaries,  in 
conformity  to  the  mild  spirit  of  that  religion  which 
they  were  employed  to  publish,  early  remonstrated 
against  the  maxims  of  the  planters  with  respect  to 
the  Americans,  and  condemned  the  repartimientos,  or 
distributions,  by  which  they  were  given  up  as  slaves 
to  their  conquerors,  as  no  less  contrary  to  natural 
justice  and  the  precepts  of  Christianity,  than  to  sound 
policy.  The  Dominicans,  to  whom  the  instruction  of 
the  Americans  was  originally  committed,  were  most 
vehement  in  testifying  against  the  repartimientos. 
In  the  year  one  thousand  five  hundred  and  eleven, 
Montesino,  one  of  their  most  eminent  preachers, 
inveighed  against  this  practice,  in  the  great  church  at 
St.  Domingo,  with  all  the  impetuosity  of  popular 
eloquence.  Don  Diego  Columbus,  the  principal 
officers  of  the  colony,  and  all  the  laymen  who  had 
been  his  hearers,  complained  of  the  monk  to  his 
superiors  ;  but  they,  instead  of  condemning,  ap- 
plauded his  doctrine,  as  equally  pious  and  seasonable. 
The  Franciscans,  influenced  by  the  spirit  of  opposition 


and  rivalship  which  subsists  between  the  two  orders, 
discovered  some  inclination  to  take  part  with  the 
laity,  and  to  espouse  the  defence  of  the  repartimientos. 
But  as  they  could  not  with  decency  give  their  avowed 
approbation  to  a  system  of  oppression  so  repugnant 
to  the  spirit  of  religion,  they  endeavoured  to  paliate 
what  they  could  not  justify,  and  alleged,  in  excuse 
for  the  conduct  of  their  countrymen,  that  it  was 
impossible  to  carry  on  any  improvement  in  the  colony, 
unless  the  Spaniards  possessed  such  dominion  over 
the  natives  that  they  could  compel  them  to  labour. 

The  Dominicans,  regardless  of  such  political  and 
interested  considerations,  would  not  relax  in  any 
degree  the  rigour  of  their  sentiments,  and  even 
refused  to  absolve  or  admit  to  the  sacrament,  such  of 
their  countrymen  as  continued  to  hold  the  natives  in 
servitude.  Both  parties  applied  to  the  king  for  his 
decision  in  a  matter  of  such  importance.  Ferdinand 
empowered  a  committee  of  his  privy-council,  assisted 
by  some  of  the  most  eminent  civilians  and  divines  in 
Spain,  to  hear  the  deputies  sent  from  Hispaniola,  in 
support  of  their  respective  opinions.  After  a  Jong 
discussion,  the  speculative  point  in  controversy  was 
determined  in  favour  of  the  Dominicans,  the  Indians 
were  declared  to  be  a  free  people,  entitled  to  all  the 
natural  rights  of  men  ;  but,  notwithstanding  all  this 
decision,  the  repartimientos  were  continued  upon 
their  ancient  footing.  As  this  determination  admitted 
the  principle  upon  which  the  Dominicans  founded 
their  opinion,  they  renewed  their  efforts  to  obtain 
relief  for  the  Indians  with  additional  boldness  and 
zeal.  At  length,  in  order  to  quiet  the  colony,  which 
was  alarmed  by  their  remonstrances  and  censures, 
Ferdinand  issued  a  decree  of  his  privy-council, 
declaring,  that  after  mature  consideration  of  the 
Apostolic  bull,  and  other  titles  by  which  the  crown 
of  Castile  claimed  a  right  to  its  possessions  in  the 
New  World  [A.  D.  1513],  the  servitude  of  the  Indians 
was  warranted  both  by  the  laws  of  God  and  of  man  ; 
that  unless  they  were  subjected  to  the  dominion  of 
the  Spaniards,  and  compelled  to  reside  under  their 
inspection,  it  would  be  impossible  to  reclaim  them 
from  idolatry,  or  to  instruct  them  in  the  principles 
of  the  Christian  faith  ;  that  no  further  scruple  ought 
to  be  entertained  concerning  the  lawfulness  of  the 
repartimientos,  as  the  king  and  council  were  willing 
to  take  the  charge  of  that  upon  their  own  consciences  ; 
and  that  therefore  the  Dominicans,  and  monks  of 
other  religious  orders,  should  abstain,  for  the  future, 
from  those  invectives,  which,  from  an  excess  of 
charitable  but  ill-informed  zeal,  they  had  uttered 
against  that  practice. 

That  his  intention  of  adhering  to  this  decree  might 
be  fully  understood,  Ferdinand  conferred  new  grants 
of  Indians  upon  several  of  his  courtiers  (25).  But 
in  order  that  he  might  not  seem  altogether  inattentive 
to  the  rights  of  humanity,  he  published  an  edict,  in 
which  he  endeavoured  to  provide  for  the  mild  treat- 
ment of  the  Indians  under  the  yoke  to  which  he 
subjected  them  ;  he  regulated  the  nature  of  the 
work  which  they  should  be  required  to  perform  ; 
he  prescribed  the  mode  in  which  they  should  be 
clothed  and  fed,  and  gave  directions  with  respect  to 
their  instruction  in  the  principles  of  Christianity. 

But  the  Dominicans,  who,  from  their  experience  of 
what  was  passed,  judged  concerning  the  future,  soon 
perceived  the  inefficacy  of  those  provisions,  and 
foretold,  that  as  long  as  it  was  the  interest  of  indi- 
viduals to  treat  the  Indians  with  rigour,  no  public 
regulations  could  render  their  servitude  mild  or 
tolerable.  They  considered  it  as  vain  to  waste  their 
own  time  and  strength  in  attempting  to  communicate 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  sublime  truths  of  religion  to  men,  whose  spirits 
were  broken,  and  their  faculties  impaired  by  oppression. 
Some  of  them,  in  despair,  requested  the  permission 
of  their  superiors  to  remove  to  the  continent,  and  to 
pursue  the  object  of  their  mission  among  such  of  the 
natives  as  were  not  hitherto  corrupted  by  the  example 
of  the  Spaniards,  or  alienated  by  their  cruelty  from 
the  Christian  faith.  Such  as  remained  in  Hispaniola 
continued  to  remonstrate,  with  decent  firmness, 
against  the  servitude  of  the  Indians. 

The  violent  operations  of  Albuquerque,  the  new 
distributor  of  Indians,  revived  the  zeal  of  the  Do- 
minicans against  the  repartimientos,  and  called  forth 
an  advocate  for  that  oppressed  people,  who  possessed 
all  the  courage,  the  talents,  and  activity  requisite  in 
supporting  such  a  desperate  cause.  This  was  Bar- 
tholomew de  las  Casas,  a  native  of  Seville,  and  one  of 
the  clergymen  sent  out  with  Columbus  in  his  second 
voyage  to  Hispaniola,  in  order  to  settle  in  that  island. 
He  early  adopted  the  opinion  prevalent  among  eccle- 
siastics, with  respect  to  the  unlawfulness  of  reducing 
the  natives  to  servitude ;  and  that  he  might  demon- 
strate the  sincerity  of  his  conviction,  he  relinquished 
all  the  Indians  who  had  fallen  to  his  own  share  in 
the  division  of  the  inhabitants  among  their  conquerors, 
declaring  that  he  should  ever  bewail  his  own  misfor- 
tune and  guilt,  in  having  exercised  for  a  moment  this 
impious  dominion  over  his  fellow-creatures.  From 
that  time  he  became  the  avowed  patron  of  the  In- 
dians; and  by  his  bold  interpositions  in  their  behalf, 
as  well  as  by  the  respect  due  to  his  abilities  and 
character,  he  had  often  the  merit  of  setting  some 
bounds  to  the  excesses  of  his  countrymen.  He  did 
not  fail  to  remonstrate  warmly  against  the  proceedings 
of  Albuquerque,  and,  though  he  soon  found  that 
attention  to  his  own  interest  rendered  this  rapacious 
officer  deaf  to  admonition,  he  did  not  abandon  the 
wretched  people  whose  cause  he  had  espoused.  He 
instantly  set  out  for  Spain,  with  the  most  sanguine 
hopes  of  opening  the  eyes  and  softening  the  heart  of 
Ferdinand,  by  that  striking  picture  of  the  oppression 
of  his  new  subjects,  which  he  would  exhibit  to  his 
view. i 

He  easily  obtained  admittance  to  the  king,  whom 
he  found  in  a  declining  state  of  health.  With  much 
freedom,  and  no  less  eloquence,  he  represented  to 
him  all  the  fatal  effects  of  the  repartimientos  in  the 
New  World,  boldly  charging  him  with  the  guilt  of 
Laving  authorised  this  impious  measure,  which  had 
brought  misery  and  destruction  upon  a  numerous 
and  innocent  race  of  men,  whom  Providence  had 
placed  under  his  protection.  Ferdinand,  whose  mind 
as  well  as  body  was  much  enfeebled  by  his  distemper, 
was  greatly  alarmed  at  this  charge  of  impiety,  which 
at  another  juncture  he  would  have  despised.  He 
listened  with  deep  compunction  to  the  discourse  of 
las  Casas,  and  promised  to  take  into  serious  consi- 
deration the  means  of  redressing  the  evil  of  which  he 
complained.  But  death  prevented  him  from  executing 
his  resolution.  Charles  of  Austria,  to  whom  all  his 
crowns  devolved,  resided  at  that  time  in  his  paternal 
dominions  in  the  Low  Countries.  Las  Casas,  with 
his  usual  ardour,  prepared  immediately  to  set  out  for 
Flanders,  in  order  to  occupy  the  ear  of  the  young 
monarch,  v/hsn  cardinal  Ximenes,  who,  as  regent, 
assumed  the  reigns  of  government  in  Castile,  com- 
manded him  to  desist  from  the  journey,  and  engaged 
to  hear  his  complaints  in  person. 

He  accordingly  weighed  the  matter  with  attention 
equal  to  its  importance  ;  and  as  his  impetuous  mind 
delighted  in  schemes  bold  and  uncommon,  he.  soon 
fixed  upon  a  plan  which  astonished  the  ministers, 


trained  up  under  the  formal  and  cautious  administra- 
tion of  Ferdinand.  Without  regarding  either  the 
rights  of  Don  Diego  Columbus,  or  the  regulations 
established  by  the  late  king,  he  resolved  to  send  three 
persons  to  America  as  superintendents  of  all  the 
colonies  there,  with  authoiity,  after  examining  all 
circumstances  on  the  spot,  to  decide  finally  with 
respect  to  the  point  in  question.  It  was  a  matter  of 
deliberation  and  delicacy  to  choose  men  qualified  for 
such  an  important  station.  As  all  the  laymen  settled 
in  America,  or  who  had  been  consulted  in  the 
administration  of  that  department,  had  given  their 
opinion  that  the  Spaniards  could  not  keep  possession 
of  their  new  settlements,  unless  they  were  allowed  to 
retain  their  dominion  over  the  Indians,  he  saw  that 
he  could  not  rely  on  their  impartiality,  and  determined 
to  commit  the  trust  to  ecclesiastics.  As  the  Domi- 
nicans and  Franciscans  had  already  espoused  opposite 
sides  in  the  controversy,  he,  from  the  same  principle 
of  impartiality,  excluded  both  these  fraternities  from 
the  commission.  He  confined  his  choice  to  the 
monks  of  St.  Jerome,  a  small  but  respectable  order 
in  Spain.  With  the  assistance  of  their  general,  and 
in  concert  with  Las  Casas,  he  soon  pitched  upon 
three  persons  whom  he  deemed  equal  to  the  charge. 
To  them  he  joined  Zuazo,  a  private  lawyer  of 
distinguished  probity,  with  unbounded  power  to 
regulate  all  judicial  proceedings  in  the  colonies.  Las 
Casas  was  appointed  to  accompany  them,  with  the 
title  of  Protector  of  the  Indians. 

To  vest  such  extraordinary  powers,  as  might  at 
once  overturn  the  system  of  government  established 
in  the  New  World,  in  four  persons,  who,  from  their 
humble  condition  in  life,  were  little  entitled  to 
possess  this  high  authority,  appeared  to  Zapata,  and 
other  ministers  of  the  late  King,  a  measure  so  wild 
and  dangerous,  that  they  refused  to  issue  the  des- 
patches necessary  for  carrying  it  into  execution.  But 
Ximenes  was  not  of  a  temper  patiently  to  brook 
opposition  to  any  of  his  schemes.  He  sent  for  the 
refractory  ministers,  and  addressed  them  in  such  a 
tone,  that  in  the  utmost  consternation  they  obeyed 
his  orders.  The  superintendents,  with  their  asso- 
ciate Zuazo,  and  Las  Casas,  sailed  for  St.  Domingo. 
Upon  their  arrival,  the  first  act  of  their  authority 
was  to  set  at  liberty  all  the  Indians  who  had  been 
granted  to  the  Spanish  courtiers,  or  to  any  person 
not  residing  in  America.  This,  together  with  the 
information  which  had  been  received  from  Spain 
concerning  the  object  of  the  commission,  spread  a 
general  alarm.  The  colonists  concluded  that  they 
were  to  be  deprived  at  once  of  the  hands  with  which 
they  carried  on  their  labour,  and  that,  of  conse- 
quence, ruin  was  unavoidable.  But  the  fathers  of 
St.  Jerome  proceeded  Avith  such  caution  and  pru- 
dence, as  soon  dissipated  all  their  fears.  They  dis- 
covered, in  every  step  of  their  conduct,  a  knowledge 
of  the  world,  and  of  affairs,  which  is  seldom  acquired 
in  a  cloister ;  and  displayed  a  moderation  as  well  as 
gentleness  still  more  rare  among  persons  trained  up 
in  the  solitude  and  austerity  of  a  monastic  life. 
Their  ears  were  open  to  information  from  every 
quarter ;  they  compared  the  different  accounts  which 
they  received ;  and  after  a  mature  consideration  of 
the  whole,  they  were  fully  satisfied  that  the  state  of 
the  colony  rendered  it  impossible  to  adopt  the  plan 
proposed  by  las  Casas,  and  recommended  by  the 
cardinal.  They  plainly  perceived  that  the  Spaniards 
settled  in  America  were  so  few  in  immber,  that  they 
could  neither  work  the  mines  which  had  been  opened, 
nor  cultivate  the  country;  that  "they  depended  for 
effecting  both  upon  the  labour  of  the  natives,  and  if 


r>c, 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


deprived  of  it,  they  must  instantly  relinquish  their 
conquests,  or  give  up  all  the  advantages  which  they 
derived  from  them ;  that  no  allurement  was  so 
powerful  as  to  surmount  the  natural  aversion  of  the 
Indians  to  any  laborious  effort,  and  that  nothing  but 
the  authority  of  a  master  could  compel  them  to  work; 
and  if  they  were  not  kept  constantly  under  the 
eye  and  discipline  of  a  superior,  so  great  was  their 
natural  listlessness  and  indifference,  that  they  would 
neither  attend  to  religious  instruction,  nor  observe 
those  rights  of  Christianity  which  they  had  been 
already  taught.  Upon  all  those  accounts,  the  super- 
intendents found  it  necessary  to  tolerate  the  repar- 
timientos,  and  to  suffer  the  Indians  to  remain  under 
subjection  to  their  Spanish  masters.  They  used  their 
utmost  endeavours,  however,  to  prevent  the  fatal 
effects  of  this  establishment,  and  to  secure  to  the 
Indians  the  consolation  of  the  best  treatment  com- 
patible with  a  state  of  servitude.  For  this  purpose, 
they  revived  former  regulations,  they  prescribed  new 
ones,  they  neglected  no  circumstance  that  tended  to 
mitigate  the  rigour  of  the  yoke  ;  and  by  their  autho- 
rity, their  example,  and  their  exhortations,  they 
laboured  to  inspire  their  countrymen  with  sentiments 
of  equity  and  gentleness  towards  the  unhappy  people 
upon  whose  industry  they  depended.  Zuazo,  in  his 
department,  seconded  the  endeavours  of  the  super- 
intendents. He  reformed  the  courts  of  justice,  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  render  their  decisions  equitable 
as  well  as  expeditious,  and  introduced  various  re- 
gulations which  greatly  improved  the  interior  police 
of  the  colony.  The  satisfaction  which  his  conduct 
and  that  of  the  superintendents  gave,  was  now  uni- 
versal among  the  Spaniards  settled  in  the  New 
World,  and  all  admired  the  boldness  of  Ximenes,  in 
having  departed  from  the  ordinary  path  of  business 
in  forming  his  plan,  as  well  as  his  sagacity  in 
pitching  upon  persons,  whose  wisdom,  moderation, 
and  disinterestedness,  rendered  them  worthy  of  this 
high  trust. 

Las  Casas  alone  was  dissatisfied.  The  prudential 
considerations  which  influenced  the  superintendents 
made  no  impression  upon  him.  He  regarded  their 
idea  of  accommodating  their  conduct  to  the  state  of 
the  colony,  as  the  maxim  of  an  unhallowed  timid 
policy,  which  tolerated  what  was  unjust  because  it 
was  beneficial.  He  contended  that  the  Indians  were 
by  nature  free,  and  as  their  protector,  he  required 
the  superintendents  not  to  bereave  them  of  the 
common  privilege  of  humanity.  They  received  his 
most  virulent  remonstrances  without  emotion,  but 
adhered  firmly  to  their  own  system.  The  Spanish 
planters  did  not  bear  with  him  so  patiently,  and 
were  ready  to  tear  him  in  pieces  for  insisting  in  a 
requisition  so  odious  to  them.  Las  Casas,  in  order 
to  screen  himself  fiom  their  rage,  found  it  necessary 
to  take  shelter  in  a  convent ;  and  perceiving  that  all 
his  efforts  in  America  were  fruitless,  he  soon  set  out 
for  Europe,  with  a  fixed  resolution  not  to  abandon 
the  protection  of  a  people  whom  he  deemed  to  be 
cruelly  oppressed. 

Had  Ximenes  retained  that  vigour  of  mind  with 
which  he  usually  applied  to  business,  Las  Casas  must 
have  met  with  no  very  gracious  reception  upon  his 
return  to  Spain.  But  he  found  the  cardinal  languish- 
ing under  a  mortal  distemper,  and  preparing  to 
resign  his  authority  to  the  young  king,  who  was 
daily  expected  from  the  Low  Countries.  Charles 
arrived,  took  possession  of  the  government,  and,  by 
the  death  of  Ximenes,  lost  a  minister,  whose  abilities 
and  integrity  entitled  him  to  direct  his  affairs. 
Many  of  the  Flemish  nobility  had  accompanied  their 


sovereign  to  Spain.  From  that  warm  predilection 
to  his  countrymen,  which  was  natural  at  his  a^u,  Jio 
consulted  them  with  respect  to  all  the  transarti  ais 
in  his  new  kingdom  :  and  they,  with  an  indiscreet 
eagerness,  intruded  themselves  into  every  business, 
and  seized  almost  every  department  of  adminis- 
tration. The  direction  of  American  affairs  was  an 
object  too  alluring  to  escape  their  attention.  Las 
Casas  observed  their  growing  influence,  and  though 
projectors  are  usually  too  sanguine  to  conduct  their 
schemes  with  much  dexterity,  he  possessed  a  bustling, 
indefatigable  activity,  which  sometimes  accomplishe 
its  purposes  with  greater  success  than  the  most  ex- 
quisite discernment  and  address.  He  courted  the 
Flemish  ministers  with  assiduity.  He  repiesented 
to  them  the  absurdity  of  all  the  maxims  hit'i.»i'.o 
adopted  with  respect  to  the  government  of  America, 
particularly  during  the  administration  of  Ferdinand, 
and  pointed  out  the  defects  of  those  arrangements 
which  Ximenes  had  introduced.  The  memory  of 
Ferdinand  was  odious  to  the  Flemings.  The  superior 
virtue  and  abilities  of  Ximenes  had  long  been  the 
object  of  their  envy.  They  fondly  wished  to  have  a 
plausible  pretext  for  condemning  the  measures,  both 
of  the  monarch  and  of  the  minister,  and  of  reflecting 
some  discredit  on  their  political  wisdom.  The  friends 
of  Don  Diego  Columbus,  as  well  as  the  Spanish 
courtiers,  who  had  been  dissatisfied  with  the  car- 
dinal's administration,  joined  Las  Casas  in  censuring 
the  scheme  of  sending  superintendents  to  America. 
This  union  of  so  many  interests  and  passions  was 
irresistible ;  and  in  consequence  of  it  the  fathers  of 
St.  Jerome,  together  with  their  associate  Zuazo,  were 
recalled.  Roderigo  de  Figueroa,  a  lawyer  of  some 
eminence,  was  appointed  chief  judge  of  the  island, 
and  received  instructions,  in  compliance  with  the 
request  of  Las  Casas,  to  examine  once  more,  with 
the  utmost  attention,  the  point  in  controversy  between 
him  and  the  people  of  the  colony,  with  respect  to  the 
treatment  of  the  natives  ;  and  in  the  mean  time  to 
do  every  thing  in  his  power  to  alleviate  their  suffer- 
ings, and  prevent  the  extinction  of  the  race. 

This  was  all  that  the  zeal  of  Las  Casas  could  pro- 
cure at  that  juncture  in  favour  of  the  Indians.  The 
impossibility  of  carrying  on  any  improvements  in 
America,  unless  the  Spanish  planters  could  command 
the  labour  of  the  natives,  was  an  insuperable  ob- 
jection to  his  plan  of  treating  them  as  free  subjects. 
In  order  to  provide  some  remedy  for  this,  without 
which  he  found  it  was  in  vain  to  mention  his  scheme, 
Las  Casas  proposed  to  purchase  a  sufficient  number 
of  negroes  from  the  Portuguese  settlements  on  the 
coast  of  Africa,  and  to  transport  them  to  America,  in 
order  that  they  might  be  employed  as  slaves  in  work- 
ing the  mines  and  cultivating  the  ground.  One  of 
the  first  advantages  which  the  Portuguese  had  de- 
rived from  their  discoveries  in  Africa,  arose  from  the 
trade  in  slaves.  Various  circumstances  concurred  in 
reviving  this  odious  commerce,  which  had  been  long 
abolished  in  Europe,  and  which  is  no  less  repugnant 
to  the  feelings  of  humanity,  than  to  the  principles  of 
religion.  As  early  as  the  year  one  thousand  five 
hundred  and  three,  a  few  negro  slaves  had  been  sent 
into  the  New  World.  In  the  year  one  thousand  five 
hundred  and  eleven,  Ferdinand  permitted  the  im- 
portation of  them  in  greater  numbers.  They  were 
found  to  be  a  more  robust  and  hardy  race  than  the 
natives  of  America.  They  were  more  capable  of 
enduring  fatigue,  more  patient  under  servitude,  and 
the  labour  of  one  negro  was  computed  to  be  equal  to 
that  of  four  Indians.  Cardinal  Ximenes,  however, 
when  solicited  to  encourage  this  commerce,  peremp- 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


torily  rejected  the  proposition,  because  he  perceived 
the  iniquity  of  reducing  one  race  of  men  to  slavery, 
while  he  was  consulting  about  the  means  of  restoring 
liberty  to  another.  But  Las  Casas,  from  the  incon- 
sistency natural  to  men  who  hurry  with  headlong 
impetuosity  towards  a  favourite  point,  was  incapable 
of  making  this  distinction.  While  he  contended 
earnestly  for  the  liberty  of  the  people  born  in  one 
quarter  of  the  globe,  he  laboured  to  enslave  the 
inhabitants  of  another  region  ;  and  in  the  warmth  of 
his  zeal  to  save  the  Americans  from  the  yoke,  pro- 
nounced it  to  be  lawful  and  expedient  to  impose  one 
still  heavier  upon  the  Africans.  Unfortunately  for  the 
latter,  Las  Casas's  plan  was  adopted.  Charles 
granted  a  patent  to  one  of  his  Flemish  favourites, 
containing  an  exclusive  right  of  importing  four 
thousand  negroes  into  America.  The  favourite  sold 
his  patent  to  some  Genoese  merchants  for  twenty- 
five  thousand  ducats,  and  they  were  the  first  who 
brought  into  a  regular  form  that  commerce  for  slaves 
between  Africa  and  America,  which  has  siiice  been 
carried  on  to  such  an  amazing  extent. 

[A.  D.  1518.]  But  the  Genoese  merchants,  con- 
ducting their  operations,  at  first,  with  the  rapocity  of 
monopolists,  demanded  such  a  high  price  for  negroes, 
that  the  number  imported  into  Hispaniola  made  no 
great  change  upon  the  state  of  the  colony.  Las 
Casas,  whose  zeal  was  no  less  inventive  thaii  inde- 
fatigable, had  recourse  to  another  expedient  for  the 
relief  of  the  Indians.  He  observed,  that  most  of 
the  persons  who  had  settled  hitherto  in  America, 
were  sailors  and  soldiers  employed  in  the  discovery 
or  conquest  of  the  country;  the  younger  sons  of 
noble  families,  allured  by  the  prospect  of  acquiring 
sudden  wealth;  or  desperate  adventurers,  whom  their 
indigence  or  crimes  forced  to  abandon  their  native 
land.  Instead  of  such  men,  who  were  dissolute, 
rapacious,  and  incapable  of  that  sober  persevering 
industry,  which  is  requisite  in  forming  new  colonies, 
he  proposed  to  supply  the  settlements  in  Hispaniola 
and  other  parts  of  the  New  World  with  a  sufficient 
number  of  labourers  and  husbandmen,  who  should 
be  allured  by  suitable  premiums  to  remove  thither. 
These,  as  they  were  accustomed  to  fatigue,  would 
be  able  to  perform  the  work,  to  which  the  Indians, 
from  the  feebleness  of  their  constitution,  were  un- 
equal, and  might  soon  become  useful  and  opulent 
citizens.  But  though  Hispaniola  stood  much  in  need 
of  a  recruit  of  inhabitants,  having  been  visited  at 
this  time  with  the  small-pox,  which  swept  off  almost 
all  the  natives  who  had  survived  their  long  continued 
oppression,  and  though  Las  Casas  had  the  counte- 
nance of  the  Flemish  ministers,  this  scheme  was 
defeated  by  the  bishop  of  Burgos,  who  thwarted  all 
his  projects. 

Las  Casas  now  despaired  of  procuring  any  relief 
for  the  Indians  in  those  places  where  the  Spaniards 
were  already  settled.  The  evil  was  become  so  inve- 
terate there,  as  not  to  admit  of  a  cure.  But  such 
discoveries  were  daily  making  in  the  continent,  as 
gave  a  high  idea  both  of  its  extent  and  populousness. 
In  all  those  vast  regions  there  was  but  one  feeble 
colony  planted;  and  except  a  small  spot  on  the 
isthmus  of  Darien,  the  natives  still  occupied  the  whole 
country.  This  opened  a  new  and  more  ample  field 
for  the  humanity  and  zeal  of  Las  Ca^as,  who  flattered 
himself  that  he  might  prevent  a  pernicious  system 
from  being  introduced  there,  though  he  had  failed  of 
success  in  his  attempts  to  overturn  it,  where  it  was 
already  established.  Full  of  this  idea,  he  applied  for 
a  grant  of  the  unoccupied  country,  stretching  along 
the  sea-coast  from  the  gulf  of  Paiia  to  the  western 
HISTORY  OF  AMERICA,  No.  8. 


frontier  of  that  province,  now  known  by  the  name  ot 
Santa  Martha.  He  proposed  to  settle  there  with  a 
colony  composed  of  husbandmen,  labourers,  and 
ecclesiastics.  He  engaged,  in  the  space  of  two 
years,  to  civilize  ten  thousand  of  the  natives,  and  to 
instruct  them  so  thoroughly  in  the  arts  of  social  life, 
that,  from  the  fruits  of  their  industry,  an  annual 
revenue  of  fifteen  thousand  ducats  should  arise  to  the 
King.  In  ten  years  he  expected  that  his  improve- 
ments would  be  so  far  advanced,  as  to  yield  annually 
sixty  thousand  ducats.  He  stipulated,  that  no  sailor 
or  soldier  should  ever  be  permitted  to  settle  in  this 
district ;  and  that  no  Spaniard  whatever  should  enter 
it  without  his  permission.  He  evert  projected  to 
clothe  the  people  whom  he  took  along  with  him  in 
some  distinguishing  garb,  which  did  not  resemble  the 
Spanish  dress,  that  they  might  appear  to  the  natives, 
to  be  a  different  race  of  men  from  those  who  had 
brought  so  many  calamities  upon  their  country.  From 
this  scheme,  of  which  I  have  traced  only  the  great 
lines,  it  is  manifest  that  Las  Casas  had  formed  ideas 
concerning  the  method  of  treating  the  Indians,  similar 
to  those  by  which  the  Jesuits  afterwards  carried  on 
their  great  operations  in  another  part  of  the  same 
continent.  He  supposed  that  the  Europeans,  by 
availing  themselves  of  that  ascendant  which  they 
possessed  in  consequence  of  their  superior  progress  in 
science  and  improvement,  might  gradually  form  the 
minds  of  the  Americans  to  relish  those  comforts  of 
which  they  were  destitute,  might  train  them  to  the 
arts  of  civil  life,  and  render  them  capable  of  its 
functions. 

But  to  the  Bishop  of  Burgos  atid  the  council  of  the 
Indies,  this  project  appeared  not  only  chimerical, 
but  dangerous  in  a  high  degree.  They  deemed  the 
faculties  of  the  Americans  to  be  naturally  so  limited, 
and  their  indolence  so  excessive,  that  every  attempt 
to  instruct  or  to  improve  them  would  be  fruitless. 
They  contended,  that  it  would  be  extremely  imprudent 
to  give  the  command  of  a  country  extending  above  a 
thousand  miles  along  the  coast,  to  a  fanciful  presump- 
tuous enthusiast,  a  stranger  to  the  affairs  of  the 
world,  and  unacquainted  with  the  arts  of  government. 
Las  Casas,  far  from  being  discouraged  with  a  repulse, 
which  he  had  reason  to  expect,  had  recourse  once 
more  to  the  Flemish  favourites,  who  zealously 
patronized  his  scheme,  merely  because  it  had  been 
rejected  by  the  Spanish  ministers.  They  prevailed 
with  their  master,  who  had  lately  been  raised  to  the 
imperial  dignity  [A.  D.  1519],  to  refer  the  considera 
tion  of  this  measure  t  >  a  select  number  of  his  privy 
counsellors  ;  and  Las  Casas  having  excopted  against 
the  members  of  the  council  of  the  Indies,  as  partial 
and  interested,  they  were  all  excluded.  The  decision 
of  men  chosen  by  recommendation  of  the  Flemings, 
was  perfectly  conformable  to  their  sentiments.  They 
warmly  approved  of  Las  Casas's  plan;  and  gav« 
orders  for  carrying  it  into  execution,  but  restricted 
the  territory  allotted  him  to  three  hundred  miles  alon/.;- 
the  coast  of  Cumana,  allowing  him,  however,  to  extend 
it  as  far  as  he  pleased  towards  the  interior  part  of  th« 
country. 

This  determination  did  not  pass  uncensured. 
Almost  every  person  who  had  been  in  the  West  Indies 
exclaimed  against  it,  and  supported  their  opinion  so- 
confidently,  and  with  such  plausible  reasons,  as  made 
it  advisable  to  pause  and  to  review  the  subject  more 
deliberately.  Charles  himself,  though  accustomed, 
at  this  early  period  of  his  life,  to  adopt  the  sentiments 
of  his  ministers  with  such  submissive  deference  as 
did  not  promise  that  decisive  vigour  of  mind  which 
distinguished  his  riper  years,  could  not  help  suspecting 
I 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


that  the  eagerness  with  which  the  Flemings  took  part 
in  every  affair  relating  to  America,  flowed  from  some 
improper  motive,  and  began  to  discover  an  inclination 
to  examine  in  person  into  the  state  of  the  question 
concerning  the  character  of  the  Americans,  and  the 
proper  method  of  treating  them  [June  20].  An 
opportunity  of  making  this  inquiry  with  great  ad- 
vantage soon  occurred.  Quevedo,  the  bishop  of 
Darien,  who  had  accompanied  Pedrarias  to  the  conti- 
nent in  the  year  one  thousand  five  hundred  and 
thirteen,  happened  to  land  at  Barcelona,  where  the 
court  then  resided.  It  was  quickly  known,  that  his 
sentiments  concerning  the  talents  and  disposition  of 
the  Indians  differed  from  those  of  Las  Casas ;  and 
Charles  naturally  concluded,  that  by  confronting  two 
respectable  persons,  who,  during  their  residence  in 
America,  had  full  leisure  to  observe  the  manners  of 
the  people  whom  they  pretended  to  describe,  he 
might  be  able  to  discover  which  of  them  had  formed 
his  opinion  with  the  greatest  discernment  and  accu- 
racy. 

A  day  for  this  solemn  audience  was  appointed. 
The  emperor  appeared  with  extraordinary  pomp,  and 
took  his  seat  on  a  throne  in  the  great  hall  of  the 
palace.  His  principal  courtiers  attended.  Don 
Diego  Columbus,  admiral  of  the  Indies,  was  sum- 
moned to  be  present.  The  bishop  of  Darien  was 
called  upon  first  to  deliver  his  opinion.  He,  in  a 
short  discourse,  lamented  the  fatal  desolation  of 
America,  by  the  extinction  of  so  many  of  its  inhabit- 
ants ;  he  acknowledged  that  this  must  be  imputed, 
in  some  degree,  to  the  excessive  rigour  and  inconsi- 
derate proceedings  of  the  Spaniards,  but  declared 
that  all  the  people  of  the  New  World  whom  he  had 
seen,  either  in  the  continent  or  in  the  islands,  ap- 
peared to  him  to  be  a  race  of  men  marked  out,  by 
the  inferiority  of  their  talents,  for  servitude,  and 
whom  it  would  be  impossible  to  instruct  or  improve, 
unless  they  were  kept  under  the  continual  inspection 
of  a  master.  Las  Casas,  at  greater  length,  and  with 
more  fervour,  defended  his  own  system.  He  rejected 
with  indignation  the  idea  that  any  race  of  men  was 
born  to  servitude,  as  irreligious  and  inhuman.  He 
asserted  that  the  faculties  of  the  Americans  were  not 
naturally  despicable,  but  unimproved ;  that  they 
•were  capable  of  receiving  instruction  in  the  principles 
of  religion,  as  well  as  of  acquiring  the  industry  and 
arts  which  would  qualify  them  for  the  various  offices 
of  social  life ;  that  the  mildness  and  timidity  of  their 
nature  rendered  them  so  submissive  and  docile,  that 
they  might  be  led  and  formed  with  a  gentle  hand. 
He  professed,  that  his  intentions  in  proposing  the 
scheme  now  under  consideration  were  pure  and  dis- 
interested ;  and  though,  from  the  accomplishment  of 
his  designs,  inestimable  benefits  would  result  to  the 
crown  of  Castile,  he  never  had  claimed,  nor  ever 
would  receive,  any  recompence  on  that  account. 

Charles,  after  hearing  both,  and  consulting  with 
his  ministers,  did  notthink himself  sufficientlyinformed 
to  establish  any  general  arrangement  with  respect  to 
the  state  of  the  Indians  ;  but  as  he  had  perfect  confi- 
dence in  the  integrity  of  Las  Casas,  and  as  even  the 
bishop  of  Darien  admitted  his  scheme  to  be  of  such 
importance,  that  a  trial  should  be  made  of  its  effects, 
lie  issued  a  patent  [A.  D.  1520],  granting  him  the 
district  in  Cumana  formerly  mentioned,  with  full 
power  to  establish  a  colony  there  according  to  his 
own  plan. 

Las  Casas  pushed  on  the  preparations  for  his 
voyage  with  his  usual  ardour.  But,  either  from  his 
own  inexperience  in  the  conduct  of  affairs,  or  from 
the  secret  opposition  of  the  ^Spanish  nobility,  who 


universally  dreaded  the  success  of  an  institution  that 
mi«ht  rob  them  of  the  industrious  and  useful  hands 
which  cultivated  their  estates,  his  progress  in  en- 
gaging husbandmen  and  labourers  was  extremely 
slow,  and  he  could  not  prevail  on  more  than  two 
hundred  to  accompany  him  to  Cumana. 

Nothing,  however,  could  damp  his  zeal.  With  this 
slender  train,  hardly  sufficient  to  take  possession  of 
such  a  large  territory,  and  altogether  unequal  to  any 
effectual  attempt  towards  civilizing  its  inhabitants, 
he  set  sail.  The  first  place  at  which  he  touched  was 
the  island  of  Puerto  Rico.  There  he  received  an 
account  of  a  new  obstacle  to  the  execution  of  his 
scheme,  more  insuperable  than  any  he  had  hitherto 
encountered.  When  he  left  America  in  the  year  one 
thousand  five  hundred  and  sixteen,  the  Spaniards 
had  little  intercourse  with  any  part  of  the  continent, 
except  the  countries  adjacent  to  the  gulf  of  Darien. 
But  as  every  species  of  internal  industry  began  to  stag- 
nate in  Hispaniola,  when,  by  the  rapid  decrease  of  the 
natives,  the  Spaniards  were  deprived  of  those  hands 
with  which  they  had  hitherto  carried  on  their  opera- 
tions, this  prompted  them  to  try  various  expedients 
for  supplying  that  loss.  Considerable  numbers  of 
negroes  were  imported;  but  on'  account  of  their 
exorbitant  price,  many  of  the  planters  could  not 
afford  to  purchase  them.  In  order  to  procure  slaves 
at  an  easier  rate,  some  of  the  Spaniards  in  Hispaniola 
fitted  out  vessels  to  cruise  along  the  coast  of  the 
continent.  In  places  where  they  found  themselves 
inferior  in  strength,  they  traded  with  the  natives,  and 
gave  European  toys  in  exchange  for  the  plates  of  gold 
worn  by  them  as  ornaments;  but,  wherever  they 
could  surprise  or  overpower  the  Indians,  they  carried 
them  off  by  force,  and  sold  them  as  slaves.  In  those 
predatory  excursions,  such  atrocious  acts  of  violence 
and  cruelty  had  been  committed,  that  the  Spanish 
name  was  held  in  detestation  all  over  the  continent. 
Whenever  any  ships  appeared,  the  inhabitants  either 
fled  to  the  woods,  or  rushed  down  to  the  shore  in 
arms  to  repel  those  hated  disturbers  of  their  tran- 
quillity. They  forced  some  parties  of  the  Spaniards 
to  retreat  with  precipitation ;  they  cut  oif  others  ; 
and  in  the  violence  of  their  resentment  against  the 
whole  nation,  they  murdered  two  Dominican  mission- 
aries, whose  zeal  had  prompted  them  to  settle  in  the 
province  of  Cumana.  This  outrage  against  persons 
revered  for  their  sanctity,  excited  such  indignation 
among  the  people  of  Hispaniola,  who,  notwithstand- 
ing all  their  licentious  and  cruel  proceedings,  were 
possessed  with  a  wonderful  zeal  for  religion,  and  a 
superstitious  respect  for  its  ministers,  that  they  de- 
termined to  inflict  exemplary  punishment,  not  only 
upon  the  perpetrators  of  that  crime,  but  upon  the 
whole  race.  With  this  view,  they  gave  the  command 
of  five  ships  and  three  hundred  men  to  Diego  Ocampo, 
with  orders  to  lay  waste  the  country  of  Cumana  with 
fire  and  sword,  and  to  transport  all  the  inhabitants 
as  slaves  to  Hispaniola.  This  armament  Las  Casas 
found  at  Puerto  Rico,  in  its  way  to  the  continent ; 
and  as  Ocampo  refused  to  defer  his  voyage,  he  imme- 
diately perceived  that  it  would  be  impossible  to 
attempt  the  execution  of  his  pacific  plan  in  a  country 
destined  to  be  the  seat  of  war  and  desolation. 

[April  12.]  In  order  to  provide  against  the  effects 
of  this  unfortunate  incident,  he  set  sail  directly  for 
St.  Domingo,  leaving  his  followers  cantoned  out 
among  the  planters  in  Puerto  Rico.  From  many 
concurring  causes,  the  reception  which  Las  Casas 
met  with  in  Kispaniola  was  very  unfavourable.  In 
his  negociation  for  the  relief  of  the  Indians,  he  had 
censured  the  conduct  of  his  countrymen  settled  there 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


51? 


with  such  honest  severity,  as  rendered  him  universally 
odious  to  them.  They  considered  their  own  ruin  as 
the  inevitable  consequence  of  his  success.  They 
were  now  elated  with  hope  of  receiving  a  large  recruit 
of  slaves  from  Cumana,  which  must  be  relinquished 
if  Las  Casas  were  assisted  in  settling  his  projected 
colony  there.  Figueroa,  in  consequence  of  the  in- 
structions which  he  had  received  in  Spain,  had  made 
an  experiment  concerning  the  capacity  of  the  Indians, 
that  was  represented  as  decisive  against  the  system 
of  Las  Casas.  He  collected  in  Hispaniola  a  good 
number  of  the  natives,  and  settled  them  in  two 
villages,  leaving  them  at  perfect  liberty,  and  with  the 
uncontrolled  direction  of  their  own  actions.  But 
that  people,  accustomed  to  a  mode  of  life  extremely 
different  from  that  which  takes  place  wherever 
civilization  has  made  any  considerable  progress, 
were  incapable  of  assuming  new  habits  at  once. 
Dejected  with  their  own  misfortunes  as  well  as  those 
of  their  country,  they  exerted  so  little  industry  in 
cultivating  the  ground,  appeared  so  devoid  of  solicitude 
or  foresight  in  providing  for  their  own  wants,  and 
were  such  strangers  to  arrangement  in  conducting 
their  affairs,  that  the  Spaniards  pronounced  them 
incapable  of  being  formed  to  live  like  men  in  social 
life,  and  considered  them  as  children,  who  should  be 
kept  under  the  perpetual  tutelage  of  persons  superior 
to  themselves  in  wisdom  and  sagacity. 

Notwithstanding  all  those  circumstances,  which 
alienated  the  persons  in  Hispaniola  to  whom  Las 
Casas  applied  from  himself  and  from  his  measures, 
he,  by  his  activity  and  perseverance,  by  some 
concessions,  and  many  threats,  obtained  at  length  a 
small  body  of  troops  to  protect  him  and  his  colony  at 
their  first  landing.  But  upon  his  return  to  Puerto 
Rico,  he  found  that  the  diseases  of  the  climate  had 
been  fatal  to  several  of  his  people ;  and  that  others 
having  got  employment  in  that  island  refused  to 
follow  him.  With  the  handful  that  remained,  he  set 
sail  and  landed  in  Cumana.  Ocampo  had  executed 
his  commission  in  that  province  with  such  barbarous 
rage,  having  massacred  many  of  the  inhabitants,  sent 
others  in  chains  to  Hispaniola,  and  forced  the  rest 
to  fly  for  shelter  to  the  woods,  that  the  people  of  a 
small  colony,  which  he  had  planted  at  a  place  which 
he  named  Toledo,  were  ready  to  perish  for  want  in  a 
desolated  country.  There,  however,  Las  Casas  was 
obliged  to  fix  his  residence,  though  deserted  both  by 
the  troops  appointed  to  protect  him,  and  by  those 
under  the  command  of  Ocampo,  who  foresaw  and 
dreaded  the  calamities  to  which  he  must  be  exposed 
in  that  wretched  station.  He  made  the  best  provision 
in  his  power  for  the  safety  and  subsistence  of  his 
followers ;  but  as  his  utmost  efforts  availed  little 
towards  securing  either  the  one  or  the  other,  he 
returned  to  Hispaniola,  in  order  to  solicit  more 
effectual  aid  for  the  preservation  of  men,  who, 
from  confidence  in  him,  had  ventured  into  a  post  of 
so  much  danger.  Soon  after  his  departure,  the 
natives,  having  discovered  the  feeble  and  defenceless 
state  of  the  Spaniards,  assembled  secretly,  attacked 
them  with  the  fury  natural  to  men  exasperated  by 
many  injuries,  cut  off  a  good  number,  and  compelled 
the  rest  to  fly  in  the  utmost  consternation  to  the 
island  of  Cubagua.  The  small  colony  settled  there 
on  account  of  the  pearl  fishery,  catching  the  panic 
with  which  their  countrymen  had  been  seized, 
abandoned  the  island,  and  not  a  Spaniard  remained 
in  any  part  of  the  continent,  or  adjacent  islands, 
from  the  gulf  of  Paria  to  the  borders  of  Darien. 
Astonished  at  such  a  succession  of  disasters,  Las 
Casas  was  ashamed  to  show  his  face  after  this  fatal 


termination  of  all  his  splendid  schemes.  He  shut 
himself  up  in  the  convent  of  the  Dominicans  at  St. 
Domingo,  and  soon  after  assumed  the  habit  of  that 
order. 

Though  the  expulsion  of  the  colony  from  Cumana 
happened  in  the  year  one  thousand  five  hundred  and 
twenty  one,  I  have  chosen  to  trace  the  progress  of 
Las  Casas's  negociations  from  their  first  rise  to  their 
final  issue  without  interruption.  His  system  was  the 
object  of  long  and  attentive  discussion ;  and  though 
his  efforts  in  behalf  of  the  oppressed  Americans, 
partly  from  his  own  rashness  and  imprudence,  and 
partly  from  the  malevolent  opposition  of  his  adver- 
saries, were  not  attended  with  that  success  which  he 
promised  with  too  sanguine  confidence,  great  praise 
is  due  to  his  humane  activity,  which  gave  rise  to 
various  regulations  that  were  of  some  benefit  to  that 
unhappy  people.  I  return  now  to  the  history  of  the 
Spanish  discoveries,  as  they  occur  in  the  order  of  time. 

Diego  Velasquez,  who  conquered  Cuba  in  the  year 
one  thousand  five  hundred  and  eleven,  still  retained, 
the  government  of  that  island,  as  the  deputy  of  Don 
Diego  Columbus,  though  he  seldom  acknowledged 
his  superior,  and  aimed  at  rendering  his  own  authority 
altogether  independent.  Under  his  prudent  ad- 
ministration, Cuba  became  one  of  the  most  flourishing 
of  the  Spanish  settlements.  The  fame  of  this  allured, 
thither  many  persons  from  the  other  colonies,'  in 
hopes  of  finding  either  some  permanent  establish- 
ment or  some  employment  for  their  activity.  As 
Cuba  lay  to  the  west  of  all  the  islands  occupied  by 
the  Spaniards,  and  as  the  ocean,  which  stretches, 
beyond  it  towards  that  quarter,  had  not  hitherto  been 
explored,  these  circumstances  naturally  invited  the 
inhabitants  to  attempt  new  discoveries.  An  expe- 
dition for  this  purpose,  in  which  activity  and  resolu- 
tion might  conduct  to  sudden  wealth,  was  more  suited 
to  the  genius  of  the  age,  than  the  patient  industry 
requisite  in  clearing  ground  and  manufacturing  sugar. 
Instigated  by  this  spirit,  several  officers,  who  had 
served  under  Pedrarias  in  Darien,  entered^  into  an 
association  to  undertake  a  voyage  of  discovery.. 
They  persuaded  Francisco  Hernandez  Cordova,  an 
opulent  planter  in  Cuba,  and  a  man  of  distinguished 
courage,  to  join  with  them  in  the  adventure,  and 
chose  him  to  be  their  commander.  Velasquez  not 
only  approved  of  the  design,  but  assisted  in  carrying 
it  on.  As  the  veterans  from  Darien  were  extremely 
indigent,  he  and  Cordova  advanced  money  for  pur- 
chasing three  small  vessels,  and  furnishing  them 
with  everything  requisite  either  for  traffic  or  for  war. 
A  hundred  and  ten  men  embarked  on  board  of  them, 
and  sailed  from  St.  Jago  de  Cuba  on  the  eighth  of 
February  one  thousand  five  hundred  and  seventeen. 
By  the  advice  of  their  chief  pilot,  Antonio  Alaminos, 
who  had  served  under  the  first  admiral  Columbus, 
they  stood  directly  west,  relying  on  the  opinion  of 
that  great  navigator,  who  uniformly  maintained  that 
a  westerly  course  would  lead  to  the  most  important 
discoveries. 

On  the  twenty-first  day  after  their  departure  from 
St.  Jago,  they  saw  land,  which  proved  to  be  Cape 
Catoche,  the  eastern  point  of  that  large  peninsula 
projecting  from  the  continent  of  America,  which  still 
retains  its  original  name  of  Yucatan.  As  they  ap- 
proached the  shore,  five  canoes  came  off  full  of  people, 
decently  clad  in  cotton  garments ;  an  astonishing 
spectacle  to  the  Spaniards,  Avho  had  found  every  other 
part  of  America  possessed  by  naked  savages.  Cor- 
dova endeavoured  by  small  presents  to  gain  the  good 
will  of  these  people.  They,  though  amazed  at  the 
strange  objects  now  presented  for  the  first  time  to 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


their  view,  invited  the  Spaniards  to  visit  their  habit- 
ations, with  an  appearance  of  cordiality.  They  landed, 
accordingly,  and  as  they  advanced  into  the  country 
they  observed  with  new  wonder  some  large  houses 
built  with  stone.  But  they  soon  found  that,  if  the 
people  of  Yucatan  had  made  progress  in  improvement 
beyond  their  countrymen,  they  were  likewise  more 
artful  and  warlike.  For  though  the  cazique  received 
Cordova  with  many  tokens  of  friendship,  he  had 
posted  a  considerable  body  of  his  subjects  in  ambush 
behind  a  thicket,  who,  upon  a  signal  given  by  him, 
rushed  out  and  attacked  the  Spaniards  with  great 
boldness,  and  some  degree  of  martial  order.  At  the 
first  flight  of  their  arrows,  fifteen  of  the  Spaniards 
were  wounded ;  but  the  Indians  were  struck  with 
such  terror  by  the  sudden  explosion  of  the  fire-arms, 
and  so  surprised  at  the  execution  done  by  them,  by 
the  cross-bows,  and  by  the  other  weapons  of  their 
new  enemies,  that  they  fled  precipitately.  Cordova 
quitted  a  country  where  he  had  met  with  such  a 
fierce  reception,  carrying  off  two  prisoners,  together 
with  the  ornaments  of  a  small  temple,  which  he 
plundered  in  his  retreat. 

He  continued  his  course  towards  the  west,  without 
losing  sight  of  the  coast,  and  on  the  sixteenth  day 
arrived  at  Campeachy.  There  the  natives  received 
them  more  hospitably  ;  but  the  Spaniards  were  much 
surprised  that  on  all  the  extensive  coast  along  which 
they  had  sailed,  and  which  they  imagined  to  be  a 
large  island,  they  had  not  observed  any  river  (2G). 
As  their  water  began  to  fail,  they  advanced,  in  hopes 
of  finding  a  supply;  and  at  length  they  discovered 
the  mouth  of  a  river  at  Potonchan,  some  leagues 
beyond  Campeachy. 

Cordova  landed  all  his  troops,  in  order  to  protect 
the  sailors  while  employed  in  filling  the  casks ;  but 
notwithstanding  this  precaution,  the  natives  rushed 
clown  upon  them  with  such  fury,  and  in  such  num- 
bers, that  forty-seven  of  the  Spaniards  were  killed 
upon  the  spot,  and  one  man  only  of  the  whole  body 
escaped  unhurt.  Their  commander,  though  wounded 
in  twelve  different  places,  directed  the  retreat  with 
presence  of  mind  equal  to  the  courage  with  which  he 
had  led  them  on  in  the  engagement,  and  with  much 
difficulty  they  regained  their  ships.  After  this  fatal 
repulse,  nothing  remained  but  to  hasten  back  to  Cuba 
with  their  shattered  forces.  In  their  passage  thither 
they  suffered  the  most  exquisite  distress  for  want 
of  water,  that  men  wounded  and  sickly,  shut  up  in 
small  vessels,  and  exposed  to  the  heat  of  the  torrid 
zone,  can  be  supposed  to  endure.  Some  of  them, 
sinking  under  these  calamities,  died  by  the  way  ; 
Cordova,  their  commander,  expired  soon  after  they 
landed  in  Cuba. 

Notwithstanding  the  disastrous  conclusion  of  this 
expedition,  it  contributed  rather  to  animate  than  to 
damp  a  spirit  of  enterprise  among  the  Spaniards. 
They  had  discovered  an  extensive  country,  situated 
at  no  great  distance  from  Cuba,  fertile  in  appearance, 
and  possessed  by  a  people  far  superior  in  improve- 
ment to  any  hitherto  known  in  America.  Though 
they  had  carried  on  little  commercial  intercourse 
with  the  natives,  they  had  brought  off  some  orna- 
ments of  gold,  not  considerable  in  value,  but  of  sin- 
gular fabric.  These  circumstances,  related  with  the 
exaggeration  natural  to  men  desirous  of  heightening 
the  merit  of  their  own  exploits,  were  more  than  suffi- 
cient to  excite  romantic  hopes  and  expectations. 
Great  numbers  offered  to  engage  in  a  new  expedition. 
Velasquez,  solicitous  to  distinguish  himself  by  some 
service  so  meritorious  as  might  entitle  him  to  claim 
the  government  of  Cuba  independent  of  the  admiral, 


not  only  encouraged  thoir  ardour,  but  at  his  own  ex- 
pense lifted  out  four  ships  for  the  voyage.  Two  hun- 
dred .and  forty  volunteers,  anions  whom  were  several 
persons  of  rank  and  fortune,  embarked  in  this  enter- 
prise. The  command  of  it  was  given  to  Juan  de 
Grijalva,  a  young  man  of  known  merit  and  courage, 
with  instructions  to  observe  attentively  the  nature  of 
the  countries  which  he  should  discover,  to  barter  for 
gold,  and,  if  circumstances  were  inviting,  to  settle  a 
colony  in  some  proper  station.  [A.  D.  1518.]  He 
sailed  from  St.  Jago  de  Cuba  on  the  eighth  of  April 
one  thousand  five  hundred  and  eighteen.  The  pilot 
Alaminos  held  the  same  course  as  in  the  former 
voyage  ;  but  the  violence  of  the  currents  carrying  the 
ships  to  the  south,  the  first  land  which  they  made 
was  the  island  of  Cozumel,  to  the  east  of  Yucatan. 
As  all  the  inhabitants  fled  to  the  woods  and  mountains 
at  the  approach  of  the  Spaniards,  they  made  no  long 
stay  there,  and  without  any  remarkable  occurrence 
they  reached  Potonchan  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
peninsula.  The  desire  of  avenging  their  countrymen 
who  had  been  slain  there,  concurred  with  their  ideas 
of  good  policy  in  prompting  them  to  land,  that  they 
might  chastise  the  Indians  of  that  district  with  such 
exemplary  rigour,  as  would  strike  terror  into  all  th« 
people  around  them.  But  though  they  disembarked 
all  their  troops,  and  carried  ashore  some  field-pieces, 
the  Indians  fought  with  such  courage,  that  the 
Spaniards  gained  the  victory  with  difficulty,  and 
were  confirmed  in  their  opinion  that  the  inhabitants 
of  this  country  would  prove  more  formidable  enemies 
than  any  they  had  met  with  in  other  parts  of  America. 
From  Potonchan,  they  continued  their  voyage  towards 
the  west,  keeping  as  near  as  possible  to  the  shore, 
and  casting  anchor  every  evening,  from  dread  of  the 
dangerous  accidents  to  which  they  might  be  exposed 
in  an  unknown  sea.  During  the  day  their  eyes  were 
turned  continually  towards  land,  with  a  mixture  of 
surprise  and  wonder  at  the  beauty  of  the  country, 
as  well  as  the  novelty  of  the  objects  which  they 
beheld.  Many  villages  were  scattered  along  tha 
coast,  in  which  they  could  distinguish  houses  of  stone 
that  appeared  white  and  lofty  at  a  distance.  In  tho 
warmth  of  their  admiration,  they  fancied  these  to 
be  cities  adorned  with  towers  and  pinnacles  ;  and  one 
of  the  soldiers  happening  to  remark  that  this  country 
resembled  Spain  in  appearance,  Grijalva,  with 
universal  applause,  called  it  New  Spain,  the  name 
which  still  distinguishes  this  extensive  and  opulent 
province  of  the  Spanish  empire  in  America  (27). 
They  landed  in  a  river  which  the  natives  called  Ta- 
basco, [June  9,]  and  the  fame  of  their  victory  at 
Potonchan  having  reached  this  place,  the  cazique  not 
only  received  them  amicably,  but  bestowed  presents 
upon  them  of  such  value,  as  confirmed  the  high 
ideas  which  the  Spaniards  had  formed  with  respect 
to  the  wealth  and  fertility  of  the  country.  These 
ideas  were  raised  still  higher  by  what  occurred  at 
the  place  where  they  next  touched.  This  was  con- 
siderably to  the  west  of  Tabasco,  in  the  province 
since  known  by  the  name  of  Guaxaca.  There  they 
were  received  with  the  respect  paid  to  superior 
beings.  The  people  perfumed  them  as  they  landed, 
with  incense  of  gum  copal,  and  presented  to  them  as 
offerings  the  choicest  delicacies  of  their  country. 
They  were  extremely  fond  of  trading  with  their  new 
visitants,  and  in  six  days  the  Spaniards  obtained 
ornaments  of  gold,  of  curious  workmanship,  to  the 
value  of  fifteen  thousand  pesos,  in  exchange  for 
European  toys  of  small  price.  The  two  prisoners 
whom  Cordova  had  brought  from  Yucatan,  had 
hitherto  served  as  interpreters  ;  but  as  they  did  not 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


61 


understand  the  language  of  this  country,  the  Span- 
iards learned  from  the  natives,  by  signs,  that  they 
were  subjects  of  a  great  monarch  called  Montczunui, 
whose  dominion  extended  over  that  and  many  other 
provinces.  Leaving  this  place,  with  which  he  hud 
so  much  reason  to  be  pleased,  Grijalva  continued 
his  course  towards  the  west.  He  landed  on  a  small 
island,  [June  19],  which  he  named  the  Isle  of  Sa- 
crifices, because  there  the  Spaniards  beheld,  for  the 
first  time,  the  horrid  spectacle  of  human  victims, 
which  the  barbarous  superstition  of  the  natives 
o tiered  to  their  gods.  He  touched  at  another  small 
island  which  he  called  St.  Juan  de  Ulna.  From  this 
place  he  despatched  Pedro  de  Alvarado,  one  of  his 
officers,  to  Velasquez,  with  a  full  account  of  the  im- 
portant discoveries  which?  he  had  made,  and  with  all 
the  treasure  that  he  had  acquired,  by  trafficking  with 
the  natives.  After  the  departure  of  Alvarado,  he  him- 
self, with  the  remaining  vessels,  proceeded  along  the 
coast  as  far  as  the  river  Panuco,  the  country  still 
appearing  to  be  well  peopled,  fertile,  and  opulent. 

Several  of  Grijalva' s  officers  contended,  that  it  was 
not  enough  to  have  discovered  those  delightful 
regions,  or  to  have  performed,  at  their  different  landing- 
places,  the  empty  ceremony  of  taking  possession  of 
them  for  the  crown  of  Castile,  and  that  their  glory 
was  incomplete,  unless  they  planted  a  colony  in  some 
proper  station,  which  might  not  only  secure  the  Span- 
ish nation  a  footing  in  the  country,  but,  with  the 
reinforcements  which  they  were  certain  of  receiving, 
might  gradually  subject  the  whole  to  the  dominion 
of  their  sovereign.  But  the  squadron  had  now  been 
above  five  months  at  sea ;  the  greatest  part  of  their 
provisions  was  exhausted,  and  what  remained  of  their 
stores  so  much  corrupted  by  the  heat  of  the  climate, 
as  to  be  almost  unfit  for  use  ;  they  had  lost  some  men 
by  death;  others  were  sickly;  the  country  was 
crowded  with  people  who  seemed  to  be  intelligent 
as  well  as  brave ;  and  they  were  under  the  govern- 
ment of  one  powerful  monarch,  who  could  bring  them 
to  act  against  their  invaders  with  united  force.  To 
plant  a  colony  under  so  many  circumstances  of  dis- 
advantage, appeared  a  scheme  too  perilous  to  be  at- 
tempted. Giijalva,  though  possessed  both  of  am- 
bition and  courage,  was  destitute  of  the  superior 
talents  capable  of  forming  or  executing  such  a  great 
plan.  He  judged  it  more  prudent  to  return  to  Cuba, 
having  fulfilled  the  purpose  of  his  voyage,  and  ac- 
complished all  that  the  armament  which  he  com- 
manded enabled  him  to  perform.  He  returned  to 
St.  Jago  de  Cuba  on  the  twenty-sixth  of  October, 
from  which  he  had  taken  his  departure  about  six 
months  before. 

This  was  the  longest  as  well  as  the  most  successful 
voyage  which  the  Spaniards  had  hitherto  made  in  the 
New  World.  They  had  discovered  that  Yucatan  was 
not  an  island  as  they  had  supposed,  but  part  of  the 
great  continent  of  America.  From  Potonchan  they 
had  pursued  their  course  for  many  hundred  miles 
along  a  coast  formerly  unexplored,  stretching  at  first 
towards  the  west,  and  then  turning  to  the  north  ;  all 
the  country  which  they  had  discovered  appeared  to  be 
no  less  valuable  than  extensive.  As  soon  as  Alvarado 
reached  Cuba,  Velasquez,  transported  with  success  so 
far  beyond  his  most  sanguine  expectations,  imme- 
diately despatched  a  person  of  confidence  to  carry 
this  important  intelligence  to  Spain,  to  exhibit  the 
rich  productions  of  the  countries  which  had  been  dis- 
covered by  his  means,  and  to  solicit  such  an  increase 
of  authority  as  might  enable  and  enconrage  him  to 
attempt  the  conquest  of  them.  Without  waiting  for 
the  return  of  his  messenger,  or  for  the  arrival  of 


Grijalva,  of  whom  he  was  become  so  jealous  or  dis- 
trustful that  he  was  resolved  no  longer  to  employ 
him,  he  began  to  prepare  such  a  powerful  armament, 
as  might  prove  equal  to  an  enterprise  of  so  much 
danger  and  importance. 

But  as  the  expedition  upon  which  Velasquez  was 
now  intent,  terminated  in  conquests  of  greater  mo- 
ment than  what  the  Spaniards  h;;d  hitherto  achieved, 
and  led  them  to  the  knowledge  of  a  people,  who,  if 
compared  with  those  tribes  of  America  with  whom 
they  were  hitherto  acquainted,  may  be  considered  as 
highly  civilized ;  it  is  proper  to  pause  before  we 
proceed  to  the  history  of  events  extremely  different 
from  those  which  we  have  already  related,  in  order  to 
take  a  view  of  the  state  of  the  New  World  when  first 
discovered,  and  to  contemplate  the  policy  and  man- 
ners of  the  rude  uncultivated  tribes  that  occupy  all 
the  parts  of  it  with  which  the  Spaniards  were  at  this 
time  acquainted. 


BOOK  IV. 

TWENTY-SIX  years  had  elapsed  since  Columbus 
conducted  the  people  of  Europe  to  the  New  World. 
During  that  period  the  Spaniards  had  made  great 
progress  in  exploring  its  various  regions.  They  had 
visited  all  the  islands  scattered  in  different  clusters 
through  that  part  of  the  ocean  which  flows  in  between 
North  and  South  America.  They  had  sailed  along 
the  eastein  coast  of  the  continent  from  the  river  De 
la  Plata  to  the  bottom  of  the  Mexican  gulf,  and  had 
found  that  it  stretched  without  interruption  through 
this  vast  portion  of  the  globe.  They  had  discovered 
the  great  Southern  ocean,  which  opened  new  pros- 
pects in  that  quarter.  They  had  acquired  some 
knowledge  of  the  coast  of  Florida,  which  led  them  to 
observe  the  continent  as  it  extended  in  an  opposite 
direction  ;  and  though  they  pushed  their  discoveries 
no  further  towards  the  north,  other  nations  had  visited 
those  parts  which  they  neglected.  The  English,  in  a 
voyage,  the  motives  and  success  of  which  shall  be 
related  iu  another  part  of  this  History,  had  sailed 
along  the  coast  of  America  from  Labrador  to  the  con- 
fines of  Florida ;  and  the  Portuguese,  in  quest  of  a 
shorter  passage  to  the  East  Indies,  had  ventured  into 
the  northern  seas,  and  viewed  the  same  regions. 
Thus  at  the  period  where  I  have  chosen  to  take  a 
view  of  the  state  of  the  New  World,  its  extent  was 
known  almost  from  its  northern  extremity  to  thirty- 
five  degrees  south  of  the  equator.  The  countries 
which  stretch  from  thence  to  the  southern  boundary 
of  America,  the  great  empire  of  Peru,  and  the  interior 
state  of  the  extensive  dominions  subject  to  the 
sovereigns  of  Mexico,  were  still  undiscovered. 

When  we  contemplate  the  New  World,  the  first 
circumstance  that  strikes  us  is  its  immense  extent.  It 
was  not  a  small  portion  of  the  earth,  so  inconsiderable 
that  it  might  have  escaped  the  observation  or  research 
of  former  ages,  which  Columbus  discovered.  He 
made  known  a  new  hemisphere,  larger  than  either 
Europe,  or  Asia,  or  Africa,  the  three  noted  divisions 
of  the  ancient  continent,  and  not  much  inferior  in 
dimensions  to  a  third  part  of  the  habitable  globe. 

America  is  remarkable,  not  only  for  its  magnitude, 
but  for  its  position.  It  stretches  from  the  northern 
polar  circle  to  a  high  southern  latitude,  above  fifteen 
hundred  miles  beyond  the  furthest  extremity  of  the 
old  continent  on  that  side  of  the  line.  'A  country  of 
such  extent  passes  through  all  the  climates  capable 
of  becoming  the  habitation  of  man,  and  fit  for  yielding 
the  various  productions  peculiar  either  to  the  tem- 
perate or  to  the  torrid  regions  of  the  earth. 


62 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Next  to  the  extent  of  the  New  World,  the  grandeur 
of  the  objects  which  it  presents  to  view  is  most  apt 
to  strike  the  eye  of  an  observer.  Nature  seems  here 
to  have  carried  on  her  operations  upon  a  larger  scale, 
and  with  a  bolder  hand,  and  to  have  distingished  the 
features  of  this  country  by  a  peculiar  magnificence. 

The  mountains  in  America  are  much  superior  in 
height  to  those  in  the  other  divisions  of  the  globe. 
Even  the  plain  of  Quito,  which  may  be  considered 
as  the  base  of  the  Andes,  is  elevated  further  above 
the  sea  than  the  top  of  the  Pyrenees.  This  stupen- 
dous ridge  of  the  Andes,  no  less  remarkable  for 
extent  than  elevation,  rises  in  different  places  more 
than  one-third  above  the  Peak  of  Teneriffe,  the 
highest  land  in  the  ancient  hemisphere.  The  Andes 
may  literally  be  said  to  hide  their  heads  in  the 
clouds  ;  the  storms  often  roll,  and  the  thunder  bursts 
"below  their  summits,  which,  though  exposed  to  the 
rays  of  the  sun  in  the  centre  of  the  torrid  zone,  are 
covered  with  everlasting  snows  (28). 

From  these  lofty  mountains  descend  rivers,  propor- 
tionably  large,  with  which  the  streams  in  the  ancient 
continent  are  not  to  be  compared,  either  for  length  of 
course,  or  the  vast  body  of  water  which  they  roll 
towards  the  ocean.  The  Maragnon,  the  Orinoco,  the 
Plata  in  South  America,  the  Mississippi  and  St. 
Laurence  in  North  America,  flow  in  such  spacious 
channels,  that,  long  before  they  feel  the  influence  of 
tide,  they  resemble  arms  of  the  sea  rather  than 
rivers  of  fresh  water  (29). 

The  lakes  of  the  New  World  are  no  less  conspicuous 
for  grandeur  than  its  mountains  and  rivers.  There 
is  nothing  in  other  parts  of  the  globe  which  resembles 
the  prodigious  chain  of  lakes  in  North  America. 
They  may  properly  be  termed  inland  seas  of  fresh 
•water  ;  and  even  those  of  the  second  or  third  class 
in  magnitude  are  of  larger  circuit  (the  Caspian  sea 
excepted)  than  the  greatest  lake  of  the  ancient 
continent. 

The  New  World  is  of  a  form  extremely  favourable 
to  commercial  intercourse.  When  a  continent  is 
formed,  like  Africa,  of  one  vast  solid  mass,  unbroken 
by  arms  of  the  sea  penetrating  into  its  interior  parts, 
with  few  large  rivers,  and  those  at  a  considerable 
distance  from  each  other,  the  greater  part  of  it  seems 
destined  to  remain  for  ever  uncivilized,  and  to  be  de- 
barred from  any  active  or  enlarged  communication 
with  the  rest  of  mankind.  When,  like  Europe,  a 
continent  is  opened  by  inlets  of  the  ocean  of  great 
extent,  such  as  the  Mediterranean  and  Baltic ;  or 
when,  like  Asia,  its  coast  is  broken  by  deep  bays 
advancing  far  into  the  country,  such  as  the  Black 
sea,  the  gulfs  of  Arabia,  of  Persia,  of  Bengal,  of 
Siam,  and  of  Leotang ;  when  the  surrounding  seas 
are  filled  with  large  and  fertile  islands,  and  the  con- 
tinent itself  watered  with  a  variety  of  navigable 
rivers,  those  regions  may  be  said  to  possess  whatever 
can  facilitate  the  progress  of  their  inhabitants  in 
commerce  and  improvement.  In  all  these  respects 
America  may  bear  a  comparison  with  the  other  quar- 
ters of  the  globe.  The  gulf  of  Mexico,  which  flows 
in  between  North  and  South  America,  may  be  consi- 
dered as  a  Mediterranean  sea,  which  opens  a  maritime 
commerce  with  all  the  fertile  countries  by  which  it 
is  encircled.  The  islands  scattered  in  it  are  inferior 
only  to  those  in  the  Indian  Archipelago,  in  number, 
in  magnitude,  and  in  value.  As  we  stretch  along  the 
northern  division  of  the  American  hemisphere,  the 
bay  of  Chesapeak  presents  a  spacious  inlet,  which 
conducts  the  navigator  far  into  the  interior  parts  of 
provinces  no  less  fertile  than  extensive  ;  and  if  ever 
the  progress  of  culture  and  population  shall  mitigate 


the  extreme  rigour  of  the  climate  in  the  more  northern 
districts  of  America,  Hudson's  bay  may  become  as 
subservient  to  commercial  intercourse  in  that  quarter 
of  the  globe,  as  the^Baltic  is  in  Europe.  The  other 
great  portion  of  the  New  World  is  encompassed  on 
every  side  by  the  sea,  except  one  narrow  neck  which 
separates  the  Atlantic  from  the  Pacific  ocean  ;  and 
though  it  be  not  opened  by  spacious  bays  or  arms  of 
the  sea,  its  interior  parts  are  rendered  accessible  by 
a  number  of  large  rivers,  fed  by  so  many  auxiliary 
streams,  flowing  in  such  various  directions,  that, 
almost  without  any  aid  from  the  hand  of  industry  and 
art,  an  inland  navigation  can  be  carried  on  through 
all  the  provinces  from  the  river  De  la  Plata  to  the 
gulf  of  Paria.  Nor  is  this  bounty  of  nature  confined 
to  the  southern  division  of  America ;  its  northern 
continent  abounds  no  less  in  rivers  which  are  navi- 
gable almost  to  their  sources,  and  by  its  immense 
chain  of  lakes  provision  is  made  for  an  inland  com- 
munication more  extensive  and  commodious  than  in 
any  quarter  of  the  globe.  The  countries  stretching 
from  the  gulf  of  Darien  on  one  side,  to  that  of 
California  on  the  other,  which  form  the  chain  that 
binds  the  two  parts  of  the  American  continent  toge- 
ther, are  not  destitute  of  peculiar  advantages.  Their 
coast  on  one  side  is  washed  by  the  Atlantic  ocean,  on 
the  other  by  the  Pacific.  Some  of  their  rivers  flow 
into  the  former,  some  into  the  latter,  and  secure  to 
them  all  the  commercial  benefits  that  may  result  from 
a  communication  with  both. 

But  what  most  distinguishes  America  from  other 
parts  of  the  earth,  is  the  peculiar  temperature  of  its 
climate,  and  the  different  laws  to  which  it  is  subject 
with  respect  to  the  distribution  of  heat  and  cold. 
We  cannot  determine  with  precision  the  portion  of 
heat  felt  in  any  part  of  the  globe,  merely  by  mea- 
suring its  distance  from  the  equator.  The  climate 
of  a  country  is  affected,  in  some  degree,  by  its  ele- 
vation above  the  sea,  by  the  extent  of  continent, 
by  the  nature  of  the  soil,  the  height  of  adjacent 
mountains,  and  many  other  circumstances.  The 
influence  of  these,  however,  is,  from  various  causes, 
less  considerable  in  the  greater  part  of  the  ancient 
continent ;  and  from  knowing  the  position  of  any 
country  there,  we  can  pronounce  with  greater  certainty, 
what  will  be  the  warmth  of  its  climate,  and  the 
nature  of  its  productions. 

The  maxims  which  are  founded  upon  observation 
of  our  hemisphere  will  not  apply  to  the  other.  In 
the  New  World,  cold  predominates.  The  rigour  of 
the  frigid  zone  extends  over  half  those  regions,  which 
should  be  temperate  by  their  position.  Countries 
where  the  grape  and  fig  should  ripen,  are  buried 
under  smnv  one-half  of  the  year ;  and  lands  situated 
in  the  same  parallel  with  the  most  fertile  and  best 
cultivated  provinces  in  Europe,  are  chilled  with  per- 
petual frosts,  which  almost  destroy  the  power  of 
vegetation  (30).  As  we  advance  to  those  parts  of 
America  which  lie  in  the  same  parallel  with  provinces 
of  Asia  and  Africa,  blessed  with  an  uniform  enjoy- 
ment of  such  genial  warmth  as  is  most  friendly  to  life 
and  to  vegetation,  the  dominion  of  cold  continues  to 
be  felt,  and  winter  reigns,  though  during  a  short 
period,  with  extreme  severity.  If  we  proceed  along 
the  American  continent  into  the  torrid  zone,  we  shall 
find  the  cold  prevalent  in  the  New  World  extending 
itself  also  to  this  region  of  the  globe,  and  mitigating 
the  excess  of  its  fervour.  While  the  negro  on  the 
coast  of  Africa  is  scorched  with  unremitting  heat, 
the  inhabitant  of  Peru  breathes  an  air  equally  mild 
and  temperate,  and  is  perpetually  shaded  under  a 
canopy  of  grey  clouds,  which  intercepts  the  fierce 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


63 


beams  of  the  sun,  without  obstructing  his  friendly 
influence.  Along  the  eastern  coast  of  America,  the 
climate,  though  more  similar  to  that  of  the  torrid  zone 
in  other  parts  of  the  earth,  is  nevertheless  considerably- 
milder  than  in  those  countries  of  Asia  and  Africa 
which  lie  in  the  same  latitude.  If  from  the  southern 
tropic  we  continue  our  progress  to  the  extremity  of 
the  American  continent,  we  meet  with  frozen  seas, 
and  count  lies  horrid,  barren,  and  scarcely  habitable 
for  cold,  much  sooner  than  in  the  north. 

Various  causes  combine  in  rendering  the  climate 
of  America  so  extremely  different  from  that  of  the 
ancient  continent.  Though  the  utmost  extent  of 
America  towards  the  north  be  not  yet  undiscovered,  we 
know  that  it  advances  nearer  to  the  pole  than  either 
Europe  or  Asia.  Both  these  have  large  seas  to  the 
north,  which  are  open  during  part  of  the  year  ;  and 
even  when  covered  with  ice,  the  wind  that  blows  over 
them  is  less  intensely  cold  than  that  which  blows 
over  land  in  the  same  high  latitudes.  But  in  America 
the  land  stretches  from  the  river  St.  Laurence  towaids 
the  pole,  and  spreads  out  immensely  to  the  west.  A 
chain  of  enormous  mountains,  covered  with  snow 
and  ice,  runs  through  all  this  dreary  region.  The 
wind  in  passing  over  such  an  extent  of  high  and 
frozen  land,  becomes  so  impregnated  with  cold,  that 
it  acquires  a  piercing  keenness,  which  it  retains  in 
its  progress  through  warmer  climates,  and  it  is  not 
entirely  migitated  until  it  reach  the  gulf  of  Mexico. 
Over  all  the  continent  of  North  America,  a  north- 
westerly wind  and  excessive  cold  arc  synonymous 
terms.  Even  in  the  most  sultry  weather,  the  moment 
that  the  wind  veers  to  that  quarter,  its  penetrating 
influence  is  felt  in  a  transition  from  heat  to  cold  no 
less  violent  than  sudden.  To  this  powerful  cause  we 
ascribe  the  extraordinary  dominion  of  cold  and  its 
inroads  into  the  southern  provinces  in  that  part  of 
the  globe. 

Other  causes,  no  less  remarkable,  diminish  the 
active  power  of  heat  in  those  parts  of  the  American 
continent  which  lie  between  the  tropics.  In  all  that 
portion  of  the  globe,  the  wind  blows  in  an  invariable 
direction  from  east  to  west.  As  this  wind  holds  its 
course  across  the  ancient  continent,  it  arrives  at  the 
countries  which  stretch  along  the  western  shores  of 
Africa,  inflamed  with  all  the  fiery  particles  which  it  hath 
collected  from  the  sultry  plains  of  Asia,  and  the  burning 
sands  in  the  African  deserts.  The  coast  of  Africa  is,  ac- 
cordingly, the  region  of  the  earth  which  feels  the  most 
fervent  heat,  and  is  exposed  to  the  unmitigated  ardour 
of  the  torrid  zone.  But  this  same  wind,  which  brings 
such  an  accession  of  warmth  to  the  countries  lying 
between  the  river  of  Senegal  and  Cafraria,  traverses 
the  Atlantic  ocean  before  it  reaches  the  American 
shore.  It  is  cooled  in  its  passage  over  this  vast  body 
of  water,  and  is  felt  as  a  refreshing  gale  along  the 
coast  of  Brazil  (31),  and  Guiana,  rendering  these 
countries,  though  among  the  warmest  in  America, 
temperate,  when  compared  with  those  which  lie 
opposite  to  them  in  Africa  (32).  As  this  wind 
advances  in  its  course  across  America,  it  meets  with 
immense  plains  covered  with  impenetrable  forests, 
or  occupied  by  large  rivers,  marshes,  and  stagnating 
waters,  where  it  can  recover  no  considerable  degree  of 
heat.  At  length  it  arrives  at  the  Andes,  which  run  from 
north  to  south  through  the  whole  continent.  In  pass- 
ing over  their  elevated  and  frozen  summits,  it  is  so 
thoroughly  cooled,  that  the  greater  part  of  the  coun- 
tries beyond  them  haidly  feel  the  ardour  to  which 
they  seem  exposed  by  their  situation.  In  the  other 
provinces  of  America,  from  Tierra  Feime  westward 
to  the  Mexican  empire,  the  heat  of  the  climate  is 


tempered  in  some  place?,  by  the  elevation  of  the  land 
above  the  sea,  in  others,  by  their  extraordinary 
humidity,  and  in  all,  by  the  enormous  mountains 
scattered  over  this  tract.  The  islands  of  America  in 
the  torrid  zone  are  either  small  or  mountainous,  and  are 
fanned  alternately  by  refreshing  sea  and  land  breezes. 

The  causes  of  the  extraordinary  cold  towards  the 
southern  limits  of  America,  and  in  the  seas  beyond 
it,  cannot  be  ascertained  in  a  manner  equally  satis- 
fying. It  was  long  supposed  that  a  vast  continent, 
distinguished  by  the  name  of  Terra  Australia  In- 
cognita, lay  between  the  southern  extremity  of 
America,  and  the  Antarctic  pole.  The  same  princi- 
ples which  account  for  the  extraordinary  degree  of 
cold  in  the  northern  regions  of  America,  were  em- 
ployed in  order  to  explain  that  which  is  felt  at  Cape 
Horn  and  the  adjacent  countries.  The  immense 
extent  of  the  southern  continent,  and  the  large  rivers 
which  it  poured  into  the  ocean,  were  mentioned  and 
admitted  by  philosophers,  as  causes  sufficient  to  oc- 
casion the  unusual  sensation  of  cold,  and  the  still 
more  uncommon  appearances  of  frozen  seas  in  that 
region  of  the  globe.  But  the  imaginary  continent  to 
which  such  influence  was  ascribed,  having  been 
searched  for  in  vain,  and  the  space  which  it  was  sup- 
posed to  occupy  having  been  found  to  be  an  open  sea, 
new  conjectures  must  be  formed  'with  respect  to  the 
causes  of  a  temperature  of  climate,  so  extremely  dif- 
ferent from  that  which  we  experience  in  countries  re- 
moved at  the  same  distance  from  theV>pposite  pole  (33). 

After  contemplating  those  permanent  and  charac- 
teristic qualities  of  the  American  continent,  which 
arise  from  the  peculiarity  of  its  situation,  and  the 
disposition  of  its  parts,  the  next  object  that  merits 
attention  is  its  condition  when  first  discovered,  as 
far  as  that  depended  upon  the  industry  and  ope- 
rations of  man.  The  effects  of  human  ingenuity  and 
labour  are  more  extensive  and  considerable,  than 
even  our  own  vanity  is  apt  at  first  to  imagine.  When 
we  survey  the  face  of  the  habitable  globe,  no  small 
part  of  that  fertility  and  beauty  which  we  ascribe  to 
the  hand  of  nature,  is  the  work  of  man.  His  efforts, 
when  continued  through  a  succession  of  ages,  change 
the  appearance  and  improve  the  qualities  of  the 
earth.  As  a  great  part  of  the  ancient  continent  has 
long  been  occupied  by  nations  far  advanced  in  arts 
and  industry,  our  eye  is  accustomed  to  view  the 
earth  in  that  form  which  it  assumes  when  rendered 
fit  to  be  the  residence  of  a  numerous  race  of  men, 
and  to  supply  them  with  nourishment. 

But  in  the  New  World,  the  state  of  mankind  was 
ruder,  and  the  aspect  of  nature  extremely  different. 
Throughout  all  its  vast  regions,  there  Avere  only  two 
monarchies  remarkable  for  extent  of  territory,  or  dis- 
tinguished by  any  progress  in  improvement.  The 
rest  of  this  continent  was  possessed  by  small  inde- 
pendent tribes,  destitute  of  arts  and  industry,  and 
neither  capable  to  correct  the  defects,  nor  desirous 
to  meliorate  the  condition,  of  that  part  of  the  earth 
allotted  to  them  for  their  habitation.  Countries, 
occupied  by  such  people,  were  almost  in  the  same 
state  as  if  they  had  been  without  inhabitants.  Im- 
mense forests  covered  a  great  part  of  the  uncultivated 
earth ;  and  as  the  hand  of  industry  had  not  taught 
the  rivers  to  run  in  a  proper  channel,  or  drained  off 
the  stagnating  water,  many  of  the  most  fertile 
plains  were  overflowed  with  inundations,  or  converted 
into  marshes.  In  the  southern  provinces,  where  the 
warmth  of  the  sun,  the  moisture  of  the  climate,  and 
the  fertility  of  the  soil,  combine  in  calling  forth  the 
most  vigorous  powers  of  vegetation,  the  woods  are 
so  choked  with  its  rank  luxuriance  as  to  be  almost 


64 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


impervious,  and  the  surface  of  the  ground  is  hid  from 
the  eye  under  a  thick  covering  of  shrubs  and  herbs 
and  weeds.  In  this  state  of  wild  unassisted  nature, 
a  great  part  of  the  large  provinces  in  South  America, 
which  extend  from  the  bottom  of  the  Andes  to  the 
sea,  still  remain.  The  European  colonies  have 
cleared  and  cultivated  a  few  spots  along  the  coast, 
but  the  original  race  of  inhabitants,  as  rude  and  in- 
dolent as  ever,  have  done  nothing  to  open  or  improve 
a  country,  possessing  almost  every  advantage  of  situ- 
ation and  climate.  As  we  advance  towards  the 
northern  provinces  of  America,  nature  continues  to 
wear  the  same  uncultivated  aspect,  and  in  proportion 
as  the  ligour  of  the  climate  increases,  appears  more 
desolate  and  horrid.  There  the  forests,  though  not 
encumbered  with  the  same  exuberance  of  vegetation, 
are  of  immense  extent;  prodigious  marshes  over- 
spread the  plains,  and  few  marks  appear  of  human 
activity  in  any  attempt  to  cultivate  or  embellish  the 
earth.  No  wonder  that  the  colonies  sent  from 
Europe  were  astonished  at  their  first  entrance  into 
the  New  World.  It  appeared  to  them  waste,  soli- 
tary, and  uninviting.  When  the  English  began  to 
settle  in  America,  they  termed  the  countries  of  which 
they  took  possession,  The  Wilderness.  Nothing  but 
their  eager  expectation  of  finding  mines  of  gold, 
could  have  induced  the  Spaniards  to  penetrate  through 
the  woods  and  marshes  of  America,  where,  at  every 
sfep,  they  observed  the  extreme  difference  between 
the  uncultivated  face  of  nature,  and  that  which  it 
acquires  under  the  forming  hand  of  industry  and 
art  (34). 

The  labour  and  operations  of  man  not  only  improve 
and  embellish  the  earth,  but  render  it  more  whole- 
some and  friendly  to  life.  When  any  region  lies 
neglected  and  destitute  of  cultivation,  the  air  stag- 
nates in  the  woods,  putrid  exhalations  arise  from  the 
waters ;  the  surface  of  the  earth,  loaded  with  rank 
vegetation,  feels  not  the  purifying  of  the  sun  or  of 
the  wind;  the  malignity  of  the  distempers  natural  to 
the  climate  increases,  and  new  maladies  no  less 
noxious  are  engendered.  Accordingly,  all  the  provinces 
of  America,  when  first  discovered,  were  found  to  be 
remarkably  unhealthy.  This  the  Spaniards  experi- 
enced in  every  expedition  into  the  New  WTorld, 
whether  destined  for  conquest  or  settlement. 
Though,  by  the  natural  constitution  of  their  bodies, 
their  habitual  temperance,  and  the  persevering  vigour 
of  their  minds,  they  were  as  much  formed  as  any 
people  in  Europe  for  active  service  in  a  sultry  climate, 
they  felt  severely  the  fatal  and  pernicious  qualities  of 
those  uncultivated  regions  through  which  they 
marched,  or  where  they  endeavoured  to  plant  colonies. 
Great  numbers  were  cut  off  by  the  unknown  and 
violent  diseases  with  which  they  were  infected.  Such 
as  survived  the  destructive  rage  of  those  maladies, 
were  not  exempted  from  the  noxious  influence  of  the 
climate.  They  returned  to  Europe,  according  to  the 
description  of  the  early  Spanish  historians,  feeble, 
emaciated,  with  languid  looks,  and-  complexions  of 
such  a  sick'y  yellow  colour,  as  indicated  the  unwhole- 
some temperature  of  the  countries  where  they  had 
resided. 

The  uncultivated  state  of  the  New  World  affected 
not  only  the  temperature  of  the  air,  but  the  qualities 
of  its  productions.  The  principle  of  life  seems  to 
have  been  less  active  and  vigorous  there,  than  in  the 
ancient  continent.  Notwithstanding  the  vast  extent 
of  America,  and  the  variety  of  its  climates,  the 
different  species  of  animals  peculiar  to  it  are  much 
fewer  in  proportion,  than  those  of  the  other  hemis- 
phere. In  the  islands,  there  were  only  four  kinds  of 


quadrupeds  known,  the  largest  of  which  did  not 
exceed  the  size  of  a  rabbit.  On  the  continent,  the 
variety  was  greater ;  and  though  the  individuals  of 
each  kind  could  not  fail  of  multiplying  exceedingly, 
when  almost  unmolested  by  men,  who  were  neither 
so  numerous,  nor  so  united  in  society,  as  to  be 
formidable  enemies  to  the  animal  creation,  the 
number  of  distinct  species  must  still  be  considered 
as  extremely  small.  Of  two  hundred  different  kinds 
of  animals  spread  over  the  face  of  the  earth,  about  only 
one-third  existed  in  America  at  the  time  of  its  dis- 
covery. Nature  was  not  only  less  prolific  in  the  New 
World,  but  she  appears  likewise  to  have  been  less 
vigorous  in  her  productions.  The  animals  originally 
belonging  to  this  quarter  of  the  globe  appear  to^be  of 
an  inferior  race,  neither  so  robust,  nor  so  fierce,  as 
those  of  the  other  continent.  America  gives  birth 
to  no  creature  of  such  bulk  as  to  be  compared  with 
the  elephant  or  rhinoceros,  or  that  equals  the  lion 
and  tiger  in  strength  and  ferocity  (35).  The  Tapyr 
of  Brazil,  the  largest  quadruped  of  the  ravenous  tribe 
in  the  New  World,  is  not  larger  than  a  calf  of  six 
months  old.  The  Puma  and  Jaguar,  its  fiercest 
beast  of  prey,  which  Europeans  have  inaccurately 
denominated  lions  and  tigers,  possess  neither  the 
undaunted  courage  of  the  former,  nor  the  ravenous 
cruelty  of  the  latter.  They  are  inactive  and  timid, 
hardly  formidable  to  a  man,  and  often  turn  their 
backs  upon  the  least  appearance  of  resistance.  The 
same  qualities  in  the  climate  of  America,  which 
stinted  the  growth,  and  enfeebled  the  spirit,  of  its 
native  animals,  have  proved  pernicious  to  such  as 
have  migrated  into  it  voluntarily  from  the  other 
continent,  or  have  been  transported  thither  by  the 
Europeans.  The  bears,  the  wolves,  the  deer  of 
America,  are  not  equal  in  size  to  those  of  the  Old 
World.  Most  of  the  domestic  animals,  with  which 
the  Europeans  have  stored  the  provinces  wherein 
they  settled,  have  degenerated  with  respect  either  to 
bulk  or  quality,  in  a  country  whose  temperature  and 
soil  seem  to  be  less  favourable  to  the  strength  and 
perfection  of  the  animal  creation  (36). 

The  same  causes  which  checked  the  growth  and 
the  vigour  of  the  more  noble  animals,  were  friendly 
to  the  propagation  and  increase  of  reptiles  and 
insects.  Though  this  is  not  peculiar  to  the  New 
World,  and  those  odious  tribes,  nourished  by  heat, 
moisture,  and  corruption,  infest  every  part  of  the 
torrid  zone;  they  multiply  faster,  perhaps,  in  Ame- 
rica, and  grow  to  a  more  monstrous  bulk.  As  this 
country  is,  ori  the  whole,  less  cultivated,  and  less 
peopled?  than  the  other  quarters  of  the  earth,  the 
active  principle  of  life  wastes  its  force  in  productions 
of  this  inferior  form.  The  air  is  often  darkened 
with  clouds  of  insects,  and  the  ground  covered  with 
shocking  and  noxious  reptiles.  The  country  around 
Porto  Bello  swarms  with  toads  in  such  multitudes,  as 
hide  the' surface  of  the  earth.  At  Guayaquil,  snakes 
and  vipers  are  hardly  less  numerous.  Carthagena  is 
infested  with  numerous  flocks  of  bats,  which  annoy 
not  only  the  cattle,  but  the  inhabitants.  In  the 
islands,  legions  of  ants  have,  at  different  times,  con- 
sumed every  vegetable  production  (37),  and  left  the 
earth  entirely  bare,  as  if  it  had  been  burnt  with  fire. 
The  damp  forests  and  rank  soil  of  the  countries  on 
Mie  banks  of  the  O<inoco  and  Maragnon,  teem  with 
almost  every  offensive  and  poisonous  creature,  which 
the  power  of  a  sultry  sun  can  quicken  into  life. 

The  birds  of  the  New  World  are  not  distinguished 
by  qualities  so  conspicuous  and  characteristical,  as 
those  which  we  have  observed  in  its  quadrupeds. 
Birds  are  more  independent  of  man,  and  less  affected 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


by  the  changes  which  his  industry  and  labour  make 
upon  the  state  of  the  earth.  They  have  a  greater 
propensity  to  migrate  from  one  country  to  another, 
and  can  gratify  this  instinct  of  their  nature  without 
difficulty  or  danger.  Hence  the  number  of  birds 
common  to  both  continents  is  much  greater  than  that 
of  quadrupeds  ;  and  even  such  as  are  peculiar  to 
America  nearly  resemble  those  with  which  mankind 
were  acquainted  in  similar  regions  of  the  ancient 
hemisphere.  The  American  birds  of  the  torrid  zone, 
like  those  of  the  same  climate  in  Asia  and  Africa, 
are  decked  in  plumage,  which  dazzles  the  eye  with 
the  beauty  of  its  colours ;  but  nature,  satisfied  with 
clothing  them  in  this  gay  dress,  has  denied  most  of 
them  that  melody  of  sound,  and  variety  of  notes, 
which  catch  and  delight  the  ear.  The  birds  of  the 
temperate  climates  there,  in  the  same  manner  as  in 
our  continent,  are  less  splendid  in  their  appearance  ; 
but,  in  compensation  for  that  defect,  they  have  voices 
of  greater  compass,  and  more  melodious.  In  some 
districts  of  America,  the  unwholesome  temperature 
of  the  air  seems  to  be  unfavourable  even  to  this 
part  of  the  creation.  The  number  of  birds  is  less 
than  in  other  countries,  and  the  traveller  is  struck 
with  the  amazing  solitude  and  silence  of  its  forests. 
It  is  remarkable,  however,  that  America,  where  the 
quadrupeds  are  so  dwarfish  and  dastardly,  should 
produce  the  ConcJor,which  is  entitled  to  pre-eminence 
over  all  the  flying  tribe,  in  bulk,  in  strength,  and  in 
courage. 

The  soil  in  a  continent  so  extensive  as  America, 
must  of  course  be  extremely  various.  In  each  of 
its  provinces,  we  find  some  distinguishing  pecu- 
liarities ;  the  description  of  which  belongs  to  those 
who  write  their  particular  history.  In  general,  we 
may  observe,  that  the  moisture  and  cold,  which  pre- 
dominates so  remarkably  in  all  parts  of  America, 
must  have  great  influence  upon  the  nature  of  its 
soil;  countries  lying  in  the  same  parallel  with  those 
regions  which  never  feel  the  extreme  rigour  of  winter 
in  the  ancient  continent,  are  frozen  over  in  America 
during  a  great  part  of  the  year.  Chilled  by  this 
intense  cold,  the  ground  never  acquires  warmth  suffi- 
cient to  ripen  the  fruits  which  are  found  in  the 
corresponding  parts  of  the  other  continent.  If  we 
wish  to  rear  in  America  the  productions  which 
abound  in  any  particular  district  of  the  ancient 
world,  we  must  advance  several  degrees  nearer  to 
the  line  than  in  the  other  hemisphere,  as  it  requires 
such  an  increase  of  heat  to  counterbalance  the 
natural  frigidity  of  the  soil  and  climate  (38).  At  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  several  of  the  plants  and  fruits 
peculiar  to  the  countries  within  the  tropics,  are 
cultivated  with  success ;  whereas,  at  St.  Augustine 
in  Florida,  and  Charlestown,  in  South  Carolina, 
though  considerably  nearer  the  line,  they  cannot  be 
brought  to  thrive  with  equal  certainty  (39).  But-,  if 
allowance  be  made  for  this  diversity  in  the  degree  of 
heat,  the  soil  of  America  is  naturally  as  rich  and 
fertile  as  in  any  part  of  the  earth.  As  the  country 
was  thinly  inhabited,  and  by  a  people  of  little 
industry,  who  had  none  of  the  domestic  animals 
which  civilized  nations  rear  in  such  vast  numbers, 
the  earth  was  not  exhausted  by  their  consumption. 
The  vegetable  productions,  to  which  the  fertility  of 
the  soil  gave  birth,  often  remained  untouched,  and 
being  suffered  to  corrupt  on  its  surface,  returned  with 
increase  into  its  bosom.  As  trees  and  plants  derive 
a  great  part  of  their  nourishment  from  air  and  water, 
if  they  were  not  destroyed  by  man  and  other  animals, 
they  would  render  to  the  earth  more,  perhaps,  than 
they  take  from  it,  and  feed  rather  than  impoverish  it. 

HISTORY  OF  AMERICA,  No.  9. 


Thus  the  unoccupied  soil  of  America  may  have  gone 
on  enriching  for  many  ages.  The  vast  number  as 
well  as  enormous  size  of  the  trees  in  America,  in- 
dicate the  extraordinary  vigour  of  the  soil  in  its  native 
state.  When  the  Europeans  first  began  to  cultivate 
the  New  World,  they  were  astonished  at  the? 
luxuriant  power  of  vegetation  in  its  virgin  mould  ; 
and  in  several  places  the  ingenuity  of  the  planter  is 
still  employed  in  diminishing  and  wasting  its  super- 
fluous fertility,  in  order  to  bring  it  down  to  a  state 
fit  for  profitable  culture'  (40). 

Having  thus  surveyed  the  state  of  the  New  World 
at  the  time  of  its  discovery,  and  considered  the 
peculiar  features  and  qualities  which  distinguish  and 
characterize  it,  the  next  inquiry  that  merits  attention, 
is,  How  was  America  peopled  ?  By  what  course  did 
mankind  migrate  from  the  one  continent  to  the  other  ? 
and  in  what  quarter  is  it  most  probable  that  a  com- 
munication was  opened_between  them  ? 

We  know,  with  infallible  certainty,  that  all  the 
human  race  spring  from  the  same  source,"  and  that 
descendants  of  one  man,  under  the  protection  as 
well  as  in  obedience  to  the  command  of  Heaven, 
multiplied  and  replenished  the  earth.  But  neither 
the  annals  nor  the  traditions  of  nations  reach  back 
to  those  remote  ages,  in  which  they  took  possession 
of  the  different  countries  where  they  are  now  settled. 
Wre  cannot  trace  the  branches  of  this  first  family,  to 
point  out  with  certainty  the  time  and  manner  in 
which  they  divided  and  spread  over  the  face  of  the 
globe.  Even  among  the  most  enlightened  people,  the 
period  of  authentic  history  is  extremely  short ;  and 
every  thing  prior  to  that  is  fabulous  or  obscure.  It 
is  not  surprising,  then,  that  the  unlettered  inha- 
bitants of  America,  who  have  no  solicitude  about 
futurity,  and  little  curiosity  concerning  what  is  past, 
should  be  altogether  unacquainted  with  their  own 
original.  The  people  on  the  two  opposite  coasts  of 
America,  who  occupy  those  countries  in  America 
which  approach  nearest  to  the  ancient  continent,  are 
so  remarkably  rude,  that  it  is  altogether  vain  to- 
search  among  them  for  such  information  as  might 
discover  the  place  from  whence  they  came,  or  the 
ancestors  of  whom  they  are  descended.  Whatever  light 
has  been  thrown  on  this  subject,  is  derived,  not  from 
the  natives  of  America,  but  from  the  inquisitive 
genius  of  their  conquerors. 

When  the  people  of  Europe  unexpectedly  dis- 
covered 9,  new  world,  removed  at  a  vast  distance 
from  every  part  of  the  ancient  continent  which  was 
then  known,  and  filled  with  inhabitants  whose  ap- 
pearance and  manners  differed  remarkably  from  the 
rest  of  the  human  species,  the  question  concerning 
their  original  became  naturally  an  object  of  curiosity 
and  attention.  The  theories  and  speculations  of  in- 
genious men  with  respect  to  this  subject,  would  fill 
many  volumes  ;  but  are  often  so  wild  and  chimerical, 
that  I  should  offer  an  insult  to  the  understanding  of 
my  readers,  if  I  attempted  either  minutely  to  enu- 
merate or  to  refute  them.  .  Some  have  presumptu- 
ously imagined  that  the  people  of  America  were  not 
the  offspring  of  the  same  common  parent  with  the 
rest  of  mankind,  but  that  they  formed  a  separate 
race  of  men,  distinguishable  by  peculiar  features  in 
the  constitution  of  their  bodies,  as  well  as  in  the 
characteristic  qualities  of  their  minds.  Others  con- 
tend, that,  they  are  descended  from  some  remnant  of 
the  antediluvian  inhabitants  of  the  earth,  who  sur- 
vived the  deluge,  which  swept  away  the  greatest 
part  of  the  human  species  in  the  days  of  Noah,  and 
preposterously  supposed  rude,  uncivilized  tribes, 
scattered  over  an  uncultivated  continent,  to  be  the 
K 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


most  ancient  race  of  people  on  the  earth.  There  is 
hardly  any  nation  from  the  north  to  the  south  pole, 
to  which  some  antiquary,  in  the  extravagance  of 
conjecture,  has  not  ascribed  the  honour  of  peopling 
America.  The  Jews,  the  Canaanites,  the  Phoenicians, 
the  Carthaginians,  the  Greeks,  the  Scythians,  in 
ancient  times,  are  supposed  to  have  settled  in  this 
western  world.  The  Chinese,  the  Swedes,  the  Nor- 
wegians, the  Welsh,  the  Spaniards,  are  said  to  have 
sent  colonies  thither  in  later  ages,  at  different  periods, 
and  on  various  occasions.  Zealous  advocates  stand 
forth  to  support  the  respective  claims  of  those  people ; 
and  though  they  rest  upon  no  better  foundation  than 
the  casual  resemblance  of  some  customs,  or  the  sup- 
posed affinity  between  a  few  words  in  their  different 
languages,  much  erudition  and  more  zeal  have  been 
employed,  to  little  purpose,  in  defence  of  the  opposite 
systems.  Those  regions  of  conjecture  and  contro- 
versy belong  not  to  the  historian.  His  is  a  more 
limited  province,  confined  by  what  is  established  by 
certnin  or  highly  probable  evidence.  Beyond  this  I 
shall  not  venture,  in  offering  a  few  observations 
which  may  contribute  to  throw  some  light  upon  this 
curious  and  much  agitated  question. 

1.  There  are   authors  who  have  endeavoured   by 
mere    conjecture    to    account    for    the    peopling    of 
America.    Some  have  supposed  that  it  was  originally 
united  to  the  ancient  continent,  and  disjoined  from  it 
by  the  shock  of  an  earthquake,  or  the  eruption  of  a 
deluge.     Others    have    imagined,     that   some   vessel 
being   forced  from  its  course,   by  the  violence   of  a 
westerly  wind,  might  be  driven  by  accident  towards 
the  American  coast,   and  have  given  a  beginning  to 
population  in  that  desolate  continent.     But  with  re- 
spect to  all  those  systems,   it  is  vain  either  to  reason 
or  inquire,  because   it  is   impossible  to  come  to  any 
decision.     Such  events  as  they   suppose  are   barely 
possible,  and  may  have  happened.     That  they  ever 
did  happen,  we  have   no  evidence,   either  from  the 
clear  testimony  of  history,  or  from  the  obscure  inti- 
mations of  tradition. 

2.  Nothing    can    be  more   frivolous    or  uncertain 
than   the   attempts   to   discover  the  original    of  the 
Americans,  merely  by  tracing   the  resemblance  be- 
tween   their    manners    and  those   of  any   particular 
people  in  the  ancient  continent.     If  we  suppose  two 
tribes,  though  placed  in  the  most  remote  regions  of  the 
globe,  to  live  in   a   climate  nearly  of  the  same  tem- 
perature, to  be  in  the  same  state  of  society,  and  to 
resemble  each  other  in  the  degree   of  their  improve- 
ment,  they  must  feel  the  same  wants,   and  exert  the 
same  endeavours  to  supply  them.     The  same  objects 
will  allure,  the  same  passions  will  animate  them,  and 
the   same  ideas   and   sentiments  will  arise   in   their 
minds.     The  character  and  occupations  of  the  hunter 
in  America  must  be  little  different  from  those  of  an 
Asiatic,  who   depends   for  subsistence  on  the  chase. 
A    tribe    of  savages    on    the    banks   of  the  Danube 
must  nearly  resemble  one  upon  the  plains  washed  by 
the    Mississippi.     Instead   then    of  presuming  from 
this    similarity,   that   there  is  any  affinity    between 
them,  we  should  only  conclude,  that  the  dispositions 
and  manners  of  men   are  formed  by  their  situation, 
and  arise  from  the  state  of  society  in  which  they  live. 
The  moment  that  begins  to  vary,   the  character  of  a 
people  must  change,     In  proportion  as  it  advances  in 
improvement,  their  manners  refine,  their  powers  and 
talents  are  called  forth.     In  every  part  of  the  earth, 
the  progress  of  man  hath  been  nearly  the  same ;  and 
we  can  trace  him  in  his  career  from  the  rude  simpli- 
city of  savage  life,  until  he  attains  the  industry,  the 
arts,  and  the  elegance  of  polished  society.     There  is 


nothing  wonderful  then  in  the  similitude  between  the 
Americans  and  the  barbarous  nations  of  our  conti- 
nent. Had  Lafitau,  Garcia,  and  many  other  authors 
attended  to  this,  they  would  not  have  perplexed  a 
subject  which  they  pretend  to  illustrate,  by  their 
fruitless  endeavours  to  establish  an  affinity  between 
various  races  of  people,  in  the  old  and  new  conti- 
nents, upon  no  other  evidence  than  such  a  resemblance 
in  their  manners  as  necessarily  arises  from  the  simi- 
larity of  their  condition.  There  are,  it  is  true, 
among  every  people  some  customs  which,  as  they  do 
not  flow  from  any  natural  want  or  desire  peculiar  to 
their  situation,  may  be  denominated  usages  of  arbi- 
trary institution.  If  between  two  nations  settled  in 
remote  parts  of  the  earth,  a  perfect  agreement  with 
respect  to  any  of  these  should  be  discovered,  one 
might  be  led  to  suspect  that  they  were  connected  by 
some  affinity.  If,  for  example,  a  nation  were  found 
in  America  that  consecrated  the  seventh  day  to  reli- 
gious worship  and  rest,  we  might  justly  suppose  that 
it  had  derived  its  knowledge  of  this  usage,  which  is 
of  arbitrary  institution,  from  the  Jews.  But  if  it 
were  discovered  that  another  nation  celebrated  the 
first  appearance  of  every  new  moon  with  extraordi- 
nary demonstrations  of  joy,  we  should  not  be  entitled 
to  conclude  that  the  observation  of  this  monthly 
festival  was  borrowed  from  the  Jews,  but  ought  to 
consider  it  merely  as  the  expression  of  that  joy 
which  is  natural  to  man  on  the  return  of  the  planet 
which  guides  and  cheers  him  in  the  night.  The 
instances  of  customs,  merely  arbitrary,  common  to 
the  inhabitants  of  both  hemispheres,  are,  indeed,  so 
few  and  so  equivocal,  that  no  theory  concerning  the 
population  of  the  New  World  ought  to  be  founded 
upon  them. 

3.  The  theories  which  have  been  formed  with  respect 
to  the  original  of  the  Americans,  from  observations  of 
their  religious  rites  and  practices,  are  no  less  fanciful, 
and  destitute  of  solid  foundation.  When  the  religious 
opinions  of  any  people  are  neither  the  result  of  rational 
inquiry,  nor  derived  from  the  instructions  of  revelation, 
they  must  needs  be  wild  and  extravagant.   Barbarous 
nations   are    incapable  of  the  former,  and  have  not 
been  blessed  with   the  advantages  arising  from  the 
latter.     Still,  however,  the  human  mind,  even  where 
its  operations  appear  most  wild  and  capricious,  holds 
a   course   so  regular,  that  in  every  age  and  country 
the  dominion  of  particular  passions  will  be  attended 
with    similar    effects.       The    savage    of    Europe    or 
America,    when  filled   with    superstitious    dread   of 
invisible  beings,    or   with   inquisitive    solicitude    to 
penetrate  into  the  events  of  futurity,  trembles  alike 
with  fear,  or  glows  with  impatience.   He  has  recourse 
to  rites  and  practices  of  the  same  kind,  in   order  to 
avert  the  vengeance  which  he  supposes  to  be  impend- 
ing  over  him,  or  to  divine  the  secret  which  is  the 
object   of  his  curiosity.     Accordingly  the   ritual  of 
superstition  in    one  continent,    seems,   in  many  par- 
ticulars, to  be  a  transcript  of  that  established  in  the 
other,  and  both  authorize  similar  institutions,  some- 
times   so  frivolous  as   to  excite   pity,   sometimes  so 
bloody  and  barbarous  as  to  create  horror.  But  without 
supposing  any  consanguinity   between   such  distant 
nations,  or  imagining  that  their  religious  ceremonies 
were  conveyed  by  tradition  from  the  one  to  the  other, 
we    may   ascribe   this   uniformity,    which,   in   many 
instances,  seems  very  amazing,  to  the  natural  opera- 
tion  of  superstition  and  enthusiasm  upon  the  weak- 
ness of  the  human  mind. 

4.  We  may  lay   it  down  as  a  certain  principle  in 
this    inquiry,   that  America  was  not  peopled  by   any 
nation   of  the    ancient  continent,   which  had  made 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


considerable  progress  in  civilization.  The  inhabitants 
of  the  New  World  were  in  a  state  of  society  so 
extremely  rude,  as  to  be  unacquainted  with  those 
aits  which  are  the  first  essays  of  human  ingenuity  in 
its  advance  towards  improvement.  Even  the  most 
cultivated  nations  of  America  were  strangers  to 
many  of  those  simple  inventions  which  w  re  almost 
coeval  with  society  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  and  were 
known  in  the  earliest  periods  of  civil  life  with  which 
we  have  any  acquaintance.  From  this  it  is  manifest, 
that  the  tribes  which  originally  migrated  to  America, 
came  off  from  nations  which  must  have  been  no  less 
barbarous  than  their  posterity,  at  the  time  when  they 
were  first  discovered  by  the  Europeans.  For,  although 
the  elegant  or  refined  arts  may  decline  or  perish, 
amidst  the  violent  shocks  of  those  revolutions  and  dis- 
asters to  which  nations  are  exposed,  the  necessary 
arts  of  life,  when  once  they  have  been  introduced 
among  any  people,  are  never  lost.  None  of  the 
vicissitudes  in  human  affairs  affect  these,  and  they 
continue  to  be  practised  as  long  as  the  race  of  men 
exists.  If  ever  the  use  of  iron  had  been  known  to 
the  savages  of  America,  or  to  their  progenitors ;  if 
ever  they  had  employed  a  plough,  a  loom,  or  a  forge, 
the  utility  of  those  inventions  would  have  preserved 
them,  and  it  is  impossible  that  they  should  have  been 
abandoned  or  forgotten.  We  may  conclude,  then, 
that  the  Americans  sprung  from  some  people,  Avho 
were  themselves  in  such  an  early  and  unimproved 
stage  of  society,  as  to  be  unacquainted  with  all  those 
necessary  arts,  which  continued  to  be  unftnown 
among  their  posterity  when  first  visited  by  the 
Spaniards. 

5.  It  appears  no  less  evident  that  America  was  not 
peopled  by  any  colony  from  the  more  southern  nations 
of  the  ancient  continent.     None  of  the   rude   tribes 
settled  in  that  part  of  our  hemisphere  can  be  supposed 
to  have  visited  a  country  so  remote.     They  possessed 
neither    enterprise,   nor  ingenuity,  nor  power,   that 
could   prompt  them  to  undertake,  or  enable  them  to 
perform,    such    a  distant    voyage.      That   the    more 
civilized  nations  in  Asia   or  Africa  are  not   the  pro- 
genitors of  the  Americans  is  manifest,  not  only  from 
the  observations  which  I  have  already  made  concern- 
ing their  ignorance  of  the  most  simple  and  necessary 
arts,   but    from  an  additional  circumstance.     When- 
ever any  people   have   experienced   the    advantages 
which  men  enjoy  by  their  dominion  over  the  inferior 
animals,  they  can  neither  subsist  without  the  nourish- 
ment which  these  afford,  nor  carry  on  any  considerable 
operation  independent  of  their  ministry  and  labour. 
Accordingly,  the  first  care  of  the  Spaniards,  when 
they  settled  in  America,  was  to  stock  it  with  all  the 
domestic  animals  of  Europe  ;  and  if,   prior  to  them, 
the  Tyrians,  the  Carthaginians,  the  Chinese,    or  any 
other  polished  people,  had  taken  possession  of  that 
continent,  we  should  have   found  there  the  animals 
peculiar  to  those   regions   of   the  globe,  where  they 
were    originally    seated.     In   all  America,   however, 
there  is  not  one  animal,  tame  or  wild,  which  properly 
belongs  to    the  warm   or  even  the  more  temperate 
countries  of  the  ancient  continent.     The  camel,  the 
dromedary,  the  horse,  the  cow,  were  as  much  unknown 
in  America,  as  the  Elephant  or  the  lion.  From  which 
it  is  obvious,  that  the  people  who  first  settled  in  the 
western    world    did    not  issue   from  those  countries 
where  those  animals   abound,    and  where   men,  from 
having   been    long   accustomed   to  their  aid,    would 
naturally   consider   it  not  only  as    beneficial,  but   as 
indispensably  necessary  to  the  improvement,  and  even 
the  preservation  of  civil  society. 

6.  From     considering    'the"    animals    v.ith    which 


America  is  stored,  we  may  conclude  that  the  nearest 
point  of  contact  between  the  old  and  new  continents 
is  towards  the  northern  extremity  of  both,  and  that 
there  the  communication  was  opened,  and  the  inter- 
course carried  on  between  them.  AH  the  extensive 
countries  in  America  which  lie  within  the  tropics,  or 
approach  near  to  them,  are  filled  with  indigenous 
animals  of  various  kinds,  entirely  different  from  those 
in  the  corresponding  regions  of  the  ancient  continent. 
But  the  northern  provinces  of  the  New  World  abound 
with  many  of  the  wild  animals  which  are  common  in 
such  parts  of  our  hemisphere  as  lie  in  a  similar 
situation.  The  bear,  the  wolf,  the  fox,  the  hare,  the 
deer,  the  roebuck,  the  elk,  and  several  other  species, 
frequent  the  forests  of  North  America,  no  less  than, 
those  in  the  north  of  Europe  and  Asia.  It  seems  to 
be  evident,  then,  that  the  two  continents  approach 
each  other  in  this  quarter,  and  are  either  united,  or 
so  nearly  adjacent,  that  these  animals  might  pasa 
from  one  to  the  other. 

7-  The  actual  vicinity  of  the  two  continents  is  so 
clearly  established  by  modern  discoveries,  that  the 
chief  difficulty  with  respect  to  the  peopling  of 
America  is  removed,  While  those  immense  regions, 
which  stretch  east-ward  from  the  river  Oby  to  the  sea 
of  Kamchatka  were  unknown  or  imperfectly  explored^ 
the  north-east  extremities  of  our-  hemisphere  were 
supposed  to  be  so  far  distant  from  any  part  of  the 
New  World,  that  it  was  not  easy  to  conceive  how  any 
communication  could  have  been  carried  on  between 
them.  But  the  Russians  have  subjected  the  western 
part  of  Siberia  to  their  empire,  gradually  extended 
their  knowledge  of  that  vast  country,  by  advancing 
towards  the  east  into  unknown  provinces.  These 
were  discovered  by  hunters  in  their  excursions  after 
game,  or  by  soldiers  employed  in  levying  the  taxes  ; 
and  the  court  of  Moscow  estimated  the  importance 
of  those  countries,  only  by  the  small  addition  which 
they  made  to  its  revenue.  At  length  Peter  the  Great 
ascended  the  Russian  throne.  His  enlightened, 
comprehensive  mind,  intent  upon  every  circumstance 
that  could  aggrandize  his  empire,  or  render  his  reign 
illustrious,  discerned  consequences  of  those  disco- 
veries which  had  escaped  the  observation  of  his 
ignorant  predecessors.  He  perceived  that  in  pro- 
portion as  the  regions  of  Asia  extended  towards  the 
east,  they  must  approach  nearer  to  America ;  that 
the  communication  between  the  two  continents,  which, 
had  long  been  searched  for  in  vain,  would  probably 
be  found  in  this  quarter,  and  that  by  opening  it, 
some  part  of  the  wealth  and  commerce  of  the  western 
world  might  be  made  10  flow  into  his  dominions  by 
a  new  channel.  Such  an  object  suited  a  genius  that 
delighted  in  grand  schemes.  Peter  drew  up  instruc- 
tions with  his  own  hand  for  prosecuting  this  design, 
and  gave  orders  for  carrying  it  into  execution. 

His  successors  adopted  his  ideas,  and  pursued  his, 
plan.  The  officers  whom  the  Russian  court  employed, 
in  this  service  had  to  struggle  with  so  many  diffi- 
culties, that  their  progress  was  extremly  slow. 
Encouraged  by  some  faint  traditions  among  the  people 
of  Siberia,  concerning  a  successful  voyage  in  the  year 
one  thousand  six  hundred  and  forty-eight,  round  the 
north-east  promontory  of  Asia,  they  attempted  to 
follow  the  same  course.  Vessels  were  fitted  out, 
with  this  view,  at  different  times,  from  the  rivers 
Lena  and  Kolyma  ;  but  in  a  frozen  ocean,  which 
nature  seems  not  to  have  designed  for  navigation, 
they  were  exposed  to  many  disasters,  Avithout  being 
able  to  accomplish  their  purpose.  No  vessel  fitted 
out  by  the  Russian  court  ever  doubled  this  formid- 
able Cape  (41):  we  are  indebted  for  Avhat  is  knoxvu 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


of  those  extreme  regions  of  Asia,  to  the  discoveries 
made  in  excursions  by  land.  In  all  those  provinces 
an  opinion  prevails,  that  there  are  countries  of  great 
extent  and  fertility,  which  lie  at  no  considerable 
distance  from  their  own  coasts.  These  the  Russians 
imagined  to  be  part  of  America  ;  and  several  circum- 
stances concurred  not  only  in  confirming  them  in  this 
belief,  but  in  persuading  them  that  some  portion  of 
that  continent  could  not  be  very  remote.  Trees  of 
various  kinds,  unknown  in  those  naked  regions  of 
Asia,  are  driven  upon  the  coast  by  an  easterly  wind. 
By  the  same  wind,  floating  ice  is  brought  thither  in 
a  few  days  ;  flights  of  birds  arrive  annually  from  the 
same  quarter ;  and  a  tradition  obtains  among  the 
inhabitants,  of  an  intercourse  formerly  carried  on 
with  some  countries  situate  to  the  east. 

After  weighing  all  these  particulars,  and  comparing 
the  position  of  the  countries  in  Asia  which  had  been 
discovered,  with  such  parts  in  the  north-west  of 
America  as  were  already  known,  the  Russian  court 
formed  a  plan,  which  would  have  hardly  occurred  to  a 
nation  less  accustomed  to  engage  in  arduous  under- 
takings, and  to  contend  with  great  difficulties. 
Orders  were  issued  to  build  two  vessels  at  the  small 
village  of  Ochotz,  situate  on  the  sea  of  Kamchatka,  to 
sail  on  a  voyage  of  discovery.  Though  that  dreary 
uncultivated  region  furnished  nothing  that  could  be 
of  use  in  constructing  them,  but  some  larch  trees  : 
though  not  only  the  iron,  the  cordage,  the  sails,  and 
all  the  numerous  articles  requisite  for  their  equip- 
ment, but  the  provisions  for  victualling  them,  were 
to  be  carried  through  the  immense  deserts  of  Siberia, 
down  rivers  difficult  of  navigation,  and  along  roads 
almost  impassable,  the  mandate  of  the  sovereign,  and 
the  perseverance  of  the  people,  at  last  surmounted 
every  obstacle.  Two  vessels  were  finished  [A.  D. 
1741,  June  4],  and,  under  the  command  of  the 
Captains  Behring  and  Tschirikow,  sailed  from  Kam- 
chatka, in  quest  of  the  New  World,  in  a  quarter 
where  it  had  never  been  approached.  They  shaped 
their  course  towards  the  east ;  and  though  a  storm 
soon  separated  the  vessels,  which  never  rejoined,  and 
many  disasters  befell  them,  the  expectations  from  the 
voyage  were  not  altogether  frustrated.  Each  of  the 
commanders  discovered  land,  which  to  them  appeared 
to  be  part  of  the  American  continent ;  and,  according 
to  their  observations,  it  seems  to  be  situated  within 
a  few  degrees  of  the  north-west  coast  of  California. 
Each  sent  some  of  his  people  ashore  :  but  in  one  place 
the  inhabitants  fled  as  the  Russians  approached;  in 
another,  they  carried  off  those  who  landed,  and  des- 
troyed their  boats.  The  violence  of  the  weather,  and 
•tihe  distress  of  their  crews,  obliged  both  captains  to 
quit  this  inhospitable  coast.  In  their  return  they 
touched  at  several  islands,  which  stretch  in  a  chain 
from  east  to  west  between  the  country  which  they  had 
discovered  and  the  coast  of  Asia.  They  had  some 
intercourse  with  the  natives,  who  seemed  to  them  to 
resemble  the  North  Americans.  They  presented  to 
the  Russians  the  calumet,  or  pipe  of  peace,  which  is 
a  symbol  of  friendship  universal  among  the  people  of 
INorth  America,  and  an  usage  of  arbitrary  institution, 
jreculiar  to  them. 

Though  the  islands  of  this  New  Archipelago  have 
"been  frequented  since  that  time  by  the  Russian 
hunters,  the  court  of  St.  Petersburgh,  during  a  period 
of  more  than  forty  years,  seems  to  have  relinquished 
every  thought  of  prosecuting  discoveries  in  that 
quarter.  But  in  the  year  one  thousand  seven  hun- 
dred and  sixty-eight,  it  was  unexpectedly  resumed. 
The  Sovereign,  who  had  been  lately  seated  on  the 
throne  of  Peter  the  Great,  possessed  the  genius  and  , 


talents  of  her  illustrious  predecessor.  During  the 
operations  of  the  most  arduous  and  extensive  war  in 
which  the  Russian  empire  was  ever  engaged,  she 
formed  schemes  and  executed  undertakings,  to  which 
more  limited  abilities  would  have  been  incapable  of 
attending  but  amidst  the  leisure  of  pacific  times.  A 
new  voyage  of  discovery  from  the  eastern  extremity 
of  Asia  was  planned,  and  Captain  Krenitzin  and 
Lieutenant  Levasheff  were  appointed  to  command 
the  two  vessels  fitted  out  for  that  purpose.  In  their 
voyage  outward  they  held  nearly  the  same  course 
with  the  former  navigators,  they  touched  at  the  same 
islands,  observed  their  situations  and  productions 
more  carefully,  and  discovered  several  new  islands, 
with  which  Behring  and  Tschirikow  had  not  fallen 
in.  Though  they  did  not  proceed  so  far  to  the  east 
as  to  revisit  the  country  which  Behring  and  Tschirikow 
supposed  to  be  part  of  the  American  continent,  yet, 
by  returning  in  a  course  considerably  to  the  north  of 
theirs,  they  corrected  some  capital  mistakes  into 
which  their  predecessors  had  fallen,  and  have  contri- 
buted to  facilitate  the  progress  of  future  navigators 
in  those  seas  (42). 

Thus  the  possibility  of  a  communication  between 
the  continents  in  this  quarter  rests  no  longer  upon 
mere  conjecture,  but  is  established  by  undoubted 
evidence.  Some  tribe  or  some  families  of  wandering 
Tartars,  from  the  restless  spirit  peculiar  to  their  race, 
might  migrate  to  the  nearest  islands,  and,  rude  as 
their  knowledge  of  navigation  was,  might,  by  passing 
from  one  to  the  other,  reach  at  length  the  coast  of 
America,  and  give  a  beginning  to  population  in  that 
continent.  The  distance  between  the  Marian  or 
Ladrone  islands  and  the  nearest  land  in  Asia,  is 
greater  than  that  between  the  part  of  America  which 
the  Russians  discovered,  and  the  coast  of  Kamchatka  ; 
and  yet  the  inhabitants  of  those  islands  are  manifestly 
of  Asiatic  extract.  If,  notwithstanding  their  remote 
situation,  we  admit  that  the  Marian  islands  were 
peopled  from  our  continent,  distance  alone  is  no 
reason  why  we  should  hesitate  about  admitting  that 
the  Americans  may  derive  their  original  from  the 
same  source.  It  is  probable  that  future  navigators 
in  those  seas,  by  steering  further  to  the  no'rth,  may 
find  that  the  continent  of  America  approaches  still 
nearer  to  Asia.  According  to  the  information  of  the 
barbarous  people  who  inhabit  the  country  about  the 
north-east  promontory  of  Asia,  there  lies,  off  the 
coast,  a  small  island,  to  which  they  sail  in  less  than 
a  day.  From  that  they  can  descry  a  large  continent, 
which  according  to  their  description,  is  covered  with 
forests,  and  possessed  by  people  whose  language  they 
do  not  understand.  By  them  they  are  supplied  with 
the  skins  of  martens,  an  animal  unknown  in  the 
northern  parts  of  Siberia,  and  which  is  never  found 
but  in  countries  abounding  with  trees.  If  we  could 
rely  on  this  account,  we  might  conclude,  that  the 
American  continent  is  separated  from  ours  only  by  a 
narrow  strait,  and  all  the  difficulties  with  respect  to 
the  communication  between  them  would  vanish. 
What  could  be  offered  only  as  a  conjecture  when  this 
History  was  first  published,  is  now  known  to  be  cer- 
tain. The  near  approach  of  the  two  continents  to  each 
other  has  been  discovered  and  traced  in  a  voyatre 
undertaken  upon  principles  so  pure  and  so  liberal, 
and  conducted  with  so  much  professional  skill,  as 
reflect  lustre  upon  the  reign  of  the  sovereign  by 
whom  it  was  planned,  and  do  honour  to  the  officers 
intrusted  with  the  execution  of  it  (43). 

It  is  likewise  evident  from  recent  discoveries,  that 
an  intercourse  between  our  continent  and  America 
might  be  carried  on  with  no  less  facility  from  the 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


69 


north-west  extremities  of  Europe.  As  early  as  the 
ninth  century,  the  Norwegians  discovered  Greenland, 
[A.  D.  830,]  and  planted  colonies  there.  The  com- 
munication with  that  country,  after  a  long  interrup- 
tion, was  renewed  in  the  last  century.  Some  Lutheran 
and  Moravian  missionaries,  prompted  by  zeal  for 
propagating  the  Christian  faith,  have  ventured  to 
settle  in  this  frozen  and  uncultivated  region.  To 
them  we  are  indebted  for  much  curious  information 
with  respect  to  its  nature  and  inhabitants.  We  learn, 
that  the  north-west  coast  of  Greenland  is  separated 
from  America  by  a  very  nairow  strait  ;  that,  at  the 
bottom  of  the  bay  into  which  this  strait  conducts,  it 
is  highly  probable  that  they  are  united  ;  that  the 
inhabitants  of  the  two  countries  have  some  inter- 
course with  one  another  ;  that  the  Esquimaux  of 
America  perfectly  resemble  the  Greenlanders  in  their 
aspect,  dress,  and  mode  of  living  ;  that  some  sailors 
who  had  acquired  the  knowledge  of  a  few  words  in  the 
Greenlandish  language,  reported  that  these  were 
understood  by  the  Esquimaux  ;  that,  at  length,  [A.  D. 
1764,]  a  Moravian  missionary,  well  acquainted  with 
the  language  of  Greenland,  having  visited  the  country 
of  the  Esquimaux,  found,  to  his  astonishment,  that 
they  spoke  the  same  language  with  the  Greenlanders  ; 
that  they  were  in  every  respect  the  same  people,  and 
he  was  accordingly  received  and  entertained  by  them 
as  a  friend  and  a  brother. 

By  these  decisive  facts,  not  only  the  consanguinity 
of  the  Esquimaux  and  Greenlanders  is  established, 
but  the  possibility  of  peopling  America  from  the 
north  of  Europe  is  demonstrated.  If  the  Norwegians, 
in  a  barbarous  age,  when  science  had  not  begun  to 
dawn  in  the  north  of  Europe,  possessed  such  naval 
skill  as  to  open  a  communication  with  Greenland, 
their  ancestors,  as  much  addicted  to  roving  by  sea  as 
the  Tartars  are  to  wandering  by  land,  might,  at  some 
more  remote  period,  accomplish  the  same  voyage,  and 
settle  a  colony  there,  whose  descendants  might,  in 
progress  of  time,  migrate  into  America.  But  if, 
instead  of  venturing  to  sail  directly  from  their  own 
coast  to  Greenland,  we  suppose  that  the  Norwegians 
held  a  more  cautious  course,  and  advanced  from 
Shetland  to  the  Feroe  Islands,  and  from  them  to 
Iceland,  in  all  which  they  had  planted  colonies  ;  their 
progress  may  have  been  so  gradual,  that  this  naviga- 
tion cannot  be  considered  as  either  longer  or  more 
hazardous,  than  those  voyages  which  that  hardy  and 
enterprising  race  of  men  is  known  to  have  performed 
in  every  age. 

8.  Though  it  be  possible  that  America  may  have 
received  its  first  inhabitants  from  our  continent, 
either  by  the  north-west  of  Europe  or  the  north-east 
of  Asia,  there  seems  to  be  good  reason  for  supposing 
that  the  progenitors  of  all  the  American  nations, 
from  Cape  Horn  to  the  southern  confines  of  Labrador, 
migrated  from  the  latter  rather  than  the  former. 
The  Esquimaux  are  the  only  people  in  America, 
who,  in  their  aspect  or  character,  bear  any  resem- 
blance to  the  northern  Europeans.  They  are  mani- 
festly a  race  of  men  distinct  from  all  the  nations  of 
the  American  continent,  in  language,  in  disposition, 
and  in  habits  of  life.  Their  original,  then,  may 
warrantably  be  traced  up  to  that  source  which  I  have 
pointed  out.  But  among  all  the  other  inhabitants  of 
America,  there  is  such  a  striking  similitude  in  the 
form  of  their  bodies  and  the  qualities  of  their  minds, 
that,  notwithstanding  the  diversities  occasioned  by 
the  influence  of  climate,  or  unequal  progress  in  im- 
provement, we  must  pronounce  them  to  be  descended 
from  one  source.  There  may  be  a  variety  in  the 
shades,  but  we  can  every  where  trace  the  same 


original  colour.  F-ich  tribe  has  something  peculiar 
which  distinguishes  it,  but  in  all  of  them  we  discern 
certain  features  common  to  the  whole  race.  It  is 
remarkable,  that  in  every  peculiarity,  whether  in 
their  persons  or  dispositions,  which  characterise  the 
Americans,  they  have  some  resemblance  to  the  rude 
tribes  scattered  over  the  north-east  of  Asia,  but 
almost  none  to  the  nations  settled  in  the  northern 
extremities  of  Europe.  We  may,  therefore,  iefer 
them  to  the  former  origin,  and  conclude  that  their 
Asiatic  progenitors,  having  settled  in  those  parts  of 
America  where  the  Russians  have  discovered  the 
proximity  of  the  two  continents,  spread  gradually 
over  its  various  regions.  This  account  of  the  progress 
of  population  in  America  coincides  with  the  traditions 
of  the  Mexicans  concerning  their  own  origin,  which, 
imperfect  as  they  are,  were  preserved  with  more 
accuracy,  and  merit  greater  credit,  than  those  of  any 
people  in  the  New  World.  According  to  them,  their 
ancestors  came  from  a  remote  country,  situated  to 
the  north-west  of  Mexico.  The  Mexicans  point  out 
their  various  stations  as  they  advanced  from  this  into 
the  interior  provinces,  and  it  is  precisely  the  same 
route  which  they  must  have  held,  if  they  had  been 
emigrants  from  Asia.  The  Mexicans,  in  describing 
the  appearance  of  their  progenitors,  their  manners 
and  habits  of  life  at  that  period,  exactly  delineate 
those  of  the  rude  Tartars,  from  whom  I  suppose  them 
to  have  sprung. 

Thus  have  I  finished  a  disquisition  which  has  been 
deemed  of  so  much  importance,  that  it  would  have 
been  improper  to  omit  it  in  writing  the  history  of 
America.  I  have  ventured  to  inquire,  but  without 
presuming  to  decide.  Satisfied  with  offering  conjec- 
tures, I  pretend  not  to  establish  any  system.  When 
an  investigation  is,  from  its  nature,  so  intricate  and 
obscure,  that  it  is  impossible  to  arrive  at  conclusions 
which  are  certain,  there  may  be  some  merit  in  pointing 
out  such  as  are  probable. 

The  condition  and  character  of  the  American 
nations  at  the  time  when  they  became  known  to  the 
Europeans,  deserve  more  attentive  consideration  than 
the  inquiry  concerning  their  original.  The  latter  is 
merely  an  object  of  curiosity  ;  the  former  is  one  of 
the  most  important  as  well  as  instructive  researches 
which  can  occupy  the  philosopher  or  historian.  In 
order  to  complete  the  history  of  the  human  mind,  and 
attain  to  a  perfect  knowledge  of  its  nature  and  opera- 
tions, we  must  contemplate  man  in  all  those  various 
situations  wherein  he  has  been  placed.  We  must 
follow  him  in  his  progress  through  the  different 
stages  of  society,  as  he  gradually  advances  from  the 
infant  state  of  civil  life  towards  its  maturity  and 
decline.  We  must  observe,  at  each  period,  how  the 
faculties  of  his  understanding  unfold ;  we  must  attend 
to  the  efforts  of  his  active  power,  watch  the  various 
movements  of  desire  and  affection,  as  they  rise  in  his 
breast,  and  mark  whither  they  tend,  and  with  what 
ardour  they  are  exerted.  The  philosophers  and  his- 
torians of  ancient  Greece  and  Rome,  our  guides  in 
this  as  well  as  every  other  disquisition,  had  only  a 
limited  view  of  this  subject,  as  they  had  hardly  any 
opportunity  of  surveying  man  in  his  rudest  and  most 
early  state.  In  all  those  regions  of  the  earth  with 
which  they  were  well  acquainted,  civil  society  had 
made  considerable  advances,  and  nations  had  finished 
a  good  part  of  their  career  before  they  began  to 
observe  them.  The  Scythians  and  Germans,  the 
rudest  people  of  whom  any  ancient  author  has  trans- 
mitted to  us  an  authentic  account,  possessed  flocks 
and  herds,  had  acquired  property  of  various  kinds, 
and,  when  compared  with  mankind  in  their  primitive 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


state,   may  be  reckoned  to  have  attained  to  a  great 
degree  of  civilization. 

But  the  discovery  of  the  New  World  enlarged  the 
sphere  of  contemplation,  and  presented  nations  to  our 
view,  in  stages  of  their  progress  much  less  advanced 
than  those  wherein  they  have  been  observed  in  our 
continent.  In  America,  man  appears  under  the  rudest 
form  in  which  we  can  conceive  him  to  subsist.  We 
behold  communities  just  beginning  to  unite,  and  may 
examine  the  sentiments  and  actions  of  human  beings 
in  the  infancy  of  social  life,  while  they  feel  but  im- 
perfectly the  force  of  its  tics,  and  have  scarcely  relin- 
quished their  native  liberty.  That  state  of  primaeval 
simplicity,  which  was  known  in  our  continent,  only 
by  the  fanciful  description  of  poets,  really  existed  in 
the  other.  The  greater  part  of  its  inhabitants  were 
strangers  to  industry  and  labour,  ignorant  of  arts, 
imperfectly  acquainted  with  the  nature  of  property, 
and  enjoying  almost  without  restriction  or  control 
the  blessings  which  flowed  spontaneously  from  the 
bounty  of  nature.  There  Avere  only  two  nations  in 
this  vast  continent  which  had  emerged  from  this  rude 
state,  and  had  made  any  considerable  progress  in 
acquiring  the  ideas,  and  adopting  the  institutions, 
which  belong  to  polished  societies.  Their  govern- 
ment and  manners  will  fall  naturally  under  our 
review  in  relating  the  discovery  and  conquest  of  the 
Mexican  and  Peruvian  empires  ;  and  we  shall  have 
there  an  opportunity  of  contemplating  the  Americans 
in  the  state  of  highest  improvement  to  which  they 
ever  attained. 

At  present,  our  attention  and  researches  shall  be 
turned  to  the  small  independent  tribes  which  occupied 
every  other  part  of  America.  Among  these,  though 
with  some  diversity  in  their  character,  their  manners,  1 
and  institutions,  the  state  of  society  was  nearly  similar, 
and  so  extremely  rude,  that  the  denomination  of  savage 
may  be  applied  to  them  all.  In  a  general  history  of 
America,  it  would  be  highly  improper  to  describe  the 
condition  of  each  petty  community,  or  to  investigate 
every  minute  circumstance  which  contributes  to  form 
the  character  of  its  members.  Such  an  inquiry  would 
lead  to  details  of  immeasurable  and  tiresome  extent. 
The  qualities  belonging  to  the  people  of  all  the  dif- 
ferent tribes  have  such  a  near  resemblance,  that  they 
may  be  painted  with  the  same  features.  Where  any 
circumstances  seem  to  constitute  a  diversity  in  their 
character  and  manners  worthy  of  attention,  it  will  be 
sufficient  to  point  these  out  as  they  occur,  and  to 
inquire  into  the  cause  of  such  peculiarities. 

It  is  extremely  difficult  to  procure  satisfying  and 
authentic  information  concerning  nations  while  they 
remain  uncivilized.  To  discover  their  true  character 
under  this  rude  form,  and  to  select  the  features  by 
which  they  are  distinguished,  requires  an  observer 
possessed  of  no  less  impartiality  than  discernment. 
For,  in  every  state  of  society,  the  faculties,  the  senti- 
ments, and  desires  of  men,  are  so  accommodated  to 
their  own  state,  that  they  become  standards  of  excel- 
lence to  themselves,  they  affix  the  idea  of  perfection 
and  happiness  to  those  attainments  which  resemble 
their  own,  and  wherever  the  objects  and  enjoyments 
to  which  they  have  been  accustomed  are  wanting, 
confidently  pronounce  a  people  to  be  barbarous  and 
miserable.  Hence  the  mutual  contempt  with  which 
the  members  of  communities,  unequal  in  their  degrees 
of  improvement,  regard  each  other.  Polished  nations, 
conscious  of  the  advantages  which  they  deiive  from 
their  knowledge  and  arts,  are  apt  to  view  rude 
nations  with  peculiar  scorn,  anJ,  in  the  pride  of  supe- 
riority, will  hardly  allow  either  their  occupations,  their 
feelings,  or  their  pleasures,  to  be  worthy  of  men.  It 


has  seldom  been  the  lot  of  communities,  in  their  early 
and  unpolished  state,  to  fall  under  the  observation  of 
persons  endowed  with  force  of  mind  superior  to 
vulgar  prejudices,  and  capable  of  contemplating  man, 
under  whatever  aspect  he  appears,  with  a  candid  and 
discerning  eye. 

The  Spaniards,  who  first  visited  Tvmerica,  and  who 
had  opportunity  of  beholding  its  various  tribes  while 
entire  and  unsubdued,  and  before  any  change  had 
been  made  in  their  ideas  or  manners  by  intercourse 
with  a  race  of  men  much  advanced  beyond  them  in 
improvement,  were  far  from  possessing  the  qualities 
requisite  for  observing  the  sti iking  spectacle  pre- 
sented to  their  view.  Neither  the  age  in  which  they 
lived,  nor  the  nation  to  which  they  belonged,  had 
made  such  progress  in  true  science,  as  inspires  en- 
larged and  liberal  sentiments.  The  conquerors  of 
the  New  World  were  mostly  illiterate  adventurers,  des- 
titute of  all  the  ideas  which  should  have  directed  them 
in  contemplating  objects  so  extremely  different  from 
those  with  which  they  were  acquainted.  Surrounded 
continually  with  danger,  or  struggling  with  hardships, 
they  had  little  leisure,  and  less  capacity,  for  any  specu- 
lative inquiry.  Eager  to  take  possession  of  a  country 
of  such  extent  and  opulence,  and  happy  in  finding  it 
occupied  by  inhabitants  so  incapable  to  defend  it, 
they  hastily  pronounced  them  to  be  a  wretched  order 
of  men,  formed  merely  for  servitude;  and  were  more 
employed  in  computing  the  profits  of  their  labour, 
than  inquiring  into  the  operations  of  their  minds,  or 
the  reasons  of  their  customs  and  institutions.  The 
persons  who  penetrated  at  subsequent  periods  into 
the  interior  provinces,  to  which  the  knowledge  and 
devastations  of  the  first  conquerors  did  not  reach, 
were  generally  of  a  similar  character ;  brave  and 
enterprising  in  a  high  degree,  but  so  uninformed  as 
to  be  little  qualified  either  for  observing  or  describing 
what  they  beheld. 

Not  only  the  incapacity,  but  the  prejudices  of  the 
Spaniards,  render  their  accounts  of  the  people  of 
America  extremely  defective.  Soon  after  they  planted 
colonies  in  their  new  conquests,  a  difference  in  opinion 
arose  with  respect  to  the  treatment  of  the  natives. 
One  party  solicitous  to  render  their  servitude  per- 
petual, represented  them  as  a  brutish,  obstinate  race, 
incapable  of  either  acquiring  religious  knowledge,  or  of 
being  trained  to  the  functions  of  social  life.  The 
other  full  of  pious  concern  for  their  conversion,  con- 
tended that,  though  rude  and  ignorant,  they  were 
gentle,  affectionate,  docile,  and  by  proper  instructions 
and  regulations  might  be  formed  gradually  into  good 
Christians  and  useful  citizens.  This  controversy,  as 
I  have  already  related,  was  carried  on  with  all  the 
warmth  which  is  natural  when  attention  to  interest 
on  the  one  hand,  and  religious  zeal  on  the  other, 
animate  the  disputants.  Most  of  the  laity  espoused 
the  former  opinion ;  all  the  ecclesiastics  were  advo- 
cates for  the  latter  ;  and  we  shall  uniformly  find,  that, 
accordingly  as  an  author  belonged  to  either  of  these 
parties,  he  is  apt  to  magnify  the  virtues  or  aggravate 
the  defects  of  the  Americans  far  beyond  truth. 
Those  repugnant  accounts  increase  the  difficulty  of 
attaining  a  perfect  knowledge  of  their  character,  and 
render  it  necessary  to  peruse  all  the  descriptions  of 
them  by  Spanish  w liters  with  distrust,  and  to 
receive  their  information  with  some  grains  of 
allowance. 

Almost  two  centuries  elapsed  after  the  discovery  of 
America,  before  the  manners  of  its  inhabitants  at- 
tracted in  any  considerable  degree,  the  attention  of 
philosophers.  At  length  they  discovered,  that  the 
contemplation  of  the  cundhioii  and  character  of  the 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Americans,  in  their  original  state,  tended  to  complete 
our  knowledge  of  the  human  species ;  might  enable 
us  to  fill  up  a  considerable  chasm  in  the  history  of  its 
progress  ;  and  lead  to  speculations  no  less  curious 
than  important.  They  entered  upon  this  new  field  of 
study  with  great  ardour  ;  but,  instead  of  throwing 
light  upon  the  subject,  they  have  contributed  in 
some  degree  to  involve  it  in  additional  obscurity. 
Too  impatient  to  inquire,  the}'  hastened  to  decide  ; 
and  began  to  erect  systems,  when  they  should  have 
been  searching  for  facts  on  which  to  establish  their 
foundations.  Struck  with  the  appearance  of  dege- 
neracy in  the  human  species'  throughout  the  New 
Word,  and  astonished  at  beholding  a  vast  continent 
occupied  bv  a  naked,  feeble,  and  ignorant  race  of  men, 
some  authors  of  great  name  have  maintained  that 
this  part  of  the  globe  had  but  lately  emerged  from 
the  sea,  and  become  fit  for  the  residence  of  man  ;  that 
every  thing  in  it  bore  marl's  of  a  recent  original ; 
and  that  its  inhabitants,  lately  called  into  existence, 
and  still  at  the  beginning  of  their  career,  were  un- 
worthy to  be  compared  with  the  people  of  a  more 
ancient  and  improved  continent.  Others  have  ima- 
gined, that,  under  the  influence  of  an  unkindly  climate, 
which  checks  and  enervates  the  principle  of  life,  man 
never  attained  in  America  the  perfection  which  be- 
longs to  his  nature,  but  remained  an  animal  of  an 
inferior  order,  defective  in  tho  vigour  of  his  bodily 
frame,  and  destitute  of  sensibility,  as  well  as  of  force, 
in  the  operations  of  his  mind.  In  opposition  to  both 
those,  other  philosophers  have  supposed  that  man 
arrives  at  his  highest  dignity  and  excellence  long  be- 
fore he  reaches  a  state  of  refinement  ;  and,  in  the 
rude  simplicity  of  savage  life,  displays  an  elevation  of 
sentiment,  an  independence  of  mind,  and  a  warmth 
of  attachment,  for  which  it  is  vain  to  search  among 
the  members  of  polished  societies.  They  seem  to 
consider  that  ns  the  most  perfect  state  of  man  which 
is  the  least  civilized.  They  describe  the  manners  of 
the  rude  Americans  with  such  rapture,  as  if  they 
proposed  them  for  models  to  the  rest  of  the  species. 
These  contradictory  theories  have  boon  proposed  with 
equal  confidence,  and  uncommon  powers  of  genius 
and  eloquence  have  been  exerted  in  order  to  clothe 
them  with  an  appearance  of  truth. 

As  all  those  circumstances  concur  in  rendering  an 
inquiry  into  the  state  of  the  rude  nations  in  America 
intricate  and  obscure,  it  is  necessary  to  carry  it  on 
with  caution.  \Vhen  guided  in  our  researches  by  the 
intelligent  observations  of  the  few  philosophers  who 
have  visited  this  part  of  the  globe  we  may  venture 
to  decide.  When  obliged  to  have  recourse  to  the 
superficial  remarks  of  vulgar  travellers,  of  sailors, 
traders,  buccaneers,  and  missionaries,  we  must  often 
pause  and,  comparing  detached  facts,  endeavour  to 
discover  what  they  wanted  sagacity  to  observe. 
Without  indulging  conjecture,  or  betraying  a  pro- 
pensity to  either  system,  we  must  study  with  equal 
care  to  avoid  the  extremes  of  extravagant  admiration 
or  of  supercilious  contempt  for  those  manners  which 
we  describe. 

In  order  to  conduct  this  inquiry  with  greater 
accuracy,  it  should  be  rendered  as  simple  as  possible. 
Man  existed  as  an  individual  before  he  became  the 
member  of  a  community  ;  and  the  qualities  which 
belong  to  him  under  his  former  capacity  should  be 
known,  before  we  proceed  to  examine  those  which 
rise  from  the  latter  relation.  This  is  peculiarly 
necessary  in  investigating  the  manners  of  rude 
nations.  Their  political  union  is  so  incomplete, 
their  civil  institutions  and  regulations  so  few,  so 
simple,  and  of  such  slender  authority,  that  men  in 


this  state  ought  to  be  viewed  rather  as  independent 
agents,  than  as  members  of  a  regular  society.  The 
character  of  a  savage  results  almost  entirely  from  his 
sentiments  or  feelings  as  an  individual,  and  is  but 
little  influenced  by  his  imperfect  subjection  to 
government  and  order.  I  shall  conduct  my  researches 
concerning  the  manners  of  the  Amerioansin  this  natural 
ovder,  proceeding  gradually  from  what  is  simple  to 
what  is  more  complicated. 

I  shall  consider,  I.  The  bodily  constitution  of  the 
Americans  in  those  regions  now  under  review.  If. 
The  qualities  of  their  minds.  III.  Their  domestic 
state.  IV.  Their  political  state  and  institutions.  V. 
Their  system  of  war,  and  public  security.  VI.  The 
arts  with  which  they  were  acquainted.  VII.  Their 
religious  ideas  and  institutions.  VIII.  Such  singular 
detached  customs  as  are  not  reducible  to  any  of  the 
former  heads.  IX.  I  shall  conclude  with  a  general 
review  and  estimate  of  their  virtues  and  defects. 

I.  The  bodily  constitution  of  the  Americans. — The 
human  body  is  less  afl'ected  by  climate  than  that  of 
any  other  animal.  Some  anima's  are  confined  to  a 
particular  region  of  the  globe,  and  cannot  exist  beyond 
it;  others  though  they  may  be  brought  to  bear  the 
injuries  of  a  climate  foreign  to  them,  cease  to  mul- 
tiply when  carried  out  of  that  district  which  nature 
destined  to  be  their  mansion.  Even  such  as  seem 
capable  of  being  naturalized  in  various  climates,  feel 
the  effect  of  every  remove  from  their  proper  station, 
and  gradually  dwindle  and  degenerate  from  the  vigour 
and  perfection  peculiar  to  their  species.  Man  is  the 
only  living  creature  whose  frame  is  at  once  so  hardy 
and  so  flexible,  that  he  can  spread  over  the  whole 
earth,  become  the  inhabitant  of  every  region,  and 
thrive  and  multiply  under  every  climate.  Subject, 
however,  to  the  general  law  of  nature,  the  human 
body  is  not  entirely  exempt  from  the  operation  of 
climate  ;  and  when  exposed  to  the  extremes  either 
of  heat  or  cold,  its  size  or  vigour  diminishes. 

The  first  appearance  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  New 
World  filled  the  discoverers  with  such  astonishment, 
that  they  were  apt  to  imagine  them  a  race  of  men 
different  from  those  of  the  other  hemisphere.  Their 
complexion  is  of  a  reddish  brown,  nearly  resembling 
the  colour  of  copper.  The  hair  of  their  heads  is 
always  black,  long,  coarse,  and  uncurled.  They  have 
no  beard,  and  every  part  of  their  body  is  perfectly 
smooth.  Their  persons  are  of  a  full  size,  extremely 
straight,  and  well  proportioned  (44).  Their  features 
are  regular,  though  often  distorted  by  absurd  endea- 
vours to  improve  the  boauty  of  their  natural  form,  or 
to  render  their  aspect  more  dreadful  to  their  enemies. 
In  the  islands,  where  four-footed  animals  were  both 
few  and  small,  and  the  earth  yielded  her  productions 
almost  spontaneously,  the  constitution  of  the  natives, 
neither  braced  by  the  active  exercises  of  the  chase, 
nor  invigorated  by  the  labour  of  cultivation,  was 
extremely  feeble  and  languid.  On  the  continent, 
where  the  forests  abound  with  game  of  various  kinds, 
and  the  chief  occupation  of  many  tribes  was  to 
pursue  it,  the  human  frame  acquired  greater  firmness. 
Still  however,  the  Americans  were  more  remarkable 
for  agility  than  strength.  They  resembled  beasts  of 
prey,  rather  than  animals  formed  for  labour  (45). 
They  were  not  only  averse  to  toil,  but  incapable  of 
it ;  and  when  roused  by  force  from  their  native  indo- 
lence, and  compelled  to.  work,  they  sunk  under  tasks 
which  the  people  of  the  other  continent  would  have 
performed  with  ease.  This  feebleness  of  constitu- 
tion was  universal  among  the  inhabitants  of  those 
regions  in  America  which  we  are  surveying,  and  may 
be  considered  as  characteristic  of  the  species  there. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


The  beardless  countenance  and  smooth  skin  of  the 
American  seems  to  indicate  a  defect  of  vigour,  occa- 
sioned by  some  vice  in  his  frame.  He  is  destitute 
of  one  sign  of  manhood  and  of  strength.  This  pecu- 
liarity, by  which  the  inhabitants  of  the  New  World 
are  distinguished  from  the  people  of  all  other  nations, 
cannot  be  attributed,  as  some  travellers  have  sup- 
posed, to  their  mode  of  subsistence.  For  though  the 
food  of  many  Americans  be  extremely  insipid,  as 
they  are  altogether  unacquainted  with  the  use  of  salt, 
rude  tribes  in  other  parts  of  the  earth  have  subsisted 
on  aliments  equally  simple,  without  this  mark  of  de- 
gradation, or  any  apparent  symptom  of  a  diminution 
in  their  vigour. 

As  the  external  form  of  the  Americans  leads  us  to 
suspect  that  there  is  some  natural  debility  in  their 
frame,  the  smallness  of  their  appetite  for  food  has 
been  mentioned  by  many  authors  as  a  confirmation 
of  this  suspicion.  The  quantity  of  food  which  men 
consume  varies  according  to  the  temperature  of  the 
climate  in  which  they  live,  the  degree  of  activity 
which  they  exert,  and  the  natural  vigour  of  their 
constitutions.  Under  the  eneivating  heat  of  the 
torrid  zone,  and  when  men  pass  their  days  in  indo- 
lence and  ease,  they  require  less  nourishment  than 
the  active  inhabitants  of  temperate  or  cold  countries. 
But  neither  the  warmth  of  their  climate,  nor  their 
extreme  laziness,  will  account  for  the  uncommon 
defect  of  appetite  among  the  Americans.  The 
Spaniards  were  astonished  with  observing  this,  not 
only  in  the  islands,  but  in  several  parts  of  the  conti- 
nent. The  constitutional  temperance  of  the  natives 
far  exceeded,  in  their  opinion,  the  abstinence  of  the 
most  mortified  hermits  ;  while  on  the  other  hand,  the 
appetite  of  the  Spaniards  appeared  to  the  Americans 
insatiably  voracious;  and  they  affirmed,  that  one 
Spaniard  devoured  more  food  in  a  day  than  was 
sufficient  for  ten  Americans. 

A  proof  of  some  feebleness  in  their  frame,  still 
more  striking,  is  the  insensibility  of  the  Americans 
to  the  charms  of  beauty  and  the  power  of  love.  That 
passion,  which  was  destined  to  perpetuate  life,  to  be 
the  bond  of  social  union,  and  the  source  of  tenderness 
and  joy,  is  the  most  aident  in  the  human  breast. 
Though  the  perils  and  hardships  of  the  savage  state, 
though  excessive  fatigue,  on  some  occasions,  and  the 
difficulty  at  all  times  of  procuring  subsistence,  may 
seem  to  be  adverse  to  this  passion,  and  to  have  a 
tendency  to  abate  its  vigour,  yet  the  rudest  nations 
in  every  other  part  of  the  globe  seem  to  feel  its 
influence  more  powerfully  than  the  inhabitants  of  the 
New  World.  The  negro  glows  with  all  the  warmth 
of  desire  natural  to  his  climate  ;  and  the  most  uncul- 
tivated Asiatics  discover  that  sensibility  which, 
from  their  situation  on  the  g  obe,  we  should  expect 
them  to  have  felt.  But  the  Americans  are,  in  an 
amazing  degree,  strangers  to  the  force  of  this  first 
instinct  of  nature.  In  every  part  of  the  New  World 
the  natives  treat  their  women  with  coldness  and  in- 
difference. They  are  neither  the  objects  of  that 
tender  attachment  which  takes  place  in  civilized 
society,  nor  of  that  ardent  desire  conspicuous  among 
rude  nations.  Even  in  climates  where  this  passion 
usually  acquires  its  greatest  vigour,  the  savage  of 
America  views  his  female  with  disdain,  as  an  animal 
of  a  less  noble  species.  He  is  at  no  pains  to  win  her 
favour  by  the  assiduity  of  courtship,  and  still  less 
solicitous  to  preserve  it  by  indulgence  and  gentleness. 
,  Missionaries  themselves,  notwithstanding  the  aus- 
terity of  monastic  ideas,  cannot  refrain  from  ex- 
pressing their  astonishment  at  the  dispassionate 
coldness  of  the  American  young  men  in  their  inter- 


course with  the  other  sex.  Nor  is  this  reserve  to  be 
ascribed  to  any  opinion  which  they  entertain  with 
respect  to  the  merit  of  female  chastity.  That  is  an 
idea  too  refined  for  a  savage,  and  suggested  by  a 
delicacy  of  sentiment  and  affection  to  which  he  is  a 
stranger. 

But  in  inquiries  concerning  either  the  bodily  or 
mental  qualities  of  particular  races  of  men,  there  is  not 
a  more  common  or  more  seducing  error,  than  that  <;f 
ascribing  to  a  single  cause  those  characteristic  pecu- 
liarities, which  are  the  effect  of  the  combined  opera- 
tion of  many  causes.  The  climate  and  soil  of  America 
differ,  in  so  many  respects,  from  those  of  the  other 
hemisphere,  and  this  difference  is  so  obvious  and 
striking,  that  philosophers  of  great  eminence  have 
laid  hold  on  this  as  sufficient  to  account  for  what  is 
peculiar  in  the  constitution  of  its  inhabitants.  They 
rest  on  physical  causes  alone,  and  consider  the  feeble 
frame  and  languid  desire  of  the  Americans,  as  conse- 
quences of  the  temperament  of  that  portion  of  the 
globe  which  they  occupy.  But  the  influences  of 
political  and  moral  causes  ought  not  to  have  been 
overlooked.  These  operate  with  no  less  effect  than 
that  on  which  many  philosophers  rest  as  a  full  expla- 
nation of  the  singular  appearances  which  have  been 
mentioned.  Wherever  the  state  of  society  is  such 
as  to  create  many  wai  ts  and  desires,  which  cannot 
be  satisfied  without  regular  exertions  of  industry, 
the  body  accustomed  to  labour  becomes  robust  and 
patient  of  fatigue.  In  a  more  simple  state,  where  the 
demands  of  men  are  so  few  and  so  moderate,  that 
they  may  be  gratified,  almost  without  any  effort,  by 
the  spontaneous  productions  of  nature,  the  powers  of 
the  body  are  not  called  forth,  nor  can  they  attain 
their  proper  strength.  The  natives  of  Chili  and 
of  North  America,  the  two  temperate  regions  in  the 
New  World,  who  live  by  hunting,  may  be  deemed 
an  active  and  vigorous  race,  when  compared  with  the 
inhabitants  of  the  isles,  or  of  those  parts  of  the  con- 
tinent where  hardly  any  labour  is  requisite  to  procure 
subsistence.  The  exertions  of  a  hunter  are  not,  how- 
ever, so  regular,  or  so  continued,  as  those  of  persons 
employed  in  the  culture  of  the  earth,  or  in  the  various 
arts  of  civilized  life ;  and  though  his  agility  may  be 
greater  than  theirs,  his  strength  is  on  the  whole 
inferior.  If  another  direction  were  given  to  the  active 
powers  of  man  in  the  New  WTorld,  and  his  force 
augmented  by  exercise,  he  might  acquire  a  degree  of 
vigour  which  he  does  not  in  his  present  state  pos- 
sess. The  truth  of  this  is  confirmed  by  experience. 
Wherever  the  Americans  have  been  gradually  accus- 
tomed to  hard  labour,  their  constitutions  become 
robust,  and  they  have  been  found  capable  of  per- 
forming such  tasks  as  seemed  not  only  to  exceed  the 
powers  of  such  a  feeble  frame  as  has  been  deemed 
peculiar  to  their  country,  but  to  equal  any  effort  of 
the  natives  either  of  Africa  or  of  Europe  (46). 

The  same  reasoning  will  apply  to  what  has  been 
observed  concerning  their  slender  demand  for  food. 
As  a  proof  that  this  should  be  ascribed  as  much 
to  their  extreme  indolence,  and  often  total  want  of 
occupation,  as  to  anything  peculiar  in  the  physical 
structure  of  their  bodies,  it  has  been  observed,  that 
in  those  districts  where  the  people  of  America  are 
obliged  to  exert  any  unusual  effort  of  activity,  in 
order  to  procure  subsistence,  or  wherever  they  are 
employed  in  severe  labour,  their  appetite  is  not 
inferior  to  that  of  other  men,  and,  in  some  places,  it 
has  struck  observers  as  remarkably  voracious. 

The  operation  of  political  and  moral  causes  is 
still  more  conspicuous,  in  modifying  the  degree  of 
attachment  between  the  sexes.  In  a  state  of  high 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


civilization,  this  passion,  inflamed  by  restraint,  re- 
fined by  delicacy,  and  cherished  by  fashion,  occupies 
and  engrosses  the  heart.  It  is  no  longer  a  simple 
instinct  of  nature ;  sentiment  heightens  the  ardour 
of  desire,  and  the  most  tender  emotions  of  which 
our  frame  is  susceptible,  soothe  and  agitate  the  soul. 
This  description,  however,  applies  only  to  those,  who, 
by  their  situation,  are  exempted  from  the  cares  and 
labours  of  life.  Among  persons  of  inferior  order,  who 
are  doomed  by  their  condition  to  incessant  toil,  the 
dominion  of  this  passion  is  less  violent  ;  their  solici- 
tude to  procure  subsistence,  and  to  provide  for  the 
first  demand  of  nature,  leaves  little  leisure  for  attend- 
ing to  its  second  call.  But  if  the  nature  of  the  inter- 
course between  the  sexes  varies  so  much  in  persons 
of  different  rank  in  polished  societies,  the  condition 
of  man,  while  he  remains  uncivilized,  must  occasion  a 
variation  still  more  apparent.  We  may  well  suppose, 
that  amidst  the  hardships,  the  dangers,  and  the  sim- 
plicity of  savage  life,  where  subsistence  is  always 
precarious,  and  often  scanty,  where  men  are  almost 
continually  engaged  in  the  pursuit  of  their  enemies, 
or  in  guarding  against  their  attacks,  and  where  neither 
dress  nor  reserve  are  employed  as  arts  of  female 
allurement,  that  the  attention  of  the  Americans  to 
their  women  would  be  extremely  feeble,  without  im- 
puting this  solely  to  any  physical  defect  or  degrada- 
tion in  their  frame. 

It  is  accordingly  observed,  that  in  those  countries 
of  America,  where,  from  the  fertility  of  the  soil,  the 
mildness  of  the  climate,  or  some  further  advances 
which  the  natives  have  made  in  improvement,  the 
means  of  subsistence  are  more  abundant,  and  the 
hardships  of  savage  life  are  less  severely  felt,  the 
animal  passion  of  the  sexes  becomes  more  ardent. 
Striking  examples  of  this  occur  among  some  tribes 
seatod  on  the  banks  of  great  rivers  well  stored  with 
food,  among  others  who  are  masters  of  hunting 
grounds  abounding  so  much  with  game,  that  they 
have  a  regular  and  plentiful  supply  of  nourishment 
with  little  labour.  The  superior  degree  of  security 
and  affluence  which  these  tribes  enjoy,  is  followed  by 
their  natural  effects.  The  passions  implanted  in  the 
human  frame  by  the  hand  of  nature  acquire  addi- 
tional force  ;  new  tastes  and  desires  are  formed  ;  the 
women,  as  they  are  more  valued  and  admired, 
become  more  attentive  to  dress  and  ornament ;  the 
men,  beginning  to  feel  how  much  of  their  own 
happiness  depends  upon  them,  no  longer  disdain  the 
arts  of  winning  their  favour  and  affection.  The 
intercourse  of  the  sexes  becomes  very  different  from 
that  which  takes  place  among  their  luder  country- 
men; and  as  hardly  any  restraint  is  imposed  on  the 
gratification  of  desire,  either  by  religion,  or  laws, 
or  decency,  the  dissolution  of  their  manners  is  ex- 
cessive. 

Notwithstanding  the  feeble  make  of  the  Ameri- 
cans, hardly  any  of  them  are  deformed,  or  mutilated, 
or  defective  in  any  of  their  senses.  All  travellers 
have  been  struck  with  this  circumstance,  and  have 
celebrated  the  uniform  symmetry  and  perfection  of 
their  external  figure.  Some  authors  search  for  the 
cause  of  this  appearance  in  their  physical  condition. 
As  the  parents  are  not  exhausted  or  over-fatigued 
with  hard  labour,  they  suppose  that  their  children 
are  born  vigorous  and  sound.  They  imagine,  that  in 
the  liberty  of  savage  life,  the  human  body,  naked 
and  unconfined  from  its  earliest  age,  preserves  its 
natural  form ;  and  that  all  its  limbs  and  members 
acquire  a  juster  proportion,  than  when  fettered  with 
artificial  restraints,  which  stint  its  growth  and  distort 
its  shape.  Something,  without  doubt,  may  be 
HISTORY  OF  AMERICA,  No.  10. 


ascribed  to  the  operation  of  these  causes ;  but  the 
true  reasons  of  this  apparent  advantage,  which  is 
common  to  all  savage  nations,  lie  deeper,  and  are 
closely  interwoven  with  the  nature  and  genius  of  that 
state.  The  infancy  of  man  is  so  long  and  so  helpless, 
that  it  is  extremely  difficult  to  rear  children  among 
rude  nations.  Their  means  of  subsistence  are  not 
only  scanty,  but  precarious.  Such  as  live  by  hunting 
must  range  over  extensive  countries,  and  shift  often 
from  place  to  place.  The  care  of  children,  as  well 
as  every  other  laborious  task,  is  devolved  upon  the 
women.  The  distresses  and  hardships  of  the  savage 
life,  which  are  often  such  as  can  hardly  be  supported 
by  persons  in  full  vigour,  must  be  fatal  to  those  of 
more  tender  age.  Afraid  of  undertaking  a  task  so 
laborious,  and  of  such  long  duration-,  as  that  of  rear- 
ing their  offspring,  the  women,  in  some  parts  of 
America,  procure  frequent  abortions  by  the  use  of 
certain  herbs,  and  extinguish  the  first  sparks  of  that 
life  which  they  are  unable  to  cherish.  Sensible  that 
only  stout  and  well  formed  children  have  force  of 
constitution  to  struggle  through  such  a  hard  infancy, 
other  nations  abandon  and  destroy  such  of  their 
progeny  as  appear  feeble  or  defective,  as  unworthy 
of  attention.  Even  when  they  endeavour  to  rear  all 
their  children  without  distinction,  so  great  a  propor- 
tion of  the  whole  number  perishes  under  the  rigorous 
treatment  which  must  be  their  lot  in  the  savage 
state,  that  few  of  those  who  laboured  under  any 
original  frailty  attain  the  age  of  manhood.  Thus,  in 
polished  societies,  where  the  means  of  subsistence 
are  secured  with  certainty,  and  acquired  with  ease; 
where  the  talents  of  the  mind  are  often  of  more 
importance  than  the  powers  of  the  body ;  children 
are  preserved  notwithstanding  their  defects  or  de- 
formity, and  grow  up  to  be  useful  citizens.  In  rude 
nations,  such  persons  are  either  cut  off  as  soon  as 
they  are  born,  or,  becoming  a  burden  to  themselves 
and  to  the  community,  cannot  long  protract  their 
lives.  But  in  those  provinces  of  the  New  World, 
where,  by  the  establishment  of  the  Europeans,  more 
regular  provision  has  been  made  for  the  subsistence 
of  its  inhabitants,  and  they  are  restrained  from  lay- 
ing violent  hands  on  their  children,  the  Americans 
are  so  far  from  being  eminent  for  any  superior  per- 
fection in  their  form,  that  one  should  rather  suspect 
some  peculiar  imbecility  in  their  race,  from  the 
extraordinary  number  of  individuals  who  are  de- 
formed, dwarfish,  mutilated,  blind,  or  deaf. 

How  feeble  soever  the  constitution  of  the  Ameri- 
cans may  be,  it  is  remarkable,  that  there  is  less 
variety  in  the  human  form  throughout  the  New 
World,  than  in  the  ancient  continent.  When 
Columbus  and  the  other  discoverers  first  visited  the 
different  countries  of  America  which  lie  within  the 
torrid  zone,  they  naturally  expected  to  find  people  of 
the  same  complexion  with  those  in  the  corresponding 
regions  of  the  other  hemisphere.  To  their  amaze- 
ment, however,  they  discovered  that  America  con- 
tained no  negroes ;  and  the  cause  of  this  singular 
appearance  became  as  much  the  object  of  curiosity, 
as  the  fact  itself  was  of  wonder.  In  what  part  or 
membrane  of  the  body  that  humour  resides  which 
tinges  the  complexion  of  the  negro  with  a  deep 
black,  it  is  the  business  of  anatomists  to  inquire  and 
describe.  The  powerfnl  operation  of  heat  appears 
manifestly  to  be  the  cause  which  produces  this 
striking  variety  in  the  human  species.  All  Europe, 
a  great  part  of  Asia,  and  the  temperate  countries  of 
Africa,  are  inhabited  by  men  of  a  white  complexion. 
All  the  torrid  zone  in  Africa,  some  of  the  warmer 
regions  adjacent  to  it,  and  several  countries  in  Asia, 


74 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


are  filled  with  people  of  a  deep  black  colour.  If  we 
survey  the  nations  of  our  continent,  making  our 
progress  from  cold  and  temperate  countries  towards 
those  parts  which  are  exposed  to  the  influence  of 
vehement  and  unremitting  heat,  we  shall  find,  that  the 
extreme  whiteness  of  their  skin  soon  begins  to  dimi- 
nish ;  that  its  colour  gradually  deepens  as  we  advance ; 
and  after  passing  through  all  the  successive  gradations 
of  shade,  terminates  in  an  uniform  unvarying  black. 
But  in  America,  where  the  agency  of  heat  is  checked 
and  abated  by  various  causes,  which  I  have  already 
explained,  the  climate  seems  to  be  destitute  of  that 
force  which  produces  such  wonderful  effects  on  the 
human  frame.  The  colour  of  the  natives  of  the 
torrid  zone  in  America  is  hardly  of  a  deeper  hue  than 
that  of  the  people  in  the  more  temperate  parts  of 
their  continent.  Accurate  observers,  who  had  an 
opportunity  of  viewing  the  Americans  in  very  dif- 
ferent climates,  and  in  provinces  far  removed  from 
each  other,  have  been  struck  with  the  amazing  simi- 
larity of  their  figure  and  aspect  (47). 

But  though  the  hand  of  nature  has  deviated  so 
little  from  one  standard  in  fashioning  the  human 
form  in  America,  the  creation  of  fancy  hath  been 
various  and  extravagant.  The  same  fables  that  were 
current  in  the  ancient  continent,  have  been  revived 
with  respect  to  the  New  World,  and  America  too 
has  been  peopled  with  human  beings  of  monstrous 
and  fantastic  appearance.  The  inhabitants  of  certain 
provinces  were  described  to  be  pigmies  of  three  feet 
high ;  those  of  others  to  be  giants  of  an  enormous 
size.  Some  travellers  published  accounts  of  people 
with  only  one  eye ;  others  pretended  to  have  disco- 
vered men  without  heads,  whose  eyes  and  mouths 
were  planted  in  their  breasts.  The  variety  of  nature 
in  her  productions  is  indeed  so  great,  that  it  is  pre- 
sumptuous to  set  bounds  to  her  fertility,  and  to 
reject  indiscriminately  every  relation  that  does  not 
perfectly  accord  with  our  own  limited  observation 
and  experience.  But  the  other  extreme,  of  yielding 
a  hasty  assent,  on  the  slightest  evidence,  to  whatever 
has  the  appearance  of  being  strange  and  marvellous, 
is  still  more  unbecoming  a  philosophical  inquirer ;  as, 
in  every  period,  men  are  more  apt  to  be  betrayed 
into  error,  by  their  weakness  in  believing  too  much, 
than  by  their  arrogance  in  believing  too  little.  In 
proportion  as  science  extends,  and  nature  is  examined 
with,  a  discerning  eye,  the  wonders  which  amused 
ages  of  ignorance  disappear.  The  tales  of  credulous 
travellers  concerning  America  are  forgotten  ;  the 
monsters  which  they  describe  have  been  searched  for 
in  vain ;  and  those  provinces  where  they  pretend  to 
have  found  inhabitants  of  singular  forms,  are  now 
known  to  be  possessed  by  people  nowise  different 
from  the  other  Americans. 

Though  those  relations  may,  without  discussion, 
be  rejected  as  fabulous,  there  are  other  accounts  of 
varieties  in  the  human  species  in  some  parts  of  the 
New  World,  which  rest  upon  better  evidence,  and 
merit  more  attentite  examination.  This  variety  has 
been  particularly  observed  in  three  different  districts. 
The  first  of  these  is  situated  in  the  isthmus  of 
Darien,  near  the  centre  of  America.  Lionel  Wafer, 
a  traveller  possessed  of  more  curiosity  and  intelli- 
gence than  we  should  have  expected  to  find  in  an 
associate  of  buccaneers,  discovered  there  a  race  of 
men,  few  in  number,  but  of  a  singular  make.  They 
are  of  low  stature,  according  to  his  description,  of  a 
feeble  frame,  incapable  of  enduring  fatigue.  Their 
colour  is  a  dead  milk  white ;  not  resembling  that  of 
fair  people  among  Europeans,  but  without  any 
tincture  of  a  blush  or  sanguine  complexion.  The 


skin  is  covered  with  a  fine  hairy  down  of  a  chalky 
white ;  the  hair  of  their  heads,  their  eye-brows,  and 
eye-lashes  are  of  the  same  hue.  Their  eyes  are  of  a 
singular  form,  and  so  weak,  that  they  can  hardly 
bear  the  light  of  the  sun;  but  they  see  clearly  by 
moon-light,  and  are  most  active  and  gay  in  the  night. 
No  race  similar  to  this  has  been  discovered  in  any 
other  part  of  America.  Cortes,  indeed,  found  some 
persons  exactly  resembling  the  white  people  of 
Darien,  among  the  rare  and  monstrous  animals  which 
Montezuma  had  collected.  But  as  the  power  of  the 
Mexican  empire  extended  to  the  provinces  bordering 
on  the  isthmus  of  Darien,  they  were  probably  brought 
thence.  Singular  as  the  appearance  of  those  people 
may  be,  they  cannot  be  considered  as  constituting  a 
distinct  species.  Among  the  negroes  of  Africa,  as  well 
as  the  natives  of  the  Indian  islands,  nature  sometimes 
produces  a  small  number  of  individuals,  with  all  the 
characteristic  features  and  qualities  of  the  white 
people  of  Darien.  The  former  are  called  Albinos  by 
the  Portuguese,  the  latter  Kackerlakes  by  the  Dutch. 
In  Darien  the  parents  of  those  Whites  are  of  the 
same  colour  with  the  other  natives  of  the  country  ; 
and  this  observation  applies  equally  to  the  anomalous 
progeny  of  the  negroes  and  Indians.  The  same 
mother  who  produces  some  children  of  a  colour  that 
does  not  belong  to  the  race,  brings  forth  the  rest  with 
the  complexion  peculiar  to  the  country.  One  con- 
clusion may  then  be  formed  with  respect  to  the 
people  described  by  Wafer,  the  Albinos  and  the 
Kackerlakes;  they  are  a  degenerate  breed,  not  a 
separate  class  of  men ;  and  from  some  disease  or 
defect  of  their  parents,  the  peculiar  colour  and  debi- 
lity which  mark  their  degradation  are  transmitted  to 
them.  As  a  decisive  proof  of  this,  it  has  been 
observed,  that  neither  the  white  people  of  Darien, 
nor  the  Albinos  of  Africa,  propagate  their  race ; 
their  children  are  of  the  colour  and  temperament 
peculiar  to  the  natives  of  their  respective  coun- 
tries (48). 

The  second  district  that  is  occupied  by  inhabitants 
differing  in  appearance  from  the  other  people  of 
America,  is  situated  in  a  high  northern  latitude, 
extending  from  the  coast  of  Labrador  towards  the 
pole,  as  far  as  the  country  is  habitable.  The  people 
scattered  over  those  dreary  regions,  are  known  to  the 
Europeans  by  the  name  of  Esquimaux.  They  them- 
selves, with  that  idea  of  their  own  superiority  which 
consoles  the  rudest  and  most  wretched  nations,  as- 
sume the  name  of  Keralit  or  Men.  They  are  of  a 
middle  size,  and  robust,  with  heads  of  a  dispropor- 
tioned  bulk,  and  feet  as  remarkably  small.  Their 
complexion,  though  swarthy,  by  being  continually 
exposed  to  the  rigour  of  a  cold  climate,  inclines  to 
the  European  white,  rather  than  to  the  copper  colour 
of  America,  and  the  men  have  beards  which  are 
sometimes  bushy  and  long.  From  these  marks  of 
distinction,  as  well  as  from  one  still  less  equivocal, 
the  affinity  of  their  language  to  that  of  the  Green- 
landers,  which  I  have  already  mentioned,  we  may 
conclude,  with  some  degree  of  confidence,  that  the 
Esquimaux  are  a  race  different  from  the  rest  of  the 
Americans. 

We  cannot  decide  with  equal  certainty  concerning 
the  inhabitants  of  the  third  district,  situated  at  the 
southern  extremity  of  America.  These  are  the 
famous  Patagonians,  who,  during  two  centuries  and 
a  half,  have  afforded  a  subject  of  controversy  to  the 
learned,  and  an  object  of  wonder  to  the  vulgar.  They 
are  supposed  to  be  one  of  the  wandering  tribes, 
which  occupy  the  vast  but  least  known  region 
America,  which  extends  from  the  river  de  la  Plata  to 


By 
;s, 

: 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


75 


the  straits  of  Magellan.  Their  proper  station  is  in 
that  part  of  the  interior  country  which  lies  on  the 
banks  of  the  river  Negro ;  but  in  the  hunting  sea- 
son, they  often  roam  as  far  as  the  straits  which 
separate  Tierra  del  Fuego  from  the  main  land.  The 
first  accounts  of  this  people  were  brought  to  Europe 
by  the  companions  of  Magellan,  who  described  them 
as  a  gigantic  race,  above  eight  feet  high,  and  of 
strength  in  proportion  to  their  enormous  size.  Among 
several  tribes  of  animals,  a  disparity  in  bulk  as  con- 
siderable may  be  observed.  Some  large  breeds  of 
horses  and  dogs  exceed  the  more  diminutive  races  in 
stature  and  strength,  as  far  as  the  Patagonian  is  sup- 
posed to  rise  above  the  usual  standard  of  the  human 
body.  But  animals  attain  the  highest  perfection  of 
their  species  only  in  mild  climates,  or  where  they 
find  the  most  nutritive  food  in  greatest  abund- 
ance. It  is  not  then  in  the  uncultivated  waste  of  the 
Magellanic  regions,  and  among  a  tribe  of  improvident 
savages,  that  we  should  expect  to  find  a  man  pos- 
sessing the  highest  honours  of  his  race,  and  distin- 
guished by  a  superiority  of  size  and  vigour,  far 
beyond  what  he  has  reached  in  any  other  part  of  the 
earth.  The  most  explicit  and  unexceptionable  evi- 
dence is  requisite,  in  order  to  establish  a  fact  repug- 
nant to  those  general  principles  and  laws,  which  seem 
to  affect  the  human  frame  in  every  other  instance,  and 
to  decide  with  respect  to  its  nature  and  qualities. 
Such  evidence  has  not  hitherto  been  produced. 
Though  several  persons,  to  whose  testimony  great 
respect  is  due,  have  visited  this  part  of  America 
since  the  time  of  Magellan,  and  have  had  interviews 
with  the  natives  ;  though  some  have  affirmed  that 
such  as  they  saw  were  of  gigantic  stature,  and  others 
have  formed  the  same  conclusion  from  measuring 
their  footsteps,  or  from  viewing  the  skeletons  of  their 
dead ;  yet  their  accounts  vary  from  each  other  in  so 
many  essential  points,  and  are  mingled  with  so  many 
circumstances  manifestly  false  or  fabulous,  as  detract 
much  from  their  credit.  On  the  other  hand,  some 
navigators,  and  those  among  the  most  eminent  of 
their  order  for  discernment  and  accuracy,  have 
asserted  that  the  natives  of  Patagonia,  with  whom 
they  had  intercourse,  though  stout  and  well  made, 
are  not  of  such  extraordinary  size  as  to  be  distin- 
guished from  the  rest  of  the  human  species  (49). 
The  existence  of  this  gigantic  race  of  men  seems, 
then,  to  be  one  of  those  points  in  natural  history, 
with  respect  to  which  a  cautious  inquirer  will  hesi- 
tate, and  will  choose  to  suspend  his  assent,  until 
more  complete  evidence  shall  decide,  whether  he 
ought  to  admit  a  fact,  seemingly  inconsistent  with 
what  reason  and  experience  have  discovered  con- 
cerning the  structure  and  condition  of  man,  in  all 
the  various  situations  in  which  he  has  been  observed. 
In  order  to  form  a  complete  idea  with  respect  to 
the  constitution  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  and  the 
other  hemisphere,  we  should  attend  not  only  to  the 
make  and  vigour  of  their  bodies,  but  consider  what 
degree  of  health  they  enjoy,  and  to  what  period  of 
longevity  they  usually  arrive.  In  the  simplicity  of 
the  savage  state,  when  man  is  not  oppressed  with 
labour,  or  enervated  by  luxury,  or  disquieted  with 
care,  we  are  apt  to  imagine  that  his  life  will  flow  on 
almost  untroubled  by  disease  or  suffering,  until  his 
days  be  terminated,  in  extreme  old  age,  by  the 
gradual  decays  of  nature.  We  find,  accordingly, 
among  the  Americans,  as  well  as  among  other  rude 
people,  persons  whose  decrepit  and  shrivelled  form 
seems  to  indicate  an  extraordinary  length  of  life.  But 
as  most  of  them  are  unacquainted  with  the  art  of 
numbering,  and  allof  them  as  forgetful  of  what  is  past, 


as  they  are  improvident  of  what  is  to  come,  it  is  im- 
possible to  ascertain  their  age  with  any  degree  of 
precision.  It  is  evident  that  the  period  of  their 
longevity  must  vary  considerably,  according  to  the 
diversity  of  climates,  and  their  different  modes  of 
subsistence.  They  seem,  however,  to  be  every  where 
exempt  from  many  of  the  distempers  which  afflict 
polished  nations.  None  of  the  maladies,  which  are 
the  immediate  offspring  of  luxury,  ever  visited  them  ; 
and  they  have  no  names  in  their  languages,  by  which 
to  distinguish  this  numerous  train  of  adventitious  evils. 

But  whatever  be  the  situation  in  which  man  is 
placed,  he  is  born  to  suffer;  and  his  diseases,  in  the 
savage  state,  though  fewer  in  number,  are  like  those 
of  the  animals  whom  he  nearly  resembles  in  his  mode 
of  life,  more  violent  and  more  fatal.  If  luxury  en- 
genders and  nourishes  distempers  of  one  species,  the 
rigour  and  distresses  of  savage  life  bring  on  those  of 
another.  As  men  in  this  state  are  wonderfully  im- 
provident, and  their  means  of  subsistence  precarious, 
they  often  pass  from  extreme  want  to  exuberant 
plenty,  according  to  the  vicissitudes  of  fortune  in  the 
chase,  or  in  consequence  of  the  various  degrees  of 
abundance  with  which  the  earth  affords  to  them  its 
productions  in  different  seasons.  Their  inconsiderate 
gluttony  in  the  one  situation,  and  .their  severe  absti- 
nence in  the  other,  are  equally  pernicious.  For 
though  the  human  constitution  may  be  accustomed 
by  habit,  like  that  of  animals  of  prey,  to  tolerate  long 
famine,  and  then  to  gorge  voraciously,  it  is  not  a 
little  affected  by  such  sudden  and  violent  transitions. 
The  strength  and  vigour  of  savages  are  at  some  sea- 
sons impaired  by  what  they  suffer  from  a  scarcity  of 
food ;  at  others,  they  are  afflicted  with  disorders 
arising  from  indigestion  and  a  superfluity  of  gross 
aliment.  These  are  so  common,''  that  they  may  be 
considered  as  the  unavoidable  consequence  of  their 
mode  of  subsisting,  and  cut  off  considerable  numbers 
in  the  prime  of  life.  They  are  likewise  extremely 
subject  to  consumptions,  to  pleuritic,  asthmatic,  and 
paralytic  disorders,  brought  on  by  the  immoderate 
hardships  and  fatigue  which  they  endure  in  hunting 
and  in  war ;  or  owing  to  the  inclemency  of  the  seasons 
to  which  they  are  continually  exposed.  In  the  savage 
state,  hardships  and  fatigue  violently  assault  the  con- 
stitution. In  polished  societies,  intemperance  under- 
mines it.  It  is  not  easy  to  determine  which  of  them 
operates  with  most  fatal  effect,  or  tends  most  to 
abridge  human  life.  The  influence  of  the  former  is 
certainly  most  extensive.  The  pernicious  conse- 
quences of  luxury  reach  only  a  few  members  in  any 
community ;  the  distresses  of  savage  life  are  felt  by 
all.  As  far  as  I  can  judge,  after  very  minute  inquiry, 
the  general  period  of  human  life  is  shorter  among 
savages,  than  in  well  regulated  and  industrious 
societies. 

One  dreadful  malady,  the  severest  scourge  with 
which,  in  this  life,  offended  Heaven  chastens  the 
indulgence  of  criminal  desire,  seems  to  have  been 
peculiar  to  the  Americans.  By  communicating  it  to 
their  conquerors,  they  have  not  only  amply  avenged 
their  own  wrongs,  but  by  adding  this  calamity  to 
those  which  formerly  embittered  human  life,  they 
have,  perhaps,  more  than  counterbalanced  all  the 
benefits  which  Europe  has  derived  from  the  discovery 
of  the  New  World.  This  distemper,  from  the  country 
in  which  it  first  raged,  or  from  the  people  by  whom 
it  was  supposed  to  have  been  spread  over  Europe, 
has  sometimes  been  called  the  Neapolitan,  and  some- 
times the  French  disease.  At  its  first  appearance, 
the  infection  was  so  malignant,  its  symptoms  so 
violent,  its  operation  so  rapid  and  fatal,  as  to  baffle  aft 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA.' 


the  efforts  of  medical  slcill.  Astonishment  and  terror 
accompanied  this  unknown  affliction  in  its  progress, 
and  men  began  to  dread  the  extinction  of  the  human 
race  by  such  a  cruel  visitation.  Experience,  and  the 
ingenuity  of  physicians,  gradually  discovered  remedies 
of  such  virtue  as  to  cure  or  to  mitigate  the  evil.  During 
the  course  of  two  centuries  and  a  half,  its  virulence 
seems  to  have  abated  considerably.  At  length,  in  the 
same  manner  with  the  leprosy,  "which  raged  in  Europe 
for  some  centuries,  it  may  waste  its  force  and  dis- 
appear; and  in  some  happier  age,  this  western  infec- 
tion, like  that  from  the  East,  may  be  known  only  by 
description  (50). 

II.  After  considering  what  appears  to  be  peculiar 
in  the  bodily  constitution  of  the  Americans,  our  at- 
tention is  naturally  turned  towards  the  powers  and 
qualities  of  their  minds.  As  the  individual  advances 
from  the  ignorance  and  imbecility  of  the  infant  state 
to  vigour  and  maturity  of  understanding,  something 
similar  to  this  may  be  observed"  in  the  progress  of  the 
species.  With  respect  to  it  too,  there  is  a  period  of 
infancy,  during  which  several  powers  of  the  mind 
are  not  unfolded,  and  all  are  feeble  and  defective  in 
their  operation.  In  the  early  ages  of  society,  while 
the  condition  of  man  is  simple  and  rude,  his  reason 
is  but  little  exercised,  and  his  desires  move  within  a 
very  narrow  sphere.  Hence  arise  two  remarkable 
characteristics  of  the  human  mind  in  this  state.  Its 
intellectual  powers  are  extremely  limited;  its  emo- 
tions and  efforts  are  few  and  languid.  Both  these 
distinctions  are  conspicuous  among  the  rudest  and 
most  unimproved  of  the  American  tribes,  and  consti- 
tute a  striking  part  of  their  description. 

What,  among  polished  nations,  is  called  speculative 
reasoning  or  research,  is  altogether  unknown  in  the 
rude  state  of  society,  and  never  becomes  the  occupa- 
tion or  amusement  of  the  human  faculties,  until  man 
be  so  far  improved  as  to  have  secured,  with  certainty,  the 
means  of  subsistence,  as  well  as  the  possession  of  leisure 
and  tranquillity.  The  thoughts  and  attention  of  a  sa- 
vage are  confined  within  the  small  circle  of  objects  im- 
mediately conducive  to  his  preservation  or  enjoyment. 
Every  thing  beyond  that,  escapes  his  observation,  or 
is  perfectly  indifferent  to  him.  Like  a  mere  animal, 
what  is  before  his  eyes  interests  and  affects  him  ; 
•what  is  out  of  sight,  or  at  a  distance,  makes  little 
impression.  There  are  several  people  in  America 
whose  limited  understandings  seem  not  to  be  capable 
of  forming  an  arrangement  for  futurity  ;  neither  their 
solicitude  nor  their  foresight  extend  so  far.  They 
follow  blindly  the  impulse  of  the  appetite  which  they 
feel,  but  are  entirely  regardless  of  distant  conse- 
quences, aiid  even  of  those  removed  in  the  least 
degree  from  immediate  apprehension.  While  they 
highly  prize  such  things  as  serve  for  present  use,  or 
minister  to  present  enjoyment,  they  set  no  value  upon 
those  which  are  not  the  object  of  some  immediate 
want.  When,  on  the  approach  of  the  evening,  a 
Caribbee  feels  himself  disposed  to  gp  to  rest,  no  con- 
sideration will  tempt  him  to  sell  his  hammock.  But, 
in  the  morning,  when  he  is  sallying  out  to  the  busi- 
ness or  passtime  of  the  day,  he  will  part  with  it  for 
the  slightest  toy  that  catches  his  fancy.  At  the  close 
of  winter,  while  the  impression  of  what  he  has  suf- 
fered from  the  rigour  of  the  climate  is  fresh  in  the 
mind  of  the  North  American,  he  sets  himself  with 
vigour  to  prepare  materials  for  erecting  a  comfortable 
hut  to  protect  him  against  the  inclemency  of  the  suc- 
ceeding season  ;  but,  as  soon  as  the  weather  becomes 
mild,  he  forgets  what  is  past,  abandons  his  work,  and 
never  thinks  of  it  more,  until  the  return  of  cold 
compels  him,  when  too  late,  to  resume  it.  «-~-^v  • 


If,  in  concerns  the  most  interesting,  and  seemingly 
the  most  simple,  the  reason  of  man,  while  rude  and 
destitute  of  culture,  differs  so  little  from  the  thought- 
less levity  of  children,  or  the  improvident  instinct  of 
animals,  its  exertions,  in  other  directions,  cannot  be 
very  considerable.  The  objects  towards  which  reason 
turns,  and  the  disquisitions  in  which  it  engages,  must 
depend  upon  the  state  in  which  man  is  placed,  and 
are  suggested  by  his  necessities  and  desires.  Dis- 
quisitions, which  appear  the  most  necessary  and  im- 
portant to  men  in  one  state  of  society,  never  occur  to 
those  in  another.  Among  civilized  nations,  arith- 
metic, or  the  art  of  numbering,  is  deemed  an  essential 
and  elementary  science  ;  and  in  our  continent,  the 
invention  and  use  of  it  reaches  back  to  a  period  so 
remote  as  is  beyond  the  knowledge  of  history.  But 
among  savages,  who  have  no  property  to  estimate,  no 
hoarded  treasures  to  count,  no  variety  of  objects  or 
multiplicity  of  ideas  to  enumerate,  arithmetic  is  a 
superfluous  and  useless  art.  Accordingly,  among 
some  tribes  in  America  it  seems  to  be  quite  unknown. 
There  are  many  who  cannot  reckon  further  than 
three  ;  and  have  no  denomination  to  distinguish  any 
number  above  it.  Several  can  proceed  as  far  as  ten, 
others  to  twenty.  When  they  would  convey  an  idea 
of  any  number  beyond  these,  they  point  to  the  hair 
of  their  hoad,  intimating  that  it  is  equal  to  them,  or 
with  wonder  declare  it  to  be  so  great  that  it  cannot 
be  reckoned.  Not  only  the  Americans,  but  all  nations, 
while  extremely  rude,  seem  to  be  unacquainted  with 
the  art  of  computation.  As  soon,  however,  as  they  ac- 
quire such  acquaintance  or  connexion  with  a  variety  of 
objects  that  there  is  frequent  occasion  to  combine  or 
divide  them,  their  knowledge  of  numbers  increases, 
so  that  the  state  of  this  art  among  any  people  may  be 
considered  as  one  standard,  by  which  to  estimate  the 
degree  of  their  improvement.  The  Iroquois,  in  North 
America,  as  they  are  much  more  civilized  than  the 
rude  inhabitants  of  Brazil,  Paraguay,  or  Guiana, 
have  likewise  made  greater  advances  in  this  respect ; 
though  even  their  arithmetic  does  not  extend  beyond 
a  thousand,  as  in  their  petty  transactions,  they  have 
no  occasion  for  any  higher  number.  The  Cherokee, 
a  less  considerable  nation  on  the  same  continent,  can 
reckon  only  as  far  as  a  hundred,  and  to  that  extent 
have  names  for  the  several  numbers  ;  the  smaller 
tribes  in  their  neighbourhood  can  rise  no  higher  than 
ten  (51). 

In  other  respects,  the  exercise  of  the  understanding 
among  rude  nations  is  still  more  limited.  The  first 
ideas  of  every  human  being  must  be  such  as  he 
receives  by  the  senses.  But  in  the  mind  of  man, 
while  in  the  savage  state,  there  seem  to  be  hardly  any 
ideas  but  what  enter  by  this  avenue.  The  objects 
around  him  are  presented  to  his  eye.  Such  as  may 
be  subservient  to  his  use,  or  can  gratify  any  of  his 
appetites,  attract  his  notice;  he  views  the  rest  without 
curiosity  or  attention.  Satisfied  with  considering 
them  under  that  simple  mode  in  which  they  appear 
to  him,  as  separate  and  detached,  he  neither  com- 
bines them  so  as  to  form  general  classes,  nor  contem- 
plates their  qualities  apart  from  the  subject  in  which 
they  inhere,  nor  bestows  a  thought  upon  the  opera- 
tions of  his  own  mind  concerning  them.  .Thus  he  is 
unacquainted  with  all  the  ideas  which  have  been 
denominated  universal,  or  abstract,  or  of  reflection. 
The  range  of  his  understanding  must,  of  course,  be 
very  confined,  and  his  reasoning  powers  be  employed 
merely  on  what  is  sensible.  '  This  is  so  remarkably 
the  case  with  the  ruder  nations  of  America,  that  their 
language  (as  we  shall  afterwards  find)  have  not  a  word 
to  express  any  thingjbut  what  is  material  or  corporeal. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Time,  space,  substance,  and  a  thousand  other  terms 
which    represent   abstract    and   universal   ideas,   are 
altogether  unknown  to  them.     A  naked  savage,  cow- 
ering over  the  fire  in  his  miserable  cabin,  or  stretched 
under  a  few  branches  which  afford   him  a  temporary 
shelter,  has  as  little  inclination  as  capacity  for  useless 
speculation.     His  thoughts  extend  not  beyond  what 
relates  to  animal  life  ;  and  when  they  are  not  directed 
towards    some   of  its   concerns,   his  mind  is   totally 
inactive.     In  situations  where  no  extraordinary  effort 
either  of  ingenuity  or  labour  is  requisite,  in  order  to 
satisfy  the  simple  demands  of  nature,  the  powers  of 
the  mind  are  so  seldom  roused  to  any  exertion,  that 
the  rational  faculties    continue   almost  dormant   and 
unexercised.     The  numerous  tribes  scattered  over  the 
rich  plains  of  South  America,  the  inhabitants  of  some 
of  the  islands,  and  of  several  fertile  regions  on  the 
continent,  come  under  this  description.     Their  vacant 
countenance,    their    staring    inexpressive    eye,    their 
listless  inattention,  and  total  ignorance  of  subjects, 
which  seemed  to  be  the   first  which   should  occupy 
the  thoughts  of  rational  beings,  made  such  impression 
upon  the   Spaniards,  when   they  first  beheld   those 
rude  people,  that  they  considered  them  as  animals  of 
an  inferior  order,  and   could  not   believe   that  they 
belonged   to  the  human   species.       It  required   the 
authority  of  a  papal  bull  to  counteract  this  opinion, 
and    to    convince    them    that    the    Americans    were 
capable  of  the  functions,  and  entitled  to  the  privileges 
of  humanity.     Since  that  time,  persons  more  enlight- 
ened and  impartial  than  the  discoverers  or  conquerors 
of  America,  have  had  an  opportunity  of  contemplating 
the  most  savage  of  its  inhabitants,    and   they   have 
been  astonished  and  humbled,   with  observing  how 
nearly  man,  in  this  condition,  approaches  to  the  brute 
creation.     But  in  severer  climates,  where  subsistence 
cannot  be  procured  with  the  same  ease,  where  men 
must  unite  more  closely,  and  act  with  greater  concert, 
necessity  calls  forth  their  talents,  and  sharpens  their 
invention,  so  that  the  intellectual  powers  are  more 
exercised  and  improved.     The  North  American  tribes 
and  the  natives  of  Chili,  who   inhabit  the  temperate 
regions    in   the  two  great  districts  of  America,   are 
people   of  cultivated   and   enlarged    understandings, 
when  viewed  in  comparison  with  some  of  those  seated 
.  in  the  islands,  or  on  the  banks  of  the  Maragnon  and 
Orinoco.     Their  occupations  are  more  various,  their 
system  of  policy,   as  well  as  of  war,  more  complex, 
their  arts  more  numerous.     But  even  among  them, 
the  intellectual  powers  are  extremely  limited  in  their 
operations,  and  unless  when  turned  directly  to  those 
objects  which  interest  a  savage,  are  held  in  no  esti- 
mation.    Both  the  North  Americans  and  the  Chilese, 
when  not  engaged  in  some  of  the  functions  belonging 
to   a   warrior  or    hunter,  loiter  away  their   time   in 
thoughtless  indolence,  unacquainted  with  any  other 
subject  worthy  of  their  attention,  or  capable  of  occu- 
pying their  minds.     If  even  among  them  reason  is  so 
much    circumscribed    in    its     exertions,    and  never 
arrives,  in  its  highest  attainments,   at  the  knowledge 
of  those  general  principles   and  maxims   which  serve 
as  the  foundation  of  science,  we  may  conclude,  that 
the  intellectual  powers  of  man  in  the  savage  state  are 
destitute  of  their  proper  object,  and  cannot  acquire 
any  considerable  degree  of  vigour  and  enlargement. 

From  the  same  causes,  the  active  efforts  of  the 
mind  are  few,  and  on  most  occasions,  languid.  If  we 
examine  into  the  motives  which  rouse  men  to  activity 
in  civilized  life,  and  prompt  them  to  persevere  in 
fatiguing  exertions  of  their  ingenuity  or  strength,  we 
shall  find  that  they  arise  chiefly  from  acquired  wants 
und  appetites.  These  are  numerous  and  importunate ; 


they  keep  the  mind  in  perpetual  agitation,  and,  hi 
order  to  gratify  them,  invention  must  be  always  on 
the  stretch,  and  industry  must  be  incessantly  em- 
ployed. But  the  desires  of  simple  nature  are  few, 
and  where  a  favourable  climate  yields  almost  spon- 
taneously what  suffices  to  gratify  them,  they  scarcely 
stir  the  soul,  or  excite  any  violent  emotion.  Hence 
the  people  of  several  tribes  in  America  waste  their 
life  in  a  listless  indolence.  To  be  free  from  occupa- 
tion, seems  to  be  all  the  enjoyment  towards  which 
they  aspire.  They  will  continue  whole  days  stretched 
out  in  their  hammocks,  or  seated  on  the  earth  in 
perfect  idleness,  without  changing  their  posture,  or 
raising  their  eyes  from  the  ground,  or  uttering  a 
single  word. 

Such  is  their  aversion  to  labour,  that  neither  the 
hope  of  future  good,  nor  the  apprehension  of  future 
evil,  can  surmount  it.  They  appear  equally  indif- 
ferent to  both,  discovering  little  solicitude,  and  taking 
no  precautions  to  avoid  the  one,  or  to  secure  the 
other.  The  cravings  of  hunger  may  arouse  them  ; 
but  as  they  devour,  with  little  distinction,  whatever 
will  appease  its  instinctive  demands,  the  exertions 
which  these  occasion  are  of  short  duration.  Destitute 
of  ardour,  as  well  as  variety  of  desire,  they  feel  not 
the  force  of  those  powerful  springs  which  give  vigour 
to  the  movements  of  the  mind,  and  urge  the  patient 
hand  of  industry  to  persevere  in  its  eifoits.  Man,  in 
some  parts  of  America,  appears  in  a  form  so  rude, 
that  we  can  discover  no  effects  of  his  activity,  and 
the  principle  of  understanding  which  should  direct  it 
seems  hardly  to  be  unfolded.  Like  the  other  animals, 
he  has  no  fixed  residence  ;  he  has  erected  no  habita- 
tion to  shelter  Li  in  from  the  inclemency  of  the 
weather ;  he  has  taken  no  measures  for  securing 
certain  subsistence  ;  he  neither  sows  nor  reaps  ;  but 
roams  about  as  led  in  search  of  the  plants  and  fruits 
which  the  earth  brings  forth  in  sviccession  ;  and  in 
quest  of  the  game  which  he  kills  in  the  forests,  or 
of  the  fish  which  he  catches  in  the  rivers. 

This  description,  however,  applies  only  to  some 
tribes.  Man  cannot  continue  long  in  this  state  of 
feeble  and  uninformed  infancy.  He  was  made  for 
industry  and  action,  and  the  powers  of  his  nature,  as 
well  as  the  necessity  of  his  condition,  urge  him  to 
fulfil  his  destiny.  Accordingly,  among  most  of  the 
American  nations,  especially  those  seated  in  rigorous 
climates,  some  efforts  are  employed,  .and  some  pre- 
vious precautions  are  taken,  for  securing  subsistence. 
The  career  of  regular  industry  is  begun,  and  the  labo- 
rious arm  has  made  the  first  essays  of  its  power. 
Still,  however,  the  improvident  and  slothful  genius 
of  the  savage  state  predominates.  Even  among 
those  more  improved  tribes,  labour  is  deemed  igno- 
minious and  degrading.  It  is  only  to  work  of  a  cer- 
tain kind  that  a  man  will  deign  to  put  his  hand.  The 
greater  part  is  devolved  entirely  upon  the  women. 
One  half  of  the  community  remains  inactive,  while 
the  other  is  oppressed  with  the  multitude  and 
variety  of  its  occupations.  Thus  their  industry  is 
partial,  and  the  foresight  which  regulates  it  is  no 
less  limited.  A  remarkable  instance  of  this  occurs 
in  the  chief  arrangement  with  respect  to  their  man- 
ner of  living.  They  depend  for  their  subsistence, 
during  one  part  of  the  year,  on  fishing ;  during 
another  on  hunting  ;  during  a  third,  on  the  pro- 
duce of  their  agriculture.  Though  experience  has 
taught  them  to  foresee  the  return  of  those  various 
seasons,  and  to  make  some  provision  for  the  respec- 
tive exigencies  of  each,  they  either  want  sagacity  to 
proportion  this  provision  to  their"  consumption,  or 
are  so  incapable  of  any  command  over  their  appe- 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


tites,  that  from  their  inconsiderate  waste,  they  often 
feel  the  calamities  of  famine  as  severely  as  the 
rudest  of  the  savage  tribes.  What  they  suffer  one 
year  does  not-  augment  their  industry,  or  render  them 
more  provident  to  prevent  similar  distresses.  This 
inconsiderate  thoughtlessness  about  futurity,  the 
effect  of  ignorance  and  the  cause  of  sloth,  accompa- 
nies and  characterizes  man  in  every  stage  of  savage 
life ;  and  by  a  capricious  singularity  in  his  opera- 
tions, he  is  then  least  solicitious  about  supplying  his 
wants,  when  the  means  of  satisfying  them  are  most 
precarious,  and  procured  with  the  greatest  dif- 
ficulty (52). 

III.  After  viewing  the  bodily  constitution  of  the 
Americans,  and  contemplating  the  powers  of  their 
minds,  we  are  led,  in  the  natural  order  of  inquiry,  to 
consider  them  as  united  together  in  society.  Hitherto 
our  researches  have  been  confined  to  the  operations 
of  understanding  respecting  themselves  as  individuals, 
now  they  will  extend  to  the  degree  of  their  sensi- 
bility and  affection  towards  their  species. 

The  domestic  state  is  the  first  and  most  simple 
form  of  human  association.  The  union  of  the  sexes, 
among  different  animals,  is  of  longer  or  shorter  dura- 
tion in  proportion  to  the  ease  or  dilliculty  of  rearing 
their  offspring.  Among  those  tribes  where  the  season 
of  infancy  is  short,  and  the  young  soon  acquire  vigour 
or  agility,  no  permanent  union  is  formed.  Nature 
commits  the  care  of  training  up  the  offspring  to  the 
mother  alone,  and  her  tenderness,  without  any  other  as- 
sistance, is  equal  to  the  task.  But  where  the  state  of 
infancy  is  long  and  helpless,  and  the  joint  assiduity 
of  both  parents  is  requisite  in  tending  their  feeble  pro- 
geny, there  a  more  intimate  connection  takes  place, 
and  continues  until  the  purpose  of  nature  be  accom- 
plished, and  the  new  race  grow  up  to  full  maturity. 
As  the  infancy  of  man  is  more  feeble  and  helpless 
than  that  of  any  other  animal,  and  he  is  dependent, 
during  a  much  longer  period,  on  the  care  and  fore- 
sight of  his  parents,  the  union  between  husband  and 
wife  came  early  to  be  considered,  not  only  as  a 
solemn,  but  as  a  permanent,  contract.  A  general 
•tate  of  promiscuous  intercourse  between  the  sexes 
never  existed  but  in  the  imagination  of  poets.  In 
the  infancy  of  society,  when  men,  destitute  of  arts 
and  industry,  lead  a  hard  precarious  life,  the  rearing 
of  their  progeny  demands  the  attention  and  efforts  of 
both  parents  ;  and  if  their  union  had  not  been  formed 
and  continued  with  this  view,  the  race  could  not  have 
been  preserved.  Accordingly,  in  America,  even 
among  the  rudest  tribes,  a  regular  union  between 
husband  and  wife  was  universal,  and  the  rights  of 
marriage  were  understood  and  recognised.  In  those 
districts  where  subsistence  was  scanty,  and  the  diffi- 
culty of  maintaining  a  family  was  great,  the  man 
confined  himself  to  one  wife.  In  warmer  and  more 
fertile  provinces,  the  facility  of  procuring  food  con- 
curred with  the  influence  of  climate  in  inducing  the 
inhabitants  to  increase  the  number  of  their  wives. 
In  some  countries,  the  marriage  union  subsisted 
during  life  ;  in  others,  the  impatience  of  the  Ameri- 
cans under  restraint  of  any  species,  together  with 
their  natural  levity  and  caprice,  prompted  them  to 
dissolve  it  on  very  slight  pretexts,  and  often  without 
assigning  any  cause. 

But  in  whatever  light  the  Americans  considered 
the  obligation  of  this  contract,  either  as  perpetual,  or 
only  as  temporary,  the  condition  of  women  was  equally 
humiliating  and  miserable.  Whether  man  has  been 
improved  by  the  progress  of  arts  and  civilization  in 
society,  is  a  question  which,  in  the  wantonness  of 
disputation,  has  been  agitated  among  philosophers. 


That  women  are  indebted  to  the  refinements  of 
polished  manners  for  a  happy  change  in  their  state,  is 
a  point  which  can  admit  of  no  doubt.  To  despise 
and  to  degrade  the  female  sex,  is  the  characteristic  of 
the  savage  state  in  every  part  of  the  globe.  Man, 
proud  of  excelling  in  strength  and  in  courage,  the 
chief  marks  of  pre-eminence  among  rude  people, 
treats  woman,  as  an  inferior,  with  disdain.  The 
Americans,  perhaps  from  that  coldness  and  insensi- 
bility which  has  been  considered  as  peculiar  to  their 
constitution,  add  neglect  and  harshness  to  contempt. 
The  most  intelligent  travellers  have  been  struck  with 
this  inattention  of  the  Americans  to  their  women.  It  is 
not,  as  I  have  already  observed,  by  a  studied  display 
of  tenderness  and  attachment,  that  the  American  en- 
deavours to  gain  the  heart  of  the  woman  whom  he  wishes 
to  marry.  Marriage  itself,  instead  of  being  an  union 
of  affection  and  interests  between  equals,  becomes, 
among  them,  the  unnatural  conjunction  of  a  master 
with  his  slave.  It  is  the  observation  of  an  author, 
whose  opinions  are  deservedly  of  great  weight,  that 
wherever  wives  are  purchased,  their  condition  is  ex- 
tremely depressed.  They  become  the  property  and 
the  slaves  of  those  who  buy  them.  In  whatever  pait 
of  the  globe  this  custom  prevails,  the  observation 
holds.  In  countries  where  refinement  has  made  some 
progress,  women,  when  purchased,  are  excluded  from 
society,  shut  up  in  sequestered  apartments,  and  kept 
under  the  vigilant  guard  of  their  masters.  In  ruder 
nations,  they  are  degraded  to  the  meanest  functions. 
Among  many  people  of  America,  the  marriage-con- 
tract is  properly  a  purchase.  The  man  buys  his  wife 
of  her  parents.  Though  unacquainted  with  the  use 
of  money,  or  with  such  commercial  transactions  as 
take  place  in  more  improved  society,  he  knows  how 
to  give  an  equivalent  for  any  object  which  he  desires 
to  possess.  In  some  places,  the  suitor  devotes  his 
service  for  a  certain  time  to  the  parents  of  the 
maid  whom  he  courts ;  in  others,  he  hunts  for  them 
occasionally,  or  assists  in  cultivating  their  fields,  and 
forming  their  canoes  ;  in  others,  he  offers  presents  of 
such  things  as  are  deemed  most  valuable  on  account 
of  their  usefulness  or  rarity.  In  return  for  these  he 
receives  his  wife  ;  and  this  circumstance,  added  to 
the  low  estimation  of  women  among  savages,  leads 
him  to  consider  her  as  a  female  servant  whom  he  has 
purchased,  and  whom  he  has  a  title  to  treat  as  an 
inferior.  In  all  unpolished  nations,  it  is  true,  the 
functions  in  domestic  economy,  which  fall  naturally 
to  the  share  of  women,  are  so  many,  that  they  are 
subjected  to  hard  labour,  and  must  bear  more  than 
their  full  portion  of  the  common  burthen.  But  in 
America  their  condition  is  so  peculiarly  grievous,  and 
their  depression  so  complete,  that  servitude  is  a  name 
too  mild  to  describe  their  wretched  state.  A  wife, 
among  most  tribes,  is  no  better  than  a  beast  of  bur- 
then destined  to  every  office  of  labour  and  fatigue. 
While  the  men  loiter  out  the  day  in  sloth,  or  spend 
it  in  amusement,  the  women  are  condemned  to  inces- 
sant toil.  Tasks  are  imposed  upon  them  without 
pity,  and  services  are  received  without  complaisance 
or  gratitude.  Every  circumstance  reminds  women 
of  this  mortifying  inferiority.  They  must  approach 
their  lords  with  reverence ;  they  must  regard  them 
as  more  exalted  beings,  and  are  not  permitted  to  eat 
in  their  presence.  There  are  districts  in  America 
where  this  dominion  is  so  grievous,  andso  sensibly  felt, 
that  some  women,  in  a  wild  emotion  of  maternal  tender- 
ness, have  destroyed  their  female  children  in  their  in- 
fancy in  order  to  deliver  them  from  that  intolerable 
bondage  to  which  they  knew  they  were  doomed.  Thus 
the'first  institution  of  social  life  is  perverted.  That  state 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


of  domestic  union  towards  which  nature  leads  the 
human  species,  in  order  to  soften  the  heart  to  gentle- 
ness and  humanity,  is  rendered  so  unequal,  as  to 
establish  a  cruel  distinction  between  the  sexes,  which 
forms  the  one  to  be  harsh  and  unfeeling,  and  humbles 
the  other  to  servility  and  subjection. 

It  is  owing,  perhaps,  in  some  measure  to  this  state 
of  depression,  that  women  in  rude  nations  are  far 
from  being  prolific.  The  vigour  of  their  constitution 
is  exhausted  by  excessive  fatigue,  and  the  wants  and 
distresses  of  savage  life  are  so  numerous,  as  to  force 
them  to  take  various  precautions  in  order  to  prevent 
too  rapid  an  increase  of  their  progeny.  Among  wan- 
dering tribes,  or  such  as  depend  chiefly  upon  hunting 
for  subsistence,  the  mother  cannot  attempt  to  rear  a 
second  child,  until  the  first  has  attained  such  a  degree 
of  vigour  as  to  be  in  some  measure  independent  of 
her  care.  From  this  motive  it  is  the  universal  prac- 
tice of  the  American  women  to  suckle  their  children 
during  several  years  ;  and  as  they  seldom  marry  early, 
the  period  of  their  fertility  is  over  before  they  can 
finish  the  long  but  necessary  attendance  upon  two 
or  three  children.  Among  some  of  the  least  polished 
tribes,  whose  industry  and  foresight  do  not  extend 
so  far  as  to  make  any  regular  provision  for  their 
own  subsistence,  it  is  a  maxim  not  to  burthen  them- 
selves with  rearing  more  than  two  children ;  and  no 
such  numerous  families,  as  are  frequent  in  civilized 
societies,  are  to  be  found  among  men  in  the  savage 
state.  When  twins  are  born,  one  of  them  commonly  is 
abandoned,  because  the  mother  is  not  equal  to  the 
task  of  rearing  both  (53).  When  a  mother  dies  while 
she  is  nursing  a  child,  all  hope  of  preserving  its  life 
fails,  and  it  isbuiied  together  with  her  in  the  same 
grave.  As  the  parents  are  frequently  exposed  to 
want  by  their  own  improvident  indolence,  the  difficulty 
of  sustaining  their  children  becomes  so  great,  that  it 
is  not  uncommon  to  abandon  or  destroy  them.  Thus 
their  experience  of  the  difficulty  of  training  up  an  infant 
to  maturity,  amidst  the  hardships  of  savage  life,  often 
stifles  the  voice  of  nature  among  the  Americans,  and 
suppresses  the  strong  emotions  of  parental  tenderness. 

But,  though  necessity  compels  the  inhabitants  of 
America  thus  to  set  bounds  to  the  increase  of  their 
families,  they  are  not  deficient  "in  affection  and 
attachment  to  their  offspring.  They  feel  the  power 
of  this  instinct  in  its  full  force,  and  as  long  as  their 
progeny  continue  feeble  and  helpless,  no  people 
exceed  them  in  tenderness  and  care.  But  in  rude 
nations,  the  dependence  of  children  upon  their 
parents  is  of  shorter  continuance  than  in  polished 
societies.  When  men  must  be  trained  to  the  various 
functions  of  civil  life  by  previous  discipline  and 
education,  when  the  knowledge  of  abstruse  sciences 
must  be  taught,  and  dexterity  in  intricate  arts  must 
be  acquired,  before  a  young  man  is  prepared  to  begin 
his  career  of  action,  the  attentive  feelings  of  a  parent 
are  not  confined  to  the  years  of  infancy,  but  extend 
to  what  is  more  remote,  the  establishment  of  his 
child  in  the  world.  Even  then  his  solicitude  does 
not  terminate.  His  protection  may  still  be  requisite, 
and  his  wisdom  and  experience  still  prove  useful 
guides.  Thus  a  permanent  connexion  is  formed ; 
parental  tenderne-s  is  exercised,  and  filial  respect 
returned,  throughout  the  whole  course  of  life.  But 
in  the  simplicity  of  the  savage  state,  the  affection  of 
parents,  like  the  instinctive  fondness  of  animals, 
ceases  almost  entirely  as  soon  as  their  offspring  attain 
maturity.  Little  instruction  fits  them  for  that  mode 
of  life  to  which  they  are  destined.  The  parents,  as 
if  their  duty  were  accomplished,  when  they  have 
conducted  their  children  through  the  helpless  years 


of  infancy,  leave  them  afterwards  at  entire  liberty. 
Even  in  their  tender  age,  they  seldom  advise  or 
admonish,  they  never  chide  or  chastise  them.  They 
suffer  them  to  be  absolute  masters  of  their  own 
actions.  In  an  American  hut,  a  father,  a  mother, 
and  their  posterity,  live  together  like  persons 
assembled  by  accident,  without  seeming  to  feel  the 
obligation  of  the  duties  mutually  arising  from  this 
connexion.  As  filial  love  is  not  cherished  by  the 
continuance  of  attention  or  good  ofh'ces,  the  recol- 
lection of  benefits  received  in  early  infancy  is  too 
faint  to  excite  it.  Conscious  of  their  own  liberty, 
and  impatient  of  restraint,  the  youth  of  America  are 
accustomed  to  act  as  if  they  were  totally  indepen- 
dent. Their  parents  are  not  objects  of  greater 
regard  than  other  persons.  They  treat  them  always 
with  neglect,  and  often  with  such  harshness  and 
insolence,  as  to  fill  those  who  have  been  witnesses 
of  their  conduct  with  horror.  Thus  the  ideas  which 
seem  to  be  natural  to  man  in  his  savage  state,  as 
they  result  necessarily  from  his  circumstances  and 
condition  in  that  period  of  his  progress,  affect  the  two 
capital  relations  in  domestic  life.  They  render  the 
union  between  husband  and  wife  unequal.  They 
shorten  the  duration,  and  weaken  the  force,  of  the 
connexion  between  parents  and  children. 

IV.  From  the  domestic  state  of  the  Americans,  the 
transition  to  the  consideration  of  their  civil  govern- 
ment and  political  institutions  is  natural.  In  every 
inquiry  concerning  the  operations  of  men  when  united 
together  in  society,  the  first  object  of  attention  should 
be  their  mode  of  subsistence.  Accordingly  as  that 
varies,  their  laws  and  policy  must  be,  different.  The 
institution  suited  to  the  ideas  and  exigences  of  tribes, 
which  chiefly  subsist  by  fishing  or  hunting,  and 
which  have  as  yet  acquired  but  an  imperfect  con- 
ception of  any  species  of  property,  will  be  much 
more  simple  than  those  which  must  take  place  when 
the  earth  is  cultivated  with  regular  industry,  and  a 
right  of  property,  not  only  in  its  productions,  but  in 
the  soil  itself,  is  completely  ascertained. 

All  the  people  of  America,  now  under  review, 
belong  to  the  former  class.  But  though  they  may 
all  be  comprehended  under  the  general  denomination 
of  savage,  the  advances  which  they  had  made  in  the 
art  of  procuring  to  themselves  a  certain  and  plentiful 
subsistence,  were  very  unequal.  On  the  extensive 
plains  of  South  America,  man  appears  in  one  of  the 
rudest  states  in  which  he  has  been  ever  observed,  or, 
perhaps  can  exist.  Several  tiibes  depend  entirely 
upon  the  bounty  of  nature  for  subsistence.  They 
discover  no  solicitude,  they  employ  little  foresight, 
they  scarcely  exert  any  industry,  to  secure  what  is 
necessary  lor  their  support.  The  Topaycrs  of  Brazil, 
the  Gnaxeros  of  Tierra  Firme,  the  Caiguas,  the  Moxos, 
and  several  other  people  of  Paraguay,  are  unac- 
quainted with  every  species  of  cultivation.  They 
neither  sow  nor  plant.  Even  the  culture  of  the 
manioc,  of  which  cassada  bread  is  made,  is  an 
art  too  intricate  for  their  ingenuity,  or  too  fatiguing 
to  their  indolence.  The  roots  which  the  earth 
produces  spontaneously,  the  fruits,  the  berries, 
and  the  seeds  which  they  gather  in  the  woods, 
together  with  lizards  and  other  reptiles,  which  mul- 
tiply amazingly  with  the  heat  of  the  climate  in  a  fat 
soil,  moistened  by  frequent  rains,  supply  them  with 
food  during  some  part  of  the  year.  At  other  times 
they  subsist  by  fishing ;  and  nature  seems  to  have 
indulged  the  laziness  of  the  South  American  tribes 
by  the  liberality  with  which  she  ministers,  in  this 
way,  to  their  wants.  The  vast  rivers  of  that  region 
in  America  abound  with  an  infinite  variety  of  the 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


most  delicate  fish.  The  lakes  and  marshes  formed 
by  the  annual  overflowing  of  the  waters,  are  filled 
with  all  the  different  species,  where  they  remain  shut 
up,  as  in  natural  reservoirs,  for  the  use  of  the  inhabi- 
tants. They  swarm  in  such  shoals,  that  in  some 
? laces  they  are  catched  without  art  or  industry  (54). 
n  others  the  natives  have  discovered  a  method  of 
infecting  the  water  with  the  juice  of  certain  plants, 
by  which  the  fish  become  intoxicated,  that  they  float 
on  the  surface,  and  are  taken  with  the  hand  (55). 
Some  tribes  have  ingenuity  enough  to  preserve  them 
without  salt,  by  drying  or  smoking  them  upon 
hurdles  over  a  slow  fire.  The  proliflic  quality  of  the 
rivers  in  South  America  induces  many  of  the  natives 
to  resort  to  their  banks,  and  to  depend  almost  entirely 
for  nourishment  on  what  their  waters  supply  with  such 
profusion.  In  this  part  of  the  globe,  hunting  seems 
not  to  have  been  the  first  employment  of  men,  or  the 
first  effort  of  their  invention  and  labour  to  obtain 
food.  They  were  fishers  before  they  became  hunters  ; 
and  as  the  occupations  of  the  former  do  not  call  for 
equal  exertions  of  activity  or  talents  with  those  of 
the  latter,  people  in  that  state  appear  to  possess 
neither  the  same  degree  of  enterprise  nor  of  ingenuity. 
The  petty  nations,  adjacent  to  the  Maragnon  and 
Orinoco,  are  manifestly  the  most  inactive  and  least 
intelligent  of  all  the  Americans. 

None  but  tribes  contiguous  to  great  rivers  can 
sustain  themselves  in  this  manner.  The  greater  part 
of  the  American  nations,  dispersed  over  the  forests 
with  which  their  country  is  covered,  do  not  procure 
subsistence  with  the  same  facility.  For  although 
these  forests,  especially  in  the  southern  continent  of 
America,  are  stored  plentifully  with  game,  consider- 
able efforts  of  activity  and  ingenuity  are  requisite  in 
pursuit  of  it.  Necessity  incited  the  natives  to  the 
one,  and  taught  them  the  other.  Hunting  became 
their  principal  occupation ;  and  as  it  called  forth 
strenuous  exertions  of  courage,  of  force,  and  of  inven- 
tion, it  was  deemed  no  less  honourable  than  neces- 
sary. This  occupation  was  peculiar  to  the  men. 
They  were  trained  to  it  from  their  earliest  youth. 
A  bold  and  dexterous  hunter  ranked  next  in  fame  to 
the  distinguished  warrior,  and  an  alliance  with  the 
former  is  often  courted  in  preference  to  one  with  the 
latter.  Hardly  any  device,  which  the  ingenuity  of 
man  has  discovered  for  ensnaring  or  destroying  wild 
animals,  was  unknown  to  the  Americans.  While 
engaged  in  this  favorite  exercise,  they  shake  off  the 
indolence  peculiar  to  their  nature,  the  latent  powers 
and  vigour  of  their  minds  are  roused,  and  they 
become  active,  persevering,  and  indefatigable. 
Their  sagacity  in  finding  their  prey,  and  their  address 
in  killing  it,  are  equal.  Their  reason  and  their 
senses  being  constantly  directed  towards  this  one 
object,  the  former  displays  such  fertility  of  invention, 
and  the  latter  acquire  such  a  degree  of  acuteness,  as 
appear  almost  incredible.  They  discern  the  footsteps 
of  a  wild  beast,  which  escape  every  other  eye,  and 
can  follow  them  with  certainty  through  the  pathless 
f  jrest.  If  they  attack  their  game  openly,  their  arrow 
seldom  errs  from  the  mark ;  if  they  endeavour  to 
circumvent  it  by  art,  it  is  almost  impossible  to  avoid 
their  toils.  Among  several  tribes  their  young  men 
were  not  permitted  to  marry,  until  they  had  given 

such  proofs  of  their  skill  in  hunting  as  put  it  beyond 
doubt  that  they  were  capable  of  providing  for  a  family. 

Their  ingenuity,  always    on  the  stretch,   and   shar- 
pened by  emulation,  as  well  as  necessity,  has  struck 

out  many  inventions,  which  greatly  facilitate  success 
in   the  chase.     The    most   singular    of  these    is   the 

discovery  of  a  poison  in  which  they  dip   the  arrows 


employed  in  hunting.  The  slightest  wound  with 
those  envenomed  shafts  is  mortal.  If  they  only 
pierce  the  skin  the  blood  fixes  and  congeals  in  \a. 
moment,  and  the  strongest  animal  falls  motionless  to 
the  ground.  Nor  does  this  poison,  notwithstanding 
its  violence  and  subtilty  infect  the  flesh  of  the  animal 
which  it  kills.  That  may  be  eaten  with  perfect 
safety,  and  retain  its  native  relish  and  qualities.  All 
the  nations  situated  upon  the  banks  of  the  Maragnon 
and  Orinoco  are  acquainted  with  this  composition, 
the  chief  ingredient  in  which  is  the  juice  extracted 
from  the  root  of  the  curare,  a  species  of  withe.  In 
other  parts  of  America,  they  employ  the  juice  of  the 
manchenille  for  the  same  purpose,  and  it  operates 
with  no  less  fatal  activity.  To  people  possessed  of 
those  secrets,  the  bow  is  a  more  destructive  weapon 
than  the  musket,  and  in  their  skilful  hands,  does 
great  execution  among  the  birds  and  beasts  which 
abound  in  the  forests  of  America. 

But  the  life  of  a  hunter  gradually  leads  man  to  a 
state  more  advanced.  The  chase,  even  where  prey 
is  abundant,  and  the  dexterity  of  the  hunter  much 
improved,  affords  but  an  uncertain  maintenance,  and 
at  some  seasons  it  must  be  suspended  altogether. 
If  a  savage  trusts  to  his  bow  alone  for  food,  he  and 
his  family  will  be  often  reduced  to  extreme  distress 
(56).  Hardly  any  region  of  the  earth  furnishes  man 
spontaneously  with  what  his  wants  require.  In  the 
mildest  climates,  and  most  fertile  soils,  his  own 
industry  and  foresight  must  be  exerted,  in  some 
degree,  to  secure  a  regular  supply  of  food.  Their 
experience  of  this  surmounts  the  abhorrence  of 
labour  natural  to  savage  nations,  and  compels 
them  to  have  recourse  to  culture,  as  subsidiary  to 
hunting.  In  particular  situations,  some  small  tribes 
may  subsist  by  fishing,  independent  of  any  pro- 
duction of  the  earth  raised  by  their  own  industry. 
But  throughout  all  America,  we  scarcely  meet  with 
any  nation  of  hunters,  which  does  not  practise  some 
species  of  cultivation. 

The  agriculture  of  the  Americans,  however,  is 
neither  extensive  nor  laborious.  As  game  and  fish  are 
their  principal  food,  all  they  aim  at,  by  cultivation, 
is  to  supply  any  occasional  defect  of  these.  In  the 
southern  continent  of  America,  the  natives  confine 
their  industry  to  rearing  a  few  plants,  which  in  a  rich 
soil  and  warm  climate  were  easily  trained  to  maturity. 
The  chief  of  these  is  maize,  well  known  in  Europe  by 
the  name  of  Turkey  or  Indian  wheat,  a  grain  extremely 
prolific,  of  simple  culture,  agreeable  to  the  taste, 
and  affording  a  strong  hearty  nourishment.  The 
second  is  the  manioc,  which  grows  to  the  size  of  a 
large  shrub,  or  small  tree,  and  produces  roots  some- 
what resembling  parsnips.  After  carefully  squeez- 
ing out  tho  juice,  these  roots  are  grated  down  to  a 
fine  powder,  and  formed  into  thin  cakes,  called 
cassada  bread,  which,  though  insipid  to  the  tasle, 
proves  no  contemptible  food.  As  the  juice  of  the 
manioc  is  a  deadly  poison,  some  authors  have  cele- 
brated the  ingenuity  of  the  Americans  in  converting 
a  noxious  plant  into  wholesome  nourishment.  But 
it  should  rather  be  considered  as  one  of  the  despe- 
rate expedients  for  procuring  subsistence,  to  which 
necessity  reduces  rude  nations;  or  perhaps,  men 
were  led  to  the  use  of  it  by  a  progress,  in  which 
there  is  nothing  marvellous.  One  species  of  manioc 
is  altogether  free  of  any  poisonous  quality,  and  may 
be  eaten  without  any  preparation  but  that  of  roasting 
it  in  the  embers.  This,  it  is  probable,  was  first  used 
by  the  Americans  as  food ;  and  necessity  having 
gradually  taught  them  the  art  of  separating  its  per- 
nicious juice  from  the  other  species,  they  have  by 


THE'  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


experience  found  it  to  be  more  prolific  as  well  as 
more  nourishing  (57).  The  third  is  the  plantain, 
which,  though  it  rises  to  the  height  of  a  tree,  it  is  of 
such  quick  growth,  that  in  less  than  a  year  it  rewards 
the  industry  of  the  cultivator  with  its  fruit.  This, 
when  roasted,  supplies  the  place  of  bread,  and  is  both 
palatable  and  nourishing  (58).  The  fourth  is  the 
potato,  whose  culture  and  qualities  are  too  Well 
known  to  need  any  description.  The  fifth  Is  pimento, 
a  small  tree  yielding  a  strong  aromatic  spice.  The 
Americans,  who,  like  other  inhabitants  of  warm  cli- 
mates, delight  in  whatever  is  hot  and  of  poignant 
flavour,  deem  this  seasoning  a  necessary  of  life,  and 
mingle  it  copiously  with  every  kind  of  food  they  take. 

Such  are  the  various  productions,  which  were  the 
chief  object  of  culture  among  the  hunting  tribes  on 
the  continent  of  America  ;  and  with  a  moderate  exer- 
tion of  active  and  provident  industry,  these  might 
have  yielded  a  full  supply  to  the  wants  of  a  numerous 
people.  But  men,  accustomed  to  the  free  and  vagrant 
life  of  hunters,  are  incapable  of  regular  application  to 
labour,  and  consider  agriculture  as  a  secondary  and 
inferior  occupation.  Accordingly,  the  provision  for 
subsistence,  arising  from  cultivation,  was  so  limited 
and  scanty  among  the  Americans,  that,  upon  any 
accidental  failure  of  their  usual  success  in  hunting, 
they  were  often  reduced  to  extreme  distress. 

In  the  islands,  the  mode  of  subsisting  was  con- 
siderably different.  None  of  the  large  animals 
which  abound  on  the  continent  were  known  there. 
Only  four  species  of  quadrupeds,  besides  a  kind  of 
small  dumb  dog,  existed  in  the  islands,  the  biggest 
of  which  did  not  exceed  the  size  of  a  rabbit.  To 
hunt  such  diminutive  prey,  was  an  occupation 
which  required  no  effort  either  of  activity  or  courage. 
The  chief  employment  of  a  hunter  in  the  isles  was 
to  kill  birds,  which  on  the  continent  are  deemed 
iffnoble  game,  and  left  chiefly  to  the  pursuit  of 
boys.  This  want  of  animals,  as  well  as  their  peculiar 
situation,  led  the  islanders  to  depend  principally  upon 
fishing  for  their  subsistence.  Their  rivers,  and  the 
sea  with  which  they  are  surrounded,  supplied  them 
with  this  species  of  food.  At  some  particular  seasons, 
turtle,  crabs,  and  other  shell-fish,  abounded  in  such 
numbers,  that  the  natives  could  support  themselves 
with  a  facility  in  which  their  indolence  delighted. 
At  other  times  they  ate  lizards,  and  various  reptiles 
of  odious  forms.  To  fishing,  the  inhabitants  of  the 
islands  added  some  degree  of  agriculture.  Maize  (£9), 
manioc,  and  other  plants,  were  cultivated  in  the  same 
manner  as  on  the  continent.  But  all  the  fruits  of 
their  industry,  together  with  what  their  soil  and 
climate  produced  spontaneously,  afforded  them  but 
a  scanty  maintenance.  Though  their  demands  for 
food  were  very  sparing,  they  hardly  raised  what  was 
sufficient  for  their  own  consumption.  If  a  few 
Spaniai'ds  settled  in  any  district,  such  a  small  addition 
of  supernumerary  mouths  soon  exhausted  their  scanty 
stores,  and  brought  on  a  famine. 

Two  circumstances,  common  to  all  the  savage 
nations  of  America,  concurred  with  those  which  I  have 
already  mentioned,  not  only  in  rendering  their  agri- 
culture imperfect,  but  in  circumscribing  their  power 
in  all  their  operations.  They  had  no  tame  animals  ; 
and  they  were  unncquainted  with  the  useful  metals. 

In  other  parts  of  the  globe,  man,  in  his  rudest  state, 
appears  as  lord  of  the  creation,  giving  law  to  various 
tribes  of  animals,  which  he  has  tamed,  and  reduced 
to  subjection.  The  Tartar  follows  his  prey  on  the 
horse  which  he  has  reared  ;  or  tends  his  numerous 
herds,  which  furnish  him  both  with  food  and  clothing  : 
the  Arab  has  rendered  the  camel  docile,  and  avails 

HISTORY  OF  AMERICA,  No.  11. 


himself  of  its  persevering  strength  :  the  Laplander  ha 
formed  the  rein-deer  to  be  subservient  to  his  will ; 
and  even  the  people  of  Kamchatka  have  trained 
their  dogs  to  labour.  This  command  over  the 
inferior  creatures  is  one  of  the  noblest  prerogatives 
of  man,  and  among  the  greatest  efforts  of  his  wisdom 
and  power.  Without  this,  his  dominion  is  incom- 
plete. He  is  a  monarch  who  has  no  subjects  ;  a 
master  without  servants,  and  must  perform  every 
operation  by  the  strength  of  his  own  arm.  Such 
was  the  condition  of  all  the  nide  nations  in  America. 
Their  reason  was  so  little  improved,  or  their  union 
so  incomplete,  that  they  seem  not  to  have  been  con- 
scious of  the  superiority  of  their  nature,  and  suffered 
all  the  animal  creation  to  retain  its  liberty,  without 
establishing  their  own  authority  over  any  one  species. 
Most  of  the  animals,  indeed,  which  have  been  ren- 
dered domestic  in  our  continent,  do  not  exist  in  the 
New  World ;  but  those  peculiar  to  it  are  neither  so 
fierce  nor  so  formidable,  as  to  have  exempted  them 
from  servitude.  There  are  some  animals  of  the 
same  species  in  both  continents.  But  the  rein-deer, 
which  has  been  tamed  and  broken  to  the  yoke  in 
the  one  hemisphere,  runs  wild  in  the  other.  The 
bison  of  America  is  manifestly  of  the  same  species 
with  the  horned  cattle  of  the  other  hemisphere. 
The  latter,  even  among  the  rudest  nations  in  out 
continent,  have  been  rendered  domestic ;  and,  in 
consequence  of  his  dominion  over  them,  man  can 
accomplish  works  of  labour  with  greater  facility, 
and  has  made  a  great  addition  to  his  means  of  sub- 
sistence. The  inhabitants  of  many  regions  of  the 
New  World,  where  the  bison  abounds,  might  have 
derived  the  same  advantages  from  it.  It  is  not  of  a 
nature  so  indocile,  but  that  it  might  have  been 
trained  to  be  as  subservient  to  man  as  our  cattle. 
But  a  savage,  in  that  uncultivated  state  wherein  the 
Americans  were  discovered,  is  the  enemy  of  the 
other  animals,  not  their  superior.  He  wastes  and 
destroys,  but  knows  not  how  to  multiply  or  to  govern 
them. 

This,  perhaps,  is  the  most  notable  distinction 
between  the  inhabitants  of  the  Ancient  and  New- 
Worlds,  and  a  high  pre-eminence  of  civilized  men 
above  such  as  continue  rude.  The  greatest  opera- 
tions of  man,  in  changing  and  improving  the  face 
of  nature,  as  well  as  his  most  considerable  efforts  in 
cultivating  the  earth,  are  accomplished  by  means  of 
the  aid  which  he  receives  from  the  animals  that 
he  has  tamed,  and  employs  in  labour.  It  is  by  their 
strength  that  he  subdues  the  stubborn  soil,  and 
converts  the  desert  or  marsh  into  a  fruitful  field. 
But  man,  in  his  civilized  state,  is  so  accustomed  to 
the  service  of  the  domestic  animals,  that  he  seldom 
reflects  upon  the  vast  benefits  which  he  derives  from 
it.  If  we  were  to  suppose  him,  even  when  most 
improved,  to  be  deprived  of  their  useful  ministry, 
his  empire  over  nature  must  in  some  measure  cease, 
and  he  would  remain  a  feeble  animal,  at  a  loss  how- 
to  subsist,  and  incapable  of  attempting  such  arduous 
undertakings  as  their  assistance  enables  him  to 
execute  with  ease. 

It  is  a  doubtful  point,  whether  the  dominion  of 
man  over  the  animal  creation,  or  his  acquiring  the 
useful  metals,  has  contributed  most  to  extend  his 
power.  The  era  of  this  important  discovery  is  unknown, 
and  in  our  hemisphere  very  remote.  It  is  only  by 
tradition,  or  by  digging  up  some  rude  instruments 
of  our  forefathers,  that  we  learn  that  mankind  were 
originally  unacquainted  with  the  use  of  metals,  and 
endeavoured  to  supply  the  want  of  them  by  employ- 
ing flints,  shells,  bones,  and  other  hard  substances, 
M 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


for  the  same  purposes  which  metals  serve  among 
polished  nations.  Nature  completes  the  formation 
of  some  metals.  Gold,  silver,  and  copper,  are  found 
in  their  perfect  state  in  the  clefts  of  rocks,  in  the 
sides  of  mountains,  or  the  channels  of  rivers.  These 
were  accordingly  the  metals  first  known,  and  first 
applied  to  use.  But  iron,  the  most  serviceable  of 
all,  and  to  which  man  is  most  indebted,  is  never 
discovered  in  its  perfect  form  ;  its  gross  and  stub- 
born ore  must  feel  twice  the  force  of  fire,  and  go 
through  two  laborious  processes,  before  it  can  become 
fit  for  use.  Man  was  long  acquainted  with  the  other 
metals  before  he  acquired  the  art  of  fabricating 
iron,  or  attained  such  ingenuity  as  to  perfect  an 
invention,  to  which  he  is  indebted  for  those  instru- 
ments wherewith  he  subdues  the  earth,  and  com- 
mands all  its  inhabitants.  But  in  this,  as  well  as 
in  many  other  respects,  the  inferiority  of  the  Ameri- 
cans was  conspicuous.  All  the  savage  tribes,  scat- 
tered over  the  continent  and  islands,  were  totally 
unacquainted  with  the  metals  which  their  soil  pro- 
duces in  great  abundance,  if  we  except  some  trifling 
quantity  of  gold,  which  they  picked  up  in  the 
torrents  that  descended  from  their  mountains,  and 
formed  into  ornaments.  Their  devices  to  supply 
this  want  of  the  serviceable  metals,  were  extremely 
rude  and  awkward.  The  most  simple  operation 
was  to  them  an  undertaking  of  immense  difficulty 
and  labour.  To  fell  a  tree  with  no  other  instruments 
than  hatchets  of  stone,  was  employment  for  a 
month.  To  form  a  canoe  into  shape,  and  to  hollow 
it,  consumed  years ;  and  it  frequently  began  to  rot 
"before  they  were  able  to  finish  it.  Their  operations 
in  agriculture  were  equally  slow  and  defective.  In 
a  country  covered  with  woods  of  the  hardest  timber, 
the  clearing  of  a  small  field  destined  for  culture 
required  the  united  efforts  of  a  tribe,  and  was  a  work 
of  much  time  and  great  toil.  This  was  the  business 
of  the  men,  and  their  indolence  was  satisfied  with 
performing  it  in  a  very  slovenly  manner.  The  labour 
of  cultivation  was  left  to  the  women,  who,  after 
digging}  or  rather  stirring,  the  field,  with  wooden 
mattocks,  and  stakes  hardened  in  the  fire,  sowed  or 
planted  it ;  but  they  were  more  indebted  for  the 
increase  to  the  fertility  of  the  soil,  than  to  their  own 
rude  industry. 

Agriculture,  even  when  the  strength  of  man  is 
seconded  by  that  of  the  animals  which  he  has  sub- 
jected to  the  yoke,  and  his  power  augmented  by  the 
use  of  various  instruments  with  which  the  discovery 
of  metals  has  furnished  him,  is  still  a  work  of  great 
labour ;  and  it  is  with  the  sweat  of  his  brow  that  he 
renders  the  earth  fertile.  It  is  not  wonderful,  then, 
that  people  destitute  of  both  these  advantages  should 
have  made  so  little  progress  in  cultivation,  that  they 
must  be  considered  as  depending  for  subsistence  on 
fishing  and  hunting,  rather  than  on  the  fruits  of 
their  own  labour. 

From  this  description  of  the  mode  of  subsisting 
among  the  rude  American  tribes,  the  form  and 
genius  of  their  political  institutions  may  be  deduced, 
and  we  are  enabled  to  trace  various  circumstances 
of  distinction  between  them  and  more  civilized 
nations. 

1.  They  were  divided  into  small  independent 
communities.  While  hunting  is  the  chief  source  of 
subsistence,  a  vast  extent  of  territory  is  requisite  for 
supporting  a  small  number  of  people.  In  proportion 
as  men  multiply  and  unite,  the  wild  animals,  on 
which  they  depend  for  food,  diminish,  or  fly  at  a 
greater  distance  from  the  haunts  of  their  enemy. 
The  increase  of  a  society  in  this  state  is  limited  by 


its  own  nature,  and  the  members  of  it  must  either 
disperse  like  the  game  which  they  pursue,  or  fall 
upon  some  better  method  of  procuring  food  than  by 
hunting.  Beasts  of  prey  are  by  nature  solitary  and 
unsocial;  they  go  not  forth  to  the  chase  in  herds, 
but  delight  in  those  recesses  of  the  forest  where  they 
can  roam  and  destroy  undisturbed.  A  nation  of 
hunters  resembles  them  both  in  occupation  and  in 
genius.  They  cannot  form  into  large  communities, 
because  it  would  be  impossible  to  find  subsistence  ; 
and  they  must  drive  to  a  distance  every  rival  who 
may  encroach  on  those  domains,  which  they  consider 
as  their  own.  This  was  the  state  of  all  the  American 
tribes ;  the  numbers  in  each  were  inconsiderable, 
though  scattered  over  countries  of  great  extent ;  they 
were  far  removed  from  one  another,  and  engaged  in 
perpetual  hostilities  or  rivalship.  In  America  the 
word  nation  is  not  of  the  same  import  as  in  other 
parts  of  the  globe.  It  is  applied  to  small  societies, 
not  exceeding  perhaps,  two  or  three  hundred  persons, 
but  occupying  provinces  greater  than  some  kingdoms 
in  Europe.  The  country  of  Guiana,  though  of  larger 
extent  than  the  kingdom  of  France,  and  divided 
among  a  greater  number  of  nations,  did  not  contain 
above  twenty-five  thousand  inhabitants.  In  the 
provinces  which  border  on  the  Orinoco,  one  may 
travel  several  hundred  miles  in  different  directions, 
without  finding  a  single  hut,  or  observing  footsteps 
of  a  human  creature.  In  North  America,  where  the 
climate  is  more  rigorous,  and  the  soil  less  fertile,  the 
desolation  is  still  greater.  There,  journeys  of  some 
hundred  leagues  have  been  made  through  uninhabited 
plains  and  forests  (60).  As  long  as  hunting  con- 
tinues to  be  the  chief  employment  of  man,  to  which 
he  trusts  for  subsistence,  he  can  hardly  be  said  to 
have  occupied  the  earth  (61). 

2.  Nations  which  depend  upon  hunting  are,  in  a 
great  measure,  strangers  to  the  idea  of  property.  As 
the  animals  on  which  the  hunter  feeds  are  not  bred 
under  his  inspection,  nor  nourished  by  his  care,  he 
can  claim  no  right  to  them,  while  they  run  wild  in 
the  forest.  Where  game  is  so  plentiful  that  it  may 
be  catched  with  little  trouble,  men  never  dream  of 
appropriating  what  is  of  small  value,  or  of  easy 
acquisition.  Where  it  is  so  rare,  that  the  labour  or 
danger  of  the  chase  requires  the  united  efforts  of  a 
tribe,  or  village,  what  is  killed  is  a  common  stock, 
belonging  equally  to  all,  who  by  their  skill  or  their 
courage  have  contributed  to  the  success  of  the  excur- 
sion. The  forest,  or  hunting-grounds,  are  deemed 
the  property  of  the  tribe,  from  which  it  has  a  title 
to  exclude  every  rival  nation.  But  no  individual 
arrogates  a  right  to  any  district  of  these,  in  prefer- 
ence to  his  fellow  citizens.  They  belong  alike  to  all ; 
and  thither,  as  to  a  general  and  undivided  store,  all 
repair  in  quest  of  sustenance.  The  same  principles 
by  which  they  regulate  their  chief  occupation,  extend 
to  that  which  is  subordinate.  Even  agriculture  has  not 
introduced  among  them  a  complete  idea  of  property. 
As  the  men  hunt,  the  women  labour  together,  and 
after  they  have  shared  the  toils  of  the  seed-time, 
they  enjoy  the  harvest  in  common.  Among  some 
tribes,  the  increase  of  their  cultivated  lands  is 
deposited  in  a  public  granary,  and  divided  among 
them  at  stated  times,  according  to  their  wants  (62). 
Among  others,  though  they  lay  up  separate  stores, 
they  do  not  acquire  such  an  exclusive  right  of  pro- 
perty, that  they  can  enjoy  superfluity,  while  those 
around  them  suffer  want.  Thus  the  distinctions 
arising  from  the  inequality  of  possessions  are  un- 
known. The  terms  rich  or  poor  enter  not  into  their 
language,  and  being  strangers  to  property,  they  ar» 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


unacquainted  with  what  is  the  great  object  of  laws 
and  policy,  as  well  as  the  chief  motive  which  in- 
duced mankind  to  establish  the  various  arrangements 
of  regular  government. 

3.  People  in  this   state  retain  a  high  sense  of 
equality  and  independence.      Whereever  the  idea  of 
property  is  not  established,  there  can  be  no  distinc- 
tion   among    men,    but    what    arises    from    personal 
qualities.     These  can  be  conspicuous   only  on  such 
occasions   as  call  them  forth  into  exertion.     In  times 
of  danger,  or  in  affairs  of  intricacy,  the  wisdom   and 
experience  of  age   are   consulted,  and  prescribe  the 
measures  which  ought  to  be  pursued.     When  a  tribe 
of  savages  takes  the  field  against  the  enemies  of  their 
country,    the    warrior    of   most     approved    courage 
leads  the  youth  to  the  combat.     If  they  go  forth  in  a 
body  to  the  chase,  the  most  expert  and  adventurous 
hunter  is  foremost,  and  directs  their  motions.     But 
during  seasons   of  tranquillity    and   inaction,    when 
there  is   no    occasion    to    display    those  talents,  all 
pre-eminence  ceases.     Every  circumstance  indicates 
that  all  the   members  of  the  community  are   on   a 
level.     They  are  clothed  in  the  same  simple    garb. 
They  feed  on  the  same  plain  fare.     Their  houses  and 
furniture   are    exactly   similar.     No   distinction    can 
arise  from  the   inequality  of  possessions.     Whatever 
forms     dependence    on    one    part,     or    constitutes 
superiority  on  the  other,  is  unknown.     All  are  free- 
men,  all  feel  themselves  to  be  such,  and  assert  with 
firmness  the  rights  which   belong  to  that  condition. 
This    sentiment    of    independence    is    imprinted    so 
deeply  in  their  nature,  that  no  change  of  condition 
can  eradicate   it,   and  bend  their  minds  to  servitude. 
Accustomed  to  be  absolute    masters    of   their   own 
conduct,    they    disdain    to    execute    the   orders  of 
another ;  and    having    never   known    controul,    they 
will  not  submit   to   correction    (63).     Many  of  the 
Americans,  when  they  found  that  they  were  treated 
as  slaves  by    the  Spaniards,    died   of  grief;  many 
destroyed  themselves  in  despair. 

4.  Among  people  in  this  state,  government  can 
assume  little  authority,  and  the  sense  of  civil  subor- 
dination must  remain  very  imperfect.     While   the 
idea  of  property  is  unknown,  or  incompletely  con- 
ceived; while   the   spontaneous  productions   of  the 
earth,  as  well  as  the  fruits  of  industry,  are  considered 
as  belonging  to  the  public  stock,  there  can  hardly  be 
any  such  subject  of  difference  or  discussion  among 
the  members  of  the  same  community,  as  will  require 
the  hand  of  authority  to  interpose  in  order  to  adjust 
it.     Where  the  right  of  separate  and  exclusive  pos- 
session is  not  introduced,  the  great  object  of  law  and 
jurisdiction  does  not  exist.     When  the  members  of 
a  tribe  are  called  into  the  field,  either  to  invade  the 
territories  of  their  enemies  or  to  repel  their  attacks, 
when  they   are   engaged   together   in   the  toil   and 
dangers  of  the  chase,  they  then  perceive  that  they  are 
part  of  a  political  body.     They  are  conscious  of  their 
own  connexion  with  the  companions  in  conjunction 
with  whom  they  act ;  and  they  follow  and  reverence 
such  as  excel  in   conduct  and  valour.     But,  during 
the  intervals    between   such  common   efforts,    they 
seem  scarcely  to  feel  the  ties  of  political  union  (64). 
No  visible  form  of  government  is  established.     The 
names   of  magittrate  and  tubject   are  not   in    use. 
Every  one  seems  to  enjoy  his  natural  independence 
almost  entire.       If  a  scheme  of  public  utility  be  pro- 
posed,  the   members    of  the  community  are  left  at 
liberty  to  choose  whether  they  will  or  will  not  assist 
in  carrying  it  into  execution.     No  statute  imposes 
any  service  as  a  duty,  no  compulsory  laws  oblige 
them  to  perform  it.     All  their  resolutions  are  volun- 


tary, and  flow  from  the  impulse  of  their  own  minds 
The  first  step  towards  establishing  a  public  jurisdic- 
tion has  not  been  taken  in  those  rude  societies.  The 
right  of  revenge  is  left  in  private  hands.  If  violence 
is  committed,  or  blood  is  shed,  the  community  does 
not  assume  the  power  either  of  inflicting  or  of  moder- 
ating the  punishment.  It  belongs  to  the  family  and 
friends  of  the  person  injured  or  slain  to  avenge  the 
wrong,  or  to  accept  the  reparation  offered  by  the  aggres- 
sor. If  the  elders  interpose,  it  is  to  advise,  not  to  decide, 
and  it  is  seldom  their  counsels  are  listened  to  :  for  as  it 
is  deemed  pusillanimous  to  suffer  an  offender  to 
escape  with  impunity,  resentment  is  implacable  and 
everlasting.  The  object  of  government  among  savages 
is  rather  foreign  than  domestic.  They  do  not  aim  at 
maintaining  interior  order  and  police  by  public  regu- 
lations, or  the  exertions  of  any  permanent  authority, 
but  labour  to  preserve  such  union  among  the  mem- 
bers of  their  tribe,  that  they  may  watch  the  motions 
of  their  enemies,  and  act  against  them  with  concert 
and  vigour. 

Such  was  the  form  of  political  order  established 
among  the  greater  part  of  the  American  nations.  In 
this  state  were  almost  all  the  tribes  spread  over  the 
provinces  extending  eastward  of  the  Mississippi,  from 
the  mouth  of  the  St.  Laurence  to  the  confines  of 
Florida.  In  a  similar  condition  were  the  people  of 
Brazil,  the  inhabitants  of  Chili,  several  tribes  in 
Paraguay  and  Guiana,  and  in  the  countries  which 
stretch  from  the  mouth  of  the  Orinoco  to  the  penin- 
sula of  Yucatan.  Among  such  an  infinite  number  of 
petty  associations,  there  may  be  peculiarities  which 
constitute  a  distinction,  and  mark  the  varioui 
degrees  of  their  civilization  and  improvement.  But 
an  attempt  to  trace  and  enumerate  these  would  be 
vain,  as  they  have  not  been  observed  by  persons 
capable  of  discerning  the  minute  and  delicate  cir- 
cumstances which  serve  to  discriminate  nations 
resembling  one  another  in  their  general  character  and 
features.  The  description  which  I  have  given  of  the 
political  institutions  that  took  place  among  those  rude 
tribes  in  America,  concerning  which  we  have  received 
most  complete  information,  will  apply  with  little 
variation,  to  every  people,  both  in  its  northern  and 
southern  division,  who  have  advanced  no  further  in 
civilization,  than  to  add  some  slender  degree  of  agri- 
culture to  fishing  and  hunting. 

Imperfect  as  those  institutions  may  appear,  several 
tribes  were  not  so  far  advanced  in  their  political 
progress.  Among  all  those  petty  nations  which 
trusted  for  subsistence  entirely  to  fishing  and  hunting 
without  any  species  of  cultivation,  the  union  was  so 
incomplete,  and  their  sense  of  mutual  dependence  so 
feeble,  that  hardly  any  appearance  of  government  or 
order  can  be  discerned  in  their  proceedings.  Their 
wants  are  few,  their  objects  of  pursuit  simple,  they 
form  into  separate  tribes,  and  act  together,  from, 
instinct,  habit,  or  conveniency,  rather  than  from  any 
formal  concert  and  association.  To  this  class  belong 
the  Californians,  several  of  the  small  nations  in  the 
extensive  country  of  Paraguay,  some  of  the  people  on. 
the  banks  of  the  Orinoco  and  on  the  river  St.  Magda- 
lene, in  the  new  kingdom  of  Granada. 

But  though  among  these  last  mentioned  tribes 
there  was  hardly  any  shadow  of  regular  government, 
and  even  among  those  which  I  first  described  its 
authority  is  slender  and  confined  within  narrow- 
bounds,  there  were,  however,  some  places  in  America, 
where  government  was  carried  far  beyond  the  degree 
of  perfection  which  seems  natural  to  rude  nations. 
In  surveying  the  political  operations  of  man,  either  in 
his  savage  or  civilized  state,  we  discover  singular  ancl 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


eccentric  institutions,  which  start  as  it  were  from 
their  station,  and  fly  off  so  wide,  that  we  labour  in 
vain  to  bring  them  within  the  general  laws  of  any 
system,  or  to  account  for  them  by  those  principles 
which  influence  other  communities  in  a  similar  situa- 
tion. Some  instances  of  this  occur  among  those 
people  of  America,  whom  I  have  included  under  the 
common  denomination  of  savage.  These  are  so 
curious  and  important  that  I  shall  describe  them, 
and  attempt  to  explain  their  origin. 

In  the  New  World,  as  well  as  in  other  parts  of  the 
globe,  cold  or  temperate  countries  appear  to  be  the 
favourite  seat  of  freedom  and  independence.  There 
the  mind,  like  the  body,  is  firm  and  vigorous.  There 
men,  conscious  of  their  own  dignity,  and  capable  of 
the  greatest  efforts  in  asserting  it,  aspire  to  indepen- 
dence, and  their  stubborn  spirits  stoop  with  reluc- 
tance to  the  yoke  of  servitude.  In  warmer  climates, 
by  whose  influence  the  whole  frame  is  so  much  ener- 
vated, that  present  pleasure  is  the  supreme  felicity, 
and  mere  repose  is  enjoyment,  men  acquiesce,  almost 
without  a  struggle,  in  the  dominion  of  a  superior. 
Accordingly,  if  we  proceed  from  north  to  south  along 
the  continent  of  America,  we  shall  find  the  power  of 
those  vested  with  authority  gradually  increasing,  and 
the  spirit  of  the  people  becoming  more  tame  and 
passive.  In  Florida,  the  authority  of  the  sachems, 
caziques,  or  chiefs,  was  not  only  permanent,  but  here- 
ditary. They  were  distinguished  by  peculiar  orna- 
ments, they  enjoyed  prerogatives  of  various  kinds,  and 
were  treated  by  their  subjects  with  that  reverence, 
which  people  accustomed  to  subjection  pay  to  a  master. 
Among  the  Natchez,  a  powerful  tribe  now  extinct,  for- 
merly situated  on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi,  a  dif- 
ference of  rank  took  place,  with  which  the  northern 
tribes  were  altogether  unacquainted.  Some  families 
were  reputed  noble,  and  enjoyed  hereditary  dignity. 
The  body  of  the  people  was  considered  as  vile,  and 
formed  only  for  subjection.  This  distinction  was 
marked  by  appellations  which  intimated  the  high 
elevation  of  the  one  state,  and  the  ignominious 
depression  of  the  other.  The  former  were  called 
Respectable ;  the  latter,  the  Stinkards.  The  great 
Chief,  in  whom  the  supreme  authority  was  vested,  is 
reputed  to  be  a  being  of  superior  nature,  the  brother 
of  the  sun,  the  sole  object  of  their  worship.  They 
approach  this  great  Chief  with  religious  veneration, 
and  honour  him  as,  the  representative  of  their  deity. 
His  will  is  a  law  to  which  all  submit  with  implicit 
obedience.  The  lives  of  his  subjects  are  so  absolutely 
at  his  disposal,  that  if  any  one  has  incurred  his  dis- 
pleasure, the  offender  comes  with  profound  humility 
and  offers  him  his  head.  Nor  does  the  dominion  of 
the  Chiefs  end  with  their  lives ;  their  principal 
officers,  their  favourite  wives,  together  with  many 
domestics  of  inferior  rank,  are  sacrificed  at  their 
tombs,  that  they  may  be  attended  in  the  next  world 
by  the  same  persons  who  served  them  in  this  ;  and 
such  is  the  reverence  in  which  they  are  held,  that 
those  victims  welcome  death  with  exultation,  deeming 
it  a  recompense  of  their  fidelity,  and  a  mark  of  dis- 
tinction, to  be  selected  to  accompany  their  deceased 
master.  Thus  a  perfect  despotism,  with  its  full  train 
of  superstition,  arrogance,  and  cruelty,  is  established 
among  the  N7atchez,  and  by  a  singular  fatality,  that 
people  has  tasted  of  the  worst  calamities  incident  to 
polished  nations,  though  they  themselves  are  not  far 
advanced  beyond  the  tribes  around  them  in  civility 
and  improvement.  In  Hispaniola,  Cuba,  and  the 
larger  islands,  theircaziques  or  chiefs  possessed  exten- 
sive power.  The  dignity  was  transmitted  by  here- 
ditary right  from  father  to  sqo.  Jts  honours  and 
I 


prerogatives  were  considerable.     Their  subjects  p»i 
great  respect  to  the  caziques,  and  executed  their  order§ 
without  hesitation    or  reserve.     They  were    distin 
guished  by  peculiar  ornaments,  and  in  order  to  pre 
serve  or  augment  the  veneration  of  the  people,  they 
had  the  address  to  call  in  the  aid  of  superstition  to 
uphold  their  authority.     They  delivered  their  man- 
dates as  the  oracles  of  heaven,  and  pretended  to  pos- 
sess the  power  of  regulating  the  seasons,  and  of  dis- 
pensing rain  or  sunshine,  according  as  their  subjects 
stood  in  need  of  them. 

In  some  parts  of  the  southern  continent,  the  power 
of  the  caziques  seems  to  have  been  as  extensive  as 
in  the  isles.  In  Bogota,  which  is  now  a  province  of 
the  new  kingdom  of  Granada,  there  was  settled  a 
nation,  more  considerable  in  number,  and  more 
improved  in  the  various  arts  of  life,  than  any  in 
America,  except  the  Mexicans  and  Peruvians.  The 
people  of  Bogota  subsisted  chiefly  by  agriculture. 
The  idea  of  property  was  introduced  among  them, 
and  its  rights  secured  by  laws,  handed  down  by 
tradition,  and  observed  with  great  care.  They  lived 
in  towns  which  may  be  termed  large  when  compared 
with  those  in  other  parts  of  America.  They  were 
clothed  in  a  decent  manner,  and  their  houses  may  be 
termed  commodious,  when  compared  with  those  of 
the  small  tribes  around  them.  The  effects  of  this 
uncommon  civilization  were  conspicuous.  Govern- 
ment had  assumed  a  regular  form.  A  jurisdiction 
was  established,  which  took  cognizance  of  different 
crimes,  and  punished  them  with  rigour.  A  distinc- 
tion of  ranks  was  known;  their  chief,  to  whom  the 
Spaniards  gave  the  title  of  monarch,  and  who  merited 
that  name  on  account  of  his  splendour  as  well  as 
power,  reigned  with  absolute  authority.  He  was 
attended  by  officers  of  various  conditions;  he  never 
appeared  in  public  without  a  numerous  retinue  ;  he 
was  carried  in  a  sort  of  palanquin  with  much  pomp, 
and  harbingers  went  before  him  to  sweep  the  road 
and  strew  it  with  flowers.  This  uncommon  pomp 
was  supported  by  presents  or  taxes  received  from 
his  subjects,  to  whom  their  prince  was  such  an  object 
of  veneration,  that  none  of  them  presumed  to  look 
him  directly  in  the  face,  or  ever  approached  him  but 
with  an  averted  countenance.  There  were  other 
tribes  on  the  same  continent,  among  which,  though 
far  less  advanced  than  the  people  of  Bogota  in  their 
progress  towards  refinement,  the  freedom  and  inde- 
pendence, natural  to  man  in  his  savage  state,  was 
much  abridged,  and  their  caziques  had  assumed 
extensive  authority. 

It  is  not  easy  to  point  out  the  circumstances,  or  to 
discover  the  causes,  which  contributed  to  introduce 
and  establish  among  each  of  those  people  a  form  of 
government  so  different  from  that  of  the  tribes  around 
thorn,  and  so  repugnant  to  the  genius  of  rude  nations. 
If  the  persons  who  had  an  opportunity  of  observing 
them  in  their  original  state  had  been  more  attentive 
and  more  discerning,  we  might  have  received  infor- 
mation from  their  conquerors  sufficient  to  guide  us 
in  this  inquiry.  If  the  transactions  of  people,  unac- 
quainted with  the  use  of  letters,  were  not  involved 
in  impenetrable  obscurity,  we  might  have  derived 
some  information  from  this  domestic  source.  But  as 
nothing  satisfactory  can  be  gathered  either  from  the 
accounts  of  the  Spaniards,  or  from  their  own  tradi- 
tions, we  must  have  recourse  to  conjectures,  in  order 
to  explain  the  irregular  appearances  in  the  political 
state  of  the  people  whom  I  have  mentioned.  As  all 
those  tribes  which  had  lost  their  native  liberty  and 
independence  were  seated  in  the  torrid  zone,  or  in 
countries  approaching  to  it,  the  climate  may  be  sup* 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


posed  to  have  had  some  influence  in  forming  their 
minds  to  that  servitude,  which  seems  to  be  the 
destiny  of  man  in  those  regions  of  the  globe.  But 
though  the  influence  of  climate,  more  powerful  than 
that  of  any  other  natural  cause,  is  not  to  be  overlooked, 
that  alone  cannot  be  admitted  as  a  solution  of  the 
point  in  question.  The  operations  of  men  are  so 
complex,  that  we  must  not  attribute  the  form  which 
they  assume  to  the  force  of  a  single  principle  or  cause. 
Although  despotism  be  confined  in  America  to  the 
torrid  zone,  and  to  the  warm  regions  bordering  upon 
it,  I  have  already  observed  that  these  countries  con- 
tain various  tribes,  some  of  which  possess  a  high 
degree  of  freedom,  and  others  are  altogether  unac- 
quainted with  the  restraints  of  government.  The 
indolence  and  timidity  peculiar  to  the  inhabitants  of 
the  islands,  render  them  so  incapable  of  the  senti- 
ments or  effort*  necessary  for  maintaining  indepen- 
dence, that  there  is  no  occasion  to  search  for  any 
other  cause  of  their  tame  submission  to  the  will  of  a 
superior.  The  subjection  of  the  Natchez,  and  of  the 
people  of  Bogota,  seems  to  have  been  the  conse- 
quence of  a  difference  in  their  state  from  that  of  the 
other  Americans.  They  were  settled  nations,  residing  | 
constantly  in  one  place.  Hunting  was  not  the  chief  j 
occupation  of  the  former,  and  the  latter  seem  hardly 
to  hare  trusted  to  it  for  any  part  of  their  subsistence. 
Both  had  made  such  progress  in  agriculture  and  arts, 
that  the  idea  of  property  was  introduced  in  some 
degree  in  the  one  community,  and  fully  established 
in  the  other.  Among  people  in  this  state  avarice  and 
ambition  have  acquired  objects,  and  have  begun  to 
exert  their  power  ;  views  of  interest  allure  the  sel- 
fish ;  the  desire  of  pre-eminence  excites  the  enterpris- 
ing ;  dominion  is  courted  by  both;  and  passions 
unknown  to  man  in  his  savage  state,  prompt  the 
interested  and  ambitious  to  encroach  on  the  rights  of 
their  fellow-citizens.  Motives,  with  which  rude 
nations  are  equally  unacquainted,  induce  the  people 
to  submit  tamely  to  the  usurped  authority  of  their 
superiors.  But  even  among  nations  in  this  state,  the 
spirit  of  subjects  could  not  have  been  rendered  so 
obsequious,  or  the  power  of  rulers  so  unbounded, 
without  the  intervention  of  superstition.  By  its 
fatal  influence,  the  human  mind,  in  every  stage  of  its 
progress,  is  depressed,  and  its  native  vigour  and 
independence  subdued.  Whoever  can  acquire  the 
direction  of  this  formidable  engine,  is  secure  of ' 
dominion  over  his  species.  Unfortunately  for  the  j 
people  whose  institutions  are  the  subject  of  inquiry, 
this  power  was  in  the  hands  of  their  chiefs.  The 
caziques  of  the  isles  could  put  what  responses  they 
pleased  into  the  mouths  of  their  Cemis  or  gods  ;  and 
it  was  by  their  interposition,  and  in  their  name,  that 
they  imposed  any  tribute  or  burden  on  their  people. 
The  same  power  and  prerogative  was  exercised  by  the 
great  chief  of  the  Natchez,  as  the  principal  minister 
as  well  as  the  representative  of  the  sun,  their  deity. 
The  respect  which  the  people  of  Bogota  paid  to  their  | 
monarchs  was  likewise  inspired  by  religion,  and  the  { 
heir-apparent  to  the  kingdom  was  educated  in  the  ! 
innermost  recess  of  their  principal  temple,  under 
such  austere  discipline,  and  with  such  peculiar  rites,  | 
as  tended  to  fill  his  subjects  with  high  sentiments 
concerning  the  sanctity  of  his  character,  and  the  dignity 
of  his  station.  Thus  superstition,  which,  in  the 
rudest  period  of  society,  is  either  altogether  unknown, 
or  wastes  its  force  in  childish  unmeaning  practices, 
had  acquired  such  an  ascendant  over  those  people 
of  America  who  had  made  some  little  progress 
towards  refinement,  that  it  became  the  chief  instru- 
ment of  bending  their  minds  to  an  untimely  servitude, 


and  subjected  them  in  the  beginning  of  their  political 
career,  to  a  despotism  hardly  less  rigorous  than  that 
which  awaits  nations  in  the  last  stage  of  their  cor- 
ruption and  decline. 

V.  After  examining  the  political  institutions  of 
the  rude  nations  in  America,  the  next  object  of 
attention  is  their  art  of  war,  or  their  provision  for 
public  security  and  defence.  The  small  tribes  dis- 
persed over  America,  are  not  only  independent  and 
unconnected,  but  engaged  in  perpetual  hostilities  with 
one  another.  Though  mostly  strangers  to  the  idea  of 
separate  property,  vested  in  any  individual,  the 
rudest  of  the  American  nations  are  well  acquainted 
with  the  rights  of  each  community  to  its  own  do- 
mains. This  right  they  hold  to  be  perfect  and  exclu- 
sive, entitling  the  possessor  to  oppose  the  encroach- 
ment of  neighbouring  tribes.  As  it  is  of  the  utmost 
consequence  to  prevent  them  from  destroying  or 
disturbing  the  game  in  their  hunting  grounds,  they 
guard  this  national  property  with  a  jealous  attention. 
But  as  their  territories  are  extensive,  and  the  bound- 
aries of  them  not  exactly  ascertained,  innumerable 
subjects  of  dispute  arise,  which  seldom  terminate 
without  bloodshed.  Even  in  this  simple  and  primi- 
tive state  of  society,  interest  is.  a  source  of  discord, 
and  often  prompts  savage  tribes  to  take  arms,  in  order 
to  repel  or  punish  such  as  encroach  on  the  forests  or 
plains,  to  which  they  trust  for  subsistence. 

But  interest  is  not  either  the  most  frequent  or  the 
most  powerful  motive  of  the  incessant  hostilities 
among  rude  nations.  These  must  be  imputed  to  the 
passion  of  revenge;  which  rages  with  such  violence 
in  the  breast  of  savages,  that  eagerness  to  gratify  it 
may  be  considered  as  the  distinguishing  characteristic 
of  men  in  their  uncivilized  state.  Circumstances  of 
powerful  influence,  both  in  the  interior  government 
of  rude  tribes,  and  in  their  external  operations  against 
foreign  enemies,  concur  in  cherishing  and  adding 
strength  to  a  passion  fatal  to  the  general  tranquillity. 
When  the  right  of  redressing  his  own  wrongs  is  left 
in  the  hands  of  every  individual,  injuries  are  felt  with 
exquisite  sensibility,  and  vengeance  exercised  with 
unrelenting  rancour.  No  time  can  obliterate  the 
memory  of  an  offence,  and  it  is  seldom  that  it  can  be 
expiated  but  by  the  blood  of  the  offender.  In  carrying 
on  their  public  wars,  savage  nations  are  influenced 
by  the  same  ideas,  and  animated  with  the  same 
spirit,  as  in  prosecuting  private  vengeance.  In  small 
communities,  every  man  is  touched  with  the  injury  or 
affront  offered  to  the  body  of  which  he  is  a  member, 
as  if  it  were  a  personal  attack  upon  his  own  honour 
or  safety.  The  desire  of  revenge  is  communicated 
from  breast  to  breast,  and  soon  kindles  into  rage.  As 
feeble  societies  can  take  the  field  only  in  small 
parties,  each  warrior  is  conscious  of  the  importance  of 
his  own  arm,  and  feels  that  to  it  is  committed  a  con- 
siderable portion  of  the  public  vengeance.  War, 
which  between  extensive  kingdoms  is  carried  on  with 
little  animosity,  is  prosecuted  by  small  tribes  with  all 
the  rancour  of  a  private  quarrel.  The  resentment  of 
nations  is  as  implacable  as  that  of  individuals.  It 
may  be  dissembled  or  suppressed,  but  is  never  ex- 
tinguished ;  and  often,  when  least  expected  or 
dreaded,  it  bursts  out  with  redoubled  fury.  When 
polished  nations  have  obtained  the  glory  of  victory, 
or  have  acquired  an  addition  of  territory,  they  may 
terminate  a  war  with  honour.  But  savages  are  not 
satisfied  until  they  extirpate  the  community  which  is 
the  object  of  their  hatred.  They  fight  not  to  conquer, 
but  to  destroy.  If  they  engage  in  hostilities,  it  is 
with  a  resolution  never  to  see  the  face  of  the  enemy 
in  peace,  but  to  prosecute  the  quarrel  with  immortal 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


enmity.  The  desire  of  vengeance  is  the  first  and 
almost  the  only  principle  which  a  savage  instils  into 
the  minds  of  his  children.  This  grows  up  with  him 
as  he  advances  in  life ;  and  as  his  attention  is  di- 
rected to  few  objects,  it  cquires  a  degree  of  force 
unknown  among  men  whose  passions  are  dissipated 
and  weakened  by  the  variety  of  their  occupations 
and  pursuits.  The  desire  of  vengeance,  which  takes 
possession  of  the  heart  of  savages,  resembles  the 
instinctive  rage  of  an  animal,  rather  than  the  passion 
of  a  man.  It  turns,  with  undiscerning  fury,  even 
against  inanimate  objects.  If  hurt  accidentally  by  a 
stone,  they  often  seize  it  in  a  transport  of  anger,  and 
endeavour  to  wreak  their  vengeance  upon  it.  If 
struck  with  an  arrow  in  a  battle,  they  will  tear  it 
from  the  wound,  break  and  bite  it  with  their  teeth, 
and  dash  it  on  the  ground.  With  respect  to  their 
enemies,  the  rage  of  vengeance  knows  no  bounds. 
When  under  the  dominion  of  this  passion,  man  be- 
comes the  most  c;uel  of  all  animals.  He  neither 
pities,  nor  forgives,  nor  spares. 

The  force  of  this  passion  is  so  well  understood  by 
the  Americans  themselves,  that  they  always  apply  to 
it,  in  order  to  excite  their  people  to  take  arms.  If 
the  elders  of  any  tribe  attempt  to  rouse  their  youth 
from  sloth,  if  a  chief  wishes  to  allure  a  band  of  war- 
riors to  follow  him  in  invading  an  enemy's  country, 
the  most  persuasive  topics  of  their  martial  eloquence 
are  drawn  from  revenge.  "  The  bones  of  our  coun- 
trymen," say  they,  "  lie  uncovered;  their  bloody  bed 
has  not  been  washed  clean.  Their  spirits  cry  against 
us  ;  they  must  be  appeased.  Let  us  go  and  devour 
the  people  by  whom  they  were  slain.  Sit  no  longer 
inactive  upon  your  mats ;  lift  the  hatchet,  console 
the  spirits  of  the  dead,  and  tell  them  that  they  shall 
be  avenged." 

Animated  with  such  exhortations,  the  youth  snatch 
heir  arms  in  a  transport  of  fury,  raise  the  song  of 
ar,  and  burn  with  impatience  to  imbrue  their  hands 
the  blood  of  their  enemies.  Private  chiefs  often 
semble  small  parties,  and  invade  a  hostile  tribe, 
ithout  consulting  the  rulers  of  the  community.  A 
ngle  warrior,  prompted  by  caprice  or  revenge,  will 
ake  the  field  alone,  and  march  several  hundred  miles 
o  surprise  and  cut  off  a  straggling  enemy  (65).  The 
xploits  of  a  noted  warrior,  in  such  solitary  excur- 
ions,  often  form  the  chief  part  in  the  history  of  an 
American  campaign  (66) ;  and  their  elders  connive 
at  such  irregular  sallies,  as  they  tend  to  cherish  a 
martial  spirit,  and  accustom  their  people  to  enter- 
prise and  danger.  But  when  a  war  is  national,  and 
undertaken  by  public  authority,  the  deliberations  are 
formal  and  slow.  The  elders  assemble,  they  deliver 
their  opinions  in  solemn  speeches,  they  weigh  with 
maturity  the  nature  of  the  enterprise,  and  balance  its 
beneficial  or  disadvantageous  consequences  with  no 
inconsiderable  portion  of  political  discernment  or 
sagacity.  Their  priests  and  soothsayers  are  con- 
sulted, and  sometimes  they  ask  the  advice  even  of 
their  women.  If  the  determination  be  for  war,  they 
prepare  for  it  with  much  ceremony.  A  leader  offers 
to  conduct  the  expedition,  and  is  accepted.  But  no 
man  is  constrained  to  follow  him;  the  resolution  ol 
the  community  to  commence  hostilities  imposes  no 
obligation  upon  any  member  to  take  part  in  the  war. 
Each  individual  is  still  master  of  his  own  conduct, 
and  his  engagement  in  the  service  is  perfectly  vo- 
luntary. 

The  maxims  by  which  they  regulate  their  military 
operations,  though  extremely  different  from  those 
which  take  place  among  more  civilized  and  populous 
untkms,  are  well  suited  to  their  own  political  state, 


and  the  nature  of  the  country  in  which  they  act. 
They  never  take  the  field  in  numerous  bodies,  as  it 
would  require  a  greater  effort  of  foresight  and  in- 
dustry, than  is  usual  among  savages,  to  provide  for 
their  subsistence,  during  a  march  of  some  hundred 
miles  through  dreary  forests,  or  during  a  long  voyage 
upon  their  lakes  and  rivers.  Their  armies  are  not 
encumbered  with  baggage  or  military  stores.  Each 
warrior,  besides  his  arms,  carries  a  mat  and  a  small 
bag  of  pounded  maize,  and  with  these  is  completely 
equipped  for  any  service.  While  at  a  distance  from 
the  enemy's  frontier,  they  disperse  through  the 
woods,  and  support  themselves  with  the  game  which 
they  kill,  or  the  fish  which  they  catch.  As  they 
approach  nearer  to  the  territories  of  the  nation  which 
they  intend  to  attack,  they  collect  their  troops,  and 
advance  with  greater  caution  Even  in  their  hot- 
test and  most  active  wars,  they  proceed  wholly  by 
stratagem  and  ambuscade.  They  place  not  their 
glory  in  attacking  their  enemies  with  open  force.  To 
surprise  and  destroy  is  the  greatest  merit  of  a  com- 
mander, and  the  highest  pride  of  his  followers.  War 
and  hunting  are  their  only  occupations,  and  they 
conduct  both  with  the  same  spirit  and  the  same  arts. 
They  follow  the  track  of  their  enemies  through  the 
forest.  They  endeavour  to  discover  their  haunts, 
they  lurk  in  some  thicket  near  to  these,  and,  with  the 
patience  of  a  sportsman  lying  in  wait  for  game,  will 
continue  in  their  station  day  after  day,  until  they  can 
rush  upon  their  prey  when  most  secure,  and  least 
able  to  resist  them.  If  they  meet  no  straggling  party 
of  the  enemy,  they  advance  towards  their  villages, 
but  with  such  solicitude  to  conceal  their  own  ap- 
proach, that  they  often  creep  on  their  hands  and 
feet  through  the  woods,  and  paint  their  skins  of  the 
same  colour  with  the  withered  leaves,  in  order  to 
avoid  detection.  If  so  fortunate  as  to  remain  unob- 
served, they  set  on  fire  the  enemies'  huts  in  the  dead 
of  night,  and  massacre  the  inhabitants,  as  they  fly 
naked  and  defenceless  from  the  flames.  If  they 
hope  to  effect  a  retreat  without  being  pursued,  they 
carry  off  some  prisoners,  whom  they  reserve  for  a 
more  dreadful  fate.  But  if,  notwithstanding  all  their 
address  and  precautions,  they  find  that  their  motions 
are  discovered,  that  the  enemy  has  taken  the  alarm, 
and  is  prepared  to  oppose  them,  they  usually  deem  it 
most  prudent  to  retire.  They  regard  it  as  extreme 
folly  to  meet  an  enemy  who  is  on  his  guard,  upon 
equal  terms,  or  to  give  battle  in  an  open  field.  The 
most  distinguished  success  is  a  disgrace  to  a  leader, 
if  it  has  been  purchased  with  any  considerable  loss 
of  his  followers  (67),  and  they  never  boast  of  a 
victory,  if  stained  with  the  blood  of  their  own  coun- 
trymen. To  fall  in  battle,  instead  of  being  reckoned 
an  honourable  death,  is  a  misfortune  which  subjects 
the  memory  of  a  warrior  to  the  imputation  of  rash- 
ness or  imprudence  (68). 

This  system  of  war  was  universal  in  America ;  and 
the  small  uncivilized  tribes,  dispersed  through  all  its 
different  regions  and  climates,  display  more  craft 
than  boldness  in  carrying  on  their  hostilities.  Struck 
with  this  conduct,  so  opposite  to  the  ideas  and 
maxims  of  Europeans,  several  authors  contend  that 
it  flows  from  a  feeble  and  dastardly  spirit  peculiar  to 
the  Americans,  which  is  incapable  of  any  generous  or 
manly  exertion.  But  when  we  reflect  that  many  of 
these  tribes,  on  occasions  which  call  for  extraordinary 
efforts,  not  only  defend  themselves  with  obstinate 
resolution,  but  attack  their  enemies  with  the  most 
daring  courage,  and  that  they  possess  fortitude  of 
mind  superior  to  the  sense  of  danger  or  the  fear  of 
death,  we  must  ascribe  their  habitual  caution  (o 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


some  other  cause  than  constitutional  timidity.  The 
number  of  men  in  each  tribe  is  so  small,  the  difficulty 
of  rearing  new  members  amidst  the  hardships  and 
dangers  of  savage  liie  so  great,  that  the  life  of  a 
citizen  is  extremely  precious,  and  the  preservation  of 
it  becomes  a  capital  object  in  their  policy.  Had 
the  point  of  honour  been  the  same  among  the  feeble 
American  tribes  as  among  the  powerful  nations  of 
Europe,  had  they  been  taught  to  court  fame  or  vic- 
tory in  contempt  of  danger  and  death,  they  must 
have  been  ruined  by  maxims  so  ill  adapted  to  their 
condition.  But  wherever  their  communities  are 
more  populous,  so  that  they  can  act  with  consider- 
able force,  and  can  sustain  the  loss  of  several  of  their 
members,  without  being  sensibly  weakened,  the 
military  operations  of  the  Americans  more  nearly 
resemble  those  of  other  nations.  The  Brazilians,  as 
well  as  the  tribes  situated  upon  the  banks  of  the 
river  De  la  Plata,  often  take  the  field  in  such  nume- 
rous bodies  as  deserve  the  name  of  armies.  They 
defy  their  enemies  to  the  combat,  engage  in  regular 
battles,  and  maintain  the  conflict  with  that  desperate 
ferocity,  which  is  natural  to  men  who,  ha\  ing  no  idea 
of  war  but  that  of  exterminating  their  enemies,  never 
give  or  take  quarter.  In  the  powerful  empires  of 
Mexico  and  Peru,  great  armies  were  assembled, 
frequent  battles  were  fought,  and  the  theory  as  well 
as  practice  of  war  were  different  from  what  took 
place  in  those  petty  societies  which  assume  the  name 
of  nations. 

But  though  vigilance  and  attention  are  the  quali- 
ties chiefly  requisite,  where  the  object  of  war  is  to 
deceive  and  to  surprise ;  and  though  the  Americans, 
when  acting  singly,  display  an  amazing  degree  of 
address  in  concealing  their  own  motions,  and  disco- 
vering those  of  an  enemy,  yet  it  is  remarkable,  that, 
when  they  take  the  field  in  parties,  they  can  seldom 
be  brought  to  observe  the  precautions  most  essential 
to  their  own  security.  Such  is  the  difficulty  of  accus- 
toming savages  to  subordination,  or  to  act  in  concert ; 
such  is  their  impatience  under  restraint,  and  such 
their  caprice  and  presumption,  that  it  is  rarely 
they  can  be  brought  to  conform  themselves  to  the 
counsels  and  directions  of  their  leaders.  They  never 
station  centinels  around  the  place  where  they  rest  at 
night,  and  after  marching  some  hundred  miles  to 
surprise  an  enemy,  are  often  surprised  themselves, 
and  cut  off,  while  sunk  in  as  profound  sleep  as  if  they 
were  not  within  reach  of  danger. 

If,  notwithstanding  this  negligence  and  security, 
which  often  frustrate  their  most  artful  schemes,  they 
catch  the  enemy  unprepared,  they  rush  upon  them 
with  the  utmost  ferocity,  and  tearing  off  the  scalps  of 
all  those  who  fall  victims  to  their  rage  (70),  they 
carry  home  those  strange  trophies  in  triumph.  These 
they  preserve  as  monuments,  not  only  of  their  own 
prowess,  but  of  the  vengeance  which  their  arm  has 
inflicted  upon  the  people  who  were  objects  of  public 
resentment.  They  are  still  more  solicitous  to  seize 
prisoners.  During  their  retreat,  if  they  hope  to  effect 
it  unmolested,  the  prisoners  are  commonly  exempt 
from  any  insult,  and  treated  with  some  degree  of 
humanity,  though  guarded  with  the  most  strict 
attention. 

But  after  this  temporary  suspension,  the  rage  of 
the  conquerors  rekindles  with  new  fury.  As  soon  as 
they  approach  their  own  frontier,  some  of  their  num- 
ber are  dispatched  to  inform  their  countrymen  with 
respect  to  the  success  of  the  expedition.  Then  the 
prisoners  begin  to  feel  the  wretchedness  of  their  con- 
dition. The  women  of  the  village,  together  with  the 
youth  who  have  not  attained  to  the  age  of  bearing 


arms,  assemble,  and  forming  themselves  into  two 
lines,  through  which  the  prisoners  must  pass,  beat 
and  bruise  them  w  ith  sticks  or  stones  in  a  cruel  man- 
ner. After  this  first  gratification  of  their  rage  against 
their  enemies,  follow  latnentationsjfor  the  loss  of  such 
of  their  own  countrymen  as  have  fallen  in  the  service, 
accompanied  with  words  and  actions  which  seem  to 
express  the  utmost  anguish  and  grief.  But  in  a 
moment,  upon  a  signal  given,  their  tears  cease ;  they 
pass,  with  a  sudden  and  unaccountable  transition, 
from  the  depths  of  sorrow  to  the  transports  of  joy ; 
and  begin  to  celebrate  their  victory  with  all  the  wild 
exultation  of  a  barbarous  triumph.  The  fate  of  the 
prisoners  remains  still  undecided.  The  old  men 
deliberate  concerning  it.  Some  are  destined  to  be 
tortured  to  death,  in  order  to  satiate  the  revenge  of 
the  conquerors  ;  some  to  replace  the  members  which 
the  community  has  lost  in  that  or  former  wars.  They 
who  are  reserved  for  this  milder  fate,  are  led  to  the 
huts  of  those  whose  friends  have  been  killed.  The 
women  meet  them  at  the  door,  and  if  they  receive 
them,  their  sufferings  are  at  an  end.  They  are 
adopted  into  the  family,  and,  according  to  their 
phrase,  are  seated  upon  the  mat  of  the  deceased. 
They  assume  his  name,  they  hold  the  same  rank,  and 
are  treated  thenceforward  with  all  the  tenderness  duo 
to  a  father,  a  brother,  a  husband,  or  a  friend.  But 
if,  either  from  caprice  or  an  unrelenting  desire  of 
revenge,  the  women  of  any  family  refuse  to  accept  of 
the  prisoner  who  is  offered  to  them,  his  doom  is 
fixed :  no  power  can  then  save  him  from  torture  and 
death. 

While  their  lot  is  in  suspense,  the  prisoners  them- 
selves appear  altogether  unconcerned  about  what  may 
befall  them.  They  talk,  they  eat,  they  sleep,  as  if 
they  were  perfectly  at  ease,  and  no  danger  impending. 
When  the  fatal  sentence  is  intimated  to  them,  they 
receive  it  with  an  unaltered  countenance,  raise  their 
death-song,  and  prepare  to  suffer  like  men.  Their 
conquerors  assemble  as  to  a  solemn  festival,  resolved 
to  put  the  fortitude  of  the  captive  to  the  utmost 
proof.  A  scene  ensues,  the  bare  description  of  which 
is  enough  to  chill  the  heart  with  horror,  wherever 
men  have  been  accustomed,  by  milder  institutions,  to 
respect  their  species,  and  melt  with  tenderness  at  the 
sight  of  human  sufferings.  The  prisoners  are  tied 
naked  to  a  stake,  but  so  as  to  be  at  liberty  to  move 
round  it.  All  who  are  present,  men,  women,  and 
children,  rush  upon  them  like  furies.  Every  species 
of  torture  is  applied  that  the  rancour  of  revenge  can 
invent.  Some  burn  their  limbs  with  red-hot  irons, 
some  mangle  their  bodies  with  knives,  others  tear 
their  flesh  from  their  bones,  pluck  out  their  nails  by 
the  roots,  and  rend  and  twist  their  sinews.  They  vie 
with  one  another  in  refinements  of  torture.  Nothing 
sets  bounds  to  their  rage  but  the  dread  of  abridging 
the  duration  of  their  vengeance  by  hastening  the  death 
of  the  sufferers  ;  and  such  is  their  cruel  ingenuity  in 
tormenting,  that,  by  avoiding  industriously  to  hurt 
any  vital  part,  they  often  prolong  this  scene  of 
anguish  for  several  days.  In  spite  of  all  that  they 
suffer,  the  victims  continue  to  chant  their  death-song 
with  a  firm  voice,  they  boast  of  their  own  exploits, 
they  insult  their  tormentors  for  their  want  of  skill  in 
avenging  their  friends  and  relations,  they  warn  them 
of  the  vengeance  which  awaits  them  on  account  of 
what  they  are  now  doing,  and  excite  their  ferocity  by 
the  most  provoking  reproaches  and  threats.  To  display 
undaunted  fortitude  in  such  dreadful  situations,  is 
the  noblest  triumph  of  a  warrior.  To  avoid  the  trial 
by  a  voluntary  death,  or  to  shrink  under  it,  is  deemed 
infamous  and  cowardly.  If  any  one  betray  symptoms 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


of  timidity,  his  tormentors  often  dispatch  him  at  once 
with  contempt,  as  unworthy  of  being  treated  like  a 
man.  Animated  wtih  those  ideas,  they  endure, 
without  a  groan,  what  it  seems  almost  impossible 
that  human  nature  should  sustain.  They  appear  to  be 
not  only  insensible  of  pain,  but  to  court  it,  "  For- 
bear," said  an  aged  chief  of  the  Iroquois,  when  his 
insults  had  provoked  one  of  his  tormentors  to  wound 
him  with  a  knife,  "  forbear  these  stabs  of  your  knife, 
and  rather  let  me  die  by  fire,  that  those  dogs,  your 
allies,  from  beyond  the  sea,  may  learn  by  my  example 
to  suffer  like  men."  This  magnanimity,  of  which 
there  are  frequent  instances  among  the  American 
warriors,  instead  of  exciting  admiration,  or  calling 
forth  sympathy,  exasperates  the  fierce  spirits  of  their 
torturers  to  fresh  acts  of  cruelty.  Weary,  at  length, 
of  contending  with  men  whose  constancy  of  mind 
they  cannot  vanquish,  some  chief,  in  a  ra°e,  puts  a 
period  to  their  sufferings,  by  dispatching  them  with 
his  dagger  or  club. 

This  barbarous  scene  is  often  succeeded  by  one  no 
less  shocking.  As  it  is  impossible  to  appease  the 
fell  spirit  of  revenge  which  rages  in  the  heart  of  a 
savage,  this  frequently  prompts  the  Americans  to 
devour  those  unhappy  persons,  who  have  been  the 
victims  of  their  cruelty.  In  the  ancient  world,  tradi- 
tion has  preserved  the  memory  of  barbarous  nations 
of  cannibals,  who  fed  on  human  flesh.  But  in  every 
part  of  the  New  World  there  were  people  to  whom 
this  custom  was  familiar.  It  prevailed  in  the  southern 
continent,  in  several  of  the  islands,  and  in  various 
districts  of  North  America.  Even  in  those  parts,  where 
circumstances,  with  which  we  are  unacquainted,  had  in 
a  great  measure  abolished  thispractice,  it  seemsformerly 
to  have  been  so  well  known,  that  it  is  incorporated 
into  the  idiom  of  their  language.  Among  the  Iroquois, 
the  phrase  by  which  they  express  their  resolution  of 
making  war  against  an  enemy  is,  "  Let  us  go  and  eat 
that  nation."  If  they  solicit  the  aid  of  a  neighbouring 
tribe,  they  invite  it  to  "  eat  broth  made  of  the  flesh  of 
their  enemies  (71)."  Nor  was  the  practice  peculiar  to 
rude  unpolished  tribes  ;  the  principle  from  which  it 
took  rise  is  so  deoply  rooted  in  the  minds  of  the 
Americans,  that  it  subsisted  in  Mexico,  one  of  the 
civilized  empires  in  the  New  World,  and  relics  of  it 
may  be  discovered  among  the  more  mild  inhabitants 
of  Peru.  It  was  not  scarcity  of  food,  as  some  authors 
imagine,  and  the  importunate  cravings  of  hunger, 
which  forced  the  Americans  to  those  horrid  repasts 
on  their  fellow-creatures.  Human  flesh  was  never 
used  as  common  food  in  any  country,  and  the  various 
relations  concerning  people  who  reckoned  it  among 
the  stated  means  of  subsistence,  flow  from  the  credu- 
lity and  mistakes  of  travellers.  The  rancour  of 
revenge  first  prompted  men  to  this  barbarous  action. 
The  fiercest  tribes  devoured  none  but  prisoners  taken 
in  war,  or  such  as  they  regarded  as  enemies  (72). 
Women  and  children,  who  were  not  the  objects  of 
enmity,  if  not  cut  off  in  the  fury  of  their  first  inroad 
into  an  hostile  country,  seldom  suffered  by  the  deli- 
berate effects  of  their  revenge. 

The  people  of  South  America  gratify  their  revenge 
in  a  manner  somewhat  different,  but  with  no  less  unre- 
lenting rancour.  Their  prisoners,  after  meeting  at  their 
first  entrance  with  the  same  rough  reception  as  among 
the  North  Americans,  are  not  on'y  exempt  from  in- 
jury, but  treated  with  the  greatest  kindness.  They  are 
feasted  and  caressed,  and  some  beautiful  young 
women  are  appointed  to  attend  and  solace  them.  It 
is  not  easy  to  account  for  this  part  of  their  conduct, 
unless  we  impute  it  to  a  refinement  in  cruelty. 
For,  while  they  seem  studious  to  attach  the  captives 


to  life,  by  supplying  them  with  every  enjoyment  that 
can  render  it  agreeable,  their  doom  is  irrevocably 
fixed.  On  a  day  appointed,  the  victorious  tribe 
assembles,  the  prisoner  is  brought  forth  with  great 
solemnity,  he  views  the  preparations  for  the  sacrifice 
with  as  much  indifference  as  if  he  himself  were  not 
the  victim,  and,  meeting  his  fate  with  undaunted 
firmness,  is  despatched  with  a  single  blow.  The 
moment  he  falls,  the  women  seize  the  body,  and 
dress  it  for  the  feast.  They  besmear  their  children 
with  the  blood,  in  order  to  kindle  in  their  bosoms 
a  hatred  of  their  enemies,  which  is  never  extin- 
guished ;  and  all  join  in  feeding  upon  the  flesh  with 
amazing  greediness  and  exultation.  To  devour  the 
body  of  a  slaughtered  enemy,  they  deem  the  most 
complete  and  exquisite  gratification  of  revenge. 
Wherever  this  practice  prevails,  captives  never  escape 
death,  but  they  are  not  tortured  with  the  same 
cruelty  as  among  tribes  which  are  less  accustomed 
to  such  horrid  feasts  (73). 

As  the  constancy  of  every  American  warrior  may 
be  put  to  such  severe  proof,  the  great  object  of 
military  education  and  discipline  in  the  New  World 
is  to  form  the  mind  to  sustain  it.  When  nations 
carry  on  war  with  open  force,  defy  their  enemies  to 
the  combat,  and  vanquish  them  by  the  superiority  of 
their  skill  or  courage,  soldiers  are  trained  to  be 
active,  vigorous,  and  enterprising.  But  in  America, 
where  the  genius  and  maxims  of  war  are  extremely 
different,  passive  fortitude  is  the  quality  in  highest 
estimation.  Accordingly,  it  is  early  the  study 
of  the  Americans  to  acquire  sentiments  and 
habits,  which  will  enable  them  to  behave  like  men, 
when  their  resolution  shall  be  put  to  the  proof.  As 
the  youth  of  other  nations  exercise  themselves  in 
feats  of  activity  and  force,  those  of  America  vie  with 
one  another  in  exhibitions  of  their  patience  under 
sufferings.  They  harden  their  nerves  by  those 
voluntary  trials,  and  gradually  accustom  themselves 
to  endure  the  sharpest  pain  without  complaining. 
A  boy  and  girl  will  bind  their  naked  arms  together, 
and  place  a  burning  coal  between  them,  in  order  to 
try  who  first  discovers  such  impatience  as  to  shake  it 
off.  All  the  trials,  customary  in  America,  when  a 
youth  is  admitted  into  the  class  of  warriors,  or  when 
a  warrior  is  promoted  to  the  dignity  of  captain  or 
chief,  are  accommodated  to  this  idea  of  manliness. 
They  are  not  displays  of  valour,  but  of  patience; 
they  are  not  exhibitions  of  their  ability  to  offend,  but 
of  theif  capacity  to  suffer.  Among  the  tribes  on  the 
banks  of  the  Orinoco,  if  a  warrior  aspires  to  the  rank 
of  captain,  his  probation  begins  with  a  long  fast, 
more  rigid  than  any  ever  observed  by  the  most 
abstemious  hermit.  At  the  close  of  this  the  chiefs 
assemble,  each  gives  him  three  lashes  with  a  large 
whip,  applied  so  vigorously,  that  his  body  is  almost 
flayed,  and  if  he  betrays  the  least  symptoms  of  impa- 
tience or  even  sensibility,  he  is  disgraced  for  ever,  and 
rejected  as  unworthy  of  the  honour  to  which  he  aspires. 
After  some  interval,  the  constancy  of  the  candidate 
is  proved  by  a  more  excruciating  trial.  He  is  laid  in 
ajiammock  with  his  hands  bound  fast,  and  an  innu- 
merable multitude  of  venemous  ants,  whose  bite 
occasions  exquisite  pain,  and  produces  a  violent 
inflammation,  are  thrown  upon  him.  The  judges  of 
his  merit  stand  around  the  hammock,  and.  while  these 
cruel  insects  fasten  upon  the  most  sensible  parts  of 
his  body,  a  sigh,  a  groan,  an  involuntary  motion 
expressive  of  what  he  suffers,  would  exclude  him  for 
ever  from  the  rank  of  captain.  Even  after  this 
evidence  of  his  fortitude,  it  is  not  deemed  to  be 
completely  ascertained,  but  must  stand  another  test 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


more  dreadful  than  any  he  has  hitherto  undergone. 
He  is  again  suspended  in  his  hammock,  and  covered 
with  leaves  of  the  palmetto.  A  fire  of  stinking 
herbs  is  kindled  underneath,  so  as  he  may  feel  its 
heat,  and  be  involved  in  its  smoke.  Though  scorched 
and  almost  suffocated,  he  must  continue  to  endure 
with  the  same  patient  insensibility.  Many  perish  in 
this  rude  essay  of  their  firmness  and  courage,  but 
such  as  go  through  it  with  applause,  receive  the 
ensigns  of  their  new  dignity  with  much  solemnity, 
and  are  ever  after  regarded  as  le  ders  of  approved 
resolution,  whose  behaviour,  in  the  most  trying 
situations,  will  do  honour  to  their  country.  In 
North  America,  the  previous  trial  of  a  warrior  is 
neither  so  formal,  nor  so  severe.  Though  even  there, 
before  a  youth  is  permitted  to  boar  arms,  his  patience 
and  fortitude  are  proved  by  blows,  by  fire  and  by 
insults,  more  intolerable  to  a  haushty  spirit  than 
both. 

The  amazing  steadiness  with  which  the  Americans 
endure  the  most  exquisite  torments,  has  induced 
some  authors  to  suppose  that,  from  the  peculiar 
feebleness  of  their  frame,  their  sensibility  is  not  so 
acute  as  that  of  other  people ;  as  women,  and 
persons  of  a  relaxed  habit,  are  observed  to  be  less 
affected  with  pain  than  robust  men,  whose  nerves 
are  more  firmly  braced.  But  the  constitution  of  the 
Americans  is  not  so  different,  in  its  texture,  from 
that  of  the  rest  of  the  human  species,  as  to  account 
for  this  diversity  in  their  behaviour.  It  flows  from 
a  principle  of  honour,  instilled  early,  and  cultivated 
with  such  care,  as  to  inspire  man  in  his  rudest  state 
with  an  heroic  magnanimity,  to  which  philosophy 
hath  endeavoured,  in  vain,  to  form  him,  when  more 
highly  improved  and  polished.  This  invincible 
constancy  he  has  been  taught  to  consider  as  the 
chief  distinction  of  a  man,  and  the  highest  attain- 
ment of  a  warrior.  The  ideas  which  influence  his 
conduct,  and  the  passions  which  take  possession  of 
his  heart,  are  few.  They  operate  of  course  with 
more  decisive  effect,  than  when  the  mind  is  crowded 
with  a  multiplicity  of  objects,  or  distracted  by  the 
variety  of  its  pursuits ;  and  when  every  motive  that 
acts  with  any  force  in  forming  the  sentiments  of  a 
savage,  prompts  him  to  suffer  with  dignity,  he  will 
bear  what  might  seem  to  be  impossible  for  human 
patience  to  sustain.  But  wherever  the  fortitude  of 
the  Americans  is  not  roused  to  exertion  by  their 
ideas  of  honour,  their  feelings  of  pain  are  the  same 
with  those  of  the  rest  of  mankind  (74).  Nor  is  that 
patience  under  sufferings  for  which  the  Americans 
have  been  so  justly  celebrated  an  universal  attain- 
ment. The  constancy  of  many  of  the  victims  is 
overcome  by  the  agonies  of  torture.  Their  weak- 
ness and  lamentations  complete  the  triumph  of 
their  enemies,  and  reflect  disgrace  upon  their  own 
country. 

The  perpetual  hostilities  carried  on  among  the 
American  tribes  are  productive  of  very  fatal  effects. 
Even  in  seasons  of  public  tranquillity,  their  imperfect 
industry  does  not  supply  them  with  any  superfluous 
store  of  provisions  ;  but  when  the  irruption  of  an 
enemy  desolates  their  cultivated  lands,  or  disturbs 
them  in  their  hunting  excursions,  such  a  calamity 
reduces  a  community,  naturally  improvident  and 
destitute  of  resources,  to  extreme  want.  All  the 
people  of  the  district  that  is  invaded,  are  frequently 
forced  to  take  refuge  in  woods  or  mountains,  which 
can  afford  them  little  subsistence,  and  where  many 
of  them  perish.  Notwithstanding  their  excessive 
caution  in  conducting  their  military  operations,  and 
the  solicitude  of  every  leader  to  preserve  the  lives  of 

HISTORY  OF  AMERICA,  No.  12. 


his  followers,  as  the  rude  tribes  in  America  seldom 
enjoy  any  interval  of  peace,  the  loss  of  men  among 
them  is  considerable  in  proportion  to  the  degree  of 
population.  Thus  famine  and  the  sword  combine 
in  thinning  their  numbers.  All  their  communities 
are  feeble,  and  nothing  now  remains  of  several 
nations,  which  were  once  considerable,  but  the 
name. 

Sensible  of  this  continual  decay,  there  are  tribes 
which  endeavour  to  recruit  their  national  force  when 
exhausted,  by  adopting  prisoners  taken  in  war,  and 
by  this  expedient  prevent  their  total  extinction. 
The  practice,  however,  is  not  universally  received. 
Resentment  operates  more  powerfully  among  sa- 
vages, than  considerations  of  policy.  Far  the  greater 
part  of  their  captives  was  anciently  sacrificed  to 
their  vengeance,  and  it  is  only  since  their  numbers 
began  to  decline  fast,  that  they  have  generally- 
adopted  milder  maxims.  But  such  as  they  do 
naturalize,  renounce  for  ever  their  native  tribe,  and 
assume  the  manners  as  well  as  passions  of  the 
people  by  whom  they  are  adopted  so  entirely,  that 
they  often  join  them  in  expeditions  against  their 
own  countrymen.  Such  a  sudden  transition,  and  so 
repugnant  to  one  of  the  most  powerful  instincts  im- 
planted by  nature,  would  be  deemed  strange  among 
many  people :  but  among  the  members  of  small 
communities,  where  national  enmity  is  violent  and 
deep-rooted,  it  has  the  appearance  of  being  still 
more  unaccountable.  It  seems,  however,  to  result 
naturally  from  the  principles  upon  which  war  is 
carried  on  in  America.  When  nations  aim  at  ex- 
terminating their  enemies,  no  exchange  of  prisoners 
can  ever  take  place.  From  the  moment  one  is 
made  a  prisoner,  his  covintry  and  his  friends  con- 
sider him  as  dead  (75).  He  has  incurred  indelible 
disgrace  by  suffering  himself  to  be  surprised  or  to 
be  taken  by  an  enemy  ;  and  were  he  to  return  home, 
after  such  a  stain  upon  his  honour,  his  nearest  rela- 
tions would  not  receive  or  even  acknowledge  that 
they  knew  him  (76).  Some  tribes  were  still  more 
rigid,  and  if  a  prisoner  returned,  the  infamy  which  he' 
had  brought  on  his  country  was  expiated  by  putting 
him  instantly  to  death.  As  the  unfortunate  captive 
is  thus  an  outcast  from  his  own  country,  and  the 
ties  which  bound  him  to  it  are  irreparably  broken, 
he  feels  less  reluctance  in  forming  a  new  connexion 
with  people,  who,  as  an  evidence  of  their  friendly 
sentiments,  not  only  deliver  him  from  a  cruel  death, 
but  offer  to  admit  him  to  all  the  rights  of  a  fellow- 
citizen.  The  perfect  similarity  of  manners  among 
savage  nations  facilitates  and  completes  the  union, 
and  induces  a  captive  to  transfer  not  only  his  alle- 
giance, but  his  affection,  to  the  community  into  the 
bosom  of  which  he  is  received. 

But  though  war  be  the  chief  occupation  of  men  in 
their  rude  state,  and  to  excel  in  it  their  highest 
distinction  and  pride,  their  inferiority  is  always 
manifest  when  they  engage  in  competition  with 
polished  nations.  Destitute  of  that  foresight  which 
discerns  and  provides  for  remote  events,  strangers  to 
the  union  and  mutual  confidence  requisite  in  forming 
any  extensive  plan  of  operations,  and  incapable  of 
the  subordination  no  less  requisite  in  carrying  such 
plans  into  execution,  savage  nations  may  astonish  a 
disciplined  enemy  by  their  valour,  but  seldom  prove 
formidable  to  him  by  their  conduct ;  and  whenever 
the  contest  is  of  long  continuance,  must  yield  to 
superior  art.  The  empires  of  Peru  and  Mexico, 
though  their  progress  in  civilization,  when  measured 
by  the  European  or  Asiatic  standards,  was  incon- 
siderable, acquired  such  an  ascendency  over  the  rude 
N  . 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


tribes  around  them,  that  they  subjected  most  of 
them  with  great  facility  to  their  power.  When  the 
people  of  Europe  overran  the  various  provinces  of 
America,  this  superiority  was  still  more  conspicuous. 
Neither  the  courage  nor  number  of  the  natives  could 
repel  a  handful  of  invaders.  The  alienation  and 
enmity,  prevalent  among  barbarians,  prevented  them 
from  uniting  in  any  common  scheme  of  defence,  and 
while  each  tribe  fought  separately,  all  were  subdued. 
VI.  The  arts  of  rude  nations  unacquainted  with 
the  use  of  metals,  hardly  merit  any  attention  on 
.their  own  account,  but  are  worthy  of  some  notice,  as 
far  as  they  serve  to  display  the  genius  and  manners 
of  man  in  this  stage  of  his  progress.  The  first 
distress  a  savage  must  feel,  will  arise  from  the 
manner  in  which  his  body  is  affected,  by  the  heat, 
or  cold,  or  moisture,  of  the  climate  under  which  he 
lives ;  and  his  first  care  will  be  to  provide  some 
covering  for  his  own  defence.  In  the  warmer  and 
more  mild  climates  of  America,  none  of  the  rude 
tribes  were  clothed.  To  most  of  them  nature  had 
not  even  suggested  any  idea  of  impropriety  in  being 
altogether  uncovered.  As  under  a  mild  climate  there 
•was  little  need  of  any  defence  from  the  injuries  of 
the  air,  and  their  extreme  indolence  shunned  every 
species  of  labour  to  which  it  was  not  urged  by  abso- 
lute necessity,  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  isles,  and 
a  considerable  part  of  the  people  on  the  continent, 
remained  in  this  state  of  naked  simplicity.  Others 
were  satisfied  with  some  slight  covering,  such  as 
decency  required.  But  though  naked,  they  were  not 
unadorned.  They  dressed  their  hair  in  many  dif- 
ferent forms.  They  fastened  bits  of  gold,  or  shells, 
or  shining  stones,  in  their  ears,  their  noses,  and 
cheeks.  They  stained  their  skins  with  a  great 
Variety  of  figures  ;  and  they  spent  much  time,  and 
submitted  to  great  pain,  in  ornamenting  their  persons 
in  this  fantastic  manner.  Vanity,  however,  which  finds 
endless  occupation  for  ingenuity  and  invention,  in 
nations  where  dress  has  become  a  complex  and  intri- 
cate, art  is  circumscribed  within  so  narrow  bounds,  and 
confined  to  so  few  articles  among  naked  savages,  that 
they  are  not  satisfied  with  those  simple  decorations, 
and  have  a  wonderful  propensity  to  alter  the  natural 
Ibrm  of  their  bodies,  in  order  to  render  it  (as  they 
imagine)  more  perfect  and  beautiful.  This  practice 
was  universal  among  the  rudest  of  the  American 
tribes.  Their  operations  for  that  purpose  begin  as 
soon  as  an  infant  is  born.  By  compressing  the 
bones  of  the  skull,  while  still  soft  and  flexible,  some 
flatten  the  crown  of  their  heads  ;  some  squeeze  them 
into  the  shape  of  a  cone  ;  others  mould  them  as  moch 
as  possible  into  a  square  figure :  and  they  often 
endanger  the  lives  of  their  posterity  by  their  violent 
and  absurd  efforts  to  derange  the  plan  of  nature,  or 
to  improve  upon  her  designs.  Bat  in  all  their 
attempts  either  to  adorn  or  new-model  their  per- 
sons, it  seems  to  have  been  less  the  object  of  the 
Americans  to  please,  or  to  appear  beautiful,  than 
to  give  an  air  of  dignity  and  terror  to  their  aspect. 
Their  attention  to  dress  had  more  reference  to  war 
than  to  gallantry.  The  difference  in  rank  and  esti- 
mation between  the  two  sexes  was  so  great,  as  seems 
to  have  extinguished,  in  some  measure,  their  solici- 
tude to  appear  mutually  amiable.  The  man  deemed 
it  beneath  him  to  adorn  his  person,  for  the  sake  of 
one  on  whom  he  was  accustomed  to  look  down  as 
a  slave.  It  was  when  the  warrior  had  in  view  to 
enter  the  council  of  his  nation,  or  to  take  the  f  eld 
against  his  enemies,  that  he  assumed  his  choicest 
ornaments,  and  decked  his  person  with  the  nicest 
care.  The  decorations  pf.  the  women  were  few  and 


simple  ;  whatever  was  precious  or  splendid  was 
reserved  for  the  men.  In  several  tribes  the  women 
were  obliged  to  spend  a  considerable  part  of  their 
time  every  day  in  adorning  and  painting  their  hus- 
bands, and  could  bestow  but  little  attention  in  orna- 
menting themselves.  Among  a  race  of  men  so 
haughty  as  to  despise,  or  so  cold  as  to  neglect  them, 
the  women  naturally  became  careless  and  slovenly, 
and  the  love  of  finery  and  show,  which  has  been 
deemed  their  favourite  passion,  was  confined  chiefly 
to  the  other  sex.  To  deck  his  person  was  the  dis- 
tinction of  a  warrior,  as  well  as  one  of  his  most 
serious  occupations  (77).  In  one  part  of  their  dress, 
which,  at  first  sight,  appears  the  most  singular  and 
capricious,  the  Americans  have  discovered  consider- 
able sagacity  in  providing  against  the  chief  inconve- 
niencies  of  their  climate,  which  is  often  sultry  and 
moist  to  excess.  All  the  different  tribes,  which 
remain  unclothed,  are  accustomed  to  anoint  and  rub 
their  bodies  with  the  grease  of  animals,  with  viscous 
gums,  and  with  oils  of  different  kinds.  By  this  they 
check  that  profuse  perspiration,  which,  in  the  torrid 
zone,  wastes  the  vigour  of  the  frame,  and  abridges 
the  period  of  human  life.  By  this,  too,  they  proyide 
a  defence  against  the  extreme  moisture  during  the 
rainy  season  (7&).  They  likewise,  at  certain  seasons, 
temper  paint  of  different  colours  with  those  unctuous 
substances,  and  bedaub  themselves  plentifully  with 
that  composition.  Sheathed  with  this  impenetrable 
varnish,  their  skins  are  not  only  protected  from  the 
penetrating  heat  of  the  sun,  but  as  all  the  innumerable 
tribes  of  insects  have  an  antipathy  to  the  smell  or 
taste  of  that  mixture,  they  are  delivered  from  their 
teasing  persecution,  which  amidst  forests  and  marshes, 
especially  in  the  warmer  regions,  would  have  been 
altogether  intolerable  in  a  state  of  perfect  nakedness. 
The  next  object  to  dress  that  will  engage  the 
attention  of  a  savage,  is  to  prepare  some  habitation 
which  may  afford  him  shelter  by  day,  and  a  retreat  at 
night.  Whatever  is  connected  with  his  ideas  of  per- 
sonal dignity,  whatever  bears  any  reference  to  his 
military  character,  the  savage  warrior  deems  an  object 
of  importance.  Whatever  relates  only  to  peaceable 
and  inactive  life,  he  views  with  indifference.  Hence, 
though  finically  attentive  to  dress,  he  is  little  solicit- 
ous about  the  elegance  or  disposition  of  his  habitation. 
Savage  nations,  far  from  that  state  of  improvement, 
in  which  the  mode  of  living  is  considered  as  a  mark 
of  distinction,  and  unacquainted  with  those  wants 
which  require  a  variety  of  accommodation,  regulate 
the  construction  of  their  houses  according  to  their 
limited  ideas  of  necessity.  Some  of  the  American 
tribes  were  so  extremely  rude,  and  had  advanced 
so  little  beyond  the  primeval  simplicity  of  nature, 
that  they  had  no  houses  at  all.  During  the  day,  they 
take  shelter  from  the  scorching  rays  of  the  sun  under 
thick  trees  ;  at  night  they  form  a  shed  with  their 
branches  and  leaves  (79).  In  the  rainy  season 
they  retire  into  coves,  formed  by  the  hand  of  nature, 
or  hollowed  out  by  their  own  industry.  Others,  who 
have  no  fixed  abode,  and  roam  through  the  forest  in 
quest  of  game,  sojourn  in  temporary  huts,  which 
they  erect  with  little  labour,  and  abandon  without 
any  concern.  The  inhabitants  of  those  vast  plains, 
which  are  deluged  by  the  overflowing  of  rivers 
during  the  heavy  rains  that  fall  periodically  between 
the  tropics,  raise  houses  upon  piles  fastened  in  the 
ground,  or  place  them  among  the  boughs  of  trees, 
and  are  thus  safe  amidst  that  wide  extended  inunda- 
tion which  surrounds  them.  Such  were  the  first 
essays  of  the  rudest  Americans  towards  providing 
themselves  with  habitations.  Bvit  even  among  tribes 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


which   are   more  improved,   and  whose   residence  i 
become  altogether  fixed,  the  structure  of  their  house! 
is  extremely  mean  and  simple.       They  are  wretchec 
huts,   sometimes   of  an  oblong   and  sometimes  of  a 
circular  form,  intended  merely   for   shelter,   with  no 
'view  to  elegance,  and  little  attention  to  conveniency 
The  doors  are  so  low  that  it  is  necessary  to  bend  or 
creep  on  the  hands  and  feet   in  order  to  enter   them 
They  are  without  windows,  and  have  a  large  hole  in 
the  middle  of  the  roof,  to  convey  out  the  smoke.     To 
follow    travellers  in  other    minute   circumstances    of 
their  descriptions,  is  not  only  beneath  the  dignity   of 
history,  but  would   be  foreign  to  the  object   of  my 
researches.     One  circumstance  merits  attention,  as  it 
is  singular,  and  illustrates  the  character  of  the  people. 
Some    of   their   houses   are   so    large   as    to    contain 
accommodation   for  fourscore  or  a  hundred  persons. 
These  are  built  for  the  reception  of  different  families, 
which  dwell  together  under  the  same  roof  (80),  and 
often  around  a  common  fire,  without  separate  apart- 
ments,  or  any   kind   of  screen  or  partition  between 
the  spaces  which  they  respectively  occupy.     As  soon 
as   men  have   acquired  distinct  ideas  of  property ;  or 
when  they  are  so  much  attached  to  their  females,  as 
to   watch   them  with  care  and  jealousy  ;  families  of 
course   divide  and    settle  in   separate  houses,  where 
they  can  secure  and   guard  whatever  they  wish   to 
preserve.     This   singular  mode   of  habitation  among 
several   people  of  America,   may  therefore  be  consi- 
dered, not  only  as  the  effect  of  their  imperfect  notions 
concerning  property,  but  as  a  proof  of  inattention  and 
indifference  towards  their  women.     If  they   had  not 
been  accustomed  to  perfect  equality,  such  an  arrange- 
ment could  not  have  taken  place.     If  their  sensibility 
had  been  apt  to  have   taken   alarm,  they   would  not 
have  trusted  the  virtue  of  their  women  amidst   the 
temptations  and  opportunities  of  such  a  promiscuous 
intercourse.     At  the  same  time,  the  perpetual  con- 
cord  which  reigns    in    habitations    where    so   many 
families   are    crowded    together,    is    surprising,     and 
affords   a  striking  evidence  that  they  must  be  people 
of  either  a  very  gentle  or  of  a  very  phlegmatic  temper, 
who,  in  such  a  situation,  are  unacquainted  with  ani- 
mosity, brawling,  and  discoid. 

After  making  some  provision  for  his  dress  and 
habitation,  a  savage  will  perceive  the  necessity  of 
preparing  proper  arms  with  which  to  assault  or  repel 
an  enemy.  This,  accordingly,  has  e  irly  exercised  the 
ingenuity  and  invention  of  all  rude  nations.  The  first 
offensive  weapons  were  doubtless  such  as  chance 
presented,  and  the  first  efforts  of  art  to  improve  upon 
these,  were  extremely  awkward  and  simple.  Clubs 
made  of  some  heavy  wood,  stakes  hardened  in  the 
fire,  lances  whose  heads  were  armed  with  flint  or  the 
bones  of  soa.e  animal,  are  weapons  knoAvn  to  the 
rudest  nations.  All  these,  however,  were  of  use  only 
in  close  encounter.  But  men  wished  to  annoy  their 
enemies  while  at  a  distance,  and  the  bow  and  arrow 
is  the  most  early  invention  for  this  purpose.  This 
weapon  is  in  the  hands  of  people,  whose  advances  in 
improvement  are  extremely  inconsiderable,  and  is 
familiar  to  the  inhabitants  of  every  quarter  of  the 
globe.  It  is  remarkable,  however,  that  some  tribes 
in  America  were  so  destitute  of  art  and  ingenuity, 
that  they  had  not  attained  to  the  discovery  of  this 
simple  invention,  and  seem  to  have  been  unacquainted 
with  the  use  of  any  missive  weapon.  The  sling, 
though  in  its  construction  not  more  complex  than  the 
bow,  and  among  many  nations  of  equal  antiquity, 
was  little  known  to  the  people  of  North  America,  or 
the  islands,  but  appears  to  have  been  used  by  a  feu- 
tribes  in  the  southern  continent  (81).  The  people  in 


some   provinces  of  Chili,  and  those  of   Pantagonia, 

towards  the  southern  extremity    of  America,  use   a. 

weapon  peculiar  to  themselves.  They  fasten  stone?, 
about  the  size  of  a  fist,  to  each  end  of  a.  leather  thong 
of  eight  feet  in  length,  and  swing  these  round  their 
heads,  throw  them  with  such  dexterity,  that  they 
seldom  miss  the  object  at  which  they  aim. 

Among  people  who  had  hardly  any  occupation  but 
war  or  hunting,  the  chief  exertions  of  their   invention 
(82),  as  well  as  industry,  were  naturally  directed  to- 
wards these  objects.  With  respect  to  every  thing  else, 
their   wants  and  desires  were  so  limited,   that  their 
invention  was  not  xipou  the  stretch.     As   their  food 
and  habitations  are  perfectly  simple,  thier  domestic 
utensils  are  few  and  rude.     Somp  of  the  southern 
tribes   had   discovered   the  art  of  forming  vessels  of 
earthenware,  and  baking  them  in  the  sun,  so  as  they 
could  endure  the  fire.      In  North  America,  they  hol- 
lowed a  piece  of  hard  wood  into  the  form  of  a  kettle, 
and  filling  it  with  water,  brought  it  to  boil  by  putting 
red-hot  stones  into  it.     These  vessels  they  used  in, 
preparing  part  of  their  provisions ;  and  this  may  be 
considered  as  a  step  towards  refinement  and  luxury, 
for  men  in   their  rudest   state   were  not  acquainted 
with  any  method  of  dressing  their  victuals  but  by 
•oasting  them  on  the  fire ;  and  among  several  tribes 
n  America,  this  is  the  only  species   of  cookery  yet 
known  (83).     But  the  masterpiece  of  art,  among  the 
avages  of  America,  is  the  construction  of  the  canoes. 
An  Esquimaux,  shut  up  in  his  boat  of  whalebone, 
overed  with  the  skins  of  seals,  can  brave  that  stormy 
)cean,  on  which  the  barrenness  of  his  country  compels, 
lim  to  depend  for  the  chief  part  of  his  subsistence. 
The  people  of  Canada  venture  upon  their  rivers  and 
'akes  in  boats  made  of  the  bark  of  trees,  and  so  light 
hat  two  men  can  carry  them,   wherever  shallows   or 
ataracts  obstruct  the  navigation  (84).    In  these  frail 
•essels  they  undertake  and  accomplish  long  voyages. 
The  inhabitants  of  the  isles  and  of  the  southern  con- 
inent  form  their  canoes  by  hollowing  the  trunk  of  a 
arge  tree,  with  infinite  labour  ;  and  though  in  appear- 
nce  they  are  extremely  awkward  and  unwieldy,  they 
>addle   and  steer  them    with    such    dexterity,    that 
Europeans,  well  acquainted  with  all  the  improvements 
n  the  science  of  navigation,  have  been  astonished  at 
he  rapidity  of  their  motion,  and  the  quickness  of  their 
(volutions.    Their  pirogues,  or  war-boats,  are  so  largo 
,s  to  carry  forty  or  fifty  men ;  their  canoes  employed 
n  fishing  and   in  short  voyages  are   less   capacious. 
?he   form   as  well  as  materials  of  all  these  various 
cinds  of  vessels   is   well  adapted  to   the  service  for 

hich  they  are  destined  ;  and  the  more  minutely 
hey  are  examined,  the  mechanism  of  their  structure, 
s  well  as  neatness  of  their  fabric,  will  appear  the 
lore  surprising. 

But  in  every  attempt  towards  industry  among  the 
Americans,  one  striking  quality  in  their  character  i* 
onspicuous.  They  apply  to  work  without  ardour, 
arry  it  on  with  little  activity,  and,  like  children,  are 
asily  diverted  from  it.  Even  in  operations  which 
eem  the  most  interesting,  and  where  the  most  power- 
ul  motives  urge  them  to  vigorous  exertions,  they 
abour  with  a  languid  listlessness.  Their  work  ad- 
ances  under  their  hand  with  such  slowness,  that  an 
ye-witness  compares  it  to  the  imperceptible  progress 
f  vegetation.  They  will  spend  so  many  years  in 
arming  a  canoe,  that  it  often  begins  to  rot  with  age 
> e fore  they  finish  it.  They  will  suffer  one  part  of  a 
oof  to  decay  and  perish,  before  they  complete  the- 
ther.  The  slightest  manual  operation  consumes  an 
mazing  length  of  time,  and  what  in  polished  nations 
rould  hardly  be  an  effort  of  industry,  is  among 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


savages  an  arduous  undertaking.  This  slowness  of 
the  Americans  in  executing  works  of  every  kind  may 
Le  imputed  to  various  causes.  Among  savages,  who 
do  not  depend  for  subsistence  upon  the  efforts  of 
regular  industry,  time  is  of  so  little  importance,  that 
they  set  no  value  upon  it ;  and  provided  they  can 
finish  a  design,  they  never  regard  how  long  they  are 
Employed  about  it.  The  tools  which  they  employ 
are  so  awkward  and  defective,  that  every  work  in 
which  they  engage  must  necessarily  be  tedious.  The 
hand  of  the  most  industrious  and  skilful  artist,  were 
it  furnished  with  no  better  instrument  than  a  stone 
hatchet,  a  shell,  or  the  bone  of  some  animal,  would 
find  it  difficult  to  perfect  the  most  simple  work.  It  is 
by  length  of  labour  that  he  must  endeavour  to  supply 
his  defect  of  power.  But  above  all,  the  cold  phleg- 
matic temper  peculiar  to  the  Americans  renders  their 
operations  languid.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  rouse 
them  from  that  habitual  indolence  to  which  they  are 
sunk;  and  unless  when  engaged  in  war  or  hunting, 
they  seem  incapable  of  exerting  any  vigorous  effort. 
Their  ardour  of  application  is  not  so  great  as  to  call 
forth  that  inventive  spirit  which  suggests  expedients 
for  facilitating  and  abridging  labour.  They  will  re- 
turn to  a  task  day  after  day,  but  all  their  methods  of 
executing  it  are  tedious  and  operose  (85.)  Even 
since  the  Europeans  have  communicated  to  them  the 
knowledge  of  their  instruments,  and  taught  them  to 
imitate  their  arts,  the  peculiar  genius  of  the  Ameri- 
cans is  conspicuous  in  every  attempt  they  make. 
They  may  be  patient  and  assiduous  in  labour,  they 
can  copy  with  a  servile  and  minute  accuracy,  but 
discover  little  invention  and  no  talents  for  despatch. 
In  spite  of  instruction  and  example,  the  spirit  of  the 
race  predominates  ;  their  motions  are  naturally  tardy, 
and  it  is  in  vain  to  urge  them  to  quicken  their  pace. 

Among  the  Spaniards  in  America,  the  work  of  an 
Indian  is  a  phrase  by  which  they  describe  any  thing, 
in  the  execution  of  which  an  immense  time  has  been 
employed,  and  much  labour  wasted. 

VII.  No  circumstance  respecting  rude  nations 
has  been  the  object  cf  greater  curiosity  than  their 
religious  tenets  and  rites  ;  and,  none,  perhaps,  has 
teen  so  imperfectly  understood,  or  represented  with 
so  little  fidelity.  Priests  and  missionaries  are  the 
persons  who  have  had  the  best  opportunities  of  car- 
rying on  this  enquiry,  among  the  most  uncivilized  of 
the  American  tribes.  Their  minds,  engrossed  by 
the  doctrines  of  their  own  religion,  and  habituated  to 
its  institutions,  are  apt  to  discover  something  which 
resembles  those  objects  of  their  veneration,  in  the 
opinions  and  rites  of  every  people.  Whatever  they 
contemplate,  they  view  through  one  medium,  and 
draw  and  accommodate  it  to  their  own  system.  They 
study  to  reconcile  the  institutions,  which  fall  under 
their  observation,  to  their  own  creed,  not  to  explain 
them  according  to  the  rude  notions  of  the  people 
themselves.  They  ascribe  to  them  ideas  which  they 
are  incapable  of  forming;  and  suppose  them  to  be 
acquainted  with  principles  and  facts,  which  it  is  impos- 
sible that  they  should  know.  Hence,  some  mission- 
aries have  been  induced  to  believe,  that  even  among 
the  most  barbarous  nations  in  America,  they  had 
discovered  traces,  no  less  distinct  than  amazing,  of 
their  acquaintance  with  the  sublime  mysteries  and 
peculiar  institutions  of  Christianity.  From  their  own 
interpretation  of  certain  expressions  and  ceremonies, 
they  have  concluded  that  these  people  had  some 
knowledge  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  of  the  in- 
carnation of  the  Son  of  God,  of  his  expiatory  sacri- 
fice, of  the  virtue  of  the  cross,  and  of  the  efficacy  of 
the  sacraments.  In  such  unintelligent  and  credu- 
JQIIS  guides,  we  can  place  little  confidence, 


But  even  when  we  make  our  choice  of  conductors 
with  the  greatest  care,  we  must  not  follow  them  with 
implicit  faith.  An  enquiry  into  the  religious  notions 
of  rude  nations  is  involved  in  peculiar  intricacies,  and 
we  must  often  pause  in  order  to  separate  the  facts 
which  our  informers  relate  from  the  reasonings  with 
which  they  are  accompanied,  or  the  theories  which 
they  build  upon  them.  Several  pious  writers,  more 
attentive  to  the  importance  of  the  subject  than  to  the 
condition  of  the  people  whose  sentiments  they  were 
endeavouring  to  discover,  have  bestowed  much  un- 
profitable labour  in  researches  of  this  nature  (S6.) 

There  are  two  fundamental  doctrines  upon  which 
the  whole  system  of  religion,  as  far  as  it  can  be  dis- 
covered by  the  light  of  nature,  is  established.  The 
one  respects  the  being  of  a  God,  the  other  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul.  To  discover  the  ideas  of  the  un- 
cultivated nations  under  our  review  with  regard  to 
those  important  points,  is  not  only  an  object  of  curio- 
sity, but  may  afford  instruction.  To  these  two  arti- 
cles I  shall  confine  my  researches,  leaving  subordi- 
nate opinions,  and  the  detail  of  local  superstitions, 
to  more  minute  inquirers.  Whoever  has  had  any 
opportunity  of  examining  into  the  religious  opinions 
of  persons  in  the  inferior  ranks  of  life,  even  in  the 
most  enlightened  and  civilized  nations,  will  find  that 
their  system  of  belief  is  derived  from  instruction,  not 
discovered  by  inquiry.  That  numerous  part  of  the 
human  species  whose  lot  is  labour,  whose  principal 
and  almost  sole  occupation  is  to  secure  subsistence, 
views  the  arrangement  and  operations  of  nature  with 
little  reflection,  and  has  neither  leisure  nor  capacity 
for  entering  into  that  path  of  refined  and  intricate 
speculation  which  conducts  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
principles  of  natural  religion.  In  the  early  and 
most  rude  periods  of  savage  life,  such  disquisitions 
are  altogether  unknown.  When  the  intellectual 
powers  are  just  beginning  to  unfold,  and  their  first 
feeble  exertions  are  directed  towards  a  few  objects 
of  primary  necessity  and  use;  when  the  faculties  of 
the  mind  are  so  limited,  as  not  to  have  formed 
abstract  or  general  ideas ;  when  language  is  so 
barren,  as  to  be  destitute  of  names  to  distinguish 
any  thing  that  is  not  perceived  by  some  of  the 
senses  ;  it  is  preposterous  to  expect  that  rnan  should 
be  capable  of  tracing  with  accuracy  the  relation 
between  cause  and  effect;  or  to  suppose  that  he 
should  rise  from  the  contemplation  of  the  one  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  other,  and  form  just  conceptions 
of  a  Deity,  as  the  Creator  and  Governor  of  the 
universe.  The  idea  of  creation  is  so  familiar 
wherever  the  mind  is  enlarged  by  science,  and  illu- 
minated with  revelation,  that  we  seldom  reflect 
how  profound  and  abstruse  this  idea  is,  or  consider 
what  progress  man  must  have  made  in  observation 
and  research,  before  he  could  arrive  at  any  know- 
ledge of  this  elementary  principle  in  religion.  Ac- 
cordingly, several  tribes  have  been  discovered  in 
America,  which  have  no  idea  whatever  of  a  Supreme 
Being,  and  no  rites  of  religious  worship.  Inattentive 
to  that  magnificent  spectacle  of  beauty  and  order 
presented  to  their  view,  unaccustomed  to  reflect 
either  upon  what  they  themselves  are,  or  to  inquire 
who  is  the  author  of  their  existence,  men,  in  their 
savage  state,  pass  their  days  like  the  animals  around 
them,  without  knowledge  or  veneration  of  any  superior 
power.  Some  rude  tribes  have  not  in  their  language 
any  name  for  the  Deity,  nor  have  the  most  accurate 
observers  been  able  to  discover  any  practice  or 
institution  which  seemed  to  imply  that  they  recog- 
nised his  authority,  or  were  solicitous  to  obtain  hia 
favour  (87).  It  is  however  only  among  men  in  the 
most  uncultivated  sta.te  of  nature,  and  while  their. 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


intellectual  faculties  are  so  feeble  and  limited  as 
hardly  to  elevate  them  above  the  irrational  creation, 
that  we  discover  this  total  insensibility  to  the  im- 
pressions of  any  invisible  power. 

Bat  the  human  mind,  formed  for  religion,  soon 
opens  to  the  reception  of  ideas,  which  are  destined, 
when  corrected  and  refined,  to  be  the  great  source  of 
consolation  amidst  the  calamities  of  life.  Among 
some  of  the  American  tribes,  still  in  the  infancy  of 
improvement,  we  discern  apprehensions  of  some  in- 
visible and  powerful  beings.  These  apprehensions 
are  originally  indistinct  and  perplexed,  and  seem  to 
be  suggested  rather  by  the  dread  of  impending  evils, 
than  to  fiovf  from  gratitude  for  blessings  received. 
While  nature  holds  on  her  course  with  uniform  and 
undisturbed  regularity,  men  enjoy  the  benefits  re- 
sulting from  it,  without  enquiring  concerning  its 
cause.  But  every  deviation  from  this  regular  course 
rouses  and  astonishes  them.  When  they  behold 
events  to  which  they  are  not  accustomed,  they  search 
for  the  reasons  of  them  with  eager  curiosity.  Their 
understanding  is  unable  to  penetrate  into  these;  but 
imagination,  a  more  forward  and  ardent  faculty  of 
the  mind,  decides  without  hesitation.  It  ascribes  the 
extraordinary  occurrences  in  nature  to  the  influence 
of  invisible  beings,  and  supposes  that  the  thunder, 
the  hurricane,  and  the  earthquake,  are  effects  of  their 
interposition.  Some  such  confused  notion  of  spiritual 
or  invisible  power,  superintending  over  those  natural 
calamities  which  frequently  desolate  the  earth,  and 
terrify  its  inhabitants,  may  be  traced  among  many- 
rude  nations  (£&).  But  besides  this,  the  disasters 
and  dangers  of  savage  life  are  so  many,  and  men 
often  find  themselves  in  situations  so  formidable,  that 
the  mind,  sensible  of  its  own  weakness,  has  no  re- 
source but  in  the  guidance  and  protection  of  wisdom 
and  power  superior  to  what  is  human.  Dejected 
with  calamities  which  oppress  him,  and  exposed  to 
dangers  which  he  cannot  repel,  the  savage  no  longer 
relies  upon  himself ;  he  feels  his  own  impotence,  and 
sees  no  prospect  of  being  extricated,  but  by  the  in- 
terposition of  some  unseen  arm.  Hence,  in  all  unen- 
lightened, nations,  the  first  rites  or  practices  which 
bear  any  resemblance  to  acts  of  religion,  have  it  for 
their  object  to  avert  evils  which  men  suffer  or  dread. 
The  Manitaiit  or  Okkis  of  the  North  Americans  were 
amulets  or  charms,  which  they  imagined  to  be  of  such 
virtue,  as  to  preserve  the  persons  who  reposed  confi- 
dence in  them  from  every  disastrous  event ;  or  they 
wore  considered  as  tutelar  spirits,  whose  aid  they 
might  implore  in  circumstances  of  distress.  The 
Cemis  of  the  islanders  were  reputed  by  them  to  be 
the  authors  of  every  calamity  that  afflicts  the  human 
race  ;  they  were  represented  under  the  most  fright- 
ful forms,  and  religious  homage  was,  paid  to  them 
with  no  other  view  than  to  appease  these  furious 
deities.  Even  among  those  tribes  whose  religious 
system  was  more  enlarged,  and  who  had  formed  some 
conception  of  benevolent  beings,  which  delighted  in 
conferring  benefits,  as  well  as  of  malicious  powers 
prone  to  inflict  evil,  superstition  still  appears  as  the 
offspring  of  fear,  and  all  its  efforts  were  employed  to 
avert  calamities.  They  were  persuaded  that  their 
good  deities,  prompted  by  the  beneficence  of  their 
nature,  would  bestow  every  blessing  in  their  power, 
without  solicitation  or  acknowledgment ;  and  their 
only  anxiety  was  to  soothe  and  deprecate  the  wrath 
of  the  powers  whom  they  regarded  as  the  enemies  of 
mankind. 

Such  were  the  imperfect  conceptions  of  the  greater 
part  of  the  Americans  with  respect  to  the  interposi- 
tions of  invisible  agents,  a»d  such,  almost  universally, 


was  the  mean  and  illiberal  object  of  their  supersti- 
tions. Were  we  to  trace  back  the  ideas  of  other 
nations  to  that  rude  state  in  which  history  first 
presents  them  to  our  view,  we  should  discover  a 
surprising  resemblance  in  their  tenets  and  practices ; 
and  should  be  convinced,  that,  in  similar  circum- 
stances, the  faculties  of  the  human  mind  hold  nearly 
the  same  course  in  their  progress,  and  arrive  at 
almost  the  same  conclusions.  The  impressions  of 
fear  are  conspicuous  in  all  the  systems  of  superstition 
formed  in  this  situation.  The  most  exalted  notions 
of  men  rise  no  higher  than  to  a  perplexed  apprehen- 
sion of  certain  beings,  whose  power,  though  super- 
natural, is  limited  as  well  as  partial. 

But,  among  other  tribes,  which  have  been  longer 
united,  or  have  made  greater  progress  in  improve- 
ment, we  discern  some  feeble  pointing  towards  more 
just  and  adequate  conceptions  of  the  power  that 
presides  in  nature.  They  seem  to  perceive  that 
there  must  be  some  universal  cause  to  whom  all 
things  aie  indebted  for  their  being.  If  we  may 
judge  by  some  of  their  expressions,  they  appear  to 
acknowledge  a  divine  power  to  be  the  maker  of  the 
world,  and  the  disposer  of  all  events.  They  denomi- 
nate him  the  Great  Spirit.  But  these  ideas  are 
faint  and  confused,  and  when  they  attempt  to  explain 
them  it  is  manifest,  that  among  them  the  word  tpirit 
has  a  meaning  very  different  from  that  in  which  we 
employ  it,  and  that  they  have  no  conception  of  any 
deity  but  what  is  corporeal.  They  believe  their  gods  to 
be  of  the  human  form,  though  of  a  nature  more  excel- 
lent than  man,  and  retail  such  wild  incoherent  fables 
concerning  their  functions  and  operations,  as  are 
altogether  unworthy  of  a  place  in  history.  Even 
among  these  tribes,  there  is  no  established  form  of  pub- 
lic worship  ;  there  are  no  temples  erected  in  honour 
of  their  deities  ;  and  no  ministers  peculiarly  consecra- 
ted to  their  service.  They  have  the  knowledge,  how- 
ever of  several  superstitious  ceremonies  and  practices 
handed  down  to  them  by  tradition,  and  to  these  they 
have  recourse  with  a  childish  credulity,  when  roused 
by  any  emergence  from  their  usual  insensibility,  and 
excited  to  acknowledge  the  power,  and  to  implore 
the  protection,  of  superior  beings. 

The  tribe  of  the  Natchez,  and  the  people  of  Bogota, 
had  advanced  beyond  the  other  uncultivated  nations 
of  America  in  their  ideas  of  religion,  as  well  as  in 
their  political  institutions  ;  and  it  is  no  less  difficult 
to  explain  the  cause  of  this  distinction  than  of  that 
which  we  have  already  considered.  The  sun  was  the 
chief  object  of  religious  worship  among  the  Natchez. 
In  their  temples,  which  were  constructed  with  some 
magnificence,  and  decorated  with  various  ornaments,, 
according  to  their  mode  of  architecture,  they  pre- 
served a  perpetual  fire,  as  the  purest  emblem  of 
their  divinity.  Ministers  were  appointed  to  watcn. 
and  feed  this  sacred  flame.  The  first  function  of  the 
great  chief  of  the  nation,  every  morning,  was  an  act 
of  obeisance  to  the  sun  ;  and  festivals  returned  at 
stated  seasons,  which  were  celebrated  by  the  whole 
community  with  solemn  but  unbloody  rites.  This 
is  the  most  refined  species  of  superstition  known  in 
America,  and,  perhaps,  one  of  the  most  natural  as 
well  as  most  seducing.  The  sun  is  the  appa- 
rent source  of  the  joy,  fertility,  and  life,  diffused 
through  nature  ;  and  while  the  human  mind,  in  its 
earliest  essays  towards  inquiry,  contemplates  and 
admires  his  universal  and  animating  energy,  its 
admiration  is  apt  to  stop  short  at  what  is  visible, 
without  reaching  to  the  unseen  cause ;  and  pays 
that  adoration  to  the  most  glorious  and  beneficial 
work  of  God,  which  is.  due  only  to  him  who  fornie4 


THE.  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


it.  As  fire  is  the  most  pure  and  active  of  the  ele- 
ments, and  in  some  of  its  qualities  and  effects 
resembles  the  sun,  it  was,  not  improperly,  chosen  to 
fee  the  emblem  of  his  powerful  operation.  The 
ancient  Persians,  a  people  far  superior,  in  every 
respect,  to  that  rude  tribe  whose  rites  I  am  describ- 
ing, founded  their  religious  system  on  similar  prin- 
ciples, and  established  a  form  of  public  worship,  less 
gross  and  exceptionable  than  that  of  any  people 
destitute  of  guidance  from  revelation.  This  sur- 
prising coincidence  in  sentiment,  between  two  nations, 
in  such  different  states  of  improvement,  is  one  of 
the  many  singular  and  unaccountable  circumstances 
wlwch  occur  in  the  history  of  human  affairs. 

Among  the  people  of  Bogota,  the  sun  and  moon 
Nvcre,  likewise,  the  chief  objects  of  veneration.  Their 
system  of  religion  was  more  pure  and  complete, 
though  less  pure  than  that  of  the  Natchez.  They 
had  temples,  altars,  priests,  sacrifices,  and  that  long 
train  of  ceremonies,  which  superstition  introduces 
wherever  she  has  fully  established  her  dominion  over 
the  minds  of  men.  But  the  rites  of  their  worship 
were  cruel  and  bloody.  They  offered  human  victims 
to  their  deities,  and  many  of  their  practices  nearly 
resembled  the  barbarous  institutions  of  the  Mexicans, 
the  genius  of  which  we  shall  have  an  opportunity  of 
considering  more  attentively  in  its  proper  place. 
'  With  respect  to  the  other  great  doctrine  of  religion, 
concerning  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  the  senti- 
ments of  the  Americans  were  more  united :  the 
human  mind,  even  when  least  improved  and  invigo- 
rated by  culture,  shrinks  from  the  thought  of  annihila- 
tion and  looks  forward  with  hope  and  expectation  to 
a  state  of  future  existence.  This  sentiment,  resulting 
from  a  secret  consciousness  of  its  own  dignity,  from 
an  instinctive  longing  after  immortality,  is  universal, 
and  may  be  deemed  natural.  Upon  this  are  founded 
the  most  exalted  hopes  of  man  in  his  highest  state  of 
improvement ;  nor  has  nature  withheld  from  him  this 
soothing  consolation,  in  the  most  early  and  rude 
period  of  its  progress.  We  can  trace  this  opinion 
from  one  extremity  of  America  to  the  other,  in  some 
regions  more  faint  and  obscure,  in  ethers  more 
perfectly  developed,  but  nowhere  unknown.  The 
most  uncivilized  of  it;  savage  tribes  do  not  appre- 
hend death  as  the  extinction  of  being.  All  entertain 
hopes  of  a  future  and  more  happy  state,  where  they 
shall  be  for  ever  exempt  from  the  calamities  which 
embitter  human  life  in  its  present  condition.  This 
future  state  they  conceive  to  be  a  delightful  country, 
blessed  with  perpetual  spring,  whose  forests  abound 
with  game,  whose  rivers  swarm  with  fish,  where 
famine  is  never  felt,  and  uninterrupted  plenty  shall 
be  enjoyed  without  labour  or  toil.  But  as  men,  in 
forming  their  first  imperfect  ideas  concerning  the 
invisible  world,  suppose  that  there  they  shall  con- 
tinue to  feel  the  same  desires,  and  to  be  engaged  in 
the  same  occupations,  as  in  the  present  world ;  they 
naturally  ascribe  eminence  and  distinction  in  that 
state,  to  the  same  qualities  and  talents  which  are 
here  the  object  of  their  esteem.  The  Americans,  ac- 
coidinglj',  allotted  the  highest  place  in  their  country 
of  spirits,  to  the  skilful  hunter,  to  the  adventurous 
and  successful  warrior,  and  to  such  as  had  tortured 
the  greatest  number  of  captives,  and  devoured  their 
flesh.  These  notions  where  so  prevalent,  that  they 
gave  rise  to  an  universal  custom,  which  is  at  once 
the  strongest  evidence  that  the  Americans  believe  in 
a  future  state,  and  the  best  illustration  of  what  they 
expect  there.  As  they  imagine,  that  departed  spirits 
begin  their  career  anew  in  the  world  whither  they 
are  gone,  that  their  friends  may  not  enter  upon  it 


defenceless  and  unprovided,  they  bury  together  with 
the  bodies  of  the  dead,  their  bow,  their  arrows,  and 
other  weapons  used  in  hunting  or  war  ;  they  deposit 
in  their  tombs  the  skins  or  stuffs  of  which  they  make 
garments,  Indian  corn,  manioc,  venison,  domestic 
utensils,  and  whatever  is  reckoned  among  the  neces- 
saries in  their  simple  mode  of  life.  In  some  pro- 
vinces, upon  the  decease  of  a  cazique  or  chief,  a 
certain  number  of  his  wives,  of  his  favorites,  and  of 
his  slaves,  were  put  to  death,  and  interred  together 
with  him,  that  he  might  appear  with  the  same  dignity 
in  his  future  station,  and  be  waited  upon  by  the 
same  attendants.  This  persuasion  is  so  deep-rooted, 
that  many  of  the  deceased  person's  retainers  offer 
themselves  as  voluntary  victims,  and  court  the 
privilege  of  accompanying  their  dcpaited  master,  as 
a  high  distinction.  It  has  been  found  difficult,  on 
some  occasions,  to  set  bounds  to  this  enthusiasm  of 
affectionate  duty,  and  to  reduce  the  train  of  a 
favourite  leader  to  such  a  number  as  the  tribe  could 
afford  to  spare  (89). 

Among  the  Americans,  as  well  as  other  uncivilized 
nations,  many  of  the  rites  and  observances  which 
bear  some  resemblance  to  acts  of  religion,  have  no 
connexion  Avith  devotion,  but  proceed  from  a  fond 
desire  of  prying  into  futurity.  The  human  mind  is 
most  aft  to  feel  and  to  discover  this  vain  curiosity 
when  its  own  powers  are  most  feeble  and  unin- 
formed. Astonished  with  occurrences,  of  which  it  is 
unable  to  comprehend  the  cause,  it  naturally  fancies, 
that  there  is  something  mysterious  and  wonderful  in 
their  origin.  Alarmed  at  events  of  which  it  cannot 
discern  the  issue  or  the  consequences,  it  has  recourse 
to  other  means  of  discovering  them,  than  the  exercise 
of  its  own  sagacitv.  Wherever  superstition  is  so 
established  as  to  form  a  regular  system,  this  desire 
of  penetrating  into  the  secrets  of  futurity  is  connected 
with  it.  Divination  becomes  a  religious  act.  Priests,  as 
the  ministers  of  Heaven,  pretend  to  deliver  its  oracles 
to  men.  They  are  the  only  soothsayers,  augurs,  and 
magicians,  who  profess  the  sacred  and  important  art 
of  disclosing  what  is  hid  from  other  eyes. 

But  among  rude  nations,  who  pay  no  veneration 
to  any  superintending  power,  and  who  have  no  esta- 
blished rites  or  ministers  of  religion,  their  curiosity 
to  discover  what  is  future  and  unknown,  is  cherished 
by  a  different  principle,  and  derives  strength  from 
another  alliance.  As  the  diseases  of  men  in  a  savage 
state  are,  as  has  been  already  observed,  like  those  of 
the  animal  creation,  few,  but  extremely  violent,  iheir 
impatience  under  what  they  sxiffer,  and  solicitude 
for  the  recovery  of  health,  soon  inspired  them  with 
extraordinary  reverence  for  such  as  pretended  to 
understand  the  nature  of  their  maladies,  and  to  be 
possessed  of  knowledge  sufficient  to  preserve  or  deliver 
them  from  their  sudden  and  fatal  effects.  These 
ignorant  pretenders,  however,  were  such  utter  stran- 
gers to  the  structure  of  the  human  frame,  as  to  be 
equally  unacquainted  with  the  causes  of  its  disorders, 
and  the  manner  in  which  they  will  terminate.  Su- 
persiition,  mingled  frequently  with  some  portion  of 
craft,  supplied  what  they  wanted  in  science.  They 
imputed  the  organ  of  diseases  to  supernatural  influ- 
ence, and  prescribed  or  performed  a  variety  of  mys- 
terious rites,  which  they  gave  out  to  be  of  such 
efficacy  as  to  remove  the  mostdangerous  and  inveterate 
maladies.  The  credulity  and  love  of  the  marvellous, 
natural  to  uninformed  men,  favoured  the  deception, 
and  prepared  them  to  be  the  dupes  of  those  impostors. 
Amonjj  savages,  their  first  physicians  ar»  a  kind  of 
conjurers  or  wizards,  who  boast  that  they  know 
what  is  past,  and  can  foretell  what  is  to  come.  Incan- 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


tations,  sorcery,  and  mummeries  of  diverse  kinds, 
no  less  strange  than  frivolous,  are  the  means  which 
they  employ  to  expel  the  imaginary  causes  of  malig- 
nity ;  and,  relying  upon  the  efficacy  of  these,  they 
predict  with  confidence  what  will  be  the  fate  of  their 
deluded  patients.  Thus  superstition,  in  its  earliest 
form,  flowed  from  the  solicitude  of  man  to  be  deli- 
vered from  present  distress,  not  from  his  dread  of 
evils  awaiting  him  in  a  future  life,  and  was  originally- 
ingrafted  on  medicine,  not  on  religion.  One  of  the 
first  and  most  intelligent  historians  of  America  was 
struck  with  this  alliance  between  the  art  of  divina- 
tion and  that  of  physic,  among  the  people  of  His- 
paniola.  But  this  was  not  peculiar  to  them.  The 
Alexis,  the  Piayas,  the  Autmoins.  or  whatever  was 
the  distinguishing  name  of  their  diviners  and 
charmers  in  other  parts  of  America,  were  all  the  phy- 
sicians of  their  respective  tribes,  in  the  same  manner 
as  the  Bubitos  of  Hispaniola.  As  their  function  led 
them  to  apply  to  the  human  mind  when  enfeebled 
by  sickness,  and  as  they  found  it,  in  that  season  of 
dejection,  prone  to  be  alarmed  with  imaginary  fears, 
or  amused  with  vain  hopes,  they  easily  induced  it 
to  rely  with  implicit  confidence  on  the  virtue  of  their 
spell?,  and  the  certainty  of  their  predictions. 

Whenever  men  acknowledge  the  reality  of  super- 
natural power  and  discernment  in  one  instance, 
they  have  a  propensity  to  admit  it  in  others.  The 
Americans  did  not  long  suppose  the  efficacy  of  con- 
juration to  be  confined  to  one  subject.  They  had 
recourse  to  it  in  every  situation  of  danger  or  distress. 
When  the  events  of  war  were  peculiarly  disastrous, 
when  they  met  with  unforeseen  disappointment  in 
hunting,  when  inundations  or  drought  threatened  their 
crops  with  destruction,  they  called  upon  their  conjurers 
to  begin  their  incantations,  in  order  to  discover  the 
causes  of  those  calamities,  or  to  foretell  what  would 
be  their  issue.  Their  confidence  in  this  delusive  art 
gradually  increased,  and  manifested  itself  in  all  the 
occurrences  of  life.  When  involved  in  any  difficulty, 
or  about  to  enter  upon  any  transaction  of  moment, 
every  individual  regularly  consulted  the  sorcerer, 
and  depended  upon  his  instructions  to  extricate  him 
from  the  former,  as  well  as  to  direct  his  conduct  in 
the  latter.  Even  among  the  rudest  tribes  in 
America,  superstition  appears  in  this  form,  and 
divination  is  an  art  in  high  esteem.  Long  before 
man  had  acquired  such  knowledge  of  a  deity  as  in- 
spires reverence  and  leads  to  adoration,  we  observe 
him  stretching  out  a  presumptuous  hand  to  draw 
aside  that  veil  with  which  Providence  kindly  con- 
ceals its  purpose  from  human  knowledge ;  and  we 
find  him  labouring  with  fruitless  anxiety  to  pene- 
trate into  the  mysteries  of  the  divine  administration. 
To  discern  and  to  worship  a  superintending  power, 
is  an  evidence  of  the  enlargement  and  maturity  of 
the  human  understanding ;  a  vain  desire  of  prying 
into  futurity,  is  the  error  of  its  infancy,  and  a  proof 
of  its  weakness. 

From  this  weakness  proceeded  likewise  the  faith 
of  the  Americans  in  dreams,  their  observation  of 
omens,  their  attention  to  the  chirping  of  birds,  and 
the  cries  of  animals,  all  which  they  suppose  to  be 
indications  of  future  events  ;  and  if  any  one  of  these 
prognostics  is  deemed  unfavourable,  they  instantly 
abandon  the  pursuit  of  those  measures  on  which 
thev  are  most  eagerly  bent. 

VIII.  But  if  we  would  form  a  complete  idea  of 
the  uncultivated  nations  of  America,  we  must  not 
pass  unobserved  some  singular  customs,  which, 
though  universal  and  characteristic,  could  not  be 
reduced,  with  propriety,  to  any  of  the  articles  into 


which  I  have  divided  my  inquiry  concerning  their 
manners. 

Among  savages,  in  every  part  of  the  globe,  the 
love  of  dancing  is  a  favourite  passion.  As,  during  a 
great  part  of  their  time,  they  languish  in  a  state  of 
inactivity  and  indolence,  without  any  occupation  to 
rouse  or  interest  them,  they  delight  universally  in  a 
pastime  which  calls  forth  the  active  powers  of  their 
nature  into  exercise.  The  Spaniards,  when  they 
first  visited  America,  were  astonished  at  the  fondness 
of  the  natives  for  dancing,  and  beheld  with  wonder  a 
people,  cold  and  unanimated  in  most  of  their  other 
pursuits,  kindle  into  lif-,  and  exert  themselves 
with  ardour,  as  often  as  this  favourite  amusement 
recurred.  Among  them,  indeed,  dancing  ought  not 
to  be  denominated  an  amusement.  It  is  a  serious 
and  important  occupation,  which  mingles  in  every  oc- 
currence of  public  or  private  life.  If  any  inter- 
course be  necessary  between  two  American  tribes, 
the  ambassadors  of  the  one  approach  in  a  solemn 
dance,  and  present  the  calumet  or  emblem  of  peace  ; 
the  sachems  of  the  other  receive  it  with  the  same 
ceremony.  If  war  is  denounced  against  an  enemy, 
it  is  by  a  dance,  expressive  of  the  resentment  which 
they  feel,  and  of  the  vengeance  \yhich  they  meditate. 
If  the  wrath  of  their  gods  is  to  be  appeased  or  their 
beneficence  to  be  celebrated ;  if  they  rejoice  at 
the  birth  of  a  child,  or  mourn  the  death  of  a 
friend,  they  have  dances  appropriated  to  each  of 
these  situations,  and  suited  to  the  different  senti- 
ments with  which  they  are  then  animated.  If  a 
person  is  indisposed,  a  dance  is  prescribed  as  the 
most  effectual  means  of  restoring  him  to  health ; 
and  if  he  himself  cannot  endure  the  fatigue  of  such 
an  exercise,  the  physician  or  conjurer  performs  it 
in  his  name,  as  if  the  virtue  of  his  activity  could  be 
transferred  to  his  patient. 

All  their  dances  are  imitations  of  some  action  ; 
and  though  the  music  by  which  they  are  regulated 
is  extremely  simple  and  tiresome  to  the  ear  by  its 
dull  monotony,,  some  of  their  dances  appear  won- 
derfully expressive  and  animated.  The  war  dance 
is,  perhaps,  the  most  striking.  It  is  the  representa- 
tion of  a  complete  American  campaign.  The  de- 
parture of  the  warriors  from  their  village,  their 
march  into  the  enemy's  country,  the  caution  with 
which  they  encamp,  the  address  with  which  they 
station  some  of  their  party  in  ambush,  the  manner 
ol  surprising  the  enemy,  the  noise  and  ferocity  of 
the  combat,  the  scalping  of  those  who  are  slain,  the 
seizing  of  prisoners,  the  triumphant  return  of  the 
conquerors,  and  the  torture  of  the  victims,  are  suc- 
cessively exhibited.  The  performers  enter  with  such 
enthusiastic  ardour  into  their  several  parts;  their 
gestures,  their  countenance,  their  voice,  are  so 
wild  and  so  well  adapted  to  their  various  situations, 
that  Europeans  can  hardly  believe  it  to  be  a  mimic 
scene,  or  view  it  without  emotions  of  fear  and  horror. 

But  however  expressive  some  of  the  American 
dances  may  be,  there  is  one  circumstance  in  them 
remarkable,  and  connected  with  the  character  of  the 
race.  The  songs,  the  dances,  the  amusements  of  other 
nations,  expressive  of  the  sentiments  which  animate 
their  hearts,  are  often  adapted  to  display  or  excite 
that  sensibility  which  mutually  attaches  the  sexes. 
Among  some  people,  such  is  the  ardour  of  this 
passion,  that  love  is  almost  the  sole  object  of  festivity 
and  joy  ;  and  as  rude  nations  are  strangers  to  deli- 
cacy, and  unaccustomed  to  disguise  any  emotion  of 
their  minds,  their  dances  are  often  extremely  wanton 
and  indecent.  Such'  is  the  Calenda,  of  which  the 
natives  of  Africa  are  so  passionately  fond ;  and  such 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  feats,  of  the  dancing  girls,  which  the  Asiatics 
contemplate  with  so  much  avidity  of  desire.  But 
among  the  Americans,  more  cold  and  indifferent  to 
their  females,  from  causes  which  I  have  already 
explained,  the  passion  of  love  mingles  but  little 
with  their  festivals  and  pastimes.  Their  songs  and 
dances  are  mostly  solemn  and  martial ;  they  are 
connected  with  some  of  the  serious  and  important 
affairs  of  life;  and  having  no  relation  to  love  or 
gallantry,  are  seldom  common  to  the  two  sexes,  but 
executed  by  the  men  and  women  apart  (90).  If,  on 
some  occasions,  the  women  are  permitted  to  join 
in  the  festival,  the  character  of  the  entertainment 
is  still  the  same,  and  no  movement  or  gesture  is 
expressive  of  attachment,  or  encourages  familiarity. 

An  immoderate  love  of  play,  especially  games  of 
hazard,  which  seems  to  be  natural  to  all  people 
unaccustomed  to  the  occupations  of  regular  industry, 
is  likewise  universal  among  the  Americans.  The 
same  causes,  which  so  often  prompt  persons  in 
civilized  life,  who  are  at  their  ease,  to  have 
recourse  to  this  pastime,  render  it  the  delight 
of  the  savage.  The  former  are  independent  of 
labour,  the  latter  do  not  feel  the  necessity  of  it ;  and 
as  both  are  unemployed,  they  run  with  transport  to 
whatever  is  interesting  enough  to  stir  and  to  agitate 
their  minds.  Hence  the  Americans,  who  at  other 
times  are  so  indifferent,  so  phlegmatic,  so  silent,  and 
animated  with  so  few  desires,  as  soon  as  they  engage 
in  play,  become  rapacious,  impatient,  noisy,  and 
almost  frantic  with  eagerness.  Their  furs,  their 
domestic  utensils,  their  clothes,  their  arms,  are 
staked  at  the  gaming-table,  and  when  all  is  lost, 
high  as  their  sense  of  independence  is,  in  a  wild 
emotion  of  despair  or  of  hope,  they  will  often  risk 
their  personal  liberty  upon  a  single  cast.  Among 
several  tribes,  such  gaming  parties  frequently  recur, 
and  become  their  most  acceptable  entertainment  at 
every  great  festival.  Superstition,  which  is  apt  to 
take  hold  of  those  passions  which  are  most  vigorous, 
frequently  lends  its  aid  to  confirm  and  strengthen 
this  favourite  inclination.  Their  conjurers  are  accus- 
tomed to  prescribe  a  solemn  match  at  play,  as  one 
of  the  most  efficacious  methods  of  appeasing  their 
gods,  or  of  restoring  the  sick  to  health. 

From  causes  similar  to  those  which  render  them 
fond  of  play,  the  Americans  are  extremely  addicted 
to  drunkenness.  It  seems  to  have  been  one  of  the 
first  exertions  of  human  ingenuity  to  discover  some 
composition  of  an  intoxicating  quality ;  and  there  is 
hardly  any  nation  so  rude,  or  so  destitute  of  inven- 
tion, as  not  to  have  succeeded  in  this  fatal  research. 
The  most  barbarous  of  the  American  tribes  have  been 
so  unfortunate  as  to  attain  this  art ;  and  even  those 
which  are  so  deficient  in  knowledge,  as  to  be  unac- 
quainted with  the  method  of  giving  an  inebriating 
strength  to  liquors  by  fermentation,  can  accomplish  the 
same  end  by  other  means.  The  people  of  the  islands 
of  North  America,  and  of  California,  used,  for  this 
purpose,  the  smoke  of  tobacco,  drawn  up  with  a  certain 
instrument  into  the  nostrils  the  fumes  of  which  as- 
scending  to  the  brain,  they  felt  all  the  transports  and 
phrensy  of  intoxication  (91).  In  almost  every  other 
part  of  the  New  World,  the  natives  possess  the  art  of 
extracting  an  intoxicating  liquor  from  maize  or  the 
manioc  root,  the  same  substances  which  they  convert 
into  bread.  The  operation  by  which  they  effect 
this,  nearly  resembles  the  common  one  of  brewing, 
but  with  this  difference,  that  in  place  of  yeast,  they 
use  a  nauseous  infusion  of  a  certain  quantity  of  maize 
or  manioc  chewed  by  their  women.  The  Saliva  excites 
a;vigorous  fermentation,  and  in  few  days  the  liquor 


becomes  fit  for  drinking.  It  is  not  disagreeable?  to 
the  taste,  and  when  swallowed  in  large  quantities,  is 
of  an  intoxicating  quality.  This  is  the  general  bever- 
age of  the  Americans,  which  they  distinguish  by 
various  names,  and  for  which  they  feel  such  a  violent 
and  insatiable  desire,  as  it  is  not  easy  either  to  con- 
ceive or  describe.  Among  polished  nations,  where  a 
succession  of  various  functions  and  amusements 
keep  the  mind  in  continual  occupation,  the  dpsire  of 
strong  drink  is  regulated  in  a  great  measure  by  the 
climate,  and  increases  or  diminishes  according  to  the 
variations  of  its  temperature.  In  warm  regions,  the 
delicate  and  sensible  frame  of  the  inhabitants  does 
not  require  the  stimulation  of  fermented  liquors.  In 
colder  countries,  the  constitution  of  the  natives,  more 
robust  and  more  sluggish,  stands  in  need  of  generous 
liquors  to  quicken  and  animate  it.  But  among 
savages,  the  desire  of  something  that  is  of  power  to 
intoxicate,  is  in  every  situation  the  same.  All  the 
people  of  America,  if  we  except  some  small  tribes 
near  the  Straits  of  Magellan,  whether  natives  of  the 
torrid  zone,  or  inhabitants  of  its  more  temperate 
regions,  or  placed  by  a  harder  fate  in  the  severe  cli- 
mates towards  its  northern  or  southern  extremity, 
appear  to  be  equally  under  the  dominion  of  this 
appetite.  Such  a  similarity  of  taste,  among  people 
in  such  different  situations,  must  be  ascribed  to  the 
influence  of  some  moral  cause,  and  cannot  be  consi- 
dered as  the  effect  of  any  physical  or  constitutional 
want.  While  engaged  in  war  or  in  the  chace,  the 
savage  is  often  in  the  most  interesting  situations,  and 
all  the  powers  of  his  nature  are  roused  to  the  most 
vigorous  exertions.  But  those  animating  scenes  are 
succeeded  by  long  intervals  of  repose,  during  which 
the  warrior  meets  with  nothing  that  he  deems  of 
sufficient  dignity  or  importance  to  merit  his  attention. 
He  languishes  and  mopes  in  this  season  of  indolence. 
The  posture  of  his  body  is  an  emblem  of  the  state  of 
his  mind.  In  one  climate,  cowering  over  the  fire  in 
his  cabin :  in  another,  stretched  under  the  shade  of 
some  tree,  he  dozes  away  his  time  in  sleep,  or  in  an 
unthinking  joyless  inactivity,  not  far  removed  from  it. 
As  strong  liquors  awake  him  from  this  torpid  state, 
give  a  brisker  motion  to  his  spirits,  and  enliven  him 
more  thoroughly  than  either  dancing  or  gaming,  his 
love  of  them  is  excessive.  A  savage  when  not  engaged 
in  action,  is  a  pensive  melancholy  animal;  but  as  soon 
as  he  tastes,  or  has  a  prospect  of  tasting,  the  intoxi- 
cating draught,  he  becomes  gay  and  frolicksome. 
Whatever  be  the  occasion  or  pretext  on  which  the 
Americans  assemble,  the  meeting  always  terminates 
in  a  debauch.  Many  of  their  festivals  have  no  other 
object,  and  they  welcome  the  return  of  them  with 
transports  of  joy.  As  they  are  not  accustomed  to 
restrain  any  appetite,  they  set  no  bounds  to  this. 
The  riot  often  continues  without  intermission  several 
days  ;  and  whatever  may  be  the  fatal  effects  of  their 
excess,  they  never  cease  from  drinking  as  long  as 
one  drop  of  liquor  remains.  The  persons  of  greatest 
eminence,  the  most  distinguished  warriors,  and  the 
chiefs  most  renowned  for  their  wisdom,  have  no 
greater  command  of  themselves  than  the  most  obscure 
members  of  the  community.  Their  eagerness  for 
present  enjoyment  renders  them  blind  to  its  fatal 
consequences ;  and  those  very  men,  who  in  other 
situations  seem  to  possess  a  force  of  mind  more  than 
human,  are  in  this  instance  inferior  to  children  in 
foresight,  as  well  as  consideration,  and  mere  slaves  of 
brutal  appetite.  When  their  passions,  naturally  strong, 
are  heightened  and  inflamed  by  drink,  they  are  guilty 
of  the  most  enormous  outrages,  and  the  festivity  sel- 
dom concludes  without  deeds  of  violence  or  bloodshed. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


But,  amidst  this  wild  debauch,  there  is  one  cir- 
cumstance remarkable ;  the  women,  in  most  of  the 
American  tribes,  are  not  permitted  to  partake  of  it 
(92).  Their  province  is  to  prepare  the  liquor,  to 
serve  it  about  to  the  guests,  and  to  take  care  of  their 
husbands  and  friends,  when  their  reason  is  over- 
powered. This  exclusion  of  the  women  from  an  enjoy- 
ment so  highly  valued  by  savages,  may  be  justly 
considered  as  a  mark  of  their  inferiority,  and  as  an 
additional  evidence  of  that  contempt  with  which  they 
were  treated  in  the  New  World.  The  people  of 
North  America,  when  first  discovered,  were  not  ac- 
quainted with  any  intoxicating  drink :  but  as  the 
Europeans  early  found  it  their  interest  to  supply  them 
with  spirituous  liquors,  drunkenness  soon  became  as 
universal  among  them  as  among  their  countrymen  to 
the  south ;  and  their  women  having  acquired  this 
new  taste,  indulged  it  with  as  little  decency  and  mo- 
deration as  the  men. 

It  were  endless  to  enumerate  all  the  detached 
customs  which  have  excited  the  wonder  of  travellers 
in  America ;  but  I  cannot  omit  one  seemingly  as 
singular  as  any  that  has  been  mentioned.  When 
their  parents  and  other  relations  become  old,  or  labour 
under  any  distemper  which  their  slender  knowledge 
of  the  healing  art  cannot  remove,  the  Americans  cut 
short  their  days  with  a  violent  hand,  in  order  to  be 
relieved  from  the  burden  of  supporting  and  tending 
them.  This  practice  prevailed  among  the  ruder  tribes 
in  every  part  of  the  continent,  from  Hudson's  Bay  to 
the  river  De  la  Plata  :  and  however  shocking  it  may- 
be to  those  sentiments  of  tenderness  and  attachment, 
which,  in  civilized  life,  we  are  apt  to  consider  as  con- 
genial with  our  frame,  the  condition  of  man  in  the 
savage  state  leads  and  reconciles  him  to  it.  The 
same  hardships  and  difficulty  of  procuring  subsistence, 
which  deter  savages,  in  some  cases,  from  rearing  their 
children,  prompt  them  to  destroy  the  aged  and  infirm. 
The  declining  state  of  the  one  is  as  helpless  as  the 
infancy  of  the  other.  The  former  are  no  less  unable 
than  the  latter  to  perform  the  functions  that  belong  to 
a  warrior  or  hunter,  or  to  endure  those  various  dis- 
tresses in  which  savages  are  so  often  involved,  by 
their  own  want  of  foresight  and  industry.  Their 
relations  feel  this ;  and,  incapable  of  attending  to  the 
wants  or  weaknesses  of  others,  their  impatience  under 
an  additional  burden  prompts  them  to  extinguish  that 
life  which  they  find  it  difficult  to  sustain.  This  is 
not  regarded  as  a  deed  of  cruelty,  but  as  an  act  of 
mercy.  An  American,  broken  with  years  and  infirmi- 
ties, conscious  that  lie  can  no  longer  depend  on  the 
aid  of  those  around  him,  places  himself  contentedly  in 
his  grave  ;  and  it  is  by  the  hands  of  his  children  or 
nearest  relations  that  the  thong  is  pulled,  or  the  blow 
inflicted,  which  releases  him  for  ever  from  the  sorrows 
of  life. 

IX.  After  contemplating  the  rude  American  tribes 
in  such  various  lights ;  after  taking  a  view  of  their 
customs  and  manners  from  so  many  different  stations, 
nothing  remains  but  to  form  a  general  estimate  of 
their  character,  compared  with  that  of  more  polished 
nations.  A  human  being,  as  he  comes  originally 
from  the  hand  of  nature,  is  every  where  the  same. 
At  his  first  appearance  in  the  state  of  infancy,  whe- 
ther it  be  among  the  rudest  savages,  or  in  the  most 
civilized  nation,  we  can  discern  no  quality  which 
marks  any  distinction  or  superiority.  The  capacity 
of  improvement  seems  to  be  the  same;  and  the 
tulents  he  may  afterwards  acquire,  as  well  as  the 
virtues  he  may  be  rendered  capable  of  exercising, 
depend,  in  a  great  measure,  upon  the  state  of  society 
in  which  he  is  placed.  To  this  state  his  mind  natu- 

THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA,  No.  13. 


rally  accommodates  itself,  and  from  it  receives  dis- 
cipline and  culture.  In  proportion  to  the  wanta 
which  it  accustoms  a  human  being  to  feel,  and  the 
functions  in  which  these  engage  him,  his  intellectual 
powers  are  called  forth.  According  to  the  connexions 
which  it  establishes  between  him  and  the  rest  of  his 
species,  the  affections  of  his  heart  are  exerted.  It  is 
only  by  attending  to  this  great  principle,  that  we  can 
discover  what  is  the  character  of  man.  in  every 
different  period  of  his  progress. 

If  we  apply  it  to  savage  life,  and  measure  the  at-* 
tainments  of  the  human  mind  in  that  state  by  this 
standard,  we  shall  find,  according  to  an  observation 
which  I  have  already  made,  that  the  intellectual 
powers  of  man  must  be  extremely  limited  in  their 
operations.  They  are  confined  within  the  narrow 
sphere  of  what  he  deems  necessary  for  supplying 
his  own  wants.  Whatever  has  not  some  relation  to 
these,  neither  attracts  his  attention,  nor  is  the  object 
of  his  inquiries.  But  however  narrow  the  bounds 
may  be  within  which  the  knowledge  of  a  savage  is 
circumscribed,  he  possesses  thoroughly  that  small 
portion  which  he  has  attained.  It  was  not  commu- 
nicated to  him  by  formal  instruction;  he  does  not 
attend  to  it  as  a  matter  of  mere  speculation  and  curi- 
osity ;  it  is  the  result  of  his  own  observation,  the  fruit 
of  his  own  experience,  and  accommodated  to  his 
condition  and  exigencies.  While  employed  in  the 
active  occupations  of  war  or  hunting,  he  often  finds 
himself  in  difficult  and  perilous  situations,  from  which 
the  efforts  of  his  own  sagacity  must  extricate  him. 
He  is  frequently  engaged  in  measures,  where  every 
step  depends  upon  his  own  ability  to  decide,  where  he 
must  rely  solely  upon  his  own  penetration  to  discern 
the  dangers  to  which  he  is  exposed,  and  upon  his  own 
wisdom  in  providing  against  them.  In  consequence 
of  this,  he  feels  the  knowledge  which  he  possesses,  and 
the  efforts  which  he  makes,  and  either  in  deliberation 
or  action  rests  on  himself  alone. 

As  the  talents  of  individuals  are  exercised  and 
improved  by  such  exertions,  much  political  wisdom 
is  said  to  be  displayed  in  conducting  the  affairs  of 
their  small  communities.  The  council  of  old  men  in 
an  American  tribe,  deliberating  upon  its  interests, 
and  determining  with  respect  to  peace  or  war,  has 
been  compared  to  the  senate  in  more  polihsed  repub- 
lics. The  proceedings  of  the  former,  we  are  told,  are 
often  no  less  formal  and  sagacious  than  those  of  the 
latter.  Great  political  wisdom  is  exhibited  in  pon- 
dering the  various  measures  proposed,  and  in 
balancing  their  probable  advantages,  against  the  evils 
of  which  they  may  be  productive.  Much  address 
and  eloquence  are  employed  by  the  leaders,  who 
aspire  in  acquiring  such  confidence  with  their  coun- 
trymen as  to  have  an  ascendent  in  those  assemblies. 
But,  among  savage  tribes,  the  field  for  displaying 
political  talents  cannot  be  extensive.  Where  the 
idea  of  private  property  is  incomplete,  and  no  criminal 
jurisdiction  is  established,  there  is  hardly  any  func- 
tion of  internal  government  to  exercise.  WThere 
there  is  no  commerce,  and  scarcely  any  intercourse 
among  separate  tribes  ;  where  enmity  is  implacable, 
and  hostilities  are  carried  on  almost  without  inter- 
mission ;  there  will  be  few  points  of  public  concern, 
to  adjust  with  their  neighbours,  and  that  department 
of  their  affairs  which  may  be  denominated  foreign, 
cannot  be  so  intricate  as  to  require  much  refined 
policy  in  conducting  it.  Where  individuals  are  so 
thoughtless  and  improvident  as  seldom  to  take 
effectual  precautions  for  self-preservation,  it  is  vain  > 
to  expect  that  public  measures  and  deliberations  will 
be  regulated  by  the  contemplation  of  remote  events  » 

O 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


It  is  the  genius  of  savages  to  act  from  the  impulse 
of  present  passion.  They  have  neither  foresight  nor 
temper  to  form  complicated  arrangements  with  re- 
apect  to  their  future  conduct.  The  consultations  of 
the  Americans,  indeed,  are  [so  frequent,  and  their 
negociations  are  so  many,  and  so  long  protracted,  as 
to  give  their  proceedings  an  extraordinary  aspect  of 
wisdom.  But  this  is  not  owing  so  much  to  the  depth 
of  their  schemes  as  to  the  coldness  and  phlegm  of  their 
temper,  which  render  them  slow  in  determinations. 
If  we  except  the  celebrated  league  that  united  the 
Five  Nations  in  Canada  into  a  federal  republic, 
which  shall  be  considered  in  its  proper  'place,  we 
can  discern  few  such  traces  of  political  wisdom 
among  the  rude  American  tribes,  as  discover  any 
great  degree  of  foresight  or  extent  of  intellectual 
abilities.  Even  among  them,  we  shall  find  public 
measures  more  frequently  directed  by  the  impetuous 
ferocity  of  their  youth,  than  regulated  by  the  expe- 
rience and  wisdom  of  their  old  men. 

As  the  condition  of  man  in  the  savage  state  is 
unfavourable  to  the  progress  of  the  understanding, 
it  has  a  tendency  likewise,  in  some  respects,  to  check 
the  exercise  of  affection,  and  to  render  the  heart 
contracted.  The  strongest  feeling  in  the  mind  of  a 
savage  is  a  sense  of  his  own  independence.  He  has 
sacrificed  so  small  a  portion  of  his  natural  liberty  by 
becoming  a  member  of  society,  that  he  remains,  in  a 
great  degree,  the  sole  master  of  his  own  actions. 
He  often  takes  his  resolutions  alone,  without  con- 
sulting, or  feeling  any  connexion  with  the  persons 
around  him.  In  many  of  his  operations,  he  stands 
as  much  detatched  from  the  rest  of  his  species,  as 
if  he  had  formed  no  union  with  them.  Conscious 
how  little  he  depends  upon  other  men,  he  is  apt  to 
view  them  with  a  careless  indifference.  Even  the 
force  of  his  mind  contributes  to  increase  this  uncon- 
cern; and  as  he  looks  not  beyond  himself  in  deliber- 
ating with  respect  to  the  part  which  he  should  act, 
his  solicitude  about  the  consequences  of  it  seldom 
extends  further.  He  pursues  his  own  career,  and 
indulges  his  own  fancy,  without  inquiring  or  regard- 
ing whether  what  he  does  be  agreeable  or  offensive 
to  others,  whether  they  may  derive  benefit  or  receive 
hurt  from  it.  Hence  the  ungovernable  caprice  of 
savages,  their  impatience  under  any  species  of  re- 
straint, their  inability  to  suppress  or  moderate  any 
inclination,  the  scorn  or  neglect  with  which  they 
receive  advice,  their  high  estimation  of  themselves, 
and  their  contempt  of  other  men.  Among  them,  the 
pride  of  independence  produces  almost  the  same 
effects  with  interestedness  in  a  more  advanced  state 
of  society  ;  it  refers  every  thing  to  a  man  himself, 
it  leads  him  to  be  indifferent  about  the  manner  in 
which  his  actions  may  affect  other  men,  and  renders 
the  gratification  of  his  own  wishes  the  measure  and 
end  of  conduct. 

To  the  same  cause  may  be  imputed  the  hardness 
of  heart,  and  insensibility,  remarkable  in  all  savage 
nations.  Their  minds,  roused  only  fey  strong  emo- 
tions, are  little  susceptible  of  gentle,  delicate,  or 
tender  affections.  Their  union  is  so  incomplete,  that 
each  individual  acts  as  if  he  retained  all  his  natural 
rights  entire  and  undiminished.  If  a  favour  is  con- 
ferred upon  him,  or  any  beneficial  service  is  performed 
on  his  account,  he  receives  it  with  much  satisfaction, 
because  it  contributes  to  his  enjoyment ;  but  this 
sentiment  extends  not  beyond  himself;  it  excites  no 
sense  of  obligation ;  he  neither  feels  gratitude  nor 
thinks  of  making  any  return.  Even  among  persons 
the  most  closely  connected,  the  exchange  of  those 
jjood,  offices  which  strengthen  attachment,  mollify  the 


heart,  and  sweeten  the  intercourse  of  life,  is  not 
frequent.  The  high  ideas  of  independence  among 
the  Americans  nourish  a  sullen  reserve,  which  keeps 
them  at  a  distance  from  each  other.  The  nearest 
relations  are  mutually  afraid  to  make  any  demand, 
or  to  solicit  any  service,  lest  it  should  be  consi- 
dered by  the  other  as  imposing  a  burden,  or  laying 
a  restraint  upon  his  will. 

I  have  already  remarked  the  influence  of  this  hard 
unfeeling  temper  upon  domestic  life,  with  respect  to 
the  connexion  between  husband  and  wife,  as  well  as 
that  between  parents  and  children.  Its  effects  are  no 
less  conspicuous,  in  the  performance  of  those  mutual 
offices  of  tenderness  which  the  infirmities  of  our 
nature  frequently  exact.  Among  some  tribes,  when 
any  of  their  number  are  seized  with  any  violent 
disease,  they  are  generally  abandoned  by  all  around 
them,  who,  careless  of  their  recovery,  fly  in  the 
utmost  consternation  from  the  supposed  danger  of 
infection.  But  even  where  they  are  not  thus  deserted, 
the  cold  indifference  with  which  they  are  attended 
can  afford  them  little  consolation.  No  look  of 
sympathy,  no  soothing  expressions,  no  officious  ser- 
vices, contribute  to  alleviate  the  distress  of  the 
sufferers,  or  to  make  them  forget  what  they  endure. 
Their  nearest  relations  will  often  refuse  to  submit 
to  the  smallest  inconveniency,  or  to  part  with  the 
least  trifle,  however  much  it  may  tend  to  their  accom- 
modation or  relief.  So  little  is  the  breast  of  a  savage 
susceptible  of  those  sentiments  which  prompt  men 
to  that  feeling  attention  which  mitigates  the  calami- 
ties of  human  life,  that  in  some  provinces  of  America, 
the  Spaniards  have  found  it  necessary  to  enforce 
the  common  duties  of  humanity  by  positive  laws, 
and  to  oblige  husbands  and  wives,  parents  and 
children,  under  severe  penalties,  to  take  care  of 
each  other  during  their  sickness.  The  same  harsh- 
ness of  temper  is  still  more  conspicuous  in  their 
treatment  of  the  animal  creation.  Prior  to  their 
intercourse  with  the  people  of  Europe,  the  North 
Americans  had  some  tame  dogs,  which  accompanied 
them  in  their  hunting  excursions,  and  served  them 
with  all  the  ardour  and  fidelity  peculiar  to  the  spe- 
cies. But,  instead  of  that  fond  attachment  which 
the  hunter  naturally  feels  towards  those  useful 
companions  of  his  toils,  they  requite  their  services 
with  neglect,  seldom  feed,  and  never  caress  them. 
In  other  provinces  the  Americans  have  become 
acquainted  with  the  domestic  animals  of  Europe,  and 
avail  themselves  of  their  service  ;  but  it  is  univer- 
sally observed  that  they  always  treat  them  harshly, 
and  never  employ  any  method,  either  for  breaking 
or  managing  them,  but  force  and  cruelty.  In  every 
part  of  the  deportment  of  man  in  his  savage  state, 
whether  towards  his  equals  of  the  human  species, 
or  towards  the  animals  below  him,  we  recognise  the 
same  character,  and  trace  the  operations  of  a  mind 
intent  on  its  own  gratifications,  and  regulated  by 
its  own  caprice,  with  little  attention  or  sensibility 
to  the  sentiments  and  feelings  of  the  beings  around 
him. 

After  explaining  how  unfavourable  the  sarago 
state  is  to  the  cultivation  of  the  understanding  and 
to  the  improvement  of  the  heart,  I  should  not  have 
thought  it  necessary  to  mention  what  may  be  deemed 
its  lesser  defects,  if  the  character  of  nations,  as  well 
as  of  individuals,  were  not  often  more  distinctly 
marked  by  circumstances  apparently  trivial  than  bf 
those  of  greater  moment.  A  savage,  frequently 
placed  in  situations  of  danger  and  distress,  depending 
on  himself  alone,  and  wrapped  up  in  his  own  thoughts 
and  schemes,  is  a  serious  melancholy  animal,  Jiii 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


attention  to  others  is  small.  The  range  of  his  own 
ideas  is  narrow.  Hence  that  taciturnity  which  is  so 
disgusting  to  men  accustomed  to  the  open  intercourse 
of  social  conversation.  When  they  are  not  engaged  in 
action,  the  Americans  often  sit  whole  days  in  one 
posture,  without  opening  their  lips.  When  they  go 
forth  to  war,  or  to  the  chase,  they  usually  march  in 
a  line  at  some  distance  from  one  another,  and 
without  exchanging  a  word.  The  same  profound 
silence  is  observed  when  they  row  together  in  a 
canoe.  It  is  only  when  they  are  animated  by 
intoxicating  liquors,  or  roused  by  the  jollity  of 
the  festival  and  dance,  that  they  become  gay  and 
conversible. 

To  the  same  causes  may  be  imputed  the  refined 
cunning  with  which  they  form  and  execute  their 
schemes.  Men  who  are  not  habituated  to  a  liberal 
communication  of  their  own  sentiments  and  wishes, 
are  apt  to  be  so  distrustful,  as  to  place  little  confi- 
dence in  others,  and  to  have  recourse  to  an  insidious 
craft  in  accomplishing  their  own  purposes.  In  civi- 
lized life,  those  persons  who,  by  their  situations, 
have  but  a  few  objects  of  pursuit  on  which  their 
minds  incessantly  dwell,  are  most  remarkable  for  low 
artifice  in  carrying  on  their  little  projects.  Among 
savages,  whose  views  are  equally  confined,  and  their 
attention  no  Jess  persevering,  those  circumstances 
must  operate  still  more  powerfully,  and  gradually 
accustom  them  to  a  disingenuous  subtilty  in  all  their 
transactions.  The  force  of  this  is  increased  by  habits 
which  they  acquire  in  carrying  on  the  two  most  inter- 
esting operations  wherein  they  are  engaged.  With 
them  war  is  a  system  of  craft,  in  which  they  trust 
for  success  to  stratagem  more  than  to  open  force,  and 
have  their  invention  continually  on  the  stretch  to 
circumvent  and  surprise  their  enemies.  As  hunters, 
it  is  their  constant  object  to  insnare,  in  order  that 
they  may  destroy.  Accordingly,  art  and  cunning 
have  been  universally  observed  as  distinguishing 
characteristics  of  all  savages.  The  people  of  the 
rude  tribes  of  America  are  remarkable  for  their 
artifice  and  duplicity.  Impenetrably  secret  in  form- 
ing their  measures,  they  pursue  them  with  a  patient 
undeviating  attention,  and  there  is  no  refinement  of 
dissimulation  which  they  cannot  employ,  in  order 
to  insure  success.  The  natives  of  Peru  were  engaged 
above  thirty  years  in  concerting  the  plan  of  that 
insurrection  which  took  place  under  the  vice-royalty 
of  the  Marquis  de  Villa  Garcia  ;  and  though  it  was 
communicated  to  a  great  number  of  persons,  in  all 
different  ranks,  no  indication  of  it  ever  transpired 
during  that  long  period  ;  no  man  betrayed  his  trust, 
or  by  an  unguarded  look,  or  rash  word,  gave  rise  to 
any  suspicion  of  what  was  intended.  The  dissimula- 
tion and  craft  of  individuals  is  no  less  remarkable 
than  that  of  nations.  When  set  upon  deceiving, 
they  wrap  themselves  up  so  artificially,  that  it  i's 
impossible  to  penetrate  into  their  intentions,  or  to 
detect  their  designs. 

But  if  there  be  defects  or  vices  peculiar  to  the 
savage  state,  there  are  likewise  virtues  which  it 
inspires,  and  good  qualities,  to  the  exercise  of  which 
it  is  friendly.  The  bonds  of  society  sit  so  loose  upon 
the  members  of  the  more  rude  American  tribes,  that 
they  hardly  feel  any  restraint.  Hence  the  spirit  of 
independence,  which  is  the  pride  of  a  savage,  and 
which  he  considers  as  the  unalienable  prerogative 
of  man.  Incapable  of  control,  and  disdaining 
to  acknowledge  any  superior,  his  mind,  though 
limited  in  its  powers,  and  erring  in  many  of 
its  pursuits,  acquires  such  elevation  by  the  con- 
sciousness of  its  own  freedom,  that  he  acts  on  some 


occasions  with  astonishing  force,   and  perseverance, 
and  dignity. 

As  independence  nourishes  this  high  spirit  among 
savages,  the  perpetual  wars  in  which  they  are 
engaged  call  it  forth  into  action.  Such  long  inter- 
vals of  tranquillity  as  are  frequent  in  polished  socie- 
ties, are  unknown  in  the  savage  state.  Their  enmities, 
as  I  have  observed,  are  implacable  and  immortal. 
The  valour  of  the  young  men  is  never  allowed  to 
rust  in  inaction.  The  hatchet  is  always  in  their 
hand,  either  for  attack  or  defence.  Even  in  their 
hunting  excursions,  they  must  be  on  their  guard 
against  surprise  from  the  hostile  tribes  by  which  they 
are  surrounded.  Accustomed  to  continual  alarms, 
they  grow  familiar  with  danger ;  courage  becomes  an 
habitual  virtue,  resulting  naturally  from  their  situa- 
tion, and  strengthened  by  constant  exertions.  The 
mode  of  displaying  fortitude  may  not  be  the  same 
in  small  and  rude  communities,  as  in  more  powerful 
and  civilized  states.  Their  system  of  war,  and  stan- 
dard of  valour,  may  be  formed  upon  different  principles, 
but  in  no  situation  does  the  human  mind  rise  more 
superior  to  the  sense  of  danger,  or  the  dread  of 
death,  than  in  its  most  simple  and  uncultivated  state. 

Another  virtue  remarkable  among  savages,  is 
attachment  to  the  community  of  which  they  are 
members.  From  the  nature  of  their  political  union, 
one  might  expect  this  tie  to  be  extremely  feeble. 
But  there  are  circumstances  which  render  the  influ- 
ence, even  of  their  loose  mode  of  association,  very 
powerful.  The  American  tribes  are  small ;  combined 
against  their  neighbours,  in  prosecuting  of  ancient 
enmities,  or  in  avenging  recent  injuries,  their  interests 
and  operations  are  neither  numerous  nor  complex. 
These  are  objects,  which  the  uncultivated  under- 
standing of  a  savage  can  comprehend.  His  heart  is 
capable  of  forming  connexions  which  are  so  little 
diffused.  He  assents  with  warmth  to  public  mea- 
sures, dictated  by  passions  similar  to  those  which 
direct  his  own  conduct.  Hence  the  ardour  with 
which  individuals  undertake  the  most  perilous  service, 
when  the  community  deems  it  necessary.  Hence  their 
fierce  and  deep-rooted  antipathy  to  the  public  enemies. 
Hence  their  zeal  for  the  honour  of  their  tribe,  and  that 
love  of  their  country,  which  prompts  them  to  brave 
danger  that  it  may  triumph,  and  to  endure  the  most 
exquisite  torments,  without  a  groan,  that  it  may  not 
be  disgraced. 

Thus,  in  every  situation  where  a  human  being  can 
be  placed,  even  in  the  most  unfavourable,  there  are 
virtues  which  peculiarly  belong  to  it ;  there  are 
affections  which  it  calls  forth ;  there  is  a  species  of 
happiness  which  it  yields.  Nature,  with  most  bene- 
ficient  intention,  conciliates  and  forms  the  mind  to 
its  condition  ;  the  ideas  and  wishes  of  man  extend 
not  beyond  that  state  of  society  to  which  he  is 
habituated.  What  it  presents  as  objects  of  contem- 
plation or  enjoyment,  fills  and  satisfies  his  mind, 
and  he  can  hardly  conceive  any  other  mode  of  life 
to  be  pleasant,  or  even  tolerable.  The  Tartar,  accus- 
tomed to  roam  over  extensive  plains,  and  to  subsist 
on  the  product  of  his  herds,  imprecates  upon  his 
enemy,  as  the  greatest  of  all  curses,  that  he  may  be 
condemned  to  reside  in  one  place,  and  to  be  nourished 
with  the  top  of  a  weed.  The  rude  Americans,  fond 
of  their  own  pursuits,  and  satisfied  with  their  own 
lot,  are  equally  unable  to  comprehend  the  intention 
or  utility  of  the  various  accommodations,  which,  in 
more  polished  society,  are  deemed  essential  to  the 
comfort  of  life.  Far  from  complaining  of  their  awn. 
situation,  or  viewing  that  of  men  in  a  more  improved 
state  with  admiration  or  envy,  they  regard  themselves. 


100 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


as  the  standard  of  excellence,  as  beings  the  bes 
entitled,  as  well  as  the  most  perfectly*  qualified,  to 
enjoy  real  happiness.  Unaccustomed  to  any  restrain 
upon  their  will  or  their  actions,  they  behold  with 
amazement  the  inequality  of  rank  and  the  subordina 
tion  which  takes  place  in  civilized  life,  and  con- 
sider tihe  voluntary  submission  of  one  man  to  another 
as  a  renunciation,  no  less  base  than  unaccoun- 
table, of  the  first  distinction  of  humanity.  Voic 
of  foresight  as  well  as  free  from  care  themselves 
and  delighted  with  that  state  of  indolent  security 
they  wonder  at  the  anxious  precautions,  the  unceas- 
ing industry,  and  complicated  arrangements  o 
Europeans,  in  guarding  against  distant  evils,  o 
providing  for  future  wants  ;  and  they  often  exclairr 
against  their  preposterous  folly,  in  thug  multiplying 
the  troubles  and  increasing  the  labour  of  life.  This 
preference  of  their  own  manners  is  conspicuoiis  on 
every  occasion.  Even  the  names,  by  which  the 
various  nations  wish  to  be  distinguished,  are  assumet 
from  this  idea  of  their  own  pre-eminence.  Th( 
appellation  which  the  Iroquois  give  to  themselves  is 
the  chief  of  men.  Caraibe,  the  original  name  of  the 
fierce  inhabitants  of  the  Windward  Islands,  signifies 
the  warlike  people.  The  Cherokee;  from  an  idea  o 
their  own  superiority,  call  the  Europeans  Nothings 
or  the  accursed  race,  and  assume  to  themselves  the 
name  of  the  beloved  people.  The  same  principle 
regulated  the  notions  of  the  other  Americans  con- 
cerning the  Europeans  ;  for  although,  at  first,  they 
were  filled  with  astonishment  at  their  arts,  and  with 
dread  of  their  power,  they  soon  came  to  abate  their 
estimation  of  men  whose  maxims  of  life  were  so 
different  from  their  own.  Hence  they  called  them 
the  froth  of  the  sea,  men  without  father  or  mother. 
They  supposed,  that  either  they  had  no  country  of 
their  own,  and  therefore  invaded  that  which  belonged 
to  others ;  or  that,  being  destitute  of  the  neces- 
saries of  life  at  home,  they  were  obliged  to  roam 
over  the  ocean,  in  order  to  rob  such  as  were  more 
amply  provided. 

Men  thus  satisfied  with  their  condition,  are  far 
from  any  inclination  to  relinquish  their  own  habits, 
or  to  adopt  those  of  civilized  life.  The  transition 
is  too  violent  to  be  suddenly  made.  Even  where 
endeavours  have  been  used  to  wean  a  savage  from 
his  own  customs,  and  to  render  the  accommodations 
of  polished  society  familiar  to  him ;  even  where  he 
has  been  allowed  to  taste  of  those  pleasures,  and 
has  been  honoured  with  those  distinctions,  which 
are  the  chief  objects  of  our  desire,  he  droops  and 
languishes  under  the  restraint  of  laws  and  forms, 
he  seizes  the  first  oppoi-tunity  of  breaking  loose  from 
them,  and  returns  with  transport  to  the  forest  or  the 
wild,  where  he  can  enjoy  a  careless  and  uncontrolled 
freedom. 

Thus  I  hare  finished  a  laborious  delineation  of 
the  character  and  manners  of  the  uncivilized  tribes 
scattered  over  the  vast  continent  of  America.  In 
this,  I  aspire  not  at  rivalling  the  great  masters  who 
have  painted  tvnd  adorned  savage  life,  either  in 
tool  tines*  of  design,  or  in  the  glow  and  beauty  of 
their  colouring.  I  am  satisfied  with  the  more  hum- 
"ble  merit  of  having  persisted  with  patient  industry, 
in  Tiftwing  my  subject  in  many  various  lights,  and 
tfollacting  from  the  most  accurate  observers  such 
detached,  and  often  minute  features,  as  might  en- 
able me  to  exhibit  a  portrait  that  resembles  the 
original. 

Before  I  close  this  part  of  my  work,  one  observa- 
tion more  is  necessary,  in  order  to  justify  the  conclu- 
sions which  I  have  formed,  or  to  prevent  the  mistakes 


into  which  such  as  examine  them  may  fall.  In  con- 
templating the  inhabitants  of  a  country  so  widely 
extended  as  America,  great  attention  should  be  paid 
to  the  diversity  of  climates  under  which  they  are 
placed.  The  influence  of  this  I  have  pointed  out 
with  respect  to  several  important  particulars  which 
have  been  the  object  of  research ;  but  even  where  it 
has  not  been  mentioned,  it  ought  not  to  be  overlooked. 
The  provinces  of  America  are  of  such  different 
temperament,  that  this  alone  is  sufficient  to  consti- 
tute a  distinction  between  their  inhabitants.  In 
every  part  of  the  earth  where  man  exists,  the  power 
of  climate  operates,  *with  decisive  influence,  upon 
his  condition  and  character.  In  those  countries 
which  approach  near  to  the  extremes  of  heat  or 
cold,  this  influence  is  so  conspicuous  as  to  strike 
every  eye.  Whether  we  consider  man  merely  as  an 
animal,  or  as  being  endowed  with  rational  powers 
which  fit  him  for  activity  and  speculation,  we  shall 
find  that  he  has  uniformly  attained  the  greatest 
perfection  of  which  his  nature  is  capable,  in  tht 
temperate  regions  of  the  globe.  There  his  consti- 
tution is  most  vigorous,  his  organs  most  acute,  and 
his  form  most  beautiful.  There,  too,  he  possesses 
a  superior  extent  of  capacity,  greater  fertility  of 
imagination,  more  enterprising  courage,  and  a  sen- 
sibility of  heart  which  gives  birth  to  desires,  not 
only  ardent,  but  persevering.  In  this  favourite 
situation  he  has  displayed  the  utmost  efforts  of  his 
genius,  in  literature,  in  policy,  in  commerce,  ift 
war,  and  in  all  the  arts  which  improve  or  embellish 
life. 

This  powerful  operation  of  climate  is  felt  most 
sensibly  by  rude  nations,  and  produces  greater 
effects  than  in  societies  more  improved.  The  talents 
of  civilized  men  are  continually  exerted  in  render- 
ing their  own  condition  more  comfortable ;  and  by 
their  ingenuity  and  inventions,  they  can,  in  a  great 
measure,  supply  the  defects,  and  guard  against  the 
inconveniences,  of  any  climate.  But  the  impro- 
vident savage  is  affected  by  every  circumstance 
peculiar  to  his  situation.  He  takes  no  precau- 
tion either  to  mitigate  or  improve  it.  Like  a  plant, 
or  an  animal,  he  is  formed  by  the  climate  under 
which  he  is  placed,  and  feels  the  full  force  of  its 
influence. 

In  surveying  the  rude  nations  of  America,  this 
natural  distinction  between  the  inhabitants  of  the 
temperate  and  torrid  zones  is  very  remarkable.  They 
may,  accordingly,  be  divided  into  two  great  classes. 
The  one  comprehends  all  the  North  Americans, 
from  the  river  St.  Laurence  to  the  gulf  of  Mexico, 
together  with  the  people  of  Chili,  and  a  few  small 
tribes  towards  the  extremity  of  the  southern  con- 
tinent. To  the  other  belong  all  the  inhabitants 
of  the  islands,  and  those  settled  in  the  various  pro- 
vinces which  extend  from  the  isthmus  of  Darien 
almost  to  the  southern  confines  of  Brazil,  along  the 
east  side  of  the  Andes.  In  the  former,  which  com- 
prehends all  the  regions  of  the  tempeiate  zone  that 
n  America  are  inhabited,  the  human  species  appear 
manifestly  to  be  more  perfect.  The  natives  are  more 
robust,  more  active,  more  intelligent,  and  more  cou- 
rageous. They  possess,  in  the  most  eminent  degree, 
hat  force  of  mind,  and  love  of  independence,  which 
[  have  pointed  out  as  the  chief  virtues  of  man  in  his 
savage  state.  They  have  defended  their  liberty  with 
jersevering  foititude  against  the  Europeans,  who 
subdued  the  other  rude  nations  of  America  with  the 
reatest  ease.  The  natives  of  the  temperate  .zone 
are  the  only  people  in  the  New  World  who  are  in- 
lebted  for  their  freedom  to  their  own  valour,  The 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


101 


North  Americans,  though  long  encompassed  by  three 
formidable  European  powers,  still  retain  part  of  their 
original  possessions,  and  continue  to  exist  as  inde- 
pendent nations.  The  people  of  Chili,  though  early 
invaded,  still  maintain  a  gallant  contest  with  the 
Spaniards,  and  have  set  bounds  to  their  encroach- 
ments ;  whereas,  in  the  warmer  regions,  men  are  more 
feeble  in  their  frame,  less  vigorous  in  the  efforts  of 
their  minds,  of  a  gentle  but  dastardly  spirit,  more 
enslaved  by  pleasure,  and  more  sunk  in  indolence. 
Accordingly,  it  is  in  the  torrid  zone  that  the  Euro- 
peans have  most  completely  established  their  dominion 
over  America;  the  most  fertile  and  desirable  pro- 
vinces in  it  are  subject  to  their  yoke  ;  and  if  several 
tribes  there  still  enjoy  independence,  it  is  either 
because  they  have  never  been  attacked  by  an  enemy 
already  satiated  with  conquest,  and  possessed  of 
larger  territories  than  he  was  able  to  occupy,  or 
because  they  have  been  saved  from  oppression  by 
their  remote  and  inaccessible  situation. 

Conspicuous  as  this  distinction  may  appear  between 
the  inhabitants  of  those    different   regions,  it  is  not, 
however,  universal.       Moral  and  political  causes,  as 
I  have  formerly  observed,  affect  the  disposition  and 
character  of  individuals,  as  well  as  nations,  still  more 
powerfully  than  the  influence  of  climate.     There  are, 
accordingly,    some    tribes    in    various    parts    of   the 
torrid   zone,  possessed  of  courage,    high  spirit,  and 
love  of  independence,  in  a  degree  hardly  inferior  to 
the  natives  of  more  temperate  climates.     We  are  too 
little  acquainted  with  the  history  of  those  people,  to 
be  able  to  trace  the  several   circumstances  in  their 
progress  and  condition,  to  which   they  are  indebted 
for  this  remarkable  pre-eminence.     The  fact,  neyer- 
theless,  is  certain.     As   early   as  the  first  voyage  of 
.Columbus,    he   received  information   that   several  of 
the  islands  were  inhabited  by  the  Caribbees,  a  fierce 
race  of  men,  nowise  resembling  their  feeble  and  timid 
neighbours.     lu  his  second  expedition  to  the  New 
World  he  found  this  information  to  be  just,  and  was 
himself  a  witness  of  their  intrepid  valour  (93).     The 
same  character  they  have  maintained  invariably  in  all 
subsequent  contests  with  the  people  of  Europe  :  and, 
even  inour  own    times,  we  have  seen  them  make  a 
gallant  stand  in  defence  of  the  last  territory  which 
the   rapacity    of   their    invaders    had    loft    in    their 
possession  (96).     Some  nations  in    Brazil  were  no 
less  eminent  for  vigour  of  mind  and  bravery  in  war. 
The  people  of  the  isthmus  of  Darien  boldly  met  the 
Spaniards  in  the  field,  and  frequently   repelled  those 
formidable  invaders.     Other  instances  might  be  pro- 
duced.    It  is  not  by  attending  to  any  single  cause  or 
principle,    how   powerful    and   extensive   soever    its 
influence  may  appear,  that  we  can  explain  the  actions, 
or  account  for  the  character  of  men.      Even  the   law 
of  climate,  more  universal,  perhaps,  in  its  operation 
than   any  that  affects  the  human  species,  cannot  be 
applied,    in   judging  of  their  conduct  without  many 
exceptions. 


BOOK  V. 

WHEN  Grijalva  returned  to  Cuba,  [A.  D.  1518,] 
he  found  the  armament  destined  to  attempt  the  con- 
quest of  that  rich  country  which  he  had  discovered, 
almost  complete.  Not  only  ambition,  but  avarice, 
had  urged  Velasquez  to  hasten  his  preparations  ;  and 
having  such  a  prospect  of  gratifying  both,  he  had 
advanced  considerable  sums  out  of  his  private  fortune 
towards  defraying  the  expences  of  the  expedition. 


At  the  same  time,  he  exerted  his  influence  as  gover- 
nor, in   engaging  the  most  distinguished  persons    in 
the  colony  to  undertake  the  service  (97).     At  a  time 
when  the    spirit    of   the    Spanish    nation     was   ad- 
venturous to   excess,  a  number   of  soldiers,  eager  to 
embark    in    any    daring  enterprise,  scon    appeared. 
But   it  was  not  so  easy  to  find  a  person  qualified  to 
take  the  command  in  an  expedition   of  so  much  im- 
portance ;  and  the  character  of  Velasquez,  who  had 
the  right  of  nomination,  greatly  increased  the   diffi- 
culty   of  the    choice.       Though    of    most    aspiring 
ambition,  and  not  destitute  of  talents  for  government, 
he   possessed  neither  such  courage  nor  such  vigour 
and  activity  of  mind,  as  to  undertake  in  person  the 
conduct    of  the   armament  which  he  was  preparing. 
In     this     embarrassing     situation,    he     formed    the 
chimerical    scheme,     not    only     of    achieving    great 
exploits  by  a  deputy,  but  of  securing  to  himself  the 
glory   of  conquests    which   were   to   be    made    by 
another.     In   the  execution  of  this   plan   he  fondly 
aimed  at  reconciling  contradictions.     He  was  solicit- 
ous to  choose  a   commander  of  intrepid  resolution, 
and  of  superior  abilities,  because  he  knew  these  to 
be  requisite  in    order  to  insure  success ;  but,  at  the 
same  time,  from  the  jealousy  natural  to  little  minds, 
he  wished   this  person  to  be  of.  a  spirit  so  tame  and 
obsequious,  as  to  be  entirely  dependent  on  his  will. 
But  when  he  came  to  apply  those  ideas  in  forming 
an  opinion  concerning  the  several  officers  who  occurred 
to   his  thoughts   as   worthy   of  being  intrusted  with 
the  command,  he  soon  perceived  that   it   was  impos- 
sible to  find  such  incompatible  qualities    united  in 
one   character.      Such    as    were    distinguished    for 
courage    and  talents  were   too   high-spirited   to   be 
passive    instruments    in    his     hands.       Those    who 
appeared  more  gentle  and  tractable  were  destitute  of 
capacity,  and  unequal  to  the  charge.     This  augment- 
ed   his   perplexity   and  his  fears.       He   deliberated 
"ong,     and    with    much     solicitude,    and    was    still 
wavering  in  his  choice,  when  Amador  de  Lares,  the 
royal  treasurer  in  Cuba,  and  Andres  Duero,  his  own 
secretary,   the  two   persons  in  whom  he  chiefly  con- 
fided, were  encouraged  by  this  irresolution  to  propose 
a  new  candidate,  and  they  supported  their  recommen- 
dation with  such  assiduity  and  address,  that,  no  lest 
fatally  for  Velasquez  than  happily  for  their  country, 
it  proved  successful. 

The  man  whom  they  pointed  out  to  him  was  Fer- 
nando Cortes.  He  was  born  at  Medellin,  a  small 
town  in  Estremadura,  in  the  year  one  thousand  four 
hundred  and  eighty-five,  and  descended  from  a 
family  of  noble  blood,  but  of  very  moderate  fortime. 
Being  originally  destined  by  his  parents  to  the  study 
of  law,  as  the  most  likely  method  of  bettering  his 
condition,  he  was  sent  early  to  the  university  of 
Salamanca,  where  he  imbibed  some  tincture  of  learn- 
ing. But  he  was  soon  disgusted  with  an  academic 
life,  which  did  not  suit  his  ardent  and  restless  genius, 
and  retired  to  Medellin,  where  he  gave  himself  up 
entirely  to  active  sports  and  martial  exercises.  At 
this  period  of  life,  he  was  so  impetuous,  so  overbear- 
ing, and  so  dissipated,  that  his  father  was  glad  to 
comply  with  his  inclination,  and  send  him  abroad  as 
an  adventurer  in  arms.  There  were  in  that  age  two 
conspicuous  theatres,  on  which  such  of  the  Spanish 
youth  as  courted  military  glory  might  display  their 
valour  ;  one  in  Italy,  under  the  command  of  the  great 
captain  ;  the  other  in  the  New  World.  Cortes  pre- 
ferred the  former,  but  was  prevented  by  indisposition 
from  embarking  with  a  reinforcement  of  troops  sent 
to  Naples.  Upon  this  disappointment  he  turned  hig 
views  towards  America,  whither  he  was  allured  by 


102 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


4he  prospect  of  the  advantages  which  he  might  derive 
.from  the  patronage  of  Ovando  (98),  the  governor  of 
Hispaniola,  who  was  his  kinsman.  When  he  landed 
at  St.  Domingo  in  one  thousand  five  hundred  and 
four,  his  reception  was  such  as  equalled  his  most 
sanguine  hopes,  and  he  was  employed  by  the  gover- 
nor in  several  honourable  and  lucrative  stations. 
These,  however,  did  not  satisfy  his  ambition;  and  in 
the  year  one  thousand  five  hundred  and  eleven  he 
obtained  permission  to  accompany  Diego  Velasquez 
in  his  expedition  to  Cuba.  In  this  service  he  distin- 
guished himself  so  much,  that  notwithstanding  some 
violent  contests  with  Velasquez,  occasioned  by  trivial 
events  unworthy  of  remembrance,  he  was  at  length 
taken  into  favour,  and  received  an  ample  concession 
of  lands  and  of  Indians,  the  recompence  usually 
bestowed  upon  adventurers  in  the  New  World. 

Though  Cortes  had  not  hitherto  acted  in  high 
command,  he  had  displayed  such  qualities  in  several 
scenes  of  difficulty  and  danger,  as  raised  universal 
expectation,  and  turned  the  eyes  of  his  countrymen 
towards  him,  as  one  capable  of  performing  great 
things.  The  turbulence  of  youth,  as  soon  as  he 
found  objects  and  occupations  suited  to  the  ardour  of 
his  mind,  gradually  subsided,  and  settled  into  a  habit 
of  regular  indefatigable  activity.  The  impetuosity  of 
his  temper,  when  he  came  to  act  with  his  equals, 
insensibly  abated,  by  being  kept  under  restraint,  aud 
mellowed  into  a  cordial  soldierly  frankness.  These 
qualities  were  accompanied  with  calm  prudence  in 
concerting  his  schemes,  with  persevering  vigour  in 
executing  them,  and  with  what  is  peculiar  to  superior 
genius,  the  art  of  gaining  the  confidence  and  govern- 
ing the  minds  of  men.  To  all  which  were  added  the 
inferior  accomplishments  that  strike  the  vulgar,  and 
command  their  respect ;  a  graceful  person,  a  winning 
aspect,  extraordinary  address  in  martial  exercises, 
and  a  constitution  of  such  vigour  as  to  be  capable  of 
enduring  any  fatigue. 

As  soon  as  Cortes  was  mentioned  to  Velasquez  by 
his  two  confidants,  he  flattered  himself  that  he  had 
at  length  found  what  he  had  hitherto  sought  in  vain, 
a  man  with  talents  for  command,  but  not  an  object 
for  jealousy.  Neither  the  rank  nor  the  fortune  of 
Cortes,  as  he  imagined,  were  such  that  he  could 
aspire  at  independence.  He  had  reason  to  believe 
that  by  his  own  readiness  to  bury  ancient  animosities 
in  oblivion,  as  well  as  his  liberality  in  conferring 
several  recent  favours,  he  had  already  gained  the 
good-Avill  of  Cortes,  and  hoped,  by  this  new  and 
unexpected  mark  of  confidence,  that  he  might  attach 
him  for  ever  to  his  interest. 

Cortes,  receiving  his  commission  with  the  warmest 
expressions  of  respect  and  gratitude  to  the  governor, 
immediately  erected  his  standard  before  his  own 
house,  appeared  in  a  military  dress,  and  assumed  all 
the  ensigns  of  his  new  dignity.  His  utmost  influence 
and  activity  were  exerted  in  persuading  many  of  his 
friends  to  engage  in  the  service,  and  in  urging 
forward  the  preparations  for  the  voyage.  All  his 
own  funds,  together  with  what  money  he  could  raise 
by  mortgaging  his  lands  and  Indians,  were  expended 
in  purchasing  military  stores  and  provisions,  or  in 
supplying  the  wants  of  such  of  his  officers  as  were 
unable  to  equip  themselves  in  a  manner  suited  to 
their  rank  (99).  Inoffensive,  and  even  laudable  as 
this  conduct  was,  his  dissappointed  competitors  were 
malicious  enough  to  give  it  a  turn  to  his  disadvan- 
tage. They  represented  him  as  aiming  already,  with 
little  disguise,  at  establishing  an  independent  autho- 
rity over  his  troops,  and  endeavouring  to  secure  their 
respect  or  love  by  his  ostentatious  and  interested 


liberality.  They  reminded  Velasquez  of  his  former 
dissensions  with  the  man  in  whom  he  now  reposed 
so  much  confidence,  and  foretold  that  Cortes  would  be 
more  apt  to  avail  himself  of  the  power  which  the 
governor  was  inconsiderately  putting  in  his  hands,  to 
avenge  past  injuries,  than  to  requite  recent  obliga- 
tions. These  insinuations  made  such  impression 
upon  the  suspicious  mind  of  Velasquez,  that  Cortes 
soon  observed  some  symptoms  of  a  growing  alienation 
and  distrust  in  his  behaviour,  and  was  advised  by 
Lares  and  Duero  to  hasten  his  departure,  before  these 
should  become  so  confirmed  as  to  break  out  with 
open  violence.  Fully  sensible  of  this  danger,  he 
urged  forward  his  preparations  with  such  rapidity, 
that  he  set  sail  from  St.  Jago  de  Cuba  on  the  eigh- 
teenth of  November,  Velasquez  accompanying  him 
to  the  shore,  and  taking  leave  of  him  with  an 
appearance  of  perfect  friendship  and  confidence, 
though  he  had  secretly  given  it  in  charge  to  some 
of  Cortes'  officers,  to  keep  a  watchful  eye  upon 
every  part  of  their  commander's  conduct. 

Cortes  proceeded  to  Trinidad,  a  small  settlement 
on  the  same  side  of  the  island,  whore  he  was  joined 
by  several  adventurers,  and  received  a  supply  of  pro- 
visions and  military  stores,  of  which  his  stock  was 
still  very  incomplete.  He  had  hardly  left  St.  Jago, 
when  the  jealousy  which  had  been  working  in  the 
breast  of  Velasquez  grew  to  violent,  that  it  was  im- 
possible to  suppress  it.  The  armament  was  no 
longer  under  his  own  eye  and  direction  :  and  he 
felt,  that  as  his  power  over  it  ceased,  that  of  C".>rtrs 
would  become  more  absolute.  Imagination  now 
aggravated  every  circumstance  which  had  form«Tly 
excited  suspicion;  the  rivals  of  Cortes  industriously 
threw  in  reflections  which  increased  his  fears  ;  and 
with  no  less  art  than  malice  they  called  superstition 
to  their  aid,  employing  the  predictions  of  an  astro- 
loger in  order  to  complete  the  alarm.  All  these,  by 
their  united  operation,  produced  the  desired  effect. 
Velasquez  repented  bitterly  of  his  own  imprudence, 
in  having  committed  a  trust  of  so  much  importance 
to  a  person  whose  fidelity  appeared  so  doubtful,  and 
hastily  despatched  instructions  to  Trinidad,  empower- 
ing Verdugo,  the  chief  magistrate  there,  to  deprive 
Cortes  of  his  commission.  But  Cortes  had  already 
made  such  progress  in  gaining  the  esteem  and  confi- 
dence of  his  troops,  that  finding  officers  as  well  as 
soldiers  equally  zealous  to  support  his  authority, 
he  soothed  or  intimidated  Verdugo,  and  was  ppr- 
mitted  to  depart  from  Trinidad  without  molestation. 
From  Trinidad  Cortes  sailed  for  the  Havana,  in 
order  to  raise  more  soldiers,  and  to  complete  the 
victualling  of  his  fleet.  There  several  persons  of  dis- 
tinction entered  into  the  service,  and  engaged  to 
supply  what  provisions  were  still  wanting  ;  but  as  it 
was  necessary  to  allow  them  some  time  for  performing 
what  they  had  promised,  Velasquez,  sensible  that  ho 
ought  no  longer  to  rely  on  a  man  of  whom  he  had  so 
openly  discovered  his  distrust,  avai'ed  himself  of  the 
interval  which  this  unavoidable  delay  afforded,  in 
order  to  make  one  attempt  more  to  wrest  the  com- 
mand out  of  the  hands  of  Cortes.  He  loudly  com- 
plained of  Verdugo's  conduct,  accusing  him  either  of 
childish  facility,  or  of  manifest  treachery,  in  suffering 
Cortes  to  escape  from  Trinidad.  Anxious  to  guard 
against  a  second  disappointment,  he  sent  a  person  of 
confidence  to  the  Havana,  with  peremptory  injunc- 
tions to  Pedro  Barba,  his  lieutenant-governor  in  that 
colony,  instantly  to  arrest  Cortes,  to  send  him  pri- 
soner to  St.  Jago  under  a  strong  guard,  and  to 
countermand  the  sailing  of  the  armament  until  he 
should  receive  further  orders.  He  wrote  likewise  to 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


103 


the  principal  officers,  requiring  them  to  assist  Barha 
in  executing  what  he  had  given  him  in  charge.  But 
before  the  ariival  of  this  messenger,  a  Franciscan 
friar  of  St.  Jago  had  secretly  conveyed  an  account  of 
this  interesting  transaction  to  Bartholomew  de  Olme- 
do,  a  monk  of  the  same  order,  who  acted  as  chaplain 
to  the  expedition. 

Cortes,  forewarned  of  the  danger,  had  time  to  take  i 
precautions  for  his  own  safety.  His  first  step  was  to  , 
find  some  pretext  for  removing  from  the  Havana, 
Diego  de  Ordaz,  an  officer  of  great  merit,  but  in 
whom,  on  account  of  his  known  attachment  to  Velas- 
quez, he  could  not  confide  in  this  trying  and  delicate 
juncture.  He  gave  him  the  command  of  a  vessel,  j 
destined  to  take  on  board  some  provisions  in  a  small 
harbour  beyond  cape  Antonio,  and  thus  made  sure 
of  his  absence,  without  seeming  to  suspect  his  fidelity. 
When  he  was  gone,  Cortes  no  longer  concealed  the 
intentions  of  Velasquex  from  his  troops ;  and  as  offi- 
cers and  soldiers  were  equally  impatient  to  set  out 
on  an  expedition,  in  preparing  for  which  most  of 
them  had  expended  all  their  fortunes,  they  expressed 
their  astonishment  and  indignation  at  that  illiberal 
jealousy,  to  which  the  governor  was  about  to  sacri- 
fice, not  only  the  honour  of  their  general,  but  all 
their  sanguine  hopes  of  glory  and  wealth.  With  one 
voice  they  entreated  that  he  would  not  abandon  the 
important  station  to  which  he  had  such  a  good  title. 
They  conjured  him  not  to  deprive  them  of  a  leader 
whom  they  followed  with  such  well-founded  confi- 
dence, and  'offered  to  shed  the  last  drcp  of  their 
blood  in  maintaining  his  authority.  Cortes  was 
easily  induced  to  comply  with  what  he  himself  so  ar- 
dently desired.  He  swore  that  he  would  never 
desert  soldiers  who  had  given  him  such  a  signal  proof 
of  their  attachment,  and  promised  instantly  to  con- 
duct them  to  that  rich  country,  which  had  been  so 
long  the  object  of  their  thoughts  and  wishes.  This 
declaration  was  received  with  transports  of  military 
applause,  accompanied  with  threats  and  imprecations 
against  all  who  should  presume  to  call  in  question 
the  jurisdiction  of  their  general,  or  to  obstruct  the 
execution  of  his  designs. 

Every  thing  was  now  ready  for  their  departure ; 
but  though  this  expedition  was  fitted  out  by  the 
united  efforts  of  the  Spanish  power  in  Cuba  ;  though 
every  settlement  had  contributed  its  quota  of  men  and 
provisions  ;  though  the  governor  had  laid  out  consi- 
derable sums,  and  each  adventurer  had  exhausted 
his  stock  or  strained  his  credit,  the  poverty  of  the 
preparations  was  such,  as  must  astonish  the  present 
age,  and  bore,  indeed,  no  resemblance  to  an  arma- 
ment destined  for  the  conquest  of  a  great  empire. 
The  fleet  consisted  of  eleven  vessels  ;  the  largest  of  a 
hundred  tons,  which  was  dignified  by  the  name  of 
admiral ;  three  of  seventy  or  eighty  tons,  and  the  rest 
small  open  barks.  On  board  of  these  were  six  hun- 
dred and  seventeen  men  ;  of  which  five  hundred  and 
eight  belonged  to  the  land  service,  and  a  hundred  and 
nine  were  seamen  or  artificers.  The  soldiers  were 
divided  into  eleven  companies,  according  to  the  num- 
ber of  the  ships  :  to  each  of  which  Cortes  appointed 
a  captain,  and  committed  to  him  the  command  of  the 
vessel  while  at  sea,  and  of  the  men  when  on  shore 
(100).  As  the  use  of  fire-arms  among  the  nations  of 
Europe  was  hitherto  confined  to  a  few  battalions  of 
regularly  disciplined  infantry,  only  thirteen  soldiers 
were  armed  with  muskets,  thirty-two  were  cross- 
bowmen,  and  the  rest  had  swords  and  spears.  In- 
stead of  the  usual  defensive  armour,  which  must 
have  been  cumbersome  in  a  hot  climate,  the  soldiers 
j»«ket»  quilted,  with,  cotton,  which  experience 


had  taught  the  Spaniards  to  be  a  sufficient  protection 
against  the  weapons  of  the  Americans.  They  had 
only  sixteen  horses,  ten  small  field  pieces,  and  four 
falconets. 

[A.  D.  1519,  Feb.  10.]  With  this  slender  and  ill- 
provided  train  did  Cortes  set  sail,  to  make  war  upon 
a  monarch  M'hose  dominions  were  more  extensive  than 
all  the  kingdoms  subject  to  the  Spanish  crown.  As 
religious  enthusiasm  always  mingled  with  the  spirit 
of  adventure  in  the  New  World,  and,  by  a  combina- 
tion still  more  strange,  united  with  avarice,  in 
prompting  the  Spaniards  to  all  their  enterprises,  a 
large  cross  was  displayed  in  their  standards,  with  this 
inscription,  Let  us  follow  the  cross,  for  under  this 
sign  ice  shall  conquer. 

So  powerfully  were  Cortes  and  his  followers  ani- 
mated with  both  these  passions,  that  no  less  eager  to 
plunder  the  opulent  country  whither  they  were  bound, 
than  zealous  to  propagate  the  Christian  faith  among 
its  inhabitants,  they  set  out,  not  with  the  solicitude 
natural  to  men  going  npon  dangerous  services,  but, 
with  that  confidence  which  arises  from  security  of 
success,  and  certainty  of  the  divine  protection. 

As  Cortes  had  determined  to  touch  at  every  plac* 
which  Grijaiva  had  visited,  he  steered  directly  towards 
the  island  of  Cozumel;  there  he  had  the  good  for- 
tune to  redeem  Jerome  de  Aguilar,  a  Spaniard,  who 
had  been  eight  years  a  prisoner  among  the  Indians. 
This  man  was  perfectly  acquainted  with  a  dialect  of 
their  language,  understood  through  a  large  extent  ofT 
country,  and  possessing  besides  a  considerable  share  of 
prudence  and  sagacity,  proved  extremely  useful  as 
an  interpreter.  From  Cozumel,  Cortes  proceeded  to 
the  river  of  Tabasco,  [March  4,]  in  hopes  of  a  re- 
ception as  friendly  as  Grijaiva  had  met  with  there, 
and  of  finding  gold  in  the  same  abundance ;  but  the 
disposition  of  the  natives  from  some  unknown  causer 
was  totally  changed.  After  repeated  endeavours  to 
conciliate  their  good-will,  he  was  constrained  to  have 
recourse  to  violence.  Though  the  forces  of  the  enemy 
were  numerous,  and  advanced  with  extraordinary 
courage,  they  were  routed  with  great  slaughter,  in 
several  successive  actions.  The  loss  which  they  sus- 
tained, and  still  more  the  astonishment  and  terror 
excited  by  the  destructive  effect  of  the  fire-arms,  and 
the  dreadful  appearance  of  the  horses,  humbled  their 
fierce  spirits,  and  induced  them  to  sue  for  peace. 
They  acknowledged  the  king  of  Castile  as  their  sove- 
reign, and  granted  Cortes  a  supply  of  provisions,  with 
a  present  of  cotton  garments,  some  gold,  and  twenty 
female  slaves  (101). 

Cortes  continued  his  course  to  the  westward,  keep- 
ing as  near  the  shore  as  possible,  in  order  to  observo 
the  country ;  but  could  discover  no  proper  place  for 
landing,  until  he  arrived  at  St.  Juan  de  Ulua. 
[April  2.]  As  he  entered  this  harbour,  a  large  canoe 
full  of  people,  among  whom  were  two  who  seemed  to 
be  persons  of  distinction,  approached  his  ship  with 
signs  of  peace  and  amity.  They  came  on  board 
without  fear  or  distrust,  and  addressed  him  in  a  most 
respectful  manner,  but  in  a  language  altogether  un- 
known to  Aguilar.  Cortes  was  in  the  utmost  perplex- 
ity and  distress,  at  an  event  of  which  he  instantly 
foresaw  all  the  consequences,  and  already  felt  the 
hesitation  and  uncertainty  with  which  he  should  carry 
on  the  great  schemes  which  he  meditated,  if,  in  his 
transactions  with  the  natives,  he  must  depend  entirely 
upon  such  an  imperfect,  ambiguous,  and  conjectural 
mode  of  communication*  as  the  use  of  signs.  But 
he  did  not  remain  long  in  his  embarrassing  situation; 
a  fortunate  accident  extricated  him,  when  his  own 
sagacity  could  have  contributed  little  towards  his 


104 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


relief.  One  of  the  female  slaves,  whom  he  had  re- 
ceived from  the  cazique  of  Tabasco,  happened  to  be 
present  at  the  first  interview  between  Cortes  and  his 
new  guests.  She  perceived  his  distress,  as  well  as 
the  confusion  of  Aguilar  ;  and  as  she  perfectly  un- 
derstood the  Mexican  language,  she  explained  what 
they  had  said  in  the  Yucatan  tongue,  with  which 
Aguilar  was  acquainted.  This  woman,  known  after- 
wards by  the  name  of  Donna  Marina,  and  who  makes 
a  conspicuous  figure  in  the  history  of  the  New  World, 
where  great  revolutions  were  brought  about  by  small 
causes  and  inconsiderable  instruments,  was  born  in 
one  of  the  provinces  of  the  Mexican  empire.  Having 
been  sold  as  a  slave  in  the  early  part  of  her  life,  after 
a  variety  of  adventures  she  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Tabascans,  and  had  resided  long  enough  among  them 
to  acquire  their  language,  without  losing  the  use  of 
her  own.  Though  it  was  both  tedious  and  trouble- 
some to  converse  by  the  intervention  of  two  different 
interpreters,  Cortes  was  so  highly  pleased  with  hav- 
ing discovered  this  method  of  carrying  on  some  inter- 
course with  the  people  of  a  country  into  which  he  was 
determined  to  penetrate,  that  in  the  transports  of  his 
joy  he  considered  it  as  a  visible  interposition  of  Pro- 
vidence in  his  favour. 

He  now  learned,  that  the  two  persons  whom  he 
had  received  on  board  of  his  ship  were  deputies  from 
Teutile  and  Pilpatoe,  two  officers  intrusted  with  the 
government  of  that  province,  by  a  great  monarch,  whom 
they  called  Montezuma  ;  and  that  they  were  sent  to 
inquire  what  his  intentions  were  in  visiting  their  coast, 
and  to  offer  him  what  assistance  he  might  need,  in 
order  to  continue  his  voyage.  Cortes,  struck  with 
the  appearance  of  those  people,  as  well  as  the  tenor  of 
the  message,  assured  them,  in  respectful  terms,  that 
he  approached  their  country  with  most  friendly  sen- 
timents, and  came  to  propose  matters  of  great 
importance  to  the  welfare  of  their  prince  and  his 
kingdom,  which  he  would  unfold  more  fully,  in 
person  to  the  governor  and  the  general.  Next 
morning,  without  waiting  'for  any  answer,  he  landed 
his  troops,  his  horses,  and  artillery ;  and  having 
chosen  proper  ground,  began  to  erect  huts  for  his 
men  and  to  fortify  his  camp.  The  natives,  instead  of 
opposing  the  entrance  of  those  fatal  guests  into  their 
country,  assisted  them  in  all  their  operations,  with 
an  alacrity  of  which  they  had  ere  long  good  reason 
to  repent. 

Next  day  Teutile  and  Pilpatoe  entered  the  Spanish 
camp  with  a  numerous  retinue,  and  Cortes  consider- 
ing them  as  the  ministers  of  a  great  monarch,  entitled 
to  a  degree  of  attention  very  different  from  that 
which  the  Spaniards  were  accustomed  to  pay  the 
petty  caziques  with  whom  they  had  intercourse  in 
the  isl^s,  received  them  with  much  formal  ceremony. 
He  informed  them,  that  he  came  as  ambassador 
from  Don  Carlos  of  Austria,  king  of  Castile,  the 
greatest  monarch  of  the  east,  and  was  intrusted 
with  propositions  of  such  moment,  that  he  could 
impart  them  to  none  but  the  emperor  Montezuma 
himself,  and  therefore  required  them  to  conduct 
him,  without  loss  of  time,  into  the  presence  of  their 
master.  The  Mexican  officers  could  not  conceal 
their  uneasiness  at  a  request,  which  they  knew 
would  be  disagreeable,  and  which  they  foresaw 
might  prove  extremely  embarrassing  to  their  sove- 
reign, whose  mind  had  been  filled  with  many- 
disquieting  apprehensions,  ever  since  the  former 
appearance  of  the  Spaniards  on  his  coasts.  But  before 
they  attempted  to  dissuade  Cortes  from  insisting  on 
this  demand,  they  endeavoured  to  conciliate  his  good- 
v/ill,  by  entreating  him  to  accept  of  certain  presents, 


which,  as  humble  slaves  of  Montezuma,  they  laid  at 
his  feet.  They  were  introduced  with  great  parade, 
and  consisted  of  fine  cotton  cloth,  of  plumes  of 
various  colours,  and  of  ornaments  of  gold  and  silver 
to  a  considerable  value  ;  the  workmanship  of  which 
appeared  to  be  as  curious  as  the  materials  were  rich. 
The  display  of  these  produced  an  effect  very  different 
from  what  the  Mexicans  intended.  Instead  of  satis- 
fying it  increased  the  avidity  of  the  Spaniards,  and 
rendered  them  so  eager  and  impatient  to  become 
masters  of  a  country  which  abounde  I  with  such 
precious  productions,  that  Cortes  could  hardly  listen 
with  patience  to  the  arguments  which  Pilpatoe  and 
Teutile  employed  to  dissuade  him  from  visiting  the 
capital,  and  in  a  haughty  determined  tone  he  insisted 
on  his  demand,  of  being  admitted  to  a  personal 
audience  of  their  sovereign.  During  this  interview, 
some  painters,  in  the  train  of  the  Mexican  chiefs, 
had  been  diligently  employed  in  delineating,  upon 
white  cotton  cloths,  figures  of  the  ships,  the  horses, 
the  artillery,  the  soldiers,  and  whatever  else  attracted 
their  eyes  as  singular.  When  Cortes  observed  this, 
and  wasinformed  that  these  pictures  were  to  be  sent  to 
Montezuma,  in  order  to  convey  to  him  a  more  lively 
idea  of  the  strange  and  wonderful  objects  now  pre- 
sented to  their  view,  than  any  words  could  commu- 
nicate, he  resolved  to  render  the  representation  still 
more  animating  and  interesting,  by  exhibiting  such 
a  spectacle  as  might  give  both  them  and  their 
monarch  an  awful  impression  of  the  extraordir 
prowess  of  his  followers,  and  the  irresistible 
of  their  arms.  The  trumpets,  by  his  order, 
an  alarm  ;  the  troops,  in  a  moment,  formed  hi 
of  battle,  the  infantry  performed  such  martial  exer- 
cises as  were  best  suited  to  display  the  effect  of 
their  different  weapons  ;  the  horses,  in  various  evolu- 
tions, gave  a  specimen  of  their  agility  and  strength  ; 
the  artillery  pointed  towards  the  thick  woods  which 
surrounded  the  camp,  were  fired,  and  made  dread- 
ful havoc  among  the  trees.  The  Mexicans  looked 
on  with  that  silent  amazement  which  is  natural 
when  the  mind  is  struck  with  objects,  which  are 
both  awful  and  above  its  comprehension.  But,  at 
the  explosion  of  the  cannon,  many  of  them  fled, 
some  fell  to  the  ground,  and  all  were  so  much  con- 
founded at  the  sight  of  men  whose  power  so  nearly 
resembled  that  of  the  gods,  that  Cortes  found  it 
difficult  to  compose  and  re-assure  them.  The 
painters  had  now  many  new  objects  on  which  to 
exercise  their  art,  and  they  put  their  fancy  on  the 
stretch  in  order  to  invent  figures  and  symbols  to 
represent  the  extraordinary  things  which  they  had 
seen. 

Messengers  were  immediately  despatched  to  Mon- 
tezuma with  those  pictures,  and  a  full  account  of 
every  thing  that  had  passed  since  the  arrival  of  the 
Spaniards,  and  by  them  Cortes  sent  a  present  of 
some  European  curiosities  to  Montezuma,  which, 
though  of  no  great  value,  he  believed  would  be 
acceptable  on  account  of  their  novelty.  The  Mexican 
monarchs,  in  order  to  obtain  early  information  of 
every  occurrence  in  all  the  corners  of  their  extensive 
empire,  had  introduced  a  refinement  in  police, 
unknown,  at  that  time,  in  Europe.  They  had  cou- 
riers posted  at  proper  stations  along  the  principal 
roads ;  and  as  these  were  trained  to  agility  by  a  regular 
education,  and  relieved  one  another  at  moderate 
distances,  they  conveyed  intelligence  with  surprising 
rapidity.  Though  the  capital  in  which  Montezuma 
resided  was  above  an  hundred  and  eighty  miles  from 
Juan  de  Ulna,  Cortes's  presents  were  carried  thither, 
and  an.  answer  to  his  demands  was  received  in  a 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


105- 


few  days.  The  same  "officers  who  had  hitherto 
treated  with  the  Spaniards,  were  employed  to  deliver 
this  answer ;  but  as  they  knew  how  repugnant  the 
determination  of  their  masters  was  to  all  the  schemes 
and  wishes  of  the  Spanish  commander,  they  would 
not  venture  to  make  it  known  until  they  had  pre- 
viously endeavoured  to  soothe  and  mollify  him.  For 
this  purpose  they  renewed  their  negociation,  by  intro- 
ducing a  train  of  a  hundred  Indians,  loaded  with 
presents  sent  to  him  by  Montezuma.  The  magnifi- 
cence of  these  was  such  as  became  a  great  monarch, 
and  far  exceeded  any  idea  which  the  Spaniards  had 
hitherto  formed  of  his  wealth.  They  were  placed  on 
mats  spread  on  the  ground,  in  such  order  as  showed 
them  to  the  greatest  advantage.  Cortes  and  his 
officers  viewed,  with  admiration,  the  various  manu- 
factures of  the  country ;  cotton  stuffs  so  fine,  and  of 
such  delicate  texture,  as  to  resemble  silk ;  pictures 
of  animals,  trees,  and  other  natural  objects,  formed 
with  feathers,  of  different  colours,  disposed  and 
mingled  with  such  skill  and  elegance,  as  to  rival  the 
work  of  the  pencil  in  truth  and  beauty  of  imitation. 
But  what  chiefly  attracted  their  eyes,  were  two  large 
plates  of  a  circular  form,  one  of  massive  gold  represent- 
ing the  sun,  the  other  of  silver,  an  emblem  of  the 
moon  (152.)  These  were  accompanied  \vith  bracelets, 
collars,  rings,  and  other  trinkets  of  gold  ;  and,  that 
nothing  might  be  wanting  which  could  give  the 
Spat  nurds  a  complete  idea  of  what  the  country  af- 
fi.rdfd,  with  some  boxes  filled  with  pearls,  precious 
si  ones,  and  grains  of  gold  unwrought,  as  they  had 
IHVU  found  in  the  mines  or  rivers.  Cortes  received 
all  these  with  an  appearance  of  profound  veneration 
for  the  monarch  by  whom  they  were  bestowed,  But 
when  the  Mexicans,  presuming  upon  this,  informed 
him,  that  their  master,  though  he  desired  him  to 
accept  of  what  he  had  sent  as  a  token  of  regard  f(  >r 
that  monarch  whom  Cortes  represented,  would  not 
give  his  consent  that  foreign  troops  should  approach 
nearer  to  his  capital,  or  even  allow  them  to  continue 
longer  in  his  dominions,  the  Spanish  general  declared,  in 
;v  manner  more  resolute  and  peremptory  than  formerly, 
that  he  must  insist  on  his  first  demand,  as  he  could 
not,  without  dishonour,  return  to  his  own  country, 
until  he  was  admitted  into  the  presence  of  the  prince 
whom  he  was  appointed  to  visit  in  the  name  of  his 
sovereign.  The  Mexicans,  astonished  at  seeing  any 
man  dare  to  oppose  that  will,  which  they  were  accus- 
tomed to  consider  as  supreme  and  irresistible,  yet 
afraid  of  precipitating  their  country  into  an  open 
rupture  with  such  formidable  enemies,  prevailed  with 
Cortes  to  promise,  that  he  would  not  move  from  his 
present  camp,  until  the  return  of  a  messenger  whom 
they  sent  to  Montezuma  for  further  instructions. 

The  firmness  with  which  Cortes  adhered  to  his 
original  proposal,  should  naturally  have  brought  the 
negociation  between  him  and  Montezuma  to  a  speedy 
issue,  as  it  seemed  to  leave  the  Mexican  monarch  no 
choice,  but  either  to  receive  him  with  confidence  as  a 
friend,  or  to  oppose  him  ogenly  as  an  enemy.  The 
latter  was  what  might  have  been  expected  from  a 
haughty  prince  in  possession  of  extensive  power. 
The  Mexican  empire,  at  this  period,  was  at  a  pitch 
of  grandeur  to  which  no  society  ever  attained  in  so 
short  a  period.  Though  it  had  subsisted,  according 
to  their  own  traditions,  only  a  hundred  and  thirty 
years,  its  dominion  extended  from  the  North  to  the 
South  sea,  over  territories  stretching,  with  some  small 
interruption,  above  five  hundred  leagues  from  east 
to  west,  and  more  than  two  hundred  from  north  to 
south,  comprehending  provinces,  not  inferior  in 
fertility,  population,  and  opulence,  to  any  in  the 

HISTORY  OF  AMERICA,  No.  14. 


torrid  zone.  The  people  were  warlike  and  enterpris- 
ing, the  authority  of  the  monarch  unbounded,  and. 
his  revenues  considerable.  If,  with  the  forces  which 
might  have  been  suddenly  assembled  in  such  an 
empire,  Montezuma  had  fallen  upon  the  Spaniards 
while  encamped  on  a  barren  unhealthy  coast,  unsup- 
ported by  any  ally,  without  a  place  of  retreat,  and 
destitute  of  provisions,  it  seems  to  be  impossible, 
even  with  all  the  advantages  of  their  superior  disci- 
pline and  arms,  that  they  could  have  stood  the  shock, 
and  they  must  either  have  perished  in  such  an  un- 
equal contest,  or  have  abandoned  the  enterprise. 

As  the  power  of  Montezuma  enabled  him  to  take 
this  spirited  part,  his  own  dispositions  were  such  as 
seemed  naturally  to  prompt  him  to  it.  Of  all  tha 
princes  who  had  swayed  the  Mexican  sceptre,  he  was 
the  most  haughty,  the  most  violent,  and  the  most 
impatient  of  control.  His  subjects  looked  up  to  him 
with  awe,  and  his  enemies  with  terror.  The  former 
he  governed  with  unexampled  rigour  ;  but  they  were 
impressed  with  such  an  opinion  of  his  capacity,  as 
commanded  their  respect ;  and,  by  many  victories 
over  the  latter,  he  had  spread  far  the  dread  of  his 
arms,  and  had  added  several  considerable  provinces 
to  his  dominions.  But  though  his  talents  might  be 
suited  to  the  transactions  of  a  state  so  imperfectly 
polished  as  the  Mexican  empire,  and  sufficient  to 
conduct  them  while  in  their  accustomed  course,  they 
were  altogether  inadequate  to  a  conjuncture  so  extra- 
ordinary, and  did  not  qualify  him  either  to  judge 
with  the  discernment,  or  to  act  with  the  decision 
requisite  in  such  a  trying  emergence. 

From  the  moment  that  the  Spaniards  appeared  on 
his  coast,  he  discovered  symptoms  of  timidity  and 
embarrassment.  Instead  of  taking  such  resolutions 
as  the  consciousness  of  his  own  power,  or  the  memory 
of  his  former  exploits,  might  have  inspired,  he  deli- 
berated with  an  anxiety  and  hesitation  which  did  not 
escape  the  notice  of  his  meanest  courtiers,  The 
perplexity  and  discomposure  of  Montezuma' s  mind 
upon  this  occasion,  as  well  the  general  dismay  of  his 
subjects,  were  not  owing  wholly  to  the  impression 
which  the  Spaniards  had  made  by  the  novelty  of  their 
appearance  and  the  terror  of  their  ^arms.  Its  origin 
may  be  traced  up  to  a  more  remote  source.  There 
was  an  opinion,  if  we  may  believe  the  earliest  and 
most  authentic  Spanish  historians,  almost  universal 
among  the  Americans,  that  some  dreadful  calamity 
was  impending  over  their  heads,  from  a  race  of  formi- 
dable invaders,  who  should  come  from  regions  towards 
the  rising  sun,  to  overrun  and  desolate  their  country. 
Whether  this  disquieting  apprehension  flowed  from 
the  memory  of  some  natural  calamity  which  had 
afflicted  that  part  of  the  globe,  and  impressed  the 
minds  of  the  inhabitants  with  superstitious  fears  and 
forebodings,  or  whether  it  was  an  imagination  acci- 
dentally suggested  by  the  astonishment  which  the  first 
sight  of  a  new  race  of  men  occasioned,  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  determine.  But  as  the  Mexicans  were  more 
prone  to  superstition  than  any  people  in  the  New 
World,  they  were  more  deeply  affected  by  the  appear- 
ance of  the  Spaniards,  whom  their  credulity  instantly 
represented  as  the  instruments  destined  to  bring  about 
this  fatal  revolution  which  they  dreaded.  Under 
those  circumstances,  it  ceases  to  be  incredible  that  a 
handful  of  adventurers  should  alarm  the  monarch  of 
a  great  empire,  and  all  his  subjects. 

Notwithstanding  the  influence  of  this  impression, 
when  the  messenger  arrived  from  the  Spanish  camp 
with  an  account  that  the  leader  of  the  strangers,  ad- 
hering to  his  original  demand,  refused  to  obey  tho 
order  enjoining  him  to  leave  the  country,  Montezuma 


106 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


assumed  some  degree  of  resolution,  and,  in  a  trans- 
port of  rage  natural  to  a  fierce  prince  unaccustomed 
to  meet  with  any  opposition  to  his  will,  he  threatened 
to  sacrifice  those  presumptuous  men  to  his  gods. 
But  his  doubts  and  fears  quickly  returned,  and  instead 
of  issuing  orders  to  carry  his  threats  into  execution, 
he  again  called  his  ministers  to  confer  and  offer  their 
advice.  Feeble  and  temporizing  measures  will  always 
le  the  result  when  men  assemble  to  deliberate  in  a 
situation  where  they  ought  to  act.  The  Mexican 
counsellors  took  no  effectual  measure  for  expelling 
such  troublesome  intruders,  and  were  satisfied  with 
issuing  a  more  positive  injunction,  requiring  them  to 
leave  the  country ;  but  this  they  preposterously  ac- 
companied with  a  present  of  such  value,  as  proved 
a  fresh  inducement  to  remain  there. 

Meanwhile,  the  Spaniards  were  not  without  solici- 
tude, or  a  variety  of  sentiments,  in  deliberating  con- 
cerning their  own  future  conduct.  From  what  they 
had  already  seen,  many  of  them  formed  such  ex- 
travagant ideas  concerning  the  opulence  of  the 
country,  that,  despising  danger  %or  hardships,  when 
they  had  in  view  treasures  which  appeared  to  be  in- 
exhaustible, they  were  eager  to  attempt  the  conquest. 
Others,  estimating  the  power  of  the  Mexican  empire 
by  its  wealth,  and  enumerating  the  various  proofs 
which  had  occurred  of  its  being  under  a  well-regulated 
administration,  contended  that  it  would  be  an  act  of 
the  wildest  phrensy  to  attack  such  a  state  with  a  small 
body  of  men,  in  want  of  provisions,  unconnected  with 
any  ally,  and  already  enfeebled  by  the  diseases  pecu- 
liar to  the  climate,  and  the  loss  of  several  of  their 
number.  Cortes  secretly  applauded  the  advocates  for 
bold  measures,  and  cherished  their  romantic  hopes,  as 
such  ideas  corresponded  with  his  own,  and  favoured 
the  execution  of  the  schemes  which  he  had  formed. 
From  the  time  that  the  suspicions  of  Velasquez  broke 
out  with  open  violence  in  the  attempts  to  deprive  him 
of  the  command,  Cortes  saw  the  necessity  of  dissolving 
a  connexion  which  would  obstruct  and  embarrass  all 
his  operations,  and  watched  for  a  proper  opportunity 
of  coming  to  a  final  rupture  with  him.  Having  this 
in  view,  he  had  laboured  by  every  art  to  secure  the 
esteem  and  affection  of  his  soldiers.  With  his  abi- 
lities for  command,  it  was  easy  to  gain  their  esteem  ; 
and  his  followers  were  quickly  satisfied  that  they 
might  rely,  with  perfect  confidence,  on  the  conduct 
and  courage  of  their  leader.  Nor  was  it  more  difficult 
to  acquire  their  affection.  Among  adventurers  nearly 
of  the  same  rank,  and  serving  at  their  own  expense, 
the  dignity  of  command  did  not  elevate  a  general 
above  mingling  with  those  who  acted  under  .him. 
Cortes  availed  himself  of  this  freedom  of  intercourse, 
to  insinuate  himself  into  their  favour,  and  by  his 
affable  manners,  by  well-timed  acts  of  liberality  to 
some,  by  inspiring  all  with  vast  hopes,  and  by  allow- 
ing them  to  trade  privately  with  the  natives  (103),  he 
attached  the  greater  part  of  his  soldiers  so  firmly  to 
himself,  that  they  almost  forgot  that  the  armament 
had  been  fitted  out  by  the  authority  and  at  the  expense 
of  another. 

During  those  intrigues,  Teutile  arrived  with  the 
present  from  Montezuma,  and,  together  with  it,  de- 
livered the  ultimate  order  of  that  monarch  to  depart 
instantly  out  of  his  dominions  ;  and  when  Cortes, 
instead  of  complying,  renewed  his  request  of  an  au- 
dience, the  Mexican  turned  from  him  abruptly,  and 
quitted  the  camp  with  looks  and  gestures  which 
strongly  expressed  his  surprise  and  resentment.  Next 
morning,  none  of  the  natives  who  used  to  frequent  the 
camp  in  great  numbers,  in  order  to  barter  with  the 
soldiers  and,  to  bring  in  provisions,  appeared.  All 


friendly  correspondence  seemed  now  to  be  at  an  end, 
and  it  was  expected  every  moment  that  hostilities 
would  commence.  This,  though  an  event  that  might 
have  been  foreseen,  occasioned  a  sudden  consternation 
among  the  Spaniards,  which  emboldened  the  adhe- 
rents of  Velasquez  not  only  to  murmur  and  cabal 
against  their  general,  but  to  appoint  one  of  their 
number  to  remonstrate  openly  against  his  imprudence 
in  attempting  the  conquest  of  a  mighty  empire  with 
such  inadequate  force,  and  to  urge  the  necessity  of 
returning  to  Cuba,  in  order  to  refit  the  fleet  and  aug- 
ment the  army.  Diego  de  Ordaz,  one  of  his  principal 
officers,  whom  the  malcontents  charged  with  this 
commission,  delivered  it  with  a  soldierly  freedom  and 
bluntness,  assuring  Cortes  that  he  spoke  the  senti- 
ment of  the  whole  army.  He  listened  to  this  remon- 
strance without  any  appearance  of  emotion,  and  as  he 
well  knew  the  temper  and  wishes  of  his  soldiers,  and 
foresaw  how  they  would  receive  a  proposition  fatal  at 
once  to  all  the  splendid  hopes  and  schemes  which 
they  had  been  forming  with  such  complacency,  he 
carried  his  dissimulation  so  far  as  to  seem  to  relinquish 
his  own  measures  in  compliance  with  the  request  of 
Ordaz,  and  issued  orders  that  the  army  should  be  in 
readiness  next  day  to  re-embark  for  Cuba.  As  soon 
as  this  was  known,  the  disappointed  adventurers  ex- 
claimed and  threatened ;  the  emissaries  of  Cortes, 
mingling  with  them,  inflamed  their  rage  ;  the  ferment 
became  general ;  the  whole  camp  was  almost  in  open 
mutiny ;  all  demanding  with  eagerness  to  see  their 
commander.  Cortes  was  not  slow  in  appearing ; 
when,  with  one  voice,  officers  and  soldiers  expressed 
their  astonishment  and  indignation  at  the  orders  which 
they  had  received.  It  was  unworthy,  they  cried,  of 
the  Castilian  courage,  to  be  daunted  at  the  first  as- 
pect of  danger,  and  infamous  to  fly  before  any  enemy 
appeared.  For  their  parts  they  were  determined  not 
to  relinquish  an  enterprise  that  had  hitherto  been 
successful,  and  which  tended  so  visibly  to  spread  the 
knowledge  of  true  religion,  and  to  advance  the  glory 
and  interest  of  their  country.  Happy  under  his  com- 
mand, they  would  follow  him  with  alacrity  through 
every  danger,  in  quest  of  those  settlements  and  trea- 
sures which  he  had  so  long  held  out  to  their  view ; 
but  if  he  chose  rather  to  return  to  Cuba,  and  tamely 
give  up  all  his  hopes  of  distinction  and  opulence  to  an 
envious  rival,  they  would  instantly  choose  another 
general  to  conduct  them  in  that  path  of  glory  which 
he  had  not  spirit  to  enter. 

Cortes,  delighted  with  their  ardour,  took  no  offence 
at  the  boldness  with  which  it  was  uttered.  The  sen- 
timents were  what  he  himself  had  inspired,  and  the 
warmth  of  expression  satisfied  him  that  his  followers 
had  imbibed  them  thoroughly.  He  affected,  however, 
to  be  surprised  at  what  he  heard,  declaring  that  his 
orders  to  prepare  for  embarking  were  issued  from  a 
persuasion  that  this  was  agreeable  to  his  troops ; 
that,  from  deference  to  what_  he  had  been  informed 
was  their  inclination,  he  had  sacrificed  his  own  pri- 
vate opinion,  which  was  firmly  bent  on  establishing 
immediately  a  settlement  on  the  sea-coast,  and  then 
on  endeavouring  to  penetrate  into  the  interior  part  of 
the  country ;  that  now  he  was  convinced  of  his  error ; 
and  as  he  perceived  that  they  were  animated  with  the 
generous  spirit  which  breathed  in  every  true  Spa- 
niard, he  would  resume  with  fresh  ardour,  his  original 
plan  of  operation,  and  doubted  not  to  conduct  them, 
in  the  career  of  victor}',  to  such  independent  fortunes 
as  their  valour  merited.  Upon  this  declaration,  shouts 
of  applause  testified  the  excess  of  their  joy.  The 
measure  seemed  to  be  taken  with  unanimous  consent ; 
such  as  secretly  condemned  it  being  obliged,  to  join  in 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA, 


ior 


the  acclamations,  partly  to  conceal  their  disaffectio 
from  their  general,  and  partly  to  avoid  the  imputatio 
of  cowardice  from  their  fellow-soldiers. 

Without  allowing  his  men  time  to  cool  or  to  reflect 
Cortes  set  about  carrying  his  design  into  execution 
In  order  to  give  a  beginning  to  a  colony,  he  assemble( 
the  principal  persons  in  his  army,  and  by  their  suf- 
frage elected  a  council  and  magistrates,  in  whom  the 
government  was  to  be  vested.  As  men  naturall; 
transplant  the  institutions  and  forms  of  the  mother 
country  into  their  new  settlements,  this  was  framec 
upon  the  model  of  a  Spanish  corporation.  The  ma- 
gistrates were  distinguished  by  the  same  names  and 
ensigns  of  office,  and  were  to  exercise  a  similar  juris- 
diction. All  the  persons  chosen  were  most  firmly 
devoted  to  Cortes,  and  the  instrument  of  their  elec- 
tion was  framed  in  the  king's  name,  without  any 
mention  of  their  dependence  on  Velasquez.  The  two 
principles  of  avarice  and  enthusiasm,  which  prompted 
the  Spaniards  to  all  their  enterprires  in  the  New 
World,  seem  to  have  concurred  in  suggesting  the  name 
which  Cortes  bestowed  on  his  infant  settlement.  He 
called  it,  The  rich  town  of  the  true  Cross.. 

The  first  meeting  of  the  new  council  was  distin- 
guished by  a  transaction  of  great  moment.  As  soon 
as  it  assembled,  Cortes  applied  for  leave  to  enter;  and 
approaching  with  many  marks  of  profound  respect, 
which  added  dignity  to  the  tribunal,  and  set  an 
example  of  reverence  for  its  authority,  he  began  a 
long  harangue,  in  which,  with  much  art,  and  in  terms 
extremely  flattering  to  persons  just  entering  upon 
their  new  function,  he  observed,  that  as  the  supreme 
jurisdiction  over  the  colony  which  they  had  planted 
was  now  vested  in  this  court,  he  considered  them  as 
clothed  with  the  authority,  and  representing  the  per 
son  of  their  sovereign ;  that  accordingly  he  would 
communicate  to  them  what  he  deemed  essential  to  the 
public  safety,  with  the  same  dutiful  fidelity  as  if  he 
were  addressing  his  royal  master ;  that  the  security  of 
a  colony  settled  in  a  great  empire,  whose  sovereign 
had  already  discovered  his  hostile  intentions,  depended 
upon  arms,  and  the  efficacy  of  these  upon  the  subor- 
dination and  discipline  preserved  among  the  troops  ; 
that  his  right  to  command  was  derived  from  a  com- 
mission granted  by  the  governor  of  Cuba ;  and  as  that 
had  been  long  since  revoked,  the  lawfulness  of  his 
jurisdiction  might  well  be  questioned ;  that  he  might 
be  thought  to  act  upon  a  defective,  or  even  a  dubious, 
title ;  nor  could  they  trust  an  army  which  might  dis- 
pute the  powers  of  its  general,  at  a  juncture  when  it 
ought  implicitly  to  obey  his  orders  ;  that,  moved  by 
these  considerations,  he  now  resigned  all  his  autho- 
rity to  them,  that  they,  having  both  right  to  choose, 
and  power  to  confer  full  jurisdiction,  might  appoint 
one  in  the  king's  name,  to  command  the  army  in  its 
future  operations ;  and  as  for  his  own  part,  such  was 
his  zeal  for  the  service  in  which  they  were  engaged, 
that  he  would  most  cheerfully  take  up  a  pike  with  the 
same  hand  that  laid  down  the  general's  truncheon, 
and  convince  his  fellow-soldiers,  that  though  accus- 
tomed to  command,  he  had  not  forgotten  how  to  obey. 
Having  finished  his  discourse,  he  laid  the  commission 
from  Velasquez  upon  the  table,  and  after  kissing  his 
truncheon,  delivered  it  to  the  chief  magistrate  and 
withdrew. 

The  deliberations  of  the  council  were  not  long,  as 
Cortes  had  concerted  this  important  measure  with  his 
confidants,  and  had  prepared  the  other  members  with 
great  address,  for  the  part  which  he  wished  them  to 
take.  His  resignation  was  accepted;  and  as  the 
uninterrupted  tenor  of  their  prosperity  under  his 
conduct  afforded  the  most  satisfying  evidence  of  his 


abilities  for  command,  they,  by  their  unanimous 
suffrage,  sleeted  him  chief-justice  of  the  colony,  and 
captain-general  of  its  army,  and  appointed  his  com- 
mission to  be  made  out  in  the  king's  name,  with 
most  ample  powers,  which  were  to  continue  in  force 
until  'the  royal  pleasure  should  be  further  known. 
That  this  deed  might  not  be  deemed  the  machination  of 
a  junto,  the  [council  called  together  the  troops,  and 
acquainted  them  with  what  had  been  resolved.  The 
soldiers,  with  eager  applause,  ratified  the  choice 
which  the  council  had  made  ;  the  air  resounded  with 
the  name  of  Cortes,  and  all  vowed  to  shed  their  blood 
in  support  of  his  authority. 

Cortes  having  now  brought  his  intrigues  to  the 
desired  issue,  and  shaken  off  his  mortifying  depen- 
dence on  the  govenor  of  Cuba,  accepted  of  the  com- 
mission which  vested  in  him  supreme  jurisdiction, 
civil  as  well  as  military,  over  the  colony,  with  many 
professions  of  respect  to  the  council,  and  gratitude  to 
the  army.  Together  with  his  new  command,  he  as- 
sumed greater  dignity,  and  began  to  exercise  more 
extensive  powers.  Formerly  he  had  felt  himself  to  be 
only  the  deputy  of  a  subject ;  now  he  acted  as  the  re- 
presentative of  his  sovereign.  The  adherents  of 
Velasquez,  fully  aware  of  whaj;  would  be  the  effect 
of  this  change  in  the  situation  of  Cortes,  could 
no  longer  continue  silent  and  passive  spectators 
of  his  actions.  They  exclaimed  openly  against  the 
proceedings  of  the  council  as  illegal,  and  against  those 
of  the  army  as  mutinous.  Cortes,  instantly  perceiving 
the  necessity  of  giving  a  timely  check  to  such  sedi- 
tious discourse  by  some  vigorous  measure,  arrested 
Ordaz,  Escudero,  and  Velasquez  de  Leon,  the  ring- 
leaders of  this  faction,  and  sent  them  prisoners  aboard 
the  fleet,  loaded  with  chains.  Their  dependants, 
astonished  and  overawed,  remained  quiet ;  and 
Cortes,  more  desirous  to  reclaim  than  to  punish  his 
prisoners,  who  were  officers  of  great  merit,  courted 
their  friendship  with  such  assiduity  and  address,  that 
the  reconciliation  was  perfectly  cordial ;  and  on  the 
most  trying  occasions,  neither  their  connexion  with 
the  governor  of  Cuba,  nor  the  memory  of  the  indignity 
with  which  they  had  been  treated,  tempted  them  to 
swerve  from  an  inviolable  attachment  to  his  interest. 
In  this  as  well  as  his  other  negociations  at  this  cri- 
tical conjuncture,  which  decided  with  respect  to  his 
\iture  fame  and  fortune,  Cortes  owed  much  of  his 
success  to  the  Mexican  gold,  which  he  distributed 
with  a  liberal  hand  both  among  his  friends  and  his 
pponents. 

Cortes,  having  thus  rendered  the  union  between 
limself  and  his  army  indissoluble,  by  engaging  it  to 
oin  him  in  disclaiming  any  dependence  on  the  gover- 
nor of  Cuba,  and  in  the  repeated  acts  of  disobedience 
to  his  authority,  thought  he  might  now  venture  to 
quit  the  camp  in  which  he  had  hitherto  remained, 
and  advance  into  the  country.  To  this  he  was  en- 
couraged by  an  event  no  less  fortunate  than  season- 
,ble.  Some  Indians  having  approached  his  camp  in 
a  mysterious  manner,  were  introduced  into  his  pre- 
ence.  He  found  that  they  were  sent  with  a  proffer  of 
riendship  from  the  cazique  of  Zempoalla,  a  consider- 
able town  at  no  great  distance ;  and  from  their  answers 
o  a  variety  of  questions  which  he  put  to  them,  ac- 
:ording  to  his  usual  practice  in  every  interview  with 
he  people  of  the  country,  he  gathered,  that  their 
master,  though  subject  to  the  Mexican  empire,  was 
mpatient  of  the  yoke,  and  filled  with  such  dread  and 
latred  of  Montezuma,  that  nothing  could  be  more 
cceptable  to  him  than  any  prospect  of  deliverance 
rom  the  oppression  under  which  he  groaned.  On 
.earing  this,  a  ray  of  light  and  hope  broke  in  upojx 


ios 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMEB10A. 


the  mind  of  Cortes.  Ho  saw  that  the  great  empire 
•which  he  intended  to  attack  was  neither  perfectly 
united,  nor  its  sovereign  universally  beloved.  He 
concluded,  that  the  causes  of  disaffection  could  not  be 
confined  to  one  province ;  but  that  in  other  corners 
there  must  be  malcontents,  so  weary  of  subjection, 
or  so  desirous  of  change,  as  to  be  ready  to  follow  the 
standard  of  any  protector.  Full  of  those  ideas,  oh 
•which  he  began  to  form  a  scheme,  that  time,  and 
more  perfect  information  concerning  the  state  of  the 
country,  enabled  him  to  mature,  he  gave  a  most 
gracious  reception  to  the  Zempoallans,  and  promised 
soon  to  visit  their  cazique. 

In  order  to  perform  this  promise,  it  was  not  neces- 
sary to  vary  the  route  which  he  had  already  fixed  for 
his  march.  Some  officers,  whom  he  had  employed 
to  survey  the  coast,  having  discovered  a  village 
named  Quiabislan,  about  forty  miles  to  the  northward, 
•which  both  on  account  of  the  fertility  of  the  soil  and 
commodioushess  of  the  harbour,  seemed  to  be  a  more 
proper  station  for  a  settlement  than  that  where  he 
was  encamped,  Cortes  determined  to  remove  thither. 
Zempoalla  lay  in  his  way,  where  the  cazique  received 
him  in  the  manner  which  he  had  reason  to  expect — 
with  gifts  and  caresses,  like  a  man  solicitous  to  gain 
his  good-will  ;  with  respect  approaching  almost  to 
adoration,  like  one  who  looked  up  to  him  as  a  de- 
liverer. From  him  he  learned  many  particulars  with 
respect  to  the  character  of  Montezuma,  and  the  cir- 
cumstances which  rendered  his  dominion  odious. 
He  was  a  tyrant,  as  the  cazique  told  him  with  tears, 
haughty,  cruel,  and  suspicious  ;  who  treated  his  own 
subjects  with  arrogance,  ruined  the  conquered  pro- 
vinces by  excessive  exactions,  and  often  tore  their 
sons  and  daughters  from  them  by  violence  ;  the  former 
to  be  offered  as  victims  to  his  gods  ;  the  latter,  to  be 
reserved  as  concubines  for  himself  or  favourites. 
Cortes,  in  reply  to  him,  artfully  insinuated,  that  one 
great  object  of  the  Spaniards  in  visiting  a  country  so 
remote  from  their  own,  was  to  redress  grievances,  and 
to  relieve  the  distressed  ;  and  having  encouraged  him 
to  hope  for  this  interposition  in  due  time,  he  continued 
his  march  to  Quiabislan. 

The  spot  which  his  officers  had  recommended  as  a 
proper  situation,  appeared  to  him  to  be  so  well  chosen, 
that  he  immediately  marked  out  ground  for  a  J town. 
The  houses  to  be  erected  were  only  huts  ;  but  these 
•were  to  be  surrounded  with  fortifications,  of  sufficient 
strength  to  resist  the  assaults  of  an  Indian  army.  As 
the  finishing  of  those  fortifications  was  essential  to 
the  existence  of  a  colony,  and  of  no  less  importance  in 
prosecuting  the  designs  which  the  leader  and  his 
followers  meditated,  both  in  order  to  secure  a  place 
of  retreat,  and  to  preserve  their  communication  with 
the  sea,  every  man  in  the  army,  officers  as  well  as 
Soldiers,  put  his  hand  to  the  work,  Cortes  himself 
setting  them  an  example  of  activity  and  perseverance 
in  labour.  The  Indians  of  Zempballa  and  Quiabislan 
lent  their  aid  ;  and  this  petty  station,  the  parent  of 
so  many  mighty  settlements,  was  soon  in  a  state  of 
defence. 

IVhile  engaged  in  this  necessary  work,  Cortes  had 
several  interviews  with  the  caziques  of  Zempoalla  and 
Quiabislan  ;  and  availing  himself  of  their  wonder  and 
astonishment  at  the  new  objects  which  they  daily- 
beheld,  he  gradually  inspired  them  with  such  a  high 
opinion  of  the  Spaniards,  as  beings  of  a  supeiior 
order  and  irresistible  in  arms,  that,  relying  on  their 
protection,  they  ventured  to  insult  the  Mexican  power, 
at  the  very  name  of  which  they  were  accustomed  to 
tremble.  Some  of  Montezuma's  officers  having  ap- 
peared to  levy  the  usual  tribute,  and  to  demand  a 


certain  number  of  human  victims,  as  an  expiation  for 
their  guilt  in  presuming  to  hold  intercourse  with  those 
strangers  whom  the  emperor  had  commanded  to  leave 
his  dominions,  instead  of  obeying  the  order,  the  ca- 
ziques  made  them  prisoners,  treated  them  with  great 
indignity,  and  as  their  superstition  was  no  less  bar- 
barous than  that  of  the  Mexicans,  they  prepared  to 
sacrifice  them  to  their  gods.  From  this  last  danger 
they  were  delivered  by  the  interposition  of  Cortes, 
who  manifested  the  utmost  horror  at  the  mention  of 
such  a  deed.  The  two  cazlqucs  having  now  been 
pushed  to  an  act  of  stich  open  rebellion,  as  left  them 
no  hope  of  safety  but  in  attaching  themselves  inviola- 
bly to  the  Spaniards,  they  soon  completed  their  union 
with  them,  by  formally  acknowledging  themselves  to 
be  vassals  of  the  same  monarch.  Their  example  was 
followed  by  the  Totonaques,  a  fierce  people  who  in- 
habited the  mountainous  part  of  the  country.  They 
willingly  subjected  themselves  to  the  crown  of  Cas- 
tile, and  offered  to  accompany  Cortes  with  all  their 
forces  in  his  march  towards  Mexico. 

Cortes  had  now  been  above  three  months  in  New 
Spain :  and  though  this  period  had  not  been  distin- 
guished by  martial  exploits,  every  moment  had  been 
employed  in  operations,  which  though  less  splendid, 
were  more  important.  By  his  addfess  in  conducting 
his  intrigues  with  his  own  army,  as  well  as  his  sa- 
gacity in  carrying  on  his  negotiations  with  the  natives, 
he  had  already  laid  the  foundations  of  his  future 
success.  But  whatever  confidence  he  might  place  in 
the  plan  which  he  had  formed,  he  could  uot  but  per- 
ceive, that  as  his  title  to  command  was  derived  from 
a  doubtful  authority,  he  held  it  by  a  precarious  tenure. 
The  injuries  which  Velasquez  had  received,  were  such 
as  would  naturally  prompt  him  to  apply  for  redress  to 
their  common  sovereign ;  and  such  a  representation, 
he  foresaw,  might  be  given  of  his  conduct,  that  he  had 
reason  to  apprehend,  not  only  that  he  might  be  de- 
graded from  his  present  rank,  but  subjected  to  punish- 
ment. Before  he  began  his  march,  it  was  necessary 
to  take  the  most  effectual  precautions  against  this 
impending  danger.  With  this  view  he  persuaded  the 
magistrates  of  the  colony  at  Vera  Cruz,  to  address 
a  letter  to  the  king,  the  chief  object  of  which  was  to 
justify  their  own  conduct  in  establishing  a  colony 
independent  on  the  jurisdiction  of  Velasquez.  In 
order  to  accomplish  this,  they  endeavoured  to  detract 
from  his  merit  in  fitting  out  the  two  former  arma- 
ments under  Cordova  and  Grijalva,  affirming  that 
these  had  been  equipped  by  the  adventurers  who 
engaged  in  the  expeditions,  and  not  by  the  governor. 
They  contended  that  the  sole  object  of  Velasquez  was 
to  trade  or  barter  with  the  natives,  not  to  attempt  the 
conquest  of  New  Spain,  or  to  settle  a  colony  there. 
They  asserted  that  Cortes  and  the  officers  who  served 
under  him  had  defrayed  the  greater  part  of  the 
expence  in  fitting  out  the  armament.  On  this  ac- 
count, they  humbly  requested  their  sovereign  to 
ratify  what  they  had  done  in  his  name,  and  to  confirm 
Cortes  in  the  supreme  command  by  his  roya!  com- 
mission. That  Charles  might  be  induced  to  grant 
more  readily  what  they  demanded,  they  gave  him  a 
pompous  description  of  the  country  which  they  had 
discovered  ;  of  its  riches,  the  number  of  its  inhabit- 
ants, their  civilization  and  arts ;  they  related  the 
progress  which  they  had  already  made  in  annexing 
some  parts  of  the  country  situated  on  the  sea-coast 
to  the  crown  of  Castile  ;  and  mentioned  the  schemes 
which  they  had  formed,  as  well  as  the  hopes  which 
they  entertained,  of  reducing  the  whole  to  subjection. 
Cortes  himself  wrote  in  a  similar  strain ;  and  as  he 
knew  that  the  Spanish  court,  accustomed  to  the 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


100 


exaggerated  representations  of  every  new  country  by 
its  discoverers,  would  give  little  credit  to  their 
splendid  accounts  of  New  Spain,  if  these  were  not 
accompanied  with  such  a  specimen  of  what  it  con- 
tained as  would  excite  a  high  idea  of  its  opulence, 
he  solicited  his  soldiers  to  relinquish  what  they 
might  claim  as  their  part  of  the  treasures  which  had 
hitherto  been  collected,  in  order  that  the  whole 
miaht  be  sent  to  the  king.  Such  was  the  ascendant 
which  he  had  acquired  over  their  minds,  and  such 
their  own  romantic  expectations  of  future  wealth, 
that  an  army  of  indigent  and  rapacious  adventurers 
was  capable  of  this  generous  effort,  and  offered  to 
their  sovereign  the  richest  present  that  had  hitherto 
been  transmitted  from  the  New  World  (104). 
Portocarrero  and  Montejo,  the  chief  magistrates  of 
the  colohy,  were  appointed  to  carry  this  present  to 
Castile,  with  express  orders  not  to  touch  at  Cuba  in 
their  passage  thither. 

While  a  vessel  was  preparing  for  their  departure, 
an  unexpected  event  occasioned  a  general  alarm. 
Some  soldiers  and  sailors,  secretly  attached  to  Velas- 
quez, or  intimidated  at  the  prospect  of  the  dangers 
unavoidable  in  attempting  to  penetrate  into  the 
heart  of  a  great  empire  with  such  unequal  force, 
formed  the  design  of  seizing  one  of  the  brigantines, 
and  making  their  escape  to  Cuba,  in  order  to  give  the 
governor  such  intelligence  as  might  enable  him  to 
intercept  the  ship  which  was  to  carry  the  treasure 
and  dispatches  to  Spain.  This  conspiracy,  though 
formed  by  persons  of  low  rank,  was  conducted  with 
profound  secrecy  ;  but  at  the  moment  when  every 
thing  was  ready  for  execution,  they  were  betrayed 
by  one  of  their  associates. 

Though  the  good  fortune  of  Cortes  interposed  so 
seasonably  on  this  occasion,  the  detection  of  this 
conspiracy  filled  his  mind  with  most  disquieting 
apprehensions,  and  prompted  him  to  execute  a  scheme 
which  he  had  long  revolved.  He  perceived  that  the 
spirit  of  dissatisfaction  still  lurked  among  his  troops; 
that  though  hitherto  checked  by  the  uniform  success 
of  his  schemes,  or  suppressed  by  the  hand  of  authority, 
various  events  might  occur  which  would  encourage 
and  call  it  forth.  He  observed,  that  many  of  his 
men,  weary  of  the  fatigue  of  service,  longed  to 
revisit  their  settlements  in  Cuba;  and  that  upon  any 
appearance  of  extraordinary  danger,  or  any  reverse 
of  fortune,  it  would  be  impossible  to  restrain  them 
from  returning  thither.  He  was  sensible  that  his 
forces,  already  too  feeble,  could  bear  no  diminution, 
and  that  a  very  small  defection  of  his  followers 
would  oblige  him  to  abandon  the  enterprise.  After 
ruminating  often,  and  with  much  solicitude,  upon 
those  particulars,  he  saw  no  hope  of  success  but  in 
cutting  of  all  possibility  of  retreat,  and  in  reducing 
his  men  to  the  necessity  of  adopting  the  same  resolu- 
tion with  which  he  himself  was  animated,  either  to 
conquer  or  to  perish.  With  this  view,  he  determined 
to  destroy  his  fleet ;  but  as  he  durst  not  venture  to 
execute  such  a  bold  resolution  by  his  single  authority, 
he  laboured  to  bring  his  soldiers  to  adopt  his  ideas 
with  respect  to  the  propriety  of  this  measure.  His 
address  in  accomplishing  this  was  not  inferior  to  the 
arduous  occasion  in  which  it  was  employed.  He 
persuaded  some,  that  the  ships  had  suffered  so  much 
by  having  been  long  at  sea,  as  to  be  altogether  unfit 
for  service ;  to  others  he  pointed  out  what  a  season- 
able reinforcement  of  strength  they  would  derive 
from  the  junction  of  a  hundred  me'n,  now  unprofit- 
ably  employed  as  sailors  ;  and  to  all  he  represented 
the  necessity  o  fixing  their  eyes  and  wishes  upon 
was  "before  them,  without  allowing  the  idea  of 


a  retreat  once  to  enter  their  thoughts.  With  uni- 
versal consent  the  ships  were  drawn  ashore,  and  after 
stripping  them  of  their  sails,  rigging,  iron  works,  and 
whatever  else  might  be  of  use,  they  were  broke  in 
pieces.  Thus,  from  an  effort  of  magnanimity,  to 
which  there  is  nothing  parallel  in  history,  five 
hundred  men  voluntarily  consented  to  be  shut  up  in 
a  hostile  counti'y,  filled  with  powerful  and  unknown 
nations ;  and  having  precluded  every  means  of 
escape,  left  themselves  without  any  resource  but 
their  own  valour  and  perseverance. 

Nothing  now  retarded  Cortes  ;  the  alacrity  of  his 
troops  and  the  disposition  of  his  allies  were  equally 
favourable.  All  the  advantages,  however,  derived 
from  the  latter,  though  procured  by  much  assiduity 
and  address,  were  well  nigh  lost  in  a  moment,  by  an 
indiscreet  sally  of  religious  zeal,  which,  on  many 
occasions,  precipitated  Cortes  into  actions,  incon- 
sistent with  the  prudence  that  distinguishes  his 
character.  Though  hitherto  he  had  neither  time  nor 
opportunity  to  explain  to  the  natives  the  errors  of 
their  own  superstition,  or  to  instruct  them  in  the 
principles  of  the  Christian  faith,  he  commanded  his 
soldiers  to  overturn  the  altars  and  to  destroy  the 
idols  in  the  chief  temple  of  Zempoalla,  and  in  their 
place  to  erect  a  crucifix  and  ah  image  of  the  Virgin 
Mary.  The  people  beheld  this  with  astonishment 
and  horror ;  the  priests  excited  them  to  arms  ;  but 
such  was  the  authority  of  Cortes,  and  so  great  the 
ascendant  which  the  Spaniards  had  acquired,  that 
the  commotion  was  appeased  without  bloodshed,  and 
concord  perfectly  re-established. 

Cortes  began  his  march  from  Zempoalla  on  the 
sixteenth  of  August,  with  five  hundred  men,  fifteen 
horse,  and  six  field-pieces.  The  rest  of  his  troops, 
consisting  chiefly  of  such  as  from  age  or  infirmity 
were  less  fit  for  active  service,  he  left  as  a  garrison  in 
Villa  Rica,  under  command  of  the  Escalante,  an  officer 
of  merit,  and  warmly  attached  to  his  interest.  The 
cazique  of  Zempoalla  supplied  him  with  provisions, 
and  with  two  hundred  of  those  Indians  called 
Tamemes,  whose  office,  in  a  country  where  tame 
animals  were  unknown,  was  to  carry  burthens,  and 
to  perform  all  servile  labour.  They  were  a  great 
relief  to  the  Spanish  soldiers,  who  hitherto  had 
been  obliged,  not  only  to  carry  their  own  baggage, 
but  to  drag  along  the  artillery  by  main  force.  He 
offered  likewise  a  considerable  body  of  his  troops, 
but  Cortes,  was  satisfied  with  four  hundred  ;  taking 
care,  however,  to  choose  persons  of  such  note  as 
might  prove  hostages  for  the  fidelity  of  their  master. 
Nothing  memorable  happened  in  his  progress,  until 
he  arrived  on  the  confines  of  Tlascala.  The  inhabit- 
ants of  that  province,  a  warlike  people,  were  impla- 
cable enemies  of  the  Mexicans,  and  had  been  united 
in  an  ancient  alliance  with  the  caziques  of  Zempoalla. 
Though  less  civi.ized  than  the  subjects  of  Monte- 
zuma,  they  were  advanced  in  improvement  far  beyond 
the  rude  nations  of  America,  whose  manners  we 
have  described.  They  had  made  considerable  pro- 
gress in  agriculture;  they  dwelt  in  large  towns  ; 
they  were  not  strangers  to  some  species  of  commerce  ; 
and  in  the  imperfect  accounts  of  their  institutions 
and  laws,  transmitted  to  us  by  the  early  Spanish 
writers,  we  discern  traces  both  of  distributive 
justice  and  of  criminal  jurisdiction  in  their  interior 
police.  But  still,  as  the  degree  of  their  civilization 
was  incomplete,  and  as  they  depended  for  subsis- 
tence, not  on  agriculture  alone,  but  trusted  for  it  in 
a  great  measure  to  hunting,  they  retained  many  of 
the  qualities  natural  to  men  in  this  state.  Like 
them,  they  were  fierce  and  revengeful ;  like  them, 


110 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


too,  they  were  high-spirited  and  independent.  In 
consequence  of  the  former,  they  were  involved  in 
perpetual  hostilities,  and  had  but  a  slender  and 
occasional  intercourse  with  neighbouring  states. 
The  latter  inspired  them  with  such  detestation  of 
servitude,  that  they  not  only  refused  to  stoop  to  a 
foreign  yoke,  .and  maintained  an  obstinate  and 
successful  contest  in  defence  of  their  liberty  against 
the  superior  power  of  the  Mexican  empire,  but  they 
guarded  with  equal  solicitude  against  domestic 
tyranny  ;  and  disdaining  to  acknowledge  any  master, 
they  lived  under  the  mild  and  limited  jurisdiction  of 
a  council  elected  by  their  several  tribes. 

Cortes,  though  he  had  received  information  con- 
cerning the  martial  character  of  this  people,  flattered 
himself  that  his  professions  of  delivering  the 
oppressed  from  the  tyranny  of  Montezuma,  their 
inveterate  enmity  to  the  Mexicans,  and  the  example 
of  their  ancient  allies  the  Zempcallans,  might  induce 
the  Tlascalans  to  grant  him  a  friendly  reception. 
In  order  to  dispose  them  to  this,  four  Zempoallans  of 
great  eminence  were  sent  ambassadors,  to  request, 
in  his  name,  and  in  that  of  their  cazique,  that  they 
would  permit  the  Spaniards  to  pass  through  the 
territories  of  the  republic,  in  their  way  to  Mexico. 
But  instead  of  the  favourable  answer  which  was 
expected,  the  Tlascalans  seized  the  ambassadors, 
and  without  any  regard  to  their  public  character, 
made  preparations  for  sacrificing  them  to  their  gods. 
At  the  same  time  they  assembled  their  troops,  in 
order  to  oppose  those  unknown  invaders,  if  they 
should  attempt  to  make  their  passage  good  by  force 
of  arms.  Various  motives  concurred  in  precipitating 
the  Tlascalans  into  this  resolution.  A  fierce  people, 
shut  up  within  its  own  narrow  precincts,  and  little 
accustomed  to  any  intercourse  with  foreigners,  is  apt  to 
consider  every  stranger  as  an  enemy,  and  is  easily- 
excited  to  arms.  They  concluded,  from  Cortes' s 
proposal  of  visiting  Montezuma  in  his  capital,  that, 
notwithstanding  all  his  professions,  he  courted  the 
friendship  of  a  monarch  whom  they  both  hated  and 
feared.  The  imprudent  zeal  of  Cortes  in  violating 
the  temples  in  Zempoalla  filled  the  Tlascalans  with 
horror  ;  and  as  they  were  no  less  attached  to  their 
superstition  than  the  other  nations  of  New  Spain, 
they  were  impatient  to  avenge  their  injured  gods, 
and  to  acquire  the  merit  of  offering  up  to  them,  as 
victims,  those  impious  men  who  had  dared  to  profane 
their  altars  ;  they  contemned  the  small  number  of 
the  Spaniards,  as  they  had  not  yet  measured  their 
own  strength  with  that  of  these  new  enemies,  and  had 
no  idea  of  the  superiority  which  they  derived  from 
thoir  arms  and  dicipline. 

[Aug.  30.]  Cortes,  after  waiting  some  days  in 
vain  for  the  return  of  his  ambassadors,  advanced 
into  the  Tlascalan  territories.  As  the  resolutions 
of  people  who  delight  in  war  are  executed  with 
no  less  promptitude  than  they  are  formed,  he  found 
troops  in  the  field  ready  to  oppose  him.  They 
attacked  him  with  great  intrepidity,  and,  in  the  first 
encounter,  wounded  some  of  the  Spaniards,  and 
killed  two  horses  ;  a  loss,  in  their  situation,  of  great 
moment,  because  it  was  irreparable.  From  this 
specimen  of  their  courage,  Cortes  saw  the  necessity 
of  proceeding  with  caution.  His  army  marched  in 
close  order ;  he  chose  the  stations  where  he  halted 
with  attention,  and  fortified  every  camp  with  extra- 
ordinary care.  During  fourteen  days  he  was  ex- 
posed to  almost  uninterrupted  assaults,  the  Tlas- 
calans advancing  with  numerous  armies,  and  renew- 
ing the  attack  in  various  forms,  with  a  degree  of 
valour  and  perseverance  to  which  the  Spaniards 


had  seen  nothing  parallel  in  the  New  World.  The 
Spanish  historians  describe  those  successive  battles 
with  great  pomp,  and  enter  into  a  minute  detail  of 
particulars,  mingling  many  exaggerated  and  incre- 
dible circumstances  (105)  with  such  as  are  real  and 
marvellous.  But  no  power  of  words  can  render  the 
recital  of  a  combat  interesting,  where  there  is  no 
equality  of  danger ;  and  when  the  narrative  closes 
with  an  account  of  thousands  slain  on  the  one  side, 
while  not  a  single  person  falls  on  the  other,  the  most 
laboured  descriptions  of  the  previous  disposition  of 
the  troops,  or  of  the  various  vicissitudes  in  the 
engagement,  command  no  attention. 

There  are  some  circumstances,  however,  in  this  war, 
which  are  memorable,  and  merit  notice,  as  they  throw 
liirht  upon  the  character  both  of  the  people  of  New 
Spain,  and  of  their  conquerors.  Though  the  Tlasca- 
lans brought  into  the  field  such  numerous  armies  as 
appear  sufficient  to  have  overwhelmed  the  Spaniards, 
they  were  never  able  to  make  any  impression  upon 
their  small  battalion.  Singular  as  this  may  seem,  it 
is  not  inexplicable.  The  Tlascalans,  though  addicted 
to  war,  were,  like  all  unpolished  nations,  strangers  to 
military  order  and  discipline,  and  lost  in  a  great 
measure  the  advantage  which  they  might  have  deri- 
ved from  their  numbers,  and  the  impetuosity  of  their 
attack,  by  their  constant  solicitude  to  carry  off  the 
dead  and  wounded.  This  point  of  honour,  founded 
on  a  sentiment  of  tenderness  natural  to  the  human 
mind,  and  strengthened  by  anxiety  to  preserve  the 
bodies  of  their  countrymen  from  being  devoured  by 
their  enemies,  was  universal  among  the  people  of  New 
Spain.  Attention  to  this  pious  office  occupied  them 
even  during  the  heat  of  combat,  broke  their  union, 
and  diminished  the  force  of  the  impression  which 
they  might  have  made  by  a  joint  effort. 

Not  only  was  their  superiority  in  number  of  little 
avail,  but  the  imperfection  of  their  military  weapons 
rendered  their  valour  in  a  great  measure  inoffensive. 
After  three  battles,  and  many  skirmishes  and  as- 
saults, not  one  Spaniard  was  killed  in  the  field. 
Arrows  and  spears,  headed  with  flint  or  the  bones  of 
fishes,  stakes  hardened  in  the  fire,  and  wooden  swords, 
though  destructive  weapons  among  naked  Indians, 
were  easily  turned  aside  by  the  Spanish  bucklers, 
and  could  hardly  penetrate  the  escaupiles,  or  quilted 
jackets,  which  the  soldiers  wore.  The  Tlascalans 
advanced  boldly  to  the  charge,  and  often  fought  hand 
to  hand.  Many  of  the  Spaniards  were  wounded,  though 
all  slightly,  which  cannot  be  imputed  to  any  want 
of  courage  or  strength  in  their  enemies,  but  to 
the  defect  of  the  arms  with  which  they  assailed 
them. 

Notwithstanding  the  fury  with  which  the  Tlas- 
calans attacked  the  Spaniards,  they  seemed  to  have 
conducted  their  hostility  with  some  degree  of 
barbarous  generosity.  They  gave  the  Spaniards 
warning  of  their  hostile  intentions,  and  as  they 
knew  that  their  invaders  wanted  provisions,  and 
imagined,  perhaps,  like  the  other  Americans,  that 
they  had  left  their  own  country  because  it  did  not 
afford  them  subsistence,  they  sent  to  their  camp  a 
large  supply  of  poultry  and  maize,  desiring  them 
to  eat  plentifully,  because  they  scorned  to  attack 
an  enemy  enfeebled  by  hunger ;  and  it  would  be  an 
affront  to  their  gods  to  offer  them  famished  victims, 
as  well  as  disagreeable  to  themselves  to  feed  on  such 
emaciated  prey. 

When  they  were  taught  by  the  first  encounter 
with  their  new  enemies,  that  it  was  not  easy  to 
execute  this  threat ;  when  they  perceived,  in  the 
subsequent  engagements,  that  notwithstanding  all 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


Ill 


the  efforts  of  their  own  valour,  of  which  they  had  a 
very  high  opinion,  not  one  of  the  Spaniards  was 
slain  or  taken,  they  began  to  conceive  them  to  be 
a  superior  order  of  beings,  against  whom  human 
power  could  not  avail.  In  this  extremity  they  had 
recourse  to  their  priests,  requiring  them  to  reveal 
the  mysterious  causes  of  such  extraordinary  events, 
and  to  declare  what  new  means  they  should  employ 
in  order  to  repulse  those  formidable  invaders.  The 
priests,  after  many  sacrifices  and  incantations, 
delivered  this  response :  That  these  strangers  were 
the  offspring  of  the  sun,  procreated  by  his  animating 
energy  in  the  regions  of  the  east ;  that,  by  day,  while 
cherished  with  the  influence  of  his  parental  beams, 
they  were  invincible ;  but  by  night,  when  his 
reviving  heat  was  withdrawn,  their  vigour  declined 
and  faded  like  the  herbs  in  the  field,  and  they 
dwindled  down  into  mortal  men.  Theories  less 
plausible  have  gained  credit  with  more  enlightened 
nations,  and  have  influenced  their  conduct.  In 
consequence  of  this,  the  Tlascalans,  with  the  im- 
plicit confidence  of  men  who  fancy  themselves  to 
be  under  the  guidance  of  Heaven,  acted  in  contra- 
diction to  one  of  their  most  established  maxims  in 
•war,  and  ventured  to  attack  the  enemy  with  a  strong 
body  in  the  night-time,  in  hopes  of  destroying  them 
when  enfeebled  and  surprised.  But  Cortes  had 
greater  vigilance  and  discernment  than  to  be 
deceived  by  the  rude  stratagems  of  an  Indian  army. 
The  sentinels  at  his  out-posts,  observing  some  extra- 
ordinary movement  among  the  Tlascalans,  gave 
the  alarm.  In  a  moment  the  troops  were  under 
arms,  and  sallying  out,  dispersed  the  party  with 
great  slaughter  without  allowing  it  to  approach 
the  camp.  The  Tlascalans  convinced  by  sad  expe- 
rience that  their  priests  had  deluded  them,  and 
satisfied  that  they  attempted  in  vain,  either  to 
deceive  or  to  vanquish  their  enemies,  their  fierce- 
ness abated,  and  they  began  to  incline  seriously  to 
peace. 

They  were  at  a  loss,  however,  in  what  manner  to 
address  the  strangers,  what  idea  to  form  of  their  cha- 
racter, and  whether  to  consider  them  as  beings  of 
a  gentle  or  malevolent  nature.  There  were  circum- 
stances in  their  conduct  which  seemed  to  favour  each 
opinion.  On  the  one  hand,  as  the  Spaniards  con- 
stantly dismissed  the  prisoners  whom  they  took, 
not  only  without  injury,  but  often  with  presents  of 
European  toys,  and  renewed  their  offers  of  peace 
after  every  victory  ;  this  lenity  amazed  people,  who, 
according  to  the  exterminating  system  of  war  known 
in  America,  were  accustomed  to  sacrifice  and  devour 
without  mercy  all  captives  taken  in  battle,  and 
disposed  them  to  entertain  favourable  sentiments 
of  the  humanity  af  their  new  enemies.  But,  on 
the  other  hand,  as  Cortes  had  seized  fifty  of  their 
countrymen  who  brought  provisions  to  his  camp, 
and  supposing  them  to  be  spies,  had  cut  off  their 
hands;  this  bloody  spectacle,  added  to  the  terror 
occasioned  by  the  fire-arms  and  horses,  filled  them 
with  dreadful  impressions  of  the  ferocity  of  their 
invaders  (106).  This  uncertainty  was  apparent  in  the 
mode  of  addressing  the  Spaniards.  "  If,"  said  they, 
you  are  divinities  of  a  cruel  and  savage  nature,  we 
present  to  you  five  slaves,  that  you  may  drink  their 
blood  and  eat  their  flesh.  If  you  are  mild  deities, 
accept  an  offering  of  incense  and  variegated  plumes. 
If  you  are  men,  here  is  meat,  and  bread,  and  fruit 
to  nourish  you."  The  peace  which  both  parties  now 
desired  with  equal  ardour,  was  soon  concluded. 
The  Tlascalans  yielded  themselves  as  vassals  to  the 
crown  of  Castile,  and.  engaged  to  assist  Cortes 


in  all  his  future  operations.  He  took  the  republic 
under  his  protection,  and  promised  to  defend 
their  persons  and  possessions  from  injury  or 
violence. 

This  treaty  was  concluded  at  a  seasonable  juncture 
for  the  Spaniaids.  The  fatigue  of  the  service  among 
a  small  body  of  men,  surrounded  by  such  a  multitude 
of  enemies,  was  incredible.  Half  the  army  was  on  duty 
every  night,  and  even  they  whose  turn  it  was  to  rest, 
slept  always  upon  their  arms,  that  they  might  be 
ready  to  ran  to  their  posts  on  a  moment's  warning. 
Many  of  them  were  wounded ;  a  good  number,  and 
among  these  Cortes  himself,  laboured  under  the 
distempers  prevalent  in  hot  climates,  and  several 
had  died  since  they  set  out  from  Vera  Cruz.  Not- 
withstanding the  supplies  which  they  received  from 
the  Tlascslans,  they  were  often  in  want  of  pro- 
visions, and  so  destitute  of  the  necessaries  most 
requisite  in  dangerous  service,  that  they  had  no 
salve  to  dress  their  wounds,  but  what  was  composed 
with  the  fat  of  the  Indians  whom  they  had  slain. 
Worn  out  with  such  intolerable  toil  and  hardships, 
many  of  the  soldiers  began  to  murmur,  and,  when 
they  reflected  on  the  multitude  and  boldness  of 
their  enemies,  more  were  ready  to  despair.  It 
required  the  utmost  exertion  of  Cortes's  authority 
and  address  to  check  this  spirit  of  despondency  in 
its  progress,  and  to  reanimate  his  followers  with 
their  wonted  sense  of  their  own  superiority  over 
the  enemies  with  whom  they  had  to  contend.  The 
submission  of  the  Tlascalans,  and  their  own  triumph- 
ant entry  into  the  capital  city,  where  they  were  received 
with  the  reverence  paid  to  beings  of  a  superior  order, 
banished,  at  once,  from  the  minds  of  the  Spaniards, 
all  memory  of  past  sufferings,  dispelled  every 
anxious  thought  with  respect  to  their  future 
operations,  and  fully  satisfied  them  that  there  was  not 
now  any  power  in  America  able  to  withstand  their 
arms. 

Cortes  remained  twenty  days  in  Tlascala,  in  order 
to  allow  his  troops  a  short  interval  of  repose  after 
such  hard  service.  During  that  time  he  was  employed 
in  transactions  and  inquiries  of  great  moment  with 
respect  to  his  future  schemes.  In  his  daily  con- 
ferences with  the  Tlascalan  chiefs,  he  received 
information  concerning  every  particular  relative  to 
the  state  of  the  Mexican  empire,  or  to  the  qualities 
of  its  sovereign,  which  could  be  of  use  in  regulat- 
ing his  conduct,  whether  he  should  be  obliged  to 
act  as  a  friend  or  as  an  enemy.  As  he  found  that 
the  antipathy  of  his  new  allies  to  the  Mexican 
nation  was  no  less  implacable  than  had  been  repre- 
sented, and  perceived  what  benefit  he  might  derive 
from  the  aid  of  such  powerful  confederates,  he 
employed  all  his  powers  of  insinuation  in  order  to 
gain  their  confidence.  Nor  was  any  extraordinary 
exertion  of  these  necessary.  The  Tlascalans,  with 
the  levity  of  mind  natural  to  unpolished  men,  were, 
of  their  own  accord,  disposed  to  run  from  the  extreme 
of  hatred  to  that  of  fondness.  Every  thing  in  the 
appearance  and  conduct  of  their  guests  was  to  them 
matter  of  wonder  (107).  They  gazed  with  admiration 
at  whatever  the  Spaniards  did,  and  fancying  them  to 
be  of  heavenly  origin,  were  eager  not  only  to  comply 
with  their  demands,  but  to  anticipate  their  wishes. 
They  offered,  accordingly,  to  accompany  Cortes  in 
his  march  to  Mexico,  with  all  the  forces  of  the 
republic,  under  the  commandof  their  most  experienced 
captains. 

Bur,  after  bestowing  so  much  pains  on  cementing 
this  union,  all  the  beneficial  fruits  of  it  were  on  the 
point  of  being  lost,  by  a  new  effusion  of  that  intern* 


112 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA.    ' 


perate  religious  zeal  with  which  Cortes  was  ani- 
mated, no  less  than  the  adventurers  of  the  age. 
They  all  considered  themselves  as  instruments  em- 
ployed by  Heaven  to  propagate  the  Christian  faith, 
and  the  less  they  were  qualified,  either  by  their 
knowledge  or  morals,  for  such  a  function,  they  were 
more  eager  to  discharge  it.  The  profound  veneration 
of  the  Tlascalans  for  the  Spaniards,  having  encou- 
raged Cortes  to  explain  to  some  of  their  chiefs  the 
doctrines  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  to  insist  that 
they  should  abandon  their  own  superstitions,  and 
embrace  the  faith  of  their  new  friends,  they,  ac- 
cording to  an  idea  universal  among  barbarous  nations, 
readily  acknowledged  the  truth  and  excellency  of 
what  he  taught ;  but  contended,  that  the  Teules  of 
Tlascala  were  divinities  ho  less  than  the  God  in 
whom  the  Spaniards  believed  ;  and  as  that  Being 
was  entitled  to  the  homage  of  Europeans,  so  they 
were  bound  to  revere  the  same  powers  which  their 
ancestors  had  worshipped.  Cortes  continued,  never- 
theless, to  urge  his  demand  in  a  tone  of  authority, 
mingling  threats  with  his  arguments,  until  the 
Tlascalans  could  bear  it  no  longer,  and  conjured  him 
never  to  mention  this  again,  lest  the  Gods  should 
avenge  on  their  heads  the  guilt  of  having  listened  to 
such  a  proposition.  Cortes,  astonished  and  enraged 
at  their  obstinacy,  prepared  to  execute  by  force 
what  he  could  not  accomplish  by  persuasion,  and 
was  going  to  overturn  their  altars,  and  cast  down 
their  idols  with  the  same  violent  hand  as  at  Zem- 
poalla,  if  Father  Bartholomew  de  Olmedo,  chaplain 
to  the  expedition,  had  not  checked  his  inconsiderate 
impetuosity.  He  represented  the  imprudence  of 
such  an  attempt  in  a  large  city  newly  reconciled,  and 
filled  with  people  no  less  superstitious  than  warlike ; 
he  deo'ared,  that  the  proceeding  at  Zempoalla  had 
always  appeared  to  him  precipitate  and  unjust,  that 
religion  was  not  to  be  propagated  by  the  sword, 
or  infidels  to  be  converted  by  violence ;  that  other 
weapons  were  to  be  employed  in  this  ministry  ; 
patient  instruction  must  enlighten  the  understanding, 
and  pious  example  captivate  the  heart,  before  men 
could  be  induced  to  abandon  error,  and  embrace  the 
truth.  Amidst  scenes,  where  a  narrow-minded 
bigotry  appears  in  such  close  union  with  oppression 
and  cruelty,  sentiments  so  liberal  and  humane  soothe 
the  mind  with  unexpected  pleasure  ;  and  at  a  time 
when  the  rights  of  conscience  were  little  understood 
in  the  Christian  world,  and  the  idea  of  toleration 
unknown,  one  is  astonished  to  find  a  Spanish  monk 
of  the  sixteenth  century  amongst  the  first  advocates 
against  persecution,  and  in  behalf  of  religious  liberty. 
The  remonstrances  of  an  ecclesiastic,  no  loss  respect- 
able for  wisdom  than  virtue,  had  their  proper  weight 
with  Cortes.  He  left  the  T.ascalans  in  the  undis- 
turbed exercise  of  their  own  rights,  requiring  only 
that  they  should  desist  from  their  horrid  practice  of 
offering  human  victims  in  sacrifice. 

Cortes,  as  soon  as  his  troops  were  fit  for  service, 
resolved  to  continue  his  march  towards  Mexico, 
notwithstanding  the  earnest  dissuasives  of  the  Tlas- 
calans, who  represented  his  destruction  as  unavoid- 
able, if  he  put  himself  in  the  power  of  a  prince  so 
faithless  and  cruel  as  Montezuma.  As  lie  was 
accompanied  by  six  thousand  Tlascalans,  he  had  now 
the  command  of  forces  which  resembled  a  regular 
army.  They  directed  their  course  towards  Cholula 
[Oct.  13]  ;  Montezuma,  who  had  at  length  consented 
to  admit  the  Spaniards  into  his  presence,  having 
informed  Cortes  that  he  had  given  orders  for  his 
friendly  reception  there.  Cholula  was  a  considerable 
town,  and  though  only  five  leagues  distant  from 


Tlascala,  was  formerly  an  independent  state,  but  had 
been  lately  subjected  to  the  Mexican  empire.  This 
was  considered  by  all  the  people  of  Nev  Spain  as  a 
holy  place,  the  sanctuary  and  chief  seat  of  their  gods, 
to  which  pilgrims  resorted  from  every  province,  and  a 
greater  number  of  human  victims  were  offered  in  its 
principal  temple  than  even  in  that  of  Mexico.  Mon- 
tezuma seems  to  have  invited  the  Spaniards  thither, 
either  from  some  superstitious  hope  that  the  gods 
would  not  suffer  this  sacred  mansion  to  be  defiled, 
without  pouring  down  their  wrath  upon  those  impious 
strangers,  who  ventured  to  insult  their  power  in  the 
place  of  its  peculiar  residence ;  or  from  a  belief  that 
he  himself  might  attempt  to  cut  them  off  with  more 
certain  success,  under  the  immediate  protection  of 
his  divinities. 

Cortes  had  been  warned  by  the  Tlascalaus,  before 
he  set  out  on  his  march,  to  keep  a  watchful  eye  over 
the  Cholulans.  He  himself,  though  received  into 
the  town  with  much  seeming  respect  and  cordiality, 
observed  several  circumstances  in  their  conduct  which 
excited  suspicion.  Two  of  the  Tlascalans,  who  were 
encamped  at  some  distance  Trom  the  town,  as  the 
Cholulans  refused  to  admit  their  ancient  enemies 
within  its  precincts,  having  found  means  to  enter  in 
disguise,  acquainted  Cortes,  that  they  observed  the 
women  and  children  of  the  principal  citizens  retiring 
in  great  hurry  every  night ;  and  that  six  children  had 
been  sacrificed  in  the  chief  temple,  a  rite  which  indi- 
cated the  execution  of  some  warlike  enterprise  to  be 
approaching.  At  the  same  time,  Marina  the  interpreter 
received  information  from  an  Indian  woman  of  dis- 
tinction, whose  confidence  she  had  gained,  that  the 
destruction  of  her  friends  was  concerted  ;  that  a  body 
of  Mexican  troops  lay  concealed  near  the  town  ;  that 
some  of  the  streets  were  barricaded,  and  in  others, 
pits  or  deep  trenches  were  dug,  and  slightly  covered 
over,  as  traps  into  which  the  horses  might  fall ;  that 
stones  or  missive  weapons  were  collected  on  the 
tops  of  the  temples,  with  which  to  overwhelm  the 
infantry;  that  the  fatal  hour  was  now  at  hand,  and 
their  ruin  unavoidable.  Cortes,  alarmed  at  this 
concurring  evidence,  secretly  arrested  three  of  the 
chief  priests,  and  extorted  from  them  a  confession 
that  confirmed  the  intelligence  which  he  had  receu  ed. 
As  not  a  moment  was  to  be  lost,  he  instantly  resolved 
to  prevent  his  enemies,  and  to  inflict  on  them  such 
dreadful  vengeance  as  might  strike  Montezuma  and 
his  subjects  with  terror.  For  this  purpose,  the 
Spaniards  and  Zempoallans  were  drawn  up  in  a  large 
court,  which  had  been  allotted  for  their  quarters, 
near  the  centre  of  the  town  ;  the  Tlascalans  had 
orders  to  advance;  the  magistrates  and  several  of  the 
chief  citizens  were  sent  for,  under  various  pretexts, 
and  seized.  On  a  signal  given,  the  troops  rushed  out, 
and  fell  upon  the  multitude,  destitute  of  leaders,  and 
so  much  astonished,  that  the  weapons  dropped  from 
their  hands,  they  stood  motionless,  and  incapable  of 
defence.  While  the  Spaniards  pres.sed  them  in 
front,  the  Tlascalans  attacked  them  in  the  rear. 
The  streets  were  filled  with  bloodshed  and  death. 
The  temples,  which  afforded  a  retreat  to  the  priests 
and  some  of  the  leading  men,  were  set  on  fire,  and 
they  perished  in  the  flames.  This  scene  of  horror 
continued  two  days  ;  during  which  the  wretched 
inhabitants  suffered  all  that  the  destructive  rage  of 
the  Spaniards,  or  the  implacable  revenge  of  the 
Indian  allies,  could  inflict  (108).  At  length  the  car- 
nage ceased,  after  the  slaughter  of  six  thousand  Cholu- 
lans, without  the  loss  of  a  single  Spaniard.  Cortes 
then  released  the  magistrates,  and  reproaching  them 
bitterly  for  their  intended  treachery,  declared,  that 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


113 


as  justice  was  now  appeased,  he  forgave  the  offence, 
but  required  them  to  recall  the  citizens  who  had 
fled,  and  re-establish  order  in  the  town.  Such  was 
the  ascendant  which  the  Spaniards  had  acquired 
over  this  superstitious  race  of  men,  and  so  deeply 
were  they  impressed  with  an  opinion  of  their  superior 
discernment,  as  well  as  power,  that  in  obedience  to 
this  command,  the  city  was  in  a  few  days  filled 
again  with  people,  who,  amidst  the  ruins  of  their 
sacred  buildings,  yielded  respectful  service  to  men 
whose  hands  were  stained  with  the  blood  of  their 
relations  and  fellow-citizens. 

[Oct.  29.]  From  Cholula,  Cortes  advanced  di- 
rectly towards  Mexico,  which  was  only  twenty  leagues 
distant.  In  every  place  through  which  he  passed,  he 
was  received  as  a  person  possessed  of  sufficient  power 
to  deliver  the  empire  from  the  oppression  under  which 
it  groaned  ;  and  the  caziques  or  governors  commu- 
nicated to  him  all  the  grievances  which  they  felt 
under  the  tyrannical  government  of  Montezuma, 
with  that  unreserved  confidence  which  men  naturally 
repose  in  superior  beings.  When  Cortes  first  observed 
the  seeds  of  discontent  in  the  remote  provinces  of 
the  empire,  hope  dawned  upon  his  mind  ;  but  when 
he  now  discovered  such  symptoms  of  alienation  from 
their  monarch  near  the  seat  of  government,  he  con- 
cluded that  the  vital  parts  of  the  constitution  were 
affected,  and  conceived  the  most  sanguine  expecta- 
tions of  overturning  a  state,  whose  natural  strength 
was  thus  divided  and  impaired.  While  those  reflec- 
tions encouraged  the  general  to  persist  in  his  arduous 
undertaking,  the  soldiers  were  no  less  animated  by 
observations  more  obvious  to  their  capacity.  In 
descending  from  the  mountains  of  Chalco,  across 
which  the  road  lay,  the  vast  plain'  of  Mexico  opened 
gradually  to  their  view.  When  they  first  beheld  this 
prospect,  one  of  the  most  striking  and  beautiful 
on  the  face  of  the  earth  ;  when  they  observed  fertile 
and  cultivated  fields  stretching  farther  than  the  eye 
could  reach  ;  when  they  saw  a  lake  resembling  the 
sea  in  extent,  encompassed  with  large  towns,  and 
discovered  the  capital  city  rising  upon  an  island  in 
the  middle,  adorned  with  its  temples  and  turrets  ; 
the  scene  so  far  exceeded  their  imagination,  that 
some  believed  the  fanciful  descriptions  of  romance 
were  realized,  and  that  its  enchanted  palaces  and 
gilded  domes  were  presented  to  their  sight ;  others 
could  hardly  persuade  themselves  that  this  wonderful 
spectacle  was  any  thing  more  than  a  dream  (109). 
As  they  advancod,  their  doubts  were  removed,  but 
their  amazement  increased.  They  were  now  fullv 
satisfied  that  the  country  was  rich  beyond  any  con- 
ception which  they  had  formed  of  it,  and  flattered 
themselves  that  at  length  they  should  obtain  an  ample 
recompense  for  all  their  services  and  sufferings. 

Hitherto  they  had  met  with  no  enemy  to  oppose 
their  progress,  though  several  circumstances  occurred 
which  led  them  to  suspect  that  some  design  was 
formed  to  surprise  and  cut  them  off.  Many  mes- 
sengers arrived  successively  from  Montezuma,  per- 
mitting them  one  day  to  advance,  requiring  them  on 
the  next  to  retire,  as  his  hopes  or  fears  alternately 
prevailed  :  and  so  wonderful  was  this  infatuation, 
which  seems  to  be  unaccountable  on  any  supposition, 
but  that  of  a  superstitious  dread  of  the  Spaniards,  as 
beings  of  a  superior  nature,  that  Cortes  was  almost 
at  the  gates  of  the  capital,  before  the  monarch  had 
determined  whether  to  receive  him  as  a  friend,  or  to 
oppose  him  as  an  enemy.  But  as  no  sign  of  open 
hostility  appeared,  the  Spaniards,  without  regarding 
the  fluctuations  of  Montezuma' s  sentiments,  continued 
their  march  along  the  causeway  which  led  to  Mexico 

HISTORY  OF  AMERICA,  No.  15. 


through  the  lake,  with  great  circumspection  and  the 
strictest  discipline,  though  without  seeming  to  sus- 
pect the  prince  whom  they  were  about  to  visit. 

When  they  drew  near  the  city,  about  a  thousand 
persons,  who  appeared  to  be  of  distinction,  came 
forth  to  meet  them,  adorned  with  plumes  and  clad 
in  mantles  of  fine  cotton.  Each  of  these,  in  his 
order,  passed  by  Cortes,  and  saluted  him  according 
to  the  mode  deemed  most  respectful  and  submissive 
in  their  country.  They  announced  the  approach  of 
Montezuma  himself,  and  soon  after  his  harbingers 
came  in  sight.  There  appeared  first  two  hundred 
persons  in  an  uniform  dress,  with  large  plumes  of 
feathers,  alike  in  fashion,  marching  two  and  two,  in 
deep  silence,  bare-footed,  with  their  eyes  fixed  on 
the  ground.  These  were  followed  by  a  company  of 
higher  rank,  in  their  most  showy  apparel,  in  the 
midst  of  whom  was  Montezuma,  in  a  chair  or  litter 
richly  ornamented  with  gold  and  feathers  of  various 
colours.  Four  of  his  principal  favourites  carried 
him  on  their  shoulders,  others  supported  a  canopy 
of  curious  workmanship  over  his  head.  Before  him. 
marched  three  officers  with  rods  of  gold  in  their 
hands,  which  they  lifted  up  on  high  at  certain  inter- 
vals, and  at  that  signal  all  the  people  bowed  their 
heads,  and  hid  their  faces,  as  •  unworthy  to  look  on 
so  great  a  monarch.  When  he  drew  near,  Cortes 
dismounted,  advancing  towards  him  with  officious 
haste,  and  in  a  respectful  posture.  At  the  same 
time  Montezuma  alighted  from  his  chair,  and  leaning 
on  the  arms  of  two  of  his  near  relations,  approached 
with  a  slow  and  stately  pace,  his  attendants  covering 
the  street  with  cotton  cloths,  that  he  might  not 
touch  the  ground.  Cortes  accosted  him  w;th  pro- 
found reverence,  after  the  European  fashion.  He 
returned  the  salutation,  according  to  the  mode  of  his 
country,  by  touching  the  earth  with  his  hand,  and 
then  kissing  it.  This  ceromony,  the  customary  ex- 
pression of  veneration  from  inferiors  towards  those  who 
were  above  them  in  rank,  appeared  such  amazing 
condescension  in  a  proud  monarch,  who  scarcely 
deigned  to  consider  the  rest  of  mankind  as  of  the 
same  species  with  himself,  that  all  his  subjects 
firmly  believed  those  persons,  before  whom  he  hum- 
bled himself  in  this  manner,  to  be  something  more 
than  human.  Accordingly,  as  they  marched  through 
the  crowd,  the  Spaniards  frequently,  and  with  much 
satisfaction,  heard  themselves  denominated  Teules, 
or  divinities.  Nothing  material  passed  in  this  first 
interview.  Montezuma  conducted  Cortes  to  the 
quarters  which  he  had  prepared  for  his  reception, 
and  immediately  took  leave  of  him,  with  a  politeness 
not  unworthy  of  a  court  more  refined.  "You  are 
now,"  says  he,  "  with  your  brothers  in  your  own 
house;  refresh  yourselves  after  your  fatigue  and 
be  happy  until  I  return."  The  place  allotted  to 
the  Spaniards  for  their  lodging  was  a  house  built 
by  the  father  of  Montezuma.  It  was  surrounded 
by  a  stone  wall,  with  towers  at  proper  distances, 
which  served  for  defence  as  well  as  for  ornament, 
and  its  apartments  and  courts  were  so  large, 
as  to  accommodate  both  the  Spaniards  and  their 
Indian  allies.  The  first  care  of  Cortes  was  to  take 
precautions  for  his  security,  by  planting  the  artillery 
so  as  to  command  the  different  avenues  which  led  to 
it,  by  appointing  a  large  division  of  his  troops  to  be 
always  on  guard,  and  by  posting  sentinels  at  proper 
stations,  with  injunctions  to  observe  the  same  vigi- 
lant discipline  as  if  they  were  within  sight  of  au 
enemy's  camp. 

In  the  evening,  Montezuma  returned  to  visit  h?$ 
guests  with  the  same  pomp  as  in  their  first  interview, 


114 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


and  brought  presents  of  such  value,  not  only  to 
Cortes  and  to  his  officers,  but  even  to  the  private 
men,  as  proved  the  liberality  of  the  monarch  to  be 
suitable  to  the  opulence  of  his  kingdom,  A  long 
conference  ensued,  in  which  Cortes  learned  what 
was  the  opinion  of  Montezuma  with  respect  to  the 
Spaniards.  It  was  an  established  tradition,  he  told 
him,  among  the  Mexicans,  that  their  ancestors  came 
originally  from  a  remote  region,  and  conquered  the 
provinces  now  subject  to  his  dominion  :  that  after 
they  were  settled  there,  the  great  captain  who  con- 
ducted this  colony,  returned  to  his  own  country, 
promising,  that  at  some  future  period  his  descendants 
should  visit  them,  assume  the  government,  and 
reform  their  constitution  and  laws  ;  that  from  what  he 
had  heard  and  seen  of  Cortes  and  his  followers,  he 
was  convinced  they  were  the  very  persons  whose 
appearance  the  Mexican  traditions  and  prophecies 
taught  them  to  expect ;  that  accordingly  he  had 
received  them,  not  as  strangers,  but  as  relations  of 
the  same  blood  and  parentage,  and  desired  that  they 
might  consider  themselves  as  masters  in  his  domi- 
nions, for  both  himself  and  his  subjects  should  be 
ready  to  comply  with  their  will,  and  even  to  prevent 
their  wishes.  Cortes  made  a  reply  in  his  usual  style, 
with  respect  to  the  dignity  and  power  of  his  sove- 
reign, and  his  intention  in  sending  him  into  that 
country ;  artfully  endeavouring  so  to  frame  his  dis- 
course, that  it  might  coincide  as  much  as  possible 
with  the  idea  which  Montezuma  had  formed  con- 
cerning the  origin  of  the  Spaniards.  Next  morning, 
Cortes  and  some  of  his  principal  attendants  were 
admitted  to  a  public  audience  of  the  emperor.  The 
three  subsequent  days  were  employed  in  viewing  the 
city,  the  appearance  of  which,  so  far  superior  in  the 
order  of  its  buildings,  and  the  number  of  its  inhabi- 
tants, to  any  place  the  Spaniards  had  beheld  in  Ame- 
rica, and  yet  so  little  resembling  the  structure  of  a 
European  city,  filled  them  with  surprise  and  admiration. 
Mexico,  or  Tenuchtitlan,  as  it  was  anciently  called 
by  the  natives,  is  situated  in  a  large  plain,  environed 
"by  mountains  of  such  height,  that,  though  within 
the  ton-id  zone,  the  temperature  of  its  climate  is 
mild  and  healthful.  All  the  moisture  which  descends 
from  the  high  grounds  is  collected  in  several  lakes, 
the  two  largest  of  which,  of  about  ninety  miles  in 
circuit,  communicate  with  each  other.  The  waters 
of  the  ojie  are  fresh,  those  of  the  others  brackish. 
On  the  banks  of  the  latter,  and  on  some  small 
islands  adjoining  to  them,  the  capital  of  Montezu- 
ma's  empire  was  built.  The  access  to  the  city  was 
Toy  artificial  causeways  or  streets  formed  of  stones  and 
earth,  about  thirty  feet  in  breadth.  As  the  waters 
of  the  lake  during  the  rainy  season  overflowed  the 
flat  country,  these  causeways  were  of  considerable 
length.  That  of  Tacuba,  on  the  west,  extended  a 
mile  and  a-half ;  that  of  Tepeaca,  on  the  north-west, 
three  miles ;  that  of  Cuoyacan,  towards  the  south, 
six  miles.  On  the  east  there  was  no  causeway,  and 
the  city  could  be  approached  only  by  canoes.  In 
each  of  these  causeways  were  openings  at  proper 
intervals,  through  which  the  waters  flowed,  and  over 
these  beams  of  timber  were  laid,  which  being  covered 
with  earth,  the  causeway  or  street  had  every  where 
an  uniform  appearance.  As  the  approaches  to  the 
city  were  singular,  its  construction  was  remarkable. 
Not  only  th»  temples  of  their  gods,  but  the  houses 
belonging  to  the  monarch,  and  to  persons  of  distinc- 
tion, were  of  such,  dimensions,  that  in  comparison 
with  any  other  buildings  which  had  been  hitherto 
discovered  in  America,  they  might  be  termed  mag- 
nificent, The  habitations  of  the  common^  people 


were  mean,  resembling  the  huts  of  other  Indians. 
But  they  were  all  placed  in  a  regular  manner,  on  the 
banks  of  the  canals  which  passed  through  the  city, 
in  some  of  its  districts,  or  in  the  sides  of  the  streets 
which  intersected  it  in  other  quarters.  In  several 
places  were  large  openings  or  squares,  one  of  which, 
allotted  for  the  great  market,  is  said  to  have  been  so 
spacious,  that  forty  or  fifty  thousand  persons  carried 
on  traffic  there.  In  this  city,  the  pride  of  the  New 
World,  and  the  noblest  monument  of  the  industry 
and  art  of  man,  while  unacquainted  with  the  use  of 
iron,  and  destitute  of  aid  from  any  domestic  animal, 
the  Spaniards,  who  are  most  moderate  in  their  com- 
putations, reckon  that  there  were  at  least  sixty  thou- 
sand inhabitants. 

But  how  much  soever  the  novelty  of  tnose  objects 
might  amuse  or  astonish  the  Spaniards,  they  felt  the 
utmost  solicitude  with  respect  to  their  own  situation. 
From  a  concurrence  of  circumstances,  no  less  unex- 
pected than  favourable  to  their  progress,  they  had 
been  allowed  to  penetrate  into  the  heart  of  a  powerful 
kingdom,  and  were  now  lodged  in  its  capital,  without 
having  once  met  with  open  opposition  from  its  mo- 
narch. The  Tlascalans,  however,  had  earnestly 
dissuaded  them  from  placing  such  confidence  in 
Montezuma  as  to  enter  a  city  of  such  peculiar  situa- 
tion as  Mexico,  where  that  prince  would  have  them 
at  mercy,  shut  up  as  it  were  in  a  snare,  from  which 
it  was  impossible  to  escape.  They  assured  them 
that  the  Mexican  priests  had,  in  the  name  of  the 
gods,  counselled  their  sovereign  to  admit  the  Spa- 
niards into  the  capital,  that  he  might  cut  them  off 
there  at  one  blow  with  perfect  security.  They  no\v 
perceived  too  plainly,  that  the  apprehensions  of  their 
allies  were  not  destitute  of  foundation  ;  that,  by 
breaking  the  bridges  placed  at  certain  intervals  on 
the  causeways,  or  by  destroying  part  of  the  cause- 
ways themselves,  their  retreat  would  be  rendered 
impracticable,  and  they  must  remain  cooped  up  in 
the  centre  of  a  hostile  city,  surrounded  by  multitudes 
sufficient  to  overwhelm  them,  and  without  a  possi- 
bility of  receiving  aid  from  their  allies.  Montezuma 
had,  indeed,  received  them  with  distinguished  re- 
spect. But  ought  they  to  reckon  upon  this  as  real, 
or  to  consider  it  as  feigned  ?  Even  if  it  were  sincere, 
could  they  promise  on  its  continuance  ?  Their 
safety  depended  upon  the  will  of  a  monarch  in  whose 
attachment  they  had  no  reason  to  confide  ;  and  an 
order  flowing  from  his  caprice,  or  a  word  uttered  by 
him  in  passion,  might  decide  irrevocably  concerning 
their  fate. 

These  reflections,  so  obvious  as  to  occur  to  the 
meanest  soldier,  did  not  escape  the  vigilant  sagacity 
of  their  general.  Before  he  set  out  from  Cholula, 
Cortes  had  received  advice  from  Villa  Rica,  that 
Quolpopoca,  one  of  the  Mexican  generals  on  the 
frontiers,  having  assembled  on  army  in  order  to 
attack  some  of  the  people  whom  the  Spaniards  had 
encouraged  to  throw  off  the  Mexican  yoke,  Escalante 
had  marched  out  with  part  of  the  garrison  to  sup- 
port his  allies ;  that  an  engagement  had  ensued,  in 
which,  though  the  Spanish  were  victorious,  Esca- 
lante, with  seven  of  his  men,  had  been  mortally 
wounded,  his  horse  killed,  and  one  Spaniard  had 
been  surrounded  by  the  enemy  and  taken  alive ; 
that  the  head  of  this  unfortunate  captive,  after  being 
carried  in  tiiumph  to  different  cities  in  order  to  con- 
vince the  people  that  their  invaders  were  not  immor- 
tal, had  been  sent  to  Mexico.  Cortes,  thousjh  alarmed 
with  this  intelligence,  as  an  indication  of  Montezu- 
ma's  hostile  intentions,  had  continued  his  march. 
But  as  soon  as  he  entered  Mexico,  he  became 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


115 


sensible,  that,  from  an  excess  of  confidence  in  the 
superior  valour  and  discipline  of  his  troops,  as  well 
as  from  the  disadvantage  of  having  nothing  to  guide 
him  in  an  unknown  country,  but  the  defective  intel- 
ligence which  he  had  received  from  people  with  whom 
his  mode  of  communication  was  very  imperfect,  he 
had  pushed  forward  into  a  situation,  where  it  was 
difficult  to  continue,  and  from  which  it  was  dangerous 
to  retire.  Disgrace,  and  perhaps  ruin,  was  the 
certain  consequence  of  attempting  the  latter.  The 
success  of  his  enterprise  depended  upon  supporting 
the  high  opinion  which  the  people  of  New  Spain  had 
formed  with  respect  to  the  irresistible  power  of  his 
arms.  Upon  the  first  symptom  of  timidity  on  his 
part,  their  veneration  would  cease,  and  Montezuma, 
whom  fear  alone  restrained  at  present,  would  let 
loose  upon  him  the  whole  force  of  his  empire.  At 
the  same  time,  he  knew  that  the  countenance  of  his 
own  sovereign  was  to  be  obtained  only  by  a  series 
of  victories,  and  that  nothing  but  the  merit  of  extra- 
ordinary success  could  screen  his  conduct  from  the 
censure  of  irregularity.  From  all  these  considera- 
tions, it  was  necessary  to  maintain  his  station,  and 
to  extricate  himself  out  of  the  difficulties  in  which 
one  bold  step  had  involved  him,  by  venturing  upon 
another  still  bolder.  The  situation  was  trying,  but 
his  mind  was  equal  to  it ;  and  after  revolving  the 
matter  with  deep  attention,  he  fixed  upon  a  plan  no 
less  extraordinary  than  daring.  He  determined  to 
seize  Montezuma  in  his  palace,  and  to  carry  him  as 
a  prisoner  to  the  Spanish  quarters.  From  the  super- 
stitious veneration  of  the  Mexicans  for  the  person  of 
their  monarch,  as  well  as  their  implicit  submission 
to  his  will,  he  hoped,  by  having  Montezuma  in  his 
power,  to  acquire  the  supreme  direction  of  their 
affairs  ;  or,  at  least,  with  such  a  sacred  pledge  in  his 
hands,  he  made  no  doubt  of  being  secure  from  any 
effort  of  their  violence. 

This  he^immediately  proposed  to  his  officers.  The 
timid  startled  at  a  measure  so  audacious,  and  raised 
objections.  The  more  intelligent  and  resolute,  con- 
scious that  it  was  the  only  resource  in  which  there 
appeared  any  prospect  of  safety,  warmly  approved  of 
it,  and  brought  over  their  companions  so  cordially  to 
the  same  opinion,  that  it  was  agreed  instantly  to  make 
the  attempt.  At  his  usual  hour  of  visiting  Monte- 
zuma, Cortes  went  to  the  palace,  accompanied  by 
Alvarado,  Sandoval,  Lugo,  Velasquez  de  Leon,  and 
Davila,  five  of  his  principal  officers,  and  as  many 
trusty  soldiers.  Thirty  chosen  men  followed,  not  in 
regular  order,  but  sauntering  at  some  distance,  as  if 
they  had  no  object  but  curiosity  ;  small  parties  were 
posted  at  proper  intervals,  in  all  the  streets  leading 
from  the  Spanish  quarters  to  the  court ;  and  the  re- 
mainder of  his  troops,  with  the  Tlascalan  allies,  were 
under  arms  ready  to  sally  out  on  the  first  alarm. 
Cortes  and  his  attendants  were  admitted  without 
suspicion;  the  Mexicans  retiring,  as  usual,  out  of 
respect.  He  addressed  the  monarch  in  a  tone  very 
different  from  that  which  he  had  employed  in  former 
conferences,  reproaching  him  bitterly  as  the  author 
of  the  violent  assault  made  upon  the  Spaniards  by  one 
of  his  officers,  and  demanded  public  reparation  for 
the  loss  which  they  had  sustained  by  the  death  of 
some  of  their  companions,  as  well  as  for  the  insult 
offered  to  the  great  prince  whose  servants  they  were. 
Montezuma,  confounded  at  this  unexpected  accusa- 
tion, and  changing  colour,  either  from  consciousness 
of  guilt,  or  from  feeling  the  indignity  with  which  he 
was  treated,  asserted  his  own  innocence  with  great 
earnestness,  and,  as  a  proof  of  it,  gave  orders  in- 
stantly to  bring  Qualpopoca  and  his  accomplices 


prisoners  to  Mexico.  Cortes  replied,  with  seeming 
complaisance,  that  a  declaration  so  respectable  left  no- 
doubt  remaining  in  his  own  mind,  but  that  something 
more  was  requisite  to  satisfy  his  followers,  who  would 
never  be  convinced  that  Montezuma  did  not  harbour 
hostile  intentions  against  them,  unless,  as  an  evidence 
of  his  confidence  and  attachment,  he  removed  front 
his  own  palace  and  took  up  his  residence  in  the 
Spanish  quarters,  where  he  should  be  served  and 
honoured  as  became  a  great  monarch.  The  first 
mention  of  so  strange  a  proposal  bereaved  Montezuma 
of  speech,  and  almost  of  motion.  At  length,  indig- 
nation gave  him  utterance,  and  he  haughtily  answered, 
That  persons  of  his  rank  were  not  accustomed 
oluntarily  to  give  up  themselves  as  prisoners ;  and 
were  he  mean  enough  to  do  so,  his  subjects  would 
not  permit  such  an  affront  to  be  offered  to  their  sove- 
reign." Cortes,  unwilling  to  employ  force,  endea- 
voured alternately  to  soothe  and  to  intimidate  him. 
The  altercation  became  warm  ;  and  having  continued 
above  three  hours,  Velasquez  de  Leon,  an  impetuous 
and  gallant  young  man,  exclaimed  with  impatience, 
"  Why  waste  more  time  in  vain  ?  Let  us  either 
seize  him  instantly,  or  stab  him  to  the  heart."  The 
threatening  voice  and  fierce  gestures  with  which 
these  words  were  uttered,  struck  Montezuma.  The 
Spaniards,  he  was  sensible,  had  now  proceeded  so 
far,  as  left  him  no  hope  that  they  would  recede. 
His  own  danger  was  imminent,  the  necessity  una- 
voidable. He  saw  both,  and  abandoning  himself  to 
his  fate,  complied  with  their  request. 

His  officers  were  called.  He  communicated  to 
them  his  resolution.  Though  astonished  and  af- 
flicted, they  presumed  not  to  question  the  will  of 
their  master,  but  carried  him  in  silent  pomp,  all 
bathed  in  tears,  to  the  Spanish  quarters.  When  it 
was  known  that  the  'strangers  were  conveying  away 
the  emperor,  the  people  broke  out  into  the  wildest 
transports  of  grief  and  rage,  threatening  the  Spaniards 
with  immediate  destruction,  as  the  punishment  justly 
due  to  their  impious  audacity.  But  as  soon  as 
Montezuma  appeared  with  a  seeming  gaiety  of  coun- 
tenance, and  waved  his  hand,  the  tumult  was  hushed; 
and  upon  his  declaring  it  to  be  of  his  own  choice  that 
he  went  to  reside  for  some  time  among  his  new 
friends,  the  multitude,  taught  to  revere  every  inti- 
mation of  their  sovereign's  pleasure,  quietly  dispersed. 
Thus  was  a  powerful  prince  seized  by  a  few  stran- 
gers in  the  midst  of  his  capital,  at  noon-day,  and 
carried  off  as  a  prisoner,  without  opposition  or  blood- 
shed. History  contains  nothing  parallel  to  this 
event,  either  with  respect  to  the  temerity  of  the 
attempt,  or  the  success  of  the  execution ;  and  were 
not  all  the  circumstances  of  this  extraordinary  trans- 
action authenticated  by  the  most  unquestionable 
evidence,  they  would  appear  so  wild  and  extravagant, 
as  to  go  far  beyond  the  bounds  of  that  probability 
which  must  be  preserved  even  in  fictitious  narrations. 
Montezuma  was  received  in  the  Spanish  quarters 
with  all  the  ceremonious  respect  which  Cortes  had 
promised.  He  was  attended  by  his  own  domestics, 
and  served  with  his  usual  state.  His  principal 
officers  had  free  access  to  him,  and  he  carried  on 
every  function  of  government  as  if  he  had  been  at 
perfect  liberty.  The  Spaniards,  however,  watched 
him  with  the  scrupulous  vigilance  which  was  natural 
in  guarding  such  an  important  prize  (110),  endea- 
vouring at  the  same  time  to  soothe  and  reconcile  him 
to  his  situation,  by  every  external  demonstration  of 
regard  and  attachment.  But  from  captive  princes 
the  hour  of  humiliation  and  suffering  is  never  far 
distant.  Qualpopoca,  his  son,  and  five  of  the  princi- 


116 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


pal  officers  who  served  under  him,  were  brought  pri- 
soners to  the  capital  [Dec.  4],  in  consequence  of  the 
orders  which  Montezuma  had  issued.  The  emperor 
gave  them  up  to  Cortes,  that  he  might  inquire  into 
the  nature  of  their  crime,  and  determine  their  punish- 
ment. They  were  formally  tried  by  a  Spanish 
court-martial ;  and  though  they  had  acted  no  other 
part  than  what  became  loyal  subjects  and  brave  men 
in  obeying  the  orders  of  their  lawful  sovereign,  and 
in  opposing  the  invaders  of  their  country,  they  were 
condemned  to  be  burnt  alive.  The  execution  of  such 
atrocious  deeds  is  seldom  long  suspended.  Th 
unhappy  victims  were  instantly  led  forth.  The  pile 
on  which  they  were  laid  was  composed  of  the  weapons 
collected  in  the  royal  magazine  for  the  public  defence 
An  innumerable  multitude  of  Mexicans  beheld,  in 
silent  astonishment,  the  double  insult  offered  to  the 
majesty  of  their  empire,  an  officer  of  distinction 
committed  to  the  flames  by  the  authority  of  stran- 
gers, for  having  done  what  he  owed  in  duty  to  his 
natural  sovereign  ;  and  the  arms  provided  by  the 
foresight  of  their  ancestors  for  avenging  public 
wrongs,  consumed  before  their  eyes. 

But  these  were  not  the  most  shocking  indignities 
which  the  Mexicans  had  to  bear.  The  Spaniards, 
convinced  that  Qualpopoca  would  not  have  ventured 
to  attack  Escalante  without  orders  from  his  master, 
were  not  satisfied  with  inflicting  vengeance  on  the 
instrument  employed  in  committing  that  crime, 
while  the  author  of  it  escaped  with  impunity.  Just 
before  Qualpopoca  was  led  out  to  suffer,  Cortes 
entered  the  apartment  of  Montezuma,  followed  by 
some  of  his  officers,  and  a  soldier  carrying  a  pair  of 
fetters  ;  and  approaching  the  monarch  with  a  stern 
countenance,  told  him,  that  as  the  persons  who 
were  now  to  undergo  the  punishment  which  they 
merited,  had  charged  him  as  the  cause  of  the  outrage 
committed,  it  was  necessary  that  he  likewise  should 
make  atonement  for  that  guilt  ;  then  turning  away 
abruptly,  without  waiting  for  a  reply,  commanded 
the  soldiers  to  clap  the  fetters  on  his  legs.  The 
orders  were  instantly  executed.  The  disconsolate 
monarch,  trained  up  with  an  idea  that  his  person 
was  sacred  and  inviolable,  and  considering  this  pro- 
fanation of  it  as  the  prelude  of  immediate  death, 
broke  out  into  loud  lamentations  and  complaints. 
His  attendants,  speechless  with  horror,  fell  at  his 
feet,  bathing  them  with  their  tears  ;  and  bearing  up 
the  fetters  in  their  hands,  endeavoured  with  officious 
tenderness  to  lighten  their  pressure.  Nor  did  their 
grief  and  despondency  abate  until  Cortes  returned 
from  the  execution,  and  with  a  cheerful  countenance 
ordered  the  fetters  to  be  taken  off.  As  Montezuma's 
spirits  had  sunk  with  unmanly  dejection,  they  now 
rose  into  indecent  joy ;  and  with  an  unbecoming 
transition,  he  passed  at  once  from  the  anguish  of 
despair  to  transports  of  gratitude  and  expressions  of 
fondness  towards  his  deliverer. 

In  those  transactions,  as  represented  by  the 
Spanish  historians,  we  search  in  vain  for  the  qua- 
lities which  distinguish  other  parts  of  Cortes's 
conduct.  To  usurp  a  jurisdiction  which  could  not 
belong  to  a  stranger,  who  assumed  no  higher  cha- 
racter than  that  of  an  ambassador  from  a  foreign 
prince,  and  under  colour  of  it,  to  inflict  a  capital 
punishment  on  men  whose  conduct  entitled  them  to 
esteem,  appears  an  act  of  barbarous  cruelty.  To  put 
the  monarch  of  a  great  kingdom  in  irons,  and,  after 
such  ignominious  treatment,  suddenly  to  release  him, 
seems  to  be  a  display  of  power  no  less  inconsiderate 
than  wanton.  According  to  the  common  relation,  no 
account  can  be  given  either  of  one  action  or  the 


other,  but  that  Cortes,  intoxicated  with  success, 
and  presuming  on  the  ascendant  which  he  had 
acquired  over  the  minds  of  the  Mexicans,  thought 
nothing  too  bold  for  him  to  undertake,  or  too  dan- 
gerous to  execute.  But,  in  one  view,  these  pro- 
ceedings, however  repugnant  to  justice  and  humanity, 
may  have  flowed  from  that  artful  policy  which  regu- 
lated every  part  of  Cortes's  behaviour  towards  the 
Mexicans.  They  had  conceived  the  Spaniards  to  be 
an  order  of  beings  superior  to  men.  It  was  of  the 
utmost  consequence  to  cherish  this  illusion,  and  to 
keep  up  the  veneration  which  it  inspired.  Cortes 
wished  that  shedding  the  blood  of  a  Spaniard 
should  be  deemed  the  most  heinous  of  all  crimes  ; 
and  nothing  appeared  better  calculated  to  establish 
this  opinion,  than  to  condemn  the  first  Mexicans 
who  had  ventured  to  commit  it  to  a  cruel  death,  and 
to  oblige  their  monarch  himself  to  submit  to  a 
mortifying  indignity,  as  an  expiation  for  being 
accessory  to  a  deed  so  atrocious  (111). 

[A.  D.  1520].  The  rigour  with  which  Cortes 
punished  the  unhappy  persons  who  first  presumed 
to  lay  violent  hands  upon  his  followers,  seems  accor- 
dingly to  have  made  all  the  impression  that  he  desired. 
The  spirit  of  Montezuma  was  not  only  overawed, 
but  subdued.  During  six  months  that  Cortes  re- 
mained in  Mexico,  the  monarch  continued  in  the 
Spanish  quarters,  with  an  appearance  of  as  entire 
satisfaction  and  tranquillity,  as  if  he  had  resided 
there,  not  from  constraint,  but  through  choice. 
His  ministers  and  officers  attended  him  as  usual. 
He  took  cognizance  of  all  affairs  ;  every  order  was 
issued  in  his  name.  The  external  aspect  of  govern- 
ment appearing  the  same,  and  all  its  ancient  forms 
being  scrupulously  observed,  the  people  were  so  little 
sensible  of  any  change,  that  they  obeyed  the  man- 
dates of  their  monarch  with  the  same  submissive 
reverence  as  ever.  Such  was  the  dread  which  both 
Montezuma  and  his  subjects  had  of  the  Spaniards, 
or  such  the  veneration  in  which  they  held  them,  that 
no  attempt  was  made  to  deliver  their  sovereign  from 
confinement ;  and  though  Cortes,  relying  on  this 
ascendant  which  he  had  acquired  over  their  minds, 
permitted  him  not  only  to  visit  his  temples,  but  to 
make  hunting  excursions  beyond  the  lake,  a  guard 
of  a  few  Spaniards  carried  with  it  such  a  terror  as  to 
intimidate  the  multitude,  and  secure  the  captive 
monarch. 

Thus,  by  the  fortunate  temerity  of  Cortes  in  seiz- 
ing Montemuza,  the  Spaniards  at  once  secured  to 
themselves  more  extensive  authority  in  the  Mexican 
empire  than  it  was  possible  to  have  acquired  in  a 
long  course  of  time  by  open  force ;  and  they  exer- 
cised more  absolute  sway  in  the  name  of  another 
than  they  could  have  done  in  their  own.  The  arts 
of  polished  nations,  in  subjecting  such  as  are  less 
improved,  have  been  nearly  the  same  in  every 
period.  The  system  of  screening  a  foreign  usurpa- 
tion, under  the  sanction  of  authority  derived  from 
the  natural  rulers  of  a  country,  the  device  of  em- 
ploying the  magistrates  and  forms  already  estab- 
lished as  instruments  to  introduce  a  new  dominion,  of 
which  we  are  apt  to  boast  as  sublime  refinements  in 
policy  peculiar  to  the  present  ase,  were  inventions  of 

more  early  period,  and  had  been  tried  with  success 
n  the  west,  long  before  they  were  practised  in  the 
east. 

Cortes  availed  himself  to  the  utmost  of  the  powers 
which  he  possessed  by  being  able  to  act  in  the  name 
of  Montezuma.  He  sent  some  Spaniards,  whom  he 
udged  best  qualified  for  such  commissions,  into 
different  parts  of  the  empire,  accompanied  by  persons 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


117 


of  distinction,  whom  Montezuma  appointed  to  attend 
them  both  as  guides  and  protectors.  They  visited 
most  of  the  provinces,  viewed  their  soil  and  produc- 
tions, surveyed  with  particular  care  the  districts 
which  yielded  gold  or  silver,  pitched  upon  several 
places  as  proper  stations  for  future  colonies,  and 
endeavoured  to  prepare  the  minds  of  the  people  for 
submitting  to  the  Spanish  yoke.  While  they  were 
thus  employed,  Cortes  in  the  name  and  by  the 
authority  of  Montezuma,  degraded  some  of  the 
principal  officers  in  the  empire,  whose  abitities  or 
independent  spirit  excited  his  jealousy,  and  sub- 
stituted in  their  place  persons  less  capable  or  more 
obsequiou5. 

One  thing  still  was  wanting  to  complete  his  secu- 
rity. He  wished  to  have  such  command  of  the  lake 
as  might  insure  a  retreat,  if,  either  from  levity  or 
disgust,  the  Mexicans  should  take  arms  against  him, 
and  break  down  the  bridges  or  causeways.  This, 
too,  his  own  address,  and  the  facility  of  Montezuma, 
enabled  him  to  accomplish.  Having  frequently  enter- 
tained his  prisoner  with  pompous  accounts  of  the 
European  marine  and  art  of  navigation,  he  awakened 
his  curiosity  to  see  those  moving  palaces  which  made 
their  way  through  the  water  without  oars.  Under 
pretext  of  gratifying  this  desire,  Cortes  persuaded 
Montezuma  to  appoint  some  of  his  subjects  to  fetch 
part  of  the  naval  stores  which  the  Spaniards  had 
deposited  at  Vera  Cruz  to  Mexico,  and  to  employ 
others  in  cutting  down  and  preparing  timber.  With 
their  assistance,  the  Spanish  carpenters  soon  com- 
pleted two  brigantines,  which  afforded  a  frivolous 
amusement  to  the  monarch,  and  were  considered  by 
Cortes  as  a  certain  resource,  if  he  should  be  obliged 
to  retire. 

Encouraged  by  so  many  instances'of  the  monarch's 
tame  submission  to  his  will,  Cortes  ventured  to  put 
it  to  a  proof  still  more  trying.  He  urged  Montezuma 
to  acknowledge  himself  a  vassal  of  the  king  of  Castile, 
to  hold  his  crown  of  him  as  superior,  and  to  subject 
his  dominions  to  the  payment  of  an  annual  tribute. 
With  this  requisition,  the  last  and  most  humbling 
that  can  be  made  to  one  possessed  of  sovereign 
authority,  Montezuma  was  so  obsequious  as  to 
comply.  He  called  together  the  chief  men  of  his 
empire,  and  in  a  solemn  harangue,  reminding  them 
of  the  traditions  and  prophecies  which  led  them  to 
expect  the  arrival  of  a  people  sprung  from  the  same 
stock  with  themselves,  in  order  to  take  possession 
of  the  supreme  power,  he  declared  his  belief  that  the 
Spaniards  were  this  promised  race;  that  therefore 
he  recognised  the  right  of  their  monarch  to  govern 
the  Mexican  empire ;  that  he  would  lay  his  crown 
at  his  feet  and  obey  him  as  a  tributary.  While 
uttering  these  words,  Montezuma  discovered  how 
deeply  he  was  affected  in  making  such  a  sacrifice. 
Tears  and  groans  frequently  inteirupted  his  dis- 
course. Overawed  and  broken  as  his  spirit  was,  it 
still  retained  such  a  sense  of  dignity,  as  to  feel  that 
pang  which  pierces  the  heart  of  princes  when  con- 
strained to  resign  independent  power.  The  first 
mention  of  such  a  resolution  struck  the  assembly 
dumb  with  astonishment.  This  was  followed  by  a 
sudden  murmur  of  so:  row,  mingled  with  indigna- 
tion, which  indicated  some  violent  eruption  of  rage 
to  be  near  at  hand.  This  Cortes  foresaw,  and 
seasonably  interposed  to  prevent  it,  by  declaring 
that  his  master  had  no  intention  to  deprive  Monte- 
zuma of  the  royal  dignity,  or  to  make  any  innova- 
tion upon  the  constitution  and  laws  of  the  Mexican 
empire.  This  assurance,  added  to  their  dread  of 
the  Spanish  power,  aiid  to  the  authority  of  their 


monarch's  example,  extorted  a  reluctant  consent 
from  the  assembly  (112).  The  act  of  submission  and 
homage  was  executed  with  all  the  formalities  which 
the  Spaniards  were  pleased  to  prescribe. 

Montezuma,  at  the  desire  of  Cortes,  accompanied 
this  profession  of  fealty  and  homage  with  a  magni- 
ficent present  to  his  new  sovereign  ;  and  after  his 
example,  his  subjects  brought  in  very  liberal  contri- 
butions. The  Spaniards  now  collected  all  the 
treasure  which  had  been  either  voluntarily  bestowed 
upon  them  at  different  times  by  Montezuma,  or  had 
been  extorted  from  his  people  under  various  pretexts  ; 
and  having  melted  the  gold  and  silver,  the  value  of 
these,  without  including  jewels  and  ornaments  of 
various  kinds  which  were  preserved  on  account  of 
their  curious  workmanship,  amounted  to  six  hundred 
thousand  pesos.  The  soldiers  were  impatient  to  have 
it  divided,  and  Cortes  complied  with  their  desire.  A 
fifth  of  the  whole  was  first  set  apart  as  the  tax  due  to 
the  king.  Another  fifth  was  allotted  to  Cortes  as  com- 
mander in  chief.  The  sums  advanced  by  Velas- 
quez, by  Coites,  and  by  some  of  the  officers,  towards 
defraying  the  expense  of  fitting  out  the  armament, 
were  then  deducted.  The  remainder  was  divided 
among  the  army,  including  the  garrison  of  Vera 
Cruz,  in  proportion  to  their  different  ranks.  After 
so  many  defalcations,  the  share  of  a  private  man 
did  not  exceed  a  hundred  pesos.  This  sum  fell  so 
far  below  their  sanguine  expectations,  that  some 
soldiers  rejected  it  with  scorn,  and  others  murmured 
so  loudly  at  this  cruel  disappointment  of  their  hopes, 
that  it  required  all  the  address  of  Cortes,  and  no 
small  exertion  ofj  his  liberality,  to  appease  them. 
The  complaints  of  the  army  were  not  altogether 
destitute  of  foundation.  As  the  crown  had  contri- 
buted nothing  towards  the  equipment  or  success  of 
the  armament,  it  was  not  without  regret  that  the 
soldiers  beheld  it  sweep  away  so  great  a  proportion 
of  the  treasure  purchased  by  their  blood  and  toil. 
What  fell  to  the  share  of  the  general  appeared, 
according  to  the  ideas  of  wealth  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  an  enormous  sum.  Some  of  Cortes's  fa- 
vourites had  secretly  appropriated  to  their  own  USB 
several  ornaments  of  gold,  which  neither  paid  the 
royal  fifth,  nor  were  brought  into  account  as  part  of 
the  common  stock.  It  was,  however,  so  manifestly 
the  interest  of  Cortes  at  this  period  to  make  a 
large  remittance  to  the  king,  that  it  is  highly  proba- 
ble those  concealments  were'  not  of  great  conse- 
quence. 

The  total  sum  amassed  by  the  Spaniards  bears  no 
proportion  to  the  ideas  which  might  be  formed, 
either  by  reflecting  on  the  descriptions  given  by  his- 
torians of  the  ancient  splendour  of  Mexico,  or  by  con- 
sidering the  productions  of  its  mines  in  modern  times. 
But  among  the  ancient  Mexicans,  gold  and  silver 
were  not  the  standards  by  which  the  worth  of  other 
commodities  was  estimated ;  and,  destitute  of  the 
artificial  value  derived  from  this  circumstance,  were 
no  further  in  request  than  as  they  furnished  mate- 
rials for  ornaments  and  trinkets.  These  were  either 
consecrated  to  the  gods  in  their  temples,  or  were 
worn  as  marks  of  distinction  by  their  princes  and 
some  of  their  most  eminent  chiefs.  As  the  con- 
sumption of  the  precious  metals  was  inconsiderable, 
the  demand  for  them  was  not  such  as  to  put  either 
the  ingenuity  or  industry  of  the  Mexicans  on  the 
stretch,  in  order  to  augment  their  store.  They  were 
altogether  unacquainted  with  the  art  of  working  the 
rich  mines  with  which  their  country  abounded. 
What  gold  they  had  was  gathered  in  the  beds  of 
rivers,  native,  and  ripened  into  a  pure  metallic 


118 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


state.  The  utmost  effort  of  their  labour  in  search 
of  it  was  to  wash  the  earth  carried  down  by  the  tor- 
rents from  the  mountains,  and  to  pick  out  the  grains 
of  gold  which  subsided ;  and  even  this  simple  opera- 
tion, according  to  the  report  of  the  persons  whom 
Cortes  appointed  to  survey  the  provinces  where 
fhere  was  a  prospect  of  finding  mines,  they  per- 
formed very  unskilfully.  From  all  those  causes,  the 
•whole  mass  of  gold  in  possession  of  the  Mexicans 
was  not  great.  As  silver  is  rarely  found  pure, 
and  the  Mexican  art  was  too  rude  to  conduct  the 
process  for  refining  it  in  a  proper  manner,  the 
quantity  of  this  metal  was  still  less  considerable. 
Thus,  though  the  Spaniards  had  exerted  all  the 
power  which  they  possessed  in  Mexico,  and  often 
with  indecent  rapacity,  in  order  to  gratify  their 
predominant  passion,  and  though  Montezuma  had 
fondly  exhausted  his  treasures,  in  hopes  of  satiating 
their  thirst  for  gold,  the  product  of  both,  which 
probably  included  a  great  part  of  the  bullion  in  the 
empire,  did  not  rise  in  value  above  what  has  been 
mentioned  (113). 

But  however  pliant  Montezuma  might  be  in  other 
matters,  with  respect  to  one  point  he  was  inflexible. 
Though  Cortes  often  urged  him  with  the  importunate 
zeal  of  a  missionary,  to  renounce  his  false  gods,  and 
to  embrace"7  the  Christian  faith,  he  always  rejected 
the  proposition  with  horror.  Superstition,  among 
the)  Mexicans,  was  formed  into  such  a  regular  and 
complete  system,  that  its  institutions  naturally  took 
fast  hold  of  the  mind  ;  and  while  the  rude  tribes  in 
other  parts  of  America  were  easily  induced  to  re- 
linquish a  few  notions  and  rites,  so  loose  and  ar- 
bitrary as  hardly  to  merit  the  name  of  a  public 
religion,  the  Mexicans  adhered  tenaciously  to  their 
mode  of  worship,  which  however  barbarous,  was 
accompanied  with  such  order  and  solemnity  as  to 
render  it  an  object  of  the  highest  veneration.  Cortes, 
finding  all  his  attempts  ineffectual  to  shake  the  con- 
stancy of  Montezuma,  was  so  much  enraged  at  his 
obstinacy,  that  in  a  transport  of  zeal  he  led  out  his 
soldiers  to  throw  down  the  idols  in  the  grand  temple 
by  force.  But  the  priests  taking  arms  in  defence  of 
their  altars,  and  the  people  crowding  with  great 
ardour  to  support  them,  Cortes's  prudence  overruled 
his  zeal,  and  induced  him  to  desist  from  his  rash 
attempt,  after  dislodging  the  idols  from  one  of  the 
shrines,  and  placing  in  their  stead  an  image  of  the 
Virgin  Mary  (114). 

From  that  moment  the  Mexicans,  who  had  per- 
mitted the  imprisonment  of  their  sovereign,  and 
suffered  the  exactions  of  strangers  without  a  struggle, 
began  to  meditate  how  they  might  expel  or  destroy 
the  Spaniards,  and  thought  themselves  called  upon  to 
avenge  their  insulted  deities.  The  priests  and  lead- 
ing men  held  frequent  consultations  with  Montezuma 
for  this  purpose.  But  as  it  might  prove  fatal  to  the 
captive  monarch  to  attempt  either  the  one  or  the 
other  by  violence,  he  was  willing  to  try  more  gentle 
means.  Having  called  Cortes  into  his  presence,  he 
observed,  that  now,  as  all  the  purposes  of  his  embassy 
•were  fully  accomplished,  the  gods  had  declared  their 
will,  and  the  people  signified  their  desire,  that  he  and 
his  followers  should  instantly  depart  out  of  the  em- 
pire. With  this  he  required  them  to  comply,  or 
unavoidable  destruction  would  fall  suddenly  on  theij 
heads.  The  tenor  of  this  unexpected  requisition,  as 
well  as  the  determined  tone  in  which  it  was  uttered, 
left  Cortes  no  room  to  doubt  that  it  was  the  result  of 
some  deep  scheme  concerted  between  Montezuma  and 
his  subjects.  He  quickly  perceived  that  he  might 
derive  more  advantage  from  a  seeming  compliance 


with  the  monarch's  inclination,  than  from  an  ill-timed 
attempt  to  change  or  oppose  it ;  and  replied,  with 
great  composure,  that  he  had  already  begun  to  pre- 
pare for  returning  to  his  own  country  ;  but  as  ho  had 
destroyed  the  vessels  in  which  he  had  arrived,  some 
time  was  requisite  for  building  other  ships.  This 
appeared  reasonable.  A  number  of  Mexicans  were 
sent  to  Vera  Cruz,  to  cut  down  timber,  and  some 
Spanish  carpenters  were  appointed  to  superintend  the 
work.  Cortes  flattered  himself,  that  during  this  in- 
terval he  might  either  find  means  to  avert  the  threat- 
ened danger,  or  receive  such  reinforcements  as  would 
enable  him  to  despise  it. 

Almost  nine  months  were  elapsed  since  Portocar- 
rero  and  Montejo  had  sailed  with  his  despatches  to 
Spain  ;  and  he  daily  expected  their  return  with  a  con- 
firmation of  his  authority  from  the  king.  Without 
this,  his  condition  was  insecure  and  precarious :  and 
after  all  the  great  things  which  he  had  done,  it  might 
be  his  doom  to  bear  the  name  and  suffer  the  punish- 
ment of  a  traitor.  Rapid  and  extensive  as  his 
progress  had  been,  he  could  not  hope  to  complete  the 
reduction  of  a  great  empire  with  so  small  a  body  of 
men,  which  by  this  time  diseases  of  various  kinds  had 
considerably  thinned ;  nor  could  he  apply  for  re- 
cruits to  the  Spanish  settlements  in  the  islands, 
until  he  received  the  royal  approbation  of  his  pro- 
ceedings. 

While  he  remained  in  this  cruel  situation,  anxious 
about  what  was  past,  uncertain  with  respect  to  the 
future,  and  by  the  late  declaration  of  Montezuma  op- 
pressed with  a  new  addition  of  cares,  a  Mexican 
courier  arrived  with  an  account  of  some  ships  having 
appeared  on  the  coast.  Cortes  with  fond  credulity 
imagining  that  his  messengers  were  returned  from 
Spain,  and  that  the  completion  of  all  his  wishes  and 
hopes  was  at  hand,  imparted  the  glad  tidings  to  his 
companions,  who  received  them  with  transports  of 
mutual  gratulation.  Their  joy  was  not  of  long  con- 
tinuance. A  courier  from  Sandoval,  whom  Cortes 
had  appointed  to  succeed  Escalante  in  command  at 
Vera  Cruz,  brought  certain  information  that  the  ar- 
mament was  fitted  out  by  Velasquez,  governor  of 
Cuba,  and  instead  of  bringing  the  aid  which  they 
expected,  threatened  them  with  immediate  destruc- 
tion. 

The  motives  which  prompted  Velasquez  to  this 
violent  measure  are  obvious.  From  the  circum- 
stances of  Cortes's  departure,  it  was  impossible  not  to 
suspect  his  intention  of  throwing  off  all  dependence 
upon  him.  His  neglecting  to  transmit  any  account 
of  his  operations  to  Cuba,  strengthened  this  suspicion, 
which  was  at  last  confirmed  beyond  doubt,  by  the  in- 
discretion of  the  officers  whom  Cortes  sent  to  Spain. 
They,  from  some  motive  which  is  not  clearly  explained 
by  the  contemporary  historians,  touched  at  the  island 
of  Cuba,  contrary  to  the  peremptory  orders  of  their 
general.  By  this  means  Velasquez  not  only  learned 
that  Cortes  and  his  followers,  after  formally  renounc- 
ing all  connexion  with  him,  had  established  an 
independent  colony  in  New  Spain,  and  were  soliciting 
the  king  to  confirm  their  proceedings  by  his  autho- 
rity ;  but  he  obtained  particular  information  con- 
cerning the  opulence  of  the  country,  the  valuable 
presents  which  Cortes  had  received,  and  the  inviting 
prospects  of  success  that  opened  to  his  view.  Every 
passion  which  can  agitate  an  ambitious  mind ;  shame, 
at  having  been  so  grossly  over-reached  ;  indignation 
at  being  betrayed  by  the  man  whom  he  had  selected 
as  the  object  of  his  favour  and  confidence  ;  grief,  for 
having  wasted  his  fortune  to  aggrandize  an  enemy  ; 
and  despair  of  recovering  so  fair  an  opportunity  of 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


119 


establishing  his  fame  and  extending  his  power,  now 
raged  in  the  bosom  of  Velasquez.  All  these,  with 
united  force,  excited  him  to  make  an  extraordinary 
effort  in  order  to  be  avenged  on  the  author  of  his 
wrongs,  and  to  wrest  from  him  his  usurped  autho- 
rity and  conquests.  Nor  did  he  want  the  appear- 
ance of  a  good  title  to  justify  such  an  attempt. 
The  agent  whom  he  sent  to  Spain  with  an  account 
of  Grijalva's  voyage,  had  met  with  a  most  favourable 
reception;  and  from  the  specimens  which  he  pro- 
duced, such  high  expectations  were  formed  concerning 
the  opulence  of  New  Spain,  that  Velasquez  was 
authorized  to  prosecute  the  discovery  of  the  country, 
ani  appointed  governor  of  it  during  lif-%  with  more 
extensive  power  and  privileges  than  had  been  granted 
to  any  adventurer  from  the  time  of  Columbus.  Ela- 
ted by  this  distinguishing  mark  of  favour,  and 
warranted  to  consider  Cortes  not  only  as  intruding 
upon  his  jurisdiction,  but  as  disobedient  to  the 
royal  mandate,  he  determined  to  vindicate  his  own 
rights,  and  the  honour  of  his  sovereign,  by  force  of 
arms  (115).  His  ardour  in  carrying  on  his  prepa- 
rations, was  such  as  might  have  been  expected  from 
the  violence  of  the  passions  with  which  he  was  ani- 
mated ;  and  in  a  short  time  an  armament  was  com- 
pleted, consisting  of  eighteen  ships,  which  had  on 
board  fourscore  horsemen,  eight  hundred  foot  sol- 
diers, of  which  eighty  were  musketeers,  and  a 
hundred  and  twenty  cross-bow  men,  together  with  a 
train  of  twelve  pieces  of  cannon.  As  Velasquez's 
experience  of  the  fatal  consequence  of  committing  to 
another  what  he  ought  to  have  executed  himself,  had 
not  rendered  him  more  enterprising,  he  vested  the 
command  of  this  formidable  body,  which,  in  the  in- 
fancy of  the  Spanish  power  in  America,  merits  the 
appellation  of  an  army,  in  Pamphilo  de  Narvaez, 
with  instructions  to  seize  Cortes,  and  his  principal 
ofiicers,  to  send  them  prisoners  to  him,  and  then  to 
complete  the  discovery  and  conquest  of  the  country 
in  his  name. 

[April.]  After  a  prosperous  voyage,  Narvaez 
landed  his  men  without  opposition  near  St.  Juan  de 
Ulua.  Three  soldiers,  whom  Cortes  had  sent  to 
search  for  mines  in  that  district,  immediately  joined 
him.  By  this  accident  he  not  only  received  informa- 
tion concerning  the  progress  and  situation  of  Cortes, 
but  as  these  soldiers  had  made  some  progress  in  the 
knowledge  of  the  Mexican  language,  he  acquired  in- 
terpreters, by  whose  means  he  was  enabled  to  hold 
some  intercourse  with  the  people  of  the  country. 
But,  according  to  the  low  cunning  of  deserters,  they 
framed  their  intelligence  with  more  attention  to  what 
they  thought  would  be  agreeable,  than  to  what  they 
knew  to  be  true;  and  represented  the  situation  of 
Cortes  to  be  so  desperate,  and  the  disaffection  of  his 
followers  to  be  so  general,  as  increased  the  natural 
confidence  and  presumption  of  Narvaez.  His  first 
operation,  however,  might  have  taught  him  not  to 
rely  on  their  partial  accounts.  Having  sent  to  sum- 
mon the  governor  of  Vera  Cruz  to  surrender,  Guevara , 
a  priest  whom  he  employed  in  that  service,  made  the 
requisition  with  such  insolence,  that  Sandoval,  an 
officer  of  high  spirit,  and  zealously  attached  to  Cortes, 
instead  of  complying  with  his  demands,  seized  him 
and  his  attendants,  and  sent  them  in  chains  to 
Mexico. 

Cortes  received  them,  not  like  enemies,  but  as 
friends,  and  condemning  the  severity  of  Sandoval,  set 
them  immediately  at  liberty.  By  this  well-timed 
clemency,  seconded  by  caresses  and  presents,  he 
gained  their  confidence,  and  drew  from  them  such 
particulars  concerning  the  force  and  intentions  of 


Narvaez,  as  gave  him  a  viewof  the  impending  danger 
in  its  full  extent.  He  had  not  to  contend  now 
with  half-naked  Indians,  no  match  for  him  in  war, 
and  still  more  [inferior  in  the  arts  of  policy,  but  to 
take  the  field  against  an  army  in  courage  and  martial 
discipline  equal  to  his  own,  in  number  far  superior, 
acting  under  the  sanction  of  royal  authority,  and 
commanded  by  an  officer  of  known  1  ravery.  He  was 
informed  that  Narvaez,  more  solicitous  to  gratify  the 
resentment  of  Velasquez,  than  attentive  to  the  honour 
or  interest  of  his  country,  had  begun  his  intercourse 
with  the  natives,  by  representing  him  and  his  fol- 
lowers as  fugitives  and  outlaws,  guilty  of  rebellion 
against  their  own  sovereign,  and  of  injustice  in 
invading  the  Mexican  empire ;  and  had  declared  that 
his  chief  object  in  visiting  the  country  was  to  punish 
the  Spaniards  who  had  committed  these  crimes,  and 
to  rescue  the  Mexicans  from  oppression.  He  soon 
perceived  that  the  same  unfavourable  representations 
of  his  character  and  actions  had  been  conveyed  to 
Montezuma,  and  that  Narvaez  had  found  means  to 
assure  him,  that  ns  the  conduct  of  those  who  kept 
him  under  restraint  was  highly  displeasing  to  the 
king  his  master,  he  had  it  in  charge  not  only  to 
rescue  an  injured  monarch  from  confinement,  but  to 
reinstate  him  in  the  possession  of  his  ancient  power 
and  independence.  Animated  with  this  prospect  of 
being  set  free  from  subjection  to  strangers,  the  Mexi- 
cans in  several  provinces  began  openly  to  revolt  from 
Cortes,  and  to  regard  Narvaez  as  a  deliverer  no  less 
able  than  willing  to  save  them.  Montezuma  himself 
kept  up  a  secret  intercourse  with  the  new  commander, 
and  seemed  to  court  him  as  a  person  superior  in 
power  and  dignity  to  those  Spaniards  whom  he  had 
hitherto  revered  as  the  first  of  men  (116). 

Such  were  the  various  aspects  of  danger  and  diffi- 
culty which  presented  themselves  to  the  view  of 
Cortes.  No  situation  can  be  conceived  more  trying 
to  the  capacity  and  firmness  of  a  general,  or  where 
the  choice  of  the  plan  which  ought  to  be  adopted  was 
more  difficult.  If  he  should  wait  the  approach  of 
Narvaez  in  Mexico,  destruction  seemed  to  be  unavoid- 
able ;  for  while  the  Spaniards  pressed  him  from 
without,  the  inhabitants,  whose  turbulent  spirit  he 
could  hardly  restrain  with  all  his  authority  and 
attention,  would  easily  lay  hold  on  such  a  favourable 
opportunity  of  avenging  all  their  wrongs.  If  he 
should  abandon  the  capital,  set  the  captive  monarch 
at  liberty,  and  march  out  to  meet  the  enemy,  he 
must  at  once  forego  the  fruits  of  all  his  toils  and 
victories,  and  relinquish  advantages  which  could 
not  be  recovered  without  extraordinary  efforts  and 
infinite  danger.  If,  instead  of  employing  force,  he 
should  have  recourse  to  conciliating  measures,  and 
attempt  an  accommodation  with  Narvaez  ;  the 
natural  haughtiness  of  that  officer,  augmented  by 
consciousness  of  his  present  superiority,  forbade  him 
to  cherish  any  sanguine  hope  of  success.  After 
revolving  every  scheme  with  deep  attention,  Cortes 
fixed  upon  that  which  in  execution  was  most 
hazardous,  but,  if  successful,  would  prove  most  bene- 
ficial to  himself  and  to  his  country ;  and  with  the 
decisive  intrepidity  suited  to  desperate  situations, 
determined  to  make  one  bold  effort  for  victory  under 
every  disadvantage,  rather  than  sacrifice  his  own 
conquests  and  the  Spanish  interests  in  Mexico. 

But  though  he  foresaw  that  the  contest  must  be 
terminated  finally  by  arms,  it  would  have  been  not 
only  indecont,  but  criminal,  to  have  marched  against 
his  countrymen,  without  attempting  to  adjust  matters 
by  an  amicable  negociation.  In  this  service  he  em- 
ployed Olmedo,  his  chaplain,  to  whoso  character  the, 


J20 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


function  was  well  suited,  and  who  possessed  besides, 
such  prudence  and  address  as  qualified  him  to  carry 
on  the  secret  intrigues  in  which  Cortes  placed  his 
chief  confidence.  Narvaez  rejected,  with  scorn,  every 
•cheme  of  accommodation  thatOlmedo  proposed,  and 
was  with  difficulty  restrained  from  laying  violent 
hands  on  him  and  his  attendants.  He  met,  however, 
with  a  more  favourable  reception  among  the  followers 
of  Narvaez,  to  many  of  whom  he  delivered  letters, 
either  from  Cortes  or  his  officers,  their  ancient  friends 
and  companions.  Cortes  artfully  accompanied  these 
with  presents  of  rings,  chains  of  gold,  and  other 
trinkets  of  value,  which  inspired  those  needy  adven- 
turers with  high  ideas  of  the  wealth  that  he  had 
acquired,  and  with  envy  of  their  good  fortune  who 
were  engaged  in  his  service.  Some,  from  hopes  of 
becoming  sharers  in  those  rich  spoils,  declared  for 
an  immediate  accommodation  with  Cortes.  Others, 
from  public  spirit,  laboured  to  prevent  a  civil  war, 
which,  whatever  party  should  prevail,  must  shake, 
and  perhaps  subvert,  the  Spanish  power,  in  a  country 
where  it  was  so  imperfectly  established.  Narvaez 
disregarded  both,  and  by  a  public  proclamation  de- 
nounced Cortes  and  his  adherents  rebels  and  enemies 
to  their  country.  Cortes,  it  is  probable,  was  not 
much  surprised  at  the  untracUble  arrogance  of  Nar- 
vaez ;  and,  after  having  given  such  a  proof  of  his  own 
pacific  disposition  as  might  justify  his  recourse  to 
other  means,  he  determined  to  advance  towards  an 
enemy  whom  he  had  laboured  in  vain  to  appease. 

[May.]  He  left  a  hundred  and  fifty  men  in  the 
capital,  under  the  command  of  Pedro  de  Alvarado,  an 
officer  of  distinguished  courage,  for  whom  the  Mexi- 
cans had  conceived  a  singular  degree  of  respect.  To 
the  custody  of  this  slender  garrison  he  committed  a 
great  city,  with  all  the  wealth  he  had  amassed,  and, 
what  was  still  of  greater  importance,  the  person  of 
the  imprisoned  monarch.  His  utmost  art  was  em- 
ployed in  concealing  from  Montezuma  the  real  cause 
of  his  march.  He  laboured  to  persuade  him,  that 
the  strangers  who  had  lately  arrived  were  his  friends 
and  fellow-subjects  ;  and  that,  after  a  short  interview 
with  them,  they  would  depart  together,  .and  return 
to  their  own  country.  The  captive  prince,  unable  to 
comprehend  the  designs  of  the  Spaniards,  or  to  recon- 
cile what  he  now  heard  with  the  declarations  of 
Narvaez,  and  afraid  to  discover  any  symptom  of  sus- 
picion or  distrust  of  Coftes,  promised  to  remain 
quietly  in  the  Spanish  quarters,  and  to  cultivate  the 
same  friendship  with  Alvarado  which  he  had  uni- 
formly maintained  with  him.  Cortes,  with  seeming 
confidence  in  this  promise,  but  relying  principally 
upon  the  injunctions  which  he  had  given  Alvarado  to 
guard  his  prisoner  with  the  most  scrupulous  vigilance, 
set  out  from  Mexico. 

His  strength,  even  after  it  was  reinforced  by  the 
junction  of  Sandoval  and  the  garrison  of  Vera  Cruz, 
did  not  exceed  two  hundred  and  fifty  men.  As  he 
hoped  for  success  chiefly  from  the  rapidity  of  his 
motions,  his  troops  were  not  encumbered  either  with 
baggage  or  artillery.  But  as  he  dreaded  extremely 
the  impression  which  the  enemy  might  make  with 
their  cavalry,  he  had  provided  against  this  danger 
with  the  foresight  and  sagacity  which  distinguish  a 
great  commander.  Having  observed  that  the  Indians 
in  the  province  of  Chinantla  used  spears  of  extraor- 
dinary length  and  force,  he  armed  his  soldiers  with 
these,  and  accustomed  them  to  that  deep  and  compact 
arrangement  which  the  use  of  this  formidable  weapon, 
the  best  perhaps  that  ever  was  invented  for  defence, 
enabled  them  to  assume. 

With  this  small  but  firm  battalion,  Cortes  advanced 


towards  Zempoalla,  of  which  Narvaez  had  taken 
possession.  During  his  march,  he  made  repeated 
attempts  towards  some  accommodation  with  his 
opponent.  But  Narvaez  requiring  that  Cortes  and 
his  followers  should  instantly  recognise  his  title  to  be 
governor  of  New  Spain,  in  virtue  of  the  powers  which 
he  derived  from  Velasquez  ;  and  Cortes  refusing  to 
submit  to  any  authority  which  was  not  founded  on  a 
commission  from  the  emperor  himself,  under  whose 
immediate  protection  he  and  his  adherents  had  placed 
their  infant  colony ;  all  these  attempts  proved  fruit- 
less. The  intercourse,  however,  which  this  occasioned 
between  the  two  parties,  proved  of  no  small  advan- 
tage to  Cortes,  as  it  afforded  him  an  opportunity  of 
gaining  some  of  Narvaez's  officers  by  liberal  presents, 
of  softening  others  by  a  semblance  of  moderation,  and 
of  dazzling  all  by  the  appearance  of  wealth  among  his 
troops,  most  of  his  soldiers  having  converted  their 
share  of  the  Mexican  gold  into  chains,  bracelets,  and 
other  ornaments,  which  they  displayed  with  military 
ostentation.  Narvaez  and  a  little  junto  of  his  crea- 
tures excepted,  all  the  army  leaned  towards  an 
accommodation  with  their  countrymen.  Thjs  dis- 
covery of  their  inclination  irritated  his  violent  temper 
almost  to  madness.  In  a  transport  of  rage,  he  set  a 
price  upon  the  head  of  Cortes,  and  of  his  principal 
officers ;  and  having  learned  that  he  was  now  ad- 
vanced within  a  league  of  Zempoalla  with  his  small 
body  of  men,  he  considered  this  as  an  insult  which 
merited  immediate  chastisement,  and  marched  out 
with  all  his  troops  to  offer  him  battle. 

But  Cortes  was  a  leader  of  greater  abilities  and 
experience  than,  on  equal  ground,  to  fight  an  enemy 
so  far  superior  in  number,  and  so  much  better  ap- 
pointed. Having  taken  his  station  on  the  opposite 
bank  of  the  river  de  Canoas,  where  he  knew  that  he 
could  not  be  attacked,  he  beheld  the  approach  of  the 
enemy  without  concern,  and  disregarded  this  vain 
bravado.  It  was  then  the  beginning  of  the  wet  sea- 
son, and  the  rain  had  poured  down  during  a  great 
part  of  the  day,  with  the  violence  peculiar  to  the 
torrid  zone.  The  followers  of  Narvaez,  unaccustomed 
to  the  hardships  of  military  service,  murmured  so 
much  at  being. thus  fruitlessly  exposed,  that,  from 
their  unsoldier-like  impatience,  as  well  as  his  own 
contempt  of  his  adversary,  their  general  permitted 
them  to  retire  to  Zempoalla.  The  very  circumstance 
which  induced  them  to  quit  the  field,  encouraged 
Cortes  to  form  a  scheme  by  which  he  hoped  at  once 
to  terminate  the  war.  He  observed,  that  his  hardy 
veterans,  though  standing  under  the  torrents  which 
continued  to  fall,  without  a  single  tent  or  any  shelter 
whatsoever  to  cover  them,  were  so  far  from  repining 
at  hardships  which  were  become  familiar  to  them, 
that  they  were  still  fresh  and  alert  for  service.  He 
foresaw  that  the  enemy  would  naturally  give  them- 
selves up  to  repose  after  their  fatigue,  and  that, 
judging  of  the  conduct  of  others  by  their  own  effemi- 
nacy, they  would  deem  themselves  perfectly  secure  at 
a  season  so  unfit  for  action.  He  resolved,  therefore, 
to  fall  upon  them  in  the  dead  of  night,  when  the 
surprise  and  terror  of  this  unexpected  attack  might 
more  than  compensate  the  inferiority  of  his  numbers. 
His  soldiers,  sensible  that  no  resource  remained,  but 
in  some  desperate  effort  of  courage,  approved  of  the 
measure  with  such  warmth,  that  Cortes,  in  a  military 
oration  which  he  addressed  to  them  before  they  began 
their  march,  was  more  solicitous  to  temper  than  to 
inflame  their  ardour.  He  divided  them  into  three 
parties.  At  the  head  of  the  first  he  placed  Sandoval ; 
intrusting  this  gallant  officer  with  the  most  dangerous 
and  important  service,  that  of  seizing  the  enemy's 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


121 


artillery,  which  was  planted  before  the  principal 
tower  of  the  temple,  where  Narvaez  had  fixed  his 
head-quarters.  Christoval  de  Olid  commanded  the 
second,  with  orders  to  assault  the  tower,  and  lay  hold 
on  the  general.  Cortes  himself  conducted  the  third 
and  smallest  division,  which  was  to  act  as  a  body  of 
reserve,  and  to  support  the  other  two  as  there  should 
be  occasion.  Having  passed  the  river  de  Canoas, 
which  was  much  swelled  with  the  rains,  not  without 
difficulty,  the  water  reaching  almost  to  their  chins, 
they  advanced  in  profound  silence,  without  beat  of 
drum,  or  sound  of  any  warlike  instrument ;  each  man 
armed  with  his  sword,  his  dagger,  and  his  Chinan- 
tlan  spear.  Narvaez,  remiss  in  proportion  to  his 
security,  had  posted  only  two  sentinels  to  watch  the 
motions  of  an  enemy  whom  he  had  such  good  cause 
to  dread.  One  of  these  was  seized  by  the  advanced 
guard  of  Cortes's  troops,  the  other  made  his  escape, 
and  hurrying  to  the  town  with  all  the  precipitation 
of  fear  and  zeal,  gave  such  timely  notice  of  the 
enemy's  approach,  that  there  was  full  leisure  to  have 
prepared  for  their  reception.  But  through  the  arro- 
gance and  infatuation  of  Narvaez,  this  important 
interval  was  lost.  He  imputed  this  alarm  to  the 
cowardice  of  the  sentinel,  and  treated  with  derision 
the  idea  of  being  attacked  by  forces  so  unequal  to 
his  own.  The  shouts  of  Cortes's  soldiers,  rushing  on 
to  the  assault,  convinced  him  at  last  that  the  danger 
which  he  despised  was  real.  The  rapidity  with  which 
they  advanced  was  such,  that  only  one  cannon  could 
be  fired  before  Sandoval's  party  closed  with  the 
enemy,  drove  them  from  their  guns,  and  began  to 
force  their  way  up  the  steps  of  the  tower.  Narvaez, 
no  less  brave  in  action  than  presumptuous  in  conduct, 
armed  himself  in  haste,  and  by  his  voice  and  example 
animateb  his  men  to  the  comdat.  Olid  advanced  to 
sustain  his  companions  ;  and  Cortes  himself,  rushing 
to  the  front,  conducted  and  added  new  vigour  to  the 
attack.  The  compact  order  in  which  this  small  body 
pressed  on,  and  the  impenetrable  front  which  they 
presented  with  their  long  spears,  bore  down  all 
opposition  before  it.  They  had  now  reached  the 
gate,  and  were  struggling  to  burst  it  open,  when  a 
soldier  having  set  fire  to  the  reeds  with  which  the 
tower  was  covered,  compelled  Narvaez  to  sally  out. 
In  the  first  encounter  he  was  wounded  in  the  eye 
with  a  spear,  and,  falling  to  the  ground,  was  dragged 
down  the  steps,  and  in  a  moment  clapped  in  fetters. 
The  cry  of  victory  resounded  among  the  troops  of 
Cortes.  Those  who  had  sallied  out  with  their  leader 
now  maintained  the  conflict  feebly,  and  began  to 
surrender.  Among  the  remainder  of  his  soldiers, 
stationed  in  two  smaller  towers  of  the  temple,  terror 
and  confusion  prevailed.  The  darkness  was  so  great, 
that  they  could  not  distinguish  between  their  friends 
and  foes.  Their  own  artillery  was  pointecl  against 
them.  Wherever  they  turned  their  eyes,  they  beheld 
lights  gleaming  through  the  obscurity  of  night,  which, 
though  proceeding  only  from  a  variety  of  shining 
insects  that  abound  in  moist  and  sultry  climates, 
their  affrighted  imaginations  represented  as  numerous 
bands  of  musketeers  advancing  with  kindled  matches 
to  the  attack.  After  a  short  resistance,  the  soldiers 
compelled  their  officers  to  capitulate,  and  before 
morning  all  laid  down  their  arms,  and  submitted 
quietly  to  their  conquerors. 

This  complete  victory  proved  more  acceptable,  as 
it  was  gained  almost  without  bloodshed,  only  two 
soldiers  being  killed  on  the  side  of  Cortes,  and  two 
officers,  with  fifteen  private  men,  of  the  adverse  fac- 
ti  >n.  Cortes  treated  the  vanquished  not  like  enemies, 
but  as  countrymen  and  friends,  and  offered  eitlwr  to 

THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA,  No.  10. 


send  them  back  directly  to  Cuba,  or  to  take  them  into 
his  service,  as  partners  in  his  fortune,  on  equal  terms 
with  his  own  soldiers.  This  latter  proposition,  seconded 
by  a  seasonable  distribution  of  some  presents  from 
Cortes,  and  liberal  promises  of  more,  opened  prospect* 
so  agreeable  to  the  romantic  expectations  which  had 
invited  them  to  engage  in  this  service,  that  all,  a  few 
partisans  of  Narvaez  excepted,  closed  with  it,  and, 
vied  with  each  other  in  professions  of  fidelity  and 
attachment  to  a  general,  whose  recent  success  had 
given  them  such  a  striking  proof  of  his  abilities  for 
command.  Thus,  by  a  series  of  events  no  less 
fortunate  than  uncommon,  Cortes  not  only  escaped 
from  perdition  which  seemed  inevitable,  but,  when 
he  had  least  reason  to  expect  it,  was  placed  at  the 
head  of  a  thousand  Spaniards,  ready  to  follow  where- 
ever  he  should  lead  them.  Whoever  reflects  upon 
the  facility  with  which  this  victory  was  obtained,  or 
considers  with  what  sudden  and  unanimous  transi- 
tion the  followers  of  Narvaez  ranged  themselves 
under  the  standard  of  his  rival,  will  be  apt  to  ascribe 
both  events  as  much  to  the  intrigues  as  to  the  arms 
of  Cortes,  and  cannot  but  suspect  that  the  ruin  of 
Narvaez  was  occasioned,  no  less  by  the  treachery  of 
his  own  followers,  than  by  the  valour  of  the  enemy. 

But,  in  one  point,  the  prudent  conduct  and  good 
fortune  of  Cortes  w«re  equally  conspicuous.  If,  by 
the  rapidity  of  his  operations  after  ha  began  his 
march,  he  had  not  brought  matters  to  such  a  speedy 
issue,  even  this  decisive  victory  would  have  come  too 
late  to  have  saved  his  companions  whom  he  left  in 
Mexico.  A  few  days  after  the  discomfiture  of  Nar- 
vaez, a  courier  arrived  with  an  account  that  the 
Mexicans  had  taken  arms,  and  having  seized  and 
destroyed  the  two  brigantines  which  Cortes  had  built 
in  order  to  secure  the  command  of  the  lake,  and 
attacked  the  Spaniards  in  their  quarters,  and  killed 
several  of  them,  and  wounded  more,  had  reduced  to 
ashes  their  magazine  of  provisions,  and  carried  on. 
hostilities  with  such  fury,  that  though  Alvarado  and 
his  men  defended  themselves  with  undaunted  reso- 
lution, they  must  either  be  soon  cut  off  by  famine, 
or  sink  nnder  the  multitude  of  their  enemies.  This 
revolt  was  excited  by  motives  which  rendered  it  still 
more  alarming.  On  the  departure  of  Cortes  for 
Zempoalla,  the  Mexicans  flattered  themselves,  that 
the  long  expected  opportunity  of  restoring  their 
sovereign  to  liberty,  and  of  vindicating  their  country 
from  the  odious  dominion  of  strangers,  was  at  length 
arrived ;  that  while  the  forces  of  their  oppressors 
were  divided,  and  the  arms  of  one  party  turned 
against  the  other,  they  might  triumph  with  greater 
facility  over  both.  Consultations  were  held,  and 
schemes  formed  with  this  intention.  The  Spaniards 
in  Mexico,  conscious  of  their  own  feebleness,  sus- 
pected and  dreaded  those  machinations.  Alvarado, 
though  a  gallant  officer,  possessed  neither  that  ex- 
tent of  capacity,  nor  dignity  of  manners,  by  whi.ih 
Cortes  had  acquired  such  an  ascendant  over  the 
minds  of  the  Mexicans,  as  never  allowed  them  to 
form  a  just  estimate  of  his  weakness  or  of  their  own 
strength.  Alvarado  knew  no  mode  of  supporting  his 
authority  but  force.  Instead  of  employing  address 
to  disconcert  the  plans,  or  to  soothe  the  spirits  of  the 
Mexicans,  he  waited  the  return  of  one  of  their  solemn 
festivals,  when  the  principal  persons  in  the  empire 
were  dancing,  according  to  custom,  in  the  court  of 
the  great  temple ;  he  seized  all  the  avenues  which  led 
to  it,  and,  allured  partly  by  the  rich  ornaments  which 
they  wore  in  honour  of  their  gods,  and  partly  by  the 
facility  of  cutting  off  at  once  the  authors  of  that  con- 
spiracy which  he  dveaded,  he  fell  upon  them,  unarmed 


122 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


and  unsuspicious  of  any  danger,  and  massacred  a  great 
number,  none  escaping  but  such  as  made  their  way 
over  the  battlements  of  the  temple.  An  action  so 
cruel  and  treacherous  filled  not  only  the  city,  but  the 
whole  empire,  with  indignation  and  rage.  All  called 
loud  for  vengeance ;  and  regardless  of  the  safety  of 
their  monarch,  whose  life  was  at  the  mercy  of  the 
Spaniards,  or  of  their  own  danger  in  assaulting  an 
enemy  who  had  been  so  long  the  object  of  their  terror, 
they  committed  all  those  acts  of  violence  of  which 
Cortes  received  an  account. 

To  him  the  danger  appeared  so  imminent  as  to 
admit  neither  of  deliberation  nor  delay.  He  set  out 
instantly  with  all  his  forces,  and  returned  from  Zem- 
poalla  with  no  less  rapidity  than  he  advanced 
thither.  At  Tlascala  he  was  joined  by  two  thousand 
chosen  warriors.  On  entering  the  Mexican  territories, 
he  found  that  disaffection  to  the  Spaniards  was  not 
confined  to  the  capital.  The  principal  inhabitants 
had  deserted  the  towns  through  which  he  passed  ; 
no  person  of  note  appearing  to  meet  him  with  the 
usual  respect ;  no  provision  was  made  for  the  sub- 
sistence oif  his  troops ;  and  though  he  was  permitted 
to  advance  without  opposition,  the  solitude  and 
silence  which  reigned  in  every  place,  and  the  horror 
with  which  the  people  avoided  all  intercourse  with 
him,  discovered  a  deep  rooted  antipathy,  that  excited 
the  most  just  alarm.  But  implacable  as  the  enmity 
of  the  Mexicans  was,  they  were  so  unacquainted  with 
the  science  of  war,  that  they  knew  not  how  to  take 
the  proper  measures,  either  for  their  own  safety  or 
the  destruction  of  the  Spaniards.  Uninstructed  by 
their  former  error  in  admitting  a  formidable  enemy 
into  their  capital,  instead  of  breaking  down  the 
causeways  and  bridges,  by  which  they  might  have 
enclosed  Alvarado  and  his  party,  and  have  effectu- 
ally stopped  the  career  of  Cortes,  they  again  suffered 
him  to  march  into  the  city  without  molestation  [June 
24],  and  to  take  quiet  possession  of  his  ancient  station. 

The  transports  of  joy  with  which  Alvarado  and  his 
soldiers  received  their  companions  cannot  be  ex- 
pressed. Both  parties  were  so  much  elated,  the  one 
with  their  seasonable  deliverance,  and  the  other  with 
the  great  exploits  which  they  had  achieved,  that  this 
intoxication  of  success  seems  to  have  reached  Cortes 
himself;  and  he  behaved  on  this  occasion  neither 
with  his  usual  sagacity  nor  attention.  He  not  only 
neglected  to  visit  Montezuma,  but  imbittered  the 
insult  by  expressions  full  of  contempt  for  that  unfor- 
tunate prince  and  his  people.  The  forces  of  which 
he  had  now  the  command  appeared  to  him  so  irresis- 
tible, that  he  might  assume  a  higher  tone,  and  lay 
aside  the  mask  of  moderation  under  which  he  had 
hitherto  concealed  his  designs.  Some  Mexicans,  who 
understood  the  Spanish  language,  heard  the  contemp- 
tuous words  which  Cortes  uttered,  and  reporting  them 
to  their  countrymen,  kindled  their  rage  anew.  They 
were  now  convinced  that  the  intentions  of  the  gene- 
ral were  equally  bloody  with  those  of  Alvarado,  and 
his  original  purpose  in  visiting  their  country  had  not 
been  as  he  pretended,  to  court  the  alliance  of  their 
sovereign,  but  to  attempt  the  conquest  of  his  domi- 
nions. They  resumed  their  arms  with  the  additional 
fury  which  this  discovery  inspired,  attacked  a  consi- 
derable body  of  Spaniards  who  were  marching  towards 
the  great  square  in  which  the  public  market  was 
held,  and  compelled  them  to  retire  with  some  loss. 
Imboldened  by  this  success,  and  delighted  to  find 
that  their  oppressors  were  not  invincible,  they  ad- 
vanced next  day  with  extraordinary  martial  pomp  to 
assault  the  Spaniards  in  their  quarters.  Their 
number  was  formidable,  and  their  undaunted  courage 


still  more  so.  Though  the  artillery  pointed  against 
their  numerous  battalions,  crowded  together  in 
narrow  streets,  swept  off  multitudes  at  every  dis- 
charge ;  though  every  blow  of  the  Spanish  weapon* 
fell  with  mortal  effect  upon  their  naked  bodies,  the 
impetuosity  of  the  assault  did  not  abate.  Fresh  men 
rushed  forward  to  occupy  the  places  of  the  skin,  and 
meeting  with  the  same  fate,  were  succeeded  by  others 
no  less  intrepid  and  eager  for  vengeance.  The 
utmost  efforts  of  Cortes's  abilities  and  experience, 
seconded  by  the  disciplined  valour  of  his  troops, 
were  hardly  sufficient  to  defend  the  fortifications  that 
surrounded  the  post  where  the  Spaniards  were 
stationed,  into  which  the  enemy  were  more  than 
once  on  the  point  of  forcing  their  way. 

Cortes  beheld,  with  wonder,  the  implacable  fero- 
city of  a  people  who  seemed  at  first  to  submit  tamely 
to  the  yoke,  and  had  continued  so  long  passive 
under  it.  The  soldiers  of  Narvaez,  who  fondly 
imagined  that  they  followed  Cortes  to  share  in  the 
spoils  of  a  conquered  empire,  were  astonished  to  find 
that  they  were  involved  in  a  dangerous  war,  with  an 
enemy  whose  vigour  was  still  unbroken,  and  loudly 
execrated  their  own  weakness,  in  giving  such  easy 
credit  to  the  delusive  promises  of  their  new  leader. 
But  surprise  and  complaints  were  of  no  avail.  Some 
immediate  and  extraordinary  effort  was  requisite  to 
extricate  themselves  out  of  their  present  situation. 
As  soon  as  the  approach  of  evening  induced  the 
Mexicans  to  retire,  in  compliance  with  their  national 
custom  of  ceasing  from  hostilities  with  the  setting 
sun,  Cortes  began  to  prepare  for  a  sally,  next  day, 
with  such  a  considerable  force,  as  might  either  drive 
the  enemy  out  of  the  city,  or  compel  them  to  listen 
to  terms  of  accommodation. 

He  conducted,  in  person,  the  troops  destined  for 
this  important  service.  Every  invention  known  in 
the  European  art  of  war,  as  well  as  every  precaution 
suggested  by  his  long  acquaintance  with  the  Indian 
mode  of  fighting,  were  employed  to  insure  success. 
But  he  found  an  enemy  prepared  and  determined 
to  oppose  him.  The  force  of  the  Mexicans  was 
greatly  augmented  by  fresh  troops,  which  poured  in 
continually  from  the  country,  and  their  animosity 
was  in  no  degree  abated.  They  were  led  by  their 
nobles,  inflamed  by  the  exhortations  of  their  priests, 
and  fought  in  defence  of  their  temples  and  families, 
under  the  eye  of  their  gods,  and  in  presence  of  their 
wives  and  children.  Notwithstanding  their  num- 
bers, and  enthusiastic  contempt  of  danger  and  death, 
wherever  the  Spaniards  could  close  with  them,  the 
superiority  of  their  discipline  and  arms  obliged  the 
Mexicans  to  give  way.  But  in  narrow  streets,  and 
where  many  of  the  bridges  of  communication  were 
broken  down,  the  Spaniards  could  seldom  come  to 
a  fair  encounter  with  the  enemy,  and  as  they  ad- 
vanced, were  exposed  to  showers  of  arrows  and 
stones  from  the  tops  of  houses.  After  a  day  of 
incessant  exertion,  though  vast  numbers  of  the 
Mexicans  fell,  and  part  of  the  city  was  burnt,  the 
Spaniards,  weary  with  the  slaughter,  and  harassed 
by  multitudes  which  successively  relieved  each  other, 
were  obliged  at  length  to  retire,  with  the  mortifica- 
tion of  having  accomplished  nothing  so  decisive  as 
to  compensate  the  unusual  calamity  of  having  twelve 
soldiers  killed,  and  above  sixty  wounded.  Another 
sally,  made  with  greater  force,  was  not  more  effec- 
tual, and  in  it  the  general  himself  was  wounded  in 
the  hand. 

Cortes  now  perceived,  too  late,  the  fatal  error  into 
which  he  had  been  betrayed  by  his  own  contempt  of 
the  Mexicans,  and  was  satisfied  that  he  could  neither 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


123 


maintain  his  present   station    in   the    centre    of  an 
hostile  city,    nor  retire   from    it  without  the    most 
imminent  danger.     One  resource  still  remained,    to 
try  what  effect  the  interposition  of  Montezuma  might 
have  to  soothe  or  overawe  his  subjects.     When  the 
Mexicans   approached  next    morning   to    renew  the 
assault,  that  unfortunate  prince,  at  the  mercy  of  the 
Spaniards,  and  reduced  to  the  sad  necessity  of  be- 
coming the  instrument  of  his  own  disgrace,  and   of 
the  slavery  of  his   people   (117),    advanced   to    the 
battlements  in  his  royal  robes,  and  with  all  the  pomp 
in   which  he   used  to  appear  on   solemn   occasions. 
At  the  sight  of  their  sovereign,  whom  they  had  long 
been  accustomed  to  honour,  and  almost  to  revere  as 
a  god,  the  weapons  dropped  from  their  hands,  every 
tongue  was  silent,  all  bowed  their  heads,  and  many 
prostrated  themselves  on  the  ground.     Montezuma 
addressed   them    with   every    argument    that    could 
mitigate  their  rage,  or  persuade  them  to  cease  from 
hostilities.     When  he  ended  his  discourse,  a  sullen 
murmur  of  disapprobation  ran  through  the  ranks ;  to 
this  succeeded  reproaches  and  threats ;  and  the  fury 
of  the  multitude  rising  in    a    moment  above    every 
restraint  of  decency  or  respect,  flights  of  arrows  and 
volleys  of  stones  poured   in  so    violently    upon   the 
ramparts,  that  before  the  Spanish  soldiers  appointed 
to  cover  Montezuma  with  their  bucklers,  had  time  to 
lift   them   in   his   defence,  two  arrows  wounded  the 
unhappy   monarch,  and  the  blow  of  a  stone  on  his 
temple  struck  him  to   the  ground.     On  seeing  him 
fall,  the  Mexicans  were  so  much  astonished,  that  with 
a  transition  not  uncommon  in  popular  tumults,  they 
passed  in  a  moment  from  one  extreme  to  the  other ; 
remorse    succeeded    to    insult,    and    they    fled   with 
horror,  as  if  the  vengeance  of  heaven  were  pursuing 
the  crime  which  they  had  committed.    The  Spaniards 
without  molestation  carried  Montezuma  to  his  apart- 
ments,  and  Cortes  hastened  thither  to  console  him 
under  his  misfortune.     But  the   unhappy   monarch 
now     perceived    how    low    he    was    sunk,    and    the 
haughty  spirit  which  seemed  to  have  been  so  long 
extinct,    returning,  he  scorned   to  survive  this   last 
humiliation,  and  to  protract  an  ignominious  life,  not 
only  as  the  prisoner  and  tool  of  his  enemies,  but  as 
the  object  of  contempt  or  detestation  among  his  sub- 
jects.    In  a  transport  of  rage  he  tore  the  bandages 
from  his  wounds,  and  refused,  with  such  obstinacy, 
to  take  any  nourishment,  that  he    soon    ended   his 
wretched    days,    rejecting    with     disdain     all     the 
solicitations  of  the  Spaniards  to  embrace  the  Christian 
faith. 

Upon  the  death  of  Montezuma,  Cortes  having  lost 
all  hope  of  bringing  the  Mexicans  to  an  accommoda- 
tion, saw  no  prospect  of  safety  but  in  attempting  a 
retreat,  and  began  to  prepare  for  it.  But  a  sudden 
motion  of  the  Mexicans  engaged  him  in  new  con- 
flicts. They  took  possession  of  a  high  tower  in  the 
great  temple  which  overlooked  the  Spanish  quarters, 
and  placing  there  a  garrison  of  their  principal  war- 
riors, not  a  Spaniard  could  stir  without  being  exposed 
to  their  missile  weapons.  From  this  post  it  was 
necessary  to  dislodge  them  at  any  risk  ;  and  Juan  de 
Escobar,  with  a  numerous  detatchment  of  chosen 
soldiers,  was  ordered  to  make  the  attack.  But 
Escobar,  though  a  gallant  oflicer,  and  at  the  head  of 
troops  accustomed  to  conquer,  and  who  now  fought 
under  the  eyes  of  their  countrymen,  was  thrice  re- 
pulsed. Cortes,  sensible  that  not  only  the  reputation 
but  the  safety  of  his  army  depended  on  the  success 
of  this  assault,  ordered  a  buckler  to  be  tied  to  Iris 
arm,  as  he  could  not  manage  it  with  his  wounded 
hand,  and  rushed  with  his  drawn  sword  into  the 


thickest  of  the  combatants.  Encouraged  by  '  the 
presence  of  their  general,  the  Spaniards  returned  to 
the  charge  with  such  vigour,  that  they  gradually 
forced  their  way  up  the  steps,  and  drove  the  Mexi- 
cans to  the  platform  at  the  top  of  the  tower.  There 
a  dreadful  carnage  began,  when  two  young  Mexicans 
of  high  rank,  observing  Cortes  as  he  animated  his 
soldiers  by  his  voice  and  example,  resolved  to  sacri- 
fice their  own  lives  in  order  to  cut  off  the  author  of  all 
the  calamities  which  desolated  their  country.  They 
approached  him  in  a  supplicant  posture,  as  if  they  had 
intended  to  lay  down  their  arms,  and  seizing  him  in 
a  moment,  hurried  him  towards  the  battlements,  over 
which  they  threw  themselves  ^headlong,  in  hopes  of 
dragging  him  along  to  be  dashed  in  pieces  by  the 
same  fall.  But  Cortes,  by  his  strength  and  agility, 
broke  loose  from  their  grasp,  and  the  gallant  youths 
perished  in  this  generous  attempt  to  save  their 
country.  As  soon  as  the  Spaniards  became  masters 
of  the  tower,  they  set  fire  to  it,  and,  without  further 
molestation,  continued  the  preparations  for  their 
retreat. 

This  became  the  more  necessary,  as  the  Mexican! 
were  so  much  astonished  at  the  last  effort  of  the 
Spanish  valour,  that  they  began  to  change  their  whole 
system  of  hostility,  and,  instead  of  incessant  attacks, 
endeavoured,  by  barricading  the  streets,  and  break- 
ing down  the  causeways,  to  cut  off  the  communication 
of  the  Spaniards  with  the  continent,  and  thus  to 
starve  an  enemy  whom  they  could  not  subdue.  Th» 
first  point  to  be  determined  by  Cortes  and  his  fol- 
lowers was,  whether  they  should  march  out  open 
in  the  face  of  day,  when  they  could  discern  every 
danger,  and  see  how  to  regulate  their  own  motions, 
as  well  as  how  to  resist  the  assaults  of  the  enemy  ;  or, 
whether  they  should  endeavour  to  retire  secretly  in 
the  night  ?  The  latter  was  preferred,  partly  from 
hopes  that  their  national  superstition  would  restrain 
the  Mexicans  from  venturing  to  attack  them  in  the 
night,  and  partly  from  their  own  fond  belief  in  the 
predictions  of  a  private  soldier,  who  having  acquired 
universal  credit  by  a  smattering  of  learning,  and  hi» 
pretensions  to  astrology,  boldly  assured  his  country- 
men of  success  if  they  made  their  retreat  in  thia 
manner.  They  began  to  move,  towards  midnight,  in 
three  divisions.  Sandoval  led  the  van  ;  Pedro  Alva- 
rado,  and  Velasquez  de  Leon,  had  the  conduct  of  the 
rear  ;  and  Cortes  commanded  in  the  centre,  where  he 
placed  the  prisoners,  among  whom  were  a  son  and 
two  daughters  of  Montezuma,  together  with  several 
Mexicans  of  distinction,  the  artillery,  the  baggage, 
and  a  portable  bridge  of  timber,  intended  to  be  laid 
over  the  breaches  in  the  causeway.  They  marched 
in  profound  silence  along  the  causeway  which  led  to 
Tacuba,  because  it  was  shorter  than  any  of  the  rest, 
and,  lying  most  remote  from  the  road  towards  Tlas- 
cala  and  the  sea-coast,  had  been  left  more  entire  by 
the  Mexicans.  They  reached  the  first  breach  in  it 
without  molestation,  hoping  that  their  retreat  was 
undiscovered. 

But  the  Mexicans,  unperceived,  had  not  only- 
watched  all  their  motions  with  attention,  but  had 
made  proper  dispositions  for  a  most  formidable 
attack.  While  the  Spaniards  were  intent  upon 
placing  their  bridge  in  the  breach,  and  occupied  in 
conductino-  their  horses  and  artillery  along  it,  they 
were  suddenly  alarmed  with  a  tremendous  sound  of 
warlike  instruments,  and  a  general  shout  from  an 
innumerable  multitude  of  enemies;  the  lake  was 
covered  with  canoes ;  flights  of  arrows  and  showers 
of  stones  poured  in  upon  them  from  every  quarter ; 
the  Mexicans  rushing  forward  to  the  charge  with 


124 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


fearless  impetuosity,  as  if  they  hoped  in  that  moment 
to  be  avenged  for  all  their  wrongs.  Unfortunately 
the  wooden  bridge,  by  the  weight  of  the  artillery, 
was  wedged  so  fast  into  the  stones  and  mud,  that  it 
was  impossible  to  remove  it.  Dismayed  at  this 
accident,  the  Spaniards  advanced  with  precipitation 
towards  the  second  breach.  The  Mexicans  hemmed 
them  in  on  every  side,  and  though  they  defended 
themselves  with  their  usual  courage,  yet  crowded 
together  as  they  were  on  a  narrow  causeway,  their 
discipline  and  military  skill  were  of  little  avail,  nor 
did  the  obscurity  of  the  night  permit  them  to  derive 
great  advantage  from  their  fire  arms,  or  the  superi- 
ority of  their  other  weapons.  All  Mexico  was  now 
in  arms,  and  so  eager  were  the  people  on  the 
destruction  of  their  oppressors,  that  they  who  were 
not  near  enough  to  annoy  them  in  person,  impatient 
of  delay,  pressed  forward  with  such  ardour,  as  drove 
on  their  countrymen  in  the  front  with  irresistible 
riolence.  Fresh  warriors  instantly  filled  the  place  of 
such  as  fell.  The  Spaniards,  weary  with  slaughter, 
and  unable  to  sustain  the  weight  of  the  torrent  that 
poured  in  upon  them,  began  to  give  way.  In  a  mo- 
ment the  confusion  was  universal ;  horse  and  foot, 
officers  and  soldiers,  friends  and  enemies,  were  min- 
gled together ;  and  while  all  fought,  and  many  fell,  they 
could  hardly  distinguish  from  what  hand  the  blow 
came. 

Cortes,  with  about  a  hundred  foot  soldiers  and  a 
few  horse,  forced  his  way  over  the  two  remaining 
breaches  in  the  causeway,  the  bodies  of  the  dead 
serving  to  fill  up  the  chasms,  and  reached  the  main 
land.  Having  formed  them  as  soon  as  they  arrived, 
he  returned  with  such  as  were  yet  capable  of  service, 
to  assist  his  friends  in  their  retreat,  and  to  encourage 
them,  by  his  presence  and  example,  to  persevere  in 
the  efforts  requisite  to  effect  it.  He  met  with  part  of 
his  soldiers,  who  had  broke  through  the  enemy,  but 
found  many  more  overwhelmed  by  the  multitude  of 
their  agressors,  or  perishing  in  the  lake ;  and  heard 
the  piteous  lamentations  of  others,  whom  the  Mexi- 
cans, having  taken  alive,  were  carrying  off  in  triumph 
to  be  sacrificed  to  the  god  of  war.  Before  day,  all 
who  had  escaped  assembled  at  Tacuba.  But  when 
the  morning  dawned,  and  discovered  to  the  view  of 
Cortes  his  shattered  battalion,,  reduced  to  less  than 
half  its  number,  the  survivors  dejected,  and  most  of 
them  covered  with  wounds,  the  thougnts  of  what  they 
had  suffered,  and  the  remembrance  of  so  many  faith- 
ful friends  and  gallant  followers  who  had  fallen  in 
that  night  of  sorrow,  pierced  his  soul  with  such 
anguish,  that  while  he  was  forming  their  ranks,  and 
issuing  some  necessary  orders,  his  soldiers  observed 
the  tears  trickling  from  his  eyes,  and  remarked  with 
much  satisfaction,  that  while  attentive  to  the  duties 
of  a  general,  he  was  not  insensible  to  the  feelings  of 
a  man. 

In  this  fatal  retreat  many  officers  of  distinction 
perished  (118),  and  among  these  Velasquez  de  Leon, 
who  having  forsaken  the  party  of  his  kinsman,  the 
governor  of  Cuba,  to  follow  the  fortune  of  his  com- 
panions, was,  on  that  account,  as  well  as  for  his 
superior  merit,  respected  by  them  as  the  second  per- 
son in  the  army.  All  the  artillery,  ammunition,  and 
baggage,  were  lost ;  the  greater  part  of  the  horses, 
and  above  two  thousand  of  the  Tlascalans,  were 
killed,  and  only  a  very  small  portion  of  the  treasure 
which  they  had  amassed  was  saved.  This,  which 
had  been  always  their  chief  object,  proved  a  great 
cause  of  their  calamity;  for  many  of  the  soldiers 
having  so  overloaded  themselves  with  bars  of  gold  as 
rendered  them  unfit  for  action,  and  retarded  their 


flight,  fell,  ignominiously,  the  victims  of  their  own 
inconsiderate  avarice.  Amidst  so  many  disasters,  it 
was  some  consolation  to  find  that  Aguilar  and 
Marina,  whose  function  as  interpreters  was  of  Mich 
essential  importance,  had  made  their  escape. 

The  first  care  of  Cortes  was  to  find  some  shelter 
for  his  wearied  troops  ;  lor  as  the  Mexicans  infested 
them  on  every  side,  and  the  people  of  Tacuba  began 
to  take  arms,  he  could  not  continue  in  his  present 
station.  Pie  directed  his  march  towards  the  rising 
ground,  and  having  fortunately  discovered  a  temple 
situated  on  an  eminence,  took  possession  of  it. 
There  he  found  not  only  the  shelter  for  which  he 
wished,  but,  what  was  no  less  wanted,  some  provi- 
sions to  refresh  his  men  ;  and  though  the  enemy  did 
not  intermit  their  attacks  throughout  the  day,  they 
were  with  less  difficulty  prevented  from  making  any 
impression.  During  this  time  Cortes  was  engaged 
in  deep  consultation  with  his  officers,  concerning 
the  route  which  they  ought  to  take  in  their  retreat. 
They  were  now  on  the  west  side  of  the  lake.  Tlas- 
cala,  [the  only  place  where  they  could  hope  for  a 
friendly  reception,  lay  about  sixty-four  miles  to  the 
east  of  Mexico  ;  so  that  they  were  obliged  to  go  round 
the  north  end  of  the  lake  before  they  could  fall  into 
the  road  which  led  thither.  A  Tlascalan  soldier 
undertook  to  be  their  guide,  and  conducted  them 
through  a  country,  in  some  places  marshy,  in  others 
mountainous,  in  all  ill  cultivated  and  thinly  peopled. 
They  marched  for  six  days  with  little  respite,  and 
under  continual  alarms,  numerous  bodies  of  the 
Mexicans  hovering  round  them,  sometimes  harassing 
them  at  a  distance  with  their  missile  weapons,  and 
sometimes  attacking  them  closely  in  front,  in  rear,  in 
flank,  with  great  boldness,  as  they  now  knew  that 
they  were  not  invincible.  Nor  were  the  fatigue 
and  danger  of  those  incessant  conflicts  the  worse  evils 
to  which  they  were  exposed.  As  the  barren  country 
through  which  they  passed  afforded  hardly  any  provi- 
sions, they  were  reduced  to  feed  on  berries,  roots, 
and  the  stalks  of  green  maize;  and  at  the  very  time 
that  famine  was  depressing  their  spirits  and  wasting 
their  strength,  their  situation  required  the  most 
vigorous  and  unremitting  exertions  of  courage  and 
activity.  Amidst  those  complicated  distresses,  one 
circumstance  supported  and  animated  the  Spaniards. 
Their  commander  sustained  this  sad  reverse  of 
fortune  with  unshaken  magnanimity.  His  presence 
of  mind  never  forsook  him ;  his  sagacity  foresaw 
every  event,  and  his  vigilance  provided  for  it.  He 
was  foremost  in  every  danger,  and  endured  every 
hardship  with  cheerfulness.  The  difficulties  with 
which  he  was  surrounded  seemed  to  call  forth  new 
talents  ;  and  his  soldiers,  though  despairing  them* 
selves,  continued  to  follow  him  with  increasing  confi- 
dence in  his  abilities. 

On  the  sixth  day  they  arrived  near  to  Otumba,  not 
far  from  the  road  between  Mexico  and  Tlascaln. 
Early  next  morning  they  began  to  advance  towards  it, 
flying  parties  of  the  enemy  still  hanging  on  the  rear ; 
and,  amidst  the  insults  with  which  they  accompanied 
their  hostilities,  Marina  remarked  that  they  often 
exclaimed  with  exultation,  "  Go  on,  robbers  ;  go  to 
the  place  where  you  shall  quickly  meet  the  vengeance 
due  to  your  crimes."  The  meaning  of  this  threat  the 
Spaniards  did  not  comprehend,  until  they  reached 
the  summit  of  an  eminence  before  them.  There  a 
spacious  valley  opened  to  their  view  covered  with  a 
vast  army,  extending  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach. 
The  Mexicans,  while  with  one  body  of  their  troops 
they  harassed  the  Spaniards  in  their  retreat,  had 
assembled  their  principal  force  on  the  other  side  of 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


125 


the  lake;  and  marching  along  the   road  which  led 
directly  to  Tlascala,  posted  it  in  the  plain  of  Otumba, 
through   which   they   knew   Cortes  must  pass.     At 
the    sight  of  this  incredible   multitude,  which  they 
could    survey  at  once    from  the  rising  ground,  the 
Spaniards    were    astonished,    and  even   the   boldest 
began    to    despair.     But   Cortes,    without    allowing 
leisure  for  their  fears  to  acquire  strength  by  reflec- 
tion, after  warning  them   briefly  that  no  alternative 
now  remained  but  to  conquer  or  to  die,  led  them 
instantly  to  the  charge.     The  Mexicans  waited  their 
approach    with    unusual   fortitude.     Such,    however, 
was  the    superiority  of  the  Spanish   discipline   and 
arms,    that    the  impression  of  this  small  body  was 
irresistible:    and    whichever  way   its    force  was  di- 
rected, it  penetrated  and  dispersed  the  most  nume- 
rous battalions.     But  while   these   gave  way  in  one 
quarter,  new  combatants  advanced  from  another,  and 
the  Spaniards,    though    successful  in  every    attack, 
were  ready  to  sink    under    those    repeated    efforts, 
without  seeing  any  end  to  their  toil,  or  any  hope  of 
victory.     At    that   time   Cortes   observed   the    great 
standard  of  the  empire,  which  was  carried  before  the 
Mexican  general,  advancing;  and  fortunately  recol- 
lecting to  have  heard,  that  on  the  fate  of  it  depended 
the  event  of  every  battle,  he  assembled  a  few  of  his 
bravest  officers,   whose  horses   were  still   capable  of 
gervice,  and  placing   himself  at  their   head,  pushed 
forward   towards   the  standard  with  an   impetuosity 
which  bore   down  every   thing   before  it.     A  chosen 
body   of  nobles,  who  guarded  the    standard,    made 
some  resistance,  but  were  soon  broken.  Cortes,  with 
a  stroke  of  his  lance,  wounded  the  Mexican  general, 
and  threw  him  to  the  ground.     One  of  the  Spanish 
officers  alighting,  put  an  end  to  his  life,  and  laid  hold 
of  the  imperial   standard.     The   moment   that   their 
leader    fell,    and  the    standard,    towards    which   all 
directed  their  eyes,  disappeared,  an  universal  panic 
struck  the  Mexicans,  and,  as  if  the  bond  which  held 
them  together   had  been  dissolved,  every  ensign  was 
lowered,  each  soldier  threw  away  kis  weapons,  and 
all    fled  with  precipitation  to  the  mountains.     The 
Spaniards,  unable  to  pursue  them    far,  returned  to 
collect  the  spoils  of  the  field,  which  were  so  valuable 
as  to  be   some  compensation  for  the  wealth  which 
they  had  lost  in  Mexico ;  for  in  the  enemy's  army 
were  most  of  their  principal  warriors  dressed  out  in 
their  richest  ornaments,  as  if  they  had  been  marching 
to  assured  victory.     Next  day  [July  8],  to  their  great 
joy,  they  entered  the  Tlascalan  territories. 

But  amidst  their  satisfaction  in  having  got  beyond 
the  precincts  of  an  hostile  country,  they  could  not 
look  forward  without  solicitude,  as  they  were  stil 
uncertain  what  reception  they  might  meet  with  from 
allies,  to  whom  they  returned  in  a  condition  very 
different  from  that  in  which  they  had  lately  set  out 
from  their  dominions.  Happily  for  them,  the  enmity 
of  the  Tlascalans  to  the  Mexican  name  was  so  invete- 
rate, their  desire  to  avenge  the  death  of  their  country- 
men so  vehement,  and  the  ascendant  which  Cortes 
had  acquired  over  the  chiefs  of  the  republic  so  com- 
plete, that  far  from  entertaining  a  thought  of  taking 
any  advantage  of  the  distressed  situation  in  which 
they  beheld  the  Spaniards,  they  received  them  with  a 
tenderness  and  cordiality  which  quickly  dissipatec 
all  their  suspicions. 

Some  interval  of  tranquillity  and  indulgence  wa 
now  absolutely  necessary  ;  not  only  that  the  Spaniard 
might  give  attention  to  the  cure  of  their  wounds 
which  had  been  too  long  neglected,  but  in  order  t 
recruit  their  strength,  exhausted  by  such  a  Ion, 
succession  of  fatigue  and  hardships.  During  this 


ortes  learned  that  he  and  his  companions  were  not 
he  only  Spaniards  who  had  felt  the  effects  of  the 
lexican  enmity.  A  considerable  detachment  which 
was  marching  from  Zempoalla  towards  the  capital 
lad  been  cut  off  by  the  people  of  Tepeaca.  A  smaller  i 
)arty,  returning  from  Tlascala  to  Vera  Cruz,  with  the 
hare  of  the  Mexican  gold  allotted  to  the  garrison, 
tad  been  surprised  and  destroyed  in  the  mountains. 
t  .a  juncture  when  the  life  of  every  Spaniard  was  of 
mportance,  such  losses  were  deeply  felt.  The 
chemes  which  Cortes  was  meditating  rendered  them 
>eculiarly  afflictive  to  him.  While  his  enemies,  and 
ven  many  of  his  own  followers^  considered  the  dis- 
sters  which  had  befallen  him  as  fatal  to  the  progress 
f  his  arms,  and  imagined  that  nothing  now  remained 
>ut  speedily  to  abandon  a  country  which  he  had 
nvaded  with  unequal  force,  his  mind,  as  eminent  for 
>erseverance  as  for  enterprise,  was  still  bent  on 
ccomplishing  his  original  purpose  of  subjecting  the 
Mexican  empire  to  the  crown  of  Castile.  Severe  and 
unexpected  as  the  check  was  which  he  had  received, 
t  did  not  appear  to  him  a  sufficient  reason  for  relin- 
quishing the  conquests  which  he  had  already  made, 
or  against  resuming  his  operations  with  better  hopes 
of  success.  The  colony  at  Vera  Cruz  was  not  only 
safe,  but  had  remained  unmolested.  The  people  of 
Zempoalla  and  the  adjacent  districts  had  discovered 
no  symptoms  of  defection.  The  Tlascalans  continued 
aitliful  to  their  alliance.  On  their  martial  spirit, 
easily  roused  to  arms,  and  inflamed  with  implacable 
hatred  of  the  Mexicans,  Cortes  depended  for  powerful 
aid.  He  had  still  the  command  of  a  body  of  Spaniards , 
equal  in  number  to  that  with  which  he,had  opened  his 
way  into  the  centre  of  the  empire,  and  had  taken 
possession  of  the  capital ;  so  that  with  the  benefit  of 
greater  experience,  as  well  as  more  perfect  know- 
ledge of  the  country,  he  did  not  despair  of  quickly 
recovering  all  that  he  had  been  deprived  of  by 
untoward  events. 

Full  of  this  idea,  he  courted  the  Tlascalan  chiefs 
with  such  attention,  and  distributed  among  them  so 
liberally  the  rich  spoils  of  Otumba,  that  he  was  secure 
of  obtaining  whatever  he  should  require  of  the 
republic.  He  drew  a  small  supply  of  ammunition, 
and  two  or  three  field-pieces,  from  his  stores  at  Vera 
Cruz.  He  despatched  an  officer  of  confidence  with 
four  ships  of  Narvaez's  fleet  to  Hispaniola  and 
Jamaica,  to  engage  adventurers,  and  to  purchase 
horses,  gun-powder,  and  other  military  stores.  As 
he  knew  that  it  would  be  vain  to  attempt  the  reduc- 
tion of  Mexico  unless  he  could  secure  the  command 
of  the  lake,  he  gave  orders  to  prepare,  in  the  moun- 
tains of  Tlascala,  materials  for  building  twelve  brig- 
antines,  so  that  they  might  be  carried  thither  in  pieces 
ready  to  be  put  together,  and  launched  when  he 
stood  in  need  of  their  service. 

But  while,  with  provident  attention,  he  was  taking 
those  necessary  steps  towards  the  execution  of  his 
measures,  an  obstacle  arose  in  a  quarter  where  it  was 
least  expected,  but  most  formidable.  The  spirit  of 
discontent  and  mutiny  broke  out  in  his  own  army. 
Many  of  Narvaez's  followers  were  planters  rather 
than  soldiers,  and  had  accompanied  him  to  New 
Spain  with  sanguine  hopes  of  obtaining  settlements, 
but  with  little  inclination  to  engage  in  the  hardships 
and  dangers  of  war.  As  the  same  motives  had 
induced  them  to  enter  into  their  new  engagements 
with  Cortes,  they  no  sooner  became  acquainted  with 
the  nature  of  the  service,  than  they  bitterly  repented 
of  their  choice.  Such  of  them  as  had  the  good  fortune 
to  survive  the  perilous  adventures  in  which  their  own 
imprudence  had  involved  them,  happy  in  having 


126 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


made  their  escape,  trembled  at  the  thoughts  of  being 
exposed  a  second  time  to  similar  calamities.  As 
soon  as  they  discovered  the  intention  of  Cortes,  they 
began  secretly  to  murmur  and  cabal,  and  waxing 
gradually  more  audacious,  they,  in  a  body,  offered  a 
remonstrance  to  their  general  against  the  imprudence 
of  attacking  a  powerful  empire  with  his  shattered 
forces,  and  formally  required  him  to  lead  them  back 
directly  to  Cuba.  Though  Cortes,  long  practised  in 
the  arts  of  command,  employed  arguments,  entreaties, 
and  presents  to  convince  or  to  soothe  them ;  though 
his  own  soldiers,  animated  with  the  spirit  of  their 
leader,  warmly  seconded  his  endeavours;  he  found 
their  fears  too  violent  and  deep-rooted  to  be  removed, 
and  the  utmost  he  could  effect  was  to  prevail  with 
them  to  defer  their  departure  for  some  time,  on  a 
promise  that  he  would,  at  a  more  proper  juncture, 
dismiss  such  as  should  desire  it. 

That  the  malcontents  might  have  no  leisure  to 
brood  over  the  causes  of  their  disaffection,  he  resolved 
instantly  to  call  forth  his  troops  into  action.  He 
proposed  to  chastise  the  people  of  Tepeaca  for  the 
outrage  which  they  had  committed,  and  as  the  de- 
tachment which  they  had  cut  off  happened  to  be 
composed  mostly  of  soldiers  who  had  served  under 
Narvaez,  their  companions,  from  the  desire  of  ven- 
geance, engaged  the  more  willingly  in  this  war.  He 
took  the  command  in  person  [August],  accompanied 
by  a  numerous  body  of  Tlascalans,  and  in  the  space 
of  a  few  weeks,  after  various  encounters,  with  great 
slaughter  of  the  Tepeacans,  reduced  that  province  to 
subjection.  During  several  months,  while  he  waited 
for  the  supplies  of  men  and  ammunition  which  he 
expected,  and  was  carrying  on  his  preparations  for 
constructing  the  brigantines,  he  kept  his  troops  con- 
stantly employed  in  various  expeditions  against  the 
adjacent  provinces,  all  of  which  were  conducted  with 
an  uniform  tenor  of  success.  By  these,  his  men 
became  again  accustomed  to  victory,  and  resumed 
their  wonted  sense  of  superiority  ;  the  Mexican  power 
was  weakened ;  the  Tlascalan  warriors  acquired  the 
habit  of  acting  in  conjunction  with  the  Spaniards ; 
and  the  chiefs  of  the  republic,  delighted  to  see  their 
country  enriched  with  the  spoils  of  all  the  people 
around  them,  and  astonished  every  day  with  fresh 
discoveries  of  the  irresistible  prowess  of  their  allies, 
declined  no  effort  requisite  to  support  them. 
,'  All  those  preparatory  arrangements,  however, 
though  the  most  prudent  and  efficacious  which  the 
situation  of  Cortes  allowed  him  to  make  would  have 
been  of  little  avail  without  a  reinforcement  of  Spanish 
soldiers.  Of  this  he  was  so  deeply  sensible,  that  it 
was  the  chief  object  of  his  thoughts  and  wishes  ;  and 
yet  his  only  prospect  of  obtaining  it,  from  the  return 
of  the  officer  whom  he  had  sent  to  the  isles  to  solicit 
aid,  was  both  distant  and  uncertain.  But  what 
neither  his  own  sagacity  nor  power  could  have  pro- 
cured, he  owed  to  a  series  of  fortunate  and  unforeseen 
incidents.  The  governor  of  Cuba,  to  whom  the  suc- 
cess of  Narvaez  appeared  an  event  of  infallible 
certainty,  having  sent  two  small  ships  after  him  with 
new  instructions,  and  a  supply  of  men  and  military- 
stores,  the  officer  whom  Cortes  had  appointed  lo 
command  on  the  coast,  artfully  decoyed  them  into 
the  harbour  of  Vera  Cruz,  seized  the  vessels,  and 
easily  persuaded  the  soldiers  to  follow  the  standard 
of  a  more  able  leader  than  him  whom  they  were 
destined  to  join.  Soon  after,  three  ships  of  more 
considerable  force  came  into  the  harbour  separately. 
These  belonged  to  an  armament  fitted  out  by  Fran- 
cisco de  Garay,  governor  of  Jamaica,  who,  being 
possessed  Avith  the  rage  of  discovery  and  conquest 


which  animated  every  Spaniard  settled  in  America, 
had  long  aimed  at  intruding  into  some  district  of 
New  Spain,  and  dividing  with  Cortes  the  glory  and 
gain  of  annexing  that  empire  to  the  crown  of  Castile. 
They  unadvisedly  made  their  attempt  on  the  northern 
provinces,  where  the  country  was  poor,  and  the 
people  fierce  and  warlike  ;  and  after  a  cruel  succession 
of  disasters,  famine  compelled  them  to  venture  into 
Vera  Cruz  [October  28],  and  cast  themselves  upon 
the  mercy  of  their  countrymen.  Their  fidelity  was 
not  proof  against  the  splendid  hopes  and  promises 
which  had  seduced  other  adventurers,  and  as  if  the 
spirit  of  revolt  had  been  contagious  in  New  Spain, 
they  likewise  abandoned  the  master  whom  they  were 
bound  to  serve,  and  enlisted  under  Cortes.  Nor  was 
it  America  alone  that  furnished  such  unexpected 
aid.;  a  ship  arrived  from  Spain,  freighted  by  some 
private  merchants  with  military  stores,  in  hopes  of  a 
profitable  market  in  a  country,  the  fame  of  whose 
opulence  began  to  spread  over  Europe.  Cortes 
eagerly  purchased  a  cargo  which  to  him  was  invalu- 
able, and  the  crew,  following  the  general  example, 
joined  him  at  Tlascala. 

From  those  various  quarters,  the  army  of  Cortes 
was  augmented  with  a  hundred  and  eighty  men,  and 
twenty  horse,  a  reinforcement  too  inconsiderable  to 
produce  any  consequence  which  would  entitle  it  to 
have  been  mentioned  in  the  history  of  other  parts  of 
the  globe.  But  in  that  of  America,  where  great 
revolutions  were  brought  about  by  causes  which 
seemed  to  bear  no  proportion  to  their  effects,  such 
small  events  rise  into  importance,  because  they  were 
sufficient  to  decide  with  respect  to  the  fate  of  king- 
doms. Nor  is  it  the  least  remarkable  instance  of 
the  singular  felicity  conspicuous  in  many  passages  of 
Cortes' s  story,  that  the  two  persons  chiefly  instru- 
mental in  furnishing  him  with  those  seasonable 
supplies,  should  be  an  avowed  enemy  who  aimed  at 
his  destruction,  and  an  envious  rival  who  wished  to 
supplant  him. 

The  first  effect  of  the  junction  with  his  new  followers 
was  to  enable  him  to  dismiss  such  of  Narvaez's  soldiers 
as  remained  with  reluctance  in  his  service.  After  their 
departure,  he  still  mustered  five  hundred  and  fifty  in- 
fantry, of  which  fourscore  were  armed  with  muskets  or 
cross-bows,  forty  horsemen,  and  a  train  of  nine  field- 
pieces.  At  the  head  of  these,  accompanied  by  ten 
thousand  Tlascalans  and  other  friendly  Indians, 
Cortes  bes;an  his  march  towards  Mexico,  on  the 
twenty-eighth  of  December,  six  months  after  his  dis- 
astrous retreat  from  that  city. 

Nor  did  he  advance  to  attack  an  enemy  unprepared 
to  receive  him.  Upon  the  death  of  Montezuma,  the 
Mexican  chiefs,  in  whom  the  right  of  electing  the 
emperor  was  vested,  had  instantly  raised  his  brother 
Quetlavaca  to  the  throne.  His  avowed  and  invete- 
rate enmity  to  the  Spaniards  would  have  been  suffi- 
cient to  gain  their  suffrages,  although  he  had  been 
ess  distinguished  for  courage  and  capacity.  He  had 
an  immediate  opportunity  of  showing  that  he  was 
worthy  of  their  choice,  by  conducting,  in  person, 
those  fierce  attacks  which  compelled  the  Spaniards  to 
abandon  his  capital  ;  and  as  soon  as  their  retreat 
afforded  them  any  respite  from  action,  he  took  mea- 
sures for  preventing  their  return  to  Mexico,  with 
prudence  equal  to  the  spirit  which  he  had  displayed 
in  driving  them  out  of  it.  As,  from  the  vicinity  of 
Tlascala,  he  could  not  be  unacquainted  with  the 
motions  and  intentions  of  Cortes,  he  observed  the 
storm  that  was  gathering,  and  began  early  to  provide 
against  it.  He  repaired  what  the  Spaniards  had 
ruined  in  the  city,  and  strengthened  it  with  such  new 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


127 


fortifications  as  the  skill  of  his  subjects  was  capable 
of  erecting.  Besides  filling  his  magazines  with  the 
usual  weapons  of  war,  he  gave  directions  to  make 
long  spears  headed  with  the  swords  and  daggers  taken 
from  the  Spaniards,  in  order  to  annoy  the  cavalry. 
He  summoned  the  people  in  every  province  of  the 
empire  to  take  arms  against  their  oppressors,  and  as 
an  encouragement  to  exert  themselves  with  vigour, 
he  promised  them  exemption  from  all  the  taxes  which 
his  predecessors  had  imposed.  But  what  he  laboured 
with  the  greatest  earnestness  was,  to  deprive  the 
Spaniards  of  the  advantages  which  they  derived  from 
the  friendship  of  the  Tlascalans,  by  endeavouring  to 
persuade  that  people  to  renounce  all  connexion  with 
men,  who  were  not  only  avowed  enemies  of  the  gods 
whom  they  worshipped,  but  who  would  not  fail  to 
subject  them  at  last  to  the  same  yoke,  which  they 
were  now  inconsiderately  lending  their  aid  to  impose 
upon  others.  These  representations,  no  less  striking 
than  well  founded,  were  urged  so  forcibly  by  his  am- 
bassadors, that  it  required  all  the  address  of  Cortes 
to  prevent  their  making  a  dangerous  impression. 

But  while  Quetlavaca  was  arranging  his  plan  of 
defence,  with  a  degree  of  foresight  uncommon  in  an 
American,  his  days  were  cut  short  by  the  small-pox. 
This  distemper,  which  raged  at  that  time  in  New 
Spain  with  fatal  malignity,  was  unknown  to  that 
quarter  of  the  globe  until  it  was  introduced  by  the 
Europeans,  and  may  be  reckoned  among  the  greatest 
calamities  brought  upon  them  by  their  invaders.  In 
his  stead  the  Mexicans  raised  to  the  throne  Guatimo- 
2in,  nephew  and  son-in-law  of  Montezuma,  a  young 
man  of  such  high  reputation  for  abilities  and  valour, 
that  in  this  dangerous  crisis  his  countrymen,  with  one 
voice,  called  him  to  the  supreme  command. 

[A.  D.  1521.]  As  soon  as  Cortes  entered  the  enemy's 
territories,  he  discovered  various  preparations  to 
obstruct  his  progress.  But  his  troops  forced  their 
way  with  little  difficulty,  and  took  possession  of 
Tezeuco,  the  second  city  of  the  empire,  situated  on  the 
banks  of  the  lake,  about  twenty  miles  from  Mexico. 
Here  he  determined  to  establish  his  head-quarters, 
as  the  most  proper  station  for  launching  his  brigan- 
tines,  as  well  as  for  making  his  approaches  to  the 
capital.  In  order  to  render  his  residence  there  more 
secure,  he  deposed  the  cazique  or  «hief  who  was  at 
the  head  of  their  community,  under  pretext  of  some 
defect  in  his  title,  and  substituted  in  his  place  a 
person  whom  a  faction  of  the  nobles  pointed  out  as 
the  right  heir  of  that  dignity.  Attached  to  him  by 
this  benefit,  the  new  cazique  and  his  adherents 
served  the  Spaniards  with  inviolable  fidelity. 

As  the  preparations  for  constructing  the  brigan- 
tines  advanced  slowly  under  the  unskilful  hands  of 
soldiers  and  Indians,  whom  Cortes  was  obliged  to 
employ  in  assisting  three  or  four  carpenters  who 
happened  fortunately  to  be  in  his  service,  and  as  he 
had  not  yet  received  the  reinforcement  which  he  ex- 
pected from  Hispaniola,  he  was  not  in  a  condition  to 
turn  his  arms  directly  against  the  capital.  To  have 
attacked,  at  this  period,  a  city  so  populous,  so  well 
prepared  for  defence,  and  in  a  situation  of  such  pecu- 
liar strength,  must  have  exposed  his  troops  to  inevi- 
table destruction.  Three  months  elapsed  before  the 
materials  for  the  brigantines  were  finished,  and  before 
he  heard  any  thing  with  respect  to  the  success  of  the 
officer  whom  he  had  sent  to  Hispaniola.  This,  how- 
ever, was  not  a  season  of  inaction  to  Cortes.  He 
attacked  successively  several  of  the  towns  situated 
around  the  lake ;  and  though  all  the  Mexican  power 
was  exerted  to  obstruct  his  operations,  he  either  com- 
pelled them  to  ^submit  to  the  Spanish  crown,  or 


reduced  them  to  ruins.  The  inhabitants  of  other  towns 
he  endeavoured  to  conciliate  by  more  gentle  means, 
and  though  he  could  not  hold  any  intercourse  with 
them  but  by  the  intervention  of  interpreters,  yet, 
under  all  the  disadvantages  of  that  tedious  and  im- 
perfect mode  of  communication,  he  had  acquired 
such  thorough  knowledge  of  the  state  of  the  country, 
as  well  as  of  the  disposition  of  the  people,  that  he 
conducted  his  negociations  and  intrigues  with  asto- 
nishing dexterity  and  success.  Most  of  the  cities 
adjacent  to  Mexico  Avere  originally  the  capitals  of 
small  independent  states  ;  and  some  of  them,  having 
been  but  lately  annexed  to  the  Mexican  empire,  still 
retained  the  remembrance  of  their  ancient  liberty, 
and  bore  with  impatience  the  rigorous  yoke  of  their 
new  masters.  Cortes  having  early  observed  symp- 
toms of  their  disaffection,  availed  himself  of  this 
knowledge  to  gain  their  confidence  and  friendship. 
By  offering  them  with  confidence  to  deliver  them 
from  the  odious  dominion  of  the  Mexicans,  and  by 
liberal  promises  of  more  indulgent  treatment  if  they 
would  unite  with  him  against  their  oppressors,  he 
prevailed  on  the  people  of  several  considerable  dis- 
tricts, not  only  to  acknowledge  the  king  of  Castile 
as  their  sovereign,  but  to  supply  the  Spanish  camp 
with  provisions,  and  to  strengthen  his  army  with 
auxiliary  troops.  Guatimozin,  on  the  first  appear- 
ance of  defection  among  his  subjects,  exerted  himself 
with  vigour  to  prevent  or  to  punish  their  revolt ;  but, 
in  spite  of  his  efforts,  the  spirit  continued  to  spread. 
The  Spaniards  gradually  acquired  new  allies,  and 
with  deep  concern  he  beheld  Cortes  arming  against 
his  empire  those  very  hands  which  ought  to  have 
been  active  in  its  defence ;  and  ready  to  advance 
against  the  capital  at  the  head  of  a  numerous  body 
of  his  own  subjects. 

While,  by  those  various  methods,  Cortes  was  gra- 
dually circumscribing  the  Mexican  power  in  such  a 
manner  that  his  prospect  of  overturning  it  seemed 
neither  to  be  uncertain  nor  remote,  all  his  schemes 
were  well  nigh  defeated  by  a  conspiracy  no  less  un- 
expected than  dangerous.  The  soldiers  of  Narvaez 
had  never  united  perfectly  with  the  original  compa- 
nions of  Cortes,  nor  did  they  enter  into  his  measures 
with  the  same  cordial  zeal.  Upon  every  occasion  that 
required  any  extraordinary  effort  of  courage  or  of  pa- 
tience, their  spirits  were  apt  to  sink  ;  and  now,  on  a 
near  view  of  what  they  had  to  encounter,  in  attempt- 
ing to  reduce  a  city  so  inaccessible  as  Mexico,  and 
defended  by  a  numerous  army,  the  resolution  even  of 
those  among  them  who  had  adhered  to  Cortes  when 
he  was  deserted  by  their  associates,  began  to  fail. 
Their  fears  led  them  to  presumptuous  and  unsoldier- 
like  discussions  concerning  the  propriety  of  their 
general's  measures,  and  the  improbability  of  their 
success.  From  these  they  proceeded  to  censure  and 
invectives,  and  at  last  began  to  deliberate  how  they 
might  provide  for  their  own  safety,  of  which  they 
deemed  their  commander  to  be  totally  negligent. 
Antonio  Villefagna,  a  private  soldier,  but  bold,  in- 
triguing, and  strongly  attached  to  Velasquez,  artfully 
fomented  this  growing  spirit  of  disaffection.  His 
quarters  became  the  rendezvous  of  the  mal-contents, 
where,  after  many  consultations,  they  could  discover 
no  method  of  checking  Cortes  in  his  career,  but  by 
assassinating  him  and  his  most  considerable  officers, 
and  conferring  the  command  upon  some  person  who 
would  relinquish  his  wild  plans,  and  adopt  measures 
more  consistent  with  the  general  security.  Despair 
inspired  them  with  courage.  The  hour  for  perpe- 
trating the  crime,  the  persons  whom  they  destined  as 
victims,  the  officers  to  succeed  them  in  command 


128 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


were  all  named;  and  the  conspirators  signed  an 
association,  by  which  they  bound  themselves  with  most 
solemn  oaths  to  mutual  fidelity.  But  on  the  evening 
before  the  appointed  day,  'one  of  Cortes's  ancient 
followers,  who  had  been  seduced  into  the  conspiracy, 
touched  with  compunction  at  the  imminent  danger  of 
a  man  whom  he  had  long  been  accustomed  to  revere, 
or  struck  with  horror  at  his  own  treachery,  went 
privately  to  his  general,  and  revealed  to  him  all  that 
he  knew.  Cortes,  though  deeply  alarmed,  discerned 
at  once  what  conduct  was  proper  in  a  situation  so 
critical.  He  repaired  instantly  to  Villefagna's  quar- 
ters, accompanied  by  some  of  his  most  trusty  officers. 
The  astonishment  and  confusion  of  the  man  at  this 
unexpected  visit  anticipated  the  confession  of  his 
guilt.  Cortes,  while  his  attendants  seized  the  traitor, 
snatched  from  his  bosom  a  paper  containing  the  asso- 
ciation, signed  by  the  conspirators.  Impatient  to 
know  how  far  the  defection  extended,  he  retired  to 
read  it,  and  found  there  names  which  filled  him  with 
surprise  and  sorrow.  But  aware  how  dangerous  a 
strict  scrutiny  might  prove  at  such  a  juncture,  he 
confined  his  judicial  inquiries  to  Villefagna  alone. 
As  the  proofs  of  his  guilt  were  manifest,  he  was  con- 
demned after  a  short  trial,  and  next  morning  he  was 
seen  hanging  before  the  door  of  the  house  in  which 
he  had  lodged.  Cortes  called  his  troops  together, 
and  having  explained  to  them  the  atrocious  purpose 
of  the  conspirators,  as  well  as  the  justice  of  the  pun- 
ishment inflicted  on  Villefagna,  he  added,  with  an 
appearance  of  satisfaction,  that  he  was  entirely  igno- 
rant with  respect  to  all  the  circumstances  of  this  dark 
transaction,  as  the  traitor,  when  arrested,  had  sud- 
denly torn  and  swallowed  a  paper  which  probably 
contained  an  account  of  it,  and  under  the  severest 
tortures  possessed  such  constancy  as  to  conceal  the 
names  of  his  accomplices.  This  artful  declaration 
restored  tranquillity  to  many  a  breast  that  was  throb- 
bing, while  he  spoke,  with  consciousness  of  guilt  and 
dread  of  detection  ;  and  by  this  prudent  moderation, 
Cortes  had  the  advantage  of  having  discovered,  and 
of  being  able  to  observe,  such  of  his  followers  as 
were  disaffected;  while  they,  flattering  themselves 
that  their  past  crime  was  unknown,  endeavoured  to 
avert  any  suspicion  of  it,  by  redoubling  their  activity 
and  zeal  in  his  service. 

Cortes  did  not  allow  them  leisure  to  ruminate  on 
what  had  happened  ;  and,  as  the  most  effectual  means 
of  preventing  the  return  of  a  mutinous  spirit,  he  de- 
termined to  call  forth  his  troops  immediately  to  action. 
Fortunately  a  proper  occasion  for  this  occurred  with- 
out his  seeming  to  court  it.  He  received  intelligence 
that  the  materials  for  building  the  brigantines  were  at 
length  completely  finished,  and  waited  only  for  a  body 
of  Spaniards  to  conduct  them  to  Tezeuco.  The  com- 
mand of  this  convoy,  consisting  of  two  hundred  foot 
soldiers,  fifteen  horsemen,  and  two  field-pieces,  he 
gave  to  Sandoval,  who,  by  the  vigilance,  activity, 
and  courage  which  he  manifested  on  every  occasion, 
was  growing  daily  in  his  confidence,  and  in  the  esti- 
mation of  his  fellow-soldiers.  The  service  was  no  less 
singular  than  important ;  the  beams,  the  planks,  the 
masts,  the  cordage,  the  sails,  the  iron-work,  and  all 
the  infinite  variety  of  articles  requisite  for  the  con- 
etruction  of  thirteen  brigantines,  were  to  be  carried 
sixty  miles  over  land,  through  a  mountainous  coun- 
try, by  people  who  were  unacquainted  with  the 
ministry  of  domestic  animals,  or  the  aid  of  machines 
to  facilitate  any  work  of  labour.  The  Tlascalans 
furnished  eight  thousand  Tamenes,  an  inferior  order 
of  men  destined  for  servile  tasks,  to  carry  the 
materials  on  their  shou'ders,  and  appointed  fifteen 


thousand  warriors  to  accompany  and  ^defend  them. 
Sandoval  made  the  disposition  for  their  progress  with 
great  propriety,  placing  the  Tamenes  in  the  centre, 
one  body  of  warriors  in  the  front,  another  in  the 
rear,  with  considerable  parties  to  cover  the  flanks. 
To  each  of  these  he  joined  some  Spaniards,  not  only 
to  assist  them  in  danger,  but  to  accustom  them  to 
regularity  and  subordination.  A  body  so  numer- 
ous, and  so  much  encumbered,  advanced  leisurely, 
but  in  excellent  order ;  and  in  some  places,  where  it 
was  confined  by  the  woods  or  mountains,  the  line  of 
march  extended  above  six  miles.  Parties  of  Mexicans 
frequently  appeared  hovering  around  them  on  the 
high  grounds  ;  but  perceiving  no  prospect  of  success 
in  attacking  an  enemy  continually  on  his  guard,  and 
prepared  to  receive  them,  they  did  not  venture  to 
molest  him ;  and  Sandoval  had  the  glory  of  conduct- 
ing safely  to  Tezeuco  a  convoy  on  which  all  the  future 
operations  of  his  countrymen  depended. 

This  was  followed  by  another  event  of  no  less 
moment.  Four  ships  arrived  at  Vera  Cruz  fromHis- 
paniola,  with  two  hundred  soldiers,  eighty  horses, 
two  battering  cannon,  and  a  considerable  supply  of 
ammunition  and  arms.  Elevated  with  observing  that 
all  his  preparatory  schemes,  either  for  recruiting  his 
own  army,  or  impairing  the  force  of  the  enemy,  had 
now  produced  their  full  effect,  Cortes,  impatient  to 
begin  the  siege  in  form,  hastened  the  launching  of 
the  brigantines.  To  facilitate  this  he  had  employed 
a  vast  number  of  Indians,  for  two  months,  in  deep- 
ening the  small  rivulet  which  runs  by  Tezeuco  into 
the  lake,  and  in  forming  it  into  a  canal  near  two 
miles  in  length  (119);  and  though  the  Mexicans, 
aware  of  his  intentions,  as  well  as  of  the  danger  which 
threatened  them,  endeavoured  frequently  to  interrupt 
tho  labourers,  or  to  burn  the  brigantines,  the  work 
was  at  last  completed.  On  the  twenty-eighth  of 
April  all  the  Spanish  troops,  together  with  the  aux- 
iliary  Indians,  wore  drawn  up  on  the  banks  of  the 
canal  ;  and  with  extraordinary  military  pomp,  ren- 
dered more  solemn  by  the  celebration  of  the  most 
sacred  rites  of  religion,  the  brigantines  were  launched. 
As  they  fell  down  the  canal  in  order,  father  Olmedo 
blessed  them,  and  gave  each  its  name.  Every  eye 
followed  them  with  wonder  and  hope,  until  they  en- 
tered the  lake,  when  they  hoisted  their  sails,  and 
bore  away  before  the  wind.  A  general  shout  of  joy 
was  raised  ;  all  admiring  that  bold  inventive  genius, 
which,  by  means  so  extraordinary  that  their  success 
almost  exceeded  belief,  had  acquired  the  command  of  a 
fleet,  without  the  aid  of  which  Mexico  would  have  con- 
tinued to  set  the  Spanish  power  and  arms  at  defiance. 

Cortes  determined  to  attack  the  city  from  three 
different  quarters  ;  from  Tepeaca  on  the  north  side  of 
the  lake,-  from  Tacuba  on  thewest,  and  from  Cuyo- 
can  towards  the  south.  Those  towns  were  situated 
on  the  principal  causeways  which  led  to  the  capital, 
and  intended  for  their  defence.  He  appointed  San- 
doval to  command  in  the  first,  Pedro  de  Alvarado  in 
the  second,  and  Chris toval  de  Olid  in  the  third  ;  al- 
lotting to  each  a  numerous  body  of  Indian  auxiliaries, 
together  with  an  equal  division  of  Spaniards,  who,  by 
the  junction  of  the  troops  from  Hispaniola,  amounted 
now  to  eighty-six  horsemen,  and  eight  hundred  and 
eighteen  foot  soldiers  ;  of  whom  one  hundred  and 
eighteen  were  armed  with  muskets  or  cross-bows. 
The  train  of  artillery  consisted  of  three  battering 
cannon,  and  fifteen  field-pieces.  He  reserved  for  him- 
self, as  the  station  of  greatest  importance  and  danger, 
the  conduct  of  the  brigantines,  each  armed  with  one  of 
his  small  cannon,  and  manned  with  twenty-five 
Spaniards,  ^ 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


[May  10.]  As  Alvarado  and  Olid  proceeded  to- 
wards the  posts  assigned  them,  they  broke  down  the 
aqueducts  which  the  ingenuity  of  the  Mexicans  had 
erected  for  conveying  water  into  the  capital,  and  by 
the  distress  to  which  this  reduced  the  inhabitants, 
gave  a  beginning  to  the  calamities  which  they  were 
destined  to  suffer.  Alvarado  and  Olid  found  the 
towns  of  which  they  were  ordered  to  take  possession 
deserted  by  their  inhabitants,  who  had  fled  for  safety 
to  the  capital,  were  Gautimozin  had  collected  the 
chief  force  of  his  empire,  as  there  alone  he  could 
hope  to  make  a  successful  stand  against  the  for- 
midable enemies  who  were  approaching  to  assault 
him. 

The  first  effort  of  the  Mexicans  was  to  destroy  the 
fleet  of  brigantines,  the  fatal  effects  of  whose  oper- 
ations they  foresaw  and  dreaded.  Though  the  bri- 
gantines, after  all  the  labour  and  merit  of  Cortes  in 
forming  them,  were  of  inconsiderable  bulk,  rudely 
constructed,  and  manned  chiefly  with  landsmen, 
hardly  possessed  of  skill  enough  to  conduct  them, 
they  must  have  been  objects  of  terror  to  a  people  un- 
acquainted with  any  navigation  but  that  of  their  lake, 
and  possessed  of  no  vessel  larger  than  a  canoe.  Ne- 
cessity, however,  wired  Guatimozin  to  hazard  the 
attack ;  and  hoping  to  supply  by  numbers  what  he 
wanted  in  force,  he  assembled  such  a  multitude  of 
canoes  as  covered  the  face  of  the  lake.  They  rowed 
on  boldly  to  the  charge,  while  the  brigantines,  re- 
tarded by  a  dead  calm,  could  scarcely  advance  to 
meet  them.  But  as  the  enemy  drew  near,  a  breeze 
suddenly  sprung  up ;  in  a  moment  the  sails  were 
spread,  the  brigantines,  with  the  utmost  ease  broke 
through  their  feeble  opponents,  overset  many  canoes, 
and  dissipated  the  wholearmament  with  such  slaughter 
as  convinced  the  Mexicans,  that  the  progress  of  the 
Europeans  in  knowledge  and  arts  rendered  their 
superiority  greater  on  this  new  element  than  they  had 
hitherto  found  it  by  land. 

From  that  time  Cortes  remained  master  of  the  lake, 
and  the  brigantines  not  only  preserved  a  communica- 
tion between  the  Spaniards  in  their  different  stations, 
though  at  considerable  distance  from  each  other,  but 
were  employed  to  cover  the  causeways  on  each  side, 
and  keep  off  the  canoes,  when  they  attempted  to 
annoy  the  troops  as  they  advanced  towards  the  city. 
Cortes  formed  the  brigantines  into  three  divisions, 
appointing  one  to  cover  each  of  the  stations  from 
which  an  attack  was  to  be  carried  on  against  the  city, 
with  orders  to  second  the  operations  of  the  ofiicer  who 
commanded  there.  From  all  the  three  stations  he 
pushed  on  the  attack  against  the  city  with  equal 
vigour ;  but  in  a  manner  so  very  different  from  the 
conduct  of  sieges  in  regular  war,  that  he  himself 
seems  afraid  it  would  appear  no  less  improper  than 
singular,  to  persons  unacquainted  with  his  situation,  j 
Each  morning  his  troops  assaulted  the  barricades 
which  the  enemy  had  erected  on  the  causeways, 
forced  their  way  over  the  trenches  which  they  had 
dug,  and  through  the  canals  where  the  bridges 
were  broken  down,  and  endeavoured  to  penetrate 
into  the  heart  of  the  city,  in  hopes  of  obtaining 
some  decisive  advantage,  which  might  force  the 
enemy  to  surrender,  and  terminate  the  war  at 
once;  but  when  the  obstinate  valour  of  the  Mex- 
icans rendered  the  efforts  of  the  day  ineffectual, 
the  Spaniards  retired  in  the  evening  to  their  former 
quarters.  Thus  their  toil  and  danger  were,  in  some 
measure,  continually  renewed;  the  Mexicans  re- 
pairing in  the  night  what  the  Spaniards  had  de- 
stroyed through  the  day,  and  recovering  the  posts 
from  which  they  had  driven  them.  But  necessity 

THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA,  No,  17. 


prescribed  this  slow  and  untoward  mode  of  operation. 
The  number  of  his  troops  were  so  small,  that  Cortes 
durst  not,  with  a  handful  of  men,  attempt  to  make 
a  lodgment  in  a  city  where  he  might  be  surrounded 
and  annoyed  by  such  a  multitude  of  enemies.  The 
remembrance  of  what  he  had  already  suffered  by  the 
ill-judged  confidence  with  which  he  had  ventured  into 
such  a  dangerous  situation,  was  still  fresh  in  his 
mind.  The  Spaniards,  exhausted  with  fatigue,  were 
unable  to  guard  the  various  posts  which  they'  daily 
gained  ;  and  though  their  camp  was  filled  with  Indian 
auxiliaries,  they  durst  not  devolve  this  charge  upon 
them,  because  they  were  so  little  accustomed  to  dis- 
cipline, that  no  confidence  could  be  placed  in  their 
vigilance.  Besides  this,  Cortes  was  extremely  solici- 
tous to  preserve  the  city  as  much  as  possible  from 
being  destroyed,  both  because  he  destined  it  to  be 
the  capital  of  his  conquests,  and  wished  that  it  might 
remain  as  a  monument  of  his  glory.  From  all  these 
considerations,  he  adhered  obstinately,  for  a  month 
after  the  siege  was  opened,  to  the  system  which  he 
had  adopted.  The  Mexicans  in  their  own  defence, 
displayed  valour  which  was  hardly  inferior  to  that 
with  which  the  Spaniards  attacked  them.  On  land, 
on  water,  by  night  and  by  day,  one  furious  conflict 
succeeded  to  another.  Several  Spaniards  were  killed, 
more  wounded,  and  all  were  ready  to  sink  under  the 
toils  of  unremitting  service,  which  were  rendered 
more  intolerable  by  the  injuries  of  the  season,  the 
periodical  rains  being  now  set  in  with  their  usual 
violence. 

Astonished  and  disconcerted  with  the  length  and 
difficulties  of  the  siege,  Cortes  determined  to  make 
one  great  effort  to  get  possession  of  the  city,  before 
he  relinquished  the  plan  which  he  had  hitherto  fol- 
lowed, and  had  recourse  to  any  other  mode  of  attack. 
With  this  view,  he  sent  instructions  to  Alvarado  and 
Sandoval  to  advance  with  their  divisions  to  a 
general  assault,  and  took  the  command  in  person  of 
that  posted  on  the  causeway  of  Cuyocan.  Animated 
by  his  presence,  and  the  expectation  of  some  decisive 
event  [July  3],  the  Spaniards  pushed  forward  with 
irresistible  impetuosity.  They  broke  through  one 
barricade  after  another,  forced  their  way  over  the 
ditches  and  canals,  and  having  entered  the  city, 
gained  ground  incessantly,  in  spite  of  the  multitude 
and  ferocity  of  their  opponents.  Cortes,  though 
delighted  with  the  rapidity  of  his  progress,  did  not 
forget  that  he  might  still  find  it  necessary  to  retreat; 
and  in  order  to  secure  it,  appointed  Julien  de  Aide- 
rete,  a  captain  of  chief  note  in  the  troops  which  he 
had  received  from  Hispaniola,  to  fill  up  the  canals 
and  gaps  in  the  causeway  as  the  main  body  advanced. 

That  officer,  deeming  it  inglorious  to  be  thus  em- 
ployed while  his  companions  were  in  the  heat  of 
action  and  the  career  of  victory,  neglected  the 
important  charge  committed  to  him,  and  hurried  on, 
inconsiderately,  to  mingle  with  the  combatants.  The 
Mexicans,  whose  military  attention  and  skill  were 
daily  improving,  no  sooner  observed  this,  than  they 
carried  an  account  of  it  to  their  monarch. 

Guatimozin  instantly  discerned  the  consequence  of 
the  error  which  the  Spaniards  had  committed,  and, 
with  admirable  presence  of  mind,  prepared  to  take 
advantage  of  it.  He  commanded  the  troops  posted  in 
the  front  to  slacken  their  efforts,  in  order  to  allure 
the  Spaniards  to  push  forward,  while  he  dispatched 
a  large  body  of  chosen  warriors  through  different 
streets,  some  by  land  and  others  by  water,  towards 
the  great  breach  in  the  causeway,  which  had  been 
left  open.  On  a  signal  which  he  gave,  the  priests  in 
(he  principal  temple  struck  the  great  drum  conse- 
S 


130 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


crated  to  the  god  of  war.  No  sooner  did  the  Mexicans 
hear  its  doleful  solemn  sound,  calculated  to  inspire 
them  with  contempt  of  death  and  enthusiastic  ardour, 
than  they  rushed  upon  the  enemy  with  frantic  rage. 
The  Spaniards,  unable  to  resist  men  urged  on  no  less 
"by  religious  fury  than  hope  of  success,  began  to 
l-etire,  at  first  leisurely,  and  with  a  good  countenance; 
lut  as  the  enemy  pressed  on,  and  their  own  impa- 
tience to  escape  increased,  the  terror  and  confusion 
"became  so  general,  that  when  they  arrived  at  the  gap 
in  the  causeway,  Spaniards  and  Tlascalans,  horsemen 
and  infantry,  plunged  in  promiscuously,  while  the 
Mexicans  rushed  upon  them  fiercely  from  every  side, 
their  light  canoes  carrying  them  through  shoals 
which  the  brigantines  could  not  approach.  In  vain 
tlid  Cortes  attempt  to  stop  and  rally  his  flying  troops  ; 
faar  rendered  them  regardless  of  his  entreaties  or 
commands.  Finding  all  his  endeavours  to  renew  the 
combat  fruitless,  his  next  care  was  to  save  some  of 
those  who  had  thrown  themselves  into  the  water ; 
hut  while  thus  employed,  with  more  attention  to 
their  situation  than  his  own,  six  Mexican  captains 
suddenly  laid  hold  of  him,  and  were  hurrying  him  off 
in  triumph ;  and  though  two  of  his  officers  rescued 
him  at  the  expence  of  their  own  lives,  he  received 
several  dangerous  wounds  before  he  could  break 
loose.  Above  sixty  Spaniards  perished  in  the  rout ; 
and  what  rendered  the  disaster  more  afflicting,  forty 
of  these  fell  alive  into  the  hands  of  an  enemy  never 
jknown  to  show  mercy  to  a  captive. 

The  approach  of  night,  though  it  delivered  the  de- 
jected Spaniards  from  the  attacks  of  the  enemy, 
ushered  in  what  was  hardly  less  grievous,  the  noise  of 
their  barbarous  triumph,  and  of  the  horrid  festival 
•with  which  they  celebrated  their  victory.  Every 
quarter  of  the  city  was  illuminated  ;  the  great  temple 
shone  with  sueh  peculiar  splendour,  that  the  Span- 
iards could  plainly  see  the  people  in  motion,  and  the 
priests  busy  in  hastening  the  preparations  for  the 
death  of  the  prisoners.  Through  the  gloom,  they 
fancied  that  they  discerned  their  companions  by  the 
•whiteness  of  their  skins,  as  they  were  stript  naked, 
and  compelled  ^to  dance  before  the  image  of  the  god 
to  whom  they  were  to  be  offered.  They  heard  the 
shrieks  of  those  who  were  sacrificed,  and  thought  that 
they  could  distinguish  each  unhappy  victim  by  the 
•well-known  sound  of  his  voice.  Imagination  added 
to  what  they  really  saw  or  heard,  and  augmented  its 
horror.  The  most  unfeeling  melted  into  tears  of 
compassion,  and  the  stoutest  heart  trembled  at  the 
dreadful  spectacle  which  they  beheld  (120). 

Cortes,  who,  besides  all  that  he  felt  in  common  with 
his  soldiers,  was  oppressed  with  the  additional  load  of 
anxious  reflections  natural  to  a  general  on  such  an 
unexpected  calamity,  could  not,  like  them,  relieve  his 
mind  by  giving  vent  to  its  anguish.  He  was  obliged 
to  assume  an  air  of  tranquillity,  in  order  to  revive  the 
spirit  and  hopes  of  his  followers.  The  juncture, 
indeed,  required  an  extraordinary  exertion  of  forti- 
tude. The  Mexicans,  elated  with  their  victory,  sallied 
out  next  morning  to  attack  him  in  his  quarters.  But 
they  did  not  rely  on  the  efforts  of  their  own  arms 
alone.  They  sent  the  heads  of  the  Spaniards  whom 
they  had  sacrificed  to  the  leading  men  in  the  adjacent 
provinces,  and  assured  them  that  the  god  of  war, 
appeased  by  the  blood  of  their  invaders,  which  had 
been  shed  so  plentifully  on  his  altars,  had  declared 
with  an  audible  voice,  that  in  eight  days'  time  those 
hated  enemies  should  be  finally  destroyed,  and 
p«ace  and  prosperity  re-established  in  the  empire. 

A  prediction  uttered  with  such  confidence,  and  in 
terms  so  void  of  ambiguity,  gained  universal  credit 


among  a  people  prone  to  superstition.  The  zeal 
of  the  provincies  which  had  already  declared  against 
the  Spaniards  augmented;  and  several  which  had 
hitherto  remained  inactive,  took  arms,  with  enthusi- 
astic ardour,  to  execute  the  decree  of  the  gods.  The 
Indian  auxiliaries  who  had  joined  Cortes,  accustomed 
to  venerate  the  same  deities  with  the  Mexicans,  and 
to  receive  the  responses  of  their  priests  with  the  same 
implicit  faith,  abandoned  the  Spaniards  as  a  race  of 
men  devoted  to  certain  destruction.  Even  the  fidelity 
of  the  Tlascalans  was  shaken,  and  the  Spanish  troops 
were  left  almost  alone  in  their  stations.  Cortes, 
finding  that  he  attempted  in  vain  to  dispel  the  super- 
stitious fears  of  his  confederates  by  argument,  took 
advantage,  from  the  imprudence  of  those  who  had 
framed  the  prophecy,  in  fixing  its  accomplishment  so 
near  at  hand,  to  give  a  striking  demonstration  of  its 
falsity.  He  suspended  all  military  operations  during  the 
period  marked  out  by  the  oracle.  Under  cover  of  the 
brigantines,  which  kept  the  enemy  at  a  distance,  his 
troops  lay  in  safety,  and  the  fatal  term  expired  with- 
out any  disaster. 

Many  of  his  allies,  ashamed  of  their  own  credulity, 
returned  to  their  station.  Other  tribes,  judging  that 
the  gods  who  had  now  deceived  the  Mexicans,  had 
decreed  finally  to  withdraw  their  protection  from  them, 
joined  his  standard;  and  such  was  the  levity  of  a 
simple  people,  moved  by  every  slight  impression, 
that  in  a  short  time  after  such  a  general  defection  of 
his  confederates,  Cortes  saw  himself,  if  we  may 
believe  his  own  account,  at  the  head  of  a  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  Indians.  Even  with  such  a  numerous 
army,  he  found  it  necessary  to  adopt  a  new  and  more 
wary  system  of  operation.  Instead  of  renewing  his 
attempts  to  become  master  of  the  city  at  once,  by 
such  bold  but  dangerous  efforts  of  valour  as  he  had 
already  tried,  he  made  his  advances  gradually,  and 
with  every  possible  precaution  against  exposing  his 
men  to  any  calamity  similar  to  that  which  they  still 
bewailed.  As  the  Spaniards  pushed  forward,  the 
Indians  regularly  repaired  the  causeways  hehind  them. 
As  soon  as  they  got  possession  of  any  part  of  the 
town,  the  houses  were  instantly  levelled  with  the 
ground.  Day  by  day,  the  Mexicans,  forced  to  retire 
as  their  enemies  gained  ground,  were  hemmed  in 
within  more  narrow  limits.  Guatimozin,  though 
unable  to  stop  the  career  of  the  enemy,  continued  to 
defend  his  capital  with  obstinate  resolution,  and  dis- 
puted every  inch  of  ground.  The  Spaniards  not  only 
varied  their  mode  of  attack,  but,  by  orders  of  Cortes, 
changed  the  weapons  with  which  they  fought.  They 
were  again  armed  with  the  long  Chinantlan  spears, 
which  they  had  employed  with  such  success  against 
Narvaez ;  and,  by  the  firm  array  in  which  this  enabled 
them  to  range  themselves,  they  repelled,  with  little 
danger,  the  loose  assault  of  the  Mexicans  ;  incredible 
numbers  of  them  fell  in  the  conflicts  which  they 
renewed  every  day.  While  war  wasted  without, 
famine  began  to  consume  them  within  the  city.  The 
Spanish  brigantines,  having  the  entire  command  of 
the  lake,  rendered  it  almost  impossible  to  convey  to 
the  besieged  any  supply  of  provisions  by  water.  The 
immense  number  of  his  Indian  auxiliaries  enabled 
Cortes  to  shut  up  the  avenues  to  the  city  by  land. 
The  stores  which  Guatimo/in  had  laid  up  were 
exhausted  by  Ihe  multitudes  which  had  crowded  into 
the  capital  to  defend  their  sovereign  and  the  temples 
of  their  gods.  Not  only  the  people,  but  persons  of 
the  highest  rank,  felt  the  utmost  distresses  of  famine. 
What  they  suffered  brought  on  infectious  and  mortal 
distempers,  the  last  calamity  that  visits  besieged 
cities,  and  which  filled  up  the  measure  of  their  woes. 


THE  HISTOHY  OP  AMERICA, 


131 


But,  under  the  pressure  of  so  many  and  such  variou 
evils,  the  spirit   of  Guatimozin   remained   firm  ant 
unsubdued.      He  rejected,  with  scorn,  every  overture 
of  peace  from   Cortes  ;    and,   disdaining  the  idea  o 
submitting  to   the   oppressors   of  his   country,   deter- 
mined not  to  survive  its  ruin.     The  Spaniards  con- 
tinued their  progress   [July  27].     At  length  all  the 
three  divisions  penetrated  into  the  centre  of  the  city, 
and  made  a  secure  lodgment  there.     Three-fourths  oi 
the  city  were  now  reduced,  and  laid  in  ruins.     The 
remaining  quarter  was  so  closely  pressed,  that  it  could 
not  long  withstand  assailants,  who  attacked  it  from 
their  new  station  with  superior  advantage,   and  more 
assured  expectation  of  success.     The  Mexican  nobles, 
solicitous   to  save  the  life  of  a  monarch  whom  they 
revered,   prevailed  on  Guatimozin  to  retire  from   a 
place  where  resistance  was  now  vain,  that  he  might 
rouse  the  more  distant  provinces   of  the  empire  to 
arms,  and  maintain  there  a  more  successful  struggle 
with  the  public  enemy.     In  order  to  facilitate  the 
execution    of    this    measure,   they  endeavoured    to 
amuse  Cortes  with  the  overtures  of  submission,  that, 
while  his  attention  was   employed  in  adjusting  the 
articles    of    pacification,    Guatimozin    might    escape 
unperceived.       But  they  made  this  attempt  upon  a 
leader  of  greater  sagacity  and   discernment  than    to 
be  deceived  by   their  arts.     Cortes,   suspected  their 
intention,  and  aware  of  what  moment  it  was  to  defeat 
it,  appointed  Sandoval,   the  officer  on  whose  vigilance 
he  could  most  perfectly  rely,  to  take  the  command  of 
the  brigantines,  with  strict  injunctions  to  watch  every 
motion  of  the  enemy.      Sandoval,   attentive  to  the 
charge,   observing  some   large   canoes   crowded  with 
people    rowing    across    the    lake    with   extraordinary 
rapidity,  instantly  gave  the  signal  to  chase.     Garcia 
Holguin,  who  commanded  the  swiftest  sailing  brigan- 
tine,  soon  overtook  them,  and  was  preparing  to   fire 
on  the  foremost  canoe,  which  seemed  to  carry  some 
person  whom  all  the  rest  followed  and  obeyed.     At 
once  the  rowers  dropped  their  oars,  and  all  on  board, 
throwing  down  their  arms,  conjured  him  with  cries 
and  tears  to  forbear,  as  the  emperor1  was  there.    Hol- 
guin eagerly  seized  his  prize ;  and  Guatimozin,  with 
a  dignified  composure,  gave  himself  up  into  his  hands, 
requesting  only  that  no  insult  might  be  offered  to  the 
empress  or  his  children.     When  conducted  to  Cortes, 
he  appeared  neither  with  the  sullen  fierceness  of  a 
barbarian,  nor   with   the   dejection   of  a   supplicant. 
"I  have  done,"  said  he,  addressing  himse.f  to  the 
Spanish  general,  "  what  became   a  monarch.     I  have 
defended  my  people  to  the  last  extremity.     Nothing 
how  remains  but  to  die.     Take  this  dagger,"  laying 
his  hand  on  one  which  Cortes  wore,    "  plant  it  in  my 
breast,  and  put  an  end  to  a  life  which  can  no  longer 
be  of  use." 

[Aug.  13.]  As  soon  as  the  fate  of  their  sovereign 
was  known,  the  resistance  of  the  Mexicans  ceased  : 
and  Cortes  took  possession  of  that  small  part  of  the 
capital  which  yet  remained  undestroyed.  Thus  termi- 
nated the  siege  of  Mexico,  the  most  memorable  event 
in  the  conquest  of  America.  It  continued  seventy- 
five  days,  hardly  one  of  which  passed  without  some 
extraordinary  effort  of  one  party  in  the  attack,  or  of 
the  other  in  the  defence,  of  a  city,  on  the  fate  of 
which  both  knew  that  the  fortune  of  the  empire 
depended.  As  the  struggle  here  was  more  obstinate, 
it  was  likewise  more  equal,  than  any  between  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Old  and  New  Worlds.  The  great 
abilities  of  Guatimozin,  the  number  of  his  troops, 
the  peculiar  situation  of  his  capital,  so  far  counter- 
balanced the  superiority  of  the  Spaniards  in  arms  and 
discipline,  that  they  must  have  relinquished  the  enter- 


prise if  they  had  trusted  for  success  to  themselves 
alone.  But  Mexico  was  overturned  by  the  jealousy 
of  neighbours  who  dreaded  its  power,  and  by  the 
revolt  of  subjects  impatient  to  shake  off  its  yoke. 
By  their  effectual  aid,  Cortes  was  enabled  to  accom- 
plish what,  without  such  support,  he  would  hardly 
have  ventured  to  attempt.  How  much  soever  this 
account  of  the  reduction  of  MexJco  may  detract,  on. 
the  one  hand,  from  the  marvellous  relations  of  some 
Spanish  writers,  by  ascribing  that  to  simple  and 
obvious  causes  which  they  attribute  to  the  romantic 
valour  of  their  countrymen,  it  adds,  on  the  other,  to 
the  merit  and  abilities  of  Cortes,  who,  under  every 
disadvantage,  acquired  such  an  ascendant  over  un- 
known nations,  as  to  render  them  instruments  towards 
carrying  his  schemes  into  execution  (121). 

The  exultation  of  the  Spaniards  on  accomplishing; 
this  arduous  enterprise  was  at  first  excessive.  But 
this  was  quickly  damped  by  the  cruel  disappointment 
of  those  sanguine  hopes,  which  had  animated  them 
amidst  so  many  hardships  and  dangers.  Instead  of 
the  inexhaustible  wealth  which  they  expected  from 
becoming  masters  of  Montczuma's  treasures,  and 
the  ornaments  of  so  many  temples,  their  rapacious- 
ness  could  only  collect  an  •  inconsiderable  booty 
amidst  ruins  and  desolation.  Guatimozin,  aware 
of  his  impending  fate,  had  ordered  what  remained 
of  the  riches  amassed  by  his  ancestors  to  be  thrown 
nto  the  lake.  The  Indian  auxiliaries,  while  the 
Spaniards  were  engaged  in  conflict  with  the  enemy, 
had  carried  off  the  most  valuable  part  of  the  spoil. 
The  sum  to  be  divided  among  the  conquerors  was 
so  small,  that  many  of  them  disdained  to  iccept  of 
the  pittance  which  fell  to  their  share,  and  all  mur- 
mured and  exclaimed ;  some  against  Cortes  and  his 
confidants,  whom  they  suspected  of  having  secretly 
appropiated  to  their  own  ruse  a  large  portion  of 
;he  riches  which  should  have  been  brought  into 
the  common  stock;  others  against  Guatimozin, 
horn  they  accused  of  obstinacy,  in  refusing  t» 
discover  the  place  where  he  had  hidden  his  trea- 

re. 

Arguments,  entreaties,  and  promises  were  employed 
n  order  to  soothe  them,  but  with  so  little  effect,  that 
fortes,  from  solicitude  to  check  this  growing  spirit 
of  discontent,  gave  way  to  a  deed  Avhich  stains,  the 
jlory  of  all  his  great  actions.  Without  regarding  the 
brmer  dignity  of  Guatimozin,  or  feeling  any  reverence 
or  those  virtues  which  he  had  displayed,  he  subjected 
,he  unhappy  monarch,  together  with  his  chief  favou- 
rite, to  torture,  in  order  to  force  from  them  a  discovery 
)f  the  royal  treasures,  which  it  was  supposed  they  had 
concealed.  Guatimozin  bore  whatever  the  refined 
cruelty  of  his  tormentors  could  inflict,  with  the  in- 
'incible  fortitude  of  an  American  warrior.  His  fellow- 
ufferer,  overcome  by  the  violence  of  the  anguish, 
urned  a  dejected'  eye  towards  his  master,  which 
eemed  to  implore  his  permission  to  reveal  all  that 
le  knew.  But  the  high-spirited  prince,  darting  on 
lim  a  look  of  authority  mingled  with  scorn,  checked 
us  weakness  by  asking,  "  Am  I  now  reposing  orx  a 
ed  of  flowers  ?  "  Overawed  by  the  reproach,  tha 
avourite  persevered  in  his  dutiful  silence,  and  expired, 
fortes,  ashamed  of  a  scene  so  horrid,  rescued  the 
oyal  victim  from  the  hands  of  his  torturers,  and 
>rolonged  a  life  reserved  for  new  indignities  and 
•ufferings.  j 

The  fate  of  the  capital,  as  both  parties  had  foreseen, 
decided  that  of  the  empire.  The  provinces  sub  mitted 
me  after  another  to  the  conquerors.  Small  detach- 
ments of  Spaniards  marched  through  them  without 
nterruption,  penetrated  in  different  quarters  to.  the. 


132 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


great  Southern  occean,  which,  according  to  the  ideas 
of  Columbus,  they  imagined  would  open  a  short  as 
well  as  easy  passage  to  the  East  Indies,  and  secure  to 
the  crown  of  Castile  all  the  envied  wealth  of  those 
fertile  regions  ;  and  the  active  mind  of  Cortes  began 
already  to  form  schemes  for  attempting  his  import- 
ant discovery. 

He  did  not  know,  that  during  the  progress  of  his 
victorious  arms  in  Mexico,  the  very  scheme  of  which 
he  began  to  form  some  idea  had  been  undertaken  and 
accomplished.  As  this  is  one  of  the  most  splendid 
events  in  the  history  of  the  Spanish  discoveries,  and 
has  been  productive  of  effect*  peculiarly  interesting 
to  those  extensive  provinces  which  Cortes  had  now 
subjected  to  the  crown  of  Castile,  the  account  of  its 
rise  and  progress  merits  a  particular  detail. 

Ferdinand  Magalhaens,  or  Magellan,  a  Portuguese 
gentleman  of  honourable  birth,  having  served  several 
years  in  the  East  Indies,  with  distinguished  valour, 
under  the  famous  Albuquerque,  demanded  the  recom- 
pence  which  he  thought  due  to  his  services,  with  the 
boldness  natural  to  a  high-spirited  soldier.  But  as  his 
general  would  not  grant  his  suit,  and  he  expected 
greater  justice  from  his  sovereign,  whom  he  knew  to 
be  a  good  judge  and  a  generous  re  warder  of  merit, 
he  quitted  India  abruptly,  and  returned  to  Lisbon. 
In  order  to  induce  Emanuel  to  listen  more  favourably 
to  his  claim,  he  not  only  stated  his  past  services,  but 
oifered  to  add  to  them  by  conducting  his  countrymen 
to  the  Molucca  or  Spice  Islands,  by  holding  a  west- 
terly  course ;  which  he  contended  would  be  both 
shorter  and  less  hazardous  than  that  which  the  Portu- 
guese now  followed  by  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope, 
through  the  immense  extent  of  the  Eastern  Ocean. 
This  was  the  original  and  favourite  project  of  Colum- 
hus,  and  Magellan  founded  his  hopes  of  success  on 
the  ideas  of  that  great  navigator,  confirmed  by  many 
observations,  the  result  of  his  own  naval  experience,  as 
"well  as  that  of  his  countrymen,  in  their  intercourse 
with  the  East.  But  though  the  Portuguese  monarchs 
had  the  merit  of  having  first  awakened  and  encouraged 
the  spirit  of  discovery  in  that  age,  it  was  their  destiny, 
in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  to  reject  two  grand 
schemes  for  this  purpose,  the  execution  of  which 
would  have  been  attended  with  a  great  accession  of 

flory  to  themselves,  and  of  power  to  their  kingdom. 
n  consequence  of  some  ill-founded  prejudice  against 
Magellan,  or  of  some  dark  intrigue  which  contempo- 
rary historians  have  not  explained,  Emanuel  would 
neither  bestow  the  recompence  which  he  claimed,  nor 
approveofthe  schemewhich  he  proposed;  and  dismissed 
him  with  a  disdainful  coldness  ;  intolerable  to  a  man 
conscious  of  what  he  deserved,  and  animated  with  the 
sanguine  hopes  of  success  peculiar  to  thosewho  are  ca- 
pable of  forming  or  of  conducting  new  and  great  under- 
takings [A. D. 1517].  In  a  transport  of  resentment  Magel- 
lan formally  renounced  his  allegiance  to  an  ungrateful 
master,  and  fled  to  the  Court  of  Castile,  where  he  ex- 
pected that  his  talents  would  be  most  justly  estimated. 
He  endeavoured  to  recommend  himself  by  offering  to 
execute  under  the  patronage  of  Spain,  that  scheme 
which  he  had  laid  before  the  court  of  Portugal,  the 
accomplishment  of  which,  he  knew,  would  wound 
the  monarch  against  whom  he  was  exasperated  in 
the  most  tender  part.  In  order  to  establish  the 
justness  of  his  theory,  he  produced  the  same  argu- 
ments which  he  had  employed  at  Lisbon  ;  acknow- 
ledging, at  the  same  time,  that  the  undertaking  was 
both  arduous  and  expensive,  as  it  could  not  bo 
attempted  but  with  a  squadron  of  considerable  force, 
and  victualled  for  at  least  two  years.  Fortunately, 
he  applied  to  a  minister  who  was  not  apt  to  be  deterred, 


either  by  the  boldness  of  a  design,  or  the  expense 
of  carrying  it  into  execution.  Cardinal  Ximenes,  who 
at  that  time  directed  the  affairs  of  Spain,  discerning 
at  once  what  an  increase  of  wealth  and  gloiy  would 
accrue  to  his  country  by  the  success  of  Magellan's 
proposal,  listened  to  it  with  a  most  favourable  ear. 
Charles  V.  on  his  arrival  in  his  Spanish  dominions, 
entered  into  the  measure  with  no  loss  ardour,  and 
orders  were  issued  for  equipping  a  proper  squadron 
at  the  public  charge,  of  which  the  command  was 
given  to  Magellan,  whom  the  king  honoured  with 
the  habit  of  St.  Jago,  and  the  title  of  captain-general. 

On  the  tenth  of  August  one  thousand  five  hundred 
and  nineteen,  Magellan  sailed  from  Seville  with  five 
ships,  which,  according  to  the  ideas  of  the  age,  were 
deemed  to  be  of  considerable-  force,  though  the  burden 
of  the  largest  did  not  exceed  one  hundred  and  twenty 
tons.  The  crews  of  the  whole  amounted  to  two 
hundred  and  thirty-four  men,  among  whom  were 
some  of  the  most  skilful  pilots  in  Spain,  and  several 
Portuguese  sailors  in  whose  experience,  as  more 
extensive,  Magellan  placed  still  greater  confidence. 
After  touching  at  the"  Canaries,  he  stood  directly 
south  towards  the  equinoctial  line  along  the  coast  of 
America,  but  was  so  long  retarded  by  tedious  calms, 
and  spent  so  much  time  in  searching  every  bay  and 
inlet  for  that  communication  with  the  Southern 
Ocean  which  he  wished  to  discover,  that  he  did  not 
reach  the  river  De  la  Plata  till  the  twelfth  of  January. 
[A.  D.  1520.]  That  spacious  opening  through  whick 
its  vast  body  of  water  pours  into  the  Atlantic 
allured  him  to  enter  ;  but  after  sailing  up  it  for  some 
days,  he  concluded,  from  the  shallowness  of  the 
stream  and  the  freshness  of  the  water,  that  the 
wished-for  strait  was  not  situated  there,  and  continued 
his  course  towards  the  south.  On  the  thirty-first  of 
March  he  arrived  in  the  port  of  St.  Julian,  about 
forty-eight  degrees  south  of  the  line,  where  he  re- 
solved to  winter.  In  this  uncomfortable  station  he 
lost  one  of  his  squadron,  and  the  Spaniards  suffered 
so  much  from  the  excessive  rigour  of  the  climate, 
that  the  crews  of  three  of  his  ships,  headed  by  their 
officers,  rose  in  open  mutiny,  and  insisted  on  relin- 
quishing the  visionary  project  of  a  desperate  adven- 
turer, and  returning  directly  to  Spain.  This  dangerous 
insurrection  Magellan  suppressed  by  an  effort  of 
courage  no  less  prompt  than  intrepid,  and  inflicted 
exemplary  punishment  en  the  ringleaders.  With  the 
remainder  of  his  followers,  overawed  but  not  recon- 
ciled to  his  scheme,  he  continued  his  voyage  towards 
the  south,  and  at  length  discovered,  near  the  fifty- 
third  degree  of  latitude,  the  mouth  of  a  strait,  into 
which  he  entered,  notwithstanding  the  murmurs  and 
remonstrances  of  the  people  under  his  command. 
After  sailing  twenty  days  in  that  winding  dangerous 
channel,  to  which  he  gave  his  own  name,  and  where 
one  of  his  ships  deserted  him,  the  great  Southern 
Ocean  opened  to  his  view,  and  with  tears  of  joy  he 
returned  thanks  to  Heaven  for  having  thus  far 
crowned  his  endeavours  with  success. 

But  he  was  still  at  a  greater  distance  than  he 
imagined  from  the  object  of  his  wishes.  He  sailed 
during  three  months  and  twenty  days  in  an  uniform 
direction  towards  ths  north-west,  without  discovering 
land.  In  this  voyage,  the  longest  that  had  ever  been 
made  in  the  unbounded  ocean,  he  suffered  incredible 
distress.  His  stock  of  provisions  was  almost  ex- 
hausted, the  water  became  putrid,  the  men  were 
reduced  to  the  shortest  allowance  with  which  it  was 
possible  to  sustain  life,  and  the  scurvy,  the  most 
dreadful  of  all  the  maladies  with  which  seafaring 
people  are  afflicted,  began  to  spread  among  the  crew. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA, 


133 


One  circumstance  alone  afforded  them  some  consola- 
tion ;  they  enjoyed  an  uninterrupted  course  of  fair 
weather,  with  such  favourable  winds,  that  Magellan 
bestowed  on  that  ocean  the  name  of  Pacific,  which  it 
still  retains.  When  reduced  to  such  extremity  that 
they  must  have  sunk  under  their  sufferings,  they  fell 
in  with  a  cluster  of  small  hut  fertile  islands  [March 
C],  which  afforded  them  refreshments  in  such  abun- 
dance, that  their  health  was  soon  re-established. 
From  these  isles,  which  he  called  De  los  Ladronei, 
he  proceeded  on  his  voyage,  and  soon  made  a  more 
important  discovery  of  the  islands  now  known  by  the 
name  of  the  Philippine*,  In  one  of  these  he  got  into 
an  unfortunate  quarrel  with  the  natives,  who  attacked 
him  with  a  numerous  body  of  troops  well  armed  ;  and 
while  he  fought  at  the  head  of  his  men  with  his  usual 
valour,  he  fell  by  the  hands  of  those  barbarians  [April 
26],  together  with  several  of  his  principal  officers. 

The  expedition  was  prosecuted  under  other  com- 
manders. After  visiting  many  of  the  smaller  isles 
scattered  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  Indian  Ocean, 
they  touched  at  the  great  island  of  Borneo,  and  at 
length  landed  in  Tidore,  one  of  the  Moluccas,  to  the 
astonishment  of  the  Portuguese,  who  could  not  com- 
prehend how  the  Spaniards  by  holding  a  westerly 
course,  had  arrived  at  that  sequestered  seat  of  their 
most  valuable  commerce,  which  they  themselves  had 
discovered  by  sailing  in  an  opposite  direction.  There, 
and  in  the  adjacent  isles,  the  Spaniards  found  a 
people  acquainted  with  the  benefits  of  extensive 
trade,  and  willing  to  open  an  intercourse  with  a  new 
nation.  They  took  in  a  cargo  of  the  precious  spices, 
•which  arc  the  distinguished  productions  of  these 
islands  ;  and  with  that,  as  well  as  with  specimens  of 
the  rich  commodities  yielded  by  the  other  countries 
which  they  had  visited,  the  Victory,  which,  of  the  two 
ships  that  remained  of  the  squadron,  was  most  fit  for 
a  long  voyage,  set  sail  for  Europe  [January  1522], 
under  the  command  of  Juan  Sebastian  del  Cano.  He 
followed  the  course  of  the  Portuguese,  by  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,  and  after  many  disasters  and  sufferings 
he  arrived  at  St.  Lucar  on  the  seventh  of  September 
one  thousand  five  hundred  and  twenty-two,  having 
sailed  round  the  globe  in  the  space  of  three  years  and 
twenty-eight  days. 

Though  an  untimely  fate  deprived  Magellan  of  the 
satisfaction  of  accomplishing  this  great  undertaking, 
his  contemporaries,  just  to  his  memory  and  talents, 
ascribed  to  him  not  only  the  honour  of  having  formed 
the  plan,  but  of  having  surmounted  almost  every 
obstacle  to  the  completion  of  it ;  and  in  the  present 
age  his  name  is  still  ranked  amongst  the  highest  in 
the  roll  of  eminent  and  successful  navigators.  The 
naval  glory  of  Spain  now  eclipsed  that  of  every  other 
nation  ;  and  by  a  singular  felicity  she  had  the  merit, 
in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  of  discovering  a  new 
continent  almost  as  large  as  that  part  of  the  earth 
•which  was  formerly  known,  and  of  ascertaining  by 
experience  the  form  and  extent  of  the  whole  of  the 
terraqueous  globe. 

The  Spaniards  were  not  satisfied  with  the  glory  of 
having  first  encompassed  the  earth  ;  they  expected  to 
derive  great  commercial  advantages  from  this  new  and 
"boldest  effort  of  their  maritime  skill.  The  men  of 
science  among  them  contended,  that  the  Spice  Islands, 
and  several  of  the  richest  countries  in  the  east,  were 
so  situated  as  to  belong  of  right  to  the  crown  of  Cas- 
tile, in  consequence  of  the  partitions  made  by  Alex- 
ander VI.  The  merchants,  without  attending  to  this 
discussion,  engaged  eagerly  in  that  lucrative  and 
alluring  commerce  which  was  t>ow  opened  to  them. 
The  Portuguese,  alarmed  at  the  intrusion  of  such 


formidable  rivals,  remonstrated  and  negociated  in 
Europe,  while  in  Asia  they  obstructed  the  trade  of 
the  Spaniards  by  force  of  arms.  Charles  V.  not 
sufficiently  instructed  with  respect  to  the  importance 
of  this  valuable  branch  of  commerce,  or  distracted  by 
the  multiplicity  of  his  schemes  and  operations,  did 
not  afford  his  subjects  proper  protection.  At  last, 
the  low  state  of  his  finances,  exhausted  by  the  efforts 
of  his  arms  in  every  part  of  Europe,  together  with 
the  dread  of  adding  a  new  war  with  Portugal  to  those 
in  which  he  was  a'ready  engaged,  induced  him  to 
make  over  his  claim  of  the  Moluccas  to  the  Portuguese 
for  three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  ducats.  He 
reserved,  however,  to  the  crown  of  Castile  the  right 
of  reviving  its  pretensions  on  repayment  of  that  sum; 
but  other  objects  engrossed  his  attention  and  that  of 
his  successors  ;  and  Spain  was  finally  excluded  from 
a  branch  of  commerce  in  which  it  was  engaging  with 
sanguine  expectations  of  profit. 

Though  the  trade  with  the  Moluccas  was  relin- 
quished, the  voyage  of  Magellan  was  followed  by 
commercial  effects  of  great  moment  to  Spain.  Philip 
II.,  in  the  year  one  thousand  five  hundred  and  sixty- 
four,  reduce:!  those  islands  which  he  discovered  in 
the  Eastern  ocean  to  subjection,  and  established 
settlements  there  ;  between  which  and  the  kingdom 
of  New  Spain  a  regular  intercourse,  the  nature  of 
which  shall  be  explained  in  its  proper  place,  is  still 
carried  on.  I  return  now  to  the  transactions  in  new 
Spain. 

At  the  time  that  Cortes  was  acquiring  such  ex- 
tensive territories  for  his  native  country,  and  preparing 
the  way  for  future  conquests,  it  was  his  singular  fate 
not  only  to  be  destitute  of  any  commission  or  autho- 
rity from  the  sovereign  whom  he  wa»  serving  with 
such  successful  zeal,  but  to  be  regarded  as  an  un- 
dutiful  and  seditious  subject.  By  the  influence  of 
Fonseca,  bishop  of  Burgos,  his  conduct  in  assuming 
the  government  of  New  Spain  was  declared  to  be  au 
irregular  usurpation,  in  contempt  of  the  royal  autho- 
rity ;  and  Christoval  de  Tapia  received  a  commissionj 
empowering  him  to  supersede  Cortes,  to  seize  his 
person,  to  confiscate  his  effects,  to  make  a  strict 
scrutiny  into  his  proceedings,  and  to  transmit  the 
result  of  all  the  inquiries  carried  on  in  New  Spain  to 
the  council  of  the  Indies,  of  which  the  bishop  of 
Burgos  was  president.  A  few  weeks  after  the  re- 
duction of  Mexico,  Tapia  landed  at  Vera  Cruz,  with 
the  royal  mandate  to  strip  its  conqueror  of  his 
power,  and  treat  him  as  a  criminal.  But  Fonseca 
had  chosen  a  very  improper  instrument  to  wreak  his 
vengeance  on  Cortes.  Tapia  had  neither  the  repu- 
tation nor  the  talents  that  suited  the  high  command 
to  which  he  was  appointed.  Cortes,  while  he  publicly 
expressed  the  most  respectful  veneration  for  the 
emperor's  authority,  secretly  took  measures  to  defeat 
the  effect  of  his  commission  ;  and  having  involved 
Tapia  and  his  followers  in  a  multiplicity  of  negoci- 
ations  and  conferences,  in  which  he  sometimes  had 
recourse  to  threats,  but  more  frequently  employed 
bribes  and  promises,  he  at  length  prevailed  upon  that 
weak  man  to  abandon  a  province  which  he  was  un- 
worthy of  governing. 

[May  15.]  But  notwithstanding  the  fortunate  dex- 
terity with  which  he  had  eluded  this  danger,  Cortes 
was  so  sensible  of  the  precarious  tenure  by  which  "he 
held  his  power,  that  he  despatched  deputies  to 
Spain,  with  a  pompous  account  of  the  success  of  his 
arms,  with  further  specimens  of  the  productions  of 
the  country,  and  with  rich  presents  to  the  emperor, 
as  the  earnest  of  future  contributions  from  his  new 
conquests ;  requesting,  in  recompence  for  all  his  ser« 


134 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


vices,  the  approbation  of  his  proceedings,  and  that  he 
might  be  intrusted  with  the  government  of  those  domi- 
nions, which  his  conduct  and  the  valour  of  his  fol- 
lowers had  added  to  the  crown  of  Castile.  The  juncture 
in  which  his  deputies  reached  the  court  was  favourable. 
The  internal  commotions  in  Spain,  which  had  dis- 
quieted the  beginning  of  Charles's  reign  were  just  ap- 
peased. The  ministers  had  leisure  to  turn  their 
attention  towards  foreign  affairs.  The  account  of 
Cortes's  victories  filled  his  countrymen  with  admira- 
tion. The  extent  and  value  of  his  conquests  became 
the  object  of  vast  and  interesting  hopes.  Whatever 
stain  he  might  have  contracted,  by  the  irregularity 
of  the  steps  which  he  took  in  order  to  attain  power, 
was  so  fully  effaced  by  the  splendour  and  merit  of  the 
great  actions  which  this  had  enabled  him  to  perform, 
that  eveiy  heart  revolted  at  the  thought  of  inflicting 
any  censure  on  a  man  whose  services  entitled  him  to 
the  highest  marks  of  distinction.  The  public  voice 
declared  warmly  in  favour  of  his  pretensions  ;  and 
Charles,  arriving  in  Spain  about  this  time,  adopted  the 
sentiments  of  his  subjects  with  a  youthful  ardour. 
Notwithstanding  the  claims  of  Velasquez,  and  the 
partial  representations  of  the  bishop  of  Burgos,  the 
emperor  appointed  Cortes  saptain-general  and  gover- 
nor of  New  Spain,  judging  that  no  person  was  so 
capable  of  maintaining  the  royal  'authority,  or  of  esta- 
blishing good  order  both  among  his  Spanish  and  Indian 
subjects,  as  the  victorious  leader  whom  the  former  had 
long  been  accustomed  to  obey,  and  the  latter  had  been 
taught  to  fear  and  to  respect. 

Even  before  his  jurisdiction  received  this  legal  sanc- 
tion, Cortes  ventured  to  exercise  all  the  powers  of  a 
governor,  and  by  various  arrangements,  endeavoured 
to  render  his  conquest  a  secure  and  beneficial  acquisi- 
tion to  his  country.  He  determined  te  establish  the 
seat  of  government  in  its  ancient  station,  and  to  raise 
Mexico  again  from  its  ruins ;  and  having  conceived 
high  ideas  concerning  the  future  grandeur  of  the  state 
of  which  he  was  laying  the  foundation,  he  began  to 
re-build  its  capital  on  a  plan  which  hath  gradually 
formed  the  most  magnificent  city  in  the  New  World. 
At  the  same  time,  he  employed  skilful  persons  to 
search  for  mines  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  and 
opened  some  which  were  found  to  be  richer  than  any 
which  the  Spaniards  had  hitherto  discovered  in 
America.  He  detached  his  principal  officers  into  the 
remote  provinces,  and  encouraged  them  to  settle  there, 
not  only  by  bestowing  upon  them  large  tracts  of  land, 
but  by  granting  them  the  same  dominion  over  the 
Indians,  and  the  same  right  to  their  service,  which 
the  Spaniards  had  assumed  in  the  islands. 

It  was  not,  however,  without  difficulty,  that  the 
Mexican  empire  could  be'entirely  reduced  into  the  form 
of  a  Spanish  colony.  Enraged  and  rendered  desperate 
by  oppression,  the  natives  often  forgot  the  superiority 
of  their  enemies,  and  ran  to  arms  in  defence  of  their 
liberties.  In  every  contest,  however,  the  European 
valour  and  discipline  prevailed.  But  fatally  for  the 
honour  of  their  country,  the  Spaniards  sullied  the 
glory  redounding  from  these  repeated  victories,  by 
their  mode  of  treating  the  vanquished  people.  After 
taking  Guatimozin,  and  becoming  masters  of  his 
capital,  they  supposed  that  the  king  of  Castile  entered 
on  possession  of  all  the  rights  of  the  captive  monarch, 
and  affected  to  consider  every  effort  of  the  Mexicans 
to  assert  their  own  independence,  as  the  rebellion  of 
vassals  against  their  sovereign,  or  the  mutiny  of 
slaves  against  their  master.  Under  the  sanction  of 
those  ill-founded  maxims,  they  violated  every  right 
that  should  be  held  sacred  between  hostile  nations. 
After  each  insurrection,  they  reduced  the  common 


people,  in  the  provinces  which  they  subdued,  to  the 
most  humiliating  of  all  conditions,  that  of  personal 
servitude.  Their  chiefs,  supposed  to  be  more  crimi- 
nal, were  punished  with  greater  severity,  and  put  to 
death  in  the  most  ignominious  or  the  most  excruci- 
ating mode  that  the  insolence  or  the  cruelty  of  their 
conquerors  could  devise.  In  almost  every  district  of 
the  Mexican  empire,  the  progress  of  the  Spanish  arms 
is  marked  with  blood,  and  with  deeds  so  atrocious,  as  to 
disgrace  the  enterprising  valour  that  conducted  them 
to  success.  In  the  country  of  Panuco  sixty  caziques 
or  leaders,  and  four  hundred  nobles,  were  burnt  at 
one  time.  Nor  was  this  shocking  barbarity  perpe- 
trated in  any  sudden  sally  of  rage,  or  by  a  commander 
of  inferior  note.  It  was  the  act  of  Sandoval,  an  officer 
whose  name  is  entitled  to  the  second  rank  in  the  annals  of 
New  Spain,  and  executed  after  a  solemn  consultation 
with  Cortes  ;  and  to  complete  the  horror  of  the  scene, 
the  children  and  relations  of  the  wretched  victims 
were  assembled,  and  compelled  to  be  spectators  of 
their  dying  agonies.  It  seems  hardly  possible  to 
exceed  in  horror  this  dreadful  example  of  severity  ; 
but  it  was  followed  by  another,  which  affected  the 
Mexicans  still  more  sensibly,  as  it  gave  them  a  most 
feeling  proof  of  their  own  degradation,  and  of  the 
small  regard  which  their  haughty  master  retained  for 
the  ancient  dignity  and  splendour  of  their  state.  On 
a  slight  suspicion,  confirmed  by  very  imperfect  evi- 
dence, that  Guatimozin  had  formed  a  scheme  to  shake 
off  the  yoke,  and  to  excite  his  former  subjects  to  take 
arms,  Cortes,  without  the  formality  of  a  trial,  ordered 
the  unhappy  monarch,  together  with  the  caziques 
ofTezeuco  andTacuba,  the  two  persons  of  the  greatest 
eminence  in  the  empire,  to  be  hanged  ;  and  the  Mexi- 
cans, with  astonishment  and  horror,  beheld  this  dis- 
graceful punishment  inflicted  upon  persons,  to  whom 
they  were  accustomed  to  look  up  with  reverence 
hardly  inferior  to  that  which  they  paid  to  the  gods 
themselves  (122).  The  example  of  Cortes  and  hi* 
principal  officers  encouraged  and  justified  persons  of 
subordinate  rank  to  venture  upon  committing  greater 
excesses.  Nuno  de  Guzman,  in  particular,  stained 
an  iliustrious  name  by  deeds  of  peculiar  enormity 
and  rigour,  in  various  expeditions  which  he  con- 
ducted. 

One  circumstance,  however,  saved  the  Mexicans 
from  further  consumption,  perhaps  from,  one  as  com- 
plete as  that  which  had  depopulated  the  islands.  The 
first  conquerors  did  not  attempt  to  search  for  the  pre- 
cious metals  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth.  They  were 
neither  sufliciently  wealthy  to  carry  on  the  expensive 
works,  which  are  requisite  for  opening  those  deep 
recesses  where  nature  has  concealed  the  veins  of  gold 
and  silver,  nor  sufficiently  skilful  to  perform  the  in- 
genious operations  by  which  those  precious  metals  are 
separated  from  their  respective  oies.  They  were  satis- 
fied with  the  more  simple  method,  practised  by  the 
Indians,  of  washing  the  earth  carried  down  rivers  and 
torrents  from  the  mountains,  and  collecting  the  grain* 
of  native  metal  deposited  there.  The  rich  mines  of 
New  Spain,  which  have  poured  forth  their  treasures 
with  such  profusion  on  every  quarter  of  the  globe, 
were  not  discovered  for  several  years  after  the  con- 
quest. [A.  D.  1552,  &c.]  By  that  time  a  more 
orderly  government  and  police  were  introduced  into 
the  colony  ;  experience,  derived  from  former  errors, 
had  suggested  many  useful  and  humane  regulations 
for  the  protection  and  preservation  of  the  Indians  : 
and  though  it  then  became  necessary  to  increase  the 
number  of  those  employed  in  the  mines,  and  they  were 
engaged  in  a  species  of  labour  more  pernicious  to  the 
human  constitution,  they  suffered  less  hardship  or 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


135 


diminution  than  from  the  ill-judged  but  less  extensive 
schemes  of  the  first  conquerors. 

While  it  was  the  lot  of  the  Indians  to  suffer,  their 
new  masters  seemed  not  to  have  derived  any  consi- 
derable wealth  from  their  ill-conducted  researches. 
According  to  the  usual  fate  of  first  settlers  in  new 
colonies,  it  was  their  lot  to  encounter  danger,  and  to 
struggle  with  difficulties  ;  the  fruits  of  their  victories 
and  toils  were  reserved  for  times  of  tranquillity,  and 
reaped  by  successors  of  greater  industry,  but  of  infe- 
rior merit.  The  early  historians  of  America  abound 
with  accounts  of  the  sufferings  and  of  the  poverty  of 
its  conquerors.  In  New  Spain,  their  condition  was 
rendered  more  grievous  by  a  peculiar  arrangement. 
When  Charles  V.  advanced  Cortes  to  the  government 
of  that  country,  he  at  the  same  time  appointed  cer- 
tain commissioners  to  receive  and  administer  the  royal 
revenue  there  with  independent  jurisdiction.  These 
men,  chosen  from  inferior  stations  in  various  depart- 
ments of  public  business  at  Madrid,  were  so  much 
elevated  with  their  promotion,  that  they  thought  they 
were  called  to  act  a  part  of  the  first  consequence. 
But  being  accustomed  to  the  minute  formalities  of 
office,  and  having  contracted  the  narrow  ideas  suited 
to  the  sphere  in  which  they  had  hitherto  moved,  they 
were  astonished,  on  arriving  in  Mexico,  [A.  D.  1524,] 
at  the  high  authority  which  Cortes  exercised,  and 
could  not  conceive  that  the  mode  of  administration,  in 
a  country  recently  subdued  and  settled,  must  bo  dif- 
ferent from  what  took  place  in  one  where  tranquillity 
and  regular  government  had  been  long  established. 
In  their  letters  they  represented  Cortes  as  an  ambi- 
tious tyrant,  who,  having  usurped  a  jurisdiction 
superior  to  law,  aspired  at  independence,  and  by  his 
exorbitant  wealth  and  extensive  influence  might  ac- 
complish those  disloyal  schemes  which  he  apparently 
meditated.  These  insinuations  made  such  deep  im- 
pression upon  the  Spanish  ministers,  most  of  whom 
had  been  formed  to  business  under  the  jealous  and 
rigid  administration  of  Ferdinand,  that,  unmindful 
of  all  Cortes's  past  services,  and  regardless  of  what 
he  was  then  suffering  in  conducting  that  extraordinary 
expedition,  in  which  he  advanced  from  the  lake  of 
Mexico  to  ,  the  western  extremities  of  Honduras 
(123),  they  infused  the  same  suspicions  into  the 
mind  of  their  master,  and  prevailed  on  him  to  order  a 
solemn  inquest  to  be  made  into  his  conduct,  [A.D.  1525] 
with  powers  to  the  licentiate,  Ponce  de  Leon,  intrusted 
with  that  commission,  to  seize  his  person,  if  he  should 
find  that  expedient,  and  send  him  prisoner  to  Spain. 

The  sudden  death  of  Ponce  de  Leon,  a  few  days 
after  his  arrival  in  New  Spain,  prevented  the  execu- 
tion of  this  commission.  But  as  the  object  of  his 
appointment  was  known,  the  mind  of  Cortes  was 
deeply  wounded  with  this  unexpected  return  for  ser- 
vices which  far  exceeded  whatever  any  subject  of 
Spain  had  rendered  to  his  sovereign.  He  endeavoured, 
however,  to  maintain  his  station,  and  to  recover  the 
confidence  of  the  court.  But  every  person  in  office 
who  had  arrived  from  Spain  since  the  conquest  was  a 
spy  upon  his  conduct,  and  with  malicious  ingenuity 
gave  an  unfavourable  representation  of  all  his  actions. 
The  aprehensions  ,of  Charles  and  his  ministers  in- 
creased. A  new  commision  of  inquiry  was  issued, 
with  more  extensive  powers  [A.  D.1528],  and  various 
precautions  were  taken  in  order  to  prevent  or  to  punish 
him  if  he  should  be  so  presumptuous  as  to  attempt 
what  was  inconsistent  with  the  fidelity  of  a  sub- 
ject. Cortes  beheld  the  approaching  crisis  of  his 
fortune  with  all  the  violent  emotions  natural  to  a 
haughty  mind,  conscious  of  high  desert,  and  receiving 
unworthy  treatment,  But  though  some  of  his  des- 


perate followers  urged  him  to  assert  his  own  rights 
against  his  ungrateful  country,  and  with  a  bold  hand 
to  seize  that  power  which  the  courtiers  meanly 
accused  him  of  coveting,  he  retained  such  self-com- 
mand, or  was  actuated  with  such  sentiments  of 
loyalty,  as  to  reject  their  dangerous  counsels,  and  to 
choose  the  only  course  in  which  he  could  secure  his 
own  dignity,  without  departing  from  his  duty.  He 
resolved  not  to  expose  himself  to  the  ignominy  of  a 
trial,  in  that  country  which  had  been  the  scene  of  his 
triumphs  ;  but,  without  waiting  for  the  arrival  of  his 
judges,  to  repair  directly  to  Castile,  and  commit  him- 
self and  his  cause  to  the  justice  and  generosity  of  his 
sovereign. 

Cortes  appeared  in  his  native  country  with  the 
splendour  that  suited  the  conqueror  of  a  mighty  king- 
dom. He  brought  with  him  a  great  part  of  his 
wealth,  many  jewels  and  ornaments  of  great  value, 
several  curious  productions  of  the  country  (124),  and 
was  attended  by  some  Mexicans  of  the  first  rank,  as 
well  as  by  the  most  considerable  of  his  own  officers. 
His  arrival  in  Spain  removed  at  once  every  suspicion 
and  fear  that  had  been  entertained  with  respect  to  his 
intentions.  The  emperor,  having  now  nothing  to  appre- 
hend from  the  designs  of  Cortes,  received  him  like  a 
person  whom  consciousness  of  his  own  innocence  had 
brought  into  the  presence  of  his  master,  and  who  was 
entitled,  by  the  eminence  of  his  services,  to  the  highest 
marks  of  distinction  and  respect.  The  order  of  St.  Jago, 
the  title  of  Marquis  del  Vallede  Guaxaca,  the  grant 
of  an  ample  territory  in  New  Spain,  were  successively 
bestowed  upon  him  ;  and  as  his  manners  were  correct 
and  elegant,  although  he  had  passed  the  greater  part 
of  his  life  among  rough  adventurers,  the  emperor  ad- 
mitted him  to  the  same  familiar  intercourse  with 
himself,  that  was  enjoyed  by  noblemen  of  the  first 
rank. 

But,  admidst  those  external  proofs  of  regard,  symp- 
toms of  remaining  distrust  appeared.  Though  Cortes 
earnestly  solicited  to  be  reinstated  in  the  government  of 
New  Spain,  Charles,  too  sagacious  to  commitsuchanim- 
portant  charge  to  a  man  whom  he  had  once  suspected, 
peremptorily  refused  to  invest  him  again  with  powers 
which  he  might  find  it  impossible  to  controul.  Cortes, 
though  dignified  with  new  titles  [A.D.  1530.],  returned 
to  Mexico  with  diminished  authority.  The  military  de- 
partment, with  powers  to  attempt  new  discoveries,  was 
left  in  his  hands;  but  the  supreme  direction  of  civil 
affairs  was  placed  in  a  board  called  The  Audience  of 
New  Spain.  At  a  subsequent  period,  when,  upon  the 
increase  of  the  colony,  the  exertion  of  authority  more 
united  and  extensive  became  neceesary,  Antonio  de 
Mendoza,  a  nobleman  of  high  rank,  was  sent  thither 
as  Viceroy,  to  take  the  government  into  his  hands.- 

This  division  of  power  in  New  Spain  proved,  as 
was  unavoidable,  the  source  of  perpetual  dissension, 
which  imbittered  the  life  of  Cortes,  and  thwarted  all 
his  schemes.  As  he  had  now  no  opportunity  to  dis- 
play his  active  talents  but  in  attempting  new  dis- 
coveries, he  formed  various  schemes  for  that  purpose, 
all  of  which  bear  impressions  of  a  genius  that  de- 
lighted in  what  was  bold  and  splendid.  He  early 
entertained  an  idea,  that,  either  by  steering  through  the 
gulf  of  Florida  along  the  east  coast  of  North  America, 
some  strait  would  be  found  that  communicated  with 
the  Western  ocean ;  or  that  by  examining  the 
isthmus  of  Darien,  some  passage  would  be  discovered 
between  the  i North  and  South  seas.  But  -having 
been  disappointed  in  his  expectations  with  respect  to 
both,  he  now  confined  his  views  to  such  voyages  of 
discovery  as  he  could  make  from  the  ports  of  New 
Spain  in  the  South  Sea,  ^  There  he  fitted  out  succes- 


136 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


«ively  several  small  squadrons,  which  either  perished  ! 
in  the  attempt,  or  returned  without  making  any 
d  iscoverjf  of  moment  [A.  D.  1536],  Cortes,  \reary  of 
;  ritrusting  the  conduct  of  his  operations  to  others, 
took  the  command  of  a  new  armament  in  person,  and 
after  enduring  incredible  hardships,  and  encountering 
dangers  of  every  species,  he  discovered  the  large 
peninsula  of  California,  and  surveyed  the  greater  part 
of  the  gulf  which  separates  it  from  New  Spain.  The 
discovery  of  a.  country  of  such  extent  would  have 
deflected  credit  on  a  common  adventurer ;  but  it 
could  add  little  new  honour  to  the  name  of  Cortes, 
and  was  far  from  satisfying  the  sanguine  expectations 
which  he  had  formed..  Disgusted  .with  ill  success,  to 
which  he  had  not  been  accustomed,  and  weary  of 
contesting  with  adversaries  to  whom  he  considered  it 
as  a  disgrace  to  be  opposed,  he  once  more  sought 
for  redress  in  his  native  country  [A.  D.  1540]. 

But  his  reception  there  was  very  different  from  that 
which  gratitude,  and  even  decency,  ought  to  have 
secured  for  him.  The  merit  of  his  ancient  exploits 
was  already,  in  a  great  measure,  forgotten,  or  eclipsed 
by  the  fame  of  recent  and  more  valuable  conquests  in 
another  quarter  of  America.  No  service  of  moment 
was  now  expected  from  a  man  of  declining  years,  and 
who  began  to  be  unfortunate.  The  emperor  behaved 
to  him  with  co'd  civility ;  his  ministers  treated  him 
sometimes  with  neglect,  sometimes  with  insolence. 
His  grievances  received  no  redress  ;  his  claims  were 
urged  without  effect;  and  after  several  years  spent  in 
fruitless  application  to  ministers  and  judges,  an 
occupation  the  most  irksome  and  mortifying  to  a  man 
of  high  spirit,  who  had  moved  in  a  sphere  where  he  was 
more  accustomed  to  command  than  to  solicit,  Cortes 
ended  his  days  on  the  second  of  December  one  thou- 
sand five  hundred  and  forty-seven,  in  the  sixty-second 
year  of  his  age.  His  fate  was  the  same  with  that  of  all 
the  persons  who  distinguished  themselves  in  the  dis- 
covery or  conquest  of  the  New  world.  Envied  by  his 
contemporaries,  and  ill  requited  by  the  court  which  he 
served,  he  has  been  admired  and  celebrated  by  suc- 
ceeding ages.  Which  has  formed  the  most  just 
estimate  of  his  character,  an  impartial  consideration 
of  his  actions  must  determine. 


BOOK  VI. 

[A.  D.  1523.]  FROM  the  time  that  Nugnez  de 
Balboa  discovered  the  great  Southern  occean,  and 
received  the  first  obscure  hints  concerning  the  opulent 
countries  with  which  it  might  open  a  communication, 
the  wishes  and  schemes  of  every  enterprising  person 
in  the  colonies  df  Darren  and  Panama  were  turned 
towards  the  wealth  of  those  unknown  regions.  In 
an  age  when  the  spirit  of  adventure  was  so  ardent 
and  vigorous,  that  large  fortunes  were  wasted,  and  the 
most  alarming  dangers  braved,  in  pursuit  of  dis- 
coveries merely  possible,  the  faintest  ray  of  hope  was 
followed  with  an  eager  expectation,  and  the  slightest 
information  was  sufficient  to  inspire  such  perfect 
confidence,  as  conducted  men  to  the  most  arduous 
undertakings  (125). 

Accordingly,  several  armaments  were  fitted  out  in 
order  to  explore  and  take  possession  of  the  countries 
to  the  east  of  Panama,  but  under  the  conduct  of 
leaders  whose  talents  and  resources  were  unequal  to 
the  attempt.  As  the  excursions  of  those  adventurers 
did  not  extend  beyond  the  limits  of  the  province  to 
which  the  Spaniards  had  given  the  name  of  Tierra 
Firme,  a  mountainous  region  covered  with  woods, 
thinly  inhabited,  and  extremely  unhealthy,  they  re- 


turned with  dismal  accounts  concerning  the  distresses 
in  which  they  had  been  exposed,  and  the  unpromising 
aspect  of  the  places  which  they  had  visited.  Damped 
by  these  tidings,  the  rage  for  discovery  in  that  direc- 
tion abated;  and  it  became  the  general  opinion,  that 
Balboa  had  founded  visionary  hopes,  on  the  tale 
of  an  ignorant  Indian,  ill  understood,  or  calculated  to 
deceive. 

[A.  D.  1524.]  But  there  were  three  persons  settled 
in  Panama,  on  whom  the  circumstances  which  de- 
terred others  made  so  little  impression,  that  the  very 
moment  when  all  considered  Balboa's  expectations  of 
discovering:  a  rich  country,  by  steering  towards  the 
east,  as  chimerical,  they  resolved  to  attempt  the  execu- 
tion of  his  scheme.  The  names  of  those  extraordinary 
men  were  Francisco  Pizarro,  Diego  de  Almagro,  and 
Hernando  Luque.  Pizarro  was  the  natural  son  of  a 
gentleman  of  an  honourable  family  by  a  very  low 
woman,  and,  according  to  the  cruel  fate  which  often 
attends  the  offspring  of  unlawful  Jove,  had  been  so 
totally  neglected  in  his  youth  by  the  author  of  his 
birth,  that  he  seems  to  have  destined  him  never  to 
rise  beyond  the  condition  of  his  mother.  In  conse- 
quence of  this  ungenerous  idea,  he  set  him,  when 
bordering  on  manhood,  to  keep  hogs.  But  the 
aspiring  mind  of  young  Pizarro  disdaining  that  ignoble 
occupation,  he  abruptly  abandoned  his  charge,  en- 
listed as  a  soldier,  and  after  serving  some  years  in 
Italy,  embarked  for  America,  which,  by  opening  such 
a  boundless  range  to  active  talents,  allured  every 
adventurer  whose  fortune  was  not  equal  to  his  am- 
bitious thoughts.  There  Pizarro  early  distinguished 
himself.  "With  a  temper  of  mind  no  less  daring  than 
the  constitution  of  his  body  was  robust,  he  was  fore- 
most in  every  danger,  patient  under  the  greatest 
hardships,  and  unsubdued  by  any  fatigue.  Though 
so  illiterate  that  he  could  not  even  read,  he  was  soon 
considered  as  a  man  formed  to  command.  Every 
operation  committed  to  his  conduct  proved  success- 
ful, as,  by  a  happy  but  rare  conjunction,  he  united 
perseverance  with  ardour,  and  was  cautious  in  exe- 
cuting, as  he  was  bold  in  forming,  his  plans.  By 
engaging  early  in  active  life,  without  any  resource  but 
his  own  talents  and  industry,  and  by  depending  on 
himself  alone  in  his  struggles  to  emerge  from  obscu- 
rity, he  acquired  such  a  thorough  knowledge  of  affairs, 
and  of  men,  that  he  was  fitted  to  assume  a  superior 
part  in  conducting  the  former,  and  in  governing  the 
latter. 

Almagro  had  as  little  to  boast  of  his  descent  as 
Pizarro.  The  one  was  a  bastard,  and  the  other  a 
foundling.  Bred  like  his  companion,  in  the  camp,  he 
yielded  not  to  him  in  any  of  the  soldierly  qualities  of 
intrepid  valour,  indefatigable  activity,  or  insur- 
mountable constancy,  in  enduring  the  hardships 
inseparable  from  military  service  in  the  New  World. 
But  in  Almagro  these  virtues  were  accompanied  with 
the  openness,  generosity,  and  candour,  natural  to 
men  whose  professioii  is  arms ;  in  Pizarro,  they  were 
united  with  the  address,  the  craft,  and  the  dis- 
simulation of  a  politician,  with  the  art  of  concealing 
his  own  purposes,  and  with  sagacity  to  penetrate  into 
those  of  other  men. 

Fernando  de  Luque  was  an  ecclesiastic,  who  acted 
both  as  priest  and  schoolmaster  at  Panama,  and,  by 
means  which  the  contemporary  writers  have  not 
described,  had  amassed  riches  that  inspired  him  with 
thoughts  of  rising  to  greater  eminence. 

Such  were  the  men  destined  to  overturn  one  of  the 
most  extensive  empires  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 
Their  confederacy  for  this  purpose  was  authorized  by 
Pedrarias,  _the  governor  of  Panama,  Each  engaged 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


137 


to  employ  his  whole  fortune  in  the  adventure. 
Pizarro,  the  least  wealthy  of  the  three,  as  he  could 
not  throw  so  large  a  sum  as  his  associates  into  the 
common  stock,  engaged  to  take  the  department  of 
greatest  fatigue  and  danger,  and  to  command  in  per- 
son the  armament  which  was  to  go  first  upon  disco- 
very. Almagro  offered  to  conduct  the  supplies  of  pro- 
visions and  reinforcements  of  troops,  of  which  Pizarro 
might  stand  in  need.  Luque  was  to  remain  at  Pa- 
nama to  negociate  with  the  governor,  and  superintend 
whatever  was  carrying  on  for  the  general  interest.  As 
the  spirit  of  enthusiasm  uniformly  accompanied  that 
of  adventure  in  the  New  World,  and  by  that  strange 
union  both  acquired  an  increase  of  force,  this  con- 
federacy, formed  by  ambition  and  avarice,  was  con- 
firmed by  the  most  solemn  act  of  religion.  Luque 
celebrated  mass,  divided  a  consecrated  host  into  three, 
and  reserving  one  part  to  himself,  gave  the  other  two 
to  his  associates,  of  which  they  partook ;  and  thus, 
in  the  name  of  the  Prince  of  peace,  ratified  a  con- 
tract of  which  plunder  and  bloodshed  were  the  ob- 
jects. 

The  attempt  was  begun  with  a  force  more  suited 
to  the  humble  condition  of  the  three  associates,  than 
to  the  greatness  of  the  enterprise  in  which  they  were 
engaged.  Pizarro  set  sail  from  Panama  with  a  sin»le 
vessel,  [Nov.  14,]  of  small  burthen,  and  a  hundred 
and  twelve  men.  But  in  that  age,  so  little  were  the 
Spaniards  acquainted  with  the  peculiarities  of  climate 
in  America,  that  the  time  which  Pizarro  chose  for  his 
departure  was  the  most  improper  in  the  whole  year  ; 
the  periodical  winds  which  were  then  set  in,  being 
directly  adverse  to  the  course  which  he  proposed  to 
steer.  After  beating  about  for  seventy  days,  with 
much  danger  and  incessant  fatigue,  Pizarro's  progress 
towards  the  south-east  was  not  greater  than  what  a 
skilful  navigator  will  now  make  in  as  many  hours. 
He  touched  at  several  places  on  the  coast  of  Tierra 
Firme,  but  found  every  where  the  same  uninviting 
country  which  former  adventurers  had  described  ; 
the  low  grounds  converted  into  swamps  by  an  over- 
flowing of  rivers  ;  the  higher  covered  with  impervious 
woods  ;  few  inhabitants,  and  those  fierce  and  hostile 
[A.  D.  1525].  Famine,  fatigue,  or  frequent  encoun- 
ters witli  the  natives,  and,  above  all,  the  distempers 
of  a  moist,  sultry  climate,  combined  in  wasting  his 
slender  band  of  followers.  The  undaunted  resolution 
of  their  leader  continued,  however,  for  some  time,  to 
sustain  their  spirits,  although  no  sign  had  yet  ap- 
peared of  discovering  those  golden  regions  to  which 
he  had  promised  to  conduct  them.  At  length  he  was 
obliged  to  abandon  that  inhospitable  coast,  and  retire 
to  Chuchama,  opposite  to  the  pearl  islands,  where  he 
hoped  to  receive  a  supply  of  provisions  and  troops 
from  Panama. 

But  Almagro  having  sailed  from  that  port  with 
seventy  men,  stood  directly  towards  that  part  of  the 
continent  where  he  hoped  to  meet  with  his  associate. 
Not  finding  him  there,  he  landed  his  soldiers,  who, 
in  searching  for  their  companions,  underwent  the 
same  distresses,  and  were  exposed  to  the  same  dan- 
gers, which  had  driven  them  out  of  the  country.  Re- 
pulsed at  length  by  the  Indians  in  a  sharp  conflict, 
in  which  their  leader  lost  one  of  his  eyes  by  the 
wound  of  an  arrow,  they  likewise  were  compelled  to 
re-embark.  Chance  led  them  to  the  place  of  Pizarro's 
retreat,  where  they  found  some  consolation  in  recount- 
ing to  each  other  their  adventures,  and  comparing 
their  sufferings  [June  24].  As  Almagro  had  ad- 
vanced as  far  as  the  river  St.  Juan,  in  the  province  of 
Popayan,  where  both  the  country  and  inhabitants 
appeared  with  a  more  promising  aspect,  that  dawtt  ef 

HISTORY  OJP  AMERICA,  No.  18. 


better  fortune  was  sufficient  to  determine  such  san- 
guine projectors  not  to  abandon  their  scheme,  not- 
withstanding all  that  they  had  suffered  in  prosecuting 
it  (126). 

[A.  D.  1526.]  Almagro  repaired  to  Panama,  in  hopes 
of  recruiting  their  shattered  troops.  But  what  he 
and  Pizarro  had  suffered  gave  his  countrymen  such 
an  unfavourable  idea  of  the  service,  that  it  was  with 
difficulty  he  could  levy  fourscore  men.  Feeble  as 
this  reinforcement  was,  Almagro  took  the  command 
of  it,  and  having  joined  Pizarro,  they  did  not  hesitate 
about  resuming  their  operations.  After  a  long  series 
of  disasters  and  disappointments,  not  inferior  to  those 
which  they  had  already  experienced,  part  of  the  ar- 
mament reached  the  Bay  of  St.  Matthew,  on  the 
coast  of  Quito,  and  landing  at  Tacamez,  to  the  south 
of  the  river  of  Emeralds,  they  beheld  a  country  more 
champaign  and  fertile  than  any  they  had  yet  dis- 
covered in  the  Southern  ocean,  the  natives  clad  in. 
garments  of  woollen  or  cotton  stuff,  and  adorned  with 
several  trinkets  of  gold  and  silver. 

But,  notwithstanding  those  favourable  appearances, 
magnified  beyond  the  truth,  both  by  the  vanity  of 
the  persons  who  brought  the  report  from  Tacamez, 
and  by  the  fond  imagination  of  those  who  listened  to 
them,  Pizarro  and  Almagro  durst  not  venture  to  in- 
vade a  country  so  populous  with  a  handful  of  men 
enfeebled  by  fatigue  and  diseases.  They  retired  to 
the  small  island  of  Gallo,  where  Pizarro  remained 
with  part  of  the  troops,  and  his  associate  returned  to 
Panama,  in  hopes  of  bringing  such  a  reinforcement 
as  might  enable  them  to  take  possession  of  the 
opulent  territories,  whose  existence  seemed  to  be  no 
longer  doubtful. 

But  some  of  the  adventurers,  less  enterprising  or 
less  hardy  than  their  leaders,  having  secretly  conveyed 
lamentable  accounts  of  their  sufferings  and  losses  to 
their  friends  at  Panama,   Almagro  met  with  an  un- 
favourable reception  from   Pedro  de  los  Ilios,  who 
had  succeeded  Pedrarias  in  the  government  of  that 
settlement.      After   weighing  the  matter  with  that 
cold  economical  prudence,  which  appears  the  first  of 
all  virtues  to  persons  whose   limited  faculties  are  in- 
capable of  conceiving  or  executing  great  designs,  he 
concluded  an  expedition,  attended  with  such  certain 
waste  of  men,  to  be  so  detrimental  to  an  infant  and 
feeble  colony,  that  he  not  only  prohibited  the  raising 
of  new  levies,  but  despatched  a  vessel  to  bring  home 
Pizarro  and  his  companions  from  the  island  of  Gallr. 
Almagro  and    Luque,    though   deeply  affected   with 
those  measures,   which  they  could  not  prevent,  and 
durst   not  oppose,    found   means  of   communicating 
their  sentiments  privately  to  Pizarro,  and  exhorted 
him  not   to  relinquish   an   enterprise  that    was    the 
foundation  of  all  their  hopes,  and  the  only   means  of 
re-establishing  their  reputation  and  fortune,   which 
were  both  on  the  decline.     Pizarro's  mind,  bent  with 
inflexible   obstinacy  on   all  its   purposes,  needed  no 
incentive  to  persist  in  the  scheme.     He  peremptorily 
refused  to  obey  the  governor  of  Panama's  orders,  and 
employed  all  his  address  and  eloquence  in  persuading 
his   men  not   to   abandon  him.     But   the  incredible 
calamities  to  which  they  had  been  exposed  were  still 
so  recent  in  their  memories,  and  the  thoughts  of  re- 
visiting their  families  and  friends  after  a  long  absence, 
rushed   with  such  joy   into  their  minds,  that  when 
Pizarro   drew  a  line  upon  the  sand  with  his  sword, 
permitting  such  as  wished  to   return   home  to  pass 
over  it,  only  thirteen  of  all  the  daring  veterans  in  his 
service  had  resolution   to   remain    with  their  com- 
mander. 
This  small  but  determined,  band,  whose  names  the 


138 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Spanish  historians  record  with  deserved  praise,  as 
the  persons  to  whose  persevering  fortitude  their  coun- 
try is  indebted  for  the  most  valuable  of  all  its 
American  possessions,  fixed  their  residence  in  the 
island  of  Gorgona.  This,  as  it  was  further  removed 
from  the  coast  than  Gallo,  and  uninhabited,  they  con- 
sidered as  a  more  secure  retreat,  where,  unmolested, 
they  might  wait  for  supplies  from  Panama,  which 
they  trusted  that  the  activity  of  their  associates 
would  be  able  to  procure.  Almagro  and  Luque  were 
not  inattentive  or  cold  solicitors,  and  their  incessant 
importunity  was  seconded  by  the  general  voice  of  the 
colony,  which  exclaimed  loudly  against  the  infamy 
of  exposing  brave  men,  engaged  in  the  public  service, 
and  chargeable  with  no  error  but  what  flowed  from  an 
excess  of  zeal  and  courage,  to  perish  like  the  most 
odious  criminals  in  a  desert  island.  Overcome  by 
those  entreaties  and  expostulations,  the  governor  at 
last  consented  to  send  a  small  vessel  to  their  relief. 
But  that  he  might  not  seem  to  encourage  Pizarro  to 
any  new  enterprise,  he  would  not  permit  one  landman 
to  embark  on  board  of  it. 

By  this  time  Pizarro  and  his  companions  had  re- 
mained five  months  in  an  island,  infamous  for  the 
most  unhealthy  climate  in  that  region  of  America 
(127).  During  all  this  period  their  eyes  were  turned 
towards  Panama,  in  hopes  of  succour  from  their 
countrymen  ;  but  worn  out  at  length  with  fruitless 
expectations,  and  dispirited  with  suffering  hardships 
of  which  they  saw  no  end,  they,  in  despair,  came  to  a 
resolution  of  committing  themselves  to  the  ocean  on 
a  float,  rather  than  continue  in  that  detestable  abode. 
But,  on  the  arrival  of  the  vessel  from  Panama,  they 
"were  transported  with  such  joy,  that  all  their  suffer- 
ings were  forgotten.  Their  hopes  revived,  and,  with  a 
rapid  transition,  not  unnatural  among  men  accustomed 
by  their  mode  of  life  to  sudden  vicissitudes  of  for- 
tune, high  confidence  succeeding  to  extreme  dejection, 
Pizarro  easily  induced  not  only  his  own  followers, 
but  the  crew  of  the  vessel  from  Panama,  to  resume 
his  former  scheme  with  fresh  ardour.  Instead  of 
returning  to  Panama,  they  stood  towards  the  south- 
east, and  more  fortunate  in  this  than  in  any  of  their 
past  efforts,  they,  on  the  twentieth  day  after  their 
departure  from  Gorgona,  discovered  the  coast  of 
Peru.  After  touching  at  several  villages  near  the 
shore,  which  they  found  to  be  no  wise  inviting,  they 
landed  at  Tumbez,  a  place  of  some  note,  about  three 
degrees  south  of  the  line,  distinguished  for  its  stately 
temple,  and  a  palace  of  the  Incas  or  sovereigns  of 
the  country.  There  the  Spaniards  feasted  their  eyes 
•with  the  first  view  of  the  opulence  and  civilization  of 
the  Peruvian  empire.  They  beheld  a  country  fully 
peopled,  and  cultivated  with  an  appearance  of  regu- 
lar industry ;  the  natives  decently  clothed,  and  pos- 
sessed of  ingenuity  so  far  surpassing  the  other 
inhabitants  of  the  New  World,  as  to  have  the  use  of 
tame  domestic  animals.  But  what  chiefly  attracted 
their  notice,  was  such  a  show  of  gold  and  silver,  not 
only  in  the  ornaments  of  their  persons  and  temples, 
"but  in  several  vessels  and  utensils  for  common  use, 
formed  of  those  precious  metals,  as  left  no  room  to 
doubt  that  they  abounded  with  profusion  in  the 
country.  Pizarro  and  his  companions  seemed  now 
to  have  attained  to  the  completion  of  their  most 
sanguine  hopes,  and  fancied  that  all  their  wishes  and 
dreams  of  rich  domains,  and  inexhaustible  treasures, 
would  soon  be  realized. 

i  But  with  the  slender  force  then  under  his  com- 
mand, Pizarro  could  only  view  the  rich  country  of 
•which  he  hoped  hereafter  to  obtain  possession.  He 
zanged,  however,  for  some  time  along  the  coast,  main- 


taining every  where  a  peaceable  intercourse  with  the 
natives,  no  less  astonished  at  their  new  visitants, 
than  the  Spaniards  were  with  the  uniform  appearance 
of  opulence  and  cultivation  which  they  beheld  [A.  D. 
1527].  Having  explored  the  country  as  far  as  was 
requisite  to  ascertain  the  importance  of  the  discovery, 
Pizarro  procured  from  the  inhabitants  some  of  their 
Llamas  or  tame  cattle,  to  which  the  Spaniards  gave 
the  name  of  sheep,  some  vessels  of  gold  and  silver, 
as  well  as  some  specimens  of  their  other  works  of 
ingenuity,  and  two  young  men,  whom  he  proposed 
to  instruct  in  the  Castilian  language,  that  they  might 
serve  as  interpreters  in  the  expedition  which  he  me- 
ditated. With  these  he  arrived  at  Panama,  towards 
the  close  of  the  third  year  from  the  time  of  his  de- 
parture thence.  No  adventurer  of  the  age  suffered 
hardships  or  encountered  dangers  which  equal  those 
to  which  he  was  exposed  during  this  long  period. 
The  patience  with  which  he  endured  the  one,  and 
the  fortitude  with  which  he  surmounted  the  other, 
exceed  whatever  is  recorded  in  the  history  of  the 
New  World,  where  so  many  romantic  displays  of 
those  virtues  occur. 

[A.  D.  1528].  Neither  the  splendid  relation  that 
Pizarro  gave  of  the  incredible  opulence  of  the  coun- 
try which  he  had  discovered,  nor  his  bitter  complaints 
on  account  of  that  unseasonable  recall  of  his  forces, 
which  had  put  it  out  of  his  power  to  attempt  making 
any  settlement  there,  could  move  the  governor  of 
Panama  to  swerve  from  his  former  plan  of  conduct. 
He  still  contended,  that  the  colony  was  not  in  a  con- 
dition to  invade  such  a  mighty  empire,  and  refused  to 
authorize  an  expedition  which  he  foresaw  would  be 
so  alluring  that  it  might  ruin  the  province  in  which 
he  presided,  by  ;m  effort  beyond  its  strength.  His 
coldness,  however,  did  not  in  any  degree  abate  the 
ardour  of  the  three  associates ;  but  they  perceived 
that  they  could  not  carry  their  scheme  into  execution 
without  the  countenance  of  superior  authority,  and 
must  solicit  their  sovereign  to  grant  that  permission 
which  they  could  not  extort  from  his  delegate.  With 
this  view,  after  adjusting  among  themselves,  that 
Pizarro  should  claim  the  station  of  governor,  Almagro 
that  of  lieutenant-governor,  and  Luque  the  dignity 
of  bishop,  in  the  country  which  they  purposed  to 
conquer,  they  sent  Pizarro  as  their  agent  to  Spain, 
though  their  fortunes  were  now  so  much  exhausted 
by  the  repeated  efforts  which  they  had  made,  that 
they  found  some  difficulty  in  borrowing  the  small 
sum  requisite  towards  equipping  him  for  the  voyage. 

Pizarro  lost  no  time  in  repairing  to  court,  and  new 
as  the  scene  might  be  to  him,  he  appeared  before  the 
emperor  with  the  unembarrassed  dignity  of  a  man 
conscious  of  what  his  services  merited ;  and  he  con- 
ducted his  negociations  with  an  insinuating  dexterity 
of  address,  which  could  not  have  been  expected  either 
from  his  education  or  former  habits  of  life.  His 
feeling  description  of  his  own  sufferings,  and  his 
pompous  account  of  the  country  which  he  had  dis- 
covered, confirmed  by  the  specimens  of  its  produc- 
tions which  he  exhibited,  made  such  an  impression 
both  on  Charles  and  his  ministers,  that  they  not  only 
approved  of  the  intended  expedition,  but  seemed  to 
be  interested  in  the  success  of  its  leader. 

Presuming  on  those  dispositions  in  his  favour, 
Pizarro  paid  little  attention  to  the  interest  of  his 
associates.  As  the  pretensions  of  Luque  did  not 
interfere  with  his  own,  he  obtained  from  him  the 
ecclesiastical  dignity  to  which  he  aspired.  For  Alma- 
gro he  claimed  only  the  command  of  the  fortress 
which  should  be  erected  at  Tumbez.  To  himself  he 
secured  whatever  his  boundless  ambition  could  desire. 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


13$ 


[July  26.]  He  was  appointed  governor.captain-general 
and  adelantado  of  all  the  country  which  he  had  dis 
covered,  and  hoped  toconquer,  with  supreme  authority- 
civil  as  well  as  military  ;  and  with  full  right  to  all  th< 
privileges  and  emoluments  usually  granted  to  adven- 
turers in  the  New  World.  His  jurisdiction  was 
declared  to  extend  two  hundred  leagues  along  the 
coast  to  the  south  of  the  river  St.  Jago;  to  be  inde- 
pendent of  the  governor  of  Panama;  and  he  ha 
power  to  nominate  all  the  officers  who  were  to  serve 
under  him.  In  return  for  those  concessions,  which 
cost  the  court  of  Spain  nothing,  as  the  enjoyment  of 
them  depended  upon  the  success  of  Pizarro's  own 
efforts,  he  engaged  to  raise  two  hundred  and  fifty 
men,  and  to  provide  the  ships,  arms,  and  warlike 
stores  requisite  towards  subjecting  to  the  crown  of 
Castile  the  country  of  which  the  government  was 
allotted  him. 

[A.  D.  1529],  Inconsiderable  as  the  body  of  men 
was  which  Pizarrohad  undertaken  to  raise,  his  funds  and 
credit  were  so  low  that  he  could  hardly  complete  half 
the  number ;  and  after  obtaining  his  patents  from 
the  crown,  he  was  obliged  to  steal  privately  out  of 
the  port  of  Seville,  in  order  to  elude  the  scrutiny  of 
the  officers  who  had  it  in  charge  to  examine  whether 
he  had  fulfilled  the  stipulations  in  his  contract. 
Before  his  departure,  however,  he  received  some 
supply  of  money  from  Cortes,  who  having  returned 
to  Spain  about  this  time,  was  willing  to  contribute 
his  aid  towards  enabling  an  ancient  companion,  with 
whose  talents  and  courage  he  was  well  acquainted,  to 
begin  a  career  of  glory  similar  to  that  which  he  him- 
self had  finished. 

He  landed  at  Nombre  de  Dios,  and  marched  across 
the  isthmus  of  Panama,  accompanied  by  his  three 
brothers,  Ferdinand,  Juan,  and  Gonzalo,  of  whom  the 
first  was  born  in  lawful  wedlock,  the  two  latter,  like 
himself,  were  of  illegitimate  birth,  and  by  Francisco 
de  Alcantara,  his  mother's  brother.  They  were  all 
in  the  prime  of  life,  and  of  such  abilities  and  courage 
as  fitted  them  to  take  a  distinguished  part  in  his 
subsequent  transactions. 

[Oct.  1530.]  On  his  arrival  at  Panama,  Pizarro 
found  Almagro  so  much  exasperated  at  the  manner  in 
which  he  had  conducted  the  negociation,  that  he  not 
only  refused  to  act  any  longer  in  concert  with  a  man 
by  whose  perfidy  he  had  been  excluded  from  the 
power  and  honours  to  which  he  had  a  just  claim, 
but  laboured  to  form  a  new  association,  in  order  to 
thwart  or  to  rival  his  former  confederate  in  his  dis- 
coveries. Pizarro,  however,  had  more  wisdom  and 
address  than  to  suffer  a  rupture  so  fatal  to  all  his 
schemes  to  become  irreparable.  By  offering  volun- 
tarily to  relinquish  the  office  of  adelantado,  and  pro- 
mising to  concur  in  soliciting  that  title,  with  an  in- 
dependent government,  for  Almagro,  he  gradually 
mitigated  the  rage  of  an  open-hearted  soldier,  which 
had  been  violent,  but  was  not  implacable.  Luque, 
highly  satisfied  with  having  been  successful  in  all 
his  own  pretensions,  cordially  seconded  Pizairo's 
endeavours.  A  reconciliation  was  effected,  and  the 
confederacy  renewed  on  its  original  terms,  that  the 
enterprise  should  be  carried  on  at  the  common 
expense  of  the  associates,  and  the  profits  accruing 
from  it  should  be  equally  divided  among  them, 
>  Even  after  their  reunion,  and  the  utmost  efforts  of 
their  interest,  three  small  vessels,  with  a  hundred  and 
eighty  soldiers,  thirty-six  of  whom  were  horsemen, 
composed  the  armament  which  they  were  able  to  fit 
out.  But  the  astonishing  progress  of  the  Spaniards 
in  America  had  inspired  them  with  such  ideas  of  their 
own  superiority,  that  Pizarro  did  not  hesitate  to  sail 


with  this  contemptible  force  to  invade  a  great  em- 
pire. Almagro  was  left  at  Panama  [Feb.  1,  1531], 
as  formerly,  to  follow  him  with  what  reinforcement 
of  men  he  should  be  able  to  muster.  As  the  season 
for  embarking  was  properly  chosen,  and  the  course 
of  navigation  between  Panama  and  Peru  was  now 
better  known,  Pizarro  completed  the  voyage  in  thir- 
teen days  ;  though,  by  the  force  of  the  winds  and 
currents,  he  was  carried  about  a  hundred  leagues  to 
the  north  of  Tumbez,  the  place  of  his  destination, 
and  obliged  to  land  his  troops  in  the  bay  of  St.  Mat- 
thew. Without  losing  a  moment  he  began  to  advance 
towards  the  south,  taking  care,  however,  not  to> 
depart  far  from  the  sea-shore,  both  that  he  might 
easily  effect  a  junction  with  the  supplies  which  he 
expected  from  Panama,  and  secure  a  retreat  in  case 
of  any  disaster,  by  keeping  as  near  as  possible  ta 
his  ships.  But  as  the  country  in  several  parts  on 
the  coast  of  Peru  is  barren,  unhealthful,  and  thinly 
peopled ;  as  the  Spaniards  had  to  pass  all  the  rivora 
near  their  mouth,  where  the  body  of  water  is  great- 
est ;  and  as  the  imprudence  of  Pizarro,  in  attacking 
the  natives  when  he  should  have  studied  to  gain  their 
confidence,  had  forced  them  to  abandon  their  habita- 
tions ;  famine,  fatigue,  and  diseases  of  various  kinds 
brought  upon  him  and  his  followers  calamities  hardly 
inferior  to  those  which  they  had  endured  in  their 
former  expedition.  What  they  now  experienced, 
corresponded  so  ill  with  the  alluring  description  of 
the  country  given  by  Pizarro,  that  many  began  to 
reproach  him,  and  every  soldier  must  have  become 
cold  to  the  service,  if,  even  in  this  unfertile  region  of 
Peru,  they  had  not  met  with  some  appearances  of 
wealth  and  cultivation,  which  seemed  to  justify  the 
report  of  their  leader.  At  length  they  reached  the 
province  of  Coaque  [April  14]  ;  and,  having  surprised 
the  principal  settlement  of  the  natives,  they  seized 
their  vessels  and  ornaments  of  gold  and  silver,  to  thf> 
amount  of  thirty  thousand  pesos,  with  other  booty  of 
such  value,  as  dispelled  all  their  doubts,  and  ins,piredL 
the  most  desponding  with  sanguine  hopes. 

Pizarro  himself  was  so  much  delighted  with,  this 
rich  spoil,  which  he  considered  as  the  first  fruits  of  a 
[and  abounding  with  treasure,  that  he  instantly 
despatched  one  of  his  ships  to  Panama  with  a  largo 
remittance  to  Almagro ;  and  another  to  Nicarajrja 
with  a  considerable  sum  to  several  persons  of  influ- 
ence in  that  province,  in  hopes  of  alluring  adventurers 
by  this  early  display  of  the  wealth  wh''eh  he  had 
acquired.  Meanwhile  he  continued  his  march 
along  the  coast,  and  disdaining  to  employ  any 
means  of  reducing  the  natives. hut'force,  he  attacked 
them  with  such  violence  in  their  scattered  habita- 
tions, as  compelled  them  either  to  retire  into  the 
nterior  country,  or  to  submit  to  his  yoke.  This, 
udden  appearance  of  invaders,  whose  aspect  an£ 
manners  were  so  strange,  and  whose  power  seemed, 
to  be  irresistible,  made  the  same  dreadful  inv» 
aression  as  in  other  parts  of  America.  Piiarro 
hardly  met  with  resistance  until  he  attacked  the 
sland  of  Puna  in  the  bay  of  Guayaquil.  As  that 
was  better  peopled  than  the  country  through  which 
ic  had  passed,  and  its  inhabitants  fiercer  and  less 
civilized  than  those  of  the  continent,  they  defended 
hemselves  with  such  obstinate  valour,  that  Pizarro 
spent  six  months  in  reducing  them  to  subjection, 
?rom  Puna  he  proceeded  to  Tumbez,  where  the- 
distempers  which  raged  among  his  men  compelled 
lim  to  remain  for  three  months. 

While  he  was  thus  employed,  he  began  to,  reap 
advantage  from  his  attention  to  spread  the  fame  of  his 
first  success  to  Coaque,  TWQ  different  d^achments. 


IK) 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


rrived  from  Nicaragua,  which,  though  neither  ex- 
ceeded thirty  men,  he  considered  as  a  reinforcement 
of  great  consequence  to  his  feeble  band  [A.  n.  1532], 
especially  as  the  one  was  under  the  command  of 
Sebastian  Benalcazar,  and  the  other  of  Hernando 
Soto,  officers  not  inferior  in  merit  and  reputation  to 
any  who  had  served  in  America.  From  Tumboz 
[May  16]  he  proceeded  to  the  river  Piura,  and  in 
an  advantageous  station  near  the  mouth  of  it,  he 
established  the  first  Spanish  colony  in  Peru,  to  which 
he  gave  the  name  of  St.  Michael. 

As  Pizarro  continued  to  advance  towards  the  centre 
of  the  Peruvian  empire,  he  gradually  received  more 
full  information  concerning  its  extent  and  policy,  as 
well  as  the  situation  of  its  affairs  at  that  juncture. 
Without  some  knowledge  of  these,  he  could  not  have 
conducted  his  operations  with  propriety ;  and  with- 
out a  suitable  attention  to  them,  it  is  impossible  to 
account  for  the  progress  which  the  Spaniards  had 
already  made,  or  to  unfold  the  causes  of  their  subse- 
quent success. 

At  the  time  when  the  Spaniards  invaded  Peru,  the 
dominions  of  its  sovereigns  extended  in  length,  from 
north  to  south,  above  fifteen  hundred  miles  along  the 
Pacific  ocean.  Its  breadth,  from  east  to  west,  was 
much  less  considerable,  being  uniformly  bounded  by 
the  vast  ridge  of  the  Andes,  stretching  from  its  one 
extremity  to  the  other.  Peru,  like  the  rest  of  the 
New  World,  was  originally  possessed  by  small  in- 
dependent tribes,  differing  from  each  other  in  man- 
ners, and  in  their  forms  of  rude  policy.  All,  however, 
were  so  little  civilized,  that  if  the  traditions  concern- 
ing their  mode  of  life,  preserved  among  their  descen- 
dants, deserve  credit,  they  must  he  classed  among 
the  most  unimproved  savages  of  America.  Stran- 
gers to  every  species  of  cultivation  or  regular 
industry,  without  any  fixed  residence,  and  unac- 
quainted with  those  sentiments  and  obligations 
which  form  the  first  bonds  of  social  union,  they  are 
*aid  to  have  roamed  about  naked  in  the  forests,  with 
which  the  country  was  then  covered,  more  like  wild 
beasts  than  like  men.  After  they  had  struggled  for 
several  ages  with  the  hardships  and  calamities  which 
are  inevitable  in  such  a  state,  and  when  no  circum- 
stance seemed  to  indicate  the  approach  of  any  un- 
common effort  towards  improvement,  we  are  told 
that  there  appeared,  on  the  banks  of  the  lakeTitiaca, 
a  man  and  woman  of  majestic  form,  clothed  in  decent 
garments.  They  declared  themselves  to  be  children 
of  the.^sun,  sent  by  their  beneficent  parent,  who 
beheld  with  pity  the  miseries  of  the  human  race,  to 
instruct,  and  to  reclaim  them.  At  their  persuasion, 
enforced  by  reverence  for  the  divinity  in  whose  name 
they  were  supposed  to  speak,  several  of  the  dispersed 
savages  united  together,  and  received  their  commands 
as  heavenly  injunctions,  followed  them  to  Cuzco, 
where  they  settled  and  began  to  lay  the  foundations 
of  a  city. 

k  Manco  Capac  and  Mama  Ocollo,  for  such  were  the 
names  of  those  extraordinary  personages,  having  thus 
collected  some  wandering  tribes,  formed  that  social 
union,  which,  by  multiplying  the  desires  and  uniting 
the  efforts  of  the  human  species,  excites  industry, 
and  leads  to  improvement.  Manco  Capac  instructed 
the  men  in  agriculture  and  other  useful  arts  ;  Mama 
Ocollo  taught  the  women  to  spin  and  to  weave.  By 
the  labour  of  the  one  sex,  subsistence  became  less 
precarious  ;  by  that  of  the  other,  life  was  rendered 
more  comfortable.  After  securing  the  objects  of 
first  necessity  in  an  infant  state,  by  providing  food, 
raiment,  and  habitations  for  the  rude  people  of  whom 
he  took^  charge,  -JVlanco  Capac  turned  his  attention 


towards  introducing  such  laws  and  policy  as  m;»ht 
perpetuate  their  happiness.  By  his  institutions, 
which  shall  be  more  particularly  explained  hereafter, 
the  various  relations  in  private  life  were  established, 
and  the  duties  resulting  from  them  prescribed  with 
such  propriety,  as  gradually  formed  a  barbarous 
people  to  decency  of  manners.  In  public  adminis- 
tration, the  functions  of  persons  in  authority  wciv 
so  precisely  defined,  and  the  subordination  of  those 
under  their  jurisdiction  maintained  with  such  a 
steady  hand,  that  the  society  in  which  he  presided 
soon  assumed  the  aspect  of  a  regular  and  well-  go- 
verned state. 

Thus,  according  to  the  Indian  tradition,  was 
founded  the  empire  of  the  Incas  or  Lords  of  Peru. 
At  first  its  extent  was  small.  The  territory  of  Man- 
co Capac  did  not  reach  above  eight  leagues  from 
Cuzco.  But  within  its  narrow  precincts  he  exercised 
absolute  and  uncontrolled  authority.  His  successors, 
as  their  dominions  extended,  arrogated  a  similar 
jurisdiction  over  the  new  subjects  which  they  ac- 
quired;  the  despotism  of  Asia  was  not  more  com- 
plete. The  Incas  were  not  only  obeyed  as  monarchs, 
but  revered  as  divinities.  Their  blood  was  hold  to 
be  sacred,  and  by  prohibiting  intermarriages  with  tlip 
people,  was  never  contaminated  by  mixing  with  that 
of  any  other  race.  The  family,  thus  separated  from 
the  rest  of  the  nation,  was  distinguished  by  pecu- 
liarities in  dress  and  ornaments,  which  it  was  un- 
lawful for  others  to  assume.  The  monarch  himself 
appeared  with  ensigns  of  royalty  reserved  for  him 
alone  ;  and  received  from  his  subjects  marks  of  ob- 
sequious homage  and  respect,  which  approached 
almost  to  adoration. 

But,  among  the  Peruvians,  this  unbounded  power 
of  their  monarchs  seems  to  have  been  uniformly 
accompanied  with  attention  to  the  good  of  their  sub- 
jects. It  was  not  the  rage  of  conquest,  if  we  may 
believe  the  accounts  of  their  countrymen,  that 
prompted  the  incas  to  extend  their  dominions,  but 
the  desire  of  diffusing  the  blessings  of  civilization, 
and  the  knowledge  of  the  arts  which  they  possessed, 
among  the  barbarous  people  whom  they  reduced. 
During  a  succession  of  twelve  monarchs,  it  is  said 
that  not  one  deviated  from  this  beneficent  cha- 
racter. 

When  the  Spaniards  first  visited  the  coast  of  Peru, 
in  the  year  one  thousand  five  hundred  and  twenty-six, 
Huana  Capac,  the  twelfth  monarch  from  the  founder 
of  the  state,  was  seated  on  the  throne.  He  is  repre- 
sented as  a  prince  distinguished  not  only  for  the 
pacific  virtues  peculiar  to  the  race,  but  eminent  for 
his  martial  talents.  By  his  victorious  arms  the 
kingdom  of  Quito  was  subjected,  a  conquest  of  such 
extent  and  importance  as  almost  doubled  the  power 
of  the  Peruvian  empire.  He  was  fond  of  residing 
in  the  capital  of  that  valuable  province  which  he  had 
added  to  his  dominions  ;  and,  notwithstanding  the 
ancient  and  fundamental  law  of  the  monarchy  against 
polluting  the  royal  blood  by  any  foreign  alliance,  he 
married  the  daughter  of  the  vanquished  monarch  of 
Quito.  She  bore  him  a  son  named  Atahuaipa,  whom, 
on  his  death  at  Quito,  which  seems  to  have  happened 
about  the  year  one  thousand  five  hundred  and 
twenty-nine,  he  appointed  his  successor  in  that 
kingdom,  leaving  the  rest  of  his  dominions  to  Huascar, 
his  eldest  son,  by  a  mother  of  the  royal  race.  Greatly 
as  the  Peruvians  revered  the  memory  of  a  monarch 
who  had  reigned  with  greater  reputation  and  splen- 
dour than  any  of  his  predecessors,  the  destination  of 
Huana  Capac  concerning  the  succession  appeared  so 
repugnant  to  ajnaxim  coeval  with  the  empire,  and 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


••    1-11 


founded  on  authority  deemed  sacred,  that  it  was  no 
sooner  known  at  Cuzco  than  it  excited  general  dis- 
gust. Encouraged  by  those  sentiments  of  his  sub- 
jects, Huascar  required  his  brother  to  renounce  the 
government  of  Quito,  and  to  acknowledge  him  as  his 
lawful  superior.  But  it  had  been  the  first  care  of 
Atahualpa  to  gain  a  large  body  of  troops  which  had 
accompanied  his  father  to  Quito.  These  were  the 
flower  of  the  Peruvian  warriors,  to  whose  valour 
Huana  Capac  had  been  indebted  for  all  his  victories. 
Relying  on  their  support,  Atahualpa  first  eluded  his 
brother's  demand,  and  then  marched  against  him  in 
hostile  array. 

Thus  the  ambition  of  two  young  men,   the   title  of 
the  one  founded  on  ancient   usage,  and  that  of  the  ! 
other  asserted  by  the  veteran  troops,  involved  Peru  in  ! 
rivil  war,  a  calamity  to  which,  under  a  succession  of  i 
virtuous  princes,  it  had  hitherto  been  a  stranger.     In  j 
such  a  contest  the  issue  was    obvious.     The   force  of 
arms   triumphed  over   the   authority  of  laws.      Ata- 
hualpa remained  victorious,  and  made  a  cruel  use  of  j 
his  victory.      Conscious  of  the  defect  in  his  own  title  ; 
to  thn  crown,   he   attempted  to  exterminate  the  royal 
race,  by  putting  to  death  all  the  children  of  the  sun 
descenaed  from  Manco  Capac,  whom    he  could  seize 
either  by  force  or  stratagem.      From  a  political  motive, 
the   life  of  his   unfortunate  rival  Huascar,   who   had 
been  taken  prisoner  in  a  battle  which  derided  the  fate 
of  the  empire,  was  prolonged   for  some  time,    that  by 
issuing  orders   in   his  name  tbe   usurper  might  more 
easily  establish  his  own  authority. 

When  Pizarro  landed  in  the  bay  of  St.  Matthew, 
this  civil  war  raged  between  the  two  brothers  in  its 
greatest  fury.  Had  he  made  any  hostile  attempt  in 
his  former  visit  to  Peru  in  the  year  one  thousand  five 
hundred  and  twenty-seven,  he  must  then  have  en- 
countered the  force  of  a  powerful  state,  united  under 
a  monarch  possessed  of  capacity  as  well  as  courage, 
and  unembarrassed  with  any  care  that  could  divert 
him  from  opposing  his  progress.  But  at  this  time  the 
two  competitors,  though  they  received  early  accounts 
of  the  arrival  and  violent  proceedings  of  the  Spaniards, 
were  so  intent  upon  the  operations  of  a  war  which 
they  deemed  more  interesting,  that  they  paid  no  at- 
tention to  the  motions  of  an  enemy,  too  inconsider- 
able in  number  to  excite  any  great  alarm,  and  to 
whom  it  would  be  easy,  as  they  imagined,  to  give  a 
check  when  more  at  leisure. 

By  this  fortunate  coincidence  of  events,  whereof 
Pizarro  could  have  no  foresight,  and  of  which,  from 
his  defective  mode  of  intercourse  with  the  people  of 
the  country,  he  remained  long  ignorant,  he  was  per- 
mitted to  carry  on  his  operations  unmolested,  and 
advance  to  the  centre  of  a  great  empire  before  one 
effort  of  its  power  was  exerted  to  stop  his  career. 
During  their  progress,  the  Spaniards  had  acquired 
some  imperfect  knowledge  of  this  struggle  between 
the  two  contending  factions.  The  first  complete 
information  with  respect  to  it  they  received  from 
messengers  whom  Huascar  sent  to  Pizarro,  in  order 
to  solicit  his  aid  against  Atahualpa,  whom  he  re- 
presented as  a  rebel  and  an  usurper.  Pizarro  per- 
ceived at  once  the  importance  of  this  intelligence, 
and  foresaw  so  clearly  all  the  advantages  which  might 
be  derived  from  this  divided  state  of  the  kingdom 
which  he  had  invaded,  that  without  waiting  for  the 
reinforcement  which  he  expected  from  Panama,  he 
determined  to  push  forward,  while  intestine  discord 
put  it  out  of  the  power  of  the  Peruvians  to  attack 
him  with  their  whole  force,  and  while,  by  taking  part,  j 
as  circumstances  should  incline  him,  with  one  of  the  ! 
competitors,  he  might  be  enabled  with  greater  case  i 


to  crush  both.  Enterprising  as  the  Spaniards  of 
that  age  were  in  all  their  operations  against  Ameri- 
cans, and  distinguished  as  Pizarro  was  among  his 
countrymen  for  dating  courage,  we  can  hardly  sup- 
pose, that,  after  having  proceeded  hitherto  slowly 
and  with  much  caution,  he  would  have  changed  at 
once  his  system  of  operation,  and  have  ventured 
upon  a  measure  so  hazardous,  without  some  new 
motive  or  prospect  to  justify  it. 

As  he  was  obliged  to  divide  his  troops,  in  order  to 
leave  a  garrison  in  St.  Michael,  sufficient  to  defend 
a  Station  of  equal  importance  as  a  place  of  retreat  in 
case  of  any  disaster,  and  as  a  poit  for  receiving  any 
supplies  which  should  come  from  Panama,  he  began 
his  march  with  a  very  slender  and  ill-accoutred  train 
of  followeis.  They  consisted  of  sixty-two  horsemen 
(12S),  and  a  hundred  and  two  foot-soldiers,  of  whom 
twenty  were  armed  with  cross-bows,  and  three  with 
muskets.  He  directed  his  course  towards  Caxamalca, 
a  small  town  at  the  distance  of  twelve  days'  march 
from  St.  Michael,  where  Atahualpa  was  encamped 
with  a  considerable  body  of  troops.  Before  he  had 
proceeded  far,  ari  officer  despatched  by  the  inca  met 
him  with  a  valuable  present  from  that  prince,  accom- 
panied with  a  proffer  of  his  alliance,  and  assurances 
of  a  friendly  reception  at  Caxamalca.  Pizarro,  ac- 
cording to  the  usual  artifice  of  his  countrymen  in 
America,  pretended  to  come  as  the  ambassador  of  a 
very  powerful  monarch,  and  declared  that  he  was  now 
advancing  with  an  intention  to  offer  Atahualpa  his 
aid  against  those  enemies  who  disputed  his  title  to 
the  throne.  As  the  object  of  the  Spaniards  in 
entering  their  country  was  altogether  incomprehen- 
sible to  the  Peruvians,  they  had  formed  various  con- 
jectures concerning  it,  without  being  able  to  decide 
whether  they  should  consider  their  new  guests  as 
beings  of  a  superior  nature,  who  had  visited  them 
from  some  beneficent  motive,  or  as  formidable 
avengers  of  their  crimes,  and  enemies  to  their  repose 
and  liberty.  The  continual  professions  of  the  Span- 
iards, that  they  came  to  enlighten  them  with  the 
knowledge  of  truth,  and  lead  them  in  the  way  of 
happiness,  favoured  the  former  opinion  ;  the  outrages 
which  they  committed,  their  rapaciousness  and 
cruelty ,  were  awful  confirmations  of  the  latter.  While 
in  this  state  of  uncertainty,  Pizarro's  declaration  of 
his  pacific  intentions  so  far  removed  all  the  inca's 
fears,  that  he  determined  to  give  him  a  friendly  re- 
ception. In  consequence  of  this  resolution,  thq 
Spaniards  were  allowed  to  march  in  tranquillity 
across  the  sandy  desert  between  St.  Michael  ant^ 
Motupe,  where  the  most  feeble  effort  of  an  enemy, 
added  to  the  unavoidable  distresses  which  they  suf- 
fered in  passing  through  that  comfortless  region, 
must  have  proved  fatal  to  them  (1 29).  From  Motup3 
they  advanced  towards  the  mountains  which  encom- 
passed the  low  country  of  Peru,  and  passed  through 
a  defile  so  narrow  and  inaccessible,  that  a  few  men 
might  have  defended  it  against  a  numerous  army, 
But  here  likewise,  from  the  same  inconsiderate  cre- 
dulity of  the  inca,  the  Spaniards  met  with  no  op- 
position, and  took  quiet  possession  of  a  fort  erected; 
for  the  security  of  that  important  station.  As  they 
now  approached  near  to  Caxamalca,  Atahualpa  re* 
newed  his  professions  of  friendship ;  and  as  an 
evidence  of  their  sincerity,  sent  them  presents  of 
greater  value  than  the  former. 

On  entering  Caxamalca,  Pizarro  took  possession  of 
a  large  court,  on  one  side  of  which  was  a  house  which 
the  Spanish  historians  call  a  palace  of  the  inca,  and  on 
the  other  a  temple  of  the  sun,  the  whole  surrounded 
with  a  strong  rampart  or  wall  of  earth.  When  he 


142 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


had  posted  his  troops  in  this  advantageous  station, 
he  dispatched  his  brother  Ferdinand  and  Hernando 
Soto  to  the  camp  of  Atahualpa,  which  was  about  a 
league  distant  from  the  town.  He  instructed  them 
to  confirm  the  declaration  which  he  had  formerly- 
made  of  his  pacific  disposition,  and  to  desire  an 
interview  with  the  inca,  that  he  might  explain  more 
fully  the  intention  of  the  Spaniards  in  visiting  his 
country.  They  were  treated  with  all  the  respectful 
hospitality  usual  among  the  Peruvians  in  the  re- 
ception of  their  most  cordial  friends,  and  Atahualpa 
promised  to  visit  the  Spanish  commander  next  day 
in  his  quarters.  The  decent  deportment  of  the  Pe- 
ruvian monarch,  the  order  of  his  court,  and  the 
reverence  with  which  his  subjects  approached  his 
person  and  obeyed  his  commands,  astonished  those 
Spaniards  who  had  never  met  in  America  with  any 
thing  more  dignified  than  the  petty  cazique  of  a 
barbarous  tribe.  But  their  eyes  were  still  more 
powerfully  attracted  by  the  vast  profusion  of  wealth 
which  they  observed  in  the  inca's  camp.  The  rich 
ornaments  worn  by  him  and  his  attendants,  the 
vessels  of  gold  and  silver  in  which  the  repast 
offered  to  them  was  served  up,  the  multitude  of 
utensils  of  every  kind  formed  of  those  precious 
metals,  opened  prospects  far  exceeding  any  idea  of 
opulence  that  an  European  of  the  sixteenth  century 
could  form. 

On  their  return  to  Caxamalca,  while  their  minds 
were  yet  warm  with  admiration  and  desire  of  the 
wealth  which  they  had  beheld,  they  gave  such  a 
description  of  it  to  their  countrymen  as  confirmed 
Pizarro  in  a  resolution  which  he  had  already  taken. 
From  his  own  obserration  of  American  manners 
during  his  long  service  in  the  New  World,  as  well  as 
from  the  advantages  which  Cortes  had  derived  from 
seizing  Montezuma,  he  knew  of  what  consequence  it 
was  to  have  the  inca  in  his  power.  For  this  purpose, 
he  formed  a  plan  as  daring  as  it  was  perfidious. 
Notwithstanding  the  character  that  he  had  assumed, 
of  an  ambassador  from  a  powerful  monarch  who 
courted  an  alliance  with  the  inca,  and  in  violation  of 
the  repeated  offers  which  he  had  made  to  him  of  his 
own  friendship  and  assistance,  he  determined  to  avail 
himself  of  the  unsuspicious  simplicity  with  which 
Atahualpa  relied  upon  his  professions,  and  to  seize 
the  person  of  the  inca  during  the  interview  to  which 
he  had  invited  him.  He  prepared  for  the  execution 
of  his  scheme  with  the  same  deliberate  arrangement, 
and  with  as  little  compunction,  as  if  it  had  reflected 
no  disgrace  on  himself  or  his  country.  He  divided 
his  cavalry  into  three  small  squadrons,  under  the 
command  of  his  brother  Ferdinand,  Soto,  and  Benal- 
cazar ;  his  infantry  were  formed  in  one  body,  except 
twenty  of  most  tried  courage,  whom  he  kept  near  his 
own  person  to  support  him  in  the  dangerous  service 
which  he  reserved  for  himself ;  the  artillery,  con- 
sisting of  two  field-  pieces,  and  the  cross-bowmen, 
were  placed  opposite  to  the  avenue  by  which  Ata- 
hualpa was  to  approach.  All  were  commanded  to 
keep  within  the  square,  and  not  to  move  until  the 
signal  for  action  was  given. 

[Nov.  16.]  Early  in  the  morning  the  Peruvian 
camp  was  all  in  motion.  But  as  Atahualpa  was 
so  solicitous  to  appear  with  the  greatest  splendour 
and  magnificence  in  his  first  interview  with  the 
strangers,  the  preparations  for  this  were  so  tedious, 
that  the  day  was  far  advanced  before  he  began  his 
march.  Even  then,  lest  the  order  of  the  procession 
should  be  deranged,  he  moved  so  slowly,  that  the 
Spaniards  became  impatient,  and  apprehensive  that 
Borne  suspicion  of  their  intention  might  be  the  cause 


of  this  delay.  In  order  to  remove  this,  Pizarro 
despatched  one  of  his  officers  with  fresh  assurances  of 
his  friendly  disposition.  At  length  the  inca  ap- 
proached. First  of  all  appeared  four  hundred  men, 
in  an  uniform  dress,  as  harbingers  to  clear  the  way 
before  him.  He  himself  sitting  on  a  throne  or  couch 
adorned  with  plumes  of  various  colours,  and  almost 
covered  with  plates  of  gold  and  silver  enriched  with 
precious  stones,  was  carried  on  the  shoulders  of  his 
principal  attendants.  Behind  him  came  some  chief 
officers  of  his  court,  carried  in  the  same  manner. 
Several  bands  of  singers  and  dancers  accompanied 
this  cavalcade;  and  the  whole  plain  was  covered  with 
troops,  amounting  to  more  than  thirty  thousand  men. 

As  the  inca  drew  near  the  Spanish  quarters,  father 
Vincent  Valverde,  chaplain  to  the  expedition,  advanced 
with  a  crucifix  in  one  hand,  and  a  breviary  in  the 
other,  and  in  a  long  discourse  explained  to  him  the 
doctrine  of  the  creation,  the  fall  of  Adam,  the  incar- 
nation, the  sufferings  and  resurrection  of  Jesus 
Christ,  the  appointment  of  St.  Peter  as  God's  vice- 
gerent on  earth,  the  transmission  ef  his  apostolic 
power  by  succession  to  the  popes,  the  donation 
made  to  the  king  of  Castile,  by  pope  Alexander,  of 
all  the  regions  of  the  New  World.  In  consequence 
of  all  this,  he  required  Atahualpa  to  embrace  the 
Christian  faith,  to  acknowledge  the  supreme  juris- 
diction of  the  pope,  and  to  submit  to  the  king  of 
Castile  as  his  lawful  sovereign  ;  promising  if  he  com- 
plied instantly  with  this  requisition,  that  the  Castilian 
monarch  would  protect  his  dominions,  and  permit 
him  to  continue  in  the  exercise  of  his  royal  authority; 
but  if  he  should  impiously  refuse  to  obey  this  sum- 
mons, he  denounced  war  against  him  in  his  master's 
name,  and  threatened  him  with  the  most  dreadful 
effects  of  his  vengeance. 

This  strange  harangue  ,  unfolding  deep  mysteries, 
and  alluding  to  unknown  facts,  of  which  no  power  of 
eloquence  could  have  conveyed  at  once  a  distinct  idea 
to  an  American,  was  so  lamely  translated  by  an  un- 
skilful interpreter,  little  acquainted  with  the  idiom 
of  the  Spanish  tongue,  and  incapable  of  expressing 
himself  with  propriety  in  the  language  of  the  inca, 
that  its  general  tenor  was  altogether  incomprehen- 
sible to  Atahualpa.  Some  parts  in  it,  of  more  obvious 
meaning,  filled  him  with  astonishment  and  indigna- 
tion. His  reply,  however,  was  temperate.  He  began 
with  observing,  that  he  Avas  lord  of  the  dominions 
over  which  he  reigned  by  hereditary  succession  ; 
and  added,  that  he  could  not  conceive  how  a  foreign 
priest  should  pretend  to  dispose  of  territories  which 
did  not  belong  to  him  ;  that  if  such  a  preposterous 
grant  had  been  made,  he,  who  was  the  rightful  pos- 
sessor, refused  to  confirm  it ;  that  he  had  no  inclina- 
tion to  renounce  the  religious  institutions  established 
by  his  ancestors  ;  nor  would  he  forsake  the  service 
of  the  sun,  the  immortal  divinity  whom  he  and  his 
people  revered,  in  order  to  worship  the  god  of  the 
Spaniards,  who  was  subject  'to  death  ;  that  with  re- 
spect to  other  matters  contained  in  his  discourse, 
as  he  had  never  heard  of  them  before,  and  did  not 
now  understand  their  meaning,  he  desired  to  know 
where  the  priest  had  learned  things  so  extraordinary. 
"  In  this  book,"  answered  Valverde,  reaching  out  to 
him  his  breviary.  The  inca  opened  it  eagerly,  and 
turning  over  the  leaves,  lifted  it  to  his  ear  :  "This," 
says  he,  "  is  silent;  it  tells  me  nothing;"  and  threw 
it  with  disdain  to  the  ground.  The  enraged 
monk,  running  towards  his  countrymen,  cried  out, 
"  To  arms,  Christians,  to  arms  ;  the  word  of  God  is 
insulted;  avenge  this  profanation  on  those  impious 
dogs  (130}." 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


143 


Pizarro,  who,  during  this  long  conference,  had 
with  difficulty  restrained  his  soldiers,  eager  to  seize 
ihe  rich  spoils  of  which  they  had  now  so  near  a  view, 
immediately  gave  the  signal  of  assault.  At  once  the 
martial  music  struck  up,  the  cannon  and  muskets 
began  to  fire,  the  horse  sallied  out  fiercely  to  the 
charge,  the  infantry  rushed  on  sword  in  hand.  The 
Peruvians,  astonished  at  the  suddenness  of  an  attack 
which  they  did  not  expect,  and  dismayed  with  the 
destructive  effect  of  the  fire-arms,  and  the  irresistible 
impression  of  the  cavalry,  fled  with  universal  conster- 
nation on  every  side,  without,  attempting  either  to 
annoy  the  enemy  or  to  defend  themselves.  Pizarro, 
at  the  head  of  his  chosen  band,  advanced  directly 
towards  the  inca ;  and  though^  his  nobles  crowded 
around  him  with  officious  zeal,  and  fell  in  numbers 
at  his  feet,  while  they  vied  one  with  another  in 
sacrificing  their  own  lives,  that  they  might  cover  the 
sacred  person  of  their  sovereign,  the  Spaniards  soon 
penetrated  to  the  royal  seat';  and  Pizarro,  seizing  the 
inca  by  the  arm,  dragged  him  to  the  ground,  and 
carried  him  as  a  prisoner  to  his  quarters.  The  fate 
of  the  monarch  increased  the  precipitate  flight  of  his 
followers.  The  Spaniards  pursued  them  towards 
every  quarter,  and  with  deliberate  and  unrelenting 
barbarity  continued  to  slaughter  wretched  fugitives, 
who  never  once  offered  to  resist.  The  carnage  did 
not  cease  until  the  close  of  the  day.  About  four 
thousand  Peruvians  were  killed.  Not  a  single 
Spaniard  fell,  nor  was  one  wounded  but  Pizarro 
himself,  whose  hand  was  slightly  hurt  by  one  of  his 
own  soldiers,  while  struggling  eagerly  to  lay  hold  on 
the  inca  (131). 

The  plunder  of  the  field  was  rich  beyond  any  idea 
which  the  Spaniards  had  yet  formed  concerning  the 
wealth  of  Peru,  and  they  were  so  transported 
with  the  value  of  the  acquisition,  as  well  as  the 
greatness  of  their  success,  that  they  passed  the 
night  in  the  extravagant  exultation  natural  to  in- 
digent adventurers  on  such  an  extraordinary  change 
of  fortune. 

At  first  the  captive  monarch  could  hardly  believe 
a  calamity,  which  he  so  little  expected,  to  be  real. 
But  he  soon  felt  all  the  misery  of  his  fate,  and  the 
dejection  into  which  he  sunk  was  in  proportion  to 
the  height  of  grandeur  from  which  he  had  fallen. 
Pizarro,  afraid  of  losing  all  the  advantages  which  he 
hoped  to  derive  from  the  possession  of  such  a  prisoner, 
laboured  to  console  him  with  professions  of  kindness 
and  respect,  that  corresponded  ill  with  his  actions. 
By  residing  among  the  Spaniards,  the  inca  quickly 
discovered  their  ruling  passion,  which  indeed  they 
were  nowise  solicitous  to  conceal,  and,  by  applying 
to  that,  made  an  attempt  to  recover  his  liberty.  He 
offered  as  a  ransom  what  astonished  the  Spaniards, 
even  after  all  they  now  knew  concerning  the  opulence 
of  his  kingdom.  The  apartment  in  which  he  was 
confined  was  twenty-two  feet  in  length  and  sixteen 
in  breadth ;  he  undertook  to  fill  it  with  vessels  of 
gold  as  high  as  he  could  reach.  Pizarro  closed 
eagerly  with  the  tempting  proposal,  and  a  line  was 
drawn  upon  the  walls  of  the  chamber,  to  mark 
the  stipulated  height  to  which  the  treasure  was  to 
rise. 

Atahualpa,  transported  with  having  obtained  some 
prospect  of  liberty,  took  measures  instantly  for 
fulfilling  his  part  of  the  agreement,  by  sending  mes- 
sengers to  Cuzco,  Quito,  and  other  places,  where 
gold  had  been  amassed  in  largest  quantities,  either 
for  adorning  the  temples  of  the  gods,  or  the  houses 
of  the  inca,  to  bring  what  was  necessary  for  com- 
pleting his  ransom  directly  to  Caxamalca,'  Though 


Atahualpa  was  now  in  the  custody  of  his  enemies, 
yet  so  much  were  the  Peruvians  accustomed  to  respect 
every  mandate  issued  by  their  sovereign,  that  his 
orders  were  executed  with  the  greatest  alacrity. 
Soothed  with  hopes  of  recovering  his  liberty  by  this 
means,  the  subjects  of  the  inca  were  afraid  of  en- 
dangering his  life  by  forming  any  other  scheme  for 
his  relief;  and  though  the  force  of  the  empire  was 
still  entire,  no  preparations  were  made  and  no  army 
assembled  to  avenge  their  own  wrongs  or  those  of 
their  monarch.  The  Spaniards  remained  in  Caxamalca 
tranquil  and  unmolested.  Small  detachments  of  their 
number  marched  into  remote  provinces  of  the 
empire,  and  instead  of  meeting  with  any  opposition, 
were  every  where  received  with  marks  of  the  most 
submissive  respect  (132). 

Inconsiderable  as  those  parties  were,  and  desirous 
as  Pizarro  might  be  to  obtain  some  knowledge  of  the 
interior  state  of  the  country,  he  could  not  have 
ventured  upon  any  diminution  of  his  main  body,  if  he 
had  not  about  this  time  [December]  received  an 
account  of  Almagro's  having  landed  at  St.  Michael 
with  such  a  reinforcement  as  would  almost  double 
the  number  of  his  followers.  The  arrival  of  this  long- 
expected  succour  was  not  more  agreeable  to  the 
Spaniards  than  alarming  to  the 'inca.  He  saw  the 
power  of  his  enemies  increase ;  and  as  he  knew 
neither  the  source  whence  they  derived  their  supplies, 
nor  the  means  by  which  they  were  conveyed  to  Peru, 
he  could  not  foresee  to  what  a  height  the  inundation 
that  poured  in  upon  his  dominions  might  rise.  While 
disquieted  with  such  apprehensions,  he  learned  that 
some  Spaniards,  in  their  way  to  Cuzco,  had  visited 
his  brother  Huascar  in  the  place  where  he  kept  him 
confined,  and  that  the  captive  prince  had  represented 
to  them  the  justice  of  his  own  cause,  and  as  an  induce- 
ment to  espouse  it,  had  promised  them  a  quantity  of 
treasure  greatly  beyond  that  which  Atahnalpa  had 
engaged  to  pay  for  his  ransom.  If  the  Spaniards 
should  listen  to  this  proposal,  Atahualpa  perceived 
his  own  destruction  to  be  inevitable ;  and  suspecting 
that  their  insatiable  thirst  for  gold  would  tempt  them 
to  lend  a  favourable  ear  to  it,  he  determined  to 
sacrifice  his  brother's  life,  that  he  might  save  his 
own  [A.  D.*1533]  ;  and  his  orders  for  this' purpose 
were  executed,  like  all  his  other  commands,  with 
scrupulous  punctuality. 

Meanwhile  Indians  daily  arrived  at  Caxamalca 
from  different  parts  of  the  kingdom,  loaded  with 
treasure.  A  great  part  of  the  stipulated  quantity 
was  now  amassed,  and  Atahualpa  assured  the 
Spaniards,  that  the  only  thing  which  prevented  the 
whole  from  being  brought  in,  was  the  remoteness  of 
the  provinces  where  it  was  deposited.  But  such 
vast  piles  of  gold  presented  continually  to  the  view  of 
needy  soldiers,  had  so  inflamed  their  avarice,  that 
it  was  impossible  any  longer  to  restrain  their  impatience 
to  obtain  possession  of  this  rich  booty.  Orders  were 
given  for  melting  down  the  whole,  except  some  pieces 
of  curious  fabric,  reserved  as  a  present  for  the 
emperor.  After  setting  apart  the  fifth  due  to  the 
crown,  and  a  hundred  thousand  pesos  as  a  donative 
to  the  soldiers  which  arrived  with  Almagro,  there 
remained  one  million  five  hundred  and  twenty-eight 
thousand  five  hundred  pesos  to  Pizarro  and  his 
followers.  The  festival  of  St.  James,  the  patron  saint 
of  Spain,  was  the  day  [July  25]  chosen  for  the 
partition  of  this  enormous  sum,  and  the  manner  of 
conducting  it  strongly  marks  the  strange  alliance  of 
fanaticism  with  avarice,  which  I  have  more  than  once 
had  occasion  to  point  out  as  a  striking  feature  in  the 
character  of  the  conquerors  of  tlie  New  World. 


144 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Though  assembled  to  divide  the  spoils  of  an  innocent 
people,  procured  by  deceit,  extortion,  and  cruelty,  the 
transaction  began  with  a  solemn  invocation  of  the  name 
of  God,  as  if  they  could  have  expected  the  guidance  of 
Heaven  in  distributing  those  wages  of  iniquity.  In  this 
division  above  eight  thousand  pesos,  at  that  time  not 
inferior  in  effective  value  to  as  many  pounds  sterling 
in  the  present  century,  fell  to  the  share  of  each 
horseman,  and  half  that  sum  to  each  foot  soldier. 
Pizarro  himself,  and  his  officers,  received  dividends 
in  proportion  to  the  dignity  of  their  rank. 

There  is  no  example  in  history  of  such  a  sudden 
acquisition  of  wealth  by  military  service,  nor  was 
ever  a  sum  so  great  divided  among  so  small  a  number 
of  soldiers.  Many  of  them  having  received  a  recom- 
pence  for  their  services  far  beyond  their  most 
sanguine  hopes,  were  so  impatient  to  retire  from 
fatigue  and  danger,  in  order  to  spend  the  remainder 
of  their  days  iu  their  native  country  in  ease  and 
opulence,  that  they  demanded  their  discharge  with 
clamorous  importunity.  Pizarro,  sensible  that  from 
such  men  he  could  expect  neither  enterprise  in  action 
nor  fortitude  in  suffering,  and  persuaded  that 
wherever  they  went  the  display  of  their  riches  would 
allure  adventurers,  less  opulent  but  more  hardy,  to  his 
standard,  granted  their  suit  without  reluctance,  and 
permitted  above  sixty  of  them  to  accompany  his 
brother  Ferdinand,  whom  he  sent  to  Spain  with  an 
account  of  his  success,  and  the  present  destined  for 
the  emperor.  > 

The  Spaniards  having  divided  among  them  the 
treasure  amassed  for  the  inca's  ransom,  he  insisted 
with  them  to  fulfil  their  promise  of  setting  him  at 
liberty.  But  nothing  was  further  from  Pizarro's 
thoughts.  During  his  long  service  in  the  New 
World,  he  had  imbibed  those  ideas  and  maxims  of 
his  fellow-soldiers,  which  led  them  to  consider  its 
inhabitants  as'  an  inferior  race,  neither  worthy  of  the 
name,  nor  entitled  to  the  rights,  of  men.  In  his  com- 
pact with  Atahualpa,  he  had  no  other  object  than  to 
amuse  his  captive  with  such  a  prospect  of  recovering 
his  liberty,  as  might  induce  him  to  lend  all  the  aid 
of  his  authority  towards  collecting  the  wealth  of  his 
kingdom.  Having  now  accomplished  this,  he  no 
longer  regarded  his  plighted  faith  ;  and  at  the  very  time 
when  the  credulous  prince  hoped  to  be  replaced  on 
his  throne,  he  had  secretly  resolved  to  bereave  him  of 
life.  Many  circumstances  seemed  to  have  concurred 
in  prompting  him  to  this  action,  the  most  criminal 
and  atrocious  that  stains  the  Spanish  name,  amidst 
all  the  deeds  of  violence  committed  in  carrying  on 
the  conquests  of  the  New  World. 

Though  Pizarro  had  seized  the  inca,  in  imitation 
of  Cortes's  conduct  towards  the  Mexican  monarch,  he 
did  not  possess  talents  for  carrying  on  the  same  artful 
plan  of  policy.  Destitute  of  the  temper  and  address 
requisite  for  gaining  the  confidence  of  his  prisoner,  he 
never  reaped  all  the  advantages  which  might  have 
been  derived  from  being  master  of  his  person  and 
authority.  Atahualpa  was,  indeed,  a  prince  of 
greater  abilities  and  discernment  than  Montezuma, 
and  seems  to  have  penetrated  more  thoroughly  into 
the  character  and  intentions  of  the  Spaniards. 
Mutual  suspicion  and  distrust  accordingly  took  place 
between  them.  The  strict  attention  with  which  it 
was  necessary  to  guard  a  captive  of  such  importance, 
greatly  increased  the  fatigue  of  military  duty.  The 
utility  of  keeping  him  appeared  inconsiderable  ;  and 
Pizarro  felt  him  as  an  encumbrance,  from  which  he 
wished  to  be  delivered. 

Almagro  and  his  followers  had  made  a  demand  of 
an  equal  share  in  the  iuca's  ransom ;  and  though 


Pizarro  had  bestowed  upon  the  private  men  the  large 
gratuity  which  I  have  mentioned,  and  endeavoured  to 
soothe  their  leader  by  presents  of  great  value,  they 
still  continued  dissatisfied.  They  were  apprehensive, 
that  as  long  as  Atahualpa  remained  a  prisoner, 
Pizarro's  soldiers  would  apply  whatever  treasure 
should  be  acquired,  to  make  up  what  was  wanting 
of  the  quantity  stipulated  for  his  ransom,  and  under 
that  pretext  exclude  them  from  any  part  of  it.  They 
insisted  eagerly  on  putting  the  inca  to  death,  that  all 
the  adventurers  in  Peru  might  thereafter  be  on  an 
equal  footing. 

Pizarro  himself  began  to  be  alarmed  with  accounts 
of  forces  assembling  in  the  remote  provinces  of  the 
empire,  and  suspected  Atahualpa  of  having  issued 
orders  for  that  purpose.  These  fears  and  suspicions 
were  artfully  increased  by  Philippillo,  one  of  the 
Indians  whom  Pizarro  had  carried  off  from  Tumbez 
in  the  year  one  thousand  five  hundred  and  twenty- 
seven,  and  whom  he  employed  as  an  interpreter.  The 
function  which  he  performed  admitting  this  man  to 
familiar  intercourse  with  the  captive  monarch,  he 
presumed,  notwithstanding  the  meanness  of  his  birth, 
to  raise  his  affections  to  a  Coya,  or  descendant  of  the 
sun,  one  of  Atahualpa's  wives  ;  and  seeing  no  pros- 
pect of  gratifying  that  passion  during  the  life  of  the 
monarch,  he  endeavoured  to  fill  the  ears  of  the 
Spaniards  with  such  accounts  of  the  inca's  secret 
designs  and  preparations,  as  might  awaken  their 
jealousy,  and  incite  them  to  cut  him  off. 

While  Almagro  and  his  followers  openly  demanded 
the  life  of  the  inca,  and  Philippillo  laboured  to  ruin 
him  by  private  machinations,  that  unhappy  prince 
inadvertently  contributed  to  hasten  his  own  fate. 
During  his  confinement  he  had  attached  himself 
with  peculiar  affections  to  Ferdinand  Pizarro  and 
Hernando  Soto  ;  who,  as  they  were  persons  of  birth 
and  education  superior  to  the  rough  adventurers  with 
whom  they  served,  were  accustomed  to  behave  with 
more  decency  and  attention  to  the  captive  monarch. 
Soothed  with  this  respect  from  persons  of  such  high 
rank,  he  delighted  in  their  society.  But  in  the 
presence  of  the  governor  he  was  always  uneasy  and 
overawed.  This  dread  soon  came  to  be  mingled 
with  contempt.  Among  all  the  European  arts,  what 
he  admired  most  was  that  of  reading  and  writing; 
and  he  long  deliberated  with  himself,  whether  he 
should  regard  it  as  a  natural  or  acquired  talent.  In 
order  to  determine  this,  he  desired  one  of  the  soldiers, 
who  guarded  him,  to  write  the  name  of  God  on  the 
nail  of  his  thumb.  This  he  showed  successively  to 
several  Spaniards,  asking  its  meaning  ;  and  to  his 
amazement,  they  all,  without  hesitation,  returned  the 
same  answer.  At  length  Pizarro  entered ;  and,  on 
presenting  it  to  him,  he  blushed,  and  with  some 
confusion  was  obliged  to  acknowledge  his  ignorance. 
From  that  moment  Atahualpa  considered  him  as  a 
mean  person,  less  instructed  than  his  own  soldiers  ; 
and  he  had  not  address  enough  to  conceal  the  senti- 
ments with  which  this  discovery  had  inspired  him. 
To  be  the  object  of  a  barbarian's  scorn,  not  only- 
mortified  the  pride  of  Pizarro,  but  excited  such  re- 
sentment in  his  breast,  as  added  force  to  all  the  other 
considerations  which  prompted  him  to  put  the  inca 
to  death. 

But  in  order  to  give  some  colour  of  justice  to  this 
violent  action,  and  that  he  himself  might  be  exempted 
from  standing  singly  responsible  for  the  commission 
of  it,  Pizarro  resolved  to  try  the  inca  with  all  the 
formalities  observed  in  the  criminal  courts  of  Spain. 
Pizarro  himself,  and  Almagro,  with  two  assistants, 
were  appointed  judges,  with  full  power  to  acquit  or  to 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


145 


condemn  ;  an  attorney-general  was  named  to  carry 
on  the  prosecution  in  the  king's  name ;  counsellors 
were  chosen  to  assist  the  prisoner  in  his  defence ; 
and  clerks  were  ordained  to  record  the  proceedings 
of  court.  Before  this  strange  tribunal,  a  charge  was 
exhibited  still  more  amazing.  It  consisted  of  various 
articles ;  that  Atahualpa,  though  a  bastard,  had 
dispossessed  the  rightful  owner  of  the  throne,  and 
usurped  the  regal  power ;  that  he  had  put  his  brother 
and  lawful  sovereign  to  death  ;  that  he  was  an  idolater, 
and  had  not  only  permitted,  but  commanded,  the 
offering  of  human  sacrifices;  that  he  had  a  great 
number  of  concubines ;  that  since  his  imprisonment 
he  had  wasted  and  embezzled  the  royal  treasures, 
which  now  belonged  of  right  to  the  conquerors  ;  that 
lie  had  incited  his  subjects  to  take  arms  against  the 
Spaniards.  On  these  heads  of  accusation,  some  j?of 
which  are  so  ludicrous,  others  so  absurd,  that  the 
effrontery  of  Pizarro,  in  making  them  the  foundation 
of  a  serious  procedure,  is  not  less  surprising  than  his 
injustice,  did  this  strange  court  go  on  to  try  the 
sovereign  of  a  great  empire,  over  whom  he  had  no 
jurisdiction.  With  respect  to  each  of  the  articles, 
witnesses  were  examined  ;  but  as  they  delivered  their 
evidence  in  their  native  tongue,  Philippillo  had  it  in 
his  power  to  give  their  words  whatever  turn  best 
suited  his  malevolent  intentions.  To  judges  pre- 
determined in  their  opinion,  this  evidence  appeared 
Eufficient. 

They  pronounced  Atahualpa  guilty,  and  condemned 
him  to  be  burnt  alive.  Friar  Valverde  prostituted 
the  authority  of  his  sacred  function  to  confirm  this 
sentence,  and  by  his  signature  warranted  it  to  be  just. 
Astonished  at  his  fate,  Atahualpa  endeavoured  to 
avert  it  by  tears,  by  promises,  and  by  entreaties  that 
he  might  be  sent  to  Spain,  wliere  a  monarch  would 
be  the  arbiter  of  his  lot.  But  pity  never  touched  the 
unfeeling  heart  of  Pizarro.  He  ordered  him  to  be 
led  instantly  to  execution;  and,  what  added  to  the 
bitterness  of  his  last  moments,  the  same  monk  who 
had  just  ratified  his  doom,  offered  to  console,  and 
attempted  to  convert  him.  The  most  powerful  argu- 
ment Valverde  employed  to  prevail  with  him  to 
embrace  the  Christian  faith,  was  a  promise  of  mitiga- 
tion in  his  punishment.  The  dread  of  a  cruel  death 
extorted  from  the  trembling  victim  a  desire  of 
receiving  baptism.  The  ceremony  was  performed; 
and  Atahualpa,  instead  of  being  burnt,  was  strangled 
at  the  stake. 

Happily  for  the  credit  of  the  Spanish  nation,  even 
among  the  profligate  adventurers  which  it  sent  forth 
to  conquer  and  desolate  the  New  World,  there  were 
persons  who  retained  some  tincture  of  the  Castilian 
generosity  and  honour.  Though,  before  the  trial  of 
Atahualpa,  Ferdinand  Pizarro  had  set  out  for  Spain, 
and  Soto  was  sent  on  a  separate  command  at  a  dis- 
tance from  Caxamalca,  this  odious  transaction  was 
not  carried  on  without  censure  and  opposition. 
Several  officers,  and  among  those  some  of  the  greatest 
reputation  and  most  respectable  families  in  the 
service,  not  only  remonstrated,  but  protested  against 
this  measure  of  their  general,  as  disgraceful  to  their 
country,  as  repugnant  to  every  maxim  of  equity,  as  a 
violation  of  public  faith,  and  an  usurpation  of  juris- 
diction over  an  independent  monarch,  to  which  they 
had  no  title.  But  their  laudable  endeavours  were 
vain.  Numbers,  and  the  opinions  of  such  as  held 
every  thing  to  be  lawful  which  they  deemed  advan- 
tageous, prevailed.  History,  however,  records  even 
the  unsuccessful  exertions  of  virtue  with  applause  ; 
and  the  Spanish  writers,  in  relating  events  where  the 
valour  of  their  nation  is  more  conspicuous  thau  its 

HISTORY  OF  AMERICA,  No,  19. 


humanity,  have  not  failed  to  preserve  the  names  of 
those  who  made  this  laudable  effort  to  save  their 
country  from  the  infamy  of  having  perpetrated  such 
a  crime. 

On  the  death  of  Atahualpa,  Piaarro  invested  one  of 
his  sons  with  the  ensigns  of  royalty,  hoping  that  a 
young  man  without  experience  might  prove  a  more 
passive  instrument  in  his  hands,  than  an  ambitious 
monarch,  who  had  been  accustomed  to  independent 
command.  The  people  of  Cuzco,  and  the  adjacent 
country,  acknowledged  Manco  Capac,  a  brother  of 
Huascar,  as  inca.  But  neither  possessed  the  authority 
which  belonged  to  a  sovereign  of  Peru.  The  violent 
convulsions  into  which  the  empire  had  been  thrown, 
first  by  the  civil  war  between  the  two  brothers,  and 
then  by  the  invasion  of  the  Spaniards,  had  not  only 
deranged  the  order  of  the  Peruvian  government,  but 
almost  dissolved  its  frame.  When  they  beheld  their 
monarch  a  captive  in  the  power  of  strangers,  and  at 
last  suffering  an  ignominious  death,  the  people  in 
several  provinces,  as  if  they  had  been  set  free  from 
every  restraint  of  law  and  decency,  broke  out  in  the 
most  licentious  excesses.  So  many  descendants  of 
the  sun,  after  being  treated  with  the  utmost  indignity, 
had  been  cut  off  by  Atahualpa,  that  not  only  their 
influence  in  the  state  diminished  with  their  number, 
but  the  accustomed  reverence  for  that  sacred  race 
sensibly  decreased.  In  consequence  of  this  state  of 
things,  ambitious  men  in  different  parts  of  the  empire 
aspired  to  independent  authority,  and  usurped  juris- 
diction to  which  they  had  no  title.  The  general  who 
commanded  for  Atahualpa  in  Quito,  seized  the  brother 
and  children  of  his  master,  put  them  to  a  cruel  death, 
and  disclaiming  any  connexion  with  either  inca, 
endeavoured  to  establish  a  separate  kingdom  for 
himself. 

The  Spaniards,  with  pleasure  beheld  the  spirit  of 
discord  diffusing  itself,  and  the  vigour  of  government 
relaxing  among  the  Peruvians.  They  considered  those 
disorders  as  symptoms  of  a  state  hastening  towards 
its  dissolution.  Pizarro  no  longer  hesitated  to 
advance  towards  Cuzco,  and  he  had  received  sucli 
considerable  reinforcements,  that  he  could  venture 
with  little  danger  to  penetrate  so  far  into  the  interior 
part  of  the  country.  The  account  of  the  wealth 
acquired  at  Caxamalca  operated  as  he  had  forseen. 
No  sooner  did  his  brother  Fordinand,  with  the 
officers  and  soldiers  to  whom  he  had  given  their  dis- 
charge after  the  partition  of  the  inca's  ransom,  arrive 
at  Panama,  and  display  their  riches  in  the  view  of 
their  astonished  'countrymen,  than  fame  spread  the 
account  with  such  exaggeration  through  all  the  Spanigh 
settlements  on  the  South  Sea,  that  the  governors  of 
Guatimala,  Panama,  and  Nicaragua,  could  hardly 
restrain  the  people  under  their  jurisdiction  from 
abandoning  their  possessions,  and  crowding  to  that 
inexhaustible  source  of  wealth  which  seemed  to  be 
opened  in  Peru.  In  spite  of  every  check  and  regu- 
lation, such  numbers  resorted  thither,  that  Pizarro 
began  his  march  at  the  head  of  five  hundred  men, 
after  leaving  a  considerable  garrison  in  St.  Michael, 
under  the  command  of  Benalcazar.  The  Peruvians 
had  assembled  some  large  bodies  of  troops  to  oppose 
his  progress.  Several  fierce  encounters  happened, 
But  they  terminated  like  all  the  actions  in  America  : 
a  few  Spaniards  were  killed  or  wounded  ;  the  natives 
were  put  to  flight  with  incredible  slaughter.  At 
length  Pizarro  forced  his  way  to  Cuzco,  and  took 
quiet  possession  of  that  capital.  The  riches  found 
there,  even  after  all  the  natives  had  carried  off  and 
concealed,  either  from  a  superstitious  veneration  for 
the  ornaments  of  their  temples,  or  out  of  hatred  to 
U 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


€heir  rapacious  conquerors,  exceeded  in  value  what 
Lad  been  received  as  Atahualpa's  ransom.  But  as  the 
Spaniards  were  now  accustomed  to  the  wealth  of  the 
country,  and  it  came  to  be  parcelled  out  among  a 
great  number  of  adventurers,  this  dividend  did  not 
excite  the  same  surprise,  either  from  novelty,  or  the 
largeness  of  the  sum  that  fell  to  the  share  of  each 
individual  (133). 

During  the  march  to  Cuzco,  that  son  of  Atahualpa 
whom  Pizarro  treated  as  inca,  died:  and  as  the 
Spaniards  substituted  no  person  in  his  place,  the  title 
of  Manco  Capac  seems  to  have  been  universally 
recognised. 

While  his  fellow-soldiers  were  thus  employed, 
Benalcazar,  governor  of  St.  Michael,  an  able  and 
enterprising  officer,  was  ashamed  of  remaining 
inactive,  and  impatient  to  have  his  name  distinguished 
among  the  discoverros  and  conquerors  of  the  New 
World.  The  seasonable  arrival  of  a  fresh  body  of 
recruits  from  Panama  and  Nicaragua,  put  it  in  his 
power  to  gratify  this  passion.  Leaving  a  sufficient 
force  to  protect  the  infant  settlement  intrusted  to  his 
care,  he  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the  rest,  and 
set  out  to  attempt  the  reduction  of  Quito,  where, 
according  to  the  report  of  the  natives,  Atahualpa  had 
left  the  greatest  part  of  his  treasure.  Notwithstanding 
the  distance  of  that  city  from  St.  Michael,  the  difficulty 
of  marching  through  a  mountainous  country  covered 
with  woods,  and  the  frequent  and  fierce  attacks  of 
the  best  troops  in  Peru,  commanded  by  a  skilful 
leader,  the  valour,  good  conduct,  and  perseverance  of 
Benalcazar  surmounted  every  obstacle,  and  he  entered 
Quito  with  his  victorious  troops.  But  they  met  with 
a  cruel  mortification  there.  The  natives,  now  ac- 
quainted to  their  sorrow  with  the  predominant  passion 
of  their  invaders,  and  knowing  how  to  disappoint  it, 
liad  carried  off  all  those  treasures,  the  prospect  of 
which  had  prompted  them  to  undertake  this  arduous 
expedition,  and  had  supported  them  under  all  the 
dangers  and  hardships  wherewith  they  had  to 
struggle  in  carrying  it  on. 

Benalcazar  was  not  the  only  Spanish  leader  who 
attacked  the  kingdom  of  Quito.  The  fame  of  its 
riches  attracted  a  more  powerful  enemy.  Pedro  de 
Alvarado,  who  had  distinguished  himself  so  eminently 
in  the  conquest  of  Mexico,  having  obtained  the  govern- 
ment of  Guatimala  aj  a  recompence  for  his  valour, 
soon  became  disgusted  with  a  life  of  uniform  tran- 
quillity, and  longed  to  be  again  engaged  in  the  bustle 
of  military  sendee.  The  glory  and  wealth  acquiied 
by  the  conquerors  of  Peru  heightened  this  passion, 
and  gave  it  a  determined  direction.  Believing,  or 
pretending  to  believe,  that  the  kingdom  of  Quito  did 
not  lie  within  the  limits  of  the  province  allotted  to 
Pizarro,  he  resolved  to  invade  it.  The  high  reputation 
of  the  commander  allured  volunteers  from  every 
quarter.  He  embarked  with  five  hundred  men,  of 
whom  above  two  hundred  were  of  such  distinction  as 
to  serve  on  horseback.  He  landed  at  Puerto  Viejo, 
and  without  sufficient  knowledge  of  the  country,  or 
proper  guides  to  conduct  him,  attempted  to  march 
directly  to  Quito,  by  following  the  course  of  the  river 
Guayaquil,  and  crossing  the  ridge  of  the  Andes  to- 
wards its  head.  But  in  this  route  one  of  the  most 
impracticable  in  all  America,  his  troops  endured  such 
fatigue  in  forcing  their  way  through  forests  and 
marshes  on  the  low  grounds,  and  suffered  so  much 
from  excessive  cold  when  they  began  to  ascend  the 
mountains,  that  before  they  reached  the  plain  of  Quito, 
a  fifth  part  of  the  men  and  half  their  horses  died, 
and  the  rest  were  so  much  dispirited  and  worn  out, 
as  to  be  almost  unfit  for  service  (134).  There  they 


met  with  a  body,  not  of  Indians  but  of  Spaniards, 
drawn  up  in  hostile  array  against  them.  Pizarro 
having  received  an  account  of  Alvarado's  armament, 
had  detached  Ahnagro  with  some  troops  to  oppose 
this  formidable  invader  of  his  jurisdiction  ;  and  these 
were  joined  by  Benalcazar,  and  his  victorious  party. 
Alvarado,  though  surprised  at  the  sight  of  enemies 
whom  he  did  not  expect,  advanced  boldly  to  the 
cha.'ge.  But,  by  the  interposition  of  some  moderate 
men  in  each  party,  an  amicable  accommodation  took 
place  ;  and  the  fatal  period,  when  Spaniards  suspended 
their  conquests  to  imbrue  their  hands  in  the  blood  of 
their  countrymen,  was  postponed  a  few  years.  Alvarado 
engaged  to  return  to  his  government,  upon  Almagro's 
paying  him  a  hundred  thousand  pesos  to  defray  the 
expence  of  his  armament.  Most  of  his  followers 
remained  in  the  country;  and  an  expedition,  which 
threatened  Pizarro  and  his  colony  with  ruin,  con- 
tributed to  augment  its  strength. 

By  this  time  Ferdinand  Pizarro  had  landed  in 
Spain.  The  immense  quantities  of  gold  and  silver 
which  he  imported'(135),  filled thekingdom  with  noless 
astonishment  than  they  had  excited  in  Panama  and 
the  adjacent  provinces.  Pizarro  was  received  by  the 
emperor  with  the  attention  due  to  the  bearer  of  a 
present  so  rich  as  to  exceed  any  idea  which  the 
Spaniards  had  formed  concerning  the  value  of  their 
acquisitions  in  America,  even  after  they  had  been 
ten  years  masters  of  Mexico.  In  recompence  of  his 
brother's  services,  his  authority  was  confirmed  with 
ne.wpowers  and  privileges,  and  the  addition  of  seventy 
leagues,  extending  along  the  coast,  to  the  southward 
of  the  territory  granted  in  his  former  patent.  Almagro 
received  the  honours  which  he  had  so  long  desired. 
The  title  of  adelantado,  or  governor,  was  conferred 
upon,  him,  with  jurisdiction  over  two  hundred  leagues 
of  country,  stretching  beyond  the  southern  limits  of 
the  province  allotted  to  Pizarro.  Ferdinand  himself 
did  not  go  unrewarded.  He  was  admitted  into  the 
military  order  of  St.  Jago,  a  distinction  always 
acceptable  to  a  Spanish  gentleman,  and  soon  set  out 
on  his  return  to  Peru,  accompanied  by  many  persons 
of  higher  rank  than  had  yet  served  in  that  country. 

Some  account  of  his  negociations  reached  Peru 
before  he  arrived  there  himself.  Almagro  no  sooner 
learned  that  he  had  obtained  a  royal  grant  of  an  in- 
dependent government,  than  pretending  that  Cuzco, 
the  imperial  residence  of  the  incas,  lay  within  its 
boundaries,  he  attempted  to  render  himself  master  of 
that  important  station.  Juan  and  Gonzalez  Pi- 
zarro prepared  to  oppose  him.  Each  of  the  contend- 
ing parties  was  supported  by  powerful  adherents, 
and  the  dispute  was  on  the  point  of  being  terminated 
by  the  sword,  when  Francis  Pizarro  arrived  in  the 
capital.  The  reconciliation  between  him  and  Al- 
magro had  never  been  cordial.  The  treachery  of 
Pizarro  in  engrossing  to  himself  all  the  honours 
and  emoluments,  which  ought  to  have  been  divided 
with  his  associate,  was  always  present  in  both  their 
thoughts.  The  former,  conscious  of  his  own  perfidy, 
did  not  expect  forgiveness ;  the  latter,  feeling  that 
he  had  been  deceived,  was  impatient  to  be  avenged  ; 
and  though  avarice  and  ambition  had  induced 
them  not  only  to  dissemble  their  sentiments,  but 
even  to  act  in  concert  while  in  pursuit  of  wealth 
and  power,  nr  sooner  did  they  obtain  possession  of 
these,  than  the  same  pissions  which  had  formed 
this  temporary  union  gave  rise  to  jealousy  and  dis- 
cord. To  each  of  them  was  attached  a  small  band 
of  interested  dependants,  who,  with  the  malicious 
art  peculiar  to  such  men,  heightened  their  suspi- 
cions, and  magnified  every  appearance  of  offence. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


147 


But  with  all  those  seeds  of  enmity  in  their  minds, 
and  thus  assiduously  cherished,  each  was  so  tho- 
roughly acquainted  with  the  abilities  and  courage 
of  his  rival,  that  they  equally  dreaded  the  conse- 
quences of  an  open  rupture.  The  fortunate  arrival 
of  Pizarro  at  Cuzco,  and  the  address  mingled  with 
firmness  which  he  manifested  in  his  expostulations 
with  Almagro  and  his  partisans,  averted  that  evil 
for  the  present.  A  new  reconciliation  took  place ; 
the  chief  article  of  which  was,  that  Almagro  should 
attempt  the  conquest  of  Chili ;  and  if  he  did  not 
find  in  that  province  an  establishment  adequate  to 
his  merit  and  expectations,  Pizarro,  by  way  of  in- 
demnification, should  yield  up  to  him  a  part  of  Peru 
[June  12].  This  new  agreement,  though  confirmed 
with  the  same  sacred  solemnities  as  their  first  con- 
tract, was  observed  with  as  little  fidelity. 

Soon  after  he  concluded  this  important  transaction, 
Pizarro  marched  back  to  the  countries  on  the  sea- 
coast,  and  as  he  now  enjoyed  an  interval  of  tran- 
quillity undisturbed  by  any  enemy,  either  Spanish  or 
Indian,  he  applied  himself  withthat  persevering  ardour 
which  distinguishes  his  character,  to  introduce  a 
form  of  regular  government  :nto  the  extensive  pro- 
vinces subject  to  his  authority.  Though  ill  qualified 
by  his  education  to  enter  into  any  disquisition  con- 
cerning the  principles  of  civil  policy,  and  little  accus- 
tomed by  his  former  habits  of  life  to  attend  to  its 
arrangements,  his  natural  sagacity  supplied  the  want 
both  of  science  and  experience.  He  distributed  the 
country  into  various  districts ;  he  appointed  proper 
magistrates  to  preside  in  each  ;  and  established 
regulations  concerning  the  administration  of  justice, 
the  collection  of  the  royal  revenue,  the  working  of 
the  mines,  and  the  treatment  of  the  Indians,  ex- 
tremely simple,  but  well  calculated  to  promote  the 
public  prosperity.  But  though,  for  the  present,  he 
adapted  his  plan  to  the  infant  state  of  his  colony, 
his  aspiring  mind  looked  forward  to  its  future 
grandeur.  He  considered  himself  as  laying  the  foun- 
dation of  a  great  empire,  and  deliberated  long,  and 
with  much  solicitude,  in  what  place  he  should  fix 
the  seat  of  government.  Cuzco,  the  imperial  city  of 
the  incas,  was  situated  in  a  corner  of  the  empire, 
above  lour  hundred  miles  from  the  sea,  and  much 
further  from  Quito,  a  province  of  whose  value  he  had 
formed  a  high  idea.  No  other  settlement  of  the  Pe- 
ruvians was  so  considerable  as  to  merit  the  name  of  a 
town,  or  to  allure  the  Spaniards  to  fix  their  residence 
in  it.  But  in  marching  through  the  country,  Pizarro 
had  been  struck  with  the  beauty  and  fertility  of  the 
valley  of  Rimac,  one  of  the  most  extensive  and  best 
cultivated  in  Peru.  There,  on  the  banks  of  a  small 
river,  of  the  same  name  with  the  vale  which  it  waters 
and  enriches,  at  the  distance  of  six  miles  from  Callao 
the  most  commodious  harbour  in  the  Pacific  ocean,  he 
founded  a  city  which  he  destined  to  be  the  capital  of 
his  government  [A.  D.  1535,  January  18],  He 
gave  it  the  name  of  Ciudad  de  los  Reyes,  either  from 
the  circumstance  of  having  laid  the  first  stone  at  that 
season  when  the  church  celebrates  the  festival  of  the 
three  kings,  or,  as  is  more  probable,  in  honour  of 
Juana  and  Charles,  the  joint  sovereigns  of  Castile. 
This  name  it  still  retains  among  the  Spaniards  in  all 
legal  and  formal  deeds  ;  but  it  is  better  known  to 
foreigners  by  that  of  Lima,  a  corruption  of  the  an- 
cient appellation  of  the  valley  in  which  it  is  situated. 
Under  his  inspection,  the  buildings  advanced  with 
such  rapidity,  that  it  soon  assumed  the  form  of  a  city, 
which,  by  a  magnificent  palace  that  he  erected  for  him- 
self, and  by  the  stately  houses  built  by  several  of  his 
officers,  gave,  even  in  its  infancy,  sow*  indication  of 
its  subsequent  grandeur. 


In  consequence  of  what  had  been  agreed  with 
Pizarro,  Almagro  began  his^march  towards  Chili ;  and 
as  he  possessed  in  an  eminent  degree  the  virtues  most 
admired  by  soldiers,  boundless  liberality  and  fearless 
courage,  his  standard  was  followed  by  five  hundred 
and  seventy  men,  the  greatest  body  of  Europeans 
that  had  hitherto  been  assembled  in  Peru.  From  im- 
patience to  finish  the  expedition,  or  from  that  con- 
tempt of  hardship  and  danger  acquired  by  all  the 
Spaniards  who  had  served  long  in  America,  Almagvo, 
instead  of  advancing  along  the  level  country  on  the 
coast,  chose  to  march  across  the  mountains  by  a  route 
that  was  shorter  indeed,  but  almost  impracticable. 
In  this  attempt  his  troops  were  exposed  to  every  ca- 
lamity which  men  can  suffer,  from  fatigue,  from  famine, 
and  from  the  rigour  of  the  climate  in  those  elevated 
regions  of  the  torrid  zone,  where  the  degree  of  cold  i» 
hardly  inferior  to  what  is  felt  within  the  polar  circle. 
Many  of  them  perished  ;  and  the  survivors  when  they 
descended  into  the  fertile  plains  of  Chili,  had  new 
difficulties  to  encounter.  They  found  there  a  race  of 
men  very  different  from  the  people  of  Peru,  intrepid, 
hardy,  independent,  and  in  their  bodily  constitution, 
as  well  as  vigour  of  spirit,  nearly  resembling  the  war- 
like tribes  of  North  America.  .Though  filled  with 
wonder  at  the  first  appearance  of  the  Spaniards,  and 
still  more  astonished  at  the  operations  of  their  cavalry 
and  the  effects  of  their  fire  arms,  the  Chilese  soon 
recovered  so  far  from  their  surprise,  as  not  only  to- 
defend  themselves  with  obstinacy,  but  to  attack  their 
enemies  with  more  determined  fierceness  than* 
any  American  nation  had  hitherto  discovered.  The 
Spaniards,  however,  continued  to  penetrate  into  the 
country,  and  collected  some  considerable  quantities 
of  gold  :  but  were  so  far  from  thinking  of  making  any 
settlement  amidst  such  formidable  neighbours,  that, 
in  spite  of  all  the  experience  and  valour  of  their 
leader,  the  final  issue  of  the  expedition  still  remained 
extremely  dubious,  when  they  were  recalled  from  it, 
by  an  unexpected  revolution  in  Peru.  The  causes  of: 
this  important  event  I  shall  endeavour  to  trace  to  theic 
source. 

So  many  adventurers  had  flocked  to  Peru  from,  every 
Spanish  colony  in  America,  and  all  with  surw.n  hjg^ 
expectations  of  accumulating  independent  fortunes  at 
once,  that,  to  men  possessed  with  notions.  So  extra- 
vagant, any  mention  of  acquiring  wealtVi  gradually, 
and  by  schemes  of  patient  industry,  would  have  been 
not  only  a  disappointment,  but  an  insult.  In  order 
to  find  occupation  for  men  who  could  not  with  safety 
be  allowed  to  remain  inactive,  Pizarro  encouraged 
some  of  the  most  distinguished^officers  who  had  lately 
joined  him,  to  invade  different  provinces  of  the  em- 
pire, which  the  Spaniards  had  not  hitherto  visited', 
Several  large  bodies  were  formed  for  this  purpose; 
and  about  the  time  that  Almagro  set  out  for  CM?, 
they  marched  into  remote  districts  of  the  country. 
No  sooner  did  Manco  Capac,  the  inca,  observe  the- 
inconsiderate  security  of  the  Spaniards  in  thus  dis*~ 
persing  their  troops,  and  that  only  a  handful  of  sol- 
diers ^remained  in  Cuzco,  under  Juan  and  Gonzalez; 
Pizarro,  than  he  thought  that  the  happy  period  wr*8 
at  length  come  for  vindicating  his  own  rights,  for 
avenging  the  wrongs  of  his  country,  and  extirpating 
its  oppressors.  Though  strictly  watched  by  the  Spa- 
niaids,  who  allowed  him  to  reside  in  the  palace  of  his 
ancestors  at  Cuzco,  he  found  means  of  communicating 
his  scheme  to  the  persons  who  were  to  be  intrusted 
with  the  execution  of  it.  Among  people  accustomed 
to  revere  their  sovereign  as  a  divinity,  every  hint  of 
his  will  carries  the  authority  of  a  command':  and 
they  themselves  were  now  cQAviuced,  by  the  daily  in- 


14ft 


THE  HISTORY    OF  AMERICA. 


crease  in  the  number  of  their  invaders,  that  the  ford 
hopes  which  they  had  long  entertained  of  their  vo- 
luntary departure  were  altogether  vain.  All  perceived 
that  a  vigorous  effort  of  the  whole  nation  was  requisite 
to  expel  them,  and  the  preparations  for  it  were  car- 
ried on  with  the  secrecy  and  silence  peculiar  to 
Americans. 

After  some  unsuccessful  attempts  of  the  inca  to 
make  his  escape,  Ferdinand  Pizarro  happening  to  ar- 
rive at  that  time  in  Cuzco,  [A.  D.  1536.]  he  obtained 
permission  from  him  to  attend  a  great  festival  which 
was  to  be  celebrated  a  few  leagues  froin  the  capital. 
Under  pretext  of  that  solemnity,  the  great  men  of  the 
empire  were  assembled.  As  soon  as  the  inca  joined 
them,  the  standard  of  war  was  erected  ;  and  in  a  short 
time  all  the  fighting  men,  from  the  confines  of  Quito 
to  the  frontier  of  Chili/were  in  arms.  Many  Spaniards, 
living  securely  on  the  settlements  allotted  them, 
•were  massacred.  Several  detachments  as  they  marched 
carelessly  through  a  country  which  seemed  to  be 
tamely  submissive  to  their  dominion,  were  cat  off  to  a 
man.  An  army  amounting  (if  we  may  believe  the 
Spanish  writers)  to  two  hundred  thousand  men,  at- 
tacked Cuzco,  which  the  three  brothers  endeavoured 
to  defend  with  only  one  hundred  and  seventy 
Spaniards.  Another  formidable  body  invested  Lima, 
and  kept  the  governor  closely  shut  up.  There  was  no 
longer  any  communication  between  the  two  cities  ;  the 
numerous  forces  of  the  Peruvians  spreading  over  the 
country,  intercepted  every  messenger;  and  as  the 
parties  in  Cuzco  and  Lima  were  equally  unacquainted 
with  the  fate  of  their  countrymen,  each  boded  the 
worst  concerning  the  other,  and  imagined  that  they 
themselves  were  the  only  persons  who  had  survived 
the  general  extinction  of  the  Spanish  name  in  Peru. 

It  was  at  Cuzco,  where  the  inca  commanded  in 
person,  that  the  Peruvians  made  their  chief  effort. 
During  nine  months  they  carried  on  the  siege  with  in- 
cessant ardour,  and  in  various  forms  ;  and  though  they 
displayed  not  the  same  undaunted  ferocity  as  the 
Mexican  warriors,  they  conducted  some  of  their  oper- 
ations in  a  manner  which  discovered  greater  sagacity, 
and  a  genius  more  susceptible  of  improvement  in  the 
military  art.  They  not  only  observed  the  advantages 
which  the  Spaniards  derived  from  their  discipline  and 
their  weapons,  but  they  endeavoured  to  imitate  the 
former,  and  turned  the  latter  against  them.  They 
armed  a  considerable  body  of  their  bravest  warriors 
with  the  swords,  the  spears,  and  bucklers,  which  they 
had  taken  from  the  Spanish  soldiers  whom  they  had  cut 
off  in  different  parts  of  the  country.  These  they  en- 
deavoured to  marshal  in  that  regular  compact  order, 
to  which  experience  had  taught  them  that  the 
Spaniards  were  indebted  for  their  irresistible  force  in 
action.  Some  appeared  in  the  field  with  Spanish 
muskets,  and  had  acquired  skill  and  resolution  enough 
to  use  them.  A  few  of  the  boldest,  among  whom  was 
the  inca  himself,  were  mounted  on  the  horses  which 
they  had  taken,  and  advanced  briskly  to  the  charge 
like  Spanish  cavaliers,  with  their  lances  in  the  rest. 
It  was  more  by  their  numbers,  however,  than  by  those 
imperfect  essays  to  imitate  European  arts  and  to  em- 
ploy European  arms,  that  the  Peruvians  annoyed  the 
Spaniards  (136).  In  spite  of  the  valour,  heightened 
l>y  despair,  with  which  the  three  brothers  defended 
Cuzco,  Manco  Capac  recovered  possession  of  one  half 
of  his  capital ;  and  in  their  various  efforts  to  drive  him 
out  of  it,  the  Spaniards  lost  Juan  Pizarro,  the  best 
beloved  of  all  the  brothers,  together  with  some  other 
pe-sons  of  note.  Worn  out  with  the  fatigue  of  inces- 
sant duty,  distressed  with  the  want  of  provisions, 
and  despairing  of  being  able  any  longer  to  resist  an 


enemy  whose  numbers  daily  increased,  the  soldiers  be- 
came impatient  to  abandon  Cuzco,  in  hopes  either  of 
joining  their  countrymen,  if  any  of  thenVyet  survived, 
or  of  forcing  their  way  to  the  sea,  and  finding  some 
means  of  escaping  from  a  country  which  had  been  so 
fatal  to  the  Spanish  name.  While  they  were  brooding 
over  those  desponding  thoughts,  which  their  officers 
laboured  in  vain  to  dispel,  Almagro  appeared  sud- 
denly in  the  neighbourhood  of  Cuzco. 

The  accounts  transmitted  to  Almagro  concerning 
the  general  insurrection  of  the  Peruvians,  were  such 
as  would  have  induced  him,  without  hesitation,  to  re- 
linquish the  conquest  of  Chili,  and  haston  to  the  aid 
of  his  countrymen.  But  in  this  resolution  he  was 
confirmed  by  a  motive  less  generous,  but  more  inter- 
esting. By  the  same  messenger  who  brought  him 
intelligence  of  the  inca's  icvolt,  he  received  the  royal 
patent  creating  him  governor  of  Chili,  and  defining 
the  limits  of  his  jurisdiction.  Upon  considering  the 
tenor  of  it,  he  deemed  it  manifest  beyond  contradic- 
tion, that  Cuzco  lay  within  the  boundaries  of  his 
government,  and  he  was  equally  solicitous  to  prevent 
the  Peruvians  from  recovering  possession  of  their  c»- 
pital,  and  to  wrest  it  out  of  the  hands  of  tho 
Pizarros.  From  impatience  to  accomplish  both,  he 
ventured  to  return  by  a  new  route;  and  in  marching 
through  the  sandy  plains  on  the  coast,  he  suffered 
from  heat  and  drought,  calamities  of  a  new  species, 
hardly  inferior  to  those  in  which  he  had  been  involved 
by  co'd  and  famine  on  the  summits  of  the  Andes. 

[A.  D.  1537.]  His  arrival  at  Cuzco  was  in  a  criti- 
cal moment.  The  Spaniards  and  Peruvians  fixed  their 
eyes  upon  him  with  equal  solicitude.  The  former,  as 
he  did  not  study  to  conceal  his  pretensions,  were  at  a 
loss  whether  to  welcome  him  as  a  deliverer,  or  to  take 
precautions  against  him  as  an  enemy.  The  latter, 
knowing  the  points  in  contest  between  him  and  his 
countrymen,  flattered  themselves  that  they  had  more 
to  hope  than  to  dread  from  his  operations.  Almagro 
himself,  unacquainted  with  the  detail  of  the  events 
which  had  happened  in  his  absence,  and  solicitous  to 
learn  the  precise  posture  of  affairs,  advanced  towards 
the  capital  slowly,  and  with  great  circumspection. 
Various  negociations  with  both  parties  were  set  on 
foot.  The  inca  conducted  them  on  his  part  with  much 
address.  At  first  he  endeavoured  to  gain  the  friend- 
ship of  Almagro ;  and  after  many  fruitless  overtures, 
despairing  of  any  cordial  union  with  a  Spaniard,  he 
attacked  him  by  surprise  with  a  numerous  body  of 
chosen  troops.  But  the  Spanish  discipline  and  valour 
maintained  their  wonted  superiority.  The  Peruvians 
were  repulsed  with  such  slaughter,  that  a  great  part 
of  their  army  dispersed,  and  Almagro  proceeded  to 
the  gates  of  Cuzco  without  interruption. 

The  Pizarros,  as  they  had  no  longer  to  make  head 
against  the  Peruvians,  directed  all  their  attention  to- 
wards their  new  enemy,  and  took  measures  to  obstruct 
his  entry  into  the  capital.  Prudence,  however,  re- 
strained both  parties  for  some  time  from  turning  their 
arms  against  one  another,  while  surrounded  by  com- 
mon enemies,  who  would  rejoice  in  the  mutual 
slaughter.  Different  schemes  of  accommodation  were* 
proposed.  Each  endeavoured  to  deceive  the  other,  or 
to  corrupt  his  followers.  The  generous,  open,  affable 
temper  of  Almagro  gained  many  adherents  of  the 
Pizarros,  who  were  disgusted  with  their  harsh  domi- 
neering manners.  Encouraged  by  this  defection,  he 
advanced  towards  the  city  by  night,  surprised  the 
sentinels,  or  was  admitted  by  them,  and  investig  the 
house  where  the  two  brothers  resided,  compelledn  them 
after  an  obstinate  defence,  to  surrender  at  discretion. 
Almagro'*  claim  of  jurisdiction  over  Cuzco  was  uni- 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


149 


versally  acknowledged,  and  a  form  of  administration 
established  in  his  name. 

Two  or  three  persons  onlf  were  killed  in  this  first 
act  of  civil  hostility  ;  but  it  was  soon  followed  by 
scenes  more  bloody.  Francis  Pizarro  having  dispersed 
the  Peruvians  who  had  invested  Lima,  and  received 
some  considerable  reinforcements  from  Hispaniola 
and  Nicaragua,  ordered  five  hundred  men,  under  the 
command  of  Alonso  de  Alvarado,  to  march  to  Cuzco, 
in  hopes  of  relieving  his  brothers,  if  they  and  their 
garrison  were  not  already  cut  off  by  the  Peruvians. 
This  body,  which  at  that  period  of  the  Spanish  power 
in  America,  must  be  deemed  a  considerable  force, 
advanced  near  to  the  capital  before  they  knew  that 
they  had  any  enemy  more  formidable  than  Indians  to 
encounter.  It  was  with  astonishment  that  they 
beheld  their  countrymen  posted  on  the  banks  of  the 
river  Abancay  to  oppose  their  progress.  Almagro, 
however,  wished  rather  to  gain  than  to  conquer  them, 
and  by  bribes  and  promises  endeavoured  to  seduce 
their  leader.  The  fidelity  of  Alvarado  remained  un- 
shaken ;  but  his  talents  for  war  were  not  equal  to  his 
virtue.  Almagro  amused  him  with  various  move- 
ments, of  which  he  did  not  comprehend  the  meaning, 
while  a  large  detachment  of  chosen  soldiers  passed 
the  river  by  night,  [July  12,]  fell  upon  his  camp  by 
surprise,  broke  his  troops  before  they  had  time  to 
form,  and  took  him  prisoner,  together  with  his 
principal  ofiicers. 

By  the  sudden  rout  of  this  body,  the  contest  be- 
tween the  two  rivals  must  have  been  decided,  if 
Almagro  had  known  as  well  how  to  improve  as  how 
to  gain  a  victory.  Rodrigo  Orgognez,  an  oflicer  of 
great  abilities,  who  having  served  under  the  constable 
Bourbon,  when  he  led  the  imperial  army  to  Rome, 
had  been  accustomed  to  bold  and  decisive  measures, 
advised  him  instantly  to  issue  orders  for  putting  to 
death  Ferdinand  and  Gonzalo  Pizarro,  Alvarado,  and  a 
few  other  persons  whom  he  could  not  hope  to  gain, 
and  to  march  directly  with  his  victorious  troops  to 
Lima,  before  the  governor  had  time  to  prepare  for  his 
defence.  But  Almagro,  though  he  discerned  at  once 
the  utility  of  the  counsel,  and  though  he  had  courage 
to  have  carried  it  into  execution,  suffered  himself  to 
be  influenced  by  sentiments  unlike  those  of  a  soldier 
of  fortune  grown  old  in  service,  and  by  scruples 
which  suited  not  the  chief  of  a  party  who  had  drawn 
his  sword  in  civil  war.  Feelings  of  humanity  re- 
strained him  from  shedding  the  blood  of  his  opponents ; 
and  the  dread  of  being  deemed  a  rebel,  deterred  him 
from  entering  a  province  which  the  king  had  allotted 
to  another.  Though  he  knew  that  arms  must  termi- 
nate the  dispute  between  him  and  Pizarro,  and 
resolved  not  to  shun  that  mode  of  decision,  yet  with 
a  timid  delicacy  preposterous  at  such  a  juncture,  he 
was  so  solicitous  that  his  rival  should  be  considered 
as  the  aggressor,  that  he  marched  quietly  back  to 
Cuzco  to  wait  his  approach. 

Pizarro  was  still  unacquainted  with  all  the  interest- 
ing events  which  had  happened  near  Cuzco.  Accounts 
of  Almagro's  return,  of  the  loss  of  the  capital,  of  the 
death  of  one  brother,  of  the  imprisonment  of  the  other 
two,  and  of  the  defeat  of  Alvarado,  were  brought 
to  him  at  once.  Such  a  tide  of  misfortunes  almost 
overwhelmed  a  spirit  which  had  continued  firm  and 
erect  under  the  rudest  shocks  of  adversity.  But  the 
necessity  of  attending  to  his  own  safety,  as  well  as 
the  desire  of  revenge,  preserved  him  from  sinking 
under  it.  He  took  measures  for  both  with  his  wonted 
sagacity.  As  he  had  the  command  of  the  sea-coast, 
and  expected  considerable  supplies  both  of  men  and 
military  stores,  it  was  no  less  his  interest  to  gain 


time,  and  to  avoid  action,  than  it  was  that  of  Almagro 
to  precipitate  operations,  and  bring  the  contest  to  a 
speedy  issue.  He  had  recourse  to  arts  which  he  had 
formerly  practised  with  success  ;  and  Almagro  was 
again  weak  enough  to  suffer  himself  to  be  amused 
with  a  prospect  of  terminating  their  differences  by 
some  amicable  accommodation.  By  varying  his  over- 
tures, and  shifting  his  ground  as  often  as  it  suited 
his  purpose,  sometimes  seeming  to  yield  to  every 
thing  which  his  rival  could  desire,  and  then  retract- 
ing all  that  he  had  granted,  Pizarro  dexterously  pro- 
tracted the  negociation  to  such  a  length,  that,  though 
everyday  was  precious  to  Almagro,  several  months 
elapsed  without  coming  to  any  final  agreement. 
While  the  attention  of  Almagro,  and  of  the  officers 
with  whom  he  consulted,  was  occupied  in  detecting 
and  eluding  the  fraudulent  intentions  of  the  governor, 
Gonzalo  Pizarro,  and  Alvarado,  found  means  to  cor- 
rupt the  soldiers  to  whose  custody  they  were  com- 
mitted, and  not  only  made  their  escape  themselves, 
but  persuaded  sixty  of  the  men  who  formerly  guarded 
them  to  accompany  their  flight.  Fortune  having  thus 
delivered  one  of  his  brothers,  the  governors  scrupled 
not  at  one  act  of  perfidy  more  to  procure  the  release 
of  the  other.  He  proposed,  that  every  point  in  con- 
troversy between  Almagro  and  himself  should  be 
submitted  to  the  decision  of  their  sovereign  ;  that, 
until  his  award  was  known,  each  should  retain  undis- 
turbed possession  of  whatever  part  of  the  country  he 
now  occupied  ;  that  Ferdinand  Pizarro  should  be  set 
at  liberty,  and  return  instantly  to  Spain,  together 
with  the  officers  whom  Almagro  proposed  to  send 
thither  to  represent  the  justice  of  his  claims.  Obvious 
as  the  design  of  Pizairo  was  in  those  propositions, 
and  familiar  as  his  artifices  might  now  have  been  to 
his  opponent,  Almagro,  with  a  credulity  approaching 
to  infatuation,  relied  on  his  sincerity,  and  concluded 
an  agreement  on  these  terms. 

The  moment  that  Ferdinand  Pizarro  recovered  his 
liberty,  the  governor,  no  longer  fettered  in  his  opera- 
tions by  anxiety  about  his  brother's  life,  threw  off 
every  disguise  which  his  concern  for  it  had  obliged 
him  to  assume.  The  treaty  was  forgotten  ;  pacific 
and  conciliating  measures  were  no  more  mentioned  ; 
it  was  in  the  field,  he  openly  declared,  and  not  in  the 
cabinet,  by  arms,  and  not  by  negociation,  that  it 
must  now  be  determined  who  should  be  master  of 
Peru.  The  rapidity  of  his  preparations  suited  such 
a  decisive  resolution.  Seven  hundred  men  were 
soon  ready  to  march  towards  Cuzco  [A.  D. 
1538.]  The  command  of  these  was  given  to  his  two 
brothers,  in  whom  he  could  perfectly  confide  for  the 
execution  of  his  most  violent  schemes,  as  they  were 
urged  on,  not  only  by  the  enmity  flowing  from  th« 
rivalship  between  their  family  and  Almagro,  but  ani- 
mated with  the  desire  of  vengeance,  excited  by  recol- 
lection of  their  own  recent  disgrace  and  sufferings. 
After  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  cross  the  mountains 
in  the  direct  road  between  Lima  and  Cuzco,  they 
marched  towards  the  south  along  the  coast  as  far  as 
Nasca,  and  then  turning  to  the  left,  penetrated 
through  the  defiles  in  that  branch  of  the  Andes  which 
lay  between  them  and  the  capital.  Almagro,  instead; 
of  hearkening  to  some  of  his  officers,  whojadvised  him 
to  attempt  the  defence  of  those  difficult  passes, 
waited  the  approach  of  the  enemy  in  the  plain  of 
Cuzco.  Two  reasons  seem  to  have  induced  him  to 
take  this  resolution.  His  followers  amounted  hardly 
to  five  hundred,  and  he  was  afraid  of  weakening  such 
a  feeble  body  by  sending  any  detachment  towards 
the  mountains.  His  cavalry  far  exceeded  that  of  the 
adverse  party,  both  in  number  and  discipline,  and,  it 


150 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


was  only  in  an  open  country  that  he  could  avail 
himself  of  that  advantage. 

The  Pizarros  advanced  without  any  obstruction,  but 
what  arose  from  the  nature  of  the  desert  and  horrid  re- 
gions through  which  they  marched.  As  soon  as  they 
reached  the  plain,  both  factions  were  equally  impatient 
to  bring  this  long  protracted  contest  to  an  issue.  Though 
countrymen  and  friends,  the  subjects  of  the  same  sove- 
reign, and  each  with  the  royal  standard  displayed ; 
and  though  they  beheld  the  mountains  that  sur- 
rounded the  plain  in  which  they  were  drawn  up, 
covered  with  a  vast  multitude  of  Indians,  assembled 
to  enjoy  the  spectacle  of  their  mutual  carnage,  and 
prepared  to  attack  whatever  party  remained  master 
of  the  field  ;  so  fell  and  implacable  was  the  rancour 
which  had  taken  possession  of  every  breast,  that  not 
one  pacific  counsel,  not  a  single  overture  towards  ac- 
commodation, proceeded  from  either  side.  Unfortu- 
nately for  Almagro,  he  was  so  worn  out  with  the  fa- 
tigues of  service,  to  which  his  advanced  age  was  un- 
equal, that  at  this  ciisis  of  his  fate  he  could  not  exert 
his  wonted  activity  ;  and  he  was  obliged  to  commit  the 
leading  of  his  troops  toOrgognez,  who,  though  an  officer 
of  great  merit,  did  not  possess  the  same  ascendant 
either  over  the  spirit  or  affections  of  the  soldiers,  as 
the  chief  whom  they  had  long  been  accustomed  to 
follow  and  revere. 

The  conflict  was  fierce,  and  maintained  by  each 
party  with  equal  courage.  On  the  side  of  Almagro 
were  more  veteran  soldiers,  and  a  large  proportion 
of  cavalry  ;  but  these  were  counterbalanced  by  Pi- 
zarro's  superiority  in  numbers,  and  by  two  companies 
of  well  disciplined  musketeers,  which,  on  receiving 
an  account  of  the  insurrection  of  the  Indians,  the 
emperor  had  sent  from  Spain.  As  the  use  of  fire- 
arms was  not  frequent  among  the  adventurers  in  Ame- 
rica, hastily  equipped  for  service  at  their  own  expense, 
this  small  band  of  soldiers  regularly  trained  and  armed 
was  a  novelty  in  Peru,  and  decided  the  fate  of  the 
day.  Wherever  it  advanced,  the  weight  of  a  heavy 
and  well-sustained  fire  bore  down  horse  and  foot 
before  it ;  and  Orgognez,  while  he  endeavoured  to 
rally  and  animate  his  troops,  having  received  a 
dangerous  wound,  the  rout  became  general.  The 
barbarity  of  the  conquerors  stained  the  glory  which 
they  acquired  by  this  complete  victory.  The  vio- 
lence of  civil  rage  hurried  on  some  to  slaughter 
their  countrymen  with  indiscriminate  cruelty  ;  the 
meanness  of  private  revenge  instigated  others  to 
single  out  individuals  as  the  objects  of  their  ven- 
geance. Orgognez,  and  several  officers  of  distinc- 
tion, were  massacred  in  cold  blood ;  above  a  hundred 
and  forty  soldiers  fell  in  the  field  ;  a  large  propor- 
tion, where  the  number  of  combatants  was  few, 
and  the  heat  of  the  contest  soon  over.  Almagro, 
though  so  feeble  that  he  could  not  bear  the  motion 
of  a  horse,  had  insisted  on  being  carried  in  a  litter 
to  an  eminence  which  overlooked  the  field  of  battle. 
From  thence,  in  the  utmost  agitation  of  mind,  he 
viewed  the  various  movements  of  both  parties,  and 
at  last  beheld  the  total  defeat  of  his  own  troops, 
with  all  the  passionate  indignation  of  a  veteran  leader 
long  accustomed  to  victory.  He  endeavoured  to  save 
himself  by  flight,  but  was  taken  prisoner,  and  guarded 
with  the  strictest  vigilance. 

The  Indians,  instead  of  executing  the  resolution 
which  they  had  formed,  retired  quietly  after  the 
battle  was  over ;  and  in  the  history  of  the  Ne  .v 
World,  there  is  not  a  more  striking  instance  of  the 
wonderful  ascendant  which  the  Spaniards  had  ac- 
quired over  its  inhabitants,  than  that,  after  seeing 
one  of  the  contending  parties  ruined  and  dispersed, 


and  the  other  weakened  and  fatigued,  they  had  not 
courage  to  fall  upon  their  enemies,  when  fortune 
presented  an  opportunity  of  attacking  them  with 
such  advantage. 

Cuzco  was  pillaged  by  the  victorious  troops,  who 
found  there  a  considerable  booty,  consisting  partly  of 
the  gleanings  of  the  Indian  treasures,  and  partly  of 
the  wealth  amassed  by  their  antagonists  from  the 
spoils  of  Peru  and  Chili.  But  so  far  did  this,  and 
whatever  the  bounty  of  their  leader  could  add  to  it, 
fall  below  the  high  ideas  of  the  recompence  which 
they  conceived  to  be  due  to  their  merit,  that  Ferdi- 
nand Pizarro,  unable  to  gratify  such  extravagant  ex- 
pectations, had  recourse  to  the  same  expedient  which 
his  brother  had  employed  on  a  similar  occasion,  and 
endeavoured  to  find  occupation  for  this  turbulent 
assuming  spirit,  in  order  to  prevent  it  from  breaking 
out  into  open  mutiny.  With  this  view,  he  encouraged 
his  most  active  officers  to  attempt  the  discovery  and 
reduction  of  various  provinces  which  had  not  hitherto 
submitted  to  the  Spaniards.  To  every  standard  erect- 
ed by  the  leaders  who  undertook  any  of  those  new 
expeditions,  volunteers  resorted  with  the  ardour  and 
hope  peculiar  to  the  age.  Several  of  Almagro's  sol- 
diers joined  them,  and  thus  Pizarre  had  the  satisfac- 
tion of  being  delivered  both  from  the  importunity  of 
his  discontented  friends,  and  the  dread  of  his  ancient 
enemies. 

Almagro  himself  remained  for  several  months  in 
custody,under  all  the  anguish  of  suspense.  For  although 
his  doom  was  determined  by  the  Pizarros  from  the  mo- 
ment that  he  fell  into  theirhands,  prudence  constrained 
them  to  defer  gratifying  their  vengeance,  until  the 
soldiers  who  had  served  under  him,  as  well  as  several 
of  their  own  followers  in  whom  they  could  not  per- 
fectly confide,  had  left  Cuzco.  As  soon  as  they  set 
out  upon  their  different  expeditions,  Almagro  was  im- 
peached of  treason,  formally  tried,  and  condemned  to 
die.  The  sentence  astonished  him ;  and  though  he 
had  often  braved  death  with  undaunted  spirit  in  the 
field,  its  approach  under  this  ignominious  form  ap- 
palled him  so  much,  that  he  had  recourse  to  abject 
supplications,  unworthy  of  his  former  fame.  He 
besought  the  Pizarros  to  rember  the  ancient  friend- 
ship between  their  brother  and  him,  and  how  much 
he  had  contributed  to  the  prosperity  of  their  family; 
he  reminded  them  of  the  humanity  with  which,  in 
opposition  to  the  repeated  remonstrances  of  his  most 
attached  friends,  he  had  spared  their  lives  when  he 
had  them  in  his  power  ;  he  conjured  them  to  pity  his 
age  and  infirmities,  and  to  suffer  him  to  pass  the 
wretched  remainder  of  his  days  in  bewailing  his 
crimes,  and  in  making  his  peace  with  Heaven.  The 
entreaties,  says  a  Spanish  historian,  of  a  man  so  much 
beloved,  touched  many  an  unfeeling  heart,  and  drew 
tears  from  many  a  stern  eye.  But  the  brothers  re- 
mained inflexible.  As  soon  as  Almagro  knew  his  fate 
to  be  inevitable,  he  met  it  with  the  dignity  and  forti- 
tude of  a  veteran.  He  was  strangled  in  prison,  and 
afterwards  publicly  beheaded.  He  suffered  in  the 
in  the  seventy-fifth  year  of  his  age,  and  left  one  son 
by  an  Indian  woman  of  Panama,  whom,  though  at 
that  time  a  prisoner  in  Lima,  he  named  as  successor 
to  his  government,  pursuant  to  a  power  which  the 
emperor  had  granted  him. 

[A.D.  1539.]  As,  during  the  civil  dissensions  in 
Peru,  all  intercourse  with  Spain  was  suspended,  the 
detail  of  the  extraordinary  transactions  there  did 
not  soon  reach  the  court.  Unfortunately  for  the  vic- 
torious faction,  the  first  intelligence  was  brought 
thither  by  some  of  Almagro's  officers,  who  left  the 
country  upon  the  ruin  of  their  cause ;  and  they  related 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


151 


what  had  happened  with  every  circumstance  unfavour- 
able to  Pizarro  and  hi?  brothers.  Their  ambition, 
their  breach  of  the  most  solemn  engagements,  their 
violence  and  cruelty,  were  painted  with  all  the  malig- 
nity and  exaggeration  of  party  hatred.  Ferdinand 
Pizarro,  who  arrived  soon  after,  and  appeared  in 
court  with  extraordinary  splendour,  endeavoured  to 
efface  the  impression  which  their  accusations  had 
made,  and  to  justify  his  brother  and  himself  by 
representing  Almagro  as  the  aggressor.  The  emperor 
and  his  ministers,  though  they  could  not  pronounce 
which  of  the  contending  factions  was  most  criminal, 
clearly  discerned  the  fatal  tendency  of  their  dissen- 
sions. It  was  obvious,  that  while  the  leaders, 
intrusted  with  the  conduct  of  two  infant  colonies, 
employed  the  arms  which  should  have  been  turned 
against  the  common  enemy  in  destroying  one  another, 
all  attention  to  the  public  good  must  cease,  and  there 
was  reason  to  dread  that  the  Indians  might  improve 
the  advantage  which  the  disunion  of  the  Spaniards 
presented  to  them,  and  extirpate  both  the  victors 
and  vanquished.  But  the  evil  was  more  apparent 
than  the  remedy.  Where  the  information  which 
had  been  received  was  so  defective  and  suspicious, 
and  the  scene  of  action  so  remote,  it  was  almost  im- 
possible to  chalk  out  the  line  of  conduct  that  ought 
to  be  followed,  and  before  any  plan  that  should  be 
approved  of  in  Spain  could  be  carried  into  execution, 
the  situation  of  the  parties,  and  the  circumstances  of 
affairs,  might  alter  so  entirely  as  to  render  its  effects 
extremely  pernicious. 

Nothing  therefore  remained  but  to  send  a  person  to 
Peru,  vested  with  extensive  and  discretionary  power, 
who,after  viewing  deliberately  theposture  of  affairs  with 
his  own  eyes,  and  inquiring  upon  the  spot  into  the  con- 
duct of  the  different  leaders,  should  be  authorized 
to  establish  the  government  in  that  form  which  he 
deemed  most  conducive  to  the  interest  of  the  parent 
state,  and  the  welfare  of  the  colony.  The  man  se- 
lected for  this  important  charge  was  Christoval  Vaca 
de  Castro,  a  judge  in  the  court  of  royal  audience  at 
Valladolid  ;  and  his  abilities,  integrity,  and  firmness, 
justified  the  choice.  His  instructions,  though  ample, 
were  not  such  as  to  fetter  him  in  his  operations.  Ac- 
cording to  the  different  aspect  of  affairs,  he  had 
power  to  take  upon  him  different  characters.  If  he 
found  the  governor  still  alive,  he  was  to  assume  only 
the  title  of  judge,  to  maintain  the  appearance  of 
acting  in  concert  with  him,  and  to  guard  against  giving 
any  just  cause  of  offence  to  a  man  who  had  merited 
so  highly  of  his  country.  But  if  Pizarro  were  dead, 
he  was  intrusted  with  a  commission  that  he  might 
then  produce,  by  which  he  was  appointed  his  suc- 
cessor in  the  government  of  Peru.  This  attention 
to  Pizarro,  however,  seems  to  have  flowed  rather 
from  a  dread  of  his  power,  than  from  any  approba- 
tion of  his  measures  ;  for  at  the  very  time  that  the 
court  seemed  so  solicitous  not  to  irritate  him,  his 
brother  Ferdinand  was  arrested  at  Madrid  and  con- 
fined to  a  prison,  where  he  remained  above  twenty 
years. 

[A.  D.  1540.]  While  Vaca  de  Castro  was  preparing 
for  his  voyage,  events  of  great  moment  happened  in 
Peru.  The  governor  considering  himself,  upon  the 
death  of  Almxgro,  a.s  the  unrivalled  possessor  of  that 
vast  empire,  proceeded  |to  parcel  out  its  territories 
among  the  conquerors  ;  and  had  this  division  been 
made  \vith  any  degree  of  impartiality,  the  extent  of 
country  which  he  had  to  bestow  was  sufficient  to 
have  gratified  his  friends,  and  to  have  gained  his 
enemies.  But  Pizarro  conducted  this  transaction, 
not  with  the  equity  and  candour  of  a.  judge  attentive 


to  discover  and  to  reward  merit,  but  with  the  illiberal 
spirit  of  a  party  leader.  Large  districts,  in  parts  of 
the  country  most  cultivated  and  populous,  were  set 
apart  as  his  own  property,  or  granted  to  his  brothers, 
his  adherents,  and  favourites.  To  others  lots  less 
valuable  and  inviting  were  assigned.  The  follow- 
ers of  Almagro,  amongst  whom  were  many  of  the 
original  adventurers  to  whose  valour  and  perseverance 
Pizarro  was  indebted  for  his  success,  were  totally 
excluded  from  any  portion  in  those  lands,  towards 
the  acquisition  of  which  they  had  contributed  so 
largely.  As  the  vanity  of  every  individual  set  an 
immoderate  value  upon  his  own  services,  and  the  idea 
of  each  concerning  the  recompence  due  to  them  arose 
gradually  to  a  more  exorbitant  height  in  proportion 
as  their  conquests  extended,  all  who  were  disap- 
pointed in  their  expectations,  exclaimed  loudly 
against  the  rapaciousness  and  partiality  of  the  gover- 
nor. The  partisans  of  Almagro  murmured  in  secret, 
and  meditated  revenge. 

Rapid  as  the  progress  of  the  Spaniards  in  South 
America  had  been  since  Pizarro  landed  in  Peru,  their 
avidity  of  dominion  was  not  yet  satisfied.  The  officers 
to  whom  Ferdinand  Pizarro  gave  the  command  of 
different  detachments,  penetrated  into  several  new 
provinces,  and  though  some  of  them  were  exposed 
to  great  hardships  in  the  cold  and  barren  regions  of 
the  Andes,  and  others  suffered  distress  not  inferior 
amidst  the  woods  and  marshes  of  the  plains,  they 
made  discoveries  and  conquests  which  not  only  ex- 
tended their  knowledge  of  the  country,  but  added 
considerably  to  the  territories  of  Spain  in  the  New 
World.  Pedro  de  Valdivia  reassumed  Almagro's 
scheme  of  invading  Chili,  and  notwithstanding  the 
fortitude  of  the  natives  in  defending  their  posses- 
sions, made  such  progress  in  the  conquest  of  the 
country,  that  he  founded  the  city  of  St.  Jago,  and 
gave  a  beginning  to  the  establishment  of  the  Spanish 
dominion  in  that  province.  But  of  all  the  enter- 
prises undertaken  about  this  period,  that  of  Gonzalo 
Pizarro  was  the  most  remarkable.  The  governor, 
who  seems  to  have  resolved  that  no  person  in  Peru 
should  possess  any  station  of  distinguished  emi- 
nence or  authority  but  those  of  his  own  family,  had 
deprived  Benalcazar,  the  conqueror  of  Quito,  of  his 
command  in  that  kingdom,  and  appointed  his  brother 
Gonzalo  to  take  the  government  of  it.  He  instructed 
him  to  attempt  the  discovery  and  conquest  of  the 
country  to  the  east  of  the  Andes,  which,  according  to 
the  information  of  the  Indians,  abounded  with  cin- 
namon and  other  valuable  spices.  Gonzalo,  not  in- 
ferior to  any  of  his  brothers  in  courage,  and  no  less 
ambitious  of  acquiring  distinction,  eagerly  engaged 
in  this  difficult  service.  He  set  out  from  Quito  at 
the  head  of  three  hundred  and  forty  soldiers,  near 
one-half  of  whom  were  horsemen ;  with  four  thou- 
sand Indians  to  carry  their  provisions.  In  forcing 
their  way  through  the  defiles,  or  over  the  ridges,  of 
the  Andes,  excess  of  cold  and  fatigue,  to  neither  of 
which  they  were  accustomed,  proved  fatal  to  the 
greater  part  of  their  wretched  attendants.  The 
Spaniards,  though  more  robust,  and  inured  to  a  va- 
riety of  climates,  suffered  considerably,  and  lost  some 
men ;  but  when  they  descended  into  the  low  country 
their  distress  increased.  During  two  months  it  rained 
incessantly,  without  any  interval  of  fair  weather  long 
enough  to  dry  their  clothes.  The  immense  plains 
upon  which  they  were  now  entering,  either  altogether 
without  inhabitants,  or  occupied  by  the  rudest  and 
and  least  industrious  tribes  in  the  New  World, 
yie'ded  little  subsis'ence.  They  could  not  advance 
a  step  but  as  they  cut  a  road  through  woods,  or  made 


1.52 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


it  through  marshes.  Such  incessant  toil,  and  con- 
tinual scarcity  of  food,  seem  more  than  sufficient  to 
have  exhausted  and  dispirited  any  troops.  But  the 
fortitude  and  perseverance  of  the  Spaniards  in  the 
sixteenth  century  were  insuperable.  Allured  by 
frequent  but  false  accounts  of  rich  countries  before 
them,  they  persisted  in  struggling  on,  until  they 
reached  the  banks  of  the  Coca  or  Napo,  one  of  the 
large  rivers  whose  waters  pour  into  the  Maragnon, 
and  contribute  to  its  grandeur.  There,  with  infinite 
labour,  they  built  a  bark,  which  they  expected  would 
prove  of  great  utility,  in  conveying  them  over  rivers, 
in  procuring  provisions,  and  in  exploring  the  country. 
This  was  manned  with  fifty  soldiers,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Francis  Orellana,  the  officer  next  in  rank  to 
Pi/arro.  The  stream  carried  them  down  with  such 
rapidity,  that  they  were  soon  far  a-head  of  their  coun- 
trymen, who  followed  slowly  and  with  difficulty  by 
land. 

At  this  distance  from  his  commander,  Orellana,  a 
young  man  of  an  aspiring  mind,  began  to  fancy  him- 
self independent,  and  transported  with  the  predomi- 
nant passion  of  the  age,  he  formed  the  scheme  of 
distinguishing  himself  as  a  discoverer,  by  following 
the  course  of  the  Maragnon,  until  it  joined  the  ocean, 
and  by  surveying  the  vast  regions  through  which  it 
flows.  This  scheme  of  Orellana's  was  as  bold  us  it 
was  treacherous.  For,  if  he  be  chargeable  with  the  guilt 
of  having  violated  his  duty  to  his  commander,  and 
with  having  abandoned  his  fellow-soldiers  in  a  path- 
less desert,  where  they  had  hardly  any  hopes  of  suc- 
cess, or  even  of  safety,  but  what  weve  founded  on 
the  service  which  they  expected  from  the  bark ;  his 
crime  is,  in  some  measure,  balanced  by  the  glory  of 
having  ventured  upon  a  navigation  of  near  two  thou- 
sand leagues,  through  unknown  nations,  in  a  vessel 
hastily  constructed,  with  green  timber,  and  by  very 
unskilful  hands,  without  provisions,  without  a  com- 
pass, or  a  pilot.  But  his  courage  and  alacrity  sup- 
plied every  defect.  Committing  himself  fearlessly 
to  the  guidance  of  the  stream,  the  Napo  bore  him 
along  to  the  south,  until  he  reached  the  great  channel 
of  the  Maragnon.  Turning  with  it  towards  the  coast, 
he  held  on  his  course  in  that  direction.  He  made 
frequent  descents  on  both  sides  of  the  river,  some- 
times seizing  by  force  of  arms  the  provisions  of  the 
fierce  savages  seated  on  its  banks,  and  sometimes 
procuring  a  supply  of  food  by  a  friendly  intercourse 
with  more  gentle  tribes.  After  a  long  series  of 
dangers,  which  he  encountered  with  amazing  forti- 
tude, and  of  distresses  which  he  supported  with  no 
less  magnanimity,  he  reached  the  ocean-  (137),  where 
new  perils  awaited  him.  These  he  likewise  sur- 
mounted, and  got  safe  to  the  Spanish  settlement  in 
the  island  of  Cubagua  ;  from  thence  he  sailed  to 
Spain.  The  vanity  natural  to  travellers  who  visit 
regions  unknown  to  the  rest  of  mankind,  and  the 
art  of  an  adventurer  solicitous  to  magnify  his  own 
merit,  concurred  in  prompting  him  to  mingle  an  ex- 
traordinary proportion  of  the  marvellous  in  the  nar- 
rative of  his  voyage.  He  pretended  to  have  discovered 
nations  so  rich,  that  the  roofs  of  their  temples  were 
covered  with  plates  of  gold  ;  and  described  a  repub- 
lic of  women  so  warlike  and  powerful,  as  to  have 
extended  their  dominion  over  a  considerable  tract  ol 
the  fertile  plains  which  he  had  visited.  Extravagant 
as  those  tales  were  they  gave  rise  to  an  opinion,  that 
a  region  abounding  with  gold,  distinguished  by  the 
name  of  El  Dorado,  and  a  community  of  Amazons, 
were  to  be  found  in  this  part  of  the  New  World  : 
and  such  is  the  propensity  of  mankind  to  believe 
what  is  wonderful,  that  it  has  been  slowly  and  with 


difficulty  that  reason  and  observation  have  exploded 
those  fables.  The  voyage,  however,  even  when  strip- 
ped of  every  romantic  embellishment,  deserves  to  be 
recorded,  not  only  as  one  of  the  most  memorable 
occurrences  in  that  adventurous  age,  but  as  the  first 
event  which  led  to  any  certain  knowledge  of  the  ex- 
tensive countries  that  stretch  eastward  from  the 
Andes  to  the  ocean. 

No  words  can  describe  the  consternation  of  Pizarro, 
when  he  did  not  find  the  bark  at  the  confluence  of 
the  Napo  and  Maragnon,  where  he  had  ordered  Orel- 
lana to  wait  for  him.  He  would  not  allow  himself  to 
suspect  til**  a  man  whom  he  had  intrusted  with  such 
an  important  command,  could  be  so  base  and  so  un- 
feeling iis  to  desert  him  at  such  a  juncture.  But 
imputing  his  absence  from  the  place  of  rendezvous  to 
sumo  unknown  accident,  he  advanced  above  fifty 
leagues  along  the  banks  of  the  Maragnon,  expecting 
every  moment  to  see  the  bark  appear  with  a  supply 
of  provisions  [A.  D.  1541].  At  length  he  came  up 
with  an  officer  whom  Orellana  had  left  to  perish  in 
the  desert,  because  he  had  the  courage  to  remonstrate 
against  his  perfidy.  From  him  he  learned  the  ex- 
tent of  Orellana's  crime,  and  his  followers  perceived 
at  once  their  own  desperate  situation,  when  deprived 
of  their  only  resource.  The  spirit  of  the  stoutest- 
hearted  veteran  sunk  within  him,  and  all  demanded 
to  be  led  back  instantly.  Pizarro,  though  he  assumed 
an  appearance  of  tranquillity,  did  not  oppose  their 
inclination.  But  he  was  now  twelve  hundred  miles 
from  Quito;  and  in  that  long  march  the  Spaniards 
encountered  hardships  greater  than  those  which  they 
had  endured  in  their  progress  outward,  without  the 
alluring  hopes  which  then  soothed  and  animated  them 
under  their  sufferings.  Hunger  compelled  them  to 
feed  on  roots  and  berries,  to  eat  all  their  dogs  and 
horses,  to  devour  the  most  loathsome  reptiles,  and 
even  to  gnaw  the  leather  of  their  saddles  and  sword- 
belts.  Four  thousand  Indians,  and  two  hundred  and 
ten  Spaniards,  perished  in  this  wild  disastrous  expe- 
dition, which  continued  near  two  years ;  and  as  fifty 
men  were  aboard  the  bark  with  Orellana,  only  four- 
score got  back  to  Quito.  These  were  naked  like 
savages,  and  so  emaciated  with  famine,  or  worn  out 
with  fatigue,  that  they  had  more  the  appearance  of 
spectres  than  men. 

But,  instead  of  returning  to  enjoy  th<>  repose 
which  his  condition  required,  Pizarro,  on  entering 
Quito,  received  accounts  of  a  fatal  event  that  threat- 
ened calamities  more  dreadful  to  him  than  those 
through  which  he  had  passed.  From  the  time  that  his 
brother  made  that  partial  division  of  his  conquests 
which  has  been  mentioned,  th«  adherents  of  Almagro, 
considering  themselves  as  proscribed  by  the  party  in 
power,  no  longer  entertained  any  hope  of  bettering 
their  condition.  Great  numbers  in  despair  resorted 
to  Lima,  where  the  house  of  young  Almagro  was 
always  open  to  them,  and  the  slender  portion  of  his 
father's  fortune  which  the  governor  allowed  him  to 
enjoy,  was  spent  in  affording  them  subsistence.  The 
warm  attchment  with  which  every  person  who  had 
served  under  the  elder  Almagro  devoted  himself  to 
his  interests,  was  quickly  transferred  to  his  son,  who 
was  now  grown  up  to  the  age  of  manhood,  and  pos- 
sessed all  the  qualities  which  captivate  the  affections 
of  soldiers.  Of  a  graceful  appearance,  dexterous  at 
all  martial  exercises,  bold,  open,  generous,  he  seemed 
to  be  formed  for  command  ;  and  as  his  father,  con- 
scious of  his  own  inferiority,  from  the  total  want  of 
education,  had  been  extremely  attentive  to  have  him 
instructed  in  every  science  becoming  a  gentleman,  tho 
accomplishments  which  he  had  acquired  heightened 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


153 


the  respect  of  his  followers,  as  they  gave  him  dis- 
tinction  and  eminence  among  illiterate  adventur- 
ers. In  this  young  man  the  Almagrians  found  a 
point  of  union  which  they  wanted,  and  looking  up  to 
him  as  their  head,  were  ready  to  undertake  any  thing 
for  his  advancement.  Nor  was  affection  for  Almagro 
their  only  incitement ;  they  were  urged  on  by  their 
own  distresses.  Many  of  them,  destitute  of  common 
necessaries  (138),  and  weary  of  loitering  away  life, 
a  burden  to  their  chief,  or  to  such  of  their  associates 
as  had  saved  some  remnant  of  their  fortune  from 
pillage  and  confiscation,  longed  impatiently  for  an 
occasion  to  exert  their  activity  and  courage,  and  began 
to  deliberate  how  they  might  be  avenged  on  the  author 
of  all  their  misery.  Their  frequent  cabals  did  not 
pass  unobserved  ;  and  the  governor  was  warned  to  be 
on  his  guard  against  men  who  meditated  some  des- 
perate deed,  and  had  resolution  to  execute  it.  But 
either  from  the  native  intrepidity  of  his  mind,  or  from 
contempt  of  persons  whose  poverty  seemed  to  render 
their  machinations  of  little  consequence,  he  disre- 
garded the  admonitions  of  his  friends.  "  Be  in  no 
pain,"  said  he  carelessly,  "  about  my  life;  it  is  per- 
fectly safe,  as  long  as  every  man  in  Peru  knows  that 
I  can  in  a  moment  cut  off  any  head  which  dares  to 
harbour  a  thought  against  it."  This  security  gave  the 
Almagrians  full  leisure  to  digest  and  ripen  every  part 
of  their  scheme  ;  and  Juan  de  Harrada,  an  officer  of 
great  abilities,  who  had  the  charge  of  Almagro's 
education,  took  the  direction  of  their  consultations 
with  all  the  zeal  which  this  connexion  inspired,  and 
with  all  the  authority  which  the  ascendant  that  he 
was  known  to  have  over  the  mind  of  his  pupil  gave 
him. 

On  Sunday  the  twenty-sixth  of  June,  at  mid-day, 
the  season  of  tranquillity  and  repose  in  all  sultry 
climates,  Herrada,  at  the  head  of  eighteen  of  the 
most  determined  conspirators,  sallied  out  of  Alma- 
gro's house  in  complete  armour ;  and,  drawing  their 
swords,  as  they  advanced  hastily  towards  the 
governor's  palace,  cried  out,  "  Long  live  the  king, 
but  let  the  tyrant  die  !"  Their  associates,  warned 
of  their  motions  by  a  signal,  were  in  arms  at  differ- 
ent stations  ready  to  support  them.  Though  Pizarro 
was  usually  surrounded  by  a  numerous  train  of 
attendants  as  suited  the  magnificence  of  the  most 
opulent  subject  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived,  yet  as 
he  was  jtut  risen  from  table,  and  most  of  his  domes- 
tics had  retired  to  their  own  apartments,  the  conspi- 
rators passed  through  the  two  outer  courts  of  the 
palace  unobserved.  They  were  at  the  bottom  of  a 
staircase  before  a  page  in  waiting  could  give  the  alnrm 
to  his  master,  who  was  conversing  with  a  few  friends 
in  a  large  hall.  The  governor,  whose  steady  mind 
no  form  of  danger  could  appal,  starting  up,  called  for 
arms,  and  commanded  Francisco  de  Chaves  to  make 
fast  the  door.  But  that  officer,  who  did  not  retain  so 
much  presence  of  mind  as  to  obey  this  prudent  order, 
running  to  the  top  of  the  stair-case,  wildly  asked  the 
conspirators  what  they  meant,  and  whither  they  were 
going  ?  Instead  of  answering,  they  stabbed  him  to 
the  heart,  and  burst  into  the  hall.  Some  of  the  per- 
sons who  were  there  threw  themselves  from  the  win- 
dows ;  others  attempted  to  fly  ;  and  a  few  drawing 
their  swords  followed  their  leader  into  an  inner 
apartment.  The  conspirators,  animated  with  having 
the  object  of  their  vengeance  now  in  view,  rushed 
forward  after  them.  Pizarro,  with  no  other  arms 
than  his  sword  and  buckler,  defended  the  entry  ;  and 
supported  by  his  half-brother  Alcantara,  and  his 
little  knot  of  friends,  he  maintained  the  unequal 
contest  with  intrepidity  worthy  of  his  past  exploits, 

THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA,  No.  20. 


and  with  ^  the  vigour  of  a  youthful  combatant' 
"  Courage,"  cried  he,  "companions  !  we  are  yet  enow 
to  make  those  traitors  repent  of  their  audacity." 
But  the  armour  of  the  conspirators  protected  them, 
while  every  thrust  they  made  took  effect.  Alcantara 
fell  dead  at  his  brother's  feet ;  his  other  defenders 
were  mortally  wounded.  The  governor,  so  weary 
that  he  could  hardly  wield  his  sword,  and  no  longer 
able  to  parry  the  many  weapons  furiously  aimed  at 
him,  received  a  deadly  thrust  full  in  the  throat,  sunk 
to  the  ground,  and  expired. 

As  soon  as  he  was  slain,  the  assassins  ran  out  into 
the  streets,  and  waving  their  bloody  swords,  pro- 
claimed the  death  of  the  tyrant.  Above  t\vo  hundred 
of  their  associates  having  joined  them,  they  conducted 
young  Almngro  in  solemn  procession  through  the  city, 
and  assembling  the  magistrates  and  principal  citizens, 
compelled  the:n  to  acknowledge  him  as  lawful  suc- 
cessor to  his  father  in  his  government.  The  palace 
of  Pizarro,  together  with  the  houses  of  several  of  his 
adherents  were  pillaged  by  the  soldiers,  who  had  the 
satisfaction  at  once  of  being  avenged  on  their  enemies, 
and  of  enriching  themselves  by  the  spoils  of  those 
through  whose  hands  all  the  wealth  of  Peru  had 
passed. 

The  bold:  ••>  and  success  of  the- conspiracy,  as  well 
as  the  name  and  popular  qualities  of  Alrnagro,  drew 
many  soldiers  to  his  standard.  Every  adventurer  of 
desperate  fortune,  all  who  were  dissatisfied  with 
Pizarro,  and  from  the  rapaciousnes  of  his  government 
in  the  latter  years  of  his  life  the  number  of  malcon- 
tents was  considerable,  declared  without  hesitation 
in  favour  of  Almagro,  and  he  was  soon  at  the  head 
of  eight  hundred  of  the  most  gallant  veterans  in 
Porn.  As  his  youth  and  inexperience  disqualified 
him  from  taking  the  command  of  them  himself,  he 
appointed  Herrada  to  act  as  general.  But  though 
Almagro  speedily  collected  such  a  respectable  force, 
the  acquiescence  in  his  government  was  far  from 
being  general.  Pizarro  had  left  many  friends  to 
whom  his  memory  was  dear  ;  the  barbarous  assassi- 
nation of  a  man  to  whom  his  country  was  so  highly 
indebted,  filled  every  impartial  person  with  horror. 
The  ignominious  birth  of  Almagro,  as  well  as  the 
doubtful  title  on  which  he  founded  his  pretensions, 
led  others  to  consider  him  as  an  usurper.  The  offi- 
cers who  commanded  in  some  provinces  refused  to 
recognise  his  authority,  until  it  was  confirmed  by  the 
emperor.  In  others,  particularly  at  Cuzco,  the  royal 
standard  was  erected,  and  preparations  were  begun 
in  order  to  revenge  the  murder  of  their  ancient 
leader. 

Those  seeds  of  discord,  which  could  not  have  lain 
long  dormant,  acquired  great  vigour  and  activity  when 
the  arrival  of  Vaca  de  Castro  was  known.  After  a 
long  and  disastrous  voyage,  he  was  driven  by  stress 
of  weather  into  a  small  harbour  in  the  province  of 
Popayan  ;  and  proceeding  from  thence  by  land,  after 
a  journey  no  less  tedious  than  difficult,  he  reached 
Quito.  In  his  way  he  received  accounts  of  Pizarro's 
death,  and  of  the  events  which  followed  upon  it.  He 
immediately  produced  the  royal  commission,  appoint- 
ing him  governor  of  Peru,  with  the  same  privileges 
and  authority  ;  and  his  jurisdiction  was  acknowledged 
without  hesitation  by  Benalcazar,  adelantado  or  lieu- 
tenant-general for  the  emperor  in  Popayan,  and  by 
Pedro  de  Puelles,  who,  in  the  absence  of  Gonzalo 
Pizarro,  had  the  command  of  the  troops  left  in  Quito. 
Vaca  de  Castro  not  only  assumed  the  supreme  au- 
thoritv,  but  showed  that  he  possessed  the  talents 
which  the  exercise  of  it  at  that  juncture  required. 
By  his  influence  and  address  he  soon  assembled  such 
X 


154 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AME11ICA. 


a.  body  of  troops,  as  not  only  to  set  him  above  all  fear 
of  being  exposed  to  any  insult  from  the  adverse 
party,  but  enabled  him  to  advance  from  Quito  with 
the  dignity  that  became  his  character.  By  de- 
spatching persons  of  confidence  to  the  different  set- 
tlements in  Peru,  with  a  formal  notification  of  his 
arrival  and  of  his  commission,  he  communicated  to 
his  countrymen  the  royal  pleasure  with  respect  to  the 
government  of  the  country.  By  private  emissaries, 
he  excited  such  officers  as  had  discovered  their  dis- 
approbation of  Almagro's  proceedings,  to  manifest 
their  duty  to  their  sovereign  by  supporting  the  per- 
son honoured  with  his  commission.  Those  measures 
were  productive  of  great  effects.  Encouraged  by  the 
approach  of  the  new  governor,  or  prepared  by  his 
m»«hinations,  the  loyal  were  confirmed  in  their  prin- 
ciples, and  avowed  them  with  greater  boldness  ;  the 
timid  ventured  to  declare  their  sentiments ;  the 
neutral  and  wavering,  finding  it  necessary  to  choose  a 
side,  began  to  lean  to  that  which  now  appeared  to  be 
the  safest,  as  well  as  the  most  just. 

Almagro  observed  the  rapid  progress  of  this  spirit 
of  disaffection  to  his  cause,  and  in  order  to  give  an 
effectual  check  to  it  before  the  arrival  of  Vaca  de 
Castro,  he  set  out  at  the  head  of  his  troops  for  Cuzco, 
[A.  D.  1542,]  where  the  most  considerable  body  of 
opponents  had  erected  the  royal  standard,  under  the 
command  of  Pedro  Alvarez  Holguin.  During  his 
march  thither,  Herrada,  the  skilful  guide  of  his  youth 
and  of  his  counsels,  died;  and  from  that  time  his 
measures  were  conspicuous  for  their  violence,  but 
concerted  with  little  sagacity,  and  executed  with  no 
address.  Holguin,  who,  with  forces  far  inferior  to 
those  of  the  opposite  party,  was  descending  towards 
the  coast  at  the  very  time  that  Almagro  was  on  his 
way  to  Cuzco,  deceived  his  inexperienced  adversary 
by  a  very  simple  stratagem,  avoided  an  engagement, 
and  effected  a  junction  with  Alvarado,  an  officer  of 
note,  who  had  been  the  first  to  declare  against  Alma- 
gro as  an  usurper. 

Soon  after,  Vaca  de  Castro  entered  their  camp  with 
the  troops  which  he  brought  from  Quito,  and  erecting 
the  royal  standard  before  his  own  tent,  he  declared 
that,  as  governor,  he  would  discharge  in  person  all  the 
functions  of  gen  oral  of  their  combined  forces.  Though 
formed  by  the  tenor  of  his  past  life  to  the  habits  of 
a  sedentary  and  pacific  profession,  he  at  once  assumed 
the  activity,  and  discovered  the  decision,  of  an  officer 
long  accustomed  to  command.  Knowing  his  strength 
to  be  now  far  superior  to  that  of  the  enemy,  he  was 
impatient  to  terminate  the  contest  by  a  battle.  Nor 
did  the  followers  of  Almagro,  who  had  no  hopes  of 
obtaining  a  pardon  for  a  crime  so  atrocious  as  the 
murder  of  the  governor,  decline  that  mode  of  deci- 
sion. They  met  atChupaz,  about  two  hundred  miles 
from  Cuzco,  and  fought  with  all  the  fierce  animosity 
inspired  by  the  violence  of  civil  rage,  the  rancour  of 
private  enmity,  the  eagerness  of  revenge,  and  the  last 
efforts  of  despair.  Victory,  after  remaining  long 
doubtful,  declared  at  last  for  Vaca  de  Castro.  The 
superior  number  of  his  troops,  his  own  intrepidity, 
and  the  martial  talents  of  Francisco  de  Carvajal,  a 
veteran  officer  formed  under  the  great  captain  in  the 
wars  of  Italy,  and  who  on  that  day  laid  the  foundation 
of  his  future  fame  in  Peru,  triumphed  over  the  bra- 
very of  his  opponents,  though  led  on  by  young  Alma- 
gro with  a  gallant  spirit,  worthy  of  a  better  cause, 
and  deserving  another  fate.  The  carnage  was  great 
in  proportion  to  the  number  of  the  combatants. — 
Many  of  the  vanquished,  especially  such  as  were 
•onscious  that  they  might  be  charged  with  being  ac- 
•wsary  t»  tta  assassination  of  Piaarro,  rushing  on  the 


swords  of  the  enemy,  chose  to  fall  like  soldiers,  rather 
than  wait  an  ignominious  doom.  Of  fourteen  hun- 
derd  men,  the  total  amount  of  combatants  on  both 
sides,  five  hundred  lay  dead  on  the  field,  and  the 
number  of  the  wounded  was  still  greater. 

If  the  military  talents  displayed  by  Vaca  de  Cas- 
tro, both  in  the  council  and  field,  surprised  the  ad- 
venturers in  Peru,  they  were  still  more  astonished  at 
his  conduct  after  the  victory.  As  he  was  by  nature 
a  rigid  dispenser  of  justice,  persuaded  that  it  required 
examples  of  extraordinary  severity  to  restrain  the 
licentious  spirit  of  soldiers  so  far  removed  from  the 
seat  of  government,  he  proceeded  directly  to  try  his 
prisoners  as  rebels.  Forty  were  condemned  to  suffer 
the  death  of  traitors,  others  were  banished  from  Peru. 
Their  leader,  who  made  his  escape  from  the  battle, 
being  betrayed  by  some  of  his  officers,  was  publicly 
beheaded  in  Cuzco ;  and  in  him  the  name  of  Alma- 
gro, and  the  spirit  of  the  party,  was  extinct. 

During  those  violent  convulsions  in  Peru,  the 
emperor  and  his  ministers  were  intently  employed  in 
preparing  regulations,  by  which  they  hoped,  not  only 
to  re-establish  tranquillity  there,  but  to  introduce  a 
more  perfect  system  of  internal  policy  into  all  their 
settlements  in  the  New  World.  It  is  manifest  from 
all  the  events  recorded  in  the  history  of  America, 
that,  rapid  and  extensive  as  the  Spanish  conquests 
there  had  been,  they  were  not  carried  on  by  any 
regular  exertion  of  the  national  force,  but  by  the 
occasional  efforts  of  private  adventurers.  After 
fitting  out  a  few  of  the  first  armaments  for  discover- 
ing new  regions,  the  court  of  Spain,  during  the  busy 
reigns  of  Ferdinand  and  of  Charles  V.,  the  former 
the  most  intriguing  prince  of  the  age,  and  the  latter 
the  most  ambitious,  was  encumbered  with  such  a 
multiplicity  of  schemes,  and  involved  in  war  with  so 
many  nations  of  Europe,  that  he  had  not  leisure  to 
attend  to  distant  and  less  interesting  objects.  The 
care  of  prosecuting  discovery,  or  of  attempting  con- 
quest was  abandoned  to  individuals ;  and  with 
such  ardour  did  men  push  forward  in  this  newr 
career,  on  which  novelty,  the  spirit  of  adventure, 
avarice,  ambition,  and  the  hope  of  meriting  heaven, 
prompted  them  with  combined  influence  to  enter, 
that  in  less  than  half  a  century  almost  the  whole  of 
that  extensive  empire  which  Spain  now  possesses 
in  the  New  World,  was  subjected  to  its  dominion. 
As  the  Spanish  court  contributed  nothing  towards 
the  various  expeditions  undertaken  in  America,  it 
was  not  entitled  to  claim  much  from  their  success. 
The  sovereignty  of  the  conquered  provinces,  with 
the  fifth  of  the  gold  and  silver,  was  reserved  for  the 
crown ;  every  thing  else  was  seized  by  the  associates 
in  each  expedition  as  their  own  right.  The  plunder 
of  the  countries  which  they  invaded  served  to  in- 
demnify them  for  what  they  had  expended  in  equip- 
ping themselves  for  the  service,  and  the  conquered 
territory  was  divided  among  them,  according  to 
rules  which  custom  had  introduced,  as  permanent 
establishments  which  their  successful  valour  merited. 
In  the  infancy  of  those  settlements,  when  their  extent 
as  well  as  their  value  were  unknown,  many  irregula- 
rities escaped  observation,  and  it  was  found  necessary 
to  connive  at  many  excesses.  The  conquered  peo- 
ple were  frequently  pillaged  with  destructive  rapacity, 
and  their  country  parcelled  out  among  its  new  mas- 
ters in  exorbitant  shares,  far  exceeding  the  highest 
recompence  due  to  their  services.  The  rude  con- 
querors of  America,  incapable  of  forming  their  es- 
tablishments upon  any  general  or  extensive  plan  of 
policy,  attentive  only  to  private  interest,  unwilling  to 
forego  present  gain  from  the  prospect  of  remote  or 


*THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


155 


public  benefit,  seem  to  have  had  no  object  but  to 
amass  sudden  wealth,  without  regarding  what  might 
be  the  consequences  of  the  means  by  which  they 
acquired  it.  But  when  time  at  length  discovered  to 
the  Spanish  court  the  importance  of  its  American 
possessions,  the  necessity  of  new-modelling  their 
whole  frame  became  obvious,  and  in  place  of  the 
maxims  and  practices  prevalent  among  military  ad- 
venturers, it  was  found  requisite  to  substitute  the 
institutions  of  regular  government. 

One  evil  in  particular  called  for  an  immediate 
remedy.  The  conquerors  of  Mexico  and  Peru  imi- 
tated the  fatal  example  of  their  countrymen  settled 
in  the  islands,  and  employed  themselves  in  searching 
for  gold  and  silver  with  the  same  inconsiderate 
eagerness.  Similar  effects  followed.  The  natives 
employed  in  this  labour  by  masters,  who  in  imposing 
tasks  had  no  regard  either  to  what  they  felt  or  to 
what  they  were  able  to  perform,  pined  away  and 
perished  so  fast,  that  there  was  reason  to  apprehend 
that  Spain,  instead  of  possessing  countries  peopled 
to  such  a  degree  as  to  be  susceptible  of  progressive 
improvement,  would  soon  remain  proprietor  only  of 
a  vast  uninhabited  desert. 

The  emperor  and  his  ministers  were  so  sensible  of 
this,  and  so  solicitous  to  prevent  the  extinction  of 
the  Indian  race,  which  threatened  to  render  their 
acquisitions  of  no  value,  that  from  time  to  time 
various  laws,  which  I  have  mentioned,  had  been 
made  for  securing  to  that  unhappy  people  more  gentle 
and  equitable  treatment.  But  the  distance  of  Ame- 
rica from  the  seat  of  empire,  the  feebleness  of 
government  in  the  new  colonies,  the  avarice  and 
audacity  of  soldiers  unaccustomed  to  restraint,  pre- 
vented those  salutary  regulations  from  operating 
with  any  considerable  influence.  The  evil  continued 
to  grow,  and  at  this  time  the  emperor  found  an 
interval  of  leisure  from  the  affairs  of  Europe  to  take 
it  into  attentive  consideration.  He  consulted  not 
only  with  his  ministers  and  the  members  of  the 
council  of  the  Indies,  but  called  upon  several  persons 
who  had  resided  long  in  the  Near  World,  to  aid  them 
with  the  result  of  tlieir  experience  and  observation. 
Fortunately  for  the  people  of  America,  among  these 
was  Bartholomew  de  las  Casas,  who  happened  to  be 
then  at  Madrid  on  a  mission  from  a  chapter  of  his 
order  at  Chiapa.  Though  since  the  miscarriage  of 
his  former  scheme  for  the  relief  of  the  Indians,  he  had 
continued  shut  up  in  his  cloister,  or  occupied  in 
religious  functions,  his  zeal  in  behalf  of  the  former 
objects  of  his  pity  was  so  far  from  abating,  that, 
from  an  increased  knowledge  of  their  sufferings,  its 
ardour  had  augmented.  He  seized  eagerly  this 
opportunity  of  reviving  his  favourite  maxims  con- 
cerning the  treatment  of  the  Indians.  With  the 
moving  eloquence  natural  to  a  man  on  whose  mind 
the  scene  which  he  had  beheld  had  made  a  deep 
impression,  he  described  the  irreparable  waste  of 
the  human  species  in  the  New  World,  the  Indian 
race  almost  totally  swept  away  in  the  islands  in  less 
than  fifty  years,  and  hastening  to  the  extinction  on 
the  continent  with  the  same  rapid  decay.  With  the 
decisive  tone  of  one  strongly  prepossessed  with  the 
truth  of  his  own  system,  he  imputed  all  this  to  a 
single  cause,  to  the  exactions  and  cruelty  of  his 
countrymen,  and  contended  that  nothing  could  pre- 
vent the  depopulation  of  America,  but  the  declaring 
of  its  natives  to  be  freemen,  and  treating  them  as 
subjects,  not  as  slaves.  Nor  did  he  confide  for  the 
success  of  this  proposal  in  the  powers  of  his  oratory 
alone.  In  order  to  enforce  them,  he  composed  his 
famous  treatises  concerning  the  destruction  of  Ame- 


rica, in  which  he  relates,  with  many  horrid  circum- 
stances, but  with  apparent  marks  of  exaggerated 
description,  the  devastation  of  every  province  which 
had  been  visited  by  the  Spaniards. 

The  emperor  was  deeply  afflicted  with  the  recital 
of  so  many  actions  shocking  to  humanity.  But  as 
his  views  extended  far  beyond  those  of  Las  Casas, 
he  perceived  that  relieving  the  Indians  from  oppres- 
sion was  but  one  step  towards  rendering  his  posses- 
sions in  the  New  World  a  valuable  acquisition,  and 
would  be  of  little  avail,  unless  he  could  circumscribe 
the  power  and  usurpations  of  his  own  subjects  there. 
The  conquerors  of  America,  however  great  their 
merit  had  been  towards  their  country,  were  mostly 
persons  of  such  mean  birth,  and  of  such  an  abject 
rank  in  society,  as  gave  no  distinction  in  the  eye  of 
a  monarch.  The  exorbitant  wealth  with  which  some 
of  them  returned,  gave  umbrage  to  an  age  not  accus- 
tomed to  see  men  in  inferior  condition  elevated 
above  their  level,  and  rising  to  emulate  or  to  sur- 
pass the  ancient  nobility  in  splendour.  The  territories 
which  their  leaders  had  appropriated  to  themselves 
were  of  such  enormous  extent  (139),  that  if  the 
country  should  ever  be  improved  in  proportion  to  the 
fertility  of  the  soil,  they  must  grow  too  wealthy  and 
too  powerful  for  subjects.  It  appeared  to  Charles  that 
this  abuse  required  a  remedy  no  less  than  the  other, 
and  that  the  regulations  concerning  both  must  be 
enforced  by  a  mode  of  government  more  vigorous 
than  had  been  introduced  into  America. 

With  this  view  he  framed  a  body  of  laws,  con- 
taining many  salutary  appointments  with  respect  to 
the  constitution  and  powers  of  the  supreme  council 
of  the  Indies;  concerning  the  station  and  jurisdiction 
of  the  royal  audiences  in  different  parts  of  America  ; 
the  administration  of  justice  ;  the  order  of  govern- 
ment, both  ecclesiastical  and  civil.  These  were  ap- 
proved of  by  all  ranks  of  men.  But  together  with 
them  were  issued  the  following  regulations,  which 
excited  universal  alarm,  and  occasioned  the  most 
violent  convulsions  :  "  That  as  the  repartimiento*  or 
shares  of  land  seized  by  several  persons  appeared  to 
be  excessive,  the  royal  audiences  are  empowered  to 
reduce  them  to  a  moderate  extent :  That  upon  the 
death  of  any  conqueror  or  planter,  the  lands  and 
Indians  granted  to  him  shall  not  descend  to  his 
widow  or  children,  but  return  to  the  crown :  That 
the  Indians  shall  henceforth  be  exempt  from  personal 
service,  and  shall  not  be  compelled  to  carry  the  bag- 
gage of  travellers,  to  labour  in  the  mines,  or  to  dive 
in  the  pearl  fisheries  :  That  the  stated  tribute  due  by 
them  to  their  superior  shall  be  ascertained,  and  they 
shall  be  paid  as  servants  for  any  work  they  volun- 
tarily perform :  That  all  persons  who  are  or  have 
been  in  public  offices,  all  ecclesiastics  of  every  deno- 
mination, all  hospitals  and  monasteries,  shall  be  de- 
prived of  the  lands  and  Indians  allotted  to  them,  and. 
these  be  annexed  to  the  crown  :  That  every  person 
in  Peru,  who  had  any  criminal  concern  in  the  con- 
tests between  Pizarro  and  Alamgro,  should  forfeit 
his  lands  and  Indians." 

All  the  Spanish  ministers  who  had  hitherto  been 
intrusted  with  the  direction  of  American  affairs,  and 
who  were  best  acquainted  with  the  state  of  the 
country,  remonstrated  against  those  regulations  as 
ruinous  to  their  infant  colonies.  They  represent  that 
the  number  of  Spaniards  who  had  hitherto  emigrated 
to  the  New  World  was  so  extremely  small,  that 
nothing  could  be  expected  from  any  effort  of  their* 
towards  improving  the  vast  regions  over  which  they 
were  scattered  ;  that  the  success  of  every  scheme  for 
this  purpose  must  depend  upon  the  ministry  and 


156 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


service  of  the  Indians,  whose  native  indolence  and 
aversion  to  labour,  no  prospect  of  benefit  or  promise 
of  reward  could  surmount ;  that  the  moment  the 
right  of  imposing  a  task,  and  exacting  the  per- 
formance of  it,  was  taken  from  their  masters,  every 
work  of  industry  must  cease,  and  all  the  sources  from 
which  wealth  began  to  pour  in  upon  Spain  must  be 
stopped  for  ever.  But  Charles,  tenacious  at  all  times 
of  his  own  opinions,  and  so  much  impressed  at  pre- 
sent with  the  view  of  the  disorders  which  reigned  in 
America,  that  he  was  willing  to  hazard  the  applica- 
tion even  of  a  dangerous  remedy,  persisted  in  his 
resolution  of  publishing  the  laws.  That  they  might 
be  cairied  into  execution  with  greater  vigour  and 
authority,  he  authorized  Francisco  Tello  de  Sandoval 
to  repair  to  Mexico  as  vititador  or  superintenclant  of 
that  country,  and  to  co-operate  with  Antcnio  de 
Mendoza,  the  viceroy,  in  enforcing  them.  He  ap- 
pointed Blasco  Nugnez  Vela  to  be  governor  of  Peru 
with  the  title  of  viceroy;  and  in  order  to  strengthen 
his  administration,  he  established  a  court  of  royal 
audience  in  Lima,  in  which  four  lawyers  of  eminence 
were  to  preside  as  judges. 

The  viceroy  and  superintendant  sailed  at  the  same 
time;  and  an  account  of  the  laws  which  they  were  to 
enforce  reached  America  before  them.  The  entry  of 
Sandoval  into  Mexico  was  viewed  as  the  prelude  of 
general  ruin.  The  unlimited  grant  of  liberty  to  the 
Indians  affected  every  Spaniard  in  America  without 
distinction  ;  and  there  was  hardly  one  who  might  not 
on  some  pretext  be  included  under  the  other  regula- 
tions, and  suffer  by  them.  But  the  colony  in  New 
Spain  had  now  been  so  long  accustomed  to  the  re- 
straints of  law  and  authority  under  the  steady  and 
prudent  administration  of  Mendoza,  that  how  much 
soever  the  spirit  of  the  new  statutes  was  detested 
and  dreaded,  no  attempt  was  made  to  obstruct  the 
publication  of  them  by  any  act  of  violence  unbecom- 
ing subjects.  The  magistrates  and  principal  inha- 
bitants, however,  presented  dutiful  addresses  to  the 
viceroy  and  superintendant,  representing  the  fatal 
consequences  of  enforcing  them.  Happily  for  them, 
Mendoza,  by  long  residence  in  the  country,  was  so 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  its  state,  that  he  knew 
what  was  for  its  interest  as  well  as  what  it  could 
bear ;  and  Sandoval,  though  new  in  office,  displayed  a 
degree  of  moderation  seldom  possessed  by  persons 
just  entering  upon  the  exercise  of  power.  They  en- 
gaged to  suspend,  for  some  time,  the  execution  of 
what  was^ffensive  in  the  new  laws,  and  not  only  con- 
sented that  a  deputation  of  citizens  should  be  sent 
to  Europe  to  lay  before  the  emperor  the  apprehensions 
of  his  subjects  in  New  Spain  with  respect  to  their 
tendency  and  effects,  but  they  concurred  with  them  in 
supporting  their  sentiments.  Charles,  moved  by  the 
opinion  of  men  whose  abilities  and  integrity  entitled 
them  to  decide  concerning  what  fell  immediately  under 
their  own  view,  granted  such  a  relaxation  of  the  rigour 
of  the  laws  as  re-established  the  colony  in  its  former 
tranquillity. 

[A.  D.  1543.]  In  Peru  the  storm  gathered  with  an 
aspect  still  more  fierce  and  threatening,  and  was  not 
so  soon  dispelled.  The  conquerors  of  Peru,  of  a  rank 
much  inferior  to  those  who  had  subjected  Mexico  to 
the  Spanish  crown,  further  removed  from  the  inspec- 
tion of  the  parent  stater,  and  intoxicated  with  the  sud- 
den acquisition  of  wealth,  carried  on  all  their  opera- 
tions with  greater  license  and  irregularity  than  any 
body  of  adventurers  in  the  New  World.  Amidst  the 
general  subversion  of  law  and  order,  occasioned  by 
two  successive  civil  wars,  when  each  individual  was  at 
liberty  to  decide  for  himself,  without  any  guide  but 


his  own  interest  or  passions,  this  turbulent  spirit  rose 
above  all  sense  of  subordination.  To  men  thus  cor- 
rupted by  anarchy,  the  introduction  of  regular  govern- 
ment, the  power  of  a  viceroy,  and  the  authority  of  a 
respectable  court  of  judicature,  would  of  themselves 
have  appeared  formidable  restraints,  to  which  they 
would  have  submitted  with  reluctance.  But  they 
revolted  with  indignation  against  the  idea  of  comply- 
ing with  laws,  by  which  they  were  to  be  stripped  at 
once  of  all  they  had  earned  so  hardly  during  many 
years  of  service  and  suffering.  As  the  account  of  the 
new  laws  spread  successively  through  the  different 
settlements,  the  inhabitants  ran  together,  the  women 
in  tears,  and  the  men  exclaiming  against  the  injustice 
and  ingratitude  of  their  sovereign  in  depriving  them, 
unheard  and  unconvicted,  of  their  possessions.  "  Is 
this,"  cried  they,  "  the  recompence  due  to  persons, 
who,  without  public  aid,  at  their  own  expense,  and  by 
their  own  valour,  have  subjected  to  the  crown  of  Cas- 
tile territories  of  such  immense  extent  and  opulence? 
Are  these  the  rewards  bestowed  for  having  endured 
unparalleled  distress,  for  having  encountered  every 
species  of  danger  in  the  service  of  their  country? 
Whose  merit  is  so  great,  whose  conduct  has  been  so 
irreproachable,  that  he  may  not  be  condemned  by 
some  penal  clause  in  regulations,  conceived  in  terms 
as  loose  and  comprehensive  as  if  it  had  been  intended 
that  all  should  be  entangled  in  their  snare  ?  Every 
Spaniard  of  note  in  Peru  has  held  some  public  office, 
and  all,  without  distinction,  have  been  constrained  to 
take  an  active  part  in  the  contest  between  the  two 
rival  chiefs.  Were  the  former  to  be  robbed  of  their 
property  because  they  had  done  their  duty  ?  Were 
the  latter  to  be  punished  on  account  of  what  they 
could  not  avoid  ?  Shall  the  conquerors  of  this  great 
empire,  instead  of  receiving  marks  of  distinction,  be 
deprived  of  the  natural  consolation  of  providing  for 
their  widows  and  children,  and  leai-e  them  to  depend 
for  subsistence  on  the  scanty  supply  they  can  extort 
from  unfeeling  courtiers  ?  We  are  riot  able  now,  con- 
tinued they,  to  explore  unknown  regions  in  quest  of 
more  secure  settlements;  our  constitutions  debilitated 
with  age,  and  our  bodies  covered  with  wounds,  are 
no  longer  fit  for  active  service;  but  still  we  possess 
vigour  sufficient  to  assert  our  just  rights,  and  we  will 
not  tamely  suffer  them  to  be  wrested  from  us." 

By  discourses  of  this  sort,  uttered  with  vehemence, 
and  listened  to  with  universal  approbation,  their  pas- 
sions were  inflamed  to  such  a  pitch,  that  they  were 
prepared  for  the  most  violent  measures,  and  began  to 
hold  consultations  in  different  places,  how  they  might 
oppose  the  entrance  of  the  viceroy  and  judges,  and 
prevent  not  only  the  execution  but  the  promulgation 
of  the  new  laws.  From  this,  however,  they  were 
diverted  by  the  address  of  Vaca  de  Castro,  who  flat- 
tered them  with  hopes,  that  as  soon  as  the  viceroy 
and  judges  should  arrive,  and  had  leisure  to  examine 
their  petitions  and  remonstrances,  they  would  concur 
with  them  in  endeavouring  to  procure  some  mitigation 
in  the  rigour  of  laws,  which  had  been  framed  without 
due  attention  either  to  the  state  of  the  country  or  to 
the  sentiments  of  the  people.  A  greater  degree  of 
accommodation  to  these,  and  even  some  concessions  on 
the  part  of  government,  were  now  become  requisite  to 
compose  the  present  ferment,  and  to  soothe  the  colo- 
nists into  submission,  by  inspiring  them  with  confi- 
dence in  their  superiors.  But  without  profound  dis- 
cernment, conciliating  manners,  and  flexibility  of 
temper,  such  a  plan  could  not  be  cairied  on.  The 
viceroy  possessed  none  of  these.  Of  all  the  qualities 
that  fit  men  for  high  command,  he  was  endowed  only 
with  integrity  and  courage;  the  former  harsh  and  un- 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


complying,  the  latter  bordering  so  frequently  on  rash- 
ness or  obstinacy,  that  in  his  situation  they  were 
defects  rather  than  virtues.  From  the  moment  that 
he  landed  at  Tumbez,  [March  4]  Nugnez  Vela  seems 
to  have  considered  himself  merely  as  an  executive 
ofTicer, -without  any  discretionary  power;  and,  regard- 
less of  whatever  he  observed  or  heard  concerning  the 
state  of  the  country,  he  adhered  to  the  letter  of  the 
regulations  with  unrelenting  rigour.  In  all  the  towns 
through  which  he  passed  the  natives  were  declared 
to  be  free ;  every  person  in  public  office  was  deprived 
of  his  lands  and  servants ;  and  as  an  example 
of  obedience  to  others,  he  would  not  suffer  a 
single  Indian  to  carry  his  own  baggage  in 
his  march  towards  Lima.  Amazement  and  con- 
sternation went  before  him  as  he  approached  ;  and  so 
little  solicitous  was  he  to  prevent  these  from  aug- 
menting, that  on  entering  the  capital  he  openly 
avowed,  that  he  came  to  obey  the  orders  of  his  so- 
vereign, not  to  dispense  with  his  laws.  This  harsh 
declaration  was  accompanied  with  what  rendered  it 
still  more  intolerable,  haughtiness  in  deportment,  a 
tone  of  arrogance  and  decision  in  discourse,  and  an 
insolence  of  ofiice  grievous  to  men  little  accustomed 
to  hold  civil  authority  in  high  respect.  Every  attempt 
to  procure  a  suspension  or  mitigation^  of  the  new 
laws,  the  viceroy  considered  as  flowing  from  a  spirit 
(,f  disaffection  that  tended  to  rebellion.  Several  per- 
sons of  rank  were  confined,  and  some  put  to  death, 
without  any  form  of  trial.  Vaca  de  Castro  was 
arrested,  and  notwithstanding  the  dignity  of  his 
former  rank,  and  his  merit  in  having  prevented  a 
general  insurrection  in  the  colony,  he  was  loaded 
with  chains,  and  shut  up  in  the  common  gaol. 

But  however  general  the  indignation  was  against 
such  proceedings,  it  is  probable  the  hand  of  authority 
would  have  been  strong  enough  to  suppress  it,  or  to 
prevent  it  bursting  out  with  open  violence,  if  the 
malcontents  had  not  been  provided  with  a  leader  of 
credit  and  eminence  to  unite  and  to  direct  their 
efforts.  From  the  time  that  the  purport  of  the  new 
regulations  was  known  in  Peru,  every  Spaniard  there 
turned  his  eyes  towards  Gonzalo  Pizarro,  as  the 
only  person  able  to  avert  the  ruin  with  which  they 
threatened  the  colony.  From  all  quarters,  letters  and 
addresses  were  sent  to  him,  conjuring  him  to  stand 
forth  as  their  common  protector,  and  offering  to  sup- 
port him  in  the  attempt  with  their  lives  and  fortunes. 
Gonzalo,  though  inferior  in  talents  to  his  brothers, 
was  equally  ambitious,  and  of  courage  no  less  daring. 
The  behaviour  of  an  ungrateful  court  towards  his 
brothers  and  himself  dwelt  continually  on  his  mind. 
Ferdinand  a  state  prisoner  in  Europe,  the  children  of 
the  governor  in  custody  of  the  viceroy,  and  sent 
aboard  his  fleet,  himself  reduced  to  the  condition  of 
a  private  citizen  in  a  country,  for  the  discovery  and 
conquest  of  which  Spain  was  indebted  to  his  family; 
these  thoughts  prompted  him  to  seek  for  vengeance, 
and  to  assert  the  rights  of  his  family,  of  which  he 
now  considered  himself  as  the  guardian  and  the  heir. 
But  as  no  Spaniard  can  easily  surmount  that  venera- 
tion for  his  sovereign  which  seems  to  be  interwoven 
in  his  frame,  the  idea  of  marching  in  arms  against  the 
royal  standard  filled  him  with  horror.  He  hesitated 
long,  and  was  still  unresolved,  when  the  violence  of 
the  viceroy,  the  universal  call  of  his  countrymen,  and 
the  certainty  of  becoming  soon  a  victim  himself  to  the 
severity  of  the  new  laws,  moved  him  to  quit  his  resi- 
dence at  Chuquisaca  de  la  Plata,  and  repair  to  Cuzco. 
All  the  inhabitants  went  out  to  meet  him,  and  received 
him  with  transports  of  joy  as  the  deliverer  of  the  colony. 
In  the  fervour  of  their  zeal,  they  elected  him  procu- 


rator-general of  the  Spanish  nation  in  Peru,  to  solicit 
the  repeal  of  the  late  regulations.-  They  empowered 
him  to  lay  their  remonstrances  before  the  royal  au- 
dience in  Lima,  and,  upon  pretext  of  danger  from  the 
Indians,  authorized  him  to  march  thither  in  arms, 
[A.D.  1554.]  Under  sanction  of  this  nomination, 
Pizarro  took  possession  of  the  royal  treasure,  appointed 
officers,  levied  soldiers,  seized  a  large  train  of  artil- 
lery which  Vaca  de  Castro  had  deposited  in  Guman- 
ga,  and  set  out  for  Lima,  as  if  he  had  been  advancing 
against  a  public  enemy.  Disaffection  having  now 
assumed  a  regular  form,  and  being  united  under  a 
chief  of  such  distinguished  name,  many  persons  of 
note  resorted  to  his  standard  ;  and  a  considerable 
part  of  the  troops,  raised  by  the  viceroy  to  oppose  his 
progress,  deserted  to  him  in  a  body. 

Before  Pizarro  reached  Lima,  a  revolution  had 
happened  there,  which  encouraged  him  to  proceed 
with  almost  certainty  of  success.  The  violence  of  the 
viceroy's  administration  was  not  more  formidable  to  th« 
Spaniards  of  Peru,  than  his  overbearing  haughtiness 
was  odious  to  his  associates,  the  judges  of  the  royal 
audience.  During  their  voyage  from  Spain  some 
symptoms  of  coldness  between  the  viceroy  and  them 
began  to  appear.  But  as  soon  as  they  entered  upon 
the  exercise  of  their  respective  offices,  both  parties 
were  so  much  exasperated  by  frequent  contests, 
arising  from  interference  of  jurisdiction  and  con- 
trariety of  opinion,  that  their  mutual  disgust  soon  grew 
into  open  enmity.  The  judges  thwarted  the  viceroy 
in  every  measure,  set  at  liberty  prisoners  whom  he 
had  confined,  justified  the  malcontents,  and  applauded 
their  remonstrances.  At  a  time  when  both  depart- 
ments of  government  should  have  united  against  the 
approaching  enemy,  they  were  contending  with  each 
other  for  superiority.  The  judges  at  length  pre- 
vailed. The  viceroy,  universally  odious,  and  aban- 
doned even  by  his  own  guards,  was  seized  in  his  pa- 
lace, [Sept.  18]  and  carried  to  a  desert  island  on  the 
coast,  to  be  kept  there  until  he  could  be  sent  home  to 
Spain.  The  judges,  in  consequence  of  this,  having 
assumed  the  supreme  direction  of  affairs  into  their 
own  hands,  issued  a  proclamation  suspending  the 
execution  of  the  obnoxious  laws,  and  sent  a  message 
to  Pizarro,  requiring  him,  as  they  had  already  granted 
whatever  he  could  request,  to  dismiss  his  troops, 
and  to  repair  to  Lima  with  fifteen  or  twenty  attend- 
ants. They  could  hardly  expect  that  a  man  so 
daring  and  ambitious  would  tamely  comply  with  this 
requisition.  It  was  made  probably  with  no  such  in- 
tention, but  only  to  throw  a  decent  veil  over  thejr 
own  conduct ;  for  Cepeda,  the  president  of  the  court 
of  audience,  a  pragmatical  and  aspiring  lawyer,  seems 
to  have  held  a  secret  correspondence  with  Pizarro, 
and  had  already  formed  the  plan,  which  he  afterwards 
executed,  of  devoting  himself  to  his  service.  The 
imprisonment  of  the  viceroy,  the  usurpation  of  the 
judges,  together  with  the  universal  confusion  and 
anarchy  consequent  upon  events  so  singular  aud 
unexpected,  opened  new  and  vast  prospects  to 
Pizarro.  lie  now  beheld  the  supreme  power  within 
his  reach.  Nor  did  he  want  courage  to  push  on  to- 
wards the  object  which  fortune  presented  to  his  view. 
Carvajal,  the  prompter  of  his  resolutions  and  guide 
of  all  his  actions,  had  long  fixed  his  eye  upon  it  as 
the  only  end  at  which  Pizarro  ought  to  aim.  Instead 
of  the  inferior  function  of  procurator  for  the  Spanish 
settlements  in  Peru,  he  openly  demanded  to  be 
governor  and  captain-general  of  the  whole  province, 
and  required  the  court  of  audience  to  grant  him,  a 
commission  to  that  effect.  At  the  head  of  twelve 
hundred  men,  within  a  mile  of  Lima,  where  there 


158 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


was  neither  leader  nor  army  to  oppose  him,  such  a 
request  carried  with  it  the  authority  of  a  command. 
But  the  judges  either  from  unwillingness  to  relin- 
quish power,  or  from  a  desire  of  preserving  some 
attention  to  appearances,  hesitated,  or  seemed  to 
hesitate,  about  complying  with  what  he  demanded. 
Carvajal,  impatient  of  delay,  and  impetuous  in  all 
his  operations,  marched  into  the  city  by  night,  seized 
several  officers  of  distinction  obnoxious  to  Pizarro, 
and  hanged  them  without  the  formality  of  a  trial. 
Next  morning  the  court  of  audience  issued  a  commis- 
sion in  the  emperor's  name,  appointing  Pizarro 
governor  of  Peru,  with  full  powers,  civil  as  well  as 
military,  and  he  entered  the  town  that  day  with  ex- 
traordinary pomp,  to  take  possession  of  his  new 
dignity. 

[Oct.  28.]  But  amidst  the  disorder  and  turbulence 
which  accompanied  this  total  dissolution  of  the  frame 
of  government,  the  minds  of  men,  set  loose  from  the 
ordinary  restraints  of  law  and  authority,  acted  with 
such  capricious  irregularity,  that  events  no  less  extra- 
ordinary than  unexpected  followed  in  a  rapid  succes- 
sion. Pizarro  had  scarcely  begun  to  exercise  the  new 
powers  with  which  he  was  invested,  when  he  beheld 
formidable  enemies  rise  up  to  oppose  him.  The  vice- 
roy having  been  put  on  board  a  vessel  by  the  judges 
of  the  audience,  in  order  that  he  might  be  carried  to 
Spain  under  custody  of  Juan  Alvarez,  one  of  their 
own  number ;  as  soon  as  they  were  out  at  sea,  Alva- 
rez, either  touched  with  remorse,  or  moved  by  fear, 
kneeled  down  to  his  prisoner,  declaring  him  from  that 
moment  to  be  free,  and  that  he  himself,  and  every 
person  in  the  ship,  would  obey  him  as  the  legal  re- 
presentative of  their  sovereign.  Nugnez  Vela  ordered 
the  pilot  of  the  vessel  to  shape  his  course  towards 
Tumbez,  and  as  soon  as  he  landed  there  erected  the 
royal  standard,  and  resumed  his  functions  of  viceroy. 
Several  persons  of  note,  to  whom  the  contagion  of  the 
seditious  spirit  which  reigned  at  Cuzco  and  Lima  had 
not  reached,  instantly  avowed  their  resolution  to  sup- 
port his  authority.  The  violence  of  Pizarro's  govern- 
ment, who  observed  every  individual  with  the  jealousy 
natural  to  usurpers,  and  who  punished  every  appear- 
ance of  disaffection  with  unforgiving  severity,  soon 
augmented  the  number  of  the  viceroy's  adherents,  as 
it  forced  some  leading  men  in  the  colony  to  fly  to  him 
for  refuge.  While  he  was  gathering  such  strength  at 
Tumbez,  that  his  forces  began  to  assume  the  appear- 
ance of  what  was  considered  as  an  army  in  America, 
Diego  Centeno,  a  bold  and  active  officer,  exasperated 
by  the  cruelty  and  oppression  of  Pizarro's  lieutenant- 
governor  in  the  province  of  Charcas,  formed  a  con- 
spiracy against  his  life,  cut  him  off,  and  declared  for 
the  viceroy. 

[A.  D.  1 545.]  Pizarro,  though  alarmed  with  those 
appearances  of  hostility  in  the  opposite  extremes  of 
the  empire,  was  not  disconcerted.  He  prepared  to 
assert  the  authority  to  which  he  had  attained  with 
the  spirit  and  conduct  of  an  officer  accustomed  to 
command,  and  marched  directly  against  the  viceroy, 
as  the  enemy  who  was  nearest  as  well  as  most  for- 
midable. As  he  was  master  of  the  public  revenues 
in  Peru,  and  most  of  the  military  men  were  attached 
to  his  family,  his  troops  were  so  numerous,  that  the 
viceroy,  unable  to  face  them,  retreated  towards  Quito. 
Pizarro  followed  him ;  and  in  that  long  march, 
through  a  wild  mountainous  country,  suffered  hard- 
ships and  encountered  difficulties,  which  no  troops 
but  those  accustomed  to  serve  in  America  could  have 
endured  or  surmounted.  The  viceroy  had  scarcely 
reached  Quito,  when  the  vanguard  of  Pizarro's  forces 
appeared,  led  by  Carvajal,  who,  though  near  four- 


score, was  as  hardy  and  active  as  any  young  soldier 
under  his  command.  Nugnez  Vela  instantly  aban- 
doned a  town  incapable  of  defence,  and  with  a 
rapidity  more  resembling  a  flight  than  a  retreat, 
marched  into  the  province  of  Popayan.  Pizarro  con- 
tinued to  pursue  ;  but  finding  it  impossible  to  over- 
take him,  returned  to  Quito.  From  thence  he  de- 
spatched Carvajal  to  oppose  Centeno,  who  was  grow- 
ing formidable  in  the  southern  provinces  of  the  em- 
pire, and  he  himself  remained  there  to  make  head 
against  the  viceroy. 

By  his  own  activity,  and  the  assistance  of  Benal- 
cazar,  Nugnez  Vela  soon  assembled  four  hundred 
men  in  Popayan.  As  he  retained,  amidst  all  his  dis- 
asters, the  same  elevation  of  mind,  and  the  same 
high  sense  of  his  own  dignity,  he  rejected  with  dis- 
dain the  advice  of  some  of  his  followers,  who  urged 
him  to  make  overtures  of  accommodation  to  Pizarro, 
declaring  that  it  was  only  by  the  sword  that  a  contest 
with  rebels  could  be  decided  [A.  D.  1546.]  With  this 
intention  he  marched  back  to  Quito.  Pizarro,  relying 
on  the  superior  number,  and  still  more  on  the  dis- 
cipline and  valour,  of  his  troops,  advanced  resolutely 
to  meet  him  [Jan.  18.]  The  battle  was  fierce  and 
bloody,  both  parties  fighting  like  men  who  knew  that 
the  possession  of  a  great  empire,  the  fate  of  their 
leaders,  and  their  own  future  fortune,  depended  upon 
the  issue  of  that  day.  But  Pizarro's  veterans  pushed 
forward  with  such  regular  and  well-directed  force, 
that  they  soon  began  to  make  an  impression  on  their 
enemies.  The  viceroy,  by  extraordinary  exertions,  in 
which  the  abilities  of  a  commander  and  the  courage 
of  a  soldier  were  equally  displayed,  held  victory  for 
some  time  in  suspense.  At  length  he  fell,  pierced 
with  many  wounds ;  and  the  rout  of  his  followers 
became  general.  They  were  hotly  pursued.  His  head 
was  cut  off,  and  placed  on  the  public  gibbet  in  Quito, 
which  Pizarro  entered  in  triumph.  The  troops  as- 
sembled by  Centeno  were  dispersed  soon  after  by 
Carvajal,  and  he  himself  compelled  to  fly  to  the 
mountains,  where  he  remained  for  several  months 
concealed  in  a  cave.  Every  person  in  Peru,  from  the 
frontiers  of  Popayan  to  those  of  Chili,  submitted  to 
Pizarro ;  and  by  his  fleet,  under  Pedro  de  Hinojosa, 
he  had  not  only  the  unrivalled  command  of  the  South 
sea,  but  had  taken  possession  of  Panama,  and  placed 
a  garrison  in  Nombre  de  Dios,  on  the  opposite  side  of 
the  isthmus,  which  rendered  him  master  of  the  only 
avenue  of  communication  between  Spain  and  Peru 
that  was  used  at  that  period. 

After  this  decisive  victory  Pizarro  and  his  follow- 
ers remained  for  some  time  at  Quito,  .and  during  the 
first  transports  of  their  exultation  :  they  ran  into 
every  excess  of  licentious  indulgence,  with  the  riotous 
spirit  usual  among  low  adventurers  upon  extraordinary 
success.  But  amidst  this  dissipation,  their  chief  and 
his  confidants  were  obliged  to  turn  their  thoughts 
sometimes  to  what  was  serious,  and  deliberated  with 
much  solicitude  concerning  the  part  that  he  ought 
now  to  take.  Carvajal,  no  less  bold  and  decisive  in 
council  than  in  the  field,  had  from  the  beginning 
warned  Pizarro,  that  in  the  career  on  which  he  was 
entering  it  was  vain  to  think  of  holding  a  middle 
course;  that  he  must  either  boldly  aim  at  all,  or 
attempt  nothing.  From  the  time  that  Pizarro  ob- 
tained possession  of  the  government  of  Peru,  he 
inculcated  the  same  maxim  with  greater  earnestness. 
Upon  receiving  an  account  of  the  victory  at  Quito,  he 
remonstrated  with  him  in  a  tone  still  more  peremp- 
tory. "  You  have  usurped,"  said  he,  in  a  letter 
written  to  Pizarro  on  that  occasion,  "the  supreme 
power  in  this  country,  in  contempt  of  the  emperor's 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


159 


commission  to  the  viceroy.  You  have  marched  in 
hostile  array  against  the  royal  standard ;  you  have 
attacked  the  representative  of  your  sovereign  in  the 
field,  have  defeated  him,  and  cut  off  his  head. 
Think  not  that  ever  a  monarch  will  forgive  such  in- 
sults on  his  dignity,  or  that  any  reconciliation  with 
him  can  be  cordial  or  sincere.  Depend  no  longer  on 
the  precarious  favour  of  another.  Assume  yourself 
the  sovereignty  over  a  country,  to  the  dominion  of 
which  your  family  has  a  title  founded  on  the  rights 
both  of  discovery  and  conquest.  It  is  in  your  power 
to  attach  every  Spaniard  in  Peru  of  any  consequence 
inviolably  to  your  interest,  by  liberal  grants  of  lands 
and  of  Indians,  or  by  instituting  ranks  of  nobility, 
and  creating  titles  of  honour  similar  to  those  which 
are  courted  with  so  much  eagerness  in  Europe.  By 
establishing  orders  of  knighthood,  with  privileges 
and  distinctions  resembling  those  in  Spain,  you  may 
bestow  a  gratification  upon  the  officers  in  your  ser- 
vice, suited  to  the  ideas  of  military  men.  Nor  is  it 
to  your  countrymen  only  that  you  ought  to  attend ; 
endeavour  to  gain  the  natives.  By  marrying  the 
Coya,  or  daughter  of  the  Sun  next  in  succession  to 
the  crown,  you  will  induce  the  Indians,  out  of  venera- 
tion for  the  blood  of  their  ancient  princes,  to  unite 
with  the  Spaniards  in  support  of  your  authority. 
Thus,  at  the  head  of  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  Peru, 
as  well  as  of  the  new  settlers  there,  you  may  set  at 
defiance  the  power  of  Spain,  and  repel  with  ease  any 
feeble  force  which  it  can  send  at  such  a  distance." 
Cepeda,  the  lawyer,  who  was  now  Pizarro's  confiden- 
tial counsellor,  warmly  seconded  Carvajal's  exhorta- 
tions, and  employed  whatever  learning  he  possessed 
in  demonstrating  that  all  the  founders  of  great  mon- 
archies had  been  raised  to  pre-eminence,  not  by  the 
antiquity  of  their  lineage,  or  the  validity  of  their 
rights,  but  by  their  own  aspiring  valour  and  personal 
merit. 

Pizarro  listened  attentively  to  both,  and  could  not 
conceal  the  satisfaction  with  which  he  contemplated 
the  abject  that  they  presented  to  his  view.  But, 
happily  for  the  tranquillity  of  the  world,  few  men 
possess  that  superior  strength  of  mind,  and  extent  of 
abilities,  which  are  capable  of  forming  and  executing 
such  daring  schemes  as  cannot  be  accomplished 
without  overturning  the  established  order  of  society, 
and  violating  those  maxims  of  duty  which  men  are 
accustomed  to  hold  sacred.  The  mediocrity  of 
Pizarro's  talents  circumscribed  his  ambition  within 
more  narrow  limits.  Instead  of  aspiring  at  inde- 
pendent power,  he  confined  his  views  to  the  obtain- 
ing from  the  court  of  Spain  a  confirmation  of  the 
authority  which  he  now  possessed ;  and  for  that 
purpose  he  sent  an  officer  of  distinction  thither,  to 
give  such  a  representation  of  his  conduct,  and 
of  the  state  of  the  country,  as  might  induce 
the  emperor  and  his  ministers,  either  from  incli- 
nation or  from  necessity,  to  continue  him  in  his 
present  station. 

While  Pizarro  was  deliberating  with  respect  to  the 
part  which  he  should  take,  consultations  were  held 
in  Spain,  with  no  less  solicitude,  concerning  the  mea- 
sures which  ought  to  be  pursued  in  order  to  re- 
establish the  emperor's  authority  in  Peru.  Though 
unacquainted  with  the  last  excesses  of  outrage  to 
which  the  malcontents  had  proceeded  in  that  country, 
the  court  had  received  an  account  of  the  insurrection 
against  the  viceroy,  of  his  imprisonment,  and  the 
usurpation  of  the  government  by  Pizarro.  A  revo- 
lution so  alarming  called  for  an  immediate  inter- 
position of  the  emperor's  abilities  and  authority. 
But  as  he  was  fully  occupied  at  that  time  in  Ger- 


many, in  conducting  the  war  against  the  famous 
league  of  Smalkalde,  one  of  the  most  interesting 
and  arduous  enterprises  in  his  reign,  the  care  of 
providing  a  remedy  for  the  disorders  in  Peru  de- 
volved upon  his  son  Philip,  and  the  counsellors 
whom  Charles  had  appointed  to  assist  him  in  the 
government  of  Spain  during  his  absence.  At  first 
view,  the  actions  of  Pizarro  and  his  adherents  apr 
peared  so  repugnant  to  the  duty  of  subjects  towards 
their  sovereign,  that  the  greater  part  of  the  ministers 
insisted  on  declaring  them  instantly  to  be  guilty  of 
rebellion,  and  on  proceeding  to  punish  them  with 
exemplary  rigour.  But  when  the  fervour  of  their 
zeal  and  indignation  began  to  abate,  innumerable 
obstacles  to  the  execution  of  this  measure  presented 
themselves.  The  veteran  bands  of  infantry,  the 
strength  and  glory  of -the  Spanish  armies,  were 
then  employed  in  Germany.  Spain,  exhausted  of 
men  and  money  by  a  long  series  of  wars,  in  which 
she  had  been  involved  by  the  restless  ambition  of 
two  successive  monarchs,  could  not  easily  equip  an 
armament  of  sufficient  force  to  reduce  Pizarro.  To 
transport  any  respectable  body  of  troops  to  a  coun- 
try so  remote  as  Peru,  appeared  almost  impossible. 
While  Pizarro  continued  master  of  the  South  sea, 
the  direct  route  by  Nombre  de  Dios  and  Panama 
was  impracticable.  An  attempt  to  march  to  Quito 
by  land  through  the  new  kingdom  of  Granada,  and 
the  province  of  Popayan,  across  regions  of  pro- 
digious extent,  desolate,  unhealthy,  or  inhabited  by 
fierce  and  hostile  tribes,  would  be  attended  with 
insurmountable  danger  and  hardships.  The  passage 
to  the  South  sea  by  the  straits  of  Magellan  was  so 
tedious,  so  uncertain,  and  so  little  known  in  that 
age,  that  no  confidence  could  bo  placed  in  any 
effort  carried  on  in  a  course  of  navigation  so  remote 
and  precarious.  Nothing  then  remained  but  to 
relinquish  the  system  which  the  ardour  of  their  loy- 
alty had  first  suggested,  and  to  attempt  by  lenient 
measures  what  could  not  be  effected  by  force.  It  was 
manifest,  from  Pizarro's  solicitude  to  represent  hjs 
conduct  in  a  favourable  light  to  the  emperor,  thai 
notwithstanding  the  excesses  of  which  he  had  been 
guilty,  he  still  retained  sentiments  of  veneration  for 
his  sovereign.  By  a  proper  application  to  these, 
together  with  some  such  concessions  as  should  dis- 
cover a  spirit  of  moderation  and  forbearance  in  go- 
vernment, there  was  still  room  to  hope  that  he  might 
be  yet  reclaimed,  or  the  ideas  of  loyalty  natural  to 
Spaniards  might  so  far  revive  among  his  followers, 
that  they  would  no  longer  lend  their  aid  to  uphold 
his  usurped  authority. 

The  success,  however,  of  this  negociation,  no  less 
delicate  than  it  was  important,  depended  entirely  on 
the  abilities  and  address  of  the  person  to  whom  it 
should  be  committed.  After  weighing  with  much 
attention  the  comparative  merit  of  various  persons, 
the  Spanish  ministers  fixed  with  unanimity  of 
choice  upon  Pedro  de  la  Gasca,  a  priest  in  no  higher 
station  than  that  of  counsellor  to  the  inquisition. 
Though  in  no  public  office,  he  had  been  occasion- 
ally employed  by  government  in  affairs  of  trust  and 
consequence,  and  had  conducted  them  with  no  less 
skill  than  success ;  displaying  a  gentle  and  insinu- 
ating temper,  accompanied  with  much  firmness ; 
probity,  superior  to  any  feeling  of  private  interest ; 
and  a  cautious  circumspection  in  concerting  mea* 
sures,  followed  by  such  vigour  in  executing  them'  as 
is  rarely  found  in  alliance  with  the  other.  These 
qualities  marked  him  out  for  the  function  to  which 
he  was  destined.  The  emperor,  to  whom  Gasca  was 
not  unknown,  warmly  approved  of  the  choice,  and 


1GO 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


communicated  it  to  him  in  a  letter  containing  ex- 
pressions of  good-will  and  confidence,  no  less  honour- 
able to  the  prince  who  wrote  than  to  the  subject  who 
received  it.  Gasca,  notwithstanding  his  advanced 
age  and  feeble  constitution,  and  though,  from  the 
apprehensions  natural  to  a  man,  who,  during  the 
course  of  his  life,  had  never  been  out  of  his  own 
country,  he  dreaded  the  effects  of  a  long  voyage,  and 
of  an  unhealthy  climate,  did  not  hesitate  a  moment 
about  complying  with  the  will  of  his  sovereign.  But 
as  a  proof  that  it  was  from  this  principle  alone  he  acted, 
lie  refused  a  bishopric  which  was  offered  to  him,  in 
order  that  he  might  appear  in  Peru  with  a  more  dig- 
nified character;  he  vrould  accept  of  no  higher  title 
than  that  of  president  of  the  court  of  audience  in 
Lima ;  and  declared  that  he  would  receive  no  salary 
on  account  of  his  discharging  the  duties  of  that 
office.  All  he  required  was,  that  the  expense  of  sup- 
porting his  family  should  be  defrayed  by  the  public, 
and  as  he  was  to  go  like  a  minister  of  peace  with  his 
gown  and  breviary,  and  without  any  retinue  but  a 
few  domestics,  this  would  not  load  the  revenue  with 
any  enormous  burthen. 

But  while  he  discovered  such  disinterested  mode- 
rntion  with  respect  to  whatever  related  personally  to 
himself,  he  demanded  his  official  powers  in  a  very 
different  tone.  He  insisted,  as  he  was  to  be  employed 
in  a  country  so  remote  from  the  seat  of  government, 
where  he  could  not  have  recourse  to  his  sovereign  for 
new  instructions  on  every  emergence,  and  as  the 
whole  success  of  his  negociations  must  depend  upon  j 
the  confidence  which  the  people  with  whom  he  had 
to  treat  could  place  in  the  extent  of  his  powers,  that 
he  ought  to  be  invested  with  unlimited  authority  ; 
that  his  jurisdiction  must  reach  to  all  persons  and  to 
all  causes;  that  he  must  be  empoweied  to  pardon, 
to  punish,  or  to  reward,  as  circumstances  and  the 
behaviour  of  different  men  might  require;  that  in 
case  of  resistance  from  the  malcontents,  he  might  be 
authorized  to  reduce  them  to  obedience  by  force  of 
arms,  to  levy  troops  for  that  purpose,  and  to  call  for 
assistance  from  the  governors  of  all  the  Spanish  set- 
tlements in  America.  These  powers,  though  mani- 
festly conducive  to  the  great  objects  of  his  mission, 
appeared  to  the  Spanish  ministers  to  be  inalienable 
prerogatives  of  royalty,  which  ought  not  to  be  dele- 
gated to  a  subject,  and  they  refused  to  giant  them. 
But  the  emperor's  views  were  more  enlarged.  As, 
from  the  nature  of  his  employment,  Gasca  must  be 
intrusted  with  discretionary  power  in  several  points, 
and  all  his  efforts  might  prove  ineffectual  if  he  was 
circumscribed  in  any  one  particular,  Charles  scrupled 
not  to  invest  him  with  authority  to  the  full  extent 
that  he  demanded.  Highly  satisfied  with  this  fresh 
proof  of  his  master's  confidence, -Gasca  hastened  his 
departure,  and,  without  either  money  or  troops,  set 
out  to  quell  a  formidable  rebellion. 

[July  27.]  On  his  arrrival  at  Nombre  de  Dios  he 
found  Herman  Mexia,  an  officer  of  note,  posted  there, 
by  order  of  Pizarro,  with  a  considerable  body  of  men, 
to  oppose  the  landing  of  any  hostiie  forces.  But 
Gasca  appeared  in  such  pacific  guise,  with  a  train  so 
little  formidable,  and  with  a  title  of  no  such  dignity 
as  to  excite  terror,  that  he  was  received  with  much 
respect.  From  Nombre  de  Dios  he  advanced  to 
Panama,  and  met  with  a  similar  reception  from 
Hinojosa,  whom  Pizarro  had  intrusted  with  the  go- 
Vernment  of  that  town,  and  the  command  of  his  fleet 
stationed  there.  In  both  places  he  he'd  the  same 
language,  declaring  that  he  was  sent  by  their  sovereign 
as  a  messenger  of  peace,  not  as  a  minister  of  venge- 
ance; that  he  came  to  redress  all  their  grievances,  to 


revoke  the  laws  which  had  excited  alarm,  to  pardon 
past  offences,  and  to  re-establish  order  and  justice  in 
the  government  of  Peru.  His  mild  deportment,  the 
simplicity  of  his  manners,  the  sanctity  of  his  profession, 
and  a  winning  appearance  of  candour,  gained  credit 
to  his  declarations.  The  veneration  due  to  a  person 
clothed  with  legal  authority,  and  acting  in  virtue  of 
a  royal  commission,  began  to  revive  among  men  ac- 
customed for  some  time  to  nothing  more  respectable 
than  an  usurped  jurisdiction.  Hinojosa,  Mexia,  and 
several  other  oflicers  of  distinction,  to  ench  of  whom 
Gasca  applied  separately,  were  gained  over  to  his  in- 
terest, and  waited  only  for  some  decent  occasion  of 
declaring  openly  in  his  favour. 

This  the  violence  of  Pizarro  soon  afforded  them. 
As  soon  as  he  heard  of  Gasca' s  arrival  at  Panama, 
though  he  received,  at  the  same  time,  an  account  of 
the  nature  of  his  commission,  and  was  informed  of 
his  offers,  not  only  to  render  every  Spaniard  in  Peru 
easy  concerning  what  was  past,  by  an  act  of  general 
oblivion,  but  secure  with  respect  to  the  future  by  re- 
pealing the  obnoxious  laws  ;  instead  of  accepting  with 
gratitude  his  sovereign's  gracious  concessions,  he  was 
so  much  exasperated  on  finding  that  he  was  not  to 
be  continued  in  his  station  as  governor  of  the  country, 
that  he  instantly  resolved  to  oppose  the  president's 
entry  into  Peru,  and  to  prevent  his  exercising  any 
juiisdiction  there.  To  this  dc'sperate  resolution  he 
added  another  highly  preposterous.  He  sent  a  new 
deputation  to  Spain  to  justify  this  conduct,  and  to 
insist,  in  name  of  all  the  communities  in  Peru,  for  a 
confirmation  of  the  government  to  himself  during 
life,  as  the  only  means  of  preserving  tranquillity 
there.  The  persons  intrusted  with  this  strange  com- 
mission intimated  the  intention  of  Pizarro  to  the 
president,  and  required  him,  in  his  name,  to  depart 
from  Panama  and  return  to  Spain.  They  carried 
likewise  secret  instructions  to  Hinojosa,  directing 
him  to  offer  Gasca  a  present  of  fifty  thousand  pesos, 
if  he  would  comply  voluntarily  with  what  was  de- 
manded of  him  ;  and  if  he  should  continue  obstinate, 
to  cut  him  off,  either  by  assassination  or  poison. 

Many  circumstances  concurred  in  pushing  on 
Pizarro  to  those  wild  measures.  Having  been  once 
accustomed  to  supreme  command,  he  could  not  bear 
the  thoughts  of  descending  to  a  private  station. 
Conscious  of  his  own  demerit,  he  suspected  that  the 
emperor  studied  only  to  deceive  him,  and  would 
never  pardon  the  outrages  which  he  had  committed. 
His  chief  confidants,  no  less  guilty,  entertained  the 
same  apprehensions.  The  approach  of  Gasca  with- 
out any  military  force  excited  no  terror.  There  were 
now  above  six  thousand  Spaniards  settled  in  Peru  ; 
and  at  the  head  of  these  he  doubted  not  to  maintain 
his  own  independence,  if  the  court  of  Spain  should 
refuse  to  grant  what  he  required.  But  he  knew  not 
that  a  spirit  of  defection  had  already  begun  to  spread 
among  those  whom  he  trusted  most.  Hinojosa, 
amazed  at  Pizarro's  precipitate  resolution  of  setting 
himself  in  opposition  to  the  emperor's  commission, 
and  disdaining  to  be  his  instrument  in  perpetrating 
the  odious  crimes  pointed  out  in  his  secret  instructions, 
publicly  recognised  the  title  of  the  president  to  the 
supreme  authority  in  Peru.  The  officers  under  his 
command  did  the  same.  Such  was  the  contagious 
influence  of  the  example,  that  it  reached  even  the 
deputies  who  had  been  sent  from  Peru ;  and  at  the 
time  when  Pizarro  expected  to  hear  either  of  Gasca's 
return  to  Spain,  or  of  his  death,  he  received  an  ac- 
count of  his  being  master  of  the  fleet,  of  Panama, 
and  of  the  troops  stationed  there. 

[A.D.  1547.]  Irritated  almost  to  madness  by  events 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


161 


so  unexpected,  he  openly  prepared  for  war;  and  in 
order  to  give  some  colour  of  justice  to  his  arm*,  he 
appointed  the  court  of  audience  in  Lima  to  proceed 
to  the  trial  of  Gasca,  for  the  crimes  of  having  seized 
his  ships,  seduced  |his  officers,  and  prevented  his 
deputies  from  proceeding  in  their  voyage  to  Spain. 
Cepeda,  though  acting  as  a  judge  in  virtue  of  the 
royal  commission,  did  not  scruple  :to  prostitute  the 
dignity  of  his  function  by  finding  Gasca  guilty 
of  treason,  and  condemning  him  to  death  on  that 
account.  Wild,  and  even  ridiculous,  as  this  proceed- 
ing was,  it  imposed  on  the  low  illiterate  adventurers 
with  whom  Peru  was  filled,  by  the  semblance  of  legal 
sanction  warranting  Pizarro  to  carry  on  hostilities 
against  a  convicted  traitor.  Soldiers  accordingly 
resorted  from  every  quarter  to  his  standard,  and  he 
was  soon  at  the  head  of  a  thousand  men,  the  best 
equipped  that  had  ever  taken  the  field  in  Peru. 

Gasca,  on  his  part,  perceiving  that  force  must  be 
employed  in  order  to  accomplish  the  purpose  of  his 
mission,  was  no  less  assiduous  in  collecting  troops 
from  Nicaragua,  Carthagena,  and  other  settlements 
on  the  continent ;  and  with  such  success,  that  he  was 
soon  in  a  condition  to  detach  a  squadron  of  his  fleet, 
with  a  considerable  body  of  soldiers,  to  the  coast  of 
Peru.  Their  appearance  excited  a  dreadful  alarm 
(April);  and  though  they  did  not  attempt  for  sometime 
to  njake  any  descent,  they  did  more  elfectual  service, 
by  setting  ashore  in  different  places  persons  who 
dispersed  copies  of  the  act  of  general  indemnity,  and 
the  revocation  of  the  late  edicts;  and  who  made 
known  everywhere  the  pacific  intentions,  as  well  as 
mild  temper,  of  tht»  president.  The  effect  of  spread- 
ing this  information  was  wonderful.  All  who  were 
dissatisfied  with  Pizarro's  violent  administration,  all 
who  retained  any  sentiments  of  fidelity  to  their 
sovereign,  began  to  meditate  revolt.  Some  openly 
deserted  a  cause  which  they  now  deemed  to  be 
unjust.  Centeno,  leaving  the  cave  in  which  he  lay 
concealed,  assembled  about  fifty  of  his  former  ad- 
herents, and  with  this  feeble  half-armed  band 
advanced  boldly  to  Cnzco.  By  a  sudden  attack  in 
the  night-time,  in  which  he  displayed  no  less  military 
skill  than  valour,  he  rendered  himself  master  of  that 
capital,  though  defended  by  a  garrison  of  five  hundred 
men.  Most  of  these  having  ranged  themselves  under 
his  banners,  he  had  soon  the  command  of  a  respect- 
able body  of  troops. 

Pizarro,  though  astonished  at  beholding  one  enemy 
approaching  by  sea,  and  another  by  land,  at  a  time 
when  he  trusted  to  the  union  of  all  Peru  in  his 
favour,  was  of  a  spirit  more  undaunted,  and  more 
accustomed  to  the  vicissitudes  of  fortune,  than  to  be 
disconcerted  or  appalled.  As  the  danger  from  Cen- 
teno's  operations  was  the  most  urgent,  he  instantly 
set  out  to  oppose  him.  Having  provided  horses  for 
all  his  soldiers,  he  marched  with  amazing  rapidity. 
But  every  morning  he  found  his  force  diminished, 
by  numbers  who  had  left  him  during  the  night ;  and 
though  he  became  suspicious  to  excess,  and  punished 
without  mercy  all  whom  he  suspected,  the  rage  of 
desertion  was  too  violent  to  be  checked.  Before  he 
got  within  sight  of  the  enemy  at  Huarina,  near  the 
lake  Titiaca,  he  could  not  muster  more  than  four 
hundred  soldiers.  But  these  he  justly  considered  as 
men  of  tried  attachment,  on  whom  he  might  depend. 
They  were  indeed  the  boldest  and  most  desperate  of 
his  followers,  conscious,  like  himself,  of  crimes  for 
which  they  could  hardly  expect  forgiveness,  and 
without  any  hope  but  in  the  success  of  their  arms 
(October  20).  With  these  he  did  not  hesitate  to 
attack  Centeno' s  troops  (141),  though  double  to  his 

THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA,  No,  21. 


own  in  number.  The  royalists  did  not  decline  the 
combat.  It  was  the  most  obstinate  and  bloody  that 
had  hitherto  been  fought  in  Peru.  At  length  the 
intrepid  valour  of  Pizarro,  and  the  superiority  of 
Carvajal's  military  talents,  triumphed  over  numbers, 
and  obtained  a  complete  victory.  The  booty  was 
immense,  and  the  treatment  of  the  vanquished  cruel. 
By  this  signal  success  the  reputation  of  Pizarro  was 
re-established,  and  being  now  deemed  invincible  in 
the  field,  his  army  increased  daily  in  number. 

But  events  happened  in  other  parts  of  Peru,  which 
more  than  counterbalanced  the  splendid  victory  at 
Huarina.  Pizarro  had  scarcely  left  Lima,  when  the 
citizens  weary  of  his  oppressive  dominion,  erected  the 
royal  standard,  and  Aldana,  with  a  detachment  of 
soldiers  from  the  fleet,  took  possession  of  the  town. 
About  the  same  time,  Gasca  landed  at  Tumbez  with 
five  hundred  men.  Encouraged  by  his  presence, 
every  settlement  in  the  low  eountry  declared  far  the 
king.  The  situation  of  the  two  parties  was  now 
perfectly  reversed :  Cuzco  and  the  adjacent  province* 
were  possessed  by  Pizarro  :  all  the  rest  of  the  empire, 
from  Quito  southward,  acknowledged  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  president.  As  his  numbers  augmented  fast, 
Gasca  advanced  into  the  interior  part  of  the  country. 
His  behaviour  still  continued  to  be  gentle  and  unas- 
suming;  he  expressed,  on  every  occasion,  his  ardent 
wish  of  terminating  the  contest  without  bloodshed. 
More  solicitous  to  reclaim  than  to  punish,  he  up- 
braided no  man  for  past  offences,  but  received  them 
as  a  father  receives  penitent  children  returning  to  & 
sense  of  their  duty.  Though  desirous  of  peace,  he 
did  not  slacken  his  preparations  for  war.  He  ap- 
pointed the  general  rendezvous  of  his  troops  in  the 
fertile  valley  of  Xauxa,  on  the  road  to  Cuzco.  There 
he  remained  for  some  months,  not  only  that  he  might 
have  time  to  make  another  attempt  towards  an 
accommodation  with  Pizarro,  but  that  he  might  train 
his  new  soldiers  to  the  use  of  arms,  and  accustom 
them  to  the  discipline  of  a  camp,  before  he  led  them 
against  a  body  of  victorious  veterans.  Pizarro, 
intoxicated  with  the  success  which  had  hitherto 
accompanied  his  arms,  and  elated  with  having  again 
near  a  thousand  men  under  his  command,  refused  to 
listen  to  any  terms,  although  Cepeda,  together  with 
several  of  his  officers,  and  even  Carvajal  himself 
(142),  gave  it  as  their  advice  to  close  with  the  presi- 
dent's offer  of  a  general  indemnity,  and  the  revoca- 
tion of  the  obnoxious  laws. 

(Dec.  29.)  Gasca  having  tried  in  vain  every 
expedient,  to  avoid  imbruing  his  hands  in  the  blood 
of  his  coimtrymen,  began  to  move  towards  Cuzco,  at 
the  head  of  sixteen  hundred  men. 

(A.  D.  1548).  Pizarro,  confident  of  victory,  Buf- 
fered the  royalists  to  pass  all  the  rivers  which  lie 
between  Guamanga  and  Cuzco  without  opposition, 
and  to  advance  within  four  leagues  of  that  capital, 
flattering  himself  that  a  defeat  in  such  a  situation  as 
rendered  escape  impracticable  would  at  once  termi- 
nate the  war.  He  then  marched  out  to  meet  the 
enemy,  and  Carvajal  chose  his  ground,  and  made  the 
disposition  of  the  troops  with  the  discerning  eye,  and 
profound  knov/ledge  in  the  art  of  war,  conspicuous 
in  all  his  operations.  As  the  two  armies  moved 
forwards  slowly  to  the  charge  (April  9),  the  appear- 
ance of  each  was  singular.  In  that  of  Pizarro, 
composed  of  men  enriched  with  the  spoils  of  the 
most  opulent  country  in  America,  every  officer,  and 
almost  all  the  private  men,  were  clothed  instuffsof  silk, 
or  brocade,  embroidered  in  gold  and  silver  ;  and  their 
horses,  their  arms,  and  their  standards,  were  adorned 
with  all  the  pride  of  military  pomp.  That  of  Gasca, 


162 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA, 


though  not  »o  splendid,  exhibited  what  was  no  Jess 
striking.  He  himself,  accompanied  by  the  archbishop 
of  Lima,  the  bishops  of  Quito  and  Ciizco,  and  a  great 
number  of  ecclesiastics,  marching  along  the  lines, 
blessing  the  men,  and  encouraging  them  to  a  resolute 
discharge  of  their  duty. 

fc  When  both  armies  were  just  ready  to  engage,  Ce- 
peda  set  spurs  to  his  horse,  galloped  off,  and  surren- 
dered himself  to  the  president.  Garcilasso  de  la 
Vega,  and  other  officers  of  note,  followed  his  example. 
The  revolt  of  persons  in  such  high  rank  struck  all 
with  amazement.  The  mutual  confidence  on  which 
the  union  and  strength  of  armies  depend,  ceased  at 
once.  Distrust  and  consternation  spread  from  rank 
to  rank.  Some  silently  slipped  away,  others  threw 
down  their  arms,  the  greatest  number  went  over  to 
the  royalists.  Pizarro,  Carvajal,  and  some  leaders, 
employed  authority,  threats,  and  entreaties,  to  stop 
them,  but  in  vain.  In  less  than  half  an  hour,  a  body 
of  men,  which  might  have  decided  the  fate  of  the  Pe- 
ruvian empire,  was  totally  dispersed.  Pizarro,  seeing 
all  irretrievably  lost,  cried  out  in  amazement  to  a  few 
officers  who  still  faithfully  adhered  to  him,  "  What 
remains  for  us  to  do  ?" — "  Let  us  rush,"  replied  one 
of  them,  "  upon  the  enemy's  firmest  battalion,  and 
die  like  Romans."  Dejected  with  such  a  reverse  of 
fortune,  he  had  not  spirit  to  follow  this  soldierlike 
council,  and,  with  a  tameness  disgraceful  to  his 
former  fame,  he  surrendered  to  one  of  Gasca's  of- 
ficers. Carvajal,  endeavouring  to  escape,  was  over- 
taken and  seized. 

Gasca,  happy  in  this  bloodless  victory,  did  not 
stain  it  with  cruelty.  Pizarro,  Carvajal,  and  a  small 
number  of  the  most  distinguished  or  notorious  of- 
fenders, were  punished  capitally.  Pizarro  was  be- 
headed on  the  day  after  he  surrendered.  He 
submitted  to  his  fate  with  a  composed  dignity,  and 
seemed  desirous  to  atone  by  repentance  for  the  crimes 
which  he  had  committed.  The  end  of  Carvajal  was 
suitable  to  his  life.  On  his  trial  he  offered  no  defence. 
When  the  sentence,  adjudging  him  to  be  hanged,  was 
pronounced,  he  carelessly  replied,  "  One  can  die  but 
once."  During  the  interval,  between  the  sentence 
and  execution,  he  discovered  no  sign  either  of  remorse 
for  the  past,  or  of  solicitude  about  the  future  ;  scoffing 
at  all  who  visited  him,  in  his  usual  sarcastic  vein  of 
mirth,  with  the  same  quickness  of  repartee  and  gross 
pleasantry  as  at  any  other  period  of  his  life.  Cepeda, 
more  criminal  than  either,  6ught  to  have  shared  the 
same  fate;  but  the  merit  of  having  deserted  his  asso- 
ciates at  such  a  critical  moment,  and  with  such  deci- 
sive effect,  saved  him  from  immediate  punishment. 
He  was  sent,  however,  as  a  prisoner  to  Spain,  and 
died  in  confinement. 

In  the  minute  detail  which  the  contemporary  his- 
torians have  given  of  the  civil  dissensions  that  raged 
in  Peru,  with  little  interruption  during  ten  years, 
many  circumstances  occur  so  striking,  and  which 
indicate  such  an  uncommon  state  of  manners,  as  to 
merit  particular  attention. 

Though  the  Spaniards  who  first  invaded  Peru  were 
of  the  lowest  order  in  society,  and  the  greater  part  of 
those  who  afterwards  joined  them  were  persons  of 
desperate  fortune,  yet  in  all  the  bodies  of  troops 
brought  into  the  field  by  the  different  leaders  who 
contended  for  superiority,  not  one  man  acted  as  a 
hired  soldier,  that  followed  his  standard  for  pay. 
Every  adventurer  in  Peru  considered  himself  as  a 
conqueror,  entitled  by  his  services,  to  an  eslablisli- 
ment  in  that  country  which  had  been  acquired  by  his 
valour.  In  the  contests  between  the  rival  chiefs, 
each  chose  his  side  as  he  was  directed  by  his  own 


judgment  or  affections.  He  joined  his  commander 
as  a  companion  of  his  fortune,  and  disdained  to 
degrade  himself  by  receiving  the  wages  of  a  merce- 
nary. It  was  to  their  sword,  not  to  pre-eminence  in 
office,  or  nobility  of  birth,  that  most  of  the  leaders 
whom  they  followed  were  indebted  for  their  elevation  ; 
and  each  of  their  adherents  hoped,  by  the  same 
means,  to  open  a  way  for  himself  to  the  possession  of 
power  and  wealth. 

But  though  the  troops  in  Peru  served  without  any 
regular  pay,  they  were  raised  at  immense  expense. 
Among  men  accustomed  to  divide  the  spoils  of  an 
opulent  country,  the  desire  of  obtaining  wealth 
acquired  incredible  force.  The  ardour  of  pursuit 
augmented  in  proportion  to  the  hope  of  success. 
Where  all  were  intent  on  the  same  object,  and 
under  the  dominion  of  the  same  passion,  there  was 
but  one  mode  of  gaining  men,  or  of  securing  their 
attachment.  Officers  of  name  and  influence,  besides 
the  promise  of  future  establishments,  received  in  hand 
large  gratuities  from  the  chief  with  whom  they 
engaged.  Gonzalo  Pizarro,  in  order  to  raise  a  thou- 
sand men,  advanced  five  hundred  thousand  pesos. 
Gasca  expended,  in  levying  the  troops  which  he  led 
against  Pizarro,  nine  ^hundred  thousand  pesos.  The 
distribution  of  property,  bestowed  as  the  reward  of 
services,  was  still  more  exorbitant.  Cepeda,  as  the 
recompence  of  his  perfidy  and  address,  in  persuading 
the  court  of  royal  audience  to  give  the  sanction  of  its 
authority  to  the  usurped  jurisdiction  of  Pizarro, 
received  a  grant  of  lands  which  yielded  an  annual 
income  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  pesos. 
Hinojosa,  who,  by  his  early  defection  from  Pizarro, 
and  surrender  of  the  fleet  to  Gasca,  decided  the  fate 
of  Peru,  obtained  a  district  of  country  affording  two 
hundred  thousand  pesos  of  yearly  value.  While 
such  rewards  were  dealt  out  to  the  principal  officers, 
with  more  than  royal  munificence,  proportional  shares 
were  conferred  upon  those  of  inferior  rank. 

Such  a  rapid  change  of  fortune  produced  its 
natural  effects.  It  gave  birth  to  new  wants,  and  new 
desires.  Veterans,  long  accustomed  to  hardship  and 
toil,  acquired  of  a  sudden  a  taste  for  profuse  and 
inconsiderate  dissipation,  and  indulged  in  all  the 
excesses  of  military  licentiousness.  The  riot  of  low 
debauchery  occupied  some ;  a  relish  for  expensive 
luxuries  spread  among  others.  The  meanest  soldier  in 
Peru  would  have  thought  himself  degraded  by  march- 
ing on  foot ;  and  at  a  time  when  the  prices  of  horses 
in  that  country  were  exorbitant,  each  insisted  on 
being  furnished  with  one  before  he  would  take  the 
field.  But  though  less  patient  under  the  fatigue  and 
hardships  of  service,  they  were  ready  to  face  danger 
and  death  with  as  much  intrepidity  as  ever ;  and  ani- 
mated by  the  hope  of  new  rewards,  they  never  failed, 
on  the  day  of  battle,  to  display  all  their  ancient 
valour. 

Together  with  their  courage,  they  retained  all  the 
ferocity  by  which  they  were  originally  distinguished. 
Civil  discord  never  raged  with  a  more  fell  spirit  than 
among  the  Spaniards  in  Peru.  To  all  the  passions 
which  visually  envenom  contests  amontf  countrymen, 
avarice  was  added,  and  lendered  their  enmity  more 
rancorous.  Eagerness  to  seize  the  valuable  forfeitures 
expected  upon  the  death  of  every  opponent,  shut  the 
door  against,  mercy.  To  be  wealthy,  was  of  itself  suf- 
ficient to  expose  a  man  to  accusation,  or  to  subject 
him  to  punishment.  On  the  slightest  suspicions, 
Pizarro  condemned  many  of  the  most  opulent  inha- 
bitants in  Peru  to  death.  Carvajal,  without  searching 
for  any  pretext  to  justify  his  cruelty,  cut  off  many 
more.  The  number  of  those  who  suffered  by  the 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


163 


hands  of  the  executioner,  was  not  much  inferior  to 
what  fell  in  the  field  (143)  ;  and  the  greater  part  were 
condemned  without  the  formality  of  any  legal  trial. 

The  violence  with  which  the  contending  par- 
ties treated  their  opponents  was  not  accompanied 
with  its  usual  attendants,  attachment  and  fidelity  to 
those  with  whom  they  acted.  The  ties  of  honour, 
which  ought  to  be  held  sacred  among  soldiers,  and 
the  principle  of  integrity,  interwoven  as  thoroughly 
in  the  Spanish  character  as  in  that  of  any  nation, 
seem  to  have  been  equally  forgotten.  Even  regard 
for  decency,  and  the  sense  of  shame,  were  totally 
lost.  During  their  dissensions,  there  was  hardly  a 
Spaniard  in  Peru  who  did  not  abandon  the  party 
which  he  had  originally  espoused,  betray  the  asso- 
ciates with  whom  he  had  united,  and  violate  the 
engagements  under  which  he  had  come.  The  viceroy 
Nugnez  Vela  was  ruined  by  the  treachery  of  Cepeda 
and  the  other  judges  of  the  royal  audience,  who  were 
bound  by  the  duties  of  their  function  to  have  sup- 
ported his  authority.  The  chief  advisers  and  com- 
panions of  Gonzalo  Pizarro's  revolt  were  the  first 
to  forsake  him,  and  submit  to  his  enemies.  His 
fleet  was  given  up  to  Gasca,  hy  the  man  whom  he 
had  singled  out  among  his  officers  to  intrust  with 
that  important  command.  On  the  day  that  was  to 
decide  his  fate,  an  army  of  veterans,  in  sight  of  the 
enemy,  threw  down  their  arms  without  striking  a 
blow,  and  deserted  a  leader  who  had  often  conducted 
them  to  victory.  Instances  of  such  general  and 
avowed  contempt  of  the  principles  and  obligations 
which  attach  man  to  man,  and  bind  them  together 
in  social  union,  rarely  occur  in  history.  It  is  only 
where  men  are  far  removed  from  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment, where  the  restraints  of  law  and  order  are  little 
felt,  where  the  prospect  of  gain  is  unbounded,  and 
where  immense  wealth  may  cover  the  crimes  by 
which  it  is  acquired,  that  we  can  find  any  parallel  to 
the  levity,  the  rapaciousness,  the  perfidy,  and 
corruption  prevalent  among  the  Spaniards  in  Peru. 

On  the  death  of  Pizarro,  the  malcontents  in  every 
corner  of  Peru  laid  down  their  arms,  and  tranquillity 
seemed  to  be  perfectly  re-established.  But  two 
very  interesting  objects  still  remained  to  occupy  the 
president's  attention.  The  one  was  to  find  imme- 
diately such  employment  for  a  multitude  of  turbulent 
and  daring  adventurers  with  which  the  country  was 
filled,  as  might  prevent  them  from  exciting  new  com- 
motions. The  other,  to  bestow  proper  gratifications 
upon  those  to  whose  loyalty  and  valour  he  had  been 
indebted  for  his  success.  The  former  of  these  was 
in  some  measure  accomplished,  by  appointing  Pedro 
de  Valdivia  to  prosecute  the  conquest  of  Chili ;  and 
by  empowering  Diego  Centeno  to  undertake  the 
discovery  of  the  vast  regions  bordering  on  the  river 
De  la  Plata.  The  reputation  of  those  leaders, 
together  with  the  hopes  of  acquiring  wealth,  and  of 
rising  to  consequence  in  some  unexplored  country, 
alluring  many  of  the  most  indigent  and  desperate 
•oldiers  to  follow  their  standards,  drained  off  no 
inconsiderable  portion  of  that  mutinous  spirit  which 
Gasca  dreaded. 

The  latter  was  an  affair  of  greater  difficulty,  and  to 
be  adjusted  with  a  more  attentive  and  delicate  hand. 
The  repartimientottor  allotments  of  lands  and  Indians, 
which  fell  to  be  distributed  in  consequence  of  the 
death  or  forfeiture  of  the  former  possessors,  exceeded 
two  millions  of  pesos  of  yearly  rent.  Gasca,  when 
now  absolute  master  of  this  immense  property, 
retained  the  same  disinterested  sentiments  which  he 
had  originally  professed,  and  refused  to  reserve  the 
smallest  portion  of  it  for  himself.  But  the  number 


of  claimants  was  great ;  and  whilst  the  vanity  or 
avarice  of  every  individual  fixed  the  value  of  his 
own  services,  and  estimated  the  recompence  which 
he  thought  due  to  him,  the  pretensions  of  each  were 
so  extravagant,  that  it  was  impossible  to  satisfy  all. 
Gasca  listened  to  them  one  by  one,  with  the  most 
patient  attention ;  and  that  he  might  have  leisure 
to  weigh  the  comparative  merit  of  their  several 
claims  with  accuracy,  he  retired  with  the  archbishop 
of  Lima,  and  a  single  secretary,  to  a  village  twelve 
leagues  from  Cuzco.  There  he  spent  several  days  in 
allotting  to  each  a  district  of  lands  and  number  of 
Indians,  in  proportion  to  his  idea  of  their  past 
services  and  future  importance.  But  that  he  might 
get  beyond  the  reach  of  the  fierce  storm  of  clamour 
and  rage  which  he  foresaw  would  burst  out  on  the 
publication  of  his  decree,  notwithstanding  the  im- 
partial equity  with  which  he  had  framed  it,  he  set 
out  for  Lima,  leaving  the  instrument  of  partition 
sealed  up,  with  orders  not  to  open  it  for  some  days 
after  his  departure. 

[Aug.  24.]  The  indignation  excited  by  publishing 
the  decree  of  partition  was  not  less  than  Gasca  had 
expected.  Vanity,  avarice,  emulation,  envy,  shame, 
rage,  and  all  the  other  passions  which  most  vehe- 
mently agitate  the  minds  of  men  when  both  their 
honour  and  their  interest  are  deeply  affected,  con- 
spired in  adding  to  its  violence.  It  broke  out  with 
all  the  fury  of  military  insolence.  Calumny,  threats, 
and  curses,  were  poured  out  openly  upon  the 
president.  He  was  accused  of  ingratitude,  of 
partiality,  and  of  injustice.  Among  soldiers  prompt 
to  action,  such  seditious  discourse  would  have  been 
soon  followed  by  deeds  no  less  violent,  and  they 
already  began  to  turn  their  eyes  towards  some  dis- 
contented leaders,  expecting  them  to  stand  forth  in 
redress  of  their  wrongs.  By  some  vigorous  inter- 
positions of  government,  a  timely  check  was  given 
to  this  mutinous  spirit,  and  the  danger  of  another 
civil  war  averted  for  the  present. 

[A.  D.  1549.]  Gasca,  however,  perceiving  that  the 
flame  was  suppressed  rather  than  extinguished, 
laboured  with  the  utmost  assiduity  to  soothe  the 
malcontents,  by  bestowing  large  gratuities  on  some, 
by  promising  repartimientot,  when  they  fell  vacant, 
to  others,  and  by  caressing  and  flattering  all.  But 
that  the  public  security  might  rest  on  a  foundation 
more  stable  than  their  good  affection,  he  endeavoured 
to  strengthen  the  hands  of  his  successors  in  office, 
by  re-establishing  the  regular  administration  of 
justice  in  every  part  of  the  empire.  He  introduced 
order  and  simplicity  into  the  mode  of  collecting  the 
royal  revenue.  He  issued  regulations  concerning 
the  treatment  of  the  Indians,  well  calculated  to 
protect  them  from  oppression,  and  to  provide  for 
their  instruction  in  the  principles  of  religion,  without 
depriving  the  Spaniards  of  the  benefit  accruing  from 
their  labour.  [A.  D.  1550.]  Having  now  accom- 
plished every  object  of  his  mission,  Gasca,  longing 
to  return  again  to  a  private  station,  committed  the 
government  of  Peru  to  the  court  of  audience,  ar,d  set 
out  for  Spain.  [Feb.  1 .]  As,  during  the  anarchy  and 
turbulence  of  the  four  last  years,  there  had  been  no 
remittance  made  of  the  royal  revenue,  he  carried  with 
him  thirteen  hundred  thousand  pesos  of  public 
money,  which  the  economy  and  order  of  his  adminis- 
tration enabled  him  to  save,  after  paying  all  the 
expenses  of  the  war. 

He  was  received  in  his  native  country  with  uni- 
versal admiration  of  his  abilities  and  of  his  virtue. 
Both  were,  indeed,  highly  conspicuous.  Without 
army,  or  fleet,  or  public  funds  j  with  a  train  so 


164 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


•  imple,  that  only  three  thousand  ducats  were  ex- 
pended in  equipping  him,  he  set  out  to  oppose  a  for- 
midable rebellion.  By  his  address  and  talents  he 
supplied  all  those  defects,  and  seemed  to  create  in- 
struments for  executing  his  designs.  He  acquired 
such  a  naval  force,  as  gave  him  the  command  of  the 
se».  He  raised  a  body  of  men  able  to  cope  with  the 
veteran  bands  which  gave  law  to  Peru.  He  van- 
quished their  leader,  on  whose  arms  victory  had 
hitherto  attended  ;  and  in  place  of  anarchy  and  usur- 
pation, he  established  the  government  of  laws,  and 
the  authority  of  the  rightful  sovereign.  But  the 
praise  bestowed  on  his  abilities  was  exceeded  by  that 
which  his  virtue  merited.  After  residing  in  a  coun- 
try where  wealth  presented  allurements  which  had 
seduced  every  person  who  had  hitherto  possessed 
power  there,  he  returned  from  that  trying  station  with 
integrity  not  only  untainted,  but  unsuspected. 
After  distributing  among  his  countrymen  possessions 
of  greater  extent  and  value  than  had  ever  been  in  the 
disposal  of  a  subject  in  any  age  or  nation,  he  himself 
remained  in  his  original  state  of  poverty  ;  and  at  the 
very  time  when  he  brought  such  a  large  recruit  to  the 
royal  treasury,  he  was  obliged  to  apply  by  petition 
for  a  small  sum  to  discharge  some  petty  debts  \vhich 
he  had  con-tracted  during  the  course  of  his  service. 
Charles  was  not  insensible  to  such  disinterested 
merit.  Gasca  was  received  by  him  with  the  most 
distinguishing  marks  of  esteem,  and  being  promoted 
to  the  bishopric  of  Palencia,  he  passed  the  remainder 
of  his  days  in  the  tranquillity  of  retirement,  respected 
by  his  country,  honoured  by  his  sovereign,  and  be- 
loved by  all. 

Notwithstanding  all  Gasca's  wise  regulations,  the 
tranquillity  of  Peru  was  not  of  long  continuance.  In 
a  country  where  the  authority  of  government  had 
been  almost  forgotten  during  the  long  prevalence  of 
anarchy  and  misrule,  where  there  were  disappointed 
leaders  ripe  for  revolt,  and  seditious  soldiers  ready  to 
follow  them,  it  was  not  difficult  to  raise  combustion. 
Several  sucessive  insurrections  desolated  the  country 
for  some  years.  But  as  those,  though  fierce,  were 
only  transient  storms,  excited  rather  by  the  ambition 
and  turbulence  of  particular  men,  than  by  general  or 
public  motives,  the  detail  of  them  is  not  the  object  of 
this  history.  These  commotions  in  Peru,  like  every 
thing  of  extreme  violence,  either  in  the  natural  or 
political  body,  were  not  of  long  duration,  and  by  car- 
rying off  the  corrupted  humours  which  had  given  rise 
to  the  disorders,  they  contributed  in  the  end  to 
strengthen  the  society  which  at  first  they  threatened 
to  destroy.  During  their  fierce  contests,  several  of 
the  first  invaders  of  Peru,  and  many  of  those  licenti- 
ous adventurers  whom  the  fame  of  their  success  had 
allured  thither,  fell  by  each  other's  hands.  Each  of 
the  parties,  as  they  alternately  prevailed  in  the  strug- 
gle, gradually  cleared  the  country  of  a  number  of 
turbulent  spirits,  by  executing,  proscribing,  or  ban- 
ishing their  opponents.  Men  less  enterprising,  less 
desperate,  and  more  accustomed  to  move  in  the  path 
of  sober  and  peaceable  industry,  settled  in  Peru  ;  and 
the  royal  authority  was  gradually  established  as 
firmly  there  as  in  other  Spanish  colonies. 


BOOK  VII. 

As  the  conquest  of  the  two  great  empires  of 
Mexico  and  Peru  forms  the  most  splendid  and  in- 
teresting period  in  the  history  of  America,  a  view  of 
their  political  institutions,  and  a  description  of  their 
national  manners,  will  exhibit  the  human  specie*  to 


the   contemplation   of   intelligent  observers  in  a  very 
singular  stage  of  its  progress  (144). 

When  compared  with  other  parts  of  the  New 
World,  Mexico  and  Peru  may  be  considered  as 
polished  state?.  Instead  of  small,  independent,  hos- 
tile tribes,  struggling  for  subsistence  amidst  woods 
and  marshes,  strangers  to  industry  and  arts,  unac- 
quainted with  subordination,  and  almost  without  the 
appearance  of  regular  government,  we  find  countries 
of  great  extent  subjected  to  the  dominion  of  one 
sovereign  ;  the  inhabitants  collected  together  in 
cities  ;  the  wisdom  and  foresight  of  rulers  employed 
in  providing  for  the  maintenance  and  security  of  the 
people;  the  empire  of  laws  in  some  measure  esta- 
blished ;  the  authority  of  religion  recognized;  many 
of  the  arts  essential  to  life  brought  to  some  degree  of 
maturity,  and  the  dawn  of  such  as  are  ornamental 
beginning  to  appear. 

But  if  the  comparison  be  made  with  the  people  of 
the  ancient  continent,  the  inferiority  of  America  in 
improvement  will  be  conspicuous,  and  neither  the 
Mexicans  nor  Peruvians  will  be  entitled  to  rank  with 
those  nations  which  merit  the  name  of  civilized.  The 
people  of  both  the  grent  empires  in  America,  like  the 
rude  tribes  around  'them,  were  totally  unacquainted 
with  the  useful  metals,  and  the  progress  which  they 
had  made  in  extending  their -dominion  over  the  ani- 
mal creation  was  inconsiderable.  The  Mexicans  had 
gone  no  further  than  to  tame  and  rear  turkeys, 
ducks,  a  species  of  small  dogs,  and  rabbits.  By  this 
feeble  essay  of  ingenuity,  the  means  of  subsistence 
were  rendered  somewhat  more  plentiful  and  secure, 
than  when  men  depend  solely  on  hunting ;  but  they 
had  no  idea  of  attempting  to  subdue  the  more  robust 
animals,  or  of  deriving  any  aid  from  their  ministry 
in  carrying  on  works  of  labour.  The  Peruvians  seem 
to  have  neglected  the  inferior  animals,  and  not  ren- 
dered any  of  them  domestic  except  the  duck;  but 
they  were  more  fortunate  in  taming  the  Llama,  an 
animal  peculiar  to  their  country,  of  a  form  which 
bears  some  resemblance  to  a  deer,  and  some  to  a 
camel,  and  is  of  a  size  somewhat  larger  than  a  shoep. 
Under  the  protection  of  man,  this  species  multiplied 
greatly.  Its  wool  furnished  the  Peruvians  with  clo- 
thing, its  flesh  with  food.  It  was  even  employed  as 
a  beast  of  burden,  and  carried  a  moderate  load  with 
much  patience  and  docility.  It  was  never  vised  for 
draught  ;  and  the  breed  being  confined  to  the  moun- 
tainous country,  its  service,  if  we  may  judge  by 
incidents  which  occur  in  the  early  Spanish  writers, 
was  not  very  extensive  among  the  Peruvians  in  their 
original  state. 

In  tracing  the  line  by  which  nations  proceed  to- 
wards civilization,  the  discovery  of  the  useful  metals, 
and  the  acquisition  of  dominion  over  the  animal  crea- 
tion, have  been  marked  as  steps  of  capital  import- 
ance in  their  progress.  In  our  continent,  long  after 
men  had  obtained  both,  society  continued  in  that 
state  which  is  denominated  barbarous.  Even  with 
all  that  command  over  nature  which  these  confer, 
many  ages  elapse,  before  industry  becomes  so  regular 
as  to  render  subsistence  secure,  before  the  arts  which 
supply  the  wants  and  furnish  the  accommodations  of 
life  are  brought  to  any  considerable  degree  of 
perfection,  and  before  any  idea  is  conceived  of  the 
va  ious  institutions  requisite  in  a  well-ordered 
society.  The  Mexicans  and  Peruvians,  without  know- 
ledge of  the  useful  metals,  or  the  aid  of  domes- 
tic animals,  laboured  under  disadvantages  which 
must  have  greatly  retarded  their  progress,  and  in 
their  highest  state  of  improvement  their  power  was 
,so  limited,  ami  their  operations  so  feeble,  that  they 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


165 


can  hardly  be  considered  as  having  advanced  beyond 
the  infancy  of  civil  life. 

After  this  general  observation  concerning  the  most 
singular  and  distinguishing  circumstance  in  the  state 
of  both  the  great  empires  in  America,  I  shall  endea- 
vour to  give  such  a  view  of  the  constitution  and  in- 
terior police  of  each,  as  may  enable  us  to  ascertain 
their  place  in  the  political  scale,  to  allot  them  their 
proper  station  between  the  rude  tribes  in  the  New 
World,  and  the  polished  states  of  the  ancient,  and  to 
determine  how  far  they  had  risen  above  the  former, 
as  well  as  how  much  they  fell  below  the  latter. 

Mexico  was  first  subjected  to  the  Spanish  crown. 
Bat  our  acquaintance  with  its  laws  and  manners  is 
not,  from  that  circumstance,  mor3  complete.  What 
I  have  remarked  concerning  the  defective  and  inac- 
curate information  on  which  we  must  rely  with 
respect  to  the  condition  and  customs  of  the  savage 
tribes  in  America,  may  be  applied  likewise  to  our 
knowledge  of  the  Mexican  empire.  Cortes,  and  the 
rapacious  adventurers  who  accompanied  him,  had  not 
leisure  or  capacity  to  enrich  either  civil  or  natural 
history  with  new  observations.  They  undertook  their 
expedition  in  quest  of  one  object,  and  seemed  hardly  to 
have  turned  their  eyes  towards  any  other.  Or  if,  during 
some  short  interval  of  tranqiiillity,  when  the  occupa- 
tions of  war  ceased,  and  the  ardour  of  plunder  w;ts 
suspended,  the  institutions  and  manners  of  the  peo- 
ple whom  they  had  invaded,  drew  their  attention, 
the  inquiries  of  illiterate  soldiers  were  conducted  with 
so  little  sagacity  and  precision,  that  the  accounts 
given  by  them  of  the  policy  and  order  established  in 
the  Mexican  monarchy  are  superficial,  confused,  and 
inexplicable.  It  is  rather  from  incidents  which  they 
relate  occasionally,  than  from  their  own  deductions 
and  remarks,  that  we  are  enabled  to  form  some  idea 
of  the  genius  and  manners  of  that  people.  The  ob- 
scurity in  which  the  ignorance  of  its  conquerors  in- 
volved the  annals  of  Mexico,  was  augmented  by  the 
superstition  of  those  who  succeeded  them.  As  the 
memory  of  past  events  was  preserved  among  the 
Mexicans  by  figures  painted  on  skins,  on  cotton 
cloth,  on  a  kind  of  pasteboard,  or  on  the  bark  of 
trees,  the  early  missionaries,  unable  to  comprehend 
their  meaning,  and  struck  with  their  uncouth  forms, 
conceived  them  to  be  monuments  of  idolatry  which 
ought  to  be  destroyed,  in  order  to  facilitate  the  con- 
version of  the  Indians.  In  obedience  to  an  edict 
issued  by  Juan  de  Zuramaraga,  a  Franciscan  monk, 
the  first  bishop  of  Mexico,  as  many  records  of  the 
ancient  Mexican  story  as  could  be  collected  were  com- 
mitted to  the  flames.  In  consequence  of  this  fanatical 
zeal  of  the  monks  who  first  visited  New  Spain,  (which 
their  successors  soon  began  to  lament,)  whatever 
knowledge  of  remote  events  such  rude  monuments 
contained  was  almost  entirely  lost;  and  no  info; ma- 
tion  remained  concerning  the  ancient  revolutions  and 
policy  of  the  empire,  but  what  was  derived  from  tradi- 
tion, or  from  some  fragments  of  their  historical  paint- 
ings that  escaped  the  barbarous  researches  of  Zum- 
nlaraga.  From  the  experience  of  all  nations  it  is 
manifest,  that  the  memory  of  past  transactions  can 
neither  be  long  preserved,  nor  be  transmitted  with 
any  fidelity,  by  tradition.  The  Mexican  paintings, 
which  are  supposed  to  have  served  as  annals  of  their 
empire,  are  few  in  number,  and  of  ambiguous  mean- 
ing. Thus,  amidst  the  uncertainty  of  the  former,  and 
the  obscurity  of  the  latter,  we  must  glean  what  intel- 
ligence can  be  collected  from  the  scanty  materials 
scattered  in  the  Spanish  writers. 

According  to  the  account  of  the  Mexicans  them- 
selves, their  empire  was  not  of  long  duration.  Their 


country,  as  they  relate,  was  originally  possessed,  ra- 
ther than  peopled,  by  small  independent  tribes,  whose 
mode  of  life  and  manners  resembled  those  of  the 
rudest  savages  which  we  have  described.  But  about 
a  period  corresponding  to  the  beginning  of  the  tenth 
century,  in  the  Christian  sera,  several  tribes  moved  in 
successive  migrations  from  unknown  regions  towards 
the  north  and  north  west,  and  settled  in  different 
provinces  of  Analiuac^  the  ancient  name  of  New 
Spain.  These,  more  civilized  than  the  original  inha- 
bitants, began  to  form  them  to  the  arts  of  social  life. 
At  length,  towards  the  commencement  of  the  thir- 
teenth century,  the  Mexicans,  a  people  more  polished 
than  any  of  the  former,  advanced  from  the  border  of 
the  California.!)  gulf,  and  took  possession  of  the  plains 
adjacent  to  the  great  lake  near  the  centre  of  the 
country.  After  residing  there  about  fifty  years,  they 
founded  a  town,  since  distinguished  by  the  name  of 
Mexico,  which,  from  humble  beginnings,  soon  grew 
to  be  the  most  considerable  city  in  the  New  World. 
The  Mexicans,  long  after  they  were  established  in 
their  new  possessions,  continued,  like  other  martial 
tribes  in  America,  unacquainted  with  regal  dominion, 
and  were  governed  in  peace,  and  conducted  in  war, 
by  such  as  were  entitled  to  pre-eminence  by  their 
wisdom  or  their  valour.  But  among  them,  as  in  other 
states  whose  power  and  territories  become  extensive, 
the  supreme  authority  centered  at  last  in  a  single 
person  ;  and  when  the  Spaniards  under  Cortes  invaded 
the  country,  Montezuma  was  the  ninth  monarch  in 
order  who  had  swayed  the  Mexican  sceptre,  not  by 
hereditary  right,  but  by  election. 

Such  is  the  traditional  tale  of  the  Mexicans  con- 
cerning the  progress  of  their  own  empire.  Accoiding 
to  this,  its  duration  was  very  short.  From  the  first 
migration  of  their  parent  tribe,  they  can  reckon  little 
move  than  three  hundred  years.  From  the  establish- 
ment of  monarchical  government,  not  above  a  hundred 
and  thirty  years  according  to  one  account,  or  a  hun- 
dred ami  ninety-seven,  according  to  another  compu- 
tation, had  elapsed.  If,  on  one  hand,  we  suppose 
the  Mexican  state  to  have  been  of  higher  antiquity, 
and  to  have  subsisted  during  such  a  length  of  time 
as  the  Spanish  accounts  of  its  civilization  would  na- 
turally lead  us  to  conclude,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive 
how,  among  a  people  who  possessed  the  art  of  re- 
cording events  by  pictures,  and  who  considered  it  as 
an  essential  part  of  their  national  education  to  teach 
their  children  to  repeat  their  historical  songs  which  cele- 
brated the  exploits  of  their  ancestors,  the  knowledge 
of  past  transactions  should  be  so  slender  and  limited. 
If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  adopt  their  own  system 
with  respect  to  the  antiquities  of  their  nation,  it  is 
no  less  difficult  to  account  either  for  that  improved 
state  of  society,  or  for  the  extensive  dominion  to 
which  their  empire  had  attained,  when  first  visited  by 
the  Spaniards.  The  infancy  of  nations  is  so  long, 
and,  even  when  every  circumstance  is  favourable  to 
their  progress,  they  advance  so  slowly  towards  any 
maturity  of  strength  or  policy,  that  the  recent  origin 
of  the  Mexicans  seems  to  be  a  strong  presumption  of 
some  exaggeration  in  the  splendid  descriptions  which 
have  been  given  of  their  government  and  manners. 

But  it  is  not  by  theory  or  conjectures  that  history 
decides  with  regard  to  the  state  or  character  of  na- 
tions. It  produces  facts  as  the  foundation  of  every 
judgment  which  it  ventures  to  pronounce.  In  col- 
lecting those  which  must  regulate  our  opinion  in  the 
present  inquiry,  some  occur  that  suggest  an  idea  of 
considerable  progress  in  civilization  in  the  Mexican 
empire,  and  others  which  seem  to  indicate  that  it 
had  advanced  but  little  beyond  the  savage  tribes 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


around  it.  Both  shall  be  exhibited  to  the  view  of  the 
reader,  that,  from  comparing  them,  he  may  determine 
on  which  side  the  evidence  preponderates. 

In  the  Mexican  empire,  the  right  of  private  pro- 
perty was  perfectly  understood,  and  established  in 
its  full  extent.  Among  several  savage  tribes,  w^  have 
seen,  that  the  idea  of  a  title  to  the  separate  and  ex- 
clusive possession  of  any  object  was  hardly  known ; 
and  that  among  all  it  was  extremely  limited  and  ill 
defined.  But  in  Mexico,  where  agriculture  and  in- 
dustry had  made  some  progress,  the  distinction  be- 
tween property  in  land  and  property  in  goods  had 
taken  place.  Both  might  be  transferred  from  one 
person  to  another  by  sale  or  barter;  both  might  de- 
scend by  inheritance.  Every  person  who  could  be 
denominated  a  freeman  had  property  in  land.  This, 
however,  they  held  by  various  tenures.  Some  pos- 
sessed it  in  full  right,  and  it  descended  to  their  heirs. 
The  title  of  others  to  their  lands  was  derived  from 
the  office  or  dignity  which  they  enjoyed ;  and  when 
deprived  of  the  latter,  they  lost  possession  of  the 
former.  Both  these  modes  of  occupying  land  were 
deemed  noble,  and  peculiar  to  citizens  of  the  highest 
class.  The  tenure  by  which  the  great  body  of  the 
people  held  their  property,  was  very  different.  In 
every  district  a  certain  quantity  of  land  was  mea- 
sured out  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  families. 
This  was  cultivated  by  the  joint  labour  of  the  whole; 
its  produce  was  deposited  in  a  common  storehouse, 
and  divided  among  them  according  to  their  respec- 
tive exigencies.  The  members  of  the  Calpullee,  or 
associations,  could  not  alienate  their  share  of  the 
common  estate;  it  was  an  indivisible  permanent  pro- 
perty, destined  for  the  support  of  their  families.  In 
consequence  of  this  distribution  of  the  territory  of 
the  state,  every  man  had  an  interest  in  its  welfare, 
and  the  happiness  of  the  individual  was  connected 
with  the  public  security.  Another  striking  circum- 
stance, which  distinguishes  the  Mexican  empire  from 
those  nations  in  America  we  have  already  described, 
is  the  number  and  greatness  of  its  cities.  While  so- 
ciety continues  in  a  rude  state,  the  wants  of  men  are 
so  few,  and  they  stand  so  little  in  need  of  mutual 
assistance,  that  their  inducements  to  crowd  together 
are  extremely  feeble.  Their  industry  at  the 'same 
time  is  so  imperfect,  that  it  cannot  secure  subsistence 
for  any  considerable  number  of  families  settled  in 
one  spot.  They  live  dispersed,  at  this  period,  from 
choice  as  well  as  from  necessity,  or,  at  the  utmost, 
assemble  in  small  hamlets  on  the  banks  of  the  river 
which  supplies  them  with  food,  or  on  the  border  of 
some  plain  left  open  by  nature,  or  cleared  by  their 
own  labour.  The  Spaniards,  accustomed  to  this 
mode  of  habitation  among  all  the  savage  tribes  with 
which  they  ivere  hitherto  acquainted,  were  astonished, 
on  entering  New  Spain,  to  find  the  natives  residing 
in  towns  of  such  extent  as  resembled  those  of  Europe. 
In  the  first  fervour  of  their  admiration,  they  compared 
Zempoalla,  though  a  town  only  of  the  second  or  third 
size,  to  the  cities  of  the  greatest  note  in  their  own 
country.  When,  afterwards,  they  visited  in  succes- 
sion Tlascala,  Cholula,  Tacuba,  Tezeuco,  and  Mexico 
itself,  their  amazement  increased  so  much,  that  it  led 
them  to  convey  ideas  of  their  magnitude  and  popu- 
lousness  bordering  on  what  is  incredible.  Even  when 
there  is  leisure  for  observation,  and  no  interest  that 
leads  to  deceive,  conjectural  estimates  of  the  number 
of  people  in  cities  are  extremely  loose,  and  usually 
much  exaggerated.  It  is  not  surprising,  then,  that 
Cortes  and  his  companions,  little  accustomed  to  such 
computations,  and  powerfully  tempted  to  magnify,  in 
order  to  exalt  the  merit  of  their  own  discoveries  and 


conquests,  should  have  been  batrayed  into  this  com- 
mon error,  and  have  raised  their  descriptions  con- 
siderably above  truth.  For  this  reason,  some  con- 
siderable abatement  ought  to  be  made  from  their 
calculations  of  the  number  of  inhabitants  in  the 
Mexican  cities,  and  we  may  fix  the  standard  of  their 
population  much  lower  than  they  have  done ;  but 
still  they  will  appear  to  be  cities  of  such  consequence, 
as  are  not  to  be  found  but  among  people  who  have 
made  sonv?  considerable  progress  in  the  arts  of  social 
life  (145).  From  their  accounts,  we  can  hardly  sup- 
pose Mexico,  the  capital  of  the  empire,  to  have  con- 
tained fewer  than  sixty  thousand  inhabitants. 

The  separation  of  professions  among  the  Mexicans 
is  a  symptom  of  improvement  no  less  remarkable. 
Arts,  in  the  early  ages  of  society,  are  so  few  and  so 
simple,  that  each  man  is  sufficiently  master  of  them 
all,  to  pratify  every  demand  of  his  own  limited  de- 
sires. The  savage  can  form  his  bow,  point  his  ar- 
rows, rear  his  hut,  and  hollow  his  canoe,  without 
calling  in  the  aid  of  any  hand  more  skilful  than  his 
own.  Time  must  have  augmented  the  wants  of  men, 

|  and  ripened  their  ingenuity,  before  the  productions 
of  art  became  so  c  implicated  in  their  structure,  or 
so  curious  in  their  fabric,  that  a  particular  course  of 
education  was  requisite  towards  forming  the  artificer 
to  expertness  in  contrivance  and  workmanship.  In 
proportion  as  refinement  spreads,  the  distinction  of 
professions  increases,  and  they  branch  out  into  more 
numerous  and  minute  subdivisions.  Among  the  Mex- 
icans this  separation  of  the  arts  necessary  in  life  had 
taken  place  to  a  considerable  extent.  The  functions 
of  the  mason,  the  weaver,  the  goldsmith,  the  painter, 
and  of  several  other  crafts  were  carried  on  by  dif- 
ferent persons.  Each  was  regularly  instructed  in  hi* 
calling.  To  it  alone  his  industry  was  confined;  and 
by  assiduous  application  to  one  object,  together  with 
the  persevering  patience  peculiar  to  Americans,  their 
artisans  attained  to  a  degree  of  neatness  and  perfec- 
tion in  work,  far  beyond  what  could  have  been  ex- 
pected from  the  rude  tools  which  they  employed. 
Their  various  productions  were  brought  into  commerce, 
and  by  the  exchange  of  them  in  the  stated  markets 
held  in  the  cities,  not  only  were  their  mutual 
wants  supplied,  in  such  orderly  intercourse  as 
characterizes  an  improved  state  of  society,  but 
their  industry  was  daily  rendered  persevering  and 
inventive. 

The  distinction  of  ranks  established  in  the  Mexican 

I  empire  is  the  next  circumstance  that  merits  attention. 
In  surveying  the  savage  tribes  of  America,  weobserved, 
that  consciousness  of  equality,  and  impatience  of 
subordination,  are  sentiments  natural  to  man  in  tha 
infancy  of  civil  life.  During  peace,  the  authority  of 
a  superior  is  hardly  felt  among  them,  and  even  in 
war  it  is  but  little  acknowledged.  Strangers  to  the 
idea  of  property,  the  difference  in  condition  resulting 
from  the  inequality  of  it  is  unknown.  Birth  or  titles 
confer  no  pre-eminence ;  it  is  only  by  personal  merit 
and  accomplishments  that  distinction  can  be  acquired. 
The  form  of  society  was  very  different  among  the 
Mexicans.  The  great  body  of  the  people  was  in  a 
most  humiliating  state.  A  considerable  number, 
known  by  the  name  of  Mayequet,  nearly  resembled 
in  condition  those  peasants  who,  under  various  deno- 
minations, were  considered,  during  the  prevalence  of 
the  feudal  system,  as  instruments  of  labour  attached 
to  the  soil.  The  Mayeques  could  not  change  their 
place  of  residence  without  permission  of  the  superior 
on  whom  they  depended.  They  were  conveyed, 
together  with  the  lands  on  which  they  were  settled, 
from  one  proprietor  to  another ;  and  were  bound  to 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


167 


cultivate  the  ground,  and  to  perform  several  kinds  of 
servile  work.  Others  were  reduced  to  the  lowest 
form  of  subjection,  that  of  domestic  servitude,  and 
felt  the  utmost  rigour  of  that  wretched  state.  Their 
condition  was  held  to  be  so  vile,  and  their  lives 
deemed  to  be  of  so  little  value,  that  a  person  who 
killed  one  of  these  slaves  was  not  subjected  to  any 
punishment.  Even  those  considered  as  freemen  were 
treated  by  their  haughty  lords  as  beings  of  an  inferior 
species.  The  nobles,  possessed  of  ample  territories 
were  divided  into  various  classes,  to  each  of  which 
peculiar  titles  belonged.  Some  of  these  titles,  like 
their  lands,  descended  from  father  to  son  in  per- 
petual succession.  Others  were  annexed  to  particular 
offices,  or  conferred  during  life  as  marks  of  personal 
distinction.  The  monarch,  exalted  above  ail,  en- 
joyed extensire  power,  and  supreme  dignity.  Thus, 
the  distinction  of  ranks  was  completely  established, 
in  a  line  of  regular  subordination,  reaching  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest  member  of  the  community. 
Each  of  these  knew  what  he  could  claim,  and  what 
he  owed.  The  people,  who  were  not  allowed  to  wear 
a  dress  of  the  same  fashion,  or  to  dwell  in  houses  of 
a  form  similar  to  those  of  the  nobles,  accosted  them 
with  the  most  submissive  reverence.  In  the  presence 
of  their  sovereign,  they  durst  not  lift  their  eyes 
from  the  ground,  or  look  him  in  the  face.  The 
nobles  themselves,  when  admitted  to  an  audience  of 
their  sovereign,  entered  barefooted,  in  mean  gar- 
ments, and,  as  his  slaves,  paid  him  homage  approach- 
ing to  adoration.  This  respect,  due  from  inferiors  to 
those  above  them  in  rank,  was  prescribed  with  such 
ceremonious  accuracy,  that  it  incorporated  with  the 
language,  and  influenced  its  genius  and  idiom.  The 
Mexican  tongue  abounded  in  expressions  of  reverence 
and  courtesy.  The  style  and  appellations  used  in 
the  intercourse  between  equals,  would  have  been  so 
unbecoming  in  the  mouth  of  one  in  a  lower  sphere, 
when  he  accosted  a  person  in  higher  rank,  as  to  be 
deemed  an  insult  (146).  It  is  only  in  societies,  which 
time  and  the  institution  of  regular  government  have 
moulded  into  form,  that  we  find  such  an  orderly 
arrangement  of  men  into  different  ranks,  and  such 
nice  attention  paid  to  their  various  rights. 

The  spirit  of  the  Mexicans,  thus  familiarized  and 
bended  to  subordination,  was  prepared  for  sub- 
mitting to  monarchical  government.  But  the  de- 
scriptions of  their  policy  and  laws  by  the  Spaniards 
who  overturned  them,  are  so  inaccurate  and  contra- 
dictory, that  it  is  difficult  to  delineate  the  form  of 
their  constitution  with  any  precision.  Sometimes 
they  represent  the  monarchs  of  Mexico  as  absolute, 
deciding  according  to  their  pleasure  with  re.spect  to 
every  operation  of  the  state.  On  other  occasions, 
we  discover  the  traces  of  established  customs  and 
laws,  framed,  in  order  to  circumscribe  the  power  of 
the  crown,  and  we  meet  with  rights  and  and  privi- 
leges of  the  nobles  which  seemed  to  be  opposed  as 
barriers  against  its  encroachments.  This  appearance 
of  inconsistency  has  arisen  from  inattention  to  the 
innovations  of  Montezuma  upon  the  Mexican  policy. 
His  aspiring  ambition  subverted  the  original  system 
of  government,  and  introduced  a  pure  despotism. 
He  disregarded  the  ancient  laws,  violated  the  privi- 
lege* held  most  sacred,  and  reduced  his  subjects  of 
every  order  to  the  level  of  slaves.  The  chiefs,  or 
nobles  of  the  first  rank,  submitted  to  the  yoke  with 
such  reluctance,  that,  from  impatience  to  shake  it 
off,  and  hope  of  recovering  their  rights,  many  of 
them  courted  the  protection  of  Cortes,  and  joined  a 
foreign  power  against  their  domestic  oppressor.  It 
is  not  then  under  the  dominion  of  Montesmma.  but 


under  the  government  of  his  predecessors,  that  we 
can  discover  what  was  the  original  form  and  genius 
of  Mexican  policy.  From  the  foundation  of  the 
monarchy  to  the  election  of  Montezuma,  it  seems  to 
have  subsisted  with  little  variation.  That  body  of 
citizens  which  may  be  distinguished  by  the  name  of 
nobility,  formed  the  chief  and  most  respectable 
order  in  the  state.  They  were  of  various  ranks,  at 
has  been  already  observed,  and  their  honours  were 
acquired  and  transmitted  in  different  manners. 
Their  number  seems  to  have  been  great.  According 
to  an  author  accustomed  to  examine  with  attention 
what  he  relates,  there  were  in  the  Mexican  empire 
thirty  of  this  order,  each  of  whom  had  in  his  terri- 
tories about  an  hundred  thousand  people,  and 
subordinate  to  these,  there  were  about  three  thou- 
sand nobles  of  a  lower  class.  The  territories  be- 
longing to  the  chiefs  of  Tezeuco  and  Tacuba  were 
hardly  inferior  in  extent  to  those  of  the  Mexican 
monarch.  Each  of  these  possessed  complete  terri- 
torial jurisdiction,  and  levied  taxes  from  their  own 
vassals.  But  all  followed  the  standard  of  Mexico  in 
war,  serving  with  a  number  of  men  in  proportion  to 
their  domain,  and  most  of  them  paid  tribute  to  it* 
monarch  as  their  superior  lord. 

In  tracing  those  great  lines  of  the  Mexican  con- 
stitution, an  image  of  feudal  policy,  in  its  most  rigid 
form,  rises  to  view,  and  we  discern  its  three  distin- 
guishing characteristics,  a  nobility  possessing  almost 
independent  authority,  a  people  depressed  into  the 
lowest  state  of  subjection,  and  a  king  intrusted  with 
the  executive  power  of  the  state.  Its  spirit  and 
principles  seem  to  have  operated  in  the  Now  World, 
in  the  same  manner  as  in  the  ancient.  The  juris- 
diction 'of  the  crown  was  extremely  limited.  All 
real  and  effective  authority  was  retained  by  the 
Mexican  nobles  in  their  own  hands,  and  the  shadow 
of  it  only  left  to  the  king.  Jealous  to  excess  of  their 
own  rights,  they  guarded  with  the  most  vigilant 
anxiety  against  the  encroachments  of  their  sove- 
reigns. By  a  fundamental  law  of  the  empire  it  was 
provided,  that  the  king  should  not  determine  con- 
cerning any  point  of  general  importance,  without 
the  approbation  of  a  council  composed  of  the  prime 
nobility.  Unless  he  obtained  their  consent,  he 
could  not  engage  the  nation  in  war,  nor  could  he 
dispose  of  the  most  considerable  branch  of  the 
public  revenue  at  pleasure ;  it  was  appropriated  to 
certain  purposes,  from  which  it  could  not  be  diverted 
by  the  regal  authority  alone.  In  order  to  secure 
full  effect  to  those  constitutional  restraints,  the 
Mexican  nobles  did  not  permit  their  crown  to 
descend  by  inheritance,  but  disposed  of  it  by  elec- 
tion. The  right  of  election  seems  to  have  been 
originally  vested  in  the  whole  body  of  nobility,  but 
was  afterwards  committed  to  six  electors,  of  whom 
the  chiefs  of  Tezeuco  and  Tacuba  were  always  two. 
From  respect  for  the  family  of  their  monarchs,  the. 
choice  fell  generally  upon  some  person  sprung  from 
it.  But  as  the  activity  and  valour  of  their  piinc* 
were  of  greater  moment  to  a  people  perpetually  en- 
gaged in  war,  than  a  strict  adherence  to  the  order  of 
birth,  collaterals  of  mature  age,  or  of  distinguished 
merit,  were  often  preferred  to  those  who  were  nearer 
the  throne  in  direct  descent.  To  this  maxim  in 
their  policy,  the  Mexicans  appeared  to  be  indebted 
for  such  a  succession  of  able  and  warlike  princes, 
as  raised  their  empire  in  a  short  period  to  that  ex- 
traordinary height  of  power  which  it  had  attained 
when  Cortes  landed  in  New  Spain. 

While  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Mexican  monarch! 
continued  to  be  limited,  it  ii  probable  that  it  wa* 


168 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


exercised  with  little  ostentation.  But  astlieir  authority 
became  more  extensive,  the  splendour  of  their  govern- 
ment augmented.  It  \vas  in  this  1-st  state  that  the 
Spaniards  beheld  it  ;  and  struck  with  the  appearance 
of  Montezuma's  court,  they  described  its  pomp  at 
great  length,  and  with  much  admiration.  The 
number  of  his  attendants,  the  order,  the  silence,  and 
the  reverence  with  which  they  served  him  ;  the  extent 
of  his  royal  mansion,  the  variety  of  its  apartments 
allotted  to  different  officers,  and  the  ostentation  with 
which  this  grandeur  was  displayed,  whenever  he 
permitted  his  subjects  to  behold  him,  seem  to  re- 
semble the  magnificence  of  the  ancient  monarchies  in 
Asia,  rather  than  the  simplicity  of  the  infant  states  in 
the  New  World. 

But  it  was  not  in  the  mere  parade  of  royalty  that 
the  Mexican  potentates  exhibited  their  power;  they 
manifested  it  more  beneficially  in  the  order  and 
regularity  with  which  they  conducted  the  internal 
administration andpoliceof then-dominions.  Complete 
jurisdiction,  civil  as  well  as  criminal,  over  its  own 
immediate  vassals,  was  vested  in  the  crown.  Judges 
were  appointed  for  each  department,  and  if  we  may 
rely  on  the  account  which  the  Spanish  writers  give  of 
the  maxims  and  laws  upon  which  they  founded  their 
decisions  with  respect  to  the  distribution  of  property 
and  the  punishment  of  crimes,  justice  was  adminis- 
tered in  the  Mexican  empire  with  a  degree  of  order 
and  equity  resembling  what  takes  place  in  societies 
highly  civilized. 

Their  attention  in  providing  for  the  support  of 
government  was  not  less  sagacious.  Taxes  were  laid 
upon  land,  upon  the  acquisitions  of  industry, 
and  upon  commodities  of  every  kind  exposed  to  sale 
in  the  public  markets.  These  duties  were  consider- 
able, but  not  arbitrary  or  unequal.  They  were 
imposed  according  to  established  rules,  and  each 
knew  what  share  of  the  common  burden  he  had  to 
bear.  As  the  use  of  money  was  unknown,  all  the 
taxes  were  paid  in  kind,  and  thus  not  only  the 
natural  productions  of  all  the  different  provinces 
in  the  empire,  but  every  species  of  manufacture,  and 
every  work  of  ingenuity  and  ;irt,  were  collected  in  the 
public  storehouses.  From  those  the  emperor 
supplied  his  numerous  train  of  attendants  in  peace, 
and  his  armies  during  war,  with  food,  with  clothes, 
and  ornaments.  People  of  inferior  condition,  neither 
possessing  land,  nor  engaged  in  commerce,  were 
bound  to  the  performance  of  various  services.  By 
'their  stated  labour  the  crown  lands  were  cultivated, 
public  works  were  carried  on,  and  the  various  houses 
belonging  to  the  emperor  were  built  and  kept  in 
Tepair  (147). 

The  improved  state  of  government  among  the 
Mexicans  is  conspicuous,  not  only  in  points  essential 
to  the  being  of  a  well  ordered  society,  but  in  several 
regulations  of  inferior  consequence  with  respect  to 
police.  The  institution  which  I  have  already  men- 
tioned, of  public  couriers,  stationed  at  proper  intervals, 
to  convey  intelligence  from  one  part  of  the  empire  to 
the  other,  was  a  refinement  in  police  not  introduced 
into  any  kingdom  of  Europe  at  that  period.  The  struc- 
ture of  the  capital  city  in  a  lake,  with  artificial  dykes, 
and  causeways  of  great  length,  which  served  as  avenues 
to  it  from  different  quarters,  erected  in  the  water  with 
no  less  ingenuity  than  labour,  seems  to  be  an  idea 
•that  could  not  have  occurred  to  any  but  a  civilized 
people.  The  same  observation  may  be  applied  to 
the  structure  of  the  aqueducts,  or  conduits  by  which 
they  conveyed  a  stream  of  fresh  water,  from  a  con- 
siderable distance,  into  the  city,  along  one  of  the 
causeways  (1-48).  The  appointment  of  a  number  of 


persons  to  clean  the  streets-,  to  light  them  by  fires 
kindled  in  different  places,  and  to  patrole  as  watch- 
men during  the  night,  discovers  a  degree  of  attention 
which  even  polished  nations  are  late  in  acquiring. 

The  progress  of  the  Mexicans  in  various  arts,  is 
considered  as  the  most  decisive  proof  of  their  superior 
refinement.  Cortes,  and  the  early  Spanish  authors, 
describe  this  with  rapture,  and  maintain,  that  the 
most  celebrated  European  aitists  could  not  surpass 
or  even  equal  them  in  ingenuity  and  neatness  of 
workmanship.  They  represented  men,  animals,  and 
other  objects,  by  such  a  disposition  of  various 
coloured  feathers,  as  is  said  to  have  produced  all  the 
effects  of  light  and  shade,  and  to  have  imitated  nature 
with  truth  and  delicacy.  .  Their  ornaments  of  gold 
and  silver  have  been  described  to  be  of  a  fabric  no 
less  curious.  But  in  forming  any  idea,  from  general 
descriptions,  concerning  the  state  of  arts  among 
nations  imperfectly  polished,  we  are  extremely  ready 
to  err.  In  examining  the  works  of  peo  pie  whose 
advances  in  improvement  are  nearly  the  same  with 
our  own,  we  view  them  with  a  critical  and  often  with 
a  jealous  eye.  Whereas,  when  conscious  of  our  own 
superiority,  we  survey  the  arts  of  nations  compara- 
tively rude,  we  are  astonished  at  works  executed  by 
them  under  such  manifest  disadvantages,  and,  in  the 
warmth  of  our  admiration,  are  apt  to  represent  them 
as  productions  more  finished  than  they  really  are. 
To  the  influence  of  this  illusion,  without  supposing 
any  intention  to  deceive,  we  may  impute  the  exag- 
geration of  some  Spanish  authors,  fn  their  accounts 
of  the  Mexican  arts. 

It  is  not  from  those  descriptions,  but  from  con- 
sidering such  specimens  of  their  arts  as  are  still 
preserved,  that  we  must  decide  concerning  their 
degree  of  merit.  As  the  ship  in  which  Cortes  sent 
to  Charles  V.  the  most  curious  productions  of  the 
Mexican  artisans,  which  were  collected  by  the 
Spaniards  when  they  first  pillaged  the  empire,  was 
taken  by  a  French  corsair,  the  remains  of  their  in- 
genuity are  less  numerous  than  those  of  the  Peruvians. 
Whether  any  of  their  works  with  feathers,  in  imita- 
tion of  painting,  be  still  extant  in  Spain,  I  have  not 
learned  ;  but  many  of  their  ornaments  in  gold  and 
silver,  as  well  as  various  utensils  employed  in  com- 
mon life,  are  deposited  in  the  magnificent  cabinet  of 
natural  and  artificial  productions  lately  opened  by 
the  king  of  Spain  :  and  I  am  informed  by  persons 
on  whose  judgment  and  taste  I  can  rely,  that  these 
boasted  efforts  of  their  art  are  uncouth  representations 
of  common  objects,  or  very  coarse  images  of  the 
human  and  some  other  forms,  destitute  of  grace  and 
propriety.  The  justness  of  these  observations  is 
confirmed  by  inspecting  the  wooden  prints  and 
copper-plates  of  their  paintings,  which  have  been 
published  by  various  authors.  In  them,  every 
figure  of  men,  of  quadrupeds,  or  birds,  as  well  as 
every  representation  of  inanimated  nature,  is  ex- 
tremely rude  and  awkward.  The  hardest  Egyptian 
style,  stiff  and  imperfect  as  it  was,  is  more  elegant. 
The  scrawls  of  children  delineate  objects  almost  as 
accurately. 

But  however  low  the  Mexican  paintings  may  be 
ranked,  when  viewed  merely  as  works  of  art,  a 
very  different  station  belongs  to  them,  when  con- 
sidered as  the  records  of  their  country,  as  historical 
monuments  of  its  policy  and  transactions ;  and  they 
become  curious  as  well  as  interesting  objects  of  at- 
tention. The  noblest  and  most  beneficial  invention 
of  which  human  ingenuity  can  boast,  is  that  of 
writing.  But  the  first  essays  of  this  art,  which  hath 
contributed  more  than  all  others  to  the  improve- 


THE  HISTORT  OF  AMERICA. 


169 


uient  of  the  species,  were  very  rude,  and  it  advanced 
towards  perfection  slowly,  and  by  a  gradual  pro- 
gression. When  the  warrior,  eager  for  fame,  wished 
to  transmit  some  knowledge  of  his  exploits  to  suc- 
ceeding ages  ;  when  the  gratitude  of  a  people  to 
their  sovereign  prompted  them  to  hand  down  an 
account  of  his  beneficent  deeds  to  posterity  ;  the 
first  method  of  accomplishing  this  which  seems  to 
have  occurred  to  them,  was  to  delineate,  in  the  best 
manner  they  could,  figures  representing  the  action 
of  which  they  were  solicitous  to  preserve  the  me- 
mory. Of  this,  which  has  very  properly  been  called 
picture  writing,  we  find  traces  among  some  of  the 
most  savage  tribes  of  America.  When  a  leader  re- 
turns from  the  field,  he  strips  a  tree  of  its  bark,  and 
with  red  paint  scratches  upon  it  some  uncouth 
figures,  which  represent  the  order  of  his  march, 
the  number  of  his  followers,  the  enemy  whom  he 
attacked,  the  scalps  and  captives  which  he  brought 
home.  To  those  simple  annals  he  trusts  for  renown, 
and  soothes  himself  with  hope  that  by  their  means 
he  shall  receive  praise  from  warriors  of  future 
times. 

Compared  with   those  awkward  essays   of    their 
savage   countrymen,   the   paintings  of  the  Mexicans 
may  be  considered    as    works    of    composition    and 
.design.     They  were  not  acquainted,  it   is  true,   with 
any  other   method  of   recording    transactions,    than 
that  of   delineating  the  objects   which  they  wished 
to  represent.     But  they  could  exhibit  a  more  com- 
plex   series    of    events    in    progressive    order,    and 
•describe,  by  a  proper  disposition  of  figures,  the  oc- 
<currences  of  a  king's  reign  from  his  accession   to  his 
death  ;    the  progress  of   an  infant's  education  from 
its  birth  until  it  attain  to  the    years  of   maturity  ; 
the  different  recompences   and  marks   of  distinction 
conferred    upon    warriors,    in  proportion  to  the  ex- 
ploits which  they  had    performed.       Some  singular 
specimens  of  this  picture-writing  have  been  preserved, 
which  are   justly  considered    as    the    most  curious 
monuments  of  art  brought  from  the  New  World.  The 
most  valuable  of  these  was  published  by  Purchas  in 
sixty-six  plates.     It  is  divided  into  three  parts.    The 
first   contains  the    history  of   the    Mexican    empire 
under  its  ten  monarchs.     The  second  is  a  tribute- 
toll,    representing  what  each    conquered  town  paid 
into  the  royal  treasury.     The  third  is  a  code  of  their 
institutions,  domestic,  political,  and  military.     Ano- 
ther •specimen  of   Mexican  painting  has  been  pub- 
lished in  thirty-two  plates,  by  the  present  archbishop 
•of  Toledo.     To  both  is   annexed   a  full  explanation 
of  what  the  figures  were  intended  to  represent,  which 
was  obtained  by  the    Spaniards    from    Indians  well 
acquainted  with  their  own  arts.     The  style  of  paint- 
ing in  all  these  is  the  same.    They  represent  things 
not    words.       They  exhibit  images  to  the  eye,  not 
ideas  to  the  understanding.      They  may,  therefore, 
be  considered  as  the    earliest    and    most    imperfect 
essay  of  men    in   their  progress  towards   discovering 
the  art  of  writing.     The  defects  in  this   mode  of  re- 
cording transactions  must  have   been  early  felt.     To 
paint  every  occurrence  was,   from  its  nature,   a  very 
tedious  operation  ;  and  as  affairs  became  more  com- 
plicated, and  events  multiplied  in   society,   its  annals 
must    have  swelled  to  an  enormous  bulk.     Besides 
this,    no   objects  could  be    delineated  •  but  those  of 
sense  ;  the  conceptions  of  the  mind  had   no  corpo- 
real form,  and  as  long  as  picture-writing  could  not 
convey  an  idea  of  these,   it  must  have  been 'a  very 
imperfect  art.     The  necessity  of  improving  it  must 
have  roused  and   sharpened  invention,  and  the  hu- 
jnan  mind  holding  the    same    course    in    the    New 
THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA,  No.  22. 


World  as  in   the  Old,   might  have  advanced  by  the 
same  successive  Steps,  first  from  an  actual   picture 
to  the  plain  hieroglyphic ;    next    to    the  allegorical 
symbol ;    then    to  the  arbitrary  character  ;     until,  at 
lensth,    an  alphabet  of  letters  was  discovered,   capa- 
ble" of  expressing    all    the    various    combinations  of 
sound  employed  In  speech.     In  the  paintings  of  the 
Mexicans  we  accordingly  perceive,   that  this  progress 
was  begun  among  them."      Upon  an  attentive  inspec- 
tion of  the  plates  which   I  have  mentioned,   we  may 
observe  some  approach  to  the  plain  or  simple  hiero- 
glyphic, where  some  principal  part  or  circumstance 
in  the  subject  is  made  to  stand  for  the  whole.     In 
the  annals  of   their  kings,    published    by  Purchas, 
the  towns  conquered  by  each  are  uniformly  repre- 
sented in  the  same  manner   by  a  rude  delineation  of 
a  house;    but  in  order  to  point   out  the  particular 
towns  which  submitted  to  their  victorious  arms,  pe- 
culiar   emblems,    sometimes   natural    objects,     and 
sometimes  artificial  figures,  are  employed.      In  the 
tribute-roll   published   by  the  archbishop  of  Toledo, 
the  house,  which   was   properly  the   picture  of  the 
town,  is  omitted,  and  the  emblem  alone  is  employed, 
to  represent  it.     The  Mexicans  seem  even  to  have 
made  some  advances  beyond  this,  towards  the  use 
of  the  more  figurative  and  fandful  hieroglyphic.     In 
order  to  describe  a  monarch  who   had   enlarged  his 
dominions  by  force  of  arms,   they  painted   a  target 
ornamented  with  darts,  and  placed  it  between  him 
and  those  towns  which  he  subdued.     But  it  is  only 
in  ono  instance,   the  notation   of  numbers,   that   we 
discern  any  attempt  to  exhibit  ideas   which  had  no 
corporeal  form.     The  Mexican  painters  had  invented 
artificial  marks,  or  signs  of  convention,  for  this  pur- 
pose.     By  means  of  these,  they  computed  the  years 
of  their  kings'  reigns,  as  well  as  the  amount  of  tri- 
bute to  be  paid  into  the  royal  treasury.     The  figure 
of  a  circle  represented  unit,  and  in  small  numbers  the 
computation  was  made  by  repeating  it.    Larger  num- 
bers were  expressed  by  a  peculiar  mark,  and  they 
had  such  as  denoted    all    integral    numbers,    from 
twenty  to  eight  thousand.       The  short  duration  of 
their  empire  prevented  the  Mexicans  from  advanc- 
ing further  in  that  long  course  which  conducts  men 
from   the  labour  of  delineating  real  objects  to  the 
simplicity  and  ease  of  alphabetic    writing.       Their 
records,  notwithstanding   some  dawn  of  such  ideas 
as  might  have  led  to  a  more  perfect  style,    can  be 
considered  as  little   more  than  a   species  of  picture- 
writing,  so  far  improved  as  to  mark   their  superiority 
over  the  savage  tribes  of  America ;  but   still   so   de- 
fective, as  to  prove  that  they  had  not  proceeded   far 
beyond  the  first  stage  in  that  progress  which  must  be 
completed  before  any  people  can  be  ranked  among 
polished  nations  (150). 

Their  mode  of  computing  time  may  be  considered 
as  a  more  decisive  evidence  of  their  progress  in  im- 
provement. They  divided  their  year  into  eighteen 
months,  each  consisting  of  twenty  days,  amounting 
in  all  to  three  hundred  and  sixty.  But  as  they  ob- 
served that  the  course  of  the  sun  was  not  completed 
in  that  time,  they  added  five  days  to  the  year.  These, 
which  were  properly  intercalary  days,  they  termed 
supernumerary  or  waste ;  and  as  they  did  not  belong 
to  any  month,  no  work  was  done,  and  no  sacred  rite 
performed  on  them ;  they  were  devoted  wholly  to 
festivity  and  pastime.  This  near  approach  to  philo- 
sophical accuracy  is  a  remarkable  proof  that  the 
Mexicans  had  bestowed  some  attention  upon  inquiries 
and  speculations,  to  which  men  in  a  very  rude  state 
never  turn  their  thoughts.  • 

Such  are  the  most  striking  particulars  in  the  man- 
Z 


170 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA 


ners  and  policy  of  the  Mexicans,  which  exhibit  them 
to  view  as  a  people  considerably  refined.  But  from 
other  cirumstances,  one  is  apt  to  suspect  that  their 
character,  and  many  of  their  institutions,  did  not 
differ  greatly  from  those  of  the  other  inhabitants  of 
America. 

Like  the  rude  tribes  around  them,  the  Mexicans 
were  incessantly  engaged  in  war,  and  the  motives 
which  prompted  them  to  hostility  seem  to  have  been 
the  same.  They  fought  in  order  to  gratify  their  ven- 
geance, by  shedding  the  blood  of  their  enemies.  In 
battle  they  were  chiefly  intent  on  taking  prisoners, 
and  it  was  by  the  number  of  these  that  they  esti- 
mated the  glory  of  victory.  No  captive  was  ever  ran- 
somed or  spared.  All  were  sacrificed  without  mercy, 
and  their  flesh  devoured  with  the  same  barbarous  joy 
as  among  the  fiercest  savages.  On  some  occasions  it 
rose  to  even  wilder  excesses.  Their  principal  war- 
riors covered  themselves  with  the  skins  of  the  un- 
happy victims,  and  danced  about  the  streets,  boasting 
of  their  own  valour,  and  exulting  over  their  enemies. 
Even  in  their  civil  institutions  we  discover  traces  of 
that  barbarous  disposition  which  their  system  of  war 
inspired.  The  four  chief  counsellors  of  the  empire 
were  distinguished  by  titles,  which  could  have  been 
assumed  only  by  a  people  who  delighted  in  blood. 
This  ferocity  of  character  prevailed  among  all  the  na- 
tions of  New  Spain.  The  Tlascalaus,  the  people  of 
Mechoacan,  and  other  states  at  enmity  with  the 
Mexicans,  delighted  equally  in  war,  and  treated  their 
prisoners  with  the  same  ^cruelty.  In  proportion  as 
mankind  combine  in  social  union,  and  live  under  the 
influence  of  equal  laws  and  regular  policy,  their  man- 
ners soften,  sentiments  of  humanity  arise,  and  the 
rights  of  the  species  come  to  be  understood.  The 
fierceness  of  war  abates,  and  even  while  engaged  in 
hostility,  men  remember  what  they  owe  one  to  an- 
other. The  savage  fight  to  destroy,  the  citizen  to 
conquer.  The  former  neither  pities  nor  spares,  the 
latter  has  acquired  sensibility  which  tempers  his  rage. 
To  this  sensibility  the  Mexicans  seem  to  have  been 
perfect  strangers,  and  among  them  war  was  carried  on 
with  sp  much  of  its  original  barbarity,  that  we  cannot 
but  suspect  their  degree  of  civilization  to  have  been 
Very  imperfect. 

Their  funeral  rites  were  not  less  bloody  than  those 
of  the  most  savage  tribes.  On  the  death  of  any  dis- 
tinguished personage,  especially  of  the  emperor,  a 
certain  number  of  his  attendants  were  chosen  to  ac- 
company him  to  the  other  world  ;  and  those  unfor- 
tunate victims  were  put  to  death  without  mercy,  and 
buried  in  the  same  tomb. 

Though  their  agriculture  was  more  extensive  than 
that  of  the  roving  tribes  who  trusted  chiefly  to  their 
bow  for  food,  it  seems  not  to  have  supplied  them 
with  such  subsistence  as  men  require  when  engaged 
in  efforts  of  active  industry.  The  Spaniards  appeal- 
not  to  have  been  struck  with  any  superiority  of  the 
Mexicans  over  the  other  people  of  America  in  bodily 
vigour.  Both,  according  to  their  observation,  were 
of  such  a  feeble  frame  as  to  be  unable  to  endure 
fatigue,  and  the  strength  of  one  Spaniard  exceeded 
that  of  several  Indians.  This  they  imputed  to  their 
scanty  diet,  on  poor  fare,  sufficient  to  preserve  life, 
but  not  to  give  firmness  to  their  constitution.  Such  a 
remark  could  hardly  have  been  made  with  respect  to 
any  people  furnished  plentifully  with  the  necessaries 
of  life.  The  difficulty  which  Cortes  found  in  pro- 
curing subsistence  for  his  small  body  of  soldiers, 
who  were  often  constrained  to  live  on  the  spon- 
taneous productions  of  the  earth,  seems  to  confirm 
the  remark  of  the  Spanish  writers,  and  gives  no  high 


idea  of  the  state  of  cultivation  in  the  Mexican  em- 
pire. 

A  practice  that  was  universal  in  New  Spain  ap- 
pears to  favour  this  opinion.  The  Mexican  women 
gave  suck  to  their  children  for  several  years,  and 
during  that  time  did  not  cohabit  with  their  husbands. 
This  precaution  against  a  burdensome  increase  of 
progeny,  though  necessary,  as  I  have  already  ob- 
served, among  savages,  who  from  the  hardships  of 
their  condition,  and  the  precariousness  of  their  sub- 
sistence, find  it  impossible  to  rear  a  numerous  family, 
can  be  hardly  supposed  to  have  continued  among  & 
people  who  lived  at  ease  and  in  abundance. 

The  vast  extent  of  the  Mexican  empire,  which  has 
been  considered,  and  with  justice,  as  the  most 
decisive  proof  of  a  considerable  progress  in  regular 
government  and  police,  is  one  of  those  facts  in  the 
history  of  the  New  World  which  seems  to  have  been 
admitted  without  due  examination  or  sufficient  evi- 
dence. The  Spanish  historians,  in  order  to  magnify 
the  valour  of  their  countrymen,  are  accustomed  to 
represent  the  dominion  of  Montezuma  as  stretching 
over  all  the  provinces  of  New  Spain  from  the 
Northern  to  the  Southern  ocean.  But  a  great  part 
of  the  mountainous  country  was  possessed  by  the 
Otomies,  a  fierce  uncivilized  people,  who  seem  to 
have  been  the  residue  of  the  original  inhabitants. 
The  provinces  towards  the  north  and  west  of  Mexico 
were  occupied  by  the  Chichemecas,  and  other  tribes 
of  hunters.  None  of  these  recognised  the  Mexican 
monarch  as  their  superior.  Even  in  the  interior  and 
more  level  country,  there  were  several  cities  and 
provinces  which  had  never  submitted  to  the  Mexican 
yoke.  Tlascala,  though  only  twenty-one  leagues 
from  the  capital  of  the  empire,  was  an  independent 
and  hostile  republic.  Cholula,  though  still  nearer, 
had  been  subjected  only  a  short  time  before  the 
arrival  of  the  Spaniards.  Tepeaca,  at  the  distance 
of  thirty  leagues  from  Mexico,  seems  to  have'  been 
a  separate  state,  governed  by  its  own  laws.  Me- 
choacan, the  frontier  of  which  extended  within  forty- 
leagues  of  Mexico,  was  a  powerful  kingdom,  remark- 
able for  its  implacable  enmity  to  the  Mexican  name. 
By  these  hostile  powers  the  Mexican  empire  was 
circumscribed  ou  every  quarter,  and  the  high  ideas 
which  we  are  apt  to  form  of  it  from  the  description 
of  the  Spanish  historians,  should  be  considerably 
moderated. 

In  consequence  of  this  independence  of  several 
states  in  New  Spain  upon  the  Mexican  empire,  there 
was  not  any  considerable  intercourse  between  its 
various  provinces.  Even  in  the  interior  country,  not 
far  distant  from  the  capital,  there  seem  to  have  been 
no  roads  to  facilitate  the  communication  of  one 
district  with  another ;  and  when  the  Spaniards  first 
attempted  to  penetrate  into  its  several  provinces,  they 
had  to  open  their  way  through  forests  and  marshes. 
Cortes,  in  his  adventurous  march  from  Mexico  to 
Honduras  in  152.5,  met  with  obstructions,  and  endured 
hardships,  little  inferior  to  those  with  which  he  must 
have  struggled  in  the  most  uncivilized  regions  of 
America.  In  some  places  he  could  hardly  force  a 
passage  through  impervious  woods,  and  plains  over- 
flowed with  water.  In  others  he  found  so  little 
cultivation,  that  his  troops  were  frequently  in  danger 
of  perishing  by  famine.  Such  facts  correspond  ill 
with  the  pompous  description  which  the  Spanish 
writers  give  of  Mexican  police  and  industry,  and 
convey  an  idea  ofr  a  country  nearly  similar  to  that 
possessed  by  the  Indian  tribes  in  North  America. 
Here  and  there  a  treading  or  a  war-path,  as  they  are 
called  in  North  America,  led  from  one  settlement 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA.  1 


171 


to  another,  but  generally  there  appeared  no  sign 
of  any  established  communication,  few  marks  of 
industry,  and  fewer  monuments  of  art. 

A  proof  of  this  imperfection  in  their  commercial 
intercourse,  no  less  striking,  is  their  want  of  money, 
or  some  universal  standard  by  which  to  estimate  the 
value  of  commodities.  The  discovery  of  this  is 
among  the  steps  of  greatest  consequence  in  the  pro- 
gress of  nations.  Until  it  has  been  made,  ail  their 
transactions  must  be  so  awkward,  so  operose,  and  so 
limited,  that  we  may  boldly  pronounce  that  they 
have  advanced  but  a  little  way  in  their  career.  The 
invention  of  such  a  commercial  standard  is  of  such  high 
antiquity  in  our  hemisphere,  and  rises  so  far  beyond 
the  era  of  authentic  history,  as  to  appear  almost 
coeval  with  the  existence  of  society.  The  precious 
metals  seem  to  have  been  early  employed  for  this 
purpose,  and  from  their  permanent  value,  their  divisi- 
bility, and  many  other  qualities,  they  are  better 
adapted  to  serve  as  a  common  standard  than  any 
othdr  substance  of  which  nature  has  given  us  the 
command.  But  in  the  New  World,  where  these 
metals  abound  most,  this  use  of  them  was  not  known. 
The  exigencies  of  rude  tribes,  or  of  monarchies  im- 
perfectly civilized,  did  not  call  for  it.  All  their  com- 
mercial intercourse  was  carried  on  by  barter,  and  their 
ignorance  of  any  common  standard  by  which  to 
facilitate  that  exchange  of  commodities  which  con- 
tributes so  much  towards  the  comfort  of  life,  may 
be  justly  mentioned  as  an  evidence  of  the  infant 
state  of  their  policy.  But  even  in  the  New  World 
the  inconvenience  of  wanting  some  general  instru- 
ment of  commerce  began  to  be  felt,  and  some  efforts 
were  making  towards  supplying  that  defect.  The 
Mexicans,  among  whom  the  number  and  greatness 
of  their  cities  gave  rise  to  a  more  extended  com- 
merce than  in  any  other  part  of  America,  had  begun 
to  employ  a  common  standard  of  value,  which  ren- 
dered smaller  transactions  much  more  easy.  As 
chocolate  was  the  favourite  drink  of  persons  in 
every  rank  of  life,  the  nuts  or  almonds  of  cacao,  of 
which  it  is  composed,  were  of  such  universal  con- 
sumption, that,  in  their  stated  markets,  these  were 
willingly  received  in  return  for  commodities  of  small 
price.  Thus  they  came  to  be  considered  as  the  in- 
strument of  commerce,  and  the  value  of  what  one 
wishes  to  dispose  of  was  estimated  by  the  number 
of  nuts  of  the  cacao  which  he  might  expect  in 
exchange  for  it.  This  seems  to  be  the  utmost 
length  which  the  Americans  had  advanced  towards 
the  discovery  of  any  expedient  for  supplying  the 
use  of  money.  And  if  the  want  of  it  is  to  be  held, 
on  one  hand,  as  a  proof  of  their  barbarity,  this  ex- 
pedient for  supplying  that  want  should  be  admitted, 
on  the  other,  as  an  evidence  no  less  satisfying,  of 
some  progress  which  the  Mexicans  had  made  in 
refinement  and  civilization,  beyond  the  savage  tribes 
around  them. 

In  such  a  rude  state  were  many  of  the  Mexican 
provinces  when  first  visited  by  their  conquerors. 
Eren  their  cities,  extensive  and  populous  as  they 
were,  seem  more  fit  to  be  the  habitation  of  men  just 
emerging  from  barbarity,  than  the  residence  of  a 
polished  people.  The  description  of  Tlascala  nearly 
resembles  that  of  an  Indian  village.  A  number  of 
low  struggling  huts,  scattered  about  irregularly, 
according  to  the  caprice  of  each  proprietor,  built 
•with  turf  and  stone  and  thatched  with  reeds,  with- 
out any  light  but  what  they  received  by  a  door,  so 
low  that  it  could  not  be  entered  upright.  In  Mexico, 
though  from  the  peculiarity  of  its  situation,  the 
disposition  of  the  houses  was  xnore^  orderly,  ^the 


structure  of  the  greater  part  was  equally  mean.  Nor 
does  the  fabric  of  their  temples,  and  other  public 
edifices,  appear  to  have  been  such  as  entitled  them  to 
the  high  praise  bestowed  upon  them  by  many 
Spanish  authors.  As  far  as  one  can  gather  fiom 
their  obscure  and  inaccurate  descriptions,  the  great 
temple  of  Mexico,  the  most  famous  in  New  Spain, 
which  has  been  represented  as  a  magnificent  building, 
raised  to  such  a  height  that  the  ascent  to  it  was  by  a 
flight  of  a  hundred  and  fourteen  steps,  was  a  solid 
mass  of  earth  of  a  square  form,  faced  partly  with 
stone.  Its  base  on  each  side  extended  ninety  feet, 
and  decreasing  gradually  as  it  advanced  in  height, 
it  terminated  in  a  quadrangle  of  about  thirty  feet, 
where  were  placed  a  shrine  of  the  deity,  and  two 
altars:Jon  which  the  victims  were  sacrificed.  All  the 
other  celebrated  temples  of  New  Spain  exactly 
resembled  that  of  Mexico  (152).  Such  structures 
convey  no  high  idea  of  progress  in  art  and  in- 
genuity ;  and  one  can  hardly  conceive  that  a  form 
more  rude  and  simple  could  have  occurred  to  a 
nation  in  its  first  efforts  towards  erecting  any  great 
work. 

Greater  skill  and  ingenuity  were  displayed,  if  we 
may  believe  the  Spanish  historians,  in  the  houses  of 
the  emperor,  and  in  those  of  the  principal  nobility. 
There,  some  elegance  of  design  was  visible,  and  a 
commodious  arrangement  of  the  apartments  was  at- 
tended to.  But  if  buildings  corresponding  to  such 
descriptions  had  ever  existed  in  the  Mexican  cities, 
it  is  probable  that  some  remains  of  them  would  still 
be  visible.  From  the  manner  in  which  Cortes  con- 
ducted the  siege  of  Mexico,  we  can  indeed  easily  ac- 
count for  the  total  destruction  of  whatever  had  any 
appearance  of  splendour  in  that  capital.  But  as  only 
two  centuries  and  a  half  have  elapsed  since  the  con- 
quest of  New  Spain,  it  seems  altogether  incredible 
that  in  a  period  so  short  every  vestige  of  this  boasted 
elegance  and  grandeur  should  have  disappeared  ;  and 
that  in  the  other  cities,  particulaily  in  those  which 
did  not  suffer  by  the  destructive  hand  of  the  con- 
querors, there  are  not  any  ruins  which  can  be  consi- 
dered as  monuments  of  their  ancient  magnificence. 

Even  in  a  village  of  the  rudest  Indians,  there  are 
buildings  of  greater  extent  and  elevation  than  com- 
mon dwelling-houses.  Such  as  are  destined  for 
holding  the  council  of  the  tribe,  and  in  which  all 
assemble  on  occasions  of  public  festivity,  may  be 
called  stately  edifices,  when  compared  with  the  rest. 
As  among  the  Mexicans  the  distinction  of  ranks  was 
established,  and  property  was  unequally  divided, 
the  number  of  distinguished  structures  in  their 
towns  would  of  course  be  greater  than  in  other  parts 
of  America.  But  these  seem  not  to  have  been  either 
so  solid  or  magnificent  as  to  merit  the  pompous  epi- 
thets which  some  Spanish  authors  employ  in  de- 
scribing them.  It  is  probable,  that,  though  more 
ornamented,  and  built  on  a  larger  scale,  they  wera 
erected  with  the  same  slight  materials  which  the 
Indians  employed  in  their  common  buildings  (153), 
and  time,  in  a  space  much  less  than  two  hundied 
and  fifty  years,  may  have  swept  away  all  remains  of 
them  (154). 

From  this  enumeration  of  facts,  it  seems  upon  the 
whole  to  be  evident,  that  the  state  of  society  in 
Mexico  was  considerably  advanced  beyond  that  of 
the  savage  tribes  which  we  have  delineated.  But 
it  is  no  less  manifest,  that  with  respect  to  many  par- 
ticulars, the  Spanish  accounts  of  their  progress  ap- 
pear to  be  highly  embellished.  There  is  not  a  more 
frequent  or  a  more  fertile  source  of  deception  in 
describing  the  manners  and  arts  of  savage  nations, 


172 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


or  of  such  as  are  imperfectly  civilized,  than  that  of 
applying  to  them  the  names  and  phrases  appropriated 
to  the  institutions  and  refinements  of  polished  life. 
When  the  leader  of  a  small  tribe,  or  the  head  of  a 
rude  community,  is  dignified  with  the  name  of  king 
or  emperor,  the  place  of  his  residence  can  receive  no 
other  name  but  that  of  his  palace  ;  and  whatever  his 
attendants  may  be,  they  must  be  called  his  court. 
Under  such  appellations  they  acquire,  in  our  estima- 
tion, an  importance  and  dignity  which  does  not  be- 
long to  them.  The  illusion  spreads,  and  giving  a 
false  colour  to  every  part  of  the  narrative,  the  imagi- 
nation is  so  much  carried  away  with  the  resemblance, 
that  it  becomes  difficult  to  discern  objects  as  they 
Teally  are.  The  Spaniards,  when  they  first  touched 
on  the  Mexican  coast,  were  so  much  struck  with  the 
appearance  of  attainments  in  policy  and  in  the  arts  of 
life,  far  superior  to  those  of  the  rude  tribes  with 
which  they  were  hitherto  acquainted,  that  they  fan- 
cied they  had  at  length  discovered  a  civilized  people 
in  the  New  World.  This  comparison  between  the 
people  of  Mexico  and  their  uncultivated  neighbours, 
they  appear  to,  have  kept  constantly  in  view,  and  ob- 
serving with  admiration  many  things  which  marked 
the  pre-eminence  of  the  former,  they  employ,  in  de- 
scribing their  imperfect  policy  and  infant  arts,  such 
terms  as  are  applicable  to  the  institutions  of  men  far 
"beyond  them  in  improvement.  Both  these  circum- 
stances concur  in  detracting  from  the  credit  due  to 
the  descriptions  of  Mexican  manners  by  the  early 
Spanish  writers.  By  drawing  a  parallel  between 
them  and  those  of  people  so  much  less  civilized,  they 
raised  their  own  ideas  too  high.  By  their  mode  of 
describing  them,  they  conveyed  ideas  to  others  no 
less  exalted  above  truth.  Later  writers  have  adopted 
the  style  of  the  original  historians,  and  improved 
upon  it.  The  colours  with  which  De  Solis  delineates 
the  character  and  describes  the  actions  of  Montezuma, 
the  splendour  of  his  court,  the  laws  and  policy  of  his 
empire,  are  the  same  that  he  must  have  employed  in 
exhibiting  to  view  the  monarch  and  institutions  of  a 
highly  polished  people. 

But  though  we  may  admit,  that  the  warm  imagina- 
tion of  the  Spanish  writers  has  added  some  embel- 
lishment to  their  descriptions,  this  will  not  justify 
the  decisive  and  peremptory  tone  with  which  several 
authors  pronounce  all  their  accounts  of  the  Mexican 
power,  policy,  and  laws,  to  be  the  fictions  of  men 
who  wished  to  deceive,  or  who  delighted  in  the  mar- 
vellous. There  are  few  historical  facts  that  can  be 
ascertained  by  evidence  more  unexceptionable  than 
may  be  produced  in  support  of  the  material  articles 
in  the  description  of  the  Mexican  constitution  and 
manners.  Eye-witnesses  relate  what  they  beheld. 
Men  who  had  resided  among  the  Mexicans,  both  be- 
fore and  after  tho  conquest,  describe  institutions  and 
customs  which  were  familiar  to  them.  Persons  of 
professions  so  different  that  objects  must  have  pre- 
sented themselves  to  their  view  under  every  various 
aspect ;  soldiers,  priests,  and  lawyers,  all  concur  in 
their  testimony.  Had  Cortes  ventured  to  impose 
upon  his  sovereign,  by  exhibiting  to  him  a  picture  of 
imaginary  manners,  there  wanted  not  enemies  and 
rivals  who  were  qualified  to  detect  his  deceit,  and 
who  would  have  rejoiced  in  exposing  it.  But  ac- 
cording to  the  just  remark  of  an  author,  whose  inge- 
nuity has  illustrated,  and  whose  e'.oque'nco  has  adorn- 
ed, the  history  of  America,  this  supposition  is  in  it- 
self s\s  improbable  as  the  attempt  would  have  been 
audacious,  Who  among  the  destroyers  of  this  great 
empire  was  so  eijjightened  by  science,  or  so  attentive 

to  the  progress  aatl  operations  of  men  in  social  life, 


as  to  frams  a  fictitious  system  of  policy,  so  well  com- 
bined and  so  consistent,  as  that  which  they  delineate 
in  their  accounts  of  the  Mexican  government  ?  Where 
could  they  have  borrowed  the  idea  of  many  institu- 
tions in  legislation  and  police,  to  which,  at  that  pe- 
riod, there  was  nothing  parallel  in  the  nations  with 
which  they  were  acquainted  ?  There  was  not,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  a  regular  estab- 
lishment of  posts  for  conveying  intelligence  to  tha 
sovereign  of  any  kingdom  in  Europe.  The  same  ob- 
servation will  apply  to  what  the  Spaniards  relate  with 
respect  to  the  structure  of  the  city  of  Mexico,  the  re- 
gulations concerning  its  police,  and  various  laws  estab- 
lished for  the  administration  of  justice,  or  securing 
the  happiness  of  the  community.  Whoever  is  accus- 
tomed to  contemplate  the  progress  of  nations,  will 
often,  at  very  early  stages  of  it,  discover  a  premature 
and  unexpected  dawn  of  those  ideas,  which  gave  rise 
to  institutions  that  are  the  pride  and  ornament  of  its 
most  advanced  period.  Even  in  a  state  as  imper- 
fectly polished  as  the  Mexican  empire,  the  happy 
genius  of  some  sagacious  observer,  excited  or  aided 
by  circumstances  unknown  to  us,  may  have  intro- 
duced institutions  which  are  seldom  found  but  in 
societies  highly  refined.  But  it  is  almost  impossible 
that  the  illiterate  conquerors  of  the  New  World 
should  have  formed,  in  any  one  instance,  a  concep- 
tion of  customs  and  laws  beyond  the  standard  of 
improvement  in  their  own  age  and  country.  Or  if 
Cortes  had  been  capable  of  this,  what  inducement 
had  those  by  whom  he  was  superseded  to  continue 
the  deception  ?  Why  should  Corita,  or  Motolinea, 
or  Acosta,  have  amused  their  sovereign  or  their  fel- 
low-citizons  with  a  tale  purely  fabulous  ? 

In  one  particular,  however,  the  guides  whom  we 
must  follow,  have  represented  tho  Mexicans  to  be 
more  barbarous,  perhaps,  than  they  really  were. 
Their  religious  tenets,  and  the  rites  of  their  worship, 
are  described  by  them  as  wild  and  cruel  in  an  ex- 
treme degree.  Religion,  which  occupies  no  consi- 
derable place  in  the  thoughts  of  a  savage,  whose  con- 
ceptions of  any  superior  power  are  obscure,  and  his 
sacred  rites  few  as  well  as  simple,  was  formed  among 
the  Mexicans  into  a  regular  system,  with  its  complete 
train  of  priests,  temples,  victims,  and  festivals.  This, 
of  itself,  is  a  clear  proof  that  the  state  of  the  Mexi- 
cans was  very  different  from  that  of  the  ruder  Ame- 
rican tribes.  But  from  the  extravagance  of  their  re- 
ligious notions,  or  the  barbarity  of  their  rites,  no  con- 
clusion can  be  drawn  with  certainty  concerning  the 
degree  of  their  civilization.  For  nations,  long  after 
their  ideas  begin  to  enlarge,  and  their  manners  tore- 
fine,  adhere  to  systems  of  superstition  founded  on  the 
crude  conceptions  of  early  ages.  From  the  genius 
of  the  Mexican  religion  we  may,  however,  form  a 
most  just  conclusion  with  respect  to  its  influence 
upon  the  character  of  the  people.  The  aspect  of  super- 
stition in  Mexico  was  gloomy  and  atrocious.  Its 
divinities  were  clothed  with  terror,  and  delighted  in 
vengeance.  They  were  exhibited  to  the  people 
under  detestable  forms,  which  created  horror.  The 
figures  of  serpents,  of  tigers,  and  of  other  destructive 
animals,  decorated  their  temples.  Fear  was  the  only 
principle  that  inspired  their  votaries.  Fasts,  morti- 
fications, and  penances,  all  rigid,  and  many  of  them 
excruciating  to  an  extreme  degree,  were  the  means 
employed  to  appease  the  wrath  of  their  gods  ;  and 
the  Mexicans  never  approached  their  altars  without 
sprinkling  them  with  blood  drawn  from  their  own 
bodies.  But,  of  all  offerings,  human  sacrifices  were 
deemed  the  most  acceptable.  This  religious  belief, 
mingling'  with  tke  implacable  spirit  of  vengeance, 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


173 


ami  adding  new  force  to  it,  every  captive  taken  in 
war  was  brought  to  the  temple,  was  devoted  as  a  vic- 
tim to  the  deity,  and  sacrificed  with  rites  no  less  so- 
lemn than  cruel  (155).  The  heart  and  head  were 
the  portion  consecrated  to  the  gods  ;  the  warrior  by 
whose  prowess  the  prisoner  had  been  seized,  carried 
off  the  body  to  feast  upon  it  with  his  friends.  Under 
the  impression  of  ideas  so  dreary  and  terrible, 
nnd  accustomed  daily  to  scenes  of  bloodshed  ren- 
dered awful  by  religion,  the  heart  of  man  must  harden 
and  be  steeled  to  every  sentiment  of  humanity.  The 
spirit  of  the  Mexicans  was  accordingly  unfeeling, 
and  the  genius  of  their  religion  so  far  counterba- 
lanced the  influence  of  policy  and  arts,  that  not- 
withstanding their  prosress  in  both,  their  manners, 
instead]  of  softening,  became  more  fierce.  To  what 
circumstances  it  was  owing  that  superstition  as- 
sumed such  a  dreadful  form  among  the  Mexicans, 
we  have  not  sufficient  knowledge  of  their  history  to 
determine.  But  its  influence  is  visible,  and  produced 
an  effect  that  is  singular  in  the  history  of  the  human 
species.  The  manners  of  the  people  in  the  New 
World  who  had  made  the  greatest  progress  in  the 
arts  of  policy,  were,  in  several  respects,  the  most  fe- 
rocious, and  the  barbarity  of  some  of  their  customs 
exceeded  even  those  of  the  savage  state. 

The  empire  of  Peru  boasts  of  a  higher  antiquity  than 
that  of  Mexico.  According  to  the  traditionary  accounts 
collected  by  the  Spaniards,  it  had  subsisted  four 
hundred  years,  under  twelve  successive  monarchs. 
But  the  knowledge  of  their  ancient  story,  which  the 
Peruvians  could  communicate  to  their  conquerors, 
must  have  been  both  imperfect  and  uncertain  (156). 
Like  the  other  American  nations,  they  were  totally 
unacquainted  with  the  art  of  writing,  and  destitute  of 
the  only  means,  by  which  the  memory  of  past 
transactions  can  be  preserved  with  any  degree  of 
accuracy.  Even  among  people  to  whom  the  use  of 
letters  is  known,  the  era  where  the  authenticity  of 
history  commences  is  much  posterior  to  the  intro- 
duction of  writing.  That  noble  invention  continued, 
every  where,  to  be  long  subservient  to  the  common 
business  and  wants  of  life,  before  it  was  employed 
in  recording  events,  with  a  view  of  conveying  in- 
formation from  one  age  to  another.  But  in  no 
country  did  ever  tradition  alone  carry  down  histo- 
rical knowledge,  in  any  full  continued  stream,  during 
a  period  of  half  the  length  that  the  monarchy  of 
Peru  is  said  to  have  subsisted. 

The  Quipos,  or  knots  on  cords  of  different  colours, 
which  are  celebrated  by  authors  fond  of  the  mar- 
vellous, as  if  they  had  been  regular  annals  of  the 
empire,  imperfectly  supplied  the  place  of  writing. 
According  to  .the  obscure  description  of  them  by 
Acosta,  which  Garcilasso  de  la  Vega  has  adopted 
with  little  variation  and  no  improvement,  the  quipos 
leem  to  have  been  a  device  for  rendering  calculation 
more  expeditious  and  accurate.  By  the  various 
colours  different  objects  were  denoted,  and  by  each 
knot  a  distinct  number.  Thus  an  account  was 
taken,  and  a  kind  of  register  kept,  of  the  inhabitants 
in  each  province,  or  of  the  general  productions  col- 
lected there  for  public  use.  But  as  by  these  knots, 
however  varied  or  combined,  no  moral  or  abstract 
idea,  no  operation  or  quality  of  the  mind,  could  be 
represented,  they  contributed  little  towards  preserving 
the  memory  of  ancient  events  and  institutions.  By 
the  Mexican  paintings  and  symbols,  rude  as  they 
were,  more  knowledge  of  remote  transactions  seems 
to  have  been  conveyed  than  the  Peruvians  could 
derive  from  their  boasted  quipos.  Had  the  latter 
been  erea  of  more  extensive  use,  and  better  adapted. 


to  supply  the  place  of  written  records,  they  perished 
so  generally,  together  with  other  monuments  of 
Peruvian  ingenuity,  in  the  wreck  occasioned  by  the 
Spanish  conquest,  and  the  civil  wars  subsequent  to 
it,  that  no  accession  of  light  or  knowledge  comes 
from  them.  All  the  zeal  of  Garcilasso  de  la  Vega 
for  the  honour  of  that  race  of  monarchs  from  whom 
he  descended,  all  the  industry  of  his  researches, 
and  the  superior  advantages  with  which  he  carried 
them  on,  opened  no  source  of  information  unknown 
to  the  Spanish  authors  who  wrote  before  him.  In 
his  Royal  Commentaries,  he  confines  himself  to  illus- 
trate what  they  had  related  concerning  the  antiquities 
and  institutions  of  Peru ;  and  his  illustrations,  like 
their  accounts,  are  derived  entirely  from  the  tra- 
ditionary tales  current  among  his  countrymen. 

Very  little  credit  then  is  due  to  the  minute  details 
which  have  been  given  of  the  exploits,  the  battles, 
the  conquests,  and  private  character  of  the  early 
Peruvian  monarchs.  We  can  rest  upon  nothing 
in  their  story,  as  authentic,  but  a  few  facts  so  inter- 
woven in  the  system  of  religion  and  policy,  as  pre- 
served the  memory  of  them  from  being  lost:  and 
upon  the  description  of  such  customs  and  institu- 
tions as  continued  in  force  at  the  time  of  the  con- 
quest, and  fell  under  the  immediate  observation  of 
the  Spaniards.  By  attending  carefully  to  these, 
and  endeavouring  to  separate  them  from  what  ap- 
pears to  be  fabulous,  or  of  doubtful  authority,  I  have 
laboured  to  form  an  idea  of  the  Peruvian  government 
and  manners. 

The  people  of  Peru,  as  I  have  always  observed,  had 
not  advanced  beyond  the  rudest  fo.m  of  savage  life, 
when  Manco  Capac,  and  his  consort  Mama  Ocollo, 
appeared  to  instruct  and  civilize  them.  Who  these 
extraordinary  personages  were,  whether  they  im- 
ported their  system  of  legislation  and  knowledge  of 
arts  from  some  country  more  improved,  or,  if  natives 
of  Peru,  how  they  acquired  ideas  so  far  superior  to 
those  of  the  people  whom  they  addressed,  are  cir- 
cumstances with  respect  to  which  the  Peruvian  tra- 
dition conveys  no  information.  Manco  Capac  and 
his  consort,  taking  advantage  of  the  propensity  in  the 
Peruvians  to  superstition,  and  particularly  of  their 
veneration  for  the  sun,  pretended  to  be  children  of 
that  glorious  luminary,  and  to  deliver  their  instruc- 
tions in  his  name,  and  by  authority  from  him.  The 
multitude  listened  and  believed.  What  reformation 
in  policy  and  manners  the  Peruvians  ascribe  to 
those  founders  of  their  empire,  and  how,  from  the 
precepts  of  the  inca  and  his  consort,  their  ancestors 
gradually  acquired  some  '^knowledge  of  those  arts, 
and  some  relish  for  that  industry,  which  render 
subsistence  secure  and  life  comfortable,  has  been 
formerly  related.  Those  blessings  were  originally 
confined  within  narrow  precincts  ;  but  in  process  of 
time,  the  successors  of  Manco  Capac  extended  their 
dominion  over  all  the  regions  that  stretch  to  the 
west  of  the  Andes  from  Chili  to  Quito,  establishing, 
n  every  province  their  peculiar  policy  and  religious 
nstitutions. 

The  most  singular  and  striking  circumstance  in 
the  Peruvian  government,  is  the  influence  of  religion 
upon  its  genius  and  laws.  Religious  ideas  make 
such  a  feeble  impression  on  the  mind  of  a  savage, 
hat  their  effect  upon  his  sentiments  and  manners  is 
hardly  perceptible.  Among  the  Mexicans,  religion, 
educed  into  a  regular  system,  and  holding  a  con- 
siderable place  in  their  public  institutions,  operated 
pith  conspicuous  efficacy  in  forming  the  peculiar 
haracter  of  that  people.  But  in  Peru,  the  whole 

system  of  policy  was  founded  oa  religion.    The  inca 


174 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


appeared  not  only  as  a  legislator,  but  as  the  mes- 
senger of  Heaven.  His  precepts  were  received  not 
merely  as  the  injunction  of  a  superior,  but  as  the 
mandates  of  the  Deity.  His  race  was  to  be  held 
sacred  ;  and  in  order  to  preserve  it  distinct,  without 
being  polluted  by  any  mixture  of  less  noble  blood, 
the  sons  of  Manco  Capac  married  their  own  sisters, 
and  no  person  was  ever  admitted  to  the  throne  who 
could  not  claim  it  by  such  a  pure  descent.  To  those 
Children  of  the  Sun,  for  that  was  the  appellation 
bestowed  upon  the  offspring  of  the  first  inca,  the 
people  looked  up  with  the  reverence  due  to  beings  of 
a  superior  order.  They  were  deemed  to  be  under 
the  immediate  protection  of  the  Deity  from  whom 
.they  issued,  and  by  him  every  order  of  the  reigning 
inca  was  supposed  to  be  dictated. 

From  those  ideas  two  consequences  resulted.  The 
authority  of  the  inca  was  unlimited  and  absolute,  in 
the  most  extensive  meaning  of  the  words.  Whenever 
the  decrees  of  a  prince  are  considered  as  the  com- 
rnands  of  the  Divinity,  it  is  not  only  an  act  of 
rebellion,  but  of  impiety,  to  dispute  or  oppose  his 
will.  Obedience  becomes  a  duty  of  religion  ;  and 
as  it  would  be  profane  to  control  a  monarch  who  is 
believed  to  be  under  the  guidance  of  Heaven,  and 
presumptuous  to  advise  him,  nothing  remains  but  to 
submit  with  implicit  respect.  This  must  necessarily 
be  the  effect  of  every  government  established  on 
pretensions  of  intercourse  with  superior  powers. 
Such  accordingly  was  the  blind  submission  which 
the  Peruvians  yielded  to  their  sovereigns.  The 
persons  of  highest  rank  and  greatest  power  in  their 
dominions  acknowledged  them  to  be  of  a  more 
exalted  nature :  and  in  testimony  of  this,  when 
admitted  into  their  presence,  they  entered  with  a 
burden  upon  their  shoulders,  as  an  emblem  of  their 
servitude,  and  willingness  to  bear  whatever  the  inca 
was  pleased  to  impose.  Among  their  subjects,  force 
was  not  requisite  to  second  their  commands.  Every 
officer  intrusted  with  the  execution  of  them  was 
revered,  and  according  to  the  account  of  an  intelli- 
gent observer  of  Peruvian  manners,  he  might 
proceed  alone  from  one  extremity  of  the  empire  to 
another  without  meeting  opposition  ;  for,  on  pro- 
ducing a  fringe  from  the  royal  burla,  an  ornament  of 
the  head  peculiar  to  the  reigning  inca,  the  lives  and 
fortunes  of  the  people  were  at  his  disposal. 

Another  consequence  of  establishing  government 
in  Peru  on  the  foundation  of  religion  was,  that  all 
crimes  were  punished  capitally.  They  were  not 
considered  as  transgressions  of  human  laws,  but  as 
insults  offered  to  the  Deity.  Each,  without  any 
distinction  between  such  as  were  slight  and  such  as 
were  atrocious,  called  for  vengeance,  and  could  be 
expiated  only  by  the  blood  of  the  offender.  Con- 
sonantly to  the  same  ideas,  punishment  followed  the 
trespass  with  inevitable  certainty,  because  an  offence 
against  Heaven  was  deemed  such  a  high  enormity  as 
could  not  be  paidoned.  Among  a  people  of  cor- 
rupted morals,  maxims  of  jurisprudence  so  severe 
and  unrelenting,  by  rendering  men  ferocious  and 
desperate,  would  be  more  apt  to  multiply  crimes 
than  to  restrain  them.  But  the  Peruvians,  of  simple 
manners  and  unsuspicious  faith,  were  held  in  such 
awe  by  this  rigid  discipline,  that  the  number  of 
offenders  was  extremely  small.  Veneration  fur 
monarchs,  enlightened  and  directed,  as  they  believed, 
by  the  Divinity  whom  they  adored,  prompted  them 
to  their  duty ;  the  dread  of  punishment  which  they 
vrere  taught  to  consider  as  unavoidable  vengeance 
inflicted  by  offended  Heaven,  withheld  them  from 
evil. 


The  system  of  superstition  on  which  the  incas 
ingrafted  their  pretensions  to  such  hi^h  authority, 
was  of  a  genius  very  different  from  that  established 
among  the  Mexicans.  Manco  Capac  turned  the 
veneration  of  his  followers  entirely  towards  natural 
objects.  The  Sun,  as  the  great  source  of  light,  of 
j<>y,  and  fertility  in  the  creation,  attracted  their 
principal  homage.  The  Moon  and  Stars,  as  co- 
operating with  him,  were  entitled  to  secondary 
honours^  Wherever  the  propensity  in  the  human 
mind  to  acknowledge  and  to  adore  some  superior 
power  takes  this  direction,  and  is  employed  in  con- 
templating the  order  and  beneficence  that  really 
exist  ia  nature,  the  spirit  of  superstition  is  mild. 
Wherever  imaginary  beings,  created  by  the  fancy  and 
the  fears  of  men,  are  supposed  to  preside  in  nature, 
and  become  the  objects  of  worship,  superstition 
always  assumes  a  more  severe  and  atrocious  form. 
Of  the  latter  we  have  an  example  among  the  Mexi- 
cans, of  the  former  among  the  people  of  Peru.  The 
Peruvians  had  not,  indeed,  made  such  progress  in 
observation  or  inquiry,  as  to  have  attained  just 
conceptions  of  the  Deity  ;  nor  was  there  in  their 
language  any  proper-  name  or  appellation  of  the 
Supreme  Power,  which  intimated  that  they  had 
formed  any  idea  of  him  as  the  Creator  and  Governor 
of  the  world.  But  by  directing  their  veneration  to 
that  glorious  luminary,  which,  by  its  universal  and 
vivifying  energy,  is  the  best  emblem  of  divine  bene- 
ficence, the  rights  and  observances  which  they 
deemed  acceptable  to  him  were  innocent  and  humane. 
They  offered  tto  the  sun  a  part  of  thoje  productions 
which  his  genial  warmth  had  called  forth  from  the 
bosom  of  the  earth,  and  reared  to  maturity.  They 
sacrificed,  as  an  oblation  of  gratitude,  tome  of  the 
animals  which  were  indebted  to  his  influence  for 

i  nourishment.  They  presented  to  him  choice  speci- 
mens of  those  works  of  ingenuity  which  his  light 
had  guided  the  hand  of  man  in  forming.  But  the 
iucas  never  stained  his  altars  with  human  blood,  nor 
could  they  conceive  that  their  beneficent  father,  the 
sun  would  be  delighted  with  such  horrid  victims  (  l.r)7). 
Thus  the  Peruvians,  unacquainted  with  those  barba- 
rous rites  which  extinguish  sensibility,  and  suppress 
the  feelings  of  nature  at  the  sight  of  human  suffer- 

;  ings,  were  formed  by  the  spirit  of  the  superstition 
which  .they  had  adopted,  to  a  national  character  more 

I  gentle  than  that  of  any  people  in  America. 

The  influence  of  this  superstition  operated  in  the 

I  same  manner  upon  their  civil  institutions,  and  tended 

!  to  correct  in  them  whatever  was  adverse  to  gentleness 
of  character.  The  dominion  of  the  incas,  though  the 
most  absolute  of  all  despotisms,  was  mitigated  by  its 
alliance  with  religion.  The  mind  was  not  humbled 
and  depressed  by  the  idea  of  a  forced  subjection  to 
the  will  of  a  superior  :  obedience,  paid  to  one  who 
was  believed  to  be  clothed  with  divine  authority,  was 
willingly  yielded,  and  implied  no  degradation.  The 
sovereign,  conscious  that  the  submissive  reverence  of 
his  people  flowed  from  their  belief  of  his  heavenly 

I  descent,  was  continually  reminded  of  a  distinction 
which  prompted  him  to  imitate  that  beneficent  power 
which  he  was  supposed  to  represent.  In  consequence 
of  those  impressions,  there  hardly  occurs  in  the  tra- 
ditional history  of  Peru,  any  instance  of  rebellion 
against  the  reigning  prinae,  and,  among  twelve  sue* 
cessive  monarchs,  there  was  not  one  tyrant. 

Even  the  wars  in  which  the  incas  engaged  were 
carried  on  with  a  spirit  very  different  from  that  of 
other  American  nations.  They  fought  not,  like 
savages,  to  destroy  and  to  exterminate;  or,  like  the 

v  Mexicans,  to  glut  blood-thirsty  divinities  with  hurnaa 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA.  1 


175 


sacrifices.  They  conquered,  in  order  to  reclaim  and 
civilize  the  vanquished,  and  to  diffuse  the  knowledge 
of  their  own  institutions  and  arts.  Prisoners  seem 
not  to  have  been  exposed  to  the  insults  and  tortures 
which  were  their  lot  in  every  other  part  of  the  New 
World.  The  incas  took  the  people  whom  they  sub- 
dued under  their  protection,  and  admitted  them  to  a 
participation  of  all  the  advantages  enjoyed  by  their 
oiiginal  subjects.  This  practice,  so  repugnant  to 
American  ferocity,  and  resembling  the  humanity  of 
the  most  polished  nations,  must  be  ascribed,  like 
other  peculiarities  which  we  have  observed  in  the 
Peruvian  manners,  to  the  genius  of  their  religion. 
The  incas,  considering  the  homage  paid  to  a/iy  other 
object  than  the  heavenly  powers  which  they  adored 
as  impious,  were  fond  oi'  gaining  proselytes  to  their 
favourite  system.  The  idols  of  every  conquered  pro- 
vince were  carried  in  triumph  to  the  great  temple  at 
Cuzco,  and  placed  there  as  trophies  of  the  superior 
power  of  the  divinity  who  was  the  protector  of  the 
empire.  The  people  were  treated  with  lenity,  and 
instructed  in  the  religious  tenets  of  their  new  masters, 
that  the  conqueror  might  have  the  glory  of  having 
added  to  the  number  of  the  votaries  of  his  father  the 
sun. 

The  state  of  property  in  Peru  was  no  less  singular 
than  that  of  religion,  and  contributed,  likewise,  to- 
wards giving  a  mild  turn  of  character  to  the  people. 
All  the  lands  capable  of  cultivation  were  divided  into 
three  shares.  One  was  consecrated  to  the  sun,  and 
the  product  of  it  was  applied  to  the  erection  of  temples, 
and  furnishing  what  was  requisite  towards  celebrating 
the  public  rites  of  religion.  The  second  belonged  to 
the  inca,  and  was  set  apart  as  the  provision  made  by 
the  community  for  the  support  of  government.  The 
third  and  largest  fchare  was  reserved  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  people,  among  whom  it  was  parcelled 
out.  Neither  individuals,  however,  nor  communities, 
had  a  right  of  exclusive  property  in  the  portion  set 
apart  for  their  use.  They  possessed  it  only  for  a 
year,  at  the  expiration  of  which  a  new  division  was 
made,  in  proportion  to  the  rank,  the  number,  and  exi- 
gencies of  each  family.  All  those  lands  were  cul- 
tivated by  the  joint  industry  of  the  community.  The 
people,  summoned  by  a  proper  officer,  repaired  in  a 
body  to  the  fields,  and  performed  their  common  task, 
while  songs  and  musical  instruments  cheered  them 
to  their  labour.  By  this  singular  distribution  of  ter- 
ritory, as  well  as  by  the  mode  of  cultivating  it,  the 
idea  of  a  common  interest,  and  of  mutual  subser- 
viency, was  continually  inculcated.  Each  individual 
felt  his  connexion  with  those  around  him,  and  knew 
that  he  depended  on  their  friendly  aid  for  what  in- 
crease he  was  to  reap.  A  state  thus  constituted  may 
be  considered  as  one  great  family,  in  which  the  union 
of  the  members  was  so  complete,  and  the  exchange 
of  good  offices  so  perceptible,  as  to  create  stronger 
attachment,  and  to  bind  man  to  man  in  closer  inter- 
course, than  subsisted  under  any  form  of  society 
established  in  America.  From  this  resulted  gentle 
manners,  and  mild  virtues  unknown  in  the  savage 
state,  and  with  which  the  Mexicans  were  little  ac- 
quainted. 

But,  though  the  institutions  of  the  incas  were  so 
framed  as  to  strengthen  the  bonds  of  affection  among 
.  their  subjects,  there  was  great  inequality  in  their 
condition.  The  distinction  of  ranks  was  fully  estab- 
lished in  Peru.  A  great  body  of  the  inhabitants, 
under  the  denomination  of  Yanaconas,  were  held  in 
a  state  of  a  servitude.  Their  garb  and  houses  were 
of  a  form  different  from  those  of  freemen.  Like  the 
Tamenes  of  Mexico,  they  were  employed  in  carrying 


burdens,  and  in  performing  every  other  work  of 
drudgery.  Next  to  them  in  rank,  were  such  of  the 
people  as  were  free,  but  distinguished  by  no  official 
or  hereditary  honours.  Above  them  were  raised, 
those  whom  the  Spaniards  call  Orejones,  from  the. 
ornaments  worn  in  their  ears.  They  formed  what 
nay  be  denominated  the  order  of  nobles,  and  in  peace 
as  well  as  war  held  every  office  of  power  or  trust. 
At  the  head  of  all  were  the  children  of  the  sun,  who, 
by  tlieir  high  descent  and  peculiar  privileges,  were  as 
much  exalted  above  the  orejones,  as  these  were  ele- 
vated above  the  people. 

Such  a  form  of  society,  from  the  union  of  its  mem- 
bers, as  well  as  from  the  distinction  in  their  ranks, 
was  favourable  to  progress  in  the  arts.  But  the 
Spaniards,  having  been  acquainted  with  the  improved 
state  of  various  arts  in  Mexico,  several  years  before 
they  discovered  Peru,  were  not  so  much  struck  with 
what  they  observed  in  the  latter  country,  and  de- 
scribed the  appearances  of  ingenuity  there  with  less 
warmth  of  admiration.  The  Peruvians,  nevertheless, 
had  advanced  far  beyond  the  Mexicans,  both  in  the 
necessary  arts  of  life,  and  in  such  as  have  some  title 
to  the  name  of  elegant. 

In  Peru,  agriculture,  the  art  of.  primary  necessity 
in  social  life,  was  more  extensive,  and  carried  on  with 
greater  skill,  than  in  any  part  of  America.  The 
Spaniards,  in  their  progress  through  the  country, 
were  so  fully  supplied  with  provisions  of  every  kind, 
that  in  the  relation  of  their  adventures  we  meet  with 
few  of  those  dismal  scenes  of  distress  occasioned  by 
famine,  in  which  the  conquerors  of  Mexico  were  so 
often  involved.  The  quantity  of  soil  under  cultiva- 
tion was  not  left  to  the  discretion  of  individuals,  but 
regulated  by  public  authority,  in  proportion  to  the 
exigencies  of  the  community.  Even  the  calamity  of 
an  unfruitful  season  was  but  little  felt,  for  the  pro- 
duct of  the  lands  consecrated  to  the  sun,  as  well  as 
those  set  apart  for  the  incas,  being  deposited  in  the 
Tambos,  or  public  storehouses,  it  remained  there  as 
a  stated  provision  for  times  of  scarcity.  As  the 
extent  of  cultivation  was  determined  with  such  pro- 
vident attention  to  the  demands  of  the  state,  tho 
invention  and  industry  of  the  Peruvians  were  called 
forth  to  extraordinary  exertions,  by  certain  defects 
peculiar  to  their  climate  and.  soil.  All  the  vast 
rivers  that  flow  from  the  Andes  take  their  course 
eastward  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  Peru  is  watered 
only  by  some  streams  which  rush  down  from  the 
mountains  like  torrents.  A  great  part  of  the  low 
country  is  sandy  and  barren,  and  never  refreshed 
with  rain.  In  order  to  render  such  an  unpromising 
region  fertile,  the  ingenuity  of  the  Peruvians  had 
recourse  to  various  expedients.  By  means  of  arti- 
ficial canals,  conducted  with  much  patience  and 
considerable  art,  from  the  torrents  that  poured  across 
their  country,  they  conveyed  a  regular  supply  of 
moisture  to  their  fields.  They  enriched  the  soil  by 
manuring  it  with  the  dung  of  sea-fo\vls,  of  which 
they  found  an  inexhaustible  store  on  all  the  islands 
scattered  along  the  coasts  (158).  In  describing  the 
customs  of  any  nation  thoroughly  civilized,  such  prac- 
tices would  hardly  draw  attention,  or  be  mentioned  as 
in  any  degree  remarkable  ;  but  in  the  history  of  the 
improvident  race  of  men  in  the  New  World,  they  are 
entitled  to  notice  as  singular  proofs  of  industry  and 
of  art.  The  use  of  the  plough,  indeed  was  un- 
known to  the  Peruvians.  They  turned  up  the 
earth  with  a  kind  of  mattock  of  hard  wood.  Nor 
was  this  labour  deerr.ed  so  degrading  as  to  be  de- 
volved wholly  upon  the  women.  Both  sexes  joined 
in  pe. -forming  this  necessary  work.  Even  the 


176 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


children  of  the  sun  set  an  example  of  industry  by 
cultivating  a  field  near  Cuzco  with  their  own  hands, 
and  they  dignified  this  function  by  denominating  it 
their  triumph  over  the  earth. 

The  superior  ingenuity  of  the  Peruvians  is  obvious, 
likewise,  in  the  construction  of  their  houses  and 
public  buildings.  In  the  extensive  plains  which 
stretch  along  the  Pacific  Ocean,  where  the  sky  is 
perpetually  se:ene,  and  the  climate  mild,  their  houses 
were  very  properly  of  a  fabric  extremely  slight.  But 
in  the  higher  regions,  where  rain  falls,  where  the 
vicissitude  of  seasons  is  known,  and  their  rigour  felt, 
houses  were  constructed  with  greater  solidity.  They 
were  generally  of  a  square  form,  the  walls  about  eight 
feet  high,  built  with  bricks  hardened  in  the  sun, 
without  any  windows,  and  the  door  low  and  strait. 
Simple  as  these  structures  were,  and  rude  as  the 
materials  may  seem  to  be  of  which  they  were  formed, 
they  were  so  durable,  that  many  of  them  still  subsist 
in  different  parts  of  Peru,  long  after  every  monument 
that  might  have  conveyed  to  us  any  idea  of  the 
'domestic  state  of  the  other  American  nations  has 
vanished  from  the  face  of  the  earth.  But  it  was  in 
the  temples  consecrated  to  the  sun,  and  in  the 
buildings  destined*  for  the  residence  of  their  mo- 
narchs,  that  the  Peruvians  displayed  the  utmost 
extent  of  their  art  and  contrivance.  The  descriptions 
of  them  by  such  of  the  Spanish  writers  as  had  an 
opportunity  of  contemplating  them,  while  in  some 
measure  entire,  might  have  appeared  highly  exag- 
gerated, if  the  ruins  which  still  remain  did  not 
vouch  the  truth  of  their  relations.  These  ruins  of 
sacred  or  royal  buildings  are  found  in  every  province 
of  the  empire,  and  by  their  frequency  demonstrate 
that  they  are  monuments  of  a  powerful  people,  who 
must  have  subsisted  during  a  period  of  some  extent, 
in  a  state  of  no  inconsiderable  improvement.  They 
appear  to  have  been  edifices  various  in  their  dimen- 
sions. Some  of  a  moderate  size,  many  of  immense 
extent,  all  remarkable  for  solidity,  and  resembling 
each  other  in  the  style  of  architecture.  The  temple 
of  Pachacamac,  together  with  a  palace  of  the  inca, 
and  a  fortress,  were  so  connected  toguthe/  as  to  form 
one  great  structure,  above  half  a  league  in  circuit. 
Tn  this  prodigious  pile,  the  same  singular  taste  in 
building  is  conspicuous  as  in  other  works  of  the 
Peruvians.  As  they  were  unacquainted  with  the  use 
of  the  pulley,  and  other  mechanical  powers,  and 
could  not  elevate  the  larse  stones  and  bricks  which 
they  employed  in  building  to  any  considerable 
height,  the  walls  of  this  edifice,  in  which  they  seem 
to  have  made  their  greatest  effort  towards  magnifi- 
cence, did  not  rise  above  twelve  feet  from  the  ground, 
Though  thev  had  not  discovered  the  use  of  mortar, 
or  of  any  other  cement  in  building,  the  bricks  or 
stones  were  joined  with  so  much  nicety,  that  the 
seams  can  hardly  be  discerned  (159).  The  apart- 
ments, as  far  as  the  distribution  of  them  can  be 
traced  in  the  ruins,  were  ill  disposed,  and  afforded 
little  accommodation.  There  was  not.  a  single 
window  in  any  part  of  the  building ;  and  as  no  light 
could  enter  but  by  the  door,  all  the  apartments  of 
largest  dimensions  must  either  have  been  perfectly 
dark,  or  illuminated  by  some  other  means.  But 
with  all  these,  and  many  other  imperfections  that 
might  be  mentioned  in  their  art  of  building,  the 
works  of  the  Peruvians  which  still  remain,  must  be 
be  considered  as  stupendous  efforts  of  a  people 
unacquainted  with  the  use  of  iron,  and  convey  to  us 
a  high  idea  of  the  power  possessed  by  their  ancient 
monarchs. 

These,  however,  were  not  the  noblest  or  most  use- 


ful works  of  the  incas.  The  two  great  roads  from 
Cusco  to  Quito,  extending  in  an  uninterrupted  stretch 
above  fifteen  hundred  miles,  are  entitled  to  still 
higher  praise.  Tiic  one  was  conducted  through  the 
interior  and  mountainous  country,  the  other  through 
the  plains  on  I  he  sea-coast.  From  the  language  of 
admiration  in  which  some  of  the  early  writers  express 
their  astonishment  when  they  first  viewed  those  roads, 
and  from  the  more  pompous  description  of  later 
writers,  who  labour  to  support  some  favourite  theory 
concerning  America,  one  might  be  led  to  compare  this 
work  of  the  incas  to  the  famous  military  ways  which 
remain  as  monuments  of  the  Roman  power;  but  in  a 
country  where  there  was  no  tame  animal  except  the 
llama,  which  was  never  used  for  draught,  and  but 
little  as  a  beast  of  burden,  where  the  high-roads 
were  seldom  trod  by  any  but  a  human  foot,  no  great 
degree  of  labour  or  art  was  requisite  in  forming  them. 
The  Peruvian  roads  were  only  fifteen  feet  in  breadth, 
an  1  in  many  places  so  slightly  formed,  that  time  has 
effaced  every  vestige  of  the  course  in  which  they  ran. 
In  the  low  country,  little  more  seems  to  have  been 
done  than  to  plant  trees,  or  to  fix  posts  at  certain  in- 
tervals, in  order  to  mark  the  proper  route  to  travel- 
lers. To  open  a  path  through  tho  mountainous  coun- 
try was  a  more  arduous  task.  Eminences  were  le- 
velled, and  hollows  filled  up,  and  for  the  preservation 
of  the  road  it  was  fenced  with  a  bank  of  turf.  At 
proper  distances,  tambos,  or  storehouses,  were  erected 
for  the  accommodation  of  the  inca  and  his  attend- 
ants, in  their  progress  through  his  dominions.  From 
the  manner  in  which  the  road  was  originally  formed 
in  this  higher  and  more  impervious  region,  it  has 
proved  more  durable;  and  though,  from  the  inatten- 
tion of  the  Spaniaids  to  every  object  but  that  of 
working  their  mines,  nothing  has  been  done  towards 
keeping  it  in  repair,  its  course  may  still  be  traced. 
Such  was  the  celebrated  road  of  the  incas  ;  and  even 
from  this  description,  divested  of  every  circumstance 
of  manifest  exaggeration,  or  of  suspicious  aspect,  it 
must  be  considered  as  a  striking  proof  of  an  extraor- 
dinary progress  in  improvement  and  policy.  To  the 
savage  tribes  of  America,  the  idea  of  facilitating  com- 
munication with  places  at  a  distance  had  never  oc- 
curred. To  the  Mexicans  it  was  hardly  known. 
Even  in  the  most  civilized  countries  in  Europe,  men 
had  advanced  far  in  refinement,  before  it  became  a  re- 
gular object  of  national  police  to  form  such  roads  as 
render  intercourse  commodious.  It  was  a  capital 
object  of  Roman  policy  to  open  a  communication 
with  all  the  provinces  of  their  extensive  empire,  by 
means  of  those  roads  which  are  justly  considered  as 
one  of  the  noblest  monuments  both  of  their  wisdom 
and  their  power.  But  during  the  long  reign  of  bar- 
barism, the  Roman  roads  were  neglected  or  destroy- 
ed ;  and  at  the  time  when  the  Spaniards  entered 
Peru,  no  kingdom  in  Europe  could  boast  of  any  work 
of  public  utility  that  could  be  compared  with  the 
great  roads  formed  by  the  incas. 

The  formation  of  those  roads  introduced  another 
improvement  in  Peru  equally  unknown  over  all  the 
rest  of  America.  In  its  course  from  south  to  north, 
the  road  of  the  incas  was  intersected  by  all  the  tor- 
rents which  roll  from  the  Andes  towards  the  West- 
ern ocean.  From  the  rapidity  of  their  course,  as 
well  as  from  the  frequency  and  violence  of  their  inun- 
dation, these  were  not  foidable.  Some  expedient, 
however,  was  to  be  found  for  passing  them.  The 
Peruvians,  from  their  unacquaintance  with  the  use  of 
arches,  and  their  inability  to  work  in  wood,  could  not 
construct  bridges  either  of  stone  or  timber.  But  ne- 
cessity, the  parent  of  invention,  suggested  a  device 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


177 


which  supplied  that  defect.  They  formed  cables  o: 
great  strength,  by  twisting  together  some  of  the  pli- 
able withes  or  osiers,  with  which  their  country 
abounds  ;  six  of  these  cables  they  stretched  across 
the  stream  parallel  to  one  another,  and  made  them 
fast  on  each  side.  These  they  bound  firmly  together 
by  interweaving  smaller  ropes  so  close,  as  to  form  a 
compact  piece  of  net-work,  which  being  covered  with 
branches  of  trees  and  earth,  they  passed  along  it  with 
tolerable  security  (160).  Proper  persons  were  ap- 
pointed to  attend  at  each  bridge,  to  keep  it  in  repair, 
and  to  assist  passengers.  In  the  level  country,  where 
the  rivers  became  deep  and  broad  and  still,  they  are 
passed  in  Balzas,  or  floats  ;  in  the  construction  as 
well  as  navigation  of  which,  the  ingenuity  of  the  Pe- 
ruvians appears  to  be  far  superior  to  that  of  any 
people  in  America.  These  had  advanced  no  further 
in  naval  skill  than  the  use  of  the  paddle,  or  oar;  the 
Peruvians  ventured  to  raise  a  mast,  and  spread  a  sail, 
by  means  of  which  their  balzas  not  only  went  nimbly 
before  the  wind,  but  could  veer  and  tack  with  great 
celerity. 

Nor  were  the  ingenuity  and  art  of  the  Peruvians 
confined  solely  to  objects  of  essential  utility.  They 
had  made  some  progress  in  arts,  which  may  be  called 
elegant.  They  possessed  the  precious  metals  in 
greater  abundance  than  any  people  of  America.  They 
obtained  gold  in  the  same  manner  with  the  Mexicans, 
by  searching  in  the  channels  of  rivers,  or  washing  the 
earth  in  which  particles  of  it  were  contained.  But  in 
order  to  procure  silver,  they  exerted  no  inconsider- 
able degree  of  skill  and  invention.  They  had  not, 
indeed,  attained  the  art  of  sinking  a  shaft  into  the 
bowels  of  the  earth,  and  penetrating  to  the  riches 
concealed  there ;  but  they  hollowed  deep  caverns  on 
the  banks  of  rivers  and  the  sides  of  mountains,  and 
emptied  such  veins  as  did  not  dip  suddenly  beyond 
their  reach.  In  other  places,  where  the  vein  lay  near 
the  surface,  they  dug  pits  to  such  a  depth,  that  the 
person  who  worked  below  could  throw  out  the  ore,  or 
hand  it  up  in  baskets.  They  had  discovered  the  art 
of  smelting  and  refining  this,  either  by  the  simple  ap- 
plication of  fire,  or  where  the  ore  was  more  stubborn, 
and  impregnated  with  foreign  substances,  by  placing 
it  in  small  ovens  or  furnaces,  on  high  grounds,  so  ar- 
tificially constructed,  that  the  draught  of  air  perform- 
ed the  function  of  a  bellows,  an  engine  with  which 
they  were  totally  unacquainted.  By  this  simple  de- 
vice, the  purer  ores  were  smelted  with  facility,  and 
the  quantity  of  silver  in  Peru  was  so  considerable, 
that  many  of  the  utensils  employed  in  the  functions 
of  common  life  were  made  of  it.  Several  of  those 
vessels  and  trinkets  are  said  to  have  meiited  no  small 
degree  of  estimation,  on  account  of  the  neatness  of 
the  workmanship,  as  well  as  the  intrinsic  value  of  the 
materials.  But  as  the  conquerors  of  America  were 
well  acquainted  with  the  latter,  but  had  scarcely  any 
conception  of  the  former,  most  of  the  silver  vessels 
and  trinkets  were  melted  down,  and  rated  according 
to  the  weight  and  fineness  of  the  metal  in  the  division 
of  the  spoil. 

In  other  works  of  mere  curiosity  or  ornament, 
their  ingenuity  has  been  highly  celebrated.  Many 
specimens  of  those  have  been  dug  out  of  the  Guacas, 
or  mounds  of  earth,  with  which  the  Peruvians  covered 
the  bodies  of  the  dead.  Among  these  are  mirrors  of 
various  dimensions,  of  hard  shining  stones  highly 
polished  ;  vessels  of  earthenware  of  different  forms  ; 
hatchets  and  other  instruments,  some  destined  for 
war,  and  others  for  labour  ;  some  were  of  flint,  some 
of  copper,  hardened  to  such  a  degree  by  an  unknown 
process,  as  to  supply  the  place  of  iron  on  several 
THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA,  No.  23, 


occasions.  Had  the  use  of  those  tools  formed  of 
copper  been  general,  the  progress  of  the  Peruvians 
in  the  arts  might  have  been  such  as  to  emulate  that 
of  more  cultivated  nations.  But  either  the  metal 
was  so  rare,  or  the  operation  by  which  it  was  hard- 
ened so  tedious,  that  their  instruments  of  copper 
were  few,  and  so  extremely  small,  that  they  seem  to 
have  been  employed  only  in  slighter  works.  But 
even  to  such  a  circumscribed  use  of  this  imperfect 
metal,  the  Peruvians  were  indebted  for  their  supe- 
riority to  the  other  people  of  America  in  various  arts. 
The  same  observation,  however,  may  be  applied  to 
them,  which  I  formerly  made  with  respect  to  the  arts 
of  the  Mexicans.  From  several  specimens  of  Peru- 
ruvian  utensils  and  ornaments,  which  are  deposited 
in  the  royal  cabinet  of  Madrid,  and  from  some  pre- 
served in  different  collections  in  other  parts  of  Europe, 
I  have  reason  to  believe  that  the  workmanship  is 
more  to  be  admired  on  account  of  the  rude  tools  with 
which  it  was  executed,  than  on  account  of  its  in- 
trinsic neatness  and  elegance;  and  that  the  Peru- 
vians, though  the  most  improved  of  all  the  Americans, 
were  not  advanced  beyond  the  infancy  of  arts. 

But  notwithstanding  so  many  particulars  which 
seem  to  indicate  a  high  degree  of  improvement  in 
Peru,  other  circumstances  occur  that  suggest  the  idea 
of  a  society  still  in  the  first  stages  of  its  transition 
from  barbarism  to  civilization.  In  all  the  dominions 
of  the  incas,  Cuzco  was  the  only  place  that  had  the 
appearance,  or  was  entitled  to  the  name,  of  a  city. 
Every  where  else  the  people  lived  mostly  in  detached 
habitations,  dispersed  over  the  country,  or,  at  the 
utmost,  settled  together  in  small  villages.  But  until 
men  are  brought  to  assemble  in  numerous  bodies, 
and  incorporated  in  such  close  union,  as  to  enjoy 
frequent  intercourse,  and  to  feel  mutual  dependence, 
they  never  imbibe  perfectly  the  spirit,  or  assume  the 
manne-.  s,  of  social  life.  In  a  country  of  immense  ex- 
tent, with  only  one  city,  the  progress  of  manners, 
and  the  improvement  either  of  the  necessary  or  more 
refined  arts,  must  have  been  so  slow,  and  carried  on 
under  such  disadvantages,  that  it  is  more  surprising 
the  Peruvians  should  have  advanced  so  far  in  refine- 
ment, than  that  they  did  not  proceed  further. 

In  consequence  of  this  state  of  imperfect  union, 
the  separation  of  professions  in  Peru  was  not  so  com- 
plete as  among  the  Mexicans.  The  less  closely  men 
associate,  the  moVe  simple  are  their  manners,  and  the 
fewer  their  wants.  The  crafts  of  common  and  most 
necessary  use  in  life  do  not,  in  such  a  state,  become 
so  complex  or  difficult,  as  to  render  it  requisite  that 
men  should  be  trained  to  them  by  any  particular 
course  of  education.  All  the  arts,  accordingly,  which 
were  of  daily  and  indispensable  utility,  were  exer- 
cised by  every  Peruvian  indiscriminately.  None  but 
the  artists  employed  in  works  of  mere  curiosity,  or 
ornament,  constituted  a  separate  order  of  men,  or 
were  distinguished  from  other  citizens.  From  the 
want  of  cities  in  Peru,  another  consequence  followed. 
There  was  little  commercial  intercourse  among  the 
inhabitants  of  that  great  empire.  The  activity  of 
commerce  is  coeval  with  the  foundation  of  cities ;  and 
from  the  moment  that  the  members  of  any  commu- 
nity settle  in  considerable  numbers  in  one  place,  its 
operations  become  vigorous.  The  citizen  must  de- 
pend for  subsistence  on  the  labour  of  those  who  cul- 
tivate the  ground.  They,  in  return,  must  receive 
some  equivalent.  Thus  mutual  intercourse  is  estab- 
lished, and  the  productions  of  art  are  regularly  ex* 
changed  for  the  fruits  of  agriculture.  In  the  towns 
of  the  Mexican  empire,  stated  markets  were  held, 
and  whatever  could  supply  any  want  or  desire  of  man 
2  A 


178 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


was  an   object  of  commerce.     'But  in    Peru,  from    ardour,  the  same   rapacious  desire  for  wealth,  and 

the    singular  mode  of    dividing    property,  and   the  '.  the  same    capacity    for  enduring    and  surmounting 
i  •  i   ii  _        .1  A      ,,-1-1,1  ,1.       -         -i,       , ,   •     •!      i  •  i     j-i' •  i^    j 


manner  in  which  the  people  were  settled,  there  w 
hardly  any  species  of  commerce  carried  on  between 
different  provinces,  and  the  community  was  less  ac- 
quainted with  that  active  intercourse,  which  is  at 
once  a  bond  of  union,  and  an  incentive  to  improve- 
ment. 


everything  in  order  to  attain  it,  which  distinguishe 
the    operations  of  the    Spaniards   in    their   greater 
American  conquests.     But  instead  of  entering  into  a 
detail,  which,  from  the  similarity  of  the  transactions 
would  appear  almost  a  repetition  of  what  has  been 


already  related,  I  shall  satisfy  myself  with  such  a 
view  of  those  provinces  of  the  Spanish  empire  in 
America,  which  have  not  hitherto  been  mentioned, 


But  the  unwarlike  spirit  of  the  Peruvians  was  the 
most  remarkable,  as  well  as  the  most  fatal,  defect  in 

their  character.  The  greater  part  of  the  rude  nations  j  as  may  convey  to  my  readers  an  adequate  idea  of  its 
of  America  opposed  their  invaders  with  undaunted  j  greatness,  fertility,  and  opulence, 
ferocity,  though  with  little  conduct  or  success.  The  I  I  begin  with  the  countries  contiguous  to  the  two 
Mexicans  maintained  the  struggle  in  defence  of  their  j  great  monarchies,  of  whose  history  and  institutions  I 
liberties  with  such  persevering  fortitude,  that  it  was  j  have  given  some  account,  and  shall  then  briefly 
difficulty  the  Spaniards  triumphed  over  them.  Peru  i  describe  the  other  districts  of  Spanish  America.  The 
was  subdued  at  once,  and  almost  without  resistance  ;  j  jurisdiction  of  the  viceroy  of  New  Spain  extends  over 
and  the  most  favourable  opportunities  of  regaining  several  provinces,  which  were  not  subject  to  the  do- 

j.1         •         /*  1  T          f>  1     «  ,1  •        •  n     ,  1  •»  it  •  rill  „.!._-•_     _  £     n* 1 


their  freedom,  and  of  crushing  their  oppressors,  were 
lost  through  the  timidity  of  the  people.  Though  the 
traditional  history  of  the  Peruvians  represents  all 
the  incas  as  warlike  princes,  frequently  at  the  head 
of  armies,  which  they  led  to  victory  and  conquest, 
few  symptoms  of  such  a  martial  spirit  appear  in  any 
of  their  operations  subsequent  to  the  invasion  of  the 


minion  of  the  Mexicans.  The  countries  of  Cinaloa 
and  Sonora,  that  stretch  along  the  east  side  of  the 
Vermilion  sea,  or  gulf  of  California,  as  well  as  the 
immense  kingdoms  of  New  Navarre  and  New  Mexico, 
which  bend  towards  the  west  and  north,  did  not  ac- 
knowledge the  sovereignty  of  Montezuma,  or  his 
predecessors.  These  regions,  not  inferior  in  magni- 


Spaniards.  The  influence,  perhaps,  of  those  insti-  tude  to  all  the  Mexican  empire,  are  reduced,  some  to 
tutions  which  rendered  their  manners  gentle,  gave  j  a  greater,  others  to  a  less,  degree  of  subjection  to  the 
their  minds  this  unmanly  softness ;  perhaps  the  con-  Spanish  yoke.  They  extend  through  the  most  de- 
stant  serenity  and  mildness  of  the  climate  may  have  ;  lightful  part  of  the  temperate  zone ;  their  soil  is,  in 
enervated  the  vigour  of  their  frame  ;  perhaps  some  j  general,  remarkably  fertile,  and  all  their  productions, 
principle  in  their  government,  unknown  to  us,  was  whether  animal  or  vegetable,  are  most  perfect  in  their 
the  occasion  of  this  political  debility.  Whatever  may  |  kind.  They  have  all  a  communication  either  with 
have  been  the  cause,  the  fact  is  certain,  and  there  is  the  Pacific  ocean,  or  with  the  gulf  of  Mexico,  and 
not  an  instance  in  history  of  any  people  so  little  ad-  are  watered  by  rivers  which  not  only  enrich  them, 
vanced  in  refinement,  so  totally  destitute  of  military  but  may  become  subservient  to  commerce.  The 
enterprise.  This  character  hath  descended  to^  their  number  of  Spaniards  settled  in  those  vast  countries 
posterity.  The  Indians  of  Peru  are  now  more*  tame  is  indeed  extremely  small.  They  may  be  said  to 
and  depressed  than  any  people  of  America.  -Their  \  have  subdued  rather  to  have  occupied  them.  But  if 
feeble  spirits,  relaxed  in  lifeless  inaction,  seem  hardly  !  the  population  in  their  ancient  establishments  in 
capable  of  any  bold  or  manly  exertion.  !  America  shall  continue  to  increase,  they  may  gra- 

But,  besides  those  capital  defects  in  the  political  dually  spread  over  those  provinces,  of  which,  however 
state  of  Peru,  some  detached  circumstances  and  facts  inviting,  they  have  not  hitherto  been  able  to  take  full 
occur  in  the  Spanish  writers,  which  discover  a  con-  j  possession. 

siderable  remainder  of  barbarity  in  their  manners,  j  One  circumstance  may  contribute  to  the  speedy 
A  cruel  custom,  that  prevailed  in  some  of  the  most  |  population  of  some  districts.  Very  rich  mines,  both 
savage  tribes,  subsisted  among  the  Peruvians.  On  of  gold  and  silver,  have  been  discovered  in  many  of 
the  death  of  the  incas,  and  other  eminent  persons,  a  !  the  regions  which  I  have  mentioned.  Wherever 
considerable  number  of  their  attendunts  were  put  to  these  are  opened,  and  worked  with  success,  a  number 
death,  and  interred  around  their  guacas,  that  they  of  people  resort.  In  order  to  supply  them  with  the 
might  appear  in  the  next  world  with  their  former  necessaries  of  life,  cultivation  must  be  increased, 
dignity,  and  be  served  with  the  same  respect.  On  artisans  of  various  kinds  must  assemble,  and  industry 
the  death  of  Huona-Capac,  the  most  powerful  of  j  as  well  as  wealth  will  be  gradually  diffused.  Many 
their  monarchs,  above  a  thousand  victims  were  !  examples  of  this  have  occurred  in  different  parts  of 
doomed  to  accompany  him  to .  the  tomb.  In  one  '  America  since  they  fell  under  the  dominion  of  the 
particular  their  manners  appear  to  have  been  more  :  Spaniards.  Populous  villages  and  large  towns  have 
barbarous  than  those  of  most  rude  tribes.  Though  suddenly  arisen  amidst  uninhabited  wilds  and  moun- 
acquainted  with  the  use  of  fire  in  preparing  maize,  !  tains ;  and  the  working  of  mines,  though  far  from 
and  other  vegetables,  for  food,  they  devoured  both  j  being  the  most  proper  object  towards  which  the  at- 
fiesh  and  fish  perfectly  raw,  and  astonished  the  |  tention  of  an  infant  society  should  be  turned,  may 
Spaniards  with  a  practice  repugnant  to  the  ideas  of  !  become  the  means  both  of  promoting  useful  activity, 
all  civilized  people.  j  and  of  augmenting  the  number  of  people.  A  recent 

But  though  Mexico  and  Peru  are  the  possessions  j  and  singular  instance  of  this  has  happened,  which, 
of  Spain  in  the  New  World,  which,  on  account  both  !  as  it  is  but  little  known  in  Europe,  and  may  be  pro- 
of their  ancient  and  present  state,  have  attracted  the  ductive  of  great  effects,  merits  attention.  The  Spani- 
greatest  attention,  her  other  dominions  there  are  far 
from  being  inconsiderable,  either  in  extent  or  value. 


ards  settled  in  the  provinces  of  Cinaloa  and  Sonora 
had  been  long  disturbed  by  the  depredations  of  some 

A    •! _r?    1.1   _   T__  j' T._   A! 1  *r/?r^     +  V»/-» 


The  greater  part  of  them  was  reduced  to  subjection  !  fierce  tribes  of  the  Indians.  In  the  year  17G5,  the 
during  the  first  part  of  the  sixteenth  century,  by  pri-  '  incursions  of  those  savages  became  so  frequent,  and 
vate  adventurers,  who  fitted  out  their  small  armanents  so  destructive,  that  the  Spanish  inhabitants,  in  des- 
cither  in  Hispaniola  or  in  Old  Spain ;  and  were  we  pair,  applied  to  the  Marquis  de  Croix,  the  viceroy  of 
to  follow  each  leader  in  his  progress,  we  should  dis-  j  Mexico,  for  such  a  body  of  troops  as  might  enable 
-cover  the  same  daring  courage,  the  same  persevering  !  them  to  drive  those  formidable  invaders  from  their 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


170 


places  of  retreat  in  the  mountains.  But  the  treasury 
of  Mexico  was  so  much  exhausted  by  the  large  sums 
drawn  from  it,  in  order  to  support  the  late  war 
against  Great  Britain,  that  the  viceroy  could  afford 
them  no  aid.  The  respect  due  to  his  virtues  accom- 
plished what  his  official  power  could  not  effect.  He 
prevailed  with  the  merchants  of  New  Spain  to  ad- 
vance about  two  hundred  thousand  pesos  for  defray- 
ing the  expense  of  the  expedition.  The  war  was 
conducted  by  an  officer  of  abilities  ;  and  after  being 
protracted  for  three  years,  chiefly  by  the  difficulty  of 
pursuing  the  fugitives  over  mountains  and  through 
(iefiles  which  were  almost  impassable,  it  terminated, 
in  the  year  1771,  in  the  final  submission  of  the 
tribes  which  had  been  so  long  the  object  of  terror  to 
the  two  provinces.  In  the  course  of  this  service,  the 
Spaniards  marched  through  countries  into  which 
they  seem  nut  to  have  penetrated  before  that  time, 
and  discovered  mines  of  such  value,  as  was  astonish- 
ing even  to  men  acquainted  with  the  riches  con- 
tuincd  in  the  mountains  of  the  New  World.  At 
Ciueguilla,  in  the  province  of  Sonora,  they  entered 
a  plain  of  fourteen  leagues  in  extent,  in  which,  at 
the  depth  of  only  sixteen  inches,  they  found  gold  in 
grains  of  such  a  size,  that  some  of  them  weighed  nine 
marks,  and  in  such  quantities,  that  in  a  shoi't  time, 
with  a  few  labourers,  they  collected  a  thousand  marks 
of  gold  in  grains,  even  without  taking  time  to  wash 
the  earth  that  had  been  dug,  which  appeared  to  be 
.so  rich,  that  pcrs-ms  of  skill  computed  that  it  might 
yield  what  would  be  equal  in  value  to  a  million  of 
pesos.  Before  the  end  of  the  year  1771,  above  two 
thousand  persons  were  settled  in  Cineguilla,  under 
the  government  of  proper  magistrates,  and  the  in- 
spection of  several  ecclesiastics.  As  several  other 
mines,  not  inferior  in  richness  to  that  of  Cineguilla, 
have  been  discovered,  both  in  Sonora  and  Cinaloa, 
it  is  probable  that  these  neglected  and  thinly  inha- 
bited provinces  may  soon  become  as  populous  and 
valuable  as  any  part  of  the  Spanish  empire  of 
America. 

The  peninsula  of  California,  on  the  other  side  of 
the  Vermilion  sea,  seems  to  have  been  less  known  to 
the  ancient  Mexicans  than  the  provinces  which  I 
have  mentioned.  It  was  discovered  by  Cortes  in  the 
year  1536.  During  a  long  period  it  continued  to  be 
so  little  frequented,  that  even  its  form  was  unknown, 
and  in  most  charts  it  was  represented  as  an  island, 
not  as  a  peninsula  (  ).  Though  the  climate  of  this 
country,  if  we  may  judge  from  its  situation,  must  be 
very  desirable,  the  Spaniards  have  made  small  pro- 
gress in  peopling  it.  Towards  the  close  of  the  last 
century,  the  Jesuits,  who  had  great  merit  in  exploring 
this  neglected  province,  and  in  civilizing  its  rude  in- 
habitants, imperceptibly  acquired  a  dominion  over  it 
as  complete  as  that  which  they  possessed  in  their 
missions  in  Paraguay,  and  they  laboured  to  introduce 
into  it  the  same  policy,  and  to  govern  the  natives  by 
the  same  maxims.  In  order  to  prevent  the  court  of 
Spain  from  conceiving  any  jealousy  of  their  designs 
and  operations,  they  seem  studiously  to  have  depre- 
ciated the  country,  by  representing  the  climate  as  so 
disagreeable  and  unwholesome,  and  the  soil  as  so 
barren,  that  nothing  but  a  zealous  desire  of  convert- 
ing the  natives  could  have  induced  them  to  settle 
there.  Several  public-spirited  citizens  endeavoured 
to  undeceive  their  sovereigns,  and  to  give  them  a 
better  view  of  California  ;  but  in  vain. 

At  length,  on  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits  from  the 
Spanish  dominions,  the  court  of  Madrid,  as  prone  at 
that  juncture  to  suspect  the  purity  of  the  order's  in- 
tentions, as  formerly  to  confide  in  them  with  implicit 


trust,  appointed  Don  Joseph  Galvcz,  whose  abilities 
have  since  raised  him  to  the  high  rank  of  minister  for 
the  Indies,  to  visit  that  peninsula.  His  account  of 
the  country  was  favourable ;  he  found  the  pearl- 
fishery  on  its  coasts  to  be  valuable,  and  he  discovered 
mines  of  gold  of  a  very  promising  appearance. 
From  its  vicinity  to  Cinaloa  and  Sonora,  it  is  pro- 
bable, that  if  the  population  of  these  provinces  shall 
increase  in  the  manner  which  I  have  supposed,  Ca- 
lifornia may,  by  degrees,  receive  from  them  such  a 
recruit  of  inhabitants,  as  to  be  no  longer  reckoned 
among  the  desolate  and  useless  districts  of  the  Spa- 
nish empire. 

On  the  east  of  Mexico,  Yucatan  and  Honduras 
are  comprehended  in  the  government  of  New  Spain, 
though  anciently  they  can  hardly  be  said  to  have 
formed  a  part  of  the  Mexican  empire.  These  large 
provinces,  stretching  from  the  bay  of  Campeachy 
beyond  Cape  Gracias  a  Dios,  do  not,  like  the  other 
territories  of  Spain  in  the  New  World,  derive  their 
value  either  from  the  fertility  of  their  soil,  or  the 
richness  of  their  mines;  but  they  produce,  in  greater 
abundance  than  any  other  part  of  America,  the  log- 
wood-tree, which,  in  dying  some  colours,  is  so  far 
preferable  to  any  other  material,  that  the  consump- 
tion of  it  in  Europe  is  considerable,  and  it  has  be- 
come an  article  in  commerce  of  great  value.  During 
a  long  period  no  European  nation  intruded  upon  the 
Spaniards  in  those  provinces,  or  attempted  to  obtain 
any  share  in  this  branch  of  trade.  But  after  the 
conquest  of  Jamaica  by  the  English,  it  soon  appeared 
that  a  formidable  rival  was  now  seated  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  Spanish  territories.  One  of  the  first 
objects  which  tempted  the  English  settled  in  that 
island,  was  the  great  profit  arising  from  the  logwood 
trade,  and  the  facility  of  wresting  some  portion  of  it 
from  the  Spaniards.  Some  adventurers  from  Ja- 
maica made  the  first  attempt  at  Cape  Catoche,  the 
south-east  promontory  of  Yucatan,  and  by  cutting 
logwood  there,  earned  on  a  gainful  traffic.  When 
most  of  the  trees  near  the  coast  in  that  place  were 
felled,  they  removed  to  the  island  of  Trist,  in  the  bay 
of  Campeachy,  and  in  later  times,  their  principal 
station  has  been  in  the  bay  of  Honduras.  The 
Spaniards,  alarmed  at  this  encroachment,  endea- 
voured by  negociation,  remonstrances,  and  open 
force,  to  prevent  the  English  from  obtaining  any 
footing  on  that  part  of  the  American  continent. 
But  after  struggling  against  it  for  more  than  a  cen- 
tury, the  disasters  of  last  war  extorted  from  the  court 
of  Madrid  a  reluctant  consent  to  tolerate  this  settle- 
ment of  foreigners  in  the  heart  of  its  territories. 
The  pain  which  this  humbling  concession  occasioned, 
seems  to  have  prompted  the  Spaniards  to  devise  a 
method  of  rendering  it  of  little  consequence,  more 
effectual  than  all  the  efforts  of  negociation  or  vio- 
lence. The  logwood  produced  on  the  west  coast  of 
Yucatan,  where  the  soil  is  drier,  is  in  quality  far 
superior  to  that  which  grows  on  the  marshy  grounds 
where  the  English  are  settled.  By  encouraging  the 
cutting  of  this,  and  permitting  the  importation 
of  it  into  Spain  without  paying  any  duty,  such 
vigour  has  been  given  to  this  branch  of  commerce, 
and  the  logwood  which  the  English  bring  to  market 
has  sunk  so  much  in  value,  that  their  trade  to  the 
bay  of  Honduras  has  gradually  declined  since  it 
obtained  a  legal  sanction ;  and,  it  is  probable, .  will 
soon  be  finally  abandoned.  In  that  event,  Yucatan 
and  Honduras  will  become  possessions  of  consider- 
able importance  to  Spain. 

Still  further  east  than  Honduras  lie  the  two  pro- 
vinces of  Costa  Rica  and  Veragua,  which  likewise 


180 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


belong  to  the  viceroyalty  of  New  Spain  ;  but  both 
have  been  so  much  neglected  by  the  Spaniards,  and 
are  apparently  of  such  small  value,  that  they  merit 
no  particular  attention. 

The  most  important  province  depending  on  the 
viceroyalty  of  Peru  is  Chili.  The  incas  had  estab- 
lished their  dominion  in  some  of  its  northern  districts; 
but  in  the  greater  part  of  the  country,  its  gallant  and 
high-spirited  inhabitants  maintained  their  independ- 
ence. The  Spaniards,  allured  by  the  fame  of  its 
opulence,  early  attempted  the  conquest  of  it  under 
Diego  Almagro ;  and  after  his  death,  Pedro  de  Val- 
divia  resumed  the  design.  Both  met  with  fierce  op- 
position. The  former  relinquished  the  enterprise  in 
the  manner  which  I  have  mentioned.  The  latter, 
after  having  given  many  displays,  both  of  courage 
and  military  skill,  was  cut  off,  together  with  a  con- 
siderable body  of  troops  under  his  commaud.  Fran- 
cisco de  Villagra,  Valdivia's  lieutenant,  by  his 
spirited  conduct,  checked  the  natives  in  their  career, 
and  saved  the  remainder  of  the  Spaniards  from  des- 
truction. By  degrees,  all  the  campaign  country 
along  the  coast  was  subjected  to  the  Spanish  do- 
minion. The  mountainous  country  is  still  possessed 
by  the  Puelches,  Araucos,  and  other  tribes  of  its 
original  inhabitants,  formidable  neighbours  to  the 
Spaniards;  with  whom,  during  the  course  of  two 
centuries,  they  have  been  obliged  to  maintain  almost 
perpetual  hostility,  suspended  only  by  a  few  inter- 
vals of  insecure  peace. 

That  part  of  Chili,  then,  which  may  properly  be 
deemed  a  Spanish  province,  is  a  narrow  district, 
extended  along  the  coast  from  the  desert  of  Atacamas 
to  the  island  of  Chiloe,  above  nine  hundred  miles. 
Its  climate  is  the  most  delicious  in  the  New  World, 
and  is  hardly  equalled  by  that  of  any  region  on  the 
face  of  the  earth.  Though  bordering  on  the  torrid 
zone,  [it  never  feels  the  extremity  of  heat,  being 
screened  on  the  east  by  the  Andes,  and  refreshed 
from  the  west  by  cooling  sea-breezes.  The  tempe- 
rature of  the  air  is  so  mild  and  equable,  that  the 
Spaniards  give  it  the  preference  to  that  of  the 
southern  provinces  in  their  native  country.  The 
fertility  of  the  soil  corresponds  with  the  benignity 
of  the  climate,  and  is  wonderfully  accommodated 
to  European  productions.  The  most  valuable  of 
these,  corn,  wine,  and  oil,  abound  in  Chili,  as  if 
they  had  been  native  to  the  country.  All  the  fruits 
imported  from  Europe  attain  to  full  maturity  there. 
The  animals  of  our  hemisphere  not  only  multiply, 
but  improve,  in  this  delightful  region.  The  horned 
cattle  are  of  larger  size  than  those  of  Spain.  Its 
breed  of  horses  surpasses,  both  in  beauty  and  spirit, 
the  famous  Andalusian  race  from  which  they  sprung. 
Nor  has  nature  exhausted  her  bounty  on  the  surface 
of  the  earth;  she  has  stored  its  bowels  with  riches. 
Valuable  mines  of  gold,  of  silver,  of  copper,  and 
of  lead,  have  been  discovered  in  various  parts  of  it. 

A  country  distinguished  by  so  many  blessings,  we 
may  be  apt  to  conclude,  would  early  become  a  fa- 
vourite station  of  the  Spaniards,  and  must  have  been 
cultivated  with  peculiar  predilection  and  care.  In- 
stead of  this,  a  great  part  of  it  remains  unoccupied. 
In  all  this  extent  of  country,  there  are  not  above 
eighty  thousand  white  inhabitants,  and  about  three 
times  that  number  of  negroes  and  people  of  a  mixed 
race.  The  most  fertile  soil  in  America  lies  unculti- 
vated, and  some  of  its  most  promising  mines  remain 
unwrought.  Strange  as  this  neglect  of  the  Spa- 
niards to  avail  themselves  of  advantages  which 
seemed  to  court  their  acceptance  may  appear,  the 
causes  of  it  can  be  traced.  The  only  intercource 


of  Spain  writh  its  colonies  in  the  South  sea,  was 
carried  on  during  two  centuries  by  the  annual 
fleet  to  Porto-bello.  All  the  produce  of  these  colo- 
nies was  shipped  in  the  ports  of  Callao  or  Africa  in 
Peru,  for  Panama,  and  carried  from  thence  across 
the  isthmus.  All  the  commodities  which  they  re- 
ceived from  the  mother-country  were  conveyed  from 
Panama  to  the  same  harbours.  Thus  both  the  ex- 
ports and  imports  of  Chili  passed  through  the  hands 
of  merchants  settled  in  Peru.  These  had  of  course 
a  profit  on  each ;  and  in  both  transactions  the  Chi- 
lese  felt  their  own  subordination ;  and  having  no 
direct  intercourse  with  the  parent  state,  they  de- 
pended upon  another  province  for  the  disposal  of 
their  productions,  as  well  as  for  the  supply  of  their 
wants.  Under  such  discouragements,  population 
could  not  increase,  and  industry  was  destitute  of  one 
chief  incitement.  But  now  that  Spain,  from  motives 
which  I  shall  mention  hereafter,  has  adopted  a  new 
system,  and  carries  on  her  commerce  with  the  colo- 
nies in  the  South  sea,  by  ships  which  go  round  Cape 
Horn,  a  direct  intercourse  is  opened  between  Chili 
and  the  mother-country.  The  gold,  the  silver,  and 
the  other  commodities  of  the  province,  will  be  ex- 
changed in  its  own  harbours  for  the  manufactures  of 
Europe.  Chili  may  speedily  rise  into  that  import- 
ance among  the  Spanish  settlements,  to  which  it  is 
entitled  by  its  natural  advantages.  It  may  become 
the  granary  of  Peru,  and  the  other  provinces  along 
the  Pacific  ocean.  It  may  supply  them  with  wine, 
with  cattle,  with  horses,  with  hemp,  and  many  other 
articles  for  which  they  now  depend  upon  Europe. 
Though  the  new  system  has  been  established  only  a 
few  years,  those  effects  of  it  begin  already  to  be 
observed.  If  it  shall  be  adhered  to  with  any  steadi- 
ness for  half  a  century,  one  may  venture  to  foretell, 
that  population,  industry,  and  opulence,  will  advance 
in  this  province  with  rapid  progress. 

To  the  east  of  the  Andes,  the  provinces  of  Tucu- 
man,  and  Rio  de  la  Plata,  border  on  Chili;  and,  like 
it,  were  dependent  on  the  viceroyalty  of  Peru. 
These  regions,  of  immense  extent,  stretch  in  length, 
from  north  to  south,  above  thirteen  hundred  miles, 
and  in  breadth  more  than  a  thousand.  This  country, 
which  is  larger  than  most  European  kingdoms,  na- 
turally forms  itself  into  two  great  divisions,  one  on 
the  north  and  the  other  on  the  south  of  Rio  de  la 
Plata.  The  former  comprehends  Paraguay,  the 
famous  missions  of  the  Jesuits,  and  several  other 
districts.  But  as  disputes  have  long  subsisted  be- 
tween the  courts  of  Spain  and  Portugal  concerning 
its  boundaries,  which,  it  is  probable,  will  be  soon 
finally  ascertained,  either  amicably  or  by  the  deci- 
sion of  the  sword.  I  choose  to  reserve  my  account 
of  this  northern  division,  until  I  enter  upon  the  his- 
tory of  Portuguese  America,  with  which  it  is  inti- 
mately connected ;  and,  in  relating  it,  I  shall  be 
able,  from  authentic  materials,  supplied  both  by 
Spain  and  Portugal,  to  give  a  full  and  accurate  des- 
cription of  the  operations  and  views  of  the  Jesuits, 
in  rearing  that  singular  fabric  of  policy  in  America, 
which  has  drawn  so  much  attention,  and  has  been 
so  imperfectly  understood.  The  latter  division  of  the 
province  contains  the  governments  of  Tucuman  and 
Buenos  Ayres,  and  to  these  I  shall  at  present  con- 
fine my  observations.  The  Spaniards  entered  this 
part  of  America  by  the  river  de  la  Plata ;  and, 
though  a  succession  of  cruel  disasters  befell  them 
in  their  early  attempts  to  establish  their  dominion  in 
it,  they  were  encouraged  to  persist  in  the  design, 
at  first  by  the  hopes  of  discovering  mines  in  the 
interior  country,  and  afterwards  by  the  necessity  of 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


181 


occupying  it,  in  order  to  prevent  any  other  nation 
from  settling  there,  and  penetrating  by  this  route 
into  their  rich  possessions  in  Peru.  But  except  at 
Buenos  Ayres,  they  have  made  no  settlement  of  any 
consequence  in  all  the  vast  space  which  I  have 
mentioned.  There  are,  indeed,  scattered  over  it,  a 
few  places  on  which  they  have  bestowed  the  name 
of  towns,  and  to  which  they  have  endeavoured  to 
add  some  dignity,  by  erecting  them  into  bishoprics  ; 
but  they  are  no  better  than  paltry  villages,  each  with 
two  or  three  hundred  inhabitants.  One  circum- 
stance, however,  which  was  not  originally  foi'eseen, 
has  contributed  to  render  this  district,  though  thinly 
peopled,  of  considerable  importance.  The  province 
of  Tucuman,  together  with  the  country  to  the  south 
of  the  Plata,  instead  of  being  covered  with  wood  like 
other  parts  of  America,  forms  one  extensive  open 
plain,  almost  without  a  tree.  The  soil  is  a  deep  fer- 
tile mould,  watered  by  many  streams  descending 
from  the  Andes,  and  clothed  in  perpetual  verdure. 
In  this  rich  pasturage,  the  horses  and  cattle  imported 
by  the  Spaniards  from  Europe  have  multiplied  to  a 
degree  which  almost  exceeds  belief.  This  has 
enabled  the  inhabitants,  not  only  to  open  a  lucrative 
trade  with  Peru,  by  supplying  it  with  cattle,  horses, 
and  mules,  but  to  carry  on  a  commerce  no  less  bene- 
ficial, by  the  exportation  of  hides  to  Europe.  From 
both  the  colony  has  derived  great  advantages.  Bnt 
its  commodious  situation  for  carrying  on  contraband 
trade,  has  been  the  chief  source  of  its  prosperity. 
While  the  court  of  Madrid  adhered  to  its  ancient 
system,  with  respect  to  its  communication  with  Ame- 
rica, the  river  De  la  Plata  lay  so  much  out  of  the 
course  of  Spanish  navigation,  that  interlopers, 
almost  without  any  risk  of  being  either  observed  or 
obstructed,  could  pour  in  European  manufactures  in 
such  quantities,  that  they  not  only  supplied  the  wants 
of  the  colony,  but  were  conveyed  into  all  the  eastern 
districts  of  Peru.  When  the  Portuguese  in  Brazil 
extended  their  settlements  to  the  banks  of  Rio  de  la 
Plato,  a  new  channel  was  opened,  by  which  pro- 
hibited commodities  flowed  into  the  Spanish  terri- 
tories, with  still  more  facility,  and  in  greater  abun- 
dance. This  illegal  traffic,  however  detrimental  to 
the  parent  state,  contributed  to  the  increase  of  the 
settlement  which  had  the  immediate  benefit  of  it, 
and  Buenos-Ayres  became  gradually  a  populous  and 
opulent  town.  What  may  be  the  effect  of  the  altera- 
tion lately  made  in  the  government  of  this  colony, 
the  nature  of  which  shall  be  described  in  the  subse- 
quent book,  cannot  hitherto  be  known. 

All  the  other  territories  of  Spain  in  the  New 
World,  the  islands  exxepted,  of  whose  discovery  and 
reduction  I  have  formerly  given  an  account,  are 
comprehended  under  two  great  divisions ;  the  former 
denominated  the  kingdom  of  Tierra  Ferme,  the  pro- 
vinces of  which  stretch  along  the  Atlantic,  from  the 
eastern  frontier  of  New  Spain  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Orinoco  ;  the  latter,  the  new  kingdom  of  Granada, 
situated  in  the  interior  country.  With  a  short  view 
of  these  I  shall  close  this  part  of  my  work. 

To  the  east  of  Veragua,  the  last  province  subject 
to  the  viceroy  of  Mexico,  lies  the  isthmus  of  Darien. 
Though  it  was  in  this  part  of  the  continent  that  the 
Spaniards  first  began  to  plant  colonies,  they  have 
made  no  considerable  progress  in  peopling  it.  As 
the  country  is  extremely  mountainous,  deluged  with 
rain  during  a  good  part  of  the  year,  remarkably  un- 
healthful,  and  contains  no  mines  of  great  value,  the 
Spaniards  would  probably  have  abandoned  it  alto- 
gether, if  they  had  not  been  allui'ed  to  continue  by 
the  excellence  of  the  harbour  of  Porto-Bello  on  the 


one  sea,  and  that  of  Panama  on  the  other.  These 
have  been  called  the  keys  to  the  communication  be  • 
tween  the  North  and  South  sea,  between  Spain  and 
her  most  valuable  colonies.  In  consequence  of  this 
advantage,  Panama  has  become  a  considerable  and 
thriving  town.  The  peculiar  noxiousness  of  its  cli- 
mate has  prevented  Porto-Bello  from  increasing  in 
the  same  proportion.  As  the  intercourse  with  the 
settlements  in  the  Pacific  ocean  is  now  carried  on  by 
another  channel,  it  is  probable  that  both  Porto- 
Bello  and  Panama  will  decline,  when  no  longer 
nourished  and  enriched  by  that  commerce  to  which 
they  were  indebted  for  their  prosperity,  and  even 
their  existence. 

The  provinces  of  Carthagena  and  Santa  Martha 
stretch  to  the  eastward  of  the  isthmus  of  Darien. 
The  country  still  continues  mountainous,  but  its  val- 
leys begin  to  expand,  are  well  watered,  and  extremely 
fertile.  Pedro  de  Heredia  subjected  this  part  of 
America  to  the  crown  of  Spain,  about  the  year  1532. 
It  is  thinly  peopled,  and  of  course  ill  cultivated.  It 
produces,  however,  a  variety  of  valuable  drugs,  and 
some  precious  stones,  particularly  emeralds.  But  its 
chief  importance  is  derived  from  the  harbour  of  Car- 
thagena, the  safest  and  best  fortified  of  any  in  the 
American  dominions  of  Spain.  In  a  situation  so 
favourable,  commerce  soon  began  to  flourish.  As 
early  as  the  year  1544  it  seems  to  have  been  a  town 
of  some  note.  But  when  Carthagena  was  chosen  as- 
the  port  in  which  the  galeons  should  first  begin  to 
trade  on  their  arrival  from  Europe,  and  to  which  they 
were  directed  to  return,  in  order  to  prepare  for  their 
voyage  homeward,  the  commerce  of  its  inhabitants 
was  so  much  favoured  by  this  arrangement,  that  it 
soon  became  one  of  the  most  populous,  opulent,  and 
beautiful  cities  in  America.  There  is,  however, 
reason  to  apprehend,  that  it  has  reached  its  highest 
point  of  exaltation,  and  that  it  will  be  so  far  affected 
by  the  change  in  the  Spanish  system  of  trade  with 
America,  which  has  withdrawn  from  it  the  desirable 
visits  of  the  galeons,  as  to  feel  at  least  a  temporary 
decline.  But  the  wealth  now  collected  there  will 
soon  find  or  create  employment  for  itself,  and  may 
be  turned  with  advantage  into  some  new  channel. 
Its  harbour  is  so  safe,  and  so  conveniently  situated 
for  receiving  commodities  from  Europe,  its  merchants 
have  been  so  long  accustomed  to  convey  these  into 
all  the  adjacent  provinces,  that  it  is  probable  they 
will  still  retain  this  branch  of  trade,  and  Carthagena 
continue  to  be  a  city  of  great  importance. 

The  [province  contiguous  to  Santa  Martha  on  the 
cast,  was  first  visited  by  Alonso  de  Ojeda,  in  the 
year  1499  ("^) ;  and  the  Spaniards,  on  their  land- 
ing there,  having  observed  some  huts  in  an  Indian 
village  built  upon  piles,  in  order  to  raise  them  above 
the  stagnated  water  which  covered  the  plain,  were 
led  to  bestow  upon  it  the  name  of  Venezuela,  or 
Little  Venice,  by  their  usual  propensity  to  find  a 
resemblance  between  what  they  discovered  in  Ame- 
rica, and  the  objects  which  were  familiar  to  them  in 
Europe.  They  made  some  attempts  to  settle  there, 
but  with  little  success.  The  final  reduction  of  the 
province  was  accomplished  by  means  very  different 
from  those  to  which  Spain  was  indebted  for  its  other 
acquisitions  in  the  New  World.  The  ambition  of 
Charles  V.  often  engaged  him  in  operations  of  such 
variety  and  extent,  that  his  revenues  were  not  suffi- 
cient to  defray  the  expense  of  carrying  them  into  exe- 
cution. Among  other  expedients  for  supplying  the 
diticiency  of  his  funds,  he  had  borrowed  large  sums 
from  the  Velsers  of  Augsburg,  the  most  opulent 
merchants  at  that  time  in  Europe.  By  way  of  rctri- 


182 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


bution  for  these,  or  in  hopes,  perhaps,  of  obtaining  a 
new  loan,  he  bestowed  upon  them  the  province  of 
Venezuela,  to  be  held  as  an  hereditary  fief  from  the 
crown  of  Castile,  on  condition  that  within  a  limited 
time  "they  should  render  themselves  masters  of  the 
country,  and  establish  a  colony  there.  Under  the 
direction  of  such  persons,  it  might  have  been  ex- 
pected that  a  settlement  would  have  been  established 
on  maxims  very  different  from  those  of  the  Spaniards, 
and  better  calculated  to  encourage  such  useful  in- 
dustry as  mercantile  proprietors  might  have  known 
to  be  the  most  certain  course  of  prosperity  and  opu- 
lence. But  unfortunately  they  committed  the  exe- 
cution of  their  plan  to  some  of  those  soldiers  of 
fortune  with  which  Germany  abounded  in  the  six- 
teenth century.  These  adventurers,  impatient  to 
amass  riches,  that  they  might  speedily  abandon  a 
station  which  they  soon  discovered  to  be  very  un- 
cemfortable,  instead  of  planting  a  colony  in  order  to 
cultivate  and  improve  the  country,  wandered  from 
district  to  district  in  search  of  mines,  plundering  the 
natives  with  unfeeling  rapacity,  or  oppressing  them 
by  the  imposition  of  intolerable  tasks.  In  the  course 
of  a  few  years,  their  avarice  and  exactions,  in  com- 
parison with  which  those  of  the  Spaniards  were 
moderate,  desolated  the  province  so  completely,  that 
it  could  hardly  afford  them  subsistence,  and  the 
Velsers  relinquished  a  property  from  which  the  in- 
considerate conduct  of  their  agents  left  them  no 
hope  of  ever  deriving  any  advantage.  When  the 
wretched  remainder  of  the  Germans  deserted  Vene- 
zuela, the  Spaniards  again  took  possession  of  it ;  but 
notwithstanding  many  natural  advantages,  it  is  one 
of  their  most  languishing  and  unproductive  settle- 
ments. 

The  provinces  of  Caraccas  and  Cumana  are  the 
last  of  the  Spanish  territories  on  this  coast;  but  in 
relating  the  origin  and  operations  of  the  mercantile 
company,  in  which  an  exclusive  right  of  trade  with 
them  has  been  vested,  I  shall  hereafter  have  occasion 
to  consider  their  state  and  productions. 

The  new  kingdom  of  Granada  is  entirely  an 
inland  country  of  great  extent.  This  important  ad- 
dition was  mac'e  to  the  dominions  of  Spain  about  the 
year  1536,  by  Sebastian  dc  Benalcazar  and  Gonzalo 
Ximenes  de  Quesada,  two  of  the  bravest  and  most 
accomplished  officers  employed  in  the  conquest  of 
America.  The  former,  who  commanded  at  that 
time  in  Quito,  attacked  it  from  the  south ;  the  latter 
made  his  invasion  from  Santa  Martha  on  the  north. 
As  the  original  inhabitants  of  this  region  were  fur- 
ther advanced  in  improvement  than  any  people  in 
America  but  the  Mexicans  and  Peruvians,  they 
defended  themselves  with  great  resolution  and 
good  conduct.  The  abilities  and  perseverance  of 
Benalcazar  and  Quesada  surmounted  all  opposition, 
though  not  without  encountering  many  dangers,  and 
reduced  the  country  into  the  form  of  a  Spanish 
province. 

The  new  kingdom  of  Granada  is  so  far  elevated 
above  the  level  of  the  sea,  that  though  it  approaches 
.almost  to  the  equator,  the  climate  is  remarkably 
temperate.  The  fertility  of  its  valleys  is  not  in- 
ferior to  that  of  the  richest  districts  in  America,  and 
its  higher  grounds  yield  gold  and  precious  stones  of 
various  kinds.  It  is  not  by  digging  into  the  bowels 
.of  the  earth  that  this  gold  is  found ;  it  is  mingled 
.with  the  soil  near  the  surface,  and  separated  from  it 
-by  repeated  washing  with  water.  This  operation  is 
* /carried  on  wholly  by  negro  slaves;  for  though  the 
,chill  subterranean  air  has  been  discovered,  by  ex- 
perience, to  be  so  fatal  to  them,  that  they  cannot  be 


employed  with  advantage  in  the  deep  silver  mines, 
they  are  move  capable  of  performing  the  other  spe- 
cies of  labour  than  Indians.  As  the  natives  in  the 
new  kingdom  of  Granada  are  exempt  from  that  ser- 
vice, which  has  wasted  their  race  so  rapidly  in  other 
parts  of  America,  the  countiy  is  still  remarkably 
populous.  Some  districts  yield  gold  with  a  pro- 
fusion no  less  wonderful  |than  that  in  the  vale  of 
Cineguilla,  which  1  have  formerly  mentioned,  and 
it  is  often  found  in  large  pepitar,  or  grains,  which 
manifest  the  abundance  in  which  it  is  produced, 
On  a  rising  ground  near  Pamplona,  single  labourers 
have  collected  in  a  day  what  was  equal  in  value 
to  a  thousand  pesos.  A  late  governor  of  Santa 
Fe  brought  with  him  to  Spain  a  lump  of  pure  gold, 
estimated  to  be  worth  seven  hundred  and  forty 
pounds  sterling.  This,  which  is,  perhaps,  the  largest 
and  finest  specimen  ever  found  in  the  New  World, 
is  now  deposited  in  the  royal  cabinet  of  Madrid. 
But  without  founding  any  calculation  on  what  is 
rare  and  extraordinary,  the  value  of  the  gold  usually 
collected  in  this  countiy,  particularly  in  the  pro- 
vinces of  Popayan  and  Choco,  is  of  considerable 
amount.  Its  towns  are  populous  and  flourishing. 
The  number  of  inhabitants  in  almost  every  part  of 
the  country  daily  increases.  Cultivation  and  in- 
dustry of  various  kinds  begin  to  be  encouraged,  and 
to  prosper.  A  considerable  trade  is  carried  on  with 
Carthagena,  the  produce  of  the  mines,  and  other 
commodities,  being  conveyed  down  the  great  river  of 
St.  Magdalene  to  that  city.  On  another  quarter,  the 
new  kingdom  of  Granada  has  a  communication  with 
the  Atlantic  by  the  river  Orinoco ;  but  the  country 
which  stretches  along  its  banks  towards  the  east,  is 
little  known,  and  imperfectly  occupied  by  the 
Spaniards. 


BOOK  VIII. 

After  tracing  the  progress  of  the  Spaniards  iu 
their  discoveries  and  conquests  during  more  than 
half  a  century,  I  have  conducted  them  to  that  pe- 
riod when  their  authority  was  established  over  al- 
most all  the  vast  regions  in  the  New  World  still 
subject  to  their  dominion.  The  effect  of  their  settle- 
ments upon  the  countries  of  which  they  took  posses- 
sion, the  maxims  which  they  adopted  in  forming 
their  new  colonies,  the  interior  structure  and  policy 
of  these,  together  with  the  influence  of  their  pro- 
gressive improvement  upon  the  parent  state,  and 
upon  the  commercial  intercourse  of  nations,  are  the 
objects  to  which  we  now  turn  our  attention. 

The  first  visible  consequence  of  the  establishments 
made  by  the  Spaniards  in  America,  was  the  diminu- 
tion of  the  ancient  inhabitants,  to  a  degree  equally 
astonishing  and  deplorable.  I  have  already,  on  dif- 
ferent occasions,  mentioned  the  disastrous  influence 
under  which  the  connexion  of  the  Americans  with 
the  people  of  the  hemisphere  commenced,  both  in 
the  islands  and  in  several  parts  of  the  continent,  and 
have  touched  upon  various  causes  of  their  rapid 
consumption.  Wherever  the  inhabitants  of  America 
had  resolution  to  take  arms  in  defence  of  their 
liberty  and  rights,  many  perished  in  the  unequal 
contest,  and  were  cut  off  by  their  fierce  invaders. 
But  the  greatest  desolation  followed  after  the  sword 
j  was  sheathed,  and  the  conquerors  were  settled  in 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


183 


tranquillity.  It  was  in  the  islands,  and  in  those  Such  are  the  most  considerable  events  and  causes 
provinces  of  the  continent  which  stretch  from  the  which,  by  their  combined  operation,  contributed  to 
gulf  of  Trinidad  to  the  confines  of  Mexico/that  the  depopulate  America.  Without  attending  to  these, 
fatal  effects  of  the  Spanish  dominion  were  first  and  many  authors,  astonished  at  the  suddenness  of  the 
most  sensibly  felt.  All  these  were  occupied  either  desolation,  have  ascribed  this  unexampled  event  to 
by  wandering  tribes  of  hunters,  or  by  such  as  had  a  system  of  policy  no  less  profound  than  atrocious, 
made  but  small  progress  in  cultivation  and  industry.  The  Spaniards,  as  they  pretend,  conscious  of  their 
When  they  were  compelled  by  their  new  masters  to  own  inability  to  occupy  the  vast  regions  which  they 
take  up  a  fixed  residence,  and  to  apply  to  regular  had  discovered,  and  foreseeing  the  impossibility  of 
labour;  when  tasks  were  imposed  upon  them  dis-  maintaining  their  authority  over  a  people  infinitely 
proportioned  to  their  strength,  and  were  exacted  superior  to  themselves  in  number,  in  order  to  pre- 
with  unrelenting  severity,  they  possessed  not  vigour  serve  the  possession  of  America,  resolved  to  exter- 
either  of  mind  or  of  body  to  ^sustain  this  unusual  minate  the  inhabitants,  and,  by  converting  a  great 
load  of  oppression.  Dejection  and  despair  drove  part  of  the  country  into  a  desert,  endeavoured  to 
many  to  end  their  lives  by  violence.  Fatigue  and  secure  their  own  dominion  over  it.  But  nations  scl- 
famine  destroyed  more.  In  all  those  extensive  re-  dom  extend  their  views  to  objects  so  remote,  or  lay 
gions,  the  original  race  of  inhabitants  wasted  away  ;  their  plans  so  deep;  and  for  the  honour  of  humanity 
in  some  it  was  totally  extinguished.  In  Mexico,  we  may  observe,  that  no  nation  ever  deliberately 
where  a  powerful  and  martial  people  distinguished  formed  such  an  execrable  scheme.  The  Spanish 
their  opposition  to  the  Spaniards  by  efforts  of  cou-  monarchs,  far  from  acting  upon  any  such  system 
rao •(>  worthy  of  a  better  fate,  great  numbers  fell  in  '  of  destruction,  were  uniformly  solicitous  for  the  pre- 
the  field;  and  there,  as  well  as  in  Peru,  still  greater  servation  of  their  new  subjects.  With  Isabella,  zeal 
numbers  perished  under  the  hardships  of  attending  for  propagating  the  Christian  faith,  together  with 
the  Spanish  armies  in  their  various  expeditions  and  the  desire  of  communicating  the  knowledge  of  truth, 
civil  wars,  worn  out  with  the  incessant  toil  of  carry-  and  the  consolations  of  religion,  to  people  destitute 
ing  their  baggage,  provisions,  and  military  stores.  of  spiritual  light,  were  more  than  ostensible  motives 
But  neither  the  rage  nor  cruelty  of  the  Spaniards  for  encouraging  Columbus  to  attempt  his  discoveries, 
was  so  destructive  to  the  people  of  Mexico  and  Peru  Upon  his  success,  she  endeavoured  to  fulfil  her  pious 
as  the  inconsiderate  policy  with  which  they  estab-  purpose,  and  manifested  the  most  tender  concern  to 
lishcd  their  new  settlements.  The  former  were  tern-  secure  not  only  religious  instruction,  but  mild  treat- 
porary  calamities,  fatal  to  individuals  :  the  latter  ment,  to  that  inofi'ensive  race  of  men  subjected  to 
was  a  permanent  evil,  which,  with  gradual  consump-  her  crown.  Her  successors  adopted  the  same  ideas  ; 
tion,  wasted  the  nation.  When  the  provinces  of  and  on  many  occasions,  which  I  have  mentioned, 
Mexico  and  Peru  were  divided  among  the  conquerors,  their  authority  was  interposed,  in  the  most  vigorous 
each  was  eager  to  obtain  a  district  from  which  exertions,  to  protect  the  people  of  America  from  the 
he  might  expect  an  instantaneous  recompence  for  oppression  of  their  Spanish  subjects.  Their  regu- 
all  his  services.  Soldiers,  accustomed  to  the  care- ;  lations  for  this  purpose  were  numerous,  and  often 
lessness  and  dissipation  of  a  military  life,  had  neither  repeated.  They  were  framed  with  wisdom  and  die- 
industry  to  carry  on  any  plan  of  regular  cultivation,  tated  by  humanity.  After  their  possessions  in  the 
nor  patience  to  wait  for  its  slow  but  certain  returns. .  New  World  became  so  extensive  as  might  have  cx- 
Instead  of  settling  in  the  valleys  occupied  by  the  cited  some  apprehensions  of  difficulty  in  retaining 
natives,  where  the  fertility  of  the  soil  would  have  their  dominion  over  them,  the  spirit  of  their  regu- 
amply  rewarded  the  diligence  of  the  planter,  they  '  lations  was  as  mild  as  when  their  settlements  were 
chose  to  fix  their  stations  in  some  of  the  mountainous  j  confined  to  the  islands  alone.  Their  solicitude  to 
regions,  frequent  both  in  New  Spain  and  in  Peru.  !  protect  the  Indians  seems  rather  to  have  augmented 
To  search  for  mines  of  gold  and  silver,  was  the  chief ;  as  their  acquisitions  increased  ;  [and  from  ardour 
object  of  their  activity.  The  prospects  which  this  i  to  accomplish  this,  they  enacted  and  endeavoured 
opens,  and  the  alluring  hopes  which  it  continually  j  to  enforce  the  execution  of  laws,  which  excited 
presents,  correspond  wonderfully  with  the  spirit  of 
enterprise  and  adventure  that  animated  the  first  emi- 
grants to  America  in  every  part  of  their  conduct. 
In  order  to  push  forward  those  favourite  projects,  so 
many  hands  were  wanted,  that  the  service  of  the 
natives  became  indispensably  requisite.  They  were 
accordingly  compelled  to  abandon  their  ancient  ha- 
bitations in  the  plains,  and  driven  in  crowds  to  the 
mountains.  This  sudden  transition  from  the  sultry 
climate  of  the  valleys  to  the  chill  penetrating  air 
peculiar  to  high  land's  in  the  torrid  zone;  exorbitant 


a  formidable  rebellion  in  one  of  their  colonies, 
and  spread  alarm  and  disaffection  through  all 
the  rest.  But  the  avarice  of  individuals  was  too 


labour,  scanty  or  unwholesome  nourishment,  and  the 
despondency  occasioned  by  a  species  of  oppression 
to  which  they  were  not  accustomed,  and  of  which 
they  saw  no  end,  affected  them  nearly  as  much  as 
their  less  industrious  countrymen  in  the  islands. 
They  sunk  under  the  united  pressure  of  those  cala- 
mities, and  melted  away  with  almost  equal  rapidity. 
In  consequence  of  this,  together  with  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  small-pox,  a  malady  unknown  in  Ame- 
rica, and  extremely  fatal  to  the  natives,  the  number 
of  people  both  in  New  Spain  and  Peru  was  so  much 
reduced,  that  in  a  few  years  the  accounts  of  their 
ancient  population  appeared  almost  incredible(16 1). 


violent  to  be  controlled  by  the  authority  of  laws. 
Rapacious  and  daring  adventurers,  far  removed 
from  the  seat  of  government,  little  accustomed  to 
the  restraints  of  military  discipline  while  in  service, 
and  still  less  disposed  to  respect  the  feeble  juris- 
diction of  civil  power  in  an  infant  colony,  despised 
or  deluded  every  regulation  that  set  bounds  to  their 
exactions  and  tyranny.  The  parent  state,  with  per- 
severing attention,  issued  edicts  to  prevent  the  op- 
pression of  the  Indians;  the  colonists,  regardless 
of  these,  or  trusting  to  their  distance  for  impunity, 
continued  to  consider  and  treat  them  as  slaves.  The 
governors  themselves,  and  other  officers  employed 
in  the  colonies,  several  of  whom  were  as  indigent 
and  rapacious  as  the  adventurers  over  whom  they 
presided,  were  too  apt  to  adopt  their  contemptuous 
ideas  of  the  conquered  people  ;  and,  instead  of 
checking,  encouraged  or  connived  at  their  excesses. 
The  desolution  of  the  New  World  should  not  then 
be  charged  on  the  court  of  Spain,  or  be  considered 
as  the  effect  of  any  system  of  policy  adopted  there, 


181 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


It  ought  to  be  imputed  wholly  to  the  indigent  and 
•often  unprincipled  adventurers,  whose  fortune  it  was 
to  be  the  conquerors  and  first  planters  of  America, 
who,  by  measures  no  less  inconsiderate  than  unjust, 
counteracted  the  edicts  of  their  sovereign,  and  have 
brought  disgrace  upon  their  country. 

With  still  greater  injustice  have  many  authors  re- 
presented the  intole rating  spirit  of  the  Roman  Ca- 
tholic religion,  as  the  cause  of  exterminating  the 
Americans,  and  have  accused  the  Spanish  eccle- 
siastics of  animating  their  countrymen  to  the 
slaughter  of  that  innocent  people,  as  idolaters  and 
enemies  of  God.  But  the  first  missionaries  who 
visited  America,  though  weak  and  illiterate  were 
pious  men.  They  early  espoused  the  defence  of  the 
natives,  and  vindicated  their  character  from  the  as- 
persions of  their  conquerors,  who,  describing  them 
as  incapable  of  being  formed  to  the  offices  of 
civil  life,  or  of  comprehending  the  doctrines  of 
religion,  contended,  that  they  were  a  subordi- 
nate race  of  men,  on  whom  the  hand  of  nature 
had  set  the  mark  of  servitude.  From  the  accounts 
which  I  have  given  of  the  humane  and  pei'severing 
zeal  of  the  Spanish  missionaries,  in  protecting  the 
helpless  flock  committed  to  their  charge,  they  ap- 
pear in  a  light  which  reflects  lustre  upon  their  func- 
tion. They  were  ministers  of  peace,  who  endea- 
voured to  wrest  the  rod  from  the  hands  of  oppressors. 
To  their  powerful  interposition  the  Americans  were 
indebted  for  every  regulation  tending  to  mitigate 
the  rigour  of  their  fate.  The  clergy  in  the  Spanish 
settlements,  regular  as  well  as  secular,  are  still  con- 
sidered by  the  Indians  as  their  natural  guardians, 
to  whom  they  have  recourse  under  the  hardships, 
and  exactions  to  which  they  are  too  often  exposed. 
But,  notwithstanding  the  rapid  depopulation  of  Ame- 
rica, a  very  considerable  number  of  the  native  race 
still  remains  both  in  Mexico  and  Peru,  especially  in 
those  parts  which  were  not  exposed  to  the  first  fury 
of  the  Spanish  arms,  or  desolated  by  the  first  efforts 
of  their  industry,  still  more  ruinous.  In  Guatimala, 
Chiapa,  Nicaragua,  and  the  other  delightful  pro- 
vinces of  the  Mexican  empire,  which  stretch  along 
the  South  sea,  the  race  of  Indians  is  still  numerous. 
Their  settlements  in  some  places  are  so  popu- 
lous, as  to  merit  the  name  of  cities.  In  the 
three  audiences  into  which  New  Spain  is  divi- 
ded, there  are  at  least  two  millions  of  Indians ; 
a  pitiful  remnant  indeed,  of  its  ancient  population ; 
but  such  as  still  forms  a  body  of  people  superior  in 
number  to  that  of  all  the  other  inhabitants  of  this 
extensive  country.  In  Pedro  several  districts,  par- 
ticularly in  the  kingdom  of  Quito,  are  occupied 
almost  entirely  by  Indians.  In  other  provinces 
they  are  mingled  with  the  Spaniards,  and  in  many 
of  their  settlements  are  almost  the  only  persons  who 
practice  the  mechanic  arts,  and  fill  most  of  the 
inferior  stations  in  society.  As  the  inhabitants  both 
of  Mexico  and  Peru  were  accustomed  to  a  fixed 
residence,  and  to  a  certain  degree  of  regular  indus- 
try, less  violence  was  requisite  in  bringing  them  to 
some  conformity  with  the  European  modes  of  civil 
life.  But  whenever  the  Spaniards  settled  among 
the  savage  tribes  of  America,  their  atempts  to  in- 
corporate with  them  have  been  always  fruitless,  and 
often  fatal  to  the  natives.  Impatient  of  restraint, 
and  disdaining  labour  as  a  mark  of  servility,  they 
either  abandoned  their  original  seats,  and  sought 
for  independence  in  mountains  and  forests  inacces- 
sible to  their  oppressers,  or  perished  when  reduced 
to  a  state  repugnant  to  their  ancient  ideas  and 
habits.  In  their  district  adjacent  to  Carthagena,  to 


I  Panama,  and  to   Buenos-Ayres,  the    desolation   is 
!  more  general  than  even   in  those  parts  of  Mexico 
and  Peru  of  which  the  Spaniards  have  taken  most 
full  possession. 

But  the  establishments  of  the  Spaniards  in  the 
I  New  World,  though  fatal  to  its  ancient  inhabitants, 
I  were  made  at  a  period  when  that  monarchy  was  ca- 
pable of  forming  them  to  best  advantage.  By  the 
union  of  all  its  petty  kingdoms,  Spain  was  become  a 
powerful  state,  equal  to  so  great  an  undertaking.  Its 
monarchs,  having  extended  their  prerogatives  far 
beyond  the  limits  which  once  circumscribed  the 
regal  power  in  every  kingdom  of  Europe,  were  hardly 
subject  to  control,  either  in  concerting  or  in 
executing  their  measures.  In  every  wide-ex- 
tended empire,  the  form  of  government  must  be 
simple,  and  the  sovereign  authority  such,  that  its  re- 
solutions may  be  taken  with  promptitude,  and  may 
pervade  the  whole  with  sufficient  force.  Such  was 
the  power  of  the  Spanish  monarchs,  when  they  were 
called  to  deliberate  concerning  the  mode  of  establish- 
ing their  dominion  over  the  most  remote  provinces 
which  had  ever  been  subjected  to  any  European 
state.  In  this  deliberation,  they  felt  themselves 
under  no  constitutional  restraint,  and  that,  as  inde- 
pendent masters  of  their  own  resolves,  they  might 
issue  the  edicts  requisite  for  modelling  the  govern- 
ment of  the  new  colonies  by  a  mere  act  of  preroga- 
tive. 

This  early  interposition  of  the  Spanish  crown,  in 
order  to  regulate  the  policy  and  trade  of  its  colonies, 
is  a  peculiarity  which  distinguishes  their  progress  from 
that  of  the  colonies  of  any  other  European  nation. 
When  the  Portuguese,  the  English,  and  French 
took  possession  of  the  regions  in  American  which 
they  now  occupy,  the  advantages  which  these  pro- 
mised to  yield  were  so  remote  and  uncertain,  that 
their  colonies  were  suffered  to  struggle  through  u 
hard  infancy,  almost  without  guidance  or  protection 
from  the  parent  state.  But  gold  and  silver,  the  first 
productions  of  the  Spanish  settlements  in  the  New 
World,  were  more  alluring,  and  immediately  at 
tracted  the  attention  of  their  monarchs.  Though 
they  had  contributed  little  to  the  discovery,  and  al- 
most nothing  lo  the  conquest,  of  the  New  World, 
they  instantly  assumed  the  function  of  its  legisla- 
tors ;  and  having  acquired  a  species  of  dominion 
formerly  unknown,  they  formed  a  plan  for  exercising 
it,  to  which  nothing  similar  occurs  in  the  history  of 
human  affairs. 

The  fundamental  maxim  of  Spanish  jurisprudence, 
with  respect  to  America,  is  to  consider  what  has  been 
acquired  there  as  vested  in  the  crown,  rather  than  in 
the  state.  By  the  bull  of  Alexander  VI.,  on  which, 
as  its  great  charter,  Spain  founded  its  right,  all  the 
regions  that  had  been  or  should  be  discove.ied  were 
bestowed  as  a  free  gift  upon  Ferdinand  and  Isabella. 
They  and  their  successors  were  uniformly  held  to  be 
the  universal  proprietors  of  the  vast  territories 
which  the  arms  of  their  subjects  conquered  in  the 
New  World.  From  them  all  grants  of  land  there 
flowed,  and  to  them  they  finally  "returned.  The  lead- 
ers who  conducted  the  various  expeditions,  the  go- 
vernors who  presided  over  the  different  colonies,  the 
officers  of  justice,  and  the  ministers  of  religion, 
were  all  appointed  by  their  authority,  and  removable 
at  their  pleasure.  The  people  who  composed 
infant  settlements  were  entitled  to  no  privileges 
independent  of  the  sovereign,  or  that  served  as  a 
barrier  against  the  power  of  the  crown.  It  is  true, 
that  when  towns  were  built,  and  formed  into  bodies 
corporate,  the  citizens  were  permitted  to  elect  their 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


183 


o\vn  magistrates,  who  governed  them  by  laws  which 
the  community  enacted.  Even  iu  the  most  despotic 
.states  this  fee. hie  spark  of  liberty  is  not  extinguished. 
But,  iu  the  cities  of  Spanish  America,  this  jurisdic- 
tion is  merely  municipal,  and  is  confined  to  the  regu- 
lation of  their  own  interior  commerce  and  police. 
In  whatever  relates  to  public  government,  and  "the 
gencarl  interest,  the  will  of  the  sovereign  is  law. 
No  political  power  originates  from  the  people. 
All  centres  in  the  crown,  and  in  the  olhcers  of  its 
nomination. 

When  the  conquests  of  the  Spaniards  in  America 
were  completed,  their  mnnarehs,  informing  the  plan 
(if  internal  policy  lor  their  new  dominions,  divided 
them  into  two  immen.se  governments,  one  subject 
to  the  viceroy  of  New  Spain,  the  other  to  the  viceroy 
of  Peru.  The  jurisdiction  of  the  former  extended 
over  all  the  provinces  belonging  to  Spain  in  the 
northern  division  of  the  American  continent.  Un- 
der that  of  the  latter,  was  comprehended  whatever 
she  possessed  in  South  America.  This  arrange- 
ment, which,  from  the  beginning  was  attended  with 
many  inconveniences,  became  intolerable  when  the 
remote  provinces  of  each  viceroyalty  began  to  im- 
prove in  industry  and  population*  The  people  com- 
plained of  their  subjection  to  a  superior,  whose  place 
of  residence  was  so  distant,  or  so  inaccessible,  as 
almost  .excluded  them  from  any  intercourse  with  the 
seat  of  government.  The  authority  of  (lie  viceroy 
over  disti  iits  so  far  removed  from  his  own  e\  e  and 
observation,  was  unavoidably  both  feeble  and  ill 
directed.  As  a  remedy  for  those  evils,  a  third  vice- 
royalty  has  been  established  in  the  present  cen- 
tury, at  Santa  Fe  de  Bogota,  the  capital  of 
the  new  kingdom  of  (Jranada,  the  jurisdiction  of 
which  extends  over  the  whole  kingdom  of  Tierra 
Firine  and  the  province  of  Quito.  Those  viceroys  not 
only  represent  the  person  of  their  sovereign,  but 
possess  his  regal  prerogatives  within  the  precincts 
of  their  own  governments  in  their  utmost  extent. 
Like  him,  they  exercise  supreme  authority  in  every 
department  of  government,  civil,  military,  and  cri- 
minal. They  have  the  sole  right  of  nominating 
the  persons  who  hold  many  ottices  of  the  highest 
importance,  and  the  occasional  privilege  of  supply- 
ing those  which  when  they  become  vacant  by  death 
are  in  the  royal  gift,  until  the  successor  by  the  king 
shall  arrive.  The  external  pomp  of  their  govern- 
ment is  suited  to  its  real  dignity  and  power.  Their 
courts  are  formed  upon  the  model  of  that  at  Madrid 
with  horse  and  foot  guards,  a  household  regularly 
established,  numerous  attendants,  and  ensigns  of 
command,  displaying  such  imigni licence  as  hardly 
retains  the  appearance  of  delegated  authority. 

But  as  the  viceroys  cannot  discharge  in  person 
the  functions  of  a  supreme  magistrate  in  every  part 
of  their  extensive  jurisdiction,  they  are  aided  in  their 
government  by  officers  and  tribunals  similar  to  those 
i-u  Spain.  The  conduct  of  civil  affairs  in  the  various 
provinces  and  districts,  into  which  the  Spanish  do- 
minions in  Ainerica  are  divided,  is  committed  to 
magistrates  of  various  orders  and  denominations  ; 
some  appointed  by  the  king,  others  by  the  viceroy, 
but  all  subject  to  the  command  of  the  latter,  and 
amenable  to  his  jurisdiction.  The  administration 
of  justice  is  vested  in  tribunals,  known  by  the  name 
of  audiences,  and  formed  upon  the  model  of  the 
court  of  chancery  in  Spain.  These  are  eleven  in 
number,  and  dispense  justice  to  as  many  districts, 
into  which  the  Spanish  dominions  in  America  are 
divided  (170).  The  number  of  judges  in  the  court  of 
audience  is  various,  according  to  the  extent  and  im- 
HISTORY  OF  AMERICA,  No.  -24. 


portance  of  their  jurisdiction.  The  station  is  no 
less  honourable  than  lucrative,  and  is  commonly 
tilled  by  persons  of  such  abilities  and  merit  as 
|  render  this  tribunal  extremely  respectable.  Both 
civil  and  criminal  causes  come  under  their  cogni- 
zance, and  for  each  peculiar  judges  are  set  apart. 
Though  it  is  only  in  the  most  despotic  governments 
that  the  sovereign  exercises  in  person  the  formidable 
prerogative  of  administering  justice  to  his  subjects, 
and  in  absolving,  or  condemning,  consults  no  law 
but  what  is  deposited  in  his  own  breast ;  though,  in 
all  the  monarchies  of  Europe,  judicial  authority  is 
committed  to  magistrates,  whose  decisions  are  regu- 
lated by  known  laws  and  established  forms;  the 
Spanish  viceroys  have  often  attempted  to  intrude 
themselves  into  the  seat  of  justice,  and,  with  an  am- 
bition which  their  distance  from  the  control  of  a 
superior  rendered  bold,  have  aspired  at  a  power 
which  their  master  does  not  venture  to  assume.  In 
order  to  cheek  an  usurpation  which  must  have  an- 
nihilated justice  and  security  in  the  Spanish  colonies, 
by  subjecting  the  lives  anil  property  of  all  to  the 
will  of  a  single  man,  the  viceroys  have  been  prohi- 
bited, in  the  most  explicit  terms,  by  repeated  laws, 
from  interfering  in  the  judicial  proceedings  of  the 
courts  of  audience,  or  from  delivering  an  opinion,  or 
giving  a  vnii  e,  with  respect  to  any  point  litigated 
before  them.  In  some  particular  cases,  in  which 
any  question  of  civil  right  is  involved,  even  the  po- 
litical regulations  of  the  viceroy  may  be  brought 
Tinder  the  review  of  the  court  of  audience,  which  iu 
those  instances  may  be  deemed  an  intermediate 
power  placed  between  him  and  the  people,  as  a  con- 
stitutional barrier  to  circumscribe  his  jurisdiction. 
But  as  legal  restraints  on  a  person  who  represents 
the  sovereign,  and  is  clothed  with  his  authority,  are 
little  suited  to  the  genius  of  Spanish  policy;  the  he- 
sitation and  reserve  with  which  it  confers  this 
power  on  the  courts  of  audience  are  remarkable. 
They  may  advise,  they  may  remonstrate;  but,  in 
the  event  of  a  direct  collision  between  their  opinion 
and  the  will  of  the  viceroy,  what  he  determines  must 
be  carried  into  execution,  and  nothing  remains  for 
them,  but  to  lay  the  matter  before  the  king  and  the 
council  of  the  indies  But  to  be  entitled  to  remon- 
strate, and  inform  against  a  person  before  whom  all 
others  must  be  silent,  and  tamely  submit  to  his  de 
crees,  is  a  privilege  which  adds  dignity  to  the  courts 
of  audience.  This  is  further  augmented  by  another 
circumstance.  Upon  the  death  of  a  viceroy,  with- 
out any  provision  of  a  successor  by  the  king,  tin; 
supreme  power  is  vested  in  the  court  of  audience 
resident  in  the  capital  of  the  viceroyalty;  and  the 
senior  judge,  assisted  by  his  brethren,  exercises  all 
the  functions  of  the  viceroy  while  the  office  conti- 
nues vacant.  In  matters  which  come  under  the 
cognizance  of  the  audiences,  in  the  course  of  their 
ordinary  jurisdiction,  as  courts  of  justice,  their  sen, 
tenc.es  are  final  in  every  litigation  concerning  pro 
perty  of  less  value  than  six  thousand  pesos ;  hut 
when  the  subject  in  dispute  exceeds  that  sum,  their 
decisions  are  subject  to  review,  and  may  be  carried 
by  appeal  before  the  royal  council  of  the  Indies. 

In  this  council,  one  of  the  most  considerable  in 
the  monarchy  for  dignity  and  power,  is  vested  the 
supreme  government  of  all  the  Spanish  dominions 
in  America.  It  was  first  established  by  Ferdinand, 
in  the  year  1511,  and  brought  into  a  more  perfect 
form  by  Charles  V.,  in  the  year  1524,  Its  jurisdic- 
tion extends  to  eveiy  department;  ecclesiastical, 
civil,  military,  and  commercial  All  laws  and  ordi- 
nances relative  to  the  government  and  police  of  the 

2  B 


186 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


colonies  originate  there,  and  must  be  approved  of  by 
two-thirds  of  the  members  before  they  are  issued  in 
the  name  of  the  king.  All  the  offices,  of  which  the 
nomination  is  reserved  to  the  crown,  are  conferred 
iu  this  council.  To  it  each  person  employed  in 
America,  from  the  viceroy  downwards,  is  account- 
able. It  reviews  their  conduct,  rewards  their  ser- 
vices, and  inflicts  the  punishments  due  to  their  mal- 
versations. Before  it  is  laid  whatever  intelligence, 
cither  public  or  secret,  is  received  from  America ; 
and  every  scheme  of  improving  the  administration, 
the  police,  or  the  commerce  of  the  colonies,  is  sub- 
mitted to  its  consideration.  From  the  first  institu- 
tion of  the  council  of  the  Indies,  it  has  been  the 
constant  object  of  the  Catholic  monarchs  to  main- 
tain its  authority,  and  to  make  such  additions  from 
time  to  time,  both  to  its  power  and  its  splendour,  as 
might  render  it  formidable  to  all  their  subjects  in 
the  New  World.  Whatever  degree  of  public  order 
and  virtue  still  remains  in  that  country,  where  so 
many  circumstances  conspire  to  relax  the  former, 
and  to  corrupt  the  latter,  may  be  ascribed,  in  a  great 
measure,  to  the  wise  regulations  and  vigilant  inspec- 
tion of  this  respectable  tribunal. 

As  the  king  is  supposed  to  be  always  present  in 
his  council  of  the  Indies,  its  meetings  arc  held  in 
the  place  where  he  resides.  Another  tribunal  has 
been  instituted,  in  order  to  regulate  such  commer- 
cial affairs  as  required  the  immediate  and  personal 
inspection  of  those  appointed  to  superintend  them. 
This  is  culled  Caxa  de  la  Cuntratucion,  or  the  house 
of  trade,  and  was  established  in  Seville,  the  port  to 
which  commerce  with  the  New  World  was  confined, 
as  early  as  the  year  1501.  It  may  be  considered 
both  as  a  board  of  trade,  and  as  a  court,  of  judicature. 
In  the  former  capacity,  it  takes  cognizance  of  what- 
ever relates  to  the  intercourse  of  Spain  with  Ame- 
rica, it  regulates  what  commodities  should  be  ex- 
ported thither,  and  has  the  inspection  of  such  as  are 
received  in  return.  It  decides  concerning  the  de- 
parture of  the  fleets  for  the  West  Indies,  the  freight 
and  burden  of  the  ships,  their  equipment  and  desti- 
nation. In  the  latter  capacity,  it  judges  with  respect 
to  every  question,  civil,  commercial,  or  criminal, 
arising  in  consequence  of  the  transactions  of  Spain 
with  America;  and  in  both  these  departments  its 
decisions  are  exempted  from  the  review  of  any  court 
but  that  of  the  council  of  the  Indies. 

Such  is  the  great  outline  of  that  system  of  govern- 
ment which  Spain  has  established  in  her  American 
colonies.  To  enumerate  the  various  subordinate 
boards  and  offices  employed  in  the  administration  of 
justice,  in  collecting  the  public  revenue,  and  in  re- 
gulating the  interior  police  of  the  country ;  to  de- 
scribe their  different  functions,  and  to  inquire  into 
the  mode  and  effect  of  their  operations,  would  prove 
a  detail  no  less  intricate  than  minute  and  uninter- 
esting. 

The  first  object  of  the  Spanish  monarch  was  to 
secure  the  productions  of  the  colonies  to  the  parent- 
state,  by  an  absolute  prohibition  of  any  intercourse 
with  foreign  nations.  They  took  possession  of  Ame- 
rica by  right  of  conquest,  and  conscious  not  only  of 
the  feebleness  of  their  infant  settlements,  but  aware 
of  the  difficulty  in  establishing  their  dominion  over 
regions  so  extensive,  or  in  retaining  so  many  reluct- 
ant nations  under  the  yoke,  they  dreaded  the  intru- 
tion  of  strangers;  they  even  shunned  their  inspec- 
tion, and  endeavoured  to  keep  them  at  a  distance 
from  their  coasts.  This  spirit  of  jealousy  and  ex- 
clusion, which  at.  first  was  natural,  and  perhaps  nc- 
pessary,  augmented  as  their  possessions  in  America 


extended,  und  the  value  of  them  came  to  be  more 
fully  understood.  In  consequence  of  it,  a  system 
of  colonizing  was  introduced,  to  which  there  had 
hitherto  been  nothing  simiiyr  among  mankind.  Jn 
the  ancient  world,  it  was  not  uncommon  to  M  nd 
forth  colonies.  But  they  were  of  two  kinds  only. 
They  were  cither  migrations,  which  served  to  dis- 
burden a  state  of  its  superfluous  subjects,  when  they 
multiplied  too  last  for  the  territory  which  they  occu- 
pied ;  or,  the\  were  military  detachments,  stationed 
as  garrisons  in  a  conquered  province.  The  colonies 
<.if  some,  (ireek  republics,  and  the  swarms  of  northern 
barbarians  which  settled  in  different  parts  of  Europe, 
were  of  the  first  species.  The  Roman  colonies  wen; 
of  the  second.  In  the  former,  the  connexion  with  the 
mother-country  quickly  ceased,  and  they  became 
independent  states.  In  the  latter,  as  the  disjunction 
was  not  complete,  the  dependence  continued.  In 
their  American  settlements,  the  Spanish  monarchs 
took  what  was  peculiarly  to  each,  and  studied  to 
unite  them.  By  sending  colonies  to  regions  so  re- 
mote, by  establishing  in  each  a  fonn  of  interior 
policy  and  administration,  under  distinct  governors, 
and  with  peculiar  laws,  they  disjoined  them  from 
the  mother-country.  By  retaining  in  their  own 
hands  the  rights  of  legislation,  as  well  as  that  of 
imposing  taxes,  together  with  the  power  of  nominat- 
ing the  persons  who  filled  exery  department  of  ex- 
ecutive government,  civil  or  military,  they  secured 
their  dependence  upon  the  parent-state.  Happily 
for  Spain,  the  situation  of  her  colonies  was  such  as 
rendered  it  possible  to  reduce  this  new  idea  into 
practice.  Almost  all  the  countries  which  she  had 
discovered  and  occupied,  lay  within  the  tropics. 
The  productions  of  that,  large  portion  of  the  globe 
are  different  from  those  of  Europe,  even  in  its  most 
southern  provinces.  The  qualities  of  the  climate 
and  of  the  soil  naturally  turn  the  industry  of  such 
as  settle  there  into  new  channels.  When  the  Spa- 
niards first  took  possession  of  their  dominions  in 
America,  the  precious  metals  which  they  yielded 
Avere  the  only  object  that  attracted  their  attention. 
Even  when  their  efforts  began  to  take  a  better  di- 
rection, they  employed  themselves  almost  wholly 
in  rearing  such  peculiar  productions  of  the  climate 
as,  from  their  rarity  or  value,  were  of  chief  demand 
in  the  mother-country.  Allured  by  vast  prospects 
of  immediate  wealth,  they  disdained  to  waste  their 
industry  on  what  was  less  lucrative,  but  of  superior 
moment.  In  order  to  render  it  impossible  to  correct 
this  error,  and  to  prevent  them  from  making  any 
efforts  in  industry  which  might  interfere  with  those 
of  the  mother-country,  the  establishment  of  several 
species  of  manufactuics,  and  even  the  culture  of  the 
vine,  or  olive,  are  prohibited  in  the  Spanish  colo- 
nies (171),  under  severe  penalties.  They  must 
trust  entirely  to  the  mother-country  for  the  objects 
of  primary  necessity.  Their  clothes,  their  furniture, 
their  instruments  of  labour,  their  luxuries,  and  even 
a  considerable  part  of  the  provisions  which  they 
consume,  were  imported  from  Spain.  During  a 
great  part  of  the  sixteenth  century,  Spain,  possess- 
ing an  extensive  commerce  and  nourishing  manufac- 
tures, could  supply  with  ease  the  growing  demands 
of  her  colonies  from  her  own  stores.  The  produce 
|  of  their  mines  and  plantations  was  given  in  cx- 
I  change  for  these.  But  all  that  the  colonies  received, 
j  as  well  as  all  that  they  gave,  was  conveyed  in  Spa- 
i  nish  bottoms.  No  ve'ssel  belonging-  to  the  colonies 
was  ever  permitted  to  carry  the  commodities  of  .Ame- 
rica to  Europe.  Even  the  commercial  intercourse 
.  of  one  colony  with  another  was  either  absolutely 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA 


187 


Prohibited,  or  limited  by  many  jealous  restrictions 
All  that  America  yields  Hows  into  the  ports  of  Spain  : 
all  that  it  consumes  must  issue  from  them.  No  fo- 
reigner can  enter  its  colonies  without  express  per- 
mission ;  no  vessel  of  any  foreign  nation  is  i -eceived 
into  their  harbours ;  and  the  pains  of  death,  with 
confiscation  of  movables,  are  denounced  againet 
every  inhabitant  who  presumes  to  trade  with  them. 
Thus  the  colonies  are  kept  in  a  state  of  perpetual 
pupilage ;  and  by  the  introduction  of  this  commer- 
cial dependence,  a  refinement  in  policy  of  which 
Spain  set  the  first  example  to  European  nations, 
the  supremacy  of  the  parent  state  hath  been  main- 
tained over  remote  colonies  during  two  centuries  and 
a  half. 

Such  are  the  capital  maxims  to  which  the  Spanish 
monarchs  seem  to  have  attended  in  forming  their  new 
settlements  in  America.  But  they  could  not  plant 
with  the  same  rapidity  that  they  had  destroyed; 
and  from  many  concurring  causes,  their  progress 
has  been  extremely  slow  in  filling  up  the  immense 
void  which  their  devastations  had  occasioned.  As 
soon  as  the  rage  for  discovery  and  adventure  began 
to  abate,  the  Spaniards  opened  their  eyes  to  dangers 
and  distress  which  at  first  they  did  not  perceive,  or 
had  despised.  The  numerous  hardships  with  which 
the  members  of  infant  colonies  have  to  struggle;  the 
<ii  cases  of  unwholesome  climates  fatal  to  the  con- 
stitution of  Europeans;  the  difficulty  of  bringing  a 
country  covered  with  forests  into  culture  ;  the  want 
of  hands  necessary  for  labour  in  some  provinces, 
and  the  slow  reward  of  industry  in  all,  unless  where 
the  accidental  discovery  of  mini's  enriched  a  few  for- 
tunate adventures,  were  evils  universally  felt  and 
magnified.  Discouraged  by  the  view  of  these,  the 
spirit  of  migration  was  so  much  damped,  that  sixty 
years  after  the  discovery  of  the  New  World  the 
number  of  Spaniards  in  all  its  provinces  is  com- 
puted not  to  have  exceeded  fifteen  thousand  (172). 
The  mode  in  which  property  was  distributed  in 
the  Spanish  colonies,  and  the  regulations  established 
with  respect  to  the  transmission  of  it,  whether  by 
descent  or  by  sale,  were  extremely  unfavourable  to 
population.  In  order  to  promote  a  rapid  increase 
of  people  in  any  new  settlement,  property  in  land 
ought  to  be  divided  into  small  snares,  and  the  alie- 
nation of  it  should  be  rendered  extremely  easy.  But 
the  rapaciousness  of  the  Spanish  conquerors  of  the. 
New  World,  paid  no  regard  to  this  fundamental 
maxim  of  policy;  and,  as  they  possessed  power  which 
enabled  them  to  gratify  the  utmost  extravagance  of 
their  wishes,  many  seized  districts  of  great  extent, 
and  held  them  as  encomiendas.  By  degrees  they  ob- 
tained the  privilege  of  converting  a  part  of  these 
into  Mayorasyos,  a  species  of  fief,  introduced  into 
the  Spanish  system  of  feudal  jurisprudence,  which 
can  neither  be  divided  nor  alienated.  Thus  a  great 
portion  of  landed  property,  under  this  rigid  form  of 
entail,  is  withheld  from  circulation,  and  descends 
from  father  to  son  unimproved,  and  of  little  value 
either  to  the  proprietor  or  to  the  community.  In 
the  account  which  I  have  given  of  the  reduction  of 
Peru,  various  examples  occur  of  enormous  tracts  of 
country  occupied  by  some  of  the  conquerors.  The 
excesses  in  other  provinces  were  similar;  for,  as  the  ' 
value -of  the  lands  which  the  Spaniards  acquired; 
was  originally  estimated  according  to  the  number 
of  Indians  which  lived  upon  them,  America  was  in  i 
general  so  thinly  peopled,  that  only  districts  of: 
great  extent  could  afford  such  a  number  of  labour- 
ers as  might  be  employed  in  the  mines  with  any 
prospect  of  considerable  gain.  The  pernicious  effects 


of  those  radical  errors  in  the  distribution  and  nature 
of  property  in  the  Spanish  settlements,  are  felt 
through  every  department  of  industry,  and  may  be 
considered  as  one  great  cause  of  a  progress  in  po- 
pulation so  much  slower  than  that  which  has  taken 
place  in  better  constituted  colonies  (173). 

To  this  we  may  add,  that  the  support  of  the  enor 
mous  and  expensive  fabric  of  their  ecclesiastical  esta. 
blishmeut  has  been  a  burden  on  the  Spanish  colo 
nies,  which  has  greatly  retarded  the  progress  of 
population  and  industry.  The  payment  of  tithes  is 
a  heavy  tax  on  industry ;  and  if  the  exaction  of  them, 
be  not  regulated  and  circumscribed  by  the  wisdom 
of  the  civil  magistrate,  it  becomes  intolerable  and 
ruinous.  But,  instead  of  any  restraint  on  the  claims 
of  ecclesiastics,  the  inconsiderate  zeal  of  the  Spanish 
legislators,  admitted  them  into  America  in  their  full 
extent,. and  at  once  imposed  on  their  infant  colonies 
a  burden  which  is  in  no  slight  degree  oppressive  to 
society,  even  in  its  most  improved  state.  As  early 
as  the  year  1501,  the  payment  of  tithes  in  the  colo- 
nies was  enjoined,  and  the  mode  of  it  regulated  by 
law.  Every  article  of  primary  necessity,  towards 
which  the  attention  of  new  settlers  must  naturally 
be  turned,  is  subjected  to  that  grievous  exaction. 
Nor  were  the  demands  of  the  clergy  confined  to  ar- 
ticles of  simple  and  easy  culture.  •  Its  more  artificial 
and  opc-rose  productions,  such  as  sugar,  indigo,  and 
cochineal,  were  soon  declared  to  be  titheable ;  and 
thus  the  industry  of  the  planter  was  taxed  in  every 
stage  of  its  progress,  from  its  rudest  essay  to  its 
highest  improvement.  To  the  weight  of  this  legal 
imposition,  the  bigotry  of  the  American  Spaniards 
has  made  many  voluntary  additions.  From  their 
fond  delight  in  the  external  pomp  and  parade  of  re- 
ligion, and  from  superstitious  reverence  for  ecclesi- 
astics of  every  denomination,  they  have  bestowed 
profuse  donatives  on  churches  and  monasteries,  and 
have  unprofitably  wasted  a  large  proportion  of  that 
wealth,  which  might  have  nourished  and  given 
'gour  to  productive  labour  in  growing  colonies. 
But  so  fertile  and  inviting  arc  the  regions  of  Ame- 
rica, which  the  Spaniards  have  occupied,  that,  not- 
withstanding all  the  circumstances  which  have 
checked  and  retarded  population,  it  has  gradually 
ncreased,  and  filled  the  colonies  of  Spain  with  citi- 
zens of  various  orders.  Among  these,  the  Spaniards 
who  arrive  from  Europe,  distinguished  by  the  name 
of  Chapetones,  are  the  first  in  rank  and  power, 
From  the  jealous  attention  of  the  Spanish  court  to 
secure  the  dependence  of  the  colonies  on  the  parent 
state,  all  departments  of  consequence  are  filled  by 
persons  sent  from  Europe ;  and  in  order  to  prevent 
any  of  dubious  fidelity  from  being  employed,  each 
must  bring  proof  of  a  clear  descent  from  a  family 
of  Old  Christians,  untainted  with  any  mixture  of 
Jewish  or  Mahometan  blood,  and  never  disgraced 
by  any  censure  of  the  inquisition.  In  such  pure 
hands  power  is  deemed  to  be  safely  lodged,  and  al- 
most every  function,  from  the  viceroyalty  down- 
wards, is  committed  to  them  alone.  Every  person, 
who,  by  his  birth  or  residence  in  America,  may  be 
suspected  of  any  attachment  or  interest  adverse  to 
the  mother-countiy,  is  the  object  of  distrust  to  such 
a  degree,  as  amounts  nearly  to  an  exclusion  from  all 
oflices  of  confidence  or  authority  (174).  By  this  con- 
spicuous predilection  of  the  court,  the  Chapetones  are 
raised  to  such  pre-eminence  in  America,  that  they 
look  down  with  disdain  on  every  other  order  of  men. 
The  character  and  state  of  the  Creoles,  or  descend- 
ants of  Europeans  settled  in  America,  the  second 
class  of  subjects  in  the  Spanish  colonies,  have 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


enabled  the  Chapetones  to  acquire  other  advantages, 
hardly  less  considerable  than  those  which  they  de- 
rive from  the  partial  favour  of  government.  Though 
some  of  the  Creolian  race  are  descended  from  the 
conquerors  of  the  New  World;  though  others  can 
trace  up  their  pedigree  to  the  noblest  families  in 
Spain;  though  many  are  possessed  of  ample  for- 
tunes :  yet,  by  the  enervating  influence  of  a  sultry 
climate,  by  the  rigour  of  a  jealous  government,  and 
by  their  despair  of  attaining  that  distinction  to \vhich 
mankind  naturally  aspire,  the  vigour  of  their  minds 
is  so  entirely  broken,  that  a  great  part  of  them 
waste  life  in  luxurious  indulgences,  mingled  with  an 
illiberal  superstition  still  more  debasing. 

Languid  and  unenterprising,  the  operations  of  an 
active  extended  commerce  would  be  to  them  so 
cumbersome  and  oppressive,  that  in  almost  every 
part  of  America  they  decline  engaging  in  it.  The 
interior  traffic  of  every  colony,  as  well  as  any  trade 
which  is  permitted  with  the  neighbouring  provinces, 
and  with  Spain  itself,  is  carried  on  chielly  by  the 
Chapetones;  who,  as  the  recompence  of  their  in- 
dustry, amass  immense  wealth,  while  the  Creoles, 
sunk  in  sloth,  are  satisfied  with  the  revenues  of  their 
paternal  estates. 

From  this  stated  competition  for  power  and  wealth 
between  those  two  orders  of  citizens,  and  the  various 
passions  excited  by  a  rivalship  so  interesting,  their 
hatred  is  violent  and  implacable.  On  every  occa- 
sion, symptoms  of  this  aversion  break  out,  and  the 
common  appellations  which  each  bestows  on  the 
other  are  as  contemptuous  as  those  which  flow 
from  the  most  deep-rooted  national  antipathy.  The 
court  of  Spain,  from  a  refinement  of  distrustful  po- 
licy, cherishes  those  seeds  of  discord,  and  foments 
this  mutual  jealousy,  which  not  only  prevents  the 
two  most  powerful  classes  of  its  subjects  in  the  New 
World  from  combining  against  the  parent  state,  but 
prompts  each,  with  the  most  vigilant  zeal,  to  observe 
the  motions  and  to  counteract  the  schemes  of  the 
other. 

.  The  third  class  of  inhabitants  in  the  Spanish  co- 
lonies is  a  mixed  race,  the  offspring  either  of  a 
European  and  a  negro,  or  a  European  and  Indian, 
the  former  called  Mulattos,  the  latter  Mestizo*.  As 
the  court  of  Spain,  solicitous  to  incorporate  its  new 
vassals  with  its  ancient  subjects,  early  encouraged 
the  Spaniards  settled  in  America  to  marry  the  na- 
tives of  that  country,  several  alliances  of  this  kind 
were  formed  in  their  infant  colonies.  But  it  has 
been  more  owing  to  licentious  indulgence,  than  to 
compliance  with  this  injunction  of  their  sovereigns, 
that  this  mixed  breed  has  multiplied  so  greatly,  as  to 
constitute  a  considerable  part  of  the  population  in 
all  the  Spanish  settlements.  The  several  stages  of 
descent  in  this  race,  and  the  gradual  variations  of 
shade,  until  tho  African  black  or  the  copper  colour 
of  America  brighten  into  European  complexion,  are 
accurately  marked  by  the  Spaniards,  and  each  dis- 
tinguished by  a  peculiar  name.  Those  of  the  first 
and  second  generations  are  considered  and  treated 
as  mere  Indians  and  negroes;  but,  in  the  third  de- 
scent, the  characteristic  hue  of  the  former  disappear; 
and  in  the  fifth,  the  deeper  tint  of  the  latter  is  so 
entirely  effaced,  that  they  can  no  longer  be  distin- 
guished from  Europeans,  and  become  entitled  to  all 
their  privileges.  It  is  chiefly  by  this  mixed  race, 
whose  frame  is  so  remarkably  robust  and  hardy,  that 
the  mechanic  arts  are  carried  on  in  the  Spanish  set- 
tlements, and  other  actwe  functions  in  Society  are 
discharged,  which  the  two  higher  classes  of  citizen*, 
from  pride  or  from  indolence,  disdain  to  exercise. 


The  negroes  hold  the  fourth  rank  anu.iii»  the  inha- 
bitants of  the  Spanish  colonies.  The  iiitn/tiu tion 
f  that  unhappy  part  of  the  human  species  into 
America,  together  with  their  services  and  suHV-rin»«» 
there,  shall  be  fully  explained  in  another  place; 
here  they  are  mentioned  chiefly  in  order  to  point  out 
a  peculiarity  in  their  situation  under  the  Spanish 
lominion.  In  several  of  their  settlements,  particu- 
larly in  new  Spain,  negroes  are  mostly  employed  in 
domestic  service.  They  form  a  principal  part  in  the 
train  of  luxury,  and  are  cherished  and  caressed  by 
their  superiors,  to  whose  vanity  and  pleasures  they 
are  equally  .subservient.  Their  dress  and  appear- 
ance are  hardly  less  splendid  than  that  of  their 
masters,  whose  manners  they  imitate,  and  whoso 
passions  they  imbibe.  Elevated  by  this  distinction, 
they  have  assumed  such  a  tone  01  superiority  over 
the  Indians,  arid  treat  them  with  such  insolence  and 
scorn,  that  the  antipathy  between  the  two  races  has 
become  implacable.  Even  in  I'eru,  where  negroes 
seem  to  be  more  numerous,  and  are  employed  in 
field-work,  as  well  as  domestic  service,  they  main- 
tain their  ascendant  over  the  Indians,  and  the  mu- 
tual hatred  of  one  to  the  other  subsists  with  equal 
violence.  The  laws  have  industriously  fomented 
this  aversion,  to  which  accident  gave  rise,  and,  by 
most  rigorous  injunctions,  have  endeavoured  to 
prevent  every  intercourse  that  might  form  a  bond  of 
union  between  the  two  races.  Thus,  by  an  artful 
policy,  the  Spaniards  derive  strength  from  that  cir- 
cumstance in  population,  which  is  the  weakness  of 
other  European  colonies,  and  have  secured,  as  asso- 
ciates and  defenders,  those  very  persons  who  else- 
where are  objects  of  jealousy  and  terror. 

The  Indians  form  the  last  and  the  most  depressed 
order  of  men  in  the  country  which  belonged  to  their 
ancestors.  I  have  already  traced  the  progress  of 
the  Spanish  ideas  with  respect  to  the  condition  and 
treatment  of  that  people;  and  have  mentioned  the 
most  important  of  their  more  early  regulations,  con- 
cerning a  matter  of  so  much  consequence  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  their  new  dominions.  But  since  the 
period  to  which  I  have  brought  down  the  history  of 
America,  the  information  and  experience  acquired 
during  two  centuries,  have  enabled  the  court  of  Spain 
to  make  such  improvements  in  this  part  of  its  Ame- 
rican system,  that  a  short  view  of  the  present  con- 
dition of  the  Indians  may  prove  both  curious  and 
interesting. 

By  the  famous  regulations  of  Charles  V.  in  1542, 
which  have  been  so  often  mentioned,  the  high  lire- 
tensions  of  the  conquerors  of  the  New  World,  who 
considered  its  inhabitants  as  slaves,  to  whose  service 
they  had  acquired  a  full  right  of  property,  were 
finally  abrogated.  From  that  period,  the  Indians 
have  been  reputed  freemen,  and  entitled  to  the  pri- 
vileges of  subjects.  When  admitted  into  this  rank, 
it  was  deemed  just  that  they  should  contribute 
towards  the  support  and  improvement  of  the  society 
which  had  adopted  them  as  members.  But,  as  no 
considerable  benefit  could  be  expected  from  the  vo- 
luntary efforts  of  men  unacquainted  with  regular 
industry,  and  averse  to  labour,  the  court  of  Spain 
found  it  necessary  to  fix  and  secure,  by  proper  regu- 
lations, what  it  thought  reasonable  to  exact  from 
them.  With  this  view,  an  annual  tax  was  imposed 
upon  every  male  from  the  age  of  eighteen  to  fifty ; 
and,  at  the  same  time,  the  nature  as  well  as  the  ex- 
tent of  the  services  which  they  might  be  required  to 
perform,  was  ascertained  with  precision.  This  tribute 
varies  in  different  provinces ;  but,  if  we  take  that 
paid  in  New  Spain  as  a  medium,  its  annual  amount 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMETUCA. 


189 


is  nearly  four  shillings  a  head ;  no  exhoii/itaiit  turn 
in  countries  where,  as  at  the  source  of  wealth,  the 
value  of  money  is  extremely  low  (  175).  Tlie  right  of 
levying  this  tribute  likewise  varies.  In  America, 
every  Indian  is  either  an  immediate  vassal  of  the 
crou  n.  or  depends  upon  some  subject  to  whom  the 
district  -in  which  he  resides  has  been  granted  for  a 
limited  time,  under  the  denomination  of  an  cnroint- 
cndti.  In  the  former  case,  about  three-fourths  of  the 
tax  is  paid  into  the  royal  treasury;  in  the  latter, 
the  same  proportion  of  it  belongs  to  the  holder  of 
the  grant.  When  Spain  first  took  possession  of 
America,  the  greater  part  of  it  was  parcelled  out 
among  its  conquerors,  or  those  who  first  settled 
there,  and  but  a  small  portion  reserved  for  the 
crown.  As  those  grants,  which  were  made  for  two 
lives  only  (1 76)  reverted  successively  to  the  sovereign, 
he  had  it  in  his  power  either  to  diffuse  his  favours 
by  grants  to  new  proprietors,  or  to  augment  his  own 
revenue  by  valuable  annexations.  Of  these,  the 
latter  has  been  frequently  chosen;  the  number  of 
Indians  now  depending  immediately  on  the  crown 
is  much  greater  than  in  the  lirst  stage  after  the  con- 
quest, and  this  branch  of  the  renal  ie\cnue  continues 
to  extend. 

The  benefit  arising  from  the  services  of  the  In- 
dians, accrues  either  to  the  crown,  or  to  the  holder  of 
the  t-iictunii  itiht,  according  to  the  same  rule  observed 
in  the  payment  of  tribute.  Those  services,  however, 
which  can  now  be  legally  exacted,  are  very  different 
from  the  tasks  originally  imposed  upon  the  Indians. 
The  nature  of  the  work  which  they  must,  perform  is 
defined,  and  an  equitable  recompence  is  granted  for 
their  labour.  The  stated  services  demanded  of  the 
Indians  may  be  divided  into  two  branches.  They 
are  either  employed  in  works  of  primary  necessity, 
without  which  society  cannot  subsist  comfortably,  or 
are  compelled  to  labour  in  the  mines,  from  which 
the  Spanish  colonies  derive  their  chief  value  and 
importance.  In  consequence  of  the  former,  they 
are  obliged  to  assist  in  the  culture  of  maize,  and 
other  grain  of  necessary  consumption;  in  tending 
cattle ;  in  erecting  edifices  of  public  utility ;  in 
building  bridges;  and  in  forming  high  roads;  but 
they  cannot  be  constrained  to  labour  in  raising  vines, 
olives,  and  sugar-canes,  or  any  species  of  cultivation 
which  has  for  its  object  the  gratification  of  luxury, 
or  commercial  profit.  In  consequence  of  the  latter, 
the  Indians  are  compelled  to  undertake  the  more 
unpleasant  task  of  extracting  ore  from  the  bowels  of 
the  earth,  and  of  refining  it  by  successive  processes, 
no  less  unwholesome  than  operose  (177). 

The  mode  of  exacting  both  these  services  is  the 
same,  and  is  \mder  regulations  framed  with  a  view 
of  rendering  it  as  little  oppressive  as  possible  to  the 
Indians.  They  are  called  out  successively  in  di- 
visions, termed  Mitas,  and  no  person  can  be  com- 
pelled to  go  but  in  his  turn.  In  Peru,  the  number 
called  out  must  not  exceed  the  seventh  part  of  the 
inhabitants  in  any  district.  In  New  Spain,  where 
the  Indians  are  more  numerous,  it  is  fixed  at  four  in 
the  hundred.  During  what  time  the  labour  of  such 
Indians  are  employed  in  agriculture  continues,  I 
have  not  been  able  to  learn  (178).  But  in  Peru,  each 
mila,  or  division,  destined  for  the  mines,  remains 
there  six  months  ;  and  while  engaged  in  this  service, 
a  labourer  never  receives  less  than  two  shillings  a 
day,  and  often  earns  more  than  double  that  sum. 
No  Indian,  residing  at  a  greater  distance  than  thirty 
miles  from  a  mine,  is  included  in  the  mita  or  divi- 
sion employed  in  working  it ;  nor  are  the  inhabitants 
of  the  low  country  exposed  now  to  certain  destruc- 


n, as  they  were  at  first,  when  under  the  dominion 
of  the  conquerors,  by  compelling  them  to  remove 
from  that  warm  climate,  to  the  cold  elevated  regions 
when-  minerals  abound  (17(J). 

The  Indians  who  live  in  the  principal  towns,  are 
entirely  subject  to  the  Spanish  laws  and  magistrates; 
but  in  their  own  villiages  they  are  governed  by  ca- 
ziques,  some  of  whom  are  the  descendants  of  their 
ancient  lords,  others  are  named  by  the  Spanish  vice- 
roys. These  regulate  the  petty  ali'airs  of  the  people 
under  them,  according  to  maxims  of  justice  trans- 
mitted to  them  by  tradition  from  their  ancestors.  To 
the  Indians,  this  jurisdiction,  lodged  in  such  friendly 
hands,  affords  some  consolation ;  and  so  little  for- 
midable is  this  dignity  to  their  new  masters,  that  they 
often  allow  it  to  descend  by  hereditary  right.  For 
the  further  relief  of  men  so  much  exposed"  to  oppres- 
sion, the  Spanish  court  has  appointed  an  officer  in 
every  district  with  the  title  of  Protector  of  the  In- 
dians. It  is  his  function,  as  the  name  implies,  to 
assert  the  rights  of  the  Indians1;  to  appear  as  their 
defender  in  the  courts  of  justice;  and,  by  the  inter- 
position of  his  authority,  to  set  bounds  to  the  en- 
croachments and  exactions  of  his  countrymen.  A 
certain  portion  of  the  reserved  fourth  of  the  annual 
tribute  is  destined  for  the  salary  of  the  caziques  and 
protectors ;  another  is  applied  to  the  maintenance  of 
the  clergy  employed  in  the  instruction  of  the  In- 
dians. Another  part  seems  to  be  appropriated  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Indians  themselves,  and  is  applied  for 
the  payment  of  their  tribute  in  years  of  famine,  or 
when  a  particular  district  is  affected  by  any  extraor- 
dinary local  calamity.  Besides  this,  provision  is 
made  by  various  laws,  that  hospitals  shall  be  found- 
ed in  every  new  settlement  for  the  reception  of  In- 
dians Such  hospitals  have,  accordingly,  been 
erected,  both  for  the  indigent  and  infirm,  in  Lima, 
in  Cuzco,  and  in  Mexico,  where  the  Indians  are 
treated  with  tenderness  and  humanity. 

Such  are  the  leading  principles  in  the  jurispru- 
dence and  policy  by  which  the  Indians  are  now  go- 
verned in  the  provinces  belonging  to  Spain.  lu 
those  regulations  of  the  Spanish  monarchs,  we  dis- 
cover no  traces  of  that  cruel  system  of  extermina- 
tion, which  they  have  been  charged  with  adopting; 
and  if  we  admit  that  the  necessity  of  securing  sub- 
sistence for  their  colonies,  or  the  advantages  derived 
from  working  the  mines,  give  them  a  right  to  avail 
themselves  of  the  labour  of  the  Indians,  we  must 
allow,  that  the  attention  with  which  they  regulate 
and  recompense  that  labour,  is  provident  and  saga- 
cious. In  no  code  of  laws  is  greater  solicitude  dis- 
played, or  precautions  multiplied  with  more  prudent 
concern,  for  the  preservation,  the  security,  and  the 
happiness  of  the  subject,  than  we  discover  in  the  col- 
lection of  the  Spanish  laws  for  the  Indies.  But  those 
Litter  regulations,  like  the  more  early  edicts  which 
have  been  already  mentioned,  have  too  often  proved 
ineffectual  remedies  against  the  evils  which  they 
were  intended  to  prevent.  In  every  age,  if  the  same 
causes  continue  to  operate,  the  same  effects  must 
follow.  From  the  immence  distance  between  the 
power  intrusted  with  the  execution  of  laws,  and  that 
by  whose  authority  they  are  enacted,  the  vigour  even 
of  the  most  absolute  government  must  relax,  and 
the  dread  of  a  superior,  too  remote  to  observe  with 
accuracy,  or  to  punish  with  dispatch,  must  insensi- 
bly aba.te.  Notwithstanding  the  numerous  injunc- 
tions of  the  Spanish  monarch,  the  Indians  still  suffer, 
on  many  occasions,  both  from  the  avarice  of  indi- 
viduals, and  from  the  exactions  of  the  magistrates 
who  ought  t>  have  protected  them;  unreasonable 


190 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


tasks  are  imposed;  the  term  of  their  labour  is  pro 
longed  beyond  the  period  fixed  by  law,  and  the 
groan  under  many  of  the  insults  and  wrongs  whict 
arc  (he  lot  of  a  dependent  people(lSO).  From  sonic  in 
formation  on  which  I  can  depend,  such  oppressior 
abounds  more  in  Peru  than  in  any  other  colony 
Bui.  it  is  not  general.  According  to  the  account 
even  of  those  authors  who  arc  most  disposed  to  ex 
aggerate,  the  sufferings  of  the  Indians,  I  hey  in  severa 
provinces  enjoy  not  only  ease  but  aril  nonce  ;  the 
possess  large  farms;  they  are  masters  oi'  numeiou 
herds  and  flocks  ;  and,  by  the  knowledge  which  the; 
have  acquired  of  European  arts  and  industry,  ar 
supplied  not  only  with  the  necessaries,  but  with  many 
luxuries  of  life. 

After-  explaining  the  form  of  civil  government  in 
the  Spanish  colonies,  and  the  state  of  the  varioui 
orders  of  persons  subject  to  it,  the  peculiarities  ii 
their  ecclesiastical  constitution  merit  consideration 
Notwithstanding  the  superstitious  veneration  with 
which  the  Spaniards  are  devoted  to  the  holy  see,  th 
vigilant  and  jealous  policy  of  Ferdinand  early 
prompted  him  to  take  precautions  against  the  intro- 
duction of  the  papal  dominion  in  America.  With  thi 
view,  he  solicited  Alexander  VI.  for  a  grant  to  th< 
crown,  of  the  tithes  in  all  the  newly  discoveret 
countries,  which  he  obtained,  on  condition  of  his 
making  provision  for  the  religious  instruction  of  th< 
natives.  Soon  after,  Julius  II.  conferred  on  him 
and  his  successors,  the  right  of  patronage  and  the 
absolute  disposal  of  airecclesiastical  benefices  there 
But  these  pontiffs,  unacquainted  with  the  value  o: 
what  he  demanded,  bestowed  those  donations  with 
an  inconsiderate  liberality,  which  their  successors 
have  often  lamented  and  wished  to  recall.  In  con- 
sequence of  those  grants,  the  Spanish  monarchs 
have  become  in  effect,  the  heads  of  the  American 
church.  In  them  the  administration  of  its  revenues 
is  vested.  Their  nomination  of  persons  to  supply 
vacant  benefices  is  instanly  confirmed  by  the  pope. 
Thus,  in  all  Spanish  America,  authority  of  every 
species  centres  in  the  crown.  There  no  collision  is 
known  between  spiritual  and  temporal  jurisdiction. 
The  king  is  the  only  superior,  his  name  alone  is 
heard  of,  and  no  dependence  upon  any  foreign 
power  has  been  introduced.  Papal  bulls  cannot  be 
admitted  into  America,  nor  are  they  of  any  force 
there,  until  they  have  been  previously  examined  and 
approved  of  by  the  royal  council  of  the  Indies ; 
and  if  any  bull  should  be  surreptitiously  introduced 
and  circulated  in  America  without  obtaining  that 
approbation,  ecclesiastics  are  required  not  only  to 
prevent  it  from  taking  effect,  but  to  seize  all  the  co- 
pies of  it,  and  transmit  them  to  the  council  of  the 
Indies.  To  this  limitation  of  the  papal  jurisdiction, 
equally  singular  whether  we  consider  the  age  and  na- 
tion in  which  it  was  devised,  or  the  jealous  attention 
with  which  Ferdinand  and  his  successors  have  stu- 
died to  maintain  it  in  full  force,  Spain  is  indebted, 
in  a  great  measure,  for  the  uniform  tranquillity  which 
has  reigned  in  her  American  dominions. 

The  hierarchy  is  established  in  America  in  the 
same  form  as  in  Spain,  with  its  full  train  of  arch- 
bishops, bishops,  deans,  and  other  dignitaries.  The 
inferior  clergy  are  divided  into  three  classes,  under 
the  denomination  of  Curas,  Dovtrineros,  and  M/ssion- 
eros.  The  first  are  parish  priests  in  those  parts  of 
the  country  where  the  Spaniards  have  settled.  The 
second  have  the  charge  of  such  districts  as  arc  inha- 
bited by  Indians  subjected  to  the  Spanish  govern- 
ment, and  living  nnder  its  protection.  The  third  are 
employed  in  instructing  and  converting  those  fiercer 


tribes,  which  disdain  submission  to  the  Spani.-.h  Aoke, 
and  live  in  remote  or  inaccessible  regions,  t<>  whirh 
the  Spanish  arms  have  not  penetrated.  So  iiinm-niu- 
are  the  ecclesiastics  of  all  those  various  orders,  and 
such  the  profuse  liberality  with  which  many  of  thorn 
are  endowed,  that  the  revenues  of  the  church  hi 
America  arc  immense.  The  Romish  superstition 
appears  with  its  utmost  pomp  in  the  New  World. 
Churches  and  convents  there  are  magnificent,  and 
richly  adorned ;  and  on  high  festivals,  the  display 
of  gold  and  silver,  and  precious  stones,  is  such  a.s 
exceeds  the  conception  of  a  European.  An  eccle- 
siastical establishment  so  splendid  and  extensive, 
is  unfavourable,  as  has  been  formerly  observed,  to 
the  progress  of  rising  colonies ;  but  in  countries 
where  riches  abound,  and  the  people  are  so  delight- 
ed with  parade,  that  religion  must  assume  it  in  order 
to  attract  their  veneration,  this  propensity  to  osten- 
tation has  been  indulged,  and  becomes  loss  perni- 
cious. 

The  early  institution  of  monasteries  in  the  Spa- 
nish colonies,  and  the  inconsiderate  zeal  in  multi- 
plying them,  have  been  attended  with  consequences 
more  fatal.  In  every  new  settlement,  the  first  object 
should  be  to  encourage  population,  and  to  incite 
every  citizen  to  contribute  towards  augmenting  the 
number  and  strength  of  the  community.  During 
the  youth  and  vigour  of  society,  while  there  is  room 
to  spread,  and  sustenance  is  procured  with  facility, 
mankind  increase  with  amazing  rapidity.  But,  the 
Spaniards  had  hardly  taken  posession  of  America, 
when,  with  a  most  preposterous  policy,  they  began 
to  erect  convents,  where  persons  of  both  sexes  were 
shut  up,  under  a  vow  to  defeat  the  purpose  of  nature, 
and  to  counteract  the  first  of  her  laws.  Influenced 
by  a  misguided  piety,  which  ascribes  transcendant 
merit  to  a  state  of  celibacy,  or  allured  by  the  pros- 
pect of  that  listless  ease  which  in  sultry  climates  is 
deemed  supreme  felicity,  numbers  crowded  into  those 
mansions  of  sloth  and  superstition,  and  are  lost  to 
society.  As  none  but  persons  of  Spanish  extract 
are  admitted  into  the  monasteries  of  the  New  World, 
the  evil  is  more  sensibly  felt,  and  every  monk  or 
nun  may  be  considered  as  an  active  person  with- 
drawn from  civil  life.  The  impropriety  of  such 
foundations  in  any  situation,  where  the  extent  of 
territory  requires  additional  hands  to  improve  it,  is 
so  obvious,  that  some  catholic  states  have  expressly 
prohibited  any  person  in  their  colonies  from  taking 
the  monastic  vows.  Even  the  Spanish  monarchs, 
on  some  occasions,  seem  to  have  been  alarmed  with 
the  spreading  of  a  spirit  so  adverse  to  the  increase 
and  prosperity  of  their  colonies,  that  they  have  en- 
deavoured to  check  it.  But  the  Spaniards  in 
America,  more  thoroughly  under  the  influence  of 
superstition  than  their  countrymen  in  Europe,  and 
directed  by  ecclesiastics  more  bigoted  and  illiterate, 
have  conceived  such  a  high  opinion  of  monastic 
sanctity,  that  no  regulations  can  restrain  their  zeal ; 
and,  by  the  excess  of  their  ill-judged  bounty,  religi- 
ous houses  have  multiplied  to  a  degree  no  less 
amazing  than  pernicious  to  society  (181). 

In  viewing  the  state  of  colonies,  where  not  only 

he  number  but  influence  of  ecclesiastics  is  so  great, 

he  character  of  this  powerful  body  is  an  object  that 

merits  particular  attention.     A  considerable  part  of 

he  secular  clergy  in  Mexico  and  Peru  are  natives 

)f  Spain.     As  persons  long   accustomed,  by  their 

education,  to  the  retirement  and  indolence  of  aca- 

Icmic  life,  are  more  incapable  of  active  enterprise, 

md  less  disposed  to  strike  into  new  paths,   than  any 

rder  of  men,  the  ecclesiastical  adventurers  by  whom 


i  . 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


tho  American  church  is  recruited,  are  commonly 
such  as,  from  merit  or  rank  in  life,  have  little  pros- 
pect of  success  in  their  own  country.  Accordingly, 
the  secular  priests  in  the  New  World  are  still  less 
distinguished  than  their  brethren  in  Spain  for  lite- 
rary accomplishments  of  any  species ;  and  though 
by  the  ample  provision  which  has  been  made  for  the 
American  church,  many  of  its  members  enjoy  the 
ease  and  independence  which  are  favourable  to  the 
cultivation  of  science,  the  body  of  secular  clergy  has 
hardly,  during  two  centuries  and  a  half,  produced 
one  author  whose  works  convey  such  useful  informa- 
tion, or  possess  such  a  degree  of  merit,  as  to  be 
ranked  among  those  which  attract  the  attention  of 
enlightened  nations.  But  the  greatest  part  of  the 
ecclesiastics  in  the  Spanish  settlements  are  regulars. 
On  the  discovery  of  America,  a  new  field  opened  to 
the  pious  zeal  of  the  monastic  orders;  and,  with  a 
becoming  alacrity,  they  immediately  sent  forth  mis- 
sionaries to  labour  in  it.  The  first  attempt  to  instruct 
and  convert  the  Americans  was  made  by  monks ; 
and  as  soon  as  the  conquest  of  any  province  was 
completed,  and  its  ecclesiastical  establishment  began 
to  assume  some  form,  the  popes  permitted  the  mis- 
sionaries of  the  four  mendicant  orders,  as  a  reward 
for  their  services,  to  accept  of  parochial  charges  in 
America,  to  perform  all  spiritual  functions,  and  to 
receive  the  tithes  and  other  emoluments  of  the  bene- 
fice, without  depending  on  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
bishop  of  the  diocese,  or  being  subject  to  his  cen- 
sures. In  consequence  of  this,  a  new  career  of  use- 
fulness, as  well  as  new  objects  of  ambition,  pre- 
sented themselves.  Whenever  a  call  is  made  for  a 
fresh  supply  of  missionaries,  men  of  the  most  ardent 
and  aspiring  minds,  impatient  under  the  restraint  of 
a  cloister,  weary  of  its  insipid  uniformity,  and  fa- 
tigued with  the  irksome  repetition  of  its  frivolous 
functions,  offer  their  service  with  eagerness,  and 
repair  to  the  New  World  in  quest  of  liberty  and 
distinction.  Nor  do  they  pursue  distinction  without 
success.  The  highest  ecclesiastical  honours,  as  well 
a -s  the  most  lucrative  preferments  in  Mexico  and 
Pern,  are  often  in  the  hands  of  regulars ;  and  it  is 
chiefly  to  the  monastic  orders  that  the  Americans 
are  indebted  for  any  portion  of  science  which  is 
cultivated  among  them.  They  are  almost  the  only 
Spanish  ecclesiastics  from  whom  we  have  received 
any  accounts  either  of  the  civil  or  natural  history 
of  the  various  provinces  in  America.  Some  of  them, 
though  deeply  tinged  with  the  indelible  superstition 
of  their  profession,  have  published  books  which  give 
a  favourable  idea  of  their  abilities.  The  natural  and 
moral  history  of  the  New  World,  by  the  Jesuit 
Acosta,  contains  more  accurate  observations,  per- 
haps, and  more  sound  science,  than  are  to  be  found 
in  any  description  of  remote  countries  published  in 
the  sixteenth  century. 

But  the  same  disgust  with  monastic  life,  to  which 
America  is  indebted  for  some  instructors  of  worth 
and  abilities,  filled  it  with  others  of  a  very  different 
character.  The  giddy,  the  profligate,  the  avaricious, 
to  whom  the  poverty  and  rigid  discipline  of  a  con- 
vent are  intolerable,  consider  a  mission  to  America 
as  a  release  from  mortification  and  bondage.  There 
they  soon  obtain  some  parochial  charge  ;  and  far 
removed,  by  their  situation,  from  the  inspection  of 
their  monastic  superiors,  and  exempt,  by  their  cha- 
racter, from  the  jurisdiction  of  their  diocesan,  they 
are  hardly  subjected  to  any  controul.  According  to 
the  testimony  of  the  most  zealous  catholics,  many 
of  the  regular  clergy  in  the  Spanish  settlements  are 
not  only  destitute  of  the  virtues  becoming  their  pro- 


fession, but  regardless  of  that  external  decorum  and 
respect  for  the  opinion  of  mankind,  which  preserve 
a  semblance  of  worth  where  the  reality  is  wanting. 
Secure  of  impunity,  some  regulars,  in  contempt  of 
their  vow  of  poverty,  engage  openly  in  commerce, 
and  are  so  rapaciouly  eager  in  amassing  wealth, 
that  they  become  the  most  grievous  oppressors  of 
the  Indians  whom  it  was  their  duty  to  have  protect- 
ed. Others,  with  no  less  flagrant  violation  of  their 
vow  of  chastity,  indulge  with  little  disguise  in  tho 
most  dissolute  licentiousness  (182). 

Various  schemes  have  been  proposed  for  redress- 
ing enormities  so  manifest  and  so  offensive.  Several 
persons,  no  less  eminent  for  piety  than  discernment, 
have  contended,  that  the  regulars,  in  conformity  to 
the  canons  of  the  church,  ought  to  be  confined  within 
the  walls  of  their  cloisters,  and  should  no  longer  be 
permitted  to  encroach  on  the  functions  of  the  secular 
clergy.  Some  public-spirited  magistrates,  from  con- 
v  it-turn  of  its  being  necessary  to  deprive  the  regulais 
of  a  privilege  bestowed  at  first  with  good  intention, 
but  of  which  time  and  experience  had  discovered  the 
pernicious  effects,  openly  countenanced  the  secular 
clergy  in  their  attempts  to  assert  their  own  rights. 
The  Prince  D'Esquilache,  viceroy  of  Peru  under 
Phillip  III.,  took  measures  so  decisive  and  effectual 
for  circumscribing  the  regulars  within  their  proper 
sphere,  as  struck  them  with  general  consterna- 
tion (183).  They  had  recourse  to  their  usual  arts. 
They  alarmed  the  superstitious,  by  representing  the 
proceedings  of  the  viceroy  as  innovations  fatal  to 
religion.  They  employed  all  the  refinements  of  in- 
trigue, in  order  to  gain  persons  in  power ;  and  se- 
conded by  the  powerful  influence  of  the  Jesuits, 
who  claimed  and  enjoyed  all  the  privileges  which 
belonged  to  the  mendicant  orders  in  America,  they 
made  a  deep  impression  on  a  bigoted  prince  and  a 
weak  ministry.  The  ancient  practice  was  tolerated. 
The  abuses  which  it  occasioned  continued  to  increase, 
and  the  corruption  of  monks,  exempt  from  the  re- 
straints of  discipline,  and  the  inspection  of  any  su- 
perior, became  a  disgrace  to  religion.  At  last,  as 
the  veneration  of  the  Spaniards  for  the  monastic 
orders  began  to  abate,  and  the  power  of  the  Jesuits 
was  on  the  decline,  Ferdinand  VI.  ventured  to  apply 
the  only  effectual  remedy,  by  issuing  an  edict,  pro- 
hibiting regulars  of  every  denomination  from  taking 
the  charge  of  any  parish  with  the  cure  of  souls  ;  and 
declaring,  that  on  the  demise  of  the  present  incum- 
bents, none  but  secular  priests,  subject  to  the  juris- 
diction of  their  diocesans,  shall  be  presented  to 
vacant  benefices.  If  this  regulation  is  carried  into 
execution  with  steadiness  in  any  degree  proportional 
to  the  wisdom  with  which  it  is  framed,  a  very  con- 
siderable reformation  may  take  place  in  the  eccle- 
siastical state  of  Spanish  America,  and  the  secular 
clergy  may  gradually  become  a  respectable  body  of 
men.  The  deportment  of  many  ecclesiastics,  even 
at  present,  seems  to  be  decent  and  exemplary; 
otherwise  we  can  hardly  suppose  that  they  would  be 
held  in  such  high  estimation,  and  possess  such  a 
wonderful  ascendant  over  the  minds  of  their  coun- 
trymen throughout  all  the  Spanish  settlements. 

"But  whatever  merit  the  Spanish  ecclesiastics  in 
America  may  possess,  the  success  of  their  endeavours 
in  communicating  the  knowledc  of  true  religion  to 
the  Indians,  has  been  more  imperfect  than  might 
have  been  expected,  either  from  the  degree  of  their 
zeal,  or  from  the  dominion  which  they  had  acquired 
over  that  people.  For  this,  various  reasons  may  be 
assigned.  The  first  missionaries,  in  their  ardour  to 
make  proselytes,  admitted  the  people  of  America 


192 ; 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


into  the  Christian  church,  \vithout  previous  instruc- 
tion in  the  doctrines  of  religion,  and  even  before 
they  themselves  had  acquired  such  knowledge  in 
the  Indian  language,  as  to  be  able  to  explain  to  the 
natives  the  mysteries  of  faith,  or  the  precepts  of 
duty.  Resting  upon  a  subtle  distinction  in  scho- 
lastic theology,  between  that  degree  of  assent  which 
is  founded  on  a  complete  knowledge  and  conviction 
of  duty,  and  that  which  may  be  yielded  when  both 
these  are  imperfect,  they  adopted  this  strange  prac- 
tice, no  less  inconsistent  with  the  spirit  of  a  religion 
which  addresses  itself  to  the  understanding  of  men, 
than  repugnant  to  the  dictates  of  reason.  As  soon 
as  any  body  of  the  people,  overawed  by  dread  of  the 
Spanish  power,  moved  by  the  example  of  their  own 
chiefs,  incited  by  levity,  or  yielding  from  mere  ig- 
norance, expressed  the  slightest  desire  of  embracing 
the  religion  of  their  conquerors,  they  were  instantly 
baptized.  While  this  rage  of  conversion  continued", 
a  single  clergyman  baptized  in  one  day  above  five 
thousand  Mexicans,  and  did  not  desist  until  he  was 
so  exhausted  by  fatigue,  that  he  was  unable  to  lift 
his  hands.  In  the  course  of  a  few  years  after  the 
reduction  of  the  Mexican  empire,  the  sacrament  of 
baptism  was  administered  to  more  than  four  millions. 
Proselytes  adopted  with  such  inconsiderate  haste, 
and  who  were  neither  instructed  in  the  nature  of  the 
tenets  to  which  it  was  supposed  they  had  given  as- 
sent, nor  taught  the  absurdity  of  those  which  they 
were  required  to  relinquish,  retained  their  venera- 
tion for  their  ancient  superstitions  in  full  force,  or 
mingled  an  attachment  to  iis  doctrines  and  rites 
with  that  slender  knowledge  of  Christianity  which 
they  had  acquired.  These  sentiments  the  new  con- 
verts transmitted  to  their  posterity,  into  whose  minds 
they  have  sunk  $o  deep,  that  the  Spanish  ecclesias- 
tics, with  all  their  industry,  have  not  been  able  to 
eradicate  them.  The  religious  institutions  of  their 
ancestors  are  still  remembered  and  held  in  honour 
by  many  of  the  Indians,  both  in  Mexico  and  Peru ; 
aud  whenever  they  think  themselves  out  of  reach  of 
inspection  by  the  Spaniards,  they  assemble  and  ce- 
lebrate their  idolatrous  rites. 

But  this  is  not  the  most  insurmoxm  table  obstacle 
to  the  progress  of  Christianity  among  the  Indians. 
The  powers  of  their  uncultivated  understandings  are 
so  limited,  their  observations  and  reflections  reach 
so  little  beyond  the  mere  objects  of  sense,  that  they 
seem  hardly  to  have  the  capacity  of  forming  abstract 
ideas,  and  possess  not  language  to  express  them. 
To  such  men  the  sublime  and  spiritual  doctrines  of 
Christianity  must  be,  in  a  great  measure,  incompre- 
hensible. The  numerous  and  splendid  ceremonies 
of  the  popish  worship  catch  the  eye,  please  and  in- 
terest them;  but  when  their  instructors  attempt  to 
explain  the  articles  of  faith  with  which  those  external 
observances  are  connected,  though  the  Indians  may 
listen  with  patience,  they  so  little  conceive  the 
meaning  of  what  they  hear,  that  their  acquiescence 
does  not  merit  the  name  of  belief.  Their  indiffer- 
ence is  still  greater  than  their  incapacity.  Atten- 
tive only  to  the  present  moment,  and  engrossed  by 
the  objects  before  them,  the  Indians  so  seldom  reflect 
upon  what  is  ,'past,  or  take  thought  for  what  is  to 
come,  that  neither  the  promises  nor  threats  of  reli- 
gion make  much  impression  upon  them,  and  while 
their  foresight  rarely  extends  so  far  as  the  next  day, 
it  is  almost  impossible  to  inspire  them  with  solici- 
tude about  the  concerns  of  a  future  world.  Aston- 
ished equally  at  their  slowness  of  comprehension, 
and  at  their  insensibility,  some  of  the  early  mis- 
sionaries pronounced  them  a  race  of  men  so  brutish 


is  to  be  incapable  of  understanding  the  first  prin- 
ciples of  religion.  A  council  held  at  Lima  decreed, 
;hat,  on  account  of  this  incapacity,  they  ought  to  be 
excluded  from  the  sacrament  of  the  Eucharist. 
Though  Paul  III.,  by  his  famous  bull  issued  in  the 
year  1537,  declared  "them  to  be  rational  creatures 
entitled  to  all  the  privileges  of  Christians  ;  yet  after 
the  lapse  of  two  centuries,  during  which  they  have 
been  members  of  the  church,  so  imperfect  are  their 
attainments  in  knowledge,  that  very  few  possess 
such  a  portion  of  spiritual  discernment,  as  to  be 
deemed  worthy  of  being  admitted  to  the  holy  com- 
munion. From  this  ideir  of  their  incapacity  and 
imperfect  knowledge  of  religion,  when  the  zeal  of 
Philip  II.  established  the  Inquisition  in  America  in 
the  year  1570,  the  Indians  were  exempted  from  the 
jurisdiction  of  that  severe  tribunal,  and  still  continue 
under  the  inspection  of  their  diocesans.  Even  after 
the:  most  perfect  instruction,  their  faith  is  held  to  be 
feeble  and  dubious;  and  though  some  of  them  have 
been  taught  the  learned  languages,  and  have  gone 
through  the  ordinary  course  of  academic  education 
with  applause,  their  frailty  is  still  so  much  sus- 
pected, that  few  Indians  are  either  ordained  priests 
or  received  into  any  religious  order.  (181.) 

From  this  brief  survey  some  idea  may  he  formed 
of  the  interior  state  of  the  Spanish  colonies.  The 
various  productions  with  which  they  supply  and  en- 
rich the  mother-country,  aud  the  system  of  commer- 
cial intercourse  between  them,  come  next  in  order 
to  be  explained.  If  the  dominions  of  Spain  in  the 
New  World  had  been  of  such  moderate  extent,  as 
bore  a  due  proportion  to  the  parent  state,  the  pro- 
gress of  her  colonizing  might  have  been  attended 
with  the  same  benetit  as  that  of  other  nations.  But 
when,  in  less  than  half  a  century,  her  inconsiderate 
rapacity  had  seized  on  countries  larger  than  all 
Europe,  her  inability  to  fill  such  vast  regions  with  a 
number  of  inhabitants  sufficient  for  the  cultivation  of 
them  was  so  obvious,  as  to  give  a  wrong  direction  to 
all  the  efforts  of  the  colonists.  They  did  not  form 
compact  settlements,  where  industry,  circumscribed 
within  proper  limits,  both  in  its  views  and  opera- 
tions, is  conducted  with  that  sober  persevering  spirit, 
which  gradually  converts  whatever  is  in  its  possession, 
to  a  proper  use,  and  derives  thence  the  greatest  advan- 
tage. Instead  of  this,  the  Spaniards,  seduced  by 
the  boundless  prospect  which  opened  to  them,  di- 
vided their  possessions  in  America  into  governments 
of  great  extent.  As  their  number  was  too  small  to 
attempt  the  regular  culture  of  the  immense  pro- 
vinces which  they  occupied  rather  than  peopled, 
they  bent  their  attention  to  a  few  objects  that  al- 
lured them  with  hopes  of  sudden  and  exorbitant 
gain,  and  turned  away  with  contempt  from  the  hum- 
bler paths  of  industry,  which  lead  more  slowly,  but 
with  greater  certainty,  to  wealth  and  increase  of 
national  strength. 

Of  all  the  methods  by  which  riches  may  be  ac- 
quired, that  of  searching  for  the  precious  metals-  i^ 
one  of  the  most  inviting  to  men  who  are  cither  un- 
accustomed to  the  regular  assiduity  with  which  the 
culture  of  the  earth  and  the  operations  of  commerce 
must  be  carried  on,  or  who  are  so  enterprising  and 
rapacious  as  not  to  be  satisfied  with  the  gradual  re- 
turns of  profit  which  they  yield.  Accordingly,  as 
soon  as  the  several  countries  in  America  were  sub- 
jected to  the  dominion  of  Spain,  this  was  almost  the 
only  method  of  acquiring  wealth  which  occurred  to 
the  adventurers  by  whom  they  were  conquered. 
Such  provinces  of  the  continent  as  did  not  allure 
them  to  settle,  by  the  prospect  of  their  affording 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


193 


gold  and  silver,  were  totally  neglected.  Those  in 
which  they  met  with  a  disappointment  of  the  san- 
guine expectations  they  had  formed,  were  abandoned. 
Even  the  value  of  the  islands,  the  first  fruits  of  their 
discoveries,  and  the  first  object  of  their  attention, 
sunk  so  much  in  their  estimation,  when  the  mines 
which  had  been  opened  in  them  were  exhausted, 
that  they  were  deserted  by  many  of  the  planters, 
and  left  to  be  occupied  by  more  industrious  posses- 
sors. All  crowded  to  Mexico  and  Peru,  where  the 
quantities  of  gold  and  silver  found  among  the 
natives,  who  searched  for  them  with  little  industry 
arid  less  skill,  promised  an  unexhausted  store,  as  there- 
compeuce  of  more  intelligent  and  persevering  efforts. 

During  several  years,  the  ardour  of  their  researches 
was  kept  up  by  hope  rather  than  success.  At  length, 
the  rich  silver  mines  of  Potosi  in  Peru  were  acci- 
dentally discovered  in  the  year  1545  by  a-n  Indian, 
as  he  was  clambering  up  the  mountains  in  pursuit  of 
a  llama  which  had  strayed  from  his  flock.  Soon  after 
the  mines  of  Sacotecas  in  New  Spain,  little  inferior 
to  the  other  in  value,  were  opened.  From  that  time, 
successive  discoveries  have  been  made  in  both  colo- 
nies, and  silver  mines  are  now  so  numerous,  that 
the  working  of  them,  and  of  some  few  mines  of  gold 
•in  the  provinces  of  Tierra  Firmo,  and  the  new  king- 
dom of  Granada,  has  become  the*  capital  occupation 
of  the  Spaniards,  and  is  reduced  into  a  system  no 
less  complicated  than  interesting.  To  describe  the 
nature  of  the  various  ores,  the  mode  of  extracting 
them  from  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  and  to  explain 
the  several  processes  by  which  the  metals  are  sepa- 
rated from  the  substances  with  which  they  are 
mingled,  either  by  the  action  of  fire,  or  the  attractive 
powers  of  mercury,  is  the  province  of  the  natural 
philosopher  or  chemist,  rather  than  of  the  historian. 

The  exuberant  profusion  with  which  the  moun- 
tains of  the  New  World  poured  forth  their  treasures 
astonished  mankind,  who  had  been  accustomed 
hitherto  to  receive  a  penurious  supply  of  the  precious 
metals,  from  the  more  scanty  stores  contained  in  the 
mines  of  the  ancient  hemisphere.  According  to 
principles  of  computation,  which  appear  to  be  ex- 
tremely moderate,  the  quantity  of  gold  and  silver 
that  has  been  regularly  entered  in  the  ports  of 
Spain,  is  equal  in  value  to  four  millions  sterling 
annually,  reckoning  from  the  year  1492,  in  which 
America  w4s  discovered,  to  the  present  time.  This, 
in  two  hundred  and  eighty-three  years,  amounts  to 
eleven  hundred  and  thirty-two  millions.  Immense 
as  this  sum  is,  the  Spanish  writers  contend,  that  as 
much  more  ought  to  be  added  to  it,  in  consideration 
of  treasure  which  has  been  extracted  from  the  mines, 
and  imported  fraudulently  into  Spain  without  pay- 
ing duty  to  the  king.  By  this  account,  Spain  has 
drawn  from  the  New  World  a  supply  of  wealth 
amounting  at  least  to  two  thousand  millions  of 
pounds  sterling  (185). 

The  mines,  which  have  yielded  this  amazing 
quantity  of  treasure,  are  not  worked  at  the  expense 
of  the  crown  or  of  the  public.  In  order  to  encourage 
private  adventurers,  the  person  who  discovers  and 
works  a  new  vein  is  entitled  to  the  property  of  it. 
Upon  laying  his  claim  to  such  a  discovery  before  the 
governor  of  the  province,  a  certain  extent  of  land  is 
measured  off,  and  a  certain  number  of  Indians  al- 
lotted him,  under  the  obligation  of  his  'opening  the 
mine  within  a  limited  time,  and  of  his  paying  the 
customary  duty  to  the  king  for  what  it  shall  produce. 
Invited  by  the  facility  with  which  such  grants  are 
obtained,  and  encouraged  by  some  striking  examples 
of  success  in  this  line  of  adventure,  not  only  the  san- 
HISTORY  OF  AMERICA,  No.  25. 


guine  and  the  bold,  but  the  timid  and  diffident,  enter 
upon  it  with  astonishing  ardour.  With  vast  objects 
always  in  view,  fed  continually  with  hope,  and  ex- 
pecting every  moment  that  fortune  will  unveil  her 
secret  stores,  and  give  up  the  wealth  which  they 
contain  to  their  wishes,  they  deem  every  other  occupa- 
tion insipid  and  uninteresting.  The  charms  of  this 
pursuit,  like  the  rage  for  deep  play,  are  so  bewitch- 
ing, and  take  such  full  possession  of  the  mind,  as 
even  to  give  a  new  bent  to  the  natural  temper. 
Under  its  influence  the  cautious  become  enterprising, 
and  the  covetous  profuse.  Powerful  as  this  charm 
naturally  is,  its  force  is  augmented  by  the  arts  of  tin 
order  of  men  known  in  Peru  by  the  cant  name  of 
searchers.  These  are  commonly  persons  of  desperate 
fortune,  who,  availing  themselves  of  some  skill  in 
mineralogy,  accompanied  with  the  insinuating  man- 
ner and  confident  pretensions  peculiar  to  projector.*, 
address  the  wealthy  and  the  credulous.  By  plausi- 
ble descriptions  of  the  appearances  which  they  Ijpve 
discovered  of  rich  veins  hitherto  unexplored ;  by 
producing,  when  requisite,  specimens  of  promising 
ore;  by  affirming,  with  an  imposing  assurance,  that 
success  is  certain,  and  that  the  expense  must  be 
trifling,  they  seldom  fail  to  persuade.  An  association 
is  formed;  a  small  sum  is  advanced  by  each  co- 
partner; the  mine  ia  opened;  the  searcher  is  in- 
trusted with  the  sole  direction  of  every  operation  : 
unforeseen  difficulties  occur;  new  demands  of  money 
are  made ;  but,  amidst  a  succession  of  disappoint- 
ments and  delays,  hope  is  never  extinguished,  and 
the  ardour  of  expectation  hardly  abates.  For  it  is 
observed,  that  if  any  person  once  enter  this  seducing 
path,  it  is  almost  impossible  to  return ;  his  iddas 
alter,  he  seems  to  be  possessed  with  another  spirit ; 
visions  of  imaginary  wealth  are  continually  before 
his  eyes,  and  he  thinks,  and  speaks,  and  dreams  of 
nothing  else. 

Such  is  the  spirit  that  must  be  formed,  wherever 
the  active  exertions  of  any  society  are  chiefly  em- 
ployed in  working  mines  of  gold  and  silver.  No 
spirit  is  more  adverse  to  such  improvements  in  agri- 
culture and  commerce  as  render  a  nation  really 
opulent.  If  the  system  of  administration  in  the 
Spanish  colonies  had  been  founded  upon  principles 
of  sound  policy,  the  power  and  ingenuity  of  the 
legislator  would  have  been  exerted  with  as  much 
ardour  in  restraining  its  subjects  from  such  perni- 
cious industry,  as  is  now  employed  in  alluring  them 
towards  it.  "  Projects  of  mining,"  says  a  good  judge 
of  the  political  conduct  of  nations,  "  instead  of  re- 
placing the  capital  employed  in  them,  together  with 
the  ordinary  profit  of  stock,  commonly  absorb  both 
capital  and  profit.  They  are  the  projects,  therefore, 
to  which,  of  all  others,  a  prudent  lawgiver,  who  de- 
sired to  increase  the  capital  of  his  nation,  would  least 
choose  to  give  any  extraordinary  encouragement,  or 
to  turn  towards  them  a  greater  share  of  that  capital 
than  would  go  to  them  of  its  own  accord.  Such  in 
reality  is  the  absurd  confidence  which  all  men  have 
in  their  own  good  fortune,  that  wherever  there  is  the 
least  probability  of  success,  too  great  a  -  share  of  it 
is  apt  to  go  to  them  of  its  own  accord."  But  in 
the  Spanish  colonies,  government  is  studious  to 
cherish  a  spirit  which  it  should  have  laboured  to  de- 
press, and,  by  the  sanction  of  its  approbation,  aug- 
ments that  inconsiderate  credulity,  which  has  turned 
the  active  industry  of  Mexico  and  Peru  into  such  an 
improper  channel.  To  this  may  be  imputed  the 
slender  progress  which  Spanish  America  has  made, 
during  two  centuries  and  a  half,  either  in  useful 
manufactures,  or  in  those  lucrative  branches  of  cul- 
2  c 


194  THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 

tivatiou  which  furnish  the  colonies  of  other  nations  and  in  several  other  provinces  :  they  are  kilk-( 
with  their  staple  commodities.  In  comparison  with  '  merely  for  the  sake  of  their  hides ;  and  the  slaughtei 
the  precious  metals  every  bounty  of  nature  is  so  at  certain  seasons  is  so  great,  that  the  stench  of  thei» 
much  despised,  that  this  extravagant  idea  of  their  ]  carcasses,  which  are  left  in  the  field,  would  infect  the 
value  has  mingled  with  the  idiom  of  language  in  j  air,  if  large  packs  of  wild  dogs,  and  vast  flocks  ol 
America,  and  the  Spaniards  settled  there,  denomi-  !  yallinazos,  or  American  vultures,  the  most  voracious 
nate  a  country  rich,  not  from  the  fertility  of  its  soil,  ;  of  all  the  feathered  kind,  did  not  instantly  devour 
the  abundance  of  its  crops,  or  the  exuberance  of  its  them.  The  number  of  those  hides  exported  in  every 
pastures,  but  on  account  of  the  minerals  which  its  fleet  to  Europe  is  very  great,  and  is  a  lucrative  branch 
mountains  contain.  In  quest  of  these,  they  abandon  of  commerce. 

the  delightful  plains  of  Peru  and  Mexico,  and  resort  j  Almost  all  these  may  be  considered  as  staple  corn- 
to  barren  and  uncomfortable  regions,  where  they  modities  peculiar  to  America,  and  different,  if  we 
have  built  some  of  the  largest  towns  which  they  pos-  except  that  last  mentioned,  from  the  productions  of 
sess  in  the  New  World.  As  the  activity  and  enter-  the  mother-country. 

prise  of  the  Spaniards  originally  took  this  direction,  j  When  the  importations  into  Spain  of  those  various 
it  is  now  so  difficult  to  bend  them  a  different  way,  articles  from  her  colonies  first  became  active  and 
that  although,  from  various  causes,  the  gain  of  considerable,  her  interior  industry  and  manufactures 
working  mines  is  much  decreased,  the  fascination  ;  were  in  a  state  so  prosperous,  that  with  the  product 
continues,  and  almost  every  person,  who  takes  any  j  of  these  she  was  able  both  to  purchase  the  commodi- 
active  part  in  the  commerce  of  New  Spain  or  Peru,  ties  of  the  New  World  and  to  answer  its  growing 
is  srill  engaged  in  some  adventure  of  this  kind  (186).  demands.  Under  the  reigns  of  Ferdinand  and  Isa- 
But  though  mines  are  the  chief  object  of  the  bella,  and  Charles  V.  Spain  was  one  of  the  most  in- 
Spaniards,  and  the  precious  metals  which  these  yield  dustrious  countries  in  Europe.  Her  manufactures 
form  the  principal  article  in  their  commerce  with  [  in  wool,  and  flax,  and  silk,  were  so  extensive,  as  not 
America ;  the  fertile  countries  which  they  possess  only  to  furnish  what  was  sufficient  for  her  own  con 
there  abound  with  other  commodities  of  such  value,  sumption,  but  to  afford  a  surplus  for  exportation, 
or  scarcity,  as  to  attract  a  considerable  degree  of  i  When  a  market  for  them,  formerly  unknown,  and  to 
attention,  Cochineal  is  a  production  almost  peculiar  which  she  alone  had  access,  opened  in  America,  she 
to  New  Spain,  of  such  demand  in  commerce  that  1  had  recourse  to  her  domestic  store,  and  found  there 
the  sale  is  always  certain,  and  yet  yields  such  profit  an  abundant  supply(187).  This  new  employment  must 


as  amply  rewards  the  labour  and  care  employed  in 
rearing  the  curious  insects  of  which  this  valuable 


naturally  have  added  vivacity  to  the   spirit  of  in- 
dustry.    Nourished  and  invigorated  by  it,  the  manu- 


drug  is  composed,  and  preparing  it  for  the  market. '  factures,  the  population,  and  wealth,  of  Spain  might 


Quinquina  or  Jesuits'  bark,  the  most  salutary  simple, 
perhaps,  and  of  most  restorative  virtue,  that  Provi- 
dence, in  compassion  to  human  infirmity,  has  made 
known  unto  man,  is  found  only  in  Peru,  to  which 
it  affords  a  lucrative  branch  of  commerce.  The  in- 


have  gone  on  increasing  in  the  same  proportion  with 
the  growth  of  her  colonies.  Nor  was  the  state  of  the 
Spanish  marine  at  this  period  less  flourishing  than 
that  of  its  manufactures.  In  the  beginning  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  Spain  is  said  to  have  possessed 


digo  of  Guatimala  is  superior  in  quality  to  that  of  •  above  a  thousand  merchant  ships,  a  number  probably 
any  province  in  America,  and  cultivated  to  a  con-  j  far  superior  to  that  of  any  nation  in  Europe  in  that 
siderable  extent.  Cacao,  though  not  peculiar  to  the  age.  By  the  aid  which  foreign  trade  and  domestic 


Spanish  colonies,  attains  to  its  highest  state  of  per- '  industry  give  reciprocally  to  each  other  in  their  pro- 
fection  there,  and  from  the  great  consumption  of  gress,  the  augmentation  of  both  must  have  been 
chocolate  in  Europe  as  well  as  in  America,  is  a  j  rapid  and  extensive,  and  Spain  might  have  received 
valuable  commodity.  The  tobacco  of  Cuba,  of !  the  same  accession  of  opulence  and  vigour  from  her 
more  exquisite  flavour  than  any  brought,  from  the  '  acquisitions  in  the  New  World,  that  other  powers 
New  World ;  the  sugar  raised  in  that  island,  in  have  derived  from  their  colonies  there. 


Hispaniola,  and  in  New  Spain,  together  with  drugs 
of  various  kinds,  may  be  mentioned  among  the 
natural  productions  of  America  which  enrich  the 


But  various  causes  prevented  this.  .  The  same 
thing  happens  to  nations  as  to  individuals.  Wealth, 
which  flows  in  gradually,  and  with  moderate  increase, 


Spanish  commerce.  To  these  must  be  added  an  j  feeds  and  nourishes  that  activity  which  is  friendly  to 
article  of  no  inconsiderable  account,  the  exportation  commerce,  and  calls  it  forth  into  vigorous  and  well- 
of  hides  ;  for  which,  as  well  as  for  many  of  those  conducted  exertions ;  but  when  opulence  pours  in 
which  I  have  enumerated,  the  Spaniards  are  more  in- 1  suddenly,  and  with  too  full  a  stream,  it  overturns  all 
debted  to  the  wonderful  fertility  of  the  country,  than  j  sober  plans  of  industry,  and  brings  along  with  it  a 
to  their  own  foresight  and  industry.  The  domestic  :  taste  for  what  is  wild  and  extravagant  and  daring  in 
animals  of  Europe,  particularly  horned  cattle,  have  i  business  or  in  action.  Such  was  the  great  and  sud- 
multiplied  in  the  New  World  with  a  rapidity  which  den  augmentation  of  power  and  revenue,  that  the 
almost  exceeds  belief.  A  few  years  after  the  Spa-  possession  of  America  brought  into  Spain  ;  and  some 
niards  settled  there,  the  herds  of  tame  cattle  became  symptoms  of  its  pernicious  influence  upon  the  politi- 
so  numerous,  that  their  propietors  reckoned  them  by  j  cal  operations  of  that  monarchy  soon  began  to  ap- 
thousands.  Less  attention  being  paid  to  them  as  j  pear.  For  a  considerable  time,  however,  the  supply 
they  continued  to  increase,  they  were  suffered  to  '  of  treasure  from  the  New  World  was  scanty  and  pro- 
run  wild ;  and  spreading  over  a  country  of  bound- j  carious ;  and  the  genius  of  Charles  V.  conducted 
less  extent,  under  a  mild  climate  and  covered  with  .  public  measures  with  such  prudence,  that  the  effects 
rich  pasture,  their  number  became  immense.  They  ;  of  this  influence  were  little  perceived.  But  when 
range  over  the  vast  plains  which  extend  from  Buenos  ,  Philip  II.  r.sceuded  the  Spanish  throne,  with  talents 
Ayres  towards  the  Andes,  in  herds  of  thirty  or  forty  :  far  inferior  to  those  of  his  father,  and  remittances 
thousand  ;  and  the  unlucky  traveller  who  once  falls  from  the  colonies  became  a  regular  and  considerable 
in  among  them,  may  proceed  several  days  before  he  ;  branch  of  revenue,  the  fatal  operation  of  this  rapid 
can  disentangle  himself  from  among  the  crowd  that  |  change  in  the  state  of  the  kingdom,  both  on  the 
covers  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  seems  to  have  no  •  monarch  and  his  people,  was  at  once  conspicuous, 
end.  They  are  hardly  less  numerous  in  New  Spain,  Philip,  possessing  that  ^ilrit  of  unceasing  assiduity 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


195 


which  often  characterizes  the  ambition  of, men  of  nufactures  to  America,  and  receive  the  exorbitant 

moderate  talents,  entertained  such  a  high  opinion  of  price  for  which  they  are  sold  there,  either  in  specie 

his  own  resources  that  he  thought  nothing  too  ardu-  or   in   the   rich    commodities   of  the  New   World, 

ous  for  him  to  undertake.     Shut  up  himself  in  the  Neither  the  dread  of  danger,  nor  the  allurement  of 

solitude  of  the  Escurial,  he  troubled  and  annoyed  all  profit,  ever  induced  a  Spanish  factor  to  betray  or 

the  nations  around  him.     He  waged  open  war  with  defraud  the  person  who  confided  in  him;  and  that 

the  'Dutch  and  English ;  he  encouraged  and  aided  probity,  which  is  the  pride  and  distinction   of  the 

a  rebellious  faction  in  France  ;  he  conquered  Portu-  j  nation  contributes  to  its  ruin.     In  a  short  time,  not 

gal,  and  maintained  armies  and  garrisons  in  Italy,  above  a  twentieth  part  of  the  commodities  exported 

Africa,  and  both  the  Indies.    By  such  a  multiplicity  to  America  was  of  Spanish  growth  or  fabric.     All 

of  great  and  complicated  operations,  pursued  with  the  rest   was    the    property  of  foreign  merchants, 

ardour  during  the  course  of  a  long  reign,  Spain  was  though   entered  in  the   name  of  Spaniards.     The 

drained  both  of  men  and  money.     Under  the  weak  treasure  of  the  New  World  may  be  said  hencefor- 

administration   of  his   successor,    Philip   III.,    the  ward   not   to    have   belonged  to  Spain.     Before  it 

vigour  of  the  nation  continued  to  decrease,  and  sunk  reached  Europe,  it  was  anticipated  as  the  price  of 

into   the    lowest  decline,    when   the    inconsiderate  goods    purchased    from    foreigners.      That   wealth 

bigotry  of  that  monarch   expelled  at  once   near  a  I  which,  by  an  internal  circulation,  would  have  spread 

million  of  his  most  industrious  subjects,  at  the  very  through  each  vein  of  industry,  and  have  conveyed 


time  when  the  exhausted  state  of  the  kingdom  re- 
quired some  extraordinary  exertion  of  political  wis- 
dom to  augment  its  numbers,  and  to  revive  its 
strength.  Early  in  the  seventeenth  century,  Spain 
felt  such  a  diminution  in  the  cumber  of  her  people, 
that  from  inability  to  recruit  her  armies  she  was 
obliged  to  contract  her  operations.  Her  fleets,  which 
had  been  the  terror  of  all  Europe,  were  ruined.  Her 
extensive  foreign  commerce  was  lost.  The  trade 
between  different  parts  of  her  own  dominions  was 
interrupted,  and  the  ships  which  attempted  to  carry 
it  on  were  taken  and  plundered  by  enemies  whom 
she  once  despised.  Even  agriculture,  the  primary 
object  of  industry  in  every  prosperous  state,  was 
neglected,  and  one  of  the  most  fertile  countries  in 
Europe  hardly  raised  what  was  sufficient  for  the  sup- 
port of  its  own  inhabitants. 

In  proportion  as  the  population  and  manufactures 
of  the   parent  state   declined,  the   demands   of  her 

The  Spaniards, 
with  the  wealth 
which  poured  in  annually  upon  them,  deserted  the 
paths  of  industry  to  which  they  had  been  accus- 


colonies   continued   to    increase, 
like    their    monarchs,    intoxicated 


life  and  movement  to  every  branch  of  manufacture 
flowed  out  of  the  kingdom  with  such  a  rapid  course 
as  neither  enriched  nor  animated  it.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  artisans  of  rival  nations,  encouraged  by 
this  quick  sale  of  their  commodities,  improved  so 
much  in  skill  and  industry,  as  to  be  able  to  afford 
them  at  a  rate  so  low,  that  the  manufactures  of 
Spain,  which  could  not  vie  with  theirs,  either  in 
quality  or  cheapness  of  work,  were  still  further  de- 
pressed. This  destructive  commerce  drained  off  the 
riches  of  the  nation  faster  and  more  completely  than 
even  the  extravagant  schemes  of  ambition  carried  on 
by  its  monarchs.  Spain  was  so  much  astonished  and 
distressed  at  beholding  her  American  treasures 
vanish  almost  as  soon  as  they  were  imported,  that 
Philip  III.,  unable  to  supply  what  was  requisite  in 
circulation,  issued  an  edict,  by  which  he  endea- 
voured to  raise  copper  money  to  a  value  in  currency 
nearly  equal  to  that  of  silver:  and  the  lord  of  the 
Peruvian  and  'Mexican  mines  was  reduced  to  a 
wretched  expedient,  which  is  the  last  resource  of 
petty  impoverished  states. 

Thus  the  possessions  of  Spain  in  America  have 


tomed,  and  repaired  with  eagerness  to  those  regions  j  not  proved  a  source  of  population  and  of  wealth  to 
from  which  this   opulence  issued.     By  this   rage  of   her,  in  the  same  manner  as  those  of  other  nations. 


emigration    another    drain   was    opened,    and    the 
strength   of  the  colonies  augmented   by  exhausting 
that   of  the  mother  country.     All  those  emigrants, 
as  well  as  the  adventurers  who  had  at  first  settled  in 
America,  depended  absolutely  upon  Spain  for  almost 
every  article  of  necessary  consumption.      Engaged 
in   more    alluring    and   lucrative   pursuits,  or  pre- 
vented  by  restraints  which   government   imposed, 
they    could   not  turn   their  own   attention  towards 
establishing    the   manufactures    requisite    for    com- 
fortable subsistence.     They  received  (as  I  have  ob- 
served in  another  place)  their  clothing,  their  furni- 
ture,  whatever  ministers  to  the   ease  or  luxury  of 
life,   and    even  their   instruments    of  labour,  from 
Europe.     Spain  thinned  of  people  and  decreasing  in 
industry,  was   unable   to   supply   their  growing   de- 
mands.    She  had  recourse  to  her  neighbours.     The 
manufactures  of  the  Low  Countries,  of  England,  of 
France,    and  of  Italy,  which  her  wants   called  into 
existence  or  animated  with  new  vivacity,  furnished 
in  abundance  whatever  she  required.     In   vain   did 
the  fundamental  law,   concerning  the  exclusion  ol 
foreigners  from  trade  with  America,  oppose  this  in- 
novation.      Necessity,    more    powerful    than    any 
statute,  defeated  its  operation,  and  constrained  th< 
Spaniards  themselves  to  concur  in  eluding  it.     Th 
English,   the    French  and    Dutch,    relying  on  th 
fidelity  and  honour  of  Spanish  merchants,  who  len' 
their  names  to  cover  the  deceit,  send  out  their  rna 


n  the  countries  of  Europe,  where  the  spirit  of  in- 
dustry subsists  in  full  vigour,  every  person  settled 
n  such  colonies  as  are  similar,  in  their  situation,  to 
,hose  of  Spain,  is  supposed  to  give  employment  to 
hree  or  four  at  home  in  supplying  his  wants.  But 
wherever  the  mother  country  cannot  afford  this 
supply,  every  emigrant  may  be  considered  as  a 
citizen  lost  to  the  community,  and  strangers  must 
reap  all  the  benefit  of  answering  his  demands. 

Such  has  been  the  internal  state  of  Spain  from 
the  close  of  the   sixteenth  century,  and  such  her  in- 
ability to  supply  the  growing  wants  of  her  colonies. 
The  fatal  effects  of  this  disproportion  between  their 
demands,  and  her  capacity  of  answering  them,  have 
been  much  increased  by  the  mode  in  which  Spain 
has  endeavoured  to  regulate  the  intercourse  between 
the  mother  country  and  the  colonies.     It  is  from  her 
idea  of  monopolizing  the  trade  with  America,  and 
debarring  her  subjects  there  from  any  communica- 
tion with  foreigners,,  that  all  her  jealous  and  syste- 
matic arrangements  have  arisen.     These  are  so  sin- 
gular in  their  nature  and  consequences  as  to  merit 
a  particular   explanation.     In  order  to  secure  the 
monopoly  at  which  she   aimed,  Spain  did  not  vest 
the  trade  with  her  colonies  in  an  exclusive  company, 
a   plan   which  has  been   adopted  by  nations    more 
commercial,  and  at  a  period  when  mercantile  policy 
was    an    object   of  greater  attention,  and  ought   to 
have  been  better  understood.     The  Dutch  gave  up 


1% 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  whole  trade  with  their  colonies,  both  in  the  East 
and  West  Indies,  to  exclusive  companies.  The 
English,  the  French,  the  Danes,  have  imitated  their 
example  with  respect  to  the  East  Indian  commerce  ; 
and  the  two  former  have  laid  a  similar  restraint  upon 
some  branches  of  their  trade  with  the  New  World. 
The  wit  of  man  cannot,  perhaps,  devise  a  method 
for  checking  the  progress  of  industry  and  popula- 
lation  in  a  new  colony  more  effectual  this.  The 
interest  of  the  colony,  and  of  the  exclusive  com- 
pany, must  in  every  point  be  diametrically  opposite  ; 
and  as  the  latter  possesses  such  advantages  in  this 
unequal  contest,  that  it  can  prescribe  at  pleasure  the 
terms  of  intercourse,  the  former  must  not  only  buy 
dear  and  sell  cheap,  but  must  suffer  the  mortification 
of  having  the  increase  of  its  surplus  stock  discou- 
raged by  those  very  persons  to  whom  alone  it  can 
dispose  of  its  productions. 

Spain,  it  is  probable,  was  preserved  from  falling 
into  this  error  of  policy,  by  the  high  ideas  which  she 
early  formed  concerning  the  riches  of  the  New 
World.  Gold  ^and  silver  were  commodities  of  too 
high  a  value  to  vest  a  monopoly  of  them  in  private 
hands.  The  crown  wished  to  retain  the  direction  of 
a  commerce  so  inviting ;  and,  in  order  to  secure 
that,  ordained  the  cargo  of  every  ship  fitted  out  for 
America  to  be  inspected  by  the  officers  of  the  Casa 
de  Contratacion  in  Seville  before  it  could  receive  a 
licence  to  make  the  voyage ;  and  that,  on  its  return, 
a  report  of  the  commodities  which  it  brought  should 
be  made  to  the  same  board  before  it  could  be  per- 
mitted to  land  them.  In  consequence  of  this  regu- 
lation, all  the  trade  of  Spain  with  the  New  World 
centred  originally  in  the  port  of  Seville,  and  was 
gradually  brought  into  a  form,  in  which  it  has  been 
conducted,  with  little  variation,  from  the  middle  of 
the  sixteenth  century  almost  to  our  own  times.  For 
the  greater  security  of  the  valuable  cargoes  sent  to 
America,  as  well  as  for  the  more  easy  prevention  of 
fraud,  the  commerce  of  Spain  with  its  colonies  is 
carried  on  by  its  fleets  which  sail  under  strong  con- 
voys. These  fleets,  consisting  of  two  squadrons,  one 
distinguished  by  the  name  of"  the  Galevns,  the  other 
by  that  of  the  Flota,  are  equipped  annually.  Formerly 
they  took  their  departure  from  Seville ;  but  as  the 
port  of  Cadiz  has  been  found  more  commodious,  they 
have  sailed  from  it  since  the  year  1720. 

The  Galeons  destined  to  supply  Tierra  Firme,  and 
the  kingdoms  of  Peru  and  Chili,  with  almost  every 
article  of  luxury,  or  necessary  consumption,  that  an 
opulent  people  can  demand,  touch  first  at  Cartha- 
gena,  and  then  at  Porto  Bello.  To  the  former,  the 
merchants  of  Santa  Martha,  Caraccas,  the  new  king- 
dom 6f  Granada,  and  several  other  provinces,  resort. 
The  latter  is  the  great  mart  for  the  rich  commerce  of 
Peru  and  Chili.  At  the  season  when  the  Galeons 
are  expected,  the  product  of  all  the  mines  in  these 
two  kingdoms,  together  with  their  other  valuable 
commodities,  is  transported  by  sea  to  Panama. 
From  thence,  as  soon  as  the  appearance  of  the  fleet 
from  Europe  is  announced,  they  are  conveyed  across 
the  isthmus,  partly  on  mules  and  partly  down  the 
river  Chagre  to  Porto  Bello.  This  paltry  village, 
the  climate  of  which,  from  the  pernicious  union  of 
excessive  heat,  continual  moisture,  and  the  putrid 
exalations  arising  from  a  rank  soil,  is  more  fatal 
to  life  than  any  perhaps  in  the  known  world,  is  im- 
mediately filled  with  people.  From  being  the  resi- 
dence of  a  few  negroes  and  mulattoes,  and  of  a 
miserable  garrison  relieved  every  three  months, 
Porto  Bello  assumes  suddenly  a  very  different  aspect, 
and  its  streets  are  crowded  with  opulent  merchants 


from  every  corner  of  Pern  and  the  adjacent  pro 
vinces.  A  fair  is  opened,  the  wealth  of  America  in 
exchanged  fur  the  manufactures  of  Europe  ;  and, 
during  its  prescribed  term  of  forty  days,  the  richest 
traffic  on  the  face  of  the  earth  is  begun  and  finished, 
with  that  simplicity  of  transaction,  and  that  un- 
bounded confidence,  which  accompany  extensive 
commerce  (188).  The  Flota  holds  its  course  to 
Vera  Cruz.  The  treasures  and  commodities  of  New 
Spain,  and  the  depending  provinces,  which  were 
deposited  at  Puebla  de  los  Angeles,  in  expectation 
of  its  arrival,  are  earned  thither  ;  and  the  commer- 
cial operations  of  Vera  Cruz,  conducted  in  the  same 
manner  with  those  of  Porto  Bello,  are  inferior  to 
them  only  in  importance  and  value.  Both  fleets,  as 
soon  as  they  have  completed  their  cargoes  from 
America,  rendezvous  at  the  Havanna,  and  return  in 
company  to  Europe. 

The  trade  of  Spain  with  her  colonies,  while  thus 
fettered  and  restricted,  came  necessarily  to  be  con- 
ducted with  the  same  spirit,  and  upon  the  same 
principles,  as  that  of  an  exclusive  company.  Being 
confined  to  a  single  port,  it  was  of  course  thrown  into 
a  few  hands,  and  almost  the  whole  of  it  was  gra- 
dually engrossed  by  a  small  numbei  of  wealthy 
houses,  formerly  in  Seville,  and  now  in  Cadiz. 
These,  by  combinations  which  they  can  easily  form, 
may  altogether  prevent  that  competition  which  pre- 
serves commodities  at  their  natural  price  ;  and  by 
acting  in  concert,  to  which  they  are  prompted  by 
their  mutual  interest,  they  may  raise  or  lower  the 
value  of  them  at  pleasure.  In  consequence  of  this, 
the  price  of  European  goods  in  America  is  always 
high,  and  often  exorbitant.  A  hundred,  two  hun- 
dred, and  even  three  hundred  per  cent.,  are  profits 
not  uncommon  in  the  commerce  of  Spain  with  her 
colonies.  From  the  same  engrossing  spirit  it  fre- 
quently happens  that  traders  of  the  second  order, 
whose  warehouses  do  not  contain  a  complete  assort- 
ment of  commodities  for  the  American  market, 
cannot  purchase  from  the  more  opulent  merchants 
such  goods  as  they  want,  at  a  lower  price  than  that 
for  which  they  are  sold  in  the  colonies.  With  the 
same  vigilant  jealousy  that  an  exclusive  company 
guards  against  the  intrusion  of  the  free  trader,  those 
overgrown  monopolists  endeavour  to  check  the  pro- 
gress of  every  one  whose  encroachments  they  dread. 
This  restraint  of  the  American  commerce  to  one 
port,  not  only  affects  its  domestic  state,  but  limits  its 
foreign  operations.  A  monopolist  may  acquire 
more,  and  certainly  will  hazard  less,  by  a  confined 
trade  which  yields  exorbitant  profit,  than  by  an  ex- 
tensive commerce  in  which  he  receives  only  a  mo- 
derate return  of  gain.  It  is  often  his  interest  not  to 
enlarge  but  to  circumscribe  the  sphere  of  his  ac- 
tivity ;  and,  instead  of  calling  forth  more  vigorous 
exertions  of  commercial  industry,  it  maybe  the  ob- 
ject of  his  attention  to  check  and  set  bounds  to  them. 
By  some  such  maxim,  the  mercantile  policy  of  Spain 
seems  to  have  regulated  its  intercourse  with  America. 
Instead  of  furnishing  the  colonies  with  European 
goods  in  such  quantity  as  might  render  both  the 
price  and  the  profit  moderate,  the  merchants  of  Se- 
ville and  Cadiz  seem  to  have  supplied  them  with  a 
sparing  hand,  that  the  eagerness  of  competition, 
amongst  customers  obliged  to  purchase  in  a  scanty 
mai'ket,  might  enable  the  Spanish  factors  to  dispose 
of  their  cargoes  with  exorbitant  gain.  About  the 
middle  of  the  last  century,  when  the  exclusive  trade 
to  America  from  Seville  was  in  its  most  flourishing 
state,  the  burden  of  the  two  united  squadrons  of  the 
Galeons  and  Flota  did  not  exceed  twenty-seven  thou- 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


197 


sand  five  hundred  tons.  The  supply  which  such  a 
fleet  could  carry  must  have  been  very  inadequate  to 
the  demands  of  those  "populous  and  extensive  colo- 
nies, which  depended  upon  it  for  all  the  luxuries  and 
many  of  the  necessaries  of  life. 

Spain  early  became  sensible  of  her  declension 
from  her  former  prosperity ;  and  many  respectable 
and  virtuous  citizens  employed  their  thoughts  in  de- 
vising methods  for  reviving  the  decaying  industry 
and  commerce  of  their  country.  From  the  violence 
of  the  remedies  proposed,  we  may  judge  how  des- 
perate and  fatal  the  malady  appeared.  Some,  con- 
founding a  violation  of  police  with  criminality 
against  the  state,  contended  that,  in  order  to  check 
illicit  commerce,  every  person  convicted  of  carrying 
it  on  should  be  punished  with  death,  and  confiscation 
of  all  his  effects.  Others,  forgetting  the  distinction 
between  civil  offences  and  acts  of  impiety,  insisted 
that  contraband  trade  should  be  ranked  among  the 
crimes  reserved  for  the  cognizance  of  the  inquisi 
tion ;  that  such  as  were  guilty  of  it  might  be  tried 
and  punished,  according  to  the  secret  and  summary 
form  in  which  that  dreadful  tribunal  exercises  its 
jurisdiction.  Others,  uninstructed  by  observing  the 
pernicious  effects  of  monopolies  in  every  country 
where  they  have  been  established,  have  proposed  to 
vest  the  trade  with  America  in  exclusive  companies, 
which  interest  would  render  the  most  vigilent 
guardians  of  the  Spanish  commerce  against  the  en- 
croachment of  the  interlopers.  « 

Besides  these  wild  projects,  many  schemes,  better 
digested  and  more  beneficial,  were  suggested.  But, 
under  the  feeble  monarchs  with  whom  the  reign  of 
the  Austrian  line  in  Spain  closed,  incapacity  and 
indecision  are  conspicuous  in  every  department  of 
government.  Instead  of  taking  for  their  model  the 
active  administration  of  Charles  V.,  they  affected 
to  imitate  the  cautious  procrastinating  wisdom  of 
Philip  II. ;  and  destitute  of  his  talents,  they  deli- 
berated perpetually,  but  determined  nothing.  No 
remedy  was  applied  to  the  evils  under  which  the 
national  commerce,  domestic  as  well  as  foreign,  lan- 
guished. These  evils  continued  to  increase;  and 
Spain,  with  dominions  more  extensive  and  more 
opulent  than  any  European  state,  possessed  neither 
vigour,  nor  money,  (189)  nor  industry.  At  length, 
the  violence  of  a  great  national  convulsion  roused 
the  slumbering  genius  of  Spain.  The  efforts  of  the 
two  contending  "parties  in  the  civil  war,  kindled  by 
the  dispute  concerning  the  succession  of  the  crown 
.it  the  beginning  of  this  century,  called  forth  in  some 
degree  the  ancient  spirit  and  vigour  of  the  nation. 
While  men  were  thus  forming,  capable  of  adopting 
sentiments  more  liberal  than  those  which  had  in- 
fluenced the  councils  of  the  monarchy  during  the 
course  of  a  century,  Spain  derived  from  an  unex- 
pected source  the  means  of  availing  itself  of  their 
talents.  The  various  powers  who  favoured  the  pre- 
tensions either  of  the  Austrian  or  Bourbon  candi- 
date for  the  Spanish  throne,  sent  formidable  fleets 
and  armies  to  their  support :  France,  England,  and 
Holland,  remitted  immense  sums  to  Spain.  These 
were  spent,  in  the  provinces  which  became  the  theatre 
of  war.  Part  of  the  American  treasure,  of  which 
foreigners  had  drained  the  kingdom,  flowed  back 
thither.  From  this  aera,  one  of  the  most  intelligent 
Spanish  authors  dates  the  revival  of  the  monarchy ; 
and  however  humiliating  the  truth  may  be,  he  ac- 
knowledges, that  it  is  to  her  enemies  his  country  is 
indebted  for  the  acquisition  of  a  fund  of  circulating 
specie,  in  somo  measure  adequate  to  the  exigencies 
of  the  public. 


As  soon  as  the  Bourbons  obtained  quiet  possession 
of  the  throne,  they  discerned  this  change  in  the 
spirit  of  the  people,  and  in  the  state  of  the  nation, 
and  took  advantage  of  it ;  for  although  that  family 
uis  not  given  monarchs  to  Spain  remarkable  for  su- 
periority of  genius,  they  have  all  been  beneficent 
irinces,  attentive  to  the  happiness  of  their  subjects, 
and  solicitous  to  promote  it.  It  was,  accordingly, 
^he  first  object  of  Philip  V.  to  suppress  an  iunova- 
ion  which  had  crept  in  during  the  course  of  the  war, 
and  had  overturned  the  whole  system  of  the  Spanish 
commerce  with  America.  The  English  and  Dutch, 
>y  their  superiority  in  naval  jiower,  having  acquired 
such  command  of  the  sea  as  to  cut  off  all  intercourse 
between  Spain  and  her  colonies,  Spain,  in  order  to 
Burnish  her  subjects  in  America  those  necessaries  of 
ife  without  which  they  could  not  exist,  and  as  the 
only  means  of  receiving  from  thence  any  part  of 
heir  treasure,  departed  so  far  from  the  usual  rigour 
of  its  maxims,  as  to  open  the  trade  with  Peru  to  her 
allies  the  French.  The  merchants  of  St.  Malo,  to 
whom  Louis  XIV.  granted  the  privilege  of  this  lu- 
crative commerce,  engaged  in  it  with  vigour,  and 
carried  it  on  upon  principles  very  different  from 
;hose  of  the  Spaniards.  They  supplied  Peru  with 
European  commodities  at  a  moderate  price,  and  not 
n  stinted  quantity.  The  goods  which  they  imported 
were  conveyed  to  every  province  of  Spanish  Ame- 
rica, in  such  abundance  as  had  never  been  known 
in  any  former  period.  If  this  intercourse  had  been 
continued,  the  exportation  of  European  commodities 
from  Spain  must  have  ceased,  and  the  dependence 
of  the  colonies  on  the  mother-country  have  been  at 
an  end.  The  most  peremptory  injunctions  were 
therefore  issued,  prohibiting  the  admission  of  foreign 
vessels  into  any  port  of  Peru  or  Chili,  and  a  Spanish 
squadron  was  employed  to  clear  the  South  sea  of  in- 
truders, whose  aid  was  no  longer  necessary. 

But  though,  on  the  cessation  of  the  war  which 
was  terminated  by  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  Spain  ob- 
tained relief  from  one  encroachment  on  her  com- 
mercial system,  she  was  exposed  to  another  which 
she  deemed  hardly  less  pernicious.  As  an  induce- 
ment that  might  prevail  with  queen  Anne  to  con- 
clude a  peace,  which  France  and  Spain  desired  with 
equal  ardour,  Philip  V.  not  only  conveyed  to  Great 
Britain  the  Assiento,  or  contract  for  supplying  the 
Spanish  colonies  with  negroes,  which  had  formerly 
been  enjoyed  by  France,  but  granted  it  the  more 
extraordinary  privilege  of  sending  annually  to  the 
fair  of  Porto-bcllo,  a  ship  of  five  hundred  tons,  laden 
with  European  commodities.  In  consequence  of 
this,  British  factories  were  established  at  Carthagena, 
Panama,  Vera  Cruz,  Buenos  Ayres,  and  other 
Spanish  settlements.  The  veil  with  which  Spain  had 
hitherto  covered  the  state  and  transactions  of  her 
colonies  was  removed.  The  agents  of  a  rival  nation, 
residing  in  the  towns  of  most  extensive  trade,  and 
of  chief  resort,  had  the  best  opportunities  of  becom- 
ing acquainted  with  the  interior  condition  of  the 
American  provinces,  of  observing  their  stated  and 
occasional  wants,  and  of  knowing  what  commodities 
might  be  imported  into  them  with  the  greatest  ad- 
vantage. In  consequence  of  information  so  authentic 
and  expeditious,  the  merchants  of  Jamaica  and 
other  English  colonies  who  traded  to  the  Spanish 
main,  were  enabled  to  assort  and  proportion  their 
cargoes  so  exactly  to  the  demands  of  the  market, 
that  the  contraband  commerce  was  carried  on  with 
a  facility  and  to  an  extent  unknown  in  any  former 
period.  This,  however,  was  not  the  most  fatal  con- 
sequence of  the  Assiento  to  the  trade  of  Spain.  The 


198 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


agents  of  the  British  South  sea  company,  under 
cover  of  the  importation  which  they  were  authorized 
to  make  by  the  ship  sent  annually  to  Porto-bello, 
poured  in  their  commodities  on  the  Spanish  conti- 
nent without  limitation  or  restraint.  Instead  of  a 
ship  of  five  hundred  tons,  as  stipulated  in  the  treaty, 
they  usually  employed  one  which  exceeded  nine 
hundred  tons  in  burthen.  She  was  accompanied  by 
two  or  three  smaller  vessels,  which,  mooring  in  some 
neighbouring  creek,  supplied  her  clandestinely  with 
fresh  bales  of  goods  to  replace  such  as  were  sold. 
The  inspectors  of  the  fair,  and  officers  of  the  revenue, 
gained  by  exorbitant  presents,  connived  at  the 
i'raud  (190).  Thus,  partly  by  the  operations  of  the 
company,  and  partly  by  the  activity  of  private  in- 
terlopers, almost  the  whole  trade  of  Spanish  America 
was  engrossed  by  foreigners.  The  immense  com- 
merce of  the  Galeons,  formerly  the  pride  of  Spain, 
and  the  envy  of  other  nations,  sunk  to  nothing ;  and 
the  squadron  itself,  reduced  from  fifteen  thousand  to 
two  thousand  tons,  served  hardly  any  purpose  but  to 
fetch  home  the  royal  revenue  arising  from  the  fifth 
on  silver. 

While  Spain  observed  those  encroachments,  and 
felt  so  sensibly  their  pernicious  effects,  it  was  impos- 
sible not  to  make  some  effort  to  restrain  them.  Her 
first  expedient  was  to  station  ships  of  force,  under 
the  appellation  of  Guarda  costas,  upon  the  coasts 
of  those  provinces  to  which  interlopers  most  fre- 
quently resorted.  As  private  interest  concurred  with 
the  duty  which  they  owed  to  the  public,  in  rendering 
the  officers  who  commanded  those  vessels  vigilant 
and  active,  some  check  was  given  to  the  progress  of 
the  contraband  trade,  though  in  dominions  so  ex- 
tensive, and  so  accessible  by  sea,  hardly  any  number 
of  cruisers  was  sufficient  to  guard  against  its  inroads 
in  every  quarter.  This  interruption  of  an  intercourse 
which  had  been  carried  on  with  so  much  facility, 
that  the  merchants  in  the  British  colonies  were  ac- 
.customed  to  consider  it  almost  as  an  allowed  brand 
.of  commerce,  excited  murmurs  and  complaints 
These,  authorized  in  some  measure,  and  renderet 
more  interesting  by  several  unjustifiable  acts  of  vio- 
lence committed  by  the  captains  of  the  Spanish 
Guarda  costas,  precipitated  Great  Britain  into  a  war 
with  Spain  ;  in  consequence  of  which,  the  latter  ob- 
tained a  final  release  from  the  Assiento,  and  was  lef 
at  liberty  to  regulate  the  commerce  of  her  colonie 
without  being  restrained  by  any  engagement  with  ; 
foreign  power. 

As  the  formidable  encroachments  of  the  English 
on  their  American  trade,  had  discovered  to  th< 
Spaniards  the  vast  consumption  of  European  good 
in  their  colonies,  and  taught  them  the  advantage  o 
accommodating  their  importations  to  the  occasiona 
demand  of  the  various  provinces,  they  perceived  th 
necessity  of  devising  some  method  of  supplying  thei 
colonies,  different  from  their  ancient  one  of  sendin 
thither  periodical  fleets.  That  mode  of  communica 
tion  had  been  found  not  only  to  be  uncertain,  as  th 
departure  of  the  Galeons  and  Flota  was  sometime 
retarded  by  various  accidents,  and  often  preveute 
by  the  wars  which  raged  in  Europe ;  but  long  expe 
rience  had  shown  it  to  be  ill  adapted  to  afford  Ame 
rica  a  regular  and  timely  supply  of  what  it  wantec 
The  scarcity  of  Europern  goods  in  the  Spanish  se 
tlements  frequently  became  excessive ;  their  pric 
rose  to  an  enormous  height;  the  vigilant  eye  o 
mercantile  attention  did  not  fail  to  observe  this  fi 
vourable  opportunity ;  an  ample  supply  was  pourc 
in  by  interlopers  from  the  English,  the  French,  an 
Dutch  islands;  and  when  the  Galeons  at  leng 


rrived,  they  found  the  markets  so  glutted  by  this 
licit  commerce,  that  there  was  no  demand  for  the 
ommodities  with  which  they  were  loaded.  In  order 
0  remedy  this,  Spain  has  permitted  a  considerable 
art  of  her  commerce  with  America  to  be  carried  on 
y  register  sliips.  These  are  fitted  out  during  the 
itervals  between  the  stated  seasons  when  the  Ga- 
:ons  and  Flota  sail,  by  merchants  in  Seville  or 
adiz,  upon  obtaining  a  licence  from  the  council  of 
le  Indies,  for  which  they  pay  a  very  high  premium, 
nd  are  destined  for  those  ports  in  America  where 
ny  extraordinary  demand  is  foreseen  or  expected, 
y  this  expedient,  such  a  regular  supply  of  the  com- 
modities for  which  there  is  the  greatest  demand  is 
mveyed  to  the  American  market^  that  the  interloper 

no  longer  allured  by  the  same  prospect  of  exces- 
ive  gain,  or  the  people  in  the  colonies  urged  by  the 
ame  necessity,  to  engage  in  the  hazardous  adven- 
ures  of  contraband  trade. 

In  proportion  as  experience  manifested  the  advan- 
dges  of  carrying  on  trade  in  this  mode,  the  number 
f  register  ships  increased ;  and  at  length,  in  the 
ear  1748,  the  Galeons,  after  having  been  employed 
ipwards  of  two  centuries,  were  finally  laid  aside. 
<>om  that  period  there  has  been  no  intercourse  with 

hili  and  Peru  but  by  single  ships  despatched  from 
ime  to  time,  as  occasion  requires,  and  when  the 
ncrchants  expect  a  profitable  market  wiD  open, 
["hose  ships  sail  round  cape  Horn,  and  convey  di- 
ectly  to  the  ports  in  the  South  sea  the  productions 
ind  manufactures  of  Europe,  for  which,  the  people 
ettled  in  those  countries  were  formerly  obliged  to 
•epair  to  Porto-bello  or  Panama.  These  towns,  as 
las  been  formerly  observed,  must  gradually  decline, 
vhen  deprived  of  that  commerce  to  which  they  owed 
.heir  prosperity.  This  disadvantage,  however,  is 
more  than  compensated  by  the  beneficial  effects  of 
,his  new  arrangement,  as  the  whole  continent  of 
South  America  receives  new  supplies  of  European 
commodities  with  so  much  regularity,  and  in  such 
Abundance,  as  must  not  only  contribute  greatly  to 
the  happiness,  but  increase  the  population,  of  all  the 
colonies  settled  there.  But,  as  all  the  register  ships 
destined  for  the  South  seas  must  still  take  their  de- 
parture from  Cadiz,  and  are  obliged  to  return  thither, 
:his  branch  of  the  American  commerce,  even  in  its 
new  and  improved  form,  continues  subject  to  the 
restraints  of  a  species  of  monopoly,  and  feels  those 
pernicious  effects  of  it  which  I  have  already  des- 
cribed. 

Nor  has  the  attention  of  Spain  been  confined  to 
regulating  the  trade  with  its  more  flourishing  colo- 
nies ;  it  has  extended  likewise  to  the  reviving  com- 
merce in  those  settlements  where  it  was  neglected,  or 
had  decayed.  Among  the  new  tastes  which  the 
people  of  Europe  have  acquired,  in  consequence  of 
importing  the  productions  of  those  countries  which 
they  conquered  in  America,  that  for  chocolate  is  one 
of  the  most  universal.  The  use  of  this  liquor,  made 
with  a  paste  formed  of  the  nut  or  almond  of  the 
cacao-tree,  compounded  with  various  ingredients,  the 
Spaniards  first  learned  from  the  Mexicans;  and  it 
has  appeared  to  them,  and  to  the  other  European 
nations,  so  palatable,  so  nourishing,  and  so  whole- 
some, that  it  has  become  a  commercial  article  of  con- 
siderable importance.  The  cacao-tree  grows  spon- 
taneously in  severaJ  parts  of  the  torrid  zone;  but  the 
nuts  of  the  best  quality,  next  to  those  of  Guatimala 
on  the  South  sea,  are  produced  in  the  rich  plains  of 
Caraccas,  a  province  of  T'erra  Firme.  In  conse- 
quence of  this  acknowledge^  superiority  in  the  qua- 
lity of  cacao  in  that  province,  and  its  communication 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


199 


with  the  Atlantic,  which  facilitates  the  conveyance 
to  Europe,  the  culture  of  the  cacao  there  is  more 
extensive  than  in  any  district  of  America.  But  the 
Dutch,  by  the  vicinity  of  their  settlements  in  the 
small  islands  of  Curazoa  and  Bucn  Ayrc,  to  the 
coast  of  Caraccas,  gradually  engrossed  the  greatest 
part  of  the  cacao  trade.  The  traffic  with  the  mother- 
country  for  this  valuable  commodity  ceased  almost 
entirely;  and  such  was  the  supine  negligence  of  the 
Spaniards,  or  the  defects  of  their  commercial  arrang- 
ments,  that  they  were  obliged  to  receive  from  the 
hands  of  foreigners  this  production  of  their  own 
colonies,  at  an  exorbitant  price.  In  order  to  remedy 
an  evil  no  less  disgraceful  than  pernicious  to,his  sub- 
jects, Philip  V.,  in  the  year  1728,  granted  to  a  body 
of  merchants  an  exclusive  right  to  the  commerce 
with  Caraccas  and  Cumana,  on  condition  of  their 
employing,  at  their  own  expense,  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  armed  vessels  to  clear  the  coast  of  interlopers. 
This  society,  distinguished  sometimes  by  the  name 
of  the  company  of  Guipuscoa,  from  the  province  of 
Spain  in  which  it  is  established,  and  sometimes  by 
that  of  the  company  of  Caraccas,  from  the  district 
of  America  to  which  it  trades,  has  carried  on  its 
operations  with  .such  vigour  and  success,  that  Spain 
has  recovered  an  important  branch  of  commerce 
which  she  had  suffered  to  be  wrested  from  her,  and 
is  plentifully  supplied  with  an  article  of  extensive 
consumption  at  a  moderate  price.  Not  only  the 
parent  state,  but  the  colony  of  Caraccas,  has  derived 
great  advantages  from  this  institution ;  for  although, 
at  the  first  aspect,  it  may  appear  to  be  one  of  those 
monopolies  whose  tendency  is  to  check  the  spirit  of 
industry,  instead  of  calling  it  forth  to  new  exertions, 
it  has  been  prevented  from  operating  in  this  manner 
by  several  salutary  regulations  framed  upon  foresight 
of  such  bad  effects,  and  of  purpose  to  obviate  them. 
The  planters  in  the  Caraccas  are  not  left  to  depend 
entirely  on  the  company,  either  for  the  importation 
of  European  commodities  or  the  sale  of  their  own 
productions.  The  inhabitants  of  the  Canary  Islands 
have  the  privilege  of  sending  thither  annually  a 
register  ship  of  considerable  burthen  ;  and  from  Vcra 
Cruz,  in  New  Spain,  a  free  trade  is  permitted  in 
every  poll  comprehended  in  the  charter  of  the  com- 
pany. In  consequence  of  this,  there  is  such  a  com- 
petition, that  both  with  respect  to  what  the  colonies 
purchase  and  what  they  sell,  the  price  seems  to  be 
fixed  at  its  natural  and  equitable  rate.  The  com- 
pany has  not  the  power  of  raising  the  former,  or  of 
degrading  the  latter,  at  pleasure;  and  accordingly, 
since  it  was  established,  the  increase  of  culture,  of 
population,  and  of  live  stock,  in  the  province  of 
Caraccas,  has  been  very  considerable  (191). 

But  as  it  is  slowly  that  nations  relinquish  any  sys 
tern  which  time  has  rendered  venerable,  and  as  it  is 
still  more  slowly  that  commerce  can  be  diverted  from 
the  channel  in  which  it  has  long  been  accustomed  to 
flow,  Philip  V.,  in  his  new  regulations  concerning 
the  American  trade,  paid  such  deference  to  the  an- 
cient maxim  of  Spain,  concerning  the  limitation  of 
all  importation  from  the  New  World  to  one  harbour, 
as  to  oblige  both  the  register-ships  which  returned 
from  Peru,  and  those  of  the  Guipuscoan  company 


or  commerce  of  nations,  the  errors  and  defects  of  the 
Spanish  system  with  respect  to  both  meet  every  eye, 
and  have  not  only  been  exposed  with  severity,  but 
are  held  up  as  a  warning  to  other  states.  The 
Spaniards,  stung  with  the  reproaches  of  these  authors, 
or  convinced  by  their  arguments,  and  admonished 
by  several  enlightened  writers  of  their  own  country, 
seem  at  length  to  have  discovered  the  destructive 
tendency  of  those  narrow  maxims,  which,  by  cramp- 
ing commerce  in  all  its  operations,  have  so  long  re- 
tarded its  progress.  It  is  to  the  monarch  now  on  the 
throne  that  Spain  is  indebted  for  the  first,  public  re- 
gulation, formed  in  consequence  of  such  enlarged 
ideas. 

While  Spain  adhered  with  rigour  to  her  ancient 
maxim  concerning  her  commerce  with  America,  she 
was  so  much  afraid  of  opening  any  channel  by  which 
an  illicit  trade  might  find  admission  into  the  colonies, 
that  she  almost  shut  herself  out  from  any  intercourse 
with  them,  but  that  which  was  carried  on  by  her 
annual  fleets.  There  was  no  establishment,  for'a  re- 
gular communication  of  cither  public  or  private  in- 
telligence, between  the  mother-country  and  its  Ameri- 
can settlements.  From  the  want  of  this  necessary  insti  j 
tution,  the  operations  of  the  state,  as  well  as  the 
business  of  individuals,  were  retarded,  or  conducted 
unskilfully,  and  Spain  often  received  from  foreigners 
her  first  information  with  respect  to  very  interesting 
events  in  her  own  colonies.  But  though  this  defect 
in  police  was  sensibly  felt,  and  the  remedy  for  it  was 
obvious,  that  jealous  spirit  with  which  the  Spanish 
monarchs  guarded  the  exclusive  trade,  restrained  them 
from  applying  it.  At  length,  Charles  III.  sur- 
mounted those  considerations  which  had  deterred  his 
predecessors,  and  in  the  year  1764,  appointed  packet- 
boats  to  be  despatched  on  the  first  day  of  each  month 
from  Corugna  to  the  Havanna  or  Porto  Rico.  From 
thence,  letters  ?re  conveyed  in  small  vessels  to  Vera 
Cruz  and  Portobello,  and  transmitted  by  post  through 
the  kingdoms  of  Tierra  Firme,  Granada,  Peru,  and 
New  Spain.  With  no  less  regularity,  packet-boats 
sail  once  in  two  months  to  Rio  de  la  Plata,  for  the 
accommodation  of  the  provinces  to  the  east  of  the 
Andes.  Thus  provision  is  made  for  a  speedy  and 
eertv'n  circulation  of  intelligence  throughout  the 
vast  dominions  of  Spain,  from  which  equal  advantages, 
must  redound  to  the  political  and  mercantile  interest 
of  the  kingdom.  With  this  new  arrangement,  a 
scheme  of  extending  commerce  has  been  more  im- 
mediately connected.  Each  of  the  packet-boats, 
which  are  vessels  of  some  considerable  burden,  is  al- 
lowed to  take  in  half  a  loading  of  such  commodities 
as  are  the  product  of  Spain,  and  most  in  demand  in 
the  ports,  whither  they  are  bound.  In  return  for 
these,  they  may  bring  home  to  Corugna  an  equal 
quantity  of  American  productions.  This  may  be 
considered  as  the  first  relaxation  of  those  rigid  laws 
which  confined  the  trade  with  the  New  World  to  a 
single  port,  and  the  first  attempt  to  admit  the  rest  of 
the  kingdom  to  some  share  in  it. 

It  was  soon  followed  by  one  more  decisive.  In 
the  year  1765,  Charles  III.  laid  open  the  trade  to  the 
windward  islands,  Cuba,  Hispaniola,  Porto-Rico, 
Margarita,  and  Tiiuidad,  to  his  subjects  in  every 


from  Caraccas,  to  deliver  their  cargoes  in  the  port  of  |  province  of  Spain.  He  permitted  them  to  sail  from 
Cadiz.  Since  his  reign,  sentiments  more  liberal  and  certain  ports  in  each  province,  which  are  spacified  in 
enlarged  begin  to  spread  in  Spain.  The  spirit  of  the  edict,  at  any  season  and  with  whatever  cargo 
philosophical  inquiry,  which  it  is  the  glory  of  the  they  deemed  most  proper,  without  any  other  warrant 
present  age  to  have  turned  from  frivolous  or  abstruse  than  a  simple  clearance  from  the  custom-house  of 
speculations  to  the  business  and  affairs  of  men,  has  the  place  whence  they  take  their  departure.  He  re- 
extended  its  influence  beyond  the  Pyrenees.  In  the  leased  them  from  the  numerous  and  oppressive  duties 
researches  of  ingenious  authors  concerning  the  police  imposed  on  goods  exported  to  America,  and  in  place 


200 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA 


of  the  whole,  substituted  a  moderate  tax  of  six  in  the 
hundred  on  the  commodities  sent  from  Spain.  He 
allowed  them  to  return  either  to  the  same  port,  or  to 
any  other  where  they  might  hope  for  a  more  advan- 
tageous market,  and  there  to  enter  the  homeward 
cargo  on  payment  of  the  usual  duties.  This  ample 
privilege,  which  at  once  broke  through  all  the  fences 
which  the  jealous  policy  of  Spain  had  been  labour- 
ing for  two  centuries  and  a  half  to  throw  round  its 
commercial  intercourse  with  the  New  World,  was 
soon  after  extended  to  Louisiana,  and  to  the  pro- 
vinces of  Yucatan  and  Campeachy.  The  propriety 
of  this  innovation  which  may  be  considered  as  the 
most  liberal  effort  of  Spanish  legislation,  has  ap- 
peared from  its  effects.  Prior  to  the  edict  in  favour 
of  the  free  trade,  Spain  derived  hardly  any  benefit 
from  its  neglected  colonies  in  Hispaniola,  Port  Rico, 
Margarita,  and  Trinidad.  Its  commerce  with  Cuba 
was  inconsiderable,  and  that  of  Yucatan  and  Cam- 
peachy  was  engrossed  almost  entirely  by  interlopers. 
But  as  soon  as  a  general  liberty  of  trade  was  per- 
mitted, the  intercourse  with  those  provinces  revived, 
and  has  gone  on  with  a  rapidity  of  progression  of 
which  there  are  few  examples  in  the  history  of  na- 
tions. In  less  than  ten  years,  the  trade  of  Cuba  has 
been  more  than  tripled.  Even  in  those  settlements 
where,  from  the  languishing  state  of  industry,  greater 
efforts  were  requisite  to  restore  its  activity,  their  com- 
merce has  been  doubled.  It  is  computed,  that  such 
a  number  of  ships  is  already  employed  fa  the  free 
trade,  that  the  tonnage  of  them  far  exceeds  that  of 
the  Galeons  and  Flota  at  the  most  nourishing  sera  of 
their  commerce.  The  benefits  of  this  arrangement 
are  not  confined  to  a  few  merchants  established  in  a 
favourite  port.  They  are  diffused  through  every 
province  of  the  kingdom;  and,  by  opening  a  new 
market  for  their  various  productions  and  manafac- 
tures,  must  encourage  and  add  vivacity  to  the  in 
dustry  of  the  fanner  and  artificer.  Nor  does  the  king- 
dom profit  only  by  what  it  exports ;  it  derives  ad- 
vantage likewise  from  what  it  receives  in  return,  and 
has  the  prospect  of  being  soon  able  to  supply  itself 
with  several  commodities  of  extensive  consumption, 
for  which  it  formerly  depended  on  foreigners.  The 
consumption  of  sugar  in  Spain  is  perhaps  as  great,  in 
proportion  to  the  number  of  its  inhabitants,  as  that, 
of  any  European  kingdom.  But  though  possessed 
of  countries  in  the  New  "World  whose  soil  and  cli- 
mate are  most  proper  for  rearing  the  sugar  cane ; 
though  the  domestic  culture  of  that  valuable  plant  in 
the  kingdom  of  Granada  was  once  considerable ;  such 
has  been  the  fatal  tendency  of  ill-judged  institutions 
in  America,  and  such  the  pressure  of  improper  taxes 
in  Europe,  that  Spain  has  lost  almost  entirely  this 
branch  of  industry,  which  has  enriched  other  nations. 
This  commodity,  which  has  now  become  an  article 
of  primary  necessity  in  Europe,  the  Spaniards  were 
obliged  to  purchase  of  foreigners,  and  had  the  morti- 
fication to  see  their  country  drained  annually  of  great 
sums  on  that  account.  But,  if  that  spirit  which  the 
permission  of  free  trade  has  put  in  motion  shall  per- 
severe in  its  efforts  with  the  same  vigour,  the  culti- 
vation of  sugar  in  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico,  may  in- 
crease so  much,  that  in  a  few  years  it  is  probable  that 
their  growth  of  sugars  may  be  equal  to  the  demand 
of  the  kingdom. 

Spain  has  been  induced,  by  her  experience  of  the 
beneficial  consequences  resulting  from  having  re- 
laxed somewhat  of  the  rigour  of  her  ancient  laws 
with  respect  to  the  commerce  of  the  mother-country 
with  the  colonies,  to  permit  a  more  liberal  intercourse 
jf  one  colony  with  another.  By  one  of  the  jealous 


j  maxims  of  the  old  system,  all  the  provinces  situated 
on  the  South  seas  were  prohibited,  under  the  most 
severe  penalties,  from  holding  any  communication 
with  one  another.  Though  each  of  these  yields 
peculiar  productions,  the  reciprocal  exchange  of 
which  might  have  added  to  the  happiness  of  their 
respective  inhabitants,  or  have  facilitated  their  pro- 
gress in  industry,  so  solicitious  was  the  council  of 
the  Indies  to  prevent  their  receiving  any  supply  of 
their  wants  but  by  the  periodical  fleets  from  Europe, 
that  in  order  to  guard  against  this,  it  cruelly  de- 
barred the  Spaniards  in  Peru,  in  the  southern  pro- 
vinces of  New  Spain,  in  Guatimala,  and  the  new- 
kingdom  of  Granada,  from  such  a  correspondence 
with  their  fellow-subjects  as  tended  manifestly  t<> 
their  mutual  prosperity.  Of  all  the  numerous  re- 
strictions devised  by  Spain  for  securing  the  exclu- 
sive trade  with  her  American  settlements,  nono 
perhaps  was  more  illiberal,  none  seems  to  have  been 
more  sensibly  felt,  or  to  have  produced  more  hurtful 
effects.  This  grievance,  coeval  with  the  settlements 
of  Spain  in  the  countries  situated  on  the  Pacific 
ocean,  is  at  last  redressed.  In  the  year  1774, 
Charles  III.  published  an  edict,  granting  to  the 
four  great  provinces  which  I  have  mentioned  the 
privilege  of  a  free  trrde  with  each  other  (  192). 
What  may  be  the  effects  of  opening  this  communi- 
cation between  countries  destined  by  their  situation 
for  reciprocal  intercourse,  cannot  yet  be  determined 
by  experience.  They  can  hardly  fail  of  being  bene- 
ficial and  extensive.  The  motives  for  granting  this 
permission  are  manifestly  no  less  laudable,  than  the 
principle  on  which  it  is  founded  is  liberal ;  and  both 
discover  the  progress  of  a  spirit  in  Spain,  far  elevated 
above  the  narrow  prejudices  and  maxims  on  which 
her  system  for  regulating  the  trade  and  conducting 
the  government  of  her  colonies  was  originally 
founded. 

At  the  same  time  that  Spain  has  been  intent  on 
introducing  regulations,  suggested  by  more  enlarged 
views  of  policy  into  her  system  of  American  com- 
merce, she  has"  not  been  inattentive  to  the  interior 
government  of  her  colonies.  Here,  too,  there  was 
much  room  for  reformation  and  improvement,  and 
Don  Joseph  Galvez,  who  has  now  the  direction  of 
the  department  for  Indian  affairs  in  Spain,  has  en- 
joyed the  best  opportunities,  not  only  of  observing 
the  defects  and  corruption  in  the  political  frame  of 
the  colonies,  but  of  discovering  the  sources  of  those 
evils.  After  being  employed  seven  years  in  the  New- 
World  on  an  extraordinary  mission,  and  with  very 
extensive  powers,  as  inspector-general  of  New  Spain; 
after  visiting  in  person  the  remote  provinces  of  Cina- 
loa,  Sonora,  and  California,  and  making  several  im- 
portant alterations  in  the  state  of  the  police  and 
revenue ;  he  began  his  ministry  with  a  general  re- 
formation of  the  tribunals  of  justice  in  America.  In 
consequence  of  the  progress  of  population  and  wealth 
in  the  colonies,  the  business  of  the  courts  of  audi- 
ence has  increased  so  much,  that  the  number  of 
judges  of  which  they  were  originally  composed  has 
been  found  inadequate  to  the  growing  labours  and 
duties  of  the  office,  and  the  salaries  settled  upon 
them  have  been  deemed  inferior  to  the  dignity  of  the 
station.  As  a  remedy  for  both,  he  obtained  a  royal 
edict,  establishing  an  additional  number  of  judges  in 
each  court  of  audience,  with  higher  titles,  and  more 
ample  appointments. 

To  the  same  intelligent  minister  Spain  is  indebted 
for  a  new  distribution  of  government  in  its  American 
provinces.  Even  since  the  establishment  of  a  third 
viceroyaltyin  the  new  kingdom  of  Granada,  so  great  i; 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  extent  of  the  Spanish  dominions  in  the  New  World,  ;  pressed  by  the  languor  and  feebleness  natural  to 
that  several  places  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  of  each  j  provinces  which  compose  the  extremities  of  an  over- 
viceroy,  were  at  such  an  enormous  distance  from  the  :  grown  empire,  may  be  animated  with  vigour  and 
capitals  in  which  they  resided,  that  neither  their  at-  activity  when  brought  so  near  the  seat  of  power  as  to 
tendon  nor  their  authority  could  reach  so  far.  Some  !  feel  its  invigorating  influence. 


provinces  subordinate  to  the  viceroy  of  New  Spain 
lay  about  two  thousand  miles  from  Mexico.     There 


Such,   since  the  accession   of  the  princes  of  the 
house  of  Bourbon  to  the  throne  of  Spain,  has  been 


were  countries  subject  to  the  viceroy  of  Peru  still  |  the  progress  of  their  regulations,  and  the  gradual 
further  from  Lima.  The  people  in  those  remote  j  expansion  of  their  views  with  respect  to  the  corn- 
districts,  could  hardly  be  said  to  enjoy  the  benefit  of  j  merce  and  government  of  their  American  colonies, 
civil  government.  The  oppression  and  insolence  t5f  j  Nor  has  their  attention  been  so  entirely  engrossed 
its  inferior  ministers  they  often  feel,  and  rather  sub-  by  what  related  to  the  more  remote  parts  of  their 


mit  to  these  in  silence,  than  involve  themselves 
in  the  expense  and  trouble  of  resorting  to  the  distant 
capitals,  where  alone  they  can  rind  redress.  As  a 
remedy  for  this,  a  fourth  viceroyalty  has  been  erected, 
to  the  jurisdiction  of  which  are  subjected  the  pro- 


dominions,  as  to  render  them  neglectful  of  what  was 
still  more  important — the  reformation  of  domestic 
policy.     Fully  sensible  of  the 
declension  of  Spain   from  her 


errors  and  defects  in 
causes  to  which  the 


pain 


former  prosperity  ought  to  be  imputed,  they  have 

1  i    i          ,  /»     ,  i  i  •  • 


viuces  of  Rio  de  la  Plata,  Buen<js-Ayres,  Paraguay,  made  it  a  great  object  of  their  policy  to  revive  a 
Tucuman,  Potosi,  St.  Cruz  de  la  Sierra,  Charcas,  j  spirit  of  industry  among  their  subjects,  and  to  give 
and  the  towns  of  Mcndoza  and  St.  Juan.  By  this  |  such  extent  and  perfection  to  their  manufactures  as 
well-judged  arrangement,  two  advantages  are  gained,  may  enable  them  to  supply  the  demands  of  America 
All  the  inconveniences  occasioned  by  the  remote  |  from  their  own  stock,  and  to  exclude  foreigners  from 
situation  of  those  provinces,  which  had  been  long  |  a  branch  of  commerce  which  has  been  so  fatal  to  the 
felt,  and  long  complained  of,  arc  in  a  great  measure  kingdom.  This  they  have  endeavoured  to  accom- 
removccl.  The  countries  most  distant  from  Lima  plish  by  a  variety  of  edicts  issued  since  the  peace  of 
are  separated  from  the  viceroyalty  of  Peru,  and  •  Utretcht.  They  have  granted  bounties  for  the  on- 
united  under  a  superior,  whose  seat  of  government  couragement  of  some  branches  of  industry ;  they 
at  Buenos-Ayres  will  be  commodious  and  accessible.  |  have  lowered  the  taxes  on  others;  they  have  either 
The  contraband  trade  with  the  Portuguese,  \\hic  h  entirely  prohibited,  or  have  loaded  with  additional 
was  become  so  extensive  as  must  have  put  a  final  j  duties,  such  foreign  manufactures  as  come  in  compr- 
stop  to  the  exportation  of  commodities  from  Spain  ;  tition  with  their  own;  they  have  instituted  societies 


to  her  southern  colonies,  may  be  checked  more 
thoroughly,  and  with  greater  facility,  when  the 
supreme  magistrate,  by  his  vicinity  to  the  places  in 
which  it  is  carried  on,  can  view  its  progress  and  ef- 
fects with  his  own  eves.  Don  Pedro  Zevallos,  who 


for  the  improvement  of  trade  and  agriculture  ;  they 
have  planted  colonies  of  husbandmen  in  some  uncul- 
tivated districts  of  Spain,  and  divided  among  them 
the  waste  fields ;  they  have  had  recourse  to  every  expe- 
dient devised  by  commercial  wisdom,  or  commercial 
i  />  J  .  .  .1  .•  i..  ,  i  J- 


has  been  raised  to  this  new  dignity,  with  appoint-  j  jealousy,  for  reviving  their  own  industry,  and  di?- 
ments  equal  to  those  of  the  other  viceroys,  is  well  j  countenancing  that  of  other  nations.  These,  how- 
acquainted  both  with  the  state  and  the  interest  of!  ever,  it  is  not  my  province  to  explain,  or  to  inquire 
the  countries  over  which  he  is  to  preside,  having  |  into  their  propriety  and  effects,  There  is  no  effort, 
served  in  them  long,  and  with  distinction.  By  this  j  of  legislation  more  arduous,  no  experiment  in  policy 
dismemberment,  succeeding  that  which  took  place  at  [  more  uncertain,  than  an  attempt  to  revive  the  spirit 
the  erection  of  the  viceroyalty  of  the  new  kingdom 
of  Granada,  almost  two-third  parts  of  the  territoric 


originally  subject  to  the  vicerovs  of  Peru  are  now 
lopped  off  from  their  jurisdiction. 

The  limits  of  the  viceroyalty  of  New  Spain  have 
likewise  been  considerably  circumscribed,  and  with 
no  less  propriety  and  discernment.  Four  of  its  most 
remote  provinces,  Sonora,  Cinaloa,  California,  and 
New  Navarre,  have  been  formed  into  a  separate 
government.  The  Chevalier  de  Croix,  who  is  in- 
trusted wuth.  this  convnand,  is  not  dignified  with  the 
title  of  viceroy,  nor  does  he  enjoy  the  appointments 
belonging  to  that  rank;  but  his  jurisdiction  is  alto- 
gether independent  on  the  viceroyalty  of  New  Spain. 
The  erection  of  this  last  government  seems  to  have 
been  suggested  not  only  by  the  consideration  of  the 
remote  situation  of  those  provinces  from  Mexico, 
but  by  attention  to  tho  late  discoveries  made  there 
which  I  have  mentioned.  Countries  containing  the 
richest  mines  of  gold  that  have  hitherto  been  dis- 
covered in  the  New  World,  and  which  probably 
nvay  rise  into  great  importance,  required  tho  imme- 
diate inspection  of  a  governor  to  whom  they  should 
be  specially  committed.  As  every  consideration  of 
duty,  of  interest,  and  of  vanity,  must  concur  in 
prompting  those  new  governors  to  encourage  such 
exertions  as  tend  to  diffuse  opulence  and  prosperity 
through  the  provinces  committed  to  their  charge, 
the  beneficial  effects  of  this  arrangement  may  le 
considerable.  Many  districts  in  America,  long  dc- 
THK  HISTORY  OF  AJIEJUCA.  No.  26.  . 


more 

of  industry  where  it  has  declined,  or  to  introduce  it 
where  it  is  unknown.  Nations,  already  possessed  of 
extensive  commerce  enter  into  competition  with 
such  advantages,  derived  from  the  large  capitals  ant1 
extensive  credit  of  their  merchants,  the  dexterity  of 
their  manufacturers,  and  the  alertness  acquired  by 
habit  in  every  department  of  business,  that  the  state 
which  aims  at  rivalling  or  supplanting  them,  must 
expect  to  struggle  with  many  difficulties,  and  be 
content  to  advance  slowly.  If  the  quantity  of  pro- 
ductive industry,  now  in  Spain,  be  compared  with 
that  of  the  kingdom  under  the  last  listless  monarchs 
of  the  Austrian  line,  its  progress  must  appear  con 
siderable,  and  is  sufficient  to  alarm  the  jealousy, 
and  to  call  forth  the  most  vigorous  efforts,  of  tho 


nations    now   in   possessi 


ion   of    the  lucrative    trade 


which  .the -Spaniards  aim  at  wresting  from  them  .^ 
One  circumstance  may  render  those  exertions  of 
Spain  an  object  of  more  serious  attention  to  thr» 
other  European  powers.  They  are  not  to  be  ascrib-  d 
wholly  to  the  influence  of  the  crown  and  its  minis- 
ters. The  sentiments  and  spirit  of  the  people  socra 
to  second  the  provident  care  of  their  monarchs,  and 
to  give  it  greater  effect.  The  nation  has  adopted 
more  liberal  idoas,  not  only  with  respect  to  corn- 
me-ce  but  domestic  policy.  In  all  the  later  Spanish 
writors,  defects  in  the  arrangements  of  their  country 
Concerning  both  are  acknowledged,  and  remedies 
proposed,  which  ignorance  rendered  their  ancestors 
incapable  of  discerning,  and  pride  would  uot  luvo 
2D 


202 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


allowed  them  tu  confess  (1^3).  But  after  all  that 
the  Spaniards  have  done,  much  remains  to  do.  Many 
pernicious  institutions  and  abuses,  deeply  incorpo- 
rated with  the  system  of  internal  policy  and  tax- 
ation which  has  been  long  established  in  Spain, 
must  be  abolished  before  industry  and  manufac- 
turers can  recover  an  extensive  activity. 

Still,  however,  the  commercial  regulations  of 
Spain  with  respect  to  her  colonies  are  too  rigid  and 
systematical  to  be  carried  into  complete  execution. 
The  legislature  that  loads  trade  with  impositions  too 
heavy,  or  fetters  it  by  restrictions  too  severe,  defeats 
its  own  intention,  and  is  only  multiplying  the  in- 
ducements to  violate  its  statutes,  and  proposing  a 
high  premium  to  encourage  illicit  traffic.  The  Spa- 
niards, both  in  Europe  and  America,  being  circum- 
scribed in  their  mutual  intercourse  by  the  jealousy 
of  the  crown,  or  oppressed  by  its  exactions,  have 
their  invention  continually  on  the  stretch  how  to 
elude  its  edicts.  The  vigilance  and  ingenuity  of 
private  interest  discover  means  of  effecting  this, 
which  public  wisdom  cannot  foresee,  nor  public  au- 
thority prevent.  This  spirit,  counteracting  that  of 
the  laws,  pervades  the  commerce  of  Spain  with 
America  in  all  its  branches ;  and  from  the  highest 
departments  in  government  descends  to  the  lowest. 
The  very  officers  appointed  to  check  contraband 
trade  are  often  employed  as  instruments  in  carrying 
it  on ;  and  the  boards  instituted  to  restrain  and 
punish  it  arc  the  channels  through  which  it  Hows. 
The  king  is  supposed,  by  the  most  intelligent  Spa- 
nish writers',  to  bo  defrauded,  by  various  artifices,  of 
more  than  one-half  of  the  revenue  which  he  ought 
to  receive  from  America ;  and  as  long  as  it  is  the 
interest  of  so  many  persons  to  screen  those  artifices 
from  detection,  the  knowledge  of  them  will  never 
reach  the  throne.  "  How  many  ordinances,"  says 
Corita,  "  how  many  instructions,  how  many  letters 
from  our  sovereign,  are  sent  in  order  to  correct 
abuses  !  and  how  little  are  they  observed,  and  what 
small  advantage  is  derived  from  them !  To  me  the 
old  observation  appears  just,  that  where  there  arc 
many  physicians  and  many  medicines,  there  is  a 
want  of  health ;  where  there  are  many  laws  and 
many  judges,  there  is  want  of  justice.  We  have 
viceroys,  presidents,  governors,  oydors,  corrigidors, 
alcaldes ;  and  thousands  of  al^uazils  abound  every 
-where  ;  but  notwithstanding  all  these,  public  abuse's 
continue  to  multiply.**  Time  has  increased  the  evils 
which  he  lamented  as  early  as  the  reign  of  Philip 
II.  A  spirit  of  corruption  has  infected  all  the  co- 
lonies of  Spain  in  America.  Men  far  removed  from 
the  seat  of  government;  impatient  to  acquire 
wealth,  that  they  may  return  speedily  from  what 
they  are  apt  to  consider  as  a  state  of  exile  in  a  re- 
mote unhealthful  country  ;  allured  by  opportunities 
too  tempting  to  be  resisted,  and  seduced  by  the  ex- 
ample of  those  around  them ;  find  their  sentiments 
of  honour  and  of  duty  gradually  relax.  In  private 
life  they  give  themselves  up  to  a  dissolute  luxury, 
while  in  their  public  conduct  they  become  unmind- 
ful of  what  they  owe  to  their  sovereign  and  to  their 
country. 

Before  I  close  this  account  of  the  Spanish  trade 
in  America,  there  remains  one  detached  but  import- 
ant branch  of  it  to  be  mentioned.  Soon  after  his 
accession  to  the  throne,  Philip  II.  formed  a  scheme 
of  planting  a  colony  in  the  Philippine  islands  which 
had  been  neglected  since  the  time  of  their  disco- 
very ;  and  he  accomplished  it  by  means  of  an  arma- 
ment fitted  out  from  New  Spain.  Manila,  in  the 
island  of  Luconia,  was  the  station  chosen  for  the 


capital  of  this  new  establishment.  From  it  an  activ 
commercial  intercourse  began  with  the  Chinese,  and 
a  considerable  number  of  that  industrious  people, 
allured  by  the  prospect  of  gain,  settled  in  the  Phi- 
lippine islands  under  the  Spanish  protection.  They 
supplied  the  colony  so  amply  with  all  the  valuable 
productions  and  manufactures  of  the  East,  as  enabled 
it  to  open  a  trade  with  America,  by  a  course  of  navi- 
gation the  longest  from  land  to  land  on  our  globe. 
In  the  infancy  of  this  trade,  it  was  carried  on  with 
Callao,  on  the  coast  of  Peru ;  but  experience  having 
discovered  the  impropriety  of  fixing  upon  that  as  the 
port  of  communication  with  Manila,  the  staple  of 
the  commerce  between  the  east  and  west  was  re- 
moved 'from  Callao  to  Acapulco,  on  the  coast  of 
New  Spain. 

After  various  arrangements,  it  has  been  brought 
into  a  regular  form.  One  or  two  ships  depart  an- 
nually from  Acapulco,  which  are  permitted  to  carry 
out  silver  to  the  amount  of  five  hundred  thousand 
pesos  ;  but  they  have  hardly  any  thing  else  of  value 
on  board  ;  in  return  for  which,  they  bring  back  spi- 
ces, drugs,  china  and  japan  wares,  calicoes,  chintz, 
muslins,  silks,  and  every  precious  article  with  which 
the  benignity  of  the  climate,  or  the  ingenuity  of  its 
people,  has"  enabled  the  East  to  supply  the  rest  of 
the  world.  For  some  time  the  merchants  of  Peru 
wjrc  admitted  to  participate  in  this  traffic,  and  might 
send  annually  a  _ship  to  Acapulco,  to  wait  the  arri- 
val of  the  vessels  from  Mauila,  and  receive  a  pro- 
portional share  of  the  commodities  which  they  im- 
ported. At  length  the  Peruvians  were  excluded 
from  this  trade  by  most  rigorous  edicts,  and  all  the 
commodities  from  the  East  reserved  solely  for  the 
consumption  of  New  Spain. 

In  consequence  of  this  indulgence,  the  inhabitants 
of  that  country  enjoy  advantages  unknown  in  the 
other  Spanish  colonies.  The  manufactures  of  the 
East  are  not  only  more  suited  to  a  warm  climate, 
and  more  showy  than  those  of  Europe,  but  can  be 
sold  at  a  lower  price ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  the 
profits  upon  them  are  so  considerable  as  to  enrich 
all  those  who  are  employed  either  in  bringing  them 
from  Manila  or  vending  them  in  New  Spain.  As 
the  interest  both  of  the  buyer  and  seller  concurred 
in  favouring  this. branch  of  commerce,  it  has  con- 
tinued to  extend  in  spite  of  regulations  concerted 
with  the  most  anxious  jealousy  to  circumscribe  it. 
Under  cover  of  what  the  laws  permit  to  be  imported* 
great  quantities  of  Indian  goods  are  poured  into  the 
markets  of  New  Spain  (194)  ;  and  when  the  Flota 
arrives  at  Vera  Cruz  from  Europe,  it  often  finds  the 
wants  of  the  people  already  supplied  by  cheaper  and 
more  acceptable  commodities. 

There  is  not,  in  the  commercial  arrangements  of 
Spain,  any  circumstance  more  inexplicable  than  the 
permission  of  this  trade  between  New  Spain  and  the 
Philippines,  or  more  repugnant  to  its  fundamental 
maxim  of  holding  the  colonies  in  perpetual  depen- 
dence on  the  mother-country,  by  prohibiting  any 
commercial  intercourse  that  might  suggest  to  them 
the  idea  of  receiving  a  supply  of  their  wants  from 
any  other  quarter.  This  permission  must  appear 
still  more  extraordinary,  from  considering  that  Spain 
herself  carries  on  no  direct  trade  with  her  settle- 
ments in  the  Philippines,  and  grants  a  privilege  to 
one  of  her  American  colonies  which  she  denies  to 
her  subjects  in  Europe.  It  is  probable,  that  the 
colonists  who  originally  took  possession  of  the  Phi- 
lippines, having  been  sent  out  from  New  Spain,  be- 
gun this  intercourse  with  a  country  which  they  con- 
side  re  1,  in  some  measure,  as  their  parent  state, 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


203 


before  the  court  of  Madrid  was  aware  of  its  conse- 
quences, or  could  establish  regulations  in  order  to 
prevent  it.  Many  remonstrances  have  been^  pre- 
sented against  this  trade,  as  detrimental  to  Spain, 
by  diverting  into  another  channel  a  large  portion  of 
that  treasure  which  ought  to  flow  into  the  kingdom, 
as  tending  to  give  rise  to  a  spirit  of  independence 
in  the  colonies,  and  to  encourage  innumerable 
frauds,  against  which  it  is  impossible  to  guard,  in 
transactions  so  far  removed  from  the  inspection  of 
government.  But  as  it  requires  no  slight  effort  of 
political  wisdom  and  vigour  to  abolish  any  practice 
which  numbers  are  interested  in  supporting,  and  to 
which  time  has  added  the  sanction  of  its  authority, 
the  commerce  between  New  Spain  and  Manila  seems 
to  be  as  considerable  as  ever,  and  may  be  considered 
as  one  chief  cause  of  the  elegance  and  splendour 
conspicuous  in  this  part  of  the  Spanish  dominions. 
But  notwithstanding  this  general  corruption  in 
the  colonies  of  Spain,  and  the  diminution  of  the  in- 
come belonging  to  the  public  occasioned  by  the 
illicit  importations  made  by  foreigners,  as  well  as  by 
the  various  frauds  of  which  the  colonists  themselves 
are  guilty  in  their  commerce  with  the  parent  state, 
the  Spanish  monarchs  receive  a  very  considerable 
revenue  from  their  American  dominions.  This  arises 
from  taxes  of  various  kinds,  which  may  be  divided 
into  three  capital  branches.  The  first  contains  what 
is  paid  to  the  king,  as  sovereign,  or  superior  lord  of 
the  New  World :  to  this  class  belongs  the  duty  on 
the  gold  and  silver  raised  from  the  mines,  and  the 
tribute  exacted  from  the  Indians  ;  the  former  is 
termed  by  the  Spaniards  the  riyht  ofsiyn iory,  the 
latter  is  the  duty  of  vassalage.  The  second  branch 
comprehends  the  numerous  duties  upon  commerce, 
which  accompany  and  oppress  it  in  every  step  of  its 
progress,  from  the  greatest  transactions  of  the  whole- 
sale merchant,  to  the  petty  traffic  of  the  vender  by 
retail.  The  third  includes  what  accrues  to  the  king, 
as  head  of  the  church,  and  administrator  of  eccle- 
siastical funds  in  the  New  World.  In  consequence 
of  this,  he  receives  the  first-fruits,  annates,  spoils, 
and  other  spiritual  revenues,  levied  by  the  apostolic 
chamber  in  Europe ;  and  is  entitled  likewise,  to  the 
profit  arising  from  the  sale  of  the  bull  of  Cruzado. 
This  bull,  which  is  published  every  two  years,  con- 
tains an  absolution  from  past  offences  by  the  pope, 
and  among  other  immunities,  a  permission  to  eat 
several  kinds  of  prohibited  food  during  Lent,  and 
on  meagre  days.  The  monks  employed  in  dispers- 
ing those  bulls,  extol  their  virtues  with  oil  the  fer- 
vour of  interested  eloquence  ;  the  people,  ignorant 
and  credulous,  listen  with  implicit  assent ;  and  every 
person  in  the  Spanish  colonies,  of  European,  Cre- 
olian,  or  mixed  race,  purchases  a  bull,  which  is 
deemed  essential  to  his  salvation,  at  the  rate  se 
upon  it  by  government  (195). 

What  may  be  the  amount  of  those  various  funds 
it  is  almost  impossible  to  determine  with  precision 
The  extent  of  the  Spanish  dominions  in  America 
the  jealousy  of  government,  which  renders  them 
inaccessible  to  foreigners,  the  mysterious  silence 
which  the  Spaniards  are  accustomed  to  observe  with 
respect  to  the  interior  state  of  their  colonies,  combine 
in  covering  this  sxibject  with  a  veil  which  it  is  no 
easy  to  remove.  But  an  account,  apparently  no  less 
accurate  than  it  is  curious,  has  lately  been  published 
of  the  royal  revenue  in  New  Spain,  from  which  w( 
may  form  some  idea  with  respect  to  what  is  collected 
in  the  other  provinces.  According  to  that  account 
thft  crown  does  not  receive  from  ?.ll  the  departments 
of  taxation  in  New  Spain  above  a  million  of  ou 


money,  from  which  one  half  must  be  deducted  at  the 
•xpense  of  the  provincial  establishment  (196).  Peru, 
t  is  probable,  yields  a  sum  not  inferior  to  this  ;  and 
f  we  suppose  that  all  the  other  regions  of  America, 
ncluding  the  islands,  furnish  a  third  share  of  equal 
r'aluo,  we  shall  not  perhaps  be  far  wide  from  the 
ruth  if  we  conclude  that  the  net  public  revenue  of 
Spain,  raised  in  America,  does  not  exceed  a  million 
and  a  half  sterling.  This  falls  far  short  of  the  im 
iiense  sums  to  which  suppositions,  founded  upon 
Conjecture,  have  raised  the  Spanish  revenue  in 
America  (197).  It  is  remarkable,  however,  upon  one 
account  :  Spain  and  Portugal  are  the  only  European 
lowers  who  derive  a  direct  revenue  from  their  colo  • 
lies.  All  the  advantage  that  accrues  to  other  na- 
;ions  from  their  American  dominions,  arises  from 
:he  exclusive  enjoyment  of  their  trade :  but  beside 
;his,  Spain  has  brought  her  colonies  to  contribute 
:owards  increasing  the  power  of  the  state,  and,  in 
return  for  protection,  to  bear  a  proportional  share  of 
he  common  burden. 

Accordingly,  the  sum  which  I  have  computed  to 
be  the  amount  of  the  Spanish  revenue  from  America, 
arises  wholly  from  the  taxes  collected  there,  and  is 
far  from  being  the  whole  of  what  accrues  to  the  king 
from  his  dominions  in  the  New  World.  The  heavy 
duties  imposed  on  the  commodities  exported  from 
Spain  to  America  (198),  as  well-  as  what  is  paid  by 
those  which  she  sends  home  in  return  ;  the  tax  upon 
the  nogro  slaves  with  which  Africa  supplies  the  New 
World,  together  with  several  smaller  branches  of 
finance,  bring  large  sums  into  the  treasury,  the  pre- 
cise extent  of  which  I  cannot  pretend  to  ascertain. 

But  if  the  revenue  which  Spain  draws  from  Ame- 
rica be  great,  the  expense  of  administration  in  her 
colonies  bears  proportion  to  it.  In  c very  >  depart- 
ment, even  of  her  domestic  police  and  finances, 
Spain  has  adopted  a  system  more  complex  and  more 
encumbered  with  a  variety  of  tribunals  and  a  multi- 
tude of  officers,  than  that  of  any  European  nation 
in  which  the  sovereign  possesses  such  extensive 
power.  From  the  jealous  spirit  with  which  Spain 
watches  over  her  American  settlements,  and  her  en- 
deavours to  guard  against  fraud  in  provinces  so 
remote  from  inspection,  boards  and  officers  have  been 
multiplied  there  with  still  more  anxious  attention. 
In  a  country  where  the  expense  of  living  is  great, 
the  salaries  allotted  to  every  person  in  public  office 
must  be  high,  and  must  load  the  revenue  with  an 
immense  burden.  The  parade  of  government 
^really  augments  the  weight  of  it.  -The  viceroys  ot 
Mexico,  Peru,  and  the  new  kingdom  of  Granada,  as 
representatives  of  the  king's  person,  among  people 
fond  of  ostentation,  maintain  all  the  state  and  dig- 
nity of  royalty.  Their  courts  are  formed  upon  the 
model  of  that  of  Madrid,  with  horse  and  foot-guards, 
a  household  regularly  established,  numerous  attend- 
ants, and  ensigns  of  power,  displaying  such  pomp 
as  hanlly  retains  the  appearance  of  a  delegated  au- 
thority. All  the  expense  incurred  by  supporting  the 
external  and  permanent  order  of  government  is  de- 
frayed by  the  crown.  The  viceroys  have  besides, 
peculiar  appointments  suited  to  their  exalted  station. 
The  salaries  fixed  bylaw  are  indeed  extremely  mode- 
rate ;  that  of  the  viceroy  of  Peru  is  only  thirty  thou- 
sand ducats;  and  that  of  the  viceroy  of  Mexico  twenty 
thousand  ducats.  Of  late  they  have  been  raised  to 
forty  thousand. 

These  salaiies,  however,  constitute  but  a  small  part 
of  the  revenue  enjoyed  by  the  viceroys.  The  exer- 
cise of  an  absolute  authority  extending  to  every 
department  of  government,  and  the  power  of  tu^ 


204 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA 


posing  of  many  lucrative  offices,  aft'ord  them  many 
opportunities  of  accumulating  wealth.  To  these, 
which  may  be  considered  as  legal  and  allowed  emo- 
luments, large  sums  are  often  added  by  exactions, 
which,  in  countries  so  far  removed  from  the  seat  of 
government,  it  is  not  easy  to  discover,  and  impossible 
to  restrain.  By  monopolizing  some  branches  of 
commerce,  by  a  lucrative  concern  in  others,  by  con- 
niving at  the  frauds  of  merchants,  a  viceroy  may  raise 
such  an  annual  revenue  as  no  subject  of  any  Eu- 
ropean monarch  enjoys  (199).  From  the  single 
article  of  presents  made  to  him  (fa  the  anniversary  of 
his  Name-day  (which  is  always  observed  as  a  high 
festival),  I  am  informed  that  a  viceroy  has  been 
known  to  receive  sixty  thousand  pesos.  According 
to  a-  Spanish  saying,  the  legal  revenues  of  a  viceroy- 
are  unknown,  his  real  profits  depend  upon  his  oppor- 
tunities and  his  conscience.  Sensible  of  this,  the 
kings  of  Spain,  as  I  have  formerly  observed,  grant  a 
commission  to  their  viceroys  only  for  a  few  years. 
This  circumstance,  however,  renders  them  often 
more  rapacious,  and  adds  to  the  ingenuity  and  ardour 
wherewith  they  labour  to  improve  every  moment  of 
a  power  which  they  know  is  hastening  fast  to  a  pe- 
riod ;  and  short  as  its  duration  is,  it  ustially  affords 
sufficient,  time  for  repairing  a  shattered  fortune,  or 
for  creating  a  new  one.  But  even  in  situations  so 
trying  to  human  frailty,  there  are  instances  of  virtue 
that  remain  unseduced.  In  the  year  1772.  the  Mar- 
quis de  Croix  finished  the  term  of  his  vice-royalty  in 
New  Spain  with  unsuspected  integrity ;  and,  instead 
of-  bringing  home  exorbitant  wealth,  returned  with 
the  admiration  and  applause  of  a  grateful  people, 
wKom  his  government  had  rendered  happy. 

ADVERTISEMENT  TO  BOOKS  IX.  AND  X. ; 

Containing  tlie  History  of  Virginia  to  the  year  1688, 
and  the  Hittory  of  New  England  to  the  year 
1652. 

THE  original  plan  of  my  father,  the  late  Dr.  Robert- 
son, with  respect  to  the  history  of  America,  compre- 
hended not  only  an  account  of  the  discovery  of  that 
country,  and  of  the  conquests  and  colonies  of  the 
Spaniards,  but  embraced  also  the  history  of  the  Bri- 
tish and  Portuguese  establishments  in  the  New 
World,  and  of  the  settlements  made  by  the  several 
nations  of  Europe  in  the  West  India  islands.  It  was 
his  intention  not  to  have  published  any  part  of  the 
work  until  the  whole  was  completed.  In  the  Preface 
to  his  History  of  America,  he  has  stated  the  reasons 
which  induced  him  to  depart  from  that  resolution, 
and  to  publish  the  two  volumes  which  contain  an 
account  of  the  discovery  of  the  New  World,  and  of 
the  progress  of  the  Spanish  arms  and  colonies  in  that 
quarter  of  the  globe.  He  says,  "he  had  made  some 
progress  in  the  history  of  British  America  ;"  and  ho 
announces  his  intention  to  return  to  that  part  of  his 
work',  as  soon  as  the  ferment  which  at  that  time  pre- 
vailed in  the  British  colonies  in  America  should  sub- 
side, and  regular  government  be  re-established.—- 
Various  causes  concurred  in  preventing  him  from 
fulfilling  his  intention. 

Duiing  the  course  of  a  tedious  illness,  which  he 
early  foresaw  would  have  a  fatal  termination,  Dr. 
Robertson  at  different  times  destroyed  many  of  his 
papers.  But  after  his  death  I  found  that  part  of  the 
history  of  British  America  which  he  had  wrote  many 
years  before,  and  which  is  now  offered  to  the  public. 
It  is  written  with  his  own  hand,  as  all  his  works 
wore ;  it  is  as  c^efully  corrected  as  any  part  qf  his 
jruwitucrrpts  which  I  have  ever  seen  ;  and  he  had 


thought  it  worthy  of  being  preserved,  as  it  escaped 
the  flames  to  which  so  many  other  papers  had  been 
committed.  I  read  it  with  the  utmost  attention  ;  but 
before  I  came  to  any  resolution  about  the  publication, 
I  put  the  MS.  into  the  hands  of  some  of  those  friends 
whom  my  father  used  to  consult  on  such  occasions, 
as  it  would  have  been  rashness  and  presumption  in 
me  to  have  trusted  to  my  own  partial  decision.  It 
was  perused  by  some  other  persons  also,  in  whose 
taste  and  judgment  I  have  the  greatest  confidence; 
by  all  of  them  I  was  encouraged  to  offer  it  to  the 
public,  as  a  fragment  curious  and  interesting  in  itself, 
and  not  inferior  to  any  of  my  father's  works 

When  I  determined  to  follow  that  advice,  it  was  a 
circumstance  of  great  weight  with  me,  that  as  I  never 
could  think  myself  at  liberty  to  destroy  those  papers, 
which  my  father  had  thought  worthy  of  being  pre- 
served, and  as  I  could  not  know  into  whose  hands 
they  might  hereafter  fall,  I  considered  it  as  certain 
that  they  would  be  published  at  some  future  period, 
when  they  might  meet  with  an  editor,  who,  not  being 
actuated  by  the  same  sacred  regard  for  the  reputation 
of  the  author  which  I  feel,  might  make  alterations 
and  additions,  and  obtrude  the  whole  on  the  public  as 
a  genuine  and  authentic  work.  The  MS.  is  now 
published,  such  as  it  was  left  by  the  author  ;  nor  have 
I  presumed  to  make  any  addition,  alteration,  or  cor- 
rection whatever. 

WILLIAM  ROIJKKTSON. 
Queen  Street,  EdinburyJi, 
April,  1796. 

BOOK  IX. 

THE  dominions  of  Great  Britain  in  America  arc  next 
in  extent  to  those  of  Spain.  Its  acquisitions  there, 
are  a  recompcnce  due  to  those  enterprising  talents 
which  prompted  the  English  to  enter  early  on  the 
career  of  discovery,  and  to  pursue  it  with  persever- 
ing ardour.  England  was  the  second  natiwi  that 
ventured  to  visit  the  New  World.  The  account  of 
Columbus's  successful  voyage  filled  all  Europe  with 
astonishment  and  admiration.  But  in  England  it 
did  something  more  ;  it  excited  a  vehement  desire  of 
emulating  the  glory  of  Spain,  and  of  aiming  to  ob- 
tain some  share  in  those  advantages  which  were 
expected  in  this  new  field  opened  to  national  acti- 
vity. The  attention  of  the  English  court  had  been 
turned  towards  the  discovery  of  unknown  countries 
by  its  negotiation  with  Bartholomew  Columbus. — 
Henry  VII.  having  listened  to  his  propositions  with 
a  more  favourable  ear  than  could  have  been  expected 
from  a  cautious,  distrustful  prince,  averse  by  habit 
as  well  as  by  temper  to  new  and  hazardous  projects, 
he  was  more  easily  induced  to  approve  of  a  voyage 
for  discovery,  proposed  by  some  of  his  own  subjects, 
soon  after  the  return  of  Christopher  Columbus. 

But  though  the  English  had  spirit  to  form  the 
scheme,  they  had  not  at  that  period  attained  to  such 
skill  in  navigation  as  qualified  them  for  carrying  it 
intq  execution,  From  the  inconsiderate  ambition  of 
its  monarchs,  the  nation  had  long  wasted  its  genius 
and  activity  in  pernicious  and  ineffectual  efforts  to 
conquer  France.  When  this  ill-directed  ardour 
began  to  abate,  the  fatal  contest  between  the  houses 
of  York  and  Lancaster  turned  the  arras  of  one-half 
of  t^e  kingdom  against  the  other,  and  exhausted  the 
vigour  of  both.  During  the  course  of  two  centuries, 
while  industry  and  commerce  were  making  gradual 
progress  both  in  the  south  and  north  of  Europe,  the 
English  continued  so  blind  to  the  advantages  of 
their  own  situation,  that  they  hardly  began  to  bend 
their  thoughts  towards  those  objects  and  pursuits  to 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


205 


which  they  are  indebted  for  their  present  opulence 
and  power.  While  the  trading  vessels  of  Italy, 
Spain,  and  Portugal,  as  well  as  those  of  the  Hans 
Towns,  visited  the  most  remote  ports  in  Europe,  and 
carried  on  an  active  intercourse  with  its  various  na- 
tions, the  English  did  little  more  than  creep  along- 
their  own  coasts,  in  small  barks,  which  conveyed  the 
productions  of  one  county  to  another.  Their  com 
merce  was  almost  wholly  passive.  Their  wants  were 
supplied  by  strangers ;  and  whatever  necessary  or 
luxury  of  life  their  own  country  did  not  yield,  was 
imported  in  foreign  bottoms.  The  cross  of  St. 
George  was  seldom  displayed  beyond  the  precincts 
of  the  narrow  seas.  Hardly  any  English  ship  traded 
with  Spain  or  Portugal,  before  the  beginning  of  the 
fifteenth  century ;  and  half  a  century  more  elapsed 
before  the  English  mariners  became  so  adventurous 
as  to  enter  the  Mediterranean. 

In  this  infancy  of  navigation,  Henry  could  not 
commit  the  conduct  of  an  armament  destined  to  ex- 
plore unknown  regions,  to  his  own  subjects.  He 
invested  Giovanni  Gaboto,  a  Venetian  adventurer 
who  had  settled  in  Bristol,  with  the  chief  command  ; 
and  issued  a  commission  to  him  and  his  three  sons, 
empowering  them  to  sail  under  the  banner  of  Eng- 
land, towards  the  east,  north,  or  west,  in  order  to 
discover  countries  unoccupied  by  any  Christian 
state  ;  to  take  possession  of  them  in  his  name,  and  to 
carry  on  an  exclusive  trade  with  the  inhabitants, 
under  condition  of  paying  a  fifth  part  of  the  free  pro- 
fit on  every  voyage  to  the  crown.  This  commission 
was  granted  on  March  5th,  1495,  in  less  than  two 
vcars  after  the  return  of  Columbus  from  America. — 
But  Cabot  (for  that  is  the  name  he  assumed  in  Eng- 
land, and  by  which  he  is  best  known),  did  not  sot 
out  on  his  voyage  for  two  years.  He,  together  with 
his  second  son  Sebastian,  embarked  at  Bristol  on 
board  a  ship  furnished  by  the  king,  and  was  accom- 
panied by  four  small  barks  fitted  out  by  the  mer- 
chants of  that  city. 

As  in  that  age  the  most  eminent  navigators, 
formed  by  the  instructions  of  Columbus,  or  animated 
by  his  example,  were  guided  by  ideas  derived  from 
his  superior  knowledge  and  experience,  Cabot  had 
adopted  the  system  of  that  great  man  concerning  the 
probability  of  opening  a  new  and  shorter  passage  to 
the  East  Indies  by  holding  a  western  course.  The 
opinions  which  Columbus  had  formed  with  respect 
to  the  islands  which  he  had  discovered,  were  univer- 
sally received.  They  were  supposed  to  lie  conti- 
guous to  the  great  continent  of  India,  and  to  consti- 
tute a  part  of  the  vast  countries  comprehended  under 
that  general  name.  Cabot  accordingly  deemed  it 
probable,  that,  by  steering  to  the  north-west,  he 
might  reach  India  by  a  shorter  course  than  that 
which  Columbus  had  taken,  and  hoped  to  fall  in  with 
the  coast  of  Cathay,  or  China,  of  whose  fertility  and 
opulence  the  descriptions  of  Marco  Polo  had  excited 
high  ideas.  After  sailing  for  some  weeks  dae  west, 
and  nearly  on  the  parallel  of  the  port  from  which  he 
took  his  departure,  he  discovered  a  large  island, 
which  he  called  Prima  Vista,  and  his  sailors  New- 
foundland;  and  in  a  few  days  he  descried  a  smaller 
isle,  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  St.  John.  He 
landed  on  both  these,  made  some  observations  on 
their  soil  and  productions,  and  brought  off  three  of 
the  natives.  Continuing  his  course  westward,  he 
;oon  reached  the  continent  of  North  America,  and 
ailed  along  it  from  the  fifty-sixth  to  the  thirty-eighth 
egree  of  latitude,  from  the  coast  of  Labrador  to  that 
'  Virginia.  As  his  chief  object  was  to  discover  some 
ilet  that,  might  open  a  passage  to  the  rvcst,  it 


1  docs  not  appear  that  he  landed  any  where  during 
this  extensive  run ;  and  he  returned  to  England 
'  without  attempting  either  settlement  or  conquest  in 
any  part  of  that  continent. 

If  it  had  been  Henry's  purpose  to  prosecute  the 
j  object  of  the  commission  given  by  him  to    Cabot, 
|  and  to  take  possession  of  the  countries  which  he  had 
!  discovered,    the   success  of  this  voyage   must  have 
answered  his  most  sanguine  expectations.     His  sub- 
i  jects  were  undoubtedly  the  first  Europeans  who  had 
:  visited  that  part  of  the   American   continent,    and 
!  were  entitled  to  whatever  right  of  property  prior  dis 
I  covery  is   supposed    to  confer.       Countries,     which 
|  stretched  in  an  uninterrupted  course  through  such  a 
!  large  portion  of  the  temperate   zone,  opened  a  pro- 
spect of  settling  to  advantage  under  mild  climates, 
|  and  in  a  fertile  soil.     But    by    the  time  that  Cabot 
I  returned  to  England,  he  found  both  the  state  of  affairs 
and    the  king's    inclination    unfavourable   to    any 
|  scheme  the  execution  of  which  would  have  required 
!  tranquillity  and  leisure.     Henry  was  involved  in  a 
war  with  Scotland,    and  his  kingdom  was   not  yet 
fully  composed  after  the  commotion  excited  by  a  for- 
midable insurrection  of  his  own  subjects  in  the  west. 
An  ambassador  from  Ferdinand  of  Arragon  was  then 
in  London ;  and  as  Henry  set  a   high  value  upon 
the  friendship  of  that  monarch,  for  whose  character 
he  professes  much  admiration,  perhaps  from  its  simi- 
larity to-its  own,  and  was  endeavouring  to  strenghen 
their  union  by  negociating  the  marriage  which  after- 
wards  took  place  between  his    eldest  son  and  the 
Princess  Catherine,  he  was  cautious  of  giving  any 
offence  to  a  prince  jealous  to  excess  of  all  his  rights. 
From  the  position  of  the  islands  and  continent  which 
Cabot  had  discovered,  it  was  evident  that  they  lay 
within  the   limits  of  the  ample  donative,  which  the 
bounty  of  Alexander  VI.  had   conferred  upon  Fer- 
dinand and  Isabella.     No  person   in  that   age  ques- 
tioned the  validity  of  a  papal  grant ;  and  Ferdinand 
was  not  of  a  temper  to  relinquish  any  claim  to  which 
he  had  a  shadow  of  title.     Submission  to   the  au- 
thority of  the  pope,  and  deference  for  an  ally  whom 
he  courted,  seem  to  have   concurred  with  Henry's 
own   situation    in   determining   him   to    abandon   a 
scheme  in  which  he  had  engaged  with  some  degree 
of   ardour  and  expectation.     No  attempt   towards 
discovery  was  made  in  England  during  the  remainder 
of  his  reign  ;  and  Sebastian  Cabot,  finding  no  en- 
couragement for  his  active  talents  there,  entered  into 
the  service  of  Spain. 

This  is  the  most  probable  account  of  the  sudden 
cessation  of  Henry's  activity,  after  such  success  in 
his  first  essay  as  might  have  encouraged  him  to  per 
severe.  The  advantages  of  commerce,  as  well  as  its 
nature,  were  so  little  understood  in  England  about 
!  this  period,  that,  by  an  act  of  parliament  in  the  year 
|  1488,  the  taking  of  interest  for  the  use  of  money 
;  was  prohibited  under  severe  penalties.  And  by  ano- 
ther law,  the  profit  arising  from  dealing  in  bills  of 
exchange  was  condemned  as  savouring  of  usury.  It 
is  not  surprising,  then,  that  no  great  effort  should 
be  made  to  extend  trade  by  a  nation  whose  commer- 
cial ideas  were  still  so  crude  and  illiberal.  But  it  is 
more  difficult  to  discover  what  prevented  this  scheme 
of  Henry  VII.  from  being  resumed  during  the 
reigns  of  his  son  and  grandson  ;  and  to  give  any 
reason  why  no  attempt  .was  made,  either  to  explore 
the  northern  continent  of  America  more  fully,  or  to 
settle  in  it.  Henry  VIII.  was  frequently  at  open 
enmity  with  Spain:  the  value  of  the  Spanish  ac- 
quisitions in  America  had  become  so  well  known,  as 
might  have  excited  his  desire  to  qblain  some  footing 


206  THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


in  those  opulent  regions;  and  during  a  considerable  j  vast  wealth  th;it  flowed  into  Portugal  from  its  com- 
part of  his  reign,  the  prohibitions  in  a  papal  bull  merce  with  those  regions.  The  scheme  was  aecor- 
would  not  have  restrained  him  from  making  en-  dingly  twice  resumed  under  the  long  administration 
croachment  upon  the  Spanish  dominions.  But  the  of  Henry  VIII.,  first,  with  some  slender  aid  from 
reign  of  Henry  was  not  favourable  to  the  progress  !  the  king,  and  then  by  private  merchants.  Both 
of  discovery.  During  one  period  of  it,  the  active  '  voyages  were  disastrous  and  unsuccessful.  In  the 
part  which  he  took  in  the  affairs  of  the  continent,  !  former,  one  of  the  ships  was  lost.  In  the  latter,  the 
and  the  vigour  with  which  he  engaged  in  the  contest  stock  of  provisions  was  so  ill  proportioned  to  the 
between  the  two  mighty  rivals,  Charles  V.  and '  number  of  the  crew,  that,  although  they  were  but 
Francis  I.,  gave  full  occupation  to  the  enterprising  six  months  at  sea,  many  perished  with  hunger,  and 
spirit  both  of  the  king  and  his  nobility.  During  the  survivors  were  constrained  to  support  life  by 
another  period  of  his  administration,  his  famous  feeding  on  the  bodies  of  their  dead  companions, 
controversy  with  the  court  of  Rome  kept  the  nation  ;  The  vigour  of  a  commercial  spirit  did  not  relax  in 
in  perpetual  agitation  and  suspense.  Engrossed  by  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.  The  great  fishery  on  the 
those  objects,  neither  the  king  nor  the  nobles  had  banks  of  Newfoundland  became  an  object  of  atten- 
inclinatiou  or  leisure  to  turn  their  attention  to  new '  tion  ;  and,  from  some  regulations  for  the  encourage- 
pursuits  ;  and,  without  their  patronage  and  aid,  the  ment  of  that  branch  of  trade,  it  seems  to  have  been 
commercial  part  of  the  nation  was  too  inconsiderable  prosecuted  with  activity  and  success.  But 'the  pros- 
to  make  any  effort  of  consequence.  Though  Eug-  pect  of  opening  a  communication  with  China  and 
land,  by  its  total  separation  from  the  church  of ,  the  Spice  Islands,  by  some  other  route  than  round 
Rome,  soon  after  the  accession  of  Edward  VI.,  dis-  the  Gape  of  Good  Ilopc,  slill  continued  to  allure  the 
claimed  that  authority  which,  by  its  presumptuous  English  more  than  any  scheme  of  adventure.  Cabot, 
partition  of  the  globe  between  two  favourite  nations,  !  whose  opinion  was  deservedly  of  high  authority  in 
circumscribed  the  activity  of  every  other  state  within  whatever  related  to  naval  enterprise,  warmly  urged 
very  narrow  limits  ;  yet  a  feeble  minority,  distracted  the  English  to  make  another  attempt  to  discover  this 
with  faction,  was  not  a  juncture  for  forming  schemes  passage.  As  it  had  been  thrice  searched  for  in  vain 
of  doubtful  success  and  remote  utility.  The  bigotry  by  steering  towards  the  north-west,  he  proposed  that 
of  Mary,  and  her  marriage  with  Philip,  disposed  her  a  trial  should  now  be  made  by  the  north-east;  and 
to  pay  a  sacred  regard  to  that  grant  of  the  holy  see,  supported  this  advice  by  such  plausible  reasons  and 
which  vested  in  a  husband,  on  whom  she  doted,  an  conjectures  as  excited  sanguine  expectations  of  suc- 
exclusive  right  to  every  part  of  the  New  World,  cess.  Several  noblemen  and  persons  of  rank,  to- 
Thus,  through  a  singular  succession  of  various  causes,  gether  with  some  principal  merchants,  having  asso- 
sixty-one  years  elapsed  from  the  time  that  the  ciatedfor  this  purpose,  were  incorporated,  by  a  charter 
English  discovered  North  America,  during  which  from  the  king,  under  the  title  of  The  Company  of 
their  monarchs  gave  little  attention  to  that  country  Merchant  Adventurers  for  the  Discovery  of  Regions, 
which  was  destined  to  be  annexed  to  their  crown,  Dominions,  Islands,  and  Places  unknown.  Cabot, 
and  to  be  a  chief  source  of  its  opulence  and  power,  who  was  appointed  governor  of  this  company,  soon 

But  though  the  public  contributed  little  towards  fitted  out  two  ships  and  a  bavk,  furnished  with  in- 
the  progress  of  discovery,  naval  skill,  knowledge  of  structions  in  his  own  hand,  which  discover  the  great 
commerce,  and  a  spirit  of  enterprise,  began  to  spread  extent  both  of  his  naval  skill  and  mercantile  saga- 
among  the  English.  During  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  city. 

several  new  channels  of  trade  were  opened,  and  Sir  Hugh  Willoughby,  who  was  intrusted  with 
private  adventurers  visited  remote  countries,  with  the  command,  stood  directly  northwards  along  the 
which  England  had  formerly  no  intercourse.  Some  coast  of  Norway,  and  doubled  the  North  Cape.  But 
merchants  of  Bristol,  having  fitted  out  two  ships  for  in  that  tempestuous  ocean  his  small  squadron  was 
the  southern  regions  of  America,  committed  the  con-  separated  in  a  violent  storm.  Willoughby's  ship 
duct  of  them  to  Sebastian  Cabot,  who  had  quitted  and  the  bark  took  refuge  in  an  obseure  harbour  in 
the  service  of  Spain.  He  visited  the  coasts  of  Bra-  a  desert  part  of  Russian  Lapland,  where  ho  and  all 
zil,  and  touched  at  the  islands  of  Hispaniola  and  his  companions  were  froxcn  to  death.  Richard 
Puerto  Rico  ;  and  though  this  voyage  seems  not  to  Chancclour,  the  captain  of  the  other  vessel,  was 
have  been  beneficial  to  the  adventurers,  it  extended  anorc  fortunate  ;  he  entered  the  White  Sea,  and 
the  sphere  of  English  navigation,  and  added  to  the  wintered  in  safety  at  Archangel.  Though  no  vessel 
national  stock  of  nautical  science.  Though  disap-  of  any,  foreign  nation  had  ever  visited  that  quarter 
pointed  in  their  expectations  of  profit  in  this  first  of  the  globe  before,  the  inhabitants  received  their 
essay,  the  merchants  were  not  discouraged.  They  new  visitors  with  a  hospitality  which  would  havo 
sent,  successively,  several  vessels  from  different  ports  done  honour  to  a  more  polished  people.  The  P^ngbsh 
towards  the  same  quarter,  and  seem  to  have  carried  learned  there  that  this  was  a  province  of  a  vast  em- 
on  an  interloping  trade  in  the  Portuguese  settlements  pire,  subject  to  the  great  duke  or  czar  of  Muscovy, 
with  success.  Nor  was  it  only  towards  the  west,  that  who  resided  in  a  great  city  twelve  hundred  miles 
the  activity  of  the  English  was  directed.  Other  from  Archangel.  Cliancelour,  with  a  spirit  becoming 
merchants  began  to  extend  their  commercial  views  an  ofliecr  employed  in  an  expedition  for  discovery, 
to  tlio  east;  and  by  establishing  a,n  intercourse  did  not  hesitate  a  moment  about  the  part  which  he 
with  several  islands  in  the  Archipelago,  and  with  ought  to  take,  and  set  out  for  that  distant  capital, 
some  of  the  towns  on  the  coast  of  Syria,  they  found  On  his  arrival  in  Moscow,  he  was  admitted  to  au- 
a  new  market  for  woollen  cloths  (the  only  mauufac-  dicnce,  and  delivered  a  letter  wh.ich  the  captain  of 
ture  which  the  nation  had  begun  to  cultivate),  and  cacli  ship  had  received  from  Edward  VI.  for  the  so- 
supplied  their  countrymen  with  various  productions  vereign  of  whatever  country  they  should  discover 
of  the  East,  formerly  unknown,  or  received  from  the  .  to  John  Vasilowitz,  who  at  that  time  filled  the  Rus 
Venetians  at  an  exorbitant  price.  :  sian  throne.  John,  though  he  ruled  over  his  sul 

But  the  discovery  of  a  shorter  passage  to  the  jccts  with  the  cruelty  and  caprice  of  a  barburo' 
East.  Indies,  by  the  north-west,  was  still  the  favorite  despot,  was  not  destitute  of  political  sagacity.  B 
project  of  tho  nation,  which  beheld  with  envy  the  '  iusta'nily  poimve-i  the  Inppy  ccnJs^qu  ices  <K 


project 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


207 


might  flow  from  opening  an  intercourse  between  his 
dominions  and  the  western  nations  of  Europe ;  and, 
delighted  with  the  fortunate  event  to  which  he  was 
indebted  for  this  unexpected  benefit,  he  treated 
Chancelour  with  great  respect;  and,  by  a  letter  to 
the  king  of  England,  invited  his  subjects  to  trade 
in  the  Russian  dominions,  with  ample  promises  of 
protection  and  favour. 

Chancelour,  on  his  return,  found  Mary  seated  on 
the  English  throne.  The  success  of  this  voyage, 
the  discovery  of  a  new  course  of  navigation,  the 
establishment  of  commerce  with  a  vast  empire,  the 
name  of  which  was  then  hardly  known  in  the  West, 
and  the  hope  of  arriving,  in  this  direction,  at  those 
regions  which  had  been  so  long  the  object  of  desire, 
excited  a  wonderful  ardour  to  prosecute  the  design 
with  greater  vigour.  Mary,  implicitly  guided  by  her 
husband  in  every  act  of  administration,  was  not  un- 
willing to  turn  the  commercial  activity  of  her  sub- 
jects towards  a  quarter  where  it  could  not  excite  the 
jealousy  of  Spain  by  encroaching  on  its  possessions 
in  the  New  World.  She  wrote  to  John  Vasilowitz 
in  the  most  respectful  terms,  courting  his  friendship. 
She  confirmed  the  charter  of  Edward  VI.,  empow- 
ered Chancelour,  and  two  agents  appointed  by  the 
company,  to  negociate  with  the  czar  in  her  name  ; 
and  according  to  the  spirit  of  that  ago,  she  granted 
an  exclusive  right  of  trade  with  Russia  to  the  cor- 
poration of  merchant  adventurers.  In  virtue  of 
this,  they  not  only  established  an  active  and  gainful 
commerce  with  Russia,  but,  in  hopes  of  reaching 
China,  they  pushed  their  discoveries  eastward  to  the 
coast  of  Nova  Zembla,  the  straits  of  Waigatz,  and 
towards  the  mouth  of  the  great  river  Oby.  But  in 
those  frozen  seas,  which  nature  seems  not  to  have 
destined  for  navigation,  they  were  exposed  to  innu- 
merable disasters,  and  met  with  successive  disap- 
pointments. 

Nor  were  their  attempts  to  open  a  communication 
with  India  made  only  in  this  channel.  They  ap- 
pointed some  of  their  factors  to  accompany  the 
Russian  caravans  which  travelled  into  Persia  by  the 
way  of  Astracau  and  the  Caspian  sea,  instructing 
them  to  penetrate  as  far  as  possible  towards  the  east, 
and  to  endeavour  not  only  to  establish  a  trade  with 
those  countries,  but  to  acquire  every  information 
that  might  afford  any  light  towards  the  discovery  of 
a  passage  to  China  by  the  north-east.  Notwithstand- 
ing a  variety  of  dangers  to  which  they  were  exposed 
in  travelling  through  so  many  provinces  inhabited 
by  fierce  and  licentious  nations,  some  of  these  factors 
reached  Bokara  in  the  province  of  Chorassan  ;  and 
though  prevented  from  advancing  further  by  the 
civil  wars  which  desolated  the  country,  they  returned 
to  Europe  with  some  hopes  of  extending  the  com- 
merce of  the  company  into  Persia,  and  with  much 
intelligence  concerning  the  state  of  those  remote 
regions  of  the  East. 

The  successful  progress  of  the  merchant  adven- 
turers iu  discovery  roused  the  emulation  of  their 
countrymen,  and  turned  their  activity  into  new  chan- 
nels. A  commercial  intercourse,  hitherto  unattempted 
by  the  English,  having  been  opened  with  the  coast 
of  Barbary,  the  specimens  which  that  afforded  of  the 
valuable  productions  of  Africa  invited  some  enter- 
prising navigators  to  visit  the  more  remote  provinces 
of  that  quarter  of  the  globe.  They  sailed  along  its 
western  shore,  traded  in  different  ports  on  both  sides 
of  the  line,  and,  after  acquiring  considerable  know- 
ledge of  those  countries,  returned  with  a  cargo  of 
gold-dust,  ivory,  and  other  rich  commodities  little 
known  at  that 'time  in  England;  This  commerce 


with  Africa  seems  to  have  been  pursued  with  vigour, 
and  was  at  that  time  no  less  innocent  than  lucrative ; 
for,  as  the  English  had  then  no  demand  for  slaves, 
they  carried  it  on  for  many  years  without  violating 
the  rights  of  humanity.  Thus  far  did  the  English 
advance  during  a  period  which  may  be  considered 
as  the  infant  state  of  their  navigation  and  commerce  ; 
and  feeble  as  its  steps  at  that  time  may  appear  to 
us,  we  trace  them  with  an  interesting  curiosity,  and 
look  back  with  satisfaction  to  the  early  essays  of 
that  spirit  which  we  now  behold  in  the  full  maturity 
of  its  strength.  Even  in  those  first  efforts  of  the 
English,  an  intelligent'  observer  will  discern  pre- 
sages of  their  future  improvement.  As  soon  as  the 
activity  of  the  nation  was  put  in  motion,  it  took 
various  directions,  and  exerted  itself  in  each  with 
that  steady,  persevering  industry  which  is  the  soul 
and  guide  of  commerce.  Neither  discouraged  by 
the  hardships  and  dangers  to  which  they  were  ex- 
posed in  those  northern  seas  which  they  first  at- 
tempted to  explore,  nor  afraid  of  venturing  into  the 
sultry  climates  of  the  torrid  zone,  the  English, 
during  the  reigns  of  Henry  VIII.,  Edward  VI.,  and 
Man%  opened  some  of  the  most  considerable  sources 
of  their  commercial  opulence,  and  gave  a  beginning 
to  their  trade  with  Turkey,  with  Africa,  with  Russia, 
and  with  Newfoundland. 

By  the  progress  which  England  had  already  made 
in  navigation  and  commerce,  it  was  now  prepared 
for  advancing  further;  and  on  the  accession  of 
Elizabeth  to  the  throne,  a  period  commenced  ex- 
tremely auspicious  to  this  spirit  which  was  rising  in 
the  nation.  The  domestic  tranquillity  of  the  king- 
dom, maintained,  almost  without  interruption,  during 
the  course  of  a  long  and  prosperous  reign  ;  the  peace 
with  foreign  nations,  that  subsisted  more  than  twenty 
years  after  Elizabeth  was  seated  on  the  throne  ;  the 
queen's  attentive  economy,  which  exempted  her  sub- 
jects from  the  burthen  of  taxes  oppressive  to  trade; 
the  popularity  of  her  administration  ;  were  all  fa- 
vourable to  commercial  enterprise,  and  called  it 
forth  into  vigorous  exertion.  The  discerning  eye  of 
Elizabeth  having  early  perceived  that  the  security 
of  a  kingdom  environed  by  the  sea  depended  on  its 
naval  force,  she  began  her  government  with  adding 
to  the  number  and  strength  of  the  royal  liavy ; 
which,  during  a  factious  minority,  ar>d  a  reign  intent 
on  no  object  but  that  of  suppressing  heresy,  had 
been  neglected,  and  suffered  to  decay.  She  filled 
her  arsenals  with  naval  stores ;  she  built  several 
ships  of  great  force,  according  to  the  ideas  of  that 
age,  and  encouraged  her  subjects  to  imitate  her  ex- 
ample, that  they  might  no  longer  depend  on  foreign- 
ers, from  whom  the  English  had  hitherto  purchased 
all  vessels  of  any  considerable  burthen.  By  those 
efforts  the  skill  of  the  English  artificers  was  im- 
proved, the  numbers  of  sailors  increased,  and  the 
attention  of  the  public  turned  to  the  navy,  as  tlie 
most  important  national  object.  Instead  of  aban- 
doning any  of  the  new  channels  of  commerce  which 
had  been  opened  in  the  three  preceding  reigns,  the 
English  frequented  them  with  greater  assiduity,  and 
the  patronage  of  their  sovereign  added  vigour  to  all 
their  efforts.  In  order  to  secure  to  them  the  con- 
tinuance of  their  exclusive  trade  with  Russia,  Eliza- 
beth cultivated  the  connexion  with  John  Vasilowitz, 
which  had  been  formed  by  her  predecessor,  and,  by 
successive  embassies,  gained  his  confidence  so  tho- 
roughly, that  the  English  enjoyed  that  lucrative 
privilege  during  his  long  reign.  She  encouraged 
the  company  of  merchant  adventurers,  whose  mo* 
nopoly  ef  the  Russian  trade  was  confirmed  by  act 


208 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


of  parliament,  to  resume  their  d(^>gn  of  penetrating 
into  Persia  by  land.  Their  second  attempt, 
conducted  with  greater  prudence,  or  undertaken 
at  a  more  favourable  juncture,  than  the  first,  was 
more  successful.  Their  agents  arrived  in  the  Per- 
sian court,  and  obtained  such  protection  and  immu- 
nities from  the  Shah,  that  for  a  course  of  years  they 
carried  on  a  gainful  commerce  in  his  kingdom ;  and 
by  frequenting  the  various  provinces  of  Persia,  be- 
came so  well  acquainted  with  the  vast  riches  of  the 
East,  as  strengthened  their  design  of  opening  a 
more  direct  intercourse  with  those  fertile  legions  by 
sea. 

But  as  every  effort  to  accomplish  this  by  the  north- 
east had  proved  abortive,  a  scheme  was  formed,  un- 
der the  patronage  of  the  earl  of  Warwick,  the  head 
of  the  enterprising  family  of  Dudley,  to  make  a 
new  attempt,  by  holding  an  opposite  course  by  the 
north-west.  The  conduct  of  this  enterprise  was 
committed  to  Martin  Frobisher,  an  officer  of  expe- 
rience and  reputation.  In  three  successive  voyages 
he  explored  the  inhospitable  coast  of  Labrador,  and 
that  of  Greenland,  (to  which  Elizabeth  gave  the 
name  of  Meta  Incognita,)  without  discovering  any 
probable  appearance  of  that  passage  to  India  for 
which  he  sought.  This  new  disappointment  was 
sensibly  felt,  and  might  have  damped  the  spirit  of 
naval  enterprise  among  the  English,/  if  it  had  not 
resumed  fresh  vigour,  amidst  the  general  exultation 
of  the  nation,  upon  the  successful  expedition  of  Sir 
Francis  Drake.  That  bold  navigator,  emulous  of 
the  glory  which  Magellan  had  acquired  by  sailing 
round  the  globe,  formed  a  scheme  of  attempting  a 
voyage,  which  all  Europe  had  admired  for  sixty 
years,  without  venturing  to  follow  the  Portuguese 
discoverer  in  his  adventurous  course.  Drake  under- 
took this  with  a  feeble  squadron,  in  which  the  largest 
vessel  did  not  exceed  a  hundred  tons,  and  he  accom- 
plished it  with  no  less  credit  to  himself  than  honour 
to  his  country.  Even  in  this  voyage,  conducted  with 
other  views,  Drake  seems  not  to  have  been  inatten- 
tive to  the  favourite  object  of  his  countrymen,  the 
discovery  of  a  new  route  to  India.  Before  he  quitted 
the  Pacific  ocean,  in  order  to  stretch  towards  the 
Philippine  islands,  he  ranged  along  the  coast  of 
California,  as  high  as  the  latitude  of  forty-two  de- 
grees north,  in  hopes  of  discovering,  on  that  side, 
Uie  communication  between  the  two  seas,  which  had 
so  often  been  searched  for  in  vain  on  the  other. 
But  this  was  the  only  unsuccessful  attempt  of  Drake. 
The  excessive  cold  of  the  climate,  intolerable  to 
men  who  had  long  been  accustomed  to  tropical 
heat,  obliged  him  to  stop  short  in  his  progress 
towards  the  north ;  and  whether  or  not  there  be 
.any  passage  from  the  Pacific  to  the  Atlantic  ocean 
in  that  quarter  is  a  point  still  unascertained. 

From  this  period,  the  English  seem  to  have  con- 
fided in  their  own  abilities  and  courage,  as  equal 
to  any  naval  enterprise.  They  had  now  visited 
every  region  to  which  navigation  extended  in  that 
age,  and  had  rivalled  the  nation  of  highest  repute 
for  naval  skill  in  its  most  splendid  exploit.  But 
notwithstanding  the  knowledge  which  they  had  ac- 
quired of  the  different  quarters  of  the  globe,  they 
had  not  hitherto  attempted  any  settlement  out  of 
their  own  country.  Their  merchants  had  not  yet 
acquired  such  a  degree  either  of  wealth  or  of  poli- 
tical influence,  as  was  requisite  towards  carrying 
a  scheme  of  colonization  into  execution.  Persons 
of  noble  birth  were  destitue  of  the  ideas  and  infor- 
mation which  might  have  disposed  them  to  patronize 
such  a  design  The  'growing  power  of  Spain,  how- 


ever, and  the  ascendant  over  the  other  nations  uf 
Europe  to  which  it  had  attained  under  Charles  V. 
and  his  son,  naturally  turned  the  attention  of  man- 
kind towards  the  importance  of  those  settlements  in 
the  New  World,  to  which  they  were  so  much  in- 
debted for  that  pre-eminence.  The  intercourse  be- 
tween Spain  and  England  during  the  reign  of  Philip 
and  Mary  ;  the  resort  of  the  Spanish  nobility  to  the 
English  court,  while  Philip  resided  there  ;  the  study 
of  the  Spanish  language,  which  became  fashionable  ; 
and  the  translation  of  several  histories  of  America 
into  English,  diffused  gradually  through  the  nation 
a  more  distinct  knowledge  of  the  policy  of  Spain  in 
planting  its  colonies,  and  of  the  advantages  which  it 
derived  from  them.  When  hostilities  commenced 
between  Elizabeth  and  Philip,  the  prospect  of  annoy- 
ing Spain  by  sea,  opened  a  new  career  to  the  enter- 
prising spirit  of  the  English  nobility.  Almost  every 
eminent  leader  of  the  age  aimed  at  distinguishing 
himself  by  naval  exploits.  That  service,  and  the 
ideas  connected  with  it,  the  discovery  of  unknown 
countries,  the  establishment  of  distant  colonies,  and 
the  enriching  of  commerce  by  new  commodities, 
became  familiar  to  persons  of  rank. 

In  consequence  of  all  those  concurring  causes,  the 
English  began  seriously  to  form  plans  of  settling 
colonies  in  those  parts  of  America  which  hitherto 
they  had  only  visited.  The  projectors  and  patrons 
of  these  plans  were  mostly  persons  of  rank  and  influ- 
ence. Among  them,  Sir  Humphiy  Gilbert,  of  Coinp- 
ton,  in  Devonshire,  ought  to  be  mentioned  with  the 
distinction  due  to  the  conductor  of  the  first  English 
colony  to  America.  He  had  parly  rendered  himself 
conspicuous  by  his  military  services  both  in  France 
and  Ireland  ;  and  having  afterwards  turned  his  atten- 
tion to  naval  affairs,  he  published  a  discourse  con- 
cerning the  probability  of  a  north-west  passage, 
which  discovered  no  inconsiderable  portion  both  of 
learning  and  ingenuity,  mingled  with  the  enthusiasm, 
the  credulity,  and  sanguine  expectations  which  incite 
men  to  new  and  hazardous  undertakings.  With 
those  talents  he  was  deemed  a  proper  person  to  be 
employed  in  establishing  a  new  colony,  and  casily 
obtained  from  the  queen  letters  patent,  vesting  in 
him  sufficient  powers  for  this  purpose. 

As  this  is  the  first  charter  to  a  colony,  granted  by 
the  crown  of  England,  the  articles  in  it  merit  paiti- 
cular  attention,  as  they  unfold  the  ideas  of  that  age 
with  respect  to  the  nature  of  such  settlements.  Eli- 
zabeth authorizes  him  to  discover  and  take  possession 
of  all  remote  and  barbarous  lands,  unoccupied  by  any 
Christian  prince  or  people.  She  vests  in  him,  his 
heirs,  and  assigns  for  ever,  the  full  right  of  property 
in  the  soil  of  those  countries  whereof  he  shall  take 
possession.  She  permits  such  of  her  subjects  as  were 
willing  to  accompany  Gilbert  in  his  voyage,  to  go 
and  settle  in  the  countries  which  he  shall  plant. 
She  empowers  him,  his  heirs,  and  assigns,  to  dispose 
of  whatever  portion  of  those  lands  he  shall  judge 
meet,  to  persons  settled  there,  in  fee  simple,  accord- 
ing to  the  laws  of  England.  She  ordains,  that  all 
the  lands  granted  to  Gilbert  shall  hold  of  the  crown 
of  England  by  homage,  on  payment  of  the  fifth  part 
of  the  gold  or  silver  ore  found  there.  She  confers 
upon  him,  his  heirs  and  assigns,  the  complete  juris- 
dictions and  royalties,  as  well  marine  as  other,  within 
the  said  lands  and  seaS  thereunto  adjoining;  and  as 
their  common  safety  and  interest  would  render  good 
government  necessary  in  their  new  settlements,  she 
gave  Gilbert,  his  heirs  and  assigns,  full  power  to 
convict,  punish,  pardon,  govern,  and  rule,  by  their 
good  discretion  and  policy,  as  well  in  causes  capital 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


2C9 


or  criminal  as  civil,  both  marine  and  other,  all  per- 
sons who  shall,  from  time  to  time,  settle  within  the 
said  countries,  according  to  such  statutes,  laws,  and 
ordinances,  as  shall  be  by  him,  his  heirs  and  assigns, 
devised  and  established  for  their  better  government. 
She  declared,  that  all  who  settled  there  should  have 
and  enjoy  all  the  privileges  of  free  denizens  and 
natives  of  England,  any  law,  custom,  or  usage  to  the 
contrary  notwithstanding.  And  finally,  she  prohi- 
bited all  persons  from  attempting  to  settle  within  two 
hundred  leagues  of  any  place  which  Sir  Humphry- 
Gilbert  or  his  associates  shall  have  occupied,  during 
the  space  of  six  years. 

With  those  extraordinary  powers,  suited  to  the  high 
notions  of  authority  and  prerogative  prevalent  iu 
England  during  the  sixteenth  century,  but  very  re- 
pugnant to  more  recent  ideas  with  respect  to  the  j 
rights  of  free  men,  who  voluntarily  unite  to  form  a 
colony,  Gilbert  began  to  collect  associates,  and  to 
prepare  for  embarkation.  His  own  character,  and 
the  zealous  efforts  of  his  half-brother,  Walter  Ralegh, 
who  even  in  his  early  youth  displayed  those  splendid 
talents,  and  that  undaunted  spirit,  which  create 
admiration  and  confidence,  soon  procured  him  a  suf- 
ficient number  of  followers.  But  his  success  was  not 
suited  either  to  the  sanguine  hopes  of  his  country- 
men or  to  the  expense  of  his  preparations.  Two 
expeditious,  both  of  which  he  conducted  in  person, 
ended  disastrously.  In  the  last  he  himself  perished, 
without  having  effected  his  intended  settlement  on 
the  continent  of  America,  or  performing  any  thing 
more  worthy  of  notice  than  the  empty  formality  of 
taking  possession  of  the  island  of  Newfoundland  in 
the  name  of  his  sovereign.  The  dissensions  among 
his  officers;  the  licentious  and  ungovernable  spirit  of 
some  of  his  crew  ;  his  total  ignorance  of  the  countries 
which  he  purposed  to  occupy  ;  his  misfortune  in  ap- 
proaching the  continent  too  far  towards  the  north, 
where  the  inhospitable  coast  of  Cape  Breton  did  not 
invite  them  to  settle ;  the  shipwreck  of  his  largest 
vessel ;  and,  above  all,  the  scanty  provision  which  the 
funds  of  a  private  man  could  make  of  what  was  re- 
quisite for  establishing  a  new  colony,  were  the  true 
causes  to  which  the  failure  of  the  enterprize  must  be 
imputed,  not  to  any  deficiency  of  abilities  or  resolu- 
tion in  its  leader. 

But  the  miscarriage  of  a  scheme,  in  which  Gilbert 
had  wasted  his  fortune,  did  not  discourage  Ralegh. 
He  adopted  all  his  brother's  ideas  ;  and  applying  to 
the  queen,  in  whose  favour  he  stood  high  at  that 
time,  he  procured  a  patent,  with  jurisdiction  and 
prerogatives  as  ample  as  had  been  granted  unto 
Gilbert.  Ralegh,  no  less  eager  to  execute  than  to 
undertake  the  scheme,  instantlydispatched  two  small 
vessels  under  the  command  of  Amadas  and  Barlow, 
two  officers  of  trust,  to  visit  the  countries  which  he 
intended  to  settle,  and  to  acquire  some  previous 
knowledge  of  their  coasts,  their  soil,  and  produc- 
tions. In  order  to  avoid  Gilbert's  error,  in  holding 
too  far  north,  they  took  their  course  by  the  Canaries 
and  the  West  India  islands,  and  approached  the 
North  American  continent  by  the  gulf  of  Florida. 
Unfortunately,  their  chief  researches /were  made  in 
that  part  of  the  country  now  known  by  the  name  of 
North  Carolina,  the  province  in  America  most  desti- 
tute of  commodious  harbours.  They  touched  first  at 
an  island,  which  they  call  Wokocon  (probably  Oca- 
koke),  situated  on  the  inlet  into  Pamplicoe  sound, 
and  then  at  Roanokc,  near  the  mouth  of  Albemarle 
sound.  In  both  they  had  some  intercourse  with  the 
natives,  whom  they  found  to  be  savages  with  all  the 
characteristic  qualities  of  uncivilized  life,  bravery, 

THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA,     No.  27, 


aversion  to  labour,  hospitality,  a  propensity  to  ad- 
mire, and  a  willingness  to  exchange  their  rude  pro- 
ductions for  English  commodities,  especially  for 
iron,  or  any  of  the  useful  metals  of  which  they  were 
destitute.  After  spending  a  few  weeks  in  this  traffic, 
and  in  visiting  some  parts  of  the  adjacent  continent, 
Amadas  and  Barlow  returned  to  England  with  two 
of  the  natives,  and  gave  such  splendid  descriptions  of 
the  beauty  of  the  country,  the  fertility  of  the  soil,  and 
the  mildness  of  the  climate,  that  Elizabeth,  delighted 
with  the  idea  of  occupying  a  territory  superior,  so 
far,  to  the  barren  regions  towards  the  north  hitherto 
visited  by  her  subjects,  bestowed  on  it  the  name  of 
Virginia ;  as  a  memorial  that  this  happy  discovery 
had  been  made  under  a  virgin  queen. 

Their  repoit  encouraged  Ralegh  to  hasten  his  pre- 
parations for  taking  possession  of  such  an  inviting 
property.  He  fitted  out  a  squadron  of  seven  small 
ships  under  the  command  of  Sir  Richard  Greenville, 
a  man  of  honourable  birth,  and  of  courage  so  un- 
daunted as  to  be  conspicuous  even  in  that  gallant 
age.  But  the  spirit  of  that  predatory  war  which  the 
English  carried  on  against  Spain,  mingled  with  this 
scheme  of  settlement ;  and  on  this  account,  as  well  as 
from  unacquaintance  with  a  more  direct  and  shorter 
course  to  North  America,  Greenville  sailed  by  the 
West  Indian  islands.  He  spent  some  time  in  cruizing 
among  these,  and  in  taking  prizes;  so  that  it  was 
towards  the  close  of  June  before  he  arrived  on  the; 
coast  of  North  America.  He  touched  at  both  the 
islands  where  Amadas  and  Barlow  had  landed,  and 
made  some  excursions  into  different  parts  of  the  con- 
tinent round  Pamplicoe  and  Albemarle  sounds.  But 
as,  unfortunately,  he  did  not  advance  far  enough 
towards  the  north  to  discover  the  noble  bay  of  Che  , 
sapeak,  he  established  the  colony  which  he  left  on 
the  island  of  Roanoke,  an  incommodious  station 
without  any  safe  harbour,  and  almost  uninhabited. 

This  colony  consisted  only  of  one  hundred  and 
eighty  persons,  under  the  command  of  Captain  Lane, 
assisted  by  some  men  of  note,  the  most  distinguished 
of  whom  was  Hariot,  an  eminent  mathematician. 
Their  chief  employment,,  during  a  residence  of  nine, 
months,  was  to  obtain  a  more  extensive  knowledge  of 
the  country ;  and  their  researches  were  carried  on 
with  greater  spirit,  and  reached  further  than  could 
have  been  expected  from  a  colony  so  feeble,  and  in  a 
station  so  disadvantageous.  But  from  the  same  im- 
patience of  indigent  adventurers  to  acquire  sudden 
wealth,  which  gave  a  wrong  direction  to  the  industry 
of  the  Spaniards  in  their  settlements,  the  greater 
part  of. the  English  -seem  to  have  considered  nothing 
as  worthy  of  attention  but  mines  of  gold  and  silver. 
These  they  sought  for  wherever  they  came  :  these 
they  inquired  after  with  unwearied  eagerness.  The 
savages  soon  discovered  the  favourite  objects  which 
allured  them,  and  artfully  amused  them  with  so  many 
tales  concerning  pearl  fisheries,  and  rich  mines  of 
various  metals,  that  Lane  and  his  companions  wasted 
their  time  and  activity  in  the  chimerical  pursuit  of 
these,  instead  of  labouring  to  raise  provisions  for 
their  own  subsistence.  On  discovering  the  deceit  of 
the  Indians,  they  were  so  much  exasperated,  that 
from  expostulations  and  reproaches  they  proceeded 
to  open  hostility.  The  supplies  of  provision  which 
they  had  been  accustomed  to  receive  from  the  natives 
were  of  course  withdrawn.  Through  their  own  ne- 
gligence no  other  precaution  had  been  taken  for  theiy 
support.  Ralegh  having  engaged  in  a  scheme  too 
expensive  for  his  narrow  funds,  had  not  been  able  to 
send  them  that  recruit  of  stores  with  which  Green- 
ville had  promised  to  furnish  them  early  in  the 
2  E 


210 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


spring.  The  colony,  reduced  to  the  utmost  distress, 
and  on  the  point  of  perishing  with  famine,  was  pre- 
paring to  disperse  into  different  districts  of  the  coun- 
try in  quest  of  food,  when  Sir  Francis  Drake  ap- 
peared with  his  ileet,  returning  from  a  successful 
expedition  against  the  Spaniards  in  the  West  Indies. 
A  scheme  which  he  formed  of  furnishing  Lane  and  his 
associates  with  such  supplies  as  might  enable  them  to 
remain  with  comfort  in  their  station,  was  disap- 
pointed by  a  sudden  storm,  in  which  a  small  vessel 
that  he  destined  for  their  service  was  dashed  to 
pieces ;  and  as  he  could  not  supply  them  with  an- 
other, at  their  joint  request,  as  they  were  worn  out 
with  fatigue  and  famine,  he  curried  them  home  to 
England. 

Such  was  the  inauspicious  beginning  of  the  Eng 
lirih  settlements  in  the  New  World ;  and  after  excit- 
ing high  expectations,  this  first  attempt  produced  no 
effect  but  that  of  affording  a  more  complete  know- 
ledge of  the  country  ;  as  it  enabled  Hariot,  a  man  of 
science  and  observation,  to  describe  its  soil,  climate, 
productions,  and  the  manners  of  its  inhabitants,  with 
a  degree  of  accuracy  which  merits  no  inconsiderable 
praise,  when  compared  with  the  childish  and  marvel- 
lous tales  published  by  several  of  the  early  visitants 
of  the  New  World.  There  is  another  consequence 
of  this  abortive  colony  important  enough  to  entitle 
it  to  a  place  in  history.  Lane  and  his  associates,  by 
their  constant  intercourse  with  the  Indians,  had  ac- 
quired a  relish  for  their  favourite  enjoyment  of 
smoking  tobacco ;  to  the  use  of  which,  the  credulity 
of  that  people  not  only  ascribed  a  thousand  imagi- 
nary virtues,  but  their  superstition  considered  the 
plant  itself  as  a  gracious  gift  of  the  gods,  for  the 
solace  of  human  kind,  and  the  most  acceptable  offer- 
ing which  man  can  present  to  heaven.  They  brought 
with  them  a  specimen  of  this  new  commodity  to 
England,  and  taught  their  countrymen  the  method 
of  using  it ;  which  Ralegh  and  some  young  men  of 
fashion  fondly  adopted.  From  imitation  of  them, 
from  love  of  novelty,  and  from  the  favourable  opinion 
of  its  salutary  qualities  entertained  by  several  physi- 
cians, the  practice  spread  among  the  English.  The 
Spaniards  and  Portuguese  had,  previous  to  this, 
introduced  it  in  other  parts  of  Europe.  This  habit 
of  taking  tobacco  gradually  extended  from  the  extre- 
mities of  the  north  to  those  of  the  south,  and  in  one 
form  or  other  seems  to  be  equally  grateful  to  the 
inhabitants  of  every  climate,  and  by  a  singular  ca- 
price of  the  human  species,  no  less  inexplicable  than 
unexampled  (so  bewitching  is  the  acquired  taste  for 
a  weed  of  no  manifest  utility,  and  at  first  not  only- 
unpleasant  but  nauseous),  that  it  has  become  almost 
as  universal  as  the  demands  of  those  appetites  origi- 
nally implanted  in  our  nature.  Smoking  was  the 
lirst  mode  of  taking  tobacco  in  England ;  and  we 
learn  from  the  comic  writers  towards  the  close  of  the 
sixteenth  century  and  the  beginning  of  the  seven- 
teenth, that  this  was  deemed  one  of  the  accomplish- 
ments of  a  man  of  fashion  and  spirit. 

A  few  days  after  Drake  departed  from  Roanoke, 
a  small  t>a;k,  dispatched  by  Ralegh  with  a  supply  ot 
stores  for  the  colony,  landed  at  the  place  where  the 
English  had  settled;  but  on  finding  it  deserted  by 
their  countrymen,  they  returned  to  England.  Th 
bark  was  hardly  gone  when  Sir  Richard  Greenville 
appeared  with  three  ships.  After  searching  in  vain 
for  the  colony  which  he  had  planted,  without  being 
able  to  learn  what  had  befallen  it,  he  left  fifteen  o 
his  crew  to  keep  possession  of  the  island.  This 
handful  of  nien  was  soon  overpowered  and  cut  ii 
pieces  by  the  savages. 


Though  all  Ralegh's  efforts  to  establish  a  colony 
n  Virginia  had  hitherto  proved  abortive,  and  had 
teen  defeated  by  a  succession  of  disasters  arid  disap- 
lointments,  neither  his  hopes  ner  resources  were 
xhausted.  Early  in  the  following  year  befitted  out 
hree  ships,  under  the  command  of  Captain  John 
White,  who  carried  thither  a  colony  more  numerous 
ban  that  which  had  been  settled  under  Lane.  On 
heir  arrival  in  Virginia,  after  viewing  the  face  of 
he  country  covered  with  one  continued  forest,  which 
o  them  appeared  an  uninhabited  wild,  as  it  was 
>ccupied  only  by  a  few  scattered  tribes  of  savages, 
h;-y  discovered  that  they  were  destitute  of  many 
hings  which  they  deemed  essentially  necessary  to- 
vard's  their  subsistence  in  s-.ich  an  uncomfortable 
situation  ;  and,  with  one  voice,  requested  White,  their 
;ommander,  to  return  to  England,  as  the  person 
imong  them  most  likely  to  solicit,  with  efficacy,  the 
supply  on  which  depended  the  existence  of  the  colo- 
ny. White  landed  in  his  native  country  at  a  most 
unfavourable  season  for  the  negociatiou  which  he 
lad  undertaken.  He  found  the  nation  in  universal 
alarm  at  the  formidable  preparations  of  Philip  II.  to 
nvade  England,  and  collecting  all  his  force  to  op- 
)ose  the  fleet  to  which  he  had  arrogantly  given  the 
name  of  the  Invincible  Armada.  Ralegh,  Green- 
ville, and  all  the  most  zealous  patrons  of  the  new 
settlement,  were  called  to  act  a  distinguished  part  in 
he  operations  of  a  year  equally  interesting  and  glo- 
rious to  England.  Amidst  danger  so  imminent,  and 
during  a  contest  for  the  honour  of  their  sovereign 
and  the  independence  of  their  country,  it  was  impos- 
sible to  attend  to  a  less  important  and  remote  object. 
The  unfortunate  colony  in  Roanoke  received  no 
supply,  and  perished  miserably  by  famine,  or  by  the 
unrelenting  cruelty  of  those  barbarians  by  whom  they 
were  surrounded. 

During  the  remainder  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  the 
scheme  of  establishing  a  colony  in  Virginia  was  not 
resumed.  Ralegh,  with  a  most  aspiring  mind  and 
extraordinary  talents,  enlightened  by  knowledge  no 
less  uncommon,  had  the  spirit  and  the  defects  of  a 
projector.  Allured  by  new  objects,  and  always  giv- 
ing the  preference  to  such  as  were  most  splendid  and 
arduous,  he  was  apt  to  engage  in  undertakings  so 
vast  and  so  various  as  to  be  far  beyond  his  power  of 
accomplishing.  He  was  now  intent  on  peopling  and 
improving  a  farge  district  of  country  in  Ireland,  of 
which  he  had  obtained  a  grant  from  the  queen.  He 
was  a  deep  adventurer  in  the  scheme  of  fitting  out  a 
powerful  armament  against  Spain,  in  order  to  esta- 
blishing Don  Antonio  on  the  throne  of  Portugal, 
lie  had  begun  to  form  his  favourite  but  visionary 
plan,  of  penetrating  into  the  province  of  Guiana, 
where  he  fondly  dreamed  of  taking  possession  of 
inexhaustible  wealth  flowing  from  the  richest  mines 
in  the  New  World.  Amidst  this  multiplicity  of  pro- 
jects, of  such  promising  appearance,  and  recom- 
mended by  novelty,  he  naturally  became  cold  towards 
his  ancient  and  hitherto  unprofitable  scheme  of  set- 
tling a  colony  in  Virginia,  and  was  easily  induced  to 
assign  his  right  of  property  in  that  country,  which  he 
had  never  visited,  together  with  all  the  privileges 
contained  in  his  patent,  to  Sir  Thomas  Smith  and  a 
company  of  merchants  in  London.  This  company, 
satisfied  with  a  paltry  traffic  carried  on  by  a  few 
small  barks,  made  no  attempt  to  take  possession  of 
the  country.  Thus,  after  a  period  of  a  hundred  and 
six  years  from  the  time  that  Cabot  discovered  North 
America  in  the  name  of  Henry  VII.,  and  of  twenty 
years  from  the  time  that  Ralegn  planted  the  first 
colon v,  there  was  not  a  single  Englishman  settled 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


211 


there  at  the  demise  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  in  the  year 
one  thousand  six  hundred  and  three, 

I  have  already  explained  the  causes  of  this  during 
the  period  previous  to  the  accession  of  Kii/:ah,lh. — 
Other  causes  produced  the  same  effect  under  her  ad- 
ministration. Though  for  one-half  of  her  reign 
England  was  engaged  in  no  foreign  war,  and  com- 
merce enjoyed  that  perfect  security  which  is  friendly 
t;>  its  progress  ;  though  the  glory  of  her  latter  years 
give  the  highest  tone  of  elevation  and  vigour  to  the 
national  spirit ;  the  queen  herself,  from  her  extreme 
parsimony,  and  her  aversion  to  demand  extraordina- 
ry supplies  of  her  subjects,  was  more  apt  to  restrain 
than  to  second  the  ardent  genius  of  her  people.  Se- 
veral of  the  most  splendid  enterprizes  in  her  reign 
were  concerted  and  executed  by  private  adventurers. 
All  the  schemes  for  colonization  were  carried  on  by 
the  funds  of  individuals,  without  any  public  aid. 
Even  the  policy  of  her  government  was  adverse  to 
the  establishment  of  remote  colonies.  So  powerful 
is  the  attraction  of  our  native  soil,  and  such  our  for 
tunate  partiality  to  the  laws  and  manners  of  our  own 
country,  that  men  seldom  choose  to  abandon  it 
unless  they  be  driven  away  by  oppression,  or  allured 
by  vast  prospects  of  sudden  wealth.  But  the  pro- 
vinces of  America,  in  which  the  English  attempted 
to  settle,  did  not,  like  those  occupied  by  Spain,  invite 
them  thither  by  any  appearance  of  silver  or  gold 
mines.  All  their  hopes  of  gain  were  distant;  and 
they  saw  that  nothing  could  be  earned  but  by  perse- 
vering exertions  of  industry.  The  maxims  of  Eliza- 
beth's administration  were,  in  their  general  tenor,  so 
popular,  as  did  not  force  her  subjects  to  emigrate  in 
order  to  escape  from  the  heavy  or  vexatious  hand  of 
power.  It  seems  to  have  been  with  difficulty  that 
these  slender  bands  of  planters  were  collected,  on 
which  the  writers  of  that  age  bestow  the  name  of  the 
first  and  second  Virginian  colonies.  The  fulness  of 
time  for  English  colonization  was  not  yet  arrived. 

But  the  succession  of  the  Scottish  line  to  the 
crown  of  England  hastened  its  approach.  James 
was  hardly  seated  on  the  throne  before  he  discovered 
his  pacific  intentions,  and  he  soon  terminated  the 
long  war  which  had  been  carried  on  between  Spain 
and  England,  by  an  amicable  treaty.  From  that 
period  uninterrupted  tranquillity  continued  during 
his  reign.  Many  persons  of  high  rank  and  of  ardent 
ambition,  to  whom  the  war  with  Spain  had  afforded 
constant  employment,  and  presented  alluring  pro- 
spects not  only  of  fame  but  of  wealth,  soon  became 
so  impatient  of  languishing  at  home  without  occupa- 
tion or  object,  that  their  invention  was  on  the 
stretch  to  find  some  exercise  for  their  activity  and 
talents.  To  both  these  North  America  seemed  to 
open  a  new  field,  and  schemes  of  carrying  colonies 
thither  became  more  general  and  more  popular. 

A  voyage  undertaken  by  Bartholomew  Gosnold,  in 
the  last  year  of  the  queen,  facilitated  as  well  as  en- 
couraged the  execution  of  these  schemes.  He  sailed 
from  Falmouth  in  a  small  bark  with  thirty-two  men. 
Instead  of  following  former  navigators  in  their  unne- 
cessary circuit  by  the  West  India  isles  and  the  gulf 
of  Florida,  Gosnold  steered  due  west  as  nearly  as 
the  winds  would  permit,  and  was  the  first  English 
commander  who  reached  America  by  this  shorter  and 
more  direct  course.  That  part  of  the  continent  which 
he  first  descried  was  a  promontory  in  the  province 
now  called  Massachusetts  Bay,  to  which  he  gave  the 
name  of  Cape  Cod.  Holding  along  the  coast  as  it 
stretched  towards  the  south-west,  he  touched  at  two 
islands,  one  of  which  he  called  Martha's  Vineyard, 
the  other  Elizabeth's  Island ;  and  visited  the  adjoin- 


ing continent,  and  traded  with  its  inhabitants.  He 
and  his  companions  were  so  much  delighted  every 
where  with  the  inviting  aspect  of  the  country,  that 
notwithstanding  the  smallness  of  their  number,  a 
pait  of  them  consented  to  remain  there.  But  when 
they  had  leisure  to  reflect  upon  the  fate  of  former 
.settlers  in  America,  they  retracted  a  resolution 
j  formed  in  the  first  warmth  of  their  admiration  ;  and 
Gosnold  returned  to  England  in  less  than  four 
months  from  the  time  of  his  departure. 

This  voyage,  however  inconsiderable  it  may  ap- 
pear, had  important  effects.  The  English  now  dis- 
covered the  aspect  of  the  American  continent  to  be 
extremely  inviting  far  to  the  north  of  the  place  where 
they  had  formerly  attempted  to  settle.  The  coast  of 
a  vast  country,  stretching  through  the  most  desirable 
climates,  lay  before  them.  The  richness  of  its  virgin 
soil  promised  a  certain  rccompence  to  their  industry. 
Ill  its  interior  provinces  unexpected  sources  of  wealth 
might  open,  and  unknown  objects  .of  commerce 
might  be  found.  Its  distance  from  England  was 
diminished  almost  a  third  part,  by  the  new  course 
which  Gosnold  had  pointed  out.  Plans  for  esta 
bli>hhig  colonies  began  to  be  formed  in  different 
part's  of  the  kingdom ;  and  before  these  weie  ripe  for 
execution,  one  small  vessel  was  sent  out  by  the  mer- 
chants of  Bristol,  another  by  the  Earl  of  Southamp- 
ton and  Lord  Arundel  of  Wardeur,  in  order  to  learn, 
whether  Gosnold's  account  of  the  country  was  to  be 
considered  as  a  just  Representation  of  its  state,  or  as 
the  exaggerated  description  of  a  fond  discoverer. 
Both  returned  with  a  full  confirmation  of  his  vera- 
city, and  with  the  addition  of  so  many  new  circum- 
stances in  favour  of  the  country,  acquired  by  a  more 
extensive  view  of  it,  as  greatly  increased  the  desire 
of  planting  it. 

The  most  active  and  efficacious  promoter  of  this 
was  Richard  Ilakluyt,  prebendary  of  Westminster, 
to  whom  England  is  more  indebted  for  its  American 
possessions  than  to  any  man  of  that  age.  Formed 
under  a  kinsman  of  the  same  name,  eminent  for 
naval  and  commercial  knowledge,  he  imbibed  a  simi- 
lar taste,  and  applied  early  to  the  study  of  geography 
and  navigation.  These  favourite  sciences  engrossed 
his  attention,  and  to  diffuse  a  relish  for  them  was  the 
great  object  of  his  life.  In  order  to  excite  his  coun- 
trymen to  naval  enterprize,  by  flattering  their  na- 
tional vanity,  he  published,  in  the  year  one  thousand 
five  hundred  and  eighty-nine,  his  valuable  collection 
of  voyages  -and  discoveries  made  by  Englishmen. 
In  order  to  supply  them  with  what  information  might 
be  derived  from  the  experience  of  the  most  success- 
ful foreign  navigators,  he  translated  some  of  the 
best  accounts  of  the  progress  of  the  Spaniards  and 
Portuguese  in  their  voyages  both  to  the  East  and 
West  Indies,  into  the  English  tongue.  He  was 
consulted  with  respect  to  many  of  the  attempts  to- 
wards discovery  or  colonization  during  the  latter  part 
of  Elizabeth's  reign.  He  corresponded  with  the 
officers  who  conducted  them,  directed  their  researches 
to  proper  objects,  and  published  the  history  of  their 
exploits.  By  the  zealous  endeavours  of  a  person 
equally  respected  by  men  of  rank  and  men  of  busi- 
ness, many  of  both  orders  formed  an  association  to 
establish  colonies  in  America,  and  petitioned  the 
king  for  the  sanction  of  his  authority  to  warrant  the 
execution  of  their  plans. 

James,  who  prided  himself  on  his  profound  skill  ill 
'  in  the  science  of  government,  and  who  had  turned 
j  his  attention  to  consider  the  advantages  which  might 
be  derived  from  colonies  at  a  time  when  he  patron- 
ized his  scheme  for  planting  them  in  some  of  the 


212 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


ruder  provinces  of  hj.s  ancient  kingdom,  with  a  view 
of  introducing  industry  and  civilization  there,  was 
now  no  less  fond  of  directing  the  active  genius  of  his 
English  subjects  towards  occupations  not  repugnant 
to  his  own  pacific  maxims,  and  listened  with  a  fa- 
vourable ear  to  their  application.  But  as  the  extent 
as  well  as  value  of  the  American  continent  began 
now  to  be  better  known,  a  grant  of  the  whole  of 
such  a  vast  region  to  any  one  body  of  men,  however 
respectable,  appeared  to  him  an  act  of  impolitic  and 
profuse  liberality.  For  this  reason  he  divided  that 
portion  of  North  America,  which  stretches  from  the 
thirty-fourth  to  the  forty-fifth  degree  of  latitude,  into 
two  districts  nearly  equal ;  the  one  called  the  first  or 
south  colony  of  Virginia,  the  other  the  second  or 
north  colony.  He  authorized  Sir  Thomas  Gates, 
Sir  George  Summers,  Richard  Hakluyt,  and  their 
associates,  mostly  resident  in  London,  to  settle  any 
part  of  the  former  which  they  should  choose,  and 
vested  in  them  a  right  of  property  to  the  land  ex- 
tending along  the  coast  fifty  miles  on  each  side  of 
the  place  of  their  first  habitation,  and  reaching  into 
the  interior  country  a  hundred  miles.  The  latter 
district  he  allotted,  as  the  place  of  settlement,  to 
sundry  knights,  gentlemen,  and  merchants  of  Bris- 
tol, Plymouth,  and  other  parts  in  the  west  of  Eng- 
land, with  a  similar  grant  of  territory.  Neither  the 
monarch  who  issued  this  charter,  nor  his  subjects 
who  received  it,  had  any  conception  that  they  were 
proceeding  to  lay  the  foundation  of  mighty  and  opu- 
lent states.  What  James  granted  was  nothing  more 
than  a  simple  charter  of  corporation  to  a  trading 
company,  empowering  the  members  of  it  to  have  a 
common  seal,  and  to  act  as  a  body  politic.  But  as 
the  object  for  which  they  associated  was  new,  the 
plan  established  for  the  administration  of  their  affairs 
was  uncommon.  Instead  of  the  power  usually 
granted  to  corporations,  of  electing  officers,  and 
framing  bye  laws  for  the  c  mduct  of  their  own  opera- 
tions, the  supreme  government  of  the  colonies  to  be 
settled  was  vested  in  a  council  resident  in  England, 
to  be  named  by  the  king  according  to  such  laws  and 
ordinances  as  should  be  given  under  his  sign  ma- 
nual; and  the  subordinate  jurisdiction  was  commit- 
ted to  a  council  resident  in  America,  which  was  like- 
wise to  be  nominated  by  the  king,  and  to  act  con- 
formably to  his  instructions.  To  this  important 
clause,  which  regulated  the  form  of  their  constitu- 
tution,  was  added  the  concession  of  several  immuni- 
ties, to  encourage  persons  to  settle  in  the  intended 
colonies.  Some  of  these  were  the  same  which  had 
been  granted  to  G  Ibert  and  Ralegh ;  such  as  the 
.securing  to  the  emigrants  and  their  descendants  all 
the  rights  of  denizens,  in  the  same  manner  as  if  they 
had  remained  or  had  been  born  in  England ;  and 
granting  them  the  privilege  of  holding  their  lands  in 
America  by  the  freest  and  least  burthensome  tenure. 
Others  were  more  favourable  than  those  granted  by 
Elizabeth.  He  permitted  whatever  was  necessary 
for  the  sustenance  or  commerce  of  the  new  colonies 
to  Le  exported  from  England  during  the  space  of 
seven  years,  without  paying  any  duty  ;  and  as  a  fur- 
ther incitement  to  industry,  he  granted  them  liberty 
of  trade  with  other  nations,  and  appropriated  the 
duty  to  be  levied  on  foreign  commodities  for  twenty- 
one  years,  as  a  fund  for  the  benefit  of  the  colony. 

In  this  singular  charter,  the  contents  of  which 
hove  been  little  attended  to  by  the  historians  of 
America,  some  articles  are  as  xm favourable  to  the 
"rights  of  the  colonists,  as  others  are  to  the  interests 
of  the  parent  state.  By  placing  the  legislative  and 
"executive  powers  in  a  council  ^nominated  by  the 


crown,  and  guided  by  its  instructions,  every  person 
settling  in  America  seems  to  be  bereaved  of  the  no- 
blest privilege  of  a  free  man  ;  by  4,he  unlimited  per- 
mission of  trade  with  foreigners,  the  parent  state  is 
deprived  of  that  exclusive  commerce  which  has  been 
deemed  the  chief  advantage  resulting  from  the  esta- 
blishment of  colonies.  But  in  the  infancy  of  coloni- 
zation, and  without  the  guidance  of  observation  or 
experience,  the  ideas  of  men,  with  respect  to  the 
mode  of  forming  new  settlements,  were  not  fully  un- 
folded or  properly  arranged.  At  a  period  when  they 
could  not  foresee  the  future  grandeur  and  importance 
of  the  communities  which  they  were  about  to  call 
into  existence,  they  were  ill  qualified  to  concert  the 
best  plan  for  governing  them.  Besides,  the  English 
of  that  age,  accustomed  to  the  high  prerogative  and 
arbitrary  rule  of  their  monarchs,  were  not  animated 
with  such  liberal  sentiments,  either  concerning  their 
own  personal  or  political  rights,  as  have  become  fa- 
miliar in  the  more  mature  and  improved  state  of 
their  constitution. 

Without  hesitation, or  reluctance  the  proprietors 
of  both  colonies  prepared  to  execute  their  respective 
plans  ;  and  under  the  authority  of  a  charter,  which 
would  now  be  rejected  with  disdain,  as  a  violent 
invasion  of  the  sacred  and  inalienable  rights  of  li- 
berty, the  first  permanent  settlements  of  the  English 
in  America  were  established.  From  this  period  the 
progress  of  the  two  provinces  of  Virginia  and  New- 
England  forms  a  regular  and  connected  story.  The 
former  in  the  south,  and  the  latter  in  the  north,  may 
be  considered  as  the  original  and  parent  colonies  ;  in 
imitation  of  which,  and  under  whose  shelter  all  the 
others  have  been  successively  planted  and  reared. 

The  first  attempts  to  occupy  Virginia  and  New 
England  were  made  by  very  feeble  bodies  of  emi- 
grants. As  these  settled  under  great  disadvantages, 
among  tribes  of  savages,  and  in  an  uncultivated  de 
sert;  as  they  attained  gradually,  after  long  struggles 
and  many  disasters,  to  that  maturity  of  strength  and 
order  of  policy,  which  entitle  them  to  be  considered 
as  respectable  states,  the  history  of  their  persevering 
efforts  merits  particular  attention.  It  will  exhibit  u 
spectacle  no  less  striking  than  instructive,  and  pre- 
sents an  opportunity  which  rarely  occurs,  of  contem- 
plating a  society  in  the  first  moment  of  its  political 
existence,  and  of  observing  how  its  spirit  forms  in  its 
infant  state,  how  its  principles  begin  to  unfold  as  it 
advances,  and  how  those  characteristic  qualities 
which  distinguish  its  maturer  age  are  successively 
acquired.  The  account  of  the  establishment  of  the 
other  English  colonies,  undertaken  at  periods  when 
the  importance  of  such  possessions  was  better  under- 
stood, and  effected  by  more  direct  and  vigorous 
exertions  of  the  parent  state  is  less  interesting.  I 
shall  therefore  relate  the  history  of  the  two  original 
colonies  in  detail.  With  respect  to  the  subsequent 
settlements,  some  more  general  observations  con- 
cerning the  time,  the  motives,  and  circumstances  of 
their  establishment  will  be  sufficient.  I  begin  with 
the  history  of  Virginia,  the  most  ancient  and  most 
valuable  of  the  British  colonies  in  North  America. 

Though  many  persons  of  distinction  became  pro- 
prietors in  the  company  which  undertook  to  plant  a 
colony  in  Virginia,  its  funds  seem  not  to  have  been 
considerable,  and  its  first  effort  was  certainly  ex- 
tremely feeble.  A  small  vessel  of  a  hundred  tons, 
and  two  barks  under  the  command  of  Captain  New- 
port, sailed  with  a  hundred  and  five  men  destined  to 
remain  in  the  country.  Some  of  these  were  of  re- 
spectable familieSj  particularly  a  brother  of  the  Earl 
of  Northumberland,  and  several  officers  who  had 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


213 


served  with  reputation  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth. 
Newport,  I  know  not  for  what  reason,  followed  the 
ancient  course  by  the  West  Indies,  and  did  not 
reach  the  coast  of  North  America  for  four  months. 
But  he  approached  it  with  better  fortune  than  any 
former  navigator;  for  having  been  driven,  by  the 
violence  of  a  storm,  to  the  northward  of  Roanoke, 
the  place  of  his  destination,  the  first  land  he  disco- 
vered was  a  promontory  which  he  called  Cape  Henry, 
the  southern  boundary  of  the  bay  of  Chesapeak. 
The  English  stood  directly  into  tRat  spacious  inlet, 
which  seemed  to  invite  them  to  enter;  and  as  they 
advanced,  contemplated  with  a  mixture  of  delight 
and  admiration,  that  grand  reservoir,  into  which  are 
poured  the  Xvaters  of  all  the  vast  rivers  which  not 
only  diffuse  fertility  through  that  district  of  America, 
but  open  the  interior  parts  of  the  country  to  naviga- 
tion, and  render  a  commercial  intercourse  more  ex- 
trusive and  commodious  than  in  any  other  region  of 
the  globe.  Newport,  keeping  along  the  southern 
shore,  sailed  up  a  river,  which  the  natives  called 
Powhatan,  and  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  James 
river.  After  viewing  its  banks,  during  a  run  of  above 
forty  miles  from  its  mouth,  they  all  concluded  that  a 
country,  where  safe  and  convenient  harbours  seemed 
to  be  numerous,  would  be  a  more  suitable  station  for 
a  trading  colony  than  the  shoaly  and  dangerous  coast 
to  the  south,  on  which  their  countrymen  had  for- 
merly settled.  Here  then  they  determined  to  abide ; 
and  having  chosen  a  proper  spot  for  their  residence, 
they  gave  this  infant  settlement  the  name  of  James 
town,  which  it  still  retains  ;  and  though  it  has  never 
become  either  populous  or  opulent,  it  can  boast  of 
being  the  most  ancient  habitation  of  the  English  in 
the  New  World.  But  however  well  chosen  the  situ- 
ation might  be,  the  members  of  the  colony  were  far 
from  availing  themselves  of  its  advantages.  Violent 
animosities  had  broke  out  among  some  of  their 
leaders,  during  their  voyage  to  Virginia,  These  did 
not  subside  on  their  arrival  there.  The  first  deed  of 
the  council,  which  assumed  the  government  in  virtue 
of  a  commission  brought  from  England  under  the 
seal  of  the  company,  and  opened  on  the  day  after 
they  landed,  was  an  act  of  injustice.  Capt.  Smith, 
who  had  been  appointed  a  member  of  the  council, 
was  excluded  from  his  seat  at  the  board  by  the  mean 
jealousy  of  his  colleagues,  and  not  only  reduced  to 
the  condition  of  a  private  man,  but  of  one  suspected 
and  watched  by  his  superiors.  This  diminution  of 
his  influence,  and  restraint  on  his  activity,  was  an 
essential  injury  to  the  colony,  which  at  that  juncture 
stood  in  need  of  the  aid  of  both.  For  soon  after  they 
Vgan  to  settle,  the  English  were  involved  in  a  war 
vith  the  natives,  partly  by  their  own  indiscretion, 
;ud  partly  by  the  suspicion  and  ferocity  of  those 
barbarians.  And  although  the  Indians,  scattered 
over  the  countries  adjacent  to  James  river,  were  di- 
vided into  independent  tribes,  so  extremely  feeble 
that  hardly  one  of  them  could  muster  above  two  hun- 
dred warriors,  they  teased  and  annoyed  an  infant 
colon)  by  their  incessant  hostilities.  To  this  was 
added  a  calamity  still  more  dreadful ;  the  stock  of 
provisions  left  for  their  subsistence,  on  the  departure 
of  their  ships  for  England,  was  so  scanty  and  of 
such  bad  Duality,  that  a  scarcity,  appi-oaching  almost 
to  absoluh  famine,  soon  followed.  Such  poor  un- 
wholesome fare  soon  brought  on  diseases,  the  vio- 
lence of  which  was  so  much  increased  by  the  sultry 
heat  of  the  climate,  and  the  moisture  of  a  country 
covered  with  wood,  that  before  the  beginning  of  Sep- 
tember one  hdf  of  their  number  died,  and  most  of 
the  survivors  were  sickly  and  dejectod.  In  such 


trying  extremities  the  comparative  powers  of  every 
individual  are  discovered  and  called  forth,  and  each 
naturally  takes  that  station  and  assumes  that  ascen- 
dant, to  which  he  is  entitled  by  his  talents  and  force 
of  mind,  Every  eye  was  now  turned  towards  Smith, 
and  all  willingly  devolved  on  him  that  authority  of 
which  they  had  formerly  deprived  him.  His  un- 
daunted temper,  deeply  tinctured  with  the  wild 
romantic  spirit  characteristic  of  military  adventurers 
in  that  age,  was  peculiarly  suited  to  such  a  situation. 
The  vigour  of  his  constitution  continued  fortunately 
still  unimpaired  by  disease,  and  his  mind  was  never 
appalled  by  danger.  He  instantly  adopted  the  only 
plan  that  could  save  them  from  destruction.  He 
began  by  surrounding  James  town  with  such  rude 
fortifications  as  were  a  sufficient  defence  against  the 
assaults  of  savages.  He  then  marched  at  the  head 
of  a  small  detachment  in  quest  of  their  enemies. 
Some  tribes  he  gained  by  caresses  and  presents,  and 
procured  from  them  a  supply  of  provisions.  Others 
he  attacked  with  open  force  ;  and  defeating  them  on 
every  occasion,  whatever  their  superiority  in  num- 
bers might  be,  compelled  them  to  impart  to  him  some 
portion  of  their  winter  stores.  As  the  recorapeuce  of 
all  his  toils  and  dangers,  he  saw  abundance  and  con- 
tentment re-established  in  the  colony,  and  hoped 
that  he  should  be  able  to  maintain  them  in  that  happy 
state,  until  the  arrival  of  ships  from  England  in  the 
spring  :  but  in  one  of  his  excursions  he  was  surprised 
by  a  numerous  body  of  Indians,  and  in  making  his 
escape  from  them,  alter  a  gallant  defence,  he  sunk  to 
the  neck  in  a  swamp,  and  was  obliged  to  surrender. 
Though  he  knew  well  what  a  dreadful  fate  awaits 
the  prisoners  of  savages,  his  presence  of  mind  did  not 
forsake  him.  He  shewed  those  who  had  taken  him 
captive  a  mariner's  compass,  and  amused  them  with 
so  many  wonderful  accounts  of  its  virtues,  as  filled 
them  with  astonishment  and  veneration,  which  began 
to  operate  very  powerfully  in  his  favour.  They  led 
him,  however,  in  triumph  through  various  parts  of 
the  country,  and  conducted  him  at  last  to  Powhatan, 
the  most  considerable  sachim  in  that  part  of  Virgi- 
nia. There  the  doom  of  death  being  pronounced,  he 
was  led  to  the  place  of  execution,  and  his  head 
already  bowed  down  to  receive  the  fatal  blow,  when 
that  fond  attachment  of  the  American  women  to 
their  European  invaders,  the  beneficial  effects  of 
which  the  Spaniards  often  experienced,  interposed 
in  his  behalf.  The  favourite  daughter  of  Powhatan 
rushed  in  between  him  and  the  executioner,  and  by 
her  entreaties  and  tears  prevailed  on  her  father  to 
spare  his  life.  The  beneficence  of  his  deliverer, 
whom  the  early  English  writers  dignify  with  the  title 
of  the  princess"  Pocahuntas,  did  not  tenninate  here  ; 
she  soon  after  procured  his  liberty,  and  sent  him 
from  time  to  time  seasonable  presents  of  provisions 

Smith,  on  his  return  to  James  town,  found  the  co- 
lony reduced  to  thirty-eight  persons,  who  in  despair 
were  preparing  to  abandon  a  country  which  did  not 
seem  destined  to  be  the  habitation  of  Englishmen. 
He  employed  caresses,  threats,  and  even  violence,  in 
order  to  prevent  them  from  executing  this  fatal 
resolution.  With  difficulty  he  prevailed  on  them  to 
defer  it  so  long,  that  the  succour  anxiously  expected 
from  England  arrived.  Plenty  was  instantly  re- 
stored; a  hundred  new  planters  were  added  to  their 
number;  and  an  ample  stock  of  whatever  was  requi- 
site for  clearing  and  sowing  the  ground  was  delivered 
to  them.  But  an  unlucky  incident  turned  their  at- 
tention from  that  species  of  industry  which  alone 
could  render  their  situation  comfortable.  In  a  small 
stream  of  water  that  issued  from  a  bank  of  sand  near 


214 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


James  town,  a  sediment  of  some  shining  mineral 
substance,  which  had  sonic  resemblance  of  gold,  was 
discovered.  At  a  time  when  the  precious  metals 
were  conceived  to  be  the  peculiar  and  only  valuable 
productions  of  the  New  World,  when  every  moun- 
tain was  supposed  to  contain  a  treasure,  and  every 
rivulet  was  searched  for  its  golden  sands,  this  ap"- 
pearance  was  fondly  considered  as  an  infallible  indi- 
cation of  a  mine.  Every  hand  was  eager  to  dig ; 
large  quantities  of  this  glittering  dust  were  amassed 
From  some  assay  of  its  nature,  made  by  an  artist  as 
unskilful  as  his  companions  were  credulous,  it  was 
pronounced  to  be  extremely  rich.  "  There  was 
now,"  says  Smith,  "  no  talk,  no  hope,  no  work,  but 
dig  gold,  wash  gold,  refine  gold."  With  this  ima- 
ginary wealth  the  first  vessel  returning  to  England 
was  loaded,  while  the  culture  of  the  land  and  every 
useful  occupation  were  totally  neglected. 

The  effects  of  this  fatal  delusion  were  soon  felt. 
Notwithstanding  all  the  provident  activity  of  Smith, 
in  procuring  corn  from  the  natives  by  traffic  or  by 
force,  the  colony  began  to  suffer  as  much  as  formerly 
from  scarcity  of  food,  and  was  wasted  by  the  same 
distempers.  In  hopes  of  obtaining  some  relief, 
Smith  proposed,  as  they  had  not  hitherto  extended 
their  researches  beyond  the  countries  contiguous  to 
James  river,  to  open  an  intercourse  with  the  more 
remote  tribes,  and  to  examine  into  the  state  of  cul- 
ture and  population  among  them.  The  execution  of 
this  arduous  design  he  undertook  himself,  in  a  small 
open  boat,  with  a  feeble  crew,  and  a  very  scanty 
stock  of  provisions.  He  began  his  survey  at  Cape 
Charles,  and  in  two  different  excursions,  which  con- 
tinued above  four  months,  he  advanced  as  far  as  the 
river  Susquehannah,  which  flows  into  the  bottom  of 
the  bay.  He  visited  all  the  countries  both  on  the 
east  and  west  shores ;  he  entered  most  of  the  consi- 
derable creeks;  he  sailed  up  many  of  the  great  rivers 
as  far  as  their  falls.  He  traded  with  some  tribes  ; 


of  their  security  and  happiness.  That  supreme  di- 
rection of  all  the  company's  operations,  which  the 
king  by  his  charter  had  reserved  to  himself,  discou- 
raged persons  of  rank  or  property  from  becoming 
members  of  a  society  so  dependent  on  the  arbitrary 
will  of  the  crown.  Upon  a  representation  of  this  to 
James  he  granted  them  a  new  charter,  with  more 
ample  privileges.  He  enlarged  the  boundaries  of 
the  colony  ;  he  rendered  the  powers  of  the  company, 
as  a  corporation,  more  explicit  and  complete ;  he 
abolished  the  jurisdiction  of  the  council  resident  in 
Virginia ;  he  vested  the  government  entirely  in  a 
council  residing  in  London;  he  granted  to  the  pro- 
prietors of  the  company  the  right  of  electing  the  per- 
sons who  were  to  compose  this  council,, by  a  majo- 
rity of  voices  ;  he  authorized  this  council  to  e^tabli^h 
such  laws,  orders,  and  forms  of  government  and  ma- 
gistracy, for  the  colony  and  plantation,  as  they  in 
their  discretion  should  think  to  be  fittest  for  the  good 
of  the  adventurers  and  inhabitants  there  ;  he  em- 
powered them  to  nominate  a  governor  to  have  the 
administration  of  affairs  in  the  colony,  and  to  carry 
their  orders  into  execution.  In  consequence  of 
these  concessions,  the  company  having  acquired  the 
power  of  regulating  all  its  own  transactions,  the 
number  of  proprietors  increased,  and  among  them 
we  find  the  most  respectable  names  in  the  na- 
tion. 

The  first  deed  of  the  new  council  was  to  appoint 
Lord  Delaware  governor  and  captain-general  of  their 
colony  in  Virginia.  To  a  person  of  his  r;  nk  those 
high-sounding  titles  could  be  no  allurement;  and  by 
his  thorough  acquaintance  with  the  progress  and 
state  of  the  settlement,  he  knew  enough  of  the  labour 
and  difficulty  with  which  an  infant  colony  is  reared, 
to  expect  any  thing  but  anxiety  and  care  in  dis- 
charging the  duties  of  that  delicate  office.  But,  from 
zeal  to  promote  an  establishment  which  he  expected 
to  prove  so  highly  beneficial  to  his  country,  he  was 


he  fought  with  others  ;  he  observed  the  nature  of  the  j  willing  to  relinquish  all  the  comforts  of  an  honoura- 
territory  which  they  occupied,  their  mode  of  subsist-    ble  station,   to  undertake  a  long  voyage  to  settle 
ence,  the  peculiarities  in  their  manners ;   and  left  i  an  uncultivated  region,  destitute  of  every  accommo- 

• 


among  all  a  wonderful  admiration  either  of  the  be-  {  dation  to  which  heliad  been  accustomed,  and  where 


neficence  or  valour  of  the  English.  After  sailing 
above  three  thousand  miles  in  a  paltry  vessel,  ill 
fitted  for  such  an  extensive  navigation,  during  which 
the  hardships  to  which  he  was  exposed,  as  well  as 
the  patience  with  which  he  endured,  and  the  forti- 
tude with  which  he  surmounted  them,  equal  what- 
ever is  related  of  the  celebrated  Spanish  discoverers 
in  their  most  daring  enterprizes,  he  returned  to  James 
town  ;  he  brought  with  him  an  account  of  that  large 
portion  of  the  American  continent  now  compre- 
hended in  the  two  provinces  of  Virginia  and  Mary- 
land, so  full  and  exact,  that  after  the  progress  of 
information  and  research  for  a  century  and  a  half, 
his  map  exhibits  no  inaccurate  view  of  both  coun- 
tries, and  is  the  original  upon  which  all  subsequent 
delineations  and  descriptions  have  been  formed. 

But  whatever  pleasing  prospect  of  future  benefit 
might  open  upon  this  complete  discovery  of  a  coun 


he  foresaw  that  toil,  and  trouble,  and  danger  awaited 
him.  But  as  he  could  not  immediately  leave  Eng- 
land, the  council  despatched  Sir  Thomas  Gates  and 
Sir  George  Summers,  the  former  of  whom  had  been 
appointed  lieutenant-general  and  the  latter  admiral, 
with  nine  ships  and  five  hundred  •planters.  They 
carried  wtth  them  commissions  by  which  they  were 
empowered  to  supersede  the  jurisdiction  of  the  for- 
mer council,  to  proclaim  Lord  Delaware  governor, 
and,  until  he  should  arrive,  to  take  the  administra 
tion  of  affairs  into  their  own  hands.  A  violent  huT- 
ricane  separated  the  vessels  in  which  Gates  aid 
Summers  had  embarked  from  the  rest  of  the  fleet, 
and  stranded  it  on  the  coast  of  Bermudas.  The 
other  ships  arrived  safely  at  James  town.  But  the 
fate  of  their  commanders  was  unknown.  Their  com- 
mission for  new-modelling  the  government,  aad  all 
other  public  papers,  were  supposed  to  be  los-  toge- 


try  formed  by  nature  to  be   the  seat  of  an   exclusive    ther  with  them.     The  present  form  of  gove'nment, 


commerce,  it  afforded  but  little  relief  for  their  pre- 
sent wants.  The  colony  still  depended  for  subsist- 
ence chiefly  on  supplies  from  the  natives ;  as,  after 
all  the  efforts  of  their  own  industry,  hardly  thirty 


however,  was  held  to  be  abolished.  No  Ifgal  war- 
rant could  be  produced  for  establishing  any  other. 
Smith  was  not  in  a  condition  at  this  jvncture  to 
assert  his  own  rights,  or  to  act  with  lis  wonted 


acres  of  ground  were  yet  cleared  so  as  to  be  capable  j  vigour.     By  an  accidental  explosion  of  gunpowder, 
of    culture.     By  Smith's    attention,    however,    the   he  had  been  so  miserably  scorched    aad  mangled 


stores  of  the  English  were  so  regularly  filled,  that  for 
some  time  they  felt  no  considerable  distress  ;  and  at 
this  juncture  a  change  was  made  in  the  constitution 


that  he  was  incapable  of  moving,  and  inder  the  ne- 
cessity of  committing  himself  to  the  gudance  of  his 
friends,  who  carried  him  aboard  onJ  of  the  ships 


of  Uie  company,  which  seemed  to  promise  an  increase   returning  to  England,  in  hopes  that  Le  might  recover 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


•215 


by  more  skilful  treatment  than  he  could  meet  with  in 
Virginia. 

After  his  departure,  every  thing  tended  fast  to  the 
wildest  anarchy.  Faction  and  discontent  had  often 
arisen  so  high  among  the  old  settlers,  that  they  could 
hardly  be  kept  within  bounds.  The  spirit  of  the  new 
comers  was  too  ungovernable  to  bear  any  restraint. 
Several  among  them  of  better  rank  were  such  dissi- 
pated hopeless  young  men,  as  their  friends  were  glad 
to  send  out  in  quest  of  whatever  fortune  might  betide 
them  in  a  foreign  land.  Of  the  lower  order  many 
were  so  profligate  or  desperate  that  their  country  was 
happy  to  throw  them  out  as  nuisances  in  society. 
Such  persons  were  little  capable  of  the  regular  sub- 
ordination, the  strict  economy,  and  persevering  in- 
dustry, which  their  situation  required.  The  Indians, 
observing  their  misconduct,  and  that  every  precau- 
tion for  sustenance  or  safety  was  neglected,  not  only 
withheld  the  supplies  of  provisions  which  they  were 
accustomed  to  furnish,  but  harassed  them  with  con- 
tinual hostilities.  All  their  subsistence  was  derived 
from  the  stores  which  they  had  brought  from  Eng- 
land ;  these  were  soon  consumed;  then  the  domestic 
animals  sent  out  to  breed  in  the  country  were  de- 
voured; and  by  this  inconsiderate  waste,  they  were 
reduced  to  such  extremity  of  famine,  as  not  only  to 
eat  the  most  nauseous  and  unwholesome  roots  and 
berries,  but  to  feed  ou  the  bodies  of  the  Indians  whom 
they  slew,  and  even  on  those  of  their  companions 
who  sunk  under  the  oppression  of  such  complicated 
distress.  In  less  than  six  months,  of  live  hundred 
persons  whom  Smith  left  in  Virginia,  only  sixty 
remained;  and  these  so  feeble  and  dejected,  that  they 
could  not  have  survived  for  ten  days,  if  succour  had 
not  arrived  from  a  quarter  whence  they  did  not  ex- 
pect it. 

When  Gates  and  Summers  were  thrown  ashore  on 
Bermudas,  fortunately  not  a  single  person  on  board 
their  ship  perished.  A  considerable  part  of  their 
provisions  and  stores,  too,  was  saved,  and  in  that 
delightful  spot  nature,  with  spontaneous  bounty,  pre- 
sented to  them  such  a  variety  of  her  productions, 
that  a  hundred  and  fifty  people  subsisted  in  affluence 
for  ten  months  en  an  uninhabited  island.  Impa- 
tient, however,  to  escape  from  a  place  where  they 
were  cut  off'  from  all  intercourse  with  mankind,  they 
set  about  building  two  barks  with  such  tools  and 
materials  as  they  had,  and  by  amazing  efforts  of 
perseverance  and  ingenuity  they  finished  them.  In 
these  they  embarked,  and  steered  directly  towards 
Virginia,  in  hopes  of  finding  an  ample  consolation 
for  all  their  toils  and  dangers  in  the  embraces  of  their 
companions,  and  amidst  the  comforts  of  a  flourishing 
colony.  After  a  more  prosperous  navigation  than 
they  could  have  expected  in  their  ill-constructed 
vessels,  they  landed  at  James  town.  But  instead  of 
that  joyful  interview  for  which  they  fondly  looked,  a 
spectacle  presented  itself  which  struck  them  with 
horror.  They  beheld  the  miserable  remainder  of 
their  countrymen  emaciated  with  famine  and  sick- 
ness, sunk  in  despair,  and  in  their  figure  and  looks 
rather  resembling  spectres  than  human  beings.  As 
Gates  and  Summers,  in  full  confidence  of  finding 
plenty  of  provisions  in  Virginia,  had  brought  with 
them  no  larger  stock  than  was  deemed  necessary  for 
their  own  support  during  the  voyage,  their  inability 
to  afford  relief  to  their  countrymen  added  to  the  an- 
guish with  which  they  viewed  this  unexpected  scene 
of  distress.  Nothing  now  remained  but  instantly  to 
abandon  a  country,  where  it  was  impossible  to  sub- 
sist any  longer;  and  though  all  that  could  be  found 
iu  tho  stores  of  the  colony,  when  added  to  what 


remained  of  the  stock  brought  from  Bermudas,  did 
not  amount  to  more  than  was  sufficient  to  support 
them  for  sixteea  days,  at  the  most  scanty  allowance, 
they  set  sail  in  hopes  of  being  able  to  reach  New- 
foundland, where  they  expected  to  be  relieved  by  their 
countrymen  employed  at  that  season  in  the  fishery 
there. 

But  it  was  not  the  will  of  heaven  that  all  the  labour 
of  the  English  in  planting  this  colony,  as  well  as  all 
their  hopes  of  benefit  from  its  future  prosperity,  should 
be  for  ever  lost.  Before  Gates  and  the  melancholy 
companions  of  his  voyage  had  reached  the  mouth  of 
James  river,  they  were  met  by  Lord  Delaware  with 
three  ships,  that  brought  a  large  recruit  of  provisions, 
a  considerable  number  of  new  settlers,  and  every 
thing  requisite  for  defence  or  cultivation.  By  per- 
suasion and  authority  he  prevailed  on  them  to  return 
to  James  town,  where  they  found  their  fort,  their 
magazines,  and  houses  entire,  which  Sir  Thomas 
Gates,  by  some  happy  chance,  had  preserved  from 
being  set  on  fire  at  the  time  of  their  departure.  A 
society  so  feeble  and  disordered  in  its  frame,  required 
a  tender  and  skilful  hand  to  cherish  it,  and  restore 
its  vigour.  This  it  found  in  Lord  Delaware :  he 
searched  into  the  causes  of  their  misfortunes,  as  far 
as  he  could  discover  them,  amidst  the  violence  of 
their  mutual  accusations  ;  but  instead  of  exerting  his 
power  in  punishing  crimes  that  were  past,  he  em- 
ployed his  prudence  in  healing  their  disscntions, 
and  in  guarding  against  a  repetition  of  the  same 
fatal  errors.  By  unwearied  assiduities,  by  the  re- 
spect, due  to  an  amiable  and  beneficent  character,  by 
knowing  how  to  mingle  severity  with  indulgence, 
and  when  to  assume  the  dignity  of  his  office,  as  well 
as  when  to  display  the  gentleness  natural  to  his  own 
temper,  he  gradually  reconciled  men  corrupted  by 
anarchy  to  subordination  and  discipline,  he  turned 
the  attention  of  the  idle  and  profligate  to  industry, 
and  taught  the  Indians  again  to  reverence  and  dread 
the  English  name.  Under  such  an  administration 
the  colony  began  once  more  to  assume  a  promising 
appearance ;  when  unhappily  for  it,  a  complication 
of  diseases  brought  on  by  the  climate,  obliged  Lord 
Delaware  to  quit  the  country ;  the  government  of 
which  he  committed  to  Mr.  Percy. 

He  was  soon  superseded  by  the  arrival  of  Sir 
Thomas  Dale  ;  in  whom  the  company  had  vested 
more  absolute  authority  than  in  any  of  his  prede- 
cessors, empowering  him  to  rule  by  martial  law  ;  a 
short  code  of  which,  founded  on  the  practice  of  tho 
armies  in  the  Low  Countries,  the  most  rigid  military 
school  at 'that  time  in  Europe,  they  sent  out  with 
him.  This  system  of  government  is  so  violent  and 
arbitrary,  that  even  the  Spaniards  themselves  had  not 
ventured  to  introduce  it  into  their  settlements  ;  for 
among  them,  as  soon  as  a  plantation  began,  and  the 
arts  of  peace  succeeded  to  the  operations  of  war,  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  civil  magistrate  was  uniformly  es  • 
Ublished.  But  however,  unconstitutional  or  op- 
pressive this  may  appear,  it  was  adopted  by  the  ad 
vice  of  Sir  Francis  Bacon,  the  most  enlightened  phi- 
losopher, and  one  of  the  most  eminent  lawyers  of  the 
age.  The  company,  well  acquainted  with  the  in- 
efficacy  of  every  me'thod  which  they  had  hitherto  em- 
ployed" for  restraining  the  unruly  mutinous  spirits 
which  they  had  to  govern,  eagerly  adopted  a  plan  that 
had  the  sanction  of  such  high  authority  to  recom- 
mend it.  Happily  for  the  colony,  Sir  Thomas  Dale, 
who  was  intrusted  with  this  dangerous  power,  exer- 
cised it  with  prudence  and  moderation.  By  the 
vigour  which. the  summary  mode  of  military  punish- 
ment gave  to  hi~s  administration,  he  introduced,  into 


216 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  colony  more  perfect  order  than  had  ever  been  es- 
tablished there ;  and  at  the  same  time  [he  tempered 
his  vigour  with  so  much  discretion,  that  no  alarm 
seems  to  have  been  given  by  this  formidable  inno- 
vation. 

The  regular  form  which  the  colony  now  began  to 
assume,  induced  the  king  to  issue  a  new  charter  for 
the  encouragement  of  the  adventurers,  by  which  he 
not  only  confirmed  all  their  former  privileges,  and 
piolonged  the  term  of  exemption  from  payment  of 
duties  on  the  commodities  exported  by  them,  but 
granted  them  more  extensive  property,  as  well  as 
more  ample  jurisdiction.  All  the  islands  lying 
within  three  hundred  leagues  of  the  coast  were  an- 
nexed to  the  province  of  Virginia.  In  consequence 
of  this,  the  company  took  possession  of  Bermudas, 
and  the  other  small  islands  discovered  by  Gates  and 
Summers,  and  at  the  same  time"prepared  to  send  out 
a  considerable  reinforcement  to  the  colony  at  James 
town.  The  expense  of  those  extraordinary  efforts 
was  defrayed  by  the  profits  of  a  lottery,  which 
amounted  nearly  to  thirty  thousand  pounds.  This 
expedient  they  were  authorized  to  employ  by  their 
new  charter ;  and  it  is  remarkable,  as  the  first  in- 
stance, in  the  English  history,  of  any  public  coun- 
tenance given  to  this  pernicious  seducing  mode  of 
levying  money.  But  the  house  of  Commons,  which 
towards  the  close  of  this  reign  began  to  observe  every 
measure  of  government  with  jealous  attention,  hav- 
ing remonstrated  against  the  institution  as  uncon- 
stitutional and  impolitic,  James  recalled  the  licence 
under  the  sanction  of  which  it  had  been  established. 

By  the  severe  discipline  of  martial  law,  the  activity 
of  the  colonists  was  forced  into  a  proper  direction, 
and  exerted  itselt  in  useful  industry.  This,  aided  by 
a  fertile  soil  and  favourable  climate,  soon  enabled 
them  to  raise  such  a  large  stock  of  provisions,  that 
they  were  no  longer  obliged  to  trust  for  subsistence 
to  the  precarious  supplies  which  they  obtained  or  ex 
torted  from  the  Indians.  In  proportion  as  the  Eng- 
lish became  more  independent,  the  natives  courted 
their  friendship  upon  more  equal  terms.  The  happy 
effects  of  this  were  quickly  felt.  Sir  Thomas  Dale 
concluded  a  treaty  with  one  of  their  most  powerful 
and  warlike  tribes,  situated  on  the  river  Chickaho- 
miny,  in  which  they  consented  to  acknowledge 
themselves  subjects  to  the  king  of  Great  Britain,  to 
assume  henceforth  the  name  of  Englishmen,  to  send 
a  body  of  their  warriors  to  the  assistance  of  the  Eng- 
lish as  often  as  they  look  the  field  against  any 
enemy,  and  to  deposit  annually  a  stipulated  quantity 
of  Indian  corn  in  the  storehouses  of  the  colony. 
An  event,  which  the  early  historians  of  Virginia  re 
late  with  peculiar  satisfaction,  prepared  the  way  for 
this  union.  Pocahuntas,  the  favourite  daughter  of 
the  great  chief  Powhatan,  to  whose  intercession  cap- 
tain Smith  was  indebted  for  his  life,  persevered  in 
her  partial  attachment  to  the  English ;  and  as  she 
frequently  visited  their  settlements,  where  she  was 
always  received  with  respectful  hospitality,  her  ad- 
miration of  their  arts  and  manners  continued  to  in- 
crease. During  this  intercourse,  her  beauty,  which 
is  represented  as  far  superior  to  that  of  her  country- 
women, made  such  impression  on  the  heart  of  Mr. 
Rolfe,  a  young  man  of  rank  in  the  colony,  that  he 
warmly  solicited  her  to  accept  of  him  as  a  husband. 
Where  manners  are  simple,  courtship  is  not  tedious. 
Neither  artifice  prevents,  nor  ceremony  forbids,  the 
heart  from  declaring  its  sentiments.  Pocahuntas 
readily  gave  her  consent ;  Dale  encouraged  the  al- 
liance, and  Powhatan  did  not  disapprove  it.  The 
marriage  was  celebrated  with  extraordinary  pomp  ; 


and  from  that  period  a  friendly  correspondence  sub- 
sisted between  the  colony  and  all  the  tribes  subject 
to  Powhatan,  or  that  stood  in  awe  of  his  power. 
Rolfe  and  his  princess  (for  by  that  name  the  writers 
of  the  last  age  always  distinguish  her)  set  out  for 
England,  where  she  was  received  by  James  and  his 
queen  with  the  respect  suited  to  her  birth.  Being 
carefully  instructed  in  the  principles  of  the  Christian 
faith,  she  was  publicly  baptized,  but  died  a  few  years 
after,  on  her  return  to  America,  leaving  one  son, 
from  whom  are  sprung  some  of  the  most  respectable,' 
families  in  Virginia,  who  boast  of  their  descent  from 
the  race  of  the  ancient  rulers  of  their  country.  But 
notwithstanding  the  visible  good  effects  of  that  al- 
liance, none  of  Rolfe's  countrymen  seem  to  have  imi- 
tated the  example  which  he  set  them,  of  intermarry- 
ing with  the  natives.  Of  all  the  Europeans  who 
have  settled  in  America,  the  English  have  availed 
themselves  least  of  this  obvious  method  of  con- 
ciliating the  'affection  of  its  original  inhabitants  ; 
and,  either  from  the  shyness  conspicuous  in  their  na- 
tional character,  or  from  the  want  of  that  pliant  fa- 
cility of  manners  which  accommodates  itself  to  every 
situation,  they  have  been  more  averse  than  the  French 
and  Portuguese,  or  even  the  Spaniards,  from  incor- 
porating with  the  native  Americans.  The  Indians, 
courting  jsuch  an  union,  oftx-red  their  daughters  in 
marriage  to  their  new  guests  :  and  when  they  did 
not  accept  of  the  proffered  alliance,  they  naturally 
imputed  it  to  pride,  and  to  their  contempt  of  them  as 
an  inferior  order  of  beings. 

During  the  interval  of  tranquillity  procured  by  the 
alliance  with  Powhatan,  an  important  change  was 
made  in  the  state  of  the  colony.  Hitherto  no  right 
of  private  property  in  land  had  been  established. 
The  fields  that  were  cleared  had  been  cultivated  by 
the  joint  labour  of  the  colonists ;  their  product  was 
carried  to  the  common  storehouses,  and  distributed 
weekly  to  every  family,  according  to  its  number  and 
exigencies.  A  society,  destitute  of  the  first  advant 
age  resulting  from  soc'ial  union,  was  not  formed  to 
prosper.  Industry,  when  not  excited  by  the  idea  of 
property  in  what  was  acquired  by  its  own  efforts, 
made  no  vigorous  exertion.  The  head  had  no  in- 
ducement to  contrive,  n:>r  the  hand  to  labour.  The 
idle  and  the  improvident  trusted  entirely  to  what  was 
issued  from  the  common  store ;  the  assiduity  even  of 
the  sober  and  attentive  relaxed  when  they  perceived 
that  others  were  to  reap  the  fruit  of  their  toil ;  and  it 
was  computed,  that  the  united  industry  of  the  colony 
did  not  accomplish  as  much  work  in  a  week  as  might 
have  been  performed  in  a  day,  if  each  individual  had 
laboured  on  his  own  account.  In  order  to  remedy 
this,  Sir  Thomas  Dale  divided  a  considerable  por- 
tion of  the  land  into  small  lots,  and  granted  one  of 
these  to  each  individual  in  full  property.  From  the 
moment  that  industry  had  the  certain  prospect  of  a 
recompencc,  it  advanced  with  rapid  progress.  The 
articles  of  primary  necessity  were  cultivated  with  so 
much  attention  as  secured  the  means  of  subsistence  ; 
and  such  schemes  of  improvement  were  formed  as 
prepared  the  way  for  the  introduction  of  opulence 
into  the  colony. 

The  industrious  spirit  which  began  to  rise  among 
the  planters  was  soon  directed  towards  a  new  object; 
and  they  applied  to  it  for  some  time  with  such  incon- 
siderate ardour  as  was  productive  of  fatal  conse- 
quences. The  culture  of  tobacco,  which  has  since 
become  the  staple  of  Virginia,  and  the  source  of  its 
prosperity,  was  introduced  about  this  time  into  the 
colony.  As  the  taste  for  that  weed  continued  to  in- 
crease in  England,  notwithstanding  the  zealous  decla- 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


217 


fruitions  of  James  against  it,  the  tobacco  imported 
from  Virginia  came  to  a  ready  market ;  and  though 
it  was  so  much  inferior  in  quality  or  in  estimation  to 
that  raised  by  the  Spaniards  in  the  West  Indian 
islands,  that  a  pound  of  the  latter  sold  for  eighteen 
shillings,  and  of  the  former  for  no  more  than  three 
shillings,  it  yielded  a  considerable  profit.  Allured 
by  the  prospect  of  such  a  certain  and  quick  return, 
every  other  species  of  industry  was  neglected.  The 
land  which  ought  to  have  been  reserved  for  raising 
provisions,  and  even  the  streets  of  James  town,  were 
planted  with  tobacco.  Various  regulations  v/ere 
framed  to  restrain  this  ill-directed  activity.  But, 
from  eagerness  for  present  gain,  the  planters  disre- 
garded every  admonition.  The  means  of  subsistence 
became  so  scanty  as  forced  them  to  renew  their  de- 
man, Is  upon  the  Indians,  who  seeing  no  end  of  those 
exactions,  their  antipathy  to  the  English  name  re- 
vived with  additional  rancour,  and  they  began  to 
form  schemes  of  vengeance  with  a  secrecy  and 
silence  peculiar  to  Americans. 

Meanwhile  the  colony,  notwithstanding  this  error 
in  its  operations,  and  the  cloud  that  was  gathering 
over  its  head,  continued  to  wear  an  aspect  of  prospe- 
rity. Its  numbers  increased  by  successive  migra- 
tions; the  quantity  of  tobacco  exported  became  every 
year  more  considerable,  and  several  of  the  planters 
were  not  only  in  an  easy  situation,  but  advancing 
fast  to  opulence  ;  and  by  two  events,  which  happened 
nearly  at  the  same  time,  both  population  and  indus- 
try were  greatly  promoted.  As  few  women  had  hi- 
therto ventured  to  encounter  the  hardships  which 
were  unavoidable  in  an  unknown  and  uncultivated 
country,  most  of  the  colonists,  constrained  to  live 
single,  considered  themselves  as  no  mure  than  so- 
journers  in  a  land  to  which  they  were  not  attached 
by  the  tender  tics  of  a  family  and  children.  In 
order  to  induce  them  to  settle  there,  the  company 
took  advantage  of  the  apparent  tranquillity  in  thu 
country,  to  send  out  a  considerable  number  of  young 
women,  of  humble  birth  indeed,  but  of  unexception- 
able character,  and  encouraged  the  planters,  by  pre- 
miums and  immunities,  to  marry  them.  These  new 
companions  were  received  with  such  fondness,  and 
many  of  them  so  comfortably  established,  as  invited 
others  to  follow  their  example;  and  by  degrees, 
thoughtless  adventurers,  assuming  the  sentiments  of 
virtuous  citizens  and  of  provident  fathers  of  families, 
became  solicitous  about  the  prosperity  of  a  country- 
winch  they  now  considered  as  their  own.  As  the 
colonists  began  to  form  more  extensive  plans  of  in- 
dustry, they  were  unexpectedly  furnished  with  means 
of  executing  them  with  greater  facility.  A  Dutch 
ship  from  the  coast  of  Guinea  having  sailed  up  James 
river,  sold  a  part  of  her  cargo  of  negroes  to  the  plan- 
ters ;  and  as  that  hardy  race  was  found  more  capable 
of  enduring  fatigue  under  a  sultry  climate  than  Eu- 
ropeans, their  number  has  been  increased  by  conti- 
nual importation;  their  aid  seems  now  to  be  essential 
to  the  existence  of  the  colony,  and  the  greater  part  of 
field-labour  in  Virginia  is  performed  by  servile 
hands. 

But  as  the  condition  of  the  colony  improved  the 
spirit  of  its  members  became  more  independent.  To 
Englishmen  the  summary  and  severe  decisions  of 
martial  law,  however  tempered  by  the  mildness  of 
their  governors,  appeared  intolerably  oppressive ; 
and  they  longed  to  recover  the  privileges  to  which 
they  had  been  accustomed  under  the  liberal  form  of 
government  in  their  native  country.  In  compliance 
with  this  spirit  Sir  George  Yeardley,  in  the  year 
1619,  called  the  first  general  assembly  that  was  ever 
THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA,  No.  28. 


held  in  Virginia ;  and  the  numbers  of  the  people 
were  now  so  increased,  and  their  settlements  so^dis- 
persed,  that  eleven  corporations  appeared  by  their 
representatives  in  this  convention,  where  they  were 
permitted  to  assume  legislative  power,  and  to  exer- 
cise the  noblest  function  of  free  men.  The  laws 
enacted  in  it  seem  neither  to  have  been  many  nor  of 
great  importance  ;  but  the  meeting  was  highly  ac- 
ceptable to  the  people,  as  they  now  behold  among 
themselves  an  imago  of  the  English  constitution, 
which  they  reverenced  as  the  most  perfect  model  of 
free  government.  In  order  to  render  this  resem- 
blance more  complete,  and  the  rights  of  the  planters 
more  certain,  the  company  issued  a  charter  or  ordi- 
nance, which  gave  a  legal  and  permanent  form  to 
the  government  of  the  colony.  The  supreme  legis- 
lative authority  in  Virginia,  in  imitation  of  that  in 
Great  Britain,  was  divided,  and  lodged  partly  in  the 
governor,  who  held  the  place  of  the  sovereign  ; 
partly  in  a  council  of  state  named  by  the  company, 
which  possessed  some  of  the  distinctions,  and  exer- 
cised some  of  the  functions  belonging  to  the  peerage  ; 
partly  in  a  general  council  or  assembly  composed  of 
the  representatives  of  the  people,  in  which  were 
vested  powers  and  privileges  similar  to  those  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  In  both  those  councils  all 
questions  were  to  be  determined  by  the  majority  of 
voices,  and  a  negative  was  reserved  to  the  governor  ; 
hut  no  law  or  ordinance,  though  approved  of  by  all 
the  three  members  of  the  legislature,  was  to  be  of 
force  until  it  was  ratified  in  England  by  a  general 
court  of  the  company,  and  returned  under  its  seal. 
Thus  the  constitution  of  the  colony  was  fixed,  and 
the  members  of  it  are  henceforth  to  be  considered, 
not  merely  as  servants  of  a  commercial  company 
dependent  on  the  will  and  orders  of  their  superior, 
but  as  free  men  and  citizens. 

The  natural  efi'ect  of  that  happy  change  in  their 
condition  was  an  increase  of  their  industry.  The 
product  of  tobacco  in  Virginia  was  now  equal,  not 
only  to  the  consumption  of  it  in  Great  Britain,  but 
could  furnish  some  quantity  for  a  foreign  market. 
The  company  opened  a  trade  for  it  with  Holland, 
and  established  warehouses  for  it  in  Midflleburg  and 
Flushing.  James  and  his  privy  council,  alarmed  at 
seeing  the  commerce  of  a  commodity,  for  which  the 
demand  was  daily  increasing,  turned  into  a  channel 
that  tended  to  the  diminution  of  the  revenue,  by 
depriving  it  of  a  considerable  duty  imposed  on  the 
importation  of  tobacco,  interposed  with  vigour  to 
check  this  innovation.  Some  expedient  was  found, 
by  which  the  matter  was  adjusted  for  the  present ; 
but  it  is  remarkable  as  the  first  instance  of  a  differ- 
ence in  sentiment  between  the  parent- state  and  the 
colony,  concerning  their  respective  rights.  The 
former  concluded  that  the  trade  of  the  colony  should 
:>e  confined  to  England,  and  all  its  productions  be 
.anded  there.  The  latter  claimed  not  only  the  gene- 
ral privilege  of  Englishmen  to  carry  their  commodi- 
ties to  the  best  market,  but  pleaded  the  particular 
concessions  in  their  charter,  by  which  an  unlimited 
freedom  of  commerce  seemed  to  be  granted  to  them. 
The  time  for  a  more  full  discussion  of  this  important 
question  was  not  yet  arrived. 

But  while  the  colony  continued  to  increase  so  fast, 
that  settlements  were  scattered  not  only  along  the 
banks  of  James  and  York  rivers,  but  began  to  extend 
to  the  Rapahannock,  and  even  to  the  Potowmack, 
;he  English,  relying  on  their  own  numbers,  and  de- 
ceived by  this  appearance  of  prosperity,  lived  in 
full  security.  They  neither  attended  to  the  move- 
ments of  the  Indians,  nor  suspected  their  machina- 

'2F 


218 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


tions;  and  though  surrounded  by  a  people  whom  they 
might  have  known  from  experience  to  be  both  artful 
and  vindictive,  they  neglected  every  precaution  for 
their  own  safety  that  was  requisite  in  such  a  situa- 
tion.    Like  the  peaceful  inhabitants    of    a  society 
completely  established,  they  were  no  longer  soldiers 
but  citizens,  and  were  so  intent  on  what  was  subser- 
vient to   the  comfort  or  embellishment  of  civil  life, 
that  every  martial  exercise  began  to  be  laid  aside  as 
unnecessary.     The  Indians,  whom  they   commonly 
employed  as  hunters,  were  furnished  with  fire-arms, 
and  taught  to  use  them  with  dexterity.     They  were 
permitted  to  frequent  the  habitations  of  the  English 
at  all  hours,  and  received  as  innocent  visitants  whom 
there  was   no  reason  to  dread.     This  inconsiderate 
security  enabled  the  Indians  to  prepare  for  the  exe- 
cution of  that  plan  of  vengeance,  which  they  medi- 
tated  with   all  the  deliberate  forethought  which  is 
agreeable  to  their  temper.     Nor  did  they  want  a 
leader   capable    of  conducting   their  schemes    with 
address.     On   the  death  of  Powhatan,  in   the  year 
1618,  Opechancanough  succeeded  him,   not  only  as 
wirowanee,  or  chief  of  his  own  tribe,  but  in  that 
extensive  influence   over  all  the  Indian  nations  of 
Virginia,  which  induced  the  English  writers  to  dis- 
tinguish  him  by  the  name  of  Emperor.    According 
to  the  Indian  tradition  he  was  not  a  native  of  Vir- 
ginia, but  came  from  a  distant  country  to  the  south- 
west, possibly  from  some  province   of  the  Mexican 
empire.     But  as  he  was  conspicuous  for  all  the  qua- 
lities of  highest  estimation  among  savages,  a  fearless 
courage,  great  strength    and    agility  of  body,    and 
crafty  policy,  he  quickly  rose  to  eminence  and  power. 
Soon  after  his  elevation  to  the  supreme  command,  a 
general  massacre  of  the  English  seems  to  have  been 
resolved  upon ;    and  during  four  years  the  means  of 
perpetrating  it  with  the  greatest  facility  and  success 
were  concerted  with  amazing  secrecy.    All  the  tribes 
contiguous  to   the  English  settlements  were  succes- 
sively  gained,   except  those  on  the   eastern   shore, 
from  whom,  on  account  of  their  peculiar  attachment 
to   their   new  neighbours,   every  circumstance   that 
might   discover  what  they  intended  was    carefully 
concealed.     To  each  tribe  its  station  was   allotted, 
and  the  part  it  was  to  act  prescribed.     On  the  morn- 
ing of  the  day  consecrated  to  vengeance,  each  was 
at  the  place  of  rendezvous  appointed,  while  the  Eng- 
lish were   so  little  aware  of  the  impending  destruc- 
tion, that  they  received  with  unsuspicious  hospitality 
several  persons  sent  by  Opechancanough,  under  pre- 
text of  delivering  presents  of  venison  and  fruits,  but 
in  reality  to  observe   their  motions.     Finding  them 
perfectly  secure,  at  mid-day,  tho  moment  that  was 
previously  fixed  for  this  deed  of  horror,  the  Indian 
rushed  at  once  upon  them  in  all  their  different  set- 
tlements, and  murdered  men,  women,  and  children, 
with  undistinguishing  rage,  and  that  rancorous  cru- 
elty with  which  savages  treat  their  enemies.     In  one 
hour  nearly  a   fourth  part  of  the  whole  colony  was 
cut  off,  almost  without  knowing  by  whose  hands  they 
fell.     The   slaughter  would  have   been  universal,  il 
compassion  or  a  sense  of  duty  had  not  moved  a  con- 
verted Indian,   to  whom  the  secret  was    communi- 
cated the  night  before  the  massacre,  to  reveal  it  to 
his  master  in  such  time  as  to  save  James   town  and 
some  adjacent  settlements  ;   and  if  the  English  in 
other  districts  had  not  run  to  their  arms  with  resolu- 
tion prompted  by  despair,  and  defended  themselve 
so  bravely  as  to  repulse  their  assailants,  who,  in  the 
execution  of  their  plan,   did    not  discover  courage 
equal  to  the  sagacity  and  art  with  which  they  hi  " 
concerted  it. 


But  though  the  blow  was  thus  prevented  from  de- 
scending with  its  full  effect,  it  proved  very  grievous 
to  an    infant    colony.     In    some   settlements  not  a 
single  Englishman  escaped.     Many  persons  of  prime 
note  in  the  colony,  and,  among  these  several  mem- 
bers of  the  council,  were  slain.     The  survivors,  over- 
whelmed with  grief,  astonishment,  and  terror,  aban- 
doned all  their  remote  settlements,  and  crowding  to- 
gether for  safety  to  James  town,  did   not  occupy  a 
territory  of  greater  extent  than  had  been   planted 
soon  after  the  arrival  of  their  countrymen  in  Virgi- 
nia.    Confined  within  those  narrow  boundaries,  they 
were  less  intent  on    schemes   of  industry  than  on 
thoughts  of   revenge.     Every  man   took  arms.     A 
"  loody  war  against   the  Indians  commenced  ;  and, 
ent  on   exterminating  the  whole  race,  neither  old 
nor  young  were  spared.     The  conduct  of  the  Spa- 
niards in  the  southern  regions  of  America  was  openly 
>roposed  as  the  most  proper  model  to  imitate ;  and 
•egardless,  like  them,   of  those  principles   of  faith, 
lonour,    and    humanity,    which    regulate    hostility 
among  civilized  nations  and  set  bounds   to  its  rage, 
he  English  deemed  everything  allowable  thct  tended 
o  accomplish  their  design.  They  hunted  the  Indians 
.ike  wild  beasts  rather  than  enemies;  and  as  the  pur- 
suit of  them  to  their  places  of  retreat  in  the  woods, 
which   covered  the  country,  was  both  difficult  and 
dangerous,  they   endeavoured  to  allure   them    from 
their  inaccessible   fastnesses  by  offers  of  peace  and 
promises   of  oblivion,  made  with  such   an  artful  ap- 
pearance of  sincerity  as  deceived  their  crafty  leader, 
and  induced  them  to  return   to  their  former  settle- 
ments, and  resume  their  usual  peaceful  occupations. 
The  behaviour  of  the  two  people  seemed  now  to  be 
perfectly    reversed.     The    Indians,    like    men    ac 
quainted  with  the  principles   of  integrity  and   good 
faith,  on  which  the  intercourse  between   nations  is 
founded,  confided  in  the  reconciliation,  and  lived  in 
absolute  security  without  suspicion  of  danger;  while 
the  English,  with  perfidious  craft,  were  preparing  to 
imitate  savages  in   their  revenge  and  cruelty.     On 
the  approach  of  harvest,  when  they  knew  an  hostile 
attack  would  be  most  formidable  and  fatal,  they  fell 
suddenly  upon  all  the  Indian  plantations,  murdered 
every  person   on   whom   they   could  lay    hold,  and 
drove  the  rest  to  the  woods,  where  so  many  perished 
with  hunger,  that  some  of  the  tribes  nearest  to  the 
English  were  totally  extirpated.  This  atrocious  deed, 
which   the  perpetrators  laboured  to   represent  as  a 
necessary   act  of  retaliation,  was  followed   by  some 
happy  effects.     It  delivered  the  colony  so  entirely 
from  any  dread  of  the  Indians,  that  its  settlements 
began  again  to  extend,  and  its  industry  to  revive. 

But  unfortunately  at  this  juncture  the  state  of  the 
company  in  England,  in  which  the  property  of  Vir 
ginia  and  the  government  of  the  colony  settled  there 
were  vested,  prevented  it  from  seconding  the  efforts 
of  the  planters,  by  such  a  reinforcement  of  men  and 
such  a  supply  of  necessaries,  as  were  requisite  to  re- 
place what  they  had  lost.  The  company  was  origi- 
nally composed  of  many  adventurers,  and  increased 
so  fast  by  the  junction  of  new  members,  allured  by 
the  prospect  of  gain,  or  the  desire  of  promoting  a 
scheme  of  public  utility,  that  its  general  courts  formed 
a  numerous  assembly.  The  operation  of  every  poli- 
tical principle  and  passion  that  spread  through  the 
kingdom  was  felt  in  those  popular  meetings,  and 
influenced  their  decisions.  As  towards  the  close  of 
James's  reign  more  just  and  enlarged  sentiments 
with  respect  to  constitutional  liberty  were  diffused 
among  the  people,  they  came  to  understand  their 
rights  better  and  to  assoit  them  with  greater  bold 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


ness  ;  a  distinction  formerly  Little  known,  but  now 
familiar  in  English  policy,  began  to  be  established 
between  the  court  and  country  parties,  and  the  lead- 
ers of  each  endeavouied  to  derive  power  and  conse- 
quence from  every  quarter.  Both  exerted  themselves 
with  emulation,  in  order  to  obtain  the  direction  of  a 
body  so  numerous  and  respectable  as  the  company  of 
Virginian  adventurers.  In  consequence  of  this,  busi- 
ness had  been  conducted  in  every  general  court  for 
some  years,  not  with  the  temperate  spirit  of  mer- 
chants deliberating  concerning  their  mutual  interest, 
but  with  the  animosity  and  violence  natural  to  nume- 
rous assemblies,  by  which  rival  factions  contend  for 
superiority. 

As  the  king  did  not  often  assemble  the  great 
council  of  the  nation  in  parliament,  the  general 
courts  of  the  company  became  a  theatre  on  which 
popular  orators  displayed  their  talents;  the  procla-  , 
mations  of  the  crown  and  acts  of  the  privy  council,  { 
with  respect  to  the  commerce  and  police  of  the 
colony,  were  canvassed  there  with  freedom,  and  cen- 
sured with  severity,  ill-suited  to  the  lofty  ideas  which 
James  entertained  of  his  own  wisdom  and  the  extent 
of  his  prerogative.  In  order  to  check  this  growing 
spirit  of  discussion  the  ministers  employed  all  their 
address  and  influence  to  gain  as  many  members  of 
the  company  as  might  give  them  the  direction  of 
their  deliberations.  But  so  unsuccessful  were  they 
in  this  attempt  that  every  measure  proposed  by  them 
was  reprobated  by  a  vast  majority,  and  sometimes 
without  any  reason  but  because  they  were  the  pro- 
posers of  it.  James,  little  favourable  to  the  power 
of  any  popular  assembly,  and  weary  of  contending 
with  one  over  which  he  had  laboured  in  vain  to  obtain 
an  ascendant,  began  to  entertain  thoughts  of  dissolv- 
ing the  company,  and  new-modelling  its  constitution. 
Pretexts,  neither  unplausible  nor  destitute  of  some 
foundation,  seemed  to  justify  this  measure.  The 
slow  progress  of  the  colony,  the  large  sums  of  money 
expended,  and  great  number  of  men  who  had  pe- 
rished in  attempting  to  plant  it,  the  late  massacre  by 
the  Indians,  and  every  disaster  that  had  befallen  the 
English  from  their  first  migration  to  America,  were 
imputed  solely  to  the  inability  of  a  numerous  com- 
pany to  conduct  an  enterprise  so  complex  and  ar- 
duous. The  nation  felt  sensibly  its  disappointment 
ill  a  scheme  in  which  it  had  engaged  with  sanguine 
expectations  of  advantage,  and  wished  impatiently 
for  such  an  impartial  scrutiny  into  former  proceed- 
ings as  might  suggest  more  salutary  measures  in  the 
future  administration  of  the  colony.  The  present 
state  of  its  affairs,  as  well  as  the  wishes  of  the  people, 
seemed  to  call  for  the  interposition  of  the  crown ; 
and  James,  eager  to  display  the  superiority  of  his 
royal  wisdom,  in  correcting  those  errors  into  which 
the  company  had  been  betrayed  by  inexperience  in 
the  arts  of  government,  boldly  undertook  the  work  of 
reformation.  Without  regarding  the  rights  con- 
veyed to  the  company  by  their  charter,  and  without 
the  formality  of  any  judicial  proceeding  for  annulling 
it,  he,  by  virtue  of  his  prerogative,  issued  a  commis- 
sion, empowering  some  of  the  judges  and  other  per- 
sons of  note,  to  examine  into  all  the  transactions  of 
the  company  from  its  first  establishment,  and  to  lay 
the  result  of  their  inquiries,  together  with  their  opi- 
nion concerning  the  most  effectual  means  of  render- 
ing the  colony  more  prosperous,  before  the  privy 
council.  At  the  same  time,  by  a  strain  of  authority 
still  higher,  he  ordered  all  the  records  and  papers  oi 
the  company  to  be  seized,  and  two  of  its  principal 
officers  to  be  arrested.  Violent  and  arbitrary  as 
these  acts  of  authority  may  now  appear,  the  comniis 


sioners  carried  on  their  inquiry  without  any  obstruc- 
tion but  what  arose  from  some  feeble  and  ineffectual 
remonstrances  of  the  company.  The  commissioner?, 
though  they  conducted  their  scrutiny  with  much  ac- 
tivity and  vigour,  did  not  communicate  any  of  their 
proceedings  to  the  company  ;  but  their  report,  with 
respect  to  its  operations,  seems  to  have  been  very 
uui'avourable,  as  the  king,  in  consequence  of  it,  sig- 
nified to  the  company  his  intention  of  vesting  the 
supreme  government  of  the  company  in  a  governor 
and  twelve  assistants,  to  be  resident  in  England,  and 
the  executive  power  in  a  council  of  twelve,  which 
should  reside  in  Virginia.  The  governor  and  assist- 
ants were  to  be  originally  appointed  by  the  king. 
Future  vacancies  were  to  be  supplied  by  the  gover- 
nor and  his  assistants,  but  their  nomination  was  not 
to  take  effect  until  it  should  be  ratified  by  the  privy 
council.  The  twelve  councillors  in  Virginia  were  to 
be  chosen  by  the  governor  and  assistants  ;  and  this 
choice  was  likewise  subjected  to  the  review  of  the 
privy  council.  With  an  intention  to  quiet  the  minds 
of  the  colonists  it  was  declared  that  private  property 
should  be  deemed  sacred  ;  and  for  the  more  effectual 
security  of  it  all  grants  of  lauds  from  the  former 
company  were  to  be  confirmed  by  the  new  one.  In 
order  to  facilitate  the  execution  of  this  plan,  the  kirg 
required  the  company  instantly  to  surrender  itss 
charter  into  his  hands. 

But  here  James  and  his  ministers  encountered  a 
spirit  of  which  they  seem  not  to  have  been  aware. 
They  found  the  members  of  the  company  unwilling 
tamely  to  relinquish  rights  of  franchises,  conveyed  to 
them  with  such  legal  formality,  that  upon  faith  iu 
their  validity  they  had  expended  considerable  sums ; 
and  still  more  averse  to  the  abolition  of  a  popular 
brm  of  government,  in  which  every  proprietor  had  a 
voice,  in  order  to  subject  a  colony,  in  which  they 
>vere  deeply  interested,  to  the  dominion  of  a  small 
junto  absolutely  dependent  on  the  crown.  Neither 
promises  nor  threats  could  induce  them  to  depart 
Tom  these  sentiments;  and  in  a  general  court  the 
dug's  proposal  was  almost  unanimously  rejected,  and 
i  resolution  taken  to  defend  to  the  utmost  their  char  •, 
jered  rights,  if  these  should  be  called  in  question  in 
any  court  of  justice.  James,  highly  offended  at  their 
^resumption  in  daring  to  oppose  his  will,  directed  a 
writ  of  quo  warrants  to  be  issued  against  the  com- 
>any,  that  the  validity  of  its  charter  might  be  tried 
n  the  court  of  King's  Bench  ;  and  in  order  to  aggra- 
vate the  charge,  by  collecting  additional  proofs  of 
mal-administration,  he  appointed  some  persons  iu 
whom  he  could  confide,  to  repair  to  Virginia  to  in- 
spect the  state  of  the  colony,  and  inquire  into  the 
conduct  of  the  company,  and  of  its  officers  there. 

The  law-suit  in  the  King's  Bench  did  not  hang 
long  in  suspense.  It  terminated,  as  was  usual  in 
that  reign,  in  a  decision  perfectly  consonant  to  the 
wishes  of  the  monarch.  The  charter  was  forfeited, 
the  company  was  dissolved,  and  all  the  rights  and 
privileges  conferred  upon  it  returned  to  the  king, 
from  whom  they  flowed. 

Some  writers,  particularly  Stith,  the  most  intelli- 
gent and  best  informed  historian  of  Virginia,  men- 
tion the  dissolution  of  the  company  as  a  most  disas- 
trous event  to  the  colony.  Animated  with  liberal 
sentiments,  imbibed  in  an  age  when  the  principles  of 
liberty  were  more  fully  unfolded  than  under  the  reigu 
of  James,  they  viewed  his  violent  and  arbitrary  pro- 
ceedings on  this  occasion  with  such  indignation,  that 
their  abhorrence  of  the  means  which  he  employed  to 
accomplish  his  design  seems  to  have  rendered  them 
incapable  of  contemplating  its  effects  with  discern- 


220 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


nicnt  and  candour.  There  is  not  perhaps  any  mode 
of  governing  an  infant  colony  less  friendly  to  its 
liberty,  than  the  dominion  of  an  exclusive  corpora- 
tion possessed  of  all  the  powers  which  James  had 
conferred  upon  the  company  of  adventurers  in  Vir- 
ginia. During  several  years  the  colonists  can  hardly 
be  considered  in  any  other  light  than  as  servants  to 
the  company,  nourished  out  of  its  stores,  bound  im- 
plicitly to  obey  its  orders,  and  subjected  to  the  most 
rigorous  of  all  forms  of  government,  that  of  martial 
law.  Even  after  the  native  spirit  of  Englishmen 
began  to  rouse  under  oppression,  and  had  extorted 
from  their  superiors  the  right  of  enacting  laws  for 
the  government  of  that  community  of  which  they 
were  members,  as  no  act,  though  approved  of  by  all 
the  branches  of  the  provincial  legislature,  was  held 
to  be  of  legal  force  until  it  was  ratiiied  by  a  general 
court  in  England,  the  company  still  retained  the  pa- 
ramount authority  in  its  own  hands.  Nor  was  the 
power  of  the  company  more  favourable  to  the  pros- 
perity of  the  colony  than  to  its  freedom.  A  nume- 
rous body  of  merchants,  as  long  as  its  operations  are 
purely  cjmmcrcial,  may  carry  them  on  with  discern- 
ment and  success.  But  the  mercantile  spirit  seems 
ill  adapted  to  conduct  an  enlarged  and  liberal  plan 
of  civil  policy,  and  colonies  have  seldom  grown  up 
to  maturity  and  vigour  under  its  narrow  and  inte- 
rested regulations.  To  the  unavoidable  defects  in 
administration  which  this  occasioned,  were  added 
errors  arising  from  inexperience.  The  English  mer- 
chants of  that  age  had  not  those  extensive  views 
which  a  general  commerce  opens  to  such  as  have  the 
direction  of  it.  When  they  first  began  to  venture 
out  of  the  beaten  track,  they  groped  their  way  with 
timidity  and  hesitation.  Unacquainted  with  the  cli- 
mate and  soil  of  America,  and  ignorant  of  the  pro- 
ductions best  suited  to  them,  they  seem  to  have  had 
no  settled  plan  of  improvement,  and  their  schemes 
were  continually  varying.  Their  system  of  govern- 
ment was  equally  lluctuating.  In  the  course  of 
eighteen  years  ten  difl'erent  pei'sons  presided  over 
the  province  as  chief  governors.  No  wonder  that, 
under  such  administration,  all  the  efforts  to  give  vi- 
gour and  stability  to  the  colony  should  prove  abor- 
tive, or  produce  only  slender  effects.  These  efforts, 
however,  when  estimated  according  to  the  ideas  of 
that  age,  cither  with  respect  to  commerce  or  to  poli- 
cy, were  very  considerable,  and  conducted  with  as- 
tonishing perseverance. 

Above  an  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  pounds  were 
expended  in  this  first  attempt  to  plant  an  English 
colony  in  America;  and  more  than  nine  thousand 
persons  were  ,sent  out  from  the  mother  country  to 
people  this  new  settlement.  At  the  dissolution  of 
the  company  the  nation,  in  return  for  this  waste  of 
treasure  and  of  people,  did  not  receive  from  Virginia 
an  annual  importation  of  commodities  exceeding 
twenty  thousand  pounds  in  value ;  and  the  colony 
was  so  far  from  having  added  strength  to  the  state 
by  an  increase  of  population,  that  in  the  year  one 
thousand  six  bundled  and  twenty-four  scarcely  two 
thousand  persons  survived;  a  wretched  remnant  of 
the  numerous  emigrants  who  had  flocked  thither 
with  sanguine  expectations  of  a  very  different  fate. 

The  company,  like  all  unprosperous  societies,  fell 
unpitied.  The  violent  hand  with  which  prerogative 
had  invaded  its  rights  was  forgotten,  and  new  pros- 
pects of  success  opened,  under  a  form  of  government 
exempt  from  all  the  defects  to  which  past  disasters 
were  imputed.  The  king  and  the  nation  concurred 
with  equal  ardour  iu  resolving  to  encourage  the  co- 
louy.  Soon  after  the  final  judgment  in  the  court  of 


King's  Bench  against  the  company  James  appointed 
a  council  of  twelve  persons  to  take  the  temporary 
direction  of  affairs  in  Virginia,  that  he  might  have 
leisure  to  frame  with  deliberate  consideration  proper 
regulations  for  the  permanent  government  of  the 
colony.  Pleased  with  such  an  opportunity  of  exer- 
cising his  talents  as  a  legislator,  he  began  to  turn  his 
!  attention  towards  the  subject;  but  death  prevented 
him  from  completing  his  plan. 

Charles  I.  on  his  accession  to  the  throne,  adopted 
!  all  his  father's  maxims  with  respect  to  the  colony  in 
j  Virginia.  He  declared  it  to  be  a  part  of  the  empire 
annexed  to  the  crown,  and  immediately  subordinate 
to  its  jurisdiction  ;  he  conferred  the  title  of  governor 
on  Sir  George  Yardely,  and  appointed  him,  in  con- 
junction with  a  council  of  twelve  and  a  secretary,  to 
exercise  supreme  authority  there,  and  enjoined  them 
to  conform,  in  every  point,  to  such  instructions  as 
from  time  to  time  they  might  receive  from  him. 
From  the  tenor  of  the  king's  commission,  as  well  as 
from  the  known  spirit  of  his  policy,  it  is  apparent 
that  he  intended  to  vest  every  power  of  government, 
both  legislative  and  executive,  in  the  governor  and 
council,  without  recourse  to  the  representatives  of 
the  people,  as  possessing  a  right  to  enact  laws  for  the 
community,  or  to  impose  taxes  upon  it.  Yardely 
and  his  council,  who  seem  to  have  been  fit  instru- 
ments for  carrying  this  system  of  arbitrary  rule  into 
execution,  did  not  fail  to  put  such  a  construction  on 
the  words  of  their  commission  as  was  most  favoura 
ble  to  their  own  jurisdiction.  During  a  great  part 
of  Charles's  reign,  Virginia  knew  no  other  law  than 
the  will  of  the  sovereign.  Statutes  were  published, 
and  taxes  imposed,  without  once  calling  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people  to  authorize  the-m  by  their 
sanction.  At  the  same  time  that  the  colonists  were 
bereaved  of  political  rights,  which  they  deemed  csscr. 
tial  to  freemen  and  citizens,  their  private  property 
was  violently  invaded.  A  proclamation  was  issued 
by  which,  under  pretexts  equally  absurd  and  frivo- 
lous, they  were  prohibited  from  selling  tobacco  to 
any  person  but  certain  commissioners  appointed  1/y 
the  king  to  purchase  it  on  his  account;  and  they  had 
the  cruel  mortification  to  behold  the  sovereign,  who 
should  have  afforded  them  protection,  engross  all  the 
profits  of  their  industry,  by  seizing  the  only  valuable 
commodity  which  they  had  to  vend,  and  retaining 
the  monopoly  of  it  in  his  own  hands.  While  the 
staple  of  the  colony  in  Virginia  sunk  in  value  under 
the  oppression  and  restraints  of  a  monopoly,  pro- 
perty inland  was  rendered  insecure  by  various  grants 
of  it,  which  Charles  inconsiderately  bestowed  upon 
his  favourites.  These  were  not  oniy  of  such  exorbi- 
tant extent  as  to  be  unfavourable  to  the  progress  of 
cultivation  ;  but  from  inattention,  or  imperfect  ac- 
quaintance with  the  geography  of  the  country,  their 
boundaries  were  so  inaccurately  defined,  that  large 
tracts  already  occupied  and  planted  were  often  in- 
cluded in  them. 

The  murmurs  and  complaints  which  such  a  system 
of  administration  excited  were  augmented  by  the 
rigour  with  which  Sir  John  Harvey,  who  succeeded 
Yardely  in  the  government  of  the  colony,  enforced 
every  act  of  power.  Rapacious,  uni'ceiiiu!,-,  and 
haughty,  he  added  insolence  to  oppression,  and  nei- 
ther regarded  the  sentiments  nor  listened  to  the  re- 
monstrances of  the  people  under  his  command.  The 
colonists,  far  from  the  seat  of  government,  and  over- 
awed by  authority  derived  from  a  royal  commission, 
submitted  long  to  his  tyranny  and  exactions.  Their 
patience  was  at  last  exhausted;  and  in  a  transpoit  of 
popular  rage  and  indignation -they  seized  their  go- 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


vcrnor,  and  sent  him  a  prisoner  to  England,  accom- 
panied by  two  of  (heir  number,  whom  they  deputed 
to  prefer  their  accusations  against  him  to  the  king. 
But  this  attempt  to  redress  their  own  wrongs,  by  a 
proceeding  so  summary  and  violent  as  is  hardly  con- 
sistent with  any  idea  of  regular  government,  and  can 
be  justified  only  in  cases  of  such  urgent  necessity  as 
rarely  occur  in  civil  society,  was  altogether  repug- 
nant to  every  notion  which  Charles  entertained  with 
respect  to  the  obedience  due  by  subjects  to  their 
sovereign.  To  him  the  conduct  of  the  colonists  ap- 
peared to  be  not  only  an  usurpation  of  his  right  to 
judge  and  to  punish  one  of  his  own  officers,  but  an 
open  and  audacious  act  of  rebellion  against  his  au- 
thority. Without  deigning  to  admit  their  deputies 
into  his  presence,  or  to  hear  one  article  of  their 
charge  against  Harvey,  the  king  instantly  sent  him 
back  to  his  former  station,  with  an  ample  renewal  of 
all  the  powers  belonging  to  it.  But  though  Charles 
deemed  this  vigorous  step  necessary  in  order  to  as- 
sert his  own  authority,  and  to  testify  his  displeasure 
with  those  who  had  presumed  to  offer  such  an  insult 
to  it,  he  seems  to  have  been  so  sensible  of  the  griev- 
ances under  which  the  colonists  groaned,  and  of  the 
chief  source  from  which  they  flowed,  that  soon  after 
he  not  only  removed  a  governor  so  justly  odious  to 
them,  but  named  as  a  successor  Sir  William  Berke- 
ley, a  person  far  superior  to  Harvey  in  rank  and 
abilities,  and  still  more  distinguished  by  possessing 
all  the  popular  virtues  to  which  the  other  was  a 
stranger. 

Under  his  government  the  colony  in  Virginia  re- 
mained, with  some  short  intervals  of  interruption, 
almost  forty  years ;  and  to  his  mild  and  prudent  ad- 
ministratuln  its  increase  and  prosperity  are  in  a  great 
measure  to  be  ascribed.  It  was,  indebted,  however, 
to  the  king  himself  Tor  such  a  reform  of  its  constitu- 
tion and  policy,  as  gave  a  different  aspect,  to  the 
colony,  and  animated  all  its  operations  with  new 
spirit."  Though  tlio  tenor  of  Sir  William  Berkeley's 
commission  was  the  same  with  that  of  his  predeces- 
sor, he  received  instructions  under  the  great  seal,  by 
which  he  was  empowered  to  declare,  that  in  all  its 
concerns,  civil  as  well  as  ecclesiastical,  the  colony 
was  to  be  governed  according  to  the  laws  of  Eng- 
land; he  was  directed  to  issue  writs  for  electing  re- 
presentatives of  the  people,  who,  in  conjunction  with 
the  governor  and  council,  were  to  form  a  general 
assembly,  and  to  possess  supreme  legislative  autho- 
rity in  the  community ;  he  was  ordered  to  esta- 
blish courts  of  justice,  in  which  all  questions,  whether 
civil  or  criminal,  were  to  be  decided  agreeably  to  the 
forms  of  judicial  procedure  in  the  mother  country. 
It  is  not  easy  to  discover  what  were  the  motives 
which  induced  a  monarch,  tenacious  in  adhering  to 
any  opinion  or  system  which  he  had  once  adopted, 
jealous  to  excess  of  his  own  rights,  and  adverse  on 
every  occasion  to  any  extension  of  the  privileges 
claimed  by  his  people,  to  relinquish  his  original  plan 
of  administration  in  the  colony,  and  to  grant  such 
immunities  to  his  subjects  settled  there.  From  the 
historians  of  Virginia,  no  less  superficial  than  ill 
informed,  no  light  can  be  derived  with  respect  to  this 
point.  It  is  most  probable  the  dread  of  the  spirit 
then  rising  in  Great  Britain  extorted  from  Charles 
concessions  so  favourable  to  Virginia.  After  an  in- 
termission 'of  almost  twelve  years  the  state  of  his 
affairs  compelled  him  to  have  recourse  to  the  great 
c  mncil  of  the  nation.  There  his  subjects  would  find 
a  jurisdiction  independent  of  the  crown,  and  able  to 
controul  its  authority.  There  they  hoped  for  legal 
redress  of  all  their  grievances.  As  the  colonists  in 


Virginia  had  applied  for  relief  to  a  former  parlia- 
ment, it  might  be  expected  with  certainty  that  they 
would  lay  their  case  before  the  first  meeting  of  an 
assembly  in  which  they  were  secure  of  a  favourable 
audience.  Charles  knew  that  if  the  spirit  of  his  ad- 
ministration in  Virginia  were  to  be  tried  by  the 
maxims  of  the  English  constitution,  it  must  be  se- 
verely reprehended.  He  was  aware  that  many  mea- 
sures of  greater  moment  in  his  government  would  be 
brought  under  a  strict  review  in  parliament ;  and, 
unwilling  to  give  malcontents  the  advantage  of  add- 
ing a  charge  of  oppression  in  the  remote  parts  of  his 
dominions  to  a  catalogue  of  domestic  grievances,  he 
artfully  endeavoured  to  take  the  merit  of  having 
granted  voluntarily  to  his  people  in  Virginia  such 
privileges  as  he  foresaw  would  be  extorted  from  him. 

But  though  Charles  established  the  internal  go- 
vernment of  Virginia  on  a  model  similar  to  that  of 
the  English  constitution,  and  conferred  on  his  sub- 
jects there  all  the  rights  of  freemen  and  citizens,  he 
was  extremely  solicitous  to  maintain  its  connexion 
with  the  parent  state.  With  this  view  he  instructed 
Sir  William  Berkeley  strictly  to  prohibit  any  com 
merce  of  the  colony  with  foreign  nations ;  and  in 
order  more  certainly  to  secure  exclusive  possession 
of  all  the  advantages  arising  from  the  sale  of  its  pro- 
ductions, he  was  required  to  take  a  bond  from  the 
master  of  each  vessel  that  sailed  from  Virginia  to 
land  his  cargo  in  some  part  of  the  king's  dominions 
in  Europe.  Even  under  this  restraint,  such  is  the 
kindly  influence  of  free  government  on  society,  the 
colony  advanced  so  rapidly  in  industry  and  popula- 
tion, that  at  the  beginning  of  the  civil  war  the  Eng- 
lish settled  in  it  exceeded  twenty  thousand. 

Gratitude  towards  a  monarch  from  whose  hands 
they  had  received  immunities  which  they  had  long 
wished  but  hardly  expected  to  enjoy,  the  influence 
and  example  of  a  popular  governor,  passionately  de- 
voted to  the  interests  of  his  master,  concurred  in 
preserving  inviolated  loyalty  among  the  colonists. 
Even  after  monarchy  was  abolished,  after  one  king 
had  been  beheaded,  and  another  driven  into  exile, 
the  authority  of  the  crown  continued  to  be  acknow- 
ledged and  revered  in  Virginia.  Irritated  at  this 
open  defiance  of  its  power,  the  parliament  issued  an 
ordinance,  declaring,  that  as  the  settlement  in  Vir- 
ginia had  been  made  at  the  cost  and  by  the  people  of 
England,  it  ought  to  be  subordinate  to  and  depend- 
ent upon  the  English  commonwealth,  and  subject  to 
such  laws  and  regulations  as  are  or  shall  be  made  in 
parliament ;  that,  instead  of  this  dutiful  submission, 
the  colonists  had  disclaimed  the  authority  of  the 
slate  and  audaciously  rebelled  against  it ;  that  on  this 
account  they  were  denounced  notorious  traitors,  and 
not  only  all  vessels  belonging  to  natives  of  England 
but  those  of  foreign  nations  were  prohibited  to  enter 
their  ports,  or  to  carry  on  any  commerce  with  them. 

It  was  not  the  mode  of  that  age  to  wage  a  war  of 
words  alone.  The  efforts  of  a  high-spirited  govern- 
ment in  asserting  its  own  dignity  were  prompt  and 
vigorous.  A  powerful  squadron,  with  a  considerable 
body  of  land  forces,  was  despatched  to  reduce  the 
Virginians  to  obedience.  After  compelling  the  co- 
lonies in  Barbadoes  and  the  other  islands  to  submit 
to  the  commonwealth,  the  squadron  entered  the  bay 
of  Chesapeak.  Berkeley,  with  more  courage  than 
prudence,  took  arms  to  oppose  this  formidable  arma- 
ment ;  but  he  could  not  long  maintain  such  an  un- 
equal contest.  His  gallant  resistance,  however,  pro 
cured  favourable  terms  to  the  people  under  his  go- 
vernment. A  general  indemnity  for  all  past  offences 
was  granted;  they  acknowledged  the  authority  of 


222 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  commonwealth,  and  were  admitted  to  a  partici- 
pation of  all  tho  rights  enjoyed  by  citizens.  Berke- 
ley, firm  to  his  principles  of  loyalty,  disdained  to 
make  any  stipulation  for  himself ;  and  choosing  to 
pass  his  days  far  removed  from  the  seat  of  a  go- 
vernment which  he  detested,  continued  to  reside  in 
Virginia  as  a  private  man,  hcloved  and  respected  by 
all  over  whom  he  had  formerly  presided. 

Not  satisfied  with  taking  measures  to  subject  the 
colonies,  the  commonwealth  turned  its  attention  to- 
wards thf  most  effectual  mode  of  retaining  them  in 
dependence  on  the  parent  state,  and  of  securing  to  it 
the  benefit  of  their  increasing  commerce.  With  this 
view  the  parliament  framed  two  laws,  one  of  which 
expressly  prohibited  all  mercantile  intercourse  be- 
tween the  colonies  and  foreign  states,  and  the  other 
ordained  that  no  production  of  Asia,  Africa,  or  Ame- 
rica should  be  imported  into  the  dominions  of  the 
commonwealth  but  in  vessels  belonging  to  English 
owners,  or  to  the  people  of  the  colonies  settled  there, 
and  navigated  by  an  English  commander,  and  by 
crews  of  which  the  greater  part  must  be  English- 
men. But  while  the  wisdom  of  the  commonwealth 
prescribed  the  channel  in  which  the  trade  of  the  co- 
lonies was  to  be  carried  on,  it  was  solicitous  to  encou- 
rage the  cultivation  of  the  staple  commodity  of  Vir- 
ginia by  an  act  of  parliament,  which  gave  legal 
force  to  all  the  injunctions  of  James  and  Charles 
against  planting  tobacco  in  England. 

Under  governors  appointed  by  the  commonwealth, 
or  by  Cromwell  when  he  usurped  the  supreme 
power,  Virginia  remained  almost  nine  years  in 
perfect  tranquillity.  During  that  period  many  ad- 
herents to  the  royal  party,  and  among  these  some 
gentlemen  of  good  families,  in  order  to  avoid  danger 
and  oppression  to  which  they  were  exposed  in  Eng- 
land, or  in  hopes  of  repairing  their  ruined  fortunes, 
resorted  thither.  Warmly  attached  to  the  cause  for 
which  they  had  fought  and  suffered,  and  animated 
with  all  the  passions  natural  to  men  recently  en- 
gaged in  a  fierce  and  long  protracted  civil  war,  they, 
by  their  intercourse  with  the  colonists,  confirmed 
them  in  principles  of  loyalty,  and  added  to  their 
impatience  and  indignation  under  the  restraints  im- 
posed on  their  commerce  by  their  new  masters.  On 
the  death  of  Matthews,  the  last  governor  named  by 
Cromwell,  the  sentiments  and  inclination  of  the 
people,  no  longer  under  the  controul  of  authority, 
burst  out  with  violence.  They  forced  Sir  William 
Berkeley  to  quit  his  retirement;  they  unanimously 
elected  him  governor  of  the  colony ;  and  as  he  re- 
fused to  act  under  an  usurped  authority,  they  boldly 
erected  the  royal  standard,  and  acknowledging 
Charles  II.  to  be  their  lawful  sovereign,  proclaimed 
him  with  all  his  titles ;  and  the  Virginians  long 
boasted,  that  as  they  were  the  last  of  the  king's  sub- 
jects who  renounced  their  allegiance,  they  were  the 
first  who  returned  to  their  duty. 

Happily  for  the  people  of  Virginia,  a  revolution 
in  England,  no  less  sudden  and  unexpected,  seated 
Charles  on  the  throne  of  his  ancestors,  and  saved 
them  from  the  severe  chastisement  to  which  their 
premature  declaration  in  his  favour  must  have  ex- 
posed them.  On  receiving  the  first  account  of  this 
event,  the  joy  and  exultation  of  the  colony  were  uni- 
versal and  unbounded.  These,  however,  were  not  of 
long  continuance.  Gracious  but  unproductive  pro- 
fessions of  esteem  and  good  will  were  the  only  return 
made  by  Charles  to  loyalty  and  services  which  in 
their  own  estimation  were  so  distinguished  that  no 
recompencc  was  beyond  what  they  might  claim.  If 
the  king's  neglect  and  ingratitude  disappointed  all 


the  sanguiue  hopes  which  their  vanity  had  founded 
on  the  merit  of  their  past  conduct,  the  spirit  which 
influenced  parliament  in  its  commercial  deliberations 
opened  a  prospect  that  alarmed  them  with  respect  to 
their  future  situation.  In  framing  regulations  for 
the  encouragement  of  trade,  which,  during  the  con- 
vulsions of  civil  war,  and  amidst  continual  fluctua- 
tions in  government,  had  met  with  such  obstruction 
that  it  declined  in  every  quarter;  the  House  of 
Commons,  instead  of  granting  the  colonies  that  re- 
lief which  they  expected  from  the  restraints  in  their 
commerce  imposed  by  the  commonwealth  and  Crom- 
well, not  only  adopted  all  their  ideas  concerning 
this  branch  of  legislation,  but  extended  them  further. 
This  produced  the  act  of  navigation,  the  most  im- 
portant and  memorable  of  any  in  the  statute-book 
with  respect  to  the  history  of  English  commerce. 
By  it,  besides  several  momentous  articles  foreign  to 
the  subject  of  this  work,  it  was  enacted,  that  no  com- 
modities should  be  imported  into  any  settlement  in 
Asia,  Africa,  or  America,  or  exported  from  them, 
but  in  vessels  of  English  or  plantation  built,  whereof 
the  master  and  three-fourths  of  the  mariners  shall  be 
English  subjects,  under  pain  of  forfeiting  ship  and 
goods;  that  none  but  natural-born  subjects,  or  such 
as  have  been  naturalized,  shall  exercise  the  occupa- 
tion of  merchant  or  factor  in  any  English  settlement, 
under  pain  of  forfeiting  their  goods  and  chattels  ; 
that  no  sugar,  tobacco,  cotton,  wool,  indigo,  ginger, 
or  woods  used  in  dyeing,  of  the  growth  or  manu- 
facture of  the  colonies,  shall  be  shipped  from  them  to 
any  other  country  but  England ;  and  in  order  to  se- 
cure the  performance  of  this,  a  sufficient  bond,  with 
one  surety,  shall  be  given  before  sailing  by  the 
owners,  for  a  specific  sum  proportional  to  the  rate  of 
the  vessel  employed  by  them,  The  productions  sub- 
jected to  this  restriction  are  distinguished,  in  the 
language  of  commerce  and  finance,  by  the  name  of 
enumerated  commodities,  and  as  industry  in  its  pro- 
gress furnished  new  articles  of  .value,  these  have 
been  successively  added  to  the  roll,  and  subjected  to 
the  same  restraint  Soon  after,  the  act  of  naviga- 
tion was  extended,  and  additional  restraints  were 
imposed,  by  a  new  law,  which  prohibited  the  im- 
portation of  any  European  commodity  into  the  co- 
lonies, but  what  was  laden  in  England  in  vessels 
navigated  and  manned  as  the  act  of  navigation  re- 
quired. More  effectual  provision  was  made  by  this 
law  for  enacting  the  penalties  to  which  the  trans- 
gressors of  the  act  of  navigation  were  subjected; 
and  the  principles  of  policy,  on  which  the  various  re- 
gulations contained  in  both  statutes  are  founded, 
were  openly  avowed  in  a  declaration,  that  as  the 
plantations  beyond  seas  are  inhabited  and  peopled 
by  subjects  of  England,  they  may  be  kept  in  a 
firmer  dependence  upon  it,  and  rendered  yet  more 
beneficial  and  advantageous  unto  it,  in  the  further 
employment  and  increase  of  English  shipping  and 
seamen,  as  well  as  in  the  vent  of  English  woollen 
and  other  manufactures  and  commodities ;  and  in 
making  England  a  staple,  not  only  of  the  commodi- 
ties of  those  plantations,  hut  also  of  the  commodities 
of  other  countries  and  places,  for  the  supplying  of 
them;  and  itbeing  the  usage  of  other  nations  to  keep 
the  trade  of  their  plantations  to  themselves.  In  pro- 
secution of  those  favourite  maxims,  the  English  le- 
gislature proceeded  a  step  further.  As  the  act  of  na- 
vigation had  left  the  people  of  the  colonies  at  liberty 
to  export  the  enumerated  commodities  from  one 
plantation  to  another  without  paying  any  duty,  it 
subjected  them  to  a  tax  equivalent  to  what  was  paid 
by  the  consumers  of  these  commodities  in  England. 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


223 


By  these  successive  regulations,  the  plan  of  sc-  ' 
curing  to  England  a  monopoly  of  the  commerce  with  j 
its  colonies,  and  of  shutting  up  every  other  channel 
into  which  it  might  be  diverted,  was  perfected,  and 
reduced  into  a  complete  system.  On  one  side  of  the 
Atlantic  these  regulations  have  been  extolled  as  an 
extraordinary  effort  of  political  sagacity,  and  have 
been  considered  as  the  great  charter  of  national  com- 
merce, to  which  the  parent  state  is  indebted  for  all 
its  opulence  and  power.  On  the  other,  they  have  , 
been  execrated  as  a  code  of  oppression,  more  suited 
to  the  illiberality  of  mercantile  ideas  than  to  exten- 
sive views  of  legislative  wisdom.  Which  of  these 
opinions  is  best  founded,  I  shall  examine  at  large  in 
another  part  of  this  work.  But  in  writing  the  his- 
tory of  the  English  settlements  in  America,  it  was 
necessary  to  trace  the  progress  of  those  restrain- 
ing laws  with  accuracy,  as  in  every  subsequent 
transaction  we  may  observe  a  perpetual  exertion,  on  | 
the  part  of  the  mother-country,  to  enforce  and  ex- 
tend them ;  and  on  the  part  of  the  colonies,  en- 
deavours no  less  unremitting  to  elude  or  to  obstruct 
their  operation. 

Hardly  was  the  act  of  navigation  known  in  Vir- 
ginia, and  its  effects  begun  to  be  felt,  when  the  co- 
lony remonstrated  against  it  as  a  grievance,  and  pe- 
titioned earnestly  for  relief.  But  the  commercial 
ideas  of  Charles  and  his  ministers  coincided  so  per- 
fectly with  those  of  parliament,  that,  instead  of 
listening  with  a  favourable  ear  to  their  applications, 
they  laboured  assiduously  to  carry  the  act  into  strict 
execution.  For  this  purpose,  instructions  were 
issued  to  the  governor,  forts  were  built  on  the  banks 
of  the  principal  rivers,  and  small  vessels  appointed 
to  cruise  on  the  coast.  The  Virginians,  seeing  no 
prospect  of  obtaining  exemption  from  the  act,  set 
themselves  to  evade  it;  and  found  means,  notwith- 
standing the  vigilance  with  which  they  were  watched, 
of  carrying  on  a  considerable  clandestine  trade  with 
foreigners,  particularly  with  the  Dutch  settled  on 
Hudson's  river.  Imboldened  by  observing  disaffec- 
tion spread  through  the  colony,  some  veteran  soldiers 
who  had  served  under  Cromwell,  and  had  been 
banished  to  Virginia,  formed  a  design  of  rendering 
themselves  masters  of  the  country,  and  of  asserting 
its  independence  on  England.  This  rash  project 
was  discovered  by  one  of  their  associates,  and  dis- 
concerted by  the  vigorous  exertions  of  Sir  William 
Berkeley.  But  the  spirit  of  discontent,  though  re- 
pressed, was  not  extinguished.  Every  day  some- 
thing occured  to  revive  and  to  nourish  it.  As  it  is 
with  extreme  difficulty  that  commerce  can  be  turned 
into  a  new  channel,  tobacco,  the  staple  of  the  colony, 
sunk  prodigiously  in  value  when  they  were  compelled 
to  send  it  all  to  one  market.  It  was  some  time  before 
England  could  furnish  them  regularly  with  full  assort- 
ments of  those  necessary  articles,  without  which  the 
industry  of  the  colony  could  not  be  carried  on,  or 
its  prosperity  secured.  Encouraged  by  the  symptoms 
of  general  languor  and  despondency  which  this  de- 
clining state  of  the  colony  occasioned,  the  Indians 
seated  towards  the  ends  of  the  rivers  ventured  lirst 
to  attack  the  remote  settlements,  and  then  to  make 
incursions  into  the  interior  parts  of  the  country. 
Unexpected  as  these  hostilities  were,  from  a  people 
who  during  a  long  period  had  lived  in  friendship 
with  the  English,  a  measure  taken  by  the  king  seems 
to  have  excited  still  greater  terror  among  the  most 
opulent  people  of  the  colony.  Charles  had  impru- 
dently imitated  the  example  of  his  father,  by  grant- 
ing such  large  tracts  of  land  in  Virginia  to  several 
of  his  courtiers,  as  tended  to  unsettle  the  distribu- 


tion of  property  in  the  country,  and  to  render  the 
title  of  the  most  ancient  planters  to  their  estates 
precarious  and  questionable.  From  those  various 
causes,  which  in  a  greater  or  lesser  degree  affected 
every  individual  in  the  colony,  the  indignation  of  the 
people  became  general,  and  was  worked  up  to  such 
a  pitch,  that  nothing  was  wanting  to  precipitate 
them  into  the  most  desperate  acts  but  some  leader 
qualified  to  unite  and  to  direct  their  operations. 

Such  a  leader  they  found  in  Nathaniel  Bacon,  a 
colonel  of  militia,  who,  though  he  had  been  settled 
in  Virginia  only  three  years,  had  acquired,  by  po- 
pular manners,  an  insinuating  address,  and  the 
consideration  derived  from  having  been  regularly 
trained  in  England  to  the  profession  of  law,  such 
general  esteem,  that  he  had  been  admitted  into  the 
council,  and  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  re- 
spectable persons  in  the  colony.  Bacon  was  ambi- 
tious, eloquent,  daring,  and,  prompted  either  by 
honest  zeal  to  redress  the  public  wrongs,  or  allured 
by  hopes  of  raising  himself  to  distinction  and  power, 
he  mingled  with  the  malcontents  ;  and  by  his  bold 
j  harangues  and  confident  promises  of  removing  all 
1  their  grievances,  he  inflamed  them  almost  to  madness. 
!  As  the  devastation  committed  by  the  Indians  was  the 
calamity  most  sensibly  felt  by  the  people,  he  accused 
the  governor  of  having  neglected  the  proper  mea- 
sures for  repelling  the  invasions'of  the  savages,  and 
exhorted  them  to  take  arms  in  their  own  defence, 
and  to  exterminate  that  odious  race.  Great  num- 
bers assembled,  and  chose  Bacon  to  be  their  gene- 
ral. He  applied  to  the  governor  for  a  commission, 
confirming  this  election  of  the  people,  and  offered 
to  march  instantly  against  the  common  enemy. 
Berkeley,  accustomed  by  long  possession  of  supreme 
command  to  high  ideas  of  the  respect  due  to  his  sta- 
tion, considered  this  tumultuary  armament  as  an  open 
insult  to  his  authority,  and  suspected  that,  under 
specious  appearances,  Bacon  concealed  most  dan- 
gerous designs.  Unwilling,  however,  to  give  fur- 
ther provocations  to  an  incensed  multitude  by  a  di 
rect  refusal  of  what  they  demanded,  he  thought  it 
prudent  to  negociate,  in  order  to  gain  time ;  and  it 
was  riot  until  he  found  all  endeavours  to  soothe  them 
ineffectual,  that  he  issued  a  proclamation,  requiring 
them,  in  the  king's  name,  under  the  pain  of  being 
denounced  rebels,  to  disperse. 

But  Bacon,  sensible  that  he  had  now  advanced 
so  far  as  rendered  it  impossible  to  recede  with  ho- 
nour or  safety,  instantly  took  the  only  resolution 
that  remained  in  his  situation.  At  the  head  of  a 
chosen  body  of  his  followers,  he  marched  rapidly 
to  James  town,  and  surrounding  the  house  where 
the  jgovernor  and  council  were  assembled,  demanded 
the  commission  for  which  he  had  formerly  applied. 
Berkeley,  with  the  proud  indignant  spirit  of  a  cava- 
lier, disdaining  the  requisitions  of  a  rebel,  perempto- 
rily refused  to  comply,  and  calmly  presented  his 
naked  breast  to  the  weapons  which  were  pointed 
against  it.  The  council,  however,  foreseeing  the 
fatal  consequences  of  driving  an  enraged  multitude, 
in  whose  power  they  were,  to  the  last  extremities  of 
violence,  prepared  a  commission  constituting  Bacon 
general  of  all  the  forces  in  Virginia,  and  by  their 
entreaties  prevailed  on  the  governor  to  sign  it. 
Bacon  with  his  troops  retired  in  triumph.  Hardly 
was  the  council  delivered  by  his  departure  from  the 
dread  of  present  danger,  when,  by  a  transition  not 
unusual  in  feeble  minds,  presumptuous  boldness 
succeeded  to  excessive  fear.  The  commission 
granted  to  Bacon  was  declared  to  be  null,  having 
been  extorted  by  force  ;  he  was  proclaimed  a  rebel, 


224 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


his  followers  were  required  to  abandon  his  standard, 
and  the  militia  ordered  to  arm,  and  to  join  the  go- 
vernor. 

Enraged  at  conduct  which  he  branded  with  the 
name  of  base  and  treacherous,  Bacon,  instead  of 
continuing  his  march  towards  the  Indian  country, 
instantly  wheeled  about,  and  advanced  with  all  his 
forces  to  James  town.  The  governor,  unable  to  re- 
sist such  a  numerous  body,  made  his  escape,  and 
fled  across  the  bay  to  Acomack  on  the  eastern 
shore.  Some  of  the  counsellors  accompanied  him 
thither,  others  retired  to  their  own  plantations. 
Upon  the  flight  of  Sir  William  Berkeley,  and  dis- 
persion of  the  council,  the  frame  of  civil  govern- 
ment in  the  colony  seemed  to  be  dissolved,  and 
Bacon  became  possessed  of  supreme  and  uncon- 
trolled power.  But  as  he  was  sensible  that  his 
countrymen  would  not  long  submit  with  patience  to 
authority  acquired  and  held  merely  by  force  of  arms, 
he  endeavoured  to  found  it  on  a  more  constitutional 
basis,  by  obtaining  the  sanction  of  the  people's  ap- 
probation. With  this  view  he  called  together  the 
most  considerable  gentlemen  in  the  colony,  and  hav- 
inf  prevailed  on  them  to  bind  themselves  by  oath  to 
maintain  his  authority,  and  to  resist  every  enemy 
that  should  oppose  it,  he  from  that  time  considered 
his  jurisdiction  as  legally  established. 

Berkeley,  meanwhile,  having  collected  some  forces, 
made  inroads  into  different  parts  of  the  colony  where 
Bacon's  authority  was  recognised.  Several  sharp 
conflicts  happened  with  various  success.  James 
town  was  reduced  to  ashes,  and  the  best  cultivated 
districts  in  the  province  were  laid  waste,  sometimes 
by  one  party,  and  sometimes  by  the  other.  But  it 
was  not  by  his  own  exertions  that  the  governor 
hoped  to  terminate  the  contest.  He  had  early  trans- 
mitted an  account  of  the  transactions  in  Virginia  to 
the  king,  and  demanded  such  a  body  of  soldiers  as 
would  enable  him  to  quell  the  insurgents,  whom  he 
represented  as  so  exasperated  by  the  restraints  im- 
posed on  their  trade,  that  they  were  impatient  to 
shake  off  all  dependence  on  the  parent  state.  Charles, 
alarmed  at  a  commotion  no  less  dangerous  than  un- 
expected, and  solicitous  to  maintain  his  authority 
over  a  colony  the  value  of  which  was  daily  increas- 
ing and  more  fully  understood,  speedily  despatched 
a  small  squadron  with  such  a  number  of  regular 
troops  as  Berkeley  had  required.  Bacon  and  his 
followers  received  information  of  this  armament, 
but  were  not  intimidated  at  its  approach.  They 
boldly  determined  to  oppose  it  with  open  force, 
and  declared  it  to  be  consistent  with  their  duty  and 
allegiance,  to  treat  all  who  should  aid  Sir  William 
Berkeley  as  enemies,  until  they  should  have  an 
opportunity  of  laying  their  grievances  before  their 
sovereign. 

But  while  both  parties  prepared,  with  equal  ani- 
mosity, to  involve  their  country  in  the  horrors  of 
civil  war,  an  event  happened,  which  quieted  the 
commotion  almost  as  suddenly  as  it  had  been  ex- 
cited. Bacon,  when  ready  to  take  the  field,  sicken- 
ed and  died.  None  of  his  followers  possessed  such 
talents,  or  were  so  much  objects  of  the  people's  con- 
fidence, as  entitled  them  to  aspire  to  the  supreme 
command.  Destitute  of  a  leader  to  conduct  and 
animate  them,  their  sanguine  hopes  of  success  sub- 
sided ;  mutual  distrust  accompanied  this  universal 
despondency  ;  all  began  to  wish  for  an  accommoda- 
tion ;  and  after  a  short  negotiation  with  Sir  William 
Berkeley,  they  laid  down  their  arms,  and  submitted 
to  his  government,  on  obtaining  a  promise  ofj 
general  pardon, 


Thus  terminated  an  insurrection,  which,  in  tho 
annals  of  Virginia,  is  distinguished  by  the  name  of 
Bacon's  rebellion.  During  seven  months  this  dar- 
ing leader  was  master  of  the  colony,  while  the  royal 
governor  was  shut  up  in  a  remote  and  ill-peopled 
corner  of  it.  What  were  the  real  motives  that 
prompted  him  to  take  arms,  and  to  what  length  he 
intended  to  carry  his  plans  of  reformation,  either  in 
commerce  or  government,  it  is  not  easy  to  discover 
in  the  scanty  materials  from  which  we  derive  our 
information  with  respect  to  this  transaction.  It  is 
probable,  that  his  conduct,  like  that  of  other  adven- 
turers in  faction,  would  have  been  regulated  chiefly 
by  events  ;  and  accordingly  as  these  proved  favour- 
able or  adverse,  his  views  and  requisitions  would 
have  been  extended  or  circumscribed. 

Sir  William  Berkeley,  as  soon  as  he  was  rein- 
stated in  his  office,  called  together  the  representa- 
tives of  the  people,  that  by  their  advice  and  authority 
public  tranquility  and  order  might  be  perfectly  es- 
tablished. Though  this  assembly  met  a  few  weeks 
after  the  death  of  Bacon,  while  the  memory  of  reci- 
procal injuries  was  still  recent,  and  when  the  pas- 
sions excited  by  such  a  fierce  contest  had  but  little 
time  to  subside,  its  proceedings  were  conducted  with 
a  moderation  seldom  exercised  by  the  successful 
party  in  a  civil  war.  No  man  suffered  capitally  ;  a 
small  number  were  subjected  to  fines  ;  others  were 
declared  incapable  of  holding  any  office  of  trust  ; 
and  with  those  exceptions  the  promise  of  general 
indemnity  was  confirmed  by  law.  Soon  after, 
Berkeley  was  recalled,  and  colonel  Jefferys  was 
appointed  his  successor. 

From  that  period  to  the  revolution  in  1G88,  there 
is  scarcely  any  memorable  occurrence  in  the  history 
of  Virginia.  A  peace  was  concluded  with  the 
Indians.  Under  several  successive  governors,  ad- 
ministration was  carried  on  in  the  colony  with  the 
same  arbitrary  spirit  that  distinguished  the  latter 
years  of  Charles  II.  and  the  precipitate  counsels  of 
James  II.  The  Virginians,  with  a  constitution 
which  in  form  resembled  that  of  England,  enjoyed 
hardly  any  portion  of  the  liberty  which  that  admira- 
ble system  of  policy  is  framed  to  secure.  They  were 
deprived  oven  of  the  last  consolation  of  the  op- 
pressed, the  power  of  complaining,  by  a  law  which, 
under  severe  penalties,  prohibited  them  from  speak- 
ing disrespectfully  of  the  governor,  or  defaming, 
either  by  words,  or  writing,  the  administration  of 
the  colony.  Still,  however,  the  laws  restraining 
their  commerce  Avcre  felt  as  an  intolerable  grie- 
vance, and  they  nourished  in  secret  a  spirit  of  discon- 
tent, which,  from  the  necessity  of  concealing  it,  ac- 
quired a  greater  degree  of  acrimony.  But  notwith- 
standing those  unfavourable  circumstances,  the 
colony  continued  to  increase.  The  use  of  tobacco 
was  now  become  general  in  Europe  ;  and  though  it 
had  fallen  considerably  in  price,  the  extent  of  de- 
mand compensated  that  diminution,  and  by  giving 
constant  employment  to  the  industry  of  the  planters, 
diffused  wealth  among  them.  At  the  revolution  the 
number  of  inhabitants  in  the  colony  exceeded  sixty 
thousand,  and  in  the  course  of  twenty-eight  years_its 
population  had  been  more  than  doubled. 


BOOK  X. 

When  James  I.,  in  the  year  one  thousand  six 
hundred  and  six,  made  that  magnificent  parti  ti  en 
which  has  been  mentioned,  of  a  vast  region  in  North 
America,  extending  from  the  thirty-fourth  to  the 
forty-fifth  degree  of  latitude,  between  two  trading 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


225 


companies  of  his  subjects,  he  established  the  residence 
of  the  one  in  London,  and  of  the  other  in  Plymouth. 
The  former  was  authorized  to  settle  in  the  southern, 
and  the  latter  in  the  northern  part  of  this  territory, 
then  distinguished  by  the  general  name  of  Virginia. 
This  arrangement  seems  to  have  been  formed  upon 
the  idea  of  some  speculative  refiner,  who  aimed  at 
diffusing  the  spirit  of  industry,  by  fixing  the  seat  of 
one  branch  of  the  trade  that  was  now  to  be  opened 
on  the  east  coast  of  the  island,  and  the  other  on  the 
west.  But  London  possesses  such  advantages  of 
situation  that  the  commercial  wealth  and  activity  of 
England  have  always  centered  in  the  capital.  At 
the  beginning  of  the  last  century  the  superiority  of 
the  metropolis  in  both  these  respects  was  so  great, 
that  though  the  powers  and  privileges  conferred  by 
the  king  on  the  two  trading  companies  were  pre- 
cisely the  same,  the  adventurers  settled  in  Plymouth 
fell  far  short  of  those  in  London  in  the  vigour  and 
success  of  their  efforts  towards  accomplishing  the 
purpose  of  their  institution.  Though  the  operations 
of  the  Plymouth  company  were  animated  by  the 
public-spirited  zeal  of  Sir  John  Popham,  Chief  Jus- 
tice of  England,  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,  and  some 
other  gentlemen  of  the  west,  all  its  exertions  were 
feeble  and  unfortunate. 

The  first  vessel  fitted  out  by  the  company  was 
taken  by  the  Spaniards.  In  the  year  one  thousand 
six  hundred  and  seven  a  feeble  settlement  was  made 
at  Sagahadoc ;  but  on  account  of  the  rigour  of  the 
climate  was  soon  relinquished,  and  for  some  time 
nothing  further  was  attempted  than  a  few  fishing 
voyages  to  Cape  Cod,  or  a  pitiful  traffic  with  the  na- 
tives for  skins  and  oil.  One  of  the  vessels  equipped 
for  this  purpose  was  commanded  by  Captain  Smith, 
whose  name  has  been  so  often  mentioned  with  dis- 
tinction in  the  history  of  Virginia.  The  adventure 
was  prosperous  and  lucrative.  But  his  ardent  enter- 
prising mind  could  not  confine  its  attention  to  ob- 
jects so  unequal  to  it  as  the  petty  details  of  a  trading  | 
voyage.  He  employed  a  part  of  his  time  in  explor- 
ing the  coast,  and  in  delineating  its  bays  and  har- 
bours. On  his  return  he  laid  a  map  of  it  before 
Prince  Charles,  and,  with  the  usual  exaggeration  of 
discoverers,  painted  the  beauty  and  excellence  of  the 
country  in  such  glowing  colours  that  the  young 
prince,  in  the  warmth  of  admiration,  declared  that  it 
should  be  called  New  England;  a  name  which 
effaced  that  of  Virginia,  and  by  which  it  is  still  dis- 
tinguished. 

The  favourable  accounts  of"  the  country  by  Smith. 
as  well  as  the  success  of  his  voyage,  seem  to  have 
encouraged  private  adventurers"  to  prosecute  the 
trade  on  the  coast  of  New  England  with  greater 
briskness ;  but  did  not  inspire  the  languishing  con;- 
pany  of  Plymouth  with  such  vigour  as  to  make  any 
new  attempt  towards  establishing  a  permanent  colony 
there.  Something  more  than  the  prospect  of  distant 
gain  to  themselves  or  of  future  advantages  to  their 
country,  was  requisite  in  order  to  induce  men  to 
abandon  the  place  of  their  nativity  to  migrate  to 
another  quar&r  of  the  globe,  and  endure  innumera: 
ble  hardships  under  an  untried  climate,  and  in  an 
uncultivated  land  covered  with  woods,  or  occupied 
by  fierce  and  hostile  tribes  of  savages.  But  what  mere 
attention  to  private  emolument  or  to  national  utility 
CJuld  not  affect  was  accomplished  by  tho  operation  of 
a  higher  principle.  Religion  had  gradually  excited 
among  a  great  body  of  the  people  a  spirit  that  fitted 
them  remarkably  for  encountering  the  dangers,  and 
surmounting  the  obstacles  which  had  hitherto  rendered 
abortive  the  schemes  of  colonization  in  that  part  of 
THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA,  No.  29. 


America  allotted  to  the  company  of  Plymouth.  As 
the  various  settlements  in  New  England  are  in- 
debted for  their  origin  to  this  spirit,  as  in  the  course 
of  our  narrative  we  shall  discern  its  influence  min- 
gling in  all  their  transactions,  and  giving  a  peculiar 
tincture  to  the  character  of  the  people  as  well  as  to 
their  institutions,  both  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  it 
becomes  necessary  to  trace  its  rise  and  progress  with 
attention  and  accuracy. 

When  the  superstitions  and  corruptions  of  the 
Romish  church  prompted  different  nations  of  Europe 
to  throw  off  its  yoke  and  to  withdraw  from  its  com- 
munion, the  mode  as  well  as  degree  of  their  separa- 
tion was  various.  Wherever  reformation  was  sud- 
den, and  carried  on  by  the  people  without  authority 
from  their  rulers,  or  in  opposition  to  it,  the  rupture 
was  violent  and  total.  Every  part  of  the  ancient 
fabric  was  overturned,  and  a  different  system,  not 
»nly  with  fespect  to  doctrine,  but  to  church  govern- 
ment and  the  external  rites  of  worship,  was  esta- 
blished. Calvin,  who  by  his  abilities,  learning,  and 
austerity  of  manners,  had  acquired  high  reputation 
and  authority  in.  the  Protestant  churches,  was  a 
zealous  advocate'for  this  plan  of  thorough  reforma- 
tion. He  exhibited  a  model  of  that  pure  form  of 
ecclesiastical  policy  which  he  approved  in  the 
constitution  of  the  church  of  Geneva.  The  simpli- 
city of  its  institutions,  and  still  more  their  repug- 
nancy to  those  of  the  popish  church,  were  so  much 
admired  by  all. the  stricter  reformers  that  it  was  co- 
pied, with  some  small  variations,  in  Scotland,  in  the 
republic  of  the  United  Provinces,  in  the  dominions  of 
the  house  of  Brandenburg,  in  those  'of  the  elector 
Palatine,  and  in  the  churches  of  the  Hugonots  in 
France. 

But  in  those  countries  where  the  steps  of  depar- 
ture from  the  church  of  Rome  were  taken  with 
greater  deliberation,  and  regulated  by  the  wisdom  or 
policy  of  the  supreme  magistrate,  the  separation  was 
not  so  wide.  Of  all  the  reformed  churches  that  of 
England  has  deviated  least  from  the  ancient  institu- 
tions. The  violent  but  capricious  spirit  of  Henry 
VIII.,  who,  though  he  disclaimed  the  supremacy, 
revered  the  tenets  of  the  papal  see,  checked  innova- 
tions in  doctrine  or  worship  during  his  reign.  When 
his  son  ascended  the  throne  and  the  Protestant  reh^ 
gion  was  established  by  law,  the  cautious  prudence 
of  Archbishop  Cranmer  moderated  the  zeal  of  those 
who  had  espoused  the  new  opinions.  Though  the 
articles  to  be  recognized  as  the  system  of  national 
faith  were  framed  conformably  to  the  doctrines  of 
Calvin,  his  notions  with  respect  to  church  govern- 
ment and  the  inode  of  worship  were  not  adopted. 
As  the  hierarchy  in  England  was  incorporated  with 
the  civil  policy  of  the  kingdom,  and  constituted  a 
member  of  the  legislature,  archbishops  and  bishops, 
with  all  the  subordinate  ranks  of  ecclesiastics  subject 
to  them,  were  continued  according  to  ancient  form, 
and  with  the  same  dignity  and  jurisdiction.  The 
peculiar  vestments  in  which  the  clergy  performed 
their  sacred  functions,  bowing  at  the  name  of  Jesus, 
kneeling  at  receiving  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's 
supper,  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  baptism,  the  use  of 
the  ring  in  marriage,  with  several  other  rites  to 
which  long  usage  had  accustomed  the  people,  and 
which  time  had  rendered  venerable,  were  still  re- 
tained. But  though  parliament  enjoined  the  ob- 
servance of  these  ceremonies  under  very  severe  p-'- 
nalties,  several  of  the  more  zealous  clergy  enter- 
tained scruples  with  respect  to  the  lawfulness  of  com- 
with  this  injunction  :  and  the  vigilance  and 
v  of  Cranmer  and  Ridley  with  difficulty  saved 
2  G  ' 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


their  infant  church  from  the  disgrace  oi'  a  schism  on  j 
this  account. 

On  the  accession  of  Mary,  the  furious  zeal  with 
which  she  persecuted  all  who  had  adopted  the  tenets 
of  the  reformers  forced  many  eminent  Protestants, 
laymen  as  well  as  ecclesiastics,  to  seek  an  asylum  on 
the  continent.  Frankfort,  Geneva,  Basil,  and  Stras- 
burgh  received  them  with  affectionate  hospitality  as 
sufferers  in  the  cause  of  truth,  and  the  magistrates 
permitted  them  to  assemble  by  themselves  for  reli- 
gious worship.  The  exiles  who  took  up  their  resi- 
dence in  the  two  former  cities,  modelled  their  little 
congregations  according  to  the  ideas  of  Calvin,  and 
with  a  spirit  natural  to  men  in  their  situation,  eagerly 
adopted  institutions  which  appeared  to  be  further 
removed  from  the  superstitions  of  popery  than  those 
of  their  own  church.  They  returned  to  England  as 
soon  as  Elizabeth  re-established  the  Protestant  reli- 
gion, not  only  with  more  violent  antipathy  to  the 
opinions  and  practices  of  that  church  by  which  they 
had  been  oppressed,  but  with  a  strong  attachment  to 
that  mode  of  worship  to  which  they  had  been  for 
some  years  accustomed.  As  they  were  received  by 
their  countrymen  with  the  veneration  due  to  confes- 
sors, they  exerted  all  the  influence  derived  from  that 
opinion,  in  order  to  obtain  such  a  reformation  in  the 
English  ritual  as  might  bring  it  nearer  to  the  stand- 
ard of  purity  in  foreign  churches.  Some  of  the 
queen's  most  confidential  ministers  were  warmly 
disposed  to  co-operate  with  them  in  this  measure. 
But  Elizabeth  paid  little  regard  to  the  inclinations  of 
the  one  or  the  sentiments  of  the  other.  Fond  of 
pomp  and  ceremony,  accustomed,  according  to  the 
mode  of  that  age,  to  study  religious  controversy,  and 
possessing,  like  her  father,  such  coniidence  in  her 
uwn  understanding,  that  she  never  doubted  her  capa- 
city to  judge  and  decide  with  respect  to  every  point 
in  dispute  between  contending  sects,  she  chose  to 
act  according  to  her  own  ideas,  which  led  her  rather 
to  approach  nearer  to  the  church  of  Rome,  in  the 
parade  of  external  worship,  than  to  widen  the  breach 
by  abolishing  any  rite  already  established.  An  act 
of  parliament,  in  the  first  year  of  her  reign,  not  only 
required  an  exact  conformity  to  the  mode  of  worship 
prescribed  in  the  service-book,  under  most  rigorous 
penalties,  but  empowered  the  queen  to  enjoin  the 
observance  of  such  additional  ceremonies  as  might 
tend,  in  her  opinion,  to  render  the  public  exercises  of 
devotion  more  decent  and  edifying. 

The1  advocates  for  a  further  reformation,  notwith- 
standing this  cruel  disappointment  of  the  sanguine 
hopes  with  which  they  returned  to  their  native 
country,  did  not  relinquish  their  design.  They  dis- 
seminated their  opinions  with  great  industry  among 
the  people.  They  extolled  the  purity  of  foreign 
churches,  and  inveighed  against  the  superstitious 
practices  with  which  religion  was  defiled  in  their  own 
church.  In  vain  did  the  defenders  of  the  established 
system  represent  that  these  forms  and  ceremonies 
were  in  themselves  things  perfectly  indifferent,  which, 
from  long  usage,  were  viewed  with  reverence ;  and, 
by  their  impression  .upon  the  senses  and  imagina- 
tion tended  not  only  to  fix  the  niu-ntion  but  to  affect 
the  heart,  and  to  warm  it  with  davout  and  worthy 
sentiments.  The  puritans  (for  by  that  name  such  as 
scrupled  to  comply  with  what  was  enjoined  by  the 
act  of  uniformity  were  distinguished),  maintained 
that  the  rites  in  question  were  inventions  of  men, 
superadded  to  the  simple  and  reasonable  service  re- 
quired in  the  word  of  God;  that  from  the  excessive 
solicitude  with  which  conformity  to  them  was  ex- 
a,cted,  the  multitude  must  conceive  such  a  hi»h  oi>i- 


nion  of  their  value  and  importance,  as  might  induce 
them  to  rest  satisfied  with  the  mere  form  and  shadow 
of  religion,  and  to  imagine  that  external  observances 
may  compensate  for  the  w^ant  of  inward  sanctity; 
that  ceremonies  which  had  been  long  employed  by  a 
society  manifestly  corrupt,  to  veil  its  own  defects, 
and  to  seduce  and  fascinate  mankind,  ought  now  to 
be  rejected  as  relics  of  superstition  unworthy  of  a 
place  in  a  church  which  gloried  in  the  name  of  Re- 
formed. 

The  people,  to  whom  in  every  religious  controversy 
the  final  appeal  is  made,  listened  to  the  arguments  of 
the  contending  parties ;  and  it  is  obvious  to  which  of 
them  men,  who  had  lately  beheld   the  superstitious 
spirit  of  popery,  and  felt  its  persecuting  rage,  would 
lend  the  most  favourable  ear.     The  desire  of  a  fur- 
ther separation  from  the  church  of  Rome  spread  wide 
through  the  nation.     The  preachers  who  contended 
for  this,  and  who   refused  to  wear  the  surplice  and 
other  vestments  peculiar  to  their  ordc>r,  or  to  observe 
the  ceremonies  enjoined  by  law,  were  followed  and 
admired,  while  the  ministry  of  the  zealous  advocales 
for  conformity  was  deserted,   and  their  persons  often 
exposed  to  insult.     For  some  time  the  non-confor- 
mists were  connived  at;  but  as   their  number  and 
boldness  increased,  the  interposition  both  of  spiritual 
and  civil  authority  was  deemed  necessary  in  order  to 
check  their  progress.     To  the  disgrace  of  Christians 
the  sacred  rights  of  conscience  and  private  judgment, 
as  well  as  the  charity  and  mutual  forbearance  suita- 
ble to  the  mild  spirit'of  the  religion  which  they  pro- 
fessed, were  in  that  age  little  understood.     Not  only 
the  idea  of  toleration  but  even  the  word  itself  in  the 
sense  now  affixed  to  it,  was  then  unknown.     Every 
church  claimed  a  right  to  employ  the  hand  of  power 
for  the  protection   of  truth  and  the  extirpation    of 
error.     The  laws  of  her  kingdom  armed  Elizabeth 
with  ample  authority  for  this  purpose,  and  she  was 
abundantly  disposed  to  exercise  it  with   full  vigour. 
Many  of  the  most  eminent  among  the  puritan  clergy 
were  deprived  of  their  benefices,   others  were  impri- 
soned, several  were  fined,  and  some  put  to  death. 
But  persecution,  as  usually  happens,  instead  of  ex- 
tinguishing, inflamed  their  zeal  to  such  a  height  that 
the  jurisdiction   of  the  ordinary  courts   of  law  was 
deemed  insufficient  to  suppress  it,  and  a  new  tribu- 
nal was  established  under  the  title  of  the  hiyh  com- 
mixsiun  for  ecclesiastical   affairs,   whose   powers  and 
mode  of  procedure  were  hardly  less  odious  or  lesi 
hostile  to  the  principles  of  justice  than  those  of  the 
Spanish  inquisition.     Several  attempts   were  made 
in  the  House  of  Commons  to   check  these  arbitrary 
proceedings,  and  to  moderate  the  rage  of  persecu- 
tion ;   but  the  queen  always  imposed  silence  upon 
those  who  presumed  to  deliver  any  opinion  with  re- 
spect to  a  matter  appertaining  solely  to  her  prero- 
gative, in  a  tone  as  imperious  and  arrogant  as  was 
ever  used  by  Henry  VIII.  in  addressing  his  parlia- 
ments ;  and  so  tamely  obsequious  were  the  guardians 
of  the   people's   rights    that  they  not   only   obeyed 
those  unconstitutional  commands,  but  consented  to 
an  act  by  which   every  person   who  should  absent 
himself  from  church  during  a  month  was  subjected 
to   punishment  by  fine   and  imprisonment ;    and  if 
after  conviction   lie  did  not  within  three  months   re- 
nounce his  erroneous  opinions  and   conform  to  th^ 
laws,  he  was  then  obliged  to  abjure  the  realm ;   but 
if  he  either  refused  to  comply  with  this  condition,  or 
returned  from  banishment,  he  should  be  put  to  death 
as  a  felon  without,  benefit  of  clergy. 

By  this  iniquitous  statute,   equally  repugnant  to 
ias  of  civ1'!  n--1,  of  reliarious  libertv.  the  puritans 


ideas  of 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


were  cut  off  from  any  hope  of  obtaining  either  refor- 
mation in  the  church  or  indulgence  to  themselves. 
Exasperated  by  this  rigorous  treatment  their  antipa- 
thy to  the  established  religion  increased,  andwiih 
the  progress  natural  to  violent  pas.- ion?,  carried 
them  fur  bevond  what  was  their  original  aim.  The 
firs*  puritans  did  not  entertain  any  scruples  with 
respect  to  the  lawfulness  of  episcopal  government, 
and  seem  to  have  been  very  unwilling  to  withdraw 
from  communion  with  the  church  of  which  they  were 
members.  But  when  they  were  thrown  out  of  her 
bosom,  and  constrained  to  hold  separate  assemblies 
for  the  worship  of  God,  their  followers  no  longer 
viewed  a  society  by  which  they  were  oppressed,  with 
reverence  or  affection.  Her  government.,  her  disci- 
pline, her  ritual,  were  examined  with  minute  atten- 
tion. Every  error  was  pointed  out,  and  every  defect 
magnified.  The  more  boldly  any  preacher  inveighed 
against  the  corruptions  of  the  church  he  was  listened 
to  with  greater  approbation ;  and  the  further  he 
urged  his  disciples  to  depart  from  such  an  impure 
community,  the  more  eagerly  did  they  follow  him. 
By  degrees  ideas  of  ecclesiastical  policy,  altogether 
repugnant  to  those  of  the  established  church,  gained 
ioo  ing  iu  the  nation.  The  more  sober  and  learned 
puritans  inclined  to  that  form  which  is  known  by  the 
name  of  Presbyterian.  Such  as  were  more  tho- 
roughly possessed  with  the  spirit  of  innovation, 
luiwem-r  much  they  might  approve  the  equality  of 
pastors  which  that  system  establishes,  reprobated' the 
authority  which  it  vests  in  various  judicatories,  de- 
scending from  one  to  another  in  regular  subordina- 
tion, as  inconsistent  with  Christian  liberty. 

These  wild  notions  floated  for  some  time  in  the 
minds  of  the  people,  and  amused  them  with  many 
ideal  schemes  of  ecclesiastical  policy.  At  length 
Robert  Brown,  a  popular  declaimer  in  high  estima- 
tion, reduced  them  to  a  system  on  which  he  mo- 
delled his  own  congregation.  He  taught  that  the 
church  of  England  was  corrupt  and  autichristian,  its 
ministers  not  lawfully  ordained,  its  ordinances  and 
sacraments  invalid  ;  and  therefore  he  prohibited  his 
people  to  hold  communion  with  it  in  any  religious 
function.  He  maintained  that  a  society  of  Christians, 
uniting  together  to  worship  God,  constituted  a  church 
possessed  of  complete  jurisdiction  in  the  conduct  of ; 
its  own  affairs,  independent  of  any  other  society, 
and  unaccountable  to  any  superior ;  that  the  priest- 
hood was  neither  a  distinct  order  in  the  church,  nor 
conferred  an  indelible  character ;  but  that  every  man 
qualified  to  teach  might  be  set  apart  for  that  office 
by  the  election  of  the  brethren,  and  by  imposition  of 
their  hands:  in  like  manner,  by  their  authority,  he 
might  be  discharged  from  that  function  and  reduced 
to  the  rank  of  a  private  Christian  ;  that  every  person, 
when  admitted  a  member  of  a  church,  ought  to  make 
a  public  confession  of  his  faith,  and  give  evidence 
of  his  being  in  a  state  of  favour  with  God;  and  that 
all  the  affairs  of  a  church  were  to  be  regulated  by 
the  decision  of  the  majority  of  its  members. 

This  democratical  form  of  government,  which  abo- 
lished all  distinction  of  ranks  in  the  church,  and 
conferred  an  equal  portion  of  power  on  every  indi 
vidual,  accorded  so  perfectly  with  the  levelling  ge- 
nius of  fanaticism  that  it  was  fondly  adopted  by 
many  as  a  complete  model  of  Christian  policy.  From 
their  founder  they  were  denominated  Brownists  ;  and 
as  their  tenets  were  more  hostile  to  the  established 
religion  than  those  of  other  separatists,  the  fiercest 
storm  of  persecution  fell  upon  their  heads.  Many  of 
them  were  lined  or  imprisoned,  and  some  put  to 
death:  and  though  Brown,  with  a  levity  of  which 


there  are  few  examples  among  enthusiasts  whose  vu- 
nity  has  been  soothed  by  being  recognized  as  heads 
of  a  party,  abandoned  his  disciples,  conformed  to 
the  established  religion,  and  accepted  of  a  benefice 
in  the  church,  the  sect  not  only  subsisted  but  conti- 
nued to  spread,  especially  among  persons  in  the 
mi. idle  and  lower  ranks  of  life.  But  as  all  their 
motions  were  carefully  watched  both  by  the  eccle- 
siastical and  civil  courts,  which,  as  often  as  they 
were  detected,  punished  them  with  the  utmost  rigour, 
a  body  of  them,  weary  of  living  in  a  state  of  conti- 
nual danger  and  alarm,  fled  to  Holland,  and  settled 
in  Leyden,  under  the  care  of  Mr.  John  Robinson, 
their  pastor.  There  they  resided  for  several  years 
unmolested  and  obscure.  But  many  of  their  ;<ged 
members  dying,  and  some  of  the  younger  marrying 
into  Dutch  families,  while  their  church  received  no 
increase,  either  by  recruits  from  England  or  by  pro- 
selytes gained  in  the  country,  they  began  to  be  afraid 
that  all  their  high  attainments  in  spiritual  know- 
ledge would  be  lost,  and  that  perfect  fabric  of  policy 
which  they  had  erected  would  be  dissolved  and  con- 
signed to  oblivion,  if  they  remained  longer  in  a. 
strange  land. 

Bej-ply  affected   with  the  prospect  of  an    event, 
which   to   them  appeared  fatal  to   the  interests   of 
:  truth,   they  thought  themselvqs  called,  in   order  to 
prevent  it,  to  remove  to  some  other  place  where  they 
might  profess   and    propagate  their   opinions   with 
greater  success.     America,   in  which  their  country- 
men were   at  that  time  intent  ou  planting  colonies, 
i  presented  itself  to  their  thoughts.     They  flattered 
themselves  with   hopes  of  being  permitted,   in  that 
remote  region,  to  follow  their  own  ideas  in  religion 
without  disturbance      The  dangers  and  hardships  to 
j  which  all  former  emigrants  to   America   had   been 
i  exposed,  did   not    deter    them.     "  They  were   well 
weaned  (according  to  their  own  description)  from  the 
j  delicate  milk  of  their  mother  country,  and  inured  to 
the  difficulties  of  a  strange  land.     They  were  knit 
;  together  in  a  strict  and  sacred  band,  by  virtue  of 
i  wliich  they  held  themselves  obliged  to  take  care  of 
the  good  of  each  other,  and  of  the  whole.     It  was  not 
with   them   as  with  other  men,  whom  small  things 
;  could  discourage,  or  small  discontents  cause  to  wish 
themselves  at   home  again."     The    first   object  of 
their  solicitude  was  to  secure  the  free   exercise  of 
their  religion.     For  this  purpose  they  applied  to  the 
'  king ;  and  though  James  refused  to  give  them  any 
explicit  assurance   of  toleration,  they  seem  to  have 
obtained  from  him  some  prou:ise  of  his  connivance 
as  long  as  they  continued   to  demean  themselves 
quietly.     So  eager  were   they  to    accomplish  their 
favourite  scheme,  that    relying  on   this   precarious 
security,  they  began  to  negotiate  with  the  Virginian 
company  for  a  tract  of  land  within  the  limits  of  their 
patent.     This  they  easily  procured   from  a  society 
desirous  of  encouraging  migration  to  a  vast  country, 
of  which  they  had  hitherto   occupied  only   a  few 
spots. 

After  the  utmost  efforts  their  preparations  fell  far 
short  of  what  was  requisite  for  beginning  the  settle- 
ment .of  a  new  colony.  A  hundred  and  twenty  per- 
sons sailed  from  England  in  a  single  ship  on  this 
arduous  undertaking.  The  place  of  their  destination 
was  Hudson's  river,  where  they  intended  to  settle; 
but  their  captain  having  been  bribed,  as  is  said,  by 
the  Dutch,  who  had  then  formed  a  scheme,  which 
they  afterwards  accomplished,  of  establishing  a  co- 
lony there,  carried  them  so  far  towards  the  north, 
that,  the  firsthand  in  America  which  they  made  was 
Cape  Cod.  They  were  now  not  only  beyond  the 


228 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA, 


precincts  of  the  territory  which  had  been  granted  to 
them,  but  beyond  those  of  the  company  from  which 
they  derived  their  right.  The  season,  however,  was 
so  fur  advanced,  and  sickness  raged  so  violently 
among  men  unaccustomed  to  the  hardships  of  a  long 
voyage,  that  it  became  necessary  to  take  up  their 
abode  there.  After  exploring  the  coast,  they  chose 
for  their  station  a  place  now  belonging  to  the  pro- 
vince of  Massachusetts  Bay,  to  which  they  gave  the 
name  of  New  Plymouth,  probably  out  of  respect  to 
that  company  within  whose  jurisdiction  they  now 
found  themselves  situated. 

No  season  could  be  more  unfavourable  to  settle- 
ment than  that  in  which  the  colony  landed.  The 
winter,  which  from  the  predominance  of  cold  in 
America,  is  rigorous  to  a  degree  unknown  in  paral- 
lel latitudes  of  our  hemisphere,  was  already  set  in  ; 
and  they  were  slenderly  provided  with  what  was  re- 


quisite for  comfortable   subsistence,  under  a  climate  |  proceed  to  relate, 
considerably  more  severe  than  that  for  which  they        The  original  c 


cial,  and  the  supply  sent  them  by  their  friends  so 
scanty,  that  at  the  end  of  ten  years  the  number  of 
people  belonging  to  the  settlement  did  not  exceed 
three  hundred.  During  some  years  they  appear  not 
to  have  acquired  right,  by  any  legal  conveyance,  to 
the  territory  which  they  had  occupied.  At  length 
they  obtained  a  grant  of  property  from  the  council  of 
the  New  Plymouth  company,  but  were  never  incor- 
porated as  a  body  politic  by  royal  charter.  Unlike 
all  the  other  settlements  in  America,  this  colony 
must  be  considered  merely  as  a  voluntary  association 
held  together  by  the  tacit  consent  of  its  members  U> 
recognize  the  authority  of  laws,  arid  submit  to  the 
jurisdiction  of  magistrates,  framed  and  chosen  by 
themselves.  In  this  state  it  remained  an  independ- 
ent but  feeble  community  until  it  was  united  to  its 
more  powerful  neighbour,  the  colony  of  Massachu- 
setts bay,  the  origin  and  progress  of  which  I  now 


considerably 

had  made  preparation. 


they 
Above  one  half  of  them  wa: 


company  of  Plymouth   having  dono 
effectual  towards  establishing  any  permanent 


r__r ,  nothing  __ 

cut  off  before  the  return  of  spring  by  diseases,  or  by  I  settlement  in  America,  James  I.  in  the  year  one 
famine  ;  the  survivors,  instead  of  having  leisure  to  j  thousand  six  hundred  and  twenty  issued  a  new  char  - 
attend  to  the  supply  of  their  own  wants,  were  com-  j  tor  to  the  Duke  of  Lenox,  the  Marquis  of  Bucking 
polled  to  take  arms  against  the  savages  in  their  |  ham,  and  several  other  persons  of  distinction  in  his 
neighbourhood.  Happily  for  the  English,  a  pesti-  j  court,  by  which  he  conveyed  to  them  a  right  to  a 
lence  which  raged  in  America  the  year  bc.'ore  they  J  territory  in  America  still  more  extensive  than  what 
landed,  ha  1  swept  off  so  great  a.  number  of  the  ua-  \  had  been  granted  to  the  former  patentees,  incorpo- 
tives  that  they  were  quickly  repulsed  and  humbled,  j  rating  them  as  a  body  politic,  in  order  to  plant  eolo- 
The  privilege  of  professing  their  own  opinions,  and  nics  there,  with  powers  and  jurisdictions  similar  ti> 
of  being  governed  by  laws  of  their  own  framing,  those  contained  in  his  charters  to  the  companies  of 
afforded  consolation  to  the  colonists  amidst  all  their  ;  South  and  North  Virginia.  This  society  was  cli;»- 
dangers  and  hardships.  The  constitution  of  their 
church  was  the  same  with  that  which  they  had  esta- 
blished in  Holland.  Their  system  of  civil  govern- 
ment was  founded  on  those  ideas  of  the  natural 
equality  among  men,  to  which  their  ecclesiastical 
policy  had  accustomed  them.  Every  free  man,  who 
was  a  member  of  the  church,  was  admitted  into  the 
supreme  legislative  body.  The  laws  of  England 


were  adopted   as   the   basis  of  their  jurisprudence, 
though  with  some  diversity  in  the  punishments  in- 


flicted upon  crimes,  borrowed  from  the  Mosaic  insti- 
tutions.    The    executive    power  was 
governor    and    some   assistants,   who 


vested    in    a 
were    elected 

annually  by  the  members  of  the  legislative  assembly. 

So  far  their  institutions  appear  to  be  founded  on  the 


tinguished  by  the  name  of  the  grand  council  of  Ply- 
mouth for  planting  and  governing  New  England. 
What  considerations  of  public  utility  could  induce 
the  king  to  commit  such  an  undertaking  to  persons 
apparently  so  ill  qualified  fur  conducting  it,  or  what 
prospect  of  private  advantage  prompted  them  to  en- 
gage in  it,  the  information  we  receive  from  contem- 
porary writers  does  not  enable  us  to  determine. 
Certain  it  is,  that  the  expectations  of  both  were  dis- 


appointed ;  and  after  many  schemes  and  arrange- 
ments, all  the  attempts  of  the  new  associates  towards 
colonization  proved  unsuccessful. 

New  England  must  have  remained  unoccupied  if 
the  same  causes  which  occasioned  the  emigration  of 
the  Brownists  had  not  continued  to  operate.  Not- 


ordinary  maxims  of  human  prudence.  But  it  was  a  j  withstanding  the  violent  persecution  to  which  puri- 
favourite  opinion  with  all  the  enthusiasts  of  that  age,  { tans  of  every  denomination  were  still  exposed,  their 
that  the  Scriptures  contained  a  complete  system  not  j  number  and  zeal  daily  increased.  As  they  now 
only  of  spiritual  instruction  but  of  civil  wisdom  and  j  despaired  of  obtaining  in  their  own  country  any 
polity  ;  and  without  attending  to  the  peculiar  circum-  relaxation  of  the  penal  statutes  enacted  against  their 
stances  or  situation  of  the  people  whose  history  is  sect,  many  began  to  turn  their  eyes  towards  some 
there  recorded^  they  often  deduced  general  rules  for 
their  own  conduct  from  what  happened  among  men 
in  a  very  different  state.  Under  the  influence  of  this 
wild  nation  the  colonists  of  New  Plymouth,  in  imita- 
tion of  the  primitive  Christians,  threw  all  their  pro- 
perty into  a  common  stock,  and,  like  members  of  one 
family,  carried  on  every  work  of  industry  by  their 
joint  labour  for  public  behoof.  But,  however  this 
resolution  might  evidence  the  sincerity  of  their 
faith,  it  retarded  the  progress  of  their  colony.  The 
same  fatal  effects  flowed  from  this  community  of 
goods  and  of  labour,  which  had  formerly  been  expe- 
rienced in  Virginia ;  and  it  soon  became  necessary 
to  relinquish  what  was  too  refined  to  be  capable  of 
being  accommodated  to  the  affairs  of  men.  But 
though  they  built  a  small  town,  and  surrounded  it 
with  such  a  fence  as  afforded  sufficient  security 
against  the  assaults  of  Indians,  the  soil  around  it 
was  so  poor,  their  religious  principles  were  so  unso- 


other  place  of  retreat,  where  they  might  profess  their 
own  opinions  with  impunity.  From  the  tranquillity 
which  their  brethren  had  hitherto  enjoyed  in  New 
Plymouth,  they  hoped  to  find  this  desired  asylum  ia 
New  England;  and  by  the  activity  of  Mr.  White,  a 
non-conformist  minister  at  Dorchester,  an  associa- 
tion was  formed  by  several  gentlemen  who  had  im- 
bibed puritanical  notions  in  order  to  conduct  a  co- 
lony thither.  They  purchased  from  the  council  of 
Plymouth  all  the  territory,  extending  in  length  from 
three  miles  north  of  the  river  Merrimack,  to  three 
miles  south  of  Charles  river,  and  in  breadth,  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Southern  ocean.  Zealous  as 
these  proprietors  were  to  accomplish  their  favourite 
purpose,  they  quickly  perceived  their  own  inability 
to  attempt  the  population  of  such  an  immense 
region,  and  deemed  it  necessary  to  call  in  the  aid 
of  more  opulent  co-partners. 

Of  these  they  found,  without  difficulty,  a  sufficient 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


229 


number,  chiefly  in  the  capital,  and  among  persons  in 
the  commercial  and  other  industrious  walks  of  life, 
who  had  openly  joined  the  sect  of  the  puritans,  or 
secretly  favoured  their  opinions.  These  new  adven- 
turers, with  the  caution  natural  to  men  conversant 
in  business,  entertained  doubts  concerning  the  pro- 
priety of  founding  a  colony  on  the  basis  of  a  grant 
from  a  private  company  of  patentees,  who  might 
convey  a  right  of  property  in  the  soil,  but  could  not 
confer  jurisdiction,  or  the  privilege  of  governing  that 
society  which  they  had  in  contemplation  to  esta- 
blish. As  it  was  only  from  royal  authority  that  such 
powers  could  be  derived,  they  applied  for  these ;  and 
Charles  granted  their  request  with  a  facility  which 
appears  astonishing,  when  we  consider  the  principles 
and  views  of  the  men  who  were  suitors  for  the 
favour. 

Time  has  been  considered  as  the  parent  of  politi- 
cal wisdom,  but  its  instructions  are  communicated 
slowly.  Although  the  experience  of  above  twenty 
years  might  have  taught  the  English  the  impropriety 
of  committing  the  government  of  settlements  in 
America  to  exclusive  corporations  resident  in  Europe, 
neither  the  king  nor  his  subjects  had  profited  so 
much  by  what  passed  before  their  eyes  as  to  have 
extended  their  ideas  beyond  those  adopted  by  James 
in  his  first  attempts  towards  colonization.  The 
charter  of  Charles  I.  to  the  adventurers  associated 
for  planting  the  province  of  Massachusetts  bay  was 
perfectly  similar  to  those  granted  by  his  father  to  the 
two  Virginian  companies  and  to  the  council  of  Ply- 
mouth. The  new  adventures  were  incorporated  as 
as  a  body  politic,  and  their  right  to  the  territory, 
which  they  had  purchased  from  the  council  at  Ply- 
mouth, being  confirmed  by  the  king,  they  were  em- 
powered to  dispose  of  the  lands,  and  to  govern  the 
people  who  should  settle  upon  them.  The  first  go- 
vernor of  the  company  and  his  assistants  were 
named  by  the  crown  ;  the  right  of  electing  their  suc- 
cessors was  vested  in  the  members  of  the  corporation. 
The  executive  power  was  committed  to  the  governor 
and  assistants  ;  that  of  legislation  to  the  body  of 
proprietors,  who  might  make  statutes  and  orders  for 
the  good  of  the  community,  not  inconsistent  with  the 
'aws  of  England,  and  enforce  the  observance  of 
friem,  according  to  the  course  of  other  corporations 
within  the  realm.  Their  lauds  were  to  be  held  by 
tit  same  liberal  tenure  with  those  granted  to  the 
^  i'ginian  company.  They  obtained  the  same  tempo- 
ran  exemption  from  internal  taxes,  and  from  duties 
on  foods  exported  or  imported  ;  and  notwithstanding 
theii  migration  to  America,  they  and  their  descend- 
ants veie  declared  to  be  entitled  to  all  the  rights  of 
naturd-born  subjects. 

The  manifest  object  of  this  charter  was  to  confer 
on  the  adventurers  who  undertook  to  people  the  ter- 
ritory «i  Massachusetts  bay,  all  the  corporate 
rights  possessed  by  the  council  of  Plymouth,  from 
which  th«y  had  purchased  it,  and  to  form  them  into 
a  public  tody,  resembling  other  great  trading  compa- 
nies, whici  the  spirit  of  monarchy  had  at  that  time 
multiplied  in  the  kingdom.  The  king  seems  not  to 
have  foreseen,  or  to  have  suspected  the  secret  inten- 
tions of  those  who  projected  tiie  measure  ;  for  so  far 
was  he  from  alluring  emigrants,  by  any  hopes  of  in- 
dulgence with  respect  to  their  religious  scruples,  or 
from  promising  any  relaxation  from  the  rigour  of 
the  penal  statutes  against  non-conformists,  that  he 
expressly  provides  for  having  the  oath  of  supremacy 
administered  to  every  person  who  shall  pass  to  the 
colony,  or  inhabit  there. 

But  whatever  vere  the  intentions  of  the  king,  the 


adventurers  kept  their  own  object  steadily  in  view. 
Soon  after  their  powers  to  establish  a  colony  were 
rendered  complete  by  the  royal  charter,  they  fitted 
out  five  ships  for  New  England ;  on  board  of  which 
embarked  upwards  of  three  hundred  passengers  with 
a  view  of  settling  there.  These  were  mostly  zealous 
puritans,  whose  chief  inducement  to  relinquish  their 
native  land  was  the  hope  of  enjoying  religious  liberty 
in  a  country  far  removed  from  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment and  the  oppression  of  ecclesiastical  courts. — 
Some  eminent  non-couf  jrmist  ministers  accompanied 
them  as  their  spiritual  instructors.  On  their  arrival 
in  New  England  they  found  the  wretched  remainder 
of  a  small  body  of  emigrants,  who  had  left  England 
the  preceding  year,  under  the  conduct  of  Endicott, 
a  deep  enthusiast,  whom,  prior  to  their  incorpora- 
tion by  the  royal  charter,  the  associates  had  ap- 
pointed deputy-governor.  They  were  settled  at  a 
place  called  by  the  Indians  Nauuekeag,  and  to 
which  Endicott,  with  the  fond  affectation  of  fanatics 
of  that  age  to  employ  the  language  and  appellations 
of  Scripture  in  the  affairs  of  common  life,  had  given 
the  name  of  Salem. 

The  emigrants  under  Endicott,  and  'such  as  now 
joined  them,  coincided  perfectly  in  religious  princi- 
ples. They  were  puritans  of  the  strictest  form  ;  and 
to  men  of  this  character  the  institution  of  a  church 
was  naturally  of  such  interesting  concern  as  to  tako 
place  of  every  other  object.  In  this  first  transaction 
they  displayed  at  once  the  extent  of  the  reformation 
at  which  they  aimed.  Without  regard  to  the  senti- 
ments of  that  monarch  under  the  sanction  of  whose 
authority  they  settled  in  America,  and  from  whom 
they  derived  right  to  act  as  a  body  politic,  and  in 
contempt  of  the  laws  of  England,  with  which  the 
charter  required  that  none  of  their  acts  or  ordinances 
should  be  inconsistent,  they  adopted  in  their  infant 
church  that  form  of  policy  which  has  since  been  dis- 
tinguished by  the  name  of  independent.  They  united 
together  in  religious  society,  by  a  solemn  covenant 
with  God  and  with  one  another,  and  in  strict  con- 
formity, as  they  imagined,  to  the  rules  of  Scripture. 
They  elected  a  pa?tor,  a  teacher,  and  an  elder,  whom 
they  set  apart  for  their  respective  offices,  by  imposi- 
tion of  the  hands  of  the  brethren.  All  \vho  were  that 
day  admitted  membeis  of  the  church  signified  their 
assent  to  a  confession  of  faith  drawn  up  by  their 
teacher,  and  gave  an  account  of  the  foundation  of 
their  own  hopes  as  Christians  ;  and  it  was  declared 
that  no  person  should  hereafter  be  received  into 
communion  until  he  gave  satisfaction  to  the  church 
with  respect  to  his  faith  and  sanctity.  The  form  of 
public  worship  which  they  instituted  was  without  a 
liturgy,  disencumbered  of  every  superfluous  ceremo- 
ny, and  reduced  to  the  lowest  standard  of  Calvinistic 
simplicity. 

It  was  with  the  utmost  complacence  that  men 
passionately  attached  to  their  own  notions,  and  who 
had  long  been  restrained  from  avowing  them,  em- 
ployed themselves  in  framing  this  model  of  a  pure 
church.  But  in  the  first  moment  that  they  began 
to  taste  of  Christian  liberty  themselves,  they  forgot 
that  other  men  had  an  equal  title  to  enjoy  it.  Some 
of  their  number,  retaining  a  high  veneration  for  the 
ritual  of  the  English  church,  were  so  much  offended 
at  the  total  abolition  of  it,  that  they  withdrew  from 
communion  with  the  newly  instituted  church,  and 
assembled  separately  for  the  worship  of  God.  With 
an  inconsistency  of  which  there  are  such  flagrant 
instances  among  christians  of  every  denomination 
that  it  cannot  be  imputed  as  a  reproach  peculiar  to 
any  sect,  the  very  men  who  had  themselves  fled  from 


230  THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 

persecution  became  persecutors;  and  had  recourse,  in  the  other.  They  had  applied  for  a  royal  charter, 
in  order  to  enforce  their  own  opinions,  to  the  same  in  order  to  give  legal  effect  to  their  operations  in 
unhallowed  weapons,  against  the  employment  of  England,  as  acts  of  a  body  politic;  but  the  persons 
which  they  had  lately  remonstrated  with  so  much  (  whom  they  sent  out  to  America,  as  soon  as  they 
violence.  Endicott  called  the  two  chief  malcontents  landed  there,  considered  themselves  as  individuals 
before  him ;  and  though  they  were  men  of  note,  and  .  united  together  by  voluntary  association,  possessing 
among  the  number  of  original  patentees,  he  expelled  |  the  natural  right  of  men  who  form  a  society,  to  adopt 
them  from  the  society,  and  sent  them  home  in  the  ships  •  what  mode  of  government,  and  to  enact  what  laws, 
which  were  returning  to  England.  The  colonists  they  deemed  most  conducive  to  general  felicity, 
were  now  united  in  sentiments ;  but,  on  the  ap-  Upon  this  principle  of  being  entitled  to  judge 
proach  of  winter,  they  suffered  so  much  from  diseases,  I  and  to  decide  for  themselves,  they  established  their 
which  carried  off  almost  one  half  of  their  number.  |  church  in  Salem,  without  regard  to  the  institutions 
that  they  made  little  progress  in  occupying  the  !  of  the  church  of  England,  of  which  the  charter  sup- 
country,  j  posed  them  to  be  members,  and  bound  of  consequence 

Mea'n  while  the  directors  of  the  company  in  Eng-  j  to  conformity  with  its  ritual.  Suitably  to  the  same 
land  exerted  their  utmost  endeavours  in  order  to  •  ideas,  we  shall  observe  them  framing  all  their  future 
reinforce  the  colony  with  a  numerous  body  of  new  :  plans  of  civil  and  ecclesiastical  policy.  The  king, 
settlers ;  and  as  the  intolerant  spirit  of  Laud  exacted  ^  though  abundantly  vigilant  in  observing  and  check- 
conformity  to  all  the  injunctions  of  the  church  with  j  ing  slighter  encroachments  on  his  prerogative,  was 
greater  rigour  than  ever,  the  condition  of  such  as  \  either  so  much  occupied  at  that  time  with  other 
had  any  scruples  with  respect  to  this  became  so  cares,  occasioned  by  his  fatal  breach  with  his  pjiv- 
intolerable,  that  many  accepted  of  their  invitation  to  j  liament,  that  he  could  not  attend  to  the  proceedings 
a  secure  retreat  in  New  England.  Several  of  these  |  of  the  company ;  or  he  was  so  much  pleased  with 
•were  persons  of  greater  opulence  and  of  better  con-  •  the  prospect  of  removing  a  body  of  turbulent  subjects 
ditiori  than  any  who  had  hitherto  migrated  to  that '  to  a  distant  country,  where  they  might  be  useful, 
country.  But  as  they  intended  to  employ  their  ;  and  could  not  prove  dangerous,  that  he  was  disposed 
fortunes,  as  well  as  to  hazard  their  persons,  in  \  to  connive  at  the  irregularity  of  a  measure  which 
establishing  a  permanent  colony  there,  and  foresaw  facilitated  their  departure. 

many  inconveniences  from  their  subjection  to  laws  |  Without  interruption  from  the  crown,  the  adven- 
rnade  without  their  own  consent,  and  framed  by  a  j  turers  proceeded  to  carry  their  scheme  into  execution, 
society  which  must  always  be  imperfectly  acquainted  !  In  a  general  court,  John  Winthrop  was  appointed 
with  their  situation,  they  insisted  that  the  corporate  '  governor,  and  Thomas  Dudley  deputy -governor,  and 
powers,  of  the  company  should  be  transferred  from  eighteen  assistants  were  chosen;  in  whom,  together 
England  to  America,  and  the  government  of  the  with  the  body  of  freemen  who  should  settle  in  New 
colony  be  vested  entirely  in  those  who,  by  settling  England,  were  vested  with  all  the  corporate  rights 
in  the  latter  country,  became  members  of  it.  The  j  of  the  company.  With  such  zeal  and  activity  did 
company  had  already  expended  considerable  sums  in  :  they  prepare  for  emigration,  that  in  the  course  of  the 
prosecuting  the  designs  of  their  institution,  without  ensuing  year  seventeen  ships  sailed  for  New  Eng- 
having  received  almost  any  return,  and  had  no  land,  and  aboard  these  above  fifteen  hundred  per- 
prospect  of  gain,  or  even  of  reimbursement,  but  sons,  among  whom  were  several  of  respectable 
what  was  too  remote  and  uncertain  to  be  suitable  families,  and  in  easy  circumstances.  On  their  arrival 
to  the  ideas  of  merchants,  the  most  numerous  class  :  in  New  England,  many  were  so  ill  satisfied  with  the 
of  its  members.  They  hesitated,  however,  with  I  situation  of  Salem,  that  they  explored  the  countr 
respect  to  the  legality  of  granting  the  demand  of  the  •  in  quest  of  some  better  station;  and  settling  in  di.'- 
intended •emigrants.  But  such  was  their  eagerness  j  ferent  places  around  the  buy,  according  to  thnr 
to  be  disengaged  from  an  unpromising  adventure,  I  various  fancies,  laid  the  foundations  of  Boston, 
that,  "  by  general  consent  it  was  determined,  that  |  Charles  town,  Dorchester,  Roxborough,  and  ot'ier 
the  charter  should  be  transferred,  and  the  govern-'  towns,  which  have  since  become  considerable  in  the 
meut  be  settled  in  New  England."  To  the  members  !  province.  In  each  of  these  a  church  was  established 
of  the  corporation  who  chose  to  remain  at  home  !  on  the  same  model  with  that  of  Salem.  This,  tog.-ther 
was  reserved  a  share  in  the  trading  stock  and  '  with  the  care  of  making  provision  for  their  sabsis- 
profits  of  the  company  during  seven  years.  ;  tence  during  winter,  occupied  them  entirely  luring 

In  this  singular  transaction,  to  which  there  is  !  some  months.  But  in  the  first  general  court,  their 
nothing  similar  in  the  history  of  English  colonization,  j  disposition  to  consider  themselves  as  membe'S  of  an 
two  circumstances  merit  particular  attention  :  one  j  independent  society,  unconiined  by  the  regulations 
is  the  power  of  the  company  to  make  this  trans-  i  in  their  charter,  began  to  appear.  The  election  of 
ference ;  the  other  is  the  silent  acquiescence  with  j  the  governor  and  deputy-governor,  the  ap>ointment 
which  the  king  permitted  it  to  take  place.  If  the  j  of  all  other  officers,  and  even  the  power  jf  making 
validity  of  this  determination  of  the  company  be  j  laws,  all  which  were  granted  by  the  chirter  to  the 
tried  by  the  charter  which  constituted  it  a  body  i  freemen,  were  taken  from  them,  and  vested  in  the 
politic,  and  conveyed  to  it  all  the  corporate  powers  !  council  of  assistants.  But  the  aristooatical  spirit 
with  which  it  was  invested,  it  is  evident  that  it  could  I  of  this  resolution  did  not  accord  with  the  ideas  of 
neither  exercise  those  powers  in  any  mode  different  i  equality  prevalent  among  the  people,  who  had  been 
from  what  the  charter  prescribed,  nor  alienate  them  J  surprised  into  an  approbation  of  it.  Next  year  the 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  convert  the  jurisdiction  of  a  j  freemen,  whose  numbers  had  been  greatly  aug- 
trading  corporation  in  England  into  a  provincial !  mented  by  the  admission  of  new  members,  resumed 
government  in  America.  But  from  the  first  in-  |  their  former  rights. 


stitution  of  the  company  of  Massachusetts  bay,  its 
members  seem  to  have  been  animated  with  a  spirit 
of  innovation  in  civil  policy,  as  well  as  in  religion ; 
and  by  the  habit  of  rejecting  established  usages  in 
the  one,  they  were  prepared  for  deviating  from  them 


But,  at  the  same  time,  they  ventured  to  deviate 
from  the  charter  in  a  matter  of  greater  moment, 
which  deeply  affected  all  the  future  operations  of 
the  colony,  and  contributed  greatly  to  form  that 
peculiar  character  by  which  the  people  of  New  Eng- 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


231 


land  have  been  distinguished.  A  law  was  passed, 
declaring  that  none  shall  hereafter  be  admitted 
freemen,  ov  be  entitled  to  any  share  in  the  govern- 
ment, or  be  capable  of  being  chosen  magistrates,  or 
even  of  serving  as  jurymen,  but  such  as  have  been 
received  into  the  church  as  members.  By  this 
resolution,  every  person  who  did  not  hold  the  fa- 
vourite opinions  concerning  the  doctrines  of  religion, 
the  discipline  of  the  church,  or  the  rites  of  worship, 
was  at  once  cast  out  of  the  society,  and  stripped  of 
all  the  privileges  of  a  citizen.  An  uncontrolled 
pQwer  of  approving  or  rejecting  the  claims  of  those 
who  applied  for  admission  into  communion  with  the 
church  being  vested  in  the  ministers  and  leading 
men  of  each  congregation,  the  most  valuable  of  all 
civil  rights  was  made  to  depend  on  their  decision 
wuh  respect  to  qualifications  purely  ecclesiastical. 
As  in  examining  into  these  they  proceeded  not  by 
any  known  or  established  rules,  but  exercised  a  dis- 
cretionary judgment,  the  clergy  rose  gradually  to  a 
degree  of  influence  and  authority  from  which  the 
levelling  spirit  of  the  independent  church-policy  was 
calculated  to  exclude  them.  As  by  their  deter- 
mination the  political  condition  of  every  citizen  was 
fixed,  all  paid  court  to  men  possessed  of  &uch  an 
important  power,  by  assuming  those  austere  and 
sanctimonious  manners  which  were  known  to  be  the 
most  certain  recommendation  to  their  favour.  In 
consequence  of  this  ascendant,  which  was  acquired 
chiefly  by  the  wildest  enthusiasts  among  the  clergy, 
their  notions  became  a  standard  to  which  all  studied 
to  conform,  and  the  singularities  characteristic  of 
the  puritans  in  that  age  increased,  of  which  many 
reuiarkable  instances  will  occur  in  the  course  of  our 
narrative. 

Though  a  considerable  number  of  planters  was 
cut  off  by  the  diseases  prevalent  in  a  country  so  im- 
perfectly cultivated  by  its  original  inhabitants  as  to 
i*e  still  almost  one  continued  forest,  and  several, 
discouraged  by  the  hardships  to  which  they  were 
exposed,  returned  to  England,  recruits  sufficient  to 
replace  them  arrived.  At  the  same  time  the  small- 
pox, a  distemper  fatal  to  the  people  of  the  New- 
World,  swept  away  such  multitudes  of  the  natives, 
that  some  whole  tribes  disappeared ;  and  Heaven, 
by  thus  evacuating  a  country  in  which  the  English 
might  .settle  without  molestation,  was  supposed  to 
declare  its  intentions  that  they  should  occupy  it. 

As  several  of  the  vacant  Indian  stations  were  well 
chosen,  such  Avas  the  eagerness  of  the  English  to 
take  possession  of  them,  that  their  settlements  be- 
came more  numerous  and  more  widely  dispersed 
than  suited  the  condition  of  an  infant  colony.  This 
led  to  an  innovation  which  totally  altered  the  nature 
and  constitution  of  the  government.  When  a  general 
court  was  to  be  held  in  the  year  one  thousand  six 
hundred  and  thirty-four,  the  freemen,  instead  of 
attending  it  in  person,  as  the  charter  prescribed, 
elected  representatives  in  tlrjir  different  districts, 
authorizing  them  to  appoar  in  their  name,  with  full 
power  to  deliberate  and  decide  concerning  every  point 
that  fell  under  the  cognizance  of  the  general  court. 

Whether  this  measure  was  suggested  by  some  de- 
signing leaders,  or  whether  they  found  it  prudent  to 
soothe  the  people  by  comply  ing  with  their  inclination, 
is  unceitaiu.  The  representatives  were  admitted,  and 
considered  themselves,  in  conjunction  with  the  go- 
vernor and  assistants,as  the  supreme  legislative  assem- 
bly of  the  colony.  In  assertion  of  their  own  rights,  they 
enacted  that,  no  law  should  be  passed,  no  tax  should 
be  imposed,  and  no  public  officer  should  be  ap- 
pointed, but  in  the  general  assembly.  The  pretexts 


for  making  this  new  arrangement  were  plausible. 
The  number  of  freemen  was  greatly  increased;  many 
resided  at  a  distance  from  the  places  where  the  su- 
preme courts  were  held;  personal  attendance  became 
inconvenient ;  the  form  of  government  in  their  own 
country  had  rendered  familiar  the  idea  of  delegating 
their  rights,  and  committing  the  guardianship  of 
their  liberties,  to  representatives  of  their  own  choice, 
and  the  experience  of  agrs  had  taught  them  that  this 
important  trust  might  with  safety  be  lorlged  in  their 
hands.  Thus  did  the  company  of  Massachusetts 
bay,  in  less  than  six  years  from  its  incorporation  by 
the  kinir,  mature  and  perfect  a  scheme  which,  I 
have  already  observed,  some  of  its  more  artiiil  and 
aspiring  leaders  seem  to  have  had  in  view  when  the 
association  for  peopling  New  England  was  first 
formed.  The  colony  must  hencelimvard  be  con- 
sidered, not  as  a  corporation  whose  powers  were 
defined  and  its  mode  of  procedure  regulated  by  its 
charter,  but  as  a  society,  which,  having  acquired  or 
assumed  political  liberty,  had,  by  its  own  Voluntary 
deed,  adopted  a  constitution  or  government  framed 
on  the  model  of  that  in  England. 

But  however  liberal  their  system  of  civil  policy- 
might  be,  as  their  religious  opinions  were  no  longer 
under  any  restraint  of  authority,  the  spirit  of  fanati- 
cism continued  to  spread,  and  became  every  day 
wilder  and  more  extravagant.  Williams,  a  minister 
of  Salem,  in  high  estimation,  having  conceived  an 
antipathy  to  the  cross  of  St.  George  in  the  standard 
of  England,  declaimed  against  it  with  so  much 
vehemence,  as  a  relic  of  superstition  and  idolatry 
which  ought  not  to  be  retained  among  a  people  so 
pure  and  sanctified,  that  Emlicott,  one  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  court  of  assistants,  in  a  transport  of  zeal, 
publicly  cut  out  the  cross  from  the  ensign  displayed 
before 'the  governor's  gate.  This  frivolous  matter 
interested  and  divided  the  colony.  Some  of  the 
militia  scrupled  to  follow  colours  in  which  there  was 
a  cross,  lest  they  should  do  honour  to  an  idol :  others 
refused  to  serve  under  a  mutilated  banner,  lest  they 
should  be  suspected  of  having  renounced  their  alle- 
giance to  the  crown  of  England.  After  a  long 
controversy,  carried  on  by  both  parties  with  that 
heat  and  zeal  which  in  trivial  disputes  supply  the 
want  of  argument,  the  contest  was  terminated  by  a 
compromise.  The  cross  was  retained  in  the  ensigns 
of  forts  and  ships,  but  erased  from  the  colours  of  the 
militia.  Williams,  on  account  of  this-,  as  well  as 
!  of  some  other  doctrines  deemed  unsound,  was  ba- 
nished out  of  ihe  colony. 

The  prosperous  state  of  New  England  was  now  so 
I  highly  extolled,  and  the  simple  frame  of  its  ecclesi- 
\  astic  policy  was  so  much  admired  by  all  whose  affeo 
\  tions  were  estranged  from  the  church  of  England, 
!  that  crowds  of  new  settlers  flocked  thither-     Among 
these   were   two    persons,  whose    names  have   been 
rendered  memorable  by  the  appearance  which  they 
afterwards   made  on  a  more  conspicuous   theatre: 
;  one  was  Hugh  Peters,  the  enthusiastic  and  intriguing 
chaplain  of  Oliver  Cromwell ;  the  other  Mr.  Henry 
Vane,  son  of  Sir   Henry  Vane,   a  privy  counsellor, 
high  in  office,  and  of  great  credit  with  the  king ;  a 
young  man  of  a  noble  family,  animated  with  such 
zeal  for  pure   religion   and  such  love  of  liberty  as 
induced  him  to  relinquish  all  his  hopes  in  England, 
and  to  settle  in  a  colony  hitherto  no  further  advanced 
in  improvement  than  barely  to  afford  subsistence  to 
its  members,  was  received  with  the  fondest  admira- 
tion.    His  mortified  appearance,   his   demure  look, 
and  rigid  manners,  carried  even  beyond  the  standard 
of  preciseness    in    that   society   which    he   joined. 


THE  HISTORV  OF  AMERICA. 


seemed  to  indicate  a  mail  of  high  spiritual  attain-  j 
incnts,   while  his  abilities    and  address  in  business 
pointed  him  out  as  worthy  of  the  highest  station  in 
the  community.     With  universal  consent,  and  high 
expectations  of  advantage  from  his   administration,  | 
he  was  elected  governor  in  the  year  subsequent  to  i 
his  arrival.     But  as  the   affairs  of  an  infant  colony  | 
afforded  not  objects  adequate  to  the  talents  of  Vane,  j 
his  busy  pragmatical  spirit  occupied  itself  with  theo-  i 
logical  subtilties  and  speculations  unworthy  of  his  ' 
attention.     These  were  excited  by  a  woman,  whose  ! 
reveries  produced  such  effects  both  within  the  colony  | 
and  beyond  its  precincts,  that,  frivolous   as    they  j 
may  now  appear,   they  must  be  mentioned  as  an  oc-  i 
currence  of  importance  in  its  history. 

It  was  the  custom  at  that  time  in  New  England,  i 
among  the  chief  men  in  every  congregation,  to  I 
meet  once  a  week,  in  order  to  repeat  the  sermons  ; 
which  they  had  heard,  and  to  hold  religious  confer-  j 
ence  with  respect  to  the  doctrine  contained  in  them,  j 
Mrs.Hutchinsou,  whose  husband  was  among  the  most  i 
respectable  members  of  the  colony,  regretting  that  J 
persons  of  her  sex  were  excluded  from  the  benefit  of ; 
those  meetings,  assembled  statedly  in  her  house  j 
a  number  of  women,  who  employed  themselves  in 
pious  exercises  similar  to  those  of  the  men.  At  first 
she  satisfied  herself  with  repeating  what  she  could 
recollect  of  the  discourses  delivered  by  their  teachers. 
She  began  afterwards  to  add  illustrations,  and  at 
length  proceeded  to  censure  some  of  the  clergy  as 
unsound,  and  to  vent  opinions  and  fancies  of  her 
own.  These  were  all  founded  on  the  system  which 
is  denominated  Antinomian  by  divines,  and  tinged 
with  the  deepest  enthusiasm.  She  taught,  that  sanc- 
tity of  life  is  no  evidence  of  justification,  or  of  a 
state  of  favour  with  God ;  an  I  that  such  as  incul- 
cated the  necessity  of  manifesting  the  reality  of  our 
faith  by  obedience,  preached  only  a  covenant  of 
works;  she  contended  that  the  Spirit  of  God  dwelt 
personally  in  good  men,  and  by  inward  revelations 
and  impressions  they  received  the  fullest  discoveries 
of  the  divine  will.  The  fluency  and  confidence  with 
which  she  delivered  these  notions  gained  her  many 
admirers  and  proselytes,  not  only  among  the  vulgar 
but  among  the  principal  inhabitants.  The  whole 
colony  was  interested  and  agitated.  Vane,  whose 
sagacity  and  acuteness  seemed  to  forsake  .him  when- 
ever they  were  turned  towards  religion,  espoused 
and  defended  her  wildest  tenets.  Many  conferences 
were  held,  days  of  fasting  and  humiliation  were 
appointed,  a  general  synod  was  called ;  and,  after 
dissensions  so  violent  as  threatened  the  dissolution 
of  the  colony,  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  opinions  were 
condemned  as  erroneous,  and  she  herself  banished. 
Several  of  her  disciples  withdrew  from  the  province 
of  their  own  accord.  Vane  quitted  America  in  dis- 
gust, unlameut.ed  even  by  those  who  had  lately  ad- 
mired him  ;  some  of  whom  now  regarded  him  as  a 
mere  visionary,  and  others  as  one  of  those  dark  tur- 
bulent spirits  doomed  to  embroil  every  society  into 
which  they  enter. 

However  much  these  theological  contests  might 
disquiet  the  colony  of  Massachusetts  bay,  they  con- 
tributed to  the  more  speedy  population  of  America. 
When  Williams  was  banished  from  Salem  in  the 
year  one  thousand  six  hundred  and  thirty-four,  such 
was  the  attachment  of  his  hearers  to  a  pastor  whoso 
pie'iy  they  revered,  that  a  good  number  of  them  vo? 
luntarily  accompanied  him  in  his  exile.  They  di- 
rected their  march  towards  the  south  ;  and  having 
purchased  from  the  natives  a  considerable  tract  of 
land,  to  which  Williams  gave  the  name  of  Provi- 


dence, they  settled  there.  They  were  joined  soon 
after  by  some  of  those  to  whom  the  proceedings 
against  Mrs.  Hutchinson  gave  disgust;  and  by  a 
transaction  with  the  Indians  they  obtained  a  right  to 
a  fertile  island  in  Naraganset  bay,  which  acquiied 
the  name  of  Rhode  Island.  Williams  remained 
among  them  upwards  of  forty  years,  respected  as 
the  father  and  the  guide  of  the  colony  which  he  had 
planted.  His  spirit  differed  from  that  of  the  Puri- 
tans in  Massachusetts;  it  was  mild  and  tolerating; 
and  having  ventured  himself  to  reject  established 
opinions,  he  endeavoured  to  secure  the  same  liberty 
to  other  men,  by  maintaining  that  the  exercise  of 
private  judgment  was  a  natural  and  sacred  right ; 
that  the  civil  magistrate  has  no  compulsive  jurisdic- 
tion in  the  concerns  of  religion;  that  the  punish- 
ment of  any  person  on  account  of  his  opinions  was 
an  encroachment  on  conscience,  and  an  act  of  per- 
secution. These  humane  principle*  he  instilled  into 
his  followers :  and  all  who  felt  or  dreaded  oppression 
in  other  settlements  resorted  to  a  community  in 
which  universal  toleration  was  known  to  be  a  funda- 
mental maxim.  In  the  plantations  of  Providence 
and  Rhode  Island,  political  union  was  established  by 
voluntary  association,  and  the  equality  of  condition 
among  the  members,  as  well  as  their  religious 
opinions ;  their  form  of  government  was  purely  de- 
mocratical,  the  supreme  power  being  lodged  in  the 
freemen  personally  assembled.  In  this  state  they 
remained  until  they  were  incorporated  by  charter. 

To  similar  causes  the  colony  of  Connecticut  is  in- 
debted for  its  origin.  The  rivalship  between  Mr. 
Cotton  and  Mr.  Hooker,  two  favourite  ministers  in 
the  settlement  of  Massachusetts  bay,  disposed  the 
latter,  who  was  least  successful  in  this  contest  for 
fame  and  power,  to  wish  for  some  settlement  at  a 
distance  from  a  competitor  by  whom  his  reputation 
was  eclipsed.  A  good  number  of  those  who  had 
imbibed  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  notions,  and  were  of- 
fended with  such  as  combatted  them,  offered  to 
accompany  him.  Having  employed  proper  persons 
to  explore  the  country,  they  pitched  upon  the  west 
side  of  the  great  river  Connecticut  at  the  most 
inviting  station  ;  and  in  the  year  one  thousand  six 
hundred  and  thirty- six,  about  a  hundred  persons, 
with  their  wives  and  families,  after  a  fatiguing  march 
of  many  days  through  woods  and  swamps,  arrived 
there,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  the  towns  of  Hart- 
ford, Springfield,  and  Weatherfield.  This  settlement 
was  attended  with  peculiar  irregularities.  Part  of 
the  district  now  occupied  lay  beyond  the  limits  of 
the  territory  granted  to  the  colony  of  Massachusetts 
bay,  and  yet  the  emigrants  took  a  commission  from 
the  governor  and  court  of  assistants,  empowering 
them  to  exercise  jurisdiction  in  that  country.  The 
Dutch  from  Manhados  or  New  York,  having  dis- 
covered the  river  Connecticut,  and  established  some 
trading  houses  upon  it,  had  acquired  all  the  right 
that  prior  possession  confers.  Lord  Say  and  Sele 
and  Lord  Brook,  the  heads  of  two  illustrious  families, 
were  so  much  alarmed  at  the  arbitrary  measures  rf 
Charles  I.,  both  in  his  civil  and  ecclesiastical  adr 
ministration,  that  they  took  a  resolution  not  unbe- 
coming young  men  of  noble  birth  and  liberal 
sentiments,  of  retiring  to  the  New  World,  in  order 
to  enjoy  such  a  form  of  religion  as  they  approved 
of,  and  those  liberties  which  they  deemed  essential 
to  the  well-being  of  society.  They,  too,  fixed  on  the 
banks  of  the  Connecticut  as  their  place  of  settlement, 
and  had  taken  possession,  by  building  a  fort  at  the 
mouth  of  the  river,  which,  from  their  united 
names,  was  called  Say  Brook.  The  emigrants  from 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


233 


Massachusetts,  without  regarding  either  the  defects 
in  their  own  right  or  the  pretensions  of  other  claim- 
ants, kept  possession,  and  proceeded  with  vigour  to 
clear  and  cultivate  the  country.  By  degrees  they 
got  rid  of  every  competitor.  The  Dutch,  recently 
settled  in  America,  and  too  feeble  to  engage  in  a 
war,  peaceably  withdrew  from  Connecticut.  Lord 
Say  and  Sele  and  Lord  Brook  made  over  to  the 
colony  whatever  title  they  might  have  to  any  lands 
in  that  region.  Society  was  established  by  a  volun- 
tary compact  of  the  freemen  ;  and  though  they  soon 
disclaimed  all  dependence  on  the  colony  of  Mas- 
sachusetts bay,  they  retained  such  veneration  for 
its  legislative  wisdom  as  to  adopt  a  form  of  govern- 
ment nearly  resembling  its  institutions,  with  respect 
both  to  civil  and  ecclesiastical  policy.  At  a  sub- 
sequent period,  the  colony  of  Connecticut  was 
likewise  incorporated  by  royal  charter. 

The  history  of  the  first  attempts  to  people  the 
provinces  of  New  Hampshire  and  Main,  which  form 
the  fourth  and  most  extensive  division  in  New 
England,  is  obscure  and  perplexed,  by  the  inter- 
fering claims  of  various  proprietors.  The  company 
of  Plymouth  had  inconsiderately  parcelled  out  the 
northern  part  of  the  territory  contained  in  its  grant 
among  different  persons  :  of  these  only  Sir  Ferdi- 
nando  Gorges  and  Captain  Mason  seem  to  have  had 
any  serious  intention  to  occupy  the  land  allotted  to 
them.  Their  efforts  to  accomplish  this  were  meri- 
torious and  persevering,  but  unsuccessful.  The 
expense  of  settling  colonies  in  an  uncultivated 
country  must  necessarily  be  great  and  immediate  ; 
the  prospect  of  a  return  is  often  uncertain,  and 
always  remote.  The  funds  of  two  private  adven- 
turers were  not  adequate  to  such  an  undertaking. 
Nor  did  the  planters  whom  they  sent  out  possess 
that  principle  of  enthusiasm,  which  animated  their 
neighbours  of  Massachusetts  with  vigour  to  struggle 
through  all  the  hardships  and  dangers  to  which 
society  in  its  infancy  is  exposed  in  a  savage  land. 
Gorges  and  Mason,  it  is  probable,  must  have  aban- 
doned their  design,  if,  from  the  same  motives  that 
settlements  had  been  made  in  Rhode  Island  and 
Connecticut,  colonists  had  not  unexpectedly  mi- 
grated into  New  Hampshire  and  Main.  Mr.  Wheel- 
wright, a  minister  of  some  note,  nearly  related  to 
Mrs.  Hutchinson,  and  one  of  her  most  fervent 
admirers  and  partisans,  had  on  this  account  been 
banished  from  the  province  of  Massachusetts  bay. 
In  quest  of  a  new  station,  he  took  a  course  opposite 
to  the  other  exiles,  and,  advancing  towards  the 
north,  founded  the  town  of  Exeter  on  a  small  river 
flowing  into  Piskataqua  bay.  His  followers,  few  in 
number,  but  firmly  united,  were  of  such  rigid  prin- 
ciples, that  even  the  churches  of  Massachusetts  did 
not  appear  to  them  sufficiently  pure.  From  time  to 
time  they  received  some  recruits,  whom  love  of 
novelty,  or  dissatisfaction  with  the  ecclesiastical 
institutions  of  the  other  colonies,  prompted  to  join 
them.  Their  plantations  were  widely  dispersed, 
but  the  country  was  thinly  peopled,  and  its  political 
state  extremely  unsettled.  The  colony  of  Massa- 
chusetts bay  claimed  jurisdiction  over  them,  as  j 
occupying  lands  situated  within  the  limits  of  their  ! 
grant.  Gorges  and  Mason  asserted  the  rights  con-  j 
veyed  to  them  as  proprietors  by  their  charter.  In 
several  districts  the  planters,  without  regarding  the 
pretensions  of  either  party,  governed  themselves  by  | 
maxims  and  laws  copied  from  those  of  their  brethren  i 
in  the  adjacent  colonies.  The  first  reduction ; 
of  the  political  constitution  in  the  provinces  of 
New  Hampshire  and  Main  into  a  regular  and' 
THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA.  No.  30. 


permanent  form,  was  subsequent  to  the  Revolution. 
By  extending  their  settlements,  the  English  be- 
came exposed  to  new  danger.  The  tribes  of  Indians 
around  Massachusetts  bay  were  feeble  and  unwar- 
like;  yet  from  regard  to  justice,  as  well  as  motives 
of  prudence,  the  first  colonists  were  studious  to  ob- 
tain the  consent  of  the  natives  before  they  ventured 
to  occupy  any  of  their  lands  ;  and  though  in  such 
transactions  the  consideration  given  was  often  very 
inadequate  to  the  value  of  the  territory  acquired,  it 
was  sufficient  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  the  propri- 
etors. The  English  took  quiet  possession  of  the 
lands  thus  conveyed  to  them,  and  no  open  hostility 
broke  out  between  them  and  the  ancient  possessors. 
But  the  colonies  of  Providence  and  Connecticut 
soon  found  that  they  were  surrounded  by  more 
powerful  and  martial  nations,  Among  these  the 
most  considerable  were  the  Naragansets  and  Pe- 
quods ;  the  former  seated  on  the  bay  which  bears 
their  name,  and  the  latter  occupying  the  territory 
which  stretches  from  the  river  Pequod  along  the 
banks  of  the  Connecticut.  The  Pequods  were  a 
formidable  people,  who  could  bring  into  the  field  a 
thousand  warriors  not  inferior  in  courage  to  any  in 
the  New  World.  They  foresaw,  not  only  that  the 
extermination  of  the  Indian  race  must  be  the  con- 
sequence of  permitting  the  English  to  spread  over 
the  continent  of  America,  but  that,  if  measures  were 
not  speedily  concerted  to  prevent  it,  the  calamity 
would  be  unavoidable.  With  this  view  they  applied 
to  the  Naragansets,  requesting  them  to  forget  ancient 
animosities  for  a  moment,  and  to  co-operate  with 
them  in  expelling  a  common  enemy  who  threatened 
both  with  destruction.  They  represented  that,  when 
those  strangers  first  landed,  the  object  of  their  visit 
was  not  suspected,  and  no  proper  precautions  were 
taken  to  check  their  progress;  that  now,  by  sending 
out  colonies  in  one  year  towards  three  different 
quarters,  their  intentions  were  manifest,  and  the 
people  of  America  must  abandon  their  native  seats 
to  make  way  for  unjust  intruders. 

But  the  Naragansets  and  Pequods,  like  most  of 
the  contiguous  tribes  in  America,  were  rivals,  and 
there  subsisted  between  them  an  hereditary  and  im- 
placable enmity.  Revenge  is  the  darling  passion  of 
savages  ;  in  order  to  secure  the  indulgence  of  which 
there  is  no  present  advantage  that  they  will  not 
sacrifice,  and  no  future  consequence  which  they  do 
not  totally  disregard.  The  Naragansets,  instead  of 
closing  with  the  prudent  proposal  of  their  neigh- 
bours, discovered  their  hostile  intentions  to  the 
governor,  of  Massachusetts  bay;  and,  eager  to  lay 
hold  on  such  a  favourable  opportunity  of  wreaking 
their  vengeance  on  their  ancient  foes,  entered  into 
an  alliance  with  the  English  against  them.  The 
Pequods,  more  exasperated  than  discouraged  by  the 
imprudence  and  treachery  of  their  countrymen,  took 
the  field,  and  carried  on  the  war  in  the  usual  mode 
of  Americans.  They  surprised  stragglers,  and  scalp- 
ed them :  they  plundered  and  burnt  remote  set- 
tlements ;  they  attacked  Fort  Say  Brook  without 
success,  though  garrisoned  only  by  twenty  men  ;  and 
when  the  English  began  to  act  offensively,  they 
retired  to  fastnesses  which  they  deemed  inaccessible. 
The  different  colonies  had  agreed  to  unite  against 
the  common  enemy,  each  furnishing  a  quota  of  men 
in  proportion  to  its  numbers.  The  troops  of  Con- 
necticut, which  lay  most  exposed  to  danger,  were 
soon  assembled.  The  march  of  those  from  Mas- 
sachusetts, which  formed  the  most  considerable  body, 
was  retarded  by  the  most  singular  cause  that  ever 
influenced  the  operations  of  a  military  force.  When 

2  H 


234 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


they  were  mustered  previous  to  their  departure,  it 
was  found  that  some  of  the  officers,  as  well  as  of  the 
private  soldiers,  were  still  under  a  covenant  of 
works;  and  that  the  blessing  of  God  could  not  be 
implored  or  expected  to  crown  the  arms  of  such  un- 
hallowed men  with  success.  The  alarm  was  general, 
and  many  arrangements  necessary  in  order  to  cast 
out  the  unclean,  and  to  render  this  little  band 
sufficiently  pure  to  fight  the  battles  of  a  people  who 
entertained  high  ideas  of  their  own  sanctity. 

Meanwhile  the  Connecticut  troops,  reinforced  by 
a  small  detachment  from  Say  Brook,  found  it  neces- 
sary to  advance  towards  the  enemy.  They  were 
posted  on  a  rising  ground,  in  the  middle  of  a  swamp 
towards  the  head  of  the  river  Mistick,  which  they 
had  surrounded  with  palisadoes,the  best  defence  that 
their  slender  skill  in  the  art  of  fortification  had 
discovered.  Though  they  knew  that  the  English 
were  in  motion,  yet,  with  the  usual  improvidence 
and  security  of  savages,  they  took  no  measures 
either  to  observe  their  progress,  or  to  guard  against 
being  surprised  themselves.  The  enemy,  uuperceived, 
reached  the  palisadoes ;  and  if  a  dog  had  not  given 
the  alarm  by  barking,  the  Indians  must  have  been 
massacred  without  resistance.  In  a  moment,  how- 
ever, they  started  to  arms,  and,  raising  the  war-cry, 
prepared  to  repel  the  assailants.  But  at  that  early 
period  of  their  intercourse  with  the  Europeans,  the 
Americans  were  little  acquainted  with  the  use  of 
gunpowder,  and  dreaded  its  effects  extremely.  While 
some  of  the  English  galled  them  with  an  incessant 
fire  through  the  intervals  between  the  palisadoes, 
others  forced  their  way  by  the  entries  into  the  fort, 
filled  only  with  branches  of  trees ;  and  setting  fire 
to  the  huts,  which  were  covered  with  reeds,  the  con- 
fusion and  terror  quickly  became  general.  Many 
of  the  women  and  children  perished  in  the  flames ; 
and  the  warriors,  in  endeavouring  to  escape,  were 
either  slain  by  the  English,  or,  falling  into  the  hands 
of  their  Indian  allies,  who  surrounded  the  fort  at  a 
distance,  were  reserved  for  a  more  cruel  fate.  After 
the  junction  of  the  troops  from  Massachusetts,  the 
English  resolved  to  pursue  their  victory;  and  hunting 
the  Indians  from  one  place  of  retreat  to  another, 
some  subsequent  encounters  were  hardly  less  fatal 
to  them  than  the  action  on  the  Mistick.  In  less 
than  three  months  the  tribe  of  Pequods  was  extir- 
pated; a  few  miserable  fugitives,  who  took  refuge 
among  the  neighbouring  Indians,  being  incorporated 
by  them,  lost  their  name  as  a  distinct  people.  In 
this  first  essay  of  their  arms  the  colonists  of  New 
England  seem  to  have  been  conducted  by  skilful 
and  enterprising  officers,  and  displayed  both  courage 
and  perseverance  as  soldiers.  But  they  stained  their 
laurels  by  the  use  which  they  made  of  victory. 
Instead  of  treating  the  Pequods  as  an  independent 
people,  who  made  a  gallant  effort  to  defend  the 
property,  the  rights,  and  the  freedom  of  their  nation, 
they  retaliated  upon  them  all  the  barbarities  of 
American  war.  Some  they  massacred  in  cold  blood, 
others  they  gave  up  to  be  tortured  by  their  Indian 
allies,  a  considerable  number  they  sold  as  slaves  in 
Bermudas,  the  rest  were  reduced  to  servitude  among 
themselves. 

But  reprehensible  as  this  conduct  of  the  English 
must  be  deemed,  their  vigorous  efforts  in  this  de- 
cisive campaign  filled  all  the  surrounding  tribes  of 
Indians  with  such  a  high  opinion  of  their  valour  as 
secured  a  long  tranquillity  to  all  their  settlements. 
At  the  same  time,  the  violence  of  administration  in 
England  continued  to  increase  their  population  and 
strength,  by  forcing  many  respectable  subjects  to 


tear  themselves  from  all  the  tender  connexions  that 
bind  men  to  their  native  country,  and  to  fly  for 
refuge  to  a  region  of  the  New  World,  which  hitherto 
presented  to  them  nothing  that  could  allure  them 
•hither  but  exemption  from  oppression.  The  num- 
ber of  those  emigrants  drew  the  attention  of  govern 
ment,  and  appeared  so  formidable,  that  a  proclama- 
tion was  issued,  prohibiting  masters  of  ships  from 
carrying  passengers  to  New  England  without  special 
permission.  On  many  occasions  this  injunction  was 
eluded  or  disregarded.  Fatally  for  the  king,  it 
operated  with  full  effect  in  one  instance.  Sir  Arthur 
Haslerig,  John  Hampden,  Oliver  Cromwell,  and 
some  other  persons  whose  principles  and  views 
coincided  with  theirs,  impatient  to  enjoy  those  civil 
and  religious  liberties  which  they  struggled  in  vain 
to  obtain  in  Great  Britain,  hired  some  ships  to  carry 
them  and  their  attendants  to  New  England.  By 
order  of  council,  an  embargo  was  laid  on  these 
when  on  the  point  of  sailing ;  and  Charles,  far  from 
suspecting  that  the  future  revolutions  in  his  kingdoms 
were  to  be  excited  and  directed  by  persons  in  such 
a  humble  sphere  of  life,  forcibly  detained  the  men 
destined  to  overturn  his  throne,  and  to  terminate  his 
lays  by  a  violent  death. 

But,  in  spite  of  all  the  efforts  of  government  to 
check  this  spirit  of  migration,  the  measures  of  the 
king  and  his  ministers  were  considered  by  a  great 
body  of  the  people  as  so  hostile  to  those  rights  which 
they  deemed  most  valuable,  that  in  the  course  of  the 
year  one  thousand  six  hundred  and  thirty-eight, 
about  three  thousand  persons  embarked  for  New 
England,  choosing  rather  to  expose  themselves  to 
all  the  consequences  of  disregarding  the  royal 
proclamation,  than  to  remain  longer  under  oppres- 
sion. Exasperated  at  this  contempt  of  his  authority, 
Charles  had  recourse  to  a  violent  but  effectual  mode 
of  accomplishing  what  he  had  in  view.  A  writ  of 
quo  warranto  was  issued  against  the  corporation  of 
Massachusetts  bay.  The  colonists  had  conformed 
so  little  to  the  terms  of  their  charter,  that  judgment 
was  given  against  them  without  difficulty.  They 
were  found  to  have  forfeited  all  their  rights  as  a 
corporation  which  of  course  returned  to  the  crown, 
and  Charles  began  to  take  measures  for  new  model- 
ling the  political  frame  of  the  colony,  and  vesting 
the  administration  of  its  affairs  in  other  hands.  But 
his  plans  were  never  carried  into  execution.  In 
every  corner  of  his  dominions  the  storm  now  began 
to  gather,  which  soon  burst  out  with  such  fatal 
violence,  that  Charles,  during  the  remainder  of  his 
unfortunate  reign,  occupied  with  domestic  and  more 
interesting  caves,  had  not  leisure  to  bestow  any  at- 
tention upon  a  remote  and  inconsiderable  province. 

On  the  meeting  of  the  Long  Parliament,  such  a 
revolution  took  place  in  England,  that  all  the  mo- 
tives for  migrating  to  the  New  World  ceased.  The 
maxims  of  the  puritans  with  respect  to  the  govern- 
ment both  of  church  and  state  became  predominant 
in  the  nation,  and  were  enforced  by  the  hand  of 
power.  Their  oppressors  were  humbled ;  that  per- 
fect system  of  reformed  polity,  which  had  long  been 
the  object  of  their  admiration  and  desire,  was  esta- 
blished by  law;  and  amidst  the  intrigues  and  con- 
flicts of  an  obstinate  civil  war,  turbulent  and  aspiring 
spirits  found  such  full  occupation,  that  they  had 
no  inducement  to  quit  a  busy  theatre,  on  which  they 
had  risen  to  act  a  most  conspicuous  part.  From 
the  year  one  thousand  six  hundred  and  twenty, 
when  the  first  feeble  colony  was  conducted  to  New 
England  by  the  Brownists,  to  the  year  one  thousand 
six  hundred  and  forty,  it  has  been  computed  that 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


235 


twenty-one  thousand  two  hundred  British  subjects 
had  settled  there.  The  money  expended  by  various 
adventurers  during  that  period,  in  fitting  out  ships, 
in  purchasing  stock,  and  transporting  settlers, 
amounted,  on  a  moderate  calculation,  nearly  to  two 
hundred  thousand  pounds ;  a  vast  sum  in  that  age, 
and  which  no  principles,  inferior  in  force  to  those 
wherewith  the  puritans  were  animated,  could  have 
persuaded  men  to  lay  out  on  the  uncertain  prospect 
of  obtaining  an  establishment  in  a  remote  unculti-  ( 
vated  region,  which,  from  its  situation  and  climate,  ; 
could  allure  them  with  no  hope  but  that  of  finding  ' 
subsistence  and  enjoying  freedom.  For  some  years, ' 
even  subsistence  was  procured  with  difficulty ;  and 
it  was  towards  the  close  of  the  period  to  which  our 
narrative  is  arrived,  before  the  product  of  the  settle- 
ment yielded  the  planters  any  return  for  their  stock. 
About  that  time  they  began  to  export  corn  in  small 
quantities  to  the  West  Indies,  and  made  some  feeble 
attempts  to  extend  the  fishery,  and  to  open  the  trade 
in  lumber,  which  have  since  proved  the  staple  arti- 
cles of  commerce  in  the  colony.  Since  the  year  one 
thousand  six  hundred  and  forty  the  number  of  people 
with  which  New  England  has  recruited  the  popula- 
tion of  the  parent  state,  is  supposed  at  least  to  equal 
what  may  have  been  drained  from  it  by  occasional 
migrations  thither. 

But  though  the  sudden  change  of  system  in  Great 
Britain  stopped  entirely  the  influx  of  settlers  into 
New  England,  the  principles  of  the  colonists  coin- 
cided so  perfectly  with  those  of  the  popular  leaders 
in  parliament,  that  they  were  soon  distinguished  by 
peculiar  marks  of  their  brotherly  affection.  By  a 
vote  of  the  House  of  Commons  in  the  year  one  thou- 
sand six  hundred  and  forty  two,  the  people  in  all  the 
different  plantations  of  New  England  were  exempted 
from  payment  of  any  duties,  either  upon  goods  ex- 
ported thither,  or  upon  those  which  they  imported 
into  the  mother  country,  until  the  house  shall  take 
further  order  to  the  contrary.  This  was  afterwards 
confirmed  by  the  authority  of  both  houses.  Encou- 
raged by  sxich  an  extraordinary  privilege,  industry 
made  rapid  progress  in  all  the  districts  of  New  Eng- 
land, and  population  increased  along  with  it.  In 
return  for  those  favours  the  colonists  applauded  the 
measures  of  parliament,  celebrated  its  generous  efforts 
to  vindicate  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  nation, 
prayed  for  the  success  of  its  arms,  and  framed  regula- 
tions in  order  to  prevent  any  exertion  in  favour  of 
the  king  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic. 

Relying  on  the  indulgent  partiality  with  which  all 
their  proceedings  were  viewed  by  men  thus  closely 
united  with  them  in  sentiment  and  wishes,  the  people 
of  New  England  ventured  on  a  measure  which  not 
only  increased  their  security  and  power,  but  may  be 
regarded  as  a  considerable  step  towards  indepen- 
dence. Under  the  impression  or  pretext  of  the  dan- 
ger to  which  they  were  exposed  from  the  surrounding 
tribes  of  Indians,  the  four  colonies  of  Massachusetts, 
Plymouth,  Connecticut,  andNewhaven,  entered  into 
a  league  of  perpetual  confederacy,  offensive  and  de- 
fensive ;  an  idea  familiar  to  several  leading  men  in 
the  colonies,  as  it  was  framed  in  imitation  of  the 
famous  bond  of  union  among  the  Dutch  provinces, 
in  whose  dominions  the  Brownists  had  long  resided. 
It  was  stipulated  that  the  confederates  should  hence- 
forth be  distinguished  by  the  name  of  the  United 
Colonies  of  New  England ;  that  each  colony  shall 
remain  separate  and  distinct,  and  have  exclusive 
jurisdiction  within  its  own  territory;  and  that  in 
every  war,  offensive  or  defensive,  each  of  the  confe- 
derates shall  furnish  his  quota  of  men,  provisions, 


and  money,  at  a  rate  to  be  fixed  from  time  to  time, 
in  proportion  to  the  number  of  people  in  each  settle- 
ment ;  that  an  assembly  composed  of  two  commis- 
sioners from  each  colony  shall  be  held  annually, 
with  power  to  deliberate  and  decide  in  all  points  of 
common  concern  to  the  confederacy ;  and  every  deter- 
mination, in  which  six  of  their  number  concur,  shall 
be  binding  on  the  whole.  In  this  transaction  the 
colonies  of  New  England  seem  to  have  considered 
themselves  as  independent  societies,  possessing  all 
the  rights  of  sovereignty,  and  free  from  the  control 
of  any  superior  power.  The  governing  party  in 
England,  occupied  with  affairs  of  more  urgent  con- 
cern, and  no  wise  disposed  to  observe  the  conduct  of 
their  brethren  in  America  with  any  jealous  attention, 
suffered  the  measure  to  pass  without  animadversion. 

Emboldened  by  this  connivance,  the  spirit  of  in- 
dependence gathered  strength,  and  soon  displayed 
itself  more  openly ;  some  persons  of  note  in  the  co- 
lony of  Massachusetts,  averse  to  the  system  of  eccle- 
siastical polity  established  there,  and  preferring  to  it 
the  government  and  discipline  of  the  churches  of 
England  or  Scotland,  having  remonstrated  to  the 
general  court  against  the  injustice  of  depriving  them 
of  their  rights  as  freemen,  and  of  their  privileges  as 
Christians,  because  they  could  not  join  as  members 
with  any  of  the  congregational  churches,  petitioned 
that  they  might  no  longer  be  bound  to  obey  laws  to 
which  they  had  not  assented,  nor  be  subjected  to 
taxes  imposed  by  an  assembly  in  which  they  were 
not  represented.  Their  demands  were  not  only 
rejected,  but  they  were  imprisoned  and  fined  as  dis- 
turbers of  the  public  peace ;  and  when  they  appointed 
some  of  their  number  to  lay  their  grievances  before 
parliament,  the  annual  court,  in  order  to  prevent 
this  appeal  to  the  supreme  power,  attempted  first  to 
seize  their  papers,  and  then  to  obstruct  their  embark- 
ation for  England.  But  though  neither  of  these 
could  be  accomplished,  such  was  the  address  and 
influence  of  the  colony's  agents  in  England,  that  no 
inquiry  seems  to  have  been  made  into  this  transac- 
tion. This  was  followed  by  an  indication,  still  less 
ambiguous,  of  the  aspiring  spirit  prevalent  among 
the  people  of  Massachusetts.  Under  every  form  of 
government  the  right  of  coining  money  has  been 
considered  as  a  prerogative  peculiar  to  sovereignty, 
and  which  no  subordinate  member  in  any  state  is 
entitled  to  claim.  Regardless  of  this  established 
maxim,  the  general  court  ordered  a  coinage  of  silver 
money  at  Boston,  stamped  with  the  name  of  the 
colony  and  a  tree,  as  an  apt  symbol  of  its  progres- 
sive vigour.  Even  this  usurpation  escaped  without 
notice.  The  independents  having  now  humbled  all 
rival  sects,  engrossed  the  whole  direction  of  affairs 
in  Great  Britain  ;  and  long  accustomed  to  admire  the 
government  of  New  England,  framed  agreeably  to 
those  principles  which  they  had  adopted  as  the  most 
perfect  model  of  civil  and  ecclesiastical  polity,  they 
were  unwilling  to  stain  its  reputation  by  censuring 
any  part  of  its  conduct. 

When  Cromwell  usurped  the  supreme  power,  the 
colonies  of  New  England  continued  to  stand  as  high 
in  his  estimation.  As  he  had  deeply  imbibed  all  the 
fanatical  notions  of  the  independents,  and  was  per- 
petually surrounded  by  the  most  eminent  and  artful 
teachers  of  that  sect,  he  kept  a  constant  correspon- 
dence with  the  leading  men  in  the  American  settle- 
ments, who  seem  to  have  looked  up  to  him  as  a  zea- 
lous patron.  He  in  return  considered  them  as  his 
most  devoted  adherents,  attached  to  him  no  less  by 
affection  than  by  principle.  He  soon  gave  a  strik- 
ing proof  of  this.  On  the  conquest  of  Jamaica  he 


236 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


formed  a  scheme  for  the  security  and  improvement 
of  the  acquisition  made  by  his  victorious  arms,  suited 
to  the  ardour  of  an  impetuous  spirit  that  delighted 
in  accomplishing  its  ends  by  extraordinary  means. 
He  proposed  to  transport  the  people  of  New  Eng- 
land to  that  island,  and  employed  every  argument 
calculated  to  make  impression  upon  them,  in  order 
to  obtain  their  consent.  He  endeavoured  to  rouse 
their  religious  zeal,  by  representing  what  a  fatal  blow 
it  would  be  to  the  man  of  sin,  if  a  colony  of  the 
faithful  were  settled  in  the  midst  of  his  territories  in 
the  New  World.  He  allured  them  with  prospects  of 
immense  wealth  in  a  fertile  region,  which  would  re- 
ward the  industry  of  those  who  cultivated  it  with  all 
the  precious  productions  of  the  torrid  zone,  and  ex- 


pressed his  fervent  wish  that  they  might  take  px»s* 
session  of  it,  in  order  to  fulfil  God's  promise  of  mak- 
ing his  people  the  head  and  not  the  tail.  He  assured 
them  of  being  supported  by  the  whole  force  of  his 
authority,  and  of  vesting  all  the  powers  of  govern- 
ment entirely  in  their  hands.  But  by  this  time  the 
colonists  were  attached  to  a  country  in  which  they 
had  resided  for  many  years,  and  where,  though  they 
did  not  attain  opulence,  they  enjoyed  the  comforts  of 
life  in  great  abundance ;  and  they  dreaded  so  much 
the  noxious  climate  of  the  West  Indies,  which  had 
proved  fatal  to  a  great  number  of  the  English  who 
first  settled  in  Jamaica,  that  they  declined,  though 
in  the  most  respectful  terms,  closing  with  the  pro- 
tector's proposition. 


[Dr.  Robertson's  untimely  death  prevented  his  carrying  the  history  of  America  any  further.     It  is  continued 
to  the  present  time  from  other  and  original  sources.] 


NOTES  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS  TO  ROBERTSON'S  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


NOTE  1. — TYRE  was  situated  at  such  a  distance  from 
the  Arabian  gulf,  or  Red  sea,  as  made  it  impracticable 
to  convey  commodities  from  thence  to  that  city  by  land 
carriage.  This  induced  the  Phenicians  to  render 
themselves  masters  of  Rhinocrura  or  Rhinocolura, 
the  nearest  port  in  the  Mediterranean  to  the  Red 
sea.  They  landed  the  cargoes  which  they  purchased 
in  Arabia,  Ethiopia,  and  India,  at  Elath,  the  safest 
harbour  in  the  Red  sea  towards  the  north.  Thence, 
they  were  carried  by  land  to  Rhinocolura,  the  dis- 
tance not  being  very  considerable ;  and  being  re- 
shipped  in  that  port,  were  transported  to  Tyre,  and 
distributed  over  the  world.  Strabon.  Geogr.  edit. 
Casaub.  lib.  xvi.  p.  1128.  Diodor.  Sicul.  Biblioth. 
Hist.  edit.  Wesselengii,  lib.  1.  p.  70. 

NOTE  2. — The  Periplus  Hannonis  is  the  only  au- 
thentic monument  of  the  Carthaginian  skill  in  naval 
affairs,  and  one  of  the  most  curious  fragments  trans- 
mitted to  us  by  antiquity.  The  learned  and  industrious 
Mr.  Dodwell,  in  a  dissertation  prefixed  to  the  Peri- 
plus  of  Hanno,  in  the  edition  of  the  Minor  Geogra- 
phers published  at  Oxford,  endeavours  to  prove  that 
this  is  a  spurious  work,  the  composition  of  some 
Greek,  who  assumed  Hanno's  name.  But  M.  de 
Montesquieu,  in  his  1'Esprit  des  Loix,  lib.  xxi.  c.  8, 
and  M.  de  Bougainville,  in  a  dissertation  published, 
torn.  xxvi.  of  the  Memoires  de  1' Academic  des  In- 
scriptions, &c.  have  established  its  authenticity  by 
arguments  which  to  me  appear  unanswerable.  Ra- 
musio  has  accompanied  his  translation  of  this  curious 
voyage  with  a  dissertation  tending  to  illustrate  it, 
Racolte  de  Viaggi,  vol.  i.  p.  112.  M.  de  Bougainville 
has,  with  great  learning  and  ability,  treated  the  same 
subject.  It  appears  that  Hanno,  according  to  the 
mode  of  ancient  navigation,  undertook  this  voyage 
in  small  vessels,  so  constructed  that  he  could  keep 
close  in  with  the  coast.  He  sailed  from  Gades  to 
the  island  of  Cerne  in  twelve  days.  This  is  probably 
what  is  known  to  the  moderns  by  the  name  of  the 
isle  of  Arguim.  It  became  the  chief  station  of  the 
Carthaginians  on  that  coast ;  and  M.  de  Bougain- 
ville contends,  that  the  cisterns  found  there  are  mo- 
numents of  the  Carthaginian  power  and  ingenuity. 
Proceeding  from  Cerne,  and  still  following  the 
winding  of  the  coast,  he  arrived,  in  seventeen  days, 
at  a  promontory  which  he  called  The  West  Horn, 
probably  Cape  Palmas.  From  this  he  advanced  to 


anotherpromontory,  which  he  named  The  South  Hern, 
and  which  is  manifestly  Cape  de  Tres  Puntas,  about 
five  degrees  north  of  the  line.  All  the  circumstances 
contained  in  the  short  abstract  of  his  journal,  which 
is  handed  down  to  us,  concerning  the  appearance  and 
state  of  the  countries  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  are  con- 
firmed and  illustrated  by  a  comparison  with  the 
accounts  of  modern  navigators.  Even  those  circum- 
stances which,  from  their  seeming  improbability, 
have  been  produced  to  invalidate  the  credibility  of 
his  relation,  tend  to  confirm  it.  He  observes,  that 
in  the  country  to  the  south  of  Cerne,  a  profound 
silence  reigned  through  the  day ;  but  during  the 
night  innumerable  fires  were  kindled  along  the 
banks  of  the  rivers,  and  the  air  resounded  with  the 
noise  of  pipes  and  drums,  and  ciies  of  joy.  The 
same  thing,  as  Ramusio  observes,  still  takes  place. 
The  excessive  heat  obliges  the  negroes  to  take  shel- 
ter in  the  woods,  or  in  their  houses,  during  the  day. 
As  soon  as  the  sun  sets  they  sally  out,  and  by  torcn- 
light  enjoy  the  pleasure  of  music  and  dancing,  in 
which  they  spend  the  night.  Ramus.  i.  113,  F.  In 
another  place  he  mentions  the  sea  as  burning  with 
torrents  of  fire.  What  occurred  to  M.  Adanson  on 
the  same  coast,  may  explain  this :  "as  soon,"  says 
he,  "  as  the  sun  dipped  beneath  the  horizon,  and 
night  overspread  the  earth  with  darkness,  the  sea 
lent  us  its  friendly  light.  While  the  prow  of  our 
vessel  ploughed  the  foaming  surges,  it  seemed  to  set 
them  all  on  fire.  Thus  we  sailed  in  a  luminous  en- 
closure, which  surrounded  us  like  a  large  circle  of 
rays,  from  whence  darted  in  the  wake  of  the  ship  a 
long  stream  of  light."  Voyage  to  Senegal,  p.  176. 
This  appearance  of  the  sea,  observed  by  Hunter,  has 
been  mentioned  as  an  argument  against  the  authen- 
ticity of  the  Periplus.  It  is,  however,  a  phenome- 
non very  common  in  warm  climates.  Captain 
Cook's  Second  Voyage,  vol.  i.  p.  15.  The  Periplus 
of  Hanno  has  been  translated,  and  every  point  with 
respect  to  it  has  been  illustrated  with  much  learning 
and  ingenuity,  in  a  work  published  by  Don  Pcdr. 
Rodrig.  Campomanes,  entitled,  Antiguedad  maritama 
de  Cartago,  con  el  Periplo  de  su  General  Hannon 
traducido  e  illustrado.  Mad.  1756.  4to. 

NOTE  3. — Long  after  the  navigation  of  the  Phenici- 
ans, and  of  Eudoxus  round  Africa,  Polybius,  the  most 
intelligent'and  best  informed  historian  of  antiquity.and 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


237 


particularly  distinguished  by   his   attention  to  geo- 

nhical  researches,  affirms  that  it  was  not  known, 
is  time,  whether  Africa  was  a  continued  conti- 
nent, stretching  to  the  south,  or  whether  it  was  en- 
compassed by  the  sea.  Polybii  Hist.  lib.  iii.  Pliny 
the  naturalist  asserts,  that  there  can  be  no  commu- 
nication between  the  southern  and  northern  tempe- 


the  Ganges,  his  intelligence  was  still  more  defective, 
and  his  errors  more  enormous.  I  shall  have  occa- 
sion to  observe,  in  another  place,  that  he  has  placed 
the  country  of  the  Seres,  or  China,  no  less  than  sixty 
degrees  further  east  than  its  true  position.  M.  d'An- 
ville,  one  of  the  most  learned  and  intelligent  of  the 
modern  geographers,  has  set  this  matter  in  a  clear 


rate  zones.  Plinri  Hist.  Natur.  edit,  in  usum  Delph.  light,  in  two  dissertations  published  in  Mem.  de 
4to.  lib.  ii.  c.  68.  If  they  had  given  full  credit  to  j  1'Academ.  des  Inscript.  &c.  torn,  xxxii.  p.  573,  604. 
the  accounts  of  those  voyages,  the  former  could  not  |  NOTE  7. — It  is  remarkable  that  the  discoveries  of 
have  entertained  such  a  doubt,  the  latter  could  not '  the  ancients  were  made  chiefly  by  land ;  those  of  the 
have  delivered  such  an  opinion.  Strabo  mentions  !  moderns  are  carried  on  chiefly  by  sea.  The  progress  of 
the  voyage  of  Eudoxus,  but  treats  it  as  a  fabulous  |  conquest  led  to  the  former,  that  of  commerce  the  lat- 
tale,  lib.  ii.  p.  155  ;  and  according  to  his  account  of  ter.  It  is  a  judicious  observation  of  Strabo,  that  the 
it,  no  other  judgment  can  be  formed  with  respect  to  J  conquests  of  Alexander  the  Great  made  known  the 
it.  Strabo  seems  not  to  have  known  any  thing  with  i  east,  those  of  the  Romans  opened  the  west,  and  those 

•       ,  •  ,1  /•  1  /»,!  c-Tk/T'tl'TA  1     "„  -  />T"» j        _     il .. il-         T    ^"U     -T      ~      O£! 


certainty  concerning  the  form  and  state  of  the 
southern  parts  of  Africa.  Geogr.  lib.  xvii.  p.  1180. 
Ptolemy,  the  most  inquisitive  and  learned  of  all  the 
ancient  geographers,  was  equally  unacquainted  with 
any  parts  of  Africa  situated  a  few  degrees  beyond 
the  equinoctial  line ;  for  he  supposes  that  this  great 
continent  was  not  surrounded  by  the  sea,  but  that  it 
stretched,  without  interruption,  towards  the  south 
pole  ;  and  he  so  far  mistakes  its  true  figure,  that  he 
describes  the  continent  as  becoming  broader  and 
broader  as  it  advanced  towards  the  south.  Ptolemaei 
Geogr.  lib.  iv.  c.  9.  Brietii  Parallela  Geogr.  veteris 
et  novae,  p.  86. 

NOTE  4. — A]fact,  recorded  by  Strabo,  affords  a  very 
strong  and  singular  proof  of  the  ignorance  of  the  an- 
cients with  respect  to  the  situation  of  the  various  parts 


When  Alexander  marched  along  the 
Hydaspes  and  Acesine,  two   of  the 


of  the  earth, 
banks  of  the 

rivers  which  fall  into  the  Indus,  he  observed  that 
.there  were  many  crocodiles  in  those  rivers,  and  that 
the  country  produced  beans  of  the  same  species  with 
those  which  were  common  in  Egypt.  From  these 
circumstances  he  concluded  that  he  had  discovered 
the  source  of  the  Nile,  and  prepared  a  fleet  to  sail 
down  the  Hydaspes  to  Egypt.  Strab.  Geogr.  lib.  xv. 
p.  1020.  This  amazing  error  did  not  arise  from  any 


ignorance  ot 
for  we  are  in 


if  geography  p 
informed  bv  Si 


eculiar  to  that  monarch 
by  Strabo,  that  Alexander  ap- 
plied with  particular  attention  in  order  to  acquire 
the  knowledge  of  this  science,  and  had  accurate  maps 
or  descriptions  of  the  countries  through  which  he 
marched.  Lib.  ii.  p.  120.  But  in  his  age  the  know- 
ledge of  the  Greeks  did  not  extend  beyond  the  limits 
of  the  Mediterranean. 

NOTE  5. — As  the  flux  and  reflux  of  the  sea  is  re- 
markably great  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  Indus,  this 
would  render  the  phenomenon  more  formidable  to 
the  Greeks.  Varen.  Geogr.  vol.  i.  p.  251. 

NOTE  6. — It  is  probable  that  the  ancients  were  sel- 
dom induced  to  advance  so  far  as  the  mouth  of  the 
Ganges  either  by  motives  of  curiosity,  or  views  of  com- 
mercial advantage.  In  consequence  of  this,  their  idea 
concerning  the  position  of  that  great  river  was  very  er» 
roneous.  Ptolemy  places  that  branch  of  the  Ganges 
which  he  distinguishes  by  the  name  of  the  Great 
Mouth,  in  the  hundred  and  forty-sixth  degree  of 
longitude  from  his  first  meridian  in  the  Fortunate 
Islands.  But  its  true  longitude,  computed  from 
that  meridian,  is  now  determined,  by  astronomical 
observations,  to  be  only  a  hundred  and  five  degrees. 
A  geographer  so  eminent  must  have  been  betrayed 
into  an  error  of  this  magnitude  by  the  imperfection 
of  the  information  which  he  had  received  concerning 
those  distant  regions ;  and  this  affords  a  striking 
proof  of  the  intercourse  with  them  being  extremely 
rare.  With  respect  to  the  countries  of  India  beyond 


of  Mithridates,  king  of  Pontus,  the  north.  Lib.  i.  p.  26. 
When  discovery  is  carried  on  by  land  alone  its  pro- 
gress must  be  slow  and  its  operations  confined.  When 
it  is  carried  on  only  by  sea  its  sphere  may  be  more 
extensive,  audits  advances  more  rapid;  but  it  labours 
under  peculiar  defects.  Though  it  may  make  known 
the  position  of  different  countries,  and  ascertain  their 
boundaries  as  far  as  these  are  determined  by  the 
ocean,  it  leaves  us  in  ignorance  with  respect  to  their 
interior  state.  Above  two  centuries  and  a  half  have 
elapsed  since  the  Europeans  sailed  round  the  southern 
promontory  of  Africa,  and  have- traded  in  most  of  its 
ports ;  but  in  a  considerable  part  of  that  great  conti- 
nent they  have  done  little  more  than  survey  its  coasts, 
and  mark  its  capes  and  harbours.  Its  interior  regions 
are  in  a  great  measure  unknown.  The  ancients, 
who  had  a  very  imperfect  knowledge  of  its  coasts, 
except  where  they  are  washed  by  the  Mediterranean 
or  Red  sea,  were  accustomed  to  penetrate  into  its 
inland  provinces,  and  if  we  may  rely  on  the  testi- 
mony of  Herodotus  and  Diodorus  Siculus,  had  ex- 
plored many  parts  of  it  now  altogether  unknown. — 
Unless  both  modes  of  discovery  be  united,  the  geo- 
graphical knowledge  of  the  earth  must  remain  in- 
complete and  inaccurate. 

NOTE  8. — The  notion  of  the  ancients  concerning 
such  an  excessive  degree  of  heat  in  the  torrid  zone,  as 
rendered  it  uninhabitable,  and  their  persisting  in  this 
error  long  after  they  began  to  have  some  commercial 
intercourse  with  several  parts  of  India  lying  within 
the  tropics,  must  appear  so  singular  and  absurd,  that 
it  may  not  be  unacceptable  to  some  of  my  readers  to 
produce  evidence  of  their  holding  this  opinion,  and 
to  account  for  the  apparent  inconsistence  of  their 
theory  with  their  experience.  Cicero,  who  had  be- 
stowed attention  upon  every  part  of  philosophy 
known  to  the  ancients,  seem  to  have  believed  that 
the  torrid  zone  was  uninhabitable,  and,  of  conse- 
quence, that  there  would  be  no  intercourse  between 
the  northern  and  southern  temperate  zones.  He  intro- 
duces Africanus  thus  addressing  the  younger  Scipio  : 
"  You  see  this  earth  encompassed,  and  as  it  were 
bound  in,  by  certain  zones,  of  which  two,  at  the 
greatest  distance  from  each  other,  and  sustaining  the 
opposite  poles  of  heaven,  are  frozen  with  perpetual 
cold :  the  middle  one,  and  the  largest  of  all,  is  burnt 
with  the  heat  of  the  sun;  two  are  habitable,  the 
people  in  the  southern  one  are  antipodes  to  us,  with 
whom  we  have  no  connection."  Somnium  Scipionis, 
c.  6.  Geminus,  a  Greek  philosopher,  contemporary 
with  Cicero,  delivers  the  same  doctrine,  not  in  a 
popular  work,  but  in  his  Eisayoge  eis  phainomena,  a 
treatise  purely  scientific.  "  When  we  speak,"  says 
he,  "of  the  southern  temperate  zone,  and  its  inhabi- 
tants, and  concerning  those  who  are  called  anti 
podes,  it  mu*t  always  be  understood,  that  we  have 


'238 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


no  certain  knowledge  or  information  concerning  the 
southern  temperate  zone,  whether  it  be  inhabited  or 
not.  But  from  the  spherical  figure  of  the  earth,  and 
the  course  which  the  sun  holds  between  the  tropics, 
we  conclude  that  there  is  another  zone  situated  to 
the  south,  which  enjoys  the  same  degree  of  tem- 
perature with  the  northern  one  which  we  inhabit." 
Cap.  xiii.  p.  31.  ap.  Petavii  Opus  de  Doctr.  Temper, 
in  quo  Uranologium  sive  Systemata  var.  Auctorum. 
Amst.  1705.  vol.  iii.  The  opinion  of  Pliny  the  na- 
turalist, with  respect  to  both  these  points,  was  the 
same  :  "  There  are  five  divisions  of  the  earth  which 
are  called  zones.  All  that  portion  which  lies  near 
to  the  two  opposite  poles  is  oppressed  with  vehement 
cold  and  eternal  frost.  There,  unblessed  with  the 
aspect  of  milder  stars,  perpetual  darkness  reigns,  or 
at  the  utmost  a  feeble  light  reflected  from  surround- 
ing snows.  The  middle  of  the  earth,  in  which  is  the 
orbit  of  the  sun,  is  scorched  and  burnt  up  with  flames 
and  fiery  vapour.  Between  these  torrid  and  frozen 
districts,  lie  two  other  portions  of  the  earth,  which 
are  temperate ;  but,  on  account  of  the  burning  re- 
gion interposed,  there  can  be  no  communication  be- 
tween them.  Thus  heaven  has  deprived  us  of  three 
parts  of  the  earth."  Lib.  ii.  c.  68.  Strabo  delivers 
his  opinion  to  the  same  effect,  in  terms  no  less  ex- 
plicit :  "  The  portion  of  the  earth  which  lies  near  the 
equator,  in  the  torrid  zone,  is  rendered  uninhabit- 
able by  heat."  Lib.  ii.  p.  154.  To  these  I  might 
add  the  authority  of  many  other  respectable  philoso- 
phers and  historians  of  antiquity. 

In  order  to  explain  the  sense  in  which  this  doc- 
trine was  generally  received,  we  may  observe,  that 
Parmenides,  as  we  are  informed  by  Strabo,  was  the 
first  who  divided  the  earth  into  five  zones,  and  he  ex- 
tended the  limits  of  the  zone  which  he  supposed  to 
be  uninhabitable  on  account  of  heat,  beyond  the  tro- 
pics. Aristotle,  as  we  learn  likewise  from  Strabo, 
fixed  the  boundaries  of  the  different  zones  in  the 
same  manner  as  they  are  defined  by  modern  geogra- 
phers. But  the  progress  of  discovery  having  gradu- 
ally demonstrated  that  several  regions  of  the  earth 
which  lay  within  the  tropics  were  not  only  habitable, 
but  populous  and  fertile,  this  induced  later  geogra- 
phers to  circumscribe  the  limits  of  the  torrid  zone.  It 
is  not  easy  to  ascertain  with  precision  the  boundaries 
which  they  allotted  to  it.  From  a  passage  in  Strabo, 
who,  as  far  as  I  know,  is  the  only  author  of  antiquity 
from  whom  we  receive  any  hint  concerning  this  sub- 
ject, I  should  conjecture,  that  those  who  calculated 
according  to  the  measurement  of  the  earth  by  Era- 
tosthenes, supposed  the  torrid  zone  to  comprehend 
near  sixteen  degrees,  about  eight  on  eac'h  side  of  the 
equator ;  whereas  such  as  followed  the  computation 
of  Posidonius  allotted  about  twenty-four  degrees,  or 
somewhat  more  than  twelve  degrees  on  each  side  of 
the  equator,  to  the  torrid  zone.  Strabo,  lib.  ii.  p.  151 . 
According  to  the  former  opinion,  about  two  thirds  of 
that  portion  of  the  earth  which  lies  between  the  tropics 
was  considered  as  habitable ;  according  to  the  latter, 
about  one  half  of  it.  With  this  restriction,  the  doc- 
trine of  the  ancients  concerning  the  torrid  zone  ap- 
pears less  absurd ;  and  we  can  conceive  the  reason 
of  their  asserting  this  zone  to  be  uninhabitable,  even 
after  they  had  opened  a  communication  with  several 
places  within  the  tropics.  When  men  of  science 
spoke  of  the  torrid  zone,  they  considered  it  as  it  is  was 
limited  by  the  definition  of  geographers  to  sixteen, 
or  at  the  utmost  to  twenty-four  degrees  ;  and  as  they 
knew  almost  nothing  of  the  countries  nearer  to  the 
equator,  they  might  still  suppose  them  to  be  unin- 
habitable. In  loose  and  popular  discourse,  the  name 
of  the  torrid  zone  continued  to  be  given  to  all  that 


portion  of  the  earth  which  lies  within  the  tropics. 
Cicero  seems  to  be  unacquainted  with  those  ideas  of 
the  later  geographers ;  and,  adhering  to  the  division 
>f  Parmenides,  describes  the  torrid  zone  as  the  largest 
jf  the  five.  Some  of  the  ancients  rejected  the  notion 
concerning  the  intolerable  heat  of  the  torrid  zone  as 
a  popular  error.  This,  we  are  told  by  Plutarch,  was 
the  sentiment  of  Pythagoras  ;  and  we  learn  from 
Strabo,  that  Eratosthenes  and  Polybius  had  adopted 
the  same  opinion,  lib.  ii.  p.  154.  Ptolemy  seems  to 
have  paid  no  regard  to  the  ancient  doctrine  and  opi- 
nions concerning  the  torrid  zone. 

NOTE  9. — The  court  of  inquisition,  which  effectually 
checks  a  spirit  of  liberal  inquiry,  and  of  literary  im- 
provement, wherever  it  is  established,  was  unknown 
n  Portugal  in  the  fifteenth  century,  when  the  people  of 
that  kingdom  began  their  voyages  of  discovery. 
More  than  a  century  elapsed  before  it  was  introduced 
by  John  III.  whose  reign  commenced  A.  D.  1521. 

NOTE  10. — An  instance  of  this  is  related  by  Haek- 
luyt,  upon  authority  of  the  Portuguese  historian  Gar- 
cia de  Resende.  Some  English  merchants  having  re- 
solved to  open  a  trade  with  the  coast  of  Guiriea,  John 
II.  of  Portugal  despatched  ambassadors  to  Edward  IV. 
in  order  to  lay  before  him  the  right  which  he  had  ac- 
quired by  the  pope's  bull  to  the  dominion  of  that 
country,  and  to  request  of  him  to  prohibit  his  sub- 
jects to  prosecute  their  intended  voyage.  Edward 
was  so  much  satisfied  with  the  exclusive  title  of  the 
Portuguese,  that  he  issued  his  orders  in  the  terms 
which  they  desired.  Hackluyt,  Navigations,  Voy- 
ages, and  Traffics  of  the  English,  vol^ii.  part  ii.  p.  2. 

NOTE  II. — The  time  of  Columbus's  death  may  be 
nearly  ascertained  by  the  following  circumstances.  It 
appears  from  the  general  fragment  of  a  letter,  address- 
ed by  him  to  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  A.  D.  1501,  that 
he  had,  at  that  time,  been  engaged  forty  years  in  a 
seafaring  life.  In  another  letter  he  informs  them, 
that  he  wTent  to  sea  at  the  age  of  fourteen :  from  those 
facts  it  follows,  that  he  was  born  A.  D.  1447.  Life 
of  Christoph.  Columbus,  by  his  son  Don  Fer- 
dinand. Churchill's  collection  of  Voyages,  Vol.  ii.  p. 
484,485. 

NOTE  12. — The  spherical  figure  of  the  earth  was 
known  to  the  ancient  geographers.  They  invented  the 
method,  still  in  use,  of  computing  the  longitude  and 
latitude  of  different  places.  According  to  their  doctrine, 
the  equator,  or  imaginary  line  which  encompasses  the 
earth,  contained  three  hundred  and  sixty  degrees ; 
these  they  divided  into  twenty-four  parts,  or  hours, 
each  equal  to  fifteen  degrees.  The  country  of  the 
Seres  or  Since,  being  the  farthest  part  of  India  known 
to  the  ancients,  was  supposed  by  Marinus  Tyrius, 
the  most  eminent  of  the  ancient  geographers  before 
Ptolemy,  to  be  fifteen  hours,  or  two  hundred  and 
twenty-five  degrees  to  the  east  of  the  first  meridian, 
passing  through  the  Fortunate  Islands.  Ptolemaei 
Geogr.  lib.  i.  c.  11.  If  this  supposition  was  well 
founded,  the  country  of  the  Seres,  or  China,  was  only 
nine  hours,  or  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  degrees, 
west  from  the  Fortunate  or  Canary  islands  ;  and  the 
navigation  in  that  direction  was  much  shorter  than 
by  the  course  which  the  Portuguese  were  pursuing. 
Marco  Polo,  in  his  travels,  had  described  countries, 
particularly  the  island  of  Cipango  or  Zipangri,  sup- 
posed to  be  Japan,  considerably  to  the  east  of  any 
part  of  Asia  known  to  the  ancients.  Marcus  Paulus 
de  Region.  Oriental:  lib.  ii.  c.  70.  lib.  iii  c.  2. 
Of  course,  this  country,  as  it  extended  further  to  the 
east,  was  still  nearer  to  the  Canary  islands.  The 
conclusions  of  Columbus,  though  drawn  from  in- 
accurate observations,  were  just.  If  the  suppositions 
of  Marinus  had  been  well  founded,  and  if  the  coun- 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


239 


tries  which  Marco  Polo  visited  had  been  situated  to  i 
the   east  of  those  whose  longitude  Marinus  had  as-  j 
certained,  the  proper  and  nearest  course  to  the  East  j 
Indies  must  have  been  to  steer  directly  west.   Herrera, 
dec.  1.  lib.  i.  c.  2.     A  more  extensive  knowledge  of; 
the  globe  has  now  discovered  the  great  error  of  Ma- 
rinus, in  supposing  China  to  be  fifteen  hours,  or  two 
hundred  and  twenty-five  degrees  east  from  the  Canary 
Islands,  and  that  even  Ptolemy  was  mistaken,  when  j 
he  reduced  the  longitude  of  China  to  twelve  hours,  | 
or  one  hundred  and  eighty  degrees.     The  longitude  j 
of  the  western  frontier  of  that  vast  empire  is  seven 
hours,  or  one  hundred  and  fifteen  degrees  from  the 
meridian  of  the  Canary   Islands.      But    Columbus 
followed  the  light  which  his  age  afforded,  and  relied 
upon  the  authority  of  writers,  who  were,  at  that  time, 
regarded  as  the  instructors  and  guides  of  mankind  in 
the  science  of  geography. 

NOTE  13. — As  the  Portuguese,  in  making  their  dis- 
coveries, did  not  depart  far  from  the  coasts  of  Africa, 
they  concluded  that  birds,  whose  flight  they  observed  j 
with  great  attention,  did  not  venture  to  any  considera- 
ble distance  from  land.  In  the  infancy  of  navigation  it 
was  not  known,  that  birds  often  stretched  their  flight 
to  an  immense  distance  from  any  shore.  In  sailing 
towards  the  West  Indian  islands,  birds  are  often 
seen  at  the  distance  of  two  hundred  leagues  from 
tue  nearest  coast.  Sloane's  Nat.  Hist,  of  Jamaica, 
vol.  i.  p.  30.  Catesby  saw  an  owl  at  sea,  when  the 
ship  was  six  hundred  leagues  distant  from  land. 
Nat.  Hist,  of  Carolina,  pref.  p.  7.  Hist.  Naturelle  de 
M.  Buffon,  torn.  xvi.  p.  32.  From  which  it  appears, 
that  this  indication  of  land,  on  which  Columbus 
seems  to  have  relied  with  some  confidence,  was  ex  • 
tremely  uncertain.  This  observation  is  confirmed  by 
Capt.  Cook,  the  most  extensive  and  experienced  na- 
vigator of  any  age  or  nation.  "  No  one  yet  knows 
(says  he)  to  what  distance  any  of  the  oceanic  birds 
go  to  sea ;  for  my  own  part,  I  do  not  believe  that 
there  is  one  in  the  whole  tribe  that  can  be  relied  on 
in  pointing  out  the  vicinity  of  land."  Voyage  to- 
wards the  South  Pole,  vol.  i.  p.  275. 

NOTE  14. — In  a  letter  of  the  admiral's  to  Ferdinand 
and  Isabella,  he  describes  one  of  the  harbours  in  Cuba 
with  all  the  enthusiastic  admiration  of  a  discoverer. — 
' '  I  discovered  a  river  which  a  galley  might  easily  enter: 
the  beauty  of  it  induced  me  to  sound,  and  I  found  from 
five  to  eight  fathoms  of  water.  Having  proceeded  a 
considerable  way  up  the  river,  every  thing  invited 
roe  to  settle  there.  The  beauty  of  the  river,  the 
clearness  of  the  water,  through  which  I  could  see  the 
sandy  bottom,  the  multitude  of  palm  trees  of  different 
kinds,  the  tallest  and  finest  I  had  seen,  and  an 
infinite  number  of  other  large  and  flourishing  trees, 
the  birds,  and  the  verdure  of  the  plains,  are  so 
wonderfully  beautiful,  that  this  country  excels  all 
others  as  far  as  the  day  surpasses  the  night  in  bright- 
ness and  splendour,  so  that  I  often  said,  that  it 
would  be  in  vain  for  me  to  attempt  to  give  your  high- 
nesses a  full  account  of  it,  for  neither  my  tongue 
nor  my  pen  could  come  up  to  the  truth ;  and  in- 
deed I  am  so  much  amazed  at  the  sight  of  such 
beauty,  that  I  know  not  how  to  describe  it."  Life 
of  Columb,  c.  30. 

NOTE  15. — The  account  which  Columbus  gives  of 
the  humanity  and  orderly  behaviour  of  the  natives  on 
this  occasion  is  very  striking.  "  The  king,"  says  he,  in 
a  letter  to  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  "  having  been 
informed  of  our  misfortune,  expressed  great  grief 
for  our  loss,  and  immediately  sent  aboard  all'  the 
people  iu  the  place  in  many  large  canoes;  we  soon 
unloaded  the  ship  of  every  thing  that  was  upon 


deck,  as  the  king  gave  us  great  assistance  :  he  him- 
self, with  his  brothers  and  relations,  took  all  possible 
care  that  every  thing  should  be  properly  done,  both 
aboard  and  on  shore.  And,  from  time  to  time,  he 
sent  some  of  his  relations  weeping,  to  beg  of  me  not 
to  be  dejected,  for  he  would  give  me  all  that  he  had. 
I  can  assure  your  highness,  that  so  much  care  would 
not  have  been  taken  in  securing  our  effects  in  any 
part  of  Spain,  as  all  our  property  was  put  together 
in  one  place  near  his  palace,  until  the  houses  which 
he  wanted  to  prepare  for  the  custody  of  it  were  emp- 
tied. He  immediately  placed  a  guard  of  armed 
men,  who  watched  during  the  whole  night,  and 
those  on  shore  lamented  as  if  they  had  been  much 
interested  Mi  our  loss.  The  people  are  so  affection- 
ate, so  tractable,  and  so  peaceable,  that  I  swear  to 
your  highnesses  that  there  is  not  a  better  race  of 
men,  nor  a  better  country,  in  the  world.  They  love 
their  neighbour  as  themselves;  their  conversation 
is  the  sweetest  and  mildest  in  the  world,  cheerful 
and  always  accompanied  with  a  smile.  And  al- 
though it  is  true  that  they  go  naked,  yet  your  high- 
nesses may  be  assured  that  they  have  many  very 
commendable  customs ;  the  king  is  served  with 
ajreat  state,  and  his  behaviour  is  so  decent,  that  it  is 
pleasant  to  see  him,  as  it  is  likewise  to  observe  the 
wonderful  memory  which  these  people  have,  and 
their  desire  of  knowing  every'  thing,  which  leads 
them  to  inquire  into  its  causes  and  effects."  Life 
of  Columbus,  c.  32.  It  is  probable  that  the  Spaniards 
were  indebted  for  this  officious  attention,  to  the  opi- 
nion which  the  Indians  entertained  of  them  as  a 
superior  order  of  beings. 

NOTE  16. — Every  monument  of  such  a  man  as  Co- 
lumbus is  valuable.  A  letter  which  he  wrote  to  Ferdi- 
nand and  Isabella, describing  what  passed  on  this  occa] 
sion,  exhibits  a  most  striking  picture  of  his^intre- 
pidity,  his  humanity,  his  prudence,  his  public  spirit, 
and  courtly  address.  "  I  would  have  been  less  con- 
cerned for  this  misfortune  had  I  alone  been  in  dan- 
ger, both  because  my  life  is  a  debt  that  I  owe  to  the 
Supreme  Creator,  and  because  I-ha-ye  at  other  times 
been  exposed  to  the  most  imminent  hazard.  But 
what  gave  me  infinite  grief  and  vexation  was,  that 
after  it  had  pleased  our  Lord  to  give  me  faith  to 
undertake  this  enterprize,  in  which  I  had  now  been 
so  successful,  that  my  opponents  would  have  been 
convinced,  and  the  glory  of  your  highnesses,  and 
the  extent  of  your  territory  increased  by  me,  it 
should  please  the  divine  majesty  to  stop  all  by  my 
death.  All  this  would  have  been  more  tolerable, 
had  it  not  been  attended  with  the  loss  of  those  men 
whom  I  had  carried  with  me,  upon  promise  of  the 
greatest  prosperity,  who,  seeing  themselves  in  such 
distress,  cursed  not  only  their  coming  along  with 
me,  but  that  fear  and  awe  of  me  which  prevented 
them  from  returning,  as  they  often  had  resolved  to 
have  done.  But  besides  all  this,  my  sorrow  was 
greatly  increased  by  recollecting  that  I  had  left  my 
two  sons  at  school  at  Cordova,  destitute  of  friends,  in 
a  foreign  country,  when  it  could  not  in  all  probabi- 
lity be  known  that  I  had  done  such  services  as  might 
induce  your  highnesses  to  remember  them.  And 
though  I  comforted  myself  with  the  faith  that  cur 
Lord  would  not  permit  that,  which  tended  so  much 
to  the  glory  of  his  church,  and  which  I  had  brought 
about  with  so  much  trouble,  to  remain  imperfect ; 
yet  I  considered  that,  on  account  of  my  sins,  it  was 
his  will  to  deprive  me  of  that  glory  which  I  might 
have  attained  in  this  world.  While  in  this  confused 
state,  I  thought  on  the  good  fortune  which  accom- 
panies your  highnesses,  and  imagined  that,  although 


240 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


I  should  perish,  and  the  vessel  be  lost,  it  was  possible 
that  you  might  somehow  come  to  the  knowledge  of 
my  voyage,  and  the  success  with  which  it  was  at- 
tended. For  that  reason  I  wrote  upon  parchment 
with  the  brevity  which  the  situation  required,  that  I 
had  discovered  the  lands  which  I  promised,  in  how 
many  days  I  had  done  it,  and  what  course  I  had  fol- 
lowed. I  mentioned  the  goodness  of  the  country, 
the  character  of  the  inhabitants,  and  that  your  high- 
nesses'  subjects  were  left  in  possession  of  all  that  I 
had  discovered.  Having  sealed  this  writing,  I  ad- 
dressed it  to  your  highnesses,  and  promised  a  thou- 
sand ducats  to  any  person  who  should  deliver  it 
sealed,  so  that  if  any  foreigners  found  it,  the  pro- 
mised reward  might  prevail  on  them  not  to  give  the 
information  to  another.  I  then  caused  a  great  cask 
to  be  brought  to  me,  and  wrapping  up  the  parch- 
ment in  an  oiled  cloth,  and  afterwards  in  a  cake  of 
wax,  1  put  it  into  the  cask,  and  having  stopped  it 
well,  I  cast  it  into  the  sea.  All  the  men  believed 
that  it  was  some  act  of  devotion.  Imagining  that 
this  might  never  chance  to  be  taken  up,  as  the  ships 
approached  nearer  to  Spain,  I  made  another  packet 
like  the  first,  and  placed  it  at  the  top  of  the  poop,  so 
that  if  the  ship  sunk,  the  cask  remaining  above 
water  might  be  committed  to  the  guidance  of 
fortune." 

NOTE  17. — Some  Spanish  authors,  with  the  mean- 
ness of  national  jealousy,  have  endeavoured  to  detract 
from  the  glory  of  Columbus  by  insinuating  that  he  was 
led  tot  he  discovery  of  the  New  World,  not  by  his  own 
inventive  or  enterprising  genius,  but  by  information 
which  he  had  received.  According  to  their  account, 
a  vessel  having  been  driven  from  its  course  by 
easterly  winds,  was  carried  before  them  far  to  the 
west,  and  landed  on  the  coast  of  an  unknown  coun- 
try, from  which  it  returned  with  difficulty ;  the  pilot 
and  three  sailors  being  the  only  persons  who  survived 
the  distresses  which  the  crew  suffered,  from  want  of 
provisions  and  fatigue  in  this  long  voyage.  In  a  few 
days  after  their  arrival,  all  the  four  died ;  but  the 
pilot  having  been  received  into  the  house  of  Colum- 
bus, hie  intimate  friend  disclosed  to  him,  before  his 
death,  the  secret  of  the  discovery  which  he  had  acci- 
dentally made,  and  left  him  his  papers,  containing  a 
journal  of  a  voyage,  which  served  as  a  guide  to  Co- 
lumbus in  his  undertaking.  Gomara,  as  far  as  I 
know,  is  the  first  author  who  published  this  story, 
Hist.  c.  13.  Every  circumstance  is  destitute  of  evi- 


of  success,  that  by  holding  a  westerly  course  he  must 
certainly  arrive  at  those  regions  of  the  east  described 
by  the  aricients.  His  firm  belief  of  his  own  system 
led  him  to  take  that  course,  and  to  pursue  it  without 
deviation. 

The  Spaniards  are  not  the  only  people  who  have 
called  in  question  Columbus's  claim  to  the  honour 
of  having  discovered  America.  Some  German  au- 
thors ascribe  this  honour  to  Martin  Behaim,  their 
countryman.  He  was  of  the  noble  family  of  the 
Behaims  of  Schwartzbach,  citizens  of  the  first  rank 
ifi  the  imperial  town  of  Nuremberg.  Having  studied 
under  the  celebrated  John  Muller,  better  known  by 
the  name  of  Regiomontanus,  he  acquired  such 
knowledge  of  cosmography,  as  excited  a  desire  of 
exploring  those  regions,  the  situation  and  qualities 
of  which  he  had  been  accustomed,  under  that  able 
master,  to  investigate  and  describe.  Under  the  pa- 
tronage of  the  Duchess  of  Burgundy,  he  repaired  to 
Lisbon,  whither  the  fame  of  the  Portuguese  discove- 
ries invited  all  the  adventurous  spirits  of  the  age. 
There,  as  we  learn  from  Herman  Schedel,  of  whose 
Chronicon  Mundi  a  German  translation  was  printed 
at  Nuremberg,  A.  D.  1493,  his  merit  as  a  cosmogra- 
pher  raised  him,  in  conjunction  with  Diego  Cana,  to 
the  command  of  a  squadron  fitted  out  for  discovery 
in  the  year  1483.  In  that  voyage  he  is  said  to  have 
discovered  the  kingdom  of  Congo.  He  settled  in  the 
island  of  Fayal,  one  of  the  Azores,  and  was  a  parti- 
cular friend  of  Columbus.  Herrera,  dec.  11.  lib.  ii. 
c.  2.  Magellan  had  a  terrestrial  globe  made  by  Be- 
haim, on  which  he  demonstrated  the  course  that  he 
proposed  to  hold  in  search  of  the  communication 
with  the  South  sea,  which  he  afterwards  discovered. 
Gomora.  Hist.  c.  19.  Herrera,  dec.  11.  lib.  ii.  c.  19. 


lu   the 


year 


1492  Behaim  visited  his  relations   in 


Nuremberg,  and  left  with  them  a  map  drawn  with 
his  own  hand,  which  is  still  preserved  among  the 
archives  of  the  family.  Thus  far  the -story  of  Martin 
Behaim  seems  to  be  well  authenticated;  but  the 
account  of  his  having  discovered  any  part  of  the 
New  World  appears  to  be  merely  conjectural. 

In  the  first  edition,  as  I  had  at  that  time  hardly 
any  knowledge  of  Behaim  but  what  I  derived  from 
a  frivolous  dissertation,  '  De  vero  Novi  Orbis  Inven- 
tore,'  published  at  Francfort,  A.  D.  1714,  by  Jo. 
Frid.  Stuvenius,  I  was  induced  by  the  authority  of 
Herrera,  to  suppose  that  Behaim  was  not  a  native  of 
Germany  ;  but  from  more  full  and  accurate  informa- 


tion, 


communicated_to  me  by  the   learned  Dr.  John 

was 


dence  to  support  it.     Neither  the  name  of  the  vessel 

nor  its  destination  is  known.  Some  pretend  that  it  I  Reinhold  Forster,  I  am  now  satisfied  that  I 
belonged  to  one  of  the  seaport  towns  in  Andalusia,  I  mistaken.  Dr.  Forster  has  been  likewise  so  good  as 
and  was  sailing  either  to  the  Canaries,  or  to  Madeira  ;  j  to  favour  me  with  a  copy  of  Behaim' s  map,  as  pub- 
others,  that  it  was  a  Biscayner  in  its  way  to  Eng- !  lished  by  Doppelmayer,  in  his  account  of  the  ma- 
land  ;  others,  a  Portuguese  ship  trading  on  the  coast  thematicians  and  artists  of  Nuremberg.  From  this 
of  Guinea.  The  name  of  the  pilot  is  alike  unknown,  I  map  the  imperfection  of  cosmographical  knowledge 
as  well  as  that  of  the  port  in  which  he  landed  on  his  j  at  that  period  is  manifest.  Hardly  one  place  is  laid 
return.  According  to  some,  it  was  in  Portugal;  down  in  its  true  situation.  Nor  can  I  discover  from 
according  to  others,  in  Madeira,  or  the  Azores.  The  !  it  any  reason  to  suppose  that  Behaim  had  the  least 
year  in  which  thir  voyage  was  made  is  no  less  uncer-  j  knowledge  of  any  region  in  America.  He  delineates, 
tnin  Mnnsrm's  "NTairal  TVnMc  r.KnvM^ll  ii;  .T7 1  indeed,  an  island  to  which  he  gives  the  name  of  St. 


tain.  Monson's  Naval  Tracts.  Churchill,  iii.  371. 
No  mention  is  made  of  this  pilot,  or  his  discoveries, 
by  And.  Bermaldes,  or  Pet.  Martyr,  the  contempo- 
raries of  Columbus.  Herrara,  with  his  usual  judg- 
ment, passes  over  it  in  silence.  Oviedo  takes  notice 
of  this  report,  but  considers  it  as  a  tale  fit  only  to 
amuse  the  vulgar.  Hist.  lib.  ii.  c.  2.  As  Columbus 


Brandon.  This,  it  is  imagined,  may  be  some  part  of 
Guiana,  supposed  at  first  to  be  an  island.  He  places 
it  in  the  same  latitude  with  the  Cape  Verd  isles,  and 
I  suspect  it  to  be  an  imaginary  island  which  has  been 
admitted  into  some  ancient  maps  on  no  better  autho- 
rity than  the  legend  of  the  Irish  St.  Brandon,  or 


held  his  course  directly  west  from  the  Canaries,  and  j  Brendan,  whose  story  is  so  childishly  fabulous  as  to 
never  varied  it,  some  later  authors  have  supposed  \  be  unworthy  of  any  notice.    Gii-ald.  Cambrensis  ap. 
that  this  uniformity  is  a  proof  of  his  being  guided  by  •  Missingham  Florilegium  Sanctorum,  p.  427. 
some  previous  information.     But  they  do  not  recol-  j      The  pretensions  of  the  Welch  to  the  discovery  of 
lect  the  principles  on  which  he  founded  all  his  hopes  ,  America  seem  not  to  rest  on  a  foundation  much  more 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


241 


solid.  In  the  twelfth  century,  according  to  Powell, 
a  dispute  having  arisen  among  the  sons  of  Owen 
Guyncth,  king  of  North,  Wales,  concerning  the 
succession  to  his  crown,  Madoc.  one  of  their  number, 
weary  of  this  contention,  betook  himself  to  sea  in 
quest  of  a  more  quiet  settlement.  He  steered  due 
west,  leaving  Ireland  to  the  north,  and  arrived  in  an 
unknown  country,  which  appeared  to  him  so  desira- 
ble that  he  returned  to  Wales,  and  carried  thither 
several  of  his  adherents  and  companions.  This  is 
said  to  have  happened  about  the  year  1170,  and 
after  that  he  and  his  colony  were  heard  of  no  more. 
But  it  is  to  be  observed  that  Powell,  on  whose  testi- 
mony the  authenticity  of  this  story  rests,  published 
his  history  above  four  centuries  from  the  date  of  the 
event  which  he  relates.  Among  a  people  as  rude 
and  as  illiterate  as  the  Welch  at  that  period,  the 
memory  of  a  transaction  so  remote  must  have  been 
very  imperfectly  preserved,  and  would  require  to  be 
confirmed  by  some  author  of  greater  credit,  and 
nearer  to  the  era  of  Madoc's  voyage,  than  Powell. 
Later  antiquaries  have  indeed  appealed  to  the  testi- 
mony of  Meredith  ap  Rees,  a  Welch  bard,  who  died 
A.  D.  1477.  But  he,  too,  lived  at  such  a  distance  of 
time  from  the  event,  that  he  cannot  be  considered  as 
a  witness  of  much  more  credit  than  Powell.  Besides, 
his  verses,  published  by  Hakluyt,  vol.  iii.  p.  1.  con- 
vey no  information,  but  that  Madoc,  dissatisfied  with 
his  domestic  situation,  employed  himself  in  searching 
the  ocean  for  new  possessions.  But  even  if  we  ad- 
mit the  auihoniicity  of  Powel's  story,  it  docs  not 
follow  that  the  unknown  country  which  Madoc  dis- 
covered by  steering  west,  in  such  a  course  as  to 
leave  Ireland  to  the  north,  was  any  part  of  America. 
The  naval  skill  of  the  Welch  in  the  twelfth  century 
was  hardly  equal  to  such  a  voyage.  If  he  made  any 
discovery  at  all,  it  is  more  probable  that  it  was  Ma- 
deira, or  some  other  of  the  western  isles.  The  affi  • 
nity  of  the  Welch  language  with  some  dialects 
spoken  in  America,  has  been  mentioned  as  a  cir- 
cumstance which  confirms  the  truth  of  Madoc's 
voyage.  But  that  affinity  has  been  observed  in  so 
iyw  instances,  and  in  some  of  these  is  so  obscure,  or 
so  fanciful,  that  no  conclusion  can  be  drawn  from  the 
casual  resemblance  of  a  small  number  of  words. 
There  is  a  bird,  which,  as  far  as  is  yet  known,  is 
found  only  on  the  coasts  of  South  America,  from 
Port  Desire  to  the  Straits  of  Magellan.  It  is  distin 
guished  by  the  name  of  Penguin.  This  word  in  the 
Welch  language  signifies  White-head.  Almost  all 
the  authors  who  favour  the  pretensions  of  the  Welch 
to  the  discovery  of  America,  mention  this  as  an  irre- 
fragable proof  of  the  affinity  of. the  Welch  language 
with  that  spoken  in  this  region  of  America.  But 
Mr.  Pennant,  who  has  given  a  scientific  description 
of  the  penguin,  observes,  that  all  the  birds  of  this 
genus  have  black  heads,  "  so  that  we  must  resign 
every  hope  (adds  he)  founded  on  this  hypothesis,  of 
retrieving  the  Cambrian  race  in  the  New  World." 
Philos.  Transac.  vol.  Iviii.  p.  91,  &c.  Besides  this, 
if  the  Welch,  towards  the  close  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, had  settled  in  any  part  of  America,  some  re- 
mains of  the  christian  doctrine  and  rites  must  have 
been  found  among  their  descendants,  when  they 
were  discovered  about  three  hundred  years  posterior 
to  their  migration ;  a  period  so  short,  that  in  the 
course  of  it  w:e  cannot  well  suppose  that  all  European 
ideas  and  arts  would  bo  totally  forgotten.  Lord  Lit- 
tleton in  his  notes  to  the  fifth  book  of  his  History  of 
Henry  II.  p.  371,  has  examined  what  Powell  relates 
concerning  the  discoveries  made  by  Madoc,  and 
THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA.  No.  31. 


invalidates  the  truth  of  his  story  by  other  arguments 
of  great  weight. 

The  pretensions  of  the  Norwegians  to  the  disco- 
very of  America  seem  to  be  better  founded  than  those 
of  the  Germans  or  Welch.  .The  inhabitants  of  Scan- 
dinavia were  remarkable  in  the  middle  ages  for  the' 
boldness  and  extent  of  their  maritime  excursions. 
In  874  the  Norwegians  discovered  and  planted  a 
colony  in  Iceland  In  982  they  discovered  Green- 
land, and  established  settlements  there.  From  that 
some  of  their  navigators  proceeded  towards  the  west, 
and  discovered  a  country  more  inviting  than  those 
horrid  regions  with  which  they  were  acquainted. 
According  to  their  representation  this  country  was 
sandy  on  the  coasts,  but  in  the  interior  parts  level 
and  covered  with  wood,  on  which  account  they  gave 
it  the  name  of  H die-land,  and  Mark  land,  and  hav- 
ing afterwards  found  some  plants  of  the  vine  which 
bore  grapes,  they  called  it  Win-land.  The  credit  of 
this  story  rests,  as  far  as  I  know,  on  the  authority  of 
the  saya,  or  chronicle  of  king  Olaus,  composed  by 
Snorro  Sturlonides,  or  Sturlusons,  published  by  Pe- 
rinskiold,  at  Stockholm,  A.  D.  1697.  As  Snorro  was 
born  in  the  year  1179,  his  chronicle  might  be  com- 
piled about  two  centuries  after  the  event  which  he 
relates.  His  account  of  the  navigation  and  disco- 
veries of  Eiorn,  and  his  companion  Lief,  is  a  very 
rude,  confused  tale,  pp.  104,  110,  326.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  discover  from  him  what  part  of  America  it 
was  in  which  the  Norwegians  landed.  According  to 
his  account  of  the  length  of  the  days  and  nights,  it 
must  have  been  as  far  north  as  the  fifty-eighth  de- 
gree of  latitude,  on  some  part  of  the  coast  of  Labra- 
dore,  approaching  near  to  the  entry  of  Hudson's 
straits.  Grapes,  certainly,  arc  not  the  production  of 
that  country.  Torfeus  supposes  that  there  is  an 
error  in  the  text,  by  rectifying  of  which  the  place 
where  the  Norwegians  landed  may  be  supposed  to 
be  situated  in  latitude  49  degrees.  But  neither  is 
that  the  region  of  the  vine  in  America.  From  pe- 
rusing Snorro' s  tale  I  should  think  that  the  situation 
of  Newfoundland  corresponds  best  with  that  of  the 
country  discovered  by  the  Norwegians.  Grapes, 
however,  are  not  the  production  of  tha£  barren 
island.  Other  conjectures  are  mentioned  by  M. 
Mallet,  Introd.  a  1'Hist.  de  Dannem.  175,  £c.  I  am 
not  sufficiently  acquainted  with  the  literature  of  the 
north  to  examine  them.  It  seems  manifest,  that  if 
the  Norwegians  did  discover  any  part  of  America  at 
that  period  their  attempts  to  plant  colonies  proved 
unsuccessful,  and  all  knowledge  of  it  was  soon  lost. 

NOTE  18. — Peter  Martyr,  ab  Angleria,  a  Milanese 
gentleman,  residing  at  that  time  in  the  court  of 
Spain,  whose  letters  contain  an  account  of  the  trans- 
actions of  that  period,  in  the  order  wherein  they 
occurred,  describes  the  sentiments  with  which  he 
himself  and  his  learned  correspondents  were  affected, 
in  very  striking  terms.  "Puc  laetitia  prosiluisse  te, 
vixque  a  lachrymis  prae  gaudio  temperasse,  quando 
literas  adspexisti  meas  quibus,  de  antipodum  orbe 
latenti  hactenus,  te  certiorem  feci,  mi  suavissime 
Pomponi,  insinuasti.  Ex  tuis  ipse  literis  colligo, 
quid  senseris.  Sensisti  autem,  tantique  rem  fecisti, 
quanti  virum  summa  doctrina  insignitum  decuit. 
Quis  namquc  cibus  sublimibus.  pracstari  potest  inge- 
niis,  isto  suavior  ?  quod  condimentum  gratius?  A 
me  facio  conjecturam.  Beatos  sentio  spiritus  meos, 
{  quando  accitos  alloquor  prudentes  aliquos  ex  his  qui 

•  ab  ea  redeunt  provincia.     Implicent  animos  pecuni- 
'  arum  cumulis  augendis  miseri  avari,  libidinibus  cb- 

•  scoeni ;  nostras  nos  mentes,  postquam  Deo  pleni  ali 

2  I 


242 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


quando  fucrimus,  contemplando,  hujusceraodi  rerum 
notitia  demulciamus."  Epist.  152.  Pomponio  Lseto. 
NOTE  19. — So  firmly  were  men  of  science  in  that 
age  persuaded  that  the  countries  which  Columbus 
had  discovered  were  connected  with  the  East  Indies, 
that  Bernaldes,  the  Cura  de  los  Palacios,  who  seems 
to  have  been  no  inconsiderable  proficient  in  the 
knowledge  of  cosmography,  contends  that  Cuba  was 
not  an  island,  but  a  part  of  the  continent,  and  united 
to  the  dominions  of  the  Great  Khan.  This  he  deli- 
vered as  his  opinion  to  Columbus  himself,  who  was 
his  guest  for  some_time  on  his  return  from  his  second 
voyage;  and  he  supports  it  by  several  arguments, 
mostly  founded  on  the  authority  of  Sir  John  Mande- 
ville;  MS.  penes  me.  Antonio  Gallo,  who  was  se- 
cretary to  the  magistracy  of  Genoa  towards  the  close 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  published  a  short  account  of 
the  navigations  and  discoveries  of  his  countryman 
Columbus,  annexed  to  his  Opuscula  Historica  de 
Rebus  Populi  Genuensis ;  in  which  he  informs  us, 
from  letters  of  Columbus  which  he  himself  had  seen, 
that  it  was  his  opinion,  founded  upon  nautical  obser- 
vations, that  one  of  the  islands  he  had  discovered 
was  distant  only  two  hours  or  thirty  degrees  from 
Cattigara,  which,  in  the  charts  of  the  geographers  of 
that  age,  was  laid  down  upon  the  authority  of  Pto- 
lemy, lib.  vii.  c.  3,  as  the  most  easterly  place  in 
Asia.  From  this  he  concluded,  that  if  some  unknown 
continent  did  not  obstruct  the  navigation,  there  must 
be  a  short  and  easy  access,  by  holding  a  westerly 
course,  to  this  extreme  region  of  the  east.  Muratori 
Scriptores  Her.  Italicarum,  vol.  xxiii.  p.  304. 

NOTE  20. — Bernaldes,  the  Cura  or  Rector  de  los 
Palacios,  a  contemporary  writer,  says,  that  five  hun- 
dred of  these  captives  were  sent  to  Spain,  and  sold 
publicly  in  Seville  as  slaves ;  but  that  by  the  change 
of  climate  and  their  inability  to  bear  the  fatigue  of 
labour,  they  all  died  in  a  short  time. — M.S.  penes  me. 
NOTE  21. — Columbus  seems  to  have  formed  some 
very  singular  opinions  concerning  the  countries 
which  he  had  now  discovered.  The  violent  swell 
and  agitation  of  the  waters  on  the  coast  of  Trinidad, 
led  him  to  conclude  this  to  be  the  highest  part  of  the 
terraqueous  globe  ;  and  he  imagined  that  various 
circumstances  concurred  in  proving  that  the  sea  was 
here  visibly  elevated.  Having  adopted  this  erroneous 
principle,  the  apparent  beauty  of  the  country  induced 
him  to  fall  in  with  a  notion  of  Sir  John  Mandeville, 
c.  102,  that  the  terrestrial  paradise  was  the  highest 
land  in  the  earth  ;  and  he  believed  that  he  had  been 
so  fortunate  as  to  discover  this  happy  abode.  Nor 
ought  we  to  think  it  strange  that  a  person  of  so  much 
sagacity  should  be  influenced  by  the  opinion  or  re- 
ports of  such  a  fabulous  author  as  Mandeville.  Co- 
lumbus and  the  other  discoverers  were  obliged  to 
follow  such  guides  as  they  could  find ;  and  it  appears 
from  several  passages  in  the  manuscript  of  Andr. 
Bernaldes,  the  friend  of  Columbus,  that  no  inconsi- 
derable degree  of  credit  was  given  to  the  testimony 
of  Mandeville  in  that  age.  Bernaldes  frequently 
quotes  him,  and  always  with  respect. 

NOTE  22.  —  It  is  remarkable  that  neither 
Gomara  nor  Oviedo,  the  most  ancient  Spanish 
historians  of  America,  nor  Hervera,  consider  Ojeda, 
or  his  companion  Vespucci,  as  the  first  discoverers 
of  the  continent  of  America.  They  uniformly 
ascribe  this  honour  to  Columbus.  Some  have  sup- 
posed that  national  resentment  against  Vespucci, 
for  deserting  the  service  of  Spain,  and  entering 
into  that  of  Portugal,  may  have  prompted  these 
writers  to  conceal  the  actions  which  he  performed. 
But  Martyr  and  Benzoni.  both  Italians,  could  not 


be  warped  by  the  same  prejudice.  Martyr  was  a 
contemporary  author;  he  resided  in  the  court  of 
Spain,  and  had  the  best  opportunity  to  be  exactly 
informed  with  respect  to  all  public  transactions ; 
and  yet  neither  in  his  Decads,  the  first  general 
history  published  of  the  New  World,  nor  in  his 
epistles,  which  contain  an  account  of  all  the  re- 
markable events  of  his  time,  does  he  ascribe  to 
Vespucci  the  honour  of  ^having  first  discovered  the 
continent.  Benzoni  went  as  an  adventurer  to 
America  in  the  year  1541,  and  resided  there  a  con- 
siderable time.  He  appears  to  have  been  animated 
with  a  warm  zeal  for  the  honour  of  Italy,  his  native 
country,  and  yet  does  not  mention  the  exploits  and 
discoveries  of  Vespucci.  Herrera,  who  compiled 
his  general  history  of  America  from  the  most  au- 
thentic records,  not  only  follows  those  early  writers, 
but  accuses  Vespucci  of  falsifying  the  dates  of  both 
the  voyages  which  he  made  to  the  New  World,  and 
of  confounding  the  one  with  the  other,  in  order  that 
he  might  arrogate  to  himself  the  glory  of  having 
discovered  the  continent.  Her.  dec.  1.  lib.  iv.  c.  2. 
He  asserts,  that  in  a  judicial  inquiry  into  this  matter 
by  the  royal  fiscal,  it  was  proved  by  the  testimony  of 
Ojeda  himself,  that  he  touched  at  Hispaniola  when 
returning  to  Spain  from  his  first  voyage ;  whereas 
Vespucci  gave  out  that  they  returned  directly  to 
Cadiz  from  the  coast  of  Paria,  and  touched  at 
Hispaniola  only  in  their  second  voyage ;  and  that 
he  had  finished  the  voyage  in  five  months,  whereas, 
according  to  Vespucci's  account,  he  had  employed 
seventeen  months  in  performing  it.  Viaggio  primo 
de  Am.  Vespucci,  p.  36.  Viag.  secundo,  p.  45. 
Herrera  gives  a  more  full  account.of  this  inquest  in 
another  part  of  his  Decads,  and  to  the  same  effect. 
Her.  dec.  1.  lib.  vii.  c.  5.  Columbus  was  in  His- 
paniola when  Ojeda  arrived  there,  and  had  by  that 
time  come  to  an  agreement  with  Roldan,  who  opposed 
Ojeda's  attempt  to  excite  a  new  insurrection,  and,  of 
consequence,  his  voyage  must  have  been  posterior 
to  that  of  the  admiral.  Life  of  Columbus,  c.  84. 
According  to  Vespucci's  account,  he  set  out  on  his 
first  voyage,  May  10,  1497.  Viag.  primo,  p.  6.  At 
that  time  Columbus  was  in  the  court  of  Spain,  pre- 
paring for  his  voyage,  and  seems  to  have  enjoyed  a 
considerable  degree  of  favour.  The  affairs  of  the 
New  World  were  at  this  juncture  under  the  direction 
of  Antonio  Torres,  a  friend  of  Columbus.  It  is  not 
probable,  that  at  that  period  a  commission  would  be 
granted  to  another  person,  to  anticipate  the  admiral, 
by  undertaking  a  voyage  which  he  himself  intended 
to  perform.  Fonseca,  who  patronized  Ojeda,  and 
granted  the  license  for  his  voyage,  was  not  recalled 
to  court,  and  reinstated  in  the  direction  of  Indian 
affairs,  Until 'the  death  of  prince  John,  which  hap- 
pened September,  1497  (P.  Martyr,  Ep.  182.),  se- 
veral months  posterior  to  the  time  at  which  Vespucci 
pretends  to  have  set  out  upon  his  voyage.  A  life  of 
Vespucci  was  published  at  Florence  by  the  Abate 
Bandini,  A.  D.  1745,  4to.  It  is  a  work  of  no  merit, 
written  with  little  judgment,  and  less  candour.  He 
contends  for  his  countryman's  title  to  the  discovery 
of  the  continent  with  all  the  blind  zeal  of  national 
partiality,  but  produces  no  new  evidence  to  support 
it.  We  learn  from  him  that  Vespucci's  account  of  his 
voyage  was  published  as  early  as  the  year  1510, 
and  probably  sooner.  Vita  di  Am.  Vesp.  p.  52.  At 
what  time  the  name  of  AMERICA  came  to  be  first 
given  to  the  New  World  is  not  certain. 

NOTE  23. — The  form  employed  on  this  occasion 
served  as  a  model  to  the  Spaniards  in  all  their 
subsequent  conquests  in  America.  It  is  so  extra 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


243 


ordinary  in  its  nature,  and  gives  us  such  an  idea  of 
the  proceedings  of  the  Spaniards,  and  the  principles 
upon  which  they  founded  their  right  to  the  extensive 
dominions  which  they  acquired  in  the  New  World, 
that  it  well  merits  the  attention, of  the  reader.  "  I 
Alonso  dc  Ojeda,  servant  of  tlie  most  high  and 
powerful  kings  of  Castile  and  Leon,  the  conquerors 
of  barbarous  nations,  their  messenger  and  captain, 
notify  to  you  and  declare,  in  as  ample  form  as  I  am 
capable,  that  God  our  Lord,  who  is  one  and  eternal, 
created  the  heaven  and  the  earth,  and  one  man  and 
one  woman,  of  whom  you  and  we,  and  all  the  men 
who  have  been  or  shall  be  in  the  world,  are  de- 
scended. But  as  it  has  come  to  pass  through  the 
number  of  generations  during  more  than  five  thou- 
sand years,  that  they  have  been  dispersed  into  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  world,  and  are  divided  into 
various  kingdoms  and  provinces,  because  one  coun- 
try was  not  able  to  contain  them,  nor  could  they 
have  found  in  one  the  means  of  subsistence  and 
preservation ;  therefore  God  our  Lord  gave  the 
charge  of  all  those  people  to  one  man  named  St. 
Peter,  whom  he  constituted  the  lord  and  head  of  all 
the  human  race,  that  all  men,  in  whatever  place 
they  are  born,  or  in  whatever  faith  or  place  they  are 
educated,  might  yield  obedience  unto  him.  He  hath 
subjected  the  whole  world  to  his  jurisdiction,  and 
commanded  him  to  establish  his  residence  in  Rome, 
as  the  most  proper  place  for  the  government  of  the 
world.  He  likewise  promised  and  gave  him  power 
to  establish  his  authority  in  every  other  part  of  the 
world,  and  to  judge  and  govern  all  Christians, 
Moors,  Jews,  Gentiles,  and  all  other  people,  of 
whatever  sect  or  faith  they  may  be.  To  him  is 
given  the  name  of  Pope,  which  signifies  admirable, 
great  father  and  guardian,  because  he  is  the  father 
and  governor  of  all  men.  Those  who  lived  in  the 
time  of  this  holy  father  obeyed  and  acknowledged 
him  as  their  lord  and  king,  and  the  superior  of  the 
universe.  The  same  has  been  observed  with  respect 
to  them  who,  since  his  time,  have  been  chosen  to 
the  pontificate.  Thus  it  now  continues,  and  will 
continue  to  the  end  of  the  world. 

"  One  of  these  pontiffs,  as  lord  of  the  world,  hath 
made  a  grant  of  these  islands,  and  of  the  Tierra 
Firme  of  the  ocean  sea,  to  the  catholic  kings  of 
Castile,  Don  Ferdinand  and  Donna  Isabella,  of 
glorious  memory,  and  their  successors,  our  sove- 
reigns, with  all  they  contain,  as  is  more  fully  ex- 
pressed in  certain  deeds  passed  upon  that  occasion, 
which  you  may  see,  if  you  desire  it.  Thus  his  ma-  I 
jesty  is  king  and  lord  of  these  islands  and  of  the 
continent,  in  virtue  of  this  donation ;  and,  as  king 
and  lord  aforesaid,  most  of  the  islands  to  which  his 
title  has  been  notified,  have  recognised  his  majesty, 
and  now  yield  obedience  and  subjection  to  him  as 
their  lord,  voluntarily  and  without  resistance ;  and 
instantly,  as  soon  as  they  received  information,  they 
obeyed  the  religious  men  sent  by  the  king  to  preach 
to  them,  and  to  instruct  them  in  our  holy  faith  ; 
and  all  these,  of  their  own  free  will,  without  any 
recompence  or  gratuity,  became  Christians,  and  con- 
tinue to  be  so  ;  and  his  majesty  having  received 
them  graciously  under  his  protection,  has  com- 
manded that  they  should  be  treated  in  the  same 
manner  as  his  other  subjects  and  vassals.  You  are 
bound  and  obliged  to  act  in  the  same  manner. 
Therefore  I  now  entreat  and  require  you  to  consider 
attentively  what  I  have  declared  to  you ;  and  that 
you  may  more  perfectly  comprehend  it,  that  you 
take  such  time  as  is  reasonable,  in  order  that  you 
may  acknowledge  the  church  as  the  superior  and 


guide  of  the  universe,  and  likewise  the  holy  father 
called  the  pope,  in  his  own  right,  and  his  majesty 
by  his  appointment,  as  king  and  sovereign  lord  of 
these  islands,  and  of  the  Tierra  Firme ;  and  that 
you  consent  that  the  aforesaid  holy .  fathers  shall 
declare  and  preach  to  you  the  doctrines  above  men- 
tioned. If  you  do  this,  you  act  well,  and  perform 
that  to  which  you  are  bound  and  obliged ;  arid  his 
majesty,  and  I  in  his  name,  will  receive  you  with 
love  and  kindness,  and  will  leave  you,  your  wives 
and  children,  free  and  exempt  from  servitude,  and 
in  the  enjoyment  of  all  you  possess,  in  the  same 
manner  as  the  inhabitants  of  the  islands.  Besides 
this,  his  majesty  will  bestow  upon  you  many  privi- 
leges, exemptions,  and  rewards.  But  if  you  will  not 
comply,  or  maliciously  delay  to  obey  my  injunction, 
then,  with  the  help  of  God,  I  will  enter  your  country 
by  force;  I  will  carry  on  war  against  you  with  the 
utmost  violence  ;  I  will  subject  you  to  the  yoke  of 
obedience  to  the  church  and  king ;  I  will  take  your 
wives  and  children,  and  will  make  them  slaves,  and 
sell  or  dispose  of  them  according  to  his  majesty's 
pleasure ;  I  will  seize  your  goods,  and  do  you  all  the 
mischief  in  my  power,  as  rebellious  subjects,  who 
will  not  acknowledge  or  submit  to  their  lawful 
sovereign.  And  I  protest,  that  all  the  bloodshed 
and  calamities  which  shall  follow,  are  to  be  imputed 
to  you,  and  not  to  his  majesty,  or  to  me,  or  the 
gentlemen  who  serve  under  me  ;  and  as  I  have  now 
made  this  declaration  and  requisition  unto  you,  I 
require  the  notary  here  present  to  grant  me  a  cer 
tificate  of  this,  subscribed  in  proper  form."  Hcrrcra, 
dec.  1.  lib.  vii.  c.  14.  >  • 

NOTE  24. — Balboa,  in  his  letter  to  the  king,  ob- 
serves, that  of  the  hundred  and  ninety  men  whom  he 
took  with  him,  there  never  were  above  eighty  fit  for 
seivice  at  one  time.  So  much  did  they  suffer  from 
hunger,  fatigue,  and  sickness.  Herrera,  dec.  1. 
lib.  x.  c.  16.  P.  Mart,  decad.  225. 

NOTE  25. — Fonseca,  bishop  of  Palencia,  the 
principal  director  of  American  affairs,  had  eight 
hundred  Indians  in  property;  the  commendator 
Lope  de  Conchillos,  his  chief  associate  in  that  de- 
partment, eleven  hundred  ;  and  other  farourites  had 
considerable  numbers.  They  sent  overseers  to  the 
islands,  and  hired  out  those  slaves  to  the  planters. 
Herrera,  dec.  1.  lib.  ix.  c.  14.  p.  325. 

NOTE  26. — Though  America  is  more  plentifully 
supplied  with  water  than  the  other  regions  of  the 
globe,  there  is  no  river  or  stream  of  water  in  Yucatan. 
This  peninsula  projects  from  the  continent  a  hun- 
dred leagues,  but,  where  broadest,  does  not  extend 
above  twenty-five  leagues.  It  is  an  extensive  plain, 
not  only  without  mountains,  but  without  almost  any 
inequality  of  ground.  The  inhabitants  are  supplied 
with  water  from  pits,  and  wherever  they  dig  them, 
find  it  in  abundance.  It  is  probable,  from  all  these 
circumstances,  that  this  country  was  formerly  co- 
vered by  the  sea.  Herrerse  Descriptio  Indise  Occi- 
dentalis,  p.  14.  Histoire  Naturelle,  par  M.  de 
Buffon,  torn.  i.  p.  593. 

NOTE  27. — M.  Clavigero  censures  me  for  having 
represented  the  Spaniards  who  sailed  with  Cordova 
and  Grijalva,  as  fancying,  in  the  warmth  of  their 
imagination,  that  they  saw  cities  on  the  coast  of 
Yucatan  adorned  with  towers  and  cupolas.  I  know 
not  what  translation  of  my  history  he  has  consulted 
(for  his  quotation  from  it  is  not  taken  from  the 
original),  but  I  never  imagined  that  any  building 
erected  by  the  Americans  could  suggest  the  idea  of  a 
cupola  or  dome,  a  structure  which  their  utmost  skill 
in  architecture  was  incapable  of  rearing.  My  words 


244 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


are,  that  they  fancied  the  villages  which  they  saw 
from  their  ships  "  to  be  cities  adorned  with  towers 
and  pinnacles."  By  pinnacles  I  meant  some  eleva- 
tion above  the  rest  of  the  building  ;  and  the  passage 
is  translated  almost  literally  from  Herrera,  dec.  2. 
lib.  iii.  c.  1.  In  almost  all  the  accounts  of  new  coun- 
tries given  by  the  Spanish  discoverers  of  that  age, 
this  warmth  of  admiration  is  conspicuous,  and  led 
them  to  describe  these  new  objects  in  the  most  splen- 
did terms.  When  Cordova  and  his  companions  first 
beheld  an  Indian  village  of  greater  magnitude  than 
any  they  had  beheld  in  the  islands,  they  dignified  it 
by  the  name  of  Grand  Cairo,  B.  Diaz,  c.  2.  From 
the  same  cause  Grijalva  and  his  associates  thought 
the  country,  along  the  coast  of  which  they  held  their 
course,  entitled  to  the  name  of  New  Spain. 

NOTE  28. — The  height  of  the  most  elevated  point 
in  the  Pyrenees  is.  according  to    M.   Cassini,  six 
thousand  six  hundred  and  forty-six  feet.  The  height  of 
the  Peak  of  Teneriffe,  according  to  the  measurement 
of  P.  Feuiile,  is  thirteen  thousand  one  hundred  and 
seventy-eight  feet.     The  height  of  Chimborazzo,  the 
most  elevated  point  of  the  Andes,  is  twenty  thousand  j 
two  hundred  and  eighty  feet ;  no  less  than  seven  i 
thousand  one  hundred  and  two  feet  above  the  highest  j 
mountain  in  the  ancient  continent.      Voyage  de  D.  J 
Juan  Ulloa,  Observations  Astron.  et  Physiq.  torn.  ii. 
p.  114.     The  line  of  congelation  on  Chimborazzo,  or 
that  part  of  the  mountain  which  is  covered  perpetually  i 
with  snow,  is  no  less  than  two  thousand  four  hundred  ' 
feet  from  its  summit.    Prevot.  Hist.  Gener.  des  Voy- 
ages, vol  xiii.  p.  636. 

NOTE  29. — As  a  particular  description  makes  a 
stronger  impression  than  general  assertions,  I  shall 
give  one  of  Rio  de  la  Plata  by  an  eye-witness,  P. 
Cattaneo,  a  Modenese  Jesuit,  who  landed  at  Buenos 
Ayres  in  1749,  and  thus  represents  what  he  felt  when 
such  new  objects  were  first  presented  to  his  view. 
"  While  I  resided  in  Europe,  and  read  in  books  of 
history  or  geography  that  the  mouth  of  the  river  de  la 
Plata  was  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles  in  breadth,  I 
considered  it  as  an  exaggeration,  because  in  this 
hemisphere  we  have  no  example  of  such  vast  rivers. 
When  I  approached  its  mouth,  I  had  the  most  ve- 
hement desire  to  ascertain  the  truth  with  my  own 
eyes ;  and  I  have  found  the  matter  to  be  exactly  as 
it  was  represented.  This  I  deduce  particularly  from 
one  circumstance  :  When'  we  took  our  departure 
from  Monte-Video,  a  fort  situated  more  than  a  hun- 
dred miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  river,  and  where 
its  breadth  is  considerably  diminished,  we  sailed  a 
complete  day  before  we  discovered  the  land  on  the 
opposite  bank  of  the  river ;  and  when  we  were  in 
the  middle  of  the  channel,  we  could  not  discern  land 
on  either  side,  and  saw  nothing  but  the  sky  and 
water,  as  if  we  had  been  in  some  great  ocean.  Indeed 
we  should  have  taken  it  to  be  sea,  if  the  fresh  water 
of  the  river,  which  was  turbid  like  the  Po,  had  not 
satisfied  us  that  it  was  a  river.  Moreover,  at  Buenos 
Ayres,  another  hundred  miles  up  the  river,  and 
where  it  is  still  much  narrower,  it  is  not  only  im- 
possible to  discern  the  opposite  coast,  which  is  indeed 
very  low  and  flat,  but  one  cannot  perceive  the  houses 
or  the  tops  of  the  steeples  in  the  Portuguese  settle- 
ment at  .Colonia  on  the  other  side  of  the  river." — 
Lettera  prima,  published  by  Muratori,  II  Christian- 
esimo  Felice,  &c.  i.  p.  357. 

NOTE  30. — Newfoundland,  part  of  Nova  Scotia, 
and  Canada,  are  the  countries  which  lie  in  the  same 
parallel  of  latitude  with  the  kingdom  of  France ;  and 
in  every  part  of  these  the  water  of  the  rivers  is  frozen 
during  winter  to  the  thickness  of  several  feet;  the  j 


earth  is  covered  with  snow  as  deep ;  almost  all  the 
birds  fly,  during  that  season,  from  a  climate  where 
they  could  not  live.  The  country  of  the  Esquimaux, 
part  of  Labrador,  and  the  countries  on  the  south  of 
Hudson's  bay,  are  in  the  same  parallel  with  Great 
Britain ;  and  yet  in  all  these  the  cold  is  so  intense, 
that  even  the  industry  of  Europeans  has  not  at- 
tempted cultivation. 

NOTE  31. — Acosta  is  the  first  philosopher,  as  far  as 
I  k'now,  who  endeavoured  to  account  for  the  different 
degrees  of  heat  in  the  old  and  new  continents,  by  the 
agency  of  the  winds  which  blow  in  each.  Hibt. 
Moral.  &c.  lib.  ii.  and  iii.  M.  de  Button  adopts  this 
theory,  and  has  not  only  improved  it  by  new  obser- 
vations, but  has  employed  his  amazing  powers  of 
descriptive  eloquence  in  embellishing  and  placing  it 
in  the  most  striking  light.  Some  remarks  may  be 
added,  which  tend  to  illustrate  more  fully  a  doctrine 
of  much  importance  in  every  inquiry  concerning  the 
temperature  of  various  climates. 

When  a  cold  wind  blows  over  land,  it  must  in  its 
passage  rob  the  suri'ace  of  some  of  its  heat.  By 
means  of  this,  the  coldness  of  the  wind  is  abated. 
But  if  it  continue  to  blow  in  the  same  direction,  it 
will  come,  by  degrees,  to  pass  over  a  surface  already 
cooled,  and  will  suffer  no  longer  any  abatement  of 
its  own  keenness.  Thus,  as  it  advances  over  a  large 
tract  of  land,  it  brings  on  all  the  severity  of  intense 
frost. 

Let  the  same  wind  blow  over  an  extensive  and 
deep  sea ;  the  superficial  water  must  be  immediately 
cooled  to  a  certain  degree,  and  the  wind  proportion- 
ably  warmed.  But  the  superficial  and  colder  water 
becoming  specifically  heavier  than  the  warm  water 
below  it,  descends;  what  is  warmer  supplies  its 
place,  which,  as  it  comes  to  be  cooled  in  its  turn, 
continues  to  warm  the  air  which  passes  over  it,  or 
to  diminish  its  cold.  This  change  of  the  superficial 
water  and  successive  ascent  of  that  which  is  warmer, 
and  the  consequent  successive  abatement  of  coldness 
in  the  air,  is  aided  by  the  agitation  caused  in  the 
sea  by  the  mechanical  action  of  the  wind,  and  also 
by  the  motion  of  the  tides.  This  will  go  on,  and 
the  rigour  of  the  wind  will  continue  to  diminish, 
until  the  whole  water  is  so  far  cooled  that  the  water 
on  the  surface  is  no  longer  removed  from  the  action 
of  the  wind,  fast  enough  to  hinder  it  from  being 
arrested  by  frost.  Whenever  the  surface  freezes, 
the  wind  is  no  longer  wanned  by  the  water  from 
below,  and  it  goes  on  with  undiminished  cold. 

From  those  principles  may  be  explained  the 
severity  of  winter  frosts  in  extensive  continents ; 
their  mildness  in  small  islands;  and  the  superior 
rigour  of  winter  in  those  parts  of  North  America  with 
which  we  are  best  acquainted.  In  the  north-west 
parts  of  Europe,  the  seventy  of  winter  is  mitigated 
by  the  west  winds,  which  usually  blow  in  the  months 
of  November,  December,  and  part  of  January. 

On  the  other  hand,  when  a  warm  wind  blows 
over  land,  it  heats  the  surface,  which  must  therefore 
cease  to  abate  the  fervour  of  the  wind.  But  the 
same  wind  blowing  over  water,  agitates  it,  brings  up 
the  cold  water  from  below,  and  thus  is  continually 
losing  somewhat  of  its  own  heat. 

But  the  great  power  of  the  sea  to  mitigate  the 
heat  of  the  wind  or  air  passing  over  it,  proceeds 
from  the  following  circumstance  : — that  on  account 
of  the  transparency  of  the  sea,  its  surface  cannot  be 
heated  to  a  great  degree  by  the  sun's  rays ;  whereas 
the  ground,  ^subjected  to  their  influence,  very  soon 
acquires  great  heat.  When,  therefore,  the  waul 
blows  over  a  torrid  continent,  it  is  soon  raised  to  a 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


245 


heat  almost  intolerable ;  but  during  its  passage  over 
an  extensive  ocean,  it  is  gradually  cooled ;  so  thai 
on  its  arrival  at  the  furthest  shore,  it  is  again  fit  for 
respiration. 

Those  pi'inciples  will  account  for  the  sultry  heats 
of  large  continents  in  the  torrid  z6ne ;  for  the  mile 
climate  of  islands  in  the  same  latitude  ;  and  for  tht 
superior  warmth  in  summer  which  large  continents, 
situated  in  the  temperate  or  colder  zones  of  the 
earth,  enjoy,  when  compared  with  that  of  islands 
The  heat  of  a  climate  depends  not  only  upon  the 
immediate  effect  of  the  sun's  rays,  but  on  their 
continued  operation,  on  the  effect  which  they  have 
formerly  produced,  and  which  remains  for  some 
time  in  the  ground.  This  is  the  reason  why  the 
day  is  wannest  about  two  in  the  afternoon,  the  sum- 
mer warmest  about  the  middle  of  July,  and  the 
winter  coldest  about  the  middle  of  January. 

The  forests  which  cover  America,  and  hinder  the 
sun-beams  from  heating  the  ground,  are  a  greaj 
cause  of  the  temperate  climate  in  the  equatorial 
parts.  The  ground,  not  being  heated,  cannot  heat 
the  air  ;  and  the  leaves,  which  receive  the  rays  inter- 
cepted from  the  ground,  have  not  a  mass  of  matter 
sufficient  to  absorb  heat  enough  for  this  purpose. 
Besides,  it. is  a  known  fact,  that  the  vegetative  power 
of  a  plant  occasions  a  perspiration  from  the  leaves 
in  proportion  to  the  heat  to  which  they  are  exposed; 
and  from  the  nature  of  evaporation,  this  perspiration 
produces  a  cold  in  the  leaf  proportional  to  the 
perspiration.  Thus  the  effect  of  the  leaf  in  heating 
the  air  in  contact  with  it,  is  prodigiously  diminished. 
For  these  observations,  which  throw  much  additional 
light  on  this  curious  subject,  I  am  indebted  to  my 
ingenious  friend,  Mr.  Kobison,  professor  of  natural 
philosophy  in  the  university  of  Edinburgh. 

NOTE  32. — The  climate  of  Brazil  has  been  des- 
cribed by  two  eminent  naturalists,  Piso  and  Margrave, 
who  observed  it  with  a  philosophical  accuracy  for 
which  we  search  in  vain  in  the  accounts  of  many 
other  provinces  in  America.  Both  represent  it  as 
temperate  and  mild,  when  compared  with  the  climate 
of  Africa.  They  ascribe  this  chiefly  to  the  refreshing 
wind  which  blows  continually  from  the  sea.  The  air 
is  not  only  cool,  but  chilly  through  the  night,  in  so 
much  that  the  natives  kindle  fires  every  evening  in 
their  huts.  Piso  do  Medicina  Brasiliensi,  lib.  i.  p. 
1,  &c.  Margravius  Histor.  Rerum  Natural.  Bra- 
siliae,  lib.  viii.  c.  3.  p.  264.  Nieuhoff,  who  resided 
long  in  Brazil,  confirms  their  description.  Churchill's 
Collection,  vol.  ii.  page  26.  Gumilla,  who  was  a 
missionary  many  years  among  the  Indians  upon  the 
river  Oronoco,  gives  a  similar  description  of  the 
temperature  of  the  climate  there.  Hist,  de  1'Ore- 
noque,  torn.  i.  p.  26,  P.  Acugna  felt  a  very  conside- 
rable degree  of  cold  in  the  countries  on  the  banks  of 
the  river  Amazons.  Relat.  vol.  ii.  p.  56.  M.  Biet, 
who  lived  a  considerable  time  in  Cayenne,  gives  a 
similar  account  of  the  temperature  of  that  climate, 
and  ascribes  it  to  the  same  cause.  Voyage  de  la 
France,  Equinox,  p.  330.  Nothing  can  be  more 
different  from  these  descriptions  than  that  of  the 
burning  heat  of  the  African  coast  given  by  M  Ad- 
anson.  Voyage  to  Senegal,  passim. 

NOTE  33. — Two  French  frigates  were  sent  upon  a 
voyage  of  discovery  in  the  year  1739.  In  latitude 
44  deg.  south,  they  began  to  feel  a  considerable  de- 


50  deg.  33  min.  south,  on  the  fifteenth  of  December, 
which  is  midsummer  in  that  part  of  the  globe,  the 
twenty-first  of  December,  being  the  longest  day 
there,  compares  the  climate  to  that  of  England  in 
the  middle  of  winter.  Voyages  by  Hawkesworth, 
i.  25.  Mr.  Banks  having  landed  on  Terra  del  Fuego, 
in  the  bay  of  Good  Success,  lat.  55  deg.  on  the  six- 
teenth of  January,  which  corresponds  to  the  month 
of  July  in  our  hemisphere,  two  of  his  attendants  died 
in  one  night  of  extreme  cold,  and  all  the  party  were 
in  the  most  eminent  danger  of  perishing.  Id.  ii.  51, 
52.  By  the  fourteenth  of  March,  corresponding  to 
September  in  our  hemisphere,  winter  was  set  in  with 
rigour,  and  the  mountains  were  covered  with  snow. 
Ibid.  72.  Captain  Cook,  in  his  voyage  towards  the 
south  pole,  furnishes  new  and  striking  instances  of 
the  extraordinary  predominance  of  cold  in  this  region 
of  the  globe.  "  Who  would  have  thought  (says  he) 
that  an  island  of  no  greater  extent  than  seventy 
leagues  in  circuit,  situated  between  the  latitude  of 
54  and  55  deg.  should,  in  the  very  height  of  summer, 
be  in  a  manner  wholly  covered,  many  fathoms  deep, 
with  frozen  snow,  but  more  especially  the  S.  W. 
coast  ?  The  very  summits  of  the  lofty  mountains 
were  cased  with  snow  and  ice  ;  but  the  quantity  that 
lay  in  the  valleys  is  incredible  ;  and  at  the  bottom  of 
the  bays  the  coast  was  terminated  by  a  wall  of  ice 
of  considerable  height."  Vol.  ii..  p.  217. 

In  some  places  of  the  ancient  continent,  an  ex- 
traordinary degree  of  cold  prevails  in  very  low  lati- 
tudes. Mr.  Bogle,  in  his  embassy  to  the  court  of 
the  Delai  Lama,  passed  the  winter  of  the  year  1774 
at  Chamnanning,  in  lat.  31  deg.  39  min.  N.  He 
often  found  the  thermometer  in  his  room  twenty-nine 
degrees  under  the  freezing  point  by  Fahrenheit's 
scale  ;  and  in  the  middle  of  April  the  standing  waters 
were  all  frozen,  and  heavy  showers  of  snow  fre- 
quently fell.  The  extraordinary  elevation  of  the 
country  seems  to  be  the  cause  of  this  excessive  cold. 
In  travelling  from  Indostan  to  Thibet,  the  ascent  to 
the  sumriiit  of  the  Boutan  mountains  is  very  great, 
but  the  descent  on  the  other  side  is  not  in  equal  pro 
portion.  The  kingdom  of  Thibet  is  an  elevated 
region,  extremely  bare  and  desolate.  Account  of 
Thibet,  by  Mr.  Stewart,  read  in  the  Royal  Society, 
[>.  7.  The  extraordinary  cold  in  low  latitudes  in 
America  cannot  be  accounted  for  by  the  same  cause. 
Those  regions  are  not  remarkable  for  elevation. 
Some  of  them  are  countries  depressed  and  level. 

The  most  obvious  and  probable  cause  of  the  supe- 
rior degree  of  cold  towards  the  southern  extremity  of 
America  seems  to  be  the  form  of  the  continent  there. 
[ts  breadth  gradually  decreases  as  it  stretches  from 
St.  Antonio  southwards,  and  from  the  bay  of  St. 
Julian  to  the  straits  of  Magellan,  its  dimensions  are 
much  contracted.  On  the  east  and  west  sides  it  is 
vashed  by  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  oceans.  From 
ts  southern  point  it  is  probable  that  a  great  extent 
)f  sea,  without  any  considerable  tract  of  land, 
•caches  to  the  Antarctic  pole.  In  whichever  of 
hese  directions  the  wind  blows,  it  is  cooled  before  it 
approaches  the  Magellanic  regions  by  passing  over  a 
/ast  body  of  water;  nor  is  the  land  there  of  such 
extent  that  it  can  recover  any  considerable  degree  of 
eat  in  its  progress  over  it.  These  circumstances 
concur  in  rendering  the  temperature  of  the  air  in 
this  district  of  America  more  similar  to  that  of  an 


gree  of  cold.  In  latitude  48  deg.  they  met  with  >  insular  than  to  that  of  a  continental  climate,  and  hin- 
islands  of  floating  ice.  Histoires  des Navigations  aux  j  der  it  from"  acquiring  the  same  degree  of  summer 
Torres  Australes,  torn.  ii.  p.  256,  &c.  Dr.  Halley  i  heat  with  places  in  Europe  and  Asia  in  a  correspond- 
fell  in  with  ice  in  lat.  59  deg.  Id.  torn.  i.  p.  47.  Com- !  ent  northern  latitude.  The  north  wind  is  the  only 
modove  Byron,  when  on  the  coast  of  Patagonia,  lat.  '  one  that  reaches  this  part  of  America,  after  blowing 


246 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


over  a  great  continent.  But  from  an  attentive  sur- 
vey of  its  position,  this  will  be  found  to  have  a  ten- 
dency rather  to  diminish  than  augment  the  degree  of 
heat.  The  southern  extremity  of  America  is  pro- 
perly the  termination  of  the  immense  ridge  of  the 
Andes,  which  stretches  nearly  in  a  direct  line  from 
north  to  south,  through  the  whole  extent  of  the  con- 
tinent. The  most  sultry  regions  in  South  America, 
Guiana,  Brazil,  Paraguay,  and  Tucuman,  lie  many 
degrees  to  the  east  of  the  Magellanic  regions.  The 
level  country  of  Peru,  which  enjoys  the  tropical 
heats,  is  situated  considerably  to  the  west  of  them. 
The  north  wind  then,  though  it  blows  over  land,  does 
not  bring  to  the  southern  extremity  of  America  an 
increase  of  heat  collected  in  its  passage  over  torrid 
regions ;  but  before  it  arrives  there,  it  must  have 
swept  along  the  summits  of  the  Andes,  and  comes 
impregnated  with  the  cold  of  that  frozen  region. 

Though  it  be  now  demonstrated  that  there  is  no 
southern  continent  in  that  region  of  the  globe  which 
it  was  supposed  to  occupy,  it  appears  to  be  certain 
from  Captain  Cook's  discoveries,  that  there  is  a  large 
tract  of  land  near  the  south  pole,  which  is  the  source 
of  most  of  the  ice  spread  over  the  vast  southern 
ocean.  Vol.  ii.  p.  230,  239,  &c.  Whether  the  in- 
fluence of  this  remote  frozen  continent  may  reach 
the  southern  extremity  of  America,  and  affect  its 
climate,  is  an  inquiry  not  unworthy  of  attention. 

NOTE  34. — M.  Condamine  is  one  of  the  latest  and 
most  accurate  observers  of  the  interior  state  of  South 
America.  "  After  descending  from  the  Andes"  (says 
he),  "  one  beholds  a  vast  and  uniform  prospect  of 
water  and  verdure,  and  nothing  more.  One  treads 
upon  the'  earth,  but  does  not  see  it ;  as  it  is  so  entirely 
covered  with  luxuriant  plants,  weeds,  and  shrubs, 
that  it  would  require  a  considerable  degree  of  labour 
to  clear  it  for  the  space  of  a  foot."  Relation  abregee 
d'un  Voyage,  &c.  p.  48.  One  of  the  singularities 
in  the  forests  is  a  sort  of  osiers,  or  withes,  called 
bejucos  by  the  Spaniards,  lianes  by  the  French,  and 
nibbes  by  the  Indians,  which  are  usually  employed  as  those  bordering  on  the  frozen  sea  he  could  not  live. 


quarters  of  the  globe.  From  antlers  of  the  moose- 
deer  which  have  been  found  in  America,  it  appears 
to  have  been  an  animal  of  great  size.  Near  the 
banks  of  the  Ohio  a  considerable  number  of  bones  of 
an  immense  magnitude  have  been  found.  The  place 
where  this  discovery  has  been  made  lies  about  one 
hundred  and  ninety  miles  below  the  junction  of  the 
river  Scioto  with  the  Ohio.  It  is  about  four  miles 
distant  from  the  banks  of  the  latter  on  the  side  of  the 
marsh  called  the  Salt  Lick.  The  bones  lie  in  vast 
quantities  about  five  or  six  feet  under  ground,  and 
the  stratum  is  visible  in  the  bank  on  the  edge 
of  the  Lick.  Journal  of  Colonel  Georye  Croylan, 
MS.  penes  me.  This  spot  seems  to  be  accurately 
laid  down  by  Evans  in  his  map.  These  bones  must 
have  belonged  to  animals  of  enormous  bulk ;  but 
naturalists,  being  acquainted  with  no  living  creature 
of  such  size,  were  at  first  inclined  to  think  that  they 
were  mineral  substances.  Upon  receiving  a  greater 
number  of  specimens,  and  after  inspecting  them 
more  narrowly,  they  are  now  allowed  to  be  the  bones 
of  an  animal.  As  the  elephant  is  the  largest  known 
quadruped,  and  the  tusks  which  were  found  nearly 
resembled,  both  in  form  and  quality,  the  tusks  of  an 
elephant,  it  was  concluded  that  the  carcases  depo- 
sited on  the  Ohio  were  of  that  species.  But  Dr. 
Hunter,  one  of  the  persons  of  our  age  best  qualified 
to  decide  with  respect  to  this  point,  having  accu- 
rately examined  several  parcels  of  the  tusks,  and 
grinders,  and  jaw-bones,  sent  from  the  Ohio  to  Lon- 
don, gives  it  as  his  opinion,  that  they  did  not  belong 
to  an  elephant,  but  to  some  huge  carnivorous  animal 

_ /?    _ ..      i  __  • TII_  M     rri i     1__:^: 


of  an 
p.  31. 


unknown    species.   Phil.  Transact,  vol.  Iviii. 
Bones  of  the  same  kind,  and  as  remarkable 


for  their  size,  have  been  found  near  the  mouths  of 
the  great  rivers  Oby,  Jeniseia,  and  Lena,  in  Siberia. 
Strahlerenberg,  Descript.  of  North  and  East  Parts  of 
Eu'ope  and  Asia,  p.  402,  £c.  The  elephant  seems 
to  be  confined  in  his  range  to  the  torrid  zone,  and 
never  multiplies  beyond  it.  In  such  cold  regions  as 


ropes  in  America.  This  is  one  of  the  parasitical 
plants,  which  twists  about  the  trees  itmeets  with,  and 
rising  above  their  highest  branches,  its  tendrils  de- 
scend perpendicularly,  strike  into  the  ground,  take 
root,  rise  up  around  another  tree,  and  thus  mount 
and  descend  alternately.  Other  tendrils  are  carried 
obliquely  by  the  wind,  or  some  accident,  and  form  a  of  which  no  account  is  preserved  in  history 


confusion  of  interwoven  cordage,  which  resembles 
the  rigging  of  a  ship.  Bancroft,  Nat.  Hist,  of  Guiana, 
99.  These  withes  are  often  as  thick  as  the  arm  of  a 
man.  Ib.  p.  75.  M.  Bouguer's  account  of  the  forests 
in  Peru  perfectly  resembles  this  description.  Voyages 
au  Peru,  p.  16.  Oviedo  gives  a  similar  description 
of  the  forests  in  other  parts  of  America.  Hist.  lib.  ix. 
p.  144.  D.  The  country  of  the  Moxos  is  so  much 
overflowed  that  they  are  obliged  to  reside  on  the 
summit  of  some  rising  ground  during  some  part  of 
the  year,  and  have  no  communication  with  their 
countrymen  at  any  distance.  Lettres  Edifiantes, 
torn.  x.  p.  187.  Garcia  gives  a  full  and  just  descrip- 
tion of  the  rivers,  lakes,  woods,  and  marshes  in  those 
countries  of  America  which  lie  between  the  tropics. 
Origin  de  los  Indies,  lib.  ii.  c.  5,  s.  4,  5.  The  in- 
credible hardships  to  which  Gonzalez  Pizarro  was 
exposed  in  attempting  to  march  into  the  country  to 
the  east  of  the  Andes,  convey  a  very  striking  idea  of 
that  part  of  America  in  its  original  uncultivated  state. 
Garcil.  de  la  Vega,  Royal.  Comment,  of  Peru,  part 
ii.  book  iii.  c.  2 — 5. 

NOTE  35.— The  animals  of  America   seem  not  to 
have  been  always  of  a  size  inferior  to  those  in  other 


The  existence  of  such  large  animals  in  America 
might  open  a  wide  field  for  conjecture.  The  more 
we  contemplate  the  face  of  nature,  and  consider  tho 
variety  of  her  productions,  the  more  we  must  be  sa- 
tisfied, that  astonishing  changes  have  been  made  in 
the  terraqueous  globe  by  convulsions  and  revolutions, 


NOTE  36. — This  degeneracy  of  the  domestic  Eu- 
ropean animals  in  America  may  be  imputed  to  some 
of  these  causes.  In  the  Spanish  settlements,  wliieh 
are  situated  either  within  the  torrid  zone,  or  in  coun- 
tries bordering  upon  it,  the  increase  of  heat,  and  di- 
versity of  food,  prevent  sheep  and  horned  cattle  from 
attaining  the  same  size  as  in  Europe.  They  seldom 
become  so  fat,  and  their  flesh  is  not  so  juicy,  or  of 
such  delicate  flavour.  In  North  America  where  the 
climate  is  more  favourable,  and  similar  to  that  of 
Europe,  the  quality  of  the  grasses  which  spring  up 
naturally  in  their  pasture-grounds  is  not  good.  Mit- 
chell, p.  151.  Agriculture  is  still  so  much  in  its 
infancy,  that  artificial  food  for  cattle  is  not  raised  in 
any  quantity.  During  a  winter,  long  in  many  pro- 
vinces and  rigorous  in  all,  no  proper  care  is  taken 
of  their  cattle.  The  general  treatment  of  their 
horses  and  horned  cattle  is  injudicious  and  harsh  in 
all  the  English  colonies.  These  circumstances  con- 
tribute more,  perhaps,  than  any  thing  peculiar  in 
the  quality  of  the  climate,  to  the  degeneracy  of  breed 
in  the  horses,  cows,  and  sheep,  of  many  of  the  North 
American  provinces. 

NOTE  37. — In  the  year  1518  the  island  of  Hispa- 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


247 


niola  was  afflicted  with  a  dreadful  visitation  of  those 
destructive  insects,  the  particulars  of  which  Herreva 
describes,  and  mentions  a  singular  instance  of  the  su- 
perstition of  the  Spanish  planters.  After  trying 
various  methods  of  exterminating  the  ants,  they 
resolved  to  implore  protection  of  the  saints ;  but  as 
the  calamity  was  new,  they  were  at  a  loss  to  find  out 
the  saint  who  could  give  them  the  most  effectual  aid. 
They  cast  lots  in  order  to  discover  the  patron  whom 
they  should  invoke.  The  lots  decided  in  favour  of 
St.  Saturninus.  They  celebrated  his  festival  with 
great  solemnity,  and  immediately,  adds  the  historian, 
the  calamity  began  to  abate.  Herrera,  dec.  2,  lib.  iii. 
c.  15,  p.  107. 

NOTE  38. — The  author  of  Recherches  Philoso- 
phiques  sur  les  Americains,  supposes  this  difference 
in  heat  to  be  equal  to  twelve  degrees,  and  that  a 
place  thirty  degrees  from  the  equator  in  the  old  con- 
tinent is  as  warm  as  one  situated  eighteen  degrees 
from  it  in  America,  torn.  i.  p.  11.  Dr.  Mitchell, 
after  observations  carried  on  during  thirty  years, 
contends  that  the  difference  is  equal  to  fourteen  or 
fifteen  degrees  of  latitude.  Present  State,  &c. 
p.  257. 

NOTE  39. — January  3rd,  17G5,  Mr.  Bertram,  near 
the  head  of  St.  John's  river,  in  East  Florida,  ob- 
served a  frost  so  intense,  that  in  one  night  the  ground 
was  frozen  an  inch  thick  upon  the  banks  of  the 
river.  The  limes,  citrons,  and  banana  trees  at  St. 
Augustin  were  destroyed.  Bertram's  Journal,  p.  20. 
Other  instances  of  the  extraordinary  operations  of 
cold  in  the  southern  provinces  of  North  America 
are  collected  by  Dr.  Mitchell.  Present  State,  p.  206, 
&c.  February  7th,  1747,  the  frost  at  Charlcstown 
was  so  intense,  that  a  person  having  carried  two 
(mart  bottles  of  hot  water  to  bed,  in  the  morning 
they  were  split  to  pieces,  and  the  water  converted 
into  solid  lumps  of  ice.  In  a  kitchen,  where  there 
was  a  fire,  the  water  in  a  jar,  where  there  was  a 
large  live  eel,  was  frozen  to  the  bottom.  Almost  all 
the  orange  and  olive-trees  were  destroyed.  De- 
scription of  South  Carolina,  8vo.  Lond.  1761. 

NOTE  40. — A  remarkable  instance  of  this  occurs 
in  Dutch  Guiana,  a  country  everywhere  level,  and 
so  low,  that  during  the  rainy  seasons  it  is  usually 
covered  with  water  near  two  feet  in  height.  This 
renders  the  soil  so  rich,  that  on  the  surface,  for 
twelve  inches  in  depth,  it  is  a  stratum  of  perfect 
manure,  and  as  such  has  been  transported  to  Bar- 
badoes.  On  the  banks  of  the  Essequebo,  thirty 
crops  of  ratan  canes  have  been  "raised  successively ; 
whereas,  in  the  West  India  Islands,  not  more  than 
two  is  ever  expected  from  the  richest  land.  The  ex- 
pedients by  which  the  planters  endeavour  to  diminish 
this  excessive  fertility  of  the  soil  are  various.  Ban- 
croft, Nat.  Hist,  of  Guiana,  p.  10,  &c. 

NOTE  41. — Muller  seems  to  have  believed,  without 
sufficient  evidence,  that  the  cape  had  been  doubled 
torn.  i.  p. 11,  &c. ;  and  the  imperial  academy  of  St. 
Petersburgh  gives  some  countenance  to  it  by  the 
manner  in  which  Tschukotskoi-noss  is  laid  down  in 
their  charts.  But  I  am  assured,  from  undoubted 
authority,  that  no  Russian  vessel  has  ever  sailed 
round  that  cape ;  and  as  the  country  of  Tschutki  is 
not  subject  to  the  Russian  empire,  it  is  very  im- 
perfectly known 

NOTE  42. — Were  this  the  place  for  entering  into 
a  long  and  intricate  geographical  disquisition,  many 
.  curious  observations  might  arise  from  comparing  the 
accounts  of  the  two  Russian  voyages  and  the  charts 
of  their  respective  navigations.  One  remark  is  ap- 
plicable to  both.  We  cannot  rely  with  absolute 


ertainty  on  the  position  which  they  assign  to  several 
if  the  places  which  they  visited.     The  weather  was 
o  extremely  foggy,  that  they  seldom  saw  the  sun  or 
tars  ;  and  the  position  of  the  islands  and  supposed 
continents  was  commonly  determined  by  reckoning, 
not  by  observation.     Behring  and  Tschirikow  pro- 
ceeded much  further  towards  the  east  than  Krenitzin/" 
The  land  discovered  by  Behring,  which  he  imagined 
to  be  part  of  the  American  continent,  is  in  the  236th 
degree  of  north  longitude  from  the  first  meridian  in 
the  isle  of  Ferro,  and  in  58  deg.  28  min.  of  latitude. 
Tschirikow  came  upon  the  same  coast  in  longitude 
241  deg.,  latitude  65  deg.    Muller,  i.  248,  249.    The 
brnier  must  have  advanced  60  degrees  from  the  port 
of  Petropawlowski,  from  which  he  took  his  departure, 
and  the  latter  65  degrees.     But  from  the  chart  of 
Krenitzin's  voyage,  it  appears   that  he  did  not  sail 
further  towards  the  east  than  the  208th  degree,  and 
only  32  degrees  from  Petropawlowski.      In  1741, 
Behring   and  Tschirikow,   both  in   going  and   re- 
turning, held  a  course  which  was  mostly  to  the  south 
of  that  chain  of  islands  which  they  discovered ;  and 
observing  the  mountainous  and  rugged  aspect  of  the 
headlands  which  they  descried  towards  the  north, 
they  supposed  them  to  be  promontories  belonging  to 
some  part  of  the  American  continent,  which,  as  they 
fancied,  stretched  as  far  south  as  the  latitude  56. 
In   this  manner  they  are  laid  down   in  the  chart 
published  by  Muller,  and  likewise  in  -a  manuscript 
chart  drawn  by  a  mate  of  Behring's  ship,  communi- 
cated  to  me    by  Mr.  Professor  Robinson.      But  in 
1769,  Krenitzin,  after  wintering  in  the  island  Alaxa, 
stood  so  far  towards  the  north  in  his  return,  that  his 
course  lay  through  the  middle  of  what  Behring  and 
Tschirikow  had   supposed  to  be  a  continent,  which 
he  found  to  be  an  open  sea,  and  that  they   had 
mistaken  rocky  isles  for  the  headlands  of  a  conti- 
nent.    It  is  probable,  that  the  countries  discovered 
ia  1741,   towards  the  east,   do  not  belong  to  the 
American  continent,  but  are  only  a  continuation  of 
the  chain  of  islands.     The  number  of  volcanoes  in. 
this  region  of  the  globe  is  remarkable.     There  are 
several  in  Kamtchatka,  and  not  one  of  the  islands, 
great  or  small,  as  far  as  the  Russian  navigation  ex- 
tends, is  without  them.    Many  are  actually  burning, 
and  the  mountains  in  all  bear  marks  of  having  been 
once  in  a  state  of  eruption.     Were  I  disposed  to 
admit  such  conjectures  as  have  found  place  in  other 
inquiries  concerning  the  people  of  America,  I  might 
suppose  that  this  part  of  the  earth,  having  mani- 
festly suffered  violent  convulsions  from  earthquakes 
and  volcanoes,  an  isthmus,  which  may  have  formerly 
united  Asia  to  America,  has  been  broken,  and  formed 
into  a  cluster  of  islands  by  the  shock. 

It  is  singular,  that  at  the  very  time  the  Russian 
navigators  were  attempting  to  make  discoveries  in 
the  north-west  of  America,  the  Spaniards  were  pro- 
secuting the  same  design  from  another  quarter.  In 
1769,  two  small  vessels  sailed  from  Loretto,  in 
California,  to  explore  the  coasts  of  the  country  to 
the  north  of  that  peninsula.  They  advanced  no 
further  than  the  port  of  Monte -Rey,  in  latitude  36. 
But,  in  several  successive  expeditions,  fitted  out 
from  the  port  of  St.  Bias  in  New  Galicia,  the 
Spaniards  have  advanced  as  far  as  the  latitude  58. 
Gazeta  de  Madrid,  March  19,  and  May  14,  1776. 
But  as  the  journals  of  those  voyages  have  not  yet 
been  published,  I  cannot  compare  their  progress 
with  that  of  the  Russians,  or  show  how  near  the 
navigators  of  the  two  nations  have  approached  to 
each  other.  It  is  to  be  hoped,  that  the  enlightened 
minister  who  has  now  the  direction  of  American, 


246 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


affairs  in  Spain,  will  not  withhold  this  informatioi 
from  the  public. 

NOTE  43. — Our  knowledge  of  the  vicinity  of  the 
two  continents  of  Asia  and  America,  which  was 
very  imperfect  when  I  published  the  History  o; 
America  in  the  year  1777,  is  now  complete.  Mr, 
Coxe's  Account  of  the  Russian  Discoveries  between 
Asia  and  America,  printed  in  the  year  1780,  con- 
tains many  curious  and  important  facts  with  rcspecl 
to  the  various  attempts  of  the  Russians  to  open 
communication  with  the  New  World.  The  history 
of  the  great  voyage  of  discovery,  begun  by  Captain 
Cook  in  1776,  and  completed  by  Captains  Clerk 
and  Gore,  published  in  the  year  1780,  communicates 
all  the  information  that  the  curiosity  of  mankind 
could  desire  with  regard  to  this  subject. 

At  my  request,  my  friend  Mr.  Play  fair,  Professor 
of  Mathematics  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  has 
compared  the  narrative  and  charts  of  those  illus- 
trious navigators,  with  the  more  imperfect  relations 
and  maps  of  the  Russians  The  result  of  this  com- 
parison I  communicate  in  his  own  words,  with  much 
greater  confidence  in  his  scientific  accuracy  than  I 
could  have  ventured  to  place  in  any  observations 
which  I  myself  might  have  made  upon  the  subject. 

"  The  discoveries  of  Captain  Cook,  in  his  last 
voyage,  have  confirmed  the  conclusions  which  Dr. 
Robertson  had  drawn,  and  have  connected  together 
the  facts  from  which  they  were  deduced.  They  have 
now  rendered  it  certain  that  Behring  and  Tschivikow 
touched  on  the  coast  of  America  in  1741.  The 
former  discovered  land  in  latitude  58  deg.  28  min., 
and  about  236  deg.  east  from  Ferro.  He  has  given 
such  a  description  of  the  bay  in  which  he  anchored, 
and  the  high  mountain  to  the  westward  of  it,  which 
he  calls  St.  Elias,  that  though  the  account  of  his 
voyage  is  much  abridged  in  the  English  translation, 
Captain  Cook  recognised  the  place  as  he  sailed 
along  the  western  coast  of  America  in  the  year  1778, 
The  isle  of  St.  Hermogenes,  near  the  mouth  of 
Cook's  River,  Schumagin's  Isles  on  the  coast  of 
Alashka,  and  Foggy  Isle,  retain,  in  Captain  Cook's 
chart,  the  names  which  they  had  received  from  the 
Russian  navigator.  Cook's  Voy.  vol.  ii.  p  347. 

"  Tschirikow  came  upon  the  same  coast,  about 
2  deg.  30 min.  further  south  than  Behring,  near  the 
Mount.  Edgcumbe  of  Captain  Cook. 

"  With  regard  to  Krenitzin,  we  learn  from  Coxe's 
Account  of  the  Russian  Discoveries,  that  he  sailed 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Kamtchatka  River  with  two 
ships  in  the  year  1768.  With  his  own  ship  he 
reached  the  Island  of  Oonolashka,  in  which  there 
had  been  a  Russian  settlement  since  the  year  1762, 
where  he  wintered,  probably  in  the  same  harbour  or 
bay  where  Captain  Cook  afterwards  anchored.  The 
other  ship  wintered  at  Alashka,  which  was  supposed 
to  be  an  island,  though  it  be  in  fact  a  part  of  the 
American  continent.  Krenitzin  accordingly  re- 
turned without  knowing  that  either  of  his  ships  had 
been  on  the  coast  of  America;  and  this  is  the  more 
surprising,  because  Captain  Cook  has  informed  us 
that  Alashka  is  understood  to  be  a  great  continent, 
both  by  the  Russians  and  the  natives  at  Oonolashka. 
"  According  to  Krenitzin,  the  ship  which  had 
wintered  at  Alashka  had  hardly  sailed  32  deg.  to  the 
eastward  of  the  harbour  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul, 
in  Kamtchatka ;  but,  according  to  the  more  ac- 
curate chart  of  Captain  Cook,  it  had  sailed  no  less 
than  37  deg.  17  min.  to  the  eastward  of  that  harbour. 
There  is  nearly  the  same  mistake  of  5  degrees  in  the 
longitude  which  Kreuitzin  assigns  to  Oonolashka. 
It  is  remarkable  enough,  that  in  the  chart  of  those 


seas,  put  into  the  hand  of  Captain  Cook  by  the  Rus- 
sians on  that  island,  there  was  an  error  of  the  same 
kind,  and  very  nearly  of  the  same  extent. 

"  But  what  is  of  most  consequence  to  be  remarked 
on  the  subject  is,  that  the  discoveries  of  Captain 
Cook  have  fully  verified  Dr.  Robertson's  conjecture, 
that  '  it  is  probable  that  future  navigators  in  those 
seas,  by  steering  further  to  the  north  than  Behring 
and  Tschirikow  or  Krenitzin  had  done,  may  find 
that  the  continent  of  America  approaches  still 
nearer  to  that  of  Asia.'  Book  iv.  p.  8U9.  It  has  ac- 
cordingly been  found  that  these  two  continents, 
which,  in  the  parallel  of  55  deg.  or  that  of  the  south- 
ern extremity  of  Alashka,  are  about  four  hundred 
leagues  asunder,  approach  continually  to  one  an- 
other as  they  stretch  together  toward  the  north,  un- 
til, within  less  than  a  degree  from  the  polar  circle, 
they  are  terminated  by  two  capes,  only  thirteen 
leagues  distant.  The  east  cape  of  Asia  is  in  lat.  66 
deg.  6  min.,  and  in  long.  190  deg.  22  min.  east 
from  Greenwich  ;  the  western  extremity  of  America, 
or  Prince  of  Wales' s  Cape,  is  in  lat.  65  deg.  46  min. 
and  in  long.  191  deg.  45  min.  Nearly  in  the  middle 
of  the  narrow  strait  (Behring' s  Strait)  which  sepa- 
rates these  capes,  are  the  two  islands  of  St.  Diomede, 
from  which  both  continents  may  be  seen.  Captain 
King  informs  us,  that  as  he  was  sailing  through  this 
strait,  July  5,  1779,  the  fog  having  cleared  away,  he 
enjoyed  the  pleasure  of  seeing  from  the  ship  the 
continents  of  Asia  and  America  at  the  same  mo- 
nent,  together  with  the  islands  of  St.  Diomede  lying 
between  them.  Cook's  Voy.  vol.  iii.  p.  244. 

"  Beyond  this  point  the  strait  opens  towards  the 
Arctic  sea,  and  the  coasts  of  Asia  and  America  di- 
verge so  fast  from  one  another,  that  iu  the  parallel  of 
deg.  they  are  more  than  one  hundred  leagues 
asunder.  Ib.  p.  277.  To  the  south  of  the  strait, 
here  are  a  number  of  islands,  Clerk's,  King's,  An- 
derson's, &c.  which,  as  well  as  those  of  St.  Diomede, 
may  have  facilitated  the  migrations  of  the  natives 
?rom  the  one  continent  to  the  other.  Captain  Cook, 
lowcver,  on  the  authority  of  the  Russians  at  Oono- 
lashka, and  for  other  good  reasons,  has  diminished 
;he  number  of  islands  which  had  been  inserted  in 
'onuer  charts  of  the  northern  Archipelago.  He  has 
ilso  placed  Alashka,  or  the  promontory  which 
stretches  from  the  continent  of  America  S.  W.  to- 
wards Kamtchatka,  at  the  distance  of  five  degrees  of 
.Oiagitude  further  from  the  coast  of  Asia  than  it  was 
•eckoned  by  the  Russian  navigators. 

"  The  geography  of  the  Old  and  New  World  is 
,herefore  equally  indebted  to  the  discoveries  made  in 
lais  memorable  voyage  ;  and  as  many  errors  have 
>een  corrected,  and  many  deficiencies  supplied  by 
neans  of  these  discoveries,  so  the  accuracy  of  some 
brmer  observations  has  been  established.  The 
iasis  of  the  map  of  the  Russian  empire,  as  far  as 
egarded  Kamtchatka,  and  the  country  of  the 
Tschutzki,  was  the  position  of  four  places,  Yakut sh, 
Ochotz,  Bolcheresk,  and  Petropawlowski,  which  had 
>een  determined  by  the  astronomer  Krassilnicow  in 
he  year  1744.  Nov.  Comment.  Petrop.  vol.  iii. 
).  465,  &c.  But  ths  accuracy  of  his  observations 
vas  contested  by  M.  Engel,  and  M.  Robert,  de  Vau- 
foiuly;  Coxe,  Append,  i.  No.  2,  p.  267,  272;  and 
he  former  of  these  geographers  ventured  to  take 
iway  no  less  than  28  degrees  from  the  longitude, 
vhich,  on  the  faith  of  Krassilnicow's  observations, 
vas  assigned  to  the  eastern  boundary  of  the  Russian 
mpire.  With  how  little  reason  this  was  done,  will 
ippcar  from  considering  that  our  British  navigators, 
laving  determined  the  position  of  Petropawlowski 


THE  HlS'l'ORY  OF  AMERICA. 


249 


by  a  great  number  of  very  accurate  observations, 
found  the  longitude  of  that  port  158  deg.  43  min.  E. 
from  Greenwich,  and  its  latitude  53  deg.  1  min.; 
agreeing,  the  first  to  less  than  seven  minutes,  and 
the  second  to  less  than  half  a  minute,  with  the  calcu- 
lations of  the  Russian  astronomer;  a  coincidence 
which,  in  the  situation  of  so  remote  a  place,  does  not 
leave  an  uncertainty  of  more  than  four  English 
miles,  and  which,  for  the  credit  of  science,  deserves 
to  be  particularly  remarked.  The  chief  error  in  the 
Russian  maps  has  been  in  not  extending  the  boun- 
daries of  that  empire  sufficiently  towards  the  east. 
For  as  there  was  nothing  to  connect  the  land  of  the 
Tschutzki  and  the  north-east  point  of  Asia  with 
those  places  whereof  the  position  had  been  carefully 
ascertained,  except  the  imperfect  accounts  of  Beh- 
ring's  and  Sind's  voyages,  considerable  errors  could 
not  fail  to  be  introduced,  and  that  point  was  laid 
down  as  not  more  than  23  deg.  2  min.  east  of  the 
meridian  of  Petropawlowski.  Coxe.  Append,  i.  No.  2. 
By  the  observations  of  Captain  King,  the  dift'erence 
of  longitude  between  Petropawlowski  and  the  East 
Cape  is  31  deg.  9  mm. ;  that  is  8  deg.  7  min.  greater 
than  it  was  supposed  to  be  by  the  Russian  geogra- 
^raphers."  It  appears  from  Cook's  and  King's  Voy. 
iii.  p.  272,  that  the  continents  of  Asia  and  America 
are  usually  joined  together  by  ice  during  winter. 
Mr.  Samwell  confirms  this  account  of  his  superior 
officer.  •'  At  this  place,  viz.  near  the  lat.  of  66  dog. 
N.  the  two  coasts  are  only  thirteen  leagues  asunder, 
and  about  midway  between  them  lie  two  islands,  the 
distance  from  which  to  either  shore  is  short  of  twenty 
miles.  At  this  place  the  natives  of  Asia  could  find 
no  difficulty  in  passing  over  to  the  opposite  coast, 
which  is  in  sight  of  their  own.  That  in  a  course  of 
years  such  an  event  would  happen,  either  through 
design  or  accident,  cannot  admit  of  a  doubt.  The 
canoes  which  we  saw  among  the  Tschutzki  were  ca- 
pable of  performing  a  much  longer  voyage ;  and, 
however  ru.de  they  may  have  been  at  some  distant 
period,  we  can  scarcely  suppose  them  unequal  to  a 
passage  of  six  or  seven  leagues.  People  might  have 
been  carried  over  by  accident  on  floating  pieces  of 
ice.  They  might  also  have  travelled  across  on 
sledges  or  on  foot ;  for  we  have  reason  to  believe  that 
i  he  strait  is  entirely  frozen  over  in  the  winter ;  so 
that  during  that  season  the  continents,  with  respect 
to  the  communication  between  them,  may  be  consi- 
dered as  one  land."  Letter  from  Mr  Samwell,  Scots 
Magazine  for  1788,  p.  604.  It  is  probable  that  this 
interesting  portion  of  geographical  knowledge  will, 
in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  receive  further  improve- 
ment. Soon  after  the  publication  of  Captain  Cook's 
last  voyage,  the  great  and  enlightened  sovereign  of 
Russia,  attentive  to  every  thing  that  may  contribute 
to  extend  the  bounds  of  science,  or  to  render  it  more 
accurate,  formed  the  plan  of  a  new  voyage  of  disco- 
very, in  order  to  explore  those  parts  of  the  ocean 
lying  between  Asia  and  America  which  Captain 
Cook  did  not  visit,  to  examine  more  accurately  the 
islands  which  stretch  from  one  continent  almost  to 
the  other,  to  survey  the  north-east  coast  of  the  Rus- 
sian empire,  from  the  mouth  of  the  Kovyma,  or  Ko- 
lyma, to  the  North  Cape,  and  to  settle,  by  astrono- 
mical observations,  the  position  of  each  place  worth 
notice.  The  conduct  of  this  important  enterprize  is 
committed  to  Captain  Billings,  an  English  officer  in 
the  Russian  service,  of  whose  abilities  for  that  sta- 
tion it  will  be  deemed  the  best  evidence,  that  he  ac- 
companied Captain  Cook  in  his  last  voyage.  To 
render  the  expedition  more  extensively  useful,  an 
eminent  naturalist  is  appointed  to  attend  Captain 
THE  HibTORY  OF  AMERICA.  No.  32. 


Billings.  Six  years  will  be  requisite  for  accom- 
plishing the  purposes  of  the  voyage.  Coxe,  Supple- 
ment to  Russian  Discoveries,  p."  27,  &c. 

NOTE  44. — Few  travellers  have  had  such  oppor- 
tunity of  observing  the  natives  of  America,  in  its 
various  districts,  as  Don.  Antonio  Ulloa.  In  a  work 
lately  published  by  him,  he  thus  describes  the  cha 
racteristical  features  of  the  race  :  "  A  very  small 
forehead,  covered  with  hair  towards  its  extremities, 
as  far  as  the  middle  of  the  eye-brows  ;  little  eyes  ;  a 
thin  nose,  small  and  bending  towards  the  upper  lip  ; 
the  countenance  broad ;  the  ears  large ;  the  hair 
very  black,  lank,  and  coarse  ;  the  limbs  well  turned, 
the  feet  small,  the  body  cf  just  proportion  ;  and  alto- 
gether  smooth  and  free  from  hair,  until  old  age, 
when  they  acquire  some  beard,  but  never  on  the 
cheeks."  Noticias  Americanas,  &c.  p.  307.  M.  lo 
Chevalier  de  Pinto,  who  resided  several  years  in  a 
part  of  America  which  Ulloa  never  visited,  gives  a 
sketch  of  the  general  aspect  of  the  Indians  there. 
"  They  are  all  of  copper  colour,  with  some  diversity 
of  shade,  not  in  proportion  to  their  distance  from 
the  equator,  but  according  to  the  degree  of  elevation 
of  the  territory  which  they  inhabit.  Those  who  live 
in  a  high  country  are  fairer  than  those  in  the  marshy 
low  lauds  on  the  coast.  Their  face  is  round,  further 
removed,  perhaps,  than  that  of  any  people  from  an 
oval  shape.  Their  forehead  is  small,  the  extremity 
of  their  cars  far  from  the  face,  their  lips  thick,  their 
nose  flat,  their  eyes  black,  or  of  a  chesnut  colour, 
small,  but  capable  of  discerning  objects  at  a  great 
distance.  Their  hair  is  always  thick  and  sleek,  and 
without  any  tendency  to  curl.  They  have  no  hair 
on  any  part -of  their  body  but  the  head.  At  the  first 
aspect  a  southern  American  appears  to  be  rnild  and 
innocent,  but  on  a  more  attentive  view,  one  discovers 
in  his  countenance  something  wild,  distrustful,  and 
sullen."  MS.  penes  me.  The  two  portraits,  drawn 
by  hands  very  different  from  those  of  common  tra- 
vellers, have  a  near  resemblance. 

NOTE  45. — Amazing  accounts  are  given  of  the 
persevering  speed  of  the  Americans.  Adair  relates 
the  adventures  of  a  Chikkasah  warrior,  who  ran 
through  woods  and  over  mountains,  three  hundred 
computed  miles,  in  a  day  and  a  half  and  two  nights. 
Hist,  of  Amer.  Ind.  396. 

NOTE  46. — M.  Godin  le  Jeune,  who  resided  fif- 
teen years  among  the  Indians  of  Peru  and  Quito, 
and  twenty  years  in  the  French  colony  of  Cayenne, 
in  which  there  is  a  constant  intercourse  with  the 
Galibis  and  other  tribes  on  the  Orinoco,  observes, 
that  the  vigour  of  constitution  among  the  Americans 
is  exactly  in  proportion  to  their  habits  of  labour. 
The  Indians,  in  warm  climates,  such  as  those  on  the 
coasts  of  the  South  Sea,  on  the  river  of  Amazons, 
and  the  river  Orinoco,  are  not  to  be  compared  for 
strength  with  those  in  cold  countries ;  and  yet,  says 
he,  boats  daily  set  out  from  Para,  a  Portuguese  set- 
tlement on  the  river  of  Amazons,  to  ascend  that  rivei 
against  the  rapidity  of  the  stream,  and  with  the  same 
crew  they  proceed  to  San  Pablo,  which  is  eight  hun- 
dred leagues  distant.  No  crew  of  white  people,  or 
even  of  negroes,  would  be  found  equal  to  a  task  of 
such  persevering  fatigue,  as  the  Portuguese  have 
experienced,  and  yet  the  Indians,  being  accustomed 
to  this  labour  from  their  infancy,  perform  it.  MS. 
penes  me. 

NOTE  47. — Don  Antonio  Ulloa,    who  visited  a 

great  part  of  Peru  and  Chili,  the  kingdom  of  New 

i  Grenada,  and  several  of  the  provinces  bordering  on 

!  the  Mexican  gulf,  while  employed  in  the  same  ser- 

'  vice  with  the  French  mathematicians  during  the 

2  K 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


space  of  ten  years,  and  who  afterwards  had  an  op-  |  of  the  same  stature  with  Spaniards.  I  never  saw  one 
portunity  of  viewing  the  North  Americans,  asserts,  I  who  rose  in  height  two  varas  and  two  or  three 
"  that  if  we  have  seen  one  American,  we  may  be  |  inches,"  i.  e.  about  ttO  or  81.332  inches  English,  if 
said  to  have  seen  them  all,  their  colour  and  make  are 
so  nearly  the  same."  Notic.  Americanas,  p.  308.  A 


more  early  observer,  Pedro  de  Cieca  de  Leon,  one  of 
the  conquerors  of  Peru,  who  had  likewise  traversed 
many  provinces  of  America,  affirms  that  the  people, 
men  and  women,  although  there  is  such  a  multitude 
of  tribes  or  nations  as  to  be  almost  innumerable,  and 
such  diversity  of  climates,  appear  nevertheless  like 
the  children  of  one  father  and  mother.  Chronica  del' 
Peru,  parte  i.  c.  19.  There  is,  no  doubt,  a  certain 
combination  of  features,  and  peculiarity  of  aspect, 
which  forms  what  may  be  called  a  European  or 
Asiatic  countenance.  There  must  likewise  be  one 
that  may  be  denominated  American,  common  to  the 
whole  race.  This  may  be  supposed  to  strike  the  tra- 
veller at  first  sight,  while  not  only  the  various  shades 
which  distinguish  people  of  different  regions,  but  the 
peculiar  features  which  discriminate  individuals,  es- 
cape the  notice  of  a  transient  observer.  But  when 
persons  who  had  resided  so  long  among  the  Ameri- 
cans concur  in  bearing  testimony  to  the  similarity  of 
their  appearance  in  every  climate,  we  may  conclude 
that  it  is  more  remarkable  than  that  of  any  other 
race.  See  likewise  Garcia,  Origen  de  los  Indies, 


Echavarri  makes  his  computation  according  to  the 
•ara  of  Madrid.     This  agrees  nearly  with  the  mea- 


surement of  Captain  Wallis.  Reyno  Jesuitico,  238. 
Mr.  Falkner,  who  resided  as  a  missionary  forty  years 
in  the  southern  parts  of  America,  says,  that  "  the 
Patagonians,  or  Puelches,  are  a  large-bodied  people  ; 
but  I  never  heard  of  that  gigantic  race  which  others 
have  mentioned,  though  I  have  seen  persons  of  all 
the  different  tribes  of  southern  Indians."  Introd. 
p.  26.  M.  Dobrizhoifer,  a  Jesuit,  who  resided  eigh- 
teen years  in  Paraguay,  and  who  had  seen  great 
numbers  of  the  various  tribes  which  inhabit  the 
countries  situated  upon  the  straits  of  Magellan,  con 
firms,  in  every  point,  the  testimony  of  his  brother- 
missionary  Falkner.  Dobrizhoffer  "enters  into  some 
detail  with  respect  to  the  opinions  of  several  authors, 
concerning  the  stature  of  the  Patagonian?.  Having 
mentioned  the  reports  of  some  early  travellers  with 
regard  to  the  extraordinary  size  of  some  bones  found 
on  that  coast  which  were  supposed  to  be  human, 
and  having  endeavoured  to  shew  that  these  bones 
belonged  to  some  large  marine  or  land  animal,  he 
concludes,  "  de  hisce  ossibus  crede  quicquidlibuerit, 
dummodo,  me  suasore,  Patagones  pro  gigantibus  de- 
Historia  de  Abissonibus,  vol.  ii. 


snas   habere." 
p.  19,  &c. 

NOTE  50.  —  Antonio  Sanchez  Rideiro,  a  learned 


p.  54,  242.    Torquemada,  Monarch.  Indiana,  ii.  571 

NOTE  48. — M.  le  Chevalier  de  Pinto  observes, 
that  in  the  interior  parts  of  Brazil  he  had  been  in- 
formed that  some  persons  resembling  the  white  peo-  i  and  ingenious  physician,  published  a  dissertation  in 
pie  of  Darien  have  been  found;  but  that  the  breed  I  the  year  1765,  in  which  he  endeavours  to  prove,  that 
did  not  continue,  and  their  children  became  like  j  this  disease  was  not  introduced  from  America,  but 
other  Americans.  This  race,  however,  is  very  im- !  took  its  rise  in  Europe,  and  was  brought  on  by  an 
perfectly  known,  MS  penes  me. 

NOTE  49. — The  testimonies  of  different  travellers 
concerning  the  Patagoniaus,  have  been  collected  and 
stated  with  a  considerable  degree  of  accuracy  by  the 
author  of  Recherches  Philosophiques,  &c.  torn.  i. 
281,  &c.  iii.  181,  &c.  Since  the  publication  of  his 
work  several  navigators  have  visited  the  Magellanic 


regions,  and   like    their    predecessors,   differ 
widely  in  their   accounts  of    its   inhabitants. 


very 
By 


Commodore  Byron  and  his  crew,  who  sailed  through 
the  Straits  in  1764,  the  common  size  of  the  Patago- 
nians was  estimated  to  be  eight  feet,  and  many  of 
them  much  taller.  Phil.  Transact,  vol.  Ivii  p.  78. 
By  Captains  Wallis  and  Carteret,  who  actually  mea- 
sured them  in  1766,  they  were  found  to  be  from  six 
feet  to  six  feet  five  and  seven  inches  in  height.  Phil. 
Transact,  vol.  Ix.  p.  22.  These,  however,  seem  to 
have  been  the  very  people  whose  size  had  been 
rated  so  high  in  the  year  1764;  for  several  of  them 
had  beads  and  red  baize  of  the  same  kind  with  what 
had  been  put  on  board  Captain  Wallis' s  ship,  and  he 
naturally  concluded  that  they  had  got  these  from 
Mr.  Byron.  Hawkesw.  i.  In  1767  they  were  again 
measured  by  M.  Bougainville,  whose  account  differs 
little  from  that  of  Captain  Wallis.  Voy.  129.  To 
this  1  shall  add  a  testimony  of  great  weight.  In  the 
year  1762  Don  Bernardo  Ibegnez  de  Echavarri 
accompanied  the  Marquis  de  Valdelirios  to  Buenos 
Ayres,  and  resided  there  several  years.  He  is  a  very 
intelligent  author,  and  his  reputation  for  veracity 
unimpeached  among  his  countrymen.  In  speaking 
of  the  country  towards  the  southern  extremity  of 
America,  "  By  what  Indians,"  says  he,  "  is  it  pos- 
sessed ?  Not  certainly  by  the  fabulous  Patagonians, 
who  are  supposed  to  "occupy  this  district.  I  have 
from  many  eye-witnesses,  who  have  lived  among 
those  Indians,  and  traded  much  with  them,  a  true 
and  accurate  description  of  their  persons.  Th<  y  arc 


•pidemical  and  malignant  disorder.  Did  I  choose 
to  enter  into  a  disquisition  on  this  subject,  which  I 
should  not  have  mentioned,  if  it  had  not  been  inti- 
mately connected  with  this  part  of  my  inquiries,  it 
would  not  bo  difficult  to  point  out  some  mistakes 
with  respect  to  the  facts  upon  which  he  founds,  as 
well  as  some  errors  in  the  consequences  which  he 
draws  from  them.  The  rapid  communication  of  this 
disease  from  Spain  over  Europe  seems  however  to 
resemble  the  progress  of  an  epidemic,  rather  than 
that  of  a  disease  transmitted  by  infection.  The  first 
mention  of  it  is  in  the  year  1493,  and  before  the  year 
1497  it  had  made  its  appearance  in  most  countries 
of  Europe  with  such  alarming  symptoms  as  rendered 
it  necessary  for  the  civil  magistrate  to  interpose,  in 
order  to  check  its  career.  Since  the  publication  of 
this  work,  a  second  edition  of  Dr.  Sanchez's  Disser- 
tation has  been  communicated  to  me.  It  contains 
several  additional  facts  in  confirmation  of  his  opi- 
nion, which  is  supported  with  such  plausible  argu- 
ments, as  render  it  a  subject  of  inquiry  well  deserv- 
ing the  attention  of  learned  physicians. 

NOTE  51. — The  people  of  Otaheite  have'  no  deno- 
mination for  any  number  above  two  hundred,  which 
is  sufficient  for  their  transactions.  Voyages  by 
Hawkesworth,  ii.  228. 

NOTE  52. — As  the  view  which  I  have  given  of 
rude  nations  is  extremely  different  from  that  exhi- 
bited by  very  respectable  authors,  it  may  be  proper 
to  produce  some  of  the  many  authorities  on  which  I 
found  my  description.  The  manners  of  the  savage 
tribes  in  America  have  never  been  viewed  by  persons 
more  capable  of  observing  them  with  discernment 
than  the  philosophers  employed  by  France  and 
Spain  in  the  year  1735,  to  determine  the  figure  of 
the  earth.  M.  Bouguer,  D.  Antonio  d'Ulloa,  and 
I).  Jorge  Jiwn,  resided  long  among  the  natives  of 
the  l^aj-t  civilized  provinces  in  Peru.  M.  de  la  Con- 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


251 


damine  had  not  only  the  same  advantages  with  them 
for  observation,  but  in  his  voyage  dowu  the  Marag- 
non,  he  had  an  opportunity  of  inspecting  the  state  of 
the  various  nations  seated  on  its  banks,  in  its  vast 
course  across  the  continent  of  South  America. 
There  is  a  wonderful  resemblance  in  their  represen- 
tation of  the  character  of  the  Americans.  "  They 
are  all  extremely  indolent,"  says  M.  Bouguer,  "  they 
are  stupid;  they  pass  whole  days  sitting  in  the  same 
place  without  moving,  or  speaking  a  single  word. 
It  is  not  easy  to  describe  the  degree  of  their  indif- 
ference for  wealth  and  all  its  advantages.  One  does 
not  well  know  what  motive  to  propose  to  them, 
when  one  would  persuade  them  to  perform  any  ser- 
vice. It  is  vain  to  offer  them  money;  they  answer 
that  they  are  not  hungry."  Voyage  au  Perou,  p.  102. 
"  If  one  considers  them  as  men,  the  narrowness  of 
their  understanding  seems  to  be  incompatible  with 
the  excellence  of  the  soul.  Their  imbecility  is  so 
visible  that  one  can  hardly  form  an  idea  of  them  dif- 
ferent from  what  one  has  of  the  brutes.  Nothing 
disturbs  the  tranquillity  of  their  souls,  equally  insen- 
sible to  disasters  and  to  prosperity.  Though  half-- 
naked, they  are  as  contented  as  a  monarch  in  his 
most  splendid  array.  Riches  do  not  attract  them  in 
the  smallest  degree,  and  the  authority  or  dignities  to 
which  they  may  aspire  are  so  little  the  objects  of 
their  ambition,  that  an  Indian  will  receive  with  the 
same  indifference  the  office  of  a  judge  (alcade)  or 
that  of  a  hangman,  if  deprived  of  the  former  and 
appointed  to  the  latter.  Nothing  can  move  or  change 
them.  Interest  has  no  power  over  them,  and  they 
often  refuse  to  perform  a  small  service,  though  cer- 
tain of  a  great  recompence.  Fear  makes  no  impres- 
sion upon  them,  and  respect  as  little.  Their  dispo- 
sition is  so  singular  that  there  is  no  method  of  in- 
Huencing  them,  no  means  of  rousing  them  from  that 
indifference,  which  is  proof  against  all  the  endea- 
vours of  the  wisest  persons;  no  expedient  which  can 
induce  them  to  abandon  that  gross  ignorance,  or  lay 
aside  that  careless  negligence,  which  disconcert  the 
prudence  and  disappoint  the  care  of  such  as  are  at- 
tentive to  their  welfare."  Voyage  d'Ulloa,  torn.  i. 
335,  356.  Of  those  singular  qualities  he  produces 
many  extraordinary  instances,  p  336 — 347.  "  In 
sensibility,"  says  M  de  la  Condamine,  "  is  the  ba- 
ds of  the  American  character.  I  leave  others  to 
determine  whether  this  should  be  dignified  with  the 
name  of  apathy,  or  disgraced  with  that  of  stupidity. 
It  arises,  without  doubt,  from  the  small  number  of 
their  ideas,  which  do  not  extend  beyond  their  wants. 
Gluttons  even  to  voracity,  when  they  have  where- 
withal to  satisfy  their  appetite.  Temperate,  when 
necessity  obliges  them,  to  such  a  degree,  that  they 
can  endure  want  without  seeming  to  desire  any 
thing.  Pusillanimous  and  cowardly  td  excess,  un- 
less when  they  are  rendered  desperate  by  drunken- 
ness. Averse  to  labour,  indifferent  to  every  motive 
of  glory,  honour,  or  gratitude  ;  occupied  entirely  by 
the  object  that  is  present,  and  always  determined  by 
it  alone,  without  any  solicitude  about  futurity;  inca- 
pable of  foresight  or  of  reflection ;  abandoning  them- 
selves, when  under  no  restraint,  to  a  puerile  joy, 
which  they  express  by  frisking  about,  and  immode- 
rate fits  of  laughter;  without  object  or  design  they 
pass  their  life  without  thinking,  and  grow  old  with- 
out advancing  beyond  childhood,  of  which  they  re- 
tain all  the  defects.  If  this  description  were  appli- 
cable only  to  the  Indians  in  some  provinces  of  Peru, 
who  are  slaves  in  every  respect  but  the  name,  one  : 
might  believe  that  this  degree  of  degeneracy  was 
occasioned  by  the  servile  dependence  to  which  they  • 


are  reduced ;  the  example  of  the  modern  Greeks 
being  proof  how  far  servitude  may  degrade  the  hu- 
man species.  But  the  Indians  in  the  missions  of  the 
Jesuits,  and  the  savages  who  still  enjoy  unimpaired 
liberty,  being  as  limited  in  their  faculties,  not  to  say 
as  stupid,  as  the  other,  one  cannot  observe,  without 
humiliation,  that  man,  when  abandoned  to  simple 
nature,  and  deprived  of  the  advantages  resulting 
from  education  and  society,  differs  but  little  from  tho 
brute  creation."  Voyage  de  la  Riv.  de  Amaz.  52,  53. 
M.  de  Chanvalon,  an  intelligent  and  philosophical 
observer,  who  visited  Martinico  in  1751,  and  re- 
sided there  six  years,  gives  the  following  description 
of  the  Caraibs  : — "  It  is  not  the  red  colour  of  their 
complexion,  it  is  not  the  singularity  of  their  features, 
which  constitutes  the  chief  difference  between  them 
and  us.  It  is  their  excessive  simplicity ;  it  is  the 
limited  degree  of  their  faculties.  Their  reason  is 
not  more  enlightened  or  more  provident  than  the 
instinct  of  brutes.  The  reason  of  the  most  gross 
peasants,  that  of  the  negroes  brought  up  in  the  parts 
of  Africa  most  remote  from  intercourse  with  Euro- 
peans is  such,  that  we  discover  appearances  of  intel- 
ligence, which,  though  imperfect,  is  capable  of  in- 
crease. But  of  this  the  understanding  of  the  Caraibs 
seems  to  be  hardly  susceptible.  If  sound  philosophy 
and  religion  did  not  afford  us  their  light,  if  we  were 
to  decide  according  to  the  first' impression  which  the 
view  of  that  people  makes  upon  the  mind,  we  should 
be  disposed  to  believe  that  they  do  not  belong  to  the 
same  species  with  us.  Their  stupid  eyes  are  the 
true  mirror  of  their  souls  ;  it  appears  to  be  without 
functions.  Their  indolence  is  extreme  ;  they  have 
never  the  least  solicitude  about  the  moment  which 
is  to  succeed  that  which  is  present."  Voyage  a  la 
Martinique,  p.  44,  45,  51.  M.  de  la  Borde,  Tertre, 
and  Rochefort,  confirm  this  description.  "  The  cha- 
racteristics of  the  Californians,"  says  P.  Venegas, 
"  as  well  as  of  all  other  Indians,  are  stupidity  and 
insensibility ;  want  of  knowledge  and  reflection  ;  in- 
constancy, impetuosity,  and  blindness  of  appetite  ; 
an  excessive  sloth,  and  abhorrence  of  all  labour  and 
fatigue ;  an  excessive  love  of  pleasure  and  amuse- 
ment of  every  kind,  however  trifling  or  brutal;  pu- 
sillanimity ;  and,  in  fine,  a  most  wretched  want  of 
every  thing  which  constitutes  the  real  man,  and  ren- 
ders him  rational,  inventive,  tractable,  and  useful  to 
himself  and  society.  It  is  not  easy  for  Europeans, 
who  never  were  out  of  their  own  country,  to  conceive 
an  adequate  idea  of  those  people ;  for  even  in  the 
least  frequented  corners  of  the  globe,  there  is  not  a 
nation  so  stupid,  of  such  contracted  ideas,  and  so 
weak  both  in  body  and  mind,  as  the  unhappy  Cali- 
fornians. Their  understanding  comprehends  little 
more  than  what  they  see  ;  abstract  ideas,  and  much 
less  a  chain  of  reasoning,  being  far  beyond  their 
power;  so  that  they  scarce  ever  improve  their  first 
ideas,  and  these  are  in  general  false,  or  at  least  ini.- 
dequate.  It  is  in  vain  to  represent  to  them  any  fu- 
ture advantages  which  will  result  to  them  from  doing 
or  abstaining  from  this  or  that  particular  immediately 
present ;  the  relation  of  means  and  ends  being  be- 
yond the  stretch  of  their  faculties.  Nor  have  they 
the  least  notion  of  pursuing  such  intentions  as  will 
procure  themselves  some  future  good,  or  guard 
them  against  future  evils.  Their  will  is  proportioned 
to  their  faculties,  and  all  their  passions  move  in  a 
very  narrow  sphere.  Ambition  they  have  none,  and 
are  more  Desirous  of  being  accounted  strong  than 
valiant.  The  objects  of  ambition  with  us — honour, 
fame,  reputation,  titles,  posts,  and  distinctions  of 
superiority  are  unknown  among  them ;  so  that  this 


25*2 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


powerful  spring  of  action,  the  cause  of  so  much  seem- 
ing good  and  real  evil  in  the  world,  has  no  power 
here.  This  disposition  of  mind,  as  it  gives  them  up 


to  an 


amazing  languor  and   lassitude,   their 


lives 


NOTE  55. — Piso  describes  two  of  these  plants,  the 
Cururuape  and  the  Guajana-Tintbn.  It  is  remarka- 
hle,  that  though  they  have  this  fatal  effect  upon 
fishes,  they  are  so  far  from  being  noxious  to  the 


fleeting  away  in  a  perpetual  inactivity  and  detesta-  i  human  species,  that  they  are  used  in  medicine  with 
tion   of  labour,   so  it  likewise  induces  them  to  be  j  success.  Piso,  lib.  iv.  c.  88.     Bancroft  mentions  an- 


attracted  by  the  first  object  which  their  own  fancy, 
or  the  persuasion  of  another,  places  before  them ; 
and  at  the  same  time  renders  them  as  prone  to  alter 
their  resolutions  with  the  same  facility.  They  look 
with  indifference  upon  any  kindness  done  them  ;  nor 


other,  the  Hiarree,  a  small  quantity  of  which  is  suf- 
ficient to  inebriate  all  the  fish  to  a  considerable  dis- 
tance, so  that  in  a  few  minutes  they  float  motionless 
on  the  surface  of  the  water,  and  are  taken  with  ease. 
Nat.  Hist,  of  Guiana,  p.  109. 


is  even  the  bare  remembrance  of  it  to  be  expected  NOTE  56. — Remarkable  instances  occur  of  the 
from  them.  In  a  word,  the  unhappy  mortals  may  be  j  calamities  which  rude  nations  suffer  by  famine.  Al- 
compared  to  children,  in  whom  the  developement  of  •  var  Nugnez  Cabeca  de  Vaca,  one  of  the  most  gallant 
reason  is  not  completed.  They  may  indeed  be  called  j  and  virtuous  of  the  Spanish  adventurers,  resided 
a  nation  who  never  arrived  at  manhood."  Hist,  of  |  almost  nine  years  among  the  savages  of  Florida. 
Californ.  Engl.  Transl.  i.  64,  67.  Mr.  Ellis  gives  a  j  They  wore  unacquainted  with  every  species  of  agri- 
similar  account  of  the  want  of  foresight  and  inconsi-  j  culture.  Their  subsistence  was  poor  and  precarious, 
derate  disposition  of  the  people  adjacent  to  Hudson's  j  "  They  live  chiefly  (says  he)  upon  roots  of  different 
bay.  Voyage,  p.  194,  195.  j  plants,'  which  they  procure  with  great  difficulty,  wan  - 

The  incapacity  of  the  Americans  is  so  remarkable,  |  dering  from  place"  to  place  in  search  of  them.'Some- 
that  negroes  from  all  the  different  provinces  of  Africa  j  times  they  kill  game,  sometimes  they  catch  fish,  but 
are  observed  to  be  more  capable  of  improving  by  in-  j  in  such  small  quantities,  that  their  hunger  is  so  ex- 
struction.  They  acquire  the  knowledge  of  several  j  treme  as  compels  them  to  cat  spiders,  the  eggs  of 
particulars  which  the  Americans  cannot  comprehend,  ants,  worms,  lizards,  serpents,  a  kind  of  unctuous 
Hence  the  negroes,  though  slaves,  value  themselves  j  earth,  and  I  am  persuaded,  that  if  in  this  country 
as  a  superior  order  of  beings,  and  look  down  upon  the  I  there  were  any  stones,  they  would  swallow  these. 
Americans  with  contempt,  as  void  of  capacity  and  of  j  They  preserve  the  bones  of  fishes  and  serpents,  which 
rational  discernment.  Ulloa,  Notic.  Americ.  322,  323.  they  grind  into  powder,  and  eat.  The  only  season 

NOTE  53. — Dobrizhoffer,  the  last  traveller  I  know  j  when  they  do  not  suffer  much  from  famine,  "is  when 
who  has  resided  among  any  tribe  of  the  ruder  Ame-  j  a  certain  fruit,  which  he  calls  Tuna.*,  is  ripe.  This 
ricans,  has  explained  so  fully  the  various  reasons  j  is  the  same  with  the  Opuntia,  or  prickly  pear,  of  a 
which  have  induced  their  women  to  suckle  their  j  reddish  and  yellow  colour,  with  a  sweet  insipid 
children  long,  and  never  to  undertake  rearing  such  :  taste.  They  are  sometimes  obliged  to  travel  far 
as  were  feeble  or  distorted,  and  even  to  destroy  a  j  from  their  usual  place  of  residence,  in  order  to  find 
considerable  number  of  their  offspring,  as  to  throw  I  them."  Naufragios,  c.  xviii.  p.  20,  21,  22.  In  an- 
great  light  on  the  observations  I  have  made,  p.  71,  I  other  place  he  observes,  that  they  are  frequently 
72.  Hist,  de  Abissonibus,  vol.  ii.  p.  107,221.  So  j  reduced  to  pass  two  or  three  days  without  food", 
deeply  were  these  ideas  imprinted  in  the  minds  of  c.  xxiv.  p.  27. 

the  Americans,  that  the  Peruvians,  a  civilized  peo-  NOTE  57. — M.  Fermin  has  given  an  accurate  dc- 
ple,  when  compared  with  the  barbarous  tribes  whose  |  scription  of  the  two  species  of  manioc,  with  an 
manners  I  am  describing,  retained  them ;  and  even  !  account  of  its  culture,  to  which  he  has  added  some 
their  intercourse  with  the  Spaniards  has  not  been  !  experiments,  in  order  to  ascertain  the  poisonous 
able  to  root  them  out.  When  twins  are  born  in  any  j  qualities  of  the  juice  extracted  from  that  species 
family,  it  is  still  considered  as  an  ominous  event,  |  which  he  calls  the  bitter  cassava.  Among  the  Spa- 
and  the  parents  have  recourse  to  rigorous  acts  of  j  niards  it  is  known  by  the  name  of  Yuca  brava,  De<-cr. 
mortification,  in  order  to  avert  the  calamities  with  |  de  Sunn.  torn.  i.  p.  66. 

which  they  are  threatened.  When  a  child  is  born  I  NOTE  58. — The  plantain  is  found  in  Asia  and 
with  any  deformity  they  will  not,  if  they  can  possibly  Africa,  as  well  as  in  America.  Oviedo  contends, 
avoid  it,  bring  it  to  be  baptized,  and  it  is  with  diffi-  j  that  it  is  not  an  indigenous  plant  of  the  New  World, 
culty  they  can  be  brought  to  rear  it.  Arriaga  Extir-  but  was  introduced  into  the  island  of  Hispaniola  in 


pac.  de  la  Idolat.  del  Peru,  p.  32,  33. 

NOTE  54. — The  number  of  the  fish  in  the  rivers 

of  South  America  is  so  extraordinary,  as  to  merit !  whither  the  original  slips  had  been  brought  from  the 

P.  i  East  Indies.  Oviedo,  lib.  viii.  c.  1.     But  the  opi 


the  year  1516,  by  father  Thomas  de  Berlanga,  and 
that  he   transplanted   it  from  the  Canary  Islands, 

particular  notice.     "  In    the    Maragnon    (says 

Acugna)  fish  are  so  plentiful,  that  without  any  art  '••  of  Acosta  and  other  naturalists,  who  reckon*  it  an 
they  may  take  them  with  the  hands,"  p.  138.  "  In  '  American  plant,  seems  to  be  better  founded.  Acosta, 
the  Orinoco  (says  P.  Gumilla),  besides  an  infinite  [  Hist.  Nat.  lib.  iv.  21.  It  was  cultivated  by  rude 
variety  of  other  fish,  tortoise  or  turtle  abound  in  !  tribes  in  America,  who  had  little  intercourse  with 
such  numbers,  that  I  cannot  find  words  to  express  the  Spaniards,  and  who  were  destitute  of  that  inge- 
it.  I  doubt  not  but  that  such  as  read  my  account  I  nuity  which  disposes  men  to  borrow  what  is  useful 
will  accuse  me  of  exaggeration  ;  but  I  can  affirm  that  from  foreign  nations.  Gumil.  iii.  186.  Wafer's 


it  is  as  difficult  to  count  them  as  to  count  the  sands 
on  the  banks  of  that  river.  One  may  judge  of  their 
number  by  the  amazing  consumption  of  them ;  for 
all  the  nations  contiguous  to  the  river,  and  even 
many  who  are  at  a  distance,  flock  thither  at  the  sea- 
son of  breeding,  and  not  only  find  sustenance  during 
that  time,  but  carry  off  great  numbers  both  of  the 
turtles  and  of  their  eggs,"  &c.  Hist,  de  1'Orenoque, 


ii.  c.  22,  p.  59.     M 
accounts,  p.  159. 


e  la  Condamine  confirms  their 


Voyage,  p.  87. 

NOTE  59. — It  is  remarkable  that  Acosta,  one  of 
the  most  accurate  and  best  informed  writers  con- 
cerning the  West  Indies,  affirms  that  maize,  though 
cultivated  on  the  continent,  was  not  known  in  the 
islands,  the  inhabitants  of  which  had  none  but  cas- 
sada  bread.  Hist  Nat.  lib.  iv.  c.  16.  But  P.  Mar- 
tyr, in  the  first  book  of  his  first  Decad,  which  was 
written  in  the  year  1493,  upon  the  return  of  Colum- 
!  bus  from  his  first  voyage,  expressly  mentions  maize 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


253 


as  a  plant  which  the  islanders  cultivated,  and  o 
which  they  made  bread,  p.  7.  Gomara  likewise  as- 
serts, that  they  were  acquainted  with  the  culture  of 
maize.  Histor.  Gener.  cap.  28.  Oviedo  describes 
maize  without  any  intimation  of  its  being  a  plant 
that  was  not  natural  to  Hispaniola.  Lib.  vii.  c.  1. 

NOTE  60. — New  Holland,  a  country  which  for- 
merly was  only  known,  has  lately  been  visited  by 
intelligent  observers.  It  lies  in  a  region  of  the  globe 
where  it  must  enjoy  a  very  favourable  climate,  as  it 
stretches  from  the  10th  to  the  38th  degree  of  southern 
latitude.  It  is  of  great  extent,  and  from  its  square 
form  must  be  much  more  than  equal  to  all  Europe. 
The  people  who  inhabit  the  various  parts  of  it  appear 
to  be  of  one  race.  They  are  evidently  ruder  than 
most  of  the  Americans,  and  have  made  still  less 
progress  in  improvement  and  the  arts  of  life.  There 
is  not  the  least  appearance  of  cultivation  in  any  part 
of  this  vast  region.  The  inhabitants  are  extremely 
few,  so  that  the  country  appears  almost  desolate. 
Their  tribes  are  still  more  inconsiderable  than  those 
of  America.  They  depend  for  subsistence  almost 
entirely  on  fishing.  They  do  not  settle  in  one  place, 
but  roam  about  in  quest  of  food.  Both  sexes  go 
stark-naked.  Their  habitations,  utensils,  &c.  are 
more  simple  and  rude  than  those  of  the  Americans. 
Voyages,  by  Hawkesworth,  iii.  622,  &c.  This,  per- 
haps, is  the  country  where  man  has  been  discovered 
in  the  earliest  stage  of  his  progress,  and  it  exhibits  a 
miserable  specimen  of  his  condition  and  powers  in 
that  uncultivated  state.  If  this  country  shall  be  more 
fully  explored  by  future  navigators,  the  comparison 
of  the  manners  of  its  inhabitants  with  those  of  the 
Americans  will  prove  an  instructive  article  in  the 
history  of  the  human  species: 

NOTE  61. — P.  Gabriel  Marest,  who  travelled 
from  his  station  among  the  Illinois  to  Machillimaki- 
nac,  thus  describes  the  face  of  the  country  : — "  We 
have  marched  twelve  days  without  meeting  a  single 
human  creature.  Sometimes  we  found  ourselves  in 
vast  meadows,  of  which  we  could  not  see  the  boun- 
daries, through  which  there  flowed  many  brooks  and 
rivers,  but  without  any  path  to  conduct  us.  Some- 
times we  were  obliged  to  open  a  passage  across  thick 
forests,  through  bushes,  and  underwood  filled  with 
briers  and  thorns.  Sometimes  we  had  to  pass 
through  deep  marshes,  in  which  we  sunk  up  to  the 
middle.  After  being  fatigued  through  the  day,  we 
had  the  earth  for  our  bed,  or  a  few  leaves,  exposed 
to  the  wind,  the  rain,  and  all  the  injuries  of  the 
air."  Lettr.  Edifiantcs,  ii.  360.  Dr.  Brickell,  in  an 
excursion  from  North  Carolina  towards  the  moun- 
tains, A.  D.  1730.  travelled  fifteen  days  without 
meeting  with  a  human  creature.  Nat.  Hist,  of  North 
Carolina,  389.  Diego  de  Ordas,  in  attempting  to 
make  a  settlement  in  South  America,  A.  D.  1532, 
marched  fifty  days  through  a  country  without  one 
inhabitant,  Herrera,  dec.  5,  lib.  i.  c.  11. 

NOTE  62. — I  strongly  suspect  that  a  community 
of  goods,  and  an  undivided  store,  are  known  only 
among  the  rudest  tribes  of  hunters  ;  and  that  as  soon 
as  any  species  ot  agriculture  or  regular  industry  is 
known,  the  idea  of  an  exclusive  right  of  property  to 
the  fruits  of  them  is  introduced.  I  am  confirmed  in 
this  opinion  by  accounts  which  1  have  received  con- 
cerning the  state  of  property  among  the  Indians  in 
very  different  regions  of  America.  "  The  idea  of 
the  natives  of  Brazil  concerning  property  is,  that  if 
any  person  cultivate  a  field,  he  alone  ought  to  enjoy 
the  produce  of  it,  and  no  other  has  a  title  to  pretend 
to  it.  If  an  individual  or  family  go  a  hunting  or 
fishing,  what  ;•>  cro.jght  belongs  to  the  individual  or 


to  the  family,  and  they  communicate  no  part  of  it  to 
any  but  to  their  cazique,  or  to  such  of  their  kindred 
as  happen  to  be  indisposed.  If  any  person  in  the 
village  come  to  their  hut  he  may  sit  down  freely,  and 
eat  without  asking  liberty.  But  this  is  the  conse- 
quence of  their  general  principle  of  hospitality  ;  for 
I  never  observed  any  partition  of  the  increase  of 
their  fields,  or  the  produce  of  the  chase,  which  I 
could  consider  as  the  result  of  any  idea  concerning  a 
community  of  goods.  On  the  contrary,  they  are  so 
much  attached  to  what  they  deem  to  be  their  pro- 
perty, that  it  would  be  extremely  dangerous  to  en- 
croach upon  it.  As  far  as  I  have  seen  or  can  learn 
there  is  not  one  tribe  of  Indians  in  South  America, 
among  whom  that  community,  of  goods  which  has 
been  so  highly  extolled,  is  known.  The  circum- 
stance in  the  government  of  the  Jesuits,  most  irk- 
some to  the  Indians  of  Paraguay,  was  the  community 
of  goods  which  those  fathers  introduced.  This  was 
repugnant  to  the  original  ideas  of  the  Indians.  They 
were  acquainted  with  the  rights  of  private  exclusive 
property,  and  they  submitted  with  impatience  to  re- 
gulations which  destroyed  them."  M.  le  Cheval.  de 
Pinto,  MS.  penes  me.  "  Actual  possession"  (says  a 
missionary  who  resided  several  years  among  the  In- 
dians of  the  Five  Nations),  gives  a  right  to  the  soil, 
but  whenever  a  possessor  sees  fit  to  quit  it,  another 
has  as  good  right  to  take  it  as  -he  who  left  it.  This 
law,  or  custom,  respects  not  only  the  particular  spot 
on  which  he  erects  his  house,  but  also  his  planting 
ground.  If  a  man  has  prepared  a  particular  spot  of 
ground,  on  which  he  designs  in  future  to  build  or 
plant,  no  man  has  a  right  to  incommode  him,  much 
less  to  the  fmit  of  his  labours,  until  it  appears  that 
he  voluntarily  gives  up  his  views.  But  I  never  heard 
of  any  formal  conveyance  from  one  Indian  to  an- 
other in  their  natural  state.  The  limits  of  every 
canton  are  circumscribed ;  that  is,  they  are  allowed 
to  hunt  as  far  as  such  a  river  on  this  hand,  and  such 
a  mountain"  on  the  other.  This  area  is  occupied  an  1 
improved  by  individuals  and  their  families.  Indivi- 
luals,  not  the  community,  have  the  use  and  profit  of 
their  own  labours,  or  success  in  hunting."  MS.  of 
Mr.  Gideon  Hawley,  penes  me. 

NOTE  63. — This  difference  of  temper  between  the 
Americans  and  negroes  is  so  remarkable,  that  it  is  a 
proverbial  saying  in  the  French  islands,  "  Regarder 
au  sauvage  de  travers,  c'est  le  battre ;  le  battre,  c'est 
le  tuer  ;  battre  un  negre,  c'est  le  nourrir."  Tertre, 
ii.  490. 

NOTE  64. — The  description  of  the  political  state 
of  the  people  of  Cinaloa  perfectly  resembles  that  of 
the  inhabitants  of  North  America.  "  They  have 
neither  laws  nor  kings  (says  a  missionary  who  re- 
sided long  among  them)  to  punish  any  crime.  Nor* 
is  there  among  them  any  species  of  authority,  or 
political  government,  to  restrain  them  in  any  part  of 
iheir  conduct.  It  is  true,  that  they  acknowledge 
certain  caziques,  who  are  heads  of  their  families  or 
villages,  but  their  authority  appears  chiefly  in  war, 
and  the  expeditions  against  their  enemies.  This  au- 
hority the  caziques  obtain  not  by  hereditary  right, 
^>ut  by  their  valour  in  war,  or  by  the  power  and  num- 
ber of  their  families  and  relations.  Sometimes  they 
owe  their  pre-eminence  to  their  eloquence  in  dis- 
playing their  own  exploits."  Ribas,  Hist,  de  las 
Triumph,  p.  11.  The  state  of  the  Chiquitos  in  South 
America  is  nearly  the  same.  "  They  have  no  regu- 
ar  form  of  government,  or  civil  life,  but  in  matters 
of  public  concern  they  listen  to  the  advice  of  their 
old  men,  and  usually  follow  it.  The  dignity  of 
taziqw  is  not  hcrpdil-'.ry,  but  conferred  according  to 


254 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


merit,  as  the  reward  of  valour  in  war.  The  union  j  nostros  in  militiam  euntes  comitari  volui.  Hi,  nti- 
among  them  is  imperfect.  Their  society  resembles  mero  4000  capita,  cum  hostibus  ad  littus  decertA- 
a  republic  without  any  head,  in  which  every  man  is  runt,  tanta  ferocitate,  ut  vel  rabidos  et  furiosos 
master  of  himself,  and'  upon  the  least  disgust,  sepa-  |  quosque  superarent.  Cum  primum  hostes  conspex- 
rates  from  those  with  whom  he  seemed  to  be  con- '  ere,  in  magnos  atque  editos  ululatus  perruperunt. 
nccted."  Relacion  Historical  de  las  Missiones  de  los  Haec  gens  adeo  fera  est  et  truculenta,  ut  tantispcr 
Chiquitos,  por  P.  Juan  Patr.  Fernandez,  p.  32,  33.  i  dum  virium  vel  tantillum  restat,  continue  dimicent, 
Thus,  under  very  different  climates,  when  nations  fugamque  nunquam  capessant.  Quod  a  natura  illis 
are  in  a  similar  state  of  society,  their  institutions  j  inditum  esse  reor.  Tester  interea  me,  qui  non  se- 
and  civil  government  assume  the  same  form.  j  inel,  turn  pedituni  turn  equitum  copias  ingentes,  in 

NOTE  65. — "  I  have  known  the  Indians"  .(says  ai  aciem  instructas  hie  conspexi,  tanta  nunquam  vo- 


person  well  acquainted  with  their  mode  of  life),  "  to 
go  a  thousand  miles  for  the  purpose  of  revenge,  in 
pathless  woods,  over  hills  and  mountains,  through 
huge  cane-swamps,  exposed  to  the  extremities  of 
heat  and  cold,  the  vicissitude  of  seasons,  to  hunger 
and  thirst.  Such  is  their  over-boiling  revengeful 
temper,  that  they  utterly  contemn  all  those  things  as 
imaginary  trifles,  if  they  are  so  happy  as  to  get  the 
scalp  of  the  murderer,  or  enemy,  to  satisfy  the  crav- 
ing ghosts  of  their  deceased  relations."  Adair's  His. 
of  Amer.  Indians,  p.  150. 

NOTE  66. — In  the  account  of  the  great  war  be- 
tween the  Algonquins  aud  Iroquois,  the  achievements 
of  Piskaret,  a  famous  chief  of  the  Algonquins,  per- 
formed mostly  by  himself  alone,  or  with  one  or  two 
companions,  make  a  capital  figure.  De  la  Protherie, 
i.  297,  &c.  Gulden's  History  of  Five  Nations, 
125,  &c. 

NOTE  67. — The  life  of  an  unfortunate  leader  is 
often  in  danger,  and  he  is  always  degraded  from  the 
rank  which  he  had  acquired  by  his  former  exploits. 
Adair,  p.  388. 

NOTE  68. — As  the  ideas  of  the  North  Americans, 
with  respect  to  the  mode  of  carrying  on  war,  are 
generally  known,  I  have  founded  my  observations 
chiefly  upon  the  testimony  of  the  authors  who  de- 
scribe them.  But  the  same  maxims  took  place 
among  other  nations  in  the  New  World.  A  judi- 
cious missionary  has  given  a  view  of  the  military 
operations  of  the  people  in  Gran  Chaco,  in  South 
America,  perfectly  similar  to  those  of  the  Iroquois. 
"  They  are  much  addicted  to  war"  (says  he),  "  which 
they  carry  on  frequently  among  themselves,  but  per- 
petually against  the  Spaniards.  But  they  may  ra- 
ther be  called  thieves  than  soldiers,  for  they  never 
make  head  against  the  Spaniards,  unless  when  they 


par 

th, 


can  assault  them  by  stealth,  or  have  guarded  against 
any  mischance  by  spies,  who  may  be  called  indefa- 
tigable. They  will  watch  the  settlements  of  the 
Spaniards  for  one,  two,  or  three  years,  observing  by 
night  every  thing  that  passes  with  the  utmost  solici- 
tude, whether  they  may  expect  resistance  or  not,  and 
until  they  are  perfectly  secure  of  the  event,  they 
will  not  venture  upon  an  attack ;  so  that  when  they 
do  give  the  assault,  they  are  certain  of  success,  and 
free  from  all  danger.  These  spies,  in  order  that  they 
may  not  be  observed,  will  creep  on  all-four  like  cats 
in  the  night;  but  if  they  are  discovered,  make  their 
escape  with  much  dexterity.  But  although  they 
never  choose  to  face  the  Spaniards,  if  they  be  sur- 
rounded in  any  place  whence  they  cannot  escape, 
they  will  fight  with  desperate  valour,  and  sell  their 
lives  very  dear."  Lozano,  Descript.  del  Gran.  Chaco, 
p.  78. 

NOTE  69. — Lery,  who  was  an  eye-witness  of  the 
proceedings  of  the  Toupinambos,  a  Brazilian  tribe,  in 
a  war  against  a  powerful  nation  of  their  enemies, 
describes  their  courage  and  ferocity  in  very  striking 
terms.  Ego  cum  Gallo  altero,  paulo'  curiosius,  magno 
nostro  periculo,  (si  enim  ab  hostibus  capti  aut  lesi 
ftrissemus,  devorationi  fuissenvus  devoti),  barbaros 


luptate  videndis  peditum  legionibus  armis  fulgenti 
bus,  quanta  turn  pugnantibus  istis  percussum  fuisse. 
Lery,  Hist.  Navigat.  in  Brazil,  ap.  de  Bry.  iii.  207, 


•It  was  originally  the  practice  of  the 


208,  209. 
NOTE  70. 


Americans,  as  well  as  of  other  savage  nations,  to  cut 
off  the  heads  of  the  enemies  whom  they  slew,  and  to 
carry  them  away  as  trophies.  But  as  they  found 
these  cumbersome  in  their  retreat,  which  they  always 
make  very  rapidly,  and  often  through  a  vast  extent 
of  country,  they  became  satisfied  with  tearing  off 
their  scalps.  This  custom,  though  most  prevalent  in 
North  America,  was  not  unknown  among  the 
southern  tribes.  Lozano,  p.  79. 

NOTE  71. — The  terms  of  the  war-song  seem  to  be 
dictated  by  the  same  fierce  spirit  of  revenge.  "  I 
go  to  war  to  revenge  the  death  of  my  brothers  ;  I 
shall  kill ;  I  shall  exterminate  ;  I  shall  burn  my  ene- 
mies ;  I  shall  bring  away  slaves  ;  I  shall  devoiir  their 
heart,  dry  their  flesh,  drink  their  blood;  I  shall 
tear  off  their  scalps,  and  make  cups  of  their  skulls." 
Bossu's  Travels  through  Louisania,  vol.  i.  p.  102.  I 
am  informed,  by  persons  on  whose  testimony  I  can 
rely,  that  as  the  number  of  people  in  the  Indian 
tribes  has  decreased  so  much,  almost  none  of  their 
prisoners  are  now  put  to  death.  It  is  considered  as 
better  policy  to  spare  and  to  adopt  them.  Those 
dreadful  scenes  which  I  have  described  occur  now 
so  rarely,  that  missionaries  and  traders  who  have 
resided  "long  among  the  Indians,  never  were  wit- 
nesses to  them. 

NOTE  72. — All  the  travellers  who  have  visited  the 
most  uncivilized  of  the  American  tribes  agree  in  this. 
It  is  confirmed  by  two  remarkable  circumstances, 
which  occurred  in  the  con  quest  of  different  provinces. 
In  the  expedition  of  Narvaez  into  Florida  in  the 
year  1528,  the  Spaniards  were  reduced  to  such  ex- 
treme distress  by  famine,  that  in  order  to  preserve 
their  own  lives,  they  eat  such  of  their  companions  as 
happened  to  die.  This  appeared  so  shocking  to  the 
natives,  who  were  accustomed  to  devour  none  but 
prisoners,  that  it  filled  them  with  horror  and  indig- 
nation against  the  Spaniards.  Torquemada  Monarch. 
Ind.  ii.  p.  584.  Naufragios  de  Alv.  Nugnez  Cabeca 
de  Vaca,  c.  xiv.  p.  15.  During  the  siege  of  Mexico, 
though  the  Mexicans  devoured  with  greediness  the 


Spaniards  aud  Tlascalans  whom  they  took  prison- 
ers, the  utmost  rigour  of  the  famine  which  they  suf- 
fered could  not  induce  them  to  touch  the  dead  bodies 
of  their  own  countrymen.  Bern.  Diaz,  del  Castillo, 
Conquist.  de  la  N.  Espagna,  p.  156. 

NOTE  73. — Many  singular  circumstances  con- 
cerning the  treatment  of  prisoners  among  the  people 
of  Brazil,  are  contained  in  the  narrative  of  Stadius, 
a  German  officer  in  the  service  of  the  Portuguese, 
published  in  the  year  1556.  He  was  taken  prisoner 
by  the  Toupinambos,  and  remained  in  captivity  nine 
years.  He  was  often  present  at  those  horrid  festi- 
vals which  he  describes,  and  was  destined  himself  to 
the  same  cruel  fate  with  other  prisoners.  But  he 
saved  his  life  by  his  extraordinary  efforts  of  courage 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


255 


and  address.  De  Bry,  iii.  p.  34,  £c.  M  de  Lery,  permitted  to  wear  bracelets,  or  other  ornaments, 
who  accompanied  M.  de  Villagagnon  in  his  expedi-  with  which  the  men  were  fond  of  decking  themselves, 
tion  to  Brazil,  in  the  year  1556,  and  who  resided  Zarate,  Hist,  de  Peru,  i.  p.  15,  16. 
some  time  in  that  country,  agrees  with  Stadius  in  I  NOTE  78. — I  have  ventured  to  call  this  mode  of 
every  circumstance  of  importance.  He  was  fre-  j  anointing  and  painting  their  bodies,  the  dress  of  the 
quently  an  eye-witness  of  the  manner  in  which  the  j  Americans.  This  is  agreeable  to  their  own  idiom. 
Brazilians  treated  their  prisoners.  De  Bry,  iii.  210.  As  they  never  stir  abroad  if  they  are  not  completely 
Several  striking  particulars  omitted  by  them  are  men-  anointed,  they  excuse  themselves  when  in  this  situ- 
tioned  by  a  Portuguese  author.  Purch.  Pilgr.  iv.  ation  by  saying  that  they  cannot  appear  because 
1294,  &c.  they  are  naked.  Gumilla,  Hist,  de  1'Orenoque,  i.  191 

NOTE  74. — Though  I  have  followed  that  opinion  NOTE  79. — Some  tribes  in  the  province  of  Cina- 
concerning  the  apathy  of  the  Americans,  which  ap-  loa,  on  the  gulf  of  California,  seem  to  be  among  the 
peared  to  me  most  rational,  and  supported  by  the  j  rudest  people  of  America  united  in  the  social  state, 
authority  of  the  most  respectable  authors,  other  theo-  j  They  neither  cultivate  nor  sow;  they  have  no  houses 
ries  have  been  formed  with  regard  to  it  by  writers  of  in  which  they  reside.  Those  in  the  inland  country 
great  eminence.  De  Ant.  Ulloa,  in  a  late  work,  con-  j  subsist  by  hunting;  those  on  the  sea-coast  chiefly  by 
tends  that  the  texture  of  the  skin  and  bodily  habits  !  fishing.  Both  depend  upon  the  spontaneous  produc . 
of  the  Americans  is  such,  that  they  are  less  sensible  I  tions  of  the  earth,  fruits,  plants,  and  roots  of  various 
of  pain  than  the  rest  of  mankind.  He  produces  se-  j  kinds.  In  the  rainy  season,  as  they  have  no  habi- 
veral  proofs  of  this  from  the  manner  in  which  they  ;  tations  to  afford  them  shelter,  they  gather  bundles  of 
endure  the  most  ciuel  chirurgical  operations,  &c.  j  reeds,  or  strong  grass,  and  binding  them  together  at 
Noticias  Americanas,  p.  313,  314.  The  same  ob-  j  one  end,  they  open  them  at  the  other,  and  fitting 
servation  has  been  made  by  surgeons  in  Brazil.  An  them  to  their  heads,  they  are  covered  as  with  a 


Indian,  they  say,  never  complains  under  pain,  and 
will  bear  the  amputation  of  a  leg  or  an  arm  without 
uttering  a  single  groan.  MS.  penes  me. 

NOTE  75. — This  is  an  idea  natural  to  all  rude  na- 
tions. Among  the  Romans,  in  the  early  periods  of 
their  commonwealth,  it  was  a  maxim  that  a  prisoner, 
"  turn  decessisse  videtur  cum  captus  est,"  Digest, 
lib.  xlix.  tit.  15,  c.  18.  And  afterwards,  when  the 
progress  of  refinement  rendered  them  more  indulgent 
with  respect  to  this  article,  they  were  obliged  to  em- 
ploy two  fictions  of  law  to  secure  the  property,  and 
permit  the  return  of  a  captive,  the  one  by  the  Lex 
Cornelia,  and  the  other  by  the  Jus  Postliminii. 
Heinec.  Elern,  Jur.  Civ.  sec.  ord.  Pand.  ii.  p.  294. 
Among  the  negroes  the  same  ideas  prevail.  No  ran- 
som was  ever  accepted  for  a  prisoner.  As  soon  as 
one  is  taken  in  war,  he  is  reputed  to  be  dead  ;  and 
he  is  so  in  effect  to  his  country  and  his  family. 
Voy.  du  Cheval.  des  Marchais,  i.  p.  369. 

NOTE  76. — The  people  of  Chili,  the  most  gallant 
and  high-spirited  of  all  the  Americans,  are  the  only 
exception  to  this  observation.  They  attack  their 
enemies  in  the  open  field ;  their  troops  are  ranged  in 
regular  order ;  their  battalions  advance  to  the  charge, 
not  only  with  courage,  but  with  discipline.  The 
North  Americans,  though  many  of  them  have  sub- 
stituted the  European  fire-arms  in  place  of  their  own 
bows  and  arrows,  still  adhere  to  their  ancient  max- 
ims of  war,  and  carry  it  on  according  to  their  own 
peculiar  system.  But  the  Chilese  nearly  resemble 
the  warlike  nations  of  Europe  and  Asia  in  their  mi- 
litary operations.  Ovalle's  Relation  of  Chili.  Church. 
Col. "iii.  p.  71.  Lozano's  Hist.  Parag.  i.  144,  145. 

NOTE  77. — Herrera  gives  a  remarkable  proof  of 
tlis.  In  Yucatan  the  men  are  so  solicitous  about 

mirrors, 

picbably  made  of  stone,  like  those  of  the  Mexicans, 
Dec.  iv.  lib.  iii.  c.  8,  in  which  they  delight  to  view 
themselves;  but  the  women  never  use  them,  Dec.  iv. 
lib.  x.  c.  3.  He  takes  notice  that  among  the  fierce 
tribe  of  the  Punches,  in  the  new  kingdom  of  Grana- 
da, none  but  distinguished  warriors  were  permitted 
either  to  pierce  their  lips  and  to  wear  green  stones 
in  them,  or  to  adorn  their  heads  with  plumes  of"  fea- 
thers, Dec.  vii.  lib.  ix.  c.  4.  In  some  provinces  ol 
Peri;,  though  that  empire  had  made  considerable 
progress  in  civilization,  the  state  of  women  was  little 
improved.  All  the  toil  of  cultivation  and  domestic 
work  %\as  devolved  upon  them,  and  they  were  not 


large  cap,  which  like  a  pent-house,  throws  off  the 
rain,  and  will  keep  them  dry  for  several  hours. 
During  the  warm  season  they  form  a  shed  with  the 
branches  of  trees,  which  protects  them  from  the  sul- 
try rays  of  the  sun.  When  exposed  to  cold  they 
make  large  fires,  round  which  they  sleep  in  the  open 
air.  Historia  de  los  Triumphos  de  Nuestra  Sante 
Pe  entre  Gentes  las  mas  Barbaras,  &c.  por  P.  And. 
Perez  de  Ribas,  p.  7,  &c. 

NOTE  80. — These  houses  resemble  barns.  "We  have 
measured  some  which  were  a  hundred  and  fifty  paces 
ong,  and  twenty  paces  broad.  Above  a  hundred 
persons  resided  in  some  of  them."  Wilson's  account 
of  Guiana.  Purch.  Pilgr.  vol.  iv.  p.  1263.  Ibid.  1291. 

The  Indian  houses,"  says  Mr.  Barrere,  "  have  a 
most  wretched  appearance,  and  are  a  striking  image 
of  the  rudeness  of  early  times.  Their  huts  are  com- 
monly built  on  some  rising  ground,  or  on  the  banks 
of  a  river,  huddled  sometimes  together,  sometimes 
straggling,  and  always  without  any  order.  Their 
aspect  is  melancholy  and  disagreeable.  One  sees 
nothing  but  what  is  hideous  and  savage.  The  un- 
cultivated fields  have  no  gaiety.  The  silence  which 
reigns  there,  unless  when  interrupted  by  the  disa- 
greeable notes  of  birds,  or  cries  of  wild  beasts,  is 
extremely  dismal."  Relat.  de  la  France  Equin. 


tl  eir  dress,  that  they  carry  about  with  them 


p.  146. 

NOTE  81. — Some  tribes 


in   South  America   can 


send  their  arrows  to  a  great  distance,  and  with  con- 
siderable force,  without  the  aid  of  the  bow.  They 
make  use  of  a  hollow  reed,  about  nine  feet  long,  and 
an  inch  thick,  which  is  called  a  Sarbacane.  In  it 
they  lodge  a  small  arrow,  with  some  unspun  cotton 
wound  about  its  great  end ;  this  confines  the  air,  so 
that  they  can  blow  it  with  astonishing  rapidity,  and 
a  sure  aim,  to  the  distance  of  above  a  hundred  paces. 
These  small  arrows  are  always  poisoned.  Fermin. 
Descr.  de  Surin.  i.  55.  Bancroft's  Hist,  of  Guiana, 
p.  281,  &c.  The  Sarbacane  is  much  used  in  some 
parts  of  the  East  Indies. 

NOTE  82 — I  might  produce  many  instances  of 
this,  but  shall  satisfy  myself  with  one,  taken  from 
the  Esquimaux.  "  Their  greatest  ingenuity"  (says 
Mr.  Ellis),  "  is  shewn  in  the  structure  of  their  bows, 
made  commonly  of  three  pieces  of  wood,  each  mak- 
ing part  of  the  same  arch,  very  nicely  and  exactly 
joined  together.  They  are  commonly  of  fir  or  larch  ; 
and  as  this  wants  strength  and  elasticity,  they  supply 
both  by  bracing  the  back  of  the  bow  with  a  kiud  of 


256 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


thread  or  line,  made  of  the  sinews  of  their  deer,  and 
the  bow-string  of  the  same  materials.  To  make  them 
draw  more  stiffly,  they  dip  them  into  water,  which 
causes  both  the  back  of  the  bow  and  the  string  to 
contract,  and  consequently  gives  it  the  greater  force; 
and  as  they  practice  from  their  youth,  they  shoot 
with  very  great  dexterity."  Voyage  to  Hudson's 
Bay,  p.  138 

NOTE  83. — Necessity  is  the  great  prompter  and 
guide  to  mankind  in  their  inventions.  There  is, 
however,  such  inequality  in  some  parts  of  their  pro- 
gress, and  some  nations  get  so  far  the  start  of  others 
in  circumstances  nearly  similar,  that  we  must  ascribe 
this  to  some  events  in  their  story,  or  to  some  pecu- 
liarity in  their  situation,  with  which  we  are  unac- 
quainted. The  people  in  the  island  of  Otaheite  lately 
discovered  in  the  South  Sea,  far  excel  most  of  the 
Americans  in  the  knowledge  and  practice  of  the  arts 
of  ingenuity,  and  yet  they  had  not  invented  any 
method  of  boiling  water  ;  and  having  no  vessel  that 
would  bear  the  fire,  they  had  no  more  idea  that 
water  could  be  made  hot  than  that  it  could  be  made 
solid.  Voyages  by  Hawkesworth,  i.  -166,  484. 

NOTE  84. — One  of  these  boats,  which  could  carry 
nine  men,  weighed  only  sixty  pounds.  Gosnal.  Re- 
lat.  des  Voy.  a  la  Virgin  Rec.  de  Voy.  au  Nord,  torn, 
v.  p.  403. 

NOTE  85. — A  remarkable  proof  of  this  is  produced 
by  Ulloa.  In  weaving  hammocks,  coverlets,  and 
other  coarse  cloths,  which  they  are  accustomed  to 
manufacture,  their  industry  has  discovered  no  more 
expeditious  method  than  to  take  up  thread  after 
thread,  and  after  counting  and  sorting  them  each 
time,  to  pass  the  woof  between  them,  so  that  in 
finishing  a  small  piece  of  those  stuffs,  they  frequently 
spend  more  than  two  years.  Voyage,  i.  336.  Ban- 
croft gives  the  same  description  of  the  Indians  of 
Guiana,  p.  255.  According  to  Adair,  the  ingenuity 
and  dispatch  of  the  North  American  Indians  are  not 
greater,  p.  422.  From  one  of  the  engravings  of  the 
Mexican  paintings  in  Purchas,  vol.  iii.  p.  1106,  I 
think  it  probable  that  the  people  of  Mexico  were  un- 
acquainted with  any  better  or  more  expeditious 
mode  of  weaving.  A  loom  was  an  invention  beyond 
the  ingenuity  of  the  most  improved  Americans.  In 
all  their  works  they  advance  so  slowly,  that  one  of 
their  artists  is  two  months  at  a  tobacco-pipe  with  his 
knife  before  he  finishes  it.  Adair,  p.  423.  . 

NOTE  86. — The  article  of  religion  in  P.  Lafitau's 
Moeurs  des  Sauvages,  extends  to  347  tedious  pages 
in  quarto. 

NOTE  87.— I  have  referred  the  reader  to  several  of 
the  authors  who  describe  the  most  uncivilized  na- 
tions in  America.  Their  testimony  is  uniform.  That 
of  P.  Ribas  concerning  the  people  of  Cirialoa,  coin- 
cides with  the  rest.  "  I  was  extremely  attentive, 
(says  he),  during  the  years  I  resided  among  them,  to 
ascertain  whether  they  were  to  be  considered  as 
idolaters  ;  and  it  may  be  affirmed  with  the  most  per- 
fect exactness,  that  though  among  some  of  them 
there  may  be  traces  of  idolatry,  yet  others  have  not 
the  least  knowledge  of  God,  or  even  of  any  false 
deity,  nor  pay  any  formal  adoration  to  the  Supreme 
Being  who  exercises  dominion  over  the  world  ;  nor 
have  they  any  conception  of  the  providence  of  a 
Creator  or  Governor,  from  whom  they  expect  in  the 
next  life  the  reward  of  their  good  or  the  punishment 
df  their  evil  deeds.  Neither  do  they  publicly  join 
in  any  act  of  divine  worship."  Ribas  Triuraphos,  &c. 
p.  16." 

NOTK  88. — The  people  of  Brazil  were  so  much 
affrighted  by  thunder,  which  is  frequent  and  awful 


in  their  country,  as  well  as  in  other  parts  of  the  tor- 
lid  zone,  that  it  was  not  only  the  object  of  religious 
reverence,  but  the  most  expressive  name  in  their  lan- 
guage for  the  Deity  was  Toupan,  the  same  by  which 
they  distinguished  thunder.  Piso  de  Medec.  Brazil, 
p  8.  Nieuhoff.  Church.  Coll.  ii.  p.  132. 

NOTE  89. — By  the  account  which  M.  Dumont,  an 
eye-witness,  gives  of  the  funeral  of  the  great  chief  of 
the  Natchez,  it  appears  that  the  feelings  of  the  per- 
sons who  suffered  on  that  occasion  were  very  differ- 
ent. Some  solicited  the  honour  with  eagerness ; 
others  laboured  to  avoid  their  doom,  and  several 
saved  their  lives  by  flying  to  the  woods  As  the 
Indian  Brahmins  give  an  intoxicating  draught  to 
the  women  who  are  to  be  burnt  together  with  the 
bodies  of  their  husbands,  which  renders  them,  insen- 
sible of  their  approaching  fate,  the  Natchez  obliged 
their  victims  to  swallow  several  large  pilis  of  tobacco, 
which  produce  a  similar  effect.  Mem.  dc  Louis. 
i.  227. 

NOTE  90. — On  some  occasions,  particularly  in 
dances  instituted  for  the  recovery  of  persons  who  are 
indisposed,  they  are  extremely  licentious  and  inde- 
cent. De  la  Potherie  Hist.  &c.  ii.  p.  42.  Charlev. 
N.  Fr.  iii.  p.  319.  But  the  nature  of  their  dances  is 
commonly  such  as  I  have  described. 

NOTE  91. — The  Othomacoas,  a  tribe  seated  on  tbe 
banks  of  the  Orinoco,  employ  for  the  same  purpose 
a  composition  which  they  call  Yupa.  It  is  formed  of 
the  seeds  of  an  unknown  plant  reduced  to  powder, 
and  certain  shells  burnt  and  pulverized.  The  effects 
of  this  when  drawn  up  into  the  nostrils  are  so  vio 
lent,  that  they  resemble  madness  rather  than  intox- 
ication. Gumilla,  i.  286. 

NOTE  92. — Though  this  observation  holds  true 
|  among  the  greater  part  of  the  southern  tribes,  there 
!  are  some  in  which  the  intemperance  of  the  women 
i  is  as  excessive  as  that  of  the  men.  Bancroft's  Nat. 
I  Hist,  of  Guiana,  p.  275. 

NOTE  93. — Even  in  the  most  intelligent  writers 
concerning  the  manners  of  the  Americans,  one  meets 
I  with  inconsistent  and   inexplicable    circumstances. 
{  The  Jesuit  Charlevoix,  who,  in  consequence  of  the 
I  controversy  between  his  order  and  that  of  the  Fran- 
j  ciscans,  with  respect  to  the  talents  and  abilities  of 
I  the  North  Americans,  is   disposed  to  represent  their 
intellectual  as   well  as  moral  qualities  in  the  most 
favourable  light,   asserts,  that  they  are  engaged  in 
continual   negociations  with  their  neighbours,   and 
'  conduct  these  with  the  most  refined  address.     At  the 
!  same  time  he  adds,  "  that  it  behoves  their  envoys  or 
|  plenipotentiaries   to  exert   their   abilities    and   elo- 
I  qucnce,  for  if  the  terms  which  they  offer  are  not  ac- 
1  ceptcd  of,  they  had  need  to  stand  on  their  guard.    It 
frequently  happens  that  a  blow  with  a  hatchet  is  the 
!  only  return  given  to  their  propositions.     The  envoy 
!  is  not  out  of  danger,  even  if  he  is  so  fortunate  as  to 
'  avoid  the  stroke  ;  he  may  expect  to  be  pursued,  and 
if  taken,  to  be  burnt."    Hist.  N.  Fr.  iii.  251.     What 
'  occurs,  p.  862,  concerning  the  manner  in  which  the 
Tlascalans  treated  the  ambassadors  from  Zempoalla, 
|  corresponds   with    the   fact  related   by   Charievoix. 
j  Men  capable  of  such  acts  of  violence,  seem  to  be  un- 
|  acquainted  with  the  first  principles  upon  which  the 
|  intercourse  between  nations  is  founded ;  and  instead 
of  the  perpetual  negociations  which  Charlevoix  men- 
tions, it  seems  almost  impossible  that  there  should  be 
any  correspondence  whatever  among  them. 

NOTE  94.— It  is  a  remark  of  Tacitus  concerning 
the  Germans,  "  Gaudent  muneribus,  sed  nee  data 
imputant,  nee  acceptis  obligantur  "  C.  21.  An  au 
thor  who  had  a  good  opportunity  of  observing  the 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


257 


principle  which  leads  savages  neither  to  express  gra- 
titude for  favours  which  they  had  received,  nor  to 
expect  any  return  for  such  as  they  bestowed,  thus 
explains  their  ideas  :  "  If  (say  they)  you  give  me 
this,  it  is  because  you  have  no  need  of  it  yourself ; 
and  as  for  me,  I  never  part  with  that  which  I  think 


America. 


.  The  letters  of  Cortes  to  the  Emperor 
Charles  V.  are  an  historical  monument,  not  only 
first  in  order  of  time,  but  of  the  greatest  authenticity 
and  value.  As  Cortes  early  assumed  a  command 
independent  of  Velasquez,  it  became  necessary  to 
convey  such  an  account  of  his  operations  to  Madrid 


necessary  to  me."  Memoire  surles  Galibis:  His.  des   as  might  procure  him  the  approbation  of  his  sove- 
Plantes  de  la  Guiane  Francoise  par  M.  Aublet.  torn,    reign. 
ii.  p.  110. 


NOTE  95. — And.  Bernaldes,  the  contemporary 
and  friend  of  Columbus,  has  preserved  some  circum- 
stances concerning  the  bravery  of  the  Caribtiees, 
which  are  not  mentioned  by  Don  Ferdinand  Colum- 
bus, or  the  other  historians  of  that  period,  whose 
works  have  been  published.  A  Caribbean  canoe, 
with  four  men,  two  women,  and  a  boy,  fell  in  unex- 
pectedly with  the  fleet  of  Columbus  in  his  second 
voyage,  as  it  was  steering  through  their  islands.  At 
first  they  were  struck  almost  stupid  with  astonish- 
ment at  such  a  strange  spectacle,  and  hardly  moved 
from  the  spot  for  above  an  hour.  A  Spanish  bark, 
with  twenty-five  men,  advanced  towards  them,  and 
the  fleet  gradually  surrounded  them,  so  as  to  cut  off 
their  communication  with  the  shore.  "  When  they 
saw  that  it  was  impossible  to  escape  (says  the  histo- 
rian), they  seized  their  arms  with  undaunted  resolu- 
tion, and  began  the  attack.  I  use  the  expression 
it'ith  undaunted  resolution,  for  they  were  few,  and  be 
held  a  vast  number  ready  to  assault  them.  They 
wounded  several  of  the  Spaniards  although  they  had 
targets,  as  well  as  other  defensive  armour ;  and  even 
after  their  canoe  was  overset,  it  was  with  no  little 
difficulty  and  danger  that  part  of  them  were  taken, 
as  they  continued  to  defend  themselves,  and  to  use 
their  bows  with  great  dexterity  while  swimming  in 
the  sea."  Hist,  de  D.Fern.  y  Ysab.  M.S.  c.  119. 

NOTE  96.— A  probable  conjecture  may  be  formed 
with  respect  to  the  cause  of  the  distinction  in  charac- 
ter between  the  Caribbees  and  the  inhabitants  of  the 
larger  islands.  The  former  appear  manifestly  to  be  a 
separate  race.  Their  language  is  totally  different 
from  that  of  their  neighbours  in  the  large  islands. 
They  themselves  have  a  tradition,  that  their  ancestors 
came  originally  from  some  part  of  the  continent,  and 
having  conquered  and  exterminated  the  ancient 
inhabitants,  took  possession  of  their  lands,  and  of 
their  women.  Rochefort,  38  4.  Tertrc.  360.  Hence 
they  call  themselves  Bana  ree,  which  signifies  a  man 


The  first  of  his  dispatches  had  never  been  made 
public.  It  was  sent  from  Vera  Cruz,  July  16,  1519. 
As  I  imagined  that  it  might  not  reach  the  emperor 
until  he  arrived  in  Germany,  for  which  he  set  out 
early  in  the  year  1520,  in  order  to  receive  the  impe 
rial  crown,  I  made  diligent  search  for  a  copy  of  this 
despatch,  both  in  Spain  and  in  Germany,  but  without 
success.  This,  however,  is  of  less  consequence,  as  it 
could  not  contain  any  thing  very  material,  being 
written  so  soon  after  Cortes  arrived  in  New  Spain. 
But  in  searching  for  the  letter  from  Cortes,  a  copy  of 
one  from  the  colony  of  Vera  Cruz  to  the  emperor  has 
been  discovered  in"  the  imperial  library  at  Vienna. 
Of  this  I  have  given  some  account  in  its  pro- 
per place.  The  second  despatch,  dated  October 
30,  1520,  was  published  at  Seville,  A.  D.  1522,  and 
the  third  and  fourth  soon  after  they  were  received. 
A  Latin  translation  of  them  appeared  in  Germany, 
A.  D.  1532.  Ramusio  soon  after  made  them  more 
generally  known,  by  inserting  them  in  his  valuable 
collection.  They  contain  a  regular  and  minute  his- 
tory of  the  expedition,  with  many  curious  particu- 
lars concerning  the  policy  and  manners  of  the  Mex- 
icans. The  work  does  honour  to  Cortes  :  the  style  is 
simple  and  perspicuous;  but  as  it  was  manifestly  his 
interest  to  represent  his  own  actions  in  the  fairest 
light,  his  victories  are  probably  exaggerated,  his 
losses  diminished,  and  his  acts  of  rigour  and  violence 
softened. 

The  next  in  order  is  the  Cronica  de  la  Nueva  Es- 
pagna,  by  Francisco  Lopez  de  Gomara,  published 
A.  D.  1554.  Gomara's  historical  merit  is  considera- 
ble. His  mode  of  narration  is  clear,  flowing,  always 
agreeable,  and  sometimes  elegant.  But  he  is  fre- 
quently inaccurate  and  credulous  ;  and  as  he  was  the 
domestic  chaplain  of  Cortes  after  his  return  from 
New  Spain,  and  probably  composed  his  work  at  his 
desire,  it  is  manifest  that  he  labours  to  magnify  the 
merit  of  his  hero,  and  to  conceal  or  extenuate  such 
transactions  as  were  unfavourable  to  his  character. 


come  from  beyond  sea.  Labat.  vi  131.     According-    Of  this  Herrera  accuses  him  in  one  instance,  dec.  ii. 


ly,  the  Caribbees  still  use  two  distinct  languages,  one 
peculiar  to  the  men,  and  the  other  to  the  women. 
Tertre,  361.  The  language  of  the  men  has  nothing 
common  with  that  spoken  in  the  large  islands.  The 
dialect  of  the  women  considerably  resembles  it.  La- 
bat.  129.  This  strongly  confirms  the  tradition  which 
I  have  mentioned.  The  Caribbees  themselves  ima- 
gine that  they  were  a  colony  from  the  Galabis,  a 
powerful  nation  of  Guiana,  in  South  America.  Ter- 
tre, 361.  Rochefort,  318.  But  as  their  fierce  man- 
ners approach  nearer  to  those  of  the  people  in  the 
northern  continent  than  to  those  of  the  natives  of 
South  America;  and  as  their  language  has  likewise 
some  affinity  to  that  spoken  in  Florida,  their  origin 
should  be  deduced  rather  from  the  former  than  from 
the  latter.  Labat.  128,  &c.  Herrera,  dec.  i.  lib.  ix. 
c.  4.  In  their  wars  they  still  observe  their  ancient 
practice  of  destroying  all  the  males,  and  preserving 
the  women  either  for  servitude  or  for  breeding. 

NOTE  97. — Our  knowledge  of  the  events  which 
happened  in  the  conquest  of  New  Spain,  is  derived 
from  sources  of  information  more  original  and  au- 
thentic than  that  of  any  transaction  in  the  history  of 

THB  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA.     No.  33. 


lib.  iii.  c.  2,  and  it  is  not  once  only  that  this  is  con- 
spicuous. He  writes,  however,  with  so  much  freedom 
concerning  several  measures  of  the  Spanish  court, 
that  the  copies  both  of  his  Historia  de  las  Indias, 
and  of  his  Cronica,  were  called  in  by  a  decree  of  the 
council  of  the  Indies,  and  they  were  long  considered 
as  prohibited  books  in  Spain  ;  it  is  only  of  late  that 
licence  to  print  them  has  been  granted.  Pinelo  Bib- 
lioth.  582. 

The  Chronicle  of  Gomara  induced  Bernal  Diaz 
del  Castillo  to  compose  his  Historia  Verdadera  de 
la  Conquista  de  la  Nueva  Espagna.  He  had  been  an 
adventurer  in  each  of  the  expeditions  to  New  Spain, 
and  was  the  companion  of  -Cortes  in  all  his  battles 
and  perils.  When  he  found  that  neither  he  himself, 
nor  many  of  his  fellow-soldiers,  were  once  mentioned 
by  Gomara,  but  that  the  fame  of  all  their  exploits 
was  ascribed  to  Cortes,  the  gallant  veteran  laid  hold 
of  his  pen  with  indignation,  and  composed  his  true 
history.  It  contains  a  prolix,  minute,  confused  nar- 
rative of  all  Cortes's  operations,  in  such  rude  vulgar 
style  as  might  be  expected  from  an  illiterate  soldier. 
But  as  he  relates  transactions  of  which  he  was  wit- 

2L 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


ness,  and  iu  which  he  performed  a  considerable  part, 
his  account  hears  all  the  marks  of  authenticity,  and 
is  accompanied  with  such  a  pleasant  na'iuetd,  with 
such  interesting  details,  with  such  amusing  vanity, 
and  yet  so  pardonable  in  an  old  soldier  who  had  been 
(as  he  boasts)  in  a  hundred  and  nineteen  battles,  as 
renders  his  book  one  of  the  most  singular  that  is  to 
be  found  in  any  language. 

Pet.  Martyr  ab  Angleria,  in  a  treatise  De  Insulis 
nuper  inventis,  added  to  his  Decades  de  Rebus  Oce- 
ariicis  et  Novo  Orbe,  gives  some  account  of  Cortes's 
expedition.  But  he  proceeds  no  further  than  to  re- 
late what  happened  after  his  first  landing.  This 
work,  which  is  brief  and  slight,  seems  to  contain  the 
information  transmitted  by  Cortes  in  his  first  de- 
spatches, embellished  with  several  particulars  com- 
municated to  the  author  by  the  officers  who  brought 
the  letters  from  Cortes. 

But  the  book  to  which  the  greater  part  of  modern 
historians  have  had  recourse  for  information  con- 
cerning the  conquest  of  New  Spain,  is  Historia  de 
la  Conquista  de  Mexico,  por  D.  Antonio  de  Solis, 
first  published  A.  D.  1684.  I  know  no  author  in 
any  language  whose  literary  fame  has  risen  so  far 
beyond  his  real  merit.  De  Solis  is  reckoned  by  his 
countrymen  one  of  the  purest  writers  in  the  Casti- 
lian  tongue  ;  and  if  a  foreigner  may  venture  to  give 
his  opinion  concerning  a  matter  of  which  Spaniards 
alone  are  qualified  to  judge,  he  is  entitled  to  that 
praise.  But  though  his  language  is  correct,  his 
taste  in  composition  is  far  from  being  just.  His 
periods  are  so  much  laboured  as  to  be  often  stiff,  and 
sometimes  tumid ;  the  figures  which  he  employs  by 
way  of  ornament  are  frequently  trite  or  improper, 
and  his  observations  superficial.  These  blemishes, 
however,  might  easily  be  overlooked,  if  he  were  not 
defective  with  respect  to  all  the  great  qualities  of  an 
historian.  Destitute  of  that  patient  industry  in  re- 
search which  conducts  to  the  knowledge  of  truth ;  a 
stranger  to  that  impartiality  which  weighs  evidence 
with  cool  attention ;  and  ever  eager  to  establish  his 
favourite  system  of  exalting  the  character  of  Cortes 
into  that  of  a  perfect  hero,  exempt  from  error,  and 
adorned  with  every  virtue ;  he  is  less  solicitous  to 
discover  what  was  true  than  to  relate  what  might 
appear  splendid.  When  he  attempts  any  critical 
discussion  his  reasonings  are  fallacious,  and  founded 
upon  an  imperfect  view  of  facts.  Though  he  some- 
times quotes  the  despatches  of  Cortes,  he  seems  not 
to  have  consulted  them;  and  though  he  sets  out  with 
some  censure  on  Gomara,  he  frequently  prefers  his 
authority,  the  most  doubtful  of  any,  to  that  of  the 
other  contemporary  historians. 

But  of  all  the  Spanish  writers,  Herrera  furnishes 
ihe  fullest  and  most  accurate  information  concerning 
the  conquest  of  Mexico,  as  well  as  every  other  trans- 
action of  America.  The  industry  and  attention  with 
which  he  consulted  not  only  the  books,  but  the  ori  • 
ginal  papers  and  public  records,  which  tended  to 
throw  any  light  upon  the  subject  of  his  inquiries, 
were  so  great,  and  he  usually  judges  of  the  evidence 
before  him  with  so  much  impartiality  and  candour, 
that  his  decads  may  be  ranked  among  the  most  judi- 
cious and  useful  historical  collections.  If,  by  at- 
tempting to  relate  the  various  occurrences  in  the 
New  World  in  a  strict  chronological  order,  the  ar- 
rangement of  events  in  his  work  had  not  been  ren- 
dered so  perplexed,  disconnected,  and  obscure,  that 
it  is  an  unpleasant  task  to  collect  from  different  parts 
of  his  book,  and  piece  together  the  detached  shreds  of 
a  atory,  he  might  justly  have  been  ranked  among  the 
most  eminent  historians  of  his  country.  He  gives  an 


account  of  the  materials  from  which  he  composed  his 
work,  Decad.  6,  lib.  iii.  c.  19. 

NOTE  98. — Cortes  purposed  to  have  gone  in  the 
train  of  Ovando,  when  he  set  out  for  his  government 
in  the  year  1502,  but  was  detained  by  an  accident. 
As  he  was  attempting  in  a  dark  night  to  scramble  up 
to  the  window  of  a  lady's  bed  chamber,  with  whom 
he  carried  on  an  intrigue,  an  old  wall,  on  the  top  of 
which  he  had  mounted,  gave  way,  and  he  was  so 
much  bruised  by  the  fall  as  to  be'  unfit  for  the  voy- 
age. Gomara,  Cronica  de  la  Nueva  Espagna,  cap.  1 . 

NOTE  99.— Cortes  had  two  thousand  pesos  in  the 
hands  of  Andrew  Duero,  and  he  borrowed  four  thou- 
sand. These  sums  are  about  equal  in  value  to  fif- 
teen hundred  pounds  sterling ;  but  as  the  price  of 
every  thing  was  extremely  high  in  America,  they 
made  but  a  scanty  stock  when  applied  towards  the 
equipment  of  a  military  expedition.  Herrera,  dec.  2, 
lib.  iii.  c.  2.  B.  Diaz,  c.  20. 

NOTE  100. — The  names  of  those  gallant  officers, 
which  will  often  occur  in  the  subsequent  story,  were 
Juan  Velasquez  de  Leon,  Alonso  Hernandez  Porto- 
carrero,  Francisco  de  Montejo,  Christoval  de  Oii<l, 
Juan  de  Escalante,  Francisco  de  Moria,  Pedro  de 
Alvarado,  Francisco  de  Salceda,  Juan  dc  Escobar, 
Gines  de  Nortes.  Cortes  himself  commanded  the 
capitana,  or  admiral.  Francisco  de  Orozco,  an  offi- 
cer formed  in  the  wars  of  Italy,  had  the  command  of 
the  artillery.  The  experienced  Alaminos  acted  as 
chief  pilot. 

NOTE  101. — In  those  different  conflicts  the  Spa- 
niards lost  only  two  men,  but  had  a  considerable 
number  wounded.  Though  there  be  no  occasion  for 
recourse  to  any  supernatural  caitse  to  account  either 
for  the  greatness  of  their  victories  or  the  smallness 
of  their  loss,  the  Spanish  historians  fail  not  to  ascribe 
both  to  the  patronage  of  St.  Jago,  the  tutelar  saint 
of  their  country,  who,  as  they  relate,  fought  at  the 
head  of  their  countrymen,  and  by  his  prowess  gave  a 
turn  to  the  fate  of  the  battle.  Gomara  is  the  first 
who  mentions  this  apparition  of  St.  James.  It  is 
amusing  to  observe  the  embarrassment  of  B.  Diaz 
del  Castillo,  occasioned  by  the  struggle  between  his 
superstition  and  his  veracity.  The  former  disposed 
him  to  believe  this  miracle,  the  latter  restrained  him 
from  attesting  it.  "  I  acknowledge,"  says  he,  "that 
all  our  exploits  and  victories  are  owing  to  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  and  that  in  this  battle  there  was  such  a 
number  of  Indians  to  every  one  of  us,  that  if  each 
had  thrown  a  handful  of  earth  they  might  have 
buried  us,  if  by  the  great  mercy  of  God  we  had  not 
been  protected.  It  may  be  that  the  person  whom 
Gomara  mentions  as  having  appeared  on  a  mottled 
grey  horse,  was  the  glorious  apostle  Signer  San  Jago 
or  Signer  San  Pedro,  and  that  I,  as  being  a  sinner, 
was  not  worthy  to  see  him.  This  I  know,  that  I  saw 
Francisco  de  Morla  on  such  a  horse,  but  as  an  un- 
worthy transgressor,  did  not  deserve  to  see  any  of  the 
holy  apostles.  It  may  have  been  the  will  of  God 
that  it  was  so  as  Gomara  relates,  but  until  I  read  his 
chronicle  I  never  heard  among  any  of  the  conquer- 
ors that  such  a  thing  had  happened."  Cap.  34. 

NOTE  102. — Several  Spanish  historians  relate  this 
occurrence  in  such  terms  as  if  they  wished  it  should 
be  believed  that  the  Indians,  loaded  with  the  pre- 
sents, had  carried  them  from  the  capital  in  the  same 
short  space  of  time  that  the  couriers  performed  that 
journey.  This  is  incredible,  and  Gomara  mentions 
a  circumstance  which  shows  that  nothing  extraordi- 
nary happened  on  this  occasion.  This  rich  present 
had  been  prepared  for  Grijalva,  when  he  touched  at 
the  same  place  some  months  before,  and  was  now 


THE  HISTOKY  OF  AMERICA. 


259 


ready  to  be  delivered  as  soon  as   Montezuma  sent 


orders  for  that 
p.  28. 


purpose. 


Gomara  Cron.  c.  xxvii. 


According  to  B.  Diaz  del  Castillo  the  value  of  the 
silver  plate,  representing  the  moon,  was  alone  above 


spies.  So  many  prisoners  had  been  taken  and  dis- 
missed, and  the  Tlascalans  had  sent  so  many  mes- 
sages to  the  Spanish  quarters,  that  there  appears  to 
be  no  reason  for  hazarding  the  lives  of  so  many  con- 
siderable people,  in  order  to  procure  information 


twenty  thousand  pesos,  about  five  thousand  pounds  i  about  the  position  and  state  of  their  camp.     The 
sterling.  j  barbarous  manner  in  which  Cortes  treated  a  people 

NOTE  103. — This  private  traffic  was  directly  con-  j  unacquainted  with  the  laws  of  war  established  among 
trary  to  the  instructions  of  Velasquez,  who  enjoined,  '  polished  nations,  appears  so  shocking  to  the  later 
that  whatever  was  acquired  by  trade  should  be  thrown  )  Spanish  writers,  that  they  diminish  the  number  of 
into  the  common  stock.  But  it  appears  that  the  |  those  whom  he  punished  so  cruelly.  Hen-era  says, 
soldiers  had  each  a  private  assortment  of  toys,  and  '  that  he  cut  off  the  hands  of  seven,  and  the  thumbs  of 
other  goods  proper  for  the  Indian  trade,  and  Cortes  j  some  more.  Dec.  ii.  lib.  ii.  c.  8.  De  Solis  relates, 
gained  their  favour  by  encouraging  this  under-hand  j  that  the  hands  of  fourteen  or  fifteen  were  cut  off,  and 
barter.  B.  Diaz,  c.  41.  the  thumbs  of  all  the  rest.  Lib.  ii.  c.  20.  But  Cortes 

NOTE  104. — Gomara  has  published  a  catalogue  of  j  himself,  Relat.  p.  228,  and  after  him  Gomara,  c.  48, 
the  various  articles  of  which  this  present  consisted,  i  affirm,  that  the  hands  of  all  the  fifty  were  cut  off. 
Cron.  c.  49.  P.  Martyr  ab  Angleria,  who  saw  them  i  NOTE  107. — The  horses  were  objects  of  the  great- 
after  they  were  brought  to  Spain,  and  who  seems  to  est  astonishment  to  all  the  people  of  New  Spain.  At 
have  examined  them  with  great  attention,  gives  a  first  they  imagined  the  horse  and  his  rider,  like  the 
description  to  each,  which  is  curious,  as  it  conveys  centaurs  of  the  ancients,  to  be  some  monstrous  aui- 
some  idea  of  the  progress  which  the  Mexicans  had  j  nial  of  a  terrible  form;  and  supposing  that  their  food 
made  in  several  arts  of  elegance.  De  Insulis  nuper  j  was  the  same  as  that  of  men,  brought  flesh  and  bread 
inventis  Liber,  p.  354,  &c.  j  to  nourish  them.  Even  after  they  discovered  their 

NOTE  105. — There  is  no  circumstance  in  the  his. ;  mistake,  they  believed  the  horses  devoured  men  in 
lory  of  the  conquest  of  America  which  is  more  qiu-s-  battle,  and  when  they  neighed,,  thought  that  they 
tioiiable  than  the  account  of  the  numerous  armies  j  were  demanding  their  prey.  It  was  not  the  interest 
brought  into  the  field  against  the  Spaniards.  As  !  of  the  Spaniards  to  undeceive  them.  Herrera,  dec.  ii. 
the  war  with  the  republic  of  Tlascala,  though  of  short ;  lib.  vi.  c.  11. 
duration,  was  one  of  the  most  considerable  which  the  j  NOTE  108. — According  to  Bart,  de  las  Casas,  there 


Spaniards  waged  in  America,  the  account  given  of 
the  Tlascalan  armies  merits  some  attention.  The 
only  authentic  information  concerning  this  is  de- 
rived from  three  authors.  Cortes,  in  his  second 
despatch  to  the  emperor,  dated  at  Segura  de  la  Fron- 
tera,  October  30,  1520,  thus  estimates  the  number  of 
their  troops  ;  in  the  first  battle  GOOO  ;  in  the  second 
battle  100,000  ;  in  the  third  battle  150,000.  Relat.  ap. 
llamus.  iii.  228.  Bernal  Diaz  del  Castillo,  who  was 
an  eye-witness,  and  engaged  in  all  the  actions  of  this 
war,  thus  reckons  their  numbers  :  in  the  first  battle 
3000,  p.  43  ;  in  the  second  battle  GOOO,  ibid ;  in  the 
third  battle  50,000,  p.  45.  Gomara,  who  was  Cor- 
tcs's  chaplain  after  his  return  to  Spain,  and  pub- 
lished his  Cronica  in  1554,  follows  the  computation 
of  Cortes,  except  in  the  second  battle,  where  he  rec- 
kons the  Tlascalans  at  80,000,  p.  49.  It  was  mani- 
festly the  interest  of  Cortes  to  magnify  his  own  dan- 
gers and  exploits.  For  it  was  only  by  the  merit  of 
extraordinary  services  that  he  could  hope  to  atone 
for  his  irregular  conduct  in  assuming  an  independent 
command.  B.  Diaz,  though  abundantly  disposed  to 
place  his  own  prowess,  and  that  of  his  fellow-con- 
querors in  the  most  advantageous  point  of  light,  had 
not  the  same  temptation  to  exaggerate ;  and  it  is  pro- 
bable that  his  account  of  the  numbers  approaches 
nearer  to  the  truth.  The  assembling  of  an  army  of 
150,000  men  requires  many  previous  arrangements, 
and  such  provisions  for  their  subsistence  as  seems  to 
be  beyond  the  foresight  of  Americans.  The  degree 
of  cultivation  in  Tlascala  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
so  great  as  to  have  furnished  such  a  vast  army  with 

provisions.  Though  this  province  -was  so  much  bet-  ;  relate,  another  to  have  beheld,  things  that  were  never 
ter  cultivated  than  other  regions  of  New  Spain,  that  before  seen,  or  heard,  or  spoken  of  among  men." 
it  was  called  the  country  of  bread,  yet  the  Spaniards  Cap.  86,  p.  64,  b. 

in  their  march  suffered  such  want  that  they  were  ]  NOTE  1 10. — B.  Diaz  del  Castillo  gives  us  some 
obliged  to  subsist  upon  Tunas,  a  species  of  fruit  idea  of  the  fatigue  and  hardships  they  underwent  in. 
which  grows  wild  in  the  fields.  Herrera.  dec.  ii.  lib. '  performing  this  and  other  parts  of  duty.  During 
vi.  c.  5,  p.  182.  j  the  nine  months  that  they  remained  in  Mexico,  every 

NOTE  106. — These  unhappy  victims  are  said  to  man,  without  any  distinction  between  officers  and 
be  persons  of  distinction.  It  srem:-  improbable  that  soldi  on-,  slept  on  his  arms  in  his  quilted  jacket  a;id 
to  great  a  number  as  fifty  should  be  employed  as  gorget.  They  lay  on  mats,  or  straw  spread  on  the 


was  no  reason  for  this  massacre,  and  it  was  an  act  of 
wanton  cruelty,  perpetrated  merely  to  strike  terror 
into  the  people  of  New  Spain.  Relac.  de  la  Destruyc. 
p.  17,  &c.  But  the  zeal  of  Las  Casas  often  leads 
him  to  exaggerate.  In  opposition  to  him,  Bern.  Diaz, 
c.  83,  asserts,  that  the  first  missionaries  sent  into 
New  Spain  by  the  emperor  made  a  judicial  inquiry 
into  this  transaction ;  and  having  examined  the 
priests  and  elders  of  Cholula,  found  that  there  was  a 
real  conspiracy  to  cut  off  the  Spaniard^  and  that 
the  account  given  by  Cortes  was  exactly  true.  As 
it  was  the  object  of  Cortes  at  that  time,  and  rnani- 
festly  his  interest,  to  gain  the  good-will  of  Montezu- 
ma. it  is  improbable  that  he  should  have  taken  a  step 
which  tended  so  visibly  to  alienate  him  from  the 
Spaniards,  if  he  had  not  believed  it  to  be  necessary 
for  his  own  preservation.  At  the  same  time  the  Spa- 
niards who  served  in  America  had  such  contempt  for 
the  natives,  and  thought  them  so  little  entitled  to  the 
common  rights  of  men,  that  Cortes  might  hold  the 
Cholulans  to  be  guilty  upon  slight  and  imperfect 
evidence.  The  severity  of  the  punishment  was  cer- 
tainly excessive  and  atrocious. 

NOTE  109. — This  description  is  taken  almost  lite- 
rally from  Bernal  Diaz  del  Castillo,  who  was  so  un- 
acquainted with  the  art  of  composition,  as  to  be  in- 
capable of  embellishing  his  narrative.  He  relates  in 
a  simple  and  rude  style  what  passed  in  his  own  mind 
and  that  of  his  fellow-soldiers  on  that,  occasion  : 
"  and  let  it  not  be  thought  strange,"  says  he,  "  that 
I  should  write  in  this  manner  of  what  then  happened, 
for  it  ought  to  be  considered,  that  it  is  one  thing  to 


260 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


floor,  and  each  was  obliged  to  hold  himself  as  alert 
as  if  he  had  been  on  guard.  "  This,"  adds  he,  "  be- 
came so  habitual  to  me,  that  even  now  in  my  ad- 
vanced age,  I  always  sleep  in  my  clothes,  and  never 
in  my  bed.  When  I  visit  my  Encomienda,  I  reckon 
it  suitable  to  my  rank  to  have  a  bed  carried  along 
with  my  other  baggage,  but  I  never  go  into  it ;  but, 
according  to  custom,  I  lie  in  my  clothes,  and  walk 
frequently  during  the  night  in  the  open-air,  to,  view 
the  stars,  as  I  was  wont  when  in  service."  Cap.  108. 
NOTE  111. — Cortes  himself,  in  his  second  despatch 
to  the  emperor,  does  not  explain  the  motives  which 
induced  him  either  to  condemn  Qualpopoca  to  the 
flames,  or  to  put  Montezuma  in  irons.  Ramus.  iii. 
236.  B.  Diaz  is  silent  with  respect  to  his  reasons 
for  the  former ;  and  the  only  cause  he  assigns  for  the 
latter  was,  that  he  might  meet  with  no  interruption 
in  executing  the  sentence  pronounced  against  Qual- 
popoca, c.  xcv.  p.  75.  But  as  Montezuma  was  his 
prisoner,  and  absolutely  in  his  power,  he  had  no  rea- 
son to  dread  him,  and  the  insult  offered  to  that  mo- 
narch could  have  no  effect  but  to  irritate  him  unne- 
cessarily. Gomara  supposes  that  Cortes  had  no  other 
object  than  to  occupy  Montezuma  with  his  own  dis- 
tress and  sufferings,  that  he  might  give  less  attention 
to  what  befell  Qualpopoca.  Cron.  c.  89.  Herrera 
adopts  the  same  opinion,  dec.  2,  lib.  viii.  c.  9.  But 
it  seems  an  odd  expedient,  in  order  to  make  a  person 
bear  one  injury,  to  load  him  with  another  that  is 
greater.  De  Solis  imagines,  that  Cortes  had  nothing 
else  in  view  than  to  intimidate  Montezuma,  so  that 
he  might  make  no  attempt  to  rescue  the  victims 
from  their  fate ;  but  the  spirit  of  that  monarch  was 
so  submissive,  and  he  had  so  tamely  given  up  the 
prisoners  to  the  disposal  of  Cortes,  that  he  had  no 
cause  to  apprehend  any  opposition  from  him.  If  the 
explanation  which  1  have  attempted  to  give  of  Cor- 
tes's  proceedings  on  this  occasion  be  not  admitted,  it 
appears  to  me  that  they  must  be  reckoned  among  the 
wanton  and  barbarous  acts  of  oppression  which  occur 
too  often  in  the  history  of  the  conquest  of  America. 
•  NOTE  112. — De  Solis  asserts,  lib.  iv.  c.  3,  that  the 
proposition  of  doing  homage  to  the  king  of  Spain 
came  from  Montezuma  himself,  and  was  made  in  or- 
der to  induce  the  Spaniards  to  depart  out  of  his  do- 
minions. He  describes  his  conduct  on  this  occasion, 
as  if  it  had  been  founded  upon  a  scheme  of  profound 
policy,  and  executed  with  such  refined  address  as  to 
deceive  Cortes  himself.  But  there  is  no  hint  or  cir- 
cumstance in  the  contemporary  historians,  Cortes, 
Diaz,  or  Gomara,  to  justify  this  theory.  Montezuma, 
on  other  occasions,  discovered  no  such  extent  of  art 
and  abilities.  The  anguish  which  he  felt  in  per- 
forming this  humbling  ceremony  is  natural,  if  We 
suppose  it  to  have  been  involuntary.  But,  according 
to  the  theory  of  De  Solis,  which  supposes  that  Mon- 
tezuma was  executing  what  he  himself  had  proposed, 
to  have  assumed  an  appearance  of  sorrow  would 
have  been  preposterous,  and  inconsistent  with  his 
own  design  of  deceiving  the  Spaniards. 

NOTE  113. — In  several  of  the  provinces  the  Spa- 
niards, with  all  their  industry  and  influence,  could 
collect  no  gold.  In  others  they  procured  only  a  fev 
trinkets  of  small  value.  Montezuma  accused  Cortes, 
that  the  present  which  he  offered  to  the  King  of  Cas- 
tile, after  doing  homage,  consisted  of  all  the  treasure 
amassed  by  his  father ;  and  told  him  that  he  had  al- 
ready distributed  the  rest  of  his  gold  and  jewels 
among  the  Spaniards.  B.  Diaz,  c.  104.  Gomara 
relates,  that  all  the  silver  collected  amounted  to  500 
marks.  Cron.  c.  93.  This  agrees  with  the  account 
given  by  Cortes,  that  the  royal  fifth  of  silver  was  100 


marks.  Relat.  239,  b.  So  that  the  sum  total  of  sil- 
ver was  only  4000  ounces,  at  the  rate  of  eight  ounces 
a  mark,  which  demonstrates  the  proportion  of  silver 
:o  gold  to  have  been  exceedingly  smalL 

NOTE  114. — De  Solis,  lib.  iv.  c.  1,  calls  in  ques- 
tion the  truth  of  this  transaction,  from  no  better  rea- 
son than  that  it  was  inconsistent  with  that  prudence 
which  distinguishes  the  character  of  Cortes.  But  he 
ought  to  have  recollected  the  impetuosity  of  his  zeal, ' 
at  Tlascala,  which  was  no  less  imprudent.  He  as- 
serts, that  the  evidence  for  it  rests  upon  the  testimo- 
ny of  B.  Diaz  del  Castillo,  of  Gomara,  and  of  Her- 
rera. They  all  concur,  indeed,  in  mentioning  this 
inconsiderate  step  which  Cortes  took ;  and  they  had 
good  reason  to  do  so,  for  Cortes  himself  relates  this 
exploit  in  his  second  despatch  to  the  emperor,  and 
seems  to  glory  in  it.  Cort.  Relat.  Ramus.  iii.  140,  d. 
This  is  one  instance,  among  many,  of  De  Solis's  hav- 
ing consulted  with  little  attention  the  letters  of  Cortes 
to  Charles  V  ,  from  which  the  most  authentic  infor- 
mation with  respect  to  his  operations  must  be 
derived. 

NOTE  115. — Herrera  and  De  Solis  suppose  that 
Velasquez  was  encouraged  to  equip  this  armament 
against  Cortes  by  the  accounts  which  he  received 
from  Spain  concerning  the  reception  of  the  agent 
sent  by  the  colony  of  Vera  Cruz,  and  the  warmth 
with  which  Fonseca,  bishop  of  Burgos,  had  espoused 
his  interest,  and  condemned  the  proceedings  of  Cor- 
tes. Herrera,  dec.  2,  lib.  ix.  c  18.  De  Soiis,  lib.iv. 
c.  5.  But  the  chronological  order  of  events  refute? 
this  supposition.  Portocarrero  and  Montejo  sailed 
from  Vera  Cruz  July  26,  1519.  Herrera,  dec  2,  lib. 
v.  b.  4.  They  landed  at  St.  Lucar  in  October,  ac- 
cording to  Herrera,  ibid.  But  P.  Martyr,  who  at- 
tended the  court  at  that  time,  and  communicated 
every  occurrence  of  moment  to  his  correspondents 
day  by  day,  mentions  the  arrival  of  these  agents  for 
the  first  time  in  December,  and  speaks  of  it  as  a  re- 
cent event.  Epist.  650.  All  the  historians  agree, 
that  the  agents  of  Cortes  had  their  first  audience  of 
the  emperor  at  Tordesillas,  when  he  went  to  that 
town  to  visit  his  mother  in  his  way  to  St.  Jago  de 
Compostella.  Herrera,  dec.  2,  lib.  v.  c.  4.  De  Solis, 
lib.  iv.  c.  5.  But  the  emperor  set  out  from  Vallado- 
lid  for  Tordesillas  on  the  llth  of  March,  1520;  and 
P.  Martyr  mentions  his  having  seen  at  that  time 
the  presents  made  to  Charles,  Epist.  665.  The  ar- 
mament under  Narvacz  sailed  from  Cuba  in  April 
1520.  It  is  manifest  then  that  Velasquez  could  not 
receive  any  account  of  what  passed  in  this  interview 
at  Tordesillas,  previous  to  his  hostile  preparations 
against  Cortes.  His  real  motives  seem  to  be  those 
which  I  have  mentioned.  The  patent  appointing 
him  Adtlantado  of  New  Spain,  with  such  extensive 
powers,  bears  date  November  13,  1519.  Herrera, 
dec.  2,  lib.  iii.  c.  11.  He  might  receive  it  about  the 
beginning  of  January.  Gomara  takes  notice,  that  as 
soon  as  this  patent  was  delivered  to  him,  he  began  to 
equip  a  fleet  and  levy  forces.  Cron.  c.  96. 

NOTE  116. — De  Solis  contends,  that  as  Narvacz 
had  no  interpreters,  he  could  hold  no  intercourse 
with  the  people  of  the  provinces,  nor  converse  with 
them  in  any  way  but  by  signs,  and  that  it  was  equally 
impossible  for  him  to  carry  on  a.ny  communication 
with  Montezuma.  Lib.  iv.  c.  7.  But  it  is  upon  the 
authority  of  Cortes  himself  that  I  relate  all  the  parti- 
culars of  Narvaez's  correspondence,  both  with  Mon- 
tezuma and  with  his  subjects  in  the  maritime  pro- 
I  vinces.  Relat.  Ramus.  iii.  244,  a.  c.  Cortes  affirms, 
,  that  there  was  a  mode  of  intercourse  between  Nar- 
vaez  and  the  Mexican?,  but  does  not  explain  how  it 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


261 


was  carried  on.  Bernal  Diaz  supplies  this  defect, 
and  informs  us  that  the  three  deserters  who  joined 
Narvaoz  acted  as  interpreters,  having  acquired  a 
competent  knowledge  of  the  language,  c.  110.  With 
his  usual  minuteness,  he  mentions  their  names  and 
characters,  and  relates,  in  chapter  122,  how  they 
were  punished  for  their  perfidy.  The  Spaniards  had 
now  resided  above  a  year  among  the  Mexicans ;  and 
it  is  not  surprising  that  several  among  them  should 
have  made  some  proficiency  in  speaking  their  lan- 
guage. This  seems  to  have  been  the  case.  Herrera, 
detC2,  lib.  x.  c.  1.  Both  B.  Diaz,  who  was  present, 
and  Herrera,  the  most  accurate  and  best  informed  of 
all  the  Spanish  writers,  agree  with  Cortes  in  his  ac- 
count of  the  secret  correspondence  carried  on  with 
Mon-tezuma.  Dec.  2,  lib.  x.  c.  18,  19.  De  Solis 
seems  to  consider  it  as  a  discredit  to  Cortes,  his  hero, 
that  Montezuma  should  have  been  ready  to  engage 
in  a  correspondence  with  Narvaez.  He  supposes 
that  monarch  to  have  contracted  such  a  wonderful 
affection  for  the  Spaniards  that  he  was  not  solicitous 
to  be  delivered  from  them.  After  the  indignity  with 
which  he  had  been  treated,  such  an  affection  is  in- 
credible ;  and  even  De  Solis  is  obliged  to  acknow- 
ledge, that  it  must  be  looked  upon  as  one  of  the  mi- 
racles which  God  had  wrought  to  facilitate  the  con- 
quest, lib.  ib.  c.  7.  The  truth  is,  Montezuma,  how- 
ever much  overawed  by  the  dread  of  the  Spaniards, 
was  extremely  impatient  to  recover  his  liberty. 

NOTE  117  — These  words  I  have  borrowed  from 
the  anonymous  account  of  the  European  settlements 
in  America,  published  by  Dodsley,  in  two  volumes 
8vo. ;  a  work  of  so  much  merit,  that  I  should  think 
there  is  hardly  any  writer  in  the  age  who  ought  to 
be  ashamed  of  himself  to  be  the  author  of  it. 

NOTE  118. — The  contemporary  historians  differ 
considerably  with  respect  to  the  loss  of  the  Spaniards 
on  this  occasion.  Cortes,  in  his  second  despatch  to 
the  emperor,  makes  the  number  only  150.  Relat.  ap. 
Ramus.  iii.  p.  249,  a.  But  it  was  manifestly  his 
interest,  at  that  juncture,  to  conceal  from  the  court 
of  Spain  the  full  extent  of  the  loss  which  he  had  sus- 
tained. De  Solis,  always  studious  to  diminish  every 
misfortune  that  befell  his  countrymen,  rates  their 
loss  at  about  two  hundred  men.  Lib.  iv.  c.  19.  B. 
Diaz  affirms  that  they  lost  870  men,  and  that  only 
440  escaped  from  Mexico;  c.  128,  p.  108,  b.  Pala- 
fox,  bishop  of  Los  Angeles,  who  seems  to  have  in- 
quired into  the  early  transactions  of  his  countrymen 
in  New  Spain  with  great  attention,  confirms  the 
account  ofB.  Diaz  with  .respect  to  the  extent  of  their 
loss.  Virtudes  del  Indio,  p.  22.  Gomara  states  their 
loss  at  450  men.  Cron.  c.  109.  Some  months  af- 
terwards, when  Cortes  had  received  several  rein- 
forcements, he  mustered  his  troops,  and  found  them 
to  be  only  590.  Relat.  ap.  Ramus.  iii.  p.  255,  e. 
Now,  as  Narvaez  brought  880  men  into  New  Spain, 
and  about  400  of  Cortes'  soldiers  were  then  alive, 
it  is  evident  that  his  loss,  in  the  retreat  from  Mex- 
ico, must  have  been  much  more  considerable  than 
what  he  mentions.  B.  Diaz,  solicitous  to  magnify 
the  dangers  and  sufferings  to  which  he  and  his  fel- 
low-conquerors were  exposed,  may  have  exaggerated 
their  loss  ;  but  in  my  opinion  it  cannot  well  be  esti- 
jnatcd  at  less  than  600  men. 

NOTE  119. — Some  remains  of  this  great  work  are 
still  visible,  and  the  spot  where  the  brigantines  wer 
built  and  launched  is  still  pointed  out  to  strangers. 
Torquemada  viewed  them.    Monarq.  Indiana,  vol.  i. 
p.  531. 

NOTE   120. — The    station     of  Alvarado  on   the 
causeway  of  Tacuba  \vas  tk?  nearest  to  the  city. 


Cortes  observes,  that  there  they  could  distinctly  ob- 
serve what  passed  when  their  countrymen  were 
sacrificed.  Relat.  ap.  Ramus.  iii.  p.  273,  e .  B. 
Diaz,  who  belonged  to  Alvarado's  division,  relates 
what  he  beheld  with  his  own  eyes  :  c.  152,  p.  148,  b. 
159,  a.  Like  a  man  whose  courage  was  so  clear 
as  to  be  above  suspicion,  he  describes  with  his  usual 
simplicity  the  impression  which  this  spectacle  made 
upon  him.  "  Before,"  says  he,  "  I  saw  the  breasts 
of  my  companions  opened,  their  hearts  yet  fluttering, 
offered  to  an  accursed  idol,  and  their  flesh  devoured 
by  their  exulting  enemies,  I  was  accustomed  to  en- 
ter a  battle  not  only  without  fear,  but  with  high  spi- 
rit. But  from  that  time  I  never  advanced  to  fight 
the  Mexicans  without  a  secret  horror  and  anxiety ; 
my  heart  trembled  at  the  thoughts  of  the  death  which 
1  had  seen  them  suffer."  He  takes  care  to  add,  that 
as  soon  as  the  combat  began,  his  terror  went  off ; 
and  indeed  his  adventurous  bravery  on  every  occa- 
sion is  full  of  evidence  of  this.  B.  Diaz,  c.  156, 
p.  157,  a. 

NOTE  121. — One  circumstance  in  this  siege  merits 
particular  notice.  The  account  which  the  Spanish 
writers  give  of  the  numerous  armies  employed  in  the 
attack  or  defence  of  Mexico  seems  to  be  incredible. 
According  to  Cortes  himself,  he  had  at  one  time 
150,000  auxiliary  Indians  in  his  service.  Relat. 
Ramus.  iii.  275,  e.  Gomara  asserts,  that  they  were 
above  200,000.  Cron.  c.  136.  Herrera,  an  anthor 
of  higher  authority,  says  they  were  about  200,000. 
Dec.  3,  lib.  i.  c.  19.  None  of  the  contemporary 
writers  ascertain  explicitly  the  number  of  persons  in 
Mexico  during  the  siege.  But  Cortes  on  several 
occasions  mentions  the  number  of  Mexicans  who 
were  slain,  or  who  perished  for  want  of  food  ;  and  if 
we  may  rely  on  those  circumstances,  it  is  probable 
that  above  two  hundred  thousand  must  have  been 
hut  up  in  the  town.  But  the  quantity  of  provisions 
necessary  for  the  subsistence  of  such  vast  multitudes 
assembled  in  one  place  during  three  months  is  so 
great,  and  it  requires  so  much  foresight  and  arrange- 
ment to  collect  these,  and  lay  them  up  in  magazines 
so  as  to  be  certain  of  a  regular  supply,  that  one  can 
hardly  believe  that  this  could  be  accomplished  in  a 
country  where  agriculture  was  so  imperfect  as  in  the 
Mexican  empire,  where  there  were  no  tame  animals, 
and  by  a  people  naturally  so  improvident,  and  so 
incapable  of  executing  a  complicated  plan,  as  the 
most  improved  Americans.  The  Spaniards,  with  all 
their  care  and  attention,  fared  very  poorly,  and  were 
often  reduced  to  extreme  distress  for  want  of  provi- 
sions. B.  Diaz,  p.  142.  Cortes  Relat.  271,  d. 
Cortes  on  one  occasion  mentions  slightly  the  subsist- 
ence of  his  army;  and  after  acknowledging  that  they 
were  often  in  great  want,  adds,  that  they  received 
supplies  from  the  people  of  the  country,  of  fish,  and 
of  some  fruit,  which  he  calls  the  cherries  of  the  coun- 
try. Ibid.  B.  Diaz  says,  that  they  had  cakes  of 
maize,  and  serasas  de  la  tierra  ;  and  when  the  season 
of  these  was  over,  another  fruit,  which  he  calls  Tunas; 
but  their  most  comfortable  subsistence  was  a  root 
which  the  Indians  use  as  food,  to  which  he  givrs  the 
name  of  Quililes,  p.  142.  The  Indian  auxiliaries 
had  one  means  of  subsistence  more  than  the  Spani- 
ards. They  fed  upon  the  bodies  of  the  Mexicans 
whom  they  killed  in  battle.  Cort.  Relat.  176,  c.  B. 
Diaz  confirms  his  relation,  and  adds,  that  when  tho 
Indians  returned  from  Mexico  to  their  own  country, 
they  carried  with  them  large  quantities  of  the  flesh 
of  the  Mexicans  salted  or  dried,  as  a  most  acceptable 
1  present  to  their  friends,  that  they  might  have  the 
pleasure  of  feeding  upon  the  bodies  of  their  enemies 


262 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


in  their  festivals,  p.  157.  De  Solis,  who  seems  to 
consider  it  as  an  imputation  of  discredit  to  his  coun- 
trymen, that  they  should  act  in  concert  with  auxilia- 
ries who  fed  upon  human  flesh,  is  solicitous  to  prove 
that  the  Spaniards  endeavoured  to  prevent  their  as- 
sociates from  eating  the  bodies  of  the  Mexicans,  lib. 
v.  c.  24.  But  he  has  no  authority  for  this  from  the 
original  historians.  Neither  Cortes  himself,  nor  B. 
Diaz,  seem  to  have  had  any  such  scruple ;  and  on 
many  occasions  they  mention  the  Indian  repasts, 
which  were  become  familiar  to  them,  without  any 
mark  of  abhorrence.  Even  with  this  additional  stock 
of  food  for  the  Indians,  it  was  hai'dly  possible  to  pro- 
cure subsistence  for  armies  amounting  to  such  num- 
bers as  we  find  in  the  Spanish  writers.  Perhaps  the 
best  solution  of  the  difficulty  is,  to  adopt,  the  opinion 
of  B.  Diaz  del  Castillo,  the  most  artless  of  all  the 
Historiadores  primitives.  "  When  Gomara,"  says 
he,  "  on  some  occasions  relates,  that  there  were  so 
many  thousand  Indians  our  auxiliaries,  and  in  others, 
that  there  were  so  many  thousand  houses  in  this  or 
that  town,  no  regard  is  to  be  paid  to  his  enumeration, 
as  he  has  no  authority  for  it,  the  numbers  not  being 
in  reality  the  fifth  of  what  he  relates.  If  we  add  to- 
gether the  different  numbers  which  he  mentions,  that 
country  would  contain  more  millions  than  there  are 
in  Castile."  C.  129.  But  though  some  considera- 
ble deduction  should  certainly  be  made  from  the 
Spanish  accounts  of  the  Mexican  forces,  they  must 
have  been  very  numerous ;  for  nothing  but  an  im- 
mense superiority  in  number  could  have  enabled 
them  to  withstand  a  body  of  nine  hundred  Spaniards, 
conducted  by  a  leader  of  such  abilities  as  Cortes. 

NOTE  122. — In  relating  the  oppressive  and  cruel 
proceedings  of  the  conquerors  of  New  Spain,  I  have 
not  followed  B.  de  las  Casas  as  my  guide.  His  ac- 
count of  them,  Relat.  de  la  Destruyc.  p.  18,  &c.,  is 
manifestly  exaggerated.  It  is  from  the  testimony  of 
Cortes  himself,  and  of  Gomara,  who  wrote  under  his 
eye,  that  I  have  taken  my  account  of  the  punishment 
of  I  he  Panucans,  and  they  relate  it  without  any  dis- 
approbation. B.  Diaz,  contrary  to  his  usual  custom, 
mentions  it  only  in  general  terms,  c.  162.  Herrera, 
solicitous  to  extenuate  this  bai'barous  action  of  his 
countrymen,  though  he  mentions  sixty-three  caziques 
and  four  hundred  men  of  note,  as  being  condemned 
to  the  flames,  asserts  that  thirty  only  were  burnt,  and 
the  rest  pardoned.  Dec.  3,  lib.  v.  c.  7.  But  this  is 
contrary  to  the  testimony  of  the  original  historians, 
particularly  of  Gomara,  whom  it  appears  he  had  con- 
sulted, as  he  adopts  several  of  his  expressions  in  this 
.passage.  The  punishment  of  Guatimozin  is  related 
by  the  most  authentic  of  the  Spanish  writers.  Tor- 
.quemada  has  extracted  from  a  history  of  Tezeuco, 
composed  in  the  Mexican  tongue,  an  account  of  this 
transaction,  more  favourable  to  Guatimozin  than 
that  of  the  Spanish  authors.  Mon.  Indiana,  i.  575. 
According  to  the  Mexican  account,  Cortes  had 
scarcely  a  shadow  of  evidence  to  justify  such  a  wan- 
ton act  of  cruelty.  B.  Diaz  affirms,  that  Guatimozin 
and  his  fellow  sufferers  asserted  their  innocence  with 
their  last  breath,  and  that  many  of  the  Spanish 
soldiers  condemned  this  action  of  Cortes  as  equally 
unnecessary  and  unjust,  p,  200,  b.  201,  a. 

NOTE  123. — The  motive  for  undertaking  this  ex 
pedition  was  to  punish  Christoval  de  Olid,  one  of  his 
officers,  who  had  revolted  against  him,  and  aimed  at 
establishing  an  independent  jurisdiction.  Cortes 
regarded  this  insurrection  as  of  such  dangerous  ex- 
ample, and  dreaded  so  much  the  abilities  and  popu- 
larity of  its  author,  that  in  person  he  led  the  body  of 
troops  destined  to  suppress  it.  He  marched,  accord- 


ing to  Gomara,  three  thousand  miles,  through  a 
country  abounding  with  thick  forests,  rugged  moun- 
tains, deep  rivers,  thinly  inhabited,  and  cultivated 
only  in  a  few  places.  What  he  suffered  from  famine, 
from  the  hostility  of  the  natives,  from  the  climate, 
and  from  hardships  of  every  species,  has  nothing  in 
history  parallel  to  it,  but  what  occurs  in  the  adven- 
tures of  the  other  discoverers  and  conquerors  of  the 
New  World.  Cortes  was  employed  in  this  dreadful 
service  above  two  years ;  and  though  it  was  not  dis- 
tinguished by  any  splendid  event,  he  exhibited,  dur- 
ing the  course  of  it,  greater  personal  courage,  more 
fortitude  of  mind,  more  perseverance  and  patience, 
than  in  any  other  period  or  scene  in  his  life.  Her- 
rera, dec.  3.  lib.  vi.  vii.  viii.  ix.  Gomara,  Cron.  c. 
163—1 77.  B.  Diaz,  1 74—190.  Cortes,  MS.  pene* 
me.  Were  one  to  write  a  life  of  Cortes,  the  account 
of  this  expedition  should  occupy  a  splendid  place  in 
it.  In  a  general  history  of  America,  as  the  expedi- 
tion was  productive  of  no  great  event,  the  mention 
of  it  is  sufficient. 

NOTE  124. — According  to  Herrera,  the  treasure 
which  Cortes  brought  with  him  consisted  of  fifteen 
hundred  marks  of  wrought  plate,  two  hundred  thou- 
sand pesos  of  fine  gold,  and  ten  thousand  of  inferior 
standard,  many  rich  jewels,  one  in  particular  worth 
forty  thousand  pesos,  and  several  trinkets  and  orna- 
ments of  value.  Dec.  iv.  lib.  iii.  c.  8.  lib.  iv.  c.  1. 
He  afterwai-ds  engaged  to  give  a  portion  with  his 
daughter  of  a  hundred  thousand  pesos.  Gomara, 
Cron.  c.  237.  The  fortune  which  he  left  his  sons 
was  very  considerable.  But,  as  we  have  before  re- 
lated, the  sum  divided  among  the  conquerors,  on  the 
first  reduction  of  Mexico,  was  very  small.  There 
appears,  then,  to  be  some  reason  for  suspecting  that 
the  accusations  of  Cortes's  enemies  were  not  altoge- 
ther destitute  of  foundation.  They  charged  him  with 
having  applied  to  his  own  use  a  disproportionate 
share  of  the  Mexican  spoils ;  with  having  concealed 
the  royal  treasures  of  Montezuma  and  Guatimozin ; 
with  defrauding  the  king  of  his  fifth  ;  and  robbing 
his  follower.1-  of  what  was  due  to  them.  Herrera,  dec. 
3,  lib.  viii.  c.  15.  dec.  4,  lib.  iii.  c.  8.  Some  of  the 
conquerors  themselves  entertained  suspicions  of  the 
same  kind  with  respect  to  this  part  of  his  conduct. 
B.  Diaz,  c.  157. 

NOTE  125. — In  tracing  the  progress  of  the  Spa- 
nish arms  in  New  Spain,  we  have  followed  Cortes 
himself  as  our  most  certain  guide.  His  despatches 
to  the  emperor  contain  a  minute  account  of  his  ope- 
rations. But  the  unlettered  conqueror  of  Peru  was 
incapable  of  relating  his  own  exploits.  Our  infor- 
mation with  respect  to  them  and  other  transactions  in 
Peru  is  derived,  however,  from  contemporary  and 
respectable  authors. 

The  most  early  account  of  Pizarro's  transactions 
in  Peru  was  published  by  Francisco  de  Xerez,  his 
secretary.  It  is  a  simple  unadorned  narrative,  car- 
ried down  no  further  than  the  death  of  Atahualpa, 
in  1533  ;  for  the  author  returned  to  Spain  in  1534, 
and  soon  after  he  landed,  printed  at  Seville  his  short 
History  of  the  Conquest  of  Peru,  addressed  to  the 
emperor. 

Don  Pedro  Sancho,  an  officer  who  served  under 
Pizarro,  drew  up  an  account  of  his  expedition,  which 
was  translated  into  Italian  byRamusio,  and  inserted 
in  his  valuable  collection,  but  has  never  been  pub- 
lished in  its  original  language.  Sancho  returned  to 
Spain  at  the  same  time  with  Xcrez.  Great  credit  is 
due  to  what  both  these  authors  relate  concerning  th« 
progress  and  operations  of  Pizarro  :  but  the  residence 
of  the  Spaniards  in  Peru  had  been  so  short,  at  the 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


26S 


time  when  they  left  it,  and  their  intercourse  with  the  j 
natives  so  slender,  that  their  knowledge  of  the  Pe- 
ruvian manners  and  customs  is  very  imperfect. 

The  next  contemporary  historian  is  Pedro  Cieza  | 
de  Leon,  who  published  his  Crouica  del  Peru,  at 
Seville,  in  1553.  If  he  had  finished  all  that  he  pro- 
poses in  the  general  division  of  his  work,  it  would 
have  been  the  most  complete  history  which  had  been 
published  of  any  region  in  the  New  World.  He  was 
well  qualified  to  execute  it,  having  served  seventeen 
years  in  America,  and  having  visited  in  person  most 
of  the  provinces  concerning  which  he  had  occasion 
to  write.  But  only  the  first  part  of  his  chronicle  has 
been  printed.  It  contains  a  description  of  Peru  and 
several  of  the  adjacent  provinces,  with  an  account  of 
the  institutions  and  customs  of  the  natives,  and  is 
written  with  so  little  art  and  such  an  apparent  re- 
gard for  truth,  that  one  must  regret  the  loss  of  the 
other  parts  of  his  work. 

This  loss  is  amply  supplied  by  Don  Augustine 
Zarate,  who  published,  hi  1555,  his  Historia  del 
Descubrimiento  y  Conquesta  de  la  Proviucia  del 
Pern.  Zarate  was  a  man  of  rank  and  education, 
and  employed  in  Peru  as  comptroller-general  of  the 
public  revenue.  His  history,  whether  we  attend  to 
its  matter  or  composition,  is  a  book  of  considerable 
merit ;  as  he  had  an  opportunity  to  be  well  informed 
and  seems  to  have  been  inquisitive  with  respect  to 
the  manners  and  transactions  of  the  Peruvians, 
great  credit  is  due  to  his  testimony. 

Don  Diego  Fernandez  published  his  Historia  del 
Peru  in  1571.  His  sole  object  is  to  relate  the  dis- 
sensions and  civil  wars  of  the  Spaniards  in  that  em- 
pire. As  he  served  in  a  public  station  in  Peru,  and 
was  well  acquainted  both  with  the  country  and  with 
the  principal  actors  in  those  singular  scenes  which 
he  describes,  as  he  possessed  sound  understanding 
and  great  impartiality,  his  work  may  be  ranked 
among  those  of  the  historians  most  distinguished  for 
their  industry  in  research,  or  their  capacity  in  judg- 
ing with  respect  to  the  events  which  they  relate. 

The  last  author  who  can  be  reckoned  among  the 
contemporary  historians  of  the  conquest  of  Peru  is  ! 
Garcilasso  de  la  Vega,  Inca.  For  though  the  first ! 
part  of  his  work,  entitled  Commentarios  Reales  del  \ 
Origin  de  los  Incas  lieies  del  Peru,  was  not  published 
sooner  than  the  year  1609,  seventy-six  years  after  the 
death  of  Atahualpa  the  last  emperor,  yet  as  he  was 
born  in  Peru,  and  was  the  son  of  an  officer  of  dis- 
tinction among  the  Spanish  conquerors,  by  a  Coya, 
or  lady  of  the  royal  race,  on  account  of  which  he 
always  took  the  name  of  inca  ;  as  he  was  master  of 
the  language  spoken  by  the  incas,  and  acquainted 
with  the  traditions  of  his  countrymen,  his  authority 
is  rated  very  high,  and  often  placed  above  that  of  all 
the  other  historians.  His  work,  however,  is  little 
more  than  a  commentary  upon  the  Spanish  writers 
of  the  Peruvian  story,  and  composed  of  quotations 
taken  from  the  authors  whom  I  have  mentioned. 
This  is  the  idea  which  he  himself  gives  of  it,  lib.  i. 
c.  10.  Nor  is  it  in  the  account  of  facts  only  that  he 
follows  them  servilely;  Even  in  explaining  the  in- 
stitutions and  rites  of  his  ancestors,  his  information 
seems  not  to  be  more  perfect  than  theirs.  His  ex- 
planation of  the  Quipos  is  almost  the  same  with  that 
of  Acosta.  He  produces  no  specimen  of  Peruvian 
poetry,  but  that  wretched  one  which  he  borrows 
trom  Bias  Valera,  an  early  missionary,  whose  me- 
moirs have  never  been  published.  Lib.  ii.  c.  15.  As 
for  composition,  arrangement,  or  a  capacity  of  dis- 
tinguishing between  what  is  fabulous,  what  is  pro- 
bable, and  what  is  true,  one  searches  for  them  in  vain 


in  the  commentaries  of  the  inca.  His  work,  how- 
ever,  notwithstanding  its  great  defects,  is  not  altoge- 
ther destitute  of  use.  Some  traditions  which  he  re- 
ceived from  his  countrymen  are  preserved  in  it.  His 
knowledge  of  the  Peruvian  language  has  enabled 
him  to  correct  some  errors  of  the  Spanish  writers, 
and  he  has  inserted  in  it  some  curious  facts  taken 
from  authors  whose  works  were  never  published,  and 
are  now  lost. 

NOTE  126. — One  may  form  an  idea  both  of  the 
hardships  which  they  endured,  and  of  the  unhealth- 
ful  climate  in  the  regions  which  they  visited,  from, 
the  extraordinary  mortality  that  prevailed  among 
them.  Pizarro  carried  out  112  men,  Almagro  70. 
In  less  than  nine  months  130  of  these  died.  Few 
fell  by  the  sword  ;  most  of  them,  were  cut  off  by  dis- 
eases. Xerez,  p.  180. 

NOTE  127. — This  island,  says  Herrera,  is  ren- 
dered so  uncomfortable  by  the  uuwholesomeness  of 
its  climate,  its.impenetrable  woods,  its  rugged  moun- 
tains, and  the  multitude  of  insects  and  reptiles,  that 
it  is  seldom  any  softer  epithet  than  that  of  infernal  is 
employed  in  describing  it.  The  sun  is  almost  never 
seen  there,  and  throughout  the  year  it  hardly  ever 
ceases  to  rain.  Dec.  3,  lib.  x.  c.  3.  Dampier  touched 
at  this  island  in  the  year  1685 ;.  and  his  account  of 
the  climate  is  not  more  favourable.  Vol.  i.  p.  172. 
He,  during  his  cruise  on  the  coast,  visited  most  of 
the  places  where  Pizarro  landed,  and  his  description 
of  them  throws  light  on  the  narrations  of  the  early 
Spanish  historians. 

NOTE  128. — By  this  time  horses  had  multiplied 
greatly  in  the  Spanish  settlements  on  the  continent. 
When  Cortes  began  his  expedition  in  the  year  1518, 
though  his  armament  was  more  considerable  than 
that  of  Pizarro,  and  composed  of  persons  superior  in 
rank  to  those  who  invaded  Peru,  he  could  procure  no 
more  than  sixteen  horses. 

NOTE  129.— In  the  year  1740,  D.  Ant.  Ulloa, 
and  D.  George  Juan,  travelled  from  Guayaquil  to 
Motupe,  by  the  same  route  which  Pizarro  took. 
From  the  description  of  their  journey,  one  may  form 
an  idea  of  the  difficulty  of  his  march.  The  sandy 
plains  between  St.  Michael  de  Pieura  and  Motupe 
extend  90  miles,  without  water,  without  a  tree,  a 
plant,  or  any  green  thing,  on  a  dreary  stretch  of 
burning  sand.  Voyage,  torn.  i.  p.  399,  &c. 

NOTE  130. — This  extravagant  and  unseasonable 
discourse  of  Valverde  has  "been  censured  by  all  histo- 
rians, and  with  justice.  But  though  he  seems  to 
have  been  an  illiterate  and  bigoted  monk,  nowise 
resembling  the  good  Olmedo,  who  accompanied  Cor 
tes,  the  absurdity  of  his  address  to  Atahualpa  must 
not  be  charged  wholly  upon  him.  His  harangue  is 
evidently  a  translation  or  paraphrase  of  that  form 
concerted  by  a  junto  of  Spanish  divines  and  lawyers 
in  the  year  1509,  for  explaining  the  right  of  their 
king  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  New  World,  and  for 
directing  the  officers  employed  in  America  how  they 
should  take  possession  of  any  new  country.  See 
Note  23.  The  sentiments  contained  in  Valverde's 
harangue  must  not  then  be  imputed  to  the  bigoted 
imbecility  of  a  particular  man,  but  to  that  of  the  age. 
But  Gomara  and  Benzorii  relate  one  circumstance 
concerning  Valverde,  which,  if  authentic,  renders  him 
an  object,  not  of  contempt  only,  but  of  horror.  They 
assert,  that  during  the  whole  action  Valverde  conti- 
nued to  excite  the  soldiers  to  slaughter,  calling  to 
them  to  strike  the  enemy  not  with  the  edge,  but  with 
the  points  of  their  swords.  Gom.  Cron.  c.  113.  Benz. 
Histor.  Nov.  Orbis,  lib.  iii.  c.  3.  Such  behaviour 
was  very  different  from  that  of  the  Roman  Catholic 


204 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


rgy  in  other  parts  of  America,  where  they  uni-  j  respect.     To  these  were  owing  the  cordial  reception 


formly  exerted  their  influence  to  protect  the  Indians, 
and  to  moderate  the  ferocity  of  their  countrymen. 

NOTE  131. — Two  different  systems  have  been 
formed  concerning  the  conduct  of  Atahualpa.  The 
Spanish  writers,  in  order  to  justify  the  violence  of 
their  countrymen,  contend  that  all  the  inca's  profes- 
sions of  friendship  were  feigned  ;  and  that  his  inten- 
tion in  agreeing  to  an  interview  with  Pizarro  atCax- 
amalca,  was  to  cut  off  him  and  his  followers  at  one 
blow  ;  that  for  this  purpose  he  advanced  with  such  a 
numerous  body  of  attendants,  who  had  arms  con- 
cealed under  their  garments,  to  execute  this  scheme. 
This  is  the  account  given  by  Xerez  and  Zarate, 
and  adopted  by  Herrera.  But  if  it  had  been  the 
plan  of  the  inca  to  destroy  the  Spaniards,  one  can 
hardly  imagine  that  he  would  have  permitted  them 
to  march  unmolested  through  the  desert  of  Motupe, 
or  have  neglected  to  defend  the  passes  in  the  moun- 
tains, where  they  might  have  been  attacked  with  so 
much  advantage.  If  the  Peruvians  marched  to  Cax- 
amalca  with  an  intention  to  fall  upon  the  Spaniards, 
it  is  inconceivable  that  of  so  great  a  body  of  men, 
prepared  for  action,  not  one  should  attempt  to  make 
resistance,  but  all  tamely  suffer  themselves  to  be  but- 
chered by  an  enemy  whom  they  were  armed  to  at- 
tack. Atahualpa's  mode  of  advancing  to  the  inter- 
view has  the  aspect  of  a  peaceable  procession,  not  of 
a  military  enterprize.  He  himself  and  his  followers 
were,  in  their  habits  of  ceremony  preceded,  as  on 
days  of  solemnity,  by  unarmed  harbingers.  Though 


ide  nations  are  frequently  cunning  arid  false,  yet,  if 
a  scheme  of  deception  and  treachery  must  be  i 
puted  either  to  a  monarch  that  had  no  great  reason 
to  be  alarmed  at  a  visit  from  strangers  who  solicited 
admission  into  his  presence  as  friends,  or  to  an  ad- 
venturer so,  daring  and  so  little  scrupulous  as  Pizar- 
ro, one  cannot  hesitate  in  determining  where  to  fix 
the  presumption  of  guilt.  Even  amidst  the  endea- 
vours of  the  Spanish  writers  to  palliate  the  proceed- 
ings of  Pizarro,  one  plainly  perceives  that  it  was  his 
intention  as  well  as  his  interest  to  seize  the  inca,  and 
that  he  had  taken  measures  for  that  purpose,  pre- 
vious to  any  suspicion  of  that  monarch's  designs. 

Garcilasso  de  la  Vega,  extremely  solicitous  to  vin- 
dicate his  countrymen,  the  Peruvians,  from  the 
crime  of  having  concerted  the  destruction  of  Pizarro 
and  his  followers,  and  no  less  afraid  to  charge  the 
Spaniards  with  improper  conduct  towards  the  inca, 
has  framed  another  system.  He  relates,  that  a  man 
of  majestic  form,  with  a  long  beard,  and  garments 
reaching  to  the  ground,  having  appeared  in  a  vision 
to  Viracocha,  the  eighth  inca,  and  declared  that  lit 
was  a  child  of  the  sun,  that  monarch  built  a  templ( 
in  honour  of  this  person,  and  erected  an  image  o 
him,  resembling  as  nearly  as  possible  the  singulai 
form  in  which  he  had  exhibited  himself  to  his  view 
In  this  temple  divine  honours  were  paid  to  him  bj 
the  name  of  Viracocha.  P.  i.  lib.  iv.  c.  21,  lib.  v.  c.  22 
When  the  Spaniards  first  appeared  in  Peru,  th< 
length  of  their  beards,  and  the  dress  they  wore 
struck  every  body  so  much  with  their  likeness  to  th 
image  of  Viracocha,  that  they  supposed  them  to  be 
children  of  the  sun,  who  had  descended  from  heaven 
to  earth.  All  concluded  that  the  fatal  period  of  the 
Peruvian  empire  was  now  approaching,  and  that  th 
throne  would  be  occupied  by  new  possessors.  Ata 
hualpa  himself,  considering  the  Spaniards  as  mes 
sengers  from  heaven,  was  so  far  from  entertaininj 
any  thoughts  of  resisting  them,  that  he  determined 
yield  implicit  obedience  to  their  commands.  From 
these  sentiments  flowed  his  professions  of  love  an 


f  Soto  and  Ferdinand  Pizarro  in  his  camp,  and  the 
ubmissive  reverence  with  which  he  himself  advanced 
o  visit  the  Spanish  general  in  his  quarters  ;  but  from 
le  gross  ignorance  of  Philipillo,  the  interpreter,  the 
eclaration  of  the  Spaniards,  and  his  answer  to  it, 
r'ere  so  well  explained,  that  by  their  mutual  inability 
o  comprehend  each  other's  intentions,  the  fatal  ren- 
ounter  at  Caxamalca,  with  all  its  dreadful  conse- 
uences,  was  occasioned. 

It  is  remarkable  that  no  traces  of  this  superstitious 
eneration  of  the  Peruvians  for  the  Spaniards  are  to 
>e  found  either  in  Xerez,  or  Sancho,  or  Zarate,  pre- 
rious  to  the  interview  at  Caxamalca;  and  yet  the  two 
ormer  served  under  Pizarro  at  that  time,  and  the 
atter  visited  Peru  soon  after  the  conquest.  If  either 
he  inca  himself,  or  his  messengers,  had  addressed 
he  Spaniards  in  the  words  which  Garcilasso  puts  in 
heir  mouths,  they  must  have  been  struck  with  such 
submissive  declarations ;  and  they  would  certainly 
lave  availed  themselves  of  them  to  accomplish  their 
>wn  designs  with  greater  facility.  Garcilasso  him- 
ielf,  though  his  narrative  of  the  intercourse  between 
he  inca  and  Spaniards,  preceding  the  rencounter  at 
Daxamalca,  is  founded  on  the  supposition  of  his  be- 
.ieving  them  to  be  Viracochas,  or  divine  beings, 
j.ii.lib.  i.  c.  17,  &c.,  yet  with  his  usual  inattention  and 
naccuracy  he  admits,  in  another  place,  that  the  Pe- 
ruvians did  not  recollect  the  resemblance  between 
them  and  the  god  Viracocha,  until  the  fatal  disasters 
subsequent  to  the  defeat  at  Caxamalca,  and  then 
only  began  to  call  them  Viracochas,  p.  i.  lib.  v.  c  21. 
This  is  confirmed  by  Herrera,  dec.  5,  lib.  ii.  c.  12. 
[n  many  different  parts  of  America,  if  we  may  believe 
the  Spanish  writers,  their  countrymen  were  consi- 
dered as  divine  beings  who  had  descended  from 
icaven.  But  in  this  instance  as  in  many  which  oc- 
:ur  in  the  intercourse  between  nations  whose  pro- 
gress in  refinement  is  very  unequal,  the  ideas  of  those 
who  used  the  expression  were  different  from  the  ideas 
of  those  who  heard  it.  For  such  is  the  idiom  of  the 
Indian  languages,  or  such  is  the  simplicity  of  those 
who  speak  them,  that  when  they  see  any  thing  with 
which  they  were  formerly  unacquainted,  and  of 
which  they  do  not  know  the  origin,  they  say  that 
it  came  down  from  heaven.  Nugnez.  Ram.  iii. 
c.  327,  c. 

The  account  which  I  have  given  of  the  sentiments 
and  proceedings  of  the  Peruvians  appears  to  be  more 
natural  and  consistent  than  either  of  the  two  preced- 
ing, and  is  better  supported  by  the  facts  related  by 
the  contemporary  historians. 

According  to  Xerez,  p.  200,  two  thousand  Peru 
vians  were  killed.  Sancho  makes  the  number  of  the 
slain  six  or  seven  thousand.  Bam.  iii.  2^4.  D.  By 
Garcilasso' s  account,  five  thousand  were  massacred, 
p.  ii.  lib.  i.  c.  25.  The  number  which  I  have  men- 
tioned, being  the  medium  between  the  extremes,  may 
probably  be  nearest  the  truth. 

NOTE  132. — Nothing  can  be  a  more  striking  proof 
of  this  than  that  three  Spaniards  travelled  from  Cox- 
amalca  to  Cuzco.  The  distance  between  them  is  six 
hundred  miles.  In  every  place  throughout  this  great 
extent  of  country,  they  were  treated  with  all  the  ho- 
nours which  the  Peruvians  paid  to  their  sovereigns, 
and  even  to  their  divinities.  Under  pretext  of  amass- 
ing what  was  wanting  for  the  ransom  of  the  inca, 
they  demanded  the  plates  of  gold  with  which  the 
walls  of  the  temple  of  the  Sun  in  Cuzco  were  adorn- 
ed; and  though  the  priests  were  unwilling  to  alienate 
those  sacred  ornaments,  and  the  people  refused  to 
violate  the  shrine  of  their  god,  the  three  Spaniards, 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


265 


with  their  own  hands,  robbed  the  temple  of  part  of 
this  valuable  treasure ;  and  such  was  the  reverence 
of  the  natives  for  their  persons,  that  though  they  be- 
held this  act  of  sacrilege  with  astonishment,  they  did 
aot  attempt  to  prevent  or  disturb  the  commission 
of  it.  Zarate,  lib.  ii.  c.  6.  Sancho  ap.  Ramus.  iii. 
375,  D. 

NOTE  133. — According  to  Herrera,  the  spoil  of 
Cuzco,  after  setting  apart  the  king's  fftli,  was  di 
vided  among  480  persons.  Each  received  4000  pesos. 
This  amounts  to  1,920,000  pesos.  Dec.  v.  lib.  vi.  c. 
3.  But  as  the  general  and  other  officers  were  enti- 
tled to  a  share  far  greater  than  that  of  the  private 
men,  the  sum  total  must  have  risen  much  beyond 
what  I  have  mentioned.  Gomara,  c.  123,  and  Za- 
rate, lib.  ii.  c.  8,  satisfy  themselves  with  asserting  in 
general  that  the  plunder  of  Cuzco  was  of  greater 
value  than  the  ransom  of  Atahualpa.  -  -- 

NOTE  134. — No  expedition  in  the  New  World  was 
conducted  with  more  persevering  courage  than  that 
of  Alvarado,  and  in  none  were  greater  hardships 
endured.  Many  of  the  persons  engaged  in  it  were, 
like  their  leader,  veterans  who  had  served  under  Cor- 
tes, inured  to  all  the  rigour  of  American  war.  Such 
of  my  readers  as  have  not  an  opportunity  of  perusing 
the  striking  description  of  their  sufferings  by  Zarate 
or  Herrera,  may  form  some  idea  of  the  nature  of 
their  march  from  the  sea-coast  to  Quito,  by  consult- 
ing the  account  which  D.  Ant.  Ulloa  gives  of  his 
own  journey,  in  1736,  nearly  in  the  same  route ; 
Voy.  torn.  i.  p.  178,  &c.,  or  that  of  M.  Bouguer,  who 
proceeded  from  Puerto  Viejo  to  Quito,  by  the  same 
road  which  Alvarado  took.  He  compares  his  own 
journey  with  that  of  the  Spanish  leader,  and  by  the 
comparison  gives  a  most  striking  idea  of  the  boldness 
and  patience  of  Alvarado,  in  forcing  his  way  through 
so  many  obstacles.  Voyage  du  Perou,  p.  28,  &c. 

NOTE  135. — According  to  Herrera,  there  was  en- 
tered on  account  of  the  king,  in  gold,  155,300  pesos, 
and  5400  marks  (each  eight  ounces)  of  silver,  besides 
several  vessels  and  ornaments,  some  of  gold  and 
others  of  silver;  on  account  of  private  persons,  in 
gold,  499,000  pesos,  and  54,000  marks  of  silver. 
Dec.  5,  lib.  vi.  c.  13. 

NOTE  136 — The  Peruvians  not  only  imitated  the 
military  arts  of  the  Spaniards,  but  had  recourse  to 
devices  of  their  own.  As  the  cavalry  were  the  chief 
objects  of  their  terror,  they  endeavoured  to  render 
them  incapable  of  acting  by  means  of  a  long  thong 
with  a  stone  fastened  to  each  end.  This  when  thrown 
by  a  skilful  hand  twisted  about  the  horse  and  its 
rider,  and  entangled  them  so  as  to  obstruct  their  mo- 
tions. Herrera  mentions  this  as  an  invention  of 
their  own.  Dec.  5,  lib.  viii.  c.  4.  But  as  I  have 
observed,  this  weapon  is  common  among  seve- 
ral barbarous  tribes  towards  the  extremity  of  South 
America ;  and  it  is  more  probable  that  the  Peruvians 
had  observed  the  dexterity  with  which  they  used  it  in 
hunting,  and  on  this  occasion  adopted  it  themselves. 
The  Spaniards  were  considerably  annoyed  by  it. 
Herrera,  ibid.  Another  instance  of  the  ingenuity  of 
the  Peruvians  deserves  mention.  By  turning  a  river 
out  of  its  channel  they  overflowed  a  "valley,  in  which 
a  body  of  the  enemy  was  posted,  so  suddenly,  that  it 
was  with  the  utmost  difficulty  the  Spaniards  made 
their  escape.  Herrera,  dec.- 5,  lib.  viii.  c.  5. 

NOTE  137. — Herrera's  account  of  Orellana's  voy- 
age is  the  most  minute,  and  apparently  the  most 
accurate.  It  was  probably  taken  from  the  journal  of 
Orellana  himself.  But  the  dates  are  not  distinctly 
marked.  His  navigation  down  th^  Coca,  or  Napo, 
began  early  in  February,  1541  ;  and  he  arrived  at 

THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA.     No.  34. 


(he  mouth  of  the  river  on  the  26th  of  August,  having 
spent  near  seven  months  in  the  voyage.  M.  de  la 
Condamine,  in  the  year  1742,  sailed  from  Cuenca  to 
Para,  a  settlement  of  the  Portuguese  at  the  moufh  of 
the  river,  a  navigation  much  longer  than  that  of  Orel- 
lana, in  less  than  four  mouths.  Voyage,  p.  179.  But 
the  two  adventurers  were  very  differently  provided 
for  the  voyage.  This  hazardous  undertaking,  to 
which  ambition  prompted  Orellana,  and  to  which  the 
love  of  science  led  M.  de  la  Condamine,  was  under- 
taken in  the  year  1769,  by  Madam  Godin  des  Odo- 
nais,  from  conjugal  affection.  The  narrative  of  the 
hardships  which  she  suffered,  of  the  dangers  to  which 
she  was  exposed,  and  of  the  disasters  which  befel  her, 
is  one  of  the  most  singular  and  affecting  stories  in 
any  language,  exhibiting  in  her  conduct  a  striking 
picture  of  the  fortitude  which  distinguishes  the  one 
sex,  mingled  with  the  sensibility  and  tenderness  pe- 
culiar to  the  other.  Lettre  de  M.  Godin  a  M.  de  la 
Condamine. 

NOTE  138. — Herrera  gives  a  striking  picture  of 
their  indigence.  Twelve  gentlemen,  who  had  been 
officers  of  distinction  under  Almagro,  lodged  in.the 
same  house,  and  having  but  one  cloak  among  them, 
it  wa*  worn  alternately  by  him  who  had  occasion  to 
appear  in  public,  while  the  rest,  from  the  want  of  a 
decent  dress,  were  obliged  to  -keep  within  "doors. 
Their  former  friends  and  companions  were  so  much 
afraid  of  giving  offence  to  Pizarro,  that  they  durst 
not  entertain  or  even  converse  with  them.  One  may 
conceive  what  was  the  condition,  and  what  the  in- 
dignation of  men  once  accustomed  to  power  and 
opulence,  when  they  felt  themselves  poor  and  de 
spised,  without  a  roof  under  which  to  shelter  their 
heads,  while  they  beheld  others,  whose  merits  and 
services  were  not  equal  to  theirs,  living  in  splendour 
in  sumptuous  edifices.  Dec.  6,  lib.  viii.  c.  6. 

NOTE  139. — Herrera,  whose  accuracy  entitles  him 
to  great  credit,  asserts,  that  Gonzalo  Pizarro  pos- 
sessed domains  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Chuquesaca 
de  la  Plata,  which  yielded  him  an  annual  revenue 
greater  than  that  of  the  archbishop  of  Toledo,  the 
best  endowed  see  in  Europe.  Dec.  7,  lib.  vi.  c.  3. 

NOTE  140. — All  the  Spanish  writers  describe  his 
inarch,  and  the  distresses  of  both  parties,  very  mi- 
nutely. Zarate  observes,  that  hardly  any  parallel 
to  it  occurs  in  history,  either  with  respect  to  the 
length  of  the  retreat,  or  the  ardour  of  the  pursuit. 
Pizarro,  according  to  his  computation,  followed  the 
viceroy  upwards  of  three  thousand  miles.  Lib.  v. 
c.  16,  26. 

NOTE  141. — It  amounted,  according  to  Fernandez, 
the  best  informed  historian  of  that  period,  to  one 
million  four  hundred  thousand  pesos.  Lib.  ii.  c.  79. 

NOTE  142. — Carvajal,  from  the  beginning,  had 
been  an  advocate  for  an  accommodation  with  Gasca. 
Finding  Pizarro  incapable  of  holding  that  bold  course 
which  he  originally  suggested,  he  recommended  to 
him  a  timely  submission  to  his  sovereign  as  the 
safest  measure.  When  the  president's  offers  were 
first  communicated  to  Carvajal,  "  By  our  Lady," 
(said  he,  in  that  strain  of  buffoonery  which  was  fa- 
miliar to  him),  "the  priest  issues  gracious  bulls.  He 
gives  them  both  good  and  cheap ;  let  us  not  only 
accept  them,  but  wear  them  as  reliques  about  our 
necks."  Fernandez,  lib.  ii.  c.  63. 

NOTE  143. — During  the  rebellion  of  Gonzalo 
Pizarro  seven  hundred  men  were  killed  in  battle, 
and  three  hundred  and  eighty  were  hanged  or  be- 
headed. Herrera,  dec.  8,  lib.  iv.  c.  4.  Above  three 
hundred  of  these  were  cut  off  by  Carvajal.  Fernan- 
dez, lib.  ii.  c.  91.  Zarate  makes  the  number  of 

2  M 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


those 


a  violent  death   five  hundred.     Lib- 1 


put  to 
vii.  c.  1. 

NOTE  144  — In  my  inquiries  concerning  the  man- 
ners  and  policy  of  the  Mexicans,  1  have  received 
much  information  from  a  large  manuscript  of  Don  j 
Alonso  de  Corita,  one  of  the  judges  in  the  court  of  j 
audience  of  Mexico.     In  the  year  1553  Philip  II.,  ' 
in  order  to  discover  the  mode  of  levying  tribute  from 
his  Indian  subjects,  that  would  be  most  beneficial  to  ( 
the  crown,  and  least  oppressive  to  them,  addressed  a 
mandate  to  all  the  courts  of  audience  in  America, 
enjoining  them  to  answer  certain  queries  which  he 
proposed  to  them,   concerning  the  ancient  form  of 
government  established  among  the  various  nations 
of  Indians,  and  the  mode  in  which  they  had  been 
accustomed  to  pay  taxes  to  their  kings  or  chiefs.     In 
obedience  to  this  mandate  Corita,  who  had  resided 
nineteen  years  in  America,  fourteen  of  which  he 
passed  in  New  Spain,  composed  the  work  of  which  I 
have  a  copy.     He  acquaints  his  sovereign,  that  he 
had  made  ft  an  object,  during  his  residence  in  Ame- 
rica, and  in  all  its  provinces  which  he  had  visited,  to 
inquire  diligently  into  the  manners  and  customs  of 
the  natives  :  that  he  had  conversed  for  this  purpose 
with  many  aged  and  intelligent  Indians,  and  con- 
sulted several  of  the  Spanish  ecclesiastics,  who  un- 
derstood the  Indian  languages  most  perfectly,  .parti- 
cularly some   of  those  who   landed  in  New  Spain 
soon  after  the  conquest.     Corita  appears  to  be  a  man 
of  some  learning,  and  to  have  carried  on  his  inqui- 
ries with  the  diligence  and  accuracy  to  which  he 
pretends.     Greater  credit  is   due  to  his  testimony 
from  one  circumstance.  His  work  was  not  composed 
with  a  view  to  publication,  or  in  support  of  any  par- 
ticular theory,  but  contains  simple  though  full  an- 
swers to  queries  proposed  to  him  officially.     Though 
Herrera  does  not  mention  him  among  the  authors 
whom   he   had  followed  as  guides  in  his  history, 
should  suppose,   from  several  facts  of  which  he  takes 
notice,  as  well  as  from  several  expressions  which  he 
uses,  that  this  memorial  of  Corita  was  not  unknowi 
to  him. 

NOTE  145. — The  early  Spanish  writers  were  so 
hasty  and  inaccurate  in  estimating  the  numbers  o 
peop'le  in  the  provinces  and  towns  of  America  that  i 
is  impossible  to  ascertain  that  of  Mexico  itself  with 
any  degree  of  precision.  Cortes  describes  the  ex 
tent  and  populousness  of  Mexico  in  general  terms 
which  imply  that  it  was  not  inferior  to  the  greates 
cities  in  Europe.  Gomara  is  more  explicit,  an< 
affirms,  that  there  were  60.000  houses  or  families  i 
Mexico,  Cron.  c.  78.  Herrera  adopts  his  opinion 
dec.  2,  lib.  vii.  c.  13;  and  the  generality  of  writer 
follow  them  implicitly  without  inquiry  or  scruple 
According  to  this  account  the  inhabitants  of  Mexic 
must  have  been  about  300,000.  Torquemada,  wit 
his  usual  propensity  to  the  marvellous,  -"asserts,  tha 
there  were  a  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  houses  o 
families  in  Mexico,  and  consequently  about  six  hun 
dred  thousand  inhabitants.  Lib.  iii.  e.  23.  But  in 
very  judicious  account  of  the  Mexican  empire,  b 
one  of  Cortes's  officers,  the  population  is  fixed  a 
60,000  people.  Ramusio,  iii.  309,  a.  Even  by  th 
account,  which  probably  is  much  nearer  the  tnit 
than  any  of  the  foregoing,  Mexico  was  a  great  city. 
NOTE  146. — It  is  to  P.  Torribio  de  Benavent 
that  I  am  indebted  for  this  curious  observation.  P 
lafbx,  bishop  of  Cuidad  de  la  Puebla  Los  Angele 
confirms  and  illustrates  it  more  fully.  The  Mexica 
(saya  he)  is  the  onry  language  in  which  a  termina 
tion  indicating  respect,  silavas  reverentiales  y  de  cor 
tesia,  may  be  affixed  to  every  word.  By  adding  th 


final  syllable  tin  or  azin  to  any  word,  it  becomes  a 

proper  expression  of  veneration  in  the  mouth  of  an 

inferior.     If,   in  speaking  to   an   equal,  the    word 

father  is  to  be  used,  it  is  tail,  but  an  inferior  says 

tatzin.     One  priest  speaking  to  another,   calls  him 

teopixque  ;  a  person  of  inferior  rank  calls  him  teopix- 

catzin.     The  name  of  the  emperor  who  reigned  when 

Cortes  invaded  Mexico,   was  Montezuma ;   but  his 

vassals,  from  reverence,  pronounced  it  Montezumazin. 

'orribio,  MS.  Palaf.  Virtudes  del  Indio,  p.  65.  The 

Mexicans  had  not  only  reverential  nouns,  but  reve- 

ential  verbs.     The   manner    in   which  these    are 

rmed  from  the  verbs  in  common  use  is  explained  by 

i.  Jos.  Aug.  Aldama  y  Guevara  in  his  Mexican 

grammar,  No.  188. 

NOTE  147. — From  comparing  several  passages  iu 
lorita  and  Herrera,  we  may  collect,  with  some  de- 
ree  of  accuracy,  the  various  modes  in  which  the 
Icxicans  contributed  towards  the  support  of  govern- 
ment.    Some  persons  of  the  first  order  seem  to  have 
ieen  exempted  from  the  payment  of  any  tribute,  and, 
.s  their  only  duty  to  the  public,  were  bound  to  per- 
onal  service  in  war,  and  to  follow  the  banner  of 
heir  sovereign  with  their  vassals.     2.  The  immediate 
-assals  of  the  crown  were  bound  not  only  to  personal 
military  service,  but  paid  a  certain  proportion  of  the 
produce  of  their  lands  in  kind.     3.  Those  who  held 
iffices  of  honour  or  trust  paid  a  certain  share  of  what 
hey  received  in  consequence  of  holding  these.     4. 
Each  Capullee,  or  association,  cultivated  some  part 
>f  the  common  field  allotted  to  it,    for  the  behoof  of 
he  crown,  and  deposited  the  produce  in  the  royal 
granaries.     5.  Some  part  of  whatever  was  brought 
:o  the  public  markets,  whether  fruits  of  the  earth  or 
he  various  productions  of  their  artists  and  manufac- 
turers,  was  demanded  for  the  public  use,  and  the 
merchants  who  paid  this  were  exempted  from  every 
>thcr    tax.     6.  The  Mayeques,    or    adscripti   glebce, 
were  bound  to  cultivate  certain  districts  in  every 
province,  which  may  be  considered  as  crown  lands, 
and   brought  the  increase  into   public  storehouses. 
Thus  the   sovereign  received  some  part  of  whatever 
was  useful  or  valuable  in  the  country,  whether  it  was 
the  natural  production  of  the  soil,  or  acquired  by  the 
industry  of  the  people.     What  each  contributed  to- 
wards the  support  of  government  seems  to  have  been 
inconsiderable.     Corita,  in  answer  to  one  of  the  que- 
ries put  to  the  audience  of  Mexico  by  Philip  II., 
endeavours  to  estimate  in  money  the  value  of  what 
each  citizen  might  be  supposed  to  pay,  and  does  not 
reckon  it   at  more  than  three   or  four  reals,  about 
eighteen  pence  or  two  shillings  a  head. 

NOTE  148. — Cortes,  who  seems  to  have  been  as 
much  astonished  with  this  as  with  any  instance  of 
Mexican  ingenuity,  gives  a  particular  description  of 
it.  Along  one  of  the  causeways,  says  he,  by  which 
they  ente'r  the  city,  are  conducted  two  conduits, 
composed  of  clay  tempered  with  mortar,  about  two 
paces  in  breadth,  and  raised  about  six  feet.  In  one 
of  them  is  conveyed  a  stream  of  excellent  water,  as 
large  as  the  body  of  a  man,  into  the  centre  of  the 
city,  and  it  supplies  all  the  inhabitants  plentifully. 
The  other  is  empty,  that  \vhen  it  is  necessary  to 
clean  or  repair  the  former,  the  stream  of  water  may 
be  turned  into  it.  As  this  conduit  passes  along  two 
"of  the  bridges,  where  there  are  no  breaches  in  the 
causeway,  through  which  the  salt-water  of  the  lake 
flows,  it  is  conveyed  over  them  in  pipes  as  large  as 
the  body  of  an  ux,  then  carried  from  the  conduit  to 
the  remote  quarters  of  the  city  in  canoes,  and  sold  to 
the  inhabitants.  Relat.  ap,  Ramus.  214,  a. 

NOTE  149.—- In  the  armoury  of  the  royal  palace  at 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


267 


Madrid  are  shown  suits  of  armour,  which  are  called 
Montezuma's.  They  are  composed  of  thin  lacquered 
copper-f.la.tos.  la  the  opinion  of  very  intelligent 
judges,  they  are  evidently  eastern.  The  forms  of  the 
silver  ornaments  upon  them,  representing  dragons, 
&c.,  may  be  considered  as  a  confirmation  of  this. 
They  are  infinitely  superior,  in  point  of  workman- 
ship, to  any  effort  of  American  art.  The  Spaniards 
probably  received  them  from  the  Philippine  islands. 
The  only  unquestionable  specimen  of  Mexican  art 
that  I  know  of  in  Great  Britain,  is  a  cup  of  very  fine 
gold,  which  is  said  to  have  belonged  to  Montezuma. 
It  weighs  5  oz.  12  dwt.  Three  drawings  of  it  were 
exhibited  to  the  Society  of  Antiquaries,  June  10, 
1765.  A  man's  head  is  represented  on  this  cup.  On 
one  side  the  full  face,  on  the  other  the  profile,  on  the 
third  the  back  parts  of  the  head.  The  relievo  is  said 
to  have  been  produced  by  pinching  the  inside  of  the 
cup,  so  as  to  make  the  representation  of  a  face  on 
the  outside..  The  features  are  gross,  but  represented 
with  some  degree  of  art,  and  certainly  too  rude  for 
Spanish  workmanship.  This  cup  was  purchased  by 
Edward  Earl  of  Orford,  while  he  lay  in  the  harboui 
of  Cadiz  with  the  fleet  under  his  command,  and  is 
now  in  the  possession  of  his  grandson,  Lord  Archer. 
I  am  indebted  for  this  information  to  my  respectable 
and  ingenious  friend,  Mr.  Bamngton.  In  the  sixth 
volume  of  the  Archoeologia,  p  107,  is  published  an 
account  of  some  masks  of  Terra  Cotta,  brought  fror 
a  burying-ground  on  the  American  continent,  about 
seventy  miles  from  the  British  settlement  on  th 
Mosquito  shore.  They  are  said  to  be  likenesses  o1 
chiefs  or  other  eminent  persons.  From  the  descrip- 
tions and  engravings  of  them  we  have  an  additional 
proof  of  the  imperfect  state  of  arts  among  the  Ame- 
ricans. 

NOTE  150. — The  learned  reader  will  perceive  how 
much  I  have  been  indebted,  in  this  part  of  my  work, 
to  the  guidance  of  the  Bishop  of  Gloucester,  who  h 
traced  the  successive  steps  by  which  the  human  mind 
advanced  in  this  line  of  its  progress,  with  much  eru- 
dition, and  greater  ingenuity.  He  is  the  first,  as  far 
as  I  know,  who  formed  a  rational  and  consistent 
theory  concerning  the  various  modes  of  writing  prac- 
tised by  nations,  according  to  the  various  degrees  of 
their  improvement.  Div.  Legation  of  Moses,  iii.  G9, 
&c.  Some  important  observations  have  been  added 
by  M.  le  President  de  Brosses,  the  learned  and  intel- 
ligent author  of  the  Traite  de  la  Formation  Meca- 
nique  des  Langues,  torn.  i.  295,  &c. 

As  the  Mexican  paintings  are  the  most  curious 
monument  extant  of  the  earliest  mode  of  writing,  it 
will  not  be  improper  to  give  some  account  of  the 
means  by  which  they  were  preserved  from  the  gene- 
ral wreck  of  every  work  of  art  in  America,  and  com- 
municated to  the  public.  For  the  most  early  and 
complete  collection  of  these  published  by  Purchas, 
we  are  indebted  to  the  attention  of  that  curious  in- 
quirer, Hakluyt.  Don  Antonio  Mendoza,  viceroy 
of  New  Spain,  having  deemed  those  paintings  a  pro- 
per present  for  Charles  V,,  the  ship  in  which  "they 
were  sent  to  Spain  was  taken  by  a  French  cruiser, 
and  they  came  into  the  possession  of  Thevet,  the 
king's  geographer,  who,  having  travelled  himself 
into  the  New  World,  and  described  one  of  its  pro- 
vinces, was  a  curious  observer  of  whatever  tended  to 
illustrate  the  manners  of  the  Americans.  On  his 
death  they  were  purchased  by  Hakluyt,  at  that  time 
chaplain  of  the  English  ambassador  to  the  French 
court ;  and  being  left  by  him  to  Purchas,  were  pub- 
lished at  the  desire  of  the  learned  antiquary  Sir 
Henry  Spelman.  Purchas,  iii.  1065.  They  "were 


!  translated  from  English  into  French  by  M'eichlrd- 
!  deck  Thevenot,  and  published  in  his  collection  of 
j  voyages,  A.  D.  1683. 

The  second  specimen  of  Mexican  picture-writing 
was  published  by  Dr.  Francis  Gemelli  Carreri,  in 
two  copper-plates.  The  first  is  a  map,  or  represen- 
tation of  the  progress  of  the  ancient  Mexicans  on 
their  first  arrival  in  the  country,  and  of  the  various 
stations  in  which  they  settled,  before  they  founded 
the  capital  of  their  empire  in  the  lake  of  Mexico. 
The  second  is  a  chronological  wheel,  or  circle,  re- 
presenting the  manner  in  which  they  computed  and 
marked  their  cycle  of  fifty-two  years.  He  received 
both  from  Don  Carlos  de  Siguenza  y  Congorra,  a 
diligent  collector  of  ancient  Mexican  documents. 
But  as  it  seems  now  to  be  a  received  opinion 
(founded,  as  far  as  I  know,  on  no  good  evidence) 
that  Carreri  was  never  out  of  Italy,  and  that  his 
famous  Giro  del  Mundo  is  an  account  of  a  fictitious 
voyage,  I  have  not  mentioned  these  paintings  in  the 
text.  They  have,  however,  manifestly  the  appear- 
ance of  being  Mexican  productions,  and  are  allowed 
to  be  so  by  Boturini,  who  was  well  qualified  to  de- 
termine whether  they  were  genuine  or  suppositious. 
M.  Clavigcro  likewise  admits  them  to  be  genuine 
paintings  of  .the  ancient  Mexicans.  To  me  they 
always  appeared  to  be  so,  though,  from  my  desire  to 
rest  no  part  of  my  narrative  upon  questionable 
authority,  I  did  not  refer  to  them  The  style  of 
painting  in  the  former  is  considerably  more  perfect 
than  any  other  specimen  of  Mexican  design ;  but  as 
the  original'is  said  to  have  been  much  defaced  by 
time,  I  suspect  that  it  has  been  improved  by  some 
touches  from  the  hand  of  an  European  artist.  Car- 
reri, Churchill,  iv.  p.  487.  The  chronological 
wheel  is  a  just  delineation  of  the  Mexican  mode  of 
computing  time,  as  described  by  Acosta,  lib.  vi.  c.  2. 
It  seems  to  resemble  one  which  that  learned  Jesuit 
had  seen ;  and  if  it  be  admitted  as  a  genuine  monu- 
ment, it  proves  that  the  Mexicans  had  artificial  or 
arbitrary  characters,  which  represented  several 
things  besides  numbers.  Each  month  is  there  re- 
presented by  a  symbol  expressive  of  some  work,  or 
rite  peculiar  to  it. 

The  third  specimen  of  Mexican  painting  was  dis- 
covered by  another  Italian.  In  1736,  Lorenzo 
Boturino  Bcnaeluci  set  out  for  New  Spain,  and  was 
led  by  several  incidents  to  study  the  language  of  the 
Mexicans,  and  to  collect  the  remains  of  their  his- 
torical monuments.  He  persisted  nine  years  in  his 
researches,  with  the  enthusiasm  of  a  projector,  and 
the  patience  of  an  antiquary.  In  1746,  he  pub- 
lished at  Madrid,  Ida  de  una  Nueva  Historia  Gene- 
ral de  la  America  Septentrional,  containing  an  ac- 
count of  the  result  of  his  inquiries ;  and  he  added  to 
it  a  catalogue  of  his  American  Historical  Museum, 
arranged  under  thirty-six  different  heads.  His  idea 
of  a  New  History  appears  to  me  the  work  of  a  whim- 
sical credulous  man.  But  his  catalogue  of  Mexican 
maps,  paintings,  tribute-rolls,  calendars.  &c.,  is 
much  larger  than  one  could  have  expected.  Unfor- 
tunately a  ship,  in  which  he  had  sent  a  considerable 
part  of  them  to  Europe,  was  taken  by  an  English 
privateer  during  the  war  between  Great  Britain  and 
Spain,  which  commenced  in  the  year  1739;  and  it 
is  probable  that  they  perished  by  falling  into  the 
bands  of  ignorant  captors.  Boturini  himself  in- 
curred the  displeasure  of  the  Spanish  court,  and 
died  in  an  hospital  at  Madrid.  The  history,  of 
which  the  Idea,  &c.  was  only  a  prospectus,  was  never 
published.  The  remainder  of  his  Museum  seems  to 
have  been  dispersed.  Some  part  of  it  came  into  tho 


2G8 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


possession'  of  the  present  archbishop  of  Toledo,  when  j 
he  was  primate  of  New  Spain ;  and  he  published ' 
from  it  that  curious  tribute  roll  which  I  have  men- ' 
tioned. 

The  only  other  collection  of  Mexican  paintings,  as 
far  as  1  can  learn,  is  in  the  imperial  library  at 
Vienna.  By  order  of  their  imperial  majesties,  I 
have  obtained  such  a  specimen  of  these  as  I  desired, 
in  eight  paintings  made  with  so  much  fidelity,  that  I 
am  informed  the  copies  could  hardly  be  distinguished 
from  the  originals.  According  to  a  note  in  this 
Codex  Mexicanus,  it  appears  to  have  been  a  present 
from  Emmanuel  king  of  Portugal  to  pope  Clement 
VII.,  who  died  A.  D.  1533.  After  passing  through 
the  hands  of  several  illustrious  proprietors,  it  fell 
into  those  of  the  Cardinal  of  Saxe-Eisenach,  who 
presented  it  to  the  emperor  Leopold.  These  paint- 
ings are  manifestly  Mexican,  but  they  are  in  a  style 
very  different  from  any  of  the  former.  An  engraving 
has' been  made  of  one  of  them,  in  order  to  gratify 
such  of  my  readers  as  may  deem  this  an  object  wor- 
thy of  their  attention.  Were  it  an  object  of  sufficient 
importance,  it  might  perhaps  be  possible,  by  re- 
courfie  to  the  plates  of  Purchas,  and  the  archbishop 
of  Toledo,  as  a  key,  to  form  plausible  conjectures 
concerning  the  meaning  of  this  picture.  Many  of 
the  figures  are  evidently  similar.  A.  A.  are  targets 
and  darts,  almost  in  the  same  form  with  those  pub- 
lished by  Purchas,  p.  1070,  1071,  &c.  B.  B.  are 
figures  of  temples,  nearly  resembling  those  in  Pur- 
chas, p.  1109,  and  1113.,  and  in  Lorenzana,  plate  II. 
C.  is  a  bale  ofmantles,  or  cotton  cloths,  the  figure  of 
which  occurs  in  almost  every  plate  of  Purchas  and 
Lorenzana.  E.  E.  E.  seem  to  be  Mexican  captains 
in  their  war  dress,  the  fantastic  ornaments  of  which 
resemble  the  figures  in  Purchas,  p.  1110,  1111. 
2113.  I  should  suppose  this  picture  to  be  a  tribute- 
roll,  as  their  mode  of  noting  numbers  occurs  fre- 
quently. D.  D.  D.,  £c.  According  to  Boturini, 
the  mode  of  computation  by  the  number  of  knots 
was  known  to  the  Mexicans  as  well  as  to  the  Peru- 
vians, p.  85.,  and  the  manner  in  which  the  number 
of  units  is  represented  in  the  Mexican  paintings  in 
my  possession  seems  to  confirm  this  opinion.  They 
plainly  resemble  a  string  of  knots  on  a  cord  or 
slender  rope. 

Since  I  published  the  former  edition,  Mr.  Waddi- 
love,  who  is  still  pleased  to  continue  his  friendly 
attention  to  procure  me  information,  has  discovered, 
in  the  library  of  the  Escurial,  a  volume  in  folio,  con- 
sisting of  forty  sheets  of  a  kind  of  pasteboard,  each 
the  size  of  a  common  sheet  of  writing  paper,  with 
great  variety  of  uncouth  and  whimsical  figures  of 
Mexican  painting,  in  very  fresh  colours,  and  with  an 
explanation  in  Spanish  to  most  of  them.  The  first 
twenty  two  sheets  are  the  signs  of  the  months,  days, 
&c.  About  the  middle  of  each  sheet  are  two  or 
more  large  figures  for  the  month,  surrounded  by  the 
signs  of  the  days.  The -last  eighteen  sheets  are  not 
so  filled  with  figures.  They  seem  to  be  signs  of 
deities,  and  images  of  various  objects.  According 
to  this  Calendar  in  the  Escurial,  the  Mexican  year 
contained  286  days,  divided  into  22  months  of  13 
days.  Each  day  is  represented  by  a  different  sign, 
taken  from  some  natural  object,  a  serpent,  a  dog,  a 
lizard,  a  reed,  a  house,  &c.  The  signs  of  days  in 
the  Calendar  of  the  Escurial  are  precisely  the  same 
with  those  mentioned  by  Boturini,  Idea,  &c.  p.  45. 
But,  if  we  may  give  credit  to  that  author,  the  Mexican 
year  contained  360  days,  divided  into  18  months  of 
20  days.  The  order  of  days  in  every  month  was 
computed,  according  to  him,  first  by  what  he  calls  a 


tridecennary  progression  of  days  from  one  to  thirteen, 
in  the  same  manner  as  in  the  Calendar  of  the 
Escurial,  and  then  by  a  septenary  progression  of 
days  from  one  to  seven,  making  in  all  twenty.  In 
this  calendar  not  only  the  signs  which  distinguish 
each  day,  but  the  qualities  supposed  to  be  peculiar 
to  each'  month,  are  marked.  *  There  are  certain 
weaknesses  which  seem  to  accompany  the  human 
mind  through  every  stage  of  its  progress  in  observa- 
tion and  science.  Slender  as  was  the  knowledge  of 
the  Mexicans  in  astronomy,  it  appears  to  have  been 
already  connected  with  judicial  astrology.  The  for- 
tune and  character  of  persons  born  in  each  month 
are  supposed  to  be  decided  by  some  superior  influ- 
ence predominant  at  the  time  of  nativity.  Hence  it 
is  foretold  in  the  calendar,  that  all  who  are  born  in 
one  month  will  be  rich,  in  another  warlike,  in  a 
third  luxurious,  &c.  The  pasteboard,  or  whatever 
substance  it  may  be  on  which  the  calendar  in  the 
Escurial  is  painted,  seems,  by  Mr.  Waddilove's  de- 
scription of  it,  to  resemble  nearly  that  in  the  impe- 
rial library  at  Vienna.  In  several  particulars  the 
figures  bear  ^ome  likeness  to  those  in  the  plate 
which  I  have  published.  The  figures  marked  D, 
which  induced  me  to  conjecture  that  this  painting 
might  be  a  tribute-roll  similar  to  those  published  by 
Purchas  and  the  Archbishop  of  Toledo,  Mr.  Wad- 
dilove  supposes  to  be  signs  of  days  ;  and  I  have  such 
confidence  in  the  accuracy  of  his  observations,  as  to 
conclude  his  opinion  to  be  well  founded.  It  appears, 
from  the  characters  in  which  the  explanations  of  the 
figures  are  written,  that  this  curious  monument  of 
Mexican  art  has  been  obtained  soon  after  the  con- 
quest of  the  empire.  It  is  singular  that  it  should 
never  have  been  mentioned  by  any  Spanish  author. 

NOTE  151. — The  first  was  called  the  Prince  of  the 
Deathful  Lance ;  the  second  the  Divider  of  Men  ; 
the  third  the  Shedder  of  Blood  ;  the  fourth  the  Lord 
of  the  Dark-house.  Acosta,  lib.  vi.  c.  25. 

NOTE  152. — The  temple  of  Cholula,  which  was 
deemed  more  holy  than  any  in  New  Spain,  was  like- 
wise the  most  considerable.  But  it  was  nothing 
more  than  a  mount  of  solid  earth.  According  to 
Torquemada,  it  was  above  a  quarter  of  a  league  in 
circuit  at  the  base,  and  rose  to  the  height  of  forty 
fathom.  Mon.  Ind.  lib.  iii.  c.  19.  Even  M.  Cla- 
vigero  acknowledges  that  all  the  Mexican  temples 
were  solid  structures,  or  earthen  mounts,  and  of 
consequence  cannot  be  considered  as  any  evidence  of 
their  having  made  any  considerable  progress  in  the 
art,  of  building.  Clavig.  ii.  207. 

From  inspecting  various  figures  of  temples  in  the 
paintings  engraved  by  Purchas,  there  seems  to  be 
some  reason  for  suspecting  that  all  their  temples  were 
constructed  in  the  same  manner.  See  Vol.  iii.  p.  1 109, 
1110,  1113. 

NOTE  153. — Not  only  in  Tlascala  and  Tepeaca, 
but  even  in  Mexico  itself,  the  houses  of  the  people 
were  mere  huts  built  with  turf  or  mud,  or  the 
branches  of  trees.  They  were  extremely  low,  and 
slight,  and  without  any  furniture  but  a  few  earthen 
vessels.  Like  the  rudest  Indians  several  families 
resided  under  the  same  roof,  without  having  any  se- 
parate apartments.  Herrera,  dec.  ii.  lib.  vii.  c.  13, 
lib.  x.  c.  22,  dec.  3,  lib.  iv.  c.  17.  Torquem.  lib.  iii. 
chap.  23. 

NOTE  154. — I  am  informed  by  a  person  who  re- 
sided long  in  New  Spain,  and  visited  almost  every 
province  of  it,  that  there  is  not,  in  all  the  extent  of 
that  vast  empire,  any  monument  or  vestige  of  any 
building  more  ancient  than  the  conquest,  nor  of  any 
bridge  or  highway,  except  some  remains  of  the 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


269 


way  from  Guadaloupe  to  that  gate  of  Mexico  by 
whicu  Cortes  entered  the  city.  MS.  penes  me.  The 
author  of  another  account  in  manuscript  observes, 
"  That  at  this  day  there  does  not  remain  even  the 
smallest  vestige  of  the  existence  of  any  ancient  Indian 
building  public  or  private,  either  in  Mexico  or  in 
any  province  of  New  Spain.  I  have  travelled,  says 
he,  through  all  the  countries  adjacent  to  them,  viz. 
New  Galicia,  New  Biscay,  New  Mexico,  Sonora, 
Cinaloa,  the  new  kingdom  of  Leon,  and  New  San- 
tandero,  without  having  observed  any  monument 
worth  notice,  except  some  ruins  near  an  ancient 
village  in  the  valley  de  Casas  Grandes,  in  lat.  N. 
3  deg.  46  min.,  long.  258  deg.  '24  min.  from  the 
island  of  Teneriffe,  or  460  leagues  N.  N.  W.  from 
Mexico."  He  describes  these  ruins  minutely,  and 
they  appear  to  be  the  remains  of  a  paltry  building  of 
turf  and  stone,  plastered  over  with  white  earth  or 
lime.  A  missionary  informed  that  gentleman  that 
he  had  discovered  the  ruins  of  another  edifice  simi- 
lar to  the  former,  about  an  hundred  leagues  towards 
N.  W.  on  the  banks  of  the  river  St.  Pedro.  MS. 
penes  me. 

These  testimonies  derive  great  credit  from  one  cir- 
cumstance, that  they  were  not  given  in  support  of 
any  particular  system  or  theory,  but  as  simple  an- 
swers to  queries  which  I  had  proposed.  It  is  pro- 
bable, however,  that  when  these  gentlemen  assert 
that  no  ruins  or  monuments  of  any  ancient  work 
whatever  are  now  to  be  discovered  in  the  Mexican 
empire,  they  meant  that  there  were  no  such  ruins  or 
monuments  as  conveyed  any  idea  of  grandeur  or 
magnificence  in  the  works  of  its  ancient  inhabitants. 
For  it  appears  from  the  testimony  of  several  Spanish 
authors,  that  in  Otumba,  Tlascala,  Cholula,  &c., 
some  vestiges  of  ancient  buildings  are  still  visible. 
Villa  Segnor  Theatro  Amer.  p.  143,  308,  353.  D. 
Fran.  Ant.  Lorenzana,  formerly  Archbishop  of 
Mexico,  and  now  of  Toledo,  in  his  introduction  to 
that  edition  of  the  Cartas  de  Relacion  of  Cortes, 
which  he  published  at  Mexico,  mentions  some  ruins 
which  are  still  visible  in  several  of  the  towns  through 
which  Cortes  passed  in  his  way  to  the  capital,  p.  4, 
&c.  But  neither  of  these  authors  gives  any  descrip- 
tion of  them,  and  they  seem  to  be  so  very  inconside- 
rable, as  to  shew  only  that  some  buildings  had  once 
been  there.  The  large  mount  of  earth  at  Cholula, 
which  the  Spaniards  dignified  with  the  name  of 
temple,  still  remains,  but  without  any  steps  by  which 
to  ascend,  or  any  facing  of  stone.  It  appears  now 
like  a  natural  mount,  covered  with  grass  and  shrubs, 
and  possibly  it  was  never  any  thing  more.  Torquem. 
lib.  i-ii.  c.  19.  I  have  received  a  minute  description 
of  the  remains  of  a  temple  near  Cuernavaca,  on  the 
road  from  Mexico  to  Acapulco.  It  is  composed  of 
large  stones,  fitted  to  each  other  as  nicely  as  those  in 
the  buildings  of  the  Peruvians,  which  are  hereafter 
mentioned.  At  the  foundation  it  forms  a  square  of 
twenty-five  yards ;  but  as  it  rises  in  height  it  dimi- 
nishes in  extent,  not  gradually,  but  by  being  con- 
tracted suddenly  at  regular  distances,  so  that  it  must 
have  resembled  the  figure  B  in  the  plate.  It  termi- 
nated, it  is  said,  in  a  spire. 

NOTE  155. — The  exaggeration  of  the  Spanish  his- 
torians, with  respect  to  the  number  of  human  victims 
sacrificed  in  Mexico,  appears  to  be  very  great.     Ac 
cording  to    Gomara,    there  was  no   year  in   which 
twenty  thousand  human  victims  were  not  offered  t 
the   Mexican   divinities,    and   in   some    years  the) 
amounted   to    fifty   thousand.     Cron.   c.    229.     The 
skulls  of  those  unhappy  persons  were  ranged  in  orde 
in  a  building  erected  for  that  purpose,  and  two  o 


Cortes's  officers,  who  had  counted  them,  informed 
Gomara  that  their  number  was  a  hundred  and  thirty- 
six  thousand.  Ibid.  c.  82.  Herrera's  account  is  sti'll 
more  incredible,  that  the  number  of  victims  was  so 
reat  that  five  thousand  have  been  sacrificed  in  one 
day,  nay,  on  some  occasions,  no  less  than  twenty 
housand.  Dec.  iii.  lib.  ii.  c.  16.  Torquemada  goes 
>eyond  both  in  extravagance;  for  he  asserts  that 
wcnty  thousand  children,  exclusive  of  other  vic- 
ims,  were  slaughtered  annually.  Mon.  Ind.  lib.  vii. 
:.  21.  The  most  respectable  authority  in  favour  of 
inch  high  numbers  is  that  of  Zumurraga,  the  first 
)ishop  of  Mexico,  who,  in  a  letter  to  the  chapter-ge  - 
neral  of  his  order,  A.  I).  1631,  asserts  that  the  Mex- 
cans  sacrificed  annually  twenty  thousand  victims. 
Davilo.  Teatro  Eccles.  126.  In  opposition  to  all 
hese  accounts,  B.  de  las  Casas  observes,  that  if  there 
had  been  such  an  annual  waste  of  the  human  species, 
he  country  could  never  have  arrived  at  that  degree 
>f  populousness  for  which  it  was  remarkable  when 
he  Spaniards  first  landed  there.  This  reasoning  is 
ust.  If  the  number  of  victims  in  all  the  provinces 
»f  New  Spain  had  been  so  great,  not  only  must  po- 
mlation  have  been  prevented  from  increasing,  but 
he  human  race  must  have  been  exterminated  in  a 
short  time.  For  besides  the  waste  of  the  species  by 
such  numerous  sacrifices,  it  is  .observable  that  wher- 
ever the  fate  of  captives  taken  in  war  is  either  certain 
death  or  perpetual  slavery,  as  men  can  gain  nothing 
)y  submitting  speedily  to  an  enemy,  they  always  re- 
sist to  the  uttermost,  and  war  becomes  bloody  and 
destructive  to  the  last  degree.  Las  Casas  positively 
sserts,  that  the  Mexicans  never  sacrificed  more  than 
fifty  or  a  hundred  persons  in  a  year.  See  his  dispute 
with  Sepulveda,  subjoined  to  his  Brevissima  Rela- 
cion, p.  105.  Cortes  does  not  specify  what  number 
of  victims  was  sacrificed  annually ;  but  B.  Diaz  del 
Castillo  relates  that  an  inquiry  having  been  made 
with  respect  to  this  by  the  Franciscan  monks  who 
were  sent  into  New  Spain  immediately  after  the  con- 
quest, it  was  found  that  about  two  thousand  five  hun- 
dred were  sacrificed  every  year  in  Mexico.  C.  207. 

NOTE  156.— -It  is  hardly  necessary  to  observe  that 
the  Peruvian  chronology  is  not  only  obscure,  but 
repugnant  to  conclusions  deduced  from  the  most  ac- 
curate and  extensive  observations,  concerning  thf 
time  that  elapses  during  each  reign,  in  any  give 
succession  of  princes.  The  medium  has  been  foun- 
not  to  exceed  twenty  years.  According  to  Acost* 
and  Garcilasso  de  la  Vega,  Huana  Capac,  who  died 
abont  the  year  1527,  was  the  twelfth  inca.  Accord- 
ing to  this  rule  of  computing,  the  duration  of  the 
Peruvian  monarchy  ought  not  to  have  been  reckoned 
above  two  hundred  and  forty  years ;  but  they  affirm 
that  it  had  subsisted  four  hundred  years.  Acosta, 
lib.  vi.  c.  19.  Vega,  lib.  i.  c.  9.  By  this  account 
each  reign  is  extended  at  a  medium  to  thirty -three 
years  instead  of  twenty,  the  number  ascertained  by 
Sir  Isaac  Newton's  observations ;  but  so  imperfect 
were  the  Peruvian  traditions,  that  though  the  total  is 
boldly  marked,  the  number  of  years  in  each  reign  is 
unknown. 

NOTE  157 — Many  of  the  early  Spanish  writers 
assert  that  the  Peruvians  offered  human  sacrifices. 
Xerez,  p.  190.  Zarate,  lib.  i.  c.  11.  Acosta,  lib.  v. 
c.  19.  -But  Garcilasso  de  la  Vega  contends,  that 
though  this  barbarous  practice  prevailed  among  their 
uncivilized  ancestors,  it  was  totally  abolished  by  the 
incas,  and  that  no  human  victim  was  ever  offered  in 
any  temple  of  the  sun.  This  assertion,  and  the  plau- 
sible reasons  with  which  he  confirms  it,  are  sufficient 
to  refute  the  Spanish  writers,  whose  accounts  oeem 


270 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


to  be  founded  entirely  upon  report,  not  upon  what 
they  themselves  had  observed.  Vega,  lib.  ii.  c.  4.  In 
one  of  their  festivals  the  Peruvians  ofiereu  cakeb  o 
bread  moistened  with  blood  drawn  from  the  arms 
the  eyebrows,  and  noses  of  their  children.  Id.  lib.  vii 
c.  6.  This  rite  may  have  been  derived  from  thei' 
ancient  practice,  in  their  uncivilized  state,  of  sacri 
ficing  human  victims. 

NOTE  158. — The  Spaniards  have  adopted  both 
those  customs  of  the  ancient  Peruvians.  They  hay< 
preserved  some  of  the  aqueducts  or  canals,  made  ii 
the  days  of  the  incas,  and  have  made  new  ones,  bi 
which  they  water  every  field  that  they  cultivate 
Ulloa,  Voyage,  torn.  i.  4'2'2, 477.  They  likewise  con 
tinue  to  use  yuano,  or  the  dung  of  sea-fowls,  as  ma 
nure.  Ulloa  gives  a  description  of  the  almost  incre 
dible  quantity  of  it  in  the  small  islands  near  the 
coast.  Ibid.  481. 

NOTE  159. — The  temple  of  Cayambo,  the  palace 
of  the  inca  at  Callo  in  the  plain  of  Lacatunga,  and 
that  of  Atun-Cannar,  are  described  by  Ulloa,  torn,  i 
286,  &c.,  who  inspected  them  with  great  care.  M 
de  Condarnine  published  a  curious  memoir  concern 
ing  the  ruins  of  Atun-Cannar.  Mem.  de  1' Academic 
de  Berlin,  A.  D.  1746,  p.  435.  Acosta  describes  th< 
ruins  of  Cuzco,  which  he  had  examined.  Lib.  vi 
c.  1 4.  Garcilasso,  in  his  usual  style,  gives  pompous 
and  confused  descriptions  of  several  temples  anc 
other  public  edifices.  Lib.  iii.  c.  1,  c.  21,  lib.  vi.  c.  4 

Don Zapata,  in  a  large  treatise  concerning 

Peru,  which  has  not  hitherto  been  published,  com 
municates  some  information  with  respect  to  severa 
monuments  of  the  ancient  Peruvians  which  have 
not  been  mentioned  by  other  authors.  MS.  penes  me, 
Articulo  xx.  Ulloa  describes  some  of  the  ancienl 
Peruvian  fortifications,  which  were  likewise  works  ol 
great  extent  and  solidity.  Tom.  i.  391.  Three  cir- 
cumstances struck  all  those  observers ;  the  vast  size 
of  the  stones  which  the  Peruvians-  employed  in  some 
of  their  buildings.  Acosta  measured  one  which  was 
thirty  feet  long,  eighteen  broad,  and  six  in  thick- 
ness ;  and  yet  he  adds,  that  in  the  fortress  at  Cuzco, 
there  were  "stones  considerably  large?.  It  is  difficult 
to  conceive  how  the  Peruvians  could  move  these  and 
raise  them  to  the  height  of  even  twelve  feet.  The 
second  circumstance  is  the  imperfection  of  the  Peru- 
vian art,  when  applied  to  working  in  timber.  By 
the  patience  and  perseverance  natural  to  Ameri- 
cans, stones  may  be  formed  into  any  shape,  merely 
by  rubbing  one  against  another,  or  by  the  use  or 
hatchets  or  other  instruments  made  of  stone;  but 
with  such  rude  tools  little  progress  can  be  made  in 
carpentry.  The  Peruvians  could  not  mortise  two 
beams  together,  or  give  any  degree  of  union  or  sta- 
bility'to  any  work  composed  of  timber.  As  they 
could  not  form  a  centre,  they  were  totally  unac- 
quainted with  the  use  of  arches  in  building  ;  nor  can 
the  Spanish  authors  conceive  how  they  were  able  to 
frame  a  roof  for  those  ample  structures  which  th(jy 
raised. 

The  third  circumstance  is  a  striking  proof,  which 
all  the  monuments  of  the  Peruvians  furnish,  of  their 
want  of  ingenuity  and  invention,  accompanied  with 
patience  no  less  astonishing  None  of  the  stones 
employed  in  those  works  were  formed  into  any  par- 
ticular or  uniform  shape,  which  could  render  them 
fit  for  being  compacted  together  in  building.  The 
Indians  took  them  as  they  fell  from  the  mountains, 
or  were  raised  out  of  the  quarries.  Some  were 
square,  some  triangular,  some  convex,  some  concave. 
Their  art  and  industry  were  employed  in  joining 
them  together,  by  forming  ^such  hollows  in  the  one 


as  perfectly  corresponded  to  the  projections  or  rising* 
in  the  other.  This  tedious  operation,  which  might 
have  been  so  eabily  alii. .£'.•«,  ./,*  .^a^iiug  the  sur- 
face of  the  stones  to  each  other,  either  by  rubbing  or 
by  their  hatchets  of  copper,  would  be  deemed  incre- 
dible, if  it  were  not  put  beyond  doubt  by  inspecting 
the  remains  of  those  buildings.  It  gives  them  a 
very  singular  appearance  to  an  European  eye.  There 
is  no  regular  layer  or  stratum  of  building,  and  no  one 
stone  resembles  another  in  dimensions  or  form.  At 
the  same  time,  by  the  persevering  but  ill-directed 
industry  of  the  Indians,  they  are  all  joined  with  that 
minute  nicety  which  I  have  mentioned.  Ulloa  made 
this  observation  concerning  therform  of  the  stones  in 
the  fortress  of  Atun-Cannar.  Voy.  i.  p.  387.  Pineto 
gives  a  similar  description  of  the  fortress  of  Cuzco, 
the  most  perfect  of  all  the  Peruvian  works.  Zatapa, 
MS.  penes  me.  According  to  M.  de  Condamine, 
there  were  regular  strata  of  building  in  some  parts 
of  Atun-Cannar,  which  he  remarks  as  singular,  and 
as  a  proof  of  some  progress  in  improvement. 

NOTE  160. — The  appearance  of  those  bridges, 
which  bend  with  their  own  weight,  wave  with  the 
wind,  and  are  considerably  agitated  by  the  motion 
of  every  person  who  passes  along  them,  is  very 
frightful  at  first.  But  the  Spaniards  have  found 
them  to  be  the  easiest  mode  of  passing  the  torrents 
in  Peru,  over  which  it  would  be  difficult  to  throw 
more  solid  structures  either  of  stone  or  timber.  They 
form  those  hanging  bridges  so  strong  and  broad  that 
loaded  mules  pass  along  them.  All  the  trade  of 
Cuzco  is  carried  on  W  means  of  such  a  bridge  over, 
the  river  Apurimac.  Ulloa,  torn.  i.  358.  A  more 
simple  contrivance  was  employed  in  passing  smaller 
streams :  a  basket,  in  which  the  traveller  was  placed, 
being  suspended  from  a  strong  rope  stretched  across 
the  stream,  it  was  pushed  or  drawn  from  the  one  side 
to  the  other.  Ibid. 

NOTE  161. — My  information  with  respect  to  those 
events  is  taken  from  Noticia  breve  de  la  cxpedicion 
militar  de  Sinora  y  Ciniloa,  su  exito  feliz,  y  vanto- 
joso  estado,  en  que  por  ccinsecuentia  de  ello,  se  han 
puesto  ambas  provincias,  published  at  Mexico,  June 
17th,  1771,  in  order  to  satisfy  the  curiosity  of  the 
merchants,  who  had  furnished  the  viceroy  with  mo- 
ney for  defraying  the  expense  of  the  armament.  The 
copies  of  this  Noticia  are  very  rare  in  Madrid;  but  I 
have  obtained  one,  which  has  enabled  me  to  commu- 
nicate these  curious  facts  to  the  public.  According 
to  this  account  there  was  found  in  the  mine  Yeco- 
rato  in  Cinaloa  a  grain  of  gold  of  twenty-two  carats, 
which  weighed  sixteen  marks  four  ounces  four  ocha- 
vas ;  this  was  sent  to  Spain  as  a  present  fit  for  the 
cing,  and  is  now  deposited  in  the  royal  cabinet  at 
Madrid. 

NOTE  162. — The  uncertainty  of  geographers  with 
respect  to  this  point  is  remarkable,  for  Cortes  seems 
;o  have  surveyed  its  coasts  with  great  accuracy.  The 
Archbishop  of  Toledo  has  published,  from  the  origi- 
nal in  the  possession  of  the  Marquis  del  Valle,  (he 
descendant  of  Cortes,  a  map  drawn  in  1541,  by  the 
nlot  Domingo  Castillo,  in  which  California  is  laid 
down  as  a  peninsula,  stretching  out  nearly  in  the 
;amc  direction  which  is  now  given  to  it  in  the  best 
naps  ;  and  the  point  where  Rio  Colorado  enters  the 
*ulf  is  marked  with  precision.  Hist,  de  Nueva  Es- 
agna,  327. 

NOTE  163.— I  am  indebted  for  this  fact  to  L'Abbe 
laynal,  torn.  iii.  103  ;  and  upon  consulting  an  intel- 
ligent person,  long  settled  on  the  Mosquito  shore, 
and  who  has  been  engaged  in  the  logwood  trade,  I 
find  that  ingenious  author  has  been  well  informed. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


271 


The  logwood  cut  near  the  town  of  St.  Francis  of 
Campeachy  is  of  much  better  quality  than  that  on  the 
other  side  of  Yucatan  :  and  the  English  trade  in  the 
bay  of  Honduras  is  almost  at  an  end. 

NOTE  1G4. — P.  Torribio  de  Benevente,  or  Moto- 
linea,  has  enumerated  ten  causes  of  the  rapid  depo- 
pulation of  Mexico,  to  which  he  gives  the  name  of 
the  Ten  Plagues.  Many  of  these  are  not  peculiar 
to  that  province.  1.  The  introduction  of  the  small- 
pox. This  disease  was  first  brought  into  New  Spain 
in  the  year  1520,  by  a  negro  slave  who  attended  Nar- 
vaez  in  his  expedition  against  Cortes.  Torribio 
affirms,  that  one  half  of  the  people  in  the  provinces 
visited  with  this  dis-tempcr  died.  To  this  mortality, 
occasioned  by  the  small  pox,  Torquemada  adds  the 
destructive  effects  of  two  contagious  distempers  which 
raged  in  the  year  1545  and  1576.  In  the  former 
800,000,  in  the  latter  above  two  millions  perished, 
according  to  an  exact  account  taken  by  order  of  the 
viceroys.  Mon.  Ind.  i.  642.  The  small-pox  was 
not  introduced  into  Peru  for  several  years  after  the 
invasion  of  the  Spaniards;  but  there,  too,  that  dis- 
temper proved  very  fatal  to  the  natives.  Garcia 
Origen,  p.  88.  2.  The  numbers  who  were  killed  or 
died  of  famine  in  their  war  with  the  Spaniards,  par- 
ticularly during  the  siege  of  Mexico.  3.  The  great 
famine  that  followed  after  the  reduction  of  Mexico, 
as  all  the  people  engaged,  either  on  one  side  or  other, 
had  neglected  the  cultivation  of  their  lands.  Some- 
thing similar  to  this  happened  in  all  the  other  coun- 
tries conquered  by  the  Spaniards.  4.  The  grievous 
tasks  imposed  by  the  Spaniards  upon  the  people  be- 
longing to  their  Repartimientos.  5.  The  oppressive 
burden  of  taxes  which  they  were  unable  to  pay,  and 
from  which  they  could  hope  for  no  exemption  6. 
The  numbers  employed  in  collecting  the  gold  car- 
ried down  by  the  torrents  from  the  mountains,  who 
were  forced  from  their  own  habitations,  without  any 
provision  made  for  their  subsistence,  and  subjected 
to  ail  the  rigour  of  cold  in  those  elevated  regions. 
7.  The  immense  labour  of  rebuilding  Mexico,  which 
Cortes  urged  on  with  such  precipitate  ardour  as  de- 
stroyed an  incredible  number  of  people.  8.  The 
number  of  people  condemned  to  servitude,  under 
various  pretexts,  and  employed  in  work-ing  the  sil- 
ver mines.  These,  marked  by  each  proprietor  with 
a  hot  iron,  like  his  cattle,  were  driven  in  herds  to 
the  mountains.  The  nature  of  the  labour  to  which 
they  were  subjected  there,  the  noxious  vapours  of 
the'inines,  the' coldness  of  the  climate,  and  scarcity 
of  food,  were  so  fatal,  that  Torribio  affirms  the  coun- 
try round  several  of  those  mines,  particularly  near 
Guaxago,  was  covered  with  dead  bodies,  the  air  cor- 
rupted with  their  stench,  and  so  many  vultures  and 
other  voracious  birds  hovered  about  for  their  prey, 
that  the  sun  was  darkened  with  their  flight.  10. 
The  Spaniards,  in  the  different  expeditions  which 
they  undertook  and  by  the  civil  war*  which  they 
carried  on,  destroyed  many  of  the  natives  whom  they 
compelled  to  serve  them  as  Tamemes,  or  carriers  of 
burdens.  This  last  mode  of  oppression  was  particu- 
larly ruinous  to  the  Peruvians.  From  the  number  of 
Indians  who  perished  in  Gonzalo  Pizarro's  expedi- 
tion into  the  countries  to  the  east  of  the  Andes,  one 
may  form  some  idea  of  what  they  suffered  in  similar 
services,  and  how  fast  they  were  wasted  by  them. 
Torribio,  MS.  Corita,  in  his  Breve  y  Summaria 
Belacion,  illustrates  and  confirms  several  of  Torri- 
bio's  observations,  to  which  he  refers.  MS.  penes  me. 

NOTE  165. — Even  Montesquieu  has  adopted  this 
idea.  lib.  viii.  c.  18.  But  the  passion  of  that  great 
man  for  system  sometimes  rendered  Hi*"  inattentive 


to  research  ;  and  from  his  capacity  to  refine,  he  was 
apt,  in  some  instances,  to  overlook  obvious  and  just 
causes. 

NOTE  166. — A  strong  proof  of  this  occurs  in  the 
testament  of  Isabella,  where  she  discovers  the  most 
tender  concern  for  the  humane  and  mild  usage  of 
the  Indians.  Those  laudable  sentiments  of  the 
queen  have  been  adopted  into  the  public  law  of 
Spain,  and  serve  as  the  introduction  to  the  regula- 
tions contained  under  the  title  of  Of  the  good  treat- 
ment of  the  Indians.  Recopil.  lib.  vi.  tit.  x. 

NOTE  167. — In  the  seventh  Title  of  the  first  book 
of  the  Recopilacion^  which  contains  the  laws  concern- 
ing the  powers  and  functions  of  archbishops  and 
bishops,  almost  a  third  part  of  them  relates  to  what 
is  incumbent  upon  them  as  guardians  of  the  Indians, 
and  points  out  the  various  methods  in  which  it  is 
their  duty  to  interpose,  in  order  to  defend  them  from 
oppression,  either  with  respect  to  their  persons  or 
property.  Not  only  do  the  laws  commit  to  them  this 
honourable  and  humane  office,  but  the  ecclesiastics 
of  America  actually  exercise  it. 

Innumerable  proofs  of  this  might  be  produced 
from  Spanish  authors.  But  I  rather  refer  to  Gage, 
as  he  was  not  disposed  to  ascribe  any  merit  to  the 
popish  clergy  to  which  they  were  not  fully  entitled. 
Survey,  p.  142,  192,  &c.  Henry  Hawks,  an  English 
merchant,  who  resided  five  years  in  New  Spain  pre- 
vious to  the  year  1572,  gives  the  same  favourable 
account  of  the  popish  clergy.  Hakluyt,  iii.  466.  By 
a  law  of  Charles  V.  not  only  bishops  but  other  eccle- 
siastics, are  empowered  to  inform  and  admonish  the 
civil  magistrates,  if  any  Indian  is  deprived  of  his  just 
liberty  and  rights  ;  Recopilac.  lib.  vi.  tit.  vi.  ley.  14  ; 
and  thus  were  constituted  legal  protectors  of  the 
Indians.  Some  of  the  Spanish  ecclesiastics  refuse  to 
grant  absolution  to  such  of  their  countrymen  as  pos- 
sessed Encomiendas,  and  considered  the  Indians  as 
slaves,  or  employed  them  in  working  their  mines. 
Gonz.  Davil.  Teatro  Eccles.  i.  157. 

NOTE  168. — According  to  Gage,  Chiapa  dos  In- 
dos  contains  4000  families  ;  and  he  mentions  it  only 
as  one  of  the  largest  Indian  towns  in  America, 
p.  104. 

*  NOTE  169. — It  is  very  difficult  to  obtain  an  accu- 
rate account  of  the  state  of  population  in  those  king- 
doms of  Europe  where  the  police  is  most  perfect,  and 
where  science  has  made  the  greatest  progress.  In 
Spanish  America,  where  knowledge  is  still  in  its 
infancy,  and  few  men  have  leisure  to  engage  in  re- 
searches merely  speculative,  little  attention  has  been 
paid  to  this  curious  inquiry.  But  in  the  year  1741, 
I  Philip  V.  enjoined  the  viceroys  and  governors  of  the 
;  several  provinces  in  America  to  make  an  actual  sur- 
j  vey  of  the  people  under  their  jurisdiction,  and  to 
transmit  a  report  concerning  their  number  and  oc- 
cupations. In  consequence  of  this  order  the  Conde 
de  Fuen-Clara,  viceroy  of  New  Spain,  appointed  D. 
Jos.  Antonio  de  Villa  Segnor  y  Sanchez  to  execute 
that  commission  in  New  Spain.  From  the  reports 
of  the  magistrates  in  the  several  districts,  as  well  as 
from  his  own  observations  and  long  acquaintance 
with  most  of  the  provinces,  Villa  Segnor  published 
the  result  of  his  inquiries  in  his  Teatro  Americano. 
His  report,  however,  is  imperfect  Of  the  nine  dio- 
ceses, into  which  the  Mexican  empire  has  been  di- 
vided, he  has  published  an  account  of  five  only,  viz., 
the  archbishopric  of  Mexico,  the  bishoprics  of  Puebla 
de  los  Angeles,  Mechoacan,  Oaxaca,  and  Nova  Ga- 
licia.  The  bishoprics  of  Yucatan,  Verapaz,  Chiapa,, 
and  Guatemala,  are  entirely  omitted,  though  the  two 
latter  comprehend  countries  in  which  the  Indian 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


lace  is  more  numerous  than  in  any  part  of  New  cording  to  an  account  which  I  have  reason i  to  coasi-. 
Spain  In  his  survey  of  the  extensive  diocese  of !  der  as  accurate,  the  number  of  copies  of  the  bull  of 
Nova 'Galicia,  the  situation  of  the  different  Indian  ,  Cruzada,  exported  to  Peru  on  each  new  publication, 

-   •  ••  ,326.     1  am  in- 

people  only  in  a  small  part  6f  it.    ~The  Indians  of  •  formed  that  but  few  Indians  purchase  bulls,  and  that 


J_H,     nlS     Su.rV6y    OI     LUc    extcilbivu     u-iuucac    wi  .  **v*    w  »— j*-— 

"Galicia  the  situation  of  the  different  Indian  ,  Cruzada,  exported  to  Peru  on  each  new  publication, 
villages  is  described,  but  he  specifies  the  number  of!  is  1,171,953;  to  New  Spam,  2,649,3 
people  only  in  a  small  part  of  it.  The  Indians  of  formed  that  but  few  Indians  purchase  1 
that i  extensive  province,  in  which  the  Spanish  domi-  they  are  sold  chiefly  to  the  Spanish  inhabitants,  and 
nion  is  imperfectly  established,  are  not  registered  those  of  mixed  race;  so  that  the  number  of  Spaniards 
with  the  same  accuracy  as  in  other  parts  of  New  and  people  of  a  mixed  race  will  amount  by  this  mode 
Spain  According  to  Villa  Segnor,  the  actual  state  ;  of  computation  to  at  least  throe  millions, 
of  population  in  the  five  dioceses  abovementioned  is,  j  The  number  of  inhabitants  in  many  of  the  towns 
of  Spaniards,  negroes,  mulattoes,  and  mestizos,  in  ,  in  Spanish  America  may  give  us  some  idea  of  the 
the  dioceses  of  I  extent  of  population,  and  correct  the  inaccurate  but 

Familios.  j  popular  notion  entertained  in  Great  Britain  concern- 
105,202    ing   the  weak  and   desolate  state  of  their   colonies. 
30,600  j  The  city  of  Mexico  contains  at  least  150,000  people. 
30,840  i  It  is  remarkable  that  Torquemada,  who  wrote  his 
7,296  \  Monarquia  Indiana  about  the  year  1612,  reckons  the 
16,770  !  inhabitants  of  Mexico  at  that  time  to  be  only  7000 

I  Spaniards  and  8000  Indians.  Lib.  iii.  c.  26.    Puebla 

190,708  I  de  los  Angeles  contains  above  60,000  Spaniards,  and 

At  the  rate  of  five  to  a  family,  the  total  number  is  I  people  of  a  mixed  race.  Villa  Segnor,  p.  247.    Gua- 

I  dalaxara  contains  above   30,000,    exclusive    of  In- 
119,511  j  dians.  Id.  ii.206.     Lima  contains  54,000.  DeCosme 
88,240    Bueno  Descr.  de  Peru,  1764.     Carthagena  contains 
36,196 
44,222 
6,222 

294,391 
At  the  rate  of  five  to  a  family,  the  total  nnmber  is 


Mexico         : 
Los  Angeles 
Mechoacan 
Oaxaca 
NovaGalieia 


953,540. 

Indian  families  in  the  diocese  of  Mexico 

Los  Angeles 

Mechoacau 

Gaxaca        : 

Nova  Galicia 


25,000.  Potosi  contain-,  '.>">  n.in  Bueno  17C7. 
I'--r,uan  contains  above  20,000,  l.iloa,  i.287.  Towns 
of  a  "second  class  are  still  more  numerous.  The 
cities  in  the  most  thriving  settlements  of  other  Eu- 
ropean nations  in  America  cannot  be  compared  with 
these. 

1,471,955.     We  may  rely  with  greater  certainty  on  j      Such  are  the  detached  accounts  of  the  number  of 
this  computation  of  the  number  of  Indians,  as  it  is  I  people  in  several  towns,  which  I  found  scattered  in 


taken  from  the  Matricula,  or  register,  according  to 
which  the  tribute  paid  by  them  is  collected.  As 
four  dioceses  of  nine  are  totally  omitted,  and  in  that 
of  Nova  Galicia  the  numbers  are  imperfectly  re- 
corded, we  may  conclude  that  the  number  of  Indians 
in  the  Mexican  empire  exceeds  two  millions. 

The  account  of  the  number  of'Spaniards,  &c.  seems 
not  to  be  equally  complete.  Of  many  places,  Villa 
Segnor  observes  in  general  terms,  that  several  Spa- 
niards, negroes,  and  people  of  mixed  race,  reside 
there,  without  specifying  their  number.  If,  there- 
fore, we  make  allowance  for  these,  and  for  all  who 
reside  in  the  four  dioceses  omitted,  the  number  of 
Spaniards,  and  those  of  a  mixed  race,  may  probably 
amount  to  a  million  and  a  half.  In  some  places 
Villa  Segnor  distinguishes  between  Spaniards  and 
the  inferior  races  of  negroes,  mulattoes,  and  mesti- 
zos, and  marks  their  number  separately.  But  he 
generally  blends  them  together.  But  from  the  pro- 
portion observable  in  those  places,  where  the  num- 
ber of  each  is  marked,  as  well  as  from  the  account 
of  the  state  of  population  in  New  Spain  by  other 
authors,  it  is  manifest  that  the  number  of  negroes 
and  persons  of  a  mixed  race  far  exceeds  that  of  Spa- 
niards. Perhaps  the  latter  ought  not  to  be  reckoned 
above  500,000  to  a  million  of  the  former. 

Defective  as  this  account  may  be,  I  have  not  been 
able  to  procure  such  intelligence  concerning  the 
number  of  people  in  Peru,  as  might  enable  me  to 
form  any  conjecture  equally  satisfying  with  respect 
to  the  degree  of  its  population.  I  have  been  in- 
formed that  in  the  year  1761  the  protector  of  the 
Indians  in  the  viceroyalty  of  Peru  computed  that 
612,780  paid  tribute  to  the  king.  As  all  females, 
and  persons  under  age,  are  exempted  from  this  tax 
in  Peru,  the  total  number  of  Indians  ought  by  that 
account  to  be  2,449,120,  MS.  penes  me. 

I  shall  mention  another  mode,  by  which  one  may 
compute,  or  at  least  form  a  guess  concerning  the 
state  of  population  in  New  Spain  and  Peru.  Ac- 


authors  whom  I  thought  worthy  of  credit.  But  I 
have  obtained  an  enumeration  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  towns  in  the  province  of  Quito,  on  the  accuracy 
of  which  I  can  rely ;  and  I  communicate  it  to  the 
public,  both  to  gratify  curiosity,  and  to  rectify  the 
mistaken  notion  which  I  have  mentioned.  St.  Fran- 
cisco do  Quito  contains  between  50  and  60,000^)eo- 
ple  of  all  the  different  races.  Besides  the  city,  there 
are  in  the  Corregimien  .>  twenty-nine  euros  or  pa- 
rishes established  in  the  principal  villages,  each  of 
which  has  smaller  hamlets  depending  upon  it.  The 
inhabitants  of  these  arc  mostly  Indians  and  mesti- 
zos. St.  Juan  de  Pasto  has  between  6  and  8,000 
inhabitants,  besides  27  dependent  villages.  Gt.  Mi- 
guel de  Ibarra,  7000  citizens,, and  ten  villages.  The 
district  of  Havala,  between  18  and  20,000  people. 
The  district  of  Tacuna,  between  10  and  12,000.  The 
district  of  Ambato,  between  8  and  10,000,  besides 
16  depending  villages.  The  city  of  Riobamba,  be- 
tween 16  and  20,000  inhabitants,  and  nine  depend- 
ing villages.  The  district  of  Chimbo,  between  6  and 
8000.  The  city  of  Guayaquil,  from  16  to  20,000 
inhabitants,  and  14  depending  villages.  The  dis- 
trict of  Atuasi,  between  5  and  6100  inhabitants,  and 
4  depending  villages.  The  city  of  Cuenza,  between 
25  and  30,000  inhabitants,  and  9  populous  depend- 
ing villages.  The  town  of-  Laxa,  from  8  to  10,000 
inhabitants,  and  14  depending  villages.  This  degree 
of  population,  though  slender  if  we  consider  the  vast 
extent  of  the  country,  is  far  beyond  what  is  com- 
monly supposed.  I  have  omitted  to  mention,  in  its 
proper  place,  that  Quito  is  the  only  province  in  Spa- 
nish America  that  can  be  denominated  a  manufac- 
turing country;  hats,  cotton  stuffs,  and  coarse  wool- 
len cloths,  are  made  there  in  such  quantities  as  to  be 
sufficient  not  only  for  the  consumption  of  the  pro- 
vince, but  to  furnish  a  considerable  article  for  ex- 
portation into  other  parts  of  Spanish  America.  I 
know  not  whether  the  uncommon  industry  of  this 
province  should  be  considered  as  the  cause  or  the 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


2:3 


cft'ect  of  its  populousness.  But  among  the  ostenta- 
tious inhabitants  of  the  New  World  the  passion  for 
every  thing  that  comes  from  Europe  is  so  violent  that 
I  am' informed  the  manufactures  of  Quito  are  so  much 
undervalued  as  to  be  on  the  decline. 

NOTE  170. — These  are  established  at  the  follow- 
ing  places  : — St.  Domingo,  in  the  island  of  Hispa- 
niola ;  Mexico,  in  New  Spain  ;  Lima,  in  Peru  ;  Pa- 
nama, in  Tierra  Firme ;  Santiago,  in  Guatimala; 
Guadalaxara,  in  New  Galicia ;  Santa  Fe,  in  the  new 
kingdom  of  Granada :  La  Plata,  in  the  country  of 
Los  Charcas;  St.  Francisco  de  Quito,  St.  Jago  de 
Chili,  Buenos  Ayres.  To  each  of  these  are  subjected 
several  large  provinces,  and  some  so  far  removed 
from  the  cities  where  the  courts  are  fixed,  that  they 
can  derive  little  benefit  from  their  jurisdiction.  The 
Spanish  writers  commonly  reckon  up  twelve  courts 
of  audience,  but  they  include  that  of  Manila,  in  the 
Philippine  islands. 

NO'TE  171. — On  account  of  the  distance  of  Peru 
and  Chili  from  Spain,  and  the  difficulty  of  carrying 
commodities  of  such  bulk  as  wine  and  oil  across  the 
isthmus  of  Panama,  the  Spaniards  in  those  provinces 
have  been  permitted  to  plant  vines  and  olives ;  but 
they  are  strictly  prohibited  from  exporting  wine  or 
oil  to  any  of  the  provinces  on  the  Pacific  ocean, 
which  are  in  such  a  situation  as  to  receive  them  from 
Spain.  Recop.  lib.  i.  tit.  xvii.  1.  15 — 18. 

NOTE  172. — This  computation  was  made  by  Ben- 
zoni,  A.  D.  1550,  fifty-eight  years  after  the  discovery 
of  America.  Hist.  Novi  Orbis,  lib.  iii.  c.  21.  But 
as  Benzoni  wrote  with  the  spirit  of  a  malecontent, 
disposed  to  detract  from  the  Spaniards  in  every  par- 
ticular, it  is  probable  that  his  calculation  is  conside- 
rably too  low. 

NOTE  173. — My  information  with  respect  to  the 
division  and  transmission  of  property  in  the  Spanish 
colonies  is  imperfect.  The  Spanish  authors  do  not 
explain  this  fully,  and  have  not  perhaps  attended 
sufficiently  to  the  effects  of  their  own  institutions 
ami  laws."  Solorzario  de  Jure  Ind.  (vol.  ii.  lib.  ii. 
.  1.  16),  explains  in  some  measure  the  introduction  of 
the  tenure  of  Mayorasyo,  and  mentions  some  of  its 
effects.  Villa  Segnor  takes  notice  of  a  single  conse- 
quence of  it  He  observes,  that  in  some  of  the  best 
situations  in  the  city  of  Mexico  a  good  deal  of  ground 
is  unoccupied,  or  covered  only  with  the  ruins  of  the 
houses  once  erected  upon  it ;  and  adds,  that  as  this 
ground  is  held  by  right  of  Mayorasgo,  and  cannot  be 
alienated,  that  desolation  and  those  ruins  become 
perpetual.  Teatr.  Amer.  vol.  i.  p.  34. 

NOTE  174. — There  is  no  law  that  excludes  Creoles 
from  offices  either  civil  or  ecclesiastic.  On  the  con 
trary,  there  are  many  Cedulas,  which  recommend  the 
conferring  places  of  trust  indiscriminately  on  the 
natives  of  Spain  and  America.  Betancourt  y  Figue- 
roa  Derecho,  &c.  p.  5,  6.  But,  notwithstanding 
such  repeated  recommendations,  preferment  in  almosi 
every  line  is  conferred  on  native  Spaniards.  A  re- 
markable proof  of  this  is  produced  by  the  author  last 
quoted.  From  the  discovery  of  America  to  the  year 
1637,  three  hundred  and  sixty-nine  bishops,  or  arch- 
bishops, have  been  appointed  to  the  different  dioceses 
IB  that  country,  and  of  all  that  number  only  twelv< 
were  Creoles,  p.  40.  This  predilection  for  Europeans 
seems  still  to  continue.  By  a  royal  mandate,  issuec 
in  1776,  the  chapter  of  the  cathedral  of  Mexico  i 
directed  to  nominate  European  ecclesiastics  of  known 
merit  and  abilities,  that  the  king  may  appoint  them 
to  supply  vacant  benefices.  MS.  penes  me. 

NOTE  175. — Moderate  as  this  tribute  may  appear 

such  is  the  extreme  poverty  of  the  Indians  in  man) 

THE  HISTORY  OK  AMEIUCA      No.  35. 


)rovinces  of  America,  that  the  exacting  of  it  is  into- 
erably  oppressive.  Pegua  Itiner.  par  Paroches  de 
Indios,  p.  192. 

NOTE  176. — In  New  Spain,  on  account  of  the  ex- 
raordiuary  merit  and  services  of  the  first  conquerors, 
as  well  as  the  small  revenue  arising  from  the  country 
previous  to  the  discovery  of  the  mines  of  Sacatecas, 
he  encomiendas  were  granted  for  three,  and  some- 
,imes  for  four  lives.  Recop.  lib.  vi.  tit.  ii.  c.  14,  &c. 

NOTE  177. — D.  Ant.  Ulloa  contends  that  working 
n  mines  is  not  noxious,  and  as  a  proof  of  this,  in- 
forms us  that  many  mestizos  and  Indians,  who  do 
not  belong  to  any  repartimiento,  voluntarily  hire 
hemselves  as  miners;  and  several  of  the  Indians, 
when  the  legal  term  of  their  service  expires,  continue 
;o  work  in  the  mines  of  choice.  Entreten,  p.  265. 
But  his  opinion  concerning  the  wholesomeness  of 
;his  occupation  is  contrary  to  the  experience  of  all 
ages ;  and  wherever  men  are  allured  by  high  wages, 
:hey  will  engage  in  any  species  of  labour,  however 
fatiguing  or  pernicious  it  may  be.  D.  Hern.  Carillo 
Altamirano  relates  a  curious  fact  incompatible  with 
;his  opinion.  Wherever  mines  are  wrought,  says 
"le,  the  number  of  Indians  decreases ;  but  in  the  pro- 
vince of  Campeachy,  where  there  are  no  mines,  the 
number  of  Indians  has  increased  more  than  a  third 
since  the  conquest  of  America,  -though  neither  the 
soil  nor  climate  be  so  favourable  as  in  Peru  or  Mex- 
ico Colbert  Collect.  In  another  memorial  pre- 
sented to  Philip  III.  in  the  year  1609,  Captain  Juan 
Gonzales  de  Azevcdo  asserts,  that  in  every  district 
of  Peru  where  the  Indians  are  compelled  to  labour 
in  the  mines,  their  numbers  were  reduced  to  the 
half,  and  in  some  places  to  the  third,  of  what  it  was 
under  the  viceroyalty  of  Don.  Fran.  Toledo  in  1581. 
Colb.  Collect. 

NOTE  178. — As  labour  of  this  kind  cannot  be  pre- 
scribed with  legal  accuracy,  the  tasks  seem  to  be  in  a 
reat  measure^  arbitrary,  and  like  the  services  exacted 
y  feudal  superiors  in  vinea,  prato,  ant  messe,  from 
their  vassals,  are  extremely  burdensome,  and  often 
wantonly  oppressive.     Pegna  Itiner.  par  Parochos 
de  Indios. 

NOTE  179. — The  turn  of  service  known  in  Peru  by 
the  name  of  Mita  is  called  Tanda  in  New  Spain. 
There  it  continues  no  longer  than  a  week  at  a  time. 
No  person  is  called  to  serve  at  a  greater  distance 
from  his  habitation  than  24  miles.  This  arrangement 
is  less  oppressive  to  the  Indians  than  that  established 
in  Peru.  Memorial  of  Hern.  Carillo  Altamirano. 
Colbert  Collect. 

NOTE  180. — The  strongest  proof  of  this  may  be 
deduced  from  the  laws  themselves.  By  the  multitude 
and  variety  of  regulations  to  prevent  abuses,  we  may 
form  an  idea  of  the  number  of  abuses  that  prevail. 
Though  the  laws  have  wisely  provided  that  no  Indian 
shall  be  obliged  to  serve  in  any  mine  at  a  greater 
distance  from  his  place  of  residence  than  thirty 
miles  ;  we  are  informed  in  a  memorial  of  D.  Hernau 
Carillo  Altamirano  presented  to  the  king,  that  the 
Indians  of  Peru  are  often  compelled  to  serve  in 
mines  at  the  distance  of  a  hundred,  a  hundred  and 
fifty,  and  even  two  hundred  leagues  from  their  habi- 
tation. Colbert  Collect.  Many  mines  are  situated 
in  parts  of  the  country  so  barren  and  so  distant  from 
the  ordinary  habitations  of  the  Indians,  that  the.  ne- 
cessity of  procuring  labourers  to  work  there  has 
obliged  the  Spanish  monarchs  to  dispense  with  their 
own  regulations  in  several  instances,  and  to  permit 
the  viceroys  to  compel  the  people  of  moie  remote 
provinces  to  resort  to  those  mines.  Escalona  Gazo- 
phvl.  Perub.  lib.  i.  c.  16.  But  in  justice  to  them  it 

2  N 


274 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


should  be  observed  that  they  have  been  studious  to 
alleviate  this  oppression  as  much  as  possible,  by  en- 
joining viceroys  to  employ  every  method  in  order  to 
induce  the  Indians  to  settle  in  some  part  of  the 
country  adjacent  to  the  mines.  Id.  ibid. 

NOTE  181. — Torquemada,  after  a  long  enumera- 
tion which  has  the  appearance  of  accuracy,  con- 
cludes the  number  of  monasteries  in  New  Spain  to 
be  four  hundred.  Mon.  Ind  lib.  xix.  c.  32.  The 
number  of  monasteries  in  the  city  of  Mexico  alone 
was,  in  the  year  1745,  fifty-five.  Villa  Segnor  Teat. 
Amer.  i.  34.  Ulloa  reckons  up  forty  convents  in 
Lima :  and  mentioning  those  for  nuns,  he  says  that 
a  small  town  might  be  peopled  out  of  them,  the 
number  of  persons  shut  up  there  is  so  great.  Voy.  i. 
429.  Philip  III.,  in  a  letter  to  the  viceroy  of  Peru, 
A.  D.  1620,  observes,  that  the  number  of  convents 
in  Lima  was  so  great  that  they  covered  more  ground 
than  all  the  rest  of  the  city.  Solorz.  lib.  iii.  c.  23, 
n.  57.  Lib.  iii.  c.  16.  Torquem.  lib.  xv.  c.  3.  The 
first  monastery  in  New  Spain  was  founded  A.  D. 
1525,  four  years  only  after  the  conquest.  Torq. 
lib.  xv.  c.  16. 

According  to  Gil  Gonzalez  Davila,  the  complete 
establishment  of  the  American  church  in  all  the 
Spanish  settlements  was,  in  the  year  1649,  1  patri- 
arch, 6  archbishops,  32  bishops,  316  prebends,  2 
abbots,  5  royal  chaplains,  840  convents.  Teatro 
Ecclesiastico  de  las  Ind.  Occident,  vol.  i.  Pref. 
When  the  order  of  Jesuits  was  expelled  from  all  the 
Spanish  dominions,  the  colleges,  professed  houses, 
and  residences,  which  it  possessed  in  the  province 
of  New  Spain  were  thirty,  in  Quito  sixteen,  in  the 
new  kingdom  of  Granada  thirteen,  in  Peru  seven- 
teen, in  Chili  eighteen,  in  Paraguay  eighteen ;  in 
all,  a  hundred  and  twelve.  Collection  General  de 
Providencias  hasta  aqui  tomadas  sobre  estranamento, 
&c.  de  la  Compagnia,  part  i.  p.  19.  The  number  of 
Jesuits,  priests,  and  novices  in  all  these  amounted  to 
2245.  MS.  penes  me. 

In  the  year  1644  the  city  of  Mexico  presented  a 
petition  to  the  king,  praying  that  no  new  monastery- 
might  be  founded,  and  that  the  revenues  of  those 
already  established  might  be  circumscribed,  other- 
wise the  religious  houses  would  soon  acquire  the 
property  of  the  whole  country.  The  petitioners  re- 
quest, likewise,  that  the  bishops  might  be  laid  under 
restrictions  in  conferring  holy  orders,  as  there  were 
at  that  time  in  New  Spain  above  six  thousand  cler- 
gymen without  any  living.  Id.  p.  16.  These  abuses 
must  have  been  enormous  indeed,  when  the  supersti- 
tion of  American  Spaniards  was  shocked,  and  in- 
duced to  remonstrate  against  them. 

NOTE  182. — This  description  of  the  manners  of 
the  Spanish  clergy  I  should  not  have  ventured  to 
give  upon  the  testimony  of  Protestant  authors  alone, 
as  they  may  be  suspected  of  prejudice  or  exaggera- 
tion. Gage,  in  particular,  who  had  a  better  oppor- 
tunity than  any  Protestant  to  view  the  interior  state 
of  Spanish  America,  describes  the  corruption  of  the 
church  which  he  had  forsaken  with  so  much  of  the 
acrimony  of  a  new  convert,  that  I  should  have  dis- 
trusted his  evidence,  though  it  communicates  some 
very  curious  and  striking  facts.  But  Benzoni  men- 
tions the  profligacy  of  ecclesiastics  in  America  at  a 
very  early  period  after  their  settlement  there.  Hist, 
lib.  ii.  c.  19,  20.  M.  Frezier,  an  intelligent  observer, 
and  zealous  for  his  owa  religion,  paints  the  dissolute 
manners  of  the  Spanish  ecclesiastics  in  Peru,  parti- 
cularly the  regulars,  in  stronger  colours  than  I  have 
employed.  Voy.  p.  51,  215,  &c.  M.  Gentil  confirms 
this  account.  Voy.  i.  34.  Correal  concurs  with  both, 


and  adds  many  respectable  circumstances.  Voy.  i. 
61, 155,  161.  I  have  good  reason  to  believe  that  the 
manners  of  the  regular  clergy,  particularly  in  Peru, 
are  still  extremely  indecent.  Acosta  himself  ac- 
knowledges that  great  corruption  of  manners  had 
been  the  consequence  of  permitting  monks  to  forsake 
the  retirement  and  discipline  of  the  cloister,  and  to 
mingle  again  with  the  world,  by  undertaking  the 
charge  of  the  Indian  parishes.  De  Procur.  Ind. 
Salute,  lib.  iv.  c.  13,  &c.  He  mentions  particularly 
those  vices  of  which  I  have  taken  notice,  and  consi- 
ders the  temptations  to  them  as  so  formidable,  that 
he  leans  to  the  opinion  of  those  who  hold  that  the 
regular  clergy  should  not  be  employed  as  parish 
priests.  Lib.  v.  c.  20.  Even  the  advocates  for  the 
regulars  admit,  that  many  and  great  enormities 
abounded  among  the  monks  of  different  orders,  when 
set  free  from  the  restraint  of  monastic  discipline ; 
and  from  the  tone  of  their  defence  one  may  conclude 
that  the  charge  brought  against  them  was  not  desti- 
tute of  truth.  In  the  French  colonies  the  state  of 
the  regular  clergy  is  nearly  the  same  as  in  the  Spa- 
nish settlements,  and  the  same  consequences  have 
followed.  M.  Biet,  superior  of  the  secular  priests 
in  Cayenne,  inquires,  with  no  less  appearance  of  piety 
than  of  candour,  into  the  causes  of  this  corruption, 
and  imputes  it  chiefly  to  the  exemption  of  regulars 
from  the  jurisdiction  and  censures  of  their  diocesans; 
to  the  temptations  to  which  they  are  exposed ;  and  to 
their  engaging  in  commerce.  Voy.  p.  320.  It  is  re- 
markable that  all  the  authors  who  censure  the  licen- 
tiousness of  the  Spanish  regulars  with  the  greatest 
severity,  concur  in  vindicating  the  conduct  of  the 
Jesuits.  Formed  under  a  discipline  more  perfect 
than  that  of  the  other  monastic  orders,  or  animated 
by  that  concern  for  the  honour  of  the  society  which 
takes  sugh  full  possession  of  every  member  of  the 
order,  the  Jesuits,  both  in  Mexico  and  Peru,  it  is  al- 
lowed, maintained  a  most  irreproachable  decency  of 
manners.  Frezier,  223.  Gentil,  i.  34.  The  same 
praise  is  likewise  due  to  the  bishops  and  most  of  the 
dignified  clergy.  Frez.  Ibid. 

A  volume  of  the  Gazette  de  Mexico  for  the  years 
1728,  1729,  1730,  having  been  communicated  tome, 
I  find  there  a  striking  confirmation  of  what  I  have 
advanced  concerning  the  spirit  of  low  illiberal  super- 
stition prevalent  in  Spanish  America.  From  the 
newspapers  of  any  nation  one  may  learn  what  are 
the  objects  which  chiefly  engross  its  attention,  and 
which  appear  to  it  most  interesting.  The  gazette  of 
Mexico  is  filled  almost  entirely  with  accounts  of  reli- 
gious functions,  with  descriptions  of  processions, 
consecrations  of  churches,  beatifications  of  saints, 
festivals,  autos  de  fe,  &c.  Civil  or  commercial  affairs, 
and  even  the  transactions  of  Europe,  occupy  but  a 
small  corner  in  this  magazine  of  monthly  intelli- 
gence. From  the  titles  of  new  books,  which  are 
regularly  inserted  in  this  gazette,  it  appears  that 
two-thirds  of  them  are  treatises  of  scholastic  theology, 
or  of  monkish  devotion. 

NOTE  183. — Solorzano,  after  mentioning  the  cor- 
rupt morals  of  some  of  the  regular  clergy,  with  that 
cautious  reserve  which  became  a  Spanish  layman 
in  touching  on  a  subject  so  delicate,  gives  his  opi- 
nion very  explicitly,  and  with  much  firmness, 
against  committing  parochial  charges  to  monks. 
He  produces  the  testimony  of  several  respectable 
authors  of  his  country,  both  divines  and  lawyers,  in 
confirmation  of  his  opinion.  De  Jure  Ind.  iirlib.  iii. 
c.  16.  A  striking  proof  of  the  alarm  excited  by  the 
attempt  of  the  Prince  d'Esquilache  to  exclude  the 
regulars  from  parochial  cures,  is  contained  in  the 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


275 


Colbert  collection  of  papers.  Several  memorials 
were  presented  to  the  king  by  the  procurators  for  the 
monastic  orders,  and  replies  were  made  to  these  in 
name  of  the  secular  clergy.  An  eager  and  even  ran- 
corous spirit  is  manifest  on  both  sides,  in  the  con- 
duct of  this  dispute. 

NOTE  184. — Not  only  the  native  Indians,  but  the 
mestizos,  or  children  of  a  Spaniard  and  Indian,  were 
originally  excluded  from  the  priesthood,  and  refused 
admission  into  any  religious  order.  But  by  a  law 
issued  Sept  28th,  1588,  Philip  II.  required  the  pre- 
lates of  America  to  ordain  such  mestizos  born  in 
lawful  wedlock,  as  they  should  find  to  be  properly 
qualified,  and  to  permit  them  to  take  the  vows  in  any 
monastery  where  they  had  gone  through  a  regular 
noviciate.  Recopil.  lib.  i.  tit.  vii.  1.  7.  Some  regard 
seems  to  have  been  paid  to  this  law  in  New  Spain  ; 
but  none  in  Peru.  Upon  a  representation  of  this  to 
Charles  IT.  in  the  year  1697,  he  issued  a  new  edict, 
enforcing  the  observation  of  it,  and  professing  his 
desire  to  have  all  his  subjects,  Indians  and  mestizos 
as  well  as  Spaniards,  admitted  to  the  enjoyment  of 
the  same  privileges.  Such,  however,  was  the  aver- 
sion of  Spaniards  in  America  to  the  Indians  and 
their  race,  that,  this  seoms  to  have  produced  little 
effect;  for  in  the  year  1725  Philip  V.  WAS  obliged  to 
renew  the  injunction  in  a  more  peremptory  tone. 
But  so  unsurmountable  are  the  hatred  and  contempt 
of  the  Indians  among  the  Peruvian  Spaniards,  that 
the  present  king  has  been  constrained  to  enforce  the 
former  edicts  anew,  by  a  law  published  Sept.  11, 
1774.  Real  Cedula,  MS.  penes  me. 

M.  Clavigero  has  contradicted  what  I  have  related 
concerning  the  ecclesiastical  state  of  the  Indians, 
particularly  their  exclusion  from,  the  sacrament  of 
the  eucharist,  and  from  holy  orders,  either  as  secu- 
lars or  regulars,  in  such  a  manner  as  cannot  fail  to 
make  a  deep  impression.  He  from  his  own  know- 
ledge asserts,  "that  in  New  Spain  not  only  are  In- 
dians permitted  to  partake  of  the  sacrament  of  the 
altar,  but  that  Indian  priests  are  so  numerous  that 
they  may  b£  counted  by  hundreds  ;  and  among  these 
have  been  many  hundreds  of  rectors,  canons,  and 
doctors,  and,  as  report  goes,  even  a  very  learned 
bishop.  At  present  there  are  many  priests,  and  not 
a  few  rectors,  among  whom  there  have  been  three  or 
four  our  own  pupils."  VoL  ii.  348,  &c.  I  owe  it 
therefore  as  a  duty  to  the  public  as  well  as  to  myself, 
to  consider  each  of  these  points  with  care,  and  to 
explain  the  reasons  which  induced  me  to  adopt  the 
opinion  which  I  have  published. 

I  knew  that  in  the  christiau  church  there  is  no 
distinction  of  persons,  but  that  men  of  every  nation, 
who  embrace  the  religion  of  Jesus,  are  equally  en- 
titled to  every  Christian  privilege  which  they  are 
qualified  to  receive.  I  knew  likewise  that  an  opi- 
nion prevailed,  not  only  among  most  of  the  Spanish 
laity  settled  in  America,  but  among  "  many  ecclesi- 
astics, (I  use  the  words  of  Herrera,  dec.  ii.  lib.  ii. 
c.  15),  that  the  Indians  were  not  perfect  or  rational 
men,  and  were  not  possessed  of  such  capacity  as 
qualified  them  to  partake  of  the  sacrament  of  the 
altar,  or  of  any  other  benefit  of  our  religion."  It 
was  against  this  opinion  that  Las  Casas  contended 
with  the  laudable  zeal  which  I  have  described  in 
books  III.  and  VI.  But  as  the  Bishop  of  Darien, 
Dr.  Sepulvida,  and  other  respectable  ecclesiastics, 
vigorously  supported  the  common  opinion  concern- 
ing the  incapacity  of  the  Indians,  it  became  neces- 
sary, in  order  to  determine  the  point,  that  the  autho- 
rity of  the  holy  see  should  be  interposed  :  and  ac- 
cordingly Paul  III.  ifHied  a  bull,  A.  D.  J537,  in 


which,  after  condemning  the  opinion  of  those  who 
held  that  the  Indians,  as  being  on  a  level  with  brute 
beasts,  should  be  reduced  to  servitude,  he  declares 
that  they  were  really  men,  and  as  such  were  capable 
of  embracing  the  Christian  religion,  and  participat- 
ing of  all  its  blessings.  My  account  of  this  bull, 
notwithstanding  the  cavils  of  M.  Clavigero,  must 
appear  just  to  every  person  who  takes  the  trouble  of 
perusing  it ;  and  my  account  is  the  same  with  that 
adopted  by  Torquemada,  lib.  xvi.  c.  25,  and  by  Gar- 
cia, Orig.  p.  311.  But  even  after  this  decision,  so 
low  did  the  Spaniards  residing  in  America  rate  the 
capacity  of  the  natives,  that  the  first  council  of  Lima 
(I  call  it  by  that  name  on  the  authority  of  the  best 
Spanish  authors)  discountenanced  the  admission  of 
Indians  to  the  holy  communion.  Torquem.  lib.  xvi. 
c.  20.  In  New  Spain  the  exclusion  ef  Indians  from 
the  sacrament  was  still  more  explicit.  Ibid.  After 
two  centuries  have  elapsed,  and  notwithstanding  all 
the  improvement  that  the  Indians  may  be  supposed 
to  have  derived  from  their  intercourse  with  the  Spa- 
niards during  that  period,  we  are  informed  by  D. 
Ant.  Ulloa,  that  in  Peru,  where,  as  will  appear  in 
the  sequel  of  this  note,  they  are  supposed  to  be  bet- 
ter instructed  than  in  New  Spain,  their  ignorance  is 
so  prodigious  that  very  few  are  permitted  to  commu- 
nicate, as  bemg  altogether  destitute  of  the  requisite 
capacity.  Voy.  i.  341,  &c.  Solorz.  Polit.  Ind.  i.  203. 

With  respect  to  the  exclusion  of  Indians  from  the 
priesthood,  either  as  seculars  or  regulars,  we  may 
observe,  that  while  it  continued  to  be  the  common 
opinion  that  the  natives  of  America,  on  account  of 
their  incapacity,  should  not  be  permitted  to  partake 
of  the  holy  sacrament,  we  cannot  suppose  that  they 
would  be  clothed  with  that  sacred,  character  which 
entitled  them  to  consecrate  and  to  dispense  it.  When 
Torquemada  composed  his  Monarquia  Indiana,  it 
was  almost  a  century  after  the  conquest  of  New 
Spain  ;  and  yet  in  his  time  it  was  still  the  general 
practice  to  exclude  Indians  from  holy  orders.  Of 
this  we  have  the  most  satisfying  evidence.  Torque- 
mada having  celebrated  the  virtues  and  graces  of 
the  Indians  at  great  length,  and  with  all  the  compla- 
cency of  a  missionary,  he  starts  as  an  objection  to 
what  he  had  asserted,  "  If  the  Indians  really  pos- 
sess all  the  excellent  qualities  which  you  have  de- 
scribed, why  are  they  not  permitted  to  assume  the 
religious  habit  ?  Why  are  they  not  ordained  priests 
and  bishops,  as  the  Jewish  and  Gentile  converts 
were  in  the  primitive  church,  especially  as  they 
might  be  employed  with  such  superior  advantage  to 
other  persons  in  the  instruction  of  their  country- 
men ?"  Lib.  xvii .  c.  13. 

In  answer  to  this  objection,  which  establishes,  iu 
the  most  unequivocal  manner,  what  was  the  general 
practice  at  that  period,  Torquemada  observes,  that 
although  by  their  natural  dispositions  the  Indians 
are  well  fitted  for  a  subordinate  situation,  they  are 
destitute  of  all  the  qualities  requisite  in  any  station 
of  dignity  and  authority ;  and  that  they  are  in  gene- 
ral so  addicted  to  drunkenness,  that  upon  the  slight- 
est temptation  one  cannot  promise  on  their  behav- 
ing with  the  decency  suitable  to  the  clerical  charac- 
ter. The  propriety  of  excluding  them  from  it  on 
these  accounts  was,  he  observed,  so  well,justified  by 
experience,  that  when  a  foreigner  of  great  erudition, 
who  came  from  Spain,  condemned  the  practice  of 
the  Mexican  church,  he  was  convinced  of  his  mistake 
in  a  public  disputation  with  the  learned  and  most 
religious  father  D.  Juan  de  Gaona,  and  his  retracta- 
tion is  still  extant.  Torquemada  indeed  acknow- 
irrlgrr-,  35  M.  Clavigero  observer-,  with  a  degree  r-f 


276 


THE  HISTOHY  OF  AMERICA. 


exultation,  that  in  his  time  some  Indians  had  been 
admitted  into  monasteries;  but  with  the  art  of  a  dis- 
putant he  forgets  to  mention  that  Torquemada  spe- 
cifics only  two  examples  of  this,  and  takes  notice 
that  in  both  instances  those  Indians  have  been  ad- 
mitted by  mistake.  Relying  upon  the  authority  of 
Torquemada  with  regard  to  New  Spain,  and  of  Ulloa 
with  regard  to  Peru,  and  considering  the  humiliating 
depression  of  the  Indians  in  all  the  Spanish  settle- 
ments, I  concluded  that  they  were  not  admitted  into 
the-  ecclesiastical  order,  which  is  held  in  the  highest 
veneration  all  over  the  New  World. 

But  when  M.  Clavigero,  upon  his  own  knowledge, 
asserted  facts  so  repugnant  to  the  conclusion  I  had 
formed,  I  began  to  distrust  it,  and  to  wish  for  fur- 
ther information.  In  order  to  obtain  this  I  applied 
to  a  Spanish  nobleman,  high  in  office,  and  eminent 
for  his  abilities,  who,  on  different  occasions,  has 
permitted  me  to  have  the  honour  and  benefit  of  cor- 
responding with  him.  I  have  been  favoured  with  the 
following  answer:  "What  you  have  written  con- 
cerning the  admission  of  Indians  into  holy  orders,  or 
into  monasteries,  in  Book  VIII.,  especially  as  it  is 
explained  and  limited  in  Note  Ixxxviii.  of  the  quarto 
edition,  is  in  general  accurate,  and  conformable  to 
the  authorities  which  you  quote.  And  although  the 
congregation  of  the  council  resolved  and  declared, 
Feb.  13,  A.  D.  1682,  that  the  circumstance  of  being 
an  Indian,  a  mulatto,  or  mestizo,  did  not  not  disqua- 
lify any  person  from  being  admitted  into  holy  orders, 
if  he  was  possessed  of  what  is  required  by  the  canons 
to  entitle  him  to  that  privilege  ;  this  only  proves  such 
ordinations  to  be  legal  and  valid  (of  which  Solorzano 
and  the  Spanish  lawyers  and  historians  quoted  by 
him,  Pol.  Ind.  lib.  ii.  c.  29,  were  persuaded),  but  it 
neither  proves  the  propriety  of  admitting  Indians 
into  holy  orders,  nor  what  was  then  the  common 
practice  with  respect  to  this ;  but  on  the  contrary 
it  shows  that  there  was  some  doubt  concerning 
the  ordaining  of  Indians,  and  some  repugnance  to 
it. 

"  Since  that  time  there  have  been  some  examples 
of  admitting  Indians  into  holy  orders.  We  have 
now  at  Madrid  an  aged  priest,  a  native  of  Tlascala. 
His  name  is  D.  Juan  Cerilo  de  Castilla  Aquihual 
Catehutle,  descended  of  a  cazique  converted  to  Chris- 
tianity soon  after  the  conquest.  He  studied  the 
ecclesiastical  sciences  in  a  seminary  of  Puebla  de  los 
Angeles.  He  was  a  candidate,  nevertheless,  for  ten 
years,  and  it  required  much  interest  before  Bishop 
Abren  would  consent  to  ordain  him.  This  eccle- 
siastic is  a  man  of  unexceptionable  character,  rno- 
dest,  self-denied,  and  with  a  competent  knowledge  of 
what  relates  to  his  clerical  functions.  He  came  to 
Madrid  above  thirty-four  years  ago,  with  the  sole 
view  of  soliciting  admission  for  the  Indians  into  the 
colleges  and  seminaries  in  New  Spain,  that  if,  after 
being  well  instructed  and  tried,  they  should  find  an 
inclination  to  enter  into  the  ecclesiastical  state,  they 
might  embrace  it,  and  perform  its  functions  with  the 
greatest  benefit  to  their  countrymen,  whom  they 
could  address  in  their  native  tongue.  He  has  ob- 
tained various  regulations  favourable  to  his  scheme, 
particularly  that  the  first  college  which  became  vacant, 
in  consequence  of  the  exclusion  of  the  Jesuits,  should 
be  set  apart  for  this  purpose.  But  neither  these 
regulations,  nor  any  similar  ones  inserted  in  the 
laws  of  the  Indies,  have  produced  any  effect,  on  ac- 
count of  objections  and  representations  from  the 
greater  part  of  persons  of  chief  consideration  em- 
ployed in  New  Spain.  Whether  their  opposition  be 
well  founded  or  net,  is  a  problem  difficult  to  resolve, 


and  towards  the  solution  of  which  several  distinc- 
tions and  modifications  are  requisite. 

"  According  to  the  accounts  of  this  ecclesiastic, 
and  the  information  of  other  persons  who  have  re- 
sided in  the  Spanish  dominions  in  America,  you  may 
rest  assured  that  in  the  kingdom  Tierra  Firme  no 
such  thing  is  known  as  either  an  Indian  secular 
priest  or  monk ;  and  that  in  New  Spain  there  are 
very  few  ecclesiastics  of  Indian  race.  In  Peru,  per- 
haps, the  riumber  may  be  greater,  as  in  that  country 
there  are  more  Indians  who  possess  the  means  of 
acquiring  such  a  learned  education  as  is  necessary 
for  persons  who  aspire  to  the  clerical  character." 

NOTE  185. — Uztariz,  an  accurate  and  cautious 
calculator,  seems  to  admit  that  the  quantity  of  silver 
which  does  not  pay  duty  may  be  stated  thus  high. 
According  to  Herrera  there  was  not  above  a  third 
of  what  was  extracted  from  Potosi  that  paid  the 
king's  fifth.  Dec.  S,  lib.  ii.  c.  15.  Solorzano  asserts 
likewise  that  the  quantity  of  silver  which  is  fraudu- 
lently circulated,  is  far  greater  than  that  which  is 
regularly  stamped,  after  paying  the  fifth.  De  Ind. 
Jure,  vo'l.  ii.  lib.  v.  p.  846. 

NOTE  186. — When  the  mines  of  Potosi  were  dis- 
covered in  the  year  1545,  the  veins  were  so  near  the 
surface  that  the  ore  was  easily  extracted,  and  so  rich 
that  it  was  refined  with  little  trouble  and  at  a  small 
expense,  merely  by  the  action  of  fire.  The  simple 
mode  of  refining  by  fusion  alone  continued  until  the 
year  1574,  when  the  use  of  mercury  in  refining  sil- 
ver as  well  as  gold  was  discovered.  Those  mines 
having  been  wrought  without  interruption  for  two 
centuries,  the  veins  are  now  sunk  so  deep  that  the 
expense  of  extracting  the  ore  is  greatly  increased. 
Besides  this,  the  richness  of  the  ore,  contrary  to  what 
happens  in  most  other  mines,  has  become  less  as  the 
vein  continued  to  dip.  The  vein  has  likewise  di- 
minished to  such  a  degree,  that  one  is  amazed  that 
the  Spaniards  should  persist  in  working  it.  Other 
rich  mines  have  been  successively  discovered;  but 
in  general  the  value  of  the  ores  has  decreased  so 
much,  while  the  expense  of  extracting  them  has  aug- 
mented, that  the  court  of  Spain  in  the  year  1736 
reduced  the  duty  .payable  to  the  king  from  a  fifth  to 
a  tenth.  All  the"  quicksilver  used  in  Peru  is  extracted 
from  the  famous  mine  of  Guancabelica,  discovered 
in  the  year  1563.  The  crown  has  reserved  the  pro- 
perty of  this  mine  to  itself;  and  the  persons  who 
purchase  the  quicksilver  pay  not  only  the  price  of  it, 
but  likewise  &  fifth,  as  a  duty  to  the  king.  But  in 
the  year  1761  this  duty  on  quicksilver  was  abolished, 
on  account  of  the  increase  of  expense  in  working 
mines.  Ulloa,  Entretenimientos,  xii — xv.  Yoy.  i. 
p.  505,  523.  In  consequence  of  this  abolition  of  the 
fifth,  and  some  subsequent  abatements  of  price, 
which  became  necessary  on  account  of  the  increas- 
ing expense  of  working  mines,  quicksilver,  which 
was  formerly  sold  at  eighty  pesos  the  quintal,  is  now 
delivered  by  the  king  at  the  rate  of  sixty  pesos. 
Campomanes,  Educ.  Popul.  ii.  132,  note.  The  duty 
on  gold  is  reduced  to  a  twentieth,  or  five  per  cent. 
Any  of  my  readers  who  are  desirous  of  being  ac- 

rinted  with  the  mode  in  which  the  Spaniards  con- 
t  the  working  of  their  mines,  and  the  refinement 
of  the  ore,  will  find  an  accurate  description  of  the 
ancient  method  by  Acosta,  lib.  iv.  c.  1 — 13,  and  of 
their  more  recent  improvements  in  the  metallurgic 
art,  by  Gamboa  Comment,  a  las  ordenanz.  de  Minas, 
chap.  22. 

NOTE  187. — Many  remarkable  proofs  occur  of  the 
advanced  state  of  industry  in  Spain  at  the  beginning 
of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  number  of  cities  in 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


277 


Spain  was  considerable,  and  they  were  peopled  far 
beyond  the  proportion  that  was  common  in  other 
parts  of  Europe.  The  causes  of  this  I  have  explained, 
Hist,  of  Charles  V.  p.  355.  Wherever  cities  are 
populous,  that  species  of  industry  which  is  peculiar 
to  them  increases ;  artificers  and  manufacturers 
abound.  The  effect  of  the  American  trade  in  giving 
activity  to  these  is  manifest,  from  a  singular  fact. 
In  the  year  1545,  while  Spain  continued  to  depend 
on  its  own  industry  for  the  supply  of  its  colonies,  so 
much  work  was  bespoke  from  the  manufacturers,  that 
it  was  supposed'  they  could  hardly  finish  it  in  less 
than  six  years.  Campom.  i.  406.  Such  a  demand 
must  have  put  much  industry  in  motion,  and  have 
excited  extraordinary  efforts.  Accordingly,  we  are 
informed,  that  in  the  beginning  of  Philip  II. 's  reign 
the  city  of  Seville  alone,  where  the  trade  with  Ame- 
rica centred,  gave  employment  to  no  fewer  than 
1G,000  looms  in  silk  or  woollen  work,  and  that  above 
130,000  persons  had  occupation  in  carrying  on  these 
manufactures.  Campom.  ii.  472.  But  so  rapid  and 
pernicious  was  the  operation  of  the  causes  which  I 
shall  enumerate,  that  before  Philip  III.  ended  his 
reign  the  looms  in  Seville  were  reduced  to  400. 
Uztariz,  c.  7. 

Since  the  publication  of  the  first  edition  I  have  the 
satisfaction  to  find  my  ideas  concerning  the  early 
commercial  intercourse  between  Spain  and  her  colo- 
nies confirmed  and  illustrated  by  D.  Bernardo 
Ward,  of  the  Junta  de  Comercio  at  Madrid,  in  his 
Proi/iclo  Economics,  part  ii.  c.  i.  "  Under  the  reign  of 
Charles  V.  and  Philip  II."  says  he,  "  the  manufac- 
turers of  Spain  and  of  the  Low  Countries  subject  to 
her  dominion  were  in  a  most  flourishing  state. 
Those  of  France  and  England  were  in  their  infancy. 
The  republic  of  the  United  Provinces  did  not  then 
exist.  No  European  power  but  Spain  had  colonies 
of  any  value  in  the  New  World.  Spain  could  sup- 
ply her  settlements  there  with  the  productions  of  her 
own  soil,  the  fabrics  wrought  by  the  hands  of  her 
own  artizans,  and  all  she  received  in  return  for 
these  belonged  to  herself  alone.  Then  the  exclu- 
sion of  foreign  manufactures  was  proper,  because  it 
might  be  rendered  effectual.  Then  Spain  might  lay 
heavy  duties  upon  goods  exported  to  America,  or 
imported  from  it,  and  might  impose  what  restraints 
she  deemed  proper  upon  a  commerce  entirely  in  her 
own  hands.  But  when  time  and  successive  revolu- 
tions had  occasioned  an  alteration  in  all  those  cir- 
cumstances, when  the  manufactures  of  Spain  began 
to  decline,  and  the  demands  of  America  were  sup- 
plied by  foreign  fabrics,  the  original  maxims  and  re- 
gulations of  Spain  should  have  been  accommodated 
to  the  change  in  her  situation.  The  policy  that  was 
wise  at  one  period  became  absurd  in  the  other." 

NOTE  188. — No  bale  of  goods  is  ever  opened,  no 
chest  of  treasure  is  examined.  Both  are  received  on 
the  credit  of  the  persons  to  whom  they  belong;  and 
only  one  instance  of  fraud  is  recorded  during  the 
long  period  in  which  trade  was  carried  on  with  this 
liberal  confidence.  AH  the  coined  silver  that  was 
brought  from  Peru  to  Porto-bello  in  the  year  1654 
was  found  to  be  adulterated,  and  to  be  mingled  with 
a  fifth  part  of  base  metal.  The  Spanish  merchants, 
with  sentiments  suitable  to  their  usual  integrity,  sus- 
tained the  whole  loss,  and  indemnified  the  foreign- 
ers by  whom  they  were  employed.  The  fraud  was 
detected,  and  the  treasurer  of  the  revenue  in  Peru, 
the  author  of  it,  was  publicly  burnt.  B.  Ulloa  Re- 
tablis.  de  Manuf.  &c.  liv.  ii.  p.  102. 

NOTE  189. — Many  striking  proofs  occur  of  the 
scarcity  of  money  in  Spain.  Of  all  the  immense 


sums  which  have  been  imported  from  America,  the 
amount  of  which  I  shall  afterwards  have  occasion  to 
mention,  Moncada  asserts,  that  there  did  not  remain 
in  Spain,  in  1619,  above  two  hundred  millions  of 
pesost  one  half  in  coined  money,  the  other  in  plate 
and  jewels,  Restaur.  de  Espagna/disc.  iii.  c.  1. 
Uztariz,  who  published  his  valuable  work  in  1724, 
contends,  that  in  money,  plate,  and  jewels,  there  did 
not  remain  an  hundred  million.  Theor.  &c.  c.  3. 
Campomanes,  on  the  authority  of  a  remonstrance 
from  the  community  of  merchants  in  Toledo  to  Philip 
III.  relates,  as  a  certain  proof  how  scarce  cash^had 
become,  that  persons  who  lent  money  received  a 
third  part  of  the  sum  which  they  advanced  as  interest 
and  premium.  Educ.  Popul.  i.  417. 

NOTE  190. — The  account  of  the  mode  in  which  the 
factors  of  the  South-Sea  Company  conducted  the 
trade  in  the  fair  of  Porto-bello,  which  was  opened  to 
them  by  the  Assiento,  I  have  taken  from  Don  Dion. 
Alcedo  y  Herrera,  president  of  the  court  of  audience 
in  Quito,  and  governor  of  that  province.  Don  Dio- 
nysio  was  a  person  of  such  respectable  character  for 
probity  and  discernment,  that  his  testimony  in  any 
point  would  be  of  much  weight ;  but  greater  credit 
is  due  to  it  in  this  case,  as  he  was  an  eye-witness  of 
the  transactions  which  he  relates,  and  was  often 
employed  in  detecting  and  authenticating  the  frauds 
which  he  describes.  It  is  probable,  however,  that 
his  representation,  being  composed  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  war  which  broke  out  between  Great 
Britain  and  Spain,  in  the  year  1739,  may,  in  some 
instances,  discover  a  portion  of  the  acrimonious  spi- 
rit natural  at  that  juncture.  His  detail  of  facts  is 
curious ;  and  even  English  authors  confirm  it  in 
some  degree,  by  admitting  both  that  various  frauds 
were  practised  in  the  transactions  of  the  annual 
ship,  and  that  the  contraband  trade  from  Jamaica 
and  other  British  colonies  was  become  enormously 
great.  But  for  the  credit  of  the  English  nation  it 
may  be  observed  that  those  fraudulent  operations  are 
not  to  be  considered  as  deeds  of  the  company,  but  as 
the  dishonourable  arts  of  their  factors  and  agents. 
The  company  itself  sustained  a  considerable  loss  by 
the  Assiento  trade.  Many  of  its  servants  acquired 
immense  fortunes.  Anderson  Chronol.  deduct,  ii.  388. 

NOTE  191. — Several  facts  with  respect  to  the  in- 
stitution, the  progress,  and  the  effects  of  this  company 
are  curious,  and  but  little  known  to  English  readers. 
Though  the  province  of  Venezuela,  or  Caraccas, 
extends  four  hundred  miles  along  the  coast,  and  is 
one  of  the  most  fertile  in  America ;  it  was  so  much 
neglected  by  the  Spaniards,  that  during  the  twenty 
years  prior  to  tho  establishment  of  the  company, 
only  five  ships  sailed  from  Spain  to  that  province ; 
and  during  sixteen  years,  from  1706  to  1722,  not  a 
single  ship  arrived  from  the  Caraccas  in  Spain. 
Noticias  de  Real  Campania  de  Caraccas,  p.  28. 
During  this  period  Spain  must  have  been  supplied 
almost  entirely  with  a  large  quantity  of  cacao,  which 
it  consumes,  by  foreigners.  Before  the  erection  of 
the  company,  neither  tobacco  nor  hides  were  im- 
ported from  Caraccas  into  Spain.  Ibid.  p.  115 
Since  the  commercial  operations  of  the  company 
begun  in  the  year  1731,  the  importation  of  cacao  into 
Spain  has  increased  amazingly.  During  thirty  years 
subsequent  to  1701,  the  number  of  fanegaa  of 
cacao  (each  a  hundred  and  ten  pounds),  imported 
from  Caraccas  was  643,215.  During  eighteen  years 
subsequent  to  1731,  the  number  offunegat  imported 
was  869,247 ;  and  if  we  suppose  the  importation  to 
be  continued  in  the  same  proportion  during  the  re- 
mainder  of  thirty  years,  it  will  amount  to  1,448,746 


278 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


s,  which  is  an  increase  of  805,531  fanegas. 
Id.  p.  148.  During  eight  years  subsequent  to  1756, 
there  have  been  imported  into  Spain  by  the  company 
88,482  arrobas  (each  twenty -five  pounds)  of  tobacco; 
and  hides  to  the  number  of  177,354.  Id.  161.  Since 
the  publication  of  the  Noticias  de  Campania  in  1765 
its  trade  seems  to  be  on  the  increase.  During  five 
years  subsequent  ttf  1769,  it  has  imported  179,156 
fancy  as  of  cacao  into  Spain,  36,208  arrobas  of  to- 
bacco, 75,496  hides,  and  221,432  pesos  in  specie. 
Campomanes,  ii.  162.  The  last  article  is  a  proof  of 
the  growing  wealth  of  the  colony.  It  receives  cash 
from  Mexico  in  return  for  the  cacao,  with  which  it 
supplies  that  province,  and  this  it  remits  to  Spain,  or 
lays  out  in  purchasing  European  goods.  But  be- 
sides this  the  most  explicit  evidence  is  produced,  that 
the  quantity  of  cacao  raised  in  the  province  is  double 
to  what  it  yielded  in  1731;  the  number  of  its  live 
stock  is  more  than  treble,  and  its  inhabitants  much 
augmented.  The  revenue  of  the  bishop,  which  arises 
wholly  from  tithes,  has  increased  from  eight  to 
twenty  thousand  pesos.  Noticias,  p.  69.  In  con- 
sequence of  the  augmentation  of  the  quantity  of 
cacao  imported  into  Spain  its  price  has  decreased 
from  eighty  pesos  for  the  fan  eg  a  to  forty.  Id.  61. 
Since  the  publication  of  the  first  edition  I  have 
learned  that  Guyana,  including  all  the  extensive 
provinces  situated  on  the  banks  of  the  Orinoco,  the 
islands  of  Trinidad  and  Margarita,  are  added  to  the 
countries  with  which  the  company  of  Caraccas  had 
liberty  of  trading  by  their  former  charters.  Real 
Cedula,  Nov.  19,  1776.  But  I  have  likewise  been 
informed  that  the  institution  of  this  company  has 
not.  been  attended  with  all  the  beneficial  effects 
which  I  have  ascribed  to  it.  In  many  of  its  opera- 
tions the  illiberal  and  oppressive  spirit  of  monopoly 
is  still  conspicuous.  But  in  order  to  explain  tiiis  it 
would  be  necessary  to  enter  into  minute  details  which 
are  not  suited  to  the  nature  of  this  work. 

NOTE  192. — This  first  experiment  made  by  Spain 
of  opening  a  free  trade  with  any  of  her  colonies,  has 
produced  effects  so  remarkable  as  to  merit  some  fur- 
ther illustration.  The  towns  to  which  this  liberty 
has  been  granted  are  Cadiz  and  Seville,  for  the  pro- 
vince of  Andalusia;  Alicant  and  Carthagena,  for 
Valencia  and  Murcia  ;  Barcelona,  for  Catalonia  and 
Arragon  ;  Santander,  for  Castile  ;  Corugna,  for  Ga- 
licia ;  and  Gijon,  for  Asturias.  Append,  ii.  a  la 
Educ.  Popul.  p.  41.  These  are  either  the  ports  of 
chief  trade  in  their  respective  districts,  or  those  most 
conveniently  situated  for  the  exportation  of  their 
respective  productions.  The  following  facts  give  a 
view  of  the  increase  of  trade  in  the  settlements  to 
which  the  new  regulations  extend.  Prior  to  the 
allowance  of  free  trade,  the  duties  collected  in  the 
custom-house  at  the  Havannah  were  computed  to  be 
104,208  pesos  annually.  During  the  five  years  pre- 
ceding 1774,  they  rose  at  a  medium  to  308,000  pesos 
a  year.  In  Yucatan  the  duties  have  risen  from  8000 
to  15,000.  In  Hispaniola  from  2500  to  5600.  In 
Porto  Rico  from  1200  to  7000.  The  total  value  of 
goods  imported  from  Cuba  into  Spain  was  reckoned 
in  1774  to  be  1,500,000  pesos.  Educ.  Popul.  i. 
450,  &c. 

NOTE  193. — The  two  treatises  of  Don  Pedro  Ro- 
driguez Campomanes,  Fiscal  del  real  consejo  y  Su- 
premo (an  office  in  rank  and  power  nearly  similar  to 
that  of  Attorney-General  in  England),  and  director 
of  the  royal  academy  of  history,  the  one  entitled,  Dis- 
curso  sobre  el  Fomento  dn  la  Industria  Popular ;  the 
other,  Discurso  sobre  la  Education  Popular  de  los 
Artcsanos  y  su  Fomcnto  ;  the  fonncr  published  in 


1774,  and  the  latter  in  1775,  afford  a  striking  proof 
of  this.  Almost  every  point  of  importance  with  re- 
spect to  interior  police,  taxation,  agriculture,  manu- 
factures, and  trade,  domestic  as  well  as  foreign,  is 
examined  in  the  course  of  these  works  ;  and  there  are 
not  many  authors,  even  in  the  nations  most  eminent 
for  commercial  knowledge,  who  have  carried  on  their 
inquiries  with  a  more  thorough  knowledge  of  those 
various  subjects,  and  a  more  perfect  freedom  from 
vulgar  and  national  prejudices,  or  who  have  united 
more  happily  the  calm  researches  of  philosophy  with 
the  ardent  zeal  of  a  public-spirited  citizen.  These 
books  are  in  high  estimation  among  the  Spaniards  ; 
and  it  is  a  decisive  evidence  of  the  progress  of  their 
own  ideas  that  they  are  capable  of  relishing  an  au- 
thor whose  sentiments  are  so  liberal. 

NOTE  194. — The  galeon  employed  in  that  trade, 
instead  of  the  six  hundred  tons  to'which  it  is  limited 
by  law,  Recop.  lib.  xlv.  1,  15,  is  commonly  from 
twelve  hundred  to  two  thousand  tons  burden.  The 
ship  from  Acapulco,  taken  by  Lord  Anson,  instead 
of  the  500,000  pesos  permitted  by  law,  had  on  board 
1,313,843  pesos,  besides  uncoined  silver  equal  in 
value  to  43,611  pesdft  more.  Anson's  Voy.  381. 

NOTE  195. — The  price  paid  for  the  bull  varies 
according  to  the  rank  of  different  persons.  Those 
in  the  lowest  order,  who  are  servants  or  slaves,  pay- 
two  reals  of  plate,  or  one  shilling;  other  Spaniards 
pay  eight  reals,  and  those  in  public  office,  or  who 
hold  encomiendas,  sixteen  reals.  Solorz.  de  Jure 
Ind.  vol.  ii.  lib.  iii.  c.  25.  According  to  Chilton,  an 
English  merchant  who  resided  long  in  the  Spanish 
settlements,  the  bull  of  Cruzado  bore  a  higher  price 
in  the  year  1570.  being  then  sold  for  four  reals  at 
the  lowest.  Hakluyt,  iii.  461.  The  price  seems  to 
have  varied  at  different  periods.  That  exacted  for 
the  bulls  issued  in  the  last  Predicari-jn  will  appear 
from  the  ensuing  table,  which  will  give  some  idea  of 
the  proportional  numbers  of  the  different  classes  of 
citizens  in  New  Spain  and  Peru  : — 

There  wore  issued  for  New  Spain — 

Bulls  at  10  pesos  each         :         :         :  4 

at  2  pi-sos  each           :         :         :  22,601 

at  1  peso  each             :         :          :  164.220 

at  2  reals  each           :         :         :  2,462,500 


For  Peru— 

at  16  pesos  4-|-  reals  each 
at  3  pesos  3  reals  each 
at  1  peso  5£  reals 
at  4  reals    "  :  : 

at  3  reals       :  : 


2,649,325 

:     3 
14,202 
78,822 
410,325 
668,601 

1,171,953 

NOTE  196. — As  Villa  Segnor,  to  whom  we  are  in- 
debted for  this  information  contained  in  his  Teatro 
Americano,  published  in  Mexico,  A.  D.  1746,  was 
accomptant-general  in  one  of  the  most  considerable 
departments  of  the  royal  revenue,  and  by  that  means 
had  access  to  proper  information,  his  testimony  with 
respect  to  this  point  merits  great  credit.  No  such 
accurate  detail  of  the  Spanish  revenues  in  any  part 
of  America  has  hitherto  been  published  in  the  Eng- 
lish language  ;  and  the  particulars  of  it  may  appeav 
curious  and  interesting  to  some  of  my  readers  : 

Peso?. 

From  the  bull  of  Cru/ado,  published  every 
two  year?,  there  arises  an  annual  revenue 
in  pesos  '::::.  150,000 


THE  HISTORY   OF  AMERICA, 


279 


Brought  forward 
From  the  duty  on  silver 
From  the  duty  on  gold 
From  tax  on  cards        : 
From  tax  oa  Pulque,  a  drink  used  by 


Indians 

From  tax  on  stamped  paper 
From  ditto  on  ice          : 
From  ditto  on  leather 
From  ditto  on  gunpowder 
From  ditto  on  salt 
From  ditto  on  copper  of  Mcchochan 
From  ditto  on  alum 
From  ditto  on  Juego  de  los  gallos 
From  the  half  of  ecclesiastical  annats 
From  royal  ninths  of  bishoprics,  &c. 
From  the  tribute  of  Indians  : 

From  Alcavala,  or  duty  on  sale  of  goods 
From  the  Almajorifasgo,  custom-house 
From  the  mint     ; 


the 


Pesos. 

150,000 

700,000 

60,000 

70,000 

161,000 

41,000 

15,522 

2,500 

71,550 

32,000 

1,000 

6,500 

21,100 

49,000 

68,800 

650,000 

721,875 

373,333 

357,500 

5,552,680 


This  sum  amounts  to  819,1612.  sterling ;  and  if  we 
add  to  it  the  profit  accruing  from  the  sale  of  5,000 
quintals  of  quicksilver,  imported  from  the  mines  of 
Almaden,  in  Spain,  on  the  king's  account,  and  what 
accrues  from  the  Averia,  and  some  other  tax«s  which 
Villa  Segnor  does  not  estimate,  the  public  revenue 
in  New  Spain  may  well  be  reckoned  above  a  million 
pounds  sterling  money.  Teat.  Mex.  vol.  i.  p.  38, 
£c.  According  to  Villa  Segnor  the  total  produce  of 
the  Mexican  mines  amounts  at  a  medium  to  eight 
millions  of  pesos  in  silver  annually,  and  to  5912 
marks  of  gold.  Id.  p.  44.  Several  branches  of  the 
revenue  have  been  explained  in  the  course  of  the 
history  ;  some  which  there  was  no  occasion  of  men  • 
tioning,  require  a  particular  illustration.  The  right 
to  the  tithes  in  the  New  World  is  vested  in  the 
crown  of  Spain  by  a  bull  of  Alexander  VI.  Charles 
V.  appointed  them  to  be  applied  in  the  following 
manner :  one  fourth  is  allotted  to  the  bishop  of  the 
diocese,  another  fourth  to  the  dean  and  chapter,  and 
other  officers  of  the  cathedral.  The  remaining  half 
is  divided  into  nine  equal  parts.  Two  of  these,  un- 
der the  denomination  of  los  dos  Novenos  reales,  are 
paid  to  the  crown,  and  constitute  a  branch  of  the 
royal  revenue.  The  other  seven  parts  are  applied  to 
the  maintenance  of  the  parochial  clergy,  the  building 
and  support  of  churches,  and  other  pious  uses.  Recop. 
lib.  i.  tit.  xvi  Ley,  23,  &c.  Avendano  Thesaur. 
Indie,  vol.  i.  p  184. 

The  Alcavala  is  a  duty  levied  by  an  excise  on  the 
sale  of  goods.  In  Spain  it  amounts  to  ten  per  cent. 
In  America  to  four  per  cent.  Solorzano,  Polit.  In- 
diana, lib.  vi.  c.  8.  Avendano,  vol.  i  186. 

The  Almajorifasco,  or  custom  paid  in  America  on 
goods  imported  and  exported,  may  amount  on  an 
average  to  fifteen  per  cent.  Recopil.  lib.  viii.  tit.  xiv. 
Ley,  1.  Avendano,  vol.  i.  188. 

The  Averia,  or  tax  paid  on  account  of  convoys  to 
guard  the  ships  sailing  to  and  from  America,  was 
first  imposed  when  Sir  Francis  Drake  filled  the  New 
World  with  terror  by  his  expedition  to  the  South 
Sea,  It  amounts  to  two  per  cent,  on  the  value  of 
goods.  Avendano,  vol.  i.  p.  189.  Recopil.  lib.  ix. 
tit  ix.  Ley,  43,  44, 

I  have  not  been  able  to  procure  any  accurate  de- 
tail of  the  several  branches  of  revenue  in  Peru 
later  than  the  year  1614.  From  a  curious  manu- 
script containing  a  state  of  that  viceroyalty  in  all  its 


departments,  presented  to  the  Marquis  of  Monies- 
Clares  by  Fran.  Lopez  Caravantes,  accomptant-ge- 
neral  in  the  tribunal  of  Lima,  it  appears  that  the 
public  revenue,  as  nearly  as  I  can  compute  the  va- 
lue of  money  in  which  Caravantes  states  his  accounts, 
amounted  in  ducats  at  4s.  lid.  to  :  2,372,768 
Expenses  of  government  .  .  1,242,992 


Net  free  revenue         1,129,776 


The  total  in  sterling  money 
Expenses  of  government 


Net  free  revenue 


£583,303 
305,568 

277,735 


But  several  articles  appear  to  be  omitted  in  this 
computation,  such  as  the  duty  on  stamped  paper, 
leather,  ecclesiastical  annats,  &c.,  so  that  the  revenue 
of  Peru  may  be  well  supposed  equal  to  that  of 
Mexico. 

In  computing  the  expense  of  government  in  New 
Spain,  I  may  take  that  of  Peru  as  a  standard. 
There  the  annual  establishment  for  defraying  the 
charge  of  administration  exceeds  one  half  of  the 
revenue  collected,  and  there  is  no  reason  for  suppos- 
ing it  to  be  less  in  New  Spain. 

I  have  obtained  a  calculation  of  the  total  amount 
of  the  public  revenue  of  Spain  from  America  and 
the  Philippines,  which,  as  the  reader  will  perceive 
from  the  two  last  articles,  is  more  recent  than  any  of 
the  former. 


Alcavalas  (excise)  and  Aduanas  (customs), 


&c.,  in  pesos  fuertes 
Duties  on  gold  and  silver 
Bull  of  Cruzado         : 
Tribute  of  the  Indians 
By  sale  of  quicksilver 


Paper  exported  on  the  king's  account,  and. 
sold  in  the  royal  warehouses 


2,500,000 
3,000,POO 
1,000,000 
2,000,000 
300,000 


300,000 


Stamped  paper,  tobacco,  and  other  small 

duties  :  :  :  :  :  1,000,000 

Duty  on  coinage  of,  at  the  rate  of  one  real 

de  la  Plata  for  each  mark  :  :  300,000 

From  the  trade  of  Acapulco,  and  the  coast- 
ing trade  from  province  to  province  500,000 

Assiento  of  negroes  :         :         :  200,000 

From  the  trade  of  Mathe,  or  herb  of  Para- 
guay, formerly  monopolized  by  the 
Jesuits  :  :  :  :  :  500,000 

From  other  revenues  formerly  belonging  to 
that  order  :  :  :  :  :  400,000 


Total        12,000,000 


Total  in  sterling  money         £2,700,000 
Deduct  half  as  the  expense  of  administra- 
tion,   and  there   remains   net   free  re- 
venue :        :         :         :         £1,350,000 

NOTE  197. — An  author  long  conversant  in  com- 
mercial speculation  has  computed,  that  from  the 
mines  of  New  Spain  alone  the  king  receives  an- 
nually, as  his  fifth,  the  sum  of  two  millions  of  our 
money.  Harris,  Collect,  of  Voy.  ii.  p.  164.  Ac- 
cording to  this  calculation  the  total  produce  of  the 


280 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


mines  must  be  ten  millions  sterling ;  a  sum  so  exor- 
bitant, and  so  little  corresponding  with  all  accounts 
of  the  annual  importation  from  America,  that  the 
information  on  which  it  is  founded  must  evidently 
be  erroneous.  According  to  Compomanes  the  total 
product  of  the  American  mines  may  be  computed  at 
thirty  millions  of  pesos,  which,  at  4s.  6d.  a  peso, 
amounts  to  7,425,000/.  sterling,  the  king's  fifth  of 
which  (if  that  were  regularly  paid)  would  be 
1,485,OOOZ.  But  from  this  sum  must  be  deducted 
what  is  lost  by  a  fraudulent  withholding  of  the  fifth 
due  to  the  crown,  as  well  as  the  sum  necessary  for 
defraying  the  expense  of  administration.  Educ. 
Popular,  vol.  ii.  p.  131,  note.  Both  these  sums  are 
considerable. 

NOTE  198. — According  to  Bern,  de  Ulloa,   all 
foreign  goods  exported  from  Spain  to  America  pay 


duties  of  various  kinds,  amounting  in  all  to  mor* 
than  25  per  cent.  As  most  of  the  goods  with  which 
Spain  supplies  her  colonies  are  foreign,  such  a  tax 
upon  a  trade  so  extensive  must  yield  a  considerable 
revenue.  Retablis.  de  Manuf.  &  du  Commerce 
d'Esp.  p.  150.  He  computes  the  value  of  goods 
exported  annually  from  Spain  to  America  to  be 
about  two  millions  and  a  half  sterling.  P.  97. 

NOTE  199. — The  Marquis  de  Serralvo,  according 
to  Gage,  by  a  monopoly  of  salt,  and  by  embarking 
deeply  in  the  Manilla  trade,  as  well  as  in  that  to 
Spain,  gained  annually  a  million  of  ducats.  In  one 
year  he  remitted  a  million  of  ducats  to  Spain,  in 
order  to  purchase  from  the  Conde  Olivares,  and  his 
creatures,  a  prolongation  of  his  government,  p.  61. 
He  was  successful  in  his  suit,  and  continued  in  office 
from  1624  to  1635,  double  the  usual  time. 


END  or  ROBERTSON'S  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA 


HISTORY 


OP  THE 


UNITED    STATES 


OF 


NORTH   AMERICA, 


COMPILED  FROM 


AMERICAN  AND  OTHER  SOURCES. 


LIBRARY  |    EDITION 
or 

BDCCATION.CSE.JSTANDARD 

AND  WORKS 

JEMTKRTAINMENT  I  Native  &  Foroig,, 


LONDON: 

PRINTED,  STEREOTYPED,  AND  PUBLISHED 
BY    MAYHEW,    ISAAC,    AND    CO., 

14,  HENRIETTA  STREET, 

COVENT   GARDEN. 


1834. 


PREFACE. 


IN  conformity  with  the  plan  of  the  NATIONAL  LIBRARY,  the  present  HISTORY  OP  THE 
UNITED  STATES  is  a  careful  Compilation  from  the  Standard  Authors  on  the  subject ; 
and  it  will  be  sufficient  to  say,  that  it  contains  all  that  is  valuable  in  the  following 
Works,  corrected  by  reference  to  later  documents : — 

Hutchinson's  History  of  Massachusetts  Bay — Belknap's  History  of  New  Hampshire 
— Smith's  Histories  of  New  York  and  of  New  Jersey— Trumbull's  Civil  and  Ecclesiasti- 
cal History  of  Connecticut — Proud's  History  of  Pennsylvania — Franklin's  Historical 
Review  of  Pennsylvania — Jefferson's  Virginia — Hewett's  History  of  Carolina  and 
Georgia — Ramsay's  Revolutions  of  South  Carolina — The  Universal  History — Winter- 
botham's  Account  of  the  United  States — Warden's  Ditto — Willard's  History  of  the 
Same — Botta's  War  of  the  Independence — Pitkin's  History  of  the  States — Holmes's 
Annals — Marshall's  Life  of  Washington — The  Encyclopaedias — Rich's  View  of  the 
United  States — Stewart's  Travels. 

The  account  of  the  first  colonizing  of  New  England  and  of  Virginia  is  not  repeated 
in  this  Volume,  as  Robertson's  fragments  on  the  subject  will  be  found  appended  to  his 
History  of  (Spanish)  America.  This  latter  Work  having  been  considered  as  the  first 
part  of  the  present  (in  relation  to  the  whole  of  America),  the  pageing  has  been  carried 
on,  it  having  been  intended  to  bind  up  the  whole  together.  In  consequence,  however, 
of  a  very  general  request  on  the  part  of  those  Persons  who  already  possess  Robertson, 
this  portion  of  the  History  of  the  United  States  is  given  separately ;  thus  affording  to 
Purchasers  the  option  of  taking  either  or  both  Works. 

In  the  compilation,  the  Editor  has  been  careful  to  select  authentic  matter ;  but  has 
otherwise  presumed  to  do  little  more  than  occasionally  retrench  redundancies,  and  cor- 
rect matters  of  fact  by  reference  to  later  productions.  The  materials  were  ample,  but 
have  never  before  been  collected  ;  and  the  Volume  may  claim  attention  as  comprising 
the  main  body  of  Works  which  all  who  desire  information  relative  to  this  great  and 
rising  country,  must  possess,  and  which  yet  cannot  be  had  without  the  outlay  of  many 
pounds.  He  hopes  it  will  therefore  be  acceptable  to  Readers  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic ;  especially  as  it  is  the  only  existing  Work  which  fully  and  connectedly 
developes  the  rise,  progress,  and  completion  of  a  government  which  may  be  termed  a 
phenomenon  in  political  history. 

a  2 


CONTENTS. 


MASSACHUSETTS. 

From  the  arrival  of  Governor  Dudley,  in  1702,  to 
the  arrival  of  Governor  Shute,  in  1716  Page  291 

From  the  arrival  of  Governor  Shute,  in  1716,  to  the 
arrival  of  Governor  Belcher,  in  1730  .  311 

From  the  arrival  of  Governor  Belcher,  in  1730,  to 
the  reimbursement  of  the  charge  of  the  expedition 
against  Cape  Breton,  and  the  abolition  of  paper 
money,  1749  .  352 

From  the  close  of  the  war  with  France,  to  the  end  of 
Governor  Pownall's  administration,  in  the  year 
1760  .  .  372 

From  the  arrival  of  Governor  Bernard,  August  2nd, 
1760,  to  the  commencement  of  the  revolution  392 

NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

The  grants  to  Mason  and  others.  Beginning  of  the 
settlements  at  Portsmouth  and  Dover.  Wheel- 
right's  Indian  purchase.  Neal's  adventures.  Dis- 
couragements. Dissolution  of  the  Council.  Causes 
of  the  failure  of  his  enterprise  .  398 

Troubles  at  Dover.  Settlements  of  Exeter  and  Hamp- 
ton. Huin  of  Mason's  interest.  Story  of  Under- 
bill. Combinations  at  Portsmouth  and  Dover. 
Union  of  New  Hampshire  with  Massachusetts  402 

Observations  on  the  principles  and  conduct  of  the 
first  planters  of  New  England.  Causes  of  their 
removal.  Their  fortitude.  Religious  sentiments. 
Care  of  their  posterity.  Justice.  Laws.  The- 
ocratic prejudices.  Intolerance  and  persecu- 
tions .  .  .  4Q6 

Mode  of  government  under  Massachusetts.  Mason's 
efforts  to  recover  the  property  of  his  ancestor. 
Transactions  of  the  King's  commissioners.  Op- 
position to  them.  Political  principles.  Internal 
transactions.  Mason  discouraged  .  412 

Remarks  on  the  temper  and  manners  of  the  Indians. 
The  first  general  war  with  them,  called  Philip's 
war  ...  415 

Mason's  renewed  efforts.  Randolph's  mission  and 
transactions.  Attempts  for  the  trial  of  Mason's 
title.  New  Hampshire  separated  from  Massa- 
chusetts, and  made  a  royal  province.  Abstract  of 
the  commission.  Rema'rks  on  it  .  423 

The  administration  of  Cranfield.  Violent  measures. 
Insurrection,  trial,  and  imprisonment  of  Gove. 
Mason's  suits.  Vaughan's  imprisonment.  Pro- 


secution of  Moody  and  his  imprisonment.  Arbi- 
trary proceedings.  Complaints.  Tumults.  Weare's 
agency  in  England.  Cranfield's  removal.  Bare- 
foote's  administration  .  Page  427 

The  administration  of  Dudley  as  president,  and  An- 
drosse  as  governor  of  New  England.  Mason's 
farther  attempt.  His  disappointment  and  death. 
Revolution  in  England.  Sale  to  Allen.  His 
commission  for  the  government  .  433 

The  war  with  the  French  and  Indians,  commonly 
called  King  William's  war  .  435 

The  civil  affairs  of  the  province  during  the  adminis- 
trations of  Usher,  Partridge,  Allen,  the  earl  of 
Bellamont,  and  Dudley— comprehending  the  con- 
troversy with  Allen  and  his  heirs  .  443 

The  war  with  the  French  and  Indians,  called  Queen 
Anne's  war.  Conclusion  of  Dudley's  and  Usher's 
administration  .  450 

The  administration  of  Governor  Sbute,  and  his  lieu, 
tenants,  Vaughan  and  Wentworth  .  455 

The  fourth  Indian  war,  commonly  called  the  three 
years'  war,  or  Lovewell's  war  .  460 

Wentworth's  administration  continued.  Burnet's 
short  administration.  Belcher  succeeds  him. 
Wentworth's  death  and  character  .  467 

Dunbar's  lieutenancy  and  enmity  to  Belcher.  Ef- 
forts to  settle  the  boundary  lines.  Divisions. 
Riot.  Trade.  Episcopal  church.  Throat  dis- 
temper .  469 

State  of  parties.  Controversy  about  lines.  Com- 
missioners appointed.  Their  session  and  result. 
Appeals.  Complaints  .  •  473 

Revival  of  Mason's  claim.  Accusations  against  Bel- 
cher, real  and  forged.  Royal  censure.  Final  es- 
tablishment of  the  lines.  Hutchinson's  agency. 

I  Spanish  war.  Belcher's  zeal  and  fidelity.  His 
removal.  Examination  of  his  character  .  4/8 

The  beginning  of  Benning  Wentworth's  administra- 
tion. War  opened  in  Nova  Scotia.  Expedition 
to  cape  Breton  ;  its  plan,  conduct,  and  success, 
with  a  description  of  the  island,  and  of  the  city 
of  Louisbourg  .  .  482 

Projected  expedition  to  Canada.  Alarm  by  the 
French  fleet.  State  of  the  frontiers.  Peace  489 

Purchase  of  Mason's  claim.  Controversy  about  re- 
presentation. Plan  of  extending  the  settlements. 
Jealousy  and  resentment  of  the  savages  .  494 


CONTENTS. 


The  last  French  and  Indian  war,  which  terminated  in  , 
the  conquest  of  Canada.  Controversy  concerning 
the  land  westward  of  Connecticut  river  Page  498 

NEW  YORK. 

From  the  discovery  of  the  colony  to  the  surrender  in 
1664  504 

From  the  surrender  in  1664,  to  the  settlement  at 
the  English  revolution  of  1688  511 

From  the  revolution  to  the  second  expedition  against 
Canada  .  .  526 

From  the  Canada  expedition,  in  1709,  to  the  arrival 
of  Governor  Burnet  .  •  542 

From  the  year  1720  to  the  commencement  of  the  ad- 
ministration of  Colonel  Cosby  .  551 

NEW  JERSEY. 

First  settlers.  Acquirement  by  the  English.  Lord 
Berkeley  and  Sir  George  Carteret  proprietors. 
Purchase  of  Elizabeth  Town,  and  settlement  of 
Newark,  Middletown,  and  Shrewsbury.  Philip 
Carteret  governor.  Purchases  from  the  Indians. 
Captain  Berry  deputy  governor.  Currency.  Sir 
George  Carteret's  additional  instructions  .  562 

Major  Andross  appointed  governor  at  New  York. 
Takes  possession  at  Delaware.  Arrival  of  the  first 
English  settlers  to  West  Jersey,  under  the  Duke 
of  York's  title.  Lord  Berkeley  assigns  his  moiety 
of  New  Jersey  to  Byllinge,  and  he  in  trust  to 
others.  Their  letter  and  first  commission.  New 
Jersey  divided  into  the  provinces,  East  and  West 
Jersey ;  and  the  declaration  of  the  West  Jersey 
proprietors  .  .  .  563 

Arrival  of  more  settlers  to  West  Jersey.  Their  dif- 
ficulties. Their  purchases  from  the  Indians.  They 
lay  out  a  town.  Some  of  their  first  sentiments  of 
the  country,  and  an  account  of  the  Duke  of  York's 
two  last  grants,  being  for  the  provinces  East  and 
West  New  Jersey,  separately  .  567 

Letters  from  some  of  the  settlers  of  West  Jersey, 
and  arguments  against  the  customs  imposed  at  the 
Hoar  Kill  by  the  governor  of  New  York  .  570 

The  first  form  of  government  in  West  Jersey,  under 
the  proprietors.  The  first  laws  they  made.  The 
regulation  relative  to  the  partitioning  of  land  574 

Another  ship  arrives  at  West  Jersey.  Proceedings 
of  the  general  assembly  of  West  Jersey.  Sir 
George  Carteret's  death.  Conveyance  to  the 
twelve  eastern  proprietors.  Their  proposals  and 
regulations  in  several  respects;  particularly  in 
disposing  of  lands  and  building  a  town  at  Ambo 
point.  The  twelve  proprietors  each  take  a  partner, 
and  thence  are  called  the  twenty-four  ;  to  whom 
the  Duke  of  York  makes  a  third  and  last  grant. 
The  twenty-four  establish  the  council  of  proprietors 
of  East  Jersey  on  the  footing  it  now  is.  A  gene- 
ral view  of  the  improvements  in  East  Jersey,  in 
1682.  A  compendium  of  some  of  the  first  laws 
passed  at  Elizabeth-town.  Doubts  started  whether 
the  government  of  West  Jersey  was  granted  with 


the  soil.     Jenings  continued  governor  of  West 
Jersey  ;  and  laws  passed  there        .        Page  57G 

Robert  Barclay  appointed  governor  of  East  Jersey, 
and  T.  Rudyard,  deputy.  Letters  from  Rudyard 
and  others  concerned  in  that  settlement  .  580 

Manner  of  the  West  Jersey  government  in  1684. 
Their  unsettled  state,  and  succession  of  governors. 
Danger  of  suffering  for  want  of  food  in  1687. 
The  division  line  run  by  G.  Keith ;  and  agreement 
between  the  governors  Coxe  and  Barclay.  Al- 
teration in  the  manner  of  locating  lands  in  West 
Jersey.  No  person  in  West  Jersey  to  purchase 
from  the  Indians  without  the  consent  of  the  coun- 
cil of  proprietors;  and  instructions  respecting 
deeds  and  warrants  for  taking  up  lands  .  584 

A  flood  at  Delaware  falls.  Death  and  character  of 
Thomas  Olive.  Commotions  in  East  and  West 
Jersey.  Surrender  of  the  two  governments  to 
Queen  Anne.  Her  acceptance,  and  commission 
to  Lord  Cornbury.  .  .  587 

Instructions  from  Queen  Anne  to  Lord  Cornbury 

590 

Lord  Cornbury  convenes  the  first  general  assembly 
after  the  surrender.  His  speech,  their  address, 
and  other  proceedings.  Queen  Anne's  proclama- 
tion for  ascertaining  the  rates  of  coin.  Lord  Corn- 
bury  dissolves  the  assembly,  and  convenes  a  new 
one.  Its  proceedings  and  dissolution.  A  sum- 
mary of  the  establishment  and  practice  of  the 
council  of  proprietors  of  West  Jersey.  Another 
assembly  called  .  .  598 

Lord  Cornbury's  answer  to  the  assembly's  remon- 
strance .  ,  .  604 

The  assembly's  reply  to  Lord  Cornbury's  answer  to 
their  remonstrance  .  .  608 

Memorial  of  the  West  Jersey  proprietors,  residing 
in  England,  to  the  lords  commissioners  for  trade 
and  plantations.  The  lieutenant-governor,  with 
some  of  the  council,  address  the  queen.  The  last 
meeting  of  assembly  under  Cornbury's  adminis- 
tration. They  continue  their  complaints.  Samuel 
Jenings,  death  and  character  .  615 

Lord  Lovelace  arrives  as  governor.  His  death ;  is 
succeeded  by  the  Lieutenant-governor  Isgoldsby. 
Arrival  of  Governor  Hunter.  The  aid  for  the  ex- 
pedition to  Canada.  A  new  assembly  chosen  620 

Representation  of  the  assembly  to  Governor  Hun- 
ter; and  his  answer  .  .  623 

A  session  of  general  assembly.  A  second  expedi- 
tion to  Canada.  Meeting  of  a  new  assembly. 
Last  session  in  Hunter's  time.  An  act  passed  for 
running  the  division  line  between  East  and  West 
Jersey.  William  Burnet  arrives  as  governor.  Is 
succeeded  by  John  Montgomerie,  Esq.  Lewis 
Morris  appointed  governor,  separate  from  New 
York.  Affairs  until  the  revolution  .  629 

CONNECTICUT. 

The  patent  of  Connecticut.  The  discovery  of  Con- 
necticut river.  Description  of  other  rivers.  Ply- 


CONTENTS. 


mouth   and   Dutch  houses.     Prospects  of  trade 
upon  the  riter         .  Page  635 

The  state  of  the  country  of  Connecticut  when  the 
settlement  of  the  colony  commenced.  Its  trees 
and  fruits.  Its  animals.  Number,  situation,  ge- 
nius, manners,  arms,  utensils,  and  wars  of  the  In- 
dians .  .  .  638 

The  people  at  Dorchester,  Watertown,  and  New- 
town,  finding  themselves  straitened  in  the  Massa- 
chusetts, determine  to  remove  to  Connecticut.  De- 
bates in  Massachusetts  relative  to  their  removal. 
The  general  court  at  first  prohibits  it,  but  after- 
wards give  its  consent.  The  people  remove  and 
settle  the  towns  of  Windsor,  Hartford,  and  Wea- 
thersfield.  Hardships  and  losses  of  the  first  win- 
ters .  .  644 

The  war  with  the  Pequots.  Their  defeat.  A  second 
expedition  against  them  conjointly  with  Massa- 
chusetts. The  great  swamp  fight.  The  Pequots 
subdued.  The  survivors  incorporated  with  the 
Moheagans  and  Narragansets,  and  their  name  ex- 
tinguished .  .  .  648 

Effects  of  the  war.  Great  scarcity.  Settlement  of 
New  Haven.  Plantation  covenant.  Means  for 
the  defence  of  the  colony.  Captain  Mason  made 
major-general.  Civil  constitution  of  Connecticut, 
formed  by  voluntary  compact.  First  general  elec- 
tion at  Connecticut.  Governors  and  magistrates. 
General  rights  of  the  people,  and  principal  laws 
of  the  colony.  Constitution  and  laws  of  New 
Haven.  Purchase  and  settlement  of  several  towns 
in  Connecticut  and  New  Haven  .  650 

The  progress  of  purchase,  settlement,  and  law,  in 
the  colonies  of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven.  The 
effect  of  the  conquest  of  the  Pequots  on  the  na- 
tives, and  the  manner  in  which  they  were  treated. 
Purchases  of  them.  Towns  settled.  Divisions 
at  Weathersfield  occasion  the  settlement  of  Stam- 
ford. Contests  with  the  Dutch  and  Indians. 
Capital  laws  of  Connecticut.  The  confederation 
of  the  united  colonies.  Further  contests  with 
the  Indians.  Precautions  of  the  colonies  to  pre- 
vent war.  The  Dutch  apply  to  New  Haven  for 
assistance  .  .  .  658 

Public  fasts  appointed.  Indians  continue  hostile,  and 
commit  murder.  Acts  of  the  commissioners  respect- 
ing them.  Branford  settled.  Towns  in  Connecticut. 
Message  of  the  commissioners  to  theNarragansets. 
Their  agreement  respecting  Uncas.  Long  Island 
Indians  taken  under  the  protection  of  the  United 
Colonies.  Massachusetts  claims  part  of  the  Pe- 
quot  country  and  Waranoke.  Determination 
of  the  commissioners  respecting  said  claim.  Agree- 
ment with  Mr.  Fenwick  relative  to  Saybrook  fort 
and  the  adjacent  country,,  Fortifications  advanced. 
Extraordinary  meeting  of  the  commissioners  to 
suppress  the  outrages  of  the  Narragansets.  War 
proclaimed  and  troops  sent  against  them.  They 
treat  and  prevent  war.  Fail-field  objects  to  a  jury 
of  six.  Controversy  with  the  Dutch.  The  In- 
dians plot  against  the  life  of  Governor  Hopkins 
and  other  principal  gentlemen  at  Hartford.  Da- 
mages at  Windsor.  Battle  between  the  Dutch 
and  Indians.  Losses  of  New  Haven.  Dispute 
with  Massachusetts  relative  to  the  impost  at  Say- 
brook.  Mr.  Winthrop's  claim  of  the  Nehantic 


country.     Settlement  of  accounts  between  the  co- 
lonies       .  .  Page  666 

Settlement  of  New  London.  Salaries  first  granted 
to  civil  officers.  Troubles  with  the  Narraganset 
Indians.  Rhode  Island  petitions  to  be  united  with 
the  colonies  in  confederation.  The  Massachusetts 
resume  the  affair  of  the  impost.  Mr.  Westerhouse 
complains  of  the  seizure  of  his  vessel  by  the  Dutch, 
in  the  harbour  of  New  Haven.  Murders  com- 
mitted by  the  Indians  ;  resolutions  respecting  the 
murderers.  Body  of  laws  compiled.  Debates  re- 
lative to  the  settlement  of  Delaware.  The  Pe- 
quots revolt  from  Uncas,  and  petition  the  English. 
Resolution  respecting  them.  Mr.  Westerhouse 
petitions  to  make  reprisals  from  the  Dutch.  Let- 
ter to  the  Dutch  governor.  Further  altercations 
respecting  the  impost.  Final  issue  of  that  affair. 
The  conduct  of  the  Massachusetts  upon  its  de- 
cision, and  the  declaration  of  the  commissioners 
respecting  it.  Their  treatment  of  Connecticut 
respecting  the  line  between  the  colonies.  The 
court  of  Connecticut  determine  to  avenge  the 
death  of  John  Whitmore  .  676 

Court  of  election  at  Hartford.  Grants  to  Captain 
Mason.  Message  to  Ninigrate.  The  line  is  fixed 
between  the  English  and  Dutoh  plantations.  Agree- 
ments with  Mr.  Fenwick  occasion  general  uneasi- 
ness. An  act  for  the  encouragement  of  seeking 
and  improving  mines.  Norwalk  and  Mattabeseck 
settled.  The  colony  of  New  Haven  make  another 
attempt  to  settle  at  Delaware.  The  Dutch  go- 
vernor seizes  the  company,  and  frustrates  the  de- 
sign. French  commissioners  from  Canada.  War 
determined  with  the  Dutch  and  Indians.  Massa- 
chusetts prevents  it.  Alarm  and  distress  of  the 
plantations.  Appeal  to  Cromwell  and  the  parlia- 
ment for  assistance.  The  tumultuous  state  of  the 
settlements  ...  681 

The  death  and  character  of  Governor  Haynes.  The 
freemen  of  Connecticut  meet,  and  appoint  a  mo- 
derator. Mr.  Ludlow  removes  to  Virgfciia.  The 
spirited  conduct  of  the  people  at  Milford  in  recover- 
ing Manning's  vessel.  The  freemen  add  to  the 
fundamental  articles.  Fleet  arrives  at  Boston  for 
the  reduction  of  the  Dutch.  The  colonies  agree 
to  raise  men  to  assist  the  armament  fromEn gland. 
Peace  prevents  the  expedition.  The  general  court 
at  New  Haven  charge  the  Massachusetts  with  a 
breach  of  the  confederation.  They  refuse  to  join 
in  a  war  against  Ninigrate,  and  oblige  Connec- 
ticut and  New  Haven  to  provide  for  the  defence 
of  themselves  and  their  allies.  Ninigrate  con- 
tinuing his  hostile  measures,  the  commissioners 
send  messengers  to  him.  His  answer  to  them. 
They  declare  war,  and  send  an  army  against  him. 
The  art  of  Massachusetts,  and  the  deceit  of  Major 
Willard,  defeat  the  designed  expedition.  The 
number  of  rateable  polls,  and  the  amount  of 
the  list  of  Connecticut.  The  Pequots  are  taken 
under  their  protection.  Ninigrate  persisting  in 
his  hostilities  against  the  Indians  upon  Long 
Island,  the  general  court  adopt  measures  for  the 
defence  of  the  Indians  and  the  English  inhabi- 
tants there.  New  Haven  complete  and  print 
their  laws.  The  answer  of  New  Haven  to  the 
protector's  invitation,  that  they  would  remove  to 
Jamaica.  Reply  of  the  commissioners  to  the 
Dutch  governor.  Uncas  embroils  the  country. 
Deaths  and  characters  of  Governors  Eaton  and 


viii 


CONTENTS. 


Hopkins.  Settlement  of  Stonington.  Mr.  Win- 
throp  chosen  governor.  The  third  fundamental 
article  is  altered  by  the  freemen.  Mr.  Fitch  and 
his  church  and  people  remove  to  Norwich.  Final 
settlement  of  accounts  with  the  heirs  of  Mr.  Fen- 
wick.  Deputy-governor  Mason  resigns  the  Mo- 
heagan  lands  to  the  colony  .  Page  691 

The  general  court  of  Connecticut  declare  their  loy- 
alty and  submission  to  Charles  II.  ;  determine  to 
address  his  majesty,  and  apply  for  charter  privi- 
leges. Governor  Winthrop  is  appointed  the  co- 
lony's agent.  Regicides  condemned.  Whalley 
and  Goffe  arrive  at  Boston.  The  king  proclaimed. 
Governor  Winthrop  obtains  the  charter  of  Con- 
necticut. First  governor  and  council  under  the 
charter.  Representation  of  the  constitution  it  or- 
dains, and  the  privileges  it  conveys.  Difficulties 
of  the  colony  of  New  Haven.  Charter  of  Con- 
necticut arrives.  Proceedings  of  Connecticut  in 
consequence  of  the  charter.  They  extend  their 
jurisdiction  to  all  places  within  the  limits  of  their 
patent,  and  challenge  New  Haven  colony,  as 
under  their  jurisdiction.  Controversy  between 
the  two  colonies.  Settlement  of  Killingworth. 
Patent  of  the  Duke  of  York.  Colonel  Nichols 
and  commissioners  arrive,  reduce  all  the  Dutch 
settlements.  Their  extraordinary  powers.  Im- 
portant crisis  of  Connecticut.  Boundaries  be- 
tween Connecticut  and  New  York.  Union  of 
Connecticut  and  New  Haven.  .  698 

A  view  of  the  churches  of  Connecticut  and  New 
Haven.  Ecclesiastical  laws.  Care  to  diffuse 
general  knowledge ;  its  happy  influence.  At- 
tempts to  found  a  college  at  New  Haven.  No 
sectaries  in  Connecticut  nor  New  Haven  until 
after  the  union.  Deaths  and  characters  of  se- 
veral of  the  first  ministers.  Dissensions  in  the 
church.  Laws  against  the  Quakers.  A  synod 
proposed  and  convened.  Dissensions  continued 
at  Hartford  and  at  Weathersfield.  Settlement  o: 
Hadley.  Synod  at  Boston  709 

Conduct  of  the  king's  commissioners.  Counties  anc 
county  courts  regulated.  Governor  Winthrop's 
estate  freed  from  taxation.  Towns  settled.  Con- 
troversy with  Rhode  Island.  The  grounds  of  it, 
Courts  appointed  in  the  Narraganset  country 
Laws  revised  and  printed.  War  with  the  Dutch, 
Claims  and  conduct  of  Major  Edmund  Andross, 
Governor  of  New  York.  Protest  against  him, 
Conduct  of  Captain  Thomas  Bull.  Proclamation 
respecting  the  insult  received  from  Major  Andross 
Philip's  war.  Captains  Hutchinson  and  Lothroj 
surprised  and  slain.  Treachery  of  the  Springfiel 
Indians.  Hadley  attacked  by  the  enemy.  The 
assembly  make  provision  for  the  defence  of  Con 
necticut.  Expedition  against  the  Narraganse 
Indians.  The  reasons  of  it.  The  great  swamj 
fight.  Loss  of  men.  Courage  exhibited,  anc 
hardships  endured.  Captain  Pierce  and  his  party 
cut  off.  Nanunttenoo  taken.  Success  of  Cap 
tains  Denison  and  Avery.  Captain  Wadsworth 
and  his  party  slain.  Death  and  character  of  Go- 
vernor Winthrop.  Success  of  Major  Talcott 
Attack  upon  Hadley.  The  enemy  beaten  anc 
begin  to  scatter.  They  are  pursued  to  Housato 
nick.  Sachem  of  Quabaug  and  Philip  killed 
Number  of  the  enemy  before  fehe  war.  Their  dc 
rtruction.  Loss  of  the  colonies.  Connection 


happy  in  preserving  its  own  towns  and  assisting 
its  neighbours.  .  .      Page     720 

Measures  adopted  to  discharge  the  public  debt,  and 
settle  the  country  in  peace.  The  reasons  of  the 
colonies  claim  to  Narraganset.  The  former  set- 
tlers and  owners  of  land  there  apply  to  Connecti- 
cut for  protection.  Major  Treat  goes  to  the  upper 
towns  upon  Connecticut  river,  to  treat  with  the 
Indians.  Fasts  appointed  through  New  England. 
Act  concerning  the  conquered  lands  in  Narra- 
ganset. Navigation  act  grievous  to  the  colonies. 
Governor  Leet  takes  the  oath  respecting  trade 
and  navigation.  Answers  to  queries  from  the 
lords  of  trade  and  plantations.  Protest  against 
Sir  Edmund  Andross's  claim  to  Fisher's  Island. 
Character  of  Governor  Leet.  Commissioners  ap- 
pointed by  his  majesty  to  examine  and  make  re- 
port concerning  all  claims  to  the  Narraganset 
country,  or  king's  province.  They  report  in  fa- 
vour of  Connecticut.  Answers  to  the  renewed 
claim  of  the  Duke  of  Hamilton,  and  opinions  on 
the  case.  Connecticut  congratulates  the  arrival 
of  Colonel  Dungan,  governor  of  New  York,  and 
agrees  with  him  respecting  the  boundary  line  be- 
tween that  colony  and  Connecticut.  Petition  to 
King  James  II.  Settlement  of  Waterbury.  Quo 
warrantos  against  the  colony.  The  assembly  pe- 
tition his  majesty  to  continue  their  charter  privi- 
leges. Sir  Edmund  Andross  made  governor  of 
New  England.  Arrives  at  Hartford,  and  takes 
the  government,  by  order  of  his  majesty.  The 
oppression  and  cruelty  of  his  administration  730 

Revolution  in  New  England.  Connecticut  resumes 
its  government.  Address  to  King  William. 
Troops  raised  for  the  defence  of  the  eastern  set- 
tlements in  New  Hampshire  and  the  province 
of  Maine.  French  and  Indian  war.  Schenectady 
destroyed.  Connecticut  dispatch  a  reinforcement 
to  Albany.  Expedition  against  Canada.  The 
land  army  retreats,  and  the  enterprise  proves  un- 
successful. Leisler's  abuse  of  Major-general 
Winthrop.  The  assembly  of  Connecticut  approve 
the  general's  conduct.  Thanks  are  returned  to 
Mr.  Mather,  Agent  Whiting,  and  Mr.  Porter. 
Opinions  respecting  the  charter,  and  the  legality 
of  Connecticut's  assuming  its  government. 
Windham  settled.  The  Mohawk  castles  are  sur- 
prised, and  the  country  alarmed.  Connecticut 
sends  troops  to  Albany.  Colonel  Fletcher,  gover- 
nor of  New  York,  demands  the  command  of  the 
militia  of  Connecticut.  The  colony  petition  King 
William  on  the  subject.  Colonel  Fletcher  comes 
to  Hartford,  and,  in  person,  demands  that  the 
legislature  submit  the  militia  to  his  command  ;  but 
they  refuse.  Captain  Wadsworth  prevents  the 
reading  of  his  commission,  and  the  colonel  deems 
it  expedient  to  leave  the  colony.  The  case  of 
Connecticut  relative  to  the  militia  stated.  His 
majesty  determines  in  favour  of  the  colony.  Com- 
mittees are  appointed  to  settle  the  boundary  line 
between  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts.  Ge- 
neral Winthrop  returns,  and  receives  public 
thanks.  Congratulation  of  the  earl  of  Bellamont, 
appointed  governor  of  New  York  and  Massachu- 
setts. Dispute  with  Rhode  Island  continues. 
Committee  to  settle  the  boundaries.  Expenses 
of  the  war.  Peace  .  .  737 

General  Winthrop  is  elected  governor.  The  as- 
sembly divide  an.d  form  into  two  houses.  Purchase 


CONTENTS. 


and  settlement  of  several  towns.  The  boundary 
line  between  Connecticut  and  New  York  surveyed 
and  fixed.  Attempts  for  running  and  establish- 
ing the  line  between  Massachusetts  and  Connecti- 
cut. Owaneco  and  the  Moheagans  claim  Col- 
chester and  other  tracts  in  the  colony.  Attempts 
to  compose  all  differences  with  them.  Grant  to 
the  volunteers.  The  assembly  enacts,  that  the 
session  in  October  shall  for  the  future  be  in  New 
Haven.  An  act  enlarging  the  boundaries  of  New 
London,  and  acts  relative  to  towns  and  patents. 
Measures  adopted  for  the  defence  of  the  colony. 
Appointment  of  king's  attorneys.  Attempts  to 
despoil  Connecticut  of  its  charter.  Bill  for  re- 
uniting the  charter  governments  to  the  crown. 
Sir  Henry  Ashurst  petitions  against,  and  prevents 
the  passing  of  the  bill.  Governor  Dudley,  Lord 
Cornbury,  and  other  enemies  conspire  against  the 
colony.  They  exhibit  grievous  complaints  against 
it.  Sir  Henry  Ashurst  defends  the  colony,  and 
defeats  their  attempts.  Quakers  petition.  Mohe- 
agan  case.  Survey  and  bounds  of  the  pretended 
Moheagan  country.  Dudley's  court  at  Stoning- 
ton.  The  colony  protest  against  it.  Dudley's 
treatment  of  the  colony.  Judgment  against  it. 
Petition  to  her  majesty  on  the  subject.  New  com- 
missions are  granted.  Act  in  favour  of  the  clergy. 
State  of  the  colony  .  .  Page  743 

The  country  is  alarmed.  Means  of  defence.  New 
townships  granted  and  settled.  The  Rev.  Gurdon 
Saltonstall  chosen  governor.  Act  empowering 
the  freemen  to  choose  the  governor  from  among 
themselves  ?t  large.  Acts  relative  to  the  settle- 
ment of  the  boundary  line  with  Massachusetts. 
Garrisons  erected  in  the  towns  on  the  frontiers. 
Expedition  against  Canada.  First  emission  of 
paper  money.  Address  to  her  majesty.  Loss  of 
the  colony  at  Wood  Creek.  Expedition  against 
Port  Royal.  Acts  respecting  the  superior  court. 
Settlement  of  the  boundary  line  between  Mas- 
sachusetts and  Connecticut.  Return  of  peace. 
Towns  settled  under  Massachusetts.  State  of  the 
colony.  .  .  .  754 

Ecclesiastical  Affairs  of  Connecticut,  from  1666  to 
1714. — The  general  assembly  appoint  a  synod  to 
determine  points  of  religious  controversy.  The  mi- 
nisters decline  meeting  under  the  name  of  a  synod. 
The  assembly  alter  the  name,  and  require  them  to 
meet  as  a  general  assembly  of  the  ministers  and 
churches  of  Connecticut.  Seventeen  questions 
were  proposed  to  the  assembly  to  be  discussed  and 
answered.  The  assembly  of  ministers  and  churches 
meet  and  discuss  the  questions.  The  legislature 
declare  that  they  had  not  been  decided,  and  give 
intimations  that  they  did  not  desire  that  the  mi- 
nisters and  churches  of  Connecticut  should  report 
their  opinion  upon  them.  They  express  their  de- 
sires of  a  larger  council  from  Massachusetts  and 
New  Plymouth.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Davenport  re- 
moves to  Boston.  Dissension  at  Windsor.  Mr. 
Bulkley  and  Mr.  Fitch  are  appointed  by  the  as- 
sembly to  devise  some  way  in  which  the  churches 
might  walk  together,  notwithstanding  their  dif- 
ferent opinions  relative  to  the  subjects  of  baptism, 
church  communion,  and  the  mode  of  church  dis- 
cipline. The  church  at  Hartford  divides,  and 
Mr.  Whiting  and  his  adherents  are  allowed  to 
practise  upon  congregational  principles.  The 
church  at  Stratford  allowed  to  divide,  and  hold 
distinct  meetings.  Mr.  Walker  and  his  hearers, 


upon  advice,  remove  and  settle  the  town  of  Wood- 
bury.  Deaths  and  characters  of  the  Rev.  Messrs. 
John  Davenport  and  John  Warham.  General 
attempts  for  a  reformation  of  manners.  Religious 
state  of  the  colony  in  1680.  Attempts  for  the 
instruction  and  christianizing  of  the  Indians  in. 
Connecticut.  Act  of  the  legislature  respecting 
Windsor.  The  people  there  required  peaceably 
to  settle  and  support  Mr.  Mather.  Owning  or 
subscribing  the  covenant  introduced  at  Hartford. 
College  founded,  and  trustees  incorporated.  Wor- 
ship according  to  the  mode  of  the  church  of  Eng- 
land performed,  in  this  colony,  first  at  Stratford. 
Episcopal  church  gathered  there.  Act  of  as- 
sembly requiring  the  ministers  and  churches  of 
Connecticut  to  meet  and  form  a  religious  consti- 
tution. They  meet  and  compile  the  Saybrook 
Platform.  Articles  of  discipline.  Act  of  the  le- 
gislature adopting  the  Platform.  Associations; 
consociations.  General  association.  Its  recom- 
mendations relative  to  the  examination  of  candi- 
dates for  the  ministry,  and  of  pastors  elect  pre- 
vious to  their  ordination.  Ministers,  churches,  and 
Ecclesiastical  Societies  in  Connecticut,  in  1713 

Page  759 

RHODE  ISLAND  AND  PROVIDENCE. 

Origin  of  the  colony.  Roger  Williams.  His  views. 
William  Coddington  and  his  companions  seek  the 
colony.  Rhode  Island  refuses  to  submit  to  the 
jurisdiction  of  Plymouth.  Government  established, 
and  code  of  laws.  Charter  granted  by  Charles 
II.  Internal  state  of  the  colony.  Government. 
Laws.  Towns.  Produce.  Exports.  Religion. 
Literature,  &c.  .  .  772 

PENNSYLVANIA  AND  DELAWARE. 

Introduction.    Biography  of  Penn     .  781 

William  Penn's  chief  design  in  the  colonization  of 
Pennsylvania.  Cause  and  manner  of  obtaining 
the  grant.  King  Charles  II.'s  royal  charter  to 
William  Penn.  Boundary  between  Maryland 
and  Pennsylvania,  with  the  real  extent  of  the 
latter.  The  king's  declaration.  Account  of  the 
province,  terms  of  sale  for  land,  andconditions  of 
settlement  published,  with  advice  to  the  adven- 
turers. Free  society  of  traders,  &c.  787 

Conditions,  or  concessions  published.  Sailing  of 
the  first  ship  for  Pennsylvania.  Joseph  Kirk- 
bride,  &c.  The  proprietor's  manner  of  treating 
the  Indians.  His  letter  to  them.  First  frame  of 
government  and  laws  published.  Part  of  the  pre- 
face to  the  same.  Purport  of  the  frame,  and  one 
of  the  laws.  Duke  of  York's  deed  of  release  to 
William  Penn.  The  territories  obtained,  &c. 
Boundary  between  the  territories  and  Mary- 
land ...  793 

Penn  sails  for  Pennsylvania.  Writes  a  valedictory 
epistle  to  his  friends  in  England.  Arrives  in  the 
Delaware.  His  reception  in  the  country.  Holds 
an  assembly  at  Upland  (Chester).  Passes  an 
act  of  union  between  the  province  and  territory. 
Naturalizes  the  foreigners.  Passes  the  laws 
agreed  on  in  England,  in  form.  Preamble  to  said 
laws  with  their  titles.  He  visits  New  York  and 
Maryland  ;  and  treats  with  the  Lord  Baltimore, 
respecting  the  boundaries.  Extracts  from  two  of 


CONTENTS. 


his  letters,  respecting  his  employment  in  the 
country,  and  in  vindication  of  himself  from  some 
undue  reflections.  The  proprietor  purchases  lands 
of  the  Indians,  and  treats  them  with  great  justice 
and  kindness  .  .  Page  795 

Arrivals  of  colonists  in  the  first  year,  and  early  times, 
with  their  general  character.  Some  of  their  set- 
tlements, and  rapid  improvements.  Their  diffi- 
culties and  hardships.  Part  of  the  planter's  speech 
to  his  neighbours  and  countrymen.  Richard 
Townsend's  testimony  respecting  the  prosperity 
of  Pennsylvania  from  the  first  settlement  of  it, 
for  above  40  years  .  •  798 

Foundation  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia.  Province 
and  territory  divided  into  counties.  First  general 
assembly  at  Philadelphia  in  1683.  Proceedings 
of  the  assembly.  Second  charter,  or  frame  of 
government.  A  seal  for  each  county ;  the  first 
sheriffs.  First  grand  and  petit  jury,  with  their 
business,  &c.  Further  account  of  the  situation 
and  plan  of  Philadelphia.  Penn's  letter  to  the 
free  society  of  traders,  giving  an  account  of  Penn- 
sylvania at  that  time  .  .  802 

The  dispute  between  Penn  and  Lord  Baltimore, 
respecting  the  boundaries  between  their  territories. 
Penn's  letter  to  the  Lords  of  plantations.  Lord 
Baltimore's  commission  to  Colonel  George  Talbot, 
with  a  demand  of  the  latter.  William  Penn's 
answer  to  said  demand.  Incursion  from  Mary- 
land, attempting  forcible  entry.  Difficulty  to  re- 
strain the  Indians  from  strong  liquors  810 

The  proprietary  obliged  to  return  to  England.  Com- 
missions the  provincial  council  to  act  in  his 
absence,  &c.  His  letter  at  his  departure.  Old- 
mixon's  account.  Thomas  Langhorne.  Death 
of  Charles  II.,  and  succession  of  James  II.  to  the 
crown  of  England,  with  Penn's  interest  and 
service  at  court.  The  dispute  between  Penn  and 
Lord  Baltimore,  respecting  the  boundary  of  the 
territories  decided,  &c.  Boundary  lines  between 
the  counties  of  the  province  ascertained.  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  assembly  against  N.  Moore,  J. 
Bridges  and  P.  Robinson.  Means  used  to  instruct 
the  Indians.  State  of  the  province  814 

Penn's  employment  in  Europe.  Emigrants  from 
Holland  and  Germany.  Five  commissioners  of 
state  created.  The  proprietor's  instructions  to 
them.  His  beneficent  employment  in  England 
for  the  Quakers,  &c.  Letter  to  Lloyd.  False 
alarm  of  an  Indian  insurrection.  Caleb  Pussey. 
Captain  John  Blackwell,  Deputy  Governor.  The 
proprietary's  instructions  to  him.  He  meets  the 
assembly,  disagrees  with  the  council,  and  returns 
to  England.  Institution  of  the  first  public  gram- 
mar-school in  Pennsylvania  .  818 

Penn's  difficulties  after  the  revolution  in  England. 
Disagreement  between  the  province  and  terri- 
tories. Declaration  of  the  council,  and  other  pro- 
ceedings relating  to  the  difference.  Two  deputy- 
governors.  The  proprietary's  concern  at  this  dif- 
ference. Further  proceedings  of  the  province. 
A  promulgated  bill.  Letter  to  the  proprietary, 
&c.  ...  822 

Schism  and  separation  between  George  Keith  and 
the  Quakers.  His  conduct  afterwards.  Some 


judicial  proceedings  against  him,  &c.  The  ma. 
gistrates'  declaration  of  the  reasons  for  these  pro- 
ceedings.  Penn  deprived  of  the  government  by 
King  William  and  Queen  Mary.  Their  com- 
mission to  Fletcher,  governor  of  New  York. 
Fletcher's  letter  to  Deputy  Lloyd  .  Page  826 

Governor  Fletcher  arrives  at  Philadelphia.  Council's 
address  to  the  governor.  Proceedings  of  the  go- 
vernor and  assembly,  &c.  The  defence  of  Albany. 
Assembly's  address  to  the  governor,  with  his 
answer.  The  assembly's  remonstrance,  with  other 
proceedings.  A  law  for  the  support  of  govern- 
ment, &c.  Assembly's  petition  to  the  governor. 
Resolve  of  the  assembly,  and  protest  of  some  of 
its  members.  Governor  Fletcher  dissolves  the 
assembly,  appoints  William  Markham  his  deputy, 
and  departs  for  New  York.  Death  of  the  former 
deputy-governor,  Thomas  Lloyd  .  829 

Penn  cleared  of  the  accusations  against  him,  and 
his  government  restored.  Death  of  his  wife, 
Gulielma  Maria.  He  commissions  William  Mark- 
ham  his  lieutenant-governor.  His  useful  employ- 
ment in  England.  His  second  marriage.  Death 
of  his  eldest  son,  Springett.  Proceedings  of  the 
assembly  in  1696.  Their  remonstrance,  &c. 
Further  proceedings  of  the  legislature  ;  wherein 
a  bill  of  settlement  is  agreed  to  and  passed,  called 
the  third  frame  of  government,  &c.  State  of  the 
province  about  this  time.  A  proclamation  833 

Penn,  with  his  wife  and  family,  sail  for  Pennsyl- 
vania. Yellow  fever  in  Pennsylvania.  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  governor  and  assembly  against 
piracy  and  illicit  trade.  The  proprietary's  con- 
cern for  the  benefit  of  the  Indians  and  Negroes, 
•with  the  measures  used.  Money  requested  of  the 
assembly  for  the  fortifications  on  the  frontiers  of 
New  York.  Assembly's  address  to  the  proprie- 
tary on  this  occasion.  Articles  of  agreement  be- 
tween Penn  and  the  Indians  about  Susquehanna, 
&c.  .  £35 

Penn's  motives  for  returning  to  England.  His 
speech  to  the  assembly,  with  their  answer.  He 
takes  leave  of  the  Indians.  Disagreement  be- 
tween the  province  and  territories  revived.  The 
proprietary  endeavours  to  reconcile  them.  His 
letter  to  the  assembly,  urging  their  agreement. 
The  last  charter  of  Pennsylvania.  The  proprietary 
also  grants  a  charter  to  the  city  of  Philadelphia. 
Andrew  Hamilton  of  New  Jersey  being  consti- 
tuted deputy-governor,  and  James  Logan  secretary 
of  the  province,  Penn  sails  for  England  839 

King  William  dies,  and  is  succeeded  by  Queen 
Anne.  Penn  in  favour  at  court.  Governor  Ha- 
milton's administration  and  death.  Province  and 
territories  irreconcilable.  They  agree  to  a  sepa- 
ration in  legislation  ;  Edward  Shippen,  president 
of  the  council.  Resolve  of  the  provincial  assembly- 
after  separation.  John  Evans  arrives  as  deputy- 
governor,  and  endeavours  to  reunite  the  province 
and  territories  in  legislation,  but  in  vain.  The 
governor  displeased  with  the  assembly  of  the  pro- 
vince. David  Lloyd.  Governor's  proclamation 
for  raising  a  militia.  He  meets  the  assembly  of 
the  territories  at  Newcastle.  The  provincial  as- 
sembly remonstrate  w.th  the  proprietary.  The  go- 
vernor's speech  in  1705.  A  very  different  as- 
sembly elected,  and  more  harmony  succeeds. 


CONTENTS. 


Thomas  Chalkley's  visit  to  the  Indians  at  Con- 
nestogo,  with  a  memorial  of  him.  Pennsylvania 
affected  in  times  of  war,  on  account  of  the  Quakers' 
principles  .  .  .  Page  843 

Governor  Evans's  disposition  and  conduct.  His 
treatment  of  the  Quakers'  principles  on  war. 
False  alarm  at  Philadelphia.  Fort  and  exactions 
at  Newcastle.  Assembly's  address  to  the  go- 
vernor. Further  proceeding  and  dispute  between 
the  governor  and  assembly.  Assembly  displeased 
with  the  secretary,  James  Logan.  The  assembly 
impeach  the  secretary.  Heads  of  a  remonstrance 
to  the  proprietor.  Difficulties  of  the  proprietor 
about  this  time  .  .  845 

Governor  Gookin  arrives.  Assembly's  address  to 
the  governor.  They  continue  their  former  ani- 
mosity. The  governor's  answer;  to  which  the 
assembly  reply.  The  council's  address  to  the 
governor.  The  assembly  displeased  with  the 
council,  and  present  a  remonstrance  of  grievances 
to  the  governor.  The  governor's  speech  to  the 
assembly,  containing  a  military  requisition  in 
1709.  '  848 

The  assembly  vote  a  present  to  the  Queen.  The 
governor  not  satisfied  with  their  offer ;  and  they 
adjourn.  Proceedings  of  the  next  meeting  of  as- 
sembly. They  agree  to  augment  the  sum,  voted 
before  to  the  Queen  ;  and  request  the  governor's 
concurrence  to  divers  bills.  Further  dispute  be- 
tween the  governor  and  assembly ;  with  reasons 
of  the  former  for  not  agreeing  with  the  latter ; 
upon  which  they  remonstrate  to  the  governor,  and 
are  much  displeased  with  the  secretary,  James 
Logan.  Proceedings  between  the  governor,  and 
the  next  assembly.  Their  proceedings  against 
James  Logan.  They  are  disappointed  in  their 
design  against  him  by  the  governor.  The  secre- 
tary goes  to  England,  &c.  .  851 

Party  spirit  endangers  the  government  and  consti- 
tution. The  proprietor's  letter  to  the  assembly 
respecting  their  late  transactions.  An  entire  new 
assembly  elected  in  October  1710.  Harmony 
between  the  governor  and  this  assembly  productive 
of  more  agreeable  and  better  consequences,  &c. 
Proceedings  of  the  legislature  in  consequence  of 
an  express  from  England,  received  by  the  go- 
vernor, relating  to  an  expedition  against  Canada. 
The  Queen's  letter  of  instructions  to  him.  The 
assembly  vote  2000Z.  for  the  Queen's  use.  The 
next  year  produces  a  change  in  the  assembly. 
The  proprietor  agrees  to  dispose  of  the  govern- 
ment, to  the  Queen ;  and  is  seized  with  an  apo- 
plexy. Wine  and  rum  imported  in  1712.  Set- 
tlement of  New  Garden  and  London  Grove,  in 
Chester  county.  Samuel  Carpenter.  The  go- 
vernor's writ  for  summoning  the  assembly.  Alter- 
cation between  them  .  .  855 

The  assembly's  address  to  the  governor  respecting 
tumults,  &c.  in  Philadelphia,  with  his  answer. 
An  Indian  treaty  held  in  Philadelphia  in  1715. 
The  assembly's  address  to  George  I.  The  gover- 
nor disagrees  with  both  the  council  and  as- 
sembly. The  assembly's  representation  to  Gover- 
nor Gookin,  containing  a  variety  of  matters,  in 
1716.  859 


Governor  Gookin  is  superseded  by  Sir  William 
Keith.  Concern  at  the  great  influx  of  foreigners. 
Dr.  Griffith  Owen.  Address  of  the  governor  and 
assembly  to  the  King.  Great  harmony  between 
the  governor  and  assembly.  Penn's  death  and 
character  .  .  .  Page  865 

Penn's  will.  State  of  his  agreement  with  Queen 
Anne,  for  the  sale  of  the  government.  Go- 
vernor and  assembly's  conduct,  on  hearing  of 
the  proprietor's  decease.  Claims  of  the  late  pro- 
prietor's family.  Conduct  of  the  governor  and 
assembly,  respecting  said  claim.  The  Indians  of 
Pennsylvania  attacked  by  some  foreign  Indians. 
Proceedings  of  the  governor  and  assembly.  Go- 
vernor Keith,  with  the  assembly's  consent,  es- 
tablishes a  court  of  chancery,  &c.  The  governor 
endeavours  to  prevent  ill-consequences  among  the 
Indians.  A  treaty  with  the  Indians  at  Connes- 
togo  .  .  .  868 

The  governor's  concern  to  promote  the  country's 
benefit.  Proceedings  in  consequence  of  the 
barbarous  murder  of  an  Indian.  Divers  useful 
laws  passed,  with  some  of  their  titles.  Increase 
of  law-suits.  Regulation  of  bread  and  flour. 
Paper  currency  scheme  first  introduced  in  1722. 
Advocated  by  the  governor,  and  favoured  by  the 
generality  of  the  people ;  but  disliked  by  some. 
Sentiments  of  several  gentlemen  and  merchants, 
relating  to  a  paper  currency,  presented  to  the 
assembly.  Answer  to  these  sentiments,  &c.  Go- 
vernor Keith's  judgment  on  the  same  subject,  in 
writing,  to  the  assembly.  Reply  to  the  answer 
to  the  above  sentiments,  &c.  .  875 

The  assembly's  conduct  in  the  affair  of  a  paper  cur- 
rency. Further  account  of  the  Pennsylvania 
paper  currency,  till  1749.  Governor  Keith  vio- 
lates his  instructions  from  the  proprietary.  Rea- 
sons given  for  and  against  the  same.  The  widow 
Penn's  answer  to  the  remonstrance  of  the  as- 
sembly. Disputes  afterwards  relative  to  the  pro- 
prietor's instructions  .  .  878 

Affirmation,  &c.  instead  of  an  oath,  established  in 
Pennsylvania.  Quakers'  grateful  address  to  the 
King  on  the  occasion.  Custom  of  the  Quakers 
appearing  in  courts  of  justice  with  their  hats  on 
their  heads  interrupted  and  restored.  Their  ad- 
dress to  the  governor,  and  his  compliance  with 
their  request.  He  is  superseded  in  the  govern- 
ment by  Patrick  Gordon,  in  1726.  Governor 
Gordon's  administration.  State  of  Pennsylvania 
about  this  time  .  '  .  882 

Thomas  Penn  arrives  in  the  province  in  1732.  As- 
sembly's address  to  him,  with  his  answer.  Bound- 
aries between  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland.  Joha 
Penn  arrives  in  1734.  The  assembly's  address  to 
him,  with  his  answer.  Lord  Baltimore  attempts 
to  obtain  of  the  King  the  territories.  Death  of 
John  Penn  and  Governor  Gordon.  Administra- 
tion of  the  Council,  James  Logan,  President. 
Benjamin  Franklin.  Arrival  of  Governor  Thomas. 
His  administration.  Andrew  Hamilton's  speech 
to  the  assembly.  .  .  884 

Conduct  of  Governor  Thomas  respecting  the  enlist- 
ing soldiers.  Assembly's  address  to  Thomas 
Penn.  Riotous  election  in  1742.  Indian  affairs 


CONTENTS. 


during  Governor  Thomas's  administration.  H< 
resigns  the  government  in  1747.  Succeeding  ad- 
ministration and  governors.  Disputes  as  to  money 
bills  and  quit-rents.  Conclusion  Page  887 

MARYLAND. 

Origin.  Government.  First  settlers.  House  of 
assembly.  Laws.  Ingle's  insurrection.  Power 
of  taxation.  State  during  the  protectorate.  On 
the  accession  of  William  and  Mary.  Inspection 

•  of  the  church.  Establishment  of  the  Protestant 
church.  Value  of  the  colony  to  the  proprietary. 
General  view  of  it  .  .  894 

VIRGINIA. 

Robertson's  account  of  this  state.  Inimical  to 
slavery.  Situation.  Climate.  Description. 
Mountains.  Productions.  Political  divisions.  Ex- 
ports. Literature  &c.  .  .  898 

NORTH  AND  SOUTH  CAROLINA  AND 
GEORGIA. 

Original  grant  to  Sir  Robert  Heath.  First  settlers 
from  Virginia  and  Massachusetts.  Charter  granted 
Lord  Clarendon  and  others.  Locke's  constitu 
tional  code.  Governor  Sayle.  Difficulties  of  the 
early  settlers.  Foundation  of  Charlestown.  Sir 
John  Yeamans,  governor.  Treaty  with  Spain. 
Formation  of  a  legislature.  Contentions  with  the 
Spaniards.  Domestic  dissensions.  Arrival  of 
Dutch  settlers.  Governor  West.  Description  of 
the  country.  Governor  Morton.  Fresh  settlers 
on  account  of  the  religious  persecution  in  Eng- 
land and  France.  Mode  of  gathering  turpentine. 
Governor  Colleton.  Civil  commotions.  Seth 
Soshel  usurps  the  governorship.  Is  deposed  905 

The  French  refugees.  Philip  Ludwell,  governor. 
Harsh  treatment  of  the  refugees.  Juries  chosen 
by  ballot.  Pirate,s  favoured  by  the  colonist?. 
Thomas  Smith,  governor.  The  planting  of  rice 
introduced.  The  employment  of  Negroes.  In- 
dians' complaints.  John  Archdale,  governor 
His  new  regulations.  Joseph  Blake,  governor 
TUe  French  in  Florida.  Refugees  incorporated 
by  law.  Depredations  of  pirates.  Calamities  of 
the  province.  James  Moore,  governor.  Lord 
Graiiville,  Palatine.  An  established  church  pro- 
jected. Expedition  against  Augustine.  The  first 
paper  currency.  Expedition  against  the  Apala- 
cliian  Indians.  System  of  culture  in  the  co- 
lony .  915 


quered.     Bank  bills  established.     Trade  infested 
by    pirates.       Several   English   statutes   adopted 

Page  92.') 

Intention  of  government  towards  the  colonies.  In- 
dian war.  Application  to  the  crown  for  relief. 
Harsh  conduct  of  the  proprietors.  Robert  Daniel, 
deputy-governor.  Lord  Carteret,  palatine.  Dis- 
affection towards  the  proprietors.  Robert  J  ohnson, 
governor.  The  depredations  of  the  pirates.  Their 
extirpation.  Difficulties  arising  from  a  paper 
currency.  Indians  inimical.  Complaints  against 
Chief  Justice  Trott.  The  consequences  of  it. 
Invasion  by  the  Spaniards.  An  association 
formed  against  the  proprietors  .  935 

The  people's  encouragement  to  revolt.  Proceed- 
ings of  the  convention.  The  assembly  dissolved. 
Proceedings  of  the  people.  James  Moore,  go- 
vernor. The  declaration  of  the  convention.  The 
invasion  from  Spain  defeated.  Francis  Nicolson, 
governor.  George  I.  recognised  as  sovereign. 
The  regulation  of  Indian  affairs.  The  trial  of  the 
family  of  Dutartre.  Progress  of  the  colony. 
Arthur  Middleton,  president.  A  dispute  con- 
cerning the  boundaries.  Reprisals  on  the  Spa- 
niards. Encroachment  of  the  French  in  Loui- 
siana. The  province  purchased  for  the  crown 

944 

Sir  Alexander  Gumming  treats  with  the  Indians. 
Seven  Cherokees  taken  to  England.  Robert 
Johnson,  governor.  James  Oglethorpe  settles  a 
colony  in  Georgia.  A  colony  of  Switzers  arrives 
in  Carolina.  Eleven  townships  marked  out.  A 
struggle  about  lands.  State  of  the  colony.  The 
regulations  of  the  trustees.  Settlement  of  two 
colonies  of  Highlanders  and  Germans.  Thomas 
Broughton,  lieutenant-governor.  Oglethorpe  for- 
tifies Georgia.  The  Chickesaws  defeat  the  French. 
Religious  state  of  the  colony.  The  association  of 
Presbyterians.  Remarks  on  paper  currency. 
Small  progress  of  Georgia.  Hardships  of  the  first 
settlers.  An  Irish  colony  planted  .  957 

Trade  obstructed  by  the  Spaniards  of  Mexico. 
William  Bull,  lieutenant-governor.  Oglethorpe's 
regiment  sent  to  Georgia,  The  Spaniards  try  to 
seduce  the  Creeks.  Mutiny  in  Oglethorpe's  camp. 
A  negro  insurrection  in  Carolina.  A  war  with 
Spain.  A  project  for  invading  Florida.  General 
Oglethorpe  marches  against  Florida.  Invests 
Augustine.  Raises  the  siege.  A  great  fire  at 
Charlestown.  A  petition  in  favour  of  the  rice 
trade.  James  Glenn,  governor.  Lord  Carteret's 
property  divided  from  that  of  the  crown.  The 
Spaniards  invade  Georgia.  Ill  treatment  of  Ge- 
neral Oglethorpe.  Petition  for  three  independent 
companies  .  .  .  970 


Sir  Nathaniel  Johnson  appointed  governor.  The 
church  of  England  established  by  law.  The  in- 
habitants remonstrate  against  it.  Lay  commis- 
sioners appointed.  The  acts  ratified  by  the  pro-  Influx  of  Scotch  settlers.  Climate  and  diseases. 


prietors.  The  petition  of  Dissenters  to  the  House 
of  Lords.  Resolutions  of  the  House  of  Lords. 
Their  address  to  the  Queen.  The  Queen's 
A  project  formed  for  invading  Carolina.  A  Spa- 
nish and  French  invasion  repulsed.  Missionaries 
sent  out  by  the  society  in  England.  Lord  Craven, 
palatine.  Edward  Tynte,  governor.  The-  re- 
venues of  the  colony.  The  invasion  of  Canada. 
A  French  colony  planted  in  Louisiana.  A  colony 
of  palatines  settled.  Robert  Gibbes,  governor. 
Charles  Craven,  governor.  An  Indian  war  in 
North  Carolina.  The  Tuskorora  Indians 


Cultivation  of  indigo.  State  of  Georgia.  Dis- 
sensions excited  by  Bosomworth.  Georgia  made 
a  royal  government.  Whitfield  in  Carolina. 
Conference  with  the  Indians.  Great  hurricane 
at  Charlestown .  State  of  commerce  980 

A  dispute  about  the  limits  of  British  and  French 
territories.  War  with  the  French.  Governor 
Glen  holds  a  congress  with  the  Cherokees.  Forts 
built.  The  Cherokee  war.  The  Highlanders 
return  to  Carolina.  Peace  with  the  Cherokees. 
Storm  at  Charlestown  988 


CONTENTS. 


xiu 


The  peace  with  France.  Boundaries  of  East  an 
West  Florida.  The  southern  provinces  left  secure 
Encouragement  given  to  reduced  officers  anc 
soldiers.  Georgia  begins  to  flourish.  Emigra 
tions  to  Carolina.  Regulations  relative  to  th( 
Indians.  John  Stuart,  superintendant  for  Indian 
affairs.  Decrease  of  Indians,  and  the  causes  of  it 
Population  and  trade  of  the  province.  Page  996 

LOUISIANA  AND  FLORIDA. 

Discovery.  Vasquez's  piratical  visit.  Expedition 
of  Narvaez — Also  of  Soto.  Moscoso  succeeds  him 
Adventures  of  Ribaut.  Fort  Carolina  built.  Fur 
ther  discoveries.  Distress  of  the  colony.  Spa- 
niards in  Florida.  Fort  Carolina  taken  by  them 
Merciless  contests  between  the  French  and  Spa- 
niards. Account  of,  and  war  with,  the  Indians. 
La  Sale's  progress,  and  death.  Adventures  oi 
Joutel.  Discovery  of  the  Mississippi.  State  ol 
Louisiana.  Adventures  of  St.  Denys.  Peace  ol 
1763.  Account  of  the  Indians  .  1000 

THE  WAR  OF  THE  INDEPENDENCE. 

Taxation  of  the  colonies.  Stamp  act  proposed.  Con- 
duct of  the  colonies.  Stamp  act  passed.  Con 
gress  at  New  York.  Stamp  act  repealed.  Co- 

Ires- 
030 


lonies  taxed  by  duties.    Associate  to  resist  opp 
sion  1 


Convention  at  Boston.  Consequent  conduct  of  co- 
lonies. Tea  cargoes  destroyed.  Spread  of  revo- 
lutionary principles  .  .  1032 

Congress  gives  one  vote  to  each  colony.  Bill  of 
rights.  Petition  to  the  king.  Address  to  the 
people  of  England.  Boston  Neck  fortified.  Battle 
of  Lexington.  Militia.  Fort  Ticonderoga  cap- 
tured. Crown  Point  surprised  .  1034 

Second  meeting  of  congress.  British  troops  arrive. 
Fortifications  on  Breed's  Hill.  Conflict  with  the 
British.  Washington  elected  commander-in-chief. 
Georgia  joins  the  confederacy.  First  line  of 
posts  .  1037 

Americans  send  two  parties  against  Canada.  Mont- 
gomery invests  St.  John's.  Colonel  Allen  makes 
an  attempt  on  Montreal.  He  is  taken  prisoner. 
Montgomery  takes  St.  John's — And  Montreal. 
Proceeds  to  Quebec.  Arnold  arrives  at  Point 
Levi.  Attempts  to  surprise  Quebec.  Montgo- 
mery arrives.  Quebec  assaulted.  Montgomery 
killed.  Arnold  wounded.  Part  of  the  assailants 
surrender.  Arnold  blockades  Quebec  .  1039 

Falmouth  and  Boston  burned.  Attention  of  Ame- 
ricans to  their  navy.  British  attempt  to  gain  New 
York— Are  defeated.  Dunmore  burns  Norfolk. 
Penn  examined  before  the  peers.  Parliament  of 
England  prohibit  the  trade  of  the  colonies — And 
hires  mercenaries  from  Germany.  Bad  state  of 
the  army.  Washington  fortifies  Dorchester  heights. 
He  compels  the  British  to  evacuate  Boston.  Ar- 
nold's difficult  situation  at  Quebec.  General 
Thomas  supersedes  him.  Siege  of  Quebec  raised. 
Thomas  dies.  Loss  of  the  Americans  at  the  Ce- 
dars. General  Thompson  and  200  Americans 
taken  prisoners.  British  fleet  arrives  at  Charles- 
town.  Attack  of  the  British  on  Sullivan's  island. 
Jasper's  exploit.  British  sail  for  New  York.  In- 


dependence proposed  in  congress.     Independe 
declared.     State  of  the  country.     Eminent  n 


juce 
men 
Page  1010 

The  declaration  of  independence  of  the  United 
States  of  America  .  1043 

Geographical  notice  of  the  state  of  the  country  from 
1763  to  1776  .  .  1044 

Catalogue  of  eminent  men  who  flourished  during  the 
same  period  .  .  1045 

Howe  takes  possession  of  Staten  Island.  Positions 
of  Washington's  army.  British  land  on  Long 
Island.  Battle  of  Long  Island.  The  Americans 
defeated  .  .  .  1045 

Washington  withdraws  his  troops  from  Long  Island. 
British  enter  New  York.  Situation  of  the  Ame- 
rican army.  Battle  of  West  Plains.  Fort  Wash- 
ington surrenders.  Fort  Lee  evacuated.  Wash- 
ington retreats  .  .  1046 

Distress  of  Washington's  army.  General  Lee  made 
prisoner.  Washington  attacks  Cornwallis.  Ar- 
nold defeated.  British  blockade  Providence. 
Congress  grant  extraordinary  powers  to  Washing- 
ton .  .  1048 

Campaign  of  1777.  Excesses  of  the  English  army 
in  New  Jersey.  Revolt  of  the  loyalists.  Gover- 
nor Tryon  advances  to  Danbury.  Exploit  of  Co- 
lonel Meigs  at  Sag  Harbour.  La  Fayette  es- 
pouses the  American  cause.  Cornwallis  defeats 
Sterling  .  .  1049 

Jeneral  Prescott  captured.  Burgoyne  arrives  at 
Quebec  with  an  army.  Fort  Stanwix  invested. 
Burgoyne's  army  move  to  Crown  Point.  Ameri- 
cans lose  1000  men.  Schuyler  retreats.  British 
defeated  at  Bennington.  Battle  near  Saratoga. 
British  defeated.  Burgoyne  surrenders.  Gar- 
rison of  Ticonderoga  retreat.  Kingstown  is 
burned  .  '  .  1051 

Battle  of  Brandywine.  Americans  defeated.  Wash- 
ington retreats  to  Chester.  Congress  adjourn  to 
Lancaster.  Cornwallis  enters  Philadelphia.  Bat- 
tle of  Germantown.  Americans  defeated.  Wash- 
ington returns  to  Schippack  creek.  Attack  on 
Redbank.  American  crews  destroy  their  own  ves- 
sels. Washington  retires  to  winter-quarters  1053 

lauses  of  the  distress  of  the  army.  Intrigues  against 
Washington.  Predatory  excursions  of  the  British. 
Massacre  at  the  bridges  of  Quinton  and  Hancock. 
Policy  of  France  in  reference  to  America.  France 
concludes  a  treaty  with  America.  Arrival  of  Bri- 
tish ministers  .  .  1055 

Battle  of  Monmoutn.  Clinton  removes  to  New  York. 
Washington  to  the  Hudson.  French  fleet  arrives. 
Franklin  appointed  minister  to  France.  Expedi- 
tion against  Rhode  Island.  Siege  of  Newport. 
Indian  atrocities.  Attack  of  Wyoming.  Savan- 
nah taken  by  the  British  .  1058 

Campaign  of  1779.  Sunbury  taken  by  the  British. 
Unsuccessful  attempt  upon  port  Royal.  Colonel 
Pickens  defeats  a  party  of  Royalists.  General 
Prevost  surprises  the  Americans.  John  Rutledga 


CONTENTS. 


governor  of  South  Carolina.  British  defeat  Ge- 
neral Moultrie  near  Charlestown.  Engagement 
at  Stony  Ferry.  British  make  a  descent  on  Vir- 
ginia. Governoi  Tryon  makes  a  descent  on  Con- 
necticut. Americans  take  Stony  Point.  British 
land  at  Penobscot  river.  American  flotilla  de- 
stroyed. Sullivan  defeats  the  savages.  Page  1059 

Naval  affairs.  D'Estaigne  arrives  off  the  coast  of 
Georgia.  Savannah  invested  by  the  French.  The 
siege  raised.  Paul  Jones's  naval  engagement. 
Intrigues  of  France  and  Spain  .  1061 

Campaign  of  1779.  Armed  neutrality.  Clinton  be- 
sieges Charlestown.  That  city  capitulates.  Tarle- 
ton  surprises  Burford.  Clinton  in  South  Caro- 
lina. He  returns  to  New  York.  Skirmish  at 
Springfield  .  .  1064 

Congress  sanction  the  depreciation  of  paper  cur- 
rency. British  in  South  Carolina.  Heroism  of 
the  women  in  South  Carolina.  Society  of  ladies 

1065 

Campaign  of  1780.  British  defeated  at  Hanging 
Rock.  Baron  De  Kalb  enters  North  Carolina. 
Battle  near  Camden.  Death  of  De  Kaib.  Tarle- 
ton  surprises  Sumpter  .  1066 

Arnold's  treason.  Execution  of  Andre.  Cornwallis 
arrives  at  Charlottetown.  Defeat  at  Ferguson. 
Descent  upon  Portsmouth,  Virginia.  Gates  sur- 
prised by  Greene.  Arnold  makes  a  descent  upon 
Virginia  .  .  .  1067 

Campaign  of  1781.  Robert  Morris  treasurer. 
Franklin  obtains  money  from  France  and  Hol- 
land. Revolt  of  the  Pennsylvanian  line.  New 
Jersey  troops  revolt.  Tarleton  attacks  Morton  at 
the  Cowpens.  Cornwallis  pursues  Morgan.  Co- 
lonel Lee  defeats  Colonel  Hill.  Battle  of  Guil- 
ford  Court-house.  The  Americans  retreat.  Corn- 
wallis sets  out  for  Virginia  .  .  1069 

Sumpter  and  Marion  annoy  the  British.  Ameri- 
cans defeated  at  Hobkirk's  Hill.  Rawdon  eva- 
cuates Camden.  British  forts  taken  by  the  Ame- 
ricans. Greene  attacks  fort  Ninety-six  .  1071 

Battle  of  Eutaw  Springs.  Engagement  of  the 
French  and  English  fleets.  Junction  of  the  Bri- 
tish armies.  Tarleton  surprises  Charlotte-ville. 
Cornwallis  enters,  Yorktown.  Washington  arrives 
at  the  head  of  the  Elk.  De  Grasse  enters  the  Che- 
sapeake. Action  between  the  French  and  Eng- 
lish fleets  .  .  1072 

Fort  Trumbull  taken — And  fort  Groswall.  Arnold 
burns  New  London.  Yorktown  besieged.  Corn- 
wallis capitulates.  British  land  forces  surren- 
der to  the  Americans,  and  the  marine  to  the 
French.  Clinton  too  late  endeavours  to  preserve 
Cornwallis.  La  Fayette  returns  to  France  1074 

Poverty  of  the  American  government.  Trials  and 
magnanimity  of  the  treasurer.  Sir  Guy  Carleton 
supersedes  Clinton.  Articles  of  peace  signed  at 
Paris.  Disturbance  among  the  officers  of  the 
army.  Evacuation  of  New  York.  Resignation 
of  Washington  1076 

State  of  the  American  finances.  Rebellion  in  Mas- 
sachusetts. In  New  Hampshire.  Defects  in  the 


American  form  of  government.  Delegates  meet 
from  five  states.  Constitution  framed  at  Phila- 
delphia. Constitution.  Adopted  by  eleven  states 

Page  1077 

The  constitution  of  the  United  States  of  America 
framed  during  the  year  1787  by  a  convention  of 
delegates,  who  met  at  Philadelphia,  from  the  states 
of  New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts,  Connecticut, 
New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware, 
Maryland,  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  South  Caro- 
lina, Georgia  .  1079 

Geographical  notices  of  the  country  at  this  period 

1085 

Catalogue  of  eminent  men  who  died  during  the  pe- 
riod extending  from  1776  to  1789  .  1085 

Washington  elected  president.  Hamilton's  report 
on  the  public  debts.  Bill  for  duty  on  distilled  spi- 
rits. A  national  bank  established.  Vermont 
admitted  into  the  Union  .  1085 

Indian  war  in  Ohio.  Harmer  defeated.  Also  St. 
Clair.  Proclamation  of  neutrality.  Randolph 
succeeds  Jefferson  as  secretary  of  state  .  1087 

Insurrection  in  Pennsylvania.  Wayne  defeats  the 
Indians.  Jay's  treaty.  Treaty  with  Algiers — With 
Spain.  Mr.  Monroe  sent  to  France — And  re- 
called. Washington's  farewell  address  to  the 
people  .  .  1088 

Mr.  Adams  elected  president.  X  Y  &  Z  mission. 
Capture  of  the  L'Insurgente.  Death  of  Wash- 
ington .  .  .  1094 

Seat  of  government  transferred  to  Washington. 
Election  of  Jefferson  and  Burr.  Inauguration  of 
Jefferson.  Right  of  deposit  at  New  Orleans.  Loui- 
siana purchased  .  .  1096 

Geographical  notices  of  the  country  in  1803  .  1097 

Catalogue  of  eminent  men  who  died  during  the  pe- 
riod extending  from  7789  to  1803  .  1098 

War  with  Tripoli.  Possession  taken  of  Derne.  A 
peace  concluded.  General  Hamilton  killed  in  a 
uuel.  Jefferson  again  elected  president.  Dis- 
pute with  England.  Colonel  Burr's  projects.  His 
trial  and  acquittal  .  .  1C98 

The  Chesapeake  searched.  Mr.  Madison  elected 
president.  Erskiue's  treaty.  Indians  commence 
hostilities.  Battle  of  Tippecanoe.  Henry's  se- 
cret mission.  .  .  .  1100 

War  declared.  An  act  of  congress  to  raise  25,000 
men.  State  of  the  revenue.  General  Dearborn 
commander-in-chief.  Proceedings  of  the  army 
of  the  north-west.  Hull's  operations.  His  pro- 
clamation. Affair  at  the  river  Aux  Canards. 
Van  Horn  defeated  at  Brownstown.  Mackinau 
surrendered.  Dearborn's  armistice.  Hull  aban- 
dons Maiden.  Battle  of  Maguaga.  Captain 
Heald  defeated.  Hull  capitulates.  Is  exchanged. 
His  trial  and  sentence  .  .  1102 

Successes  of  the  Americans  at  sea.  Situation  of 
the  forces  on  the  New  York  frontier.  Affair  of 
Queenstown.  Harrison  takes  command  of  the 


CONTENTS. 


north-western  army.  Hopkins'  expedition.  The 
Americans  invade  Canada.  The  capture  of  the 
Frolic — Arid  other  vessels  .  PagellOS 

America  makes  overtures  of  peace.  Connecticut 
and  Massachusetts  refuse  to  furnish  troops.  Con- 
gress assembles.  Acts  passed.  Madison  re-elected 
president.  Plan  of  the  campaign.  Massacre  at 
French  Town.  Fort  Meigs  besieged.  Six 
nations  declare  war  against  Canada.  Fort  Ste- 
phenson  besieged.  Proctor  repulsed  1111 

Attack  on  Ogdensburg — Chauncey  prepares  a  fleet 
on  lake  Ontario.  York  attacked  by  the  Ameri- 
cans. General  Pike  killed.  York  surrenders. 
Chandler  and  Winder  captured.  Perry's  victory 
on  lake  Erie.  Battle  of  the  Thames.  Delaware 
and  Chesapeake  bays  in  a  state  of  blockade.  Ad- 
miral Cockburn  carries  on  a  predatory  warfare. 
New  York  and  New  London  harbours  blockaded 

1114 

Chauncey  captures  a  British  squadron.  Battle  of 
Williamsburg.  Affair  of  Chateaugay.  Newark 
burnt.  The  British  take  possession  of  fort  Nia- 
gara. Naval  engagements.  The  Hornet  and  the 
Peacock.  Chesapeake  and  the  Shannon.  The 
Argus  and  the  Pelican.  The  Enterprise  captures 
the  Boxer.  Creek  war  .  .  1117 

Mediations  of  peace.  Extra  session  of  congress. 
Embargo  and  non-importation  act.  Unsuccessful 
attempt  at  La  Colle.  Attack  on  Oswego.  Ex- 
pedition to  the  river  Thames.  British  ascend 
Connecticut  river  .  .  1120 

General  Brown  crosses  the  Niagara.  Battle  of 
Chippewa.  Battle  of  Bridgewater.  General 
Ryall  captured.  Fort  Erie  besieged.  Colonel 
Drummond  killed.  British  works  destroyed.  Un- 
successful attempt  to  re-take  Mackinau  1122 

Peace  of  Paris.  Preparations  to  defend  Washing- 
ton. British  land  and  ascend  the  Patuxent.  Pro- 
ceedings of  both  armies.  Alexandria  capitu- 
lates. Battle  near  Baltimore.  Various  rencontres 

1125 

British  force  in  Canada  increased.  Sir  George  Pre- 


vost  advances  to  Plattsburg.  Engagement  in 
the  bay  of  Plattsburg.  Americans  annoy  the 
British  merchant-vessels.  Naval  engagements. 
Difficulties  of  the  Americans.  Convention  at 
Hartford  .  Page  1127 

Proceedings  in  the  south.  La  Fitte's  disclosures. 
Pensacola  surrenders  to  the  Americans.  General 
Jackson's  preparations  at  New  Orleans.  Cap- 
ture of  the  American  flotilla.  Contests  between 
the  armies.  Sir  E.  Packenham  arrives  with  the 
main  body  of  the  British.  Jackson's  proceedings 
with  the  legislature  of  Louisiana.  Battle  of 
New  Orleans.  Sir  E.  Packenham  killed.  Sub- 
sequent  rencontres.  British  abandon  the  expe- 
dition. Fort  Bowyer  surrenders.  Peace  pro- 
claimed. .  .  1130 

War  with  Algiers.  Decatur  and  Bainbridge  sent 
to  the  Mediterranean.  Piratical  powers  make 
peace.  Treaties  with  the  Indians.  National 
bank.  Mr.  Monroe  president.  Mississippi  ad- 
mitted to  the  union.  The  illicit  trade  destroyed. 
Proceedings  of  the  congress.  Commencement  of 
the  Seminole  war.  General  Jackson  marches 
against  them.  Trial  of  Arbuthnot — And  of  Am- 
brister.  Treaties  with  Great  Britain  and  Sweden. 
Indian  affairs.  Cession  of  Florida  1132 

Alabama  admitted  to  the  union.  The  Missouri 
question.  Mr.  Monroe  re-elected.  Treaty  with 
France.  Increase  of  piracy.  Recognition  of 
South  American  states.  The  tariff  question  again 
agitated  .  .  .  1135 

La  Fayette  visits  America.  His  reception.  Re- 
turns to  France.  Mr.  Adams  elected  president. 
Treaty  with  Columbia.  Representatives  sent  to 
the  congress  at  Panama.  Fiftieth  anniversary 
of  Independence  ,  .  1137 

List  of  the  military  stations  in  the  United  States, 
in  1826  .  1139 


Catalogue  of  eminent  men  who  died  during  t 
period  extending  from  1803  to  1826  11 


the 
39 


Concluding  remarks.    Retrospect  and  present  state. 
Future  prospects.    Conclusion    -      .  1141 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


THE  volumes  published  by  Dr.  Robertson  contain,  to  use  his  own  words,  "  The  Account 
of  the  Discovery  of  the  New  World,  and  of  the  Progress  of  the  Spanish  Arms  and  Colo- 
nies there."  This  account  is  brought  down  to  the  year  1772.  It  was  his  intention  to  have 
given  a  complete  history  of  the  whole  of  America,  but  his  death  prevented  the  fulfil- 
ment of  his  project.  The  history  of  Portuguese  America  and  the  settlements  made  in 
the  West  India  Islands,  were  totally  untouched  by  him.  Of  the  history  of  the  United 
States  some  fragments  were  discovered  after  his  death,  and  have  uniformly  been 
printed  with  his  History  of  Spanish  America. 

The  Proprietors  have  determined  to  carry  into  effect  the  comprehensive  history  of 
the  New  World,  contemplated  by  Dr.  Robertson ;  aware  that  it  is  more  than  ever  required 
at  a  time  when  it  is  fast  advancing  in  a  career,  which,  in  all  probability,  will  surpass 
that  of  the  Old.  The  work  will  be  compiled  from  the  ample  and  authentic  sources 
open  to  them ;  and  in  following  Dr.  Robertson's  steps,  they  will  not  walk  in  any  hopes 
of  rivalry,  but  merely  collect  and  arrange,  from  the  most  esteemed  historians  of  this 
country  and  America,  such  accounts  as  have  received  the  public  sanction. 

We  shall  proceed  first  with  the  history  of  the  United  States  of  America,  as  well  on 
account  of  their  political  importance  as  of  their  British  origin.  The  fragments  of 
Robertson  bring  the  history  of  Virginia  down  to  the  year  1688,  and  the  history  of 
New  England  to  1652.  This  compilation  will  commence  with  a  continuation  of  the 
latter,  as  being  most  necessary  to  a  proper  knowledge  of  the  general  history  of  the 
States ;  and  a  separate  and  succinct  account  will  be  given  of  each  of  them  down  to  the 
war  which  established  their  grand  federative  union  and  independence  :  a  method  that 
will  avoid  much  confusion,  aud  in  which  we  are  guided  by  the  principal  historians. 
The  history  of  Massachusetts  is  placed  first,  as  being  the  most  important  State  of 
New  England. 


THE  HISTORT  or  AMERICA.     No.  36.  2  O 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 


NORTH     AMERICA. 


THE  histories  of  Virginia  and  New  England,  left  by 
Dr.  Robertson,  are  in  an  imperfect  form,  and  present 
only  a  very  small  portion  of  the  history  of  the 
numerous  countries  now  known  as  the  United 
States.  These  fragments  contain  only  a  general 
view  of  a  part  of  the  States,  and  it  may,  perhaps, 
therefore  be  necessary,  in  order  to  give  the  vise  and 
progress  of  all  of  them,  to  retrace,  in  some  instances, 
the  same  period  of  which  Dr.  Robertson  has  given 
an  outline. 


MASSACHUSETTS. 

Of  the  two  companies  incorporated  by  King  James, 
an  account  otthe  proceedings  and  dissolution  of  one, 
and  a  history  of  the  colony  to  the  time  of  Cromwell, 
will  be  found  in  Robertson's  narration,  whose  frag- 
ment concludes  with  stating  that  the  colonists  of  this 
settlement  declined  complying  with  his  desire,  that 
they  should  remove  to  the  island  of  Jamaica,  which 
he  had  taken  from  the  Spaniards. 

In  1641,  the  settlements  in  New  Hampshire  had 
been  incorporated  with  Massachusetts.  And,  in 
1652,  the  inhabitants  of  the  province  of  Maine  were, 
at  their  own  request,  taken  under  her  protection. 
This  province  had  been  granted  to  Sir  Ferdinand 
Gorges,  who,  in  1639,  first  established  a  government 
over  it.  In  1640  a  general  court  was  held  at  Saco. 
Upon  the  death  of  the  proprietor,  in  1649,  most  of 
the  officers  whom  he  had  appointed  deserted  it,  and 
the  people  found  it  necessary  to  resort  elsewhere  for 
protection. 

In  1656  several  Quakers  arrived  in  the  colony. 
In  this  age  of  enthusiasts,  these  sectarians  surpassed 
all  others  in  enthusiasm.  Their  behaviour  was  rude, 
contemptuous,  and  disorderly.  They  reviled  magis- 
trates and  ministers,  and  entering  churches  on  the 
sabbath,  disturbed  the  solemnities  of  public  worship. 
For  these  offences  they  were  first  imprisoned,  and 
then  banished.  A  law  was  passed  prohibi  iug 
Quakers  from  coming  into  the  colony,  imposing  the 
penalty  of  banishment  upon  the  first  offence,  and  of 
death  upon  such  as  should  return  after  banishment. 
Four,  who  were  so  infatuated  as  to  return  and  ob- 
trude themselves  upon  the  notice  of  the  government, 
suffered  the  death  which  they  appeared  to  seek.  This 
cruel  and  impolitic  law  was  soon  afterwards  repealed. 

Cromwell,  who  had  governed  England  with  greater 
ability  and  higher  merit  than  most  of  her  kings,  died 
in  1658,  and  after  an  interval  of  two  years  Charles 
the  Second,  a  prince  destitute  of  honour  and  virtue, 
was  recalled  from  exile,  and  placed  upon  the  throne. 
He  was  reluctantly  acknowledged  by  the  colonies  of 
New  England.  They  had  been  the  favourites  of  the 
parliament  and  the  protector,  and  apprehended,  with 
good  reason,  the  loss  of  their  civil  and  religious  pri- 
vileges. 


A  short  time  after,  Whalley  and  Goffe,  two  of  the 
judges  who  had  sentenced  Charles  the  First  to  be 
beheaded,  having  fled  before  the  return  of  his  suc- 
cessor, arrived  in  New  England.  Their  first  place 
of  residence  was  Cambridge  ;  but  they  often  ap- 
peared publicly  in  Boston,  particularly  on  Sundays 
and  other  days  of  religious  solemnities.  They  had 
sustained  high  rank  in  Cromwell's  army,  were  men 
of  uncommon  talents,  and,  by  their  dignified  man- 
ners and  grave  deportment,  commanded  universal 
respect. 

As  soon  as  it  was  known  that  they  were  excepted 
from  the  general  pardon,  the  governor  suggested  to 
the  court  of  assistants  the  expediency  of  arresting 
them.  A  majority  opposed  it,  and  many  members 
of  the  general  court  gave  them  assurances  of  protec- 
tion. Considering  themselves,  however,  unsafe  at 
Cambridge,  they  removed  to  New  Haven,  where  they 
were  received  with  great  respect  by  the  clergy  and 
magistrates. 

After  a  short  residence  there,  enjoying,  in  private, 
the  society  of  their  friends,  the  governor  of  Massa- 
chusetts received  a  mandate  to  arrest  them.  A  war- 
rant was  immediately  issued,  authorizing  two  zealous 
royalists  to  search  for,  and  seize  them,  wherever 
found,  in  New  England.  They  hastened  to  the 
colony  of  New  Haven,  exhibited  the  warrant  to  the 
governor,  who  resided  at  Guildford,  and  requested 
him  to  furnish  authority  and  assistants  to  pursue 
them.  Desirous  of  favouring  the  exiles,  he  affected 
to  deliberate  until  the  next  morning,  and  then  utterly 
declined  acting  officially  without  the  advice  of  his 
council. 

In  the  mean  time  they  were  apprized  of  their  dan- 
ger, and  retired  to  a  new  place  of  concealment.  The 
pursuers,  on  arriving  at  New  Haven,  searched  every 
suspected  house,  except  the  one  where  the  judges 
were  oncealed  :  this  they  began  to  search,  but  were 
induced,  by  the  address  of  the  mistress  of  it,  to  desist  : 
when  the  pursuers  had  departed,  the  judges,  retiring 
into  the  woods,  fixed  their  abode  in  a  cave. 

Having  there  heard  that  their  friends  were  threat- 
ened with  punishment  for  having  afforded  them  pro- 
tection, they  came  from  their  hiding  place  for  the 
purpose  of  delivering  themselves  up ;  but  their 
friends,  actuated  by  feelings  equally  noble  and  gene- 
rous, persuaded  them  to  relinquish  their  intention. 
Soon  after  they  removed  to  Milford,  where  they  re- 
mained about  two  years. 

Upon  the  arrival  of  other  persons,  instructed  to 
apprehend  them,  they  repaired  privately  to  Hadley, 
in  Massachusetts,  where  they  resided  fifteen  or  six- 
teen years,  but  few  persons  being  acquainted  with 
the  place  of  their  concealment.  There  is  in  that 
neighbourhood  a  tradition,  that  many  years  after- 
wards two  graves  were  discovered  in  the  minister's 
cellar ;  and  in  these,  it  was  supposed,  they  had  been 


284 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


interred.  At  New  Haven  two  graves  are  shown, 
said  to  be  those  of  the  two  judges.  It  is  not  impro- 
bable that  their  remains  were  removed  to  this  place 
from  Hadley. 

A  singular  incident  which  occurred  at  the  latter 
place  in  1675,  shows  that  one  of  these  illustrious 
exiles  had  not  forgotten  the  avocations  of  his  youth. 
The  people,  at  the  time  of  public  worship,  were 
alarmed  by  an  attack  from  the  Indians,  and  thrown 
into  the  utmost  confusion.  Suddenly  a  grave,  elderly 
person  appeared,  differing  in  his  mien  and  dress  from 
all  around  him.  He  put  himself  at  their  head,  ral- 
lied, encouraged,  and  led  them  against  the  enemy, 
who  were  repulsed  and  completely  defeated.  As 
suddenly  the  deliverer  of  Hadley  disappeared.  The 
people  were  lost  in  amazement,  and  many  believed 
that  an  angel  sent  from  heaven  had  led  them  to 
victory. 

Their  treatment  of  the  king's  judges,  and  in  truth 
all  their  conduct,  evinced  the  republican  spirit  of  the 
colonists.  By  the  royal  government  of  England 
they  could  not  therefore  be  regarded  with  favour. 
In  1663  it  was  enacted  that  no  European  commodity 
should  be  imported  into  the  colonies,  unless  shipped 
directly  from  England,  and  in  British  vessels.  By 
this  regulation,  in  connection  with  others  that  had 
been  previously  made,  all  the  trade  of  the  colonies 
was  secured  to  the  mother  country.  They  submitted 
reluctantly  to  these  restrictions,  and  often  made 
them  the  subject  of  complaint.  But  England,  believ- 
ing that  they  augmented  her  wealth  and  power,  ob- 
stinately refused  to  repeal  them. 

In  1664  the  king  dispatched  four  commissioners 
to  visit  the  several  colonies  of  New  England,  to 
examine  into  their  condition,  to  hear  and  decide 
complaints,  and  to  make  him  a  report  of  their  pro- 
ceedings and  observations.  This  measure  was  dic- 
tated by  no  friendly  motive,  and  was  considered  by 
the.  colonies  as  a  violation  of  their  charters. 

The  first  session  of  the  commissioners  was  at  Ply- 
mouth, where  but  little  business  was  transacted  ;  the 
next  in  Rhode  Island,  where  they  heard  complaints 
from  the  Indians,  and  all  who  were  discontented, 
and  made  various  determinations  respecting  titles  to 
land,  which  were  but  little  regarded.  In  Massachu- 
setts the  general  court  complied  with  such  of  their 
requisitions  as  they  thought  proper;  but  professing 
sincere  loyalty  to  his  majesty,  declined  acknowledg- 
ing their  authority,  and  protested  against  the  exercise 
of  it  within  their  limits. 

In  consequence  of  this  manly  assertion  of  their 
chartered  rights,  an  angry  correspondence  took 
place  between  them,  at  the  close  of  which  the  com- 
missioners petulantly  told  the  general  court,  "  that 
they  would  lose  no  more  of  their  labours  upon  them,' 
but  would  represent  their  conduct  to  his  majesty. 

From  Boston  the  commissioners  proceeded  to  New 
Hampshire,  where  they  exercised  several  acts  ol 
government,  and  offered  to  release  the  inhabitants 
from  the  jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts.  This  offer 
was  almost  unanimously  rejected.  In  Maine  they 
excited  more  disturbance.  They  encouraged  the 
people  to  declare  themselves  independent,  and  founc 
many  disposed  to  listen  to  their  suggestions ;  bul 
Massachusetts,  by  a  prompt  and  vigorous  exertion  o: 
power,  constrained  the  disaffected  to  submit  to  her 
authority. 

Connecticut  appears  to  have  been  the  favourite 
of  the  commissioners.  She  treated  them  with  re 
spect,  and  complied  with  their  requisitions.  In  re 
turn  they  made  such  a  representation  of  her  merit 
to  the  king,  as  to  draw  from  him  a  letter  of  thanks 


'  Although,"  says  he,  "  your  carriage  doth  of  itself 
most  justly  deserve  our  praise  and  approbation,  yet 
t  seems  to  be  set  off  with  more  lustre  by  the  contrary 
ehaviour  of  the  colony  of  Massachusetts." 

At  the  end  of  fifty  years  from  the  arrival  of  the 
emigrants  at  Plymouth,  the  New  England  colonies 
were  supposed  to  contain  one  hundred  and  twenty 
owns,  and  as  many  thousand  inhabitants.  The  acts 
f  parliament  not  being  rigidly  enforced,  their  trade 
iad  become  extensive  and  profitable.  The  habits  of 
ndustry  and  economy,  which  had  been  formed  in 
ess  happy  times  continued  to  prevail,  and  gave  a 
competency  to  those  who  had  nothing,  and  wealth 
to  those  who  had  a  competency.  The  wilderness 
receded  before  adventurous  and  hardy  labourers,  and 
ts  savage  inhabitants  found  their  game  dispersed, 
and  their  favourite  haunts  invaded. 

This  was  the  natural  consequence  of  the  sales  of 
.and  which  were  at  all  times  readily  made  to  the 
whites.  But  this  consequence  the  Indians  did  not 
bresee  ;  and  when  they  felt  it  in  all  its  force,  the 
strongest  passions  were  awakened  which  can  animate 
civilized  or  savage  man,  the  love  of  country  and  of 
'ndependence. 

A  leader  only  was  wanting  to  concentrate  and  di 
rect  their  exertions,  and  Philip,  of  Pokanoket, 
sachem  of  a  tribe  living  within  the  boundaries  of 
Plymouth  and  Rhode  Island,  assumed  that  honoura- 
ble but  dangerous  station.  His  father  was  the  friend, 
but  he  had  ever  been  the  enemy,  of  the  whites  ;  and 
this  enmity  arising  from  causes  of  national  concern, 
bad  been  embittered  to  vindictive  hatred  by  their 
conduct  towards  his  elder  brother.  This  brother, 
being  suspected  of  plotting  against  them,  was  seized 
by  a  detachment  of  soldiers  and  confined ;  and  the 
indignity  so  wrought  upon  his  proud  spirit  as  to  pro- 
duce a  fever  that  put  an  end  to  his  life. 

Philip  inherited  the  authority  and  proud  spirit  of 
his  brother.  He  exerted  all  the  arts  of  intrigue  and 
powers  of  persuasion  of  which  he  was  master,  to 
induce  the  Indians,  in  all  parts  of  New  England,  to 
unite  their  efforts  for  the  destruction  of  the  whites. 
He  succeeded  in  forming  a  confederacy,  able  to  send 
into  action  between  three  and  four  thousand  warriors. 

The  English  were  apprized  of  the  plots  of  the  In- 
dians, and  made  preparations  to  meet  their  hostili- 
ties. They  hoped,  however,  that  the  threatened 
storm  would  pass  by  as  others  had,  and  that  peace 
would  be  preserved.  But  the  insolence  of  Philip, 
and  the  number  of  his  adherents  increased  daily ; 
and  in  June  1675,  some  of  them  entered  the  town  of 
Swanzey,  in  Plymouth,  where,  after  slaughtering  the 
cattle,  and  plundering  the  houses,  they  fired  upon  the 
inhabitants,  killing  and  wounding  several. 

The  troops  of  that  colony  marched  immediately  to 
Swanzey,  and  were  soon  joined  by  a  detachment 
from  Massachusetts.  The  Indians  fled,  and  marked 
the  course  of  their  flight  by  burning  the  buildings, 
and  fixing  on  poles  by  the  way-side  the  hands,  scalps, 
and  heads  of  the  whites  whom  they  had  killed.  The 
troops  pursued,  but  unable  to  overtake  them,  re- 
turned to  Swanzey. 

The  whole  country  was  alarmed,  and  the  number 
of  troops  augmented.  By  this  array  of  force.  Philip 
was  induced  to  quit  his  residence  at  Mount  Hope, 
and  take  post  near  a  swamp  at  Pocasset.  At  that 
place  the  English  attacked  him,  but  were  repulsed. 
Sixteen  were  killed,  and  the  Indians  by  this  success 
were  made  bolder. 

At  this  time  most  of  the  settlements  were  sur- 
rounded by  thick  forests,  and  the  Indians  lived  inter- 
mixed with  the  whites.  The  former  were  acquainted, 


UNITED  STATES. 


285 


of  course,  with  the  dwellings  of  the  latter,  with  their 
roads,  and  places  of  resort ;  could  watch  their  mo- 
tions, and  fall  upon  them  in  their  defenceless  and 
unguarded  moments.  Many  were  shot  dead  as  they 
opened  their  doors  in  the  morning  ;  many  while  at 
work  in  their  fields,  and  others  while  travelling  to 
visit  their  neighbours,  or  to  places  of  worship.  At 
all  times,  at  all  places,  in  all  employments,  were  their 
lives  in  jeopardy ;  and  no  one  could  tell  but  that  in 
the  next  moment  he  should  receive  his  death-shot 
from  his  barn,  the  thicket,  or  the  way-side. 

Whenever  the  enemy  assembled  in  force,  detach- 
ments were  sent  against  them;  if  weaker  than  these, 
they  would  retreat ;  if  stronger,  assault  and  conquer 
them.  Defenceless  villages  were  suddenly  attacked, 
the  houses  burned,  and  the  men,  women,  and 
children  killed,  or  carried  into  captivity.  Their  ruin 
was  the  work  of  a  moment ;  and  when  accomplished, 
its  authors  vanished. 

The  colonies,  losing  individuals,  families  and  vil- 
lages, found  their  numbers  sensibly  diminished ;  their 
strength  impaired ;  and  began  to  apprehend  even 
total  extinction.  Nothing  but  a  vigorous  effort  could 
save  them.  The  commissioners  met,  and  determined 
to  dispatch  an  army  of  a  thousand  men  to  attack  the 
principal  position  of  the  enemy.  Josiah  Winslow, 
governor  of  Plymouth,  was  appointed  commander  in 
chief:  and  a  solemn  fast,  to  invoke  the  divine  aid, 
was  proclaimed  throughout  New  England. 

On  the  18th  of  December,  the  different  bodies  of 
troops  formed  a  junction  at  a  place  in  the  country  of 
the  Narragansets,  about  fifteen  miles  from  the  ene- 
my. The  weather  was  extremely  cold,  but  the  men, 
from  necessity,  passed  the  night  uncovered  in  the 
fields.  At  dawn  of  day  they  began  their  march, 
wading  through  the  deep  snow,  and  at  one  o'clock 
arrived  near  the  enemy's  post,  which  was  upon  a 
rising  ground,  in  the  midst  of  a  swamp.  It  was  sur- 
rounded by  palisades,  and  on  the  outside  of  these 
was  a  fence  of  brush  a  rod  in  width. 

Here  was  fought  the  most  desperate  battle  recordec 
in  the  early  annals  of  the  country.  It  continuec 
three  hours.  The  English  obtained  a  decisive  vie 
tory.  One  thousand  Indian  warriors  were  killed 
three  hundred  more,  and  as  many  women  am 
children  were  made  prisoners.  But  dearly  was  the 
victory  purchased.  Six  captains,  and  eighty  men 
were  killed,  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  wounded. 

From  this  blow  the  confederated  Indians  neve 
recovered  ;  but  they  still  remained  sufficiently  strong 
to  harass  the  settlements  by  continual  inroads.  In 
retaliation  the  English  sent  several  detachments  int( 
their  territories,  nearly  all  of  which  were  successful 
Captain  Church,  of  Plymouth,  and  Captain  Denni 
son,  of  Connecticut,  were  conspicuous  for  thei 
bravery  and  good  fortune. 

In  the  midst  of  these  reverses,  Philip  remainec 
firm  and  unshaken.  His  warriors  were  cut  off;  hi 
chief  men,  his  wife  and  family  were  killed  or  taken 
prisoners  ;  and  at  these  successive  misfortunes,  he  i 
represented  to  have  wept  with  a  bitterness  whicl 
proved  him  to  possess  the  noblest  of  human  virtue 
and  affections  ;  but  he  disdained  to  listen  to  an1 
offers  of  peace.  He  even  shot  one  of  his  men,  wh 
proposed  submission.  At  length  after  being  huntec 
from  swamp  to  swamp,  he  was  himself  shot  by  th 
brother  of  the  Indian  he  had  killed.  After  his  deaf 
the  remnant  of  his  followers  either  submitted  to  th 
English,  or  united  with  distant  tribes. 

Never  was  peace  more  welcome,  for  never  had  wa 
been  more  distressing.  The  whole  population  wa 
in  mourning  for  relatives  *lain.  Nearly  a  thousan 


maim.        ne  was  tuvu    uic  ueatci 

ing,  requiring  that  agents  should 
of  London,'  fully  empowered  to 


ouses  had  been  burned,  and  goods  and  cattle  of 
;reat  value  had  been  plundered  or  destroyed.  The 
olonies  had  contracted  a  heavy  debt,  which,  their 
esources  having  been  so  much  diminished,  they 
ound  an  almost  insupportable  burden.  But  in  their 
leepest  distress  they  forbore  to  apply  to  the  mother 
ountry  for  assistance ;  and  this  omission  excited  sur- 
>rise  and  jealousy.  "  You  act,"  said  a  privy  coun- 
illor,  "  as  though  you  were  independent  of  our  mas- 
er's  crown ;  and  though  poor,  yet  you  are  proud." 

In  1680  New  Hampshire,  at  the  solicitation  of 
John  Mason,  to  whose  ancestor  a  part  of  the  terri- 
ory  had  been  granted,  was  constituted  a  separate 
colony.  Massachusetts,  apprehending  the  loss  of 
Vlaine  also,  purchased  of  the  heirs  of  Gorges  their 
claim  to  the  soil  and  jurisdiction,  for  twelve  hundred 
nd  fifty  pounds. 

The  disregard  of  the  acts  of  trade  had  given  great 
offence  to  the  mother  country,  and  the  governors  of 
New  England  were  peremptorily  required  to  enforce 
them.  But  being  enacted  by  a  parliament  in  which 
the  colonies  were  not  represented,  they  were  re- 
garded as  violations  of  their  rights,  and  continued  to 
se  evaded  with  impunity.  Edward  Randolph  was 
therefore  sent  over,  commissioned  as  inspector  of  the 
customs  in  New  England.  He  was  also  the  bearer 
of  a  letter  from  the  kinj 
be  sent  to  the  court 
act  for  the  colonies. 

It  was  well  understood  to  be  the  intention  of  the 
king  to  procure  from  the  agents  a  surrender  of  the 
charters,  or  to  annul  them  by  a  suit  in  his  courts, 
that  he  might  himself  place  officers  over  the  colonies 
who  would  be  subservient  to  his  views.  The  inha- 
bitants of  Massachusetts  felt  that  to  be  deprived  of 
their  charter,  which  secured  to  them  the  right  of 
self-government,  would  be  the  greatest  of  calamities ; 
and  their  agents  were  instructed,  in  no  emergency, 
to  surrender  it.  This  being  known  to  the  king,  a 
prosecution  was  instituted  against  the  corporation, 
and  in  1684  a  subservient  court  decreed  that  the 
charter  should  be  cancelled. 

All  impediments  to  the  exercise  of  the  royal  will 
being  thus  removed,  King  James  established  a  tem- 
porary government  over  the  colony,  first  appoint- 
ing Joseph  Dudley,  and,  in  168.6,  Sir  Edmund  An- 
dros,  governor.  This  latter  appointment  caused  the 
most  gloomy  forebodings.  Sir  Edmund  had  been 
governor  of  New  York,  and  it  was  known  that  his 
conduct  there  had  been  arbitrary  and  tyrannical. 

Having  secured  a  majority  in  the  council,  he  as- 
sumed controul  over  the  press,  appointing  Randolph 
licenser.  He  established  new  and  oppressive  regu- 
lations concerning  taxes,  pubh'c  worship,  marriages, 
and  the  settlement  of  estates.  He,  and  by  his  per- 
mission, his  subordinate  officers,  extorted  enormous 
fees  for  their  services.  He  declared  that  the  char- 
ter being  cancelled,  the  old  titles  to  land  were  of  no 
validity,  and  compelled  the  inhabitants,  in  order  to 
avoid  suits  before  judges  dependent  on  his  will,  to 
take  out  new  patents,  for  which  large  sums  were 
demanded. 

The  hatred  of  the  people  was  excited  in  proportion 
to  their  sufferings.  In  the  beginning  of  1689,  a  ru- 
mour reached  Boston,  that  William  Prince  of  Orange 
had  invaded  England,  with  the  intention  of  dethron- 
ing the  king.  Animated  by  the  hope  of  deliverance, 
the  people  rushed  spontaneously  to  arms,  took  pos- 
session of  the  fort,  seized  Andros,  Randolph,  and 
other  obnoxious  persons,  and  placed  them  in  con- 
finement. A  council  of  safety,  consisting  of  their 
former  magistrates,  was  then  organized,  to  administer 


286 


THE 'HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  government  until  authentic   intelligence  should 
be  received  from  England. 

In  a  few  weeks  a  ship  arrived,  bringing  the  glad 
tidings  that  William  and  Mary  were  firmly  seated 
on  the  throne.  They  were  immediately  proclaimed 
in  all  the  colonies  with  unusual  rejoicings.  The 
people  of  Massachusetts  applied  for  the  restoration 
of  their  old,  or  the  grant  of  a  new  charter.  A  defi- 
nite answer  was  deferred,  but  the  council  was  autho- 
rized to  administer  the  government,  according  to  the 
provisions  of  the  old  charter,  until  further  directions 
should  be  given.  Andros,  Randolph,  and  others, 
were  ordered  home  for  trial. 

In  this  unsettled  state  of  the  country,  the  French 
in  Canada  and  Nova  Scotia  instigated  the  northern 
and  eastern  Indians  to  commence  hostilities  against 
the  English  settlements.  Dover  and  Salmon  Falls, 
in  New  Hampshire ;  Casco,  in  Maine ;  and  Sche- 
nectady,  in  New  York ;  were  attacked  by  different 
parties  of  French  and  Indians,  and  the  most  shock- 
ing barbarities  perpetrated  on  the  inhabitants. 

Regarding  Canada  as  the  principal  source  of  their 
miseries,  New  England  and  New  York  formed  the 
bold  project  of  reducing  it  to  subjection.  By  great 
exertion  they  raised  an  army,  which,  under  the 
command  of  General  Winthrop,  was  sent  against 
Montreal,  and  equipped  a  fleet,  which,  commanded 
by  Sir  William  Phipps,  was  destined  to  attack 
Quebec. 

Both  returned  unsuccessful,  disappointing  the  san- 
guine hopes  of  the  people,  and  burdening  them  with 
a  debt  which  they  had  not  the  means  of  discharging. 
To  pay  off  her  troops,  Massachusetts  put  in  circula- 
tion bills  of  credit,  or  paper  money,  an  expedient 
•which  was  afterwards  often  resorted  to,  and  though 
it  afforded  relief  at  the  moment,  produced  in  its  con- 
sequences extensive  and  complicated  mischief. 

In  the  mean  time  a  new  charter  had  been  granted 
to  Massachusetts, '  which  added  Plymouth,  Maine, 
and  Nova  Scotia,  to  her  territory.  The  only  privi- 
lege it  allowed  to  the  people  was  the  choice  of  repre- 
sentatives. These  were  to  elect  a  council,  and  both 
bodies  were  to  constitute  the  legislative  power 

It  reserved  to  the  king  the  right  of  appointing  the 
governor  and  lieutenant-governor.  To  the  governor 
it  gave  the  power  of  rejecting  laws,  of  negativing  the 
choice  of  councillors,  of  appointing  all  military  and 
judicial  officers,  of  adjourning  and  even  of  dissolving 
the  assembly  at  pleasure.  Laws,  although  approved 
by  him,  might  be  abrogated  by  the  king,  within 
three  years  after  their  enactment. 

The  king,  to  render  the  new  charter  more  accept- 
able, appointed  Sir  William  Phipps,  a  native  of  the 
province,  governor,  and  in  1692  he  arrived  at  Bos- 
ton. The  new  government  went  into  operation 
without  any  opposition  from  the  inhabitants  ;  and 
almost  the  first  act  of  Sir  William  Phipps  and  his 
council  was  the  institution  of  a  court  to  try  the  un- 
fortunate victims  of  popular  delusion,  accused  of 
withcraft,  at  Salem. 

The  belief  in  this  supposed  crime  had  been  so 
prevalent  in  England,  that  parliament  had  enacted 
a  law  punishing  it  with  death.  Under  this  law,  mul- 
titudes had  been  tried  and  executed  in  that  country, 
and  two  or  three  in  Massachusetts,  some  of  whom 
acknowledged  they  were  guilty.  Accounts  of  these 
trials  and  confessions,  and  particularly  of  some  trials 
before  Sir  Matthew  Hale,  a  judge  revered  in  the  co- 
lonies, had  been  published  and  distributed  through- 
out the  country.  They  were  read  in  a  time  of  great 
distress  and  gloom  by  a  people  naturally  sedate,  and 
accustomed  to  regard  with  awe  the  surprising  and 


unaccountable  incidents  and  appearances  which,  in 
this  new  world,  were  often  presented  to  their  con- 
templation. 

In  February,  1692,  a  daughter  and  a  niece  of  Mr. 
Paris,  the  minister  of  Salem,  were  afflicted  with  dis- 
orders affecting  their  bodies  in  the  most  singular 
manner.  The  physicians,  unable  to  account  for  their 
contortions,  pronounced  them  bewitched ;  and  the 
children,  hearing  of  this,  declared  that  an  Indian 
woman,  who  lived  in  the  house,  was  the  cause  of  their 
torments.  Mr.  Paris  concurred  with  the  physicians. 
Several  private  fasts  were  kept  at  his  house,  and  the 
gloom  was  increased  by  a  solemn  fast  throughout  the 
colony. 

The  Indian  woman  confessed  herself  guilty.  The 
children  were  visited,  noticed,  and  pitied.  This  en- 
couraged them  to  persevere,  and  other  children,  either 
from  sympathy  or  the  desire  of  similar  attentions, 
exhibited  similar  contortions.  A  distracted  old  woman, 
and  one  who  had  been  a  long  time  confined  to  her 
bed,  was  added  to  the  list  of  the  accused ;  and,  in  the 
progress  of  the  infatuation,  women  of  mature  age 
united  with  the  children  in  their  accusations. 

The  accused  were  multiplied  in  proportion  to  the 
accusers.  Children  accused  their  parents,  and  pa- 
rents their  children.  A  word  from  those  who  were 
supposed  to  be  afflicted  occasioned  the  arrest  of  the 
devoted  victim ;  and  so  firmly  convinced  were  the 
magistrates  that  the  prince  of  darkness  was  in  the 
midst  of  them,  using  human  instruments  to  accom- 
plish his  purposes,  that  the  slightest  testimony  was 
deemed  sufficient  to  justify  a  commitment  for  trial. 

The  court,  specially  instituted  for  this  purpose, 
held  a  session  in  June,  and  afterwards  several  others, 
by  adjournment.  Many  were  tm^l,  and  received 
sentence  of  death.  A  few  pleaded  guilty.  Several 
were  convicted  upon  testimony,^  which,  at  other 
times,  would  not  have  induced  suspicion  of  an  ordi- 
nary crime,  and  some  upon  testimony  retracted  after 
conviction.  Nineteen  were  executed,  and  many  yet 
remained  to  be  -tried. 

At  this  stage  of  the  proceedings  the  legislature 
established,  by  law,  a  permanent  court,  by  which  the 
other  was  superseded,  and  fixed  a  distant  day  for  its 
first  session,  at  Salem.  In  the  mean  time  the  accu- 
sations multiplied,  and  additional  jails  were  required 
to  hold  the  accused  The  impostors,  hardened  by 
impunity  and  success,  ascended  from  decrepid  old 
women  to  respectable  characters,  and  at  length,  in 
their  ravings,  named  ministers  of  the  gospel,  and 
even  the  wife  of  the  governor. 

The  community  were  thrown  into  consternation. 
Each  felt  alarm  for  himself,  his  family,  and  his 
friends.  The  shock  roused  them  to  reflection.  They 
considered  more  closely  the  character  of  the  ac- 
cusers ;  the  nature  of  the  alleged  crime ;  the  testi- 
mony often  contradictory  and  never  explicit;  and 
more  than  all  these,  the  high  standing  of  some  who 
were  implicated ;  and  began  to  doubt  whether  they 
had  not  been  too  credulous  and  precipitate. 

At  the  next  term  the  grand  jury  found  indictments 
against  fifty ;  but  on  trial  all  were  acquitted  except 
three,  and  those  the  governor  reprieved.  He  also 
directed  that  all  who  were  in  prison  should  be  set  at 
liberty.  A  belief,  however,  of  the  truth  of  the 
charges  still  lingered  among  the  people,  and  pre- 
vented any  prosecution  of  the  impostors.  That  all 
were  impostors,  cannot  be  believed.  Many-  must 
have  acted  under  the  influence  of  a  disordered  ima- 
gination, which  the  attendant  circumstances  were 
well  calculated  to  produce. 

Besides  establishing  courts  of  justice,  the  legisla 


UNITED -STATES. 


287 


ture,  at  its  first  session  under  the  new  charter,  passed 
a  law  which  indicates  the  same  independent  spirit 
that  afterwards  resisted  the  usurpations  of  the  British 
parliament.  It  provided  that  no  tax  should  be  im- 
posed upon  any  of  his  Majesty's  subjects,  or  their 
estates,  in  the  province,  but  by  the  act  and  consent 
of  the  governor,  council,  and  representatives  of  the 
people,  in  general  court  assembled.  It  is  almost 
superfluous  to  say  that  this  law  was  disallowed  by 
the  king. 

The  war  with  the  French  and  Indians,  which  be- 
gan in  1690,  was  not  yet  terminated.  For  seven 
years  were  the  frontier  settlements  harassed  by  the 
savages  ;  and  the  English  employed  in  expeditions 
against  them.  A  history  of  these  would  consist  only 
of  repeated  accounts  of  Indian  cunning  and  barba- 
rity, and  of  English  enterprize  and  fortitude. 

The  peace  of  Ryswick  was  proclaimed  in  Boston, 
December  10,  1697.  The  war  with  the  Indians  did 
not  immediately  cease.  The  beginning  of  the  next 
year,  they  shewed  themselves  at  Kittery,  where  they 
killed  an  old  man ;  and  at  the  same  time  they  car- 
ried away  three  persons  from  York.  In  July,  they 
appeared  upon  the  western  frontier  and  took  three 
or  four  prisoners  at  Hatfield  :  but  the  French  no 
longer  daring  to  afford  them  assistance,  they  spent 
the  rest  of  the  year  in  contriving  a  peace.  Upon 
intimations  given  by  the  Indians  to  any  of  the  forts 
or  outposts  that  they  were  disposed  to  peace,  the 
English  were  very  ready  to  embrace  the  offer.  The 
principal  object  was  the  recovery  of  the  captives, 
which  at  the  end  of  the  war  had  generally  been 
numerous.  In  October,  Major  Convert  and  Captain 
Alden  were  sent  to  Penobscot  to  settle  preliminaries ; 
one  of  which  was  to  be  the  release  of  all  prisoners, 
but  no  more  could  be  obtained,  on  this  head,  than  a 
promise  to  return  all  such  as  desired  it ;  the  Indians 
refused  to  compel  any  who  inclined  to  remain  with 
them.  In  the  winter,  John  Phillips,  Esq.,  of  the 
council,  with  Major  Convers,  and  Cyprian  South- 
ack,  commander  of  the  province  galley,  went  with 
full  powers  to  conclude  a  treaty.  The  Indians  were 
not  very  nice  in  acknowledging  their  perfidy  in 
such  terms  as  the  English  prepared  for  them,  and 
made  such  submissions  and  promises  of  future  fide- 
lity as  were  desired.  The  treaty  was  in  the  same 
terms  with  that  in  1693.  Several  captives  were 
restored,  and  others  were  promised  in  the  spring; 
but  many  remained,  males  and  females,  who  min- 
gled with  Indians,  and  contributed  to  promote  a  suc- 
cession of  savages  to  exercise  cruelties  upon  the 
English  frontiers,  in  future  wars,  and  perhaps  upon 
some  of  their  own  relations. 

The  leaving  bounds  to  be  settled  between  the 
English  and  French,  upon  the  continent,  by  com- 
missaries, and  the  ambiguous  terms  made  use  of  in 
treaties  (perhaps  artfully  introduced  by  the  French) 
have  ever  been  the  causes  of  new  disputes  between 
the  two  crowns ;  and,  in  one  instance  at  least, 
very  soon  brought  on  a  new  war.  The  peace  ol 
Ryswick  was  scarcely  proclaimed  in  New  England, 
when  the  inhabitants  were  made  sensible  of  the 
designs  of  the  French  to  make  themselves  sole  pro- 
prietors of  the  fishery,  and  to  restrain  the  English 
from  the  possession  of  any  part  of  the  country  con- 
tained in  the  Massachusetts  charter  to  the  eastward 
of  Kennebeck.  It  was  understood  by  the  English 
court,  that  by  the  treaty  of  Ryswick,  all  tne  country 
westward  of  St.  Croix  was  to  remain  to  the  English, 
as  being  within  the  bounds  of  the  province  of  Mas- 
sachusetts-Bay. The  French  court,  immediately  after 
the  treaty,  asserted  an  exclusive  right  to  the  fishery 


upon  the  sea  coasts  and  to  all  the  inland  country 
A.  French  man  of  war,  bound  from  France  to  Port 
royal,  met  one  of  the  fishing  vessels  off  Cape  Sabels, 
sent  for  the  skipper  to  come  on  board,  and  caused 
to  be  translated  and  read  to  him  in  English  an 
order  of  the  French  king  for  seizing  all  English 
vessels  found  fishing  on  the  coasts,  and  told  him  to 
five  notice  of  this  order  to  all  other  vessels.  Ville- 
bon,  governor  of  St.  John's  river,  writes,  soon  after, 
to  Mr.  Stoughton,  that  he  had  orders,  from  the 
French  king,  his  master,  to  take  possession  of,  and 
defend  the  whole  country  as  far  as  Kennebeck. 

The  Norridgewock  Indians,  this  year  also,  built 
a  church,  at  their  chief  settlement  upon  Kennebeck 
river,  which  was  complained  of  by  the  Massachusetts' 
government  as  a  French  encroachment;  but  we  know 
not  for  what  reason,  except  their  having  a  French 
man  for  their  priest  can  be  thought  one. 

Representations  were  made  to  the  ministry,  and 
the  right  of  the  English  to  the  eastern  country,  as 
far  as  St.  Croix,  was  insisted  upon.  The  Lords  of 
trade  wrote  thus  to  the  Earl  of  Bellamont.  "  As  to 
the  boundaries,  we  have  always  insisted  and  shall 
insist  upon  the  English  right  as  far  as  the  river  St. 
Croix;  but  in  the  mean  while,  in  relation  to  the 
encroachments  of  the  French  and  their  building  a 
church  on  Kennebeck  river,  that  seems  to  us  a  very 
proper  occasion  for  your  Lordship's  urging  the  gene- 
ral assembly  of  the  Massachusetts-Bay  to  rebuild  the 
fort  at  Pemaquid,  which  they  ought  to  have  done 
long  ago,  and  thereby  they  might  have  prevented 
this  and  many  other  inconveniences." 

The  French  persisted  in  their  molestations  of  the 
English  fishermen,  and  there  seems  to  have  been 
no  great  concern  about  it  in  the  English  ministry ; 
other  greater  affairs,  in  difference  between  the  two 
crowns,  engaged  the  attention,  and  brought  on  a 
new  war  ;  and  it  was  well  they  did,  for  it  seems  very 
probable  that  this  dispute  about  the  fishery  would 
not  have  made  a  breach  ;  but  if  peace  had  continued, 
the  French  would  have  excluded  the  English,  and 
this  valuable  branch  once  lost,  might  never  have 
been  recovered. 

King  James,  always  under  the  influence  of 
France,  had  relinquished  his  right  to  Acadia  or 
Nova  Scotia ;  and  although  his  governor  (Andros) 
for  the  short  time  the  king  remained  afterwards 
upon  the  throne,  retained  the  possession  of  Pema- 
quid, and  challenged  a  right  to  St.  Croix;  and 
although  the  friendship  between  the  two  monarchs 
might  prevent  any  severity  upon  the  English 
fishermen,  yet  the  French  insisted  upon  their  right 
both  to  the  country  aad  coasts.  The  war,  upon  the 
revolution,  suspended'  the  dispute  about  title.  At 
the  treaty  of  Ryswick,  England  was  not  disposed  to 
urge  any  points  which  would  retard  the  peace ;  and 
the  French  immediately  after  renewed  the  same 
claim  they  had  made  under  King  James. 

Lord  Bellamont  arrived  at  Boston  from  New 
York,  May  26,  1699.  A  nobleman  at  the  head  of 
the  government  was  a  new  thhig.  All  ranks  of 
people  exerted  themselves  to  show  him  respect,  and 
the  appearance  was  so  pompous,  that  his  lordship 
thought  it  gave  him  good  reason  to  expect  a  very 
honourable  support  from  a  province  so  well  stocked 
with  inhabitants,  and  in  a  state  of  so  much  affluence. 
He  took  every  method  to  ingratiate  himself  with  the 
people.  He  was  condescending,  affable,  and  cour- 
teous upon  all  occasions.  He  professed  to  be  of  the 
most  moderate  principles  in  religion  and  govern- 
ment ;  although  a  churchman,  yet  far  from  the  high 
church,  and  he  attended  the  weekly  lecture  at  Bos- 


288 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


ton  with  great  reverence,  and  professed  great  regard 
and  esteem  for  the  preachers.  He  avoided  all  un- 
necessary contests  with  private  persons,  or  with 
either  branch  of  the  legislature.  His  inclination 
led  him  to  Mr.  Dudley's  enemies,  but  he  did  not 
neglect  those  who  were  friendly  and  attached  to  him. 
There  was  perfect  harmony  in  the  general  court 
whilst  he  presided.  There  was  something  singular 
and  unparliamentary  in  his  form  of  proceeding  in 
council;  for  he  considered  himself  as  at  the  head  of 
the  board  in  their  legislative,  as  well  as  executive 
capacity.  He  concerned  himself  in  all  their  debates, 
proposed  all  business,  and  frequently  recommended 
to  them  to  resolve  into  a  committee  upon  bills  or 
clauses  in  bills,  and  then,  as  the  entries  stand,  he 
left  the  chair,  and  the  committee  (being  ready  to 
report)  reassumed;  nor  did  he  think  it  proper  they 
should  act  as  a  house  of  parliament  in  his  absence  ; 
but  when  detained  at  home,  by  messages  from  time 
to  time,  directed  their  going  into  a  committee  and 
preparing  business  against  such  time  as  he  should 
be  able  to  attend.  This  was  guiding  them  in  all 
their  debates  and  resolves,  as  far  as  his  influence 
would  extend,  which  was  not  a  little  way ;  and  yet, 
afterwards,  as  a  separate  branch,  he  had  his  nega- 
tive upon  all  their  proceedings  which  were  not 
according  to  his  mind.  This  irregularity  does  not 
seem  to  be  the  mere  effect  of  his  lordship's  authority 
and  influence  over  the  council.  The  constitution 
under  the  new  charter  was  not  settled.  They  came 
off  by  degrees  from  their  practice  under  the  old 
charter.  The  governor,  created  by  the  people,  used 
then  to  vote  with  the  assistants ;  and  although  he 
had  no  negative,  yet  he  had  a  casting  voice.  Lord 
Bellamont  finding  this  to  have  been  the  practice, 
and  considering  how  much  it  increased  his  share  in 
all  acts  of  government,  might  be  disposed  to  retain 
it.  Experience  taught,  what  was  not  at  first  con- 
ceived, the  great  difference  between  the  privilege  of 
proposing  or  originating  and  that  of  rejecting.  In 
some  succeeding  administrations,  it  has  given  cause 
of  exception  and  complaint  when  the  governor  has 
interested  himself  in  the  debates  of  the  council,  to 
influence  their  determinations  and  abridge  them  of 
that  freedom,  to  which  they  are  equally  entitled 
with  the  other  branches  of  the  legislature.  He  was 
the  first  governor  who  imitated  the  lord  lieutenant  of 
Ireland  in  formal  speeches,  as  the  king's  representa- 
tive, to  the  two  houses  of  parliament ;  copies  of 
which  were  delivered  to  the  speaker,  and  afterwards 
printed.  Extracts  from  one  or  two,  shew  they  were 
calculated  ad  captandum.  The  unfavourable  senti- 
ments of  the  inhabitants  in  general,  of  the  reign  of 
the  Stuarts,  were  well  known  to  him;  no  subject 
could  be  more  engaging  than  a  censure  upon  that 
family.  He  concludes  his  first  speech,  which  is  a 
very  long  one,  in  this  manner  :  "  I  should  be  want- 
ing to  you  and  myself  too,  if  I  did  not  put  you  in 
mind  of  the  indispensable  duty  and  respect  we  owe 
the  king,  for  being  the  glorious  instrument  of  our 
deliverance  from  the  odious  fetters  and  chains  of 
popery  and  tyranny,  which  has  almost  overwhelmed 
our  consciences  and  subverted  all  our  civil  rights. 
There  is  something  that  is  godlike  in  what  the  king 
hath  done  for  us.  The  works  of  redemption  and 
preservation  come  next  to  that  of  creation.  I  would 
not  be  misunderstood,  so  as  to  be  thought  to  rob 
God  of  the  glory  of  that  stupendous  act  of  his  provi- 
dence, in  bringing  to  pass  the  late  happy  and  won- 
derful revolution  in  England.  His  blessed  work  it 
was,  without  doubt,  and  he  was  pleased  to  make  king 
William,  immediately,  the  author  and  instrument 


>f  it.  Ever  since  the  year  1602,  England  has  had 
i  succession  of  kings,  who  have  been  aliens  in  this 
•espect,  that  they  have  not  fought  our  battles  nor 
ieen  in  our  interests,  but  have  been,  in  an  unna- 
ural  manner,  plotting  and  contriving  to  undermine 
and  subvert  our  religion,  laws,  and  liberties,  till  God 
was  pleased,  by  his  infinite  power  and  mercy  and 
goodness,  to  give  us  a  true  English  king,  in  the 
>erson  of  his  present  majesty,  who  has,  upon  all 
occasions,  hazarded  his  royal  person  in  the  fronts  of 
our  battles,  and  wHere  there  was  most  danger ;  he 
las  restored  to  our  nation  the  almost  lost  character 
f  bravery  and  valour ;  and,  what  is  most  valuable 
if  all,  his  majesty  is  entirely  in  the  interest  of  his 
>eople.  It  is  therefore  our  duty  and  interest  to  pray 
,o  God,  in  the  most  fervent  manner,  that  he  would 
)less  our  great  king  William  with  a  long  and  pros- 
perous reign  over  us,  to  which  I  am  persuaded,  you 
hat  are  present  and  all  good  people  will  heartily 
say  amen." 

His  last  speech  had  expressions,  strong  enough, 
upon  the  same  strain.  "  The  parting  with  Canada 
to  the  French,  and  the  eastern  country  called  Acadia 
or  Nova  Scotia,  with  the  noble  fishery  on  that 
coast,  were  most  execrable  treacheries  to  England, 
and  intended,  without  doubt,  to  serve  the  ends  of 
popery.  It  is  too  well  known  what  interest  that 
ting  favoured  who  parted  with  Nova  Scotia,  and  of 
what  religion  he  died." 

By  avoiding  offence  to  particular  persons,  and  by 
a  general  conformity  to  the  cast  or  prevailing  dispo- 
sition of  the  people,  his  lordship  obtained  a  larger 
sum  as  a  salary  and  gratuity,  not  only  than  any  of 
liis  predecessors,  but  also  than  any  who  succeeded 
him,  when  the  inhabitants  were  more  numerous  and 
more  opulent,  and  money  compared  with  the  neces- 
saries of  life  had  become  less  valuable ;  for  he  re- 
mained  but  fourteen  months  in  the  province,  and  the 
grants  made  by  the  general  court  amounted  to  2500  J. 
lawful  money,  or  1875J.  sterling. 

His  time  was  much  taken  up  in  securing  the 
pirates  and  their  effects,  which,  as  was  supposed, 
was  the  great  inducement  with  the  king  to  send  him 
to  America.  Before  his  arrival  in  Boston,  several 
suspected  persons  had  been  seized.  After  thirty  or 
forty  years  indulgence,  there  succeeded  a  general 
abhorrence  of  buccaneering ;  and  the  buccaneers,  or 
freebooters,  were  hunted  from  one  colony  to  another. 
A  large  sum  of  money  was  seized  in  the  possession 
of  one  Smith,  part  of  it  foreign  coins  and  the  impres- 
sions unintelligible ;  and  he  was  brought  upon  trial, 
but  the  evidence  produced  being  insufficient  to  sa- 
tisfy the  jury,  he  was  acquitted. 

About  the  same  time  one  Bradish  was  appre- 
hended. He  had  been  boatswain's  mate  of  a  ship 
fitted  out  by  merchants  and  tradesmen  of  London 
to  India,  in  the  interloping  trade.  The  crew  turned 
pirates ;  and,  having  left  the  master  ashore  at  Polo- 
nais,  gave  the  command  to  Bradish.  They  came  to 
America,  and  lodged  large  sums  of  money  and  goods 
with  persons  upon  Long  Island  and  other  places 
within  and  near  to  the  government  of  New  York, 
and  then  dispersed ;  some  to  Connecticut,  others  to 
Massachusetts,  where  Bradish  was  taken  and  others 
of  his  crew,  and  sent  to  England.  The  vigi- 
lance used  in  pursuing  and  apprehending  them,  ap- 
pears from  the  account  Mr.  Stoughton  transmitted  to 
the  secretary  of  state.  But  Kidd  was  his  lordship's 
chief  object.  His  own  reputation  and  that  of  seve- 
ral of  his  friends  depended  upon  his  seizure,  that  being 
the  only  effectual  way  of  removing  the  jealousies 
and  unjust  surmises,  not  only  against  several  of  the 


UNITED  STATE*. 


tfuni&ry,  but  even  against  the  king  himself.  In 
order  to  suppress  the  piracies  committed  by  English 
subjects  in  India,  &c.,  it  was  thought  proper  to  fit 
out  a  ship  for  that  special  purpose.  Lord  Rumney, 
Sommers  and  others,  became  adventurers,  to  the 
amount  of  six  thousand  pounds  sterling,  and  a  grant 
was  made  to  them  of  all  captures,  saving  one-tenth 
only  reserved  to  the  king.  Lord  Bellamont  seems 
to  have  had  the  principal  direction.  Upon  enquiry 
for  a  proper  commander,  Mr.  Livingstone,  a  princi- 
pal inhabitant  of  New  York,  being  then  in  London, 
recommended  Kidd,  who  had  sailed  out  of  New 
York,  and  having  a  family  there,  no  question  was 
made  of  his  attachment  to  it,  and  there  was  no  sus- 
picion of  his  ever  turning  pirate  himself.  From 
London  he  went  first  to  New  York,  where  he  broke 
through  the  instructions  he  had  received,  shipping 
his  men  upon  new  terms ;  and  when  he  arrived  in 
India,  not  only  connived  at  and  suffered  to  continue, 
a  known  pirate  vessel,  but  committed  divers  alarm- 
ing acts  of  piracy  himself,  to  the  endangering  the 
amity  subsisting  between  the  East  India  Company 
and  the  princes  in  that  part  of  the  world.  The  least 
said  by  the  enemies  of  the  administration  was,  that 
from  a  greedy  desire  of  gain,  an  ill-judged  measure 
had  been  engaged  in,  which  would  be  attended  with 
very  mischievous  consequences,  and  the  malice  of 
some  insinuated  a  criminal  intention  in  the  under- 
taking. 

Where  Kidd  would  seek  an  asylum  was  uncer- 
tain. Strangely  infatuated,  he  came  from  Mada- 
gascar to  Boston,  and  made  a  bold  open  appearance 
there,  July  1,  this  year,  and  some  of  his  crew  with 
him.  On  the  3rd  he  was  sent  for  by  the  governor 
and  examined  before  the  council.  What  account  he 
could  give  of  himself  does  not  now  appear,  but  he 
was  not  immediately  committed,  and  only  ordered  to 
draw  up  a  narrative  of  his  proceedings ;  which  ne- 
glecting to  do  in  the  time  assigned  him,  on  the  6th 
he  was  apprehended  and  committed  to  prison.  Being 
a  very  resolute  fellow,  when  the  officer  arrested  him 
in  his  lodgings,  he  attempted  to  draw  his  sword,  but 
a  young  gentleman,  who  accompanied  the  officer, 
laying  hold  of  his  arm,  prevented  him,  and  he  sub- 
mitted. Several  of  his  men  were  secured  at  the 
same  time,  and  advice  having  been  sent  to  England, 
it  was  thought  an  affair  of  so  much  importance,  that 
a  man  of  war  was  sent  to  carry  them  there  ;  where 
Kidd,  Bradish.  and  divers  others  were  condemned 
and  executed.  The  party  writers  in  England  pre- 
tended, that  after  Kidd's  arrival  he  had  assurance 
from  some  anti-courtiers,  who  examined  him  in  pri- 
son, that  his  life  should  be  spared  if  he  would  accuse 
his  employers,  but  that  he  was  not  bad  enough  to 
comply  with  such  a  proposal. 

Lord  Bellamont  held  two  sessions  of  the  general 
court  this  year;  the  first,  the  anniversary  for  the 
election  of  councillors,  the  latter  the  31st  of  March 
following,  occasioned  by  a  general  rumour  through 
the  colonies,  that  the  Indians  (from  all  quarters,  not 
only  those  upon  the  frontiers,  but  those  who  were 
scattered  through  the  towus  in  the  several  colonies) 
had  united  and  agreed,  at  an  appointed  time,  to  fall 
upon  the  English  in  order  to  a  total  extirpation. 
The  Indiana  were  no  less  alarmed  with  a  report 
that  the  king  had  withdrawn  his  protection  from 
them,  and  ordered  his  subjects  to  unite  in  their  de- 
struction. These  reports  were  supposed  to  have 
been  raised  by  evil-minded  persons  among  the  Eng- 
lish or  Dutch ;  but  it  is  more  probable,  the  Indians 
of  the  six  nations,  to  obtain  the  presents  which 
accompanied  all  treaties  between  the  English  and 

THE  HISTOKT  OF  AMERICA      Nos.  37  &  38. 


them,  were  the  contrivers  and  managers  of  the  whole 
affair.  (1699.)  Such  was  the  consternation  in  the 
Massachusetts,  that  several  acts  passed  the  general 
court  for  levying  soldiers ;  for  punishing  mutiny  and 
desertion  ;  or  holding  all  the  militia  in  readiness  to 
march ;  and  for  enabling  the  governor  to  march  them 
out  of  the  province,  which,  by  charter,  he  wa»  re- 
strained from  without  an  act  of  assembly.  AST  it 
happened,  there  was  no  occasion  for  carrying  these 
laws  into  execution;  the  general  terror  subsiding 
soon  after. 

Soon  after  the  session  of  the  general  court  in  May 
1 700,  Lord  Bellamont  took  his  leave  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts, and  went  to  New  York,  where  he  died  the 
5th  of  March  following.  Mr.  Stoughton  took  the 
chair  again,  with  reluctance.  His  advanced  age 
and  declining  state  of  health  made  him  fond  of  ease 
and  retirement. 

As  soon  as  the  news  of  the  governor's  death 
reached  England,  Mr.  Dudley  renewed  his  solicita- 
tions with  fresh  vigour,  for  a  post  which  he  never 
lost  sight  of.  By  the  interest  of  Lord  Cults,  and 
the  condescension  of  Lord  Weymouth,  whose  son-in- 
law  was  a  competitor,  he  was  chosen  member  for 
Newtown  in  Southampton  county,  in  King  William's 
last  parliament.  This,  with  the  place  of  lieut.-go- 
vernor  of  the  Isle  of  Wight,  \vas  to  be  preferred  to 
all  he  could  expect  in  New  England,  if  it  had  not 
been  his  native  country  ;  but  he  had  a  passion  for 
layiug  his  bones  there,  which  equalled  that  of  the 
ancient  Athenians,  and  which  he  could  not  help 
mentioning  to  every  New  England  man  who  paid 
him  a  visit ;  as  many  frequently  would  do,  from 
Portsmouth,  where  they  were  often  detained  for 
convoy. 

(1701.)  When  Sir  Richard  Onslow  and  Mr.  Har- 
ley  were  competitors  for  the  Speaker's  place,  his  in- 
clination led  him  to  the  latter,  from  whom  he  had  re- 
ceived favours;  but  his  favourite  object,  which  he  was 
then  pursuing,  obliged  him  to  comply  with  the  court 
and  vote  for  the  former.  He  made  use  of  the  dissenting 
interest  in  England  to  obtain  his  commission,  and 
to  recommend  him  to  his  countrymen  upon  his  arri- 
val. There  was  another  difficulty  still  remaining, 
the  king  was  not  willing  to  appoint  a  governor,  who 
he  knew  had  been  very  obnoxious  to  the  people.  A 
petition  was  therefore  procured  from  such  persons 
belonging  to  the  Massachusetts  as  were  then  in 
London,  and  from  the  principal  New-England  mer- 
chants, praying  that  Mr.  Dudley  might  be  appointed 
governor.  He  had  also  the  address  to  reconcile 
himself  to  Mr.  Mather  the  younger,  and  to  obtain 
from  him  a  letter  favouring  his  cause,  which  he 
made  known  to  the  king,  and  which  removed  his 
objection  ;  and  although  Lord  Cornbury,  a  near  re- 
lation of  the  Queen  and  the  Princess  Ann,  being 
appointed  for  New  York,  expected  Massachusetts 
also,  yet  Mr.  Dudley  prevailed;  and  his  commission 
passed  the  seals.  The  king's  death,  a  few  months 
after,  caused  him  the  trouble  of  taking  out  a  new 
commission  from  the  queen,  but  he  had  the  unusual 
favour  shown  him  of  remitting  most  if  not  all  the 
fees. 

Whilst  these  things  were  transacting  in  England, 
the  lieut.-governor,  Mr.  Stoughton,  died,  in  May 
(1702),  at  his  house  in  Dorchester.  The  admini- 
stration for  the  first  time  devolved  upon  the  council. 
Some  manuscript  minutes  and  letters,  which  we  have 
seen,  about  the  time  and  after  the  settlement  of  the 
charter,  take  it  for  granted,  that  upon  the  death  or 
absence  of  the  governor  and  lieut.-governor,  the 
senior  counsellor  would  preside,  and  an  instruction 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


from  the  crown  has  been  given  for  that  purpose; 
but  the  expression  in  the  charter,  if  it  will  admit  of 
this  construction,  does  not  favour  it :  we  must  not 
wonder,  therefore,  that  twenty-seven  counsellors  did 
not  readily  give  up  their  share  in  the  administration 
lo  him  that  happened  to  be  the  eldest.  It  is  a  defect 
in  the  constitution,  for  although,  for  certain  pur- 
poses, seven  counsellors  make  a  quorum,  yet  in  all 
acts,  as  commanders  in  chief,  it  has  been  judged 
necessary  that  fifteen  (or  a  majority  of  the  whole 
number)  should  give  their  consent.  This  must  be 
extremely  inconvenient,  especially  in  time  of  war, 
when  despatch  often,  and  secresy  sometimes,  are  of 
great  importance. 

Mr.  Stoughton's  father  was  esteemed  by  the  peo- 
ple ;  was  commander  in  chief  of  the  forces  of  the 
colony  in  the  first  war  against  the  Pequod  Indians, 
and  after  that  many  years  a  magistrate;  and  of  a 
considerable  estate  for  those  times.  This  circum- 
stance caused  his  own  natural  endowments,  which 
were  cultivated  and  improved  by  the  best  education 
the  country  afforded,  to  be  more  observed  and  va- 
lued. He  was,  in  early  life,  a  candidate  for  the  mi- 
nistry ;  but  the  people  judged  him  proper  to  take  his 
father's  place  as  a  magistrate;  then  employed  him 
as  their  agent  in  England ;  and  urged  him  a  second 
time  to  engage  in  the  same  service.  It  is  no  blemish 
in  his  character  that  he  had  many  opposers.  Every 
man,  who  makes  it  more  his  aim  to  serve  than  to 
please  the  people,  may  expect  it.  From  the  obser- 
vations he  made  in  his  agency,  he  was  convinced  it 
was  to  no  purpose  to  oppose  the  demands  of  King 
Charles  ;  and  from  the  example  of  the  corporations 
in  England,  he  was  for  surrendering  the  charter 
rather  than  to  suffer  a  judgment  or  decree  against 
it.  In  such  case  a  more  favourable  administration 
might  be  expected  to  succeed  it,  and  in  better  times 
there  would  be  a  greater  chance  for  re-assuming  it. 
He  consented  to  act  as  one  of  the  council  under 
Sir  Edmund  Andros,  in  hopes,  by  that  means,  to 
render  the  new  form  of  government  more  easy.  By 
this  step  he  lost  the  favour  of  the  people,  and  yet  did 
not  obtain  the  confidence  of  the  governor,  who 
would  willingly  have  been  rid  of  him,  seldom  con- 
sulted him,  and  by  the  influence  he  had  over  the 
majority  of  the  council,  generally  carried  the  votes 
against  his  mind.  He  joined  upon  the  revolution 
with  the  old  magistrates,  who  made  no  scruple  of 
receiving  him,  in  re-assuming  the  government;  but 
upon  the  election  afterwards  made  by  the  people  he 
did  not  obtain  a  vote.  At  the  desire  of  the  council 
and  representatives  he  drew  up  a  narrative  of  the 
proceedings  of  Sir  Edmund  and  his  accomplices, 
signed  by  him  and  several  others  of  the  council ;  in 
which  they  modestly  take  exception  to  many  things 
in  the  administration,  and  exculpate  themselves  from 
any  share  in  them.  He  was  nine  years  lieut.-go- 
vernor,  and  six  of  them  commander  in  chief;  had 
experienced  the  two  extremes  of  popular  and  abso- 
lute government ;  and  not  only  himself  approved  of 
a  mean  between  both,  but  was  better  qualified  to  re- 
commend it,  by  a  discreet  administration,  to  the 
people  of  the  province.  He  died  a  bachelor.  ,•  In- 
stead of  children,  he  saw,  before  his  death,  a  college 
reared  at  his  expense,  which  took  the  name  of 
Stoughton-hall.  He  had  good  reason  to  think  it 
would  transmit  a  grateful  remembrance  of  his  name 
to  succeeding  ages. 

Sir  Henry  Ashurst  and  Constantine  Phipps  had 
continued  agents  for  the  province,  in  England,  for 
ten  years  together.  Divers  attempts  had  been  made 
by  IVtr.  Mather's  friends  to  send  him  again  to  Eng- 


and  jn  the  service  of  the  province  ;  and  after  Mr. 
Stoughton's  death  the  two  houses  came  to  a  resolu- 
tion to  choose  some  person  in  the  province,  and  send 
aim  to  England  as  their  agent ;  and  a  great  interest 
£s  made  that  Mr.  Mather  might  be  the  man ;  but  it 
lappened  that  Mr.  Cooke,  who  had  not  forgot  their 
former  difference  when  joint  agents,  stood  as  well 
with  the  assembly  at  this  time  as  he  had  ever  done, 
and  had  influence  enough  to  prevent  Mr.  Mather 
from  succeeding.  The  choice  fell  upon  Waitstill 
Winthrop,  grandson  to  the  first  governor  of  the 
Massachusetts,  and  son  to  the  first  governor  of  Con- 
necticut, and  who,  either  out  of  respect  to  his  family 
or  for  some  other  reason  which  does  not  now  appear, 
was  considered  as  president  of  the  council,  although 
there  were  many  who,  by  priority  of  appointment, 
the  rule  generally  observed,  should  have  preceded 
him. 

The  French  claim  to  the  country  east  of  the  river 
Kennebeck,  and  to  an  exclusive  fishery  upon  the  sea 
coast,  were  the  reasons  publicly  assigned  for  the 
choice  of  an  agent  at  this  time,  and  an  address  to 
the  king  had  passed  the  council  and  assembly,  and 
Mr.  Winthrop's  instructions  were  prepared.  These 
proceedings  of  the  French  were  really  alarming. 
The  professed  reasons,  however,  were  not  the  true 
reasons.  Mr.  Dudley's  solicitations  for  the  govern- 
ment were  known,  and  although  his  interest  in  the 
province  was  increasing,  yet  a  majority  of  the  court 
had  a  very  ill  opinion  of  him.  Mr.  Wiuthrop  was  a 
good  sort  of  man,  and  although  he  was  of  a  genius 
rather  inferior  to  either  of  his  ancestors,  yet  he  was 
popular1,  and  the  party  against  Mr.  Dudley  wished 
to  have  him  governor.  They  flattered  themselves 
that  his  being  acceptable  to  the  country  would,  toge- 
ther with  his  family  and  his  estate,  both  wrhich  were 
of  the  first  rate,  be  sufficient  to  recommend  him,  but 
they  were  mistaken.  Winthrop  was  a  plain  honest 
man.  Dudley  had  been  many  years  well  acquainted 
with  the  customs  and  manners  of  a  court,  and  would 
have  been  more  than  a  match  for  him.  Just  as  he 
was  about  to  embark,  news  came  that  Mr.  Dudley 
was  appointed  governor,  and  Thomas  Povey  lieut.- 
governor.  The  reason  of  Mr.  Winthrop's  appoint- 
ment to  the  agency  immediately  appeared.  The 
vote  for  his  instructions  was  reconsidered,  and  his 
voyage  laid  aside.  It  was  thought  proper,  however, 
that  the  address  to  the  king  should  be  forwarded. 
This  was  sent  to  Mr.  Phipps.  A  second  address  ac- 
companied it,  occasioned  by  advice  of  a  bill  being 
brought  into  the  House  of  Lords  for  dissolving 
charter  governments.  It  is  not  probable  that  the 
Massachusetts  charter  was  the  special  occasion  of 
this  bill.  It  differs  so  little  from  the  commissions  in 
the  royal  governments,  as  they  are  called,  as  not  to 
be  worth  notice.  Aboxit  this  time,  or  a  little  before, 
the  spirit  against  the  king  had  caused  the  re-assump- 
tion of  many  grants  which  he  had  made  of  pri- 
vate estates.  If  there  was  a  special  prejudice  against 
colony  charters,  it  is  probable  the  charter  to  Penn- 
sylvania was  the  most  exceptionable.  The  proprie- 
tor was  obnoxious,  had  absconded  a  few  years  be- 
fore upon  a  suspicion  of  treasonable  practices,  and 
was  still  under  a  cloud.  The  Massachusetts  instruct 
their  agents  as  follows :  "  As  to  the  bill  said  to  be 
lying  before  the  House  of  Lords,  for  the  dissolving 
charter  governments  in  the  plantations,  we  intreat 
you  to  be  very  watchful  in  that  matter,  and  use  ut- 
most diligence,  by  all  convenient  means,  to  prevent 
our  being  comprehended  in  or  concluded  by  the 
same.  Our  circumstances  are  different  frjom  those 
of  other  plantations  under  charter  government,  our 


UNITED  STATES. 


291 


first  settlement  being  wholly  at  our  own  cost  and 
charge,  and  by  our  present  settlement  we  are  already 
reduced  to  a  more  immediate  dependence  on  the 
crown,  h-is  majesty  having  reserved  to  himself  the 
nomination  of  our  governor,  lieut  governor,  and 
secretary,  and  a  negative  on  our  laws."  In  their 
address  to  the  kiug  they  thus  express  themselves : — 
"  And  forasmuch  as  we  are  given  to  understand 
that,  through  the  suggestions  of  some  persons  no 
well  affected  to  charter  governments,  a  bill  has  been 
preferred  in  the  House  of  Lords  for  vacating  char 
ter  and  proprietary  governments  within  your  majes 
ty's  plantations,  we  in  all  submission  crave  leave 
humbly  to  pray  your  majesty's  grace  and  favour  to 
wards  your  good  subjects  within  this  your  province 
that  no  such  suggestions  may  make  an  impression  in 
your  royal  breast  to  deprive  us  of  those  privileges 
which  we  enjoy  under  your  majesty's  most  gracious 
grant,  and  that  we  may  not  be  included  in  any  such 
act  to  our  prejudice,  without  having  opportunity 
given  us  of  being  heard  and  speaking  for  ourselves." 
The  bill  was  dropped  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and 
war  with  France  being  every  day  expected,  the  long- 
est sword  was  to  determine  the  points  complained  of 
in  the  first  address. 

The  sending  these  addresses  to  Phipps  was  grievous 
to  Ashurst.  Although  he  had  not  very  shining  ta- 
lents, yet  being  a  member  of  parliament,  having  a 
great  family  interest,  and  being  an  honest  man  and 
conscientious  in  the  discharge  of  his  trust,  he  had 
been  very  serviceable  to  the  province.  He  had,  how- 
ever, the  fate  of  most  agents.  As  soon  as  the  party 
against  him  found  they  were  strong  enough  they  left 
him  out  of  the  agency,  and  he  made  frequent  com- 
plaints that  they  had  slighted  his  services  and  ne- 
glected giving  him  an  adequate  reward.  All  the 
agents  who  had  been  employed  before  him,  except 
Mr.  Winslow,  were  unsuccessful ;  and  several,  pro- 
bably for  that  reason,  thought  unfaithful.  The  first 
who  were  employed  were  Weld,  Peters,  and  I  lib- 
bins,  in  1640.  They  borrowed  money  for  the  service 
of  the  colony,  and  proper  care  not  being  taken  by 
the  government,  for  the  payment,  these  agents  for 
several  years  after,  were  contending  about  the  pro- 
portion in  which  they  should  pay  it  themselves. — 
Winslow,  who  went  over  in  1646,  soon  found  more 
profitable  employment,  but  his  allowance  was  so 
Ecant  from  the  colony,  that  the  corporation  for  pro- 
pagating the  gospel  among  the  Indians  allowed  him 
130/.  sterling  for  promoting  that  design,  but  wrote  to 
the  government  that  it  ought  to  be  restored.  Brad- 
street  and  Norton  were  sent  in  1660.  Norton  laid 
the  reproaches  he  met  with  so  much  to  heart  as  to 
affect  his  health  and  shorten  his  life.  In  1677, 
Stoughton  and  Bulkley  were  employed,  and  soon 
after  their  return  it  was  said  by  those  who  charged 
Bulkley  with  too  great  compliance  with  court  mea- 
sures, that  his  sun  set  in  a  cloud.  He  died  of  me- 
lancholy. Stoughton  was  reproached,  and  although 
he  had  a  majority  of  the  court  in  his  favour,  he  could 
not  be  prevailed  on  to  risk  his  reputation  a  second 
time.  Dudley  and  Richards  were  the  next,  in  1682. 
The  former  managed  the  whole  business,  and  bore 
the  whole  blame,  but  being  of  a  very  different  tem- 
per from  some  of  his  predecessors,  instead  of  laying 
to  heart  the  slight  of  his  countrymen,  he  was  politic 
enough  to  improve  frowns  at  home  to  procure  favours 
from  abroad.  Mather,  Cooke,  and  Oakes  were  em- 
ployed to  solicit  the  restoration  of  the  first  charter. 
In  this  they  failed,  Mather  without  the  consent  of 
his  brethren  accepted  the  present  charter,  and  al- 
though, at  first,  a  majority  of  the  court  acknowledged 


his  merit,  the  opposite  party  soon  after  prevailed,  and 
he  failed  of  his  expected  reward,  and  complained  all 
his  life  of  the  ingratitude  of  his  countrymen,  after 
having  spent  not  only  his  time  but  part  of  his  estate 
in  public  service.  We  would  draw  a  veil  over  our 
transactions  relative  to  agents,  if  the  obligations  due 
to  truth  would  permit.  Errors  and  failings,  as  well 
as  laudable  deeds,  in  past  ages,  may  be  rendered 
useful,  by  exciting  posterity  to  avoid  the  one  and  to 
imitate  the  other. 

From  the  arrival  of  Governor  Dudley,  in  1 702,  to  the 
arrival  of  Governor  Shute,  in  1716. 

Mr.  Dudley  was  received  with  ceremony  and 
marks  of  respect,  even  by  those  who  had  been  his 
greatest  opposers  in  the  reign  of  King  James.  Win- 
throp,  Cooke,  Hutchinson,  Foster,  Addington,  Rus- 
sell, Phillips,  Browne,  Sargent,  and  others,  who  had 
been  of  the  council  which  committed  him  to  prison, 
where  he  lay  twenty  weeks,  were  of  the  council  when 
he  arrived.  Upon  such  political  changes  a  general 
amnesty  is  oftentimes  advisable  and  necessary. 

The  affront  and  insult  shown  by  Louis  XIV.,  not 
only  to  the  prince  upon  the  throne,  but  to  the  Eng- 
lish nation,  in  proclaiming  another  person  king,  had 
rendered  a  war  with  France  inevitable,  before  the 
governor  left  England.  The  news  of  its  being  pro- 
claimed arrived  in  a  few  weeks  after  him.  Nothing 
less  could  be  expected  than  a  war  with  the  Indiana 
also.  Ever  since  the  peace,  in  1698,  the  governor 
of  Canada,  by  his  emissaries,  had  been  continually 
exciting  them  to  hostilities ;  and  justified  himself 
upon  this  principle,  that  the  Indians  having  cast 
themselves  upon  the  French  long  since,  as  their 
protectors,  and  being  proprietors  of  the  eastern 
country,  where  the  English  had  usurped  a  jurisdic- 
tion, which  as  far  westward  as  Kennebeck  rightfully 
belonged  to  the  French,  the  English  therefore  were 
to  be  considered  as  intruders  and  invaders  upon  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  French  and  upon  the  property  of 
the  Indians. 

The  governor,  the  first  summer,  visited  all  the 
eastern  frontiers  as  far  as  Pemaquid;  taking  such 
gentlemen  of  the  general  court  with  him  as  he 
thought  proper  ;  met  the  delegates  from  the  Indian 
tribes,  and  confirmed  the  former  treaties  which  had 
been  made.  lie  had  recommended,  in  his  first 
speech  to  the  assembly,  the  rebuilding  the  fort  at 
Pemaquid;  and  the  gentlemen  who  accompanied 
him  east  reported  in  favour  of  it,  and  their  report 
was  accepted  by  the  council ;  but  the  house  con- 
tinued of  the  same  mind  they  had  formerly  been, 
urging  that  all  the  n.oney  they  could  raise  would  be 
wanted  for  other  services  more  necessary  than  that, 
and  refused  to  comply  with  the  governor's  proposal. 
His  heart  was  set  upon  it ;  the  ministry  continued 
heir  prejudice  in  favour  of  this  particular  spot,  and 
t  is  net  improbable  that  he  had  given  himself  encou- 
ragement he  should  be  able  to  carry  a  point,  which 
his  predecessors  could  not,  and  therefore  was  the 
more  mortified  at  the  failure. 

The  Indians,  upon  the  Massachusetts  frontiers, 
continued  quiet  this  year,  but  the  Nova-Scotia  In- 
dians seized  throe  of  the  fishing  vessels  belonging  to 
;his  province,  upon  a  report  that  war  was  declared. 
The  council  attempted  to  recover  them,  and  by  the 
nterposition  of  Bruillon,  governor  of  Nova  Scotia, 
,wo,  if  not  the  third,  were  restored. 

(1703.)  At  the  first  election  Mr.  Dudley  treated 
he  house  more  cavalierly  than  Sir  William  Phipps  or 
jord  BeJlamont  had  ever  done.  After  the  list  of  coun- 
cilors elect  had  been  presented.  "  A  message  wat 

2P2 


29'2 


THE  HISTORY   OF  AMERICA 


sent  from  his  Excellency  to  desire  Mr.  Speaker  ami 
the  house  forthwith  to  attend  him  in  the  council 
chamber;  and  Mr.  Speaker  and  the  house  being 
come  up,  his  excellency  observed  to  them,  that  in 
their  list  of  elections,  presented  to  him,  he  took  no- 
tice that  there  were  several  gentlemen  left  out  who 
were  of  the  council  last  year,  who  were  of  good  abi- 
lity, for  estate  and  otherwise,  to  serve  her  majesty 
and  well  disposed  thereto,  and  that  some  others  who 
were  new  elected,  were  not  so  well  qualified ;  some 
of  them  being  of  little  or  mean  estate;  and  withal 
signified,  that  he  should  expunge  five  of  the  names 
in  their  list,  viz.,  Elisha  Cooke,  and  Peter  Sargent. 
Esqrs.,  Mr.  Thomas  Oakes,  Mr.  John  Saffin,  and 
Mr.  John  Bradford,  and  dismissed  the  house,  who 
returned  to  their  chamber."  Cooke  had  been  of  the 
council  nine  or  ten  years,  had  been  assistant  before 
the  revolution,  married  a  daughter  of  governor  Le- 
veret, and  was  allied  to  the  best  families  in  the  pro- 
vince, had  a  better  estate  than  the  governor  him- 
self, but  then  he  had  been  agent  in  England,  and 
discovered  greater  zeal  for  prosecuting  the  com- 
plaints against  Andros,  Dudley,  &c.,  than  any  of 
his  fellow  agents.  Sargent  had  married  the  relict 
of  Sir  William  Phipps.  Oakes  had  been  one  of  the 
agents  in  England  also,  and  under  the  direction  of 
Cooke.  Baffin  was  a  principal  inhabitant  of  Bris- 
tol (the  father  of  Thomas  Saffin,  of  Stepney  church- 
yard, whose  memory  the  author  of  the  Spectator 
has  immortalized),  and  Bradford  was  grandson  of 
the  first  worthy  governor  of  Plymouth. 
-  There  had  been  but  one  instance  of  the  gover- 
nor's refusal  of  a  counsellor,  since  the  charter.  The 
right  of  refusal  could  not  be  disputed.  Had  the 
power  been  frequently  exercised  less  exception 
would  have  been  taken  to  this  instance ;  but  the 
h;fig  disuse  of  it  caused  the  re-assumption  of  it  upon 
so  many  persons  at  once,  to  be  more  disagreeable. 
Oakes  was  of  the  house,  and  notwithstanding  the 
negative  as  a  counsellor,  remained  there;  and  if  he 
could  be  of  any  consequence,  this  would  add  to  his 
weight. 

Lord  Cornbury,  governor  of  New  York,  some  time 
in  the  month  of  May  advised  Mr.  Dudley  of  an 
army  of  French  and  Indians,  intending  to  make  a 
descent  upon  Deerfield,  in  the  Massachusetts  pro- 
vince. The  intelligence  was  brought  to  Albany  by- 
some  of  the  praying  or  christianized  Mohawks,  who 
had  been  to  visit  their  friends  at  Cagnawaga,  in 
Canada,  who  formerly  had  belonged  to  the  same 
village,  about  forty  miles  from  Albany.  This  de- 
sign was  not  immediately  carried  into  execution. 

Whilst  every  one  was  fearing  hostilities  from  the 
Indians,  several  Englishmen,  pretending  friendship 
to  Castine,  son  of  the  Baron  de  St.  Castine,  by  an 
Indian  woman,  who  now  lived  at  Penobscot,  plun- 
dered his  house,  &c.,  and  made  great  spoil.  Upon 
bis  complaint  to  the  government,  he  was  assured  the 
action  should  not  go  without  due  punishment,  and 
that  restitution  should  be  made.  About  the  same 
time  the  Indians  did  mischief  to  some  of  the  people 
of  Kennebeck  :  which  action  was  first  cannot  be  as- 
certained. Perhaps  neither  of  them  was  from  re- 
sentment or  revenge  for  the  other. 

Before  the  end  of  the  year,  the  blow  threatened 
in  the  beginning  of  it,  was  struck  upon  Deerfield. 
This  was  the  most  remote  settlement  upon  Connec- 
ticut river,  except  a  few  families  at  Squakheag  or 
Northfield  adjoining  to  it-  Deerfield,  being  easiest 
of  access  of  any  place  upon  the  river,  had  often  suf- 
fered by  small  parties.  In  1697  an  attempt  was 
made  upon  it,  but  failed  of  success  through  the  vigi. 


lance  and  bravery  of  tho  inhabitants,  with  Mr, 
Williams  their  minister  at  their  head.  Colonel 
Schuyler,  of  Albany,  had  obtained  information  of 
the  designs  of  the  enemy  upon  it  this  year,  and 
gave  notice  seasonable  enough  to  put  the  people 
upon  their  guard.  It  was  afterwards  thought  re- 
markable, that  the  minister  had  it  strongly  hn- 
Sressed  upon  his  mind  that  the  town  would  !>.• 
estroyed.  It  would  not  have  been  very  strang< 
if  this  impression  had  never  been  off  his  mind.  He 
warned  his  people  of  it  in  his  sermons,  but  too 
many  made  light  of  the  intelligence,  and  of  the 
impressions  which  naturally  followed.  The  govern- 
ment, upon  his  application,  ordered  twenty  soldiers 
as  a  guard.  The  party,  which  had  been  fitted  out 
at  Canada,  consisted  of  about  300  French  and  In- 
dians, under  Hertel  de  Rouville,  who  had  four  bro- 
thers with  him  ;  their  father  had  been  a  noted  par- 
tisan, but  was  now  unable  to  take  so  long  a  march. 
They  came  upon  the  town  the  night  after  the  '28th 
of  February.  In  the  fore  part  of  the  night,  and 
until  about  two  hours  before  day,  the  watch  kept  the 
streets ;  and  then  unfortunately  went  all  to  sleep. 
The  enemy,  who  had  been  hovering  about  them, 
and  kept  continually  reconnoitring,  perceived  all  to 
be  quiet,  and  first  surprised  the  fort  or  principal 
garrison  house.  The  snow  was  so  high,  in  drifts, 
that  they  had  no  difficulty  in  jumping  over  the 
walls.  Another  party  broke  into  the  house  of  Mr 
Williams,  the  minister,  who,  rising  from  his  bod. 
discovered  near  twenty  entering.  He  expected  im- 
mediate death,  but  had  the  firmness  of  mind  to  take 
down  a  pistol,  which  he  always  kept  loaded  upon  his 
tester,  and  to  present  it  to  the  breast  of  the  first 
Indian  who  came  up  to  him.  The  pistol,  fortunately 
for  Mr.  Williams,  snapped  only  and  missed  fire. 
Had  he  killed  the  Indian,  his  own  life  no  doubt 
would  have  been  taken  in  revenge.  Being,  in  effect, 
disarmed,  he  was  seized  and  pinioned,  and  kept 
standing,  in  his  shirt  only,  in  that  cold  season,  the 
space  of  an  hour.  In  'the  mean  time  his  house  was 
plundered,  and  two  of  his  children  and  a  negro 
woman  murdered.  His  wife  and  five  other  children 
were  suffered  to  put  on  their  clothes,  and  then  he 
himself  was  allowed  to  dress  and  prepare  for  a  long 
march. 

Other  parties  fell  upon  other  houses  in  the  town, 
and  slew  about  forty  persons,  and  made  about  a 
hundred  more  prisoners.  The  sun  being  about  an  hour 
high,  the  enemy  had  finished  their  work,  and  took 
their  departure,  leaving  all  the  houses,  outhouses, 
&c.  in  flames.  Mrs.  Williams  had  scarcely  reco- 
vered from  her  lying  in,  and  was  in  a  weak  state.— 
The  enemy  made  all  the  haste  they  could,  lest  a  su- 
perior force  should  overtake  them.  The  second  day 
she  let  her  husband  know  she  was  unable  to  travel 
any  farther  as  fast  as  they  did.  He  knew  the  con- 
sequence, and  would  gladly  have  remained  with  her 
and  assisted  her ;  but  they  had  different  masters, 
and  leave  could  not  be  obtained,  and  he  was  carried 
from  her,  and  soon  after  heard  that  her  master  had 
sunk  his  hatchet  into  her  brains.  One  cannot  easily 
conceive  of  greater  distress,  than  what  an  affection- 
ate husband  must  then  have  felt.  About  twenty 
more  of  the  prisoners,  in  their  travel  towards  Cana- 
da, gave  out  and  were  killed  also.  They  were  twen- 
ty-five days  between  Deerfield  and  Chambli,  depend- 
ing upon  hunting  for  their  support  as  they  travelled. 
Vaudreuil,  the  French  governor  of  Canada,  treated 
these  prisoners  with  humanity;  and  although  the 
Indians  have  been  encouraged,  by  premiums  upon 
prisoners  and  scalps  to  Jay  waste  tie  English  fror- 


UNITED  STATES. 


293 


tiers,  yet  the  captives,  who  have  been  carried  to 
Canada,  have  often  received  very  kind  usage  from 
the  French  inhabitants. 

The  unfortunate  provinces  of  Massachusetts-bay 
and  New  Hampshire,  were  the  only  people  upon  the 
continent  against  whom  the  French  and  Indians, 
during  a  ten  years'  war,  exerted  their  strength. 
Connecticut  and  Rhode-Island  were  covered  by  the 
Massachusetts.  New  York  took  care  of  themselves, 
and  of  the  colonies  south  of  them,  by  a  neutrality 
which  the  Iroquois  or  six  nations  (influenced  by 
those  who  had  the  direction  of  Indian  affairs)  en- 
gaged to  observe  between  the  English  and  French. 
This  was,  in  effect,  a  neutrality  between  the  French 
and  the  English  governments  to  the  southward  of 
New  England.  Nothing  could  be  more  acceptable 
to  the  Canadians.  The  New  England  governments 
felt  the  terrible  consequences.  Charlevoix  gives 
this  account  of  it.  "  Teganissorens  arrived,  a  little 
while  after,  at  Montreal,  and,  in  the  conference 
which  hj  had  with  the  commander  in  chief,  he  ap- 
peared at  first  to  be  out  of  humour,  which  boded  ill 
to  the  business  h:;  came  upon.  The  Europeans,  says 
he,  are  an  out  of  the  way  people ;  after  they  have 
made  peace,  one  with  another,  they  go  to  war  again, 
for  mere  nothing  at  all.  This  is  not  our  practice  ; 
after  we  have  once  signed  to  a  treaty  there  must  be 
some  very  strong  reasons  to  induce  us  to  break  it. 
He  went  on  and  declared  that  his  nation  should  not 
engage  in  a  war  which  they  did  not  approve  of,  nei- 
ther on  one  side  nor  the  other.  Mons.  de  Vaudreuil 
let  Teganissorens  know  that  he  desired  nothing  fur- 
ther ;  and  that  the  Iroquois  might  have  no  pretence 
to  break  so  advantageous  a  neutrality,  he  deter- 
mined to  send  out  no  parties  towards  New  York." 
Again  upon  another  occasion,  "At  all  events,  the 
six  nations,  and  especially  the  Tsononheans  were 
resolved  strictly  to  observe  the  neutrality  which  they 
had  sworn,  and  of  which  they  began  to  feel  the  be- 
nefit ;  but  you  shall  see  that  they  were  much  set  upon 
including  the  English,  that  they  might  be  consi- 
dered as  mediators  between  them  and  us.  Mr.  Vau- 
dreuil, who  had  very  early  seen  through  their  de- 
sign, had  acquainted  the  court  with  it,  and  received 
for  answer,  that  if  he  was  able  to  carry  on  the  war 
io  advantage  without  putting  the  crown  to  any  ex- 
traordinary expense,  he  should  reject  the  proposals 
of  the  Iroquois  ;  otherwise  he  might  settle  a  neu- 
trality for  America  upon  the  best  terms  he  could, 
but  that  it  was  not  for  his  majesty's  honour  that  his 
governor  and  lieutenant  general  should  be  the  first 
mover  of  it.  The  minister  added,  that  he  thought 
it  would  be  most  proper  for  the  missionaries  to 
let  the  Indians  know  that  the  French  did  not  desire 
to  disturb  the  peace  ofthe  country  ;  thatalthough  they 
were  very  well  able  to  carry  on  a  vigorous  war, 
yet  they  preferred  the  quiet  of  Canada  to  all  the 
advantages  they  might  reap  from  the  superiority 
of  their  arms  ;  and  if  the  six  nations,  convinced 
that  this  was  our  disposition,  should  cause  the  Eng- 
lish to  ask  a  neutrality  for  their  colonies,  M.  Vau- 
dreuil might  consider  of  it;  but  that  he  should  not 
come  to  a  conclusion  without  orders  from  the  king." 
It  is  true  Charlevoix  says,  that  "  the  Boston- 
eers  would  have  obtained  the  same  thing  from  the 
Abcnaquis  or  eastern  Indians."  It  is  certain  that 
the  Massachusetts  government  would  have  been 
content  (provided  the  eastern  Indians  had  continued 
a  peace  with  the  English)  that  they  should  not  be 
obliged  to  go  to  war  against  the  French  ;  but  the 
Massachusetts,  in  all  their  treaties  with  the  eastern 
Indians,  made  peace  for  the  other  governments  as 


well  as  for  themselves ;  and  hostilities  against  Con- 
necticut or  New  York  would  have  been  deemed  a 
breach  of  the  peace,  as  well  as  those  against  th* 
Massachusetts ;  whereas  the  New  Yorkers,  or  rather 
the  Albanians,  suffered  the  Canada  Indians  to  g.o 
through  their  province  and  fall  upon  any  of  the 
frontiers,  without  looking  upon  it  to  be  a  breach  of 
the  neutrality,  and  carried  on  great  trade  both  with 
French  and  Indians,  at  the  same  time;  and  some- 
times the  plunder  made  in  the  county  of  Hampshire 
became  merchandize  in  Albany.  Some  of  the  best 
people  detested  such  proceedings,  particularly  Col. 
John  Schuyler,  of  Albany ;  who,  by  means  of  the 
Indians  of  the  six  nations  in  the  English  interest, 
informed  himself  of  the  intended  expeditions  of  the 
French  and  French  Indians,  and  gave  frequent 
notice  to  the  people  upon  the  frontiers  to  be  upon 
their  guard ;  but  most  of  the  inroads  made  upon  it 
he  had  it  not  in  his  power  to  discover. 

That  the  French  might  improve  this  plan  to 
greater  advantage,  they  drew  off,  about  this  time,  a 
great  number  of  the  Abenaquis  families  from  Pen- 
obscot,  Norridgewock  Saco,  Pigwacket,  &c.  and  set- 
tled them  at  Becancour  and  St.  Francois,  in  Ca- 
nada, where  they  were  known  to  the  English  by  the 
name  of  St.  Francois  Indians.  Here  they  were 
under  the  constant  direction  of  the  governor  of 
Canada,  and  were  sent  out,  froau  time  to  time,  witk 
parties  of  the  six  nations  in  the  French  interest  and 
French  Canadians,  to  massacre  the  men,  women, 
and  children  upon  the  east  and  west  frontiers. 
Charlevoix  says,  "  they  were  intended  as  a  barrier 
against  the  inroads  of  the  six  nations,  in  case  of  a 
future  war  between  them  and  the  French." 

The  Massachusetts,  thus  harassed  and  perplexed, 
thought  it  necessary  to  remain  no  longer  on  the 
defensive  only ;  and,  in  the  fall,  sent  out  three  or 
four  hundred  men  to  a  noted  settlement  of  the  In- 
dians at  Pigwacket,  and  another  party  to  the  ponds, 
Ossapy,  &c.  upon  the  back  ofthe  eastern  frontier; 
but  neither  party  met  with  the  enemy.  Soon  after, 
Colonel  March  going  out  with  another  party,  killed 
and  took  about  a  dozen  of  the  enemy.  This  mea- 
sure not  answering  expectation  ;  to  encourage  small 
parties  of  the  English  to  go  out  and  hunt  the  Indi- 
ans, the  general  court  promised  a  bounty  or  reward, 
no  less  than  forty  pounds,  for  every  Indian  scalp. 
Captain  Twyng  went  out  in  the  winter  and  brought 
in  live. 

(1704.)  In  the  spring,  another  project  was  tried. 
About  an  hundred  Indians  were  obtained  from  Con- 
necticut and  posted  at  Berwick,  in  the  county  of  York ; 
but  these  Indians  were  not  only  strangers  to  the 
woods,  and  wholly  ignorant  of  the  frontiers  of  Ca- 
nada, but  by  long  living  in  a  depressed  state  among 
the  English,  were  dispirited,  enervated  and  unfit 
for  this  service,  and  nothing  remarkable  was  ef- 
fected. Had  not  the  six  nations  been  restrained, 
parties  of  them,  harassing  the  French  settlements, 
would  have  induced  the  French,  for  their  own  pre- 
servation, to  have  suffered  the  frontiers  of  New 
England,  as  well  as  New  York,  to  have  remained 
unmolested. 

All  these  attempts  failing,  a  still  more  expensive 
undertaking  was  agreed  on.  It  was  supposed  that 
an  army,  to  sweep  the  coast  and  country  from  Pis- 
cataqua  river  to  Nova  Scotia,  would  strike  terror 
into  the  Indians  and  bring  them  to  reason.  Colonel 
Church,  noted  for  his  exploits  in  former  wars,  es- 
pecially in  Philip's  war,  was  pitched  upon  to  com- 
mand in  this  expedition,  and  had  orders  to  enlist 
as  many  as  he  could,,  both  of  English  and  Indians, 


294 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


who  had  been  in  service  before.  This  is  called,  by 
Charlevoix,  an  expedition  against  Port  Royal;  but 
Church  was  instructed  not  to  make  any  attempt 
against  the  Fort  there,  and  to  ravage  the  country 
only.  Mr.  Dudley  had  intimations  of  the  queen's 
intention,  to  send  ships  the  next  year  for  the  re- 
duction of  that  fortress. 

Church  had  550  soldiers  under  him,  in  fourteen 
small  transports,  and  was  provided  with  thirty-six 
whaleboats,  and  convoyed  by  the  Jersey  man  of  war, 
of  forty-eight,  the  Gosport  of  thirty-two,  and  the 
Province  Snow  of  fourteen  guns.  He  stopped  first 
at  Montinicus,  and  sent  two  of  his  boats  to  Green- 
Island,  where  he  took  four  or  five  French  and  In- 
dians, who  served  him  for  pilots  up  Penobscot  river 
and  to  the  Indian  settlements  there.  In  this  river 
he  killed  and  took  captive  many  of  the  enemy ; 
among  the  captives  were  Castine's  daughter  and 
her  children,  her  husband  and  father  being  gone  to 
France,  where  Castine  had  an  estate  upon  which  he 
lived  after  he  left  America.  The  transports  lay  at 
Mount  Desart.  Church,  having  taken  from  them  a 
fresh  supply  of  provisions,  went  in  the  boats  up  the 
western  Passimaquady.  In  the  harbour  he  found  only 
a  French  woman  and  her  children,  upon  an  island, 
and  another  family  upon  the  main,  near  to  it.  He 
then  went  up  the  river,  where  he  took  prisoners, 
Gourdon  a  French  officer  and  his  family,  who  lived 
in  a  small  cottage.  Church  seeing  some  of  his  men 
hovering  over  another  hut,  he  called  to  them  to 
know  what  they  were  doing ;  and  upon  their  reply, 
that  there  were  people  in  the  house  who  would  not 
come  out,  he,  hastily,  bid  his  men  knock  them  on 
the  head ;  which  order  they  immediately  observed. 
He  was  much  blamed  for  this,  after  his  return,  and 
excused  himself  but  indifferently.  He  feared  the 
enemy  might  fall  upon  his  men,  who  he  saw  were 
off  their  guard,  which  put  him  in  a  passion.  He 
went  as  high  up  the  river  as  the  falls,  taking  or  de- 
^?troying  all  in  his  way  ;  missed  Chartiers,  another 
French  officer  who  lived  or  was  posted  there.  The 
transports  took  in  the  forces  at  the  harbour  or  mouth 
of  the  river  and  carried  them  to  Menis  ;  the  men  of 
war  standing  for  Port-royal.  At  Menis,  he  met  with 
some  opposition,  the  enemy  firing  from  the  banks 
as  he  rowed  up  the  river  to  the  town ;  but  he  lost 
none  of  his  men.  They  found  plenty,  not  only  of 
fresh  provisions  but  good  liquor  in  the  town,  which 
occasioned  such  disorders  among  the  men,  especially 
the  Indians,  that  it  was  necessary  to  stave  all  the 
casks  which  had  an/  wine  or  spirits  in  them,  and  it 
was  done  accordingly.  Here,  the  lieutenant  of 
Church's  own  company,  Barker  (Charlevoix  calls 
him  the  lieutenant  general)  and  one  man  more  were 
shot  down,  which  were  all  that  were  lost  in  the  ex- 
pedition. After  plundering  the  inhabitants  of  all 
their  goods,  they  set  the  town  on  fire,  and  then  em- 
barked on  board  the  transports.  The  inhabitants 
of  a  village,  upon  another  branch  of  the  river,  sup- 
posed the  English  to  be  gone,  and  that  they  should 
escape;  but  Church  went  back  with  his  boats,  and, 
going  up  this  branch,  came  unexpectedly  upon  the 
village  and  took  what  prisoners  he  had  a  mind  to, 
and  among  the  rest,  two  gentlemen  who  had  been 
sent  by  the  governor  of  Port-royal  to  bring  two 
companies  of  soldiers  for  the  defence  of  the  place 
against  the  men  of  war  which  appeared  in  the  gut. 
Church  gave  the  gentlemen  leave  to  return,  for  the 
sake  of  sending  a  message  by  them  to  the  governor, 
to  desire  him  to  acquaint  the  governor  of  Canada, 
that  if  he  did  not  prevent  his  French  and  Indians 
from  committing  such  barbarities  upon  poor  helpless 


women  and  children,  as  the  people  of  Deerficld  had 
suffered  the  last  year,  he  would  return  with  a  thou- 
sand Indians  and  let  them  loose  upon  the  frontiers 
of  Canada  to  commit  the  like  barbarities  there. 
This  the  French  governor  must  know  to  be  a  gas- 
conade. 

The  forces,  after  this,  went  up  what  is  called  the 
eastern  river  and  destroyed  the  settlements  there, 
and  then  returned  to  the  transports,  and  joined  the 
men  of  war  at  Port-royal;  where  it  was  agreed, 
both  by  sea  and  land  officers,  that  no  attempt  should 
be  made.  The  men  of  war  returned  to  Mount 
Desart  harbour,  and  Church  with  his  transports, 
went  up  to  Chignecto.  The  inhabitants  all  lied, 
taking  with  them  as  much  of  their  substance  as 
they  could  carry  away;  the  rest  they  left  to  the 
mercy  of  the  English,  who  laid  all  waste.  From 
Chignecto  they  went  to  Mount  Desart ;  the  men  of 
war  being  gone  to  Boston,  the  transports  followed; 
and  stopping  at  Casco-bay,  Church  found  orders 
lodged  there,  from  the  governor,  to  go  up  Kenne- 
beck  river  as  far  as  Norridgewock  fort ;  but  having 
intelligence  that  it  was  deserted  and  his  men  having 
undergone  much  fatigue,  he  thought  it  best  to  re- 
turn home. 

This  expedition  Mr.  Dudley  supposes,  in  his  speech 
to  the  assembly,  struck  great  terror  into  the  Indians, 
and  drove  them  from  the  frontiers ;  but  it  appears 
from  Church's  journal,  that  the  poor  Acadians,  who 
had  been  so  often  ravaged  before,  were  the  principal 
sufferers  now,  and  that  the  Indians  were  little  or 
nothing  annoyed. 

An  exploit  of  Caleb  Lyman  of  Northampton,  de- 
serves to  be  recorded.  Hearing  of  a  small  party 
of  Indians  at  Cohoss,  far  up  Connecticut  river,  he 
went  out  with  only  five  friend  Indians,  and,  after 
nine  or  ten  days  travel,  came  upon  the  enemy  In- 
dians in  the  night,  killed  seven  out  of  nine,  and  the 
other  two  escaped,  but  wounded. 

This  may  be  placed  among  the  favourable  years ; 
but  the  frontiers  were  not  without  annoyance.  In 
April  an  Indian  scout  killed  Edward  Taylor  at 
Lamprey  river  and  carried  his  wife  and  child  to 
Canada ;  Major  Hilton  with  twenty  men  pursuing 
without  overtaking  them.  They  lay  in  wait  to  take 
Major  Waldron  at  Cochecho,  but  missed  him,  carry- 
ing off  one  of  his  servants  in  his  stead.  July  31. 
About  four  hundred,  French  and  Indians,  fell  upon 
Lancaster,  and  assaulted  six  garrison  houses  at  the 
same  time,  which  made  a  brave  c/ofence.  They 
burned  many  other  dwelling  houses  and  the  meeting 
house.  An  alarm  was  soon  spread,  and  three  hun- 
dred men  were  in  the  town  before  night,  who  en- 
gaged the  enemy  with  some  loss  on  both  sides. 
The  beginning  of  August,  a  party  of  the  enemy,  ly- 
ing in  wait,  fired  upon  a  small  scout  going  from 
Northampton  to  Westfield,  killed  one  man  and  took 
two  prisoners;  but  more  of  the  forces  being  behind, 
they  came  up,  retook  the  two  men,  and  killed  two 
of  the  Indians.  Soon  after,  they  killed  lieutenant 
Wyler  and  several  others  at  Groton,  and  at  a  plan- 
tation called  Natheway. 

Almsbury,  Haverill  and  Yoik,  in  the  Massa- 
chusetts and  Exeter,  Dover  and  Oyster  river,  in 
New-Hampshire,  suffered  more  or  less,  this  summer, 
by  the  enemy. 

The  licentious  practice,  indulged  among  the  sea- 
men, of  making  depredations  upon  foreign  nations 
in  the  east  and  west  Indies  was  not  wholly  sup- 
pressed. John  Quelch  (who  had  been  master  of 
the  brigantine  Charles,  and  had  committed  many 
piratical  acts  upon  the  coast  of  India)  came  with 


UNITED  STATES. 


295 


several  of  his  crew  and  landed,  some  in  one  part  of 
New  England,  some  in  another.  Quelch  and  six 
more  were  condemned  at  Boston  and  executed. 
Some  were  admitted  to  be  witnesses  for  the  king, 
some  reprieved,  and  some  pardoned.  The  gover- 
nor, upon  this  occasion,  found  old  prejudices  against 
him  reviving.  Reports  were  spread,  of  large  sums 
of  money  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  governor  and 
of  his  son,  the  queen's  advocate,  which  however 
groundless  easily  obtained  credit. 

Mr.  Dudley's"  principles,  in  government,  were  too 
high  for  the  Massachusetts  people.  He  found  it 
very  difficult  to  maintain  what  appealed  to  him  to 
be  the  just  prerogative  of  the  crown,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  recover  and  preserve  the  esteem  of  the 
country.  The  government  had  been  so  popular 
under  the  old  charter,  that  the  excercise  of  the 
powers  reserved  to  the  crown  by  the  new  charter 
was  submitted  to  with  reluctance.  Sir  William 
Phipps  was  under  the  influence  of  some  of  his  council 
and  some  of  the  ministers  of  note,  and  suffered  re- 
mains of  customs  under  the  old  form,  hardly  con- 
sistent with  the  new.  Mr.  Stoughton  expecting 
every  day  to  be  superseded,  avoided  all  occasions  of 
controversy.  Lord  Bellamont,  indeed,  in  some  in- 
stances, assumed  more  than  he  had  right  to.  His 
quality  and  the  high  esteem,  at  first,  conceived  of 
him,  prevented  any  controversies,  during  his  very 
short  administration.  Mr.  Dudley  set  out,  with  re- 
solution, to  maintain  his  authority.  The  people 
•were  more  jealous  of  him  than  they  would  have  been 
of  any  other  person.  His  negativing  five  of  the 
council,  the  first  election,  was  an  unpopular  stroke. 
The  next  year  (1704)  the  two  houses  chose  again 
two  of  the  negatived  persons,  Mr.  Cooke,  and  Mr. 
Sargent,  and  the  governor  again  refused  to  approve 
of  them.  They  were  such  favourites  of  the  house, 
that  the  speaker,  the  house  being  present,  addressed 
his  excellency  and  prayed  him  to  reconsider  his  ne- 
gative, and  to  approve'of  the  choice.  This  was  out 
.of  character,  and  the  house  dishonoured  themselves 
.and  had  the  mortification  of  being  denied.  This 
year,  neither  of  the  persons  were  chosen  of  the  coun- 
cil, but  one  of  them,  Mr.  Oakes,  being  chosen 
speaker  of  the  house,  upon  the  governor's  being  ac- 
quainted therewith,  he  signified  to  the  house  that  he 
disapproved  of  their  choice,  and  directed  them  to 
proceed  in  the  choice  of  another,  which  they  refused 
to  do.  It  had  been  always  the  practice,  for  the  gov- 
ernor to  give  directions  to  the  two  houses  to  proceed 
to  the  choice  of  counsellors;  but  the  dispute  about 
the  speaker  prevented  it  at  this  time,  the  council  in- 
serted themselves,  and  the  question  being  put,  whe- 
ther it  was  in  the  governor's  power,  by  virtue  of  the 
charter,  to  refuse  the  election  of  a  speaker  and  direct 
the  choice  of  another,  they  determined  it  was  not, 
and  immediately  joined  the  house  in  electing  coun- 
sellors. The  next  day  the  governor  declared,  that 
he  looked  upon  it  to  be  her  majesty's  prerogative 
to  allow  or  disallow  the  choice  of  a  speaker,  but  he 
would  not  delay  the  assembly  by  disputes,  when  the 
affairs  of  war  were  so  pressing,  saving  to  her  ma- 
jesty her  just  rights  at  all  times. 

The  governor  had  it  in  special  command  to  re- 
commend three  things  to  the  assembly  ;  the  rebuild- 
ing the  fort  at  Permaquid ;  the  contributing  to  a 
fort  at  Piscataqua  ;  and  the  establishing  honourable 
salaries  for  the  governor,  lieutenant  governor  and 
judges  of  the  courts.  He  had  been  pressing  these 
things  from  his  first  arrival,  but  could  obtain  neither 
of  them,  and  as  to  salaries,  they  not  only  refused 
.fixing  a  salary,  but  allowed  him  only  £500  per 


annum,  viz.  300  of  it  in  the  spring  and  200  in  the 
fall.  To  the  iieutenant  governor  they  gave  £200 
annually,  as  lieut.  governor  and  captain  of  the 
castle ;  and  although  it  was  more  than  any  lieut. 
governor  has  received  since,  yet  he  found  it  insuf- 
ficient to  support  him,  and  this  year,  by  the  way  of 
Lisbon,  went  back  to  England,  and  never  returned 
to  the  province.  A  message  from  the  house  this 
year  to  the  governor,  though  not  very  elegant, 
shews  the  sense  they  had  of  these  matters, 
"  May  it  please  your  excellency, 

"!N  answer  to  those  parts  of  your  excellency's 
speech,  at  the  beginning  of  the  session,  referring 
to  her  majesty's  directions  for  the  building  of  a  fort 
at  Permaquid,  contributing  to  the  charge  of  a  fort 
at  Piscataqua,  and  settling  of  salaries,  we  crave 
leave  to  offer, 

"  Imprimis,  as  to  the  building  a  fort  at  Permaquid, 
we  are  humbly  of  opinion,  that  her  majesty  hath  re- 
ceived misrepresentations  concerning  the  necessity 
and  usefulness  of  a  fort  there  ;  wherefore,  this  house, 
in  their  humble  address  to  her  majesty,  dated  the 
27th  of  March  1703,  and  since  twice  repeated,  did 
among  other  things  lay  before  her  majesty  our  rea- 
sons why  we  could  not  comply  with  her  expectations 
in  that  affair,  as 

"  First,  the  little  benefit  said  fort  was  to  us,  not  be- 
ing, as  we  could  discern,  any  .bridle  to  the  enemy 
or  barrier  to  our  frontiers,  being  out  of  the  usual 
road  of  the  Indians  and  a  hundred  miles  distant 
from  any  English  plantation;  and  seemed  only 
to  make  an  anchorage  for  a  few  fishing  boats,  that 
accidentally  put  in  there ;  but  the  expense  thereon 
was  very  great,  not  less  than  twenty  thousand 
pounds. 

"  Secondly,  the  charge  of  the  said  fort  will  be  such 
that  we  cannot  see  how  the  province  can  possibly 
sustain  it,  having  already  laid  out  several  large  sums 
of  money  in  raising  new  fortifications  at  Castle  Is- 
land, &c.,  which  was  set  forth  in  the  address  and 
memorial  accompanying  the  same ;  but  we  under- 
stand we  have  been  so  unhappy,  as  that  the  said 
address  and  memorial  did  not  reach  her  majesty's 
hands,  because  proceeding  from  this  house  alone, 
although  the  addressing  her  majesty  is  a  privilege 
ever  allowed  to  the  meanest  of  her  subjects.  We 
did  therefore  at  our  session  in  February  last  join 
the  council,  in  making  our  humble  address  to  her 
majesty  upon  the  affair  aforesaid,  which  we  hope, 
hath  some  time  since  arrived  to  her  majesty's  favor- 
able acceptance. 

"The  second  article  is  the  contributing  to  the 
charge  of  Piscataqua  fort. — The  fort  in  that  province 
was  built  several  years  past,  when  it  was  not  desired 
or  thought  necessary  that  this  province  should  assist 
them  therein.  The  late  reforms  and  reparations 
made  of  the  same,  as  we  have  been  informed,  stands 
that  whole  province  about  the  sum  of  five  hundred 
pounds,  which  doth  not  amount  to  the  quota  of  se- 
veral particular  towns  within  this  province,  towards 
the  charge  of  the  war  one  year ;  and  all  the  naviga- 
tion and  trade  of  this  province,  coming  down  Pisca- 
taqua river,  have  been  charged  with  a  considerable 
duty  towards  the  support  of  that  fort;  and  this  pro- 
vince hath  always  afforded  such  guards  as  were 
needful  for  their  haling  of  masts,  timber,  &c.  for  her 
majesty's  service,  whilst  the  principal  benefit  and 
advantage  of  the  trade  hath  accrued  to  that  province. 
And  they  have  never  contributed  any  thing  to  the 
charge  of  our  forces,  forts,  and  garrisons,  or  guard 
by  sea,  that  are  as  great  a  safety  and  defence  to 
them  as  to  ourselves :  but  the  public  charge  of  that 


296 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


government  has  been  much  less  proportionably  than 
the  charge  of  this  ;  which  being  considered  we  hope 
110  assistance  will  be  expected  from  us  towards  the 
charge  of  the  said  fort. 

"  Thirdly,  as  to  the  settling  fixed  salaries,  the 
circumstances  of  this  province,  as  to  our  ability  to 
support  the  government,  are  at  times  so  different, 
that  we  fear  the  settling  of  fixed  salaries,  will  be  of 
no  service  to  her  majesty's  interest,  but  may  prove 
prejudicial  to  her  majesty's  good  subjects  here  ;  and 
as  it  is  the  native  privilege  and  right  of  English  sub- 
jects, by  consent  of  parliament,  from  time  to  time, 
to  raise  and  dispose  of  such  sums  of  money  as  the 
present  sxigency  of  affairs  calls  for ;  which  privilege 
we  her  majesty's  loyal  and  dutiful  subjects  have 
hitherto  lived  in  the  enjoyment  of,  so  we  hope  and 
pray  always  to  enjoy  the  same  under  our  most  graci- 
ous sovereign  and  her  successors." 

The  governor  then  proposed  the  several  matters 
to  the  council. 

1st.  Whether  they  advised  to  the  building  a  fort 
at  Peramquicl. 

2d.  Whether  they  advised  to  a  contribution  to- 
wards the  charge  of  Piscataqua  fort. 

?d.  Whether  they  advised  to  the  settling  a  fixed 
salary  to  the  governor  and  lieutenant-governor 
for  the  time  being. 

And.they  gave  a  negative  answer  to  each  question. 

It  was  a  great  disappointment,  to  be  able  to  carry 
neither  of  these  points,  which  the  ministry  were  very 
.much  set  upon,  and  which  it  is  not  improbable  they 
were  encouraged  might  be  obtained.  Had  they  been 
matters  less  unpopular,  yet  the  governor's  weight,  at 
this  time,  would  have  scarce  been  sufficient  to  have 
carried  them  through.  The  prejudices  against  him 
were  great.  The  people  in  general  looked  upon  him 
as  an  enemy,  even  to  the  privileges  of  the  new  char- 
ter. Sir  Henry  Ashurst  procured  an  original  letter, 
wrote  by  the  governor's  son  Paul,  who  was  then  an 
attorney  general,  to  Mr.  Floyd,  and  sent  it  to  New- 
England,  in  which  were  these  expressions,  "  The 
government  and  college  are  disposed  of  here  in 
chimney  corners  and  private  meetings,  as  confidently 
as  can  be — this  country  will  never  be  worth  living 
in  for  lawyers  and  gentlemen,  till  the  charter  is  taken 

away. My  father  and  I  sometimes  talk  of  the 

queen's  establishing  a  court  of  chancery  in  this  coun- 
try. I  have  wrote  about  it  to  Mr.  Blathwait." 
Copies  were  dispersed  about  the  province,  and  the 
letter  was  soon  after  printed.  Mr.  Dudley  had  no 
rest  the  fkst  seven  years ;  besides  the  opposition  he 
met  with  in  his  administration,  endeavours  were 
using,  soon  after  his  arrival,  to  supplant  him,  and 
his  enemies  prevailed  upon  Sir  Charles  Hobby  (who 
had  been  knighted  as  some  said  for  fortitude  and 
resolution  at  the  time  of  the  earthquake  in  Jamaica, 
others  for  the  further  consideration  of  £800  sterling) 
to  go  to  England  and  solicit  for  the  government. 
He  was  recommended  to  Sir  H.  Ashurst,  who  at  first 
gave  encouragement  of  success.  Hobby  was  a  gay 
man,  a  free  liver  and  of  very  different  behaviour  from 
what  should  have  recommended  him  to  the  clergy  of 
New-England ;  and  yet,  such  is  the  force  of  party- 
prejudice,  that  it  prevails  over  religion  itself,  and 
some  of  the  most  pious  ministers  strongly  urged,  in 
their  letters,  that  he  might  be  appointed  their  gover- 
nor instead  of  Dudley. 

The  governor,  this  year  sent  Mr.  Livingston, 
William  Dudley,  the  governor's  son,,  and  two  or  three 
other  gentlrmen,  to  Canada,  for  the  exchange  of  pri- 
soners; who  bronght  back  with  them  Mr.  Williams 


the  minister  and  many  of  the  inhabitants  of  Deerfiehi 
with  other  captives.  Vaudreuil,  the  French  gover- 
nor, sent  a  commissioner  to  Boston,  with  proposals 
of  neutrality,  which  were  communicated  to  the  gene- 
ral court,  who  did  not  think  proper  to  take  any  steps 
towards  effecting  it.  They  wished  and  hoped  instead 
of  a  neutrality  for  the  reduction  of  Canada ;  whereas 
the  employment  given  to  the  French  strength  in 
Europe  might  well  cause  Vaudreuil  to  fear  the  want 
of  protection,  and  dispose  him  to  secure  himself  by  a 
neutrality.  Dudley,  however,  kept  the  matter  in 
suspense  with  Vaudreuil  for  some  time ;  and  to  the 
policy  of  his  negotiation  it  was  owing,  that  the  peo- 
ple upon  the  frontiers  en  joyed  remark  able  tranquility, 
and  he  valued  himself  upon  it  in  his  speech  to  the 
general  court.  Charlevoix  says,  "  it  was  evident 
Mr.  Dudley  had  no  intention  to  agree,  that  he  was 
a  long  time  in  treaty,  and  at  length  declared  that  he 
could  come  to  no  agreement  without  the  consent  of 
the  other  English  colonies ;  and  thereupon  Vaudreuil 
caused  hostilities  to  be  renewed  against  the  people 
of  New  England.  He  adds,  that  the  Canadians  were 
much  dissatisfied  with  their  governor,  for  suffering; 
Mr.  Dudley's  son  to  remain  some  time  at  Quebec, 
under  pretence  of  finishing  the  treaty,  and  for  per- 
mitting a  New  England  brigantine  to  go  up  and 
down  the  river." 

Another  negotiation,  the  next  year,  had  a  less  desi- 
rable effect,  William  Kovvse  was  sent  in  a  small 
vessel,  to  Nova  Scotia,  as  a  flag  of  truce.  He 
stayed  there  a  long  time,  and  brought  back  only 
seventeen  prisoners.  Being  sent  a  second  time,  he 
brought  no  more  than  seven.  Much  greater  numbers 
were  expected,  considering  the  time  spent  in  pro- 
curing them.  Upon  his  last  return,  it  was  charged 
upon  him,  that  instead  of  employing  his  time  in 
redeeming  captives,  he  had  been  trading  with  the 
enemy  and  supplying  them  with  ammunition  and  other 
stores  of  war.  Rowse,  upon  examination,  was  com- 
mitted to  pi  ison.  Samuel  Vetch,  afterwards  Colonel 
Vetch,  and  governoi  of  Nova  Scotia;  John  Borland, 
a  merchant  of  note  in  Boston,  and  Roger  Lawson, 
were  all  apprehended  and  examined,  and  bound  to 
answer  at  the  superior  court.  There  was  a  general 
clamour  through  the  province  ;  and  it  was  whispered 
about  that  the  governor  was  as  deeply  concerned  a< 
any  of  the  rest,  and  such  reports  against  a  governor 
as  easily  obtain  credit,  with  many,  without  ground, 
as  with.  The  house  of  representatives  took  the  first 
opportunity  of  satisfying  themselves.  It  was  sug- 
gested there,  that  the  superior  court  had  no  cogni 
zanceofthe  offence;  and,  that  admitting  Nova  Scotia 
to  be  part  of  the  province,  yet  it  was  not  within  the 
bounds  of  any  country,  and  there  was  no  authority, 
but  the  general  court,  that  could  punish  it.  The 
caryiug  the  goods  from  Boston  and  the  conspiracy 
there,  were  not  considered.  Besides,  no  persons 
could  be  supposed  to  have  the  public  interests  so 
much  at  heart,  and  none  so  likely  to  search  to  the 
bottom.  They  thereupon  resolved,  that  the  superior 
court  had  not  jurisdiction,  and  that  a  parliamentary- 
enquiry  was  necessary;  and,  in  imitation  of  tin; 
house  of  commons,  they  framed  articles  of  accusation 
and  impeachment  against  the  several  persons  appre- 
hended, for  traitorously  supplying  the  queen's  ene- 
mies, &c.  These  were  signed  by  the  speaker,  and 
sent  by  a  committee  to  the  council  (June  25)  praying 
"  that  such  proceedings,  examinations,  trials,  and 
judgments  may  be  had  and  used  upon  and  relating 
to  the  said  persons  as  is  agreeable  to  law  and  justice." 
It  was  expected  that  the  council  should  proceed,  as 
the  house  of  lords  do  upon  an  impeachment.  No 


UNITED  STATES. 


297 


wonder  tbe  council  did  uot  immediately  proceed. 
In  trying  a  capital  offence,  it  became  them  to  b,e  well 
satisfied  of  their  jurisdiction. .  No  notice  is  taken  of 
the  affair  in  the  council  books  for  above  a  fortnight. 
The  governor  sat  every  day  in  council,  and  he  still 
continued  the  practice  of  directing,  every  day,  upon 
what  business  the  council  should  proceed.  It  having 
been  reported,  that  the  house,  in  their  examination 
of  the  prisoners,  enquired  how  far  the  governor  was 
concerned ;  on  the  9th  of  July  they  passed  a  vote, 
vindicating  themselves  from  an  aspersion  cast  upon 
them,  as  having,  in  the  examination  of  the  prisoners, 
made  it  the  first  question,  whether  the  governor  was 
not  concerned  with  them  in  the  unlawful  trade ; 
wickedly  insinuating,  that  the  house  had  suspicion 
thereof,  which  they  declared  to  be  utterly  false;  and 
they  thanked  his  excellency  for  his  utmost  readiness 
and  forwardness,  upon  all  occasions,  in  detecting  and 
discouraging  all  such  illegal  trade  and  traders.  For 
this  the  governor  gave  them  thanks. 

Before  the  13th  of  July,  the  house  were  either 
convinced  that  the  form  of  proceeding  was  irregular, 
or  else  that  they  could  not  support  the  charge  of 
high  treason,  and  ordered  a  bill  to  be  brought  in  for 
inflicting  pains  and  penalties  ;  some  moved  for  a  bill 
of  attainder,  but  the  court  being  near  rising,  a  mes- 
sage was  sent  to  the  governor,  desiring  that  the  pri- 
soners charged  might  be  kept  in  close  custody,  until 
the  next  session,  in  order  to  fui'ther  proceeding 
against  him. 

At  the  next  session,  a  few  weeks  after,  the  persons 
charged  with  two  or  three  other  accomplices  of  less 
note,  were  brought  upon  trial  before  the  whole  court; 
the  governor's  son,  Paul  Dudley,  the  queen's  attorney, 
supporting  the  charge.  The  prisoners  were  heard  by 
counsel  in  their  defence.  The  court  pronounced  them 
all  to  be  guilty,  and  then  proceeded  to  determine  their 
punishment  A  committee  of  the  two  houses  reported 
a  fine  of  £1000  on  Mr.  Borland  and  three  months' 
imprisonment;  £350  on  Roger  Lawson  and  three 
months'  imprisonment;  £400  on  Samuel  Vetch  and 
one  year's  imprisonment;  £1000  on  William  Rowse, 
one  year's  imprisonment  and  incapacity  of  sustaining 
any  office  of  public  trust;  £100  on  John  Philips ,  jun. 
and  one  years  imprisonment;  and  £100  on  Ebenezer 
Coffin.  The  house  accepted  this  report,  with  an  addi- 
tion to  Rowse' s  punishment,  that  he  sit  an  hour  upon 
the  gallows  with  a  rope  about  his  neck ;  but  the  board 
disagreed  to  and  reduced  all  the  fines  except  Rowse' s, 
and  rejected  the  infamous  part  of  his  punishment. 
After  a  conference  between  the  two  houses,  they 
settled  the  penalties  as  follows,  viz.  on  Vetch  a  fine 
of  £200;  Borland  £1100;  Lawson  £300;  Rowse 
£1200  and  incapacity;  Phillips  £100;  and  Coffin 
£60:  all  to  stand  committed  until  the  fines  and 
costs  of  prosecution  were  paid  ;  and  six  separate  acts 
passed  the  whole  court  for  these  purposes.  By  a 
clause  in  the  charter,  the  general  court  is  impower- 
ed  to  impose  fines,  imprisonments,  and  other  pu- 
nishments, and  in  consequence  of  this  clause  the  pro- 
ceeding was  thought  to  be  regular ;  but  the  queen  did 
not  think  so,  and  these  acts  were  disallowed.  The  go- 
vernor was  under  a  disadvantage,  any  obstruction  to 
the  two  houses  would  have  been  improved  as  an  evi- 
dence of  the  truth  of  the  reports  of  his  being  particeps 
criminis;  his  compliance  did  not  satisfy  the  people. 
An  ill  impression  against  persons  in  authority  is 
uot  easily  effaced.  Several  persons,  some  in  Bos- 
ton, but  more  in  London,  signed  a  petition,  full  of 
invectives  against  the  governor,  which  was  pre- 
sented to  the  queen.  Upon  information  of  this  pe- 
tition, the  council  and  house  of  representatives 


passed  votes,  declaring  their  sense  of  the  injury 
done  the  governor  by  the  persons  signing  this  peti- 
tion or  address.  Mr.  Higginson,  who  was  at  the 
head  of  the  petitioners,  was  originally  of  New 
England,  and  educated  at  Harvard  College,  after- 
wards he  travelled  to  the  East  Indies,  and  upon  his 
return  became  a  merchant  in  London,  he  was  also  a 
member  of  the  corporation  for  propagating  the  Gos- 
pel among  the  Indians  of  New  England,  &c.,  and 
had  so  much  interest,  that  some  persons  of  note,  by 
their  letters,  signified  that  they  thought  the  two 
houses  impolitic  in  the  severity  of  their  expressions, 
which,  from  being  their  friend,  might  at  least  cause 
him  to  become  cool  and  indifferent. 

Besides  this  petition,  a  pamphlet  from  New  Eng- 
land appeared  about  the  same  time  in  London, 
charging  the  governor  with  treasonable  correspond- 
ence, and  it  was  expected  that  his  enemies  would 
prevail.  Mr.  Povey  wrote  to  him  from  London ; 
that  he  must  prepare  to  receive  the  news  of  being 
superseded ;  but  he  was  so  fortunate,  as  either  to 
convince  the  queen  and  her  ministers  of  his  inno- 
cence, or  by  some  other  means  to  allay  the  storm 
which  had  been  raised  against  him.  The  charge  of 
supplying  the  enemy  with  ammunition  is  incredible. 
Those  persons  who  were  convicted,  had  he  been  an 
accomplice,  would  have  discovered  him.  He  left 
them  to  suffer  such  punishment  as  the  court  thought 
proper  to  inflict.  There  was  no  certainty  that  the 
acts  would  be  repealed,  and  after  they  were  repealed, 
some  remained  long  in  prison;  Rouse  lay  there 
eighteen  months,  unable  to  find  security.  The 
whole  that  appeared  upon  the  trial,  was  an  invoice 
for  a  quantity  of  nails,  which,  at  the  request  of  the 
governor  of  Port  Royal,  Mr.  Dudley  allowed  to  be 
shipped.  This  was  foundation  enough,  though  in 
no  degree  criminal,  to  give  rise  to  all  the  calumny. 
It  is  not  improbable,  from  the  rempnstrance  of  Mr. 
Sewall,  who  was  a  person  of  great  integrity,  that 
connivance  might  be  shown  as  to  some  supplies  of 
merchandise,  and  that  this  indulgence  might  be 
abused  to  the  supply  of  powder,  shot,  &c.,  contrary 
to  the  governor's  mind.  It  was  the  general  opinion, 
that,  without  these  supplies,  the  French  could  not 
have  proceeded  in  their  expedition  against  New- 
foundland, where  the  harbours  this  year  were  much 
spoiled,  and  great  loss  and  damage  was  sustained, 
not  by  the  Europeans  only,  but  by  the  New  Eng- 
landers,  who  had  then  large  commerce  there. 

That  we  might  finish  what  relates  to  this  prose- 
cution, which  was  a  subject  of  notoriety  for  many 
years  after,  we  have  been  led  a  year  or  two  forward. 
We  meet  with  no  remarkable  devastations  by  the 
Indians  in  1706;  but  in  April  1706,  they  renewed 
their  inroads  and  murdered  eight  or  ten  people  in 
one  house  at  Oyster  River.  There  was  a  garrison 
house  near,  where  the  women  of  the  neighbourhood 
had  retreated,  their  husbands  being  abroad  at  their 
labour,  or  absent  upon  other  occasions.  This  house 
being  attacked,  the  women  put  on  their  husbands' 
hats  and  jackets,  and  let  their  hair  loose,  to  make 
the  appearance  of  men  ;  and  firing  briskly  from  the 
openings,  saved  the  house  and  caused  the  enemy  to 
retreat. 

Colonel  Schuyler  gave  intelligence  of  two  hun- 
dred and  seventy  men  having  marched  from  the 
frontiers  of  New  Canada,  which  was  an  alarm  to  all 
the  frontiers  of  New  England;  for  it  was  uncertain 
upon  which  part  they  would  fall.  They  made  their 
first  appearance  upon  Merimack  River,  about  Dun- 
stable,  surprised  and  burned  a  garrison  house  there 
in  \vhich  twenty  soldiers  were  posted,  and  did  other 


298 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


mischief.  Five  of  their  Indians,  probably  from  the 
same  party,  ventured  down  as  far  as  Reading,  about 
fifteen  or  eighteen  miles  from  Boston,  surprised  a 
poor  woman,  who  had  eight  children  with  her  in  a 
lone  cottage,  killed  the  woman  and  three  of  the 
children,  and  carried  away  the  rest ;  but  the  distant 
inhabitants  were  alarmed  time  enough  to  overtake 
them  in  their  retreat,  and  recovered  three  of  the 
children.  Chelmsford,  Sudbury,  Groton,  Exeter, 
Dover,  and  other  plantations,  had  more  or  less  of 
their  people  killed  or  taken;  some  of  the  latter  they 
murdered  before  they  could  reach  Canada,  others 
very  narrowly  escaping.  A  poor  woman,  Rebecca 
Taylor,  after  the  misery  of  a  long  travel  to  St. 
Lawrence  River,  near  to  Montreal,  having  offended 
her  Indian  master,  he  took  off  his  belt  and  fas- 
tened one  end  of  it  round  her  neck,  and  threw  the 
other  over  the  limb  of  a  tree  ;  but  the  weight  of  her 
body  broke  the  limb.  He  was  making  a  second  at- 
tempt, when  the  noted  Bomazeen  came  by  and  res- 
cued her.  In  their  march,  their  hunting  failing, 
they  were  kindling  a  fire  to  roast  a  child  of  one 
Hannah  Parsons,  when  a  strange  dog,  falling  in 
their  way,  supplied  the  child's  place.  A  Groton 
soldier,  Samnel  Butterfield,  defended  himself 
bravely,  and  killed  one  of  their  chiefs.  This  occa- 
sioned a  dispute  about  the  kind  of  punishment, 
some  being  for  burning  alive,  others  for  whipping  to 
death.  It  was  left  to  the  dead  man's  widow  to  de- 
tsrmine  it.  She  told  them,  that  if  killing  the  pri- 
soner would  bring  her  husband  to  life,  she  cared  not 
what  kind  of  death  he  suffered ;  but  if  not,  she  de- 
sired to  have  him  for  a  slave,  and  her  request  was 
granted. 

It  appears,  by  the  French  accounts,  that  the  In- 
dians themselves  were  tired  of  the  war,  and.  with 
great  difficulty  were  prevailed  upon  to  continue  it. 
To  encourage  them,  a  noted  chief,  dreaded  by  the 
English  upon  the  frontiers,  from  the  report  of  his 
cruelties,  Nescambouit,  was  about  this  time  sent  by 
M.  Vaudreuil  to  France,  to  receive  his  reward  from 
the  king  himself.  Upon  his  appearance  at  court, 
he  held  out  his  arm  and  bragged,  that  with  that  arm 
he  had  slain  one  hundred  and  fifty  of  his  majesty's 
enemies.  The  king  was  so  much  pleased,  that,  as 
was  then  reported,  he  knighted  him,  and  settled  a 
pension  of  eight  livres  a  day  for  life. 

Charlevoix  attributes  the  distress  of  the  New 
Englanders  to  their  refusal  of  a  neutrality,  "  The 
Abenakis  continued  to  lay  New  England  d'esolate; 
Mr.  Dudley  either  being  unwilling  or  afraid  to  ac- 
cept the  neutrality  which  had  been  proposed  for 
that  province.  He  was  much  affected  with  the 
cries  of  the  inhabitants,  who  were  no  longer  able 
to  improve  their  lands,  which  were  continually  ra- 
vaged by  the  Indians,  and  he  thought  the  only  way 
to  put  an  end  to  this  distress  was  to  extirpate  the 
French  from  Acadia." 

1707.  Dudley  depended  upon  the  French  being 
extirpated  from  Canada,  as  well  as  Acadia,  or  he 
would  have  been  glad  of  a  neutrality,  if  he  could 
have  had  the  queen's  leave  to  agree  to  it.  It  was 
known,  that  an  armament  was  intended,  this  year, 
from  England  against  the  French,  either  in  Canada, 
or  Acadia,  or  both.  Troops  were  actually  destined 
for  this  service,  and  general  Macartney  was  to  have 
commanded  ;  but  the  battle  of  Almanza,  in  Spain, 
made  mch  an  alteration  in  affairs,  that  the  troops 
could  not  be  spared,  and  the  expedition  was  laid 
aside.  The  Massachussetts  would  have  been  ready 
with  the  forces  expected  from  them  ;  and  it  was  de- 
termined, early  in  the  spring,  that  such  a  number 


of  men  should  be  raised,  us  might  be  sufficient  for 
the  reduction  of  Acadia,  although  no  assistance 
came  from  England.  At  least  the  other  parts  of 
Nova  Scotia  might  be  ravaged ;  but  for  Port  Royal, 
it  was  doubted  whether  it  could  be  subdued :  how- 
ever, the  fortress  there  wag  "  to  be  insulted,  if  by  a 
council  of  war  it  should  be  found  practicable." 

One  thousand  men  it  was  resolved  should  be 
raised  in  the  Massachussetts,  and  proposals  were 
made  to  New  Hampshire,  Connecticut,  and  Rhode 
Island,  to  join.  Connecticut  declined.  The  other 
two  governments  assisted,  and  Mr.  Dudley,  in  his 
speech  to  the  assembly,  acknowledges  that  he  had 
received  a  very  honourable  assistance  from  Rhode 
Island,  and  a  proper  force  from  New  Hampshire. 
The  naval  force  was  barely  sufficient  for  convoy, 
there  being  only  the  Deptford  man-of-war,  Captain 
Stukeley,  and  the  province  galley,  captain  South- 
ack.  The  command  of  the  land  forces  was  given 
to  colonel  March,  who  had  behaved  well  at  Casco 
fort  and  upon  some  other  occasions  ;  but  had  never 
been  tried  in  any  service  where  other  talents  besides 
mere  natural  bravery  were  necessary.  The  fleet 
sailed  from  Boston  the  13th  of  May,  and  arrived 
the  26th  at  Port  Royal.  March  immediately  landed 
with  seven  hundred  men  on  the  harbour  side ;  colo- 
nel Appleton  with  three  hundred  men  landing  on 
the  other  side.  The  next  day,  as  March  with  his 
men  was  advancing  towards  the  fort,  he  disco- 
vered about  two  hundred  of  the  enemy,  with  Suber- 
cas,  the  governor,  at  their  head,  near  the  top  of  a 
hill.  A  short  skirmish  ensued,  and  Subercas  had 
his  horse  killed  under  him  ;  but  the  numbers  being 
very  unequal  the  French  soon  retreated,  leaving 
two  of  their  number  killed,  and  having  wounded 
three  of  the  English.  On  the  29th,  Appleton  and 
his  three  hundred  men  were  attacked  by  a  body  of 
Indians,  joined  by  about  sixty  Canadians  who  had 
arrived  just  before  to  man  a  privateer  which  lay  in 
the  harbour.  They  killed  two  of  the  English  and 
then  retreated.  All  the  inhabitants  forsook  their 
houses  and  retired  to  the  fort,  which  was  well  gar- 
risoned. They  made  a  continual  fire  with  cannon 
and  mortars  upon  the  English  camp ;  but  wanting 
skilful  engineers,  very  lew  of  them  fell  so  as  to 
cause  any  destruction.  The  Indians,  upon  every 
quarter  skulking  about,  shot  any  man  who  ventured 
without  the  camp.  It  is  evident  that  the  forces 
were  very  diffident  of  success  from  their  first  land- 
ing;  and  the  army  would  in  a  great  measure  have 
saved  their  reputation,  if,  in  conformity  to  the  voto 
of  the  court  for  engaging  in  the  expedition,  they 
had,  at  a  council  of  war  determined  not  to  attack 
the  fort,  and  proceeded  to  ravage  the  country. 
Some  intelligence  which  they  had  received  of  the 
disposition  of  great  part  of  the  garrison  to  revolt, 
seems  to  have  encouraged  them  more  than  any 
hopes  they  had  of  being  able  to  reduce  the  place  by 
a  regular  siege  or  sudden  attack.  The  13th  of 
May,  at  a  council  of  war,  it  was  agreed,  "that  the 
enemy's  well  disciplined  garrison  in  a  strong  fort, 
was  more  than  a  match  for  a  raw  undisciplined 
army."  They  opened  their  trenches  notwithstand- 
'ng,  and  in  three  or  four  days  they  had  made  some 
Breaches,  and  determined  upon  a  general  assault; 
sut  advancing  towards  the  fort  and  finding  no  de- 
serters come  over,  they  altered  their  minds,  and  the 
3th  or  7th  of  June  the  whole  army  were  re-em- 
mrked.  Colonel  Redknap  (the  engineer)  and 
colonel  Appleton  went  to  Boston  for  further  orders  ; 
he  rest  of  the  army  to  Casco  Bay.  A  great  cla- 
mour was  raised  at  Boston  against  March  and 


UNITED  STATES. 


299 


Wainwright,  and  letters  were  sent  them  from 
thence,  some  anonymous,  vilifying  them  as  cowards 
and  deserving  the  gallows.  They  charged  Apple- 
ton  with  being  the  first  for  decamping,  bnt  own  it 
would  have  been  to  no  good  purpose  to  have  re- 
mained ;  as  there  was  no  prospect  of  carrying  the 
fort.  Captain  Stukely,  of  the  Deptford,  gave  an 
account  of  the  strength  of  the  place,  and  added, 
that  he  had  hoped  the  fighting  men  at  Boston,  who 
had  wrote  so  many  scurrilous,  vilifying  letters, 
without  names,  would  be  satisfied,  that  regular,  well 
fortified,  and  well  defended  forts,  are  not  to  be  taken 
by  raw  men  ;  and  he  was  very  certain  that  1,500 
of  the  best  of  them  would  come  back  as  the  army 
had  done. 

Mr.  Dudley,  notwithstanding  the  diffidence  ex- 
pressed,  thought  of  nothing  short  of  the  reduction 
of  Port  Royal  from  the  beginning;  and  after  so 
great  an  expense  in  raising  such  an  armed  force,  he 
was  unwilling  to  give  over  the  design,  and  sent  im- 
mediate orders  for  the  forces  to  remain  where  they 
were  whilst  he  considered  of  further  measures. 
March  was  beloved  by  the  soldiers  ;  besides,  his 
courage  was  not  suspected,  although  his  capacity  for 
a  general  was  called  in  question.  It  was  not,  there- 
fore, thought  proper  to  recall  him,  and  to  appoint  a 
general  officer  over  him  would  be  as  exceptionable. 
An  cxprdient  was  therefore  thought  of,  which  was 
suggested  perhaps  by  the  practice  of  the  Dutch. 
Three  gentlemen  of  the  council  were  to  be  sent  to 
the  army,  with  as  full  powers  to  superintend  and 
direct  the  proceedings  as  the  governor  himself  would 
have  had  if  present  in  person.  Colonel  Hutchin- 
son,  colonel  Townsend,  and  Mr.  Leverctt,  were  se- 
lected for  this  purpose ;  and  they  embarked  in  the 
middle  of  July  with  about  one  hundred  recruits  and 
several  deserters,  who  had  left  the  army  at  Casco. 
Upon  their  arrival,  they  found  parties  formed  among 
officers  and  men,  no  subordination,  a  coldness  in  the 
officers,  and  an  aversion  in  the  privates,  to  a  return 
to  the  ground  they  had  left.  But  it  seems,  the  go- 
vernor had  made  a  point  the  army  should  go  back. 

A  round  robin  was  signed  by  a  great  number, 
peremptorily  refusing  to  go  to  Port  Royal;  but  the 
ringleaders  being  discovered  and  secured,  whilst 
their  sentence  was  under  consideration,  the  rest 
submitted,  and  the  ships  of  war  and  transports  sailed. 
They  stopped  at  Passimaquadi,  about  the  7th  of 
August.  March's  spirits  were  broke  and  his  health 
affected,  so  that,  when  the  disposition  was  made  for 
landing  the  army,  he  declared  himself  incapable  of 
acting,  and  the  command  was  given  to  Wainwright, 
the  next  officer.  The  10th  of  August  they  crossed 
over  to  Port  Royal,  where  they  landed,  but  on  the 
opposite  side  to  the  fort,  and  in  every  respect,  in  a 
much  worse  condition  than  before.  The  nights 
were  growing  cold,  the  men  sickening,  and  the 
army  in  general,  incapable  of  sustaining  the  fati- 
gues of  a  siege.  Waiuwright's  letter  to  the  Com- 
missioners, August  14th,  shows  the  state  they  were 
in.  "  Our  not  recovering  the  intended  ground  on 
the  opposite  side  is  a  mighty  advantage  to  the  ene- 
my, in  that  they  have  opportunity,  and  are  improv- 
ing it,  for  casting  up  trenches  in  the  very  place 
where  we  designed  to  land  and  draw  up  our  small 
forces.  Yesterday,  the  French,  about  eight  of  the 
clock  forenoon,  on  the  fort  point,  with  a  small  body 
of  St.  John's  Indians,  began  to  fire  on  our  river 
guards,  and  so  continued  until  about  three  in  the 
afternoon  :  then  appeared  about  one  hundred  In- 
dians and  French,  upon  the  same  ground,  who  kept 
firing  at  us  until  dark.  Several  wer»  shot  through 


their  clothes,  and  one  Indian  through  the  thigh. 
About  four  in  the  afternoon  I  suffered  a  number  of 
men,  about  forty  or  fifty,  to  go  down  to  the  bank  of 
the  river,  to  cut  thatch  to  cover  their  tents.  All 
returned  well,  except  nine  of  captain  Dimmock's 
men,  who  were  led  away  by  one  Mansfield,  a  mad 
fellow,  to  the  next  plantation  to  get  cabbages  in  a 
garden,  without  the  leave  and  against  the  will  of 
his  officer.  They  were  no  sooner  at  their  plunder 
but  they  were  surrounded  by  at  least  one  hundred 
French  and  Indians,  who  in  a  few  minutes  killed 
every  one  of  them,  their  bodies  being  mangled  in  a 
frightful  manner.  Our  people  buried  them,  and 
fired  twice  upon  the  enemy ;  on  which  they  were 
seen  to  run  towards  our  out-guards  next  the  woods, 
which  we  immediately  strengthened.  Indeed,  the 
French  have  reduced  us  to  the  same  state  to  which 
we  reduced  them  at  our  last  being  at  Port  Royal ; 
surrounded  with  enemies,  and  judging  it  unsafe  to 
proceed  on  any  service  without  a  company  of  at 
least  one  hundred  men.  I  shall  now  give  you  a 
short  account  of  the  state  of  our  people,  truly,  as 
delivered  me  by  doctor  Ellis.  There  is  a  considera- 
ble number  of  them  visited  with  violent  fluxes,  and 
although  we  have  things  proper  to  give  them,  yet 
dare  not  do  it ;  others  taken  with  mighty  swellings 
in  their  throats ;  others  filled  with  terror  at  the 
consideration  of  a  fatal  event  of  the  expedition, 
concluding  that,  in  a  short  time,  there  will  not  be 
well  enough  to  carry  off  the  sick. 

"  I  am  distressed  to  know  which  way  to  keep  the 
Indians  steady  to  the  service.  They  protest  they 
will  draw  off,  whatever  becomes  of  them.  It  is 
truly  astonishing,  to  behold  the  miserable  posture 
and  temper  that  most  of  the  army  are  in,  besides 
the  smallness  of  our  number,  to  be  attacked  by  the 
enemy  which  we  expect  every  moment. 

"  I  am  much  disordered  in  my  health  by  a  great 
cold.  I  shall  not  use  it  as  an  argument  to  be 
drawn  off  myself;  but  as  you  are  masters  of  the 
affair,  lay  before  you  the  true  state  of  the  army, 
which  indeed  is  very  deplorable  :  I  should  much  re- 
joice to  see  some  of  you  here  that  you  might  be 
proper  judges  of  it. 

"  If  we  had  the  transports  with  us,  it  would  be 
impossible,  without  a  miracle,  to  recover  the  ground 
on  the  other  side,  and  I  believe  the  French  have  ad- 
ditional strength  every  day.  In  fine,  most  of  the 
forces  are  in  a  distressed  state,  some  in  body,  and 
some  in  mind,  and  the  longer  they  are  kept  here  on 
the  cold  ground  the  longer  it  will  grow  upon  them, 
and,  I  fear,  the  further  we  proceed  the  worse  the 
event.  God  help  us." 

Captain  Stukeky  had  given  encouragement,  that 
he  would  lead  on  an  hundred  of  his  own  men ;  but 
the  bad  state  of  affairs  caused  him  to  change  his 
mind,  and  he  had  drawn  them  off  before  the  date  of 
this  letter. 

The  army  continued  ashore  until  the  20th,  whon 
they  re-embarked.  The  enemy  then  attacked  them, 
many  of  whom  were  killed  and  wounded,  and 
finally  put  to  flight.  The  French  say  that  both  re- 
treate'd  by  turns.  Each  seem  to  have  been  glad  to 
be  rid  of  the  other.  About  sixteen  were  killed,  in 
the  whole  expedition,  and  as  many  wounded.  The 
French,  finding  so  few  dead  bodies,  supposed  the 
Massachussetts  threw  them  into  the  sea. 

When  the  forces  returned,  Mr.  Dudley  put  the 
best  face  upon  their  ill  success.  In  his  speech  to 
the  assembly,  he  says,  "Though  we  have  not  ob- 
tained all  that  we  desired  against  the  enemy,  yet 
we  are  to  acknowledge  the  favour  of  God  in  pre- 


300 


THE  HISTORY  Of  AMERICA. 


serving  our  forces  in  the  expedition,  and  prospering 
(hem  so  far  as  the  destruction  of  the  French  settle- 
ments and  estates,  in  and  about  Port  Royal,  to  a 
great  value ;  which  must  needs  distress  the  enemy 
to  a  very  great  degree." 

A  court  martial  was  judged  necessary,  and  or- 
dered, but  never  met.  The  act  of  the  province,  for 
constituting  courts  martial,  made  so  many  officers 
requisite,  that  it  was  found  impracticable  to  hold 
one.  This  must  be  owing  to  the  great  number  of 
persons  charged,  the  remainder  being  insufficient  to 
try  them. 

1708.  Whilst  the  forces  were  employed  against 
French,  the  Indians  kept  harassing  the  frontiers. 
Oyster  River.  Exeter,  Kingston,  and  Dover  in  New 
Hampshire  government,  and  Berwick,  York,  Wells, 
Winter  Harbour,  Casco,  and  even  the  inland  town 
of  Marlborougb.  in  the  Massachusetts,  sustained 
loss.  The  winter  following  passed  without  mo- 
lestation. In  the  spring,  1708,  Mr.  Littlefield,  the 
lieutenant  of  Wells,  travelling  to  York,  was  taken 
and  carried  to  Canada.  For  several  months  after, 
the  enemy  seemed  to  have  forsaken  the  frontiers. 
It  afterwards  appeared,  that  they  were  collecting 
their  forces  in  Canada  for  some  important  stroke. 

Schuyler  had  such  influence  over  the  French 
Mohawks,  who  kept  a  constant  trade  with  Albany, 
that  they  inclined  to  a  more  general  peace  with  the 
English  than  merely  those  of  New  York.  The 
French  discovered  their  indift'erence,  and  to  keep 
them  engaged,  a  grand  council  was  called  at  Mon- 
treal, the  beginning  of  this  year,  and  an  expedition 
was  agreed  upon,  in  which  were  to  be  employed 
the  principal  Indians  of  every  tribe  in  Canada,  the 
Abenakis  Indians,  and  one  hundred  select  French 
Canadians,  and  a  number  of  volunteers,  several  of 
whom  were  officers  in  the  French  troops.  They 
were  to  make  in  the  whole  four  hundred  men. 

De  Chaillons,  and  Hertel  de  Rouville  (the  same 
who  sacked  Deerfield)  commanded  the  French,  and 
La  Perriere  the  Indians.  To  give  the  less  alarm 
to  the  English,  the  French  party,  with  the  Algon- 
quin and  St.  Francois  and  Huron  Indians,  marched 
by  the  way  of  the  river  St.  Francois:  La  Perriere 
and  the  French  Mohawks  went  by  lake  Champlain : 
They  were  to  rendezvous  at  lake  Nikisipique,  and 
there  the  Norringewock,  Penobscot  and  other  east- 
ern Indians  were  to  join  them.  They  all  began  their 
march  the  16th  July,  but  the  Hurons  gave  out  and 
returned,  before  they  arrived  at  St.  Francois  river. 
One  of  them  had  killed  his  companion,  by  accident, 
which  they  thought  an  ill  omen  and  that  the  .expedi- 
tion would  prove  unfortunate.  The  Mohawks  also 
pretended,  that  some  of  their  number  were  taken 
sick  by  an  infectious  distemper  which  would  be  com- 
municated to  the  rest,  and  they  returned.  Vaud- 
reuil,  when  he  heard  these  accounts,  sent  orders  to 
his  French  officers,  that,  although  the  Algonquin 
and  St.  Francois  Indians  should  leave  them  also,  yet 
they  should  go  on  and  fall  upon  some  of  the  scat- 
tered settlements.  When  the  Indians  were  tired  of 
murdering  poor  helpless  women  and  children,  Vau- 
dreuil  employed  his  French  officers  to  do  it.  Those 
Indians,  however,  did  not  leave  them,  and,  being 
about  200  in  all,  they  marched  between  four  and 
five  hundred  miles  through  the  woods  to  Nikipisque, 
where  they  found  none  of  the  eastern  Indians.  This 
was  a  happy  disappointment  for  the  English.  Had 
the  whole  proposed  number  rendezvoused  thero, 
Newbury,  or  perhaps  Portsmouth,  might  have  been 
surprised  and  destroyed ;  but,  the  army  being  thus 
reduced,  Haver  bill,  a  small  but  compact  village  «a5 


pitched  upon.  Intelligence  had  been  carried  to 
Boston,  that  an  army  of  800  men  was  intended  for 
some  part  of  the  frontiers,  but  it  was  uncertain 
which.  Guards  were  sent  to  Haverhill.  as  well  a* 
other  places ;  but  they  were  posted  in  the  most  ex- 
posed parts  of  the  town  and  the  enemy  avoided  them, 
or  passed  undiscovered,  and,  on  the  29th  of  August, 
about  break  of  day,  surprised  the  body  of  the  town, 
adjoining  to  Merrimack  river,  where  were  twenty 
or  thirty  houses  together,  several  of  which  they 
burned,  and  attempted  to  burn  the  meeting-house, 
but  failed.  The  rest  of  the  houses  they  ransacked 
and  plundered.  Mr.  Rolfe  the  minister,  Wain- 
wright  the  captain  of  the  town,  and  thirty  or  forty 
more,  the  French  say  about  100,  were  killed,  and 
many  taken  prisoners.  Mr.  Rolfe's  maid  jumped 
out  of  bed,  upon  the  alarm,  and  ran  with  his  two 
daughters  of  six  or  eight  years  old  into  the  cellar, 
and  covered  them  with  two  large  tubs,  which  the  In- 
dians neglected  to  turn  over  and  they  wore  both  pre- 
served. Three  very  good  officers  wore  at  that  time 
in  the  town,  Major  Turner,  Capt  Price  and  Capt, 
Gardner,  all  of  Salem,  but  most  of  their  men  were 
posted  at  a  distance,  and,  before  any  sufficient  num- 
ber could  be  collected,  the  mischief  was  done.  The 
enemy,  however,  was  pursued,  overtaken  and  at- 
tacked, just  as  they  were  entering  the  woods.  The 
French  reported,  when  they  got  back,  that  they 
faced  about,  and  that  the  Massachusetts  being 
astonished,  were  all  killed  or  taken,  except  ten  or 
twelve  who  escaped.  The  truth  is,  that  there  was  a 
brush,  which  lasted  about  an  hour,  and  that  the 
enemy  then  took  to  the  woods,  except  nine  who  were 
left  dead,  among  whom  was  Rouville's  brother,  and 
another  officer.  Many  of  the  prisoners  were  also 
recovered.  The  governor  in  his  speech  to  the  as- 
sembly says,  "  We  might  have  done  more  against 
them  if  \ve  had  followed  their  tracks." 

The  return  of  the  French  Mohawks  might  be 
owing  to  Schuyler's  negotiations  with  them,  which, 
it  may  be  said,  he  would  have  had  no  opportunity 
for,  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  neutrality  between 
them  and  Albany;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  not  only 
Indians,  at  other  times,  but  even  the  Penobscots 
and  Norridgewocks  were  enabled  by  this  neutrality, 
to  make  their  inroads.  The  governor  of  Port  royal, 
in  a  letter  to  the  Count  de  Pontchartraiu,  says, 
"  that  the  Michmacks  were  quite  naked  and  the 
Kenebeckans  and  Penobscots  would  have  been  so 
too,  if  they  had  not  carried  on  a  trade  with  the 
Indians  of  Hudson's  river,  or,  rather,  by  their  means, 
with  the  English,  who  allowed  a  crown  a  pound 
for  beaver,  and  sold  their  goods  very  reasonably." 
Charlevoix  justly  remarks  upon  it,  "  thus  our  own 
enemies  relieved  our  most  faithful  allies,  when  they 
were  in  necessity,  and  whilst  they  were  every  day 
hazarding  their  lives  in  our  service."  The  Mas- 
sachusetts general  court  also,  this  year  in  an  address 
to  the  Queen,  say,  "A  letter  from  M.  Vaudreuil, 
governor  of  Canada,  to  the  laic  governor  of  Port- 
royal  was  sometime  since  happily  intercepted,  and 
came  to  our  governor's  hands;  wherein  he  writes 
thus,  namely,  that  he  endeavours  to  keep  all  quiet 
on  the  side  of  Orange  or  Albany,  having  command 
from  the  king  his  master  not  to  have  any  quarrel 
with  your  majesty's  subjects  on  that  side,  or  with  the 
Mohawks,  which  he  hath  strictly  observed.  And 
they  are  in  a  profound  peace,  having  met  with  little 
or  no  less  on  the  land  side,  either  in  men  or  estates 
this  war." 

The  enemy  were  satisfied  with  their  success  at 
Ilavcrhill,  fo/  this  reason,  and,  except  now  and  then 


UNITED  STATES. 


301 


a  straggling  Indian,  none  of  them  appeared  agan 
upon  the  frontiers  this  summer. 

The  party  against  the  governor  still  pursued  thei 
schemes  in  England  for  his  removal.  Ashurst  en 
gaged  a  committee  of  the  kirk  of  Scotland,  wh 
came  up  to  London  to  settle  some  affairs  with  the 
queen's  council,  to  use  their  interest,  that  Dudley 
might  be  removed  and  a  new  governor  appointed 
and  he  was  very  sanguine,  that  this  would  do  the 
business,  and  that  Hobby  would  be  appointed,  though 
not  such  a  person  as  he  could  wish.  In  the  pro 
vince,  the  governor's  interest  was  strengthening 
Some  of  the  old  senators,  who  had  been  disaffectet 
to  him,  were  left  out  of  the  council.  Oakes,  whoir 
he  had  negatived  as  speaker,  and  one  other  member 
for  Boston  lost  their  election,  and  John  Clark  anc 
Thomas  Hutchinson,  two  young  gentlemen  of  the 
town,  who  were  under  no  prejudice  against  him 
came  into  the  house  in  their  stead;  and,  although 
this  year  Mr.  Cooke  was  again  chosen  one  of  the 
council,  it  was  the  last  effort.  The  governor  per 
sisted  in  negativing  him,  and  at  the  same  time  nega- 
tived Nathaniel  Paine  of  Bristol:  but  he  had  so  ac- 
customed them  to  negatives,  that  they  gave  less  of- 
fence than  they  would  have  done  after  long  disuse. 

The  principal  subject  of  the  assembly's  address, 
which  we  have  just  before  mentioned,  to  the  queen, 
was  the  reduction  of  Canada  and  Acadia  by  an  ar- 
mament from  England,  to  be  assisted  by  forces  raised 
in  the  colonies.  Vetch,  who  the  last  year  was 
charged  as  a  traitor,  this  year  appeared,  before  the 
queen  and  her  ministers,  soliciting  in  behalf  of  the 
colonies;  being  able  to  give  a  full  information  of 
the  condition  of  the  French  in  America. 

(1709.)  In  the  spring,  Mr.  Dudley  was  advised,  by 
loiters  from  the  Earl  of  Sunderland,  that  the  queen 
had  determined  upon  an  expedition,  and  Vetch, 
made  a  colonel,  came  over  with  instructions  to  make 
the  necessary  preparations.  The  plan  was  exten- 
sive. The  French  were  to  be  subdued,  not  only  in 
('anad.  and  Acadia,  but  in  Newfoundland  also.  A 
>quadron  of  ships  were  to  be  at  Boston  by  the  mid- 
die  of  May.  Five  regiments  of  regular  troops  were 
to  be  sent  from  England,  to  be  joined  by  1200  men, 
to  be  raised  in  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island,  and 
tbe  governments  were  to  send  transports,  flat  bot 
tomed  boats,  pilots,  and  three  months'  provisions  for 
ihcir  own  troops.  With  this  force,  Quebec  was  to 
be  attacked;  at  the  same  time  1,500  men,  proposed 
to  be  raised  in  the  governments  south  of  Rhode 
Inland,  which  were  to  march  by  the  way  of  the  lake, 
were  to  attack  Montreal.  The  men,  assigned  to 
the  Massachusetts  to  raise,  were  ready  by  the  20th 
of  May;  and  Vetch  gave  a  certificate  under  his 
hand,  that  all  the  governments  concerned  had  cheer- 
fully and  punctually  complied  with  the  orders  given, 
except  Pennsylvania.  It  was  left  to  Lord  Lovelace, 
governor  of  New  York,  to  appoint  the  general  officer 
lor  the  1500  men,  but,  by  his  death,  the  power  de- 
volved upon  Mr.  Ingoldsby,  the  lieutenant-governor ; 
and  Nicholson  who  had  been  lieutenant-governor  of 
Now  York  under  Andros  and  afterwards  lieutenant- 
governor  of  Virginia  and  Maryland  being  then  in 
America,  was  settled  as  a  proper  person,  and  marched 
with  the  forces  under  his  command  as  far  as  Wood- 
creek,  there  to  wait  untill  the  arrival  of  the  fleet  at 
Boston,  that  the  attack  on  both  places  might  be 
made  at  one  time.  The  transports  and  troops  lay 
waiting  at  Boston  from  May  to  September,  every 
day  expecting  the  fleet.  No  intelligence  coming 
i'rom  England,  Vetch,  being  sensible  it  was  too  late 
to  go  to  Canada,  proposed  a  meeting,  at  New  Lon- 


don, of  the  governors  of  the  several  colonies,  to 
consider  in  what  other  way  the  forces  raised  should 
be  employed  against  the' enemy,  that  the  expense 
might  not  be  wholly  lost;  but  Nicholson,  unexpect- 
edly, returned  with  his  men  from  Wood-creek,  and 
he  and  Vetch  and  Colonel  Moody  met  some  of  the 
governors  at  Rhode  Island.  Two  or  three  days  be- 
fore the  congress  (October  llth)  a  ship  arrived  at 
Boston  from  England,  with  advice  that  the  forces 
intended  for  America  were  ordered  to  Portugal,  and 
with  directions  to  consult  whether  the  forces  raised 
in  America  might  not  be  employed  against  Port 
Royal,  the  ships  of  war  of  which  there  were  several 
then  at  Boston  to  be  aiding  and  assisting.  There 
was  no  great  honour  or  profit  to  be  expected,  by 
the  captains  of  the  men  of  war,  if  the  expedition 
should  succeed,  nothing  more  being  required  of  them, 
than  to  serve  as  convoy  to  the  transports,  and  cover 
to  the  forces  at  their  landing ;  therefore  two  of  the 
frigates,  whose  station  was  New  York,  sailed  imme- 
diately from  Boston,  without  taking  leave  of  any 
body,  and  the  commanders  of  the  rest,  Mathews, 
afterwards  Admiral  Mathews,  who  was  then  com- 
mander of  the  station  ship  at  Boston,  only  excepted, 
peremptorily  refused.  As  soon  as  this  was  known 
to  the  two  houses,  the  court  being  sitting,  they  de- 
sired the  governor  to  discharge  the  transports  and 
disband  the  men,  it  not  being -safe  to  proceed  with- 
out convoy.  This  was  a  heavy  charge  upon  the 
province,  without  any  good  effect.  It  was  indeed 
late  in  the  year  for  the  attempt  against  Port  Royal, 
but  then  the  prospect  of  surprising  the  enemy  was 
so  mnch  the  greater,  and  if  it  had  happened  other- 
wise and  the  forces  had  returned  without  subduing 
the  place,  it  would  have  caused  but  little  increase  of 
the  expense. 

Whilst  Nicholson  lay  at  Wood-creek,  the  gover- 
nor of  Canada,  who  had  intelligence  of  all  his  mo- 
tions, sent  out  an  army  of  1500  French  and  Indians, 
who  left  Montreal  the  28th  July  N.  S.  and  the  three 
irst  days  advanced  forty  leagues  towards  the  Eng- 
ish  camp;  but  upon  a  report  that  they  were  5000 
strong,  and  upon  the  march  to  meet  the  French,  and 
.here  being  discord  at  the  same  time,  among  the 
French  officers,  it  was  thought  best  to  return  to 
heir  advanced  posts,  and  wait  to  receive  the  Eng- 
ish  there.  Had  they  proceeded,  they  were  equal  to 
;he  English,  better  acquainted  with  the  country, 
vould  have  come  unexpected,  and  the  event  would 
at  least  have  been  doubtful  for  us. 

Charlevoix  gives  an  instance  of  the  treachery  of 
the  Indians  of  the  six  nations,  and  of  their  intention 
-o  destroy  the  whole  English  army.  Speaking  of 
ather  Mareuil,  who  had  been  a  prisoner  at  Albany, 
le  says,  "  This  missionary  having  been  exchanged 
or  a  nephew  of  the  principal  officer  at  Albany,  we 
"earned  from  him,  all  the  circumstances  of  that  affair, 
md  to  what  New  France  owed  her  deliverance  from 
;he  greatest  danger  to  which  s>he  had  been  at  any 
ime  exposed  from  that  quarter."  Then  having  men- 
ioned  a  grand  council  of  the  Indians,  held  at  Onon- 
dago,  where  all  their  general  meetings  upon  im- 
>ortant  matters  were  held,  he  goes  on,  "  The 
)nondago,  one  of  the  old  men  of  that  nation,  who 
was  speaker,  asked  whether  it  was  out  of  their  minds 
hat  they  were  situated  between  two  potent  people, 
either  of  which  were  capable  of  totally  extirpating 
hem,  and  that  it  would  be  the  interest  of  either  to  do 
t,  as  soon  as  they  should  have  no  further  occasion 
or  them.  It  behoved  them  therefore  to  be  very 
areful,  that  they  did  not  lose  their  importance', 
which  they  would  do,  unless  each  of  those  people 


302 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


were  prevented  from  destroying  the  other.  This 
harangue  made  great  impression  upon  the  assembly, 
and  it  was  resolved,  upon  this  occasion,  to  continue 
the  same  political  conduct  which  they  had  hitherto 
observed.  Accordingly,  the  Iroquois,  when  they  had 
joined  the  English  army,  and  found,  as  they  ima- 
gined, that,  it  would  be  strong  enough  to  take  Mont- 
real, employed  their  whole  attention  in  contriving 
the  destruction  of  it ;  and  this  was  the  way  they  went 
to  work.  The  army  being  encamped  upon  the  banks 
of  a  small  river,  the  Indians  who  spent  most  of  their 
time  in  hunting,  threw  the  skins  of  all  the  creatures, 
which  they  flead,  into  the  river,  a  little  above  the 
camp,  which  soon  corrupted  the  water.  The  Eng- 
lish never  suspected  this  treachery  and  continued  to 
drink  the  water;  but  it  caused  such  a  mortality 
among  them,  that  father  de  Mareuil  and  the  two 
officers,  who  went  to  fetch  him  from  Albany  to  Ca- 
nada, judged,  by  the  graves,  that  there  must  have 
been  at  least  a  thousand  buried  there." 

Nicholson  certainly  decamped  sooner  than  was 
expected,  which  caused  some  dissatisfaction.  The 
army  was  in  a  bad  state.  And  a  letter  dated  New 
York,  November  4th,  1709,  says,  that  many  of  the 
soldiers,  who  were  at  the  lake,  died  as  if  they  had 
been  poisoned. 

Although  the  French  were  in  constant  expecta- 
tion of  being  attacked  themselves,  yet  it  did  not 
prevent  them  from  employing  some  of  their  strength, 
this  summer,  against  the  New  England  frontiers.  In 
April,  a  man  was  taken  prisoner  at  Deerfield.  In 
May,  several  men  were  surprised  and  taken,  as  they 
were  passing  to  a  saw  mill  in  Exeter ;  and  in  June, 
one  of  the  Kouvilles,  with  180  French  and  Indians, 
made  another  attempt  upon  Deerfield,  to  destroy  or 
carry  away  prisoners  the  poor  people,  who,  but  a 
little  while  before,  had  returned  from  their  captivity  ; 
but  the  enemy  was  discovered  at  a  distance  and  beat 
off,  the  inhabitants  bravely  defending  themselves. 
The  town  of  Brookfield,  in'  the  west,  and  Wells,  in 
the  east,  soon  after  lost  some  of  their  people,  by 
small  parties  of  Indians. 

(1710.)  Nicholson  went  to  England,  in  the  au- 
tumn, to  solicit  a  force  against  Canada  the  next  year, 
and  an  expedition  seems  to  have  been  resolved  upon. 
Advice  was  received,  in  New  England,  that,  in  July, 
Lord  Shannon,  with  a  fleet  destined  for  that  service, 
lay  under  orders  for  sailing,  but.  that  it  was  feared 
the  westerly  winds  would  detain  him  until  it  was  too 
late.  Port  Royal,  which  did  not  require  so  great  a 
force  and  which  might  be  attempted  late  in  the  year, 
xvas  afterwards  made  the  only  object.  The  Dragon 
and  Falraouth,  with  a  bomb  ship  and  a  tender,  and 
two  or  three  transports,  left  England  in  the  spring, 
and  Nicholson  was  on  board  of  one  of  them.  They 
arrived  at  Boston,  July  the  15th,  and  seem  to  have 
lain  waiting  there  for  orders,  or  until  it  should  be 
made  certain  whether  they  were  to  be  joined  by  any 
further  force  from  England.  On  the  18th  of  Sep- 
tember a  fleet  sailed  from  Nantasket  for  Port  Royal, 
consisting  of  three-fourth  rates,  viz.  the  Dragon, 
commodore  Martin ;  the  Chester,  Matthews ;  the 
Falmouth,  Riddle;  two-fifth  rates,  the  Leostaffe, 
Gordon,  and  the  Feversham,  Paston,  together  with 
the  Star  bomb,  Rochfort,  and  the  province  galley, 
Southack,  with  fourteen  transports  in  the  pay  of 
the  Massachusetts,  five  of  Connecticut,  two  of  New 
Hampshire,  and  three  of  Rhode  Island.  These, 
with  the  tender  and  transports  from  England,  made 
thirty-six  sail.  There  was  a  regiment  of  marines, 
commanded  by  Colonel  Redding,  and  four  regiments 
raised  in  New  England,  two  commanded  by  Sir 


Charles  Hobby  and  Colonel  Tailer  of  Massacbufcetts 
Bay,  one  by  Colonel  Whiting  of  Connecticut,  and 
one  by  Colonel  Walton  of  New  Hampshire.  Nichol- 
son was  general  and  Vetch  adjutant-general.  One 
transport,  Captain  Taye,  ran  ashore  at  the  mouth  of 
the  river  and  was  lost,  and  twenty-six  men  were 
drowned,  the  rest  of  the  fleet  arrived  safe  at  Port 
Royal,  the  24th  of  September.  The  forces  were 
landed  without  any  opposition.  Subercase,  the  go- 
vernor, had  only  260  men,  and  most  of  them  he  was 
afraid  to  trust  out  of  the  fort,  lest  they  should  desert 
to  the  English.  As  the  army  was  marching  up  to 
the  fort,  several  men  were  killed  by  the  inhabitants, 
who  fired  from  their  houses  and  from  behind  their 
fences  and  made  their  escape  ;  and,  for  three  or  four 
days,  whilst  the  necessary  preparations  were  making 
by  the  English,  the  French  threw  shells  and  shot 
from  the  fort,  and  the  bomb  ship,  on  the  other  hand, 
plied  the  French  with  her  shells.  It  was  commonly 
said,  after  the  return  of  the  forces  to  Boston,  iha't 
early  intimation  was  given  to  the  English  that  they 
would  meet  with  no  great  difficulty,  a  decent  pre'- 
tence  for  a  surrender  was  all  that  was  desired.  On 
the  29th,  the  governor  sent  out  a  flag  of  truce, 
praying  leave  for  some  of  his  ladies,  who  were  afraid 
of  the  bombs,  to  be  sheltered  in  the  English  camp. 
The  officer,  not  observing  the  rules  of  war,  was  put 
under  arrest,  and  an  English  officer  sent  to  the  fort 
to  acquaint  the  governor  with  the  reason  of  it.  The 
first  of  October,  the  two  engineers,  Forbes  and  Red- 
knap,  had  three  batteries  opened,  two  mortars  and 
twenty-four  cohorn  mortars  ready,  within  100  yards 
of  the  fort,  and  began  their  firing,  the  French  firing 
their  shot  and  throwing  shells  at  the  same  time. 
The  same  day,  Colonel  Tailer  and  Captain  Aber- 
crombie  were  sent,  w*ith  a  summons  to  surrender, 
and,  in  consequence  thereof,  a  cessation  of  arms  was 
agreed  upon,  and  the  terms  of  the  capitulation  were 
soon  settled,  and  the  next  day  the  following  articles 
signed. 

"  Articles  of  capitulation  agreed  upon  for  the  sur- 
render of  the  fort  at  Port  Royal,  Sfc.  betwixt 
Francis  Nicholson,  Esq.  general  and  commander- 
in-chief  of  all  the  forces  of  her  sacred  Majesty 
Anne  Queen  of  Great  Britain,  fyc.  and  Monsieur 
Subercase,  governor,  fyc.  for  his  most  Christian 
Majesty. 

1.  THAT  the  garrison  shall  march  out  with  their 
arms  and  baggage,  drums  beating  and  colours  flying. 

2.  That   there    shall   be  a    sufficient   number  of 
ships  and  provisions  to  transport  the  said  garrison 
to  Rochel  or  Rochfort,    by  the    shortest   passage, 
when  they  shall  be  furnished  with  passports  for  their 
return. 

3.  That  I  may  take  out  six  guns  and  two  mortars, 
such  as  I  shall  think  fit. 

4.  That  the  officers  shall  carry  out  all  their  ef- 
fects, of  what  sort  soever,  except  they  do  agree  to 
the  selling  them;  the  payment  of  which  to  be  upon 
good  faith. 

5.  That  the  inhabitants,  within  cannon  shot  of 
Port  Royal,  shall   remain  upon  their  estates,  with 
their  corn,  cattle  and  furniture  during  two  years,  in 
case  they  are  not  desirous  to  go  before,  they  taking 
the  oaths  of  allegiance  and  fidelity  to  her  Sacred 
Majesty  of  Great  Britain. 

6.  That  a  vessel  be  provided  for  the  privateers 
belonging  to  the  islands  in  America,  for  their  trans- 
portation thither. 

7.  That  those,  that  are  desirous  to  go  for  Placen- 
tia   in  Newfoundland,   shall  leave  by   the  nearest 
passage. 


UNITED  STATES. 


303 


8.  That  the  Canadians,  or   those  that  are  desir- 
ous to  go  there,  may,  for  during  the  space  of  one 
year. 

9.  That  effects,  ornaments  and  utensils   of  the 
chapel   and  hospital  shall  be  delivered  to  the  Al- 
moner. 

10.  I  promise  to  deliver  the  fort  of  Port  Royal 
into  the  hands  of  Francis  Nicholson,  Esq.  for  the 
Queen  of  Great  Britain,  within  three  days  after  the 
ratification  of  this  present  treaty,  with  all  the  effects 
belonging  to   the  King,  as  guns,  mortars,  bombs, 
ball,  powder  and  all  other  small  arms. 

11.  I  will  discover,  upon  my  faith,  all  the  mines, 
fugasses  and  casements. 

12.  All  the  articles  of  this  present,  treaty  shall 
be  executed  upon  good  faith,  without  difficulty,  and 
signed  by  each  other  at  her  Majesty  of  Great  Bri- 
tain's camp  before  Port  Royal  fort,  this  second  day 
of  October,  in  the  ninth  year  of  her  Majesty's  reign, 
Anno  Domini,  1710. 

"  FRANCIS  NICHOLSOS.          SUBERCASE." 

';  MEMORANDUM.  The  General  declared,  that 
within  cannon  shot  of  Port  Royal,  in  the  fifth  article 
abovesaid,  is  to  be  understood  three  English  miles 
round  the  fort,  to  be  Annapolis  Royal  and  the  inha- 
bitants within  three  miles  to  have  the  benefit  of  that 
article.  Which  persons  male  and  female,  compre- 
hended in  the  said  article,  according  to  a  list  of  their 
names  given  in  to  the  general  by  M.  Allein,  amounts 
to  481  persons." 

The  English  lost  fourteen  or  fifteen  men  in  the 
expedition,  besides  the  twenty-six  drowned  when  the 
transport  was  lost.  The  fort  had  been  neglected 
and  was  in  a  very  bad  state.  Subercase  told  the 
general  t;  he  was  very  sorry  for  the  king  his  master, 
in  losing  such  a  strong  fort  and  the  territories  ad- 
joining." This  was  a  compliment  to  Nicholson, 
but  it  was  in  no  condition  to  stand  a  siege.  Charle- 
voix  says,  Subercase's  character  suffered  a  great 
shock.  He  mentions  several  actions  which  other 
accounts  take  no  notice  of — "  The  troops  being 
landed  and  nothing  to  oppose  their  march,  went  on 
towards  the  fort;  but  when  they  came  within  reach 
of  the  cannon,  the  governor  caused  so  smart  a  firing 
as  put  them  to  a  stand,  killed  a  great  many  of  their 
men,&c."  Again,  tae  eighth  (N.S.)  "  M.  Subercase, 
having  observed  the  spot  where  the  enemy  were 
about  to  erect  their  batteries,  made  so  lucky  a  fire 
that  Mr.  Nicholson,  after  having  lost  a  great  many 
men,  was  obliged  to  retreat." 

The  general  having  left  a  sufficient  garrison  under 
the  command  of  Colonel  Vetch,  who  was  destined  in 
case  of  success,  to  the  government  of  the  country, 
returned  with  the  fleet  and  army  to  Boston,  arriv- 
ing there  the  2Gth  of  October. 

Whilst  the  forces  were  at  Port  Royal,  it  was 
thought  proper,  at  a  council  of  war,  to  send  Castine, 
who  probably  was  in  the  fort,  and  Major  Living- 
stone to  Canada  through  the  country,  with  letters  to 
M.  Vaudreuil,  acquainting  him  that  the  country  of 
Acadia  was  subdued  and  that  all  the  inhabitants, 
except  such  as  were  within  cannon  shot  of  the  fort 
were  prisoners  at  discretion ;  and  as  the  council  had 
been  informed  that  he  had  often  sent  out  his  bar- 
barous Indians  to  murder  the  poor  innocent  women 
and  children  upon  the  frontiers  of  New  England,  i 
he  continued  that  practice  they  would  cause  the 
same  execution  upon  the  people  of  Acadia  or  Nova- 
Scotia,  now  absolutely  in  their  power:  but  they 
abhorred  such  barbarities,  and  hoped  he  would  give 
them  no  further  occasion  to  copy  after  him,  but 
rather  would  release  and  send  home  such  prisoners 


s  had  been  taken  by  the  Indians.  After  a  most 
fatiguing,  hazardous  journey,  Livingstone  says  in  his 
ournal  that  "  he  went  about  the  middle  of  October 
rom  Port-royal  to  Penobscot,  where  he  was  kindly 
entertained  by  Castiae,  at  his  own  house  ;  and  from 
thence  went  up  the  river  in  canoes,  until  they  came 
to  an  island  where  was  a  great  body  of  Indians,  men, 
women,  and  children.  Here,  an  Indian  being  en- 
raged because  some  English  prisoners  had  run  away 
with  his  canoe,  seized  Livingstone  by  the  throat, 
and  would  have  dispatched  him  with  a  hatchet,  if 
Castine  had  not  thrown  himself  between  them  and 
rescued  him.  The  Indians  would  not  suffer  them  to 
proceed,  for  several  days.  At  length,  November  4, 
they  set  out  in  their  canoes,  and  the  next  day  the 
canoe  the  major  was  in  overset,  and  one  of  the 
Indian  guides  was  drowned.  Soon  after,  the  water 
beginning  to  freeze,  the  ice  so  shattered  their  tender 
vessels  and  made  the  passing  so  difficult,  that  they 
were  obliged  to  betake  themselves  to  the  land  and 
to  travel  by  their  compass,  through  a  country  so 
thick  with  spruce,  cedar,  and  pine  wood,  and  under-> 
wood,  as  to  be  scarcely  passable,  and  the  greatest 
part  of  the  way  broken  and  mountainous  land. 
They  were  above  a  fortnight  without  the  sight  of 
the  sun,  the  weather  being  stormy  or  foggy  the 
whole  time.  They  had  spent  their  provisions  six 
days  before  they  came  to  any  French  settlement, 
and  lived  wholly  upon  moss,  leaves,  and  dried  berries. 
At  length,  the  16th  of  December  they  arrived  at 
Quebec."  The  governor  sent  his  answer  to  the 
message  by  two  partizans,  Rouville  and  Dupuis,  by 
land  through  Albany,  that  they  might  be  acquainted 
with  the  country  and  more  fit  to  be  employed  in 
making  war  on  a  future  occasion.  The  sum  of  the 
answer  was,  that  Nicholson  had  been  so  well  taught 
the  laws  of  war  as  to  know  that  they  did  not  admit 
of  reprisals  upon  such  inhabitants  as  had  surrendered 
upon  an  express  promise  of  being  well  treated.  That 
he,  Vaudreuil,  never  knew  the  French  charged  with 
inhumanity,  and  he  was  not  afraid  to  appeal  to  the 
English  prisoners,  within  his  government,  against, 
such  a  charge ;  they  had  often  been  redeemed  from 
the  Indians,  at  a  great  expense,  and,  out  of  pure 
charity;  indeed,  the  Indians  themselves,  ordinarily, 
did  not  treat  them  ill,  but  let  that  be  as  it  would, 
the  French  were  not  accountable  for  the  behaviour 
of  the  Indians ;  it  was  not  their  fault,  that  this  un- 
fortunate war  was  not  over  a  long  time  ago,  and  all 
the  miseries,  which  had  been  the  consequence,  must 
be  attributed  to  those  who  had  refused  the  neutrality 
between  the  two  colonies ;  he  was  very  ready  to 
agree  to  the  exchange  of  prisoners,  but  he  had  not 
the  command  of  those  which  were  in  the  hands  of 
his  Indian  allies;  as  for  the  menace,  of  delivering 
up  the  Acadians  to  the  Indians  of  New  England,  if 
the  Indians  of  New  France  should  refuse  to  deliver 
the  English  prisoners,  it  was  contrary  to  all  the  rules 
of  justice  and  humanity,  and  if  it  should  be  carried 
into  execution  he  should  be  obliged  to  do  as  much  to 
all  the  English  he  had  in  his  power. .  This  was  all 
that  was  effected  by  Livingstone's  most  fatiguing 
hazardous  journey. 

At  this  time,  a  change  in  the  agency  was  agreed 
upon.  The  change  of  the  ministry  in  England  was 
as  alarming  to  New  England,  as  to  any  part  of  his 
majesty's  dominions.  Mr.  Phipps  was  deeply  en- 
gaged in  the  new  measures.  There  could  not  then 
have  been  any  apprehension  of  his  removing  to  Ire- 
land ;  but  a  whig  people  would  not  be  satisfied  with 
a  tory  agent.  Sir  H.  Ashurst  never  had  any  great 
powers,  au'l  he  was  now  declining  in  age  and  health. 


304 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


The  party  that  used  to  support  him  set  up  his  bro- 
ther, Sir  William  Ashurst,  a  gentleman  of  superior 
character  and  real  worth.  Mr.  Dudley  did  every 
thing  in  his  power  to  prevent  the  choice,  but,  when 
he  couid  not  prevail,  made  a  merit  of  accepting  it. 
An  address  to  the  queen  was  sent  to  Sir  William, 
but  he  refused  the  agency;  he  was  well  acquainted 
with  the  neglect  of  his  brother  and  the  little  or  no 
reward  given  him  for  his  long  services.  When  he 
excused  himself,  he  recommended  a  New  England 
young  gentleman,  then  in  London,  Jeremiah  Dum- 
mer,  who  also  procured  from  the  principal  merchants 
in  London,  trading  to  New  England,  letters  in  his 
favour.  He  was  not,  at  that  time,  acceptable  to  Mr. 
I)udley,  and,  in  a  message  to  the  assembly,  he  ad- 
vised them  to  chuse  Henry  Newman,  a  New  Eng- 
land man,  then  in  London  "also,  a  person  of  great 
probity,  who  had  lived  some  years  in  the  Duke  of 
Somerset's  family,  and  who  afterwards  was  secretary 
to  the  society  for  promoting  Christian  knowledge; 
but  the  choice  fell  upon  Mr.  Dummer  and  the  go- 
vernor did  not  think  proper  to,  negative  him. 

Mr.  Dudley  found  means  to  remove  the  prejudice 
of  Sir  William  Ashurst.  From  this  time  all  his  let- 
ters are  written  in  a  different  style,  and  he  repre- 
sents the  times  to  be  such,  that  there  was  no  pros- 
pect of  a  better  governor,  and  advises  the  people,  if 
they  could  be  tolerably  easy,  not  to  run  the  risk  of 
a  change.  Mr.  Dummer,  who  was  attaching  him- 
self to  the  new  ministry  and  had  great  favour  shewn 
him,  engaged  also  in  Mr.  Dudley's  interest.  Mr. 
Phipps,  who,  at  first,  opposed  him,  had  for  some  time 
been  very  friendly  to  him.  It  was  a  rule  with  him 
to  gain  his  enemies,  he  was  sure  of  his  friends.  It 
requires  much  of  that  art  and  skill,  of  which  he  is 
said  to  have  been  master,  to  render  this  rule,  for  any 
length  of  time  successful.  He  happened  also,  as  we 
have  observed,  when  he  was  in  England,  to  be  favour- 
ed by  Mr.  Harley,  and  his  interest  there  was  so 
established,  that  he  was  no  longer  in  danger,  until 
the  death  of  the  queen  caused  an  entire  revolution, 
both  as  to  men  and  measures.  In  the  province,  some 
reports  against  him  were  of  so  gross  and  criminal  a 
nature,  that  although  they  might  find,  some  ready  to 
believe  them  at  first,  yet  time  alone  had  sunk  the 
credit  of  them,  and  the  remembrance  of  lesser  mat- 
ters sunk  with  it,  and  the  last  days  of  his  adminis- 
tration were  his  best  days. 

This  year  the  enemy  made  their  first  appearance, 
in  the  spring,  at  York,  but  found  the  inhabitants 
upon  their  guard.  In  June,  Col.  Hilton  of  Exeter, 
being  in  the  woods  with  eighteen  men,  was  ambush- 
ed by  a  party,  who  fired  and  killed  the  colonel  and 
two  of  his  company,  and  took  two  prisoners,  the 
rest  escaping,  Hilton  was  a  good  officer,  and  had 
behaved  well  with  Church,  in  1704,  and  upon  other 
occasions ;  but  at  this  time  was  off  his  guard.  One 
hundred  men  went  out  upon  the  alarm,  but  had  no 
other  success  than  to  bring  in  the  dead  mangled 
bodies  to  a  decent  interment  A  few  days  after, 
sixty  or  seventy  French  and  Indians  appeared  in  the 
skirts  of  the  town  of  Exeter,  but  were  alarmed  by 
the  firing  of  a  gun,  and  went  oft  with  four  children, 
which  they  picked  up  in  the  street  or.  road  at  play, 
to  the  unspeakable  distress  of  their  parents.  In  their 
retreat,  they  killed  one  man  and  took  another  pri- 
soner. They  then  travelled  westward  and  killed 
several  of  the  inhabitants  of  Waterbury  and  Sims- 
bury  in  Connecticut,  struck  down  upon  Brookfield 
and  Marlborough.  and,  from  thence,  to  Chelmsfoid, 
where  Major  Tyng  was  slain,  an  oflicer  respected 
fur  bis  prudence  and  courage. 


The  2d  of  August,  about  fifty  Indians  came  upon 
Winter  Harbour,  and  hovered  about  the  place,  some 
iine,  until  they  had  killed  four  or  five  and  taken 
ight  or  ten  of  the  inhabitants.  They  insulted  the 
fort,  and  found  the  garrison  too  many  to  be  taken ; 
imt  not  enough  to  sally  out  and  attack  them.  Oc- 
tober the  1st,  several  persons,  as  they  were  going  to 
meeting  at  Berwick,  were  waylaid,  one  of  them  kill- 
ed, another  had  his  horse  shot  under  him,  the  rest 
escaping.  The  10th  of  the  same  month,  Bomazeen, 
with  sixty  or  seventy  more  Indians,  appeared  at 
Winter  Harbour,  killed  three  or  four  and  took  as 
many  captives ;  one  of  the  latter  w as  Johnson  liar- 
man,  an  officer  noted  for  his  expeditions  in  the  en- 
suing war.  The  Indians,  after  they  had  done  this 
mischief,  sent  a  flag  of  truce  to  the  fort,  and  offered 
to  ransom  their  prisoners,  if  a  vessel  should  be  sent 
to  Kennebeck  river  to  receive  them. 

The  Massachusetts  forces  had  been  scouring  the 
woods  all  the  summer,  but  the  parties  of  the  enemy 
avoided  them.  Towards  winter,  Col.  Wilton,  after 
his  return  from  Port-royal,  with  170  men  ranged  the 
eastern  country,  and  killed  a  Norridgewock  chief 
and  six  or  eight  others.  He  made  a  second  march 
to  Winnepisiaukee,  without  any  success: — but  in 
the  mean  time,  the  Indians  were  committing  atroci- 
ties at  Cocheco,  York,  Wells,  and  other  places. 

(1711.)  After  Port  royal  was  reduced,  Nicholson 
went  to  England  to  solicit  another  expedition  against 
Canada;  and,  although  his  intention  was  known, 
there  seemed  to  be  no  expectation  that  he  would  suc- 
ceed. The  New  England  people  we  have  observed 
were  all  wrhigs  and  supposed  the  tory  ministry  to  be 
determined  upon  a  peace,  and  rather  disposed  to 
suffer  France  to  recover  part  of  what  she  had  lost, 
than  to  make  further  acquisition  from  her:  and 
there  was  a  general  astonishment  when  Nicholson 
returned  to  Boston,  on  the  8th  of  June,  with  orders 
from  the  queen  to  the  several  governments  of  New 
England,  to  New  York,  the  Jerseys,  and  Pensyl- 
vania  to  have  their  quotas  of  men  in  readiness  for  a 
fleet  which  had  been  dispatched,  and  which  arrived 
on  the  24th.  This  was  short  warning:  but  it  was 
thought  more  extraordinary,  that  ten  weeks'  provi- 
sion for  the  army  was  to  be  procured  at  Boston. 
One  reason  given  for  this  measure,  was,  that  there 
might  be  no  suspicions,  in  Europe,  of  the  destination 
of  this  armament.  It  might  well  be  doubted  whether 
it  would  be  possible  to  procure  such  a  quantity  of 
provisions  at  Boston  in  season,  and  if  it  was  not,  it 
v.-ould  be  impossible  to  proceed.  This  unexpected 
measure  increased  a  jealousy,  began  before,  that  it 
was  not  designed  Canada  should  be  taken,  and  that 
the  blame  should  Vie  cast  upon  New  England.  This 
jealousy  may  have  been  as  groundless  as  the  charge, 
which  Walker  first,  and,  after  him,  many  other 
authors  have  brought  against  New  England,  for  not 
affording  that  ready  assistance  which  was  expected: 
but  it  certainly  had  this  effect,  to  cause,  not  only 
the  government,  but  even  private  persons  to  exeit 
themselves  with  more  zeal  and  vigour  than  had 
been  done  upon  any  other  occasion ;  and  the 
people  submitted,  not  without  reluctance,  it  is  true, 
to  have  their  property  taken  from  them,  in  a  way 
and  manner  which  the  people  of  Great  Britain  or 
Ireland  would  not  have  allowed.  A  general  meet- 
ing of  all  the  governois  was  appointed,  immediately 
after  Nicholson's  arrival  at  New  London,  and  they 
were  sitting  when  the  fleet  arrived.  The  assembly 
happened  to  be  at  Boston,  when  the  first  orders 
came.  The  governor,  without  delay,  recommended 
to  thorn  a  full  oomplirnce  with  the  orders  he  bad  r* 


UNITED  STATES. 


305 


ceived.  The  first  thing  necessary,  was  money.  The 
credit  of  the  treasury  was  so  low  in  England,  that 
no  merchants  or  private  persons  at  Massachusetts 
would  take  bills,  unless  the  drawer  would  make 
themselves  responsible,  and  there  was  no  body  au 
thorized  to  draw  such  bills.  The  general  court  de 
termined  to  issue  forty  thousand  pounds  in  bills  o 
credit,  and  to  lend  them  to  merchants  and  others 
for  the  term  of  two  years.  These  persons  with  their 
bills  of  credit  purchased  bills  of  exchange  upon  th 
treasury  in  England,  which,  it  was  hoped,  before  the 
expiration  of  the  two  years,  would  be  paid,  and,  i 
they  should  not,  it  would  be  in  the  power  of  the  go- 
vernment to  continue  the  loan,  but  there  was  "no 
engagement  to  do  it.  The  next  difficulty  to  be  re- 
moved was  the  extravagant  price  to  which  provisions 
had  started,  upon  the  advice  of  this  extraordinary 
demand.  For  this  purpose,  an  order  passed  the 
court,  stating  the  prices  of  the  several  species  of 
provisions  necessary  for  the  service.  The  owners 
of  the  provisions  shut  up  their  stores,  or  removed 
their  provisions  in  order  to  conceal  them.  The  de- 
mand, which  had  raised  the  price,  they  urged,  was 
the  common  chance  in  trade,  which  every  merchant 
was  justly  entitled  to.  Another  order  soon  passed 
the  court,  to  impress  all  provisions,  in  whose  pos- 
session soever,  and  for  this  purpose  to  open  all  doors 
and  enter.  This  effected  a  general  compliance. 
The  short  time  spent  for  this  purpose,  and  the  refusal 
of  particular  persons  to  submit  at  first,  caused  a 
charge  from  the  officers  against  the  country  in  ge- 
neral, for  unnecessarily  delaying  the  fleet  and  army; 
and  no  notice  was  taken  of  the  zeal  of  the  govern- 
ment and  this  extraordinary  measure  for  the  removal 
of  these  impediments.  The  addition  of  so  many 
mouths  had  caused  a  sudden  rise  of  all  poultry  and 
fresh  meat,  and  at  that  season  of  the  year,  if  the 
usual  consumption  had  continued,  the  forces  must 
have  failed  of  necessary  supplies.  This  considera- 
tion induced  many  of  the  principal  gentlemen  in 
Boston  to  deprive  themselves,  aud  to  eat  salt  pro- 
visions, and  no  other,  in  their  families,  as  long  as 
the  fleet  remained.  The  soldiers  and  seamen,  some 
of  them,  deserted  and  were  concealed  by  the  inhabi- 
tants, who  were  justly  censured  for  doing  it.  A  law 
against  this  offence  was  made,  with  a  very  severe 
penalty,  and  a  more  summary  way  provided  for  trial 
of  the  offence  than  ever  had  been  in  any  instance 
before.  The  desertion  of  the  men  put  the  Admiral 
out  of  temper,  and  he  wrote  the  governor  an  angry 
letter,  in  which  he  told  him,  the  service  had  been 
prejudiced,  rather  than  forwarded,  since  his  arrival 
at  Boston,  and  demanded  from  the  government  a 
supply  of  men  equal  to  the  loss.  This  could  be  done 
in  no  other  way  than  an  impress.  The  inhabitants, 
it  must  be  owned,  would  not  have  submitted  to  it ; 
but,  in  general,  would  have  preferred  a  prison  on 
shore  to  a  man  of  war  at  sea. 

Besides  the  mistake,  in  the  plan  of  this  expedition, 
with  respect  to  a  speedy  supply  of  provisions  at 
Boston  without  previous  notice,  there  was  another, 
in  presuming  that  skilful  pilots  were  to  be  obtained 
there.  The  best  in  the  country  were  shipmasters, 
who  had  been  once  or  twice  up  the  river  St.  Law- 
rence. These  were  employed  in  other  business, 
upon  which  their  future  support  depended,  and  they 
were  averse  to  leaving  it;  but  the  government  im- 
pressed them  into  the  service,  and  afterwards  was 
charged  with  their  defect  of  skill,  which,  admitting 
it  to  be  true,  could  not  be  helped. 

The  troops  were  all  landed  upon  Noddle's  island, 
about  a  mile  from  the  town,  where  they  were  every 
'THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA.     Nos.  39  &  40. 


day  exercised  in  a  healthy  air ;  and  it  was  allowed, 
that  men  were  never  landed  and  reimbarked  in  bet- 
ter order.  The  land  force,  including  two  regiments 
from  New  England,  amounted  to  near  7000  men, 
an  army  more  than  equal  in  number  to  that  which 
afterwards  reduced  Quebec,  under  General  Wolfe ; 
although,  in  1711,  it  was  not  half  so  stronsr  as  in 
1759. 

The  fleet  which  arrived  at  Boston,  consisted  of 
fifteen  sail  of  men  of  war,  and  forty  transports,  and 
all  sailed  again  the  30th  of  July.  Greater  despatch 
could  not  well  be  expected  from  such  short  warning. 
Nicholson  set  out  for  Albany  the  same  day,  to  take 
the  command  of  the  forces  which  were  to  march  by 
land. 

Nothing  remarkable  happened  in  the  passage  of 
the  fleet  to  Gaspee,  where  it  arrived  the  18th  of 
August,  and  sailed  again  the  20th.  The  next  day 
and  the  day  after  proving  foggy,  and  the  wind  be- 
ginning to  blow  fresh  at  E.S.E.,  the  ships  brought 
to,  with  their  heads  to  the  southward,  being  out  of 
sight  of  land  and  out  of  soundings.  This,  the  ad- 
miral, in  his  own  account,  says  was  by  the  advice  of 
the  pilots,  both  English  and  French ;  and  that  they 
were  of  opinion  the  fleet  would  drive  into  the  midst 
of  the  channel  or  river.  The  New  England  pilots 
always  denied  they  gave  such  advice,  and  declared, 
upon  their  oaths,  their  opinion  was  not  followed  nor 
regarded.  Some  of  the  principal  'persons  on  board 
one  of  the  ships  which  belonged  to  New  England, 
reported  that  upon  the  fleets  being  ordered  to  lie 
with  their  heads  to  the  southward,  the  whole  ship's 
company  determined  they  must  drive  upon  the 
north  shore ;  and  they  were  confirmed  in  their  for- 
mer jealousy,  that  it  was  never  intended  the  fleet 
should  arrive  at  Quebec.  This,  however,  is  incre- 
dible ;  and  the  admiral,  who  had  not  the  character 
of  an  abandoned  man,  was  incapable  of  sacrificing 
the  lives  of  so  many  men  ;  and,  it  must  be  presumed, 
he  would  not  have  thrown  away  his  own  life,  which 
was  exposed  as  well  as  the  rest.  The  pilots  from 
Boston  supposed  the  admiral  had  a  very  mean  opi- 
nion of  them,  and  laid  greater  stress  upon  the  judg- 
ment of  the  French  pilots,  who,  through  ignorance 
or  from  design,  occasioned  this  wrong  measure.  In 
two  or  three  hours  after  the  fleet  brought  to,  some 
of  the  transports  were  among  the  breakers.  Eight 
or  nine  ships  were  lost  upon  the  rocks,  about  mid- 
night, one  thousand  of  the  men  that  were  on  board 
drowned,  and  about  six  or  seven  hundred  saved  by 
the  other  ships.  All  the  men  of  war  escaped  ;  the 
admiral's  ship  is  said  to  have  anchored,  and  the  rest 
ither  stood  off  or  came  to  anchor ;  and  the  next 
morning,  the  wind  shifting  to  W.S.W.  the  admiral 
bore  away  for  Spanish  river,  the  men  of  war  and 
transports  following;  but,  the  wind  shifting  again  to 
east,  they  were  eight  days  before  they  all  arrived, 
and,  as  they  had  the  wind,  might  more  easily  have 
e  to  Quebec.  In  a  council  of  war,  it  was  una- 
nimously resolved,  not  only  not  to  make  any  further 
;rial  to  go  up  the  river  St.  Lawrence,  but  also  not 
:o  attempt  any  thing  against  Placentia  in  New- 
"oundland ;  the  fleet  not  being  sufficiently  victualled 
or  either.  They  sailed  the  16th  of  September,  and 
he  admiral  arrived  the  9th  of  October  at  Ports- 
mouth, and  the  15th,  his  ship,  the  Edgar,  blew  up ; 
the  cause  not  being  known,  jealous  minds  would 
suggest  that  even  this  was  not  without  design. 

The  admiral  supposed,  in  his  account  of  the  ex- 
pedition, that  if  they  had  arrived  at  Quebec  and 
anded  their  men,  their  misfortune  would  have  been 
greater  still;  that  the  French  would  either  have 

2Q 


30G 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


quitted  the  place  and  carried  all  their  provisions 
with  them,  or  that  they  would  have  defended  the 
place  until  the  provisions  of  the  fleet  and  army 
were  spent,  and  they  must  have  laid  down  their 
arms;  or  if  they  finally  surrendered,  it  was  not  to 
be  expected  the  provisions,  for  so  small  a  garrison, 
would  have  lasted  any  time  for  twelve  thousand 
men,  and  French  and  English  must  have  starved 
together.  Vaudreuil  had  made  the  best  preparations 
he  could  for  their  reception,  having  early  notice  of 
their  coming,  from  the  governor  of  Placentia.  An 
English  prisoner,  carried  in  there  from  Boston, 
gave  an  account  of  Nicholson's  arrival,  of  the  fleet 
that  was  to  follow,  and  of  the  forces  intended  by 
way  of  the  lake  ;  and  the  captain  of  a  privateer  saw 
the  fleet  within  sixty  leagues  of  Boston.  This  in- 
telligence was  afterwards  confirmed  by  an  Onon- 
dago  Indian,  who  came  to  Quebec  to  inform  of  the 
great  preparations  making  at  Albany. 

Nicholson  had  made  but  little  progress  in  his 
march  when  he  received  the  news  of  this  disaster, 
and  if  the  fleet  had  arrived  safe,  he  would  have  been 
too  late  to  have  drawn  any  of  the  French  force  from 
Quebec,  before  so  much  of  the  provisions  of  the  fleet 
had  been  spent  that  it  would  not  have  been  safe  to 
have  remained  any  longer ;  and  it  is  well  he  did 
not  proceed;  for  as  soon  as  Vaudreuil  had  advice 
of  so  many  ships  stove,  and  so  many  dead  bodies 
with  red  coats  drove  upon  the  shore,  and  that  the 
river  was  clear  of  ships,  he  ordered  all  the  strength 
of  Canada  towards  Montreal  and  the  lake  Cham- 
plain;  which  if  Nicholson  had  passed,  would  have 
been  sufficient  to  prevent  his  return. 

To  complete  the  charge  against  the  Massachusetts, 
they  are  said  to  have  represented  the  navigation  to 
Quebec  to  be  easy  and  without  hazard,  of  which 
they  were  wholly  ignorant ;  for  the  French,  after 
an  hundred  years  experience,  almost  every  year 
suffered  shipwreck;  and  sailing  in  the  bay  and 
river  St.  Lawrence  was  so  hazardous,  that  they 
could  hardly  obtain  sailors  for  a  voyage  thither. 
The  Massachusetts  people  knew  very  well  that 
Phipps  and  his  fleet  went  up  and  down  without  diffi- 
culty, in  1690;  that  flags  of  truce  had  frequently 
passed  and  repassed,  and  they  supposed  the  French  re- 
presented the  passage  difficult,  to  deter  other  nations, 
and  experience  now  shews  that  they  judged  right. 

The  American  transports  were  all  preserved,  ex- 
cept one  victualler,  and  the  crew  of  that  were  saved. 
The  disappointment  and  loss  was  grievous  to  New 
England.  Some  pious  minds  gave  over  all  hopes 
of  reducing  Canada.  So  many  attempts  blasted, 
plainly  indicated,  as  they  conceived,  that  Provi- 
dence never  designed  the  whole  northern  continent 
of  America  for  one  European  nation.  Upon  the 
first  news  in  England  of  the  disaster,  the  blame  was 
laid  upon  governor  Dudley,  and  it  was  said  he 
would  be  removed,  but  his  conduct  soon  appeared  to 
Lave  been  unexceptionable. 

Upon  the  return  of  the  Massachusetts  troops, 
they  gave  an  account  of  the  freedom  used  by  the 
sea  and  land  officers,  in  attributing  the  whole  mis- 
fortune to  the  colonies.  The  forces  were  unreason- 
ably detained  at  Boston— -the  provisions  fell  short  of 
what  was  expected — the  pilots  were  ignorant,  and 
not  fit  to  be  trusted.  The  general  court  therefore 
thought  that  it  was  necessary  to  exculpate  them- 
selves ;  and  that  it  would  be  prudent  to  lay  no 
blame  any  where  else.  The  governor,  in  his  speech, 
October  17,  says,  "  I  condole  with  you  upon  the 
sorrowful  disaster  of  the  fleet  and  forces  sent  hither, 
by  her  majesty's  special  favour,  to  all  her  good  sub- 


jects in  the  provinces  of  North  America.  I  have 
had  time  enough,  since  the  account  thereof;  to  con- 
sider the  several  articles  of  her  majesty's  commands 
to  this  government  for  the  putting  forward  the  ex- 
pedition, and,  therein,  1  cannot  charge  this  assem- 
bly with  neglect  in  any  particular;  but  when  I 
peruse  the  journal  of  the  proceedings,  I  think  there 
was  all  provision  and  expedition  made,  in  every 
article  referring  to  soldiers,  artificers,  pilots,  trans- 
ports, and  provisions  for  the  service  of  her  majesty's 
British  forces,  as  well  as  our  own ;  which  I  hope 
you  will  see  reason  to  consider  and  represent  home 
tor  our  justification,  that  it  may  be  demonstrated, 
that  we  were  in  earnest  to  do  our  duty,  to  the  ut- 
most, for  our  own  benefit  and  establishment,  as  well 
as  her  majesty's  honour  and  just  rights." 

Three  of  the  principal  pilots  in  the  service,  were 
sent  to  England,  to  be  ready  to  give  an  account  of 
their  conduct,  if  inquiry  should  be  made.  A  journal 
of  the  proceedings  relative  to  the  expedition  was 
prepared  and  transmitted,  together  with  an  address 
to  the  queen.  The  instructions  to  the  agent  were 
given  with  prudence  and  caution.  "  It  chiefly  con- 
cerns us  to  set  forth  that  we  have  done  our  duty,  by 
giving  all  assistance  in  obedience  to  her  majesty's 
royal  commands,  as  we  have  represented  in  our 
humble  address  herewith  transmitted  to  be  presented 
by  you,  and  will  appear  by  the  journal  and  orders 
accompanying  the  same.  We  comported  with  the 
supplies,  in  the  large  demands  made  upon  us,  to  the 
utmost  of  our  power,  beyond  what  we  had  at  first  a 
reasonable  prospect  to  have  provided  timely,  having 
so  short  a  notice ;  but  made  our  utmost  efforts,  and 
happily  got  through  the  same,  in  which  you  are  to 
vindicate  and  justify  the  government. 

"  It  is  not  our  province,  nor  must  you  enter  there- 
into, to  fault  or  impeach  others,  for  want  of  doing 
their  duty,  or  for  their  conduct  in  that  affair,  any 
further  than  is  absolutely  necessary  for  our  own 
vindication.  If  there  be  just  cause,  therefore,  her 
majesty,  in  her  princely  wisdom,  will  direct  the  in- 
quiry thereinto." 

The  pilots  waited  many  months  in  England,  ready 
to  answer  any  questions,  but  none  were  ever  asked, 
nor  was  any  inquiry  ever  made  into  the  cause  of 
the  failure  of  the  expedition.  Upon  the  whole,  it 
cannot  be  conceived  that  the  admiral,  general,  and 
principal  persons  employed  in  the  execution  of  this 
plan,  pursued  any  particular  measures  in  order  to 
defeat  and  overthrow  it ;  that  those  who  projected  it 
in  England,  had  not  good  reason  to  expect,  from 
the  insufficient  provision  made,  that  it  must  fail  of 
success,  and,  at  best,  were  all  content  that  it  should, 
is  not  so  certain. 

The  account  which  Charlevoix  gives  of  the  French 
pilot  does  not  agree  with  Walker's.  "  There  was 
on  board  the  admiral,  a  French  prisoner,  one  Para- 
dis,  an  old  seaman  who  was  perfectly  acquainted  with 
the  River  St.  Lawrence.  This  man  cautioned  him, 
when  he  was  off  the  seven  islands,  not  to  venture 
too  near  the  land,  and  he  obliged  him  to  make  fre- 
quent tacks,  and  to  keep  near  the  wind,  which  did 
not  favour  him.  At  length  the  admiral  tired  out, 
and,  perhaps,  suspecting  the  pilot  only  designed  to 
wear  out  his  men,  refused  to  come  to  stays,  and 
bordered  so  near  a  little  island  called  the  isle  of  eggs, 
that  he  and  seven  mure  were  driven  ashore  by  a 
very  sudden  squall  at  south  east,  and  stove  to  pieces, 
and  but  very  few  people  were  saved." 

A  brief  account  of  the  disaster  the  fleet  met  with, 
is  given  in  the  following  letter  of  the  New  England 
commissary,  Sampson  Sheaf:— 


UNITED  STATES. 


307 


"  When  I  accepted  the  employment  of  commis- 
sary to  the  New  England  forces  on  the  Canada 
expedition,  it  was  in  hopes  of  doing  some  good  ser- 
vice ;  wherein  I  designed  to  do  my  best,  and  hoped, 
with  my  diligence  and  best  understanding  to  have 
been  of  some  use ;  but  on  the  22d  of  August,  our 
fleet  under  the  command  of  Sir  Hovenden  Walker, 
about  eight  or  ten  leagues  above  the  entrance  of 
Canada  river,  about  eleven  or  twelve  at  night,  met 
with  a  dismal  disaster.  Ten  or  eleven  of  the  Bri- 
tish transports  run  on  the  north  shore,  and  were 
dashed  to  pieces  against  the  rocks.  I  hear  but  of 
one  vessel  belonging  to  New  England  met  with  any 
damage.  There  is  an  eminent  providence  of  God 
therein,  which  doubtless  we  ought  to  consider ;  but 
as  to  the  instrumental  cause,  by  whose  misconduct, 
remains  to  be  examined,  and,  I  hope,  will  be  made 
evident.  The  admiral  and  general  were  in  great 
danger ;  they  saved  tkemselves  and  their  ships  by 
anchoring,  but  lost  several  anchors.  It  was  lamen- 
table to  hear  the  shrieks  of  the  sinking,  drowning, 
departing  souls.  The  ship,  wherein  I  was  embarked, 
with  very  great  difficulty  weathered  the  rocks ;  but 
we  were  in  no  capacity  to  succour  them  that  were 
in  distress. 

"  Admiral  Walker,  just  before  our  departure  from 
Spanish  River,  set  up  a  cross  with  an  inscription, 
dated  15th  of  September.  In  nomine  Patris,  $c., 
the  purport  of  which  was,  that  thereby  he  took  pos- 
session of  that  country  for  her  majesty. 

"  This  will  be  a  bitter  pill  for  New  "England.  The 
French  will  now  employ  their  Indians  with  re- 
doubled rage  and  malice,  to  distress  and  destroy  our 
exposed  frontiers. 

"  Annapolis-Royal,  October  6,  1711." 

Although  the  principal  object  of  this  expedition 
was  not  obtained,  yet,  in  all  probability,  Annapolis- 
Royal  was  saved  by  it  from  falling  into  the  hands  of 
the  French.  •  The  garrison  there  was  reduced  to  a 
handful  of  men.  Between  two  and  three  hundred 
of  the  New  England  forces  were  kept  there,  after  the 
place  was  reduced,  and  four  out  of  five  were  dead, 
and  they  were  afraid  even  of  the  Acadians  alone, 
without  any  additional  strength;  but  the  French 
court,  sensible  of  their  mistake  in  not  giving  more 
attention  to  the  preservation  of  that  country  when 
it  was  in  their  hands,  pressed  the  governor  of  Cana- 
da, in  the  strongest  manner,  to  exert  himself  for  the 
recovery  of  it.  A  body  of  troops  was  raised  and 
ready  to  depart  from  Canada,  when  the  news  arrived 
of  the  English  fleet  and  other  preparations  making ; 
and  the  men  which  were  designed  against  Nova- 
Scotia  were  detained  at  home  to  defend  Canada. 
The  French  inhabitants  of  Nora-Scotia,  having 
notice  of  the  force  intended  from  Canada,  grew  in- 
solent, and  it  was  not  safe  for  an  Englishman  to  stir 
out  of  the  fort.  As  soon  as  they  heard  of  the  dis- 
appointment, they  became  submissive  again  and 
made  acknowledgment  of  their  faults;  but  at  the 
same  time  let  Vaudreuil  know,  that  the  French  king 
had  no  better  subjects,  and  necessity  alone  had 
brought  them  to  this  submission.  These  were  the  in- 
habitants round  the  fort,  included  in  the  capitulation. 
Many  of  those  at  a  distance  had  not  yet  submitted 
to  the  English,  and  Capt.  Pigeon,  an  officer  of  the 
regulars,  was  sent  up  the  river  to  destroy  some  of 
the  French  houses,  as  well  as  to  cut  timber  for  the 
repair  of  the  fort.  He  was  surprised  by  a  great 
number  of  Indians,  who  killed  the  fort  major,  the 
engineer,  and  all  the  boat's  crew,  and  took  thirty  or 
forty  of  the  garrison  prisoners.  This  encouraged 
the  inhabitants  again  to  take  up  arms,  and  five 


hundred  of  them,  with  as  many  Indians  as  they 
could  collect,  were  preparing  to  attack  the  fort,  ex'- 
pecting  an  experienced  officer  from  Placentia  to 
head  them;  but  the  governor  not  being  able  to 
spare  one,  they  laid  down  their  arms  again  and  dis- 
persed. 

To  meet  the  French  or  Indian  enemy,  who  were 
expected  upon  our  frontiers,  Col  Walton  was  sent, 
in  the  fall,  with  180  men,  as  far  as  Penobscot,  where 
he  burned  two  vessels  which  were  designed  for  pri- 
vateers or  cruize rs,  and  took  some  prisoners. 

The  year  1711  was  rendered  remarkable  by  a  fire 
in  the  town  of  Boston,  which  from  that  time  until 
the  year  1760  was  called  the  great  fire.  It  was  sup- 
posed to  have  been  caused  by  the  carelessness  of  an  old 
woman  in  or  near  what  was  called  Williams's-court; 
all  the  houses  on  both  sides  of  Cornhill,  from  School- 
street  to  what  was  called  the  stone  shop  in  Dock- 
square,  all  the  upper  part  of  King-street  on  the 
south  and  north  side,  together  with  the  town-house, 
and  what  was  called  the  old  meeting-house  above  it, 
were  consumed  to  ashes.  Col.  Tailer  arrived  in  the 
fall  of  the  year  1711,  with  her  majesty's  commission 
for  lieut.-governor. 

(1712.)  Early  in  the  spring  the  enemy  attacked 
Exeter,  Kittery,  York,  and  Wells.  In  May,  a  party 
of  English  went  up  Merrimack  river  and  killed 
eight  Indians,  without  loss  to  themselves;  but  the 
Indians  did  not  rest  long  without  revenge.  In  June 
and  July,  they  killed  or  took  several  prisoners  from 
Berwick,  Kittery,  Wells,  Dover,  and  Kingston.  At 
Dover,  apprehending  they  were  in  danger  as  they 
were  scalping  two  children,  for  greater  dispatch  they 
took  off  both  their  heads,  leaving  the  bodies  a  re- 
yolting  spectacle.  In  the  autumn,  a  great  number 
of  people  being  at  a  wedding  of  Capt.  Wheelwright's 
daughter,  of  Wells,  the  enemy  surprised  several  of 
the  company,  and  among  the  rest,  the  bridegroom, 
Mr.  Plaisted,  son  to  a  gentleman  of  Portsmouth. 
The  Indians  expected  a  good  ransom  for  such  a  pri- 
soner, and,  instead  of  carrying  him  to  Canada,  sent 
in  a  flag,  and  offered,  upon  payment  of  three  hundred 
pounds  to  release  him,  and  the  money  was  paid  and 
the  prisoner  returned.  We  become  wearied  of  rer 
lating  these  inroads  and  atrocities  of  the  enemy, 
many  of  which  have  been  given  in  general  terms, 
to  avoid  frequently  enumerating  circumstances  which 
can  excite  nothing  but  horror  and  disgust.  This 
was  the  last  action  of  any  consequence.  (1713.)  In 
the  spring,  after  the  peace  of  Utrecht  was  known  in 
America,  the  Indians  sent  in  to  Major  Moodey  at 
Casco,  to  pray  that  there  might  be  peace  between 
the  English  and  them  also,  and  also  proposed  a 
treaty  to  be  held  there;  but  the  governor  thought  it 
more  for  his  honour  to  oblige  them  to  come  to  Ports- 
mouth, the  chief  town  of  one  of  his  governments, 
than  to  go  to  the  borders  of  their  usual  residence ; 
and,  upon  the  13th  of  July,  they  entered  anew  into 
articles  of  submission  and  pacification,  signed  by  a 
number  of  chiefs  of  their  several  tribes,  wherein  they 
asked  pardon  for  all  their  past  rebellions  and  viola- 
tions of  former  promises,  and  engaged  to  demean 
themselves  for  the  future  as  faithful  subjects  of  the 
crown  of  Great  Britain.  It  may  here  be  observed, 
that  though  the  inhabitants  in  the  colonies,  in  gene- 
ral, double  their  numbers,  from  their  natural  growth 
or  increase,  in  twenty-five  years  at  most,  yet  the 
growth  of  the  Massachusetts  colony  and  New  Hamp- 
shire have  borne  no  proportion  to  the  rest;  and  in 
the  year  1713  there  was  not  double  the  number  of 
inhabitants  in  the  Massachusetts  province,  which 
the  several  colonies  of  which  it  was  formed  con^ 

2Q2 


308 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


tained  fifty  years"before ;  and  yet  during  this  perio 
there  was  no  remarkable  emigration  to  other  colo 
nies:  there  was  vacant  land  sufficient  to  exten 
settlements  upon,  and  as  easy  to  be  procured  as  anj 
where  else:  the  heavy  taxes  may  have  driven  som< 
to  other  governments ;  but  the  chief  reason  of  th< 
difference  is  to  be  found  in  the  constant  state  of  wa 
which  these  two  provinces  were  in,  the  Massachu 
setts  more  especially.  From  1675  to  1713,  five  o; 
six  thousand  of  the  youth  of  the  country  had  perish 
ed  by  the  enemy,  or  by  distempers  contracted  in  th< 
service;  nine  in  ten  of  these  would  have  been  fa 
thers  of  families,  and,  in  the  course  of  forty  years, 
have  multiplied  to  near  an  hundred  thousand  souls. 
Th».  heavy  burdens  which  the  province  subjected 
itself  to  during  this  war,  were  beyond  those  of  any 
other  ten  years  from  the  first  settlement.  The  castle 
and  other'fortifkations  at  Boston,  the  several  forts 
in  the  eastern  country,  the  various  expensive  expe- 
ditions actually  prosecuted,  and  the  preparations 
made  for  others",  added  to  the  constant  defence  of  the 
extensive  frontiers  and  to  the  support  of  the  civil  go- 
ve'rnment,  without  any  relief  or  compensation  from 
the  crown,  must  have  occasioned  such  an  annual 
burden  as  was  not  felt  by  any  other  subjects  of  Great 
Britain,  and  the  merit  of  the  people  of  that  day- 
ought  not  to  be  forgotten. 

The  settlement  of  the  line  of  jurisdiction  between 
the  province  and  the  colony  of  Connecticut,  which 
was  accomplished  in  the  year  1713,  after  ineffectual 
attempts  for  several  years  before,  deserves  particular 
notice.  In  1636  the  first  settlers  upon  Connecticut 
river  had  removed  from  the  Massachusetts,  and 
taken  possession  of  the  country  upon  and  near  the 
river  on  both  sides,  from  Springfield  as  low  as 
Weathersfield,  inclusive  of  both,  and  managed  their 
affairs  by  virtue  of  authority  from  the  general  court 
of  the  Massachusetts.  In  1638  the  inhabitants  of 
Springfield,  which  included  what  was  afterwards 
called  Suffield,  below  on  one  side  of  the  river,  and 
Enfield  on  the  other  side,  having  no  doubt  that  they 
were  within  the  limits  of  the  Massachusetts  patent, 
petitioned  the  general  court  that  they  might  be  se- 
parated from  the  other  towns  below,  and  be  received 
and  continued  as  part  of  the  colony,  which  was 
granted  and  jurisdiction  exercised  accordingly.  In 
1642,  by  order  of  the  general  court,  two  mathema- 
ticians, as  they  are  called  in  the  records,  Nathan 
Woodward  and  Solomon  Saffery,  ran  a  line  west,  as 
they  supposed,  from  a  station  three  miles  north  of 
Charles  river  until  they  came  to  Windsor,  upon 
Connecticut  river,  where  it  struck  the  house  of  Bis- 
sel,  who  kept  the  ferry.  The  people  who  had  settled 
upon  Connecticut  river  had  no  better  title  to  land 
or  jurisdiction  than  possession,  the  grant  made  by 
the  Massachusetts  general  court  being  a  mere 
nullity. 

In  1630,  the  Earl  of  Warwick  had  obtained  from 
the  council  of  Plymouth,  a  patent  of  the  lands  upon 
a  straight  line  near  the  soa  shore  towards  the  south 
west,  west  and  by  south,  or  west,  from  Naraganset 
river  forty  leagues,  as  the  coast  lies  towards  Vir- 
ginia, and  all  within  that  breadth  to  the  south  sea ; 
and  yet,  in  1635,  all  the  lands  between  Connecticut 
river  and  the  Naraganset  country  were  assigned  by 
the  same  council  to  the  Marquis  of  Hamilton.  Lord 
Say  and  others  had  purchased  the  Earl  of  War- 
wick's title,  and  by  their  agents  built  a  fort  at  the 
mouth  of  Connecticut  river  about  the  year  1635, 
and  four  or  five  years  after  Mr.  Fenwick  came  over 
with  design  to  take  possession  of  the  lands  upon 
Connecticut  river  under  lord  Say,  &c.,  and  remained 


in  possession  of  the  mouth  of  the  river  until  1644, 
when  the  settlers  purchased  the  title,  as  it  was 
called,  and  formed  themselves  into,  or  continued  the 
form  they  had  assumed,  of  a  body  politic. 

When  the  line  was  run  by  Woodward  and  Saffery, 
Fenwick  was  to  have  joined,  as  the  Massachusetts 
commissioners    for    the   united   colonies  afterwards 
affirmed,  though  Connecticut  commissioners  denied 
it;    and  in  1648,  when  a  dispute  arose  about  a  duty 
required  of  Springfield  for  the  support  of  the  fort  at 
the  mouth  of  the  river,  the  Massachusetts  offered  to 
run  the  line  anew  if  Connecticut  would  be  at  the 
charge,   the   Massachusetts  having  been  at  the  sole 
charge  before,  but  this  was  not  agreed  to,   and  the 
fort  having  been  burnt  down,  and  the  controversy 
about  the  duty  at  an   end,  this  line  seems  to  have 
seen  acquiesced  in;  and,  in  1662,  Mr.  Winthrop  ob- 
:ained  from  King  Charles,  a  charter  for  the  colonies 
)f  Connecticut  and  New-Haven  united,   the  north 
ine  of  which  was  said  to  be  intended  to  be  the  same 
with   the   south  line  of  Massachusetts.     From  this 
;ime,  until  after  the  incorporation  of  the  Massachu- 
setts by  a   new   charter  in  1691,  we  hear  nothing 
about  bounds,   except   some  controversies  between 
Springfield  and  Windsor  about  their  towns  grants, 
and  letters  from  the  authority  of  each  government 
relative  to  it;   and,  in  1686,  many  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Roxbury  pitched  upon  a  tract  of  land  to  settle 
ipon,  which   was  bounded  on  the   south  by  Wood- 
ward and  Saffery's  line,  and  it  was  granted  to  them 
by   the    Massachusetts    government    and    took   the 
name   of  Woodstock.      Grants  were   also  made  to 
particular  persons  of  tracts  of  land  near  to  this  line. 
After  the  new  charter,   Connecticut  made  a  more 
erious  affair  of  what  was  called  the  Massachusetts 
encroachments,  and  in  1700,  upon  the  appointment 
>f  a  committee  by  Connecticut  with  a  general  power 
o  settle  the  bounds  between  the  two  governments, 
he   Massachusetts   appointed   a    committee    with  a 
pecial  limited  power,  viz.  "  to  find  the  southernmost 
ine    of  the    late    colony    of    Massachusetts-bay    as 
nciently  run  by  Nathaniel  Woodward  and  Solomon 
Saffery,  and  to  "make  report  thereof  to  the  general 
ourt."     This  was  not  what  Connecticut  wanted,  for 
bey  supposed  Woodward  and  Saffery's  line  to  be 
rroneous:   however  they  appointed  a  committee  to 
ttend  the  work,  who  reported  to  their  constituents 
tiat  a  line  from  three  miles  north  of  Charles  river, 
r  Woodward  and  Saffery's  station,  would  run  some 
iiles  to  the  northward  of  John  Bissell's  house,  where 
Voodward  and  Saffery  supposed  it  to  run;  and  in 
702  Mr.  Winthrop,  the  governor  of  Connecticut, 
wrote   to    governor   Dudley,    and  desired   that  the 
Massachusetts  would  join  in  ascertaining  the  differ- 
nce  of  latitude  between  the  Charles  River  station 
nd  Bissell's  house.     There  were  other  attempts  to 
ring  this  affair  to  a  conclusion,  but  ineffectual,  and 
n  1708,  by  a  state   of  the  case  read  in  both  houses, 
t  appears  that  the  Massachusetts  intended  "to  rely 
pon  the  line  formerly  run,  as  it  is  therein  said,  by 
wo  skilful  artists  in  the  year  1642,  and  which   has 
ontinued  the  stated  boundary  for  sixty-six  years." 
hey  add,  "  that  the  Connecticut  charter  which  was 
ranted  in  1662  was  bound  by  the  south  line  of  the 
Massachusetts,  which  was  net  then  an  imaginary  or 
ntried  line,  but  well  known  to  the  gentleman  who 
elicited  that  charter,  who  if  he  had  thought  it  con- 
rovertible  would  doubtless  have  obtained  an  order 
>r  rectifying  and  adjusting  it;  and  supposing,  which 
as  not  granted,  that  there  should  be  any  error  or 
mistake  in  the  line,  yet,  having  been  run  and  stated 
o  long  before  the  grant  of  Connecticut  charter,  and 


UNITED  STATES. 


309 


held  by  possession  for  sixty-six  years,  and  towns  and 
plantations  having  been  granted  and  settled  upon 
the  same,  it  was  unreasonable,  now,  to  draw  it  into 
question." 

There  being  so  little  prospect  of  the  Massachusetts 
receding  from  a  line  of  which  they  had  so  long  been 
in  possession,  Connecticut  made  their  application  to 
England,  and  it  appears  by  a  letter  from  governor 
Saltoustall,  of  Connecticut,  in  17 10,  that  he  was  ex- 
pecting orders  concerning  it  If  any  came,  pro- 
bably they  were  such  as  repeatedly  afterwards  were 
sent  to  New  Hampshire,  viz.  to  settle  the  controversy 
by  commissioners  appointed  or  agreed  upon  by  the 
general  courts  of  each  colony.  Be  that  as  it  may, 
it  is  certain  that  Connecticut  renewed  their  applica- 
tion to  the  Massachusetts,  and  at  last  commissions 
passed  the  seals  of  each  government  with  ample 
powers  to  settle  the  controversy.  The  Massachu- 
setts were  intent  upon  securing  the  property  to  such 
persons  to  whom  they  had  granted  lands  and  the 
jurisdiction  of  those  towns  which  had  been  settled 
by  them.  Suffield,  Enfield,  and  Woodstock  were 
*he  only  towns  which  could  be  affected.  Connecticut 
was  also  apprehensive  that  part  of  the  town  of  Sims- 
bury,  which  had  been  settled  by  that  government, 
might  fall  within  the  Massachusetts.  It  was  there- 
fore settled  as  a  preliminary,  that  the  towns  should 
remain  to  the  governments  by  which  they  had  been 
settled,  and  the  property  of  as  many  acres  as  should 
appear  upon  a  balance  to  have  been  gained  by  one 
government  from  the  other  should  be  conveyed  out 
of  other  unimproved  lauds  as  a  satisfaction  or  equi- 
valent; only,  as  there  was  about  two  miles  which 
Windsor  claimed  upon  the  town  of  Suffield,  there 
having  been  a  long  contest  between  these  two  towns 
concerning  the  validity  of  the  respective  grants,  it 
was  agreed  the  two  miles  should  belong  to  the  Con- 
necticut if  they  fell  within  their  line. 

Nothing  could  be  more  equitable,  nor  tend  more 
to  the  future  peace  and  content  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  contested  borders. 

It  appeared,  by  the  report  of  the  commissioners, 
that  107,793  acres  of  land  were  due  from  the  Mas- 
sachusetts, who  accordingly  made  a  grant  thereof  to 
Connecticut.  They  accepted  and  made  sale  of  the 
same,  and  applied  the  produce  to  the  support  of  Yale 
college  and  other  public  uses,  and  the  controverted 
towns  for  many  years  after  continued  without  mo- 
lestation under  the  jurisdiction  by  which  they  were 
settled. 

The  affairs  of  the  war  had  so  engaged  the  atten- 
tion of  all  persons,  that  we  hear  little  of  party  dis- 
putes and  discord,  for  five  or  six  years ;  but  as  soon 
as  they  were  delivered  from  enemies  without,  a  con- 
tention began  within,  from  a  new  cause,  the  effects 
of  which  were  felt  for  many  years  together.  The 
paper  bills  of  credit  were  the  cause  of  this  conten- 
tion: so  many  of  which  had  been  issued  for  the 
charges  of  the  war  (particularly  the  large  sum  of 
forty  thousand  pounds,  issued  for  the  Canada  expe- 
dition), that  they  were  become  the  sole  instrument 
and  measure  of  commerce,  and  silver  and  gold  were 
entirely  banished.  Of  two  instruments,  one  in  use 
in  a  particular  state  only,  the  other  with  the  whole 
commercial  world,  it  is  easy  to  determine  which  must 
leave  that  particular  state  and  which  remain.  The 
currency  of  silver  and  gold  entirely  ceasing,  the 
price  of  every  thing  bought  or  sold  was  no  longer 
compared  therewith,  but  with  the  paper  bills,  or  ra- 
ther with  mere  ideal  pounds,  shillings,  and  pence. 
The  rise  of  exchange  with  England  and  all  other 
countries  .was  not  attributed  to  the  true  cause,  the 


want  of  a  fixed  staple  medium,  but  to  the  general 
bad  state  of  the  trade.  It  was  thought  that  increas  • 
ing  the  paper  bills  would  enliven  and  reform  the 
trade.  Three  parties  were  formed,  one  very  small, 
which  were  for  drawing  in  the  paper  bills  and  de- 
pending upon  silver  and  gold  currency.  Mr.  Hutch- 
inson,  one  of  the  members  for  Boston,  was  among 
the  most  active  of  this  party.  He  was  an  enemy, 
all  his  life,  to  a  depreciating  currency,  upon  a  prin- 
ciple very  ancient,  but  too  seldom  practised  upon, 
nil  utile  quod  non  honcstum  :  nothing  is  useful  which 
is  not  honest 

Another  party  was  very  numerous.  These  had 
projected  a  private  bank,  or  rather  had  taken  up  a 
project  published  in  London  in  the  year  1684;  but 
this  not  being  generally  known  in  America,  a  mer- 
chant in  Boston  was  the  reputed  father  of  it.  There 
was  nothing  more  in  it,  than  issuing  bills  of  credit, 
which  all  the  members  of  the  company  promised  to 
receive  as  money,  but  at  no  certain  value  compared 
with  silver  and  gold;  and  real  estates,  to  a  sufficient 
value,  were  to  be  bound  as  a  security  that  the  com- 
pany should  perform  their  engagements.  They  were 
soliciting  the  sanction  of  the  general  court,  and 
an  act  of  government  to  incorporate  them.  This 
party,  generally,  consisted  of  persons  in  difficult  or 
involved  circumstances  in  trade,  or  such  as  were  pos- 
sessed of  real  estates,  but  had  little  or  no  ready  mo- 
ney at  command,  or  men  of  no  substance  at  all;  and 
we  may  well  enough  suppose  the  party  to  be  very 
numerous.  Some,  no  doubt,  joined  them  from  mis- 
taken principles,  and  an  apprehension  that  it  was  a 
scheme  beneficial  to  the  public,  and  some  for  party 
sake  and  popular  applause. 

Three  of  the  representatives  of  Boston,  Mr.  Cooke, 
Mr.  Noyes,  a  gentleman  in  great  esteem  with  the 
inhabitants  in  general,  and  Mr.  Payne,  were  the 
supporters  of  the  party.  Mr.  Hutchinsou,  the  other 
(an  attempt  to  leave  him  out  of  the  house  not  suc- 
ceeding), was  sent  from  the  house  to  the  council, 
where  his  opposition  would  be  of  less  consequence. 
The  governor  was  no  favourer  of  the  scheme,  but 
the  lieut.-governor,  a  gentleman  of  no  great  fortune, 
and  whose  stipend  from  the  government  was  trifling, 
engaged  in  this  cause  with  great  zeal. 

A  third  party,  though  very  opposite  to  the  private 
bank,  yet  were  no  enemies  to  bills  of  credit.  They 
were  in  favour  of  a  loan  of  bills  from  th&  govern- 
ment to  any  of  the  inhabitants  who  would  mortgage 
their  estates  as  a  security  for  the  repayment  of  the 
bills  with  interest,  in  a  term  of  years,  the  interest 
to  be  paid  annually,  and  applied  to  the  support  of 
government.  This  was  an  easy  way  of  paying  pub- 
lic charges,  which,  no  doubt,  they  wondered  that  in 
so  many  ages  the  wisdom  of  other  governments  had 
never  discovered.  The  principal  men  of  the  council 
were  in  favour  of  it,  and  it  being  thought  by  the  first 
party  the  least  of  the  two  evils,  they  fell  in  with  the 
scheme,  and,  after  that,  the  country  was  divided  be- 
tween the  public  and  private  bank.  The  house  of 
representatives  was  nearly  equally  divided,  but  rather 
favourers  of  the  private  bank,  from  the  great  influ- 
ence of  the  Boston  members  in  the  house,  and  a 
great  number  of  persons  of  the  town,  out  of  it.  The 
controversy  spread  universally,  and  divided  towns, 
parishes,  and  private  families. 

(1714.)  At  length,  after  a  long  struggle,  the  party 
for  the  public  bank  prevailed  in  the  general  court, 
for  a  loan  of  fifty  thousand  pounds  in  bills  of  credit, 
which  were  put  into  the  hands  of  trustees  and  lent 
for  five  years  only,  to  any  of  the  inhabitants  at  fi  re 
per  cent,  interest,  one-fifth  part  of  the  principal  to 


310 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


be  paid  annually.  This  lessened  the  number  of  the' 
party  for  the  private  bank,  but  it  increased  the  zeal, 
and  raised  a  strong  resentment,  in  those  which  re- 
mained. 

A  vessel,  which  arrived  at  Boston  from  Ireland  on 
the  15th  of  September,  brought  the  first  news  of  the 
death  of  the  queen,  and  the  accession  of  king  George 
the  First ;  and  two  days  after,  a  vessel  arrived,  from 
some  part  of  Great  Britain,  with  the  printed  pro- 
clamation in  the  London  Gazette.  This,  the  go- 
vernor thought  sufficient  warrant,  without  express 
orders,  for  proclaiming  the  king  in  the  province. 
The  practice  in  the  colonies  has  not  been  uniform 
on  the  like  occasions.  At  New  Hampshire,  the 
king  was  proclaimed  from  the  same  intelligence, 
the  22d  of  September;  at  Rhode-Island,  the  29th; 
at  New  York,  on  the  llth  of  October;  at  New 
Haven,  in  Connecticut,  the  14th;  at  Philadelphia, 
the  27th;  no  express  orders  being  received  in  any 
of  those  places :  but  at  Annapolis-Royal  it  was  de- 
layed until  the  2d  of  December.  The  propriety  of 
proceeding  without  express  orders  has  been  ques- 
tioned ;  but  the  absurdity  of  acts  of  government  in 
the  name  and  by  authority  of  a  prince,  for  months 
together,  after  certain  intelligence  of  their  demise, 
has  generally  influenced  the  governors  to  proceed. 

The  secret  designs  of  Queen  Anne's  last  ministry 
were  no  where  more  suspected,  nor  more  dreaded, 
than  in  Massachusetts ;  and  the  1  st  of  August  was 
no  where  celebrated  with  greater  joy,  during  the 
whole  of  the  king's  reign. 

The  Hazard  sloop,  sent  express  from  England 
with  orders  to  the  government,  was  lost  upon  Co- 
hasset  rocks,  the  12th  of  November,  the  vessel  being 
stove  to  pieces  and  no  papers  of  any  consequence 
saved.  Enough  washed  ashore  to  make  certain 
•what  vessel  it  was,  and  one  man  had  been  landed 
and  left  at  Nantucket.  Six  months,  from  the  king's 
accession,  had  expired  and  no  orders  had  arrived  for 
continuing  officers  in  their  posts.  The  authority  of 
the  governor  began  to  be  called  in  question.  Ac- 
cording to  the  charter,  upon  the  death,  removal,  or 
absence  of  the  governor  or  lieut. -governor,  and  there 
being  no  person  commissioned  as  governor  within 
the  province,  the  government  devolves  upon  the  coun- 
cil or  the  major  part  of  them.  The  council  deriving 
their  authority  from  charter  and  not  from  a  royal 
commission,  the  act  of  parliament,  limiting  the  con 
tinuance  in  office  to  six  months  after  the  death  of  a 
prince,  it  was  supposed  could  not  affect  their  au- 
thority. The  advice  of  the  miscarriage  of  the  first 
orders  went  the  first  opportunity  to  England,  and 
new  orders  were  daily  expected,  and  some  were  in- 
clined to  wait;  but,  on  the  4th  of  February,  the 
council  assumed  the  government,  the  lieut.  governor, 
being  of  the  council,  joining  with  the  rest,  and  is 
sued  a  proclamation  for  all  officers  to  continue  in 
their  posts,  &c. 

An  instruction  had  been  given  by  the  queen,  in 
1707,  directing  that  in  case  of  the  death  or  absence 
of  the  governor  and  lieut.-governor,  the  eldest  coun- 
sellor should  preside  in  the  province ;  but  the  charter 
giving  the  powers  of  government  to  the  major  part, 
this  instruction  was  not  regarded. 

The  administration  of  the  council  was  short,  and 
nothing  of  moment  was  transacted.  On  the  21st  ol 
March,  the  king's  proclamation  was  received,  and 
the  governor  reassumed  with  as  great  parade  as  il 
he  had  been  first  entering  upon  the  government; 
but  he  had  reason  to  expect  his  rule  would  be  short 
His  friends  in  the  province  were  increased.  Those 
who  had  been  his  greatest  opposcrs  had  many  oJ 


them  changed  sides,  and  were  strongly  attached  to 
bim,  and  used  what  interest  they  had  with  Sir  Wil- 
liam Ashurst  and  others,  that  he  might  be  continu- 
ed, and  at  their  request  Ashurst  appeared  for  him. 
The  Bankers  were  the  most  disaffected,  and  Colonel 
Byfield,  a  gentleman  of  the  council,  father-in-law  to 
the  lieut.-governor,  went  over  to  England  to  endea- 
vour to  supplant  him,  but  wanted  interest.  In  Eng- 
land Mr.  Dudley  lost  his  friends  by  the  queen's 
death.  Colonel  Burgess,  who  had  served  under 
General  Stanhope,  was,  by  his  interest,  in  February, 
appointed  to  the  government,  and  his  commissions 
passed  the  seals  March  the  17th,  and  Ashurst  writes, 
that  the  General  had  promised  to  be  answerable  for 
his  good  behaviour. 

(1715.)  Mr.  Dudley  met  the  assembly,  at  the 
election  in  May,  but  made  no  speech,  though  he  had 
never  failed  of  doing  it  before.  The  council  and 
house  chose  his  great  adversary,  Mr.  Cooke,  whom  ho 
had  so  often  negatived,  into  the  council,  and  either 
from  indifference,  or  a  spirit  of  forgiveness  before 
his  political  departure,  he  now  approved  of  him. 

Colonel  Burgess  intended  to  stay  a  short  time  in 
England.  The  bank  party  were  impatient  for  the 
removal  of  Dudley,  who  did  not  favour  them,  and 
whose  second  son,  William  Dudley,  who  began  to 
have  great  weight  in  the  house  of  representatives, 
was  a  violent  opposer.  An  unusual  step  was  taken, 
that  the  governor's  commission  might  be  superseded. 
An  exemplification  of  Burgess's  commission  was  ob- 
tained ;  and  that,  with  the  new  commission  or  war- 
rant to  the  lieut-governor,  Tailer,  were  published  in 
Boston,  at  the  same  time,  the  9th  of  November; 
and  thereupon  Tailer  took  upon  him  the  adminis- 
tration. It  was  questioned,  whether  this  was  regu- 
lar ;  the  commissions  lay  three  or  four  weeks  for  the 
council  to  consider  of;  but  at  length  they  advised  to 
the  publication.  No  other  instance  of  the  publica- 
tion of  a  governor's  commission  in  the  Massachusetts 
before  his  arrival  in  person  ever  occurred.  In  Vir- 
ginia, it  must  have  been  practised,  if  a  publication 
has  been  judged  necessary ;  as  several  of  their  go- 
vernors have  never  been  in  the  colony.  The  house 
of  representatives,  the  first  day  of  their  sitting  (No- 
vember 23d),  appointed  a  committee  to  consider  of 
the  commissions,  but  no  public  exception  was  taken. 
Mr.  Dudley's  friends  were  sensible  he  could  con- 
tinue but  a 'short  time ;  for  the  original  commission, 
with  the  new  governor,  would  remove  all  doubt ;  -he 
himself  was  in  advanced  life,  near  seventy,  and  had 
felt  so  much  of  the  burthen  of  government,  that  he 
might  well  be  weary  of  it ;  and,  like  his  friend,  Mr. 
Stoughton,  wish  to  retire. 

No  New  England  man  had  passed  through  more 
scenes  of  busy  life  than  Mr.  Dudley.  He  was  edu- 
cated for  the  ministry,  and  if  various  dignities  had 
been  known  in  the  New  England  churches,  possibly 
he  had  lived  and  died  a  clergyman ;  but,  without 
this,  nothing  could  be  more  dissonant  from  his  ge- 
nius. He  soon  turned  his  thoughts  to  civil  affairs ; 
was  first  a  deputy,  or  representative  of  the  town  of 
Roxbury;  then  an  assistant;  then  agent  for  the 
colony  in  England,  where  he  laid  a  foundation  for  a 
commission,  soon  after,  appointing  him  president  of 
the  council,  first  for  Massachusetts  Bay  only,  but, 
under  Andros,  for  all  New  England.  Upon  the 
revolution,  for  a  short  time,  he  was  sunk  in  disgrace, 
but  soon  emerged.  He  appeared,  first,  in  the  cha- 
racter of  chief  justice  at  New  York,  then,  returning 
to  England,  became  lieut.-governor  of  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  and  member  of  Parliament  for  Newtown, 
both  which  places  he  willingly  resigned  for  the  chief 


UNITED  STATES. 


311 


commaud  in  his  own  country.  Ambition  was  the 
ruling  passion ;  and,  perhaps,  like  Ceesar,  he  had 
rather  be  the  first  man  in  New  England  than  the 
second  in  Old.  Few  men  have  been  pursued  by 
their  enemies  with  greater  virulence,  and  few  have 
been  supported'  by  their  friends  with  greater  zeal. 
It  has  been  seen  that  a  second  generation  inherited 
the  spirit  of  their  ancestors,  the  descendants,  on  one 
side,  preserving  an  affection  for  his  family  and  pos- 
terity, and  on  the  other,  retaining  equal  disaffection 
against  thorn.  Some  of  his  good  qualities  were  so 
conspicuous,  that  his  enemies  could  not  avoid  ac- 
knowledging them.  He  applied  himself  with  the 
greatest  diligence  to  the  business  of  his  station.  The 
affairs  of  the  war  and  other  parts  of  his  administra- 
tion were  conducted  with  good  judgment.  In  eco- 
nomy he  excelled  both  in  public  and  private  life. 
He  supported  the  dignity  of  a  governor  without  the 
reproach  of  parsimony  ;  and  yet,  from  the  moderate 
emoluments  of  his  post,  made  an  addition  to  his 
paternal  estate.  The  visible  increase  of  his  sub- 
stance made  some  incredible  reports  of  bribery  and 
corruption  to  be  very  easily  received ;  but,  in  times 
wnen  party  spirit  prevails,  what  will  not  a  gover- 
nor's enemies  believe,  however  injurious  and  ab- 
surd ?  It  is  no  more  than  justice  to  his  character, 
to  allow  that  he  had  as  many  virtues  as  can  consist 
with  so  great  a  thirst  for  honour  atid  power. 

His  life  would  afford  convincing  evidence,  if 
there  was  any  doubt,  that  an  humble  calm  mind 
enjoys  more  happiness  in  private  life  than  an  am- 
bitious anxious  mind  in  the  highest  station.  No 
man  in  that  period  had  seen  more  of  those  vicissi- 
tudes of  fortune  and  the  age,  which  Cicero,  in  one 
of  his  epistles  to  Lucceius,  says,  afford  a  pleasing 
narration,  however  irksome  to  the  man  who  has 
the  experience  of  them. 

Colonel  Tailer's  strong  attachment  to  the  bank 
party  procured  him  the  administration  for  a  few 
months ;  but  was  the  ultimate  cause  of  his  losing 
his  commission  for  lieut.-governor.  It  was  sup- 
posed, but  it  does  not  appear  upon  what  grounds, 
that  Colonel  Burgess  would  favour  the  same  party, 
and  his  arrival  was  every  day  wished  for  by  them; 
whilst  the  other  party  dreaded  it,  and  laboured  to 
pi  event  it.  It  was  said  also,  that,  in  other  res- 
pects, he  would  by  no  means  be  agreeable  to  the 
country ;  a  gentleman  of  a  more  grave  serious  turn 
of  mind  would  be  more  likely  to  be  happy  he-re 
himself,  and  to  render  the  people  so.  Mr.  Belcher, 
afterwards  governor,  who  was  very  opposite  to  the 
bank  party,  was  then  in  London,  he  joined  with 
Mr.  Dummer,  the  agent,  and  they  engaged  Sir 
William  Ashurst  with  them,  and  prevailed  upon 
Burgess  for  a  thousand  pounds  sterling,  which 
Belcher  and  Dummer  advanced  equally  between 
them,  to  resign  his  commission,  that  Colonel  Shute 
might  be  appointed  in  his  stead.  Colonel  Tailer's 
friends  had  endeavoured  to  engage  Ashurst  in  his 
favour,  but  to  no  purpose ;  the  same  interest  ob- 
tained the  lieut-governor's  commission  for  Mr. 
William  Dummer,  a  New  England  gentleman,  who 
had  married  a  daughter  of  Mr.  Dummer,  one  of 
the  commissioners  at  Plymouth,  and  was  in  some 
post  there  himself;  but, "his  wife  dying,  he  had 
returned  to  his  native  country. 

Colonel  Shute's  family  were,  generally,  dissent- 
ers:  His  father,  an  eminent  citizen  in  London; 
his  mother,  daughter  of  Mr.  Caryl,  a  dissenting 
minister  of  great  note.  His  brother,  afterwards 
Lord  Barrington,  was  then  a  member  of  parliament, 
and  at  the  head  of  the  dissenting  interest.  The 


colonel  began  his  education  under  Mr.  Charles 
Morton,  who,  about  the  year  1684,  came  to  New 
England,  and  was  minister  of  Charlestown.  After 
tuition  under  him,  he  was  sent  to  Leyden.  He 
went  after  that  into  the  army  under  King  William, 
who  made  him  a  captain,  served  under  the  Duke  of 
Marlborough,  was  a  lieut.-colonel,  and  wounded  in 
one  of  the  principal  battles  in  Flanders.  He  had  a 
good  acquaintance,  and  was  wrell  esteemed  at  court; 
had  the  character  of  a  friend  to  liberty,  and  was  of 
an  open,  generous,  and  humane  disposition.  A 
governor  of  his  character  might  be  supposed  to  be 
welcome  to  New  England  men,  but  the  interest 
of  party  prevails  over  all  other  considerations ;  and 
virtue,  religion,  private  friendship,  and  public  good 
are  all  sacrificed  to  promote  it. 

From   the  arrival  of  Governor  Shute,  in   1716.  to  the 
arrival  of  Governor  Belcher,  in  1730. 

Colonel  Shute  arrived  at  Boston,  October  the 
4th,  1716,  in  a  merchant  ship,  and  was  received 
with  the  usual  parade.  He  made  the  opposers  of 
the  bank  his  first  acquaintance,  the  old  governor's 
family  in  particular,  and  took  his  lodgings  at  Mr. 
Paul  Dudley's.  He  had  received  very  unfavoura- 
ble impressions  of  the  other  party,  from  Mr.  Bel- 
cher and  Mr.  Dummer,  in  England,  and  was  con- 
sidered, from  his  first  arrival,  as  an  enemy  to  the 
scheme,  and  the  heads  of  the  party  were  the  heads 
of  an  opposition,  during  the  whole  of  his  adminis- 
tration. In  his  first  speech  to  the  general  court, 
November  7th,  he  put  them  in  mind  of  the  bad  state 
of  the  trade  of  the  province,  an  important  article 
of  any  people's  happiness,  owing,  as  he  supposed, 
to  the  great  scarcity  of  money,  and  recommended 
the  consideration  of  some  effectual  measures  to  sup- 
ply this  want,  and  thereby  to  restore  trade  to  a 
flourishing  condition.  He  advocated  the  further 
emission  of  government  bills,  and  the  representa- 
tives, pleased  with  so  easy  a  method  of  obtaining 
money,  soon  determined  upon  a  second  loan,  of  one 
hundred  thousand  pounds  for  ten  years,  to  be  put 
into  the  hands  of  commissioners  appointed  for  each 
county  in  proportion  to  their  taxes.  This  provision 
being  made  by  the  government,  there  was  the  less 
pretence  for  private  persons  or  companies  issuing 
their  bills ;  but  it  gave  no  relief  to  the  trade,  the 
whole  currency  soon  depreciating  to  that  degree,  as, 
with  this  addition,  to  answer  the  purposes  of  money 
very  little  more  than  if  it  had  not  been  made.  The 
governor  became  sensible  of  it,  and  recommended 
to  them  to  provide  against  it,  which  they  were  not 
able  to  do,  and  many  of  them  would  not  have  been 
willing  if  they  had  been  able,  being  in  debt;  and, 
by  means  of  the  depreciation,  discharging  their 
debts  by  a  nominal  sum,  perhaps  of  not  more  than 
one  half  of  the  real  value  of  the  debts.  He  soon 
found  the  effects  of  it  upon  his  own  salary,  which 
they  refused  to  advance  as  the  bills  sunk;  and 
having  recommended  this  measure  in  a  public  speech, 
it  became  more  difficult  afterwards  to  refuse  repeat- 
ing it. 

The  province  had  been  at  war  with  the  eastern 
Indians,  except  some  short  intervals,  far  about  forty 
years.  The  prospect  of  a  long  peace  between  Great 
Britain  and  France  encouraged  us  to  hope  for  the 
like  with  the  Indians,  who  had  always  been  under 
French  influence;  but  their  father,  Ralle,  a  Jesuit, 
was  constantly  instigating  them  to  insult  and  annoy 
the  new  settlers  who,  he  pretended,  encroached  upon 
the  lands  of  the  Indians,  and  by  supplying  them 
with  strong  drink,  del  auched  their  morals  and  pre 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


vented  the  progress  of  the  good  work  he  had  began 
among  them.  A  treaty  or  conference  was  thought 
expedient  to  confirm  them  in  their  friendship  with 
the  English,  and,  if  possible,  to  draw  thorn  from  the 
Roman  Catholic  to  the  Protestant  religion.  The 
governor,  therefore,  the  first  summer  after  his  arri- 
val, in  August,  (1717),  attended  by  several  of  the 
council  both  of  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire, 
and  other  gentlemen,  met  the  Indians  at  Arowsick 
Island. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  conference,  he  delivered 
them  an  English  and  an  Indian  bible,  which  he  told 
them  contained  the  religion  of  the  English,  and  at 
the  same  time  recommended  to  them  Mr.  Baxter, 
a  minister  who  went  down  as  a  missionary,  and  told 
them  he  would  explain  the  Bible,  and  instruct  them 
in  the  principles  of  religion.  They  were  at  no  loss 
for  an  answer.  "  All  people,  they  said,  loved  their 
own  ministers ;  and  as  for  the  Bible,  they  desired 
to  be  excused  from  keeping  it,  God  had  given  them 
teaching,  and  if  they  should  go  from  that  they 
should  displease  God."  They  were  fixed  in  their 
religion,  and  it  would  have  been  a  loss  of  time  to  at- 
tempt to  move  them.  The  rest  of  the  conference  was 
upon  the  right  of  the  English  to  settle  in  that  part  of 
the  country.  Upon  complaint  made,  by  the  Indians,  of 
encroachments  upon  their  lands,  the  governor  pro- 
duced one  of  the  original  deeds  which  had  been 
given  by  their  sachems.  They  acknowledged  the 
lands,  to  the  west  of  Kennebeck,  belonged  to  the 
English,  but  they  were  sure  no  sale  had  ever  been 
made  of  any  lands  to  the  east.  The  governor  told 
them  the  English  would  not  part  with  an  inch  of 
the  land  which  belonged  to  them.  The  Indians 
were  so  offended,  that  they  rose  immediately,  and, 
without  ceremony,  took  to  their  canoes,  and  went 
to  another  island,  where  they  had  their  head  quar- 
ters, leaving  behind  an  English  flag  which  the  go- 
vernor had  given  them.  In  the  evening,  several  of 
them  returned  to  Arowsick,  with  a  letter  from  Ralle 
to  the  governor,  acquainting  him  that  the  French 
king  did  not  allow,  that  in  any  treaty  he  had  given 
away  the  land  of  the  Indians  to  the  English,  and 
would  protect  the  Indians  against  the  English  en- 
croachments. The  governor  let  them  know,  that 
he  highly  resented  the  insolence  of  the  Jesuit,  and 
the  next  morning  ordered  the  signal  for  sailing. 
Ralle,  in  his  letters,  often  laments  the  unsteadiness 
of  the  Indians.  They  were  afraid  at  this  time  of  a 
new  war.  The  old  men  were  loth  to  quit  their  vil- 
lages at  Norridgewock  and  Penobscot,  where  they 
lived  at  ease,  and  encamp  in  the  woods,  or,  which 
was  much  wor.se,  depend  upon  the  French  who, 
they  would  often  say,  treated  them  like  dogs  when 
there  was  no  immediate  occasion  for  their  service. 
This  consideration  induced  them  to  send  two  of  their 
number  with  a  message  to  the  governor,  acknow- 
ledging that  yesterday  they  had  been  rude  and  un- 
mannerly, and  earnestly  desiring  to  see  him  again. 
He  let  them  know  he  would  see  them  upon  no  terms, 
unless  they  quitted  their  pretensions  to  the  lauds 
which  belonged  to  the  English.  This  the  messen- 
gers promised  should  be  done,  and  desired  that  the 
English  colours  which  they  had  slighted  might  be 
returned  them.  In  the  evening  they  came  again  to 
the  conference,  and  appointed  a  new  speaker,  as  a 
mark  of  resentment  to  the  former,  who,  they  said, 
had  behaved  ill  the  day  before ;  and,  without  enter- 
ing into  any  dispute  about  particular  limits  or 
bounds,  declared  they  were  willing  the  English 
should  settle  where  their  predecessors  had  settled, 
desired  to  live  in  peace,  and  to  be  supplied  with 


necessaries,  in  a  way  of  trade,  confessed  that  some 
of  their  inconsiderate  young  men  had  offered  injuries 
to  the  English,  and  violated  the  treaty  of  Ports- 
mouth in  1713.  After  renewing  that  treaty,  the 
conference  ended. 

The  administration  of  a  new  Governor  in  the  colo- 
nies was  formerly  calm  at  first.  Several  months 
passed  after  Col.  Shute's  arrival,  without  open  oppo 
sition  to  any  measures.  The  town  of  Bolton  at  the 
first  election  of  their  representatives,  left  out  such  as 
had  been  bank  men,  and  choose  such  as  were  of  the 
other  party,  but  Mr.  Cooke,  who  was  at  the  head  of 
the  first  party,  had  interest  enough  to  obtain  a  place 
in  council.  It  was,  soon  after,  insinuated  that  the 
governor  was  a  weak  man,  easily  led  away,  and  that 
he  was  in  the  hcjads  of  the  Dudleys,  men  of  high 
principles  in  government,  and  it  behoved  the  people 
to  be  very  careful  of  their  liberties.  Mr.  Cooke, 
who  had  the  character  of  a  fair  and  open  enemy, 
was  bold  in  expressing  his  sentiments,  and  the  go- 
vernor was  informed  of  some  contemptuous  language 
in  private  company,  with  which  he  was  so  much  of- 
fended as  to  procure  Mr.  Cooke's  removal  from  the 
place  of  clerk  to  the  superior  court.  A  dispute  hap- 
pening about  the  same  time  between  Mr.  Bridges, 
surveyor  of  the  woods,  and  the  inhabitants  of  the 
province  of  Maine,  concerning  the  property  of  the 
white  pine  trees  within  that  province,  Mr.  Cooke 
immediately  inserted  himself  in  the  controversy, 
publicly  patronized  the  inhabitants,  and  in  a  me- 
morial to  the  house  of  representatives,  charged  the 
surveyor  with  mal-conduct  in  threatening  to  prose- 
cute all  who,  without  licence  from  him,  should  cut 
any  pine  trees  in  their  own  ground,  which  Mr. 
Cooke  alleged  they  had  good  right  to  do,  and  he 
further  charged*  the  surveyor  with  permitting  such 
persons,  as  would  pay  him  for  it,  to  cut  down  the 
trees  which  were  said  to  belong  to  the  king. 

The  surveyor  thereupon  preferred  his  memorial  to 
the  governor  and  council,  justifying  himself  in  the 
discharge  of  his  trust,  and  complaining  of  Mr.  Cooke, 
one  of  the  members  of  the  council,  for  officiously 
concerning  himself  with  the  affairs  of  the  surveyor's 
office,  and  obstructing  his  measures  for  the  service 
of  the  crown.  Mr.  Cooke  had  many  friends  in  the 
house  ready  to  support  him,  and  this  dispute  was  the 
beginning  of  the  public  controversy  which  continued 
until  the  end  of  Col.  Shute's  administration;  parties 
were  formed,  new  subjects  for  contention  from  time 
to  time  were  furnished,  until  at  length  the  governor 
was  forced  to  leave  the  province. 

In  the  month  of  April  of  this  year  (1717),  a  pir°to. 
ship,  the  Whidah,  of  '23  guns  and  130  men,  Samuel 
Bellamy,  commander,  ventured  upon  the  coast  of 
New  England,  near  to  Cape  Cod,  and  after  havinjr 
taken  several  vessels,  seven  of  the  pirates  were  put 
on  board  one  of  them,  who  soon  got  drunk  and  went 
to  sleep.  The  master  of  the  vessel  which  had  been 
taken,  ran  her  ashore  upon  the  back  of  the  cape  and 
the  seven  men  were  secured.  Soon  after,  the  pirate 
ship,  in  a  storm,  was  forced  ashore  near  the  table 
land,  and  the  whole  crew,  except  one  Englishman 
and  one  Indian,  were  drowned.  Six  of  the  company, 
upon  trial  by  a  special  court  of  admiralty,  were  pro- 
nounced guilty,  and  executed  at  Boston,  Nov.  15th. 

The  famous  Indian  warrior,  Benjamin  Church, 
who  had  escaped  the  enemy's  bullets  in  a  great 
number  of  encounters  when  in  the  most  imminent 
hazard,  met  death  this  year  by  a  fall  from  his  horse, 
at  the  age  of  78. 

Mr.  Woodward,  secretary  of  the  province,  tired  of 
a  post  of  much  labour  and  little  emolument,  disposed 


UNITED  STATES. 


313 


of  it  to  Josiah  Willard,  Esq.;  who  obtained  the  royal 
commission,  and  arrived  at  Boston,  from  London, 
December  the  12th. 

(1713.)  No  vote  of  council  upon  this  memorial 
can  be  found,  but  the  governor  espoused  the  cause 
of  the  surveyor,  and,  to  shew  his  resentment  against 
Mr.  Cooke,  when  the  list  of  counsellors  was  present- 
ed at  the  next  election,  directed  his  speech  to  him  in 
particular,  and  let  him  know  he  would  excuse  him 
from  attending  at  the  board  for  the  ensuing  year. 

Mr.  Cooke,  soon  after,  presented  his  memorial  to 
the  council,  in  which  he  justified  his  own  conduct, 
and  charged  Mr.  Bridges  with  "using  his  utmost  ef- 
forts to  evade  the  rights  and  properties  of  the  people 
in  the  province  of  Main,  by  his  exorbitant  actions, 
as  well  as  basely  betraying  the  trust  the  crown  had 
invested  him  with,  by  daily  selling  and  bartering 
the  very  logs  and  timber  which  he  gave  out  was  the 
king's,  his  master,  whose  bread  he  then  eat."  The 
council  suffered  the  memorial  to  lie  upon  the  table, 
but  acted  nothing  upon  it.  Afterwards,  upon  the 
appointment  of  a  committee  by  the  house,  they  join- 
ed a  committee  of  council  to  consider  in  general  of 
Mr.  Bridges's  conduct.  This  committee,  in  their 
report,  justified  Mr.  Cooke,  and  condemned  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  surveyor.  The  council  put  off  the 
consideration  of  this  report  also,  but  the  house  voted 
their  acceptance  of  it.  The  governor,  of  course, 
transmitted  to  the  board  of  trade  an  account  of  all 
these  proceedings,  and  very  soon  received  an  answer 
censuring  the  house  of  representatives  for  counte- 
nancing and  encouraging  Mr.  Cooke.  This  being 
laid  before  the  house,  they  by  a  vote  declared,  that 
the  censure  of  the  board  of  trade  was  occasioned 
"  by  sending  home  the  papers  on  one  side  only, 
whereby  their  lordships  were  informed  ex  parte," 
The  house  had  avoided  any  direct  attack  upon  the 
governor,  until  this  vote;  many  of  the  principal 
members  this  year  being  well  affected  to  him,  but 
the  party  without  doors,  especially  in  Boston,  had 
been  increasing  against  him,  and,  at  the  next  elec- 
tion for  that  town,  they  sent  all  new  members,  and 
a  change  was  made  in  many  other  towns  unfavour- 
able to  the  governor's  interest. 

The  famous  projector,  Captain  Corarn,  in  the  year 
1718,  was  busy  in  a  scheme  for  settling  Nova-Scotia 
and  the  lands  between  Nova-Scotia  and  the  province 
of  Main,  and  a  petition  was  preferred  by  Sir  Alex- 
ander Cairnes,  James  Douglas,  and  Joshua  Gee,  in 
behalf  of  themselves  and  others,  praying  for  a  grant 
upon  the  sea-coast  five  leagues  south  west  and  five 
leagues  north  east  of  Chibuctow  harbour,  where  they 
proposed  to  build  a  town,  and  to  improve  the  country 
round  it  in  raising  hemp,  in  making  pitch,  tar,  and 
turpentine,  and  they  undertook  to  settle  a  certain 
number  of  families  to  consist  of  200  persons  in  three 
years,  the  rest  of  his  majesty's  subjects  not  to  be 
prohibited  fishing  on  the  coasts  under  regulations. 
To  this  petition  Mr.  Dummer,  the  Massachusetts 
agent,  objected  because  of  the  last  clause,  which  laid 
a  restraint  upon  the  fishery.  The  lords  of  trade, 
however,  reported  in  favour  of  it,  but  it  stopped  in 
council. 

Another  petition  was  preferred  by  William  Arm- 
strong and  others,  who  had  been  officers  and  soldiers 
in  the  army,  "  praying  for  a  grant  of  the  lands  be- 
tween Nova-Scotia  and  the  province  of  Main,  the 
the  said  tract  of  land  having  been  conquered  by  the 
French  in  1696,  and  possessed  by  them  until  1710, 
when  it  was  recovered  by  the  English,  and  by  the 
treaty  of  Utrecht  was,  with  Nova- Scotia,  given  up 
by  France  to  the  British  crown."  The  conquest  in 


1696,  was  the  taking  Pemaquid  fort  and  holding 
possession  of  the  harbour  two  or  three  days.  The 
general  court  being  restrained  from  conveying  these 
lands  without  consent  of  the  crown,  it  was  proposed 
that  if  they  would  consent  to  resign  the  jurisdiction 
between  Kennebeck  and  Penobscot  the  crown  should 
confirm  the  property  of  the  soil,  but  upon  the  pro- 
posal being  communicated  to  the  court,  they  in- 
structed their  agent  to  make  no  concessions. 

One  Sarah  Watts,  setting  forth  that  she  was  heir 
at  law  to  Thomas  Goffe,  deputy  governor  and  one  of 
the  twenty-six  patentees  of  the  old  colony,  claimed 
a  16th  part  of  the  colony,  and  the  issues  and  profits 
for  eighty  or  ninety  years.  She  filed  a  bill  of  com- 
plaint in  chancery  against  the  province,  and  there 
was  a  commission  of  sequestration  for  several  New 
England  ships  in  the  river,  which  cost  the  owners 
several  guineas,  each,  to  the  sharpers  who  had  urged 
the  woman  to  the  suit.  The  agent  was  required  to 
answer  the  bill,  which  he  did  by  declaring  that  if  the 
complainant  could  even  make  it  appear  that  Thomas 
Goffe  was  once  seized  of  a  26th  part  of  the  colony, 
and  that  she  was  heir  at  law  to  him,  which  he  did 
not  believe  she  was  able  to  do,  yet  he  verily  believ- 
ed that  when  the  patentees,  with  others,  were  incor- 
porated into  a  body  politic,  their  respective  rights 
ceased  and  passed  to  the  corporation,  who  had  grant- 
ed the  lands  away.  The  poor  woman  was  at  last 
arrested  for  debt  and  sent  to  Newgate,  where  she 
perished. 

(1719.)  The  governor,  in  the  beginning  of  the 
year  1718,  had  consented  to  an  impost  bill  which 
laid  a  duty  not  only  upon  West  India  goods,  wines, 
&c.,  but  also  upon  English  manufactures,  and  a  duty 
of  tonnage  upon  English  ships.  Before  the  session 
in  May,  the  next  year,  he  had  received  an  instruc- 
tion from  the  king  to  give  all  encouragement  to  the 
manufactures  of  Great  Britain.  The  house,  how- 
ever, passed  a  bill  of  the  same  tenor  with  that  of  last 
year,  and  sent  it  to  the  council  for  their  concurrence. 
An  amendment  was  proposed,  viz.,  to  leave  out  the 
duty  upon  English  vessels  and  goods,  but  the  house 
adhered  to  their  bill.  A  conference  ensued,  for  the 
house  was  not,  then,  so  exact  as  they  have  been 
since,  in  refusing  to  confer  upon  money  bills.  This 
produced  nothing  more  than  a  proposal  from  the 
house  to  alter  the  word  English  to  European,  which, 
being  trivial,  was  refused.  It  seems,  the  governor, 
a  little  out  of  time,  had  taken  the  opinion  of  the 
council  upon  this  question,  whether,  consistent  with 
his  instruction,  he  could  give  his  consent  to  the 
bill,  which  they  determined  he  could  not,  if  it 
should  be  offered  to  him.  The  house  then  tried  the 
council  with  the  following  resolve,  '"  The  house  in- 
sist on  their  vote,  forasmuch  as  the  royal  charter  of 
this  province  gives  power  to  the  government  to  im- 
pose and  levy  proportionable  and  reasonable  assess- 
ments, rates,  and  taxes  upon  the  estates  and  persons 
of  all  and  every  the  proprietors  and  inhabitants  of 
the  same,  which  this  government  has  been  in  the 
free  and  uninterrupted  exercise  of  ever  since  the 
enjoyment  of  the  said  charter."  Sent  to  the  upper 
house  for  their  concurrence.  The  upper  house  was 
a  new  name  for  the  council,  and  designed  as  a  fleer, 
and  to  intimate  that  they  might  consider  themselves 
in  another  capacity,  than  as  privy  council.  Perhaps 
if  Cromwell's  epithet  for  his  house  of  lords  had  come 
into  their  minds,  it  would  have  been,  the  other 
house.  Taunts  and  language  which  tend  to  irritate, 
can  upon  no  occasion  be  justifiable  from  one  branch 
of  the  legislature  to  the  other.  •  Upon  an  agreement 
and  harmony  the  interest  of  the  people  depends. 


314 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Upon  different  apprehensions  of  this  interest,  if  it 
be  the  real  object,  the  several  branches,  by  the  per- 
suasive voice  of  reason,  will  strive  to  convince  each 
other,  and  be  willing  to  be  convinced  as  truth  shall 
appear. 

The  council  thought  themselves  unkindly  treated; 
and,  by  a  message,  desired  the  house  to  alter  their 
vote,  but  they  refused  to  do  it,  and  gave  their  rea- 
sons for  the  new  form  "  The  house  have  received 
new  and  unusual  treatment  from  the  board.  1st,  It 
is  new  and  unusual  for  the  council  to  give  his  ex- 
cellency their  advice  upon  a  bill,  till  they  have 
acted  in  concert  with  the  house  in  concurring  or 
non-concurring.  2d,  It  is  likewise  new  and  unusual 
for  the  council  to  desire  a  free  conference,  upon  a 
subject  matter,  and  then,  at  the  management,  to 
inform  the  house  that  by  a  previous  vote  they  had 
so  far  engaged  themselves  that  they  could  not  re- 
cede from  it.  3d,  It  is  likewise  a  new  and  unusual 
method  for  the  honourable  board,  after  a  message  to 
the  house  during  several  amendments  to  a  bill  of 
rates  and  duties  which  were  in  a  great  measure 
agreed  to  by  the  house,  immediately  to  non-concur 
(he  bill.  4th,  It  is  likewise  new  and  unusual  for 
the  honourable  board  to  intermeddle  so  much  with 
the  grants  and  funds,  which  this  house  take  to  be 
their  peculiar  province." 

The  house  having  in  this  manner  expressed  their 
resentment,  returned  to  their  old  style,  and  then 
the  council,  by  message,  let  them  know  that  they 
would  not  give  their  concurrence  to  any  bill  laying 
a  duty  upon  European  goods,  denied  the  charge 
made  against  them  by  the  house,  of  innovations, 
and  intimated  that  any  further  messages  would  only 
tend  to  increase  the  misunderstanding  and  retard 
the  affairs  of  the  government,  and  desired  the  house, 
rather  to  join  W7ith  them  in  a  diligent  endeavour  to 
bring  the  session  to  such  a  conclusion,  as  should 
promote  his  majesty's  honour  and  the  interest  of  the 
province. 

Several  weeks  having  been  spent  in  these  alter- 
cations, the  governor  thought  it  time  to  interpose ; 
arid,  sending  for  the  house  to  the  council-chamber, 
he  made  the  following  mild  and  healing  speech  to 
them. 

"  Gentlemen, — My  design  for  sending  for  you  up 
at  this  time,  is  to  let  you  know  hoiv  concerned  I  am 
at  the  unhappy  misunderstandings  that  have  been 
for  many  years  between  the  council  and  your  house 
relating  to  the  impost  bill,  and  to  assure  you  that 
no  person  here  present  can  be  more  desirous  of 
preserving  the  privileges  of  this  people  than  myself, 
so  far  as  is  consistent  with  the  late  instructions  1 
have  received  from  my  royal  master,  which  have, 
by  his  special  directions,  been  laid  before  this  court. 
I  am  fully  persuaded,  that  to  act  any  way  contrary 
thereto,  after  the  many  debates  and  votes  which 
have  been  upon  that  head,  would  rather  destroy 
than  preserve  those  privileges  we  justly  prize. 
Gentlemen,  I  desire  your  earnest  consideration  of 
what  I  have  hinted ;  that  so  the  important  affairs  of 
the  province  yet  lying  before  you  may  have  a  speedy 
and  happy  conclusion." 

This  speech,  which,  a  year  or  two  after,  when  the 
prejudices  against  the  governor  were  at  the  height, 
would  have  been  excepted  to  as  irregular  and  anti- 
cipating matters,  which  it  would  have  been  time 
enough  for  the  governor  to  have  declared  his  sense 
of  when  they  came  to  be  laid  before  him,  had  now 
a  good  effect,  and  the  house,  the  same  day,  resolved 
that  a  new  impost  bill  should  be  brought  in,  and 
that  the  controverted  clause  in  the  former  bill 


should  be  left  out,  but  in  the  preamble  to  their  re- 
solve they  made  a  heavy  charge  against  the  council 
for  not  concurring  their  former  bill. 

"  Whereas  this  house  have  voted,  and  passed  a 
bill,  granting  to  his  majesty  several  rates  and  duties 
of  impost  and  tonnage  of  shipping,  in  which  was 
included  one  per  cent,  on  European  merchandize, 
for  which  article  or  clause  the  honourable  council 
have  several  times  non-concurred  the  said  bill,  not- 
withstanding all  proper  endeavours  have  been  used 
by  this  house  to  attain  the  same  which  have  hitherto 
proved  fruitless,  whereby  a  considerable  part  of  the 
revenue,  which  would  have  accrued  to  this  province, 
is  for  the  present  session  foregone ;  which  also  tends 
to  the  depriving  this  government  of  their  just  rights, 
powers,  and  privileges  granted  by  the  royal  charter, 
resolved,"  &c. 

The  council  were  fond  of  peace,  and,  as  soon  as 
this  resolve  came  to  their  knowledge,  they  sent  a 
message  to  the  house  desiring  they  would  not  print 
the  resolve  in  their  votes,  as  it  would  have  an  ill 
effect  and  would  oblige  the  council,  in  their  own 
vindication,  to  reply,  although  they  wished  that  all 
controversy,  between  the  two  houses,  might  cease. 
The  house  printed  it,  notwithstanding,  and  the  next 
day  the  council  sent  the  following  answer. 

"  The  board  are  very  much  concerned  to  find, 
among  the  votes  of  the  honourable  house,  a  decla- 
ration as  if  the  council  in  non-concurring  the  bill  of 
impost  as  it  was  first  framed,  had  done  that  whereby 
a  considerable  part  of  the  revenue,  which  would  have 
accrued  to  this  province,  is  for  the  present  session 
foregone;  which  also  tends  to  the  depriving  this 
government  of  their  just  rights,  powers,  and  privi- 
leges granted  by  the  royal  charter. 

"  This  declaration  contains,  or  implies,  such  a 
charge  as  the  council  can,  by  no  means,  suffer 
themselves  to  lie  under,  without  asserting  and  so- 
lemnly declaring  their  integrity,  and  they  are  more 
surprised,  at  the  imputation  of  doing  a  thing  which 
tends  to  deprive  this  government  of  their  just  rights, 
powers  and  privileges  granted  by  the  royal  charter; 
because,  on  the  23d  current,  the  board  sent  down  a 
message  to  the  honourable  house,  '  that  they  were 
always  ready  and  desirous  to  concur  with  the  ho- 
nourable house  of  representatives  in  such  proposals 
relating  to  an  impost,  as  may  not  tend  to  alter  or 
expose  our  present  happy  constitution  under  the 
royal  charter ;'  so  that  it  was  from  a  sincere  and 
ju&t  regard  to  the  rights,  powers,  and  privileges  of 
this  government  granted  by  the  royal  charter,  that 
the  council  chose  rather  to  omit  the  duty  of  one  per 
cent,  on  English  goods  for  this  session. 

"  That  the  council  apprehended  the  duty  of  on-e 
per  cent,  on  English  goods  affected  the  trade  of 
Great  Britain,  and  so  came  within  the  meaning  of 
his  majesty's  late  additional  instruction,  is  certain  : 
and,  being  of  that  opinion,  it  would  have  been  in- 
consistent for  the  board  to  concur  the  bill  of  impost 
as  it  was  sent  up ;  however,  they  can  boldly  and 
truly  say,  they  have  acted  from  a  principle  of  duty 
to  his  majesty,  love  and  fidelity  to  their  country, 
and  have  nothing  more  at  heart  than  the  just,  wise, 
and  careful  preservation  of  those  invaluable  rights, 
powers,  and  privileges  granted  by  the  royal  charter, 
which  God  long  continue." 

This  controversy  being  over,  the  court  was  pro- 
rogued. 

Before  the  next  sessions  in  November,  the  gover- 
nor received  a  reprimand  from  the  lords  justices, 
the  king  being  absent,  for  consenting  to  the  duty  on 
English  goods,  &c.  by  the  impost  act  in  1718.  Thifa. 


UNITED  STATES. 


315 


he  laid  before  the  court.  The  same  house,  which 
had  so  long  contended  with  the  council,  the  session 
before,  for  this  clause  in  the  bill,  now  "  readily  ac- 
knowledge the  exceptions  taken  to  it  are  just  and 
reasonable."  An  instruction  to  the  governor  to 
support  the  surveyor  of  the  woods  in  the  execution 
of  his  office,  which  was  communicated  to  the  house 
at  the  same  time,  was  not  so  favourably  received, 
and  in  an  answer  or  remonstrance  occasioned  by 
the  governor's  speech  they  charge  the  surveyor  with 
instances  of  very  gross  mal-conduct.  What  evi- 
dence they  had  of  it  does  not  now  fully  appear. 
The  governor,  by  a  message,  desired  that  they  would 
not  print  their  remonstrance.  They  sent  a  com- 
mittee to  acquaint  him,  they  must  insist  upon  the 
right  they  had  to  make  it  public.  He  made  a  very 
great  mistake,  and  told  the  committee,  that  his 
majesty  had  given  him  the  power  of  the  press,  and 
he  would  not  suffer  it  to  be  printed.  This  doctrine 
would  have  done  well  enough  in  the  reigns  of  the 
Stuarts.  In  the  present  age  it  is  justly  exception- 
able ;  although,  by  the  liberty  of  the  press,  we  are 
not  to  understand  a  liberty  of  printing  every  thing, 
however  criminal,  with  impunity.  The  house  had 
no  opportunity  to  take  notice  of  this  declaration. 
Upon  another  occasion  they  let  him  know  they  had 
not  forgot  it.  The  governor  was  so  displeased  with 
the  proceedings  of  the  house,  that  he  put  an  end  to 
the  session,  and  they  did  not  meet  again. 

(1720.)  We  are  now  arrived  to  the  memorable 
year  1720.  The  contests  and  dissentions  in  the  go- 
vernment rose  to  a  greater  height  than  they  had 
done  since  the  religious  feuds  in  the  years  1636  and 
1637. 

The  public  affairs,  in  general,  were  in  a  very  in- 
different state.  The  Indians  upon  the  eastern  fron- 
tiers were  continually  insulting  and  menacing  the 
English  inhabitants,  so  that  but  little  progress  had 
been  made  in  settling  the  country  since  the  peace, 
and,  this  year,  most  of  the  settlements  which  had 
been  begun  were  deserted,  and  a  new  war  was  every 
day  expected. 

The  trade  of  the  province  declined;  there  was  a 
general  cry  for  want  of  money,  and  yet  the  bills  of 
credit,  which  were  the  only  money,  were  daily  de- 
preciating; the  depreciation  was  grievous  to  all  cre- 
ditors, but  particularly  distressing  to  the  clergy  and 
other  salary  men,  to  widows  and  orphans  whose  es- 
tates consisted  of  money  at  interest,  perhaps  just 
enough  to  support  them,  and  being  reduced  to  one 
half  the  former  value,  they  found  themselves  on  a 
sudden  in  a  state  of  poverty  and  want;  executors 
and  administrators,  and  all  who  were  possessed  of 
the  effects  of  others  in  trust,  had  a  strong  tempta- 
tion to  retain  them;  the  influence  a  bad  currency 
has  upon  the  morals  of  the  people  is  greater  than  is 
generally  imagined.  Numbers  of  schemes,  for  pri- 
vate and  public  emissions  of  bills,  were  proposed  as 
remedies,  the  only  effectual  one,  the  utter  abolition 
of  the  bills,  was  omitted. 

By  these  calamities,  the  minds  of  the  people  were 
prepared  for  impressions  from  pamphlets,  courants, 
and  other  newspapers,  which  were  frequently  pub- 
lished, in  order  to  convince  them,  that  their  civil 
liberties  and  privileges  were  struck  at,  and  that  a 
general  union  was  necessary.  These  did  not  pass 
without  answers,  attributing  all  the  distress  in  public 
affairs  to  the  wrath  and  resentment,  the  arts  and 
sinister  views,  of  a  few  particular  persons ;  but  the 
voice  of  the  people  in  general  was  against  the  go- 
vernor. In  the  mother  country,  when  disputes  arise 
between  the  branches  of  the  legislature  upon  their  re- 


spective rights,  parties  are  formed  and  the  body  of 
the  people  are  divided;  for  in  a  well  constituted  go- 
vernment it  is  of  importance  to  the  people  that  the 
share,  even  of  the  popular  part  of  the  constitution, 
should  not  be  unduly  raised  to  the  suppression  of 
the  monarchical  or  aristocratical  parts.  From  a 
regard  to  the  common  interest,  therefore,  in  a  dis- 
pute concerning  prerogative  and  privilege,  the  peo- 
ple, ordinarily,  are  divided  in  sentiment.  The  rea- 
son is  obvious  why  it  is  less  frequently  so  in  a 
colony.  There,  the  people,  in  general,  consider  the 
prerogative  as  an  interest;  without  them,  separate 
and  distinct  from  the  interior  interest  of  the  colony: 
this  takes  their  attention  from  the  just  proportion  of 
weight  due  to  each  branch  in  the  constitution,  and 
causes  a  bias  in  favour  of  the  popular  art.  For  the 
same  reason,  men  fond  of  popular  applause  are  more 
sure  of  success,  with  less  degree  of  part,  in  a  colony, 
than  in  a  state  not  so  connected:  and,  consequently, 
men  who  with  unbiassed  judgments,  discern  and 
have  virtue  enough  to  pursue  the  real  interest  of 
their  country,  are  more  likely  to  be  reproached  arid 
vilified. 

The  first  act  of  the  house  of  representatives  was 
the  choice  of  Mr.  Cooke  for  their  speaker.  A  com- 
mittee was  sent  to  the  governor  at  his  house,  to  ac- 
quaint him  with  the  choice.  They  reported,  at  their 
return,  that  his  excellency  said,  '.'  it  was  very  well.' 
In  the  afternoon,  the  governor,  being  in  council, 
sent  the  secretary  to  acquaint  the  house,  that  he  was 
now  in  the  chair  and  ready  to  receive  their  message, 
respecting  the  choice  of  a  speaker.  They  sent  back 
an  answer,  that  his  excellency,  upon  being  informed 
of  the  choice  in  the  morning,  had  said  "  it  was  very 
well,"  and  they  had  recorded  his  answer  in  the  books 
of  the  house.  The  governor  replied,  that  he  would 
receive  no  message  from  the  house  but  when  he  was 
in  the  chair.  The  house  then  proposed,  by  message, 
to  the  council,  to  join  with  them  in  the  business  of 
the  day,  the  choice  of  counsellors;  b.ut  upon  the  go- 
vernor's telling  their  committee,  who  carried  up  the 
message,  that  no  election  should  be  made  until  he 
was  acquainted  who  was  chosen  speaker,  the  house 
sent  a  new  committee  to  acquaint  him  with  the 
choice  they  had  made.  The  governor  replied  to 
this  committee,  that  Mr.  Cooke  had  treated  him  ill 
as  the  king's  governor,  and,  therefore,  according  to 
the  power  given  him  by  the  royal  charter,  he  nega- 
tived the  choice,  and  desired  they  would  proceed  to 
choose  another  person.  They  sent  back  their  an- 
swer, that  they  had  chosen  a  speaker,  according  to 
their  known  and  legal  privileges,  and  therefore  in- 
sisted upon  the  choice,  and  at  the  same  time  they 
renewed  their  motion  to  the  council  to  join  with 
them  in  the  election.  The  governor  told  the  com- 
mittee, that  he  had  received  a  message  from  the 
house,  acquainting  him  with  the  choice  they  had 
made  of  a  speaker,  which  choice  had  been  negatived 
and  he  was  no  speaker.  Upon  this,  the  house  sent 
their  committee  to  the  board  to  acquaint  them,  that 
two  messages  having  been  sent  to  propose  to  the 
board  to  join  in  the  choice  of  counsellors  and  no 
answer  having  been  given,  they  now  desired  to  know 
whether  the  board  would  join  in  the  election  or  not. 

If  there  had  been  any  further  delay  on  the  part  of 
the  board,  it  is  very  probable,  the  house  would  have 
proceeded  without  them,  which  must  have  increased 
the  perplexity.  The  governor,  therefore,  left  the 
board,  having'  first  charged  the  secretary  with  the 
following  message  to  the  house,  "  His  excellency 
orders  me  to  acquaint  you,  he  is  informed  that  go- 
vernor Dudley  did,  in  the  time  of  his  government, 


316 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


disallow  of  a  speaker  chosen  by  the  house,  and  that 
his  proceedings  therein  were  approved  by  the  com- 
missioners of  trade  and  plantations,  a-nd  that  he  was 
thereupon  directed  by  the  said  commissioners  to  ac- 
quaint the  council,  that  it  would  not  be  thought  fit 
tha-t  her  majesty's  right  of  having  a  negative  upon 
the  choice  of  a  speaker  be  given  up,  which  was  re- 
served to  her  majesty,  as  well  by  the  charter,  as  by 
the  constitution  of  England." 

Notwithstanding  the  warm  disputes,  in  the  pre- 
ceding year,  between  the  two  houses,  only  one  new 
counsellor  was  chosen,  John  Burrill,  Esq.,  of  Lynn, 
who  had  been  many  years  speaker  of  the  house,  but 
this  year  was  sent  to  the  board,  in  the  room  of  Mr. 
Higginson.  His  temperate  spirit,  until  now,  had 
engaged  the  whole  house  in  his  favour,  and,  from 
year  to  year,  procured  him  a  general  vote,  but  this 
year  the  house  were  willing  to  part  with  him  for  a 
gentleme-n  obnoxious  to  the  governor,  which  mea- 
sure, it  was  easy  to  foresee,  must  give  a  further  oc- 
casion of  controversy. 

Two  of  the  new  elected  counsellors  were  nega- 
tived, Nathaniel  Byfield,  who  had  been  soliciting  in 
England  for  the  government  when  Colonel  Shute 
was  appointed,  and  John  Clark,  who  was  a  person 
of  many  valuable  qualities,  and  obnoxious,  only,  for 
being  strongly  attached  to  Mr.  Cooke,  and  having 
been  a  great  supporter  of  the  cause. 

After  the  election,  the  governor  made  a  further 
attempt  to  bring  the  house  to  a  compliance  by  the 
following  speech.  "  Gentlemen.  At  the  opening 
of  this  session  you  thought  fit  to  make  choice  of 
Elisha  Gooke,  Esq.  for  your  speaker;  and,  upon 
reporting  of  it  to  me,  I  did  declare  my  disacceptance 
of  that  election,  and  am  firm  in  my  opinion  that  I 
had  good  right  so  to  do,  by  virtue  of  his  majesty's 
commission,  and  the  powers  reserved  by  the  royal 
charter,  and  am  also  confirmed  in  it,  by  what  I  find 
transacted  by  the  late  governor  Dudley,  during  his 
administration,  and  also  by  the  opinion  of  the  right 
honourable  the  lords  of  trade  and  plantations  in  that 
matter.  I  must  further  observe  to  you,  that  the 
person  you  have  chosen  had  invaded  the  king  my 
my  master's  rights  in  the  woods  of  the  province  of 
Main,  though  confirmed  to  his  majesty  by  an  act  of 
the  British  parliament,  and  I  have  received  the 
thanks  of  the  right  honourable  the  lords  of  trade 
and  plantations  for  removing  him  out  of  the  coun- 
cil. He  has  ill  treated  me,  who  am  the  king's  go- 
vernor, and  has  been  censured  by  the  council  for  it, 
which  stands  upon  record  in  the  council  books. 
How  acceptable  this  matter  will  be,  at  home,  consi- 
dering the  warning  we  have  lately  had  from  the 
court  of  Great  Britain  upon  the  account  of  passing 
the  impost  bill,  will  be  worthy  of  your  serious  re- 
flection. These  things  I  thought  necessary  to  ac- 
quaint you  with,  and  advise  you  to  return  to  your 
house  and  choose  some  other  person  speaker,  with  a 
reservation  of  your  own  rights,  until  you  shall  send 
to  the  court  of  Great  Britain  for  the  explanation  of 
that  part  of  your  charter,  relating  to  the  affair  of  a 
speaker." 

The  house,  immediately  upon  their  return  to  their 
chamber,  entered  into  a  debate  upon  this  speech, 
and  the  question  being  put,  whether,  for  the  reasons 
assigned  by  his  excellency,  the  house  will  proceed 
to  the  choice  of  a  new  speaker,  it  passed  in  the  ne- 
gative, nemine  contradicente. 

The  governor  gave  them  no  opportunity  to  pro- 
ceed on  any  other  business,  for  the  next  day  he  sent 
for  them  up  again,  and,  after  another  speech,  dis- 
solved the  court.  "  Gentlemen.  Out  of  a  tender 


regard  I  have  for  the  welfare  of  this  province,  I 
shall  give  you  the  following  advice  before  we  part; 
that  when  it  shall  please  God  we  meet  again  in  a 
general  assembly,  which  shall  be  as  soon  as  possi- 
ble, you  will  not  let  this  province  suffer  by  the  per- 
verse temper  of  a  particular  person,  but  that  you 
will  choose  one  for  a  speaker  that  has  no  other  view 
but  that  of  the  public  good,  one  that  fears  God  and 
honours  the  king.  It  is  irksome  and  disagreeable 
to  me  to  dissolve  an  assembly,  but  as  matters  now 
stand,  I  am  forced  to  do  it,  or  must  give  up  the 
king,  my  master's  prerogative,  which  nothing  shall 
ever  oblige  me  to  do,  who  am  the  king's  governor. 
Gentlemen,  I  do  not  think  it  for  the  honour  of  his 
majesty's  government  that  this  assembly  should  sit 
any  longer,  and  therefore  I  shall  dissolve  you." 

Writs  were  issued  for  a  new  assembly",  to  meet 
the  13th  of  July.  The  governor  had  no  great  rea- 
son to  hope  for  a  more  favourable  house.  The 
people,  in  general,  thought  their  privileges  were  at- 
tacked. The  charter  indeed  was  silent  upon  this 
point.  In  a  dispute,  between  the  crown  and  the 
house  of  commons  in  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Se- 
cond, an  expedient  was  found  which  seemed  to  avoid 
the  acknowledgment  of  the  right  of  the  crown  to 
refuse  a  speaker,  but  a  provincial  law  was  princi- 
pally relied  upon  which  declares  "  that  the  repre- 
sentatives assembled  in  any  great  and  general  court 
shall  be  the  sole  judges  of  elections  and  qualifica- 
tions of  their  own  members,  and  may  from  time  to 
time  settle,  order,  and  purge  their  own  house,  and 
make  such  necessary  orders  for  the  due  regulation 
thereof  as  they  shall  see  occasion."  Whether  the 
legislators  had  in  contemplation  the  right  of  the 
house  to  ckoose  a  speaker,  exempt  from  the  gover- 
nor's negative,  might  well  be  questioned ;  but  it 
was  urged  that  the  due  regulation  of  the  house 
might  very  well  include  this  right. 

The  towns,  in  general,  sent  the  former  members. 
Boston  discovered  how  they  stood  affected  by  leaving 
out  Mr.  Tay,  who  was  one  of  those  persons  who 
serve  upon  a  pinch,  when  a  favourite  cannot  be  car- 
ried by  a  party,  to  stop  the  gap,  and  prevent  an 
opposite  candidate ;  and  he  came  in  several  times 
upon  such  occasions.  In  his  room,  the  town  now 
chose  Mr.  Clark,  the  negatived  counsellor. 

The  house  was  willing  to  sit  and  do  business, 
which  the  choice  of  the  former  speaker  would  have 
prevented.  They  therefore  pitched  upon  a  person 
less  attached  to  party,  Timothy  Lindall,  one  of  the 
representatives  of  Salem,  to  whom  no  exception  was 
taken.  The  governor,  in  his  speech,  recommended 
a  peaceable  session,  but  the  house  could  not  forget 
the  late  dissolution.  They  began  with  a  warm  mes- 
sage or  remonstrance  to  the  governor,  in  which  they 
tell  him,  "  the  last  assembly  took  no  great  pleasure 
in  being  dissolved,  before  they  had  gone  through 
the  usual  necessary  business  ;  their  asserting  and 
maintaining  their  just  right  and  ancient  privilege  of 
choosing  their  speaker,  and  not  owning  his  excel- 
lency's power  to  negative  him,  was  nothing  but  what 
they  were  strictly  obliged  to  ;  and  the  new  house  are 
humbly  of  opinion,  that  whoever  was  of  advice  to 
his  excellency,  in  the  matter,  did  not  consult  his 
majesty's  interest,  nor  the  public  weal  and  quiet  of 
the  government,  but  officiously  endeavoured  to  beget 
unhappy  misunderstandings  between  his  excellency 
and  the  house,  and  break  off  that  desirable  harmonv 
which  every  one  ought  to  keep  up ;  we  earnestly 
hope  and  desire  the  province  may  never  have  an 
assembly  that  will  willingly  forego  such  a  valuable 
privilege  as  King  William  and  Queen  Mary,  of  ever 


UNITED  STATES. 


317 


blessed  memory  graciously  favoured  the  province 
v/ith,  when  they  gave  their  royal  assent  to  a  law, 
directing  and  governing  that  affair." 

All  the  subsequent  proceedings  of  this  short  session 
shew  how  much  the  house  was  out  of  temper.  An 
Indian  war  used  to  be  universally  dreaded.  To 
prevent  it,  the  governor  and  council  had  been  treat- 
ing with  three  of  the  Penobscot  tribe,  who  were  sent 
for  or  came  to  Boston,  and  the  house  were  desired 
to  make  a  grant  for  a  present  to  them,  but  by  a  vote 
they  refused  to  do  it.  Some  time  after,  they  order- 
ed a  small  sum,  ten  pounds  only.  To  the  contro- 
versy with  the  governor,  and  the  opposition  made  to 
the  proposals  which  came  from  him,  the  war,  which 
soon  after  broke  out,  was,  by  the  governor's  friends, 
attributed. 

There  had  been  no  public  notaries  in  the  province, 
except  such  as  derived  their  authority  from  the  arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury.  The  house  now  first  observ- 
ed, that  a  notary  public  was  a  civil  officer,  which  by 
the  charter  was  to  be  chosen  by  the  general  court, 
and  sent  a  message  desiring  the  council  to  join  with 
the  house  in  the  choice  of  such  an  officer  in  each 
part  of  the  province.  To  all  instruments  which 
were  sent  abroad,  not  only  the  attestation  of  the  no- 
tary himself  would  be  necessary,  but  a  certificate 
under  the  province  seal,  to  shew  the  authority  to 
attest;  the  council  therefore  took  time  to  consider 
of  the  expediency  of  appointing  such  an  officer,  and 
referred  the  matter  to  the  next  session,  but  the 
house  immediately  proceeded  and  chose  the  officers 
by  their  owr  votes.  The  arguments,  to  prove  that 
an  officer  to  be  chose  by  the  whole  court  could  de- 
rive an  authority  from  the  majority  of  the  members 
of  the  house  of  representatives,  have  not  been  pre- 
served. 

Being  offended  with  the  council,  the  house  sent  a 
message  desiring  "  that  considering  the  low  circum- 
stances of  the  province,  no  draught  be  made  upon 
the  treasury  for  expenses,  at  times  of  public  rejoic- 
ing, for  the  future." 

It  had  been  usual  to  make  a  grant  to  the  governor 
for  the  salary  of  half  the  year,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  session:  the  house  deferred  it  until  the  close, 
and  then  reduced  it  from  five  to  six  hundred  pounds, 
although  the  currency  was  depreciated.  To  the 
lieut-governor  they  used  to  make  a  present,  once  a 
year,  never  less  than  fifty  pounds,  they  now  reduced 
it  to  thirty-five.  Mr.  Dummer  had  so  much  spirit, 
that  he  inclosed  the  vote  in  a  letter  to  the  speaker, 
acquainting  him  that  "  having  the  honour  to  bear 
the  king's  commission  for  lieut.-governor  of  the  pro- 
vince, and  having  been  annually  more  than  fifty 
pounds  out  of  pocket  in  that  service,  he  did  not 
think  it  for  his  honour  to  accept  of  their  grant." 

The  governor  took  no  public  notice  of  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  house.  On  the  23d  of  July  he  put 
an  end  to  the  session. 

During  the  recess  of  the  court  (August  7th)  a 
part  of  the  eastern  Indians  fell  upon  Canso,  within 
the  province  of  Nova-Scotia,  but  peopled  every  sum- 
mer from  the  Massachusetts.  The  Indians  surprised 
the  English  in  their  beds  and  stripped  them  of  every 
thing,  telling  them  they  came  to  carry  away  what 
they  could  find  upon  their  own  land.  Three  or  four 
of  the  English  were  killed.  Some  of  the  French  of 
Cape  Breton  were  in  confederacy,  and  came  vith 
their  vessels,  the  next  night,  and  carried  off  the 
plunder,  together  with  about  2,000  quintals  of 
fish.  The  English  vessels  in  the  harbour  were  not 
attempted.  A  sloop  happening  to  arrive  the  next 
day,  the  master  offered  his  service  to  go  out  and 


make  reprisals,  and  being  furnished  with  a  number 
of  men,  and  two  or  three  small  vessels  for  his  con- 
sorts, for  want  of  more  ample  authority,  he  took  a 
commission  from  one  Thomas  Richards,  a  Canso 
justice,  and  went  after  the  French,  and  soon  brought 
in  six  or  seven  small  fishing  vessels,  having  all  of 
them  more  or  less  of  the  English  property  aboard. 

Mr.  Henshaw,  of  Boston,  a  principal  merchant  at 
Canso,  went  to  Louisbourg  with  a  complaint  to  the 
French  governor,  who  excused  himself  from  inter- 
meddling, the  Indians  not  being  French  subjects, 
nor  under  his  controul.  The  French  prisoners  were 
sent  to  Annapolis-royal.  The  loss  sustained  by  the 
English,  was  estimated  at  twenty  thousand  pounds 
currency. 

The  fears  of  the  people,  in  the  eastern  parts  of 
the  Massachusetts,  were  increased  by  this  stroke 
upon  Canso.  In  a  short  time  after  the  cattle  were 
destroyed  and  the  lives  of  the  owners  threatened. 
The  governor  was  still  desirous  of  preserving  peace, 
and,  by  the  advice  of  counsel,  sent  orders  to  Colonel 
Walton,  the  commanding  officer  of  such  forces  as 
upon  the  alarm  had  been  sent  there,  to  inform  the 
Indians,  that  commissioners  should  be  sent  to  treat 
with  them.  The  Indians  liked  the  proposal  and 
promised  to  attend  the  treaty. 

Before  the  time  appointed  the  general  court  met, 
and  the  house  passed  a  resolve,  "  that  150  effective 
men,  under  suitable  officers,  be  forthwith  ordered  to 
march  up  to  Norridgewock,  and  compel  the  Indians 
that  shall  be  found  there,  or  in  other  those  parts,  to 
make  full  satisfaction  for  the  damage  they  have 
done  the  English,  by  killing  their  swine  and  sheep 
or  carrying  them  away;  or  stealing  provisions,  cloth- 
ing, or  any  other  way  wronging  them:  and  that  a 
warrant  be  directed  to  Capt.  John  Leighton,  high 
sheriff  of  the  county  of  York,  who  is  to  accompany 
the  forces  for  the  apprehending  and  safe  bringing 
Mr.  Ralle  to  Boston,  who  is  at  present  resident 
at  or  near  Norridgewock,  in  Kennebeck  river,  in 
this  province;  and,  if  he  be  not  to  be  found,  that 
then  the  sheriff  direct  and  command  the  Indians 
there,  or  in  the  parts  adjacent,  to  bring  in  and  sur- 
render up  the  Jesuit  to  him  the  sheriff;  and,  upon 
their  refusal  to  comply  with  either  of  the  said  de- 
mands, that  the  commanding  officer  is  to  take  the 
best  and  most  effectual  way  to  apprehend  and  secure 
the  Indians  so  refusing,  and  safe  conduct  them  to 
Boston.". 

The  governor  looked  upon  this  resolve  to  be,  in 
effect,  a  declaration  of  war  and  an  invasion  of  the 
prerogative;  it  necessarily  prevented  a  treaty  he 
had  agreed  to  hold  with  the  Indians,  aud  a  new  war 
must  be  the  consequence  oi  such  a  measure.  The 
council  were  fond  of  peace,  and  when  the  resolve 
was  sent  to  them  for  concurrence,  they  rejected  it. 
The  house  were  less  averse  to  war.  The  charge  of 
carrying  it  on,  it  was  said,  would  be  no  burden  to 
the  province;  the  French,  now,  durst  not  join  the 
Indians,  and  this  would  be  the  most  favourable  op- 
portunity which  could  be  expected  to  subdue  or  ut- 
terly extirpate  them.  That  the  charge  should  be 
no  burden  seems  to  be  a  paradox,  but  a  wild  opi- 
nion had  filled  the  minds  of  great  part  of  the  people 
of  the  province,  that,if  tills  of  credit  could  be  issued, 
the  advantage  to  trade  would  be  so  great,  that  the 
taxes  by  which,  at  distant  periods,  they  were  to  be 
drawn  in  again  would  not  be  felt.  Many  schemes 
of  public  expense  were  projected,  and,  among  the 
rest,  a  bridge  over  Charles  river,  broader  and  much 
deeper  than  the  Thames  at  London  or  Westminster. 

The  public  records  of  the  general  court  are  al- 


518 


TH-E  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


ways  open  to  the  inspection  of  uu\  of  the  members, 
but,  that  the  house  might  have  them  under  their 
more  immediate  view  and  charge,  they  passed  a 
vote,  that  the  secretary  should  make  duplicates  of 
all  public  records,  and  that  one  set  should  be  lodged , 
in  such  place  as  the  house  should  appoint.  The 
council,  willing  to  have  duplicates  for  greater  se- 
curity, concurred  with  an  amendment,  viz.,  in  such 
place  as  the  general  assembly  should  direct,  but 
this  amendment  the  house  rejected. 

The  house,  finding  the  council  a  bar  to  their  at- 
tempts, resolved,  in  oae  instance,  to  act  by  them- 
selves. There  was  a  complaint  or  suggestion,  that 
false  musters  were  made  by  some  of  the  officers  in 
the  pay  of  the  province.  The  house  taking  the 
affair  into  considera^-on  resolved,  "that  one  or  more 
meet  persons  be  appointed  by  this  house  clerk  of 
the  check,  who  shall,  from  time  to  time,  have  an 
inspection  into  the  forts,  garrisons,  and  forces,  and 
take  care  that  every  one  have  their  compliment  of 
men;  and  the  better  to  enable  them  to  execute  the 
trust  reposed  in  them,  that  when  and  so  often  as  they 
shall  see  reason,  the  commanders  of  the  forts,  gar- 
risons, and  captains  of  any  of  the  companies  in  the 
pay  of  this  government,  shall  call  forth  their  men 
before  them,  and,  if  any  do  not  appear,  the  com- 
manding officer  to  give  the  reason  of  such  absent 
men ;  and  that  no  muster  roll  shall  be  accepted 
and  paid  by  the  treasurer,  unless  approved  of  by  the 
clerk  of  the  check."  The  governor  did  not  intend 
to  admit  this  officer,  appointed  by  the  house,  into 
the  forts,  garrisons,  &c.,  which,  by  the  charter,  the 
crown  had  reserved  to  the  governor,  but  he  kept 
silent. 

To  another  act  of  the  house  the  council  took  ex- 
ception. A  message  was  sent  by  the  house  to  the 
council  to  let  them  know  they  had  appointed  a 
committee  to  prepare  a  bill  for  levying  soldiers, 
"  taking  it  to  be  their  peculiar  care."  Lest  it 
should  be  understood  that  this  was  to  exclude  the 
council  from  concurring  or  non-concurring  such 
bill,  or  from  advising  to  the  levying  soldiers  upon 
an  emergency  in  the  recess  of  the  court,  the  coun- 
cil desired  the  house  to  withdraw  those  words, 
"  taking  it  to  be  their  peculiar  care,"  which  they 
agreed  to. 

At  this  session,  the  house,  again,  withhelu  one 
hundred  pounds  from  the  governor's  usual  half 
year's  salary.  He  had  passed  it  over  without  notice 
before,  but  now  he  thought  it  proper  to  lay  before 
them  a  royal  instruction  to  recommend  to  the  as- 
sembly to  establish  a  sufficient  allowance  for  him  by 
a  fixed  salary.  They  sent  him  a  reply,  "  that  they 
humbly  conceived  what  was  granted  him  was  an 
honourable  allowance,  and  the  affair  of  settling  sa- 
laries being  a  matter  of  great  weight,  and  wholly 
new  to  the  house,  and  many  of  the  members  absent, 
they  did  not  think  it  proper  to  enter  upon  the  con- 
sideration of  it,  but  desired  the  court  might  rise." 
The  governor  complied  with  their  request.  The 
Massachusetts  province  afforded  subject  for  some 
part  of  the  madness  of  the  people  of  England  in 
this  remarkable  year.  Waste  lands  have  an  ima- 
ginary value  set  upon  them,  sometimes  higher, 
sometimes  lower,  and  continually  afforded  subject  for 
bubbles  among  themselves.  Mr.  Dummer  raised  a 
bubble  from  the  eastern  lands,  but  had  not  time  foi 
any  very  great  success.  We  give  his  letter,  as  a 
specimen  of  this  kind  of  transaction  : — 

"  It  remains  now  that  I  give  an  account  to  the 
general  court  of  a  very  considerable  undertaking 
which  I  set  on  foot,  and  have  been  carrying  on  foi 


everal  month's  past  in  hopes  to  procure  thereby 
many  great  advantages  to  the  province.  I  have 
>rojected  a  scheme  to  raise  hemp  and  flax  in  the 
'astern  frontiers  of  the  province  of  Main  for  the 
upply  of  this  kingdom.  In  order  to  accomplish 
his  design,  I  proposed  that  the  lands  between  St. 
Droix  and  Penobscot  should  be  granted  to  the  un- 
dertakers and  their  assigns  by  the  crown.,  and  that 
hey  should  also  have  a  charter  of  incorporation, 
with  all  reasonable  privileges  and  advantages  al- 
"owed  them. 

"  I  set  myself  heartily  to  work,  and,  that  I  might, 
ay  a  good  foundation,  I  chose  seventeen  managers 
for  the  carrying  it  on,  who  are  all  persons  of  great 
distinction,  and  attend  diligently  upon  the  business 
at  every  meeting.  My  Lord  Harrington  is  one,  and 
Colonel  Bladen,  of  the  board  of  trade,  is  another, 
and  Alderman  Bailis,  a  commissioner  of  the  cus- 
:oms,  is  a  third.  The  rest  are  either  men  of  note 
and  figure  in  parliament,  as  Mr.  Young,  first  com- 
missioner for  stating  the  accounts  of  the  army,  or 
eminent  citizens,  as  Sir  Justus  Beck,  who  is  one  of 
the  greatest  merchants  in  the  kingdom.  Being 
thus  strong,  I  had  no  reason  to  take  notice  of  Goram 
and  friends,  or  to  have  any  apprehensions  of  what 
they  were  doing,  or  capable  of  doing  against  me; 
yet,  for  quietness  sake,  I  sent  them  word  that,  if 
they  would  withdraw  their  petition,  and  give  me  no 
more  trouble,  they  should  find  an  account  of  profit 
from  this  undertaking,  beyond  what  they  could  ever 
expect,  if  it  were  to  be  under  their  own  conduct. 
Coram  immediately  submitted  to  my  petition,  but 
when  he  afterwards  was  told  that  I  had  left  out  of 
my  petition  the  tract  of  land  between  Kennebeck 
and  Penobscot,  he  ran  about  in  a  mad  rage,  de- 
claring he  would  rather  starve  than  come  into  it, 
and  that  the  whole  design  was  only  a  trick  in  me 
to  save  that  fine  country  for  the  villainous  people 
of  New  England. — I  have  therefore  since  treated 
and  agreed  with  his  partners  and  patrons  by  whose 
interest  he  was  supported,  so  that  Coram  is  now 
entirely  dropped,  and  I  have  no  opposition. 

"  Nevertheless,  it  is  the  opinion  of  the  managers 
to  rest  a  little  till  the  ministry  has  quelled  the  great 
number  of  companies  that  are  erected  every  day  in 
defiance  of  the  late  act  of  parliament,  and  are  so 
offensive  to  the  government,  that  the  best  scheme  in 
the  world  would  suffer  some  disgrace  by  appearing 
at  this  time.  I  have  only  to  add,  that  I  have  re- 
served twenty  thousand  pounds  of  the  subscription 
for  the  use  and  benefit  of  the  province;  which, 
when  the  time  comes,  I  will  put  in  the  name  of 
proper  trustees  for  that  end." 

(1721.)  At  the  opening  the  next  session  (March 
15th),  the  governor,  in  his  speech,  recommended 
measures  to  prevent  the  depreciation  of  the  currency, 
to  suppress  a  trade  carried  on  with  the  French  at 
Cape  Breton,  and  to  punish  the  authors  of  factious 
and  seditious  papers,  to  provide  a  present  for  the 
five  nations,  and  to  enlarge  his  salary. 

They  refused,  directly  or  virtually,  every  propo- 
sal. To  the  first  the  house  tell  him,  in  their  an- 
swer, "  they  had  passed  a  bill  for  issuing  one  hun- 
dred thousand  pounds  more  in  bills  of  credit.  This, 
alone,  had  a  direct  tendency  to  increase  the  mis- 
chief, but  th<?y  add  that  "  to  prevent  their  depreci- 
ation they  had  prohibited  the  buying,  selling,  and 
bartering  silver,  at  any  higher  rate  than  set  by  act 
of  parliament.  This  certainly  could  have  no  ten- 
dency to  lessen  it."  Such  an  act  can  no  more  be 
executed  than  an  act  to  stop  the  ebbing  and  flowing 
of  the  sea.  It  would  probably  carry  away  and  keep 


UNITED  STATES. 


319 


out  all  silver  und  gold.  The  depreciation  of  their 
currency  would,  notwithstanding,  havebeen  as  visible 
by  the  rise  of  exchange  with  foreign  countries,  and 
as  sensibly  felt  by  every  creditor  among  them- 
selves. To  his  other  roposals  they  say,  "  they 


know  of  no  trade  carried  on  by  any  people  of  the 
province  with  Cape  Breton,  and  do  not  think  any 
law  to  prevent  a  trade  there  is  necessary  ;  and  for 
seditious  and  scandalous  papers,  the  best  way  to 
suppress  or  prevent  them  is,  for  the  executive  part 
of  the  government  to  bring  the  authors  to  condign 
punishment  ;  and  if  proper  measures  had  been  taken 
to  discover  and  punish  the  authors  of  a  libel  called 
News  from  Robinson  Crusoe's  Island,  wherein  the 
members  of  the  house  are  grossly  reflected  upon, 
few  or  none  would  have  dared,  afterwards,  to  pub- 
lish any  thing  of  that  nature  or  tendency,  but  to 
suffer  no  books  to  be  printed  without  license  from 
the  governor  will  be  attended  with  innumerable 
inconveniences  and  danger;  as  to  the  five  nations, 
the  house  do  not  know  enough  of  their  number,  nor 
what  the  other  governments  intend  to  give,  and, 
therefore,  cannot  judge  what  is  proper  for  them  to 
do;  and  for  the  allowance  to  the  governor,  they 
think  it  as  much  as  the  honour  and  service  of  the 
government  calls  for,  and  believe  the  inhabitants  of 
the  several  towns  through  the  province  are  of  the 
same  mind." 

There  never  had  been  an  instance  of  any  gover- 
nor's refusing  or  neglecting,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
year,  to  appoint  a  fast,  in  conformity  to  the  prac- 
tice of  the  country,  but  the  house  now  endeavoured 
to  anticipate  the  governor,  and  appointed  a  com- 
mittee to  join  with  a  committee  of  council  to  pre- 
pare a  proclamation  for  a  public  fast.  The  council 
refused  to  join,  and  acquainted  the  house  they  could 
find  no  precedent;  but  the  house  replied  that,  if 
such  days  had  not  the  sanction  of  the  whole  court, 
people  would  not  be  liable  to  punishment  for  work- 
ing or  playing.  The  governor,  willing  to  conform 
to  the  house  so  far  as  would  consist  with  maintain- 
ing his  right  of  issuing  proclamations,  mentioned 
in  the  proclamation  which  he  soon  after  published, 
that  the  appointment  was  by  advice  of  council,  and 
upon  a  motion  from  the  house  of  representatives  ; 
but  the  house  refused  to  meet  him  and  declared  they 
had  never  made  any  such  motion  ;  and  ordered  that 
no  members  of  the  house  should  carry  any  procla- 
mations to  their  towns,  for  the  present.  The  day 
was,  however,  observed  as  usual,  except  that  one  of 
the  representatives  of  Boston  would  not  attend  the 
public  worship,  but  opened  his  warehouse  as  upon 
other  days. 

Certain  persons  had  cut  pine  trees  upon  that  part 
of  the  province  of  Main  which  had  been  granted  by 
the  general  court  as  private  property.  A  deputy  to 
the  surveyor  of  the  woods  gave  licence  to  cut  the 
trees,  as  belonging  to  the  king.  The  house  ap- 
pointed a  committee  to  join  with  a  committee  of 
council,  which  joint  committee  were  to  seize  and 
secure  for  the  province,  the  same  logs  which  had 
been  cut  by  licence.  The  council  concurred  with  a 
"  saving  to  his  majesty  all  such  rights  as  are  reserv- 
ed by  the  royal  charter,  and  acts  of  parliament,  to 
trees  of  the  royal  navy." 

The  house  desired  this  saving  might  be  with- 
drawn, not  that  they  apprehended  the  reservation 
made  in  the  charter,  or  the  provision  by  act  of  par- 
liament, were  of  no  force;  but  they  alleged  that 
the  trees  they  designed  to  seize  were  cut  by  one  de- 
puted by  the  deputy  of  the  surveyor  of  woods,  and 
cut  not  for  the  royal  navy,  but  for  other  uses,  and 


therefore  they  did  not  come   within   reason  of  thf 
reservation  or  provision. 

Finally,  upon  the  council's  refusing  to  join,  the 
house  appointed  a  committee  of  their  own  to  seize 
the  logs,  and  directed  the  attorney-general  to  prose- 
cute those  who  had  trespassed  and  made  spoil  upon 
the  province  lands.  After  they  were  seized,  the 
house  again  desired  the  council  to  concur  a  vote  or 
order  for  securing  and  converting  the  logs  to  the 
benefit  of  the  province.  This,  without  any  judicial 
determination,  was  still  more  irregular,  and  the 
council  declined  meddling  with  them. 

As  the  time  approached  for  issuing  writs  for  a 
new  assembly,  the  governor  made  the  following 
speech  to  them,  before  their  dissolution: — 

"  Gentlemen  of  the  house  of  representatives  :  In 
my  speech  at  the  beginning  of  the  session,  I  gave 
you  the  reasons  of  my  meeting  you  at  this  time.  I 
have  since  received  your  answer,  which  I  shall  take 
care  to  transmit  by  the  first  conveyance,  that  his 
majesty  may  see,  not  only  how  his  governor  of  this 
province  is  treated  and  supported,  but  what  sort  of 
regard  is  paid  to  his  own  royal  instructions.  I 
shall  also  lay  before  the  right  honourable  the  lords 
commissioners  of  trade  and  plantations,  the  bill  for 
prohibiting  a  trade  to  Cape  Breton,  which  I  recom- 
mended to  you  several  sessions,  and  which  had  twice 
the  concurrence  of  his  majesty's  council,  but  was  as 
often  thrown  out  in  your  house,'  notwithstanding  the 
message  that  accompanied  that  bill. 

"  I  am  very  much  surprised  you  should  refuse  two 
other  bills,  which  came  down  from  the  council,  the 
one  to  prevent  riots,  the  other  to  prohibit  the  making 
and  publishing  libels  and  scandalous  pamphlets, 
the  passing  of  which  would,  in  my  opinion,  have 
tended  both  to  the  honour  of  the  government  and 
the  public  peace. 

"  But  what  gives  me  the  greatest  concern  is,  that 
the  proceedings  of  your  house,  with  respect  to  the 
woods  in  the  province  of  Main,  are  directly  contrary 
to  the  reservation  of  his  majesty's  right  in  the  royal 
charter,  and  an  act  of  parliament,  which  were  both 
set  forth  in  my  proclamation,  dated  the  1st  of  No- 
vember, 1720,  for  preventing  the  destruction  and 
spoil  of  his  majesty's  woods. 

"  I  could  heartily  wish,  that  instead  of  obliging 
me  to  make  such  representations  to  the  lords  of 
trade,  as  I  fear  will  not  be  to  ycur  advantage,  you 
had  acted  with  that  calmness  and  moderation,  which 
becomes  the  subjects  of  a  prince,  who  possesses 
those  qualities  in  an  eminent  degree;  and,  which 
becomes  the  representatives  of  a  province,  that,  with- 
out any  encroachment  on  the  royal  prerogative,  en- 
joys as  many  and  as  high  privileges,  as  the  greatest 
advocates  for  liberty  can  desire  or  expect. 

"  I  must  therefore  recommend  to  you  a  loyal  and 
peaceable  behaviour,  and  to  lay  aside  those  mis- 
understandings and  animosities  that  of  late  prevail 
so  much  amongst  you,  which  you  will  find  to  be 
your  truest  and  best  interest." 

Doctor  Noyes,  one  of  the  representatives  of  Bos- 
ton, died  while  the  court  was  sitting  (March  16th), 
after  a  short  illness.  He  was  very  strongly  attach- 
ed to  the  popular  party,  and  highly  esteemed  by 
them  ;  was  of  a  very  humane  and  obliging  disposi- 
tion, and,  in  private  life,  no  man  was  more  free  from 
indelicacies.  Mr.  William  Hutchinson,  who  suc- 
ceeded him,  was  also  a  gentleman  of  a  very  fair 
character,  sens:ble,  virtuous,  discreet,  and  of  an  in- 
dependent fortune.  He  began  his  political  life  at.  a 
time  when  persons,  thus  qualified,  were  wanted  for 
the  service  of  their  country,  to  moderate  the  pas 


320 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA 


sions  of  those  who  were  less  temperate  and  who  had 
the  lead  in  the  house.  In  general,  he  adhered  to 
the  popular  party  also,  but  lived  but  a  little  while. 
Longer  experience  might  probably  have  convinced 
him,  that  he  would  have  shewn  his  gratitude  to  his 
constituents  more,  by  endeavouring  to  convince 
them  that  they  were  running  to  an  extreme,  than 
by  encouraging  the  same  extremities  himself. 

?The  session  of  the  general  court,  in  May,  this 
year,  began  as  unfavourably  as  any  former  session. 
The  house  chose  for  their  speaker,  John  Clarke, 
Esq.  ;  who  the  year  before  had  been  negatived  by 
the  governor,  as  a  counsellor.  To  prevent  a  nega- 
tive, as  a  speaker,  they  projected  a  new  form  of 
message  directed  to  the  governor  and  council  jointly, 
to  acquaint  them  "  that  John  Clarke,  Esq.  is  chosen 
speaker  of  the  house,  and  is  now  sitting  in  the 
chair,"  This  was  undoubtedly  a  very  extraordinary 
contempt  ef  the  governor.  Mr.  John  White,  a 
gentleman  of  unspotted  character,  had  been  clerk  of 
t'he  house  for  many  years.  He  was  no  zealous  party 
man,  but  his  most  intimate  friends,  who  esteemed 
him,  and  sought  his  company  for  the  sake  of  his 
valuable  accomplishments,  were  strongly  attached 
to  the  governor.  This,  alone,  was  enough  to  dis- 
miss him;  and  Mr.  William  Payne,  brother  by 
marriage  to  Mr.  Cooke,  and  who  had  formerly  been 
of  the  bank  party,  was  appointed  clerk  in  his  stead. 
The  governor  was  more  wroth  than  upon  any 
occasion  before,  He  came  to  council,  in  the  after- 
noon, and  sent  immediately  for  the  house,  no  doubt 
with  an  intent  to  dissolve  the  court.  He  had  seve- 
ral faithful  advisers  about  him,  and,  whilst  the 
house  were  preparing  to  come  up,  he  sent  a  message 
to  stop  them,  and  to  let  them  know  he  accepted 
their  choice  of  a  speaker.  This  was  giving  a  con- 
struction to  their  message,  which  they  did  not  in- 
tend, and  it  was  giving  his  consent  before  it  was 
asked,  but  it  was  to  be  preferred  to  a  dissolution ; 
for  a  dissolution  of  the  court,  before  the  election  of 
counsellors,  according  to  the  construction  the  house 
have  sometimes  put  upon  the  charter,  would  have 
been  a  dissolution  of  the  government,  for  one  year 
at  least,  because  the  time  mentioned  for  the  first 
election  was  the  last  Wednesday  in  May.  The 
counsellors  named  in  the  charter  were  to  continue 
until  others  were  chosen  and  appointed  in  their 
stead.  We  do  not  know  of  any  words  in  the  charter 
which  would  make  the  choice  upon  any  day  invalid, 
although  that  be  the  day  more  particularly  designed 
for  that  business.  The  house  shewed  their  resent- 
ment against  the  lieut.-governor,  and  Mr.  Belcher, 
who  were  both  left  out  of  the  council.  The  rest 
were  continued. 

The  next  step  was  the  appointing  a  committee  to 
carry  a  list  of  the  new  elected  counsellors  to  the 
governor;  but  the  committee  was  not  to  desire  his 
approbation,  though  this  form  had  never  been  omit- 
ted in  any  one  instance.  The  governor  sent  the 
list  back,  and  took  notice  of  the  omission.  The 
house  thereupon  resolved,  "  that  considering  the 
small  pox  was  in  Boston,  and  they  were  very  de- 
sirous the  house  should  be  removed  to  Cambridge, 
they  would  send  the  list  in  the  usual  terms,  saving 
their  right  to  assert  their  privileges  at  a  more  con- 
venient time."  What  privileges  they  had  in  their 
minds  it  is  now  difficult  to  discover.  Surely  they 
could  not  imagine  the  election  would  have  been 
valid  without  his  consent.  The  governor  negatived 

Colonel  Byfield,  the  rest  he  consented  to. 
The  court  was   adjourned  to  Cambridge.     Th 

governor,   in  his  speech,   took   no  notice   of  past 


differences.  All  was  fair  and  smooth,  and  all  was 
fair  in  the  house  also,  the  first  fortnight,  but,  on  the 
19th  of  June,  the  governor's  speech,  at  the  dissolu- 
tion of  the  last  assembly,  was  ordered  to  be  read, 
and  a  committee  was  appointed  "  to  vindicate  the 
proceedings  of  the  house  from  the  insinuations  made 
"  y  the  governor  of  their  want  of  duty  and  loyalty  to 
his  majesty."  This  committee  made  a  report,  not 
in  the  form  of  an  address  or  message  to  the  gover- 
nor, but  of  a  narrative  and  justification  of  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  last  assembly,  and  the  house  ac- 
cepted it,  and  ordered  it  to  be  printed. 

To  vindicate  the  past  proceedings  about  the  pine 
trees,  a  full  consideration  was  now  had  of  the  seve- 
ral acts  of  parliament,  and  the  reservation  to  the 
:rown  in  the  province  charter.  The  house  did  not 
deny  a  right  in  the  crown  to  the  trees,  whilst  they 
were  standing,  and  fit  for  masts,  but  supposed  that, 
as  soon  as  they  were  felled  and  cut  into  lengths,  fit 
for  boards  or  timber  only,  the  right  of  the  crown 
ceased,  and  the  owners  of  the  soil  recovered  or  ac- 
quired a  new  property  in  them.  This,  it  was  said, 
would  render  the  provision  made  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  trees,  which  at  best  is  insufficient,  to  be 
of  no  effect,  nothing  being  more  easy  than  for  the 
owners  of  the  soil  to  procure  the  trees  to  be  felled 
and  cut  into  short  logs,  without  possibility  of  dis- 
covery. However,  they  came  to  the  following  re- 
solution, viz.  "  That  inasmuch  as  a  great  number  cf 
pine  trees  have  been  cut  in  the  province  of  Main, 
which,  when  standing,  were  fit  for  masts  for  th<; 
royal  navy,  but  are  now  cut  into  logs  of  about 
twenty  feet  in  length,  and  '  although  the  cuttii  g 
them  should  be  allowed  to  be  an  infringement  of 
his  majesty's  rights  reserved  in  the  charter,'  yet  in 
the  condition  they  are  now  in,  being  no  longer  ca 
pable  of  being  used  for  masts,  it  is  lawful  tVr, 
and  behoves  this  government  to  -jause  such  logs  to 
be  seized,  auci  converted  to  their  own  use,  and  to 
bring  the  persons  who  cut  down  the  trees  to  pu- 
nishment." In  consequence,  and  for  the  purposes, 
of  this  resolve  a  committee  was  appointed. 

The  reservation  in  the  charter  is  in  these  word's, 
"  for  the  better  providing  and  furnishing  of  masts 
for  our  royal  navy,  we  do  hereby  reserve  to  us,  our 
heirs  and  successors,  all  trees  of  the  diameter  of 
twenty-four  inches,  and  upwards  of  twelve  inches 
from  the  ground,  growing  upon  any  soil  or  tract  of 
land  not  heretofore  granted  to  private  persons. 
And  we  restrain  and  forbid  all  persons  whatsoever 
from  selling,  cutting,  or  destroying  any  such  trees 
without  the  royal  licence  of  us,  our  heirs  and  suc- 
cessors, first  had  and  obtained,  upon  penalty  of  for- 
feiting one  hundred  pounds  sterling  unto  us,  our 
heirs  and  successors,  for  every  such  tree." 

It  was  said  further  upon  this  occasion  that  al- 
though the  crown  reserved  the  trees,  and  restrained 
all  persons  from  cutting  them  which  the  necessity 
of  the  trees  for  national  use  and  service  might  be 
sufficient  to  justify,  yet  it  was  not  equitable  to  take 
them  without  a  valuable  consideration.  The  crown 
had  made  an  absolute  grant  of  the  province  of  Main 
to  Gorges,  from  whom  the  Massachusetts  purchased. 
The  Massachusetts'  charter  indeed  was  declared  for- 
feited. Where  the  right  was,  after  that,  might  be 
disputed,  but  this  was  a  hard  judgment,  and  it  was 
the  plain  intent  of  the  charter,  in  general,  to  restore 
rights,  except  that  of  the  form  of  jurisdiction  or  ad- 
ministration of  government,  to  the  former  state. 

The  house  neglected  making  any  provision  for 
the  support  of  the  governor,  or  the  other  officers  of 
the  government,  who  depended  upon  the  court  for 


UNITED  STATES. 


321 


their  salaries.  They  waited  to  see  how  far  the  go- 
vernor would  consent  to  their  several  acts  and  votes. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  two  houses  having  chose  the 
treasurer,  impost  officer,  and  other  civil  officers,  the 
governor  laid  hy  the  list,  and  neither  approved  or 
disapproved.  When  the  house  sent  a  message  to 
the  council,  to  enquire  whether  the  governor  had 
passed  upon  the  list,  he  directed  the  committee  to 
tell  the  house  tha  the  should  take  his  own  time  for 
it.  This  occasioned  a  reply  from  the  house,  and 
divers  messages  and  answers  passed  upon  the  sub- 
ject. At  length  the  house,  by  a  vote,  determined 
they  would  not  go  into  the  consideration  of  grants 
and  allowances,  before  his  excellency  had  passed 
upon  the  acts,  resolves  and  election  of  that  session. 
This  was  in  plain  terms  avowing  that  the  governor 
at  first  charged  them  with  tacitly  intending.  To 
compel  the  governor  to  any  particular  measure,  by 
making  his  support,  in  whole  or  in  part,  depend 
upon  it,  was  said  to  be  inconsistent  with  that  free- 
dom of  judgment,  in  each  branch  of  the  legislature, 
which  is  the  glory  of  the  English  .constitution  :  this 
was  not  all;  the  house  withheld  the  support  of  all 
the  other  salary  men,  because  the  governor  would 
not  comply  with  the  measures  of  the  house.  . 

Resentment  was  shewn  against  some  of  the  go- 
vernor's friends.  The  agent  in  England,  Mr.  Dum- 
mer,  in  some  of  his  letters,  had  informed  the  court 
of  the  sentiments  of  the  ministry  upon  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  house  of  representatives,  and  of  the  ge- 
neral approbation  in  England  of  the  governor's  con- 
duct. A  faithful  agent  would  rather  tell  them  the 
truth,  than  recommend  himself  to  them  by  flattery 
and  false  representations.  He  lost  the  favour  of  the 
house,  who,  upon  the  receipt  of  these  letters,  voted, 
that  it  was  not  for  the  interest  of  the  province  Mr. 
Dummer  should  be  continued  agent  any  longer, 
and  therefore  it  was  ordered  that  he  should  be 
dismissed. 

Paul  Dudley,  another  of  the  governor's  friends, 
had  the  misfortune  also  of  falling  under  the  dis- 
pleasure of  the  house.  He  had  been  chosen,  by  a 
small  majority,  counsellor  for  Sagadehoc.  By  the 
charter,  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  have  been  an 
inhabitant  or  proprietor  of  that  part  of  the  province 
for  which  he  was  chosen.  He  dwelt  in  the  old  co- 
lony of  Massachusetts.  It  was  suggested,  in  the 
house,  that  he  had  no  lands  at  Sagadehoc,  and  they 
appointed  a  committee  to  enquire  into  this  fact. 
Upon  their  applying  to  Mr.  Dudley  for  evidence  of 
his  title,  he  told  them  it  was  too  late,  they  should 
have  inquired  before  the  election.  Perhaps  he  was 
in  an  error.  He  went  on  and  told  the  committee, 
he  had  a  deed  which  he  would  not  expose  to  the 
house,  but  he  would  shew  it  to  two  or  three  of  the 
members.  Upon  this  they  sent  another  committee 
to  inform  him,  it  was  expected  he  should  produce  his 
deed,  the  next  morning,  to  be  laid  upon  the  speak- 
er's table.  He  replied  that  he  would  not  produce 
his  deed  before  the  house,  for  they  might  possibly 
vote  it  insufficient.  In  this  part  of  the  province 
there  are  scarce  any  lands  which  have  not  more  than 
one  claimer,  and  it  is  not  improbable  some  of  the 
members  of  the  house  claimed  the  lands  in  Mr. 
Dudley's  deed.  The  vote  of  the  house  would  not 
have  determined  his  title,  but  it  might  have  had  un- 
due influence  upon  a  jury  in  a  judicial  proceeding. 

Mr.  Dudley's  answer  was  unsatisfactory,  and  the 
house  voted  that  it  was  an  affront;  that  his  declin- 
ing to  produce  his  deeds  gave  sufficient  grounds  to 
believe  that  he  was  no  proprietor,  and  it  was  there- 
fore resolved  that  his  election  be  declared  null  and 

His   op  AMEF. — Nos.  41  &  42 


void.  This  vote  being  sent  to  the  council  was  by 
them  unanimously  non-concurred. 

No  grants  had  been  made,  and  no  officers  for  the 
ensuing  year  had  been  constituted;  the  house,  not- 
withstanding, sent  a  message  to  the  governor  to  de- 
sire the  court  might  rise.  He  refused  to  gratify 
them.  Thursday,  the  13th  of  July,  had  been  ap- 
pointed for  a  public  fast;  the  members  desired  to  be 
at  home  with  their  families;  and,  on  Wednesday, 
by  a  vote,  they  adjourned  themselves  to  Tuesday  in 
the  next  week.  It  was  urged  that  the  British  house 
of  commons  adjourn  for  as  long  a  time,  without  any 
immediate  act  of  royal  authority;  but  it  was  replied 
that  it  never  did  so  contrary  to  the  inclination  of  the 
crown;  and  the  adjournments  over  holidays  are  as 
much  established  by  ancient  usage,  as  the  ordinary 
adjournments  from  day  to  day,  and,  being  conform- 
ed to  by  both  houses  of  parliament,  no  inconvenience 
can  arise.  But  the  charter  was  argued  by  the  go- 
vernor, to  be  the  rule  in  this  assembly,  not  the  ana- 
logy between  a  Massachusetts'  house  of  representa- 
tives and  the  commons  of  Great  Britain  The  go- 
vernor, by  charter,  had  the  sole  power  of  adjourning, 
proroguing,  and  dissolving  the  general  court.  Taken 
strictly,  it  would  be  extremely  inconvenient,  for  the 
act  of  the  governor  would  be  necessary  every  day. 
Upon  a  reasonable  construction,  therefore,  the  house 
had  always  adjourned  from  day 'to  day,  but  never 
for  so  great  a  number  of  days.  The  council,  who 
were  obliged  to  spend  near  a  week  without  business, 
unanimously  voted,  upon  hearing  the  house  had  ad- 
journed, that  such  adjournment,  without  his  excel- 
lency's knowledge  and  consent,  was  irregular  and 
not  agreeable  to  the  charter. 

The  governor,  afterwards,  made  this  adjournment 
one  of  the  principal  articles  of  complaint  against  the 
house. 

Upon  Tuesday,  like  the  first  day  of  a  session, 
there  was  scarcely  a  house  for  business.  The  next 
morning  some  votes  passed,  which  were  offered  to 
the  governor,  and  which  he  would  not  suffer  to  be 
laid  before  him,  until  he  had  sent  for  the  house,  and 
told  them  they  had  made  a  breach  upon  his  ma- 
jesty's prerogative,  which  he  was  under  oath  to  take 
care  of;  and  he  insisted  upon  an  acknowledgment 
of  their  error  before  they  proceeded  to  business. 

The  house,  by  a  vote  or  resolve,  declared  they 
had  no  design  to  make  any  breach  upon  the  prero- 
gative, but  acknowledged,  they  had  made  a  mistake 
in  not  acquainting  his  excellency  and  the  board  with 
the  adjournment. 

The  governor  observed  to  them,  that  they  had 
industriously  avoided  acknowledging  the  sole  power 
of  adjourning,  as  well  as  proroguing  and  dissolving 
the  general  assembly,  is  vested  in  his  majesty's  go- 
vernor, by  the  royal  charter.  They  thereupon  agreed 
to  the  following  message :  "  The  house  of  represen- 
tatives do  truly  acknowledge,  that,  by  the  royal 
charter,  your  excellency  and  the  governor  for  the 
time  being,  have  the  sole  power  and  authority  to 
adjourn,  prorogue,  and  dissolve  the  general  court; 
and  the  house  further  acknowledge,  that  your  excel- 
lency ought  to  have  been  acquainted  with  the  de- 
sign and  intention  of  the  house,  in  their  adjourn- 
ment from  Wednesday  the  12th,  to  Tuesday  the  18th 
instant,  before  they  did  adjourn,  and  that  it  was  so 
designed  and  casually  omitted." 

The  house  carefully  distinguished  between  the 
power  of  adjourning  the  general  court  and  adjourn- 
ing the  house  of  representatives,  one  branch  only, 
and  seem  to  suppose,  that  their  only  mistake  was 
their  not  acquainting  the  governor  and  the  board 

2R 


322 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


with  their  intention,  which  was,  by  no  means,  satis- 
factory to  the  governor,  and  he  immediately  ordered 
the  house  to  attend  him  in  the  council  chamber. 
The  speaker  ordered  all  the  members  of  the  house 
to  be  called  in,  and,  expecting  a  dissolution,  they 
resolved,  "  that  all  the  votes  of  the  house  in  the 
present  session,  more  especially  relating  to  any 
misunderstanding  or  difference  that  hath  arisen  be- 
tween his  excellency  and  the  house,  shall  be  pre- 
pared to  be  sent  home,  and  that  the  speaker  trans- 
mit them  to  William  Tailer,  Esq.,  now  resident  in 
London,  or,  in  his  absence,  to  such  persons,  as 
he  shall  think  fit,  desiring  them  to  lay  the  same 
before  his  majesty  in  council,  or  any  where  else, 
if  need  require,  to  obviate  any  complaint  that  may 
be  made  by  his  excellency  the  governor  against 
the  proceedings  of  this  house  for  their  just  and  ne- 
cessary vindication.  So  much  time  was  taken  up  in 
this  vote,  or  resolve,  that  the  governor  was  highly 
offended,  and  sent  a  second  time,  requiring  them  to 
attend  him  forthwith.  It  has  always  been  the  prac- 
tice of  the  house,  before  and  since,  upon  a  message 
from  the  governor,  to  stop  all  business,  and  go  up 
without  delay.  The  speaker,  at  this  time,  was 
among  the  forwardest  in  the  opposition.  There  was 
no  need  of  four  or  five  members  to  hold  him,  as  the 
speaker  of  the  house  of  commons  was  once  held,  in 
the  chair,  until  a  number  of  strong  resolutions  had 
passed  the  house. 

The  governor  directed  his  speech  to  the  house 
only.  "  Gentlemen  of  the  house  of  representatives  : 
I  am  very  much  concerned  to  find  in  the  printed 
journal  of  the  house,  first,  an  order  to  appoint  a 
committee  to  draw  a  memorial  upon,  or  representa- 
tion of,  my  speech,  made  before  the  dissolution  o 
the  assembly  in  March  last,  and,  afterwards,  the 
memorial  itself,  signed  by  Mr.  Cooke,  in  the  name 
of  the  committee. 

"  This  treatment  is  very  surprising,  from  a  house 
of  representatives  that  profess  so  much  loyalty  anc 
respect  to  his  majesty's  government.  It  appears  to 
me  to  be  very  irregular,  that  the  present  house  o 
representatives,  whereof  John  Clarke,  Esq.  is  speak 
er,  and  which  consists  of  a  majority  of  new  mem- 
bers, should  take  upon  them  to  answer  my  speech  made 
to  a  former  house  of  representatives,  whereof  Timo 
thy  Lindall,  Esq.  was  speaker.  These  proceedings 
are  not  only  improper,  but  without  precedent  from 
any  former  assembly. 

"  I  must  also  observe  to  yo,u,  that  you  have  no 
shewn  that  respect  which  is  due  to  me  as  governor 
of  this  province,  by  suffering  this  order  or  memoria 
to  go  into  the  press,  before  it  was  communicated  to 
me,  which,  if  you  had  done,  I  could  have  convincet 
you,  that  it  would  have  been  very  much  for  the  ser 
vice  of  your  constituents,  that  neither  the  orde 
nor  the  memorial  should  have  appeared  in  print. 

"  It  is  my  opinion,  that  you  will  quickly  b< 
convinced  how  much  you  have  been  wanting  in  you 
duty  and  interest,  by  disowning  the  authority  of  th 
right  honourable  board,  which  his  majesty  has  con" 
stituted  to  superintend  the  affairs  of  the  province 
and  all  the  other  plantations. 

"  For  these  reasons,   I  should  have  dissolved  th 

feneral  court  when  the  memorial  first  appeared,  bu 
was  in  hopes  the  house  might  have  been  brough 
to  correct  or  expunge  it.  Instead  of  making  thi 
use  of  my  tenderness,  you  have  gone  on  in  the  mos 
undutiful  manner,  to  withdraw  from  his  majesty' 
and  your  country's  service,  by  adjourning  yourselve 
for  near  a  week,  without  my  knowledge  and  con 
sent,  contrary  to  the  royal  charter,  which  absolulel 


ests  in  the  governors  of  this  province  the  power  of 
djourning,  proroguing  and  dissolving,  and  that  at 
.  time  when  I  thought  it  for  the  interest  of  the 
olony  to  adjourn  you  for  two  days  only,  having  an 
ffair  of  the  greatest  consequence  to  communicate 
o  the  house,  which  was  to  persuade  you  to  take 
ome  effectual  measures  to  prevent  the  plague  coming 
imong  us,  there  being  nothing  so  likely  to  bring  it 
n  as  the  French  silk  and  stuffs  which  are  constant- 
y  brought  into  this  province. 

"  These  your  unwarrantable  proceedings  oblige 
ne  to  dissolve  this  assembly." 

This  speech,  and  the  dissolution  which  iollowed, 
urther  alienated  the  minds  of  the  people  from  the 
governor.  Some  of  his  friends  wished  he  had  car- 
ried his  resentment  no  further  than  putting  an  end 
,o  the  session  and  giving  time  to  deliberate.  There 
was  no  room  to  expect  a  change  for  the  better, 
upon  a  new  election. 

There  was  yet  no  open  war  with  the  Indians,  but 
;hey  continued  their  insults.  The  French  instigated 
hem,  and  furnished  them  with  ammunition  and 
provisions.  Governor  Shute  published  a  proclama- 
;ion,  requiring  the  inhabitants  to  remain  upon  their 
estates,  and  keep  possession  of  the  country.  No 
wonder  the  proclamation  was  not  obeyed.  We 
know  no  authority  he  had  to  require  them  to  remain. 
If  the  preservation  of  their  own  property  was  not 
sufficient  to  keep  them  there,  it  could  not  be  ex- 
pected they  would  remain  merely  as  a  barrier  for 
the  rest  of  the  province. 

In  the  month  of  August,  two  hundred  Indians, 
with  two  French  Jesuits,  came  to  George  town  upon 
Arowsick  Island,  armed,  and  under  French  colours, 
and,  after  some  parley  with  the  inhabitants,  left  a 
letter  to  be  delivered  to  the  governor,  in  which  they 
make  a  heavy  charge  against  the  English  for  unjustly 
invading  the  property  of  the  Indians,  and  taking 
from  them  the  country  which  God  had  given  them. 

Ralle,  their  spiritual  father,  was  their  patron  also 
in  their  temporal  concerns.  Either  from  a  con- 
sciousness of  their  having  conveyed  the  country  to 
the  English,  or  from  a  desire  of  peace  and  quiet, 
they  were  averse  to  engaging  in  war.  When  they 
were  at  their  villages,  the  priests  were  continually 
exciting  them  to  act  vigorously,  and  drive  all  the 
English  to  the  westward  of  Kennebec;  and  such 
was  their  influence  over  them,  that  they  would  often 
set  out  from  home,  with  great  resolution  to  persist 
in  their  demands,  and  in  their  parleys,  with  the 
commanders  of  forts,  as  well  as  at  more  public  trea- 
ties, would  appear,  at  first,  to  be  very  sturdy,  but 
were  soon  softened  down  to  a  better  temper,  and 
made  to  agree  that  the  English  should  hold  the 
lands  without  molestation.  When  they  returned 
home,  they  gave  their  father  an  account  of  the  great 
firmness  they  had  shewn  in  refusing  to  make  any 
concessions,  and  to  this  we  are  to  impute  the  erro- 
neous relation  of  these  treaties  by  Charlevoix  and 
others. 

But  about  this  time  Toxus,  the  Norridgewock 
chief,  died.  When  they  came  to  choose  another 
Toxus,  the  old  men  who  were  averse  to  war,  con- 
trary to-  Ralle's  inclination,  pitched  upon  Ouikoui- 
roumenit,  who  had  always  been  of  the  pacific  party. 
They  took  another  verv  disagreeable  step,  and  sub- 
mitted to  send  four  hostages  to  Boston,  sureties  for 
their  good  behaviour,  and  for  the  payment  of  the 
damages  the  English  had  sustained.  Vaudreuil, 
the  governor  of  Canada,  was  alarmed,  and  thought 
it  necessary  to  exert  himself  upon  this  occasion. 
He  writes  to  father  Ralle,  of  the  15th  of  June,  "  I 


UNITED  STATES. 


323 


was  at  Montreal,  my  reverend  father,  when  your 
letters  of  the  16th  and  18th  of  May  came  to  my 
hands,  informing  me  of  the  bad  step  taken  by  the 
Norridgewocks,  in  choosing  Ouikouiroumenit  suc- 
cessor to  the  deceased  Toxus,  of  the  great  loss  which 
the  whole  Abenakis  nation  hath  sustained  by  his 
death,  and  the  divisions  prevailing  among  the  Nor- 
ridgewocks, many  of  whom,  and  especially  their 
chiefs,  have  betrayed  the  interest  of  their  tribe  in 
openly  favouring  the  pretensions  of  the  English  to 
the  country  of  Norridgewock.  The  faint  hearts  of 
your  Indians  in  giving  hostages  to  the  English,  to 
secure  payment  of  the  damage  they  have  sustained, 
and  the  audacious  language  which  they  have  used 
to  the  Indians,  in  order  to  keep  possession  of  their 
country,  and  to  drive  you  out  of  it,  fully  convinced 
cie  that  every  advantage  would  be  taken  of  the  pre- 
sent state  of  affairs,  to  subject  them  to  the  English, 
if  the  utmost  care  should  not  be  immediately  taken 
to  prevent  so  great  a  misfortune.  Without  a  mo- 
ment's delay  I  set  out,  in  order  to  apply  myself  to 
the  business  of  Montreal,  and  from  thence  to  St. 
Francois  and  Becancour,  where  I  prevailed  with 
the  Indians  of  those  villages  vigorously  to  support 
their  brethren  of  Norridgewock,  and  to  send  two 
deputies  for  that  purpose,  to  be  present  at  the  treaty 
and  to  let  the  English  know,  that  they  will  not 
have  to  do  with  the  Norridgewocks  alone  if  they 
continue  their  injuries  to  them.  The  intendant 
and  I  have  joined  in  a  letter,  to  desire  father  le 
Chase  to  take  a  journey  to  Norridgewock,  in  order 
to  keep  those  Indians  in  their  present  disposition 
and  to  encourage  them  to  behave  with  firmness  and 
resolution.  He  will  also  go  to  Pcnobscot,  to  engage 
them  to  send  some  of  their  chiefs  also,  to  be  present 
on  this  occasion  and  to  strengthen  their  brethren." 

Begoir,  the  intendant,  writes  at  the  same  time  to 
Ralle,  "  I  wrote,  my  reverend  father,  to  Mons.  de 
Vaudreuil,  who  is  at  Montreal,  the  sentiments  of 
father  de  la  Chase  and  my  own,  viz.,  what  we  think 
convenient  to  be  done,  until  we  hear  from  the  coun- 
cil of  the  marine,  whether  the  French  shall  join  the 
Indians  to  support  them  openly  against  the  English, 
or  shall  content  themselves  with  supplying  ammuni- 
tion, as  the  council  has  advised  that  M.  Vaudreuil 
might  do,  in  case  the  English  should  enterprise  any- 
thing against  them.  He  thought  it  more  proper  to 
send  the  reverend  father  la  Chase,  than  Mons.  de 
Croisil,  lieutenant,  &c.,  because  the  English  can 
have  no  room  to  except  to  one  missionary's  visiting 
another,  the  treaty  of  peace  not  forbidding  it; 
whereas,  if  a  French  officer  was  sent,  they  might 
complain  that  we  sent  Frenchmen  into  a  country, 
which  they  pretend  belongs  to  them,  to  excite  the 
Indians  to  make  war  upon  them. 

"  It  is  to  be  wished  that  you  and  your  Indians 
may  be  suffered  to  live  in  quiet  until  we  know  the 
king's  intentions  whether  we  shall  openly  join  the 
Indians  if  they  are  attacked  wrongfully;  in  the 
mean  time  we  shall  assist  them  with  ammunition, 
which  they  may  be  assured  they  shall  not  want. 

"  P.  S.  Since  I  wrote  the  foregoing,  the  Indians 
of  St.  Francois  and  Becancour  have  desired  M. 
Vaudreuil  that  M.  de  Croisil  may  go  with  them  to 
be  a  witness  of  their  good  disposition,  and  he  has 
consented  to  join  him  with  father  de  la  Chase." 

The  Massachusetts  people  made  heavy  complaints 
of  the  French  governor,  for  supporting  and  stirring 
up  enemies  against  them  in  time  of  peace  between 
the  two  crowns,  but  he  justified  himself  to  his  own 
master.  Ralle  was  ranked  by  the  English  among 
*he  most  infamous  villains,  and  his  scalp  would  have 


been  worth  an  hundred  scalps  of  the  Indians.  His 
intrepid  courage  and  fervent  zeal  to  promote  the 
religion  he  professed,  and  to  secure  his  neophytes  or 
converts  to  the  interest  of  his  sovereign,  were  the 
principal  causes  of  these  prejudices.  The  French, 
for  the  same  reasons,  rank  him  with  saints  and 
heroes.  He  had  been  near  forty  years  a  missionary 
among  the  Indians,  and  their  manner  of  life  had 
become  quite  easy  and  agreeable  to  him.  They 
loved  and  idolized  him,  and  were  always  ready  to 
hazard  their  own  lives  to  preserve  his.  His  letters, 
upon  various  subjects,  discover  him  to  have  been  a 
man  of  superior  natural  powers,  which  had  been 
improved  by  an  education  in  a  college  of  Jesuits;  his 
latin  is  pure,  classical,  and  elegant;  he  had  taught 
many  of  his  converts,  male  and  female,  to  write,  and 
corresponded  with  them  in  their  own  language,  and 
made  some  attempts  in  Indian  poetry.  When  he 
was  young  he  learned  to  speak  Dutch,  and  so  came 
more  easily  to  a  smattering  of  English,  enough  to 
be  understood  by  traders  and  tradesmen,  who  had 
been  employed  in  building  a  church  and  other  work 
at  Norridgewock.  He  corresponded  in  latin  with 
one  or  more  of  the  ministers  of  Boston,  and  had  a 
great  fondness  for  shewing  his  talent  at  controversy. 
Pride  was  his  foible,  and  he  took  great  delight  in 
raillery.  The  English  idiom  and  the  flat  and  bald 
Latin,  in  some  of  his  correspondent  letters,  afforded 
him  subjects.  Some  of  his  contemporaries,  as  well 
as  Cotton,  Norton,  Mitchel,  and  others  of  the  first 
ministers  of  the  country,  would  have  been  a  match 
for  him.  He  contemned  and  often  provoked  the 
English,  and  when  threatened  with  destruction  by 
them,  if  they  should  ever  take  Norridgewock,  he 
replied,  "  If." 

The  English  charge  the  Indians  with  perfidy  and 
breach  of  the  most  solemn  engagements.  The  Jesuit 
denies  it  and  justifies  their  conduct,  from  their  being 
under  duresse,  at  such  times,  and  compelled  to  agree 
to  whatever  terms  are  proposed  to  them;  particu- 
larly, when  they  met  governor  Shute,  at  Arowsick, 
in  1717,  he  says,  the  body  of  the  Norridgewocks  had 
fully  determined,  that  the  English  should  settle  no 
farther  upon  Kennebeck  river  than  a  certain  mill; 
for  all  the  pretence  they  had  to  go  beyond  that,  was 
a  bargain  of  this  sort,  made  by  some  Englishman 
with  any  Indian  he  happened  to  meet  with.  "  I  will 
give  you  a  bottle  of  rum  if  you  will  give  me  leave  to 
settle  here;  or,  if  you  will  give  me  such  a  place." 
"  Give  me  the  bottle,"  says  the  Indian,  "  and  take  as 
much  land  as  you  have  a  mind  to:"  the  Englishman 
asks  his  name,  which  he  writes  down  and  the  bar- 
gain is  finished.  Such  sort  of  bargains  being  urged 
against  the  Indians,  at  the  treaty,  they  rose  in  a 
body  and  went  away  in  great  wrath,  and,  although 
they  met  again  the  next  day  and  submitted  to  the 
governor's  terms,  yet  when  they  came  home,  all 
they  had  done  was  disallowed  by  the  body  of  the 
nation  and  rejected."  Whilst  the  English^ kept 
within  the  mill  the  Jesuit  forbad  the  Indians  molest- 
ing them,  but  if  any  settled  beyond  those  bounds, 
he  allowed  and  encouraged  the  Indians  to  kill  their 
cattle  and  to  make  other  spoil. 

The  consideration  made  by  the  purchasers  of  In- 
dian lands  was  not  always  so  inconsiderable  as  the 
Jesuit  mentions,  and  the  purchases  were  from  chiefs 
or  reputed  chiefs  or  sachems,  and  the  possession  had 
been  taken  and  improvements  made  scores  of  miles 
beyond  the  limits  he  would  restrain  the  English  to, 
more  than  sixty  years  before. 

The  French  governor,  Vaudreuil,  in  his  manu- 
script letters,  and  the  French  historian,  Charlevoix, 

2R2 


324 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


in  print,  suppose  the  English  settlers  to  be  mere 
intruders,  and  charge  the  English  nation  with  great 
injustice  in  dispossessing  the  Abanakis  of  their 
country.  The  European  nations,  which  have  their 
colonies  in  America,  may  not  reproach  one  another 
upon  this  head.  They  all  took  possession,  contrary 
to  the  minds  of  the  natives,  who  would  gladly  have 
been  rid  of  their  new  guests.  The  best  plea,  viz. 
that  a  small  number  of  families  laid  claim  to  a 
greater  part  of  the  globe  than  they  were  capable  of' 
improving,  and  to  a  greater  proportion  than  the 
general  proprietor  designed  for  so  few  people,  who 
therefore  had  acquired  no  such  right  to  it  as  to  ex- 
clude the  rest  of  mankind,  will  hold  as  well  for  the 
English  as  any  other  nation.  The  first  settlers  of 
the  Massachusetts  and  Plimouth  were  not  content 
with  this,  but  made  conscience  of  paying  the  natives 
to  their  satisfaction  for  all  parts  of  the  territory 
which  were  not  depopulated  or  deserted,  and  left 
without  a  clairner.  Gorges,  the  original  patentee 
of  the  province  of  Main,  made  grants  or  conveyance 
of  greater  part  of  the  sea  coast  and  rivers  of  that 
province  without  purchase  from  the  natives,  other 
parts  had  been  purchased  from  them  by  particular 
persons,  and  the  remaining  part,  as  well  as  the 
country  east  of  it,  the  government  claimed  by  con- 
quest ;  but  it  must  be  confessed,  that  in  the  several 
treaties  of  peace  this  right  had  not  been  acknow- 
ledged by  the  Indians,  nor  insisted  upon  by  the  En- 
glish, this  controversy  being  about  those  parts  of  the 
country  which  the  English  claimed  by  purchase, 
and  no  mention  made  of  a  right  to  the  whole  by 
conquest. 

The  governor,  immediately  after  the  dissolution 
of  the  general  court,  issued  writs  for  a  new  house  of 
representatives,  and  the  court  met,  the  23d  of  Au- 
gust, at  the  George  tavern,  the  then  extreme  part 
of  Boston,  beyond  the  isthmus  or  neck,  the  small 
pox  then  prevailing  in  the  town.  The  house  chose 
Mr.  Clarke,  their  former  speaker,  and  informed  the 
governor  of  it  by  message,  and  he  sent  his  approba- 
tion, in  writing,  to  the  house.  They  passed  a  re- 
solve, that  they  intended  no  more  by  their  message 
than  to  inform  the  governor  and  council  of  the 
choice  they  had  made,  and  that  they  had  no  need  of 
the  governor's  approbation. 

The  first  act  of  the  house  gave  new  occasion  for 
controversy.  They  were  so  near  the  town  as  to  be 
in  danger,  and,  instead  of  desiring  the  governor  to 
adjourn  or  prorogue  the  court  to  some  other  place, 
they  passed  a  vote  for  removing  the  court  to  Cam- 
bridge, and  sent  it  to  the  council  for  concurrence. 
The  council  nonconcurred  the  vote.  The  governor 
let  the  house  know,  that  he  should  be  very  ready  to 
gratify  them  if  he  was  applied  to  in  such  manner  as 
should  consist  with  the  sole  right  in  him  of  adjourn- 
ing, proroguing,  and  dissolving  the  court.  They 
replied,  that  they  were  very  willing  to  acknowledge 
his  right,  so  far  as  respected  time,  but  as  to  place, 
by  the  law  of  the  province,  the  court  was  to  be 
held  in  Boston,  and  therefore  an  act  or  order  of  the 
three  branches  was  necessary  to  remove  it  to  any 
other  place.  They  let  the  governor  know  further, 
that  although  they  had  met  in  consequence  of  his 
summons,  yet,  as  many  of  the  members  apprehended 
that  their  lives  were  in  danger,  they  would  leave 
the  court  and  go  home.  There  was  a  quorum,  how- 
ever, who  chose  to  risk  their  lives  rather  than  con- 
cede that  the  governor  had  power,  by  his  own  act, 
to  remove  the  court  from  Boston  to  any  other  town 
in  the  province,  or  risk  the  consequence  of  refusing 
to  remain  a  sufficient  number  to  make  a  house. 


The  governor  had  received  from  England  the 
opinion  of  the  attorney-general,  that  he  had  good 
right  to  negative  the  speaker;  and  the  lords  com- 
missioners of  trade  and  plantations  had  written  to 
lim,  and  signified  their  approbation  of  his  proceed- 
ings. These  papers  he  caused  to  be  laid  before  the 
house.  The  house  drew  up  a  remonstrance,  in 
which  they  justified  their  own  conduct,  and  that  of 
former  assemblies,  in  their  controversies  with  the 
governor,  and  with  a  great  deal  of  decency  declared 
that,  with  all  deference  to  the  opinion  of  the  attor- 
ney-general, they  must  still  claim  the  right  of  solely 
electing  and  constituting  their  speaker ;  and  they 
humbly  presumed  that  their  so  doing  could  not  be 
construed  a  disrespect  to  his  majesty's  instructions, 
or  bearing  upon  the  royal  prerogative.  The  gover- 
nor gave  them  a  short  and  very  moderate  answer; 
that  he  had  made  his  majesty's  instructions  and  the 
royal  charter  the  rule  of  his  administration,  that  he 
did  not  desire  to  be  his  own  judge,  the  former  house 
had  voted  to  send  an  account  of  the  proceedings  to 
England,  arid  it  would  be  very  acceptable  to  him,  if 
the  present  house  would  state  the  case,  and  send  it 
home  to  persons  learned  in  the  law,  and  give  them 
directions  to  appear  for  the  house,  that  his  majesty 
might  judge  between  his  governor  and  them,  but  in  the 
mean  time  it  was  his  duty  to  follow  his  instructions 
until  they  were  countermanded. 

Here  seems  to  have  been  a  calm  interval.  The 
flame  was  abated  but  the  fire  not  extinguished. 
Fresh  fuel  soon  caused  a  fresh  flame.  The  grant  to 
the  governor  afforded  proper  matter.  It  was  said 
the  house  were  bad  economists.  To  save  an  hun- 
dred pounds  in  the  governor's  salary  they  put  their 
constituents  to  the  expense  of  five  hundred  pounds 
for  their  own  wages.  If  the  governor's  demand  was 
unreasonable,  the  house  may  be  justified,  although 
the  wages  of  the  members  for  the  time  spent  in  the 
debate  amounted  to  much  more  than  the  sum  in  dis- 
pute.' The  currency  also  continued  to  depreciate, 
but  this  is  a  consideration  which  never  had  its  just 
weight.  Twenty  shillings  one  year  must  be  as 
go.od  as  twenty  shillings  another.  They  received 
and  paid  their  private  dues  and  debts  in  bills  of 
credit  according  to  their  denominations,  why  should 
not  the  government's  debts  be  paid  in  the  same 
manner  ?  A  majority  of  the  house  were  prevailed 
upon  to  vote  no  more  than  five  hundred  pounds,  for 
half  a  year's  salary,  equal  to  about  an  hundred  and 
eighty  pounds  sterling. 

The  governor  was  irritated,  instead  of  obtaining 
an  established  salary  of  a  thousand  pounds  sterling 
per  annum,  which  he  had  been  instructed  to  insist 
upon,  his  whole  perquisites  from  the  government 
would  not  afford  him  a  decent  support,  and  they 
were  growing  less  every  day  by  the  sinking  of  the 
curiency  in  its  value. 

The  house,  from  an  expectation  that  the  governor 
would,  from  time  to  time,  make  complaints  to  the 
ministry,  voted  500J.  pounds  sterling  to  be  paid  into 
the  hands  of  such  persons  as  should  be  chosen  to 
defend  their  rights  in  England,  but1  the  council 
refused»to  concur  the  vote,  because  it  was  not  ex- 
pressed by  whom  the  persons  should  be  chosen. 

At  the  close  of  the  session,  the  house  and  council 
came  into  a  vote,  and  the  governor  was  prevailed 
with  to  consent  to  it,  "  that  300  men  should  be  sent 
to  the  head  quarters  of  the  Indians,  and  that  pro- 
clamation should  be  rnade  commanding  them,  on 
pain  of  being  prosecuted  with  the  utmost  severity, 
to  deliver  up  the  Jesuits,  and  the  other  heads  and 
fomenters  of  their  rebellion,  and  to  make  satisfac- 


UNITED  STATES. 


325 


tion  for  the  damage  tiicy  hud  aone;  and  if  they  re- 
fused to  comply,  that  as  many  of  their  principal  men 
as  the  commanding  officer  should  think  meet,  should 
be  seized,  together  with  Ralle,  or  any  other  Jesuit, 
and  sent  to  Boston ;  and  if  any  opposition  should  be 
made,  force  should  be  repelled  by  force."  Judge 
Sewall,  one  of  the  council,  scrupled  the  lawfulness 
of  this  proceeding  against  the  Indians  and  entered 
his  dissent.  This  gentleman  was  a  great  friend  to 
the  aboriginals  of  every  tribe,  not  from  mere  hu- 
manity and  compassion,  but  from  a  strange  notion 
that  they  were  part  of  the  ancient  people  of  God ; 
and  that  the  ten  tribes,  by  some  «means  or  other,  had 
strolled  into  America.  He  was  a  commissioner  from 
the  corporation  for  propagating  the  gospel  among 
them,  and  with  his  own  substance  built  them  what 
he  named  a  synagogue,  and  did  many  other  charit- 
able acts.  After  the  general  court  was  prorogued, 
the  governor,  notwithstanding  he  had  consented  to 
the  vote,  suspended  the  prosecution  until  the  Indian 
hostages  escaped  from  the  castle,  but  a  war  being 
then  deemed  inevitable,  orders  were  given  for  rais- 
ing the  men.  The  hostages  were  taken  and  sent 
back  to  their  confinement,  and  the  orders  were  re- 
called. 

A  promise  had  been  made,  by  the  governor,  to 
the  Indians,  that  trading  houses  should  be  built, 
armourers  or  smiths  sent  down,  at  the  charge  of  the 
province,  and  that  they  should  be  supplied  with  pro- 
visions, clothing,  &c.,  for  their  furs  and  skins.  The 
compliance  with  this  promise  was  expected  from  the 
general  court ;  and  at  any  other  time,  it  would  have 
been  thought  a  well  judged  measure,  but  the  unhappy 
controversy  with  the  governor  would  not  suffer  any 
thing  from  him  to  be  approved  of,  and  the  private 
traders  provoked  the  Indians  by  their  frauds  and 
other  injuries,-  and,  it  seems,  the  governor,  as  well 
as  good  Mr.  Sewall,  scrupled  whether  a  declaration 
of  war  against  them  was  just  or  prudent.  This 
house  and  council  chose  to  call  the  proceedings 
against  them,  a  prosecution  for  rebellion;  but,  if  a 
view  be  taken  of  all  the  transactions  between  the 
English  and  them  from  the  beginning,  it  will  be 
difficult  to  say  what  sort  of  subjects  they  were,  and 
it  is  not  certain  that  they  understood  that  they  had 
promised  any  subjection  at  all. 

The  house,  dissatisfied  with  the  governor  for  not 
carrying  into  execution  a  vote  of  the  whole  court, 
resolved  at  the  beginning  of  the  next  session,  "  that 
the  government  has  still  sufficient  reason  for  prose- 
cuting the  eastern  Indians  for  their  many  breaches 
of  covenant."  The  vote  being  sent  up  for  con- 
currence, the  council  desired  the  house  to  explain 
what  they  intended  by  prosecution,  but  they  refused 
to  do  it,  and  desired  the  council  either  to  concur  or 
non-concur  The  house  refusing  to  explain  their 
meaning,  the  board  undertook  to  explain  it,  and  con- 
curred the  vote  with  a  declaration  that  they  under- 
stood it  to  be  such  a  prosecution  as  had  been  deter- 
mined the  former  session.  This,  no  doubt,  was  ir- 
regular in  the  council,  and  left  room  to  question 
whether  it  was  a  vote  of  the  court,  the  house  not 
having  agreed  to  it  as  the  council  qualified  it.  How- 
ever, in  consequence  of  it,  a  party  of  men  were  or- 
dered up  to  Norridgewock,  and  returned  with  no 
other  success  than  bringing  off  some  of  Halle's 
books  and  papers,  his  faithful  disciples  having  taken, 
care  to  secure  his  person  and  fly  with  him  into  the 
woods.  This  insult  upon  their  chief  town,  and  the 
:-()oil  made  upon  their  priest,  did  not  long  remain 
un  revenged. 

The  session  began  at  Boston  the  3d  of  November. 


The  governor  prorogued  the  court  to  meet  at  Cam- 
bridge the  7th;  and  before  they  proceeded  to  business, 
to  avoid  any  dispute  about  the  place  of  meeting, 
which  would  have  obstructed  the  important  affairs 
of  the  province,  he  gave  his  consent  to  a  vote  of  the 
two  houses,  that  by  this  instance  of  the  governor's 
adjourning  the  court  no  advantage  should  be  taken 
in  favour  of  his  sole  power  of  removing  the  court 
from  place  to  place.  In  his  speech,  he  had  taken 
no  notice  of  party  disputes,  and  only  recommended 
to  them  to  raise  money  for  the  service  of  the  go- 
vernment and  particularly  of  their  exposed  fron- 
tiers. 

The  house,  in  their  vote  for  supply  of  the  treasury, 
brought  in  a  clause  which  had  not  been  in  former 
votes,  and  which  the  council  supposed  would  lay 
such  restraint  upon  the  money  in  the  treasury,  that 
it  would  not  be  in  the  governor's  power,  with  their 
advice  and  consent,  so  much  as  to  pay  an  express 
without  a  vote  of  the  whole  court ;  they  therefore 
non-concurred  the  vote,  and  the  house  refused  any 
provision  without  that  clause.  In  the  midst  of  the 
dispute,  Mr.  Hutchinson,  one  of  the  members  for 
Boston,  was  seized  with  the  small  pox  and  died  in  a 
few  days.  The  speaker,  Mr.  Clarke,  was  one  of  the 
most  noted  physicians  in  Boston,  and  notwithstand- 
ing all  his  care  to  cleanse  himself  from  infection 
after  visiting  his  patients,  it  was  supposed,  brought  the 
distemper  to  his  brother  member,  which  so  terrified 
the  court,  that  after  the  report  of  his  being  seized,  it 
was  not  possible  to  keep  them  together,  and  the  go- 
yernor  found  it  necessary  to  prorogue  them.  At, 
the  next  session  in  March,  the  house  insisting  upon 
the  form  of  supply  which  they  had  voted  in  the  last 
session,  the  council  concurred. 

An  affair  happened  during  this  session,  which 
shewed  the  uncertainty  of  the  relation  the  Indians 
stood  in  to  the  English.  Castine,  son  by  an  Indian 
woman  to  the  Baron  de  St.  Castine,  who  lived  many 
years,  in  the  last  century,  at  Penobscot,  had  ap- 
peared among  the  Indians,  who  were  in  arms  at 
Arovvsick.  By  an  order  of  court,  he  had  been  after- 
wards seized  in  the  eastern  country,  and  brought  to 
Boston  and  put  under  close  confinement. 

The  house  ordered  that  he  should  be  brought  upon 
trial  in  the  county  of  Suffolk,  before  the  superior 
court,  and  that  the  witnesses  who  saw  him  in  arms 
should  be  summoned  to  attend.  This,  no  doubt, 
would  have  been  trying  in  one  county  a  fact  com- 
mitted in  another.  The  council  non-concurred  and 
voted  to  send  for  witnesses,  that  the  court  might 
judge  in  what  manner  to  proceed  against  him  ;  but 
this  was  not  agreed  to  by  the  house.  Some  time 
after  a  committee  was  appointed  to  examine  him. 
Castine  was  a  very  subtle  fellow,  and  made  all 
straight  with  the  committee.  He  professed  the 
highest  friendship  for  the  English,  and  affirmed  that 
he  came  to  Penobscot  to  prevent  the  Indians  from 
doing  mischief,  and  promised  to  endeavour  to  in- 
fluence all  that  tribe  to  keep  peace.  The  committee, 
therefore,  reported  and  the  two  houses  accepted  the 
report,  that  he  should  be  set  at  large.  The  gover- 
nor approved  of  this  proceeding;  he  had  yet  hopes 
of  preserving  peace.  To  have  punished  him  as  a 
traitor,  would  have  destroyed  all  hopes  of  an  accom- 
nodation.  It  might  also  be  very  well  questioned 
whether  it  would  have  been  justifiable.  The  tribe, 
or  nation,  with  which  he  was  mixed,  has  repeatedly, 
in.  words  of  which  they  had  no  adequate  ideas,  ac- 
knowledged themselves  subjects ;  but,  in  fact,  in  con- 
comitant as  well  as  precedent  and  subsequent  trans- 
actions with  them,  they  had  always  been  considered 


326 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


as  free  and  independent;  and,  although,  they  lived 
within  the  limits  of  the  charter,  the  government 
never  made  any  attempt  to  exercise  any  civil  au- 
thority or  jurisdiction  over  them,  except  when  any 
of  them  came  within  the  English  settlements  and 
disputes  had  arisen  between  them  and  the  English 
subjects. 

The  house,  who,  the  last  session,  were  for  prose- 
cuting the  Indians,  and  could  not  reasonably  have 
supposed  that  they  would  bury,  as  they  express  them- 
selves, the  late  march  of  the  English  to  Norridge- 
wock,  seem,  notwithstanding,  to  be  suddenly  chang- 
ed from  vigorous  measures  for  bringing  them  to 
terras,  to  schemes  for  appeasing  and  softening  them ; 
and  a  present  was  ordered  to  be  sent  to  Bomaseen, 
the  Norridgewock  captain,  to  engage  him  in  favour 
of  the  English. 

The  small  pox,  this  year,  made  great  havoc  in 
Boston  and  some  of  the  adjacent  towns.  It  had 
teen  brought  into  the  harbour  of  Boston  about  the 
middle  of  April  by  the  Saltortugas  fleet ;  and  having 
been  prevented  spreading  for  near  twenty  years,  all 
born  within  that  time,  besides  many  who  had  es- 
caped it  before,  were  liable  to  the  distemper.  Of 
5889  which  took  it  in  Boston,  844  died.  Inocula- 
tion was  introduced  upon  this  occasion,  contrary  to 
the  minds  of  the  inhabitants  in  general,  and  not 
without  hazard  to  the  lives  of  those  who  promoted 
it,  from  the  rage  of  the  people.  Doctor  C.  Mather, 
one  of  the  principal  ministers  of  Boston,  had  ob- 
served, in  the  Philosophical  Transactions,  a  letter  of 
Timonius  from  Constantinople,  and  a  treatise  of 
Pylarinus,  Venetian  consul  at  Smyrna,  giving  a 
very  favourable  account  of  the  operation,  and  he 
recommended  a  trial  to  the  physicians  of  the  town, 
when  the  small  pox  first  began  to  spread,  but  they 
all  declined  it,  except  Doctor  Boylston,  who  made 
himself  very  obnoxious.  To  shew  the  confidence  he 
had  of  success,  he  began  with  his  own  children  and 
servants.  Many  sober  pious  people  were  struck 
with  horror,  and  were  of  opinion  that,  if  any  of  his 
patients  should  die,  he  ought  to  be  treated  as  a 
murderer.  The  vulgar  were  enraged  to  that  de- 
gree, that  his  family  were  hardly  safe  in  his  house,  and 
he  often  met  with  affronts  and  insults  in  the  streets. 

The  faculty,  in  general,  disapproved  his  conduct, 
but  Doctor  Douglas  made  the  most  zealous  opposi- 
tion. He  had  been  regularly  bred  in  Scotland, 
was  assuming  even  to  arrogance,  and  in  several 
fugitive  pieces,  which  he  published,  treated  all  who 
differed  from  him  with  contempt.  He  was  credu- 
lous, and  easily  received  idle  reports,  of  persons 
who  had  received  the  small  pox  by  inoculation 
taking  it  a  second  time  in  the  natural  way,  of  others 
who  perished  in  a  most  deplorable  manner  from  the 
corrupt  matter  which  had  so  infected  the  mass  of 
blood  as  to  render  the  patient  incurable.  At  other 
times  he  pronounced  the  eruption  from  inoculation 
to  be  only  a  pustulary  fever,  like  the  chicken  or 
swine  pox,  nothing  analogous  to  the  small  pox,  and 
that  the  patient,  therefore,  had  not  the  least  secu- 
rity against  the  small  pox,  afterwards,  by  ordinary- 
infection. 

Another  practiser,  Lawrence  Dalhonde,  who  had 
been  a  surgeon  in  the  French  army,  made  oath 
that  at  Cremona,  about  the  year  1696,  the  operation 
was  made  upon  thirteen  soldiers,  four  of  which  died, 
three  did  not  take  the  distemper,  the  other  six 
hardly  escaped,  and  were  left  with  tumours,  inflam- 
mations, gangrenes,  &c. ;  and  that,  about  the  time 
of  the  battle  of  Almanza,  the  small  pox  being  in  the 
army,  two  Muscovites  were  inoculated,  one  without 


any  immediate  effect,  but  six  weeks  after  was  seized 
with  a  frenzy,  swelled  all  over  his  body,  and  was 
supposed  to  be  poisoned,  and,  being  opened  after 
his  death,  his  lungs  were  found  ulcerated,  which  it 
was  determined  was  caused  by  inoculation. 

The  justices  of  the  peace  and  select  men  of  the 
town  called  together  the  physicians,  who,  after  ma- 
ture deliberation,  came  to  the  following  conclusions  : 
"  That  it  appears,  by  numerous  instances,  that  ino- 
culation has  proved  the  death  of  many  persons,  soon 
after  the  operation,  and  brought  distempers  upon 
many  others  which,  in  the  end,  have  proved  deadly 
to  them.  That  the  natural  tendency  of  infusing 
such  malignant  filth  in  the  masa  of  blood  is  to  cor- 
rupt and  putrify  it,  and  if  there  be  not  a  sufficient 
discharge  of  that  malignity,  by  the  place  of  incision 
or  elsewhere,  it  lays  a  foundation  for  many  dange- 
rous diseases.  That  the  continuing  the  operation 
among  us  is  likely  to  prove  of  the  most  dangerous 
consequence."  The  practice  was  generally  con- 
demned. 

The  comihon  people  imbibed  the  strongest  preju- 
dices, and  such  as  died  by  inoculation  were  no 
more  lamented  than  self-murderers.  Doctor  Mather, 
the  first  mover,  after  having  been  reproached  and 
vilified  in  pamphlets  and  newspapers,  was  at  length 
attacked  in  a  more  violent  way.  His  nephew,  Mr. 
Walter,  one  of  the  ministers  of  Roxbury,  having 
been  privately  inoculated  in  the  doctor's  house  in 
Boston,  a  villain,  about  three  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing, set  fire  to  the  fuze  of  a  grenado  shell,  filled 
with  combustible  stuff,  and  threw  it  into  the  cham- 
ber where  the  sick  man  was  lodged.  The  fuze  was 
fortunately  beat  off  by  the  passing  of  the  shell 
through  the  window,  and  the  wild  fire  spent  itself 
upon  the  floor.  It  was  generally  supposed  that  the 
bursting  of  the  shell  by  that  means  was  prevented ; 
but  the  shell  was  not  filled  with  powder,  but  a 
mixture  of  brimstone,  with  bituminous  matter.  A 
scurrilous  menacing  writing  was  fastened  to  it. 

The  moderate  opposers  urged,  that  the  practice 
was  to  be  condemned,  as  trusting  more  to  the  ma- 
chination of  men,  than  to  the  all-wise  providence  of 
God  in  the  ordinary  course  of  nature,  and  as  tend- 
ing to  propagate  distempers  to  the  destruction  of 
mankind,  which  proved  it  to  be  criminal  in  its  na- 
ture, and  a  species  of  murder.  The  magistrates  in 
Boston  supposed  it  had  a  tendency  to  increase  the 
malignity,  and  prolong  the  continuance  of  the  in- 
fection, and  that  therefore  it  behoved  them  to  dis- 
countenance it. 

At  length,  in  the  house  of  representatives,  a  bill 
was  brought  in,  and  passed,  to  prohibit  all  persons 
from  inoculation  for  the  small  pox,  but  the  council 
were  in  doubt,  and  the  bill  stopped. 

Such  is  the  force  of  prejudice.  All  orders  of 
men,  in  that  day,  in  greater  or  less  proportion,  con- 
demned a  practice  which  is  now  generally  approved, 
and  to  which  many  thousands  owe  the  preservation 
of  their  lives. 

Boylston  continued  the  practice,  in  spite  of  all 
the  opposition.  About  300  were  inoculated,  in  Bos- 
ton and  the  adjacent  towns.  It  is  impossible  to 
determine  the  number  which  died  by  it.  Douglas 
would  have  it  there  was  one  in  fourteen,  whilst  the 
favourers  of  the  practice  would  not  allow  more  than 
one  in  seventy  or  eighty.  It  was  evident,  from  the 
speedy  eruption,  that  many  had  taken  the  distemper 
before  they  were  inoculated.  Indeed,  where  per- 
sons have  continued  in  an  infected  air  for  months 
together,  no  true  judgment  can  ever  be  made  of  the 
experiment. 


UNITED  STATES 


327 


(1722.)  The  now  house  of  representatives,  in 
May,  chose  the  former  speaker,  and  the  governor 
declared  his  approbation  in  the  same  manner  he 
had  done  before.  He  negatived  two  of  the  counsel- 
lors elect,  Colonel  Byfield  and  Mr.  William  Clark. 
Mr.  Clark,  being  a  member  of  the  house  for  Boston, 
had  ever  adhered  closely  to  Mr.  Cooke.  The  go- 
vernor shewed  his  resentment,  by  refusing  to  admit 
him  to  the  council,  but  did  not  serve  his  own  inter- 
est, Mr.  Clarke's  opposition  being  of  greater  conse- 
quence in  the  house. 

The  Indians  were  meditating  mischief,  from  the 
time  the  English  were  at  Norridgewock,  but  com- 
mitted no  hostilities  until  June  following.  They 
came  then  with  about  sixty  men,  in  twenty  canoes, 
into  Merrymeeting  Bay,  and  took  prisoners  nine 
families,  but  gave  no  marks  of  their  usual  rage  and 
barbarity.  Some  of  their  prisoners  they  released 
immediately,  and  others  in  a  short  time  after. 
Enough  were  retained  to  be  a  security  for  the  re- 
turn of  their  hostages  from  Boston.  Another  small 
party  of  Indians  made  an  attempt  upon  a  fishing 
vessel  belonging  to  Ipswich,  as  she  lay  in  one  of 
the  eastern  harbours,  but  the  fishermen  being  armed 
they  killed  two  or  three  of  the  Indians,  and  the 
rest  retreated.  The  collector  of  the  customs  at  An- 
napolis Royal,  Mr.  Newton,  with  John  Adams,  son 
of  one  of  the  council  for  Nova  Scotia,  were  coming 
from  thence,  with  Captain  Blin,  to  Boston,  and, 
putting  in  to  one  of  the  Passimaquadies,  went 
ashore,  with  other  passengers,  and  were  all  seized, 
and  made  prisoners,  by  about  a  dozen  Indians  and 
as  many  French;  the  people  left  on  board  the  sloop 
cut  their  cables  and  fled  to  Boston. 

Another  party  of  the  Indians  burned  a  sloop  at 
St.  George's  river,  took  several  prisoners,  and  at- 
tempted to  surprise  the  fort. 

Intelligence  of  these  several  hostile  acts  came  to 
Boston,  whilst  the  general  court  was  sitting,  but 
there  seemed  to  be  no  disposition  to  engage  in  war. 
Instead  of  the  former  vigorous  resolves,  upon  lesser 
provocations,  the  house  proposed  that  a  message 
should  be  sent  to  the  Norridgewock  Indians  to  de- 
mand the  reasons  of  this  behaviour,  restitution  of 
the  captives,  and  satisfaction  for  damages,  and  ac- 
quaint them  that,  if  they  refused,  effectual  methods 
<rould  be  taken  to  compel  them.  The  hostages, 
given  by  the  Indians,  were  sent  down  to  the  east- 
ward, and,  upon  the  restoring  the  English  captives, 
they  were  to  be  set  at  liberty. 

The  friends  of  the  English  captives  were  impor- 
tunate with  the  government  to  take  measures  for 
their  redemption,  and  a  view  to  effect  this  seems  to 
have  been  the  chief  reason  which  delayed  a  declara- 
tion of  war.  But,  soon  after  the  prorogation  of  the 
court,  news  carne  that  the  Indians  had  burnt  Bruns- 
wick, a  village  between  Casco  Bay  and  Kennebeck, 
and  that  Captain  Harman,  with  part  of  the  forces 
posted  upon  the  frontiers,  had  pursued  the  enemy, 
killed  several,  and  taken  fifteen  of  their  guns. 
Immediately  after  this  news  (July  25),  the  gover 
nor,  by  advice  of  council,  caused  a  declaration  of 
war  to  be  published. 

Foreign  wars  often  delivered  Greece  and  Rome 
from  their  intestine  broils  and  animosities,  but  this 
war  furnished  a  new  subject  for  contention.  The 
governor  often  charged  the  party  in  the  house,  with 
assuming  the  direction  of  the  war,  and  taking  into 
their  hands  that  power  which  the  charter  gives  to 
the  governor.  He  gave  them  a  hint  in  his  speech, 
(August  8th),  at  the  opening  the  next  session. 
"  One  thing  I  would  particularly  remark  to  you, 


which  is  that,  if  my  hands  and  the  council's  be  not 
left  at  a  much  greater  liberty  than  of  late  they  have 
been,  I  fear  our  affairs  will  be  carried  on  with  little 
or  no  spirit.  Surely,  every  person  who  wishes  well 
to  his  country  will  think  it  high  time  to  lay  aside  all 
animosities,  private  piques,  "and  self-interest,  that 
so  we  may  unanimously  join  in  the  vigorous  prose- 
cution of  the  weighty  affairs  which  are  now  upon 
the  carpet." 

The  house,  in  an  address  to  the  governor,  signi- 
fied their  sentiments  of  the  necessity  of  this  declara- 
tion of  war,  and  promised  "  all  necessary  and  cheerful 
assistance."  A  committee  of  the  two  houses  settled 
the  rates  of  wages,  and  provisions  for  the  forces,  to 
which  no  exception  was  taken,  but  they  went  fur- 
ther, and  determined  the  service  in  which  they 
were  to  be  employed,  300  men  to  be  sent  upon  au 
expedition  to  Penobscot,  and  the  rest  to  be  posted 
at  different  places  on  the  frontiers,  and  qualified 
their  report,  by  desiring  the  governor  to  give  or- 
ders accordingly.  He  let  them  know,  that  the  king 
his  master,  and  the  royal  charter,  had  given  him  the 
sole  command  and  direction  of  the  militia  and  all 
the  forces,  which  might  be  raised  on  any  emergency, 
and  that  he  would  not  suffer  them  to  be  under  any 
direction  but  his  own,  and  those  officers  he  should 
think  fit  to  appoint.  The  house  made  him  no 
answer.  The  destination  of  the,  military  forces  in 
this  manner,  and  making  the  establishment  of  their 
wages  depend  upon  a  compliance  with  it,  had  not 
been  the  practice  in  former  wars  and  administra- 
tions, but.  the  governor  found  he  must  submit  to  it, 
or  the  frontiers  would  be  without  defence.  He  gave 
up  his  own  opinion  with  respect  to  the  Penobscots, 
and  had  laid  the  same  plan  which  the  committee 
had  reported,  and  he  intended  to  prosecute  it,  which 
made  his  compliance  more  easy.  The  house,  being 
dissatisfied  with  Major  Moody,  who  had  the  com- 
mand of  the  forces,  passed  the  vote  desiring  the 
governor  to  dismiss  him.  The  council  non-con- 
curred this  vote,  "  because  he  was  condemned  un- 
heard," and  substituted  another  vote,  to  desire  the 
governor  to  send  for  him,  that  he  might  attend  the 
court,  but  this  the  house  would  not  agree  to,  and 
sent  a  separate  message  to  the  governor  to  desire 
him  to  suspend  the  major  from  his  post.  The  go- 
vernor told  them  he  was  surprised  they  should  de- 
sire so  high  a  piece  of  injustice  as  the  punishing  a 
man  without  hearing  what  he  had  to  say  for  him- 
self, and  let  them  know  that  he  would  enquire  into 
the  grounds  of  their  complaint.  Several  other  votes 
passed,  relative  to  the  forces,  which  the  governor 
did  not  approve. 

At  the  next  session,  November  15th,  he  recom- 
mended a  law  to  prevent  mutiny  and  desertion,  for 
want  of  which  the  men  were  daily  running  away. 
The  house  thought  it  necessary  to  be  first  satisfied, 
whether  the  desertion  in  the  army  was  not  owing  to 
the  unfaithfulness  of  the  officers,  and  appointed  two 
committees,  one  to  repair  to  the  head  quarters  on 
the  eastern,  and  the  other  on  the  western  frontiers, 
with  powers  to  require  the  officers  to  muster  their 
companies,  when  an  exact  list  was  to  be  taken  of 
the  men  that  appeared,  an  account  of  all  deserters, 
and  of  all  such  as  were  absent  upon. furlough,  or 
had  been  dismissed,  or  had  been  exchanged,  toge- 
ther with  divers  other  powers.  They  then  applied 
to  the  governor  to  give  orders  to  all  in  command  to 
pay  a  a  proper  deference  to  the  vote  and  order  of 
the  house  respecting  repeated  abuses  and  misma- 
nagements among  the  forces,  &c. 

This  the  governor  thought  he  had  good  right  to 


328 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


except  to,  and  he  made  the  vote  itself,  as  well  as  the 
manner  in  which  it  was  to  be  executed,  an  article  of 
complaint  against  the  house  to  the  king ;  but  he  was 
prevailed  upon  to  consent  to  it,  and  either  made,  or 
intended  to  make  this  condition,  that  the  commit- 
tees should  make  report  to  him.  The  house  urged 
this  consent  against  him,  but,  in  England,  it  was 
not  thought  a  sufficient  justification. 

The  conceding  in  one  point  naturally  led  to  a  de- 
mand of  the  like  concessions  in  others. 

It  was  thought  a  salutary  measure  to  send  for  de- 
legates from  the  Iroquois,  who  were  in  friendship 
with  the  colony,  and  to  desire  them  to  use  the  influ- 
ence they  had  over  the  eastern  Indians,  in  order  to 
their  making  satisfaction  for  the  injuries  done,  and 
to  their  good  behaviour  for  the  time  to  come.  When 
the  delegates  came  to  Boston,  the  house  voted  that 
the  speech  to  be  made  to  them  by  the  governor 
should  be  prepared  by  a  committee  of  the  two  houses. 
The  governor  had  prepared  his  speech,  and  he  di- 
rected the  secretary  to  read  it  to  the  house  of  repre- 
sentatives, but  this  was  not  satisfactory  and  they 
sent  a  message,  to  desire  that  what  the  secretary 
had  read  might  be  laid  before  the  house.  The 
governor  refused,  at  first,  but,  upon  further  con- 
sideration consented,  desiring  they  would  speedily 
return  it.  They  sent  it  back  to  him  and  let  him 
know  they  would  not  agree  to  it,  unless  he  would 
speak  in  the  name  of  the  general  court,  and  the 
house  of  representatives  might  be  present  when 
the  speech  was  delivered.  This  was  disagreeable 
to  him,  and  a  novelty  to  the  Indians,  who  had 
always  considered  in  their  treaties,  the  governor  of 
Pensylvania,  as  well  as  the  governor  of  New  York, 
to  be  treating  with  them  in  their  own  names,  or  the 
name  of  the  king,  and  cot  of  ibfiir  respective  a££en> 
blies,  but  he  submitted. 

In  consequence  of  the  vote  of  the  house,  in  the 
last  session,  the  governor  had  directed  an  expedition 
to  Penobscot,  although  it  was  not  altogether  agree- 
able to  his  own  judgment.  It  seems  he  had  hopes 
of  an  accommodation,  with  that  tribe  at  least.  Col. 
Walton,  who  had  the  command  on  the  eastern  fron- 
tiers, selected  forces  proper  for  the  purpose,  and  they 
had  actually  began  their  march,  when  intelligence 
arrived  to  the  Colonel,  that  Arowsick  was  attacked 
by  a  great  number  of  Indians.  He  immediately 
sent  an  express  with  orders  to  the  forces  to  return, 
and  acquainted  the  governor  with  his  proceedings. 
The  council  advised  to  keep  the  whole  forces  for  the 
defence  of  our  own  inhabitants,  and  to  suspend  act- 
ing upon  the  offensive  until  winter,  which  they 
judged  a  more  proper  season  for  the  expedition  ;  and 
the  men,  in  consequence  of  this  new  advice,  were 
employed  in  marches  on  the  borders  of  the  frontiers. 
But  the  house  were  dissatisfied,  and  sent  a  message 
to  the  governor  "  to  desire  him  to  order,  by  express, 
Col.  Walton  to  appear  forthwith  before  the  house,  to 
render  his  reasons  why  the  orders  relating  to  the 
expedition  had  not  been  executed."  This  was  not 
only  to  take  Walton  from  the  command,  as  long  as 
the  house  should  think  fit  to  detain  him,  but  the  or- 
ders, "  relating  to  the  expedition, "  might  be  under- 
stood to  mean  the  orders  which  had  been  given  by 
the  house,  and  not  what  he  had  received  from  the 
captain  general.  The  governor  told  the  committee 
that  he  would  take  no  notice  of  the  message  from 
the  house  unless  it  was  otherwise  expressed;  besides 
he  and  the  council  were  well  satisfied,  and  he 
thought  every  body  else  was.  He  added,  that  he 
intended  the  officers  should  give  an  account  "  to 
him  "  of  their  conduct.  The  next  day  (Nov.  20), 


hey  sent  another  message  to  him  to  desire  him  to 
nformthe  house,  whether  he  would  send  for  Walton 
as  they  had  desired.  He  then  told  the  committee, 
ic  would  send  his  answer  to  the  house  when  they 
;hought  proper.  Upon  this,  they  seem  to  have  ap- 
lointed  a  messenger  to  go  to  the  eastward,  upon 
what  occasion  does  not  appear,  and  the  next  day 
massed  the  following  extraordinary  vote:  "  Whereas 
iris  house  did,  on  Thursday  last,  appoint  a  commit- 
:ee  to  wait  on  his  excellency  the  governor,  praying 
lis  orders  for  Col.  Walton's  appearance  before  the 
house,  and  renewed  their  request  to  him  yesterday, 
and  his  excellency  has  not  yet  seen  cause  to  comply 
with  that  vote,  and  the  denial  of  Col.  Walton's  being 
sent  for  has  extremely  discouraged  the  house,  in 
projecting  any  further  schemes  for  carrying  on  the 
svar,  under  any  views  of  success.  And  this  house 
being  zealously  inclined  to  do  what  in  them  lies  to 
bring  this  people  out  of  the  calamities  and  perplexi- 
ties of  fhe  present  war,  and  to  spare  no  cost  and 
charge  to  effect  so  great  a  good,  were  some  things 
at  present  remedied :  We  do,  therefore,  once  more, 

h  the  greatest  sincerity  and  concern  for  our 
country's  good,  apply  to  your  excellency  for  your 
speedy  issuing  your  orders  concerning  Col.  Walton, 
to  be  dispatched  by  the  messenger  of  this  house 
going  into  those  parts."  The  governor  did  not  like 
to  be  so  closely  pressed,  and  when  the  committee 
came  to  his  house,  he  told  them  he  would  not  re- 
ceive the  vote,  and,  as  it  was  inserted  in  the  report 
and  journal  of  the  house,  "  he  went  his  way."  They 
then  appointed  their  speaker  and  eight  principal 
members,  a  committee  to  wait  upon  the  governor 
and  desire  him  to  return  to  the  chair,  "  on  some  im- 
portant affairs  which  lay  before  the  house,"  but  he 
refused  to  see  the  committee,  and  directed  his  ser- 
vant to  tell  them  he  would  not  then  be  spoke  to  by 
any  body. 

Walton  was  a  New  Hampshire  man  at  the  head 
of  the  forces,  a  small  part  only  of  which  were  raised 
in  that  government.  This  might  prejudice  many, 
but  there  was  a  private  grudge  against  him,  in  sume 
of  the  leading  men  of  the  house,  and  they  never  left 
pursuing  him  until  they  effected  his  removal. 

The  house,  finding  the  governor  would  not  comply, 
all  their  messages  to  him  being  exceptionable,  as 
founded  upon  a  supposed  right  in  the  house  to  call 
the  officers  out  of  the  service  to  account  before  them 
whensoever  they  thought  proper,  and  also  to  order 
the  particular  services  in  which  the  forces  should  be 
employed  without  leaving  it  in  the  governor's  power 
to  vary,  they  made  some  alterations  in  the  form  of 
their  request,  and  (Dec.  4th)  passed  the  following 
vote :  "  Whereas  this  house  have  been  informed  of 
divers  miscarriages  in  the  management  of  the  war 
in  the  eastern  country,  voted  that  his  excellency  the 
governor  be  desired  to  express  to  Col.  Walton,  that 
he  forthwith  repair  to  Boston,  and  when  he  hath  at- 
tended upon  his  excellency,  that  b.?  would  please  to 
direct  him  to  wait  on  this  house,  that  they  might  ex- 
amine him  concerning  his  late  conduct  in  prosecu- 
iing  the  war,  more  especially  referring  to  the  late 
intended  expedition  to  the. fort  of  Penobscot."  This 
being  more  general,-  and  not  confined  to  the  laying 
aside  the  expedition,  which  was  known  to  be  in 
consequence  of  orders,  the  governor  was  willing  it 
should  be  construed  favourably  and  sent  for  Walton. 

The  council  having  steadily  adhered  to  the  gover- 
nor, he  took  this  opportunity  to  recommend  to  the 
house,  to  act  jointly  with  the  council  in  messages  to 
him  of  general  coacern,  and  at  the  same  time,  in  a 
verbal  message  to  the  secretary,  endeavoured  to 


UNITED  STATES. 


329 


soften  the  temper  of  the  house.  "  Mr.  Speaker,  his 
excellency  commands  me  to  acquaint  this  honourable 
house,  that  he  has  taken  into  consideration  the  se- 
veral messages  relating  to  Col.  Walton,  and  thinks 
it  most  agreeable  to  the  constitution,  and  what 
would  tend  to  keep  up  a  good  agreement  between 
the  council  and  house  of  representatives,  for  all 
their  messages,  of  a  public  nature  and  wherein  the 
whole  government  is  concerned,  to  be  sent  up  to  the 
council  for  their  concurrence,  and  not  immediately 
to  himself;  however,  that  he  will  give  order  for  Col. 
Walton's  coming  up  to  town,  and  when  he  has  re- 
ceived an  account  of  his  proceedings,  the  whole 
court  shall  have  the  hearing  of  him  if  they  desire 
it."  In  this  way,  the  governor  intended  to  guard 
against  any  undue  proceeding,  there  being  no  dan- 
ger of  the  council's  condemning  a  measure  to  which 
a  little  while  before  they  had  given  their  advice  and 
consent ;  but  the  house  improved  the  hint  to  a  very 
different  purpose,  and  on  the  5th  of  December  voted 
'•'  that  a  committee,  to  consist  of  eleven  members  of 
the  two  houses,  seven  of  the  house  of  representatives 
and  four  of  the  council,  shall  meet  in  the  recess  of 
the  court,  once  in  fourteen  days,  and  oftener  if  occa- 
sion shall  require,  to  concert  what  steps  and  methods 
shall  be  put  in  practice  relative  to  the  war,  and  hav- 
ing agreed  upon  any  projections  or  designs,  to  lay 
them  before  his  excellency  for  his  approbation,  who 
is  desired  to  take  effectual  care  to  carry  them  into 
speedy  execution."  In  affairs  of  government,  of 
what  nature  soever,  this  was  an  innovation  in  the 
constitution ;  but  in  matters  relative  to  the  war  it 
was  taking  the  powers  from  the  governor,  which  be- 
longed to  him  by  the  constitution,  and  vesting  them 
in  a  committee  of  the  two  houses.  The  council 
unanimously  nonconcured  the  vote,  and  an  alter- 
cation ensued  between  them  and  the  house,  but  the 
council  persevered.  In  the  mean  time  the  governor 
was  engaged  in  the  house  with  new  disputes. 

The  committee  of  the  house,  which  had  been  sent 
to  the  eastern  frontiers,  returned,  and  instead  of 
making  their  report  to  the  governor,  which  was  the 
condition  of  his  consent  to  their  authority,  and  of 
his  orders  to  the  officers  to  submit  to  them,  they 
made  their  report  to  the  house.  This  was  disinge- 
nuous. It  would  not  do  to  urge  that  he  had  no 
right  to  make  conditions  to  their  votes,  for  he  had 
given  no  consent,  unless  it  was  conditional,  and 
without  his  consent  they  could  have  no  authority. 
As  soon  as  he  heard  of  the  report,  he  sent  to  the 
house  for  his  original  order,  which  he  had  delivered 
to  the  committee.  They  answered  that  they  were 
not  possessed  of  it,  but  the  chairman  of  the  com- 
mittee had  left  an  attested  copy  on  their  files,  which 
he  might  have  if  he  pleased,  but  he  refused  the  copy 
and  insisted  upon  the  original.  He  then  sent  for 
John  Wainwright,  the  chairman  of  the  committee, 
to  attend  him  in  council,  and  there  demanded  the 
return  of  the  original  order.  Wainwright,  in  gene- 
ral, was  what  was  called  a  prerogative  man,  but  the 
house  had  enjoined  him  not  to  return  the  order.  He 
acknowledged  he  had  the  order  in  his  possession, 
but  desired  to  be  excused  from  delivering  it,  the 
house  having  directed  him  to  deliver  no  original 
papers.  The  original  vote  of  the  house  and  the  go- 
vernor's order  were  as  follows : 

"  In  the  house  of  representatives,  Nov.  II,  1712. 

"Whereas  this  house  have  been  informed  of  re- 
peated abuses  and  mismanagements  among  the  offi- 
cers now  in  pay,  tending  greatly  to  the  dishonour 
and  damage  of  the  government,  and  are  desirous  to 
use  all  proper  and  suitable  methods  for  the  full  dis- 


covery thereof.  And,  to  effect  the  same,  have  sent 
a  committee  from  the  house,  to  enquire  into  these 
rumours  and  report  how  they  find  things.  We,  the 
representatives,  do  most  earnestly  desire  your  excel- 
lency's orders,  by  the  same  committee,  to  the  com- 
manding officer  and  all  others  in  command  there,  to 
pay  all  proper  deference  to  the  vote  and  order  of 
this  house  respecting  the  matter. 

"  John  Clarke,  Speaker." 

"Boston,  Nov.  }  To  the  officer  commanding  in  chief 
the  17th,  1722.  $  to  the  eastward. 

"  I  do  hereby  give  orders  to  the  commanding  offi- 
cers and  all  other  inferior  officers,  to  pay  deference 
to  the  committee,  andrdo  expect  that  the  committee 
lay  first  before  me  their  report  as  captain  general, 
and,  afterwards,  upon  the  desire  of  the  house  of  re- 
presentatives, it  shall  be  laid  before  them. 

"  Samuel  Shute." 

The  house  expected  the  governor  would  complain 
of  them  for  usurping  a  military  power,  and  might 
refuse  to  part  with  the  original  votes  or  orders  by 
which  he  had  signified  his  consent  to  it,  the  condi- 
tion not  preceding  the  exercise  of  such  power. 

Soon  after  (Dec.  18th)  Col.  Walton  came  to  town, 
and  the  house  sent  their  committee  to  desire  the  go- 
vernor to  direct  him  to  attend  the  house  the  next 
morning,  but  the  governor  refused  to  give  such  or- 
ders, and  told  the  committee,  that  if  his  officers 
were  to  answer  for  their  conductj  it  should  be  before 
the  whole  court.  They  then  sent  their  door  keeper 
and  messenger  to  Walton,  and  let  him  know  the 
house  expected  his  attendance.  He  went  imme- 
diately, but  refused  to  give  any  account  of  his  pro- 
ceedings, without  leave  from  the  governor.  The 
next  day,  Walton  was  ordered  to  appear  before  the 
whole  court,  and  the  governor  sent  a  message  by  the 
secretary,  to  acquaint  the  house,  that  they  might 
then  ask  any  questions  they  thought  proper  relative 
to  his  conduct;  but  they  resolved,  that  their  intent 
in  sending  for  him  was  that  he  should  appear  before 
them.  The  next  day,  he  sent  another  message  to 
acquaint  the  house  that  Walton  was  then  before  the 
governor  and  council  with  his  journal,  and  if  the 
bouse,  inclined  to  it,  he  desired  them  to  come  up, 
and  ask  any  questions  they  thought  proper.  They 
returned  for  answer,  that  they  did  not  think  it  ex- 
pedient, for  they  looked  upon  it  not  only  their  pri- 
vilege, but  duty,  to  demand,  of  any  officer  in  the  pay 
and  service  of  the  government,  an  account  of  his 
management,  while  employed  by  the  public. 

This  perhaps,  in  general,  was  not  the  cause  of 
dispute,  but  the  question  was,  whether  he  was  cul- 
pable for  observing  the  orders  which  the  governor 
had  given  contrary  to  the  declared  mind  and  order 
of  the  house.  They  then  passed  an  order  for  Wal- 
ton forthwith  to  lay  his  journal  before  the  house. 
This  was  their  last  vote  relative  to  this  affair,  whilst 
the  governor  was  in  the  province.  He  had,  without 
making  it  public,  obtained  his  majesty's  permission 
to  leave  the  province  and  go  to  England.  The  pre- 
judice, in  the  minds  of  the  common  people,  increas- 
ed every  day.  It  was  known  to  his  friends,  that  as 
he  sat  in  one  of  the  chambers  of  his  house,  the  win- 
dow and  door  of  a  closet  being  open,  a  bullet  en- 
tered through  the  window  and  door  passages,  and 
passed  very  near  him.  If  some  thought  this  a  mere 
accident,  yet  as  he  knew  he  had  many  virulent  ene- 
mies, he  could  not  be  without  suspicion  of  a  wicked 
design ;  but  his  principal  intention  in  going  home, 
was  to  represent  the  conduct  of  the  house,  to  call 
them  to  answer  before  his  majesty  in  council,  and  to 
obtain  a  decision  of  the  points  in,  controversy,  and 


330 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA 


thereby  to  remove  all  occasion  or  pretence  for  fur-  j 
ther  disputes.  Hie  departure  was  very  sudden.  The 
Seahorse  man  of  war,  Captain  Durell,  lying  in 
Nautasket,  bound  to  Barbadoes,  to  convoy  the 
Saltortugas  fleet,  the  governor  went  on  board  her, 
Dec.  27th,  intending  to  go  from  Barbadoes  the  first 
opportunity  for  London.  Not  one  member  of  the 
court  was  in  the  secret,  nor  indeed  any  person  in 
the  province  except  two  or  three  of  his  domestics. 
The  wind  proved  contrary  for  three  or  four  days, 
during  which,  the  owners  of  the  ship  Ann,  Captain 
Finch,  which  was  then  loading  for  London,  by  em- 
ploying a  great  number  of  hands,  had  her  fitted  for 
the  sea  and  sent  her  to  Nantasket,  and  offered  the 
governor  his  passage  in  her,  and  he  went  on  board 
and  sailed  the  1st  of  January. 

Colonel  Shutc  had  the  character  of  being  humane, 
friendly,  and  benevolent,  but  somewhat  warm  and 
sudden  upon  provocations  received,  was  a  lover  of 
case  and  diversions,  and  for  the  sake  of  indulging 
his  inclinations,  in  those  respects,  would  willingly 
have  avoided  controversy  with  particular  persons  or 
orders  of  men  in  the  government ;  but  it  was  his 
misfortune  to  arrive  when  parties  ran  high,  and  the 
opposition  had  been  violent.  With  great  skill  in 
the  art  of  government,  it  might  not  have  been  im- 
possible for  him  to  have  kept  both  parties  in  sus- 
pense, without  interesting  himself  on  either  side, 
until  he  had  broken  their  respective  connections  or 
the  animosity  had  subsided ;  but,  void  of  art,  with 
great  integrity,  he  attached  himself  to  that  party 
which  appeared  to  him  to  be  right,  and  made  the 
other  his  irreconcilable  enemies.  His  negativing 
Mr.  Cooke,  when  chose  to  the  council,  was  no  more 
than  what  he  had  an  undoubted  right  to  do  by 
charter,  but  the  refusal  to  accept  him  as  speaker, 
perhaps,  was  impolitic,  the  country  in  general  sup- 
posing it  to  be  an  invasion  of  the  rights  of  the  house, 
and  it  would  have  been  less  exceptionable  to  have 
dissolved  them  immediately,  which  he  had  a  right 
to  do,  than  to  dissolve  them  after  an  unsuccessful 
attempt  to  enforce  his  negative,  when  his  right  was 
doubtful  in  the  province,  although  not  so  with  the 
attorney  and  solicitor  general,  who  supposed  the 
house  of  representatives  claimed  a  privilege  which 
the  house  of  commons  did  not.  The  leading  men 
in  the  house  of  representatives  did  not  think  so. 
That  point  had  not  been  in  question  in  England 
since  the  reign  of  King  Charles  the  Second,  when 
it  was  rather  avoided  than  determined,  and  it  was 
not  certain  that  the  house  of  commons  in  the  reign 
of  King  George  the  First  would  more  readily  have 
given  up  the  point  than  their  predecessors  in  the 
time  of  King  Charles.  The  house,  in  the  other 
parts  of  the  controversy,  had  less  to  say  for  them- 
selves, and,  with  respect  to  the  attempts  upon  his 
military  authority,  were  glad  to  be  excused  by  an 
acknowledgment  of  their  having  been  in  the  wrong. 
The  reducing  his  salary,  which,  at  the  highest, 
would  no  more  than  decejitly  support  him,  was 
highly  resented  by  him,  and  his  friends  said  that  he 
would  have  remained  in  the  government,  and  waited 
the  decision  of  the  other  points,  if  the  two  hundred 
pounds,  equal  to  about  fifty  pounds  sterling,  the 
deduction  made,  had  been  restored. 

Under  an  absolute  monarch  the  people  are 
without  spirit,  wear  their  chains  despairing  of  free- 
dom. A  change  of  masters  is  the  sum  of  their 
hopes,  and,  after  insurrections  and  convulsions,  they 
still  continue  slaves.  In  a  government  founded 
upon  the  principle  of  liberty,  as  far  as  government 
and  liberty  can  consist,  such  are  the  sweets  of  li- 


berty, that  we  often  see  attempts  for  a  greater  de- 
gree of  it  than  will  consist  with  the  established 
constitution,  although  anarchy,  the  greatest  and 
worst  of  tyrannies  may  prove  the  consequence,  until 
the  eyes  of  the  people  are  opened,  and  they  see  the 
necessity  of  returning  to  their  former  happy  state  of 
government  and  order. 

The  lieut.-governor  took  the  chair,  under  the 
disadvantage  of  being  obliged  to  maintain  the  same 
cause  which  had  forced  his  predecessor  out  of  it. 
Personal  prejudice  against  the  governor  was  the 
cause  of  assuming  rights  reserved  by  charter  to  the 
crown.  The  cause  now  ceased,  but  power  once  as- 
sumed is  not  willingly  parted  with.  Mr.  Dummer 
had  conducted  himself  very  discreetly.  His  at- 
tachment to  the  cause  of  the  governor  lost  him  some 
friends,  and  proved  a  prejudice  to  him  and  to  his 
successors,  for  it  had  been  usual  to  make  an  annual 
grant  or  allowance  to  the  lieut.-governor,  in  consi- 
deration of  his  being  at  hand,  or  as  they  expressed 
it,  ready  to  serve  the  province,  in  case  of  the  gover- 
nor's absence,  but,  after  the  two  or  three  first  years 
from  his  arrival,  they  withheld  it.  Without  any 
mention  of  the  unhappy  state  of  affairs,  in  a  short 
speech  to  the  two  houses,  he  let  them  know  that  he 
would  concur  with  them  in  every  measure  for  his 
majesty's  service,  and  the  good  of  the  province. 
An  aged  senator,  Mr.  Sewall,  the  only  person  alive 
who  had  been  an  assistant  under  the  old  charter, 
addressed  himself  to  the  lieut.-governor  with  great 
gravity  and  simplicity,  in  a  primitive  style,  which, 
however  obsolete,  may  be  worth  preserving.  "  If 
your  honour  and  the  honourable  board  please  to 
give  me  leave,  I  would  speak  a  word  or  two,  upon 
this  solemn  occasion.  Although  the  unerring  pro- 
vidence of  God  has  brought  your  honour  to  the 
chair  of  government,  in  a  cloudy  and  tempestuous 
season,  yet  you  have  this  for  your  encouragement, 
that  the  people  you  have  to  do  with  are  a  part  of 
the  Israel  of  God,  and  you  may  expect  to  have  of 
the  prudence  and  patience  of  Moses  communicated 
to  you.  for  your  conduct.  It  is  evident,  that  our 
Almighty  Saviour  counselled  the  first  planters  to 
remove  hither,  and  settle  here,  and  they  dutifully 
followed  his  advice,  and  therefore  he  will  never 
leave  nor  forsake  them,  nor  theirs;  so  that  your 
honour  must  needs  be  happy  in  sincerely  seeking 
their  happiness  and  welfare,  which  your  birth  and 
education  will  incline  you  to  do.  Difficilia  qucr, 
pulchra.  I  promise  myself,  that  they  who  set  at 
this  board  will  yield  their  faithful  advice  to  your 
honour,  according  to  the  duty  of  their  place." 

The  house  thought  it  necessary  to  take  immediate 
measures  for  their  defence  and  vindication  in  Eng- 
land. The  governor  had  mentioned  nothing  more 
to  their  lieut.-governor  than,  that  he  was  embarked, 
and  intended  to  return  to  his  government  early  in 
the  fall.  This,  the  lieut.-governor  communicated 
to  the  council,  and  the  council  to  the  house.  They 
sent  a  committee  immediately  to  the  lieut.-governor, 
to  pray  him  to  inform  them  what  he  knew  of  the 
governor's  intended  voyage;  but  he  could  tell  them 
no  more.  They  then  appointed  another  committee 
"  to  prepare  and  lay  before  the  house  what  they 
think  proper  to  be  done  in  this  critical  juncture,  in 
their  just  and  necessary  vindication  at  the  court  at 
home,"  and  a  ship,  Captain  Clerk,  then  ready  to 
sail  for  London,  was  detained  until  the  dispatches 
were  ready.  Anthony  Sanderson,  a  merchant  of 
London,  had  been  recommended  by  Mr.  Popple,  of 
the  plantation  office,  in  a  letter  to  the  speaker,  as  a 
proper  person  for  the  province  agent.  To  him  the 


UNITED  STATES. 


331 


house  sent  their  papers,  to  be  improved  as  they 
should  order. 

(1723.)  The  house  was  loth,  suddenly,  to  recede, 
and,  the  day  after  the  governor  sailed,  they  ap- 
pointed a  committee,  to  join  with  a  committee  of 
council,  to  consider  of  proper  ways  for  carrying 
into  execution  the  report  of  a  committee  of  war. 
This  was  the  province  of  the  captain  general,  and 
the  council  refused  a  concurrence.  The  house  then 
passed  another  vote,  protesting  against  carrying  on 
an  offensive  war,  unless  Walton,  the  colonel,  and 
Moody,  the  major,  should  be  removed,  and  other 
suitable  persons  appointed.  Before  the  council 
passed  upon  this  vote,  the  two  obnoxious  persons 
were  prevailed  upon  to  write  to  the  lieut. -governor, 
and  desire  a  dismission,  provided  they  might  be 
paid  their  wages,  and,  the  letters  being  communi- 
cated to  the  council,  they  passed  another  vote,  de- 
siring the  lieut.-governor  to  dismiss  the  officers, 
agreeable  to  the  letters  received  from  them.  This 
vote  the  house  non-concurred,  and  insisted  upon 
their  own  vote,  which  the  council  then  non-con- 
curred. The  house  then  passed  a  resolve,  that,  un- 
less Walton  and  Moody  were  dismissed,  they  should 
be  necessitated  to  draw  off  part  of  the  forces,  and 
sent  their  '  resolve  to  be  laid  upon  the  council  table.' 
The  lieut.-governor,  by  a  message,  let  the  house 
know,  that  the  king  had  appointed  him  general  of 
the  forces,  and  that  he,  only,  hud  the  power  to 
draw  them  off,  and  added,  that  he  expected  all  mes- 
sages from  the  house  should  be  properly  addressed 
to  him,  otherwise  he  should  pay  no  regard  to  them. 
The  house  were  sensible  they  had  gone  too  far,  and 
appointed  a  committee  to  wait  upon  the  lieut.-go- 
vernor, to  desire  they  might  have  leave  to  withdraw 
their  resolve,  and  declared  that,  however  expressed, 
they  intended  only  that  they  would  not  vote  any 
further  pay  and  subsistence.  They  persisted,  how- 
ever, in  their  refusal  to  provide  for  the  pay  of  the 
two  officers,  whose  dismission  they  required,  nor 
would  they  make  provision  for  further  carrying  on 
the  war  until  other  officers  were  appointed. 

Among  the  other  instances  of  additional  power 
to  the  house  they  had,  by  degrees,  acquired,  from 
the  governor  and  council  the  keys  of  the  treasury, 
and  no  monies  could  be  issued  without  the  vote  of 
the  house  for  that  purpose.  This  is  no  more  than 
some  colonies,  without  charters,  claim  and  enjoy; 
but  by  the  charter,  all  monies  are  to  be  paid  out  of 
the  treasury  '  by  warrant'  from  the  governor,  with 
advice  and  consent  of  the  council.  The  right  of  the 
house  to  originate  all  acts  and  orders  for  raising 
monies  from  the  people  and  to  appropriate  such 
monies  to  such  services  as  they  '  thought  proper, 
was  not  disputed,  but  they  went  further,  and  would 
not  admit  that  payment  should  be  made  for  such 
services  until  they  had  judged  whether  they  were 
well  performed,  and  had  passed  a  special  order  for 
such  payment.  Thus  they  kept  every  officer  de- 
pendent, and  Walton,  because  he  had  not  observed 
their  orders  to  go  to  Penobscot,  but  had  conformed 
to  the  governor's  orders,  from  whom  he  derived  all 
the  authority  he  had  to  march  any  where,  was  de  • 
nied  his  pay.  Other  matters  were  alleged  against 
Walton  in  the  course  of  the  dispute,  but  this  seems 
to  have  been  the  principal. 

The  exposed  state  which  the  frontiers  must  have 
been  in,  if  the  forces  had  been  drawn  off,  and  they 
could  not  be  kept  there  without  pay,  induced  the 
lieut-governor  to  dismiss  Walton,  and  to  appoint 
Thomas  Westbrooke  colonel  and  commander-in- 
chicf,  whereupon  an  establishment  was  settled  by 


the  house,  premiums  were  gran  ed  for  Indian  scalps 
and  prisoners,  and  au  end  was  put  to  the  session. 

The  Indians,  we  have  observed,  were  instigated 
by  the  French  to  begin  the  war.  The  old  men 
were  averse  to  it.  Halle,  with  difficulty,  prevailed 
upon  the  Norridgewocks.  The  Peuobscots  were 
still  more  disinclined  and,  after  hostilities  began, 
expressed  their  desires  of  an  accommodation.  The 
St.  Francois  Indians,  who  lived  upon  the  borders  of 
Canada,  and  the  St.  John's,  as  also  the  Cape  Sable 
Indians,  were  so  remote,  as  not  to  fear  the  destruc- 
tion of  their  villages  by  the  English.  They  mixed 
with  the  Norridgewocks  and  Penobscots,  and  made 
the  war  general.  In  the  latter  part  of  July  the 
enemies  surprized  Canso,  and  other  harbours  near 
to  it,  and  took  sixteen  or  seventeen  sail  of  fishing 
vessels,  all  belonging  to  the  Massachusetts.  Go- 
vernor Phillips  happened  to  be  at  Canso,  and  caused 
two  sloops  to  be  manned,  partly  with  volunteer 
sailors  from  merchant  vessels,  which  were  loading 
with  fish,  and  sent  them,  under  the  command  of 
John  Eliot  of  Boston,  and  John  Robinson  of  Cape 
Ann,  in  quest  of  the  enemy.  Eliot,  as  he  was 
ranging  the  coast,  observed  seven  vessels  in  a  har- 
bour called  Winnepaug,  and  concealed  all  his  men, 
except  four  or  five,  until  he  came  near  to  one  of  the 
vessels,  which  had  about  forty  Indians  aboard,  who 
were  in  expectation  of  another  'prize  falling  into 
their  hands.  As  soon  as  he  was  within  hearing, 
they  hoisted  their  pennants  and  called  out,  *  strike, 
English  dogs,  and  come  aboard,  for  you  are  all 
prisoners.'  Eliot  answered,  that  he  would  make  all 
the  haste  he  could.  Finding  he  made  no  attempt 
to  escape,  they  began  to  fear  a  tartar,  and  cut  their 
cable,  with  intent  to  run  ashore,  but  he  was  too 
quick  for  them,  and  immediately  clapped  them 
aboard.  For  about  half  an  hour  they  made  a  brave 
resistance;  but,  at  length  some  of  them  jumping 
into  the  hold,  Eliot  threw  his  hand  grenadoes  after 
them,  which  made  such  havoc,  that  all  which  re- 
mained alive  took  to  the  water,  where  they  were  a 
fatal  mark  for  the  English  shot.  From  this,  or  a 
like  action,  probably  took  rise  a  common  expression 
among  English  soldiers,  and  sometimes  English 
hunters,  who,  when  they  have  killed  an  Indian, 
make  their  boast  of  having  killed  a  black  duck. 
Five  only  reached  the  shore. 

Eliot  received  three  bad  wounds,  and  several  of 
the  men  were  wounded,  and  one  killed.  Seven 
vessels,  with  several  hundred  quintals  of  fish,  and 
fifteen  of  the  captives,  were  recovered  from  the 
enemy.  They  had  sent  many  of  the  prisoners  away, 
and  nine  they  had  killed  in  cold  blood.  The  Nova 
Scotia  Indians  had  the  character  of  being  more 
savage  and  cruel  than  the  other  nations. 

Robinson  retook  two  vessels,  and  killed  several 
of  the  enemy.  Five  other  vessels  the  Indians  had 
carried  so  far  up  the  bay,  above  the  harbour  of  Ma- 
lagash,  that  they  were  out  of  his  reach,  and  he  had 
not  sufficient  men  to  land,  the  enemy  being  very 
numerous. 

The  loss  of  so  many  men  enraged  them,  and  they 
had  determined  to  revenge  themselves  upon  the 
poor  fishermen,  above  twenty  of  whom  yet  remained 
prisoners  at  Malagash  harbour,  and  they  were  all 
destined  to  be  sacrificed  to  the  manes  of  the  slain 
Indians.  The  powowing  and  other  ceremonies  were 
performing  when  Captain  Blin,  in  a  sloop,  appeared 
off  the  harbour,  and  made  the  signal,  or  sent  in  a 
token,  which  had  been  agreed  upon  between  him 
and  the  Indians,  when  he  was  their  prisoner,  should 
be  hisl  protection.  Three  of  the  Indians  went 


332 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


aboard  his  vessel,  and  agreed  for  the  ransom  both 
of  vessels  and  captives,  which  were  delivered  to 
nim,  and  the  ransom  paid.  In  his  way  to  Boston 
he  made  prisoners  of  three  or  four  Indians  near 
Cape  Sables,  and,  about  the  same  time,  Captain 
Southack  took  two  canoes,  with  three  Indians  in 
each,  one  of  which  was  killed,  and  the  other  five 
brought  to  Boston. 

This  Nova  Scotia  affair  proved  very  unfortunate 
for  the  Indians.  The  Massachusetts  frontiers  af- 
forded them  less  plunder,  but  they  were  in  less 
danger.  On  the  16th  of  September,  between  four 
and  five  hundred  Indians  were  discovered  upon 
Arowsick  Island,  by  a  party  of  soldiers  who  were 
employed  as  a  guard  to  the  inhabitants  while  at 
their  labour.  They  immediately  made  an  alarm, 
by  firing  some  of  their  guns,  and  the  inhabitants  of 
the  island,  by  this  means,  had  sufficient  notice  to 
shelter  themselves  in  the  fort  or  garrison  house,  and 
also  to  secure  part  of  their  goods  before  the  enemy 
came  upon  them. 

They  fired  some  time  upon  the  fort,  and  killed 
one  man,  after  which  they  fell  to  destroying  the 
cattle,  about  fifty  head,  and"  plundering  the  houses, 
and  set  fire  to  twenty-six  houses,  the  flames  of  which 
the  owners  beheld  from  the  fort,  lamenting  the  in- 
sufficiency of  their  numbers  to  sally  out  and  prevent 
the  mischief. 

These  were  the  Indians  who  put  a  stop  to  the 
march  to  Penobscot.  There  were  in  the  fort  about 
forty  soldiers,  under  Capt.  Robert  Temple  and  Capt. 
Penhallow.  Capt.  Temple  was  a  gentleman  who 
came  over  from  Ireland,  with  an  intent  to  settle  in 
the  country  with  a  great  number  of  families  from 
the  north  of  Ireland,  but  this  rupture  with  the  In- 
dians broke  his  measures,  and  having  been  an  officer 
in  the  army,  Col.  Shute  gave  him  a  command  here. 
Walton  and  Harman,  upon  the  first  alarm,  made 
all  the  dispatch  they  could,  and  before  night  came 
to  the  island  in  two  whaleboats  with  thirty  men 
inore.  With  their  joint  force  the  English  made  an 
Attempt  to  repel  the  enemy,  but  the  disproportion  in 
numbers  was  such  that,  in  a  bush  fight  or  behind 
trees,  there  was  no  chance,  and  the  English  retreat- 
ed to  the  fort.  The  enemy  drew  off  the  same  night, 
and  passing  up  Kennebeck  river,  met  the  province 
sloop,  and  firing  upon  her  killed  the  master,  Bar- 
tholomew Stretton,  and  then  made  an  attempt  upon 
Richmond  fort,  and  from  thence  went  to  the  village 
of  Norridgewock,  their  head  quarters. 

A  man  was  killed  at  Berwick,  which  was  the  last 
mischief  done  by  the  enemy  this  first  year  of  the 
war. 

When  the  general  court  met  in  May,  next  year, 
no  advice  had  been  received  of  any  measures  taken 
by  the  governor  in  England.  The  house  chose  their 
speaker,  and  placed  him  in  the  chair  without  pre- 
senting him  to  the  lieut-governor,  which  he  took  no 
notice  of.  They  continued  their  claim  to  a  share  in 
Ihe  direction  of  the  war,  and  insisted,  that  if  any 
proposals  of  peace  should  be  made  by  the  Indians, 
they  should  be  communicated  to  the  house  and  ap- 
proved by  them.  They  repeated  also  a  vote  for  a 
committee  of  the  two  houses  to  meet  in  the  recess  of 
the  court,  and  to  settle  plans  for  managing  the  af- 
fairs of  the  war,  which  the  lieut.-governor  was  to 
carry  into  execution,  but  in  this  the  council  again 
noncurred.  The  lieut. -governor's  seal  being  affixed 
to  a  belt,  given  to  tne  delegates  from  the  Iroquois, 
who  came  to  Boston  to  a  conference,  the  house  pas- 
sed a  resolve  "  that  the  seal  be  defaced,  and  that  the 
seal  of  the  province  be  affixed  to  the  belt,  as  the 


committee  of  the  two  houses  have  agreed,"  and  sen 
the  resolve  to  the  council  for  their  concurrence. 
The  council,  instead  of  concurring,  voted,  as  well 
they  might,  that  the  resolve  contained  just  matter  of 
oft'enoe,  and  therefore  they  desired  the  house  to 
withdraw  it.  This  produced  another  resolve  from 
the  house  still  higher,  "  that  the  affixing  a  private 
seal,  contrary  to  the  agreement  of  a  committee,  was 
a  high  affront  and  indignity  to  them,  and  therefore 
they  very  justly  expected  the  advisers  and  promo- 
ters thereof  to  be  made  known  to  the  house."  There 
was  a  double  error  in  this  transaction  of  the  house, 
the  lieut.-governor  having  the  unquestionable  right 
of  ordering  the  form  of  proceeding  in  treaties  or 
conferences  of  this  kind,  and  the  house  having  no 
authority  to  direct  the  king's  seal  to  be  applied  to 
any  purpose,  the  governor  being  the  keeper  of  the 
seal;  and  although,  in  common  parlance,  called  tht 
province  seal,  yet,  properly  speaking,  it  was  the 
king's  seal  for  the  use  of  the  province. 

The  lieut.-governor  took  no  public  exception    to 
any  votes  of  the  house  this  session,  which  we  must 
presume  to  be  owing  to  his  apprehensions,  that  in  a 
short   time,   a  full  consideration  would  be  had  ir 
England  of  matters  of  the  same  nature  during  Col 
Shute's  administration.     Before  the  next  session  r 
the  general  court  (Oct.  23d),  the  agent,  Mr.  Sande 
son,  transmitted  to  the  speaker  a  copy  of  the  hea 
of  complaint  exhibited  against  the  house,   for  en- 
croaching upon  his  majesty's  prerogative  in  seven 
instances. 

1.  "In  their  behaviour  with  respect  to  the  trees 
reserved  for  masts  for  the  royal  navy. 

2.  For  refusing  to  admit  the  governor's  negative 
upon  their  choice  of  a  speaker. 

3.  Assuming  power  in  the  appointment  of  days 
for  fasting  and  thanksgiving. 

4.  Adjourning  themselves   to   a   distant  day  by 
their  own  act. 

5.  Dismantling  forts,  and  directing  the  artillery 
and  warlike  stores  to  other  than  the   custody  of  the 
captain  general,  or  his  order. 

6.  Suspending  military  officers  and  refusing  their 
pay. 

7.  Appointing  committees  of  their  own  to  direct 
and  muster  his  majesty's  forces." 

The  house  voted  the  complaint  groundless,  and 
ordered  one  hundred  pounds  sterling  to  be  remitted 
Sanderson,  to  enable  him  to  employ  counsel  to  justify 
the  proceedings  of  the  house.  The  vote  being  sent 
to  the  council  was  unanimously  nonconcurred. 

The  house  then  prepared  an  answer  to  the  several 
articles  of  complaint,  and  an  address  to  the  king,  to 
which  they  likewise  desired  the  concurrence  or  ap- 
probation of  the  council ;  but  they  were  disapproved 
and  sent  back  with  a  vote  or  message,  that  "  in 
faithfulness  to  the  province,  and  from  a  tender  re- 
gard to  the  house  of  representatives,  the  board  can- 
not but  declare  and  give  as  their  opinion,  that  the 
answer  is  not  likely  to  recommend  this  government 
and  people  to  the  grace  and  favour  of  his  majesty, 
but  on  the  contrary,  has  a  tendency  to  render  us 
obnoxious  to  the  royal  displeasure." 

The  house,  however,  ordered  the  answer  and  aa- 
dress  to  be  signed  by  the  speaker,  and  forwarded 
to  Mr.  Sanderson,  to  be  improved  as  they  should 
order. 

The  council  thereupon  prepared  a  separate  ad- 
dress to  his  majesty,  and  transmitted  it  to  the  go- 
vernor. The  nonconcurrence  of  council  with  these 
measures  of  the  house,  was  resented,  and  the  houso 
desired  to  know  what  part  of  their  answer  had  a  ten- 


UNITED  STATES. 


333 


dency  to  render  the  government  and  people  obnox-  j 
ious.  Here  the  council,  very  prudently,  avoided  en- 
gaging in  controversy  with  the  house.  ''  It  was  not 
their  design  to  enter  into  a  detail,  but  only  to  inti- 
mate their  opinion,  that  considering  the  present  cir- 
cumstances of  affairs,  some  better  method  might  be 
taken  than  an  absolute  justification."  They  had 
shewn  their  dissatisfaction  with  the  conduct  of  the 
house,  in  every  article  which  furnished  matter  for 
the  complaint,  except  that  of  the  speaker,  and  did 
all  in  their  power  to  prevent  them;  but  now  this 
conduct  was  impeached,  the  arguments  used  by  the 
council  in  a  dispute  with  the  house,  might  be  suffi- 
cient to  justify  the  council  and  set  their  conduct  in 
an  advantageous  light,  but  they  would  strengthen 
and  increase  the  prejudice  against  the  country  in 
general.  This  was  an  instance  of  public  spirit  worthy 
of  imitation. 

The  house  then  resolved,  "  that  being  apprehen- 
sive that  the  liberties  and  pn'vileges  of  the  people 
are  struck  at,  by  governor  Shute's  memorial  to  his 
majesty,  it  is  therefore  their  duty  as  well  as  interest, 
to  send  some  suitable  person  or  persons  from  hence, 
to  use  the  best  method  that  may  be  to  defend  the 
constitution  and  charter  privileges."  They  had  no 
power  over  the  treasury,  without  the  council,  and 
therefore  sent  this  vote  for  concurrence;  but  it  was 
refused,  and  the  following  vote  passed  in  council  in- 
stead of  it:  "The  liberties  and  privileges  of  his  ma- 
jesty's good  subjects  of  this  province  being  in  dan- 
ger, at  this  present  critical  conjuncture  of  our  public 
affairs  at  the  court  of  Great  Britain,  and  it  being 
our  duty  as  well  as  interest  to  use  the  best  methods 
that  maybe  in  defence  of  the  same;  and  whereas 
Jeremiah  Dummcr,  Esq.,  the  agent  of  this  court,  is 
a  person  of  great  knowledge  and  long  experience 
in  the  affairs  of  the  province,  and  has  greatly  merit- 
ed of  this  people,  by  his  printed  defence  of  the 
charter,  and  may  reasonably  be  supposed  more  ca- 
pable of  serving  us  in  this  existence,  than  any  per- 
son that  may  be  sent  from  hence,  voted,  that  the 
said  Mr.  agent  Dummer  be  directed  to  appear  in 
behalf  of  the  province,  for  the  defence  of  the  charter, 
according  to  such  instructions  as  he  shall  receive 
frpm  this  court."  This  vote  plainly  intimated,  that 
by  the  late  conduct  of  the  house,  the  charter  of  the 
province  was  in  danger,  but  the  house  seem  to  have 
overlooked  it,  and  concurred  with~  an  amendment, 
"  that  Mr.  Sanderson  and  a  person  sent  from  hence 
be  joined  with  Mr.  Dummer."  The  council  agreed, 
that  a  person  should  be  sent  home,  but  refused  to 
join  Sanderson.  Before  the  house  passed  upon  this 
amendment,  they  made  a  further  trial  to  obtain  an 
independency  of  the  council,  and  voted,  that  there 
should  be  paid  out  of  the  treasury,  to  the  speaker  of 
the  house,  three  hundred  pounds  sterling,  to  be  ap- 
plied as  the  house  should  order.  Near  three  weeks 
were  spent  in  altercations  upon  this  subject,  between 
the  council  and  the.  house  ;  at  length  it  was  agreed 
that  one  hundred  pounds  should  be  at  the  disposal 
of  the  house,  and  two  hundred  to  be  paid  to  such 
agents  as  should  be  chosen  by  the  whole  court.  The 
house  were  in  arrears  to  Sanderson,  which  they 
wanted  this  money  to  discharge,  and  then  were  con- 
tent to  drop  him. 

The  manner  of  chusing  civil  officers  had  been  by 
a  joint  vote  or  ballot  of  council  and  house.  This 
gave  a  great  advantage  to  the  house,  who  were  four 
times  the  number  of  the  board.  But  to  be  more 
sure  of  the  person  the  majority  of  the  house  were 
fond  of,  they  chose  Mr.  Cooke  for  agent,  and  sent 
the  vote  to  the  board  for  concurrence.  The  council 


nonconcured,  and  insisted  on  proceeding  in  the 
usual  way,  which  the  house  were  obliged  to  comply 
with.  The  choice,  however,  fell  upon  the  same  per- 
son, and  he  sailed  for  London  the  18th  of  January. 

Col.  Westbrook  with  230  men  set  out  from  Kene- 
beck,  the  llth  of  February  this  year,  with  small  ves- 
sels and  a  whale-boat,  and  ranged  the  coast  as  far  east 
as  Mount  Desart.  Upon  his  return,  he  went  up 
Penobscot  river,  where,  about  thirty-two  miles  from 
the  anchoring  place  of  the  transports,  he  discovered 
the  Indian  castle  or  fortress,  wailed  with  stockadoes, 
about  seventy  feet  in  length  and  fifty  in  breadth, 
which  inclosed  twenty-three  well  finished  wigwams. 
Without,  was  a  church  sixty  feet  long  and  thirty 
broad,  very  decently  finished  within  and  without, 
and  a  very  commodious  house  in  which  the  priest 
dwelt.  All  was  deserted,  and  all  the  success  attend- 
ing this  expedition  was  the  burning  the  village. 
The  forces  returned  to  St.  Georges,  the  20th  of 
March. 

Captain  Harman  was  intended,  with  about  120 
men,  for  Norridgewock  at  the  same  time,  and  set 
out  the  6th  of  February,  but  the  rivers  were  so  open 
and  the  ground  so  full  of  water,  that  they  could 
neither  pass  by  water  nor  land;  and  having  with 
great  difficulty  reached  to  the  upper  falls  of  Amas- 
coggin,  they  divided  into  scouting  parties,  and  re- 
turned without  seeing  any  of  the  enemy.' 

An  attempt  was  made  to  engage  the  six  nations 
and  the  Scatacook  Indians  in  the  war,  and  commis- 
sioners were  sent  to  Albany  empowered  to  promise 
a  bounty  for  every  scalp  if  they  would  go  out  against 
the  enemy,  but  they  had  no  further  success  than  a 
proposal  to  send  a  large  number  of  delegates  to 
Boston. 

The  commissioners  for  Indian  affairs  in  Albany 
had  the  command  of  the  six  nations,  and  would  not 
have  suffered  them  to  engage  in  war  if  they  had  in- 
clined to  it.  The  Massachusetts  commissioners  were 
amused,  and  a  large  sum  was  drawn  from  the  go- 
vernment in  valuable  presents  to  no  purpose.  No 
less  than  sixty-three  Indians  came  to  Boston,  Au- 
gust the  21st,  the  general  court  then  sitting.  A 
very  formal  conference  was  held  with  them,  in  the 
presence  of  the  whole  court,  but  the  delegates  would 
not  involve  their  principals  in  war;  if  any  of  their 
young  men  inclined  to  go  out  with  any  parties  of 
the  English,  they  were  at  liberty  and  might  do  as 
they  pleased.  Two  young  fellows  offered  their  ser- 
vice, and  were  sent  down  to  Fort  Richmond,  on 
Kenebeok  river.  Capt.  Heath  the  commander,  or- 
dered his  ensign  (Coleby)  and  three  of  the  garrison 
to  go  up  the  river  with  them.  After  they  had  tra- 
velled a  league  from  the  fort,  they  judged  by  the 
smell  of  fire  that  a  party  of  the  enemy  must  be  near. 
The  Mohawks  would  go  no  further  until  they  were 
strengthened  by  more  men,  and  sent  to  the  fort  for 
a  whaleboat,  with  as  many  men  as  she  could  carry. 
Thirteen  men  were  sent,  and  soon  after  they  had 
joined  the  first  party,  about  thirty  of  the  enemy  ap- 
peared, and  after  a  smart  skirmish  fled  to  their  ca- 
noes, carrying  off  two  of  their  company  dead,  or  so 
badly  wounded  as  to  be  unable  to  walk,  and  leaving 
their  packs  behind.  Coleby,  who  commanded  the 
party,  was  killed,  and  two  others  wounded.  The 
Mohawks  had  enough  of  the  service  and  could  not 
be  prevailed  on  to  stay  any  longer,  and  were  sent 
back  to  Boston. 

Small  parties  of  the  enemy  kept  the  frontiers  in 
constant  terror,  and  now  and  then  met  with  success. 

In  April  they  killed  and  took  eight  persons  at 
Scarborough  and  Falmouth.  Among  the  dead,  was 


334 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  serjeant  of  the  fort,  Chubb,  whom  the  Indian 
took  to  be  Capt.  Harman,  and  no  less  than  fifteen 
of  them  aimed  at  him  at  the  same  time,  and  lodged 
eleven  bullets  in  his  body.  This  was  lucky  for  the 
rest,  many  more  escaping  to  the  fort  than  would 
otherwise  have  done.  In  May,  they  killed  two  at 
or  near  Berwick,  one  at  Wells,  and  two  travelling 
between  York  and  Wells.  In  June,  they  came  to 
Roger  Bering's  garrison,  at  Scarborough,  killed  his 
wife  and  took  three  of  his  children  as  they  were 
picking  berries,  and  killed  two  other  persons.  In 
July,  Bominicus  Jordan,  a  principal  inhabitant  and 
proprietor  of  Saco,  was  attacked  in  his  field  by  five 
Indians,  but  keeping1  his  gun  constantly  presented, 
without  firing,  they  did  not  care  to  close  in  with 
him,  and  after  receiving  three  wounds  recovered  the 
garrison.  In  August,  the  enemy  appeared  west- 
ward, and  on  the  1 3th  killed  two  men  at  Northfi eld ; 
and  the  next  day  a  father  and  four  of  his  sons,  mak- 
ing hay  at  a  meadow  at  Rutland,  were  surprised  by 
about  a  dozen  Indians.  The  father  escaped  in  the 
bushes,  but  the  four  sons  fell  a  prey  to  the  enemy. 
Mr.  Willard,  the  minister  of  Rutland,  being  abroad, 
armed,  fell  into  their  hands  also,  having  killed  one 
and  wounded  another  before  he  was  slain  himself. 
The  last  of  the  month,  they  killed  a  man  at  Cocheco. 
and  killed  or  carried  away  another  at  Arundel.  The 
llth  of  October,  about  seventy  of  the  enemy  attack- 
ed the  blockhouse  above  Northfield,  and  killed  or 
wounded  four  or  five  of  the  English.  Col.  Stoddard 
marched  immediately  with  fifty  men  from  Nor- 
thampton to  reinforce  Northfield,  fifty  men  belong- 
ing to  Connecticut  having  been  drawn  off  the  day 
before.  Justice  should  be  done  to  the  government 
of  Connecticut.  Their  frontiers  were  covered  by 
the  Massachusetts,  and  if  they  had  not  contributed 
to  the  charge  of  the  war,  it  was  not  probable  that 
the  Massachusetts  people  would  have  drawn  in  and 
left  Connecticut  frontiers  exposed.  Nevertheless, 
they  generally,  at  the  request  of  the  Massachusetts, 
sent  forces  every  year  during  the  summer,  in  this 
and  former  wars,  and  paid  their  wages,  the  provis- 
ions being  furnished  by  this  government. 

In  October,  the  enemy  surprised  one  Cogswell, 
and  a  boat's  crew,  which  were  with  him  at  Mount 
Besart.  December  25th,  about  sixty  Indians  laid 
siege  to  the  fort  at  Muscongus  or  St.  George's. 
They  surprised  and  took  two  of  the  garrison,  who 
informed  them  the  fort  was  in  a  miserable  condition, 
but  the  chief  officer  there,  Kennedy,  being  a  bold, 
resolute  man,  the  garrison  held  out  until  Colonel 
Westbrook  arrived,  with  force  sufficient  to  scatter 
the  besiegers  and  put  them  to  flight. 

This  summer,  also,  July  14th,  the  Indians  sur- 
prised one  Captain  Watkins,  who  was  on  a  fishing 
voyage  at  Canso,  and  killed  him  and-  three  or  four 
of  his  family  upon  DurelPs  Island. 

Bouglas,  and  other  writers,  applaud  the  adminis- 
tration for  conducting  this  war  with  great  skill. 
The  French  could  not  join  the  Indians,  as  in  for- 
mer wars.  Parties  of  the  English  kept  upon  the 
march,  backwards,  and  forwards,  but  saw  no  In- 
dians. Captain  Moulton  went  up  to  Norridgewock, 
and  brought  away  some  books  and  papers  of  the 
Jesuit,  Ralle,  which  discovered  that  the  French 
were  the  instigators  of  the  Indians  to  war,  but  he 
saw  none  of  the  enemy.  He  came  off  without  des- 
troying their  houses  and  church.  Moulton  was  a 
discreet,  as  well  as  brave,  man,  and  probably  ima- 
gined this  instance  of  his  moderation  would  provoke 
in  the  Indians  the  like  spirit  towards  the  English. 
August  25.  A  Nipuiug  Indian,  John  Quittamug, 


came  to  Boston,  and  was  entertained  by  several 
gentlemen,  who  accounted  him  a  great  prodigy. 
Forty  years  before  he  had  been  remarked  as  an  old 
Indian,  and  must  now  have  been  above  112  years 
of  age.  He  constantly  affirmed,  that  in  the  year 
1630,  upon  a  message  from  the  English  that  they 
were  in  want  of  corn,  soon  after  their  arrival,  he 
went  with  his  father  to  Boston,  and  carried  from 
the  Nipmug  country  a  bushel  and  a  half  of  corn  all 
the  way  upon  his  back,  that  there  was  then  only  one 
cellar  began  in  the  town,  and  that  somewhere  near 
the  common.  He  was  in  good  health,  his  under- 
standing and  memory  entire,  and  travelled  on  foot 
ten  miles  a  day.  He  lived  near  the  town  of  Wood- 
stock. His  journey  to  Boston  proved  as  fatal  to 
him  as  old  Thomas  Parr's  journey  to  London,  sur- 
viving it  a  very  short  time  after  his  return  home, 
having  been  feasted  by  some  of  the  principal  gen- 
tlemen here  as  Parr  had  been  at  London. 

(1724.)  The  next  year  was  unfavourable  to  the 
English  in  the  former  part  of  it,  and  the  losses, 
upon  the  whole,  exceeded  those  of  the  enemy  ;  but 
a  successful  stroke  or  two  against  them,  in  the 
course  of  the  year,  made  them  weary  of  war,  and 
were  the  means  of  an  accommodation.  The  23d  of 
March  they  killed  one  Smith,  serjeant  of  the  fort  at 
Cape  Porpoise.  In  April  one  Mitchell  was  killed  at 
Black  Point,  and  two  of  his  sons  taken,  and  about 
the  same  time  John  Felt,  William  Wormwell,  and 
Ebenezer  Lewis,  were  killed  in  a  saw  mill  on  Ken- 
nebeck  river,  and  one  Thomson  at  Berwick  met 
-with  the  same  fate  in  May,  and  one  of  his  children 
was  carried  into  captivity,  another  child  was  scalped, 
and  left  on  the  ground  for  dead,  but  soon  after  was 
taken  up  and  carried  home  alive.  In  the  same 
month  they  killed  elder  Knock,  at  Lamprey  river, 
George  Chapley,  and  a  young  woman,  at  Oyster 
river,  as  they  were  going  home  from  public  worship, 
and  took  prisoners  a  man  and  three  boys  at  Kings- 
ton. The  beginning  of  June  a  scout  of  thirty  men, 
from  Oyster  liver,  were  attacked  before  they  left 
the  houses,  and  two  men  were  shot  down.  The  rest 
ran  upon  the  Indians,  aud  put  them  to  flight,  leav- 
ing their  packs  and  one  of  their  company,  who  was 
killed  in  the  skirmish.  One  Englishman  was  killed 
and  two  taken  prisoners  at  Hatfield;  another,  with 
a  friend  Indian,  and  their  horses,  were  killed  be- 
tween Northfield  and  Beerfield. 

This  month,  news  was  brought  to  Boston  of  the 
loss  of  Captain  Josiah  Winslow  and  thirteen  of  his 
company,  belonging  to  the  fort  at  St.  George's 
river.  There  went  out  seventeen  men  in  two  whale 
boats,  April  30.  The  Indians,  it  seems,  watched 
their  motions  and  waited  the  most  convenient  time 
and  place  to  attack  them.  The  next  day,  as  they 
were  upon  their  return,  they  found  themselves,  on 
a  sudden,  surrounded  with  thirty  canoes,  whose 
compliment  must  be  an  hundred  Indians.  They 
attempted  to  land,  but  were  intercepted,  and  nothing 
remained  but  to  sell  their  lives  as  dear  as  they 
could  They  made  a  gallant  defence,  and  the  bra- 
re  ry  of  their  captain  was,  in  an  especial  manner, 
applauded.  Every  Englishman  was  killed.  Three 
Indians,  of  those  called  the  Cape  Ann  Indians,  who 
were  of  the  company,  made  their  escape,  and  car- 
ried to  the  fort  the  melancholy  news. 

Encouraged  by  this  success,  the  enemy  made  a 
still  greater  attempt,  by  water,  seized  two  shallops 
at  the  Isle  of  Shoals,  and,  afterwards,  other  fishing 
vessels  in  other  harbours,  and,  among  the  rest,  a 
arge  schooner,  with  two  swivel  guns,  which  they 
manned  and  cruized  about  the  coast.  A  small  force 


UNITED  STATES. 


335 


was  thought  sufficient  to  conquer  these  raw  sailors, 
and  the  lieut.-governor  commissioned  Doctor  Jack- 
son, of  the  province  of  Main,  in  a  small  schooner, 
\vith  twenty  men,  and  Silvauus  Lakeman,  of  Ips- 
wich, in  a  shallop  with  sixteen  men,  to  go  in  quest 
of  them.  They  soon  came  up  with  them,  and,  not 
long  after,  returned,  with  their  rigging  much  da- 
maged by  the  swivel  guns,  and  Jackson  and  several 
of  his  men  wounded,  and  could  give  no  other  ac- 
count of  the  enemy  than  that  they  had  gone  to  Pe- 
nobscot. 

The  Seahorse,  man  of-war,  Captain  Durrell,  being 
then  upon  the  Boston  station,  the  lieutenant,  mas- 
ter, and  master's  mate,  each  of  them  took  the  com- 
mand of  a  small  vessel,  with  thirty  men  each,  and 
went  after  the  Indians,  but,  it  is  probable,  they 
were  soon  tired  of  this  new  business,  for  they  were 
not  to  be  found,  nor  do  we  meet  with  any  further 
intelligence  about  them.  They  took  eleven  ves- 
sels, with  forty-five  men,  twenty-two  of  whom  they 
killed,  and  carried  twenty-three  into  captivity. 

At  Groton  they  killed  one  man,  and  left  dead 
one  of  their  own  number.  August  3d,  they  killed 
three,  wounded  one,  and  made  another  prisoner  at 
Rutland.  The  Gth,  four  of  them  came  upon  a  small 
house  in  Oxford,  which  was  built  under  a  hill. 
They  made  a  breach  in  the  roof,  and,  as  one  of 
them  was  attempting  to  enter,  he  received  a  shot  in 
his  belly,  from  a  courageous  woman,  the  only  per- 
son in  the  house ;  she  had  two  muskets  and  two 
pistols  charged,  and  was  prepared  for  all  four,  but 
they  thought  fit  to  retreat,  carrying  off  the  dead  or 
wounded  man.  The  16th  a  man  was  killed  at  Ber- 
wick, another  wounded,  and  a  third  carried  away. 
The  2Sth,  one  was  killed,  and  another  wounded,  at 
Northampton,  and  the  26th,  the  enemy  came  to  the 
house  of  John  Hanson,  one  of  the  people  called 
quakers,  at  Dover,  and  killed  or  carried  away  his 
wife,  maid,  and  six  children,  the  man  himself  being 
at  the  friends'  meeting.  This  unfortunate  man, 
Hanson,  went  afterwards  to  Ganda  and  redeemed 
his  wife,  three  of  his  children,  and  the  maid.  Two 
of  his  sons  were  killed,  a  daughter,  of  seventeen 
years  of  age,  he  was  obliged  to  leave  in  their  hands. 
The  Indians  would  permit  him  to  see  and  converse 
with  her,  but  would  not  part  with  her  upon  any 
terms. 

Discouraged  with  the  ineffectual  attempts  to  in- 
tercept the  enemy,  by  parties  of  our  forces  marching 
upon  the  back  of  the  frontiers,  another  expedition 
was  resolved  \xpon,  in  order  to  surprise  them  in 
their  principal  village  at  Norridgewock. 

Four  companies,  consisting  in  the  whole  of  208 
men,  were  ordered  up  the  river  Kenebeck,  under 
Captain  Haraian,  Captain  Moulton,  Captain  Bourn, 
and  lieutenant  Bean.  Three  Indians,  of  the  six 
nations,  were  prevailed  with  to  accompany  our 
forces.  The  different  accounts  given  by  the  French 
and  English  of  this  expedition  may  afford  some 
entertainment.  Charlevoix,  who  was  about  that 
time  in  Canada,  and  might  receive  there  or  from 
thence  the  account  given  by  the  Indians  themselves, 
relates  it  in  this  manner.  "  The  23d  of  August, 
1724,  eleven  hundred  men,  part  English,  part  In- 
dians, came  up  to  Norridgewock.  The  thickets, 
with  which  the  Indian  village  was  surrounded,  and 
the  little  care  taken  by  the  inhabitants  to  prevent  a 
surprise,  caused  that  the  enemy  were  not  discovered, 
until  the  very  instant  when  they  made  a  general 
discharge  of  their  guns,  and  their  shot  had  pene- 
trated all  the  Indian  wigwams.  There  were  not 
above  fifty  fighting  men  in  the  village.  These  took 


to  their  arms,  and  ran  out  in  confusion,  not  with 
any  expectation  of  defending  the  place  against  an 
enemy  who  were  already  in  possession,  but  to  favour 
the  escape  of  their  wives,  their  old  men  and  chil- 
dren, and  to  give  them  time  to  recover  the  other 
side  of  the  river,  of  which  the  English  bad  not  then 
possessed  themselves. 

"  The  noise  and  tumult  gave  father  Ralle  notice 
of  the  danger  his  converts  were  in.  Not  intimi- 
dated, he  went  to  meet  the  enemy,  in  hopes  to  draw 
all  their  attention  to  himself,  and  secure  his  flock 
at  the  peril  of  his  own  life.  He  was  not  disap- 
pointed. As  soon  as  he  appeared,  the  English  set 
up  a  great  shout,  which  was  followed  by  a  shower 
of  shot,  and  he  fell  down  dead  near  to  a  cross  which 
he  had  erected  in  the  midst  of  the  village,  seven 
Indians,  who  accompanied  him  to  shelter  him  with 
their  own  bodies,  falling  dead  round  about  him. 
Thus  died  this  kind  shepherd,  giving  his  life  for  hk 
sheep,  after  a  painful  mission  of  thirty-seven  years. 
The  Indians,  who  were  all  in  the  greatest  conster- 
nation at  his  death,  immediately  took  to  flight,  and 
crossed  the  river,  some  swimming  and  ethers  ford- 
ing. The  enemy  pursued  them,  until  they  had 
entered  far  into  woods,  where  they  again  gathered 
together  to  the  number  of  an  hundred  and  fifty, 
men,  women,  and  children.  Although  mere  than 
two  thousand  shot  had  been  fired  upon  them,  yet 
there  were  no  more  than  thirty  killed  and  fourteen 
wounded.  The  English,  finding  they  had  no  body 
left  to  resist  them,  fell  first  to  pillaging  and  then 
burning  the  wigwams.  They  spared  the  church,  so 
long  as  was  necessary  for  their  shamefully  pro- 
faning the  sacred  vessels  and  the  adorable  body  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  then  set  fire  to  it.  At  length 
they  withdrew,  with  so  great  precipitation  that  it 
was  rather  a  flight,  and  they  seemed  to  be  struck 
with  a  perfect  panic.  The  Indians  immediately  re- 
turned to  their  village,  where  they  made  it  their 
first  care  to  weep  over  the  body  of  their  holy  mis- 
sionary, whilst  their  women  were  looking  out  for 
herbs  and  plants  for  healing  the  wounded.  They 
found  him  shot  in  a  thousand  places,  scalped,  his 
skull  broke  to  pieces  with  the  blows  of  hatchets,  his 
mouth  and  eyes  filled  of  mud,  the  bones  of  his  legs 
fractured,  and  all  his  members  mangled  an  hundred 
different  ways.  Thus  was  a  priest  treated  in  his 
mission,  at  the  foot  of  a  cross,  by  those  very  men 
who  have  so  strongly  exaggerated  the  pretended 
inhumanity  of  our  Indians,  who  have  never  made 
such  carnage  upon  the  dead  bodies  of  their  enemies. 
After  his  converts  had  raised  up,  and  oftentimes 
kissed  the  precious  remains,  so  tenderly  and  so  justly 
beloved  by  them,  they  buried  him  in  the  same  place 
where,  the  evening  before,  he  had  celebrated  the 
sacred  mysteries,  namely,  where  the  altar  stood, 
before  the  church  was  burnt." 

Besides  the  great  error  in  the  number  of  the 
English  forces,  there  are  many  embellishments  in 
this  relation  in  favour  of  the  Indians,  and  injurious 
to  the  English.  Not  satisfied  with  the  journal  alone 
which  was  given  in  by  Captain  Harman,  Captain 
Moulton' s  minute  and  circumstantial  account  of 
this  affair  has  been  compared  with  it.  And  the  fol- 
lowing is  the  result. 

The  forces  left  Richmond  fort,  on  Kennebeck 
river,  the  8th  of  August.  The  9th,  they  arrived  at 
Taconick,  where  they  left  their  whaleboats,  with  a 
lieutenant  and  40  of  the  208  men  to  guard  them. 
With  the  remaining  forces,  on  the  10th,  they  began 
their  march  by  land  for  Norridgewock.  The  same 
evening,  they  discovered  and  fired  upon  two  Indian 


33C 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


women,  one  of  them,  the  daughter  of  the  well  known 
Bomazeen,  they  killed,  the  other  his  wife,  they  took 
prisoner.  From  her  they  received  a  full  account 
of  the  state  of  Norridgewock.  The  12th,  a  little 
after  noon,  they  came  near  to  a  village :  it  was  sup- 
posed that  part  of  the  Indians  might  be  at  their 
corn-fields,  which  were  at  some  distance,  and  it  there- 
fore was  thought  proper  to  divide  this  small  army. 

Harman,  with  about  eighty  men,  chose  to  go  by 
way  of  the  fields,  and  Moulton,  with  as  many-more, 
were  left  to  march  straight  to  the  village,  which, 
about  three  o'clock,  suddenly  opened  upon  them. 
There  was  not  an  Indian  to  be  seen,  being  all  in 
their  wigwams.  The  men  were  ordered  to  advance 
softly  and  to  keep  a  profound  silence.  At  length, 
an  Indian  came  out  of  one  of  the  wigwams,  and,  as 
he  was  making  water,  looked  round  him  and  dis- 
covered the  English  close  upon  him:  he  immediately 
gave  the  war  whoop  and  ran  in  for  his  gun.  The 
whole  village,  consisting  of  about  sixty  warriors, 
besides  old  men,  women,  and  children,  took  the 
alarm,  and  the  warriors  ran  to  meet  the  Eng- 
lish, the  rest  fled  to  save  their  lives.  Moulton,  in- 
stead of  suffering  his  men  to  fire  at  random  through 
the  wigwams,  charged  every  man  not  to  fire  upon 
pain  of  death,  until  the  Indians  had  discharged  their 
guns.  It  happened  as  he  expected;  in  their  sur- 
prise they  overshot  the  English,  and  not  a  man  was 
hurt.  The  English  then  discharged  in  their  turn, 
and  made  great  slaughter,  but  every  man  still  kept 
his  rank.  The  Indians  fired  a  second  volley,  and 
immediately  fled  towards  the  river :  some  jumped 
into  their  canoes,  but  had  left  their  paddles  in  their 
houses,  others  took  to  swimming,  and  some  of  the 
tallest  could  ford  the  river,  which  was  about  sixty 
feet  over,  and  the  waters  being  low,  it  was  no  where 
more  than  six  feet  deep.  The  English  pursued, 
some  furnished  themselves  with  paddles  and  took 
the  Indian  canoes  which  were  left,  others  waded  in- 
to the  river.  They  soon  drove  the  Indians  from 
their  canoes  into  the  river,  and  shot  them  in  the 
water;  and  they  conjectured  that  not  more  than 
fifty  of  the  whole  village  landed  on  the  other  side, 
and  that  some  of  them  were  killed  before  they  reach- 
ed the  woods. 

The  English  then  returned  to  the  town,  where 
they  found  the  Jesuit,  in  one  of  the  wigwams,  firing 
upon  a  few  of  our  men,  who  had  not  pursued  after 
the  enemy.  He  had  an  English  boy  in  the  wig- 
wam with  him,  about  fourteen  years  of  age,  who  had 
been  taken  about  six  months  before.  This  boy  he 
shot  through  the  thigh,  and  afterwards  stabbed  in 
the  body,  but  by  the  care  of  the  surgeons  he  recover- 
ed. We  find  this  act  of  cruelty  in  the  account  given 
by  Harman  upon  oath.  Moulton  had  given  orders 
not  to  kill  the  Jesuit,  but,  by  his  firing  from  the 
wigwam,  one  of  our  men  being  wounded,  a  lieu- 
tenant Jaques  stove  open  the  door  and  shot  him 
through  the  head.  Jacques  excused  himself  to  his 
commanding  officer,  alleging  that  Ralle  was  load- 
ing his  gun  when  he  entered  the  wigwam,  and  de- 
clared that  he  would  neither  give  nor  take  quarter. 
Moulton  allowed  that  some  answer  was  made  by 
Ralle  which  provoked  Jacques,  but  doubted  whether 
it  was  the  same  as  reported,  and  always  expressed 
his  disapprobation  of  the  action.  Mog,  a  famous 
old  chief  among  the  Indians,  was  shut  up  in  another 
wigwam,  and  firing  from  it  killed  one  of  the  three 
Mohawks.  His  brother  was  so  enraged  that  he 
broke  down  the  door  and  shot  Mog  dead.  The 
English,  in  their  rage,  followed  and  killed  the  poor 
squaw  and  two  helpless  children.  Having  cleared 


the  village  of  the  enemy,  they  then  fell  to  plundering 
and  destroying  the  wigwams.  The  plunder  of  an 
Indian  town  consisted  of  but  little  corn,  it  being  not 
far  from  harvest,  a  few  blankets,  kettles,  guns,  and 
about  three  barrels  of  powder,  all  which  was  brought 
away.  New  England  puritans,  of  course,  thought 
it  no  sacrilege  to  take  the  plate  from  an  idolatrous 
roman  catholic  church,  which  was  all  the  profane- 
ness  offered  to  the  sacred  vessels.  There  were  some 
expressions  of  zeal  against  idolatry,  in  breaking  the 
crucifixes  and  other  imagery  which  were  found 
there.  The  church  itself,  a  few  years  before,  had 
been  built  by  carpenters  from  New  England.  Bea- 
ver and  other  Indian  furs  and  skins  had  paid  for  the 
church,  and  a  zeal  against  a  false  religion  destroyed 
the  ornaments  of  it. 

Harmau  and  the  men  who  went  to  the  corn-fields 
did  not  come  up  till  near  night,  when  the  action  was 
over.  Both  parties  lodged  in  the  wigwams,  keep- 
ing a  guard  of  forty  men;  the  next  morning  they 
found  twenty  dead  bodies,  besides  that  of  the  Jesuit, 
and  had  one  woman  and  three  children  prisoners. 
Among  the  dead  were  Bomazeen,  Mog,  Job,  Cara- 
besett,  Wissememet,  and  Bomazeen's  son  in  lav/, 
all  noted  warriors.  They  marched  early  for  Taco- 
nick,  being  in  some  pain  for  their  men  and  whale- 
boats,  but  found  all  safe.  Christian,  one  of  the  Mo- 
hawks, was  sent,  or  of  his  own  accord  returned, 
after  they  had  began  their  march,  and  set  fire  to  the 
wigwams  and  to  the  church,  and  then  joined  the 
company  again.  The  16th  they  all  arrived  at  Rich- 
mond fort.  Harman  went  to  Boston  with  the  scalp?, 
and  being  the  chief  in  command,  was  made  a  lieut.- 
colonel  for  an  exploit  in  which  Moulton  was  the 
principal  actor,  who  had  no  distinguishing  reward, 
except  the  applause  of  the  country  in  general.  This 
has  often  been  the  case  in  much  more  important 
services.  The  Norridgewock  tribe  never  made  any 
figure  after  this  defeat. 

Encouraged  by  this  success,  Col.  Westbrook  was 
ordered  to  march  with  300  men  across  from  Kenne- 
beck  to  Penobscot,  which  he  performed  with  no 
other  advantage  than  exploring  the  country,  which 
before  was  little  known.  Other  parties  were  order- 
ed up  Amaseconti  Amarescoggin,  and  a  second  at- 
tempt was  made  upon  Norridgewock,  but  no  Indians 
were  to  be  found. 

The  frontiers,  however,  continued  to  be  infested. 
September  the  6th,  anEnglish  party  of  fourteen  went 
i.om  Dunstable  in  search  of  two  men  who  were 
missing.  About  thirty  Indians  lay  in  wait,  and 
shot  down  six,  and  took  three  prisoners.  A  second 
party  went  out,  and  lost  two  of  their  number.  The 
western  frontier  seems  to  have  been  better  guarded, 
for,  although  often  alarmed,  they  were  less  an- 
noyed. 

(1725.)  The  government  increased  the  premium 
for  Indian  scalps  and  captives  to  one  hundred 
pounds.  This  encouraged  John  Lovewell  to  raise 
a  company  of  volunteers  to  go  out  upon  an  Indian 
hunting.  January  5th,  he  brought  to  Boston  a 
captive  and  a  scalp,  both  which  he  met  with  above 
forty  miles  beyond  Winnepesiaukee  lake.  Going 
out  a  second  time,  he  discovered  ten  Indians  round 
a  fire,  all  asleep.  He  ordered  part  of  his  company 
to  fire,  who  killed  three;  the  other  seven,  as  they 
were  rising  up,  were  shot  by  the  other  part  of  the 
company  reserved  for  that  purpose.  The  ten  scalps 
were  brought  to  Boston  3d  of  March.  Emboldened 
by  repeated  success,  he  made  a  third  attempt,  and 
went  out  with  thirty  three  men.  Upon  the  8th  of 
May  they  discovered  an  Indian  upon  a  point  of 


UNITED  STATES. 


337 


land  which  joined  to  a  great  pond  or  lake.  They 
had  some  suspicion  that  he  was  set  there  to  draw 
them  into  a  snare,  and  that  there  must  be  many 
Indians  near,  and  therefore  laid  down  their  packs, 
that  they  might  be  ready  for  action,  and  then 
marched  near  two  miles  round  the  pond  to  come 
at  the  Indian  they  had  seen.  The  Indian  remained, 
although  it  was  certain  death  to  him,  and  when  the 
English  came  within  gun-shot,  discharged  his  piece, 
which  was  loaded  with  beaver  shot,  and  wounded 
Lovewell  and  one  of  his  men,  and  then  immediately 
fell  himself,  and  was  scalped.  His  name  ought  to 
have  been  transmitted,  as  well  as  that  of  Mutius 
Curtius,  the  Roman,  who  jumped  into  the  gulf  or 
chasm,  upon  less  rational  grounds,  to  save  his  coun- 
try. 

The  Indians,  who  lay  concealed,  seized  all  the 
English  packs,  and  then  waited  their  return  at  a 
place  convenient  for  their  own  purpose.  One  of 
the  Indians  being  discovered,  the  rest,  being  about 
eighty,  rose,  yelled,  and  fired,  and  then  ran  on 
with  their  hatchets  with  great  fury.  The  English 
retreated  to  the  pond  to  secure  their  rear;  and 
although  so  unequal  in  numbers,  continued  to  fight 
five  or  six  hours,  till  night  came  on.  Captain 
Lovewell,  his  lieutenant,  Farwell,  and  ensign,  Ro- 
bins, were  soon  mortally  wounded,  and,  with  five 
more,  were  left  dead  on  the  spot.  Sixteen  escaped, 
and  returned  unhurt,  but  were  obliged  to  leave 
eight,  of  their  wounded  companions  in  the  woods 
without 'provisions:  their  chaplain,  Mr.  Fry,  of  An- 
dover,  was  one,  who  had  behaved  with  great  bra  very, 
and  scalped  one  Indian  in  the  heat  of  the  action, 
but  perished  himself  for  want  of  relief. 

One  of  the  eight,  afterwards,  came  into  Berwick, 
and  another  to  Saco.  This  misfortune  discouraged 
scalping  parties.  But  Indians,  as  well  as  English, 
wished  to  be  at  peace.  After  Ralle's  death  they 
were  at  liberty  to  follow  their  inclinations.  The 
Penobscot  tribe,  however,  beiug  best  disposed,  were 
first  founded.  An  Indian  hostage  aud  a  captive 
were  permitted,  upon  their  parole,  to  go  home  in 
the  winter  of  1724,  aud  they  came  back  to  the  fort 
at  St.  George's  the  9th  of  February,  accompanied 
with  two  of  the  tribe,  one  a  principal  sachem  or 
chief.  They  brought  an  account  that,  at  a  meeting 
of  the  Penobscots,  it  was  agreed  to  make  proposals 
of  peace.  The  sachem  or  chief  was  sent  back,  with 
the  other  Indian,  and  promised  to  return  in  twenty- 
three  days,  and  bring  a  deputation,  to  consist  of 
several  other  chiefs,  with  him ;  but  Captain  Heath, 
having  gone  out  upon  a  march  from  Kennebcck, 
across  the  country,  to  Penobscot,  fell  upon  a  de- 
serted village  of  about  fifty  Indian  houses,  which  he 
burned,  but  saw  none  of  the  inhabitants.  The  In- 
dians who  went  from  St.  George's  knew  nothing 
of  this  action  until  they  came  home,  and  it  seems  to 
have  discouraged  them  from  returning  according 
to  their  promise,  and  the  treaty,  by  this  means,  was 
retarded.  But  upon  new  intimations,  in  June  fol- 
lowing, John  Stoddardand  John  Waiuwright,  Esqs-, 
were  commissioned  by  the  lieut.-governor,  and  sent 
down  to  St.  George's,  to  treat  with  such  Indians  as 
should  come  in  there*  and  settle  preliminaries  of 
peace. 

A  cessation  of  arms  was  agreed  upon,  and  four 
delegates  came  up,  soon  after,  to  Boston,  and  signed 
a  treaty  of  peace,  and,  the  next  year,  the  lieut.-go- 
vernor, in  person,  attended  by  gentlemen  of  the 
court  and  others,  and  the  lieut.-governor  of  New 
Hampshire,  with  gentlemen  from  that  province,  ra- 
tified the  same  at  Falmouth  in  Casco-bay.  This 

His.  OF  AMER.— Nos.  43  &  44. 


treaty  has  been  applauded  as  the  most  judicious 
which  has  ever  been  made  with  the  Indians.  A 
long  peace  succeeded  it. 

The  pacific  temper  of  the  Indians,  for  many  years 
after,  cannot  be  attributed  to  any  peculiar  excellen- 
cy in  this  treaty,  there  being  no  articles  in  it  of  any 
importance,  differing  from  former  treaties.  It  was 
owing  to  the  subsequent  acts  of  government  in  con- 
formity to  the  treaty.  The  Indians  had  long  been 
extremely  desirous  of  trading  houses  to  supply  them 
with  necessaries,  and  to  take  off  their  furs,  skins, 
&c.  This  was  promised  by  Governor  Shute,  at  a 
conference,  but  the  general  court,  at  that  time, 
would  make  110  provision  for  the  performance.  Mr. 
Duminer  promised  the  same  thing.  The  court, 
then,  made  provision  for  trading  houses  at  St. 
George's,  Kennebeck,  and  Saco  rivers,  and  the  In- 
dians soon  found  that  they  were  supplied  with 
goods  upon  better  terms  than  they  could  have  them 
from  the  French,  or  even  from  private  English 
traders.  Acts  or  laws  were  made,  at  the  same  time, 
for  restraining  private  trade  with  the  Indians ;  but 
the  supplies,  made  by  the  province  at  a  cheaper 
rate  than  private  traders  could  afford,  would  have 
broke  up  their  trade  without  any  other  provision, 
and  laws  would  have  signified  little  without  that. 
Mr.  Dummer  engaged  that  the  Indians  should  be 
supplied  with  goods  at  as  cheap  .rate  as  they  were 
sold  in  Boston.  This  was  afterwards  construed  fa- 
vourably for  the  government.  The  goods,  being 
bought  by  wholesale,  were  sold  to  the  Indians  at  the 
retail  price,  in  Boston,  and  a  seeming  profit,  by  the 
commissary's  account,  accrued  to  the  government; 
but,  when  the  charge  of  trading  houses,  truckmas- 
ters,  garrisons,  and  a  vessel  employed  in  transport- 
ing goods  was  deducted,  the  province  was  still 
tributary  to  the  Indians  every  year.  However,  it 
was  allowed  to  be  a  well-judged  measure,  tending  to 
preserve  peace,  and  was  more  reputable  thaa  if  a 
certain  pension  had  been,  every  year  paid  for  that 
purpose. 

Delegates  from  all  the  tribes  of  Indians,  parti- 
cularly the  Norridgewocks,  not  having  been  pre- 
sent at  this  first  treaty,  another  was  thought  ne- 
cessary the  next  year,  when  the  former  was  reuewed 
and  ratified.  It  was  most  acceptable  to  the  Indians 
to  hold  their  treaties  near  their  own  settlement,  and 
in  a  proper  season  of  the  year  it  was  an  agreeable 
tour  to  the  governors  or  commanders  in  chief,  and 
the  gentlemen  accompanying  them. 

To  bring  this  war  to  a  close,  we  have  passed  over 
the  other  affairs  of  the  government  for  a  year  or 
two  past.  Soon  after  Mr.  Cooke's  arrival  in  Lon- 
don, Governor  Shute  exhibited  a  second  memorial 
against  the  house  of  representatives,  for  matters 
transacted  after  he  left  the  province.  The  principal 
articles  of  complaint  were  the  several  orders  rela- 
tive to  the  forts  and  forces,  which,  he  said,  the  house 
had  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  the  lieut.-governor, 
and  the  affront  offered  to  the  lieut.-governor,  in  or- 
dering his  seal  to  be  effaced  upon  the  belt  of  v.am- 
pum.  Several  other  things  seem  to  be  brought  in 
to  increase  the  resentment  against  them,  as  their 
choosing  Mr.  Cooke,  who  had  been  at  the  head  of 
all  the  measures  complained  of  in  the  first  memorial, 
for  their  agent;  their  refusing  to  confer  with  the 
council  upon  a  money  bill ;  their  endeavouring  by 
their  votes  to  lessen  the  members  of  the  council  in 
the  esteem  of  the  people ;  their  withholding  his  sa- 
lary in  his  absence ;  and  their  assuming  more  and 
more  the  authority  of  government  into  their  hands. 
The  council,  in  this  memorial,  arc  also  complained. 

2S 


338 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


of,  they  having  put  their  negative  to  the  vote  for 
choosing  Mr.  Cooke,  and  yet,  afterwards,  joined  in 
election  with  the  house,  when  they  had  reason  to 
suppose,  by  the  great  superiority  of  the  house  in 
number,  that  he  would  be  the  person. 

Mr.  agent  Dummer,  who  was  to  act  jointly  with 
Mr.  Cooke,  made  an  attempt  to  reconcile  the  go- 
vernor to  him,  but  he  refused  to  see  him;  and  the 
attempt  offended  Mr.  Cooke  also,  and  occasioned 
a  warm  discourse  between  him  and  Dummer,  which 
caused  the  latter  to  refuse  to  act  in  concert,  especi- 
ally as  Mr.  Cooke  had  shewn  him  a  private  instruc- 
tion from  the  house,  by  which  their  defence  against 
the  charge  of  invading  the  royal  prerogative  was 
committed  to  Mr.  Cooke  and  Mr.  Sanderson,  to  the 
exclusion  of  Mr.  Dummer. 

After  divers  hearings  upon  the  subject  matter  of 
the  complaints,  the  reports  of  the  attorney  and  so- 
licitor general,  of  the  lords  committee,  and  finally 
the  determination  of  his  majesty  in  council,  were  all 
unfavourable  to  the  house  of  representatives. 

The  several  acts  or  votes  of  the  house  relative  to 
the  king's  woods,  and  to  the  forts  and  forces,  seem 
to  have  been  generally  deemed  indefensible,  the 
agents  were  advised  to  acknowledge  them  to  be  so, 
and  it  was  so  far  relied  upon,  that  they  would  be  so 
acknowledged  in  the  province,  as  that  no  special 
provision  was  thought  necessary  for  the  regulation 
of  their  future  conduct,  the  charter  being  express 
and  clear.  But  the  governor's  power  to  negative 
the  speaker,  and  the  time  for  which  the  house  might 
adjourn,  were  points  not  so  certain.  What  was 
called  an  explanatory  charter  was  therefore  thought 
necessary,  and  such  a  charter  accordingly  passed 
the  seals.  By  this  charter,  the  power  of  the  gover- 
nor to  negative  a  speaker  is  expressly  declared,  and 
the  power  of  the  house  to  adjourn  themselves  is 
limited  to  two  days.  With  respect  to  the  latter, 
perhaps  this  new  charter  may  properly  enough  be 
called  explanatory,  the  governor  having  the  power, 
by  the  principal  charter,  of  adjourning  the  assembly, 
and  yet,  from  the  nature  of  the  thing,  it  was  neces- 
sary that  the  house,  a  part  of  that  assembly,  should 
have  the  power  of  adjourning  themselves  for  a  longer 
or  shorter  time;  but  the  power  of  negativing  a 
speaker  seems  to  be  a  new  article,  wherein  the 
charter  is  silent;  so  that  whatever  right  it  might  be 
apprehended  the  king  had  to  explain  his  own  pa- 
tents, where  there  was  ambiguity,  yet  when  an  al- 
teration is  to  be  made  in  the  charter,  or  a  new  rule 
established  in  any  point  wherein  the  charter  is  silent, 
the  acceptance  of  the  people,  perhaps,  is  necessary. 
This  seems  to  have  been  the  reason  of  leaving  it  to 
the  option  of  the  general  court,  either  to  accept  or 
refuse  the  explanatory  charter.  It  was  intimated 
at  the  same  time,  that  if  the  charter  should  be  re- 
fused, the  whole  controversy  between  the  governor 
and  the  house  of  representatives  would  be  carried 
before  the  parliament.  Had  the  two  points  men- 
tioned in  the  explanatory  charter,  or  the  conduct  of 
the  house  relative  to  them,  been  all  that  was  to  be 
carried  into  parliament,  the  general  court,  probably, 
would  not  have  accepted  this  charter.  They  would 
have  urged,  that  it  was  not  certain  that  a  house  of 
commons  would  have  determined  that  the  king,  by 
his  goveraor,  had  a  right  to  negative  the  speaker  of 
a  house  of  representatives  in  the  colonies,  especially 
as  the  attorney -general  had  inferred  this  right  from 
the  right  of  negativing  the  speaker  of  the  house  of 
commons;  but  it  was  their  misfortune  that  in  the 
other  articles  of  complaint  the  house  was  generally 
condemned  iu  England,  the  ministry  were  highly 


inceiised,  and  it  was  feared  the  consequence  of  a 
parliamentary  enquiry  would  be  an  act  to  vacate'  the 
charter  of  the  province.  The  temper  of  the  house 
was  much  changed,  and  although  there  were  several 
members,  who  had  been  active  in  all  the  measures 
which  brought  this  difficulty  upon  the  country,  still 
resolute  to  risk  all,  rather  than  by  their  own  act 
give  up  any  one  privilege,  yet  the  following  vote  wag 
carried  in  the  house  for  accepting  the  charter,  and 
in  such  terms  as  would  induce  one  to  imagine  it 
rather  the  grant  of  a  favour  than  the  deprivation  of 
a  right. 

January  15,  1725. 
"  In  the  house  of  representatives. 

"  Whereas,  his  honour  the  lieut.-governor  has 
laid  before  this  court,  in  their  present  session,  for 
their  acceptance,  an  explanatory  charter  received 
from  his  grace  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  with  a  copy 
of  his  majesty's  order  in  council  concerning  the 
same,  wherein  his  majesty  has  been  pleased  to  con- 
firm the  charter  granted  by  their  late  majesties,  king 
William  and  queen  Mary,  in  which  former  charter 
there  being  no  express  mention  made  relating  to  the 
choice  of  a  speaker,  and  the  house's  power  of  ad- 
journing, to  both  which  points,  in  the  said  explana- 
tory charter,  his  majesty  has  been  pleased  to  give 
particular  directions : 

"We,  his  majesty's  loyal  and  dutiful  subjects, 
being  very  desirous  to  signalise  our  duty  and  obedi- 
ence, which  we  at  all  times  owe  to  his  most  excel- 
lent majesty,  have  and  do  hereby  accept  of  the  said 
explanatory  charter,  and  shall  act  in  conformity 
thereto  for  the  future,  not  doubting  but  that  we  shall 
thereby  recommend  his  majesty's  loyal  and  dutiful 
subjects,  the  inhabitants  of  this  province,  to  his  fur- 
ther most  gracious  favour  and  protection. 
"  In  council,  read  and  concurred, 

"  Consented  to.     Wm.  Dummer." 

It  has  been  said  that  the  English  are  islanders, 
and  therefore  inconstant.  Transplanted  to  the  con- 
tinent they  are,  nevertheless,  Englishmen.  When 
we  reflect  upon  the  many  instances  of  frequent  sud- 
den changes,  and  from  one  extreme  to  the  other,  in 
ancient  times  in  the  parliament  of  England,  we  may 
well  enough  expect,  now  and  then,  to  meet  with  the 
like  instances  in  the  assemblies  of  the  English  colo- 
nies. This  was  the  issue  of  the  unfortunate  contro- 
versy with  governor  Shute,  unless  we  allow  that  it 
was  the  occasion  also  of  the  controversy  with  his 
successor,  which  is  not  improbable. 

The  governor  was  offended  with  Mr.  Dummer  for 
receiving  grants  from  the  court,  made  to  him  for  his 
service  as  commander  in  chief,  it  being  expected 
that  when  the  governor  is  absent,  with  leave,  his 
salary  should  be  continued,  one  half  of  which,  by  a 
royal  instruction,  is  to  be  allowed  to  the  lieut.-go- 
vernor; but  the  house  took  a  more  frugal  method, 
and  made  grants  of  little  more  than  one  half  the  go- 
vernor's usual  salary,  to  the  lieut.-governor  imme- 
diately, any  part  of  which  he  could  very  ill  afford  to 
spare  from  his  own  support.  His  pacific  measures, 
and  accommodation  or  suspension  of  some  of  the 
controverted  points,  might  be  another  cause  of  cold- 
ness, at  least  between  the  governor  and  him. 

Another  affair  occasioned  a  mark  of  royal  dis- 
pleasure upon  the  lieut-governor.  Synods  had  been 
frequent  under  the  first  charter,  either  for  suppress- 
ing errors  in  principles,  or  immoralities  in  practice, 
or  for  establishing  or  reforming  church  government 
and  order,  but  under  a  new  charter  no  synod  had 
ever  been  convened.  A  convention  of  ministers  had 
been  annually  held,  instead,  at  the  time  for  election 


UNITED  STATES. 


of  the  council.  This  might  have  been,  in  many  re- 
spects, useful,  but  it  was  thought  could  not  have 
that  weight  for  promoting  any  of  the  intended  pur- 
poses which  a  synod  convened  would  have,  especially 
if  their  decrees  were  ratified  by  the  government. 
There  were  many  ancient  members  in  both  houses, 
who  had  not  then  lost  their  affection  for  these  synods ; 
and  the  following  application  was  made  by  the  mi- 
nisters : — 

"  To  the  very  honourable  William  Dummer,  Esq. 
lieut.-governor  and  commander  in  chief.  To  the 
honourable  the  counsellors.  To  the  honoured  the 
representatives  in  the  great  and  general  court  of  his 
majesty's  province  of  the  Massachusetts-bay,  assem- 
bled, and  now  sitting.  A  memorial  and  address 
humbly  presented. 

"  At  a  general  convention  of  ministers,  from  se- 
veral parts  of  the  province,  at  Boston,  May 
the  27th,  1725. 

"  Considering  the  great  and  visible  decay  of^iety 
in  the  country,  and  the  growth  of  many  miscarriages, 
which  we  fear  may  have  provoked  the  glorious  Lord 
in  a  series  of  various  judgments  wonderfully  to  dis- 
tress us.  Considering  also  the  laudable  example  of 
our  predecessors,  to  recover  and  establish  the  faith 
and  order  of  the  gospel  in  the  churches,  and  provide 
against  what  immoralities  may  threaten  to  impair 
them,  in  the  way  of  general  synods  convened  for 
that  purpose,  and  considering  that  about  forty-five 
years  have  now  rolled  away  since  these  churches 
have  seen  any  such  conventions.  It  is  humbly  de- 
sired that  the  honoured  general  court  would  express 
their  concern  for  the  interests  of  religion  in  the 
country,  by  calling  the  several  churches  in  the  pro- 
vince to  meet  by  their  pastors  and  messengers  in  a 
synod,  and  from  thence  offer  their  advice  upon  that 
weighty  case,  which  the  circumstances  of  the  day  do 
loudly  call  to  be  considered, — '  What  are  the  mis- 
carriages whereof  we  have  reason  to  think  the  judg- 
ments of  heaven,  upon  us,  call  us  to  be  more  gene- 
rally sensible,  and  what  may  be  the  most  evangelical 
and  effectual  expedients  to  put  a  stop  unto  those  or 
the  like  miscarriages?'  This  proposal  we  humbly 
make,  in  hopes  that,  if  it  be  prosecuted,  it  may  be  fol- 
lowed with  many  desirable  consequences,  worthy  the 
study  of  those  whom  God  has  made,  and  we  are  so 
happy  to  enjoy,  as  the  nursing  fathers  of  our  churches. 

"  Cotton  Mather, 
"In  the  name  of  the  ministers  assembled 

in  their  general  convention." 
This  memorial  was  granted  by  the  council,  but 
the  house  did  not  concur.  Afterwards,  by  a  vote  of 
W.h  houses,  it  was  referred  to  the  next  session,  to 
wnich  the  lieut.-governor  gave  his  consent.  Oppo- 
sition was  made  by  the  episcopal  ministers,  but  a 
doubt  of  success  in  the  province  caused  them  to  ap- 
ply in  England,  most  probably  to  the  bishop  of  Lon- 
don. The  king  being  at  that  time  at  Hanover,  an 
instruction  came  from  the  lords  justices  to  surcease 
all  proceedings,  and  the  lieut.-governor  received  a 
reprimand  for  "  giving  his  consent  to  a  vote  of  re- 
ference, and  neglecting  to  transmit  an  account  of  so 
remarkable  a  transaction."  A  stop  was  put  to  any 
further  proceeding  in  the  affair,  nor  has  any  attempt 
for  a  synod  been  made  since. 

(1726.)  The  remainder  of  Mr.  Dummer's  short 
administration  was  easy  to  him.  The  war  being 
over,  the  principal  ground  of  dispute,  the  ordering 
the  forces,  ceased.  Other  affairs,  relative  to  the 
treasury,  the  passing  upon  accounts  and  the  form  of 
supplies  he  suffered  to  go  on  according  to  the  claim 
of  the  house.  Mr.  Cooke,  the  first  election  after  his 


return  from  England,  May,  1726,  was  chose  of  the 
council.  This  was  a  mark  of  the  house's  approba- 
tion of  his  conduct  in  the  agency,  although  it  had 
not  been  attended  with  success.  The  lieTit.-gover- 
nor  did  not  think  it  convenient  to  offend  the  house 
by  a  negative.  The  small  allowance  made  him  as  a 
salary,  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  sterling 
per  annum,  he  also  acquiesced  in  for  the  sake  of 
peace.  The  governor  was  expected  by  almost  every 
ship  for  a  year  or  two  together,  but  by  some  means 
or  other  was  delayed  until  the  summer  of  1727,  when 
he  was  upon  the  point  of  embarking,  but  the  sudden 
death  of  the  king  prevented.  The  principal  cause 
of  delay  seems  to  have  been  the  insufficiency  of  the 
salary  which  had  been  granted  for  his  support,  and 
the  uncertainty  whether  the  assembly  woul'd  make 
an  addition  to  it. 

(1727.)  Upon  the  accession  of  King  George  the 
Second,  a  gentleman,  who,  it  is  said,  was  in  parti- 
cular esteem  with  the  king  himself,  was  appointed 
governor  of  New  York  and  the  Jerseys,  in  the  room 
of  Mr.  Burnet,  whose  administration  had,  in  gene- 
ral, been  very  acceptable  to  those  colonies,  and  ap- 
proved in  England.  The  bishop,  his  father,  had 
likewise  been  a  most  steady  friend  to  the  house  of 
Hanover.  Governor  Burnet's  fortune  being  re- 
duced in  the  general  calamity  of  the  year  1720,  he 
parted  with  a  place  in  the  revenue  of  120CM.  per 
annum,  and  received  commissions  for  these  govern- 
ments, with  a  view  to  his  retrieving  his  fortune  in  a 
course  of  years.  He  thought  it  hard,  in  so  short  a 
time,  to  be  superseded  ;  for  although  Massachusetts 
and  New  Hampshire  weie  given  to  him,  yet  he 
was  to  part  with  very  profitable  posts  for  such  as,  at 
best,  would  afford  him  no  more  than  a  decent  sup- 
port, an  easy  administration  for  one  which  he  fore- 
saw would  be  extremely  troublesome.  He  com- 
plained of  his  hard  fate,  and  it  had  a  visible  effect 
upon  his  spirits.  Colonel  Shute  was  provided  for, 
more  to  his  satisfaction  than  if  he  had  returned  to 
his  government,  a  pension  of  400/.  sterling  per  an- 
num being  settled  upon  him,  to  be  paid  out  of  the 
4^  per  cent,  duty  raised  in  the  West  India  islands. 
The  West  Indians,  who  would  perhaps  have  been 
content  if  it  had  been  applied  to  one  of  their  own 
governors  who  had  been  superseded,  have  taken 
exception  to  the  payment  of  it  to  a  governor  of  the 
northern  colonies.  The  duties  granted  by  Barba- 
dos and  the  leeward  islands  upon  their  own  produce, 
to  be  disposed  of  by  the  crown,  are  the  only  in- 
stances of  the  kind  in  the  colonies.  Jamaica  is  ex- 
empt. It  was  said  in  parliament,  in  the  reign  of 
Charles  the  Second,  that  this  duty  was  consented  to, 
upon  condition  the  planters  should  be  released  from, 
a  duty  of  forty  cwt.  sugar  per  head  reserved  when 
the  king  granted  the  lands.  Jamaica  was  chiefly 
disposed  of  by  Cromwell,  free  from  any  such  bur- 
den or  charge. 

The  earthquake  on  the  29th  of  October,  1727, 
although  not  confined  to  the  Massachusetts,  was  so 
remarkable  an  event  in  providence,  that  we  may 
3e  excused  if  we  give  a  circumstantial  account  of 
t.  About  forty  minutes  after  ten  at  night,  when 
there  was  a  serene  sky,  and  calm,  but  sharp  air,  a 
most  amazing  noise  was  heard,  like  to  the  roaring 
f  a  chimney  when  on  fire,  as  some  said,  only  be  • 
yond  comparison  greater,  others  compared  it  to  the 
noise  of  coaches  upon  pavements,  and  thought  that 
f  ten  thousand  together  would  not  have  exceeded  it. 
The  noise  was  judged  by  some  to  continue  about 
lalf  a  minute  before  the  shock  began,  which  in- 
creased gradually,  and  was  thought  to  have  con- 

2S2 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


tinued  the  space  of  a  minute  before  it  was  at  the 
height,  and,  in  about  half  a  minute  more,  to  have 
been  at  an  end  by  a  gradual  decrease.  When  ter- 
ror is  so  great,  no  dependence  can  be  placed  upon 
the  admeasurement  of  time  in  any  person's  mind, 
and  we  always  find  very  different  apprehensions  of 
it.  The  noise  and  shock  of  this,  and  all  earthquakes 
•which  preceded  it  in  New  England  were  observed 
to  come  from  the  west  or  north-west,  and  go  off  to 
the  east  or  south-east.  At  Newbury,  and  other 
towns  upon  Merrimack  river,  the  shock  was  greater 
than  in  any  other  part  of  Massachusetts,  but  no 
buildings  were  thrown  down,  part  of  the  walls  of 
several  cellars  fell  in,  and  the  tops  of  many  chim- 
neys were  shook  off.  At  New  York  it  seems  to 
have  been  equal  to  what  it  was  in  the  Massachusetts, 
lut  at  Philadelphia  it  was  sensibly  weaker,  and,  in 
the  colonies  southward,  it  grew  less  and  less,  until 
it  had  spent  itself,  or  became  in-sensible.  The  sea- 
men upon  the  coast  supposed  their  vessels  to  have 
struck  upon  a  shoal  of  loose  ballast.  More  gentle 
shocks  were  frequently  felt  in  most  parts  of  New 
England  for  several  months  after.  There  have  sel- 
dom passed  above  fifteen  or  twenty  years  without 
an  earthquake,  but  there  had  been  n-one,  very  violent, 
in  the  memory  of  any  then  living.  There  was  a 
general  apprehension  of  danger  of  destruction  and 
death,  and  many,  who  had  very  little  sense  of  reli- 
gion before,  appeared  to  be  very  serious  and  devout 
penitents,  but,  too  generally,  as  the  fears  of  another 
earthquake  went  off,  the  religious  impressions  went 
with  them;  and  they,  who  had  been  the  subjects 
of  both,  returned  to  their  former  course  of  life. 

The  trade  of  the  province  being  in  a  bad  state, 
and  there  being  a  general  complaint  of  scarcity  of 
money,  the  old  spirit  revived  for  increasing  the  cur- 
rency by  a  further  emission  of  bills  of  credit.  It 
would  be  just  as  rational  when  the  blood  in  the 
human  body  is  in  a  putrid  corrupt  state  to  increase 
the  quantity  by  luxurious  living,  in  order  to  restore 
health.  Some  of  the  leading  men,  among  the  re- 
presentatives, were  debtors,  and  a  depreciating  cur- 
rency was  convenient  for  them.  A  bill  was  projected 
for  fortifying  the  sea  ports.  The  town  of  Boston 
was  to  expend  ten  thousand  pounds  in  forts  and 
stores,  and,  to  enable  them  to  do  it,  thirty  thousand 
pounds  was  to  be  issued  in  bills,  and  lent  to  the 
town  for  thirteen  years.  Salem,  Plimouth,  Marble- 
head,  Charlestown,  Glocester,  and  even  Truro,  on 
the  cape,  were  all  to  be  supplied  with  bills  of  credit 
for  the  like  purposes.  After  repeated  nonconcur- 
rence  and  long  altercation,  the  council  were  prevailed 
upon  to  agree  to  the  bill.  When  it  came  to  the 
lieut. -governor,  he  laid  the  king's  instruction  before 
the  council,  and  required  their  opinion,  upon  their 
oaths,  whether,  consistent  with  the  instruction,  he 
could  sign  the  bill,  and  they  answered  he  could  not. 
Not  only  the  lieut.-goveruor,  but  several  of  the 
council,  were  dependent  on  the  house  for  the  grant 
of  their  salaries,  and  this  dependence  was  made  use 
of  as,  in  divers  instances,  it  had  been  formerly.  The 
house  referred  the  consideration  of  allowance  to  the 
next  session,  and  desired  the  court  might  rise.  The 
lieut.-governor  let  them  know,  by  a  message,  that 
he  apprehended  his  small  support  was  withheld  from 
him  because  he  would  not  sign  a  bill  contrary  to 
his  instructions.  They  replied,  that  he  had  recom- 
mended to  them  the  making  the  provision  for  forti- 
fying the  province,  and  now  they  had  passed  a  bill 
for  that  purpose  he  refused  to  sign  it,  and  they  were 
obliged,  in  prudence  and  faithfulness  to  their  prin- 
cipals, to  come  into  a  vote,  referring  allowances  and 


other  matters  to  another  session,  when  a  way  may 
be  found  to  enable  the  inhabitants  to  pay  into  the 
treasury  again  such  sums  as  may  be  drawn  out  for 
gratuities  and  allowances.  After  a  recess  of  about 
a  fortnight,  an  expedient  was  found.  Instead  of  a 
bill  for  fortifying,  another  was  prepared,  with  a 
specious  title,  "  An  act  for  raising  and  settling  a 
public  revenue  for  and  towards  defraying  the  neces 
sary  charges  of  the  government  by  an  emission  of 
60,OOOZ.  in  bills  of  credit."  This  was  done  to  bring 
it  within  the  words  of  the  instruction,  which  re- 
strained the  governor  from  consenting  to  the  issuing 
bills  of  credit,  except  for  charges  of  government. 
The  interest  of  four  per  cent  on  240CM.  was  to  be 
pplied  annually  to  the  public  charges,  and  gave 
olour  for  issuing  the  principal  sum  of  G0,000/. 
The  lieut  -governor  was  prevailed  upon  to  sign  it, 
and,  the  same  day,  the  house  made  the  grant  of  his 
salary,  and  the  usual  allowance  to  the  judges,  most 
o-f  whom  were  members  of  the  council,  and  to  the 
other  officers  of  the  government.  This  was  after- 
wards alledged  to  be  a  compulsion  of  the  lieut.-go- 
vernor and  such  members  of  the  council  as  were 
salary  men,  to  comply  with  the  house  of  representa- 
tives, by  withholding  from  them  their  subsistence. 
The  eagerness  of  the  body  of  the  people  for  paper 
bills,  more  easily  acquired  in  this  way  than  the 
righteous  way  of  industry  and  frugality,  no  doubt, 
facilitated  a  compliance. 

The  council,  upon  this  occasion,  declined  answer- 
ing, upon  their  oath,  as  counsellors,  when  the  lieut.- 
governor  asked  their  advice.  They  swear,  that  to 
the  best  of  their  judgment  they  will  at  all  times 
freely  give  their  advice  to  the  governor  for  the  good 
management  of  the  public  affairs  of  the  government. 
The  lieut.-governor  proposed  the  following  question 
to  them  in  writing:  "  Gentlemen,  I  find  it  neces- 
sary, in  order  to  my  signing  the  bill  entitled  an  Act 
for  raising  and  settling  a  revenue,  &c.,  which  has 
passed  both  houses,  to  have  your  advice  whether  I 
can  sign  the  said  bill  without  the  breach  of  the  in- 
struction of  the  lords  justices  of  Great  Britain,  dated 
the  27th  of  September,  1720,  and  the  order  of  the 
lords  commissioners  of  trade  and  plantations,  dated 
the  8th  of  February,  1726-7.  W.  Dummer,  Feb. 
17,  1727."  Upon  which,  the  council  came  to  the 
following  vote.  "  In  council,  Feb.  19,  1727,  Read, 
and  as  the  council  have  already,  as  they  are  one  part 
of  the  general  court,  passed  a  concurrence  with  the 
honourable  house  of  representatives  upon  the  said 
bill,  they  cannot  think  it  proper  for  them  to  give 
your  honour  any  further  advice  thereupon,  nor  do 
they  apprehend  the  oath  of  a  counsellor  obliges 
them  thereto.  At  the  same  time,  they  cannot  but 
think  it  will  be  for  the  good  and  welfare  of  the  pro- 
vince, and  the  necessary  support  of  the  government 
thereof,  if  the  bill  be  consented  to  by  your  honour. 
J.  Willard,  Secretary." 

They  had  given  their  advice  or  opinion,  the  same 
session,  upon  the  bill  for  fortifying,  after  they  had 
passed  it,  that  it  was  contrary  to  the  instruction, 
and  instances  of  the  like  kind  have  been  frequent 
before  and  since  this  time. 

The  lieut. -governor  had  a  further  opportunity 
before  Mr.  Burnets's  arrival,  of  meeting  the  assem- 
bly in  May  for  election  of  counsellors. 

The  house  discovered,  in  one  instance,  this  ses- 
sion, a  desire  to  amplify  their  jurisdiction.  The 
council  and  house  had  made  it  a  practice,  ever  since 
the  charter,  to  unite  in  the  choice  of  the  treasurer, 
impost  officer,  and  other  civil  officers,  the  appoint- 
ment whereof  is  reserved  to  the  general  assembly 


UNITED  STATES. 


341 


The  council,  being  in  number  less  than  a  third  part 
of  the  house,  have  by  this  means  no  weight  in  such 
elections,  except  when  there  are  two  or  more  candi- 
dates for  an  office  set  up  by  the  house,  and  then  the 
balance  of  power,  if  they  are  united  themselves,  may 
be  with  them.  This  seems  to  have  been  an  old 
charter  practice  and  handed  down.  The  two  houses, 
when  parties  to  any  petition  or  cause  desire  to  be 
heard,  often  meet  iu  one  house,  which  no  doubt  also 
came  from  the  old  charter,  but  after  they  are  sepa- 
rated, they  vote  separately  upon  the  subject  matter 
of  the  hearing.  In  this  session,  after  a  hearing  of 
this  sort,  the  house  passed  a  vote,  "  that  when  a 
hearing  shall  be  had  on  any  private  cause  before  both 
houses  together,  the  subject  matter  shall  be  deter- 
mined by  both  houses  conjunctly."  They  might 
as  well  have  voted,  that  after  a  conference  between 
the  two  houses,  the  subject  matter  should  be  deter- 
mined conjointly.  The  council  were  sensible  this 
was  taking  from  the  little  weight  they  had,  and 
unanimously  nonconcured  the  vote. 

The  manner  of  chasing  civil  officers  is  a  defect  in 
the  constitution,  which  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
considered  at  the  framing  the  charter;  and,  as  by 
charter,  officers  must  annually  be  elected,  it  was  a 
defect  which  must  be  submitted  to.  In  the  early 
days  of  the  charter,  it  had  been  made  a  question, 
whether  in  any  acts  of  government  the  council  had 
a  negative  voice,  and  were  not  rather  to  vote  in  con- 
junction with  the  house  of  representatives,  and  Con- 
stantino Phips  gave  his  opinion  that  they  had  no 
negative.  He  seems  to  have  considered,  that,  the 
charter  and  the  commissions  to  governors  of  other 
colonies,  evidently  intended  a  legislature  after  the 
pattern  of  the  legislature  of  England,  as  far  as  the 
state  and  circumstances  of  the  colonies  would  admit. 

The  government,  under  the  old  charter  and  the 
new,  had  been  very  prudent  in  the  distribution  of 
the  territory.  Lands  were  granted  for  the  sake  of 
settling  them.  Grants  for  any  other  purpose  had 
been  very  rare,  and  ordinarily  a  new  settlement  was 
contiguous  to  an  old  one.  The  settlers  themselves, 
as  well  as  the  government,  were  inclined  to  this  for 
the  sake  of  a  social  neighbourhood,  as  well  as  mutual 
defence  against  an  enemy.  The  first  settlers  on 
Connecticut  river,  indeed,  left  a  great  tract  of  wilder- 
ness between  them  and  the  rest  of  the  colony,  but 
they  went  off  in  a  body,  and  a  new  colony,  Con- 
necticut, was  settling  near  them  at  that  time.  Rivers 
were  also  an  inducement  to  settle,  but  very  few  had 
ventured  above  Dunstable,  upon  the  fine  river  Mer- 
rimack,  and  the  rivers  iu  the  province  o£  Main  had 
no  towns  at  any  distance  from  the  sea  into  which 
they  empty.  But  on  a  sudden,  plans  were  laid  for 
grants  of  vast  tracts  of  unimproved  land,  and  the 
last  session  of  Mr.  Dummer's  administration,  a  vote 
passed  the  two  houses  appointing  a  committee  to  lay 
out  three  lines  of  towns,  each  town  of  the  contents 
of  six  miles  square,  one  line  to  extend  from  Con- 
necticut river  above  Northfield  to  Merrimack  river 
above  Dunstable,  another  line  on  each  side  Merri- 
mack as  far  as  Penicook,  and  another  from  Niche- 
wanock  river  to  Falmouth  in  Casco-bay. 

Pretences  were  encouraged,  and  even  sought  after, 
to  entitle  persons  to  be  grantees.  The  posterity  of 
all  the  officers  and  soldiers  who  served  in  the  famous 
Naraganset  expedition,  in  1 675,  were  the  first  pitch- 
ed upon ;  those  who  were  in  the  unfortunate  attempt 
upon  Canada,  in  1G90,  were  to  come  next.  The 
government  of  N.  Hampshire  supposed  these  grants 
were  made,  in  order  to  secure  the  possession  of  a 
tract  of  country  challenged  by  them  as  within  their 


bounds.  This  might  have  weight  with  some  leading 
men,  who  were  acquainted  with  the  controversy,  but 
there  was  a  fondness  for  granting  land  in  any  part 
of  the  province.  A  condition  of  settling  a  certain 
number  of  families  in  a  few  years,  ordinarily  was  an- 
nexed to  the  grants ;  but  the  court,  by  multiplying 
their  grants,  rendered  the  performance  of  the  con- 
dition impracticable,  there  not  being  people  enough 
within  the  province  willing  to  leave  the  old  settled 
towns,  and  the  grantees  not  being  able  to  procure 
settlers  from  abroad. 

The  settlement  of  the  province  was  retarded  by  it ; 
a  trade  of  land  jobbing  made  many  idle  persons ; 
imaginary  wealth  was  created,  which  was  attended 
with  some  of  the  mischievous  effects  of  the  paper 
currency,  viz.,  idleness  and  bad  economy,  a  real  ex- 
pense was  occasioned  to  many  persons,  besides  the 
purchase  of  the  grantees'  title,  for  every  township 
by  law  was  made  a  propriety,  and  their  frequent 
meetings,  schemes  for  settlement,  and  other  prepara- 
tory business,  occasioned  many  charges.  In  some 
few  towns  houses  were  built  and  some  part  of  the 
lands  cleared.  In  a  short  time,  a  new  line  being 
determined  for  the  northern  boundary  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts colony,  many  of  these  townships  were  found 
to  be  without  it.  The  government  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, for  the  crown,  laid  claim  to  some  of  them,  and 
certain  persons  calling  themselves  proprietors  under 
Mason,  to  others,  and  the  Massachusetts  people, 
after  a  further  expence  in  contesting  their  title, 
either  wholly  lost  the  lands,  or  made  such  composi- 
tion as  the  new  claimers  thought  fit  to  agree  to. 

Mr.  Burnet,  the  new  governor,  arrived  on  the 
13th  of  July,  and  was  received  with  unusual  pomp. 
Besides  a  committee  of  the  general  court,  many 
private  gentlemen  went  as  far  as  Bristol  to  wait 
upon  him,  and,  besides  the  continual  addition  that 
was  making  in  the  journey,  there  went  out  of  Bos- 
ton to  meet  him  at  a  small  distance  such  a  multitude 
of  horses  and  carriages,  that  he  entered  the  town 
with  a  greater  cavalcade  than  had  ever  been  seen 
before  or  since.  Like  one  of  the  predecessors,  Lord 
Bellamont,  he  urged  this  grand  appearance,  in  his 
first  speech  to  the  assembly,  as  a  proof  of  their  ability 
very  honourably  to  support  his  majesty's  govern- 
ment; and,  at  the  same  time,  acquainted  them  with 
the  king's  instruction  to  him  to  insist  upon  an 
established  salary,  and  his  intention  firmly  to  adhere 
to  it,  as  the  following  extract  of  his  speech,  of  the 
24th  of  July,  will  shew: — "It  is  not  easy  to  express 
the  pleasure  I  have  had  in  coming  among  you.  The 
commission  with  which  his  majesty  has  honoured 
me  (however  unequal  to  it),  has  been  received  in  so 
respectful  and  noble  a  manner,  and  the  plenty  and 
wealth  of  this  great  province  has  appeared  to  me 
in  such  a  strong  light,  as  will  not  suffer  me  to  doubt 
of  your  supporting  his  majesty's  government  by  an 
ample,  honourable,  and  lasting  settlement.  The 
wisdom  of  parliament  has  made  it  an  established 
custom,  to  grant  the  civil  list  to  the  king  for  life; 
and  as  I  am  confident  the  representatives  of  the 
people  here,  would  be  unwilling  to  own  themselves 
outdone  in  duty  to  his  majesty  by  any  of  his  sub- 
jects, I  have  reason  to  hope  that  they  will  not  think 
such  an  example  has  any  thing  in  it  which  they  are 
not  ready  to  imitate.  I  shall  lay  before  you  his 
majesty's  instruction  to  me  on  this  subject,  which, 
as  it  shall  be  an  inviolable  rule  for  my  conduct,  will, 
without  question,  have  its  due  weight  with  you." 
He  had  asked  the  opinion  of  a  New  England  gentle- 
man, who  was  then  the  minister  of  the  presbyterian 
church  at  New  York,  whether  the  assembly  would 


342 


HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


comply  with  his  instruction,   and  received  a  dis- 
couraging answer  which  caused  him  to  reply,  that 
he  would  not  engage  in  a  quarrel,  or  to  that  effect; 
but  he  either  received  different  advice  upon  his  ar- 
rival, or  for  some  other   reason  altered  his  mind. 
The  assembly  seemed,  from  the  beginning,   deter- 
mined to  withstand  him.     To  do  it  with  better  grace 
and  a  more  reasonable  prospect  of  success,  the  quan- 
tum of  the  salary,  it  was  agreed,  was  not  worth  dis- 
puting.    It  bore  no  proportion  to  the  privilege  and 
right  of  granting  it  for   such  time  as  they  thought 
proper.     The  same  persons,   therefore,   who  six  or 
seven  years  before  refused  to  make  governor  Shute, 
and  perhaps  the  government,  easy,  by  granting  not 
more  than  five  hundred  pounds  sterling  a  year,  now 
readily  voted  for  a  thousand,  or  a  sum  which  was 
intended  to  be  equal  to  it.     As  soon  as  addresses 
from  the  council  and  house,  the  usual  compliments 
upon  the  first  arrival  of  a  governor,  had  passed,  the 
house  made  a  grant  of  1,700£.  towards  his  support, 
and  to  defray  the  charge  of  his  journey.     In  a  day 
or  two,  the  governor  let  them  know  he  was  utterly 
unable  to  give  his  consent  to  it,  being  inconsistent 
with  his  instruction.     After  a  week's  deliberation, 
a  grant  was  made  of  three  hundred  pounds  for  the 
charge  of  his  journey,  which  he  accepted;  and  ano- 
ther of  fourteen  hundred  pounds  towards  his  support, 
which  was  accompanied  with  a  joint  message  from 
the  council  and  house,  prepared  by  a  committee, 
wherein  they  asserted  their  undoubted  right  as  Eng- 
lishmen and  their  privilege  by  the  charter,  to  raise 
and  apply  monies  for  the  support  of  government  and 
their  readiness  to  give  the  governor  an  ample  and 
honourable  support,  but  they  apprehended  it  would 
be  most  for  his  majesty's  service,  &c.,  to  do  it  with- 
out establishing  a  fixed  salary.     The  governor  was 
always  very  quick  in  his  replies,  and  once  when  a 
committee  came  to  him  with  a  message,  having  pri- 
vately obtained  a  copy  of  it,  gave  the  same  commit 
tee  an  answer  in  writing  to  carry  back.     The  same 
day  this  message  was  delivered  he  observed  to  them, 
in  answer,   "  that   the  right  of  Englishmen  coulc 
never  intitle  them  to  do  wrong,  but  their  privilege 
of  raising  money  by  charter  was  expressed  to  be  '  by 
wholesome  and  reasonable  laws  and  directions,'  con 
sequently  such  as  were  hurtful   to  the  constitution 
and  the  ends  of  government;  but  their  way  of  giving 
a  support  to  the  governor  could  not  be  honourable 
for  it  deprived  him   of  the  undoubted  right  of  ar 
Englishman,  viz.,  to  act  his  judgment,  or  obligee 
him  to  remain  without  support,  and  he  appealed  to 
their  own  consciences,  whether  they  had   not  for 
merly  kept  back  their  governor's  allowance  unti 
other  bills  were  passed,  and  whether  they  had   no 
sometimes  made  the  salary  depend  upon  the  consen 
to  such  bills ;  that  if  they  really  intended  from  time 
to  time  to  grant  an  honourable  support,  they  coul 
have  no  just  objection  to  making  their  purposes  ef 
fectual  by  fixing  his  salary,  for  he  would  never  ac 
cept  of  a  grant  of  the  kind  they  had  then  made.' 
We  shall  be  convinced  that  Mr.  Burnet  was  not  a 
person  who  could  be  easily  moved  from  a  resolution 
he  had  once  taken  up. 

Upon  the  receipt  of  this  message  and  the  peremp 
tory  declaration  of  the  governor,  the  house  foun 
this  was  like  to  be  a  serious  affair,  and  that  the) 
should  not  so  easily  get  rid  of  it  as  they  had  done  o 
the  like  demands  made  by  Dudley  and  Shute,  an 
again  appointed  a  committee  to  join  with  a  commit 
tee  of  council  to  consider  of  this  message.  The  ex 
elusive  right  of  the  house  in  originating  grants  the) 
have  often  so  far  given  up,  as  to  join  with  the  counci 


y  committees  to  consider  and  report  the  expediency 
f  them,   the  reports,   generally,  being  sent  to  the 
iouse,  there  to   be  first  acted  upon.     The  report  of 
his  committee  was  accepted  in  council  and  sent  to 
he  house,  but  there  rejected,  and  not  being  able  to 
mite  in  an  answer,  the  house  tried  the  council  with 
a  resolve,  sent  to  them  for  concurrence,  the  purport 
f  which  was,   that  fixing  a  salary  on  the  governor 
r  commander  in  chief  for  the  time  being,  would  be 
dangerous  to  the  inhabitants  and  contrary  to  the  de- 
ign of  the  charter,  in  giving  power  to  make  whole- 
ome  and  reasonable  orders  and  laws  for  the  welfare 
if  the  province.     This  vote,  in  so  general  terms,  the 
council   did  not  think  proper  to   concui',  and  de- 
clared,  August   19th,   that,   although  they  were  of 
pinion  it  might  prove  of  ill  consequence  to  settle  a 
salary  upon  the  governor  for  the   time  being,  yet 
hey  apprehended   a  salary  might  be   granted  for  a 
certain  time,  to  the  present  governor,  without  danger 
to  the  province,  or  being  contrary  to  the  design  of 
Jie  charter. 

This  occasioned  a  conference,  without  effect,  both 
louses  adhering  to  their  own  votes,  and  from  this 
;ime  the  house  was  left  to  manage  the  controversy 
;hemselves.  August  28th,  they  sent  a  message  to 
the  governor,  to  desire  the  court  might  rise.  He 
told  them,  that  if  he  should  comply  with  their  desire, 
he  should  put  it  out  of  their  power  to  pay  an  imme- 
diate regard  to  the  king's  instruction,  and  he  would 
not  grant  them  a  recess  until  they  had  finished  the 
business  for  which  the  court  was  then  sitting.  They 
then,  in  a  message  to  him,  declared  that,  in  faith- 
fulness to  the  people  of  the  province,  they  could  not 
come  into  an  act  for  establishing  a  salary  on  the  go- 
vernor  or  commander  in  chief  for  the  time  being, 
and  therefore  they  renewed  August  29th,  their  re- 
quest that  the  court  might  rise. 

Both  the  governor  and  the  house  seem  to  have  had 
some  reserve  in  their  declarations.  Perhaps  a  salary 
during  his  administration  would  have  satisfied  him, 
although  he.  demanded  it  for  the  commander  in  chief 
for  the  time  being;  and  the  house  did  not  say  that 
it  would  not  settle  a  salary  for  a  limited  time.  Each 
desired  that  the  other  would  make  some  concessions. 
Both  declined,  and  both  by  long  altercation  were 
irritated,  and,  at  last,  instead  of  closing,  as  seemed 
probable  at  first,  widened  the  breach  until  they  fixed 
at  the  opposite  extremes.  The  major  part  of  the 
council  and  about  a  sixth  part  of  the  house  were 
willing  to  settle  a  salary  upon  Mr.  Burnet  for  a  term 
not  exceeding  three  years,  possibly  even  some  who 
were  finally  the  most  zealous  in  the  opposition, 
would  have  submitted  to  this  if  they  could  have  been 
sure  of  its  being  accepted,  and  they  had  been  at  li- 
berty to  act  their  judgment.  Mr.  Cooke  had  expe- 
rienced the  ill  success  of  the  controversy  with  go- 
vernor Shute,  and  seemed  desirous  of  being  upon 
terms  with  his  successor,  who,  upon  his  first  arrival 
and  until  the  province  house  could  be  repaired, 
lodged  at  Mr.  Cooke's  house,  but  a  friendship  could 
not  long  continue  between  two  persons  of  so  different 
opinions  upon  civil  government.  The  language  of 
the  governor's  messages  was  thought  too  dictatorial 
by  the  people,  and  particularly  by  the  inhabitants 
of  Boston,  arid  he  had  been  somewhat  free  in  his 
jokes  upon  some  of  the  shopkeepers  and  principal 
tradesmen  who  were,  then,  the  directors  of  the  coun- 
cils of  the  town,  and  very  much-  influenced  those  of 
the  house.  An  intimation  in  the  governor's  next 
message  that,  if  they  did  not  comply  with  the  in- 
struction, the  legislature  of  Great  Britain  would  take 
into  consideration  the  support  of  the  government 


UNITED  STATES. 


343 


and,  perhaps,  something  besides,  meaning  the  char- 
ier, increased  the  prejudices  against  him.  The 
house,  August  31,  thought  themselves  obliged  to  be 
more  particular  than  they  had  yet  beeo,  fully  to  as- 
sert their  rights.  This  was  what  the  governor  de- 
sired, and,  without  any  delay,  September  2nd,  he 
sent  them  an  answer.  As  these  two  messages  seem 
to  begin,  in  earnest,  the  argument  on  each  side  of 
the  question,  we  shall  insert  them. 

"  August  31st,  1728. 

"  The  house  of  representatives  sent  the  following 
message  to  his  excellency  the  governor. 
"  May  it  please  your  excellency, 

"  The  representatives  in  general  court  assembled, 
before  they  proceed  to  make  reply  to  what  they  re- 
ceived from  you  on  Thursday  last,  respecting  their 
answer  of  that  morning  to  your  message  of  the  28th 
current,  beg  leave  to  recur  to  what  the  council  and 
representatives,  the  7th  instant,  in  great  truth  and 
sincerity,  among  other  things,  laid  before  your  ex- 
cellency, viz.  They  humbly  apprehend  that  his  ma- 
jesty's service  in  the  necessary  defence  and  support 
of  the  government  and  the  protection  and  preserva- 
tion of  the  inhabitants  thereof,  the  two  great  ends 
proposed  in  the  power  granted  to  this  court  for  the 
raising  taxes,  would  be  best  answered  without  esta- 
blishing a  salary.  Your  excellency  was  pleased  to 
let  us  know,  that  the  answer  of  the"  house  contained 
no  reasons  that  appeared  to  you  sufficient  why  his 
majesty's  23d  instruction  might  notbe  complied  with, 
since  the  same  methods  that  are  found  uo  ways  to 
prejudice  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  people  of 
Great  Britain,  nor  of  other  colonies,  cannot  preju- 
dice those  of  the  province.  If  the  method  practised 
in  Great  Britain  is  not  prejudicial  to  the  rights  and 
liberties  of  the  people  there,  it  does  not  therefore 
follow,  that  fixing  a  salary  will  not  prejudice  the 
people  of  this  province.  The  British  constitution 
differing  from  ours  in  many  respects  ;  and  other  co- 
lonies coming  into  any  particular  method,  we  not 
knowing  the  motives  inducing  them  thereto,  nor  the 
several  constitutions  of  government  they  are  put 
under,  ought  not  to  influence  or  prompt  us  to  imi- 
tate them. 

"  May  it  please  your  excellency, 
"  The  house,  being  heartily  desirous  to  cultivate  a 
good  agreement  and  harmony  with  your  excellency, 
take  this  opportunity  to  assure  you,  that  we  have, 
once  and  again,  deliberately  considered  your  mes- 
sage for  fixing  a  salary,  and  do  humbly  conceive  that 
it  is  against  the  good  design  of  the  powers  vested  and 
reposed  in  us  by  the  royal  charter,  to  pass  acts  pur- 
suant to  the  instructions  laid  before  us,  for  as  much 
as  passing  such  acts,  as  we  apprehend,  has  a  direct 
tendency  to  weaken  our  happy  constitution  ;  for  that 
their  late  majesties  King  William  and  Queen  Mary, 
of  glorious  memory,  were  graciously  pleased  to  gra- 
tify the  inhabitants  here,  and  did  grant  to  them  cer- 
tain powers,  privileges,  and  franchises,  to  be  used 
and  employed  for  the  benefit  of  the  people ;  and,  in 
the  same  grant,  reserved  other  powers  to  be  used  and 
exercised  by  the  crown  or  the  governors  sent  by 
them,  agreeable  to  the  directions  and  instructions 
contained  in  said  grant  and  their  commissions,  hav- 
ing reference  for  their  better  guidance  and  direc- 
tions to  the  several  powers  and  authorities  mentioned 
in  the  said  charter;  if,  therefore,  the  general  as- 
sembly should  at  any  time  come  into  any  act  that 
might  tend  to  infringe  the  prerogative  or  disserve 
the  crown,  his  majesty's  governors  have  a  negative 
voice  on  all  such  acts  ;  furthermore,  should  any  go- 
vernor incautiously  give  his  consent  to  such  acts,  his 


majesty  has  reserved  to  himself  a  power  to  disallow 
the  same,  by  the  use  and  exercise  of  the  other  powers 
and  privileges  lodged  in  the  general  assembly,  his 
majesty  justly  expects  they  will  never  make  use  of 
them  in  prejudice  of  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the 
people,  but  at  all  times  exert  themselves  in  defence 
thereof.  If  we  resemble  the  British  constitution,  as- 
your  excellency  has  done  us  the  honour  to  declare,, 
we  humbly  apprehend  that  no  part  of  the  legislature 
here  should  be  entirely  independent,  as  your  excel- 
lency has  very  justly  denoted  to  us,  that  the  three 
distinct  branches  of  the  legislature,  preserved  in  a 
due  balance,  forms  the  excellency  of  the  British  con- 
stitution, and  if  any  of  those  branches  should  become 
less  able  to  support  its  own  dignify  and  freedom,  the 
whole  must  inevitably  suffer  by  the  alteration.  Your 
excellency  is  pleased  to  say,  that  a  support  given  as 
has  been  usual  here,  cannot,  be  honourable,  because 
that  implies  no  sort  of  confidence  in  the  government. 
To  which  we  humbly  offer,  that  if  your  excellency 
would  take  notice  of  our  grants,  you  would  see  that 
the  very  method  itself  is  founded  on  nothing  else,  in- 
asmuch as  they  always  look  forward  and  are  given 
to  enable  the  governor  to  go  on  and  manage  the 
public  affairs.  Thus,  in  this  our  first  session  at  your 
excellency's  first  and  welcome  arrival,  the  assembly 
made  a  grant  of  1400/.,  to  enable  your  excellency  to 
manage  the  affairs  of  this  province,  fully  confiding 
in  your  conduct.  If  your  excellency  intends  that 
we  do  not  put  so  much  confidence  in  you  as  the  parlia- 
ment do  in  our  most  gracious  sovereign,  to  whom 
the  civil  list  is  granted  for  life  (which  God  long  pre- 
serve) we  freely  acknowledge  it.  Is  it  reasonable 
or  possible,  that  we  should  confide  in  any  governor 
whatsoever,  so  much  as  in  our  gracious  king,  the 
common  father  of  all  his  people,  who  is  krown  to 
delight  in  nothing  so  much  as  in  their  happiness, 
and  whose  interest  and  glory,  and  that  of  his  royal 
progeny,  are  inseparable  from  the  prosperity  and 
welfare  of  his  people ;  whereas  it  is  most  obvious, 
that  neither  the  prosperity  nor  adversity  of  a  people 
affect  a  governor's  interest  at  all,  when  he  has  once 
left  them. 

"  Your  excellency  goes  on,  and  declares  that  the 
support  of  the  government  in  this  manner  visibly  de- 
pends on  an  entire  compliance  with  the  other  parts  of 
the  legislature.  Had  the  governor  no  authority  nor 
checks  upon  them,  we  must  acknowledge  this  to  be  the 
case,  but  as  both  the  other  parts  have  a  great  depend- 
ence upon  the  governor's  discretionary  power,  the 
council  (as  the  practice  usually  is)  for  their  very  beingr 
and  both  they  and  the  representatives  for  every  law 
and  proper  act  of  government,  and  for  every  penny 
put  into  and  drawn  out  of  the  treasury,  for  their 
whole  defence  and  security  in  every  case  of  danger, 
as  he  is  their  captain  general,  besides  other  obvious 
particulars,  needless  and  too  numerous  to  be  named, 
that  if  in  this  single  instance  the  governor  should 
have  dependence  on  the  assembly  as  to  his  support, 
according  as  they  shall  see  the  province  able,  the 
other  things  that"  they  depend  upon  him  for  are  so 
vastly  more  than  a  counterbalance,  that  it  cannot 
be  thought  that  the  commander  in  chief  can  be 
hereby  prevented  acting  according  to  his  judgment, 
or  remain  without  support.  We  assure  your  excel- 
lency that  it  is  not  any  exception  to  your  person  or 
administration  (which  we  hope  other  parts  of  our 
conduct  have  made  evident)  that  determines  us 
against  fixing  a  salary  as  prescribed. 
"  May  it  please  your  excellency, 

"  Since  we  have  so  many  times  heretofore,  and  do 
now,   in  the  most  solemn  manner,  and  after  the 


341 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


most  strict  scrutiny  we  are  able  to  make  in  this  im- 
portant affair,  manifest  that  in  faithfulness  to  our 
country  we  cannot  think  it  advisable  for  this  house 
to  be  concerned  in  passing  an  act  for  fixing  a  salary 
as  prescribed,  we  do  therefore  most  ardently  move 
your  excellency,  that  you  would  permit  us  to  repair 
to  our  several  homes,  and  not  keep  us  sitting  here 
in  order  to  our  acting  contrary  to  our  native  free- 
dom and  declared  judgment,  and  so  betraying  the 
great  trust  and  confidence  our  principals  have  re- 
posed in  us." 

On  the  3d  of  September  the  secretary  carried 
down  to  the  house  the  following  message  from  his 
excellency  the  governor : — 

"  Gentlemen  of  the  house  of  representatives, — It 
is  not  at  all  agreeable  to  my  inclination  to  enter  into 
disputes  with  your  house,  and,  for  that  reason,  1  have 
endeavoured  hitherto  to  be  as  short  as  the  import- 
ance of  the  matters  which  I  have  recommended  to 
you  will  allow  me.  But  since  you  have  thought  fit 
to  lay  such  stress  on  the  reasons  offered  in  your 
reply  of  Saturday,  I  cannot  avoid,  once  more  for  all, 
entering  into  a  particular  examination  of  them,  that 
not  only  yourselves,  but  those  whom  you  represent, 
may  be  enabled  to  judge  of  the  controversy  between 
us. You  begin  with  reminding  me  that  the  coun- 
cil and  representatives  apprehended  that  his  majes- 
ty's service,  in  the  necessary  defence  and  support  of 
the  government,  and  the  protection  and  preservation 
of  the  inhabitants  thereof,  the  two  great  ends  pro- 
posed in  the  power  granted  to  this  court,  would  be 
best  answered  without  establishing  a  fixed  salary. 
It  ought  not  to  be  forgotten,  at  the  same  time,  that 
the  council  had  altered  the  words  would  be  best  into 
may  be  well,  though  you  prevailed  with  them  to  re- 
cede from  the  amendment,  and  that  they  made  this 
addition,  *  We  esteem  it  a  great  unhappiness  that 
his  majesty  should  think  our  method  ot  supporting 
the  governors  of  this  province  a  design  of  making 
them  dependent  on  the  people,'  to  which  you  agreed, 
though  nothing  to  that  effect  had  been  asserted  in 
your  own  draught.  By  these  instances,  the  council 
appear,  from  the  first,  to  have  different  apprehen- 
sions from  you  of  the  regard  to  be  paid  (o  his  ma- 
jesty's instruction,  and  of  the  weight  of  his  displea- 
sure, which  last  consideration  (though  the  greatest 
part  of  my  message)  was  not.  it  seems,  thought  by 

g)u  to  deserve  any  room  at  all  in  so  long  a  reply, 
ut  supposing  the  council  and  you  were  agreed, 
that  is  to  say,  that  two  branches  of  the  legislature 
thought  it  best  to  keep  the  third  entirely  dependent 
on  them,  (which  would  be  a  manifest  piece  of  par- 
tiality and  injustice)  is  this  any  reason  why  the 
third  should  be  of  the  same  opinion  ?  Or  rather, 
does  it  not  confirm  the  too  just  suspicion  his  majesty 
has  of  a  design  so  dangerous  to  his  own  authority  ? 
Two  branches  of  legislature  can  bring  nothing  to 
effect  without  the  third,  and,  consequently,  if  what 
seems  best  to  them  only  cannot  be  consented  to  by 
the  other,  it  becomes  their  duty  to  consider  what 
next  best  thing  can  be  done,  in  which  all  three  can 
concur,  for  it  does  not  follow  that  if  what  some 
imagine  best  cannot  be  done,  therefore  nothing 

should  be  done   at  all. And  so  much  for  what 

you  have  said  before  you  proceed  to  make  reply. 

"  You  may  perceive  from  what  I  have  alread'y  ex- 
pressed, upon  how  many  accounts  the  reasons  of  the 
house  can  never  appear  sufficient  to  me  why  his 
majesty's  twenty-third  instruction  should  not  be 
complied  with,  and  I  am  far  from  thinking,  that  you 
give  any  answer  to  my  former  reasons.  -You  say, 
'  that  if  the  method  practised  in  Great  Britain  is  not 


prejudicial  to  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  people 
there,  it  does  not  therefore  follow  that  fixing  a  salary 
would  not  prejudice  the  people  of  this  province.' 
Rights  and  liberties  are  words  that  have,  naturally, 
the  same  meaning  in  all  countries,  and,  unless  you 
can  shew  me  wherein  the  British  rights  and  liber- 
ties are  defective,  (which  you  have  not  done,)  I 
may  conclude  that  they  are  not  so,  and,  in  that  case, 
it  is  a  natural  consequence  that  the  methods  under 
which  they  have  been  so  long  safe  and  flourishing, 
are  most  likely  to  produce  the  same  effects.  But 
you  say,  '  the  British  constitution  differs  from  yours 
in  many  respects.'  I  take  the  chief  difference  to 
have  been  in  the  use  made  of  the  constitution,  which 
has  been  no  ways  to  your  advantage,  for  by  Great 
Britain's  keeping  up  to  their  constitution,  public 
credit  still  continues  at  a  height,  notwithstanding 
the  vast  charges  and  debts  of  the  nation,  but  with 
you  credit  has  fallen  lower  and  lower  in  an  amazing 
manner,  and  this  has  proceeded  plainly  from  the 
want  of  a  sufficient  check  in  the  other  branches  of 
the  legislature  to  the  sudden  and  unadvised  measures 
of  former  assemblies;  so  that  if  ever  you  come  near 
the  happiness  of  Great  Britain,  it  must  be  by  sup- 
porting those  parts  of  the  legislature  which  of  late 
have  been  too  much  depressed,  but  are  in  them- 
selves necessary  to  guard  the  liberties  and  proper- 
ties of  the  inhabitants,  as  well  as  the  house  of  re- 
presentatives. 

"  As  to  the  case  of  other  plantations,  I  shall  only 
say;  if  you  enjoy  larger  privileges  by  the  favour  of 
the  crown  than  they,  and,  by  consequence,  have 
more  to  lose  by  his  majesty's  displeasure,  the  argu- 
ments both  of  gratitude  and  interest  plead  stronger 
with  you  for  a  compliance  with  an  instruction  in 
itself  so  just  and  reasonable. 

"  I  cannot  see  why  you  apprehend  that  passing  acts 
pursuant  to  the  instruction  has  a  direct  tendency  to 
weaken  your  happy  constitution,  especially  since 
you  now  acknowledge  what  I  had  formerly  observed, 
'  that  each  branch  of  the  legislature,  and  conse- 
quently the  governor,  ought  to  be  enabled  to  sup- 
port its  own  dignity  and  freedom,'  which  is  all  that 
is  intended  by  the  instruction. 

"I  had  observed,  '  that  the  usual  way  of  supporting 
the  government  implied  no  sort  of  confidence  in  the 
governor.'  You  offer  '  that  if  I  would  take  notice 
of  your  grants  I  should  see  that  the  very  method 
itself  is  founded  upon  nothing  else,  inasmuch  as  they 
always  look  forward,  and  are  given  to  enable  the 
governor  to  go  on  and  manage  the  public  affairs.' 
I  can  scarce  believe  that  this  is  intended  for  a  seri- 
ous argument,  since  a  time  no  longer  ago  than  last 
winter  session  affords  a  plain  proof  to  the  contrary. 
The  lieut.-governor  informed  the  house,  in  answer 
to  their  message,  expressing  their  desire  of  an  ad- 
journment, '  that  he  had  consented  to  all  the  acts 
and  votes  passed  the  two  houses,  except  the  bill 
for  emitting  bills  of  credit,  which  he  would  have 
signed  were  it  consistent  with  his  majesty's  instruc- 
tion, which  it  was  not,  in  the  opinion  of  the  council.' 
And  he  concludes  with  reminding  them,  '  that  the 
proper  and  usual  season  for  granting  salaries  is  al- 
ready outrun,  and  that  be  expects  they  will  provide 
for  the  honourable  support  of  the  government  be- 
fore they  rise.'  The  house  entered  into  the  consi- 
deration of  the  above  message,  and  after  some  de- 
bate had  thereon,  the  question  was  put,  whether  the 
house  will  now  come  to  the  consideration  of  allow- 
ances, it  passed  in  the  negative.  Then  the  question 
was  put,  whether  the  ruiisideration  of  allowances 
shall  be  referred  to  the  next  session  of  this  court ; 


UNITED  STATES. 


345 


resolved  in  the  affirmative.  In  this  manner  was 
this  method  of  grants  '  that  always  look  forward' 
brought  to  look  directly  upon  the  present  business, 
in  order  to  compel  a  compliance  or,  if  you  like  that 
better,  to  look  backward  by  way  of  punishment  for 
a  denial ;  and  so  the  public  affairs  were  left  to  ma- 
nage themselves  for  any  care  that  was  taken  of  them. 
"Your  next  observation  is  not  one  jot  a  juster 
representation  of  the  case  before  you.  You  say  you 
are  not  for  fixing  a  salary  '  because  it  is  not  reason- 
able or  possible  you  should  confide  in  any  governor 
whatsoever,  so  much  as  in  our  most  gracious  king.' 
As  if  this  instruction  to  demand  a  salary  came  from 
a  governor,  and  not  from  his  majesty  himself;  and 
as  if  the  salary  was  to  be  given  directly  to  the  go- 
vernor, and  not  to  his  majesty,  for  the  use  of  his 
governor  or  commander  in  chief;  or  as  if  upon  just 
complaint  his  majesty  could  not  or  would  not  re- 
move an  ill  governor,  and,  in  short,  as  if  your  doing 
the  thing  would  not  be  altogethei  upon  confidence 
in  his  majesty,  and  not  in  any  governor  whatsoever. 
The  words  of  respect  here  used  to  his  majesty  came 
with  a  very  ill  grace,  and  have  not  that  gravity  in 
them  which  would  be  more  becoming,  since  in  the 
same  breath  you  are  disregarding  his  own  demand 
and  undervaluing  his  favour,  and  making  light  of  his 
declaration,  'that  if  you  do  not  pay  an  immediate 
regard  to  his  instruction,  he  will  look  upon  it  as  a 
manifest  mark  of  your  undutiful  behaviour  to  himself.' 
"  You  carry  on  the  same  kind  of  reasoning  to  the 
end  of  your  paper,  which  seems  much  better  adapted 
to  amuse  than  to  prove  any  thing. 

"  In  the  first  place,  you  make  a  very  pompous  re- 
presentation of  the  governor's  authority,  and  of  the 
great  dependance   the   other   parts  of  the   genera 
court  have  on  his  discretionary  power,  and  call  his> 
support  the  single   instance  in  which  he  has  some 
dependance  on  the  assembly;  and,  just  after,  you 
give  an  odious  aspersion  on  an  undoubted  branch  o 
the  power  lodged  in  the  governor,  which  is  '  to  keep 
the  general  court  together  as  long  as  he  thinks  the 
public  affairs  require  it.'     I  am  at  a  loss  to  know 
whether  your  insinuation,  that  I  keep  you  here  in  or 
der  to  compel  you  to   act  contrary  to  your  nativi 
freedom  and  declared  judgment,   be   more  injuriou 
to  me  or  yourselves.     You   seem  to  allow  the   go 
vernor's  powers  only  so  far  as  he  uses  them  accord 
ing  to  your  pleasure;  but,  in  using  your  own  powers 
to  take'  it  very  ill  to  be  directed  by  any  body.     Yoi 
said  before,  '  that  the  other  things  which  the  hous 
depends  on  a  governor  for,  are  so  vastly  more  thai 
a  counterbalance  to  his   support,   (you  might  hav 
said  subsistence,  and  then  the  irony  would  have  aj 
peared  more  openly,)  that  it  cannot  be  thought  tha 
the  commander  in  chief  can  be  thereby  prevente 
acting  according  to  his  judgment,  or  remain  withou 
support.'     As   if  you  were  ignorant  of  the  afore 
mentioned  proceedings  of  the  last  winter ;  and  ye 
you  are  very  ready  to  think,  that  to  keep  you  sittin^ 
here  is  a  compulsion  to  you  to  act  contrary  to  you 
native  freedom  and  declared  judgment,  and   so  be 
tray  the  great  trust  your  principals  have  reposed  i 
you.     But  I  persuade  myself  that  your  faithfulnes 
to  your  country  put  you  above  any  such  temptation 
"  And,  as  I  am  still  of  opinion  that  you  have  ac 
ed  upon  mistaken  notions,  I  cannot  give  over  th 
hopes  of  your  coming  to  see  things  in  that  true  ligh 
in  which,  I  flatter  myself,  I  have  stated  the  point  i 
question ;  and  as  I  am  disposed  to  gratify  you  as  fa 
as  is  consistent  with  my  duty  and  my  honour,  I  hop 
you  will  consider  what  advances  you  can  make  t< 
wards  a  compliance,  that  so  the  present  session  ma 


ot  be  a  needless  burden  to  the  people,  but  still  hava 
great  issue  to  his  majesty's  and  the  country's  ser- 
ce.  "  W.  Burnet." 

Not  long  after  the  house,  instead  of  any  advances 
)wards  a  compliance,  which  the  governor  wished  to 
jtain,  came  to  resolutions  upon  two  questions  which 
icwed  still  more  fully  their  sense  of  the  point  in 
ontroversy.     The  first  question  was,   Whether  the 
ouse  would  take  under  consideration  the  settling  a 
emporary  salary  upon  the  governor  or  commander 
n  chief  for  the   time  being.      This  passed  in  the 
egative.     Then  this  question  was  put : — Whether 
ic  house  can,  with  safety  to  the  people,  come  into 
ny  other  method  for  supporting  the   governor  or 
ommander  in  chief  for  the  time  being,  than  what 
as  been  heretofore  practised.     This  also  passed  in 
ic  negative,  and  was  the  first  instance  of  the  house's 
eclaring  they  would  make  no  advances,  for  in  their 
message  last  preceding  they  only  say,  they   do   not 
hink  it  advisable  to  pass  an  act  for  fixing  a  salary 
s  prescribed.     These  votes  caused  the  governor  to 
ut  them  in  mind  of  a  letter  from  their  agent,  in  the 
ear  1722,  wherein  he  mentions  that  Lord  Cartaret, 
n  conversation,  desired  him  to  write  to  the  assembly 
ot  to  provoke  the  government  in  England  to  bring 
heir  charter  before  the  parliament,  for  if  they  did, 
t  was  his  opinion,  it  would  be  dissolved  without  op- 
osition,  and  the  governor  advised  them  to  take  care 
heir  proceedings  did  not  bring   their  charter  into 
langer  at  that  time.     This  caution  did  not  prevent 
he  house  from  preparing  a  state  of  the  controversy 
Between  the  governor  and  them,  concerning  his  sa- 
ary,  to  transmit  to  their  several  towns,  in  the  con- 
tusion  of  which  they  say  that  they  dare   neither 
come  into  a  fixed  salary  on  the  governor  for  ever, 
aor  for  a  limited  time,  for  the  following  reasons : 

"  1.  Because  it  is  an  untrodden  path,  which  nei- 
her  they  nor  their  predecessors  have  gone  in,  and 
hey  cannot  certainly  foresee  the  many  dangers  that 
may  be  in  it,  nor  can  they  depart  from  that  way 
which  has  been  found  safe  and  comfortable. 

'  2.  Because  it  is  the  undoubted  right  of  all  Eng- 
lishmen, by  magna  charta,  to  raise  and  dispose  of 
money  for  the  public  service,  of  their  own  free  ac- 
cord, without  compulsion. 

'  3.  Because  it  must  necessarily  lessen  the  dignity 
and  freedom  of  the  house  of  representatives,  in  mak- 
ng  acts,  and  raising  and  applying  taxes,  &c.,  and 
consequently  cannot  be  thought  a  proper  method  to 
preserve  that  balance  in  the  three  branches  of  the 
legislature,  which  seems  necessary  to  form,  maintain, 
and  uphold  the  constitution. 

"  4th.  Because  the  charter  fully  impowers  the  ge 
neral  assembly  to  make  such  laws  and  orders  as  they 
shall  judge  for  the  good  and  welfare  of  the  inhabi- 
tants ;  and  if  they,  or  any  part  of  them,  judge  this 
not  to  be  for  their  good,  they  neither  ought  nor  could 
come  into  it ;  for,  as  to  act  beyond  or  without  the 
powers  granted  in  the  charter  might  justly  incur  the 
king's  displeasure,  so  not  to  act  up  and  agreeable  to 
those  powers  might  justly  be  deemed  a  betraying  the 
rights  and  privileges  therein  granted ;  and,  if  they 
should  give  up  this  right,  they  would  open  a  door  to 
many  other  inconveniences." 

This  representation  was  prepared  to  be  carried 
home  by  the  several  members,  upon  the  rising  of  the 
court,  m  order  to  their  towns  giving  their  instruc- 
tions ;  but,  the  house  being  kept  sitting,  it  was 
printed  and  sent  through  the  province.  The  go- 
vernor sent  a  message  to  the  house,  a  few  days  after, 
in  which  he  takes  their  representation  to  pieces ; 
and,  in  the  close  of  his  message,  appeals  to  them 


3-16 


HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


whether  he  had  not  answered  all  their  objections, 
"  except  the  unknown  inconveniences  to  which  a 
door  would  be  opened,"  which  could  not  be  answered 
until  they  could  tell  what  they  were ;  and  charges 
them  with  calling  for  help  from  what  they  had  not 
mentioned,  from  a  sense  of  the  imperfection  of  what 
they  had,  and  with  sending  to  their  several  towns  for 
advice ;  and  declaring  at  the  same  time,  that  they  did 
not  dare  follow  it. 

It  would  be  tedious  to  recite  at  length  the  several 
messages  which  passed  during  the  remainder  of  the 
controversy,  from  the  chair  to  the  house  and  from 
the  house  to  the  chair,  which  followed  quick  one  upon 
the  back  of  another  ;  the  sum  of  the  argument,  upon 
the  part  of  the  governor  was,  that  it  was  highly  rea- 
sonable he   should  enjoy   the  free   exercise   of  his 
judgment  in  the  administration  of  government;  but 
the  grants,  made  for  a  short  time  only  by  the  house, 
were  thus  limited  for  no  other  reason  than  to  keep 
the  governor  in  a  state  of  dependence,   and  with  de- 
sign to  withhold  from  him  the  necessary  means  of 
subsistence,  unless  he  would  comply  with  their  acts 
and  resolves,  however  unreasonable  they  might  ap- 
pear to  him:  that  in  fact  they  had  treated  governor 
Shute  in  this  manner,  and  no  longer  since  than  the 
previous  year,  the  house  had  refused  to  make  the 
usual  gi'ants  and  allowances,  not  only  to  the  lieute 
nant-governor,  but  to   other  officers,  until  they  hac 
compelled  him  to  give  his  consent  to  a  loan  of  sixty 
thousand  pounds  in  bills  of  credit ;   that  a  constitu 
tion  which,  in  name   and  appearance,  consisted  o 
three  branches  was,  in  fact,  reduced  to  one ;  that  i 
was  a  professed  principle  in  the  constitution  of  Grea 
Britain,  to  preserve  a  freedom  in  each  of  the  thre 
branches  of  the  legislature  ;  and  it  was  a  great  fa 
vour  shewn  the  province,   when  king  William  anc 
queen  Mary  established,  by  the  royal  charter,  a  forn 
of  government  so  analogous  to  the  government  of 
Great  Britain  ;  a  principle  of  gratitude  and  loyalty, 
therefore,  ought  to  induce  them  to  establish  a  salary 
for  the  governor  of  this  province,  in  order  to  his  sup- 
porting his  dignity  and  freedom,  in  like  manner  as 
the  parliament  always  granted  to  the  king  what  was 
called  the  civil  list,  not  once  in  six  months  or  from 
year  to  year,  but  for  life  ;  that  this  was  no  more 
than  other  provinces  which  had  no  charters  had  done 
for  their  governors  ;  that  there  was  nothing  in  the 
province  charter  to  exempt,  them  from  the  same  ob- 
ligation  which    other  his  majesty's   colonies  were 
under,  to  support  the  government ;  and  that  they 
could  have  no  pretence  to  greater  privileges  by  char- 
ter, than  the  people  of  England  enjoyed  from  magna 
charta,  no  clause  of  which  was  ever  urged  as  an  ob- 
jection against  granting  to  the  king  a  revenue  for 
life  ;  and  a  power  by  charter  to  grant  monies  could 
not  be  a  reason   against  granting  them  either  for  a 
limited  or  unlimited  time. 

On  the  part  of  the  house,  the  substance  of  their 
defence  against  the  governor's  demand,  and  his  rea 
sons  in  support  of  it,  was,  that  an  obligation  upon  an 
assembly  in  the  plantations  could  not  be  inferrec 
from  the  practice  of  the  house  of  commons  in  Great 
Britain ;  the  king  was  the  common  father  of  all  his 
subjects,  and  their  interests  were  inseparably  united, 
whereas  a  plantation  governor  was  affected  neither 
by  the  adversity  nor  prosperity  of  a  colony  when  he 
had  once  left  it ;  no  wonder  then  a  colony  could  not 
place  the  same  confidence  in  the  governor  which  the 
nation  placed  in  the  king ;  however,  the  grants  to 
the  governor  always  looked  forward,  and  were  made, 
not  for  service  done,  but  to  be  done.  It  must  be 
admitted,  the  governor  is  in  some  measure  depend- 


ent upon  the  assembly  for  his  salary,  but  he  is  d« 
undent  in  this  instance  only ;  whereas  he  has  a 
:heck  and  controul  upon  every  grant  to  any  person 
n  the  government,  and  upon  all  laws  and  acts  of 
government  whatsoever;  nor  can  an  exact  parallel 
3e  drawn  between  the  constitution  of  Britain  and 
;hat  of  the  province,  for  the  council  are  dependent 
upon  the  governor  for  their  very  being,  once  every 
year,  whereas  the  house  of  lords  cannot  be  displaced 
unless  they  have  criminally  forfeited  the  rights  of 
peers  ;  the  house  was  not  to  be  governed  by  the  prac- 
tice of  assemblies  in  some  of  the  other  colonies,  nor 
were  they  to  be  dictated  to  and  required  to  raise  a 
certain  sum  for  a  certain  time  and  certain  purposes  ; 
this  would  destroy  the  freedom  which  the  house  ap- 
prehended they  had  a  right  to  in  all  their  acts  and 
resolves,  and  would  deprive  them  of  the  powers  given 
to  them,  by  charter,  to  raise  money  and  apply  it 
when  and  how  they  thought  proper. 

The  messages  of  the  house,  at  first,  were  short, 
supposed  to  have  been  drawn  by  Mr.  Cooke,  who 
never  used  many  words  in  his  speeches  in  the  house, 
which  generally  discovered  something  manly  and 
open,  though  sometimes  severe  and  bitter,  and  often 
inaccurate.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  controversy 
they  were  generally  drawn  by  Mr.  Welles,  another 
member  from  Boston,  the  second  year  of  his  coming 
to  the  house.  These  were  generally  more  prolix,  and 
necessarily  so,  from  the  length  of  the  messages  to 
which  they  were  an  answer.  The  house  had  justice 
done  them  by  their  committees  who  managed  this 
controversy,  and  they  were  then  willing  to  allow, 
that  the  governor  maintained  a  bad  cause  with  as 
plausible  reasons  as  could  be. 

The  contending  parties,  for  a  little  while,  endea- 
voured to  be  moderate  and  to  preserve  decorum,  but 
it  was  impossible  to  continue  this  temper. 

On  the  4th  of  September,  the  house  repeated  to 
the  governor  the  request  they  had  formerly  made,  to 
rise ;  but  he  refused  to  grant  it,  and  told  them,  that  un- 
less his  majesty's  pleasure  had  its  due  weight  with  them 
their  desires  should  have  very  little  weight  with  him. 

The  council,  who  had  been  for  some  time  out  of 
the  question,  now  interposed  and  passed  a  vote  "  that 
it  is  expedient  for  the  court  to  ascertain  a  sum  as  a 
salary  for  his  excellency's  support,  as  also  the  term 
of  time  for  its  continuance."  This  was  sent  to  the 
house  for  concurrence.  The  council  seem  to  have 
gone  a  little  out  of  their  line  ;  but  the  house  took  no 
other  notice  of  the  vote  than  to  nonconcur  it.  The 
house,  being  kept  sitting  against  their  will,  employed 
part  of  their  time  in  drawing  up  the  state  of  the  con- 
troversy which  we  have  mentioned. 

This  was  not  occasioned  by  any  doubt  they  had 
themselves,  but  to  convince  the  governor  that  the 
people  throughout  the  province  were  generally  of  the 
same  mind  with  the  house,  and  for  this  purpose  they 
thought  it  necessary  to  obtain  from  their  towns  an 
express  approbation  of  their  conduct.  It  was  well 
known,  that  not  a  town  in  the  province  would  then 
have  instructed  their  representatives  to  fix  a  salary 
upon  the  governor  for  the  time  being. 

One  of  the  king's  governments  (Barbadoes)  was 
at  this  time  warmly  contending  with  its  governor 
against  fixing  a  salary.  The  assembly  of  that  island, 
some  years  before,  had  settled  a  very  large  salary 
upon  a  governor,  against  whom  they  afterwards  made 
heavy  complaints,  charging  him  with  rapaciousncss 
and  grievous  oppressions ;  and  his  successor  having 
demanded  the  like  settlement  upon  him,  they  re- 
solved to  withstand  the  demand,  and  the  spirit  seemed 
to  be  as  high  there  as  in  Massachusetts. 


UNITED  STATES. 


347 


This  had  no  small  tendency  to  strengthen  and 
confirm  the  resolution  of  the  people  here,  who  sup- 
posed their  charter  rather  an  additional  privilege 
and  security  against  this  demand.  There  was  a  minor 
part,  however,  very  desirous  of  an  accommodation. 
The  ill  success  of  the  controversy  with  governor 
Shute  was  fresh  in  their  minds.  Many  amiable  qua- 
lities in  Mr.  Burnet  caused  them  to  wish  he  might 
continue  their  governor,  and  employ  those  powers 
and  that  attention  which  were  now  wholly  engaged 
in  this  single  point,  in  promoting  the  general  welfare 
and  prosperity  of  the  province. 

About  a  third  part  of  the  house  of  representatives, 
and  a  major  part  of  the  council,  would  have  been 
content  to  have  granted  a  salary  for  two,  or  perhaps, 
three  years.  If  we  are  to  judge  by  his  declarations, 
this  would  not  'have  satisfied  him,  and  it  was  far 
short  of  his  instructions ;  but  his  friends  were  of  opi- 
nion, that  such  a  partial  compliance  would  have 
produced  a  relaxation  of  the  instruction,  and  issued 
in  lasting  agreement  and  harmony. 

The  house  made  what  they  would  have  the  governor 
think  a  small  advance  towards  it.  Instead  of  a 
grant  for  the  salary,  supposed,  though  not  expressed, 
for  half  a  year,  they  made  a  grant  (September  20th,) 
of  three  thousand  pounds,  equal  to  one  thousand 
sterling,  in  order  to  enable  him  to  manage  the  affairs 
of  the  province,  and  although  it  was  not  expressly 
mentioned,  it  was  generally  understood  to  be  for  a 
year.  This  was  concurred  by  the  council,  but  he 
let  it  lie  without  signing  his  consent,  which  caused 
the  house  to  make  at  least  a  seeming  farther  ad- 
vance ;  for  on  the  24th  of  October,  they  by  a  message 
intreated  him  to  accept  the  grant,  and  added,  "  We 
cannot  doubt  but  that  succeeding  assemblies,  accord- 
ing to  the  ability  of  the  province,  will  be  very  ready 
to  grant  as  ample  a  support ;  and  if  they  should  not, 
your  excellency  will  then  have  the  opportunity  of 
shewing  your  resentment."  Still  they  had  no  effect ; 
the  governor  knew  how  natural  it  would  be  for  a  fu- 
ture assembly  to  refuse  being  governed  by  the  opi- 
nion of  a  former,  besides  the  reserve  "  according  to 
the  ability  of  the  province,"  left  sufficient  room  for 
a  further  reason  for  reducing  the  sum  whensoever  a 
future  assembly  should  think  it  proper. 

A  little  before  this  message  from  the  house,  the 
governor  had  informed  them  that  he  was  of  opinion 
the  act  which  passed  the  last  year,  issuing  sixty 
thousand  pounds  in  bills  of  credit  by  way  of  loan, 
would  be  disallowed,  the  lieutenant-governor  having 
given  his  consent  to  it  directly  contrary  to  a  royal 
instruction,  and  recommended  to  them,  as  the  most 
likely  way  to  obtain  his  majesty's  approbation,  to  ap- 
ply the  interest  of  the  money  arising  from  the  loan 
towards  the  governor's  salary.  This  was  one  of 
those  acts  which  have  their  operation  so  far,  before 
they  are  laid  before  his  majesty,  that  great  confusion 
may  arise  from  their  disallowance.  The  house  there- 
fore, had  no  great  fears  concerning  it ;  but  it  would 
have  been  a  sufficient  reason  to  prevent  their  com- 
plying with  the  proposal,  that  it  would  be  a  fixing 
the  salary  so  long  as  the  loan  continued,  and  for  this 
reason  they  refused  it. 

The  country  in  general,  as  we  have  observed,  was 
averse  to  a  compliance  with  the  king's  instruction, 
but  no  part  more  so  than  the  town  of  Boston.  Ge- 
nerally, in  the  colonies,  where  there  is  a  trading  ca- 
pital town,  the  inhabitants  of  it  are  the  most  zealous 
part  of  the  colony  in  asserting  their  liberties  when 
an  opinion  prevails  that  they  are  attacked.  They 
follow  the  example  of  London,  the  capital  of  the  na- 
tion. The  governor  had  frequently  said,  that  the 


members  of  the  house  could  not  act  with  freedom, 
>eing  influenced  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  town.  Be- 
sides, the  town,  at  a  general  meeting  of  the  inhabit- 
ants for  that  purpose,  had  passed  a  vote,  which  was 
•ailed  the  unanimous  declaration  of  the  inhabitants 
)f  the  town  of  Boston,  against  fixing  a  salary  upon, 
the  governor,  and  this  vote  they  ordered  to  be 
printed.  The  governor  was  in  great  wrath,  and 
called  it  "  an  unnecessary  forwardness,  an  attempt 
o  give  law  to  the  country."  This  seems  to  have  de- 
ermined  him  to  remove  the  court  out  of  town,  and 
on  the  24th  of  October  he  caused  it  to  be  adjourned 
;o  the  31st,  then  to  meet  at  Salem,  in  the  county  of 
Essex,  "  where  prejudice  had  not  taken  root,  and 
where  of  consequence  his  majesty's  service  would  in 
all  probability  be  better  answered."  Jocosely,  he 
aid  there  might  be  a  charm  in  the  names  of  places, 
and  that  he  was  at  a  loss  whether  to  carry  them 
there  or  to  Concord. 

The  house  thought  their  being  kept  so  long  sitting 
at  Boston  a  great  grievance.  In  one  of  their  mes- 
sages, they  ask  the  governor,  "  Whether  it  has  been 
customary  that  the  knights,  burgesses,  and  other 
freemen  of  the  land,  should  be  told  that  they  are  met 
to  grant  money  in  such  a  peculiar  way  and  manner, 
and  so  they  should  be  kept  till  they  had  done  it,  and 
this  in  order  to  gain  their  good  will  and  assent."  In 
his  reply,  he  tells  them  he  would  consider  their  ques- 
tion in  all  its  parts  :  "  1st,  '  Whether  freemen,  &c. 
should  be  told  they  are  met  to  grant  money.'  I 
answer,  the  crown  always  tells  them  so.  2d.  *  In 
such  a  particular  way  and  manner  ?'  I  answer,  if 
you  mean  the  way  and  means  of  raising  money,  the 
crown  leaves  that  to  the  commons  ;  but  if  you  mean 
the  purpose  for  which  it  is  to  be  granted,  the  crown 
always  tell  them  what  that  is,  whether  it  is  for  an 
honourable  support,  the  defence  of  the  kingdom, 
carrying  on  a  war,  or  the  like.  3d.  '  And  so  they 
should  be  kept  till  they  had  done  it'  The  crown 
never  tells  the  parliament  so,  that  I  know  of;  nor 
have  I  told  you  any  thing  like  this  as  an  expedient 
to  get  the  thing  done.  I  have  given  you  a  very  dif- 
ferent reason  for  not  agreeing  to  a  recess,  altogether 
for  your  own  sakes,  lest  I  should  thereby  make  your  im- 
mediate regard  to  his  majesty's  pleasure  impossible." 

The  house  could  not  easily  be  persuaded  they  were 
kept  so  long  together  merely  for  their  own  sakes,  and 
thought  this  part  of  the  governor's  answer  evasive  of 
the  true  reason  ;  and  considered  themselves  as  under 
duresse  whilst  at  Boston,  and  their  removal  to  Salem 
to  be  a  further  hardship,  and  an  earnest  of  what  was 
still  further  to  come,  a  removal  from  place  to  place 
until  they  were  harassed  into  a  compliance.  The 
members  of  the  general  court  privately  lamented 
the  measures  which  had  driven  away  governor  Shute, 
who  would  have  been  easy  with  a  salary  of  about 
500/.  sterling,  granted  from  year  to  year ;  and  the 
same  persons,  by  whose  influence  his  salary  was  re- 
duced, were  now  pressing  Mr.  Burnet  to  accept 
1000Z.  in  the  same  way,  and  could  not  prevail. 

The  house  met,  according  to  the  adjournment,  but 
immediately  complained  of  their  removal  from  Bos- 
ton as  illegal  or  unconstitutional,  and  a  great  griev- 
ance. The  same,  and  the  only  reason  which  was 
now  given,  had  been  given  before  in  the  controversy 
with  governor  Shute.  The  form  of  the  writ  for 
calling  an  assembly,  directed  by  the  province  law, 
mentions  its  being  to  be  held  at  the  town  house  at 
Boston  ;  but  this  had  been  determined  by  the  king 
in  council  to  be,  as  no  doubt  it  was,  mere  matter  of 
form  or  example  only,  and  that  it  did  not  limit  the 
power  which  the  crown  before  had  of  summoning 


348 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


and  holding  assemblies  at  any  other  place.  They 
prayed  the  governor,  however,  to  adjourn  them  back 
to  Boston,  but  without  success. 

They  endeavoured  to  prevail  upon  the  council  to 
join  with  them,  but  the  council  declared  they  were 
of  a  different  opinion,  and  urged  the  house  to  pro- 
ceed upon  business,  which  occasioned  repeated  mes- 
sages upon  the  subject;  but  the  whole  stress  of  the 
argument  on  the  part  of  the  house  lay  upon  the  form 
of  the  writ  for  calling  the  assembly,  which  the  board 
answered  by  saying,  that  the  house  might  as  well  in- 
sist that  all  precepts  to  the  towns  should  go  from  the 
sheriff  of  Suffolk,  because  the  form  of  the  precept 
in  the  law  has  "  Suffolk  ss." 

The  alteration  of  place  had  no  effect  upon  the 
members  of  the  house.  Votes  and  messages  passed, 
but  no  new  arguments;  the  subject  had  been  ex- 
hausted, and  nothing  remained  but  a  determined 
resolution  on  both  sides  to  abide  by  their  principles, 
consequently,  the  house  met  and  adjourned,  day 
after  day,  without  doing  any  business.  The  gover- 
nor was  the  principal  sufferer,  not  being  allowed  by 
the  king  to  receive  any  thing  towards  his  support, 
except  in  a  way  in  which  the  assembly  would  not 
give  it.  The  members  of  the  court,  in  general,  were 
as  well  accommodated  at  Salem  as  Boston,  and  the 
members  of  Boston,  who  had  not  been  used  to  the 
expense  and  other  inconvenience  of  absence  from 
home,  received  a  compensation  from  their  town,  over 
and  above  the  ordinary  wages  of  representatives.  It 
was  a  time  of  peace  without,  and  a  cessation  of  pub- 
lic business,  for  that  reason,  was  less  felt. 

The  house,  from  an  apprehension  that  their  cause 
was  just,  and  therefore  that  they  were  entitled  to  re- 
lief, resolved  to  make  their  humble  application  to 
his  majesty.  Francis  Wilks,  a  New  England  mer- 
chant, in  London,  who  had  been  friendly  to  Mr. 
Cooke  in  his  agency,  and  who  was  universally 
esteemed  for  his  great  probity,  as  well  as  his  humane 
obliging  disposition,  was  fixed  upon  for  their  agent. 
Mr.  Belcher,  who  had  been  several  years  of  the 
council,  always  closely  attached  to  governor  Shute, 
and,  in  general,  what  was  called  a  prerogative  man, 
by  some  accident  or  other  became,  on  a  sudden,  the 
favourite  of  the  house,  and  he  was  thought  the  pro- 
perest  person  to  join  with  Mr.  Wilks.  At  the  last 
election  he  had  been  left  out  of  the  council,  by  what 
•was  called  the  country  party,  but  now  declared 
against  the  governor's  measures,  and  became  inti- 
mate with  Mr.  Cooke  and  other  leading  members  oi 
the  house.  Such  instantaneous  conversions  are  not 
uncommon.  A  grant  was  made  by  the  house  to  de- 
fray the  charges  of  the  agency,  but  this  was  noneon 
curred  by  the  council,  because  it  was  for  the  use  of 
agents  in  whose  appointment  they  had  no  voice 
The  want  of  money  threatened  a  stop  to  the  pro- 
ceeding, but  the  public  spirit  of  the  town  of  Boston 
was  displayed  upon  this  occasion,  and  by  a  subscrip 
tion  of  merchants  and  other  inhabitants,  a  sum  was 
raised  which  was  thought  sufficient  for  the  purpose 
the  house  voting  them  thanks,  and  promising  thei; 
utmost  endeavours  that  the  sums  advanced  shoulc 
be  repaid  in  convenient  time.  The  governor  desir 
ed  a  copy  of  their  address  to  the  king,  but  they  re 
fused  it. 

The  only  argument  or  reason  in  the  king's  in 
struction  for  fixing  a  salary  is,  "  that  former  assem 
blies  have,  from  time  to  time,  made  such  allowance 
and  in  such  proportion  as  they  themselves  though 
the  governor  deserved,  in  order  to  make  him  mor 
dependent  upon  them."  The  house,  in  the  first  par 
of  their  memorial  or  address,  declare  they  canno 


i  faithfulness  settle  or  fix  a  salary,  because,  after 
hat  is  done,  the  governor's  particular  interest  will 
e  very  little  affected  by  serving  or  disserving  the 
nterest  of  the  people.  This  was  shewing,  that  they 
pprehended  the  reason  given  by  his  majesty  for 
ettling  a  salary  was  insufficient,  and  that  the  go- 
ernor  ought  to  be  paid  according  to  his  services  in 
ic  judgment  of  those  who  paid  him,  but  in  the 
lose  of  the  address  they  say,  "  we  doubt  not  suc- 
eeding  assemblies,  according  to  the  ability  of  the 
rovince,  will  come  into  as  ample  and  honourable  a 
upport,  from  time  to  time,  and  should  they  not,  we 
cknowledge  your  majesty  will  have  just  reason  to 
hew  your  displeasure  with  them."  It  was  remark- 
d,  that  in  order  to  make  the  last  clause  consist  with 
he  first,  the  ample  and  honourable  support  must  be 
inderstood  in  proportion  to  the  services  of  the  go- 
•ernor  in  the  judgment  of  the  house,  but  in  this 
ense  it  was  saying  nothing,  and  trifling  with  the 
nng;  for  no  case  could  happen,  at  any  time,  in 
vhich  he  would  have  just  reason  to  shew  his  dis- 
)Ieasure.  It  would  always  be  enough  to  say  that 
he  house,  in  faithfulness  to  the  people,  had  with- 
icld  part  of  the  governor's  support,  because,  in  their 
udgment,  he  had  neglected  their  interest  and  his 
duty. 

It  is  curious  to  observe  the  progress  of  a  spirit, 
vhich  afterwards  manifested  itself  in  the  entire 
emancipation  of  the  colonies.  At  this  time  it  wa# 
uggested  that  the  people  of  the  Massachusetts  were 
aiming  at  independency,  and  in  consequence  of  what 
was  then  deemed  an  aspersion,  the  following  remark 
ivas  made  in  the  brief  drawn  up  previous  to  the 
learing  before  the  committee  in  council :  "  From 
he  universal  loyalty  of  the  people,  even  beyond  any 
>ther  part  of  his  majesty's  dominions,  it  is  absurd  to 
magine  they  can  have  thoughts  of  independency; 
and,  to  shew  the  reverse,  it  is  the  custom  for  all  per- 
ons  coming  from  thence  for  London,  though  they 
ind  their  fathers  and  grandfathers  were  born  in 

ew  England,  to  say  and  always  deem  it  coming 
home,'  as  naturally  as  if  born  in  London,  so  that  it 
may  be  said,  without  being  ludicrous,  that  it  would 
not  be  more  absurd  to  place  two  of  his  majesty's 
beef-eaters  to  watch  a  child  in  the  cradle,  that  it  do 
not  rise  and  cut  his  father's  throat,  than  to  guard 
,hese  infant  colonies  to  prevent  their  shaking  off  the 
British  yoke.  Besides  they  are  so  distinct  from  one 
another  in  their  forms  of  government,  in  their  re- 
.igious  rites,  in  their  emulation  of  trade,  and  conse- 
quently in  their  affections,  that  they  can  never  be 
supposed  to  unite  in  so  dangerous  an  enterprise." 
The  repeated  opposition  to  instructions  from  the 
crown  also  tended  to  raise  a  jealousy  in  the  minds 
of  some,  that  there  was  danger  of  the  colonies  eman- 
cipating themselves.  Col.  Bladen,  in  particular,  for 
many  years  one  of  the  board  of  trade,  often  express- 
ed to  the  agents  and  other  persons  who  appeared 
for  New  England,  his  apprehensions  of  such  de- 
signs. It  is,  nevertheless,  certain,  that  such  a 
scheme' then  appeared  to  the  generality  of  the  coun- 
try to  be  altogether  as  wild  and  extravagant  as  the 
foregoing  excuse  represents  it.  The  following  para- 
graph in  the  report  of  the  lords  of  trade  to  the  lords 
committee  of  council,  had  been  the  immediate  occa- 
sion of  the  matter  being  agitated:  "  The  inhabitants, 
far  from  making  suitable  returns  to  his  majesty  for 
the  extraordinary  privileges  they  enjoy,  are  daily 
endeavouring  to  wrest  the  small  remains  of  power 
out  of  the  hands  of  the  crown,  and  to  become  inde- 
pendent of  the  mother  kingdom.  The  nature  of 
the  soil  and  product  are  much  the  same  with  those 


UNITED  STATES. 


349 


of  Great  Britain,  the  inhabitants  upwards  of  94,000, 
and  their  militia,  consisting  of  sixteen  regiments  of 
font  and  fifteen  troops  of  horse,  in  the  year  1718, 
15,000  men,  and,  by  a  medium  taken  from  the  naval 
officers'  accounts  for  three  years,  from  the  24th  of 
June  1714  to  the  24th  of  June  1717,  for  the  ports 
of  Boston  and  Salem  only,  it  appears  that  the  trade 
of  this  country  employs  continually  no  less  than 
3,493  sailors,  and  492  ships,  making  25,406  tons. 
Hence  your  excellencies  will  be  apprised  of  what 
importance  it  is  to  his  majesty's  service,  that  so 
powerful  a  colony  should  be  restrained  within  due 
bounds  of  obedience  to  the  crown,  and  more  firmly 
attached  to  the  interests  of  Great  Britain  than  they 
now  seem  to  be,  which  we  conceive  cannot  effectually 
be  done  without  the  interposition  of  the  British 
legislature,  wherein,  in  our  humble  opinion,  no  time 
should  be  lost." 

The  house  had  great  encouragement  given  them 
by  Mr.  Wilks,  that  their  address  would  obtain  for 
them  the  wished  for  relief.  He  had  been  heard  by 
counsel,  Mr.  Fazakerley  and  Doctor  Sayes,  before  the 
board  of  trade,  Mr.  Belcher  not  being  then  arrived; 
but  soon  after  they  received  letters  from  their  joint 
agents,  inclosing  the  report  of  the.  board  of  trade, 
highly  disapproving  the  conduct  of  the  house ;  and 
their  agents  let  them  know  it  was  their  opinion 
that  if  the  house  should  persist  in  their  refusal  to 
comply  with  the  king's  instruction,  the  affair  might 
be  carried  before  the  parliament;  but,  if  this  should 
be  the  case,  they  thought  it  better,  a  salary  should 
be  fixed  by  the  supreme  legislature  than  by  the 
legislature  of  the  province  ;  better  the  liberties  of  the 
people  should  be  taken  away  from  them,  than  given 
up  by  their  own  act.  The  governor  likewise  com- 
municated to  the  house  his  letters  from  the  lords  of 
trade  approving  his  conduct. 

All  hopes  of  success  from  the  agents  seemed  to 
be  over,  and  their  business  in  England  would  have 
been  very  short  if  the  governor  had  not  given  oc- 
casion for  further  application.  His  administration 
for  many  months,  except  in  this  affair  of  the  salary, 
had  been  unexceptionable.  Indeed  the  members  ol 
the  house  thought  themselves  aggrieved,  that  he 
would  not  sign  a  warrant  upon  the  treasury  for  their 
pay,  and  his  reason  for  refusing  it,  viz.  that  one 
branch  of  the  legislature  might  as  well  go  without 
their  wages  as  another,  they  thought  insufficient. 
Being  driven  to  pecuniary  embarrassments,  and 
obliged  to  his  friends  to  assist  him  in  the  support  of 
his  family,  he  thought  he  might  be  justified  in  es- 
tablishing a  fee  and  perquisite  which  had  never  been 
known  in  the  province  before.  At  New  York,  all 
vessels  took  from  the  governor,  a  pass,  for  which 
there  was  no  law,  but  the  owners  of  vessels  submittec 
to  it,  and  it  was  said  that  they,  "  volenti  non  Jit  in- 
juria"  were  willing  it  should  not  be  deemed  an 
injury,  but  this  could  be  no  justification  of  an  arbi 
trary  imposition. 

The  governor  required  all  masters  to  take  th< 
same  passes,  against  their  will,  and  demanded  6*.,  or 
2s.  sterling  for  every  vessel  bound  a  foreign  voyage 
and  4*.  for  coasters.  The  stated  fee,  by  law,  foi 
registers  was  6s.,  but  the  bills  having  depreciatec 
more  than  one  half  in  value  since  the  law  was  made 
he  required  12s.  This  was  a  rather  different  case 
from  the  other,  but  they  were  alike  complained  o 
as  grievous  and  oppressive,  and  the  governor's  ene 
mies  were  not  displeased  with  the  advantage  he  hac 
given  them  against  him,  and,  upon  a  representation 
made  by  the  agents,  notwithstanding  the  hardship 
of  being  restrained  from  receiving  a  salary  in 


way  except  such  as  the  assembly  would  not  give  it 
"n,  yet  such  was  the  regard  to  law  and  justice,  that 
iis  conduct,  so  far  as  related  to  the  passes,  was  im- 
mediately disapproved.  There  were  other  matters, 
)esides  that  of  the  salary,  to  be  settled  befcre  Mr. 
3urnet  could  be  easy  in  his  government,  but  this 
_rand  affair  caused  the  lesser  to  be  kept  off  as  much 
as  possible.  One  was  the  appointment  of  an  attor- 
ney general.  By  the  charter  the  election  of  the 
civil  officers,  except  such  as  belong  to  the  council 
and  courts  of  justice,  is  in  the  general  assembly. 
Until  after  governor  Dudley's  time  it  had  generally 
been  allowed  that  the  attorney  general  was  an  offi- 
cer of  the  courts  of  justice,  and  included  in  the  ex- 
ception; but  lieut.-governor  Tailer,  in  the  year 
1716,  consented  to  an  election  made  by  the  two 
bouses,  and  the  choice  had  been  annually  made  and 
approved  ever  since,  not  without  notice  from  Mr. 
Shute  of  the  irregularity  of  it,  but  he  had  so  many 
other  affairs  upon  his  hands,  that  he  waived  this. 

Mr.  Burnet  was  determined  not  to  part  with  the 
right  of  nomination,  and  the  council  were  of  the 
opinion  he  ought  not,  and  refused  to  join  with  the 
house  in  the  election,  There  was  some  altercation 
between  the  two  houses  upon  it,  and  both  adhered 
to  their  principles. 

Another  affair,  of  more  extensive  influence,  wunld 
have  been  more  strenuously  insisted  upon. 

In  governor  Shute's  administration,  the  house, 
after  long  disputes  with  the  governor  and  with  the 
council,  carried  the  point  as  to  the  form  of  supply 
of  the  treasury,  which  differing,  as  we  have  already 
observed,  from  the  former  practice,  and,  as  both 
governor  and  council  insisted,  from  the  rule  pre- 
scribed by  the  charter,  Mr.  Burnet  had  determined 
to  return  to  the  first  practice.  The  house  passed  a 
vote  for  supplying  the  treasury  with  twenty  thou- 
sand pounds,  which  the  council  concurred,  the  prac- 
tice having  been  the  same  for  eight  or  nine  years 
together,  but  the  governor  refused  his  consent,  and 
assured  them  that  he  would  agree  to  no  supply  of 
the  treasury  but  such  as  was  in  practice  before  the 
year  1721.  This  declaration  was  made  not  long 
before  his  death.  The  settlement  of  the  point  in 
controversy  remained  for  his  successor. 

The  court  was  allowed  a  recess  from  the  20th  of 
December  to  the  2d  of  April,  (1729),  and  then  sat 
until  the  1 8th,  at  Salem  again,  without  any  disposi- 
tion to  comply. 

The  new  assembly  for  the  election  of  counsellors 
was  held  at  the  same  place :  there  was  a  general  ex- 
pectation that  a  new  set  of  counsellors  would  be  cho- 
sen. The  council,  of  the  last  year,  had  been  of 
very  different  opinion  from  the  house,  in  many 
points.  They  had  no  doubt  of  the  governor's  power 
to  call,  adjourn,  or  prorogue  the  assembly  to  any 
part  of  the  province  he  thought  proper,  and,  although 
they  were  not  for  a  fixed  salary,  according  to  the 
instruction,  yet  they  would  willingly  have  consented 
to  settle  it  for  longer  term  than  a  year,  and  some  of 
them,  during  Mr.  Burnet's  administration ;  but  the 
house  were  most  offended  with  the  nonconcurrence 
of  their  grant  of  money  to  their  agents.  After  all, 
only  four  new  counsellors  were  elected.  Immedi- 
ately after  the  council  was  settled,  the  court  was 
prorogued  to  the  25th  of  June,  and,  having  sat  until 
the  10th  of  July,  he  prorogued  them  again  until  the 
20th  of  August,  having  made  no  speech  at  either  of 
the  sessions,  or  taken  any  notice  of  any  business  he 
thought  proper  for  them  to  do.  The  reason  of  this 
omission  appeared  at  the  session  in  August.  He 
had  waited  the  final  determination  of  his  majesty  in 


350 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


council,  upon  the  report  of  the  lords  committee. 
This  he  now  communicated  to  the  house,  whereby 
they  perceived  that  his  conduct  was  approved,  that 
of  the  house  condemned,  and  his  majesty  advised  to 
lay  the  case  before  the  parliament.  As  this  is  a  curious 
state  document,  and  gives  an  idea  of  the  tenets  held  by 
the  English  court,  we  shall  preserve  it  in  our  history. 

"  At  the  Court  at  Kensington,  the  22d  day  of 
May,  1729,  present,  the  Queen's  most  excellent  ma- 
iesty,  guardian  of  the  kingdom  of  Great  Britain,  and. 
his  majesty's  lieutenant  within  the  same,  in  council, 
his  Royal  Highness  the  Prince  of  Wales,  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  Lord  Chancellor,  Lord  Privy 
Seal,  Lord  Steward.  Lord  Chamberlain,  Duke  of 
Somerset,  Duke  of  Bolton,  Duke  of  Rutland,  Duke 
of  Argyle,  Duke  of  Montross,  Duke  of  Kent,  Duke 
of  Ancaster,  Duke  of  Newcastle,  Earl  of  Westmor- 
land, Earl  of  Burlington,  Earl  of  Scarborough,  Earl 
of  Coventry,  Earl  of  Grantham,  Earl  of  Godolphin, 
Earl  of  Loudoun,  Earl  of  Finlater,  Earl  of  March- 
mont,  Earl  of  Hay,  Earl  of  Uxbridge,  Earl  of  Sussex, 
Earl  of  Lonsdale",  Viscount  Cobham,  Viscount  Fal- 
mouth,  Lord  Wilmington,  Mr.  Speaker,  Mr.  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Exchequer,  Master  of  the  Rolls,  Sir 
Paul  Methuen,  Henry  Pelham,  Esq.  ; 

"  Upon  reading  this  day  at  the  board  a  report  to 
his  majesty  from  the  lords  of  the  committee  of  his  ma- 
jesty's most  honourable  privy  council,  dated  the  22d 
of  the  last  month,  in  the  words  following,  viz. 

"  Your  majesty  having  been  pleased,  by  your 
order  in  council  of  the  1st  of  February,  to  refer  unto 
this  committee  an  address  from  the  house  of  repre- 
sentatives of  the  province  of  the  Massachusetts  bay, 
offering  the  reason  and  grounds  of  their  proceedings 
and  conclusions  against  settling  a  fixed  salary  of  one 
thousand  pounds  per  annum  on  the  governor  of  that 
province  for  the  time  being,  according  to  your  ma- 
jesty's instructions  to  the  present  governor,  and 
complaining  against  the  governor  for  having  ad- 
journed the  general  court  from  Boston  to  Salem ;  the 
lords  of  the  committee  did,  in  obedience  to  your  ma- 
jesty's said  order,  proceed,  the  same  day,  to  take 
the  said  address  into  their  consideration  ;  but  being 
informed  that  the  lords  commissioners  for  trade  and 
plantations  had  under  their  examination  several  let- 
ters from  William  Burnet,  Esq.  your  majesty's  go- 
vernor of  that  province,  relating  to  the  behaviour  of 
the  said  assembly  in  this  affair,  the  lords  of  the  com- 
mittee did  thereupon  send  a  copy  of  the  said  address 
to  the  said  lords  commissioners,  that  they  might 
have  the  whole  matter  before  them,  and  directed 
them  to  report  their  opinion  thereupon  to  this  com- 
mittee. And  the  said  lords  commissioners  having 
accordingly  considered  the  said  several  papers,  and 
heard  Mr.  Attorney  and  Solicitor-general  in  support 
of  your  majesty's  said  instructions,  and  also  counsel 
in  behalf  of  the  said  assembly,  have  reported  upon 
the  whole.  That  they  seemed  entirely  averse  to  settle 
a  certain  salary  upon  the  present  governor  and  those 
which  shall  succeed  him,  yet  the  said  lords  commis- 
sioners judge  it  absolutely  necessary  that  the  as- 
sembly should  settle  a  fixed  salary  of  1000Z.  sterling 
per  annum,  at, least,  upon  the  governor,  during  the 
whole  time  of  his  governmeat,  it  being  absolutely 
necessary  for  your  majesty's  service  that  the  inde- 
pendency of  the  governor  upon  the  assembly  should 
be  preserved :  And  that  as  to  the  complaint  against 
the  governor  for  removing  the  assembly  from  Boston 
to  Salem,  his  majesty  in  council,  upon  a  former  com- 
plaint of  this  nature  against  colonel  Shute,  had  de- 
termined that  point  in  favour  of  the  governor,  and, 
therefore,  the  lords  commissioners  were  of  opinion 


the  present  governor  had  acted  in  this  matter  agree- 
able to  that  detennination. 

"  The  lords  of  the  committee  hereupon  beg  leave  to 
acquaint  your  majesty,  that  notwithstanding  the  said 
lords  commissioners  for  trade  had  fully  heard  all  the 
reasons  that  were  offered  in  behalf  of  the  said  as- 
sembly, yet  the  agents  of  the  said  assembly  petitioned 
this  committee  the  19th  instant,  praying  that  they 
might  be  admitted  to  be  heard  before  their  lordships, 
who  thought  it  proper  to  know  upon  what  terms  thev 
would  insist,  that  your  majesty's  attorney  and  solf- 
citor-general  might  be  prepared  to  answer  the  same, 
and  they  desiring  to  be  heard  upon  the  reasons  they 
had  to  offer  why  the  said  assembly  should  not  settle 
a  fixed  salary  upon  his  majesty's  governor  of  that 
province  during  the  whole  time  of  his  government, 
their  lordships  appointed  this  day  for  hearing  them 
thereupon  ;  they  having  accordingly  attended  with 
their  counsel,  their  lordships  heard  all  that  was  offered 
on  their  behalf  against  settling  such  a  fixed  salary, 
and  also  heard  Mr.  Attorney  and  Solicitor-general 
in  support  of  your  majesty's  said  instructions  recom- 
mending it  to  them  :  And  do  thereupon  agree  humbly 
to  report  to  your  majesty, 

"  That  by  the  charter  granted  to  the  Massachu- 
setts-bay, the  legislative  power  is  vested  in  a  gover- 
nor, council  and  assembly,  of  whom  the  governor 
alone  is  nominated  by  your  majesty ;  that  the  as- 
sembly is  chosen  annually  by  the  p'eople,  and  that 
the  council  is  likewise  chosen  annually  by  the  as- 
sembly in  conjunction  with  the  members  of  the  coun- 
cil; that  by  the  reasons  insisted  on  by  the  council  for 
the  assembly  in  refusing  to  settle  a  fixed  salary,  it 
appeared,  the  point  contended  for  was  to  bring  the 
governor  appointed  by  your  majesty  over  them  into 
a  dependence  on  their  good  will  for  his  subsistence, 
which  would  manifestly  tend  to  a  lessening  of  his 
authority,  and  consequently,  of  that  dependence 
which  this  colony  ought  to  have  upon  the  crown  of 
Great  Britain,  by  bringing  the  whale  legislative 
power  into  the  hands  of  the  people. 

"The  power  of  raising  taxes  being  by  the  charter 
granted  to  the  general  assembly,  it  was  from  thence 
argued,  that  they  ought  to  be  left  at  liberty  for  the 
doing  or  omitting  it,  as  they  shall  think  proper  ;  but 
the  words  of  the  charter  shew  the  intent  of  granting 
them  this  power  to  be,  that  they  should  use  it  for  the 
service  of  the  crown,  in  the  necessary  defence  and 
support  of  your  majesty's  government  of  the  said 
province,  and  the  protection  and  preservation  of  the 
inhabitants ;  and  that,  therefore,  the  refusing  or  ne- 
glecting to  make  due  provision  for  the  support  of 
your  majesty's  governor,  who  is  so  essential  a  part  of 
the  government,  must  be  looked  upon  as  acting  con- 
trary to  the  terms  of  the  said  charter,  and  incon- 
sistent wTith  the  trust  reposed  in  them  thereby.  That, 
besides  the  instruction  given  to  the  present  governor 
by  your  majesty  for  this  purpose,  instructions  have 
always  been  given  by  your  majesty's  predecessors  to 
former  governors,  to  recommend  to  the  assembly  the 
establishing  a  salary  suitable  to  the  dignity  of  that 
post  ;  notwithstanding  which  the  assembly  have 
hitherto  refused  to  comply  therewith,  although  they 
have  by  act  of  assembly  settled  a  fixed  salary  or  al- 
lowance of  six  shillings  a  day  on  themselves,  and 
ten  shillings  a  day  on  the  council.  The  present  as- 
sembly have,  indeed,  offered  your  majesty's  governor 
a  salary  equal  to  what  was  recommended  by  your 
majesty's  instructions,  for  the  time  he  has  been  with 
them ;  but  it  is  apprehended  this  was  done  only  to 
tempt  him  to  give  up  your  majesty's  instructions  for 
settling  it  for  the  whole  time  of  his  government. 


UNITED  STATES, 


351 


"  And  here  their  lordships  cannot,  in  justice  to 
Mr.  Burnet,  omit  taking  notice,  that  by  his  steady 
pursuit  of  your  majesty's  instructions  and  icjecting 
the  temptations  offerc-d  by  the  assembly,  he  has  acted 
with  the  utmost  duty  to  your  majesty,  and  a  just  re- 
gard to  the  trust  reposed  in  him  as  governor  of  that 
province. 

'  Upon  a  due  consideration  of  all  that  has  been 
offered  on  the  part  of  the  assembly  in  justification  of 
their  refusing  to  comply  with  your  majesty's  instruc- 
tions, the  lords  of  the  committee  cannot  but  agree 
in  opinion  with  the  lords  commissioners  for  trade  and 
plantations,  that  it  is  absolutely  necessary  for  your 
majesty's  service  and  for  preserving  that  dependency 
which  this  colony  ought  to  have  upon  Great  Britain, 
and  better  securing  a  due  execution  of  the  laws  for 
trade  and  navigation,  that  a  salary  of  100CM.  sterling 
per  annum  should  be  settled  upon  the  governor 
during'  the  whole  time  of  his  government,  and  con- 
sidering that  the  assembly  of  the  province  has  shewn 
so  little  regard  to  your  majesty's  instructions  or  to 
those  of  your  royal  predecessors  in  this  behalf,  which 
the  governors,  from  time  to  time,  have  been  directed 
to  lay  before  them,  the  lords  of  the  committee  do  ad- 
vise your  majesty  to  lay  the  whole  matter  before  the 
parliament  of  Great  Britain. 

"  Her  majesty,  this  day,  took  the  said  report  into 
consideration,  and  was  pleased,  with  the  advice  of 
his  majesty's  privy  council,  to  approve  thereof,  and 
to  order,  as  is  hereby  ordered,  that  one  of  his  ma- 
jesty's principal  secretaries  of  state  should  receive 
the  pleasure  of  the  crown  thereupon. 

"  A  true  copy,  Temple  Stanyan." 

The  house  received  with  the  foregoing  order,  a 
letter  from  their  agents,  who,  it  seems,  had  altered 
their  opinions,  and  now  intimated  to  the  house,  that 
notwithstanding  the  determination  or  advice  of  the 
privy  council,  it  was  not  likely  the  affair  would  ever 
be  brought  before  the  parliament.  This  letter  the 
house  ordered  to  be  printed.  The  governor  in  one 
or  his  messages  characterizes  it  as  "  an  undeniable 
proof  of  their  endeavours  to  keep  the  people  in  igno- 
rance of  the  true  state  of  their  affairs." 

The  governor  having  held  several  sessions  at  Sa- 
lem, without  any  success,  he  adjourned  the  court,  to 
meet  the  21st  of  August,  at  Cambridge.  This 
widened  the  breach,  and  the  house  grew  warmer  in 
their  votes  and  messages,  and  complained  that  they 
were  to  be  compelled  to  measures  against  their  judg- 
ment, by  being  harassed  and  drove  from  one  part  of 
the  province  to  another.  The  governor's  friends 
observed  the  effect  the  controversy  had  upon  his 
spirits.  In  a  few  days,  he  fell  sick  of  a  fever,  and 
died  at  Boston  the  7th  of  September.  Some  attri- 
buted his  illness  to  his  taking  cold,  his  carriage 
oversetting  upon  the  causeway  at  Cambridge,  the 
tide  being  high,  and  he  falling  into  the  water.  The 
resentment  which  had  been  raised  ceased,  with  peo- 
ple in  general,  upon  his  death.  Many  amiable  parts 
of  his  character  revived  in  their  minds.  He  had  been 
steady  and  inflexible  in  his  adherence  to  his  instruc- 
tions, but  discovered  nothing  of  a  grasping  avarici- 
cious  mind ;  it  was  the  mode,  more  than  the  quan- 
tum, of  his  salary  upon  which  he  insisted.  The 
naval  office  had  generally  been  a  post  for  some  re- 
lation or  favourite  of  the  governor,  but  Colonel 
Tailer  having  been  lieut.-governor,  and  in  circum- 
stances far  from  affluent,  he  generously  gave  the 
post  to  him,  without  any  reserve  of  the  issues  or 
profits.  The  only  instance  of  his  undue  exacting 
money,  by  some,  was  thought  to  be  palliated  by  the 
established  custom  of  the  government  he  had  quit- 


ted. This  did  not  justify  it.  In  his  disposal  of 
public  offices,  he  gave  the  preference  to  such  as  were 
disposed  to  favour  his  cause,  and  displaced  some  for 
not  favouring  it,  and,  in  some  instances,  he  went 
further  than  good  policy  would  allow.  He  did  not 
know  the  temper  of  the  people  of  New  England. 
They  ever  had  a  strong  sense  of  liberty,  and  were 
more  easily  led  than  driven.  He  disobliged  many 
of  his  friends  by  removing  from  his  post  Mr.  Lynde, 
a  gentleman  of  the  house,  esteemed  by  both  sides 
for  his  integrity  and  other  valuable  qualities,  and 
he  acknowledged  that  he  could  assign  no  other  rea- 
son except  that  the  gentleman  had  not  voted  for  a 
compliance  with  the  instruction.  However,  an  im- 
moral or  unfair  character  was  a  bar  to  office,  and 
he  gave  his  negative  to  an  election  of  a  counsellor, 
in  one  instance,  upon  that  principle  only.  His  su- 
perior talents,  and  free  and  easy  manner  of  com- 
municating his  sentiments,  made  him  the  delight  of 
men  of  sense  and  learning.  His  right  of  precedence 
in  all  companies  facilitated  the  exercise  of  his  natu- 
ral disposition  to  a  great  share  in  the  conversation, 
and  at  the  same  time  '  caused  it  to  appear  more 
excusable.'  His  own  account  of  his  genius  was, 
that  it  was  late  before  it  budded,  and  that,  until  he 
was  near  twenty  years  of  age,  his  father  despaired 
of  his  ever  making  any  figure  in  life.  This,  per- 
haps, might  proceed  from  the  exact  severe  discipline 
of  the  bishop's  family,  not  calculated  for  every  tem- 
per alike,  and  might  damp  and  discourage  his.  To 
long  and  frequent  religious  services  at  home,  in  his 
youth,  he  would  sometimes  pleasantly  attribute  his 
indisposition  to  a  very  scrupulous  exact  attendance 
upon  public  worship,  but  this  might,  really,  be 
owing  to  an  abhorrence  of  ostentation  and  mere 
formality  in  religion,  to  avoid  which,  as  most  of  the 
grave  serious  people  of  the  province  thought,  he  ap- 
proached too  near  the  other  extreme.  A  little  more 
caution  and  conformity  to  the  different  ages,  man- 
ners, customs,  and  even  prejudices  of  different  com- 
panies, would  have  been  more  politic,  but  his  open, 
undisguised  mind  could  not  submit  to  it.  Being 
asked  to  dine  with  an  old  charter  senator,  who  re- 
tained the  custom  of  saying  grace  sitting,  the  grave 
gentleman  desired  to  know  which  would  be  more 
agreeable  to  his  excellency,  that  grace  should  be 
said  standing  or  sitting ;  the  governor  replied,  stand- 
ing or  sitting  any  way  or  no  way,  just  as  you  please. 
He  sometimes  wore  a  cloth  coat  lined  with  velvet. 
It  was  said  to  be  expressive  of  his  character.  He 
was  a  firm  believer  of  the  truth  of  revealed  religion, 
but  a  bigot  to  no  particular  profession  among  Chris  • 
tians,  and  laid  little  stress  upon  modes  and  forms. 
By  a  clause  in  his  last  will,  he  ordered  his  body  to 
be  buried,  if  he  died  at  New  York,  by  his  wife,  if  iu 
any  other  part  of  the  world,  in  the  nearest  church- 
yard or  burying-ground,  all  places  being  alike  to 
God's  all-seeing  eye.  The  assembly  ordered  a  very 
honourable  funeral  at  the  public  charge. 

Mr.  Dummer  reassumed  the  administration.  He 
did  not  intend  to  enter  into  the  controversy  about 
the  salary;  no  advantage  could  arise  from  it,  no 
new  arguments  could  be  used,  the  king's  instruc- 
tions were  to  be  his  rule,  and  he  would  not  depart 
from  them  by  accepting  any  grant  as  lieut.-gover- 
nor ;  but  the  affair  having  been  under  consideration, 
before  his  majesty  in  council,  and  further  proceed- 
ings expected,  he  would  wait  for  further  intelligence 
and  directions.  The  house  were  not  willing  to  ad- 
mit that  the  instruction  had  any  respect  to  the  sa- 
lary of  a  lieut.-governor,  but  if  it  had,  they  had 
given  sufficient  reasons  against  it,  and  were  deter- 


S52 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


mined  to  come  into  no  act  for  fixing  a  salary. 
Having  continued  the  session  at  Cambridge  until 
the  26th  of  September,  he  ordered  an  adjournment 
to  the  29th  of  November,  at  Boston,  which  was  a 
further  indication  that  he  did  not  intend  to  press 
the  instruction  ;  however,  at  their  first  coming  toge- 
ther, he  recommended  to  them  a  compliance  with 
it,  and,  upon  their  assuring  him,  by  a  message,  that, 
although  they  could  not  settle  a  salary,  yet  they 
were  ready  to  give  him  an  ample  and  honourable 
support,  he  desired  them  to  lose  no  time  about  it, 
for  he  would  accept  of  no  support  unless  it  should 
be  exactly  conformable  to  his  majesty's  instruction. 
The  house,  notwithstanding,  made  a  grant  of  750/. 
to  enable  him  to  manage  the  affairs  of  government. 
The  council  concurred  with  an  amendment,  adding, 
'  for  the  half  year  current;'  but  this  being  fixing  a 
salary  for  half  a  year,  the  house  refused  it. 

Upon  the  news  of  Mr.  Burnet's  death,  Mr.  Bel- 
cher applied  with  all  his  powers  to  obtain  the  com- 
mission for  the  government.  Governor  Shute  might 
have  returned,  but  he  declined,  and  generously  gave 
his  interest  to  Mr.  Belcher,  who,  fourteen  years  be- 
fore, had  given  500J.  sterling,  which  was  never 
repaid,  to  facilitate  Colonel  Shute's  appointment. 
The  controversy,  which  it  was  supposed  a  governor 
must  be  engaged  in,  caused  fewer  competitors,  and 
the  ministry  were  the  more  concerned  to  find  a 
proper  person.  Lord  Townshend  asked  Mr.  Wilks, 
who  had  much  of  his  confidence,  whether  he  thought 
Mr.  Belcher  would  be  able  to  influence  the  people 
to  a  compliance  with  the  king's  instructions,  he 
replied  that  he  thought  no  man  more  likely.  Their 
choosing  him  agent  was  a  mark  of  their  confidence 
in  him,  but  it  seemed  natural  to  expect  that  they 
would  be  under  stronger  prejudices  against  him  than 
against  a  person  who  had  never  engaged  in  their 
favour.  Mr.  Belcher's  appointment  occasioned  the 
removal  of  Mr.  Dummer  from  the  place  of  lieut.- 
governor.  A  young  gentleman,  with  whose  family 
Mr.  Wilks  was  connected,  (Mr.  Thornton)  Mr. 
Belcher  had  engaged  to  provide  for,  and  he  had  no 
post  in  his  gift,  worth  accepting,  besides  the  naval 
office.  To  make  a  vacancy  there,  Colonel  Tailer 
was  appointed  lieut.-governor.  The  pleasure,  if 
there  was  any,  in  superseding  Mr.  Dummer,  who 
had  superseded  him  before,  could  be  no  equivalent 
for  the  difference  between  a  post  of  naked  honour, 
and  a  post  of  profit,  which  gave  him  a  comfortable 
living.  Mr.  Dummer's  administration  has  been, 
justly,  well  spoken  of.  His  general  aim  was  to  do 
public  service.  He  was  compelled  to  some  com- 
pliances which  appeared  to  him  the  least  of  two 
evils.  It  lessened  him  in  Mr.  Burnet's  esteem,  who 
thought  he  should  have  shewn  more  fortitude ;  but 
he  retired  with  honour,  and,  after  some  years,  was 
elected  into  the  council,  where,  from  respect  to  his 
former  commission,  he  took  the  place  of  president; 
but,  being  thought  too  favourable  to  the  prerogative, 
after  two  or  three  years,  he  was  left  out.  He  seemed 
to  lay  this  slight  more  to  heart  than  the  loss  of  his 
commission,  and  aimed- at  nothing  more,  the  rest  of 
his  life,  than  selecting  for  his  friends  and  acquaint 
ance  men  of  sense,  virtue,  and  religion,  and  en- 
joyed in  life,  for  many  years,  that  fame  which,  for 
infinitely  wise  reasons,  the  great  Creator  has  im- 
planted in  every  generous  breast  a  desire  of,  even 
after  death. 

Colonel  Tailer's  commission  was  received  and 
published  before  Mr.  Belcher's  arrival,  and  it  gave 
him  an  opportunity  of  doing  a  generous  thing  for 
Mr.  Dummer.  A  vote  had  passed  the  two  houses, 


granting  him  nine  hundred  pounds,  which,  from  a 
regard  to  his  instructions,  he  had  not  signed,  nor 
lad  he  expressly  refused  it,  and  the  court  having 
aeen  adjourned  only,  not  prorogued,  the  next  meet- 
ing was  considered  as  the  same  session,  and  Colonel 
Tailer  ventured  to  sign  it,  not  being  a  grant  to  him- 
self, and  not  against  the  letter  of  his  instructions; 
and  it  was  really  saving  money  to  Mr.  Dummer,  the 
grant  being  intended  for  services  to  come  as  well  as 
past,  would  not  have  been  renewed,  or  in  part  only. 

From  the  arrival  of  Governor  Belcher,  in  1730,  to 
the  reimbursement  of  the  charge  of  the  expedition 
against  Cape  Breton,  and  the  abolition  of  paper 
money,  1749. 

Mr.  Belcher  arrived  the  beginning  of  August,  in 
the  Blandford  man  of  war,  Capt  Prothero. 

No  governor  had  been  received  with  a  shew  of 
greater  joy.  Both  parties  supposed  they  had  an  in- 
terest in  him.  For  men  to  alter  their  principles 
and  practice,  according  to  their  interest,  was  no  new 
thing.  A  sketch  of  Mr.  Belcher's  life  and  character 
will  in  some  measure  account  for  his  obtaining  the 
government,  for  the  principal  events  in  its  adminis- 
tration and  for  the  loss  of  his  commission. 

Being  the  only  son  of  a  wealthy  father,  he  had 
good  prospects  from  the  beginning  of  life.  After 
an  academical  education  in  his  own  country,  he 
travelled  to  Europe,  was  twice  at  Hanover,  and 
was  introduced  to  the  court  there,  at  the  time 
when  the  princess  Sophia  was  the  presumptive 
heiress  to  the  British  crown.  The  novelty  of  a 
British  American,  added  to  the  gracefulness  of  his 
person,  caused  distinguished  notice  to  be  taken  of 
him,  which  tended  to  increase  that  aspiring  turn 
of  mind  which  was  very  natural  to  him.  Some  years 
after,  he  made  another  voyage  tc  England,  being 
then  engaged  in  mercantile  affairs,  which,  after  his 
return  home,  proved,  in  the  general  course  of  them, 
rather  unsuccessful,  and  seem  to  have  suppressed 
or  abated  the  ruling  passion  ;  but  being  chosen  agent 
for  the  house  of  repi'esentatives,  it  revived  and  was 
gratified  to  the  utmost,  by  his  appointment  to  the 
government  of  Massachusetts-bay  and  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  discovered  itself  in  every  part  of  his  ad- 
ministration. Before  he  was  governor,  except  in 
one  instance,  he  had  always  been  a  favourer  of  the 
prerogative,  and  afterwards  he  did  not  fail  of  acting 
up  to  his  principles.  A  man  of  high  principles  can- 
not be  too  jealous  of  himself,  upon  a  sudden  ad- 
vancement to  a  place  of  power.  The  council  never 
enjoyed  less  freedom  than  in  his  time.  He  propos- 
ed matters  for  the  sake  of  their  sanction  rather  than 
advice,  rarely  failing  of  a  majority  to  approve  of  his 
sentiments. 

He  lived  elegantly  in  his  family,  was  hospitable, 
made  great  shew  in  dress,  equipage,  &c.  and  although 
by  his  depreciation  of  the  currency  he  was  curtailed 
of  his  salary,  yet  he  disdained  any  unwarrantable 
or  mean  ways  of  obtaining  money  to  supply  his  ex- 
penses. By  great  freedom  in  conversation,  and  an 
unreserved  censure  of  persons  whose  principles  or 
conduct  he  disapproved,  he  made  himself  many  ene- 
mies. In  a  private  person,  this  may  often  pass  with 
little  notice,  but  from  a  governor  it  is  sure  to  be 
remembered,  and  some  never  ceased  pursuing  him 
until  they  had  him  displaced. 

The  general  court  met  the  9th  of  September,  at 
Cambridge,  the  small-pox  being  at  Boston.  The 
people  waited  with  impatience  the  governor's  first 
speech.  Many  flattered  themselves  that  the  instruc- 
tion for  a  fixed  salary  was  withdrawn ;  others,  that 


UNITED  STATES. 


if  it  was  continued,  he  would  treat  it  rather  as  Dud- 
ley aud  Shute  had  done,  than  as  his  immediate  pre- 
de'cessor;  others,  who  did  not  expect  a  relaxation, 
were,  from  curiosity,  wishing  to  know  how  he  would 
acquit  himself  with*  the  people  who  sent  him  to  Eng- 
land to  oppose  the  instruction.  After  premising 
that  the  honour  of  the  crown  and  interest  of  Great 
Britain  are  very  compatible  with  the  privileges  and 
liberties  of  the  plantations,  he  tells  the  two  houses 
that  he  had  it  in  command  from  his  royal  master,  to 
communicate  to  them  his  27th  instruction,  respect- 
ing the  governor's  support ;  that  whilst  he  was  in 
England  he  did  every  thing,  consistent  with  reason 
and  justice,  for  preserving  and  lengthening  out  the 
peace  and  welfare  of  the  province ;  that  they  were  no 
strangers  to  the  steps  taken  by  his  majesty  with 
respect  to  the  unhappy  dispute  between  the  late 
governor  and  them,  and  he  hoped  after  such  a 
struggle,  they  would  think  it  for  the  true  interest  of 
the  province  to  do  what  might  be  perfectly  accept- 
able ;  that  nothing  prevented  this  controversy,  and 
several  other  matters  of  dangerous  consequence, 
being  laid  before  the  parliament,  but  his  majesty's 
great  lenity  and  goodness,  which  inclined  him 'to 
give  them  one  opportunity  more  of  paying  a  due  re- 
gard to  what  in  his  royal  wisdom  he  thinks  so  just 
and  reasonable.  Had  he  stopped  here,  perhaps, 
less  could  not  have  been  expected  from  him,  but  he 
unfortunately  attempted  to  shew  the  similitude  be- 
tween the  case  of  Cato  shut  up  in  Utica,  and  the 
Massachusetts-bay  under  the  restraint  of  the  royal 
instruction ;  commended  the  wisdom  of  Cato  in  mak- 
ing so  brave  a  stand  for  the  liberties  of  his  country, 
but  condemned  his  putting  an  end  to  his  life  when 
affairs  became  desperate,  rather  than  submit  to  a 
power  he  could  no  longer  resist;  which  instance  he 
brought  as  some  illustration  of  the  late  controversy, 
though  he  would  not  allow  it  to  run  parallel,  Caesar 
being  a  tyrant,  and  the  king  the  protector  of  the 
liberties  of  his  subjects. 

It  was  said,  upon  this  occasion,  that  the  governor 
must  allow  that  the  Massachusetts  assembly  had 
done  wisely  hitherto  in  defending  their  liberties,  for, 
otherwise,  he  had  brought  an  instance  of  a  case  in 
no  one  respect  similar  to  theirs;  and  if  they  had 
done  so,  it  was  because  the  instruction  was  a  mere 
exeition  of  power,  and  then  the  parallel  would  run 
farther  than  he  was  willing  to  allow. 

The  instruction  was  conceived  in  much  stronger 
terms  than  that  to  governor  Burnet,  and  it  is  de- 
clared that  in  case  the  assembly  refuses  to  conform 
to  it,  "  his  majesty  will  find  himself  under  a  neces- 
sity of  laying  the  undutiful  behaviour  of  the  province 
before  the  legislature  of  Great  Britain,  not  only  in 
this  single  instance  but  in  many  others  of  the  same 
nature  and  tendency,  whereby  it  manifestly  appears 
that  this  assembly,  for  some  years  last  past,  have 
attempted  by  unwarrantable  practices  to  weaken, 
not  cast  off  the  obedience  they  owe  to  the  crown,  and 
the  dependance  which  all  colonies  ought  to  have  on 
their  mother  country."  And  in  the  close  of  the  in- 
struction his  majesty  expects  "that  they  do  forth- 
with comply  with  this  proposal  as  the  last  significa- 
tion of  our  royal  pleasure  to  them  upon  this  subject, 
and  if  the  said  assembly  shall  not  think  fit  to  comply 
therewith,  it  is  our  will  and  pleasure  and  you  are 
required  immediately  to  come  over  to  this  kingdom 
of  Great  Britain,  in  order  to  give  us  an  exact  ac- 
count of  all  that  shall  have  passed  upon  this  sub- 
ject, that  we  may  lay  the  same  before  our  parlia 
ment." 

The  bouse  proceeded  just  as  they  had  done  with 
HIST   OF  AMER. — NoV  45  &  48. 


governor  Burnet.  They  made  a  grant  to  Mr.  Bel- 
;her  of  1,OOOJ.  currency,  for  defraying  the  expense 
»f  his  voyage  to  New  England,  and  as  a  gratuity  for 
ervices  while  in  England :  500/.  was  also  granted 
o  the  governor,  for  his  services  in  England  as  agent 
"or  the  house  of  representatives ;  and  the  sum  of 
1,5032.  Is.  Id.,  which  had  been  advanced  by  mer- 
chants in  Boston  and  others  and  supplied  the  agents, 
»vas  also  granted  to  be  paid  out  of  the  public  treasury, 
and  to  the  several  persons  respectively.  The  ho- 
nour of  the  governor  who  had  spent  the  money,  as 
well  as  that  of  the  house,  was  concerned.  The  coun- 
cil, although  in  general  the  same  persons  who 
lad  refused  to  consent  to  any  grant  of  money,  for 
the  use  of  an  agent  in  the  choice  of  whom  they  had 
no  share,  were  prevailed  upon  by  the  governor  and 
the  influence  of  a  great  number  of  the  principal 
merchants  of  Boston,  who  had  advanced  the  money, 
to  consent  to  a  grant  for  the  repayment  of  it.  Th& 
liouse,  expecting  the  like  difficulty  might  arise  upon 
a  like  occasion  in  future  time,  took  this  favourable 
opportunity  of  passing  a  vote  for  the  taking  the 
sum  of  500£.  sterling  out  of  the  province  treasury, 
and  depositing  it  in  the  bank  of  England  for  the  usw 
of  the  house.  To  this  vt)te  the  council  gave  their 
concurrence  and  the  governor  his  consent.  He  re- 
pented of  it  afterwards,  when  he  found  the  agent 
employed  by  the  house  and  supported  with  this  mo- 
ney was  the  principal  promoter  of  the  complaints 
a  gainst  him  which  caused  his  removal  from  the  go- 
vernment; and  sometime  after  they  voted  him  a  sum 
equal  to  a  thousand  pounds  sterling,-  to  enable  him 
to  manage  the  public  affairs,  &c.,  but  would  fix  no 
time.  The  council  concurred  in  it  with  an  amend- 
ment, viz.,  "  and  that  the  same  sum  be  annually 
allowed  for  the  governor's  support."  This,  without 
a  fund  for  the  payment  of  it,  was  doing  little  mere 
than  the  house  had  repeatedly  done  by  their  decla- 
rations, that  they  doubted  not  future  assemblies 
would  make  the  like  honourable  provision  for  the 
governor's  support,  according  to  the  ability  of  the 
province;  the  amendment,  notwithstanding,  was  nut 
agreed  to,  and  the  house  adhered  to  their  own  vote. 
This  produced  a  second  amendment,  viz.,  "  that  tho 
same  sum  should  be  annually  paid  during  his  ex- 
cellency's continuance  in  the  government  and  resi- 
dence here  :"  but  this  also  was  nonconcured.  Tho 
two  houses  then  conferred  upon  the  subject,  the  go 
vernor  being  present,  which  was  unusual,  at.  the  confer 
ence.  Mr.  Shirley  had  been  desirous  of  acquainting 
himself  with  the  arguments  on  both  sides,  in  some 
affair  in  controversy  between  the  two  houses,  inti- 
mated to  the  council  his  inclination  to  be  present. 
When  the  house  came  up  the  speaker,  Mr.  Gushing, 
seeing  the  governor  in  the  chair,  started  back  and 
remaining  at  the  door  of  the  council  chamber,  ex- 
pressed his  surprise  at  seeing  his  excellency  in  the 
chair,  the  conference  being  intended  between  the 
two  houses  only,  but  if  his  excellency  intended  to 
remain  in  the  chair,  only  to  hear  the  arguments, 
he  imagined  the  house  would  have  no  objection  to 
conferring  in  his  presence:  and  Mr.  Shirley  re- 
mained, as  in  the  present  instance  did  Mr.  Bel- 
cher, and  made  a  long  speech,  expressing  the  great 
pleasure  the  council  had  given  him  in  the  part 
they  had  taken,  and  his  concern  and  surprize  at  the 
conduct  of  the  house,  in  running  the  risk  of  the 
consequences  of  their  refusal  to  comply  with  the  in- 
struction, reminded  them  of  the  vast  expense  which 
their  former  unsuccessful  disputes  with  their  go- 
vernors had  occasioned  to  the  province,  but  used  no 
arguments  to  convince  them  of  the  reasonableness 

2T 


3' -4 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


of  the  demand,  and  its  compatibility  with  their  rights 
and  privileges. 

The  small-pox  being  in  the  town  of  Cambridge, 
where  the  court  sat,  the  house  desired  to  rise;  but  the 
governor  let  them  know  he  would  meet  them  in  any 
other  town,  and  the  same  day  ordered  an  adjourn- 
ment to  Roxbury,  where  a  bill  passed  both  houses 
for  the  support  of  the  governor,  but  not  coming  up 
to  the  instruction,  the  governor  could  not  consent  to 
it.  The  country  party  in  the  house,  as  much  a  sole- 
cism as  it  was,  was  the  most  zealous  for  the  prero- 
gative ;  and,  except  a  few  prerogative  men  who 
were  always  willing  to  fix  the  salary,  none  went  so 
great  a  length,  at  this  time,  towards  fixing  it,  as 
those  who  opposed  any  one  step  towards  it,  under  Mr. 
Bur  net. 

The  people,  in  general,  were  well  plcas-d  with  the 
governor.  It  is  not  improbable  that  he  would  have 
obtained  the  settlement  of  a  salary  during  his  admi- 
nistiation,  if  it  had  not  been,  in  effect,  a  settlement 
for  his  successors  also,  for  such  a  precedent  could 
not  easily  have  been  resisted.  The  two  parties  which 
had  long  subsisted  in  the  government  were  vying, 
each  with  the  other,  in  measures  for  an  expedient  or 
accommodation.  The  prerogative  men  were  Mr. 
Belcher's  old  friends,  who  were  pretty  well  satisfied 
that  his  going  over  to  the  other  side  was  not  from 
any  real  affection  to  the  cause,  and  that  he  must, 
sooner  or  later,  differ  with  those  who  adhered  to  it, 
and  for  this  event  'they  waited  patiently.  The  other 
party,  by  whose  interest  he  had  been  sent  to  Eng- 
land, adhered  to  him,  expecting  their  reward.  Ac- 
cordingly, Mr.  Cooke  was  soon  appointed  a  justice 
of  the  common  pleas  for  the  county  of  Suffolk.  To 
make  way  for  him  and  another  favourite,  Colonel 
Byfield,  to  whom  Mr.  Belcher  was  allied,  two  gen- 
tlemen, Colonel  Hutchinson  and  Colonel  Dudley, 
were  displaced.  They  were  both  in  principle  steady 
friends  to  government,  and  the  first  of  them  was  a 
fast  friend  to  the  governor.  Mr.  Belcher  would  not 
have  been  able  to  advance  so  many  of  his  friends  as 
he  did,  if  he  had  not  persuaded  the  council  that, 
upon  the  appointment  of  a  new  governor,  it  was  ne- 
cessary to  renew  all  civil  commissions.  Having  ob- 
tained this  point,  he  took  the  most  convenient  time 
to  settle  the  several  counties.  Before  he  settled  the 
county  of  York,  he  recommended  to  the  judges  a 
person  for  clerk  of  the  court.  This  officer  the  pro- 
vince law  empowers  the  judges  to  appoint.  Some  of 
them  sent  their  excuse,  being  well  satisfied  with  the 
clerk  they  had,  who  was  a  faithful  well  approved 
officer;  but  the  governor  let  the  judges  know,  if  he 
could  not  appoint  a  clerk  he  could  a  judge,  and  ac- 
cordingly removed  those  who  were  not  for  his  pur- 
pose and  appointed,  others  in  their  stead.  There  was 
an  inconsistency  in  delaying  appointments,  with  the 
principles  he  advanced.  If  new  commissions  were 
necessary,  they  were  necessary  immediately,  and  they 
might  as  well  be  delayed  seven  years  as  one. 

It  was  said  that  when  Mr.  Belcher,  some  years 
after,  was  ordered  by  the  king  to  remove  his  son-in- 
law,  Mr.  Lyde,  from  the  naval  office,  the  power  of 
appointment  to  which  office  is,  by  act  of  parliament, 
given  to  the  governor,  he  was  advised  to  make  an 
excuse,  Mr.  Lyde  being  an  officer  who  gave  general 
satisfaction  ;  but  Mr.  Belcher  replied,  that  although 
the  king  could  not  make  a  naval  officer  yet  he  could 
make  a  governor,  and  he  was  forced  to  give  up  his 
son-in-law.  This  was  the  first  instance  of  an  ap- 
pointment made  by  the  crown  immediately  to  this 
office,  and  perhaps  to  any  office  in  the  province,  the 
nomination  to  which  is,  by  the  charier  and  royal  com- 


mission, left  to  the  judgment  and  discretion  of  the 
governor. 

The  commissions  to  civil  officers  being  in  the 
king's  name  and  tested  by  the  governor,  the  renewal 
of  such  commissions  upon  the  appointment  of  a  go- 
vernor has  not  been  practised  since  Mr.  Belcher's 
time.  It  was  proposed  in  council  by  his  successor, 
but.  Mr.  Read,  a  very  eminent  lawyer,  and  which  is 
more,  a  person  of  great  integrity  and  firmness  of 
mind,  being  then  a  member  of  the  council,  brought 
such  arguments  against  the  practice,  that  the  ma- 
jority of  the  board  refused  to  consent  to  it.  Besides 
this  general  new  appointment,  Mr.  Belcher,  in  the 
course  of  his  administration,  made  more  frequent 
removals  of  persons  from  office  than  any  governor 
before  or  since.  This  was  owing  to  the  pusillani- 
mity of  the  council.  No  appointment  can  be  made 
without  their  advice.  The  governor,  it  is  true,  could 
refuse  his  consent,  every  year,  to  their  election  ;  but 
the  emoluments  of  a  Massachusetts  counsellor  were 
very  small,  and  caused  no  great  temptation  to  sa- 
crifice virtue.  It  is  said,  that  one  of  the  judges  of 
the  superior  court  expecting  to  be  removed,  in  the 
latter  part  of  Mr.  Belcher's  administration,  applied 
by  a  friend  in  England  to  lord  chief  justice  Willes, 
who  signified  his  resolution,  that  if  any  judge  should 
be  removed  without  good  reason  assigned,  he  would 
himself  complain  to  his  majesty  against  the  governor. 
The  freedom  and  independence  of  the  judges  of 
England  is  always  enumerated  among  the  excellen- 
cies of  the  constitution.  The  Massachusetts  judges 
were  far  from  independent.  In  Mr.  Belcher's  ad- 
ministration, they  were  peculiarly  dependent  upon 
the  governor.  Before  and  since  they  were  depend- 
ent upon  the  assembly  for  their  salary,  granted  an- 
nually, which  sometimes  was  delayed,  sometimes  di- 
minished, and  rarely  escaped  being  a  subject  of 
debate  and  altercation. 

(1731.)  Two  or  three  sessions  passed,  when  little 
more  was  done  on  the  governor's  part,  than  repeat- 
ing his  demand  for  a  fixed  salary,  and  intimating 
that  he  should  be  obliged  to  go  to  England  and  render 
an  account  of  their  behaviour  to  the  king.  The 
major  part  of  the  house  were  very  desirous  of  giving 
satisfaction  to  the  governor  and  to  their  constituents 
both,  but  could  not.  Mr.  Cooke's  friends  in  the 
town  of  Boston  began  to  be  jealous  of  him.  A  bill 
was  prepared,  which  sets  forth  in  the  preamble,  that 
settling  a  salary  would  deprive  the  people  of  their 
rights  as  Englishmen.  After  granting  3400/.,  which 
was  about  equal  to  1000/.  sterling,  it  is  further 
enacted,  that  as  his  majesty  had  been  graciously 
pleased  to  appoint  J.  B.,  Esq.  to  be  the  governor, 
who  was  a  native  of  the  country,  whose  fortune  was 
here,  who,  when  a  member  of  the  council,  as  well  as 
when  in  a  private  station,  has  always  consulted  the 
true  interest  of  his  country  as  well  as  the  honour 
and  dignity  of  the  crown,  therefore,  it  is  most  so- 
lemnly promised  and  engaged  to  his  most  excellent 
majesty,  that  there  shall  be  granted  the  like  sum  for 
the  like  purpose,  at  the  beginning  of  the  sessions  in 
May  every  year  during  the  governor's  continuance 
in  the  administration  and  residence  within  the  pro- 
vince ;  provided,  this  act  shall  not  be  pleaded  as  a 
precedent,  or  binding  on  any  future  assembly,  for 
fixing  a  salary  on  any  succeeding  governor.  The 
bill  is  in  Mr.  Cooke's  hand  writing,  and  it  is  minuted 
at  the  bottom,  that  the  governor  approved  of  it.  The 
governor  could  not  imagine  so  evasive  a  thing  eould 
be  approved  in  England.  He  might  hope  to  im- 
prove it,  as  being  a  further  advance  than  had  oeen 
before  made  ;  and,  by  using  this  argument,  that  it 


UNITED  STATES 


would  be  much  more  rational  for  the  house  to 
do  what  they  now  had  fully  in  their  power  to  do, 
<hun  to  make  a  solemn  promise  that  another  house 
should  do  the  same  thing,  the  performance  of  which 
promise  they  would  not  have  in  their  own  power. 
The  scheme  failed,  the  bill  did  not  pass  ;  and  from 
that  time  Mr.  Belcher,  despairing  of  carrying  his 
point,  turned  his  thought  to  obtaining  a  relaxation 
if  his  instruction.  Instead  of  applying  himself,  he 
advised  to  an  address  from  the  house,  not  for  the 
withdrawal  of  the  instruction,  but  that  the  governor 
might  have  leave  to  receive  the  sura  granted.  This 
was  allowed ;  but  it  was  to  be  understood,  that  he 
was  to  insist  upon  a  compliance  with  his  instruction 
as  much  as  ever.  Leave  for  consent  to  particular 
grants  was  obtained  two  or  three  years,  and  at  length 
a  general  order  of  leave  to  receive  such  sums  as 
should  be  granted.  This  was  the  issue  of  the  con- 
troversy about  a  fixed  salary.  Until  Mr.  Belcher's 
arrival,  Mr.  Cooke  had  differed  from  most  who,  from 
time  to  time,  have  been  recorded  in  history  for  po- 
pular men.  Generally,  to  preserve  the  favour  of  the 
people,  they  must  change  with  the  popular  air,  and 
when  we  survey  a  course  of  action  it  will  not  appear 
altogether  consistent.  He  had  the  art  of  keeping 
the  people  steady  in  the  applause  of  his  measures. 
To  be  careful  never  to  depart  from  the  appearance 
of  maintaining  or  enlarging  rights,  liberties,  and 
privileges,  was  all  he  found  necessary.  As  soon  as 
he  was  defective  in  this  respect,  and  tried  to  secure 
his  interest  both  with  the  governor  and  town  of  Bos- 
ton, he  had  like  to  have  lost  both.  In  the  election 
of  representatives  for  Boslon,  in  1733  or  1734,  the 
governor's  party  appeared  against  him  ;  he  had  lost 
many  of  the  other  party  by  what  they  called  too 
great  a  compliance,  and  he  had  a  majority,  after  se- 
veral trials,  of  one  or  two  votes  only  in  six  or  seven 
hundred. 

(1732.)  The  dispute  about  the  manner  of  issuing 
money  out  of  the  treasury,  was  settled  unfavourably 
for  the  house  •  The  charter  provided,  that  all  money 
should  be  issued  by  warrant  from  the  governor,  with 
advice  and  consent  of  the  council.  Until  the  year 
1720  the  money  was  brought  into  the  treasury,  by  a 
vote  or  act  originating  in  the  house,  and  destined  to 
certain  purposes,  and  drawn  out  for  those  purposes 
by  warrant  from  the  governor,  with  advice,  &c. ;  but 
after  that,  the  house  not  only  destined  the  money 
when  put  into  the  treasury,  but  provided  that  none 
of  it,  except  some  trilling  sums  for  expresses  and 
the  like,  should  be  issued  without  a  vote  of  the  whole 
court  for  payment.  After  such  a  vote  they  were 
willing  the  governor  should  give  his  warrant.  This 
appeared  to  the  king  to  render  his  governor  con- 
temptible, and  entirely  to  defeat  the  provision  in  the 
charter,  and  there  was  no  prospect  of  any  relaxation 
of  the  instruction  to  the  governor.  When  the  ser- 
vants of  the  government  had  suffered  along  time  for 
want  of  their  money,  the  house  passed  a  bill,  which 
supplied  the  treasury  in  a  way  not  materially  differ- 
ing from  what  had  been  in  practice  before  1720. 

Mr.  Belcher  had  another  instruction,  not  to  con- 
sent to  the  issuing  any  bills  of  credit  for  a  longer 
term  than  those  were  to  remain  current  which  had 
before  been  issued,  none  of  which  extended  beyond 
the  year  1741.  It  would  have  been  but  a  small  bur- 
den upon  the  inhabitants  to  have  paid  the  charges  of 
every  year,  and  the  debt  which  lay  upon  such  year 
besides;  but,  instead  of  that  wise  measure,  they  suf- 
fered one  year  after  another  to  pass  with  light  taxes, 
and  laid  heavy  burdens  upon  distant  years,  and  the 
Jast  year,  1741,  had  more  laid  upon  it  than  any  four 


or  five  preceding  years  ;  and  although  even  this  was 
far  short  of  what  has  been  paid  in  some  succeeding 
years,  yet  it  was  deemed  an  insupportable  burden, 
and  it  was  generally  supposed,  the  promises  made  by 
the  acts  of  government  to  draw  in  the  bills  in  tha't 
year  would,  by  some  means  or  other,  be  evaded  or 
openly  violated.  Mr.  Belcher  seemed  determined  to 
adhere  to  his  instruction,  and  there  was  an  expecta- 
tion of  some  great  convulsion,  which  was  prevented 
by  his  being  superseded  before  that  period  arrived. 

Captain  Coram  pursued  the  project  for  settling 
the  eastern  country,  until  he  procured  an  order  or 
instruction  to  Colonel  Phillips,  the  governor  of 
Nova  Scotia,  in  1730,  to  take  possession  of  the  land 
between  St.  Croix  and  Kennebeck,  and  thirty  men, 
with  an  officer,  were  sent  to  the  fort  at  Pemaquid, 
built  by  the  Massachusetts.  Colonel  Dunbar,  a 
gentleman  out  of  employ,  came  over  about  the  same 
time,  took  the  command  of  the  fort,  and  assumed 
the  government  of  that  part  of  the  province.  Mr. 
Belcher  was  applied  to  by  the  proprietors  of  the  lands 
there,  and  the  house  of  representatives  asserted  the 
right  of  the  province.  The  governor,  with  advice 
of  council,  issued  a  proclamation,  requiring  the  in- 
habitants to  remain  in  their  obedience  and  due  sub- 
jection to  the  laws  and  government  of  the  province. 
This  seems  to  have  been  all  that  in  prudence  he 
could  do.  Some  were  for  taking  further  measures 
to  remove  Dunbar,  which,  as  he  had  a  royal  com- 
mission, however  liable  to  exceptions,  Mr.  Belcher 
thought  by  no  means  warrantable.  The  minds  of 
the  people  were  inflamed,  and  when  Dunbar  came 
up  to  Boston  he  persisted  in  his  claim  to  the  country 
which,  with  reports  of  some  not  very  decent  ex- 
pressions of  the  governor,  raised  the  resentment  of 
many.  Persons  of  ill  design  perhaps  might  have 
been  able  to  have  caused  a  tumult.  The  lands  in- 
deed were  claimed  by  a  few  particular  persons,  but 
it  was  spread  abroad  that  when  this  country  should 
be  detached  from  the  rest  of  the  province  the  sup- 
plies of  fuel  to  the  sea-port  towns  would  cease,  or 
be  burdened  with  heavy  duties,  and  the  poor  op- 
pressed. It  happened  that  Mr.  Samuel  Waldo,  a 
gentleman  of  good  capacity,  and  who  would  not 
easily  relinquish  his  right,  undertook  for  the  pro- 
prietors of  the  principal  tract  of  the  country  claimed, 
and,  upon  representation  to  his  majesty  in  council, 
the  order  to  Phillips  and  the  authority  to  Dunbar 
were  revoked  in  1732,  and  the  government  of  the 
province  afterwards  thought  it  proper  to  place  a 
garrison  in  their  own  pay  at  Fort  Frederick,  the 
name  given  by  Dunbar  to  the  fort  at  Pemaquid. 

We  shall  take  notice  of  two  or  three  only,  and 
those  the  most  remarkable  events  during  the  rest  of 
Mr.  Belcher's  administration. 

(1733.)  In  1733  there  was  a  general  complaint 
throughout  the  four  governments  of  New  England 
of  the  unusual  scarcity  of  money.  There  was  as 
large  a  sum  current  in  bills  of  credit  as  ever,  but  the 
bills  having  depreciated,  they  answered  the  purposes 
of  money  so  much  less  in  proportion.  The  Massa- 
chusetts and  New  Hampshire  were  clogged  with 
royal  instructions.  It  was  owing  to  them  that  those 
governments  had  not  issued  bills  to  as  great  an 
amount  as  Rhode  Island.  Connecticut,  although 
under  no  restraint,  yet,  consisting  of  more  husband- 
men and  fewer  traders  than  the  rest,  did  not  so 
much  feel  the  want  of  money.  The  Massachusetts 
people  were  dissatisfied  that  Rhode  -Island  should 
send  their  bills  among  them,  and  take  away  their 
substance  and  employ  it  in  trade,  and  many  people 
wished  to  see  the  bills  of  each  government  current 

2  T  2 


356 


THE  iil&TORY  OF  AMERICA. 


withm  the  limits  of  such  government  only.  In  the 
midst  of  this  discontent,  Rhode  Island  passed  an  act 
for  issuing  100,0001.  upon  loan,  for  about  twenty 
years,  to  their  own  inhabitants,  who  would  immedi- 
ately have  it  in  their  power  to  add  100,000/.  to  their 
trading  stock  from  the  horses,  sheep,  lumber,  fish, 
&c.  of  the  Massachusetts  inhabitants.  The  mer- 
chants of  Boston  therefore  confederated,  and  mu- 
tually promised  and  engaged  not  to  receive  any 
bills  of  this  new  emission,  but,  to  provide  a  cur- 
rency, a  large  number  formed  themselves  into  a 
company,  entered  into  covenants,  chose  directors, 
&c.  and  issued  110,000/.  redeemable  in  ten  years, 
in  silver,  at  19s.  per  oz.  the  then  current  rate,  or 
gold  in  proportion,  a  tenth  part  annually.  About 
the  same  time  the  Massachusetts  treasury,  which 
had  been  long  shut,  was  opened,  and  the  debts  of 
two  or  three  years  were  all  paid  at  one  time  in  bills 
of  credit;  to  this  was  added  the  ordinary  emissions 
of  bills  from  New  Hampshire  and  Connecticut,  and 
some  of  the  Boston  merchants,  tempted  by  an  op- 
portunity of  selling  their  English  goods,  having 
broke  through  their  engagements,  and  received  the 
Rhode  Island  bills,  all  the  rest  soon  followed  the 
example.  All  these  emissions  made  a  flood  of  mo- 
ney, silver  rose  from  19s.  to  27s.  the  oz.,  and  ex- 
change with  all  other  countries  consequently  rose 
also,  and  every  creditor  was  defrauded  of  about  one 
third  of  his  just  dues.  As  soon  as  silver  rose  to 
27s.,  the  notes  issued  by  the  merchants  payable  at 
19».,  were  hoarded  up,  and  no  longer  answered  the 
purposes  of  money.  Although  the  currency  was 
lessened  by  taking  away  the  notes,  yet  what  re- 
mained never  increased  in  value,  silver  continuing 
several  years  about  the  same  rate,  until  it  took 
another  large  jump.  Thus  very  great  injustice  was 
caused  by  this  wretched  paper  currency,  and  no 
relief  of  any  sort  obtained ;  for,  by  this  sinking  in 
value,  though  the  nominal  sum  was  higher  than  it 
had  ever  been  before,  yet  the  currency  would  pro- 
duce no  more  sterling  money  than  it  would  have 
done  before  the  late  emissions  were  made.  William 
Tailer,  the  lieut. -governor,  dying  in  1732,  in  1733 
Spencer  Phips,  nephew  by  the  sister,  and  adopted 
son  to  Sir  William  Phips,  succeeded.  Mr.  Belcher 
used  his  interest  for  Adam  Winthrop,  Esq. :  both 
Winthrop  and  Phips  had  been  several  years  mem- 
bers of  the  council. 

(1737.)  In  1737  a  controversy,  which  had  long 
subsisted  between  the  two  governments  of  Massa- 
chusetts bay  and  New  Hampshire  was  heard  by 
commissioners  for  that  purpose  appointed  by  the 
crown.  Various  attempts  had  been  made  to  settle 
this  dispute,  and  it  had  been  often  recommended  by 
the  crown  to  the  assemblies  of  the  two  provinces  to 
agree  upon  arbitrators  from  neighbouring  govern- 
ments, and  to  pass  acts  which  should  bind  each  pro- 
vince to  be  subject  to  their  determinations.  Seve- 
ral such  acts  passed,  but  they  were  not  exactly 
conformable  one  to  the  other,  or  the  operation  of 
them  was  by  some  means  or  other  obstructed.  The 
Massachusetts  refused  terms  which,  afterwards,  they 
vrould  gladly  have  accepted.  They  have  done  the 
like  in  other  controversies.  Long  possession  caused 
them  to  be  loth  to  concede  any  part  of  the  terri- 
tory. New  Hampshire  took  its  name  from  the 
grants  made  by  the  council  of  Plimouth  to  Captain 
John  Mason.  Of  these  there  had  been  four  or  five, 
all  containing  more  or  less  of  the  same  lands.  Ex- 
ceptions were  taken  to  all  of  them,  and  that  which 
was  the  least  imperfect  was  dated  after  the  grant  of 
Massachusetts  bay,  »o  that  the  whole  controversy 


turned  upon  the  construction  of  the  Massachusetts' 
charters.  The  first  charter  made  the  northern  boun- 
dary to  be  three  miles  to  the  northward  of  Merri- 
mack  river,  or  to  the  northward  of  any  and  every 
part  thereof.  After  running  westward  about  thirty 
miles  from  the  sea,  the  river  alters  its  course,  and 
tends  to  the  north,  or,  to  speak  with  more  propriety, 
having  run  from  its  crotch  or  the  meeting  of  Pemi- 
gewasset  river,  and  Winnepissauke  pond,  to  the 
southward  about  fifty  miles,  it  then  tends  to  the 
eastward  about  thirty  miles,  until  it  empties  into 
the  sea.  It  was  urged  by  the  advocates  for  Massa- 
chusetts colony,  that  their  boundary  was  to  be  three 
miles  to  the  northward  of  the  northernmost  part  of 
the  river,  and  to  extend  east  and  west  from  the  At- 
lantic to  the  South  sea.  This  swallowed  up  all  New 
Hampshire,  and  the  greatest  part  of  the  province  of 
Main.  At  a  hearing  before  the  king  in  council,  in 
1677,  the  agents  for  Massachusetts,  by  advice,  dis- 
claimed all  right  of  jurisdiction  beyond  the  three 
miles  north  of  the  river  according  to  the  course,  and 
it  was  determined  they  had  a  right  as  far  as  the 
river  extended,  but  how  far  the  river  did  extend  was 
not  then  expressly  mentioned.  It  seems,  however, 
not  to  have  been  doubted,  for  although  at  the  time 
of  the  grant  of  the  first  charter,  it  does  not  appear 
that  the  course  was  known  any  great  distance  from 
the  sea,  yet,  soon  after  the  government  was  trans- 
ferred from  Old  England  to  New,  it  was  as  well 
known  by  the  name  of  Merrimack  as  far  as  Peni- 
cook  as  it  is  at  this  day,  and  the  tribe  of  Indians 
which  dwelt  there  had  a  correspondence  with  the 
English,  and  in  1639  persons  were  employed  by  the 
government  of  Massachusetts  to  explore  that  part  of 
the  country,  and  there  are  still  preserved  the  testi- 
monies of  divers  persons  declaring  that  they,  before 
that  time,  always  understood  the  river  to  be  called 
by  the  same  name,  from  the  crotch  to  the  mouth. 
If  the  first  charter  of  the  Massachusetts  had  con- 
tinued, it  is  not  probable  any  different  construction 
would  ever  have  been  started ;  but  in  the  new  char- 
ter the  boundary  is  thus  expressed,  "  extending 
from  the  great  river  commonly  called  Monomack, 
alias  Merrimack,  on  the  north  part,  and  from  three 
miles  northward  of  the  said  river,  to  the  Atlantic  or 
western  sea,  or  ocean  on  the  south  part,  &c.  The 
whole,  however,  of  the  old  colony  being  included  in 
the  new  province,  many  years  passed  without  any 
thought  of  a  different  construction  of  bounds  in  the 
two  charters,  and  the  disputes  between  New  Hamp- 
shire and  the  Massachusetts  have  been,  principally, 
concerning  the  towns  of  Salisbury  and  Haverhill, 
which,  when  first  granted  by  the  Massachusetts, 
were  made  to  extend  more  than  three  miles  from 
the  river,  and  the  part  beyond  the  three  miles  re- 
mained under  the  jurisdiction  by  which  they  had 
been  granted,  which  New  Hampshire  complained 
of.  A  new  line,  to  begin  three  miles  north  of  the 
mouth  of  Merrimack,  and  so  run  west  to  the  south 
sea,  was  a  modern  construction.  Some  hints  had 
been  given  of  such  a  line,  before  or  about  the  year 
1726,  and  it  was  supposed  by  New  Hampshire  that 
the  Massachusetts  were  induced  thereby  to  make 
grants  of  townships  between  Merrimack  and  Con- 
necticut river,  in  order  to  strengthen  their  title  by 
possession,  still  there  was  a  prospect  of  accommo- 
dation, and,  in  the  year  1731,  the  committees  from 
the  assemblies  of  two  provinces  differed  only  upon 
the  point  of  equivalents,  the  Massachusetts  desiring 
to  retain  under  their  jurisdiction  the  whole  of  those 
towns  which  lay  upon  the  river,  and  to  give  other 
landa  as  an  equivalent  for  the  property ;  but  about 


UNITED  STATES, 


347 


the  same  time  the  principal  men  of  New  Hampshire 
thinking,  and  perhaps  justly,  that  they  were  not 
well  treated  by  Mr.  Belcher,  determined  to  exert ' 
themselves  to  obtain  a  governor  for  that  province, 
and  to  remain  no  longer  under  the  same  governor 
with  the  Massachusetts.  They  had  but  little  chance 
for  this  unless  they  could  enlarge  their  bonnds. 
The  very  proposal  of  a  distinct  government,  as  it 
increased  the  number  of  officers  of  the  crown,  they 
thought  would  be  a  favourable  circumstance  in  settl- 
ing the  controversy  with  Massachusetts. 

The  house  of  representatives  of  New  Hampshire, 
Oct.  7,  1731,  by  a  vote  appointed  John  Ridge,  Esq., 
a  merchant  there,  who  was  bound  to  England,  their 
agent  to  solicit  the  settlement  of  the  boundaries. 
But  their  main  dependance  was  upon  Mr.  Tomlin- 
son,  a  gentleman  who  had  been  in  New  Hampshire, 
and  was  then  a  merchant  of  note  in  London,  and 
perhaps  was  as  capable  of  conducting  their  cause  as 
any  person  they  could  have  pitched  upon.  He  had 
the  friendship  of  Col.  Bladeu,  who  at  that  day  had 
great  weight  in  the  board  of  trade,  and  had  con- 
ceived very  unfavourable  sentiments  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts in  general,  and  did  not  like  Mr.  Belcher, 
the  governor.  He  employed  a  solicitor,  Feiuiaando 
Paris,  one  of  the  first  rate,  and  who  had  a  peculiar 
talent  at  slurring  the  characters  of  his  antagonists. 
Many  of  his  briefs  abound  in  this  way.  The  first 
step  in  consequence  of  Mr.  Rindge's  petition  was  a 
question  sent  by  the  lords  of  trade  to  the  attorney 
and  solicitor-general  for  their  opinion,  "  From  what 
port  of  Merrimack  river,  the  three  miles  from  whence 
the  dividing  line  between  the  province  of  New 
Hampshire  and  the  province  of  the  Massachusetts 
bay,  is  to  begin,  ought  to  be  taken  according  to  the 
intent  of  the  charter  of  William  and  Mary."  This 
was  a  plain  intimation  that  if  the  point  where  to  be- 
gin could  be  settled,  nothing  more  was  necessary, 
the  west  line  claimed  by  New  Hampshire  was  to 
follow  of  course.  The  Massachusetts  agent  (Mr. 
Wilks)  by  his  council  would  say  nothing  upon  the 
question,  because  it  would  not  determine  the  mat- 
ters in  dispute.  Report  was  made,  however,  that  it 
ought  to  begin  three  miles  north  of  the  mouth  oi 
Merrimack  river.  It  was  then  proposed  that  com- 
misioners  should  be  appointed  to  settle  this  contro- 
versy. This  the  Massachusetts  were  averse  to,  un- 
less they  knew  who  they  were  to  be.  They  were  at  the 
same  time  afraid  of  its  being  determined  in  Eng- 
land, ex  parle,  if  they  should  refuse  to  consent.  A 
committee  of  the  general  court  reported  "that  the 
agent  should  be  instructed  that  the  province  would 
agree  to  commissioners  to  be  appointed,  to  settle  the 
controversy,  here."  This  report  was  accepted,  the 
house  intending  the  commissioners  should  be  agreed 
upon  by  the  two  governments,  some  of  the  commit- 
tee intending  the  agent  should  understand  his  in- 
structions, to  consent  to  the  appointment  of  com- 
missioners provided  thay  sat  here,  or  in  one  of  the 
two  governments.  A  comma  after  the  word  'ap- 
pointed,' and  after  the  word  '  controversy,'  would 
give  the  sense  of  the  house,  the  last  comma  left  oul 
it  might  be  taken  in  the  sense  of  the  committee ;  bul 
as  it  is  most  probable  the  letter  had  no  regular  point- 
ing, their  meaning  was  to  be  guessed  at. 

This  was  treating  the  agent  ill,  and  he  was  cen- 
sured by  the  house  for  not  observing  his  instructions 
The  committee  privately  excused  themselves  for  thii 
equivocal  report  as  being  necessary  for  the  publi< 
service,  the  house  not  being  willing  to  consent  to  an 
explicit  submission.  It  was  made  a  condition  of  the 
Bubmiseion  that  private  property  should  not  be  af- 


fected.    The  ministry  in  later  instances  have  not 
waited  for  an  express  submission,  but  have  appoint- 
d  commissioners  upon  application  from  one  party 
n-ly. 

The  commissioners  were  all  such  as  the  New 
lampshire  agent  proposed,  five  counsellors  from 
ach  of  the  governments  of  New  York,  Rhode  Is- 
and,  and  Nova  Scotia.  With  the  two  former  go- 
ernments,  the  Massachusetts  were  then  in  contro- 
ersy  about  lines.  The  latter  it  was  said  was  dis- 
affected to  charter  government.  Connecticut,  pro- 
>osed  by  Massachusetts,  was  rejected  because  of  a 
ias  from  their  tiade,  religion,  &c.,  which  New 
rlampshire  was  afraid  of.  The  place  for  the  meet- 
ng  of  commissioners  was  Hampton  in  New  Hamp- 
,hire,  the  1st  of  August. 

The  commissioners  from  Nova  Scotia,  with  some 
>f  Rhode  Island,  met  at  the  time  appointed,  and 
were  afterwards  joined  by  Mr.  Livingstone,  from 
tfew  York,  who  presided.  After  many  weeks  spent 
n  hearing  the  parties  and  examining  their  evidence, 
;he  only  doubt  in  the  commissioners  minds  was, 
whether  the  Massachusetts  new  charter  comprehend- 
ed the  whole  of  the  old  colony.  Not  being  able  to 
satisfy  themselves,  and  perhaps  not  being  unwilling 
to  avoid  the  determination,  they  agreed  to  make  a 
special  judgment  or  decree,  the  substance  of  which 
was,  that  if  the  charter  of  William  and  Mary  grants 
to  the  Massachusetts-bay,  all  the  lands  granted  by 
the  charter  of  Charles  the  First,  they  then  adjudga 
a  curve  line  to  begin  three  miles  north  of  the  mouth 
of  the  river,  and  to  keep  the  same  distance  from  the 
river  as  far  as  the  crotch  or  parting  at  Pemigewasset 
arid  Winepesiaukee,  and  then  to  run  west  towards 
the  south  sea  until  it  meets  with  his  majesty's  other 
governments;  but  if  the  charter  of  William  and 
Mary  did  not  contain  &c.,  then  they  adjudge  a  west 
line  to  begin  at  the  same  place  three  miles  north  of 
the  mouth  and  to  run  to  the  south  sea.  This  point 
in  doubt  they  submitted  to  his  majesty's  royal  plea- 
sure. 

The  Massachusetts  were  sure  of  their  cause.  It 
was  impossible,  they  thought,  consistent  with  com- 
mon sense,  that  the  point  in  doubt  should  be  deter- 
mined against  them.  They  thought  it  safest  how- 
ever to  send  to  England  a  special  agent,  Edmund 
Quincy,  Esq.,  one  of  the  council,  who  had  been  one 
of  the  court's  agents  before  the  commissioners.  He 
was  joined  with  Mr.  Wilks,  and  Mr.  Belcher  by  his 
interest  prevailed  upon  the  assembly  to  add  a  third, 
his  wife's  brother,  Richard  Partridge.  Exceptions, 
called  an  appeal,  were  offered  to  the  judgment  of  the 
commissioners.  Mr.  Quincy  died  of  the  small  pox 
by  inoculation  soon  after  his  arrival  in  London,  the 
other  two  knew  little  or  nothing  of  the  controversy. 
The  commissioner,  however,  had  rendered  it  as  diffi- 
cult to  determine  a  line  against  the  Massachusetts 
as  if  they  had  given  a  general  judgment  in  their 
favour.  The  New  Hampshire  agent  and  solicitor 
thought  of  no  expedient.  In  their  brief  they  pray 
the  lords  committee  to  report  "  that  all  the  lands 
lying  to  the  northward  of  Merrimack  river,  which 
were  granted  by  the  charter  of  King  Charles  the 
First  to  the  late  colony  of  the  Massacusetts  bay.  are 
not  granted  to  the  present  province  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts-bay by  the  charter  of  King  William  and 
Queen  Mary."  This  never  could  have  been  done. 
At  the  hearing,  it  was  thought  proper  to  lay  aside 
all  regard  to  the  judgment  of  the  commissioners, 
and  to  proceed  upon  an  entirely  new  plan.  No 
doubt  was  made  that  the  old  colony  was  all  included 
in  the  new  province.  The  question  was,  what  were 


358 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  northern  bounds  of  the  colony  of  Massachusetts- 
bay,  which  the  council  of  Plimouth  when  they  sold 
the  territory  to  the  patentees,  and  the  king  when  he 
granted  the  jurisdiction,  had  in  contemplation.  This, 
it  was  said,  must  be  a  line  three  miles  north  of  a 
river  not  fully  explored,  but  whose  general  course 
was  supposed  to  be  east  and  west.  So  far  therefore 
as  it  afterwards  appeared  that  the  river  kept  this 
course,  so  far  it  was  equitable  the  line  should  con- 
tinue; but,  as  on  the  one  hand,  if  the  river  had 
altered  its  course  and  turned  to  the  south,  it  would 
have  been  inequitable  to  have  reduced  the  grant  to 
a  very  small  tract,  so  on  the  other  hand,  when  it  ap- 
peared to  turn  to  the  north  it  was  inequitable  to  ex 
tend  the  grant  and  make  a  very  large  territory,  and 
therefore  defeat  other  grants  made  about  the  same 
time.  The  grant  to  Sir  Henry  Roswell  and  others, 
was  March  the  19th,  1627.  That  to  Mason,  was 
November  7th,  1619,  and  was  to  extend  sixty  miles 
from  the  sea.  But  the  river  Merrimack  turning  to 
the  north  after  about  thirty  miles  from  the  sea,  if 
the  Massachusetts  bounds  had  continued  three  miles 
distant  from  the  river  to  the  crotch,  it  would  com- 
prehend more  than  half  of  Mason's  grant.  It  was 
therefore  determined  that  the  northern  boundaries 
of  Massachusetts-bay,  should  be  a  line  three  miles 
from  the  river  as  far  as  Pan  tucket-falls,  then  to  run 
W.  10  dog.  N.  until  it  meets  New  York  line. 

The  Massachusetts  thought  themselves  aggrieved. 
They  submitted  the  controversy  to  commissioners 
to  be  appointed  by  the  crown,  and  had  been  fully 
heard.  The  whole  proceedings  of  the  commission- 
ers were  set  aside,  and  without  any  notice  to  the 
government,  the  controversy  was  determined  by  a 
committee  of  council,  upon  a  new  point  on  which 
their  agent  had  never  been  instructed.  And  how- 
ever there  might  be  the  appearance  of  equity  in  the 
principle  upon  which  their  lordships  proceeded,  yet 
the  Massachusetts  supposed,  if  their  possession  for 
one  hundred  years,  together  with  the  determination 
of  the  king  in  council,  in  1677,  and  the  acquiescence 
of  all  parties  in  this  determination  for  about  fifty 
years  had  been  urged  and  duly  weighed,  the  balance 
upon  the  sole  principle  of  equity  would  have  been 
in  their  favour.  It  increased  their  mortification  to 
find  that  they  had  lost  by  this  new  line  several 
hundred  thousand  acres  more  than  the  utmost  claim 
ever  made  by  New  Hampshire ;  for  Merrimack 
river  from  the  mouth  to  Pantucket-falls  tending  to 
the  south,  it  made  a  difference  of  four  or  five  miles 
in  breadth,  the  whole  length  of  the  line,  between  a 
line  to  run  west  from  Pantucket  falls,  and  a  line 
west  from  the  black  rocks. 

The  dispute  about  the  bounds  of  the  province  of 
Main,  which  lies  on  the  other  side  New  Hampshire, 
was  .upon  the  construction  of  the  word  north-west- 
ward. The  Massachusetts  urged,  that  it  was  the 
evident  design  of  the  grantors  of  the  province  of 
Main,  to  describe  a  territory  about  120  miles  square. 
At  that  day,  this  was  probably  the  reputed  distance 
from  Newichawannock  or  Piscataqua  river  to  Ken- 
nebeck,  along  the  sea  coast,  the  general  course  of 
which  was  north-east  and  south-west ;  after  going 
up  the  two  rivers  to  the  heads,  the  lines  were  to  run 
north-westward  until  120  miles  were  finished,  and 
then  a  line  back  parallel  to  the  line  upon  the  sea. 
The  agents  for  New  Hampshire,  at  the  court  of 
commissioners,  insisted  that  every  body  understooc 
north-westward  to  be  north  a  little,  perhaps  less  than 
a  quarter  of  a  point  west.  It  not  being  possible  to 
think  of  any  reason  for  a  line  to  run  upon  tha 
course,  the  Massachusetts  could  scarce  suppose  the 


^ew  Hampshire  agents  to  be  serious,  and  imagined 
he  commissioners  would  need  no  other  reply,  than 
hat  every  body  understood  a  line  running  westward 
o  be  a  line  from  east  to  west;  and  by  the  same  rule 
>f  construction,  they  supposed  north-westward  to  be 
'rom  south-east  to  north-west :  that  north-eastward 
)eing  explained  in  the  same  grant  to  be  as  the  coast 
ay,  proved  in  fact  to  be  from  south-west  to  north- 
east. They  were,  however,  surprised  with  the  de- 
ermination  of  the  commissioners,  that  northwest- 
yard  intended  north  two  degrees  west.  Why  not 
me  degree  or  three  degrees,  as  well  as  two  ?  From 
;his  part  of  the  judgment  the  Massachusetts  ap- 
lealed.  The  agents  in  England  obtained  the  cele- 
Doctor  Halley's  opinion,  in  writing  under  his  hand, 
hat  in  the  language  and  understanding  of  mathe- 
maticians, a  line  to  run  north-westward  is  a  line  to 
run  north-west;  but  this  opinion  did  not  prevail, 
and  the  judgment  of  the  commissioners  upon  this 
joint  was  confirmed  by  his  majesty  in  council. 

It  behoved  Mr.  Belcher,  the  governor  of  both  pro- 
vinces, to  carry  an  even  hand.  It  happened,  that 
;he  general  court  of  the  Massachusetts,  whilst  it  sat 
at  Salisbury  on  the  occasion  of  this  controversy, 
made  him  a  grant  of  800/.  currency,  in  considera- 
;ion  of  the  deficiency  of  their  former  grants,  for  hia 
salary  and  his  extraordinary  expense  and  trouble  in 
ttending  the  court  at  a  distance  from  his  house  and 
family.  Soon  after  this  grant  he  adjourned  the  ge- 
neral courts  of  both  provinces,  in  order  to  their  de- 
termining whether  to  abide  by  the  result  of  the  com- 
missioners or  to  appeal  from  it;  but  the  court  of 
New  Hampshire  was  adjourned  to  a  day  or  two  after 
the  Massachusetts  court,  and  it  was  said  they  were 
prevented  entering  the  appeal  within  the  time  li- 
mited. He  did  not  care  that  either  assembly  should 
do  any  business  when  he  was  absent,  and  therefore 
intended  first  to  finish  the  Massachusetts  business, 
and  immediately  after  proceed  to  New  Hampshire. 

This  afforded  matter  of  complaint  from  that  pro- 
vince, which  Mr.  Belcher  was  called  upon  to  answer, 
and  it  was  determined  the  complaint  was  well 
founded  ;  and  it  being  urged  that  the  800/.  was  in- 
tended as  a  bribe  to  influence  him  to  this  measure, 
the  Massachusetts  thought  their  own  honour  con- 
cerned, and  joined  with  him  in  his  defence,  which 
perhaps  increased  the  suspicion  of  guilt  and  hastened 
his  removal.  That  we  may  finish  what  relates  to 
the  controversy  between  the  two  provinces,  we  must 
take  notice  of  the  conduct  of  the  Massachusetts  upon 
receiving  his  majesty's  order  in  council.  The  lines, 
by  the  order,  were  to  be  run  by  two  surveyors,  one 
on  the  part  of  each  province  ;  but  if  either  province 
refused,  the  other  was  to  proceed  ex  parte.  New 
Hampshire,  whose  highest  expectations  were  exceed- 
ed, proposed  to  join,  but  were  refused  by  the  Massa- 
chusetts ;  and  thereupon  appointed  surveyors  to  run 
the  lines  of  the  Massachusetts  and  province  of  Main 
ex  parte.  Both  lines  were  complained  of  as  being 
run  favourably  for  New  Hampshire  :  that  of  the  pro- 
vince of  Main  is  a  subject  of  new  controversy,  it 
having  been  suggested  that  the  surveyor  mistook  the 
main  branch  of  the  river  Newichewanock,  which,  if 
he  had  pursued,  would  have  made  five  or  six  miles 
in  breadth  to  the  advantage  of  Massachusetts.  This 
refusal  to  join,  proceeded  from  the  feeble  irresolute 
state  of  the  minds  of  the  house  of  representatives. 
Unwilling  by  any  act  of  their  own  to  express  their 
submission  to  whac  they  called  an  unequal  decree, 
they  ran  the  risk  of  its  being  carried  into  execution 
still  more  unequally  ;  and  yet  succeeding  houses,  by 
a  subsequent  long  continued  passive  submission,  as 


UNITED  STATES. 


359 


effectually  subjected  the  province  as  if  it  had  been 
explicitly  acknowledged  at  first. 

After  the  controversy  about  the  governor's  salary 
and  the  supply  of  the  treasury  was  finished,  there 
seemed  to  be  a  general  disposition  to  rest,  and  we 
hear  little  of  a  party  in  opposition  to  the  governor 
for  several  years  together.  Whilst  the  controversy 
with  New  Hampshire  was  depending,  all  of  every 
party  engaged  in  defence  of  the  right  of  the  pro- 
vince. Besides,  Mr.  Cooke,  who  had  been  many 
years  at  the  head  of  the  popular  party,  was  worn  out 
with  service ;  and  having  been  some  time  in  a  de- 
clining state,  died  in  the  fall  of  the  year  1737,  and 
the  town  of  Boston  was  so  far  from  an  apprehension 
of  danger  to  their  liberties,  that  they  chose  in  his 
stead  Mr.  Wheelwright,  the  commissary-general, 
who  depended  upon  the  governor  every  year  for  his 
approbation  after  being  elected  by  the  council  and 
house,  and  in  1738,  three  of  the  representatives  of 
the  town  bad  the  character  of  friends  to  government ; 
but  towards  the  end  of  the  year  a  great  clamour 
arose  against  the  governor  for  adhering  to  his  in- 
struction about  paper  money,  and  against  the  three 
representatives  for  their  pernicious  principles  upon 
the  subject  of  paper  money ;  and  at  the  town  elec- 
tion for  1739,  three  others  were  chosen  in  their  stead, 
two  of  them  professedly  disaffected  to  the  governor 
and  promoters  of  popular  measures,  the  third,  al- 
though of  great  integrity,  and  for  that  reason  de- 
sirous of  a  fixed  currency,  yet  in  his  judgment 
against  reducing  the  paper  money,  and  a  favourer 
of  schemes  for  preventing  its  depreciation.  Many 
country  towns  followed  the  example  of  Boston,  and 
it  appeared  that  a  majority  of  the  house  were  of  the 
same  principles  with  the  town  members.  After  Mr. 
Belcher's  arrival,  the  house,  as  we  have  observed, 
had  passed  a  vote  for  depositing  500/.  sterling  in  the 
bank  of  England,  to  be  used  as  they  or  their  suc- 
cessors should  think  proper.  This  was  concurred 
jn  council,  and  consented  to  by  the  governor.  This 
money,  it  was  said,  could  not  be  better  applied,  than 
in  soliciting  a  relaxation  of  the  governor's  instruc- 
tion concerning  paper  money  ;  and  Mr.  Kilby,  one 
of  the  Boston  representatives,  was  chosen  agent  for 
the  house,  and  a  petition  was  by  him  presented  from 
the  house  to  his  majesty  in  council,  but  it  had  no  effect. 

(1739.)  A  general  dread  of  drawing  in  all  the 
paper  money  without  a  substitution  of  any  other  in- 
strument of  trade  in  the  place  of  it,  disposed  a  great 
part  of  the  province  to  favour  what  was  called  the 
land  bank  or  manufactory  scheme,  which  was  began, 
or  rather  revived  in  this  year  1739,  and  produced 
such  great  and  lasting  mischiefs,  that  a  particular  re- 
lation of  the  rise,  progress,  and  overthrow  of  it,  may 
be  of  use  to  discourage  and  prevent  any  attempts  of 
the  like  nature  in  future  ages.  By  a  strange  con- 
duct in  the  general  court,  they  had  been  issuing 
bills  of  credit  for  eight  or  ten  years  annually  for 
charges  of  government,  and  being  willing  to  ease 
each  present  year,  they  had  put  off  the  redemption 
of  the  bills  as  far  as  they  could  ;  but  the  governor 
being  restrained  by  his  instruction  from  going  be- 
yond the  year  1741,  that  year  was  unreasonably 
loaded  with  thirty  or  forty  thousand  pounds  sterling 
taxes,  which  according  to  the  general  opinion  of  the 
people  it  was  impossible  to  levy,  not  only  on  ac- 
count of  the  large  sum,  but  because  all  the  bills  in 
the  province  were  but  just  sufficient- to  pay  it,  and 
there  was  very  little  silver  or  gold,  which  by  an  act 
of  government  was  allowed  to  be  paid  for  taxes  as 
equivalent  to  the  bills.  A  scheme  was  laid  before 
thf  general  court  by  Mr.  Hutchinson,  the  author  of! 


the  History  of  Massachusetts,  then  one  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  Boston,  in  which  it  was  proposed  to 
borrow  in  England  upon  interest,  and  to  import  into 
the  province  a  sum  in  silver,  equal  to  all  the  bills 
then  extant,  and  therewith  to  redeem  them  from 
possessors  and  furnish  a  currency  for  the  inhabit- 
ants, and  to  repay  the  silver  at  distant  periods, 
which  would  render  the  burden  of  taxes  tolerable 
by  an  equal  division  on  a  number  of  future  years, 
and  would  prevent  the  distress  of  trade  by  the 
loss  of  the  only  instrument,  the  bills  of  credit, 
without  another  provided  in  its  place.  But  this 
proposal  was  rejected.  One  great  frailty  of  human 
nature,  an  inability  or  indisposition  to  compare  a 
distant  though  certain  inconvenience  or  distress 
with  a  present  convenience  or  delight,  is  said  by 
some  former  visitors  to  that  country,  to  be  preva- 
lent in  America,  so  as  to  make  it  one  of  the 
distinguishing  characteristics.  Be  that  as  it  may, 
it  is  certain  that  at  this  time  a  great  number  of  pri- 
vate persons  alledging  that  the  preceding  general 
court  having  suffered  the  province  to  be  brought  into 
distress,  from  which  it  was  not  in  the  power  of  their 
successors  to  afford  relief,  the  royal  instruction 
being  a  bar  to  any  future  emissions  of  bills  until  all 
that  were  then  extant  should  be  redeemed,  resolved 
to  interpose.  Royal  instructions  were  no  bar  to  the 
proceedings  of  private  persons.  The  project  of  a 
bank  in  the  year  1714  was  revived  (1740).  Ths 
projector  of  that  bank  now  put  himself  at  the  head 
of  seven  or  eight  hundred  persons,  some  few  of  rank 
and  good  estate,  but  generally  of  low  condition 
among  the  plebeians  and  of  small  estate,  and  many 
of  them  perhaps  insolvent.  This  notable  company 
were  to  give  credit  to  150,000f.  lawful  money,  to  be 
issued  in  bills,  each  person  being  to  mortgage  a  real 
estate  in  proportion  to  the  sums  he  subscribed  and 
took  out,  or  to  give  bond  with  two  sureties;  but  per- 
sonal security  was  not  to  be  taken  for  more  than 
100/.  from  any  one  person.  Ten  directors  and  a 
treasurer  were  to  be  chosen  by  the  company.  Every 
subscriber  or  partner  was  to  pay  3  per  cent,  interest 
for  the  sum  taken  out,  and  5  per  cent,  of  the  prin- 
cipal ;  and  he  that  did  not  pay  bills,  might  pay  the 
produce  and  manufacture  of  the  province  at  such 
rates  as  the  directors  from  time  to  time  should  set, 
and  they  should  commonly  pass  in  lawful  money. 
The  pretence  was,  that  by  thus  furnishing  a  medium 
and  instrument  of  trade,  not  only  the  inhabitants  in 
general  would  be  better  able  to  procure  the  province 
bills  of  credit  for  their  taxes,  but  trade,  foreign  and 
inland,  would  revive  and  flourish.  The  fate  of  the 
project  was  thought  to  depend  upon  the  opinion 
which  the  general  court  should  form  of  it.  It  was 
necessary,  therefore,  to  have  a  house  of  representa- 
tives well  disposed.  Besides  the  eight  hundred  per- 
sons subscribers,  the  needy  part  of  the  province  in 
general  favoured  the  scheme.  One  of  their  votes 
will  go  as  far  in  popular  elections,  as  one  of  the  most 
opulent.  The  former  are  most  numerous ;  and  it 
appeared,  that  by  far  the  majority  of  the  represen- 
tatives for  1740  were  subscribers  to  or  favourers  of 
the  scheme,  and  they  were  long.after  distinguished 
by  the  name  of  the  land  bank  house. 

Men  of  estates,  and  the  principal  merchants  in 
the  province,  abhorred  the  project,  and  refused  to 
receive  the  bills,  but  great  numbers  of  shopkeepers, 
who  had  lived  for  a  long  time  before  upon  the  fraud 
of  a  depreciating  currency,  and  many  small  traders, 
gave  credit  to  the  bills.  The  directors,  it  was  said, 
by  a  vote  of  the  company,  became  traders,  and  is- 
sued just  what  bills  they  thonght  proper,  without 


360- 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


any  fund  or  security  for  their  ever  being  redeemed. 
They  purchased  every  sort  of  commodity,  ever  so 
much  a  drug,  for  the  sake  of  pushing  off  their  bills ; 
and,  by  one  means  or  other,  a  large  sum,  perhaps 
fifty  or  sixty  thousand  pounds,  was  abroad.  To  les- 
sen the  temptation  to  receive  the  bills,  a  company  of 
merchants  agreed  to  issue  their  notes  or  bills,  re- 
deemable by  silver  and  gold  at  distant  periods,  much 
like  the  scheme  in  1733.  and  attended  with  no  better 
effect.  The  governor  exerted  himself  to  blast  this 
fraudulent  undertaking,  the  land  bank.  Not  only 
such  civil  and  military  officers  as  were  directors  or 
partners,  but  all  who  received  or  paid  any  of  the 
bills,  were  displaced.  The  governor  negatived  the 
person  chosen  speaker  of  the  house,  being  a  director 
of  the  bank,  and  afterwards  negatived  thirteen  of  the 
new  elected  counsellors,  who  were  directors  or  part- 
ners in  or  reputed  favourers  of  the  scheme.  But  all 
was  insufficient  to  suppress  it.  Perhaps  the  major 
part,  in  number,  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  province, 
openly  or  secretly,  were  well  wishers  to  it.  One  of 
the  directors  afterwards  acknowledged,  that  although 
he  entered  in  the  company  with  a  view  to  the 
public  interest,  yet  when  he  found  what  power  and 
influence  they  had  in  all  public  concerns,  he  was 
convinced  it  was  more  than  belonged  to  them,  more 
than  they  could  make  a  good  use  of,  and  therefore 
unwarrantable.  Many  of  the  most  sensible  discreet 
persons  in  the  province  saw  a  general  confusion  at 
hand.  The  authority  of  parliament  to  control  all 
public  and  private  persons  and  proceedings  in  the 
colonies  was.  in  that  day,  questioned  by  no  body. 
Application  was  therefore  made  to  parliament  for 
an  act  to  suppress  the  company,  which,  notwith- 
standing the  opposition  made  by  their  agent,  was 
very  easily  obtained,  and  therein  it  was  declared 
that  the  act  of  the  6th  of  King  George  the  First, 
chapter  the  eighteenth,  did,  does,  and  shall  extend 
to  the  colonies  and  plantations  in  America.  It  was 
said  the  act  of  George  the  First,  when  it  passed, 
had  no  relation  to  America,  but  another  act,  twenty 
years  after,  gave  it  a  force  even  from  the  passing  it, 
which  it  never  could, have  had  without.  This  was 
said  to  be  an  instance  of  the  transcendent  power  of 
parliament.  Although  the  company  was  dissolved, 
yet  the  act  of  parliament  gave  the  professors  of  the 
bills  a  right  of  action  against  every  partner  or  di- 
rector for  the  sums  expressed  with  interest.  The 
company  were  in  amaze.  At  a  general  meeting 
some,  it  was  said,  were  for  running  all  hazards,  al- 
though the  act  subjected  them  to  a  prsemunire,  but 
the  directors  had  more  prudence,  and  advised  them 
to  declare  that  they  considered  themselves  dissolved, 
and  met  only  to  consult  upon  some  method  of  re- 
deeming their  bills  from  the  possessors,  which  every 
man  engaged  to  endeavour  in  proportion  to  his  in- 
terest, and  to  pay  in  to  the  directors,  or  some  of 
them,  to  burn  or  destroy.  Had  the  company  issued 
their  bills  at  the  value  expressed  in  the  face  of  them, 
they  would  have  had  no  reason  to  complain  of  being 
obliged  to  redeem  them  at  the  same  rate,  but  as  this 
was  not  the  case  in  general,  and  many  of  the  pos- 
sessors of  the  bills  had  acquired  them  for  half 
their  value,  as  expressed,  equity  could  not  be  done, 
and,  so  far  as  respected  the  company,  perhaps  the 
parliament  was  not  very  anxious,  the  loss  they  sus- 
tained being  but  a  just  penalty  for  their  unwarrant- 
able undertaking  if  it  had  been  properly  applied. 
Had  not  the  parliament  interposed,  the  province 
would  have  been  in  the  utmost  confusion,  and  the 
authority  of  government  entirely  in  the  land  bank 
company. 


Whilst  Mr.  Belcher,  by  his  vigorous  opposition 
to  the  land  bank,  was  rendering  himself  obnoxious 
to  one  half  the  people  of  the  province,  measures 
were  pursuing  in  England  for  his  removal  from  the 
government.  Besides  the  attempts  which  we  have 
mentioned  from  New  Hampshire,  which  had  never 
been  laid  aside,  there  had  always  been  a  disaffected 
party  in  Massachusetts  who  had  been  using  what 
interest  they  had  in  England  against  him.  Lord 
Wilmington,  president  of  the  council,  the  speaker 
of  the  house  of  commons,  and  Sir  Charles  Wager, 
first  lord  of  the  admiralty,  all  had  a  favourable  opi- 
nion of  Mr.  Belcher,  so  had  Mr.  Holden,  who  was 
at  the  head  of  the  dissenters  in  England,  and  all, 
upon  one  occasion  or  another,  had  appeared  for  him. 

The  most  unfair  and  indirect  measures  were  used 
with  each  of  these  persons  to  render  Mr.  Belcher 
obnoxious  and  odious  to  them.  The  first  instance 
was  several  years  before  this  time.  A  letter  was 
sent  to  Sir  Charles  Wager  in  the  name  of  five  per- 
sons, whose  hands  were  counterfeited,  w:ith  an  insi- 
nuation that  Mr.  Belcher  encouraged  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  pine  trees  reserved  for  masts  for  the 
navy,  and  suffered  them  to  be  cut  into  logs  for 
boards.  Calumnies  of  this  kind  strike  us  with  more 
horror  than  false  insinuations  in  conversation,  and 
perhaps  are  equally  mischievous  in  their  effects. 
The  latter  may  appear  the  less  criminal  because 
abundantly  more  common. 

An  anonymous  letter  was  sent  to  Mr.  Holden, 
but  the  contents  of  it  declared  that  it  was  the  letter 
of  many  of  the  principal  ministers  of  New  England, 
who  were  afraid  to  publish  their  names,  lest  Mr. 
Belcher  should  ruin  them.  The  charge  against  him 
was  a  secret  undermining  the  congregational  inter- 
est, in  concert  with  Commissary  Price  and  Doctor 
Cutler,  whilst  at  the  same  time  he  pretended  to  Mr. 
Holden  and  the  other  dissenters  in  England  to  have 
it  much  at  heart.  To  remove  suspicion  of  fraud  the 
letter  was  superscribed  in  writing,  either  in  imita- 
tion of  Doctor  Colman's  h;md,  a  correspondent  of 
Mr.  Holden,  or,  which  is  more  probable,  a  cover  of 
one  of  his  genuine  letters  had  been  taken  off  by  a 
person  of  not  an  unblemished  character,  to  whose 
care  it  was  committed,  and  made  use  of  to  inclose 
the  spurious  one.  Truth  and  right  are  more  fre- 
quently, in  a  high  degree,  violated  in  political-  con- 
tests and  animosities  than  upon  any  other  occasion. 
It  was  well  known  that  nothing  would  more  readily 
induce  a  person  of  so  great  virtue  as  the  speaker  to 
give  up  Mr.  Belcher  than  an  instance  of  corruption 
and  bribery.  The  New  Hampshire  agents  there- 
fore furnished  him  with  the  votes  of  the  Massachu- 
setts assembly,  containing  the  grant  of  8001.  and 
evidence  of  the  adjournment  of  New  Hampshire  as- 
sembly, alledged  to  be  done  in  consequence,  nor  was 
he  undeceived  until  it  was  too  late. 

Mr.  Wilks,  the  Massachusetts  agent,  who  was  in 
great  esteem  with  Lord  Wilmington,  and  was  really 
a  person  of  a  fair  upright  mind,  had  prevented  any 
impressions  to  Mr.  Belcher's  prejudice,  but  it  un- 
luckily happened  that  the  land  bank  company  em- 
ployed Richard  Partridge,  brother  by  marriage  to 
Mr.  Belcher,  as  their  agent.  He  had  been  many 
years  agent  for  his  brother,  which  fact  was  well 
known  to  his  lordship,  but,  from  an  expectation  of 
obtaining  the  sole  agency  of  the  province  by  the  in- 
terest of  the  prevailing  party  there,  engaged  zea- 
lously in  opposing  the  petitions  to  the  house  of 
commons,  and  gave  out  bills  at  the  door  of  the  house. 
It  was  said  that  all  Mr.  Belcher's  opposition  to  the 
scheme,  in  the  province,  was  mere  pretence ;  had 


UNITED  STATES. 


361 


he  been  in  earnest,  his  agent  in  England  would 
never  venture  to  appear  in  support  of  it,  and  this 
was  improved  with  Lord  Wilmington  to  induce  him 
to  give  up  Mr.  Belcher,  and  it  succeeded.  Still 
the  removal  was  delayed  one  week  after  another, 
two  gentlemen  from  the  Massachusetts  continually 
soliciting.  At  length,  it  being  known  that  Lord 
Euston's  election  for  Coventry  was  dubious,  one  of 
these  gentlemen  undertook  to  the  Duke  of  Grafton  to 
secure  the  election,  provided  Mr.  Belcher  might  im- 
mediately be  removed,  and,  to  accomplish  his  design, 
lie  represented  to  Mr.  Maltby,  a  large  dealer  in 
Coventry  stuffs,  and  a  zealous  dissenter,  that  Mr. 
Belcher  was,  with  the  episcopal  clergy,  conspiring 
the  ruin  of  the  congregational  interest  in  New  Eng- 
land, and  unless  he  was  immediately  removed  it 
would  be  irrecoverably  lost ;  that  the  Duke  of  Graf- 
ton  had  promised,  if  Lord  Euston's  election  could 
be  secured,  it  should  be  done;  that  letters  to  his 
friends  in  Coventry  would  infallibly  secure  it,  that 
he  could  not  better  employ  his  interest  than  in  the 
cause  of  God  and  of  religion.  Maltby  swallowed 
the  bait,  used  all  his  interest  for  Lord  Euston,  the 
two  gentlemen  spent  three  weeks  at  Coventry,  and 
having  succeeded,  agreeable  to  the  duke's  promise, 
Mr.  Belcher  was  removed  a  day  or  two  after  their 
return.  This  account  was  given  by  Mr.  Maltby 
himself,  who  lamented  that  he  had  suffered  himself 
to  be  so  easily  imposed  on. 

A  few  weeks  longer  delay  would  have  baffled  all  the 
schemes.  The  news  arrived  of  his  negativing  thir- 
teen counsellors,  and  displacing  a  great  number  of 
officers  concerned  in  the  land  bank,  and  his  zeal 
and  fortitude  were  highly  applauded  when  it  was  too 
late.  Certainly,  in  public  employments,  no  man 
ought  to  be  condemned  from  the  reports  and  accu- 
sations of  a  party,  without  a  sufficient  opportunity 
given  him  to  exculpate  himself,  a  plantation  gover- 
nor especially,  who,  be  he  without  guile,  or  a  con- 
summate politician,  will  infallibly  have  a  greater  or 
lesser  number  disaffected  to  him. 

Mr.  Shirley,  successor  to  Mr.  Belcher,  was  a  gen- 
tleman of  Sussex,  bred  in  the  law  and  had  been  in 
office  in  the  city,  but  having  prospect  of  a  numerous 
offspring,  was  advised  to  remove  to  Boston  in  the 
Massachusetts,  where  he  had  resided  six  or  eight 
years  and  acquired  a  general  esteem,  and  if  there 
must  be  a  change  it  was  said  to  be  as  acceptable  to 
have  it  in  his  favour  as  any  person  whatsoever.  His 
lady  was  then  in  London,  and  had  obtained  the 
promise  of  the  collector's  place  for  the  port  of  Boston 
and  would  have  preferred  it  to  the  government,  but 
a  strong  interest  being  made  for  Mr.  Frankland, 
since  Sir  Henry  Frankland,  there  was  no  way  of 
providing  for  both,  except  by  giving  the  government 
to  Mr.  Shirley. 

The  news  came  to  Boston  the  first  week  in  July. 
Mr.  Shirley  was,  at  Providence  in  Rhode  Island  go- 
vernment, counsel  for  the  Massachusetts  before  a 
court  of  commissioners  appointed  to  settle  the  line 
between  the  two  governments.  As  the  records  of 
that  time  were  burnt,  we  cannot  give  so  particular 
an  account  of  the  proceeding  of  those  commissioners 
as  otherwise  might  have  been.  It  is  certain  that  for 
many  years  past,  the  only  part  in  controversy  be- 
tween the  two  governments,  was  a  small  gore  of  land 
between  Attleborough  in  the  Massachusetts  and  the 
old  township  of  Providence.  A  great  part  of  the 
Massachusetts  assembly  wished  it  might  be  ceded  to 
Rhode  Island,  but  a  few  tenacious  men,  who  do  no! 
always  regard  consequences,  influenced  a  majority 
against  it.  Besides  a  settlement  made  bv  commis- 


ioners  in  1664  or  65,  another  settlement  had  been 
made,  or  the  old  one  confirmed  in  1708;  but  Rhode 
[sland,  encouraged  by  the  ill  success  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts in  the  controversy  with  New  Hampshire, 
ipplied  to  his  majesty  to  appoint  commissioners  to 
ettle  the  line  between  the  two  governments.  The 
consent  or  submission  of  the  Massachusetts  to  such 
appointment  was  not  thought  necessary,  and  if  they 
ld  not  appear,  the  commissioners  were  to  pro- 
ceed ex  parte.  The  Massachusetts  assembly  thought 
n-oper  to  appear  by  their  committee,  having  no  ap- 
prehensions the  controversy  would  turn,  in  the  judg- 
ment of  the  commissioners,  upon  a  point  never  be- 
bre  relied  upon,  viz.,  that  the  colony  of  New  Pli- 
mouth  -having  no  charter  from  the  crown,  Rhode 
[sland  charter  must  be  the  sole  rule  of  determining 
the  boundary,  although  the  patent  from  the  council 
of  Plimouth  to  Bradford  and  associates  was  prior  to 
t.  The  colony  of  New  Plimouth  was  a  govern- 
ment de  facto,  and  considered  by  King  Charles  as 
such  in  his  letters  and  orders  to  them  before  and 
after  the  grant  of  Rhode  Island  charter,  and  when 
;he  incorporation  was  made  of  New  Plimouth  with 
Massachusetts,  &c.,  the  natural  and  legal  construc- 
tion of  the  province  charter  seems  to  be,  that  it 
should  have  relation  to  the  time  when  the  several 
governments  incorporated  respectively,  in  fact,  be- 
came governments,  A  gentleman  of  the  council  of 
New  York  had  great  influence  at  the  board  of  com- 
missioners. The  argument  which  had  been  made 
use  of  in  former  controversies,  that  Massachusetts 
was  too  extensive,  and  the  other  governments  they 
were  contending  with,  of  which  New  York  was  one, 
were  too  contracted,  was  now  revived.  To  the  sur- 
prise of  Massachusetts,  a  line  was  determined  which 
not  only  took  from  them  the  gore  formerly  in  dis- 
pute, but  the  towns  of  Bristol,  Tiverton,  and  Little 
Compton,  and  great  part  of  Swansey,  and  Barring- 
ton.  All  this  country  was  conquered  by  Massachu- 
setts and  Plimouth  from  Philip,  and  to  prevent  dis- 
pute, was  expressly  granted  to  Plimouth  by  Charles 
the  Second.  An  appeal  was  claimed  and  allowed 
to  his  majesty  in  council,  where,  after  lying  four  or 
five  years,  the  decree  of  the  court  of  commissioners 
was  confirmed.  In  the  prosecution  and  defence  of 
this  title,  it  has  been  said,  that  some  material  evi- 
dence was  never  produced  which  would  have  sup- 
ported the  Massachusetts  claim. 

(1741.)  Mr.  Shirley  found  the  affairs  of  the  pro- 
vince in  a  perplexed  state.  The  treasury  was  shut 
and  could  not  be  opened  without  some  deviation 
from  the  royal  instructions,  the  bills  of  credit  were 
reduced  and  nothing  substituted  as  a  currency  in 
their  stead ;  the  land  bank  party  carried  every  point 
in  the  house,  there  seemed  to  be  a  necessity  of  se- 
curing them ;  the  great  art  was  to  bring  them  over 
to  his  measures,  and  yet  not  give  in  to  their  mea- 
sures so  as  to  lose  his  interest  with  the  rest  of  the 
province,  and  with  the  ministry  in  England.  Some 
of  the  principal  of  them,  who  knew  their  own  im- 
portance, were  willing  to  have  some  assurance  of 
favour  from  him,  at  the  same  time  they  engaged  to 
do  every  thing  to  serve  him.  The  first  step  on  their 
part,  was  the  advancement  of  the  governor's  salary 
to  the  full  value  of  one  thousand  pounds  sterling  per 
annum.  This  had  been  most  unjustifiably  evaded 
all  the  latter  part  of  Mr.  Belcher's  administration, 
by  granting  a  sum  in  bills  of  credit  without  a  due 
regard  to  their  depreciation.  Mr.  Kilby,  who  had 
been  very  active  for  Mr.  Shirley's  interest,  and 
against  Mr.  Belcher,  in  England,  was  chosen  agent 
for  the  province  in  England;  and  Mr,  Wilks,  who 


3G2 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


nad  been  agent  the  whole  of  the  last  administration, 
was  laid  aside.  Mr.  Auchmuty,  who  had  been  one 
of  the  land  bank  directors,  was  joined  with  Mr. 
Kilby  in  the  affair  of  the  Rhode  Island  line.  A 
grant  of  about  200Z.  sterling  was  made  to  John 
Sharpe,  Esq.,  for  his  account  of  charge  in  defend- 
ing Mr.  Belcher  against  New  Hampshire's  com- 
plaint to  the  king  in  council.  This  had  been  re- 
peatedly refused  in  Mr.  Belcher's  time,  which  gave 
great  offence  to  Mr.  Sharpe.  It  was  thought  extra- 
ordinary that  Mr.  Shirley  should  make  it  a  point 
with  the  land  bankers  that  this  debt  for  his  prede- 
cessor should  be  paid,  but  to  take  Mr.  Sharpe  off 
from  Mr.  Belcher  and  engage  him  for  Mr.  Shirley, 
the  friends  and  solicitors  for  the  latter  in  England 
had  engaged,  that  if  he  was  appointed  governor  Mr. 
Sharpe's  account  should  be  paid. 

But  the  grand  affair  to  settle  was  that  of  the  bills 
of  credit.  The  instruction  was  express  not  to  con- 
sent to  any  act  which  should  continue  the  bills  be- 
yond the  time  fixed  for  their  being  brought  in.  If 
this  was  complied  with,  a  tax  must  have  been  made 
for  the  whole  sum  extant  in  that  year  1741.  This 
it  was  said  would  be  a  burden  that  the  people  would 
never  bear.  Mr.  Shirley  was  sensible  that  the  in- 
tent of  his  instruction  was  the  prevention  of  a  de- 
preciating currency.  No  matter  how  large  a  sum 
in  bills  was  current  if  their  value  could  be  secured. 
If  the  spirit  ot  the  instruction  could  be  preserved, 
an  exact  conformity  to  the  letter  would  not  be  re- 
quired. Every  scheme  for  fixing  the  value  of  the 
bills  had  failed.  A  new  project  was  reported  by  a 
committee  of  the  house,  and  accepted,  and  after- 
wards concurred  by  the  council,  and  consented  to  by 
the  governor.  This  was  a  scheme  to  establish  an 
ideal  measure  in  all  trade  and  dealings,  let  the  in- 
strument be  what  it  would.  The  act  which  passed 
the  court  declared  that  all  contracts  should  be  un- 
derstood payable  in  silver  at  6s.  Sd.  the  ounce,  or 
gold  in  proportion.  Bills  of  a  new  form  were  issued, 
20s.  of  which  expressed  in  the  face  of  the  bill  three 
ounces  of  silver,  and  they  were  to  be  received  ac- 
cordingly in  all  public  and  private  payments,  with 
this  saving  that,  if  they  should  depreciate  in  their 
value,  an  addition  should  be  made  to  all  debts,  as 
much  as  the  depreciation  from  the  time  of  contract 
to  the  time  of  payment.  How  to  ascertain  the  de- 
preciation from  time  to  time  was  the  great  difficulty 
in  framing  the  act.  To  leave  it  to  a  common  jury 
would  never  do.  There  was  some  doubt  whether  a 
house  of  representatives  would  be  wholly  unbiassed. 
At  length  it  was  agreed  that  the  eldest  council,  in 
each  county,  should  meet  once  a  year  and  ascertain 
the  depreciation.  This  is  said  to  have  been  the 
scheme  of  Col.  Stoddard,  of  Northampton,  a  gentle- 
man of  good  sense  and  great  virtue,  who  probably 
saw  the  defects,  but  hoped  to  substitute  a  lessei  evil 
in  the  place  of  a  greater. 

This  at  best  must  have  been  a  very  partial  cure. 
It  did  not  prevent  the  loss  from  the  depreciation  ol 
the  bills  in  those  persons'  hands  through  which  they 
were  continually  passing.  All  debts,  which  were 
contracted  and  paid  between  the  periods  when  the 
value  of  the  bills  were  fixed  annually,  could  not  be 
affected  by  such  fixing;  and  unless  in  debts  of  long 
standing,  which  the  debtor  could  not  pay  without  an 
action  at  law,  demand  was  not  ordinarily  made  for 
depreciation ;  and  what  rendered  it  of  little  effect  in 
all  other  cases,  the  counsellors  appointed  to  estimate 
the  depreciation,  never  had  firmness  enough  in  at 
instance  to  make  the  full  allowance  ;  but  when  sil- 
ver and. exchange  had  rose  20  per  cent  or  more,  an 


addition  was  made  of  four  or  five  only.  The  popu- 
.ar  cry  was  against  it ;  and  one  year  when  Nathaniel 
Hubbard,  Esq.,  the  eldest  counsellor  for  the  county 
of  Bristol,  a  gentleman  of  amiable  character,  and 
who  filled  the  several  posts  he  sustained  with  ap 
plause,  endeavoured  to  approach  nearer  to  a  just  al 
towance  than  had  been  made  in  former  years,  he 
felt  the  resentment  of  the  house,  who  left  him  out  of 
the  council  the  next  election.  In  short,  the  act 
neither  prevented  the  depreciation  of  the  bills,  nor 
afforded  relief  in  case  of  it,  and  was  of  no  other  ser- 
vice than  to  serve  as  a  warning,  when  an  act  passed 
for  the  establishing  a  fixed  currency  a  few  years 
after,  to  leave  nothing  to  be  done  by  any  person  or 
bodies  of  men,  or  even  future  legislatures  to  give 
the  act  its  designed  effect,  but  in  the  act  itself  to 
make  full  provision  for  its  execution  in  every  part. 

Even  this  act,  which,  with  its  fair  appearance,  jus- 
tified Mr.  Shirley  in  departing  from  his  instruction, 
and  afforded  a  supply  of  the  treasury  for  the  pay- 
ment of  debts  and  future  support  of  government, 
could  not  have  been  obtained,  if  he  had  not  pre- 
vailed with  the  land  bank  party,  contrary  to  the  in- 
clinations of  many  of  them,  to  join  in  promoting  it. 

He  made  them  return,  by  consenting  to  any  new 
elections  that  were  made  of  any  of  them  into  the 
council,  by  restoring  now  and  then  one  and  another 
to  the  posts  they  had  been  deprived  of;  which,  though 
it  was  done  by  degrees,  caused  many  who  condemned 
the  land  bank  and  all  who  were  concerned  in  it,  to 
be  very  free  in  their  censures  upon  it. 

But  the  great  favour  they  expected,  was  relief 
from  the  severity  of  the  act  of  parliament.  This 
was  to  be  touched  with  great  tenderness  and  deli- 
cacy. Every  person  concerned  was  liable  to  the 
demands  of  the  possessors  of  the  bills.  If  large  de- 
mands should  be  made  upon  any  particular  persons, 
it  seemed  but  just  that  the  rest  should  contribute 
their  proportion  ;  but  no  demand  was  given  by  the 
act  to  one  partner  against  another  in  such  case.  A 
bill  was  therefore  prepared,  with  a  professed  design 
to  carry  the  act  of  parliament  equitably  into  execu- 
tion. Three  commissioners  were  appointed  by  the 
bill,  with  power  to  tax  all  who  had  been  concerned 
in  the  scheme  in  proportion  to  their  interest  in  it, 
and  with  the  monies  thus  raised  to  redeem  the  com- 
pany's bills  from  the  possessors ;  and  after  the  re- 
demption of  the  bills,  to  make  an  equitable  adjust- 
ment between  the  members  and  the  company.  Great 
care  was  taken  to  avoid  all  opposition  to  the  act  of 
parliament ;  Mr.  Shirley,  however,  did  not  think 
proper  to  sign  the  bill  until  he  had  sent  a  copy  of  it 
to  England,  and  received  directions  concerning  it. 
After  it  had  passed  both  houses,  to  oblige  the  prin- 
cipal bankers,  he  continued  the  session  of  the  court 
by  long  repeated  adjournments  many  months,  and 
before  the  expiration  of  the  year  gave  his  consent  to 
the  bill.  Having  thus  secured  a  considerable  party 
in  the  government,  without  losing  those  who  had 
been  in  opposition  to  them,  he  rendered  his  adminis- 
tration easy,  and  geneially  obtained  from  the  as- 
sembly such  matters  as  he  recommended  to  them. 

From  the  Spanish  war  in  1740,  a  French  war  was 
expected  every  year  to  follow.  Castle  William,  the 
key  of  the  province,  was  not  only  effectually  re- 
paired, but  a  new  battery  of  twenty  42-pounders, 
which  takes  the  name  of  Shirley  battery,  was  added 
to  the  works,  with  a  larger  magazine  than  any  be- 
fore, and  a  large  supply  of  powder,  all  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  province.  Th«  cannon,  mortars,  shot, 
and  other  stores,  were  the  bounty  of  the  crown. 
The  forts  upon  the  frontiers  were  also  put  into  good 


UNITED  STATES. 


363 


order,  and  upon  a  representation  from  Mr.  Masea- 
renc,  commander  in  chief  at  Annapolis,  in  Nova 
Scotia,  of  the  defenceless  state  of  that  province  raid 
the  danger  they  were  in  from  the  enemy,  Mr.  Shirley, 
in  1744,  prevailed  upon  the  Massachusetts  assembly 
to  vote,  pay,  &c.  for  200  men  which  were  sent  there, 
and  who  were  the  probable  means  of  saving  that 
country  from  falling  into  the  enemy's  hands. 

(174*4.)  But  the  great  event  in  this  administration 
was  the  siege  and  reduction  of  Louisburgh.  Canso 
had  been  surprised  and  taken  by  900  men  under 
Duvivier  from  Louisburgh,  before  the  war  with 
France-  was  known  at  Boston.  With  another  party, 
Duvivier  made  an  attempt  the  same  summer  upon 
Annapolis,  but  was  disappointed.  Many  of  our 
vessels  had  been  taken  by  the  French  men-of-war 
and  privateers,  and  carried  into  Louisbuvgh.  The 
tishermen  had  no  intention  to  go  upon  their  voyages 
the  next  summer,  and  every  branch  of  trade,  it  was 
supposed,  must  be  carried  on  by  vessels  under  con- 
voy. It  was  the  general  voice,  in  the  fall  of  the 
year,  that  Louisburgh  must  be  taken,  but  nobody- 
supposed  that  the  united  force  of  the  colonies  could 
take  it ;  application  must  be  made  to  his  majesty  for 
sea  and  land  forces  sufficient  for  the  purpose.  As 
winter  approached,  it  began  to  be  suggested  that  it 
was  not  improbable  the  place  might  be  surprised  or 
taken  by  a  coup  de  main,  the  inhabitants  and  garri- 
son being  shut  up  within  the  walls.  Some  of  the 
garrison  of  Canso,  who  had  been  prisoners,  and  who 
professed  to  be  well  acquainted  with  the  fortifications 
and  garrison  at  Louisburgh,  favoured  this  opinion; 
and  declared,  that  in  winter  the  snow  often  lay  in 
drifts  or  banks  against  a  particular  part  of  the  wall, 
where  there  were  no  embrasures  nor  any  cannon 
mounted  ;  that  the  crust  would  bear  a  man's  weight; 
and,  in  that  part  at  least,  the  walls  might  be  scaled, 
and  perhaps  by  the  help  of  ladders  it  would  not  be 
difficult  in  other  parts  ;  that  the  grand  battery,  in- 
tended for  defence  in  case  of  an  attack  by  sea, 
would  not  be  capable  of  long  resisting  if  attacked 
by  land.  Mr.  Vaughan,  who  had  been  a  trader  at 
Louisburgh,  was  very  sanguine  also  that  the  place 
might  be  taken  by  surprise;  and  it  was  generally 
agreed,  that  if  they  should  be  mistaken,  yet  it  would 
not  be  possible  for  the  enemy,  who  were  scant  of 
provisions,  to  stand  a  siege  until  the  time  the  sup 
plies  usually  arrive  to  them  from  France ;  and  to 
prevent  any  chance  vessels  from  entering,  a  suffi- 
cient naval  force  might  be  provided  to  cruize  before 
the  harbour.  Whilst  this  was  the  conversation 
abroad,  Mr.  Shirley  was  diligently  enquiring  o 
those  persons  who  had  been  traders,  and  of  others 
who  had  been  prisoners  there,  into  the  condition  o1 
the  place,  the  usual  time  for  the  arrival  of  supplies 
from  Europe,  the  practicability  of  cruising  off  the 
harbour,  &c.  He  had  before  wrote  to  the  ministry, 
and  represented  the  necessity  of  a  naval  force  early 
in  the  spring  for  the  preservation  of  Annapolis.  I: 
this  should  arrive,  he  might  be  able  to  prevail  with 
the  commander  to  cover  our  forces  with  it.  Com- 
modore Warren  was  with  several  ships  at  the  Lee- 
ward islands ;  it  was  possible,  when  he  was  ac- 
quainted with  the  expedition,  he  would  come  with  01 
send  part  of  his  force  to  strengthen  it.  These  were 
the  only  chances  for  a  naval  strength  sufficient  to 
cope  with  a  single  capital  French  ship  that  might  be 
bound  to  Louisburgh  in  the  spring.  The  ministry 
indeed,  would  by  express  be  immediately  acquaintec 
with  the  expedition,  if  engaged  in  ;  but  Europe  was 
at  too  great  a  distance  to  expect  timely  aid  from 
thence.  The  plan  of  the  expedition  was,  a  Ian 


orce  of  4000  men  in  small  transports  to  proceed  to 
}anso,  and  the  first  favourable  opportunity  to  land 
it  Chapeaurouge  bay,  with  cannon,  mortars,  ammu- 
nition and  warlike  stores,  and  all  other  necessaries 
or  carrying  on  a  siege  ;  and,  to  prevent  a  supply  of 
iro vision  and  stores  to  the  enemy,  several  vessels 
vere  to  cruise  off  the  harbour  of  Louisburgh,  as 
oon  as  the  season  of  the  year  would  permit.  An 
estimate  was  made  of  all  the  naval  force  which  could 
)e  procured  in  this  a-nd  the  neighbouring  colonies, 
he  largest  vessel  not  exceeding  20  guns.  With 
his  land  and  sea  force,  it  was  sakl  there  was  good 
chance  for  success ;  and  if  the  men-of-war  should 
arrive,  which  there  was  good  reason  to  hope  for, 
.here  was  all  imaginable  grounds  to  depend  upon 
he  reduction  of  the  place. 

(1755.)  The  general  court  being  sitting  the  be- 
ginning of  January,  the  governor  sent  a  message  to 
he  two  houses,  to  let  them  know  he  had  something 
o  communicate  to  them  of  very  great  importance, 
mt  of  such  a  nature  that  the  publishing  it  might 
wholly  defeat  the  design,  he  therefore  desired  they 
would  lay  themselves  under  an  oath  of  secrecy  for 
such  time  as  each  house  should  think  proper.  This 
;hey  did,  although  it  was  the  first  instance  in  the 
louse  of  representatives,  without  any  scruple,  and 
;hen  he  communicated  to  them,  his  proposed  plan  of 
;he  expedition.  Many  of  the  members,  who  bad 
icard  little  or  nothing  of  the  conversation  upon  the 
subject,  were  struck  with  amazement  at  the  pro- 
posal. The  undertaking  was  thought  to  be  vastly 
LOO  great,  if  there  was  a  rational  prospect  of  success. 
However,  in  deference  to  the  recommendation  of 
the  governor,  a  committee  of  the  two  houses  was 
appointed  to  consider  the  proposal.  Here,  the  pro- 
posal was  for  several  days  deliberated  and  it  was  ar- 
gued, "  if  Louisburgh  be  left  in  the  hands  of  the 
French,  it  would  prove  the  Dunkirk  of  New  England; 
their  trade  had  always  been  inconsiderable  their, 
fishery  was  upon  the  decline,  and  for  several  years* 
past  they  had  bought  fish  of  the  English  at  Canso 
cheaper  than  they  could  catch  and  cure  it  them- 
selves ;  both  trade  and  fishery  they  might  well  lay 
aside,  and,  by  privateering,  enrich  themselves  with 
the  spoils  of  New  England ;  and,  to  all  these  dan- 
gers, was  added  that  of  losing  Nova  Scotia,  which 
would  cause  an  increase  of  six  or  eight  thousand 
enemies  in  an  instant.  The  garrison  of  Louisburgh 
was  disaffected,  provisions  were  scant,  the  works 
mouldering  and  decayed,  the  governor  an  old  man, 
unskilled  in  the  art  of  war ;  this  therefore  was  the 
only  time  for  success,  another  year  the  place  would 
be  impregnable.  We  had  nothing  to  fear  from  the 
forces  at  Louisburgh,  before  additional  strength 
could  arrive  from  France  they  would  be  forced  to 
surrender.  We  had,  it  must  be  owned,  no  ships  of 
strength  sufficient  to  match  the  French  men  of  war, 
unless,  perhaps,  a  single  ship  should  fall  in  by  her- 
self, and  in  that  case  five  or  six  of  ours  might  be  a 
match  for  her ;  but  there  was  no  probability  of  men 
of  war  so  early,  and  it  was  very  probable  English 
men  of  war  from  Europe,  or  the  West  Indies,  would 
arrive  before  them.  There  was  always  uncertainty 
in  war,  a  risk  must  be  run,  if  we  failed  we  should  be 
able  to  grapple  with  the  disappointment,  although 
we  should  bear  the  whole  expense,  but  if  we  suc- 
ceeded, not  only  the  coasts  of  New  England  would 
be  free  from  molestation,  bat  so  glorious  an  acqui- 
sition would  be  of  the  greatest  importance  to  Great 
Britain,  and  might  give  peace  to  Europe,  and  wa 
might  depend  upon  a  reimbursement  of  the  whole 
charge  we  had  been  at." 


364 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


On  the  other  hand  it  was  replied,  "  that  we  had 
better  suffer  in   our  trade,  than  by  so  expensive  a 
measure   deprive  ourselves  of  all  means  of  carrying 
on  any  future  trade ;  that  we  are  capable  of  annoying 
them  in  their  fishery  as  much  as  they  could  annoy  us 
in  ours ;  and,  in  a  short  time,  both  sides  would  be  will- 
ing to  leave  the  fishery  unmolested ;  that  the  accounts 
given  of  the  works  and  the  garrison  at  Louisburgh 
could  not  be  depended  upon,  and  it  was  not  credible 
that  any  part  of  the  walls  should  be  unguarded  and  ex- 
posed to  surprise ;  that  instances  of  disaffection  rising 
to  mutiny  were  rare,  and  but  few  instances  were  to 
be  met  with  in  history,  where  such  expectation  has 
not  failed.     The  garrison  at  Louisburgh  consisted 
of  regular  experienced  troops  who,  though  unequal 
in  number,   would  be  more  than  a  match  in  open 
field   for  all  the  raw  unexperienced  militia  which 
could  be  sent  from  New  England ;  that  twenty  crui- 
zers   at  that  season  of  the  year  would  not  prevent 
supplies  going  into  the  harbour,  it  being  impossible 
to  keep  any  station  for  any  length  of  time,  and  the 
weather  being  frequently  so  thick,  that  a  vessel  was 
not  to  be  discovered  at  a  quarter  of  a  mile's  distance ; 
that  there  was  no  room  to  expect  any  men  of  war 
for  the   cover  of  our  troops,  that  if  only  one  sixty 
gun  ship  should  arrive  from  France,  or  the  French 
Islands,  she  would  be  more  than  a  match  for  all  the 
armed  vessels  we  could  provide,  our  transports  at 
Chapeaurouge  bay  would  be  every  one  destroyed, 
and  the  army  upon  Cape  Breton  obliged  to  submit 
to  the  mercy  of  the  French  ;  that  we  should  be  con- 
demned in  England  for  engaging  in  such  an  affair 
without  their  direct  approbation,  and  we  should  be 
no  where  pitied,  our  misfortunes  proceeding  from 
our  own  rash  and  wild  measures."     To  these  argu- 
ments were  added  the  uncertainty  of  raising  a  suffi- 
cient number  of  men,  or  of  being  able  to  procure 
provisions,  warlike  stores,   and  transports,   discou- 
ragement from  the  season  of  the  year  when,  fre- 
quently, for  many  days  together  no  business  could  be 
done  out  of  doors.     Money  indeed   could  be  fur- 
nished, or  bills  of  credit  in  lieu  of  it,  but  the  infalli- 
ble consequence  would  be  the  sinking  the  value  of 
the  whole  currency,  to  what  degree  no  man  could 
determine,  but,  probably,  in   proportion  to  the  sum 
issued ;   and  finally,  if  it  should  succeed,  a  general 
national  benefit  would  be  the  consequence,  in  which 
the  benefits  of  success  would  be  far  short  of  the 
vast  expense  of  treasure,  and  perhaps  of  lives,   in 
obtaining  it,   and  if  it  failed,  such  a  shock  would 
be  given  to  the  province,  that  half  a  century  would 
not   recover   the   colony.     After  mature    delibera- 
tion,  a  majority  of  the  committee  disapproved  the 
proposal,  and  their  report  was  accepted,  and,   for 
a   few   days,   all  thoughts  of  the   expedition  with 
the  members  of  the  court  were  laid  aside.     In  th 
mean  time  the  governor,  who  wished  the  proposa 
had  been   agreed  to,  but  did  not  think  it  proper  to 
press  it  any   farther  by  message,   or  by  privately 
urging  the  members,  either  directed  or  encouragec 
the  carrying  about  a  petition,  which  was  signed  bj 
many  of  the  merchants  in  the  town  of  Boston,  bu 
principally  by  those  of  Salem  and  Marblehead,  di 
rected  to  the  house  of  representatives,  or  to  the  twc 
houses,  praying,  for  reasons  set  forth,  among  others 
the  saving  the  fishery  from  ruin,  they  would  recon 
sider  their  vote,  and  agree  to  the  governor's  propo 
sal  of  an  expedition  against  Louisburgh.     A  secom 
committee,   appointed  upon   this  petition,  reportec 
in  favour  of  it,  and,  the  26th  of  January,  their  repor 
came  before  the  house,  who  spent  the  day  in  de 
bating  it,  and,  at  night,  a  vote  was  carried  in  farou 


f  it  by  a  majority  of  one  voice  only.  Never  wa« 
ny  affair  deliberated  upon  with  greater  calmness 
nd  moderation,  the  governor  indeed  laid  the  affair 
>efore  the  court,  but  left  the  members  free  to  act 
heir  judgment  without  any  solicitation,  and  there 
ppeared  no  other  division  than  what  was  caused 
y  a  real  difference  in  opinion,  as  to  the  true  interest 
f  the  province. 

The  point  once  settled,  there  was  immediately  a 
nion  of  both  parties  in  the  necessary  measures  for 
arrying  the  design  into  execution,  those  who  had 
opposed  it  before  being  employed  upon  committees, 
and  exerting  themselves  with  zeal  equal  to  that  of 
he  principal  promoters.  An  embargo  was  laid  upon 
;very  harbour  in  the  province,  and  messengers  were 
immediately  dispatched  to  the  several  governments, 
as  far  as  Pennsylvania,  to  entreat  an  embargo  on 
heir  ports,  and  that  they  would  join  in  the  expedi- 
ion.  All  excused  themselves  from  any  share  in 
he  adventure,  except  Connecticut,  who  agreed  to 
•aise  500  men,  New  Hampshire  300,  and  Rhode 
island  300.  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  also 
consented  their  colony  sloops  should  be  employed  as 
cruizers.  A  small  privateer  sloop,  about  200  tons, 
a  snow  of  less  burden,  belonging  to  Newport,  were 
lired  there  by  the  Massachusetts,  a  new  snow,  Cap- 
;ain  Rouse,  a  ship,  Captain  Snelling,  were  taken 
into  the  service  at  Boston,  which,  with  a  snow, 
Captain  Smethurst,  and  a  brig,  Captain  Fletcher, 
,hree  sloops,  Captains  Sanders,  Donahew,  and 
Bosch,  and  a  ship  of  twenty  guns,  purchased  on  the 
stocks,  Captain  Tyng  the  commodore,  made  the 
whole  naval  force. 

From  the  day  the  vote  passed  until  the  place  was 
reduced,  a  series  of  favourable  incidents  contributed 
to  success.  They  will  be  obvious  enough  in  the 
course  of  the  narrative,  and  will  not  require  being 
specially  remarked.  The  time  for  preparing  was 
short.  The  winter  proved  so  favourable  that  all 
sorts  of  out-door  business  was  carried  on  as  well,  and 
with  as  great  dispatch  as  at  any  other  season  of  the 
year.  In  the  appointment  of  a  general  officer,  one 
qualification  was  considered  as  essential,  that  he 
should  be  acceptable  to  the  body  of  the  people,  the 
inlistment  depended  upon  this  circumstance.  It  was 
not  easy  to  find  a  person,  thus  qualified,  willing  to 
accept  the  trust :  Col.  Pepperell,  having  the  offer 
from  the  governor,  was  rather  pressed  into  the  ser- 
vice than  voluntarily  engaged.  Besides  a  very  great 
landed  interest,  he  was  largely  concerned  in  mercan- 
tile affairs,  which  must  necessarily  suffer  by  his  ab- 
sence, and  this  being  generally  known  had  no  small 
influence,  from  the  example,  with  inferior  officers 
and  even  private  soldiers,  to  quit  their  lesser  affairs 
for  a  season  for  the  service  of  their  country.  Many 
of  the  private  soldiers  were  freeholders,  and  many 
more  sons  of  wealthy  farmers,  who  could  have  no 
other  views  in  consenting  to  the  inlistment  of  their 
children  than  the  public  interest 

Mr.  Shirley  had  set  his  heart  so  much  upon  the 
expedition,  that  many  points  were  conceded  by  him 
which  he  would  not  have  given  up  at  any  other  time, 
and  the  people  of  the  province  submitted  to  com- 
pulsory measures  from  the  government,  which,  at 
another  time,  would  have  been  grievous  and  not 
very  patiently  borne.  Such  officers  were  nominated 
by  the  governor  as  the  people  proposed  or  called 
for,  because  they  were  most  likely  to  inlist  men.  In- 
stead of  a  commissary  general,  an  officer  appointed 
by  the  governor,  a  committee  of  war  was  chosen  by 
the  two  houses  out  of  their  own  members.  Nothing 
further  was  heard  of  the  royal  instruction  against 


UNITED  STATES. 


36* 


bills  of  credit.  Such  sums  as  the  service  called  for 
and  to  be  redeemed  at  such  periods  as  the  house 
thought  proper,  were  consented  to  by  the  governor. 
It  soon  appeared  that  these  sums  would  vastly  ex- 
exceed  what  had  been  computed,  and  many  declared 
that  had  a  right  estimate  been  made,  they  should 
never  have  voted  for  the  expedition,  but  it  was  now 
too  late  to  go  back.  It  was  found  also,  that  trans- 

Sorts  and  vessels  of  war  could  not  be  engaged  un- 
?ss  the  government  would  become  insurers,  which 
although  it  occasioned  no  additional  expense  at  first, 
yet,  in  case  of  ill  success,  would  greatly  increase  the 
public   debt  and  distress.     The  committee  of  war 
were  likewise  convinced  that  a  sufficiency  of  provis- 
ions, clothing,  and  warlike  stores  could  not  be  pro- 
cured within  the  province.     Whosoever  was  posess- 
ed  of  any  of  these  articles,  by  an  act  or   order  of 
government,  his  property  was  subjected  to  the  com- 
mittee, who  set  such  price  as  they  judged  equitable; 
and  upon  refusal  to  deliver,   entered  warehouses, 
cellars,  &c.,  by  a  warrant  for  that  purpose  to  the 
sheriff,  and  took  possession.     In  the  course  of  the 
preparation  many  vessels  unexpectedly  arrived  with 
more  or  less  of  each  of  these  articles,  and  after  all, 
the  army  was  poorly  enough  provided.     Ten  cannon, 
eighteen  pounders,   were  obtained  upon  loan,   not 
without  difficulty,   from  New  York,   otherwise  Mr. 
Shirley  himself  seemed  to  doubt  whether  they  could 
proceed.     Some  dependence  was  placed  upon  can- 
non from  the  grand  battery,  but  this  was  too  mani- 
fest a  disposal  of  the  skin  before  the  bear  was  caught. 
By  force  of  a  general  exertion  in  all  orders  of  men, 
the  armament  was  ready,  and  the  general,  on  board 
the  Shirley  snow,  Captain  Rouse,  with  the  trans- 
ports under  her  convoy,   sailed  from  Nantasket  the 
24th  of  March,  and  arrived  at  Canso  the  4th  oi 
April.     The  Massachusetts  land  forces  consisted  ol 
3,250  men,  exclusive  of  commission  officers.     The 
Hampshire  forces,  304,  including  officers,  arrived  four 
days  before.  Connecticut,  being  5 16,  officers  inclusive, 
did  not  arrive  until  the  25th.     The  deputy  governor 
of  the  colony,  Roger  Walcot,  had  the  command,  and 
was  the  second  officer  in  the  army.     Rhode  Island 
waited  until  a  better  judgment  could  be  made  of 
the  event,  their  300  not  arriving  until  after  the  place 
had  surrendered.     The   23d  of  March,  an  express 
boat  sent  to  Commodore  Warren  in  the  West  Indies, 
returned  to  Boston.     As  this  was  a  provincial  expe- 
dition, without  orders  from  England,    and  as  his 
small  squadron  had  been  weakened  by  the  loss  of 
the  Weymouth,  Mr.  Warren  excused  himself  from 
any  concern  in  the  affair.     This  answer  must  neces 
aarily  strike  a  damp  into  the  governor,  as  well  as 
the  general,  and  Brigadier  Waldo  then   next  in 
command,  who  were  the  only  persons  in  the  army 
made  privy  to  it  before  the  fleet  sailed.     Several  of 
the  cruizing  vessels  had  sailed  the  middle  of  March, 
but  they  could  be  no  protection  to  the  army  against 
two  capital  ships ;  if  they  intercepted  small  vessels 
it  was  the  most  that  was  expected.     A  blockhouse 
with  eight  cannon   was  built  at  Canso.     Whether 
some  good  reason  would  not  have  been  given  for 
proceeding  no  further  than  Canso,  if  there,  had  been 
a  dissappointment  in  the  expected  junction  of  men 
of  war  from  the  several  quarters  to  which  notice  o: 
the  expedition  had  been  sent,  may  well  enough  be 
made  a  question.     Mr.  Shirley  hoped,  if  the  reduc- 
tion of  Louisburgh  was  not  effected,  at  least  Canso 
would    be   regained,    Nova   Scotia    preserved,    the 
French  fishery  broke  up,  and  the  New  England  anc 
Newfoundland  fisheries   restored.     But  on  the  23d 
of  April,  to  the  great  joy  of  the   army,   arrived   a 


3anso,  the  Eltham  of  forty  guns,  frem  New  Eng- 
and,  by  order  from  Mr.  Warren,  and  on  the  23d 
he  commodore  himself,  in  the  Superb  of  sixty  guns, 
with  the   Launceston  and  Mermaid  of  forty  each, 
rrived  also.     This  gave  great  spirits  to  all  who  had 
he  succe.ss  of  the  expedition  at  heart,  for  although 
his  was  not  a  naval  force  to  enter  the  harbour  or 
nnoy  the  forts,  yet  it  was  a  cover  to  the  army  and 
equal  to  any  expected  force  from  France.     It  seems 
hat,  in  two  or  three  days  after  the  express  sailed 
'rom  the  West  Indies  for  Boston,  the   Hind  sloop 
>rought  orders  to  Mr.  Warren,  to  repair  to  Boston 
with  what  ships  could  be  spared,   and  to   concert 
measures  with  Mr.  Shirley  for  his  majesty's  general 
ervice  in  North  America.     Upon  the  passage  to 
Boston,  the  commodore  received  intelligence  that 
he  fleet  had  sailed  for  Canso,  and  meeting  with  a 
chooner  at  sea  he  sent  her  to  Boston,  to  acquaint 
VIr.  Shirley  that  he  would  proceed  to  Canso,  and,  at 
he  same  time,  sent  orders  to  any  ships  which  might 
>e  in  these  seas  to  join  him.     The  Eltham  was  actu- 
ally under  sail  with  the  mast  fleet,  when  an  express 
lent  from  Boston  with  the  commodore's  orders  ar- 
•ived  at  Portsmouth  in  New  Hampshire,  but  being 
bllowed  and  overtaken  by  a  boat,  the  captain  order- 
ed his  convoy  into  port  again  and  sailed  for  Canso. 
After  a  short  consultation  with  the  general,  the  men 
of  war  sailed  to  cruize  before   Louisburgh.     The 
cruizers  before  this,  had  intercepted  several  small 
vessels  bound  in  there  with  West  India  goods  and 
provisions,    and    had  engaged    the   Renommee,   a 
French  ship  of  thirty-six  guns  sent  from  France 
with  dispatches,  and  who  kept  a  running  fight  with 
our  vessels  for  some  time,  being  able  with  ease  to 
outsail  them,  and  after  two  or  three  attempts  to  enter 
the  harbour,  went  back  to  France,  to  give  an  ac- 
count of  what  had  been  met  with.     She  fell  in  with 
the  Connecticut  troops,  under  convoy  of  their  own 
and  the  Rhode  Island  colony  sloops,  both  which  she 
had  strength  enough  to  have  carried,  but  after  some 
damage  to  the  Rhode  Island  sloop,  she  went  her 
way.     The  forces  landed  at  Chapeaurouge  bay  the 
30th  of  April.     The  transports  weie  discovered  early 
in  the  morning  from  the  town,  which  was  the  first 
knowledge  of  any  design  against  them.     The  crui- 
sers had  been  seen  every  fair  day  before  the  harbour, 
but  these  were  supposed  to  be  privateers  in  search 
after  their  trading  and  fishing  vessels.     The  night 
before,  it  is  said,  there  was  a  grand  ball  at  the  f  jrt, 
and  the  company  had  scarce  been  asleep,  when  they 
were  called  up  by  an  alarm.     Bouladrie,  a  French 
officer,  was  sent  with  150  men  to  oppose  the  landing, 
but  the  general  making  a  feint  of  landing  at  one 
place,  drew  the  detachment  there,   and  this  oppor- 
tunity was  taken  for  lauding   100  men  at  another 
place  without  opposition,  although  they  were  soon 
after  attacked  by  the  detachment;  six  of  which  were 
killed  on  the  spot,  and  about  as  many  more  witb 
Bouladrie  their  leader,   were  taken  prisoners,  the 
rest  fled  to  the  town,  or  they  would  soon  have  fallen 
into  the  hands  of  the  men,  who  were  landing  fast 
one  upon  the  back  of  another. 

The  next  morning  after  they  landed,  400  men 
marched  round  to  the  north-east  harbour,  behind  the 
hills,  setting  fire  to  all  the  houses  and  store-houses, 
until  they  came  within  a  mile  of  the  grand  battery. 
Some  of  the  store-houses  having  in  them  pitch,  tar, 
and  other  combustibles,  caused  such  a  thick  smoke, 
that  the  garrison  were  unable  to  discover  an  enemy, 
though  but  a  few  rods  distant ;  and,  expecting  the 
body  of  the  army  upon  them,  they  deserted  the  fort, 
having  thrown  their  powder  into  a  well,  but  leaving 


360 


THE  HISTOUY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  cannon  and  shot  for  the  service  of  the  English. 
A  small  party,  of  less  than  twenty  English,  first 
came  up  to  the  battery,  and  discovering  no  signs  of 
men  suspected  a  plot,  and  were  afraid  to  enter ;  at 
length,  it  is  said,  a  Cape  Cod  Indian  went  in  alone 
and  discovered  the  state  of  it  to  the  rest  of  the  party, 
just  as  some  of  the  French  were  relaudiug  in  order 
to  regain  the  possession  of  it. 

The  army  found  they  had  near  two  miles  to  trans- 
port their  cannon,  mortars,  shot,  &c.  through  a  mo- 
rass. This  must  be  done  by  meer  dint  of  labour. 
Such  of  the  men  who  had  been  used  to  drawing  pine 
trees  for  masts,  and  those  who  had  the  hardiest  and 
strongest  bodies,  were  employed  in  this  service. 
Horses  and  oxen  would  have  been  buried  in  inud, 
and  were  of  no  use.  Brigadier  Waldo  had  the  com- 
mand of  the  grand  battery.  The  French  kept  firing 
upon  the  battery  from  the"  town  as  well  as  from  the 
island  battery,  but  to  little  purpose,  the  town  being 
near  2000  yards  distant,  and  the  island  about  1600 
A  constant  fire  was  kept  from  the  grand  battery  upor 
the  town  with  the  42-pounders.  This  greatly  damagec 
the  houses,  but  caused  so  great  an  expense  of  pow- 
der, that  it  was  thought  advisable  to  stop  and  reserve 
it  for  the  fascine  batteries.  Five  of  these  were 
erected;  the  last  the  20th  of  May,  called  Tidcomb's 
battery,  with  five  42-pounders,  which  did  as  grea 
execution  as  any.  The  men  knew  nothing  of  regu 
lar  approaches,  they  took  the  advantage  of  the 
night,  and  when  they  heard  Mr.  Bastide's  proposal 
for  zig-zags  and  epaulements,  they  made  merry  wit! 
the  terms  and  went  on,  void  of  art,  in  their  own  na 
tural  way.  Captain  Pierce,  a  brave  officer,  standing 
at  one  of  these  batteries,  had  his  bowels  shot  awa 
by  a  cannon  ball,  and  lived  just  long  enough  to  say 
"Its  hard  to  die." 

Whilst  our  people  were  thus  busy  ashore,    th 

men-of-war  and  other  vessels  were  cruising  off  th 

harbour  whenever  the   weather  would  permit ;  am 

the  18th  of  May,  the  Vigilant,  a  French  man-o 

war  of  64  guns,  having  560  men  on  board,  and  store 

of  all  sorts  for  the  garrison,  was  met  by  the  Mer 

maid,  whom  she  attacked ;  but  Captain*  Douglas 

the   commander,  being  of  unequal  force,   suli'ere 

himself  to  be  chased  by  her  until  he  drew  her  und 

the  command  of  the  commodore  and  the  other  s\ii\ 

cruising  with  him,  to  whom,  or  as  some  say,  to  th 

Mermaid,  she  struck,  because    she   had    lirst   m 

with  her.     This  ci-.pture  gave  great  joy  to  the  arim 

not  so  much  for  the  addition  made  to  the  naval  fore 

as  for  the  disappointment  to  the  enemy.     A  prop 

sal  had  been  made  a  few  days  before,  that  the  men 

of-war  should  anchor  in  Chapeaurouge  bay,  and  th 

the  marines  and  as  many  sailors  as  could 'be  sparec 

should  land  and  join  the  army.  The  Vigilant  wou 

then  have  got  in,  and  the   siege  would  have  bee 

given  over.     Affairs  were  now  in  such  a  state,  tha 

the  anxiety  at  Boston  was  much  lessened.     It  w 

hoped  the  army  might  retreat  with  safety  wheuev 

it  should  be  determined  to  give  over  the  siege  ;  f 

Bouladrie,  who  belonged  to  the  town  of  Louisburg 

and  the  Marquis  de  la  Maisonforte,  commander 

the  Vigilant,  who  was  well  acquainted  with  the  st 

of  the  place,  when   thoy  came  to  Boston  were  sa 

guine  that  it  would  hold  out;  but  soon  after  was  i 

ccived  the  news  of  a  fruitless  and  perhaps  a  ras 

attempt  upon  the  island  battery  of  400  men,  60 

whom  were  killed,  and  116   taken  prisoners.     T 

Caesar,   Snelling,  one  of  the  ships  in  the  provincia 

service,  arrived  at  Boston  with  letters  from  the  gen 

ral,  and  an  application  for  more  men  and  a  furth 

supply  of  powder.     The  Massachusetts  agreed,  am 


tually  did  raise  400  men,  and  siait  all  the  po\\dci 
lat  could  be  purchased,  and  Connecticut  raised '200 
en,  but  there  were  neither  men  nor  powder  arrived 
len  the  siege  was  finished. 

The  Princess  Mary  of  60,   and  the  Hector  of  40 
uns,    unexpectedly   had   arrived   at    Boston   from 
ngland,   and  were  immediately  sent  to  join  the 
mmodore,  pursuant  to  his  general  orders,  and  ar- 
ved  before  Louisburgh  the  22d  of  May.     This  in- 
case of  naval  force  occasioned  conjectures,  some 
>eing  of  opinion,   that  rather  than  the  siege  should 
e  raised,  the  ships  would  attempt  to  go  in  ;  but  it 
as  generally  supposed    the   hazard  would  be  too 
jrcat.  It  was  commonly  reported  that  Colonel  More, 
the  New  Hampshire   regiment,   offered  to  go  on 
)oard  the  Vigilant  with  his  whole  regiment  and  to 
ead  the   van,  if,  in  case  of   success,  he  might  be 
onfirmed  in   the  command   of  the  ship.     He  had 
)een  an   experienced  sea  captain,  and  had  a  very 
character.     It  is  certain,   an  attempt  with  the 
lips  was  not  then  thought  advisable.  A  new  battery 
bout  this  time   was  erected  upon   the  light-house 
mint,  which  being  well   attended  by  Lieut.-Colonel 
jrridley  of  the  artillery,  did  great  execution  upon 
ic  island  battery,  silenced  many  of  the  guns,  and 
,  was  expected  it  would  not  be  long  tenable.     Soon 
fter,  June    10th,  arrived    before  Louisburgh,  the 
Chester,  a  50  gun  ship,  in  consequence  of  the  dU- 
jatches  from  Mr.  Shirley,  with  an  account  of  the  ex- 
ledition.     The  Canterbury  and  Sunderland,  two  60 
run    ships,  sailed  with  her  and  arrived  the  12th. 
iere  was  now  a  fleet  of  eleven  ships,  and  it  is  said 
o  have  been  determined  the  ships  should  make  an 
attack  by  sea  the  18th,  while  the  army  did  the  same 
>y  land.     It  was   not  certain  that  when   the   day 
hould  come,  some  sufficient  reason  would  not  have 
>een  found  for  a  further  delay.     Those  who  give  the 
most  favourable  accounts  of  the   siege    say,   "  the 
vest  gate  was  entirely  b«at  down,  the  wall  adjoining 
very  much  battered,  and  a  breach  made  ten  feet 
'rom  the  bottom  ;  the  circular  battery  of  16  cannon, 
aud  the  principal  one  against  ships  almost  ruined  ; 
,he  north-east  battery  of  17  cannon  damaged  and 
he  men  drove  from  the  guns,  and  the  west  flank  of 
;he  king's  bastion  almost  demolished."    Others  say 
"  the  west  gate  was  defaced,  and  the  adjoining  cur- 
tain, with  the  flank  of  the  king's  bastion  were  much 
;iurt,  but   no  practicable  breach."      Whether  a   ge- 
neral storm    was  really  intended   upon   the  Ibth  or 
not,   it  seems   the  French  expected  it  from  the  pre- 
parations on  board  the  men-of-war,  and  did  not  in- 
-line to  stand  it;  and  on  the  15th  sent  a  flag  of 
truce  to  the  general,  desiring  a  cessation,  that  they 
might  consider  of  articles  to  be  proposed  for  a  capi- 
tulation.    Time  was  allowed  for  this  purpose  until 
the  next  morning,  when  such  articles  were  offered 
as  were  rejected  by  the  general  and  commodore,  and 
others  offered  to  the  enemy  in  their  stead,  which  they 
accepted  of,  and  hostages  were  exchanged  ;  and  the 
next  day,  the  17th,  the  city  was  delivered  up. 

Many  of  the  men  had  taken  colds  and  many  fallen 
into  dysenteries,  so  that  1500  were  taken  off  from 
duty  at  one  time  ;  but  the  weather  proving  remarkably 
fine  during  the  forty-nine  days  siege,  they  generally 
recovered.  The  day  after  the  surrender  the  rains 
began,  and  continued  ten  days  incessantly,  which 
must  have  been  fatal  to  many,  they  having  nothing 
better  than  the  wet  ground  to  lodge  on,  and  their 
tents,  in  general,  being  insufficient  to  secure  them 
against  a  single  shower,  but  in  the  city  they  found 
barracks  to  shelter  them.  Captain  Bennct,  in  a 
schooner,  was  sent  immediately  to  Boston,  and  ar 


UNITED  STATES. 


367 


rived  with  the  great  news  the  3d  of  July,  about  one 
in  the  morning.  The  bells  of  the  town  were  ringing 
by  break  of  day,  and  the  day  and  night  following 
were  spent  in  rejoicing.  The  news  flew  through 
the  continent.  The  colonies  which  declined  any 
share  in  the  expense  and  hazard,  were  sensible  they 
were  greatly  interested  in  the  success.  It  was  al- 
lowed every  where,  that  if  there  had  been  no  signal 
proof  of  bravery  and  courage  in  time  of  action, 
there  having  been  only  one  sally  from  the  town  and 
a  few  skirmishes  with  French  and  Indians  from  the 
woods,  in  all  which  the  Massachusetts  behaved  well ; 
yet  here  was  the  strongest  evidence  of  a  generous 
noble  public  spirit,  which  first  induced  the  under- 
taking, and  of  steadiness  and  firmness  of  mind  in 
the  prosecution  of  it,  the  labour,  fatigue,  and  other 
hardships  of  the  siege,  being  without  parallel  in  all 
preceding  American  affairs.  A  shade  was  thrown 
over  the  imprudence  at  first  charged  upon  the  New 
Englauders.  Considerate  persons  among  themselves 
could  not,  however,  avoid  gratefully  admiring  the 
favour  of  divine  providence  in  so  great  a  number  of 
remarkable  incidents  which  contributed  to  this  suc- 
cess. The  best  use  to  be  made  by  posterity  seems  to 
be,  not  to  depend  upon  special  interpositions  of  pro- 
vidence because  their  ancestors  have  experienced 
them  ;  but  to  avoid  the  like  imminent  dangers,  and 
to  weigh  the  probability  and  improbability  of  suc- 
ceeding in  the  ordinary  course  of  events. 

The  commodore  was  willing  to  carry  away  a  full 
share  of  the  glory  of  this  action.  It  was  made  a 
question  whether  the  keys  of  the  town  should  be 
delivered  to  him  or  to  the  general,  and  whether  the 
sea  or  land  forces  should  first  enter.  The  officers 
of  the  army  say  they  prevailed.  The  marines  took 
possession  of  one  or  more  of  the  batteries,  and  some- 
times the  commodore  took  the  keys  of  the  city  gates. 
The  command  however  until  orders  should  arrive 
from  England  was  to  be  joint,  and  a  dispute  about 
precedence  to  be  avoided  as  much  as  could  be. 
The  commodore  dispatched  Mr.  Montague  in  the 
Mermaid  to  England  with  intelligence,  and  the 
general,  the  day  after,  sent  the  Shirley  Galley.  Cap- 
tain Rouse.  The  Mermaid  arrived  first. 

It  was  very  happy  that  disputes  arose  to  no  height 
between  sea  and  land  forces  during  the  siege.  This 
has  often  proved  fatal.  This  expedition  having  been 
begun  and  carried  on  under  a  commission  from  a 
provincial  governor  seems  to  be  distinguished  from 
ordinary  cases,  and  to  leave  less  room  for  dispute. 
Whether  the  land  or  sea  force  had  the  greatest  share 
in  the  acquisition  may  be  judged  from  the  relation 
of  facts.  Neither  would  have  succeeded  alone.  The 
army,  with  infinite  labour  and  fatigue  to  themselves, 
harrassed  and  distressed  the  enemy,  and,  with  per- 
severance, a  few  weeks  or  days  longer  must  have 
compelled  a  surrender.  It  is  very  doutful  whether 
the  ships  could  have  lain  long  enough  before  the 
walls  to  have  carried  the  place  by  storm,  or  whether, 
notwithstanding  the  appearance  of  a  design  to  do  it, 
they  would  have  thought  it  advisable  to  attempt  it; 
it  is  certain  they  prevented  the  arrival  of  the  Vigi- 
lant, took  away  all  hopes  of  further  supply  and  suc- 
cour, and  it  is  very  probable  the  fears  of  a  storm 
aught  accelerate  the  capitulation.  The  loss  by  the 
enemy  and  sickness  did  not  exceed  101  men.  The 
loss  of  the  Snow,  Prince  of  Orange,  belonging  to 
the  province,  and  supposed  to  be  overset,  was  a 
heavy  blow  upon  the  town  of  Marble-head,  the  captain 
tmd  most  of  the  crew  belonging  to  that  town,  and  it 
is  a  rare  thing  for  a  Marblehead  man  to  die  without 
leaving  a  widow  and  a  number  of  children  surviving. 


As  it  was  a  time  t.f  year  to  expect  French  vessels 
from  all  parts  to  Louisburgh,  the  French  flag  was 
kept  flying  to  decoy  them  in.  Two  East  India  and 
and  one  South  sea  ship,  supposed  to  be  all  together 
of  the  value  of  600,000/.  sterling,  were  taken  by  the 
squadron  at  the  mouth  of  the  harbour,  into  which 
they  would  undoubtedly  have  entered.  The  army, 
at  first,  supposed  they  had  acquired  a  right  to  the 
island  of  Cape  Breton  and  its  dependencies,  and, 
until  they  were  undeceived  by  Mr.  Shirley,  were 
for  dividing  the  territory  among  the  officers  and 
men.  With  greater  colour  they  might  have  claimed 
a  share  with  the  men  of  war  in  these  rich  prizes. 
Some  of  the  officers  expected  a  claim  would  have 
been  laid  in,  but  means  were  found  to  divert  it,  nor 
was  any  part  decreed  to  the  vessels  of  war  in  the 
province  seivice,  except  a  small  sum  to  the  brig 
Boston  packet,  Captain  Fletcher,  who  being  chased 
by  the  south  sea  ship,  led  her  directly  under  the 
command  of  the  guns  of  one  of  the  men  of  war.  It 
seemed  to  be  conceded  that,  as  this  acquisition  was 
made  under  the  commission  of  the  governor  of  Mas- 
sachusetts bay,  the  exercise  of  government  there 
appertained  to  him,  until  his  majesty's  pleasure 
should  be  known.  We  know  of  no  precedent  in  the 
colonies,  except  that  of  the  conquest  of  Nova  Scotia 
in  1690.  It  was  necessary  then  to  admit  this  prin- 
ciple, the  acquisition  could  not'  otherwise  have  been 
retained,  Mr.  Shirley  made  a  voyage  to  Louisburgh, 
took  the  government  upon  him,  prevailed  upon  a 
great  part  of  the  army  to  consent  to  remain  in  gar- 
rison over  the  winter,  or  until  regiments,  which 
were  expected,  arrived,  engaged  that  their  pay  should 
be  increased,  and  clothing  provided,  and  settled 
other  matters  to  general  satisfaction.  Pennsylvania 
contributed  4000*.,  New  York,  3000/.,  and  New 
Jersey,  2000/.,  some  in  money,  others  in  provisions, 
for  support  of  the  troops. 

Duvivier  had  been  sent  to  France  the  winter  of 
1744,  to  solicit  a  force  not  to  defend  Cape  Breton, 
but  to  conquer  Nova  Scotia,  and  accordingly  sailed 
the  beginning  of  July  with  seven  ships  of  war  for 
that  purpose,  who  were  to  stop  at  Louisburgh.  This 
fleet  took  a  prize  bound  from  Boston  to  London,  on 
board  of  which  was  lieut.-governor  Clark  of  New 
Yerk,  and  by  this  means  they  were  informed  of  the 
conquest  of  Louisburgh.  and  the  strong  squadron 
there,  otherwise  some  or  all  of  them  would  also  have 
probably  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  English.  Upon 
this  intelligence  they  went  back  to  France.  Thus 
Nova  Scotia  no  doubt  was  saved  by  the  Massachu- 
setts expedition.  There  would  not  have  been  men 
of  war  sufficient  to  match  this  squadron. 

(1746.)  The  reduction  of  Louisbuigh  by  a  British 
colony  must  have  been  a  surpri/e  to  Great  Britain 
and  to  France.  It  caused  very  grand  plans  of 
American  measures  for  the  next  year  with  both  pow- 
ers. Great  Britain  had  in  view  the  reduction  of 
Canada,  and  the  extirpation  of  the  French  from  the 
northern  continent.  France  intended  the  recovery 
of  Louisburgh,  the  conquest  of  Nova  Scotia,  and 
the  destruction  of  the  English  sea  coast  from  Nova 
Scotia  to  Georgia.  Upon  the  English  plan,  eight 
battalions  of  regular  troops,  with  the  provincial 
forces  to  be  raised  in  the  four  New  England  go- 
vernments, were  to  rendezvous  at  Louisburgh,  and, 
with  a  squadron  under  Admiral  Warren,  were  to  go 
up  the  river  Saint  Lawrence  to  Quebec,  other  pro- 
vincials from  Virginia  and  the  colonies  northward, 
including  New  York,  were  to  rendezvous  at  Albany 
and  go  across  the  country  to  Montreal;  the  land 
forces  to  be  under  General  St.  Clair.  No  province 


368 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


had  a  certain  number  assigned,  it  was  expecte 
there  should  be  at  least  5000  in  the  whole.  Th 
colonies  voted  to  raise  men  in  very  unequal  propor- 
tions. New  Hampshire  500,  Massachusetts,  3,500 
Rhode  Island,  300,  Connecticut,  1000,  New  York 
1,600,  New  Jersies,  500,  Maryland,  300,  Virginia 
100.  Pennsylvania  raised  400,  though  not  by  an 
act  of  government.  The  whole  number  was  8,200, 
The  Massachusetts  forces  were  ready  to  embark  by 
the  middle  of  July,  about  six  weeks  after  the  firs 
notice.  The  preparations  making  at  Brest  for  Ame- 
rica, were  well  known  in  England,  and  was  ordered 
to  block  up  that  harbour.  Notwithstanding  all  the 
caution  used,  the  Brest  squadron  slipped  out,  and 
sailed  to  the  westward,  and  it  is  certain  no  English 
squadron  followed.  Whilst  they  were  impatiently 
waiting  for  news  of  the  arrival  of  the  fleet  at  Louis"- 
burg,  a  fisherman  went  in,  some  time  in  August 
with  an  account  of  his  being  brought-to  by  four 
French  capital  ships  not  far  from  Chibucto,  that  he 
was  required  to  pilot  them  there,  that  as  he  lay 
under  the  stern  of  one  of  them  he  read  the  word  le 
Terrible,  but  a  fog  suddenly  rising  he  made  his  es- 
cape. After  that  some  days  had  passed  without  any 
further  account,  the  fisherman's  news  was  generally 
discredited.  It  appeared  some  months  after,  that 
these  were  four  ships  under  M.  Conflans,  who  had 
escaped  an  English  squadron  from  Jamaica,  and 
were  bound  to  Chibucto,  in  order  to  join  the  Brest 
fleet,  but  after  cruizing  some  time,  and  meeting  with 
storms  and  fogs,  upon  a  coast  they  were  unac- 
quainted with,  they  returned  to  France. 

The  beginning  of  September,  vessels  arrived  at 
Boston  from  Hull  and  Liverpool,  with  advice  that 
the  Brest  fleet  had  sailed,  and  it  was  supposed  for 
North  America,  and  from  the  middle  to  the  latter 
end  of  the  month,  frequent  accounts  were  brought 
of  a  great  fleet  seen  to  the  westward  of  Newfound- 
land, which  might  have  been  English  as  likely  as 
French;  but  on  the  28th,  an  express  arrived  from 
Louisburgh  with  certain  advice  these  ships  were  the 
French  fleet,  which  it  was  affirmed  consisted  of 
seventy  sail,  fourteen  of  which  were  capital  ships, 
and  that  there  were  twenty  smaller  men  of  war,  and 
the  rest  fire  ships,  bombs,  tenders,  and  transports 
for  eight  thousand  troops.  The  same  day  a  vessel 
from  Jamaica  arrived  with  advice  that  the  four  men 
of  war,  who  had  engaged  with  commodore  Mitchell, 
were  intended  to  join  the  fleet,  and  it  was  now  no 
longer  doubted  that  these  were  the  ships  seen  by  the 
fishermen,  and  it  was  supposed  soon  after  got  into 
Chibucto.  England  was  not  more  alarmed  with  the 
Spanash  Armada,  in  1588,  than  Boston  and  the 
other  North  American  sea  ports  were  with  the  ar- 
rival of  this  fleet  in  their  neighbourhood.  The 
firmest  mind  will  bend  upon  the  first  advice  of  im- 
minent danger  to  its  country.  Even  the  great  De 
Witt  swooned  when  he  first  opened  a  letter  giving 
intelligence  of  England's  confederating  with  France 
to  enslave  the  Dutch,  though  the  next  moment  he 
recovered  his  natural  courage  and  vivacity. 

Every  practicable  measure  for  defence  was  imme- 
diately pursued  by  the  authority  of  the  Massachu- 
setts province,  but  the  main  dependance  was  upon 
a  squadron  from  England  sufficient,  in  conjunction 
with  the  ships  then  at  Louisburgh,  to  overcome  the 
French.  It  was  impossible  the  ministry  should  be 
ignorant  of  the  sailing  of  this  fleet,  and  unless  they 
were  willing  the  colonies  should  be  exposed  to  the 
ravages  of  the  enemy,  it  was  impossible  an  English 
squadron  should  not  be  soon  after  them.  This  was 
the  general  voice,  but  this  dependence  failed :  how- 


ever the  probability  of  the  arrival  of  the  Massachu- 
setts squadron  was  from  day  to  day  lessened,  the  ap- 
prehensions of  danger  from  the  enemy  lessened  also. 
At  length  there  was  such  authentic  account  of  the 
distresses  of  the  French,  that  it  was  not  only  agreed 
that  Admiral  Townsend's  ships  at  Louisburgh  were 
more  than  a  match  for  them,  but  it'  that  should  prove 
otherwise,  the  utmost  they  would  be  able  to  effect 
by  their  grand  plan,  would  be  the  conquest  of  Anna- 
polis and  the  whole  province  of  Nova  "Scotia;  and 
if  the  winter  did  not  prevent  a  farther  progress,  their 
strength  was  not  sufficient  for  an  attempt  uponBoston . 
The  misfortunes  of  this  grand  armament  are  really 
very  remarkable.  The  loss  of  Cape  Breton  filled 
the  French  with  a  spirit  of  revenge  against  tbe 
British  colonies.  The  duke  d'Anville,  a  French 
nobleman,  in  whose  conrage  and  conduct  great  con- 
fidence was  placed,  was  appointed  to  the  command 
of  the  expedition.  As  early  as  the  beginning  of 
May  the  fleet  was  ready  to  sail,  but  detained  by  con- 
trary winds  until  the  22d  of  June,  when  it  left  Ro- 
chelle,  and  then  consisted  of  eleven  ships  of  the  line, 
thirty  smaller  vessels  from  ten  to  thirty  guns,  and 
transport  ships  with  3,130  land  forces  commanded 
by  Monsieur  Pommeret,  a  brigadier  general.  The 
French  of  Nova  Scotia,  it  was  expected,  would  join 
them,  and  Ramsay,  a  French  officer,  with  1,700 
Canadians  and  Indians  were  actually  in  arms  there 
ready  for  their  arrival.  To  this  force  Conflans  with 
four  ships  from  the  West  Indians  were  to  be  added. 
It  was  the  3d  of  August  before  the  fleet  had  passed  the 
western  Islands.  The  24th,  they  were  300  leagues 
distant  from  Nova  Scotia,  and  one  of  their  ships 
complained  so  much  that  they  burnt  her.  The  1st 
of  September,  in  a  violent  storm,  the  Mars,  a  sixty- 
four  gun  ship,  was  so  damaged  in  her  masts  and  so 
leaky,  that  she  bore  away  for  the  West  Indies,  and 
the  Alcide,  of  sixty-four  guns,  which  had  also  lost 
aer  topmast,  was  sent  to  accompany  her.  The  15th, 
ihe  Ardent,  of  sixty-four  guns,  most  of  her  crew 
seing  sick,  put  back  for  Brest. 

The  Duke  d'Anville,  in  the  Northumberland,  ar- 
rieed  at  Chibucto  the  12th  of  September,  with  only 
one  ship  of  the  line,  the  Renomrnee  and  three  or 
four  of  the  transports.  There  he  found  only  one  ol" 
;he  fleet,  which  had  been  in  three  days ;  and  after 
waiting  three  days  and  finding  that  only  three  more, 
and  those  transports,  had  arrived,  the  16th,  in  the 
morning,  he  died,  the  French  said  of  apoplexy,  the 
English  that  he  poisoned  himself.  In  the  afternoon, 
the  vice  admiral,  d'Estournelle,  with  three  or  four 
more  of  the  line  came  in.  Mons.  de  la  Jonquicre, 
governor  of  Canada,  was  aboard  the  Northumber- 
land, and  had  been  declared  a  chief  d'escadre  after 
;he  fleet  left  France,  and  by  this  means  was  next  in 
command  to  the  vice  admiral.  In  a  council  of  war, 
the  18th,  the  vice  admiral  proposed  returning  to 
Prance.  Four  of  the  capital  ships,  the  Ardent, 
Caribou,  Mars,  and  Alcide,  and  the  Argonaute  fire- 
hip  they  were  deprived  of,  there  was  no  news  of 
Conflans  and  his  ships,  so  that  only  seven  ships  of 
importance  remained;  more  or  less  of  the  land  forces 
were  on  board  each  of  the  missing  ships,  and  what 
-emained  were  in  a  very  sickly  condition.  This 
notion  was  opposed  for  seven  or  eight  hours  by  Jon- 
quire  and  others  of  the  council,  who  supposed,  that 
at  least  they  were  in  a  condition  to  recover  Annapolis 
and  Nova  Scotia,  after  which  they  might  either 
winter  securely  at  Casco  bay,  or,  at  worst,  then  re- 
urn  to  France:  the  sick  men  by  the  constant  sup- 
>ly  of  fresh  provisions  from  the  Acadians,  were 
daily  recovering  and  would  be  soon  fit  for  service. 


UNITED  STATES. 


SG9 


The  motion  not  prevailing,  the  vice  admiral's  spirits 
were  agitated  to  such  a  degree  as  to  throw  him  into 
a  fever  attended  with  a  delirium,  in  which  he  ima- 
gined himself  among  the  English,  and  ran  himself 
through  the  body.  Jonquiere  succeeded,  who  was  a 
man  experienced  in  war,  and  although  above  sixty, 
still  more  active  than  either  of  his  predecessors,  and 
the  expectations  of  the  fleet  and  army  were  much 
raised.  From  this  time  Annapolis  seems  to  have 
been  their  chief  object.  An  account,  supposed  to 
be  authentic,  having  been  received  at  Boston  of  the 
sailing  of  Admiral  Lestock,  Mr.  Shirley  sent  an  ex- 
press to  Louisburgh  to  carry  the  intelligence.  The 
packet  boat  was  taken  and  carried  into  Chibucto, 
which  accelerated  the  sailing  of  the  fleet.  Most  of 
the  sick  had  died  at  Chibucto,  and  but  about  one 
half  of  their  number  remained  alive'.  They  sailed 
the  13th  of  October,  and  the  15th,  being  near  Cape 
Sables,  they  met  with  a  violent  cold  storm,  which, 
after  some  intermission,  increased  the  IGth  and  17th 
and  separated  the  fleet,  two  of  which  only,  a  fifty 
and  a  thirty-six  gun  ship,  were  discovered  from  the 
fort  at  Annapolis,  where  the  Chester  man  of  war, 
Capt.  Spry,  then  lay  with  the  Shirley  frigate  and  a 
small  vessel  in  the  service  of  the  board  of  ordnance, 
who  being  discovered  by  the  French  to  be  under 
sail,  they  made  off,  and  this  was  the  last  of  the  ex- 
pedition. The  news  of  the  beginning  of  the  mis- 
fortunes of  the  French  having  reached  France  by 
some  of  the  returned  vessels,  two  men  of  war  were 
sent  immediately  with  orders,  at  all  events,  to  take 
Annapolis,  but  the  fleet  had  sailed  three  or  four 
days  before  they  arrived. 

Pious  men  saw  the  immediate  hand  of  Divine  Provi- 
dence in  the  protection,  or  rather  rescue,  of  the 
British  colonies  this  year,  as  they  had  done  in  mira- 
culous success  of  the  Cape  Breton  expedition  the 
former  year. 

When  the  summer  had  so  far  passed  as  to  render 
it  too  late  to  prssecute  the  expedition  against  Ca- 
nada, if  the  fleet  had  arrived,  Mr.  Shirley's  enter- 
prisfng  genius  led  him  to  project  an  attempt  upon 
the  French  fort  at  Crown-point,  with  part  of  the 
Massachusetts  forces,  in  conjunction  with  those  of 
the  other  colonies,  but  the  alarm  of  the  French  fleet 
prevented  until  it  was  judged,  by  some  concerned, 
to  be  too  late.  Fifteen  hundred  of  the  Massachu- 
setts men  were  intended  for  Nova  Scotia,  upon  the 
news  of  Ramsay's  appearing  there,  and  400  actually 
went  there,  convoyed  by  the  Chester,  and  late  in 
the  fall  an  additional  number  were  sent  thither. 
Those  posted  at  Minas  were  surprised,  the  first  day 
of  January,  by  a  body  of  French  and  Indians  com- 
manded by  Le  Come,  a  French  officer,  and,  after 
having  160  of  their  number  killed,  wounded,  and 
taken  prisoners,  the  rest  capitulated,  engaging  not 
to  bear  arms  against  the  French  in  Nova  Scotia  for 
the  term  of  one  year.  De  Ramsay,  with  his  troops, 
soon  after  returned  to  Canada. 

The  troops  raised  for  the  Canada  expedition  con- 
tinued in  pay  until  September  the  next  year,  1747. 
Some  of  them  served  for  defence  of  the  frontier,  the 
rest  were  inactive.  The  inactive  prosecution  of  the 
war  in  Europe  on  both  sides  indicated  peace  to  be 
near,  which  the  next  year  was  effected. 

(1747.)  War  had  been  declared  in  1744  against 
the  Cape  Sable  and  St.  John's  Indians,  and  in  1745 
against  the  Penobscots  and  Norridgewocks.  The 
frontiers  did  not  escape  molestation.  They  suffered 
less  than  in  any  former  wars.  The  Indians  were 
lessened  in  number,  and  having  withdrawn  to  the 
French  frontiers,  were  sometimes  detained  for  their 
Hwx  OF  AMKR. — Nos.  47  &  48. 


defence  upon  an  apprehended  invasion,  and  at  other 
times  engaged  to  be  in  readiness  to  join  in  the  great 
designs  against  the  English. 

In  1747  (Nov.  17th)  there  occurred  a  tumult  in 
the  town  of  Boston  equal  to  any  which  had  preceded 
it.  Mr.  Knowles  was  commodore  of  a  number  of 
men  of  war  then  in  the  harbour  of  Nantasket.  Some 
of  the  sailors  had  deserted.  Deserters  generally 
flee  to  some  of  the  neighbouring  ports,  where  they 
were  out  of  danger  of  discovery.  The  commodore 
thought  it  reasonable  that  Boston  should  supply 
him  with  as  many  men  as  he  had  lost,  and  sent  his 
boats  up  to  town  early  in  the  morning,  and  surprised 
not  only  as  many  seamen  as  could  be  found  on 
board  any  of  the  ships,  outward  bound  as  well  as 
others,  but  swept  the  wharfs  also,  taking  some  ship 
carpenters,  apprentices,  and  labouring  land  men. 
However  such  conduct  might  be  tolerated  in  Eng- 
land, it  was  not  to  be  borne  in  Boston.  The  people 
had  not  been  used  to  it,  and  men  of  all  orders  re- 
sented it,  but  the  lower  class  were  beyond  measure 
enraged,  and  soon  assembled  with  sticks,  clubs, 
pitchmops,  &c.  They  first  seized  an  innocent  lieu- 
tenant, who  happened  to  be  ashore  upon  other  busi- 
ness. -They  had  then  formed  no  scheme,  and  the 
speaker  of  the  house  passing  by,  and  assuring  them 
that  he  knew  that  the  lieutenant  had  no  hand  in  the 
press,  they  suffered  him  to  be  led  off  to  a  place  of 
safety.  The  mob  increasing,  and  having  received 
intelligence  that  several  of  the  commanders  were  at 
the  governor's  house,  it  was  agreed  to  go  and  de- 
mand satisfaction.  The  house  was  soon  surrounded, 
and  the  court,  or  yard  before  the  house,  filled,  but 
many  persons  of  discretion  inserted  themselves,  and 
prevailed  so  far  as  to  prevent  the  mob  from  enter- 
ing. Several  of  the  officers  had  planted  themselves 
at  the  head  of  the  stair  way  with  loaded  carbines, 
and  seemed  determined  to  preserve  their  liberty  or 
lose  their  lives.  A  deputy  sheriff  attempting  to  ex- 
ercise his  authority,  was  seized  by  the  mob,  and 
carried  away  in  triumph,  and  set  in  the  stocks,  which 
afforded  them  diversion,  and  tended  to  abate  their 
rage,  and  disposed  them  to  separate  and  go  to  dinner. 
As  soon  as  it  was  dusk,  several  thousand  people 
assembled  in  King-street,  below  the  town  house, 
where  the  general  court  was  sitting.  Stones  and 
brickbats  were  thrown  through  the  glass  into  the 
council  chamber.  The  governor,  however,  with 
several  gentlemen  of  the  council  and  house,  ventured 
into  the  balcony,  and,  after  silence  was  obtained, 
the  governor,  in  a  well  judged  speech,  expressed 
his  great  disapprobation  of  the  impress,  and  pro- 
mised his  utmost  endeavours  to  obtain  the  discharge 
of  every  one  of  the  inhabitants,  and  at  the  same 
time  gently  reproved  the  irregular  proceedings  both 
of  the  forenoon  and  evening.  Other  gentlemen  also 
attempted  to  persuade  the  people  to  disperse,  and 
wait  to  see  what  steps  the  general  court  would  take. 
All  was  to  no  purpose.  The  seizure  and  restraint  of 
the  commanders  and  other  officers  who  were  in  town 
was  insisted  upon  as  the  only  effectual  method  to 
procure  the  release  of  the  inhabitants  aboard  the 
ships. 

It  was  thought  advisable  for  the  governor  to 
withdraw  to  his  house,  many  of  the  officers  of  the 
militia  and  other  gentlemen  attending  him.  A  re- 
port was  raised,  that  a  barge  from  one  of  the  ships 
was  come  to  a  wharf  in  the  town.  The  mob  flew 
to  seize  it,  but  by  mistake  took  a  boat  belonging 
to  a  Scotch  ship,  and  dragged  it,  with  as  much 
seeming  ease  through  the  streets  as  if  it  had  been 
in  the  water,  to  the  governor's  house,  and  prepared 

2U 


370 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


to  burn  it  before  the  house,  but  from  a  consideration 
of  the  danger  of  setting  the  town  on  fire  wore  di- 
verted, and  the  boat  was  burnt  in  a  place  of  less 
hazard.  The  next  day  the  governor  ordered  that 
the  military  officers  of  Boston  should  cause  their 
companies  to  be  mustered,  and  to  appear  in  arms, 
and  that  a  military  watch  should  be  kept  the  suc- 
ceeding night,  but  the  drummers  were  interrupted, 
and  the  militia  refused  to  appear.  The  governor 
did  not  think  it  for  his  honour  to  remain  in  town 
another  night,  and  privately  withdrew  to  the  casUe. 
A  number  of  gentleman  who  had  some  intimation  of 
his  design,  sent  a  message  to  him  by  Colonel  Hutch- 
inson,  assuring  him  they  would  stand  by  him  in 
maintaining  the  authority  of  government,  and  re- 
storing peace  and  order,  but  he  did  not  think  this 
sufficient. 

The  governor  wrote  to  Mr.  Knowles,  representing 
the  confusions  occasioned  by  this  extravagant  act  of 
his  officers,  but  he  refused  all  terms  of  accommoda- 
tion until  the  commanders  and  other  officers  on  shore 
were  suffered  to  go  on  board  their  ships,  and  he 
threatened  to  bring  up  his  ships  and  bombard  the 
town,  and  some  of  them  coming  to  sail,  caused  dif- 
ferent conjectures  of  his  real  intention.  Captain 
Erskine,  of  the  Canterbury,  had  been  seized  at  the 
house  of  Colonel  Brinley  in  Roxbury,  and  given  his 
parole  not  to  go  abroad,  and  divers  inferior  officers 
had  been  secured. 

The  17th,  18th,  and  part  of  the  19th,  the  council 
and  house  of  representatives,  sitting  in  the  town, 
went  on  with  their  ordinary  business,  not  willing  to 
interpose  lest  they  should  encourage  other  com- 
manders of  the  navy  to  acts  of  the  like  nature,  but 
towards  noon  of  the  19th  some  of  the  principal  mem- 
bers of  the  house  began  to  think  more  seriously  of 
the  dangerous  consequence  of  leaving  the  governor 
without  support  when  there  was  not  the  least  ground 
of  exception  to  his  conduct.  Some  high  spirits  in 
the  town  began  to  question  whether  his  retiring 
should  be  deemed  a  desertion  or  abdication.  It 
was  moved  to  appoint  a  committee  of  the  two  houses, 
to  consider  what  was  proper  to  be  done.  This 
would  take  time,  and  was  excepted  to,  and  the 
speaker  was  desired  to  draw  up  such  resolves  as  it 
was  thought  necessary  the  house  should  immediately 
agree  to,  and  they  were  passed  by  a  considerable 
majority,  and  made  public- 

"  In  the  house  of  representatives,  Nov.  19,  1747. 
"  Resolved — That  there  has  been,  and  still  con 
tinues,  a  tumultuous  riotous  assemblage  of  armec 
seamen,  servants,  negroes,  and  others  in  the  town 
of  Boston,  tending  to  the  destruction  of  all  govern 
ment  and  order. 

"  Resolved — That  it  is  incumbent  on  the  civi 
and  military  officers  in  the  province  to  exert  them 
selves  to  the  utmost,  to  discourage  and  suppress  al 
such  tumultuous  riotous  proceedings  whensoeve 
they  may  happen. 

"  Resolved — That  this  house  will  stand  by  anc 
support,  wkh  their  lives  and  estates,  his  excellency 
the  governor,  and  the  executive  part  of  the  govern, 
ment,  in  all  endeavours  for  this  purpose. 

"  Resolved — That  this  house  will  exert  themselves 
by  all  ways  and  means  possible,  in  redressing  such 
grievances  as  his  majesty's  subjects  are  and  hav< 
been  under,  which  may  have  been  the  cause  of  th< 
aforesaid  tumultuous  disorderly  assembling  together 

"  T.  Hutchinson,  Speaker." 
The  council  passed  a  vote,  ordering  that  Captain 
Erskine,    and  all  other  officers  belonging  to  his  ma 
'  jesty's  ships,   should  be  forthwith  set  at  liberty  anc 


>rotected  by  the  government,  which  was  concurred 
>y  the  house.  As  soon  as  these  votes  were  known, 
he  tumultuous  spirit  began  to  subside.  The  in- 
habitants of  the  town  of  Boston  assembled  in  town 
neeting  in  the  afternoon,  having  been  notified 
o  consider,  in  general,  what  was  proper  for  them 
o  do  upon  this  occasion ;  and  notwithstanding  it 
vas  urged  by  many,  that  all  measures  to  suppress 
he  present  spirit  in  the  people  would  tend  to  en- 
tourage the  like  oppressive  acts  for  the  future,  yet 
he  contrary  party  prevailed ;  and  the  town,  although 
hey  expressed  their  sense  of  the  great  insult  and  in- 
ury  by  the  impress,  condemned  the  tumultuous 
riotous  acts  of  such  as  had  insulted  the  governor 
nd  other  branches  of  the  legislature,  and  committed 
many  other  heinous  offences. 

The  governor,  not  expecting  so  favourable  a  turn, 
lad  wrote  to  the  secretary  to  prepare  orders  for  the 
colonels  of  the  regiments  of  Cambridge,  Roxbury, 
and  Milton,  and  the  regiment  of  horse,  to  have  their 
officers  and  men  ready  to  march  at  an  hour's  warn- 
ng  to  such  place  of  rendezvous  as  he  should  direct; 
but  the  next  day  there  was  an  uncommon  appear- 
ance of  the  militia  of  the  town  of  Boston,  many 
persons  taking  their  muskets  who  never  carried  one 
upon  any  other  occasion,  and  the  governor  was  con- 
ducted to  his  house  with  as  great  parade  as  when  he 
first  assumed  the  government. 

The  commodore  dismissed  most,  if  not  all,  of  the 
inhabitants  who  had  been  impressed,  and  the  squa- 
dron sailed,  to  the  joy  of  the  rest  of  the  town. 

By  the  expedition  to  Louisburgh,  the  preparations 
for  the  reduction  of  Canada,  and  the  several  sup- 
plies of  men  for  Nova  Scotia,  the  province  had  is- 
sued an  immense  sum  in  bills  of  credit,  between  two 
and  three  millions,  according  to  their  denomination 
in  the  currency.  The  greatest  part  of  this  sum  had 
been  issued,  when  between  five  and  six  hundred 
pounds  was  equal  to  one  hundred  pounds  sterling, 
and  perhaps  the  real  consideration  the  government 
received  from  the  inhabitants  who  gave  credit  to 
them,  was  near  four  hundred  thousand  pounds  ster- 
ling ;  but  by  thus  multiplying  the  bills  they  had  so 
much  depreciated,  that  at  the  end  of  the  war,  eleven 
or  twelve  hundred  pounds  was  not  equal  to  more 
than  an  hundred  pounds  sterling,  and  the  whole 
debt  of  the  province  did  not  much  exceed  two  hun- 
dred thousand  pounds  sterling.  Thus  the  people 
had  paid  'two  hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling  in 
two  or  three  years,  besides  a  large  sum  raised  by 
taxes  each  year,  as  much  as  it  was  supposed  the 
people  were  able  to  pay  ;  but  to  pay  by  the  depre- 
ciation of  the  bills,  although  infinitely  unequal,  yet, 
as  they  were  shifting  hands  every  day,  it  was  almost 
insensible  ;  a  possessor  of  a  large  sum  for  a  few 
days,  not  perceiving  the  difference  in  their  value  be- 
tween the  time  when  he  received  them,  and  the  time 
when  he  parted  with  them.  The  apprehension  of 
their  depreciation  tended  to  increase  it,  and  occa- 
sioned a  quick  circulation;  and  for  some  time,  even 
for  English  goods,  which  ordinarily  sell  for  the 
longest  credit,  nobody  pretended  to  ask  credit.  They 
were  constantly,  however,  dying  in  somebody's  hand, 
though  nobody  kept  them  long  by  them.  Business 
was  brisk,  men  in  trade  increased  their  figures,  but 
were  sinking  the  real  value  of  their  stock ;  and  what 
is  worse,  by  endeavours  to  shift  the  loss  attending 
such  a  pernicious  currency  from  one  to  another, 
fraudulent  dispositions  and  habits  are  acquired,  and 
the  morals  of  the  people  depreciate  with  the  currency- 
The  government  was  soliciting  for  the  reimburse- 
ment of  the  charge  in  taking  and  securing  Cap« 


UNITED  STATES. 


371 


Breton  ;  and  by  the  address,  assiduity,  and  fidelity 
of  William  Bollan,  Esq.,  who  was  one  of  the  agents 
of  the  province  for  that  purpose,  there  was  a  hope- 
ful prospect  that  the  full  sum,  about  180,OOOZ.  ster- 
ling, would  be  obtained. 

Some  of  the  ministry  thought  it  sufficient  to  grant 
such  sum  as  would  redeem  the  bills  issued  for  the 
expedition,  &c.  at  their  depreciated  value,  and  Mr. 
Kilby,  the  other  agcnit,  seemed  to  despair  of  ob- 
taining more  ;  but  Mr.  Bollan,  who  had  an  intimate 
knowledge  of  our  public  affairs,  set  the  injustice  of 
this  proposal  in  a  clear  light,  and  made  it  evident 
that  the  depreciation  of  the  bills  was  as  effectually 
a  charge  borne  by  the  people,  as  if  the  same  pro- 
portion of  bills  had  been  drawn  in  by  taxes,  and  re- 
fused all  proposals  of  accommodation,  insisting  upon 
the  full  value  of  the  bills  when  issued. 

Mr.  Hutchinson,  who  was  then  speaker  of  the 
house  of  representatives,  imagined  this  to  be  a  most 
favourable  opportunity  for  abolishing  bills  of  credit, 
the  source  of  so  much  iniquity,  and  for  establishing 
a  stable  currency  of  silver  and  gold  for  the  future. 
About  two  million  two  hundred  thousand  pounds 
would  be  outstanding  in  bills  in  the  year  1749.  One 
hundred  and  eighty  thousand  pounds  sterling,  at 
eleven  for  one,  which  was  the  lowest  rate  of  ex- 
change with  London  for  a  year  or  two  before,  and 
perhaps  the  difference  was  really  twelve  for  one, 
would  redeem  nineteen  hundred  and  eighty  thousand 
pounds,  which  would  leave  but  two  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  pounds  outstanding,  it  was  there- 
fore proposed,  that  the  sum  granted  by  parliament 
should  be  shipped  to  the  province  in  Spanish  milled 
dollars,  and  applied  for  the  redemption  of  the  bills 
as  far  as  it  would  serve  for  that  purpose,  anil  that  the 
remainder  of  the  bills  should  be  drawn  in  by  a  tax 
on  the  year  1749.  This  would  finish  the  bills.  For 
the  future,  silver  of  sterling  alloy  at  6s.  8d.  the 
ounce,  if  payment  should  be  made  in  bullion,  or 
otherwise  milled  dollars  at  Gs.  each,  should  be  the 
lawful  money  of  the  province,  and  no  person  should 
receive  or  pay  within  the  province,  bills  of  credit 
of  any  of  the  other  governments  of  New  England. 
This  proposal  being  made  to  the  governor,  he  ap- 
proved of  it  as  founded  in  justice,  and  tending  to 
promote  the  real  interest  of  the  province ;  but  he 
knew  the  attachment  of  the  people  to  paper  money, 
and  supposed  it  impracticable.  The  speaker,  how- 
ever, laid  the  proposal  before  the  house,  where  it 
was  received  with  a  smile,  and  generally  thought  to 
be  an  Utopian  project,  and  rather  out  of  deference 
to  the  speaker  than  from  an  apprehension  of  any 
effect,  the  house  appointed  a  committee  to  consider 
of  it.  The  committee  treated  it  in  the  same  man- 
ner, bnt  reported  that  the  speaker  should  be  desired 
to  bring  in  a  bill  for  the  consideration  of  the  house. 
When  this  came  to  be  known  abroad,  exceptions 
were  taken,  and  a  clamour  was  raised  from  every 
quarter.  The  major  part  of  the  people,  in  number, 
were  no  sufferers  by  a  depreciating  currency ;  the 
number  of  debtors  is  always  more  than  the  number 
of  creditors,  and  although  debts  on  specialties  had 
allowance  made  in  judgments  of  court  for  deprecia- 
tion of  the  bills,  yet  on  simple  contracts,  of  which 
there  were  ten  to  one  specialty,  no  allowance  was 
made.  Those  who  were  for  a  fixed  currency  were 
divided.  Some  supposed  the  bills  might  be  reduced 
to  so  small  a  quantity  as  to  be  fixed  and  stable,  and 
therefore  were  for  redeeming  as  many  by  bills  of  ex- 
change as  should  be  thought  superfluous;  others 
were  for  putting  an  end  to  the  bills,  but  in  a  gradual 
way,  otherwise  it  was  said  a  fatal  shock  would  be 


given  to  trade.  This  last  was  the  objection  of  many 
men  of  good  sense.  Douglass,  who  had  wrote  well 
upon  the  paper  currency,  and  had  been  the  oracle  of 
the  anti-paper  party,  was  among  them  ;  and,  as  his 
manner  was  with  all  who  differed  from  him,  dis- 
covered as  much  rancour  against  the  author  and  pro- 
moters of  this  new  project,  as  he  had  done  against 
the  fraudulent  contrivers  of  paper  money  emissions. 

The  bills  it  was  said  had  sunk  gradually  in  their 
value,  and  as  by  this  means  creditors  had  been  de- 
frauded, it  was  but  reasonable  they  should  rise  gra- 
dually that  justice  might  be  done:  but  the  creditors 
and  debtors  would  not  be  the  same  in  one  instance 
in  a  thousand,  and  where  this  was  uot  the  case  the 
injury  was  the  same,  to  oblige  any  one  to  pay  more 
as  to  receive  less  than  was  justly  due.  Others  were 
for  exchanging  the  bills  at  a  lower  rate  than  the  then 
current  price  of  silver.  The  inhabitants  had  given 
credit  to  the  government,  when  silver  was  at  30s. 
the  ounce,  and  ought  to  be  paid  accordingly.  Two 
of  the  representatives  of  Boston  urged  their  being 
exchanged  at  30s.,  which  would  have  given  a  most 
unreasonable  profit  to  the  present  possessor,  who 
had  taken  them  at  55s.  or  60s.  To  draw  over  some 
of  this  party  concessions  were  made,  and  the  bills 
were  exchanged  at  50s.  the  ounce,  instead  of  55s.  as 
was  at  first  proposed. 

Some  of  the  directors  and  principal  promoters  of 
the  land  bank  scheme,  being  at  this  time  members 
of  the  general  court,  unexpectedly  joined  with  the 
party  who  were  for  finishing  paper  money,  but  the 
opposition  was  so  great,  that  after  many  weeks  spent 
in  debating  and  settling  the  several  parts  of  the  bill, 
and  a  whole  day's  debate  at  last  in  a  committee  of 
the  whole  house  upon  the  expediency  of  passing  the 
bill,  as  thus  settled,  it  was  rejected,  and  the  report 
of  the  committee  accepted. 

The  house,  although  upon  some  occasions  excep- 
tions are  taken  to  motions  and  proceedings  which 
come  before  them,  as  not  being  in  parliamentary 
form,  yet  are  not  strict  in  conforming  to  some  of  the 
most  useful  rules  of  parliament.  A  bill  or  motion 
is  not  only  referred  from  one  session  to  another,  but 
a  bill,  after  rejecting  upon  a  second  or  third  read- 
ing, is  sometimes  taken  up  and  passed  suddenly  the 
same  session.  They  have  an  order  of  the  house, 
that  when  any  affair  has  been  considered,  it  shall  not 
be  brought  before  the  house  again  the  same  session, 
unless  there  be  as  full  a  house  as  when  it  was  passed 
upon.  This,  if  observed,  would  still  be  liable  to  in- 
convenience, as  any  designing  person  might  take 
an  opportunity  upon  a  change  of  faces,  the  number 
being  as  great  as  before,  suddenly  to  carry  any 
poiut;  but  even  this  rule,  like  many  other  of  what 
are  called  standing  orders,  is  too  frequently  by  votes, 
on  particular  occasions,  dispensed  with,  which  les- 
sens the  dignity  of  the  house. 

It  seems  to  be  of  no  consequence  to  the  preroga- 
tive whether  the  currency  of  a  colony  be  silver  or 
paper,  but  the  royal  instructions  from  time  to  time 
for  preventing  a  depreciating  currency,  caused 
merely  by  a  gracious  regard  to  the  interest  of  the 
people,  had  generally  engaged  what  was  called  the 
country  party,  in  opposition  to  them  and  in  favour 
of  paper.  It  was  the  case  at  this  time.  However, 
the  next  morning,  two  of  the  members  of  the  house 
zealous  adherents  to  this  party,  and  who  had  been 
strong  opposers  of  the  bill,  came  early  to  the  house 
to  wait  the  coming  of  the  speaker,  and  in  the  lobby 
let  him  know,  that  although  they  were  not  satisfied 
with  several  parts  of  the  bill,  yet  they  were  alarmed 
with  the  danger  to  the  province  from  the  schemes 

2U2 


372 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


of  those  persons  who  were  fur  a  gradual  reduction 
of  the  bills,  and  by  that  means,  for  raising  the  value 
of  the  currency  without  any  provision  for  the  relief 
of  debtors,  and  therefore  they  had  changed  their 
minds;  and  if  the  bill  could  be  brought  forward 
again,  they  would  give  their  voice  for  it,  and  others 
Who  had  opposed  it  would  do  the  same.  The  speaker 
who  had  looked  upon  any  further  attempt  to  be  to 
no  purpose,  acquainted  them  that  he  did  not  think 
it  proper  to  dtsire  any  of  the  favourers  of  the  bill  to 
move  for  a  reconsideration  of  it,  inasmuch  as  it  had 
been  understood,  and  agreed  in  the  house  the  day 
before,  that  if  upon  a  full  debate  had,  the  bill  should 
be  rejected,  no  further  motion  should  be  made  about 
it.  As  soon  as  the  house  met,  upon  a  motion  by 
one  of  these  members  seconded  by  the  other,  the  bill 
was  again  brought  under  consideration,  and  passed 
the  house  as  it  afterwards  did  the  council,  and  had 
the  governor's  consent. 

The  provision  made  by  this  act  for  the  exchange 
of  the  bills,  and  for  establishing  a  silver  currency, 
was  altogether  conditional,  and  depended  upon  a 
grant  of  parliament  for  reimbursement  of  the  charge 
of  the  Cape  Breton  expedition.  This  being  at  a  dis 
tance  and  not  absolutely  certain,  the  act  had  no 
sudden  effect  upon  the  minds  of  the  people,  but 
when  the  news  of  the  grant  arrived,  the  discontent 
appeared  more  visible,  and  upon  the  arrival  of  the 
money  there  were  some  beginnings  of  tumults,  and 
the  authors  and  promoters  of  the  measure  were 
threatened.  The  government  passed  an  act  with 
a  severe  penalty  against  riobs,  and  appeared  deter- 
mined to  carry  the  other  act  for  exchanging  the  bills 
into  execution.  The  apprehension  of  a  shock  to 
trade  proved  groundless,  the  silver  took  place  in- 
stead of  them;  a  good  currency  was  insensibly  sub- 
stituted in  the  room  of  a  bad  one;  and  every  branch 
of  business  was  carried  on  to  greater  advantage  than 
before.  The  other  governments,  especially  Con- 
necticut and  Rhode  Island,  who  refused,  upon  being 
invited  to  conform  their  currency  to  the  Massachu- 
setts, felt  a  shock  in  their  trade  which  they  were 
long  iu  recovering  from.  The  latter  had  been  the 
importers,  for  the  Massachusetts,  of  West  India  goods 
for  many  years,  which  ceased  at  once.  New  Hamp- 
shire, after  some  years,  revived  its  business  and  in- 
creased the  trade  in  English  goods,  which  formerly 
had  been  supplied  from  the  Massachusetts. 

From  the  close  of  the  war  with  France,  to  the  end 
of  Governor  Pownall'g  administration,  in  the  year 
1760. 

(1749.)  The  people  of  Massachusetts  Bay  were 
never  in  a  more  easy  and  happy  situation,  than  at 
the  close  of  the  war  with  France.  By  the  generous 
reimbursement  of  the  whole  charge  incurred  by  the 
expedition  against  Cape  Breton,  the  province  was 
set  free  from  a  heavy  debt,  in  which  it  must  other- 
wise have  remained  involved,  and  was  enabled  to 
exchange  a  depreciating  paper  medium,  which  had 
long  been  the  sole  instrument  of  trade,  for  a  stable 
medium  of  silver  and  gold ;  the  advantage  whereof, 
to  all  branches  of  their  commerce,  was  evident  and 
excited  the  envy  of  the  other  colonies,  in  each  of 
which  paper  was  the  principal  currency. 

They  flattered  themselves  that  Cape  Breton  would 
remain  subject  to  Great  Britain;  and  it  was  a  mor- 
tification to  them,  that,  what  they  called  "their 
own  acquisition,"  should  be  restored  to  France  ;  but 
they  had  nothing  to  fear  from  it,  so  long  as  peace 
continued.  The  French  fishery  had  failed  before 
the  war,  and  whilst  the  English  could  catch  and  cure 


fish  cheaper  thati  the   French,  there   was  uo  dangt  r 
of  its  revival. 

The  Indians  upon  the  frontiers  were  so  reduced, 
that  new  settlements  were  made  without  danger, 
which  not  only  caused  the  territory  settled  to  increase 
in  value,  but  afforded  materials  for  enlarging  the 
commerce  of  the  province. 

There  was  but  little  subject  for  controversy  in  the 
general  assembly.  Governor  Shirley's  administra- 
tion had  been  satisfactory  to  the  major  part  of  the 
people.  There  was  an  opposition,  but  it  was  not 
powerful ;  perhaps  not  more  powerful  than  may,  ge- 
nerally, be  salutary.  During  the  last  seven  years, 
no  great  change  of  counsellors  had  been  made  at 
any  of  the  elections,  and  they  were,  in  general,  well 
affected  to  the  governor.  This  prosperous  state  of 
the  province  was  very  much  owing  to  the  success  of 
his  active,  vigorous  measures  ;  of  which  he  wished 
to  give  an  account  ki  person,  and  for  that  purpose 
had  obtained  leave  to  go  to  England.  He  had  fur- 
ther views.  Soon  after  the  peace  was  proclaimed 
in  America,  the  French  discovered  a  design  of  en- 
larging their  territory  on  the  back  of  New  York, 
and  of  taking  fresh  possession  of  the  country  of 
Acadia;  and  it  was  a  common  report,  that  French 
settlements  were  begun  east  of  Crown  Point.  By  a 
hint  from  the  govcinor  to  some  of  his  friends,  the 
council  and  house  were  brought  to  join  in  an  address, 
praying  him  to  represent  to  the  king  the  necessity 
of  building  a  strong  fort  near  to  Crown  Point ;  and 
of  settling  and  fortifying  a  town  at  Chibucto,  or 
some  other  harbour  in"  Nova  Scotia.  The  governor 
of  Canada  had  written  to  the  Indians  upon  the 
eastern  frontiers  of  New  England,  to  dissuade  them 
from  a  peace  with  the  English,  and  a  copy  of  the 
letter  had  been  obtained  by  Mr.  Shirley. 

The  contest  about  the  bounds  between  the  French 
and  English  in  America,  which  was,  by  the  treaty, 
to  be  left  to  commissaries,  instead  of  being  amicably 
settled,  would  probably  be  increased,  and  finally  de"- 
cided  by  the  sword.  It  looked  as  if  the  peace  could 
be  of  no  long  continuance.  At  such  a  time,  he 
thought  he  could  be  of  more  service  to  himself,  and 
to  the  public,  in  England,  than  in  America.  He 
sailed  from  Boston  in  September,  1749. 

Soon  after  his  arrival  in  England,  he  was  ap- 
pointed one  of  the  commissaries  for  settling  the  Ame 
rican  boundaries.  He  spent  much  time  in  France 
with  little  success.  The  documents  produced  by  the 
commissaries  on  each  side  shewed  that,  on  different 
occasions,  different  bounds  had  been  assigned  to  the 
territory  of  Acadia.  In  the  commission  to  the  last 
French  governor  before  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  Aca- 
dia was  made  to  extend  to  the  river  Kennebeck,  and 
the  whole  was  ceded,  by  the  treaty,  to  the  English. 
The  French  commissaries,  notwithstanding,  refused 
to  agree  to  so  great  an  extent,  and  confined  Acadia, 
which  they  suppose  in  the  treaty  intended  Nova 
Scotia,  to  the  peninsula.  They 'could  no  better 
agree  upon  the  limits  of  Canada ;  and  each  party 
urged  that  their  claims  were  strengthened  by  the 
evidence  produced  on  this  occasion. 

When  the  Indians  have  taken  part  in  a  war  with 
the  French,  or,  by  themselves  have  engaged  in  war 
against  the  English,  a  formal  treaty  of  peace  has  al- 
ways been  thought  expedient. 

The  necessary  preparation  for  Mr.  Shirley's  voy- 
age prevented  his  attending  the  treaty  in  person  ; 
and  commissioners  were  appointed,  who  met  some  of 
the  principal  Indians,  in  the  character  of  delegates 
from  the  several  tribes,  at  Falmouth  in  Casco  Bay ; 
and,  after  several  days  spent  in  conference,  agreed 


UNITED  STATES. 


373 


with  them  upon  terms  of  peace,  between  the  provinces 
of  Massachusetts  Bay  and  New  Hampshire,  on  the 
one  part,  and  the  several  tribes  of  Indians  situated  be- 
tween New  England  and  Canada,  on  the  other  part. 
The  commissioners  from  Massachusetts  Bay  were 
ThoYnasHutchinson,  John  Choate,  Israel  Williams, 
and  James  Otis,  Esqrs.  Sir  William  Pepperellhad 
been  appointed  at  the  head  of  the  commission,  but 
sailed  for  England  before  the  treaty  took  place. 
Theodore  Atkinson  and  John  Downing,  Esqrs.  were 
the  commissioners  from  New  Hampshire. 

The  Indians  began  the  treaty  with  an  act  of  plea- 
santry and  good  humour.  Notice  had  been  given, 
that  they  must  bring  in  such  English  captives  as 
were  among  them,  and  particularly  a  boy  whose 
name  was  Macfarlaue,  and  who  was  taken  in  the 
beginning  of  the  war.  They  apologised  for  not 
bringing  Macfarlane.  and  feigned  some  excuse,  pro- 
mising he  should  be  sent  when  they  returned  home. 
The  commissioners  shewed  great  resentment,  and 
insisted  upon  the  delivery  of  the  captive  previously 
to  their  entering  upon  the  treaty.  Some  time  was 
spent  in  altercation.  At  length  an  old  Sachem  rose 
up,  and  took  one  of  the  handsomest  and  best  dressed 
young  Indians  by  the  hand,  and  presented  him  to 
Mr.  Hutchinson,  the  chairman  of  the  commissioners, 
as  the  captive  Macfarlane.  This  increased  the  re- 
sentment, and  it  was  thought  too  serious  an  affair 
to  be  jested  with*.  The  young  man  then  discovered 
himself,  and  (having  spoken  before  nothing  but  In- 
dian) in  the  English  language,  thanked  the  com- 
missioners for  their  kind  care  in  procuring  his  re- 
demption. He  had  so  much  the  appearance  of  an 
Indian,  not  only  in  his  dress,  but  in  his  behaviour, 
and  also  his  complexion,  that  nobody  had  any  sus- 
picion to  the  contrary.  He  had  made  himself  per- 
fectly acquainted  with  their  language,  and  proved 
serviceable  as  an  interpreter  at  the  French  house  so 
long  as  he  lived. 

The  treaty  made  by  Mr.  Dummer  in  1726,  was 
considered  as  the  basis  of  this,  and  the  same  articles 
were  renewed,  those  only,  which  concerned  trade, 
being  so  explained,  as  to  take  away  all  those  pre- 
tences for  discontent,  which  had  been  at  different 
times  urged  by  the  Indians. 

This  treaty  was  scarcely  finished,  when  an  affair 
happened  which  threatened  a  new  war.  While  the 
commissioners  were  at  Falmouth,  they  were  in 
formed  that  a  bad  spirit  prevailed  among  many  o 
the  common  people,  of  New  Hampshire,  and  of  the 
eastern  part  of  Massachusetts  Bay  ;  that  many 
threatened  revenge  upon  the  Indians,  notwithstand- 
ing the  peace,  for  the  depredations  made  during  tht 
war  ;  and  the  latter  end  of  November,  or  beginning 
of  December,  ?n  Indian  was  killed,  and  two  others 
dangerously  wounded,  by  some  of  the  English  in 
habitants  of  a  place  called  Wiscasset,  in  the  county 
of  York.  Two  persons,  Samuel  Ball  and  Benjamin 
Ledyte,  were  committed  to  prison,  and  a  proclama 
tion  was  issued  by  Mr.  Phipps, « the  lieutenant-go 
vernor,  promising  a  reward  for  apprehending  a  third 
Obadiah  Alby  ;  all  supposed  to  be  concerned  in  thi 
murder.  Agreeably  to  the  provision  in  such  cas 
made  by  the  laws  of  the  province,  a  special  cour 
was  summoned,  and  the  persons,  or  some  of  them 
brought  upon  trial.  It  was  said,  that  a  jury  in  th 
county  of  York,  where  the  inhabitants  had  suffers 
so  much  from  the  Indians,  let  the  case  be  ever  s 
plain,  would  not  convict  an  Englishman  of  murdc 
for  the  death  of  an  Indian.  It  was,  therefore,  move 
in  the  general  assembly,  that  a  law  should  pass  t 
emrower  the  judges  to  summon  a  jury  from  anothe 


otmty,  but  the  motion  did  not  succeed;  and  though 
ne  or  more  of  the  persons  were  brought  upon  trial, 
lere  was  no  conviction.  Many  good  people,  at 
lis  time,  lamented  the  disposition,  which  they 
lought  was  discovered,  to  distinguish  between  the 
uilt  of  killing  an  Indian,  and  that  of  killing  an 
Englishman,  as  if  God  had  not  "  made  of  one  blood 
11  the  nations  of  men  upon  tiie  face  of  the  earth." 

The  Indians  were  enraged  at  the  murder  ;  but  by 
air  words  and  kind  deeds,  ordered  by  government, 
i  relieving  some  distressed  families  among  them, 
icy  were  kept  quiet ;  but,  at  length,  despairing  of 
istice  upon  the  murderers,  they  resolved  to  revenge 
iiemselves  upon  the  public,  and  made  an  attempt  to 
urprise  Richmond  fort,  on  Kennebeck  river.  Fail- 
ng  of  success,  they  fell  upon  the  inhabitants  near 
he  fort,  and  made  several  of  them  prisoners ;  but 
•ere  reduced  to  so  small  a  number  as  to  be  inca- 
able  of  much  mischief ;  and,  after  a  short  time, 
tie  injury  they  received  was  forgotten. 

(1750.)  In  the  early  days  of  the  New  England 
olonies,  Massachusetts  Bay  had,  by  mere  dint  of 
lower,  compelled  Connecticut  and  the  other  colonies, 
o  give  way  to  the  decision  of  the  Massachusetts  as- 
embly,  in  a  way  that  could  not  well  be  justified. 
Connecticut,  in  its  turn,  now  gave  to  Massachusetts 
much  greater  cause  of  complaint. 

When  the  line  between  the  two  colonies  was 
ettled  in  1713,  it  was  agreed,  that  the  towns  of 
Woodstock,  Somers,  Suffieldj  and  Enfield,  though, 
iccording  to  that  line,  they  fell  within  Connecticut, 
hould  remain  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Massachu- 
etts  Bay,  by  whose  inhabitants  they  had  been  set- 
led  ;  and  an  equivalent  was  given  for  the  property, 
>y  the  assignment  of  an  equal  quantity  of  unculti- 
vated lands  in  the  Massachusetts  province.  Con- 
necticut had  accepted  the  equivalent,  had  made  sale 
of  the  lands,  and  had  applied  the  produce  to  the  use 
if  that  colony.  The  inhabitants  of  the  towns  thought 
hemselves  happy  under  the  Massachusetts  govern- 
ment, until  they  felt  a  greater  proportion  of  burden 
rrom  the  charge  of  the  war,  than  they  would  have 
done  under  Connecticut.  At  the  expiration  of  the 
war,  a  much  heavier  debt  also  lay  upon  Massachu- 
setts than  Connecticut;  and  the  relief  from  this 
debt  by  the  grant  which  was  afterwards  made  by 
parliament,  was  then  uncertain.  The  inhabitants, 
•hereupon,  made  application  to  the  general  assembly 
of  Connecticut,  and  prayed  to  be  received  as  under 
that  government,  and  to  be  protected  by  them.  Con- 
siderable sums,  which  had  been  assessed  by  the 
Massachusetts  government,  remained  in  arrear,  and 
these  they  refused  to  pay.  Notice  was  given  by  the 
governor  of  Connecticut  to  the  governor  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,  of  the  application,  without  expressing 
any  resolution  on  the  part  of  Connecticut  to  grant, 
or  to  refuse  their  request.  It  was  reasonable  to  sup- 
pose that  an  agreement  made  with  great  formality, 
and  conformed  to  for  nearly  forty  years,  would  not 
be  violated.  The  sheriffs  and  other  officers  of  Mas- 
sachusetts Bay,  were  at  first  opposed  by  the  inhabit- 
ants of  the  towns,  who  resolved  to  stand  upon  their 
defence.  The  Massachusetts  assembly  having,  but 
a  few  years  before,  succeeded  so  ill  in  their  contro- 
versies with  New  Hampshire  and  Rhode  Island, 
were  more  easily  disposed  to  avoid  this  controversy, 
fearing  that  Connecticut  also,  if  the  boundary  line 
should  be  again  considered  at  large,  would  net  only 
gain  the  particular  territory  in  dispute,  but  a  larg-e 
addition  to  it.  They,  therefore,  did  not  act  with 
their  usual  spirit ;  but  rather  faintly  went  into  mea- 
sures for  maintaining  their  authority.  This  encou- 


374 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


raged  the   assembly  of  Connecticut ;  arid  it  then    had  been  the  practice  of  government  to  issue  bills 
appeared,  that  they  countenanced  the  revolt.     After    for  public  charges,  and  to  make  a  tax  for  the  pay- 
a  resolve  to  receive  the  towns  into  their  jurisdiction,    ment  of  the   sum  issued,  in  future  years,   into  the 
they  proposed  to  the  Massachusetts  assembly,  that    treasury  again.     The  bills  being  all  exchanged  by 
commissioners  should  be  appointed  by  each  govern-    the  silver  imported  from  England,   and  provision 
ment  to  run  the  boundary  line ;  but,  in  their  proposal,    made  by  law,  that  no  bills  of  credit  should  ever  after 
had   no  respect  to   the  settlement  made  in   1713,    pass  as  money,  there  was  a  difficulty  in  providing 
which   left  the  towns  to  Massachusetts  Bay.     The  I  money  for  the  immediate  service  of  government,  un- 
proposal  in  this  form,  was  rejected;  but  in  lieu  of   til  it  could  be  raised  by  a  tax.     Few  people  were,  at 
it,  an  offer  was  made  to  treat  upon  ways  and  means,    first,  inclined  to  lend  to  the  province,  though  they 
in  general,   for  preventing  a  controversy  between    were   assured  of  payment  in  a  short  time  with  hr- 
the  two  governments.     This  would  not  answer  the    terest.      The   treasurer,   therefore,   was  ordered  to 
purpose  of  Connecticut.     The  settlement  in  1713,    make  payment  to  the  creditors  of  government  in 
and  the  equivalent  received  for  the  towns,  were  both    promissory  notes,  payable  to  the  bearer  in  silver  in 
acknowledged ;  but  it  was  urged,  that  the  inhabit-    two  or  three  years,  with  lawful  interest.     This  was 
ants  had  an  unalienable  right  to  the  jurisdiction  of   really  better  than  any  private  security;  but  the  peo- 
Connecticut,  by  charter,  which   the    legislature   of   pie,  who  had  seen  so  much  of  the  bad  effects  of  their 
Connecticut  could  not  take  from  them,  and  which  I  former  paper  money,  from  its  depreciation,  could 
the  act  of  the  inhabitants   in  1713  could  not  take  1  not  consider  this  as  without  danger,  and  the  notes 
from  the  inhabitants  in  1749.     No  subject  affords  a  I  were   sold  for  silver  at  discount,  which  continued 
larger  field,  not  for  mere  cavils  only,  but  for  plausi-  I  until  it  was  found  that  the  promise  made  by  govern- 
bility  of  exception,  than  that  of  government.  Upon    ment  was  punctually  performed.     From  that  time, 
this  feeble  pretence,  Connecticut  supported  its  claim,    the   public  security   was  preferred  to  private,  and 


and  kept  possession  of  their  jurisdicti 


the    the   treasurer's  notes  were  more    sought  for   than 


towns.     It'would,  at  least,  have  been  decent  in  the  I  those  of  any  other  person  whomsoever.     This  was 
Connecticut  assembly,  to  offer  to  return  the  equiva-    the  era  of>  public  credit  in  Massachusetts  Bay. 
lent  which  their  predecessors  had  received.  Peace  being  restored,  and  the  Indians  upon  the 

The  aversion,  in  the  common  people,  to  a  silver  I  frontiers  almost  extinct,  a  more  extensive  view  was 
and  gold  currency,  had  occasioned  several  tumultu-  1  opened  for  the  enlargement  of  the  colony.  There 
ous  assemblies  in  and  near  the  town  of  Boston.  The  were  many  judicious  persons,  who  were  content  with 
paper,  they  said,  was  not  worth  hoarding,  but  silver  I  the  natural  increase  of  the  inhabitants,  and  with  an 
and  gold  would  all  fall  to  the  share  of  men  of  wealth,  extension  of  the  pomaria,  only  in  proportion  as  the 
and  would  either  be  exported  or  hoarded  up,  and  no  interior  parts  became  crowded,  and  pressed  for  en- 
part  of  it  would  go  to  the  labourer,  or  the  lower  largement.  But  there  were  many  others,  who  were 
class  of  people,  who  must  take  their  pay  in  goods,  or  proprietors  of  large  tracts  of  uncultivated  land,  which 
go  without.  In  a  short  time  experience  taught  afforded  no  income,  and  some,  who  had  obtained 
them,  that  it  was  as  easy  for  a  frugal  industrious  grants  of  land,  which,  unless  cultivated  within  all- 
person  to  obtain  silver,  as  it  had  been  to  obtain  I  rnited  time,  were  to  revert  to  the  grantors, 
paper ;  and  the  prejudice  in  the  town  of  Boston  was  I  These  persons  endeavoured  to  represent  the  great 
so  much  abated,  that  when  a  large  number  of  people  benefit  arising  to  the  community  from  the  speedy 
from  Abingdon,  and  other  towns  near  to  it,  came  to  increase  of  population ;  and,  not  contented  with 
Boston,  expecting  to  be  joined  by  the  like  people  the  natural  growth  of  a  colony,  which,  it  was  then 
there,  they  were  hooted  at,  and  insulted  by  the  boys  agreed,  would  double  its  number  every  twenty-five 
andservants,andobligedtoreturnhomedisappointed.  years,  nor  with  such  additionsasmight.be  made 
The  assembly  being  then  sitting,  it  was  thought  from  other  parts  of  the  British  dominions,  they  per- 
proper  to  pass  an  act  for  preventing  riots,  upon  the  suaded  the  general  assembly  to  countenance  and 
plan  cf  the  act  of  parliament  known  by  the  name  of  encourage  their  private  endeavours  to  bring  a  large 
the  Riot  Act,  except  that  the  penalty  was  changed  body  of  foreign  protestants  into  the  colony.  They 
from  death,  to  other  severe  and  infamous  punishment,  were  intended  not  only  for  the  frontiers,  both  east 
This  was  a  temporary  act,  but  not  suffered  to  ex-  and  west,  as  a  barrier  ill  case  of  any  rupture  with 
pire ;  and  continued  in  force  until  riots  took  place  Indians  or  French,  but  some  were  to  be  placed 
to  prevent  the  execution  of  acts  of  parliament  which  within  and  near  the  principal  sea  ports  and  large 
\vere  deemed  grievous,  and  then  it  was  discontinued,  inland  towns,  to  introduce  useful  manufactures. 

From  an  aversion  to  a  silver  currency,  the  body  Mr.  Waldo,  a  proprietor  of  a  large  tract  of  land 
of  the  people  changed  in  a  few  months,  and  took  an  upon  the  eastern  frontiers,  had  carried  on  a  corres- 
aversion  to  paper,  though  it  had  silver  as  a  fund  to  pondence  with  Mr.  Crelleies,  and  had,  by  his  means, 
secure  the  value  of  it.  A  sufficient  quantity  of  I  procured  many  emigrants  from  Germany,  to  whom 
small  silver  for  change  could  not  be  procured  in  I  conditional  grants  had  been  made  by  Mr.  Waldo. 
England,  when  the  grant  made  by  parliament  was  Another  person,  who  seemed  to  be  of  more  import- 
sent  to  America.  The  assembly,  therefore,  ordered  ance,  Mr.  Luther,  a  counsellor  of  law  in  Germany, 
a  deposit  to  remain  in  the  treasury,  of  three  thou-  by  some  means  or  other,  became  a  correspondent 
sand  pounds  in  dolla.rs,  and  issued  small  paper  bills  with  the  general  assembly,  and  they  expressed  to 
of  different  denominations,  from  one  penny  to  eigh-  I  him  their  desire  to  introduce  foreign  protestants, 
teen  pence ;  and  every  person,  possessed  of  them  to  I  and  signified  to  him,  in  general  terms,  that  his  as- 
the  amount  of  one  dollar  or  any  larger  sum,  might  sistance  to  those  persons  who  were  entering  into 
exchange  the  bills  at  the  treasury  for  silver  upon  contracts  for  that  purpose,  would  be  kindly  received, 
demand.  The  whole  sum  was  prepared,  but  a  small  Mr.  Luther,  from  this  correspondence,  considered 
part  only  was  issued,  and  scarcely  any  person  would  himself  as  a  sort  of  public  person,  and  proposed 
receive  them  in  payment,  choosing  rather  a  base  I  many  plans,  and,  probably,  was  at  much  pains,  and 
coin  imported  from  Spain,  called  pistorines,  at  20  I  some  expense,  to  encourage  the  emigration.  The 
per  cent  more  than  the  intrinsic  value.  I  expectations,  neither  of  the  emigrants  which  ar- 

From  ths   first  introduction  of  paper  money,  it  I  rived,  nor  of  the  province,  were  answered, 


UNITED  STATES. 


375 


Such  as  settled  upon  the  frontiers  suffered  ex- 
ceedingly, and  many  died  the  first  winter,  for  want 
of  necessary  lodging,  food,  and  clothing. 

(1751.)  An  attempt  was  made  to  settle  a  manu- 
facturing German  town,  a  few  miles  from  Boston, 
within  the  limits  of  the  township  of  Braintree ;  but 
it  never  flourished.  The  private  undertakers  grew 
discouraged;  the  emigrants  complained  of  being 
disappointed  and  deserted  ;  the  assembly  first  slack- 
ened their  correspondence  with  Mr.  Luther,  and, 
after  a  year  or  two,  ceased  answering  his  frequent 
letters,  which  were  filled  with  complaints  of  neglect, 
and  hard  usage.  Mr.  Phipps,  the  lieut.-governor, 
was  concerned  for  the  honour  of  the  government, 
and  repeatedly  recommended  to  the  assembly  a 
proper  notice  of  Mr.  Luther,  and  a  consideration  of 
his  service  and  expense,  but  without  any  effect. 
The  house  had  been  brought  into  the  correspond- 
ence, by  the  influence  of  a  few  persons  who  deserted 
the  cause,  and  were  under  no  apparent  concern  at 
the  reproaches  upon  government.  Some  of  the 
members,  both  of  the  council  and  of  the  house,  ear- 
nestly endeavoured  to  persuade  the  general  assem- 
bly to  do  as  a  collective  body,  that,  which  every 
individual  would  in  honour  have  been  bound,  and 
perhaps  by  law  might  have  been  compelled,  to  do ; 
but  they  could  not  prevail. 

Possession  had  been  taken  of  the  harbour  at  Chi- 
bucto  in  Nova  Scotia,  by  the  British  government, 
the  year  after  the  peace.  A  plan  was  laid  for  the 
settlement  of  a  fortified  town,  by  the  name  of  Hali- 
ia.x,  and  the  plan  was  vigorously  executed;  but  it 
appeared  that  the  French  were  more  early  in  their 
measures,  for,  upon  the  arrival  of  Governor  Corn- 
wallis  at  Halifax,  he  found  the  French  had  taken 
possession  of  Chignecto,  and  had  erected  a  fort 
there,  and  claimed  the  river  St.  John,  and  all  Aca- 
dia,  as  far  as  Penobscot;  which  must  cut  oft'  Nova 
Scotia  from  the  rest  of  the  British  dominions  upon 
the  continent;  and  that  many  of  the  French  Acadi- 
ans,  commonly  called  neutrals,  who  had  acknow- 
ledged themselves  subjects  of  the  crown  of  Great 
Britain,  ever  since  the  surrender  of  Acadia  to  Ni- 
cholson in  1710,  had  now  declared  their  revolt,  and 
their  adherence  to  the  crown  of  France.  Mr.  Corn- 
wallis  wrote,  in  very  pressing  terms,  to  Mr.  Phipps 
for  aid ;  who  recommended  to  the  assembly  the 
measures  necessary  on  their  part,  to  enable  him  to 
raise,  and  transport  a  proper  force  to  Nova  Scotia; 
but  they  declined  it. 

Mr.  Shirley  would  have  had  a  better  chance  of 
success ;  though  the  assembly  urged,  as  an  excuse, 
that  they  had  enough  to  do  in  providing  for  their 
own  security. 

The  lieut.-governor  had,  about  the  same  time,  re- 
ceived information,  to  which  he  gave  full  credit, 
that  the  French  had  also  taken  possession  of  the 
river  Lechock,  within  the  province  of  Massachusetts 
bay,  about  five  leagues  east  of  Penobscot.  Gover- 
nor Clinton,  also,  wrote  from  New  York,  that  the 
governor  of  Canada  was  endeavouring  to  draw  over 
the  Indians  of  the  six  nations,  and  urged  a  meeting 
of  commissioners  from  the  English  colonies  to 
counteract  him. 

The  possession  of  Chibucto  by  the  English,  was 
perfectly  agreeable  to  the  last  treaty,  it  being  a  part 
of  the  peninsula  of  Nova  Scotia  to  which  the  French 
made  no  pretence;  but  Chignecto  and  the  country 
of  the  six  nations,  were  the  territories  in  dispute, 
which,  in  pursuance  of  the  last  treaty,  the  commis- 
sioners at  Paris  were  then  litigating.  Thus,  before 
peace  was  fully  settled,  the  French  engaged  in  mea- 


sures which  had  a  direct  tendency  to  renew  the  war. 

There  was  an  affair,  of  some  importance  to  the 
province,  which  came  under  consideration  in  ths 
assembly,  while  Mr.  Phipps  was  in  the  administration. 
Many  of  the  province  laws  had  become  obsolete; 
others,  by  frequent  additions  and  alterations,  were 
perplexed  and  unintelligible,  and  had  been  differ- 
ently understood  and  acted  upon,  at  different  times, 
and  on  different  occasions. 

(1752.)  The  case  had  been  much  the  same  in 
Virginia,  where  the  assembly  had  made  a  general 
revisal  of  their  code  of  laws,  except  such  as  were 
personal,  or  of  a  private  nature,  and  had  framed, 
very  successfully,  a  complete  and  well-digested  body, 
which  was  well  approved  of  by  the  government  in 
England.  This  success  was  the  occasion  of  an  in- 
struction from  the  lords  justices,  the  king  being  in 
Hanover,  to  the  governor  of  Massachusetts  bay,  to 
recommend  to  the  assembly  a  like  revisal  of  their 
laws,  to  be  passed,  and  sent  to  England  for"  the  royal 
approbation. 

In  consequence  of  a  message  from  the  lieut.-go- 
vernor to  the  two  houses,  the  council  appointed  a 
committee  to  consider  the  proposal  in  conjunction 
with  a  committee  of  the  house ;  but  the  house  de- 
clinfid  joining;  and,  though  the  lieut.-governor  re- 
peated his  recommendation,  they  neglected  or  refus- 
ed to  comply  with  it. 

It  was  allowed  that  the  laws  were  deficient,  and 
it  was  evident  that  if  any  laws  should  be  repealed  by 
the  assembly,  and  other  provision  be  made  by  a  new 
law,  and  the  king  should  disallow  the  new  law,  he 
would  also  disallow  the  repeal,  and  the  old  law  would 
remain  in  force;  for  the  king  could  not  disallow  part 
of  a  law,  and  approve  of  other  parts.  This  was  a 
security  for  any  favourite  law,  which  the  people 
might  suspect  the  king  wished  they  had  not  approv- 
ed of.  And,  then,  no  new  law  could  be  imposed 
upon  them;  because  no  alteration  could  be  made  in 
England,  but  the  whole  must  be  allowed  or  rejected, 
as  it  originated  in  the  province.  Many  acknow- 
ledged that  there  was  the  appearance  of  much  bene- 
fit from  the  proposal,  that  they  could  not  see  any 
danger.  A  majority,  however,  were  jealous  of  a  la- 
tent design.  They  feared,  that  in  the  prosecution 
of  the  business,  a  way  would  be  found  to  give  a  new 
construction  to  some  of  their  laws,  especially  some 
which  respected  the  ecclesiastical  part  of  the  consti- 
tion.  It  was  also  a  part  of  the  plan,  and  very  ne- 
cessary, that  there  should  be  a  clause  in  every  law, 
suspending  the  operation  of  it  until  the  king's  plea- 
sure should  be  known.  A  prejudice  had  long  lain 
upon  the  minds  of  the  people  against  such  a  clause, 
though  it  is  not  easy  to  conceive  of  any  inconveni- 
ence which  could  arise  from  it;  and  it  was  added, 
that,  in  the  present  state  of  the  laws,  the  people  were 
well  satisfied;  that  the  effect  of  alterations  was  un- 
certain, and  that,  therefore,  it  was  best  not  to  at- 
tempt them. 

(1753.)  Mr.  Phipps's  administration  was  short, 
and,  as  that  of  a  lieut.-governor  had  generally  been, 
quiet.  Mr.  Shirley  arrived  in  Boston  from  England, 
August  the  6th,  1753.  He  made  an  ill-judged  step 
when  he  was  in  France,  which  he  had  reason  to  re- 
pent of  as  long  as  he  lived.  At  the  age  of  three- 
score, he  was  captivated  with  the  charms  of  a  young 
girl,  his  landlord's  daughter  in  Paris,  and  married 
her  privately. 

When  he  came  back  to  England,  he  would  have 
concealed  his  match.  Lord  Halifax  had  heard  the 
report,  but  did  not  credit  it,  until  some  of  her  let- 
ters were  shewn  him,  which  had  been  privately  taken 


376 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


out  of  Mr.  Shirley's  desk,  by  persons  who  wished  to 
defeat  his  design  of  obtaining  a  better  government, 
and  to  oblige  him  to  return  to  New  England.  This 
imprudence  lessened  him  in  Lord  Halifax's  esteem; 
and,  though  he  had  shewn  himself  to  be  very  capable 
of  his  trust  of  commissary  of  France,  as  well  as  very 
faithful  in  the  discharge  of  it,  yet,  as  he  failed  of 
success,  which  more  frequently  than  real  merit  en- 
titles to  reward,  his  private  fortune  was  much  hurt 
by  his  employment.  His  allowance  being  41.  only 
per  diem,  he  used  to  say,  it  did  not  cover  his  neces- 
sary expense  in  that  public  character.  The  rumour 
of  his  marriage  came  to  New  England  before  his 
arrival,  and  some  who  were  not  well  affected  to  him, 
were  ready  enough  to  insinuate  that  his  French 
connexions  might  induce  him  to  favour  the  French 
cause,  but  his  conduct  evinced  the  contrary.  He 
pronounced  an  accommodation  desperate,  that  the 
sword  must  settle  the  controversy,  that  it  ought  to 
be  done  without  delay,  otherwise  the  French  would 
make  themselves  too  strong  for  all  the  force  the 
English  could  bring  against  them. 

A  session  of  the  general  assembly  was  held  soon 
after  his  arrival,  September  the  5th,  in  which  the 
two  houses  politely  thanked  him  for  his  services 
during  his  absence.  This  was  a  short  session,  not 
intended  for  the  general  business  of  the  province. 

In  his  speech  at  opening  the  next  session,  on  the 
4th  of  December,  he  set  forth  at  large  his  services 
in  England  and  France,  which  indeed  were  of  ge- 
neral concern  to  the  British  Empire,  but  they  re- 
spected the  colonies,  and  particularly  Massachusetts 
bay,  more  than  any  other  parts,  and  he  urged  the 
assembly  to  make  him  an  adequate  consideration. 

It  has  always  been  the  expectation  of  the  crown, 
that  the  salaries  of  the  governors  should  be  conti- 
nued to  them,  whenever  they  are  absent  with  leave, 
and  that  one-half  should  be  allowed  to  the  lieut.-go- 
vernors  or  commanders  in  chief  in  such  absence; 
but  the  Massachusetts  assembly  would  never  allow  a 
salary  to  a  governor  in  his  absence,  and  their  grants 
to  the  lieut. -governors  never  exceeded,  and  were 
often  short  of^  one-half  the  usual  salary  to  the  go- 
vernor. 

The  assembly,  about  three  months  before  Mr. 
Shirley  left  the  province,  had  made  him  a  grant  of 
his  salary  for  a  year  to  come ;  it  seemed,  therefore, 
to  be  the  mind  of  a  great  part  of  the  house,  not  to 
grant  any  further  salary  until  nine  months  had  pass- 
ed after  his  return;  but  his  friends  carried  a  vote 
for  1,400Z.  lawful  money,  which  was  equal  to  1,050/. 
sterling.  This  was  more  than  they  expected,  and 
they  wished  he  would  be  contented  with  it;  but  he 
delayed  giving  his  assent  to  the  grant,  and  by  re- 
peated messages,  long  and  argumentative,  one  fol- 
lowing on  another,  urged  the  increase  of  the  sum ; 
and  insisted  on  a  voyage  to  Cape  Breton,  at  the  re- 
quest of  the  assembly  1745,  for  which  a  grant  was 
made  by  the  assembly  of  that  day,  of  300/.  sterling, 
and  which  he  then  declined  accepting,  lest  it  should 
be  a  prejudice  to  him  in  England,  from  whence  he 
expected  a  reward  adequate  to  his  services,  but  had 
been  disappointed.  The  house  excused  themselves 
by  observing,  that  if  he  had  taken  the  grant  at  that 
time,  it  would  have  been  added  to  the  charge  of  the 
expedition  to  Cape  Breton,  and  would  have  been 
reimbursed  by  parliament.  He  would  not  allow 
this  to  be  a  proper  article  of  charge.  He  generally 
urged  the  measures  which  he  proposed  to  the  assem- 
bly, as  far  as  he  could  without  annoying  them  and 
putting  them  out  of  temper,  and  no  further.  He 
pressed  them  too  hard  in  this  instance,  and  they 


sent  him  an  angry  message,  and  not  only  peremp- 
torily refused  to  enlarge  the  grant,  but  gave  this 
reason  for  it,  that  if  his  services  and  their  payments 
since  his  appointment  to  the  government  could  be 
fully  stated,  the  balance  would  be  in  their  favour. 

He  was  hurt  by  this  message,  but  though  he  want- 
ed money,  he  had  other  views  of  more  importance 
than  a  few  hundred  pounds,  and  it  would  not  con- 
sist with  those  views  to  be  upon  ill  terms  with  the 
assembly. 

From  the  beginning  of  his  administration,  until 
the  year  before  he  went  to  England,  he  had  been 
constantly  employed  in  projecting  and  prosecuting 
plans,  offensive  or  defensive,  against  the  king's  ene- 
mies. At  this  time  it  was  the  general  opinion  in 
England  and  in  America,  and  we  must  suppose  it 
was  his  opinion,  that  the  French  were  engaged  in 
such  encroachments  as  would  make  a  new  war  un- 
avoidable, and  the  longer  the  encroachments  should 
be  permitted,  the  more  difficult  it  would  be  to  re- 
move them.  A  regard,  therefore,  to  the  public  in- 
terest, seemed  to  call  upon  him  to  promo. e  a  war. 
He  had  a  fair  prospect,  in  this  way,  of  forwarding 
his  private  interest.  Nine  years  only  had  passed 
since  he  commenced  soldier.  He  stood  forward, 
however,  in  the  list  of  colonels  in  the  army ;  and  in 
case  of  war,  expected  a  regiment,  and  to  be  made  a 
general  officer.  He  not  only  urged  the  necessity 
of  opposing  the  French,  and  removing  the  settle- 
ments they  were  making  in  the  controverted  terri 
tory,  but  he  recommended  to  the  Massachusetts 
assembly  to  extend  their  own  settlements  into  such 
part  of  this  territory,  as  is  included  within  their 
charter,  that  they  might  be  beforehand,  and  put 
themselves  on  the  defensive. 

(1754.)  In  Acadia,  the  French  had  taken  pos- 
session of  the  Isthmus,  near  Bay  Vert,  and  had 
built  a  fort  there,  which  secured  their  passage  to 
Quebec  without  going  upon  the  occasion.  They  had 
a  blockhouse  about  thirteen  miles  distant  from  this 
fort,  towards  Chignecto,  and  three  miles  further, 
they  had  a  large  and  strong  fort,  within  half  a  mile 
of  the  basin  of  Chignecto,  at  the  bottom  of  the  bay 
of  Fundy.  Up  the  river  St.  John's,  they  had  also 
built  two  forts,  before  the  peace  of  Utrecht.  These 
they  now  repaired  and  fortified.  Of  all  this,  there 
was  undeniable  evidence. 

There  was  also  a  rumour,  that  they  had  begun  a 
settlement  near  the  river  Kennebeck,  which  is  in 
Massachusetts' province,  and  so  had  secured  the  car- 
rying place  from  that  river,  to  the  river  Chaudiere. 
It  soon  obtained  credit,  though  really  there  was  no 
grounds  for  it. 

They  had  forts  upon  the  back  of  Virginia,  Penn- 
sylvania, and  New  York,  before  the  year  1744. 
The  journal  of  an  English  trader,  who  was  taken 
prisoner  upon  the  river  Ohio,  soon  after  that  war 
began,  mentions  his  being  carried  from  fort  to  fort, 
until  he  arrived  at  Quebec,  and  gives  an  account  of 
other  forts,  twenty  or  thirty  miles  distant  one  from 
the  other,  between  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi. 
It  is  probable,  they  had  built  other  forts  since  the 
last  peace  ;  besides  one.  which  was  more  inconside- 
rable than  the  rest,  to  which  they  gave  the  name  of 
Fort  du  Quesne,  within  the  colony  of  Virginia. 
But  a  report,  that  they  had  built  a  fort  eastward  of, 
and  not  far  distant  from  Crown  Point,  which  was 
more  alarming  to  the  western  part  of  Massachusetts 
bay,  than  any  of  the  rest,  was  not  well  founded. 

Thus  stood  affairs  between  the  English  and  French 
in  America,  in  the  beginning  of  the  year  1754, 
when  government  in  England  thought  fit  to  recom- 


UNITED  STATES. 


377 


mend  a  convention  of  delegates  from  the  assemblies 
of  the  several  colonies,  to  be  held  at  Albany  in  the 
province  of  New  York.  The  city  of  Albany  is  the 
place  where  the  Indians  of  the  six  nations  had  ge- 
nerally been  treated  with,  either  by  the  governors 
of  New  York,  or  by  governors  or  commissioners 
from  any  other  colonies;  and  as  large  presents 
were  to  be  made  this  year  to  the  Indians,  and  the 
French  were  using  every  art  to  bring  them  over  to 
the  interest  of  France,  it  was  thought  proper  at  such 
a  time,  to  have  the  joint  council  of  all  the  English 
colonies. 

Insinuations  had  been  made,  that  there  had  not 
been  a  fair  and  full  distribution  of  the  former  pre- 
sents to  the  Indians,  and  this  was  said  to  be  one 
reason  why  the  distribution  at  this  time  was  ordered 
to  be  made  by  all  the  colonies,  and  not  left  to  New 
York  alone,  as  had  been  usual.  But  the  principal 
design  of  this  meeting  seems  to  have  been,  to  unite 
the  colonies  in  measures  for  their  general  defence, 
and  to  settle  a  quota  of  men  and  money,  whenever 
they  might  be  necessary  against  a  common  enemy. 

The  letter  from  the  secretary  of  state  by  order 
from  the  king,  was  directed  to  the  governor  of  New 
York,  who  was  required  to  notify  the  governors  of 
Virginia,  Maryland,  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey, 
Massachusetts  bay,  and  New  Hampshire,  by  name, 
of  the  time  of  the  meeting,  and  also  to  endeavour 
to  prevail  on  any  other  colonies  to  join  in  the  treaty. 

Virginia,  and  New  Jersey,  though  expressly 
named,  did  not  send  commissioners.  Connecticut 
and  Rhode  Island  were  the  only  colonies  which  sent, 
of  those  who  were  not  expressly  named.  This  was 
an  assembly  the  most  deserving  of  respect  of  any 
which  had  been  convened  in  America,  whether  we 
consider  the  colonies  which  were  represented,  the 
rank  and  characters  of  the  delegates,  or  the  purposes 
for  which  it  was  convened. 

After  "  brightening  the  chain,"  to  use  the  Indian 
metaphor,  between  the  British  colonies,  and  the  six 
nations  with  their  confederates,  a  representation  to 
the  king  was  agreed  upon,  in  which  were  set  forth 
the  unquastionable  designs  of  the  French  to  prevent 
the  colonies  from  extending  their  settlements,  a  line 
of  forts  having  been  erected  for  this  purpose,  and 
many  troops  transported  from  France;  and  the 
danger  the  colonies  were  in,  of  being  driven  by  the 
French  into  the  sea,  was  urged. 

The  commissioners  then  proceeded  to  the  con- 
sideration of  a  plan  for  the  union  of  the  colonies. 
The  king,  in  his  instructions  for  this  convention 
proposed  that  a  quota  should  be  settled,  and  that, 
by  acts  of  the  respective  assemblies,  this  should  be 
established  as  the  rule  for  raising  men  and  monies. 
The  plan  for  a  general  union  was  projected  by  Ben- 
jamin Franklin,  Esq.,  one  of  the  commissioners 
from  the  province  of  Pennsylvania,  the  heads  whereo 
he  brought  with  him. 

A  representation  was  proposed  by  delegates  from 
each  colony,  to  be  chosen  by  its  assembly.  The 
president  was  to  be  appointed  by  the  crown.  The 
delegates  to  be  newly  elected  once  in  three  years. 
The  president  to  have  a  negative  upon  all  acts:  the 
acts  were  to  be  sent  to  England  for  the  king's  al- 
lowance or  disallowance;  if  not  disallowed  in  three 
years,  they  were  to  be  considered  as  if  expressly 
allowed.  This  assembly  was  to  have  power  to  make 
peace  with,  or  declare  war  against  the  Indians;  to 
tmact  laws  for  the  regulation  of  the  Indian  trade;  to 
purchase  from  the  Indians,  for  the  crown,  such 
lands  as  are  not  within  the  bounds  of  any  colony,  or 
watch  may  not  be  within  such  bounds,  when  some 


of  the  colonies  shall  be  i-educed  to  more  convenient 
dimensions  ;  to  grant  such  lands  upon  quit- rents,  to 
be  paid  into  the  general  treasury  of  the  colonies  for 
the  purpose  of  making  settlements;  to  make  law* 
for  regulating  such  settlements,  until  the  king  forms 
them  into  governments ;  to  raise  and  pay  soldiers, 
and  to  erect  forts  for  the  defence  of  the  colonies ;  to 
build  ships  of  war  for  protection  of  trade  on  the 
ocean,  as  well  as  on  the  lakes;  and  for  these  pur- 
poses to  impose  and  levy  such  imposts,  duties,  and 
taxes  as  may  be  just  and  reasonable.  These  were 
he  capital  parts  of  the  plan. 

Previously  to  any  debate  upon  it,  a  doubt  arose, 
whether  an  act  of  parliament  was  not  necessary  to 
establish  such  an  union.  The  charters  and  commis- 
sions by  which  the  powers  of  government  were  grant- 
ed to  the  colonies,  gave  no  authority  to  form  one 
general  government  over  the  whole.  It  might  be 
said,  if  the  king  could  give  and  grant  powers  of  go- 
vernment separately  to  each  colony,  he  could  do  the 
like  to  the  whole  collectively;  but  this  would  be 
altering  the  powers  given  by  charter,  if  a  new  go- 
vernment was  appointed  over  the  inhabitants  for 
any  purposes  to  which  the  government  by  charter 
was  constituted;  and,  as  the  power  of  parliament  had 
not  then  bean  called  in  question,  an  act  of  parlia- 
ment was  judged  necessary  for  removing  all  excep- 
tion, and  made  part  of  the  plan. 

Some  of  the  delegates  had  very  full  powers,  while 
others  were  limited,  and  held  to  make  report  to  their 
constituents.  This  plan,  therefore,  though  unani- 
mously voted,  was  to  be  of  no  fores  until  confirmed 
by  the  several  assemblies. 

Not  one  of  the  assemblies  from  Georgia  to  New 
Hampshire,  when  the  report  was  made  by  their  de- 
legates, inclined  to  part  with  so  great  a  share  of  power 
as  was  to  be  given  to  this  general  government. 

The  plan  met  with  no  better  fate  in  England.  It 
was  transmitted,  with  the  other  proceedings  of  the 
convention,  to  be  laid  before  the  king.  The  conven 
tion  was  at  an  end ;  and  no  notice  was  afterwards 
publicly  taken  of  the  plan.  To  erect  a  general  go- 
vernment over  the  whole,  though  in  its  original  for- 
mation it  might  be  limited  to  special  purposes,  was 
a  matter  of  great  importance,  and  of  uncertain  con- 
sequences, men  in  possession  of  power  being  gene- 
rally inclined  to  amplify  their  jurisdiction  ;  and 
some  of  the  delegates  who  agreed  to  it  in  Albany, 
doubted  whether  it  would  ever  be  approved  of  by  the 
king,  the  parliament,  or  any  of  the  American  as- 
semblies. 

Mr.  Shirley  seems  to  have  been  in  favour  of  an 
assembly  to  consist  of  all  the  governors  of  the  colo- 
nies, and  a  certain  number  of  the  council  of  each 
colony,  with  powers  to  agree  upon  measures  for  the 
defence  of  the  colonies,  and  to  draw  upon  the  trea- 
sury in  England  for  money  necessary  to  carry  such 
measures  into  execution ;  for  the  reimbursement 
whereof,  a  tax  should  be  laid  on  each  colony  by  an 
act  of  parliament.  This  plan  was  communicated  by 
Mr.  Shirley  to  Mr.  Franklin,  one  of  the  delegates 
from  Pennsylvania,  who  a  few  months  after  the  con- 
vention ended,  went  to  Boston.  Mr.  Franklin  de- 
fended his  own  plan,  and  took  exceptions  to  Mr. 
Shirley's  in  several  ingenious  letters.  Upon  this 
occasion,  much  was  said  in  favour  of  an  exemption 
of  English  subjects  in  the  colonies  from  tax,  unless 
by  their  representatives,  of  which  they  had  none  in 
parliament.  The  restrictions  laid  by  parliament  on 
the  commerce  of  the  colonies,  were  considered  a* 
"  secondary"  taxes,  of  which  they  did  not  complain, 
though  they  had  no  share  in  laying,  or  disposing  of 


378 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


tliefn  .  and  the  benefit  arising  to  the  kingdom  from 
these  restrictions,  was  deemed  a  full  equivalent  to 
what  was  saved  to  the  colonies,  by  an  exemption 
from  what  might  be  called  "  primary"  taxes,  or  such 
as  should  be  laid  in  another  form,  and  appropriated 
by  parliament.  Upon  the  whole,  however,  Mr. 
Franklin  concluded  in  favour  of  a  more  intimate 
union  with  Great  Britain  by  representatives  in  par- 
liament, and  he  was  of  opinion  that  such  an  union 
would  be  very  acceptable  to  the  colonies,  provided 
they  had  a  reasonable  number  of  representatives  al- 
lowed them,  and  that  all  the  old  acts  of  parliament 
restraining  the  trade,  or  cramping  the  manufactures 
of  the  colonies,  be  at  the  same  time  repealed,  and 
the  British  subjects  there  be  on  the  same  footing, 
in  those  respects,  with  the  subjects  in  Great  Britain, 
till  the  new  parliament,  representing  the  whole, 
shall  think  it  for  the  interest  of  the  whole,  to  re- 
enact  some  or  all  of  them  :  not  that  he  imagined  so 
many  representatives  would  be  allowed  the  colonies, 
as  to  have  any  great  weight  by  their  numbers  ;  but 
he  thought  they  might  be  sufficient  to  occasion  those 
laws  to  be  better  and  more  impartially  considered, 
and  perhaps  to  overcome  the  private  interest  of  a 
corporation,  or  of  any  particular  set  of  artificers  or 
traders  in  England.  He  looked  upon  the  colonies 
as  so  many  counties  gained  to  Great  Britain,  and 
all  included  in  the  British  empire,  which  had  only 
extended  itself  by  their  means  ;  and  it  was  of  no 
importance  to  the  general  state  whether  a  merchant, 
a  smith,  or  a  hatter,  grew  rich  in  Old  or  New  Eng- 
land, any  more  than  whether  an  iron  manufacturer 
lived  at  Birmingham  or  Sheffield,  or  both,  seeing 
they  were  still  within  its  bounds,  and  their  wealth 
and  persons  at  its  command. 

This  correspondence  was  carried  on  with  great 
privacy.  Mr.  Shirley  saw  that  his  assembly  had  no 
disposition  to  adopt  the  Albany  plan  of  union,  and 
he  took  no  public  part,  but  left  them  to  themselves. 

The  representation  of  the  imminent  danger  to  the 
colonies  from  the  French  encroachments,  probably 
accelerated  those  measures  in  England  which  brought 
on  the  war  with  France. 

While  the  convention  was  sitting,  and  attending 
principally  to  the  frontiers  of  the  colonies  in  the 
western  parts,  Mr.  Shirley  was  diligently  employed 
in  the  east,  prosecuting  a  plan  for  securing  the 
frontiers  of  Massachusetts  Bay. 

A  rumour  sometimes  obtains  credit,  because  the 
subject,  from  the  nature  of  it,  is  probable.  From 
the  rumour  of  a  French  settlement  between  Kenne- 
beck  and  Chaudiere,  it  was  urged,  that  this  must  be 
a  very  fit  place  for  a  French  settlement;  or  there 
would  be  no  such  rumour. 

The  Massachusetts  assembly  was  influenced  by  the 
friends  of  the  governor,  to  address  him  to  raise  a 
small  army,  and  to  order  a  detachment  to  this  sup- 
posed settlement,  and,  if  the  rumour  should  be  well 
founded,  to  break  it  up  ;  and,  at  all  events,  to  secure 
by  forts  the  passes  from  Quebec,  for  New  England, 
by  the  way  of  Kennebeck.  The  assembly  also  de- 
sired him  to  go  into  the  eastern  part  of  the  province, 
and  there  to  take  upon  himself  the  immediate  di- 
rection of  the  affair.  He  accordingly  made  a  voy- 
age from  Boston  to  Falmouth,  in  Casco  Bay,  and 
took  with  him  a  quorum  of  his  council,  and  several 
principal  members  of  the  house,  who,  having  by 
their  advice,  been  instrumental  in  promoting  his 
measures,  would  think  themselves  bound,  upon  their 
return,  to  promote  a  sanction  of  them  in  the  gene- 
ral assembly. 

He  first  held  a  treaty  or  conference  with  the  In- 


dian chiefs  at  Falmouth,  to  prevent  their  being 
alarmed  from  fear  of  hostilities  against  them ;  and 
then  ordered  the  forces  which  he  had  raised,  consist- 
ing of  eight  hundred  men  under  the  command  of 
Mr.  John  Winslow,  who  had  been  a  captain  in  the 
royal  army  at  the  siege  of  Carthagene,  and  was  on 
half  pay,  to  the  river  Kennebeck.  There  they  first 
built  a  fort,  about  three  quarters  of  a  mile  below  Ta- 
comick  falls,  and  about  thirty-seven  miles  above 
Richmond  fort.  This  new  fort  took  the  name  of 
Halifax,  out  of  respect  to  the  then  secretary  of  state. 
A  number  of  persons  who  claimed  a  tract  of  land 
upon  this  river,  under  a  long  dormant  and  lately  re- 
vived grant  from  the  assembly  of  New  Plymouth, 
obtained  leave  from  the  governor  to  erect  another 
fort,  eighteen  miles  below  the  first,  at  a  place  called 
Cushnock.  This  he  called  Fort  Western,  from  a 
gentleman  of  his  acquaintance  in  Sussex,  in  England, 
and  in  each  fort  a  garrison  was  placed  in  the  pay  of 
the  province. 

Five  hundred  men  then  marched  to  what  was 
called  the  carrying-place,  and  to  a  pond  which  they 
supposed  to  be  half  way  over  it,  without  finding  any 
marks  of  French  or  Indian  settiemen  ts,  made  or  in- 
tended to  be  made ;  and  then  returned  to  Casco  Bay. 

Thus  ended  this  expedition,  which  was  very  ex- 
pensive ;  and  though  it  was,  in  every  part  of  it.  the 
project  of  the  governor,  yet,  as  it  had  the  appear- 
ance of  originating  in  the  assembly,  there  was  no 
room  for  complaint.  Besides,  it  was  said  by  the  go- 
vernor, that  the  forts  built  on  the  Kennebeck,  in  the 
vicinity  of  this  carrying-place,  would  be  a  check 
upon  the  Indians,  who,  in  time  of  war  passed  over  it. 

The  expense  was  to  no  beneficial  purpose.  Both 
French  and  Indians  soon  ceased  from  any  thoughts 
of  taking:  possession  of  the  British  territories,  and 
their  attention  was  taken  up,  in  defending  themselves 
against  the  vigorous  measures  of  their  provoked 
enemies. 

Soon  after  governor  Shirley's  return  to  Boston 
from  this  expedition,  in  October  or  November,  he 
received  letters  from  the  secretary  of  state,  signify- 
ing his  majesty's  pleasure,  that  in  concert  with  colo- 
nel Lawrence,  lieutenant-governor  and  commander- 
in-chief  of  Nova  Scotia,  he  should  take  the  most 
proper  measures  for  removing  the  subjects  of  the 
French  king  from  the  forts  in  that  province  ;  arid, 
in  the  winter  following,  lieutenant-colonel  Monckton 
came  to  Boston,  with  proposals  from  colonel  Law- 
rence for  raising  two  thousand  men,  to  be  employed 
in  this  service. 

They  were  to  be  raised  by  enlistment,  and  though 
they  were  to  be  carried  out  of  the  province,  it  must 
be  with  their  own  consent.  The  charge  also  of 
raising,  paying,  transporting,  &c.,  was  to  be  paid  by 
the  crown.  It  seemed,  therefore,  that  there  was  no 
occasion  for  meeting  the  general  assembly.  But  the 
governor  knew,  that  it  would  much  forward  the  en- 
listment, if  he  could  give  the  assembly  a  favourable 
opinion  of  the  expedition.  In  a  very  long  speech, 
he  therefore  laboured  to  set  before  them  the  danger 
to  which  the  whole  British  interest  in  America,  as  he 
alleged,  would  be  exposed,  if  these  encroachments 
were  suffered  to  continue  ;  and  that  if  this  critical 
opportunity  should  be  lost,  it  would  be  much  more 
difficult  to  remove  them  hereafter.  Mr.  Shirley  had 
one  peculiar  advantage  for  promoting  his  military 
schemes  in  the  assembly.  Many  of  the  field  officers 
and  others  who  were  at  Louisburg,  and  in  other  ser- 
vices, the  last  war,  were  now  members  of  assembly, 
and  the  more  readily  fell  in  with  his  proposals.  At 
this  time,  the  assembly  not  only  acquiesced  in  the 


UNITED  STATES. 


governor's  proposals,  but  the  members  in  the  several 
parts  of  the  province  encouraged  the  enlistment, 
and  the  proposed  number  was  complete  sooner  than 
expected  ;  and  sooner  than  otherwise  it  would  have 
been,  by  assurances  that  the  governor  himself  would 
take  the  command  of  the  whole  battalion,  and  that 
major-general  Winslow  would  be  the  next  officer  ; 
and  Mr.  Winslow  was  made  to  believe  it  also.  It  is 
not  probable  that  Mr.  Monckton,  who  had  the  rank 
of  lieutenant-colonel  in  the  army,  ever  intended  to 
serve  under  Mr.  Winslow,  who  had  only  the  rank  of 
captain.  There  was  the  appearance  of  discontent, 
on  the  part  of  Mr.  Winslow,  when  colonel  Monck- 
ton's  claim  to  the  superior  command  first  transpired. 
Governor  Shirley  managed  the  affair  very  skilfully. 
The  business  of  the  province  would  not  admit  of  his 
leaving  it,  and,  though  it  was  called  his  regiment, 
he  could  not  take  the  command  in  person.  A  com- 
mission for  the  first  battalion  was  given  to  Mr. 
Monckton,  and  Mr.  Winslow  was  brought,  upon 
such  consideration  as  was  thought  fit,  to  be  content 
with  the  command  of  the  second. 

The  only  inconvenience  to  the  province  from  this 
expedition,  was  the  loss  of  the  men  who  enlisted, 
which  increased  the  difficulty  of  raising  men  for 
further  services.  For,  when  the  governor  had  brought 
the  assembly  to  an  acquiescence,  and  had  secured 
the  enlistment,  he  opened  to  them  a  further  part  of 
his  plan  ;  which  would  take  both  men  and  money 
from  the  province. 

The  rumours  of  a  French  fort  near  to  Crown 
Point,  it  was  now  acknowledged,  were  groundless, 
but  it  was  certain  that  there  was  a  rocky  eminence, 
which  would  command  Crown  Point  fort,  and  the 
governor  proposed,  that  whilst  the  expedition  was 
going  on  against  the  French  forts  in  Nova  Scotia, 
which  must  draw  the  attention  of  the  French  in 
Quebec,  to  that  province,  possession  should  be  taken 
of  this  eminence,  and  a  strong  fort  be  erected  there, 
and  well  garrisoned.  This  would  be  a  security  to 
the  frontiers  of  the  English  colonies  against  the  in- 
roads of  French  and  Indians,  and  would  be  a  good 
post  from  whence  parties  of  English,  and  Indians 
in  their  interest,  might  issue  to  make  depredations 
on  the  French;  and,  whenever  it  should  be  thought 
proper  to  make  an  attempt  uponCrown  Pointby  means 
of  this  post  such  attempt  would  be  much  facilitated. 
The  assembly  thought  favourably  of  the  project. 
They  did  not,  however,  immediately  resolve  to  make 
provision  for  the  charge  which  must  attend  it,  but 
desired  the  governor  to  carry  it  on  at  the  charge  of 
the  crown,  and  gave  their  opinion,  that  he  would 
run  no  risk  in  it.  He,  on  the  other  hand,  recom- 
mended to  them  to  raise  the  money  necessary  for  the 
purpose,  and  intimated  to  them,  that  they  had  no 
more  reason  now  to  distrust  his  majesty's  paternal 
regard,  in  affording  them  relief,  so  far  as  they  should 
overburden  themselves,  than  they  had  when  they 
engaged  the  last  war,  in  the  successful  expedition 
against  Louisburg.  Many  members,  who  would  not 
otherwise  have  been  in  favour  of  the  proposal,  were 
made  to  believe  that  the  charge  would  be  repaid; 
and  a  majority  of  the  house  came  to  a  resolve,  to 
desire  the  governor  to  engage  in  an  attempt  to  erect 
a  fortress  near  to  the  French  fort  at  Crown  Point, 
and  to  repel  and  revenge  any  hostilities  which  might 
be  offered  to  his  majesty's  forces,  whilst  they  should 
be  employed  in  that  service.  This  they  did,  in 
humble  trust  that  his  majesty  would  be  graciously 
pleased  to  relieve  the  province  from  the  expense  of 
this  undertaking,  though  at  all  events,  they  would 
not  leave  the  governor  to  suffer. 


(1753.)  Thus  the  assembly  was  brought,  expressly 
to  desire  the  governor  to  oppose  the  French  by  force, 
if  they  should  interrupt  the  English;  which  looks  as 
if  he  had  some  doubts  whether  he  did  not  run  a  risk 
of  the  measures  not  being  approved,  and  imagined 
such  a  desire  would  be  of  service  to  him  in  England. 

Although  he  considered  the  Massachusetts  as  the 
leading  colony,  yet  he  designed  to  engage  other. co- 
lonies to  take  part  with  it.  Less  than  five  thousand 
men  was  deemed  insufficient.  The  Massachusetts 
assembly  resolved  to  make  provision  for  the  pay  and 
subsistence  of  1,200.  It  was  proposed,  that  New 
Hampshire  should  raise  600,  Rhode  Island  400, 
Connecticut  1,000,  and  New  York  800;  and  as  th« 
governor  and  Sir  William  Pepperell  had,  each  of 
them,  been  ordered  by  the  king  to  raise  a  regiment 
upon  the  establishment,  it  was  part  of  the  plan  that 
those  regiments  should  join. 

New  Jersey,  it  was  expected,  would  make  some 
addition,  and  Pennsylvania,  which  scrupled  raising 
men,  was  desired  to  contribute  to  the  charge  by 
raising  provisions.  Commissioners  were  sent  from 
Massachusetts  to  each  of  the  other  colonies  to  solicit 
a  junction. 

The  governor  was  much  at  a  loss  for  a  proper 
general.  Mr.  Hutchinson,  who  had  be?n  one  of  the 
commissioners  at  Albany,  proposed  to  him  Colonel 
Johnson,  one  of  the  council  at  New  York,  who  was 
also  a  commissioner  at  Albany.  Governor  Shirley 
approved  of  the  proposal,  but  doubted  whether  the 
assembly  would  not  dislike  his  appointing  a  general 
who  lived  in  another  province.  The  assembly  were 
brought  to  acquiesce,  by  being  informed,  that  no 
man  had  so  great  an  influence  over  the  Indians  as 
Colonel  Johnson,  and  that  he  would,  undoubtedly, 
be  the  means  of  bringing  several  hundred  to  join  in 
the  expedition. 

The  commissions  to  the  general  officers  then  came 
to  be  considered.  It  was  a  new  case,  and  it  was 
judged  necessary  that  each  governor  in  the  colony, 
where  any  forces  of  which  the  army  consisted,  were 
raised,  should  give  commissions  to  the  general  offi- 
cers, and  that  the  regimental  commissions  for  each 
colony  should  subject  the  regiments  to  such  general 
command. 

While  preparations  were  making  for  the  expedi- 
tions to  Nova  Scotia  and  Crown  Point,  General 
Braddock  arrived  in  Virginia  from  England,  and 
immediately  gave  notice  to  governor  Shirley,  and 
to  several  other  governors,  to  meet  him  at  Annapolis, 
in  Maryland,  in  order  to  consult  upon  measures  for 
his  majesty's  service.  The  place  was  afterwards 
changed  to  Alexandria. 

At  this  meeting,  the  expedition  to  the  west,  under 
General  Johnson,  as  well  as  that  to  Nova  Scotia, 
under  Colonel  Monckton,  was  approved  of:  and  it 
was  determined,  that  another  expedition  should  be 
formed  against  Fort  du  Quesne,  upon  the  back  of 
Virginia,  with  a  force  under  General  Braddock, 
consisting  of  two  regiments  which  he  brought  with 
him  from  England,  two  independent  companies 
which  were  posted  at  New  York,  and  so  many  pro- 
vincials, to  be  raised  in  the  southern  colonies,  as 
should  amount  in  the  whole  to  2,400  men.  It  was 
further  determined  that  the  two  newly  raised  regi- 
ments of  Shirley  and  Pepperell,  with  500  men  raised 
in  New  Jersey,  and  300,  of  the  1,200  raised  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  which  had  been  destined  for  the  ex- 
pedition to  Crown  Point,  should  be  taken  from  that 
service,  and  employed  under  governor  Shirley,  in 
an  attempt  to  dislodge  the  French  who  were  posted 
at  Niagara,  in  a  fort  there.  Thus  there  were  four 


380 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


expeditions  on  foot  at  the  same  time,   in   three   of 
which  the  Massachusetts  had  a  share. 

The  success  was  various.  That  to  Nova  Scotia 
an'swered  expectation.  The  French  forts  at  Beau 
Sejour  were  taken;  and,  thereupon,  those  at  the 
river  St.  John  were  abandoned. 

That  under  General  Braddock  was  entirely  frus- 
trated. In  marching  through  the  woods,  when  about 
ten  miles  distant  from  Fort  du  Quesne,  the  army 
was  surprised  by  an  attack,  on  every  quarter,  from 
an  invisible  enemy.  A  body  of  French  and  Indians 
having  been  posted,  every  man  behind  a  tree,  at  a 
convenient  distance,  made  a  sudden  fire  upon  them, 
and  killed  and  wounded  a  great  number.  They 
could  not  see,  but  they  could  hear  their  enemies; 
and  the  yells  of  the  savages,  which  of  all  noises  is 
the  most  horrid,  added  much  to  the  terror  with 
which  the  army  was  seized.  The  fire  was  returned, 
but  to  little  purpose.  The  general  was  mortally 
wounded;  his  secretary,  eldest  son  to  Governor  Shir- 
ley, shot  through  the  head.  Sir  Peter  Halkett,  and 
many  of  the  officers  were  among  the  slain;  Sir 
John  Sinclair,  and  many  others,  among  the  wounded 
The  army  retreated  under  the  command  of  Lieut.- 
colonel  Gage.  General  Braddock  died  in  the  woods 
soon  after  the  action. 

His  body  was  buried  in  the  most  secret  manner, 
to  prevent  indignities  from  the  savages,  if  the  place 
should  be  discovered  by  them :  and  thus  ended  this 
unfortunate  expedition.  There  was  not  the  least 
apprehension  of  a  force  in  that  quarter,  equal  to 
that  of  the  English.  Much  confidence  was  placed 
in  an  experienced  English  general.  All  this  tended 
to  make  the  disappointment  greater. 

The  main  strength  of  the  enemy  was  expected  to 
oppose  the  army  destined  to  Crown  Point :  neither 
the  general,  nor  the  greater  part  of  that  army,  had 
ever  seen  service.  Some  part  of  the  officers  and 
men  had  been  employed  in  the  last  war  against 
Xouisburg.  The  news  of  Braddock's  defeat  might 
well  cause  a  general  despair  of  Johnson's  success. 

Soon  after,  letters  were  received  from  him  by 
lieut. -governor  Phipps,  governor  Shirley  being  ab- 
sent, urging  an  immediate  reinforcement  of  the  army 
then  under  his  command  at  or  near  lake  George. 
He  had  not  only  received  advice  that  the  strength 
of  the  enemy  was  superior  to  what  had  been  expect- 
ed, but  his  own  strength  was  inferior  to  what  he  had 
been  made  to  believe  he  might  depend  upon,  when 
he  accepted  of  the  command.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
Mr.  Shirley  ever  intended  that  the  two  regiments  of 
regular  troops  should  serve  under  a  provincial  gene- 
ral; but  the  deduction  of  the  Massachusetts  and 
New  Jersey  forces  he  could  not  have  in  view. 
General  Johnson  was  not  only  disappointed,  but 
was  much  displeased;  and  it  caused  a  breach  be- 
tween him  and  governor  Shirley,  to  whom  he  sup- 
posed it  to  be  owing,  which  was  never  made  up. 

At  best,  the  issue  of  this  expedition  was  very 
doubtful,  and  every  man  who  had  the  interest  of  his 
country  at  heart  was  full  of  anxiety. 

Such  extraordinary  incidents  as  had  given  suc- 
cess beyond  all  rational  probability,  to  the  expedition 
against  Louisburg,  and  in  as  wonderful  a  manner 
had  defeated  the  expedition  under  the  Duke  d'An- 
ville,  it  was  presumption  to  expect. 
-  The  Massachusetts  assembly  stood  prorogued  to 
the  24th  of  September.  The  lieut. -governor  was 
advised  to  ord^r  a  special  session,  by  proclamation, 
on  the  5th.  There  had  been  no  precedent  for  this 
in  the  province.  Recourse  was  had  to  precedents 
in  parliamentary  proceedings.  Whci>  the  Dutch 


threatened  an  invasion  in  16G7,  King  Charles  II., 
having  prorogued  the  parliament  to  October  10th, 
called,  by  proclamation,  an  intermediate  session  on 
the  25th  of  July.  The  Dutch  did  what  mischief 
they  could,  and  withdrew  their  ships.  The  parlia- 
ment was  again  prorogued  to  the  10th  of  October, 
and,  as  no  business  was  done,  there  was  no  room  to 
call  in  question  the  validity  of  any  proceedings. 

The  necessity  of  the  case  induced  Mr  Phipps  to 
comply  with  the  advice  given  him,  and  the  assembly 
having  sat  every  day,  Sunday  included,  from  the, 
5th  to  the  9th,  and  made  provision  for  raising  t\vo 
thousand  men  as  an  additional  force,  were  prorogued 
to  the  10th  of  October;  when  it  was  thought  proper, 
by  an  act  passed  for  that  purpose,  to  establish  all 
the  proceedings  of  the  intermediate  session,  and 
sufficient  ground  for  a  refusal  to  obey  them,  which 
might  be  of  very  bad  consequence. 

On  the  15th  of  September,  an  express  arrived 
from  General  Johnson  with  intelligence  which  re- 
lieved the  people  of  Massachusetts  bay  from  their 
fears. 

The  English  army,  which  had  marched  near  to 
lake  George,  formed  a  camp,  which  they  fortified 
with  the  best  breast-work  the  time  would  admit  of, 
such  as  trees  felled  for  that  purpose. 

Advice  was  soon  received  of  an  army  of  French 
and  Indians,  upon  their  march  from  South  bay. 
Colonel  Ephraim  Williams,  a  Massachusetts  officer, 
was  ordered  to  march  out  with  one  thousand  Eng- 
lish and  two  hundred  Indians,  and  to  endeavour  to 
ambush  the  enemy ;  but  he  was  met  by  them  sooner 
than  he  expected,  and  fell  in  the  beginning  of  the 
action.  The  men  fled  back  to  the  camp  with  great 
precipitation.  Many  of  them  were  killed  or  badly 
wounded,  and  those  who  escaped  came  to  the  camp 
in  tumultuous  hurry,  and  struck  terror  into  the 
whole  army.  The  enemy,  which  consisted  of  re- 
gular troops,  militia,  and  Indians  mixed,  came  on 
in  good  order.  The  English  within  the  camp  lay 
flat  upon  the  ground,  until  they  had  received  the 
first  fire,  which  was  made  at  a  great  distance,  and 
with  muskets  only,  the  enemy  having  no  artillery. 
The  cannon  from  the  English  camp  did  no  great 
execution. 

The  baron  Dieskau,  general  of  the  French  army, 
soon  received  a  wound,  whether  from  the  English, 
or  from  his  own  army,  is  uncertain.     It  was  a  for- 
tunate stroke  for  the  English,  as  it  disabled  him  for 
any  further  service,  cooled  the  ardour  of  the  French, 
raised  the  spirits  of  the  English,  and  caused  both 
French  and  Indians  to  retreat,    leaving  their  gc 
neral  a  prisoner.     In  the  action,  and  in  their  i  c 
treat,  it  was  reported  that  the  enemy  lost  one  thou 
sand  men ;  but  this  was  much  too  large  a  conipu 
tation.     Of  the   English,   about  one  hundred  and 
thirty  were  killed  and  mortally  wounded ;  among 
whom  was  colonel  Titcomb  of  the  Massachusetts, 
who  behaved  with  great  bravery  in  the  expedition 
against  Louisburg.  Hendrick  also,  a  Mohawk  chief, 
was  slain.     He   had  been  influenced   by   general 
Johnson  to  join  the  English  army,  at  the  head  of 
two  or  three  hundred  Indians  of  different  tribes. 

Johnson,  it  was  allowed  by  all,  discovered  a  firm, 
steady  mind,  during  the  action.  He  received  a  shot 
in  one  of  his  thighs,  which  he  complained  of  as  very 
painful,  but  not  dangerous. 

The  enemy  was  so  much  dispirited  by  the  loss  of 
their  general,  and  the  garrison  left  at  Crown  Point 
was  so  weak,  that  it  is  probable  it  would  have  been 
an  easy  acquisition,  if  an  immediate  attack  had  been 
made ;  but  the  general  did  not  think  it  advisable. 


UNITED  STATES. 


381 


This  repulse  of  the  enemy  caused  great  rejoicings 
in  the  several  colonies,  and  it  was  represented  in 
the  most  favourable  light  in  England. 

The  Massachusetts  assembly,  though  they  could 
find  no  fault  with  the  conduct  of  the  general  in  the 
field,  or  as  is  related  to  the  common  interest  with 
whirh  he  was  intrusted,  yet  they  were  not  pleased 
with  his  distinguishing  New  York  in  his  correspond- 
ence ;  and,  in  a  message  to  the  lieut.-governor,  they 
desired  he  would  acquaint  general  Johnson,  that,  as 
the  Massachusetts  province  bore  the  greatest  part  of 
the  charge  and  burden  of  the  expedition,  it  ought  to 
be  considered  the  principal  in  all  respects  ;  and  that 
all  papers  and  advices  of  importance  ought  to  be  first 
sent  to  that  province ;  and  that  the  French  general, 
and  other  prisoners  of  note,  ought  to  be  sent  to 
Boston.  General  Johnson's  correspondence  was, 
notwithstanding,  principally  with  the  government  of 
New  York.  Dieskau  and  the  other  prisoners  were 
sent  there;  and  it  was  most  convenient  for  the 
wounded  that  they  should  be  sent  there  also,  it  being 
nearest  to  the  army,  and  the  passage  to  it  being  by 
water. 

Thus  arose  a  coldness  between  the  province  and 
the  general,  which  seemed  to  give  him  no  great  con- 
cern. All  he  could  expect  from  the  colonies  bore 
no  proportion  to  his  expectations  from  government 
in  England,  which  were  fully  answered.  The  king 
conferred  on  him  the  dignity  of  a  baronet.  The 
parliament  made  him  a  grant  of  5000J.,  or  rather 
compelled  the  colonies  to  the  payment  of  5000/.,  by 
deducting  so  much  from  the  sum  intended  as  a  re- 
imbursement to  the  colonies,  and  appropriating  it  to 
general  Johnson's  benefit. 

Massachusetts  assembly,  by  repeated  votes,  de- 
clared their  sense  of  the  expediency  of  proceeding 
upon  the  expedition  without  delay;  and  that,  at 
least,  an  attempt  ought  to  be  made  to  remove  the 
enemy  from  Ticonderara,  where  they  had  taken  post; 
and  commissioners  were  sent  to  Albany,  and  autho- 
rised to  make  all  necessary  provisions  for  that  pur- 
pose. But  it  grew  late  in  the  year,  and  the  army 
was  disbanded  without  effecting  any  thing  more 
than  the  repelling  of  an  enemy,  who,  if  this  expedi- 
tion had  not  been  formed,  would  not  have  come  out 
against  the  English,  or  not  in  this  quarter. 

The  other  part  of  the  plan  of  measures  for  the 
present  year  fell  short  of  what  was  intended. 

After  the  consultation  at  Alexandria,  governor 
Shirley  returned  to  Boston,  and  having  attended  an 
assembly  for  the  election  of  counsellors,  and  other 
ordinary  business,  he  left  Boston,  and  proceeded 
westward,  in  order  to  prepare  for  the  expedition 
against  Niagara.  Upon  general  Braddock's  death, 
the  command  of  the  forces  devolved  upon  him.  This 
did  not  hinder  his  proceeding  to  lake  Ontario,  where 
he  spent  the  remainder  of  the  summer  and  the  au- 
tumn in  building  forts  at  Oswego;  reserving  the 
attempt  upon  Niagara  for  the  next  season.  While 
he  was  at.  Albany,  returning  to  Boston,  he  received 
a  commission  appointing  him  commander  in  chief 
of  all  his  majesty's  forces  upon  the  continent  of 
North  America.  At  this  moment,  he  was  in  his 
zenith.  His  friends  saw  the  risk  he  was  running, 
and  wished  he  had  contented  himself  with  his  civil 
station.  The  affairs  of  North  America  called  for  a 
general  of  the  first  military  accomplishments.  By 
his  letters  from  Albany,  he  recommended  to  the  as- 
sembly the  appointment  of  commissioners  to  confer 
with  commissioners  from  the  other  colonies  upon 
measures  for  the  further  prosecution  of  the  war. 
But  being  chagrined  at  so  little  effect  from  the  ex- 


pense of  the  last  year,  they  received  those  recom- 
mendations very  coldly,  and  declined  a  compliance, 
alleging,  that  "  securing  his  majesty's  territories  is 
a  design  which  his  majesty  only  is  equal  to  project 
and  execute,  and  the  nation  to  support;  and  that  it 
cannot  reasonably  be  expected  that  these  infant 
plantations  should  engage  as  principals  in  the  affair." 

He  went  from  Albany  to  New  York,  where  he 
spent  several  weeks  in  consultations  with  the  officers 
of  the  army  upon  the  necessary  preparations  for  the 
measures  of  the  next  year ;  and  did  not  return  to 
his  own  government  until  the  middle  of  winter. 

The  French  forts  at  Beau  Sejour,  Bay  Verte,  and 
the  river  St.  John,  in  Nova  Scotia,  had  been  reco- 
vered. The  state  of  that  province  was,  notwith- 
standing, deemed  very  insecure ;  many  thousand 
French  inhabitants  still  continuing  in  it.  They 
had  been  admitted  by  lieut.-governor  Armstrong, 
after  that  province  was  reduced  in  the  reign  of  queen 
Anne,  upon  such  a  sort  of  oath,  as  to  consider  them- 
selves rather  in  a  neutral  state  between  England 
and  France,  than  in  a  subjection  to  either,  and  from 
thence  they  took  the  name  of  French  neutrals. 
Being  all  Roman  catholics,  and  great  bigots,  and 
retaining  the  French  language,  they  were  better 
affected  to  France  than  to  England.  In  civil  mat- 
ters, they  had  been  more  indulged  by  the  English 
than  they  would  have  been  by'  the  French,  being  in 
a  mariner  free  from  taxes ;  and  a  great  part  of  them 
were  so  sensible  of  it,  that  they  wished  to  avoid 
taking  part  on  the  one  side  or  the  other.  But  the 
Indians,  who  were  engaged  on  the  part  of  the  French, 
had  constant  intercourse  with  them,  their  houses 
being  scattered,  and  where  there  were  any  number 
together  to  form  a  village,  open  to  both  French  and 
Indians  from  Canada,  without  any  sort  of  defence. 
And  it  was  the  general  opinion,  that,  if  any  attempt 
should  be  made  by  the  French  to  recover  the  pro- 
vince of  Nova  Scotia,  the  whole  body  of  the  Acadi- 
ans,  some  from  inclination,  others  from  compulsion, 
would  join  in  the  attempt. 

The  coinmander-in-chief  of  his  majesty's  ships, 
then  at  Halifax,  as  well  as  the  governor  of  the  pro- 
vince, supposed  that  the  principle  of  self-preserva- 
tion would  justify  the  removal  of  these  Acadians ; 
and  it  was  determined  to  take  them  by  surprise,  and 
transport  them  all,  men,  women,  and  children,  to  the 
English  colonies.  A  few  days  before  the  determina- 
tion was  executed,  notice  was  given  to  the  governors 
of  the  several  colonies  to  prepare  for  their  recep- 
tion. Far  the  greatest  part  were  accordingly  seized 
by  the  king's  troops,  which  had  remained  in  the  pro- 
vince, and  hurried  on  board  small  vessels  prepared 
to  receive  them,  with  such  part  of  their  household 
goods  as  there  was  room  for ;  the  remainder,  with 
their  stock  of  cattle,  the  contents  of  their  barns, 
their  farm  utensils,  and  all  other  moveables,  being 
left  behind  and  never  recovered,  nor  any  satisfactioa 
made  for  them. 

In  several  instances,  the  husbands  who  happened 
to  be  at  a  distance  from  home,  were  put  on  board 
vessels  bound  to  one  of  the  English  colonies,  and 
their  wives  and  children  on  board  other  vessels, 
bound  to  other  colonies  remote  from  the  first.  One 
of  the  most  sensible  of  them,  describing  his  case, 
said,  "  it  was  the  hardest  which  had  happened  since 
our  Saviour  was  upon  earth." 

About  a  thousand  of  them  arrived  at  Boston,  just 
in  the  beginning  of  winter,  crowded  almost  to  death. 
No  provision  was  made,  in  case  government  should 
refuse  to  take  them  under  its  care.  As  it  happened, 
the  assembly  were  sitting  when  they  arrived ;  but 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


several  days  were  spent  without  any  determination, 
and  some  aged  and  infirm  persons,  in  danger  of 
perishing,  were  received  on  shore  in  houses  provided 
for  them  by  private  persons.  At  length  the  assem- 
bly passed  a  resolve,  that  they  should  all  be  permitted 
to  land,  and  that  they  should  be  sent  to  such  towns 
as  a  committee  appointed  for  that  purpose  should 
think  fit ;  and  a  law  of  the  province  was  passed,  to 
authorize  justices  of  the  peace,  overseers  of  the  poor, 
&c.,  to  employ  them  in  labour,  bind  them  out  to  ser- 
vice, and,  in  general,  provide  for  their  support,  in 
like  manner  as  if  they  had  been  indigent  inhabit- 
ants of  the  province. 

Favour  was  shewn  to  many  elderly  people  among 
them,  and  to  others  who  had  been  in  circumstances 
superior  to  the  rest,  and  they  were  allowed  support 
without  being  held  to  labour.  Many  of  them  went 
through  great  hardships,  but  in  general  they  were 
treated  with  humanity.  They  fared  the  better,  be- 
cause the  towns  where  they  were  sent,  were  to  be 
reimbursed  out  of  the  province  treasury,  and  the  as- 
sembly was  made  to  believe  that  the  province  would 
be  reimbursed  by  the  crown ;  but  this  expectation 
failed.  It  was  proposed  to  them  to  settle  upon  some 
of  the  unappropriated  lands  of  the  province,  and  to 
become  British  subjects,  but  they  refused.  They 
had  a  strong  persuasion,  that  the  French  king  would 
never  make  peace  with  England,  unless  they  were 
restored  to  their  estates.  A  gentleman  who  was 
much  affected  with  their  sufferings,  prepared  a  re- 
presentation proper  for  them  to  make  to  the  British 
government,  to  be  signed  by  the  chief  of  them  in 
behalf  of  the  rest,  praying  that  they  might  either 
have  leave  to  return  to  their  estates,  or  might  re- 
ceive a  compensation  ;  and  he  offered  to  put  it  into 
the  hands  of  a  proper  person  in  England  to  solicit 
their  cause.  They  received  the  proposal  thankfully, 
took  the  representation  to  consider  of,  and,  after 
some  days,  returned  it  without  having  signed  it. 
They  were  afraid  of  losing  the  favour  of  France,  if 
they  should  receive  or  solicit  for  compensation  from 
England.  Despair  of  the  free  exercise  of  their  re- 
ligion, was  another  bar  to  every  proposal  tending  to 
an  establishment. 

The  people  of  New  England  had  more  just  notions 
of  toleration  than  their  ancestors,  and  no  exception 
was  taken  to  their  prayers  in  their  families,  in  their 
own  way,  which,  I  believe,  they  practised  in  gene- 
ral, and  sometimes  they  assembled  several  families 
together  ;  but  the  people  would  upon  no  terms  have 
consented  to  the  public  exercise  of  religious  worship 
by  Roman  catholic  priests.  A  law  remained  unve- 
pealed,  though  it  is  to  be  hoped  it  would  never  have 
been  executed,  which  made  it  a  capital  offence  in 
such  persons  to  come  within  the  provinco.  It  was 
suspected  that  some  such  were  among  them  in  dis- 
guise; but  it  is  not  probable  that  auy  ventured. 
One  of  the  most  noted  families,  when  they  were  dis- 
suaded from  removing  to  Quebec,  lest  they  should 
suffer  more  hardship  from  the  French  there  than 
they  had  done  from  the  English,  acknowledged  they 
exp'ected  it;  but  they  had  it  not  in  their  power 
since  they  left  their  country,  to  confess  and  to  be 
absolved  of  their  sins,  and  the  hazard  of  dying  in 
such  a  state,  distressed  them  more  than  the  fear  of 
temporal  sufferings. 

When  these  unhappy  persons  despaired  of  being 
restored  to  their  own  estates,  they  began  to  think  of 
a  removal  to  places  where  they  might  find  priests  of 
their  own  religion,  and  other  inhabitants  of  their 
own  language.  Many  hundreds  went  from  the  New 
England  colonies  to  Hispaniola,  where,  in  less  than 


a  year,  by  far  the  greatest  part  died.  Others  went 
to  Canada,  where  they  were  considered  as  an  infe- 
rior race  of  Frenchmen,  and  they  were  so  neglected, 
that  some  of  them  wrote  to  a  gentleman  in  Boston 
who  had  patronised  them,  that  they  wished  to  re- 
turn. In  1763,  Monsieur  Bougainville  carried  se- 
veral families  of  them,  who  had  found  their  way  to 
France,  to  the  Malouines,  or  Falkland  Islands, 
where  they  remained  but  a  short  time,  being  turned 
off  by  Mr.  Byron.  Bougainville  says,  "  they  are 
a  laborious  intelligent  set  of  men,  who  ought  to  be 
dear  to  France,  on  account  of  the  inviolate  attach- 
ment they  have  shewn  as  honest  but  unfortunate 
citizens."  Thus  they  were  dispersed  through  the 
world,  until  they  were  in  a  manner  extinct,  the  few 
which  remained  being  mixed  with  other  subjects  in 
different  parts  of  the  French  dominions. 

The  whole  surviving  force,  employed  by  the  cc- 
lonies  upon  the  expedition  under  general  Johnson, 
returned  before  winter,  except  six  hundred  men, 
which  remained  to  keep  post  at  lake  George,  where 
a  woodea  fort  was  built,  and  at  another  station  near 
Hudson's  river,  which  took  the  name  of  fort  Edward. 

These,  with  some  small  vessels  and  a  large  num- 
ber of  boats  on  the  lake,  and  works  erected  by  Mr. 
Shirley  at  Oswego,  where  he  had  placed  garrisons, 
and  lodged  large  magazines  of  provisions  and  mili- 
tary stores,  were  all  the  strength  of  the  English  upon 
the  western  frontiers,  at  the  close  of  the  year  1755. 
The  French  had  a  strong  fort  at  Crown  Point,  and 
works  at  Ticonderaga,  another  fort  at  Cataraqui. 
upon  or  near  lake  Ontario,  called  Fort  Frontenac, 
and  another  near  the  falls  of  Niagara. 

During  Mr.  Shirley's  absence  from  his  govern- 
ment, he  had  held  a  conference  with  several  Sa- 
chems of  the  six  nations,  and  had  promised  to  build 
forts  in  the  countries  of  the  Onandagoes,  Oneidas, 
and  Tuscaroras,  and  to  provide  garrisons  for  and  to 
send  men  to  the  Cayugas,  to  protect  and  assist  them 
in  their  husbandry,  and  he  had  received  assurances 
from  the  other  two  nations,  the  Senekas  and  Ma- 
quas,  that  they  would  join  him  in  the  spring. 

The  year  1755  was  rendered  remarkable  by  an 
earthquake  more  violent  than  any  other  since  the 
discovery  of  America.  It  seems  to  have  been  greater 
in  Massachusetts  than  any  other  colony.  In  Boston, 
many  chimneys  and  walls  of  houses  were  much  shat- 
tered, but  no  house  thrown  down.  A  stack  of  chim- 
neys, in  one  large  house,  was  lifted  off  from  the  wall 
of  the  house,  and  brought  so  far  upon  the  roof,  that 
if  it  had  been  an  inch  or  two  more,  that  part  of  the 
stack  which  was  above  the  roof  must  have  fallen 
over,  and  made  a  passage  through  the  house  to  the 
cellar.  At  Newport,  on  Rhode  Island,  it  was  less 
sensibly  felt  than  on  the  main  land  near  the  island : 
no  lives  were  lost.  This  was  the  third  remarkable 
earthquake  in  New  England,  since  the  English  ar- 
rived there. 

Of  the  first,  in  1638,  we  have  but  an  imperfect  ac- 
count. The  inhabitants  were  few  in  number.  At  the 
time  of  the  second,  in  1727,  there  was  no  remembrance 
nor  tradition  of  the  effect  of  the  first  upon  the  minrls 
of  the  people.  That,  in  1727,  was  accompanied  with 
a  most  tremendous  noise,  which  greatly  increased 
the  terror,  from  the  danger  of  the  shock,  which  was 
not  greater  than  this  of  1755.  Besides,  the  first 
great  shock  was  followed  by  others  less  violent,  the 
same  night :  and  such  smaller  shocks  were  frequently 
felt  for  several  weeks  after.  The  places  of  public 
worship  were  then  crowded,  one  day  after  another, 
in  most  parts  of  the  country;  and  a  strong  and  per- 
manent religious  impression  was  made"  upon  the 


UNITED  STATES. 


minds  of  many  people.  This,  in  1755,  had  less  of 
that  kind  of  effect.  Public  fasts  were  ordered  by 
authority,  but  the  terror  was  soon  over,  there  being 
very  few  repetitions  of  the  shock.  A  great  part  of 
the'people  remembered  the  earthquake  in  1727,  and 
there  had  been  other  less  violent  ones  in  a  few  years, 
which  made  them  more  familiar,  and  lessened  the 
apprehension  of  danger  in  proportion. 

(1756.)  It  was  part  of  the  plan  for  the  year  1756, 
to  remove  the  French  from  the  lakes;  and  as  soon 
as  the  governor  returned  to  Boston,  he  called  on  his 
assembly  to  afford  their  assistance. 

They  were  not  in  a  temper  suddenly  to  hearken  to 
this  call.  Many  of  them  were  not  satisfied,  that  a 
better  use  might  not  have  been  made  of  the  repulse 
of  the  French  the  last  year,  than  remaining  alto- 
gether on  the  defensive.  Accounts  had  been  re- 
ceived that  General  Johnson  was  expected  at  Ticon- 
deroga  and  Crown  Point  immediately  after  Dieskau's 
defeat,  and  that,  if  he  had  proceeded,  both  places 
would  have  fallen  into  his  hands  without  defence. 

At  first  they  desired  to  be  wholly  excused:  any 
further  charge  must  ruin  them.  The  treasure  and 
power  of  France  were  likely  to  be  employed  against 
the  English  colonies.  They  hoped  his  majesty 
would  graciously  afford  a  sufficient  force  to  oppose 
so  powerful  an  enemy. 

The  governor,  in  his  reply,  said  to  them,  that 
their  furnishing  a  quota  of  men  for  the  service  of 
the  next  year  would  probably  free  them  from  future 
taxes,  as  it  would  remove  that  enemy  which  other- 
wise would  make  them  to  be  necessary ;  and  the 
most  likely  way  to  obtain  a  compensation  for  what 
they  had  already  done  would  be  by  a  further  vigo- 
rous exertion.  They  assigned  a  further  reason  for 
their  non-compliance.  They  had  not  been  able  to 
borrow  money  sufficient  to  pay  the  charges  of  the 
last  year,  and  it  was  absolutely  out  of  their  power 
to  provide  for  the  charge  of  the  next. 

This  objection  he  obviated  too,  by  an  offer  to 
lend  the  province  30,000^.  sterling,  out  of  the  monies 
which  had  been  remitted  for  the  king's  troops,  and 
to  repay  himself  out  of  the  grant  which  it  was  ex- 
pected parliament  would  make  to  the  province  for 
last  year's  charges;  but  with  this  caution,  that  an 
act  of  assembly  should  pass  for  levying  a  tax  in 
the  years  1757  and  1758,  of  30,000*.  sterling,  as  a 
collateral  security,  the  act  to  have  no  effect  if  the 
grant  should  be  before  made  by  parliament. 

Declarations  made  to  serve  political  purposes 
oftentimes  will  not  bear  a  strict  scrutiny. 

The  province  was  never  in  better  credit  than  at 
this  time.  They  could  have  borrowed  enough  to 
pay  the  charges  of  the  past  and  present  year :  but 
this  mode  of  proceeding  induced  many  members  of 
the  assembly  to  come  into  the  measure.  They  were 
made  to  believe  it  tended  to  facilitate  the  obtaining 
of  a  grant  from  parliament. 

In  this  way  the  assembly  was  brought  to  agree 
to  the  governor's  proposal,  and  to  resolve  to  make 
provision  "  for  raising  3,000  men,  in  order  to  re- 
move the  encroachments  of  the  French  from  his 
majesty's  territories  at  or  near  Crown  Point;  in 
humble  confidence,  that  his  majesty  will  be  gra- 
ciously pleased,  hereafter,  to  give  orders  for  defray- 
ing the  expense  of  this  expedition,  and  for  establish- 
ing such  garrisons  as  may  be  needed,  in  order  to 
maintain  the  possession  of  that  country."  They 
intimated  to  the  governor,  that  it  would  encourage 
men  to  enlist,  if  a  gentleman  belonging  to  the  pro- 
vince might  have  the  chief  command;  and  this  inti- 
mation was  not  disagreeable  to  him,  ^as  he  could 


with  better  grace  decline  making  the  offer  to  Sir 
William  Johnson. 

Mr.  Shirley  had  formed  a  plan  to  raise  3,000  men 
in  Massachusetts  bay,  as  the  proportion  of  that  pro- 
vince to  an  army  of  9,000,  to  be  completed  by  Con- 
necticut, New  Hampshire,  Rhode  Island,  and  New 
York.  Mr.  John  Winslow,  who  was  second  in  com- 
mand the  last  year  at  Nova  Scotia,  was  appointed 
commander-in-chief  in  this  service. 

It  was  expected  that  a  proper  bounty  would  soon 
encourage  the  whole  number  to  enlist;  but  the  en- 
listment went  on  slowly,  and  an  act  of  assembly 
passed  to  make  up  the  deficiency  by  impressing 
men  out  of  the  militia :  but  this  act  was  not  season- 
ably executed;  for  the  governor,  who  left  the  pro- 
vince the  latter  part  of  April,  complains,  in  a  letter 
of  the  25th  of  May,  that  there  was  likely  to  be  a  de- 
ficiency of  500  men;  and  Winslow  urged,  not  only 
to  make  up  that  number,  but  to  raise  an  additional 
force.  When  the  army  arrived  at  Fort  Edward, 
either  Ticonderoga  and  Crown  Point  had  been 
really  made  stronger  than  was  expected,  or  appeared 
more  formidable  from  some  other  cause;  and  men 
of  judgment  were  under  great  concern,  lest  an  un- 
successful attempt  should  be  made  by  a  body  of  raw, 
undisciplined  militia,  and  they  should  be  repelled, 
scattered,  and  cut  to  pieces. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  was  painful  to  think  of 
losing  another  year,  by  the  continuance  of  the  army 
in  a  state  of  inactivity. 

Mr.  Shirley  had  remained  at  Albany  and  New 
York,  directing  the  necessary  measures  for  the  king's 
service  upon  lake  Ontario,  completing  the  armed 
vessels,  whaleboats,  batteaus,  provisions,  and  war- 
like stores,  necessary  for  strengthening  Oswego,  and 
carrying  on  an  expedition  against  the  French  forts 
at  Cataraqui  and  Niagara. 

While  at  New  York  in  the  month  of  June,  he  re- 
ceived despatches  from  the  secretary  of  state,  sig- 
nifying that  it  was  his  majesty's  pleasure  that  he 
should  come  to  England,  in  order  to  his  being  con- 
sulted upon  measures  for  carrying  on  the  Avar  ;  that 
Lord  Loudoun  would  soon  leave  England,  in  order 
to  take  the  command  of  his  majesty's  forces,  which, 
in  the  mean  time,  Mr.  Shirley  was  to  leave  to  gene 
ral  Abercrombie.  Though  this  had  the  appearance 
of  letting  him  down  tenderly,  it  was  a  mortifying 
stroke,  and  the  more  so,  as  it  was  altogether  unex- 
pected. It  seems  to  have  proceeded  from  a  more 
mature  consideration  of  his  want  of  military  know- 
ledge, and  his  unfitness  for  so  great  a  command. 
He  was  never  charged  with  want  of  fidelity ;  and 
the  state  of  his  own  affairs,  after  he  had  quitted  the 
service  shewed  that  he  had  paid  more  attention  to 
the  public,  than  to  his  private  fortune.  He  was 
obliged  to  continue  at  New  York  many  weeks  to 
settle  his  accounts,  which  gave  him  much  greater 
trouble,  as  the  whole  affairs  of  the  army  had  been 
carried  on  by  agents  employed  to  purchase  provi- 
sions, stores,  &c.,  on  the  best  terms  they  could,  and 
not  by  contractors  at  certain  rates.  Here  he  had 
the  further  mortification  of  receiving  news  of  the 
loss  of  Oswego,  taken  by  Montcalm,  the  14th  of 
August,  with  all  the  shipping,  stores,  &c.,  of  every 
kind,  and  of  immense  value.  The  garrison  were 
prisoners  of  war.  Colonel  Mercer,  chief  in  com- 
mand, was  killed  by  a  cannon  ball. 

Mr.  Shirley  was  charged  with  not  giving  a  full 
information  of  the  condition  of  the  place  to  his  suc- 
cessor in  command.  He  denied  the  truth  of  the 
charge,  and  attributed  the  loss  of  the  place  to  the 
want  of  skill,  or  courage,  or  both,  in  those  with 


384 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


whom  the  defence  of  it  was  entrusted.  Neglect 
from  many,  who  had  been  servile  courtiers  a  short 
time  before,  convinced  him  of  the  truth  of  the  old 
observation,  "  that  you  are  to  number  your  friends  so 
long  as  you  continue  in  prosperity,  and  no  longer." 

He  wished  to  spend  a  little  time  with  his  family 
in  Boston;  but  his  successor,  judging  that  he  should 
be  better  able  to  transact  business  with  the  assembly 
after  the  governor  had  left  the  province,  called  on 
him  repeatedly,  by  letters,  to  embark,  and  he  sailed 
several  weeks  sooner  than  otherwise  he  would  have 
done. 

Mr  Shirley  made  no  doubt  of  his  return  to  his 
government,  if  he  could  not  obtain  a  better.  Soon 
after  his  departure,  private  letters  from  England 
mentioned  the  high  displeasure  of  the  duke  of  Cum- 
berland at  his  conduct,  and  some  mark  of  it  was 
feared  by  his  friends.  Before  he  arrived,  a  successor 
to  his  government  was  nominated.  Considering  how 
much  of  his  life  had  been  spent  in  public  service, 
how  small  his  emoluments  had  been,  and  especially 
considering  the  acquisition  of  Louisburg,  and  the 
preservation  of  Nova  Scotia,  in  the  former  war,  he 
seems  to  have  met  with  hard  treatment.  He  suffered, 
besides,  by  the  delay  in  passing  his  accounts ;  and 
some  persons  employed  under  him  in  the  service 
were  great  losers,  by  not  having  observed  the  forms 
required  in  the  army ;  though,  as  he  alleged,  the 
whole  expense  of  victualling  the  army,  by  his  ac- 
counts, did  not  exceed  four-pence  per  day  for  each 
man  ;  and  the  government  contract,  under  his  suc- 
cessor, was  at  sixpence  per  day ;  the  same  articles 
of  charge  being  contained  in  the  first  as  in  the  last. 
There  was  no  inquiry  into  his  conduct.  After  long 
solicitations,  he  obtained  the  small  government  of 
the  Bahama  islands. 

When  Oswego  surrendered  to  the  French,  a 
body  of  English  troops  were  on  their  way  from  Al- 
bany in  order  to  strengthen  the  garrison.  The  French 
force  was  represented  to  be  very  formidable,  and  it 
was  expected,  would  come  down  to  Albany ;  but 
while  general  Webb  was  employing  the  English 
troops  in  felling  trees  to  fill  up  or  stop  the  passage 
through  Wood  Creek,  general  Montcalm  took  the 
other  route,  and  went  back  by  the  river  St.  Law- 
rence, in  order  to  preserve  Crown  Point  and  Ticon- 
tleroga  from  the  army  under  Winslow.  This  army 
consisted  of  seven  or  eight  thousand  men.  If  it  was 
advisable  for  them  to  hBve  proceeded  at  any  time 
this  season,  it  was  when  the  army  under  Montcalm 
had  marched  against  Oswego. 

Just  at  this  time  the  general  command  of  the 
forces  were  changed,  and  all  affairs  seemed  to  be  at 
a  stand 

After  Lord  Loudoun  had  received  information  of 
the  state  of  the  army,  and  of  the  force,  and  success, 
of  the  enemy,  it  is  probable  that  he  laid  aside  all 
thoughts  of  acting  upon  the  offensive  for  that  cam- 
paign ;  though  he  did  not  make  his  resolutions  pub- 
lic until  October.  In  the  mean  time  he  received 
intelligence,  that  the  enemy,  flushed  with  success, 
had  arrived  at  Ticonderoga."  He  therefore  ordered 
such  of  the  regular  forces  as  could  be  spared,  to 
join  Winslow's  army,  which  it  was  supposed  would 
be  attacked  by  Montcalm ;  and  it  is  probable  that 
the  intelligence  which  was  carried  by  scouting  par- 
ties to  Montcalm  of  this  junction,  diverted  him  from 
his  design.  As  soon  as  the  main  body  of  the  ene- 
my went  back  to  Canada,  the  provincial  army  broke 
up,  and  returned  to  the  government  in  which  it  had 
been  raised.  Many  had  deserted,  and  more  had 
died,  while  they  lay  encamped.  Many  died  upon 


the  road,  und  many  died  of  the  camp  distemper  after 
they  were  at  home. 

The  measures  of  this  year  were  in  every  part  un- 
successful. When  the  Massachusetts  forces  returned, 
no  provision  had  been  made  by  government  for  their 
pay.  Three  commissioners  were  appointed  to  apply 
to  Lord  Loudoun  at  Albany,  to  enable  the  govern- 
ment to  Uischarge  this  debt,  but  without  success, 
and  provision  was  made  by  the  assembly  as  usual. 
Lord  Loudoun  consulted  with  the  commissioners  at 
Albany,  upon  the  expediency  of  his  meeting  the 
governors,  with  commissioners  from  the  assemblies 
of  the  New  England  colonies,  at  Boston,  in  order 
to  facilitate  the  measures  of  the  next  year ;  and  in- 
timated his  intention  to  propose  such  a  meeting. 
Whatever  engagements  were  jointly  made,  he  sup- 
posed might  be  depended  on. 

In  former  years,  when  each  assembly  was  left  to 
send  what  they  thought  fit,  the  number  had  always 
been  short  of  expectation. 

(1757.^  Lord  Loudoun  came  soon  after  to  Boston, 
where,  besides  Mr.  Phipps,  lieut  governor  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, he  found  Mr.  Fitch  and  Mr.  Hopkins, 
the  governors  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island,  and 
commissioners  from  each  of  the  assemblies  and  also 
from  the  assembly  of  New  Hampshire. 

The  number  of  men  proposed  to  be  raised  by  the 
four  governments  was  four  thousand  only.  This 
being  less  than  expected,  met  with  no  opposition ; 
but  it  was  as  difficult  to  settle  the  proportion  of  each 
government,  as  if  the  number  had  been  much  larger. 
After  ten  days  spent  by  the  commissioners  without 
agreeing,  Lord  Loudoun  proposed  to  them  a  propor- 
tion, in  which  they  acquiesced,  and  promised  to  re- 
commend a  compliance  to  the  respective  assemblies. 
Massachusetts,  one  thousand  eight  hundred;  Con- 
necticut, one  thousand  four  hundred;  Rhode  Island, 
four  hundred  and  fifty;  New  Hampshire,  three 
hundred  and  fifty.  Respect  was  had  to  the  force 
employed  by  Massachusetts,  both  by  sea  and  land, 
exclusive  of  this  force. 

Lord  Loudoun  offered  to  victual  the  men,  and  to 
furnish  ammunition  and  artillery  stores,  and  to  ad- 
mit into  the  king's  hospital  those  whose  cases  re- 
quired it.  He  would  not  say  where  they  would  be 
employed,  lest  the  enemy  should  come  to  the  know- 
ledge of  it;  but,  as  he  knew  where  the  assemblies 
desired  they  should  not  be  employed,  he  declared  he 
had  no  intention  to  carry  them  there ;  and,  as  it  had 
been  the  practice  to  raise  men  for  one  year  only,  he 
did  not  expect  to  detain  them  so  long  as  that. 

These  proposals  were  very  agreeable  to  the  com- 
missioners. The  assembly  of  Massachusetts  bay, 
which  was  then  sitting,  discovered  a  dislike  to  the 
demands  which  had  been  made  by  Lord  Loudoun, 
for  barrack  articles  and  quarters  for  the  king's  troops, 
when  they  occasionally  came  into  the  province;  but 
it  proceeded  to  no  length,  and  the  demands  were 
complied  with. 

Mr.  Phipps,  the  lieut.-governor,  rejoiced  in  the 
success  of  this  convention.  His  declining  age  and 
health  would  not  admit  of  his  giving  close  attention 
to  it;  but  Lord  Loudoun  facilitated  this  measure-  by 
application  to  the  commissioners,  as  a  board,  and 
to  such  of  them  personally,  as  had  the  greatest  influ- 
ence at  the  board,  or  in  the  assemblies.  Much  re- 
spect was  shewn  to  his  lordship,  and  there  had  been, 
at  no  time,  a  fairer  prospect  of  a  good  harmony  be- 
tween the  officers  of  the  crown  and  the  assemblies 
and  people  of  the  colonies,  than  there  was  at  this 
time. 

Although  the  plan  of  opera  ions  for  the  next  year 


UNITED  STATES. 


38T> 


p/as  not  made  public,  enough  appeared,  to  make  it 
probable  that  the  principal  object  was  the  reduction 
of  Louisburg,  by  a  competent  naval  force,  and  the 
regular  troops;  and  that  the  provincials,  joined  to 
such  a  number  of  regulars  as  should  be  judged  pro- 
per, were  to  remain  on  the  defensive,  as  guards  and 
garrisons  for  the  protection  of  the  frontiers. 

In  all  former  wars  between  England  and  France, 
the  Indians,  upon  the  eastern  frontiers,  had  taken 
part  with  the  French.  The  poor  creatures  had  lately 
been  visited  with  the  small  pox,  which  is  remarkably 
fatal  to  them,  and  they  were  reduced  to  so  small  a 
number  that  the  French  neglected  them:  and  fear- 
ing they  should  irrecoverably  lose  the  territory  which 
remained  to  them,  they  desired  to  continue  in  peace, 
and  made  proposals  for  renewing  the  treaty.  The 
lieut.-governor,  willing  to  take  the  advantage  of  this 
pacific  disposition,  had  determined  to  meet  the  as- 
sembly the  last  of  March,  but,  a  few  days  before  the 
time  of  meeting  he  fell  sick,  and  died  the  4th  of  April. 

It  fell  to  the  council  to  act  in  a  twofold  capacity, 
as  governor,  and  as  the  second  branch  of  the  legis- 
lature. Not  judging  it  convenient  to  proceed  on  a 
treaty  with  the  Indians,  until  a  governor  should  ar- 
rive in  the  province,  and  little  other  business  being 
necessary,  after  several  votes  for  completing  the 
levies,  and  an  act  for  laying  an  embargo  on  all  ves- 
sels in  the  several  harbours,  within  the  province,  the 
assembly  was  dissolved.  The  design  of  this  act  was 
to  prevent  the  discovery  of  the  expedition  against 
Louisburg.  A  flag  of  truce  from  thence  was  detain- 
ed at  Boston,  and  the  people  belonging  to  her  put 
under  confinement. 

Before  the  session,  in  May  1 757,  for  the  election 
of  counsellors,  letters  came  to  hand  from  Mr.  Bollan, 
the  province  agent  in  England,  informing  the  coun- 
cil that  the  king  had  been  pleased  to  appoint  Thos. 
Pownall,  Esq.,  to  be  the  governor  of  the  province 
in  the  room  of  Mr.  Shirley  ;  and  that  the  newly  ap- 
pointed governor  was  to  embark  for  his  government 
by  way  of  Halifax,  the  next  day  after  the  date  of 
the  letters.  The  council,  therefore  in  a  speech  to 
the  house,  recommended  to  act  only  upon  business 
of  great  necessity,  and  to  defer  all  other  matters 
until  the  governor's  arrival.  This  was  a  compliment 
to  the  new  governor,  but  did  not  prevent  either  house 
from  going  on  with  whatever  business  came  before 
them  as  usual. 

Among  other  matters,  a  bill  was  brought  in  and 
passed  both  houses,  for  making  the  district  of  Dan- 
vere  a  town,  by  which  a  right  would  be  acquired  of 
sending  two  members  to  the  general  assembly.  By 
the  king's  instructions  to  the  governor,  he  was  strictly 
charged  to  consent  to  no  act  for  making  a  new  town, 
unless,  by  a  clause  in  it,  there  should  be  a  restraint 
of  this  power  of  sending  representatives;  and  Dan- 
vers,  a  few  years  before,  when  it  had  been  separated 
from  the  town  of  Salem,  was  made  a  district  and  not 
a  town,  because  districts  had  not  this  power.  Every 
governor  and  lieut  governor  had  obsei-ved  this  in- 
struction; and  it  was  thought  by  some  of  the  council 
an  ill-judged  measure,  to  concur  with  the  house  in 
passing  this  bill,  as  it  carried  the  appearance  of  in- 
fluence by  the  house,  on  whom  they  depended  for 
their  election.  The  house  had  always  disliked  the 
instruction,  as  it  prevented  the  increase  of  the  num- 
ber of  members,  which  added  to  the  importance  of 
the  house.  The  council  should  have  approved  of  it, 
because,  as  the  importance  of  the  house  increased, 
that  of  the  council  lessen«4  in  proportion ;  especially 
in  all  elections  which  were  made  by  the  joint  votes 
of  council  and  house.  In  earlier  times  of  the  consti- 

HIST,  OF  AMER.— Nos.  49  &  50. 


tutiou,  when  the  powers  of  the  governor  had  devolved 
upon  the  council,  they  had  been  very  scrupulous  in 
maintaining  the  prerogative  in  every  part,  and  con- 
sidered themselves  under  as  strong  obligations  to 
adhere  to  the  observance  of  the  royal  instruction,  as 
the  governor  or  lieut.-governor.  There  had  not  been 
any  instance  of  a  protest  in  form,  in  imitation  of  the 
practice  in  the  house  of  lords.  Upon  this  occasion, 
one  of  the  council  desired  his  dissent  might  be  en- 
tered, and  it  stands  upon  record. 

"  The  question,  whether  the  bill  entitled  an  act 
for  erecting  the  district  of  Danvers  into  a  township 
shall  be  enacted,  having  passed  in  the  affirmative,  I 
dissent  for  the  following  reasons : — 

"  First.  Because  it  is  the  professed  design  of  the 
bill  to  give  the  inhabitants,  who  now  join  with  tne 
town  of  Salem  in  the  choice  of  representatives,  a 
power  of  choosing  by  themselves;  and  the  number 
of  which  the  house  of  representatives  may  at  present 
consist,  being  full  large,  the  increase  must  have  a 
tendency  to  retard  the  proceedings  of  the  general 
court,  and  to  increase  the  burden  which,  by  their 
long  session  every  year,  lies  upon  the  people,  and 
must  likewise  give  the  house  an  undue  proportion  to 
the  board  of  the  legislature,  where  many  affairs  are 
determined  by  a  joint  ballot  of  the  two  houses. 

"Second.  Because,  there  being  no  governor  nor 
lieut.-governor  in  the  province,  it  is  most  agreeable 
to  his  majesty's  commission  to  the  late  governor,  to 
the  message  of  this  board  to  the  house,  at  opening 
the  session,  and,  in  itself,  is  most  reasonable,  that 
all  matters  of  importance  should  be  deferred  until 
there  be  a  governor  or  lieut.-governor  in  the  chair. 

"Third.  Because  the  board,  by  passing  this  bill, 
as  the  second  branch  of  the  legislature,  necessarily 
bring  it  before  themselves,  as  the  first  branch,  for  as- 
sent or  refusal;  and  such  members  as  vote  for  the 
bill  in  one  capacity,  must  give  their  assent  to  it  in 
the  other,  directly  against  the  royal  instruction  to 
the  governor,  when  the  case  is  in  no  degree  neces- 
sary for  the  public  interest;  otherwise  their  doings 
will  be  inconsistent  and  absurd. 

"  Council  Chamber,  Thomas  Hutchinson." 

June  9,  1757. 

A  bill,  receiving  the  assent  of  the  governor  con- 
trary to  the  instructions  given  by  the  king,  it  is 
natural  to  suppose,  would  have  been  disallowed  by 
the  king;  but  the  council  kept  no  correspondence 
by  letters  with  the  king's  ministers,  and  this  bill, 
with  others,  received  the  royal  allowance,  probably 
without  being  observed  to  be  contrary  to  the  instruc- 
tions; which  would  not  have  been  the  case,  if  there 
had  been  a  governor  or  lieut.-governor,  it  having 
been  their  constant  practice  to  make  their  observa- 
tions upon  every  act,  when  sent  to  England  to  be 
laid  before  the  king. 

The  military  operations  for  the  year  1757  were 
carried  on  upon  the  plan  which  had  been  conjec- 
tured. The  men  raised  in  Massachusetts  bay  and 
the  other  colonies  of  New  England,  were  posted  at 
Fort  William  Henry,  Fort  Edward,  and  other  places 
on  the  frontiers,  under  the  command  of  an'officer  of 
the  regular  forces. 

Lord  Loudoun  with  the  main  body  of  the  regular 
troops,  under  the  convoy  of  one  fifty-gun  ship,  one 
twenty,  and  two  sloops,  the  whole  fleet  consisting  of 
ninety  sail,  and  the  troops  being  in  number  6,000, 
left  New  York  the  20th  of  June,  to  proceed  to  Hali- 
fax. The  fleet  had  lain  ready  for  some  time,  expect- 
ing intelligence  of  the  arrival  of  men  of  war  and 
transports  from  England,  destined  also  to  Halifax  ; 
but,  it  growing  late,  at  length  sailed  without  advice. 


386 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA, 


Soon  after  the  news  of  the  sailing  of  this  fleet,  in- 
telligence was  brought  to  Boston,  of  six  French  ships 
of  the  line  and  one  frigate,  seen  off  Cape  Sable ; 
which  filled  with  anxiety  every  man  who  had  the 
public  interest  at  heart,  until  advice  was  received  of 
the  arrival  of  the  English  fleet  at  Halifax,  ten  days 
after  it  left  New  York. 

Admiral  Holburne,  with  the  fleet  and  transports 
from  England,  joined  those  from  New  York,  at  Hali- 
fax, the  9th  of  July. 

In  this  fleet  came  Mr.  Pownall,  the  newly  ap- 
pointed governor  for  Massachusetts  bay;  and  from 
Halifax  he  proceeded  to  Boston,  where  he  arrived 
the  2nd  of  August.  This  was  his  third  passage  to 
America.  In  1754,  when  Sir  Danvers  Osborne  came 
over  to  the  government  of  New  York,  Mr.  Pownall 
was  in  his  family,  and  brought  with  him,  or  received 
soon  after,  a  commission  as  lieut.-governor  of  New 
Jersey,  the  governor  whereof,  Mr.  Belcher,  was  old 
and  infirm;  and  in  case  of  his  death,  Mr.  Pownall 
would  probably  have  been  his  successor.  With  a 
view  to  make  himself  acquainted  with  the  affairs  of 
the  colonies,  he  was  present  at  Albany  while  the 
commissioners  held  their  meeting  there,  and,  soon 
after,  made  a  visit  to  Massachusetts  bay;  and  Mr. 
Shirley  appointed  him,  in  conjunction  with  a  gen- 
tleman of  the  council  and  another  of  the  house, 
to  solicit  the  aid  of  the  colonies  of  Pennsylvania 
and  New  York,  in  carrying  on  the  war.  He 
also  accompanied  to  Alexandria  the  governors, 
&c.,  who  met  General  Braddock  at  that  place.  In 
1755,  he  went  back  to  England,  and  returned  to 
America  with  Lord  Loudoun  in  1756,  but  continued 
there  a  few  months  only.  Upon  his  arrival  again  in 
England,  he  was  appointed  to  succeed  Mr.  Shirley. 
He  had  acquired  great  knowledge  of  the  geography, 
history,  and  polity  of  the  several  American  colonies, 
and  came  into  office  with  many  advantages. 

Great  part  of  the  people  of  the  province  who  had 
been  attached  to  Mr.  Shirley,  were,  in  principle, 
friends  to  government,  and  disposed  to  support  his 
successor  in  pursuing  the  ends  of  government.  Many 
who  had  been  inimical  to  him,  and  who  kept  up  a 
strong  party  against  him,  though  always  the  minority, 
had  not  the  esteem  of  the  people,  any  further  than 
they  acquired  it  by  thoir  opposition  to  government, 
and  professions  of  maintaining  liberty.  These  were 
the  men  who  were  most  forward  in  offering  incense 
to  the  new  governor;  and  these  he  took  most  pains 
to  secure  to  his  interest,  depending  upon  the  prin- 
ciples of  those  who  were  in  favour  of  government, 
without  immediate  respect  to  the  person  of  the  go- 
vernor, to  promote  his  measures  for  the  public  good. 
But  besides  these,  there  were  many  who  were  at- 
tached to  Mr.  Shirley,  merely  because  he  kept  them 
in  places,  and,  upon  their  recommendation,  disposed 
of  places  to  their  friends,  and  also  hearkened  much 
to  their  opinion  and  advice,  in  many  affairs  which 
came  before  the  general  assembly.  Between  these 
persons,  and  many  of  those  who  had  been  in  opposi- 
tion to  Mr.  Shirley,  there  was  great  personal  enmity; 
and  it  soon  appeared  impracticable  to  unite  them  in 
public  measures.  In  a  short  time  most  of  the  chief 
friends  to  Mr.  Shirley  became  opposers  of  Mr.  Pow- 
nall, and  most  of  Mr.  Shirley's  enemies  became  Mr. 
Pownall' s  friends.  A  part,  however,  of  those  who 
had  been  in  favour  of  government  from  principle, 
continued  to  support  the  measures  of  government. 
In  the  latter  part  of  his  administration,  they  who 
had  acquired  the  favour  of  the  people  by  opposing 
Mr.  Shirley,  lost  it  by  supporting  Mr.  Pownall,  and 
were  no  longer  able  to  do  him  any  more  service. 


They  failed  of  their  elections  into  the  assembly,  v/iere 
only  they  could  be  of  use,  and  when  he  left  th  pro- 
vince, he  observed  himself,  that  he  had  very  few 
friends  remaining  in  the  house. 

The  governor  scarcely  had  time  to  inquire  into  the 
state  of  public  affairs,  before  an  express  arrived  from 
Major-General  Webb  at  Fort  Edward,  informing 
him  that  a  large  army  of  French  and  Indians  were 
in  motion,  in  order  to  attack  the  forts  under  his 
command,  and  urging,  that  all  possible  assistance 
should  immediately  be  afforded.  The  inhabitants  of 
the  province,  by  charter,  cannot  be  carried  beyond 
the  limits  of  it  except  by  their  own  consent,  or  by 
virtue  of  an  act  of  the  general  assembly. 

The  governor  with  the  council  had,  in  many  in- 
stances, since  the  charter  for  the  public  safety,  done 
those  acts,  wrhich,  strictly  and  constitutionally,  the 
general  assembly  only  had  power  to  do. 

Upon  this  occasion  the  governor  caused  the  coun- 
cil to  be  convened,  and  required  their  opinion,  whe- 
ther, in  case  of  an  attack  made  by  the  enemy  upon 
his  majesty's  forts  without  the  limits  of  the  province, 
it  would  be  a  breach  of  duty  in  him  to  order  the 
militia  to  march  beyond  those  limits,  the  restriction 
in  the  charter  notwithstanding. 

The  council  considered  the  marching  of  the  militia 
beyond  the  bounds  of  the  province,  to  join  the  other 
forces  there,  as  tending  more  to  the  defence  of  the 
province,  than  if  the  militia  should  wait  within 
its  limits,  to  meet  the  enemy  there ;  and  though  an 
order  for  that  purpose  was  not  within  the  words,  yet 
it  was  within  the  reason,  of  the  charter;  and,  there- 
fore, they  gave  their  opinion,  that  he  should  require 
the  militia  to  march. 

In  two  or  three  days  more,  accounts  arrived  of 
the  progress  of  the  enemy,  to  the  4th  of  August, 
when  they  laid  siege  to  Fort  William  Henry.  The 
first  step  taken  by  the  governor  was  the  creation  of 
a  new  officer  not  known  in  the  province  before;  and 
Sir  William  Pepperell  received  a  commission  as 
lieut.-general  over  all  the  militia  throughout  the 
province. 

Orders  were  then  issued  by  the  governor,  to  the 
colonels  of  the  several  regiments  through  the  pro- 
vince, to  cause  every  man  to  be  completely  furnished 
with  anns  and  ammunition  according  to  law;  to 
hold  himself  in  readiness  to  march  at  a  minute's 
warning;  and  to  observe  the  orders  of  Sir  William 
Pepperell. 

Sir  William  repaired  to  the  town  of  Springfield, 
to  collect  there  a  magazine  of  provisions  and  military 
stores,  and  to  issue  his  orders  from  thence. 

Soon  after  his  arrival  there,  he  received  intelli- 
gence of  the  surrender  of  Fort  William  Henry  on 
the  9th  of  August,  and  immediately  communicated  the 
same  by  express  to  the  governor  at  Boston;  earnestly 
urging  that  all  the  aid  possible  should  be  afforded. 

The  governor,  by  advice  of  council,  issued  orders, 
that  the  several  tro'ops  of  horse,  and  one-fourth  part 
of  all  the  regiments  of  foot,  the  counties  of  York, 
Nantucket,  and  Duke's  county  excepted,  should  be 
drawn  out  immediately  for  the  protection  of  the  pro- 
vince, and  for  the  aid  and  assistance  of  his  majesty's 
forces.  A  train  of  artillery  was  also  ordered  to  be 
provided,  and  a  regiment  of  artillery  to  be  formed. 
The  governor  proposed  to  march  himself,  and  to 
take  the  command  of  the  force  of  the  province;  and 
his  company  of  cadets  had  orders  to  be  ready  to 
attend  him.  Sir  William  Pepperell  was  ordered  to 
require  the  inhabitants  west  of  Connecticut  rivor  to 
destroy  their  wheel  carriages,  and  to  drive  in  their 
cattle.  In  case  of  the  approach  of  the  enemy,  it 


UNITED  STATES. 


was  proposed  to  make  a  stand  on  the  east  side  of  the 
river. 

Several  regiments,  from  the  counties  of  Hampshire 
and  Worcester,  marched  towards  Fort  Edward,  into 
the  unsettled  country  beyond  Albany;  but,  before 
they  reached  the  fort,  they  were  stopped  by  orders 
from  General  Webb,  who  was  convinced  that  the 
enemy  was  satisfied  with  the  acquisition  of  Fort  Wil- 
liam Henry,  and  did  not  design  to  attack  Fort  Ed- 
ward; and  before  the  18th  of  August,  the  governor 
received  such  intelligence  as  caused  him  to  revoke 
his  orders  for  raising  the  militia. 

All  that  were  upon  the  march,  as  soon  as  they 
came  to  the  knowledge  of  General  Webb's  orders, 
returned  home. 

It  is  almost  incredible,  that  4  or  5,000  men,  most 
of  them  Canadians  and  savages,  should  give  such 
an  alarm  to  so  great  a  province. 

Reports  were  spread  among  the  people,  that,  after 
the  surrender  of  the  fort,  the  garrison  had  been 
massacred  by  the  Indians,  by  the  countenance  and 
connivance  of  the  French  general;  and  it  is  certain, 
that,  when  a  detachment  of  the  French  army  was 
escorting  the  prisoners  on  their  way  to  Fort  Edward, 
the  Indians,  who  had  been  disappointed  in  their 
expectations  of  plunder,  fell  upon  the  English,  and 
stripped  many  of  them.  The  two  colonels,  Munro 
and  Young,  with  a  great  part  of  the  prisoners,  either 
had  not  left,  or  went  back  to  the  French  army,  and 
complained  of  this  breach  of  the  capitulation.  About 
six  hundred  fled  into  the  woods,  some  quite,  and 
others  almost,  naked ;  and  the  first  who  came  into 
Fort  Edward  reported  the  massacre  of  the  rest. 
Some  few  were  killed,  or  never  heard  of;  the  rest 
came  in,  one  after  another,  many  having  lost  their 
way  in  the  woods,  and  suffered  extreme  hardships. 
The  commander  of  the  Massachusetts  forces,  colonel 
Frye,  was  thought  to  be  lost ;  but,  after  wandering 
about  some  days,  came  in  with  no  other  apparel 
than  his  shirt.  The  prisoners  acknowledged  that 
the  French  strove  to  restrain  the  Indians,  but  were 
overpowered. 

When  the  accounts  of  the  charge  attending  this 
alarm  were  exhibited  to  the  general  assembly,  it 
was  then  said  by  many  to  be  more  than  necessary. 
The  charge,  however,  was  allowed.  The  men  were 
paid  at  the  same  rate  as  the  soldiers  who  had  en- 
listed into  the  service,  and  were  then  on  the  frontiers. 
The  members  of  the  assembly  have  always  taken 
care  that  justice  should  be  done  to  the  soldiers  in 
public  service,  whether  they  have  been  impressed 
without  any  promise  of  pay,  or  enlisted  upon  encou- 
ragement, or  assurances  given. 

Upon  the  news  of  the  loss  of  Fort  William  Henry, 
an  express  was  sent  to  Lord  Loudoun,  at  Halifax,  to 
inform  him  of  it,  and  of  the  probability  that  Fort 
Edward  would  meet  with  the  same  fate,  and  that 
the  enemy  would  make  advances  towards  New  Eng- 
land and  New  York. 

The  express  met  his  lordship,  with  the  forces  un- 
der his  command,  on  his  passage  from  Halifax  to 
New  York.  He  wrote  to  governor  Pownall,  that  he 
proposed,  as  soon  as  he  should  come  to  land,  to 
march  directly  to  meet  the  enemy,  and  hoped  to 
give  a  good  account  of  them.  He  recommended  to 
the  governor,  in  the  mean  time,  to  harass  and  dis- 
tress them,  but  not  to  hazard  an  engagement. 

While  the  English  fleet  and  army  were  at  Hali- 
fax, preparing  for  a  descent  upon  the  island  of  Cape 
Breton,  endeavours  were  used  to  obtain  the  fullest 
knowledge  of  the  enemy's  force  there  ;  but  the  ac- 
counts varied,  and  were  uncertain.  The  English 


troops  were  embarked,  in  order  to  proceed  on  the 
1st  of  August.  On  the  4th  of  August,  a  French 
prize  was  brought  into  Halifax,  having  left  Louis- 
burg  a  few  days  before.  It  appeared,  by  the  exa- 
mination of  the  prisoners,  that  there  were  seventeen 
ships  of  the  line  and  twelve  frigates  then  at  Louis  • 
burg,  with  four  thousand  regular  troops,  beside  the 
garrison.  The  summer  was  far  advanced.  The 
troops,  without  great  loss,  might  make  good  their 
landing  at  Chapeau-rouge  bay ;  but  there  was  no 
probability  of  carrying  the  town  against  so  strong  a 
land  force,  and  a  sea  force  superior  to  that  of  the 
English.  A  defeat  would  have  exposed  the  English 
colonies  to  the  ravages  of  the  enemy,  and  would 
have  been  of  fatal  consequence  to  the  British  inter- 
est in  America.  It  was  therefore  determined,  in  a 
council  of  war  of  the  sea  and  land  ofiicers,  by  all 
but  one  voice,  not  to  proceed. 

The  English  fleet,  however,  remained  waiting  the 
motions  of  the  French  fleet,  until  the  25th  of  Sep- 
tember; when,  cruizing  off  Louisburg,  a  violent 
storm  arose,  in  which  the  Tilbury,  a  sixty  gun  ship, 
was  driven  upon  the  rocks  and  lost;  ten  or  twelve 
other  ships  were  dismasted,  and  others  damaged, 
and  the  whole  fleet  scattered,  most  of  which  returned 
to  England. 

The  French  fleet  had  an  opportunity,  the  whole 
month  of  October,  of  laying  waste  the  sea-ports  of 
New  England ;  and  the  people  of  Boston  were  not 
free  from  fears,  until  news  arrived  of  its  having 
sailed  for  Europe. 

The  return  of  Lord  Loudoun,  with  his  troops,  freed 
the  colonies  from  apprehensions  of  danger  from 
any  new  inroads  of  French  or  Indian  enemies  ;  but 
winter  was  approaching,  which  caused  all  thoughts 
of  offensive  measures  to  be  laid  aside.  Thus  ended 
the  third  unsuccessful  campaign  in  America. 

When  the  governor  arrived,  the  general  assembly 
stood  prorogued  to  the  16th  of  August. 

Nothing  memorable  happened  in  this  short  ses- 
sion, except  a  proposal  from  the  governor  to  the 
assembly,  to  pass  an  act,  "  to  empower  and  require 
the  civil  magistrate  to  take  up  and  assign  quarters 
for  such  of  the  king's  troops  as  should  come  into  the 
province,  under  such  regulations,  that  the  troops 
might  be  well  accommodated,  and  the  province  be 
burdened  as  little  as  possible." 

The  council  and  house,  in  a  joint  message  to  the 
governor,  excused  themselves,  and  supposed  the 
barracks  at  the  castle,  which  were  intended  to  ac- 
commodate one  thousand  men,  together  with  the 
barrack  utensils,  fire,  and  light,  were  all  the  pro- 
vision proper  to  be  made  by  the  province. 

The  next  session  began  the  23d  of  November. 
In  the  recess,  recruiting  parties  arrived  in  Boston 
from  Nova  Scotia.  They  made  application  to  the 
governor  for  quarters.  He  directed  them  to  apply 
to  the  magistrates  in  Boston.  They  declined  doing 
any  thing.  Upon  representation  to  Lord  Loudoun, 
at  New  York,  he  sent  an  express  to  the  governor; 
made  a  demand,  in  form,  of  quarters  in  the  town  of 
Boston,  alleging,  that  the  act  of  parliament  for 
quarters  extended  to  the  colonies,  which  made  any 
provincial  law  unnecessary ;  complained  of  the  ma- 
gistrates in  Boston  for  not  complying  with  the  act  of 
parliament ;  and  added,  that  he  had  ordered  his  mes- 
senger to  wait  forty-eight  hours  for  answer,  and  if, 
within  that  time,  his  demand  was  not  complied  with, 
he  would  march  one  regiment  which  he  had  in  Con- 
necticut, another  which  was  at  Long  Island,  and  a 
third  at  New  York  ;  and  observed,  that  he  had  two 
more  in  Pennsylvania,  and,  if  they  began  their 

2X2 


388 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


march,    ho  would  on  no  terms  revoke  them,   until 
they  arrived  in  Boston. 

The  assembly  having  met  before  this  letter  ar- 
rived, the  governor  laid  the  letter  before  them,  and 
recommended  it  to  their  serious  and  immediate  con- 
sideration. 

It  is  probable  that  the  governor  himself  was  of 
opinion  that  the  act  of  parliament  did  not  extend  to 
America;  for,  in  three  or  four  days,  an  act  of  the 
province  passed  the  three  branches  of  the  legislature, 
making  provision  for  quartering  troops  in  public 
houses,  as  sinalar  to  the  provisions  made  by  act  of 
parliament,  as  the  difference  between  the  circum- 
stances of  the  kingdom  and  those  of  the  province 
would  admit.  Upon  transmitting  a  copy  of  this  act 
to  Lord  Louuoun,  he  was  dissatisfied,  and  would  not 
allow  that  the  assembly  had  any  concern  in  the  dis- 
pute ;  and  added,  "  that  in  time  of  war,  the  rules 
and  customs  of  war  must  govern." 

This  also  was  laid  before  the  assembly,  and  pro- 
duced a  message  to  the  governor,  declaring  the  opi- 
nion of  the  assembly,  that  the  act  of  parliament  did 
not  extend  to  the  plantations,  and  that  the  rules  and 
customs  of  war  w'ere  not  the  rules  which  the  civil 
magistrate  was  to  govern  himself  by,  but  that  a  law 
of  the  province  was  necessary  for  his  justiiication. 
The  governor's  letter,  or  perhaps  further  considera- 
tion upon  the  subject,  abated  the  resentment  of  the 
general,  and  caused  some  change  of  sentiments. 
The  answer  which  he  wrote  to  it,  being  communi- 
cated to  the  assembly,  produced  a  memorable  mes- 
sage to  the  governor,  which  so  fully  expresses  the 
sense  which  they  then  had  of  the  constitutional  au- 
thority of  parliament,  that  it  seems  to  be  very  pro- 
per to  insert  it  at  large. 

"  May  it  please  your  excellency, 

'•'  We  are  very  glad  to  perceive  by  the  letter  from 
his  excellency  the  earl  of  Loudoun,  which  you  have- 
been  pleased  to  direct  the  secretary  to  lay  before  us, 
that  the  conduct  of  the  general  court  is  so  well  ap- 
proved of,  and  that  he  has,  thereupon,  counter- 
manded the  orders  which  he  had  given  for  marching 
the  troops  to  be  quartered  and  billetted  within  this 
province. 

"  We  thank  your  excellency  for  your  good  offices 
in  our  behalf,  and  for  the  care  and*  pains  which  we 
are  sensible  you  have  taken  to  avert  the  troubles 
which  seemed  to  be  coming  upon  us.  We  doubt 
not,  that  future  assemblies  will  act  upon  the  same 
principles  with  this  assembly;  and  that  the  Massa- 
chusetts province  wu'i  always  deserve  the  favourable 
opinion  of  the  general  of  his  majesty's  forces. 

"  We  wish  to  stand  perfectly  right  with  his  lord- 
ship, and  it  will  be  a  great  satisfaction  to  us,  if  we 
may  be  able  to  remove  his  misapprehension  of  the 
spring  and  motive  of  our  proceedings. 

"  His  lordship  is  pleased  to  say,  that  we  seem 
willing  to  enter  into  a  dispute  upon  the  necessity  of 
a  provincial  law  to  enforce  a  British  act  of  parlia- 
ment. 

"  We  arc  utterly  at  a  loss  what  part  of  our  con- 
duct could  give  occasion  for  this  expression.  The 
point  in  which  we  were  obliged  to  differ  from  his 
lordship  was  the  extent  of  the  provision  made  by  act 
of  parliament  for  regulating  quarters.  We  thought 
it  did  not  reach  the  colonies.  Had  we  thought  that 
it  did  reach  us,  and  yet  made  an  act  of  our  own  to 
enforce  it,  there  would  have  been  good  grounds  for 
his  lordship's  exception,  but  being  fully  persuaded, 
that  the  provision  was  never  intended  for  us,  what 
better  step  could  we  take,  than,  agreeable  to  the 
twentieth  section  in  the  articles  of  war,  to  regulate 


quarters  as  the  circumstances  of  the  province  re- 
quire ;  but  still,  as  similar  to  the  provision  made  in 
England  as  possible  ?  And  how  can  it  be  inferred 
from  thence,  that  we  suppose  a  provincial  act  ne- 
cessary to  enforce  an  act  of  parliament  ? 

"  We  are  willing,  by  a  due  exercise  of  the  pow- 
ers of  civil  government,  (and  we  have  the  pleasure 
of  seeing  your  excellency  concur  with  us,)  to  remove, 
as  much  as  may  be,  all  pretence  of  necessity  of  mi- 
litary government.  Such  measures,  we  are  sure, 
will  never  be  disapproved  by  the  parliament  of  Great 
Britain,  our  dependence  upon  which  we  never  had 
a  desire,  or  thought  of  lessening.  From  the  know- 
ledge your  excellency  has  acquired  of  us  you  will 
be  able  to  do  us  justice  in  this  regard. 

"  In  our  message  to  your  excellency,  which  you 
transmitted  to  his  lordship,  we  declared  that  the  act 
of  parliament,  the  extent  of  which  was  then  in  dis- 
pute, as  far  as  it  related  to  the  plantations,  had  al- 
ways been  observed  by  us. 

"  The  authority  of  all  acts  of  parliament  which 
concern  the  colonies,  and  extend  to  them,  is  ever 
acknowledged  in  all  the  courts  of  law,  and  made  the 
rule  of  all  judicial  proceedings  in  the  province. 
There  is  not  a  member  of  the  general  court,  and  we 
know  no  inhabitant  within  the  bounds  of  the  go- 
vernment, that  ever  questioned  this  authority. 

"  To  prevent  any  ill  consequences  which  may 
arise  from  an  opinion  of  our  holding  such  principles, 
we  now  utterly  disavow  thorn,  as  we  should  readily 
have  done  at  any  time  past,  if  there  had  been  occa- 
sion for  it;  and  we  pray  that  his  lordship  may  be 
acquainted  therewith,  that  we  may  appear  in  a  true 
light,  and  that  no  impressions  may  remain  to  our 
disadvantage." 

This  address  or  message  was  drawn  up  by  Mr 
Hutchhison,  then  a  member  of  the  council,  and  of 
the  committee. 

The  expectation  of  favour  from  parliament,  in  the 
reimbursement  of  their  expenses,  induced  the  coun- 
cil and  assembly  to  make  and  publish  so  explicit  a 
declaration  of  their  principles,  lest  the  construction 
which  the  general  had  put  upon  their  refusal  to 
conform  to  the  mutiny  act  might  operate  to  their 
prejudice.  They  were  nevertheless  the  real  princi- 
ples of  those  who  made  the  declaration,  and  not 
merely  pretended,  to  serve  a  purpose. 

The  governor,  observing  that  his  predecessor  had 
suffered  the  house  to  take  to  themselves  some  share 
of  that  military  authority,  which  the  charter  gives 
to  the  office  of  a  governor,  endeavoured  to  make  a 
reform.  In  the  grants  of  money  for  the  defence  of 
the  province,  the  house,  with  whom  all  grants  must 
originate,  in  several  late  instances,  had  appropriated 
the  money  granted,  to  the  payment  of  such  a  num- 
ber of  men  as  should  be  posted  in  such  places,  or 
employed  in  such  service,  as  the  votes  of  the  house 
expressed,  and  restrained  the  governor  and  council 
from  drawing  it  out  of  the  treasury  for  any  other 
purpose.  Mr.  Shirley,  to  keep  the  house  in  good 
humour,  and  thereby  to  promote  his  general  design, 
had  submitted  to  this  invasion.  Mr.  Pownall,  for 
some  days,  suffered  a  grant,  made  in  this  form,  to 
lie  before  him;  and  endeavoured  to  prevail  on  the 
house  to  depart  from  this  irregularity  ;  but  they  w-ere 
tenacious  of  it,  and  he  gave  his  assent,  protesting 
against  the  vote  as  a  breach  of  the  constitution.  No 
notice  was  taken  of  this  in  England,  where  there 
was  no  disposition  to  contend  with  the  colonies,  nor 
any  apprehension  of  serious  consequences  from  the 
advances  made  by  the  people  upon  the  prerogative. 

The   Massachusetts    assembly,    which    had   been 


UNITED  STATES. 


389 


used  to  take  the  lead,  proposed  to  the  other  New  | 
England  assemblies  a  meeting  by  ^commissioners,  to  | 
agree  upon  measures  for  the  defence  of  the  New 
England  colonies.  New  Hampshire  and  Rhode 
Island  returned  no  answer  to  this  proposal.  Con- 
necticut appointed  commissioners,  who  met  the  Mas- 
sachusetts commissioners  at  Boston,  and  a  plan  of 
measures  was  agreed  upon,  and  New  Hampshire 
and  Rhode  Island  were  invited  to  accede ;  but  the 
whole  affair  dropped,  by  the  neglect  of  the  assem- 
blies to  act  upon  the  report  of  the  commissioners. 

(1758.)  Lord  Loudoun,  soon  after,  appointed  a 
meeting  of  the  governors  of  New  York  and  of  the 
New  England  colonies,  or  of  commissioners  from  the 
colonies,  together  with  such  officers  of  the  army  as  ho 
thought  fit,  to  be  held  at  Hartford  in  Connecticut, 
20th  of  February,  where  he  intended  to  lay  before 
them  a  plan  of  measures  for  the  ensuing  year.  The 
governor  of  Massachusetts  bay,  New  York,  and  Con- 
necticut, and  two  commissioners  from  Rhode  Island, 
met  accordingly;  but  it  soon  appeared,  that  what- 
ever might  be  the  private  opinions  of  the  governors 
or  commissioners,  they  could  not  ensure  the  concur- 
rence of  the  assemblies.  The  general,  not  being 
able  to  effect  his  purpose  at  this  meeting,  went  for- 
ward to  Boston,  hoping  to  succeed  as  well  there  as 
he  had  done  the  last  year.  But  he  was  disappointed. 
He  came  to  town  the  first  day  of  the  session  of  the 
assembly.  The  governor,  in  his  speech,  recom- 
mended to  make  provision  for  a  suitable  body  of 
forces  to  co-operate  in  aid  and  assistance  to  his 
majesty's  troops,  to  the  eastward. 

This  gave  room  to  conjecture  that  another  expe- 
dition to  Louisburg  was  intended.  The  season  was 
advanced,  and  there  was  no  time  to  spare.  Twenty- 
two  hundred  men  was  the  full  number  desired. 
From  some  cause  or  other,  the  general  and  the 
governor  did  not  perfectly  harmonize.  The  propo- 
sal laboured  in  the  assembly.  Six  days  were  spent 
without  any  vote.  Certain  queries  were  then  laid 
before  the  general,  to  which  answers  were  desired. 
How  long  are  the  men  to  continue  in  service? 
What  officers  are  they  to  be  under?  Where  is  the 
command  to  be  ?  How  are  they  to  be  paid,  armed, 
and  victualled  ?  What  is  their  destination  ?  What 
will  be  the  whole  force,  when  they  shall  have  joined  it  ? 

The  general  was  much  displeased  with  these  queries, 
considereo  them  as  dilatory  pleas,  and  was  delibe- 
rating in  what  manner  to  reply  to  them,  when  an 
express  came  to  town  from  New  York,  bringing  intel- 
ligence that  the  Earl  of  Loudoun  was  superseded, 
and  Major-General  Abercrombie  appointed  com- 
mander in  chief  of  his  majesty's  forces.  The  same 
express  brought  letters  to  the  governor  from  the 
secretary  of  state,  Mr.  Pitt,  recommending,  in  the 
strongest  terms,  an  exertion  on  the  part  of  the  pro- 
vince, and  giving  encouragement  that  a  compensa- 
tion should  be  made  in  proportion.  It  was  expected, 
that  the  forces  would  be  employed  in  the  reduction 
of  Canada ;  the  object,  above  all  others,  wished  for 
by  the  people  of  New  England.  The  house  now 
made  no  queries,  but  came  immediately  to  a  resolve, 
"  to  raise  seven  thousand  men  by  enlistment  for  the 
intended  expedition  against  Canada,  to  be  formed 
into  regiments  under  such  officers,  being  inhabitants 
of  the  province,  as  his  excellency  the  captain-general 
shall  appoint;  to  continue  in  service  no  longer  than 
the  first  of  November,  and  to  be  dismissed  as  much 
sooner  as  his  majesty's  service  shall  admit." 

This  was  the  greatest  exertion  ever  made  by  the 
province.  From  the  proposal  made  by  Lord  Lou- 
doun, they  expected  nothing  more  than  another  at- 


tempt upon  Louisburg.  Now,  they  had  in  view  the 
country  westward,  considered  the  reduction  of  Ti- 
conderoga  and  Crown  Point  to  be  certain,  and  that 
the  possession  of  all  Canada  would  soon  follow.  But 
the  benefits  expected  from  this  acquisition  were  no- 
thing more  than  a  freedom  from  that  distress  which 
they  were  liable  to,  every  time  a  war  broke  out  be- 
tween England  and  France.  Whenever  America 
should  be  actually  subject  to  the  supreme  authority 
of  the  British  empire,  there  would  be  no  longer  any 
reason  to  fear  French  nor  Indian  enemies,  which 
had  been  a  scourge  to  the  colonies  from  their  first 
settlement.  An  empire,  separate  or  distinct  from 
Britain,  was  then  expected,  or  desired.  From  the 
common  increase  of  inhabitants,  in  a  part  of  the 
globe  which  nature  afforded  every  inducement  to 
cultivate,  settlements  would  gradually  extend;  and, 
in  distant  ages,  an  independent  empire  would  pro- 
bably be  formed.  This  was  the  language  of  that  day. 

Seven  thousand  men  was  a  great  proportion  of  the 
whole  people  to  be  raised,  and  sent  out  of  the  pro- 
vince. The  bounty  to  enlist  was  large :  the  wages 
of  a  soldier  were  much  higher  than  those  of  any 
soldiers  in  Europe.  Many  officers  depended  upon 
the  number  of  men  they  could  enlist,  to  entitle  them 
to  their  commissions.  Four  thousand  five  hundred 
only  could  be  raised  by  voluntary  enlistment,  and 
the  remaining  twenty-five  hundred,  by  a  subsequent 
act  or  order  of  court,  were  drawn  from  the  militia, 
and  impressed  into  the  service.  Between  two  and 
three  thousand  men  were  raised  by  the  other  colo- 
nies, which  made  more  than  nine  thousand  provin- 
cials, who,  with  between  six  and  seven  thousand  re- 
gulars and  rangers  in  the  king's  pay  included,  all 
marched  to  lake  George,  where  general  Abercrom- 
bie in  person  was  in  command.  Lord  Howe  ar- 
rived in  Boston,  from  England,  after  the  forces  had 
left  the  province,  and,  immediately  upon  his  land- 
ing, began  his  journey,  and  joined  the  army  before 
any  action  took  place. 

This  body  of  men,  the  greatest  which  had  ever 
been  assembled  in  arms  in  America,  since  it  was 
settled  by  the  English,  embarked  on  lake  George, 
the  5th  of  July,  for  the  French  fortress  at  Ticonde- 
roga.  and  landed  the  next  day  at  a  cove,  and  landing- 
place,  from  whence  a  way  led  to  the  advanced  guard 
of  the  enemy.  Seven  thousand  men,  in  four  co- 
lumns, then  began  a  march  through  a  thick  wood. 
The  columns  were  necessarily  broken;  their  guides 
were  unskilful ;  the  men  were  bewildered  and  lost ; 
and  parties  fell  in  one  upon  another.  Lord  Howe, 
the  life  of  the  army,  at  the  head  of  a  column  which 
was  supported  by  the  light  infantry,  being  advanced, 
fell  in  with  a  party  of  the  enemy,  consisting  of  about 
four  hundred  regulars  and  some  Indians.  Many  of 
them  were  killed,  and  one  hundred  and  forty  eight 
taken  prisoners.  This,  however,  was  a  dearly  pur- 
chased victory,  for  lord  Howe  was  the  first  who  fell 
on  the  English  side  :  whether  shot  by  the  enemy, 
or  by  his  own  people,  was  uncertain.  One  of  the 
provincial  colonels  present  supposed  the  last,  not 
merely  from  the  disorderly  firing,  but  from  a  view 
of  the  body ;  the  ball  entering,  as  he  said,  at  his 
back,  when"  he  was  facing  the  enemy. 

The  general  assembly  at  Massachusetts  Bay,  upon 
a  suggestion  from  the  governor  to  some  of  the  mem- 
bers, testified  their  respect  to  the  memory  of  lord 
Howe,  by  granting  a  sum  of  money  fora  monument, 
which  has  been  placed  in  Westminster  Abbey. 
"  In  the  house  of  representatives. 

"  The  great  and  general  court,  bearing  testimony 
to  the  sense  which  the  province  had,  of  the  services 


390 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


and  military  virtues  of  the  late  lord  viscount  Howe, 
who  fell  in  the  last  campaign,  fighting  in  the  cause 
<tf  the  colonies,  and  also  to  express  the  affection 
which  their  officers  and  soldiers  bore  to  his  command, 

"  Ordered,  that  the  sum  of  two  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds  be  paid  out  of  the  public  treasury,  to  the 
order  of  the  present  lord  viscount  Howe,  for  erect- 
ing a  monument  to  his  lordship's  memory,  to  be 
built  in  such  manner,  and  situated  in  such  place,  as 
the  present  lord  viscount  Howe  shall  choose,  and 
that  his  excellency  the  governor  be  desired  to  ac- 
quaint his  lordship  therewith,  in  such  manner  that 
the  testimony  be  engraved  on  such  monument. 

"  In  council  read  and  concurred 

"  Consented  to  by  the  governor." 

The  report  of  his  death  caused  consternation  as 
well  as  grief,  through  the  army,  which  had  placed 
much  confidence  in  him. 

The  troops  returned,  the  next  day,  to  the  place 
where  they  landed,  much  fatigued.  Colonel  Brad- 
street,  having  been  sent  with  a  detachment  to  take 
possession  of  a  saw-mill  at  about  two  miles  distance 
from  the  main  body  of  the  enemy  at  Ticonderoga, 
found  it  deserted. 

The  army  marched  there  that  evening.  The  pri- 
soners agreed  in  their  accounts,  that  the  enemy's 
force  was  about  6000  men,  of  which  eight  battalions 
were  regular  troops,  the  remainder  Canadians  and 
Indians ;  that  they  were  encamped  before  the  fort, 
and  were  enclosing  their  camp  with  the  best  breast- 
work they  could,  by  felling  trees  with  their  branches 
interwoven,  &c. ;  that  3000  men  had  been  sent  off 
under  Monsieur  de  Levi,  mostly  Canadians  and 
Indians,  to  the  Mohawk  river,  but,  upon  news  of 
the  approach  of  the  English  army,  had  been  recalled, 
and  were  expected  every  hour. 

From  this  intelligence,  the  general  thought  no 
time  ought  to  be  lost,  and  that  an  attack  should  be 
made  without  delay. 

Early  in  the  morning  of  the  8th,  Mr.  Clerk,  the 
chief  engineer,  was  sent  to  reconnoitre.  He  judged 
it  practicable  to  carry  the  works,  if  attacked  before 
they  were  completed.  It  was,  thereupon,  resolved 
to  begin  immediately. 

The  whole  army,  except  a  guard  for  the  boats,  and 
a  provincial  regiment  at  a  saw-mill,  was  in  motion. 
The  attack  was  to  be  made  by  the  regular  forces, 
who  had  orders  to  march  up  to  the  breast-work,  rush 
upon  the  fire  of  the  enemy,  but  not  to  fire  themselves 
until  they  should  be  within  the  works. 

The  provincials  in  the  rear  were  to  support  the 
regulars,  who  advanced  with  great  bravery,  but  were 
surprised  to  find  the  intrenchment  much  stronger 
than  lepresented. 

The  enemy  were  within  a  breast-work,  which  had 
been  thrown  up  eight  or  nine  feet  high.  The  ground 
before  it  was  covered  to  a  considerable  breadth  with 
trees  fallen  one  upon  another,  and  the  branches 
interwoven  so  thick  as  to  bar  the  passage  of  the 
troops,  while  they  were  exposed  to  the  swivel  guns 
and  small  arms  of  the  enemy  incessantly  firing  upon 
them.  The  provincials,  generally  undisciplined, 
could  not  be  kept  from  firing  in  the  rear,  and  at 
random ;  and  some  of  their  own  officers  admitted, 
that  some  of  the  regulars  probably  fell  by  that  cir- 
cumstance. Major  Proby,  lieut.-colonel  Bever,  and 
other  officers,  were  killed  whilst  attempting  to 
mount  the  breast-work  ;  which  but  a  small  part  of 
the  army  had  reached,  when  they  were  called  off 
from  the  attack,  which  had  been  several  times  re- 
peated, the  whole  action  having  continued  two  or 
three  hours 


About  500  regulars  were  killed  upon  the  spot,  and 
about  1,200  wounded.  Of  the  provincials  100  were 
killed,  and  250  wounded. 

The  army  still  consisted  of  13  or  14,000. 

The  enemy  was  much  inferior  in  number.  The 
retreat,  nevertheless,  was  precipitate.  Early  in  the 
morning  of  the  9th  the  whole  army  embarked  in 
their  boats,  and  arrived  at  the  other  end  of  the  lake, 
and  landed  in  the  evening.  Provisions,  intrenching 
tools,  and  many  stores,  of  various  kinds  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  enemy.  The  English  arms  have  rarely 
suffered  greater  disgrace. 

Before  the  news  of  this  ill  success,  the  governor 
of  Massachusetts  bay  had  acquainted  the  general, 
that  the  militia  were  ordered  to  hold  themselves  in 
readiness.  After  the  repulse,  the  general  thanked 
him  for  the  orders,  but  hoped  he  should  not  want 
the  men.  Letters  came  also  to  the  governor,  to  be 
forwarded  to  General  Amherst,  at  Louisburg,  to  call 
him  from  thonce,  as  soon  as  the  service  would  admit. 
These  letters  never  were  received  by  General  Am- 
herst, nor  was  it  known  how  they  could  miscarry. 
The  failure  caused  a  delay  until  duplicates  came  to 
hand,  and  he  did  not  arrive  in  Boston  until  the  13th 
of  September.  He  began  his  march  from  Boston 
to  Albany,  with  4,500  men,  on  the  16th. 

Whether  any  further  attempt  would  have  been 
made  that  year,  if  they  had  arrived  sooner,  is  doubt- 
ful. It  is  certain  that,  whatever  may  have  been  in 
contemplation,  nothing  was  done,  and  General  Am- 
herst, in  a  short  time,  himself  returned  to  Boston, 
and  went  from  thence  to  Halifax. 

In  the  interval  between  the  repulse  at  Ticonde- 
roga and  the  arrival  of  General  Amherst,  Colonel 
Bradstreet,  with  3,000  of  the  provincials,  and  120 
regulars,  stole  a  march  upon  Montcalm,  and  before 
he  could  send  a  detachment  from  his  army  to  lake 
Ontario,  by  the  way  of  St.  Lawrence,  went  up  the 
Mohawk  river.  About  the  25th  of  August,  they  ar- 
rived at  fort  Frontenac,  surprised  the  garrison,  who 
were  made  prisoners  of  war,  took  and  destroyed  nine 
small  vessels  and  much  merchandise ; — but  having 
intelligence  of  a  large  body  of  the  enemy  near, 
they  made  haste  back  to  Albany.  It  was  an  expe- 
dition of  eclat.  The  men  complained  of  undergoing 
greater  hardship  than  they  had  ever  undergone  be- 
fore, and  many  sickened  and  died  by  the  fatigue  of 
the  march. 

Louisburg  was  reduced  this  year,  by  the  fleet  un- 
der Admiral  Boscawen,  and  the  army  under  General 
Amherst.  It  did  not  surrender  until  the  26th  of 
July.  Whatever  the  plan  may  have  been,  it  was 
too  late  to  proceed  upon  an  expedition  up  the  river 
St.  Lawrence.  They  had  no  knowledge  then  of 
Abercrombie's  misfortune.  Admiral  Boscawen,  after 
taking  possession  of  the  island  St.  John,  included 
in  the  capitulation  of  Louisburg,  sailed  with  the  fleet 
for  England. 

An  expedition  for  dispossessing  the  French  of  Fort 
du  Quesne,  near  the  Ohio,  had,  at  first,  a  very  un- 
favourable prospect.  The  English  forces  met  with 
a  variety  of  obstructions  and  discouragements ;  and, 
when  they  had  advanced  within  thirty  or  forty  miles 
of  the  fort,  were  at  a  stand,  deliberating  whether 
they  should  go  forward,  or  not.  Receiving  intelli- 
gence that  the  garrison  was  in  a  weak  condition, 
they  pushed  on.  Upon  their  arrival  at  the  fort,  they 
met  with  no  opposition.  The  enemy  had  deserted 
it  some  days  before,  for  want  of  provisions,  as  was 
generally  believed;  and  it  was  added,  that  the  pro- 
visions intended  to  supply  that  fort  were  destroyed 
by  Bradstreet  at  fort  Frontenac.  Its  greatest  se- 


UNITED  STATES. 


391 


viirity  seems  to  have  been  the  difficulty  of  coming 
.it  it,  with  an  array  furnished  with  artillery,  &c. 

The  Massachusetts  forces  this  year  suffered  much 
by  mortality  while  in  camp;  and  great  numbers 
died  by  sickness  upon  the  road,  and  after  their  re- 
turn ;  especially  of  those  who  were  in  Bradstreet's 
expedition. 

The  commissions  of  Thomas  Hutchinson,  Esq.  for 
lieut.-governor,  and  Andrew  Oliver,  Esq.  for  secre- 
tary of  Massachusetts  bay,  were  published  in  council, 
June  1,1758. 

The  ill  success  of  General  Abercrombie  at  Ticon- 
deroga  caused  his  recall.  He  seemed  to  expect  and 
desire  it.  He  was  succeeded  by  General  Amherst. 

(1759.)  Whatever  might  be  the  real  intentions  of 
government  in  1758,  there  was  no  room  to  doubt  of 
its  determination  in  1759,  to  prosecute  with  vigour 
an  expedition  against  Canada.  Mr.  Pitt,  in  his  let- 
ter to  the  governor,  pressed  with  much  earnestness, 
the  raising,  this  year,  of  as  many  men  as  were  raised 
the  last;  and  promised,  as  he  had  done  before,  a  re- 
compense in  proportion  to  the  active  vigour  and 
strenuous  efforts  wherewith  the  province  should  ex- 
ert itself. 

The  difficulty  of  carrying  the  vote  of  the  assembly, 
last  year,  for  7,000  men,  into  effect,  caused  a  less 
number  to  be  voted  this  year.  The  whole  to  be 
raised  was  5,000  only ;  and,  of  these,  400  were  to 
be  employed  under  the  governor,  as  a  guard  or  de- 
fence in  building  a  fort  at  the  mouth  of  the  river 
Penobscot.  This  was  consented  to  by  the  general 
at  the  governor's  request.  As  the  navy  was  in  great 
want  of  seamen,  it  was  also  agreed,  that  as  many 
men  as  would  enlist  for  the  sea  service  should  be  ac- 
counted part  of  the  number ;  and  provision  was  made, 
that  if  the  whole  number  did  not  enlist  within  a  time 
limited,  the  deficiency  should  be  made  good  by  an 
impress. 

The  general  was  dissatisfied,  and  repeatedly  made 
demands  of  additional  numbers.  At  length,  it  was 
resolved  to  increase  the  bounty,  in  order  to  encou- 
rage 1,500  more  to  enlist;  but  if  this  encouragement 
should  not  effect  the  enlistment,  there  was  no  power 
to  impress.  The  number,  however,  was  nearly  com- 
pleted. 

Notwithstanding  the  ill  success  of  former  attempts 
for  the  reduction  of  Canada,  by  the  co-operation  of 
an  army  by  the  river  St.  Lawrence,  and  another  by 
lake  Champlain,  the  same  plan  was  laid  again. 

In  two  former  expeditions,  the  forces  intended  by 
the  lakes  were  of  no  use ;  and  the  whole  force  of  the 
enemy  was  at  liberty  to  oppose  the  army  by  the 
river.  There  was  the  utmost  hazard  of  failure  this 
year,  from  the  like  cause. 

It  was  proposed,  with  a  large  body  of  regulars 
and  provincials,  under  General  Amherst,  to  remove 
the  French  from  Ticonderoga  and  Crown  Point,  and 
also  from  their  fort  at  'Niagara.  The  occupation  of 
the  two  former  by  the  English  would  open  a  way  to 
Canada  through  lake  Champlain. 

In  the  month  of  July,  General  Amherst  took  pos- 
session of  the  enemy's  lines  at  Ticonderoga,  which 
they  abandoned,  after  setting  fire  to  the  fort:  and, 
the  beginning  of  August,  the  fort  at  Crown  Point, 
having  been  abandoned  also  by  the  French,  fell  into 
the  possession  of  the  English. 

Brigadier  Prideaux  had  been  sent  with  a  proper 
force  to  besiege  the  fort  at  Niagara,  and,  on  the  19th 
of  July,  walking  in  the  trenches,  was  killed  by  the 
carelessness  of  his  own  gunner  in  firing  a  cohorn. 

Colonel  Gage,  upon  the  intelligence  of  this  loss, 
was  r,ent  from  Crown  Point  by  General  Amherst  to 


ucceed  Brigadier  Prideaux.  Luckily  for  Sir  Wil- 
liam Johnson,  who,  as  the  next  officer  on  the  spot, 
took  the  command  upon  Prideaux's  death,  a  body  of 
1.200  men  from  Detroit,  £c.,  making  an  attempt,  on 
the  24th  of  July,  to  throw  themselves  into  the  fort 
as  a  reinforcement,  were  intercepted,  and  killed, 
taken,  or  dispersed;  and,  the  next  day,  the  garrison 
capitulated.  There  were  great  obstructions  to  the 
passage  of  an  army  from  lake  Ontario  into  Canada 
by  the  river  St.  Lawrence.  The  general  recom- 
mended to  Colonel  Gage  to  take  post  at  La  Ga- 
lette,  but  too  many  difficulties  attended  such  an 
attempt,  and  it  was  laid  aside ;  and  no  assistance 
could  be  afforded  to  the  army  before  Quebec  from 
this  quarter. 

About  the  middle  of  the  month  of  August,  General 
Amherst  received  information  at  Crown  Point,  that 
M.  Bourlemaque  was  encamped  at  Isle  aux  Noix  with 
3,500  men,  and  100  cannon,  and  that  the  French 
had  four  vessels  on  the  lake,  under  the  command  of 
the  captain  of  a  man  of  war.  It  was  judged  neces- 
sary to  build  a  brigantine,  a  radeau,  and  a  sloop  of 
sixteen  guns.  There  could  be  no  prospect  of  having 
such  a  fleet  ready  until  the  beginning  of  October. 

The  fleet  under  Sir  Charles  Saunders,  with  the 
army  under  General  Wolfe,  arrived  before  Quebec 
the  latter  part  of  June.  The  general,  after  many 
unsuccessful  attempts  to  gain  the  possession  of  that 
city,  was,  on  the  2nd  of  September,  in  a  critical 
situation,  and,  to  use  his  own  words,  met  with  "such 
a  choice  of  difficulties,  as  to  be  at  a  Toss  how  to  de- 
termine." 

With  an  army,  of  which,  he  says,  "  between  4 
and  5,000  men  were  nearly  the  whole  strength," 
he  landed  on  the  13th  of  September,  and,  with  tho 
loss  of  his  own  life,  obtained  a  victory  over  the  ene- 
my, which  was  made  the  more  certain  by  the  fall  of 
Montcalm,  the  French  general,  about  the  same  time 
with  that  of  the  English  general. 

General  Monckton  being  shot  through  the  lungs, 
which  happily  did  not  prove  mortal,  the  completing 
of  the  victory,  and  the  reduction  of  the  city  by  capi- 
tulation, three  days  after,  was  reserved  for  General 
Townshend. 

No  communication  could  be  opened  between  the 
two  armies :  but  it  is  extremely  probable,  that,  if  a 
great  part  of  the  French  force  had  not  been  with- 
drawn from  Quebec  to  attend  the  motions  of  General 
Amherst,  the  attempt  made  by  General  Wolfe  must 
have  failed. 

The  Massachusetts  forces  this  year  were  of  great 
service.  2,500  served  in  garrison  at  Louisburg  and 
Nova  Scotia,  in  the  room  of  the  regular  troops,  taken 
from  thence  to  serve  under  General  Wolfe.  Several 
hundred  served  on  board  the  king's  ships  as  seamen, 
and  the  remainder  of  the  6,500  men,  voted  in  the 
spring,  served  under  General  Amherst.  Besides 
this  force,  upon  application  from  General  Wolfe, 
300  more  were  raised  and  sent  to  Quebec  by  the 
lieut.-governor,  in  the  absence  of  the  governor  at 
Penobscot.  These  served  as  pioneers,  and  in  other 
capacities,  in  which  the  regulars  must  otherwise  have 
been  employed. 

The  city  of  Quebec  was  reduced.  Montreal  be- 
came the  seat  of  the  French  governor.  The  inhabi- 
tants of  Canada,  in  general,  remained  subjects  of  the 
French  king,  and  a  considerable  military  force  was 
still  within  the  province.  General  Amherst,  on  the 
llth  of  October,  embarked  his  army  in  batteaus, 
under  the  convoy  of  the  armed  vessels  which  he  had 
caused  to  be  built,  and  went  from  Crown  Point  part 
of  the  way  down  the  lake;  but  meeting  with  bad 


392 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


weather  and  contrary  winds,  on  the  19th  resolved 
to  return  to  Crown  Point,  and  to  desist  from  any 
further  attempt  until  the  next  year. 

The  fleet  returned  to  England,  and  General  Mur- 
ray was  left  in  command  with  a  strong  garrison  at 
Quebec. 

Such  of  the  Massachusetts  forces  as  had  been  sent 
to  Louisburg  and  Nova  Scotia  were  held  in  service, 
although  the  term  for  which  they  enlisted  was  ex- 
pired. The  remainder  were  discharged,  and  re- 
turned home. 

(1760.)  General  Amherst  made  application  to  the 
Massachusetts  for  the  same  number  of  men  for  the 
service  of  the  next  year,  as  they  had  raised  the  last. 
The  reduction  of  Canada  was  still  the  object.  This 
alone  was  found  to  be  a  sufficient  stimulus  to  the 
assembly,  and  they 'did  not  need  other  arguments 
from  the  governor.  The  generous  compensations 
which  had  been  every  year  made  by  parliament,  not 
only  alleviated  the  burden  of  taxes,  which  otherwise 
would  have  been  heavy,  but,  by  the  importation  of 
such  large  sums  of  specie,  increased  commerce;  and 
it  was  the  opinion  of  some,  that  the  war  added  to 
the  wealth  ot  the  province,  though  the  compensation 
did  not  amount  to  one-half  the  charges  of  government. 
The  assembly,  at  the  session  in  January,  1760, 
first  granted  a  large  bounty  to  the  men  in  garrison 
at  Louisburg  and  Nova  Scotia,  to  encourage  them 
to  continue  in  service.  A  vote. was  then  passed  for 
raising  5,000  men  more,  upon  the  same  encourage- 
ment as  those  of  the  last  year  had  received.  Soon 
after,  the  governor  received  letters  from  Mr.  Pitt, 
making  the  like  requisition  as  had  been  made  by 
him  last  year,  and  giving  the  same  assurances  cf 
compensation.  At  the  beginning  of  the  year  the 
English  interest  in  Canada  was  in  a  precarious  state. 
Quebec  had  been  besieged  in  the  spring,  after  a  bat- 
tle in  which  General  Murray  had  lost  a  considerable 
part  of  his  garrison.  Fortunately,  Lord  Colville 
arrived  at  a  critical  time,  and  caused  the  siege  to  be 
raised. 

This  danger  being  over,  and  there  being  no  pro- 
bability of  any  French  force  from  Europe,  it  seemed 
agreed,  that  all  Canada  must  fall  in  the  course  of 
the  summer.  The  Massachusetts  enlistments  went 
on  but  slowly.  Only  3,300  of  the  proposed  5,000 
men  enlisted,  and  700  only  remained!  in  garrisons  at 
Louisburg  and  Nova  Scotia. 

A  fire  in  Boston,  the  night  after  the  20th  of  March, 
exceeded  the  great  fire,  as  it  had  always  been  styled, 
in  1711.  It  began  in  Cornhill,  at  a  house  known 
by  the  name  of  the  Brazen  Head,  south  of  the  town- 
house.  Three  or  four  houses  were  burnt,  and  the 
progress  of  it  seemed  to  be  stopped,  when  a  violent 
wind  at  north-west  came  on  suddenly,  and  it  con- 
sumed, in  that  direction,  between  Cornhill  and  the 
harbour,  150  houses  great  and  small.  The  news- 
papers made  the  damage  amount  to  300,000/.  ster- 
ling. A  brief  from  the  governor  supposed,  that,  at 
a  moderate  computation,  it  amounted  to  at  least 
100,000/.  Others,  who  had  observed  the  increased 
value  of  the  land  upon  which  the  houses  stood,  esti- 
mated the  loss  at  not  more  than  50,000/.,  and  judged, 
that  if  the  donations  could  have  been  equally  distri- 
buted, no  great  loss  would  have  been  sustained. 

Governor  Pownall's  administration  was  short.  In 
November  1759,  it  was  thought  proper  to  nominate 
him  to  the  government  of  South  Carolina,  in  the 
room  of  Mr.  Littleton,  appointed  governor  of  Ja- 
maica. Mr.  Bernard,  governor  of  New  Jersey,  was 
appointed  to  succeed  Mr.  Pownall. 

The  news  of  Mr.  Pownall's  recall  did  not  arrive 


n  Boston  until  the  latter  part  of  February.  He  con- 
tinued there  until  the  election  of  counsellors  was 

ast  for  the  year  1760,  and  sailed  for  England  the 
3rd  of  June. 

From  the  arrival  of  Governor  Bernard,  Auyutt  Ind, 
1760,  to  the  commencement  of  the  revolution. 

(1760.)  Mr.  Bernard  was  detained  in  New  Jer- 
ey,  waiting  for  his  commission  longer  than  he  ex- 
pected. In  this  time  the  business  of  the  assembly, 
which  Mr.  Pownall  had  left  sitting,  was  completed 
by  Mr  Hutchinson,  the  lieutenant-governor,  who 
made  a  short  prorogation,  that  the  new  governor 
might  have  the  earliest  opportunity  of  meeting 
them,  if  he  thought  fit.  The  people  had  conceived 
a  very  favourable  opinion  of  him,  and  evidenced  it 
by  public  marks  of  respect,  as  he  travelled  through 
the  province,  and  upon  his  arrival  at  the  seat  of 
government. 

In  this  session  an  addition  was  made  of  five  hun- 
dred men  to  the  forces  under  General  Amherst.  The 
county  of  York  was  divided,  and  two  new  counties 
erected,  Lincoln,  and  Cumberland,  on  the  eastern 
side,  the  western  part  retaining  the  name  of  York. 

The  Massachusetts  forces  served  this  year,  in 
conjunction  with  other  provincials  and  about  1600 
regulars,  under  Colonel  Haviland.  They  entered 
Canada  from  Crown  Point  by  lakeChamplaivi  ;  while 
General  Amherst,  with  the  troops  under  his  imme- 
diate command,  went  from  Albany,  by  the  Mohawk 
river,  to  lake  Ontario,  and  from  thence  by  the  river 
St.  Lawrence  ;  and  General  Murray,  with  part  of 
the  army  which  was  at  Quebec,  went  from  thence 
up  the  same  river.  The  three  armies  met  about  the 
same  time  at  Montreal ;  which  facilitated  the  reduc- 
tion of  that  city,  and  of  course  of  the  whole  pro- 
vince of  Canada. 

The  news  of  this  event  was  brought  to  Boston  on 
the  23d  of  September,  and  was  no  where  received 
with  greater  joy,  no  part  of  the  king's  dominions 
being  more  interested  in  it. 

Governor  Bernard,  in  his  speech  to  the  assembly 
upon  this  occasion,  put  them  in  mind  of  "  the  bless- 
ings they  derive  from  their  subjection  to  Great  Bri- 
tain, without  which  they  could  not  now  have  been 
a  free  people ;  for  no  other  nation  upon  earth  could 
have  delivered  them  from  the  power  they  had  to 
contend  with." 

The  council,  in  their  address,  acknowledge  that, 
"  to  their  relation  to  Great  Britain,  they  owe  their 
present  freedom,"  and  then  echo  back,  in  imitation 
of  the  pattern  they  aimed  to  follow  in  addresses, 
that  "  no  other  nation  upon  earth  could  have  deli- 
vered them  from  the  power  they  had  to  contend  with.'* 

The  house,  without  scrupling  to  make,  in  express 
words,  the  acknowledgment  of  their  subjection,  ne- 
vertheless explain  the  nature  of  it.  They  "  are 
sensible  of  the  blessings  derived  to  the  Britien  colo- 
nies from  their  subjection  to  Great  Britain  ;  and  the 
whole  world  must  be  sensible  of  the  blessings  de- 
rived to  Great  Britain,  from  the  loyalty  of  the  colo- 
nies in  general,  and  from  the  efforts  of  this  province 
in  particular;  which,  for  more  than  a  century  past, 
has  been  wading  in  blood,  and  laden  with  the  ex- 
penses of  repelling  the  common  enemy ;  without 
which  efforts,  Great  Britain,  at  this  day,  might  have 
had  no  colonies  to  defend  :"  and  in  the  same  address 
they  observe,  that  "  the  connection  between  the  mo- 
ther country  and  these  provinces  is  founded  on  the 
principles  of filial  obedience,  protection,  and  justice." 

These  addresses  have  the  appearance  of  caution, 
which  are  not  before  met  with  in  any  public  papers 


UNITED  STATES. 


393 


since  the  revolution.  Perhaps  it  was  observed  only 
by  the  persons  who  composed  them,  and  not  by  the 
council  or  house  in  general.  > 

The  greatest,  hopes  from  the  reduction  of  Canada, 
as  far  as  could  be  judged  from  the  public  prayers  of 
the  clergy,  as  well  as  from  the  conversation  of  people 
in  general,  was,  "  to  sit  quiet  under  their  own  vines 
and  fig  trees,  and  to  have  none  to  make  them  afraid." 
All  they  had  ever  suffered,  as  a  community,  had  been 
from  their  French  and  Indian  neighbours.  In  every 
respect,  except  the  charges  which  had  been  occa- 
sioned by  Indian  wars,  they  had  felt  less  of  the  bur- 
lens  of  government,  than  any  people  besides,  who 
enjoyed  so  much  of  the  benefit  of  it.  That  their 
civil  and  religious  principles  might  be  transmitted 
to  the  latest  posterity,  was  an  expression  in  general 
use  among  the  clergy. 

In  Massachusetts  bay  especially,  there  was  a  very 
general  satisfaction  with  the  form  of  government  ac- 
cording to  their  charter.  Although  under  the  first 
charter,  the  government  had  been  more  popular,  the 
governor  himself  being  annually  elected,  they  were 
so  fully  satisfied  with  the  new.  that  few  persons,  if 
any,  wished  to  return  to  the  old.  From  heats  and 
animosities  in  popular  elections  in  towns,  they 
judged  of  the  danger  from  such  an  election  by  all 
the  people  of  the  province. 

The  controversies  between  governors  and  their 
assemblies  had  been  occasioned  by  different  con- 
structions of  their  respective  powers,  as  derived  from 
the  charter ;  but  these  were  pretty  well  settled. 
When  a  people  are  in  such  a  state,  they  are  not  apt 
to  be  disturbed  by  mere  theoretical  notions  of  govern- 
ment, or  with  ideas  of  any  particular  degree  of  natu- 
ral liberty  which  it  is  not  in  their  power  to  alienate. 

Speculative  men  had  already  figured  in  their 
minds  an  American  empire,  but  in  such  distant 
ages,  that  no  body  then  living  could  expect  to  see 
it.  Besides,  whilst  the  French  remained  upon  the 
continent,  the  English  were  apprehensive  lest, 
sooner  or  later,  they  should  be  driven  from  it.  But 
as  soon  as  they  were  removed,  a  new  scene  opened. 
The  prospect  was  greatly  enlarged.  There  was  no- 
thing to  obstruct  a  gradual  progress  of  settlements, 
through  a  vast  continent,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific  Ocean. 

The  two  colonies  of  Massachusetts  bay  and  Con- 
necticut claimed,  by  charters,  the  property  of  this 
vast  territory,  at  their  sole  disposal,  so  far  as  came 
within  the  latitudes  to  which  they  were  limited;  the 
small  territory,  possessed  by  Pennsylvania  and  New 
York,  only  excepted. 

Men  whose  minds  were  turned  to  calculations 
found  that  the  colonies  increased  so  rapidly,  as  to 
double  the  number  of  inhabitants  in  a  much  shorter 
space  of  time  than  had  been  imagined. 

From  the  number  of  inhabitants  then  in  the  se- 
veral colonies,  and  a  supposition  that,  for  the  time 
to  come,  they  might  increase  in  the  same  proportion 
as  in  the  time  past,  the  colonies  would  soon  exceed 
the  parent  state. 

These  considerations  did  not,  of  themselves,  im- 
mediately occasion  any  plan,  or  even  a  desire,  of 
independency.  They  produced  a  higher  sense  of 
the  grandeur  and  importance  of  the  colonies. 

Advantages  in  any  respect,  enjoyed  by  the  sub- 
jects in  England,  which  were  not  enjoyed  by  the 
subjects  in  the  colonies,  began  to  be  considered  in 
an  invidious  light,  and  men  were  led  to  inquire, 
with  greater  attention  than  formerly,  into  the  rela- 
tion in  which  the  colonies  stood  to  the  state  from 
which  they  sprang. 


Every  argument  which  would  give  colour  for  the 
removal  of  this  distinction  was  favourably  received  : 
and  from  various  events,  men  were  prepared  to 
think  more  favourably  of  independency,  before  any 
measures  were  taken  with  a  professed  design  of  at- 
taining to  if. 

'Governor  Bernard  had  been  but  a  few  weeks  in 
the  province,  when  he  found  himself  under  the  ne- 
cessity either  of  making  a  particular  family  and  its 
connexions  extremely  inimical  to  him,  or  of  doing 
what  would  not  have  been  approved  of  by  the  greater 
part  of  the  province. 

Upon  the  death  of  the  chief  justice,  the  first  sur- 
viving judge,  and  two  other  judges,  together  with 
several  of  the  principal  gentlemen  of  the  bar,  sig- 
nified their  desire  to  the  governor  that  he  would  ap- 
point the  lieut.-governor  to  be  the  successor.  When 
Mr.  Shirley  was  in  administration  he  had  encou- 
raged, if  not  promised,  a  gentleman  at  the  bar,  that, 
upon  a  vacancy  in  the  superior  court,  he  should 
have  a  seat  there.  A  vacancy  happened,  and  Mr, 
Shirley,  from  a  prior  engagement,  or  for  some  other 
reason,  disappointed  him.  He  was  at  this  time 
speaker  of  the  house  of  representatives,  and  he  made 
application  to  Governor  Bernard,  that  the  first  sur- 
viving judge  might  be  appointed  chief  justice,  and 
that  he  might,  take  the  place  of  a  judge.  His  son, 
Mr.  Otis,  author  of  the  first  political  pamphlet  upon 
the  rights  of  Americans ;  also,  with  great  warmth, 
engaged  in  behalf  of  his  father,  and,  not  meeting 
with  that  encouragement  which  he  expected,  threat- 
ened resentment,  if  he  should  finally  fail  of  success. 

Several  weeks  elapsed,  before  any  nomination  was 
made,  or  any  thing  had  passed  between  the  governor 
and  lieut.-governor,  upon  the  subject  At  length  it 
was  intimated  to  the  lieut.-governor,  that  the  gover- 
nor, when  he  had  been  applied  to  by  many  persons 
in  his  behalf,  was  at  a  loss  to  account  for  his  silence 
upon  the  subject.  This  caused  a  conversation,  in 
which  the  lieut.-governor  signified  that  he  had  de- 
sired no  persons  to  apply  in  his  behalf,  and  had 
avoided  applying  himself,  that  the  governor  might 
the  more  freely  use  his  own  judgment,  in  appointing 
such  person  as  should  appear  to  him  most  fit.  And 
soon  after,  upon  the  lieut.-governor's  being  informed 
of  the  governor's  intention  to  nominate  him  to  the 
place,  he  gave  his  opinion,  that  a  refusal  to  comply 
with  the  solicitations  which  had  been  made  to  the 
governor  by  the  other  person,  would  cause  a  strong 
opposition  'to  his  administration,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  assured  the  governor,  that  he  would  not  take 
amiss  the  compliance,  but  would  support  his  admi- 
nistration with  the  name  zeal  as  if  he  had  been  ap- 
pointed himself. 

The  governor  declared  that,  if  the  lieut.-governor 
should  finally  refuse  the  place,  the  other  person 
would  not  be  nominated.  The  expected  opposition 
ensued.  The  resentment  in  the  disappointed  per- 
sons was  also  as  strong  against  the  lieut.-governor 
for  accepting  the  place,  as  if  he  had  sought  it,  and 
had  opposed  their  solicitations.  Both  the  gentlemen 
had  been  friends  to  government.  From  this  time 
they  were  at  the  head  of  every  measure  in  opposi- 
tion, not  merely  in  those  points  which  concerned 
the  governor  in  his  administration,  but  in  such  as 
concerned  the  authority  of  parliament ;  the  opposi- 
tion to  which  first  began  in  this  colony,  and  was 
moved  and  conducted  by  one  of  them,  both  in  the 
the  assembly  and  the  town  of  Boston.  From  so 
small  a  spark  a  great  fire  seems  to  have  been  kindled. 

The  news  of  the  demise  of  King  George  the  Se- 
cond was  received  in  Boston  the  27th  of  December, 


394 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


1 760.  There  was  no  room  to  doubt  the  truth  of  it 
The  people  on  board  a  ship  which  arrived  from  an 
out-port  in  England,  all  agreed  in  it,  and  the  news 
papers  contained  an  account  of  it,  and  of  the  accession 
of  King  George  the  Third,  as  published  by  authorit) 
in  the  London  Gazette.  There  was  no  official  advice 
and  upon  the  governor's  consulting  the  council,  some 
doubted  the  propriety  of  proclaiming  a  new  king, 
until  directions  should  be  received  from  the  secretary 
of  state,  in  his  name.  Others  were  of  opinion  that 
it  was  justifiable.  It  was  a  season  of  the  year,  when 
it  was  probable  that  many  weeks  would  pass  before 
orders  arrived,  and  it  would  have  a  strange  appear- 
ance, if  all  writs,  processes,  and  public  acts  of  every 
kind,  continued,  all  that  time,  in  the  name  of  a 
prince  known  to  be  in  his  grave.  Upon  consulting 
precedents,  they  were  in  favour  of  the  last  opinion,  and 
the  king  was  proclaimed  on  the  30th  of  December. 
(1761.)  On  Thursday,  January  1st,  the  governor, 
council,  &c.,  went  into  mourning.  In  the  morning 
a  sermon  was  preached  in  the  meeting-house,  by 
Mr.  Cooper,  one  of  the  ministers  of  Boston,  when 
the  whole  general  assembly  attended.  The  governor 
proposed  to  the  rector  of  King's  chapel  to  preach 
there,  in  the  afternoon:  and  the  council  and  as- 
sembly attended  with  him.  This  is  the  only  in- 
stance of  a  sermon  preached  before  the  general  as- 
sembly in  an  episcopal  church. 

A  short  time  only  passed,  before  Mr.  Otis,  the 
son,  appeared  at  the  head  of  a  party,  not  in  opposi- 
tion to  any  act  of  the  governor,  but  to  the  past  trans- 
actions of  officers  in  the  court  of  admiralty,  in  whose 
defence  the  governor  would  probably  be  engaged. 

The  act  of  parliament  of  the  6th  of  George  the 
Second,  which  imposed  a  duty  of  sixpence  per  gallon 
upon  all  foreign  molasses  imported  into  the  colonies, 
gave  one-third  part  of  the  forfeiture  to  the  king,  for 
the  use  of  the  colony  where  the  forfeiture  should  be 
made,  one-third  to  the  governor,  and  the  other  to 
the  informer. 

The  act,  though  it  had  been  made  near  thirty 
years,  and  large  sums  had  been  forfeited,  was  always 
deemed  a  grievance.  The  assembly  had  suffered 
the  share  given  to  the  province  to  lie  in  the  court. 
It  had,  besides,  been  the  practice  of  the  court,  to 
allow  to  the  informer  what  he  gave  for  private  infor- 
mation, and  to  charge  it  upon  the  third  given  to  the 
king  for  the  colony,  (which  third  nobody  appeared 
to  demand,)  and  not  upon  the  whole  forfeiture. 
The  like  practice  had  before  obtained,  in  all  forfeit- 
ures where  the  crown,  for  its  own  use,  was  entitled 
to  one-third. 

Mr.  Otis,  bred  to  the  law,  and  at  that  time  a  prac- 
titioner in  the  courts,  took  the  advantage  of  this 
irregularity.  The  merchants,  some  of  whom  had 
been  affected  by  these  forfeitures,  were  easily  brought 
by  a  committee  to  prefer  a  petition  to  the  general 
assembly,  praying  to  be  heard  by  counsel;  which 
was  granted,  and  Mr.  Otis  was  the  person  employed. 
It  was  proposed  that  actions  should  be  brought,  in 
behalf  of  the  province,  against  the  custom-house 
officers  to  whom  these  illegal  charges  had  been  al- 
lowed, for  the  recovery  of  monies  had  and  received 
for  the  use  of  the  province. 

The  house  was  easily  induced  to  a  compliance 
with  the  prayer  of  the  petition.  Mr.  Otis,  when 
before  the  council,  undertook  to  support  such  an 
action,  and  was  very  sanguine  that  it  could  not  be 
withstood.  Opposition,  however,  was  made  in  coun- 
cil; and  it  was  plainly  shewn,  that  no  such  action 
could  lie.  The  superior  court,  having  all  the  pow- 
ers within  the  province  of  the  court  of  king's  bench 


in  England,  might  put  a  stop  to  the  proceedings  of 
the  court  of  admiralty,  whenever  it  took  cognizance 
of  a  cause  not  within  its  jurisdiction,  by  a  writ  of 
prohibition ;  but  in  this  case,  jurisdiction  had  been 
expressly  given,  by  an  act  of  parliament,  to  the 
court  of  admiralty.  The  province  might  have  ap- 
peared by  an  attorney,  and  have  taken  exceptions 
to  the  decree,  and,  if  the  exceptions  had  not  pre- 
vailed, might  have  brought  an  appeal  to  the  high 
court  of  admiralty  in  England;  but  the  opportunity 
was  wilfully  slipped,  and  there  was  now  no  remedy. 
It  was  said,  however,  that  the  people  were  dissatis- 
fied, and  that  it  would  not  be  believed  that  there 
was  no  remedy,  unless  there  was  a  trial :  and  a  ma- 
jority of  the  council  concurred  with  the  house. 

The  governor  at  first,  declined  his  assent,  and,  in 
a  message  to  the  house,  gave,  as  the  only  reason, 
their  appointing  the  province  treasurer  to  bring  the 
action ;  whereas,  the  money  sued  for  being  granted 
to  the  king,  the  king's  attorney  was  the  person  in 
whose  name  the  action  should  be  brought. 

This  objection  from  the  governor  was  really  of 
no  weight,  because  the  money  was  granted  to  the 
king  for  the  use  of  the  province ;  and  all  money 
belonging  to  the  province  had  always  been  sued  for 
by  the  treasurer;  particularly  all  arrears  of  taxes, 
which  had  always  been  granted,  in  name,  to  the 
king,  though  really  for  the  use  of  the  province. 
But  he  hoped  to  prevent  Mr.  Otis  from  carrying  on 
the  suit. 

The  governor,  in  his  message,  had  intimated,  that 
bis  consent  to  the  vote  in  that  form  would  expose 
him  to  the  displeasure  of  the  king.  When  he  found 
bow  unpopular  it  would  be  to  refuse  his  assent,  he 
[aid  the  matter  before  the  council,  and  demanded 
their  advice ;  and  they  advised  him,  "  on  that  occa- 
sion, to  wave  his  own  opinion,  how  well  soever 
founded."  Thereupon,  he  gave  his  assent  to  the 
rote.  This  was  esteemed  a  triumph,  as  they  had 
compelled  the  governor  to  depart  from  what  he  had 
declared  to  be  his  judgment.  But  when  the  cause 
came  upon  trial,  it  was  very  feebly  supported,  by 
shewing  that  the  charges  ought  not  to  have  been 
allowed  by  the  court  of  admiralty ;  and  by  repre- 
senting that  court,  as  not  congenial  with  the  spirit 
f  the  English  constitution,  for  which  reason  no  in- 
dulgent construction  ought  to  be  allowed  to  their 
proceedings. 

The  court  summed  up  the  cause  to  the  jury,  so  as 
;o  shew  that  the  action  had  not  been  supported;  and 
cautioned  them  against  departing  from  the  rules  of 
aw,  and  consequently  from  their  oaths,  in  compli- 
ance with  popular  prejudices :  and,  contrary  to  the 
prevailing  expectation,  they  found  costs  for  the 
defendants. 

The  authority  of  acts  of  parliament  had  never 
)een  called  in  question  as  the  rule  of  law,  when 
hey  plainly  extended  to  the  colonies.  In  a  message 
'rom  the  two  houses  to  the  governor,  upon  the  sub- 
ect  of  this  trial,  they  acknowledge,  "  that  every  act 
)f  the  province,  repugnant  to  an  act  of  parliament 
extending  to  the  plantations,  is,  ipso  facto,  null  and 
roid."  Juries  were  disposed  to  receive  the  law  from 
he  court,  and  could  not  easily  be  induced  to  depart 
rom  their  oaths. 

Whilst  this  process  was  depending,  Mr.  Otis,  who 

arried  it  on,   was   equally  sedulous  in  promoting 

nother  measure,  which  tended  to  raise  heats  and 

animosities,  and  to  destroy  the  powers  of  government. 

The  collectors  and  inferior  officers  of  the  customs, 
merely  by  the  authority  derived  from  their  commis. 
ions,  had  forcibly  entered  warehouses,  and  even 


UNITED  STATES, 


395 


dwelling-houses,  upon  information  that  contraband 
goods  were  concealed  in  them. 

The  people  grew  uneasy  under  the  exercise  of 
this  assumed  authority,  and  some  stood  upon  their 
defeuce  against  such  entries,  whilst  others  were 
bringing  their  actions  at  law  against  the  officers,  for 
past  illegal  entries,  or  attempts  to  enter. 

When  Mr.  Shirley  was  in  administration,  he,  as 
the  civil  magistrate,  gave  out  his  warrants  to  the 
officers  of  the  customs  to  enter. 

This  appears  more  extraordinary,  as  Mr.  Shirley 
was  a  lawyer  by  education,  and  was  allowed  to  be 
a  man  of  good  sense.  These  warrants,  however, 
were  in  use  some  years.  At  length,  the  surveyor  and 
searcher  being  one  day  about  to  break  open  a  ware- 
house, upon  an  information  of  iron  imported  from 
Spain  being  concealed  there,  a  gentleman,  who  was 
brother  to  the  owner  of  the  warehouse,  and  also  a 
friend  to  the  surveyor  and  searcher,  enquired  what 
authority  he  had  to  enter,  and,  thereupon,  he  shewed 
the  governor's  warrant.  The  gentleman,  who  knew 
the  information  to  be  ill-founded,  sent  for  the  keys, 
and  caused  the  warehouse  to  be  opened;  and,  at 
the  same  time,  assured  the  surveyor,  that,  if  he  had 
forced  an  entry,  an  action  would  have  been  brought 
against  him,  his  warrant  being  of  no  value. 

This  put  the  governor  upon  examining  the  legality 
of  his  warrants,  and  caused  him  to  direct  the  officers 
to  apply  for  warrants  from  the  superior  court;  and, 
from  that  time,  writs  issued,  not  exactly  in  the  form, 
but  of  the  nature,  of  writs  of  assistance  issued  from 
the  court  of  exchequer  in  England. 

Upon  application  made  to  the  court  by  one  of  the 
custom-house  officers,  an  exception  was  taken  to  the 
application;  and  Mr.  Otis  desired  that  a  time  might 
be  assigned  for  an  argument  upon  it.  The  motion 
was  the  more  readily  complied  with,  because  it  was 
suggested,  that  the  late  chief  justice,  who  was  in  high 
esteem,  had  doubts  of  the  legality  of  such  writs. 

It  was  objected  to  the  writs,  that  they  were  of  the 
nature  of  general  warrants ;  that,  although  formerly 
it  was  the  practice  to  issue  general  warrants  to  search 
for  stolon  goods,  yet,  for  many  years,  this  practise 
had  been  altered,  and  special  warrants  only  were 
issued  by  justices  of  the  peace,  to  search  in  places 
set  forth  in  the  warrants;  that  it  was  equally  rea- 
sonable to  alter  these  writs,  to  which  there  would  be 
no  objection,  if  the  place  where  the  search  was  to  be 
made  should  be  specifically  mentioned,  and  infor- 
mation given  upon  oath.  The  form  of  a  writ  of  as- 
sistance was,  it  is  true,  to  be  found  in  some  registers, 
which  was  general,  but  it  was  affirmed,  without  proof, 
that  the  late  practice  in  England  was  otherwise,  and 
that  such  writs  issued  upon  special  information  only. 

The  court  was  convinced  that  a  writ,  or  warrant, 
to  be  issued  only  in  cases  where  special  information 
was  given  upon  oath,  would  rarely,  if  ever,  be  ap- 
plied for,  as  no  informer  would  expose  himself  to 
the  rage  of  the  people.  The  statute  of  the  14th  of 
Charles  II.  authorized  issuing  writs  of  assistance 
from  the  court  of  exchequer  in  England.  The  sta- 
tutes of  the  7th  and  8th  of  William  III.  required  all 
that  aid  to  be  given  to  the  officers  of  the  customs  in 
the  plantations,  which  was  required  by  law  to  be 
given  in  England.  Some  of  the  judges,  notwith- 
standing, from  a  doubt  whether  such  writs  were  still 
iu  use  in  England,  seemed  to  favour  the  exception, 
and,  if  judgment  had  been  then  given,  it  is  uncertain 
on  which  side  it  would  have  been.  The  chief  justice 
was,  therefore,  desired,  by  the  first  opportunity  in 
his  power,  to  obtain  information  of  the  practice  in 
England,  and  judgment  was  suspended.  At  the 


next  town,  it  appeared  that  such  writs  issued  from 
the  exchequer,  of  course,  when  applied  for ;  and  this 
was  judged  sufficient  to  warrant  the  like  practice  in 
the  province.  A  form  was  settled,  as  agreeable  to 
the  form  in  England  as  the  circumstances  of  the 
colony  would  admit,  and  the  writs  were  ordered  to 
be  issued  to  custom-house  officers,  for  whom  applica- 
tion should  be  made  to  the  chief  justice  by  the  sur- 
veyor-general of  the  customs. 

The  ill  success  of  these  two  attempts  seemed  to 
have  a  tendency  to  check  and  discourage  the  spirit 
of  opposition;  but  it  had  a  contrary  effect.  The 
people  were  taught  that  innovations,  under  pretence 
of  law,  were  now  confirmed  by  judgments  of  court 
incompatible  with  English  liberties,  and  that  the  au- 
thority of  courts  of  admiralty,  and  the  powers  of  cus- 
tom-house officers,  always  deemed  grievous  because 
unconstitufjonal,  were  now  established  by  judges  de- 
voted to  the  prerogative. 

Mr.  Otis's  zeal  in  carrying  on  these  causes  was 
deemed  meritorious,  as  it  was  considered  to  arise 
from  a  sincere  concern  for  the  liberties  of  the  people. 
His  resentment  against  the  governor  was  not  charged 
upon  him  as  the  motive.  The  town  of  Boston,  at 
their  next  election,  in  May,  shewed  the  sense  they 
had  of  his  merit,  by  choosing  him  one  of  their  repre- 
sentatives in  the  general  assembly. 

The  government  in  England  thought  it  necessary 
to  keep  up  in  America  a  considerable  part  of  the 
military  force,  notwithstanding  the  reduction  of 
Canada,  until  peace  should  be  established. 

An  expedition  was  determined  to  be  carried  on 
this  summer,  against  the  French  islands :  and  great 
part  of  the  regular  troops  were  to  be  taken  from  the 
continent  for  that  service.  Massachusetts  bay  was 
called  upon  to  assist  in  supplying  provincial  troops 
in  their  stead,  by  raising  two-thirds  as  many  men 
as  they  raised  the  last  year.  3,000  men  were  re- 
solved upon;  but  great  opposition  was  made,  and 
the  vote  was  kept  four  days  on  the  table  of  the 
house ;  and  then  a  motion  was  made  for  reconsidering 
it;  but  it  did  not  prevail,  and  the  vote  passed  the 
several  branches. 

Governor  Bernard  saw  a  strong  party  forming,  at 
the  head  of  which,  ostensibly,  was  Mr.  Otis,  the  son; 
but  the  father,  being  speaker  of  the  house,  was  a 
great  support  to  it. 

The  governor  flattered  himself  that  he  should  be 
able  to  reconcile  to  him,  both  father  and  son. 

By  the  demise  of  the  king,  all  civil  as  well  as 
military  commissions  must  be  renewed.  This  was 
the  only  opportunity  which  a  Massachusetts  gover- 
nor could  have,  of  nominating  persons  to  office, 
at  pleasure.  When  he  came  to  settle  the  county  of 
Barnstable,  where  the  speaker  lived,  he  made  him 
an  offer  of  taking  to  himself  the  principal  offices  in 
the  county,  and  of  naming  many  of  his  relations  and 
friends  to  other  offices ;  and  the  whole  county  was 
settled  to  his  mind.  He  took  for  himself  the  place 
of  first  justice  of  the  county  court  of  common  pleas, 
and  also  that  of  judge  of  probate,  which  gives  much 
weight  and  influence  in  the  county. 

Mr.  Otis,  the  son,  soon  after  appeared  in  favour 
of  a  grant,  made  by  the  assembly  to  the  governor, 
of  the  island  of  Mount  Desert;  and  there  was  the 
appearance  of  reconciliation.  It  lasted  but  a  short 
time.  Places  granted  by  a  Massachusetts  governor 
could  not  be  taken  away  again  at  pleasure,  except 
places  in  the  militia,  which  were  not  much  valued, 
after  the  title  and  rank,  derived  from  them,  were 
once  acquired. 

(1762.)  The  successes  of  the  year  1761  gave  a 


396 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


general  expectation  of  peace,  which  was  disappointed 
by  the  intermeddling  of  the  Spaniards. 

The  Massachusetts,  therefore,  were  again  called 
upon  for  the  like  number  of  men  as  had  been  in  ser- 
vice the  last  year,  to  serve  upon  the  continent,  while 
the  regulars  were  to  be  employed  in  an  important 
service  elsewhere.  The  assembly  determined  to  rais'e 
3,200  men,  which  number  was-  satisfactory.  They 
also  voted  a  bounty  of  71.  per  man,  to  encourage 
the  enlistment  of  893  men  into  the  regular  troops. 
This  is  a  singular  instance. 

Men  were  raised  with  greater  ease  than  ever.  By 
habit  they  became  fond  of  the  life  of  a  soldier.  The 
number,  now  required,  being  not  half  what  had  bet-n 
required  in  several  former  years,  there  was  not  room 
for  many  who  were  inclined  to  serve,  and  who,  thus, 
were  obliged  to  remain  at  home. 

This  provision  was  made  at  a  session  of  the  as- 
sembly, in  the  winter  after  1761. 

Another  session,  for  election,  in  the  summer  fol- 
lowing, passed  in  quiet,  the  ordinary  business  of  the 
province  going  on  without  opposition. 

Soon  after  it  was  finished,  the  fishing  towns  were 
alarmed  with  the  news  of  a  French  force  which  had 
taken  possession  of  St.  John's,  Newfoundland,  and 
the  inhabitants  of  Salem  and  Marblehead  petitioned 
the  governor  and  council,  to  cause  a  ship  and  sloop, 
then  in  the  service  of  the  province,  to  be  fitted  out 
and  employed  for  the  guard  and  security  of  the 
vessels  employed  in  fishing.  The  council  advised 
an  additional  number  of  men  for  the  sloop,  and 
a  bounty  for  the  encouragement  of  men  to  enlist  to 
make  up  the  complement  of  the  ship.  The  whole 
expense  did  not  exceed  3  or  400Z.  sterling. 

In  September  the  assembly  met  again. 

The  governor,  among  other  things  in  his  speech, 
took  notice  of  this  small  expense,  which  had  been 
incurred  in  the  recess;  and  afterwards,  in  a  mes- 
sage, recommended  to  them  to  make  provision  for 
the  continuance  of  pay  to  the  additional  number  of 
men  on  board  the  sloop. 

This  exercise  of  authority,  by  the  governor  and 
council,  was  to  be  justified  as  far  as  precedents,  from 
the  date  of  the  charter,  could  justify  it.  In  this  in- 
stance, notwithstanding,  as  unexceptionable  perhaps 
as  any  other  whatever,  the  house  thought  fit  to  lake 
exception;  and,  in  a  remonstrance  composed  by  Mr. 
Otis,  to  declare  against  such  a  practice,  as  taking 
from  the  house  "  their  most  darling  privilege,  the 
right  of  originating  all  taxes,"  and  as  "  annihilating 
one  branch  of  the  legislature."  They  say,  "  it  would 
be  of  little  consequence  to  the  people,  whether  they 
were  subject  to  George  or  Louis,  the  king  of  Great 
Britain  or  the  French  king,  if  both  were  as  arbi- 
trary as  both  would  be,  if  both  could  levy  taxes 
without  parliament;"  and  conclude  with  praying 
the  governor,  "  as  he  regards  the  peace  and  welfare 
of  the  province,  that  no  measures  of  this  nature  be 
taken  for  the  future,  let  the  advice  of  council  be  what 
it  may." 

When  the  remonstrance  was  delivered  to  the  go- 
vernor, he  sent  it  back  in  a  private  letter  to  the 
speaker,  and  advised  him  to  recommend  the  house 
to  expunge  from  it,  and  from  their  record,  that  pas- 
sage in  which  the  king's  name  was  used  with  a  free- 
dom which  was  not  decent.  Mr.  Otis  resisted  the 
proposal,  but  was  content  that  some  qualifying  words 
should  be  brought  in,  as,  "with  due  reverence  to 
his  majesty's  sacred  person,"  or  the  like;  but  the 
government  cried  out  "  erase  them, — erase  them," 
— and  they  were  ordered  to  be  expunged.  Mr.  Otis 
justified  the  remonstrance,  and  his  conduct  relative 


to  it,  iu  a  pamphlet  which  he  published  soon  aft»;r 
the  session  was  over.  No  further  notice  was  taken 
of  the  remonstrance.  It  was  calculated  to  raise  a 
spirit  against  the  council,  of  which  the  lieut. -gover- 
nor was  president,  and  whose  character  was  attacked 
in  newspaper  publications,  to  some  of  which  Mr.  Otis 
affixed  his  name. 

The  currency  of  Massachusetts  bay  had  been  un- 
der as  good  regulation  as  possible,  from  the  time 
that  paper  had  been  exchanged  for  silver,  which 
was  made  the  standard  at  6s  8rf.  the  ounce.  Gold 
was  not  a  lawful  tender,  but  passed  current  at  fixed 
rates,  a  guinea  at  '2*s.,  a  moidoie  at  36s.,  &c.,  being 
nearly  the  same  proportion  that  gold  bore  to  silver 
in  Europe  at  the  time  when  the  paper-money  was 
exchanged.  Silver  bullion,  for  a  year  or  two  past, 
had  advanced  in  price,  in  England,  from  5s.  3oL  to 
5s.  Id.  an  ounce.  A  greater  proportion  of  silver 
than  of  gold  had  been  exported,  and  people,  who 
observed  the  scarcity  of  silver,  were  alarmed.  A 
bill  was  brought  into  the  house  of  representatives 
and  passed,  making  gold  a  lawful  tender  at  the  rates 
at  which  the  several  coins  had  been  current  for  many 
years  past. 

The  bill  was  now  concurred  in  council,  and  a 
conference  ensued  between  the  two  houses,  the 
lieut.-governor  being  at  the  head  of  the  managers 
for  the  council,  and  Mr.  Otis  of  those  for  the  house. 

The  only  argument  on  the  part  of  the  house  was 
the  danger  of  oppression  towards  debtors,  by  their 
being  obliged  to  procure  silver  at  disadvantage. 

On  the  part  of  the  council,  it  was  said,  that  the 
proportion  between  silver  and  gold  was  different  at 
different  times  ;  that  one  only  ought  to  be  the  stand- 
ard, and  the  other  considered  as  merchandize;  that, 
silver  being  made  the  standard  in  the  province,  it 
behoved  government  rather  to  reduce  the  rate  at 
which  gold  coin  should  pass,  so  as  to  make  the  pro- 
portion between  gold  and  silver  the  same  in  the 
province  as  in  Europe ;  that,  in  such  case,  there 
would  be  the  same  profit  upon  exporting  gold  as 
silver  ;  but  as  one  metal  was  made  the  standard,  and 
the  only  lawful  tender,  it  was  not  advisable  for  go- 
vernment to  regulate  the  other,  but  to  leave  it  to 
take  its  chance ;  and  that  there  was  no  other  way 
of  securing  the  currency  from  depreciation. 

The  house  was  much  engaged  to  carry  the  bill 
through,  but  the  council  stood  firm,  and  rejected  it. 
But  in  a  session  of  the  assembly,  some  time  after, 
this  bill  passed  into  an  act,  and  gold  as  well  as  silver 
was  made  a  lawful  tender.  But,  about  the  same 
time,  the  price  of  silver  bullion  in  England  fell  to 
5s.  3'/.  or  5s.  '2d.  the  ounce,  and  there  was  no  longer 
any  profit  by  the  exportation  of  silver  rather  than 
gold. 

There  seems  to  have  been  no  reason  for  men 
enggaing  more  on  one  side  the  question  than  the 
other,  in  this  dispute,  only  as  one  side  might  appear 
to  them  more  just,  and  reasonable  than  the  other; 
but  the  lieut.-governor  having  taken  one  side  of  the 
question,  Mr.  Otis  took  the  other;  and  the  court 
and  country  parties  took  one  side  and  the  other  with 
much  of  the  same  spirit,  as  if  it  had  been  a  contro- 
versy between  privilege  and  prerogative. 

(1763.)  The  conquest  of  the  Havannah,  soon  after 
that  of  Martinico  and  Guadal  oupe,  brought  on  a  treaty 
between  the  contending  powers  in  Europe  ;  and  the 
news  of  preliminaries  being  signed  reached  Boston 
in  January,  1763,  and  of  the  definite  treaty,  in  May 
following. 

It  was  well  known  in  America,  that  the  people  of 
England,  as  well  as  the  administration,  were  divided 


UNITED  STATES 


397 


upon  the  expediency  of  retaining  Canada  ra.hpr 
than  the  islands ;  and  it  was  also  known  that  the 
objection  to  Canada  proceeded  from  an  opinion,  that 
the  cession  of  it  by  France  would  cause,  in  time,  a 
separation  of  the  British  colonies  from  the  mother 
country.  This  jealousy  in  England  being  known, 
it  was  of  itself  sufficient  to  set  enterprising  men  upon 
considering  how  far  such  a  separation  was  expedi- 
ent and  practicable.  But  the  general  joy  in  Ame- 
rica upon  the  news  of  this  cession  was  not  caused 
by  such  views.  And  we  may  well  infer  from  the 
addresses  of  the  two  houses  upon  this  occasion,  that 
they  could  have  no  such  thoughts.  The  governor, 
in  his  speech,  congratulated  them  upon  so  joyful  an 
event.  In  their  address  to  him,  they  acknowledge, 
that  the  evident  design  of  the  French  to  surround 
the  colonies  was  the  immediate  and  just  cause  of  the 
war;  that,  without  the  protection  afforded  them 
during  the  war,  they  must  have  been  a  prey  to  the 
power  of  France;  that  without  the  compensation 
made  them  by  parliament,  the  burden  of  the  expense 
of  the  war  must  have  been  insupportable. 

lu  their  address  to  the  king  they  make  the  like 
acknowledgments,  and,  at  the  conclusion,  promise 
to  evidence  their  gratitude  by  every  expression  of 
duty  and  loyalty  in  their  power. 

Mr.  Otis,  at  the  first  town  meeting  of  Boston  after 
the  peace,  having  been  chosen  moderator,  addressed 
himself  to  the  inhabitants,  in  a  speech  which  he 
caused  to  be  printed  in  the  newspapers,  in  the  fol- 
lowing words  : — "  We  in  America  have  certainly 
abundant  reasons  to  rejoice.  The  heathen  are  not 
only  driven  cut,  but  the  Canadians,  much  more  for- 
midable enemies,  are  conquered  and  become  fellow- 
subjects.  The  British  dominion  and  power  may  now 
be  said,  literally,  to  extend  from  sea  to  sea,  and 
from  the  great  river  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  And 
we  may  safely  conclude  from  his  majesty's  wise  ad- 
ministration hitherto,  that  liberty  and  knowledge, 
civil  and  religious,  will  be  co-extended,  improved 
and  preserved  to  the  latest  posterity.  No  other  con- 
stitution of  civil  government  has  yet  appeared  in  tho 
world,  so  admirably  adapted  to  these  great  purposes, 
as  that  of  Great  Britain.  Every  British  su!  ject  in 
America  is  of  common  right,  "  by  acts  of  parlia- 
ment," and  by  the  laws  of  God  and  nature,  entitled 
to  all  tiie  essential  privileges  of  Britons.  By  parti- 
cular charters  there  are  peculiar  privileges  granted, 
as  in  justice  there  might  and  ought,  in  consideration 
of  the  arduous  undertaking  to  begin  so  glorious  an 
empire  as  British  America  is  rising  to.  Those  jea- 
lousies, that  some  weak,  and  wicked  minds  have  en- 
deavoured to  infuse  with  regard  to  the  colonies,  had 
their  birth  in  the  blackness  of  darkness,  and  it  is 
great  pity  thc?y  had  not  remained  there  for  ever.  The 
true  interests  of  Great  Britain  and  her  plantations 
are  mutual,  and  what  God  in  his  providence  has 
united,  let  no  man  dare  attempt  to  pull  asunder." 

The  southern  colonies  were  molested,  all  the  sum- 
mer after  tho  peace,  by  inroads  from  the  Indians, 
and  many  people  were  killed,  and  others  carried  into 
captivity  from  the  frontiers.  In  the  autumn,  gene- 
ral Gage,  who  succeeded  General  Amherst  in  the 
command  of  the  British  forces,  called  upon  the  Mas- 
sachusetts for  assistance,  in  conjunction  with  the 
other  New  England  colonies,  in  order  to  form  an 
army  early  in  the  spring,  to  enter  the  enemy's  coun- 
try by  the  lakes,  whilst  another  army  from  the 
southern  colonies  should  enter  it  by  the  Ohio.  But 
this  application  was  coldly  received  by  the  assembly. 
In  former  wars,  the  province  had  defended  its  own 
frontiers  without  aid  from  the  southern  colonies. 


Before  the  assembly  came  to  a  determination,  there 
was  a  prospect  of  a  treaty  with  the  Indians,  and 
they  gave  this  treaty  as  a  reason  for  referring  the 
matter  to  another  session.  A  general  accommoda- 
tion soon  followed. 

There  does  not  appear  to  have  been  any  special 
cause  of  dissatisfaction  with  the  administiation  of 
government,  at  this  time,  in  Massachusetts  bay. 
There  was  no  complaint  of  invasion  upon  any  of  the 
rights  and  liberties  of  the  people.  At  all  times,  there 
are  many  out  of  place,  who  wish  to  be  in.  There 
were,  indeed,  great  disturbances  in  England;  but 
nothing  had  occurred  there,  which  concerned  the 
people  of  Massachusetts  bay.  Mr.  Wilkes,  never- 
theless, had  his  partisans  in  America,  and  the  sound 
of  "  Wilkes  and  liberty"  was  heard  in  Boston,  in 
proportion  to  the  number  of  inhabitants,  as  much  as 
in  London.  Men  took  sides  in  New  England  upon 
mere  speculative  points  in  government,  when  there 
was  nothing  in  practice  which  could  give  any  grounds 
for  forming  parties.  The  officers  of  the  crown,  and 
especially  all  officers  of  the  customs,  were  considered 
as  engaged  in  promoting  measures,  more  restrictive 
of  the  natural  rights  and  liberties  of  the  people, 
"  than  tho  ends  for  which  government  was  instituted 
made  necessary."  They  had  the  law,  however,  on 
their  side.  Squibs  were  thrown  at  their  general 
characters,  in  newspapers,  hand-bills,  &c. 

The  terms  whig  and  tory  had  never  been  much 
used  in  America.  The  Massachusetts  people,  in 
general,  were  of  the  principles  of  the  ancient  whigs  ; 
attached  to  the  revolution,  and  to  the  succession  of 
the  crown  in  the  house  of  Hanover.  A  very  few, 
who  might  have  been  called  tories  in  England,  took 
the  name  of  Jacobites  in  America. 

All  of  a  sudden,  the  officers  of  the  crown,  and 
such  as  were  for  keeping  up  their  authority,  were 
branded  with  the  name  of  tories,  always  the  term  of 
reproach ;  their  opposers  assuming  the  name  of 
whigs,  because  the  common  people,  as  far  as  they 
had  been  acquainted  with  the  parties  in  England,  all 
supposed  the  whigs  to  have  been  in  the  right,  and 
the  tories  in  the  wrong. 

Whilst  the  people  in  the  province  were  thus  dis- 
posed to  engage  in  parties,  the  state  of  the  colonies 
became  a  matter  of  more  serious  consideration  in 
England,  than  it  had  ever  been  before.  The  amaz- 
ing increase  of  the  national  debt,  by  a  war  engaged 
in  at  the  solicitations,  and  for  the  protection  of  the 
colonies,  seems  to  have  caused  this  new  attention. 

The  first  proof  of  it  towards  Massachusetts  bay  was 
an  order  to  the  governor,  to  obtain  a  more  exact  and 
certain  knowledge,  than  had  ever  been  obtained,  of 
the  number  of  inhabitants,  distinguishing  age,  sex,  &c. 

This  the  governor  could  not  obtain  without  the 
aid  of  the  assembly,  by  a  law  to  compel  the  several 
towns  and  districts  to  make  returns  of  their  numbers 
Objections  were  made  to  it.  Some  suspected  that  it 
was  required  for  purposes,  though  they  could  not 
discover  them,  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  province; 
others,  and  not  a  few,  seemed  to  have  religious 
scruples,  and  compared  it  to  David's  numbering  the 
people.  The  proposal  was  referred  from  one  session 
to  another,  and,  though  it  was  finally  agreed  to  by  a 
majority,  yet  many  remained  dissatisfied. 

(1764.)  As  we  are  now  fast  advancing  to  the  pe- 
riod when  a  determination  to  resist  the  authority  of 
the  British  government  was  becoming  universal  in 
all  the  colonies,  we  shall  close  our  separate  history 
of  Massachusetts,  referring  the  part  taken  by  that 
colony,  in  the  struggle  'for  emancipation,  to  the  ge- 
neral history  of  the  revolution. 


NEW    HAMPSHIRE. 


THE  History  of  New  Hampshire  is  so  exceedingly 
slightly  touched  upon  by  Robertson,  in  his  account 
of  the  Planting  of  New  England,  most  of  his  frag- 
ment being  occupied  with  the  settlement  of  Massa- 
chusetts, that  we  shall  give  a  more  detailed  account 
of  its  rise  and  progress." 

The  grants  to  Mason  and  others — Beginning  of  the 
settlements  at  Portsmouth  and  Dover —  Whelewrighfi 
Indian  purchase — Neal's  adventures — Discourage- 
ments— Dissolution  of  the  Council — Causes  of  the 
failure  of  his  enterprise. 

A  patent  was  granted  by  King  James,  in  1606, 
limiting  the  dominion  of  Virginia  from  the  thirty- 
fourth  to  the  forty-fourth  degree  of  northern  latitude, 
which  extent  of  territory  had  been  divided  into  two 
parts,  called  North  and  South  Virginia.  The  latter 
was  assigned  to  certain  noblemen,  knights,  and  geii- 
tlemen  of  London;  the  former  to  others  in  Bristol, 
Exeter,  and  Plymouth.  Those  who  were  interested 
in  the  northern  colony,  finding  that  the  patent  did 
not  secure  them  from  the  intrusions  of  others,  peti- 
tioned, in  1620,  for  an  enlargement  and  confirma- 
tion of  their  privileges.  After  some  time,  the  king, 
by  his  sole  authority,  constituted  a  council,  consist- 
ing of  forty  noblemen,  knights,  and  gentlemen,  by 
the  name  of  "  The  council  established  at  Plymouth, 
in  the  county  of  Devon,  for  the  planting,  ruling,  and 
governing  of  New  England,  in  America."  They 
were  a  corporation  with  a  perpetual  succession,  by 
election  of  the  majority;  and  their  territories  ex- 
tended from  the  fortieth  to  the  forty-eighth  degree 
of  northern  latitude.  This  patent,  or  charter,  is  the 
foundation  of  all  the  grants  that  were  made  of  the 
country  of  New  England.  But  either  from  the 
jarring  interests  of  the  members,  or  their  indistinct 
knowledge  of  the  country,  or  their  inattention  to 
business,  or  some  other  cause  which  does  not  fully 
appear,  their  affairs  were  tiansacted  in  a  confused 
manner  from  the  beginning;  and  the  grants  which 
they  made  were  so  inaccurately  described,  and  in- 
terfered so  much  with  each  other,  as  to  occasion 
difficulties  and  controversies,  some  of  which  are  not 
totally  obliterated. 

Two  of  the  most  active  members  of  this  council, 
were  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,  and  Captain  John 
Mason.  Gorges  had  been  an  officer  in  the  navy 
of  Queen  Elizabeth,  intimately  connected  with  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh,  of  whose  adventurous  spirit  he  had 
a  large  share.  After  the  peace  which  King  James 
made  in  1604,  he  was  appointed  governor  of  the  fort 
and  Island  of  Plymouth  in  Devonshire.  While  he 
resided  there,  Captain  Weymouth,  who  had  been 
employed  by  Lord  Arundel  in  search  of  a  northwest 
passage,  but  had  fallen  short  of  his  course  and  put 
in  at  Pemaquid,  brought  from  thence  into  the  har- 
bour of  Plymouth,  five  natives  of  America,  three  of 
whom  were  eagerly  seized  by  Gorges,  and  retained 
in  his  service  for  three  years.  Finding  them  of  a 
tractable  and  communicative  disposition,  and  having 
won  their  affections  by  gentle  treatment,  he  learned 


from  them  many  particulars  concerning  their  country, 
its  rivers,  harbours,  islands,  fisheries,  and  other  pro- 
ducts; and  the  numbers,  force,  disposition,  and  go- 
vernment of  the  natives;  and  from  this  information 
he  conceived  sanguine  hopes  of  indulging  his  genius, 
and  making  his  fortune,  by  a  thorough  discovery  of 
the  country.  For  this  purpose  he,  in  conjunction 
with  others,  ventured  several  ships,  whereof  some 
met  with  peculiar  misfortunes ;  and  others  brought 
home  accounts,  which,  though  discouraging  to  some 
of  his  associates,  made  him  determine  upon  farther 
attempts,  wherein  his  resolution  and  perseverance 
were  more  conspicuous  than  any  solid  gain.  These 
transactions  were  previous  to  the  establishment  of 
the  council ;  in  soliciting  which,  Gorges  was  so  ex- 
tremely active,  that  he  was  appointed  their  presi- 
dent, and  had  a  principal  share  in  all  their  transac- 
tions. Mason  was  a  merchant  of  London,  but  be- 
came a  sea-officer,  and,  after  the  peace,  governor  of 
Newfoundland,  where  he  acquired  a  knowledge  of 
America,  which  led  him,  on  his  return  to  England, 
into  a  close  attachment  to  those  who  were  engaged 
in  its  discovery;  and  upon  some  vacancy  in  the  coun- 
cil, he  was  elected  a  member  and  became  their 
secretary;  being  also  governor  of  Portsmouth  in 
Hampshire.  (1621.)  He  procured  a  grant  from  the 
council,  of  all  the  land  from  the  river  of  Naumkeag 
(now  Salem),  round  Cape  Anne,  to  the  river  Mem- 
mack;  and  upon  each  of  those  rivers  to  the  farthest 
head  thereof;  then  to  cross  over  from  the  head  of 
the  one  to  the  head  of  the  other ;  with  all  the  is- 
lands lying  within  three  miles  of  the  coast.  This 
district  was  called  Mariana.  (1622.)  The  next  year 
another  grant  was  made  to  Gorges  and  Mason  jointly, 
of  all  the  lands  between  the  rivers  Merrimadc  and 
Sagadehock,  extending  back  to  the  great  lakes  and 
river  of  Canada,  and  this  was  called  Laconia. 

Under  the  authority  of  this  grant,  Gorges  and 
Mason,  in  conjunction  with  several  merchants  of 
London,  Bristol,  Exeter,  Plymouth,  Shrewsbury, 
and  Dorchester,  who  styled  themselves  "  The  com- 
pany of  Laconia,"  attempted  the  establishment  of  a 
colony  and  fishery  at  the  river  Pascataqua ;  and  in 
the  spring  of  the  following  year,  (1623),  they  sent 
over  David  Thompson,  a  Scotsman,  Edward  and 
William  Hilton,  fishmongers  of  London,  with  a 
number  of  other  people,  in  two  divisions,  furnished 
with  all  necessaries  to  carry  on  their  design.  One 
of  these  companies  landed  on  the  southern  shore  of 
the  river,  at  its  mouth,  and  called  the  place  Little 
Harbour :  here  they  erected  salt  works,  and  built  an 
house,  which  was  afterward  called  Mason  Hall ;  but 
the  Hilton s  set  up  their  stages  eight  miles  further 
up  the  river  toward  the  northwest,  on  a  neck  of  land 
which  the  Indians  called  Winnichahannat,  but  they 
named  Northam,  and  afterwards  Dover.  Thompson, 
not  being  pleased  with  his  -situation,  removed  the 
next  spring  (1624),  to  an  island  in  the  bay  of  Mas- 
sachusetts ;  this  the  general  court  afterward  con- 
firmed to  him,  and  still  bears  his  name. 

These  settlements  went  on  but  slowly  for  several 


UNITED  STATES. 


399 


years 4  but  the  natives  being  peaceable,  and  several 
other  small  beginnings  being  made  along  the  coast 
as  far  as  Plymouth,  a  neighbourly  intercourse  was 
kept  up  among  them,  each  following  their  respect- 
ive employments  of  fishing,  trading,  and  planting, 
till  the  disorderly  behaviour  (1628),  of  one  Morton, 
at  Mount  Wollaston,  in  the  bay  of  Massachusetts, 
caused  an  alarm  among  the  scattered  settlements  as 
lar  as  Pescataqua.  This  man  had,  in  defiance  of 
rhe  king's  proclamation,  made  a  practice  of  selling 
arms  and  ammunition  to  the  Indians,  whom  he  em- 
ployed in  hunting  and  fowling  for  him;  so  that  the 
English,  seeing  the  Indians  armed  in  the  woods, 
began  to  be  in  terror.  They  also  apprehended  dan- 
ger of  another  kind;  for  Morton's  plantation  was  a 
receptacle  for  discontented  servants,  whose  desertion 
weakened  the  settlements,  and  who,  being  there 
without  law,  were  more  formidable  than  the  savages 
themselves.  The  principal  persons  of  Pascataqua 
therefore  readily  united  with  their  neighbours,  in 
making  application  to  the  colony  of  Plymouth, 
which  was  of  more  force  than  all  the  rest,  to  put  a 
stop  to  this  growing  mischief;  which  they  happily 
effected  by  seizing  Moiton,  and  sending  him  pri- 
soner to  England. 

(1629.)  Some  of  the  scattered  planters  in  the  bay 
of  Massachusetts,  being  desirous  of  making  a  settle"- 
ment  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Pascataqua,  and  fol- 
lowing the  example  of  those  at  Plymouth,  who  had 
purchased  their  lands  of  the  Indians,  which  they 
conscientiously  thought  necessary  to  give  them  a  just 
title,  procured  a  general  meeting  of  Indians,  at 
Squamscot  falls,  where  they  obtained  a  deed  from 
Passaconaway,  Sagamore  of  Penacock,  Runnawitt 
of  Pantucket,  Wahongnonawit  of  Squamscot,  and 
Rowls  of  Newichwannock :  wherein  they  express 
their  "  desire  to  have  the  English  come  and  settle 
among  them  as  among  their  countrymen  in  Massa- 
chusetts, whereby  they  hoped  to  be  strengthened 
against  their  enemies  the  Tarrateens ;  and  accord- 
ingly, with  the  universal  consent  of  their  subjects,  for 
what  they  deemed  a  valuable  consideration  in  coats, 
shirts,  and  kettles,  sell  to  John  Whelewright  of  the 
Massachusetts  bay,  late  of  England,  minister  of  the 
gospel,  Augustine  Story  [or  Storer],  Thomas  Wight, 
William  Wentworth,  and  Thomas  Leavit,  all  that 
part  of  the  main  land  bounded  by  the  river  Pasca- 
taqua and  the  river  Merrimack  to  begin  at  Ne- 
wichannock  falls  in  Pascataqua  river  aforesaid,  and 
down  said  river  to  the  sea ;  and  along  the  sea-shore 
to  Merrimack  river;  and  up  said  river  to  the  falls 
at  Pantucket;  and  from  thence  upon  a  northwest 
line,  twenty  English  miles  into  the  woods ;  and  from 
thence  upon  a  straight  line  northeast,  till  it  meet 
with  the  main  rivers  that  run  down  to  Pantucket 
falls,  and  Newichannock  falls  aforesaid;  the  said 
rivers  to  be  the  bounds  from  the  thwart  or  head  line 
to  the  aforesaid  falls,  and  from  thence  the  main 
channel  of  each  river  to  the  sea  to  be  the  side 
bounds ;  together  with  all  the  islands  within  the  said 
bounds  ;  as  also  the  isles  of  shoals  so  called."  The 
conditions  of  this  grant  were,  "  that  Whelewright 
should  within  ten  years  begin  a  plantation  at  Squam- 
scot falls  ;  that  other  inhabitants  should  have  the  same 
privileges  with  him;  that  no  plantation  should  ex- 
ceed ten  miles  square ;  that  no  lands  should  be 
granted  but  in  townships ;  and  that  these  should 
be  subject  to  the  government  of  the  Massachusetts 
colony,  until  they  should  have  a  settled  government 
among  thems-elves ;  that  for  each  township  there 
should  be  paid  an  annual  acknowledgment  of  "  one 
oat  of  truckling  cloth,"  to  Passaconaway  the  chief 


Sagamore  or  his  successors,  and  two  bushels  of 
Indian  corn  to  Whelewright  and  his  heirs.  The 
Indians  reserve  to  themselves  free  liberty  of  fish- 
ing, fowling,  hunting,  and  planting  within  these  li- 
mits." The  principal  persons  of  Pascataqua  and 
the  province  of  Maine  were  witnesses  to  the  sub- 
scribing of  this  instrument,  and  giving  possession  of 
the  lands. 

By  this  deed  the  English  inhabitants  within  these 
limits  obtained  a  right  to  the  soil  from  the  original 
proprietors,  more  valuable  in  a  moral  view  than  the 
grants  of  any  European  prince  could  convey.  If 
we  smile  at  the  arrogance  of  a  Roman  Pontiff  in 
assuming  to  divide  the  whole  new  world  between  the 
Spaniards  and  Portuguese,  with  what  consistency- 
can  we  admit  the  right  of  a  king  of  England  to  par- 
cel out  America  to  his  subjects,  when  he  had  neither 
purchased  nor  conquered  it,  nor  could  pretend  any 
other  title,  than  that  some  of  his  subjects  were  the 
first  Europeans  who  discovered  it,  while  it  was  in 
possession  of  its  native  lords?  The  only  validity 
which  such  grants  could  have  in  the  eye  of  reason, 
was,  that  the  grantees  had  from  their  prince  a  per- 
mission to  negotiate  with  the  possessors  for  the  pur- 
chase of  the  soil,  and  thereupon  a  power  of  juris- 
diction subordinate  to  his  crown. 

The  same  year  Captain  Mason  procured  a  new 
patent,  under  the  common  seal  of  the  council  of  Ply- 
mouth, for  the  land  "from  the  middle  of  Pascataqua 
river  and  up  the  same  to  the  farthest  head  thereof, 
and  from  thence  northwestward  until  sixty  miles 
from  the  mouth  of  the  harbour  were  finished :  also 
through  Merrimack  river,  to  the  farthest  head  there- 
of, and  so  forward  up  into  the  land  westward,  until 
sixty  miles  were  finished;  and  from  thence  to  cross 
over  land  to  the  end  of  the  sixty  miles  accounted  from 
Pascataqua  river;  together  with  all  islands  within 
five  leagues  of  the  coast."  This  tract  of  land  was 
called  New  Hampshire  :  it  comprehended  the  whole 
of  Whelewright's  purchase;  and  unless  Mason's  in- 
tention was  to  frustrate  his  title,  it  is  difficult  to  as- 
sign a  reason  for  the  procurement  of  this  patent,  as 
the  same  land,  with  much  more,  had  been  granted 
to  Gorges  and  Mason  jointly,  seven  years  before. 
If  there  was  an  agreement  between  them  to  divide 
the  province  of  Laconia,  and  take  out  new  patents 
from  the  council,  in  preference  to  the  making  a  deed 
of  partition;  it  is  not  easy  to  conceive  why  the  west- 
ern boundary  should  be  contracted  to  sixty  miles 
from  the  sea,  when  the  lakes  and  river  of  Canada 
were  supposed  to  be  but  ninety  or  an  hundred  miles 
from  Pascataqua.  If  this  grant  was  intended  as  an 
equivalent  for  the  patent  of  Mariana,  which  the 
council  had  the  preceding  year  included  in  their 
deed  to  the  Massachusetts  company;  it  is  impossible 
to  account  for  the  extension  of  New  Hampshire  to 
the  river  Merrimack,  when  the  grant  of  Massachu- 
setts reached  to  "  three  miles  north  of  that  river  and 
of  every  part  of  it." 

(1630.)  The  west  country  adventurers  were  not 
less  attentive  to  their  interest ;  for  in  the  following 
spring  they  obtained  a  patent  from  the  council 
whereby  "  all  that  part  of  the  river  Pascataqua 
called  or  known  by  the  name  of  Hilton's  Point, 
with  the  south  side  of  the  said  river  up  to  the  falls 
of  Squamscot,  and  three  miles  into  the  main  land 
for  breadth,"  was  granted  to  Edward  Hilton.  This 
patent,  sealed  with  the  common  seal  of  the  council, 
and  subscribed  by  the  earl  of  Warwick,  sets  forth, 
that  Hilton  and  his  associates  had  at  their  own  pro- 
per cost  and  charges  transported  servants,  built 
bouses,  and  -planted  corn  at  Hilton's  Point,  now 


400 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Dover,  and  intended  the  further  increase  and  ad- 
vancement of  the  plantation.  (1631.)  William 
Blackstone,  William  Jefferies,  and  Thomas  Lewis, 
or  either  of  thorn,  were  impowered  to  give  posses- 
sion of  the  premises ;  which  was  done  by  Lewis,  and 
the  livery  and  seizin  endorsed.  Within  these  li- 
mits are  contained  the  towns  of  Dover,  Durham,  and 
Stretham,  with  part  of  Newington  and  Greenland. 
It  was  commonly  called  Squamscot  patent,  but 
sometimes  Bloody-point  patent,  from  a  quarrel  be- 
tween the  agents  of  the  two  companies  about  a  point 
of  laud  in  the  river  which  was  convenient  for  both  ; 
and  there  being  no  government  then  established,  the 
controversy  would  have  ended  in  blood,  if  the  con- 
tending parties  had  not  been  persuaded  to  refer  the 
decision  of  it  to  their  employers. 

The  London  adventurers  also  thought  it  prudent 
to  have  some  security  for  the  interest  which  they  had 
advanced,  and  accordingly  obtained  a  grant  from  the 
council,  of  "  that  part  of  the  patent  of  Laconia,  on 
which  the  buildings  and  salt-works  were  erected,  situ- 
ate on  both  sides  the  harbour  and  river  of  Pascataqua 
to  the  extent  of  five  miles  westward  by  the  sea-coast, 
then  to  cross  over  towards  the  other  plantation  in  the 
hands  of  Edward  Hilton."  The  grantees  named  in 
this  patent  were  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,  Captain 
John  Mason,  John  Cotton,  Henry  Gardner,  George 
Griffith,  Edwin  Gay,  Thomas  Warnerton,  Thomas 
Eyre  and  Eliezer  Eyre,  who,  it  is  said,  had  already 
expended  3000/.  in  the  undertaking.  They  were  to 
pay  forty-eight  pounds  per  annum  by  way  of  acknow- 
ledgment to  the  president  and  council,  if  demanded. 
Captain  Comocke,  a  relation  of  the  Earl  of  Warwick, 
with  Henry  Jocelyn,  who  were  then  intending  a 
voyage  here,  were  appointed  to  put  the  grantees  in 
possession.  Within  this  patent  are  comprehended 
the  towns  of  Portsmouth,  Newcastle  and  Rye,  with 
part  of  Newington  and  Greenland. 

The  whole  interest  being  thus  divided  into  two 
parts,  Captain  Thomas  Wiggenwas  appointed  agent 
for  the  upper,  and  Captain  Walter  Neal  for  the 
lower  plantation ;  with  him  were  associated  Ambrose 
Gibbons,  George  Vaughan,  Thomas  Warnerton, 
Humphrey  Chadbourne  and  one  Godfrie,  as  super- 
intendants  of  the  several  businesses  of  trade,  fishery, 
salt-making,  building,  and  husbandry.  Neal  resided 
at  Little-Harbour  wi'th  Godfrie,  who  had  the  care  of 
the  fishery.  Chadbourne  built  a  house  at  Strawber- 
ry-bank, which  was  called  the  great  house,  in  which 
Warnerton  resided.  Gibbons  had  the  care  of  a  saw- 
mill, and  lived  in  a  palisaded  house  at  Newichwan- 
nock,  where  he  carried  on  trade  with  the  Indians. 
He  afterward  removed  to  Sander' s-point,  where  the 
adventurers  gave  him  a  settlement  for  his  faithful 
services.  He  was  succeeded  at  Nevvichwannoch  by 
Chadbourne,  whose  posterity  are  persons  of  principal 
figure  and  interest  there  at  this  day.  The  proprietors 
were  also  careful  to  provide  for  the  defence  of  their 
plantations,  and  sent  over  several  cannon,  which 
they  directed  their  agents  to  mount  in  the  most  con- 
venient place  for  a  fort.  They  accordingly  placed 
them  on  the  north-east  point  of  the  Great-Island,  at 
the  mouth  of  the  harbour,  and  laid  out  the  ground 
"  about  a  bow-shot  from  the  water-side  to  a  high 
rock,  on  which  it  was  intended  in  time  to  build  the 
principal  fort." 

A  great  part  of  Captain  Neal's  errand  was  to  pe- 
netrate the  interior  part  of  the  province  of  Laconia, 
concerning  which  the  adventurers  had  formed  very 
sanguine  expectations.  It  was  described  as  contain- 
ing divers  lakes,  and  extending  back  to  a  great  lake 
and  river  in  the  country  of  the  Iroquois.  This  river 


was  said  to  be  fair  and  large,  containing  many  fruit- 
ful islands  ;  the  air  pure  and  salubrious  ;  the  coun- 
try pleasant,  having  some  high  hills  ;  full  of  goodly 
forests,  fair  valleys,  and  fertile  plains  ;  abounding  in 
corn,  vines,  chesnuts,  walnuts,  and  many  other  sorts 
of  fruit;  the  rivers  well  stored  with  fish,  and  envi- 
roned with  goodly  meadows  full  of  timber-trees.  In 
the  great  lake  were  said  to  be  four  islands,  full  of 
pleasant  woods  and  meadows,  having  great  store  ol 
stags,  fallow-deer,  elks,  roebucks,  beavers,  and  other 
game,  and  these  islands  were  supposed  to  be  com- 
modiously  situated  for  habitation  and  traffic,  in  the 
midst  of  a  fine  lake,  abounding  with  the  most  deli- 
cate fish.  No  one  who  is  acquainted  with  the  interior 
part  of  the  country  in  its  wilderness  state,  can  for- 
bear smiling  at  this  romantic  description,  penned  in 
the  true  style  of  adventurers  :  yet  such  an  impression 
had  the  charms  of  Laconia  made  on  the  minds  of  the 
first  settlers,  that  Neal  set  out  (1632)  on  foot,  in 
company  with  Jocelyn  and  Darby  Field,  to  discover 
these  beautiful  lakes,  and  settle  a  trade  with  the  In- 
dians by  pinnaces,  imagining  the  distance  to  be 
short  of  an  hundred  miles.  In  the  course  of  their 
travels,  they  visited  the  white  mountains,  which  they 
described  in  the  same  romantic  style,  to  be  a  ridge', 
extending  100  leagues,  on  which  snow  lieth  all  the 
year,  and  inaccessible  but  by  the  gullies  which  the 
dissolved  snow  hath  made :  on  one  of  these  moun- 
tains they  reported  to  have  found  a  plain  of  a  day's 
journey  over,  whereon  nothing  grows  but  moss  ;  and 
at  the  further  end  of  this  plain,  a  rude  heap  of  massy 
stones,  piled  upon  one  another,  a  mile  high — on 
which  one  might  ascend  from  stone  to  stone,  like  a 
flight  of  winding  stairs,  to  the  top,  where  was  another 
level  of  about  an  acre,  with  a  pond  of  clear  water. 
This  summit  was  said  to  be  far  above  the  clouds, 
and  from  hence  they  beheld  a  vapour  like  a  vast  pil- 
lar, drawn  up  by  the  sunbeams  out  of  a  great  lake 
into  the  air,  where  it  was  formed  into  a  cloud.  The 
country  beyond  these  mountains  northward,  was  said 
to  be  "  daunting  terrible,"  full  of  rocky  hills,  as 
thick  as  mole-hills  in  a  meadow,  and  clothed  with 
infinite  thick  woods.  They  had  great  expectation  of 
finding  precious  stones  on  these  mountains;  and 
something  resembling  chrystal  being  picked  up,  was 
sufficient  to  give  thorn  the  name  of  the  Chrystal 
Hills.  From  hence  they  continued  their  route  in 
search  of  the  lake ;  till  finding  their  provision  almost 
spent,  and  the  forests  of  Laconia  yielding  no  supply, 
they  were  obliged  to  return  when  they  supposed 
themselves  so  far  advanced,  that  "  the  discovery 
wanted  but  one  day's  journey  of  being  finished." 

This  expedition  being  ended,  was  succeeded  by  one 
of  another  kind.  The  coast  was  alarmed  by  the 
report  of  a  pirate,  one  Dixy  Bull;  who,  with  fifteen 
others,  being  employed  in  the  Indian  trade  at  the 
eastward,  had  taken  several  boats  and  rifled  the  foit 
at  Pcmaquid.  Neal,  in  conjunction  with  the  others, 
equipped  four  pinnaces  and  shallops,  manned  with 
forty  men,  being  all  the  force  that  both  plantations 
could  spare,  who  being  joined  by  twenty  more 
in  a  bark  from  Boston,  proceeded  to  Pemaquid ; 
but  contrary  winds  and  bad  weather  obliged  them  to 
return  without  meeting  the  pirates,  who  made  their 
way  farther  to  the  eastward,  and  at  length  got  to 
England ;  where  Bull  met  with  his  deserts.  The 
company,  on  their  return,  hanged,  at  Richmond's 
Island,  an  Indian  who  had  been  concerned  in  the 
murder  of  an  Englishman. 

(1633.)  The  next  year  Neal  and  Wiggen  joined 
n  surveying  their  respective  patent?,  and  laying  out 
the  towns  of  Portsmouth  and  N'-rtham,  and  another 


UNITED  STATES. 


401 


which  was  called  Hampton,  although  no  settlement 
had  been  made  there.  They  also  agreed  with  Whele- 
wright,  that  the  plantation  which  he  had  undertaken 
to  make  at  Squamscot  falls,  should  be  called  Exeter; 
and  determined  the  bounds  between  his  land  and 
them  This  survey  was  made  by  order  of  the  com- 
pany of  Laconia,  who  gave  names  to  the  four  towns, 
and  the  transaction  was  duly  reported  to  them : 
soon  after  which  Neal  returned  to  England. 

From  a  number  of  letters  that  passed  between  the 
adventurers  and  Gibbons  their  factor,  and  which 
are  yet  preserved,  it  appears  that  their  views  were 
chiefly  turned  toward  the  discovery  of  the  lakes  and 
of  mines ;  the  cultivation  of  grapes,  and  the  advan- 
tages of  trade  and  fishery;  and  that  little  regard  was 
had  to  agriculture,  the  surest  foundation  of  all  other 
improvements  in  such  a  country  as  this.  They  often 
complain  of  their  expenses,  as  indeed  they  might 
with  reason ;  for  they  had  not  only  to  pay  wages  to 
their  colonists,  but  to  supply  them  with  provisions, 
clothing,  utensils,  medicines,  articles  of  trade,  im- 
plements for  building,  husbandry  and  fishing,  and 
to  stock  their  plantations  with  cattle,  swine,  and 
goats.  Bread  was  either  brought  from  England  in 
meal,  or  from  Virginia  in  grain,  and  then  sent  to 
the  wind-mill  at  Boston,  there  being  none  erected 
here.  Very  little  improvement  was  made  on  the 
lands  ;  the  lakes  were  not  explored ;  the  vines  were 
planted,  but  came  to  nothing;  no  mines  were  found 
but  those  of  iron,  and  these  were  not  wrought; 
three  or  four  houses  only  were  built  within  the  first 
seven  years ;  the  peltry  trade  with  the  Indians  was 
of  some  value,  and  the  fishery  served  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  inhabitants ;  but  yielded  no  great  profit 
to  the  adventurers,  who  received  but  inadequate 
returns  in  lumber  and  furs.  They  saw  their  interest 
sinking  apace,  and  grew  dispirited ;  and  the  major 
part  of  them  either  relinquished  the  design,  or  sold 
their  shares  to  Mason  and  Gorges,  who  were  more 
sanguine  than  the  rest,  and  became  (either  by  pur- 
chase or  tacit  consent  of  the  others)  the  principal, 
if  not  sole  proprietors.  These  gentlemen  renewed 
their  exertions  with  greater  vigour,  sent  over  a  fresh 
supply  of  servants,  and  materials  for  carrying  on 
the  settlement,  and  (1634),  appointed  Francis 
Williams  their  governor.  He  was  a  gentleman  of 
good  sense  and  discretion ;  and  so  very  acceptable 
to  the  people,  that  when  they  combined  in  a  body 
politic  they  continued  him  at  their  head. 

(1635.)  The  charter  by  which  the  council  of 
Plymouth  was  established,  had  been  from  the  be- 
ginning disrelished  by  the  Virginia  company  ;  who 
spared  no  pains  to  get  it  revoked.  Their  applica- 
tions to  the  king  proved  fruitless;  but  when  the 
parliament  began  to  enquire  into  the  grievances  of 
the  nation,  this  patent  was  complained  of  as  a  mo- 
nopoly. Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,  being  summoned, 
appeared  before  them,  and  both  in  person  and  by 
his  counsel  defended  it  in  a  masterly  manner,  but 
in  vain ;  for  when  the  national  grievances  were 
presented  to  the  throne,  the  patent  of  New  England 
was  the  first.  The  council  had  also  got  into  disre- 
pute with  the  high  church  party,  for  having  encou- 
raged the  settlement  of  the  Plymouth  and  Massa- 
chusetts colonists,  who  fled  from  their  persecutions. 
These  prejudices  against  them,  operating  as  dis- 
couragements to  their  undertaking,  induced  the  coun- 
cil to  resign  thtir  charter  to  the  king;  having  pre- 
viously taken  care  to  secure  some  portion  of  the 
expiring  interest  to  such  of  themselves  as  were  dis- 
posed to  ac  :ept  it.  The  scheme  they  had  in  view 
was  to  divide  tneir  territory  into  twelve  provinces, 

HIST.  OF  AMER  — Nos.  51  &  52. 


under  as  many  proprietary  governors,  subject  to 
one  general  governor;  and  they  went  so  far  as  to 
nominate  Gorges,  then  threescore  years  of  age,  for 
the  person,  and  build  a  ship  of  war,  which  *•*?  to 
bring  him  over  and  remain  in  the  service  of  the 
country.  But  the  ship  fell,  and  broke  in  the  launch- 
ing ;  and  their  project  not  being  sufficiently  attended 
to  by  those  in  power,  they  were  obliged  to  be  con- 
tent with  such  grants  as  they  could  make  of  those 
districts,  into  which  they  had  divided  the  country. 

That  which  was  now  made  to  Mason  comprehended 
both  his  former  patents,  extending  from  Naumkeag 
to  Pascataqua,  and  sixty  miles  northwestward  within 
the  land,  together  with  the  south  half  of  the  Isles  of 
Shoals,  and  ten  thousand  acres  at  Sagadahock; 
saving  to  those  already  settled  within  these  limits, 
the  property  of  their  lawful  grants  on  paying  "some 
small  acknowledgement"  to  the  proprietor.  This 
grant  was  dated  the  22nd  of  April.  In  June  follow- 
ing the  council  surrendered  their  charter  to  the  king, 
and  in  September  Gorges  sold  to  Mason  a  tract  of 
land  on  the  northeast  side  of  the  river  Pascataqua, 
extending  three  miles  in  breadth,  and  following  the 
course  of  the  river  from  its  mouth  to  its  farthest 
head,  including  the  sawmill  which  had  been  built  at 
the  falls  of  Newichwannock. 

But  death,  which  puts  an  end-  to  the  fairest  pros- 
pects, cut  off  all  the  hopes  which  Mason  h'ad  enter- 
tained of  aggrandizing  his  fortune,  by  the  settlement 
of  New  Hampshire.  By  his  last  will,  which  he 
signed  a  few  days  before  his  death,  he  disposed  of 
his  American  estate  in  the  foilowing  manner,  viz. : 
To  the  corporation  o.f  Lynn  Regis  in  Norfolk,  the 
place  of  his  nativity,  he  gave  two  thousand  acres  of 
land  in  New  Hampshire,  subject  to  the  yearly  rent 
of  one  penny  per  acre  to  his  heirs,  and  two-fifths  of 
all  mines  royal,  on  condition  that  five  families  should 
within  five  years  be  settled  thereupon.  To  his  bro- 
ther-in-law John  Wallaston,  three  thousand  acres, 
subject  to  the  yearly  rent  of  one  shilling.  To  his 
grandchild  Ann  Tufton,  ten  thousand  acres  at  Saga- 
dahock. To  Robert  Tufton,  his  grandson,  he  gave 
his  manor  of  Mason  Hall,  on  condition  that  he 
should  take  the  surname  of  Mason.  He  also  gave 
to  his  brother  Wallaston  in  trust,  one  thousand  acres 
for  the  maintenance  of  "  an  honest,  godly,  and  re- 
ligious preacher  of  God's  word;"  and  one  thousand 
more  for  the  support  of  a  grammar  school;  each  of 
these  estates  to  be  conveyed  to  feoffees  in  trust,  and 
their  successors,  paying  annually  one  penny  per 
acre  to  his  heirs.  The  residue  of  his  estate  in  New 
Hampshire  he  gave  to  his  grandson  John  Tufton, 
he  taking  the  sirname  of  Mason,  and  to  his  lawful 
issue ;  or  in  want  thereof  to  Robert  Tufton  and  his 
lawful  issue;  or  in  want  thereof  to  Doctor  Robert 
Mason,  chancellor  of  the  diocese  of  Winchester,  and 
his  lawful  issue ;  or  in  want  of  such  issue,  to  his  own 
other  right  heirs  for  ever;  provided  that  it  should 
not  go  out  of  the  name  of  Mason.  The  residuary 
legatee  was  required  to  pay  5 DO/,  out  of  his  estate 
to  his  sister  Mary,  and  all  the  grandchildren  were 
to  relinquish  their  right  to  1,000/.  due  from  this 
estate  to  their  father  Joseph  Tufton.  The  estate 
in  America  was  valued  in  the  inventory  at  10,0(XK. 
sterling. 

The  Massachusetts  planters  viewed  Mason  as  their 
enemy,  because  he  with  Gorges  had  privately  en- 
couraged some  persons  whom  they  had  censured  and 
sent  home,  to  petition  against  them  as  disaffected  to 
the  government;  and  had  endeavoured  to  get  their 
charter  set  aside,  to  make  way  for  the  scheme  of  a 
weneral  governor. 

2Y 


402 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA 


But  though  Mason  and  Gorges  had  not  the  same 
religious  views  with  the  Massachusetts  planters,  yet 
their  memory  deserves  respect.  They  were  both 
heartily  engaged  in  the  settlement  of  the  country ; 
they  sunk  their  estates  in  the  undertaking,  and 
reaped  no  profit  to  themselves  ;  yet  their  enterprising 
spirit  e  ccited  emulation  in  others,  who  had  the  ad- 
vantage of  improving  their  plans  and  avoiding  their 
mistakes.  Gorges  accounted  for  the  ill  success  of 
his  adventures  in  the  following  manner: — 1.  He 
began  when  there  was  no  "hope  of  anything  for  the 
present  but  loss ;  as  he  had  first  to  seek  a  place ; 
which,  being  found,  was  a  wilderness,  and  so  gloomy 
was  the  prospect,  that  he  could  scarce  procure  any 
to  go,  much  less  to  reside  in  it :  and  those  whom  he 
at  length  sent,  could  not  subsist  but  on  the  provisions 
with  which  he  supplied  them.  2.  He  sought  not 
barely  his  own  profit,  but  the  thorough  discovery  of 
the  country;  wherein  he  went  so  far  (with  the  help 
of  his  associates)  as  to  open  the  way  for  others  to 
make  their  gain.  3.  He  never  went  in  person  to 
oversee  the  people  whom  he  employed.  4.  There 
was  no  settled  government  to  punish  offenders,  or 
mispenders  of  their  masters'  goods.  Two  other 
things  contributed  to  the  disappointment  in  as  great 
if  not  a  greater  degree  than  what  he  has  assigned. 
The  one  was,  that  instead  of  applying  themselves 
chiefly  to  husbandry,  the  original  source  of  wealth 
and  independence  in  such  a  country  as  this,  he  and 
his  associates,  being  merchants,  were  rather  intent 
on  trade  and  fishing  as  their  primary  objects.  These 
cannot  be  profitable  in  a  new  country,  until  the 
foundation  is  laid  in  the  culture  of  the  lands.  If 
the  lumber  trade  and  fishery  cannot  now  be  carried  on 
to  advantage,  without  the  constant  aid  of  husbandry 
in  their  neighbourhood,  how  could  a  colony  of  traders 
and  fishermen  make  profitable  returns  to  their  em- 
ployers, when  the  husbandry  necessary  for  their  sup- 
port was  at  the  distance  of  Virginia  or  England? 
The  other  mistake  which  these  adventurers  fell  into 
was  the  idea  of  lordship,  and  the  granting  of  lands 
not  as  freeholds,  but  by  leases  subject  to  quit-rents. 
To  settle  a  colony  of  tenants  in  a  climate  so  far 
northward,  where  the  charges  of  subsistence  and 
improvement  were  much  greater  than  the  value  of 
the  lands,  after  the  improvements  were  made — espe- 
cially in  the  neighbourhood  of  so  respectable  and 
growing  a  colony  as  that  of  Massachusetts — was  in- 
deed a  chimerical  project;  and  had  not  the  wiser 
people  among  them  sought  an  union  with  the  Mas- 
sachusetts, in  all  probability  the  settlements  must 
have  been  deserted. 

Troubles  at  Dover — Settlements  of  Exeter  and  Hamp- 
ton— Ruin  of  Mason's  interest — Story  of  Underhill 
•—Combinations  at  Portsmouth  and  Dover— Union 
of  New  Hampshire  with  Massachusetts. 

(1633.)  While  the  lower  plantation  on  the  river 
Pascataqua  lay  under  discouragement  by  the  death 
of  its  principal  patron,  the  upper  settlement,  though 
carried  on  with  more  success,  had  peculiar  difficulties 
to  struggle  with.  Two  thirds  of  this  patent  belonged 
to  some  merchants  of  Bristol,  the  other  third  to 
some  of  Shrewsbury:  and  there  was  an  agreement 
that  the  division  should  be  made  by  indifferent  men. 
Captain  Wiggen,  who  was  sent  over  to  superintend 
their  affairs,  after  about  one  year's  residence  in  the 
country  made  a  voyage  to  England,  to  procure  more 
ample  means  for  carrying  on  the  plantation.  In  the 
mean  time  those  of  Bristol  had  sold  their  interest  to 
the  Lords  Say  and  Broke,  George  Willys  and  Wil- 
liam Whiting,  who  continued  Wiggen  in  the  agency, 


and  procured  a  considerable  number  of  families  in 
the  west  of  England,  some  of  whom  were  of  good 
estates,  and  "  of  some  account  for  religion,"  to  come 
over  and  increase  the  colony.  It  appears  from  an- 
cient records,  that  Wiggen  had  a  power  of  granting 
lands  to  the  settlers;  but,  as  trade  was  their  prin- 
cipal object,  they  took  up  small  lots,  intending  to 
build  a  compact  town  on  Dover  Neck,  which  lies 
between  two  branches  of  the  river,  and  is  a  fine,  dry, 
and  healthy  situation;  so  high  as  to  command  all 
the  neighbouring  shores,  and  afford  a  very  extensive 
and  delightful  prospect.  On  the  most  inviting  part 
of  this  eminence  they  built  a  meeting  house,  which 
was  afterward  surrounded  with  an  entrenchment  and 
flankarts,  the  remains  of  which  are  still  visible. 
Wiggen  also  brought  over  William  Leverich,  a 
worthy  and 'able  puritan  minister;  but  his  allowance 
from  the  adventurers  proving  too  small  for  his  sup- 
port in  a  new  country,  where  ail  the  necessaries  of 
life  were  scarce  and  dear,  he  was  obliged  to  remove 
to  the  southward,  and  settled  at  Sandwich  in  the 
colony  of  Plymouth.  This  proved  an  unhappy 
event  to  the  people,  who,  being  left  destitute  of  regu- 
lar instruction,  were  exposed  to  the  intrusions  of 
artful  impostors. 

(1634.)  The  first  of  these  was  one  Burdet.  He 
had  been  a  minister  at  Yarmouth  in  England;  but 
either  really  or  pretendcdly  taking  offence  at  the 
extravagancies  of  the  bishops  and  spiritual  courts, 
came  over  to  New  England,  and  joined  with  the 
church  in  Salem,  who  employed  him  for  a  year  or 
two  as  a  preacher,  being  a  good  scholar  and  plausible 
in  his  behaviour.  But,  disgusted  with  the  strictness 
of  their  discipline,  he  removed  to  Dover  (1636),  and 
continued  for  some  time  in  good  esteem  with  the  peo- 
ple as  a  preacher;  until,  by  artful  insinuations,  he 
raised  such  a  jealousy  in  their  minds  against  Wig- 
gen their  governor,  that  they  deprived  him  of  his 
office,  and  elected  Burdet  in  his  place. 

(1637.)  During  his  residence  here,  he  carried  on 
a  correspondence  with  Archbishop  Laud  to  the  dis- 
advantage of  the  Massachusetts  colony,  representing 
them  as  hypocritical  and  disaffected,  and  that  under 
pretence  of  greater  purity  and  discipline  in  matters 
of  religion,  they  were  aiming  at  independent  so- 
vereignty; it  being  accounted  perjury  and  treason 
by  their  general  court,  to  speak  of  appeals  to  the 
king.  (1638.)  The  prelate  thanked  him  for  his 
zeal  in  the  king's  service,  and  assured  him  that  care 
should  be  taken  to  redress  those  disorders  when 
leisure  from  other  concerns  would  permit.  This 
letter  of  the  archbishop  was  intercepted,  and  shewn 
to  the  governor  of  Massachusetts.  Burdet's  villany 
was  considered  as  the  more  atrocious,  because  he 
had  been  admitted  a  freeman  of  their  corporation, 
and  had  taken  the  oath  of  fidelity.  A  copy  of  his 
own  letter  was  afterwards  found  in  his  closet. 

About  this  time  the  Antinomian  controversy  at 
Boston  having  occasioned  the  banishment  of  the 
principal  persons  of  that  sect,  several  of  them  re- 
tired to  this  settlement,  being  without  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  Massachusetts.  When  this  was  known,  Go- 
vernor Winthrop  wrote  to  Wiggen,  Burdet,  and 
others  of  this  plantation.  "  that  as  there  had  hitherto 
been  a  good  correspondence  between  them  it  would 
be  much  resented  if  they  should  receive  the  exiles ; 
and  intimating  the  intention  of  the  general  court 
to  survey  the  utmost  limits  of  their  patent,  and 
make  use  of  them."  To  this  Burdet  returned  a 
scornful  answer  refusing  to  give  the  governor  his 
title.  The  governor  thought  of  citing  him  to  court 
to  answer  for  his  contempt;  but  was  dissuaded 


UNITED  STATES, 


403 


fram  it  by  Dudley,  the  deputy-governor,  who  judged 
it  imprudent  to  exasperate  him,  lest  he  should  avenge 
himself  by  farther  accusing  them  to  their  ene- 
mies in  England.  The  governor  contented  himself 
with  sending  to  Hilton  an  account  of  Burdet's  be- 
haviour, inclosing  a  copy  of  his  letter,  and  caution- 
ing the  people  not  to  put  themselves  too  far  under 
his  power.  His  true  character  did  not  long  remain 
secret;  for  being  detected  in  some  licentious  actions, 
he  made  a  precipitate  removal  to  Agamenticus  (now 
York),  in  the  province  of  Maine,  where  he  also  as- 
sumed to  rule,  and  continued  a  course  of  injustice 
and  adultery  till  the  arrival  of  Thomas  Gorges,  their 
governor,  (1640)  who  laid  a  fine  on  him,  and  seized 
his  cattle  for  the  payment  of  it.  He  appealed  to  the 
king,  but  his  appeal  not  being  admitted,  he  departed 
for  England  full  of  enmity  against  these  plantations. 
When  he  arrived,  he  found  all  in  confusion,  and 
falling  in  with  the  royalists  was  taken  and  imprisoned 
by  the  parliamentary  party,  which  is  the  last  account 
we  have  of  him. 

One  of  the  exiles  on  account  of  the  Antinomian 
controversy,  was  John  Whelewright,  brother  to  the 
famous  Anne  Hutchinson.  He  had  been  a  preacher 
at  Braintree,  which  was  then  part  of  Boston,  and 
was  a  gentlemo.n  of  learning,  piety,  and  zeal.  Hav- 
ing engaged  to  make  a  settlement  within  ten  years, 
on  the  lands  he  had  purchased  of  the  Indians  at 
Squamscot  falls,  he  with  a  number  of  his  adherents 
began  a  plantation  there,  which  according  to  the 
agreement  made  with  Mason's  agents,  they  called 
Exeter.  Having  obtained  a  dismission  from  the 
church  in  Boston,  they  formed  themselves  into  a 
church ;  and  judging  themselves  without  the  juris- 
diction of  Massachusetts,  they  combined  into  a  sepa- 
rate body  politic,  and  chose  rulers  and  assistants, 
who  were  sworn  to  the  due  discharge  of  their  office, 
and  the  people  were  as  solemnly  sworn  to  obey  them. 
Their  rulers  were  Isaac  Grosse,  Nicholas  Needham, 
and  Thomas  Wilson,  each  of  whom  continued  in 
office  the  space  of  a  year,  having  two  assistants. 
The  laws  were  made  in  a  popular  assembly  and 
formally  consented  to  by  the  rulers.  Treason,  and 
rebellion  against  the  king  (who  is  styled  "  the  Lord's 
anointed"),  or  the  country,  were  made  capital 
crimes;  and  sedition  was  punishable  by  a  fine  of 
ten  pounds,  or  otherwise,  at  the  discretion  of  the 
court.  This  combination  subsisted  three  years. 

About  the  same  time  a  plantation  was  formed  at 
Winnicumet,  which  was  called  Hampton.  The 
principal  inducement  to  the  making  this  settlement 
was  the  very  extensive  salt-marsh,  which  was  ex- 
tremely valuable,  as  the  uplands  wei'e  not  cultivated 
so  as  to  produce  a  sufficiency  of  hay  for  the  support 
of  cattle.  With  a  view  to  secure  these  meadows,  the 
general  court  of  Massachusetts  had  [in  1636]  em- 
powered Mr.  Dummer  of  Newbury,  with  John  Spen- 
cer, to  build  a  house  there  at  the  expense  of  the  co- 
lony, which  was  to  be  refunded  by  those  who  should 
settle  there.  Accordingly  a  house  was  built,  and 
commonly  called  the  Bound-house ;  though  it  was 
intended  as  a  mark  of  possession  rather  than  of  limits. 
The  architect  was  Nicholas  Easton,  who  soon  after 
removed  to  Rhode-Island,  and  built  the  first  English 
house  in  Newport. 

This  entrance  being  made,  a  petition  was  pre- 
sented to  the  court  by  a  number  of  persons,  chiefly 
from  Norfolk  in  England,  praying  for  liberty  to 
settle  there,  which  was  granted  them.  They  began 
the  settlement  by  laying  out  a  township  in  one  hun- 
dred and  forty-seven  shares ;  and  having  formed  a 
church,  chose  Stephen  Batchelor  for  their  minister, 


with  whom  Timothy  Dalton  was  soon  after  associated. 
The  number  of  the  first  inhabitants  was  fifty-six. 

The  authority  of  Massachusetts  having  established 
this  settlement,  they,  from  the  beginning,  considered 
it  as  belonging  to  their  colony.  Though  the  agent 
of  Mason's  estate  made  some  objection  to  their  pro- 
ceeding, yet  no  legal  method  being  taken  to  contro- 
vert this  extension  of  their  claim,  the  way  was  pre- 
pared for  one  still  greater,  which  many  circumstances 
concurred  to  establish. 

After  the  death  of  Captain  Mason,  his  widow  and 
executrix  sent  over  Francis  Norton  as  her  "  general 
attorney ;"  to  whom  she  committed  the  whole  ma- 
nagement of  the  estate.  But  the  expense  so  far  ex- 
ceeded the  income,  and  the  servants  grew  so  impa- 
tient for  their  arrears,  that  she  was  obliged  to  relin- 
quish the  charge  of  the  plantation,  and  tell  the  servants 
that  they  must  shift  for  themselves  :  upon  which 
they  shared  the  goods  and  cattle.  Norton  drove 
above  a  hundred  oxen  to  Boston,  and  there  sold  thorn 
for  twenty-live  pounds  sterling  per  head,  which  it  is 
said  was  the  current  price  of  the  best  cattle  in  New- 
England  at  that  time.  These  were  of  a  large  breed, 
imported  from  Denmark,  from  whence  Mason  had 
also  procured  a  number  of  men  skilled  in  sawing 
planks  and  making  potashes.  Having  shared  the 
stock  and  other  materials,  some  of  the  people  quitted 
the  plantation  ;  others  of  them  tarried,  keeping  pos- 
session of  the  buildings  and  improvements,  which 
they  claimed  as  their  own  ;  the  houses  at  Newich- 
wannock  were  burned ;  and  thus  Mason's  estate 
was  ruined.  These  events  happened  between  1638 
and  1644. 

Among  the  Antinomians  who  were  banished  from 
Boston,  and  took  refuge  in  these  plantations,  was 
Captain  John  Underbill,  in  whose  story  will  appear 
some  very  strong  characteristics  of  the  spirit  of  these 
times.  He  had  been  a  soldier  in  the  Netherlands, 
and  was  brought  over  to  New  England  by  Governor 
Winthrop,  to  train  the  people  in  military  discipline. 
He  served  the  country  in  the  Pequod  war,  and  was 
in  such  reputation  in  the  town  of  Boston,  that  they 
had  chosen  him  one  of  their  deputies.  Deeply  tinc- 
tured with  Antinomian  principles,  and  possessed  of 
a  high  degree  of  enthusiasm,  he  made  a  chief  figure 
in  the  controversy;  being  one  of  the  subscribers  to 
a  petition  in  which  the  court  was  censured,  with  an 
indecent  severity,  for  their  proceedings  against 
Whelewright.  For  this  offence  he  was  disfranchised. 
He  then  made  a  voyage  to  England;  and  upon  his 
return  petitioned  the  court  for  300  acres  of  land, 
which  had  been  promised  him  for  his  former  services, 
intending  to  remove  after  Whelewright  In  his 
petition  he  acknowledged  his  offence  in  condemning 
the  court,  and  declared  "  that  the  Lord  had  brought 
him  to  a  sense  of  his  sin  in  that  respect,  so  that  he 
had  been  in  great  trouble  on  account  thereof."  On 
this  occasion  the  court  thought  proper  to  question 
him  concerning  an  offensive  expression,  which  he 
had  uttered  on  board  the  ship  in  which  he  came  from 
England,  "  that  the  government  at  Boston  were  as 
zealous  as  the  scribes  and  Pharisees,  and  as  Paul 
before  his  conversion."  He  denied  the  charge,  and 
it  was  proved  to  his  face  by  a  woman  who  was  pas- 
senger with  him,  and  whom  he  had  endeavoured  to 
seduce  to  his  opinions.  He  was  also  questioned  for 
what  he  had  said  to  her  of  his  receiving  assu- 
rance of  spiritual  grace,  which  was,  "  that  having 
long  lain  under  a  spirit  of  bondage,  he  could  get  no 
assurance  ;  till  at  length,  as  he  was  taking  a  pipe  of 
tobacco,  the  spirit  set  home  upon  him  an  absolute 
promise  of  free  grace,  with  such  assurance  and  joy 


404 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


that  he  had  never  since  doubted  of  his  good  estate, 
neither  should  he,  whatever  sins  he  might  fall  into." 
This  he  would  neither  own  nor  deny  ;  but  objected 
to  the  sufficiency  of  a  single  testimony.  The  court 
committed  him  for  abusing  them  with  a  pretended 
retraction,  and  the  next  day  passed  the  sentence  of 
banishment  upon  him.  Being  allowed  the  liberty 
of  attending  public  worship,  his  enthusiastic  zeal 
brake  out  in  a  speech,  in  which  he  endeavoured  to 
prove  "  that  as  the  Lord  was  pleased  to  convert 
Saul  while  he  was  persecuting,  so  he  might  manifest 
himself  to  him  while  making  a  moderate  use  of  the 
good  creature  tobacco ;  professing  withal  that  he 
knew  not  wherein  he  had  deserved  the  censure  of  the 
court."  The  elders  reproved  him  for  this  inconsi- 
derate speech;  and  Mr.  Cotton  told  him,  "  that 
though  God  often  laid  a  man  under  a  spirit  of  bon- 
dage while  walking  in  sin,  as  was  the  case  with  Paul, 
yet  he  never  sent  a  spirit  of  comfort  but  in  an  ordi- 
nance, as  he  did  to  Paul  by  the  ministry  of  Ananias  ; 
and  therefore  exhorted  him  to  examine  carefully  the 
revelation  and  joy  to  which  he  pretended."  The 
same  week  he  was  privately  dealt  with  on  suspicion 
of  adultery,  vtlrich  he  disregarded  ;  and  therefore  on 
the  next  sabbath  was  questioned  for  it  before  the 
church  ;  but  the  evidence  not  being  sufficient  to  con- 
vict him,  the  church  could  only  admonish  him. 

These  proceedings,  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  being 
finished,  he  removed  out  of  their  jurisdiction  ;  and 
after  a  while  went  to  Dover,  where  he  procured  the 
place  of  governor  in  the  room  of  Burdet.  Governor 
Wiuthrop  hearing  of  this,  wrote  to  Hilton  and  others 
of  this  plantation,  informing  them  of  his  character. 
Underhill  intercepted  the  letter,  and  returned  a  bit- 
ter answer  to  Mr.  Cotton ;  and  wrote  another  letter 
full  of  reproaches  against  the  governor  to  a  gentle- 
man of  his  family,  while  he  addressed  the  governor 
himself  in  a  fawning,  obsequious  strain,  begging  an 
obliteration  of  former  miscarriages,  and  a  bearing 
with  human  infirmities.  These  letters  were  all  sent 
back  to  Hilton ;  but  too  late  to  prevent  his  ad- 
vancement. 

Being  settled  in  his  government,  he  procured  a 
church  tt  be  gathered  at  Dover,  who  chose  Hanserd 
Knollys  lor  their  minister.  He  had  come  over  from 
England  the  year  before;  but  being  an  Anabaptist 
of  the  Antinomian  cast,  was  not  well  received  in 
Massachusetts,  and  came  here  while  Burdet  was  in 
office,  who  forbad  his  preaching ;  but  Underhill, 
agreeing  better  with  him,  prevailed  to  have  him 
chosen  their  minister.  To  ingratiate  himself  with 
his  new  patron,  Knollys  wrote  in  his  favour  to  the 
church  in  Boston,  styling  him  "  The  right  worship- 
ful their  honoured  governor.'  Notwithstanding 
which  they  cited  him  again  to  appear  before  them; 
the  court  granting  him  safe  conduct.  At  the  same 
time  complaint  was  made  to  the  chief  inhabitants  on 
the  river,  of  the  breach  of  friendship  in  advancing 
Underhill  after  his  rejection  ;  and  a  copy  of  Knollys's 
k-tter  was  returned,  wherein  he  had  written,  that 
"  Underbill  was  an  instrument  of  God  for  their 
ruin,"  and  it  was  enquired  whether  that  letter  was 
written  by  the  desire  or  consent  of  the  people.  The 
principal  persons  of  Portsmouth  and  Dover  disclaim- 
ed his  miscarriages,  and  expressed  their  readiness  to 
call  him  to  account  when  a  proper  information  should 
be  presented  ;  but  begged  that  no  force  might  be  sent 
against  him.  By  his  instigation  Knollys  had  also 
written  to  his  friends  in  England  a  calumnious  let- 
ter against  the  Massachusetts  planters,  representing 
them  as  more  arbitrary  than  the  high  commission 
court,  and  that  there  was  no  real  religion  in  the 


country.  A  copy  of  this  letter  being  sent  from  Eng- 
andto  Governor  Winthrop,  Knollys  was  so  ashamed 
at  the  discovery,  that  obtaining  a  licence,  he  went 
to  Boston ;  and  at  the  public  lecture  before  the  go- 
vernor, magistrates,  ministers,  and  the  congregation, 
made  confession  of  his  fault,  and  wrote  a  retraction 
;o  his  friends  in  England,  which  he  left  with  the 
governor  to  be  sent  to  them. 

Underhill  was  so  affected  with  his  friend's  humi- 
liation, and  the  disaffection  of  the  people  of  Pascata- 
qua  to  him,  that  he  resolved  to  retrieve  his  charac- 
ter in  the  same  way.  Having  obtained  safe  con- 
duct, he  went  to  Boston,  and  in  the  same  public 
manner  acknowledged  his  adultery,  his  disrespect  to 
the  government,  and  the  justice  of  their  proceedings 
against  him :  but  his  confession  wa?  mixed  with  so 
many  excuses  and  extenuations,  that  it  gave  no  sa- 
tisfaction ;  and  the  evidence  of  his  scandalous  de- 
portment being  now  undeniable,  the  church  passed 
the  sentence  of  excommunication,  to  which  he  seemed 
to  submit,  and  appeared  much  dejected  while  he 
remained  there. 

Upon  his  return,  to  please  some  disaffected  per- 
sons, at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  he  sent  thirteen 
armed  men  to  Exeter  to  rescue  out  of  the  officers' 
hands  one  Fish,  who  had  been  taken  into  custody  for 
speaking  against  the  king.  The  people  of  Dover 
forbad  his  coming  into  their  coui't  till  they  had  con- 
sidered his  crimes,  and  he  promised  to  resign  his 
place  if  they  should  disapprove  of  his  conduct;  but 
hearing  that  they  were  determined  to  remove  him, 
he  rushed  into  court  in  a  passion,  took  his  seat, 
ordered  one  of  the  magistrates  to  prison  for  saying 
that  he  would  not  sit  with  an  adulterer,  and  refused 
to  receive  his  dismission,  when  they  voted  it.  But 
they  proceeded  to  choose  another  governor,  Roberts, 
and  sent  back  the  prisoner  to  Exeter. 

(1640.)  A  new  scene  of  difficulty  now  arose. 
Thomas  Larkham,  a  native  of  Lyme  in  Dorsetshire, 
and  formerly  a  minister  at  Northam  near  Barns- 
stable,  had  come  over  to  New  England,  and  not 
favouring  the  doctrine,  nor  willing  to  submit  to 
the  discipline  of  the  churches  in  Massachusetts,  came 
to  Dover;  and  being  a  preacher  of  good  talents, 
eclipsed  Knollys,  and  raised  a  party  who  determi- 
ned to  remove  him.  He  therefore  gave  way  to 
popular  prejudice,  and  suffered  Larkham  to  take  his 
place ;  who  soon  discovered  his  licentious  princi- 
ples, by  receiving  into  the  church  persons  of  immo- 
ral characters,  and  assuming,  like  Burdet,  the  civil, 
as  well  as  ecclesiastical,  authority.  The  better  sort 
of  the  people  were  displeased,  and  restored  Knollys 
to  his  office,  who  excommunicated  Larkham.  This 
bred  a  riot,  in  which  Larkham  laid  hands  on  Knol- 
lys, taking  away  his  hat  on  pretence  that  he  had 
not  paid  for  it ;  but  he  was  civil  enough  afterwards 
to  return  it.  Some  of  the  magistrates  joined  with 
Larkham,  and  forming  a  court,  summoned  Under- 
hill, who  was  of  Knollys's  party,  to  appear  befoie 
them,  and  answer  to  a  new  crime  which  they  had  to 
allege  against  him.  Underhill  collected  his  adhe- 
rents ;  Knollys  was  armed  with  a  pistol,  and  another 
had  a  bible  mounted  on  a  halbert  for  an  ensign. 
In  this  ridiculous  parade  they  marched  against 
Larkham  arid  his  party,  who  prudently  declined  a 
combat,  and  sent  down  the  river  to  Williams  the 
governor,  at  Portsmouth,  for  assistance.  He  came 
up  in  a  boat  with  an  armed  party,  beset  Knollys' 
house  where  Underhill  was,  guarded  it  night  and 
day  till  a  court  was  summoned,  and  then,  Williams 
sitting  as  judge,  Underhill  and  his  company  were 
found  guilty  of  a  riot,  and  after  being  fined,  were 


UNITED  STATES. 


405 


banished  the  plantation.  The  new  crime  which 
Larkham's  party  alleged  against  Underbill  was,  that 
he  had  been  secretly  endeavouring  to  persuade  the 
inhabitants  to  offer  themselves  to  the  government  of 
Massachusetts,  whose  favour  he  was  desirous  to  pur- 
chase by  these  means,  as  he  kcew  that  their  view 
•was  to  extend  their  jurisdiction  as  far  as  they  ima- 
gined their  limits  reached,  whenever  they  should 
find  a  favourable  opportunity.  The  same  policy 
led  him,  with  his  party,  to  send  a  petition  to  Boston, 
praying  for  the  interposition  of  the  government  in 
their  case :  in  consequence  of  which  the  governor 
and  assistants  commissioned  Simon  Bradstreet,  Esq., 
with  the  famous  Hugh  Peters,  then  minister  of 
Salem,  and  Timothy  Dalton  of  Hampton,  to  enquire 
into  the  matter,  and  effect  a  reconciliation,  or  cer- 
tify the  state  of  things  to  them.  These  gentlemen 
travelled  on  foot  to  Dover,  and  finding  both  sides  in 
fault,  brought  the  matter  to  this  issue,  that  the  one 
party  revoked  the  excommunication,  and  the  other 
the  fines  and  banishment. 

In  the  heat  of  these  disputes,  a  discovery  was 
made  of  Knollys'  failure  in  point  of  chastity.  He 
acknowledged  his  crime  before  the  church  ;  but  they 
dismissed  him,  and  he  returned  to  England,  where 
he  suffered  by  the  severity  of  the  long  parliament  in 
1644  ;  and  being  forbidden  to  preach  in  the  churches, 
opened  a  separate  meeting  in  Great  St.  Helen's, 
from  which  he  was  soon  dislodged,  and  his  followers 
dispersed.  He  also  suffered  in  the  cause  of  non- 
conformity in  the  reign  of  King  Charles  the  second, 
and  at  length  (as  it  is  said)  died  "  a  good  man,  in  a 
good  old  age,"  September  19,  1691,  aged  ninety- 
three. 

Underbill  having  finished  his  career  in  these  parts, 
obtained  leave  to  return  to  Boston,  and  finding  ho- 
nesty to  be  the  best  policy,  did  in  a  large  assembly 
at  the  public  lecture,  and  during  the  sitting  of  the 
court,  make  a  full  confession  of  his  adultery  and 
hypocrisy,  his  pride  and  contempt  of  authority, 
justifying  the  church  and  court  in  all  that  they  had 
done  against  him,  declaring  that  his  pretended  assu- 
rance had  failed  him,  and  that  the  terror  of  his  mind 
had  at  some  times  been  so  great,  that  he  had  drawn 
his  sword  to  put  an  end  to  his  life.  The  church  be- 
ing now  satisfied,  restored  him  to  their  communion. 
The  court,  after  waiting  six  months  for  evidence  of 
his  good  behaviour,  took  off  his  sentence  of  banish- 
ment, and  released  him  from  the  punishment  of  his 
adultery  :  the  law,  which  made  it  capital,  having  been 
enacted  after  the  crime  was  committed,  could  not 
touch  his  life.  Some  offers  being  made  him  by  the 
Dutch  at  Hudson's  river,  whose  language  was  fami- 
liar to  him,  the  church  of  Boston  hired  a  vessel  to 
transport  him  and  his  family  thither,  furnishing 
them  with  all  necessaries  for  the  voyage.  The  Dutch 
governor  gave  him  the  command"  of  a  company  of 
an  hundred  and  twenty  men,  and  he  was  very  ser- 
viceable in  the  wars  which  that  colony  had  with 
the  Indians,  having,  it  is  said,  killed  one  hundred 
and  fifty  on  Long  Island,  and  three  hundred  on  the 
Main.  He  continued  in  their  service  till  his  death. 

We  find  in  this  relation  a  striking  instance  of 
that  species  of  false  religion,  which,  having  its  seat 
in  the  imagination,  instead  of  making  the  heart 
better,  and  reforming  the  life,  inflames  the  passions, 
stupifies  reason,  and  produces  the  wildest  effects  in 
the  behaviour.  The  excesses  of  enthusiasm  have 
often  been  observed  to  lead  to  sensual  gratifica- 
tions ;  the  same  natural  fervour  being  sufficient  to 
produce  both.  It  cannot  be  strange,  that  they  who 
decry  morality  should  indulge  such  gross  and  scan- 


dalous enormities  as  are  sufficient  to  invalidate  all 
those  evidences  of  their  religious  character  on  which 
they  lay  so  much  stress.  But  it  is  not  so  surprising 
that  men  should  be  thus  misled,  as  that  such  frantic 
zealots  should  ever  be  reduced  to  an  acknowledgment 
of  their  offences;  which  in  this  instance  may  be 
ascribed  to  the  strict  discipline  then  practised  in  the 
churches  of  New  England. 

The  people  of  Dover  and  Portsmouth  during  all 
this  time  had  no  power  of  government  delegated 
from  the  crown  :  but  finding  the  necessity  of  some 
more  determinate  form  than  they  had  yet  enjoyed, 
combined  themselves  each  into  a  body  politic  after 
the  example  of  their  neighbours  at  Exeter.  The 
inhabitants  of  Dover,  by  a  written  instrument, 
signed  by  forty-one  persons,  agreed  to  submit  to 
the  laws  of  England,  and  such  others  as  should 
be  enacted  by  a  majority  of  their  number,  until  the 
royal  pleasure  should  be  known.  The  date  of  the 
combination  at  Portsmouth  is  uncertain,  their  first 
book  of  records  having  been  destroyed  [in  1052], 
after  copying  out  what  they  then  thought  proper  to 
preserve.  Williams,  who  had  been  sent  over  by  the 
adventurers,  was  by  annual  suffrage  continued  go- 
vernor of  the  place,  and  with  him  were  associated 
Ambrose  Gibbons  and  Thomas  Warnerton  in  qua- 
lity of  assistants.  During  this  combination,  a  grant 
of  fifty  acres  of  land  for  a  glebe  was  made  by  the 
governor  and  inhabitants  to  Thomas  Walford  and 
Henry  Sherburne,  churchwardens,  and  their  suc- 
cessors for  ever,  as  feoffees  in  trust;  by  virtue  of 
which  grant  the  same  land  is  still  held,  and  being 
let  on  long  leases,  a  considerable  part  of  the  town 
of  Portsmouth  is  built  upon  it.  At  this  time  they 
had  a  parsonage  house  and  chapel,  and  had  chosen 
Richard  Gibson  for  their  parson,  the  patronage  be- 
ing vested  in  the  parishioners.  Gibson  was  sent 
from  England  as  minister  to  a  fishing  plantation 
belonging  to  one  Trelawney.  He  was  "  wholly 
addicted  to  the  hierarchy  and  discipline  of  England, 
and  exercised  his  ministerial  function"  according  to 
the  ritual.  He  was  summoned  before  the  court  at 
Boston  for  "  scandalizing  the  government  there, 
and  denying  their  title ;"  but  upon  his  submission, 
they  discharged  him  without  fine  or  punishment, 
being  a  stranger,  and  about  to  depart  the  country. 
After  his  departure  the  people  of  Portsmouth  had 
James  Parker  for  their  minister,  who  was  a  scholar, 
and  had  been  a  deputy  in  the  Massachusetts  court. 
After  him  they  had  one  Browne ;  and  Samuel  Dud- 
ley, a  son  of  Deputy-governor  Dudley;  but  these 
were  only  temporary  preachers,  and  they  did  not 
obtain  the  regular  settlement  of  a  minister  for  many 
years. 

Four  distinct  governments  (including  one  at  Kit- 
tery  on  the  north  side  of  the  river)  were  now  formed 
on  the  several  branches  of  Pascataqua.  These  com- 
binations  being  only  voluntary  agreements,  liable 
to  be  broken  or  subdivided  on  the  first  popular  dis- 
content, there  could  be  no  safety  in  the  continuance 
of  them.  The  distractions  in  England  at  this  time 
had  cut  off  all  hope  of  the  royal  attention,  and  the. 
people  of  the  several  settlements  were  too  much 
divided  in  their  opinions  to  form  any  general  plan, 
of  government  which  could  afford  a  prospect  of  per- 
manent utility.  The  more  considerate  persons  among 
them,  therefore,  thought  it  best  to  treat  with  Ma--, 
sachusetts  about  taking  them  under  their  protection. 
That  government  was  glad  of  an  opportunity  to 
realize  the  construction  which  they  had  put  upon 
the  clause  of  their  charter,  wherein  their  northern 
limits  are  defined.  For  a  line  drawn  from  east  to, 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


west  at  the  distance  of  "  three  miles  to  the  north- 
ward of  Merriraack  river,  and  of  any  and  evely  part 
thereof,"  will  take  in  the  whole  province  of  New 
Hampshire,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  province  of 
Maine,  so  that  both  Mason's  and  Gerges's  patents 
must  have  been  vacated.  They  had  already  inti- 
mated their  intention  to  run  this  east,  and  west  line, 
and  presuming  on  the  justice  of  their  claim,  they 
readily  entered  into  a  negociation  with  the  principal 
settlers  of  Pascataqua  respecting  their  incorporation 
with  them.  (1641.)  The  affair  was  more  than  a 
year  in  agitation,  and  was  at  length  concluded  by 
an  instrument  subscribed  in  the  presence  of  the  ge- 
neral court  by  George  Willys,  Robert  Saltonstall, 
William  Whiting,  Edward  Holiock,  and  Thomas 
Makepeace,  in  behalf  of  themselves  and  the  oilier 
partners  of  the  two  patents ;  by  which  instrument 
they  resigned  the  jurisdiction  of  the  whole  to  Massa- 
chusetts, on  condition  that  the  inhabitants  should 
enjoy  the  same  liberties  with  their  own  people,  and 
have  a  court  of  justice  erected  among  them.  The 
property  of  the  whole  patent  of  Portsmouth,  and  of 
one-third  part  of  that  of  Dover,  and  of  all  the  im- 
proved lands  therein,  was  reserved  to  the  lords  and 
gentlemen  proprietors,  and  their  heirs  for  ever. 

The  court,  on  their  part,  consented  that  the  in- 
habitants of  these  towns  should  enjoy  the  same  pri- 
vileges with  the  rest  of  the  colony,  and  have  the 
same  administration  of  just-ice  as  in  the  courts  of 
Salem  and  Ipswich;  that  they  should  be  exempted 
from  all  public  charges,  except  what  should  arise 
among  themselves,  or  for  their  own  peculiar  benefit; 
that  they  should  enjoy  their  former  liberties  of  fish- 
ing, planting,  and  felling  timber ;  that  they  should 
send  two  deputies  to  the  general  court;  and  that 
the  same  persons  who  were  authorised  by  their  com- 
binations to  govern  them,  should  continue  in  office 
till  the  commissioners  named  in  this  order  should 
arrive  at  Pascataqua.  These  commissioners  were 
invested  with  the  power  of  the  quarter  courts  of  Sa- 
lem and  Ipswich,  and  at  their  arrival  they  constituted 
Francis  Williams,  Thomas  Warnerton  and  Ambrose 
Gibbons  of  Portsmouth,  Edward  Hilton,  Thomas 
Wiggen,  and  William  Waldron  of  Dover,  magis- 
trates, who  were  confirmed  by  the  general  court. 

(1642.)  By  a  subsequent  order  a  very  extraordi- 
nary concession  was  made  to  these  towns,  which 
shews  the  fondness  that  government  had  of  retaining 
them  under  their  jurisdiction.  A  test,  had  been  es- 
tablished by  law,  but  it  was  dispensed  with  in  their 
favour;  their  freemen  were  allowed  to  vote  in  town 
affairs,  and  their  deputies  to  sit  in  the  general  court 
though  they  were  not  church  members. 

The  people  of  Dover  being  left  destitute  of  a  mi- 
nister by  the  sudden  departure  of  Larkham,  wh 
took  this  method  to  avoid  the  shame  which  would 
have  attended  the  discovery  of  a  crime  similar  to 
that  for  which  Knollys  had  been  dismissed,  wrote  to 
the  Massachusetts  for  help.  The  court  took  care  to 
send  them  Daniel  Maud,  who  had  been  a  minister 
in  England.  He  was  an  honest  man,  and  of  a  quiet 
and  peaceable  disposition,  qualities  much  wanting  in 
all  his  predecessors.  Larkham  returned  to  Eng- 
land, where  he  continued  to  exercise  his  ministry 
till  ejected  by  the  act  of  uniformity  in  1662,  from 
Tavistock  in  Devon.  He  is  said  to  have  been  "  well 
known  there  for  a  man  of  great  piety  and  sincerity," 
and  died  in  1 669,  aged  68. 

The  inhabitants  of  Exeter  had  hitherto  continued 
their  combination ;  but  finding  themselves  compre- 
hended within  the  claim  of  Massachusetts,  and  being 
weary  of  their  inefficacious  mode  of  government,  they 


petitioned  the  court,  and  ware  readily  admitted  un- 
der their  jurisdiction.  William  Wenborne,  Robert 
Smith,  and  Thomas  Wardhall  were  appointed  their 
magistrates;  and  they  were  annexed  to  the  county  of 
Essex.  Upon  this,  Whelewright,  who  was  still  under 
sentence  of  banishment,  with  those  of  his  church 
who  were  resolved  to  adhere  to  him,  removed  into 
the  province  of  Maine,  and  settled  at  Wells,  where 
his  posterity  yet  remain.  He  was  soon  after  re- 
stored, upon  a  slight  acknowledgment,  to  the  free- 
dom of  the  colony,  and  removed  to  Hampton,  of 
which  church  he  was  minister  for  many  years,  until 
he  went  to  England,  where  he  was  in  favour  with 
Cromwell :  but  after  the  restoration,  he  returned 
and  settled  at  Salisbury,  where  he  died  in  1680. 

(1644.)  After  his  departure  from  Exeter,  an  attempt 
was  made  by  the  remaining  inhabitants  to  form 
themselves  into  a  church,  and  they  called  the  aged  Ste- 
phen Batchelor  to  the  ministry,  who  had  been  dis- 
missed from  Hampton  for  his  irregular  conduct. 
But  the  general  court  here  interposed  and  sent  them 
a  solemn  prohibition,  importing  "  that  their  divi- 
sions were  such  that  they  could  not  comfortably, 
and  with  approbation,  proceed  in  so  weighty  and 
sacred  affairs,"  and  therefore  directing  them  "  to  de- 
fer gathering  a  church,  or  any  other  such  proceed- 
ing, till  they  or  the  court  at  Ipswich,  upon  further 
satisfaction  of  their  reconciliation  and  fitness,  should 
give  allowance  therefor." 

Such  a  stretch  of  power  which  would  now  be  looked 
upon  as  an  infringement  of  Christian  liberty,  was 
agreeable  to  the  principles  of  the  first  fathers  of  New 
England,  who  thought  that  civil  government  was 
established  for  the  defence  and  security  of  the  church 
against  error  both  doctrinal  and  moral.  In  this 
sentiment  they  were  not  singular,  it  being  univer- 
sally adopted  by  the  reformers,  in  that  and  the  pre- 
ceding age,  as  one  of  the  fundamental  principles  of 
their  separation  from  the  Romish  church,  and  ne- 
cessary to  curtail  the  claims  of  her  Pontiff,  who  as- 
sumed a  supremacy  over  "  the  kings  of  the  earth." 

Observations  on  the  principles  and  conduct  of  the  first 
planters  of  New  England. — Causes  of  their  removal. 
—  Their  fortitude. — Religious  sentiments. — Care  of 
their  posterity. — Justice. — Laws. —  Theocratic  pre- 
judices.— Intolerance  and  persecutions. 

AN  union  having  been  formed  between  the  settle- 
ments on  Pascataqua  and  the  colony  of  Massachu- 
setts, their  history  for  the  succeeding  forty  years  is 
in  a  great  measure  the  same  :  and  as  many  of  the 
people  in  New  Hampshire  had  the  same  principles, 
views,  and  interests,  with  the  other  people  of  New 
England,  we  shall  make  such  observations,  and  in- 
tersperse such  historical  facts,  as  may  illustrate  the 
subject. 

In  the  preceding  century  the  holy  scriptures, 
which  had  long  lain  hid  in  the  rubbish  of  monastic 
libraries,  were  brought  to  public  view  by  the  happy 
invention  of  printing ;  and  as  darkness  vanishes  be- 
fore the  rising  sun,  so  the  light  of  divine  truth  began 
to  dissipate  those  errors  and  superstitions  in  which 
Europe  had  long  been  involved.  At  the  same  time 
a  remarkable  concurrence  of  circumstances  gave  pe- 
culiar advantage  to  the  bold  attempt  of  Luther,  to 
rouse  Germany  from  her  inglorious  subjection  to  the 
Roman  Pontiff,  and  effectuate  a  reformation,  which 
soon  spread  into  the  neighbouring  countries.  But 
so  intimately  were  the  political  interests  of  king- 
doms and  states  blended  with  religious  prejudices, 
that  the  work,  though  happily  begun,  was  greatly 
blemished  and  impeded. 


UNITED  STATES. 


407 


Henry  the  Eighth  of  England  took  advantage  of 
this  amazing  revolution  in  the  minds  of  men,  to 
throw  off  the  papal  yoke,  and  assert  his  native  claim 
to  independence.  But  so  dazzling  was  the  idea  of 
power,  and  the  example  of  the  first  Christian  princes 
who  had  exercised  a  superintendency  in  spirituals 
as  well  as  temporals,  that  he  transferred  to  himself 
that  spiritual  power  which  had  been  usurped  and 
exercised  by  the  bishops  of  Rome,  and  set  up  him- 
self as  supreme  head  on  earth  of  the  church  of  Eng- 
land ;  commanding  both  clergy  and  laity  in  his  do- 
minions to  swear  allegiance  to  him  in  this  newly 
assumed  character. 

This  claim  was  kept  up  by  his  son  and  successor, 
Edward  the  Sixth,  in  whose  reign  the  reformation 
gained  much  ground  ;  and  a  service-book  was  pub- 
lished by  royal  authority  as  the  standard  of  worship 
and  discipline  for  his  subjects.  This  excellent  prince 
was  taken  out  of  the  world  in  his  youth ;  and  his 
sister  Mary,  who  then  came  to  the  throne,  restored 
the  supremacy  to  the  pope,  and  raised  such  fiery  per- 
secution against  the  reformers,  that  many  of  them 
fled  into  Germany  and  the  Netherlands,  where  they 
departed  from  that  uniformity  which  had  been  esta- 
blished in  England,  and  became  divided  in  their 
sentiments  and  practice  respecting  ecclesiastical  af- 
fairs :  the  native  effect  of  that  just  liberty  of  con- 
science which  they  enjoyed  abroad,  pursuing  their 
own  enquiries  according  to  their  respective  measures 
of  light;  uninfluenced  by  secular  power,  or  the  hope 
of  acquiring  dignities  in  a  national  establishment. 

The  accession  of  Elizabeth  inspired  them  with  new 
hopes  ;  and  they  returned  home,  resolving  to  attempt 
the  reformation  of  the  church  of  England,  agreeably 
to  the  respective  opinions  which  they  had  embraced 
in  their  exile.  But  they  soon  found  that  the  queen, 
who  had  been  educated  in  the  same  manner  with  her 
brother  Edward,  was  fond  of  the  establishment  made 
in  his  reign,  and  was  strongly  prejudiced  in  favor 
of  pomp  and  ceremony  in  religious  worship.  She 
asserted  her  supremacy  in  the  most  absolute  terms, 
and  erected  a  high  commission  court  with  jurisdic- 
tion in  ecclesiastical  affairs.  Uniformity  being  rigo- 
rously enjoined  and  no  abatement  or  allowance  made 
for  tender  consciences  (though  it  was  conceded  that 
the  ceremonies  were  indifferent)  a  separation  from 
the  establishment  took  place.  Those  who  were  de- 
sirous of  a  farther  reformation  from  the  Romish  su- 
perstitions, and  of  a  more  pure  and  perfect  form  of 
religion,  were  denominated  Puritans ;  whose  prin- 
ciples, as  distinguished  from  those  of  the  other 
reformers  who  were  in  favour  with  the  queen,  are 
thus  represented. 

"  The  queen  and  court  reformers  held,  1.  Tha 
every  prince  had  the  sole  authority  to  correct  al 
abuses  of  doctrine  and  worship  within  his  own  terri- 
tories. 2.  That  the  church  of  Rome  was  a  true 
church,  though  corrupt  in  some  points  of  doctrine 
and  government ;  that  all  her  ministrations  were 
valid,  and  that  the  pope  was  a  true  bishop  of  Rome, 
though  not  of  the  universal  church.  3.  That  the 
scriptures  were  a  perfect  rule  of  faith,  but  not  a 
standard  of  discipline  ;  and  that  it  was  left  to  the 
discretion  of  the  Christian  magistrate,  to  accommodate 
the  government  of  the  church  to  the  policy  of  the 
state.  4.  That  the  practice  of  the  primitive  church 
for  the  first  four  or  five  centuries,  was  a  proper 
standard  of  church  government  and  discipline  ;  anc 
in  some  respects  better  than  that  of  the  apostles, 
which  was  only  accommodated  to  the  infant  state  o 
the  church,  while  it  was  under  persecution  ;  whereas 
the  other  was  suited  to  the  grandeur  of  a  nationa" 


stablishment  5.  That  things  indifferent  in  their 
iwn  nature,  as  rites,  ceremonies,  and  habits,  might 
>e  settled,  determined  and  made  necessary,  by  the 
ommand  of  the  civil  magistrate,  and  that  in  such 
cases  it  was  the  duty  of  the  subject  to  observe  them. 

'  On  the  other  hand,  the  Puritans,  1 .  Disowned 
all  foreign  jurisdiction  over  the  church,  but  could 
not  admit  of  that  extensive  power  which  the  crown 
claimed  by  the  supremacy.  However,  they  took  the 
oath,  with  the  queen's  explication,  as  only  restoring 
icr  majesty  to  the  ancient  and  natural  rights  of 
sovereign  princes  over  their  subjects.  2.  They  held 
the  pope  to  be  antichrist,  the  church  of  Rome  a  false 
church,  and  all  her  ministrations  superstitious  and 
dolatrous.  3.  That  the  scriptures  were  a  standard 
of  discipline  as  well  as  doctrine,  and  if  there  was 
need  of  a  discretionary  power,  it  was  vested  not  in 
the  magistrate,  but  in  the  officers  of  the  church, 
4.  That  the  form  of  government  ordained  by  the 
apostles  was  aristocratical,  and  designed  as  a  pattern 
to  the  church  in  after  ages,  not  to  be  departed  from 
in  its  main  principles.  5.  That  those  things  which 
Christ  hath  left  indifferent  ought  not  to  be  made  ne 
cessary ;  and  that  such  rites  and  ceremonies  as  had 
been  abused  to  idolatry  and  superstition,  and  had  a 
manifest  tendency  to  lead  men  back  thereto,  were 
no  longer  indifferent  but  unlawful. 

"  Both  parties  agree  too  well  in  asserting  the  ne- 
cessity of  uniformity  in  public  worship,  and  of  using 
the  sword  of  the  magistrate  for  the  support  and  de 
fence  of  their  respective  principles ;  which  they 
made  an  ill  use  of  in  their  turns,  whenever  they  could 
grasp  it  in  their  hands.  The  standard  of  uniformity 
according  to  the  bishops,  was  the  queen's  supremacy 
and  the  laws  of  the  land ;  according  to  the  Puritans, 
the  decrees  of  national  and  provincial  synods,  al 
lowed  and  enforced  by  the  civil  magistrate.  Neither 
party  were  for  admitting  that  liberty  of  conscience 
and  freedom  of  profession  which  is  every  man's 
right,  so  far  as  is  consistent  with  the  peace  of  civil 
government.  Upon  this  fatal  rock  of  uniformity, 
was  the  peace  of  the  church  of  England  split." 

It  is  melancholy  to  observe  what  mischiefs  were 
caused  by  the  want  of  a  just  distinction  between  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  power,  and  by  that  absurd  zeal  for 
uniformity,  which  kept  the  nation  in  along  ferment, 
and  at  length  burst  out  into  a  blaze,  the  fury  of  which 
was  never  thoroughly  quelled  till  the  happy  genius 
of  the  revolution  gave  birth  to  a  free  and  equitable 
toleration,  whereby  every  man  was  restored  to  the 
natural  right  of  judging  and  acting  for  himself  in 
matters  oi'  religion.  All  the  celebrated  wisdom  of 
Elizabeth's  government  could  not  devise  an  expe- 
dient so  successful.  Though  her  reign  was  long  and 
prosperous,  yet  it  was  much  stained  with  oppression 
and  cruelty  toward  many  of  her  best  subjects  ;  who, 
wearied  with  ineffectual  applications,  waited  the  ac 
cession  of  James,  from  whom  they  expected  moro 
favour,  because  he  had  been  educated  in  the  presby- 
terian  church  of  Scotland,  and  professed  a  high  ve- 
neration for  that  establishment.  But  they  soon  found 
that  he  had  changed  his  religious  principles  with  his 
climate,  and  that  nothing  was  to  be  expected  from  a 
prince  of  so  base  a  character,  but  insult  and  contempt. 
In  the  beginning  of  his  reign  a  great  number  of 
the  Puritans  removed  into  Holland,  where  they 
formed  churches  upon  their  own  principles.  But  not 
relishing  the  manners  of  the  Dutch,  after  twelve 
years  they  projected  a  removal  to  America,  and  laid 
the  foundation  of  the  colony  of  Plymouth.  The 
spirit  of  uniformity  still  prevailing  in  England,  and 
being  carried  to  the  greatest  extent,  in  the  reign  of 


408 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Charles  the  First,  by  that  furious  bigot  Archbishop 
Laud,  many  of  the  less  scrupulous,  but  conscientious 
members  of  the  church  of  England,  who  had  hitherto 
remained  in  her  communion,  seeing  no  prospect  of 
rest  or  liberty  in  their  native  country,  followed  their 
brethren  to  America,  and  established  the  colony  of 
Massachusetts,  from  which  proceeded  that  of  Con- 
necticut. 

By  such  men,  influenced  by  such  motives,  were  the 
principal  settlements  in  New  England  effected.  The 
fortitude  and  perseverance  which  they  exhibited 
therein  will  always  render  their  memory  dear  to  their 
posterity.  To  prepare  for  their  enterprize,  they  had 
to  sell  their  estates,  some  of  which  were  large  and 
valuable,  and  turn  them  into  materials  for  a  new 
plantation,  with  the  nature  of  which  they  had  no  ac- 
quaintance, and  of  which  they  could  derive  no  know- 
ledge from  the  experience  of  others.  After  traversing 
a  wide  ocean  they  found  themselves  in  a  country  full 
of  woods,  to  subdue  which  required  immense  labour 
and  patience ;  at  a  vast  distance  from  any  civilized 
people  ;  in  the  neighbourhood  of  none  but  ignorant 
and  barbarous  savages  ;  and  in  a  climate,  where  a 
winter  much  more  severe  than  they  had  been  accus- 
tomed to,  reigns  for  a  third  part  of  the  year.  Their 
stock  of  provisions  falling  short,  they  had  the  dread- 
ful apprehension  of  perishing  by  famine,  one  half  of 
their  number  dying  before  the  first  year  was  com- 
pleted ;  the  ocean  on  one  side  separated  them  from 
their  friends,  and  the  wilderness  on  the  other  pre- 
sented nothing  but  scenes  of  horror,  which  it  was 
impossible  for  them  to  conceive  before  they  endured 
them. 

But  under  all  these  difficulties,  they  maintained  a 
steady  and  pious  resolution ;  depending  on  the  pro- 
vidence of  the  Supreme  Ruler,  and  never  repenting 
the  business  on  which  they  had  come  into  this  wil- 
derness. As  purity  in  divine  administrations  was 
the  professed  object  of  their  undertaking,  so  they 
immediately  set  themselves  to  form  churches,  on  what 
they  judged  the  gospel  plan.  To  be  out  of  the  reach 
of  prelatic  tyranny,  and  at  full  liberty  to  pursue  their 
own  enquiries,  and  worship  God  according  to  their 
consciences,  (which  had  been  denied  them  in  their 
own  country)  was  esteemed  the  greatest  of  blessings, 
and  sweetened  every  bitter  cup  which  they  were 
obliged  to  drink.  They  always  professed  that  their 
principal  design  was  to  erect  churches  on  the  primi- 
tive model,  and  that  the  consideration  of  temporal 
interest  and  conveniency  had  but  the  second  place 
in  their  views. 

In  the  doctrinal  points  of  religion  they  were  of 
the  same  mind  with  their  brethren  of  the  church  of 
England,  as  expressed  in  their  articles.  The  Mas- 
sachusetts planters  left  behind  them,  when  they 
oailed,  a  respectful  declaration  importing  that  they 
did  not  consider  the  church  of  England  as  anti- 
christian,  but  only  withdrew  from  the  imposition  of 
unscriptural  terms  of  communion.  Some  of  the 
Plymouth  planters  had  embraced  the  narrow  prin- 
ciples of  the  Brownists,  the  first  who  separated  from 
the  church  of  England;  but  by  the  improvements 
which  they  made  in  religious  knowledge  under  the 
instruction  of  the  renowned  John  Robinson,  their 
pastor  in  Holland,  they  were  in  great  measure  cured 
of  that  sour  leaven.  The  congregational  system  of 
church  government  was  the  result  of  the  studies  of 
that  truly  pious,  learned,  humble,  and  benevolent 
divine,  who  seems  to  have  had  more  of  the  genuine 
spirit  of  the  reformation,  and  of  freedom  from  bigo- 
try, than  any  others  in  his  day.  His  farewell 
charge  to  those  of  his  flock,  who  were  embarking  in 


Holland  for  America,  deserves  to  be  had  in  perpetual 
remembrance.  "Brethien  (said  he),  we  are  now 
quickly  to  part  from  one  another,  and  whether  1 
may  ever  live  to  see  your  face  on  earth  any  more, 
the"  God  of  heaven  only  knows:  but  whether  the 
Lord  hath  appointed  that  or  no,  I  charge  you  be- 
fore God  and  his  blessed  angels  that  you  follow  me 
no  further  than  you  have  seen  me  follow  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  If  God  reveal  any  thing  to  you  by 
any  other  instrument  of  his,  be  as  ready  to  receive 
it,  as  ever  you  were  to  receive  any  truth  by  my 
ministry;  for  I  am  verily  persuaded,  I  am  very  con- 
fident, the  Lord  has  more  truth  yet  to  break  forth 
out  of  his  holy  word.  For  my  part,  I  cannot  suffi- 
ciently bewail  the  condition  of  the  reformed  churches, 
who  are  come  to  a  period  in  religion,  and  will  go  at 
present  no  farther  than  the  instruments  of  their  re- 
formation. The  Lutherans  cannot  be  drawn  to  go 
beyond  what  Luther  saw ;  whatever  part  of  his  will 
our  good  God  has  revealed  to  Calvin,  they  will  ra- 
ther die  than  embrace  it.  And  the  Calvinists  you 
see  stick  fast  where  they  were  left  by  that  great  man 
of  God,  who  yet  saw  riot  all  things.  This  is  a  misery 
much  to  be  lamented ;  for  though  they  were  burning 
and  shining  lights  in  their  times,  yet  they  penetrated 
not  into  the  whole  counsel  of  God;  but  were  they 
now  living,  would  be  as  willing  to  embrace  farther 
light,  as  that  which  they  at  first  received.  I  beseech 
you  to  remember  it  as  an  article  of  your  church  co- 
venant, '  That  you  be  ready  to  receive  whatever 
truth  shall  be  made  known  to  you  from  the  written 
word  of  God.'  Remember  that,  and  every  other 
article  of  your  sacred  covenant.  But  I  must  here- 
withal  exhort  you  to  take  heed  wha*  you  receive  as 
truth.  Examine,  consider,  and  compare  it  with 
other  scriptures  of  truth,  before  you  receive  it ;  for 
it  is  not  possible  the  Christian  world  should  come  so 
lately  out  of  such  thick  antichristian  darkness,  and 
that  perfection  of  knowledge  should  break  forth  at 
once."  It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  this  excel- 
lent man  did  not  live  to  reach  New  England,  and  to 
diffuse  more  generally  such  truly  catholic  and  apos- 
tolic principles. 

Many  of  the  first  planters  of  New  England  were 
peisons  of  good  education,  and  some  of  them  emi- 
nent for  their  abilities  and  learning.  Such  men 
could  not  but  see  the  necessity  of  securing  to  their 
posterity  the  advantages  which  they  had  so  dearly 
purchased.  One  of  their  first  concerns  was  to  have 
their  children  considered,  from  their  earliest  years, 
as  subjects  of  ecclesiastical  discipline.  This  became 
a  matter  of  controversy,  and  was  largely  discussed 
in  sermons  and  pamphlets,  and  at  length  determined 
by  the  authority  of  a  synod.  A  regular  course  of 
academical  learning  was  a  point  of  equal  importance, 
and  admitted  of  no  dispute.  They  saw  that  the  re- 
putation and  happiness  of  the  whole  country  de- 
pended greatly  upon  it.  They  therefore  took  early 
care  for  the  establishment  of  schools,  and  within 
ten  years  from  their  first  settlement,  founded  a  college 
at  Cambridge,  which  from  small  beginnings,  by  the 
munificence  of  its  patrons,  has  made  a  distinguished 
figure  in  the  republic  of  letters.  Many  eminent  men 
have  there  been  formed  for  the  service  of  the  church 
and  state :  and  without  this  advantage  the  country 
could  not  have  arrived,  in  so  short  a  time,  at  its  pre- 
sent respectable  state;  nor  have  been  furnished  with 
men  capable  of  filling  the  various  stations  of  useful- 
ness, and  of  defending  civil  and  religious  liberty. 

Though  the  first  planters  derived  from  the  royal 
grants  and  charters  a  political  right,  as  subjects"  of 
the  crown  of  England,  to  this  territory;  yet  they 


UNITED  STATES. 


400 


did  not  think  themselves  justly  entitled  to  the  pro- 
perty of  it  till  they  had  fairly  purchased  it  of  its 
native  lords,  and  made  them  full  satisfaction.  Nor  did 
they  content  themselves  with  merely  living  peaceably 
among  them,  but  exerted  themselves  vigorously  in 
endeavouring  their  conversion  to  Christianity,  which 
was  one  of  the  obligations  of  their  patent,  and  one 
of  the  professed  designs  of  their  settlement  m  this 
country.  This  duty  was  strictly  performed,  and 
the  names  of  Eliot  and  Mayhew  will  always  be 
remembered  as  unwearied  instruments  in  promo- 
ting it.  Great  care  was  taken  by  the  govern- 
ment to  prevent  fraud  and  injustice  toward  the  In- 
dians in  trade,  or  violence  to  their  persons.  The 
nearest  of  the  natives  were  so  sensible  of  the  justice 
of  their  English  neighbours,  that  they  lived  in  a 
state  of  peace  with  them,  with  but  little  interruption, 
for  above  fifty  years. 

Slavery  was  thought  so  inconsistent  with  the  na- 
tural rights  of  mankind,  and  detrimental  to  society, 
that  an  express  law  was  made,  prohibiting  the  buy- 
ing or  selling  of  slaves,  except  those  taken  in  lawful 
war,  or  reduced  to  servitude  for  their  crimes  by  a 
judicial  sentence ;  and  these  were  to  have  the  same 
privileges  as  were  allowed  by  the  laws  of  Moses. 
There  was  a  remarkable  instance  of  justice  in  the 
execution  of  this  law,  in  1645,  when  a  Negro  who 
had  been  fraudulently  brought  from  the  coast  of 
Africa,  and  sold  in  the  country,  was  by  the  special 
interposition  of  the  general  court  taken  from  his 
master  in  order  to  be  sent  home  to  his  native  land. 
How  long  after  this  the  importation  of  blacks  con- 
tinued to  be  disallowed  is  uncertain ;  but  if  the  same 
resolute  justice  had  always  been  observed,  it  would 
have  been  much  for  the  credit  and  interest  of  the 
country;  and  their  own  struggles  for  liberty  would 
not  have  carried  so  flagrant  an  appearance  of  incon- 
sistency. 

Severe  laws  conformable  to  the  principles  of  the 
laws  of  Moses  were  enacted  against  all  kinds  of  im- 
morality. Blasphemy,  idolatry,  adultery,  unnatural 
lusts,  rape,  murder,  manstealing,  false  witness,  re- 
bellion against  parents,  and  conspiracy  against  the 
commonwealth,  were  made  capital  crimes;  and  be- 
cause some  doubted  whether  the  magistrate  could 
punish  breaches  of  the  four  first  commands  of  the 
decalogue,  this  right  was  asserted  in  the  highest 
tone,  and  the  denial  of  it  ranked  among  the  most 
pestilent  heresies,  and  punished  with  banishment. 
By  the  severity  and  impartiality  with  which  those 
laws  were  executed,  intemperance  and  profaneness 
were  so  effectually  discountenanced  that  Hugh  Peters, 
who  had  resided  in  the  country  twenty  years,  de- 
clared before  the  parliament  that  he  had  not  seen  a 
drunken  man,  nor  heard  a  profane  oath  during  that 
period.  The  report  of  this  extraordinary  strictness, 
while  it  invited  many  of  the  best  men  in  England 
to  come  over,  kept  them  clear  of  those  wretches  who 
fly  from  one  country  to  another  to  escape  the  pu- 
nishment of  their  crimes. 

The  professed  design  of  the  plantation  being  the 
advancement  of  religion,  and  men  of  the  strictest 
morals  being  appointed  to  the  chief  places  of  go- 
vernment, their  zeal  for  purity  of  every  kind  carried 
them  into  some  refinements  in  their  laws,  which  are 
not  generally  supposed  to  come  within  the  sphere  of  the 
magistracy,  and  in  larger  communities  could  scarcely 
be  attended  to  in  a  judicial  way.  The  drinking  of 
healths,  and  the  use  of  tobacco,  were  forbidden,  the 
former  being  considered  as  an  heathenish  and  ido- 
latrous practice,  grounded  on  the  ancient  libations ; 
the  other  as  a.  species  of  intoxication  and  waste  of 


time.  Laws  were  instituted  to  regulate  the  inter- 
course between  the  sexes,  and  the  advances  toward 
matrimony :  they  had  a  ceremony  of  betrothing, 
which  preceded  that  of  marriage.  Pride  and  levity 
of  behaviour  came  under  the  cognizance  of  the  ma- 
gistrate. Not  only  the  richness  but  the  mode  of 
dress,  and  cut  of  the  hair,  were  subject  to  state  re- 
gulations. Women  were  forbidden  to  expose  their 
arms  or  bosoms  to  view ;  it  was  ordered  that  their 
sleeves  should  reach  down  to  their  wrist,  and  their 
gowns  be  closed  round  their  neck.  Men  were  obliged 
to  cut  short  their  hair,  that  they  might  not  resemble 
women.  No  person  not  worth  two  hundred  pounds 
was  allowed  to  wear  gold  or  silver  lace,  or  silk  hoods 
and  scarfs.  Offences  against  these  laws  were  pre- 
sentable by  the  grand  jury ;  and  those  who  dressed 
above  their  rank  were  to  be  assessed  accordingly. 
Sumptuary  laws  might  be  of  use  in  the  beginning 
of  a  new  plantation;  but  these  pious  rulers  had 
more  in  view  than  the  political  good.  They  were 
not  only  concerned  for  the  external  appearance  of 
sobriety  and  good  order,  but  thought  themselves 
obliged,  so  far  as  they  were  able,  to  promote  real 
religion,  and  enforce  the  observance  of  the  divino 
precepts. 

As  they  were  fond  of  imagining  a  near  resem- 
blance between  the  circumstances  of  their  settlement 
in  this  country,  and  the  redemption  of  Israel  from 
Egypt  or  Babylon  ;  it  is  not  strange  that  they  should 
also  look  upon  their  "  commonwealth  as  an  institu- 
tion of  God  for  the  preservation  of  their  churches, 
and  the  civil  rulers  as  both  members  and  fathers  of 
them."  The  famous  John  Cotton,  the  first  minister 
in  Boston,  was  the  chief  promoter  of  this  sentiment. 
When  he  arrived  in  1633,  he  found  the  people  di- 
vided in  their  opinions.  Some  had  been  admitted  to 
the  privileges  of  freemen  at  the  first  general  court, 
who  were  not  in  communion  with  the  churches ; 
after  this  an  order  was  passed,  that  none  but  mem- 
bers of  the  churches  should  be  admitted  freemen ; 
whereby  all  other  persons  were  excluded  from  every 
office  or  privilege,  civil  or  military.  This  great 
man,  by  his  eloquence,  confirmed  those  who  had 
embraced  this  opinion,  and  earnestly  pleaded  "  that 
the  government  might  be  considered  as  a  theocracy, 
wherein  the  Lord  was  judge,  lawgiver,  and  king ; 
that  the  laws  which  he  gave  Israel  might  be  adopted, 
so  far  as  they  were  of  moral  and  perpetual  equity  ; 
that  the  people  might  be  considered  as  God's  people 
in  covenant  with  him;  that  none  but  persons  of 
approved  piety  and  eminent  gifts  should  be  chosen 
rulers ;  that  the  ministers  should  be  consulted  in  all 
matters  of  religion ;  and  that  the  magistrate  .should 
have  a  superintending  and  coercive  power  over  the 
churches."  At  the  desire  of  the  court,  he  compiled 
a  system  of  laws,  founded  chiefly  on  the  laws  of 
Moses,  which  was  considered  by  the  legislative-  body 
as  the  general  standard  ;  though  they  never  formal- 
ly adopted  it,  and  in  some  instances  varied  from  it. 

These  principles  were  fundamentally  the  same 
with  those  on  which  were  grounded  all  the  persecu- 
tions which  they  had  endured  in  England,  and  na- 
turally led  to  the  same  extremes  of  conduct  which 
they  had  so  bitterly  complained  of  in  those  civil  and 
ecclesiastical  rulers,  from  whose  tyranny  they  had 
fled  into  this  wilderness.  They  had  already  pro- 
ceeded a  step  farther  than  the  hierarchy  had  ever 
attempted.  No  test-law  had  as  yet  taken  place  in 
England ;  but  they  had  at  one  blow  cut  off  all  but 
those  of  their  own  communion  from  the  privileges 
of  civil  offices,  however  otherwise  qualified.  They 
thought  that  as  they  had  suffered  so  much  in  laying 


410 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  foundation  of  a  new  state,  which  was  supposed  I  judge  of  what  is  agreeable  or  contrary  to  the  gospel  ? 
to  be  "  a  model  of  the  glorious  kingdom  of  Christ    If  the  magistrate,  then  there  is  only  a  liberty  to  be* 


on  earth,"  they  had  an  exclusive  right  to  all  the 
honours  and  privileges  of  it ;  and  having  the  power 
in  their  hands,  they  effectually  established  their 
pretensions,  and  made  all  dissenters  and  disturbers 
feel  the  weight  of  their  indignation. 

In  consequence  of  the  union  thus  formed  between 
the  church  and  state  on  the  plan  of  the  Jewish  theo- 
cracy, the  ministers  were  called  to  sit  in  council, 
and  give  their  advice  in  matters  of  religion  and  cases 
of  conscience  which  came  before  the  court,  and 
without  them  they  never  proceeded  to  any  act  of  an 
ecclesiastical  nature.  As  none  were  allowed  to  vote 
in  the  election  of  rulers  but  freemen,  and  freemen 
must  be  church  members;  and  as  none  could  be 
admitted  into  the  church  but  by  the  elders,  who  first 
examined,  and  then  propounded  them  to  the  breth- 
ren for  their  vote,  the  clergy  acquired  hereby  a  vast 
ascendency  over  both  rulers  and  people,  and  had  in 
effect  the  keys  of  the  state  as  well  as  the  church  in 
their  hands.  The  magistrates,  on  the  other  hand, 
regulated  the  gathering  of  churches,  interposed  in 
the  settlement  and  dismission  of  ministers,  arbitrated 
in  ecclesiastical  controversies,  and  controled  syno- 
dical  assemblies.  This  coercive  power  in  the  ma- 
gistrate was  deemed  absolutely  necessary  to  preserve 
"  the  order  of  the  gospel." 

The  principle  on  which  this  power  is  grounded  is 
expressed  in  the  Cambridge  Platform  in  terms  as 
mild  as  possible.  "  The  power  and  authority  of 
magistrates  is  not  for  the  restraining  of  churches, 
or  any  other  good  works,  but  for  the  helping  in  and 
furthering  thereof,  and  therefore  the  consent  and 
countenance  of  magistrates,  when  it  may  be  had,  is 
not  to  be  slighted  or  lightly  esteemed ;  but,  on  the 
contrary,  it  is  a  part  of  the  honour  due  to  Christian 
magistrates  to  desire  and  crave  their  consent  and 
approbation  therein:  which  being  obtained,  the 
churches  may  then  proceed  in  their  way  with  much 
more  encouragement  and  comfort."  This  article 
(like  many  others  in  that  work)  is  curiously  and 
artfully  drawn  up,  so  that  there  is  an  appearance  of 
liberty  and  tenderness,  but  none  in  reality :  for  al- 
though the  magistrate  was  not  to  restrain  any  good 
•works,  yet  he  was  to  be  the  judge  of  the  good  or  evil 
of  the  works  to  be  restrained;  and  what  security 
could  churches  have  that  they  should  not  be  re- 
strained in  the  performance  of  what  they  judged  to 
be  good  works  ?  They  might  indeed  think  them- 
selves safe,  while  their  rulers  were  so  zealous  for 
the  purity  of  the  churches  of  which  themselves  were 
members,  and  while  their  ministers  were  consulted 
in  all  ecclesiastical  affairs ;  but  if  the  civil  powers 
had  acted  without  such  consultation,  or  if  the  mi- 
nisters had  been  induced  to  yield  to  the  opinion  of 
the  magistrates,  when  contrary  to  the  interest  of  the 
churches,  what  then  would  have  become  of  religious 
liberty  ? 

The  idea  of  liberty  in  matters  of  religion  was  in 
that  day  strangely  understood,  and  mysteriously  ex- 
pressed. The  venerable  Higginson  of  Salem,  in  his 
sermon  on  the  day  of  the  election  1663,  speaks  thus  : 
"  The  gospel  of  Christ  hath  a  right  paramount  all 
rights  in  the  world ;  it  hath  a  divine  and  supreme 
right  to  be  received  in  every  nation,  and  the  knee  of 
magistracy  is  to  bow  at  the  name  of  Jesus.  This 
right  carries  liberty  along  with  it,  for  all  such  as  pro- 
fess the  gospel,  to  walk  according  to  the  faith  and 
order  of  the  gospel.  That  which  is  contrary  to  the 
gospel  hath  no  right,  and  therefore  should  have  no 
liberty."  Here  the  question  arises,  who  is  to  be  the 


only  a  liberty 

lieve  and  practice  what  the  magistrate  thinks  right. 
A  similar  sentiment  occurs  in  the  sermon  of  the 
learned  President  Oakes  on  the  same  occasion  in 
1673;  "  The  outcry  of  some  is  for  liberty  of  con- 


science, 
this  age. 


This  is  the 
But  remem 


great  Diana  of  the  libertines  of 
iber,  that  as  long  as  vou  have 


liberty  to  walk  in  the  faith  and  order  of  the  gospel, 
and  may  lead  quiet  and  peaceable  lives  in  all  godli- 
ness and  honesty,  you  have  as  much  liberty  of  con- 
science as  Paul  desired  under  any  government." 
Here  the  question  recurs,  would  Paul  have  submitted 
to  walk  according  to  the  opinion  which  the  magis- 
trate might  entertain  of  the  faith  and  order  of  the 
gospel  ?  But  this  was  all  the  freedom  allowed  by  the 
spirit  of  these  times.  Liberty  of  conscience  and  to- 
leration were  offensive  terms,  and  they  who  used 
them  were  supposed  to  be  the  enemies  of  religion  and 
government.  "  I  look  upon  toleration  (says  the 
same  author)  as  the  first  born  of  all  abominations  ; 
if  it  should  be  born  and  brought  forth  among  us,  you 
may  call  it  Gad,  and  give  the  same  reason  that  Leah 
did  for  the  name  of  her  sou,  Behold  a  troop  cometh, 
a  troop  of  all  manner  of  abominations."  In  another 
of  these  election  sermons,  (which  may  generally  be 
accounted  the  echo  of  the  public  voice,  or  the  politi- 
cal pulse  by  which  the  popular  opinion  may  be  felt) 
it  is  shrewdly  intimated  that  toleration  had  its  origin 
from  the  devil,  and  the  speech  of  the  demoniac  who 
cried  out,  "  what  have  we  to  do  with  thee,  let  us 
alone,  thou  Jesus  of  Nazareth,"  is  styled  "  Sa'an's 
plea  for  toleration."  The  following  admonition  to 
posterity,  written  by  the  Deputy-Governor  Dudley, 
is  another  specimen  : 

"  Let  men  of  God  in  courts  and  churches  watch 
O'er  such  as  do  a  toleration  hatch ; 
Lest  that  ill  egg  bring  forth  a  cockatrice, 
To  poison  all  with  heresy  and  vice. 
If  men  be  left  and  otherwise  combine, 
My  epitaph's  I  die  no  libertine." 

The  champion  of  these  sentiments  was  Cotton, 
who  though  eminently  meek,  placid  and  charitable, 
yet  was  strongly  tinctured  with  the  prevailing  opinion, 
that  the  magistrate  had  a  coercive  power  against 
heretics.  The  banishment  of  Roger  Williams,  mi- 
nister of  Salem,  occasioned  a  vehement  controversy 
on  this  point.  Williams  having  written  in  favour 
of  liberty  of  conscience,  and  styled  the  opposite  prin- 
ciple "  the  bloody  tenet ;"  was  answered  by  Cotton, 
who  published  a  treatise  in  1647,  with  this  strange 
title,  "  The  bloody  tenet  washed,  and  made  white 
in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb."  In  this  work  he  labours 
to  prove  the  lawfulness  of  the  magistrate's  using  the 
civil  sword  to  extirpate  heretics,  from  the  commands 
given  to  the  Jews  to  put  to  death  all  blasphemers  and 
idolaters.  To  the  objection,  that  persecution  serves 
to  make  men  hypocrites,  he  says,  "  better  tolerate 
hypocrites  and  tares  than  briars  and  thorns.  In 
such  cases  the  civil  sword  doth  not  so  much  attend 
the  conversion  of  seducers,  as  the  preventing  the 
seduction  of  honest  minds  by  their  means."  He  al- 
lows indeed  that  "  the  magistrate  ought  not  to  draw 
the  sword  against  seducers  till  he  have  used  all  good 
means  for  their  conviction  :  but  if  after  their  con- 
tinuance in  obstinate  rebellion  against  the  light,  he 
shall  still  walk  toward  them  in  soft  and  gentle  com- 
miseiation,  his  softness  and  gentleness  is  excessive 
large  to  foxes  and  wolves ;  but  his  bowels  are  miser- 
ably straitened  and  hardened  against  the  poor  sheep 
and  lambs  of  Christ.  Nor  is  it  frustrating  the  end 


UNITED  STATES. 


411 


of  Christ's  coming,  which  was  to  save  souls,  but  a 
direct  advancing  it,  to  destroy,  if  need  be,  the  bodies 
of  those  wolves,  who  seek  to  destroy  the  souls  of 
those  for  whom  Christ  died."  In  pursuing  his  argu- 
ment he  refines  so  far  as  to  deny  that  any  man  is 
to  be  persecuted  on  account  of  conscience  "  till,  being 
convinced  in  his  conscience  of  his  wickedness,  he  do 
stand  out  therein,  not  only  against  the  truth,  but 
against  the  light  of  his  own  conscience,  that  so  it 
may  appear  he  is  not  persecuted  for  cause  of  con- 
science, but  punished  for  sinning  against  his  own 
conscience."  To  which  he  adds,  "  sometimes  it  may 
be  an  aggravation  of  siu  both  in  judgment  and  prac- 
tice that  a  man  committeth  it  in  conscience."  After 
having  said  that  it  was  toleration  which  made  the 
world  antichristian,  he  concludes  his  book  with  this 
singular  ejaculation,  "  the  Lord  keep  us  from  being 
bewitcheu  with  tlie  whore's  cup,  lest  while  we  seem 
to  reject  her  with  open  i'ace  of  profession,  we  bring 
her  in  hy  a  back  door  of  toleration ;  and  so  come  to 
drink  deeply  of  the  cup  of  the  Lord's  wrath,  and  be 
filled  with  her  plagues." 

But  the  strangest  language  that  ever  was  used  on 
this  or  perhaps  on  any  other  subject,  is  to  be  found 
in  a  book  printed  in  1645,  by  the  humorous  Ward  of 
Ipswich,  entitled,  "  the  Simple  Cobler  of  Agawam." 
"  My  heart  (says  he)  hath  naturally  detested  four 
things ;  the  standing  of  the  Apocrypha  in  the  Bible  : 
foreigners  dwelling  in  my  country,  to  crowd  out  na- 
tive subjects  into  the  corners  of  the  earth :  alchy- 
inized  coins  :  toleration  of  divers  religions  or  of  one 
religion  in  segregant  shapes.  He  that  willingly 
assents  to  the  last,  if  he  examines  his  heart  by  day- 
light, his  conscience  will  tell  him,  he  is  either  an 
atheist,  or  an  heretic,  or  an  hypocrite,  or  at  best  a 
captive  to  some  lust.  Polypiety  is  the  greatest  im- 
piety in  the  world.  To  authorize  an  untruth  by 
toleration  of  the  state,  is  to  build  a  sconce  against 
the  walls  of  heaven,  to  batter  God  out  of  his  chair. 
Persecution  of  true  religion  and  toleration  of  false 
are  the  Jannes  and  Jambres  to  the  kingdom  of  Christ, 
whereof  the  last  is  by  far  the  worst.  He  that  is  will- 
ing to  tolerate  any  unsound  opinion,  that  his  own 
may  be  tolerated  though  never  so  sound,  will  for  a 
need,  hang  God's  bible  at  the  devil's  girdle.  It  is 
said  that  men  ought  to  have  liberty  of  conscience, 
and  that  it  is  persecution  to  debar  them  of  it :  I  can 
rather  stand  amazed  than  reply  to  this ;  it  is  an 
astonishment  that  the  brains  of  men  should  be  par- 
boiled in  such  impious  ignorance." 

From  these  specimens  (of  which  the  reader  will 
think  he  has  had  enough),  it  is  easy  to  see  how 
deeply  the  principle  of  intolerancy  was  rooted  in  the 
minds  of  the  first  settlers.  Had  it  stood  only  in  their 
books  as  a  subject  of  speculation,  it  might  have  been 
excused,  considering  the  prejudices  of  the  times 
but  it  was  drawn  out  into  fatal  practice,  and  caused 
severe  persecutions,  which  cannot,  be  justified  con 
sistently  with  Christianity  or  true  policy.  What 
ever  may  be  said  in  favour  of  their  proceedings 
against  the  Antinomians,  whose  principles  had  such 
an  effect  on  the  minds  of  the  people  as  materially 
affected  the  foundations  of  government,  in  the  in- 
fancy of  the  plantation ;  yet  the  Anabaptists  and 
Quakers  were  so  inconsiderable  for  numbers,  and  th 
colony  was  then  so  well  established,  that  no  dangei 
could  have  been  rationally  apprehended  to  the  com- 
monwealth from  them.  Rhode  Island  was  settlec 
by  some  of  the  Antinomian  exiles  on  a  plan  of  en 
tire  religious  liberty :  men  of  every  denomination 
being  equally  protected  and  countenanced,  and  en 
joying  the  honours  and  offices  of  government.  The 


Anabaptists,  fined  and  banished,  flocked  to  that  new 
settlement,  and  many  of  the  Quakers  also  took  re- 
fuge there ;  so  that  Rhode  Island  was  in  those  days 
"ooked  upon  as  the  drain  or  sink  of  New  England : 
ind  it  has  been  said  that  "if  any  man  had  lost  his 
•eligion,  he  might  have  found  it  there,  among  such 
i  general  muster  of  opinionists."  Notwithstanding 
his  invective,  it  is  much  to  the  honour  of  that  go- 
vernment, that  there  never  was  an  instance  of  per- 
secution for  conscience  sake  countenanced  by  them. 
Rhode  IslariM  and  Pennsylvania  afford  a  strong 
proof  that  toleration  conduces  greatly  to  the  settle- 
ment and  increase  of  an  infant  plantation. 

The  Quakers  at  first  were  banished;  but  this  pro- 
ing  insufficient,  a  succession  of  sanguinary  laws 
were  enacted  against  them,  of  which  imprisonment, 
whipping,  cutting  off  the  ears,  boring  the  tongue  with 
an  hot  iron,  and  banishment  on  pain  of  death,  were 
the  terrible  punishments.  In  consequence  of  these 
laws  four  persons  were  put  to  death  at  Boston,  bear- 
'ug  their  punishment  with  patience  and  fortitude; 
solemnly  protesting  that  their  return  from  banish- 
ment was  by  divine  direction,  to  warn  the  magis- 
trates of  their  errors,  and  intreat  them  to  repeal 
their  cruel  laws;  denouncing  the  judgments  of  God 
upon  them;  and  foretelling  that  if  they  should  put 
them  to  death,  others  would  rise  up  in  their  room  to 
fill  their  hands  with  work.  After  the  execution  of 
the  fourth  person,  an  order  from  King  Charles  the 
Second,  procured  by  their  friends  in  England,  put 
a  stop  to  capital  executions. 

Impartiality  will  not  suffer  a  veil  to  be  drawn 
over  these  disgraceful  transactions.  The  utmost 
that  has  been  pleaded  in  favour  of  them,  cannot  ex- 
cuse them  in  the  eye  of  reason  and  justice.  The 
Quakers,  it  is  said,  were  heretics;  their  principles 
appeared  to  be  subversive  of  the  gospel,  and  deroga- 
tory from  the  honour  of  the  Redeemer.  Argument 
and  scripture  were  in  this  case  the  proper  weapons 
to  combat  them  with;  and  if  these  had  failed  of  suc- 
cess, they  must  have  been  left  to  the  judgment  of 
an  omniscient  and  merciful  God.  They  were  com- 
plained of  as  disturbers  of  the  peace,  revilers  of  ma- 
gistracy, ''malignant  and  assiduous  promoters  of  doc- 
trines directly  tending  to  subvert  both  church  and 
state;"  and  the  settlers  thought  it  hard,  when  they 
had  fled  from  opposition  and  persecution  in  one 
shape  to  be  again  troubled  with  it  in  another.  But 
it  would  have  been  more  to  their  honour,  to  have 
suffered  their  magistracy  and  church  order  to  be  in- 
sulted, than  to  have  stained  their  hands  with  the 
blood  of  men  who  deserved  pity  rather  than  punish- 
ment. The  Quakers  indeed  had  no  right  to  disturb 
them;  and  some  of  their  conduct  was  to  an  high 
degree  indecent  and  provoking;  but  they  were  un- 
der the  influence  of  a  spirit  which  is  not  easily 
quelled  by  opposition.  Had  not  the  government 
appeared  to  be  jealous  of  their  principles,  and  pro- 
hibited the  reading  of  their  books  before  any  of  them 
appeared  in  person,  there  could  not  have  been  so 
plausible  a  pretext  for  their  reviling  government. 
It  was  said  that  the  laws  by  which  they  were  con- 
demned were  grounded  on  the  laws  in  England 
against  Jesuits.  But  the  case  was  by  no  means 
parallel  (as  the  Quakers  pleaded),  their  principles 
and  practices  not  being  equally  detrimental  to  so- 
ciety. It  was  moreover  urged  in  excuse  of  the  se- 
verities exercised  against  the  Quakers,  that  the  ma- 
gistrates thought  themselves  "  bound  in  conscience 
to  keep  the  passage  with  the  point  of  the  sword : 
this  (it  was  said)  could  do  no  harm  to  him  that  could 
be  warned  by  it;  their  rushing  on  it  was  their  own 


412 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


act,  and  they  brought  the  blood  on  their  own  heads. 
Had  they  promised  to  depart  the  jurisdiction  and 
not  return  without  leave,  the  country  would  have 
been  glad  to  have  rid  themselves  of  the  trouble  of 
executing  the  laws  upon  them;  it  was  their  pre- 
sumptuous returning  after  banishment  that  caused 
them  to  be  put  to  death."  This  was  the  plea  which 
the  court  used  in  their  address  to  the  king;  and  in 
another  vindication  published  by  their  order,  the  un- 
happy sufferers  are  styled  "  fclones  de  se,"  or  self- 
murderers.  But  this  will  not  justify  the  putting 
them  to  death,  unless  the  original  crimes  for  which 
they  were  banished  had  deserved  it.  The  preamble 
to  the  act  by  which  they  were  condemned,  charges 
them  with  "  altering  the  received  laudable  custom 
of  giving  respect  to  equals  and  reverence  to  supe- 
riors ;  that  their  actions  tend  to  undermine  the  civil 
government  and  destroy  the  order  of  the  churches, 
by  denying  all  established  forms  of  worship,  by 
withdrawing  from  orderly  church  fellowship  allowed 
and  approved  by  all  orthodox  professors  of  the  truth, 
and  instead  thereof,  and  in  opposition  thereto,  fre- 
quently meeting  themselves,  insinuating  themselves 
into  the  minds  of  the  simple,  whereby  divers  of  our 
inhabitants  have  been  infected."  Did  these  offences 
deserve  death  ?  Had  any  government  a  right  to 
terrify  with  capital  laws  persons  guilty  of  no  other 
crimes  than  these — especially  when  they  professed 
that  they  were  obliged  to  go  the  greatest  lengths  in 
maintaining  those  tenets  which  they  judged  sacred, 
and  following  the  dictates  of  that  spirit  which  they 
thought  divine  ?  Was  not  the  mere  "  holding  the 
point  of  the  sword  "  to  them,  really  inviting  them  to 
"  rush  on  it,"  and  seal  their  testimony  with  their 
blood  ?  And  was  not  this  the  most  likely  way  to 
strengthen  and  increase  their  party  ?  Such  punish- 
ment for  offences  which  proceeded  from  a  misguided 
zeal,  increased  and  inflamed  by  opposition,  will 
never  reflect  any  honour  on  the  policy  or  modera- 
tion of  the  government ;  and  can  be  accounted  for 
only  by  the  strong  predilection  for  coercive  power  in 
religion,  retained  by  most  or  all  of  the  reformed 
churches;  a  prejudice  which  time  and  experience 
were  necessary  to  remove. 

The  mistakes  on  which  their  conduct  was  grounded 
cannot  be  detected  in  a  more  masterly  manner,  than 
by  transcribing  the  sentiments  of  Doctor  Increase 
Mather,  who  lived  in  those  times,  and  was  a  strong 
advocate  for  the  coercive  power  of  the  magistrate  in 
matters  of  religion ;  but  afterward  changed  his  opin- 
ion on  this  point : — "He  became  sensible  that  the 
example  of  the  Israelitish  reformers  inflicting  penal- 
ties on  false  worshippers,  would  not  legitimate  the 
like  proceedings  among  Christian  gentiles:  for  the 
holy  land  of  old  was,  by  a  deed  of  gift  from  the  glo- 
rious God,  miraculously  and  indisputably  granted  to 
the  Israelitish  nation,  and  the  condition  on  which 
they  had  it  was  their  observance  of  the  Mosaic  in- 
stitutions. To  violate  them  was  high  treason  against 
the  king  of  the  theocracy,  an  iniquity  to  be  punished 
by  the  judge.  At  the  same  time  sojourners  in  the 
land  were  not  compelled  to  the  keeping  those  rites 
and  laws  which  Moses  had  given  to  the  people.  Nay 
the  Israelites  themselves  tell,  many  of  them,  into 
the  worst  of  heresies,  yet  while  they  kept  the  laws 
and  rites  of  Moses,  the  magistrate  would  not  meddle 
with  them.  The  heresy  of  the  Sadducees  in  par- 
ticular struck  at  the  foundation  of  all  religion ;  yet 
we  do  not  find  that  our  Saviour  ever  blamed  the 
Pharisees  for  not  persecuting  them.  The  Christian 
religion  brings  us  not  into  a  temporal  Canaan,  it 
knows  no  weapons  but  what  are  purely  spiritual.  He 


saw  that  until  persecution  be  utterly  banished  out 
of  the  world,  and  Cain's  club  taken  out  of  Abel's 
hand,  'tis  impossible  to  rescue  the  world  from  end- 
less confusions.  He  that  has  the  power  of  the  sword 
will  always  be  in  the  right,  and  always  assume  the 
power  of  persecuting.  In  his  latter  times  there- 
fore he  looked  upon  it  as  one  of  the  most  hopeful 
among  the  signs  of  the  times,  the  people  began  to 
be  ashamed  of  a  practice  which  had  been  a  mother 
of  abominations,  and  he  came  entirely  into  that 
golden  maxim,  Errantis  pottna  doceri" 

Divers  others  of  the  principal  actors  and  abettors 
of  this  tragedy  lived  to  see  the  folly  and  incompe- 
tency  of  such  sanguinary  laws,  to  which  the  suffer- 
ings of  their  brethren,  the  nonconformists  in  Eng- 
land, did  not  a  little  contribute.  Und^r  the  arbitrary 
government  of  King  James  the  Second,  when  he7 
for  a  shew  of  liberty,  and  as  a  leading  step  to  the 
introduction  of  popery,  issued  a  proclamation  of  in- 
dulgence to  tender  consciences,  the  principal  men 
of  the  country  sent  him  an  address  of  thanks,  for 
granting  them  what  they  had  formerly  denied  to 
others. — It  is  but  justice  to  add,  that  all  those  dis- 
graceful laws  we're  renounced  and  repealed,  and  the 
people  of  New  England  are  now  as  candidly  disposed 
toward  the  Quakers  as  any  other  denominations  of 
Christians.  To  keep  alive  a  spirit  of  resentment 
and  reproach  to  the  country,  on  account  of  those 
ancient  transactions  which  arc  now  universally  con- 
demned, would  discover  a  temper  not  very  consist- 
ent with  that  meekness  and  forgiveness  which  ought 
to  be  cultivated  by  all  who  profess  to  be  influenced 
by  the  gospel. 

But  though  the  early  colonists  are  justly  censurable 
for  those  instances  of  misconduct,  yet  they  are  not 
to  be  condemned  as  unworthy  the  Christian  name ; 
since  some  of  the  first  disciples  of  our  Lord,  in  a 
zealous  imitation  of  the  prophet  Elias,  would  have 
called  for  fire  from  heaven  to  consume  a  village  of 
the  Samaritans  who  refused  to  receive  him.  Their 
zeal  was  of  the  same  kind;  and  the  answer  which 
the  benevolent  author  of  our  religion  gave  to  his 
disciples  on  that  occasion,  might,  with  equal  pro- 
priety, be  addressed  to  them,  and  to  all  persecuting 
Christians,  "  Ye  know  not  what  spirit  ye  are  of,  for 
the  Son  of  man  is  not  come  to  destroy  men's  lives, 
but  to  save  them." 

Mode  of  Government  under  Massachusetts — Mason's 
efforts  to  recover  the  property  of  his  ancestor — 
Transactions  of  the  King's  commissioners — Ojyosi- 
tion  to  them — Political  principles — Internal  trans- 
actions— Mason  discouraged. 

(1643.)  During  the  union  of  these  plantations 
with  Massachusetts,  they  were  governed  by  the  ge- 
neral laws  of  the  colony,  and  the  terms  of  the  union 
were  strictly  observed.  Exeter  and  Hampton  were 
at  first  annexed  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  courts  at 
Ipswich,  till  the  establishment  of  a  new  county, 
which  was  called  Norfolk,  and  comprehended  Salis- 
bury, Haverhill,  Hampton,  Exeter.  Portsmouth, 
and  Dover.  These  towns  were  then  of  such  extent, 
as  to  contain  all  the  lands  between  the  rivers  Mer- 
rimack  and  Pascataqua.  The  shire  town  was  Salis- 
bury ;  but  Dover  and  Portsmouth  had  always  a  dis- 
tinct jurisdiction,  though  they  were  considered  as 
part  of  this  new  county ;  a  court  being  held  in  one 
or  the  other,  sometimes"  once  and  sometimes  twice  in 
the  year,  consisting  of  one  or  more  of  the  magis- 
trates or  assistants,  and  one  or  more  commissioners 
chosen  by  the  general  court  out  of  the  principal 
gentlemen  of  each  town.  This  was  called  the  court 


UNITED  STATES. 


413 


of  Associates ;  and  their  power  extended  to  causes 
of  twenty  pounds  value.  From  them  there  was  ail 
appeal  to  the  board  of  assistants,  which  being  found 
inconvenient,  it  was  in  1670  ordered  to  be  made  to 
the  county  court  of  Norfolk.  Causes  under  twenty- 
shillings  in  value  were  settled  in  each  town  by  an 
inferior  court,  consisting  of  three  persons.  (1647.) 
After  some  time  they  had  liberty  to  choose  their  as- 
sociates, which  was  done  by  the  votes  of  both  towns, 
opened  at  a  joint  meeting  of  their  select  men,  though 
sometimes  they  requested  the  court  to  appoint  them 
as  before.  That  mutual  confidence  between  rulers 
and  people,  which  springs  from  the  genius  of  a  re- 
publican government,  is  observable  in  all  their  trans- 
actions. 

This  extension  of  the  colony's  jurisdiction  over 
New  Hampshire,  could  not  fail  of  being  noticed  by 
the  heirs  of  Mason :  but  the  distractions  caused  by 
the  civil  wars  in  England  were  invincible  bars  to 
any  legal  enquiry.  The  first  heir  named  in  Mason's 
will  dying  in  infancy,  the  estate  descended  after  the 
death  of  the  executrix  to  Robert  Tufton,  who  was 
not  of  age  till  1650.  In  two  years  after  this,  Joseph 
Mason  came  over  as  agent  to  the  executrix,  to  look 
after  the  interest  of  her  deceased  husband.  He 
found  the  lands  at  Newichwannock  occupied  by 
Richard  Leader,  against  whom  he  brought  actions 
in  the  county  court  of  Norfolk ;  but  a  dispute  arising 
whether  the  lands  in  question  were  within  the  juris- 
diction of  Massachusetts,  and  the  court  of  Norfolk 
judging  the  action  not  to  be  within  their  cognizance, 
recourse  was  had  to  the  general  court ;  who,  on  this 
occasion,  ordered  an  accurate  survey  of  the  northern 
bounds  of  their  patent  to  be  made;  a  thing  which 
they  had  long  meditated.  A  committee  of  the 
general  court,  attended  by  Jonathan  I  nee  and  John 
Shearman,  sui'veyors,  and  several  Indian  guides, 
went  up  the  river  Merrimack  to  find  the  most  north- 
erly part  thereof,  which  the  Indians  told  them  was 
at  Aquedochtan,  the  outlet  of  the  lake  Winnipiseo- 
gee.  The  latitude  of  this  place  was  observed  to  be 
forty-three  degrees,  forty  minutes,  and  twelve  se- 
conds, to  which  three  miles  being  added,  made  the 
line  of  the  patent,  according  to  their  construction, 
fall  within  the  lake,  in  the  latitude  of  forty-three 
•Legrees,  forty-three  minutes,  and  twelve  seconds. 
(1653.)  Two  experienced  ship-masters,  Jonas  Clarke 
and  Samuel  Andrews,  were  then  dispatched  to  the 
eastern  coast,  who  found  the  same  degrees,  minutes, 
and  seconds,  on  the  northern  point  of  an  island  in 
Casco  bay,  called  the  Upper  Clapboard  Island. 
An  east  and  west  line,  drawn  through  these  points, 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  South  sea,  was  therefore 
supposed  to  be  the  northern  boundary  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts patent,  within  which  the  whole  claim  of 
Mason,  and  the  greater  part  of  that  of  Gorges,  were 
comprehended.  When  this  grand  point  was  deter- 
mined, the  court  were  of  opinion,  that  "  some  lands 
at  Newichwannock,  with  the  river,  were  by  agree- 
ment of  "  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges  and  others,  ap- 
portioned to  Captain  Mason,  and  that  he  also  had 
right  by  purchase  of  the  Indians,  as  also  by  posses- 
sion and  improvement;"  and  they  ordered  "  a 
quantity  of  land  proportionable  to  his  disbursements, 
with  the  privilege  of  the  river,  to  be  laid  out  to  his 
heirs."  The  agent  made  no  attempt  to  recover  any 
other  part  of  the  estate ;  but  having  tarried  long 
enough  in  the  country  to  observe  the  temper  of  the 
government,  and  the  management  used  in  the  de- 
termination of  his  suit,  he  returned;  and  the  estate 
was  given  up  for  lost  unless  the  government  of  Eng- 
lund  should  interpose. 


(1660.)  During  the  commonwealth,  and  the  pro- 
tectorate of  Cromwell,  there  could  be  no  hope  of 
relief,  as  the  family  had  always  been  attached  to  the 
royal  cause,  and  the  colony  stood  high  in  the  favour 
of  the  parliament  and  of  Cromwell.  But  the  resto- 
ration of  King  Charles  the  Second  encouraged 
Tufton,  who  now  took  the  surname  of  Mason,  to 
look  up  to  the  throne  for  favour  and  assistance. 
For  though  the  plan  of  colonization  adopted  by  his 
gi-andfather  was  in  itself  chimerical,  and  proved 
fruitless,  yet  he  had  expended  a  large  estate  in  the 
prosecution  of  it,  which  must  have  been  wholly  lost 
to  his  heirs,  unless  they  could  recover  the  possession 
of  his  American  territories.  Full  of  this  idea,  Ma- 
son petitioned  the  king ;  setting  forth  "  the  en- 
croachment of  the  Massachusetts  colony  upon  his 
lands,  their  making  grants  and  giving  titles  to  the 
inhabitants,  and  thereby  dispossessing  him  and  keep- 
ing him  out  of  his  right."  The  king  referred  the 
petition  to  his  attorney-general  Sir  Geoffrey  Palmer, 
who  reported  that  "  Robert  Mason,  grandson  and 
heir  to  Captain  John  Mason,  had  a  good  and  legal 
title  to  the  province  of  New  Hampshire."  Nothing 
farther  was  done  at  this  time,  nor  was  the  matter 
mentioned  in  the  letter  which  the  king  soon  after 
sent  to  the  colony,  though  some  offensive  things  in 
their  conduct  were  therein  reprehended,  and  divers 
alterations  enjoined.  But  the  directions  contained 
in  this  letter  not  being  strictly  attended  to,  and 
complaints  being  made  to  the  king  of  disputes  which 
had  arisen  in  divers  parts  of  New  England  concern- 
ing the  limits  of  jurisdiction,  and  addresses  having 
been  presented  by  several  persons,  praying  for  the 
royal  interposition ;  a  commission  was  issued  under 
the  great  seal  to  Colonel  Richard  Nichols,  Sir  Ro- 
bert Carre,  Knight,  George  Carteret,  and  Samuel 
Maverick,  Esqs.,  empowering  them  "  to  visit  the 
several  colonies  of  New  England ;  to  examine  and 
determine  all  complaints  and  appeals  in  matters, 
civil,  military,  and  criminal;  to  provide  for  the 
peace  and  security  of  the  country,  according  to 
their  good  and  sound  discretion,  and  to  such  instruc- 
tions as  they  should  receive  from  the  king,  and  to 
certify  him  of  their  proceedings." 

This  commission  was  highly  disrelished  by  the 
colony,  as  inconsistent  with  the  rights  and  privileges 
which  they  enjoyed  by  their  charter,  and  which  the 
king  had  sacredly  promised  to  confirm.  It  is  there- 
fore no  wonder  that  the  commissioners  were  treated 
with  much  coolness  at  their  arrival ;  but  they  severely 
repaid  it  in  their  report  to  the  king. 

In  their  progress  through  the  country  Ihey  came 
to  Pascataqua,  and  enquired  into  the  bounds  of  Ma- 
son's patent.  They  heard  the  allegation  of  Whele- 
wright,  who  when  banished  by  the  colony,  was  per- 
mitted to  reside  immediately  beyond  what  was  called 
the  bound-house,  which  was  three  long  miles  to  the 
northward  of  the  river  Merrimack.  They  took  the 
affidavit  of  Henry  Jocelyn  concerning  the  agreement 
between  Governor  Cradock  and  Captain  Mason,  that 
the  river  should  be  the  boundary  of  their  respective 
patents.  They  made  no  determination  of  this  con- 
troversy in  their  report  to  the  king ;  but  having  called 
together  the  inhabitants  of  Portsmouth,  Sir  Robert 
Carre,  in  the  name  of  the  rest,  told  them  that  "  they 
would  release  them  from  the  government  of  Massa- 
chusetts, whose  jurisdiction  should  come  no  farther 
than  the  bound-house."  They  then  proceeded  to 
appoint  justices  of  the  peace  and  other  officers,  with 
power  to  act  according  to  the  laws  of  England  and 
such  laws  of  their  own  as  were  not  repugnant  thereto, 
until  the  king's  pleasure  should  be  further  known. 


414 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


(1665)  There  had  always  been  a  party  who  were  dis- 
affected to  the  government  of  Massachusetts.  One 
of  the  most  active  among  them  was  Abraham  Cor- 
bett,  of  Portsmouth,  wU>,  since  the  arrival  of  the 
commissioners  at  Boston,  and  probably  by  authority 
derived  from  them,  had  taken  upon  him  to  issue 
warrants  in  the  king's  name  on  several  occasions, 
which  was  construed  a  high  misdemeanor,  as  he  had 
never  been  commissioned  by  the  authority  of  the  co- 
lony. Being  called  to  account  by  the  general  court, 
he  was  admonished,  fined  five  pounds,  and  committed 
till  the  sentence  was  performed.  Irritated  by  this 
severity,  he  was  the  fitter  instrument  for  the  purpose 
of  the  commissioners,  who  employed  him  to  frame  a 
petition  to  the  king  in  the  name  of  the  four  towns, 
complaining  of  the  usurpation  of  Massachusetts  over 
them,  and  praying  to  be  released  from  their  tyranny. 
Corbett.  in  a  secret  manner,  procured  several  per- 
sons both  in  Portsmouth  and  Dover,  to  subscribe 
this  petition,  but  the  most  of  those  to  whom  he  offered 
it  refused. 

The  sensible  part  of  the  inhabitants  now  saw  with 
much  concern  that  they  were  in  danger  of  being 
reduced  to  the  same  unhappy  state  which  they  had 
been  in  before  their  union  with  Massachusetts.  Awed 
by  the  supercilious  behaviour  of  the  commissioners, 
they  knew  not  at  first  how  to  act ;  for  to  oppose  the 
king's  authority  was  construed  treason,  and  it  was 
said  that  Sir  Robert  Carre  had  threatened  a  poor  old 
man  with  death  for  no  other  crime  than  forbidding 
his  grandchild  to  open  a  door  to  them.  But  when 
the  rumour  was  spread  that  a  petition  was  drawn, 
and  that  Corbett  was  procuring  subscribers,  the 
people,  no  longer  able  to  bear  the  abuse,  earnestly 
applied  to  the  general  court,  praying  "  that  in  some 
orderly  way  they  might  have  an  opportunity  to  clear 
themselves  of  so  great  and  unjust  aspersions  as  were, 
by  this  petition  drawn  in  their  name,  cast  upon  the 
government  under  which  they  were  settled ;  and  also 
to  manifest  their  sense  of  such  perfidious  actions,  lest 
by  their  silence  it  should  be  concluded  they  were  of 
the  same  mind  with  those  who  framed  the  petition." 
In  consequence  of  this  petition  the  court  commis- 
sioned Thomas  Danforth,  Eleazar  Lusher,  and  Major 
General  Leverett,  to  enquire  into  the  matter,  and 
settle  the  peace  in  these  places  according  to  their 
best  discretion. 

These  gentlemen  came  to  Portsmouth,  and  having 
assembled  the  inhabitants,  and  published  their  com- 
mission, they  told  them  that  they  were  informed  of 
a  petition  subscribed  in  behalf  of  that  and  the  neigh- 
bouring towns,  complaining  of  the  government ;  and 
desiring  them  if  they  had  any  just  grievances  to  let 
them  be  known,  and  report  should  be  immediately 
made  to  the  general  court.  The  next  day  they  as- 
sembled the  people  of  Dover  and  made  the  same 
challenge.  Both  towns  respectively  protested  against 
the  petition,  and  professed  full  satisfaction  with  the 
government,  which  they  signified  in  addresses  to  the 
court.  Dudley,  the  minister  of  Exeter,  certified 
under  his  hand  to  the  committee,  that  the  people  of 
that  town  had  no  concern  directly  nor  indirectly 
with  the  obnoxious  petition.  They  received  also  full 
satisfaction  with  regard  to  Hampton  ;  a  certificate 
of  which  might  have  been  obtained,  if  they  had 
thought  it  necessary. 

They  then  proceeded  to  summon  Corbett  before 
them  for  seditious  behaviour;  but  he  eluded  the 
search  that  was  made  for  him,  and  they  were  obliged 
to  leave  a  warrant  with  an  officer  to  cite  him  to  the 
court  at  Boston.  The  commissioners  had  now  gone 
over  into  the  province  of  Maine,  from  whence  Sir 


Robert  Carre  in  their  name  sent  a  severe  reprimand 
to  this  committee,  forbidding  them  to  proceed  against 
such  persons  as  had  subscribed  the  petition,  and  en- 
closing a  copy  of  a  letter  which  the  said  commis- 
sioners had  written  to  the  governor  and  council  on 
the  same  subject. 

The  committee  returned  and  reported  their  pro- 
ceedings to  the  court,  and  about  the  same  time  the 
commissioners  rame  from  their  eastern  tour  to  Bos- 
ton ;  where  the  court  desired  a  conference  with  them, 
but  received  such  an  answer  from  Sir  Robert  Carre 
as  determined  them  not  to  repeat  their  request.  A 
warrant  was  then  issued  by  the  secretary,  in  the 
name  of  the  whole  court,  to  apprehend  Corbett  and 
bring  him  before  the  governor  and  magistrates,  "  to 
answer  for  his  tumultuous  and  seditious  practices 
against  the  government."  (1666.)  The  next  spring 
he  was  seized  and  brought  before  them ;  and  after  a 
full  hearing  was  adjudged  guilty  of  sedition,  and 
exciting  others  to  discontent  with  the  government 
and  laws,  and  of  keeping  a  disorderly  house  of  en- 
tertainment, for  which  crimes  he  was  sentenced  to 
give  a  bond  of  one  hundred  pounds,  with  security  for 
his  peaceable  behaviour  and  obedience  to  the  laws  ; 
he  was  prohibited  retailing  liquors;  disabled  from 
bearing  any  office  in  the  town  or  commonwealth, 
during  the  pleasure  of  the  court ;  and  obliged  to  pay 
a  fine  of  twenty  pounds,  and  five  pounds  for  the 
costs  of  his  prosecution. 

This  severity  in  vindication  of  their  charter-rights 
they  thought  fit  to  temper  with  something  that  had 
the  appearance  of  submission  to  the  royal  commands. 
The  king's  pleasure  had  been  signified  to  the  com- 
missioners, that  the  harbours  should  be  fortified. 
This  instruction  came  to  hand  while  they  were  at 
Pascataqua,  and  they  immediately  issued  warrants 
to  the  four  towns,  requiring  them  to  meet  at  a  time 
and  place  appointed,  to  receive  his  majesty's  orders. 
One  of  these  warrants  was  sent  by  express  to  Boston, 
from  whence  two  officers  were  dispatched  by  the 
governor  and  council  to  forbid  the  towns  on  their 
peril  to  meet,  or  obey  the  commands  of  the  commis- 
sioners. But  by  their  own  authority  they  ordered  a 
committee  to  look  out  the  most  convenient  place  for 
a  fortification,  upon  whose  report  "  the  neck  of  land 
on  the  eastward  of  the  Great  Island,  where  a  small 
fort  had  been  already  built,  was  sequestered  for  the 
purpose,  taking  in  the  Great  Rock,  and  from  thence 
all  the  easterly  part  of  the  said  island."  The  court 
of  associates  being  empowered  to  hear  and  determine 
the  claims  of  those  who  pretended  any  title  to  this 
land,  a  claim  was  entered  by  George  Walton,  but 
rejected ;  and  the  appropriation  confirmed.  The 
customs  and  imposts  on  goods  imported  into  the 
harbour  were  applied  to  the  maintenance  of  the  fort, 
and  the  trained  bands  of  Great  Island  and  Kittery- 
Point  were  discharged  from  all  other  duty  to  attend 
the  service  of  it,  under  Richard  Cutts,  esq.  who  was 
appointed  captain. 

The  people  of  Massachusetts  have,  both  in  former 
and  latter  times,  been  charged  with  disloyalty  to  the 
king,  in  their  conduct  toward  these  commissioners, 
and  their  disregard  of  authority  derived  from  the 
same  source  with  their  charter.  To  account  for 
their  conduct  on  this  occasion,  we  must  consider  the 
ideas  they  had  of  their  political  connexion  with  the 
parent  state.  They  had  been  forced  from  thence  by 
persecution;  they  came  at  their  own  charges  into  a 
wilderness,  claimed  indeed  by  the  crown  of  Eng- 
land, but  really  in  possession  of  its  native  lords, 
from  whom  they  had  purchased  the  soil  and  so- 
vereignty, which  gave  them  a  title,  considered  in  a 


UNITED  STATES. 


415 


moral  view  superior  to  the  grant  of  any  European 
prince.  For  convenience  only,  they  had  solicited  and 
accepted  a  patent  from  the  crown,  which  in  their  opin- 
ion constituted  the  only  bond  of  union  betvyeen  them 
and  their  prince,  by  which  the  nature  and  extent  of 
their  allegiance  to  him  was  to  be  determined.  This 
patent  they  regarded  as  a  solemn  compact,  wherein 
the  king  had  granted  them  undisturbed  possession 
of  the  soil,  and  power  of  government  within  certain 
limits — on  condition  that  they  should  settle  the 
country,  christianize  the  natives,  yield  a  fifth  of  all 
gold  and  silver  mines  to  the  crown,  and  make  no 
laws  repugnant  to  those  of  England.  They  had,  on 
their  part,  sacredly  performed  these  conditions;  and 
therefore  concluded  that  the  grant  of  title,  property 
and  dominion  which  the  crown  had  made  to  them  was 
irrevocable.  And  although  they  acknowledged  them- 
selves subjects  of  the  reigning  prince,  arid  owned  a 
dependence  on  the  royal  authority ;  yet  they  under- 
stood it  to  be  only  through  the  medium  of  their  charter. 

The  appointment  of  commissioners  who  were  to 
act  within  the  same  limits,  independently  of  this  au- 
thority, and  to  receive  appeals  from  it,  whose  rule 
of  conduct  was  no  established  law,  but  their  own 
"  good  and  sound  discretion,"  was  regarded  as  a 
dangerous  stretch  of  royal  power,  militating  against 
and  superseding  their  charter.  If  the  royal  authority 
was  destined  to  flow  through  the  patent,  it  could  not 
regularly  be  turned  into  another  channel :  if  they 
were  to  be  governed  by  laws  made  and  executed  by 
officers  of  their  own  choosing,  they  could  not  at  the 
same  time  be  governed  by  the  "discretion"  of  men 
in  whose  appointment  they  had  no  voice,  and  over 
whom  they  had  no  control.  Two  ruling  powers  in 
the  same  state  was  a  solecism  which  they  could  not 
digest.  The  patent  was  neither  forfeited  nor  re- 
voked, but  the  king  had  solemnly  promised  to  con- 
firm it,  and  it  subsisted  in  full  force.  The  commis- 
sion therefore  was  deemed  an  usurpation  and  in- 
fringement of  those  chartered  rights,  which  had 
been  solemnly  pledged  on  the  one  part,  dearly  pur- 
chased and  justly  paid  for  on  the  other.  They  re- 
garded "  a  royal  donation  under  the  great  seal  (to 
use  their  own  words)  as  the  greatest  security  that 
could  be  had  in  human  affairs;"  and  they  had  con- 
fidence in  the  justice  of  the  supreme  ruler,  that  if 
they  held  what  they  in  their  consciences  thought  to 
be  their  rights,  and  performed  the  engagements  by 
which  they  had  acquired  them,  they  should  enjoy 
the  protection  of  his  providence,  though  they  should 
be  obliged  to  abandon  the  country,  which  they  had 
planted  with  so  much  labour  and  expense,  and  seek 
a  new  settlement  in  some  other  part  of  the  globe. 

These  were  the  principles  which  they  had  imbibed, 
which  they  openly  avowed,  and  on  which  they  acted. 
Policy  might  have  dictated  to  them  the  same  flexi- 
bility of  conduct,  and  softness  of  expression,  by  which 
the  other  colonies  on  this  occasion  gained  the  royal 
favour.  But  they  had  so  long  held  the  sole  and  un- 
interrupted sovereignty,  in  which  they  had  been  in- 
dulged by  the  late  popular  government  of  England, 
and  were  so  fully  convinced  it  was  their  right,  that 
they  chose  rather  to  risk  the  loss  of  all,  than  to  make 
any  concessions,  thereby  exposing  themselves  far- 
ther to  the  malice  of  their  enemies  and  the  vengeance 
of  power. 

The  commissioners,  having  finished  their  business, 
were  recalled  by  the  order  of  the  king,  who  was  much 
displeased  with  the  ill  treatment  they  had  received 
from  the  Massachusetts  government,  which  was  es- 
teemed the  more  heinous,  as  the  colonies  of  Plymouth, 
Rhode  Island,  and  Connecticut  had  treated  the  com- 


mission with  acknowledged  respect.  By  a  letter  to 
the  colony  he  commanded  them  to  send  over  four  or 
five  agents,  promising  "to  hear  in  person,  all  the 
allegations,  suggestions,  and  pretences  to  right  or 
favour,  that  could  be  made  on  behalf  of  the  colony," 
intimating  that  he  was  far  from  desiring  to  invade 
their  charter ;  and  commanding  that  all  things 
should  remain  as  the  commissioners  had  settled  them 
until  his  farther  order;  and  that  those  persons  who 
had  been  imprisoned  for  petitioning  or  applying  to 
them  should  be  released.  The  court,  however,  con- 
tinued to  exercise  jurisdiction,  appoint  officers,  and 
execute  the  laws  in  these  towns  as  they  had  dona 
for  twenty-five  years,  to  the  general  satisfaction  of 
the  people,  who  were  united  to  them  in  principles 
and  affection. 

(1669.)  This  affection  was  demonstrated  by  their 
ready  concurrence  with  the  proposal  for  a  general 
collection,  for  the  purpose  of  erecting  a  new  brick 
building  at  Harvard  college,  the  old  wooden  one 
being  small  and  decayed.  The  town  of  Portsmouth, 
which  was  now  become  the  richest,  made  a  sub- 
scription of  60/.  per  annum  for  seven  years;  and 
after  five  years  passed  a  town  vote  to  carry  this  engage- 
ment into  effect.  Dover  gave  321 ,  and  Exeter 

.  for  the  same  laudable  purpose. 

(1671.)  The  people  of  Portsmouth,  having  for 
some  time  employed  Joshua  Moody  as  a  preacher 
among  them,  and  erected  a  new  meeting-house,  pro- 
ceeded to  settle  him  in  regular  order.  A  church  con- 
sisting of  nine  brethren  was  first  gathered ;  then  the 
general  court  having  been  duly  informed  of  it,  and 
having  signified  their  approbation,  according  to  the 
established  practice,  Moody  was  ordained  in  the 
presence  of  Governor  Leverett  and  several  of  the 
magistrates. 

(1674.)  The  whole  attention  of  the  government  in, 
England  being  at  this  time  taken  up  with  things  that 
more  immediately  concerned  themselves,  nothing  of 
moment  relating  to  Mason's  interest  was  transacted. 
He  became  discouraged,  and  joined  with  the  heirs 
of  Gorges  in  proposing  an  alienation  of  their  re- 
spective rights  in  the  provinces  of  New  Hampshire 
and  Maine  to  the  Crown,  to  make  a  government  for 
the  Duke  of  Monmouth.  The  duke  himself  was 
greatly  pleased  with  the  scheme,  as  he  had  been 
told  that  an  annual  revenue  of  5,000£.  or  more  might 
be  collected  from  these  provinces.  But  by  the  more 
faithful  representations  of  some  persons  who  were 
well  acquainted  with  the  country,  he  was  induced  to 
lay  aside  the  project.  Many  complaints  were  made 
against  the  government  of  Massachusetts,  and  it 
was  thought  to  be  highly  expedient  that  more  severe 
measures  should  be  used  with  them;  but  the  Dutch 
wars,  and  other  foreign  transactions,  prevented  any 
determination  concerning  them,  till  the  country  was 
involved  in  all  the  horrors  of  a  general  war  with  the 
natives. 

Remarks  on  the  temper  and  manners  of  the  Indians. 
The  first  general  war  with  them,  called  Philip's  war. 

At  the  time  of  the  first  discovery  of  the  river 
Pascataqua  by  Captain  Smith,  it  was  found  that  the 
native  inhabitants  of  these  parts  differed  not  in  lan- 
guage, manners,  nor  government,  from  their  eastern 
or  western  neighbours.  Though  they  were  divided  into 
several  tribes,  each  of  which  had  a  distinct  sachem, 
yet  they  all  owned  subjection  to  a  sovereign  prince, 
called  Bashaba,  whose  residence  was  somewhere 
about  Pemaquid.  It  was  soon  after  found  that  the 
Tarrateens,  who  lived  farther  eastward,  had  invaded 
his  country,  surprised  and  slain  him  and  all  the 


41G 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


people  in  his  neighbourhood,  and  carried  off  his 
women — leaving  no  traces  of  his  authority.  Upon 
which  the  subordinate  sachems,  having  no  head  to 
unite  them,  and  each  one  striving  for  the  pre-emi- 
nence, made  war  among  themselves ;  whereby  many 
of  their  people,  and  much  of  their  provision  were 
destroyed.  When  Sir  Richard  Hawkins  visited  the 
coast  in  1615,  this  war  was  at  its  height;  and  to 
this  succeeded  a  pestilence,  which  carried  them  off 
in  such  numbers,  that  the  living  were  not  able  to 
bury  the  dead ;  but  their  bones  remained  at  the 
places  of  their  habitations  for  several  years.  Du- 
ring this  pestilence,  Richard  Vines  and  several  others, 
whom  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges  had  hired,  at  a  great 
expense,  to  tarry  in  the  country  through  the  winter, 
lived  among  them,  and  lodged  in  their  cabins, 
without  receiving  the  least  injury  in  their  health, 
"  not  so  much  as  feeling  their  heads  to  ache  the 
whole  time."  By  such  singular  means  did  Divine 
Providence  prepare  the  way  for  the  peaceable  en- 
trance of  the  Europeans  into  this  land. 

When  the  first  settlements  were  made,  the  re- 
mains of  two  tribes  had  their  habitations  on  the 
several  branches  of  the  river  Pascataqua ;  one  of 
their  sachems  lived  at  the  falls  of  Squamscot,  and 
the  other  at  those  of  Newichwannock ;  their  head- 
quarters being  generally  seated  in  places  convenient 
for  fishing.  Both  these,  together  with  several  inland 
tribes,  who  resided  at  Pantucket  and  Winnipiseo- 
gee,  acknowledged  subjection  to  Passaconaway,  the 
great  sagamore  of  Pannukog,  or  (as  it  is  commonly 
pronounced)  Penacook.  He 'excelled  the  other  sa- 
chems in  sagacity,  duplicity,  and  moderation ;  but 
his  principal  qualification  was  his  skill  in  some  of 
the  secret  operations  of  nature,  which  gave  him  the 
reputation  of  a  sorcerer,  and  extended  his  fame  and 
influence  among  all  the  neighbouring  tribes.  They 
believed  that  it  was  in  his  power  to  make  water 
burn  and  trees  dance,  and  to  metamorphose  himself 
into  flame ;  that  in  winter  ke  could  raise  a  green 
leaf  from  the  ashes  of  a  dry  one,  and  a  living  ser- 
pent from  the  skin  of  one  that  was  dead. 

An  English  gentleman,  who  had  been  much  con- 
versant among  the  Indians,  was  invited,  in  1660, 
to  a  great  dance  and  feast ;  on  which  occasion  the 
elderly  men,  in  songs  or  speeches,  recite  their  his- 
tories, and  deliver  their  sentiments  and  advice  to 
the  younger.  At  this  solemnity  Passaconaway, 
being  grown  old,  made  his  farewell  speech  to  his 
children  and  people ;  in  which,  as  a  dying  man,  he 
warned  them  to  take  heed  how  they  quarrelled  with 
their  English  neighbours ;  for  though  they  might  do 
them  some  damage,  yet  it  would  prove  the  means  of 
their  own  destruction.  He  told  them  he  had  been  a 
bitter  enemy  to  the  English,  and  by  the  arts  of  sor- 
cery had  tried  his  utmost  to  hinder  their  settlement 
and  increase ;  but  could  by  no  means  succeed.  This 
caution,  perhaps  often  repeated,  had  such  an  effect, 
that  upon  the  breaking  out  of  the  Indian  war  fifteen 
years  afterward,  Wonolanset,  his  son  and  successor, 
withdrew  himself  and  his  people  into  some  remote 
place,  that  they  might  not  be  drawn  into  the  quarrel. 

While  the  British  nations  had  been  distracted 
with  internal  convulsions,  and  had  endured  the  hor- 
rors of  a  civil  war,  produced  by  the  same  causes 
which  forced  the  planters  of  New  England  to  quit 
the  land  of  their  nativity ;  this  wilderness  had  been 
to  them  a  quiet  habitation.  They  had  struggled 
with  many  hardships ;  but  providence  had  smiled 
upon  their  undertaking,  their  settlements  were  ex 
tended,  and  their  churches  multiplied.  There  had 
been  no  remarkable  quarrel  with  the  savages,  ex- 


cept the  short  war  with  the  Pequods,  who  dwelt  in 
south-east  part  of  Connecticut :  they  being  to- 
tally subdued  in  1637,  the  dread  and  terror  of  the 
English  kept  the  other  nations  quiet  for  near  forty 
years : — during  which  time  the  New  England  colo- 
nies being  confederated  for  their  mutual  defence, 
andfor  maintaining  the  public  peace,  took  great  pains 
to  propagate  the  gospel  among  the  natives,  and 
bring  them  to  a  civilized  way  of  living,  which  with 
respect  to  some  proved  effectual;  others  refused  to 
receive  the  missionaries,  and  remained  obstinately 
prejudiced  against  the  English.  Yet  the  object  of 
their  hatred  was  at  the  same  time  the  object  of  their 
fear,  which  lead  them  to  forbear  acts  of  hostility,  and 
to  preserve  an  outward  shew  of  friendship,  to  their 
mutual  interest. 

Our  historians  have  generally  represented  the 
Indians  in  a  most  odious  light,  especially  when  re- 
counting the  effects  of  their  ferocity.  Dogs,  caitiffs, 
miscreants  and  hell-hounds,  are  the  politest  names 
which  have  been  given  them  by  some  writers,  who 
seem  to  be  in  a  passion  at  the  mentioning  their 
cruelties,  and  at  other  times  speak  of  them  with 
contempt.  Whatever  indulgence  may  be  allowed 
to  those  who  wrote  in  times  when  the  mind  was 
vexed  with  their  recent  depredations  and  inhuma- 
nities, it  ill  becomes  us  to  cherish  an  inveterate 
hatred  of  the  unhappy  natives.  Religion  teaches 
a  better  temper,  and  providence  has  now  put  an 
end  to  the  controversy,  by  their  almost  total  extir- 
pation. We  should  therefore  proceed  with  calm- 
ness in  recollecting  their  past  injuries,  and  forming 
our  judgment  of  their  character. 

It  must  be  acknowledged  that  human  depravity 
appeared  in  these  unhappy  creatures  in  a  most 
shocking  view.  The  principles  of  education  and 
the  refinements  of  civilized  life  either  lay  a  check 
upon  our  vicious  propensities,  or  disguise  our  crimes; 
but  among  them  human  wickedness  was  seen  in  its 
naked  deformity.  Yet,  bad  as  they  were,  it  will  be 
difficult  to  find  them  guilty  of  any  crime  which 
cannot  be  paralleled  among  civilized  nations. 

They  are  always  described  as  being  remarkably 
cruel ;  and  it  cannot  be  denied  that  this  disposition, 
indulged  to  the  greatest  excess,  strongly  marks  their 
character.  We  are  struck  with  horror,  when  we 
hear  of  their  binding  the  victim  to  the  stake,  biting 
off  his  nails,  tearing  out  his  hair  by  the  roots,  pull- 
ing out  his  tongue,  boring  out  his  eyes,  sticking  his 
skin  full  of  lighted  pitch-wood,  half  roasting  him  at 
the  fire,  and  then  making  him  run  for  their  diver- 
sion till  he  faints  and  dies  under  the  blows  which 
they  give  him  on  every  part  of  his  body.  But  is  it 
not  as  dreadful  to  read  of  an  unhappy  wretch,  sewed 
up  in  a  sack  full  of  serpents,  and  thrown  into  the 
sea;  or  broiled  in  a  red  hot  iron  chair;  or  mangled 
by  lions  and  tigers,  after  having  spent  his  strength 
to  combat  them  for  the  diversion  of  the  spectators  in 
an  amphitheatre  ?  and  yet  these  were  punishments 
among  the  Romans  in  the  politest  ages  of  the  em- 
pire. What  greater  cruelty  is  there  in  the  Ameri- 
can tortures,  than  in  confining  a  man  in  a  trough, 
and  daubing  him  with  honey,  that  he  may  be  stung 
to  death  by  wasps  and  other  venomous  insects;  or 
flaying  him  alive,  and  stretching  out  his  skin  before 
his  eyes,  which  modes  of  punishment  were  not  in- 
consistent with  the  softness  and  elegance  of  the 
ancient  court  of  Persia  ? — or,  to  come  down  to  modern 
times,  what  greater  misery  can  there  be  in  the 
Indian  executions,  than  in  racking  a  prisoner  on  a 
wheel,  and  breaking  his  bones  one  by  one  with  an 
iron  bar ;  or  placing  his  legs  in  a  boot,  and  driving 


UNITED  STATES. 


417 


in  wedges  one  after  another;  which  tortures  are 
still,  or  have  till  lately  been  used  in  some  European 
kingdoms  ;  we  forbear  to  name  the  torments  of  tho 
inquisition,  because  they  seem  to  be  beyond  the 
stretch  of  human  invention.  If  civilized  nations, 
and  those  who  profess  the  most  merciful  religion 
that  ever  blessed  the  world,  have  practised  these 
cruelties,  what  could  be  expected  of  men  who  were 
strangers  to  every  degree  of  refinement,  either  civil 
or  mental? 

The  Indians  have  been  represented  as  revengeful. 
When  any  person  was  killed,  the  nearest  relative 
thought  himself  bound  to  be  the  avenger  of  blood, 
and  never  left  seeking,  till  he  found  an  opportunity 
to  execute  his  purpose.  Whether  in  a  state  where 
government  is  confessedly  so  feeble  as  among  them, 
such  a  conduct  is  not  justifiable,  and  even  counte- 
nanced by  the  Jewish  law,may  deserve  consideration. 

The  treachery  with  which  these  people  are  justly 
charged,  is  exactly  the  same  disposition  which  ope- 
rates in  the  breach  of  solemn  treaties  made  between 
nations  which  call  themselves  Christian.  Can  it  be 
more  criminal  in  an  Indian,  than  in  an  European, 
not  to  think  himself  bound  by  promises  and  oaths 
extorted  from  him  when  under  duress? 

Their  jealousy  and  hatred  of  their  English  neigh- 
bours may  easily  be  accounted  for,  if  we  allow  them 
to  have  the  same  feelings  with  ourselves.  How  na- 
tural is  it  for  us  to  form  a  disagreeable  idea  of  a  whole 
nation,  from  the  bad  conduct  of  some  individuals 
with  whom  we  are  acquainted  ?  and  though  others 
of  them  may  be  of  a  different  character,  yet  will  not 
that  prudence  which  is  esteemed  a  virtue,  lead  us  to 
suspect  the  fairest  appearances,  as  used  to  cover  the 
most  fraudulent  designs,  especially  if  pains  are  taken 
by  the  most  politic  among  us  to  foment  such  jealou- 
sies, to  subserve  their  own  ambitious  purposes  ? 

Though  the  greater  part  ^f  the  English  settlers 
came  hither  with  religious  views,  and  fairly  pur- 
chased their  lands  of  the  Indians,  yet  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  some,  especially  in  the  eastern  parts  of 
New  England,  had  lucrative  views  only ;  and  from 
the  beginning  used  fraudulent  methods  in  trade  with 
them.  Such  things  were  indeed  disallowed  by  the 
government,  and  would  always  have  been  punished 
if  the  Indians  had  made  complaint  :  but  they  knew 
only  the  law  of  retaliation,  and  when  an  injury  was 
received,  it  was  never  forgotten  till  revenged.  En- 
croachments made  on  their  lands,  and  fraud  com- 
mitted in  trade,  afforded  sufficient  grounds  for  a 
quarrel,  though  at  ever  so  great  a  length  of  time  ; 
and  kept  alive  a  perpetual  jealousy  of  the  like  treat- 
ment again. 

(1675.)  Such  was  the  temper  of  the  Indians  of 
New  England  when  the  first  general  war  began.  It 
was  thought  by  the  English  in  that  day,  that  Philip, 
sachem  of  the  Wompanoags,  a  crafty  and  aspiring 
man,  partly  by  intrigue,  and  partly  by  example,  ex- 
cited them  to  such  a  general  combination.  He  was 
the  son  of  Massassoiet,  the  nearest  sachem  to  the 
colony  of  Plymouth,  with  whom  he  had  concluded  a 
peace,  which  he  maintained  more  through  fear  than 
good  will  as  long  he  lived.  His  son  and  immediate 
successor  Alexander,  preserved  the  same  external 
shew  of  friendship  ;  but  died  with  choler  on  being 
detected  in  a  plot  against  them.  Philip,  it  is  said, 
dissembled  his  hostile  purposes;  he  was  ready,  on, 
every  suspicion  of  his  infidelity,  to  renew  his  sub- 
mission, and  testify  it  even  by  the  delivery  of  his 
arms,  till  he  had  secretly  infused  a  cruel  jealousy 
into  many  of  the  neighbouring  Indians  ;  which  ex- 
cited them  to  attempt  the  recoven'ng  their  country 

HIST.  OF  AMER,— Nos.  53  &  54. 


by  extirpating  the  new  possessors.  The  plot,  it  is 
said,  was  discovered  before  it  was  ripe  for  execution; 
and  as  he  could  no  longer  promise  himself  security 
under  the  mask  of  friendship,  he  was  constrained  to 
shew  himself  in  his  true  character,  and  accordingly 
began  hostilities  upon  the  plantation  of  Swanzy,  in 
the  colony  of  Plymouth,  in  the  month  of  June  1675. 

Notwithstanding  this  general  opinion,  it  may  ad- 
mit of  some  doubt,  whether  a  single  sachem,  whose 
authority  was  limited,  could  have  such  an  extensive 
influence  over  tribes  so  remote  and  unconnected 
with  him  as  the  eastern  Indians  ;  much  more  im- 
probable is  it,  that  those  in  Virginia  should  have 
joined  in  the  confederacy,  as  it  has  been  intimated. 
The  Indians  never  travelled  to  any  greater  distance 
than  their  hunting  required ;  and  so  ignorant  were 
they  of  the  geography  of  their  country,  that  they 
imagined  New  England  to  be  an  island,  and  could 
tell  the  name  of  an  inlet  or  streight  by  which  they 
supposed  it  was  separated  from  the  main  land.  But 
what  renders  it  more  improbable  that  Philip  was  so 
active  an  instrument  in  exciting  this  war,  is  the  con- 
stant tradition  among  the  posterity  of  those  people 
who  lived  near  him,  and  were  familiarly  conversant 
with  him,  and  with  those  of  his  Indians  who  survived 
the  war — which  is,  that  he  was  forced  on  by  the  fury 
of  his  young  men,  sorely  against  his  own  judgment 
and  that  of  his  chief  counsellors ;  and  that  as  he 
foresaw  that  the  English  would,  in  time,  establish 
themselves  and  extirpate  the  Indians,  so  he  thought 
that  the  making  war  upon  them  would  only  hasten 
the  destruction  of  his  own  people.  It  was  always  a 
very  common,  and  sometimes  a  just  excuse  with  the 
Indians,  when  charged  with  breach  of  faith,  that  the 
old  men  were  not  able  to  restrain  the  younger  from 
signalizing  their  valour,  and  gratifying  their  revenge, 
though  they  disapproved  their  rashness.  This  want 
of  restraint  was  owing  to  the  weakness  of  their  go- 
vernment ;  their  sachems  having  but  the  shadow  of 
sovereign  authority. 

The  inhabitants  of  Bristol  shew  a  particular  spot 
where  Philip  received  the  news  of  the  first  English- 
men that  were  killed,  with  so  much  sorrow  as  to 
cause  him  to  weep ;  a  few  days  before  which  he  had 
rescued  one  who  had  been  taken  by  his  Indians,  and 
privately  sent  him  home.  Whatever  credit  may  be 
given  to  this  account,  so  different  from  the  current 
opinion,  it  must  be  owned,  that  in  such  a  season  of 
general  confusion  as  the  first  war  occasioned,  fear 
and  jealousy  might  create  many  suspicions,  which 
would  soon  be  formed  into  reports  of  a  general  con- 
federacy, through  Philip's  contrivance  ;  and  it  is  to 
be  noted  that  the  principal  histories  of  this  war,  [In- 
crease Mather's  and  Hubbard's]  were  printed  in 
1676  and  1677,  when  the  strangest  reports  were 
easily  credited,  and  the  people  were  ready  to  believe 
every  thing  that  was  bad  of  so  formidable  a  neigh- 
bour as  Philip.  But  as  the  fact  cannot  now  be  pre- 
cisely ascertained,  we  shall  detain  the  reader  no  longer 
from  the  real  causes  of  the  war  in  these  eastern  parts. 
There  dwelled  near  the  river  Saco,  a  sachem 
named  Squando,  a  noted  enthusiast,  a  leader  in  the 
devotions  of  their  religion,  and  one  that  pretended 
to  a  familiar  intercourse  with  the  invisible  world. 
These  qualifications  rendered  him  a  perso-n  of  the 
highest  dignity,  importance,  and  influence  among 
all  the  eastern  Indians.  His  squaw  passing  along 
the  river  in  a  canoe,  with  her  infant  child,  was  met 
by  some  rude  sailors,  who  having  heard  that  the  In- 
dian children  could  swim  as  naturally  as  the  young 
of  the  brutal  kind,  in  a  thoughtless  and  unguarded 
lumour  overset  the  canoe.  The  child  sunk,  and  the 

2Z 


418 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


mother  instantly  diving  fetched  it  up  alive,  but  the 
child  dying  soon  after,  its  death  was  imputed  to  the 
treatment  it  had  received  from  the  seamen ;  and 
Squando  was  so  provoked  that  he  conceived  a  bitter 
antipathy  to  the  English,  and  employed  his  great 
art  and  influence  to  excite  the  Indians  against  them. 
Some  other  injuries  were  alleged  as  the  ground  of 
the  quarrel;  and,  considering  the  interested  views 
and  irregular  lives  of  many  of  the  eastern  settlers, 
their  distance  from  the  seat  of  government,  and  the 
want  of  due  subordination  among  them,  it  is  not  im- 
probable that  a  great  part  of  the  blame  of  the  eastern 
war  belonged  to  them. 

The  first  alarm  of  the  war  in  Plymouth  colony 
spread  great  consternation  among  the  distant  In- 
dians, and  held  them  awhile  in  suspense  what  part  to 
act,  for  there  had  been  a  long  external  friendship 
subsisting  between  them  and  the  English,  and  they 
were  afraid  of  provoking  such  powerful  neighbours. 
But  the  seeds  of  jealousy  and  hatred  had  been  so 
effectually  sown,  that  the  crafty  and  revengeful,  and 
those  who  were  ambitious  of  doing  some  exploits, 
soon  found  means  to  urge  them  on  to  an  open  rupture ; 
so  that  within  twenty  days  after  Philip  had  begun 
the  war  at  the  southward,  the  flame  broke  out  in  the 
most  north-easterly  part  of  the  country,  at  the  dis- 
tance of  200  miles. 

The  English  inhabitants  about  the  river  Kenne- 
beck,  hearing  of  the  insurrection  in  Plymouth  colony, 
determined  to  make  trial  of  the  fidelity  of  their  In- 
dian neighbours,  by  requesting  them  to  deliver  their 
arms.  They  made  a  show  of  compliance,  but  in 
doing  it,  committed  an  act  of  violence  on  a  French- 
man, who  lived  in  an  English  family,  which  being 
judged  an  offence,  both  by  the  English  and  the 
elder  Indians,  the  offender  was  seized;  but  upon  a 
promise,  with  security,  for  his  future  good  behaviour, 
his  life  was  spared,  and  some  of  them  consented  to 
remain  as  hostages,  who  soon  made  their  escape, 
and  joined  with  their  fellows  in  robbing  the  house 
of  Purchas,  an  ancient  planter  at  Pechypscot. 

The  quarrel  being  thus  begun,  and  their  natural 
hatred  of  the  English,  and  jealousy  of  their  designs, 
having  risen  to  a  great  height  under  the  malignant 
influence  of  Squando  and  other  leading  men,  and 
being  encouraged  by  the  example  of  the  western 
Indians,  who  were  daily  making  depredations  on  the 
colonies  of  Plymouth  and  Massachusetts,  they  took 
every  opportunity  to  rob  and  murder  the  people  in 
the  scattered  settlements  of  the  province  of  Maine  ; 
and  having  dispersed  themselves  into  many  small 
parties,  that  they  might  be  the  more  extensively 
mischievous,  in  the  month  of  September  they  ap'- 
proached  the  plantations  at  Pascataqua,  and  made 
their  first  onset  at  Oyster  river,  then  a  part  of  the 
town  of  Dover,  but  now  Durham.  Here  they 
burned  two  houses  belonging  to  two  persons  named 
Chesley,  killed  two  men  in  a  canoe,  and  carried 
away  two  captives ;  both  of  whom  soon  after  made 
their  escape.  About  the  same  time  a  party  of  four 
laid  in  ambush  near  the  road  between  Exeter  and 
Hampton,  where  they  killed  one,  and  took  another, 
who  made  his  escape.  Within  a  few  days  an  assault 
was  made  on  the  house  of  one  Tozer,  at  Newich- 
wannock,  wherein  were  fifteen  women  and  children, 
all  of  whom  except  two  were  saved  by  the  intrepidly 
of  a  girl  of  eighteen ; — she  first  seeing  the  Indians  as 
they  advanced  to  the  house,  shut  the  door  and  stood 
against  it  till  the  others  escaped  to  the  next  house, 
which  was  better  secured.  The  Indians  chopped 
the  door  to  pieces  with  their  hatchets,  and  then  en- 
tering, they  knocked  her  down,  and  leaving  her  for 


dead,  went  in  pursuit  of  the  others,  of  whom  two 
children,  who  could  not  get  over  the  fence,  fell  iuto 
their  hands.  The  adventurous  heroine  recovered, 
and  was  perfectly  healed  of  her  wound. 

The  two  following  days  they  made  several  appear- 
ances on  both  sides  of  the  river,  using  much  inso- 
lence, and  burning  two  houses  and  three  barns,  with 
a  large  quantity  of  grain.  Some  shot  were  ex- 
changed without  effect,  and  a  pursuit  was  made  after 
them  into  the  woods  by  eight  men,  but  night  obliged 
them  to  return  without  success.  Five  or  six  houses 
were  burned  at  Oyster  river,  and  two  more  men 
killed.  These  daily  insults  could  not  be  borne  with- 
out indignation  and  reprisal.  About  twenty  young 
men,  chiefly  of  Dover,  obtained  leave  of  Major  Wal- 
dron,  then  commander  of  the  militia,  to  try  their 
skill  and  courage  with  the  Indians  in  their  own  way. 
Having  scattered  themselves  in  the  woods,  a  small 
party  of  them  discovered  five  Indians  in  a  field  near 
a  deserted  house,  some  of  whom  were  gathering  corn, 
and  others  kindling  a  fire  to  roast  it.  The  men 
were  at  such  a  distance  from  their  fellows  that  they 
could  make  no  signal  to  them  without  danger  of  a 
discovery;  two  of  them,  therefore,  crept  along  si- 
lently, near  to  the  house,  from  whence  they  suddenly 
rushed  upon  those  two  Indians  who  were  busy  at 
the  fire,  and  knocked  them  down  with  the  butts  of 
their  guns ;  the  other  three  took  the  alarm  and  escaped. 

All  the  plantations  at  Pascataqua,  with  the  whole 
eastern  country,  were  now  filled  with  fear  and  con- 
fusion :  business  was  suspended,  and  every  man  was 
obliged  to  provide  for  his  own  and  his  family's  safety. 
The  only  way  was  to  desert  their  habitations,  and 
retire  together  within  the  larger  and  more  conve- 
nient houses,  which  they  fortified  with  a  timber  wall 
and  flankarts,  placing  a  centry-box  on  the  roof. 
Thus  the  labour  of  the  field  was  exchanged  for  the 
duty  of  the  garrison,  and  they  who  had  long  lived 
in  peace  and  security,  were  upon  their  guard  night 
and  day,  subject  to  continual  alarms,  and  the  most 
fearful  apprehensions. 

The  7th  of  October  was  observed  as  a  day  of  fast- 
ing and  prayer;  and  on  the  16th  the  enemy  made 
an  assault  upon  the  inhabitants  at  Salmon-falls,  in 
Berwick.  Lieut.  Roger  Plaisted,  being  a  man  of 
true  courage  and  of  a  public  spirit,  immediately  sent 
out  a  party  of  seven  from  his  garrison  to  make  dis- 
covery. They  fell  into  an  ambush  :  three  were  killed, 
and  the  rest  retreated,  The  lieutenant  then  dis- 
patched an  express  to  Major  Waldron  and  Lieut. 
Coffin  at  Cochecho,  begging  most  importunately  for 
help,  which  they  were  in  no  capacity  to  afford,  con- 
sistently with  their  own  safety.  The  next  day 
Plaisted  ventured  out  with  twenty  men,  and  a  cart 
to  fetch  the  dead  bodies  of  their  friends,  and  unhap- 
pily fell  into  another  ambush.  The  cattle  affrighted 
ran  back,  and  Plaisted  being  deserted  by  his  men, 
and  disdaining  either  to  yield  or  fly,  was  killed  on 
the  spot,  with  his  eldest  son  and  one  more  ;  his  other 
son  died  of  his  wound  in  a  few  weeks.  Had  the 
heroism  of  this  worthy  family  been  imitated  by  the 
rest  of  the  party,  and  a  reinforcement  arrived  in  sea- 
son, the  enemy  might  have  received  such  a  severe 
check  as  would  have  prevented  them  from  appearing 
in  small  parties.  The  gallant  behaviour  of  Plaisted, 
though  fatal  to  himself  and  his  sons,  had  this  good 
effect,  that  the  enemy  retreated  to  the  woods  :  and 
the  next  day  Captain  Frost  came  up  with  a  party 
from  Sturgeon  creek,  and  peaceably  buried  the 
dead  :  but  before  the  month  had  expired  a  mill  was 
burned  there,  and  an  assault  made  on  Frost's  garri- 
son, who  though  he  had  only  three  boy$  with  him, 


UNITED  STATES. 


419 


kept  up  a  constant  fire,  and  called  aloud  as  if  he  were 
commanding  a  body  of  men,  to  march  here  and  fire 
there :  the  stratagem  succeeded,  and  the  house  was 
saved.  The  enemy  then  proceeded  down  the  river, 
killing  and  plundering  as  they  found  people  off  their 
guard,  till  they  came  opposite  to  Portsmouth  ;  from 
whence  some  cannon  being  fired  they  dispersed,  and 
were  pursued  by  the  help  of  a  light  snow  which 
fell  in  the  night,  and  overtaken  by  the  side  of  a 
swamp,  into  which  they  threw  themselves,  leaving 
their  packs  and  plunder  to  the  pursuers.  They  soon 
after  did  more  mischief  at  Dover,  Lamprey  river, 
and  Exeter ;  and  with  these  small,  but  irritating 
assaults  and  skirmishes,  the  autumn  was  spent  until 
the  end  of  November  ;  when  the  number  of  people 
killed  and  taken  from  Kennebeck  to  Pascataqua 
amounted  to  upwards  of  fifty. 

The  Massachusetts  government  being  fully  em- 
ployed in  defending  the  southern  and  western  parts, 
could  not  seasonably  send  succours  to  the  eastward. 
Major  General  Denison,  who  commanded  the  militia 
of  the  colony,  had  ordered  the  majors  who  com- 
manded the  regiments  on  this  side  of  the  country,  to 
draw  out  a  sufficient  number  of  men  to  reduce  the 
enemy,  by  attacking  them  at  their  retreat  to  their 
head-quarters  at  Ossapy  and  Pigwacket.  But  the 
winter  setting  in  early  and  fiercely,  and  the  men 
being  unprovided  with  rackets  to  travel  on  the  snow, 
which  by  the  10th  of  December  was  four  feet  deep 
in  the  woods,  it  was  impossible  to  execute  the  de- 
sign. This  peculiar  severity  of  the  season  however 
proved  favourable.  The  Indians  were  pinched  with 
famine,  and  having  lost  by  their  own  confession 
about  ninety  of  their  number,  partly  by  the  war,  and 
partly  for  want  of  food,  they  were  reduced  to  the 
necessity  of  suing  for  peace.  With  this  view  they 
came  to  Major  Waldron,  expressing  great  sorrow 
for  what  had  been  done,  and  promising  to  be  quiet 
and  submissive.  By  his  mediation  a  peace  was  con- 
cluded with  the  whole  body  of  eastern  Indians,  which 
continued  till  the  next  August;  and  might  have  con- 
tinued longer,  if  the  inhabitants  of  the  eastern  parts 
had  not  been  too  intent  on  private  gain,  and  of  a 
disposition  too  ungovernable  to  be  a  barrier  against 
an  enemy  so  irritable  and  vindictive.  The  restora- 
tion of  the  captives  made  the  peace  more  valued  : 
a  return  from  the  dead  could  not  be  more  welcome 
than  a  deliverance  from  Indian  captivity. 

(1676.)  The  war  at  the  southward, "  though  re- 
newed in  the  spring,  drew  toward  a  close.  Philip's 
affairs  were  desperate ;  many  of  his  dependents  and 
allies  forsook  him;  and  in  August  he  was  slain 
by  a  party  under  Captain  Church.  Those  western 
Indians,  who  had  been  engaged  in  the  war,  now 
fearing  a  total  extirpation,  endeavoured  to  conceal 
themselves  among  their  brethren  of  Penacook,  who 
had  not  joined  in  the  war,  and  those  of  Ossapy  and 
Pigwacket,  who  had  made  peace.  But  they  could 
not  so  disguise  themselves  or  their  behaviour,  as  to 
escape  the  discernment  of  those  who  had  been  con- 
versant with  Indians.  Several  of  them  were  taken 
at  different  times,  and  delivered  up  to  public  exe- 
cution. Three  of  them,  Simon,  Andrew,  and  Peter, 
who  had  been  concerned  in  killing  Thomas  Kimbal 
of  Bradford,  and  capturing  his  family,  did,  within 
six  weeks,  voluntarily  restore  the  women  and  five 
children.  It  being  doubted  whether  this  act  of  sub- 
mission was  a  sufficient  atonement  for  the  murder, 
they  were  committed  to  Dover  prison  till  their  case 
could  be  considered.  Fearing  that  this  confinement 
was  a  prelude  to  farther  punishment,  they  broke  out 
of  prison,  and  going  to  the  eastward,  joined  with 


the  Indians  of  Kennebeck  and  Amoriscogin  in  those 
depredations  which  they  renewed  on  the  inhabitants 
of  those  parts,  in  August,  and  were  afterward  active 
in  distressing  the  people  of  Pascataqua. 

This  renewal  of  hostilities  occasioned  the  sending 
of  two  companies  to  the  east  under  Captain  Joseph 
Syll,  and  Captain  William  Hawthorne.  In  the 
course  of  their  march  they  came  to  Cocheco,  on  the 
sixth  of  September,  where  four  hundred  mixed  In- 
dians were  met  at  the  house  of  Major  Waldron, 
with  whom  they  had  made  the  peace,  and  whom  they 
considered  as  their  friend  and  father.  The  two  cap- 
tains would  have  fallen  upon  them  at  once,  having 
it  in  their  orders  to  seize  all  Indians,  who  had  been 
concerned  in  the  war.  The  major  dissuaded  them 
from  that  purpose,  and  contrived  the  following  stra- 
tagem. He  proposed  to  the  Indians,  to  have  a 
training  the  next  day,  and  a  sham  fight  after  the 
English  mode  ;  and  summoning  his  own  men,  with 
those  under  Captain  Frost  of  Kittery,  they,  in  con- 
junction with  the  two  companies,  formed  one  party, 
and  the  Indians  another.  Having  diverted  them  a 
while  in  this  manner,  and  caused  the  Indians  to  fire 
the  first  volley ;  by  a  peculiar  dexterity,  the  whole 
body  of  them  (except  two  or  three)  were  surrounded, 
before  they  could  form  a  suspicion  of  what  was  in- 
tended. They  were  immediately  seized  and  dis- 
armed, without  the  loss  of  a  man  on  either  side.  A 
separation  was  then  made :  Wonolanset,  with  the 
Penacook  Indians,  and  others  who  had  joined  in 
making  peace  the  winter  before,  were  peaceably 
dismissed;  but  the  strange  Indians  (as  they  were 
called)who  had  fled  from  the  southward,  and  taken 
refuge  among  them,  were  made  prisoners,  to  the 
number  of  two  hundred ;  and  being  sent  to  Boston, 
seven  or  eight  of  them,  who  were  known  to  have 
killed  someEnglishmen,were  condemned  and  hanged ; 
the  rest  were  sold  into  slavery  in  foreign  parts. 

This  action  was  highly  applauded  by  the  general 
voice  of  the  colony;  as  it  gave  them  opportunity  to 
deal  with  their  enemies  in  a  judicial  way,  as  rebels, 
and,  as  they  imagined,  to  extirpate  those  trouble- 
some neighbours.  The  remaining  Indians,  however, 
looked  upon  the  conduct  of  Major  Waldron  as  a 
breach  of  faith ;  inasmuch  as  they  had  taken  those 
fugitive  Indians  under  their  protection,  and  had 
made  peace  with  him,  which  had  been  strictly  ob- 
served with  regard  to  him  and  his  neighbours,  though 
it  had  been  broken  elsewhere.  The  Indians  had  no 
idea  of  the  same  government  being  extended  very 
far,  and  thought  they  might  make  peace  in  one 
place,  and  war  in  another,  without  any  imputation 
of  infidelity ;  but  a  breach  of  hospitality  and  friend- 
ship, as  they  deemed  this  to  be,  merited,  according 
to  their  principles,  a  severe  revenge,  and  was  never 
to  be  forgotten  or  forgiven.  The  major's  situation 
on  this  occasion  was  indeed  extremely  critical ;  and 
he  could  not  have  acted  either  way  without  blame 
It  is  said  that  his  own  judgment  was  against  any 
forcible  measure,  as  he  knew  that  many  of  those 
Indians  were  true  friends  to  the  colony ;  and  that 
in  case  of  failure  he  should  expose  the  country  to 
their  resentment;  but  had  he  not  assisted  the  forces 
in  the  execution  of  their  commission,  (which  was  to 
seize  all  Indians  who  had  been  concerned  with  Phi- 
lip in  the  war)  he  must  have  fallen  under  censure, 
and  been  deemed  accessary,  by  his  neglect,  to  the 
mischiefs  which  might  afterward  have  been  perpe- 
trated by  them.  In  this  dilemma  he  finally  deter- 
mined to  comply  with  the  orders  and  expectations 
of  government  j  imagining  that  he  should  be  able 
to  satisfy  those  of  the  Indians  whom  he  intended  to 

2  Z  2 


420 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


dismiss,  and  that  the  others  would  be  removed  out 
of  the  way  of  doing  any  further  mischief;  but  he 
had  no  suspicion  that  he  was  laying  a  snare  for  his 
own  life.  It  was  unhappy  for  him  that  he  was 
obliged,  in  deference  to  the  laws  of  his  country,  and 
the  orders  of  government,  to  give  offence  to  a  peopli 
who,  having  no  public  judicatories  and  penal  law 
among  themselves,  were  unable  to  distinguish  be- 
tween a  legal  punishment  and  private  malice. 

Two  days  after  this  surprisal,  the  forces  proceeded 
on  their  route  to  the  eastward,  being  joined  with 
some  of  Waldron's  and  Frost's  men ;  and  taking 
with  them  Blind  Will,  a  sagamore  of  the  Indians 
who  lived  about  Cocheco,  and  eight  of  his  people  for 
pilots.  The  eastern  settlements  were  all  either  de- 
stroyed or  deserted,  and  no  enemy  was  to  be  seen ; 
so  that  the  expedition  proved  fruitless,  and  the  com- 
panies returned  to  Pascataqua. 

It  was  then  thought  advisable,  that  they  should 
march  up  toward  the  Ossapy  ponds ;  where '  the 
Indians  had  a  strong  fort  of  timber  fourteen  feet 
high,  with  flankarts ;  which  they  had  a  few  years 
before  hired  some  English  carpenters  to  build  for 
them,  as  a  defence  against  the  Mohawks,  of  whom 
they  were  always  afraid.  It  was  thought  that  if  the 
Indians  could  be  surprised  on  their  first  return  to 
their  head  quarters,  at  the  beginning  of  winter, 
some  considerable  advantage  might  be  gained  against 
them  ;  or  if  they  had  not  arrived  there,  that  the 
provisions,  which  they  had  laid  in  for  their  winter 
subsistence,  might  be  destroyed.  Accordingly,  the 
companies  being  well  provided  for  a  march  at  that 
season,  set  off  on  the  first  of  November ;  and  after 
travelling  four  days  through  a  rugged,  mountainous 
wilderness,  and  crossing  several  rivers,  they  arrived 
at  the  spot;  but  found  the  fort  and  adjacent  places 
entirely  deserted,  and  saw  not  an  Indian  in  all  the 
way.  Thinking  it  needless  for  the  whole  body  to  go 
further,  the  weather  being  severe,  and  the  snow- 
deep,  a  select  party  was  detached  eighteen  or  twenty 
miles  above;  who  discovered  nothing  but  frozen 
ponds,  and  snowy  mountains;  and  supposing  the 
Indians  had  taken  up  their  winter  quarters  nearer 
the  sea,  they  returned  to  Newichwannock,  within 
nine  days  from  their  first  departure. 

They  had  been  prompted  to  undertake  this  expe- 
dition by  the  false  accounts  brought  by  Mogg,  an 
Indian  of  Penobscot,  who  had  come  to  Pascataqua 
with  a  proposal  of  peace ;  and  had  reported  that  an 
hundred  Indians  were  assembled  at  Ossapy.  This  In- 
dian brought  with  him  two  men  of  Portsmouth, 
Fryer  and  Kendal,  who  had  been  taken  on  board  a 
vessel  at  the  eastward ;  he  was  deputed  by  the  Pe- 
nobscot tribe  to  consent  to  articles  of  pacification ; 
and  being  sent  to  Boston,  a  treaty  was  drawn  and 
subscribed  by  the  governor  and  magistrates  on  the 
one  part,  and  by  Mogg  on  the  other ;  in  which  it 
was  stipulated,  that  if  the  Indians  of  the  other  tribes 
did  not  agree  to  this  transaction,  and  cease  hos- 
tilities, they  should  be  deemed  and  treated  as  ene- 
mies by  both  parties.  This  treaty  was  signed  on 
the  sixth  of  November;  Mogg  pledging  his  life  for 
the  fulfilment  of  it.  Accordingly,  vessels  being  sent 
to  Penobscot,  the  peace  was  ratified  by  Madoka- 
wando  the  sachem,  and  two  captives  were  restored. 
But  Mogg,  being  incautiously  permitted  to  go  to  a 
neighbouring  tribe,  on  pretence  of  persuading  them 
to  deliver  their  captives,  though  he  promised  to 
return  in  three  days,  was  seen  no  more.  It  was  at 
first  thought  that  he  had  been  sacrificed  by  his  coun- 
trymen, as  he  pretended  to  fear  when  he  left  the 
vessels ;  but  a  captive  who  escaped  in  January,  1677, 


gave  an  account,  that  he  boasted  of  having  deceived 
the  English,  and  laughed  at  their  kind  entertain- 
ment of  him.  There  was  also  a  design  talked  of 
among  them  to  break  the  peace  in  the  spring,  and 
join  with  the  other  Indians  at  the  eastward  in  ruin- 
ing the  fishery.  About  the  same  time  it  was  dis- 
covered that  some  of  the  Narrhaganset  Indians  were 
scattered  in  the  eastern  parts;  three  of  whom  having 
been  decoyed  by  some  of  the  Cocheco  Indians  into 
their  wigwams,  and  scalped,  were  known  by  the  cut 
of  their  hair.  This  raised  a  fear  in  the  minds  of 
the  people,  that  more  of  them  might  have  found  their 
way  to  the  eastward,  and  would  prosecute  their  re- 
venge against  them. 

From  these  circumstances  it  was  suspected,  that 
the  truce  would  be  but  of  short  continuance.  The 
treachery  of  Mogg,  who  was  surety  for  the  perform- 
ance of  the  treaty,  was  deemed  a  full  justification  of 
the  renewal  of  hostilities;  and  the  state  of  things 
was,  by  some  gentlemen  of  Pascataqua,  represented 
to  be  so  dangerous,  that  the  government  determined 
upon  a  winter  expedition.  Two  hundred  men,  in- 
cluding sixty  Natick  Indians,  were  enlisted  and 
equipped,  and  sailed  from  Boston  the  first  week  in 
February,  under  the  command  of  Major  Waldron ;  a 
day  of  prayer  having  been  previously  appointed  for 
the  success  of  the  enterprize. 

AtCasco  the  major  had  a  fruitless  conference, 
and  a  slight  skirmish  with  a  few  Indians,  of  whom 
some  were  killed  and  wounded.  At  Kennebeck  he 
built  a  fort,  and  left  a  garrison  of  foity  men,  under 
the  command  of  Captain  Sylvanus  Davis.  At  Pe- 
maquid  he  had  a  conference  with  a  company  of  In- 
dians, who  promised  to  deliver  their  captives  on  the 
payment  of  a  ransom.  Part  of  it  being  paid,  three 
captives  were  delivered,  and  it  was  agreed  that  the 
conference  should  be  renewed  in  the  afternoon,  and 
all  arms  be  laid  aside.  Some  suspicion  of  their  in- 
fidelity had  arisen,  and  when  the  major  went  ashore 
in  the  afternoon  with  five  men,  and  the  remainder 
of  the  ransom,  he  discovered  the  point  of  a  lance 
hid  under  a  board,  which  he  drew  out  and  advanced 
with  it  toward  them;  charging  them  with  treachery 
in  concealing  their  arms  so  near.  They  attempted 
to  take  it  from  him  by  force ;  but  he  threatened 
them  with  instant  death,  and  waved  his  cap  for  a 
signal  to  the  vessels.  While  the  rest  were  coming 
on  shore,  the  major  with  his  five  men  secured  the 
goods  :  some  of  the  Indians  snatching  up  a  bundle 
of  guns  which  they  had  hid,  ran  away.  Captain 
Frost,  who  was  one  of  the  five,  seized  an  Indian, 
who  was  well  known  to  be  a  rogue,  and  with  lieute- 
nant Nutter,  carried  him  on  board.  The  major 
searching  about  found  three  guns,  with  which  he 
armed  his  remaining  three  men  ;  and  the  rest  being 
come  on  shore  by  this  time,  they  pursued  the  In- 
dians, killed  several  of  them  before  they  could  reco- 
ver their  canoes,  and  after  they  had  pushed  off,  sank 
one  with  five  men,  who  were  drowned ;  and  took 
four  prisoners,  with  about  a  thousand  pounds  of 
dried  beef,  and  some  other  plunder.  The  whole 
number  of  the  Indians  was  twenty-five. 

Whether  the  casual  discovery  of  their  arms,  which 
they  had  agreed  to  lay  aside,  was  sufficient  to  justify 
this  severity,  may  be  doubted ;  since,  if  their  inten- 
tions had  really  been  hostile,  they  had  a  fine  oppor- 
tunity of  ambushing  or  seizing  the  major  and  his 
five  attendants,  who  came  ashore  unarmed ;  and  it 
is  not  likely  that  they  would  have  waited  for  the  rest 
to  come  ashore  before  they  opened  the  plot.  Pos- 
sibly, this  sudden  suspicion  might  be  groundless, 
and  might  inflame  the  prejudice  against  the  majoi; 


UNITED  STATES. 


421 


which  had  boon  already  excited  by  the  seizure  of 
their  friends  at  Cochecho  some  time  before. 

On  the  return  of  the  forces,  they  found  some  wheat, 
guns,  anchors  and  boards  at  Kennebeck,  which  they 
took  with  them.  They  killed  two  Indians  on  Ar- 
rowsick  island,  who,  with  one  of  the  prisoners  taken 
at  Pemaquid,  and  shot  on  board,  made  the  number 
of  Indians  killed  in  this  expedition  thirteen.  They 
returned  to  Boston  on  the  eleventh  of  March,  without 
the  loss  of  a  man,  bringing  with  them  the  bones  of 
Captain  Lake,  which  they  found  entire  in  the  place 
where  he  was  killed. 

There  being  no  prospect  of  peace  at  the  eastward, 
it  became  necessary  to  maintain  great  circumspec- 
tion and  resolution,  and  to  make  use  of  every  pos- 
sible advantage  against  the  enemy.  A  long  and 
inveterate  animosity  had  subsisted  between  the  Mo- 
hawks and  the  eastern  Indians,  the  original  of  which 
is  not  mentioned,  and  perhaps  was  not  known  by 
any  of  the  historians  ;  nor  can  the  oldest  men  among 
the  Mohawks  at  this  day  give  any  account  of  it. 
These  Indians  were  in  a  state  of  friendship  with  their 
English  neighbours;  and  being  a  fierce  and  for- 
midable race  of  men,  their  name  carried  terror  wher- 
ever it  was  known.  It  was  now  thought,  that  if  they 
could  be  induced  to  prosecute  their  ancient  quarrel 
with  the  eastern  Indians,  the  latter  might  be  awed 
into  peace,  or  incapacitated  for  any  farther  mischief. 
The  propriety  of  this  measure  became  a  subject  of 
debate ;  some  questioning  the  lawfulness  of  making 
use  of  their  help,  "  as  they  were  heathen ;"  but  it 
was  urged  in  reply,  that  Abraham  had  entered  into 
a  confederacy  with  the  Amorites,  among  whom  he 
dwelt,  and  made  use  of  their  assistance  in  reco- 
vering his  kinsman  Lot  from  the  hands  of  their  com- 
mon enemy.  With  this  argument  the  objectors  were 
satisfied;  and  two  messengers,  Major  Pynchon  of 
Springfield,  and  Richards  of  Hartford,  were  dis- 
patched to  the  country  of  the  Mohawks,  who  treated 
them  with  great  civility,  expressed  the  most  bitter 
hatred  against  the  eastern  enemy,  and  promised  to 
pursue  the  quarrel  to  the  utmost  of  their  power. 

Accordingly,  some  parties  of  them  came  down  the 
country  about  the  middle  of  March,  and  the  first 
alarm  was  given  at  Amuskeeg  falls  ;  where  the  son 
of  Wonolanset  being  hunting,  discovered,  fifteen 
Indians  on  the  other  side,  who  called  to  him  in  a 
language  which  he  did  not  understand ;  upon  which 
he  fled,  while  they  fired  near  thirty  guns  at  him 
without  effect.  Presently  after  this  they  were  dis- 
covered in  the  woods  near  Cochecho.  Major  Wal- 
dron  sent  out  eight  of  his  Indians,  whereof  Blind 
Will  was  one,  for  farther  information.  They  were 
all  surprised  together  by  a  company  of  the  Mohawks ; 
two  or  three  escaped,  the  others  were  either  killed 
or  taken  :  Will  was  dragged  away  by  his  hair ; 
and  being  wounded,  perished  in  the  woods,  on  a  neck 
of  land,  formed  by  the  confluence  of  Cochecho  and 
Isinglass  rivers,  which  still  bears  the  name  of  Blind 
Will's  Neck.  This  fellow  was  judged  to  be  a  secret 
enemy  to  the  English,  though  he  pretended  much 
friendship  and  respect;  so  that  it  was  impossible  to  have 
punished  him,  without  provoking  the  other  neighbour- 
ing Indians,  with  whom  he  lived  in  amity,  and  of 
whose  fidelity  there  was  no  suspicion.  It  was  at  first 
thought  a  fortunate  circumstance  that  he  was  killed  in 
this  manner ;  but  the  consequence  proved  it  to  be 
otherwise  ;  for  two  of  those  who  were  taken  with  him 
escaping,  reported  that  the  Mohawks  threatened  de- 
struction to  all  the  Indians  in  these  parts  without 
distinction  :  so  that  those  who  lived  in  subjection  to 
the  English  grew  jealous  of  their  sincerity,  and 


imagined,  not  without  very  plausible  ground,  that 
the  Mohawks  had  been  persuaded  or  hired  to  engage 
in  the  war,  on  purpose  to  destroy  them ;  since  they 
never  actually  exercised  their  fury  upon  those  In- 
dians who  were  in  hostility  with  the  English,  but 
only  upon  those  who  were  in  friendship  with  them  ; 
and  this  only  in  such  a  degree  as  to  irritate,  rather 
than  to  weaken  or  distress  them.  It  cannot  there- 
fore be  thought  strange  that  the  friendly  Indians 
were  alienated  from  their  English  neighbours,  and 
disposed  to  listen  to  the  seducing  stratagems  of  the 
French ;  who  in  a  few  years  after  made  use  of  them 
in  conjunction  with  others,  sorely  to  scourge  these 
unhappy  people.  The  English,  in  reality,  had  no 
such  design  ;  but  the  event  proved,  that  the  scheme 
of  engaging  the  Mohawks  in  the  quarrel,  however 
lawful  in  itself,  and  countenanced  by  the  example 
of  Abraham,  was  a  pernicious  source  of  innumer- 
able calamities. 

The  terror  which  it  was  thought  this  incursion  of 
the  Mohawks  would  strike  into  the  eastern  Indians, 
was  too  small  to  prevent  their  renewing  hostilities 
very  early  in  the  spring.  Some  of  the  garrison  who 
had  been  left  at  Kennebeck  were  surprised  by  an 
ambush,  as  they  were  attempting  to  bury  the  dead 
bodies  of  their  friends,  who  had  been  killed  the  sum- 
mer before,  and  had  lain  under  the  snow  all  the  winter. 
The  remainder  of  that  garrison  were  then  taken  off 
and  conveyed  to  Pascataqua;  whither  a  company 
of  fifty  men  and  ten  Natick  Indians  marched,  under 
Captain  Swaine,  to  succour  the  inhabitants,  who 
were  alarmed  by  scattered  parties  of  the  enemy,  kill- 
ing and  taking  people,  and  burning  houses  in  Wells, 
Kittery,  and  within  the  bounds  of  Portsmouth.  A 
young  woman  who  was  taken  from  Rawling's  house, 
made  her  escape  and  came  into  Cochecho,  stating 
where  the  enemy  lay.  Three  parties  were  dispatch- 
ed to  ambush  three  places,  by  one  of  which  they 
must  pass.  The  enemy  appearing  at  one  of  these 
places,  were  seasonably  discovered ;  but  by  the  too 
great  eagerness  of  the  party  to  fire  on  them,  they 
avoided  the  ambush  and  escaped. 

Soon  after  this  the  garrisons  at  Wells  and  Black 
Point  were  beset,  and  at  the  latter  place  the  enemy 
lost  their  leader  Mogg,  who  had  proved  so  treacher- 
ous a  negotiator.  Upon  his  death  they  fled  in  their 
canoes,  some  to  the  eastward  and  others  toward 
York,  where  they  also  did  some  mischief.  On  a 
sabbath  morning,  a  party  of  twenty,  under  the  gui- 
dance of  Simon,  surprised  six  of  our  Indians,  who 
lay  drunk  in  the  woods,  at  a  small  distance  from 
Portsmouth ;  they  kept  all  day  hovering  about  the 
town,  and  if  they  had  taken  advantage  of  the 
people's  absence  from  home,  in  attending  the  public 
worship,  they  might  easily  have  plundered  and  burn- 
ed the  outmost  houses ;  but  they  were  providentially 
restrained.  At  night  they  crossed  the  river  at  the 
Long  Reach,  killed  some  sheep  at  Kittery,  and  then 
went  toward  Wells ;  but,  being  afraid  of  the  Mohawks, 
let  their  prisoners  go.  .  Four  men  were  soon  after 
killed  at  North  Hill,  one  of  whom  was  Edward  Col- 
cott,  whose  death  was  much  regretted. 

More  mischief  being  expected,  and  the  eastern 
settlements  needing  assistance,  the  government  or- 
dered 200  Indians  of  Natick,  with  forty  English 
soldiers,  under  Captain  Benjamin  Swett,  of  Hamp- 
ton, and  Lieutenant  Richardson,  to  march  to  the  falls 
of  Taconick  on  Kennebeck  river ;  where  it  was  said 
the  Indians  had  six  forts,  well  furnished  with  am- 
munition. The  vessels  came  to  an  anchor  off  Black 
Point,  where  the  captain  being  informed  that  son\e 
Indians  had  been  seen,  went  on  shore  with  a  party, 


422 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


and  being  joined  by  some  of  the  inhabitants  so  as 
to  make  about  ninety  in  all,  marched  to  seek  the 
enemy,  who  shewed  themselves  on  a  plain  in  three 
parties.  Swett  divided  his  men  accordingly,  and 
went  to  meet  them.  The  enemy  retreated  till  they 
had  drawn  our  people  two  miles  from  the  fort,  and 
then  turning  suddenly  and  violently  upon  them, 
threw  them  into  confusion,  they  being  mostly  young 
and  unexperienced  soldiers.  Swett,  with  a  few  of 
the  more  resolute,  fought  bravely  on  the  retreat,  till 
he  came  near  the  fort,  when  he  was  killed ;  sixty 
more  were  left  dead  or  wounded,  and  the  rest  got 
into  the  fort  The  victorious  savages  then  surprised 
about  twenty  fishing  vessels,  which  put  into  the 
eastern  harbours  by  night ;  the  crews,  not  being  ap- 
prehensive of  danger  on  the  water,  fell  an  easy  prey 
to  them.  Thus  the  summer  was  spent  with  terror  and 
perplexity  by  the  colonists;  while  the  enemy  rioted 
without  control,  till  they  had  satiated  their  ven- 
geance, and  greatly  reduced  the  eastern  settlements. 

At  length,  in  the  month  of  August,  Major  An- 
drosse,  governor  of  New  York,  sent  a  sloop  with 
some  forces  to  take  possession  of  the  land  which  had 
been  granted  to  the  Duke  of  York,  and  build  a  fort 
at  Pemaquid,  to  defend  the  country  against  the  en- 
croachment of  foreigners.  Upon  their  arrival  the 
Indians  appeared  friendly:  and  in  evidence  of  their 
pacific  disposition,  restored  fifteen  prisoners  with  the 
fishing  vessels.  They  continued  quiet  all  the  suc- 
ceeding autumn  and  winter,  and  lived  in  harmony 
with  the  new  garrison. 

(1678.)  In  the  spring,  Major  Shapleigh,  of  Kit- 
tery,  Captain  Champernoon  and  Mr.  Fryer  of  Ports- 
mouth, were  appointed  commissioners  to  settle  aformal 
treaty  of  peace  with  Squando  and  the  other  chiefs, 
which  was  done  at  Casco,  whither  they  brought  the 
remainder  of  the  captives.  It  was  stipulated  in  the 
treaty,  that  the  inhabitants  should  return  to  their  de- 
serted settlements,  on  condition  of  paying  one  peck  of 
corn  annually  for  each  family,  by  way  of  acknowledg- 
ment to  the  Indians  for  the  possession  of  their  lands, 
and  one  bushel  for  Major  Pendleton,  who  was  a  great 
proprietor.  Thus  an  end  was  put  to  a  tedious  and 
distressing  war,  which  had  subsisted  three  years.  The 
terms  of  peace  were  disgraceful,  but  not  unjust,  con- 
sidering the  former  irregular  conduct  of  many  of  the 
eastern  settlers,  and  the  native  property  of  the  In- 
dians of  the  soil;  certainly  they  were  now  masters 
of  it,  and  it  was  entirely  at  their  option  whether  the 
English  should  return  to  their  habitations  or  not. 
It  was  therefore  thought  better  to  live  peaceably, 
though  in  a  sort  of  subjection,  than  to  leave  such 
commodious  settlements  and  forego  the  advantages 
of  trade  and  fishery,  which  were  very  considerable, 
and  by  which  the  inhabitants  of  that  part  of  the 
country  had  chiefly  subsisted. 

It  was  a  matter  of  great  inquiry  and  speculation, 
how  the  Indians  were  supplied  with  arms  and  am- 
munition to  carry  on  this  war.  The  Dutch  at  New 
York  were  too  near  the  Mohawks  for  the  eastern 
Indians  to  adventure  thither.  The  French  in  Cana- 
da were  too  feeble,  and  too  much  in  fear  of  the  Eng- 
lish, to  do  any  thing  which  might  disturb  their  tran- 
quillity; and  there  was  peace  between  the  two  na- 
tions. It  was  therefore  supposed  that  the  Indians 
had  long  premeditated  the  war,  and  laid  in  a  stock 
beforehand.  There  had  formerly  been  severe  penal- 
ties exacted  by  the  government,  on  the  selling  of 
arms  and  ammunition  to  the  Indians ;  but  ever  since 
1657,  licences  had  been  granted  to  particular  per- 
sons to  supply  them  occasionally  for  the  purpose  oi 
hunting,  on  paying  an  acknowledgment  to  the 


public  treasury.  This  indulgence,  having  been 
much  abused  by  some  of  the  eastern  traders,  who, 
far  from  the  seat  of  government,  were  impatient  of 
the  restraint  of  law,  was  supposed  to  be  the  source 
of  the  mischief.  But  it  was  afterward  discovered 
that  the  Baron  de  St.  Castine,  a  reduced  French 
officer,  who  had  married  a  daughter  of  Madokawando, 
and  kept  a  trading-house  at  Penobscot,  where  he 
considered  himself  as  independent,  being  out  of  the 
limits  of  any  established  government,  was  the  per- 
son from  whom  they  had  their  supplies;  which 
needed  not  be  very  great  as  they  always  husbanded 
their  ammunition  with  much  care,  and  never  expend- 
ed it  but  when  they  were  certain  of  doing  execution. 

The  whole  burden  and  expense  of  this  war,  on  the 
part  of  the  colonists,  were  borne  by  themselves-  It 
was  indeed  thought  strange  by  their  friends  in  Eng- 
land, and  resented  by  those  in  power,  that  they 
made  no  application  to  the  king  for  assistance.  It 
was  intimated  to  them  by  Lord  Anglesey,  "  that  his 
majesty  was  ready  to  assist  them  with  ships,  troops, 
ammunition,  or  money,  if  they  would  but  ask  it;" 
and  their  silence  was  construed  to  their  disadvantage, 
as  if  they  were  proud,  and  obstinate,  and  desired  to 
be  considered  as  an  independent  state.  They  had 
indeed  no  inclination  to  ask  favours  from  thence; 
being  well  aware  of  the  consequence  of  laying  them- 
selves under  obligations  to  those  who  had  been  seek- 
ing to  undermine  their  establishment;  and  remem- 
bering how  they  had  been  neglected  in  the  late 
Dutch  wars,  when  they  stood  in  much  greater  need 
of  assistance :  the  king  had  then  sent  ammunition  to 
New  York,  but  had  sent  word  to  New  England, 
"  that  they  must  shift  for  themselves,  and  make  the 
best  defence  they  could."  It  was  therefore  highly 
injurious  to  blame  them  for  not  making  application 
for  help.  But  if  they  had  not  been  so  ill  treated, 
they  could  not  be  charged  with  disrespect,  since 
they  really  did  not  need  foreign  assistance.  Ships 
of  war  and  regular  troops  must  have  been  altogether 
useless;  and  no  one  that  knew  the  nature  of  an  In- 
dian war  could  be  serious  in  proposing  to  send  them. 
Ammunition  and  money  were  necessary,  but  as  they 
had  long  enjoyed  a  free  trade,  and  had  coined  the 
bullion  which  they  imported,  there  was  no  scarcity 
of  money,  nor  of  any  stores  which  money  could  pur- 
chase. The  method  of  fighting  with  Indians  could 
be  learned  only  from  themselves.  After  a  little  ex- 
perience, a  few  men  in  scattered  parties  were  of  more 
service  than  the  largest  and  best  equipped  armies 
which  Europe  could  have  afforded.  It  ought  ever 
to  be  remembered  for  the  honour  of  New  England, 
that  as  their  first  settlement,  so  their  preservation, 
increase,  and  defence,  even  in  their  weakest  infancy, 
were  not  owing  to  any  foreign  assistance,  but  to 
their  own  magnanimity  and  perseverance. 

The  gravest  historians  have  recorded  many  omens, 
predictions,  and  other  alarming  circumstances,  dur- 
ing this  and  the  Pequod  war,  which  in  a  more  phi- 
losophical and  less  credulous  age  would  not  be 
worthy  of  notice.  When  men's  minds  were  render- 
ed gloomy  by  the  horrors  of  a  surrounding  wilder- 
ness, and  the  continual  apprehension  of  danger  from 
its  savage  inhabitants;  when  they  were  ignorant  of 
the  causes  of  many  of  the  common  appearances  in 
nature,  and  were  disposed  to  resolve  every  unusual 
appearance  into  prodigy  and  miracle,  it  is  not  to  be 
wondered  that  they  should  imagine  they  heard  the 
noise  of  drums  and  guns  in  the  air,  and  saw  flaming 
swords  and  spears  in  the  heavens,  and  should  even 
interpret  eclipses  as  ominous.  Some  old  Indians 
had  intimated  their  apprehensions  concerning  the 


UNITED  STATES 


423 


increase  of  the  English,  and  the  diminution  of  their 
own  people,  which  any  rational  observer  in  a  course 
of  forty  or  fifty  years  might  easily  have  foretold, 
without  the  least  pretence  to  a  spirit  of  prophecy; 
yet  these  sayings  were  recollected  and  recorded,  as 
so  many  predictions  by  force  of  a  supernatural  im- 
pulse on  their  minds,  and  many  persons  of  the 
greatest  distinction  were  disposed  to  credit  them  as 
such.  These  things  would  not  have  been  mentioned, 
but  to  give  a  just  idea  of  the  age.  If  mankind  are 
now  better  enlightened,  superstition  is  the  less  ex- 
cusable in  its  remaining  votaries. 

Mason's  renewed  efforts — Randolph's  mission  and  trans- 
actions— Attempt*  for  the  trial  of  Mason's  title — 
New  Hampshire  separated  from  Massachusetts,  and 
made  a  royal  province — Abstract  of  the  commis- 
tion — Remarks  on  it. 

(1675.)  While  the  country  was  labouring  under 
the  perplexity  and  distress  arising  from  the  war, 
measures  were  taking  in  England  to  increase  their 
difficulties,  and  divide  their  attention.  The  scheme 
of  selling  the  provinces  of  New  Hampshire  and 
Maine  to  the  crown  being  laid  aside.  Mason  again 
petitioned  the  king  for  the  restoration  of  his  pro- 
perty; and  the  king  1'eferred  the  matter  to  his  At- 
torney-General, Sir  William  Jones,  and  his  Solicitor, 
General  Sir  Francis  Winnington,  who  reported 
that  "  John  Mason,  Esq.,  grandfather  to  the  petiti- 
oner, by  virtue  of  several  giants  from  the  council  of 
New  England,  under  their  common  seal,  was  in- 
stated in  fee  in  sundry  great  tracts  of  land  in  New 
England,  by  the  name  of  New  Hampshire  ;  and  that 
the  petitioner  being  heir  at  law  to  the  said  John  had 
a  good  and  legal  title  to  the  said  lands"  (1676.) 
Whereupon  a  letter  was  dispatched  to  the  Massa- 
chusetts colony,  requiring  them  to  send  over  agents 
within  six  months,  fully  empowered  to  answer  the 
complaints,  which  Mason  and  the  heirs  of  Gorges 
had  made,  of  their  usurping  jurisdiction  over  the 
territories  claimed  by  them;  and  to  receive  the 
royal  determination  in  that  matter.  Copies  of  the 
complaints  were  inclosed ;  and  Edward  Randolph, 
a  kinsman  of  Mason,  a  man  of  great  address  and 
penetration,  resolute  and  indefatigable  in  business, 
was  charged  with  the  letters,  and  directed  by  the 
lords  of  trade  to  make  enquiry  into  the  state  of  the 
country.  When  he  arrived,  he  waited  on  Governor 
Leverett,  who  read  the  king's  letter,  with  the  peti- 
tions of  Mason  and  Gorges  in  council,  Randolph 
being  present,  who  could  obtain  no  other  answer 
than  that  "  they  would  consider  it." 

He  then  came  into  New  Hampshire,  and  as  he 
passed  along,  freely  declared  the  business  on  which 
he  was  come,  and  publicly  read  a  letter  which  Mason 
had  sent  to  the  inhabitants.  Some  of  them  he  found 
ready  to  complain  of  the  government,  and  desirous 
of  a  change  ;  but  the  body  of  the  people  were  highly 
enraged  against  him ;  and  the  inhabitants  of  Dover, 
in  a  public  town-meeting,  "  protested  against  the 
claim  of  Mason ;  declaring  that  they  had  bona  fide 
purchased  their  lands  of  the  Indians ;  'ecognized 
their  subjection  to  the  government  of  Massachusetts, 
under  whom  they  had  lived  long  and  happily,  and 
by  whom  they  were  now  assisted  in  defending  their 
estates  and  families  against  the  savage  enemy." 
They  appointed  Major  Waldron  "  to  petition  the 
king  in  their  behalf,  that  he  would  interpose  his 
royal  authority,  and  afford  them  his  wonted  favour ; 
that  they  might  not  be  disturbed  by  Mason,  or  any 
other  person,  but  continue  peaceably  in  possession 
of  their  rights  under  the  government  of  Massachu- 


setts." A  similar  petition  was  sent  by  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Portsmouth,  who  appointed  John  Cutts  and 
Richard  Martyn,  Esqs.,  Captains  Daniel  and  Stile- 
man,  to  draught  and  forward  it. 

When  Randolph  returned  to  Boston,  he  had  a 
severe  reproof  from  the  governor,  for  publishing  his 
errand,  and  endeavouring  to  raise  discontent  among 
the  people.  To  which  he  made  no  other  answer 
than  that  "  if  he  had  done  amiss,  they  might  com- 
plain to  the  king." 

After  about  six  weeks  stay,  he  returned  to  Eng- 
land, and  reported  to  the  king,  that  "  he  had  found 
the  whole  country  complaining  of  the  usurpation  of 
the  magistrates  of  Boston ;  earnestly  hoping  and 
expecting  that  his  majesty  would  not  permit  them 
any  longer  to  be  oppressed ;  but  would  give  them 
relief  according  to  the  promises  of  the  commissioners 
in  1665."  With  the  same  bitterness  of  temper,  and 
in  the  same  strain  of  misrepresentation,  he  inveighed 
against  the  government  in  a  long  report  to  the  lords 
of  trade;  which  farther  inflamed  the  prejudice  that 
had  long  been  conceived  against  the  colony,  and 
prepared  the  way  for  the  separation  which  was  me- 
ditated. 

After  his  departure,  a  special  council  being  sum- 
moned, at  which  the  elders  of  the  churches  were 
present,  the  question  was  proposed  to  them, 
"  whether  the  best  way  of  making  answer  to  the 
complaints  of  Gorges  and  Mason  about  the  extent 
of  their  patent,  be  by  sending  agents,  or  by  writing 
only?"  To  which  they  answered,  "  that  it  was 
most  expedient  to  send  agents,  to  answer  by  way  of 
information,  provided  they  were  instructed  with 
much  care  and  caution  to  negociate  the  affair  with 
safety  to  the  country,  and  loyalty  to  his  majesty,  in 
the  preservation  of  their  patent  liberties."  Accord- 
ingly William  Stoughton,  afterward  lieutenant-go- 
vernor, and  Peter  Bulkley,  then  speaker  of 'the 
house  of  deputies,  were  appointed  agents,  and  sailed 
for  England. 

(1677.)  At  their  arrival,  a  hearing  was  ordered 
before  the  lords  chief  justices  of  the  King's  Bench 
and  Common  Pleas ;  when  the  agents  in  the  name 
of  the  colony  disclaimed  all  title  to  the  lands  claimed 
by  the  petitioner,  and  to  the  jurisdiction  beyond 
three  miles  northward  of  the  river  Merrimack,  to 
follow  the  course  of  the  river,  so  far  as  it  extended. 
The  judges  reported  to  the  king,  "  that  they  could 
give  no  opinion  as  to  the  right  of  soil,  in  the  pro- 
vinces of  New  Hampshire  and  Maine,  not  having 
the  proper  parties  before  them ;  it  appearing  that 
not  the  Massachusetts  colony,  but  the  ter-tenants 
((/round-tenants)  had  the  right  of  soil,  and  whole 
benefit  thereof,  and  yet  were  not  summoned  to  de- 
fend their  titles.  As  to  Mason's  right  of  govern- 
ment within  the  soil  he  claimed,  their  lordships, 
and  indeed  his  own  counsel,  agreed  he  had  none ; 
the  great  council  of  Plymouth,  under  whom  he 
claimed,  having  no  power  to  transfer  government  to 
any.  It  was  determined  that  the  four  towns  of 
Portsmouth,  Dover,  Exeter,  and  Hampton,  were  out 
of  the  bounds  of  Massachusetts."  This  report  was 
accepted,  and  confirmed  by  the  king  in  council. 

(1679.)  After  this,  at  the  request  of  the  agents, 
Sir  William  Jones,  the  attorney-general,  drew  up  a 
complete  state  of  the  case  to  be  transmitted  to  the 
colony ;  by  which  it  seems  that  he  had  altered  his 
opinion  since  the  report  which  he  gave  to  the  king 
in  1675,  concerning  the  validity  of  Mason's  title. 
It  was  also  admittted  that  the  title  could  be  tried 
only  on  the  spot,  there  being  no  court  in  England 
that  had  cognizance  of  it. 


424 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


It  became  necessary  then  to  the  establishment  of 
Mason's  title,  that  a  new  jurisdiction  should  be 
erected,  in  which  the  king  might  direct  the  mode  of 
trial  and  appeal  at  his  pleasure :  this  being  resolved 
upon,  the  colony  of  Massachusetts  was  informed,  by 
a  letter  from  the  secretary  of  state,  of  the  king's 
intention  to  separate  New  Hampshire  from  their 
government,  and  required  to  revoke  all  commissions 
which  they  had  granted  there,  and  which  were 
thereby  declared  to  be  null  and  void.  To  prevent 
any  extravagant  demand,  the  king  obliged  the  claim- 
ant to  declare,  under  his  hand  and  seal,  that  he 
would  require  no  rents  of  the  inhabitants  for  the 
time  passed,  before  the  24th  of  June,  1679,  nor  mo- 
lest any  in  their  possessions  for  the  time  to  come ; 
but  would  make  out  titles  to  them  and  their  heirs 
for  ever,  provided  they  would  pay  him  sixpence  in 
the  pound,  according  to  the  yearly  value  of  all 
houses  which  they  had  built,  and  lands  which  they 
had  improved. 

Things  being  thus  prepared,  a  commission  passed 
the  great  seal  on  the  18th  of  September  for  the  go- 
vernment of  New  Hampshire ;  which  '  inhibits  and 
restrains  the  jurisdiction  exercised  by  the  colony  of 
Massachusetts  over  the  towns  of  Portsmouth,  Dover, 
Exeter,  and  Hampton,  and  all  other  lands  extend- 
ing from  three  miles  to  the  northward  of  the  river 
Merrimack,  and  of  any  and  every  part  thereof,  to 
the  province  of  Maine ;  constitutes  a  president  and 
council  to  govern  the  province;  appoints  John 
Cutts,  esq.  president,  to  continue  one  year  and  till 
another  be  appointed  by  the  same  authority ;  Richard 
Marty-n,  William  Vaughan,  and  Thomas  Daniel  of 
Portsmouth,  John  Oilman  of  Exeter,  Christopher 
Hussey  of  Hampton,  and  Richard  Waldron  of  Do- 
ver, esquires,  to  be  of  the  council,  who  were  autho- 
rised to  chose  three  other  qualified  persons  out  of 
the  several  parts  of  the  province  to  be  added  to  them. 
The  said  president  and  every  succeeding  one  to  ap- 
point a  deputy  to  preside  in  his  absence ;  the  pre- 
sident or  his  deputy,  with  any  five,  to  be  a  quorum. 
They  were  to  meet  at  Portsmouth  in  twenty  days 
after  the  arrival  of  the  commission  and  publish  it. 
They  were  constituted  a  court  of  record  for  the  ad- 
ministration of  justice,  according  to  the  laws  of  Eng- 
land, so  far  as  circumstances  would  permit ;  reserv- 
ing a  right  of  appeal  to  the  king  in  council  for  ac- 
tions of  fifty  pounds  value.  They  were  empowered 
to  appoint  military  officers,  and  take  all  needful 
measures  for  defence  against  enemies.  Liberty  of 
conscience  was  allowed  to  all  protestants,  those  of 
the  church  of  England  to  be  particularly  encouraged. 
For  the  support  of  government  they  were  to  continue 
the  present  taxes,  till  an  assembly  could  be  called ; 
to  which  end  they  were  within  three  months  to  issue 
writs  under  the  province  seal,  for  calling  an  assem- 
bly, to  whom  the  president  should  recommend  the 
passing  such  laws  as  should  establish  their  alle- 
giance, good  order  and  defence,  and  the  raising 
taxes  in  such  manner  and  proportion  as  they  should 
see  fit.  All  laws  to  be  approved  by  the  president 
and  council,  and  then  to  remain  in  force  till  the 
king's  pleasure  should  be  known,  for  which  purpose 
they  should  be  sent  to  England  by  the  first  ships. 
In  case  of  the  president's  death,  his  deputy  to  suc- 
ceed, and  on  the  death  of  a  counsellor,  the  remainder 
to  elect  another,  and  send  over  his  name,  with  the 
names  of  two  other  meet  persons,  that  the  king  might 
appoint  one  of  the  three.  The  king  engaged  for 
himself  and  successors  to  continue  the  privilege  of 
an  assembly,  in  the  same  manner  and  form,  unless 
by  inconvenience  arising  therefrom  he  or  his  heirs 


should  see  cause  to  alter  the  same.  If  any  of  the 
inhabitants  should  refuse  to  agree  with  Mason  or  his 
agents,  on  the  terms  before  mentioned,  the  president 
and  council  were  directed  to  reconcile  the  difference, 
or  send  the  case  stated  in  writing  with  their  own 
opinions,  to  the  king,  that  he  with  his  privy  council 
might  determine  it  according  to  equity.* 

The  form  of  government  described  in  this  com- 
mission, considered  abstractedly  from  the  immediate 
intentions,  characters,  and  connexions  of  the  per- 
sons concerned,  appears  to  be  of  as  simple  a  kind  as 
the  nature  of  a  subordinate  government  and  the 
liberty  of  the  subject  can  admit.  The  people,  who 
are  the  natural  and  original  source  of  power,  had  a 
representation  in  a  body  chosen  by  themselves ;  and 
the  king  was  represented  by  a  president  and  council 
of  his  own  appointment ;  each  had  the  right  of  in- 
structing their  representative,  and  the  king  had  the 
superior  prerogative  of  disannulling  the  acts  of  the 
whole  at  his  pleasure.  The  principal  blemish  in 
the  commission  was  the  right  claimed  by  the  king 
of  discontinuing  the  representation  of  the  people 
whenever  he  should  find  it  inconvenient,  after  he  had 
solemnly  engaged  to  continue  this  privilege.  The 
clause,  indeed,  is  artfully  worded,  and  might  be  con- 
strued to  imply  more  or  less  at  pleasure.  Herein 
Charles  was  consistent  with  himself,  parliaments 
being  his  aversion.  However,  theie  was  in  this  plan 
as  much  of  the  spirit  of  the  British  constitution  as 
there  could  be  any  foundation  for  in  such  a  colony  ; 
for  here  was  no  third  branch  to  form  a  balance  be- 
tween the  king  or  his  representative,  and  the  people. 
The  institution  of  an  house  of  peers  in  Britain  was 
the  result  of  the  feudal  system :  the  barons  being 
lords  of  the  soil  and  enjoying  a  sovereignty  within 
their  own  territories  and  over  their  own  vassals  ;  the 
constitution  was  formed  by  the  union  of  these  dis- 
tinct estates  under  one  common  sovereign.  But 
there  was  nothing  similar  to  this  in  New  England. 
The  settlements  began  here  by  an  equal  division  of 
property  among  independent  freemen.  Lordship 
and  vassalage  were  held  in  abhorrence.  The  yeo- 
manry were  the  proprietors  of  the  soil  and  the"  na- 
tural defenders  of  their  own  rights  and  property ; 
and  they  knew  no  superior  but  the  king.  A  council, 
whether  appointed  by  him  or  chosen  by  the  people, 
could  not  form  a  distinct  body,  because  they  could 
not  be  independent.  Had  "such  a  simple  form  of 
colony  government  been  more  generally  adopted, 
and  pcrseveringly  adhered  to,  and  administered 
only  by  the  most  delicate  hands,  it  might  have  served 
better  than  any  other,  to  perpetuate  the  dependence 
of  the  colonies  on  the  British  crown. 

The  administration  of  the  first  Council — Opposition  to 
the  acts  of  trade — Mason's  arrival — Opposition  to 
him — His  departure— 'State  oftra&e  and  navigation. 

(1680.)  The  commission  was  brought  to  Ports 
mouth  on  the  1st  of  January  by  Edward  Randolph, 
than  whom  there  could  not  be  a  more  unwelcome 
messenger.  It  was  received  with  great  reluctance 
by  the  gentlemen  therein  named ;  who,  though  they 
were  of  the  first  character,  interest  and  influence', 
and  had  sustained  the  principal  offices,  civil  and  mi- 
litary, under  the  colony  government ;  yet  easily  saw 
that  their  appointment  was  not  from  any  respect  to 
them  or  favour  to  the  people  ;  but  merely  to  obtain 
a  more  easy  introduction  to  a  new  form  of  govern- 
ment, for  a  particular  purpose,  which  they  knew 
would  be  a  source  of  perplexity  and  distress.  They 
would  gladly  have  declined  acting  in  their  new  ca- 
pacity ;  but  considering  the  temper  of  the  govern- 


UNITED  STATES. 


425 


ment  in  England,  the  unavoidable  necessity  of  sub- 
mitting to  the  change,  and  the  danger  (upon  their 
refusal)  of  others  being  appointed  who  would  be 
inimical  to  the  country,  they  agreed  to  qualify  them- 
selves, determining  to  do  what  good,  and  keep  off 
what  harm  they  were  able.  They  therefore  pub- 
lished the  commission,  and  took  the  oaths  on  the  22d 
day  of  January,  which  was  beyond  the  utmost  time 
limited  in  the  commission.  Agreeably  to  the  royal 
direction  they  chose  three  other  gentlemen  into  the 
council ;  Elias  Stileman  of  Great  Island,  who  had 
been  a  clerk  in  the  county  courts,  whom  they  now 
appointed  secretary,  Samuel  Dalton  of  Hampton, 
and  Job  Clements  of  Dover.  The  president  nomi- 
nated Waldron  to  be  his  deputy  or  vice  president, 
Martyn  was  appointed  treasurer,  and  John  Ro- 
berts, marshal. 

The  president,  John  Cutts,  was  a  principal  mer- 
chant, of  great  probity  and  esteem  in  Portsmouth  ; 
but  now  aged  and  infirm.  Richard  Martyn,  was  of 
good  character,  and  great  influence.  He  had  been 
very  active  in  procuring  the  settlement  of  a  minister 
in  the  town  of  Portsmouth.  William  Vaughan,  was 
a  wealthy,  generous,  and  public-spirited  merchant, 
and  of  undaunted  resolution.  He  was  of  Welch  ex- 
traction, but  was  educated  in  London  under  Sir 
Josiah  Child,  who  had  a  great  regard  for  him,  and 
whose  interest  he  made  use  of  for  the  good  of  the 
province.  Thomas  Daniel,  was  a  person  of  such 
note  and  importance,  that  when  he  died  in  a  time 
of  general  sickness  and  mortality,  Mr.  Moody  preach- 
ed his  funeral  sermon  from  2  Sam.  ii.  30.  "  There 
lacked  of  David's  servants  nineteen  men  and  Asa- 
hel."  John  Gilman,  was  a  man  of  considerable  es- 
timation in  Exeter,  as  was  Christopher  Hussey,  in 
Hampton.  Richard  Waldron,  was  a  native  of  So- 
mersetshire, and  one  of  the  first  settlers  in  Dover. 
He  was  much  respected  and  eminently  useful,  hav- 
ing sustained  many  important  offices,  civil  and 
military,  and  approved  his  courage  and  fidelity  in 
the  most  hazardous  enterprises. 

This  change  of  government  gratified  the  discon- 
contented  few,  but  was  greatly  disrelished  by  the 
people  in  general,  as  they  saw  themselves  deprived 
of  the  privilege  of  choosing  their  own  rulers,  which 
was  still  enjoyed  by  the  other  colonies  in  New  Eng- 
land, and  as  they  expected  an  invasion  of  their  pro- 
perty soon  to  follow. 

When  writs  were  issued  for  calling  a  general  as- 
sembly, the  persons  in  each  town  who  were  judged 
qualified  to  vote  were  named  in  the  writs ;  and  the 
oath  of  allegiance  was  administered  to  each  voter. 
The  number  of  qualified  voters  in  each  town  was,  in 
Portsmouth  71,  Dover  61,  Hampton  57,  Exeter  20, 
total  209.  A  public  fast  was  observed,  to  ask  the 
divine  blessing  on  the  approaching  assembly,  and 
"  the  continuance  of  their  precious  and  pleasant 
things."  The  assembly  met  at  Portsmouth  on  the 
16th  of  March,  and  was  opened  with  a  prayer  and 
a  sermon  by  Mr.  Moody. 

To  express  their  genuine  sentiments  of  the  pre- 
sent change,  and  invalidate  the  false  reports  which 
had  been  raised  against  them,  as  well  as  to  shew 
their  gratitude  and  respect  to  their  former  protectors, 
they  wrote  to  the  general  court  at  Boston,  "acknow- 
ledging the  kindness  of  that  colony,  in  taking  them 
under  their  protection  and  ruling. them  well;  assur- 
ing them,  that  it  was  not  any  dissatisfaction  with 
their  government,  but  merely  their  submission  to 
divine  providence  and  his  majesty's  commands,  with- 
out any  seeking  of  their  own,  which  induced  them 
to  comply  with  the  present  separation,  which  they 


should  have  been  glad  had  never  taken  place;  sig- 
nifying their  desire  that  a  mutual  correspondence 
might  be  continued  for  defence  against  the  common 
enemy,  and  offering  their  service  when  it  should  be 
necessary." 

It  may  not  be  uninteresting  to  give  the  names  of 
the  deputies  in  this  first  assembly — which  were  for 
Portsmouth,  Robert  Eliot,  Philip  Lewis,  John  Pick- 
ering; for  Dover,  Peter  Coffin,  Anthony  Nutter, 
Richard  Waldron,  jun.;  for  Hampton/  Anthony 
Stanyon,  Thomas  Marston,  Edward  Gove;  for  Exe- 
ter, Bartholomew  Tippen,  Ralph  Hall. 

Their  next  care  was  to  frame  a  code  of  laws — of 
which  the  first,  conceived  in  a  style  becoming  free- 
men, was  "  that  no  act,  imposition,  law,  or  ordi- 
nance should  be  made  or  imposed  upon  them,  but 
such  as  should  be  made  by  the  assembly  and  ap- 
proved by  the  president  and  council."  Idolatry, 
blasphemy,  treason,  rebellion,  wilful  murder,  man- 
slaughter," poisoning,  witchcraft,  sodomy,  bestiality, 
perjury,  man  stealing,  cursing,  and  rebelling  against 
parents,  rape  and  arson,  were  made  capital  crimes. 
The  other  penal  laws  were  in  their  main  principles 
the  same  that  are  now  in  force.  To  prevent  con- 
tentions that  might  arise  by  reason  of  the  late  change 
of  government,  all  townships  and  grants  of  land  were 
confirmed,  and  ordered  to  remain  as  before;  and 
controversies  about  the  titles  of  land  were  to  be  de- 
termined by  juries  chosen  by  the  several  towns,  ac- 
cording to  former  custom.  The  president  and  coun- 
cil, with  the  assembly,  were  a  supreme  court  of  judi- 
cature, with  a  jury  when  desired  by  the  parties; 
and  three  inferior  courts  were  constituted  at  Dover, 
Hampton,  and  Portsmouth.  The  military  arrange- 
ment was,  one  foot  company  in  each  town,  one  com- 
pany of  artillery  at  the  fort,  and  one  troop  of  horse, 
all  under  the  command  of  Major  Waldron. 

During  this  administration,  things  went  on  as 
nearly  as  possible  in  the  old  channel,  and  with  the 
same  spirit,  as  before  the  separation.  A  jealous 
watch  was  kept  over  their  rights  and  privileges,  and 
every  encroachment  upon  them  was  withstood  to 
the  utmost.  The  duties  and  restrictions  established 
by  the  acts  of  trade  and  navigation  were  universally 
disgustful,  and  the  more  so  as  Randolph  was  ap- 
pointed collector,  surveyor  and  searcher  of  the  cus- 
toms throughout  New  England.  In  the  execution 
of  his  commission  he  seized  a  ketch  belonging  to 
Portsmouth,  but  bound  from  Maryland  to  Ireland, 
which  had  been  put  into  this  port  for  a  few  days. 
The  master,  Mark  Hunking,  brought  an  action 
against  him  at  a  special  court  before  the  president 
and  council,  and  recovered  damages  and  costs  to 
the  amount  of  13/.  Randolph  behaved  on  this  oc- 
casion with  such  insolence,  that  the  council  obliged 
him  publicly  to  acknowledge  his  offence  and  ask 
their  pardon.  He  appealed  from  their  judgment  to 
the  king,  but  what  the  issue  was  does  not  appear. 
Having  constituted  Captain  Walter  Barefoote  his 
deputy  at  this  port,  an  advertisement  was  published 
requiring  that  all  vessels  should  be  entered  and 
cleared  with  him.  Upon  which  Barefoote  was  brought 
to  examination,  and  afterwards  indicted  before  the 
president  and  council,  for  "  having  in  an  high  and 
presumptuous  manner  set  up  his  majesty's  office  of 
customs  without  leave  from  the  president  and  coun- 
cil, in  contempt  of  his  majesty's  authority  in  this 
place;  for  disturbing  and  obstructing  his  majesty's 
subjects  in  passing  from  harbour  to  harbour,  and 
town  to  town ;  and  for  his  insolence  in  making  no 
other  answer  to  any  question  propounded  to  him, 
but '  my  name  is  Walter.'  "  He  was  sentenced  to 


426 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


pay  a  fine  of  101.  and  stand  committed  till  it  was 
paid.  But  though  Randolph's  authority  was  denied, 
yet  they  made  an  order  of  their  own  for  the  observa- 
tion of  the  acts  of  trade,  and  appointed  officers  of 
their  own  to  see  them  executed.  They  had  been 
long  under  the  Massachusetts  government,  and 
learned  their  political  principles  from  them;  and 
as  they  had  been  used  to  think  that  all  royal  au- 
thority flowed  in  the  channel  of  the  charter,  so  they 
now  thought  that  no  authority  derived  from  the 
crown  could  be  regularly  exercised  in  the  province 
but  through  their  commission.  In  this  they  reasoned 
agreeably  not  only  to  their  former  principles,  but  to 
their  fundamental  law,  to  which  they  steadily  ad- 
hered, though  they  had  no  reason  to  think  it  would 
be  allowed  by  the  crown ;  and  though  they  knew 
that  a  rigid  adherence  to  rights,  however  clear  and 
sacred,  was  not  the  way  to  recommend  themselves 
to  royal  favour.  But  they  were  not  singular  in  these 
sentiments,  nor  in  their  opposition  to  the  laws  of 
trade.  Randolph  was  equally  hated,  and  his  com- 
mission neglected  at  Boston,  where  the  notary  re- 
fused to  enter  his  protest  against  the  proceedings  of 
the  court,  and  he  was  obliged  to  post  it  on  the  exchange. 

In  the  latter  end  of  the  year,  Mason  arrived  from 
England  with  a  mandamus,  requiring  the  council  to 
admit  him  to  a  seat  at  the  board,  which  was  accord- 
ingly done.  He  soon  entered  on  the  business  he 
came  about,  endeavouring  to  persuade  some  of  the 
people  to  take  leases  of  him — threatening  others  if 
they  did  not — forbidding  them  to  cut  firewood  and 
timber — asserting  his  right  to  the  province,  and  as- 
suming the  title  of  lord-proprietor.  His  agents,  or 
stewards  as  they  were  called,  had  rendered  them- 
selves obnoxious  by  demanding  rents  of  several  per- 
sons and  threatening  to  sell  their  houses  for  payment. 

(1681.)  These  proceedings  raised  a  general  un- 
easiness, and  petitions  were  sent  from  each  town,  as 
well  as  from  divers  individuals,  to  the  council  for 
protection,  who  taking  up  the  matter  judicially, 
published  an  order  prohibiting  Mason  or  his  agents 
at  their  peril  to  repeat  such  irregular  proceedings, 
and  declaring  their  intention  to  transmit  the  griev- 
ances and  complaints  of  the  people  to  the  king. 
Upon  this  Mason  would  no  longer  sit  in  council, 
though  desired,  nor  appear  when  sent  for;  when 
they  threatened  to  deal  with  him  as  an  offender,  he 
threatened  to  appeal  to  the  king,  and  published 
a  summons  to  the  president  and  several  members 
of  the  council,  and  others,  to  appear  before  his 
majesty  in  three  months.  This  was  deemed  "  an 
usurpation  over  his  majesty's  authority  here  estab- 
lished," and  a  warrant  was  issued  for  apprehending 
him,  but  he  got  out  of  their  reach  and  went  to  England. 

During  these  transactions  president  Cutts  died, 
and  Major  Waldron  succeeded  him,  appointing  Cap- 
tain Stilcman  for  his  deputy,  who  had  quitted  his 
place  of  secretary  upon  the  appointment  of  Richard 
Chamberlayne  to  that  office  by  royal  commission. 
The  vacancy  made  in  the  council  by  the  president's 
death,  was  filled  by  Richard  Waldron,  jun.  On  the 
death  of  Dalton,  Anthony  Nutter  was  chosen.  Henry 
Dow  was  appointed  marshal  in  the  room  of  Roberts, 
who  resigned. 

(1682.)  During  the  remainder  of  the  council's 
administration,  the  common  business  went  on  in  the 
usual  manner,  and  nothing  remarkable  is  mentioned, 
excepting  another  prosecution  of  Barefoote,  with  his 
assistants,  William  Haskins  and  Thomas  Thurton, 
for  seizing  a  vessel  "under  pretence  of  his  ma- 
jesty's name,  without  the  knowledge  of  the  au- 
toontiss  of  the  province,  and  without  shewing  any 


breach  of  statute  though  demanded."  Barefoote 
pleaded  his  deputation  from  Randolph,  but  he  was 
amerced  20Z.  to  be  respited  during  his  good  beha 
viour,  and  his  two  assistants  5/.  each;  the  complain 
ant  being  left  to  the  law  for  his  damages.  Thin 
affair  was  carried  by  appeal  to  the  king ;  but  the 
issue  is  not  mentioned. 

It  will  be  proper  to  close  the  account  of  this  ad 
ministration  with  a  view  of  the  state  of  the  province 
as  to  its  trade,  improvements  and  defence,  from  the 
following  representation  made  by  the  council  to  the 
lords  of  trade,  pursuant  to  their  order. 

"The  trade  of  the  province  is  in  masts,  planks, 
boards,  and  staves,  and  all  other  lumber,  which  at 
present  is  of  little  value  in  other  plantations,  to 
which  they  are  transported,  so  that  we  see  no  other 
way  for  the  advantage  of  the  trade,  unless  his  ma- 
jesty please  to  make  our  river  a  free  port. 

"  Importation  by  strangers  is  of  little  value;  ships 
commonly  selling  their  cargoes  in  other  govern- 
ments, and  if  they  come  here,  usually  come  empty 
to  fill  with  lumber:  but  if  haply  they  are  at  any 
time  loaded  with  fish,  it  is  brought  from  other  ports, 
there  being  none  made  in  our  province,  nor  likely 
to  be,  until  his  majesty  please  to  make  the  south 
part  of  the  Isles  of  Shoals  part  of  this  government, 
they  not  being  at  present  under  any. 

"  In  reference  to  the  improvement  of  lands  by  til- 
lage, our  soil  is  generally  so  barren,  and  the  winters 
so  extreme  cold  and  long,  that  there  is  not  provision 
enough  raised  to  supply  the  inhabitants,  many  of 
whom  were  in  the  late  Indian  war  so  impoverished, 
their  houses  and  estates  being  destroyed,  and  they 
and  others  remaining  still  so  incapacitated  for  the 
improvement  of  the  land,  (several  of  the  youth  being 
killed  also)  that  they  even  groan  under  the  tax  or 
rate  assessed  for  that  service,  which  is,  great  part 
of  it,  unpaid  to  this  day. 

"  There  is  at  the  Great  Island  in  Portsmouth,  at 
the  harbour's  mouth,  a  fort  well  enough  situated,  but 
for  the  present  too  weak  and  insufficient  for  the  de- 
fence of  the  place  ;  the  guns  being  eleven  in  num- 
ber, are  small,  none  exceeding  a  sacre  (six- pounder) 
nor  above  twenty-one  hundred  weight,  and  the  people 
too  poor  to  make  defence  suitable  to  the  occasion 
that  may  happen  for  the  fort. 

"  These  guns  were  bought,  and  the  fortification 
erected,  at  the  proper  charge  of  the  towns  of  Dover 
and  Portsmouth,  at  the  beginning  of  the  first  Dutch 
war,  about  the  year  1665,  in  obedience  to  his  ma- 
jesty's command  in  his  letter  to  the  government, 
under  which  this  province  then  was. 

"  There  are  five  guns  more  lying  at  the  upper 
part  of  Portsmouth,  purchased  by  private  persons, 
for  their  security  and  defence  against  the  Indians  in 
the  late  war  with  them,  and  whereof  the  owners  may 
dispose  at  their  pleasure.  To  supply  the  aforesaid 
defect  and  weakness  of  the  guns  and  fort,  we  humbly 
supplicate  his  majesty  to  send  us  such  guns  as  shall 
be  more  serviceable,  with  powder  and  shot." 

By  an  account  of  the  entries  in  the  port  annexed 
to  the  above,  it  appears,  that  from  the  15th  of  June 
1680,  to  the  12th  of  April  1681,  were  entered, 
twenty-two  ships,  eighteen  ketches,  two  barks,  three 
pinks,  one  shallop  and  one  fly  boat :  in  all  forty- 
seven.  "  The  Isles  of  shoals,"  mentioned  in  the 
foregoing  report,  must  have  been  settled  very  early, 
though  exactly  when  is  uncertain  :  as  they  are  most 
commodiously  situated  for  the  fishery,  they  were  a 
principal  object  with  the  first  settlers.  While  New 
Hampshire  was  united  to  Massachusetts,  they  were 
under  the  same  jurisdiction,  and  the  town  there 


UNITED  STATES. 


427 


erected  was  called  Appledore.  They  are  not  named 
in  Cutts'  nor  Cranfield's  commission:  but  under 
Dudley's  presidency,  causes  were  brought  from  thence 
to  Portsmouth,  which  is  said  to  be  in  the  same 
county.  In  Allen's  and  all  succeeding  commissions, 
they  are  particularly  mentioned;  the  south  half  of 
them  being  in  New  Hampshire. 

Taxes  were  commonly  paid  in  lumber  or  provisions 
at  stated  prices ;  and  whoever  paid  them  in  money 
was  abated  one-third  part.  The  prices  in  1680,  were 
as  follows : — merchantable  white  pine  boards  per 
thousand,  30s. ;  white  oak  pine  staves  per  thousand, 
31.  ;  red  oak  ditto  per  thousand,  30s. ;  red  oak  hogs- 
head ditto  per  thousand,  25s.:  Indian  corn  per 
bushel,  3s. ;  wheat  per  bushel,  5s. ;  malt  per  bushel, 
4*.  Silver  was  6s.  8d.  per  ounce. 

The  administration  of  Cranfield — Violent  measures- 
Insurrection,  trial,  and  imprisonment  of  Cove- 
Mason's  suits — Vaughan's  imprisonment — Prosecu- 
tion of  Moody  and  his  imprisonment — Arbitrary  pro- 
ceedings— Complaints —  Tumults—  Weare's  agency 
in  England — Cranfield's  removal— Barefoote' s  ad- 
ministration. 

(1682.)  Experience  having  now  convinced  Mason, 
that  the  government  which  he  had  procured  to  be 
erected  was  not  likely  to  be  administered  in  a  man- 
ner favourable  to  his  views,  he  made  it  his  business, 
on  his  return  to  England,  to  solicit  a  change ;  in 
consequence  of  which  it  was  determined  to  commis- 
sian  Edward  Cranfield,  esq.  lieut.-governor  and  com- 
mander in  chief  of  New  Hampshire.  By  a  deed  en- 
rolled in  the  court  of  chancery,  Mason  surrendered 
to  the  king  one-fifth  part  of  the  quit-rents,  which 
had  or  should  become  due  :  these,  with  the  fines  and 
forfeitures  which  had  accrued  to  the  crown  since  the 
establishment  of  the  province,  and  which  should  af- 
terward arise,  were  appropriated  to  the  support  of 
the  governor.  But  this  being  deemed  too  precarious 
a  foundation,  Mason  by  another  deed  mortgaged  the 
whole  province  to  Cranfield,  for  twenty-one  years, 
as  security  for  the  payment  of  150/.  per  annum,  for 
the  space  of  seven  years.  On  this  encouragement, 
Cranfield  relinquished  a  profitable  office  at  home, 
with  the  view  of  bettering  his  fortune  here. 

By  the  commission,  which  bears  date  the  9th  of 
May,  the  governor  was  impowered  to  call,  adjourn, 
prorogue  and  dissolve  general  courts ;  to  have  a  ne- 
gative voice  in  all  acts  of  government ;  to  suspend 
any  of  the  council  when  he  should  see  just  cause 
(and  every  counsellor  so  suspended  was  declared  in- 
capable of  being  elected  into  the  general  assembly)  ; 
to  appoint  a  deputy  governor,  judges,  justices,  and 
other  offices,  by  his  sole  authority  ;  and  to  execute 
the  powers  of  vice-admiral.  The  case  of  Mason  was 
recited  nearly  in  the  same  words  as  in  the  former 
commission,  and  the  same  directions  were  given  to 
the  governor  to  reconcile  differences,  or  send  cases 
fairly  stated  to  the  king  in  council,  for  his  decision. 
The  counsellors  named  in  this  commission  were  Ma- 
son, who  was  styled  proprietor,  Waldron,  Daniel, 
Vaughan,  Martyn,  Oilman,  Stileman,  and  Clements : 
these  were  of  the  former  council,  and  to  them  were 
added  Walter  Barefoote,  and  Richard  Chamber- 
lay  ne. 

Cranfield  arrived  and  published  his  commission 
on  the  4th  of  October,  and  within  six  days  Waldron 
and  Martyn  were  suspended  from  the  council,  on 
certain  articles  exhibited  against  them  by  Mason. 
This  early  specimen  of  the  exercise  of  power  must 
have  been  intended  as  a  public  affront  to  them,  in 
revenge  for  their  former  spirited  conduct;  otherwise 


their  names  might  have  been  left  out  of  the  commis- 
sion when  it  was  drawn. 

The  people  now  plainly  saw  the  dangerous  designs 
formed  against  them.  The  negative  voice  of  a  go- 
vernor, his  right  of  suspending  counsellors,  and  ap- 
pointing officers,  by  his  own  authority,  were  wholly 
unprecedented  in  New  England;  and  they  had  the 
singular  mortification  to  see  the  crown  not  only  ap- 
pointing two  branches  of  their  legislature,  but  claim- 
ing a  negative  on  the  election  of  their  representa- 
tives, in  a  particular  case,  which  might  sometimes 
be  essentially  necessary  to  their  own  security.  They 
well  knew  that  the  sole  design  of  these  novel  and 
extraordinary  powers  was  to  facilitate  the  entry  of 
the  claimant  on  the  lands  which  some  of  them  held 
by  virtue  of  grants  from  the  same  authority,  and 
which  had  all  been  fairly  purchased  of  the  Indians  ; 
a  right  which  they  believed  to  be  of  more  validity 
than  any  other.  Having  by  their  own  labour  and 
expense  subdued  a  rough  wilderness,  defended  their 
families  and  estates  against  the  savage  enemy,  with- 
out the  least  assistance  from  the  claimant,  and  held 
possession  for  above  fifty  years ;  they  now  thought 
it  hard  and  cruel,  that  when  they  had  just  recovered 
from  the  horrors  of  a  bloody  war,  they  should  have 
their  liberty  abridged,  and  their  property  demanded, 
to  satisfy  a  claim  which  was  at  best  disputable,  and 
in  their  opinion  groundless.  On- the  other  hand  it 
was  deemed  unjust,  that  grants  made  under  the 
royal  authority  should  be  disregarded ;  and  that  so 
great  a  sum  as  had  been  expended  by  the  ancestor 
of  the  claimant,  to  promote  the  settlement  of  the 
country,  should  be  entirely  lost  to  him ;  especially  as 
he  had  foregone  some  just  claims  on  the  estate  as 
a  condition  of  inheritance.  Had  the  inhabitants  by 
any  fraudulent  means  impeded  the  designs  of  the 
original  grantee,  or  embezzled  his  interest,  there 
might  have. been  a  just  demand  for  damages;  but 
the  unsuccessfulness  of  that  adventure  was  *o  be 
sought  for  in  its  own  impracticability,  or  the  negli 
gence,  inability,  or  inexperience  of  those  into  whose 
hands  the  management  of  it  fell  after  Captain  Ma- 
son's death,  and  during  the  minority  of  his  successor. 

An  assembly,  being  summoned,  met  on  the  14th 
of  November;  with  whose  concurrence  a  new  body 
of  laws  was  enacted,  in  some  respects  different  from 
the  former ;  the  fundamental  law  being  omitted, 
and  an  alteration  made  in  the  appointment  of  jurors, 
which  was  now  ordered  to  be  done  by  the  sheriff, 
after  the  custom  in  England. 

Cranfield,  who  made  no  secret  of  his  intention  to 
enrich  himself,  by  accepting  the  government,  on 
the  first  day  of  the  assembly  restored  Waldron  and 
Martyn  to  their  places  in  the  council ;  having,  as  he 
said,  examined  the  allegations  against  them,  and 
found  them  insufficient.  In  return  for  this  shew  of 
complaisance,  and  taking  advantage  of  his  needy 
situation,  the  assembly  having  ordered  an  assess- 
ment of  five  hundred  pounds,  appropriated  one  half 
of  it  as  a  present  to  the  governor ;  hoping  thereby 
to  detach  him  from  Mason,  who  they  knew  could 
never  comply  with  his  engagements  to  him.  Pre- 
ferring a  certainty  to  an  uncertainty,  he  passed  the 
bill,  though  it  was  not  presented  to  him  till  after  he 
had  given  orders  for  adjourning  the  court,  and  after 
Mason,  Barefoote,  and  Chamberlayne,  were  with- 
drawn from  the  council. 

(1683.)  This  appearance  of  good  humour  was  but 
short-lived ;  for  at  the  next  session  of  the  assembly, 
the  governor  and  council  having  tendered  them  a 
bill  for  the  support  of  government,  which  they  did 
not  approve,  and  they  having  offered  him  several 


428 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


bills  which  he  said  were  contrary  to  law,  he  dis- 
solved them ;  having  previously  suspended  Stileman 
from  the  council,  and  dismissed  him  from  the  com- 
mand of  the  fort,  for  suffering  a  vessel  under  seizure 
to  go  out  of  the  harbour.  Barefoote  was  made  cap- 
tain of  the  fort  in  his  room. 

The  dissolution  of  the  assembly,  a  thing  before 
unknown,  aggravated  the  popular  discontent,  and 
kindled  the  resentment  of  some  rash  persons  in 
Hampton  and  Exeter;  who,  headed  by  Edward 
Gove,  a  member  of  the  dissolved  assembly,  declared, 
by  sound  of  trumpet  "  for  liberty  and  reformation." 
There  had  been  a  town  meeting  at  Hampton,  when 
a  new  clerk  was  chosen,  and  their  records  secured. 
Gove  went  from  town  to  town,  proclaiming  what 
had  been  done  at  Hampton,  carrying  his  arms,  de- 
claring that  the  governor  was  a  traitor,  and  had 
exceeded  his  commission,  and  that  he  would  not  lay 
down  his  arms  till  matters  were  set  right — and  en- 
deavouring to  excite  the  principal  men  in  the  pro- 
vince to  join  in  a  confederacy  to  overset  the  govern- 
ment. His  project  appeared  to  them  so  wild  and 
dangerous,  that  they  not  only  disapproved  it,  but 
informed  against  him,  and  assisted  in  apprehending 
him.  Hearing  of  their  design,  he  collected  his 
company,  and  appeared  in  arms;  but  on  the  per- 
suasion of  some  of  his  friends  he  surrendered.  A 
special  court  was  immediately  commissioned  for  his 
trial,  of  which  Major  Waldron  sat  as  judge,  with 
William  Vaughan  and  Thomas  Daniel  assistants. 
The  grand  jury  presented  a  bill,  in  which  Edward 
Gove,  John  Gove,  his  son,  and  William  Hely,  of 
Hampton;  Joseph,  John,  and  Robert  Wadleigh, 
three  brothers,  Thomas  Rawlins,  Mark  Baker,  and 
John  Sleeper,  of  Exeter,  were  charged  with  high 
treason.  Gove,  who  behaved  with  great  insolence 
before  the  court,  and  pretended  to  justify  what  he 
had  done,  was  convicted,  and  received  sentence  of 
death  in  the  usual  form ;  and  his  estate  was  seized, 
as  forfeited  to  flie  crown.  The  others  were  con- 
victed of  being  accomplices,  and  respited.  The 
king's  pleasure  being  signified  to  the  governor  that 
he  should  pardon  such  as  he  judged  objects  of 
mercy;  they  were  all  set  at  liberty  but  Gove,  who 
was  sent  to  England,  and  imprisoned  in  the  tower 
of  London  about  three  years.  On  his  repeated  pe- 
titions to  the  king,  and  by  the  interest  of  Randolph 
with  the  Earl  of  Clarendon,  then  lord  chamberlain, 
he  obtained  his  pardon,  and  returned  home  in  1G8G, 
with  an  order  to  the  then  president  and  council  of 
New  England  to  restore  his  estate. 

Gove,  in  his  petitions  to  the  king,  pleaded  "  a 
distemper  of  mind"  as  the  cause  of  those  actions  for 
which  he  was  prosecuted.  He  also  speaks  in  some 
of  his  private  letters  of  a  drinking  match  at  his 
house,  and  that  he  had  not  slept  for  twelve  days  and 
nights,  about  that  time.  When  these  things  are 
considered,  it  is  not  hard  to  account  for  his  conduct. 
From  a  letter  which  he  wrote  to  the  court  while  in 
prison,  one  would  suppose  him  to  have  been  dis- 
ordered in  his  mind.  His  punishment  was  by  much 
too  severe,  and  his  trial  was  hurried  on  too  fast,  i1 
being  only  six  days  after  the  commission  of  his 
crime.  Had  he  been  indicted  only  for  a  riot,  there 
would  have  been  no  difficulty  in  the  proof,  nor 
hardship  in  inflicting  the  legal  penalty.  Waldron 
it  is  said,  shed  tears  when  pronouncing  sentence  o 
death  upon  him. 

On  the  14th  of  February  the  governor,  by  adver- 
tisement, called  upon  the  inhabitants  to  take  out 
leases  from  Mason  within  one  month,  otherwise  he 
must,  pursuant  to  his  instructions,  certify  the  refusa 


;o  the  king,  that  Mason  might  be  discharged  of  his 
obligation  to  grant  them.  Upon  this  summons,  and 
within  the  time  set,  Major  Waldron,  John  Win- 
jett,  and  Thomas  Roberts,  three  of  the  principal 
landholders  in  Dover,  waited  on  the  governor  to 
know  his  pleasure,  who  directed  them  to  agree  with 
Mason.  They  then  retired  into  another  room  where 
Mason  was,  and  proposed  to  refer  the  matter  to  the 
governor,  that  he  might,  according  to  his  commis- 
sion, state  the  matter  to  the  king  fur  his  decision. 
This  proposal  Mason  rejected,  saying  that  unless 
they  would  own  his  title,  he  would  have  nothing  to 
do  with  them.  While  they  were  in  discourse  the 
governor  came  in,  and  desired  them  to  depart. 

This  piece  of  conduct  is  difficult  to  be  accounted 
for,  it  being  directly  in  the  face  of  the  commission. 
Had  the  method  therein  prescribed,  and  by  these 
men  proposed,  been  adopted,  it  was  natural  to  expect 
that  the  king,  who  had  ail  along  favoured  Mason's 
pretensions,  would  have  determined  the  case  as 
much  to  his  wish  as  upon  an  appeal  from  a  judicial 
court;  besides,  he  had  now  the  fairest  opportunity 
to  have  it  decided  in  the  shortest  way,  to  which  his 
antagonists  must  have  submitted,  it  being  their  own 
proposal.  His  refusal  to  accede  to  it  was  a  great 
mistake,  as  it  left  both  him  and  Cranfield  exposed 
to  the  charge  of  disobedience.  But  it  afforded  a 
powerful  plea  in  behalf  of  the  people  ;  whose  confi- 
dence in  the  royal  justice  would  have  induced  them 
to  comply  with  the  directions  in  the  commission. 
It  being  now  impossible  to  have  the  controversy  thus 
decided,  they  determined  to  hearken  to  none  of  hii 
proposals.  As  he  generally  met  with  opposition 
and  contradiction,  he  was  induced  to  utter  many  rash 
sayings  in  all  companies.  He  threatened  to  seize 
the  principal  estates,  beggar  their  owners,  and  pro- 
voke them  to  rebellion,  by  bringing  a  frigate  into 
the  harbour,  and  procuring  soldiers  to  be  quartered 
on  the  inhabitants.  These  threats  were  so  far  from 
intimidating  the  people,  that  they  served  the  more 
firmly  to  unite  them  in  their  determination  not  to 
submit ;  and  each  party  was  now  warm  in  their  op- 
position and  resentment. 

The  governor,  on  some  fresh  pretence,  suspended 
Waldron,  Martyn,  and  Gilman,  from  the  council. 
The  deaths  of  Daniels  and  Clements  made  two  other 
vacancies.  Vaughan  held  his  seat  the  longest,  but 
was  at  length  thrust  out  for  his  non-compliance  with 
some  arbitrary  measures.  So  that  the  governor  had 
it  in  his  power  to  model  the  council  to  his  mind, 
which  he  did,  by  appointing  at  various  times  Na- 
thaniel Fryer,  Robert  Eliot,  John  Hinckes,  James 
Sherlock,  Francis  Shampernoon,  and  Edward  Ran- 
dolph, Esqs.  The  judicial  courts  were  also  filled 
with  officers  proper  for  the  intended  business.  Bare- 
foote, the  deputy-governor,  was  judge :  Mason  was 
chancellor;  Charnberlayne  was  clerk  and  prothono- 
tary ;  Randolph  was  attorney-general,  and  Sherlock 
provost  marshal  and  sheriff.  Some,  who  had  always 
been  disaffected  to  the  country,  and  others  who  had 
been  awed  by  threats,  or  flattered  by  promises,  took 
leases  from  Mason ;  and  these  serve'd  for  umler-she- 
rift's,  jurors,  evidences,  and  other  necessary  persons. 

Things  being  thus  prepared,  Mason  began  his 
law-suits  by  a  writ  against  Major  Waldron  (who 
had  always  distinguished  himself  in  opposition  to  this 
claim),  for  holding  lands  and  felling  timber  to  the 
amount  of  4,OOOJ.  The  major  appeared  in  court, 
and  changellcd  every  one  of  the  jury  as  interested 
persons,  some  of  them  having  taken  leases  of  Mason, 
and  all  of  them  living  upon  the  lands  which  he 
claimed.  The  judge  then  caused  the  oath  of  voire 


UNITED  STATES. 


429 


dire  to  be  administered  to  each  juror,  purporting 
"  that  he  was  not  concerned  in  the  lands  in  ques- 
tion, and  that  he  should  neither  gain  nor  lose  by  the 
cause."  Upon  which  the  major  said  aloud  to  the 
people  present,  "  That  his  was  a  leading  case,  and 
that  if  he  were  cast  they  must  all  become  tenants  lo 
Mason ;  and  that  all  persons  in  the  province  being 
interested,  none  of  them  could  legally  be  of  the  jury." 
The  case  however  went  on ;  but  he  made  no  defence, 
asserted  no  title,  and  gave  no  evidence  on  his  part. 
Judgment  was  given  against  him,  and  at  the  next 
court  of  sessions  he  was  fined  bl.  for  "mutinous  and 
seditious  words." 

Suits  were  then  instituted  against  all  the  principal 
landholders  in  the  province,  who,  following  Wal- 
dron's  example,  never  made  any  defence.  Some, 
chiefly  of  Hampton,  gave  in  writing  their  reasons 
for  not  joining  issue,  which  were,  the  refusal  of 
Mason  to  comply  with  the  directions  in  the  commis- 
sion ;  the  impropriety  of  a  jury  determining  what 
the  king  had  expressly  reserved  to  himself;  and  the 
incompetency  of  the  jury,  they  being  all  interested 
persons,  one  of  whom  had  said  that  "  he  would  spend 
his  estate  to  make  Mason's  right  good."  These 
reasons  were  irritating  rather  than  convincing  to 
the  court.  The  jury  never  hesitated  in  their  ver- 
dicts. From  seven  to  twelve  causes  were  dispatched 
in  a  day,  and  the  costs  were  multiplied  from  bl.  to 
201.  Executions  were  issued,  of  which  two  or  three 
only  were  levied ;  but  Mason  could  neither  keep 
possession  of  the  premises  nor  dispose  of  them  by 
sale,  so  that  the  owners  still  enjoyed  them.  Several 
threatened  to  appeal  to  the  king,  but  Major  Vaughan 
alone  made  the  experiment. 

A  suit  was  also  commenced  against  Martyn,  who 
had  been  treasurer,  for  the  fines  and  forfeitures  re- 
ceived by  him,  during  the  former  administration; 
and  judgment  was  recovered  for  711.  with  costs. 
Martyn  petitioned  Mason  as  chancellor,  setting 
forth  that  he  had  received  and  disposed  of  the  money 
according  to  the  orders  of  the  late  president  and 
council,  and  praying  that  the  whole  burden  might 
not  lie  upon  him.  A  decree  was  then  issued  for  the 
other  surviving  members  of  the  late  council,  and  the 
heirs  of  those  who  were  dead,  to  bear  their  propor- 
tion. This  decree  was  afterwards  reversed  by  the 
king  in  council. 

Cranfield  with  his  council  had  now  assumed  the 
whole  legislative  power.  They  prohibited  vessels 
from  Massachusetts  to  enter  the  port,  because  the 
acts  of  trade  were  not  observed  in  that  colony  :  they 
fixed  the  dimensions  of  mercantile  lumber;  altered 
the  value  of  silver  money,  which  had  always  passed 
by  weight  at  6s.  Sd.  per  ounce,  and  ordered  that 
dollars  should  be  received  at  6s.  each,  which  was 
then  a  great  hardship,  as  many  of  them  were  greatly- 
deficient  in  weight:  they  also  changed  the  bounds 
of  townships;  established  fees  of  office;  made  regu- 
lations for  the  package  of  fish,  and  ordered  the  con- 
stables to  forbear  collecting  any  town  or  parish  taxes 
till  the  province  tax  was  paid,  and  the  accounts  set- 
tled with  the  treasurer. 

The  public  grievances  having  become  insupport- 
able, the  people  were  driven  to  the  necessity  of  mak- 
ing a  vigorous  stand  for  their  liberties.  The  only 
regular  way  was  by  complaint  to  the  king.  Having 
privately  communicated  their  sentiments  to  each 
other,  and  raised  money  by  subscription,  they  ap- 
pointed Nathanial  Weare,  Esq.,  of  Hampton,  their 
agent;  and  the  four  towns  having  drawn  and  sub- 
scribed distinct  petitions  of  the  same  tenor,  Weare 
privately  withdrew  to  Boston  from  whence  he  sailed 


for  England.  Major  Vaughan  who  accompanied 
him  to  Boston,  and  was  appointed  to  procure  depo- 
sitions to  send  after  him,  was,  upon  his  return  to 
Portsmouth,  brought  to  an  examination,  treated  with 
great  insolence,  and  required  to  find  sureties  for  his 
good  behaviour,  which,  having  broken  no  law,  he 
refused,  and  was  by  the  governor's  own  warrant  im- 
mediately committed  to  prison,  where  he  was  kept 
nine  months  to  the  great  damage  of  his  health,  and 
of  his  own  as  well  as  the  people's  interest. 

(1684.)  Amidst  these  multiplied  oppressions,  Cran- 
field was  still  disappointed  of  the  gains  he  had  ex- 
pected to  reap  from  his  office;  and  found  to  his  great 
mortification,  that  there  was  no  way  of  supplying 
his  wants,  but  by  application  to  the  people  through 
an  assembly.  He  had  already  abused  them  so  much 
that  he  could  hope  nothing  from  their  favour,  and 
was  therefore  obliged  to  have  recourse  to  artifice.  On 
a  vague  rumour  of  a  foreign  war,  he  pretended  much 
concern  for  the  preservation  of  the  province  from 
invasion;  and  presuming  that  they  would  shew  the 
same  concern  for  themselves,  he  called  an  assembly 
at  Great  Island  where  he  resided,  to  whom  he  ten- 
dered a  bill,  which  in  a  manner  totally  unparlia- 
mentary, had  been  drawn  and  passed  by  the  council, 
for  raising  money  to  defray  the  expense  of  repairing 
the  fort,  and  supplying  it  with  ammunition,  and  for 
other  necessary  charges  of  government.  The  house 
debated  awhile,  and  adjourned  for  the  night,  and 
the  tide  serving,  the  members  went  up  to  the  town. 
In  the  morning  they  returned  the  bill  with  their 
negative,  at  which  the  governor  was  highly  enraged, 
and  telling  them  that  they  had  been  to  consult  with 
Moody,  and  other  declared  enemies  of  the  king  and 
church  of  England,  he  dissolved  them;  and  after- 
ward by  his  influence  with  the  court  of  sessions,  di- 
vers of  the  members  were  made  constables  for  the 
following  year.  Some  of  them  took  the  oath,  and 
others  paid  the  fine,  which  was  101.  Thus  by  a 
mean  and  execrable  revenge,  he  taxed  those  whom 
he  could  not  persuade  to  tax  their  constituents  for 
his  purposes. 

But  Moody  was  marked  as  an  object  of  peculiar 
vengeance.  He  had  for  some  time  rendered  him- 
self obnoxious  by  the  freedom  and  plainness  of  his 
pulpit  discourses,  and  his  strictness  in  administering 
the  discipline  of  the  church;  one  instance  of  which 
merits  particular  notice.  Randolph  having  seized  a 
vessel,  it  was  in  the  night  carried  out  of  the  harbour. 
The  owner,  who  was  a  member  of  the  church,  swore 
that  he  knew  nothing  of  it,  but  upon  trial  there  ap- 
peared strong  suspicions  that  he  had  perjured  him- 
self: he  found  mean.?  to  make  up  the  matter  with 
the  governor  and  collector,  but  Moody  being  con- 
cerned for  the  purity  of  his  church,  requested  of  the 
governor  copies  of  the  evidence,  that  the  offender 
might  be  called  to  account  in  the  way  of  ecclesias- 
tical discipline.  Cranfield  sternly  refused,  saying 
that  he  had  forgiven  him,  and  that  neither  the 
church  nor  minister  should  meddle  with  him.  and 
even  threatened  Moody  in  case  he  should.  Not  in- 
timidated, Moody  consulted  the  church,  and  preached 
a  sermon  against  false  swearing;  then  the  offender, 
being  called  to  account,  was  censured,  and  at  length 
brought  to  a  public  confession.  This  procedure  ex- 
tremely disgusted  the  governor,  who  had  no  way 
then  in  his  power  to  shew  his  resentment.  But 
malice,  ever  fruitful  in  expedients  to  attain  its  ends, 
suggested  a  method,  which,  to  the  scandal  of  the 
English  nation,  has  been  too  often  practised.  The 
penal  laws  against  nonconformists  were  at  this  time 
executing  with  great  rigour  in  England;  and  Cran- 


430 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


field,  ambitious  to  ape  his  royal  master,  determined 
to  play  off  the  ecclesiastical  artillery  here,  the  di- 
rection of  which  he  supposed  to  be  deputed  to  him 
with  his  other  powers.  He  had  attempted  to  impose 
upon  the  people  the  observation  of  the  30th  of  Jan- 
uary as  a  fast,  and  restrain  them  from  manual  labour 
at  Christmas :  but  his  capital  stroke  was  to  issue  an 
order  in  council  "  That  after  the  1st  of  January,  the 
ministers  should  admit  all  persons  of  suitable  years 
and  not  vicious,  to  the  lord's  supper,  and  their  child- 
ren to  baptism;  and  that  if  any  person  should  desire 
Dapfeism,  or  the  other  sacrament  to  be  administered 
according  to  the  liturgy  of  the  church  of  England, 
it  should  be  done  in  pursuance  of  the  king's  com- 
mand to  the  colony  of  Massachusetts;  and  any 
minister  refusing  so  to  do,  should  suffer  the  penalty 
of  the  statutes  of  uniformity." 

The  same  week  in  which  he  dissolved  the  assembly, 
he  signified  to  Moody  in  writing,  by  the  hands  of  the 
sheriff,  that  himself,  with  Mason  and  Hinckes,  in- 
tended to  partake  of  the  Lord's  supper  the  next 
Sunday,  requiring  him  to  administer  it  to  them  ac- 
cording to  the  liturgy  ;  and,  as  they  justly  expected, 
he  at  once  denied  them.     The  way  was  now  opened 
for  a  persecution ;  and  the  attorney-general,  Joseph 
Rayn,  by  the  governor's  order  exhibited  an  infor- 
mation at  the  next  court  of  sessions,  before  Walter 
Barefoote,    Judge,    Nathaniel    Fryer    and    Henry 
Greene,   assistants,  Peter  Coffin,  Thomas  Edgerly 
and  Henry  Robie,  justices,    setting   forth,  "  that 
Joshua  Moody,  clerk,  being  minister  of  the  town  of 
Portsmouth,  within  the  dominions  of  King  Charles, 
was  by  the  duty  of  his  place   and  the  laws  of  the 
realm,  viz.  the  statutes  of  the  fifth  and  sixth  of  Ed- 
ward VI.,  the  first  of  Elizabeth,  and  the  thirteenth 
and  fourteenth  of  Charles  II.,  required  to  adminis- 
ter the  Lord's  supper  in  such  form  as  was  set  forth 
in  the  book  of  Common  Prayer,  and  no  other.    But 
that  the  said  Moody,  in  contempt  of  the  laws,  had 
wilfully  and  obstinately  refused  to  administer  the 
same  to  the  Honourable  Edward  Cranfield,  Robert 
Mason,  and  John  Hinckes,  and  did  obstinately  use 
some  other  form."     Moody  in  his   defence  pleaded, 
that  he  was  not  episcopally  ordained  as  the  statutes 
required ;  nor  diet  he   receive   his  maintenance  ac- 
cording to  them,  and  therefore  was  not  obliged  to 
the  performance  of  what  had  been  commanded;  that 
the  alleged  statutes  were  not  intended  for  these  plan- 
tations, the  known  and  avowed  end  of  their  settle- 
ment being  the  enjoyment  of  freedom  from  the  im- 
position of  those  laws ;  which  freedom  was  allowed 
and   confirmed  by  the  king,  in  the  liberty  of  con- 
science granted  to  all  protestants,  in  the  governor's 
commission.     Four  of  the  justices,  viz.  Greene,  Ro- 
bie, Edgerly,  and  Fryer,  were  at  first  for  acquitting 
him  ;  but  the  matter  being  adjourned  till  the  nexi 
day,  Cranfield  found  means  before  morning  to  gain 
Robie  and  Greene,  who  then  joined  with  Barefoote 
and  Coffin,  in  sentencing  him  to  six  months  impri 
sonment,  without  bail  or  mainprize.     The  other  twc 
persisted  in  their  former  opinion,  and  were  soon  afte; 
removed  from  all  their  offices.     Moody  was  imme 
diately  ordered  into  custody,  without  being  permittee 
first  to  see  his  family  ;  and  he  remained  under  con 
finement,  in  company  with  Major  Vaughan,  at  the 
house  of  Captain  Stileman,  with  liberty  of  the  yard 
for  thirteen  weeks,   "  his   benefice"  being  declarec 
forfeited  to  the  crown.    The  next  week  after  Moody' 
trial,  the  governor  in  a  profane  bravado,  sent  won 
to  Seaborn  Cotton,  minister  of  Hampton,  that  "when 
he  had  prepared  his  soul,  he  would  come  and  demand 
the  sacrament  of  him  as  he  had  done  at  Portsmouth.1 


Upon  which  Cotton  withdrew  to  Boston.     The  mi- 
lister  of  Dover,  John  Pike,  was  apparently  unmo- 
ested.     Exeter  had  then  no  settled  minister. 
During  Moody's  imprisonment,  Cranfield  would 
either  suffer  him  to  go  up  to  the  town  to  preach, 
or  the  people  to  assemble  at  the  island  to  hear,  nor 
tie  neighbouring  ministers  to  supply  his  place  ;  only 
he  family  where  he  was  confined  were  permitted  to 
)e  present  with  him  at  Sabbath  exercises.    But  while 
he  governor  was  absent  on  a  tour  to  New  York, 
Mason  gave  leave  for  opening  the  meeting-house 
wice,  when  they  obtained  a  minister  to  officiate  ;  he 
,lso  allowed  both  Moody  and  Vaughan  to  make  a 
hort  visit  to  their  families.     At  length,  by  the  in- 
erposition  of  friends,    Moody  obtained  a  release, 
hough  under  a  strict  charge  to   preach  no  more 
within  the  province,  on  penalty  of  farther  imprison- 
ment.    He  then  accepted  an  invitation  from  the 
first  church  in  Boston  ;  where  being  out  of  the  reach 
of  his  persecutors,   he  was  employed  as  a  preacher, 
and  was  so  highly  esteemed,  that  upon  the  death  of 
President  Rogers  he  was  invited  to  take  the  over- 
ight  of  the  college,  which  he  modestly  declined, 
ind  continued  his  ministrations  at  Boston,  frequently 
visiting  his  destitute  church  at  Portsmouth,  at  their 
>rivate  meetings,  till  1692,  when,  the  government 
)eing  in  other  hands,  and  the  eastern  country  under 
.rouble  by  the  Indians,  at  the  earnest  request  of  his 
people,  and  by  the  advice  of  an  ecclesiastical  coun- 
cil, he  returned  to  his  charge  at  Portsmouth,  and 
pent  the  rest  of  his  days  there  in  usefulness,  love, 
and  peace. 

Upon  a  calm  review  of  this  prosecution,  one  can 
lardly  tell  which  is  most  detestable,  the  vindictive 
;emper  which  gave  it  birth,  or  the  profaneness  and 
lypocrisy  with  which  it  was  conducted.  The  pre- 
;ended  zeal  of  the  prosecutors  was  totally  inconsist- 
ent with  a  due  regard  to  those  laws,  and  the  prin- 
ciples of  that  church,  for  which  they  made  themselves 
such  contemptible  champions.  For  it  had  been  long 
before  this  time,  a  received  opinion  in  the  church  of 
England,  that  the  validity  of  all  the  sacramental 
administrations  depends  on  authority  derived  from 
the  apostles,  by  episcopal  ordination,  in  an  uninter- 
rupted succession  ;  and  one  of  the  statutes  on  which 
the  prosecution  was  grounded,  enacts  lt  lhac  no 
person  shall  presume  to  consecrate  and  administer 
the  Lord's  supper,  before  he  be  ordained  a  priest  by 
episcopal  ordination,  on  pain  of  forfeiting  for  every 
offence,  100/."  The  ministers  then  in  the  province, 
being  destitute  of  the  grand  pre-requisite,  were  in- 
capable by  the  act  of  doing  what  was  so  peremptorily 
required  of  them ;  and  had  they  complied  with  the 
governor's  order,  must  have  exposed  themselves  to 
the  penalty,  if  he  had  pleased  to  exact  it  from  them. 
But  the  extending  these  penalties  to  the  king's 
American  subjects,  who  had  fled  thither  from  the  rod 
of  prelatic  tyranny,  was  a  most  unwarrantable  stretch 
of  power ;  since  the  last  of  these  acts,  and  the  only 
one  which  had  been  made  since  the  settlement  of 
the  colonies,  was  expressly  restricted  in  its  operation, 
to  "  the  realm  of  England,  dominion  of  Wales,  and 
town  of  Berwick  upon  Tweed." 

Disappointed  in  all  his  schemes  for  raising  money 
by  an  assembly,  Cranfield  next  ventured  on  the 
project  of  taxing  the  people  without  their  consent, 
The  pretext  for  this  was  a  clause  in  the  commission, 
empowering  him,  with  the  council,  "  to  continue 
such  taxes  as  had  been  formerly  levied,  until  a  ge- 
neral assembly  could  be  called."  This  had  been 
done,  without  "offence,  at  the  beginning  both  of  this 
and  the  former  administration,  when  the  change  of 


UNITED  STATES. 


431 


government  rendered  it  necessary.  But  the  council, 
though  too  much  devoted  to  him,  were  not  easily 
persuaded  into  the  measure  at  this  time ;  till  fear  at 
length  accomplished  what  reason  could  not  approve : 
for,  letters  being  received  from  the  eastward,  stating 
the  discovery  of  a  plot  among  the  Indians,  who  were 
instigated  by  Castine  the  Frenchman  to  renew  the 
war  early  in  the  spring,  the  council  were  summoned 
in  haste,  and  presently  agreed  to  the  governor's 
proposal  for  continuing  such  taxes  as  had  been 
formerly  laid,  which  he  told  them  were  necessary  for 
the  immediate  defence  and  security  of  the  province. 
This  affair,  however,  was  kept  secret  for  the  pre- 
sent :  and  the  people  were  first  to  be  convinced  of 
the  governor's  paternal  care  and  kindness  in  taking 
the  necessary  precautions  for  their  safety.  It  was 
ordered  that  the  meeting-houses  in  each  town  should 
be  fortified,  and  bye  garrisons  were  established  in 
convenient  places :  supplies  of  ammunition  were 
ordered  to  be  provided :  circular  letters  were  dis- 
patched to  the  governors  of  the  neighbouring  colo- 
nies, informing  them  of  the  danger ;  and,  to  crown 
the  whole,  Cranfield  himself,  at  the  request  of  the 
council,  undertook  a  tour  to  New  York,  to  solicit 
the  governor,  Dongan,  for  a  number  of  the  Mohawks 
to  come  down  and  destroy  the  eastern  Indians; 
promising  to  pay  them  for  their  services  out  of  the 
money  which  was  thus  to  be  raised. 

At  his  return  from  this  excursion,  he  found  him- 
self under  some  embarrassment  in  his  favourite 
views,  from  a  letter  of  the  lords  of  trade,  which  di- 
rected him  to  make  use  of  an  assembly,  in  raising 
money  on  the  people.  He  could  not,  therefore, 
avoid  calling  one,  though  he  immediately  dissolved 
it,  because  several  of  the  members  were  those  whom 
he  had  formerly  ordered  to  be  made  constables.  At 
the  same  time,  in  his  letters  to  the  secretary  of  state, 
he  represented  the  assembly  as  persons  of  such  a 
mutinous  and  rebellious  disposition,  that  it  was  not 
safe  to  let  them  convene ;  that  they  had  never  given 
any  tiling  toward  the  support  of  government;  that 
he  was  obliged  to  raise  money  without  them;  and 
that  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  serve  his  majesty's 
interest  without  a  ship  of  war  to  enforce  his  orders  ; 
and,  finally,  he  desired  leave  to  go  to  the  West 
Indies  for  the  recovery  of  his  health.  When  this 
business  was  dispatched,  warrants  were  issued  for 
collecting  the  taxes ;  which  caused  fresh  murmur- 
ings  and  discontent  among  the  people. 

But  however  disaffected  to  the  governor  and  his 
creatures,  they  were  always  ready  to  testify  their 
obedience  to  the  royal  orders  ;  an  instance  of  which 
occurred  at  this  time.  The  seas  of  America  and  the 
West  Indies  being  much  infested  with  pirates,  the 
king  sent  orders  to  all  the  governors  and  colony  as- 
semblies, directing  acts  to  be  made  for  the  suppress- 
ing of  piracy  and  robbery  on  the  high  seas.  Cran- 
fi-eld,  having  received  this  order,  summoned  an  as- 
sembly ;  and  though  it  consisted  almost  entirely  of 
the  same  persons  who  were  in  the  last,  he  suffered 
them  to  pass  the  act,  and  then  quietly  dissolved 
them  :  and  this  was  the  last  assembly  that  he  called. 

The  tax-bills  were  first  put  into  the  hands  of  the 
newly-made  co-nstables;  who  soon  returned  them, 
informing  the  governor  that  the  people  were  so 
averse  from  the  method,  that  it  was  impossible  to 
collect  the  money.  The  provost,  Thomas  Thurton, 
was  then  commanded  to  do  it,  with  the  assistance  of 
his  deputies  and  the  constables.  The  people  still 
refusing  compliance,  their  cattle  and  goods  were 
taken  by  distraint,  and  sold  by  auction  :  those  who 
would  neither  pay  nor  discover  their  goods  to  the 


officers,  were  apprehended  and  imprisoned;  and 
some  of  the  constables,  who  refused  to  assist,  suffered 
the  same  fate.  The  more  considerate  of  the  people 
were  disposed  to  bear  these  grievances,  though  highly 
irritating,  till  they  could  know  the  result  of  their 
applications  to  the  king.  But  in  a  country  where 
the  love  of •  liberty  had  ever  been  the  ruling  passion, 
it  could  not  be  expected  but  that  some  forward 
spirits  would  break  the  restraints  of  prudence,  and 
take  a  summary  method  to  put  a  stop  to  their  op- 
pressions. Several  persons  had  declared  that  they 
would  sooner  part  with  their  lives,  than  suffer  dis- 
traints; and  associations  were  formed  for  mutual 
support.  At  Exeter  the  sheriff  was  resisted,  and 
driven  off  with  clubs ;  the  women  having  prepared 
hot  spits  and  scalding  water  to  assist  in  the  opposi- 
tion, as  Thurton  testified  in  his  deposition  on  the 
occasion.  At  Hampton  he  was  beaten,  and  his 
sword  was  taken  from  him ;  then  he  was  seated  on 
a  horse,  and  conveyed  out  of  the  province  to  Salis- 
bury with  a  rope  about  his  neck,  and  his  feet  tied 
under  the  horse's  belly.  Justice  Robe  attempted  to 
commit  some  of  the  rioters ;  but  they  were  rescued 
by  the  way,  and  both  the  justice  and  the  sheriff 
were  struck  in  the  execution  of  their  office.  The 
troop  of  horse,  under  Mason's  command,  was  then 
ordered  to  turn  out  completely  mounted  and  armed, 
to  assist  in  suppressing  the  disorders ;  but  when  the 
day  came  not  one  trooper  appeared.  Cranfield, 
thus  finding  his  efforts  ineffectual,  and  his  authority 
contemptible,  was  obliged  to  desist. 

The  agent  had  been  a  long  time  in  England, 
waiting  for  the  depositions  which  were  to  have  been 
transmitted  to  him  in  support  of  the  complaint 
which  he  was  to  exhibit.  Cranfield  and  his  crea- 
tures here  did  all  they  could  to  retard  the  business ; 
first,  by  imprisoning  Vaughan,  and  then  by  refusing 
to  summon  and  swear  witnesses  when  applied  to  by 
others,  who  were  obliged  to  go  into  the  neighbour- 
ing governments,  to  get  their  depositions  authenti- 
cated ;  and  after  all  the  proof  was  defective,  as  they 
had  not  access  to  the  public  records.  The  agent, 
however,  exhibited  his  complaint  against  Cranfield 
in  general  terms,  consisting  of  eight  articles.  "  That 
he  had  engrossed  the  power  of  erecting  courts,  and 
establishing  fees  exclusive  of  the  assembly;  that  he 
had  not  followed  the  directions  in  his  commission 
respecting  Mason's  controversy,  but  had  caused  it 
to  be  decided  on  the  spot  by  courts  of  his  own  con- 
stitution, consisting  wholly  of  persons  devoted  to 
his  interest ;  that  exorbitant  charges  had  been  ex- 
acted, and  some,  who  were  unable  to  satisfy  them, 
had  been  imprisoned ;  that  others  had  been  obliged 
to  submit,  for  want  of  money  to  carry  on  the  suits ; 
that  he  had  altered  the  value  of  silver  money ;  that 
he  had  imprisoned  sundry  persons  without  just  cause; 
that  he,  with  his  council,  had  assumed  legislative 
authority,  without  an  assembly ;  and,  that  he  had 
done  his  utmost  to  prevent  the  people  from  laying 
their  complaints  before  the  king,  and  procuring  the 
necessary  evidence." 

The  complaint  was  referred  to  the  board  of  trade, 
who  transmitted  copies  of  it,  and  of  the  several 
proofs,  to  Cranfield,  and  summoned  him  to  make  his 
defence;  directing  him  to  deliver  to  the  adverse 
party,  copies  of  all  the  affidavits  which  should  be 
taken  in  his  favour;  to  let  all  persons  have  free  ac- 
cess to  the  records;  and  to  give  all  needful  assis- 
tance to  them  in  collecting  their  evidence  against  him. 

When  he  had  received  this  letter  he  suspended 
Mason's  suits,  till  the  question  concerning  the  le- 
gality of  the  courts  should  be  decided.  He  also  or- 


432 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


dered  the  secretary  to  give  copies  to  those  who 
should  apply  for  them.  At  the  same  time  it  was 
complained  that  the  people,  on  their  part,  had  been 
equally  reserved,  in  secreting  the  records  of  the 
several  towns,  so  that  Mason  upon  enquiry  could 
not  find  where  they  were  deposited  ;  and  the  town 
clerks,  when  summoned,  had  solemnly  sworn  that 
they  knew  neither  where  the  books  were  concealed, 
nor  who  had  taken  them  out  of  their  possession. 

(1685.)   The  necessary   evidence    on  both   sides 
being  procured,   a  new  complaint  was   drawn  up, 
consisting  of  twelve  articles,  which  were,  "  That  at 
the  first  session  of  the  assembly,  Cranfield  had  chal- 
lenged the  power  of  legislation  and  settlement  of  the 
affairs  to  himself  against  the  words  of  the  commis- 
sion: That  he  had  by  purchase  or  mortgage  from 
Mason,  made  himself  owner  of  the  province,  and  so 
was  not  likely  to  act  impartially  between  Mason  and 
the  inhabitants:  That  he  had  made  courts,  whereof 
both  judges  and  jurors  had  agreed  with  Mason  for 
their  own  lands,  and  some  had  taken  deeds  of  him 
for  other  men's  lands,  so  that  they  were  engaged  by 
their  interest  to  set  up  Mason's  title:  That  Mason 
had  sued  forty  persons,  and  cast  all ;  and  that  the 
governor's  interposal  to  state  the  cases,  as  by  his 
commission  he  was  directed,  had  been  refused  though 
desired;  and  that  the  defendants'  pleas  grounded 
on  the  laws  of  England  were  rejected:   That  they 
could  not  reconcile  the  verdict  with  the  attachment 
nor  the  execution  with  the  verdict,  nor  their  prac- 
tice under  colour  of  the  execution  with  either;  thai 
the  verdict  found  the  lands  sued  for  according  to  th< 
royal  commission  and  instructions,  and  that  the  com 
mission  only  gave  power  to  state  the  case  if  Mason 
and  the  people  could  not  agree;  but  the  execution 
took  land  and  all:  That  the  charge  of  every  actioi 
was  about  6/.,  though  nothing  was  done  in  court  bu 
reading  the   commission,    and  some  blank  grant 
without  hand  or  seal;  and  these  were  not  read  fo 
one  case  in  ten :  That  court  charges  were  exactec 
in  money,  which  many  had  not;  who  though  the) 
tendered  cattle,  were  committed  to  prison  for  non 
payment:  That  ministers,  contrary  to  his  majesty' 
commission,  which  granted  liberty  of  conscience  t 
all  protestants,  had  their  dues  withheld  from  them 
even  those  that  were   due  before  Cranfield  came 
and  were  threatened  with  six  months'  imprisonmen 
for  not  administering  the  sacrament  according   t 
the  liturgy :    That   though   the    general   assembl 
agreed  that  Spanish  money  should  pass  by  weight 
the  governor  and  council  ordered  pieces  of  eight  t 
pass  for  6s.,  though  under  weight :  That  men  wer 
commonly  compelled  to  enter  into  bonds  of  grea 
penalty,  to  appear  and  answer  to  what  should  b 
objected  against  them,  when  no  crime  was  alleged 
That   they  had  few  laws  but  those  made  by  the  go 
vernor  and  council,  when  his  commission  directe 
the  general  assembly  to  make  laws:  That  the  court 
were  kept  in  a  remote  corner  of  the  province ;  an 
the  sheriff  was  a  stranger  and  had  no  visible  estate 
and  so  was  not  responsible  for  failures." 

Upon  this  complaint  a  hearing  was  had  before  th 
lords  of  trade,  on  Tuesday  the  10th  of  March :  an 
their  lordships  reported  to  the  king,  on  three  article 
only  of  the  complaint,  viz.  "  That  Cranfield  had  n 
pursued  his  instructions  with  regard  to  Mason's  con 
troversy ;  but  instead  thereof  had  caused  courts  t 
be  held  and  titles  to  be  decided,  with  exorbitant  costs 
and  that  he  had  exceeded  his  power  in  regulating  th 
value  of  coins."  This  report  was  accepted,  and  th 
king's  pleasure  therein  signified  to  him.  At  th 
same  time,  his  request  for  absence  being  granted,  h 


n   receipt  of  the  letters,    privately    embarked  on 
oard  a  vessel  for  Jamaica  ;  and  from  thence  went 

England,  where  he  obtained  the  collectorship  of 
arbadocs.  At  his  departure,  Barefoote,  the  deputy- 
overnor,  took  the  chair,  which  he  held  till  he  was 
jpersoded  by  Dudley's  commission,  as  president 
f  New  England. 

Cranfield's  ill  conduct  must  be  ascribed  in  a  great 
measure  to  his  disappointment  of  the  gains  which  he 
xpected  to  acquire  by  the  establishment  of  Mason's 
tie,  which  could  be  his  only  inducement  to  accept 
f  the  government.    This  disappointment  inflaming 
is  temper,  naturally  vindictive  and  imperious,  urged 
im  to  actions  not  only  illegal,  but  cruel  and  un- 
manly.    Had  there  been  the  least  colour,  either  of 
eal  or  policy,  for  the  severity  exercised  in  the  pro- 
ecution  of  Moody,  candour  would  oblige  us  to  make 
ome   allowance   for  human  frailty.     His  ordering 
he  members  of  the  assembly  to  be  made  constables, 
ras  a  mode  of  revenge  disgraceful  to  the  character 
)f  the  supreme  magistrate.     From  the  same  base 
lisposition,  he  is  said  to  have  employed  spies  and 
limps,  to  find  matter  of  accusation  against  people  in 
heir  clubs,  and  private  discourse.     And  his  deceit 
was  equal  to  his  malice  ;  for,  being  at  Boston  when 
he  charter  of  that  colony  was  called  in  question, 
ind  the  people  were  solicitous  to  ward  off  the  danger, 
ic  advised  them  to  make  a  private  offer  of  two  thou- 
sand guineas  to  the  king,  promising  to  represent 
;hem  in  a  favourable  light;  but  when  they,  not  sus- 
iccting  his  intention,  followed  his  advice,  and  shewed 
:iim  the  letter  which  they  had  wrote  to  their  agents 
for  that  purpose,  he  treacherously  represented  them 
as  "  disloyal  rogues ;"   and  made   them  appear  so 
ridiculous  that  their  agents  were  ashamed  to  be  seen 
at  court.     However,  when  he  had  quitted  the  coun- 
try, and  had  time  for  reflection,  he  grew  ashamed  of 
his  misconduct,  and  while  he  was  collector  at  Bar- 
badoes,  made  a  point  of  treating  the  masters  of  ves- 
sels, and  other  persons  who  went  thither  from  Pas- 
cataqua,  with  particular  respect. 

Although  the  decision  of  titles  in  Cranfield's 
courts  had  been  represented,  in  the  report  of  the 
lords,  as  extrajudicial,  and  a  royal  order  had  been 
thereupon  issued  to  suspend  any  farther  proceedings 
in  the  case  of  Mason  till  the  matter  should  be  brought 
before  the  king  in  council,  pursuant  to  the  directions 
in  the  commission ; — yetBarefoote  suffered  executions 
which  had  before  been  issued  to  be  extended,  and 
persons  to  be  imprisoned  at  Mason's  suit.  This  oc- 
casioned a  fresh  complaint  and  petition  to  the  king, 
which  was  sent  by  Weare,  who  about  this  time  made 
a  second  voyage  to  England,  as  agent  for  the  pro- 
vince and  attorney  to  Vaughan,  to  manage  an  appeal 
from  several  verdicts,  judgments,  decrees  and  fines, 
which  had  been  given  against  him  in  the  courts  here, 
one  of  which  was  on  the  title  to  his  estate.  An  at- 
tempt being  made  to  levy  one  of  the  executions  in 
Dover,  a  number  of  persons  forcibly  resisted  the 
officer,  and  obliged  him  to  relinquish  his  design. 
Warrants  were  then  issued  against  the  rioters,  and 
the  sheriff  with  his  attendants  attempted  to  seize 
them  while  the  people  were  assembled  for  divine 
service.  This  caused  an  uproar  in  the  congregation, 
in  which  a  young  heroine  distinguished  herself  by 
knocking  down  one  of  the  officers  with  her  Bible. 
They  were  all  so  roughly  handled  that  they  were 
glad  to  escape  with  their  lives. 

That  nothing  might  be  wanting  to  shew  the  en- 
mity of  the  people  to  these  measures,  and  their  hatred 

and  contempt  for  the  authors  of  them,   there  are  still 
preserved  the  original  depositions  on  oath,  of  Bare- 


UNITED  STATES. 


433 


foote  and  Mason,  relating  to  an  assault  made  on 
their  persons  by  Thomas  Wiggen  and  Anthony  Nut- 
ter, who  had  been  members  of  the  assembly.  These 
two  men  came  to  Barefoote's  house,  where  Mason 
lodged,  and  entered  into  discourse  with  him  about 
his  proceedings  ;  denying  his  claim,  and  using  such 
language  as  provoked  him  to  take  hold  of  Wiggen, 
with  an  intention  to  thrust  him  out  at  the  door.  But 
Wiggen  being  a  stronger  man,  seized  him  by  his 
cravat,  and  threw  him  into  the  fire,  where  his  clothes 
and  one  of  his  legs  were  burned.  Barefoote,  at- 
tempting to  help  him,  met  with  the  same  fate,  and 
had  two  of  his  ribs  broken  and  one  of  his  teeth  beaten 
out  in  the  struggle.  The  noise  alarmed  the  servants, 
who  at  Mason's  command  brought  his  sword,  which 
Nutter  took  away,  making  sport  of  their  misery.  A 
farther  specimen  of  the  contempt  in  which  these 
men  were  held,  even  by  the  lower  class  of  people, 
expressed  in  their  own  genuine  language,  may  be 
seen  in  the  following  affidavit:  "  Mary  Rann,  aged 
thirty  years  or  thereabouts,  witnesseth,  that  the  21st 
day  of  March  84,  being  in  company  with  Seabank 
Hog,  I  heard  her  say — it  was  very  hard  for  the  go- 
vernor of  this  province  to  strike  Sam.  Seavy  before 
he  spoke ;  the  said  Hog  said  also,  that  it  was  well 
the  said  Seavy's  mother  was  not  there  for  the  go- 
vernor, for  if  she  had,  there  had  been  bloody  work 
for  him.  I  heard  the  said  Hog  say  also,  that  the 
governor  and  the  rest  of  the  gentlemen  were  a  crew 
of  pitiful  curs,  and  did  they  want  earthly  honour  ?  if 
they  did,  she  would  pull  off  her  head  clothes,  and 
come  in  her  hair  to  them,  like  a  parcel  of  pitiful 
beggarly  curs  as  they  were;  come  to  undo  us  both 
body  and  soul ;  they  could  not  be  contented  to  take 
our  estates  from  us,  but  they  have  taken  away  the 
gospel  also,  which  the  devil  would  have  them  for  it." 
Sworn  in  the  court  of  pleas,  held  at  Great  Island, 
the  7th  of  Nov.  1684. — R.  Chamberlain,  Prothon." 

Nothing  else  occurred  during  Barefoote's  short 
administration,  except  a  treaty  of  friendship  between 
the  Indians  of  Penacook  and  Saco,  on  the  one  part; 
and  the  people  of  New  Hampshire  and  Maine  o-n 
the  other.  The  foundation  of  this  treaty  seems  to 
have  been  laid  in  Cranfield's  project  of  bringing 
down  the  Mohawks  on  the  eastern  Indian-s ;  which 
had  once  before  proved  a  pernicious  measure;  as 
they  made  no  distinction  between  those  tribes 
which  were  at  peace  with  the  English,  and  those 
which  were  at  war.  Some  of  the  Penacook  Indians, 
who  had  been  at  Albany  after  Cranfield's  journey 
to  New  York,  reported  on  their  return,  that  the 
Mohawks  threatened  destruction  to  all  the  eastern 
Indians,  from  Narrhaganset  to  Pechypscot.  Hag- 
kins,  a  chief  of  the  tribe,  had  informed  Cranfield  in 
the  spring  of  the  danger  he  apprehended,  and  had 
implored  assistance  and  protection,  but  had  been 
treated  with  neglect.  In  August  the  Penacook  and 
Saco  Indians  gathered  their  corn,  and  removed  their 
families;  which  gave  an  alarm  to  their  English 
neighbours,  as  if  they  were  preparing  for  war. 
Messengers  being  sent  to  demand  the  reason  of  their 
movement,  were  informed  that  it  was  the  fear  of  the 
Mohawks,  whom  they  daily  expected  to  destroy 
them ;  and  being  asked  why  they  did  not  come  in 
among  the  English  for  protection,  they  answered, 
le»t  the  Mohawks  should  hurt  the  English  on  their 
account.  Upon  this  they  were  persuaded  to  enter 
into  an  agreement;  and  accordingly  their  chiefs 
being  assembled  with  the  council  of  New  Hampshire, 
and  a  deputation  from  the  province  of  Maine,  a 
treaty  was  concluded,  wherein  it  was  stipulated,  that 
all  future  personal  injuries  on  either  side  should, 

HIST.  OF  AMER. — Nos.  55  &  56. 


upon  complaint,  be  immediately  redressed;  that  in- 
formation should  be  given  of  approaching  danger 
fron?  enemies ;  that  the  Indians  should  not  remove 
their  families  from  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Eng- 
lish without  giving  timely  notice,  and  if  they  did 
that  it  should  be  taken  for  a  declaration  of  war; 
and,  that  while  these  articles  were  observed,  the 
English  would  assist  and  protect  them  against  the 
Mohawks  and  all  other  enemies.  The  danger  was 
but  imaginary,  and  the  peace  continued  for  about 
four  years. 

(1686.)  Though  Mason  was  hitherto  disappointed 
in  his  views  of  recovering  the  inhabited  part  of  the 
province,  he  endeavoured  to  lay  a  foundation  for 
realising  his  claim  to  the  waste  lands.  A  purchase 
having  been  made  from  the  Indians,  by  Jonathi 
Tyng,  and  nineteen  others,  of  a  tract  of  land  on 
both  sides  the  river  Merrimack,  siA,  Jles  in  breadth, 
from  Souhegan  river  to  Winnipfisi  ygee  lake ;  Ma- 
son, by  deed,  confirmed  the  same,  reserving  to  him- 
self and  his  heirs  the  yearly  rent  of  ten  shillings. 
This  was  called  the  million  acre  purchase.  About 
the  same  time  he  farmed  out  to  Hezekiah  Usher  and 
his  heirs,  the  mines,  minerals,  and  ores,  within  the 
limits  of  New  Hampshire,  for  the  term  of  one  thou- 
sand years ;  reserving  to  himself  one  quarter  part  of 
the  royal  ores  and  one  seventeenth  of  the  baser 
sorts ;  and  having  put  his  affairs  here  in  the  best 
order  that  the  times  would  admit,  he  sailed  for  Eng- 
land, to  attend  the  hearing  of  Vaughan's  appeal  to 
the  king. 

The  administration  of  Dudley  as  President,  and  An- 
drosse  as  Governor  of  New  England — Mason's  far- 
ther attempt — His  disappointment  and  death — Re- 
volution in  England-— Sale  to  Allen— 'His  commission 
for  the  government. 

When  an  arbitrary  government  is  determined  to 
infringe  the  liberty  of  the  people,  it  is  easy  to  find 
pretences  to  support  the  most  iniquitous  claims. 
King  Charles  the  Second,  in  the  latter  part  of  his 
reign,  was  making  large  strides  toward  despotism. 
Charters,  which  obstructed  his  pernicious  views, 
were,  by  a  perversion  of  the  law,  decreed  forfeited. 
The  city  of  London,  and  most  of  the  corporations  in 
England,  either  suffered  the  execution  of  these  sen- 
tences, or  tamely  surrendered  their  franchises  to 
the  all-grasping  hand  of  power.  It  could  not  be 
expected  that  in  this  gener-al  wreck  of  privileges, 
the  colonies  of  New  England  could  escape.  The 
people  of  Massachusetts  had  long  been  viewed  with 
a  jealous  eye.  Though  the  king  had  repeatedly  as- 
sured them  of  his  protection,  and  solemnly  confirmed 
their  charter  privileges ;  yet  their  spirit  and  princi- 
ples were  so  totally  dissonant  to  the  corrupt  views 
of  the  court,  that  intriguing  men  found  easy  access 
to  the  royal  ear,  with  complaints  against  them.  Of 
these  the  most  inveterate  and  indefatigable  was 
Randolph,  who  made  no  less  than  eight  voyages  in 
nine  years  across  the  Atlantic,  on  this  mischievous 
business.  They  were  accused  of  extending  their 
jurisdiction  beyond  the  bounds  of  their  patent;  of 
invading  the  prerogative  by  coining  money ;  of  not 
allowing  appeals  to  the  king  from  their  courts ;  and 
of  obstructing  the  execution  of  the  navigation  and 
trade  laws.  By  the  king's  command  agents  were 
sent  over  to  answer  these  complaints.  They  found 
the  prejudice  against  the  colony  so  strong,  that  it 
was  in  vain  to  withstand  it;  and  solicited  instruc- 
tions whether  to  submit  to  the  king's  pleasure,  or  to 
let  the  proceedings  against  them  be  issued  in  form 
of  law.  A  solemn  consultation  being  held,  at  which 

3  A 


434 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  clergy  assisted,  it  was  determined  "  to  die  by 
the  hands  of  others  rather  than  by  their  own." 
Upon  notice  of  this,  the  agents  quitted  England; 
and  Randolph,  as  the  angel  of  death,  soon  followed 
them,  bringing  a  writ  of  quo  warranto  from  the 
King's  Bench ;  but  the  scire  facias  which  issued 
from  the  chancery  did  not  arrive  till  the  time  fixed 
for  their  appearance  was  elapsed:  this,  however, 
was  deemed  too  trivial  an  error  to  stop  the  proceed- 
ings ;  judgment  was  entered  against  them,  and  the 
charter  declared  forfeited. 

The  king  died  before  a  new  form  of  government 
was  settled ;  but  there  could  be  no  hope  of  favour 
from  his  successor,  who  inherited  the  arbitrary  prin- 
ciples of  his  brother,  and  was  publicly  known  to  be 
a  bigoted  papist. 

The  intended  alteration  in  the  government  was 
introduced  in  the  same  gradual  manner  as  it  had 
been  in  New  Hampshire.  A  commission  was  issued, 
in  which  Joseph  Dudley,  Esq.,  was  appointed  pre- 
sident of  his  majesty's  territory  and  dominion  of 
New  England ;  William  Stoughton,  deputy  presi- 
dent; Simon  Bradstreet,  Robert  Mason,  John  Fitz 
\Vinthrop,  John  Pynchon,  Peter  Bulkley,  Edward 
Randolph,  Wait  Winthrop,  Richard  Warton,  John 
Usher,  Nathaniel  Saltonstall,  Bartholomew  Gedney, 
Jonathan  Tyng,  Dudley  Bradstreet,  John  Hinckes, 
and  Edward  Tyiig,  counsellors.  Their  jurisdiction 
extended  over  Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire, 
Maine,  and  the  Narrhaganset  or  King's  Province. 
These  gentlemen  were  mostly  natives  of  the  country, 
some  of  them  had  been  magistrates,  and  one  of  them 
governor  under  the  charter.  No  house  of  deputies 
was  mentioned  in  the  commission. 

The  new  form  of  government  took  place  on  the 
25th  day  of  May,  1686 ;  and  on  the  10th  of  June, 
an  order  of  council  was  issued  for  settling  the  county 
courts,  which  consisted  of  such  members  of  the 
council  as  resided  in  each  county,  and  any  others  of 
them  who  might  be  present,  with  such  justices  as 
were  commissioned  for  the  purpose.  These  courts 
had  the  power  of  trying  and  issuing  all  civil  causes, 
and  all  criminal  matters  under  life  or  limb ;  from 
them  an  appeal  was  allowed  to  a  superior  court,  held 
three  times  in  the  year  at  Boston  for  the  whole 
territory ;  and  from  thence  appeals,  in  certain  cases, 
might  be  had  to  the  king  in  council.  Juries  were 
pricked  by  the  marshal  and  one  justice  of  each 
county,  in  a  list  given  them  by  the  select  men  of  the 
towns  A  probate  court  was  held  at  Boston  by  the 
president,  and  "  in  the  other  provinces  and  remote 
counties "  by  a  judge  and  clerk  appointed  by  the 
president.  The  territory  was  divided  into  four 
counties,  viz.,  Suffolk,  Middlesex,  Essex,  and  Hamp- 
shire; and  three  provinces,  viz.,  New  Hampshire, 
Maine,  and  King's  province.  By  another  order  of 
the  same  date,  town  taxes  could  not  be  assessed  but 
by  allowance  of  two  justices;  and  the  members  of  the 
council  were  exempted  from  paying  any  part  thereof. 

Things  were  conducted  with  tolerable  decency, 
and  the  innovations  were  rendered  as  little  grievous 
as  possible ;  that  the  people  might  be  induced  more 
readily  to  submit  to  the  long  meditated  introduction 
of  a  governor-general. 

In  December  following,  Sir  Edmund  Androsse, 
who  had  been  governor  of  New  York,  arrived  at 
Boston  with  a  commission,  appointing  him  captain- 
general  and  governor  in  chief  of  the  territory  and 
dominion  of  New  England,  in  which  the  colony  of 
Plymouth  was  now  included.  By  this  commission, 
the  governor  with  his  council,  five  of  whom  were  a 
quorum,  were  empowered  to  make  such  laws,  im- 


pose such  taxes,  and  apply  them  to  such  purposes, 
as  they  should  think  proper.  They  were  also  em- 
powered to  grant  lands  on  such  terms,  and  subject 
to  such  quit-rents,  as  should  be  appointed  by  the 
king.  Invested  with  such  powers,  these  men  were 
capable  of  the  most  extravagant  actions.  Though 
Androsse,  like  his  master,  began  his  administration 
with  the  fairest  professions,  yet  like  him  he  soon 
violated  them,  and  proved  himself  a  fit  instrument 
for  accomplishing  the  most  execrable  designs.  Those 
of  his  council  who  were  backward  in  aiding  his  ra- 
pacious intentions  were  neglected.  Seven  being 
sufficient  for  a  full  board,  he  selected  such  only  as 
were  devoted  to  him,  and  with  their  concurrence  did 
what  he  pleased.  Randolph  and  Mason  were  at 
first  among  his  confidents ;  but  afterward,  when  New 
York  was  annexed  to  his  government,  the  members 
from  that  quarter  were  most  in  his  favour. 

(1687.)  To  particularize  the  many  instances  of 
tyranny  and  oppression  which  the  country  suffered 
from  these  men,  is  not  within  the  design  of  this 
work.  Let  it  suffice  to  observe,  that  the  press  was 
restrained,  liberty  of  conscience  infringed,  exorbi- 
tant fees  and  taxes  demanded  without  the  voice  or 
consent  of  the  people,  who  had  no  privilege  of  re- 
presentation. The  charter  being  vacated,  it  was 
pretended  that  all  titles  to  land  were  annulled;  and 
as  to  Indian  deeds,  Androsse  declared  them  no  bet- 
ter than  "the  scratch  of  a  bear's  paw."  Land- 
holders were  obliged  to  take  out  patents  for  their 
e.states  which  they  had  possessed  forty  or  fifty  years; 
for  these  patents  extravagant  fees  were  exacted,  and 
those  who  would  not  submit  to  this  imposition,  had 
writs  of  intrusion  brought  against  them,  and  their 
land  patented  to  others.  To  hinder  the  people  from 
consulting  about  the  redress  of  their  grievances, 
town  meetings  were  prohibited,  except  one  in  the 
month  of  May  for  the  choice  of  town  officers:  and  to 
prevent  complaints  being  carried  to  England,  no 
person  was  permitted  to  go  out  of  the  country  with- 
out express  leave  from  the  governor.  But  notwith- 
standing all  the  vigilance  of  the  governor,  his  emis- 
saries and  his  guards,  the  resolute  and  indefatigable 
Increase  Mather,  minister  of  the  second  church  ia 
Boston,  and  president  of  the  college,  got  on  board  a 
ship  and  sailed  for  England,  with  complaints  in  the 
name  of  the  people  against  the  governor,  which  he 
delivered  with  his  own  hand  to  the  king;  but  finding 
no  hope  of  redress,  he  waited  the  event  of  the  revo- 
lution which  was  then  expected. 

(1688.)  When  the  people  groaned  under  so  many 
real  grievances,  it  is  no  wonder  that  their  fears  and 
jealousies  suggested  some  that  were  imaginary. 
They  believed  Androsse  to  be  a  papist ;  that  he  had 
hired  the  Indians,  and  supplied  them  with  ammuni- 
tion to  destroy  their  frontier  settlements  ;  and  that 
he  was  preparing  to  betray  the  country  into  the 
hands  of  the  French.  At  the  same  time,  the  large 
strides  that  King  James  the  Second  was  making 
toward  the  establishment  of  popery  and  despotism 
raised  the  most  terrible  apprehensions ;  so  that  the 
report  of  the  landing  of  the  Prince  of  Orange  in 
England  was  received  here  with  the  greatest,  joy. 
Androsse  was  so  alarmed  at  the  news,  that  he  im- 
prisoned the  man  who  brought  a  copy  of  the  prince's 
declaration,  and  published  a  proclamation,  com- 
manding all  persons  to  be  in  readiness  to  oppose 
"  any  invasion  from  Holland,"  which  met  with  as 
much  disregard  as  one  he  had  issued  before,  ap- 
pointing a  day  of  thanksgiving  for  the  birth  of  a 
Prince  of  Wales 

(1689.)  The  people  had  now  borne  these  innova- 


UNITED  STATES. 


435 


tions  and  impositions  for  about  three  years  :  their 
patience  was  worn  out,  and  their  native  love  of 
freedom  kindled  at  the  prospect  of  deliverance.  The 
news  of  a  complete  revolution  in  England  had  not 
reached  them ;  yet  so  sanguine  were  their  expecta- 
tions, so  eager  were  they  to  prove  that  they  were 
animated  by  the  same  spirit  with  their  brethren  at 
home,  that  upon  the  rumour  of  an  intended  massacre 
in  the  town  of  Boston  by  the  governor's  guards, 
they  were  wrought  up  to  a  degree  of  fury.  On  the 
morning  of  the  18th  of  April  the  town  was  in  arms, 
and  the  country  flocking  in  to  their  assistance. 
The  governor,  and  those  who  had  fled  with  him  to 
the  fort,  were  seized  and  committed  to  prison.  The 
gentlemen  who  had  been  magistrates  under  the 
charter,  with  Bradstroet,  the  late  governor,  at  their 
head,  assumed  the  name  of  a  council  of  safety,  and 
kept  up  a  form  of  government,  in  the  exigency  of 
affairs,  till  orders  arrived  from  England ;  when  An- 
drosse  and  his  accomplices  were  sent  home  as  pri- 
soners of  state,  to  be  disposed  of  according  to  the 
king's  pleasure. 

The  people  of  New  Hampshire  had  their  share  of 
sufferings  under  this  rapacious  administration  ;  and 
Mason  himself  did  not  escape.  Having  attended 
the  hearing  of  Vaughan's  appeal  to  the  king,  which 
was  decided  in  M ason's  favour ;  the  judgment  ob- 
tained here,  being  affirmed ;  and  having  now  the 
fairest  prospect  of  realising  his  claim,  he  returned 
hither  in  the  spring  of  1687,  but  found  his  views 
obstructed  in  a  manner  which  he  little  expected. 
The  government  was  in  the  hands  of  a  set  of  un- 
principled men,  who  looked  with  envy  on  the  large 
share  of  territory  which  Mason  claimed,  and  were 
for  parcelling  it  out  among  themselves.  The  new 
judges  delayed  issuing  executions  on  the  judgments 
which  he  had  formerly  recovered,  and  the  attorney, 
general,  Graham,  would  not  allow  that  he  had  power 
to  grant  lands  by  leases.  This  confirmed  the  people 
in  their  opinion  of  the  invalidity  of  his  claim,  and 
rendered  them  more  averse  to  him  than  ever.  At 
length,  however,  he  obtained  from  Dudley,  the  chief 
justice,  a  writ  of  certiorari,  directed  to  the'late  judges 
of  New  Hampshire,  by  which  his  causes  were  to  be 
removed  to  the  supreme  court  of  the  whole  territory, 
then  held  at  Boston ;  but  before  this  could  be  done, 
death  put  an  end  to  his  hopes,  and  relieved  the  peo- 
ple for  a  time  from  their  fears.  Beiu-g  one  of  Sir 
Edmund's  council,  and  attending  him  on  a  journey 
from  New  York  to  Albany ;  he  died  at  Esopus,  in 
the  fifty-ninth  year  of  his  age ;  leaving  two  sons,  John 
and  Robert,  the  heirs  of  his  claim  and  controversy. 

The  revolution  at  Boston,  though  extremely  pleas- 
ing to  the  people  of  New  Hampshire,  left  then  in  an 
unsettled  state.  They  waited  the  arrival  of  orders 
from  England;  but  none  arriving,  an-d  the  people's 
minds  being  uneasy,  it  was  proposed  by  some  of  the 
principal  gentlemen,  that  a  convention  of  deputies 
from  each  of  the  towns  should  consider  what  was 
best  to  be  done.  The  convention-parliament  in 
England  was  a  sufficient  precedent  to  authorize  this 
proceeding.  Deputies  were  accordingly  chosen,  and 
instructed  to  resolve  upon  some  method  of  govern- 
ment (1690.)  At  their  first  meeting  they  came  to 
no  conclusion ;  but  afterward  they  thought  it  best  to 
return  to  their  ancient  union  with  Massachusetts. 
A  petition  for  this  purpose  being  presented,  they 
were  readily  admitted  till  the  king's  pleasure  should 
be  known,  and  members  were  sent  to  the  general 
court  which  met  there  in  this  and  the  two  following 
years.  The  gentlemen  who  had  formerly  been  in 
commission  for  the  peace,  tiie  militia  and  the  civil 


offices,  were  by  town  votes  approved  by  the  general 
court,  restored  to  their  places,  and  ancient  laws  and 
customs  continued  to  be  observed. 

(1691.)  Had  the  inclination  of  the  people  been 
consulted,  they  would  gladly  have  been  annexed  to 
that  government.  This  was  well  known  to  Mather 
and  the  other  agents,  who,  when  soliciting  for  a 
new  charter,  earnestly  requested  that  New  'Hamp- 
shire might  be  included  in  it.  But  it  was  answered 
that  the  people  had  expressed  an  aversion  fnna  it, 
and  desired  to  be  under  a  distinct  government. 
This  could  be  founded  only  on  the  reports  which 
had  been  made  by  the  commissioners  in  1665,  and 
by  Randolph  in  his  narrative.  The  true  reason  for 
denying  the  request  was,  that  Mason's  two  heirs 
had  sold  their  title  to  the  lands  in  New  Hampshire 
to  Samuel  Allen  of  London,  merchant,  for  seven 
hundred  and  fifty  pounds — the  entail  having  been 
previously  docked  by  a  fine  and  recovery  in  the 
Court  of  King's  Bench ;  and  Allen  was  now  solicit- 
ing a  recognition  of  his  title  from  the  crown,  and  a 
commission  for  the  government  of  the  provim-e. 
When  the  inhabitants  were  informed  of  what  was 
doing,  they  again  assembled  by  deputies  in  conven- 
tion, and  sent  (1691)  a  petition  to  the  king,  praying 
that  they  might  be  annexed  to  the  Massachusetts.  "The 
petition  was  presented  by  Sir  Henry  Ashurst,  and 
they  were  amused  by  some  equivocal  promises  of 
success  by  the  Earl  of  Nottingham;  but  Allen's 
importunity  coinciding  with  the  king's  inclination, 
effectually  frustrated  their  attempt.  The  claim  which 
Allen  had  to  the  lands  from  Naumkeag,  to  three 
miles  northward  of  Merrimack,  was  noticed  in  the 
Massachusetts  charter  (1692) ;  and  he  obtained  a 
commission  for  the  government  of  New  Hampshire-, 
in  which  his  son-in-law,  John  Usher,  then  iu  Lon- 
don, was  appointed  lieut.-governor,  with  power  to 
execute  the  commission  in  Allen's  absence.  The 
counsellors  named  in  the  governor's  instructions 
were  John  Usher,  lieut-governor,  John  Hinckes, 
Nathaniel  Fryer,  Thomas  Graffort,  Peter  Coffin, 
Henry  Green,  Robert  Eliot,  John  Gerrish,  John 
Walford,  and  John  Love.  The  governor  was  in- 
structed to  send  to  the  secretary  of  state  the  names 
of  six  other  persons  suitable  for  counsellors.  Three 
were  a  quorum,  but  the  instructions  were  that  nothing 
should  be  done  unless  five  were  present,  except  in 
extraordinary  emergencies.  Major  Vaughan,  Na- 
thaniel Weare,  and  Richard  Waldron,  were  arter- 
ward  added  to  the  number. 

The  council  was  composed  of  men  who,  in  general, 
had  the  confidence  of  the  people  ;  but  Usher  was 
very  disagreeable,  not  only  as  he  had  an  interest  iu 
Allen's  claim  to  the  lands,  but  as  he  had  been  one 
of  Sir  Edmund  Androsse's  adherents,  and  a-n  active 
instrument  in  the  late  oppressive  government.  He 
arrived  with  the  commission  and  took  upon  him  the 
command,  on  the  13th  day  of  August.  The  people 
again  submitted,  with  extreme  reluctance,  to  the 
unavoidable  necessity  of  being  under  a  government 
distinct  from  Massachusetts. 

The  year  1692  was  remarkable  for  a  great  morta- 
lity in  Portsmouth  and  Greenland  by  the  small  pox. 
The  infection  was  brought  in  bags  of  cotton  from 
the  West  Indies,  and  there  being  but  few  people 
who  were  acquainted  with  it,  the  patients  suffered 
greatly,  and  but  few  recovered. 

The   war   with   the    French   and    Indiant,  commonly 
called  King  William's  vxtr, 

It  was  the  misfortune  of  this  country  to  have  enemies 
of  different  kinds  to  contend  with  at  the  same  time. 

3A2 


436 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


While  the  changes  above  related  were  taking  place 
in  their  government,  a  fresh  war  broke  out  on  their 
frontiers,  which,  though  ascribed  to  divers  causes, 
was  really  kindled  by  the  rashness  of  the  same  per- 
son? who  were  making  havock  of  their  liberties. 

The  lands  from  Penobscot  to  Nova  Scotia  had 
been  coded  to  the  French,  by  the  treaty  of  Breda, 
•in  exchange  for  the  island  of  St.  Christopher.  On 
these  lands  the  baron  de  St.  Castine  had  for  many 
years  resided,  and  carried  on  a  large  trade  with  the 
Indians,  with  whom  he  was  intimately  connected; 
having  several  of  their  women,  beside  a  daughter  of 
!  he  sachem  Madokawando,  for  his  wives.  The  lands 
which  had  been  granted  by  the  crown  of  England 
to  the  duke  of  York  (at  that  time  King  James  the 
.Second)  interfered  with  Castine's  plantation,  as  the 
duke  claimed  to  the  river  St.  Croix.  A  fort  had 
been  built  by  his  order  at  Pemaquid,  and  a  garrison 
stationed  there  to  prevent  any  intrusion  on  his  pro- 
perty. In  1686  a  'ship  belonging  to  Pascataqua 
landed  some  wines  at  Penobscot,  supposing  it  to  be 
within  the  French  territory.  Palmer  and  West,  the 
duke's  agents  at  Pemaquid,  went  and  seized  the 
wines;  but  by  the  influence  of  the  French  ambassa- 
dor in  England,  an  order  was  obtained  for  the  res- 
toration of  the-m.  Hereupon  a  new  line  was  run, 
which  took  Castine's  plantation  into  the  duke's  ter- 
ritory. In  the  spring  of  1688,  Androsse  went  in 
the  Rose  frigate,  and  plundered  Castine's  house  and 
fort,  leaving  only  the  ornaments  of  his  chapel  to 
••oiisole  him  for  the  loss  of  his  arms  and  goods.  This 
base  action  provoked  Castine  to  excite  the  Indians 
to  a  new  war,  pretences  for  which  were  not  wanting 
.•in  their  part.  They  complained  that  the  tribute  of 
corn  which  had  been  promised  by  the  treaty  of  1678, 
had  been  withheld  ;  that  the  fishery  of  the  river  Saeo 
had  been  obstructed  by  seines  ;  that  their  standing 
corn  had  been  devoured  by  cattle  belonging  to  the 
English  ;  that  their  lands  at  Pemaquid  had  been 
patented  without  their  consent ;  and  that  they  had 
been  fraudulently  dealt  with  in  trade.  Some  of 
these  complaints  were  doubtless  well  grounded  ;  but 
none  of  them  were  ever  enquired  into  or  redressed. 

They  began  to  make  reprisals  at  North  Yarmouth 
by  killing  cattle.  Justice  Blackman  ordered  sixteen 
of  them  to  be  seized  and  kept  under  guard  at  Fal- 
mouth  ;  but  others  continued  to  rob  and  capture  the 
inhabitants.  Androsse,  who  pretended  to  treat  the 
Indians  with  mildness,  commanded  those  whom 
Blackman  had  seized  to  be  set  at  liberty.  But  this 
mildness  had  not  the  desired  effect; 'the  Indians 
kept  their  prisoners,  and  murdered  some  of  them  in 
their  barbarous  sports.  Androsso  then  changed  his 
measures,  and  thought  to  frighten  them  with  an 
army  of  700  men,  which  he  led  into  their  country 
in  the  month  of  November.  The  rigor  of  the  season 
proved  fatal  to  some  of  iiis  men  ;  but  he  never  saw 
an  Indian  in  his  whole  march.  The  enemy  were 
quiet  during  the  winter. 

(1689.)  After  the  revolution,  the  gentlemen  who 
assumed  the  government  took  some  precautions  to 
prevent  the  renewal  of  hostilities.  They  sent  mes- 
sengers and  presents  to  several  tribes  of  Indians 
who  answered  them  with  fair  promises  ;  but  their 
prejudice  against  the  English  was  too  inveterate  to 
be  allayed  by  sueh  means  as  these. 

Thirteen  years  had  almost  elapsed  since  the  sei 
zure  of  the  400  Indians,  at  Cochecho,  by  Major 
Waldron;  during  all  which  time  an  inextinguish- 
able thirst  of  revenge  had  been  cherished  among 
them,  which  never  till  now  found  opportunity  for 
gratification.  Wonolanset,  one  of  the  sachems  o 


Penacook,  who  was  dismissed  with  hi-s  people  at  the 
ime  of  the  seizure,  ahvays/jbscrved  his  father's  dy- 
ng  charge,  not  to  quarrel  with  the  English ;  but. 
Hagkins,  another  sachem,  who  had  been  treated 
with  neglect  by  Cranfield,  was  more  ready  to  listen 
,o  the  seducing  invitations  of  Castine's  emissaries. 
Some  of  those  Indians,  who  were  then  seized  and 
sold  into  slavery  abroad,  had  found  their  way  home, 
and  could  not  rest  till  they  had  their  revenge.  Ac- 
cordingly a  confederacy  being  formed  between  the 
ribes  of  Penacook  and  Pigwacket,  and  the  strange 
[ndians  (as  they  were  called)  who  were  incorporated 
with  them,  it  was  determined  to  surprise  the  major 
ind  his  neighbours,  among  whom  they  had  all  this 
time  been  peaceably  conversant. 

In  that  part  of  the  town  of  Dover  which  lies  about 
the  first  falls  in  the  river  Cochecho,  were  five  gar- 
risoned houses ;  three  on  the  north  side,  called  re- 
spectively, Waldron,  Otis,  and  Heard ;  and  two  on 
the  south  side,  Peter  Coffin  and  his  son's.  Theso 
houses  were  surrounded  with  timber  walls,  the  gates  of 
which,  as  well  as  the  house  doors,  were  secured  with 
bolts  and  bars.  The  neighbouring  families  retired 
to  these  houses  by  night;  but  by  an  unaccountable 
negligence,  no  watch  was  kept.  The  Indians  who 
were  daily  passing  through  the  town,  visiting  and 
trading  with  the  inhabitants,  as  usual  in  time  of 
peace,  viewed  their  situation  with  an  attentive  eye. 
Some  hints  of  a  mischievous  design  had  been  given 
out  by  their  squaws ;  but  in  such  dark  and  ambi- 
guous terms  that  no  one  could  comprehend  their 
meaning.  Some  of  the  people  were  uneasy ;  but 
Waldron,  who,  from  a  long  course  of  experience, 
was  intimately  acquainted  with  the  Indians,  and  on 
other  occasions  had  been  ready  enough  to  suspect 
them,  was  now  so  thoroughly  secure,  that  when 
some  of  the  people  hinted  their  fears  to  him,  he 
merrily  bad  them  to  go  and  plant  their  pumpkins, 
paying  that  he  would  tell  them  when  the  Indians 
would  break  out.  The  very  evening  before  the  mis- 
chief was  done,  being  told  by  a  young  man  that  the 
town  was  full  of  Indians,  and  the  people  were  much 
concerned ;  he  answered  that  he  knew  the  Indians 
verv  well,  and  there  was  no  danger. 

The  plan  which  the  Indians  had  preconcerted  was, 
that  two  squaws  should  go  to  each  of  the  garrisoned 
houses  in  the  evening,  and  ask  leave  to  lodge  by  the 
fire;  that  in  the  night  when  the  people  were  asleep 
they  should  open  the  doors  and  gates,  and  give  the 
signal  by  a  whistle,  upon  which  the  strange  Indians, 
who  were  to  be  within  hearing,  should  rush  in,  and 
take  their  long  meditated  revenge.  This  plan  being 
ripe  for  execution,  on  the  evening  of  Thursday  the 
27th  of  June,  two  squaws  applied  to  each  of  the 
garrisons  for  lodging,  as  they  frequently  did  in  time 
of  peace.  They  were  admitted  into  all  but  the 
younger  Coffin's,"  and  the  people,  at  their  request, 
shewed  them  how  to  open  the  doors,  in  case  they 
should  have  occasion  to  go  out  in  the  night.  Mesan- 
dowit,  one  of  their  chiefs,  went  to  Waldron's  garri- 
son, and  was  kindly  entertained,  as  he  had  often 
been  before.  The  squaws  told  the  major,  that  a 
number  of  Indians  were  coming  to  trade  with  him 
the  next  day,  and  Mesandowit  while  at  sapper,  with 
his  usual  familiarity,  said,  "  Brother  Waldron,  what 
would  you  do  if  the  strange  Indians  should  come  ?" 
The  major  carelessly  answered,  that  he  could  as- 
semble 100  men,  by  lifting  up  his  finger.  In  this 
unsuspecting  confidence  the  family  retired  to  rest. 

When  all  was  quiet,  the  gates  were  opened  and 
the  signal  given.  The  Indians  entered,  set  a  guard 
at  the  door,  and  rushed  into  the  major's  apartment, 


UNITED  STATES 


437 


which  was  an  inner  room.  Awakened  by  the  noise, 
he  jumped  out  of  bed,  and  though  now  advanced  in 
life  to  the  age  of  eighty  years,  he  retained  so  much 
vigour  as  to  drive  them"  with  his  sword  through  two 
or  throe  doors,  but  as  he  was  returning  for  his  other 
arms,  they  came  behind  him,  stunned  him  with  a 
hatchet,  drew  him  into  his  hall,  and  seating  him  in 
an  elbow  char  on  a  long  table  insultingly  asked  him, 
"Who  shall  judge  Indians  now?"  They  then 
obliged  the  people  in  the  house  to  get  them  some 
victuals :  and  when  they  had  done  eating,  they  cut 
the  major  across  the  breast  and  belly  with  knives, 
each  one  with  a  stroke  saying,  "  I  cross  out  my  ac- 
count." They  then  cut  off  his  nose  and  ears,  forcing 
them  into  his  mouth — and  when,  spent  with  the  loss 
of  blood,  he  was  falling  down  from  the  table,  one  of 
them  held  his  own  sword  under  him,  which  put  an 
end  to  his  misery.  They  also  killed  his  son  in  law 
Abraham  Lee;  but  took  his  daughter  Lee  with  se- 
veral others,  and  having  pillaged  the  house,  left  it 
on  fire.  Otis's  garrison,  which  was  next  to  the 
major's,  met  with  the  same  fate;  he  was  killed,  with 
several  others,  and  his  wife  and  child  were  captured. 
Heard's  was  saved  by  the  barking  of  a  dog  just  as 
the  Indians  were  entering  :  Elder  Wentworth,  who 
was  awakened  by  the  noise,  pushed  them  out,  and 
falling  on  his  back,  set  his  feet  against  the  gate  and 
held  it  till  he  had  alarmed  the  people;  two  balls 
were  fired  through  it  but  both  missed  him.  Coffin's 
house  was  surprised,  but  as  the  Indians  had  no  par- 
ticular enmity  to  him,  they  spared  his  life,  ami  the 
lives  of  his  family,  and  contented  themselves  with 
pillaging  the  house.  Finding  a  bag  of  money,  they 
made  him  throw  it  by  handfulls  on  the  floor,  while 
they  amused  themselves  in  scrambling  for  it.  They 
then  went  to  the  house  of  his  son  who  would  not  ad- 
mit the  squaws  in  the  evening,  and  summoned  him 
to  surrender,  promising  him  quarter:  he  declined 
their  offer,  and  determined  to  defend  his  house,  till 
they  brought  out  his  father  and  threatened  to  kill 
him  before  his  eyes;  filial  affection  then  overcame 
his  resolution,  and  he  surrendered.  They  put  both 
families  together  into  a  deserted  house,  intending  to 
reserve  them  for  prisoners;  but  while  the  Indians 
were  busy  in  plundering,  they  all  escaped. 

Twenty-three  people  were  killed  in  this  surprisal, 
and  twenty-nine  were  captured;  five  or  six  houses 
with  the  mills  were  burned ;  and  so  expeditious  were 
the  Indians  in  the  execution  of  their  plot,  that  be- 
fore the  people  could  be  collected  from  the  other 
parts  of  the  town  to  oppose  them,  they  fled  with  their 
prisoners  and  booty.  As  they  passed  by  Heard's 
garrison  in  their  retreat,  they  fired  upon  it,  but  the 
people  being  prepared  and  resolved  to  defend  it,  and 
the  enemy  being  in  haste,  it  was  preserved.  The  pre- 
servation of  its  owner  was  more  remarkable. 

Elizabeth  Heard,  with  her  three  sons  and  a 
daughter,  and  some  others,  were  returning  in  the 
night  from  Portsmouth;  they  passed  up  the  river  in 
their  boat  unperceived  by  the  Indians,  who  were 
then  in  possession  of  the  houses;  but  suspecting 
danger  by  the  noise  which  they  heard,  after  they 
had  landed  they  betook  themselves  to  Waldron's 
garrison,  where  they  saw  lights,  which  they  imagined 
were  set  up  for  direction  to  those  who  might  be  seek- 
ing a  refuge.  They  knocked  and  begged  earnestly 
for  admission,  but  no  answer  being  given,  a  young 
man  of  the  company  climbed  up  the  wall,  and  saw, 
to  his  inexpressible  surprise,  an  Indian  standing  in 
the  door  of  the  house  with  his  gun.  The  woman 
was  so  overcome  with  the  fright  that  she  was  unable 
to  fly,  but  begged  her  children  to  shift  for  them- 


selves, and  they  with  heavy  hearts  left  her.  When 
she  had  a  little  recovered  she  crawled  into  some 
bushes,  and  lay  there  till  day-light:  she  then  per- 
ceived an  Indian  coming  toward  her  with  a  pistol  iu 
his  hand,  he  looked  at  her  and  went  away;  return- 
ing, he  looked  at  her  again,  and  she  asked  him  what 
he  would  have.  He  made  no  answer,  but  ran  yell- 
ing to  the  house,  and  she  saw  him  no  more.  She 
kept  her  place  till  the  house  was  burned  and  the 
Indians  were  gone,  and  then  returning  home  found 
her  own  house  safe.  Her  preservation  in  these 
dangerous  circumstances  was  more  remarkable,  if 
(as  it  is  supposed)  it  was  an  instance  of  justice  and 
gratitude  in  the  Indians :  for  at  the  time  when  the 
400  were  seized  in  1676,  a  young  Indian  escaped 
and  took  refuge  in  her  house,  where  she  concealed 
him;  in  return  for  which  kindness  he  promised  her 
that  he  would  never  kill  her,  nor  any  of  her  family 
in  any  future  war,  and  that  he  would  use  his  influ- 
ence with  the  other  Indians  to  the  same  purpose. 
This  Indian  was  one  of  the  party  who  surprised  the 
place,  and  she  was  well  known  to  the  most  of  them. 

The  same  day,  after  the  mischief  was  done,  a 
letter  from  Secretary  Addington,  written  by  order 
of  the  government,  directed  to  Major  Waldron,  giving 
him  notice  of  the  intention  of  the  Indians  to  sur- 
prise him  under  pretence  of.  trade,  fell  into  the 
hands  of  his  son.  This  design  was  communicated 
to  Governor  Bradstreet  by  Major  Henchman  of 
Chehnsford,  who  had  learned  it  of  the  Indians.  The 
letter  was  dispatched  from  Boston,  the  day  before, 
by  Mr.  Weare;  but  some  delay  which  he  met  with 
at  Newbury  ferry  prevented  its  arrival  in  season. 

The  prisoners  taken  at  this  time  were  mostly  car- 
ried to  Canada,  and  sold  to  the  French ;  and  these-, 
so  far  as  can  be  learned,  were  the  first  tnat  cvct 
were  carried  thither.  One  of  these  prisoners  was 
Sarah  Gerrish,  a  remarkably  fine  child,  of  seven 
years  old,  and  grand-daughter  of  Major  Waldron, 
in  whose  house  she  lodged  that  fatal  night.  Some 
circumstances  attending  her  captivity  are  truly  af- 
fecting. When  she  was  awakened  by  the  noise  of 
the  Indians  in  the  house,  she  crept  into  another  bed, 
and  hid  herself  under  the  clothes  to  escape  their 
search.  She  remained  in  their  hands  till  the  next 
winter,  and  was  sold  from  one  to  another  several 
times.  An  Indian  girl  once  pushed  her  into  a  river; 
but,  catching  by  the  bushes,  she  escaped  drowning, 
yet  durst  not  tell  how  she  came  to  be  wet.  Once 
she  was  so  weary  with  travelling,  that  she  did  not 
awake  in  the  morning  till  the  Indians  were  gone, 
and  then  found  herself  alone  in  the  woods,  covered 
with  snow,  and  without  any  food;  having  found 
their  tracks,  she  went  crying  after  them  till  they 
heard  her  and  took  her  with  them.  At  another  time 
they  kindled  a  great  fire,  and  the  young  Indians  told 
her  she  was  to  be  roasted.  She  burst  into  tears, 
threw  her  arms  round  her  master's  neck,  and  begged 
him  to  save  her,  which  he  promised  to  do  if  she 
would  behave  well.  Being  arrived  in  Canada,  she 
was  bought  by  the  Intendant's  lady,  who  treated  her 
courteously,  and  sent  her  to  a  nunnery  for  educa- 
tion. But  when  Sir  William  Phips  was  at  Quebec 
she  was  exchanged,  and  returned  to  her  friends, 
with  whom  she  lived  till  she  was  sixteen  years  old. 

The  wife  of  Richard  Otis  was  taken  at  the  same 
time,  with  an  infant  daughter  of  three  months  old. 
The  French  priests  took  this  child  under  their  care, 
baptised  her  by  the  name  of  Christina,  and  educated 
her  in  the  Romish  religion.  She  passed  tome  time 
in  a  nunnery,  but  declined  taking  the  veil,  and  was 
mavried  to  a  Frenchman,  by  whom  she  had  two- 


448 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


children.  But  her  desire  to  see  New  England  was 
so  strong,  that  upon  an  exchange  of  prisoners  in 
1714,  being  then  a  widow,  she  left  both  her  children, 
who  were  not  permitted  to  come  with  her,  and  re- 
turned home,  where  she  abjured  the  Romish  faith. 
M.  Siguenot,  her  former  contessor,  wrote  her  a  flatter- 
ing letter,  warning  her  of  her  danger,  inviting  her  to 
return  to  the  bosom  of  the  catholic  church,  and  re- 
peating many  gross  calumnies  which  had  formerly 
been  vented  against  Luther  and  the  other  reformers. 
This  letter  being  shewn  to  Governor  Burnet,  he 
wrote  her  a  sensible  and  masterly  answer,  refuting 
the  arguments,  and  detecting  the  falsehoods  it  con- 
tained :  both  these  letters  were  printed.  She  was 
married  afterwards  to  Captain  Thomas  Baker,  who 
had  been  taken  at  Deerfield  in  1704,  and  lived  in 
Dover,  where  she  was  born,  till  the  year  1773. 
The  Indians  had  been  seduced  to  the  French  inter- 
est by  popish  emissaries,  who  had  begun  to  fascinate 
them  with  their  religious  and  national  prejudices. 
They  had  now  learned  to  call  the  English  heretics, 
and  that  to  extirpate  them  as  such  was  meritorious 
in  the  sight  of  heaven.  When  their  minds  were 
filled  with  religious  frenzy,  they  became  more  bitter 
and  implacable  enemies  than  before ;  and  finding 
the  sale  of  scalps  and  prisoners  turn  to  good  account 
in  Canada,  they  had  still  farther  incitement  to  con- 
tinue their  depredations,  and  prosecute  their  ven- 
geance. 

The  necessity  of  vigorous  measures  was  now  so 
pressing,  that  parties  were  immediately  dispatched, 
one  under  Captain  Noyes  to  Penacook,  where  they 
destroyed  the  corn,  but  the  Indians  escaped  ;  another 
from  Pascataqua,  under  Captain  Wincal,  to  Win- 
nipiseogee,  whither  the  Indians  had  retired,  as  John 
Church,  who  had  been  taken  at  Cocheco,  and  escaped 
from  them,  reported :  one  or  two  Indians  were  killed 
there,  and  their  corn  cut  down.  But  these  excur- 
sions proved  of  small  service,  as  the  Indians  had 
little  to  lose,  and  could  find  a  home  wherever  they 
could  find  game  and  fish. 

In  the  month  of  August  Major  Swaine,  with  seven 
or  eight  companies  raised  by  the  Massachusetts  go- 
verment,  marched  to  the  eastward;  and  Major 
Church,  with  another  party,  consisting  of  English 
and  Indians,  from  the  colony  of  Plymouth,  soon  fol- 
lowed them.  While  these  forces  were  on  their 
march,  the  Indians,  who  lay  in  the  woods  about 
Oyster  river,  observed  how  many  men  belonged  to 
Hucking's  garrison  ;  and  seeing  them  all  go  out 
one  morning  to  work,  nimbly  ran  between  them  and 
the  house,  and  killed  them  all,  being  in  number 
eighteen,  except  one  who  had  passed  the  brook. 
They  then  attacked  the  house,  in  which  were  only 
two  boys,  one  of  whom  was  lame,  with  some  women 
and  children.  The  boys  kept  them  off  for  some 
time,  and  wounded  several  of  them.  At  length  the 
Indians  set  the  house  on  fire,  and  even  then  the 
toys  would  not  surrender  till  they  had  promise 
them  to  spare  their  lives.  They  perfidiously  mur- 
dered three  or  four  of  the  children  ;  one  of  them  was 
set  on  a  sharp  stake,  in  the  view  of  its  distressec 
mother,  who,  with  the  other  women  and  the  boys, 
were  carried  captive.  One  of  the  boys  escaped  the 
next  day.  Captain  Garner,  with  his  company,  pur- 
sued the  enemy,  but  did  not  come  up  with  them. 

The  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth  companies  pro- 
ceeded  to  the  eastward,  settled  garrisons  in  conve 
nient  places,  and  had  some  skirmishes  with  the 
enemy  at  Casco  and  Blue  Point.  On  their  return 
Major  Swaine  sent  a  party  of  the  Indian  auxiliaries 
under  Lieutenant  Flagg  toward  WinnipiQeo^ec  t< 


make  discoveries.  These  Indians  held  a  consulta- 
ion  in  their  own  language ;  and  having  persuaded 
heir  lieutenant,  with  two  men,  to  return,  nineteen 
>f  them  tarried  out  eleven  days  longer;  in  which 
ime  they  found  the  enemy,  staid  with  them  two 
lights,  and  informed  them  of  every  thing  which  they 
desired  to  know ;  upon  which  the  enemy  retired  to 
their  inaccessible  deserts,  and  the  forces  returned 
without  finding  them,  and  in  November  were  dis- 
janded. 

Nothing  was  more  welcome  to  the  distressed  in- 
labitants  of  the  frontiers  than  the  approach  of  win- 
,er,  as  they  then  expected  a  respite  from  their  suf- 
'erings.  The  deep  snows  and  cold  weather  were 
commonly  a  good  security  against  an  attack  from 
he  Indians ;  but  when  resolutely  set  on  mischief, 
and  instigated  by  popish  enthusiasm,  no  obstacles 
could  prevent  the  execution  of  their  purposes. 

(1690.)  The  Count  de  Frontenac,  now  governor 
of  Canada,  was  fond  of  distinguishing  himself  by 
enterprises  against  the  American  subjects  of  King 
William,  with  whom  his  master  was  at  war  in 
Europe.  For  this  purpose  he  detached  three  parties 
of  French  and  Indians  from  Canada  in  the  winter, 
who  were  to  take  three  different  routes  into  the  En- 
glish territories.  One  of  these  parties  marched 
from  Montreal,  and  destroyed  Scheuectada,  a  Dutch 
village  on  the  Mohawk  river,  in  the  province  of 
New  York.  This  action,  which  happened  at  an 
unusual  time  of  the  year,  in  the  month  of  February, 
alarmed  the  whole  country ;  and  the  eastern  settle- 
ments were  ordered  to  be  on  their  guard.  On  the 
18th  day  of  March,  another  party,  which  came  from 
Trois  Rivieres,  under  the  command  of  the  Sieur 
Hertel,  an  officer  of  great  repute  in  Canada,  fomid 
their  way  to  Salmon  falls,  a  settlement  on  the  river 
which  divides  New  Hampshire  from  the  province  of 
Maine.  This  party  consisted  of  fifty-two  men,  of 
whom  twenty-five  were  Indians  under  Hoophood,  a 
noted  warrior.  They  began  the  attack  at  day-break, 
in  three  different  places.  The  people  were  sur- 
prised ;  but  flew  to  arms,  and  defended  themselves 
in  the  garrisoned  houses,  with  a  bravery  which  the 
enemy  themselves  applauded.  But  as  in  all  such 
onsets  the  assailants  have  the  greatest  advantage, 
so  they  here  proved  too  strong  for  the  defendants ; 
about  thirty  of  the  bravest  were  killed,  and  the  rest 
surrendered  at  discretion,  to  the  number  of  fifty- 
four,  of  whom  the  greater  part  were  women  and 
children.  After  plundering,  the  enemy  burned  the 
houses,  mills  and  barns,  with  the  cattle,  which  were 
within  doors,  and  then  retreated  into  the  woods, 
whither  they  were  pursued  by  about  one  hundred 
and  forty  men,  suddenly  collected  from  the  neigh- 
bouring towns,  who  came  up  with  them  in  the  after- 
noon, at  a  narrow  bridge  on  Wooster's  river.  Her- 
tel, expecting  a  pursuit,  had  posted  his  men  advan- 
tageously on  the  opposite  bank.  The  pursuers  ad- 
vanced with  great  intrepidity,  and  a  warm  engage- 
ment ensued,  which  lasted  till  night,  when  they  re- 
tired with  the  loss  of  four  or  five  killed;  the  enemy, 
by  their  own  account,  lost  two,  one  of  whom  was 
Hertel's  nephew;  his  son  was  wounded  in  the  knee; 
another  Frenchman  was  taken  prisoner,  who  was  so 
tenderly  treated  that  he  embraced  the  protestant 
faith,  and  remained  in  the  country.  Hertel,  on  his 
way  homeward,  met  with  a  third  party  who  had 
marched  from  Quebec,  and  joining  his  company  to 
them,  attacked  and  destroyed  the  fort  and  settle- 
ment at  Casco,  the  next  May.  Thus  the  three  ex- 
peditions planned  by  Count  Frontenac  proved  suc- 
cessful;  but  the  glory  of  them  was  much  tarnished 


UNITED  STATES. 


439 


by  acts  of  cruelty,  which  christians  should  be  ashamed 
to  countenance,  though  perpetrated  by  savages. 

The  following  instances  of  cruelty,  exercised  to- 
wards the  prisoners  taken  at  Salmon  falls,  are  men- 
tioned by  Dr.  Mather.  Robert  Rogers,  a  corpulent 
man,  being  unable  to  carry  the  burden  which  the 
Indians  imposed  upon  him,  threw  it  in  the  path  and 
went  aside  in  the  woods  to  conceal  himself.  They 
found  him  by  his  track,  stripped,  beat,  and  pricked 
him  with  their  swords:  then  tied  him  to  a  tree  and 
danced  round  him  till  they  had  kindled  a  fire.  They 
gave  him  time  to  pray,  and  take  leave  of  his  fellow 
prisoners,  who  were  placed  round  the  fire  to  see  his 
death.  They  pushed  the  fire  toward  him,  and  when 
he  was  almost  stifled,  took  it  away  to  give  him  time 
to  breathe,  and  thus  prolong  his  misery;  they  drown- 
ed his  dying  groans  with  their  hideous  singing  and 
yelling,  all  the  while  dancing  round  the  fire,  cutting 
off  pieces  of  his  flesh  and  throwing  them  in  his  face. 
When  he  was  dead  they  left  his  body  broiling  on 
the  coals,  in  which  state  it  was  found  by  his  friends 
and  buried.  Mehetabel  Goodwin  was  taken  with  a 
child  of  five  months  old;  when  it  cried  they  threat- 
ened to  kill  it,  which  made  the  mother  go  aside  and 
sit  for  hours  together  in  the  snow  to  lull  it  to  sleep; 
her  master  seeing  that  this  hindered  her  from  tra- 
velling, took  the  child,  struck  its  head  against  a  tree, 
and  hung  it  on  one  of  the  branches;  she  would  have 
buried  it  but  he  would  not  let  her,  telling  her  that 
if  she  came  again  that  way  she  might  have  the  plea- 
sure of  seeing  it.  She  was  carried  to  Canada,  and  after 
five  years  returned  home.  Mary  Plaistcd  was  taken 
out  of  her  bed,  having  lain  in  but  three  weeks :  they 
made  her  travel  with  them  through  the  snow,  and 
"  to  ease  her  of  her  burden,"  as  they  said,  struck  the 
child's  head  against  a  tree,  and  threw  it  into  a  river. 
An  anecdote  of  another  kind  may  relieve  the  reader 
after  these  tragical  accounts?  Thomas  Toogood  was 


Two  companies  under  the  Captains  Floyd  and 
Wiswal  were  now  scouting,  and  on  the  6th  'day  of 
July  discovered  an  Indian  track,  which  they  pur^ 
sued  till  they  came  up  with  the  enemy  at  "Wheel- 
wright's Pond,  [in  Lee]  where  a  bloody  engagement 
ensued  for  some  hours,  in  which  Wiswal,  his  lieu- 
tenant, Flagg,  and  serjeant  Walker,  with  twelve 
more,  were  killed,  and  several  wounded.  It  was  not 
known  how  many  of  the  enemy  fell,  as  they  always 
carried  off  their  dead.  Floyd  maintained  the  fight 
after  Wiswal's  death,  till  his  men,  fatigued  and 
wounded,  drew  off,  which  obliged  him  to  follow. 
The  enemy  retreated  at  the  same  time  ;  for  when 
Captain  Convers  went  to  look  after  the  wounded,  he 
found  seven  alive,  whom  he  brought  in  by  sunrise 
the  next  morning,  and  then  returned  to  bury  the 
dead.  The  enemy  then  went  westward,  and  in  the 
course  of  one  week  killed,  between  Lamprey  river 
and  Almsbury,  not  less  than  forty  people. 

The  cruelties  exercised  upon  the  captives  in  this 
war  exceeded,  both  in  number  and  degree,  any  in 
former  times.  The  most  healthy  and  vigorous  of 
them  were  sold  in  Canada,  the  weaker  were  sacri- 
ficed and  scalped  ;  and  for  every  scalp  they  had  a 
premium.  Two  instances  only  are  remembered  of 
their  releasing  any  without  a  ransom  ;  one  was  a 
woman  taken  from  Fox  Point,  who  obtained  her 
liberty  by  procuring  them  some'of  the  necessaries  of 
life :  the  other  was  at  York,  where,  after  they  had 
taken  many  of  the  people,  they  restored  two  aged 
women  and  five  children,  in  return  for  a  generous 
action  of  Major  Church,  who  had  spared  the  lives 
of  as  many  women  and  children  when  they  fell  into 
his  hands  at  Amariscogin, 

The  people  of  New  England  now  looked  on  Ca» 
nada  as  the  source  of  their  troubles,  and  formed  a 
design  to  reduce  it  to  subjection  to  the  crown  of 
England.  The  enterprise  was  bold  and  hazardous  ; 


pursued  by  three  Indians  and  overtaken  by  one  of  I  but  had  their  ability  been  equal  to   the  ardour  of 


them,  who  having  enquired  his  name,  was  preparing 
strings  to  bind  him,  holding  his  gun  under  his  arm, 
which  Toogood  seized  and  went  backward,  keeping 
the  gun  presented  at  him,  and  protesting  that  he 
would  shoot  him  if  he  alarmed  the  others  who  had 
stopped  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  hill.  By  this 
dexterity  he  escaped  and  got  safe  into  Cochecho; 
while  his  adversary  had  no  recompense  in  his  power 
but  to  call  after  him  by  the  name  of  Nogood. 

After  the  destruction  of  Casco  the  eastern  settle- 
ments were  all  deserted,  and  the  people  retired  to 
the  fort  at  Wells.  The  Indians  then  came  up  west- 
ward, and  a  party  of  them  under  Hoophood  some 
time  in  May  made  an  assault  on  Fox  Point,  in 
Nevvington,  where  they  burned  several  houses,  killed 
about  fourteen  people,  and  carried  away  six.  They 
were  pursued  by  the  Captains  Floyd  and  Greenleaf, 
who  came  up  with  them  and  recovered  some  of  the 
captives  and  spoil,  after  a  skirmish  in  which  Hoop- 
hood  was  wounded  and  lost  his  gun.  This  fellow 
was  soon  after  killed  by  a  party  of  Canada  Indians, 
who  mistook  him  for  one  of  the  Iroquois,  with  whom 
they  were  at  war.  On  the  4th  day  of  July,  eight 
persons  were  killed  as  they  were  mowing  in  a  field 
near  Lamprey  river,  and  a  lad  was  captured.  The 
next  day  they  attacked  Captain  Hilton's  garrison 
at  Exeter,  which  was  relieved  by  Lieutenant  Ban- 
croft with  the  loss  of  a  few  of  his  men ;  one  of  them, 
Simon  Stone,  received  nine  wounds  with  shot,  and 
two  strokes  of  a  hatchet;  when  his  friends  came  to 
bury  him,  they  perceived  life  in  him,  and  by  the 
application  of  cordials  he  revived,  to  the  amazement 
of  all 


jy  equipped 
to   the    serv 


an 
service. 


their  patriotism,  it  might  probably  have  been  accom 
plished.  Straining  every  nerve,  they 
armament  in  some  degree  equal  to 
What  was  wanting  in  military  and  naval  discipline 
was  made  up  in  resolution ;  and  the  command  was 
given  to  Sir  William  Phips,  an  honest  man,  and  a 
friend  to  his  country,  but  by  no  moans  qualified  for 
such  an  enterprise.  Unavoidable  accidents  retarded 
the  expedition,  so  that  the  fleet  did  not  arrive  be- 
fore Quebec  till  October,  when  it  was  more  than 
time  to  return.  It  being  impossible  to  continue 
there  to  any  purpose,  and  the  troops  growing  sickly 
and  discouraged,  after  some  ineffectual  parade,  they 
abandoned  the  enterprise, 

This  disappointment  was  severely  felt.  The  equip- 
ment of  the  fleet  and  army  required  a  supply  of 
money  which  could  not  readily  be  collected,  and  oc- 
casioned a  paper  currency,  which  has  often  been 
drawn  into  precedent  on  like  occasions,  and  has 
proved  a  fatal  source  of  the  most  complicated  and 
extensive  mischief.  The  people  were  almost  dispi- 
rited with  the  prospect  of  poverty  and  ruin.  In  this 
melancholy  state  of  the  country,  it  was  a  happy  cir- 
cumstance that  the  Indians  voluntarily  came  in  with 
a  flag  of  truce,  and  desired  a  cessation  of  hostilities. 
(1691.)  A  conference  being  held  at  Sagadahock, 
they  brought  in  ten  captives,  and  settled  a  truce  till 
the  1st  day  of  May,  which  they  observed  till  the 
9th  of  Jurie,  when  they  attacked  Storar's  garrison 
at  Wells,  but  were  bravely  repulsed.  About  the 
same  time  they  killed  two  men  at  Exeter,  and  on 
the  29th  of  September,  a  party  of  them  came  from 
the  eastward  in  canoes  to  Sandy  Beach,  Rye,  wher» 


440 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


they  killed  and  captured  twenty-one  persons.  Cap- 
tain Sherburne  of  Portsmouth,  a  worthy  officer,  was 
this  year  killed  at  Macquoit. 

(1692.)  The  next  winter,  the  country  being  alarm- 
ed with  the  destruction  of  York,  some  new  regula- 
tions were  made  for  the  general  defence.  Major 
Elisha  Hutchinson  was  appointed  commander  in 
chief  of  the  militia,  by  whose  prudent  conduct  the 
frontiers  were  well  guarded,  and  so  constant  a  com- 
munication was  kept  up,  by  ranging  parties,  from 
one  post  to  another,  that  it  became  impossible  for 
the  enemy  to  attack  in  theii  usual  way  by  surprise. 
The  good  effect  of  this  regulation  was  presently  seen. 
A  young  man  being  in  the  woods  near  Cochecho, 
was  fired  at  by  some  Indians.  Lieutenant  Wilson 
immediately  went  out  with  eighteen  men  ;  and  find- 
ing the  Indians,  killed  or  wounded  the  whole  party 
excepting  one.  This  struck  them  with  terror,  and 
kept  them  quiet  the  remainder  of  the  winter  and 
spring.  But  on  the  10th  day  of  June,  an  army  of 
French  and  Indians  made  a  furious  attack  on  Storer's 
garrison  at  Wells,  where  Captain  Convers  com- 
manded ;  who  after  a  brave  and  resolute  defence, 
was  so  happy  as  to  drive  them  off  with  great  loss. 

Sir  William  Phips,  being  now  governor  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, continued  the  same  method  of  defence, 
keeping  out  continual  scouts  under  brave  and  expe- 
rienced officers.  This  kept  the  Indians  so  quiet, 
that  except  one  poor  family  which  they  took  at  Oys- 
ter river,  and  some  small  mischief  at  Quaboag,  there 
is  no  mention  of  any  destruction  made  by  them  du- 
ring the  year  1693.  Their  animosity  against  New 
England  was  not  quelled  ;  but  they  needed  time  to 
recruit ;  some  of  their  principal  men  were  in  cap- 
tivity, and  they  could  not  hope  to  redeem  them 
without  a  peace.  To  obtain  it,  they  came  into  the 
fort  at  Pemaquid ;  and  there  entered  into  a  solemn 
covenant,  wherein  they  acknowledged  subjection  to 
the  crown  of  England ;  engaged  to  abandon  the 
French  interest ;  promised  perpetual  peace  ;  to  for- 
bear private  revenge ;  to  restore  all  captives,  and 
even  went  so  far  as  to  deliver  hostages  for  the  due 
performance  of  their  engagements.  This  peace,  or 
rather  truce,  gave  both  sides  a  respite,  which  both 
earnestly  desired. 

The  people  of  New  Hampshire  were  much  re- 
duced, their  lumber  trade  and  husbandry  being 
greatly  impeded  by  the  war.  Frequent  complaints 
were  made  of  the  burden  of  the  war,  the  scarcity  of 
provisions,  and  the  dispiritedness  of  the  people. 
Once  it  is  said  in  the  council  minutes  that  they 
were  even  ready  to  quit  the  province.  The  governor 
was  obliged  to  impress  men  to  guard  the  outposts : 
they  were  sometimes  dismissed  for  want  of  provi- 
sions, and  then  the  garrison  officers  called  to  account 
and  severely  punished :  yet  all  this  time  the  public 
debt  did  not  exceed  400/.  In  this  situation  they 
were  obliged  to  apply  to  their  neighbours  for  assis- 
tance ;  but  this  was  granted  with  a  sparing  hand. 
The  people  of  Massachusetts  were  much  divided  and 
at  variance  among  themselves,  both  on  account  of 
the  new  charter  which  they  had  received  from  King 
William,  and  the  pretended  witchcrafts  which  have 
made  so  loud  a  noise  in  the  world. 

(1694.)  The  engagements  made  by  the  Indians 
in  the  treaty  of  Pemaquid,  might  have  been  per- 
formed if  they  had  been  left  to  their  own  choice. 
But  the  French  missionaries  had  been  for  some  years 
very  assiduous  in  propagating  their  tenets  among 
them,  one  of  which  was,  "  that  to  break  faith  with 
heretics  was  no  sin."  The  Sieur  de  Villieu,  who 
had  distinguished  himself  in  the  defence  of  Quebec 


when  Phips  was  before  it,  and  had  contracted  a. 
trong  antipathy  to  the  New  Englanders,  being  now 
in  command  at  Penobscot,  he,  with  M.  Thurv,  the 
missionary,  diverted  Madokawando  and  the  other 
sachems  from  complying  with  their  engagements ; 
so  that  pretences  were  found  for  detaining  the  Eng- 
lish captives,  who  were  more  in  number,  and  of 
more  consequence,  than  the  hostages  whom  the  In- 
dians had  given.  Influenced  by  the  same  pernicious 
councils,  they  kept  a  watchful  eye  on  the  frontier 
towns,  to  sec  what  place  was  most  secure  and  might 
be  attacked  to  the  greatest  advantage.  The  settle- 
ment at  Oyster  river,  within  the  town  of  Dover,  was 
pitched  upon  as  the  most  likely  place ;  and  it  is  said 
that  the  design  of  surprising  it  was  publicly  talked 
of  at  Quebec  two  months  before  it  was  put  in  execu- 
tion. Rumours  of  Indians  lurking  ia  the  woods 
thereabout,  made  some  of  the  people  apprehend 
danger  :  but  no  mischief  being  attempted,  they  ima- 
gined them  to  be  hunting  parties,  and  returned  to 
their  security.  At  length,  the  necessary  prepara- 
tions being  made,  Villieu,  with  a  body  of  250  In 
dians,  collected  from  the  tribes  of  St.  John,  Penobs 
cot,  and  Norridgwog,  attended  by  a  French  priest 
marched  for  the  devoted  place. 

Oyster  river  is  a  stream  which  runs  into  the  west- 
ern branch  of  Pascataqua :  the  settlements  were  on 
both  sides  of  it,  and  the  houses  chiefly  near  the 
water.  Here  were  twelve  garrisoned  houses  suffi- 
cient for  the  defence  of  the  inhabitants;  but  appre- 
hending no  danger,  some' families  remained  at  their 
own  unfortified  houses,  and  those  who  were  in  the 
garrisons  were  but  indifferently  provided  for  defence, 
some  being  even  destitute  of  powder.  The  enemy 
approached  the  place  undiscovered,  and  halted  near 
the  falls  on  Tuesday  evening,  the  17th  of  July. 
Here  they  formed  into  two  divisions,  one  of  which 
was  to  go  on  each  side  of  the  river  and  plant  them- 
selves in  ambush,  in  small  parties,  near  every  house, 
so  as  to  be  ready  for  the  attack  at  the  rising  of  the 
sun,  the  first  gun  to  be  the  signal.  John  Dean, 
whose  house  stood  by  the  saw-mill  at  the  falls,  in- 
tending to  go  from  home  very  early,  arose  before 
the  dawn  of  day,  and  was  shot  as  he  came  out  of  his 
door.  This  disconcerted  their  plan  :  several  parties 
who  had  some  distance  to  go,  had  not  then  arrived 
at  their  stations :  the  people  in  general  were  imme- 
diately alarmed :  some  of  them  had  time  to  make 
their  escape,  and  others  to  prepare  for  their  defence. 
The  signal  being  given,  the  attack  began  in  all  parts 
where  the  enemy  was  ready. 

Of  the  twelve  garrisoned  houses  five  were  destroy- 
ed, viz.  Adams's,  Drews's,  Edgerly's,  Medar's,  and 
Beard's.  They  entered  Adams's  without  resistance, 
where  they  killed  fourteen  persons;  one  of  them, 
being  a  woman  with  child,  they  ripped  open.  The 
grave  is  still  to  be  seen  in  which  they  were  all  bu- 
ried. Drew  surrendered  his  garrison  on  the  promise 
of  security,  but  was  murdered  when  he  fell  into 
their  hands  ;  one  of  his  children,  a  boy  of  nine  years 
old,  was  made  to  run  through  a  lane  of  Indians  as  a 
mark  for  them  to  throw  their  hatchets  at,  till  they 
had  dispatched  him.  Edgerly's  was  evacuated  ;  the 
people  took  to  their  boat,  and  one  of  them  was  mor- 
tally wounded  before  they  got  out  of  reach  of  the 
enemy's  shot.  Beard's  and  Medar's  were  also  eva 
cuated,  and  the  people  escaped.  The  defenceless 
houses  were  nearly  all  set  on  fire,  the  inhabitants 
being  either  killed  or  taken  in  them,  or  else  in  en- 
deavouring to  fly  to  the  garrisons,  Some  escaped 
by  hiding  in  the  bushes  and  other  secret  places. 

Thomas  Edgerly,   by  concealing   himself  in  hi> 


UNITED  STATES. 


441 


cellar,  preserved  his  house,  though  twice  set  on  fire. 
The  house  of  John  Buss,  the  minister,  was  destroyed 
with  a  valuable  library.  He  was  absent,  his  wife 
and  family  fled  to  the  woods  and  escaped.  The  wife 
of  John  Dean,  at  whom  the  first  gun  was  fired,  was 
taken  with  her  daughter,  and  carried  about  two 
miles  up  the  river,  where  they  were  left  under  the 
care  of  an  old  Indian  while  the  others  returned  to 
their  bloody  work.  The  Indian  complained  of  a  pain 
in  his  head,  and  asked  the  woman  what  would  be  a 
proper  remedy.  She  answered,  Occapee,  which  is 
the  Indian  word  for  rum,  of  which  she  knew  he  had 
taken  a  bottle  from  her  house.  The  remedy  being 
agreeable,  he  took  a  large  dose  and  fell  asleep ;  and 
she  took  that  opportunity  to  make  her  escape,  with 
her  child,  into  the  woods,  and  kept  concealed  till 
they  were  gone. 

The  other  seven  garrisons,  viz.  Burnham's,  Bick- 
ford's.  Smith's,  Bunker's,  Davis's,  Jones  and  Wood- 
man's, were  resolutely  and  successfully  defended. 
At  Burnham's  the  gate  was  left  open  :  the  Indians, 
ten  in  number,  who  were  appointed  to  surprise  it, 
were  asleep  under  the  bank  of  the  river,  at  the  time 
that  the  alarm  was  given.  -  A  man  within,  who  had 
been  kept  awake  by  the  toothache,  hearing  the  first 
gun,  roused  the  people  and  secured  the  gate,  just  as 
the  Indians  who  were  awakened  by  the  same  noise  were 
entering.  Finding  themselves  disappointed,  they  ran 
to  Pitman's  defenceless  house,  and  forced  the  door  at 
the  moment  that  he  had  burst  a  way  through  that 
end  of  the  house  which  was  next  to  the  garrison,  to 
which  he  with  his  family,  taking  advantage  of  the 
shade  of  some  trees,  it  being  moonlight,  happily  es- 
caped. Still  defeated,  they  attacked  the  house  of 
John  Davis,  which  after  some  resistance  he  surren- 
dered on  terms;  but  the  terms  wereviolated,  and  the 
whole  family  either  killed  or  made  captives.  Thomas 
Bicklbrd  preserved  his  house  in  a  singular  manner. 
It  was  situated  near  the  river,  and  surrounded  with 
a  palisade.  Being  alarmed  before  the  enemy  had 
reached  the  house,  he  sent  off  his  family  in  a  boat, 
and  then  shutting  his  gate,  betook  himself  alone  to 
the  defence  of  his  fortress.  Despising  alike  the 
promises  and  threats  by  which  the  Indians  would 
have  persuaded  him  to  surrender,  he  kept  up  a  con- 
stant fire  at  them,  changing  his  dress  as  often  as  he 
could,  shewing  himself  with  a  different  cap,  hat  or 
coat,  and  sometimes  without  either,  and  giving  di- 
rections aloud  as  if  he  had  a  number  of  men  with 
him.  Finding  their  attempt  vain  the  enemy  with- 
drew, and  left  him  sole  master  of  the  house  which  he 
had  defended  with  such  admirable  address.  Smith's, 
Bunker's,  and  Davis's  garrisons,  being  seasonably 
apprised  of  the  danger,  were  resolutely  defended — 
one  Indian  was  supposed  to  be  killed  and  another 
wounded  by  a  shot  from  Davis's.  Jones's  garrison 
was  beset  before  day;  Captain  Jones  hearing  his 
dogs  bark,  and  imagining  wolves  might  be  near, 
went  out  to  secure  some  swine  and  returned  unmo- 
lested. He  then  went  up  into  the  flankart  and  sat 
on  the  wall.  Discerning  the  flash  of  a  gun  he  drop- 
ped backward;  the  ball  entered  the  place  from 
whence  he  had  withdrawn  his  legs.  The  enemy 
from  behind  a  rock  kept  firing  on  the  house  for  some 
time  and  then  quitted  it.  During  these  transactions 
the  French  priest  took  possession  of  the  meeting- 
house, and  employed  himself  in  writing  on  the  pulpit 
with  chalk,  but  the  house  received  no  damage. 

Those  parties  of  the  enemy  who  were  on  the  south 
side  of  the  rive,r,  having  completed  their  destructive 
work,  collected  in  a  field  adjoining  Burnham's  gar- 
rison, where  they  insultingly  shewed  their  prisoners, 


and  derided  the  people,  thinking  themselves  out  of 
reach  of  their  shot.  A  young  man  from  the  eeutry- 
box  fired  at  one  who  was  making  some  indecent 
signs  of  defiance,  and  wounded  him  in  the  heel. 
Both  divisions  then  met  at  the  falls,  where  they  had 
parted  the  evening  before,  and  proceeded  together 
to  Captain  Woodman's  garrison.  The  ground  being 
uneven,  they  approached  without  danger,  and  from 
behind  a  hill  kept  up  a  long  and  severe  fire  at  the 
hats  and  caps  which  the  people  within  held  up  on 
sticks  above  the  walls,  without  any  other  damage 
than  galling  the  roof  of  the  house.  At  length,  ap- 
prehending it  was  time  for  the  people  in  the  neigh- 
bouring settlements  to  be  collected  in  pursuit  of 
them,  they  finally  withdrew;  having  killed  and  cap- 
tured between  ninety  and  a  hundred  persons,  and 
burned  about  twenty  houses,  of  which  five  were  gar- 
risons. The  main  body  of  them  retreated  over  Win- 
nipiseogee  lake,  where  they  divided  their  prisoners, 
separating  those  in  particular  who  were  most  inti 
mately  connected,  in  which  they  often  took  a  plea- 
sure suited  to  their  savage  nature. 

Among  these  prisoners  were  Thomas  Drew  and 
his  wife,  who  were  newly  married:  he  was  carried 
to  Canada,  where  he  continued  two  years  and  was 
redeemed ;  she  to  Norridgwog,  and  was  gone  four 
years,  in  which  she  endured  every  thing  but  death. 
She  was  delivered  of  a  child  in  the  winter,  in  the 
open  air,  and  in  a  violent  snow  storm;  being  unable 
to  suckle  her  child,  or  provide  it  any  food,  the  In- 
dians killed  it.  She  lived  fourteen  days  on  a  de- 
coction of  the  bark  of  trees.  Once  they  set  her  to 
draw  a  sled  up  a  river  against  a  piercing  north-west 
wind,  and  left  her.  She  was  so  overcome  with  the 
cold  that  she  grew  sleepy,  laid  down,  and  was  nearly 
dead  when  they  returned :  they  carried  her  sense- 
less to  a  wigwam,  and  poured  warm  water  down  her 
throat,  which  recovered  her.  After  her  return  to 
her  husband  she  had  fourteen  children;  they  lived 
together  till  he  was  ninety-three  and  she  eighty-nine 
years  of  age;  they  died  within  two  days  of  each 
other  and  were  buried  in  one  grave. 

About  forty  of  the  enemy  under  Toxus.  a  Norridg- 
wog chief,  resolving  on  farther  mischief,  went  west- 
ward and  did  execution  as  far  as  Groton.  A  smaller 
party  having  crossed  the  river  Pascataqua,  came  to 
a  farm  where  Ursula  Cutts,  widow  of  the  deceased 
president,  resided,  who  imagining  the  enemy  had 
done  what  mischief  they  intended  for  that  time, 
could  not  be  persuaded  to  remove  into  town  till  her 
haymaking  should  be  finished.  As  she  was  in  the 
field  with  her  labourers,  the  enemy  fired  from  an 
ambush  and  killed  her,  with  three  others.  Colonel 
Richard  Waldron  and  his  wife  with  her  infant  son 
(afterward  secretary)  had  almost  shared  the  same 
fate;  they  were  taking  boat  to  go  and  dine  with  this 
lady,  when  they  were  stopped  by  the  arrival  of  soni'i 
friends  at  their  house ;  while  at  dinner  they  were  in- 
formed of  her  death.  She  lived  about  two  miles 
above  the  town  of  Portsmouth,  and  had  laid  out  her 
farm  with  much  elegance.  The  scalps  taken  in  this 
whole  expedition  were  carried  to  Canada  by  Madoka- 
wando,  and  presented  to  Count  Frontenac,  from  whom 
he  received  the  reward  of  his  treacherous  adventure. 

There  is  no  mention  of  any  more  mischief  by  the 
Indians  within  this  province  till  the  next  year  (1695), 
when,  in  the  month  of  July,  two  men  were  killed  at 
Exeter.  The  following  year  (1696),  on  the  7th  of 
Mav,  John  Church,  who  had  been  taken  and  escaped 
from  them  seven  years  before,  was  killed  and  scalped 
at  Cocheco,  near  his  own  house.  On  the  26th  of 
June,  an  attack  was  made  at  Portsmouth  plain 


442 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


about  two  miles  from  the  town.  The  enemy  came 
from  York-nubble  to  Sandy-beach  in  canoes,  which 
they  hid  there  among  the  bushes  near  the  shore. 
Some  suspicion  was  formed  the  day  before  by  reason 
of  the  cattle  running  out  of  the  woods  at  Little-har- 
bour; but  false  alarms  were  frequent,  and  this  was 
not  much  regarded.  Early  in  the  morning  the  at- 
tack was  made  on  five  houses  at  once ;  fourteen  per- 
sons were  killed  on  the  spot,  one  was  scalped  and 
left  for  dead,  but  recovered,  and  four  were  taken. 
The  enemy  having  plundered  the  houses  of  what 
they  could  carry,  set  them  on  fire,  and  made  a  pre- 
cipitate retreat  through  the  great  swamp.  A  com- 
pany of  militia  under  Captain  Shackford  and  Lieu- 
tenant Libbey  pursued,  and  discovered  them  cooking 
their  breakfast,  at  a  place  ever  since  called  Break 
fast-hill.  The  Indians  were  on  the  farther  side, 
having  placed  their  captives  between  themselves  and 
the  top  of  the  hill,  that  in  case  of  an  attack  they 
might  first  receive  the  fire.  The  lieutenant  urged 
to  go  round  the  hill,  and  come  upon  them  below  to 
cut  off  their  retreat;  but  the  captain  fearing  in  that 
case,  that  they  would,  according  to  their  custom, 
iiill  the  prisoners,  rushed  upon  them  from  the  top 
of  the  hill,  by  which  means  they  retook  the  captives 
and  plunder,  but  the  Indians  rolling  down  the  hill 
escaped  into  the  swamp  and  got  to  their  canoes. 
Another  party,  under  another  commander,  was  then 
sent  out  in  shallops  to  intercept  them  as  they  should 
cross  over  to  the  eastward  by  night.  The  captain 
ranged  his  boats  in  a  line,  and  ordered  his  men  to 
reserve  theii  fire  till  he  gave  the  watch-word.  It 
being  a  calm  night  the  Indians  were  heard  as  they 
advanced;  but  the  captain,  unhappily  giving  the 
word  before  they  had  come  within  gun-shot,  they 
tacked  about  to  the  southward,  and  going  round  the 
Isles  of  Shoals,  by  the  favour  of  their  light  canoes 
escaped.  The  watch-word  was  Crambo,  which  the 
captain  ever  after  bore  as  an  appendage  to  his  title. 
On  the  20th  day  of  July,  the  people  of  Dover  were 
waylaid  as  they  were  returning  from  the  public  wor- 
ship, when  three  were  killed,  three  wounded,  and 
three  carried  to  Penobscot,  from  whence  they  soon 
found  their  way  home. 

(1697.)  The  next  year,  on  the  10th  of  June,  the 
town  of  Exeter  was  remarkably  preserved  from  de- 
struction. A  body  of  the  enemy  had  placed  them- 
selves near  the  town,  intending  to  make  an  assault 
in  the  morning  of  the  next  day.  A  number  of 
women  and  children,  contrary  to  the  advice  of  their 
friends,  went  into  the  fields,  without  a  guard,  to 
gather  strawberries.  When  they  were  gone,  some 
persons,  to  frighten  them,  fired  an  alarm;  which 
quickly  spread  through  the  town,  and  brought  the 
people  together  in  arms.  The  Indians,  supposing 
that  they  were  discovered,  and  quickened  by  fear, 
after  killing  one,  wounding  another,  and  taking  a 
child,  made  a  hasty  retreat,  and  were  seen  no  more 
there.  But  on  the  fourth  day  of  July  they  waylaid 
and  killed  the  worthy  Major  Frost  at  Kittery,  to 
whom  they  had  owed  revenge  ever  since  the  seizure 
of  the  four  hundred  at  Cocheco,  in  which  he  was 
concerned. 

The  same  year  an  invasion  of  the  country  was 
projected  by  the  French.  A  fleet  was  to  sail  from 
France  to  Newfoundland,  and  thence  to  Penobscot, 
where,  being  joined  by  an  army  from  Canada,  an 
attempt  was  to  be  made  on  Boston,  and  the  sea  coast 
ravaged  from  thence  to  Pascataqua.  The  plan  was 
too  extensive  and  complicated  to  be  executed  in  one 
summer.  The  fleet  came  no  further  than  New- 
foundland; when  the  advanced  season,  and  scanti- 


ness of  provisions  obliged  them  to  give  over  the  de- 
sign. The  people  of  New  England  were  apprised 
of  the  danger,  and  made  the  best  preparations  in 
their  power.  They  strengthened  their  fortifications 
on  the  coast,  and  raised  a  body  of  men  to  defend  the 
frontiers  against  the  Indians,  who  were  expected  to 
co-operate  with  the  French.  Some  mischief  was 
done  by  lurking  parties  at  the  eastward ;  but  New 
Hampshire  was  unmolested  by  them  during  the  re- 
mainder of  this  and  the  whole  of  tho  following  year. 

(.1698.)  After  the  peace  of  Ryswick,  Count  Fron- 
tenac  informed  the  Indians  that  he  could  not  any 
longer  support  them  in  a  war  with  the  English,  with 
whom  his  nation  was  now  at  peace.  He  therefore 
advised  them  to  bury  the  hatchet,  and  restore  their 
captives.  Having  suffered  much  by  famine,  and 
being  divided  in  their  opinions  about  prosecuting 
the  war,  after  a  long  time  they  were  brought  to  a 
treaty  (1699)  at  Casco,  where  they  ratified  their 
former  engagements;  acknowledged  subjection  to 
the  crown  of  England ;  lamented  their  former  per- 
fidy, and  promised  future  peace  and  good  behaviour 
in  such  terms  as  the  commissioners  dictated,  and 
with  as  much  sincerity  as  could  be  expected.  At 
the  same  time  they  restored  those  captives  who  were 
able  to  travel  from  the  places  of  their  detention  to 
Casco  in  that  unfavourable  season  of  the  year ;  giving 
assurance  for  the  return  of  the  others  in  the  spring; 
but  many  of  the  younger  sort,  both  males  and  fe- 
males, were  detained;  who,  mingling  with  the  In- 
dians, contributed  to  a  succession  of  enemies  in  fu- 
ture wars  against  their  own  country. 

A  general  view  of  an  Indian  war  will  give  a  just 
idea  of  those  distressing  times,  and  be  a  proper  close 
to  this  narration. 

The  Indians  were  seldom  or  never  seen  before 
they  did  execution.  They  appeared  not  in  the  open 
field,  nor  gave  proofs  of  a  truly  masculine  courage  ; 
but  did  their  exploits  by  surprise,  chiefly  in  the 
morning,  keeping  themselves  hid  behind  logs  and 
bushes,  near  the  paths  in  the  woods,  or  the  fences 
contiguous  to  the  doors  of  houses  ;  and  their  lurking 
holes  could  be  known  only  by  the  report  of  their 
guns,  which  was  indeed  but  feeble,  as  they  were 
sparing  of  ammunition,  and  as  near  as  possible  to 
their  object  before  they  fired.  They  rarely  assaulted 
a  house  unless  they  knew  there  would  be  but  little 
resistance,  and  it  has  been  afterwards  known  that 
they  have  lain  in  ambush  for  days  together,  watch- 
ing the  motions  of  the  people  at  their  work,  without 
daring  to  discover  themselves.  One  of  their  chiefs, 
who  had  got  a  woman's  riding-hood  among  his  plun- 
der, would  put  it  on,  in  an  evening,  and  walk  into 
the  streets  of  Portsmouth,  looking  into  the  windows 
of  houses,  and  listening  to  the  conversation  of  the 
people. 

Their  cruelty  was  chiefly  exercised  upon  children, 
and  such  aged,  infirm,  or  corpulent  persons  as  could 
not  bear  the  hardships  of  a  journey  through  the 
wilderness.  If  they  took  a  woman  far  advanced  in 
pregnancy,  their  knives  were  plunged  into  her  bow- 
els. An  infant,  when  it  became  troublesome,  had 
its  brains  dashed  out  against  the  next  tree  or  stone. 
Sometimes,  to  torment  the  wretched  mother,  they 
would  whip  and  beat  the  child  till  almost  dead,  or 
hold  it  under  water  till  its  breath  was  just  gone,  and 
then  throw  it  to  her  to  comfort  and  quiet  it.  If  the 
mother  could  not  readily  still  its  weeping,  the  hatchet 
was  buried  in  its  skull.  A  captive,  wearied  with  the 
burden  laid  on  his  shoulders,  was  often  sent  to  rest 
in  the  same  way.  If  any  one  proved  refractory,  or 
was  known  to  be  instrumental  to  the  death  of  «m  In- 


UNITED  STATES. 


443 


dian,  or  related  to  one  who  had  been  so,  he  was 
tortured  with  a  lingering  punishment,  generally  at 
the  stake,  while  the  other  captives  were  insulted 
with  the  sight  of  his  miseries.  Sometimes  a  fire 
would  be  kindled  and  a  threatening  given  out  against 
one  or  more,  though  there  was  no  intention  of  sa- 
crificing them,  only  to  make  sport  of  their  terrors. 
The  young  Indians  often  signalized  their  cruelty  in 
treating  captives  inhumanly  out  of  sight  of  the  elder, 
and  when  inquiry  was  made  into  the  matter,  the  in- 
sulted captive  must  either  be  silent,  or  put  the  best 
face  on  it,  to  prevent  worse  treatment  for  the  future. 
If  a  captive  appeared  sad  and  dejected,  he  was  sure 
to  meet  with  insult ;  but  if  he  could  sing  and  dance 
and  laugh  with  his  masters,  he  was  caressed  as  a 
brother.  They  had  a  strong  aversion  to  negroes,  and 
generally  killed  them  when  they  fell  into  their  hands. 

Famine  was  a  common  attendant  on  these  capti- 
vities; the  Indians  when  they  caught  any  game  de- 
voured it  all  at  one  sitting,  and  then  girding  them- 
selves round  the  waist,  travelled  without  sustenance 
I'll  chance  threw  more  in  their  way.  The  captives, 
unused  to  such  canine  repasts  and  abstinences,  conic! 
not  support  the  surfeit  of  the  one  nor  the  cravings  of 
the  other.  A  change  of  masters,  though  it  some- 
times proved  a  relief  from  misery,  yet  rendered  the 
prospect  of  a  return  to  their  home  more  distant.  It' 
an  Indian  had  lost  a  relative,  a  prisoner  bought  for 
a  gun,  a  hatchet,  or  a  few  skins,  must  supply  the 
place  of  the  deceased,  and  be  the  father,  brother,  or 
eon  of  the  purchaser ;  and  those  who  could  accom- 
modate themselves  to  such  barbarous  adoption,  were 
treated  with  the  same  kindness  as  the  persons  in 
whose  place  they  were  substituted.  A  sale  among 
the  French  of  Canada  was  the  most  happy  event  to 
a  captive,  especially  if  he  became  a  servant  in  a 
family;  though  sometimes  even  there  a  prison  was 
their  lot,  till  an  opportunity  was  presented  for  their 
redemption ;  while  the  priests  employed  every  se- 
ducing art  to  pervert  them  to  the  popish  religion, 
and  induce  them  to  abandon  their  country.  These 
circumstances,  joined  with  the  more  obvious  hard- 
ships of  travelling  half  naked  and  barefoot  through 
pathless  deserts,  over  craggy  mountains  and  deep 
swamps,  through  frost,  rain  and  snow,  exposed  by 
day  and  night  to  the  inclemency  of  the  weather,  and 
in  summer  to  the  venomous  stings  of  those  number- 
less insects  with  which  the  woods  abound  ;  the  rest- 
less anxiety  of  mind  ;  the  retrospect  of  past  scenes 
of  pleasure,  the  remembrance  of  distant  friends,  the 
bereavements  experienced  at  the  beginning  or  du- 
ring the  progress  of  the  captivity,  and  the  daily  ap- 
prehension of  death  either  by  famine  or  the  sa'vage 
enemy ;  these  were  the  horrors  of  an  Indian  captivity. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  must  be  acknowledged  that 
there  have  been  instances  of  justice,  generosity,  and 
tenderness,  during  these  wars,  which  would'  have 
done  honour  to  a  civilized  people.  A  kindness  shewn 
to  an  Indian  was  remembered  as  long  as  an  injury, 
and  persons  have  had  their  lives  spared  for  acts  of 
humanity  done  to  the  ancestors  of  those  Indians  into 
whose  hands  they  have  fallen.  They  would  some- 
times "  carry  children  on  their  arms  and  shoulders, 
1'oed  their  prisoners  with  the  best  of  their  provision, 
and  pinch  themselves  rather  than  their  captives 
should  want  food."  When  sick  or  wounded  they 
would  afford  them  proper  means  for  their  recovery, 
which  they  were  very  well  able  to  do  by  their  know- 
ledge of  simples.  In  thus  preserving  the  lives  and 
health  of  their  prisoners,  they  doubtless  had  a  view 
of  gain.  But  the  most  remarkably  favourable  cir- 
cumstance in  an  Indian  captivity,  was  their  decent 


behaviour  to  women.  It  has  never  been  found  that 
any  woman  who  foil  into  their  hands  was  treated  with 
the  least  immodesty ;  but  testimonies  to  the  con- 
trary  arc  very  frequent.  Mary  Rowlandson,  who  was 
captured  at  Lancaster  in  1 675,  has  this  passage  in 
her  narrative  :  "  I  have  been  in  the  midst  of  these 
roaring  lions  and  savage  bears,  that  feared  neither 
God  nor  man  nor  the  devil,  by  day  and  night,  alone 
and  in  company ;  sleeping  all  sorts  together,  and 
yet  not  one  of  them  ever  offered  me  the  least  abuse 
of  unchastity  in  word  or  action." 

Elizabeth  Hanson  who  was  taken  from  Dover  in 
1724,  testifies  in  her  narrative,  that  "  the  Indians 
are  very  civil  toward  their  captive  women,  not  offer- 
ing any  incivility  by  any  indecent  carriage." 

William  Fleming',  who  was  taken  in  Pennsylva- 
nia, in  1755,  says,  the  Indians  told  him,  "  he  need 
not  be  afraid  of  their  abusing  his  wife,  for  they  would 
not  do  it,  for  fear  of  offending  their  God  (pointing 
their  hands  toward  heaven)  for  the  man  that  affronts 
his  God  will  surely  be  killed  when  he  goes  to  war." 
He  farther  says,  that  one  of  them  gave  his  wife  a 
shift  and  petticoat  which  he  had  among  his  plunder, 
and  though  he  was  alone  with  her,  yet  "  he  turned 
his  hack,  and  went  to  some  distance  while  she  put 
them  on." 

Charlevoix  in  his  account  of  the  Indians  of  Canada, 
says,  "  There  is  no  example  that  any  have  ever  ta- 
ken the  lf»ast  liberty  with  the  French  women,  even 
when  they  were  their  prisoners."  Whether  this  ne- 
gative virtue  is  to  be  ascribed  to  a  natural  frigidity 
of  constitution,  let  philosophers  enquire:  the  fact 
is  certain  :  and  it  was  a  most  happy  circumstance 
for  the  female  captives,  that  in  the  midst  of  all  their 
distresses,  they  had  no  reason  to  fear  from  a  savage 
foe  the  perpetration  of  a  crime,  which  has  too  fre- 
quently disgraced  not  only  the  personal  but  the  na- 
tional character  of  those  who  make  large  pretences 
to  civilization  and  humanity. 

The  civil  affairs  of  the  province  during  the  administra- 
tions of  Usher,  Partridye,  Allen,  the  Earl  of  Bella- 
mont,  and  Dudley — comprehending  the  controversy 
with  Allen  and  his  heirs. 

John  Usher  was  a  native  of  Boston,  and  by  pro- 
fession a  stationer.  He  was  possessed  of  an  hand- 
some fortune,  and  sustained  a  fair  character  in  trade. 
He  had  been  employed  by  the  Massachusetts  go- 
vernment, when  in  England,  to  negociate  the  pur- 
chase of  the  province  of  Maine  from  the  heirs  of  Sir 
Ferdinando  Gorges,  and  had  thence  got  a  taste  for 
speculating  in  landed  interest.  He  was  one  of  the 
partners  in  the  million  purchase,  and  had  sanguine 
expectations  of  gain  from  that  quarter.  He  had 
rendered  himself  unpopular  among  his  countrymen, 
by  accepting  the  office  of  treasurer  under  Sir  Ed- 
mund Androsse,  and  joining  with  apparent  zeal  in 
the  measures  of  that  administration,  and  he  con- 
tinued a  friendly  connection  with  that  party  after 
they  were  displaced. 

Though  not  illnatured,  but  rather  of  an  open  and 
generous  disposition,  yet  he  wanted  those  accom- 
plishments which  he  might  have  acquired  by  a 
learned  and  polite  education.  He  was  but  little  of 
the  statesman  and  less  of  the  courtier.  Instead  of  an 
engaging  affability  he  affected  a  severity  in  his  de- 
portment, was  loud  in  conversation,  and  stern  in 
command.  Fond  of  presiding  in  government,  he 
frequently  journeyed  into  the  province,  (though 
his  residence  was  at  Boston,  where  he  carried  on 
his  business  as  usual,)  and  often  summoned  the 
council  when  he  had  little  or  nothing  to  lay  before 


411 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


them.  He  gave  orders,  and  found  fault  like  one 
who  felt  himself  independent,  and  was  determined 
to  be  obeyed.  He  had  an  high  idea  of  his  authority 
and  the  d"ignity  of  his  commission,  and  when  op- 
posed and  insulted,  as  he  sometimes  was,  he  treated 
the  offenders  with  a  severity  which  he  would  not  re- 
lax till  he  had  brought  them  to  submission.  His 
public  speeches  were  always  incorrect,  and  some- 
times coarse  and  reproachful. 

He  seems,  however,  to  have  taken  as  much  rare 
for  the  interest  and  preservation  of  the  province,  as 
one  in  his  circumstances  could  have  done.  He  began 
his  administration  in  the  height  of  a  war  which 
greatly  distressed  and  impoverished  the  country,  yet 
his  views  from  the  beginning  were  mercenary.  The 
people  perceived  these  views,  and  were  aware  of  the 
danger.  The  transfer  of  the  title  from  Mason  to 
Allen  was  only  a  change  of  names:  they  expected 
a  repetition  of  the  same  difficulties  under  a  new 
claimant.  After  the  opposition  they  had  hitherto 
made,  it  could  not  be  thought  strange  that  men 
whose  pulse  beat  high  for  freedom,  should  refuse  to 
submit  to  vassalage;  nor,  while  they  were  on  one 
side  defending  their  possessions  against  a  savage 
enemy,  could  it  be  expected,  that  on  the  other,  they 
should  tamely  suffer  the  intrusion  of  a  landlord. 
Usher's  interest  was  united  with  theirs  in  providing 
for  the  defence  of  the  country,  and  contending  with 
the  enemy;  but  when  the  property  of  the  soil  was 
in  question,  they  stood  on  opposite  sides;  and  as 
both  these  controversies  were  carried  on  at  the  same 
time,  the  conduct  of  the  people  toward  him  raried 
according  to  the  exigency  of  the  case;  they  some- 
times voted  him  thanks  for  his  services,  and  at  other 
times  complained  of  his  abusing  and  oppressing  them. 

Some  of  them  would  have  been  content  to  have 
held  their  estates  under  Allen's  title,  but  the  greater 
part,  including  the  principal  men,  were  resolved  to 
oppose  it  to  the  last  extremity.  They  had  an  aver- 
sion not  only  to  the  proprietary  claim  on  their  lands, 
but  their  separation  from  the  Massachusetts  govern- 
ment, under  which  they  had  formerly  enjoyed  so 
much  freedom  and  peace.  They  had  petitioned  to 
be  reannexed  to  them  at  the  time  of  the  revolution 
of  1688,  and  they  were  always  very  fond  of  applying 
to  them  for  help  in  their  difficulties,  that  it  might 
appear  how  unable  they  were  to  subsist  alone.  They 
knew  also  that  the  Massachusetts  people  were  as 
averse  as  themselves  to  Allen's  claim,  which  extend- 
ed to  a  great  part  of  their  lands,  and  was  particu- 
larly noticed  in  their  new  charter. 

Soon  after  Usher's  arrival,  he  made  enquiry  for 
the  papers  which  contained  the  transactions  relative 
to  Mason's  suits.  During  the  suspension  of  govern- 
ment in  1689,  Captain  John  Pickering,  a  man  of  a 
rough  and  adventurous  spirit,  and  a  lawyer,  had  gone 
with  a  company  of  armed  men  to  the  house  of  Cham- 
berlayne,  the  late  secretary  and  clerk,  and  demanded 
the  records  and  files  which  were  in  his  possession. 
Chamberlayne  refused  to  deliver  them  without  some 
legal  warrant  or  security;  but  Pickering  took  them 
by  force,  and  conveyed  them  over  the  river  to  Kit- 
tery.  Pickering  was  summoned  before  the  governor, 
threatened  and  imprisoned,  but  for  some  time  would 
neither  deliver  the  books,  nor  discover  the  place  of 
their  concealment,  unless  by  order  of  the  assembly 
and  to  some  person  by  them  appointed  to  receive 
them.  At  length,  however,  he  was  constrained  to 
deliver  them,  and  they  were  put  into  the  hands  of 
the  secretary,  by  the  lieut-governor's  order. 

(1693.)  Another  favourite  point  with  Uhher  was 
to  have  the  boundary  between  New  Hampshire  and 


Massachusetts  ascertained:  there  were  reasons  which 
induced  some  of  the  people  to  fall  in  with  this  desire. 
The  general  idea  was,  that  New  Hampshire  began 
at  the  end  of  three  miles  north  of  the  river  Merri- 
mack ;  which  imaginary  line  was  also  the  boundary 
of  the  adjoining  townships  on  each  side.  The  peo- 
ple who  lived,  and  owned  lands  near  these  limits, 
pretended  to  belong  to  either  province,  as  best  suited 
their  conveniency;  which  caused  a  difficulty  in  the 
collecting  taxes  and  cutting  timber.  (1695.)  The 
town  of  Hampton  was  sensibly  affected  with  these 
difficulties,  and  petitioned  the  council  that  the  line 
might  be  run.  The  council  appointed  a  committee 
of  Hampton  men  to  do  it,  and  gave  notice  to  the 
Massachusetts  of  their  intention,  desiring  them  to 
join  in  the  affair.  They  disliked  it  and  declined  to 
act;  upon  which  the  lieut.-governor  and  council  of 
New  Hampshire,  caused  the  boundary  line  to  be 
run  from  the  sea-shore  three  miles  northward  of 
Merrimack,  and  parallel  to  the  river,  as  far  as  any 
settlements  had  been  made,  or  lands  occupied. 

The  only  attempt  made  to  extend  the  settlement 
of  the  lands  during  these  times,  was  that  in  the  spring 
of  the  year  1694,  while  there  was  a  truce  with  the 
Indians.  Usher  granted  a  charter  for  the  township 
of  Kingston  to  about  twenty  petitioners  from  Hamp- 
ton. They  were  soon  discouraged  by  the  dangers 
and  difficulties  of  the  succeeding  hostilities,  and 
many  of  them  returned  home  within  two  years.  After 
the  war  they  resumed  their  enterprise;  but  it  was 
not  till  the  year  1725,  that  they  were  able  to  obtain 
the  settlement  of  a  minister.  No  alterations  took 
place  in  the  old  towns,  except  the  separation  (in 
1693)  of  Great  Island,  Little  Harbour,  and  Sandy 
Beach,  from  Portsmouth,  and  their  erection  into  a 
town  by  the  name  of  New  Castle ;  together  with  the 
annexation  of  that  part  of  Squamscot  patent  which 
now  bears  the  name  of  Stretham,  to  Exeter,  it  hav- 
ing before  been  connected  with  Hampton-. 

The  lieut.-governor  was  very  forward  in  these 
transactions,  thinking  them  circumstances  favour- 
able to  his  views,  and  being  willing  to  recommend 
himself  to  the  people  by  seconding  their  wishes,  so 
far  as  was  consistent  with  the  interest  he  meant  to 
serve.  The  people,  however,  regarded  the  settling 
and  dividing  of  townships,  and  the  running  of  lines, 
only  as  matters  of  general  convenience,  and  con- 
tinued to  be  disgusted  with  his  administration.  His 
repeated  calls  upon  them  for  money  were  answered 
by  repeated  pleas  of  poverty,  and  requests  for  as- 
sistance from  the  neighbouring  province.  Usher 
used  all  his  influence  with  that  government  to  ob- 
tain a  supply  of  men  to  garrison  the  frontiers;  and 
when  they  wanted  provisions  for  the  garrisons,  and 
could  not  readily  raise  the  money,  he  would  advance 
it  out  of  his  own  purse  and  wait  till  the  treasury 
could  reimburse  it. 

For  the  two  or  three  first  years  of  his  administra- 
tion the  public  charges  were  provided  for  as  they 
had  been  before,  by  an  excise  on  wines  and  other 
spirituous  liquors,  and  an  impost  on  merchandize. 
(J695.)  These  duties  being  laid  only  from  year  to 
year,  Usher  vehemently  urged  upon  the  assembly  a 
renewal  of  the  act,  and  an  extension  of  the  duty  to 
articles  of  export;  and  that  a  part  of  the  money  so 
raised  might  be  applied  to  the  support  of  govern- 
ment. The  answer  he  obtained  was,  that  "con- 
sidering the  exposed  state  of  the  province,  they  were 
obliged  to  apply  all  the  money  they  could  raise  to 
their  defence;  and  therefore  they  were  not  capable 
of  doing  any  thing  for  the  support  of  government, 
though  they  were  sensible  his  honour  had  been  at 


UNITED  STATES. 


445 


considerable  expense :  they  begged  that  he  would 
join  with  the  council  in  representing  to  the  king, 
the  poverty  and  danger  of  the  province,  that  such 
methods  might  be  taken  for  their  support  and  pre- 
servation as  to  the  royal  wisdom  should  seem  meet." 
Being  further  pressed  upon  the  subject,  they  passed 
a  vote  to  lay  the  proposed  duties  for  one  year,  "  pro- 
vided he  and  the  council  would  join  with  them  in  peti- 
tioning the  king  to  annex  them  to  the  Massachusetts." 

He  had  the  mortification  of  being  disappointed  in 
his  expectations  of  gain,  not  only  from  the  people, 
but  from  his  employer.  Allen  had  promised  him 
250/.  per  annum  for  executing  his  commission  ;  and 
when  .at  the  end  of  the  third  year,  Usher  drew  on 
him  for  the  payment  of  this  sunij  his  bill  came  back 
protested.  This  was  the  more  mortifying,  as  he  had 
assiduously  and  faithfully  attended  to  Allen's  inte- 
rest, and  acquainted  him  from  time  to  time  with  the 
means  he  had  used,  the  difficulties  he  had  encoun  • 
tered,  the  pleas  he  had  urged,  the  time  he  had  spent, 
and  the  expense  he  had  incurred  in  defence  and 
support  of  his  claim.  He  now  desired  him  to  come 
over  and  assume  the  government  himself,  or  get  a 
successor  to  him  appointed  in  the  office  of  lieutenant- 
gorernor.  He  did  not.  know  that  the  people  were 
Beforehand  with  him  in  this  latter  request. 

On  a  pretence  of  disloyalty  he  had  removed 
Hinckes,  Waldron  and  Vaughan  from  their  seats  in 
the  council.  The  former  of  these  was  a  man  who 
could  change  with  the  times ;  the  two  latter  were 
steady  opposers  of  the  proprietary  claim.  Their  sus- 
pension irritated  the  people,  who,  by  their  influence, 
privately  agreed  to  recommend  William  Partridge, 
Esq.  as  a  proper  person  for  their  lieutenant-governor 
in  Usher's  stead.  Partridge  was  a  native  of  Ports- 
mouth, a  shipwright,  of  an  extraordinary  mechani- 
cal genius,  of  a  political  turn  of  mind,  and  a  popu- 
lar man.  He  was  treasurer  of  the  province,  and  had 
been  ill  used  by  Usher.  Being  largely  concerned 
in  trade,  he  was  well  known  in  England,  having 
-supplied  the  navy  with  masts  and  timber.  His  sud- 
dcri  departure  for  England  was  very  surprising  to 
Usher,  who  could  not  imagine  he  had  any  other  bu- 
siness than  to  settle  his  accounts.  (1697.)  But  the 
surprise  was  greatly  increased  when  he  returned  with 
a  commission  appointing  him  lieutenant-governor 
and  commander-in-chicf  in  Allen's  absence.  It  was 
obtained  of  the  lords  justices  in  the  king's  absence, 
by  the  interest  of  Sir  Henry  Ashurst,  and  was  dated 
June  6,  1696. 

Immediately  on  his  am  ral,  his  appointment  was 
publicly  notified  to  the  people ;  though,  either  from 
f!ie  delay  of  making  out  his  instructions,  or  for  want 
of  the  form  of  an  oath  necessary  to  be  taken,  the 
commission  was  not  published  in  the  usual  manner : 
but  the  party  in  opposition  to  Usher  triumphed.  The 
suspended  counsellors  resumed  their  seats,  Pickering 
was  made  king's  attorney,  and  Hinckes,  as  president 
of  the  council,  opened  the  assembly  with  a  speech. 
This  assembly  ordered  the  records  which  had  been 
taken  from  Pickering  to  be  deposited  in  the  hands 
df  Major  Vaughan,  who  was  appointed  recorder. 
In  consequence  of  which  they  have  been  kept  in 
that  office  ever  since. 

Usher  being  at  Boston  when  this  alteration  took 
place,  wrote  to  them,  declaring  that  no  commission 
could  supersede  his  till  duly  published ;  and  inti- 
mated his  intention  of  coming  hither,  "  if  he  could 
le  safe  with  his  life."  He  also  dispatched  his  se- 
cretary, Charles  Story,  to  England,  with  an  account 
<;f  this  transaction,  which  in  one  of  his  private  letters 
he  styles  "  the  Paseataqua  rebellion;"  adding,  that 


'  the  militia  were  raised,  and  forty  horse  sent  to 
;eize  him ;"  and  intimating  that  the  confusion  was 
so  great,  that  "  if  but  three  French  ships  were  to  ap- 
>ear,  he  believed  they  would  surrender  on  the  first 
summons."  The  extreme  imprudence  of  sending 
such  a  letter  across  the  Atlantic  in  time  of  war,  was 
still  heightened  by  an  apprehension  which  then  pre- 
vailed, that  the  French  were  preparing  an  arma- 
ment to  invade  the  country,  and  that  "  they  parti- 
cularly designed  for  Pascataqua  river." 

In  answer  to  his  complaint,  the  lords  of  trade  di- 
rected him  to  continue  in  the  place  of  lieutenant- 
governor  till  Partridge  should  qualify  himself,  or 
till  Richard,  Earl  of  Bellamont,  should  arrive,  who 
was  commissioned  to  the  government  of  New  York, 
Massachusetts  Bay,  and  New  Hampshire;  but  had 
not  yet  departed  from  England.  Usher  received  the 
letter  from  the  lords,  together  with  the  articles  of 
peace  which  had  been  concluded  at  Ryswick,  and 
immediately  set  off  for  New  Hampshire,  (whrye  he 
had  not  been  for  a  year)  proclaimed  the  peace,  and 
published  the  orders  he  had  received,  and  having 
proceeded  thus  far,  "  thought  all  well  and  quiet." 
But  his  opposers  having  held  a  consultation  at  night, 
Partridge's  commission  was  the  next  day  published 
in  form ;  he  took  the  oaths,  and  entered  on  the  ad- 
ministration of  government,  to  the  complete  vexation 
and  disappointment  of  Usher,  who  had  been  so  elated 
with  the  confirmation  of  his  commission,  that  as  he 
passed  through  Hampton,  he  had  forbidden  the  mi- 
nister of  that  place  to  observe  a  thanksgiving  day, 
which  had  been  appointed  by  President  Hinckes. 

(1698.)  An  assembly  being  called,  one  of  their 
first  acts  was  to  write  to  the  lords  of  trade,  "  acknow- 
ledging the  favour  of  the  king  in  appointing  one  of 
their  own  inhabitants  to  the  command  of  the  pro- 
vince, complaining  of  Usher,  and  alleging  that  there 
had  been  no  disturbances  but  what  he  himself  had 
made;  declaring  that  those  counsellors  whom  he  had 
suspended  were  loyal  subjects,  and  capable  of  serv- 
ing the  king;  and  informing  their  lordships  that 
Partridge  had  now  qualified  himself,  and  that  they 
were  waiting  the  arrival  of  the  earl  of  Bellamont." 

They  also  deputed  Ichabod  Plaisted  to  wait  on  the 
earl  at  New  York,  and  compliment  him  on  his  arrival. 
"  If  he  should  find  his  lordship  high,  and  reserved, 
and  not  easy  of  access,  he  was  instructed  to  employ 
some  gentleman  who  was  in  his  confidence  to  manage 
the  business;  but  if  easy  and  free,  he  was  to  wait 
on  him  in  person  :  to  tell  him  how  joyfully  they  re- 
ceived the  news  of  his  appointment,  and  that  they 
daily  expected  Governor  Allen,  whose  commission 
would  be  accounted  good  till  his  lordship's  should  be 
published,  and  to  ask  his  advice  how  they  should 
behave  in  such  a  case."  The  principal  design  of 
this  message  was  to  make  their  court  to  the  earl,  arid 
get  the  start  of  Usher  or  any  of  his  friends  who 
might  prepossess  him  with  an  opinion  to  their  dis- 
advantage. But  if  this  should  have  happened,  Plais- 
ted was  directed  "  to  observe  what  reception  they 
met  with.  If  his  lordship  was  ready  to  come  this 
way,  he  was  to  beg  leave  to  attend  him  as  far  as 
Boston,  and  thenaskhis  permission  to  return  home;" 
and  he  was  furnished  with  a  letter  of  credit  to  defray 
his  expenses.  This  message,  which  shews  the  contri- 
vers to  be  no  mean  politicians,  had  the  desired  effect. 

The  earl  continued  at  New  York  for  the  first  year 
after  his  arrival  in  America;  during  which  time 
Governor  Allen  came  over,  as  it  was  expected,  and 
his  commission  being  still  in  force,  he  took  the  oaths 
and  assumed  the  command.  Upon  which  Usher 
again  made  his  appearance  in  council,  where  he 


446 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


produced  the  letter  from  the  lords  of  trade,  claimed 
his  place  as  lieutenant-governor,  and  declared  that 
the  suspended  counsellors  had  no  right  to  sit  till  re- 
stored by  the  king's  order.  This  brought  on  an  al- 
tercation, wherein  Elliot  affirmed  that  Partridge 
was  duly  qualified  and  in  office,  that  Waldron  and 
Vaughan  had  been  suspended  without  cause,  and  that 
if  they  were  not  allowed  to  sit,  the  rest  were  deter- 
mined to  resign.  The  governor  declared  Usher  to 
be  of  the  council ;  upon  which  Elliot  withdrew. 

(1699.)  At  the  succeeding  assembly  two  new 
counsellors  appeared — Joseph  Smith,  and  Kingsly 
Hall.  The  first  day  passed  quietly.  The  governor 
approved  Pickering  as  speaker  of  the  house  ;  told 
them  he  had  assumed  the  government  because  the 
Earl  of  Bellamont  had  not  arrived ;  recommended  a 
continuance  of  the  excise  and  powder  money,  and 
advised  them  to  send  a  congratulatory  message  to 
the  earl  at  New  York.  The  next  day'the  house  an- 
swered, that  they  had  continued  the  customs  and 
excise  till  November,  that  they  had  already  con- 
gratulated the  earl,  and  received  a  kind  answer,  and 
were  waiting  his  arrival;  when  they  should  enter 
further  on  business.  They  complained  that  Allen's 
conduct  had  been  grievous  in  forbidding  the  collect- 
ing of  the  last  tax,  whereby  the  public  debts  were  not 
paid;  in  displacing  sundry  fit  persons,  and  appoint- 
ing others  less  fit,  and  admitting  Usher  to  be  of  the 
council,  though  superseded  by  Partridge's  commis- 
sion. These  things  they  told  him  had  obliged  some 
members  of  the  council  and  assembly  to  apply  to 
his  lordship  for  relief,  and  "  unless  he  should  ma- 
nage with  a  "more  moderate  hand,"  they  threatened 
him  with  a  second  application. 

The  same  day  Coffin  and  Weare  moved  a  question 
in  council,  whether  Usher  was  one  of  that  body.  He 
asserted  his  privilege,  and  obtained  a  majority. 
They  then  entered  their  dissent,  and  desired  a  dis- 
mission. The  governor  forbad  their  departure. 
Weare  answered  that  he  would  not,  by  sitting  there, 
put  contempt  on  the  king's  commission,  meaning 
Partridge's,  and  withdrew.  The  next  day  the  as- 
sembly ordered  the  money  arising  from  the  impost 
and  excise  to  be  kept  in  the  treasury,  till  the  earl 
of  Bellamont's  arrival ;  and  the  governor  dis- 
solved them. 

These  violences  on  his  part  were  supposed  to  ori- 
ginate from  Usher's  resentment,  and  his  overbearing 
influence  upon  Allen,  who  is  said  to  have  been  rather 
of  a  pacific  disposition.  The  same  ill  temper  con- 
tinued during  the  remainder  of  this  short  adminis- 
tration. The  old  counsellors,  excepting  Fryer,  re- 
fused to  sit.  Sampson,  Sheaffe,  and  Peter  Weare, 
made  up  the  quorum.  Sheaffe  was  also  secretary, 
Smith  treasurer,  and  William  Ardell  sheriff.  The 
constables  refused  to  collect  the  taxes  of  the  prece- 
ding year,  and  the  governor  was  obliged  to  revoke 
his  orders,  and  commission  the  former  constables  to 
do  the  duty  which  he  had  forbidden. 

In  the  spring  the  Earl  of  Bellamont  set  out  for 
the  eastern  governments.  The  council  voted  an 
address,  and  sent  a  committee,  of  which  Usher  was 
one,  to  present  it  to  him  at  Boston ;  and  prepara- 
tions were  made  for  his  reception  in  New  Hamp- 
shire ;  where  he  at  length  came  and  published  his 
commission  to  the  great  joy  of  the  people,  who  now 
saw  at  the  head  of  the  government  a  nobleman  of 
distinguished  figure  and  polite  manners,  a  firm  friend 
to  the  revolution,  a  favourite  of  King  William,  and 
one  who  iad  no  interest  in  oppressing  them. 

During  the  controversy  with  Allen,  Partridge 
had  withdrawn ;  but  upon  this  change  he  took  his 


seat  as  lieut.-governor,  and  the  displaced  counsellors 
were  again  called  to  the  board.  A  petition  wui 
presented  against  the  judges  of  the  superior  court, 
and  a  proclamation  was  issued  for  justices  of  the 
peace  and  constables  only  to  continue  iu  oflice,  where- 
by the  judges'  commissions  determined.  Richard 
Jose  was  made  sheriff  in  the  room  of  Ardell,  and 
Charles  Story  secretary  in  the  room  of  Sheaffe. 

The  government  was  now  modelled  in  favour  of 
the  people,  and  they  rejoiced  in  the  change,  as  they 
imagined  the  way  was  opened  for  an  effectual 
settlement  of  their  long-continued  difficulties  and 
disputes  Both  parties  laid  their  complaints  before 
the  governor,  who  wisely  avoided  censuring  either, 
and  advised  to  a  revival  of  the  courts  of  justice,  in 
which  the  main  controversy  might  be  legally  de- 
cided. This  was  agreed  to,  and  the  necessary  acts 
being  passed  by  an  assembly,  (who  also  presented 
the  earl  with  50(K,  which  he  obtained  the  king's 
leave  to  accept),  after  about  eighteen  days  stay  he 
quitted  the  province,  leaving  Partridge,  now  quietly 
seated  in  the  chair,  to  appoint  the  judges  of  the  re- 
spective courts.  Hinckes  was  made  chief  justice  of 
the  superior  court,  with  Peter  Coffin,  John  Gerrish, 
and  John  Plaisted,  for  assistants;  Waldron,  chief 
justice  of  the  inferior  court,  with  Henry  Dow,  Theo- 
dore Atkinson,  and  John  Woodman,  for  assistants. 

One  principal  object  of  the  earl's  attention  was 
to  fortify  the  harbour,  and  provide  for  the  defence 
of  the  country  in  case  of  another  war.  He  had  re- 
commended to  the  assembly  in  his  speech  the  build- 
ing a  strong  fort  on  Great  Island,  and  afterwards  in 
his  letters,  assured  them  that  if  they  would  provide 
materials,  he  would  endeavour  to  prevail  on  the  king 
to  be  at  the  expense  of  erecting  it.  (1700.)  Colonel 
Romer,  a  Dutch  engineer,  having  viewed  the  spot, 
produced  to  the  assembly  an  estimate  of  the  cost 
and  transportation  of  materials,  amounting  to  above 
six  thousand  pounds.  They  were  amazed  at  the 
proposal ;  and  returned  for  answer  to  the  governor, 
that  in  their  greatest  difficulties,  when  their  lives 
and  estates  were  in  the  most  imminent  hazard,  they 
were  never  able  to  raise  one  thousand  pounds  in  a 
year;  that  they  had  been  exceedingly  impoverished 
by  a  long  war,  and  were  now  struggling  under  a 
heavy  debt,  besides  being  engaged  in  a  controversy 
with  a  "  pretended  proprietor;"  that  they  had  ex- 
pended more  "  blood  and  money"  to  secure  his  ma- 
jesty's interest  and  dominion  in  New  England  than 
the  intrinsic  value  of  their  estates,  and  that  the  for- 
tifying the  harbour  did  as  much  concern  the  Mas- 
sachusetts as  themselves ;  but  they  concluded  with 
assuring  his  lordship,  that  if  he  were  "  thoroughly 
acquainted  with  their  miserable,  poor,  and  mean 
circumstances,  they  would  readily  submit  to  what- 
ever he  should  think  them  capable  of  doing."  They 
were  also  required  to  furnish  their  quota  of  men  to 
join  with  the  other  colonies  in  defending  the  fron- 
tiers of  New  York  in  case  of  an  attack.  This  they 
thought  extremely  hard,  not  only  because  they  had 
never  received  the  least  assistance  from  New  York 
in  the  late  wars,  but  because  an  opinion  prevailed 
among  them  that  their  enemies  had  received  sup- 
plies from  the  Dutch  at  Albany,  and  that  the  plun- 
der taken  from  their  desolated  towns  had  been  sold 
in  that  place.  There  was,  however,  no  opportunity 
for  affording  this  assistance,  as  the  New  Yorkists 
took  care  to  maintain  a  good  understanding  with 
the  French  and  Indians,  for  the  benefit  of  trade. 
The  quotas  of  men  to  be  furnished  by  each  govern- 
ment for  the  defence  of  New  York,  if  attacked,  were 
as  follows ;  viz.  Massachusetts  350,  New  Hampshire 


UNITED  STATES. 


447 


40,  Rhode  Island  48,  Connecticut  120,  New  York, 
200,  East  New  Jersey  60,  West  New  Jersey  60, 
Pennsylvania  80,  Maryland  160,  Virginia  240. 

But  to  return  to  Allen.  He  had  as  little  prospect 
of  success  in  the  newly  established  courts,  as  the 
people  had  when  Mason's  suits  were  carried  on  un- 
der Cranfield's  government.  On  examining  the 
records  of  the  superior  court,  it  was  found  that 
twenty-four  leaves  were  missing,  in  which  it  was  sup- 
posed the  judgments  recovered  by  Mason  were  re- 
corded. No  evidence  appeared  of  his  having  ob- 
tained possession.  The  work  was  to  begin  anew; 
and  Waldron,  being  one  of  the  principal  landhold- 
ers, and  most  strenuous  opposers  of  the  claim,  was 
singled  out  to  stand  foremost  in  the  controvery  with 
Allen,  as  his  father  had  done  with  Mason.  The  cause 
went  through  the  courts,  and  was  invariably  given 
in  favour  of  the  defendant  with  costs.  Allen's  only 
refuge  was  in  an  appeal  to  the  king,  which  the  court, 
following  the  example  of  their  brethren  in  the  Mas- 
sachusetts, refused  to  admit.  He  then  petitioned 
the  king  ;  who,  by  an  order  in  council,  granted  him 
an  appeal,  allowing  him  eight  months  to  prepare  for 
its  prosecution. 

(1701.)  The  refusal  of  an  appeal  could  not  fail  of 
being  highly  resented  in  England.  It  was  severely 
animadverted  on  by  the  lords  of  trade,  who,  in  a 
letter  to  the  Earl  of  Bellamont  upon  this  occasion, 
say,  "  This  declining  to  admit  appeals  to  his  Ma- 
jesty in  council,  is  a  matter  that  you  ought  very 
carefully  to  watch  against  in  all  your  governments. 
It  is  an  humour  that  prevails  so  much  in  proprieties 
and  charter  colonies,  and  the  independency  they 
thirst  after  is  now  so  notorious,  that  it  has  been 
thought  fit  those  considerations,  together  with  other 
objections  against  those  colonies,  should  be  laid  be- 
fore the  parliament;  and  a  bill  has  thereupon  been 
brought  into  the  house  of  lords  for  reuniting  the 
right  of  government  in  their  colonies  to  the  crown." 

Before  this  letter  was  written  the  earl  died  at 
New  York,  to  the  great  regret  of  the  people  in  his 
several  governments,  among  whom  he  had  made 
himself  very  popular.  A  copy  of  the  letter  was  sent 
to  New  York,  but  the  bill  mentioned  in  it  was  not 
passed  into  an  act  of  parliament.  For  some  reasons 
of  state  it  was  rejected  by  the  house  of  lords. 

The  assembly  of  New  Hampshire,  having  now  a 
fair  opportunity,  endeavoured  as  much  as  possible 
to  provide  for  their  own  security;  and  passed  two 
acts,  the  one  for  confirming  the  grants  of  lands 
which  had  been  made  within  their  several  townships; 
the  other  for  ascertaining  the  bounds  of  them.  Part- 
ridge gave  his  consent  to  these  acts;  but  Allen  had 
the  address  to  get  them  disallowed  and  repealed,  be- 
cause there  was  no  reserve  made  in  them  of  the  pro- 
prietor's right. 

The  controversy  being  brought  before  the  king, 
both  sides  prepared  to  attend  the  suit.  Allen's  age, 
and  probably  want  of  money,  prevented  his  going 
in  person;  he  therefore  appointed  Usher  to  act  for 
him,  having  previously  mortgaged  one  half  of  the 
province  to  him  for  1,500/.  (]702.)  Vaughan  was 
appointed  agent  for  the  province,  and  attorney  to 
Waldron.  It  being  a  general  interest,  the  assembly 
bore  the  expense,  and  notwithstanding  their  pleas 
of  poverty  on  other  occasions,  provided  a  fund  on 
which  the  agent  might  draw  in  case  of  emergency. 

In  the  mean  time  King  William  died,  and  Queen 
Anne  appointed  Joseph  Dudley,  Esq.,  formerly  pre- 
sident of  New  England,  to  be  governor  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  New  Hampshire;  whose  commission 
being  published  at  Portsmouth,  the  assembly  by  a 


well-timed  present  interested  him  in  their  favour, 
and  afterwards  settled  a  salary  on  him  during  his 
administration,  agreeably  to  the  queen's  instructions, 
who  about  this  time  forbad  her  governors  to  receive 
any  but  settled  salaries. 

When  Allen's  appeal  came  before  the  queen  in 
council,  it  was  found  that  his  attorney  had  not 
brought  proof  that  Mason  had  ever  been  legally  in 
possession ;  for  want  of  this,  the  judgment  recovered 
by  Waldron  was  affirmed;  but  the  order  of  council 
directed  that  the  appellant  "  should  be  at  liberty  to 
begin  dts  novo  by  a  writ  of  ejectment  in  the  courts 
of  New  Hampshire,  to  try  his  title  to  the  lands,  or 
to  quit-rents  payable  for  the  same;  and  that  if  any 
doubt  in  law  should  arise,  the  jury  should  declare 
what  titles  each  party  did  severally  make  out  to  the 
lands  in  question,  and  that  the  points  in  law  should 
be  referred  to  the  court;  or  if  any  doubt  should  arise 
concerning  the  evidence,  it  should  be  specially  stated 
in  writing,  that  if  either  party  should  appeal  to  her 
majesty  she  might  be  more  fully  informed,  in  order 
to  a  final  determination." 

While  this  appeal  was  depending,  a  petition  was 
presented  to  the  queen,  praying  that  Allen  might 
be  put  in  possession  of  the  waste  lands.  This  pe- 
tition was  referred  to  Sir  Edward  Northey,  attorney 
general,  who  was  ordered  to  report  on  three  questions, 
viz. :  1 .  Whether  Allen  had  a  Tight  to  the  wastes. 
2.  What  lands  ought  to  be  accounted  waste.  3.  By 
what  method  her  majesty  might  put  him  into  pos- 
session. At  the  same  "time  Usher  was  making  in- 
terest to  be  reappointed  lieut-governor  of  the  pro- 
vince. Upon  this  Vaughan  entered  a  complaint  to 
the  queen,  setting  forth  "  that  Allen  claimed  as  waste 
ground  not  only  a  large  tract  of  unoccupied  land, 
but  much  of  that  which  had  been  long  enjoyed  by 
the  inhabitants  as  common  pasture,  within  the 
bounds  of  their  several  townships.  That  Usher,  by 
his  former  managements  and  misdemeanors  when  in 
office,  had  forced  some  of  the  principal  inhabitants 
to  quit  the  province,  and  had  greatly  harassed  and 
disgusted  all  the  rest,  rendering  himself  quite  un- 
acceptable to  them.  That  he  was  interested  in  the 
suits  now  depending,  as  on  Allen's  death  he  would 
in  right  of  his  wife  be  entitled  to  part  of  the  estate. 
Wherefore  it  was  humbly  submitted  whether  it  would 
be  proper  to  appoint,  as  lieut.-governor,  one  whose 
interest  and  endeavour  it  would  be  to  disseize  the 
people  of  their  ancient  estates,  and  render  them  un- 
easy ;  and  it  was  prayed  that  no  letters  might  be 
wrote  to  put  Allen  in"  possession  of  the  wastes  till 
the  petitioner  should  be  heard  by  council.'1 

(1703.)  Usher's  interest  however  prevailed.  The 
attorney-general  reported,  that  "  Allen's  claim  to 
the  wastes  was  valid;  that  all  lands  uninclosed  and 
unoccupied  were  to  be  reputed  waste;  that  he  might 
enter  into  and  take  possession  of  them,  and  if  dis- 
turbed might  assert  his  right  and  prosecute  tres- 
passers in  the  courts  there;  but  that  it  would  not 
be  proper  for  her  majesty  to  interpose,  unless  the 
question  came  before  her  by  appeal  from  those 
courts ;  save,  that  it  might  be  reasonable  to  direct 
(if  Allen  should  insist  on  it  at  the  trials)  that  mat- 
ters of  fact  be  found  specially  by  the  juries,  and 
that  these  special  matters  should  be  made  to  appear 
on  an  appeal." 

Soon  after  this  Usher  obtained  a  second  commis- 
sion as  lieut.governor;  but  was  expressly  restricted 
from  intermedling  "with  the  appointment  of  judges 
or  juries,  or  otherwise,  in  matters  relating  to  the 
disputes  between  Allen  and  the  inhabitants."  The 
people  did  not  relish  this  reappointiaent,  nor  did  his 


448 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


subsequent  conduct  reconcile  them  to  it.  Upon  his 
first  appearance  in  council  Partridge  took  his  seat 
as  counsellor ;  but  the  next  day  desired  his  dismis- 
sion on  account  of  a  ship  in  the  river  which  demanded 
his  constant  attention.  This  request  was  granted, 
and  he  soon  after  removed  to  Newbury,  where  he 
spent  the  rest  of  his  days  in  a  mercantile  depart- 
ment, and  in  the  business  of  his  profession. 

It  had  always  been  a  favourite  point  with  Usher 
to  get  the  books  and  files,  which  had  been  taken 
from  Chamberlayne,  lodged  in  the  secretary's  office. 
Among  these  files  were  the  original  minutes  of  the 
suits  which  Mason  had  carried  on,  and  the  verdicts, 
judgments,  and  bills  of  costs  he  had  recovered.  As 
they  were  committed  to  the  care  of  the  recorder,  who 
was  appointed  by  the  general  court,  and  removable 
«nly  by  them,  no  use  could  be  made  of  these  papers 
but  by  consent  of  the  assembly.  When  Usher  pro- 
duced to  the  council  an  order  from  Whitehall  that 
these  records  should  be  deposited  with  the  secretary, 
Penhallow,  the  recorder,  (1704),  who  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  council,  refused  to  deliver  them  without  an 
act  of  the  general  assembly  authorising  him  so  to  do. 

Usher  succeeded  but  little  better  in  his  applica- 
tions for  money.  He  alleged  that  he  had  received 
nothing  for  his  former  services,  though  they  had 
given  hundreds  to  Partridge ;  and  complained  that 
no  house  was  provided  for  him  to  reside  in,  which 
obliged  him  to  spend  most  of  bis  time  at  Boston. 
The  plea  of  poverty  always  at  hand,  was  not  forgot- 
ten in  answer  to  these  demands.  But  at  length, 
upon  his  repeated  importunity  and  Dudley's  earnest 
recommendation,  after  the  assembly  had  refused 
making  any  provision  for  him,  and  the  governor  had 
expressly  directed  him  to  reside  at  the  New  Castle, 
and  exercise  a  regular  command,  it  being  a  time  of 
war ;  the  council  were  prevailed  upon  to  allow  him 
two  rooms  in  any  house  he  could  procure  "  till  the 
next  morning  of  the  assembly,"  and  to  order  thirty- 
eight  shillings  to  be  given  him  for  the  expense  of  his 
"  journey  to  and  from  Boston." 

When  Dudley  acquainted  the  assembly  with  the 
royal  determination  in  Allen's  suits,  they  appeared 
tolerably  satisfied  with  the  equitable  intention  dis- 
covered therein  ;  but  begged  him  to  represent  to  her 
majesty  that  the  province  was  at  least  sixty  miles 
long  and  twenty  wide,  containing  twelve  hundred 
square  miles;  that  the  inhabitants  claimed  only  the 
property  of  the  lands  contained  within  the  bounds 
of  their  townships,  which  was  less  than  one-third  of 
the  province,  and  had  been  possessed  by  them  and 
their  ancestors  more  than  sixty  years ;  that  they  had 
nothing  to  offer  as  a  grievance  if  the  other  two- 
thirds  were  adjudged  to  Allen;  but  should  be  glad 
to  sec  the  same  planted  and  settled  for  the  better 
security  and  defence  of  the  whole ;  withal  desiring 
it  might  be  considered  how  much  time,  blood  and 
treasure  had  been  spent  in  settling  and  defending 
this  part  of  her  majesty's  dominion,  and  that  the 
cost  and  labour  bestowed  thereon  far  exceeded  the 
true  value  of  the  land,  so  that  they  hoped  it  was  not 
her  majesty's  intention  to  deprive  them  of  all  tho 
herbage,  timber,  and  fuel,  without  which  they  could 
not  subsist,  and  that  the  lands  comprehended  within 
the  bounds  of  their  townships  was  little  enough  to 
afford  these  necessary  articles  ;  it  not  being  usual  in 
these  plantations  to  fence  in  more  of  their  lands 
than  would  serve  for  tillage,  leaving  the  rest  un- 
fenced  for  the  feeding  their  cattle  in  common." 

Notwithstanding  this  plea,  which  was  often  al 
ieged,  Allen,  by  virtue  of  the  queen's  permission, 
iu  December,  1703,  had  entered  upon  and  taken 


possession  by  turf  and  twig  of  the  common  land  in 
each  township,  as  well  as  of  that  which  was  without 
their  bounds,  and  brought  his  writ  of  ejectment,  dt 
noro,  against  Waldron,  and  when  the  trial  was 
coming  on  informed  Governor  Dudley  thereof,  that 
he  might  come  into  court,  and  demand  a  special  ver- 
dict agreeably  to  the  queen's  instructions.  Dudley 
from  Boston  informed  the  court  of  the  day  when  ho 
intended  to  be  at  Portsmouth,  and  directed  the 
judges  to  adjourn  the  court  to  that  day.  Before  it 
came  he  heard  of  a  body  of  Indians  above  Lan- 
caster, which  had  put  the  country  in  alarm,  and 
ordered  the  court  to  be  again  adjourned.  At  length 
he  began  his  journey ;  but  was  taken  ill  at  New- 
bury, with  a  seasonable  fit  of  the  gravel,  and  pro- 
ceeded no  farther.  The  jury  in  the  meantime  re- 
fused to  bring  in  a  special  verdict;  but  found  for  the 
defendant  with  costs.  Allen  again  appealed  from 
the  judgment. 

Perplexed,  however  with  these  repeated  disap- 
pointments, and  at  the  same  time  being  low  iu 
purse,  as  well  as  weakened  with  age,  he  sought  an 
accommodation  with  the  people,  with  whom  he  was 
desirous  to  spend  the  remainder  of  his  days  in  peace. 
It  has  been  said  that  he  made  very  advantageous 
offers  to  Vaughan  and  Waldron  if  they  would  pur- 
chase his  title  ;  but  that  they  utterly  refused  it.  The 
people  were  sensible  that  a  door  was  still  open  for 
litigation  ;  and  that  after  Allen's  death  they  might, 
perhaps,  meet  with  as  much  or  more  difficulty  from 
his  heirs,  among  whom  Usher  would  probably  have 
a  great  influence  :  they  well  knew  his  indefatigable 
industry  in  the  pursuit  of  gain,  that  he  was  able  to 
harass  them  in  law,  and  had  great  interest  in  Eng- 
land. They  therefore  thought  it  best  to  fall  in  with 
Allen's  views,  and  enter  into  an  accommodation 
with  him.  (1705.)  A  general  meeting  of  deputies 
being  held  at  Portsmouth,  the  following  resolutions 
arid  proposals  were  drawn  up,  viz.  "  That  they  had 
no  claim  or  challenge  to  any  part  of  the  province 
without  the  bounds  of  the  four  towns  of  Portsmouth, 
Dover,  Hampton,  and  Exeter,  with  the  hamlets  of 
Newcastle  and  Kingston,  which  were  all  compre- 
hended within  lines  already  known  and  laid  out,  and 
which  should  forthwith  be  revised;  but  that  Allen 
and  his  heirs  might  peaceably  hold  and  enjoy  the 
said  great  waste,  containing  forty  miles  in  length 
and  twenty  in  breadth,  or  thereabouts,  at  the  heads 
of  the  four  towns  aforesaid,  if  it  should  so  please  her 
majesty;  and  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  four  towns 
would  be  so  far  from  interrupting  the  settlement 
thereof,  that  they  desired  the  said  waste  to  be  planted 
and  filled  with  inhabitants,  to  whom  they  would  give 
all  the  encouragement  and  assistance  in  their  power. 
That  in  case  Allen  would,  for  himself  and  heirs,  for 
ever  quit  claim,  to  the  present  inhabitants  and  their 
heirs,  all  that  tract  of  land  comprehended  within 
the  bounds  of  the  several  towns,  and  warrant  and 
defend  the  same  against  all  persons,  free  of  mort- 
gage, entailment,  and  every  other  incumbiance,  and 
that  this  agreement  should  be  accepted  and  confirm- 
ed by  the  queen ;  then  they  would  lot  and  lay  out 
to  him  and  his  heirs  500  acres  within  the  town  of 
Portsmouth  and  Newcastle,  1500  in  Dover,  1500  in 
Hampshire  and  Kingston,  and  1500  in  Exeter,  out 
of  the  commonages  of  the  said  towns,  in  such  places, 
not  exceeding  three  divisions  in  each  town,  as 
should  best  accommodate  him  and  be  least  detri- 
mental to  them ;  and  that  they  would  pay  him  or  his 
heirs  2000/.  current  money  of  New  England,  at  two 
payments,  one  within  a  year  after  receiving  the 
royal  confirmation  of  this  agreement,  and  the  other 


UNITED  STATES. 


449 


within  a  year  after  the  first  payment.  That  all  ron- 
tracts  made  either  by  Mason  or  Allen,  with  any  of 
the  inhabitants,  or  others,  for  lands  or  othfir  privi- 
leges in  the  possession  of  their  tenants  in  their  own 
just  right,  beside  the  claim  of  Mason  and  Allen,  and 
no  other,  should  be  accounted  valid ;  but  that  if 
any  of  the  purchasers,  lessees,  or  tenants,  should 
refuse  to  pay  their  just  part  of  the  sums  agreed  on, 
according  to  the  lands  they  held,  their  share  should 
be  abated  by  Allen  out  of  the  20001.  payable  by  this 
agreement.  That  upon  Allen's  acceptance,  and 
underwriting  of  these  articles,  they  would  give  per- 
sonal security  for  the  aforesaid  payment ;  and  that 
all  actions  and  suits  depending  in  law  concerning 
the  premises  should  cease  till  the  queen's  pleasure 
should  be  known." 

These  articles  were  ordered  to  be  presented  to 
Allen  for  his  acceptance  :  but  so  desirable  an  issue 
of  the  controversy  was  prevented  by  his  sudden 
death,  which  happened  on  the  next  day. 

Colonel  Allen  is  represented  as  a  gentleman  of  no 
remarkable  abilities,  and  of  a  solitary  rather  than  a 
social  disposition  ;  but  mild,  obliging,  and  charitable. 
His  character,  while  he  was  a  merchant  in  London, 
was  fair  and  upright,  and  his  domestic  deportment 
amiable  and  exemplary.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
church  of  England  by  profession,  but  constantly  at- 
tended divine  worship  in  the  congregation  at  New- 
cn'stle,  and  wras  a  strict  observer  of  the  Christian 
sabbath.  He  died  intestate  on  the  5th  of  May  1705, 
in  the  70th  year  of  his  age,  leaving  a  son  and  four 
daughters,  and  was  buried  in  the  fort. 

(1706.)  After  his  death  his  only  son,  Thomas  Al- 
len, Esq.  of  London,  renewed  the  suit,  by  petition- 
ing the  queen,  who  allowed  him  to  bring  a  new  writ 
of  ejectment,  and  ordered  a  revival  of  the  directions 
given  to  the  governor  in  1703,  with  respect  to  the 
jury's  finding  a  special  verdict.  Accordingly  Allen, 
having  previously  conveyed  one  half  of  the  lands  in 
New  Hampshire  by  deed  of  sale  to  Sir  Charles  Hob- 
by, and  appointed  his  mother,  Elizabeth  Allen,  his 
attorney,  brought  his  writof  ejectment  against  Wal- 
dron  in  the  inferior  court  of  common  pleas,  where 
he  was  cast.  He  then  removed  it  by  appeal  to  the 
superior  court,  where  it  had  been  tried  three  years 
before.  As  this  was  the  last  trial,  and  as  all  the 
strength  of  both  parties  was  fully  displayed  on  the 
occasion,  it  will  be  proper  to  give  as  just  a  view  of 
the  case  as  can  now  be  collected  from  the  papers  on 
file  in  the  office  of  the  superior  court. 

On  Allen's  part  were  produced  copies  of  the  char- 
ter by  which  King  James  I.  constituted  the  council 
of  Plymouth ;  their  grants  to  Mason  in  1629  and 
1635  ;  his  last  will  and  testament;  an  inventory  of 
artillery,  arms,  ammunition,  provisions,  merchan- 
dize, and  cattle,  left  in  the  care  of  his  agents  there 
at  his  death  ;  depositions  of  several  ancient  persons 
taken  in  1685,  who  remembered  the  houses,  fields, 
forts,  and  other  possessions  of  Captain  Mason,  at 
Portsmouth  and  Newichwannock,  and  were  ac- 
quainted with  his  agents,  stewards,  factors,  and 
other  servants,  who  divided  the  cattle  and  merchan- 
dize among  them  after  his  death ;  the  opinions  of 
Sir  Geoffry  Palmer,  Sir  Francis  Winnington  and  Sir 
William  Jones,  in  favour  of  the  validity  of  Mason's 
title;  King  Charles's  letter  to  the  president  and 
council  of  New  Hampshire  in  1680;  the  paragraph 
of  Cranfield's  commission  which  respects  Mason's 
claim  in  1682;  the  writ,  verdict,  judgment,  and 
execution  against  Major  Waldron  in  1683;  the  de- 
cision of  the  king  in  council  against  Vaughan  in 
1686  ;  Dudley's  writ  of  certiorari  in  1688  ;  the  fine 

HIST.  OF  AMKK. — Nos.  57  &  58. 


and  recovery  in  Westminster  hall,  whereby  the  en- 
tail was  cut  off,  and  the  consequent  deed  of  sale  to 
Allen  in  1691;  Sir  Edward  Northey's  report  in 
1703;  and  evidence  of  Allen' staking  possession  of 
the  wastes,  and  of  his  enclosing  and  occupying  some1 
land  at  Great  Island.  (1707.)  On  this  evidence,  it 
was  pleaded  that  the  title  derived  from  Mason,  and" 
his  possession  of  the  province,  of  which  the  lands  in 
question  were  part,  was  legal ;  that  the  appellee's 
possession  had  been  interrupted  by  the  appellant, 
and  those  from  whom  he  derived  his  title,  more  es- 
pecially by  the  judgment  recovered  by  Robert  Ma- 
son against  Major  Waldron ;  and  a  special  verdict 
was  moved  for,  agreeably  to  the  royal  directions. 
The  counsel  on  this  side  were  James  Meinzies  and 
John  Valentine. 

On  Waldron's  part  was  produced  the  deed  from 
four  Indian  sachems  to  Whelewright  and  others  in 
1629 ;  and  depositions  taken  from,  several  ancient 
persons  who  testified  that  they  had  lived  with  Major 
Waldron,  when  he  began  his  plantation  atCochecho, 
about  the  year  1640,  and  assisted  him  in  building 
his  houses  and  mills,  and  that  no  person  had  dis- 
turbed him  in  the  possession  thereof  for  above  forty 
years.  To  invalidate  the  evidence  of  the  title  pro- 
duced on  the  opposite  side,  it  was  pleaded,  That 
the  alleged  grant  from  the  council  of  Plymouth  to 
Mason  in  1629,  was  not  signed-;  that  livery  of  seizin 
was  not  endorsed  on  it  as  on  other  of  their  grants, 
and  as  was  then  the  legal  form ;  nor  was  it  ever  en- 
rolled according  to  statute  :  that  the  sale  of  part  of 
the  same  lands  in  1628  to  the  Massachusetts  com- 
pany, by  an  instrument  signed  and  executed  accord- 
ing to  law,  renders  this  subsequent  grant  suspicious  ; 
and  that  his  pretending  to  procure  another  grant  of 
part  of  the  same  lands  in  1635,  was  an  argument 
that  he  himself  could  not  rely  on  the  preceding  one, 
nor  was  it  credible  that  the  same  council  should 
grant  the  same  lands  twice,  and  to  the  same  person  : 
that  the  alleged  grant  in  1635  w~as  equally  defec- 
tive ;  and  that  he  must  relinquish  one  or  the  other, 
it  being  contrary  to  the  reason  and  usage  of  law  to- 
rely  on  two  several  titles  at  once.  It  was  urged, 
that  Waldron's  possession  was  grounded  on  a  deed 
from  the  native  lords  of  the  soil,  with  whom  his 
father  had  endeavoured  to  cultivate  a  friendly  con- 
nexion ;  that  he  had  taken  up  his  land  with  their 
consent,  when  the  country  was  a  wilderness;  had 
cultivated  it,  had  defended  it  in  war  at  a  great  ex- 
pense, and  at  the  hazard  of  his  life,  which  he  finally 
lost  in  the  attempt;  that  the  Indian  deed  was  legally 
executed  in  the  presence  of  the  factors  and  agents' 
of  the  company  of  Laconia,  of  which  Mason  was 
one ;  that  this  wras  done  with  the  allowance  of  the 
council  of  Plymouth,  and  in  pursuance  of  the  great 
ends  of  their  incorporation,  which  were  to  cultivate 
the  lands,  to  people  the  country,  and  christianize 
the  natives,  for  the  honour  and  interest  of  the  crowr 
and  the  trade  of  England,  all  which  ends  had  been 
pursued  and  attained  by  the  appellee  and  his  ances- 
tor. It  was  also  alleged,  that  the  writ  against  Ma- 
jor Waldron  in  1683,  was  for  "lands  and  tene- 
ments," of  which  the  quantity,  situation  and  bounds 
were  not  described,  for  want  of  which  no  legal  judg- 
ment could  be  given;  that  no  execution  had  ever 
been  levied,  nor  was  the  possessor  ever  disturbed  or 
amoved  by  reason  thereof;  and  that  the  copies  pro- 
duced were  not  attested,  no  book  of  records  being 
to  be  found.  To  invalidate  the  evidence  of  Mason's 
possession,  it  was  observed,  that  he  himself  was 
never  there  in  person  ;  that  all  the  settlement  made 
by  his  agents  or  successors  was  only  a  factory  for 

3  B 


450 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


trade  with  the  Indians,  and  principally  for  the  dis- 
covery of  a  country  called  Laconia;  and  that  this 
was  done  in  company  with  several  other  mevchant- 
adventurers  in  London,  who  for  the  security  of 
their  goods  erected  a  fort;  but  that  this  could  not 
amount  to  a  legal  possession,  nor  prove  a.  title  to 
the  country,  especially  as,  upon  the  failure  of  trade, 
the  object  of  their  enterprise,  they  quitted  their 
factory,  after  a  few  years  stay  in  those  parts. 

As  to  the  motion  for  a  special  verdict,  it  was  said 
that  a  jury  could  not  find  one  if  they  had  no  doubt 
of  the  law  or  fact,  for  the  reason  of  a  special  verdict 
is  a  doubt  either  in  point  of  law  or  evidence  ;  nor 
was  it  consistent  with  the  privileges  of  Englishmen 
that  a  jury  should  be  compelled  to  find  specially.  In 
addition  to  these  pleas,  it  was  further  alleged,  that 
by  the  statute  law  no  action  of  ejectment  can  be 
maintained  except  the  plaintiff,  or  those  under  whom 
he  claims,  have  been  in  possession  within  twenty 
years  ;  and  if  they  have  been  out  of  possession  sixty 
years,  then  not  only  an  ejectment,  but  a  writ  of 
right,  and  all  other  real  actions  are  barred  in  respect 
of  a  subject,  and  that  in  such  cases  the  right  of  the 
crown  is  also  barred:  and  that  by  the  statute  of 
32  Hen.  8.  ch.  9.  it  is  enacted,  that  no  person  shall 
purchase  any  lands  or  tenements,  unless  the  seller, 
or  they  by  whom  he  claims,  have  been  in  possession 
of  the  same,  or  the  reversion,  or  the  remainder 
thereof,  or  having  taken  the  rents  or  profits  thereof, 
by  the  space  of  one  whole  year  next  before  such 
bargain  is  made  ;  and  that  the  appellee  and  his  an- 
cestor, and  no  othei  person  whatever  had  been  in 
possession  of  the  premises,  nor  was  it  ever  pretended 
by  the  appellant  that  the  Masons,  of  whom  the  pur- 
chase was  made,  were  in  possession  within  one  year, 
or  at  any  time  before  the  alleged  purchase ;  that  all 
the  mischiefs  provided  against  by  the  above  statute 
have  been  experienced  by  the  people  of  New  Hamp- 
shire from  the  purchase  made  by  the  appellant's 
father,  of  the  bare  title  of  the  propriety  of  the  pro- 
vince. The  counsel  on  this  side  were  John  Picker- 
ing and  Charles  Story. 

A  certificate  from  the  lieut. -governor  respecting 
the  queen's  directions  was  delivered  to  the  jury, 
who  returned  the  following  verdict : — "  In  the  cause 
depending  between  Thomas  Allen,  Esq.,  appellant, 
and  Richard  Waldrou,  Esq.,  defendant,  the  jury 
finds  for  the  defendant  a  confirmation  of  the  former 
judgment  and  costs  of  courts.  Mark  Hunking, 
foreman." 

The  court  then  sent  out  the  jury  again  with 
this  charge,  "  Gentlemen,  you  are  further  to  con- 
sider this  case  and  observe  her  majesty's  directions 
to  find  specially  and  your  oaths."  They  returned 
the  second  time  with  the  same  verdict;  upon  which 
the  court  ordered  judgment  to  be  entered,  and  that 
the  defendant  recover  costs  of  the  appellant.  The 
counsel  for  the  appellant  then  moved  for  an  appeal 
to  her  majesty  in  council,  which  was  allowed  on 
th:ir  giving  bond  in  200L  to  prosecute  it. 

But  the  loyalty  of  the  people,  and  the  distresses 
under  which  they  laboured  by  reason  of  the  war, 
prevailed  on  the  queen's  ministry  to  suspend  a  final 
decision ;  and  before  the  appeal  could  be  heard, 
Allen's  death,  which  happened  in  1715,  put  an  end 
to  the  suit,whieh  his  heirs,being  minors,  did  not  renew. 

The  war  with  the  French  and  Indians,  called  Queen 
Anne's  war — Conclusion  of  Dudley's  and  Usher's 
administra  t  ion . 

The  peace  which  followed  the  treaty  of  Rysxvick 
was  but  of  short  duration,  for  the  seeds  of  war  were 


ready  sown  both  in  Europe  and  America.  Louit 
had  proclaimed  the  pretender  king  of  England,  and 
his  governor,  Villebon,  had  orders  to  extend  his  pro- 
vince of  Acadia  to  the  river  Kennebeck,  though  the 
English  court  understood  St.  Croix  to  be  the  bound- 
ary between  their  territories  and  those  of  the  French. 
The  fishery  was  interrupted  by  French  men  of  war, 
and  by  the  orders  of  Villebon,  who  suffered  no  Eng- 
lish vessels  to  fish  on  the  banks  of  Nova  Scotia.  A 
French  mission  was  established,  and  a  chapel  erected 
at  Norridgewog,  on  the  upper  part  of  Kennebeck, 
which  served  to  extend  the  influence  of  the  French 
among  the  Indians.  The  governor  of  Canada,  as 
suming  the  character  of  their  father  and  protector, 
instigated  them  to  prevent  the  settlement  of  the 
English  to  the  east  of  Kennebeck,  and  found  some 
among  them  ready  to  listen  to  his  advice.  Thfi 
people  in  those  parts  were  apprehensive  of  danger 
and  meditating  a  removal,  and  those  who  had  enter- 
tained thoughts  of  settling  there  were  restrained. 

Things  were  in  this  posture  when  Dudley  entered 
on  his  government.  He  had  particular  orders  from 
England  to  rebuild  the  fort  at  Pemaquid;  but  could 
not  prevail  on  the  Massachusetts  assembly  to  bear 
the  expense  of  it.  However  he  determined  on  a 
visit  to  the  eastern  country,  and  having  notified  his 
intention  to  the  Indians,  took  with  him  a  number  of 
gentlemen  of  both  provinces,  (1703)  and  held  a  con- 
ference at  Casco  with  delegates  from  the  tribes  of 
Norridgewog,  Penobscot,  Pigwacket,  Penacook  ami 
Amariscoggin,  who  assured  him  that  "  as  high  as 
the  sun  was  above  the  earth,  so  far  distant  was  their 
design  of  making  the  least  breach  of  the  peace." 
They  presented  him  a  belt  of  wampum  in  token  of 
their  sincerity,  and  both  parties  went  to  two  heaps 
of  stones  which  had  formerly  been  pitched,  and 
called  the  "  two  brothers,"  where  the  friendship  was 
further  ratified  by  the  addition  of  other  stones. 
They  also  declared,  that  although  the  French  em  is 
saries  among  them  hati  been  endeavouring  to  break 
the  union,  yet  it  was  "  firm  as  a  mountain,  and 
should  continue  as  long  as  the  sun  and  moon."  Not- 
withstanding these  fair  appearances,  it  was  observed 
that  when  the  Indians  fired  a  salute  their  guns  were 
charged  with  shot;  and  it  was  suspected  that  they 
had  then  formed  a  design  to  seize  the  governor  and 
his  attendants,  if  a  party  which  they  expected  from 
Canada,  and  which  arrived  two  or  three  days  after, 
had  come  in  proper  season  to  their  assistance.  How- 
ever this  might  be,  it  is  certain  that  in  the  space  of 
six  weeks,  a  body  of  French  and  Indians,  500  in 
number,  having  divided  themselves  into  several  par- 
ties, attacked  all  the  settlements  from  Casco  to 
Wells,  and  killed  and  took  130  people,  burning  and 
destroying  all  before  them. 

The  next  week  (August  17)  a  party  of  thirty  In- 
dians under  Capf.  Tom  killed  five  people  at  Hamp- 
ton village;  among  whom  was  a  widow  Mussy,  a 
noted  speaker  among  the  Friends,  and  much  lamented 
by  them ;  they  also  plundered  two  houses,  but  the 
people  being  alarmed,  and  pursuing  them,  they  fled. 

The  country  was  now  in  terror  and  confusion. 
The  women  and  children  retired  to  the  garrisons. 
The  men  went  armed  to  their  work  and  posted 
centinels  in  the  fields.  Troops  of  horse  were  quar- 
tered at  Portsmouth  and  in  the  province  of  Maine. 
A  scout  of  360  men  marched  toward  Pigwacket,  and 
another  to  the  Ossapy  Pond,  but  made  no  disco- 
veries. Alarms  were  frequent,  and  the  whole  fron- 
tier country,  from  Deeirfield  on  the  west  to  Casco 
on  the  east,  was  kept  in  continual  terror  by  small 
parties  of  the  enemy. 


UNITED  STATES. 


In  the  fall,  Col.  March  of  Casco  made  a  visit  to 
Pigwacket,  where  he  killed  six  of  the  enemy  and 
took  six  more;  this  encouraged  the  government  to 
offer  a  bounty  of  40Z.  for  scalps. 

As  the  winter  came  on,  the  frontier  towns  were 
ordered  to  provide  a  large  number  of  snow-shoes; 
and  an  expedition  was  planned  in  New  Hampshire 
against  the  head-quarters  of  the  Indians.  Major 
Wiuthrop  Hilton  and  Captain  John  Oilman  of  Exe- 
ter, Captain  Chesley  and  Captain  Davis  of  Oyster 
river,  marched  with  their  companies  oil  snow  shoes 
into  the  woods,  but  returned  without  success.  This 
is  called  in  the  council  books,  "  an  honourable  ser- 
vice." Hilton  received  a  gratuity  of  12/.,  and  each 
of  the  captains  5/. 

(1704.)  With  the  return  of  spring  there  was  a 
return  of  hostilities,  for  notwithstanding  the  posting 
a  few  southern  Indians  in  the  garrison  at  Berwick, 
the  enemy  appeared  at  Oyster  river,  and  shot  Na- 
thaniel Medar  near  his  own  field,  and  the  next  day 
killed  Edward  Taylor  near  Lamprey  river,  and  cap- 
tured his  wife  and  son.  These  instances  of  mischief 
gave  colour  to  a  false  alarm  at  Cocheco,  where  it 
was  said  they  lay  in  wait  for  Col.  Waldron  a  whole 
day,  but  missing  him  by  reason  of  his  absence  from 
home,  took  his  servant  maid  as  she  went  to  a  spring 
for  water;  and  having  examined  her  as  to  the  state 
of  the  garrison,  stunned  her  with  an  hatchet  but  did 
not  scalp  her. 

In  May,  Col.  Church,  by  Governor  Dudley's  or- 
der, having  planned  an  expedition  to  the  eastern 
shore,  sailed  from  Boston  with  a  number  of  trans- 
ports, furnished  with  whaleboats  for  going  up  rivers. 
In  this  way  he  stopt  at  Pascataqua,  where  he  was 
joined  by  a  body  of  men  under  Major  Hilton,  who 
was  of  eminent  service  to  him  in  this  expedition, 
which  lasted  the  whole  summer,  and  in  which  they 
destroyed  the  towns  of  Minas  and  Chiegnecto,  and 
did  considerable  damage  to  the  French  and  Indians 
ai  Penobscot  and  Passamaquoddy,  and  even  insulted 
Port  Royal.  While  they  were  at  Mount  Desart, 
Church  learned  from  nine  of  his  prisoners,  that  a 
body  of  600  Indians  were  preparing  for  an  attack  on 
Casco,  and  the  head  of  Pascataqua  river,  and  sent 
an  express  to  Portsmouth  which  obliged  the  people 
to  be  vigilant.  No  such  great  force  as  this  appeared, 
but  small  parties  kept  hovering  on  the  outskirts.  At 
Oyster  river  they  wounded  William  Tasker;  and  at 
Dover  they  laid  in  ambush  for  the  people  on  their 
return  from  public  worship,  but  happily  missed  their 
aim.  They  afterwards  mortally  wounded  Mark  Gyles 
at  that  place,  and  soon  after  killed  several  people  in 
a  field  at  Oyster  river,  whose  names  are  not  mentioned. 

In  the  former  wars  New  Hampshire  had  received 
much  assistance  from  their  brethren  of  Massachu- 
setts; but  these  now  remonstrated  to  the  governor 
that  his  other  province  did  not  bear  their  proportion 
of  the  charge  for  the  common  defence.  The  repre- 
sentatives of  New  Hampshire  urged,  in  reply,  the 
different  circumstances  of  the  two  provinces,  "most 
of  the  towns  in  Massachusetts  being  out  of  the  reach 
of  the  enemy,  and  no  otherwise  affected  by  the  war, 
than  in  the  payment  of  their  part  of  the  expense, 
while  this  province  was  wholly  a  frontier  by  sea  and 
land,  and  in  equal  danger  with  the  county  of  York, 
in  which  four  companies  were  stationed,  and  the  in- 
habitants were  abated  their  proportion  of  the  public 
charges."  They  begged  that  twenty  of  the  friendly 
Indians  might  be  sent  to  scout  on  their  borders, 
which  request  the  governor  complied  with. 

(1705.)  In  the  winter,  Col.  Hilton  with  270  men, 
including  the  20  Indians,  were  sent  to  Norridgwog 


on  snow  shoes.  They  had  a  favourable  season  for 
their  march,  the  snow  being  four  feet  deep.  When 
they  arrived  there,  finding  no  enemy  to  contend  with, 
they  burnt  the  deserted  wigwams  and  the  chapel. 
The  officers  who  went  on  this  expedition  complained 
that  they  had  only  the  pay  of  private  soldiers. 

The  late  repairs  of  fort  William  and  Mary  at  New- 
castle were  always  complained  of  as  burdensome  to 
the  people,  and  a  representation  thereof  had  been 
made  to  the  queen,  who  instructed  Dudley  to  press 
the  assembly  of  Massachusetts  to  contribute  to  the 
expense ;  as  the  river  belonged  equally  to  both  pro- 
vinces. They  urged  in  excuse  that  the  fort  was  built 
at  first  at  the  sole  charge  of  New  Hampshire,  to 
whom  it  properly  belonged ;  that  the  whole  expense 
of  the  repairs  did  not  amount  to  what  several  of  their 
towns  singly  paid  towards  the  support  of  the  war  for 
one  year;  that  all  the  trade  and  navigation  of  the 
river,  on  both  sides,  paid  a  duty  toward  maintaining 
that  fortress ;  and  that  they  had  been  at  a  great  ex- 
pense in  protecting  the  frontiers  of  New  Hampshire, 
and  the  parties  who  were  employed  in  getting  tim- 
ber and  masts  for  her  majesty's  service;  while  New 
Hampshire  had  never  contributed  any  thing  to  the 
support  of  the  garrisons,  forces,  and  guards  by  sea, 
which  were  of  equal  benefit  to  them  as  to  Massa- 
chusetts. One  thing,  which  made  New  Hampshire 
more  in  favour  with  the  queen  was,  that  they  had 
settled  a  salary  on  her  governor,  which  the  others 
never  could  be  persuaded  to  do.  The  repairs  of  the 
fort,  however,  went  on  without  their  assistance,  un- 
der the  direction  of  Colonel  Romer ;  and  when  they 
were  completed,  a  petition  was  sent  home  for  a  sup"- 
ply  of  cannon,  ammunition,  and  stores. 

The  next  summer  was  chiefly  spent  in  negotiating 
an  exchange  of  prisoners ;  and  Dudley  had  the  ad- 
dress to  protract  the  negotiation,  under  pretence  of 
consulting  with  the  other  governments  about  a  neu- 
trality proposed  by  the  governor  of  Canada,  by 
which  means  the  frontiers  in  general  were  kept  tole- 
rably quiet,  although  the  enemy  appeared  once  or 
twice  in  the  town  of  Kittery.  The  line  of  pickets 
which  inclosed  the  town  of  Portsmouth  was  repaired, 
and  a  nightly  patrole  established  on  the  sea-shore, 
from  Rendezvous  Point  to  the  bounds  of  Hampton, 
to  prevent  any  surprise  by  sea ;  the  coast  being  at 
this  time  infested  by  the  enemy's  privateers. 

During  this  truce,  the  inhabitants  of  Kingston, 
who  had  left  the  place,  were  encouraged  to  petition 
for  leave  to  return  to  their  lands;  which  the  court 
granted,  on  condition  that  they  should  build  a  fort 
in  the  centre  of  the  town,  lay  out  a  parsonage,  and 
settle  a  minister  within  three  years.  This  last  con- 
dition was  rendered  impracticable  by  the  renewal  of 
hostilities. 

The  governor  of  Canada  had  encouraged  the  In- 
dians who  inhabited  the  borders  of  New  England  to 
remove  to  Canada,  where,  being  incorporated  with 
the  tribe  of  St.  Francis,  they  have  ever  since  re- 
mained. By  this  policy  they  became  more  firmly 
attached  to  the  interests  of  the  French,  and  were 
more  easily  dispatched  on  their  bloody  business  to 
the  frontiers  of  New  England,  with  which  they  were 
well  acquainted.  Dudley,  who  was  generally  ap- 
prised of  their  movements,  and  kept  a  vigilant  eye 
upon  them,  apprehended  a  rupture  in  the  winter; 
and  gave  orders,  1706,  for  a  circular  scouting  march, 
once  a  month,  round  the  head  of  the  towns  from 
Kingston  to  Salmon  falls ;  but  the  enemy  did  not 
appear  till  April;  when  a  small  party  of  them  at- 
tacked the  house  of  John  Drew  at  Oyster  river, 
where  they  killed  eight  and  wounded  two.  The  gar 
3B2 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


rison  was  near,  but  not  a  mau  in  it :  the  women, 
however,  seeing  but  death  before  them,  fired  an 
alarm,  and  then  putting  on  hats,  and  loosening  their 
hair,  that  they  might  appear  like  men,  they  tired  so 
briskly,  that  the  enemy,  apprehending  the  people , 
were  alarmed,  fled  without  burning  or  even  plun- 
dering the  house  which  they  had  attacked.  John 
Wheeler,  meeting  this  party,  and  mistaking  them 
for  friendly  Indians,  unhappily  fell  into  their  hands, 
and  was  killed,  with  his  wile  and  two  children. 
Four  of  his  sons  took  refuge  in  a  cave  by  the  bank 
of  the  Little  Bay,  and  though  pursued  by  the  Indi- 
ans, escaped  unhurt. 

In  July,  Colonel  Schuyler,  from  Albany,  gave 
notice  to  Dudley  that  270  of  the  enemy  were  on 
their  march  toward  Pascataqua,  of  which  he  imme- 
diately informed  the  people,  and  ordered  them  to 
close  garrison,  and  one  half  of  the  militia  to  be 
ready  at  a  minute's  warning.  The  first  appearance 
of  this  body  of  the  enemy  was  at  Dunstable ;  from 
whence  they  proceeded  to  Amesbury  and  Kingston, 
where  they  killed  some  cattle.  Hilton,  with  sixty- 
four  men,  marched  from  Exeter ;  but  was  obliged  to 
return  without  meeting  the  enemy.  The  reason  he 
gave  to  the  council  for  returning  so  soon  was  the 
want  of  provision,  there  being  none  in  readiness  at 
the  garrisons,  notwithstanding  a  law  lately  enacted, 
enjoining  every  town  to  have  stores  ready,  and  de- 
posited in  the  hands  of  their  captains.  For  the 
same  reason  he  had  been  obliged  to  discontinue  a  small 
scout  which  he  had  for  some  time  kept  up.  Hilton 
was  so  brave  and  active  an  officer  that  the  enemy 
had  marked  him  for  destruction ;  and  for  this  pur- 
pose a  party  of  them  kept  lurking  about  his  house, 
where  they  observed  ten  men  to  go  out  one  morn- 
ing with  their  scythes,  and  lay  aside  their  arms  to 
mow ;  they  then  crept  between  the  men  and  their 
guns,  and  suddenly  rushing  on  them,  killed  four, 
•wounded  one,  and  took  three  ;  two  only  of  the  whole 
number  escaped.  They  missed  the  major  for  this 
time,  and  two  of  the  prisoners  escaped;  but  suffered 
much  in  their  return,  having  nothing  to  subsist  on 
for  three  weeks  but  lily  roots  and  rinds  of  trees, 
After  this  they  killed  William  Pearl,  and  took  Na- 
thaniel Tibbets  at  Dover.  It  was  observed  during 
this  war  that  the  enemy  did  more  damage  in  small 
bodies  than  in  larger,  and  by  scattering  along  the 
frontiers  kept  the  people  in  continual  apprehension 
and  alarm ;  and  so  very  few  of  them  were  taken 
prisoners,  that  in  computing  the  expense  of  the  war  it 
was  judged  that  every  Indian  killed  or  taken  cost 
the  country  a  thousand  pounds. 

(1707.)  In  the  following  winter  Hilton  made 
another  excursion  to  the  eastward,  and  a  shallop 
was  sent  to  Casco  with  stores  and  provisions  for  his 
party,  consisting  of  two  hundred  and  twenty  men. 
The  winter  being  mild,  and  the  weather  unsettled, 
prevented  their  marching  so  far  as  they  intended: 
cold  dry  weather,  and  deep  snow,  being  most  fa- 
vourable to  winter  expeditions.  However,  they 
came  on  an  Indian  track  near  Black  Point,  and  pur- 
suing it,  killed  four,  and  took  a  squaw  who  con 
ducted  them  to  a  party  of  eighteen,  whom  they  sur- 
prised as  they  lay  asleep  on  a  neck  of  land  at  break 
of  day,  and  of  whom  they  killed  seventeen,  and  took 
the  other.  This  was  matter  of  triumph  considering 
the  difficulty  of  finding  their  haunts.  It  is  asserted, 
that  on  the  very  morning  this  affair  happened, 
it  was  reported,  with  but  little  variation  from  the 
truth,  at  Portsmouth,  though  at  the  distance  of  six- 
ty miles. 

When   Church   went   to  Nova  Scotia,  he  very 


earnestly  solicited  leave  to  make  an  attempt  on 
Port  Royal;  but  Dudley  would  not  consent,  and 
the  reason  he  gave  was,  that  he  had  written  to  the 
ministry  in  England,  and  expected  orders  and  naval 
lelp  to  reduce  the  place.  His  enemies  however  as- 
signed another  reason  for  his  refusal;  which  was 
Lhat  a  clandestine  trade  was  carried  on  by  his  con- 
nivance, and  to  his  emolument,  with  the  French 
;here.  This  report  gained  credit,  and  occasioned  a 
loud  call  for  justice.  Those  who  were  directly  con- 
cerned in  the  illegal  traffic,  were  prosecuted  and 
fined;  and  the  governor  suffered  much  in  his  repu- 
tation. To  wipe  off  these  aspersions  he  now  deter- 
mined to  make  an  attack  in  earnest  on  Port  Royal, 
even  though  no  assistance  should  come  from  Eng- 
land. It  was  intended  that  an  armament  should  be 
sent  to  America,  and  the  commander  was  appointed  ; 
but  the  state  of  affairs  in  Europe  prevented  their 
coming. 

Early  in  the  spring  the  governor  applied  to  the 
assemblies  of  both  his  provinces,  and  to  the  colonies 
of  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut,  requesting  them 
to  raise  one  thousand  men  for  the  expedition.  Con- 
necticut declined;  but  the  other  three  raised  the 
whole  number,  who  were  disposed  into  two  regi- 
ments, of  which  Colonel  Wainwright  commanded 
the  one,  and  Colonel  Hilton  the  other.  They  em- 
barked at  Nantasket  in  twenty-three  transports,  fur- 
nished with  whaleboats,  under  convoy  of  the  Dept- 
ford  man  of  war,  Captain  Stuckley,  and  the  pro- 
vince galley,  Captain  Southack.  The  chief  com- 
mand was  given  to  Colonel  March,  who  had  behaved 
well  in  several  scouts  and  rencounters  with  the  In- 
dians, but  had  never  been  tried  in  such  service  as 
this.  They  arrived  before  Port  Royal  in  a  few  days, 
and  after  burning  some  houses,  killing  some  cattle 
round  the  fort,  and  making  some  ineffectual  at- 
tempts to  bombard  it,  a  jealousy  and  disagreement 
among  the  officers,  and  a  misapprehension  of  the 
state  of  the  fort  and  garrison,  caused  the  army  to 
break  up  and  reimbark  in  a  disorderly  manner. 
Some  of  the  officers  went  to  Boston  for  orders,  some 
of  the  transports  put  in  at  Casco;  a  sloop,  with 
Captain  Chesley's  company  of  sixty  men,  arrived  at 
Portsmouth :  Chesley  suffered  his  men  to  disperse, 
but  ordered  them  to  return  at  the  beat  of  the  drum  : 
being  called  to  account  for  this  conduct,  he  alleged 
that  "  general  orders  were  given  at  Port  Royal  for 
every  man  to  make  the  best  of  his  way  borne."  The 
governor,  highly  chagrined,  and  very  angry,  sent 
orders  from  Boston  that  if  any  more  vessels  arrived 
the  men  should  not  be  permitted  to  come  on  shore 
"  on  pain  of  death."  After  a  while  he  ordered 
Chesley's  company  to  be  collected  and  reimbarked, 
offering  a  pardon  to  those  who  voluntarily  returned, 
the  rest  to  be  severely  punished.  By  the  latter  end 
of  July  they  got  on  board,  and  with  the  rest  of  the 
army,  returned  to  the  place  of  action.  At  the  land- 
ing,  an  ambuscade  of  Indians  from  among  the  sedge 
on  the  top  of  a  sea-wall,  greatly  annoyed  the  troops. 
Major  Walton,  and  Captain  Chesley,  being  then  on 
shore  with  the  New  Hampshire  companies,  pushed 
their  men  up  the  beach,  flanked  the  enemy,  and 
after  an  obstinate  struggle,  put  them  to  flight.  The 
command  was  now  given  to  Wainwright,  and  the 
army  put  under  the  direction  of  three  supervisors ; 
but  no  means  could  inspire  that  union,  firmness, 
and  skill  which  were  necessary.  By  the  last  of 
August  the  whole  affair  was  at  an  end,  and  the  army 
returned  sickly,  fatigued,  disheartened,  and  ashamed ; 
but  with  no  greater  loss  than  sixteen  killed,  and  as 
many  wounded. 


UNITED  STATES, 


453 


While  this  unfortunate  expedition  was  in  hand, 
the  frontiers  were  kept  in  continual  alarm.  Two 
men  were  taken  from  Oyster  river,  and  two  more 
killed  as  they  were  driving  a  team  hetween  that 
place  and  Dover.  Captain  Sumersby  pursued  with 
his  troop  and  recovered  the  contents  of  the  cart. 
Stephen  and  Jacob  Oilman,  brothers,  were  ambushed 
between  Exeter  and  Kingston;  their  horses  were 
killed,  but  both  of  them  escaped  to  the  garrison. 
Kingston,  being  a  new  plantation,  was  much  ex- 
posed, and  was  this  summer  weakened  by  the  de- 
sertion of  eight  men.  The  remaining  inhabitants 
complained  to  government,  who  ordered  the  captains 
of  Exeter  and  Hampton  to  take  them  up  as  desert- 
ers, and  oblige  them  to  return  to  the  defence  of 
their  settlements,  or  do  duty  at  the  fort  during  the 
governor's  pleasure.  They  were  afterwards  bound 
over  to  the  sessions  for  contempt  of  orders.  The 
state  of  the  country  at  this  time  was  truly  distressing; 
a  large  quota  of  their  best  men  were  abroad,  the  rest 
harassed  by  the  enemy  at  home,  obliged  to  continual 
duty  in  garrisons  and  in  scouts,  and  subject  to  severe 
discipline  for  neglects.  They  earned  their  bread  at 
the  continual  hazard  of  their  lives,  never  daring  to 
stir  abroad  unarmed ;  they  could  till  no  lauds  but 
what  were  within  call  of  the  garrisoned  houses  into 
which  their  families  were  crowded ;  their  husbandry, 
lumber-trade  and  fishery  were  declining,  their  taxes 
increasing,  their  apprehensions  both  from  the  force 
of  the  enemy  and  the  failure  of  the  Port  Royal  ex- 
pedition were  exceedingly  dismal,  and  there  was  no 
prospect  of  an  end  to  the  war,  in  which  they  were 
now  advanced  to  the  fifth  summer.  Yet  under  all 
these  distresses  and  discouragements,  they  resolutely 
kept  their  ground  and  maintained  their  garrisons — 
not  one  of  which  was  cut  off  during  the  whole  of  this 
war,  within  the  limits  of  New  Hampshire. 

In  September  one  man  was  killed  at  Exeter,  and 
two  days  after  Henry  Elkins  at  Kingston.  But  the 
severest  blow  on  the  frontiers  happened  at  Oyster 
river,  a  place  which  suffered  more  than  all  the  rest. 
A  party  of  French  Mohawks,  painted  red,  attacked 
with  a  hideous  yell  a  company  who  were  in  the 
woods,  some  hewing  timber  and  others  driving  a 
team,  under  the  direction  ofCaptain  Chesley,  who 
was  just  returned  the  second  time  from  Port  Royal. 
At  the  first  fire  they  killed  seven  and  mortally 
wounded  another.  Chesley,  with  the  few  who  were 
left,  fired  on  the  enemy  with  great  vigour,  and  for 
some  time  checked  their  ardour ;  but  being  over- 
powered, he  at  length  fell.  He  was  much  lamented, 
being  a  brave  officer.  Three  of  the  scalps  taken  at 
this  time  were  soon  after  recovered  at  Berwick. 

(1708.)  The  next  year  a  large  army  from  Canada 
was  destined  against  the  frontiers  of  New  England. 
Dudley  received  information  of  it  in  the  usual  route 
from  Albany,  and  immediately  ordered  guards  in  the 
most  exposed  places  of  both  his  provinces.  A  troop 
under  Captain  Robert  Coffin  patroled  from  Kings- 
ton to  Cochecho,  and  scouts  were  kept  out  conti- 
nually. Spy-boats  were  also  kept  out  at  sea  between 
Pascataqua  and  Winter  harbours.  Four  hundred 
Massachusetts  soldiers  were  posted  in  this  province. 
The  towns  were  ordered  to  provide  ammunition,  and 
all  things  were  in  as  good  a  state  of  preparation  as 
could  be  expected.  At  length  the  storm  fell  on  Ha- 
verhill;  but  the  enemy's  force  having  been  dimi- 
nished by  various  accidents,  they  proceeded  no  far- 
ther, and  every  part  of  New  Hampshire  was  quiet. 
Hilton^ made  another  winter  inarch  to  Pigwacket 
with  170  men,  but  made  no  discovery. 

(1709.)  The  next  spring  William  Moody,  Samuel 


Stevens,  and  two  sons  of  Jeremy  Gilrnan,  were  ta- 
ken at  Pickpocket-mill  in  Exeter,  and  soon  after 
Bartholomew  Stevenson  was  killed  at  Oyster  river. 
Colonel  Hilton  and  Captain  Davis  performed  their 
usual  tour  of  duty  in  scouting,  and  the  people  this 
summer  kept  close  in  garrison,  on  a  report  that  two 
hundred  Indians  had  marched  against  them  from 
Montreal.  But  the  principal  object  now  in  view 
was  a  desire  of  wiping  off  the  disgrace  of  a  former 
year,  by  an  attempt,  not  on  Port  Royal,  but  on  Ca- 
nada itself.  For  this  purpose  solicitations  had  been 
made  in  England  by  Francis  Nicholson,  Esq.  who 
had  been  lieutenant-governor  of  Virginia,  and  Cap- 
tain Samuel  Vetch,  a  trader  to  Nova  Scotia,  who 
was  well  acquainted  with  the  French  settlements 
there,  and  made  a  full  representation  of  the  state 
of  things  in  America  to  the  British  ministry.  An 
expedition  being  determined  upon,  they  came  over 
early  in  the  spring  with  the  queen's  command  to 
the  governors  of  the  several  provinces  to  raise  men 
for  the  service.  Vetch  was  appointed  a  colonel,  and 
Nicholson,  by  nomination  of  the  governor  of  New 
York,  and  consent  of  the  other  governments,  was 
made  commander  in  chief.  The  people  of  New 
Hampshire  were  so  much  exhausted,  and  their  men 
had  been  so  ill  paid  before,  that  it  was  with  great 
difficulty,  and  not  without  the  dissolution  of  one  as- 
sembly and  the  calling  of  another,  that  they  could 
raise  money  to  levy  100  men,  and  procure  two 
transports  for  conveying  them.  After  the  utmost 
exertions  had  been  made  by  the  several  govern- 
ments, and  Nicholson  with  part  of  the  troops  bad 
marched  to  Wood  creek,  and  the  rest  with  the 
transports  had  lain  at  Nantasket  three  months  wait- 
ing for  a  fleet,  news  arrived  that  the  armament  pro- 
mised from  England  was  diverted  to  another  quar- 
ter. Upon  which  the  commander  of  the  frigates  on 
the  Boston  station  refused  to  convoy  the  troops,  the 
whole  army  was  disbanded,  and  the  expense  the 
colonies  had  been  at  was  fruitless.  A  congress  of 
governors  and  delegates  from  the  assemblies  met 
late  in  the  year  at  Rhode  Island,  who  recommended 
the  sending  home  agents  to  assist  Colonel  Nichol- 
son in  representing  the  state  of  the  country,  and 
soliciting  an  expedition  against  Canada  the  next 
spring.  The  ministry  at  first  seemed  to  listen  to 
this  proposal,  but  afterward  (1710)  changed  their 
minds,  and  resolved  only  on  the  reduction  of  Port 
Royal.  For  this  purpose  Nicholson  came  over  in 
July  with  five  frigates  and  a  bomb  ketch ;  the  colo- 
nies then  had  to  raise  their  quotas ;  the  New  Hamp- 
shire assembly  ordered  100  men,  who  were  get 
ready  as  soon  as  possible,  and  put  under  the  com- 
mand of  Colonel  Shadrach  Walton.  The  whole 
armament  sailed  from  Boston  the  18th  of  September, 
and  on  the  24th  arrived  at  the  place.  The  force 
now  being  equal  to  its  reduction,  Subcrease,  the 
governor,  waited  only  the  compliment  of  a  few  shot 
and  shells  as  a  decent  pretence  for  a  surrender  ; 
which  was  completed  on  the  5th  of  October,  and 
Vetch  was  appointed  governor  of  the  place,  which 
in  honour  of  the  queen  was  called  Annapolis. 

While  this  expedition  was  in  hand,  and  before 
the  appointment  of  the  commanders,  New  Hamp- 
shire sustained  a  heavy  loss  in  the  death  of  Col. 
Winthrop  Hilton.  This  worthy  officer  being  con- 
cerned in  the  masting  business,  and  having  several 
large  trees  felled  about  fourteen  miles  from  home, 
went  out  with  a  party  to  peel  the  bark  that  the  wood 
might  not  be  injured  by  worms.  While  engaged 
in  this  business  they  were  ambushed  by  a  party  of 
Indians,  who  at  the  firtt  fire  killed  Hilton  \vith  two 


451 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA 


more,  and  took  two;  the  rest  being  terrified,  and 
their  guns  being  wet,  made  no  opposition  but  escaped. 
The  next  day  100  men  marched  in  pursuit,  but  dis- 
covered only  the  mangled  bodies  of  the  dead.  The 
enemy  in  their  barbarous  triumph  had  struck  their 
hatchets  into  the  colonel's  brains,  and  left  a  lance 
in  his  heart.  He  was  a  gentleman  "  of  good  tem- 
per, courage  and  conduct,  respected  and  lamented 
by  all  that  knew  him,"  and  was  buried  with  the 
honours  due  to  his  rank  and  character. 

Flushed  with  this  success,  they  insolently  appeared 
in  the  open  road  at  Exeter,  and  took  four  children 
who  were  at  their  play.  They  also  took  John  Wedg- 
wood, and  killed  John  Magoon  near  his  brother's 
barn,  a  place  which  for  three  days  he  had  visited 
with  a  melancholy  apprehension  arising  from  a  dream 
that  he  should  there  be  murdered. 

The  s-ame  day  that  Hilton  was  killed,  a  company 
of  Indians  who  had  pretended  friendship,  and  the 
year  before  had  been  peaceably  conversant  with  the 
inhabitants  of  Kingston,  and  seemed  to  be  thirsting 
after  the  blood  of  the  enemy,  came  into  the  town, 
and  ambushing  the  road,  killed  Samuel  Wiuslow 
and  Samuel  Huntoon ;  they  also  took  Philip  Hun- 
toon  and  Jacob  Oilman,  and  carried  them  to  Canada, 
where,  after  some  time,  they  purchased  their  own 
redemption  by  building  a  saw-mill  for  the  governor 
after  the  English  mode, 

The  last  that  fell  this  snmmer  was  Jacob  Garland, 
who  was  killed  at  Cochecho  on  his  return  from  the 
public  worship.  As  the  winter  approached,  Colonel 
Walton  with  170  men  traversed  the  eastern  shores, 
which  the  Indians  usually  visited  at  this  season  for 
the  purpose  of  gathering  clams.  On  an  island  where 
the  party  was  encamped,  several  Indians,  decoyed 
by  their  smoke,  and  mistaking  them  for  some  of  their 
own  tribe,  came  among  them  and  were  made  pri- 
soners. One  of  them  was  a  sachem  of  Norridgwog, 
active,  bold,  and  sullen;  when  he  found  himself  in 
the  hands  of  enemies  he  would  answer  none  of  their 
questions,  and  laughed  with  scorn  at  their  threaten- 
ing him  with  death.  His  wife,  being  an  eye-witness 
of  the  execution  of  the  threatening,  was  so  intimi- 
dated as  to  make  the  discoveries  which  the  captors 
had  in  vain  desired  of  the  sachem ;  in  consequence 
of  which,  three  were  taken  at  the  place  of  which  she 
informed,  and  two  more  at  Saco  river,  where  also 
five  were  killed.  This  success,  inconsiderable  as  it 
may  appear,  kept  up  the  spirits  of  the  people,  and 
added  to  the  loss  of  the  enemy,  who  were  daily  di- 
minishing by  sickness  and  famine. 

(1711.)  In  the  spring  they  renewed  their  ravages 
on  the  frontiers  in  small  parties.  Thomas  Downs, 
John  Church,  and  three  more  were  killed  at  Coche- 
cho; and  on  a  sabbath-day  several  of  the  people 
there  fell  into  an  ambush  as  they  were  returning 
from  public  worship.  John  Horn  was  wounded,  and 
Humphrey  Foss  was  taken;  but  by  the  determined 
bravery  of  Lieutenant  Heard,  he  was  recovered  out 
of  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  Walton  with  two  com- 
panies marched  to  the  ponds  about  the  fishing  season, 
but  the  Indians  had  withdrawn,  and  nothing  was  to 
be  seen  but  their  deserted  wigwams. 

After  the  reduction  of  Port  Royal,  Nicholson  went 
to  England  to  solicit  an  expedition  against  Canada. 
The  tory  ministry  of  Queen  Anne,  to  the  surprise  of 
all  the  Whigs  in  England  and  America,  fell  in  with 
the  proposal;  and  on  the  8th  of  June,  Nicholson 
came  to  Boston  with  orders  for  the  northern  colonies 
to  get  ready  their  quotas  of  men  and  provision  by 
the  arrival  of  the  fleet  and  army  from  Europe,  which 
happened  within  sixteen  days,  and  while  the  several 


governors  were  holding  a  consultation  on  the  sub- 
ject of  their  orders.  A  compliance  with  them  in  so 
short  a  time  was  impossible,  yet  every  thing  that 
could  be  done  was  done ;  the  nature  of  the  service 
conspiring  with  the  wishes  of  the  people,  made  the 
governments  exert  themselves  to  the  utmost.  New 
Hampshire  raised  100  men,  which  was  more  than 
they  could  well  spare;  one  half  of  the  militia  being 
continually  employed  in  guarding  the  frontiers.  They 
also  voted  them  subsistence  for  126  days,  besides  pro- 
viding for  them  on  shore  before  their  embarkation. 
Two  transports  weretaken  up  at  8s.  per  month  per  ton, 
and  artillery  stores  were  issued  from  the  fort.  The 
colony  forces  formed  two  regiments,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Vetch  and  Walton.  The  army  which  cam-e 
from  England  were  seven  veteran  regiments  of  the 
Duke  of  Marlborough's  army,  and  a  battalion  of 
marines  under  the  command  of  Brigadier-General 
Hill,  which,  joined  with  the  New  England  troops, 
made  a  body  of  about  6,500  men,  provided  with  a 
fine  train  of  artillery.  The  fleet  consisted  of  fifteen 
ships  of  war  from  eighty  to  thirty-six  guns,  with 
forty  transports  and  six  storeships  under  the  com- 
mand of  Admiral  Walker.  A  force  fully  equal  to 
the  reduction  of  Quebec. 

The  fleet  sailed  from  Boston  on  the  30th  of  July; 
and  a  fast  was  ordered  by  Dudley  to  be  kept  on  the 
last  Thursday  of  that,  and  each  succeeding  month, 
till  the  enterprise  should  be  finished.  This  was  an 
imitation  of  the  conduct  of  the  long  parliament, 
during  the  civil  wars  in  the  previous  century.  But  the 
sanguine  hopes  of  success  which  had  been  enter- 
tained by  the  nation  and  the  colonies,  were  all 
blasted  in  one  fatal  night:  for,  the  fleet  having  ad- 
vanced ten  leagues  into  the  river  St.  Lawrence,  in 
the  night  of  the  23d  of  August,  the  weather  being 
thick  and  dark,  eight  transports  were  wrecked  on 
Egg  Island  near  the  north  shore,  and  1,000  people 
perished ;  of  whom  there  was  but  one  man  who  be- 
longed to  New  England.  The  next  day  the  fleet 
put  back,  and  were  eight  days  beating  down  the 
river  against  an  easterly  wind,  which  would  in  two 
days  have  carried  them  to  Quebec.  After  collecting 
together  at  Spanish  river  in  the  island  of  Cape  Bre- 
ton, and  holding  a  fruitless  consultation  about  annoy- 
ing the  French  at  Placentia,  the  expedition  was 
broken  up;  the  fleet  returned  to  England,  and  the 
New  England  troops  to  their  homes.  Loud  com- 
plaints and  heavy  charges  were  made  on  this  occa- 
sion ;  the  ignorance  of  the  pilots — the  obstinacy  of 
the  admiral — the  detention  of  the  fleet  at  Boston — 
its  late  arrival  there — the  want  of  seasonable  orders 
— aud  the  secret  intentions  of  the  ministry,  were  all 
subjects  of  bitter  altercation;  but  the  miscarriage 
was  never  regularly  enquired  into,  and  the  disasters 
of  the  voyage  were  finally  completed  by  the  blowing 
up  of  the  admiral's  ship,  with  most  of  his  papers, 
and  400  seamen,  at  Spithead. 

(1712.)  The  failure  of  this  expedition  encouraged 
the  Indians  to  harass  the  frontiers  as  soon  as  the 
season  would  permit.  In  April  one  Cunningham 
was  killed  at  Exeter,  Ensign  Tuttle  at  Dover,  and 
Jeremy  Crommet  at  Oyster  river;  on  one  of  the 
upper  branches  of  this  stream  the  enemy  burned  a 
saw-mill  with  a  large  quantity  of  boards.  A  scout- 
ing party  who  went  up  the  river  Merrimack,  had  the 
good  fortune  to  surprise  and  kill  eight  Indians,  and 
recover  a  considerable  quantity  of  plunder,  without 
the  loss  of  a  man.  The  frontiers  were  well  guarded; 
one  half  of  the  militia  did  duty  at  the  garrisons  and 
were  ready  to  march  at  a  minute's  warning;  a  scout 
of  forty  men  kept  ranging  on  the  heads  of  the  towns, 


UNITED  STATES. 


455 


and  the  like  care  was  taken  by  sea — spy-boats  being 
employed  in  coasting  from  Cape  Neddock  to  the 
Great  Boar's-head.  Notwithstanding  this  vigi- 
lance, small  parties  of  the  enemy  were  frequently 
seen.  Stephen  Gilman  and  Ebenezer  Stevens  were 
wounded  at  Kingston — the  former  was  taken  and 
put  to  death.  In  July  an  ambush  was  discovered 
at  Dover,  but  the  enemy  escaped;  and  while  a 

Sarty  was  gone  in  pursuit  of  them,  two  children  of 
ohn  Waldron  were  taken,  and  for  want  of  time  to 
scalp  them,  their  heads  were  cut  off.  There  being 
no  man  at  that  time  in  Heard's  garrison,  a  woman 
named  Esther  Jones  mounted  guard,  and  with  a 
commanding  voice  called  so  loudly  and  resolutely 
as  made  the  enemy  think  there  was  help  at  hand, 
and  prevented  farther  mischief. 

In  autumn  the  news  of  the  peace  of  Utrecht  ar- 
rived  in  America;  and  on  the  29th  of  October  the 
suspension  of  arms  was  proclaimed  at  Portsmouth. 
The  Indians,  being  informed  of  this  event,  came  in 
with  a  flag  of  truce  to  Captain  Moody  at  Casco, 
and  desired  a  treaty ;  which  the  governor,  with  the 
council  of  each  province  (1713),  held  at  Ports- 
mouth, where  the  chiefs  and  deputies  of  the  several 
belligerent  tribes,  by  a  formal  writing  under  hand 
and  seal,  acknowledged  their  perfidy,  promised 
fidelity,  renewed  their  allegiance,  submitted  to  the 
laws,  and  begged  the  queen's  pardon  for  their 
former  miscarriages.  The  frequent  repetition  of 
such  engagements,  and  as  frequent  violations  of 
them,  had  by  this  time  much  abated  the  sense  of 
obligation  on  the  one  part,  and  of  confidence  on  the 
other.  But  it  being  for  the  interest  of  both  parties 
to  be  at  peace,  the  event  was  peculiarly  welcome. 

To  preserve  the  dependence  of  the  Indians,  and  to 
prevent  all  occasions  of  complaint,  private  traffic  with 
them  was  forbidden,  and  truck  houses  established 
at  the  public  expense ;  and  the  next  summer  (1714), 
a  ship  was  fitted  out  by  both  provinces,  and  sent  to 
Quebec,  where  an  exchange  of  prisoners  was  effected. 

During  the  whole  of  this  long  war,  Usher  behaved 
as  a  faithful  servant  of  the  crown ;  frequently  coming 
into  the  province  by  Dudley's  direction,  and  some- 
times residing  in  it  several  months,  enquiring  into 
the  state  of  the  frontiers  and  garrisons,  visiting 
them  in  person,  consulting  with  the  officers  of  mili- 
tia about  the  proper  methods  of  defence  and  protec- 
tion, and  offering  his  service  on  all  occasions :  yet 
his  austere  and  ungracious  manners,  and  the  interest 
he  had  in  Allen's  claim,  effectually  prevented  him 
from  acquiring  that  popularity  which  he  seems  to 
have  deserved.  He  was  solicitous  to  support  the 
dignity  of  his  commission;  but  could  never  prevail 
with  the  assembly  to  settle  a  salary  upon  him.  The 
council  generally  paid  his  travelling  expenses  by  a 
draught  on  the  treasury,  which  never  amounted  to 
more  than  bl.  for  each  journey,  until  he  came  from 
Boston  to  proclaim  the  accession  of  King  George ; 
when  in  a  fit  of  loyalty  and  good  humour  they  gave 
him  10J.,  which  served  as  a  precedent  for  two  or 
three  other  grants.  He  often  complained,  and 
sometimes  in  harsh  and  reproachful  terms,  of  their 
neglect;  and  once  told  told  them  that  his  "Negro 
servants  were  much  better  accommodated  in  his  house 
than  the  queen's  governor  was  in  the  queen's  fort." 

Dudley  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  more  popular. 
Beside  his  attention  to  the  general  interest  of  the 
province  and  his  care  for  its  defence,  he  had  the 
particular  merit  of  favouring  the  views  of  those 
who  were  most  strongly  opposed  to  Allen's  claim ; 
and  they  made  him  amends  by  promoting  in  the 
assembly  addresses  to  the  queen,  defending  his  cha- 


ractei  when  it  was  attacked,  and  praying  for  his 
continuance  in  office  when  petitions  were  presented 
for  his  removal.  One  of  these  addresses  was  in 
1706,  and  another  in  1707,  in  both  which  they  re- 
present him  as  a  "  prudent,  careful,  and  faithful 
governor,"  and  say  they  "  are  perfectly  satisfied 
with  his  disposal  of  the  people,  and  their  arms  and 
the  public  money."  Addresses  to  the  crown  were 
very  frequent  during  this  female  reign.  Scarce  a 
year  passed  without  one  or  two  ;  they  either  con- 
gratulated her  majesty  on  her  victories  in  Europe, 
or  petitioned  for  arms  and  military  stores  for  their 
defence,  or  for  ships  and  troops  to  go  against  Ca- 
nada, or  represented  their  own  poverty  or  Dudley's 
merits,  or  thanked  her  majesty  for  her  care  and 
protection,  and  for  interposing  in  the  affair  of  Allen's 
suit  and  not  suffering  it  to  be  decided  against  them. 
A  good  harmony  subsisted  between  the  governor 
and  people,  and  between  the  two  branches  of  the 
legislature,  during  the  whole  of  this  administration. 

On  the  accession  of  King  George  (1715),  a  change 
was  expected  in  the  government,  and  the  assembly 
did  what  they  could  to  prevent  it  by  petitioning  the 
king  for  Dudley's  continuance.  But  it  being  now 
a  time  of  peace,  and  a  number  of  valuable  officers 
who  had  served  with  reputation  in  the  late  wars, 
being  out  of  employ;  interest  was  made  for  their 
obtaining  places  of  profit  under  the  crown.  Colonel 
Eliseus  Burges  who  had  served  under  General 
Stanhope  was,  by  his  recommendation,  commissionsd 
governor  of  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire ; 
and  by  the  same  interest  George  Vaughan,  Esq., 
then  in  London,  was  made  lieutenant-governor  of 
the  latter  province;  he  arrived  and  published 
his  commission  on  the  thirteenth  of  October. 
Usher  had  some  scruples  about  the  validity  of  it,  as 
he  had  formerly  had  of  Partridge's,  and  wrote  on 
the  subject  to  the  assembly,  who  assured  him  that, 
on  inspection,  they  had  found  Vaughan's  commission 
"  strong  and  authentic  ;"  and  that  his  own  was 
"  null  and  void."  Upon  his  dismission  from  office 
he  retired  to  his  elegant  seat  at  Medford,  where  he 
spent  the  rest  of  his  days,  and  died  on  the  5th  of 
September,  1726,  in  the  78th  year  of  his  age. 

Burges  wrote  a  letter  to  the  assembly  in  July,  in 
which  he  informed  them  of  his  appointment,  and  of 
his  intention  to  sail  for  America  in  the  following 
month.  But  Sir  William  Ashurst,  with  Jeremy 
Dumraer  the  Massachusetts  agent,  and  Jonathan 
Belcher,  then  in  London,  apprehending  that  he 
would  not  be  an  acceptable  person  to  the  people 
of  New-England,  prevailed  with  him  for  the  con- 
sideration of  IOOOJ.  sterling,  which  Dummer  and 
Belcher  generously  advanced,  to  resign  his  com- 
mission ;  and  Colonel  Samuel  Shute  was  appointed 
in  his  stead  to  the  command  of  both  provinces.  He 
arrived  in  New  Hampshire  and  his  commission  was 
published  the  17th  of  October,  1716.  Dudley  being 
thus  superseded,  retired  to  his  family-seat  at  Rox- 
bury,  where  he  died  in  1720,  in  the  73rd  year  of 
his  age. 

The  administration  of  Governor  Shute,  and  his  Lieu- 
tenants,  Vaughan  and  Wentworth. 

(1715.)  George  Vaughan,  Esq.  was  the  son  of 
Major  William  Vaughan,  who  had  been  so  ill  used 
by  former  governors,  and  had  suffered  so  much  in 
the  cause  of  his  country,  that  the  advancement  of 
his  son  to  the  office  of  lieutenant-governor  was  es- 
teemed a  mark  of  particular  favour  from  the  crown 
to  the  province,  and  a  singular  gratification  to  the 
parent,  then  in  the  decline  of  life.  The  lieutenant- 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


governor  had  been  employed  by  the  province,  as 
their  agent  in  England,  to  manage  their  defence 
against  Allen.  There  he  was  taken  notice  of,  by 
some  persons  of  quality  and  influence,  with  whom 
his  father  had  been  connected ;  and  by  them  he  was 
recommended  as  a  candidate  for  the  honour  to  which 
he  was  now  advanced. 

After  he  had  arrived,  and  opened  his  commission, 
Dudley,  though  not  actually  superseded,  yet  daily 
expecting  Burges  to  succeed  him,  did  not  think  it 
proper  to  come  into  the  province,  or  perform  any 
acts  of  government ;  so  that,  during  a  year,  Vaughan 
had  the  sole  command.  In  this  time  he  called  an 
assembly,  who  granted  him  the  product  of  the  im- 
post and  excise  for  one  year,  but  refused  to  esta- 
blish these  duties  for  any  longer  tin;e;  upon  which 
(1716)  he  dissolved  them,  and  called  another;  to 
whom  he  recommended,  in  a  style  too  peremptory, 
the  establishment  of  a  perpetual  revenue  to  the 
crown ;  a  matter  in  which  he  had  been  so  much  en- 
gaged, that  while  in  England,  "  he  presented  a 
memorial  to  the  king  and  ministry,  to  bring  New 
England  into  the  land  tax  of  Great  Britain ;  and 
proposed  that  a  receiver  should  be  appointed  by  the 
crown."  The  assembly  was  of  opinion,  that  the 
public  charges  might  be  defrayed  in  the  usual  man- 
ner, by  an  equal  tax  on  polls  and  estates ;  and  de- 
clined laying  an  impost,  or  entering  on  any  but 
the  common  business  of  the  year,  till  the  arrival  of 
a  governor. 

When  Governor  Shute  came  to  the  chair,  several 
of  the  old  counsellors  were  laid  aside,  and  six  new 
ones  appointed,  all  of  whom  were  inhabitants  of 
Portsmouth.  That  town,  at  the  same  time,  was  un- 
happily agitated  by  a  controversy,  which  had  for 
some  years  subsisted  between  the  two  parishes.  This 
had  not  only  imbittsred  the  minds  of  the  people,  but 
had  prejudiced  some  of  the  members  of  the  council 
and  assembly,  so  as  to  affect  the  proceedings  of  the 
legislature,  and  break  the  harmony  which  had  been 
preserved  in  that  body  during  the  preceding  admi- 
nistration. (1717.)  The  governor,  in  his  first  speech  to 
the  assembly,  took  notice  of  their  division,  and  advised 
them  to  unanimity.  They  thanked  him  for  his  ad- 
vice, but  remonstrated  against  the  removal  of  the 
old  counsellors,  and  the  confining  of  the  new  ap- 
pointments, both  in  the  council  and  the  judicial 
courts,  to  residents  in  one  town,  as  being  contrary 
to  former  usage,  and  giving  an  advantage  to  the 
trading  above  the  landed  interest.  This,  they  said, 
was  the  reason  that  an  impost  could  not  now  be  ob- 
tained, and  that  the  whole  burden  of  taxes  was  laid 
on  the  husbandman  and  the  labourer,  who  had  been 
greatly  impoverished  by  the  late  war.  The  governor 
wisely  avoided  an  answer  to  this  remonstrance,  by 
putting  it  on  the  council,  who  were  a  party  in  the 
controversy.  The  council,  in  their  answer,  acknow- 
ledged that  the  province  had  been  much  distressed  by 
the  war,  but  had  in  a  great  measure  recovered ;  that 
there  would  have  been  no  opposition  to  an  impost, 
if  the  representatives  had  agreed  to  an  act  of  export, 
according  to  the  practice  in  England;  that  the  king 
had  a  right  to  appoint  his  counsellors  from  any  part 
of  the  province ;  that  it  was  an  affront  to  the  pre- 
rogative to  find  fault  with  the  exercise  of  this  light; 
and  that  it  was  most  convenient  for  the  affairs  o 
government,  especially  upon  sudden  emergencies 
that  the  council  should  reside  near  the  seat  of  go 
vernment.  This  answer  might  have  appeared  de 
cent  enough  if  they  had  not  added,  that  they  were 
"  gentlemen  of  the  best  quality,  and  greatec-t  ability 
to  serve  the  government,  in  that  station;  and  hai 


.s  good  or  better  estates  in  land,  and  land  securities, 
han  any  in  the  house,  and  not  inferior  to  the  gen- 
lemen  who  were  laid  aside." 

While  these  altercations  were   in  hand  there  was 
i  great  complaint  of  the  scarcity  of  money,  and  some 
xpedient  was  judged  necessary  to  supply  tbo  place 
>f  current  coin.     A  proposal  was  made  to  issue  ten 
housand  pounds  in  bills,    on  loan,   for  twenty-throe 
fears,  at  five   per  cent,  on  land  security.     In  this 
oth  houses  agreed;  but  the  next  day   the   council 
roposed  to  enlarge  the  sum  to  15000/.,  to  which  the 
louse  would  not   consent.     The  governor  then  or- 
dered the  house  to  attend  a  conference   with  the 
council;  they  desired  to  know  on  what  subject;   he 
gave  them  no  answer,  but  commanded  their  attcnd- 
ince.     Having  conferred  about  the  proposed  loan  to 
no   purpose,  the  circumstance  of  asking  on   what 
ubject  they  were  to  confer  was  deemed  an  affront, 
and  served  as  a  pretext  for  dissolving  them.     The 
Text  assembly  was  more  pliant,  and  issued  15,000/. 
in  loan,  for  eleven  years,  at  ten  per  cent. 

A  controversy  also  arose  between  the  governor 
md  lieut.-governor  about  the  power  of  the  latter,  in 
he  absence  of  the  former.  Vaughan  contended, 
hat  when  the  governor  was  present  in  his  other  pro- 
rince,  he  was  absent  from  New  Hampshire,  and 
consequently  that  the  administration  devolved  on 
iim.  The  position  was  a  metaphysical  truth,  but 
:he  inference  was  to  be  measured  by  political  rules. 
Shute  alleged  that  his  commissions  being  published 
and  recorded  in  New  Hampshire  and  Massachusetts, 
le  had  the  power  of  commander  in  chief  over  both 
provinces,  during  his  residence  in  either  ;  and  thought 
.t  an  absurdity  to  suppose,  that  the  king  had  ap- 
pointed the  governor  commander  in  chief,  for  five  or 
six  weeks  only  in  the  year,  and  the  lieutenant-go- 
vernor during  the  rest  of  the  time;  and  that  if  the 
ieut. -governor  should  happen,  in  that  time,  to  step 
>ver  the  province  line,  the  senior  counsel  must  take 
the  chair ;  this  he  said  would  make  the  province 
"  a  monster  with  three  heads."  The  controversy 
was  soon  brought  to  an  issue  ;  for  Vaughan  received 
an  order  from  Shute,  while  at  Boston,  to  appoint  a 
fast,  which  he  did  not  obey ;  he  received  another  to 
prorogue  the  assembly,  instead  of  which  he  dissolved 
them,  without  the  advice  of  council.  He  required 
the  opinion  of  the  council  on  the  extent  of  his  power, 
but  they  declined  giving  it.  Penhallow,  the  gover- 
nor's chief  friend,  was  a  warm  opposer  of  Vaughan's 
pretensions,  and  incurred  so  much  of  his  displeasure, 
that  he  publicly  charged  him  with  sowing  discord  in 
the  government,  and  suspended  him  from  his  seat  in 
council.  On  hearing  this,  Shute  hasted  to  Ports- 
mouth, and  having  summoned  the  council,  ordered 
the  king's  instruction  to  him  for  suspending  coun- 
sellors to  be  read,  and  demanded  of  Vaughan  whe- 
ther he  had  any  instruction  which  superseded  it. 
He  answered,  no.  The  governor  then  asked  the 
council's  advice  whether  the  suspension  of  Penal- 
low  was  legal ;  they  answered  in  the  negative,  lie 
then  restored  him  to  his  seat,  and  suspended  Vaughan. 
The  assembly,  which  Vaughan  had  assumed  the 
right  to  dissolve,  met  again,  and  approved  the  pro- 
ceedings against  him,  justifying  the  construction 
which  the  governor  had  put  on  his  commission,  and 
his  opinion  of  the  lieut.-governor's  power;  which 
was  "  to  observe  such  orders  as  he  should  from  time 
to  time  receive  from  the  king  or  the  governor  in 
chief."  The  representatives  of  Hampton  presented 
a  remonstrance,  in  which,  admitting  the  lieut.- 
governor's  opinion  that  "  when  the  governor  is  out 
of  tho  province-,  ii*e  lieut. -governor  is  empowered  to 


UNITED  STATES. 


157 


execute  the  king's  commission,"  and  asserting  that 
the  governor  was  not  in  the  province  when  the 
lieut.-governor  dissolved  the  assembly,  they  declared 
that  they  could  not  act  with  the  house,  unless  they 
were  re-elected.  This  remonstrance  was  deemed  a 
libel,  and  the  governor  in  council  having  summoned 
them  before  hinr>,  laid  them  under  bonds  of  400/. 
each,  for  their  good  behaviour.  Ho  then  issued  a 
proclamation,  asserting  his  sole  power,  as  com- 
mander in  chief;  and  declaring  that  the  lieut.- 
governor  had  no  right  to  exercise  any  acts  of  go- 
vernment without  his  special  order. 

To  maintain  a  controversy  with  a  superior  officer 
on  the  extent  of  power,  equally  claimed  by  both, 
requires  a  delicacy  and  address  which  does  not  fall 
to  the  lot  of  every  man.  An  aspiring  and  precipi- 
tate temper  may  bring  on  such  a  contention,  but 
disqualifies  the  person  from  managing  it  with  pro- 
priety. Had  Vaughan  proposed  to  submit  the 
question  to  the  king,  he  would  have  acted  more  in 
character,  and  might  have  preserved  his  reputation, 
though  he  had  lost  his  power ;  but  having  offended 
the  governor  and  disgusted  the  council  and  assem- 
bly, he  could  hope  for  no  favour  from  the  crown. 
When  the  report  of  the  proceedings  was  sent  to 
England,  Sir  William  Ashurst,  who  had  great 
interest  at  court  and  was  a  friend  to  New  Eng- 
land, and  who  greatly  disrelished  the  memorial 
which  Vaughan  had  formerly  presented  to  the  king, 
easily  found  means  to  displace  him  ;  and  in  his  room 
was  appointed  John  Wentworth,  Esq.,  whose  com- 
mission was  published  on  the  7th  of  December. 
The  celebrated  Mr.  Addison  being  then  secretary 
of  state,  'this  commission  is  countersigned  by  a 
name  particularly  dear  to  the  friends  of  liberty  and 
literature. 

John  Wentworth,  Esq.,  grandson  of  William 
Wentworth,  formerly  mentioned  as  one  of  the  first 
settlers  of  the  country,  had  been  in  the  early  part 
of  his  life  commander  of  a  ship,  and  had  acquired  a 
handsome  fortune  by  mercantile  industry.  With- 
out any  superior  abilities  or  learning,  by  a  steady 
attention  to  business,  and  a  prudent,  obliging  de- 
portment, he  had  recommended  himself  to  the 
esteem  of  the  people.  Having  been  five  years  in 
the  council  before  his  appointment  as  lieut.-governor, 
he  had  carried  the  same  useful  qualities  into  public 
life,  and  preserved  or  increased  that  respect  which 
he  had  acquired  in  a  private  station.  The  rancour 
of  contending  parties  made  moderation  a  necessary 
character  in  a  chief  magistrate;  and  the  circum- 
stances of  the  province,  at  that  time,  required  a 
person  of  experience  in  trade  at  its  head. 

It  being  a  time  of  peace,  after  a  long  and  dis- 
tressing war,  the  improvement  of  which  the  province 
was  capable,  in  regard  to  its  natural  productions, 
lumber  and  naval  stoies,  rose  into  view  and  became 
objects  of  close  attention,  both  here  and  in  England. 
As  early  as  1668,  the  government  of  Massachusetts, 
under  which  the  province  then  was,  had  reserved  for 
the  public  use  all  white  pine  trees  of  twenty-four 
inches  in  diameter,  at  three  feet  from  the  ground. 
In  King  William's  reign,  a  surveyor  of  the  woods 
was  appointed  by  the  crown  ;  and  an  order  was  sent 
to  the  Earl  of  Bellamont,  to  cause  acts  to  be  passed 
in  his  several  governments  for  the  preservation  of 
the  white  pines.  In  1708  a  law  made  in  New 
Hampshire  prohibited  the  cutting  of  such  as  were 
twenty-four  inches  in  diameter,  at  twelve  inches 
from  the  ground,  without  leave  of  the  surveyor,  who 
was  instructed  by  the  queen  to  mark  with  the  broad 
arrow  (hose  which  were,  or  might  be,  fit  for  the  use 


of  the  navy,  and  to  keep  a  register  of  them.  What- 
ever severity  might  be  used  in  executing  the  law,  it 
was  no  difficult  matter  for  those  who  knew  the 
woods  and  were  concerned  in  lumber  to  evade  it ; 
though  sometimes  they  were  detected  and  fined. 
Great  complaints  were  frequently  made  of  the  de- 
struction of  the  royal  woods ;  every  governor  and 
lieut.-governor  had  occasion  to  declaim  on  the  sub- 
ject in  their  speeches  and  letters  ;  it  was  a  favourite 
point  in  England,  and  recommended  them  to  their 
superiors  as  careful  guardians  of  the  royal  interest. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  people  made  as  loud  com- 
plaints against  the  surveyor,  for  prohibiting  the 
cutting  of  pine  trees,  and  yet  neglecting  to  mark 
such  as  were  fit  for  masts ;  by  which  means,  many 
trees  which  never  could  be  used  as  masts,  and  might 
be  cut  into  logs  for  sawing,  were  rotting  in  the 
woods  ;  or  the  people  who  got  them  were  exposed  to 
a  vexatious  prosecution.  When  no  surveyor  was 
on  the  spot,  the  governor  and  council  appointed 
suitable  persons  to  take  care  that  no  waste  should 
be  made  of  the  mast  trees  ;  and  these  officers,  with 
a  very  moderate  allowance,  performed  the  duty  to 
much  better  purpose  than  those  who  were  sent 
from  England  and  maintained  at  a  great  expense 
to  the  crown. 

(1718.)  As  those  trees  which  grew  within  the 
limits  of  the  townships  were  deemed  private  property, 
the  people  were  desirous  to  get  other  townships  laid 
out,  that  the  trees  might  be  secured  for  their  own 
use.  This  was  a  difficult  point.  The  assembly,  in  1704, 
during  the  controversy  with  Allen,  had  explicitly  dis- 
claimed all  title  to  the  waste  lands,  by  which  they 
understood  all  those  without  the  bounds  of  their  towns. 
The  heirs  of  Allen  kept  a  jealous  eye  upon  them. 
Usher,  who  claimed  by  mortgage  from  Governor 
Allen,  was  still  living,  and  was  daily  inviting  pur- 
chasers by  advertisements.  The  heir  of  Sir  Charles 
Hobby,  whose  claim  was  founded  on  purchase  from 
Thomas  Allen,  had  offered  his  title  to  the  assembly, 
but  they  had  refused  it.  The  creditors  of  Hobby's 
estate  had  applied  for  letters  of  administration ;  and 
though  the  matter  had  been  by  the  judge  of  probate 
submitted  to  the  general  court,  and  by  their  advice 
suspended,  yet  the  letters  had  been  granted.  Allen's 
other  heirs  were  in  a  state  of  minority  in  England ; 
but  their  guardian  was  attentive  to  their  interest. 
The  controversy  had  become  more  complex  than 
before  ;  and  the  claimants,  however  multiplied  in 
number  and  discordant  in  their  views,  yet  had  an 
interest  separate  from  that  of  the  public.  The 
royal  determination  could  not  be  had,  but  on  an  ap- 
peal from  a  verdict  at  law  ;  but  no  suits  were  now 
pending;  nor  coiild  the  lands  be  granted  by  royal 
charter,  without  seeming  to  intrench  on  the  property 
of  the  claimants.  Notwithstanding  these  difficulties, 
the  necessity  of  extending  the  settlements,  and  im- 
proving the  natural  advantages  of  the  country,  was 
too  apparent  to  be  neglected. 

(1719.)  Great  quantities  of  iron  ore  were  found  in 
many  places ;  and  it  was  in  contemplation  to  erect 
forges  on  some  of  the  rivers  and  to  introduce  foreign 
artists  and  labourers  to  refine  it.  A  law  was  made  lay- 
ing a  penalty  of  ten  pounds  per  ton  on  the  transporting 
of  it  out  of  the  province ;  but  for  the  further  en- 
couragement of  the  manufacture,  it  was  deemed 
necessary  that  some  lands  should  be  appropriated  to 
the  purpose  of  supplying  with  fuel  the  iron  works 
which  were  to  be  erected  on  Lamprey  river,  and  of 
settling  the  people  who  were  to  be  employed  in  that 
service.  On  this  occasion  it  was  recollected  that  in 
1672,  while  this  province  was  subject  to  the  Masta- 


458 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


chusetts  government,  and  after  the  town  of  Ports- 
mouth had  made  a  liberal  contribution  for  the  re- 
building of  Havard  College,  a  promise  had  been 
made  by  the  general  court  to  grant  to  that  town  a 
quantity  of  "  land  for  a  village,  when  they  should 
declare  to  thecQurtthe  place  where  they  desired  it." 
Upon  (his,  a  petition  was  presented  to  the  governor 
and  council  praying  for  a  fulfilment  of  this  promise  ; 
and  after  some  hesitation,  a  grant  was  made  of  a 
slip  of  land  two  miles  in  breadth  above  the  head 
line  of  Dover,  for  the  use  of  the  iron  works,  which 
was  called  the  "  renewing  a  grant  formerly  made." 
This  was  known  by  the  name  of  the  two-mile  slip, 
and  it  was  afterwards  included  in  the  township  of 
Harrington. 

In  some  parts  of  the  province  were  many  pitch- 
pine  trees,  unfit  for  masts,  but  capable  of  yielding 
tar  and  turpentine.  A  monopoly  of  this  manufac- 
ture had  been  attempted  by  a  company  of  merchants ; 
but  when  many  thousand  trees  were  prepared  for 
use,  they  were  destroyed  by  unknown  hands.  After- 
wards a  law  was  made  providing  that  tar  should  be 
received  in  lieu  of  taxes,  at  twenty  shillings  per 
barrel.  This  encouraged  the  making  of  it  for  some 
time.  Another  law  laid  a  penalty  on  the  injuring 
of  trees  for  drawing  turpentine.  Butprhate  inte- 
rest was  too  strong  to  be  counteracted  by  a  sense  of 
public  utility.  Too  many  incisions  being  made  in 
the  trees  at  once,  they  were  soon  destroyed;  and 
as  those  which  were  near  at  hand  became  scarce, 
the  manufacture  was  gradually  discontinued. 

Hemp  was  another  object.  Some  had  been  sown, 
and  from  the  specimen  of  its  growth,  much  advan- 
tage was  expected.  An  act  was  made  to  encourage 
it ;  and  it  was  allowed  to  be  received  at  the  treasury, 
in  lieu  of  money,  at  one  shilling  per  pound.  But 
as  there  was  scarcely  land  enough  in  cultivation  for 
the  production  of  corn,  it  was  vain  to  think  of  rais- 
ing a  less  necessary  commodity. 

The  parliament  of  England  was  attentive  to  the 
advantages  which  might  be  derived  to  the  nation  from 
the  colonies,  to  which  they  were  particularly  incited 
by  the  war  which  at  this  time  raged  between  Swe- 
den arid  Russia — the  grand  mart  for  ncival  stores  in 
Europe.  A  duty  which  had  been  paid  on  lumber 
imported  from  America,  was  taken  off ;  and  this  was 
esteemed  so  great  a  favour  to  New  Hampshire  that 
the  assembly  thanked  Shute  for  the  share  he  had  in 
obtaining  it.  About  the  same  time  an  act  of  par- 
liament was  made  for  the  preservation  of  the  wrhite 
pines.  Penalties,  in  proportion  to  the  size  of  the 
trees,  were  laid  on  the  cutting  of  those  which  grew 
without  the  bounds  of  townships  ;  and  for  the  greater 
terror,  these  penalties  were  to  be  recovered  by  the 
oath  of  one  witness,  in  a  court  of  admiralty ;  where 
a  single  judge,  appointed  by  the  crown,  and  remove- 
able  at  pleasure,  determined  the  cause  without  a  jury. 
While  this  bill  was  pending,  Henry  Newman,  the 
agent  for  New  Hampshire,  petitioned  against  the 
severity  of  it,  but  without  effect. 

Great  inconveniences  had  arisen  for  want  of  a  due 
settlement  of  the  limits  of  the  province.  The  people 
who  lived  near  the  supposed  line,  were  sometimes 
taxed  in  both  provinces,  and  were  liable  to  arrests 
by  the  officers  of  both  ;  and  sometimes  the  officers 
themselves  were  at  variance,  and  imprisoned  each 
other.  Several  attempts  had  been  made  to  remove 
the  difficulty,  and  letters  frequently  passed  between 
the  two  courts  on  the  subject,  in  consequence  of  pe- 
titions and  complaints  from  the  borderers.  In  1716 
commissioners  were  appointed  by  both  provinces,  to 
settle  the  line.  The  New  Hampshire  commissioners 


were  furnished  by  Lieut.-Governor  Vaughan,  with 
a  copy  of  the  report  of  the  lords  chief  justices  in 
1677,  and  were  instructed  "  to  follow  the  course  of 
the  river  Merrimack,  at  the  distance  of  three  miles 
north  as  far  as  the  river  extends."  The  commis- 
sioners on  the  other  side  corn  plained  that  this  power 
was  not  sufficient.  If  by  sufficient  it  was  meant  that 
they  had  no  power  to  vary  from  their  instructions, 
the  objection  was  true,  but  why  this  should  have 
been  objected  it  is  not  so  easy  to  account,  since  the 
instructions  would  have  given  Massachusetts  all  which 
they  could  claim  by  virtue  of  their  old  charter ;  or 
the  judgment  upon  it,  on  which  they  always  laid 
much  stress.  Three  years  afterward  the  affair  was 
agitated  again,  in  obedience  to  an  order  from  the 
lords  of  trade ;  who  directed  a  map  to  be  drawn  and 
sent  to  them,  in  which  the  boundaries  of  the  pro- 
vince should  be  deliueated,  and  the  best  accounts 
and  vouchers  procured  to  elucidate  it.  Commis- 
sioners were  again  appointed  to  meet  at  Newbury  ; 
and  those  from  New  Hampshire  were  instructed  by 
Lieutenaut-Governor  Wentworth  to  confer  with  the 
others ;  and  if  they  could  agree  in  fixing  the  place 
where  to  begin  the  line,  they  were  to  report  accord- 
ingly :  but  if  not,  they  were  to  proceed  ex  parte, — 
"  setting  their  compass  on  the  north  side  of  the  mouth 
of  Merrimack  river  at  high  water  mark,  and  from 
thence  measuring  three  miles  on  a  north  line,  and 
from  the  end  of  the  first  three  miles  on  a  west  line 
into  the  country,  till  they  should  meet  the  great 
river  which  runs  out  of  Winipisiogee  pond."  To 
this  idea  of  a  west  line  the  Massachusetts  commis- 
sioners objected;  and  desired  that  the  commission 
of  the  governor  of  New  Hampshire  might  be  sent  to 
Newbury,  which  was  refused,  and  the  conference 
ended  without  any  agreement.  However,  a  plan 
was  drawn  agreeably  to  these  instructions,  and  sent 
to  the  lords  of  trade ;  and  Newman,  the  agent,  was 
instructed  to  solicit  for  a  confirmation  of  it.  In 
these  instructions,  the  ideas  of  the  gentlemen  in 
government  are  more  fully  expressed.  The  due  west 
line  on  the  southern  side  of  the  province,  they  sup- 
posed, ought  to  extend  as  far  as  Massachusetts  ex- 
tended. The  line  on  the  northerly  side  adjoining 
to  the  province  of  Maine,  they  supposed  ought  to 
be  drawn  up  the  middle  of  the  river  Pascataqua,  as 
far  as  the  tide  flows  in  the  Newichwannock  branch; 
and  thence  northwestward,  but  whether  two  or  more 
points  westward  of  north,  was  left  for  further  con- 
sideration. 

While  these  things  were  in  agitation,  the  pro- 
vince unexpectedly  received  an  accession  of  inhabit* 
ants  from  the  north  of  Ireland.  A  colony  of  Scots 
pvcsbyterians  had  been  settled  in  the  Province  of 
Ulster,  in  the  reign  of  James  I.;  they  had  borne  a 
large  share  in  the  sufferings  which  the  protestants 
in  that  unhappy  country  underwent,  in  the  reign 
of  Charles  I.  and  James  II. ;  and  had  thereby  con- 
ceived an  ardent  and  inextinguishable  thirst  for 
civil  and  religious  liberty.  Notwithstanding  the 
peace  which  Ireland  had  enjoyed,  since  the  sub- 
jection of  the  Popish  party  by  King  William,  som« 
penal  laws  were  still  in  force,  which,  with  the  incon- 
venience of  rents  and  tithes,  made  these  people  wish 
for  a  settlement  in  America ;  where  they  might  be 
free  from  these  burthens  and  have  full  scope  for 
their  industry.  One  Holmes,  a  youug  man,  son  of 
a  clergyman,  had  been  here  and  carried  home  a 
favourable  report  of  the  country,  which  induced 
his  father,  with  three  other  presb'yterian  ministers, 
James  Macgregore,  William  Cornwall,  and  William 
Boyd,  and  a  large  number  of  their  congregations,  to 


UNITED  STATES. 


459 


resolve  on  an  emigration.  Having  converted  their 
substance  into  money,  they  embarked  in  five  ships, 
and  on  the  14th  of  October,  1718,  about  100  families 
of  them  arrived  at  Boston.  Cornwell,  with  about 
twenty  families  more,  arrived  at  Casco.  They  im- 
mediately petitioned  the  Assembly  of  Massachusetts 
for  a  tract  of  land ;  who  gave  them  leave  to  look 
out  a  settlement  of  six  miles  square,  in  any  of  the 
unappropriated  lands  at  the  eastward.  After  a 
fruitless  search  along  the  shore,  finding  no  place 
that  suited  them  there,  sixteen  families,  hearing  of 
a  tract  of  good  land,  above  Haverhill,  called  Nut- 
field  (from  the  great  number  of  chesnut  and  walnut- 
trees  there),  and  being  informed  that  it  was  not 
appropriated,  determined  there  to  take  up  their 
grant ;  the  others  dispersed  themselves  into  various 
parts  of  the  country. 

As  soon  as  the  spring  opened,  the  men  went  from 
Haverhill,  where  they  left  their  families,  and  built 
some  huts  near  a  brook  which  falls  into  Beaver 
River,  and  which  they  named  West-running  brook. 
The  first  evening  after  their  arrival,  a  sermon  was 
preached  to  them  under  a  large  oak,  which  is  to 
this  day  regarded  with  a  degree  of  veneration.  As 
soon  as  they  could  collect  their  families,  they  called 
Macgregore  to  be  their  minister,  who,  since  his 
arrival  in  the  country,  had  preached  at  Dracut. 
At  the  first  sacramental  occasion  were  present,  two 
ministers  and  65  communicants.  Macgregore  con- 
tinued with  them  till  his  death  ;  and  his  memory  is 
still  green  among  them:  he  was  a  wise,  affec- 
tionate, and  faithful  guide,  both  in  civil  and  re- 
ligious concerns.  These  people  brought  with  them 
the  necessary  materials  for  the  manufacture  of 
linen  ;  and  their  spinning  wheels,  turned  by  the 
foot,  were  a  novelty  in  the  country.  They  also  in- 
troduced the  culture  of  potatoes,  which  were  first 
planted  in  the  garden  of  Nathaniel  Walker,  of 
Andover.  They  were  an  industrious,  frugal,  and 
consequently  thriving  people. 

They  met  with  some  difficulty  in  obtaining  a  title 
to  their  lands.  If  the  due  west  line  between  the 
provinces  had  been  established,  it  would  have  passed 
through  their  settlement  and  divided  it  between 
Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire  ;  but  the  curve 
line,  following  the  course  of  Merrimack  at  three 
miles  distance,  would  leave  them  unquestionably  in 
New  Hampshire.  This  was  the  idea  of  the  General 
Court  of  Massachusetts,  who,  upon  application  to 
them  for  a  confirmation  of  their  former  grant,  de- 
clared them  to  be  out  of  their  jurisdiction.  Among 
the  many  claimants  to  these  lands,  they  were  in- 
formed that  Colonel  Whelewright,  of  Wells,  had 
the  best  Indian  title,  derived  from  his  ancestors. 
Supposing  this  to  be  valid  in  a  moral  view,  they 
followed  the  example  of  the  first  settlers  of  New 
England,  and  obtained  a  deed  of  ten  miles  square, 
in  virtue  of  the  general  license  granted  by  the 
Indian  Sagamores  in  1629.  To  prevent  difficulty 
from  Allen's  claim,  they  applied  for  leave  of  settle- 
ment to  Colonel  Usher,  who  told  them  that  the  land 
was  in  dispute,  and  that  he  could  not  give  them 
leave,  but  that  he  supposed  they  might  settle  on  it, 
if  they  would  hold  it  either  of  the  king  or  of  Allen's 
heirs,  as  the  case  might  be  determined.  They  also 
applied  to  the  Lieutenant  Governor  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, who  declined  making  them  a  grant  in  the 
king's  name  ;  but,  by  advice  of  council,  gave  them 
a  protection,  and  extended  the  benefit  of  the  law  to 
them ;  appointing  James  M'Kean  to  be  a  justice  of 
the  peace,  and  Robert  Wier  a  deputy-sheriff. 

(1720.)  Some  persons  who   claimed  these  lands, 


by  virtue  of  a  deed  of  about  twenty  years  date,  from 
John,  an  Indian  Sagamore,  gave  them  some  dis- 
turbance ;  but,  having  obtained  what  they  judged  a 
superior  title,  and  enjoying  the  protection  of  govern- 
ment, they  went  on  with  their  plantation  ;  receiving 
frequent  additions  of  their  countrymen,  as  well  as 
others,  till  in  1722,  their  town  was  incorporated  by 
the  name  of  Londonderry,  from  a  city  in  the  north 
of  Ireland,  in  and  near  to  which  most  of  them  had 
resided ;  and  in  which  some  of  them  had  endured 
the  hardships  of  a  memorable  siege.  John  Barr, 
William  Caldwell,  and  Abraham  Blair,  with  several 
others  who  had  suffered  in  this  siege,  and  formerly 
came  to  America,  were  by  King  William's  special 
order  made  free  of  taxes  through  all  the  British 
dominions. 

The  settlement  of  these  emigrants  on  the  waste 
lands  opened  the  way  for  other  plantations.  Those 
who  had  borne  the  burthens  and  distresses  of  war, 
in  defending  the  country,  had  long  been  circum» 
scribed  within  the  limits  of  the  old  towns,  but  were 
now  multiplied,  and  required  room  to  make  settle- 
ments for  their  children.  They  thought  it  hard 
to  be  excluded  from  the  privilege  of  cultivating  the 
lands,  which  they  and  their  fathers  had  defended; 
while  strangers  were  admitted  to  sit  down  peaceably 
upon  them.  These  were  weighty  reasons.  At  the 
same  time  no  attempt  was  making  by  any  of  the 
claimants  to  determine  the  long-contested  point  of 
property ;  and,  in  fact,  no  person  could  give  a  clear 
and  undisputed  title  to  any  of  the  unsettled  lands. 

In  these  circumstances  a  company  of  about  one 
hundred  persons,  inhabitants  of  Portsmouth,  Exeter 
and  Haverhill,  petitioned  for  liberty  to  begin  a 
plantation  on  the  northerly  part  of  the  lands  called 
Nutfield.  (1721.)  These  were  soon  followed  by 
petitioners  from  the  other  towns,  for  the  lands  which 
lay  contiguous  to  them.  The  governor  and  council 
kept  the  petitions  suspended  for  a  long  time,  giving 
public  notice  to  all  persons  concerned  to  make  their 
objections.  In  this  time  the  lands  were  surveyed, 
and  the  limits  of  four  proposed  townships  deter- 
mined ;  and  the  people  were  permitted  to  build  and 
plant  upon  the  lands,  "  provided  that  they  did  not 
infringe  on,  or  interfere  with,  any  former  grants, 
possessions,  or  properties."  Some  of  these  lands 
were  well  stocked  with  pine  trees,  which  were  felled 
in  great  abundance ;  this  occasioned  a  fresh  com- 
plaint from  the  King's  surveyor. 

(1722.)  At  length,  charters  being  prepared,  were 
signed  by  the  governor;  by  which  four  townships, 
Chester,  Nottingham,  Barrington,  and  Rochester, 
were  granted  and  incorporated.  The  grants  were 
made  in  the  name  of  the  king,  who  was  considered 
as  the  common  guardian,  both  of  the  people  and  the 
claimants ;  but  with  a  clause  of  reservation,  "  as  far 
as  in  us  lies,"  that  there  might  be  no  infringement 
on  the  claims. 

The  signing  of  these  grants  was  the  last  act  of  go- 
vernment performed  by  Shute  in  New  Hampshire. 
A  violent  party  in  Massachusetts  had  made  such 
strenuous  opposition  to  him,  and  caused  him  so 
much  vexation,  as  rendered  it  eligible  for  him  to 
ask  leave  to  return  to  England.  He  is  said  to  have 
been  a  man  of  a  humane,  obliging,  and  friendly  dis- 
position; but  having  been  used  to  military  com- 
mand, could  not  bear  with  patience  the  collision  of 
parties,  nor  keep  his  temper  when  provoked.  Fond 
3f  ease,  and  now  in  the  decline  of  life,  he  would 
gladly  have  spent  his  days  in  America  if  he  could 
lave  avoided  controversy.  The  people  of  New 
Hampshire  were  satisfied  with  his  administration,  as 


460 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


far  as  it  respected  them;  and  though  they  did  not 
settle  a  salary  on  him  as  on  his  predecessor,  yet 
they  made  him  a  grant  twice  in  the  year,  generally 
amounting  to  a  hundred  pounds,  and  paid  it  out  of 
the  excise,  which  was  voted  from  year  to  year.  This 
was  more,  in  proportion,  than  he  received  from  his 
other  government.  On  his  departure  for  England, 
(1723),  which  was  very  sudden  and  unexpected, 
Lieut.-Governor  Wentworth  took  the  chief  com 
mand,  in  a  time  of  distress  and  perplexity ;  the 
country  being  then  involved  in  another  war  with 
the  natives. 

The  fourth  Indian  war,  commonly  called   the   three 
years'  war,  or  LoveweWs  war. 

To  account  for  the  frequent  wars  with  the  eastern 
Indians,  usually  called  by  the  French  the  Abenaquis, 
and  their  unsteadiness,  both  in  war  and  peace — we 
must  observe,  that  they  were  situated  between  the 
colonies  of  two  European  nations,  who  were  often  at 
war  with  each  other,  and  who  pursued  very  different 
measures  with  regard  to  them. 

As  the  lands,  on  which  they  lived,  were  compre- 
hended in  the  patents  granted  by  the  crown  of  Eng- 
land, the  natives  were  considered  by  the  English  as 
subjects  of  that  crown.  In  the  treaties  and  con- 
ferences held  with  them,  they  were  styled  the  king's 
subjects ;  when  war  was  declared  against  them,  they 
were  called  rebels ;  and  when  they  were  compelled 
to  make  peace,  they  subscribed  an  acknowledgment 
of  their  perfidy,  and  a  declaration  of  their  submis- 
sion to  the  government,  without  any  just  ideas  of 
the  meaning  of  those  terms ;  and  it  is  a  difficult 
point,  to  determine  what  kind  of  subjects  they  were. 

Beside  the  patents  derived  from  the  crown,  the 
English  in  general  were  fond  of  obtaining  from  the 
Indians  deeds  of  sale  for  those  lands  on  which 
they  were  disposed  to  make  settlements.  Some  of 
these  deeds  were  executed  with  legal  formality,  and 
a  valuable  consideration  was  paid  to  the  natives  for 
the  purchase;  and  others  were  of  obscure  and  un- 
certain origin ;  but  the  memory  of  such  transac- 
tions was  soon  lost,  among  a  people  who  had  no 
written  records.  Lands  had  been  purchased  of  the 
Indian  chiefs,  on  the  rivers  Kennebeck  and  St. 
George,  at  an  early  period;  but  the  succeeding  In- 
dians either  had  no  knowledge  of  the  sales  made  by 
their  ancestors,  or  had  an  idea  that  such  bargains 
were  not  binding  on  posterity ;  who  had  as  much 
need  of  the  lands,  and  could  use  them  to  the  same 
purpose  as  their  fathers.  At  first,  the  Indians  did 
not  know  that  the  European  manner  of  cultivating 
lands,  and  erecting  mills  and  dams,  would  drive 
away  the  game  and  fish,  and  thereby  deprive  them 
of  the  means  of  subsistence  ;  afterwards,  finding  by 
experience  that  this  was  the  consequence  of  admit- 
ting foreigners  to  settle  among  them,  they  repented 
of  their  hospitality,  and  were  inclined  to  dispossess 
their  new  neighbours,  as  the  only  way  of  restoring 
the  country  to  its  pristine  state,  and  of  recovering 
their  usual  mode  of  subsistence. 

They  were  extremely  offended  by  the  settlements 
which  the  English,  after  the  peace  of  Utrecht,  made 
on  the  lands  at  the  eastward,  and  by  their  building 
forts,  block  houses,  and  mills ;  whereby  their  usual 
mode  of  passing  the  rivers  and  carrying-places 
was  interrupted ;  and  they  could  not  believe,  though 
they  were  told  with  great  solemnity,  that  these  for- 
tifications were  erected  for  their  defence  against  in- 
vasion. When  conferences  were  in  1717  held  with 
them  on  this  subject,  they  either  denied  that  the 
]&nds  had  been  sold,  or  pretended  that  the  sachems 


had  exceeded  their  powor  in  making  the  bargains, 
or  had  conveyed  lands  beyond  the  limits  of  their 
tribe;  or  that  the  English  had  taken  advantage  of 
their  drunkenness  to  make  them  sign  the  deeds;  or 
that  no  valuable  consideration  had  been  given  for 
tho  purchase.  No  arguments  or  evidence  which 
could  be  adduced  would  satisfy  them,  unless  the  lands 
were  paid  for  again;  and  had  this  been  done  once, 
their  posterity  after  a  few  years  would  have  renewed 
the  demand. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  French  did  not  in  a  formal 
manner  declare  them  subjects  of  the  crown  of  France; 
but  every  tribe,  however  small,  was  allowed  to  pre- 
serve its  independence.  Those  who  were  situated 
in  the  heart  of  Canada  kept  their  lands  to  them- 
selves, which  were  never  solicited  from  them;  those 
who  dwelt  on  the  rivers  and  shores  of  the  Atlantic, 
though  distant  from  the  French  colonies,  received 
annual  presents  from  the  king  of  France ;  and  soli- 
tary traders  resided  with,  or  occasionally  visited 
them;  but  no  attempt  was  made  by  any  company  to 
settle  on  their  lands. 

It  was  in  the  power  of  the  English  to  supply  them 
with  provisions,  arms,  ammunition,  blankets,  and 
other  articles  which  they  wanted,  cheaper  than  they 
could  purchase  them  of  the  French.  (1717.)  Gover- 
nor Snute  had  promised  that  trading  houses  should 
be  established  among  them,  and  that  a  smith  should 
be  provided  to  keep  their  arms  and  other  instru- 
ments in  repair;  but  the  unhappy  contentions  be- 
tween the  governor  and  assembly  of  Massachusetts 
prevented  a  compliance  with  this  engagement.  The 
Indians  were  therefore  obliged  to  submit  to  the 
impositions  of  private  traders,  or  to  seek  supplies 
from  the  French;  who  failed  not  to  join  with 
them  in  reproaching  the  English  for  this  breach 
of  promise,  and  for  their  avidity  in  getting  away 
the  land. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  eastern  parts  of  New  Eng- 
land were  not  of  the  best  character  for  religion,  and 
were  ill  adapted  to  engage  the  affections  of  the  In- 
dians by  their  example.  The  frequent  hostilities  on 
this  quarter,  not  only  kept  alive  a  spirit  of  jealousy 
and  revenge  in  individuals,  but  prevented  any  en- 
deavours to  propagate  religious  knowledge  among 
the  Indians  by  the  government  ;  though  it  was  one 
of  the  conditions  of  their  charter,  and  though  many 
good  men  wished  it  might  be  attempted.  At  length 
Governor  Shute,  in  his  conference  with  their  Sa- 
chems at  Arrowsic,  introduced  this  important  busi- 
ness by  offering  them  in  a  formal  manner,  an  Indian 
bible,  and  a  protestant  missionary  ;  but  they  rejected 
both,  saying,  "  God  hath  given  us  teaching  already, 
and  if  we  should  go  from  it  we  should  displease  him." 
He  would  have  done  much  better  service,  and  per- 
haps prevented  a  war,  if  he  had  complied  with  their 
earnest  desire  to  fix  a  boundary,  beyond  which  the 
English  should  not  extend  their  settlements. 

A  gentleman,  in  conversation  with  one  of  their 
Sachems,  asked  him  why  they  were  so  strongly  at- 
tached to  the  French,  from  whom  they  could  not 
expect  to  receive  so  much  benefit  as  from  the  Eng- 
lish ;  the  Sachem  gravely  answered,  "  Because  the 
French  have  taught  us  to  pray  to  God,  which  the 
English  never  did." 

The  Jesuits  had  planted  themselves  among  these 
tribes.  They  had  one  church  at  Penobscot,  and  ano- 
ther at  Norrigdwog,  where  Sebastian  Ralle,  a  French 
Jesuit,  resided.  He  was  a  man  of  good  sense,  learn- 
ing and  address,  and  by  a  compliance  with  then- 
mode  of  life,  and  a  gentle,  condescending  deport 
ment.  had  gained  their  affections  so  as  to  manage 


UNITED  STATES. 


4G1 


them  at  his  pleasure.  Knowing  the  power  of  super- 
stition over  the  savage  mind,  he  took  advantage  of 
this,  and  of  their  prejudice  against  the  English,  to 
promote  the  cause,  and  strengthen  the  interest  of 
the  French  among  them.  He  even  made  the  offices 
of  devotion  serve  as  incentives  to  their  ferocity,  and 
kept  a  flag,  in  which  was  depicted  a  cross,  sur- 
rounded by  bows  and  arrows,  which  he  used  to  hoist 
on  a  polo,  at  the  door  of  his  church,  when  he  gave 
them  absolution,  previously  to  their  engaging  in  any 
warlike  enterprise. 

With  this  Jesuit,  the  governor  of  Canada  held  a 
close  correspondence ;  and  by  him  was  informed  of 
every  thing  transacted  among  the  Indians.  By  this 
means,  their  discontent  with  the  English,  on  account 
of  the  settlements  made  at  the  eastward,  was  height- 
ened and  inflamed;  and  they  received  every  en- 
couragement, to  assert  their  title  to  the  lands  in 
question,  and  molest  the  settlers,  by  killing  their 
cattle,  burning  their  stacks  of  hay,  robbing  and  in- 
sulting them.  These  insolencies  discouraged  the 
people,  and  caused  many  of  them  to  remove.  (1720) 
The  garrisons  were  then  reinforced  ;  and  scouting 
parties  were  ordered  into  the  eastern  quarter,  under 
the  command  of  Col.  Shadrach  Walton.  By  this 
appearance  of  force,  the  Indians,  who  dreaded  the 
power  of  the  English,  were  restrained  from  open 
hostilities.  They  had  frequent  parleys  with  the  com- 
manders of  forts,  and  with  commissioners  who  vi- 
sited them  occasionally ;  and  though  at  first  they 
seemed  to  be  resolute  in  demanding  the  removal  of 
the  English,  declaring  that  "  they  had  fought  for 
the  land  three  times,  and  would  fight  for  it  again  ;" 
yet  when  they  were  told  that  there  was  no  alternative 
but  perfect  peace  or  open  war,  and  that  if  they 
chose  peace  they  must  forbear  every  kind  of  insult, 
they  seemed  to  prefer  peace  ;  and  either  pretended 
ignorance  of  what  had  been  done,  or  promised  to 
make  inquiry  into  it;  and  as  an  evidence  of  their 
good  intentions,  offered  a  tribute  of  skins,  and  de- 
livered up  four  of  their  young  men  as  hostages. 

This  proceeding  was  highly  disrelished  by  the  go- 
vernor of  Canada,  who  renewed  his  efforts  to  keep 
up  the  quarrel,  and  secretly  promised  to  supply  the 
Indians  with  arms  and  ammunition  ;  though  as  it 
was  a  time  of  peace  between  the  two  crowns,  he 
could  not  openly  assist  them. 

The  New  England  governments,  though  highly 
incensed,  were  not  easily  persuaded  to  consent  to  a 
war.  The  dispute  was  between  the  Indians  and  the 
proprietors  of  the  eastern  lands,  in  which  the  public 
were  not  directly  interested.  No  blood  had  as  yet 
been  shed.  Canseau  had  been  surprised  and  plun- 
dered, and  some  people  killed  there ;  but  that  was 
in  the  government  of  Nova  Scotia.  Ralle  was  re- 
garded as  the  principal  instigator  of  the  Indians ; 
and  it  was  thought,  that  if  he  could  be  taken  off  they 
would  be  quiet.  It  was  once  proposed  to  send  the 
sheriff  of  York  county  with  a  posse  of  150  men,  to 
seize  and  bring  him  to  Boston ;  but  this  was  not 
agreed  to.  (1721.)  The  next  summer,  Ralle,  in 
company  with  Castine  from  Penobscot,  and  Croisil 
from  Canada,  appeared  among  the  Indians,  at  a  confe- 
rence held  on  Arrowsic  island,  with  Capt.  Penhal- 
low,  the  commander  of  the  garrison,  and  brought  a 
letter,  written  in  the  name  of  the  several  tribes  of 
Indians,  directed  to  Governor  Shute  ;  in  which  it 
was  declared,  "  that  if  the  English  did  not  remove 
in  three  weeks,  they  would  kill  them  and  their  cattle 
and  burn  their  houses."  An  additional  guard  was 
sent  down ;  but  the  government,  loth  to  come  to  a 
rupture,  and  desirous  if  possible  to  treat  with  the 


Indians  separately  from  the  French  emissaries,  in- 
vited them  to  another  conference,  which  they  treated 
with  neglect. 

In  the  succeeding  winter,  a  party  under  Col.  Tho- 
mas Westbrookc  was  ordered  to  Norridgwog  to  seize 
Ralle.  They  arrived  at  the  village  undiscovered, 
but  before  they  could  surround  his  house,  he  escaped 
into  the  woods,  leaving  his  papers  in  his  strongbox, 
which  they  brought  off  without  doing  any  other  da- 
mage. Among  these  papers  were  his  letters  of  cor- 
respondence with  the  governor  of  Canada,  by  which 
it  clearly  appeared,  that  he  was  deeply  engaged  in 
exciting  the  Indians  to  a  rupture,  and  had  promised 
to  assist  them. 

This  attempt  to  seize  their  spiritual  father,  could 
not  long  be  unrevenged.  (1722.)  The  next  sum- 
mer they  took  nine  families  from  Merrymeeting 
bay,  and  after  dismissing  some  of  the  prisoners,  re- 
tained enough  to  secure  the  redemption  of  their  hos- 
tages, and  sent  them  to  Canada.  About  the  same 
time  they  made  an  attempt  on  the  fort  at  St.  George's ; 
but  were  repulsed  with  considerable  loss.  They  also 
surprised  some  fishing  vessels  in  the  eastern  har- 
bours ;  and  at  length  made  a  furious  attack  on  the 
town  of  Brunswick,  which  they  destroyed.  This  ac- 
tion determined  the  government  to  issue  a  declara- 
tion of  war  against  them,  which  was  published  in 
form  at  Boston  and  Portsmouth. 

New  Hampshire  being  'seated  in  the  bosom  of 
Massachusetts,  had  the  same  interest  to  serve,  and 
bore  a  proportionable  share  of  all  these  transactions 
and  the  expenses  attending  them.  Walton,  who 
first  commanded  the  forces  sent  into  the  eastern 
parts,  and  Westbrooke,  who  succeeded  him,  as  well 
as  Penhallow,  the  commander  of  the  fort  at  Arrow- 
sic,  were  New  Hampshire  men;  the  two  former 
were  of  the  council.  A  declaration  of  war  being 
made,  the  enemy  were  expected  on  every  part  of  the 
frontiers  ;  and  the  assembly  were  obliged  to  concert 
measures  for  their  security,  after  an  interval  of  peace 
for  about  ten  years. 

The  usual  route  of  the  Indians,  in  their  marches 
to  the  frontiers  of  New  Hampshire,  was  by  the  way 
of  Winipiseogee  lake.  The  distance  from  Cochecho 
falls  in  the  town  of  Dover,  to  the  south-east  bay  of 
that  lake,  is  about  thirty  miles.  It  was  thought  that 
if  a  road  could  be  opened  to  that  place,  and  a  fort 
built  there,  the  enemy  would  be  prevented  from 
coming  that  way.  Orders  were  accordingly  issued, 
and  a  party  of  250  men  were  employed  in  cutting 
down  the  woods  for  a  road ;  but  the  expense  so  far 
exceeded  the  benefit  which  could  be  expected  from 
a  fort  at  such  a  distance,  in  the  wilderness,  to  be 
supplied  with  provisions  and  ammunition  by  land 
carriage,  which  might  easily  be  interrupted  by  the 
enemy,  that  the  design  was  laid  aside,  and  the  old 
method  of  defence  by  scouts  and  garrisons  was 
adopted.  Lieut-governor  Wentworth,  being  com- 
mander in  chief  in  Shute's  absence,  was  particu'arly 
careful  to  supply  the  garrisons  with  stores,  and  visit 
them  in  person,  to  see  that  the  duty  was  regularly 
performed;  for  which,  and  other  prudent  and  faithful 
services,  he  frequently  received  the  acknowledg- 
ments of  the  assembly  and  grants  of  money,  generally 
amounting  to  100/.  at  every  session,  and  sometimes 
more.  They  also  took  care  to  inlist  men  for  two 
years,  and  to  establish  the  wages  of  officers  and 
soldiers  at  the  following  rates :  a  captain  at  seven 
pounds  per  month,  a  lieutenant  four  pounds,  a  ser- 
geant fifty-eight  shillings,  a  corporal  forty-five  shil- 
lings, and  a  private  forty  shillings.  A  bounty  of 
one  hundred  pounds  was  offered  for  every  Indian 


4G2 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA 


scalp.  The  difference  between  the  currency  and 
sterling  was  two  and  a  half  for  one. 

(1723.)  The  first  appearance  of  the  enemy  in  New 
Hampshire  was  at  Dover,  were  they  surprised  and 
killed  Joseph  Ham,  and  took  three  of  his  children ; 
the  rest  of  the  family  escaped  to  the  garrison.  Soon 
after  they  waylaid  the  road,  and  killed  Tristram 
Heard.  Their  next  onset  was  at  Lamprey  river, 
where  they  killed  Aaron  Rawlins  and  one  of  his 
children,  taking  his  wife  and  two  children  captive. 
This  Aaron  Rawlins  (whose  wife  was  a  daughter  of 
Edward  Taylor,  who  was  killed  by  the  Indians  in 
1704)  lived  upon  the  plantation  left  by  Taylor, 
about  half  a  mile  west  from  Lamprey  river  landing, 
at  the  lower  falls  on  Piscasick  river.  The  people 
there  at  that  time,  commonly  retired  at  night  to  the 
garrisoned  houses,  and  returned  home  in  the  day 
time;  but  that  night  they  neglected  to  retire  as 
usual.  His  brother  Samuel  also  lived  about  half  a 
mile  distant  on  the  same  river.  It  seems  the  Indian 
scout  consisted  of  eighteen,  who  probably  had  been 
reconnoitring  some  time,  and  intended  to  have  de- 
stroyed both  the  families,  and  for  that  purpose 
divided,  and  nine  went  to  each  house  ;  but  the  party 
that  went  to  Samuel  Rawlins's,  beating  in  the  win- 
dow, and  finding  the  family  gone,  immediately  joined 
their  companions,  who  were  engaged  at  Aaron's. 
His  wife  went  out  at  the  door  (ignorant  of 
course  of  the  Indians  being  there),  and  was 
immediately  seized,  and  also  one  or  two  of  her 
children  who  followed  her.  Her  husband  being 
alarmed,  secured  the  door  before  they  could  enter, 
and  with  his  eldest  daughter,  about  twelve  years 
old,  stood  upon  his  defence,  repeatedly  firing  where- 
ver they  attempted  to  enter,  and  at  the  same  time 
calling  earnestly  to  his  neighbours  for  help ;  but 
the  people  in  the  several  garrisoned  houses  near, 
apprehending  from  the  noise  and  incessant  firing, 
the  number  of  the  enemy  to  be  greater  than  they 
were,  and  expecting  every  moment  to  be  attacked 
themselves,  did  not  venture  to  come  to  his  assistance. 
Having  for  some  time  bravely  withstood  such  une- 
qual force,  he  was  at  last  killed  by  their  random 
shots  through  the  house,  which  they  then  broke 
open,  and  killed  his  daughter.  They  scalped  him, 
and  cut  off  his  daughter's  head,  either  through  haste 
or  probably  being  enraged  against  her,  on  account 
of  the  assistance  she  had  afforded  her  father  in  their 
defence,  which  evidently  appeared  by  her  hands 
being  soiled  with  powder.  His  wife  and  two  chil- 
dren (a  son  and  a  daughter)  they  carried  to  Canada. 
The  woman  was  redeemed  in  a  few  years ;  the  son 
was  adopted  by  the  Indians,  and  lived  with  them  all 
his  days  :  he  came  into  Pennycook  with  the  Indians 
after  the  peace,  and  expressed  to  some  people  with 
whom  he  conversed  much  resentment  against  his 
uncle  Samuel  Rawlins,  supposing  he  had  detained 
from  his  mother  some  property  left  by  his  father, 
but  manifested  no  desire  of  returning  to  Newmarket 
again.  The  daughter  married  with  a  Frenchman, 
and  when  she  was  near  sixty  years  old  returned 
with  her  husband  to  her  native  place,  in  expectation 
of  recovering  the  patrimony  she  conceived  was  left 
at  the  death  of  her  father ;  but  the  estate  having 
been  sold  by  her  grandfather  Taylor's  administrator, 
they  were  disappointed,  and  after  a  year  or  two  went 
back  to  Canada. 

The  next  spring  (1724),  the  Indians  killed  James 
Nock,  one  of  the  elders  of  the  church,  as  he  was 
returning  on  horseback  from  setting  his  beaver 
traps  in  the  woods.  Soon  after  they  appeared  at 
Kingston,  where  they  took  Peter  Colcord  and 


Ephraini  Stevens,  and  two  children  of  Ebenezor 
Stevens.  They  were  pursued  by  scouts  from  King- 
ston and  Londonderry,  but  in  vain.  Colcord  n.adf 
his  escape  in  about  six  months,  and  received  a  gra- 
tuity of  ten  pounds  from  the  assembly,  for  his 
"  courage  and  ingenuity,  and  for  the  account  he  gave 
of  the  proceedings  of  the  enemy." 

On  a  sabbath  day  they  ambushed  the  road  at 
Oyster  river,  and  killed  George  Chesley,  and  mor- 
tally wounded  Elizabeth  Burnham,  as  they  were  re- 
turning together  from  public  worship.  In  a  few 
days  more,  five  Indians  took  Thomas  Smith  and 
John  Carr,  at  Chester,  and  after  carrying  them 
about  thirty  miles,  bound  them  and  lay  down  to 
sleep ;  the  captives  escaped,  and  in  three  days  ar- 
rived safe  at  a  garrison  in  Londonderry. 

The  settlements  at  Oyster  river  being  very  muck 
exposed,  a  company  of  volunteers  under  the  com- 
mand of  Abraham  Bemvick,  who  went  out  on  the 
encouragement  offered  by  the  government  for  scalps, 
were  about  marching  to  make  discoveries.  It  hap- 
pened that  Moses  Davis,  and  his  son  of  the  same 
name,  being  at  work  in  their  corn  field,  went  to  a 
brook  to  drink,  where  they  discovered  three  Indian 
packs.  They  immediately  gave  notice  of  this  dis- 
covery to  the  volunteer  company,  and  went  before 
to  guide  them  to  the  spot.  The  Indians  had  placed 
themselves  in  ambush;  and  the  unhappy  father  and 
son  were  both  killed.  The  company  then  fired, 
killed  one,  and  wounded  two  others  who  made  their 
escape,  though  they  were  pursued  and  tracked  by 
their  blood  to  a  considerable  distance.  The  slain 
Indian  was  a  person  of  distinction,  and  wore  a  kind 
of  coronet  of  scarlet-dyed  fur,  with  an  appendage  of 
four  small  bells,  by  the  sound  of  which  the  others 
might  follow  him  through  the  thickets.  His  hail- 
was  remarkbly  soft  and  fine,  aud  he  had  about  him 
devotional  book  and  muster-roll  of  180  Indians ; 
from  which  circumstances  it  was  supposed  that  he 
was  a  natural  son  of  the  Jesuit  Ralle,  by  an  Indian 
woman  who  had  served  him  as  a  laundress.  His 
scalp  was  presented  to  the  lieut.-governer  in  coun- 
cil, by  Robert  Burnham,  and  the  promised  bounty 
was  paid  to  Captain  Francis  Matthews,  in  trust  for 
the  company. 

Within  the  town  of  Dover  were  many  families  of 
Quakers;  who,  scrupling  the  lawfulness  of  war, 
could  not  be  persuaded  to  use  any  means  for  their 
defence,  though  equally  exposed  with  their  neigh- 
bours to  an  enemy  who  made  no  distinction  between 
them.  One  of  these  people,  Ebenezer  Downs,  was 
taken  by  the  Indians,  and  was  grossly  insulted  and 
abused  by  them,  because  he  refused  to  dance  as  the 
other  prisoners  did,  for  the  diversion  of  their  savage 
captors.  Another  of  them,  John  Hanson,  who  lived 
on  the  outside  of  the  town  in  a  remote  situation, 
could  not  be  persuaded  to  remove  to  a  garrison, 
though  he  had  a  large  family  of  children.  A  party 
of  thirteen  Indians,  called"  French  Mohawks,  had 
marked  his  house  for  their  prey;  and  lay  several 
days  in  ambush,  waiting  for  an  opportunity  to  as- 
sault it.  While  Hanson  with  his  eldest  daughter 
were  gone  to  attend  the  weekly  meeting  of  Friends, 
arid  his  two  eldest  sons  were  at  work  in  a  meadow 
at  some  distance,  the  Indians  entered  the  house, 
killed  and  scalped  two  small  children,  and  took  his 
wife,  with  her  infant  of  fourteen  days  old,  her  nurse, 
two  daughters  and  a  son,  and  after  rifling  the  house 
carried  them  off.  This  was  done  so  suddenly  and 
secretly,  that  the  first  person  who  discovered  it  was 
the  eldest  daughter  at  her  return  from  the  meeting 
before  her  father.  Seeing  the  two  children  dead  at 


UNITED  STATES. 


463 


the  door,  she  gave  a  shriek  of  distress,  which  wa> 
distinctly  heard  by  her  mother,  then  in  the  hands  o 
the  enemy  among  the  bushes,  and  by  her  brothers 
in  the  meadow.  The  people  being  alarmed,  wen' 
in  pursuit;  but  the  Indians  cautiously  avoiding  al 
paths,  went  off  with  their  captives  undiscovered 
After  this  disaster  had  befallen  his  family,  Hanson 
removed  the  remainder  of  them  to  the  house  of  his 
brother,  who,  though  of  the  same  religious  persua 
sion,  yet  had  a  number  of  lusty  sons,  and  always 
kept  his  fire-arms  in  good  order,  for  the  purpose  o: 
shooting  game.  Hanson's  wife,  though  of  a  tender 
constitution,  had  a  firm  and  vigorous  mind,  anc 
passed  through  the  various  hardships  of  an  Indian 
captivity  with  much  resolution  and  patience.  When 
her  milk  failed  she  supported  her  infant  with  water, 
which  she  warmed  in  her  mouth,  and  dropped  on  her 
breast,  till  the  squaws  told  her  to  beat  the  kernel  ol 
walnuts  and  boil  it  with  bruised  corn,  which  proved 
a  nourishing  food  for  her  babe.  They  were  all  sold 
to  the  French  in  Canada.  Hanson  went  the  next 
spring  and  redeemed  his  wife,  the  three  younger 
children  and  the  nurse,  but  he  could  not  obtain  the 
elder  daughter  of  seventeen  years  old,  though  he 
saw  and  conversed  with  her.  He  also  redeemed 
Ebenezer  Downs.  He  made  a  second  attempt  in 
1727,  but  died  at  Crown-point  on  his  way  to  Canada. 
The  girl  was  married  to  a  Frenchman,  and  never 
returned. 

These  and  other  insolencies  of  the  enemy  being 
daily  perpetrated  on  the  frontiers,  caused  the  go- 
vernments to  resolve  on  an  expedition  to  Norridg- 
wog.  The  Captains  Moulton  and  Harman,  both  of 
York,  each  at  the  head  of  a  company  of  100  men, 
executed  their  orders  with  great  address.  They  com- 
pletely invested  and  surprised  that  village — killed 
the  obnoxious  Jesuit  with  about  eighty  of  his  Indians 
— recovered  three  captives — destroyed  the  chapel, 
and  brought  away  the  plate  and  furniture  of  the 
altar,  and  the  devotional  flag,  as  trophies  of  their 
victory.  Ralle  was  then  in  the  G8th  year  of  his  age, 
and  had  resided  in  his  mission  at  Norridgwog  26 
years,  having  before  spent  6  years  in  travelling  among 
the  Indian  nations,  in  the  interior  parts  of  America. 
The  parties  of  Indians  who  were  abroad,  continued 
to  ravage  the  frontiers.  Two  men  being  missing 
from  Dunstable,  a  scout  of  eleven  went  in  quest  of 
them ;  they  were  fired  upon  by  thirty  of  the  enemy, 
and  nine  of  them  were  killed :  the  other  two  made 
their  escape,  though  one  of  them  was  badly  wounded. 
Afterward  another  company  fell  into  their  ambush 
and  engaged  them,  but  the  enemy  being  superior 
in  number  overpowered  them,  and  killed  one  and 
wounded  four,  the  rest  retreating.  At  Kingston, 
Jabez  Colman  and  his  son  Joseph,  were  killed  as 
they  were  at  work  in  their  field.  The  success  of  the 
forces  at  Norridgwog  and  the  large  premium  offered 
for  scalps,  having  induced  several  volunteer  com- 
panies to  go  out,  they  visited  one  after  another  of 
the  Indian  villages,  but  found  them  deserted.  The 
fate  of  Norridgwog  had  struck  such  terror  into  them, 
that  they  did  not  think  themselves  safe  at  any  of 
their  former  places  of  abode,  and  occupied  them  as 
resting  places  only,  when  they  were  scouting  or 
hunting. 

Oije  of  these  volunteer  companies,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Captain  John  Lnvewell,  of  Dunstable,  was 
greatly  distinguished,  first  by  their  success  and  after- 
wards by  their  misfortunes.  This  company  consisted 
of  thirty :  at  their  first  excursion  to  the  northward 
of  Winipiseogee  lake,  they  discovered  an  Indian 
wigwam  in  which  there  were  a  man  and  a  boy.  They 


killed  and  scalped  the  man  and  brought  the  boy 
alive  to  Boston,  where  they  received  the  reward 
promised  by  law,  and  a  handsome  gratuity  besides, 

By  this  success  his  company  was  augmented  to 
seventy.  They  marched  again,  and  visiting  the 
place  where  they  had  killed  the  Indian,  found  his  body 
as  they  had  left  it  two  months  before.  (1725.)  Their 
provision  falling  short,  thirty  of  them  were  dismissed 
by  lot  and  returned.  The  remaining  40  continued 
their  march  till  they  discovered  a  track,  which  they 
followed  till  they  saw  a  smoke  just  before  sunset,  by 
which  they  judged  that  the  enemy  were  encamped 
for  the  night.  They  kept  themselves  concealed  till 
after  midnight,  when  they  silently  advanced,  and  dis- 
covered ten  Indians  asleep  round  a  fire  by  the  side 
of  a  frozen  pond.  Lovewell  now  determined  to  make 
sure  work,  and,  placing  his  men  conveniently,  or- 
dered part  of  them  to  fire,  five  at  once,  as  quick  after 
each  other  as  possible,  and  another  part  to  reserve 
their  fire:  he  gave  the  signal  by  firing  his  own  gun, 
which  killed  two  of  them;  the  men  firing  according 
to  order,  killed  five  more  on  the  spot;  the  other 
three  starting  up  from  their  sleep,  two  of  them 
were  immediately  shot  dead  by  the  reserve;  the 
other,  though  wounded,  attempted  to  escape  by 
crossing  the  pond,  but  was  seized  by  a  dog  and 
held  fast  tilMhey  killed  him.  Thus  in  a  few  mi- 
nutes the  whole  company  was  destroyed,  and  some 
attempt  against  the  frontiers  of  New  Hampshire 
prevented;  for  these  Indians  were  marching  from 
Canada,  well  furnished  with  new  guns  and  plenty  of 
ammunition;  they  had  also  a  number  of  spare  blan- 
kets, mockaseens,  and  snow  shoes  for  the  accommo- 
dation of  the  prisoners  whom  they  expected  to  take, 
and  were  within  two  days  march  of  the  frontiers. 
The  pond  where  this  exploit  was  performed  is  at  the 
head  of  a  branch  of  Salmonfall  river,  in  the  town- 
ship of  Wakefield,  and  has  ever  since  borne  the 
name  of  Lovewell's  pond.  The  action  was  spoken  of 
by  elderly  people,  at  a  distance  of  time,  with  an 
air  of  exultation ;  and  considering  the  extreme  diffi- 
culty of  finding  and  attacking  Indians  in  the  woods, 
and  the  judicious  manner  in  which  they  were  so 
completely  surprised,  it  was  a  capital  exploit. 

The  brave  company,  with  the  ten  scalps  stretched 
on  hoops,  and  elevated  on  poles,  entered  Dover  in 
triumph,  and  proceeded  thence  to  Boston;  where 
they  received  the  bounty  of  one  hundred  pounds  for 
each,  out  of  the  public  treasury. 

Encouraged  by  this  success,  Lovettell  marched  a 
third  time;  intending  to  attack  the  villages  of  Pig- 
wacket,  on  the  upper  part  of  the  river  Saco,  which 
bad  been  the  residence  of  a  formidable  tribe,  and 
which  they  still  occasionally  inhabited.  His  com- 
pany at  this  time  consisted  of  forty-six,  including  a 
chaplain  and  surgeon  :  Two  of  them  proving  lame, 
returned :  another  falling  sick,  they  halted,  and  built 
a  stockade  fort  on  the  west  side  of  great  Ossapy 
pond;  partly  for  the  accommodation  of  the  sick  man, 
and  partly  for  a  place  of  retreat  in  case  of  any  mis- 
fortune. Here  the  surgeon  was  left  with  the  sick 
nan,  and  eight  of  the  company  for  a  guard.  The 
.lumber  was  now  reduced  to  thirty-four.  Pursuing 
:heir  march  to  the  northward,  they  came  to  a  pond, 
about  twenty-two  miles  distant,  in  a  line  from  the 
fort,  and  encamped  by  the  side  of  it.  Early  the 
next  morning,  while  at  their  devotions,  they  heard 
the  report  of  a  gun,  and  discovered  a  single  Indian, 
standing  on  a  point  of  land  which  runs  into  the 
oond,  more  than  a  mile  distant.  They  had  been 
alarmed  the  preceding  night  by  noises  round  their 
amp,  which  they  imagined  were  made  by  Indians, 


40  i 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


and  this  opinion  was  now  strengthened.  They  sus- 
pected that  the  Indian  was  placed  there  to  decoy 
them,  and  that  a  body  of  the  enemy  was  in  their 
front.  A  consultation  being  held,  they  determined 
to  march  forward,  and  by  encompassing  the  pond,  to 
gain  the  place  where  the  Indian  stood;  and  that 
they  might  be  ready  for  action,  they  disencumbered 
themselves  of  their  packs,  and  left  them,  without  a 
guard,  at  the  north-east  end  of  the  pond,  in  a  pitch 
pine  plain,  where  the  trees  were  thin  and  the  brakes, 
at  that  time  of  the  year,  small.  It  happened  that 
Lovewell's  march  had  crossed  a  carrying-place,  by 
which  two  parties  of  Indians,  consisting  of  forty-one 
men,  commanded  by  Pangus  and  Wahwa,  who  had 
been  scouting  down  Saco  river,  were  returning 
to  the  lower  village  of  Pigwacket,  distant  about  a 
mile  and  a  half  from  this  pond.  Having  fallen  on 
Lovewell's  track,  they  followed  it  till  they  came  to 
the  packs,  which  they  removed ;  and  counting  them, 
found  the  number  of  his  men  to  be  less  than  their 
own :  they  therefore  placed  themselves  in  ambush, 
to  attack  them  on  their  return.  The  Indian,  who 
had  stood  on  the  point,  and  was  returning  to  the  vil- 
lage by  another  path,  met  our  party,  and  received 
their  fire,  which  he  returned,  and  wounded  Love- 
well  and  another  with  small  shot.  Lieutenant  Wy- 
man,  firing  again,  killed  him,  and  they  took  his 
scalp.  Seeing  no  other  enemy,  they  returned  to 
the  place  where  they  had  left  their  packs,  and  while 
they  were  looking  for  them,  the  Indians  rose,  and 
ran  toward  them  with  a  horrid  yelling.  A  smart 
firing  commenced  on  both  sides,  it  being  now  about 
ten  of  the  clock.  Captain  Lovewell  and  eight  more 
were  killed  on  the  spot.  Lieutenant  Farwell,  and 
two  othei's,  were  wounded ;  several  of  the  Indians 
fell ;  but,  being  superior  in  number,  they  endea- 
voured to  surround  the  party,  who,  perceiving  their 
intention,  retreated — hoping  to  be  sheltered  by  a 

!>oint  of  rock  which  ran  into  the  pond,  and  a  few 
arge  pine  trees  standing  on  a  sandy  beech.  In  this 
forlorn  place  they  took  their  station.  On  their  right 
was  the  mouth  of  a  brook,  at  that  time  unfordable ; 
on  their  left  was  the  rocky  point ;  their  front  was 
partly  covered  by  a  deep  bog,  and  partly  uncovered, 
and  the  pond  was  in  their  rear.  The  enemy  galled 
them  in  front  and  flank,  and  had  them  so  completely 
in  their  power,  that  had  they  made  a  prudent  use  of 
their  advantage,  the  whole  company  must  either 
have  been  killed,  or  obliged  to  surrender  at  discre- 
tion— being  destitute  of  a  mouthful  of  sustenance, 
and  an  escape  being  impracticable.  Under  the 
conduct  of  Lieutenant  Wyman  they  kept  up  their 
fire,  and  shewed  a  resolute  countenance,  all  the  re- 
mainder of  the  day;  during  which  their  chaplain, 
Jonathan  Frie,  Ensign  Bobbins,  and  one  more,  were 
mortally  wounded.  The  Indians  invited  them  to 
surrender,  by  holding  up  ropes  to  them,  and  endea- 
voured to  intimidate  them  by  their  hideous  yells ; 
but  they  determined  to  die  rather  than  yield;  an< 
by  their  well-directed  fire,  the  number  of  the  savages 
\vas  thinned,  and  their  cries  became  fainter,  till, 
just  before  night,  they  quitted  their  advantageous 
ground,  carrying  off  their  killed  and  wounded,  am: 
leaving  the  dead  bodies  of  Lovewell  and  his  men 
unstalpcd.  The  shattered  remnant  of  this  brave 
company,  collecting  themselves  together,  found  three 
of  their  number  unable  to  move  from  the  spot,  elever 
wounded,  but  able  to  inarch,  and  nine  who  had  re- 
ceived  no  hurt.  It  was  melancholy  to  leave  theii 
dying  companions  behind,  but  there  was  no  possi 
bility  of  removing  them.  One  of  them,  ensign  Rob 
ins,  desired  them  to  lay  his  gun  by  him  charged 


hat  it' the  Indians  should  return  before  his  death  he 
night  be  able  to  kill  one  more.  After  the  rising  of 
he  moon,  they  quitted  the  fatal  spot,  and  directed 
;heir  march  toward  the  fort  where  the  surgeon  and 
juard  had  been  left.  To  their  great  surprise  they 
ound  it  deserted.  In  the  beginning  of  the  action, 
>ne  man,  (whose  name  has  not  been  thought  worthy 
o  be  transmitted  to  posterity)  quitted  the  field,  and 
led  to  the  fort;  where,  in  the  style  of  Job's  mes- 
sengers, he  informed  them  of  Lovewell's  death,  and 
he  defeat  of  the  whole  company ;  upon  which  they 
made  the  best  of  their  way  home ;  leaving  a  quan- 
ity  of  bread  and  pork,  which  was  a  seasonable  relief 
,o  the  retreating  survivors.  From  this  place  they 
endeavoured  to  get  home.  Lieutenant  Farwell,  the 
chaplain,  (who  had  the  journal  of  the  march  in  his 
jocket,)  and  one  more,  perished  in  the  woods,  for 
want  of  dressing  for  their  wounds.  The  others, 
after  enduring  the  most  severe  hardships,  came  in 
one  after  another,  and  were  not  only  received  with 
oy,  but  were  recompensed,  for  their  valour  and  suf- 
?erings  ;  and  a  generous  provision  was  made  for  the 
widows  and  children  of  the  slain. 

A  party  from  the  frontiers  of  New  Hampshire 
were  ordered  out  to  bury  the  dead ;  but,  by  some 
mistake,  did  not  reach  the  place  of  action.  Colonel 
Tyng,  with  a  company  from  Dunstable,  went  to  the 
spot,  and  having  found  the  bodies  of  twelve,  buried 
them,  and  carved  their  names  on  the  trees  where 
the  battle  was  fought.  At  a  little  distance  he  found 
:hree  Indian  graves,  which  he  opened ;  one  of  the 
bodies  was  known  to  be  their  warrior  Paugus.  He 
also  observed  tracks  of  blood  on  the  ground,  to  a 
great  distance  from  the  scene  of  action.  It  was  re- 
marked, that  a  week  before  this  engagement  hap- 
pened, it  had  been  reported  in  Portsmouth  at  the 
distance  of  eighty  miles,  with  but  little  variation 
from  the  truth.  Such  incidents  were  not  uncom- 
mon, and  could  scarcely  deserve  notice,  if  they  did 
not  indicate  that  a  taste  for  the  marvellous  was  not 
extinguished  in  the  minds  of  the  most  sober  and  ra- 
tional. 

This  was  one  of  the  most  fierce  and  obstinate  bat- 
tles which  had  been  fought  with  the  Indians.  They 
had  not  only  the  advantage  of  numbers,  but  of  plac- 
ing themselves  in  ambush,  and  waiting  with  deli- 
beration the  moment  of  attack.  These  circumstan- 
ces gave  them  a  degree  of  ardour  and  impetuosity. 
Loveweli  and  his  men,  though  disappointed  of  meet- 
ing the  enemy  in  their  front,  expected,  and  deter- 
mined, to  fight.  The  fall  of  their  commander,  and 
more  than  one  quarter  of  their  number,  in  the  first 
onset,  was  greatly  discouraging;  but  they  knew  that 
the  situation  to  which  they  were  reduced,  and  their 
distance  from  the  frontiers,  cut  off  all  hope  of  safety 
from  flight.  In  these  circumstances,  prudence  as 
well  as  valour  dictated  a  continuance  of  the  engage- 
ment, and  a  refusal  to  surrender,  until  the  enemy, 
awed  by  their  brave  resistance,  and  weakened  by 
their  own  loss,  yielded  them  the  honour  of  the  field. 
After  this  encounter  the  Indians  resided  no  more  at 
Pigwacket  till  the  peace. 

The  conduct  of  the  Marquis  de  Vaudreuil,  gover- 
nor of  Canada,  was  so  flagrant- a  breach  of  the  treaty 
of  peace  subsisting  between  the  crowns  of  England 
and  France,  that  it  was  thought  a  spirited  remon- 
strance might  make  him  ashamed,  and  produce  some 
beneficial  effects.  With  this  view,  the  general  court 
of  Massachusetts  proposed  to  the  colonies  of  New 
York,  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island,  and  New  Hamp- 
shire, to  join  in  sending  commissioners  to  Canada 
on  this  errand.  New  Hampshire  was  the  only  one 


UNITED  STATES. 


which  consented ;  and  Theodore  Atkinson  was  ap- 
pointed on  their  part,  to  join  with  William  Dudley 
and  Samuel  Thaxter  on  the  part  of  Massachusetts. 

The  instructions  which  they  received  from  the 
Lieut.-governors  Dummer  and  Wentworth,  by  ad- 
vice of  the  council  and  assembly  of  each  province, 
were  nearly  similar.  They  were  to  demand  of  the 
French  governor,  restitution  of  the  captives  who  had 
been  carried  into  Canada;  to  remonstrate  to  him  on 
his  injustice  and  breach  of  friendship,  in  counte- 
nancing the  Indians  in  their  hostilities  against  the 
people  of  New  England;  to  insist  on  his  withdraw- 
ing his  assistance  for  the  future;  and  to  observe  to 
him,  that  if  in  the  farther  prosecution  of  the  war, 
the  Indian  allies  should  in  their  pursuit  of  the  enemy 
commit  hostilities  against  the  French,  the  blame 
would  be  entirely  chargeable  to  himself.  If  the 
French  governor  or  the  Indians,  should  make  any 
overtures  for  peace,  they  were  empowered  to  give 
them  passports,  to  come  either  to  Boston  or  Ports- 
mouth for  that  purpose,  and  to  return;  but  they 
were  not  to  enter  into  any  treaty  with  them.  The 
commissioners  were  also  furnished  with  the  original 
letters  of  Vaudreuil  to  the  governors  of  New  Eng- 
land, and  to  the  Jesuit  Halle,  and  with  copies  of  the 
several  treaties  which  had  been  made  with  the  In- 
dians. The  gentlemen  went  by  the  way  of  Albany, 
and  over  the  lakes,  on  the  ice,  to  Montreal,  where 
they  arrived  after  a  tedious  and  dangerous  journey. 

The  Marquis,  who  happened  to  be  at  Montreal, 
received  and  entertained  them  with  much  polite- 
ness. Having  delivered  their  letters,  and  produced 
their  commissions,  they  presented  their  remon- 
strance in  writing,  and  made  the  several  demands 
agreeably  to  their  instructions  ;  using  this  among 
other  arguments,  "  Those  Indians  dwell  either  in 
the  dominions  of  the  King  of  Great  Britain,  or  in 
the  territories  of  the  French  king.  If  in  the 
French  king's  dominions,  the  violation  of  the 
peace  is  very  flagrant,  they  then  being  his  subjects  ; 
but  if  they  are  subjects  of  the  British  crown,  then 
much  more  is  it  a  breach  of  the  peace  to  excite  a 
rebellion  among  the  subjects  of  his  Majesty  of 
Great  Britain." 

The  governor  gave  them  no  written  answer,  but 
denied  that  the  Abenaquis  were  under  his  govern- 
ment, and  that  he  had  either  encouraged  or  sup- 
plied them  for  the  purpose  of  war.  He  said  that 
he  considered  them  as  an  independent  nation,  and 
that  the  war  was  undertaken  by  them,  in  defence  of 
their  lands,  which  had  been  invaded  by  the  people 
of  New  England.  The  commissioners,  in  reply, 
informed  him  that  the  lands  for  which  the  Indians 
had  quarrelled  were  fairly  purchased  of  their  an- 
cestors, and  had  been  for  many  years  inhabited  by 
the  English.  They  produced  his  own  letters  to  the 
governors  of  New  England  in  which  he  had  (in- 
consistently, and  perhaps  inadvertently)  styled 
these  Indians  '  subjects  of  the  King  of  France." 
They  also  alleged  the  several  treaties  held  with  them 
as  evidence  that  they  had  acknowledged  themselves 
subjects  of  the  Britis'h  crown  ;  and  to  his  great  mor- 
tification, they  also  produced  his  own  original  letters 
to  the  Jesuit  Ralle,  which  had  been  taken  at  Nor- 
ridgwog,  in  which  the  evidence  of  his  assisting-,  and 
encouraging  them  in  the  war  was  too  flagrant  to 
admit  of  palliation.  Farther  to  strengthen  this  part 
of  their  argument,  they  presented  to  the  governor  a 
Mohawk  whom  they  had  met  with  at  Montreal, 
who,  according  to  his  own  voluntary  acknowledg- 
ment, had  been  supplied  by  the  governor  with  arms, 
ammunition,  and  provision  to  engage  in  the  war, 

HIST.  OF  AMER. — Nos.  59  &  60. 


and  had  killed  one  man,  and  taken  another  whom 
he  had  sold  in  Canada. 

In  addition  to  what  was  urged  by  the  commis- 
sioners in  general,  Mr.  Atkinson,  on  the  part  of 
New  Hampshire,  entered  into  a  particular  remon- 
strance, alleging  that  the  Indians  had  no  cause  of 
controversy  with  that  province,  the  lands  in  ques- 
tion being  out  of  their  claim.  To  this  the  governor 
answered  that  New  Hampshire  was  a  part  of  the 
same  nation,  and  the  Indians  could  make  no  dis- 
tinction. Atkinson  asked  him  why  they  did  not 
for  the  same  reason  make  war  on  the  people  of 
Albany?  The  governor  answered,  "The  people 
of  Albany  have  sent  a  message  to  pray  me  to  re- 
strain the  savages  from  molesting  them ;  in  a  man- 
ner very  different  from  your  demands :"  to  which 
Atkinson  with  equal  spirit  replied,  "  Your  lordship, 
then,  is  the  right  person  for  our  governments  to  ap- 
ply to,  if  the  Indians  are  subject  to  your  orders." 

Finding  himself  thus  closely  pressed,  he  promised 
to  do  what  lay  in  his  power  to  bring  them  to  an 
accommodation,  and  to  restore  those  captives  who 
were  in  the  hands  of  the  French,  on  the  payment 
of  what  they  had  cost ;  and  he  engaged  to  see  that 
no  unreasonable  demands  should  be  made  by  the 
persons  who  held  them  in  servitude;  as  to  those 
who  stiil  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  Indians, 
he  said  he  had  no  power  over  them,  and  could  not 
engage  for  their  redemption.  He  complained  in 
his  turn  of  the  governor  of  New  York,  for  building 
a  fort  on  the  river  Onondago,  and  said  that  he 
should  look  upon  that  proceeding  as  a  breach  of  the 
treaty  of  peace ;  and  he  boasted  that  he  had  the 
five  nations  of  the  Iroquois  so  much  under  his  influ- 
ence, that  he  could  at  any  time  cause  them  to  make 
war  upon  the  subjects  of  Great  Britain. 

The  commissioners  employed  themselves  very 
diligently  in  their  inquiries  respecting  the  captives, 
and  in  settling  the  terms  of  their  redemption.  They 
succeeded  in  effecting  the  ransom  of  sixteen,  and 
engaging  for  ten  others.  The  governor  obliged  the 
French,  who  held  them,  to  abate  of  their  demands  ; 
but  after  all,  they  were  paid  for  at  an  exorbitant 
rate.  He  was  extremely  desirous  that  the  gentle- 
men should  have  an  interview  with  the  Indians, 
who  were  at  war ;  and  for  this  purpose  sent  for  a 
number  of  them  from  the  village  of  St.  Francis,  and 
kept  them  concealed  in  Montreal.  The  commis- 
sioners had  repeatedly  told  him  that  they  had  no 
power  to  treat  with  them,  and  that  they  would  not 
speak  to  them  unless  they  should  desire  peace.  At 
his  request,  the  chiefs  of  the  Nipissins  visited  the 
commissioners,  and  said  that  they  disapproved  the 
war  which  their  children  the  Abenaquis  had  made, 
and  would  persuade  them  to  ask  for  peace.  After  a 
variety  of  manoeuvres,  the  governor  at  length  pro- 
mised the  commissioners  that  if  they  would  consent 
to  meet  the  Indians  at  his  house,  they  should  speak 
first.  This  assurance  produced  an  interview;  and 
the  Indians  asked  the  commissioners  whether  they 
would  make  proposals  of  peace  ? — They  answered, 
no.  The  Indians  then  proposed,  that  "  if  the 
English  would  demolish  all  their  forts,  and  remove 
one  mile  westward  of  Saco  river ;  if  they  would  re- 
build their  church  at  Norridgwog,  and  restore  to 
them  their  priest,  they  would  be  brothers  again* 
The  commissioners  told  them  that  they  had  n<» 
warrant  to  treat  with  them ;  but  if  they  were  dis- 
posed for  peace,  they  should  have  safe  conduct  to 
and  from  Boston  or  Portsmouth  ;  and  the  governor 
promised  to  send  his  son  with  them  to  see  justice 
done.  They  answered,  that  "  this  was  the  only 

•;      3  c 


466 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


place  to  conclude  peace,  as  the  nations  were  near 
and  could  readily  attend."  The  governor  would 
have  had  them  recede  1'rom  their  proposals,  which 
he  said  were  unreasonable,  and  make  others ;  but 
father  Lc  Chase,  a  Jesuit,  being  present,  and  acting 
as  interpreter  for  the  Indians,  embarrassed  the  mat- 
ter so  much,  that  nothing  more  was  proposed.  It 
was  observed  by  the  commissioners,  that  when  they 
conversed  with  the  governor  alone,  they  found  him 
more  candid  and  open  to  conviction  than  when  Le 
Chase,  or  any  other  Jesuit  was  present;  and, 
through  the  whole  of  their  negociation,  it  evidently 
appeared  that  the  governor  himself,  as  well  as  the 
Indians,  were  subject  to  the  powerful  influence  of 
these  ecclesiastics,  of  whom  there  was  a  seminary  in 
Canada,  under  the  direction  of  the  Abbede  Belmont. 

Having  completed  their  business,  and  the  rivers 
and  lakes  being  clear  of  ice,  the  commissioners  took 
their  leave  of  the  governor,  and  set  out  on  their  re- 
turn, with  the  redeemed  captives,  and  a  guard  of 
soldiers,  which  the  governor  ordered  to  attend  them 
as  far  as  Crown-point.  They  went  down  the  river 
St.  Lawrence  to  the  mouth  of  the  Sorel,  then  up 
that  river  to  Chamblee,  and  through  the  lakes  to 
fort  Nicholson.  After  a  pleasant  passage,  of  seven 
days,  they  arrived  at  Albany. 

Here  they  found  commissioners  of  Indian  affairs 
for  the  province  of  New  York,  to  whom  they  com- 
municated the  observations  which  they  had  made 
in  Canada,  and  what  the  Marquis  de  Vaudreuil  had 
said  respecting  the  five  nations,  and  the  fort  at 
Onandago.  There  being  a  deputation  from  these 
nations  at  Albany,  they  held  a  conference  with 
them,  and  gave  them  belts;  requesting  their  assist- 
ance in  establishing  a  peace  with  the  Abenaquis. 
From  this  place  Mr.  Atkinson  wrote  to  M.  Cava- 
melle,  son  of  the  Marquis,  acknowledging  the  polite 
reception  the  commissioners  had  met  with  from  the 
family ;  subjoining  a  copy  of  the  information  which 
they  had  given  to  the  commissioners  of  New  York  ; 
and  promising  that  a  due  representation  should  be 
made  to  the  kings  of  England  and  France  on  the 
subject  of  their  negociation. 

The  report  of  the  commissioners  being  laid  before 
the  Assemblies  of  Massachusetts  and  New  Hamp- 
shire, it  was  determined  to  prosecute  the  war  with 
vigour.  Orders  were  issued  for  the  defence  and 
supply  of  the  frontiers,  and  for  the  encouragement 
of  ranging  parties,  both  volunteers  and  militia.  A 
petition  was  sent  to  the  king  complaining  of  the 
French  governor,  and  desiring  that  orders  might  be 
given  to  the  other  colonies  of  New  England,  and  to 
New  York,  to  furnish  their  quotas  of  assistance  in 
the  further  prosecution  of  the  war  ;  and  letters  were 
written  to  the  governor  of  New  York,  requesting 
that  such  of  the  hostile  Indians  as  should  resort  to 
Albany,  might  be  seized  and  secured. 

The  good  effects  of  this  mission  to  Canada  were 
soon  visible.  One  of  the  Indian  hostages  who  had 
been  detained  at  Boston  through  the  whole  war,  to- 
gether with  one  who  had  been  taken,  were  allowed 
on  their  parole,  to  visit  their  countrymen  ;  and  they 
returned  with  a  request  for  peace.  Commissioners 
from  both  provinces  went  to  St.  George's,  where  a 
conference  was  held,  which  ended  in  a  proposal  for 
a  farther  treaty  at  Boston.  In  the  mean  time,  some 
of  the  enemy  were  disposed  for  further  mischief. 
These  who  had  been  concerned  in  taking  Hanson's 
family  at  Dover,  in  a  short  time  after  their  redemp- 
tion and  rc'turn,  came  down  with  a  design  to  take 
them  again,  as  they  had  threatened  them  before 
they  left  Canada.  When  they  had  come  near  the 


house,  they  observed  some  people  at  work  in  a  neigh- 
bouring field,  by  which  it  was  necessary  for  them  to 
pass,  both  in  going  and  returning.  This  obliged 
them  to  alter  their  purpose,  and  conceal  themselves 
in  a  barn,  till  they  were  ready  to  attack  them.  Two 
women  passed  by  the  barn,  while  they  were  in  it, 
and  had  just  reached  the  garrison  as  the  guns  were 
fired.  They  shot  Benjamin  Evans  dead  on  the  spot: 
wounded  William  Evans  and  cut  his  throat ;  John 
Evans  received  a  slight  wound  in  the  breast,  which 
bleeding  plentifully,  deceived  them,  and  thinking 
him  dead,  they  stripped  and  scalped  him  :  he  bore 
the  painful  operation  without  discovering  any  signs 
of  life,  though  all  the  time  in  his  perfect  senses, 
and  continued-in  the  feigned  appearance  of  death, 
till  they  had  turned  him  over,  and  struck  him  seve- 
ral blows  with  their  guns,  and  left  him  for  dead. 
After  they  were  gone  off  he  rose  and  walked,  naked 
and  bloody,  toward  the  garrison  ;  but  on  meeting  his 
friends  by  the  way,  dropped,  fainting  on  the  ground, 
and  being  covered  with  a  blanket,  was  conveyed  to 
the  house.  He  recovered  and  lived  fifty  years.  A 
pursuit  was  made  after  the  enemy,  but  they  got  off 
undiscovered,  carrying  with  them  Benjamin  Evans, 
junior,  a  lad  of  thirteen  years  old,  to  Canada,  whence 
he  was  redeemed  as  usual  by  a  charitable  collection. 

This  was  the  last  effort  of  the  enemy  in  New- 
Hampshire.  In  three  months,  the  treaty  which 
they  desired  was  held  at  Boston,  and  the  next  spring 
ratified  at  Falmouth.  A  peace  was  concluded  in 
the  usual  form ;  which  was  followed  by  restraining 
all  private  traffic  with  the  Indians,  and  establishing 
truck-houses  in  convenient  places,  where  they  were 
supplied  with  the  necessaries  of  life,  on  the  most  ad- 
vantageous terms.  Though  the  governments  on  the 
whole  were  losers  by  the  trade,  yet  it  was  a  more 
honourable  way  of  preserving  the  peace,  than  if  an 
acknowledgment  had  been  made  to  the  Indians  in 
any  other  manner. 

None  of  the  other  colonies  of  New  England  bore 
any  share  in  the  expenses  or  calamities  of  this  war  ; 
and  New  Hampshire  did  not  suffer  so  much  as  in 
former  wars  ;  partly  by  reason  of  the  more  extended 
frontier  of  Massachusetts,  both  on  the  eastern  and 
western  parts,  against  the  former  of  which  the  enemy 
directed  their  greatest  fury  ;  and  partly  by  reason 
of  the  success  of  the  ranging  parties,  who  constantly 
traversed  the  woods  as  far  northward  as  the  White 
Mountains.  The  militia  at  this  time  was  completely 
trained  for  active  service  ;  every  man  of  forty  years 
of  age  having  seen  more  than  twenty  years  of  war. 
They  had  been  used  to  handle  their  arms  from  the 
age  of  childhood,  and  most  of  them,  by  long  prac- 
tice, had  become  excellent  marksmen,  and  good 
hunters.  They  were  well  acquainted  with  the  lurk- 
ing-places  of  the  enemy  ;  and  possessed  a  degree  of 
hardiness  and  intrepidity,  which  can  be  acquired 
only  by  the  habitude  of  those  scenes  of  danger  and 
fatigue,  to  which  they  were  daily  exposed.  They 
had  also  imbibed  from  their  infancy  a  strong  anti- 
pathy to  the  savage  natives ;  which  was  strengthen- 
ed by  repeated  horrors  of  blood  and  desolation,  and 
not  obliterated  by  the  intercourse  which  they  had 
with  them  in  time  of  peace.  As  the  Indians  fre- 
quently resorted  to  the  frontier  towns  in  time  of 
scarcity,  it  was  common  for  them  to  visit  the  fami- 
lies whom  they  had  injured  in  war ;  to  recount  the 
circumstances  of  death  and  torture  which  had  been 
practised  on  their  friends ;  and  when  provoked  or 
intoxicated,  to  threaten  a  repetition  of  such  insults 
in  future  wars.  To  bear  such  treatment  required 
more  than  human  patience ;  and  it  is  not  improbable 


UNITED  STATES. 


467 


that  secret  murders  were  sometimes  the  consequence 
of  these  harsh  provocations.  Certain  it  is,  that  when 
any  person  was  arrested,  for  killing  an  Indian  in 
time  of  peace,  he  was  either  forcibly  rescued  from 
the  hands  of  justice,  or  if  brought  to  trial,  invariably 
acquitted;  it  being  impossible  to  impannel  a  jury 
some  of  whom  had  not  not  suffered  by  the  Indians, 
either  in  their  persons  or  families. 

IVentworth's  administration  continued — Bnrnet's  short 
administration — Belcher  succeeds  him—  Wentworth's 
death  and  character. 

During  the  war,  the  lieut.-governor  had  managed 
the  executive  department  with  much  prudence ;  the 
people  were  satisfied  with  his  administration,  and 
entertained  an  affection  for  him,  which  was  expressed 
not  only  by  words,  but  by  frequent  grants  of  money, 
in  the  general  assembly.  When  he  returned  from 
Boston,  (1726)  where  the  treaty  of  peace  was  con- 
cluded, they  presented  to  him  an  address  of  congra- 
tulation, and  told  him  that  "  his  absence  had  seemed 
long ;  but  the  service  he  had  done  them  filled  their 
hearts  with  satisfaction."  This  address  was  followed 
by  a  grant  of  100/..  He  had,  just  before,  consented 
to  an  issue  of  2000/.  in  bills  of  credit,  to  be  paid,  one 
half  in  the  year  1735,  and  the  other  half  in  1736. 
An  excise  was  laid  for  three  years,  and  was  farmed 
for  300J. 

The  divisional  line  between  the  provinces  of  New 
Hampshire  and  Massachusetts  was  yet  unsettled,  and 
in  addition  to  the  usual  disadvantages  occasioned  by 
this  long  neglect,  a  new  one  arose.  By  the  con- 
struction which  Massachusetts  put  on  their  charter, 
all  the  lands  three  miles  northward  of  the  river  Mer- 
rimack  were  within  their  limits.  On  this  principle, 
a  grant  had  formerly  been  made  to  Governor  Endi- 
cot,  of  some  lands  at  Penacook,  which  had  been  the 
seat  of  a  numerous  and  powerful  tribe  of  Indians 
The  quality  of  the  land  at  that  place  invited  the  at- 
tention of  adventurers  from  Andover,  Bradford  anc 
Haverhill ;  to  whom  a  grant  was  made  of  a  town- 
ship, seven  miles  square ;  comprehending  the  lands 
on  both  sides  of  the  Merrimack,  extending  south- 
wardly from  the  branch  called  Contoocook.  This 
grant  awakened  the  attention  of  others ;  and  a  mo 
tion  was  made  in  the  Massachusetts  assembly,  for  a 
line  of  townships,  to  extend  from  Dunstable  on  Mer 
rimack,  to  Northfield  on  Connecticut  river;  butthi 
motion  was  not  immediately  adopted.  The  assembl) 
of  New  Hampshire  was  alarmed.  Newman,  theii 
agent,  had  been  a  long  time  at  the  British  court 
soliciting  the  settlement  of  the  line,  and  a  supply  o 
military  stores  for  the  fort.  Fresh  instructions  were 
sent  to  him  to  expedite  the  business,  and  to  submi 
the  settlement  of  the  line  to  the  king.  A  committee 
was  appointed  to  go  to  Penacook,  to  confer  with  a 
committee  of  Massachusetts,  then  employed  in  laying 
out  the  lands,  and  to  remonstrate  against  their  pro 
ceeding.  A  survey  of  other  lands  near  Winipiseogee 
lake,  was  ordered ;  that  it  might  be  known,  wha 
number  of  townships  could  be  laid  out,  independently 
of  the  Massachusetts  claim.  On  the  other  hand 
the  heirs  of  Allen  renewed  their  endeavours,  and  one 
of  them,  John  Hobby,  petitioned  the  assembly  tc 
compound  with  him  for  his  claim  to  half  the  pro 
vince ;  but  the  only  answer  which  he  could  obtain 
was  that  "  the  courts  of  law  were  competent  to  the  de 
termination  of  titles,"  aud  his  petition  was  dismissed 
Both  provinces  became  earnestly  engaged.  Mas 
sachusetts  proposed  to  New  Hampshire  the  appoint 
ment  of  commissioners  to  establish  the  line.  The 
New  Hampshire  assembly  refused,  because  they  ha< 


ubmitted  the  case  to  the  king.  The  Massachusetts 
jeople,  foreseeing  that  the  result  of  this  application 
might  prove  unfavourable  to  their  claim  of  jurisdic- 
ion,  were  solicitous  to  secure  to  themselves  the  pro- 
perty of  the  lands  in  question.  Accordingly,  the 
iroposed  line  of  townships  being  surveyed,  "pre- 
sences were  encouraged  and  even  sought  after,  to 
entitle  persons  to  be  grantees."  The  descendants 
of  the  officers  and  soldiers,  who  had  been  employed 
n  expeditions  against  the  Narraganset  Indians,  and 
against  Canada,  in  the  preceding  century,  were  ad- 
mitted; and  the  survivors  of  the  late  Captain  Love- 
well's  company,  with  the  heirs  of  the  deceased,  had 
a  select  tract  granted  to  them  at  Suncook.  There 
was  an  appearance  of  gratitude  in  making  these 
grants,  and  there  would  have  been  policy  in  it,  had 
the  grantees  been  able  to  comply  with  the  conditions. 
(1727.)  New  Hampshire  followed  the  example,  and 
made  grants  of  the  townships  of  Epsom,  Chichester, 
Barnste'ad,  Canterbury,  Gilmantown,  and  Bow.  All 
these,  excepting  the  last,  were  undoubtedly  within 
their  limits ;  but  the  grant  of  Bow  interfered  with 
the  grants  which  Massachusetts  had  made  at  Pena- 
cook and  Suncook,  and  gave  rise  to  a  litigation  te- 
dious, expensive,  and  of  forty  years  continuance. 

These  tracts  of  land  granted  by  both  provinces 
were  too  numerous  and  extensive.  It  was  impracti- 
cable to  fulfil  the  conditions,  on  which  the  grants 
were  made.  Had  the  same  liberal  policy  prevailed 
here  as  in  Pennsylvania,  and  had  the  importation 
of  emigrants  from  abroad  been  encouraged,  the 
country  might  have  been  soon  filled  with  inhabitants; 
but  the  people  of  Londonderry  were  already  looked 
upon  with  a  jealous  eye,  and  a  farther  intrusion  of 
strangers  was  feared,  lest  they  should  prove  a  bur- 
den and  charge  to  the  community  People  could 
not  be  spared  from  the  old  towns.  Penacook  was 
almost  the  only  settlement  which  was  effected  by 
emigrants  from  Massachusetts.  A  small  beginning 
was  made  by  the  New  Hampshire  proprietors  at 
Bow,  on  Suncook  river;  but  the  most  (if  the  inter- 
mediate country  remained  uncultivated  for  many 
years.  Schemes  of  settlement  were  indeed  continu- 
ally forming ;  meetings  of  proprietors  were  frequently 
held,  and  an  avaricious  spirit  of  speculation  in  landed 
property  prevailed,  but  the  real  wealth  and  improve- 
ment of  the  country  instead  of  being  promoted  were 
retarded. 

On  the  death  of  King  George  I.,  the  assembly, 
which  had  subsisted  five  years,  was  of  course  dis- 
solved; and  writs  for  the  election  of  another  were 
issued  in  the  name  of  George  II.  The  long  continu- 
ance of  this  assembly  was  principally  owing  to  the 
absence  of  Governor  Shute,  in  whose  administration 
it  commenced,  and  the  uncertainty  of  his  return  or 
the  appointment  of  a  successor.  It  had  been  deemed 
a  grievance,  and  an  attempt  had  been  made  in  17 24, 
to  limit  the  duration  of  assemblies  to  three  years,  in 
conformity  to  the  custom  of  England.  At  the  meet- 
ing of  the  new  assembly,  the  first  business  which 
they  took  up  was  to  move  for  a  triennial  act.  The 
Lieut.-governor  was  disposed  to  gratify  them.  Both 
houses  agreed  in  framing  an  act  for  a  triennial  as- 
sembly, in  which  the  duration  of  the  present  assem- 
bly was  limited  to  three  years  (unless  sooner  dis- 
solved by  the  commander  in  chief),  writs  were  to 
issue  fifteen  days  at  least  before  a  new  election;  the 
qualification  of  a  representative  was  declared  to  be 
a  freehold  estate  of  300J.  talue  The"  qualification 
of  an  elector  was  a  real  estate  of  50/..  within  the 
town  or  precinct  where  the  election  should  be  made, 
but  habitancy  was  not  required  in  either  case ,  the 


468 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


select  men  of  the  town,  with  the  moderator  of  the 
meeting,  were  constituted  judges  of  the  qualifica- 
tions of  electors,  saving  an  appeal  to  the  house  of 
representatives.  This  act  having  been  passed  in 
due  form,  received  the  royal  approbation,  and  was 
the  only  act  which  could  be  called  a  constitution  or 
form  of  government,  established  by  the  people  of 
New  Hampshire;  all  other  parts  of  their  govern- 
ment being  founded  on  royal  commissions  and  in- 
structions. But  this  act  was  defective,  in  not  deter- 
mining by  whom  the  writs  should  be  issued,  and  in 
not  describing  the  places  from  which  representatives 
should  be  called  either  by  name,  extent,  or  popula- 
tion. This  defect  gave  birth  to  a  long  and  bitter 
controversy,  as  will  be  seen  hereafter. 

The  triennial  act  being  passed,  the  house  were 
disposed  to  make  other  alterations  in  the  govern- 
ment. An  appeal  was  allowed  in  all  civil  cases  from 
the  inferior  to  the  superior  court ;  if  the  matter  in 
controversy  exceeded  100/.,  another  appeal  was  al- 
lowed to  the  governor  and  council,  and  if  it  exceeded 
300/.,  to  the  king  in  council.  The  appeal  to  fhe 
governor  in  council  was  first  established  by  Cult's 
commission,  and  continued  by  subsequent  commis- 
sions and  instructions.  In  Queen  Anne's  time,  it 
was  complained  of  as  a  grievance,  that  the  gover- 
nor and  council  received  appeals  and  decided  causes, 
without  taking  an  oath  to  do  justice.  An  oath  was 
then  prescribed  and  taken.  The  authority  of  this 
court  had  been  recognised  by  several  clauses  in  the 
laws,  but  was  disrelished  by  many  of  the  people, 
partly  because  the  judges  who  had  before  decided 
cases,  were  generally  members  of  the  council;  partly 
because  no  injury  was  admitted  in  this  court  of  ap- 
peal, and  partly  because  no  such  institution  was 
known  in  the  neighbouring  province  of  Massachu- 
setts. The  house  moved  for  a  repeal  of  the  several 
clauses  in  the  laws  relative  to  this  obnoxious  court; 
the  council  non-concurred  their  vote,  and  referred 
them  to  the  royal  instructions.  The  house  persisted 
in  their  endeavours,  and  the  council  in  their  oppo- 
sition. Both  sides  grew  warm,  and  there  was  no 
prospect  of  an  accommodation.  The  lieut-governor 
put  an  end  to  the  session,  and  soon  after  dissolved 
the  assembly  by  proclamation. 

(1728.)  A  new  assembly  was  called;  the  same 
persons,  with  but  two  01  three  exceptions,  were 
re-elected,  and  the  same  spirit  appeared  in  all  their 
transactions.  They  chose  for  their  speaker  Natha- 
niel Weare,  who  had  been  speaker  of  the  former 
assembly,  and  having  as  usual  presented  him  to  the 
lieut-governor,  he  negatived  the  choice.  The  house 
desired  to  know  by  what  authority  ;  he  produced  his 
commission ;  nothing  appeared  in  that  which  satisfied 
them ;  and  they  adjourned  from  day  to  day  without 
doing  any  business.  After  nine  days  they  chose 
another  speaker,  Andrew  Wiggin,  and  sent  up  the 
vote,  with  a  preamble,  justifying  their  former  choice. 
The  lieut.-governor  approved  of  the  speaker,  but 
disapproved  the  preamble ;  and  thus  the  controversy 
closed,  each  side  retaining  their  own  opinion.  The 
speeches  and  messages  from  the  chair,  and  the  an- 
swers from  the  house  during  this  session  were  filled 
with  reproaches;  the  public  business  was  conducted 
with  ill  humour,  and  the  house  carried  their  opposi- 
tion so  far  as  to  pass  a  vote  for  addressing  the  king  to 
annex  the  province  to  Massachusetts :  to  this  vote 
the  council  made  no  answer.  But  as  a  new  gover- 
nor was  expected,  they  agreed  in  appointing  a  com- 
mittee of  both  houses  to  go  to  Boston,  and  compli- 
ment him  on  his  arrival. 

The  expected  governor  was  William  Burnet,  son 


of  the  celebrated  Bishop  of  Sarum,  whose  name  was 
dear  to  the  people  of  New  England,  as  a  steady  and 
active  friend  to  civil  and  religious  liberty.  Mr.  Bur- 
net  was  a  man  of  good  understanding  and  polite 
literature ;  fond  of  books  and  of  the  conversation  of 
literary  men;  but  an  enemy  to  ostentation  and  pa- 
rade. He  had  been  governor  of  New  York  and 
New  Jersey,  and  quitted  those  provinces  with  reluc- 
tance, to  make  way  for  another  person,  for  whom  the 
British  ministry  had  to  provide.  Whilst  at  New 
York  he  was  very  popular,  and  his  fame  having 
reached  New  England,  the  expectations  of  the  peo- 
ple were  much  raised  on  the  news  of  his  appointment 
to  the  government  of  Massachusetts  and  New  Hamp- 
shire. Lieut.  Governor  Wentworth  characterised 
him  in  one  of  his  speeches  as  "  a  gentlemen  of 
known  worth,  having  justly  obtained  an  universal 
regard  from  all  who  have  had  the  honour  to  be  under 
his  government."  He  was  received  with  much  pa- 
rade at  Boston,  whither  the  lieut.-goveruor  of  New 
Hampshire,  with  a  committee  of  the  council  and 
assembly,  went  to  compliment  him  on  his  arrival. 

Mr.  Burnet  had  positive  instructions  from  the 
crown  to  insist  on  the  establishment  of  a  permanent 
salary  in  both  his  provinces.  He  began  with  Massa- 
chusetts, and  held  a  long  controversy  with  the  gene- 
ral court  to  no  purpose.  In  New  Hampshire  a  pre- 
cedent had  been  established  in  the  administration  of 
Dudley,  which  was  favourable  to  his  views.  Though 
some  of  the  assembly  were  averse  to  a  permanent  sa- 
lary, yet  the  lieut.-governor  had  so  much  interest 
with  them — by  virtue  of  having  made  them  propri- 
etors in  the  lately  granted  townships — that  they  were 
induced  to  consent ;  on  condition  that  he  should  be 
allowed  one  third  part  of  the  salary,  and  they  should 
be  discharged  from  all  obligations  to  him.  (1729.) 
This  bargain  being  concluded,  the  house  passed  a 
vote,  with  which  the  council  concurred,  to  pay, 
"  Governor  Burnet,  for  the  term  of  three  years,  or 
during  his  administration,  the  sum  of  two  hundred 
pounds  sterling,  or  six  hundred  pounds  in  bills  of 
credit ;  which  sum  was  to  be  in  full  of  all  demands 
from  this  government  for  his  salary  ;  and  all  ex- 
penses in  coming  to,  tarrying  in,  or  going  from  this 
province ;  and  also  for  any  allowance  to  be  made  to 
the  lieut.-governor ;  and  that  the  excise  on  liquors 
should  be  appropriated  to  that  use."  To  this  vote 
six  of  the  representatives  entered  their  dissent. 

The  governor  came  but  once  into  New  Hampshire. 
His  death,  which  happened  after  a  few  months,  was 
supposed  to  be  occasioned  by  the  ill  effect  which  his 
controversy  with  Massachusetts,  and  the  disappoint- 
ment which  he  suffered,  had  on  his  nerves. 

(1730.)  When  the  death  of  governor  Burnet  was 
known  in  England  the  resentment  against  the  pro- 
vince of  Massachusetts  was  very  high,  on  account 
of  their  determined  refusal  to  fix  a  salary  on  the 
king's  governor.  It  was  even  proposed  to  reduce 
them  to  "  a  more  absolute  dependence  on  the  crown;" 
but  a  spirit  of  moderation  prevailed ;  and  it  was 
thought  that  Mr.  Jonathan  Belcher,  then  in  England, 
being  a  native  of  the  province,  and  well  acquainted 
with  the  temper  of  his  countrymen,  would  have  more 
influence  than  a  stranger  to  carry  the  favourite  point 
of  a  fixed  salary.  His  appointment  as  governor  of 
New  Hampshire  was  merely  an  appendage  to  his 
other  commission. 

Belcher  was  a  merchant  of  large  fortune  and  un- 
blemished reputation.  He  had  spent  six  years  in 
Europe,  had  been  twice  at  the  court  of  Hanover 
before  the  protestant  succession  took  place  in  the 
family  of  Brunswick,  and  had  received  from  the 


UNITED  STATES. 


Princess  Sophia  a  rich  gold  medal.  He  was  grace- 
ful in  his  person,  elegant  and  polite  in  his  manners, 
of  a  lofty  and  aspiring  disposition,  a  steady,  gene- 
rous friend,  a  vindictive  but  not  implacable  enemy. 
Frank  and  sincere,  he  was  extremely  liberal  in  his 
censures,  both  in  conversation  and  letters.  Having 
a  high  sense  of  the  dignity  of  his  commission,  he 
determined  to  support  it,  even  at  the  expense  of  his 
private  fortune  ;  the  emoluments  of  office  in  both 
provinces  being  inadequate  to  the  style  in  which  he 
chose  to  live. 

Whilst  he  was  in  England,  and  it  was  uncertain 
whether  he  would  be  appointed  or  Shute  would  re- 
turn, Wentworth  wrote  letters  of  compliment  to 
both.  Belcher  knew  nothing  of  the  letter  to  Shute 
till  his  arrival  in  America,  and  after  he  had  made  a 
visit  to  New  Hampshire,  and  had  been  entertained 
at  the  house  of  the  lieut.-governor.  He  was  then 
informed  that  Wentworth  had  written  a  letter  to 
Shute,  of  the  same  tenor  as  that  to  himself.  This 
he  deemed  an  act  of  duplicity.  How  far  it  was  so, 
cannot  now  be  determined.  The  persuasion  was  so 
strong  in  the  mind  of  Belcher,  that  on  his  next  visit 
to  Portsmouth  he  refused  an  invitation  to  Went- 
worth's  house.  This  was  not  the  only  way  in  which 
he  manifested  his  displeasure.  When  the  affair  of 
the  salary  came  before  the  assembly,  he  not  only 
refused  to' make  such  a  compromise  as  Burnet  had 
done;  but  obliged  the  lieut.-governor  under  his 
hand  "  to  quit  all  claim  to  any  part  of  the  salary, 
and  to  acknowledge  that  he  had  no  expectation  from, 
or  dependence  on,  the  assembly  for  any  allowance, 
but  that  he  depended  wholly  on  the  governor."  The 
same  salary  was  then  voted,  and  in  nearly  the  same 
words,  as  to  his  predecessor.  He  allowed  the  lieut.- 
governor  the  fees  and  perquisites  only  which  arose 
from  registers,  certificates,  licenses,  and  passes, 
amounting  to  about  fifty  pounds  sterling.  Went- 
worth and  his  friends  were  disappointed  and  dis- 
gusted. He  himself  did  not  long  survive  ;  being 
seized  with  a  lethargic  disorder,  he  died  December 
12th,  in  the  fifty-ninth  year  of  his  age ;  but  his 
family  connexions  resented  the  affront,  and  drew  a 
considerable  party  into  their  views.  Benning  Went- 
worth, his  son,  and  Theodore  Atkinson,  who  had 
married  his  daughter,  were  at  the  head  of  the  op- 
position. The  latter  was  removed  from  his  office  of 
collector  of  customs,  to  make  room  for  Richard 
Wibird ;  the  naval  office  was  taken  from  him  and 
given  to  Ellis  Huske;  and  the  office  of  high  sheriff, 
which  he  had  held,  was  divided  between  him  and 
Eleazer  Russell.  Other  alterations  were  made, 
which  greatly  offended  the  friends  of  the  late  lieut.- 
governor;  but  Belcher,  satisfied  that  his  conduct 
was  agreeable  to  his  commission  and  instructions, 
disregarded  his  opponents,  and  apprehended  no 
danger  from  their  resentment.  Atkinson  was  a 
man  of  humour,  and  took  occasion  to  express  his 
disgust  in  a  singular  manner.  The  governor,  who 
was  fond  of  parade,  had  ordered  a  troop  of  horse  to 
meet  him  on  the  road  and  escort  him  to  Portsmouth. 
The  officers  of  the  government  met  him,  and  joined 
the  cavalcade.  Atkinson  was  tardy ;  but  when  he 
appeared,  having  broken  the  sheriff's  wand,  he  held 
one  half  in  his  hand.  Being  chid  by  the  governor 
for  not  appearing  sooner,  he  begged  his  excellency 
to  excuse  him,  because  he  had  but  half  a  horse 
to  ride. 

In  addition  to  what  has  been  observed  respecting 
lieut-governor  Wentworth,  the  following  portrait  of 
his  character,  by  some  contemporary  friend,  deserves 
remembrance. 


"  He  was  born  at  Portsmouth,  of  worthy  parents, 
from  whom  he  had  a  religious  education.  His  incli- 
nation leading  him  to  the  sea,  he  soon  became  a 
commander  of  note,  and  gave  a  laudable  example  to 
that  order  by  his  sober  behaviour  and  his  constant 
care  to  uphold  the  worship  of  God  in  his  ship. 
Wherever  he  came,  by  his  discreet  and  obliging  de- 
portment, he  gained  the  love  and  esteem  of  those 
with  whom  he  conversed. 

"  On  his  leaving  the  sea,  he  had  considerable 
business  as  a  merchant,  and  always  had  the  reputa- 
tion of  a  fair  and  generous  dealer.' 

"  He  has  approved  himself  to  the  general  accep- 
tance of  his  majesty's  good  subjects  throughout  this 
province,  and  under  his  mild  administration,  we 
enjoyed  great  quietness. 

"  He  was  a  gentleman  of  good  natural  abilities, 
much  improved  by  conversation  ;  remarkably  civil 
and  kind  to  strangers — respectful  to  the  ministers 
of  the  gospel — a  lover  of  good  men  of  all  denomina- 
tions— compassionate  and  bountiful  to  the  poor — 
courteous  and  affable  to  all — having  a  constant 
regard  to  the  duties  of  divine  worship,  in  private 
and  public,  and  paying  a  due  deference  to  all 
the  sacred  institutions  of  Christ.  He  had  sixteen 
children." 

Dunbar's  Lieutenancy  and  enmity  to  Belcher— Ef- 
forts to  settle  the  boundary  lines — Divisions — Riot 
—  Trade — Episcopal  Church — Throat  distemper. 

(1731.)  Mr.  Wentworth  was  succeeded  in  the 
lieutenancy  by  David  Dunbar,  Esq.,  a  native  of 
Ireland,  and  a  reduced  colonel  in  the  British  ser- 
vice ;  who  was  also  deputed  to  be  surveyor  of  the 
king's  woods.  This  appointment  was  made  by  the 
recommendation  of  the  board  of  trade ;  of  which 
Colonel  Bladen  was  an  active  member,  who  bore  no 
good  will  to  Governor  Belcher,  Dunbar  had  been 
commander  of  a  fort  at  Pernaquid,  which  it  was  in 
contemplation  to  annex  to  Nova  Scotia.  He  had 
taken  upon  him  to  govern  the  few  scattered  people 
in  that  district,  with  a  degree  of  rigor  to  which  they 
could  not  easily  submit.  This  conduct  had  already 
opened  a  controversy,  between  him  and  the  province 
of  Massachusetts ;  and  it  was  very  unfortunate  for 
Belcher  to  have  such  a  person  connected  with  both 
his  governments.  What  were  the  merits,  which  re- 
commended Dunbar  to  these  stations,  it  is  not  easy 
at  this  time  to  determine ;  the  only  qualifications, 
which  appear  to  have  pleaded  in  his  favour,  were 
poverty  and  the  friendship  of  men  in  power.  He  was 
an  instrument  of  intrigue  and  disaffection  ;  and  he  no 
sooner  made  his  appearance  in  New  Hampshire,  than 
he  joined  the  party  who  were  in  opposition  to  the  go- 
vernor. Belcher  perceived  the  advantage  which  his 
enemies  would  derive  from  this  alliance,  and  made  all 
the  efforts  in  his  power  to  displace  him.  In  his  letters 
to  the  ministry,  to  the  board  of  trade,  and  to  his 
friends  in  England,  he  continually  represented  him 
in  the  worst  light,  and  solicited  his  removal.  It  is 
not  improbable,  that  his  numerous  letters  of  this 
kind,  written  in  his  usual  style,  with  great  freedom 
and  without  any  reserve,  might  confirm  the  suspi- 
cions raised  by  the  letters  of  his  adversaries,  and 
induced  the  ministry  to  keep  Dunbar  in  place,  as  a 
check  upon  Belcher,  and  to  preserve  the  balance  of 
parties. 

Within  a  few  weeks  after  Dunbar's  coming  to 
Portsmouth,  a  complaint  was  drawn  up  against  Bel- 
cher, and  signed  by  fifteen  persons;  alleging  that 
his  government  was  grievous,  oppressive,  and  arbi- 
trary, and  praying  the  king  for  his  removal.  This 


470 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


roused  the  governor's  friends,  at  the  head  of  whom 
was  Richard  Waldron,  the  secretary,  who  drew  up 
a  counter  address,  and  procured  a  hundred  names 
to  be  subscribed.  Both  addresses  reached  England 
about  the  same  time.  Richard  Partridge,  Mr.  Bel- 
cher's brother  in  law,  in  conjunction  with  his  son, 
Jonathan  Belcher,  then  a  student  in  the  Temple, 
applied  for  a  copy  of  the  complaint  against  him,  at 
the  plantation  office,  and  obtained  it ;  but  could  not 
get  sight  of  the  letters  which  accompanied  it,  though, 
on  the  foundation  of  those  letters,  a  representation 
had  been  made  by  the  board  of  trade  to  the  king. 

The  only  effect  which  Dunbar's  letters  had  at  that 
time,  was  to  procure  the  appointment  of  Theodore 
Atkinson,  Benning  Wentworth,  and  Joshua  Peirce, 
to  be  counsellors  of  New  Hampshire ;  and  though 
Belcher  remonstrated  to  the  secretary  of  state  against 
these  appointments,  and  recommended  other  persons 

t    i  •*  n         Al     .1 


to  be  disposed  of  by  them.  On  both  suppositions 
the  people  of  New  Hampshire  can  have  no  property 
in  the  lands,  and  therefore  why  should  they  be 
zealous  about  the  division,  or  tax  themselves  to  pay 
the  expense  of  it  ? 

The  governor,  as  obliged  by  his  instructions,  fre- 
quently urged  the  settlement  of  the  lines  in  his 
speeches,  and  declared,  that  the  assembly  of  New 
Hampshire  had  done  more  toward  effecting  it,  than 
that  of  Massachusetts.  A  committee  from  both  pro- 
vinces met  at  Newbury  in  the  autumn  of  1731,  on 
this  long  contested  affair;  but  the  influence  of  that 
party  in  Massachusetts,  of  which  Elisha  Cooke  was 
at  the  head,  prevented  an  accommodation.  Soon 
after  this  fruitless  conference,  the  representatives  of 
New  Hampshire,  of  whom  a  majority  was  in  favour 
of  settling  the  line,  determined  no  longer  to  treat 
with  Massachusetts ;  but  to  represent  the  matter  to 

in  their  room,  he  could  not  prevail,  any  farther  than  j  the  king,  and  petition  him  to  decide  the  controversy, 
to  delay  the  admission  of  the  two  former  for  about  J  Newman's  commission,  as  agent,  having  expired, 
two  years ;  during  which  time  they  were  elected  into  I  they  chose  for  this  pm'pose  John  Rindge,  merchant, 
the  house  of  representatives,  and  kept  up  the  oppo-  •  of  Portsmouth,  then  bound  on  a  voyage  to  London, 
sition  there.  The  recommendations,  which  he  made  The  appointment  of  this  gentleman  was  fortunate 
of  other  persons,  were  duly  attended  to  when  vacan-  j  for  them,  not  only  as  he  had  large  connexions  in 
cies  happened  ;  and  thus  the  council  was  composed  j  England;  but  as  he  was  capable  of  advancing  money, 
of  his  friends,  and  his  enemies.  The  civil  officers,  !  to  carry  on  the  solicitation.  The  council,  a  majority 
whom  he  appointed,  were  sometimes  superseded  by  !  of  which  was  in  the  opposite  interest,  did  neither  con- 
persons  recommended  and  sent  from  England;  and  cur  in  the  appointment,  nor  consent  to  the  petition, 
in  one  instance,  a  commission  for  the  naval  office,  (1732.)  Mr.  Rindge,  on  his  arrival  in  England, 
in  favour  of  a  Mr.  Reynolds,  son  of  the  Bishop  of  |  petitioned  the  king  in  his  own  name,  and  in  behalf 
Lincoln,  was  filled  up  in  England,  and  sent  over  j  of  the  representatives  of  New  Hampshire,  to  estab- 
with  orders  for  him  to  sign  it ;  which  he  was  obliged  lish  the  boundaries  of  the  province ;  but  his  private 
punctually  to  obey.  affairs  requiring  his  return  to  America,  he  did, 

From  the  confidential  letters  of  the  leading  men  agreeably  to  his  instructions,  leave  the  business  in 
on  both  sides,  the  views  of  each  party  may  plainly  !  the  hands  of  Captain  John  Thornlinson,  merchant, 
be  seen;  though  they  endeavoured  to  conceal  them  j  of  London,  who  was  well  known  in  New  Hamp- 
from  each  other.  The  governor  and  his  friends  had  shire,  where  he  had  frequently  been  in  quality  of  a 
projected  an  union  of  New  Hampshire  with  Massa-  ;  sea  commander.  He  was  a  gentleman  of  great 
chusetts ;  but  were  at  a  loss  by  what  means  to  bring  penetration,  industry,  and  address  ;  and  having 
it  into  effect.  The  most  desirable  method  would  fully  entered  into  the  views  of  Belcher's  opponents, 
Kave  been,  an  unanimity  in  the  people  of  New  ;  prosecuted  the  affair  of  the  line,  "with  ardour  and 
Hampshire,  in  petitioning  the  crown  for  it :  but  as  '  diligence ;"  employing  for  his  solicitor,  Ferdinando 
this  could  not  be  had,  the  project  was  kept  out  of  j  John  Parris ;  who,  being  well  supplied  with  money, 
sight,  till  some  favourable  opportunity  should  present.  |  was  indefatigable  in  his  attention.  The  petition 


The  other  party  contemplated  not  only  the  con- 
tinuance of  a  separate  government,  but  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  distinct  governor,  who  should  reside  in 
the  province,  and  have  no  connexion  with  Massa- 
chusetts. The  greatest  obstacle  in  their  way,  was 


was  of  course  referred  to  the  lords  of  trade,  and 
Francis  Wilks,  the  agent  of  Massachusetts,  was 
served  with  a  copy  to  be  sent  to  his  constituents. 

Whilst  the  matter  of  the  line  was  pending  on  the 
British  side  of  the  Atlantic,  the  parties  in  New  Hamp- 


the  smallness  and  poverty  of  the  province,   which   shire  maintained  their  opposition,  and  were  on  ail 
•was  not  able  to  support  a  gentleman  in  the  charac-  j  occasions  vilifying  and  abusing  each  other,  especially 

rr\  ji    *         _1__j. 1-        'A.    _..  ji       •       I_JA  j         1 1        •       f>    •     __    1        •        -n          i  I  r\         .1 


ter  of  governor.  To  remove  this  obstacle,  it  was 
necessary  to  have  the  limits  of  territories,  not  only 
fixed,  but  enlarged.  They  were  therefore  zealous 
in  their  attempts  for  this  purpose ;  and  had  the  ad- 
dress to  persuade  a  majority  of  the  people,  that  they 
would  be  gainers  by  the  establishment  of  the  lines ; 
that  the  lands  would  be  granted  to  them  and  their 
children;  and  that  the  expense  of  obtaining  the 
settlement  would  be  so  trifling,  that  each  man's 
share  would  not  exceed  the  value  of  a  pullet. 

The  governor's  friends  were  averse  to  pressing 
the  settlement  of  the  line ;  and  their  reasons  were 
these.  The  controversy  is  either  between  the  king 
and  the  subjects  of  his  charter  government  of  Mas- 
sachusetts ;  or  else,  between  the  heirs  of  Mason  and 
Allen,  and  the  people  of  Massachusetts.  If  the 
controversy  be  settled  even  in  favour  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, the  lands  which  fall  within  the  line  will  be 
either  the  king's  property,  to  be  granted  by  his  go- 
vernor and  council,  according  to  royal  instructions; 
or  else  the  property  of  the  heirs  of  Mason  or  Allen, 


in  their  letters  to  their  friends  in  England.  On  the 
one  side,  Belcher  incessantly  represented  Dunbar  as 
the  fomenter  of  opposition ;  as  false,  perfidious,  ma- 
licious, and  revengeful ;  that  he  did  no  service  to 
the  crown,  nor  to  himself,  but  was  "  a  plague  to 
the  governor  and  a  deceiver  of  the  people."  He 
was  also  very  liberal  in  his  reflections,  on  his  other 
opposers.  On  the  other  side,  they  represented  him 
as  unfriendly  to  the  royal  interest,  as  obstructing 
the  settlement  of  the  lines,  conniving  at  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  king's  timber ;  and  partial  to  his  other 
government,  where  all  his  interest  lay ;  and  that  he 
had  not  even  a  freehold  in  New  Hampshire.  (1733.) 
As  an  instance  of  his  partiality,  they  alleged  that  in 
almost  every  session  of  the  Assembly  of  Massachu- 
setts, he  consented  to  grants  of  the  disputed  lands, 
to  the  people  of  that  province;  by  which  means 
their  Assembly  raised  money,  to  enable  their  agent 
to  protract  the  controversy,  that  they  might  have 
opportunities  to  lay  out  more  townships ;  while  at 
the  same  time  he  rejected  a  supply  bill  of  the  New 


UNITED  STATES. 


471 


Hampshire  Assembly,  and  dissolved  them,  because 
that  in  it,  they  had  made  an  appropriation  for  their 
agent.  The  truth  was,  that  the  council  did  not  con- 
sent to  the  bill,  because  they  had  no  hand  in  ap- 
pointing the  agent,  and  the  bill  never  came  before 
the  governor.  The  frequent  dissolution  of  assem- 
blies was  another  subject  of  complaint;  and,  in 
fact,  this  measure  never  produced  the  desired  effect; 
for  the  same  persons  were  generally  re-elected,  and 
rro  reconciling  measures  were  adopted  by  either  party. 

(1734.)  The  governor  frequently  complained,  in 
his  speeches,  that  the  public  debts  were  not  paid  ; 
nor  the  fort,  prison,  and  other  public  buildings  kept 
in  repair,  because  of  their  failure  in  supplying  the 
treasury.  The  true  reason  of  their  not  supplying  it 
was,  that  they  wanted  issues  of  paper  money,  to  be 
drawn  in  at  distant  periods ;  to  this  the  governor 
could  not  consent,  being  restrained  by  a  royal  in- 
struction, as  well  as  in  principle  opposed  to  all  such 
practices.  But  one  issue  of  paper  was  made  in  his 
administration ;  and  for  its  redemption,  a  fund  was 
established  in  hemp,  iron,  and  other  productions  of 
the  country.  When  a  number  of  merchants  and 
others  had  combined  to  issue  notes,  to  supply  the 
place  of  a  currency,  he  issued  a  proclamation 
against  them ;  and  in  his  next  speech  to  the  assem- 
bly, condemned  them  in  very  severe  terms.  The 
assembly  endeavoured  to  vindicate  the  character  of 
the  bills ;  but  in  a  few  days  he  dissolved  them,  with 
a  reprimand,  charging  them  with  trilling,  with  in- 
justice and  hypocrisy.  It  must  be  remembered 
that  his  complaints  of  an  empty  treasury  were  not 
occasioned  by  any  failure  of  his  own  salary,  which 
was  regularly  paid  out  of  the  excise. 

Belcher  revived  the  idea  of  his  predecessor  Shute, 
which  was  also  countenanced  by  his  instructions, 
that  he  was  virtually  present  in  New  Hampshire 
when  personally  absent  and  attending  his  duty  in 
his  other  province  ;  and  therefore  that  the  lieut.- 
governor  could  do  nothing  but  by  his  orders.  Dun- 
bar  had  no  seat  in  the  council,  and  Shadrach 
Walton  being  senior  member,  by  the  governor's 
order  summoned  them  and  presided.  He  also  held 
the  command  of  the  fort,  by  the  governor's  commis- 
sion ;  granted  passes  for  ships,  and  licenses  for  mar- 
riage ;  and  received  and  executed  military  orders, 
as  occasion  required.  The  lieutenant-governor 
contested  this  point,  but  could  not  prevail ;  and 
finding  himself  reduced  to  a  state  of  insignificance, 
he  retired  in  disgust  to  his  fort  at  Pemaquid,  where 
he  resided  almost  two  years.  The  governor's  friends 
gave  out  that  he  had  absconded  for  debt,  and  affected 
to  triumph  over  the  opposition,  as  poor  and  im- 
potent; but  their  complaints,  supported  by  their 
agent  Thomlinson,  and  the  influence  of  Bladen  at 
the  Board  of  Trade,  made  an  impression  there  much 
to  the  disadvantage  of  Mr.  Belcher,  though  he  had 
friends  among  the  ministry  and  nobility,  the  prin- 
cipal of  whom  was  Lord  Townsend,  by  whose  influ- 
ence he  had  obtained  his  commission. 

After  Dunbar's  return  to  Portsmouth  the  gover- 
nor thought  it  good  policy  to  relax  his  severity;  and 
gave  him  the  command  of  the  fort,  with  the  ordinary 
perquisites  of  office,  amounting  to  about  fifty  pounds 
sterling.  Not  content  with  this,  he  complained  that 
the  governor  did  not  allow  him  one  third  of  his 
salary.  The  governor's  salary  was  but  600£. 
currency;  and  he  spent  at  least  one  hundred  in 
every  journey  to  New  Hampshire,  of  which  he  made 
two  in  a  year.  At  the  same  time  Dunbar  had  two 
hundred  pounds  sterling,  as  surveyor  general  of  the 
woods ;  which,  with  the  perquisites,  amounting  to 


one  hundred  more,  were  divided  between  him  and 
his  deputies.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  he 
was  deeply  in  debt,  both  here  and  in  England. 

The  rigid  execution  of  the  office  of  surveyor  ge- 
neral had  always  been  attended  with  difficulty ;  ana 
the  violent  manner  in  which  Dunbar  proceeded  with 
trespassers,  raised  a  spirit  of  opposition  on  such 
occasions.  The  statutes  for  the  preservation  of  the 
woods  im powered  the  surveyor  to  seize  all  logs  cut 
from  white  pine  trees  without  license  ;  and  it  rested 
on  the  claimant  to  prove  his  property  in  the  court  of 
admiralty.  Dunbar  went  to  the  saw-mills,  where 
he  seized  and  marked  large  quantities  of  lumber; 
and  with  an  air  and  manner  to  which  he  had  been 
accustomed  in  his  military  capacity,  abused  and 
threatened  the  people.  That  class  of  men  with 
whom  he  was  disposed  to  contend  are  not  easily  in- 
timidated with  high  words;  and  he  was  not  a  match 
for  them  in  that  species  of  controversy  which 
they  have  denominated  swamp  law.  An  instance  of 
this  happened  at  Dover,  whither  he  came  with  his 
boat's  crew  to  remove  a  parcel  of  boards  which  he 
had  seized.  The  owner,  Paul  Gerrish,  warned  him 
of  the  consequence;  Dunbar  threatened  with  death 
the  first  man  who  should  obstruct  his  intentions  ;  the 
same  threat  was  returned  to  the  first  man  who  should 
remove  the  boards.  Dunbar's  prudence  at  this  time 
got  the  better  of  his  courage,  and  he  retired. 

With  the  like  spirit,  an  attempt  of  the  same  kind 
was  frustrated  at  Exeter,  whither  he  sent  a  company 
in  a  boat  to  remove  lumber.  Whilst  his  men  were 
regaling  themselves  at  a  public  house,  in  the  even- 
ing, and  boasting  of  what  they  intended  to  do  the 
next  day,  a  number  of  persons,  disguised  like  Indi- 
ans, attacked  and  beat  them  ;  whilst  others  cut  tho 
rigging  and  sails  of  the  boat,  and  made  a  hole  in  her 
bottom.  The  party  not  finding  themselves  safe  in 
the  house,  retreated  to  the  boat,  and  pushed  off;  but 
being  there  in  danger  of  sinking,  they  with  difficulty 
regained  the  shore,  and  hid  themselves  till  morning, 
when  they  returned  on  foot  to  Portsmouth. 

This  was  deemed  a  flagrant  insult.  Dunbar  sum- 
moned the  council,  and  complained  to  them  of  the 
riotous  proceedings  at  Exeter,  where  there  was  "  a 
conspiracy  against  his  life,  by  evil-minded  persons, 
who  had  hired  Indians  to  destroy  him."  He  pro- 
posed to  the  council  the  issuing  of  a  proclamation, 
offering  a  reward  to  apprehend  the  rioters.  The 
major  part  of  the  council  were  of  opinion  that  no 
proclamation  could  be  issued  but  by  the  governor. 
Information  being  sent  to  the  governor,  he  issued  a 
proclamation ;  commanding  all  magistrates  to  assist 
in  discovering  the  rioters. 

This  transaction  afforded  matter  for  complaint, 
and  a  memorial  was  drawn  up  by  Thomlinson, 
grounded  on  letters  which  he  had  received.  It  was 
suggested,  that  the  governor's  pretence  to  favour  the 
surveyor  was  deceitful ;  that  the  rioters  at  Exeter 
were  his  greatest  friends ;  that  the  council,  wholly 
devoted  to  him,  would  not  advise  to  a  proclamation 
till  they  had  sent  to  Boston — that  the  proclamation 
was  delayed — and  when  it  appeared  offered  no  re- 
ward, though  Dunbar  had  proposed  to  pay  the  money 
himself — and  that  by  reason  of  this  delay  and  omis- 
sion, the  rioters  escaped  with  impunity. 

In  justice  to  Mr,  Belcher,  it  must  be  said  that 
there  was-no  delay  on  his  part — the  proclamation 
being  sent  from  Boston  within  six  days.  It  also 
appears,  from  the  secret  and  confidential  letters  of 
the  governor,  that  he  disapproved  the  riot,  and  eveii 
called  it  rebellion  ;  that  he  gave  particular  orders 
to  the  magistrates  to  make  inquiry,  and  take  depo- 


472 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


sitions,  and  do  their  utmost  to  discover  the  rioters. 
If  he  did  not  advertise  a  reward,  it  was  because 
there  was  no  money  in  the  treasury :  and  if  Dun- 
bar  had  been  sincere  in  his  offer  to  pay  it,  he  might 
have  promised  it  by  advertisement.  The  true  rea- 
son that  the  rioters  were  riot  discovered  was,  that 
their  plan  was  so  artfully  conducted,  their  persons  so 
effectually  disguised,  and  their  confidence  in  each 
other  so  well  placed,  that  no  proof  could  be  obtained ; 
and  the  secret  remained  with  themselves,  till  the 
danger  was  ovar,  and  the  government  had  passed 
into  other  hands. 

A  law  had  been  made  for  holding  the  inferior 
court  of  common  pleas,  alternately  in  each  of  the 
four  old  towns ;  and  the  practice  had  been  con- 
tinued for  several  years,  much  to  the  convenience 
and  satisfaction  of  the  people ;  but  Dunbar  remon- 
strated against  it  to  the  board  of  trade,  and  moved 
for  a  disallowance  of  the  act,  because  the  people  who 
had  obstructed  him  in  his  office  deserved  not  so  much 
favour.  The  act  was  in  consequence  disallowed, 
and  the  courts  were  afterward  confined  to  Ports- 
mouth. (1735.)  The  order  for  disallowance  came 
to  the  hands  of  Dunbar,  who  called  a  meeting  of  the 
council,  that  they  might  advise  to  its  publication. 
A  majority  of  them  would  not  consent  till  the  origi- 
nal order  was  sent  to  Boston,  and  Governor  Belcher 
directed  the  publication  of  it.  This  transaction 
served  as  matter  of  fresh  complaint,  and  was  alleged 
as  an  argument  for  the  appointment  of  a  governor 
who  should  reside  constantly  in  the  province. 

To  finish  what  relates  to  Dunbar.  He  was  caressed 
by  the  party  in  opposition  to  Belcher,  under  the  idea 
that  he  had  interest  enough  in  England  to  obtain  a 
commission  for  the  government  of  New  Hampshire. 
In  1737  he  went  to  England  to  prosecute  his  design  ; 
where,  by  his  old  creditors  he  was  arrested  and 
thrown  into  prison.  Thomlinson  found  means  to 
liberate  him  ;  but  perceived  that  he  had  neither 
steadiness  nor  ability  for  the  station  at  which  he 
aimed,  nor  interest  enough  to  obtain  it;  though  by 
his  presence  in  England  he  served  to  keep  up  the 
opposition  to  Belcher,  and  was  used  as  a  tool  for 
that  purpose,  till  the  object  was  accomplished.  After 
which  he  was  (1743)  appointed,  by  the  East  India 
Company,  governor  of  St.  Helena. 

The  trade  of  the  province  at  this  time  consisted 
chiefly  in  the  exportation  of  lumber  and  fish  to 
Spain  and  Portugal,  and  the  Caribbee  Islands.  The 
mast  trade  was  wholly  confined  to  Great  Britain. 
In  the  winter  small  vessels  went  to  the  southern 
colonies,  with  English  and  West  India  goods,  and 
returned  with  corn  and  pork.  The  manufacture  of 
iron  within  the  province,  which  had  been  set  up  by 
the  late  Lieut.-Governor  Wentworth,  and  other  gen- 
tlemen, lay  under  discouragement,  for  want  of  ex- 
perienced and  industrious  workmen.  The  woollen 
manufacture  was  diminished,  and  sheep  were  scarcer 
than  formerly — the  common  lands  on  which  they 
used  to  feed,  being  fenced  in  by  the  proprietors.  The 
manufacture  of  linen  was  much  increased  by  means 
of  the  emigrants  from  Ireland,  who  were  skilled  in 
that  business.  No  improvements  were  made  in 
agriculture,  and  the  newly  granted  townships  were 
not  cultivated  with  spirit  or  success. 

There  had  not  been  any  settled  episcopal  church 
in  the  province  from  the  beginning,  till  about  the 
year  1732,  when  some  gentlemen  who  were  fond  of 
the  mode  of  divine  worship  in  the  church  of  Eng- 
land, contributed  to  the  erection  of  a  neat  building 
on  a  commanding  eminence,  in  Portsmouth,  which 
they  called  the  Queen's  chapel.  Mr.  Thomlinson 


was  greatly  instrumental  in  procuring  them  assis- 
tance in  England,  toward  completing  and  furnishing 
it.  It  was  consecrated  in  1734,  and  in  1736  they 
obtained  Mi.  Arthur  Brown  for  their  minister,  with 
a  salary  from  the  society  for  propagating  the  gospel 
in  foreign  parts. 

About  this  time,  the  country  was  visited  with  a 
new  epidemic  disease,  which  obtained  the  name 
of  the  throat  distemper.  The  general  description 
of  it  was  a  swelled  throat,  with  white  or  ash-coloured 
specks,  an  efflorescence  on  the  skin,  great  debility 
of  the  whole  system,  and  a  strong  tendency  to  putri- 
dity. Its  first  appearance  was  in  May  1735,  at 
Kingston  in  New  Hampshire,  an  inland  town,  sit- 
uate on  a  low  plain.  The  first  person  seized  was  a 
child,  who  died  in  three  days.  About  a  week  after,  in 
another  family,  at  the  distance  of  four  miles,  three 
children  were  successively  attacked,  who  also  died 
on  the  third  day.  It  continued  spreading  gradually 
in  that  township,  through  the  summer,  and  of  the 
first  forty  who  had  it,  none  recovered.  In  August 
it  began  to  make  its  appearance  at  Exeter,  six  miles 
north-eastward,  and  in  September  at  Boston,  fifty 
miles  southward,  though  it  was  October  before  it 
reached  Chester,  the  nearest  settlement  on  the  west 
of  Kingston.  It  continued  its  ravages  through  the 
succeeding  winter  and  spring,  and  did  not  disappear 
till  the  end  of  the  next  summer.  In  Boston  it  is 
calculated  that  4,000  had  the  distemper,  of  whom 
114  died. 

The  most  who  died  of  this  pestilence  were  children, 
and  the  distress  which  it  occasioned  was  heightened 
to  the  most  poignant  degree.  From  three  to  six 
children  were  lost  out  of  some  families,  several  buried 
four  in  a  day,  and  many  lost  all.  In  some  towns 
one  in  three,  and  in  others  one  in  four,  of  the  sick 
were  carried  off.  In  the  parish  of  Hampton  Falls 
it  raged  most  violently.  Twenty  families  buried  all 
their  children:  twenty-seven  persons  were  lost  out 
of  five  families,  and  more  than  one-sixth  part  of  the 
inhabitants  of  that  place  died  within  thirteen  months. 
In  the  whole  province  not  less  than  1,000  persons, 
of  whom  above  900  were  under  twenty  years  of  age, 
fell  victims  to  this  raging  distemper. 

Since  the  settlement  of  this  country  such  a  mor- 
tality had  not  been  known.  It  was  observed  that 
the  distemper  proved  most  fatal,  when  plentiful 
evacuations,  particularly  bleeding,  were  used ;  a  great 
prostration  of  strength  being  an  invariable  symptom. 
The  summer  of  1735,  when  the  sickness  began,  was 
unusually  wet  and  cold,  and  the  easterly  wind  greatly 
prevailed:  but  it  was  acknowledged  to  be,  not  "a 
creature  of  the  seasons,"  as  it  raged  through  every 
part  of  the  year.  Its  extent  is  said  to  have  been 
"  from  Pemaquid  to  Carolina:"  but  with  what  viru- 
lence it  raged,  or  in  what  measure  it  proved  fatal  to 
the  southward  of  New  England,  does  not  appear. 

The  same  distemper  has  made  its  appearance  at 
various  times  since.  In  1754  and  1755,  it  produced 
a  great  mortality  in  several  parts  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  the  neighbouring  parts  of  Massachusetts. 
Since  that  time  it  has  either  put  on  a  milder  form, 
or  physicians  have  become  better  acquainted  with 
it.  The  last  time  of  its  general  spreading  was  in 
1784,  5,  6,  and  7.  It  was  then  first  seen  at  San- 
ford  in  the  county  of  York,  and  thence  diffused  itself 
very  slowly  through  most  of  the  towns  of  New  Eng- 
land; but  its  virulence,  and  the  mortality  which  it 
caused,  were  comparatively  inconsiderable.  "  Its 
remote  or  predisposing  cause,  is  one  of  those  mys- 
teries in  nature  which  baffle  human  inquiry." 

The  following  enumeration  shews  the  amount  of 


UNITED  STATES, 


473 


mortality  for  fourteen  months,  preceding  the  26th 
of  July, '1736: — Died  in  Portsmouth  99,  Dover  88, 
Hampton  55,  Hampton  Falls  210,  Exeter  127,  New- 
castle 11,  Gosport  37,  Rye  44,  Greenland  18,  New- 
ington  21,  Newmarket  22,  Stretham  18,  Kingston 
113,  Durham  100,  Chester  21— Total  984. 

After  this  account  was  taken,  "  several  other 
children  "  died  of  the  throat  distemper ;  in  the  town 
of  Hampton  thirteen  more  within  the  year  1736,  so 
that  the  whole  number  must  have  exceeded  1,000. 
In  the  town  of  Kittery,  in  the  county  of  York,  1.22  died. 

It  appears  also,  from  the  church  records  of  Hamp  • 
ton,  that  from  January  1754  to  July  1755,  fifty-one 
persons  died  of  the  same  distemper  in  that  town. 

State  of  parties — Controversy  about  lines — Commis- 
sioners appointed-— Their  session  and  result — Ap- 
peals— Complaints. 

We  have  now  come  to  that  part  of  the  History  of 
New  Hampshire,  in  which  may  be  seen,  operating 
in  a  smaller  sphere,  the  same  spirit  of  intrigue 
which  has  frequently  influenced  the  conduct  of 
princes,  and  determined  the  fate  of  nations.  Whilst 
on  the  one  hand,  we  see  Massachusetts  stiffly  as- 
serting her  chartered  claims,  and  looking  with  con- 
tempt on  the  small  province  of  New  Hampshire, 
over  which  she  had  formerly  exercised  jurisdiction, 
we  shall  see,  on  the  other  hand,  New  Havnpshirc 
aiming  at  an  equal  rank,  and  contending  with  her 
for  a  large  portion  of  territory ;  not  depending  solely 
on  argument,  but  seeking  her  refuge  in  the  royal 
favour,  and  making  interest  with  the  servants  of  the 
crown.  Had  the  controversy  been  decided  by  a 
court  of  law,  the  claims  of  Massachusetts  would 
have  had  as  much  weight  as  those  of  an  individual, 
in  a  case  of  private  property ;  but  the  question  being 
concerning  a  line  of  jurisdiction,  it  was  natural  to 
expect  a  decision  agreeable  to  the  rules  of  policy 
and  convenience;  especially  where  the  tribunal 
itself  was  a  party  concerned. 

It  must  be  observed,  that  the  party  in  New  Hamp- 
shire, who  were  so  earnestly  engaged  in  the  establish- 
ment of  the  boundary  lines,  had  another  object  in 
view,  to  which  this  was  subordinate.  Their  avowed 
intention  was  to  finish  a  long  controversy  which  had 
proved  a  source  of  inconvenience  to  the  people  who 
resided  on  the  disputed  lands,  or  those  who  sought 
an  interest  in  them ;  but  their  secret  design  was  to 
displace  Belcher,  and  obtain  a  governor  who  should 
have  no  connexion  with  Massachusetts.  To  accom- 
plish the  principal,  it  was  necessary  that  the  subor- 
dinate object  should  be  vigorously  pursued.  The 
government  of  New  Hampshire,  with  its  limited 
salary,  was  thought  to  be  not  worthy  the  attention 
of  any  gentleman ;  but  if  the  lines  could  be  extended 
on  both  sides,  there  would  be  at  once  an  increase  of 
territory  and  a  prospect  of  speculating  in  landed 
property ;  and  in  future  there  would  be  an  increase 
of  cultivation,  and  consequently  of  ability  to  support 
a  governor. 

The  people  were  told  that  the  lands  would  be 
granted  to  them ;  and  by  this  bait  they  were  induced 
to  favour  the  plan  ;  whilst  the  ministry  in  England 
were  flattered  with  the  idea  of  an  increase  of  crown 
influence  in  the  plantations. 

The  leading  men  in  Massachusetts  were  aware  of 
the  views  of  those  in  New  Hampshire,  and  deter- 
mined to  guard  against  them.  They  presumed,  that 
a  line  of  jurisdiction  would  not  affect  property;  and 
therefore  endeavoured  to  secure  the  lands  to  them- 
selves, by  possession  and  improvement,  as  far  as  it 
was  practicable.  The  same  idea  prevailed  among 


the  governor's  friends  in  New  Hampshire.  They 
perceived,  that  a  tract  of  wilderness  on  the  north 
eastern  side  of  Merrimack  river,  and  the  ponds 
which  flow  into  it,  must  doubtless  fall  into  New 
Hampshire.  For  these  lands  they  petitioned  the 
governor,  and  a  charter  was  prepared,  in  which  this 
whole  tract,  called  King's  Wood,  was  granted  to 
them.  It  contained  all  the  lands  not  before  granted 
between  the  bounds  of  New  Hampshire  on  the  south- 
west and  north-east;  which,  according  to  the  ideas 
of  those  concerned,  would  have  been  sufficient  for 
about  four  large  townships. 

Governor  Belcher  had  a  difficult  part  to  act. 
He  was  at  the  head  of  two  rival  provinces ;  he  had 
friends  in  both,  who  were  seeking  their  own  as  well 
as  the  public  interest :  he  had  enemies  in  both,  who 
were  watching  him,  eager  to  lay  hold  of  the  most 
trivial  mista-ke,  and  magnify  it  to  his  disadvantage. 
His  own  interest  was  to  preserve  his  commission, 
and  counteract  the  machinations  of  his  enemies  ;  but 
as  the  settlement  of  the  line,  and  the  removing  of 
him  from  his  office,  were  carried  on  at  the  same 
time,  and  by  the  same  persons,  it  was  difficult  for 
him  to  oppose  the  latter,  without  seeming  to  oppose 
the  former.  Besides,  Mr.  Wilks,  the  agent  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, was  well  known  to  be  his  friend ;  and 
when  it  was  found  necessary  to  increase  the  number, 
one  of  them  was  his  brother,  Mr.  Partridge.'  On  the  - 
other  hand,  Mr.  Rindge  and  Mr.  Thomlinson  were 
his  avowed  enemies.  There  was  also  a  difference  in 
the  mode  of  appointing  these  agents.  Those  of  Mas- 
sachusetts were  constituted  by  the  council  and  repre- 
sentatives, with  the  governor's  consent.  Those  of 
New  Hampshire  were  chosen  by  the  representatives 
only,  the  council nonconcurring  in  the  choice ;  which, 
of  course,  could  not  be  sanctioned  by  the  governor's 
signature,  nor  by  the  seal  of  the  province. 

(1732.)  When  the  petition  which  Rindge  presented 
to  the  king,  had  been  referred  to  the  board  of  trade, 
and  a  copy  of  it  given  to  Wilks,  to  be  sent  to  his 
constituents,  it  became  necessary  that  they  should 
instruct  him.  Their  instructions  were  designedly 
expressed  in  such  ambiguous  terms,  that  he  was  left 
to  guess  their  meaning,  and  afterwards  blamed  for 
not  observing  their  directions.  His  embarrassment 
on  this  occasion,  expressed  in  his  petition  and 
counter-petition,  to  the  board  of  trade,  protracted 
the  business,  and  gave  it  a  complexion  unfavourable 
to  his  constituents,  but  extremely  favourable  to -the 
design  of  New  Hampshire. 

(1733.)  To  bring  forward  the  controversy,  Parris, 
the  solicitor  for  the  agents  of  New  Hampshire, 
moved  a  question,  'From  what  part  of  Merrimack 
river  the  line  should  begin  ?'  The  board  of  trade 
referred  this  question  to  the  attorney  and  solicitor 
general,  who  appointed  a  day  to  hear  counsel  on 
both  sides.  The  counsel  for  New  Hampshire  insisted 
that  the  line  ought  to  begin  three  miles  north  of  the 
mouth  of  the  Merrimack.  The  counsel  for  Massa- 
chusetts declared,  that  in  their  opinion,  the  solution 
of  this  question  would  not  determine  the  controversy, 
and  therefore  declined  saying  any  thing  upon  it. 
(1734.)  The  attorney  and  solicitor  reported,  that 
"  whether  this  were  so  or  not,  they  could  not  judge; 
but  as  the  question  had  been  referred  to  them,  they 
were  of  opinion,  that  according  to  the  charter  of 
William  and  Mary,  the  dividing  line  ought  to  be 
taken  from  three  miles  north  of  the  mouth  of  Mer- 
rimack, where  it  runs  into  the  sea."  Copies  of  this 
opinion  were  given  to  each  party ;  and  (1735)  the 
lords  of  trade  reported,  that  the  king  should  appoint 
commissioners,  from  the  neighbouring  provinces,  to 


474 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


mark  out  the  dividing  line.  This  report  was  ap- 
proved by  the  lords  of  council. 

Much  time  was  spent  in  references,  messages,  and 
petitions,  concerning  the  adjustment  of  various  mat- 
ters; and  at  length  (1737)  the  principal  heads  of 
the  commission  were  determined.  The  first  was, 
that  the  commissioners  should  be  appointed  from 
among  the  counsellors  of  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
Rhode  Island,  and  Nova  Scotia.  These  were  all 
royal  governments  except  Rhode  Island ;  and  with 
that  colony,  as  well  as  New  York,  Massachusetts 
had  a  controversy  respecting  boundaries.  Connec- 
ticut, though  proposed,  was  designedly  omitted, 
because  it  was  imagined  that  they  would  be  partial 
to  Massachusetts,  from  the  similarity  of  their  habits 
and  interests.  The  other  points  were,  that  twenty 
commissioners  should  be  nominated,  of  whom  five 
were  to  be  a  quorum;  that  they  should  meet  at 
Hampton,  in  New  Hampshire,  on  the  1st  of  August, 
1737;  that  each  province  should  send  to  the  com- 
missioners, at  their  first  meeting,  the  names  of  two 
public  officers,  on  whom  any  notice,  summons,  or 
final  judgment  might  be  served ;  and  at  the  same 
time  should  exhibit,  in  writing,  a  plain  and  full  state- 
ment of  their  respective  claims,  copies  of  which  should 
be  mutually  exchanged  ;  and  that  if  either  province 
should  neglect  to  send  in  the  names  of  their  officers, 
or  the  full  statement  of  their  demands,  at  the  time  ap- 
pointed, then  the  commissioners  should  proceed  ex 
parle.  That  when  the  commissioners  should  have 
made  and  signed  their  final  determination,  they 
should  send  copies  to  the  public  officers  of  each 
province;  and  then  should  adjourn  for  six  weeks, 
that  either  party  might  enter  their  appeal. 

These  points  being  determined,  the  board  of  trade 
wrote  letters  to  Belcher,  enclosing  the  heads  of  the 
proposed  commission,  and  directing  him  to  recom- 
mend to  the  assemblies  of  each  province  to  choose 
their  public  officers  and  prepare  their  demands  by 
the  time  when  the  commissioners  were  to  meet. 
These  were  accompanied  with  letters  to  the  go- 
vernors of  the  several  provinces  from  which  the 
commissioners  were  elected,  informing  them  of  their 
appointment.  The  letters  were  delivered  to  Parris, 
and  by  him  to  Thomlinson,  to  be  sent  by  the  first  ship 
to  America.  Those  to  Massachusetts  and  New 
Hampshire  were  directed,  the  one  to  Mr.  Belcher, 
by  name,  as  governor  of  Massachusetts ;  the  other 
to  the  commander  in  chief,  resident  in  New  Hamp- 
shire ;  and  it  was  required  that  the  delivery  of  the 
letters  should  be  certified  by  affidavit.  The  design 
of  this  singular  injunction  was,  that  Dunbar,  if  pre- 
sent, should  receive  the  letter,  and  call  the  assembly 
of  New  Hampshire  immediately ;  and  that  if  Belcher 
should  forbid  or  hinder  it,  the  blame  of  the  neglect 
should  fall  on  him.  At  the  same  time,  another  let- 
ter respecting  a  petition  of  a  borderer  on  the  line, 
and  containing  a  reprimand  to  Belcher,  was  sent  in 
the  same  manner,  to  be  delivered  by  Dunbar  into 
Belcher's  hands.  These  intended  affronts  both 
failed  of  their  effect;  Dunbar  having,  before  the 
arrival  of  the  letters,  taken  his  passage  to  England. 

The  anxiety  of  Thomlinson  to  have  the  earliest 
notice  possible  of  the  intended  commission  sent  to 
New  Hampshire,  led  him  not  only  to  forward  the 
public  letters,  but  to  send  copies  of  all  the  transac- 
tions to  his  friends  there.  In  a  letter  to  Wiggin 
and  Rindge  (the  committee  who  corresponded  with 
him)  he  advised  them  to  make  the  necessary  pre- 
parations as  soon  as  possible,  to  act  in  conformity 
to  the  commission  and  instructions ;  and  even  went 
ao  far  as  to  nominate  the  persons  whom  they 


should  appoint  to  manage   their  cause  before   the 
commissioners. 

These  papers  were  communicated  to  the  assembly 
at  their  session  in  March  ;  and  at  the  same  time  the 
governor  laid  before  them  a  copy  of  the  report  of 
the  board  of  trade,  in  favour  of  a  commission  which 
had  been  made  in  the  preceding  December.  In 
consequence  of  which  the  assembly  appointed  a 
committee  of  eight,  namely,  Shadrack  Walton, 
George  Jaffrey,  Jotham  Odiorne,  Theodore  Atkin- 
son, who  were  members  of  the  council ;  and  Andrew 
Wiggin,  John  Rindge,  Thomas  Packer,  and  James 
Jaffrey,  who  were  members  of  the  house.  They 
were  empowered  "  to  prepare  witnesses,  pleas  and 
allegations,  papers  and  records,  to  be  laid  before  the 
commissioners ;  to  provide  for  their  reception  and 
entertainment,  and  to  draw  upon  the  treasurer  for 
such  supplies  of  money  as  might  be  needful."  This 
appointment  was  made  by  the  united  voice  of  the 
council  and  representatives,  and  consented  to  by 
the  governor  ;  and  though  it  was  made  three  weeks 
before  the  reception  of  the  letters  from  the  lords  of 
trade,  directing  the  appointing  of  public  officers  and 
preparing  a  statement  of  claims ;  yet  it  was  under- 
stood to  be  a  full  compliance  with  the  orders  and 
expectations  of  the  government  in  Englandt 

The  same  day  on  which  this  order  passed,  the  go- 
vernor prorogued  the  assembly  to  the  6th  of  July; 
and  on  the  20th  of  June  he  prorogued  it  again  to 
the  4th  of  August. 

The  letters  respecting  the  commission  were  deli- 
vered to  Mr.  Belcher  on  the  22nd  of  April,  and  he 
acknowledged  the  receipt  of  them,  in  a  letter  to  the 
board  of  trade  on  the  10th  of  May.  The  commis- 
sion itself  was  issued  on  the  9th  of  April,  and  sent 
to  Mr.  Rindge,  who  kept  it  till  the  meeting  of  the 
commissioners,  and  then  delivered  it  to  them.  The 
expense  of  it,  amounting  to  1352.  sterling,  was  paid 
by  the  agents  of  New  Hampshire. 

At  the  spring  session  of  the  general  court  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, the  governor  laid  before  them  the  letter 
from  the  lords  of  trade,  enclosing  an  order  from  the 
privy  council,  and  recommended  to  them  to  stop  all 
processes  in  law  respecting  any  disputes  of  the 
borderers  till  the  boundaries  should  be  determined. 
During  the  same  session,  he  reminded  them  of  the 
order,  and  desired  them  to  consider  it ;  telling  them 
that  he  had  no  advice  of  the  appointment  of  com- 
missioners. His  meaning  was,  that  the  commission 
itself,  in  which  they  were  named,  bad  not  been  sent 
to  him;  nor  was  he  actually  informed  that  it  was  in 
America  till  after  he  had  prorogued  the  assemblies 
of  both  provinces  to  the  4th  of  August.  In  obedi- 
ence to  the  royal  order,  the  assembly  of  Massachu- 
setts appointed  Josiah  Willard,  secretary,  and  Ed- 
ward Winslow,  sheriff  of  Suffolk,  to  be  the  two 
public  officers;  on  whom,  or  at  whose  places  of 
abode,  any  notice,  summons,  or  other  process  of  the 
commissioners,  might  be  served. 

On  the  day  appointed,  eight  of  the  commissioners, 
namely,  William  Skene  Prest,  Erasmus  James 
Phillips,  Otho  Hamilton,  from  Nova  Scotia;  and 
Samuel  Vernon,  John  Gardner,  John  Potter,  Eze- 
kiel  Warner,  and  George  Cornel,  from  Rhode-island ; 
met  at  Hampton.  They  published  their  commis- 
sion, opened  their  court,  chose  William  Parker 
their  clerk,  and  George  Mitchel,  surveyor.  Ou  the 
same  day,  the  committee  of  eight,  who  had  been 
appointed  by  the  assembly  of  New  Hampshire,  in 
April,  appeared,  and  delivered  a  paper  to  the  court, 
reciting  the  order  of  the  king  for  the  appointment 
of  two  public  officers,  alleging  that  the  assembly 


UNITED  STATES. 


475 


had  not  been  convened  since  the  arrival  of  that 
order;  but,  that  there  should  be  no  failure  for  want 
of  such  officers,  they  appointed  Richard  Waldron 
secretary,  and  Eleazer  Russell  sheriff.  They  also 
delivered  the  claim  and  demand  of  New  Hampshire, 
in  the  following  words  :  "  That  the  southern  bound- 
ary of  said  province  should  begin  at  the  end  of 
three  miles  north  from  the  middle  of  the  channel  of 
Merrimack  river,  where  it  runs  into  the  Atlantic 
Ocean  ;  and  from  thence  should  run,  on  a  straight 
line,  west,  up  into  the  main  land  (toward  the  south 
sea)  until  it  meets  his  majesty's  other  governments. 
And  that  the  northern  boundary  of  New  Hampshire 
should  begin  at  the  entrance  of  Piscataqua  harbour, 
and  so  pass  up  the  same  into  the  river  of  Newich- 
wannock,  and  through  the  same  into  the  farthest 
head  thereof,  and  from  thence  northwestward  (that 
is,  north,  less  than  a  quarter  of  a  point  westwardly), 
as  far  as  the  British  dominion  extends ;  and  also 
the  western  half  of  the  Isles  of  Shoals,  we  say  lies 
within  the  province  of  New  Hampshire." 

The  same  day,  Thomas  Berry  and  Benjamin 
Lynde,  counsellors  of  Massachusetts,  appeared  and 
delivered  the  vote  of  their  assembly,  appointing  two 
public  officers,  with  a  letter  from  the  secretary,  by 
order  of  the  governor,  purporting  that,  "  at  the 
last  rising  of  the  assembly  there  was  no  account 
that  any  commission  had  arrived  ;  that  the  assembly 
stood  prorogued  to  the  4th  of  August ;  that  a  com- 
mittee had  been  appointed  to  draw  up  a  state  of 
their  demands,  which  would  be  reported  at  the  next 
session,  and  therefore  praying  that  this  short  delay 
might  not  operate  to  their  disadvantage."  Upon 
this,  the  committee  of  New  Hampshire  drew  up  and 
presented  another  paper,  charging  the  government 
of  Massachusetts  with  "  great  backwardness,  and 
aversion  to  any  measures,  which  had  a  tendency  to 
the  settlement  of  this  long  subsisting  controversy ; 
and  also  charging  their  agent,  in  England,  with 
having  used  all  imaginable  artifices,  to  delay  the 
issue ;  for  which  reason,  the  agent  of  New  Hamp- 
shire had  petitioned  the  king  to  give  directions  that 
each  party  might  be  fully  prepared  to  give  in  a  state 
of  their  demands,  at  the  first  meeting  of  the  com- 
missioners ;  which  direction  they  had  faithfully 
observed,  to  the  utmost  of  their  power;  and  as  the 
assembly  of  Massachusetts  had  made  no  seasonable 
preparation,  they  did,  in  behalf  of  New  Hampshire, 
except  and  protest  against  any  claim  or  evidence 
being  received  from  them,  and  pray  the  court  to 
proceed  ex  parie  agreeably  to  the  commission." 

It  was  alleged  in  favour  of  Massachusetts,  that, 
by  the  first  meeting  of  the  commisioners  could  not  be 
meant  the  first  day,  but  the  first  session.  The  court 
understood  the  word  in  this  sense,  and  resolved  that 
Massachusetts  should  be  allowed  time,  till  the  eighth 
of  August,  and  nc  longer,  to  bring  in  their  claims  ; 
»nd  that  if  they  should  fail,  the  court  would  proceed 
exparte.  The  court  then  adjourned  to  the  eighth  day. 

The  assembly  of  New  Hampshire  met  on  the 
fourth ;  and  the  secretary,  by  the  governor's  order, 
prorogued  them  to  the  tenth,  then  to  meet  at 
Hampton  Falls.  On  the  same  day,  the  assembly  of 
Massachusetts  met  at  Boston,  and  received  the 
report  of  the  committee,  which  had  drawn  up  their 
claim,  and  dispatched  expresses  to  New  York  and 
New  Jersey,  to  expedite  the  other  commissioners. 
The  assembly  then  appointed  nother  commit- 
tee to  support  their  claims,  consisting  of  Edmund 
Quincy,  William  Dudley,  Samuel  Welles,  Thomas 
Berry,"  and  Benjamin  Lynde,  of  the  council ;  and 
Elisha  Cooke,  Thomas  Gushing,  Job  Almy,  Henry 


Rolfe,  and  Nathaniel  Peaslce,  of  the  house.  Cooke 
died  while  the  commissioners  were  sitting;  in  con- 
sequence of  which,  and  of  the  absence  of  another 
member,  they  on  the  13th  appointed  John  Read  and 
Robert  Auchmuty.  The  governor  adjourned  the 
assembly  to  the  10th,  then  to  meet  at  Salisbury.  Thus 
the  assemblies  of  both  provinces  were  drawn  within 
five  miles  of  each  other ;  and  the  governor  de- 
clared, in  his  speech,  that  he  would  "  act  as  a  com- 
mon father  to  both." 

The  claim  of  Massachusetts  being  prepared,  was 
delivered  to  the  court  on  the  day  appointed.  After 
reciting  their  grant  and  charters  and  the  judicial 
determination  in  1677,  they  asserted  their  "  claim 
and  demand,  still  to  hold  and  possess,  by  a  boundary 
line  on  the  southerly  side  of  New  Hampshire,  be- 
ginning at  the  sea,  three  English  miles  north  from 
the  Black  Rocks,  so  called,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
river  Merrimack,  as  it  emptied  itself  into  the  sea 
sixty  years  ago ;  thence  running  parallel  with  the 
river,  as  far  northward  as  the  crotch  or  parting  of 
the  river;  thence  due  north,  as  far  as  a  certain  tree, 
commonly  known  for  more  than  seventy  years  past 
by  the  name  of  Endicot's  tree ;  standing  three 
miles  northward  of  said  crotch  or  parting  of  Merri- 
mack river,  and  thence  due  west  to  the  South  Sea, 
which  (they  said)  they  were  able  to  prove,  by 
ancient  and  incontestible  evidence,  were  the  bounds 
intended,  granted,  and  adjudged  to  them;  and  they 
insisted  on  the  grant  and  settlement  as  above  said, 
to  be  conclusive  and  irrefragable. 

"  On  the  northerly  side  of  New  Hampshire,  they 
claimed  a  boundary  line,  beginning  at  the  entrance 
of  Piscataqua  harbour,  passing  up  the  same  to  the 
river  Newichwanock,  through  that  to  the  farthest 
head  thereof,  and  from  thence  a  due  north  west  line 
till  120  miles  from  the  mouth  of  Piscataqaa  harbour 
be  finished." 

The  court  ordered  copies  of  the  claims  of  each 
province,  to  be  drawn  and  exchanged;  and  having 
appointed  Benjamin  Rolfe  of  Boston,  an  additional 
clerk,  they  adjourned  to  the  tenth  day  of  the  month. 

On  that  day  both  assemblies  met  at  the  appointed 
places.  A  cavalcade  was  formed  from  Boston  to 
Salisbury,  and  the  governor  rode  in  state,  attended 
by  a  troop  of  horse.  He  was  met  at  Newbury-ferry 
by  another  troop,  who,  joined  by  three  more  at  the 
supposed  divisional  line,  conducted  him  to  the 
George  tavern,  at  Hampton  Falls,  where  he  held  a 
council,  and  made  a  speech  to  the  assembly  of  New 
Hampshire.  Whilst  both  assemblies  were  in  ses- 
sion, the  go  vernor,  with  a  select  company,  made  an 
excursion  of  three  days  to  the  Falls  of  Amuskeag,  an 
account  of  which  was  published  in  the  papers,  and 
concluded  in  the  following  manner :  "  His  Excel- 
lency was  much  pleased  with  the  fine  soil  of  Chester, 
the  extraordinary  improvements  at  Derry,  and  the 
mighty  falls  at  Skeag." 

In  the  speech  which  the  governor  made  to  the 
assembly  of  New  Hampshire,  he  recommended  to 
them  to  appoint  two  officers,  agreeably  to  his  ma- 
jesty's commision.  The  assembly  appeared  to  be 
much  surprised  at  this  speech,  and  in  their  answer 
said  "  that  the  committee  before  appointed  had  al- 
ready given  in  the  names  of  two  officers,  which  they 
approved  of;  for,  had  it  not  been  done,  at  the  first 
meeting  of  the  commissioners  they  might  have  pro- 
ceededed  ex  pane." 

Considering  the  temper  and  views  of  Mr.  Bel- 
cher's opponents,  this  was  rather  unfortunate  for 
him  so  soon  after  his  profession  of  being  "  a  com- 
mon father  to  both  provinces."  For  if  the  commit- 


476 


THE  HIS10RY  OF  AMERICA. 


tee  had  a  right  to  nominate  the  two  officers,  then 
his  recommendation  was  needless;  if  they  had  not, 
it  might  justly  be  asked,  why  did  he  not  call  the 
assembly  together  on  the  6th  of  July,  to  which  day 
they  had  been  prorogued  ?  The  excuse  was,  that 
he  did  it  to  avoid  any  objection  which  might  be 
made  to  the  regularity  of  their  appointment;  and 
to  give  them  an  opportunity  to  ratify  and  confirm  it. 
The  truth  was,  that  Mr.  Belcher  highly  resented 
the  conduct  of  the  committee  of  New  Hampshire, 
who  concealed  the  commission,  and  never  commu- 
nicated it  to  him  in  form.  Had  he  been  aware  of 
the  use  which  his  enemies  might  make  of  his  rigid 
adherence  to  forms,  when  he  could  not  but  know 
the  contents  of  the  commission,  and  the  time  when 
it  must  be  executed,  prudence  might  have  dictated  a 
more  flexible  conduct.  They  did  not  fail  to  make 
the  utmost  advantage  of  his  mistakes,  to  serve  the 
main  cause  which  they  had  in  view. 

The  expresses  which  were  sent  by  Massachusetts, 
to  call  the  other  commissioners,  had  no  other  effect 
than  to  add  to  the  number  Philip  Livingstone,  from 
New  York;  who,  being  senior  in  nomination,  pre- 
sided in  the  court. 

To  prevent  the  delay  which  would  unavoidably 
attend  the  taking  of  plans  from  actual  surveys,  the 
commissioners  recommended  to  both  assemblies  to 
agree  upon  a  plan  by  which  the  pretensions  of  each 
province  should  be  understood ;  but  as  this  could 
not  be  done,  a  plan  drawn  by  Mitchel  was  accepted, 
and  when  their  result  was  made  this  plaa  was  an- 
nexed to  it.  They  then  proceeded  to  hear  the 
answers,  which  each  party  made  to  the  demands  of 
the  other,  and  to  examine  witnesses  on  both  sides. 
Neither  party  was  willing  to  admit  the  evidence 
produced  by  the  other,  and  mutual  exceptions  and 
protests  were  entered.  The  points  in  debate  were, 
whether  Merrimack  river  at  that  time  emptied 
itself  into  the  sea,  at  the  same  place  where  it  did 
sixty  years  before  ?  Whether  it  bore  the  same 
name  from  the  sea  up  to  the  crotch ;  and  whether 
it  were  possible  to  draw  a  parallel  line,  three  miles 
northward,  of  every  part  of  a  river,  the  course  of 
which  was,  in  some  places,  from  north  to  south  ? 

With  respect  to  the  boundary  line,  between  New 
Hampshire  and  Maine;  the  controverted  points 
were,  whether  it  should  run  up  the  middle  of  the 
river,  or  on  its  north-eastern  shore ;  and  whether 
the  line,  from  the  head  of  the  river,  should  be  due 
north-west,  or  only  a  few  degrees  westward  of  north. 

The  grand  point  on  which  the  whole  controversy 
respecting  the  southern  line  turned,  was,  whether 
the  charter  of  William  and  Mary,  granted  to  Mas- 
sachusetts, all  the  lands  which  were  granted  by  the 
charter  of  Charles  the  First  ?  On  this  question,  the 
commissioners  did  not  come  to  any  conclusion. 
Reasons  of  policy  might  have  some  weight,  to  render 
them  indecisive;  but,  whether  it  were  really  so  or 
not,  they  made  and  pronounced  their  result  in  the 
following  words.  In  "  pursuance  of  his  majesty's 
commission,  the  court  took  under  consideration,  the 
evidences,  pleas,  and  allegations  offered  and  made 
by  each  party ;  and,  upon  mature  advisement  on 
the  whole,  a  doubt  arose  in  point  of  law;  and  the 
court  thereupon  came  to  the  following  resolution. 
That  if  the  charter  of  King  William  and  Queen 
Mary  grants  to  the  province  of  Massachusetts  bay 
all  the  lands  granted  by  the  charter  of  King  Charles 
the  First,  lying  to  the  northward  of  Merrimack 
river;  then  the  court  adjudge  and  determine,  that  a 
line  shall  run,  parallel  with  the  *said  river,  at  the 
distance  of  three  English  miles,  north  from  the 


mouth  of  the  said  river,  beginning  at  the  southerly 
side  of  the  black  rocks,  so  called,  at  low  water  mark, 
and  from  thence  to  run  to  the  crotch,  where  the 
rivers  of  Pemigewasset  and  Winnipiseogee  meet; 
and  from  thence  due  north  three  miles,  and  from 
thence  due  west,  toward  the  south  sea,  until  it  meets 
with  his  majesty's  other  governments ;  which  shall 
be  the  boundary  or  dividing  line,  between  the  said 
provinces  of  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire,  on 
that  side.  But,  if  otherwise,  then  the  Court  adjudge 
and  determine,  that  a  line  on  the  southerly  side  of 
New  Hampshire,  beginning  at  the  distance  of  three 
miles  north,  from  the  southerly  side  of  the  Black 
Rocks  aforesaid,  at  low  water  mark,  and  from  thence 
running  due  west,  up  into  the  main  land,  toward  the 
south  sea,  until  it  meets  with  his  majesty's  other 
governments,  shall  be  the  boundary  line  between  the 
said  provinces,  on  the  side  aforesaid:  which  point 
in  doubt  the  court  humbly  submit  to  the  wise  con- 
sideration of  his  most  sacred  majesty,  in  his  privy 
council;  to  be  determined  according  to  his  royal 
will  and  pleasure. 

"  As  to  the  northern  boundary,  between  the  said 
provinces,  the  court  resolve  and  determine ;  that 
the  dividing  line  shall  pass  through  the  mouth  of 
Piscataqua  harbour,  and  up  the  middle  of  the  river 
of  Newichwanock,  (part  of  which  is  now  called 
Salmon  Falls)  and  through  the  middle  of  the  same, 
to  the  farthest  head  thereof,  and  from  thence  north, 
two  degrees  westerly,  until  120  miles  be  finished, 
from  the  mouth  of  Piscataqua  harbour  aforesaid;  or 
until  it  meets  with  his  majesty's  other  governments; 
and  that  the  dividing  line  shall  part  the  Isles  of 
Shoals,  and  run  through  the  middle  of  the  harbour, 
between  the  islands,  to  the  sea,  on  the  southerly  side; 
and  that  the  south-westerly  part  of  said  islands  shall 
lie  in,  and  be  accounted  part  of,  the  province  of 
New  Hampshire;  and  that  the  north-easterly  part 
thereof  shall  He  in,  and  be  accounted  part  of,  the 
province  of  Massachusetts  bay;  and  be  held  and 
enjoyed  by  the  said  provinces  respectively,  in  the 
same  manner  as  they  now  do,  and  have  heretofore 
held  and  enjoyed  the  same. 

"  And  the  court  do  further  adjudge  that  the  cost 
and  charge  arising  by  taking  out  the  commission, 
and  also  of  the  commissioners  and  their  officers,  viz. 
the  two  clerks,  surveyor,  and  waiter,  for  their  travel- 
ling expenses,  and  attendance  in  the  execution  of 
the  same,  be  equally  borne  by  the  said  provinces." 

Thus  this  long  depending  question,  after  all  the 
time,  expense,  and  argument  which  it  had  occasi- 
oned, remained  undecided. 

When  this  evasive  decree  was  published  the 
commissioners  adjourned  to  the  14th  of  October, 
to  receive  appeals  ;  and  the  same  day,  the  governor, 
at  the  request  of  the  council  only,  adjourned  the 
assembly  of  New  Hampshire  to  the  12th  of  October. 
By  this  sudden  adjournment  it  was  impossible  for 
thorn  to  obtain  a  copy  of  the  decree  before  their 
dispersion,  or  to  frame  an  appeal  till  two  days  before 
the  time  when  it  must  have  been  presented.  The 
assembly  of  Massachusetts  continued  their  session  at 
Salisbury  five  days  longer.  On  the  5th  of  Septem- 
ber they  obtained  copies  of  the  royal  commission, 
and  the  decree  of  the  commissioners,  which  they 
entered  on  their  journal.  On  the  6th  they  agreed 
upon  an  appeal ;  and  on  the  7th.  at  the  united  re- 
quest of  both  houses,  the  governor  adjourned  them 
to  the  12th  of  October. 

The  sudden  adjournment  of  the  assembly  of  New 
Hampshire,  when  that  of  Massachusetts  continued 
their  session,  was  unfortunate  for  governor  Belcher ; 


UNITED  STATES. 


477 


and  gave  his  opponents  another  advantage  to  pursue 
their  grand  design  against  him.  The  reasons  as- 
signed for  it  were,  that  the  report  of  the  commis- 
sioners being  special,  the  whole  matter  would  oi 
course  come  before  the  king,  without  any  appeal  from 
either  province.  For  this  reason  a  majority  of  the 
council  were  against  an  appeal.  That  as  the  com 
mittee  appointed  in  April  had  the  same  power  to  act 
in  the  recess  as  in  the  session  of  the  assembly  ;  and 
as  the  council  were  against  appealing,  so  the  appeal 
could  not  be  made  by  the  whole  assembly  ;  and 
therefore  the  governor  thought  that  the  best  service 
which  he  could  do  to  the  province,  was  to  adjourn 
the  assembly,  and  leave  the  whole  business  in  the 
hands  of  the  committee.  With  respect  to  the  short 
time  between  the  12th  and  14th  ot  October,  it  was 
observed,  that  the  claim  of  New  Hampshire  was 
contained  in  a  few  lines,  and  their  exceptions  to  the 
judgment  of  the  commissioners  might  be  prepared 
in  a  quarter  of  an  hour. 

Both  assemblies  met  again,  in  the  same  places,  at 
the  appointed  time.  The  representatives  of  New 
Hampshire  having,  by  the  help  of  their  committee, 
in  the  recess  of  the  assembly,  obtained  the  papers, 
framed  their  exceptions,  and  sent  a  message  to  know 
if  the  council  were  sitting ;  but  the  council  being 
determined  against  an  appeal,  had  met  and  ad- 
journed, without  doing  any  business.  The  house 
therefore  was  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  desiring 
the  commissioners  to  receive  their  appeal,  without 
the  concurrence  of  the  governor  and  council.  The 
appeal  from  the  assembly  of  Massachusetts  was  pre- 
sented in  due  form,  authenticated  by  the  speaker, 
secretary,  and  governor.  Their  committee  entered  a 
protest  against  the  appeal  of  New  Hampshire,  be- 
cause it  was  not  an  act  of  the  whole  legislature; 
nevertheless,  the  commissioners  received  it,  and 
entered  it  on  their  minutes.  Having  received  these 
appeals,  the  commissioners  adjourned  their  court  to 
the  1st  of  August  in  the  next  year,  but  they  never 
met  again. 

The  assembly  of  Massachusetts  appointed  Edmund 
Quincy  and  Richard  Partridge,  agents,  to  join  with 
Francis  Wilks,  their  former  agent,  in  the  prosecu- 
tion of  their  appeal  before  the  king;  and  raised  the 
sum  of  two  thousand  pounds  sterling,  to  defray  the 
expense. 

When  the  representatives  of  New  Hampshire 
proposed  the  raising  of  money,  to  prosecute  their 
appeal,  the  council  nonconcured  the  vote.  Their 
reasons  were,  that  the  appeal  was  not  an  act  of  the 
council ;  that  they  had  no  voice  in  the  appointment 
of  the  agent ;  and,  that  at  the  beginning  of  the 
affair,  the  house  had  declared  to  the  council,  that  the 
expense  of  it  would  be  defrayed  by  private  sub- 
scription 

At  this  session  of  the  Massachusetts  assembly  Mr. 
Belcher  put  them  in  mind  that  he  had  suffered  in  his 
interest  by  the  continually  sinking  value  of  their 
bills  of  credit,  in  which  his  salary  was  paid  ;  a  point 
which  he  had  often  before  urged  them  to  consider. 
In  answer  to  this  message,  they  mado  him  a  grant 
of  333/.  6s.  8d.  in  bills  of  the  new  tenor.  The  same 
day  they  made  a  grant  of  the  like  sum  to  the  presi- 
dent of  Harvard  College.  Buth  of  these  sums  appear 
to  have  been  justly  due  :  and  at  any  other  time  no 
exception  could  have  been  made  to  either.  But, 
because  the  grant  to  the  governor  happened  to  be 
made  at  the  same  time  with  the  grant  of  2000Z.  ster- 
ling to  the  agents,  his  opponents  pretended  that  he 
received  it  as  a  bribe  from  the  assembly  of  Massa- 
chusetts, for  favouring  their  cause. 


The  appeal  of  New  Hampshire  from  the  judgment 
of  the  commissioners  was  founded  on  the  following 
reasons.  With  respect  to  the  southerly  line ;  be- 
cause it  made  the  Black  Rocks,  lying  in  a  bay  of 
Merrimack  river,  the  point  from  which  the  three 
miles  were  to  be  measured  ;  which  point  was  three 
quarters  of  a  mile  north  of  the  river's  mouth  ;  and 
because  a  line  parallel  with  the  river  was  not  only 
impracticable,  but  founded  on  the  old  charter,  which 
had  been  vacated ;  and,  if  practicable,  yet  ought 
not  to  go  farther  than  the  river  held  a  westerly 
course.  With  respect-  to  the  northern  boundary, 
they  objected  to  that  part  of  the  judgment  only  which 
directed  the  line  to  run  up  the  middle  of  the  river; 
alleging  that  the  grant  to  Gorges  was  only  of  land, 
between  that  river  and  Kennebec;  and  that  New 
Hampshire  had  always  been  in  possession  of  the 
whole  river,  and  had  maintained  a  fortress  which 
commanded  its  entrance. 

The  appeal  of  Massachusetts  was  grounded  on  the 
following  reasons.  That  by  the  charter  of  William 
and  Mary,  the  old  colony  of  Massachusetts  was 
re-incorporated  without  any  exception ;  that  this 
charter  empowered  the  governor  and  general  assem- 
bly to  grant  all  lands,  comprehended  in  the  old 
colony;  that  the  committee  of  New  Hampshire 
acknowledged  that  New  Hampshire  lay  without  the 
late  colony  of  Massachusetts;  by  declaring  that  it 
was  between  that  and  the  province  of  Maine;  that 
the  west  line,  claimed  by  New  Hampshire,  would 
cross  Merrimack  river,  thirty  miles  from  its  mouth, 
and  exclude  forty  miles  of  the  said  river  out  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, though  declared  by  both  charters  to  be 
in  it.  They  objected  to  extending  the  line  of  New 
Hampshire  till  it  should  meet  with  his  majesty's 
other  governments ;  because  according  to  Mason's 
grant,  New  Hampshire  could  extend  no  farther  than 
sixty  miles  from  the  sea.  With  respect  to  the 
northern  boundary,  they  objected  to  a  line  north, 
two  degrees  westwardly,  alleging  that  it  ought  to  be 
on  the  northwest  point ;  they  also  excepted  to  the 
protraction  of  this  line,  till  it  should  meet  with  his 
majesty's  other  governments ;  alleging  that  it  ought 
to  extend  no  farther  than  one  hundred  and  twenty 
miles,  the  fixed  limits  of  the  province  of  Maine. 

It  was  unfortunate  for  Massachusetts  that  their 
committee  had  brought  Mason's  grant  in  evidence 
to  the  commissioners,  and  again  recited  it  in  their 
appeal ;  for  a  line  of  sixty  miles  from  the  sea  would 
cross  Merrimack  river  long  before  the  similar  curve 
line,  for  which  they  contended  could  be  completed : 
besides,  Mason's  grant  extended  to  Naumkeag, 
which  was  much  further  southward  than  they  would 
have  been  willing  to  admit. 

It  may  seem  curious  and  unaccountable  to  most 
readers,  that  tha  commissioners  should  determine  the 
northern,  or  rather  eastern  bounds  of  the  northern 
>art  of  New  Hampshire,  to  be  a  line  drawn  north, 
wo  degrees  westerly,  from  the  head  of  Salmon-fall 
river,  when  the  express  words  of  Gorges'  patent  are 
"  north-westward."  The  agents  for  Massachusetts, 
when  this  claim  was  put  in  by  New  Hampshire, 
could  hardly  think  it  was  seriously  meant,  when  it 
was  alleged  that  by  northwestward  must  be  under- 
stood, north  a  little  westward.  The  only  ostensible 
reason  given  for  this  construction  was,  that  if  a  north- 
west line  had  been  intended,  then  a  southeast  line, 
drawn  from  the  mouth  of  the  harbour,  would  leave 
all  the  Isles  of  Shoals  in  New  Hampshire  ;  whereas, 
the  dividing  line  runs  between  them.  On  the  other 
side,  it  might  have  been  said,  with  equal  propriety, 
that  a  line  drawn  south,  two  degrees  east,  from  the 


478 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA, 


mouth  of  the  harbour,  would  leave  all  these  islands 
in  Massachusetts.  For  the  point  where  the  islands 
are  divided  bears  south,  twenty -nine  degrees  east 
from  the  middle  of  the  harbour's  mouth;  the  varia- 
tion of  the  needle  being  six  degrees  west. 

When  this  affair  was  again  agitated  in  England, 
the  agents  of  Massachusetts  obtained  a  certificate 
from  the  learned  Dr.  Halley,  that  a  line  northwest- 
ward ought  to  run  forty-five  degrees  westward  of  the 
north  point.  This  was  demonstratively  true,  but 
there  were  political  reasons  for  dissenting  from 
mathematical  demonstration.  One  of  them  is  thus 
expressed,  in  a  private  letter  from  a  committee  of 
the  assembly,  to  their  agent  Thomlinson.  "  We 
hope  that  the  northern  line  will  be  but  a  few  degrees 
to  the  westward  of  north,  that  his  majesty's  province 
may  include  the  greatest  number,  ana  best  mast 
trees  for  the  royal  navy."  Though  this  thought 
might  never  have  occurred  to  a  mathematician,  yet 
some  of  the  commissioners  were  doubtless  acquainted 
with  it;  and  it  was  too  important  not  to  have  been 
communicated  to  the  king's  ministers.  Another 
political  reason  of  dissent  was,  that  by  enlarging 
New  Hampshire,  there  would  be  a  better  prospect 
of  obtaining  a  distinct  governor,  which  was  the  grand 
object  in  view. 

(1738.)  The  new  agent  of  Massachusetts,  Edmund 
Quincy,  died  of  the  small  pox,  soon  after  his  arrival 
in  London.  The  affair  was  then  left  in  the  hands 
of  Wilks  and  Partridge,  neither  of  whom  under- 
stood so  much  of  the  controversy  as  Thomlinson, 
who  was  also  far  superior  to  them  in  address.  In 
his  letters  to  his  friends  in  New  Hampshire,  he  fre- 
quently blames  them  for  their  negligence  in  not 
sending  to  him  the  necessary  papers  in  proper  sea- 
son ;  and  when  sent,  for  the  want  of  correctness  and 
regularity  in  them  :  but  their  deficiency  was  abund- 
antly compensated  by  the  dexterity  of  his  solicitor 
Parris,  who  drew  up  a  long  "  petition  of  appeal/'  in 
which  all  the  circumstances  attending  the  whole 
transaction  from  the  beginning  were  recited  and 
coloured  in  such  a  manner  as  to  asperse  the  gover- 
nor and  assembly  of  "  the  vast,  opulent,  overgrown 
province  of  Massachusetts;"  while  "the  poor,  little, 
loyal,  distressed  province  of  New  Hampshire,"  was 
represented  as  ready  to  be  devoured,  and  the  king's 
own  property  and  possessions  swallowed  up,  by  the 
boundless  rapacity  of  the  charter  government.  Con- 
cerning the  manner  in  which  this  masterly  philippic 
was  framed,  and  the  principal  object  at  which  it  was 
directed,  there  can  be  no  better  evidence,  than  that 
which  is  contained  in  a  letter,  written  by  Parris  to 
Thomlinson,  and  by  him  sent  to  New  Hampshire. 
"Two  nights  ago,  I  received  a  heap  of  papers  from 
you  about  the  lines;  and  have  been  four  times  to 
the  colony  office  and  board  of  trade,  to  discover 
what  I  could  in  this  imperfect  affair,  but  cannot  see 
the  case  till  after  Tuesday  next;  notwithstanding 
which,  I  have  as  well  as  I  can,  without  proper  ma- 
terials, drawn  up  a  long  petition  of  appeal  to  his 
majesty;  and  as  the  Massachusetts  have  not  yet 
presented  theirs,  I  send  you  the  draught  of  it,  and 
hope  we  shall  have  our  appeal,  as  well  as  the  peti- 
tion, from  the  New  Hampshire  assembly,  in,  before 
the  Massachusetts  get  theirs  in.  Had  your  princi- 
pals considered  the  great  consequence  of  being  first, 
surely  in  all  this  time  they  would  have  sent  you  a 
copy  of  their  proceedings,  in  order  to  have  enabled 
us  to  be  first;  but,  as  it  is,  I  am  forced  to  guess  at 
matters,  and  affirm  facts  at  adventure,  or  upon  du- 
bious passages  in  letters,  which  is  a  sad  way  of  pro- 
ceeding, and  I  wish  we  do  not  mistake  some  facts. 


They  oblige  us  to  make  brick  without  straw.  Above 
all,  why  did  they  not  send  a  copy  of  their  own  appeal? 
For  want  of  it,  I  have  been  forced  to  guess  what  that 
appeal  was,  from  loose  passages  in  Mr.  A's  letters. 
Beg  them  immediately  to  order  an  exact  copy  to  be 
made  of  all  their  votes,  from  March  to  October  last. 
Had  these  votes  come  over  regularly  and  authenti- 
cally, his  Excellency  would  have  been  shaken  quite 
down  in  a  few  weeks  by  them.  You'll  observe,  I 
have  laid  it  on  him  pretty  handsomely,  in  my  peti- 
tion to  the  king." 

Thus  the  petition  of  appeal  became  a  petition  of 
complaint  against  the  governor  and  assembly  of 
Massachusetts  :  copies  were  delivered  to  their  agents, 
and  the  governor  was  ordered  to  make  answer  to  the 
allegations  against  him ;  at  the  game  time  Thomlin- 
sou  advised  his  friends  in  New  Hampshire,  to  pre- 
pare their  proofs  as  silently  as  possible ;  and  by  no 
means  to  give  any  offence  to  the  governor;  assuring 
them  of  the  favourable  disposition  of  several  lords 
of  the  privy  council,  as  well  as  the  board  of  trade, 
toward  their  cause;  and  that  they  had  need  to  be 
in  no  pain,  about  the  event. 

The  death  of  Mr.  Quincy  at  this  critical  period, 
and  the  length  of  time  necessary  to  prepare  and 
send  over  answers  to  the  complaint  which  Parris 
had  thus  artfully  drawn  up,  obliged  the  agents  of  Mas- 
sachusetts to  suspend  the  presenting  of  their  appeal 
for  several  months. 

Revival  of  Mason's  claim — Accusations  againstBelcher, 
real  andforyed — Royal  censure — Final  establish- 
ment of  the  lines — Hutchinson's  agency — Spanish 
war — Belcher's  zeal  and  fidelity — His  removal—' 
Examination  of  his  character. 

The  spirit  of  intrigue  was  not  confined  to  New 
Hampshire  ;  for  the  politicians  of  Massachusetts,  by 
bringing  into  view  the  long  dormant  claim  of  Mason, 
had  another  game  to  play,  besides  proving  the  small 
extent  of  New  Hampshire.  They  perceived  that  the 
line,  whether  settled  according  to  their  own  demand 
or  that  of  New  Hampshire,  would  cut  off  a  consider- 
able part  of  several  of  their  townships ;  and  though 
they  had,  by  their  agent,  obtained  a  promise,  that 
private  property  should  not  be  affected  by  the  line  of 
jurisdiction,  yet  they  thought  it  best  to  have  some 
other  security. 

For  what  reason  the  government  of  Massachusetts 
did  not  purchase  the  province  of  New  Hampshire 
from  Robert  Mason,  at  the  same  time  (1677)  that 
they  purchased  the  province  of  Maine,  from  the  heirs 
of  Gorges,  we  are  not  now  able  precisely  to  deter- 
mine. It  is  probable  that  the  purchase  might  then 
have  been  easily  made,  and  much  controversy  pre- 
vented. When  it  was  sold,  by  John  and  Robert 
Mason,  to  Samuel  Allen,  (1691)  the  bargain  was 
made  in  England ;  and  the  lands  were,  by  fiction  of 
law,  supposed  to  be  there ;  by  which  means,  the 
process  respecting  the  fine  and  recovery  was  carried 
on  in  the  court  of  King's  Bench.  During  the  lives 
of  the  two  Masons,  no  notice  was  taken  of  the  sup- 
posed flaw ;  and  the  sale  to  Allen  was  not  disputed. 
The  brothers  returned  to  America.  John  the  elder, 
died  without  issue.  Robert  married  in  New  England 
and  had  a  son  ;  who,  after  the  death  of  his  father, 
conceived  hopes  of  invalidating  Allen's  purchase, 
and  regaining  his  paternal  inheritance,  which  it  was 
supposed  could  not  have  been  transferred  by  his  fa- 
ther and  uncle,  for  any  longer  term,  than  their  own 
lives.  It  was  also  said  that  the  fiction,  by  which  the 
lands  were  described,  to  be  within  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  courts  of  Westminster  Hall,  rendered  the 


UNITED  STATES. 


479 


proceedings  void ;  aud  therefore  that  the  entail  was 
still  good.     Filled  with  these  ideas,  he  made  stre- 
nuous exertions,  to  acquire  money,  to  assist  him  in 
realizing  his  expectations;  but  died  in  1718,   at  the 
Havanna,  whither  he  had  made  a  voyage  with  this 
view.     His  eldest  son,   John  Tufton,   was  bred  to  a 
mechanical  employment  in   Boston;  and  came  of 
age  about  the  time  in  which  the   controversy  be- 
tween the  two  provinces  was  in  agitation.     He  in- 
herited the  enterprising  spirit  of  his  ancestors,  and 
the  public    controversy  called  his  attention  to  his 
interest.     On  this  young  man  (1738)  the  politicians 
cast  their  eyes ;  and  having  consulted  counsel  on 
the  validity  of  his  claim,  and  the  defect  of  the  trans- 
fer, they  encouraged  him  to  hope,  that  this  was  the 
most  favourable  time  to  assert  his  pretensions.   Had 
they  purchased  his  claim  at  once,  they  might  doubt- 
less have  obtained  it  for  a  trifle,  and  have  greatly 
embarrassed  the  views  of  their  antagonists.    Instead 
of  such  a  stroke  of  liberal  policy,  they  treated  with 
him,  concerning  the  release  of  all  those  lands,  in 
Salisbury,  Amesbury,  Haverhill,  Methuen  and  Dra- 
cut,  which  the  line  would  cut  off;  and,  for  500/. 
currency,  obtained   a  quit-claim   of  23,675   acres. 
They  also  admitted  his  memorial  to  the  assembly  ; 
in  which  he  represented  to  them,  that  his  interest 
might  probably  be  affected,  by  the  final  determina- 
tion of  the  line,  and  praying  that  the  province  woulc 
be  at  the  expense  of  his  voyage  to  England,  to  take 
proper  measures  for  securing  it.     To  this  they  con- 
sented, on  condition  that  he  should  prove  his  descen 
from    Capt.   John  Mason,    the  original   patentee 
Depositions  were  accordingly  taken  in  both  provin- 
ces, to  which  the  public  seals  were  affixed  ;  and  they 
put  him  under  the  direction  of  their  agents,  ordering 
his  expenses  to  be  paid,  as  long  as  they  should  judge 
his  presence  in  England  serviceable  tc  their  views. 

The  agents  stated  his  case  to  their  counsel,  th 
king's  solicitor,  and  asked  his  opinion  how  the) 
should  proceed ;  but  he  advised  them  not  to  bring 
him  into  view,  lest  the  lords  should  think  it  an  ar 
tifice,  intended  to  perplex  the  main  cause.  On  thii 
consideration,  they  dismissed  him  from  any  farthe: 
attendance ;  and  paid  his  expenses,  amounting  t< 
above  901.  sterling. 

Such  a  transaction,  though  conducted  as  privatelj 
as  the  nature  of  the  thing  would  admit,  did  not  es 
cape  the  vigilance  of  Thomlinson  ;  who,  on  finding 
Mason  detached  from  the  agents  of  Massachusetts 
entered  into  an  agreement  with  him,  for  the  release 
of  his  whole  interest,  to  the  assembly  of  New  Hamp 
shire ;  in  consideration  of  the  payment  of  lOOOJ. 
currency  of  New  England.  This  manoeuvre  serve< 
to  strengthen  the  interest  of  New  Hampshire,  anc 
Thomlinson  was  much  applauded  for  his  dexterity 
He  had  the  strongest  inducement  to  continue  hi 
efforts  in  their  favour;  for  no  less  than  1,200/.  ster 
ling  had  been  already  expended,  in  prosecuting  the 
affair  of  the  line ;  which  sum  had  been  advanced  b1 
himself  and  Rindge.  There  was  no  prospect  of  re 
payment,  unless  the  province  could  be  put  under  < 
separate  governor ;  and  this  point  could  not  be  ob 
tained,  till  the  removal  of  Belcher. 

The  agents  of  Massachusetts,  after  a  long  delay 
presented  their  appeal;  and  followed  it  with  a  peti 
tion,  for  the  benefit  of  their  former  protests,  agains 
the  New  Hampshire  appeal;  objecting  also  to  it 
regularity,  as  it  contained  matters  of  personal  com 
plaint  against  the  governor ;  which  had  been  no  par 
of  the  records  of  the  commissioners.  Thomlinson 
finding  this  new  petition  thrown  in  his  way,  appliec 
for  its  being  immediately  heard ;  aud,  at  the  hear 


ng,  it  was  dismissed,  but  without  prejudice  to  the 
gents  of  Massachusetts  being  permitted  to  object 
gainst  the  regularity  of  the  New  Hampshire  appeal, 
yhen  it  should  come  to  a  hearing.     Such  were  the 
omplaints  against  the  governor,  and  the  importu- 
lity   of  his  adversaries  to  prosecute  them,  that  it 
was  necessary  to  hear  and  dispatch  them,  before  the 
ippeal  respecting  the  lines  could  be  brought  forward. 
It  must  be  remembered,  that  Mr.  Belcher  had 
enemies,  in  his  government  of  Massachusetts  as  well 
is  New  Hampshire,  who  united  their  efforts  to  ob- 
tain his  removal  from  both ;  but,  as  they  supposed 
lim  more  vulnerable  in  his  capacity  of  governor  of 
New  Hampshire,  so  they  joined  in  strengthening 
the  complaints  from  that  quarter,  as  a  preparatory 
step,  to  effect  his  complete  removal.     Whilst  he  was 
engaged  in  preparing  his  defence  against  the  charges, 
in  the  petition  of  appeal,  other  attacks  were  medi- 
tating, which  were  conducted  with  such  silence,  that 
it  was  impossible  for  him  to  guard  against   their 
effects.     (1739.)  One  of  these  was  a  letter,   pur- 
porting to  have  been  written  at  Exeter,  subscribed 
by  five  persons,  said  to  be  inhabitants  of  that  town, 
and  directed  to  Sir  Charles  Wager,  first  lord  of  the 
Admiralty.     In  this  letter  it  was  said,  that  "  find- 
ing  his  lordship  had  ordered  the  Judge  Advocate  of 
the   Court  of  Admiralty  to  inquire  into  the   riot, 
which  had  been  committed  there,  (1734),  and  the 
assault  of  the  surveyor  and  his  officers ;  and  fearing 
to  be  brought  into  trouble  on  that  account,  they 
would  confess  the  whole  truth.     That  they  had  been 
indulged  by  former  surveyors,  in  cutting  all  sorts  of 
pine  trees,  till  the  appointment  of  Colonel  Dunbar 
to  that  office;  who  had  restrained  and  prosecuted 
them ;  but  that  governor  Belcher  had  privately  given 
them  encouragement  to  go  on ;  by  assuring  them 
that  they  had  the  best  right  to  the  trees ;  that  the 
laws  were  iniquitous,  and  ought  not  to  be  regarded; 
that  although  he  must  make  a  shew  of  assisting  that 
Irish  dog  of  a  surveyor;  yet  he  would  so  manage  it 
with  the  council  and  justices,  who  were  under  his 
influence,  that  they  should  not  suffer ;  and  further 
to   encourage  them,  he  had  made  several  of  them 
justices  of  the  peace,  and  officers  of  militia.     That 
he  had  also  told  them  not  to  fear  any  inquiry  into 
their  conduct ;  for  that  he  would  write  to  the  board 
of  admiralty  in  their  favour ;  and  boasted,  that  he 
had  such  an  influence  ovei  their  lordships,  that  they 
would   believe  every  thing  which  he  should   say. 
That  as  they  had  now  confessed  the  truth,  they  hoped 
to  be  forgiven,  and  not  prosecuted  in  the  admiralty 
court;  and  begged  that  this  information  might  be 
kept  secret  till  the  governor's  removal,  which  they 
hoped  would  soon  be  effected.    That  whatever  might 
have   been  said  to  the  contrary,  they  could  assure 
him  that  the  province  of  New  Hampshire  contained 
the  largest  number  of  pine   trees,  and  of  the  best 
quality,  in  all  his  majesty's  American  dominions  ; 
and,  for  further  information,  they  referred  his  lord- 
ship to  several  persons  then  in  London,  particularly 
Mr.   Wentworth   and   Mr.   Waldo;    the   latter   of 
whom  was  agent  to  Mr.  Gulston,  for  procuring  masts 
for  the  royal  navy." 

On  the  receipt  of  this  letter,  Sir  Charles,  with 
the  candour  of  a  gentleman,  sent  a  copy  of  it  to  Mr. 
Belcher  ;  who  immediately  ordered  an  inquiry ;  and 
it  was  proved  to  be  an  entire  forgery ;  four  of  the 
persons  whose  names  were  subscribed  utterly  dis- 
claimed it,  and  the  fifth  was  not  to  be  found ;  no 
such  person  being  known  in  the  town  of  Exeter. 
The  evidence  of  this  forgery  was  transmitted  to 
England  with  all  possible  expedition ;  but  not  till  it 


480 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


had  made  an  impression  to  the  disadvantage  of  the 
governor. 

Another  artifice  used  against  him  was  a  memorial 
of  Gulston,  the  navy  agent,  and  others,  complaining 
of  the  defenceless  state  of  the  province ;  that  the 
fort  lay  in  ruins,  and  that  the  militia  were  without 
discipline,  notwithstanding  the  probability  of  a  war. 
This  memorial  was  so  artfully  drawn  as  to  throw 
the  blame  of  the  neglect  on  the  governor,  without 
mentioning  1  is  name ;  which  was  intended  to  pre- 
vent his  obte  ning  a  copy,  and  being  allowed  time 
to  answer.  Another  complaint  was  made,  in  the 
form  of  a  letter,  respecting  the  grant  of  the  tract 
called  Ki'^gswood ;  in  which  he  was  represented  as 
partial  to  his  friends,  in  giving  them  an  exclusive 
right  to  the  whole  of  that  territory,  which  they 
deemed  the  unappropriated  lands  of  the  province. 
Several  parts  of  his  administration  were  also  com- 
pK/ned  of.  and  in  particular  the  infrequency  of  his 
v  sits  to  New  Hampshire.  This  letter  was  signed 
y  six  members  of  the  council  and  a  majority  of  the 
.-»presentatives. 

Gulston's  memorial  was  presented  to  the  lords  of 
council,  and  by  them  referred  to  the  board  of  trade, 
accompanied  by  the  letter;  and  though  Mr.  Belcher's 
brother  and  son  applied  for  copies  and  time  to  an- 
swer, the  request  was  evaded,  and  a  report  was 
framed  in  favour  of  putting  New  Hampshire  under 
a  separate  governor.  When  this  report  came  before 
the  privy  council,  Lord  Wilmington,  the  president, 
ordered  it  back  again,  that  the  governor  might  have 
that  justice  which  his  agents  had  asked.  By  this 
means  he  had  an  opportunity  to  answer  in  his  defence, 
that  without  money  the  fort  could  not  be  repaired — 
that  it  was  not  in  his  power  to  tax  the  people — that 
he  had  frequently  applied  to  the  assemblies  for 
money  to  repair  the  fort,  to  which  they  had  con- 
stantly answered,  that  the  people  were  too  poor  to 
be  taxed,  and  had  solicited  him  to  break  through  his 
instructions,  and  allow  them  to  issue  paper  money, 
without  any  fund  for  its  redemption — that  the  mili 
tia  had  always  been  trained  according  to  law — anc 
that  he  had  constantly  visited  New  Hampshire,  anc 
held  an  assembly,  twice  in  the  year,  unless  preventec 
by  sickness,  for  which  he  appealed  to  the  journals 
To  corroborate  these  pleas,  the  governor's  friends 
procured  five  petitions  in  his  favour  and  praying  fo 
his  continuance,  signed  by  about  500  people.  The 
petitions,  however,  did  not  express  the  sense  of  the 
majority,  who  had  been  persuaded  into  a  belief  tba 
they  should  receive  much  benefit  by  a  separate  go 
vernor,  and  accordingly  a  counter  petition  being 
circulated,  was  signed  by  about  seven  hundred  of  th 
inhabitants. 

Things  being  thus  prepared,  the  complaints  wer 
brought  to  a  hearing  before  the'lords  of  council,  wh 
reported  to  the  king,  "  that  governor  Belcher  hai 
acted  with  great  partiality  by  proroguing  the  assem 
bly  of  New  Hampshire  from  the  6th  of  July,  1737 
to  the  4th  of  August  following,  in  disobedience  t 
his  majesty's  order  in  council,  which  had  bee; 
transmitted  to  him  by  the  lords  of  trade,  and  whic! 
was  proved  to  have  been  delivered  to  him  in  du 
time ;  and  also  by  farther  proroguing  the  said  as 
sembly  from  the  2nd  of  September,  1737,  to  the  13tl 
of  October ;  whereby  the  province  were  deprived  c 
the  time  intended  by  his  majesty's  said  order  to  b 
allowed  them  to  make  a  proper  and  regular  appeal 
thereby  endeavouring  to  frustrate  the  intention  o 
his  majesty's  commission."  This  report  was  a 
proved  by  the  king ;  and  from  this  time  it  may  ' 


concluded  that 


ng; 

Mr. 


Belcher's   removal  from  th 


overnment  of  New  Hampshire  was  seriously  con- 
smplated.  The  grant  of  Kingswood  was  also, 
nnulled,  and  he  was  prohibited  from  making 
ny  other  grants  of  land  till  the  lines  should  be 
etermined. 

(1740.)  This  censure  being  passed  on  the  go- 
ernor,  and  the  complaints  being  at  an  end,  the  way 
as  prepared  for  a  hearing  of  the  appeals  from  both 
rovinces  respecting  the  lines.  Which  being  had, 
determination  of  this  long  controversy  was  made 
n  a  plan  entirely  new.  The  special  part  of  the 
ecree  of  the  commissioners  was  set  aside,  and  no 
igard  was  had  to  their  doubt,  whether  the  new 
barter  granted  all  the  lands  comprehended  in  the 
Id.  It  was  said  that  when  the  first  grant  was 
ade,  the  country  was  not  explored.  The  course  of 
B  river,  though  unknown,  was  supposed  to  be  from 
,vest  to  east;  therefore  it  was  deemed  equitable, 
lat  as  far  as  the  river  flowed  in  that  course,  the 
arallel  line  at  three  miles  distance  should  extend. 
Jut  as  on  the  one  hand,  if  by  pursuing  the  course 
f  the  river  up  into  the  country  it  had  been  found  to 
lave  a  southern  bend,  it  would  have  been  inequita- 
le  to  have  contracted  the  Massachusetts  grant; 
o,  on  the  other  hand,  when  it  appeared  to  have  a 
northern  bend,  it  was  equally  inequitable  to  enlarge 
t.  Therefore  it  was  determined,  "  that  the  northern 
)oundary  of  the  province  of  Massachusetts  be  a 
imilar  curve  line,  pursuing  the  course  of  Merrimack 
•iver  at  three  miles  distance  on  the  north  side 
hereof,  beginning  at  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and  end- 
ng  at  a  point  due  north  of  Patucket  falls ;  and  a 
>traight  line  drawn  from  thence  due  west,  till  it 
meets  with  his  majesty's  other  governments."  The 
ither  parts  of  the  decree  of  the  commissioners,  re- 
pecting  the  northern  line  and  the  payment  of 
expenses,  were  affirmed. 

This  determination  exceeded  the  utmost  expecta- 
tion of  New  Hampshire,  as  it  gave  them  a  tract  of 
country  14  miles  in  breadth,  and  above  50  in  length, 
more  than  they  had  ever  claimed.  It  cut  off  from 
Massachusetts  28  new  townships,  between  Merri- 
mack and  Connecticut  rivers,  besides  large  tracts  of 
vacant  land,  which  lay  intermixed,  and  districts 
from  six  of  their  old  towns,  on  the  north  side  of  the 
Merrimack  ;  and  if,  as  was  then  supposed,  the  due 
west  line  were  to  extend  to  twenty  miles  east  of 
Hudson's  river,  the  reputed  boundary  of  New  York, 
a  vast  tract  of  fertile  country,  on  the  western  side  of 
Connecticut  river  was  annexed  to  New  Hampshire, 
by  which  an  ample  scope  was  given,  first  for  landed 
speculation,  and  afterward  for  cultivation,  and  wealth. 
When  this  determination  was  known,  the  politi- 
cians of  Massachusetts  were  chagrined  and  enraged. 
They  talked  loudly  of  injustice,  and  some  of  the 
more  zealous  proposed  trying  the  merits  of  the 
cause  upon  the  words  of  the  charter,  before  the 
judges  in  Westminster-hall,  who  it  was  expected 
would  upon  their  oath  and  honour  reverse  the 
judgment,  and  tell  the  king  that  he  had  mistaken 
the  meaning  of  the  royal  charter.  This  would,  in- 
deed, have  been  a  bold  stroke.  But  a  move  moderate 
and  pusillanimous  scheme  was  adopted,  which  was, 
to  send  over  a  new  agent  to  petition  the  king  that 
he  would  re-annex  to  their  government  the  twenty- 
eight  new  townships  which  had  been  cut  off,  and 
the  districts  of  the  six  old  towns.  It  was  also 
thought  prudent  that  the  whole  province  should  not 
openly  appear  in  the  affair,  but  that  petitions  should 
be  drawn  by  the  inhabitants  of  these  towns,  and 
that  the  agent  should  be  chosen  by  them.  Accord- 
ingly town  meetings  were  held,  petitions  were  pre- 


UNITED  STATES. 


481 


pared  and  subscribed,  and  Thomas  Hutchinson  was 
appointed  their  agent,  and  sent  over  to  England, 
where  he  formed  those  connexions  which  afterwards 
served  to  raise  him  to  the  chair  of  government  in 
his  native  province. 

About  the  same  time,  Governor  Belcher  procured 
a  petition  from  his  six  friends,  of  the  council  of 
New  Hampshire,  to  the  king,  praying  that  the  whole 
province  might  be  annexed  to  the  government  of 
Massachusetts.  This  matter  had  been  long  in  con- 
templation with  these  gentlemen,  but  was  now  pro- 
duced at  the  most  unfortunate  time  which  could 
have  been  chosen.  Their  petition  was  at  once  re- 
jected ;  but  that  from  the  towns  was  kept  in  sus- 
pense a  long  time,  till  Thomlinson  was  prepared  to 
answer  all  the  pleas  which  Hutchiuson  could  ad- 
vance, and  proved  too  hard  an  antagonist  for  him. 
It  was  finally  dismissed,  because  it  was  thought 
"  that  it  never  could  be  for  his  majesty's  service  to 
annex  any  part  of  his  province  of  New  Hampshire, 
as  an  increase  of  territory,  to  Massachusetts ;  but 
rather  that  it  would  be  for  the  benefit  of  his  subjects 
there,  to  be  under  a  distinct  government." 

Though  Belcher's  removal  was  seriously  feared 
by  his  best  friends,  yet  he  had  so  much  interest  with 
some  of  the  lords  in  high  office,  that  they  could  not 
be  prevailed  with  to  give  him  up.  The  war  which 
had  commenced  between  Britain  and  Spain  afforded 
him  an  opportunity  to  signalize  his  zeal  for  the 
king's  service  ;  and  he  determined  to  prove  himself 
a  faithful  servant  to  the  crown  in  every  instance,  in 
hope  that  a  course  of  time  and  fidelity  might  efface 
the  impressions  which  had  been  made  to  his  disad- 
vantage. 

It  being  resolved  by  the  British  court  to  under 
take  an  expedition  to  the  island  of  Cuba,  Governor 
Belcher,  agreeably  to  the  orders  which  he  had  re- 
ceived from  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  issued  a  pro- 
clamation for  the  encouragement  of  men  who  would 
enlist  in  the  service;  "  that  they  should  be  supplied 
with  arms  and  clothing,  be  in  the  king's  pay,  have 
a  share  of  the  booty  which  should  be  taken,  and  be 
sent  home  at  the  expiration  of  their  time  of  service ; 
and  that  his  majesty  would  order  a  number  of  blank 
commissions  to  be  filled  up  by  the  governor,  anc 
given  to  the  officers  who  should  command  the 
troops  to  be  raised  in  the  provinces."  He  after 
wards  pressed  this  matter  closely,  in  his  speech  t( 
the  assembly,  and  urged  them  to  make  provision  foi 
one  hundred  men  and  a  transport,  to  convey  them  t< 
Virginia,  where  all  the  colony  troops  were  to  ren 
dezvous,  and  thence  to  proceed,  under  the  commanc 
of  Colonel  Gooch,  to  the  place  of  their  destination 
The  assembly  voted  as  much  as  they  judged  suf 
ficient  for  this  purpose ;  and  the  governor  appointee 
a  captain,  and  gave  him  beating  orders ;  but  the 
commissions  and  arms  not  being  sent,  according  tc 
the  royal  promise,  no  men  could  be  enlisted  in  New 
Hampshire.  The  governor  received  commission, 
and  arms  for  four  companies  to  be  raised  in  Massa 
chusetts ;  where  he  could  easily  have  enlisted  ten 
had  he  been  furnished  according  to  the  engagement 
To  this  failure,  and  not  to  any  want  of  exertion  01 
his  part,  in  either  of  his  governments,  may  be  as 
cribed  the  paucity  of  troops  raised  in  them ;  and  ye 
his  enemies  failed  not  of  blaming  him  on  this  ac 
count.  The  representatives  of  New  Hampshire  too] 
this  occasion  to  frame  a  vote,  disapproving  his  ad 
ministration ;  and  upon  this  vote,  their  agent  foundec 
another  battery,  to  attack  his  character. 

(1741.)  In  conformity  to  the  royal  determination 
of  the  boundaries,  orders  were  given  to  Belcher  t 
HIST.  OF  AMEU. — Nos.  61  &  62. 


pply  to  both  his  governments,  to  join  in  appointing 
urveyors,  to  run  out,  and  mark  the  lines ;  and  that 
f  either  should  refuse,  the  other  should  proceed  ex 
mrte.  The  assembly  of  Massachusetts  delayed  giv- 
ng  an  answer  in  season,  which  was  construed  a 
lenial.  The  assembly  of  New  Hampshire  appointed 
hree  surveyors  to  execute  the  service,  who  were 
Commissioned  by  the  governor.  They  were  directed 
o  allow  ten  degrees  for  the  westerly  variation  of  the 
needle ;  and  the  work  was  performed  in  the  months 
f  February  and  March.  George  Mitchell  surveyed 
ind  marked  the  similar  curve  line,  from  the  ocean, 
hree  miles  north  of  Merrimack  river,  to  a  station 
north  of  Pantucket  falls,  in  the  township  of  Dracut. 
ilichard  Hazen  began  at  that  station  and  marked 
;he  west  line,  across  Connecticut  river,  to  the  sup- 
posed boundary  line  of  New  York.  Walter  Bryent 
jegan  the  line,  from  the  head  of  Salmon-falls  river, 
and  marked  it  about  thirty  miles;  but  was  prevented 
"rom  proceeding  farther,  partly  by  the  breaking  up 
of  the  rivers,  which  rendered  travelling  impracti- 
cable, and  partly  by  meeting  a  company  of  Indians 
who  were  hunting,  and  took  his  men  for  a  scouting 
party.  In  their  return  they  found  on  one  of  the 
trees,  which  they  had  marked,  "  the  figure  of  a 
man's  hand  grasping  a  sword;"  which  they  inter- 
preted as  a  signal  of  defiance  from  the  Indians. 

The  report  of  the  completion  of  these  lines 
was  one  of  the  last  acts  of  Mr.  Belcher's  admini- 
stration. His  enemies  in  both  governments  were 
indefatigable  in  their  endeavours  to  remove  him  ; 
and  by  their  incessant  applications  to  the  ministry  ; 
by  taking  every  advantage  of  his  mistakes  ;  by 
falsehood  and  misrepresentation ;  and  finally,  by  the 
diabolical  arts  of  forgery  and  perjury,  they  accom- 
plished their  views.  He  was  succeeded  in  the  go- 
vernment of  Massachusetts  by  William  Shirley  ;  and 
in  N  ew  Hampshire,  by  Benning  Wentworth. 

At  this  distance  of  time,  when  all  these  parties  avc 
extinct,  and  every  reader  may  be  supposed  impar- 
tial ;  it  may  seem  rather  strange,  that  Governor 
Belcher  should  meet  with  such  treatment  from  the 
British  court,  in  the  reign  of  George  the  Second. 
That  Mr.  Belcher  was  imprudent  and  unguarded,  in 
some  instances,  cannot  be  denied.  He  was  indeed 
zealous  to  serve  his  friends  and  hearken  to  their 
advice ;  but,  by  this  means,  he  laid  himself  open  to 
the  attacks  of  his  enemies,  to  whom  he  paid  no 
court,  but  openly  treated  them  with  contempt.  His 
language  to  them  was  severe  and  reproachful,  and 
he  never  spared  to  tell  the  world  what  he  thought 
of  them. 

This  provoked  them  ;  but  they  had  the  art  to  con- 
ceal their  resentment,  and  carry  on  their  designs  in 
silence,  till  they  were  ripe  for  execution.  He  had 
by  far  too  mean  an  opinion  of  their  abilities,  and  the 
interest  which  they  had  at  court;  and  when  he 
knew  that  they  had  the  ear  of  the  lords  of  trade,  he 
affected  to  think  them,  "  not  very  mighty  lords,  nor 
able  to  administer  life  and  death."  He  had  a  con- 
sciousness of  the  general  integrity  of  his  own  inten- 
tions ;  and  appears  to  have  been  influenced  by  mo- 
tives of  honour  and  justice  ;  but  he  was  not  aware 
of  the  force  of  his  own  prejudices.  It  may  admit  of 
doubt,  whether,  considering  the  extreme  delicacy  of 
his  situation,  it  were  within  the  compass  of  human 
policy,  to  have  behaved  so  as  to  give  offence  to 
neither  of  his  provinces,  in  the  management  of  such 
a  controversy;  but  it  is  certain,  that  his  antagonists 
could  fairly  fix  but  one  real  stigma  on  his  cha- 
racter; and  that,  when  impartially  examined,  can 
amount  to  no  more  tkan  an  imprudent  step,  at  a 

3  D 


482 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


critical  time,  grounded  on  an  undue  resentment  of 
an  affront ;  for  to  suppose  that  his  intention  was  to 
frustrate  the  commission,  is  inconsistent  with  the 
whole  tenor  of  his  public  declarations  and  private 
correspondence.  When  bis  enemies  met  him  on  fair 
and  open  ground,  he  was  always  prepared  to  answer; 
but  it  was  impossible  to  guard  against  their  secret 
attacks.  If  the  cause  which  they  meant  to  serve  was 
a  good  one,  why  did  they  employ  the  basest  means 
to  effect  it? 

The  cruelty  and  hardship  of  his  case  may  appear 
from  the  following  considerations.  He  had  been 
one  of  the.  principal  merchants  of  New  England, 
but  on  his  appointment  to  the  chair  of  government, 
quitted  every  other  kind  of  business,  that  he  might 
uttend  with  punctuality  and  dignity  to  the  duties  of 
his  station.  By  the  royal  instructions,  he  was  re- 
strained from  giving  his  assent  to  any  grant  of 
money  to  himself,  unless  it  should  be  a  permanent 
salary.  What  he  received  from  New  Hampshire 
was  fixed,  and  paid  out  of  the  excise ;  but  the  as- 
sembly of  Massachusetts  could  not  be  persuaded  to 
settle  any  salary  upon  him.  They  made  him  a  grant 
of  money  (worth  about  700/.  or  80CK.  sterling)  ge- 
nerally once  in  a  year,  at  their  session  in  May.  He 
was  then  obliged  to  solicit  leave  from  the  king,  to 
accept  the  grant  and  sign  the  bill ;  and  sometimes 
could  not  obtain  this  leave  till  the  end  of  the  year  : 
once  not  till  five  days  before  the  dissolution  of  the 
assembly.  In  the  mean  time  he  was  obliged  to  sub- 
sist on  his  own  estate,  and  had  he  died  within  the 
year,  the  grant  would  have  been  wholly  lost  to  his 
family.  He  was  earnest  to  obtain  a  general  per- 
mission to  sign  these  grants  ;  but  in  that  case  the 
clerks  of  office  in  England,  through  whose  hands  the 
permission  must  have  passed,  would  have  lost  their 
fees.  He  was  now  in  the  GOth  year  of  his  age :  he 
had  a  family  of  children  and  grandchildren,  whose 
sole  dependence  was  on  him ;  and  he  thought,  with 
reason,  that  if  his  course  of  faithful  service,  and  the 
unworthy  arts  of  his  enemies  had  been  duly  consi- 
dered, the  censure  of  his  superiors  would  have  been  less 
severe,  than  "to  deprive  him  of  his  bread  and  honour.' 
Whilst  he  entertained  the  worst  opinion  possible 
of  the  characters  of  his  enemies,  he  had  a  strong 
confidence  in  the  justice  of  the  government  before 
which  he  was  accused.  In  one  of  his  letters  to  his 
son,  he  says,  "  I  must  expect  no  favour  while  Bla- 
den  is  at  the  Board  of  Trade;  but  where  the  devil  bul 
there  should  I  expect  justice,  under  the  British  Con- 
stitution, corroborated  by  the  Hanover  succession?' 
The  event  proved,  that  his  confidence  was  not  il 
founded.  For,  on  being  superseded,  he  repaired  t< 
court,  where,  though  his  presence  was  unvrelcomi 
to  some,  yet  he  had  opportunity  to  bring  the  mos 
convincing  evidence  of  his  integrity,  and  of  the  basi 
designs  of  his  enemies.  He  was  so  far  restored  t< 
the  royal  favour,  that  he  obtained  a  promise  of  the 
first  vacant  government  in  America  which  woul< 
be  worthy  of  his  acceptance.  This  proved  to  be  the 
province  of  New  Jersey,  where  he  spent  the  remain 
ing  years  of  his  life,  and  where  his  memory  has  been 
treated  with  deserved  respect. 

The  beginning  of  Benning  Wenticorth' ?  administra 
tion — War  opened  in  Nova  Scotia — Expedition  t 
Cape  Breton;  its  plan,  conduct,  and  success,  with 
description  tf the  island,  and  of  the  city  ofLouisboury 

Benning  Wentworth,  Esq.  son  of  the  decease 
lieut. -governor,  was  a  merchant  of  good  reputatio 
in  Portsmouth,  and  well  beloved  by  the  people.  H 
had  represented  hi*  native  town  in  the  assembly  f< 


everal  years,  where  he  distinguished  himself  in  the 
pposition  to  Belcher.  He  afterwards  obtained  a 
;at  in  council ;  where,  sensible  of  the  popularity  of 
is  family,  and  feeling  the  pride  of  elevation,  he  con  • 
nued  the  opposition,  and  joined  in  the  measures 
hich  were  pursued  for  obtaining  a  distinct  governor, 
ithout  any  apprehension  that  himself  would  be 
he  person,  till  a  series  of  incidents,  at  first  view 
nfortunate,  prepared  the  way  for  his  advancement 
o  the  chair. 

In  the  course  of  his  mercantile  dealings,  he   had 
ntered  into  a  contract  with  an  agent  of  the  court  of 
pain,  and  supplied  him  with  a  large  quantity  of  the 
est   oak   timber,  to  procure  which,   he   borrowed 
money  in  London.     When  he  delivered  the  timber 
t  Cadiz,  the  agent  with  whom   he  had  contracted 
out  of  place,  and  the  new  officer  declined  pay- 
ment.    In  returning  to  America  the  ship  foundered, 
nd  he  was  saved  with  the  crew   in   a  boat.     These 
misfortunes  deranged  his  affairs  and  reduced  him  to 
state  of  bankruptcy.    Afterwards  he  went  again  to 
pain,    hoping  by    the   interest    of  Sir   Benjamin 
"Leone,  the  British  minister,    to  obtain  his  due,  but 
is  suit  was  ineffectual.     About  that  time   Thomliu- 
on,  despairing  of  Dunbar's  advancement  to  the  go- 
ernment  of  New  Hampshire,  turned  his   thoughts 
oward  Wentworth  ;  and  having  procured  him  a  let- 
er  of  license  from  his  creditors  in  London,  invited 
lim  thither.    Wentworth  represented  his  case  to  the 
British  court,  complained  of  the  injustice  of  Spain, 
and  petitioned  for  redress.   Many  British  merchants, 
ho  had  suffered  by.  the  insolence  of  the  Spaniards, 
were,  at  the   same  time,   clamorous  for  reparation. 
The  ministry  were  studious  to  avoid  a  war.     A  ne- 
rociation  was  begun,  and  the  court  of  Spain  pro- 
nised   restitution,  but  failed  in   the    performance. 
War  was  then  determined  on,  and   all  ncgociation 
mded.     Disappointed  in  his  plea  for  justice,  Went- 
,vorth  made  his  suit  for   favour,  and   by  the  aid  of 
Thomlinson,  who  understood   the  ways  of  access  to 
he  great,  he  obtained  a  promise  from  the  Duke  of 
Newcastle,  that   when   New  Hampshire    should  be 
iut  under  a  distinct  governor,  he  should  have  the 
ommission.     The  expense  of  the  solicitation   and 
'ees,  amounting  to  30U/.  sterling,    was  advanced  by 
lis  friends  in  England,  and  repaid  by  his  friends  in 
STew  Hampshire. 

(1741.)  He  was  received  in  Portsmouth,  after  a 
ong  absence,  with  great  marks  of  popular  respect. 
Among  the  compliments  which  were  paid  to  him 
n  that  occasion,  one  was,  that  he  had  been  in- 
strumental to  "  rescuing  New  Hampshire  from  con- 
tempt and  dependence."  In  his  first  speech  to  the 
assembly  (1742)  he  reflected  on  the  conduct  of  his 
predecessor,  not  by  name,  but  by  implication,  for 
not  having  taken  early  measures  "to  raise  men  for 
the  expedition  against  the  Spanish  West  Indies; 
and  intimated  his  apprehension,  that  the  good  in- 
tention of  the  province  in  raising  money  for  that 
purpose  would  be  frustrated,  since  the  men  who  were 
willing  to  enter  into  the  service  had  enlisted  in  the 
other  provinces.  He  also  complimented  them  on 
their  good  faith  in  regard  to  the  several  issues  of 
paper  money,  all  of  which  were  to  be  called  in  within 
the  present  year.  He  did  not  forget  to  recommend 
a  fixed  salary  for  himself,  not  subject  to  depreciation, 
nor  the  payment  of  expenses  which  had  arisen  on 
account  of  the  boundary  lines ;  he  informed  them 
of  the  king's  indulgence,  in  giving  him  leave  to  con- 
sent to  a  farther  issue  of  bills  of  credit,  to  enable 
them  to  discharge  their  obligations  to  the  crown, 
provided  that  no  injury  should  be  done  to  the  trade 


UNITED  STATES. 


483 


of  the  mother  country.  He  also  recommended  to 
their  attention  the  faithful  services  of  their  agents, 
one  of  whom,  Rindge,  was  dead,  and  the  payment 
of  the  debt  due  to  his  heirs. 

The  assembly,  in  their  answer,  acknowledged  the 
wisdom  and  justice  of  the  king  in  determining  the 
long  controversy  between  them  and  Massachusetts  ; 
but  as  to  payment  of  the  expense,  they  reminded 
him  that  one-half  ought  to  be  paid  by  Massachusetts, 
and  desired  him  to  use  his  influence  for  that  purpose. 
With  respect  to  the  failure  of  raising  men  for  the 
expedition,  they  set  him  right  by  ascribing  it  to  the 
true  cause ;  there  being  no  commissions  sent  to  the 
province  for  that  service.  Concerning  the  salary, 
they  said  that  as  soon  as  they  could  know  what 
number  of  inhabitants  would  be  added  to  them  by 
the  settlement  of  the  lines,  and  how  the  money  could 
be  raised,  they  should  make  as  ample  provision  for 
his  honourable  support  as  their  circumstances  would 
admit.  They  acknowledged  the  fidelity  and  indus- 
try of  their  agents,  and  professed  a  good  will  to  re- 
ward them ;  but  could  not  then  promise  adequate 
compensation. 

The  assembly  voted  a  salary  of  25CM.  proclama- 
tion money  to  the  governor,  funded  as  usual  on  the  ex- 
cise; and  having  obtained  a  royal  licence  for  issuing 
25,000/.  on  loan  for  ten  years,  they  granted  the  go- 
vernor 2501.  more,  to  be  paid  annually  out  of  the 
interest  of  the  loan.  When  this  fund  failed,  they  made 
annual  grants  for  his  "  further  and  more  ample  sup- 
port," and  generally  added  something  for  house- 
vent.  They  presented  their  agent  Thomlinson  1001. 
sterling  for  his  faithful  services  ;  but  what  they  did 
for  the  heirs  of  Rindge  does  not  appear. 

(1743.)  After  Mr.  Wentworth  was  quietly  seated 
in  the  chair  of  government,  an  opportunity  presented 
to  advance  his  interest  still  farther.  For  the  sum 
of  2,000/.  sterling,  Dunbar  was  prevailed  on  to  re- 
sign the  surveyorship  of  the  woods,  and  Thomlinson 
negociated  an  appointment  in  favour  of  Wentworth, 
with  a  salary  of  800/.  sterling,  out  of  which  he  was 
to  maintain  four  deputies.  But  to  obtain  this  office, 
he  was  obliged  to  "  rest  his  claim  on  the  crown  of 
Spain  for  56,000  dollars." 

These  appointments  of  Mr.  Wentworth  gave  the 
opposers  of  the  former  administration  great  cause  of 
triumph ;  but  the  spirit  of  opposition  had  only 
changed  sides.  It  was  hoped  and  expected  by  some, 
that  Mr.  Belcher,  by  going  to  England,  would  not 
only  remove  the  ill  impressions  which  the  malice  of 
his  enemies  had  made,  but  return  to  his  former  sta- 
tion. Others,  who  had  no  predilection  for  Belcher, 
looked  with  envy  on  the  good  fortune  of  Wentworth, 
and  aimed  to  undermine  him;  at  the  same  time 
courting  the  friends  of  the  former  administration  to 
join  in  their  measures.  These  things  were  managed 
with  secrecy,  and  a  few  hints  only  are  left  as  evi- 
dence of  the  existence  of  designs,  which  were  never 
brought  to  maturity. 

It  was  one  of  the  royal  instructions  to  governors, 
that  in  any  cases  of  difficulty  or  sudden  emergency, 
they  should  communicate  with  each  other.  Mr. 
Weutworth  had  a  high  opinion  of  the  abilities  of  the 
new  governor  of  Massachusetts,  and  there  being  a 
strict  friendship  between  them,  consulted  him  on  all 
occasions.  Shirley  was  gratified  by  this  deference, 
and  knew  how  to  make  his  advantage; of  it.  Thus, 
though  New  Hampshire  was  under  a  governor  dis- 
tinct from  that  of  Massachusetts — a  point  which  had 
long  been  contended  for — yet  the  difference  was  not 
so  great  in  reality  as  in  appearance.  This  was  a 
circumstance  not  much  known  at  that  time.  The 


advice  which  Shirley  gave  him  was,  in  general, 
salutary  and  judicious. 

.„  (1744.)  The  war  which  had  been  kindled  between 
Britain  and  Spain,  extended  its  flame  over  a  great 
part  of  Europe  ;  and  when  France  became  involved 
in  it,  the  American  colonies  were  more  nearly  in- 
terested, because  of  the  proximity  of  the  French,  and 
of  the  Indians,  who  were  in  their  interest.  War  is 
so  natural  to  savages,  that  they  need  but  little  to 
excite  them  to  it.  An  Indian  war  was  a  necessary 
appendage  of  a  war  with  France.  The  scene  of 
both  was  opened  in  Nova  Scotia. 

That  province  had  been  alternately  claimed  and 
possessed  by  the  English  and  French  for  more  than 
a  century.  Ever  since  the  peace  of  Utrecht  it  had 
been  subject  to  the  crown  of  Britain,  and  the  French 
inhabitants,  who  were  under  a  kind  of  patriarchal 
government  of  their  priests,  and  devoted  to  the 
French  interest,  were  kept  in  awe,  partly  by  the 
fear  of  having  their  dikes  destroyed — which  they  had 
erected  to  prevent  the  sea  from  overflowing  their 
fields — and  partly  by  a  British  garrison  at  Anna- 
polis, where  a  governor  and  council  resided.  The 
Indian  tribes  maintained  their  native  independence, 
though  they  were  attached  to  the  French  by  reli- 
gious as  well  as  interested  obligations.  Canseau, 
an  island  on  the  north-eastern  part  of  Nova  Scotia, 
was  in  possession  of  the  English.  It  was  resorted 
to  by  the  fishermen  of  New  England.  It  was  de- 
fended by  a  block-house  and  garrisoned  by  a  de- 
tachment of  troops  from  Annapolis.  The  island  of 
Cape  Breton  was  possessed  by  the  French,  and  lay 
between  the  English  of  Canseau  and  those  of  New- 
foundland. This  was  too  near  a  neighbourhood  for 
enemies,  especially  when  both  were  pursuing  one 
object,  the  fishery. 

The  French  at  Cape  Breton  having  received  early 
intelligence  of  the  declaration  of  war,  immediately 
resolved  on  the  destruction  of  the  English  fishery  at 
Canseau.  Duquesnel,  the  governor,  sent  Duvivier 
with  a  few  small  armed  vessels,  and  about  nine  hun- 
dred men,  who  seized  and  took  possession  of  the 
island,  burned  the  houses,  and  made  prisoners  of  the 
garrison  and  inhabitants.  This  was  done,  before 
the  news  of  war  had  arrived  in  New  England.  It 
was  followed  by  an  attempt  upon  Placentia,  in  New- 
foundland, which  miscarried.  An  attack  was  also  made 
upon  Annapolis,  the  garrison  of  which  was  reinforced 
by  several  companies  of  militia  and  rangers,  from 
Massachusetts,  and  the  enemy  were  obliged  to  re- 
tire. The  Indians  of  Nova  Scotia  assisted  the  French 
in  this  attack;  which,  with  some  other  insolencies 
committed  by  them,  occasioned  a  declaration  of  war 
by  the  government  of  Massachusetts  against  them, 
with  a  premium  for  scalps  and  prisoners. 

These  proceedings  of  the  French  were  rash  and 
precipitate.  They  were  not  prepared  for  extensive 
operations ;  nor  had  they  any  orders  from  their  court 
to  undertake  them.  What  they  had  done,  served 
to  irritate  and  alarm  the  neighbouring  English  co- 
lonies, and  shew  them  their  danger  in  the  most  con- 
spicuous manner.  Their  sea  coast,  navigation,  and 
fishery  lay  exposed  to  continual  insults.  Their  fron- 
tier settlements  on  the  western  side  were  but  eighty 
miles  distant  from  the  French  fort  on  Lake  Cham- 
plain.  The  Indians  who  lay  between  them,  had  not 
yet  taken  up  the  hatchet ;  but  it  was  expected  that 
encouragement  would  be  given  them  by  the  gover- 
nor of  Canada,  to  insult  the  frontiers.  Several  new 
settlements  were  wholly  broken  up;  and  many  of  the 
women  and  children  of  other  frontier  places  retired 
to  the  old  towns  for  security. 

3D2 


484 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA, 


In  the  autumn,  Duquesnel  the  French  governor 
of  Cape  Breton,  died,  and  was  succeeded  in  the 
command  by  Duchambon,  who  had  not  so  good  a 
military  character.  Duvivier  went  to  France  to  so- 
licit a  force  to  carry  on  the  war  in  Nova  Scotia  in 
the  ensuing  spring.  The  store  ships,  expected  from 
France  at  Cape  Breton,  came  on  the  coast  so  late  in 
the  fall,  and  the  winter  there  set  in  so  early  and 
fierce,  as  to  keep  them  out  of  port,  and  drive  them 
off  to  the  West  Indies.  The  captive  garrison  of 
Canseau,  with  other  prisoners,  who  had  been  taken 
at  sea  and  carried  into  Louisbourg,  were  sent  to 
Boston.  From  them,  as  well  as  from  other  inform- 
ants, Governor  Shirley  obtained  such  intelligence  of 
the  state  of  that  island  and  fortress,  as  induced  him 
te  form  the  project  of  attacking  it.  But  before  we 
open  this  romantic  and  hazardous  scene,  it  is  ne- 
cessary to  give  some  account  of  the  place  which  was 
to  be  the  theatre  of  operations. 

The  island  of  Cape  Breton,  so  denominated  from 
one  of  its  capes,  lies  between  the  forty-fifth  and 
forty-seventh  degrees  of  north  latitude,  at  the  dis- 
tance of  fifteen  leagues  from  Cape  Ray,  the  south- 
western extremity  of  Newfoundland.  It  is  separated 
from  the  main  land  of  Nova  Scotia  by  a  narrow 
strait  six  leagues  in  length,  the  navigation  of  which 
is  safe  for  a  ship  of  forty  guns.  The  greatest  length 
of  the  island,  from  north-east  to  south-west  is  about 
fifty  leagues,  and  its  greatest  breadth  thirty-three. 
It  is  about  eighty-eight  leagues  in  circuit  as  seamen 
estimate  distances.  Its  general  form  is  triangular, 
but  it  is  indented  by  many  deep  bays. 

The  soil  of  this  island  is  by  no  means  inviting. 
It  is  either  rocky  and  mountainous,  or  else  cold  and 
boggy ;  and  much  less  capable  of  improvement  than 
Nova  Scotia.  Its  only  valuable  productions  are  of 
the  fossil  kind,  pit-coal  and  plaster.  Its  atmosphere 
in  the  spring  and  summer  is  an  almost  continual 
fog,  which  prevents  the  rays  of  the  sun  from  per- 
fecting vegetation.  Its  winter  is  severe  and  of  long 
continuance ;  and  as  the  island  forms  an  eddy  to 
the  current  which  sets  through  the  gulf  of  St. 
Lawrence,  its  harbours  are  filled  with  large  quanti- 
ties of  floating  ice,  with  which  its  shores  are  envi- 
roned till  late  in  the  spring. 

Much  has  been  said  by  French  and  English 
writers  on  the  great  importance  and  advantage  of 
this  island,  and  some  political  and  temporary  pur- 
poses were  doubtless  to  be  answered  by  such  publi- 
cations ;  but  in  fact,  the  only  real  importance  of 
Cape  Breton  was  derived  from  its  central  situation, 
and  the  convenience  of  its  ports.  On  the  north  and 
west  sides  it  is  steep  and  inaccessible ;  but  the 
south-eastern  side  is  full  of  fine  bays  and  harbours, 
capable  of  receiving  and  securing  ships  of  any  bur- 
den ;  and,  being  situated  between  Canada,  France, 
and  the  West  Indies,  it  was  extremely  favourable  to 
the  French  commerce.  It  was  not  so  good  a  station 
for  the  fishery  as  several  parts  of  Nova  Scotia  and 
Newfoundland.  The  greater  part  of  the  French 
fishery  was  prosecuted  elsewhere ;  and  they  could 
buy  fish  at  Canseau  cheaper  than  they  could  cure 
it  at  Cape  Breton. 

Whilst  the  French  held  possession  of  the  coasts 
of  Nova  Scotia  and  Newfoundland,  this  island  was 
neglected ;  but  after  they  had  ceded  these  places  to 
the  crown  of  England,  and  the  crown  of  England  had 
ceded  this  island  to  them  by  the  treaty  of  Utrecht, 
1713,  they  began  to  see  its  value.  Instead  of  giving 
so  much  attention  to  the  fur  trade  of  Canada  as  they 
had  before  done,  they  contemplated  building  a  for- 
tified town  on  this  island,  as  a  security  to  their  na- 


vigation and  fishery.  For  this  purpose  they  chose 
a  fine  harbour  on  the  south-east  side  of  the  island, 
formerly  called  English  harbour;  where  they  erected 
their  fortifications,  and  called  the  place  Louisbourg. 

The  harbour  of  Louisbourg  lies  in  latitude  45°  55" ; 
its  entrance  is  about  four  hundred  yards  wide.  The 
anchorage  is  uniformly  safe,  and  ships  may  run 
ashore  on  a  soft  muddy  bottom.  The  depth  of  water 
at  the  entrance  is  from  nine  to  twelve  fathoms.  The 
harbour  lies  open  to  the  south-east.  Upon  a  neck 
of  land  on  the  south  side  of  the  harbour  was  built 
the  town,  two  miles  and  a  quarter  in  circumference ; 
fortified  in  every  accessible  part  with  a  rampart  of 
stone,  from  thirty  to  thirty-six  feet  high,  and  a  ditch 
eighty  feet  wide.  A  space  of  about  two  hundred 
yards  was  left  without  a  rampart,  on  the  side  next 
to  the  sea;  it  was  enclosed  by  a  simple  dike  and  a 
line  of  pickets.  The  sea  was  so  shallow  in  this  place, 
that  it  made  only  a  narrow  channel,  inaccessible 
from  its  numerous  reefs  to  any  shipping  whatever. 
The  side  fire  from  the  bastions  secured  this  spot 
from  an  attack.  There  were  six  bastions  and  three 
batteries,  containing  embrasures  for  148  cannon,  of 
which  sixty-five  only  were  mounted,  and  sixteen 
mortars.  On  an  island  at  the  entrance  of  the  har- 
bour was  planted  a  battery  of  thirty  cannon,  carry- 
ing twenty-eight  pounds  shot;  and  at  the  bottom  of 
the  harbour,  directly  opposite  to  the  entrance,  was 
the  grand  or  royal  battery  of  twenty-eight  cannon, 
(forty-two  pounders,)  and  two  eighteen  pounders.  On 
a  high  cliff,  opposite  to  the  island  battery,  stood  a 
light-house ;  and  within  this  point,  at  the  north-east 
part  of  the  harbour,  was  a  careening  wharf  secure 
from  all  winds,  and  a  magazine  of  naval  stores. 

The  town  was  regularly  laid  out  in  squares.  The 
streets  were  broad ;  the  houses  mostly  of  wood,  but 
some  of  stone.  On  the  west  side,  near  the  rampart, 
was  a  spacious  citadel,  and  a  large  parade ;  on  one 
side  of  which  were  the  governor's  apartments.  Un- 
der the  rampart  were  casemates  to  receive  the  women 
and  children  during  a  siege.  The  entrance  of  the 
town  on  the  land  side  was  at  the  west  gate,  over  a 
draw-bridge,  near  to  which  was  a  circular  battery, 
mounting  sixteen  guns,  of  twenty-four  pounds  shot. 

These  works  had  been  twenty-five  years  in  build- 
ing; and  though  not  finished,  had  cost  the  crown, 
it  is  said,  nearly  1,000,000/.  sterling.  The  place 
was  so  strong  as  to  be  called  "  the  Dunkirk  of  Ame- 
rica." It  was,  in  peace,  a  safe  retreat  for  the  ships 
of  France  bound  homeward  from  the  East  and  West. 
Indies;  and  in  war,  a  source  of  distress  to  the  north- 
ern English  colonies;  its  situation  being  extremely 
favourable  for  privateers  to  ruin  their  fishery,  anil 
interrupt  their  coasting  and  foreign  trade  ;  for  which 
reasons,  the  reduction  of  it  was  an  object  as  desira- 
ble to  them,  as  that  of  Carthage  was  to  the  Romans. 

In  the  autumn,  Shirley  wrote  to  the  British  mi- 
nistry, representing  the  danger  of  an  attack  on 
Nova  Scotia  from  the  French,  in  the  ensuing  spring; 
and  praying  for  some  naval  assistanco.  These  let- 
ters he  sent  by  Captain  Ryal,  an  officer  of  the  gar- 
rison which  had  been  taken  at  Canseau,  who  "  from 
bis  particular  knowledge  of  Louisbourg,  and  of  the 
»reat  consequence  of  the  acquisition  of  Cape  Breton, 
and  the  preservation  of  Nova  Scotia,  he  hoped  would 
be  of  considerable  service  to  the  northern  colonies, 
with  the  lords  of  the  admiralty."  Thus  early  did 
Shirley  conceive  and  communicate  to  Wentworth 
tiis  great  design ;  and  the  most  prudent  step  which 
lie  took  in  this  whole  affair  was  to  solicit  help  from 
England.  His  petition,  supported  by  that  worthy 
officer,  was  so  favourably  received  by  the  ministry, 


UNITED  STATES. 


485 


that  as  early  as  the  beginning  of  January,  orders 
were  dispatched  to  Commodore  Warren,  then  in  the 
West  Indies,  to  proceed  to  the  northward  in  the 
spring,  and  employ  such  a  force  as  might  be  suffi- 
cient to  protect  the  northern  colonies  in  their  trade 
and  fishery,  and  distress  the  enemy ;  and  for  this 
purpose  to  consult  with  Governor  Shirley.  Orders 
of  the  same  date  were  written  to  Shirley,  inclosed  to 
Warren,  directing  him  to  assist  the  king's  ships 
with  transports,  men  and  provisions.  These  orders, 
though  extremely  favourable  to  the  design,  were 
totally  unknown  in  New  England  till  the  middle  of 
April  following,  before  which  time  the  expedition 
was  completely  formed. 

It  has  been  said,  that  a  plan  of  this  famous  enter- 
prise was  first  suggested  by  William  Vaughan,  a  son 
of  Lieut-governor  Vaughan,  of  New  Hampshire. 
Several  other  persons  have  claimed  the  like  merit. 
How  far  each  one's  information  or  advice  contri- 
buted toward  forming  the  design,  cannot  now  be 
determined.  Vaughan  was  largely  concerned  in 
the  fishery  on  the  eastern  coast  of  Massachusetts. 
He  was  a  man  of  good  understanding,  but  of  a  dar- 
ing, enterprising,  and  tenacious  mind,  and  one  who 
thought  of  no  obstacles  to  the  accomplishment  of  his 
views.  An  instance  of  his  temerity  is  still  remem- 
bered. He  had  equipped,  at  Portsmouth,  a  number 
of  boats  to  carry  on  his  fishery  at  Montinicus ;  on 
the  day  appointed  for  sailing,  in  the  month  of  March, 
though  the  wind  was  so  boisterous  that  experienced 
mariners  deemed  it  impossible  for  such  vessels  to 
carry  sail,  he  went  on  board  one,  and  ordered  the 
others  to  follow.  One  was  lost  at  the  mouth  of  the 
river,  the  rest  arrived  with  much  difficulty,  but  in  a 
short  time,  at  the  place  of  their  destination.  Vaughan 
had  not  been  at  Louisbourg;  but  had  learned  from 
fishermen  and  others,  something  of  the  strength  and 
situation  of  the  place,  and  nothing  being  in  his  view 
impracticable  which  he  had  a  mind  to  accomplish, 
he  conceived  a  design  to  take  the  city  by  surprise; 
and  even  proposed  going  over  the  walls  in  the  winter 
on  the  drifts  of  snow.  This  idea  of  a  surprisal 
forcibly  struck  the  mind  of  Shirley,  and  prevailed 
with  him  to  hasten  his  preparations,  before  he  could 
have  any  answer  or  orders  from  England. 

^1745.)  In  the  beginning  of  January  he  requested 
of  the  members  of  the  general  court,  that  they  would 
lay  themselves  under  an  oath  of  secresy,  to  receive 
a  proposal  from  him,  of  very  great  importance.  This 
was  the  first  request  of  the  kind  which  had  ever  been 
made  to  a  legislative  body  in  the  colonies.  They 
readily  took  the  oath,  and  he  communicated  to  them 
the  plan  which  he  had  formed  of  attacking  Louisbourg. 
The  secret  was  kept  for  some  days,  till  an  honest 
member,  who  performed  the  family  devotion  at  his 
lodgings,  inadvertently  discovered  it  by  praying  for 
a  blessing  on  the  attempt.  At  the  first  deliberation 
the  proposal  was  rejected,  but  by  the  address  of  the 
governor  and  the  invincible  perseverance  of  Vaughan, 
a  petition  from  the  merchants  concerned  in  the 
fishery,  was  brought  into  court,  which  revived  the 
affair;  and  it  was  finally  carried  in  the  affirmative 
by  a  majority  of  one  voice,  in  the  absence  of  several 
members  who  were  known  to  be  against  it.  Cir- 
cular letters  were  immediately  dispatched  to  all  the 
colonies,  as  far  as  Pennsylvania,  requesting  their 
assistance,  and  an  embargo  on  their  ports. 

With  one  of  these  letters  Vaughan  rode  express 
to  Portsmouth,  where  the  assembly  was  sitting. 
Governor  Wentworth  immediately  laid  the  matter 
before  them,  and  proposed  a  conference  of  the  two 
houses  to  be  held  on  the  next  day.  The  house  of 


representatives  having  caught  the  enthusiasm  of 
Vaughan,  were  impatient  of  delay,  and  desired  that 
t  might  be  held  immediately.  It  was  accordingly 
icld,  and  the  committee  reported  in  favour  of  the 
expedition,  estimated  the  expense  at  4,000/.,  and 
desired  the  governor  to  issue  a  proclamation  for 
inlisting  250  men,  at  25s.  per  month,  one  month's 
pay  to  be  advanced ;  they  also  recommended  that 
military  stores  and  transports  should  be  provided, 
and  that  such  preparations  should  be  made  that 
the  whole  might  be  ready  by  the  beginning  of  March. 
All  this  was  instantly  agreed  to,  on  condition  that 
proper  methods  could  be  found  to  pay  the  charges. 
This  could  be  done  in  no  other  way  than  by  a  new 
issue  of  bills  of  credit,  contrary  to  the  letter  of  royal 
instructions.  But,  by  the  help  of  Shirley,  a  way 
was  found  to  surmount  this  difficulty;  for  on  the. 
same  day  he  wrote  to  Wentworth,  informing  him 
that  he  had,  in  answer  to  repeated  solicitations,  ob- 
tained a  relaxation  of  his  instructions  relative  to 
bills  of  credit,  so  far  as  to  have  leave  to  consent  to 
such  issues  as  the  exigencies  of  war  might  require ; 
and  advising  him  that,  considering  the  occasion,  it 
was  probable  his  consenting  to  an  issue  would  rather 
be  approved  than  censured  by  his  superiors.  The 
next  day  he  wrote  again  assuring  him  that  he  might 
safely  do  it,  provided,  that  the  sum  to  be  issued  were 
solely  appropriated  to  the  service  of  the  expedition. 
He  also  sent  him  a  copy  of  the  instruction,  enjoining 
him  to  let  no  person  know  that  he  had  sent  it.  Shir- 
ley himself  had  consented  to  an  issue  of  50,OOW.,  to 
be  drawn  in  by  a  tax  in  the  years  1747  and  1748. 

The  house  of  representatives  passed  a  vote  for  an 
issue  of  10,000£.  toward  defraying  the  charge  of  the 
expedition  and  further  carrying  on  the  war,  and  the 
support  of  government ;  to  be  drawn  in  by  taxes  in 
ten  annual  payments,  to  begin  in  1755.  The  coun- 
cil objected  and  said,  that  the  grant  should  be  wholly 
appropriated  to  the  expedition,  and  the  payments 
should  begin  in  1751.  The  house  adhered  to  their 
vote.  The  governor  interposed,  and  an  altercation 
took  place,  which  continued  several  days.  The  go- 
vernor adjourned  the  assembly  till  he  could  again 
ask  Shirley's  advice  and  receive  his  answer.  At 
length  the  house  altered  their  vote,  and  appointed 
the  year  1751  for  drawing  in  the  money,  augmenting 
the  sum  to  13,000/.;  and  at  the  governor's  express 
desire,  they  publicly  assured  him  that  they  "could  not 
find  out  any  other  way  to  carry  on  the  expedition, 
or  in  any  degree  shorten  the  period  for  bringing  in 
the  money."  This  was  done  to  serve  as  an  apology 
for  the  governor's  consenting  to  the  bill,  notwith- 
standing he  had  no  liberty  to  recede  from  his  in- 
structions ;  and  thus,  the  matter  being  compromised, 
he  gave  his  consent. 

During  this  tedious  interval,  a  report  was  spread, 
that  the  house  had  refused  to  raise  men  and  money 
for  the  expedition;  and  the  author  of  the  report  was 
sought  out  and  called  to  account  by  the  house  for 
his  misbehaviour.  The  next  day  they  altered  their 
terms  of  enlistment,  conformably  to  those  offered  in 
Massachusetts,  and  by  the  17th  of  February,  250 
men  were  enlisted  for  the  service. 

The  person  appointed  to  command  the  expedition 
was  William  Pepperrell,  Esq.  of  Kittery,  colonel  of 
a  regiment  of  militia,  a  merchant  of  unblemished 
reputation  and  engaging  manners,  extensively  known 
both  in  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire,  and 
very  popular.  These  qualities  were  absolutely  ne- 
cessary in  the  commander  of  an  army  of  volunteers, 
his  own  countrymen,  who  were  to  quit  their  domes- 
tic connexions  and  employments,  and  engage  in  a 


486 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


hazardous  enterprise,  which  none  of  them,  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest,  knew  how  to  conduct.  Pro- 
fessional skill  and  experience  were  entirely  out  of 
the  question;  had  these  qualities  been  necessary, 
the  expedition  must  have  been  laid  aside  ;  for  there 
was  no  person  in  New  England  in  these  respects 
qualified  for  the  command.  Fidelity,  resolution  and 
popularity  must  supply  the  place  of  military  talents ; 
and  Pepperrell  was  possessed  of  these.  It  was  ne- 
cessary that  the  men  should  know  and  love  their  ge- 
neral, or  they  would  not  enlist  under  him. 

After  this  appointment  was  made,  and  while  it 
was  uncertain  whether  the  assembly  of  New  Hamp- 
shire would  agree  with  the  governor  in  raising  mo- 
ney for  the  expedition,  Shirley  proposed  to  Went- 
worth,  the  raising  of  men  in  New  Hampshire,  to  be 
in  the  pay  of  Massachusetts,  and  in  the  letter  which 
he  wrote  on  that  occasion  paid  him  the  following 
compliment :  "  It  would  have  been  an  infinite  satis- 
faction to  me,  and  done  great  honour  to  the  expedi- 
tion, if  your  limbs  would  have  permitted  you  to  take 
the  chief  command."  Wentworth  was  charmed 
with  the  idea,  and  forgetting  his  gout,  made  an  offer 
of  his  personal  service,  but  not  till  after  the  assem- 
bly had  agreed  to  his  terms  and  the  money  bill  was 
passed.  Shirley  was  then  obliged  to  answer  him 
thus :  "  Upon  communicating  your  offer  to  two  or 
three  gentlemen,  in  whose  prudence  and  judgment  I 
most  confide,  I  found  them  clearly  of  opinion,  that 
any  alteration  of  the  present  command  would  be  at- 
tended with  great  risque,  both  with  respect  to  the  as- 
sembly and  the  soldiers  being  entirely  disgusted." 

Before  Pepperrell  accepted  the  command,  he 
asked  the  opinion  of  the  famous  George  Whitefield, 
who  was  then  itinerating  and  preaching  in  New 
England.  Whitefield  told  him,  that  he  did  not  think 
the  scheme  very  promising ;  that  the  eyes  of  all 
would  be  on  him ;  that  if  it  should  not  succeed,  the 
widows  ana  orphans  of  the  slain  would  reproach 
him;  and  if  it  should  succeed,  many  would  regard 
him  with  envy,  and  endeavour  to  eclipse  his  glory ; 
that,  he  ought  therefore  to  go  with  a  "  single  eye," 
and  then  he  would  find  his  strength  proportioned  to 
his  necessity.  Henry  Sherburne,  the  commissary  of 
New  Hampshire,  another  of  Whitefield's  friends, 
pressed  him  to  favour  the  expedition  and  give  a 
motto  for  the  flag ;  to  which,  after  some  hesitation, 
he  consented.  The  motto  was,  "  Nil  desperandum 
Christo  duce"  This  gave  the  expedition  the  air  of 
a  crusade,  and  many  of  his  followers  enlisted.  One 
of  them,  a  chaplain,  carried  on  his  shoulder 
hatchet,  with  which  he  intended  to  destroy  the 
images  in  the  French  churches. 

There  are  certain  latent  sparks  in  human  nature, 
which,  by  a  collision  of  causes,  are  sometimes  brought 
to  light ;  and  when  once  excited,  their  operations 
are  not  easily  controlled.  In  undertaking  any  thing 
hazardous,  there  is  a  necessity  for  extraordinary 
vigor  of  mind,  and  a  degree  of  confidence  and  forti- 
tude, which  shall  raise  us  above  the  dread  of  danger, 
and  dispose  us  to  run  a  risk  which  the  cold  maxims 
of  prudence  would  forbid.  The  people  of  New  Eng- 
land have  at  various  times  shewn  this  enthusias- 
tic ardour,  which  has  been  excited  by  the  example 
of  their  ancestors  and  their  own  exposed  situation 
It  was  never  more  apparent,  and  perhaps  never  more 
necessary,  than  on  occasion  of  this  expedition.  Nor 
ought  it  to  be  forgotten,  that  several  circumstances 
which  did  not  depend  on  human  foresight,  greatly 
favoured  the  undertaking. 

The  winters  in  this  country  are  often  severe,  but 
the  winter  in  which  this  expedition  was  planned 


and  particularly  the  month  of  February,  was  very 
mild.  The  harbours  and  rivers  were  open,  and  the 
weather  was  in  general  so  pleasant,  that  every  kind 
of  labour  could  be  done  abroad.  The  fruitfulness  of 
the  pi;eceding  season  had  made  provisions  plenty. 
The  Indians  had  not  yet  molested  the  frontiers;  and 
though  some  of  them  had  heard  that  an  expedition 
against  Cape  Breton  was  in  hand,  and  carried  the 
news  of  it  to  Canada,  such  an  attempt  was  so  im- 
probable, that  the  French  gave  no  credit  to  the  re- 
port, and  those  in  Nova  Scotia  did  not  receive  the 
least  intelligence  of  the  preparations.  Douglas  ob- 
serves, that  "  some  guardian  angel  preserved  the 
troops  from  taking  the  small-pox,"  which  appeared 
in  Boston  about  the  time  of  their  embarkation,  and 
was  actually  imported  in  one  of  the  ships  which  was 
taken  into  the  service.  A  concurrence  of  happy  in- 
cidents brought  together  every  British  ship  of  war 
from  the  ports  of  the  American  continent  and 
isiands,  till  they  made  a  formidable  naval  force,  con- 
sisting of  four  ships  of  the  line  and  six  frigates,  un- 
der the  command  cf  an  active,  judicious  and  expe- 
rienced officer.  On  the  other  hand,  the  garrison  of 
Louisbourg  was  discontented  and  mutinous;  they 
were  in  want  of  provisions  and  stores  ;  they  had  no 
inowledge  of  the  design  formed  against  them  ;  their 
shores  were  so  environed  with  ice,  that  no  supplies 
could  arrive  early  from  France,  and  those  which 
came  afterward  were  intercepted  and  taken  by  our 
cruisers.  In  short,  "  if  any  one  circumstance  had 
taken  a  wrong  turn  on  our  side,  and  if  any  one  cir- 
cumstance had  not  taken  a  wrong  turn  on  the  French 
side,  the  expedition  must  have  miscarried." 

In  the  undertaking  and  prosecuting  of  an  enter- 
prise so  novel  to  the  people  of  New  England,  it  is 
amusing  to  see  how  many  projects  were  invented  ; 
what  a  variety  of  advice  was  given  from  all  quarters, 
and  what  romantic  expectations  were  formed  by  ad- 
visers and  adventurers.  During  the  enlistment',  one 
of  the  officers  was  heard  to  say  with  great  sobriety, 
that  he  intended  to  carry  with  him  three  shirts,  one 
of  which  should  be  ruffled,  because  he  expected  that 
the  general  would  give  him  the  command  of  the 
city,  when  it  should  be  taken.  An  ingenious  and 
benevolent  clergyman  presented  to  the  general  a 
plan  for  the  encampment  of  the  army,  the  opening 
of  trenches,  and  the  placing  of  batteries  before  the 
city.  To  prevent  danger  to  the  troops  from  subter- 
raneous mines,  he  proposed,  that  two  confidential 
persons,  attended  by  a  guard,  should,  during  the 
night,  approach  the  walls ;  that  one  should  with  a 
beetle  strike  the  ground,  while  the  other  should  lay 
his  ear  to  it,  and  observe  whether  the  sound  was 
hollow,  and  that  a  mark  should  be  set  on  all  places 
suspected.  Another  gentleman  of  equal  ingenuity, 
sent  the  general  a  model  of  a  flying  bridge,  to  be 
used  in  scaling  the  walls  of  Louisbourg.  It  was  so 
light,  that  twenty  men  could  carry  it  on  their  shoul- 
ders to  the  wall,  and  raise  it  in  one  minute.  The  ap- 
paratus for  raising  it  consisted  of  four  blocks,  and 
two  hundred  fathoms  of  rope.  It  was  to  be  floored 
with  boards,  wide  enough  for  eight  men  to  march 
abreast;  and  to  prevent  danger  from  the  enemy's 
fire,  it  might  be  covered  with  raw  hides.  This 
bridge,  it  was  said,  might  be  erected  against  any 
part  of  the  wall,  even  where  no  breach  had  been 
made  ;  and  it  was  supposed  that  1000  men  might 
pass  over  it  in  four  minutes. 

But  the  most  extraordinary  project  of  all,  was 
Shirley's  scheme  for  taking  the  city  by  surprise,  in 
the  first  night  after  the  arrival  of  the  troops,  and 
before  any  British  naval  force  could  possibly  come 


UNITED  STATES. 


487 


to  thnlr  assistance.  It  is  thus  delineated  in  a  con- 
fidential letter  which  he  wrote  to  Wentworth,  when 
he  urged  him  to  send  the  New  Hampshire  troops  to 
Boston,  to  proceed  thence  with  the  fleet  of  trans- 
ports. "The  success  of  our  scheme  for  surprising 
Louisbourg  will  entirely  depend  on  the -execution  of 
the  first  night,  after  the  arrival  of  our  forces.  For 
this  purpose  it  is  necessary,  that  the  whole  fleet 
should  make  Chappeau-rouge  point  just  at  the  shut- 
ting in  of  the  day,  when  they  cannot  easily  be  dis- 
covered, and  from  thence  push  into  the  bay,  so  as  to 
have  all  the  men  landed  before  midnight ;  the  land- 
ing of  whom,  it  is  computed  by  Capt.  Durell  and 
Mr.  Bastide,  will  take  up  three  hours  at  least. 
After  which,  the  forming  of  the  four  several  corps 
to  be  employed  in  attempting  to  scale  the  walls  of 
Louisbourg,  near  the  east  gate,  fronting  the  sea,  and 
the  west  gate  fronting  the  harbour,  to  cover  the  re- 
treat of  the  beforementioned  parties  in  case  of  a  re- 
pulse, and  to  attack  the  grand  battery,  (which  at- 
tack must  be  made  at  the  same  time  with  the  two 
other  attacks)  will  take  up  two  hours  more  at  least. 
After  these  four  bodies  are  formed,  their  march  to 
their  respective  posts  from  whence  they  are  to  make 
their  attacks  and  serve  as  a  cover  to  the  retreat,  will 
take  up  another  two  hours,  which,  supposing  the 
transports  to  arrive  in  Chappeau-rouge  bay  at  nine 
o'clock  in  the  evening,  and  not  before,  as  it  will  be 
necessary  i'ur  them  to  do  in  order  to  land  and  inarch 
under  cover  of  the  night,  will  bring  them  to  four  in 
the  morning,  being  day-break,  before  they  begin 
the  attack,  which  will  be  full  late  for  them  to  begin. 
Your  excellency  will  from  hence  perceive  how  criti- 
cal an  afl'air  the  time  of  the  fleet's  arrival  in  Chap- 
peau-rouge bay  is,  and  how  necessary  it  is  to  the 
success  of  our  principal  scheme,  that  the  fleet  should 
arrive  there  in  a  body  at  that  precise  hour." 

It  is  easy  to  perceive  that  this  plan  was  contrived 
by  a  person  totally  unskilled  in  the  arts  of  naviga- 
tion and  of  war.  The  coast  of  Cape  Breton  was 
dangerous  and  inhospitable,  the  season  of  the  year 
rough  and  tempestuous,  and  the  air  a  continual  fog; 
yet,  a  fleet  of  an  hundred  vessels,  after  sailing  nearly 
200  leagues  (for  by  this  plan  they  were  not  to  stop) 
must  make  a  certain  point  of  land  "  at  a  precise 
hour."  and  enter  an  unknown  bay,  in  an  evening. 
The  troops  were  to  land  in  the  dark,  amidst  a  violent 
surf,  on  a  rocky  shore — to  march  through  a  thicket 
and  bog  throe  miles  to  the  city,  and  some  of  them 
a  mile  beyond  it  to  the  royal  battery.  Men  who 
had  never  been  in  action  were  to  perform  services 
which  the  most  experienced  veteran  would  think  of 
with  dread ;  to  pull  down  pickets  with  grappling- 
irons,  and  si-ale  the  walls  of  a  regular  fortification 
vith  ladders  which  were  afterwards  found  to  be  too 
short  by  ten  feet — all  in  the  space  of  twelve  hours 
from  their  first  making  the  land,  and  nine  hours 
from  thoir  debarkation.  This  part  of  the  plan  was 
prudently  concealed  from  the  troops. 

The  forces  which  New  Hampshire  furnished  for 
this  expedition  were  350  men,  including  the  crew  of 
an  armed  sloop  which  convoyed  the  transports  and 
served  as  a  cnuiser.  They  were  formed  into  a  regi- 
ment consisting  of  eight  companies,  and  were  under 
the  command  of  Colonel  Samuel  Moore.  The  sloop 
was  commanded  by  Captain  John  Fernald ;  her 
crew  consisted  of  thirty  men.  The  regiment,  sloop, 
and  transports  were,  by  Governor  Wentworth's  writ- 
ten instructions  to  the  general,  put  under  his  com- 
mand. Besides  these,  a  body  of  150  men  was  in- 
listed  in  New  Hampshire,  and  aggregated  to  the 
reg:m?:it  i:t  the  pay  of  Massachusetts.  Thus  New 


Hampshire  employed  500 'men;  about  one-eighth 
part  of  the  whole  land  force.  In  these  men  there 
was  such  an  ardour  for  action,  and  such  a  dread  of 
delay,  that  it  was  impracticable  to  put  them  so  far 
out  of  their  course  as  to  join  the  fleet  at  Boston. 
Shirley  therefore  altered  the  plan,  and  appointed  a 
rendezvouz  at  Canseau,  where  the  forces  of  New 
Hampshire  arrived  two  days  before  the  general  and 
his  other  troops  from  Boston. 

The  instructions  which  Pepperrell  received  from 
Shirley,  were  conformed  to  the  plan  which  he  had 
communicated  to  Wentworth,  but  much  more  par- 
ticular and  circumstantial.  He  was  ordered  to  pro- 
ceed to  Canseau,  there  to  build  a  block-house  and 
battery,  and  leave  two  companies  in  garrison,  and 
to  deposit  the  stores  which  might  not  immediately 
be  wanted  by  the  army.  Thence  he  was  to  send  a 
detachment  to  the  village  of  St.  Peters,  on  the  in- 
land of  Cape  Breton,  and  destroy  it,  to  prevent  any 
intelligence  which  might  be  carried  to  Lcuisbourg  ; 
for  which  purpose  also,  the  armed  vessels  were  to 
cruise  before  the  harbour.  The  whole  fleet  was  to 
sail  from  Canseau,  so  as'  to  arrive  in-  Chappeau- 
rouge  bay  about  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening.  The 
troops  were  to  land  in  four  divisions,  and  proceed  to 
the  assault  before  morning.  If  the  plan  for  the 
surprisal  should  fail,  he  had  particular  directions 
where  and  how  to  land,  march,  encamp,  attack,  and 
defend ;  to  hold  councils  and  keep  records,  and  t<> 
send  intelligence  to  Boston  by  certain  vessels  re- 
tained for  the  purpose,  which  vessels  were  to  stop  at 
Castle  William,  and  there  receive  the  governor's 
orders.  Several  other  Vessels  were  appointed  to 
cruise  between  Canseau  and  the  camp,  to  convey 
orders,  transport  stores,  and  catch  fish  for  the  army. 
To  close  these  instructions,  after  the  most  minuto 
detail  of  duty,  the  general  was  finally  "  left  to  act. 
upon  unforeseen  emergencies  according  to  his  dis- 
cretion ;"  which,  in  the  opinion  of  military  gentle- 
men, is  accounted  the  most  rational  part  of  the  whols. 
Such  was  the  plan  for  the  reduction  of  a  regularly 
constructed  fortress,  drawn  by  a  lawyer,  to  be  exe- 
cuted by  a  merchant,  at  the  head  of  a  body  of  hus- 
bandmen and  mechanics ;  animated  indeed  by  ar- 
dent patriotism,  but  destitute  of  professional  skill 
and  experience.  After  they  had  embarked,  the 
hearts  of  many  began  to  fail ;  some  repented  that 
they  had  voted  for  the  expedition,  or  promoted  it;  and 
the  most  thoughtful  were  in  the  greatest  perplexity. 

The  troops  were  detained  at  Canseau  three  weeks, 
waiting  for  the  ice,  which  invironed  the  island  of 
Cape  Breton,  to  be  dissolved.  They  were  all  this 
time  within  view  of  St.  Peters,  but  were  not  dis- 
covered. Their  provisions  became  short;  but  they 
were  supplied  by  prizes  taken  by  the  cruizers. 
Among  others,  the  New  Hampshire  sloop  took  a 
ship  from  Martin ico,  and  retook  one  of  the  trans- 
ports, which  she  had  taken  the  day  before.  At 
length,  to  their  great  joy,  Commodore  Warren,  in 
the  Superbe,  of  sixty  guns,  with  three  other  ships  of 
forty  guns  each,  arrived  at  Canseau,  and  having  held 
a  consultation  with  the  general,  proceeded  to  crui/.e 
before  Louisbourg.  The  general  having  sent  t!»-; 
New  Hampshire  sloop  to  cover  a  detachment  which 
destroyed  the  village  of  St.  Peters,  and  scattered 
the  inhabitants,  sailed  with  the  whole  fleet ;  but  in- 
stead of  making  Chappeau-rouge  point  in  the  even- 
ing, the  wind  falling  short,  they  made  it  at  the  dawn 
of  the  next  morning;  and  their  appearance  in  the- 
bay  gave  the  first  notice  to  the  French  of  a  de-sign 
formed  against  them. 

The  intended   surprisal  being  thus  happily  frua- 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


trated,  the  next  thing  after  landing  the  troops  wa 
to  invest  the  city.  Vaughan,  the  adventurer  from 
New  Hampshire,  had  the  rank  and  pay  of  a  lieute 
nant-colonel,  but  refused  to  have  a  regular  command 
He  was  appointed  one  of  the  council  of  war,  and  was 
ready  for  any  service  which  the  general  might  think 
suited  to  his  genius.  He  conducted  the  first  co 
lumn  through  the  woods,  within  sight  of  the  city 
and  saluted  it  with  three  cheers.  He  headed  a  de- 
tachment, consisting  chiefly  of  the  New  Hampshire 
troops,  and  marched  to  the  north-east  part  of  the 
harbour,  in  the  night ;  where  they  burned  the  ware- 
houses containing  the  naval  stores,  and  staved  a 
large  quantity  of  wine  and  brandy.  The  smoke  o1 
this  fire  being  driven  by  the  wind  into  the  grand 
battery,  so  terrified  the  French,  that  they  abandoned 
it  and  retired  to  the  city,  after  having  spiked  the 
guns  and  cut  the  halliards  of  the  flag-staff.  The 
next  morning,  as  Vaughan  was  returning,  with  thir- 
teen men  only,  he  crept  up  the  hill  which  overlooked 
the  battery,  and  observed,  that  the  chimnies  of  the 
barrack  were  without  smoke,  and  the  staff  without  a 
flag.  With  a  bottle  of  brandy  which  he  had  in  his 
pocket,  (though  he  never  drank  spirituous  liquors), 
he  hired  one  of  his  party,  a  Cape  Cod  Indian,  to 
crawl  in  at  an  embrasure,  and  open  the  gate.  He 
then  wrote  to  the  general  these  words,  "  May  it 
please  your  honour  to  be  informed,  that  by 'the 
grace  of  God,  and  the  courage  of  thirteen  men,  I 
entered  the  royal  battery,  about  nine  o'clock,  and 
am  waiting  for  a  reinforcement,  and  a  flag."  Before 
either  could  arrive,  one  of  the  men  climbed  up  the 
staff,  with  a  red  coat  in  his  teeth,  which  he  fastened 
by  a  nail  to  the  top.  This  piece  of  triumphant  va- 
nity alarmed  the  city,  and  immediately  an  hundred 
men  were  dispatched  in  boats  to  retake  the  battery. 
But  Vaughan,  with  his  small  party,  on  the  naked 
beach,  and  in  the  face  of  a  smart  fire  from  the  city 
and  the  boats,  kept  them  from  landing,  till  the  rein- 
forcement arrived.  In  every  duty  of  fatigue,  or 
sanguine  adventure,  he  was  always  ready;  and  the 
New  Hampshire  troops,  animated  by  the  same  en- 
thusiastic ardour,  partook  of  all  the  labours  and 
dangers  of  the  siege.  They  were  employed  for 
fourteen  nights  successively,  in  drawing  cannon 
from  the  landing  place  to  the  camp,  through  a  mo- 
rass;  and  their  Lieutenant-Colonel  Messcrve,  being 
a  ship  carpenter,  constructed  sledges,  on  which  the 
cannon  were  drawn,  when  it  was  found  that  their 
wheels  were  buried  in  the  mire.  The  men,  with 
straps  over  their  shoulders,  and  sinking  to  their 
knees  in  mud,  performed  labour  beyond  the  rjower 
of  oxen;  which  labour  could  be  done  only  in  the 
night  or  in  a  foggy  day ;  the  place  being  within 
plain  view  and  random  shot  of  the  enemy's  walls. 
They  were  much  disappointed  and  chagrined,  when 
they  found  that  these  meritorious  services  were  not 
more  distinctly  acknowledged  in  the  accounts  which 
were  sent  to  England,  and  afterwards  published. 

In  the  unfortunate  attempt  on  the  island  battery 
by  400  volunteers  from  different  regiments,  the  New 
Hampshire  troops  were  very  active.  When  it  was 
determined  to  erect  a  battery  on  the  light-house  cliff, 
two  companies  of  them  (Mason's  and  Fernald's) 
were  employed  in  that  laborious  service,  under  cover 
of  their  armed  sloop;  and  when  a  proposal  was 
made  for  a  general  assault  by  sea  and  land,  Colonel 
Moore,  who  had  been  an  experienced  sea  comman- 
der, offered  to  go  on  board  the  Vigilant  with  his 
whole  regiment,  and  lead  the  attack,  if  in  case  of 
success  he  might  be  confirmed  in  the  command  of 
the  ship ;  but  when  this  was  denied,  most  of  the  men 


who  were  fit  for  duty,  readily  went  on  board  the 
Princess  Mary,  to  act  as  marines  on  that  occasion. 
It  has  been  said,  that  "  this  siege  was  carried  on 
in  a  tumultuary,  random  manner,  resembling  a 
Cambridge  commencement."  The  remark  is  in  a 
great  measure  true.  Though  the  business  of  the 
council  of  war  was  conducted  with  all  the  formality 
of  a  legislative  assembly ;  though  orders  were  issued 
by  the  general,  and  returns  made  by  the  officers 
at  the  several  posts  ;  yet  the  want  of  discipline  was 
too  visible  in  the  camp.  Those  who  were  on  the 
spot,  frequently  laughed  at  the  recital  of  their  own 
irregularities,  and  expressed  their  admiration  when 
they  reflected  on  the  almost  miraculous  preservation 
of  the  army  from  destruction.  They  indeed  pre- 
sented a  fonnidable  front  to  the  enemy;  but  the 
rear  was  a  scene  of  confusion  and  frolic.  While 
some  were  on  duty  at  the  trenches,  others  were  racing, 
wrestling,  pitching  quoits,  firing  at  marks  or  at 
birds,  or  running  after  shot  from  the  enemy's  guns, 
for  which  they  received  a  bounty,  and  the  shot  were 
sent  back  to  the  city.  The  ground  was  so  uneven, 
and  the  people  so  scattered,  that  the  French  could 
form  no  estimate  of  their  numbers;  nor  could  they 
learn  it  from  the  prisoners  taken  at  the  island  bat- 
tery, who  on  their  examination,  as  if  by  previous 
agreement,  represented  the  number  to  be  vastly 
greater  than  it  was.  The  garrison  of  Louisbourg 
had  been  so  mutinous  before  the  siege,  that  the  offi- 
cers could  not  trust  the  men  to  make  a  sortie,  lest 
they  should  desert;  had  they  been  united,  and  acted 
with  vigour,  the  camp  might  have  been  surprised, 
and  many  of  the  people  destroyed. 

Much  has  been  ascribed,  and  much  is  justly  due, 
to  the  activity  and  vigilance  of  Commodore  Warren, 
and  the  ships  under  his  command  :  much  is  also  due 
to  the  vigour  and  perseverance  of  the  land  forces, 
and  the  success  was  doubtless  owing  to  the  joint 
efforts  of  both.  Something  of  policy,  as  well  as 
bravery,  is  generally  necessary  in  such  undertak- 
ings ;  and  there  was  one  piece  of  management,  which, 
though  not  mentioned  by  any  historian,  yet  greatly 
contributed  to  the  surrender  of  the  city. 

The  capture  of  the  Vigilant,  a  French  sixty-four 
2;un  ship,  commanded  by  the  Marquis  de  la  Maison- 
Forte,  and  richly  laden  with  military  stores  for  the 
relief  of  the  garrison,  was  one  of  the  most  capital 
exploits  performed  by  the  navy.  This  ship  had  been 
anxiously  expected  by  the  French,  and  it  was  thought 
;hat  the  news  of  her  capture,  if  properly  communi- 
cated to  them,  might  produce  a  good  effect;  but  how 
;o  do  it  was  the  question.  At  length  the  commodore 
lit  on  this  expedient,  which  he  proposed  to  the  ge- 
neral, who  approved  and  put  it  into  execution.  In 
a  skirmish  on  the  island,  with  a  party  of  French 
and  Indians,  some  English  prisoners  had  been  taken 
jy  them,  and  used  with  cruelty.  This  circumstance 
was  made  known  to  the  marquis,  and  he  was  re- 
quested to  go  on  board  of  all  the  ships  in  the  bay 
where  French  prisoners  were  confined,  and  observe 
he  condition  in  which  they  were  kept.  He  did  so, 
ind  was  well  satisfied  with  their  fare  and  accommo- 
dations. He  was  then  desired  to  write  to  the  go- 
vernor of  the  city,  and  inform  him  how  well  the 
French  prisoners  were  treated,  and  to  request  the 
ike  favour  for  the  English  prisoners.  The  humane 
marquis  readily  consented,  and  the  letter  was  sent 
,he  next  day  by  a  flag,  entrusted  to  the  care  of  Capt. 
Vlacdonald.  He  was  carried  before  the  governor 
and  his  chief  officers ;  and  by  pretending  not  to  un- 
derstand their  language,  he  had  the  advantage  of 
"istening  to  their  discourse,  by  which  he  found,  that 


UNITED  STATES. 


489 


they  had  not  before  heard  of  the  capture  of  the  Vi- 
gilant, and  that  the  news  of  it,  under  the  hand  of 
her  late  commander,  threw  them  into  visible  pertur- 
bation. This  event,  with  the  erection  of  a  battery 
on  the  high  cliff  at  the  light  house,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Lieut.-colonel  Gridley,  by  which  the  island 
battery  was  much  annoyed,  and  the  preparations 
which  were  evidently  making  for  a  general  assault, 
determined  Duchambon  to  surrender;  and  accord- 
ingly, in  a  few  days  he  capitulated. 

Upon  entering  the  fortress  and  viewing  its  strength, 
and  the  plenty  and  variety  of  its  means  of  defence, 
the  stoutest  hearts  were  appalled,  and  the  impractica- 
bility of  carrying  it  by  assault  was  fully  demonstrated. 
No  sooner  was  the  city  taken,  and  the  army  un- 
der shelter,  than  the  weather,  which  during  the  siege, 
excepting  eight  or  nine  days  after  the  first  landing, 
had  been  remarkably  dry  for  that  climate ,  changed 
for  the  worse ;  and  an  incessant  rain  of  ten  days 
succeeded.  Had  this  happened  before  the  surrender, 
the  troops  who  had  then  begun  to  be  sickly,  and  had 
none  but  very  thin  tents,  must  have  perished  in 
great  numbers.  Reinforcements  of  men,  stores  and 
provisions  arrived,  and  it  was  determined  in  a  coun- 
cil of  war,  to  maintain  the  place  and  repair  the 
breaches.  A  total  demolition  might  have  been  more 
advantageous  to  the  nation ;  but  in  that  case,  indi- 
viduals would  not  have  enjoyed  the  profit  of  draw- 
ing bills  on  the  navy  and  ordnance  establishments, 
The  French  flag  was  kept  flying  on  the  ramparts 
and  several  rich  prizes  were  decoyed  into  the  har 
Lour.  The  army  supposed  that  they  had  a  right  to  a 
share  of  these  prizes  ;  but  means  were  found  to  sup 
press  or  evade  their  claim ;  nor  did  any  of  the  co 
lony  cruizers  (except  one)  though  they  were  retainec 
in  the  service,  under  the  direction  of  the  commodore 
reap  any  benefit  from  the  captures. 

The  news  of  this  important  victory  filled  Americ 
with  joy,  and  Europe  with  astonishment.  The  en 
terprising  spirit  of  New  England  gave  a  seriou 
alann  to  those  jealous  fears,  which  had  long  pre 
dieted  the  independence  of  the  colonies.  Great  pain 
were  taken  in  England  to  ascribe  all  the  glory  t 
the  navy,  and  lessen  the  merit  of  the  army.  How 
ever,  Pepperell  received  the  title  of  baronet,  a 
\vell  as  "Warren.  The  latter  was  promoted  to  be  a 
admiral ;  the  former  had  a  commission  as  colonel  i 
the  British  establishment,  and  was  empowered  t 
raise  a  regiment  in  America,  to  be  in  the  pay  of  th 
crown.  The  same  emolument  was  given  to  Shirle1 
and  both  he  and  Wentworth  acquired  so  much  repu 
tation  as  to  be  confirmed  in  their  places.  Vaugha 
•went  to  England  to  seek  a  reward  for  his  service; 
and  there  died  of  the  small-pox.  Solicitations  wer 
set  on  foot  for  a  parliamentary  reimbursemen 
which,  after  much  difficulty  and  delay,  was  obtained 
and  the  colonies  who  had  expended  their  substanc 
were  in  credit  at  the  British  treasury.  The  justic 
and  policy  of  this  measure  must  appear  to  every  on< 
who  considers,  that  excepting  the  suppression  of 
rebellion  within  the  bowels  of  the  kingdom,  th 
conquest  was  the  only  action  which  could  be  calle 
a  victory,  on  the  part  of  the  British  nation,  durin 
the  whole  French  war,  and  afforded  them  the  mean 
of  purchasing  a  peace. 

Projected  Expedition  to  Canada — Alarmby  the  Frent 
fleet — State  of  the  frontiers — Peace. 

Whilst  the  expedition  to  Cape  Breton  wasinhan 
the  active  mind  of  Governor  Shirley  contemplat< 
nothing  less  than  the  conquest  of  all  the  French  d 
minions  in  America  ;  and  he  consulted  with  G 


ernor  Wentworth  and  Mr.  Atkinson  on  the  practi- 
Jbility   of  such  a  design.     After  Louisbourg  was 
ken,  he  made  a  visit  thither,  and  held  a  consulta- 
on  with  Sir  Peter  Warren  and  Sir  William  Pep- 
erell ;  and  from  that  place  wrote  pressingly  to  the 
ritish  ministry  on  the  subject.     His  solicitations, 
nforced  by  the  brilliant  success  at  Louisbourg,  and 
le  apparent  danger  in  which  Nova  Scotia  and  the 
ew  conquest  were  involved,  had  such  an  effect,  that 
n  the  spring  of  the  following  year,  (1746)  a  circular 
etter  was  sent  from  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  secre- 
ry  of  state,  to  all  the  governors  of  the  American 
olonies,  as  far  southward  as  Virginia,    requiring 
icm  to  raise  as  many  men  as  they  could  spare,  and 
orm  them  into   companies  of  one  hundred,  to  be 
eady  to  unite,  and   act   according  to  the  orders 
hich  they  should  afterwards  receive.      The  plan 
as,  that  a  squadron  of  ships  of  war,  and  a  body  of 
and  forces,  should  be  sent  from  England  against 
Canada;  that  the  troops  raised  in  New  England 
hould  join  the  British  fleet  and  army  at  Louisbourg, 
ind  proceed  up  the  river  St.  Lawrence ;  that  those 
>f  New  York  and  the  other  provinces  at  the  south- 
vard,  should  be   collected  at  Albany,  and  march 
against  Crown  Point  and  Montreal.     The  manage- 
ment of  this  expedition  was  committed  to  Sir  John 
St.  Clair,  in  conjunction  with  Sir  Peter  Warren 
and  Governor  Shirley.     St.  Clair  did  not  come  to 
America.     Warren    and  Shirley  gave   the  orders, 
vhile  Warren  was  here ;  and  afterwards  Commodore 
ECnowles,  who  succeeded  him,  was  joined  with  Shir- 
.ey  ;  but  as  Knowles  was  part  of  the  time  at  Louis- 
bourg, most  of  the  concern  devolved  on  Shirley  alone. 

Beside  the  danger  of  losing  Nova  Scotia  and  Cape 
Breton,  there  were  other  reasons  for  undertaking 
his  expedition.  The  Indians,  instigated  by  the 
governor  of  Canada,  were  ravaging  the  frontiers, 
destroying  the  fields  and  cattle,  burning  houses  and 
mills,  killing  and  carrying  away  the  inhabitants. 
Though  scouts  and  garrisons  were  maintained  by 
the  governments,  yet  to  act  altogether  on  the  de- 
fensive, was  thought  to  be  not  only  an  ineffectual, 
but  a  disgraceful  mode  of  carrying  on  the  war,  es- 
pecially after  the  success  which  had  attended  the 
arms  of  the  colonists  in  their  attempt  against  Louis- 
bourg. The  continuance  of  such  a  mode  of  defence 
would  neither  dispirit  the  enemy,  nor  secure  the 
frontiers  from  their  depredations. 

The  design  was  pleasing,  and  the  colonies  readily 
furnished  their  quotas  of  men.  In  New  Hampshire, 
the  same  difficulty  occurred  as  on  occasion  of  the 
Louisbourg  expedition.  The  governor  had  no  au- 
thority to  consent  to  the  issue  of  bills  of  credit,  but 
Shirley  removed  that  obstacle,  by  suggesting  to  him, 
that  as  the  ministry  did  not  disapprove  what  he  had 
done  before,  so  there  was  no  reason  to  fear  it  now  ; 
and  that  the  importance  of  the  service,  and  the  ne- 
cessity of  the  case,  would  justify  his  conduct.  The 
demand  at  first,  was  for  levy  money  and  victualling. 
The  arms  and  pay  of  the  troops  were  to  be  furnished 
by  the  crown  ;  but  it  was  afterwards  found  necessary 
that  the  several  governments  should  provide  clothing, 
transports  and  stores,  and  depend  on  a  reimburse- 
ment from  the  British  parliament. 

The  assembly  was  immediately  convened,  and 
voted  an  encouragement  for  enlisting  1,000  men,  or 
more,  if  they  could  be  raised ;  with  a  bounty  of  30/. 
currency,  and  a  blanket  to  each  man,  besides  keep- 
ing two  armed  vessels  in  pay.  Col.  Atkinson  was 
appointed  to  the  command  of  the  troops  ;  800  mea 
were  enlisted  and  ready  for  embarkation  by  the  be- 
ginning  of  July.  Transports  and  provisions  were 


490 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


prepared,  and  the  men  waited  impatiently  all  sum- 
mer for  employment.  Neither  the  general  nor  any 
orders  arrived  from  England  ;  the  fleet,  which  was 
said  to  be  destined  for  the  expedition,  sailed  seven 
times  from  Spithead,  and  as  often  returned.  Two 
regiments  only  were  sent  from  Gibraltar,  to  Louis- 
bourg, to  relieve  the  New  England  men,  who  had 
gt  rrisoned  it  since  the  conquest.  It  is  much  easier 
to  write  the  history  of  an  active  campaign,  than  to 
trace  the  causes  of  inaction  and  disappointment;  and 
it  is  in  vain  to  supply  the  place  of  facts  by  conjecture. 

In  this  time  of  suspense,  Sir  Peter  Warren  and 
Sir  William  Pepperell  having  arrived  at  Boston, 
from  Louisbouig,  Shirley  had  an  opportunity  of 
consulting  them,  and  such  other  gentlemen  as  he 
thought  proper,  on  the  affair  of  the  Canada  expedi- 
tion. The  season  was  so  far  advanced,  that  a  fleet 
oould  hardly  be  expected  from  England;  or  if  it 
should  arrive,  it  would  be  too  late  to  attempt  the 
navigation  of  the  river  St.  Lawrence.  Cut  as  a 
sufficient  body  of  the  troops  might  be  assembled  at 
Albany,  it  was  judged  prudent  to  employ  them  in 
an  attempt  against  the  French  fort  at  Crown  Point. 
At  the  same  time  Clinton,  governor  of  New  York, 
solicited  and  obtained  the  friendly  assistance  of  the 
Six  Nations  of  Indians,  on  the  borders  of  his  pro- 
vince. It  was  thought,  that  if  this  attempt  should 
be  made,  the  alliance  with  these  Indians  would  be 
strengthened  and  secured, — and  the  frontiers  would 
be  relieved  from  the  horrors  of  desolation  and  cap- 
tivity, to  which  they  were  continually  exposed.  In 
pursuance  of  this  plan,  the  forces  of  New  Hamp- 
shire were  ordered  to  hold  themselves  in  readiness 
to  march  to  Albany ;  but,  it  being  discovered  that 
the  small-pox  was  there,  the  rendezvous  was  ap- 
pointed at  Saratoga  and  the  adjacent  villages. 

No  sooner  was  this  plan  resolved  on,  and  prepara- 
tions made  to  carry  it  into  execution,  than  accounts 
were  received  of  danger  which  threatened  Annapolis 
from  a  body  of  French  and  Indians  at  Minas,  and 
the  probable  revolt  of  the  Acadians.  It  was  thought 
that  Nova  Scotia  would  be  lost  if  some  powerful 
succour  were  not  sent  thither.  Orders  were  accord- 
ingly issued  for  the  troops  of  Massachusetts,  Rhode 
Island,  and  New  Hampshire,  to  embark  for  that 
place,  and  "drive  the  enemy  out  of  Nova  Scotia." 
But,  within  a  few  days  more,  the  whole  country  was 
alarmed,  and  thrown  into  the  utmost  consternation, 
by  reports  of  the  arrival  of  a  large  fleet  and  army 
from  Frsnce,  at  Nova  Scotia,  under  the  command 
of  the  Duke  d'Anville.  It  was  supposed  that  their 
object  was  to  recover  Louisbourg — to  take  Anna- 
polis— to  break  up  the  settlements  on  the  eastern 
coast  of  Massachusetts — and  to  distress,  if  not  at- 
tempt the  conquest  of  the  whole  country  of  New 
England.  On  this  occasion,  the  troops  destined  for 
Canada  found  sufficient  employment  at  home,  and 
the  militia  was  collected  to  join  them;  the  old  forts 
on  the  sea-coast  were  repaired,  and  new  ones  were 
erected.  A  new  battery,  consisting  of  sixteen  guns 
of  thirty-two  and  twenty-four  pounds  shot,  was  ad- 
ded to  fort  William  and  Mary,  at  the  entrance  of 
Pascataqua  harbour;  and  another,  of  nine  thirty-two 
pounders,  was  placed  at  the  point  of  Little  harbour 
These  works  were  supposed  to  be  sufficient  to  pre- 
vent a  surprisal;  military  guards  were  appointed; 
and  in  this  state  of  fear  and  anxiety  the  people  were 
kept  for  six  weeks,  when  some  prisoners  who  had 
been  released  by  the  French,  brought  the  most  af- 
fecting accounts  of  the  distress  and  confusion  on 
board  the  fleet.  It  was  expected  by  the  people  in 
New  England,  that  an  English  fleet  would  have 


Allowed  them  to  America.  This  expectation  was 
grounded  on  some  letters  from  England,  which  Shir- 
ey  had  received  and  which  he  forwarded  by  express 
to  Admiral  Townsend,  at  Louisbourg.  The  letters 
were  intercepted  by  a  French  cruiser,  and  carried 
nto  Chebucto,  where  the  fleet  lay.  They  were 
opened  in  a  council  of  war,  and  caused  a  division 
mong  the  officers;  which  added  to  the  sickly  con- 
dition of  the  men.  and  the  damage  which  the  fleet 
iiad  sustained  by  storms,  and  their  loss  by  ship- 
wrecks, dejected  their  commander  to  that  degree, 
that  he  put  an  end  to  his  life  by  poison;  and  the 
second  in  command  fell  on  his  sword.  These  me- 
lancholy events,  disconcerted  their  first  plan.  They 
then  resolved  to  make  an  attempt  on  Annapolis;  but 
when  they  had  sailed  from  Chebucto,  they  were 
overtaken  by  a  violent  tempest  off  Cape  Sable,  and 
those  ships  which  escaped  destruction  returned  singly 
to  France. 

Nova  Scotia  was  not  yet  out  of  danger.  The 
French  and  Indians  who,  during  the  stay  of  the  fleet 
at  Chebucto,  had  appeared  before  Annapolis,  but  on 
their  departure  retired,  were  still  in  the  peninsula; 
and  it  was  thought  necessary  to  dislodge  them.  For 
this  purpose  Shirley  sent  a  body  of  the  Massachu- 
setts forces,  and  pressed  the  governors  of  Rhode  Is- 
land and  New  Hampshire  to  send  part  of  theirs. 
Those  from  Rhode  Island,  and  one  transport  from 
Boston,  were  wrecked  on  the  passage.  The  armed 
vessels  of  New  Hampshire,  with  200  men,  went  to 
Annapolis;  but  the  commander  of  one  of  them,  in- 
stead of  landing  his  men,  sailed  across  the  bay  of 
Funda  into  St.  John's  river,  where  meeting  with  a 
French  snow,  and  mistaking  her  for  one  of  th^  Rhode 
Island  transports,  he  imprudently  sent  his  boat  with 
eight  men  on  board,  who  were  made  prisoners,  and 
the  snow  escaped.  The  sloop  instead  of  returning 
to  Annapolis,  came  back  to  Portsmouth.  Theso 
misfortunes  and  disappointments  had  very  seriou.* 
ill  consequences.  (1747.)  The  Massachusetts  forces 
who  were  at  Nova  Scotia,  being  inferior  in  number 
to  the  French,  and  deceived  by  false  intelligence, 
were  surprised  in  the  midst  of  a  snow  storm  at  Minas, 
and  after  an  obstinate  resistance  were  obliged  to 
capitulate.  Their  commander,  Col.  Arthur  Noble, 
and  about  sixty  men  were  killed,  and  fifty  were 
wounded.  The  enemy  being  provided  with  snow- 
shoes  made  forced  marches,  and  ours  being  destitute 
of  them  were  unable  to  escape. 

When  the  alarm  occasioned  by  the  French  fleet 
had  subsided,  Atkinson's  regiment  marched  into  the 
country  to  cover  the  lower  part  of  the  frontiers,  and 
encamped  near  the  shore  of  Wiuipiseogee  lake, 
where  they  passed  the  winter  and  built  a  slight  fort. 
They  were  plentifully  supplied  with  provisions,  ami 
had  but  little  exercise  or  discipline.  Courts  mar- 
tial were  not  instituted,  nor  offences  punished.  The 
officers  and  men  were  tired  of  the  service,  but  were 
not  permitted  to  enter  on  any  other  business  lest  orders 
should  arrive  from  England.  Some  were  employed 
in  scouting — some  in  hunting  or  fishing — and  some 
deserted. 

Shirley  was  so  intent  on  attacking  Crown  Point, 
that  he  even  proposed  to  march  thither  in  the  win- 
ter, and  hud  the  address  to  draw  the  assembly  of 
Massachusetts  into  an  approbation  of  this  project. 
He  enlarged  his  plan,  by  proposing  that  the  Now 
Hampshire  troops  should  at  the  same  time  go  by  the 
way  of  Connecticut  river,  to  the  Indian  village  of 
St.  Francis,  at  the  distance  of  200  miles,  and  destroy 
it;  while  the  troops  from  Massachusetts.  Connecti- 
I  cut,  and  New  York,  should  gn  by  the  way  of  the 


UNITED  STATES. 


491 


lakes  to  Crown  Point.  The  governor  of  New  York 
would  have  consented  to  this  wild  project,  on  ac- 
countof  the  Indian  allies,  who  were  impatientfor  war, 
but  it  was  happily  frustrated  by  the  prudence  of  the 
Connecticut  assembly,  who  deemed  the  winter  an 
improper  season  for  so  great  an  undertaking,  and 
deferred  their  assistance  till  the  ensuing  spring.  At 
the  same  time  the  small  pox  prevailed  in  the  settle- 
ments above  Albany,  through  which  the  forces  must 
have  marched ;  and  that  distemper  was  then  an  ob- 
ject of  much  greater  dread  than  the  storms  of  win- 
ter, or  the  face  of  an  enemy. 

To  finish  what  relates  to 'the  Canada  forces,  it  can 
only  be  said,  that  excepting  some  who  were  employed 
on  the  frontiers,  they  were  kept  in  a  state  of  military 
indolence,  till  the  autumn  of  the  ensuing  year,  when 
by  order  from  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  they  were  dis- 
banded, and  paid  at  the  same  rate  as  the  king's 
troops.  The  governors  drew  bills  on  the  British 
treasury,  which  were  negociated  among  the  mer- 
chants at  7  and  800f.  per  cent. ;  and  the  parliament 
granted  money  to  reimburse  the  charges  of  the 
equipment  ana  subsistence  of  these  forces. 

The  state  of  the  frontiers  now  demands  our  atten- 
tion. (1745.)  By  the  extension  of  the  boundaries 
of  the  province,  several  settlements  which  had  been 
made  by  the  people  of  Massachusetts,  and  under 
the  authority  of  grants  from  their  general  court,  had 
fallen  within  New  Hampshire.  In  one  of  them 
stood  Fort  Dummer,  on  the  west  side  of  Connecticut 
river,  and  within  the  lately  extended  line  of  New 
Hampshire.  This  fort  had  been  erected  and  main- 
tained at  the  expense  of  Massachusetts ;  but  when 
it  was  found  to  be  within  New  Hampshire,  the  go- 
vernor was  instructed  by  the  crown  to  recommend 
to  the  assembly  the  future  maintenance  of  it.  In 
the  same  assembly,  which  had  so  zealously  entered 
upon  the  expedition  against  Cape  Breton,  this  matter 
was  introduced ;  but  a  considerable  majority  of  the 
lower  house  declined  making  any  grant  for  this  pur- 
pose, and  adduced  the  following  reasons,  viz.  That 
the  fort  was  fifty  miles  distant  from  any  towns  which 
had  been  settled  by  the  government  or  people  of 
New  Hampshire ;  that  the  people  had  no  right  to 
the  lands  which,  by  the  dividing  line,  had  fallen 
within  New  Hampshire;  notwithstanding  the  plau- 
sible arguments  which  had  been  used  to  induce  them 
to  bear  the  expense  of  the  line — namely,  that  the 
land  would  be  given  to  them,  or  else  would  be  sold 
to  pay  that  expense  ;  that  the  charge  of  maintaining 
that  fort,  at  so  great  a  distance,  and  to  which  there 
was  no  communication  by  roads,  would  exceed  what 
had  been  the  whole  expense  of  government  before 
the  line  was  established  ;  that  the  great  load  of  debt 
contracted  on  that  account,  and  the  yearly  support 
of  government,  with  the  unavoidable  expenses  of  the 
war,  were  as  much  as  the  people  could  bear  ;  that  if 
they  should  take  upon  them  to  maintain  this  fort, 
there  was  another  much  better  and  more  convenient 
fort  at  a  place  called  Number-four,  besides  several 
other  settlements,  which  they  should  also  be  obliged 
to  defend  ;  and  finally,  that  taere  was  no  danger 
that  these  forts  would  want  support,  since  it  was  the 
interest  of  Massachusetts,  by  whom  they  were  erected, 
to  maintain  them  as  a  cover  to  their  frontier. 

When  these  reasons  were  given,  the  governor  dis- 
solved the  assembly  and  called  another,  to  whom  he 
recommended  the  same  measure  in  the  most  pressing 
terms;  telling  them,  "  that  it  was  of  the  last  con- 
sequence to  the  present  and  future  prosperity  of  the 
government ;  that  their  refusal  would  lessen  them 
in  the  esteem  of  the  king  and  his  ministers,  and  strip  ' 


the  children  yet  unborn  of  their  natural  right ;  and 
deprive  their  brethren  who  were  then  hazarding 
their  lives  before  the  walls  of  Louisbourg  of  their 
just  expectations,  which  were  to  sit  down  on  that 
valuable  part  of  the  province."  But  his  eloquence 
had  no  effect.  They  thought  it  unjust  to  burden 
their  constituents  with  an  expense  which  could  yield 
them  no  profit,  and  afford  them  no  protection. 

When  it  was  determined  that  New  Hampshire 
would  make  no  provision  for  fort  Dummer,  the  as- 
sembly of  Massachusetts  continued  its  usual  support, 
and  also  provided  for  the  other  posts  on  Connecticut 
river  and  its  branches,  which  were  within  the  limits 
of  New  Hampshire.  They  afterwards  petitioned 
the  king,  to  deduct  that  charge  out  of  the  reimburse- 
ment which  the  parliament  had  granted  to  New 
Hampshire,  for  the  Canada  expedition ;  but  in  this 
they  were  defeated,  by  the  vigilance  and  address  of 
Thomlinson,  the  agent  of  New  Hampshire. 

Most  of  the  frontier  towns  of  New  Hampshire,  at 
that  time,  were  distinguished  by  no  other  than  by 
Indian  or  temporary  names.  It  may  be  convenient 
to  compare  them  with  their  present  names.  On 
Connecticut  river,  and  its  eastern  branches,  were 
Number-four,  Great  Meadow,  Great  Fall,  Fort 
Dummer,  Upper  Ashuelot,  and  Lower  Ashuelot; 
now  respectively  called,  Charlestown,  Westmore- 
land, Walpole,  Hinsdale,  Keene,  and  Swansey.  On 
Merrimack  river  and  its  branches  were,  Penacook, 
Suncook,  Contoocook,  New  Hopkinton,  Souhegan 
east,  and  Souhegan  west;  now  respectively  called, 
Concord,  Pembroke,  Boscawen,  Hopkinton,  Merri- 
mack, and  Amherst.  On  Pascataqua  river  and  its 
branches  were,  the  townships  of  Nottingham,  Bar- 
rington  and  Rochester. 

Besides  the  forts  which  were  maintained  at  the 
public  expense,  there  were  private  houses  enclosed 
with  ramparts,  or  palisades  of  timber,  to  which  the 
people  who  remained  on  the  frontiers  retired  ;  these 
private  garrisoned  houses  were  distinguished  by  the 
names  of  the  owners.  The  danger  to  which  these 
distressed  people  were  constantly  exposed  did  not 
permit  them  to  cultivate  their  lands  to  any  advan- 
tage. They  were  frequently  alarmed  when  at  labour 
in  their  fields,  and  obliged  either  to  repel  an  attack, 
or  make  a  retreat.  Their  crops  were  often  injured, 
and  sometimes  destroyed,  either  by  their  cattle  get- 
ting into  the  fields  where  the  enemy  had  broken  the 
fences,  or  because  they  were  afraid  to  venture  out, 
to  collect  and  secure  the  harvest.  Their  cattle  and 
borses  were  frequently  killed  by  the  enemy,  who  cut 
the  flesh  from  the  bones,  and  took  out  the  tongues, 
which  they  preserved  for  food,  by  drying  in  smoke. 
Sometimes  they  were  afraid  even  to  milk  their  cows, 
though  they  kept  them  in  pastures  as  near  as  pos- 
sible to  the  forts.  When  they  went  abroad,  they 
were  always  armed  ;  but  frequently  they  were  shut 
up  for  weeks  together  in  a  state  of  inactivity. 

The  history  of  a  war  on  the  frontiers  can  be  little 
else  than  a  recital  of  the  exploits,  the  sufferings,  the 
escapes,  and  deliverances  of  individuals,  of  single 
families,  or  small  parties.  The  first  appearance  of 
the  enemy  on  the  western  frontier  was  at  the  Great 
Meadow,  sixteen  miles  above  fort  Dummer.  Two 
Indians  took  William  Phips,  as  he  was  hoeing  his 
corn.  When  they  had  carried  him  half  a  mile,  one 
of  them  went  down  a  steep  hill  to  fetch  something 
which  had  been  left.  In  his  absence,  Phips,  with 
iis  own  hoe,  knocked  down  the  Indian  who  was 
with  him  ;  then  seizing  his  gun,  shot  the  other  as  he 
ascended  the  hill.  Unfortunately,  meeting  with  three 
others  of  the  &ame  party,  they  killed  him.  The  la- 


492 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


dian  whom  he  knocked  down  died  of  his  wound. 
The  same  week  they  killed  Josiah  Fisher  of  upper 
Ashuelot. 

No  other  damage  was  done  for  three  months, 
when  a  party  of  twelve  Indians  approached  the  fort 
at  Great  Meadow,  and  took  Nehemiah  How,  who 
was  at  a  little  distance  from  the  fort,  cutting  wood. 
The  fort  was  alarmed,  and  one  Indian  was  killed  by 
a  shot  from  the  rampart ;  but  no  attempt  was  made 
to  rescue  the  prisoner.  As  they  were  leading  him 
away,  by  the  side  of  the  river,  they  espied  a  canoe 
coming  down,  with  two  men,  at  whom  they  fired, 
and  killed  David  Rugg ;  but  Robert  Baker  got  to 
the  opposite  shore  and  escaped.  Proceeding  farther, 
they  met  three  other  men,  who,  by  skulking  under 
the  bank,  got  safe  to  the  fort.  One  of  them  was 
Caleb  How,  the  prisoner's  son.  When  they  came 
opposite  to  Number-four,  they  made  their  captive 
write  his  name  on  a  piece  of  bark,  and  left  it  there. 
Having  travelled  seven  days  westward,  they  came 
to  a  lake,  where  they  found  five  canoes,  with  corn, 
pork,  and  tobacco.  In  these  canoes  they  embarked; 
and  having  stuck  the  scalp  of  David  Rugg  on  a  pole, 
proceeded  to  the  fort  at  Crown  Point,  where  How 
received  humane  treatment  from  the  French.  He 
was  then  carried  down  to  Quebec,  where  he  died  in 
prison.  He  was  a  useful  man,  greatly  lamented  by 
his  friends  and  fellow-captives. 

(1746.)  The  next  spring,  a  party  of  Indians  ap- 
peared at  Number-four,  where  they  took  John 
Spafford,  Isaac  Parker,  and  Stephen  Farnsworth,  as 
they  were  driving  a  team.  Their  cattle  were  found 
dead,  with  their  tongues  cut  out.  The  men  were 
carried  to  Canada,  and,  after  some  time,  returned 
to  Boston,  in  a  flag  of  truce. 

Within  a  few  days  a  large  party,  consisting  of 
fifty,  laid  a  plan  to  surprise  the  fort,  at  Upper 
Ashuelot.  They  hid  themselves  in  a  swamp,  in  the 
evening,  intending  to  wait  till  the  men  had  gone 
out  to  their  work,  in  the  morning,  and  then  rush 
in.  Ephraim  Dorman,  who  was  abroad  very  early, 
discovered  them  and  gave  the  alarm.  He  bravely 
defended  himself  against  two  Indians,  and  stripped 
one  of  his  blanket  and  gun,  which  he  carried  into 
the  fort.  John  Bullard,  and  the  wife  of  Daniel 
M 'Kenny,  were  killed.  Nathan  Blake  was  taken 
and  carried  to  Canada,  where  he  remained  two  years. 
They  burned  several  houses  and  barns  ;  and  from 
the  human  bones  found  among  the  ashes,  it  was 
thought  that  some  of  the  enemy  fell  and  were  con- 
cealed in  the  flames. 

About  the  same  time  a  party  came  down  to  New 
Hopkinton,  where  they  entered  a  garrisoned  house, 
and  found  the  people  asleep,  the  door  having  been 
left  open  by  one  who  had  risen  early  and  gone  out 
to  hunt.  Eight  persons  were  thus  taken ;  Samuel 
Burbank  and  his  two  sons,  David  Woodwell,  his 
wife,  two  sons,  and  a  daughter.  Burbank  and  the 
wife  of  Woodwell  died  in  captivity.  Woodwell  and 
three  of  the  children  returned  in  a  flag  of  truce 
to  Boston. 

The  enemy  were  scattered  in  small  parties,  on  all 
the  frontiers.  At  Number-four,  some  women  went 
out  to  milk  their  cows,  with  Major  Josiah  Willard, 
and  several  soldiers  for  their  guard  :  eight  Indians, 
who  were  concealed  in  a  barn,  fired  on  them,  and 
killed  Seth  Putnam ;  as  they  were  scalping  him, 
Willard  and  two  more  fired  on  them,  and  mortally 
wounded  two,  whom  their  companions  carried  oil. 

At  Cantoocook,  five  white  men  and  a  negro  were 
fired  at.  Elisha  Cook  and  the  nepro  were  killed. 
Thomas  Jones  was  taken,  aud  died  in  Canada. 


At  lower  Ashuelot,  they  took  Timothy  Brown  and 
Robert  Moffat,  who  were  carried  to  Canada,  and 
returned.  At  the  same  time  a  party  lay  about  the 
fort  at  upper  Ashuelot.  As  one  of 'them  knocked 
at  the  gate  in  the  night,  the  centinel  fired  through 
the  gate,  and  gave  him  a  mortal  wound. 

The  danger  thus  increasing,  a  reinforcement  was 
sent  by  the  Massachusetts  assembly,  to  these  dis- 
tressed towns.  Captain  Paine,  with  a  troop,  came 
to  Number-four ;  and  about  twenty  of  his  men,  going 
to  view  the  place  where  Putnam  was  killed,  fell  into 
an  ambush.  The  enemy  rose  and  fired,  and  then 
endeavoured  to  cut  off  their  retreat.  Captain  Phi- 
neas  Stevens,  with  a  party,  rushed  out  to  their  re- 
lief: a  skirmish  ensued,  in  which  five  men  were 
killed  on  each  side,  and  one  of  ours  was  taken. 
The  Indians  left  some  of  their  guns  and  blankets 
behind. 

In  about  a  month  after  this,  another  engagement 
happened  at  the  same  place.  As  Captain  Stevens 
and  Captain  Brown  were  going  into  the  meadow,  to 
look  for  their  horses,  the  dogs  discovered  an  ambush, 
which  put  the  men  into  a  posture  for  action,  and 
gave  them  the  advantage  of  the  first  fire.  After  a 
sharp  encounter,  the  enemy  were  driven  into  a 
swamp,  drawing  away  several  of  their  dead.  In  this 
action  only  one  man  was  lost.  Several  blankets, 
hatchets,  spears,  guns,  and  other  things,  were  left 
on  the  ground,  which  were  sold  for  forty  pounds  old 
tenor.  This  was  reckoned  "  a  great  booty  from 
such  beggarly  enemies." 

At  Bridgman's  fort  near  fort  Dummer,  William 
Robins  and  James  Baker  were  killed  in  a  meadow. 
Daniel  How  and  John  Beeman  were  taken.  How 
killed  one  of  the  Indians  before  he  was  taken. 

When  the  people  wanted  bread  they  were  obliged 
to  go  to  the  mills  with  a  guard,  every  place  being 
full  of  danger.  A  party  who  went  to  Hinsdalc's 
mill,  with  Colonel  Willard  at  their  head,  in  search- 
ing round  the  mill,  discovered  an  ambush.  The 
enemy  were  put  to  flight  with  the  loss  of  their  packs. 

At  Number-four,  one  Phillips  was  killed;  and  as 
some  of  the  people  were  bringing  him  into  the  fort, 
they  were  fired  upon ;  but  none  were  hurt.  Having 
burned  some  buildings,  and  killed  some  cattle,  the 
enemy  went  and  ambushed  the  road  near  Winches- 
ter, where  they  killed  Joseph  Rawson. 

Whilst  the  upper  settlements  were  thus  suffering, 
the  lower  towns  did  not  escape.  A  party  of  Indians 
came  down  to  Rochester,  within  twenty  miles  of 
Portsmouth.  Five  men  were  at  work  in  a  field, 
having  their  arms  at  hand.  The  Indians  concealed 
themselves;  one  of  them  fired,  with  a  view  to  induce 
the  men  to  discharge  their  pieces,  which  they  did. 
The  enemy  then  rushed  upon  them  before  they 
could  load  again.  They  retreated  to  a  small  de- 
serted house,  and  fastened  the  door.  The  Indians 
tore  off  the  roof,  and  with  their  guns  and  tomahawks 
dispatched  John  Wentworth  and  Gersham  Downs. 
They  wounded  John  Richards ;  and  then  cross- 
ing over  to  another  road,  came  upon  some  men  who 
were  at  work  in  a  field,  all  of  whom  escaped ;  but 
they  took  Jonathan  Door,  a  boy,  as  he  was  sitting 
on  a  fence.  Richards  was  kindly  used,  his  wounds 
were  healed,  and  after  eighteen  months  he  was  sent 
to  Boston  in  a  flag  of  truce.  Door  lived  with  the 
Indians,  and  acquired  their  manners  and  habits; 
but,  after  the  conquest  of  Canada,  returned  to  his 
native  place. 

Soon  after  this,  another  man  was  killed  at  Ro- 
chester. Two  men  were  surprised,  and  taken  at 
Contoocook;  aud  a  large  party  of  Indians  lay  ia 


UNITED  STATES. 


493 


ambush  at  Penacook,  with  an  intention  to  attack 
the  people,  while  assembled  for  public  worship;  but 
seeing  them  go  armed  to  their  devotions,  they  waited 
till  the  next  morning,  when  they  killed  five  and  took 
two. 

In  these  irritating  skirmishes  the  summer  was 
spent ;  till  a  large  body  of  French  and  Indians  at- 
tacked Fort  Massachusetts,  at  Hoosuck.  This  fort 
was  lost  for  want  of  ammunition  to  defend  it.  After 
this  success,  the  enemy  remained  quiet  during  the 
rest  of  the  summer. 

The  prospect  of  an  expedition  to  Canada  had  in- 
duced many  of  the  soldiers  who  were  posted  on  the 
frontiers  to  enlist  into  the  regiments,  because  they 
preferred  active  service  to  the  dull  routine  of  a  gar- 
rison. The  defence  of  the  western  posts  was  not 
only  hazardous,  but  ineffectual;  and  some  persons 
in  the  north-western  part  of  Massachusetts  thought 
it  inexpedient  to  be  at  the  charge  of  defending  a 
territory  which  was  out  of  their  jurisdiction.  Their 
petitions  prevailed  with  the  assembly,  to  withdraw 
their  troops  from  the  western  parts  of  New  Hamp- 
shire. The  inhabitants  were  then  obliged  to  quit 
their  estates.  They  deposited  in  the  earth  such  fur- 
niture and  utensils  as  could  be  saved  by  that  means ; 
they  carried  off  on  horseback  such  as  were  portable  ; 
and  the  remainder,  with  their  buildings,  was  left  as 
a  prey  to  the  enemy,  who  came  and  destroyed,  or 
carried  away,  what  they  pleased.  Four  families, 
who  remained  in  Shattuck's  Fort,  (Hinsdale),  de- 
fended it  against  a  party  of  Indians,  who  attempted 
to  burn  it.  Six  men  only  were  left  in  the  fort  at 
Number-four,  who  in  the  following  winter  deserted 
it;  and  it  was  wholly  destitute  for  two  months. 
In  this  time  some  gentlemen,  who  understood  the 
true  interest  of  the  country,  prevailed  on  the  assem- 
bly of  Massachusetts  to  resume  the  protection  of 
those  deserted  places ;  and  to  employ  a  sufficiency 
of  men,  not  only  to  garrison  them,  but  to  range  the 
woods,  and  watch  the  motions  of  the  enemy. 

(1747.)  In  the  latter  end  of  March,  Captain 
Phinehas  Stevens,  who  commanded  a  ranging  com- 
pany of  thirty  men,  came  to  Number-four;  and, 
finding  the  fort  entire,  determined  to  keep  possession 
of  it.  He  had  not  been  there  many  days,  when  he 
was  attacked  by  a  very  large  party  of  French  and 
Indians,  commanded  by  M.  Debeline.  The  dogs, 
by  their  barking,  discovered  that  the  enemy  was 
near ;  which  caused  the  gate  to  be  kept  shut  beyond 
the  usual  time.  One  man  went  out  to  make  dis- 
covery, and  was  fired  on ;  but  returned  with  a  slight 
wound  only.  The  enemy,  finding  that  they  were 
discovered,  arose  from  their  concealment,  and  fired 
at  the  fort  on  all  sides.  The  wind  being  high,  they 
set  fire  to  the  fences  and  log-houses,  till  the  fort  was 
surrounded  by  flames.  Captain  Stevens  took  the 
most  prudent  measures  for  his  security;  keeping 
every  vessel  full  of  water,  and  digging  trenches  un- 
der the  walls  in  several  places ;  so  that  a  man  might 
creep  through,  and  extinguish  any  fire  which  might 
catch  on  the  outside  of  the  walls.  The  fire  of  the 
fences  did  not  reach  the  fort ;  nor  did  the  flaming 
arrows  which  they  incessantly  shot  against  it  take 
effect.  Having  continued  this  mode  of  attack  for 
two  days,  accompanied  with  hideous  shouts  and  yells ; 
they  prepared  a  wheel  carriage,  loaded  with  dry 
faggots,  to  be  pushed  before  them,  that  they  might 
set  fire  to  the  fort.  Before  they  proceeded  to  this 
operation,  they  demanded  a  cessation  of  arms  till 
the  sun-rising,  which  was  granted.  In  the  morning, 
Dcbelirie  came  up  with  fifty  men,  and  a  flag  of  truce, 
which  he  stuck  in  the  ground.  He  demanded  a 


parley,  which  was  agreed  to.  A  French  officer, 
with  a  soldier  and  an  Indian,  then  advanced ;  and 
proposed  that  the  garrison  should  bind  up  a  quantity 
of  provisions  with  their  blankets,  and  having  laid 
down  their  arms,  should  be  conducted  prisoners  to 
Montreal.  Another  proposal  was,  that  the  two  com- 
manders should  meet,  and  that  an  answer  should 
then  be  given.  Stevens  met  the  French  commander, 
who,  without  waiting  for  an  answer,  began  to  en- 
force his  proposal,  by  threatening  to  storm  the  fort, 
and  put  every  man  to  death,  if  they  should  refuse  his 
terms,  and  kill  one  of  his  men.  Stevens  answered, 
that  he  could  hearken  to  no  terms  till  the  last  extre- 
mity ;  that  he  was  intrusted  with  the  defence  of  the 
fort,  and  was  determined  to  maintain  it,  till  he 
should  be  convinced  that  the  Frenchman  could  per- 
form what  he  had  threatened.  He  added,  that  it 
was  poor  encouragement  to  surrender,  if  they  were 
all  to  be  put  to  the  sword  for  killing  one  man,  when 
it  was  probable  they  had  already  killed  more.  The 
Frenchman  replied,  "  Go  and  see  if  your  men  dare 
to  fight  any  longer,  and  give  me  a  quick  answer." 
Stevens  returned,  and  asked  his  men  whether  they 
would  fight  or  surrender.  They  unanimously  deter- 
mined to  fight.  This  was  immediately  made  known 
to  the  enemy,  who  renewed  their  shouting  and  firing 
all  that  day  and  night.  On  the  morning  of  the  third 
day  they  requested  another  'cessation  for  two  hours. 
Two  Indians  came  with  a  flag,  and  proposed,  that 
if  Stevens  would  sell  them  provisions  they  would 
withdraw.  He  answered,  that  to  sell  them  provi- 
sions for  money  would  be  contrary  to  the  law  of  na- 
tions; but  that  he  would  pay  them  five  bushels  of 
corn  for  every  captive,  for  whom  they  would  give  a 
hostage,  till  the  captive  could  be  brought  from  Ca- 
nada. After  this  answer,  a  few  guns  were  fired,  and 
the  enemy  were  seen  no  more. 

In  this  furious  attack  from  a  starving  enemy  no 
lives  were  lost  in  the  fort,  and  two  men  only  were 
wounded.  No  men  could  have  behaved  with  more  in- 
trepidity in  the  midst  of  such  threatening  danger.  An 
express  was  immediately  dispatched  to  Boston,  and 
the  news  was  there  received  with  great  joy.  Com- 
modore Sir  Charles  Knowles  was  so  highly  pleased 
with  the  conduct  of  Capt.  Stevens,  that  he  presented 
him  with  a  valuable  and  elegant  sword,  as  a  reward 
for  his  bravery.  From  this  circumstance,  the  town- 
ship, when  it  was  incorporated,  took  the  name  of 
Charlestown. 

Small  parties  of  the  enemy  kept  hovering,  and 
sometimes  discovered  themselves.  Sergeant  Phelps 
killed  one  near  the  fort,  and  escaped  unhurt,  though 
fired  upon  and  pursued  by  two  others. 

Other  parties  went  farther  down  the  country;  and 
at  Rochester  they  ambushed  a  company  who  were 
at  work  in  a  field.  The  ambush  was  discovered  by 
three  lads,  John  and  George  Place,  and  Paul  Jen- 
nens.  The  Indians  fired  upon  them.  John  Place 
returned  the  fire  and  wounded  an  Indian.  Jennens 
presented  his  gun  but  did  not  fire ;  this  prevented 
the  enemy  from  rushing  upon  them,  till  the  men 
from  the 'field  came  to  their  relief  and  put  the  In- 
dians to  flight. 

At  Penacook,  a  party  of  the  enemy  discovered 
themselves  by  firing  at  some  cattle.  They  were 
pursued  by  fifty  men,  and  retreated  with  such  pre- 
cipitation as  to  leave  their  packs  and  blankets  with 
other  things  behind.  One  man  had  his  arm  broken 
in  this  conflict.  About  the  same  time  a  man  was 
killed  there  who  had  just  returned  from  Cape  Bre- 
ton, after  an  absence  of  two  years.  Another  was 
killed  at  Suncook;  and  at  Nottingham,  Robert 


401 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Beard,  John  Folsom,  and  P^lizabeth  Simpson  su 
fered  the  same  fate. 

In  the  autumn,  Major  Willard  and  Captain  Alex 
ander  wounded  and  took  a  Frenchman,  near  Win 
Chester,  who  was  conducted  to  Boston  and  returne 
to  Canada.  Soon  after,  the  enemy  burned  Bridg 
man's  fort  (Hinsdale),  and  killed  several  persons 
and  took  others  from  that  place,  and  from  Numbei 
four  in  the  ensuing  winter.  No  pursuit  could  b 
made,  because  the  garrison  was  not  provided  witl 
snow-shoes,  though  many  hundreds  had  been  paic 
for  by  the  government. 

(1748.)  The  next  spring,  Captain  Stevens  wa 
again  appointed  to  command  at  Number-four,  with 
a  garrison  of  100  men;  Captain  Humphrey  Hobb 
being  second  in  command.  A  scouting  party  o 
eighteen  was  sent  out  under  Capt.  Eleazer  Melvin 
They  discovered  two  canoes  in  Lake  Champlain,  a 
which  they  fired.  The  fort  at  Crown  Point  wai 
alarmed,  and  a  party  came  out  to  intercept  them 
Melvin  crossed  their  track  and  came  back  to  Wes 
River,  where  as  his  men  were  diverting  themselvei 
by  shooting  salmon,  the  Indians  suddenly  cam< 
upon  them  and  killed  six.  The  others  came  in  a 
different  times  to  Fort  Dummer. 

On  a  Sabbath  morning,  at  Rochester,  the  wife  o 
Jonathan  Hodgdon  was  taken  by  the  Indians  as  sh( 
was  going  to  milk  her  cows;  she  called  aloud  to  her 
husband;  the  Indians  would  have  kept  her  quiet 
but  as  she  persisted  in  calling  they  killed  her,  ap 
parently  contrary  to  their  intentions.  Her  husband 
heard  her  cries,  and  came  to  her  assistance  at  the 
instant  of  her  death.  His  gun  missed  fire  and  he 
escaped.  The  alarm  occasioned  by  this  action  pre- 
vented greater  mischief. 

The  next  month,  they  killed  three  men  belonging 
to  Hinsdale's  fort,  Nathan  French,  Joseph  Richard- 
son, and  John  Frost.  Seven  were  taken;  one  o: 
whom,  William  Bickford,  died  of  his  wounds.  Capt. 
Hobbs  and  forty  men  being  on  a  scout  near  Wesl 
River,  were  surprised  by  a  party  of  Indians,  with 
whom  they  had  a  smart  encounter  of  three  hours 
continuance.  Hobbs  left  the  ground,  having  had 
three  men  killed  and  four  wounded.  The  same 
party  of  the  enemy  killed  two  men  and  took  nine, 
between  fort  Hinsdale  and  fort  Dummer. 

(1749.)  The  cessation  of  arms  between  the  belli- 
gerent powers  did  not  wholly  put  a  stop  to  the  in- 
cursions of  the  enemy ;  for  after  it  was  known  here, 
and  after  the  garrison  of  Number-four  was  with- 
drawn, excepting  fifteen  men,  Obadiah  Sortwell  was 
killed,  and  a  son  of  Capt.  Stevens  was  taken  and 
carried  to  Canada,  but  he  was  released  and  returned. 
During  this  affecting  scene  of  devastation  and 
captivity,  there  were  no  instances  of  deliberate  mur- 
der nor  torture  exercised  on  those  who  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  Indians ;  and  even  the  old  custom  of 
making  them  run  the  gauntlet  was  in  most  cases 
omitted.  On  the  contrary  there  is  an  universal 
testimony  from  the  captives  who  survived  and  re- 
turned, in  favour  of  the  humanity  of  their  captors. 
When  feeble,  they  assisted  them  in  travelling;  and 
in  cases  of  distress  from  want  of  provision,  they 
shared  with  them  an  equal  proportion.  A  singular 
instance  of  moderation  deserves  remembrance.  An 
Indian  had  surprised  a  man  at  Ashuelot;  the  man 
asked  for  quarter,  and  it  was  granted:  whilst  the 
Indian  was  preparing  to  bind  him,  he  seized  the 
Indian's  gun,  and  shot  him  in  one  arm.  The  In- 
dian, however,  secured  him ;  but  took  no  other  re- 
venge than,  with  a  kick,  to  say  "  You  dog,  how 
could  you  treat  me  so  ?"  The  gentleman  from  whom 


this  information  came,  had  frequently  heard  the 
story  both  from  the  captive  and  the -captor.  The 
latter  related  it  as  an  instance  of  English  perfidy ; 
the  former  of  Indian  lenity. 

There  was  a  striking  difference  between  the 
manner  in  which  this  war  was  managed,  on  the 
part  of  the  English,  and  on  the  part  of  the 
French.  The  latter  kept  out  small  parties  con- 
tinually engaged  in  killing,  scalping,  and  taking 
prisoners;  who  were  sold  in  Canada  and  redeemed 
by  their  friends  at  a  great  expense.  By  this  mode 
of  conduct,  the  French  made  their  enemies  pay  the 
whole  charge  of  their  predatory  excursions,  besides 
reaping  a  handsome  profit  to  themselves.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  English  attended  only  to  the  do- 
fence  of  the  frontiers;  and  that  in  such  a  manner, 
as  to  leave  them  for  the  most  part  insecure.  No 
parties  were  sent  to  harass  the  settlements  of  the 
French.  If  the  whole  country  of  Canada  could  not 
be  subdued,  nothing  less  could  be  attempted.  Men 
were  continually  kept  in  pay,  and  in  expectation  of 
service,  but  spent  their  time  ciiher  in  garrisons,  or 
camps,  or  in  guarding  provisions  wheu  sent  to  the 
several  forts.  Though  large  rewards  were  promised 
for  scalps  aud  prisoners,  scarcely  any  were  ob- 
tained unless  by  accident.  A  confusion  of  councils, 
and  a  multiplicity  of  directors,  caused  frequent 
changes  of  measures,  and  delays  in  the  execution  of 
them.  The  forts  were  ill  supplied  with  ammunition, 
provisions,  clothing,  and  snow-shoes.  When  an 
alarm  happened,  it  was  necessary  cither  to  bake 
bread,  or  dress  meat,  or  cast  bullets,  before  a  pursuit 
could  be  made.  The  French  gave  commissions  to 
none  but  those  who  had  distinguished  themselves  by 
some  exploit.  Among  us,  persons  frequently  ob- 
tained preferment  for  themselves  or  their  friend.-, 
by  making  their  court  to  governors,  and  promoting 
favourite  measures  in  town  meetings,  or  general  as- 
semblies. 

A  community  recovering  from  a  war,  like  an  in- 
lividual  recovering  from  sickness,  is  sometimes  in 
danger  of  a  relapse.  This  war  was  not  decisive, 
and  the  causes  which  kindled  it  were  not  removed. 
One  of  its  effects  was,  that  it  produced  a  class  of 
men,  who,  having  been  for  a  time  released  from 
laborious  occupations,  and  devoted  to  the  parade  of 
military  life,  did  not  readily  listen  to  the  calls  of 
ndustry.  To  such  men  peace  was  burdensome, 
and  the  more  so,  because  they  had  not  the  advantage 
of  half  pay.  The  interval  between  this  and  the  suc- 
ceeding war  was  not  long.  The  peace  took  place 
n  1749,  and  in  1754  there  was  a  call  to  resume 
the  sword. 

Purchase  of  Mason's  claim — Controversy  about  repre- 
sentation— Plan  of  extending  the  settlements — Jea- 
lousy and  resentment  of  the  savages. 

Whilbt  the  people  were  contending  with  an  enemy 
abroad,  an  attempt  was  making  at  home  to  revive 
he  old  claim  of  Mason,  which  their  fathers  had 
withstood,  and  which  for  many  years  had  lain  dor- 
mant, till  recalled  to  view  by  the  politicians  of  Mas- 
achusetts,  as  already  related.  After  Thomlinson 
lad  engaged  with  Mason,  for  the  purchase  of  his 
itle,  nothing  more  was  heard  of  it,  till  the  contro- 
•ersy  respecting  the  lines  was  finished,  and  'Went- 
rorth  was  established  in  the  seat  of  government, 
nd  in  the  office  of  surveyor  of  the  woods.  (1744.) 
^he  agreement  which  Thomlinson  had  made,  was  in 
ehalf  of  the  representatives  of  New  Hampshire  ; 
nd  the  instrument  was  lodged  in  the  hands  of  the 
overnor,  who  sent  it  to  the  house  for  their  perusal 


UNITED  STATES. 


495 


and  consideration.  It  lay  on  their  table  a  long 
time,  without  any  formal  notice.  Quickening  mes- 
sages were  sent  time  after  time ;  but  the  affairs  of 
the  war,  and  Mason's  absence  at  sea,  and  in  the 
expedition  to  Louisbourg,  where  he  had  a  company, 
together  with  a  disinclination  in  the  house,  which 
was  of  a  different  complexion  from  that  in  1739, 
prevented  any  thing  from  being  done. 

(1745.)  In  the  mean  time  Mason  suffered  a  fine 
and  recovery,  by  which  the  entail  was  docked,  in 
the  courts  of  New  Hampshire,  .and  he  became  en- 
titled to  the  privilege  of  selling  his  interest.  He  also 
presented  a  memorial  to  the  assembly,  in  which  he 
told  them  that  he  would  wait  no  longer ;  and  unless 
they  would  come  to  some  resolution,  he  should  take 
their  silence  as  a  refusal.  (174G.)  Intimations  were 
given,  that  if  they  should  not  ratify  the  agreement, 
a  sale  would  be  made  to  other  persons,  who  stood 
ready  to  purchase.  At  length  the  house  came  to  a 
resolution,  "  that  they  would  comply  with  the  agree- 
ment, and  pay  the  price;  and  that  the  waste  lands 
should  be  granted  by  the  general  assembly,  to  the 
inhabitants,  as  they  should  think  proper."  A  com- 
mittee was  appointed  to  treat  with  Mason  about 
fulfilling  his  agreement,  and  to  draw  the  proper  in- 
struments of  conveyance ;  but  he  had  on  the  same 
day,  by  deed  of  sale,  for  the  sum  of  150U/.  currency, 
conveyed  his  whole  interest  to  twelve  persons,  in 
fifteen  shares.  When  the  house  sent  a  message  to 
the  council  to  inform  them  of  this  resolution,  the 
council  objected  to  that  clause  of  the  resolution, 
"  that  the  lands  be  granted  by  the  general  assem- 
bly," as  contrary  to  the  royal  commission  and  in- 
structions; but  if  the  house  would  address  the  king, 
for  leave  to  dispose  of  the  lauds,  they  said  that  they 
were  content. 

These  transactions  raised  a  great  ferment  among 
the  people.  Angry  and  menacing  words  were  plen- 
tifully thrown  out  against  the  purchasers  ;  but  they 
had  prudently  taken  care  to  file  in  the  recorder's 
office  a  deed  of  quit-claim  to  all  the  towns  which  had 
been  settled  and  granted  within  the  limits  of  their 
purchase.  In  this  quit-claim  they  inserted  a  clause 
in  the  following  words  :  "  excepting  and  reserving 
our  respective  rights,  titles,  inheritance,  and  pos- 
sessions, which  we  heretofore  had,  in  common  or 
severally,  as  inhabitants  or  proprietors  of  houses  or 
lands,  within  any  of  the  towns,  precincts,  districts, 
or  villages  aforesaid."  This  precaution  had  not  at 
first  its  effect.  A  committee  of  both  houses  was  ap- 
pointed to  consider  the  matter,  and  they  reported, 
that  "  for  quieting  the  minds  of  the  people,  and  to 
prevent  future  difficulty,  it  would  be  best  for  the 
province  to  purchase  the  claim,  for  the  use  and 
benefit  of  the  inhabitants ;  provided  that  the  pur- 
chasers would  sell  it  for  the  cost  and  charges."  This 
report  was  accepted,  concurred,  and  consented  to, 
by  every  branch  of  the  legislature.  A  committee 
was  appointed  to  consult  counsel,  and  agree  on 
proper  instruments  of  conveyance.  The  same  day, 
this  committee  met  with  the  purchasers,  and  con- 
ferred on  the  question,  whether  they  would  sell  on 
the  terms  proposed  ?  At  the  conference,  the  pur- 
chasers appeared  to  be  divided,  and  agreed  so  far 
only,  as  .to  withdraw  their  deed  from  the  recorder's 
office.  The  committee  reported  that  they  could 
make  no  terms  with  the  purchasers ;  in  consequence 
of  which  the  deed  was  again  lodged  in  the  office 
;  n  1  recorded.  ,-  •'» 

Much  blame  was  cast  on  the  purchasers,  for  clan- 
destinely taking  a  bargain  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
assembly.  They  said  in  their  vindication,  "  that 


they  saw  no  prospect  of  an  effectual  purchase  by  the 
assembly,  though  those  of  them  who  were  members 
voted  for  it,  and  did  what  they  could  to  encourage 
it;  that  they" would  have  gladly  given  Mason  as 
much  money  for  his  private  quit-claim  to  their  se- 
veral rights  in  the  townships  already  granted  and 
settled;  that  Mason's  claim  had  for  many  years 
hung  over  the  province,  and  that  on  every  turn  they 
had  been  threatened  with  a  proprietor;  that  Mason's 
deed  to  a  committee  of  Massachusetts,  in  behalf  of 
that  province,  for  a  tract  of  laud  adjoining  the  boun- 
dary line,  had  been  entered  on  the  records,  and  a 
title  under  it  set  up,  in  opposition  to  grants  made 
by  the  governor  and  council;  that  it  was  impossible 
to  say  where  this  evil  would  stop,  and  therefore  they 
thought  it  most  prudent  to  prevent  any  farther  ef- 
fects of  it,  by  taking  up  with  his  offer,  especially 
as  they  knew  that  he  might  have  made  a  more  ad- 
vantageous bargain,  with  a  gentlemen  of  fortune  in 
the  neighbouring  province  ;  but  that  they  were  still 
willing  to  sell  their  interest  to  the  assembly,  for  the 
cost  and  charges  ;  provided  that  the  land  be  granted 
by  the  governor  and  council;  and  that  the  agreement 
be  madewithin  one  month  from  the  date  of  their  letter." 

Within  that  month  the  alarm  caused  by  the  ap- 
proach of  D'Anville's  fleet  put  a  stop  to  the  nego- 
ciation.  After  that  danger  was  over,  the  affair  was 
revived;  but  the  grand  difficulty  subsisted.  The 
purchasers  would  not  sell,  but  on  condition  that  the 
lands  should  be  granted  by  the  governor  and  coun- 
cil. (1747.)  The  assembly  thought  that  they  could 
have  no  security  that  the  land  would  be  granted  to 
the  people;  because  the  governor  and  council  might 
grant  it  to  themselves,  or  to  their  dependents,  or  to 
strangers,  and  the  people  who  had  paid  for  it  might 
be  excluded  from  the  benefit  which  they  had  pur- 
chased. A  proposal  was  afterwards  made,  that  the 
sale  should  be  to  feoffees  in  trust  for  the  people; 
and  a  form  of  a  deed  for  this  purpose  was  drawn. 
To  this  proposal,  the  purchasers  raised  several  ob- 
jections; and  as  the  assembly  had  not  voted  any 
money  to  make  the  purchase,  they  declined  signing 
the  deed;  and  no  farther  efforts  being  made  by  the 
assembly,  the  purchase  rested  in  the  hands  of  the 
proprietors.  In  1749  they  took  a  second  deed,  com- 
prehending all  the  Masonian  grants,  from  Naum- 
keag  to  Pascataqua;  whereas  the  former  deed  was 
confined  to  the  lately  established  boundaries  of 
New  Hampshire.  This  latter  deed  was  not  record- 
ed till  1753. 

(1748.)  After  they  had  taken  their  first  deed,  the 
Masonians  began  to  grant  townships,  and  continued 
granting  them  to  petitioners,  often  without  fees, 
and  always  without  quit-rents.  They  quieted  the 
proprietors  of  the  towns  on  the  western  side  of  the 
Merrimack,  which  had  been  granted  by  Massachu- 
setts, before  the  establishment  of  the  line;  so  that 
they  went  on  peaceably  with  their  settlements.  The 
terms  of  their  grants  were,  that  the  grantees  should, 
within  a  limited  trine,  erect  mills  and  meeting-houses, 
clear  out  roads,  and  settle  ministers.  In  every  town- 
ship, they  reserved  one  right  for  the  first  settled  mi- 
nisier,  another  for  a  parsonage,  and  a  third  for  a 
school.  They  also  reserved  fifteen  rights  for  them- 
selves, and  two  for  their  attorneys;  all  of  which 
were  to  be  free  from  taxes,  till  sold  or  occupied. 
By  virtue  of  these  grants,  many  townships  were 
settled,  and  the  interest  of  the  people  became  so 
united  with  that  of  the  proprietors,  that  the  preju- 
dice against  them  gradually  abated;  and,  at  length, 
even  some  who  had  been  the  most  violent  opposers, 
acquiesced  in  the  safety  and  policy  of  their  measures, 


•196 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


though  they  could  not  concede  to  the  validity  of 
their  claim. 

The  heirs  of  Allen  menaced  them  by  advertise- 
ments, and  warned  the  people  against  accepting 
their  grants.  They  depended  on  the  recognition  of 
Allen's  purchase,  in  the  charter  of  Massachusetts, 
as  an  argument  in  favour  of  its  validity ;  and  sup- 
posed, that  because  the  ablest  lawyers  in  the  king- 
dom were  consulted,  and  employed  in  framing  that 
charter,  they  must  have  had  evidence  of  the  justice 
of  his  pretensions,  before  such  a  reservation  could 
have  been  introduced  into  it.  So  strong  was  the 
impression  which  this  argument  had  made  on  the 
minds  of  speculators  in  England,  that  large  sums 
had  been  offered  to  some  of  Allen's  heirs  in  that 
kingdom  ;  and  Thomlinson  himself,  the  first  mover 
of  the  purchase  from  Mason,  in  behalf  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, had  his  doubts;  and  would  have  persuaded 
the  associates  to  join  in  buying  Allen's  title  also, 
even  at  the  price  of  2,000/.  sterling,  to  prevent  a 
more  expensive  litigation,  the  issue  of  which  would 
be  uncertain.  But  they,  being  vested  with  the  prin- 
cipal offices  of  government;  being  men  of  large 
property,  which  was  also  increased  by  this  purchase ; 
and  having  satisfied  themselves  of  the  validity  of 
their  title,  by  the  opinions  of  some  principal  lawyers, 
both  here  and  in  England,  contented  themselves 
with  the  purchase  which  they  had  made;  and  by 
maintaining  their  possession,  extended  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  country  within  their  limits. 

The  words  of  the  original  grants  to  Mason  de- 
scribe an  extent  of  sixty  miles  from  the  sea,  on  each 
side  of  the  province,  and  a  line  to  cross  over  from 
the  end  of  one  line  of  sixty  miles  to  the  end  of  the 
other.  The  Masonian  proprietoi'S  pleaded,  that  this 
cross  line  should  be  a  curve,  because  no  other  line 
would  preserve  the  distance  of  sixty  miles  from  the 
sea,  in  every  part  of  their  western  boundary.  No 
person  had  any  right  to  contest  the  point  with  them 
but  the  king.  It  was  not  for  the  interest  of  his  go- 
vernor and  council  to  object;  because  several  of 
them,  and  of  their  connexions,  were  of  the  Masonian 
propriety;  and  no  objection  was  made  by  any  other 
persons,  in  behalf  of  the  crown.  Surveyors  were 
employed,  at  several  times,  to  mark  this  curve  line ; 
but  on  running,  first  from  the  southern,  and  then 
from  the  eastern  boundary,  to  the  river  Pemigewas- 
set,  they  could  not  make  the  lines  meet.  Contro- 
versies were  thus  engendered  between  the  grantees 
of  crown  lauds  and  those  of  the  Masonians,  which 
subsisted  for  many  years.  In  some  cases,  the  dis- 
putes were  compromised,  and  in  others,  left  open  for 
litigation;  till,  by  the  revolution,  the  government 
fell  into  other  hands. 

This  was  not  the  only  controversy  which,  till  that 
period,  remained  undetermined.  When  the  exten- 
sion of  the  boundary  lines  gave  birth  to  a  demand 
for  the  maintenance  of  fort  Dummer,  the  governor 
had  the  address  to  call  to  that  assembly,  into  which 
he  introduced  this  demand,  six  new  members,  who 
appeared  as  representatives  for  six  towns  and  dis- 
tricts, some  of  which  had  been  by  the  southern  line 
cut  off  from  Massachusetts.  It  was  supposed  that 
his  design  in  calling  these  members  was  to  facilitate 
the  adoption  of  fort  Dummer.  Other  towns,  which 
ought  to  have  had  the  same  privilege  extended  to 
them,  were  neglected.  When  the  new  members 
appeared  in  the  house,  the  secretary,  by  the  governor's 
order,  administered  (o  them  "the  usual  oaths; 
after  which  they  were  asked,  in  the  name  of  the 
house,  by  what  authority  they  came  thither  ?  They 
answered  that  they  were  chosen  by  virtue  of  a  writ, 


in  the  king's  name,  delivered  to  their  respective 
towns  and  districts  by  the  sheriff.  The  house  re- 
monstrated to  the  governor,  that  these  places  had 
no  right  by  law,  nor  by  custom,  to  send  persons  to 
represent  them,  and  then  debarred  them  from  the 
privilege  of  voting  in  the  choice  of  a  speaker  :  two 
only  dissenting  out  of  nineteen.  Several  sharp  mes- 
sages passed  between  the  governor  and  the  house  on 
that  occasion,  but  the  pressing  exigencies  of  the  war, 
and  the  proposed  expedition  to  Cape  Breton,  obliged 
him  for  that  time  to  give  way,  and  suffer  his  new 
members  to  be  excluded  till  the  king's  pleasure  could 
be  known. 

The  house  vindicated  their  proceedings,  by  ap- 
pealing to  their  records;  from  which  it  appeared, 
that  all  the  additions  which  had  been  made  to  the 
house  of  representatives  were  in  consequence  of 
their  own  votes,  either  issuing  a  precept  themselves, 
or  requesting  the  governor  to  do  it;  from  which  they 
argued,  that  no  town  or  parish  ought  to  have  any 
writ  for  the  choice  of  a  representative  but  by  a  vote 
of  the  house,  or  by  an  act  of  the  assembly.  On  the 
other  side  it  was  alleged,  that  the  right  of  sending 
representatives  was  originally  founded  on  the  royal 
commission  and  instructions,  and  therefore  that  the 
privilege  might,  by  the  same  authority,  be  lawfully 
extended  to  the  new  towns,  as  the  king,  or  his  go- 
vernor, by  advice  of  council,  might  think  proper. 
The  precedents  on  both  sides  were  undisputed,  but 
neither  party  would  admit  the  conclusion  drawn  by 
the  other.  Had  this  difficulty  been  foreseen,  it 
might  have  been  prevented  when  the  triennial  act 
was  made  in  1727.  The  defects  of  that  law  began 
now  to  be  severely  felt,  but  could  not  be  remedied. 
The  dispute  having  thus  subsided,  was  not  revived 
during  the  war;  but  as  soon  as  the  peace  was  made, 
and  the  king  had  gone  on  a  visit  to  his  German  do- 
minions, an  additional  instruction  was  sent  from 
the  lords  justices,  who  presided  in  the  king's  absence, 
directing  the  governor  to  dissolve  the  assembly  then 
subsisting;  and  when  another  should  be  called,  to 
issue  the  king's  writ  to  the  sheriff,  commanding  him 
to  make  out  precepts  to  the  towns  and  districts, 
whose  representatives  had  been  before  excluded;  and 
that  when  they  should  be  chosen,  the  governor 
should  support  their  rights. 

Had  this  instruction  extended  to  all  the  other 
towns  in  the  province,  which  had  not  been  before 
represented,  it  might  have  been  deemed  equitable  ; 
but  as  it  respected  those  only  which  had  been  the 
subject  of  controversy,  it  appeared  to  be  grounded 
on  partial  information,  and  intended  to  strengthen 
the  prerogative  of  the  crown,  without  a  due  regard 
to  the  privileges  of  the  people  at  large. 

(1749.)  The  party  in  opposition  to  the  governor 
became  more  acrimonious  than  ever.  Richard 
Waldron,  the  former  secretary,  and  the  confidential 
friend  of  Belcher,  appeared  in  the  new  assembly  and 
was  chosen  speaker.  The  governor  negatived  him  ; 
and  ordered  the  house  to  admit  the  new  members, 
and  choose  another  speaker.  They  denied  his  power 
of  negativing  their  speaker  and  of  introducing  new 
members.  The  style  of  his  messages  was  peremp- 
tory and  severe ;  their  answers  and  remonstrances 
were  calm,  but  resolute,  and  in  some  instances  sa- 
tirical. Neither  party  would  yield  ;  no  business  was 
transacted,  though  the  assembly  met  about  once  in 
a  month,  and  was  kept  alive,  by  adjournments  and 
prorogations,  for  three  years.  Had  he  dissolved 
them,  before  the  time  for  which  they  were  chosen 
had  expired,  he  knew,  that  in  all  probability,  the 
same  persons  would  be  re-elected. 


UNITED  STATES. 


497 


The  effect  of  this  controversy  was  injurious  to 
the  governor,  as  well  as  to  the  people.  The  public 
bills  of  credit  had  depreciated  since  this  administra- 
tion began,  in  the  ratio  of  thirty  to  fifty-six  ;  and 
the  value  of  the  governor's  salary  had  declined  in 
the  same  proportion.  The  excise  could  neither  be 
formed  nor  collected  ;  and  that  part  of  the  governor's 
salary,  which  was  funded  upon  it,  failed.  The  trea- 
surer's accounts  were  unsettled.  The  soldiers,  who 
had  guarded  the  frontiers  in  the  preceding  war,  were 
not  paid;  nor  were  their  muster-rolls  adjusted.  The 
public  records  of  deeds  were  shut  up ;  for  the  re- 
corder's time  having  expired,  and  the  appointment 
being  by  law  vested  in  the  assembly,  no  choice  could 
be  made.  No  authenticated  papers  could  be  ob- 
tained, though  the  agent  was  constantly  soliciting 
for  those  which  related  to  the  controversy  about  Fort 
Dummer,  at  that  time  before  the  king  and  council. 

(1750,  1751.)  When  the  situation  of  the  province 
was  known  in  England,  an  impression  to  its  dis- 
advantage was  made  on  the  minds  of  its  best  friends; 
and  they  even  imagined  that  the  governor's  con- 
duct was  not  blameless.  The  language  at  court  was 
totally  changed.  The  people  of  New  Hampshire, 
who  had  formerly  been  in  favour,  as  loyal  and  obe- 
dient subjects,  were  now  said  to  be  in  rebellion. 
Their  agent  was  frequently  reproached  and  morti- 
fied on  their  account,  and  was  under  great  appre- 
hension that  they  would  suffer,  not  only  in  their 
reputation,  but  in  their  interest  The  agent  of  Mas- 
sachusetts was  continually  soliciting  for  repayment 
of  the  charges  of  maintaining  fort  Dummer,  and  it 
was  in  contemplation,  to  take  off  a  large  district 
from  the  western  part  of  New  Hampshire,  and  to 
annex  it  to  Massachusetts,  to  satisfy  them  for  that 
expense.  Besides  this,  the  paper  money  of  the  co- 
lonies was  under  the  consideration  of  parliament ; 
and  the  province  of  Massachusetts  was  rising  into 
favour  for  having  abolished  that  system  of  iniquity. 
The  same  justice  was  expected  of  New  Hampshire, 
since  they  had  the  same  means  in  their  power  by 
the  reimbursement  granted  to  them  by  parliament 
for  the  Cape  Breton  and  Canada  expeditions.  This 
money,  amounting  to  about  30,0001.  sterling,  clear 
of  all  fees  and  commissions,  had  lain  long  in  the 
treasury ;  and  when  it  was  paid  to  the  agent,  he 
would  have  placed  it  in  the  funds,  where  it  might 
have  yielded  an  interest  of  three  per  cent. ;  but 
having  no  directions  from  the  assembly,  he  locked 
it  up  in  the  bank.  This  was  a  clear  loss  to  them  of 
900/.  per  annum.  There  were  some  who  reflected 
on  the  agent,  as  if  he  had  made  an  advantage  to 
himself  of  this  money.  Had  he  done  it,  his  own 
capital  was  sufficient  to  have  answered  any  of  their 
demands  ;  but  it  was  also  sufficient  to  put  him  above 
the  necessity  of  employing  their  money,  either  in 
trade  or  speculation. 

It  had  also  been  suggested,  that  Thomlinson,  at 
the  governor's  request,  had  solicited  and  procured 
the  instruction,  which  had  occasioned  this  unhappy 
stagnation  of  business.  When  this  suggestion  came 
to  his  knowledge,  he  exculpated  himself  from  the 
charge  in  a  letter  which  he  wrote  to  a  leading 
member  of  the  assembly,  and  gave  a  full  account  o 
the  matter  as  far  as  it  had  come  to  his  knowledge 
He  said,  that  the  governor  himself  had  stated  the 
facts  in  his  letters  to  the  ministry;  concerning  his 
calling  of  the  new  members,  in  1745,  and  their  ex 
elusion  from  the  assembly,  with  the  reasons  given 
for  it;  and  had  desired  ^.o  know  the  king's  pleasure 
and  to  have  directions  how  to  act.  That  the  minis 
try,  without  any  exception  or  hesitation,  had  pro 
HIST.  OF  AMER. — Nos.  63  &  64. 


nounced  his  conduct  conformable  to  his  duty.  That 
nevertheless,  the  Board  of  Trade  had  solemnly  con- 
idered  the  matter,  and  consulted  counsel,  and  had 
ummoned  him,  as  agent  of  the  piovince,  to  attend 
heir  deliberation.  Their  result  was,  that  as  the 
:rown  had  an  indisputable  right  to  incorporate  any 
own  in  England,  and  qualify  it  to  send  members 
,o  parliament,  so  the  same  right  and  power  had 
>een  legally  given  to  all  the  governors  in  America ; 
>y  means  of  which,  all  the  assemblies  in  the  king's 
governments  had  increased  in  number,  as  the  colo- 
nies had  increased  in  settlements.  That  any  other 
usage  in  calling  representatives  was  wrong;  al- 
hough  it  might  have  been  indulged  when  the  pro- 
vince was  under  the  same  governor  with  Massachu- 
setts. This  was  all  which  passed  before  the  addi- 
tional instruction  came  out,  which  was  sent  through 
the  hands  of  the  agent.  As  it  was  founded  on  a 
question  concerning  the  rights  and  prerogatives  of 
the  crown,  he  argued  the  absurdity  of  supposing, 
either  that  it  had  been  solicited,  or  that  any  attempt 
to  have  it  withdrawn  could  be  effectual.  His  advice 
was,  that  they  should  submit  to  it;  because,  that 
under  it,  they  would  enjoy  the  same  rights  and  pri- 
vileges with  their  fellow-subjects  in  England,  and 
in  the  other  colonies;  assuring  them,  that  the  then 
reigning  prince  had  never  discovered  the  least  in- 
clination to  infringe  the  constitutional  rights  of  any 
of  his  subjects. 

This  advice,  however  salutary,  had  not  the  in- 
tended  effect.  Instead  of  submitting,  the  party  in 
opposition  to  the  governor  framed  a  complaint  against 
him,  and  sent  it  i.o  London,  to  be  presented  to  the 
king.  If  they  could  have  prevailed,  their  next  mea- 
sure would  have  been,  to  recommend  a  gentleman, 
Sir  William  Pepperell,  of  Massachusetts,  for  his 
successor.  This  manoeuvre  came  to  the  ears  of 
Thomlinson ;  but  he  was  under  no  necessity  to  ex- 
ert himself  on  this  occasion,  for  the  person  to  whose 
care  the  address  was  intrusted,  considering  the  ab- 
surdity of  complaining  to  the  king  against  his  go- 
vernor for  acting  agreeably  to  his  instructions,  was 
advised  not  to  present  it.  This  disappointment  vexed 
the  opposition  to  such  a  degree,  that  they  would 
have  gladly  dissolved  the  government,  and  put  them- 
selves under  the  jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts,  had 
it  been  in  their  power.  But  finding  all  their  efforts 
ineffectual  either  to  have  the  instruction  withdrawn, 
or  the  governor  removed,  they  consoled  themselves 
with  this  thought,  that  it  was  "  better  to  have  two 
privileges  taken  from  them,  than  voluntarily  to  give 
up  one." 

(1752.)  The  time  for  which  this  assembly  was 
elected,  having  expired,  a  new  one  was  called  in  the 
same  manner.  They  came  together  with  a  spirit  of 
moderation,  and  a  disposition  to  transact  the  long 
neglected  business.  The  members  from  the  new 
towns  quietly  took  their  seats — an  unexceptionable 
speaker,  Meshech  Weare,  was  elected — a  recorder 
was  appointed — a  committee  was  chosen  to  settle 
the  treasurer's  accounts — and  a  vote  was  passed  for 
putting  the  reimbursement  money  into  the  public 
funds  in  England.  The  governor's  salary  was  aug- 
mented, and  all  things  went  on  smoothly.  The 
party  which  had  been  opposed  to  the  governor,  de- 
clined in  number  and  virulence;  some  had  been  re- 
moved by  death,  others  were  softened  and  relaxed; 
a  liberal  distribution  of  commissions,  civil  and  mili- 
tary, was  made ;  and  an  era  of  domestic  reconcilia- 
tion commenced. 

The  controversy  respecting  Fort  Dummer,  and 
i.he  fear  of  losing  a  district  in  that  neighbourhood, 

3  E 


498 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


quickened  the  governor  to  make  grants  of  several 
townships  in  that  quarter,  on  both  sides  of  Connec- 
ticut river,  chiefly  to  those  persons  who  claimed  the 
same  lands  under  the  Massachusetts  title.  The  w<*vr 
being  over,  the  old  inhabitants  returned  to  their 
plantations,  and  were  strengthened  by  additions  to 
their  number.  It  was  in  contemplation,  to  extend 
the  settlements  farther  up  Connecticut  river,  to  the 
rich  meadows  of  Cohos.  The  plan  was  to  cut  a  road 
to  that  place — to  lay  out  two  townships,  one  on  each 
side  of  the  river,  and  opposite  to  each  other — to 
erect  stockades,  with  lodgments  for  200  men  in  each 
township,  enclosing  a  space  of  fifteen  acres,  in  the 
centre  of  which  was  to  be  a  citadel  containing  the 
public  buildings  and  granaries,  which  were  to  be 
large  enough  to  receive  all  the  inhabitants  and  their 
moveable  effects  in  case  of  necessity.  As  an  induce- 
ment to  people  to  remove  to  this  new  plantation, 
they  were  to  have  courts  of  judicature  and  other 
civil  privileges  among  themselves,  and  were  to  be 
under  strict  military  discipline.  A  large  number  of 
persons  engaged  in  this  enterprise,  and  they  were 
the  rather  stimulated  to  undertake  it,  because  it 
was  feared  that  the  French,  who  had  already  begun 
to  encroach  on  the  territory  claimed  by  the  British 
crown,  would  take  possession  of  this  valuable  tract, 
if  it  should  be  left  unoccupied. 

In  pursuance  of  this  plan,  a  party  was  sent  up  in 
the  spring  of  1752  to  view  the  meadows  of  Cohos, 
and  lay  out  the  proposed  townships:  the  Indians 
observed  them,  and  suspected  their  intentions.  The 
land  was  theirs,  and  they  knew  its  value.  A  party 
of  the  Arosaguntacook,  or  St.  Francis  tribe,  was  de- 
puted to  remonstrate  against  this  proceeding.  They 
came  to  the  fort  at  Number-four,  with  a  flag  of  truce, 
pretending  that  they  had  not  heard  of  the  treaty  of 
peace  which  had  been  made  with  the  several  Indian 
tribes.  They  complained  to  Captain  Stevens,  of  the 
encroachment  which  was  meditating  on  their  land, 
and  said  that  they  could  not  allow  the  English  to 
settle  at  Cohos,  when  they  owned  more  land  already 
than  they  could  improve;  and,  that  if  this  settlement 
were  pursued,  they  should  think  the  English  had  a 
mind  for  war,  and  would  resist  them.  This  threat- 
ening being  communicated  to  the  governor  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  by  him  to  the  governor  of  New- 
Hampshire,  threw  such  discouragement  on  the  pro- 
ject that  it  was  laid  aside. 

The  Indians  did  not  content  themselves  with  re- 
monstrating and  threatening.  Two  of  the  same 
tribe,  named  Sabatis  and  Christi,  came  to  Canter- 
bury, where  they  were  entertained  in  a  friendly 
manner  for  more  than  a  month;  at  their  departure, 
they  forced  away  two  negroes,  one  of  whom  escaped 
and  returned,  and  the  other  was  carried  to  Crown 
Point  and  sold  to  a  French  officer.  A  party  of  ten 
or  twelve  of  the  same  tribe,  commanded  by  Captain 
Moses,  met  with  four  young  men  who  were  hunting 
on  Baker's  river.  One  of  these  was  John  Stark. 
When  he  found  himself  surprised  and  fallen  into 
their  hands,  he  called  to  his  brother  William  Stark, 
who  being  in  a  canoe,  gained  the  opposite  shore  and 
escaped.  They  fired  at  the  canoe  and  killed  a  young 
man  who  was  in  it.  John  received  a  severe  beating 
from  the  Indians  for  alarming  his  brother.  They 
carried  him,  and  his  companion  Eastman,  up  Con- 
necticut river,  through  several  carrying  places,  and 
down  the  lake  Memphrimagog  to  the  head-quarters 
of  their  tribe.  There  they  dressed  him  in  their 
finest  robes,  and  adopted  him  as  a  son.  This  early 
captivity,  from  which  he  was  redeemed,  qualified 
him  to  be  an  expert  partisan  in  the  succeeding  war; 


from  which  station,  he  afterwards  rose  to  tl-.c  rank 
of  brigadier -general  in  the  armies  of  the  United  States. 

(1753.)  The  next  year  Sabatis,  with  another 
Indian  named  Plausawa,  came  to  Canterbury ; 
where,  being  reproached  with  the  misconduct  re- 
specting the  negroes,  he  and  his  companion  behaved 
in  an  insolent  manner.  Several  persons  treated 
ihem  freely  with  strong  liquor.  One  followed  them 
into  the  woods,  and  killed  them,  and,  by  the  help 
oi' another,  buried  them;  but  so  shallow,  thai  their 
bodies  were  devoured  by  beasts  of  prey,  and  their 
bones  lay  on  the  ground.  By  the  treaties  of  peace, 
it  had  been  stipulated  on  the  one  part,  that  if  any 
of  the  Indians  should  commit  an  act  of  hostility 
against  the  English,  their  young  men  should  join 
with  the  English  in  reducing  such  Indians  to  sub- 
mission ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  that  if  an  Eng- 
lishman should  injure  any  of  them,  no  private  re- 
venge should  be  taken ;  but  application  should  be 
made  to  the  government  for  justice.  In  the  autumn 
of  the  same  year,  a  conference  being  held  with  the 
eastern  Indians  by  the  government  of  Massachu- 
setts, a  present  was  made  to  the  Arosaguntacook 
tribe,  expressive  of  an  intention  to  wipe  away  the 
blood.  They  accepted  the  present,  and  ratified  the 
peace  which  had  been  made  in  1749. 

(1754.)  The  two  men  who  killed  Sabatis  and 
Plausawa  were  apprehended  and  brought  to  Ports- 
mouth. A  bill  was  found  against  them  by  the  grand 
jury,  and  they  were  confined  in  irons.  In  the 
night,  before  the  day  appointed  for  their  trial,  an 
armed  mob  from  the  country,  with  axes  and  crows, 
forced  the  prison,  and  carried  them  off  in  triumph. 
A  proclamation  was  issued,  and  a  reward  offered  by 
the  governor,  for  apprehending  the  rioters  ;  but  no 
discovery  was  made,  and  the  action  was  even  deemed 
meritorious.  The  next  summer  another  conference 
was  held  at  Falmouth,  at  which  commissioners  from 
New  Hampshire  assisted.  The  Arosaguntacooke 
did  not  attend,  but  sent  a  message,  purporting  that 
the  blood  was  not  wiped  away.  The  commissioners 
from  New  Hampshire  made  a  handsome  present  to 
all  the  Indians  who  appeared  at  this  conference ; 
which  ended  as  usual,  in  the  promise  of  peace  and 
friendship. 

The  last  French  and  Indian  war,  which  terminated  in 
the  conquest  of  Canada.  Controversy  concerning 
the  land  westward  of  Connecticut  river. 

By  the  treaty  of  Aix  la  Chappelle,  in  1748,  it  was 
stipulated,  that  "  all  things  should  be  restored,  on 
the  footing  they  were  before  the  war."  The  island 
of  Cape  Breton  was  accordingly  restored  to  France; 
but  the  limits  of  the  French  and  English  territories 
on  the  continent  were  undetermined ;  and  it  was 
the  policy  of  both  nations  to  gain  possession  of  im- 
portant passes,  to  which  each  had  some  pretensions, 
and  to  hold  them,  till  the  limits  should  be  settled  by 
commissioners  mutually  chosen.  These  commissi- 
oners met  at  Paris ;  but  came  to  no  decision.  By 
the  construction  of  charters  and  grants  from  the. 
crown  of  England,  her  colonies  extended  indefi- 
nitely westward.  The  French  had  settlements  in 
Canada  and  Louisiana,  and  they  meditated  to  join 
these  distant  colonies,  by  a  chain  of  forts  and  posts 
from  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Mississippi ;  and  to 
extend  the  limits  of  Canada  as  far  eastward  as  to 
command,  navigation  in  the  winter,  when  the  great 
river  St.  Lawrence  is  impassable.  These  claims  of 
territory,  extending  on  the  one  part  from  east  to 
west,  and  on  the  other  from  north  to  south,  necessa- 
rily interfered.  The  colonies  of  Nova  Scotia,  New 


UNITED  STATES 


499 


York,  and  Virginia,  were  principally  affected  by 
this  interference;  and  the  encroachments  made  on 
them  by  the  French,  were  a  subject  of  complaint, 
both  there  and  in  Europe. 

(]  754.)  It  was  foreseen  that  this  controversy  could 
not  be  decided  but  by  the  sword ;  and  the  English 
determined  to  be  early  in  their  preparations.  The 
Earl  of  Holdcrness,  Secretary  of  State,  wrote  to  the 
governors  of  the  American  colonies,  recommending 
union  for  their  mutual  protection  and  defence.  A 
meeting  of  commissioners  from  the  colonies,  at  Al- 
bany, having  been  appointed,  for  the  purpose  of 
holding  a  conference  with  the  six  nations,  on  the 
subject  of  French  encroachments  within  their  coun- 
try— it  was  proposed  by  Governor  Shirley  to  the 
several  governors,  that  the  delegates  should  be  in- 
structed on  the  subject  of  union. 

At  the  place  appointed  the  congress  was  held ;  con- 
sisting of  delegates  from  Massachusetts,  New  Hamp- 
shire, Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  Pennsylvania,  and 
Maryland ;  with  the  lieut.-gcvernor  and  council  ofNew 
York.  They  took  theirrank  in  geographical  order,  be- 
ginning at  the  north.  One  member  from  each  colony 
was  appointed  to  draw  a  plan  of  union  ;  Hutchin- 
son,  of  Massachusetts,  Atkinson,  of  New  Hampshire, 
Hopkins,  of  Rhode  Island,  Pitkin,  of  Connecticut, 
Smith,  of  New  York,  Franklin,  of  Pennsylvania, 
and  Tasker,  of  Maryland.  The  substance  of  the 
plan  was,  that  application  be  made  for  an  act  of 
parliament  to  form  a  grand  council,  consisting  of 
delegates  from  the  several  legislative  assemblies, 
subject  to  the  control  of  a  president-general  (to  be 
appointed  by  the  crown,)  with  a  negative  voice. 
That  this  council  should  enact  general  laws;  ap- 
portion the  quotas  of  men  and  money  to  be  raised 
by  each  colony;  determine  the  building  of  forts; 
regulate  the  operations  of  armies ;  and  concert  all 
measures  for  the  common  protection  and  safety. 
The  delegates  of  Connecticut  alone  entered  their 
dissent  to  the  plan,  because  of  the  negative  voice  of 
the  president-general.  It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that 
this  plan  for  the  union  of  the  colonies  was  agreed 
to  on  the  fourth  day  of  July,  exactly  twenty- two 
years  before  the  declaration  of  American  indepen- 
dence, and  that  the  name  of  Franklin  appears  in  both. 

With  the  plan  of  union,  a  representation  was 
made  to  the  king  of  the  danger  in  which  the  colo- 
nies were  involved.  Copies  of  both  were  laid  before 
the  several  assemblies.  They  were  fully  sensible  of 
their  danger  from  the  French;  but  they  appre- 
hended greater  danger  from  the  plan  of  union.  Its 
fate  was  singular.  It  was  rejected  in  America  be- 
cause it  was  supposed  to.  put  too  much  power  into 
the  hands  of  the  king ;  and  it  was  rejected  in  Eng- 
land, because  it  was  supposed  to  give  too  much 
power  to  the  assemblies  of  the  colonies.  The  mi- 
nistry made  another  proposal ;  that  the  governor. 
with  one  or  two  members  of  the  council  of  each 
colony,  should  assemble,  and  consult  for  the  com- 
mon defence,  and  draw  on  the  British  treasury  for 
the  sums  expended ;  which  should  be  raised  by  a 
general  tax  laid  by  parliament  on  the  colonies. 
But  this  was  not  a  time  to  push  such  an  alarming 
innovation ;  and  when  it  was  found  impracticable, 
the  ministry  determined  to  employ  their  own  truops 
to  fight  their  battles  in  America,  rather  than  to  let 
the  colonists  feel  their  strength,  and  be  directed  by 
their  own  counsels. 

To  draw  some  aid  however  from  the  colonies  was 
necessary.  Their  militia  might  serve  as  guards,  or 
rangers,  or  labourers,  or  do  garrison  duty,  or  be 
employed  in  other  inferior  offices;  but  British  troops. 


commanded  by  British  officers,  must  have  the  honour 
of  reducing  the  French  dominions  in  North  America. 

The  savage  nations  in  the  French  interest  were 
always  ready,  on  the  first  appearance  of  a  rupture, 
to  take  up  the  hatchet.  It  was  the  policy  of  the 
French  government,  to  encourage  their  depredations 
on  the  frontiers  of  the  English  colonies,  to  which 
they  had  a  native  antipathy.  By  this  means  the 
French  could  make  their  enemies  pay  the  whole  ex- 
pense of  the  war;  for  all  the  supplies  which  they 
afforded  to  the  Indians,  were  amply  compensated 
by  the  ransom  of  captives.  In  these  later  wars, 
therefore,  we  find  the  savages  more  dextrous  in 
taking  captives,  and  more  tender  of  them  when  taken 
than  In  former  wars,  which  were  carried  on  with 
circumstances  of  greater  cruelty. 

No  sooner  had  the  alarm  of  hostilities,  which  com- 
menced between  the  English  and  French  in  the 
western  part  of  Virginia,  spread  through  the  con- 
tinent, than  the  Indians  renewed  their  attacks  on 
the  frontiers  of  New  Hampshire.  A  party  of  them 
made  an  assault  on  a  family  at  Baker's-town,  on 
Pemigewasset  river,  where  they  killed  a  woman,  and 
took  several  captives.  Within  three  days  they 
killed  a  man  and  woman  at  Stevens  town  in  the 
same  neighbourhood,  upon  which  the  settlements 
were  broken  up,  and  the  people  retired  to  the  lower 
towns  for  safety,  and  the  government  was  obliged  to 
post  soldiers  in  the  deserted  places.  After  a  few 
days  more  they  broke  into  the  house  of  James  John- 
son, at  Number-four,  early  in  the  morning  before 
any  of  the  family  were  awake,  and  took  him  with 
his  wife  and  three  children,  her  sister  Miriam  Wil- 
lard,  and  two  men,  Peter  Laboree  and  Ebenezer 
Farnsworth.  The  surprisal  was  complete  and  blood- 
less, and  they  carried  them  off  undisturbed.  The 
next  day  Johnson's  wife  was  delivered  of  a  daughter, 
who  from  the  circumstance  of  its  birth  was  named 
Captive.  The  Indians  halted  one  day,  on  the  wo- 
man's account,  and  the  next  day  resumed  their 
march,  carrying  her  on  a  litter  which  they  made  for 
the  purpose,  and  afterwards  put  her  on  horseback. 
On  their  march  they  were  distressed  for  provision, 
and  killed  the  horse  for  food ;  the  infant  was  nourished 
by  sucking  pieces  of  its  flesh.  When  they  arrived 
at  Montreal,  Johnson  obtained  a  parole  of  two 
months,  to  return  and  solicit  the  means  of  redemp- 
tion. He  applied  to  the  assembly  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  after  some  delay  obtained  150/.  sterling. 
But  the  season  was  so  far  advanced,  and  the  winter 
proved  so  severe,  that  he  did  not  reach  Canada  till 
the  spring.  He  was  then  charged  with  breaking 
his  parole;  a  great  part  of  his  money  was  taken 
from  him  by  violence,  and  he  was  shut  up  with  his 
family  in  prison,  where  they  took  the*  small-pox, 
which  they  happily  survived.  After  eighteen  months, 
the  woman  with  her  sister  and  two  daughters  were 
sent  in  a  cartel  ship  to  England,  and  thence  re- 
turned to  Boston.  Johnson  was  kept  in  prison  three 
years ;  and  then  with  his  son  returned  and  met  his 
wife  in  Boston,  where  he  had  the  singular  ill  fortune 
to  be  suspected  of  designs  unfriendly  to  his  country, 
and  was  again  imprisoned;  but  no  evidence  being 
produced  against  him,  he  was  liberated.  His  eldest 
daughter  was  retained  in  a  Canadian  nunnery. 

The  fort  and  settlement  of  Number-four,  being  in 
an  exposed  situation,  required  assistance  and  sup- 
port. It  had  been  built  by  Massachusetts  when  it 
was  supposed  to  be  within  its  limits.  It  was  pro- 
jected by  Colonel  Stoddard,  of  Northampton,  and 
was  well  situated  in  connection  with  the  other  forts 
on  the  western  frontier,  to  command  all  the  paths 

3E2 


500 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


by  which  the  Indians  travelled  from  Canada  to  New 
England.  It  was  now  evidently  in  New  Hampshire ; 
and  Shirley,  by  advice  of  his  council,  applied  to 
Wentworth  recommending  the  future  maintenance 
of  that  post  to  the  care  of  his  assembly ;  but  they 
did  not  think  themselves  interested  in  its  preserva- 
tion, and  refused  to  make  any  provision  for  it.  The 
inhabitants  made  several  applications  for  the  same 
purpose,  but  were  uniformly  disappointed.  They 
then  made  pressing  remonstrances  to  the  assembly 
of  Massachusetts,  who  sent  soldiers  for  the  defence 
of  that  post,  and  of  Fort  Dummer,  till  1757,  when 
they  supposed  that  the  commander  in  chief  of  the 
king's  forces  would  take  them  under  his  care,  as 
royal  garrisons.  It  was  also  recommended  to  the 
assembly  of  New  Hampshire  to  build  a  fort  at  Cohos, 
but  this  proposal  met  the  same  fate. 

(1755.)  The  next  spring,  three  expeditions  were 
undertaken  against  the  French  forts.  One  against 
Fort  Duquesne,  on  the  Ohio,  was  conduct  by  Ge- 
neral Braddock,  who  was  defeated  and  slain.  Another 
against  Niagara,  by  Governor  Shirley,  which  mis- 
carried; and  a  third  against  Crown  Point,  by  Ge- 
neral Johnson.  For  this  last  expedition,  New 
Hampshire  raised  500  men,  and  put  them  under 
the  command  of  Colonel  Joseph  Blanchard.  The 
governor  ordered  them  to  Connecticut  river,  to  build 
a  fort  at  Cohos,  supposing  it  to  be  in  their  way  to 
Crown  Point.  They  first  marched  to  Baker's-town, 
where  they  began  to  build  batteaux,  and  consumed 
time  and  provisions  to  no  purpose  By  Shirley's 
advice  they  quitted  that  futile  employment,  and 
made  a  fatiguing  march  through  the  woods,  by  the 
way  of  Number-four  to  Albany.  Whilst  Johnson 
lay  encamped  at  Lake  George  with  his  other  forces, 
he  posted  the  New  Hampshire  regiment  at  Fort 
Edward.  On  the  8th  of  September,  he  was  attacked 
in  his  camp  by  Baron  Dieskau,  commanding  a  body 
of  French  regular  troops,  Canadians  and  savages. 
On  the  morning  of  that  day,  a  scouting  party  from 
Fort  Edward  discovered  waggons  burning  in  the 
road;  upon  which  Captain  Nathaniel  Folsom  was 
ordered  out  with  eighty  of  the  New  Hampshire  regi- 
ment, and  forty  of  New  York  under  Capt.  M'Gennis. 
When  they  came  to  the  place,  they  found  the  wag- 
goners and  the  cattle  dead,  but  no  enemy  was  there. 
Hearing  the  report  of  guns  toward  the  lake,  they 
hastened  thither;  and  having  approached  within  two 
miles,  found  the  baggage  of  the  French  army  under 
the  care  of  a  guard,  whom  they  attacked  and  dis- 
persed. When  the  retreating  army  of  Dieskau  ap- 
peared, about  four  of  the  clock  in  the  afternoon, 
Folsom  posted  his  men  among  the  trees,  and  kept 
up  a  well-directed  fire  till  night;  the  enemy  retired 
with  great  loss,  and  he  made  his  way  to  the  camp, 
carrying  his  own  wounded  and  several  French  pri- 
soners, with  many  of  the  enemy's  packs.  This  well- 
timed  engagement,  in  which  but  six  men  of  Fol- 
som's  were  lost,  deprived  the  French  army  of  their 
ammunition  and  baggage;  the  remains  of  which 
were  brought  into  camp  the  next  day.  After  this 
the  regiment  of  New  Hampshire  joined  the  army. 
The  men  were  employed  in  scouting,  which  service 
they  performed  in  a  manner  so  acceptable,  that  no 
other  duty  was  required  of  them.  Parties  of  them 
frequently  went  within  view  of  the  French  fort  at 
Crown  Point;  and  at  one  time  they  brought  off  the 
scalp  of  a  French  soldier,  whom  they  killed  near  the 
gate. 

After  the  engagement  on  the  8th  of  September, 
when  it  was  found  necessary  to  reinforce  the  army ; 
a  second  regiment,  of  300  men,  was  raised  in  New 


Hampshire,  and  put  under  the  command  of  Col. 
Peter  Gilman.  These  men  were  as  alert  and  inde- 
fatigable as  their  brethren,  though  they  had  not  op- 
--rtunity  to  give  such  convincing  evidence  of  it 

e  expedition  was  no  farther  pursued ;  and  late  in 
autumn  the  forces  were  disbanded  and  returned  home. 

The  exertions  made  for  the  reduction  of  Crown 
Point  not  only  failed  of  their  object,  but  proyoked 
the  Indians  to  execute  their  mischievous  designs 
against  the  frontiers  of  New  Hampshire,  which  were 
wholly  uncovered,  and  exposed  to  their  full  force. 
Between  the  rivers  Connecticut  and  St.  Francis, 
there  is  a  safe  and  easy  communication  by  short 
carrying-places,  with  which  they  were  perfectly  ac- 
quainted. The  Indians  of  that  river,  therefore, 
made  frequent  incursions,  and  returned  unmolested 
with  their  prisoners  and  booty. 

At  New  Hopkinton,  they  took  a  man  and  a  boy  ; 
but  perceiving  the  approach  of  a  scouting  party, 
they  fled  and  left  their  captives.  At  Keene  they 
took  Benjamin  Twitchel,  and  at  Walpole  they  killed 
Daniel  Twitchel,  and  a  man  named  Flynt.  At  the 
same  place  Colonel  Bellows,  at  the  head  of  twenty 
men,  met  with  a  party  of  fifty  Indians  ;  and  having 
exchanged  some  shot,  and  killed  several  of  the 
enemy,  he  broke  through  them  and  got  into  the 
fort,  not  one  man  of  his  company  being  killed  or 
wounded.  After  a  few  days,  these  Indians,  being 
joined  by  others  to  the  number  of  170,  assaulted 
the  garrison  of  John  Kilburne,  in  which  were  him- 
self, John  Pike,  two  boys,  and  several  women,  who 
bravely  defended  the  house  and  obliged  the  enemy 
to  retire,  with  considerable  loss.  Pike  was  mortally 
wounded.  Some  of  these  Indians  joined  Dieskau's 
army,  and  were  in  the  battle  at  Lake  George.  At 
Number-four,  they  killed  a  large  number  of  cattle, 
and  cut  off  the  flesh.  At  Hinsdale,  they  attacked  a 
party,  who  were  at  work  in  the  woods  ;  killed  John 
Hardiclay  and  John  Alexander,  and  took  Jonathan 
Colby ;  the  others  escaped  to  the  fort.  Within  a 
few  days  afterwards,  they  ambushed  Caleb  Howe, 
Hilkiah  Grout,  and  Benjamin  Gaffield,  as  they  were 
returning  from  their  labour  in  the  fields.  Howe  was 
killed ;  Gaffield  was  drowned  in  attempting  to  cross 
the  river  ;  and  Grout  made  his  escape.  The  Indians 
went  directly  to  Bridgman's  fort,  where  the  families 
of  these  unfortunate  men  resided.  They  had  heard 
the  report  of  the  guns,  and  were  impatient  to  learn 
the  cause.  By  the  sound  of  feet  without,  it  being 
in  the  dusk  of  the  evening,  they  concluded  that 
their  friends  had  returned,  and  too  hastily  opened 
the  gate  to  receive  them ;  when  to  their  inexpres- 
sible surprise,  they  admitted  the  savages— and  the 
three  families,  consisting  of  fourteen  persons,  were 
made  captives. 

After  the  defeat  and  death  of  Braddock,  the  chief 
command  of  the  operations  against  the  enemy  fell 
into  the  hands  of  Shirley,  who  called  another  Con- 
gress, at  New  York,  and  planned  another  expedi- 
tion against  Crown  Point ;  for  which  purpose,  he 
called  on  the  several  governments  to  raise  men  and 
provide  stores.  A  regiment  was  raised  in  New 
Hampshire,  the  command  of  which  was  given  to 
Col.  Nathaniel  Messerve.  (1756.)  They  also  ap- 
pointed two  commissaries,  Peter  Gilman  and  Tho- 
mas Westbrooke  Waldron,  who  resided  at  Albany, 
to  take  care  of  the  stores,  whilst  the  regiment,  with 
the  other  troops,  assisted  in  building  forts  and  bat- 
teaux. In  the  midst  of  this  campaign,  Shirley  was 
superseded  by  the  Earl  of  London  ;  but  the  summer 
passed  away  in  fruitless  labour;  whilst  the  French, 
by  their  superior  alertness,  besieged  and  took  the 


UNITED  STATES. 


50* 


English  fort  at  Oswego ;  and  the  regiments  of  Shir- 
ley and  Pepperrell,  who  garrisoned  it,  were  sent  pri- 
soners to  France.  During  this  summer,  the  Indians 
killed  Lieut.  Moses  Willard,  and  wounded  his  son 
at  Number-four ;  and  took  Josiah  Foster,  with  his 
wife  and  two  children,  from  Winchester.  They 
also  wounded  Zebulon  Stebbins,  of  Hinsdale,  who, 
with  Reuben  Wright,  discovered  an  ambush,  and 
prevented  the  captivity  of  several  persons  for  whom 
the  Indians  were  lying  in  wait. 

The  soldiers  of  New  Hampshire  were  so  expert 
in  every  service  which  required  agility,  and  so  ha- 
bituated to  fatigue  and  danger,  that,  by  the  express 
desire  of  Lord  Loudon,  three  ranging  companies 
were  formed  of  thorn,  who  continued  in  service  dur- 
ing the  wiuter  as  well  as  the  summer.  The  com- 
mand of  those  companies  was  given  to  Robert  Ro- 
gers, John  Stark,  and  William  Stark.  They  were 
eminently  useful  in  scouring  the  woods,  procuring 
intelligence,  and  skirmishing  with  detached  parties 
of  the  enemy.  These  companies  were  kept  during 
the  war  in  the  pay  of  the  crown ;  and  after  the  peace, 
the  officers  were  allowed  half-pay  on  the  British 
establishment. 

(1757.)  The  next  year,  another  Crown  Point  ex- 
pedition was  projected  by  Lord  Loudon.  The  crown 
was  at  the  expense  of  stores  and  provisions,  and  re- 
quired of  the  colonies,  to  raise,  arm,  clothe,  and 
pay  their  quotas  of  men.  Another  regiment  was 
raised  in  New  Hampshire,  of  which  Messerve  was 
commander,  who  went  to  Halifax  with  part  of  his 
regiment,  a  body  of  100  carpenters,  and  the  three 
companies  of  rangers,  to  serve  under  Lord  Loudon, 
whilst  the  other  part  of  the  regiment  under  Lieut.- 
Colonel  Goffe,  was  ordered  by  General  Webb,  who 
commanded  at  the  westward  in  the  absence  of  the 
Earl  of  Loudon,  to  rendezvous  at  Number-four. 
Before  their  arrival,  a  large  party  of  French  and 
Indians  attacked  the  mills  in  that  place,  and  took 
Sampson  Colefax,  David  Farnsworth,  and  Thomas 
Adams.  The  inhabitants,  hearing  the  guns,  ad- 
vanced to  the  mills  ;  but  finding  the  enemy  in  force, 
prudently  retreated.  The  enemy  burned  the  mills  ; 
and  in  their  retreat,  took  two  other  men,  who  were 
coming  in  from  hunting,  viz.  Thomas  Robins  and 
Asa  Spafford.  Farnsworth  and  Robins  returned; 
the  others  died  in  Canada. 

Goffe,  with  his  men,  marched  through  Number- 
four  and  joined  General  Webb  at  Albany,  who 
posted  them  at  fort  William  Henry,  near  lake 
George,  under  the  command  of  Col.  Munroe,  of 
the  35th  British  regiment.  The  French  General 
Montcalm,  at  the  head  of  a  large  body  of  Canadians 
and  Indians,  with  a  train  of  artillery,  invested  this 
fort ;  and  in  six  days  the  garrison,  after  having 
expended  all  their  ammunition,  capitulated,  on  con- 
dition that  they  should  not  serve  against  the  French 
tor  eighteen  months.  They  were  allowed  the  honours 
of  war,  and  were  to  be  escorted  by  the  French 
troops  to  fort  Edward,  with  their  private  baggage. 
The  Indians,  who  served  in  this  expedition  on  the 
promise  of  plunder,  were  enraged  at  the  terms 
granted  to  the  garrison ;  and,  as  they  marched  out 
unarmed,  fell  upon  them,  stripped  them  naked,  and 
murdered  all  who  made  any  resistance.  The  New 
Hampshire  regiment  happening  to  be  in  the  rear, 
felt  the  chief  fury  of  the  enemy.  Out  of  two  hun- 
dred, eighty  were  killed  and  taken. 

This  melancholy  event  threw  the  whole  country 
into  the  deepest  consternation.  Webb,  who  re- 
mained at  Fort  Edward,  expecting  to  be  there  at- 
lacked,  sent  expresses  to  all  the  provinces  for  rein- 


forcements. The  French,  however,  did  not  pursue 
their  advantage,  but  returned  to  Canada.  A  rein- 
forcement of  250  men  was  raised  in  New  Hamp- 
shire, under  the  command  of  Major  Thomas  Tash; 
which,  by  the  orders  of  General  Webb,  was  sta- 
tioned at  Number-four.  This  was  the  first  time 
that  the  troops  of  New  Hampshire  occupied  that 
important  post. 

Hitherto  the  war  had  been,  on  our  part,  unsuc- 
cessful. The  great  expense,  the  frequent  disap- 
pointments, the  loss  of  men,  of  forts,  and  of  stores, 
were  very  discouraging.  The  enemy's  country  was 
filled  with  prisoners,  and  scalps,  private  plunder, 
and  public  stores  and  provisions,  which  the  colonists, 
as  beasts  of  burden,  had  conveyed  to  them.  These 
reflections  were  the  dismal  entertainment  of  the 
winter.  The  next  spring  called  for  fresh  exertions ; 
the  British  ministry  had  been  changed,  and  the  di- 
rection of  the  war  was  put  into  the  hands  of  that 
decisive  statesman,  William  Pitt. 

(1758.)  In  his  circular  letter  to  the  American 
governors,  he  assured  them,  that  to  repair  the  losses 
and  disappointments  of  the  last  inactive  campaign, 
it  was  determined  to  send  a  formidable  force,  to 
operate  by  sea  and  land  against  the  French  in 
America ;  and  he  called  upon  them  to  raise  "  as 
large  bodies  of  men,  within  their  respective  govern- 
ments, as  the  number  of  inhabitants  might  allow  ;" 
leaving  it  to  them,  to  form  the  regiments  and  to  ap- 
point officers  at  their  discretion.  He  informed  them 
that  arms,  ammunition,  tents,  provisions,  and  boats 
would  be  furnished  by  the  crown  ;  and  he  required 
the  colonies  to  levy,  clothe,  and  pay  their  men,  as- 
suring them  that  recommendations  would  be  made 
to  parliament  "  to  grant  them  a  compensation." 

Notwithstanding  their  former  losses  and  disap- 
pointments, the  assembly  of  New  Hampshire,  on 
receiving  this  requisition,  cheerfully  voted  800  men 
for  the  service  of  the  year.  The  regiment  com- 
manded by  Col.  John  Hart  marched  to  the  west- 
ward, and  served  under  General  Abercrombie.  A 
body  of  108  carpenters,  under  the  conduct  of  Col. 
Messerve,  embarked  for  Louisbourg,  to  serve  at  the 
second  siege  of  that  fortress,  under  General  Am- 
herst.  Unhappily  the  small-pox  broke  out  among 
them,  which  disabled  them  from  service ;  all  but 
sixteen  were  seized  at  once,  and  these  attended  the 
sick.  Messerve  and  his  eldest  son  died  of  this  fatal 
disorder.  This  year  was  remarkable  for  the  second 
surrender  of  Louisbourg ;  the  unfortunate  attack  on 
the  lines  of  Ticonderoga,  where  Lord  Howe  was 
killed  ;  the  taking  of  fort  Frontenac  by  Col.  Brad- 
street;  and  the  destruction  effort  du  Quesue  on  the 
Ohio,  the  contention  for  which  began  the  war. 

In  the  course  of  this  year,  the  Indians  continued 
to  infest  the  frontiers.  At  Hinsdale  they  killed 
Captain  Moore  and  his  son,  took  his  family,  and 
burned  his  house.  At  Number-four  they  killed 
Asahel  Stebbins,  and  took  his  wife,  with  Isaac  Par- 
ker and  a  soldier.  The  cattle  of  this  exposed  set- 
tlement, which  fed  chiefly  in  the  woods,  at  a  dis- 
tance from  the  fort,  often  served  the  enemy  for  pro- 
visions. 

(1759.)  The  next  year,  a  similar  requisition  being 
made  by  Secretary  Pitt,  New  Hampshire  raised  a 
thousand  men  for  the  service,  who  were  regimented 
under  the  command  of  Colonel  Zacheus  Lovewell, 
son  of  the  famous  partisan  who  lost  his  life  at  Pig- 
wacket.  This  regiment  joined  the  army  at  the  west- 
ward, and  served  under  General  Amherst,  in  the 
actual  reduction  of  Ticonderoga  and  Crown  Point, 
and  in  building  a  new  fortress  at  the  last  place. 


502 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


The  success  of  this  summer  was  brilliant,  beyond 
former  example.  The  French  Fort  at  Niagara  sur- 
rendered to  General  Johnson;  and  the  strong  city 
of  Quebec  was  taken  by  the  British  troops  under 
General  Wolfe,  who,  with  the  French  general,  Mont- 
calm,  was  slain  in  the  decisive  battle. 

When  the  British  arms  had  obtained  a  decided 
superiority  over  the  French,  it  was  determined  to 
chastise  the  Indians  who  had  committed  so  many 
devastations  on  the  frontiers  of  New  England.  Ma- 
jor Robert  Rogers  was  dispatched  from  Crown  Point, 
by  General  Amherst,  with  about  200  rangers,  to  de- 
stroy the  Indian  village  of  St.  Francis.  After  a  fa- 
tiguing march  of  twenty -one  days,  he  came  within 
sight  of  the  place,  which  he  discovered  from  the  top 
of  a  tree,  and  halted  his  men  at  the  distance  of 
three  miles.  In  the  evening  he  entered  the  village 
in  disguise,  with  two  of  his  officers.  The  Indians 
were  engaged  in  a  grand  dance,  and  he  passed  through 
them  undiscovered.  Having  formed  his  men  into 
parties,  and  posted  them  to  advantage,  he  made  a 
general  assault,  just  before  day,  whilst  the  Indians 
were  asleep.  They  were  so  completely  surprised, 
that  little  resistance  could  be  made.  Some  were 
killed  in  their  houses ;  and  of  those  who  attempted 
to  flee,  many  were  shot  or  tomahawked  by  parties 
placed  at  the  avenues.  The  dawn  of  day  disclosed 
a  horrid  scene ;  and  an  edge  was  given  to  the  fury 
of  the  assailants  by  the  sight  of  several  hundred 
scalps  of  their  countrymen,  elevated  on  poles,  and 
waving  in  the  air.  This  village  had  been  enriched 
with  the  plunder  of  the  frontiers  and  the  sale  of  cap- 
tives. The  houses  were  well  furnished,  and  the 
church  was  adorned  with  plate.  The  suddenness  of 
the  attack,  and  the  fear  of  a  pursuit,  did  not  allow 
much  time  for  pillage ;  but  the  rangers  brought  off 
such  things  as  were  most  convenient  for  transport- 
ation ;  among  which  were  about  two  hundred  guineas 
in  money,  a  silver  image  weighing  ten  pounds,  and 
a  large  quantity  of  wampum  and  clothing.  Having 
set  fire  to  the  village,  Rogers  made  his  retreat  up 
the  river  St.  Francis,  intending  that  his  men  should 
rendezvous  at  the  upper  Cohos,  on  Connecticut 
river.  They  took  with  them  five  English  prisoners, 
whom  they  found  at  St.  Francis,  and  about  twenty 
Indians;  but  these  last  they  dismissed.  Of  the 
rangers,  one  man  only  was  killed ;  and  six  or  seven 
were  wounded.  In  their  retreat  they  were  pursued, 
and  lost  seven  men.  They  kept  in  a  body  for  about 
ten  days,  passing  on  the  eastern  side  of  Lake  Mem- 
frimagog,  and  then  scattered.  Some  found  their 
way  to  Number-four,  after  having  suffered  much  by 
hunger  and  fatigue.  Others  perished  in  the  woods, 
and  their  bones  were  found  near  Connecticut  river 
by  the  people,  who  after  several  year  sbegan  plant 
ations  at  the  Upper  Cohos. 

After  the  taking  of  Quebec,  the  remainder  of  th< 
season  was  too  short  to  complete  the  reduction  of 
Canada.  (1760.)  The  next  summer  General  Am- 
herst made  preparations  to  approach  Montreal  by 
three  different  routes;  intending,  with  equal  pru- 
dence and  humanity,  to  finish  the  conquest  without 
the  effusion  of  blood.  For  the  service  of  this  year, 
800  men  were  raised  in  New  Hampshire,  and  put 
under  the  command  of  Colonel  John  Goffe.  They 
marched,  as  usual,  to  Number-four ;  but  instead  of 
taking  the  old  route  to  Albany,  they  cut  a  road 
through  the  woods,  directly  toward  Crown  Point. 
In  this  work  they  made  such  dispatch,  as  to  join 
that  part  of  the  army  which  Amherst  had  left  at 
Crown  Point,  twelve  days  before  their  embarkation. 
They  proceeded  down  the  lake,  under  the  command 


of  Colonel  Haviland.  The  enemy  made  some  re 
sistance  at  Isle  au  Noix,  which  stopped  their  pro- 
gress for  some  days,  and  a  few  men  were  lost  on  both 
sides.  But  this  post  being  deserted,  the  forts  of  St. 
John  and  Chamblee  became  an  easy  conquest,  and 
finally  Montreal  capitulated.  This  event  finished 
the  campaign,  and  crowned  Amherst  with  deserved 
laurels. 

Whilst  the  New  Hampshire  regiment  was  em- 
ployed in  cutting  the  new  road,  signs  of  hovering 
Indians  were  frequently  discovered,  though  none 
were  actually  seen.  But  they  took  the  family  of 
Joseph  Willard  from  Number-four,  and  carried 
them  into  Montreal,  just  before  it  was  invested  by 
the  British  army. 

The  conquest  of  Canada  gave  peace  to  the  fron- 
tiers of  New  Hampshire,  after  a  turbulent  scene  of 
fifteen  years — in  which,  with  little  intermission,  they 
had  been  distressed  by  the  enemy.  Many  captives 
returned  to  their  homes ;  and  friends  who  had  long 
been  separated,  embraced  each  other  in  peace.  The 
joy  was  heightened  by  this  consideration,  that  the 
country  of  Canada,  being  subdued,  could  no  longer 
be  a  source  of  terror  and  distress. 

The  expense  of  this  war  was  paid  by  a  paper  cur- 
rency. Though  an  act  of  parliament  was  passed  in 
1751,  prohibiting  the  governors  from  giving  their 
assent  to  acts  of  assembly  made  for  such  a  purpose; 
yet,  by  a  proviso,  extraordinary  emergencies  were 
excepted.  Governor  Wentworth  was  slow  to  take 
advantage  of  this  proviso,  and  construed  the  act  in 
a  more  rigid  sense  than  others ;  but  his  friend  Shir- 
ley helped  him  out  of  his  difficulties.  In  1755  paper 
bills  were  issued,  under  the  denomination  of  new 
tenor ;  of  which  fifteen  shillings  were  equal  in  value 
to  one  dollar.  Of  this  currency  the  soldiers  were 
promised  thirteen  pounds  ten  shillings  per  month ; 
but  it  depreciated  so  much  in  the  course  of  the  year, 
that  in  the  muster  rolls  their  pay  was  made  up  at 
fifteen  pounds.  In  1756  there  was  another  issue 
from  the  same  plates,  and  their  pay  was  eighteen 
pounds.  In  1757,  it  was  twenty-five  pounds.  In 
1758,  they  had  twenty-seven  shillings  sterling.  In 
the  three  succeeding  years  they  had  thirty  shillings 
sterling,  besides  a  bounty  at  tl  e  time  of  their  enlist- 
ment, equal  to  one  month's  pay.  At  length  sterling 
money  became  the  standard  of  all  contracts ;  and 
though  the  paper  continued  passing  as  a  currency, 
its  value  was  regulated  by  the  price  of  silver,  and 
the  course  of  exchange. 

It  ought  to  be  remembered,  as  a  signal  favour  of 
Divine  Providence,  that  during  this  war  the  seasons 
were  fruitful,  and  the  colonies  were  able  to  supply 
their  own  troops  with  provisions,  and  the  British 
fleets  and  armies  with  refreshments  of  every  kind 
which  they  needed.  No  sooner  were  the  operations 
of  the  war  in  the  northern  colonies  closed,  than  two 
years  of  scarcity  succeeded  (1761  and  1762),  in 
which  the  drought  of  summer  was  so  severe,  as  to 
cut  short  the  crops,  and  render  supplies  from  abroad 
absolutely  necessary.  Had  this  calamity  attended 
any  of  the  preceding  years  of  the  war,  the  distress 
must  have  been  extreme,  both  at  home  and  in  the 
camp.  During  the  drought  of  1761  a  fire  raged  in  the 
woods,  in  the  townships  of  Barrington  and  Roches- 
ter, and  passed  over  into  the  county  of  York,  burn- 
ing with  irresistible  fury  for  several  weeks,  and  was 
not  extinguished  till  a  plentiful  rain  fell,  in  August. 
An  immense  quantity  of  the  best  timber  was  de- 
stroyed by  this  conflagration. 

For  the  succeeding  part  of  the  war  a  smaller  body 
of  men  was  required  to  garrison  the  new  conquests ; 


UNITED  STATES. 


503 


whilst  the  British  troops  were  employed  in  the  West 
India  islands.  The  success  which  attended  their 
operations  in  that  quarter  brought  the  war  to  a 
conclusion;  and  by  the  treaty  of  peace,  though 
many  of  the  conquered  places  were  restored,  yet  the 
whole  continent  of  North  America  remained  to  the 
British  crown,  and  the  colonies  received  a  reim- 
bursement of  their  expenses. 

The  war  being  closed,  a  large  and  valuable  tract  of 
country,  situated  between  New  England,  New  York, 
and  Canada,  was  secured  to  the  British  dominions;  and 
it  became  the  interest  of  the  governors  of  both  the 
royal  provinces  of  New  Hampshire  and  New  York 
to  vie  with  each  other,  in  granting  this  territory,  and 
receiving  the  emoluments  arising  from  this  lucrative 
branch  of  their  respective  offices.  The  seeds  of  a 
controversy  on  this  subject  had  been  already  sown. 
During  the  short  peace  which  followed  the  preced- 
ing war,  (1749,)  Governor  Wentworth  wrote  to  Go- 
vernor Clinton,  that  he  had  it  in  command  from  the 
king,  to  grant  the  unimproved  lands  within  his  go- 
vernment ;  that  the  war  had  prevented  that  progress 
which  he  had  hoped  for  in  this  business;  but  that 
the  peace  had  induced  many  people  to  apply  for 
grants  in  the  western  parts  of  New  Hampshire, 
which  might  fall  in  the  neighbourhood  of  New  York. 
He  communicated  to  him  a  paragraph  of  his  com- 
mission, describing  the  bounds  of  New  Hampshire, 
and  requested  of  him  a  description  of  the  bounds  of 
New  York.  Before  he  received  any  answer  to  this 
letter,  Wentworth,  presuming  that  New  Hampshire 
ought  to  extend  as  far  westward  as  Massachusetts — 
that  is,  to  the  distance  of  twenty  miles  east  from 
Hudson's  river,  granted,  (1 750,)  a  township,  six  miles 
square,  called  Bennington ;  situate  twenty-four  miles 
east  of  Hudson's  river,  and  six  miles  north  of  the 
line  of  Massachusetts.  Clinton  having  laid  Went- 
worth's  letter  before  the  council  of  New  York  ;  by 
their  advice  answered  him,  that  the  province  of  New 
York  was  bounded  easterly  by  Connecticut  river. 
This  claim  was  founded  on  a  grant  of  King  Charles 
the  Second ;  in  which,  "  all  the  land  from  the  west 
side  of  Connecticut  river,  to  the  east  side  of  Dela- 
ware bay,"  was  conveyed  to  his  brother,  James, 
Duke  of  York;  by  whose  elevation  to  the  throne, 
the  same  tract  merged  in  the  crown  of  England, 
and  descended,  at  the  Revolution,  to  King  William 
and  his  successors.  The  province  of  New  York 
had  formerly  urged  this  claim  against  the  colony  of 
Connecticut;  but,  for  prudential  reasons,  had  con- 
ceded that  the  bounds  of  that  colony  should  extend 
as  far  as  a  line  drawn  twenty  miles  east  of  Hudson's 
river.  The  like  extent  was  demanded  by  Massachu- 
setts ;  and,  though  New  York  affected  to  call  this 
demand  "  an  intrusion,"  and  strenuously  urged 
their  right  to  extend  eastward  to  Connecticut  river, 
yet  the  original  grant  of  Massachusetts,  being  prior 
to  that  of  the  Duke  of  York,  was  a  barrier  which 
could  not  easily  be  broken.  These  reasons,  how- 
ever, it  was  said,  could  be  of  no  avail  to  the  cause 
of  New  Hampshire,  whose  first  limits,  as  described 
in  Mason's  patent,  did  not  reach  to  Connecticut 
river;  and  whose  late  extent,  by  the  settlement  of 
the  lines  in  1741,  was  no  farther  westward  than  "  till 
it  meets  with  the  king's  other  governments."  Though 
it  was  agreed,  between  the  two  governors,  to  sub- 
mit the  point  in  controversy  to  the  king,  yet  the 
governor  of  New  Hampshire  continued  to  make 
grants  on  the  western  side  of  Connecticut  river  till 
1754;  when  the  renewal  of  hostilities  not  only  put 
a  stop  to  applications,  but  prevented  anv  determin- 
ation of  the  controversy  by  the  crown. 


During  the  war,  the  continual  .passing  of  troops 
hrough  those  lands  caused  the  value  of  them  to  be 
more  generally  known;  and  when,  by  the  conquest 
of  Canada,  tranquillity  was  restored,  they  were  eagerly 
sought  by  adventurers  aud  speculators.  Wentworth 
availed  himself  of  this  golden  opportunity,  and  by 
advice  of  his  council,  ordered  a  survey  to  be  made  of 
Connecticut  river  for  sixty  miles,  and  three  lines  of 
townships  on  each  side  to  be  laid  out.  (1761.)  As 
applications  increased,  the  surveys  were  extended. 
Townships  of  six  miles  square  were  granted  to  va- 
rious petitioners;  and  so  rapidly  did  this  work  go 
on,  that  during  the  year  1761,  no  less  than  sixty 
townships  were  granted  on  the  west,  and  eighteen 
on  the  east  side  of  the  river.  Besides  the  fees  unil 
presents  for  these  grants,  which  were  undefined,  a 
reservation  was  made  for  the  governor  of  500  acres- 
in  each  township,  and  of  lots  for  public  purposes. 
These  reservations  were  clear  of  all  fees  and  charges. 
(1763.)  The  whole  number  of  grants  ou  the  western 
side  of  the  river  amounted  to  138,  and  the  extent 
was  from  Connecticut  river  to  twenty  miles  east  of 
Hudson,  as  far  as  that  river  extended  northerly  ;  and 
after  that,  westward  to  Lake  Champlain.  The  rapid 
progress  of  these  grants  filled  the  coffers  of  the  go- 
vernor. Those  who  had  obtained  the  grants  were 
seeking  purchasers  in  all  the  neighbouring  colonies, 
whilst  the  original  inhabitants  of  New  Hampshire, 
to  whom  these  lands  had  formerly  been  promised  as 
a  reward  for  their  merit  in  defending  the  country, 
were  overlooked  in  the  distribution,  unless  they 
were  disposed  to  apply  in  the  same  manner  as  per- 
sons from  abroad ;  or  unless  they  happened  to  be  in 
favour.  When  remonstrances  were  made  to  the  go- 
vernor on  this  subject,  his  answer  was,  that  the  peo- 
ple of  the  old  towns  had  been  formerly  complimented 
with  grants  in  Chichester,  Barnsted,  and  Gilman- 
town,  which  they  had  neglected  to  improve ;  and 
that  the  new  grantees  were  better  husbandmen  and 
would  promote  the  cultivation  of  the  province. 

The  passion  for  occupying  new  lands  rose  to  a 
great  height.  These  tracts  were  filled  with  emi- 
grants from  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut.  Popu- 
lation and  cultivation  began  to  increase  with  a  ra- 
pidity hitherto  unknown;  and  from  this  time  may 
be  dated  the  flourishing  state  of  New  Hampshire, 
which  before  had  been  circumscribed  and  stinted  iu 
its  growth  by  the  continual  danger  of  a  savage  enemy. 
The  grants  on  the  western  side  of  Connecticut 
river  alarmed  the  government  of  New  York,  who, 
by  their  agent,  made  application  to  the  crown,  re- 
presenting "  that  it  would  be  greatly  to  the  advan- 
tage of  the  people  settled  on  those  lands,  to  be  an- 
nexed to  New  York;"  and  submitting  the  cause  to 
the  royal  decision.  In  the  mean  time,  a  proclama- 
tion was  issued  by  Lieut-Governor  Golden,  reciting 
the  grant  of  King  Charles  to  the  Duke  of  York,  as- 
serting the  jurisdiction  of  New  York  as  far  eastward 
as  Connecticut  river,  and  enjoining  the  sheriff  of 
the  county  of  Albany  to  return  the  names  of  all 
persons  who,  under  colour  of  the  New  Hampshire 
grants,  held  possession  of  lands  westward  of  that 
river.  (1764.)  This  was  answered  by  a  proclama- 
tion of  Governor  Wentworth,  declaring  the  grant  to 
the  Duke  of  York  to  be  obsolete,  and  that  the  west- 
ern bounds  of  New  Hampshire  were  co-extensive 
with  those  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  encou 
raging  the  grantees  to  maintain  their  possessions, 
and  cultivate  their  lands;  and  commanding  civil 
officers  to  execute  the  laws  and  punish  disturbers  of 
the  peace. 

The  application  from  New  York   was  referred  to 


504 


HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  board  of  trade ;  and  upon  their  representation, 
seconded  by  a  report  of  a  committee  of  the  privy 
council,  an  order  was  passed  by  the  king  in  council, 
declaring  "  the  western  banks  of  Connecticut  river, 
from  where  it  enters  the  province  of  Massachusetts 
bay,  as  far  north  as  the  forty-fifth  degree  of  latitude, 
to  be  the  boundary  line  between  the  two  provinces 
of  New  Hampshire  and  New  York." 

This  decree,  like  many  other  judicial  determina- 
tions, while  it  closed  one  controversy,  opened  another. 
The  jurisdiction  of  the  Governor  of  New  Hampshire, 
and  his  power  of  granting  land,  were  circumscribed 
by  the  western  bank  of  Connecticut  river:  but  the 
grantees  of  the  soil  found  themselves  involved  in  a 
dispute  with  the  government  of  New  York.  From 
the  words  "  to  be/'  in  the  royal  declaration,  two 
very  opposite  conclusions  were  drawn.  The  govern- 
ment supposed  them  to  refer  to  the  time  past,  and 
construed  them  as  a  declaration  that  the  river  always 
had  been  the  eastern  limits  of  New  York;  conse- 


quently that  the  grants  made  by  the  governor  of 
New  Hampshire  were  invalid,  and  that  the  lands 
might  be  granted  again.  The  grantees  understood 
the  words  in  the  future  tense,  as  declaring  Connecti- 
cut river  from  that  time  to  be  the  line  of  jurisdiction 
only  between  the  two  provinces,  consequently  that 
their  grants,  being  derived  from  the  crown,  through 
the  medium  of  one  of  its  governors,  were  valid.  To 
the  jurisdiction  they  would  have  quietly  submitted, 
had  no  attempt  been  made  to  wrest  from  them  their 
possessions.  These  opposite  opinions  proved  a  source 
of  litigation  for  ten  succeeding  years;  but  as  this 
controversy  belongs  to  the  history  of  New  York,  it 
is  dismissed  with  one  remark  only  : — that  though  it 
was  carried  on  with  a  degree  of  virulence  unfriendly 
to  the  progress  of  civilization  and  humanity,  within 
the  disputed  territory,  yet  it  called  into  action  a 
spirit  of  vigorous  self-defence  and  hardy  enterprise, 
which  prepared  the  nerves  of  that  people  for  en- 
countering the  dangers  of  a  more  extensive  revolution. 


NEW    YORK. 


From  the  Discovery  of  the  Colony  to  the  surrender 
in  1664. 

Henry  Hudson,  an  Englishman,  in  the  year 
1608,  under  a  commission  from  James  I.,  discovered 
Long  Island,  New  York,  and  the  river  which  still 
bears  his  name ;  and  afterwards  sold  the  country, 
or  rather  his  right,  to  the  Dutch,  whose  writers 
contend,  that  Hudson  was  sent  out  by  the  East  In- 
dia Company  in  1609,  to  discover  a  north-west  pas- 
sage to  China;  and  that  having  first  discovered 
Delaware  bay,  he  came  hither,  and  penetrated  up 
Hudson's  river,  as  far  north  as  the  latitude  of  forty- 
three  degrees.  It  is  said,  however,  that  there  was 
a  sale,  and  that  the  English  objected  to  it,  though 
they  for  some  time  neglected  to  oppose  the  Dutch 
Kcttlement  of  the  country. 

In  1610,  Hudson  sailed  again  from  Holland  to 
that  country,  called  by  the  Dutch,  New  Nether- 
land;  and  four  years  after,  the  states  general  granted 
a  patent  to  sundry  merchants,  for  an  exclusive 
t  ade  on  the  north  river,  who  in  1 614  built  a  fort, 
ou  the  west  side,  near  Albany,  which  was  first  com- 
manded by  Henry  Christiaens.  Captain  Argal  was 
sent  out  by  Sir  Thomas  Dale,  governor  of  Virginia, 
in  the  same  year,  to  dispossess  the  French  of  the 
two  towns  of  Port  Royal  and  St.  Croix,  lying  on 
each  side  of  the  bay  of  Fundy  in  Acadia,  then 
claimed  as  part  of  Virginia.  In  his  return,  he  vi- 
sited the  Dutch  on  Hudson's  river,  who  being  un- 
able to  resist  him,  prudently  submitted  for  the  pre- 
sent to  the  king  of  England,  and  under  him  to  the 
governor  of  Virginia.  The  very  next  year,  they 
erected  a  fort  on  the  south-west  point  of  the  island 
Manhattans,  and  two  others  in  1623 ;  one  called 
Good  Hope,  on  Connecticut  river,  and  the  other 
Nassau,  on  the  east  side  of  Delaware  bay.  The 
author  of  the  account  of  New  Netherland  asserts, 
that  the  Dutch  purchased  the  lands  on  both  sides  of 
that  river  in  1632,  before  the  English  were  settled 
in  those  parts ;  and  that  they  discovered  a  little  fresh 


river,  farther  to  the  east,  called  Varsche  Riviertie, 
to  distinguish  it  from  Connecticut  river,  known 
among  them  by  the  name  of  Varsche  Rivier,  which 
Vanderdonk  also  claims  for  the  Dutch. 

Determined  upon  the  settlement  of  a  colony,  the 
states  general  made  a  grant  of  the  country,  in  1621, 
to  the  West  India  company.  Wouter  Van  Twiller 
arrived  at  Fort  Amsterdam,  now  New  York,  and 
took  upon  himself  the  government  in  June  1629. 
His  style,  in  the  patents  granted  by  him,  was  thus, 
"  We,  director  and  council,  residing  in  New  Ne- 
therland on  the  island  Manhattans,  under  the  go- 
vernment of  their  high  mightinesses,  the  lords  states 
general  of  the  united  Netherlands,  and  the  privileged 
West  India  company,  &c."  In  his  time  the  New  Eng- 
land planters  extended  their  possessions  westward  as 
far  as  Connecticut  river.  Jacob  Van  Curlet,  the 
commissary  there,  protested  against  it,  and  in  the 
second  year  of  the  succeeding  administration,  under 
William  Kieft,  who  appears  first  in  1638,  a  prohi- 
bition was  issued,  forbidding  the  English  trade  at 
Fort  Good  Hope,  and  shortly  after,  on  complaint 
of  the  insolence  of  the  English,  an  order  of  council 
was  made  for  sending  more  forces  there,  to  maintain 
the  Dutch  territories.  Dr.  Mather  confesses,  that 
the  New  England  men  first  formed  their  design  of 
settling  Connecticut  river  in  1635,  before  which 
time  they  esteemed  that  river  at  least  100  miles 
from  any  English  settlement ;  and  that  they  first 
seated  themselves  there  in  1636,  at  Hartford,  near 
Fort  Good  Hope,  at  Weathersfield,  Windsor,  and 
Springfield.  Four  years  after,  they  seized  the 
Dutch  garrison,  and  drove  them  from  the  banks  of 
the  river,  having  first  settled  New  Haven  in  1638. 
regardless  of  Kieft's  protest  against  it. 

The  extent  of  New  Netherland  was  to  Delaware, 
then  called  South  river,  and  beyond  it ;  for  in  the 
Dutch  records,  there  is  a  copy  of  a  letter  from  Wil- 
liam Kieft,  May  6,  1638,  directed  to  Peter  Minuit, 
who  seems,  by  the  tenor  of  it,  to  be  the  Swedish 


UNITED  STATES. 


505 


governor  of  New  Sweden,  asserting,  "  that  the 
whole  south  river  of  New  Netherland  had  been  in 
the  Dutch  possession  many  years  above  and  below, 
beset  with  forts,  and  sealed  with  their  blood."  Which 
Kieft  adds,  "  has  happened  even  during  your  ad- 
ministration in  New  Netherland,  and  is  so  well 
known  to  you." 

The  Dutch  writers  are  not  agreed  in  the  extent 
of  Nova  Belgia,  or  New  Netherland ;  some  describe 
it  to  be  from  Virginia  to  Canada ;  and  others  inform 
us,  that  the  arms  of  the  States  General  were  erected 
at  Cape  Cod,  Connecticut,  and  Hudson's  river,  and 
on  the  west  side  of  the  entrance  into  Delaware  bay. 
The  author  of  an  anonymous  pamphlet  gives  Canada 
river  for  a  boundary  on  the  north,  and  calls  the 
country,  north-west  from  Albany,  Terra  Incognita. 

In  1640,  the  English,  who  had  overspread  the 
eastern  part  of  Long  Island,  advanced  to  Oysterbay. 
Kieft  broke  up  their  settlement  in  1642,  and  fitted 
out  two  sloops  to  drive  the  English  out  of  Schuyl- 
kill,  of  which  the  Marylanders  had  lately  possessed 
themselves.  The  instructions,  dated  May  22,  to 
Jan  Jansen  Alpendam,  who  commanded  in  that 
enterprise,  are  upon  record,  and  strongly  assert  the 
right  of  the  Dutch  both  to  the  soil  and  trade  there. 
The  English  from  the  eastward  shortly  after  sent 
deputies  to  New  Amsterdam,  for  the  accommodation 
of  their  disputes  about  limits,  to  whom  the  Dutch 
offered  certain  conditions,  which  it  appears  were  not 
acceded  to. 

The  English  daily  extended  their  possessions,  and 
in  1643  the  colonies  of  Massachusetts  bay,  Ply- 
mouth, Connecticut,  and  New  Haven,  entered  into 
a  league  both  against  the  Dutch  and  Indians,  and 
grew  so  powerful  as  to  meet  shortly  after,  upon 
«i  design  of  extirpating  the  former.  Massachusetts 
bay  declined  this  enterprise,  which  occasioned  a  let- 
ter to  Oliver  Cromwell  from  William  Hooke,  dated 
at  New  Haven,  November  3,  1653,  in  which  he  com- 
plains of  the  Dutch  for  supplying  the  natives  with 
arms  and  ammunition,  begs  his  assistance  with  two 
or  three  frigates,  and  that  letters  might  be  sent  to 
the  eastern  colonies,  commanding  them  to  join  in  an 
expedition  against  the  Dutch  colony.  Cromwell's 
affairs  would  not  admit  of  so  distant  an  attempt,  but 
Richard  Cromwell  afterwards  drew  up  instructions 
to  his  commanders  for  subduing  the  Dutch  there, 
and  wrote  letters  to  the  English  American  govern- 
ments for  their  aid ;  copies  of  which  are  preserved 
in  Thurloe's  collection. 

Peter  Stuyvesant  was  the  last  Dutch  governor, 
and  though  he  had  a  commission  in  1646,  he  did  not 
begin  his  administration  till  May  27,  1647.  The 
inroads  and  claims  upon  his  government  kept  him 
constantly  employed.  New  England  on  the  east, 
and  Maryland  on  the  west,  alarmed  his  fears  by  their 
daily  increase;  and  about  the  same  time  Captain 
Forrester,  a  Scotchman,  claimed  Long  Island  for 
the  dowager  of  Stirling.  The  Swedes  too  were  per- 
petually incroaching  upon  Delaware.  Through  the 
unskilfulness  of  the  mate  of  a  vessel,  one  Deswyk, 
a  Swedish  captain  and  super-cargo  arrived  in  Rari- 
tan  river.  The  ship  was  seized,  and  himself  made 
prisoner  at  New  Amsterdam.  Stuyvesant's  reasons 
were  that,  in  1651,  the  Dutch  built  fort  Casimir, 
now  called  Newcastle  on  Delaware.  The  Swedes, 
indeed  claimed  the  country,  and  Printz  their  go- 
vernor formally  protested  against  the  works.  Risingh, 
his  successor,  under  the  disguise  of  friendship,  came 
before  the  fortress,  fired  two  salutes  and  landed 
thirty  men,  who  were  entertained  by  the  commandant 
as  friends;  but  he  had  no  sooner  discovered  the 


weakness  of  the  garrison,  than  he  made  himself 
master  of  it,  seizing  also  upon  all  the  ammunition, 
houses,  and  other  effects  of  the  West  India  company, 
and  compelling  several  of  the  people  to  swear  alle- 
giance to  Christina  queen  of  Sweden.  The  Dutch, 
in  1655,  prepared  to  retake  fort  Casimir.  Stuyvesant 
commanded  the  forces  in  person,  and  arrived  with 
them  in  Delaware  the  9th  of  September.  A  few- 
days  after  he  anchored  before  the  garrison  and  landed 
his  troops.  The  fortress  was  immediately  demanded 
as  Dutch  property:  Suen  Scutz,  the  commandant, 
desired  leave  to  consult  Risingh,  which  being  re- 
fused, he  surrendered  the  16th  of  September  on  ar- 
ticles of  capitulation.  The  whole  strength  of  the 
place  consisted  of  four  14-pounders,  five  swivels,  and 
a  parcel  of  small  arms,  which  were  all  delivered  to 
the  conquered.  Fort  Christina  was  commanded  by 
Risingh.  Stuyvesant  came  before  it,  and  Risingh 
surrendered  it  upon  terms  the  25th  of  September. 
The  country  being  thus  subdued,  the  Dutch  governor 
issued  a  proclamation,  in  favour  of  such  of  the 
inhabitants  as  would  submit  to  the  new  government, 
and  about  thirty  Swedes  swore  "fidelity  and  obe- 
dience to  the  States  General,  the  lords  directors  of 
the  West  India  company,  their  subalterns  of  the  pro- 
vince of  New  Netherland,  and  the  director  general 
then,  or  thereafter  established."  Risingh  and  one 
Elswych,  a  trader  of  note,  were  ordered  to  France, 
or  England,  and  the  rest  of  the  Swedish  inhabitants 
to  Holland,  and  from  thence  to  Gottenberg.  The 
Swedes  being  thus  extirpated,  the  Dutch  became 
possessed  of  the  west  side  of  Delaware  bay,  after- 
wards called  "  The  three  lower  countries." 

This  country  was  subsequently  under  the  com- 
mand of  lieut.-governors,  subject  to  the  controul  of, 
and  commissioned  by  the  director  general  at  New 
Amsterdam.  Johan  Paul  Jaquet  was  the  first  vice- 
director,  or  lieut.-governor,  of  South  River.  His 
successors  were  Alricks,  Hinojossa,  and  William 
Beekman.  These  lieutenants  had  power  to  grant 
lands,  and  their  patents  make  a  part  of  the  ancient 
titles  of  the  present  possessors.  Alrick's  commis- 
sion of  the  12th  of  April,  1657,  shews  the  extent  of 
the  Dutch  claim  on  the  west  side  of  Delaware  at 
that  time.  He  was  appointed  "Director  general  of  the 
colony  of  the  South  River  of  New  Netherland,  and  the 
fortress  of  Casimir,  now  called  Niewer  Amstel,  with 
all  the  lands  depending  thereon,  according  to  the  first 
purchase  and  deed  of  release  of  the  natives,  dated 
July  19,  1651,  beginning  at  the  west  side  of  the 
Minquaa,  or  Christina  Kill,  in  the  Indian  language 
named  Suspccough,  to  the  mouth  of  the  bay,  or 
river,  called  Bompt-Hook,  in  the  Indian  language 
Cannaresse;  and  so  far  inland  as  the  bounds  and 
limits  of  the  Minquaas  land,  with  all  the  streams,  &c. 
appurtenances  and  dependencies."  Of  the  country 
northward  of  the  Kell,  no  mention  is  made.  Orders 
in  1658  were  given  to  William  Beekman  to  purchase 
Cape  Hiulopen  from  the  natives,  and  to  settle  and 
fortify  it,  which,  for  want  of  goods,  was  not  done  till 
the  succeeding  year. 

In  the  year  1659,  fresh  troubles  arose  from  the 
Maryland  claim  to  the  lands  on  South  River;  and 
in  September,  Colonel  Nathaniel  Utie,  as  commis- 
sioner from  Fendal,  Lord  Baltimore's  governor,  ar- 
rived at  Niewer  Amstel  from  Maryland.  The  counry 
was  ordered  to  be  evacuated,  Lord  Baltimore  claim- 
ing all  the  land  between  38  and  40  degrees  of  lati- 
tude from  sea  to  sea.  Beekman  and  his  council 
demanded  evidence  of  his  lordship's  right,  and  offered 
to  prove  the  States  General's  grant  to  the  West 
India  company,  and  the  grant  of  the  company  to 


506 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


them;  and  proposed  to  refer  the  controversy  to 
the  republics  of  England  and  Holland,  praying 
at  the  same  time,  three  weeks  to  consult  Stuyvesant 
the  general.  The  commissioner  notwithstanding,  a 
few  days  after  warned  him  to  draw  off,  beyond  the 
latitude  of  40  degrees;  but  Beekman  disregarded 
the  threat.  Col.  Utie  thereupon  returned  to  Mary- 
land, and  an  immediate  invasion  was  expected. 

Early  in  the  spring  of  the  year  1660,  Nicholas 
Valeth  and  Brian  Newton  were  dispatched  from 
Fort  Amsterdam  to  Virginia,  in  quality  of  ambas- 
sadors, with  full  power  to  open  a  trade  and  conclude 
a  league,  offensive  and  defensive,  against  the  barba- 
rians. Sir  William  Berkely,  the  governor,  gave 
them  a  kind  reception,  and  approved  their  proposal 
of  peace  and  commerce,  which  Sir  Henry  Moody 
was  sent  to  agree  upon  and  perfect.  Four  articles 
to  that  purpose  were  drawn  up,  and  sent  to  the  go- 
vernor for  confirmation.  Stuyvesant  artfully  en- 
deavoured, at  this  treaty,  to  procure  an  acknowledg- 
ment of  the  Dutch  title  to  the  country,  which 
Berkely  as  carefully  avoided.  This  was  his  answer : 

"  Sir,— I  have  received  the  letter  you  were  pleased 
to  send  me  by  Mr.  Mills's  vessel,  and  shall  be  ever 
ready  to  comply  with  you,  in  all  acts  of  neighbourly 
friendship  and  amity.  But  truly,  sir,  you  desire  me 
to  do  that,  concerning  your  titles  and  claims  to  land 
in  this  northern  part  of  America,  which  I  am  in  no 
capacity  to  do ;  for  I  am  but  a  servant  of  the  assem- 
bly's :  neither  do  they  arrogate  any  power  to  them- 
selves, farther  than  the  miserable  distractions  of 
England  desire  them  to.  For  when  God  shall  be 
pleased  in  his  mercy  to  take  away  and  dissipate  the 
unnatural  divisions  of  their  native  country,  they  will 
immediately  return  to  their  own  professed  obedience. 
What  then  they  should  do  in  matters  of  contract, 
donation,  or  confession  of  right,  would  have  little 
strength  or  signification;  much  more  presumptive 
and  impertinent  would  it  be  in  me  to  do  it,  without 
their  knowledge  or  assent.  We  shall  very  shortly 
meet  again,  and  then,  if  to  them  you  signify  your 
desires,  I  shall  labour  all  I  can  to  get  you  a  satis- 
factory answer.  "  I  am,  sir, 

"  Virginia,  "  Your  humble  servant, 

"  August  20,  1660.  "  WILLIAM  BERKELY." 

Governor  Stuyvesant  war  a  faithful  servant  of 
the  West  India  company  :  this  is  abundantly  proved 
by  his  letters  to  them,  exciting  their  care  of  the  co- 
lony. In  one,  dated  April  20,  1660,  which  is  very 
long  and  pathetic,  representing  the  desperate  situa- 
tion of  affairs  on  both  sides  of  the  New  Netherlands, 
he  writes,  "  Your  honours  imagine,  that  the  troubles 
in  England  will  prevent  any  attempt  on  these  parts : 
alas !  they  are  ten  to  one  in  number  to  us,  and  are 
able,  without  any  assistance,  to  deprive  us  of  the 
country  when  they  please."  On  the  25th  of  June, 
the  same  year,  he  informs  them,  that  the  demands, 
encroachments,  and  usurpations  of  the  English,  give 
the  people  here  great  concern.  "  The  right  to  both 
rivers,"  he  says,  "  by  purchase  and  possession,  is  our 
own,  without  dispute.  We  apprehend  that  they, 
our  more  powerful  neighbours,  lay  their  claims  under 
a  royal  patent,  which  we  are  unable  hitherto  to  do 
in  your  name."  Colonel  Utie  being  unsuccessful 
the  last  year,  in  his  embassy  for  the  evacuation  of 
the  Dutch  possessions  on  Delaware,  Lord  Baltimore, 
in  autumn,  1660,  applied  by  Captain  Neal,  his  agent 
to  the  West  India  company,  in  Holland,  for  an  or- 
der on  the  inhabitants  of  South  River  to  submit  to 
his  authority,  which  they  absolutely  refused,  assert- 
ing their  right  to  that  part  of  the  colony. 

The  English,  from  New  England,  were  every 


day  encroaching  upon  the  Dutch.  The  following 
letter  from  Stuyvesant  to  the  West  India  company, 
dated  July  21,  1661,  shews  the  state  of  the  colony 
at  that  time  on  both  sides.  "  We  have  not  yet  be- 
gun the  fort  on  Long  Island,  near  Oysterbay,  be- 
cause our  neighbours  lay  the  boundaries  a  mile  and 
a  half  more  westerly  than  we  do,  and  the  more  as 
your  honours,  by  your  advice  of  December  24,  are 
not  inclined  to  stand  by  the  treaty  of  Hartford,  and 
propose  to  sue  for  redress  on  Long  Island  and  the 
Fresh  Water  river,  by  means  of  the  States'  Ambas- 
sador. Lord  Sterling  is  said  to  solicit  a  confirma- 
tion of  his  right  to  all  Long  Island,  and  importunes 
the  present  king  to  confirm  the  grant  made  by  his 
royal  father,  which  is  affirmed  to  be  already  ob- 
tained. But  more  probable,  and  material,  is  the 
advice  from  Maryland,  that  Lord  Baltimore's  pa- 
tent, which  contains  the  fourth  part  of  South  river, 
is  confirmed  by  the  king,  and  published  in  print : 
that  Lord  Baltimore's  natural  brother,  who  is  a  rigid 
papist,  being  made  governor  there,  has  received 
Lord  Baltimore's  claim  and  protest  to  your  ho- 
nours in  council,  (wherewith  he  seems  but  little 
satisfied)  and  has  now  more  hopes  of  success.  We 
have  advice  from  England,  that  there  is  an  invasion 
intended  against  these  parts,  and  the  country  soli- 
cited of  the  king,  the  duke,  and  the  parliament,  is  to 
be  annexed  to  their  dominions  ;  and  for  that  pur- 
pose, they  desire  three  or  four  frigates,  persuading 
the  king,  that  the  company  possessed  and  held  this 
country  under  an  unlawful  title,  having  only  ob- 
tained of  King  James  leave  for  a  watering  place  on 
Staten  Island,  in  1623." 

In  August  1663,  a  ship  arrived  from  Holland  at 
South  River,  with  new  planters,  ammunition,  and  im- 
plements of  husbandry.  Lord  Baltimore's  son  landed 
a  little  after,  and  was  entertained  by  Beekman  at 
Niewer  Amstcl.  This  was  Charles,  the  son  of  Ce- 
cil, who  in  1661,  had  procured  a  grant  and  con- 
firmation of  the  patent  passed  in  favour  of  his  fa- 
ther in  1632.  The  papistical  principles  of  the  Balti- 
more family,  the  charge  of  colonizing,  the  parliament- 
ary war  with  Charles  I.,  and  Cromwell's  usurpation, 
all  conspired  to  impede  the  settlement  of  Maryland 
till  the  year  1661.  And  these  considerations  ac- 
count for  the  extension  of  the  Dutch  limits,  on  the 
west  side  of  Delaware  bay. 

While  the  Dutch  were  contending  with  their 
European  neighbours,  they  had  the  art  always  to 
maintain  a  friendship  with  the  natives,  until  the 
war  which  broke  out  this  year  with  the  Indians  at. 
Esopus,  now  Ulster  county.  It  continued,  how- 
ever, but  a  short  season.  The  five  nations  never 
gave  them  any  disturbance,  which  was  owing  to 
their  continual  wars  with  the  French,  who  settled  at 
Canada  in  1603.  It  has  been  before  observed,  that 
Oliver  Cromwell  was  applied  to,  for  his  aid  in  tho 
reduction  of  this  country,  and  that  his  son  Richard 
took  some  steps  towards  accomplishing  the  scheme : 
the  work  was  however  reserved  for  the  reign  of 
Charles  II.,  an  indolent  prince,  and  entirely  given 
up  to  pleasure,  who  was  driven  to  it  more  perhaps 
by  the  differences  then  subsisting  between  England 
and  Holland,  than  by  any  motive  that  might  reflect 
honour  upon  bis  prudence,  activity,  and  public 
spirit.  Before  this  expedition,  the  king  granted  a 
patent  on  the  12th  of  March,  1664,  to  his  brother, 
the  Duke  of  York  and  Albany,  for  sundry  tracts  of 
land  in  America,  the  boundaries  of  which,  because 
they  have  given  rise  to  much  controversy,  it  mav 
not  be  improper  to  transcribe. 

18  All  that  part  of  the  main  land  of  New  England, 


UNITED  STATES. 


507 


beginning  at  a.  certain  place,  called  or  known  by 
the  name  of  St.  Croix,  next  adjoining  to  New  Scot- 
land in  America,  and  from  thence  extending  along 
the  sea  coast,  unto  a  certain  place  called  Pemaquie 
or  Pemequid,  and  so  up  the  river  thereof,  to  the 
furthest  head  of  the  same,  as  it  tendeth  northward  ; 
and  extending  from  thence  to  the  river  of  Kimbe- 
quin,  and  so  upwards,  by  the  shortest  course,  to  the 
river  Canada  northward :  and  also  all  that  island, 
or  islands,  commonly  called  by  the  several  name  or 
names  of  Meitowacks,  or  Long  Island,  situate  and 
being  towards  the  west  of  Cape  Cod,  and  the  narrow 
Higansetts,  abutting  upon  the  main  land,  between 
the  two  rivers,  there  called  or  known  by  the  several 
names  of  Connecticut  and  Hudson's  river,  together 
also  with  the  said  river,  called  Hudson's  river,  and 
all  the  land  from  the  west  side  of  Connecticut  river, 
to  the  east  side  of  Delaware  bay,  and  also,  all  those 
several  islands,  called  or  known  by  the  names  of 
Martin's  Vineyard,  or  Nantuck's,  otherwise  Nan- 
tucket  :  together,  &c." 

Part  of  this  tract  was  conveyed  by  the  duke  to 
John  Lord  Berkeley,  baron  of  Stratton,  and  Sir 
George  Carteret,  of  Saltram  in  Devon,  who  were 
then  members  of  the  king's  council.  The  lease  was 
for  the  consideration  of  ten  shillings,  and  dated  the 
23d  of  June,  1664.  The  release"  dated  the  next 
day,  mentions  no  particular  sum  of  money  as  a 
consideration  for  the  grant  of  the  lands,  which  have 
the  following  description : 

"  All  that  tract  of  land,  adjacent  to  New  England, 
and  lying  and  being  to  the  westward  of  Long  Island, 
and  bounded  on  the  east  part  by  the  main  sea,  and 
partly  by  Hudson's  river ;  and  hath  upon  the  west, 
Delaware  bay,  or  river,  and  extendeth  southward  to 
the  main  ocean  as  far  as  Cape  May,  at  the  mouth 
of  Delaware  bay ;  and  to  the  northward,  as  far  as 
the  northermost  branch  of  the  said  bay  or  river  of 
Delaware,  which  is  forty-one  degrees  and  forty  mi- 
nutes of  latitude  ;  which  said  tract  of  land  is  here- 
after to  be  called  by  the  name  or  names  of  Nova 
Caesarea,  or  New  Jersey." 

Thus  the  New  Netherlands  became  divided  into 
New  Jersey,  (so  called  after  the  isle  of  Jersey,  in 
compliment  to  sir  George  Carteret,  whose  family 
came  from  thence)  and  New  York,  which  took  its 
name  in  honour  of  the  Duke  of  York. 

The  Dutch  inhabitants,  by  the  vigilance  of  their 
governor,  were  not  unapprised  of  the  designs  of  the 
English  court  against  them;  for  their  records  testify, 
that  on  the  8th  of  July,  "  The  general  received  in- 
telligence from  one  Thomas  Willett,  an  English- 
man, that  an  expedition  was  preparing  in  England 
against  this  place,  consisting  of  two  frigates  of  40 
and  50  guns,  and  a  fly-boat  of  40  guns  having  on 
board  300  soldiers,  and  each  frigate  150  men,  and 
that  they  then  lay  at  Portsmouth,  waiting  for  a 
wind."  News  arrived  also  from  Boston,  that  tV.ey 
had  already  set  sail.  The  burgomasters  were  there- 
upon called  into  council,  the  fortress  ordered  to  be 
put  into  a  posture  of  defence,  and  spies  sent  to  Mil- 
Ibrd  and  West  Chester  for  intelligence.  Boston 
was  in  the  secret  of  the  expedition ;  for  the  general 
court  had  in  May  preceding,  passed  a  vote  for  a 
supply  of  provisions,  towards  refreshing  the  ships 
on  their  arrival.  They  were  four  in  number,  and 
resolved  to  rendezvous  at  Gardener's  Island  in  the 
Sound,  but  parted  in  a  fog  about  the  20th  of  July. 
Richard  Nicolls  and  Sir  George  Carteret,  two  of  the 
commissioners,  who  were  to  take  possession  of  the 
country  and  reduce  it>to  the  king's  obedience,  were 
on  board  the  Guyny,  and  fell  in  first  with  Cape  Cod. 


The  winds  having  blown  from  the  south-west,  the 
other  ships,  with  Sir  Robert  Car,  and  Mr.  Mavenick, 
the  remaining  commissioners,  were  rightly  concluded 
to  be  driven  to  the  eastward.  After  dispatching  a 
letter  to  Mr.  Winthrop,  the  governor  of  Connecticut, 
requesting  his  assistance,  Col.  Nicolls  proceeded  to 
Nantasket,  and  thence  to  Boston.  The  other  ships 
got  into  Piscatavva.  John  Endicot,  a  very  old 
man,  was  then  governor  of  Boston,  and  incapable  of 
business.  •  The  commissioners,  therefore,  had  a  con- 
ference with  the  council,  and  earnestly  implored  the 
assistance  of  that  colony.  Colonel  Nicolls  and  Sir 
George  Carteret,  in  their  letter  from  Boston  to  Sir 
H.  Bennet,  secretary  of  state,  complain  much  of  the 
backwardness  of  that  province.  The  reasons  urged 
in  their  excuse  were  poverty  and  the  season,  it 
being  the  time  of  harvest ;  but  perhaps  disaffection 
to  the  Stuart  family,  whose  persecuting  fury  had 
driven  them  from  their  native  country,  was  the  true 
spring  of  their  conduct.  The  king's  success  in  the 
reduction  of  the  Dutch  evidently  opened  him  a  door 
to  come  at  his  enemies  in  New  England,  who  were 
far  from  being  few;  and  whether  this  consideration 
might  not  have  given  rise  to  the  project  itself,  must 
be  left  to  conjecture.  T.  Dixwel,  Esq.,  one  of 
Charles  the  First's  judges,  and  excepted  out  of  the 
general  pardon,  lived  many  years  at  New  Haven 
unknown,  in  quality  of  a  country  merchant:  Sir 
Edmund  Andross,  in  one  of  his  tours  through  the 
colony  of  Connecticut,  saw  him  there  at  church, 
and  strongly  suspected  him  to  be  one  of  the  regicides. 
In  his  last  illness,  he  revealed  himself  to  the  minister 
of  the  town,  and  ordered  a  small  stone  to  be  set  at 
the  head  of  his  grave,  inscribed,  "  T.  D.  Esq." 
While  at  New  Haven,  he  went  under  the  name 
of  John  Davis. 

On  the  27th  of  July,  Nicolls  and  Carteret  made 
a  formal  request  in  writing,  "That  the  government 
of  Boston  would  pass  an  act  to  furnish  them  with 
armed  men,  who  should  begin  their  march  to  the 
Manhattans,  on  the  20th  of  August  ensuing  ;  and 
promised  that,  if  they  could  get  other  assistance, 
they  would  give  them  an  account  of  ,it."  The  go- 
vernor and  council  answered, that  they  would  assemble 
the  general  court,  and  communicate  the  proposal  to 
them. 

From  Boston,  a  second  letter  was  written  to  Go- 
vernor Winthrop  in  Connecticut,  dated  the  29th  of 
July,  in  which  he  was  informed,  that  the  other  ships 
were  then  arrived,  and  would  sail  with  the  first  fair 
wind,  and  he  was  desired  to  meet  them  at  the  west 
end  of  Long  Island. 

One  of  the  ships  entered  the  bay  of  the  North 
River,  several  days  before  the  rest;  and  as  soon  as 
they  were  all  come  up,  Stuyvesant  sent  a  letter  dated 
19 — 30  (shewing  the  difference  between  the  old  and 
new  style)  of  August,  at  Fort  Anhill,  directed  to  the 
commanders  of  the  English  frigates,  by  John  Declyer, 
one  of  the  chief  council,  the  Rev.  John  Megapolen- 
sis  minister,  Paul  Lunder  Vander  Grilft  mayor,  and 
Mr.  Samuel  Megapolensis,  doctor  in  physic,  with  the 
utmost  civility,  to  desire  the  reason  of  their  approach 
and  continuing  in  the  harbour  of  Naijarlij,  without 
giving  that  notice  to  the  Dutch,  which  they  ought. 

Colonel  Nicolls  answered  the  next  day  with  a 
summons. 

"  To  the  honourable  the  governors  and  chief 
council  at  the  Manhattans. 

"  Right  worthy  Sirs, — I  received  a  letter  bearing 
date  19 — 30  of  August,  desiring  to  know  the  intent 
of  the  approach  of  the  English  frigates;  in  return  of 
which.  I  think  it  fit  to  let  you  know,  that  his  majesty  of 


508 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Great  Britain,  whose  right  and  title  to  these  parts 
of  America  is  unquestionable,  well  knowing  how 
much  it  derogates  from  his  crown  and  dignity  to 
suffer  any  foreigners,  how  near  soever  they  be  allied, 
to  usurp  a  dominion,  and  without  his  majesty's  royal 
consent  to  inhabit  in  these,  or  any  other  of  his  ma- 
jesty's territories,  hath  commanded  me,  in  his  name, 
to  require  a  surrender  of  all  such  forts,  towns,  or 
places  of  strength,  which  are  now  possessed  by  the 
Dutch,  under  your  commands;  and  in  his  majesty's 
name,  I  do  demand  the  town  situate  on  the  island, 
commonly  known  by  the  name  of  Manhattoes,  with 
all  the  forts  thereunto  belonging,  to  be  rendered 
unto  his  majesty's  obedience  and  protection,  into 
my  hands.  I  am  further  commanded  to  assure  you, 
and  every  respective  inhabitant  of  the  Dutch  nation, 
that  his  majesty  being  tender  of  the  effusion  of 
Christian  blood,  doth  by  these  presents,  confirm  and 
secure  to  every  man  his  estate,  life,  and  liberty,  who 
shall  readily  submit  to  his  government.  And  all 
those  who  shall  oppose  his  majesty's  gracious  in- 
tention, must  expect  all  the  miseries  of  a  war  which 
they  bring  upon  themselves.  I  shall  expect  your 
answer  by  these  gentlemen,  Colonel  George  Carteret, 
one  of  his  majesty's  commissioners  in  America;  Capt. 
Robert  Needham,  Captain  Edward  Groves,  and  Mr. 
Thomas  Delavall,  whom  you  will  entertain  with 
such  civility  as  is  due  to  them,  and  yourselves  and 
yours  shall  receive  the  same,  from, 
"  Worthy  Sirs, 

"  Your  very  humble  Servant, 

"  Richard  Nicolls." 

"  Dated  on  board  his  majesty's  ship,  the  Guyny, 
riding  before  Naych,  the  20 — 31  of  Aug.  1664." 

Mr.  Stuyvesant  promised  an  answer  to  the  sum- 
mons the  next  morning,  and  in  the  mean  time  con- 
vened the  council  and  burgomasters.  The  Dutch 
governor  was  a  good  soldier,  and  had  lost  a  leg  in 
the  service  of  the  States.  He  would  willingly  have 
made  a  defence;  and  refused  a  sight  of  the  sum- 
mons, both  to  the  inhabitants  and  burgomasters,  lest 
the  easy  terms  offered  might  induce  them  to  capitu- 
late. The  latter,  however,  insisted  upon  a  copy, 
that  they  might  communicate  it  to  the  late  magis- 
trates and  principal  burghers.  They  called  together 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Stadt-house,  and  acquainted 
them  with  the  governor's  refusal.  Governor  Win- 
throp,  at  the  same  time,  wrote  to  the  director  and 
his  council,  strongly  recommending  a  surrender. 
On  the  22d  of  August,  the  burgomaster  came  again 
into  council,  and  desired  to  know  the  contents  of 
the  English  message  from  Governor  Winthrop,  which 
Stuyvesant  still  refused  They  continued  their  im- 
portunity, and  he,  in  a  fit  of  anger,  tore  it  to  pieces ; 
upon  which,  they  protested  against  the  act,  and  all 
its  consequences.  Determined  upon  a  defence  of 
the  country,  Stuyvesant  wrote  a  letter  in  answer  to 
the  summons,  which  as  it  declares  the  Dutch  claim, 
must  be  given. 

"  My  lords, — Your  first  letter,  unsigned,  of  the  20 
— 31  of  August,  together  with  that  of  this  day,  signed 
according  to  form,  being  the  1st  of  September,  have 
been  safely  delivered  into  our  hands  by  your  depu- 
ties, unto  which  we  shall  say,  that  the  rights  of  his 
majesty  of  England  unto  any  part  of  America  here 
about,  among  the  rest,  unto  the  colonies  of  Virginia, 
Maryland,  or  others  in  New  England,  whether  dis- 
putable or  not,  is  that,  which  for  the  present,  we 
have  no  design  to  debate  upon.  But  that  his  ma- 
jesty hath  an  indisputable  right  to  all  the  lands  in 
the  north  parts  of  America,  is  that  which  the  kings 
of  France  and  Spain  will  deny,  as  we  absolutely  do, 


by  virtue  of  a  commission  given  to  me  by  my  lords 
the  high  and  mighty  states-general,  to  be  governor- 
general  over  New  Holland,  the  isles  of  Curacoa, 
Bonaire,  Aruba,  with  their  appurtenances  and  de- 
pendencies, bearing  date  the  26th  of  July,  1646. 
As  also  by  virtue  of  a  grant  and  commission,  given 
by  my  said  lords,  the  high  and  mighty  states- 
general,  to  the  West  India  company,  in  the  year 
1621,  with  as  much  power,  and  as  authentic,  as  his 
said  majesty  of  England  hath  given,  or  can  give,  to 
any  colony  in  America,  as  more  fully  appears  by 
the  patent  and  commission  of  the  said  lords  the 
states-general,  by  them  signed,  registered,  and  sealed 
with  their  great  seal,  which  were  shewed  to  your 
deputies,  Colonel  George  Carteret,  Captain  Robert 
Needham,  Captain  Edward  Groves,  arid  Mr.  Thomas 
Delavall;  by  which  commission  and  patent,  toge- 
ther, (to  deal  frankly  with  you),  and  by  divers 
letters,  signed  and  sealed  by  our  said  lords,  the 
states-general,  directed  to  several  persons,  both 
English  and  Dutch,  inhabiting  the  towns  and  vil- 
lages on  Long  Island,  (which,  without  doubt,  have 
been  produced  before  you  by  those  inhabitants,)  by 
which  they  are  declared  and  acknowledged  to  be 
their  subjects,  with  express  command  that  they  con- 
tinue faithful  unto  them,  under  penalty  of  incurring 
their  utmost  displeasure,  which  makes  it  appear 
more  clear  than  the  sun  at  noon-day,  that  your  first 
foundation,  viz.  (that  the  right  and  title  of  his  ma- 
jesty of  Great  Britain  to  these  parts  of  America  is 
unquestionable)  is  absolutely  to  be  denied.  More- 
over, it  is  without  dispute,  and  acknowledged  by  the 
world,  that  our  predecessors,  by  virtue  of  the  com- 
mission and  patent  of  the  said  lords,  the  states-ge- 
neral have,  without  controul  and  peaceably,  (the 
contrary  never  coming  to  our  knowledge,)  enjoyed 
Fort  Orange  about  forty-eight  or  fifty  years,  the 
Manhattans  about  forty-one  or  forty-two  years,  the 
South  River  forty  years,  and  the  Fresh  Water 
River  about  thirty-six  years.  Touching  the  second 
subject  of  your  letter,  viz.,  His  majesty  hath  com- 
manded me,  in  his  name,  to  require  a  surrender 
of  all  such  forts,  towns,  or  places  of  strength, 
which  are  now  possessed  by  the  Dutch,  under  your 
command.  We  shall  answer,  that  we  are  so  con- 
ident  of  the  discretion  and  equity  of  his  majesty  of 
jrrcat  Britain,  that  in  case  his  majesty  were  informed 
of  the  truth,  which  is,  that  the  Dutch  came  not  into 
hese  provinces  by  any  violence,  but  by  virtue  of 
commissions  from  my  lords  the  states-general;  first 
of  all,  in  the  years  1614,  1615,  and  1616,  up  the 
tforth  River,  near  Fort  Orange,  where,  to  hinder 
.he  invasions  and  massacres  commonly  committed 
)y  the  savages,  they  built  a  little  fort;  and  after,  in 
;he  year  1622,  and  even  to  this  present  time,  by 
virtue  of  commissions  and  grant  to  the  governors  of 
he  West  India  company;  and  moreover,  in  the 
fear  1656,  a  grant  to  the  honourable  the  burgomas- 
ers  of  Amsterdam,  of  the  South  River ;  insomuch, 
hat  by  virtue  of  the  abovesaid  commissions  from  the 
ugh  a'nd  mighty  states-general,  given  to  the  persons 
nterested  as  aforesaid,  and  others,  these  provinces 
lave  been  governed,  and  consequently  enjoyed,  as 
also  in  regard  of  their  first  discovery,  uninterrupted 
>ossessions,  and  purchase  of  the  lands  of  the  princes, 
latives  of  the  country,  and  other  private  persons, 
Chough  gentiles,;  we  say  we  make  no  doubt,  that  if 
lis  said  majesty  of  Great  Britain  were  well  informed  of 
these  passages,  he  would  be  too  judicious  to  grant 
such  an  order,  principally  in  a  time  when  there  is 
so  straight  a  friendship  and  confederacy  between 
our  said  lords  and  superiors,  to  trouble  us  in  the 


UNITED  STATES. 


509 


demanding  and  summons  of  the  places  and  fort- 
resses, which  were  put  into  our  hands,  with  order  to 
maintain  them,  in  the  name  of  the  said  lords,  the 
states-general,  as  was  made  appear  to  your  deputies, 
under  the  names  and  seal  of  the  said  high  and 
mighty  states -general,  dated  the  28th  of  July,  1646. 
Besides  what  had  been  mentioned,  there  is  little  pro- 
bability that  his  said  majesty  of  England  (in  regard 
(he  articles  of  peace  are  printed,  and  were  recom- 
mended to  us  to  observe  seriously  and  exactly,  by  a 
letter  written  to  us  by  our  said  lords,  the  states-ge- 
neral, and  to  cause  them  to  be  observed  religiously 
in  this  country),  would  give  order  touching  so  dan- 
gerous a  design,  being  also  so  apparent,  that  none 
other  than  my  said  lords,  the  states-general,  have 
any  right  to  these  provinces,  and  consequently  ought 
to  command  and  maintain  their  subjects;  and  in 
their  absence,  we,  the  governor-general,  are  obliged 
to  maintain  their  rights,  and  to  repel  and  take  re- 
venge of  all  threatenings,  unjust  attempts,  or  any 
force  whatsoever,  that  shall  be  committed  against  their 
faithful  subjects  and  inhabitants,  it  being  a  very 
considerable  thing  to  affront  so  mighty  a  state,  al- 
though it  were  not  against  an  ally  and  confederate. 
Consequently,  if  his  said  majesty  (as  it  is  fit)  were 
well  informed  of  all  that  could  be  spoken  upon  this 
subject,  he  would  not  approve  of  what  expressions 
were  mentioned  in  your  letter ;  which  are,  that  you 
are  commanded  by  his  majesty  to  demand  in  his 
name  such  places  and  fortresses  as  are  in  possession 
of  the  Dutch  under  my  government;  which,  as  it  ap- 
pears by  my  commission  before-mentioned,  was 
given  me  by  my  lords,  the  high  and  mighty  states- 
general.  And  there  is  less  ground  in  the  express 
demand  of  my  government,  since  all  the  world  knows, 
that  about  three  years  agone,  some  English  frigates 
being  on  the  coast  of  Africa  upon  a  pretended  com- 
mission, they  did  demand  certain  places  under  the 
government  of  our  said  lords,  the  states-general,  as 
Cape  Vert,  river  of  Gambo,  and  all  other  places  in 
Guyny  to  them  belonging.  Upon  which  our  said 
lords,  the  states-general,  by  virtue  of  the  articles  of 
peace,  having  made  appear  the  said  attempt  to  his 
majesty  of  England,  they  received  a  favourable  an- 
swer, his  said  majesty  disallowing  all  such  acts  of 
hostility  as  might  have  been  done,  and,  besides, 
gave  order  that  restitution  should  be  made  to  the 
East  India  company,  of  whatsoever  had  been  pil- 
laged in  the  said  river  of  Gambo ;  and  likewise  re- 
stored them  to  their  trade,  which  makes  us  think  it 
necessary,  that  a  more  express  order  should  appear 
unto  us,  as  a  sufficient  warrant  for  us  towards  my 
lords,  the  high  and  mighty  states- general — since  by 
virtue  of  our  said  commission  we  do,  in  these  pro- 
vinces, represent  them,  as  belonging  to  them,  and 
not  to  the  king  of  Great  Britain,  except  his  said 
majesty,  upon  better  grounds,  make  it  appear  to 
our  said  lords,  the  states-general,  against  which 
they  may  defend  themselves  as  they  shall  think  fit. 
To  conclude :  we  cannot  but  declare  unto  you,  though 
the  governors  and  commissioners  of  his  majesty  have 
divers  times  quarrelled  with  us  about  the  bounds  of 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  high  and  mighty  the  states- 
general,  in  these  parts,  yet  they  never  questioned 
\heir  jurisdiction  itself;  on  the  contrary,  in  the  year 
J650,  at  Hartford,  and  the  last  year  at  Boston,  they 
treated  with  us  upon  this  subject,  which  is  a  suffi- 
rient  proof  that  his  majesty  hath  never  been  well 
jiformed  of  the  equity  of  our  cause,  insomuch  as  we 
cannot  imagine,  in  regard  to  the  articles  of  peace 
between  the  crown  of  England  and  the  states-gene- 
ral, (under  whom  there  are  so  many  subjects  in 


America,  as  well  as  Europe),  that  his  said  majesty 
of  Great  Britain  would  give  a  commission  to  mo- 
lest and  endamage  the  subjects  of  my  said  lords  the 
states-general,  especially  such  as,  ever  since  fifty, 
forty,  and  the  latest  thirty-six  years  have  quietly 
enjoyed  their  lands,  countries,  forts,  and  inherit- 
ances ;  and  less,  that  his  subjects  would  attempt  any 
acts  of  hostility  or  violence  against  them :  and  in 
case  you  will  act  by  force  of  arms,  we  protest  and 
declare,  in  the  name  of  our  said  lords,  the  states- 
general,  before  God  and  men,  that  you  will  act  an 
unjust  violence,  and  a  breach  of  the  articles  of  peace, 
so  solemnly  sworn,  agreed  upon,  and  ratified  by  his 
majesty  of  England  and  my  lords  the  states-gene- 
ral ;  and  the  rather  for  that  to  prevent  the  shedding 
of  blood,  in  the  month  of  February  last  we  treated 
with  Captain  John  Scott,  (who  reported  he  had  a 
commission  from  his  said  majesty),  touching  the 
limits  of  Long  Island,  and  concluded  for  the  space 
of  a  year,  that  in  the  meantime  the  business  might 
be  treated  on  between  the  king  of  Great  Britain 
and  my  lords  the  high  and  mighty  states-general : 
and  again,  at  present,  for  the  hinderance  and  pre- 
vention of  all  differences,  and  the  spilling  of  inno- 
cent blood,  not  only  in  these  parts,  but  also  in  Eu- 
rope, we  offer  unto  you  a  treaty  by  our  deputies, 
Mr.  Cornelius  Van  Kuyven,  secretary  and  receiver 
of  New  Holland,  Cornelius  Ste'enwych,  burgomaster, 
Mr.  Samuel  Megapolonsis,  doctor  of  physic,  and 
Mr.  James  Cousseau,  heretofore  sheriff.  As  touch- 
ing the  threats  in  your  conclusion  we  have  nothing 
to  answer,  only  that  we  fear  nothing  but  \\hat  God, 
(who  is  as  just  as  merciful)  shall  lay  upon  us — all 
things  being  in  his  gracious  disposal ;  and  \\c  may 
as  well  be  preserved  by  him  with  small  forces  as 
by  a  great  army,  which  makes  us  to  wish  you  all 
happiness  and  prosperity,  and  recommend  you  to 
his  protection.  My  lords,  your  thrice  humble,  and 
affectionate  servant  and  friend, 

"  Signed,  P.  Stuyvesant. 

"  At  the  fort  at  Amsterdam,  the  2d  of  September, 
New  Stile,  1664." 

While  the  Dutch  governor  and  council  were  con- 
tending with  the  burgomasters  and  people  in  the 
city,  the  English  commissioners  published  a  procla- 
mation in  the  country,  encouraging  the  inhabitants 
to  submit,  and  promising  them  the  king's  protection, 
and  all  the  privileges  of  subjects;  and  as  soon  as 
they  discovered  by  Stuyvesant's  letter,  that  he  was 
averse  to  surrender,  officers  were  sent  to  beat  up  for 
volunteers  in  Middleborough,  Ulissen,  Jamaica,  and 
Hempsted.  A  warrant  was  also  issued  to  Hugh 
Hide,  who  commanded  the  squadron,  to  prosecute 
the  reduction  of  the  fort,  and  an  English  ship  then 
trading  here,  was  pressed  into  the  service.  These 
preparations  induced  Stuveysant  to  write  another 
letter,  on  the  25th  of  August  old  style,  wherein 
though  he  declares  that  he  would  stand  the  stonr., 
yet  to  prevent  the  spilling  of  blood,  he  had  sent 
John  de  Decker,  counsellor  of  state,  Cornelius  Van 
Ruyven,  secretary  and  receiver,  Cornelius  Steenwych 
major,  and  James  Cousseau  sheriff,  to  consult,  if 
possible,  an  accommodation.  Nicolls,  who  knew 
the  disposition  of  the  people,  answered  immediately 
from  Gravesend,  that  he  would  treat  about  nothing 
but  a  surrender.  The  Dutch  governor,  the  next 
day,  agreed  to  a  treaty  and  surrender,  on  condition 
the  English  and  Dutch  limits  in  America  were 
settled  by  the  crown  and  the  states-general.  The 
English  deputies  were  Sir  Robert  Carr,  George 
Carteret,  John  Winthrop,  governor  of  Connecticut, 
Samuel  Wyllys,  one  of  the  assistants  or  counsel  of 


510 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


that  colony,  and  Thomas  Clarke,  and  John  Pynchon, 
commissioners  from  the  general  court  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts bay,  who  but  a  little  before,  brought  an  aid 
from  that  province.  What  these  persons  agreed 
upon,  Nicolls  promised  to  ratify.  At  eight  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  of  the  27th  of  August  1664,  the 
commissioners  on  both  sides  met  at  thegovernor's  farm 
and  there  signed  the  following  articles  of  capitulation : 

"These  articles  following  were  consented  to  by 
the  persons  hereunder  subscribed,  at  the  governor's 
bowery,  August  the  27th,  old  style,  1664. 

"  I.  We  consent  that  the  States-general,  or  the 
West  India  company,  shall  freely  enjoy  all  farms 
and  houses  (except  such  as  are  in  the  forts),  and 
that  within  six  months,  they  shall  have  free  liberty 
to  transport  all  such  arms  and  ammunition,  as  now 
does  belong  to  them,  or  else  they  shall  be  paid  for  them. 

"II.  All  public  houses  shall  continue  for  the  uses 
which  they  are  for. 

'  III.  All  people  shall  still  continue  free  denizens, 
and  shall  enjoy  their  lands,  houses,  goods,  where- 
soever they  are  within  this  country,  and  dispose  of 
them  as  they  please. 

"  IV.  If  any  inhabitant  have  a  mind  to  remove 
himself,  he  shall  have  a  year  and  six  weeks  from 
this  day,  to  remove  himself,  wife,  children,  servants, 
goods,  and  to  dispose  of  his  lands  here. 

"V.  If  any  officer  of  state,  or  public  minister  of 
state,  have  a  mind  to  go  for  England,  they  shall  be 
transported  freight  free,  in  his  majesty's  frigates, 
when  these  frigates  shall  return  thither. 

"  VI.  It  is  consented  to,  that  any  people  may 
freely  come  from  the  Netherlands  and  plant  in  this 
colony,  and  that  Dutch  vessels  may  freely  come 
hither,  and  any  of  the  Dutch  may  freely  return  home, 
or  send  any  sort  of  merchandize  home  in  vessels  of 
their  own  country. 

"VII.  All  ships  from  the  Netherlands,  or  any 
other  place,  and  goods  therein,  shall  be  received 
here,  and  sent  hence,  after  the  manner  which  formerly 
they  were,  before  our  coming  hither,  for  six  months 
next  ensuing. 

"  VIII.  The  Dutch  here  shall  enjoy  the  liberty  of 
their  consciences  in  divine  worship  and  church  dis- 
cipline. 

"  IX.  No  Dutchman  here,  or  Dutch  ship  here, 
shall  upon  any  occasion  be  pressed  to  serve  in  war 
against  any  nation  whatsoever. 

"  X.  That  the  townsmen  of  the  Manhattans  shall 
not  have  any  soldiers  quartered  upon  them,  without 
being  satisfied  and  paid  for  them  by  their  officers  ; 
and  at  this  present,  if  the  fort  be  not  capable  of 
lodging  all  the  soldiers,  then  the  burgomasters,  by 
their  officers,  shall  appoint  some  houses  capable  to 
receive  them. 

"  XL  The  Dutch  here  shall  enjoy  their  own  cus- 
toms concerning  their  inheritances. 

"  XII.  All  public  writings  and  records,  which 
concern  the  inheritances  of  any  people,  or  the  regle- 
ment  of  the  church  or  poor,  or  orphans,  shall  be 
carefully  kept  by  those  in  whose  hands  now  they  are, 
and  such  writings  as  particularly  concern  the  states 
general,  may  at  any  time  be  sent  to  them. 

"  XIII.  No  judgment  that  has  passed  any  judi- 
cature here,  shall  be  called  in  question,  but  if  any 
conceive  that  he  hath  not  had  justice  done  him,  if 
he  apply  himself  to  the  states  general,  the  other  party 
shall  be  bound  to  answer  the  supposed  injury. 

"  XIV.  If  any  Dutch  living  here,  shall  at  any 
time  desire  to  travel  or  traffic  into  England,  or  any 
place  or  plantation  in  obedience  to  his  majesty  of 
England,  or  with  the  Indians,  he  shall  have  (upon 


his  request  to  the  governor)  a  certificate  that  he  is 
a  free  denizen  of  this  place,  and  liberty  to  do  so. 

"  XV.  If  it  do  appear  that  there  is  a  public  en- 
gagement of  debt,  by  the  town  of  the  Manhattoes, 
and  a  way  agreed  on  for  the  satisfying  of  that  en- 
gagement, it  is  agreed,  that  the  same  way  proposed 
shall  go  on,  and  that  the  engagement  shall  be  satisfied. 

"XVI.  All  inferior  civil  officers  and  magistrates 
shall  continue  as  now  they  are  (if  they  please),  till  the 
customary  time  of  new  elections,  and  then  new  ones  be 
chosen  by  themselves,  provided  that  such  new-chosen 
magistrates  shall  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  his  ma- 
jesty of  England,  before  they  enter  upon  their  office. 

"  XVII.  All  differences  of  contracts  and  bargains 
made  before  this  day,  by  any  in  this  country,  shall 
be  determined  according  to  the  manner  of  the  Dutch. 

«  XVIII.  If  it  do  appear,  that  the  West  India 
company  of  Amsterdam  do  really  owe  any  sums  of 
money  to  any  persons  here,  it  is  agreed  that  recog- 
nition, and  other  duties  payable  by  ships  going  for 
the  Netherlands,  be  continued  for  six  months  longer. 

"  XIX.  The  officers,  military,  and  soldiers,  shall 
march  out  with  their  arms,  drums  beating,  and 
colours  flying,  and  lighted  matches;  and  if  any  of 
them  will  plant,  they  shall  have  fifty  acres  of  land 
set  out  for  them ;  if  any  of  them  will  serve  as  serv- 
ants, they  shall  continue  with  all  safety,  and  be- 
come free  denizens  afterwards. 

"  XX.  If  at  any  time  hereafter,  the  king  of  Great 
Britain  and  the  States  of  the  Netherlands  do  agree 
that  this  place  and  country  be  re-delivered  into  the 
hands  of  the  said  states,  whensoever  his  Majesty  will 
send  his  commands  to  re -deliver  it,  it  shall  immedi- 
ately be  done. 

"  XXI.  That  the  town  of  Manhattans  shall  choose 
deputies,  and  those  deputies  shall  have  free  voices  in 
ail  public  affairs,  as  much  as  any  other  deputies. 

"  XXII.  Those  who  have  any  property  in  any 
houses  in  the  fort  of  Aurania,  shall  (if  they  please) 
slight  the  fortifications  there,  and  then  enjoy  all 
their  houses,  as  all  people  do  where  there  is  no  fort. 

"  XXIU.  If  there  be  any  soldiers  that  will  go 
into  Holland,  and  if  the  company  of  West  India  in 
Amsterdam,  or  any  private  persons  here,  will  tran- 
sport them  into  Holland,  then  they  shall  have  a  safe 
passport  from  Colonel  Richard  Nicolls,  deputy  go- 
vernor under  his  royal  highness,  and  the  other  com- 
missioners, to  defend  the  ships  that  shall  transport 
such  soldiers,  and  all  the  goods  in  them,  from  any 
surprisal  or  acts  of  hostility,  to  be  done  by  any  of 
his  majesty's  ships  or  subjects.  That  the  copies  of 
the  king's  grant  to  his  royal  highness,  and  the  copy 
of  his  royal  highness's  commission  to  Colonel  Rich- 
ard Nicolls,  testified  by  two  commissioners  more, 
and  Mr.  Winthrop,  to  be  true  copies,  shall  be  de- 
livered to  the  honourable  Mr.  Stuyvesant,  the  pre- 
sent governor,  on  Monday  next,  by  eight  of  the 
clock  in  the  morning,  at  the  Old  Miln,  and  these 
articles  consented  to,  and  signed  by  Colonel  Richard 
Nicolls,  deputy-governor  to  his  royal  highness,  and 
that  within  two  hours  after  the  fort  and  town  called 
New  Amsterdam,  upon  the  isle  of  Manhattoes,  shall 
be  delivered  into  the  hands  of  the  said  Colonel 
Richard  Nicolls,  by  the  service  of  such  as  shall  be 
by  him  thereunto  deputed,  by  his  hand  and  seal. — 
John  De  Decker,  Nich.  Verleett,  Samuel  Megapo- 
lensis,  Cornelius  Steenwych,  Oloffe  Stevens  Van 
Kortlant,  James  Cousseau,  Robert  Carr,  George 
Carteret,  John  Winthrop,  Samuel  Willys,  Thomas 
Clarke,  John  Pynchon. 

"  I  do  consent  to  these  articles, 

"  Richard  Nicolls/' 


UNITED  STATES. 


511 


These  articles,  favourable  as  they  were  to  the  in- 
habitants, wore  however  very  disagreeable  to  the 
Dutch  governor,  and  he  therefore  refused  to  ratify 
them  till  t\vo  days  after  they  were  signed  by  the 
commissioners. 

The  town  of  New  Amsterdam,  upon  the  reduction 
of  the  island  Manhattans,  took  the  name  of  New 
York.  It  consisted  of  several  small  streets,  laid  out 
in  the  year  1656,  and  was  not  inconsiderable  for 
the  number  of  its  houses  and  inhabitants.  The  easy 
terms  of  the  capitulation  promised  their  peaceable 
subjection  to  the  new  government;  and  hence  we 
find  that,  in  two  days  after  the  surrender,  the  Boston 
aid  was  dismissed,  with  the  thanks  of  the  commis- 
sioners to  the  general  court.  Hudson's  and  the 
South  river  were,  however,  still  to  be  reduced.  Sir 
Robert  Carr  commanded  the  expedition  on  Delaware, 
and  Cartcret  was  commissioned  to  subdue  the  Dutch 
at  fort  Orange.  The  garrison  capitulated  on  the 
24th  of  September,  and  he  called  it  Albany,  in  ho- 
nour of  the  duke.  While  Carteret  was  here,  he  had 
an  interview  with  the  Indians  of  the  five  nations, 
and  entered  into  a  league  of  friendship  with  them. 
The  Dutch  were  sensible  of  the  importance  of  pre- 
serving an  uninterrupted  amity  with  those  Indians, 
for  they  were  both  very  numerous  and  warlike.  The 
French  "pursued  quite  different  measures,  and  the 
eruptions  of  those  tribes,  according  to  their  own  au- 
thors, often  reduced  Canada  to  the  brink  of  ruin. 
Sir  Robert  Carr  was  equally  successful  on  South 
river,  for  he  compelled  both  the  Dutch  and  the 
Swedes  to  capitulate  and  deliver  up  their  garrisons 
the  1st  of  October,  1664  ;  and  that  was  the  day  in 
which  the  whole  New  Netherland  became  subject 
to  the  English  crown.  Very  few  of  the  inhabitants 
thought  proper  to  remove  out  of  the  country.  Gov- 
ernor Stuyvesant  himself  held  his  estate  and  died 
here.  His  remains  were  interred  in  a  chapel  which 
he  had  erected  on  his  own  farm,  at  a  small  distance 
from  the  city,  afterwards  possessed  by  his  grandson 
Gerardus  Stuyvesant,  a  man  of  probity,  who  was 
elected  into  the  magistracy  above  thirty  years  suc- 
cessively. For  loyalty  to  the  reigning  family,  and 
a  pure  attachment  to  the  protestant  religion,  the  de- 
scendants of  the  Dutch  planters  were  exceeded 
by  none. 

From  the  surrender  in  1664,  to  the  settlement  at  the 
English  Revolution  of  1688. 

Richard  Nicolls  being  now  possessed  of  the  coun- 
try, took  the  government  upon  him,  under  the  style 
of  "  deputy-governor  under  his  royal  highness  the 
Duke  of  York,  of  all  his  territories  in  America." 
During  his  short  continuance  in  it,  he  passed  a  vast 
number  of  grants  and  confirmations  of  the  ancient 
Dutch  patents,  the  profits  of  which  must  have  been 
very  considerable.  Among  these,  no  one  has  oc- 
casioned more  animated  contention,  than  that  called 
the  Elizabeth  Town  Grant  in  New  Jersey. 

Besides  the  chief  command  of  this  province,  Ni- 
colls had,  with  Sir  Robert  Carr,  Carteret,  and  Mave- 
ricke,  a  commission  from  Charles  II.,  dated  the 
26th  of  April,  1664,  which,  after  a  recital  of  disputes 
concerning  limits  in  New  England,  and  stating  that 
addresses  had  been  sent  home  from  the  Indian  na- 
tives, complaining  of  abuses  received  from  the 
English  subjects,  authorised  all,  or  three,  or  two 
of  them,  of  which  Nicolls  was  to  be  one,  to  visit  the 
New  England  colonies,  and  determine  all  complaints 
military,  civil,  and  criminal,  according  to  their  dis- 
cretion, and  such  instructions  as  they  might  receive 
from  the  crown.  Hence  we  find,  three  of  them  had 


a  conference  with  several  gentlemen  from  Connecti- 
cut, respecting  the  limits  of  this  and  that  colony. 
The  result  was  an  adjudication,  in  these  words  : 

"  By  virtue  of  his  majesty's  commission,  we  have 
heard  the  difference,  about  the  bounds  of  the  patents 
granted  to  his  royal  highness  the  Duke  of  York, 
and  his  majesty's  colony  of  Connecticut,  and  having 
deliberately  considered  all  the  reasons  alleged  by 
Mr.  Allyn,  sen.,  Mr.  Gold,  Mr.  Richards,  and  Capt. 
Winthrop,  appointed  by  the  assembly  held  at  Hart- 
ford, the  13th  of  October,  1664,  to  accompany  John 
Winthrop,  Esq.,  the  governor  of  his  majesty's  co- 
lony of  Connecticut,  to  New  York,  and  to  agree 
upon  the  bounds  of  the  said  colony,  why  the  said 
Long  Island  should  be  under  the  government  of 
Connecticut,  which  are  too  long  here  to  be  recited, 
we  do  declare  and  order,  that  the  southern  bounds  of 
his  majesty's  colony  of  Connecticut  is  the  sea,  and 
that  Long  Island  is  to  be  under  the  government  of 
his  royal  highness  the  Duke  of  York,  as  is  expressed 
by  plain  words,  in  the  said  patents,  respectively, 
and  also  by  virtue  of  his  majesty's  commission,  and 
the  consent  of  both  the  governors  and  the  gentlemen 
above-named.  We  also  order  and  declare,  that  the 
crook  or  river  called  Mamaroneck,  which  is  reputed 
to  be  about  thirteen  miles  to  the  east  of  West  Ches- 
ter, and  a  line  drawn  from  the  east  point  or  side, 
where  the  fresh  water  falls  into  the  salt,  at  high  water 
mark,  north-north-west  to  the  line  of  the  Massachu- 
setts, be  the  western  bounds  of  the  said  colony  of 
Connecticut,  and  all  plantations  lying  westward  of 
that  creek  and  line  so  drawn,  to  be  under  his  royal 
highness's  government;  and  all  plantations  lying 
eastward  of  that  creek  and  line,  to  be  under  the 
government  of  Connecticut.  Given  under  our  hands, 
at  James's  Fort,  in  New  York,  on  the  island  of 
Manhattan,  this  first  day  of  December,  1664— 
Richard  Nicolls,  George  Carteret,  S.  Mavericke." 
"  We,  the  governor  and  commissioners  of  the  general 
assembly  of  Connecticut,  do  give  our  consent  to  the 
limits  and  bounds  above-mentioned,  as  witness  our 
hands Gold,  John  Winthrop,  jun.,  John  Win- 
throp, Allen,  sen.,  Richards." 

At  the  time  of  this  determination,  about  two-thirds 
of  Long  Island  were  possessed  by  people  from  New 
England,  who  had  gradually  encroached  upon  the 
Dutch.  As  to  the  settlement  between  New  York 
and  Connecticut  on  the  main,  it  has  always  been 
considered  by  the  former  as  founded  upon  ignorance 
and  fraud.  The  town  of  Rye  was  settled  under 
Connecticut,  and  the  grant  from  that  colony  is 
bounded  by  this  line  of  division.  The  station  at 
Mamaroneck  was  about  30  miles  from  New  York, 
from  Albany  150.  The  general  course  of  the  river 
is  about  north  twelve  or  fifteen  degrees  east :  and 
hence  it  is  evident,  that  a  north-north-west  line  will 
soon  intersect  the  river,  and  consequently  leave  the 
Dutch  country,  but  a  little  before  surrendered  to 
Colonel  Carteret,  out  of  the  province  of  New  York. 
It  has  been  generally  esteemed  that  the  Connecticut 
commissioners  in  this  affair  took  advantage  of  the 
duke's  agents,  who  were  ignorant  of  the  geography 
of  the  country. 

About  the  close  of  the  year,  the  estate  of  the  Dutch 
West  India  company  was  seized  and  confiscated, 
hostilities  being  actually  commenced  in  Europe  as 
well  as  in  America,  though  no  declarations  of  war  had 
yet  been  published  by  either  of  the  contending 
parties.  A  great  dispute  between  the  inhabitants  of 
Jamaica  on  Long  Island,  which  was  adjusted  by 
Colonel  Nicoll?,  on  the  2d  of  January,  1665,  gave 
rise  to  a  salutary  institution  which  has  in  part  ob- 


512 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


tained  ever  since.  The  controversy  respected  Indian 
deeds,  and  thenceforth  it  was  ordained,  that  no  pur- 
chase from  the  Indians,  without  the  governor's  li- 
cence executed  in  his  presence,  should  be  valid.  The 
strength  and  numbers  of  the  natives  rendered  it 
necessary  to  purchase  their  rights ;  and  to  prevent 
their  frequent  selling  the  same  tract,  it  was  expe- 
dient, that  the  bargain  should  be  attended  with  some 
considerable  solemnity. 

Another  instance  of  Col.  Nicolls's  prudence,  was 
his  gradual  introduction  of  the  English  methods  of 
government.  It  was  not  till  the  12th  of  June,  ]  665, 
that  he  incorporated  the  inhabitants  of  New  York, 
under  the  care  of  a  mayor,  five  aldermen  and  a 
sheriff.  Till  this  time,  the  city  was  ruled  by  a  scout, 
burgomasters,  and  schepens. 

In  March  preceding,  there  was  a  great  convention 
before  the  governor  at  Hempstead,  of  two  deputies 
from  every  town  on  Long  Island,  empowered  to  bind 
their  constituents.  The  design  of  their  meeting 
was  to  adjust  the  limits  of  their  townships  for  the 
preservation  of  the  public  peace. 

The  war  being  proclaimed  at  London  on  the  4th 
of  this  month,  Nicolls  received  the  account  of  it  in 
June,  with  a  letter  from  the  Lord  Chancellor,  in- 
forming him  that  De  Ruyter,  the  Dutch  admiral, 
had  orders  to  visit  New  York.  His  lordship  was 
misinformed,  or  the  admiral  was  diverted  from  the 
enterprise,  for  the  English  peaceably  held  possession 
of  the  country  during  the  whole  war,  which  was 
concluded  on  the  21st  of  July,  1667,  by  the  treaty 
of  Breda.  Some  are  of  opinion,  that  the  exchange 
made  with  the  Dutch  for  Surinam,  which  they  had 
taken  from  us,  was  advantageous  to  the  nation ;  but 
these  judges  do  not  consider,  that  it  would  have 
been  impossible  for  the  Dutch  to  have  preserved 
this  colony  against  the  increasing  strength  of  the 
people  in  New  England,  Maryland,  and  Virginia. 

After  an  administration  of  three  years  Nicolls  re- 
turned to  England.  The  time  during  his  short  resi- 
dence here,  was  almost  wholly  taken  up  in  confirm- 
ing the  ancient  Dutch  grants.  He  erected  no  courts 
of  justice,  but  took  upon  himself  the  sole  decision  of 
all  controversies  whatsoever.  Complaints  came  be- 
fore him  by  petition ;  upon  which  he  gave  a  day  to 
the  parties,  and  after  a  summary  hearing,  pronounced 
judgment.  His  determinations  were  called  edicts, 
and  executed  by  the  sheriffs  he  had  appointed.  It 
is  much  to  his  honour  that,  notwithstanding  all  this 
plenitude  of  power,  he  governed  the  province  with 
integrity  and  moderation.  A  representation  from 
the  inhabitants  of  Long  Island  to  the  general  court 
of  Connecticut,  made  about  the  time  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, commends  him  as  a  man  of  an  easy  and  be- 
nevolent disposition;  and  this  testimonial  is  the 
more  to  be  relied  upon,  because  the  design  of  the 
writers,  was,  by  a  detail  of  their  grievances,  to  in- 
duce the  colony  of  Connecticut  to  take  them  under 
its  immediate  protection. 

Francis  Lovelace,  a  colonel,  was  appointed  by  the 
duke  to  succeed  Nicolls  in  the  government  of  the 
province,  which  he  began  to  exercise  in  May,  1667. 
As  he  was  a  man  of  great  moderation,  the  people 
lived  very  peaceably  under  him,  till  the  surrender 
of  the  colony,  which  put  an  end  to  his  power,  and 
is  the  only  event  that  signalized  his  administration. 

The  ambitious  designs  of  Louis  XIV.  against  the 
Dutch,  gave  rise  to  the  war  with  the  States-general 
iu  1672.  Charles  II.,  a  prince  sunk  in  pleasures, 
profligate,  and  poor,  was  easily  detached  from  his 
alliance  with  the  Dutch,  by  the  intrigues  and  pecu- 
niary promises  of  the  French  king.  The  following 


passage  from  Voltaire  shews  that  his  pretences  for 
entering  into  the  war  were  groundless  and  trifling. 

"  The  king  of  England,  on  his  side,  reproached 
them  with  disrespect,  in  not  directing  their  fleet  to 
lower  the  flag  before  an  English  ship;  and  they 
were  also  accused  in  regard  to  a  certain  picture, 
wherein  Cornelius  de  Witt,  brother  to  the  pension- 
ary, was  painted  with  the  attributes  of  a  conqueror. 
Ships  were  represented  in  the  back  ground  of  the 
piece,  either  taken  or  burnt.  Cornelius  de  Witt, 
who  had  really  had  a  great  share  in  the  maritime 
exploits  against  England,  had  permitted  this  trifling 
memorial  of  his  glory  ;  but  the  picture,  which  was 
in  a  manner  unknown,  was  deposited  in  a  chamber 
wherein  scarce  any  body  ever  entered.  The  Eng- 
lish ministers  who  presented  the  complaints  of  their 
king  against  Holland,  in  writing,  therein  mentioned 
certain  abusive  pictures.  The  states,  who  always 
translated  the  memorials  of  ambassadors  into  French, 
having  rendered  abusive,  by  the  words  J'autifs  trom- 
peurs,  they  replied,  they  did  not  know  what  these 
roguish  pictures  (ces  tableaux  trompeurs)  were.  In 
reality,  it  never  in  the  least  entered  into  their 
thoughts,  that  it  concerned  this  portrait  of  one  of 
their  citizens,  nor  did  they  ever  conceive  this  could 
be  a  pretence  for  declaring  war." 

A  few  Dutch  ships  arrived  the  year  after  on  the 
30th  of  July,  1673,  under  Staten  Island,  at  the  dis- 
tance of  a  few  miles  from  the  city  of  New  York. 
John  Manning,  a  captain  of  an  independent  com- 
pany, had  at  that  time  the  command  of  the  fort,  and 
by  a  messenger  sent  down  to  the  squadron,  treache- 
rously made  his  peace  with  the  enemy.  On  that 
very  day  the  Dutch  ships  came  up,  moored  under 
the  fort,  landed  their  men,  and  entered  the  garrison, 
without  giving  or  receiving  a  shot.  A  council  of 
war  was  afterwards  held  at  the  Stadt-House,  at  which 
were  present — commodores,  Cornelius  Evertse,  jun. 
and  Jacob  Benkes ;  and  captains,  Anthony  Colve, 
Nicholas  Boes,  and  Abraham  Ferd.  Van  Zyll. 

All  the  magistrates  and  constables  from  East 
Jersey,  Long  Island,  Esopus,  and  Albany,  were  im- 
mediately summoned  to  New  York ;  and  the  major 
part  of  them  swore  allegiance  to  the  States-general, 
and  the  prince  of  Orange.  Colonel  Lovelace  was 
ordered  to  depart  the  province,  but  afterwards  ob- 
tained leave  to  return  to  England  with  Commodore 
Benkes.  It  has  often  been  insisted  on,  that  this 
conquest  did  not  extend  to  the  whole  province  of 
New  Jersey  ;  but  upon  what  foundation  cannot  be 
discovered.  From  the  Dutch  records,  it  appears, 
that  deputies  were  sent  by  the  people  inhabiting  the 
country,  even  so  far  westward  as  Delaware  river, 
who  in  the  name  of  their  principals  made  a  de- 
claration of  their  submission ;  in  return  for  which, 
certain  privileges  were  granted  to  them,  and  ju- 
dicatories  erected  at  Niewer,  Amstel,  Upland,  and 
Hoer  Kill.  Colve's  commission  to  be  governor  of 
this  country  is  worth  printing,  because  it  shews  the 
extent  of  the  Dutch  claims.  The  translation  runs 
thus  :—- 

"  The  honourable  and  awful  council  of  war,  for 
their  high  mightinesses  the  States-General  of  the 
United  Netherlands,  and  his  serene  highness  the 
Prince  of  Orange,  over  a  squadron  of  ships,  now  at 
anchor  in  Hudson's  river  in  New  Netherlands,  to 
all  those  who  shall  see  or  hear  these,  greeting.  As 
it  is  necessary  to  appoint  a  fit  and  able  person  to 
carry  the  chief  command  over  this  conquest  of  New 
Netherlands,  with  all  its  appendencies  and  depend- 
encies from  Cape  Hinlopen  on  the  south  side  of  the 
south  or  Delaware  bay,  and  fifteen  miles  more  soutb.- 


UNITED  STATES. 


513 


erly,  with  the  said  bay  and  South  river  included; 
so  as  they  were  formerly  possessed  by  the  directors 
of  the  city  of  Amsterdam,  and  after  by  the  English 
government,  in  the  name  and  right  of  the  Duke  of 
York;  and  further,  from  the  said  Cape  of  Hinlopen, 
along  the  Great  Ocean,  to  the  east  end  of  Long 
Island  and  Shelter  Island;  from  thence  westward 
to  the  middle  of  the  Sound,  to  a  town  called  Green- 
wich, on  the  main,  and  to  run  landward  in,  north- 
erly ;  provided  that  such  line  shall  not  come  within 
ten  miles  of  North  river,  conformable  to  a  provincial 
treaty  made  in  1650,  and  ratified  by  the  States-ge- 
neral, February  22,  1656,  and  January  23,  1664, 
with  all  lands,  islands,  rivers,  lakes,  kills,  creeks, 
fresh  and  salt  waters,  fortresses,  cities,  towns,  and 
plantations  therein  comprehended.  So  it  is,  that, 
we  being  sufficiently  assured  of  the  capacity  of  An- 
thony Colve,  captain  of  a  company  of  foot,  in  the 
service  of  their  high  mightinesses  the  States-gene- 
ral of  the  United  Netherlands,  and  his  serene  high- 
ness the  Prince  of  Orange,  &c.  By  virtue  of  our 
commission,  granted  us  by  their  before-mentioned 
high  mightinesses  and  his  highness,  have  appointed 
and  qualified,  as  we  do  by  these  presents  appoint 
and  qualify,  the  said  Captain  Anthony  Colve,  to 
govern  and  rule  these  lands,  with  the  appendeucies 
and  dependencies  thereof,  as  governor-general;  to 
protect  them  from  all  invasions  of  enemies,  as  he 
shall  judge  most  necessary ;  hereby  charging  all 
high  and  low  officers,  justices,  and  magistrates,  and 
others  in  authority,  soldiers,  burghers,  and  all  the 
inhabitants  of  this  land,  to  acknowledge,  honour, 
respect,  and  obey  the  said  Anthony  Colve,  as  go- 
vernor-general ;  for  such  we  judge  necessary  for  the 
service  of  the  country,  waiting  for  the  approbation 
of  our  principals.  Thus  done  at  Fort  William  Hen- 
derick,  the  twelfth  day  of  August,  1673. 

"  Signed  by  Jacob  Benkes. 
"  Cornelius  Evertse,  jun." 
The  Dutch  governor  enjoyed  his  office  but  a  very 
short  season;  for  on  the  9th  of  February,  1674,  the 
treaty  of  peace  between  England  and  the  States- 
General  was  signed  at  Westminster;  the  sixth  article 
of  which  restored  this  country  to  the  English.  The 
terms  of  it  were  generally,  "  That  whatsoever  coun- 
tries, islands,  towns,  ports,  castles,  or  forts  have  or 
shall  be  taken  on  both  sides,  since  the  time  that 
the  late  unhappy  war  broke  out,  either  in  Europe 
or  elsewhere,  shall  be  restored  to  their  former  lord 
and  proprietor,  in  the  same  condition  they  shall  be 
in,  when  the  peace  itself  shall  be  proclaimed  ;  after 
which  time  there  shall  be  no  spoil  nor  plunder  of  the 
inhabitants,  no  demolition  of  fortifications,  nor  car- 
rying away  of  guns,  powder,  or  other  military  stores, 
which  belonged  to  any  castle  or  fort  at  the  time 
when  it  was  taken." 

The  lenity  which  began  the  administration  of 
Colonel  Nicolls  was  continued  under  Lovelace.  He 
appears  to  have  been  a  man  rather  of  a  phlegmatic 
than  an  enterprising  disposition,  always  pursuing 
the  common  road,  and  scarce  ever  acting  without 
the  aid  of  his  council.  Instead  of  taking  upon  him- 
self the  sole  determination  of  judicial  controversies, 
after  the  example  of  his  predecessor,  he  called  to 
his  assistance  a  few  justices  of  the  peace.  This, 
which  was  called  the  court  of  assizes,  was  the  prin- 
cipal law  judicatory  in  those  times.  It  was  a  court 
both  of  law  and  equity,  for  the  trial  of  causes  of  20/. 
and  upwards,  and  ordinarily  sat  but  once  a  year. 
Subordinate  to  this,  were  the  town  courts  and  ses- 
sions; the  former  took  cognizance  of  actions  under 
bl.,  and  the  latter  of  suits  between  that  sum  and 
HIST.  OF  AMER. — Nos.  65  &  66. 


wenty  pounds :  seven  constables  and  overseers  were 
udges  in  the  first,  and  in  the  last  the  justices  of  the 
peace,  with  a  jury  of  seven  men.  The  verdict  of 
the  majority  was  sufficient.  The  legislative  power 
under  the  duke  was  vested  entirely  in  the  governor 
and  council.  A  third  estate  might  then  be  easily 
dispensed  with,  for  the  charge  of  the  province  was 
small,  and  in  a  great  measure  defrayed  by  his  royal 
highness,  the  proprietor  of  the  country.  The  man- 
ner of  raising  public  money  was  established  by  Co- 
lonel Nicolls  on  the  1st  of  June,  1665.  The  high 
sheriff  issued  a  warrant  annually  to  the  high  con- 
stables of  every  district,  and  they  sent  theirs  to  the 
petty  constables;  who,  with  the  overseers  of  each 
town,  made  a  list  of  all  male  persons  above  sixteen 
years  of  age,  with  an  estimate  of  their  rent  and 
personal  estates,  and  then  taxed  them  according  to 
certain  rates,  prescribed  by  a  law.  After  the  assess- 
ment was  returned  to  the  high  sheriff,  and  approved 
by  the  governor,  the  constables  received  warrants 
for  levying  the  taxes  by  distress  and  sale. 

Upon  the  conclusion  of  the  peace  in  1674,  the 
Duke  of  York,  to  remove  all  controversy  respecting 
his  property,  obtained  a  new  patent  from  the  king, 
dated  the  29th  of  June,  for  the  lands  granted  in 
1664,  and  two  days  afterwards  commissioned  Major, 
afterwards  Sir  Edmond  Andross,  to  be  governor  of 
his  territories  in  America.  After  the  resignation  of 
this  province,  which  was  made  to  him  by  the  Dutch 
possessors,  on  the  31st  of  October  following  he  called 
a  court-martial,  to  try  Manning  for  his  treacherous 
and  cowardly  surrender.  The  articles  of  accusation 
exhibited  against  him  were  in  substance  ;— 

I.  That  the  said  Manning,  on  the  28th  of  July, 
1673,  having  notice  of  the  approach  of  the  enemy's 
fleet,   did   not   endeavour  to  put  the  garrison  in  a 
posture  of  defence,  but  on  the  contrary  slighted  such 
as  offered  their  assistance. 

II.  That  while  the  fleet  was  at  anchor  under  Sta- 
ten  Island,  on  the  30th  of  July,  he  treacherously 
sent  on  board  to  treat  with  the  enemy,  to  the  great 
discouragement  of  the  garrison. 

III.  That  he  suffered  the  fleet  to  moor  under  the 
fort,  forbidding  a  gun  to  be  fired  on  pain  of  death. 

IV.  That  he  permitted  the  enemy  to  land  without 
the  least  opposition. 

V.  That  shortly  after  he  had  sent  persons  to  treat 
with  the  Dutch  commodores,  he  struck  his  flag,  even 
before  the  enemy  were  in  sight  of  the  garrison,  the 
fort  being  in  a  condition,  and  the  men  desirous  to 
fight. 

VI.  And  lastly,  that  he  treacherously  caused  the 
fort  gates  to  be  opened,  and  cowardly  and  basely  let 
in  the  enemy,  yielding  the  garrison  without  articles. 

Such  conduct,  which  Manning  on  his  trial  con- 
fessed to  be  true,  is  less  surprising  than  the  lenity 
of  the  sentence  pronounced  against  him  ;  which  was, 
that,  though  he  deserved  death,  yet  because  he  har1 
since  the  surrender  been  in  England,  and  seen  the 
king  and  duke,  it  was  adjudged  that  his  sword  should 
be  broken  over  his  head  in  public,  before  the  city 
hall,  and  himself  rendered  incapable  of  wearing  a 
sword,  and  of  serving  Lis  majesty  for  the  future,  in 
any  public  trust  in  the  government. 

This  light  censure  is,  however,  no  proof  that  Sir 
Edmond  was  a  man  of  a  merciful  disposition  ;  the 
historians  of  New  England,  where  he  was  afterwards 
governor,  justly  transmit  him  to  posterity,  under  the 
odious  character  of  a  sycophant  tool  to  the  duke, 
and  an  arbitrary  tyrant  over  the  people  committed 
to  his  care.  He  knew  no  law  but  the  will  of  his 
master,  and  Kirk  and  Jefferies  were  not  fitter  instru 

3F 


514 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


ments  than  he  to  execute  the  despotic  projects  of 
James  II. 

In  the  year  1675,  Nicholas  Renslaer,  a  Dutch 
clergyman,  arrived.  He  claimed  the  manor  of  Ren- 
slaerwick,  and  was  recommended  by  the  duke  to  Sir 
Edmond  Andross  for  a  living  in  one  of  the  churches 
at  New  York,  or  Albany,  probably  to  serve  the 
popish  cause,  Niewenhyt,  minister  of  the  church  at 
Albany,  disputed  his  right  to  administer  the  sacra- 
ments, because  he  had  received  an  episcopal  ordi- 
nation, and  was  not  approved  by  the  Chassis  of  Am- 
sterdam, to  which  the  Dutch  churches  hold  them- 
selves subordinate.  In  this  controversy  the  governor 
took  the  part  of  Renslaer,  and  accordingly  sum- 
moned Niewenhyt  before  him,  to  answer  for  his 
conduct.  This  minister  was  treated  with  such  sin- 
gular contempt,  and  so  frequently  harassed  by 
fruitless  and  expensive  attendances  before  the  coun- 
cil, that  the  dispute  became  interesting,  and  the 
greater  part  of  the  people  resented  the  usage  he 
met  with.  Hence  we  find,  that  the  magistrates  of 
Albany  soon  after  imprisoned  llcnslacr)  for  several 
dubious  words  (as  they  are  called  in  the  record)  de- 
livered in  a  sermon.  The  governor,  on  the  other 
hand,  ordered  him  to  be  released,  and  summoned  the 
magistrates  to  attend  him  at  New  York  ;  warrants 
were  then  issued  to  compel  them  to  give  security  in 
5000/.  each,  to  make  out  good  cause  for  confining 
the  minister.  Leisler,  who  was  one  of  them,  refused 
to  comply  with  the  warrant,  and  was  thrown  into 
jail.  Sir  Edmond,  fearful  that  a  great  party  would 
rise  up  against  him,  was  at  last  compelled  to  dis- 
continue his  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  and  to  refer 
the  controversy  to  the  determination  of  the  consistory 
of  the  Dutch  church  at  Albany.  It  is  perhaps  not 
improbable,  that  these  popish  measures  sowed  the 
seeds  of  that  aversion  to  the  duke's  government, 
which  afterwards  produced  those  violent  convulsions 
in  the  province  under  Leisler,  at  the  time  of  the 
revolution,  in  favour  of  the  Prince  of  Orange. 
Another  reason  is  assigned  for  the  favour  he  met 
with  from  the  crown.  It  is  said,  that  while  Charles 
II.  was  an  exile,  he  predicted  the  day  of  his  resto- 
ration. The  people  of  Albany  had  a  high  opinion 
of  his  prophetic  spirit,  and  many  strange  tales  pre- 
vailed there.  The  parson  made  nothing  of  his  claim, 
the  manor  being  afterwards  granted,  by  Col.  Dongan, 
to  Killian  Van  Renslaer,  a  distant  relation.  This 
extensive  tract,  by  the  Dutch  called  a  colony,  is  an 
oblong,  extending  twenty-four  miles  upon  Hudson's 
river,  and  as  many  on  each  side.  The  patent  of 
confirmation  was  issued  by  special  direction  from 
the  king,  and  is  the  most  liberal  in  the  privileges  it 
grants  of  any  one  in  the  province. 

If  Sir  Edmond  Andross's  administration  at  New 
York  appears  to  be  less  exceptionable  than  while 
he  commanded  at  Boston,  it  was  through  want  of 
more  opportunities  to  shew  himself  in  his  true  light. 
The  main  course  of  his  public  proceedings,  during 
his  continuance  in  the  province,  was  spent  in  the 
ordinary  acts  of  government,  which  then  principally 
consisted  in  passing  grants  to  the  subject,  and  pre- 
siding in  the  court  of  assize,  established  by  Colonel 
Lovelace.  The  public  exigences  were  now  in  part 
supplied  by  a  kind  of  benevolence ;  the  badge  of  bad 
times ;  this  appears  in  an  entry  on  the  records,  of 
a  letter  of  May  5,  1676,  from  Governor  Andross,  to 
several  towns  of  Long  Island,  desiring  to  know, 
what  sums  they  would  contribute  towards  the  war. 
Near  the  close  of  his  administration,  he  thought 
proper  to  quarrel  with  Philip  Carteret,  who  in  1680 
exercised  the  government  of  East  Jersey,  under  a 


commission  from  Sir  George  Carteret,  dated  the 
31st  of  July,  1675  ;  Andross  disputed  his  right,  and 
seized  and  brought  him  prisoner  to  New  York;  for 
which  it  is  said  he  lost  his  own  government,  but 
whoever  considers  that  Sir  Edmond  was  immediately 
preferred  to  be  governor  of  Boston,  will  rather  be 
lieve,  that  the  duke  superseded  him  for  some  other 
reasons. 

Before  proceeding  to  the  succeeding  administra- 
tion, in  which  the  Indian  affairs  began  to  have  a 
powerful  influence  upon  the  public  measures,  it  may 
not  be  improper  to  present  the  reader  with  a  sum- 
mary view  of  the  history  and  character  of  the  Five 
Nations,  by  the  Dutch  called  Maquaas,  by  the 
French  Iroquois,  and  by  us,  Five  Nations,  Six  Na- 
tions, and  lastly  the  Confederates.  They  are  greatly 
diminished,  and  consist  now  only  of  about  1200 
fighting  men.  These,  of  all  the  innumerable  tribes 
of  savages,  which  inhabit  the  northern  part  of 
America,  are  of  most  importance,  both  on  account 
of  their  vicinity  and  warlike  disposition.  Before  the 
last  incorporation  of  the  Tuscaroras,  a  people  driven 
by  the  inhabitants  of  Carolina  from  the  frontiers  of 
Virginia,  they  consisted  of  five  confederate  canions. 
The  Tuscaroras  were  received  upon  a  supposition, 
that  they  were  originally  of  the  same  stock  with  the 
Five  Nations,  because  there  is  some  similitude  be- 
tween their  languages.  What  in  particular  gave 
rise  to  this  league,  and  when  it  took  place,  are 
questions  which  neither  the  natives,  nor  Europeans, 
pretend  to  answer.  Each  of  these  nations  is  divided 
into  three  families,  or  clans,  of  different  ranks,  bear- 
ing for  their  arms,  and  being  distinguished  by  the 
names  of,  the  tortoise,  the  bear,  and  the  wolf. 
Their  instruments  of  conveyances  are  signed  by  sig- 
natures, which  they  make  with  a  pen,  representing 
these  animals. 

No  people  in  the  world  perhaps  have  higher  no- 
tions than  these  Indians  of  military  glory.  All  the 
surrounding  nations  have  felt  the  effects  of  their 
prowess;  and  many  not  only  became  their  tributa- 
ries, but  were  so  subjugated  to  their  power,  that 
without  their  consent,  they  durst  not  commence 
either  peace  or  war. 

Though  a  regular  police  for  the  preservation  of 
harmony  within,  and  the  defence  of  the  state  against 
invasions  from  without,  is  not  to  be  expected  from 
savages,  yet  perhaps  they  have  paid  more  attention 
to  it  than  is  generally  allowed.  Their  government 
is  suited  to  their  condition.  A  people  whose  riches 
consist  not  so  much  in  abundance,  as  in  a  freedom 
from  want ;  who  are  circumscribed  by  no  bound- 
aries ;  who  live  by  hunting,  and  not  by  agriculture, — 
must  always  be  free,  and  therefore  subject  to  no 
other  authority  than  such  as  consists  with  the  liberty 
necessarily  arising  from  their  circumstances.  All 
their  affairs,  whether  respecting  peace  or  war,  are 
under  the  direction  of  their  Sachems,  or  chief  men. 
Great  exploits  and  public  virtue  procure  the  esteem 
of  a  people,  and  qualify  a  man  to  advise  in  council, 
and  execute  the  plan  concerted  for  the  advantage 
of  his  country ;  thus  whoever  appears  to  the  Indians 
in  this  advantageous  light,  commences  a  Sachem 
without  any  other  ceremony. 

As  there  is  no  other  way  of  arriving  at  this  dig- 
nity, so  it  ceases  unless  an  uniform  zeal  and  activity 
for  the  common  good  is  uninterruptedly  continued. 
Some  have  thought  it  hereditary,  but  that  is  a  mis- 
take. The  son  is  indeed  respected  for  his  father's 
services,  but  without  personal  merit  he  can  never 
share  in  the  government — which,  were  it  otherwise, 
must  sink  into  perfect  disgrace.  The  children  of 


UNITED  STATES 


515 


such  as  are  distinguished  for  their  patriotism,  moved 
by  the  consideration  of  their  birth,  and  the  perpetual 
incitements  to  virtue  constantly  inculcated  into  them, 
imitate  their  father's  exploits,  and  thus  attain  to 
the  same  honours  and  influence  ;  which  accounts  for 
the  opinion  that  the  title  and  power  of  Sachem  is 
hereditary. 

Each  of  these  republics  has  its  own  particular 
chiefs,  who  hear  arid  determine  all  complaints  in 
council,  and  though  they  have  no  officers  for  the 
execution  of  justice,  yet  their  decrees  are  always 
obeyed,  from  the  general  reproach  that  would  follow 
a  contempt  of  their  advice.  The  condition  of  this 
people  exempts  them  from  factions,  the  common 
disease  of  popular  governments.  It  is  impossible  to 
gain  a  party  amongst  them  by  indirect  means  ;  for 
no  man  has  either  honour,  riches,  or  power  to  bestow. 

All  affairs  which  concern  the  general  interest  are 
determined  in  a  great  assembly  of  the  chiefs  of  each 
canton,  usually  held  at  Onondago,  the  centre  of  their 
country.  UpoL  emergencies  they  act  separately, 
but  nothing  can  bind  the  league  but  the  voice  of  the 
general  convention. 

The  French,  upon  the  maxim  of  divide  and  govern, 
tried  all  possible  means  to  disunite  these  repub- 
lics, and  sometimes  even  sowed  great  jealousies 
amongst  them.  In  consequence  of  this  plan,  they 
seduced  many  families  to  withdraw  to  Canada,  and 
there  settled  them  in  regular  towns,  under  the  com- 
mand of  a  fort  and  the  tuition  of  missionaries. 

The  manners  of  these  savages  are  as  simple  as 
their  government.  Their  houses  arc  a  few  crotched 
stakes  thrust  into  the  ground  and  overlaid  with  bark. 
A  fire  is  kindled  in  the  middle,  and  an  aperture  left 
at  the  top  for  the  conveyance  of  the  smoke.  When- 
ever a  considerable  number  of  those  huts  are  col- 
lected, they  have  a  castle,  as  it  is  called,  consisting 
of  a  square  without  bastions,  surrounded  with  pali- 
sadoes.  They  have  no  other  fortification ;  and  this 
is  only  designed  as  an  asylum  for  their  old  men, 
their  wives  and  children,  whilst  the  rest  are  gone 
out  to  war.  They  live  almost  entirely  without  care. 
While  the  women,  or  squaws,  cultivate  a  little  spot 
of  ground  for  corn,  the  men  employ  themselves  in 
hunting.  As  to  clothes,  they  use  a  blanket  girt  at 
the  waist,  and  thrown  loosely  over  their  shoulders ; 
some  of  their  women  indeed  have,  besides  this,  a  sort 
of  a  petticoat,  and  a  few  of  their  men  wear  shirts ; 
but  the  greater  part  of  them  are  generally  half-naked. 
In  winter,  their  legs  are  coveted  with  stockings  of 
blanket,  and  their  feet  with  socks  of  deer  skin. 
Many  of  them  are  fond  of  ornaments,  and  their 
taste  is  very  singular.  Some  have  rings  affixed, 
not  only  to  their  ears  but  their  noses.  Bracelets  of 
silver  and  brass  round  their  wrists,  are  very  common. 
The  women  formerly  plaited  their  hair,  and  tied  it  up 
behind  in  a  bag,  perhaps  in  imitation  of  the  beaus  in 
Canada.  Though  the  Indians  are  capable  of  sus- 
taining great  hardships,  yet  they  cannot  endure 
much  labour,  being  rather  fleet  than  strong.  Their 
men  are  taller  than  the  Europeans,  rather  corpulent, 
always  beardless,  because  they  pluck  out  the  hairs. 
The  French  writers,  who  say  they  have  naturally 
no  beards,  are  mistaken  ;  and  the  reasons  they  assign 
for  it  are  ridiculous.  They  are  strait-limbed,  of  a 
tawny  complexion,  and  black  uncurled  hair.  In 
their  food  they  have  no  manner  of  delicacy,  for 
though  venison  is  their  ordinary  diet,  yet  sometimes 
they  eat  dogs,  bears,  and  even  snakes.  Their  cook- 
ery  is  of  two  kinds,  boiled  or  roasted ;  to  perform 
the  latter,  the  meat  is  penetrated  by  a  short  sharp 
stick  set  in  the  ground,  inclining  towards  the  fire, 


and  turned  as  occasion,  requires.  They  are  hospi- 
table to  strangers,  though  few  Europeans  would 
relish  their  highest  favours  of  this  kind,  for  they  are 
very  dirty  both  in  their  garments  and  food.  Every 
man  has  his  own  wife,  whom  he  takes  and  leaves  at 
pleasure ;  a  plurality,  however,  at  the  same  time,  is 
by  no  means  admitted  among  them.  They  have 
been  generally  commended  for  their  chastity,  but 
others  say,  on  good  authority,  that  they  are  very 
lascivious,  and  that  the  women,  to  avoid  reproach, 
frequently  destroy  the  fetus  in  the  womb.  They 
are  so  perfectly  free,  that  unless  their  children,  who 
generally  assist  their  mother,  may  be  called  servants, 
they  have  none.  The  men  frequently  associate 
themselves  for  conversation,  by  which  means  they 
not  only  preserve  the  remembrance  of  their  wars 
and  treaties,  but  diffuse  among  their  youths  incite- 
ments to  a  love  of  war,  as  well  as  instruction  in  all 
its  subtilties. 

Since  they  became  acquainted  with  the  Europeans, 
their  warlike  apparatus  is  a  musket,  hatchet,  and  a 
long  knife.  To  "  take  up  the  hatchet,"  is  with  them  a 
phrase  signifying  to  declare  war ;  as  on  the  contrary 
"to  bury  it  "  denotes  the  establishment  of  a  peace. 
Their  boys  still  accustom  themselves  to  bows  and 
arrows,  and  are  so  dextrous  in  the  use  of  them,  that 
a  lad  of  sixteen  will  strike  an  English  shilling  five 
times  in  ten,  at  twelve  or  fourteen  yards  distance. 
Their  men  are  excellent  marksmen,  both  with  the 
gun  and  hatchet;  their  dexterity  at  the  latter  is 
very  extraordinary,  for  they  rarely  miss  the  object 
though  at  a  considerable  distance.  The  hatchet  in 
the  flight  perpetually  turns  round,  and  yet  always 
strikes  the  mark  with  the  edge. 

Before  they  go  out,  they  have  a  feast  upon  dog's 
flesh  and  a  great  war  dance.  At  these,  the  war- 
riors, who  are  frightfully  painted  with  vcrmillion, 
rise  up  and  sing  their  own  exploits,  or  those  of  their 
ancestors,  and  thereby  kindle  a  military  enthusiasm 
in  the  whole  company.  The  day  after  the  dance, 
they  march  out  a  few  miles  in  a  row,  observing  a 
profound  silence.  The  procession  being  ended, 
they  strip  the  bark  from  a  large  oak,  and  paint  the 
design  of  their  expedition  on  the  naked  trunk.  The 
figure  of  a  canoe,  with  the  number  of  men  in  it,  de- 
termines the  strength  of  their  party;  and  by  a  deer, 
a  fox,  or  some  other  emblem  painted  at  the  head  of 
it,  we  discover  against  what  nation  they  are  gone 
out. 

The  five  nations  being  devoted  to  war,  every  art 
is  contrived  to  diffuse  a  military  spirit  through  the 
whole  body  of  their  people.  The  ceremonies  attend- 
ing the  return  of  a  party,  seem  calculated  in  par- 
ticular for  that  purpose.  The  day  before  they  enter 
the  village,  two  heralds  advance,  and  at  a  small  dis- 
tance set  up  a  yell,  which  by  its  modulation  inti- 
mates either  good  or  bad  news.  If  the  former,  the 
village  is  alarmed,  and  an  entertainment  provided 
for  the  conquerors,  who  in  the  mean  time  approach 
in  sight :  one  of  them  bears  the  scalps  stretched  over 
a  bow,  and  elevated  upon  a  long  pole.  The  boldest 
man  in  the  town  comes  out,  and  receives  it,  and  in- 
stantly flies  to  the  hut  were  the  rest  are  collected, 
If  he  is  overtaken,  he  is  beaten  unmercifully  ;  but 
if  he  outruns  the  pursuer,  he  participates  in  the 
honour  of  the  victors,  who  at  their  first  entrance 
receive  no  compliments,  nor  speak  a  single  word 
till  the  end  of  the  feast.  Their  parents,  wives,  and 
children  then  are  admitted,  and  treat  them  with  the 
profoundest  respect.  After  these  salutations,  one  of 
the  conquerors  is  appointed  to  relate  the  whole  ad- 
venture, to  which  the  rest  attentively  listen  without 

3F2 


516 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


asking  a  question,  and  the  whole  concludes  with  a 
savage  dance. 

The  Indians  never  fight  in  the  field,  or  upon 
equal  terms/  but  always  sculk  and  attack  by  surprise, 
in  small  parties,  meeting  every  night  at  a  place  of 
rendezvous.  Scarce  any  enemy  can  escape  them; 
for,  by  the  disposition  of  the  grass  and  leaves,  they 
follow  his  track  with  great  speed  any  where  but  over 
a  rock.  Their  barbarity  is  shocking  to  human  na- 
ture. Women  and  children  they  generally  kill  and 
scalp,  because  they  would  retard  their  progress,  but 
the  men  they  carry  into  captivity.  If  any  woman 
has  lost  a  relation,  and  inclines  to  receive  the  pri- 
soner in  his  stead,  he  not  only  escapes  a  series  of 
the  most  inhuman  tortures,  and  death  itself,  but  en- 
joys every  immunity  they  can  bestow,  and  is  es- 
teemed a  member  of  the  family  into  which  he  is 
adopted.  To  part  with  him  would  be  the  most  ig- 
nominious conduct,  and  considered  as  selling-  the 
blood  of  the  deceased ;  and,  for  this  reason,  it  is  not 
without  the  greatest  difficulty  that  a  captive  is  re- 
deemed. 

When  the  Indians  incline  to  peace,  a  messenger 
is  sent  to  the  enemy  with  a  pipe,  the  bowl  of  which 
is  made  of  soft  red  marble ;  and  a  long  reed,  beau- 
tifully painted,  and  adorned  with  the  gay  plumage 
of  birds,  forms  the  stem.  This  is  his  infallible  pro- 
tection from  any  assault  on  the  way.  The  envoy 
makes  his  proposals  to  the  enemy,  who,  if  they  ap- 
prove them,  ratify  the  preliminaries  to  the  peace, 
by  smoking  through  the  pipe,  and,  from  that  instant, 
a  general  cessation  of  arms  takes  place.  The  French 
call  it  a  calumet.  It  is  used,  as  far  as  can  be  learned, 
by  all  the  Indian  nations  on  the  continent.  The 
rights  of  it,  are  esteemed  sacred,  and  have  been  only 
invaded  by  the  Flat  Heads  ;  in  just  indignation  for 
which  the  confederates  maintained  a  war  with  them 
for  near  thirty  years. 

As  to  the  language  of  the  five  nations,  the  best 
account  of  it  is  contained  in  a  letter  from  the  Reve- 
rend Mr.  Spencer,  who  resided  amongst  them  in  the 
year  1748,  being  then  a  missionary  from  the  Scotch 
society  for  propagating  Christian  knowledge.  He 
writes  thus  :— 

"  Except  the  Tuscaroras,  all  the  six  nations  speak 
a  language  radically  the  same.  It  is  very  masculine 
and  sonorous,  abounding  with  gutturals  and  strong 
aspirations,  but  without  labials.  Its  solemn  grave 
tone  is  owing  to  the  generosity  of  its  feet. 

"  The  extraordinary  length  of  Indian  words,  and 
the  guttural  aspirations  necessary  in  pronouncing 
them,  render  the  speech  extremely  rough  and  diffi- 
cult. The  verbs  never  change  in  their  terminations, 
as  in  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew,  but  all  their  varia- 
tions are  prefixed.  Besides  the  singular  aud  plural, 
they  have  also  the  dual  number.  A  strange  trans- 
position of  syllables  of  different  words  is  very  com- 
mon in  the  Indian  tongue. 

"  The  dialect  of  the  Oneydas  is  softer  than  that  of 
the  other  nations ;  and  the  reason  is,  because  they 
have  more  vowels,  and  often  supply  the  place  ot 
harsh  letters  with  liquids;  instead  of  R,  they  always 
use  L :  Rebecca  would  be  pronounced  Lequecca." 

The  art  of  public  speaking  is  in  high  esteem 
among  the  Indians,  and  much  studied.  They  are 
extremely  fond  of  method,  and  displeased  with  an 
irregular  harangue,  because  it  is  difficult  to  be  re- 
membered. When  they  answer,  they  repeat  the 
whole,  reducing  it  into  strict  order.  Their  speeches 
are  short,  and  the  sense  conveyed  in  strong  meta- 
phors. In  conversation  they  are  sprightly,  but  so- 
lemn and  serious  in  their  messages  relating  to  pub- 


lic affairs.  Their  speakers  deliver  themselves  with 
surprising  force,  and  great  propriety  of  gesture. 
The  fierceness  of  their  countenances,  the  flawing 
blanket,  elevated  tone,  naked  arm,  and  erect  stature, 
with  a  half  circle  of  auditors  seated  on  the  ground 
and  in  the  open  air,  cannot  but  impress  upon  the 
mind  a  lively  idea  of  the  ancient  orators  of  Greece 
and  Rome. 

At  the  close  of  every  important  part  of  the  speech, 
ratifying  an  old  covenant  or  creating  a  new  one,  a 
belt  is  generally  given,  to  perpetuate  the  remem- 
brance of  the  transaction.  These  belts  are  about 
four  inches  wide,  and  thirty  in  length.  They  con- 
sist of  strings  of  conque-shell  beads  fastened  tog'ether. 
Those  beads,  which  passed  for  money,  were  called 
by  the  Indians  Wampum,  and  by  the  Dutch  Se- 
want;  six  beads  were  formerly  valued  at  a  styver. 
There  were  always  several  poor  families  at  Albany, 
who  supported  themselves  by  coining  this  cash  for 
the  traders. 

With  respect  to  religion,  the  Indians  may  be  said 
to  be  under  the  thickest  gloom  of  ignorance.  It' 
they  have  any,  which  is  much  to  be  questioned,  those 
who  affirm  it,  will  find  it  difficult  to  tell  us  wherein 
it  consists.  They  have  neither  priest  nor  temple, 
sacrifice  nor  altar.  Some  traces  indeed  appear  of 
the  original  law  written  upon  their  hearts  ;  but  they 
have  no  system  of  doctrines,  nor  any  rites  and  modes 
of  public  worship.  They  are  sunk,  unspeakably, 
beneath  the  polite  pagans  of  antiquity.  Some  con- 
fused notions,  indeed,  of  beings  superior  to  them- 
selves, they  have ;  but  of  the  Deity,  and  his  natural 
and  moral  perfections,  no  proper  or  tolerable  con- 
ceptions ;  and  of  his  general  and  particular  provi- 
dence they  know  nothing.  They  profess  no  obli- 
gations to  him,  nor  acknowledge  their  dependence 
upon  him.  Some  of  them,  it  is  said,  are  of  opinion 
that  there  are  two  distinct,  powerful  beings,  one  able 
to  help,  the  other  to  do  them  harm.  The  latter 
they  venerate  most,  and  some  aDege,  that  they  ad- 
dress him  by  a  kind  of  prayer.  Though  there  are 
no  public  monuments  of  idolatry  to  be  seen  in  their 
country,  yet  the  missionaries  have  discovered  coarse 
imagery  in  wooden  trinkets,  in  the  hands  of  their 
jugglers,  which  the  converts  deliver  up  as  detestable. 
The  sight  of  them  would  remind  an  antiquary  of 
the  Lares  and  Penates  of  the  ancients,  but  no  cer- 
tain judgment  can  be  drawn  of  their  use.  The  In- 
dians sometimes  assemble  in  large  numbers,  and 
retire  far  into  the  wilderness,  where  they  eat  and 
drink  in  a  profuse  manner.  These  conventions  are 
called  kenticoys.  Some  esteem  them  to  be  de- 
bauched revels,  or  bacchanalia ;  but  those  who  have 
privately  followed  them  into  these  recesses  give  such 
accounts  of  their  conduct,  as  naturally  lead  one  to 
imagine  that  they  pay  a  joint  homage  and  supplica- 
tion to  some  invisible  being.  If  we  suppose  they 
have  a  religion,  it  is  worse  than  none,  and  raises 
most  melancholy  ideas  of  their  depraved  condition. 

As  to  the  history  of  the  Five  Nations  before  their 
acquaintance  with  the  Europeans,  it  is  involved  in 
the  darkness  of  antiquity.  It  is  said  that  their  first 
residence  was  in  the  country  about  Montreal ;  and 
that  the  superior  strength  of  the  Adirondacks,  whom 
the  French  call  Algonquins,  drove  them  into  their 
present  possessions,  lying  on  the  south  side  of  the 
Mohawks  river,  and  the  great  lake  Ontario.  To- 
wards the  close  of  those  disputes,  which  continued 
for  a  great  series  of  years,  the  confederates  gained 
advantages  over  the  Adirondacks,  and  struck  a  ge- 
neral terror  into  all  the  other  Indians.  The  Hurons 
on  the  north  side  of  the  lake  Erie,  and  the  Cat  In- 


UNITED  STATES. 


517 


dians  on  the  south  side,  were  totally  conquered  and 
dispersed.      The  French,   who    settled   Canada   in 
1603,  took  umbrage  at  their  success,  and  began  a 
war  with  them  which  had  well  nigh  ruined  the  new 
colony.     In  autumn,   1665,  M.  Courcelles,  the  go- 
vernor, sent  out  a  party   against  the   Mohawks. 
Through  ignorance  of  the  country,  and  the  want  of 
snow  shoes,  they  were  almost  perished,  when  they 
fell  in  with  Schencetady.     And  even  there  the  In- 
dians would  have  sacrificed  them  to  their  barbarous 
rage,  had  not  Corlear,  a  Dutchman,  interposed  to 
protect  them.     For  this  seasonable  hospitality,  the 
French  governor  invited  him  to   Canada,  but   he 
was  unfortunately  drowned  in  his  passage  through 
the  lake  Champlain.     It  is   in  honour  of  this  man, 
who  was  a  favourite   of  the  Indians,   that  the  go- 
vernors  of  New  York,  in  all  their  treaties,  were 
addressed  by  the  name  of  Corlear.     Twenty  light 
companies  of  foot,  and  the  whole  militia  of  Canada, 
marched  the  next  spring  into  the  country  of  the 
Mohawks;  but  their   success  was  very  unequal  to 
the  charge  and  labour  of  such  a  tedious  march  ol 
700  miles,  through  an  uncultivated  desart ;  for  the 
Indians,  on  their  approach,  retired  into  the  woods, 
leaviiig  behind  them  some  old  sachems,  who  preferred 
death  to  life,  to  glut  the  fury  of  their  enemies.     The 
emptiness  of  this  parade  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
Indian  fearfulness  of  fire-arms  on  the  other,  broughl 
about  a  peace  in  1667,  which  continued  for  severa 
years  after.     In  this  interval  both  the  English  anc 
French  cultivated  a  trade  with  the  natives  very  pro 
litable  to  both  nations.     The  latter,   however,  were 
most  politic,  and  vigorous,    and   tilled  the    Indiar 
country  with  their  missionaries.     The  Sieur  Perot 
the  very  year  in  which  the  peace  was  concluded,  tra 
veiled  above  1200  miles  westward,  making  proselyte 
of  the   Indians  every   where  to  the  French  interest 
Courcelles  appears  to  have  been  a  man  of  art  am 
industry.     He  took  every  measure   in  his  power  fo 
the  defence  of  Canada.     To  prevent  the  eruption 
of  the  Five  Nations  by  the  way  of  lake  Champlain 
he  built  several  forts  in  1665,  between  that  and  th 
mouth  of  the  river  Sorel.     In  1672,  just  before  hi 
return  to  France,  under  pretence  of  treating  wit! 
the  Indians  more  commodiously,  but  in  reality,  a 
Charlevoix  expresses  it,   "  to  bridle  them,"  he  ob 
tained  their  leave  to  erect  a  fort  at  Caderacqui,  o 
kike  Ontario,  which  Count  Frontenac,  his  successor 
completed  the  following  spring,  and  called  after  hi 
own  name.  The  command  of  it  was  afterwards  give 
to  Mr.  De  la  Salle,  who,  in   1678,  rebuilt  it  wit 
stone.     This  enterprising  person,   the  same  yeai 
launched  a  bark  of  ten  tons  into  the  lake  Ontaric 
and  another  of  sixty  tons,  the  year  after,  into  lak 
Erie,  about  which  time  he  enclosed  with  pallisadoe 
a  little  spot  at  Niagara. 

Though  the  Duke  of  York  had  preferred  Colon 
Thomas  Dongan  to  the  government  of  thisprovinc 
on  the  30th  of  September,  1682,  he  did  not  arriv 
here  till  the  27tb  of  August  in  the  following  yea 
He  was  a  man  of  integrity,  moderation,  and  polil 
manners,  and  though  a  professed  papist,  may 
classed  among  the  best  of  the  governors. 

The  people,  who  had  been  formerly  ruled  at  th 
will  of  the   duke's  deputies,  began  their  first  part 
cipation  in  the  legislative  power  under  Colonel  Don 
gan,  for  shortly  after  his  arrival,  he  issued   orde 
to  the  sheriffs  to  summon  the  freeholders  for  choosin 
representatives,  to  meet  him  in  assembly  on  the  17th 
of  October,  1683.    Nothing  could  be  more  agreeable 
to  the  people,  who,  whether  Dutch  or  English,  were 
born  the  subjects  of  a  free  state  ;  nor  indeed  was  the 


jange  of  less  advantage  to  the  duke  than  to  the 
nhabitants.     For  such  a  general  disgust  had  pre- 
ailed,  and  in  particular  in   Long  Island,  against 
ic  old  form  which  Colonel  Nicolls  had  introduced, 
s  threatened  the  total  subversion  of  the  public  tran- 
uillity.     Colonel  Dongan  saw  the  disaffection  of 
ic  people  at  the  east  end  of  the  island,  for  he  landed 
icre  on  his  first  arrival  in  the  country  ;  and  to  ex- 
nguish   the  discontent,  then    impatient   to  burst 
ut,  gave  them  his   promise,  that  no  laws  or  rates 
r  the  future  should  be  imposed  but  by  a  general 
ssembly.     Doubtless,  this  alteration  was  agreeable 
o  the  duke's  orders,  who  had  been  strongly  impor- 
uned  for  it,  as  well  as  acceptable   to  the  people,  for 
,hey  sent  him  soon  after  an  address,  expressing  the 
ighest  sense  of  gratitude  for  so  beneficial  a  change 
n  the  government.     It  would  have  been  impossible 
or  him  much  longer  to  have  maintained  the  old 
model  over  free  subjects,  who  had  just  before  formed 
hemselves  into  a  colony  for  the  enjoyment  of  their 
iberties,  and  had  even  already  solicited  the  protec- 
tion of  the  colony  of  Connecticut,  from  whence  the 
greatest  part  of  them  came.     Disputes  relating  to 
he  limits  of  certain  townships  at  the   east  end  of 
Long  Island,   sowed  the  seeds  of  enmity  against 
Dongan  so  deeply  in  the  hearts  of  many  who  were 
concerned  in  them,  that  their  representation  to  Con- 
necticut, at  the  revolution,  contains  the  bitterest  in- 
ectives  against  him. 

Dongan  surpassed  all  his  predecessors  in  a  due 
attention  to  affairs  with  the  Indians,  by  whom 
ic  was  highly  esteemed.  It  must  be  remembered 
:p  his  honour,  that  though  he  was  ordered  by  the 
duke  to  encourage  the  French  priests  who  were 
come  to  reside  among  the  natives,  under  pretence  of 
advancing  the  popish  cause  but  in  reality  to  gain 
them  over  to  a  French  interest;  yet  he  forbid  the 
five  nations  to  entertain  them.  The  Jesuits,  how- 
ever, had  no  small  success.  Their  proselytes  were 
called  praying  Indians,  or  Caghnuagaes,and  resided 
afterwards  in  Canada,  at  the  fall  of  St.  Lewis,  oppo- 
ite  to  Montreal.  This  village  was  begun  in  1671, 
and  consisted  of  such  of  the  five  nations  as  had 
formerly  been  drawn  away  by  the  intrigues  of  the 
French  priests,  in  the  times  of  Lovelace  and  An- 
dross,  who  seem  to  have  paid  no  attention  to  the 
Indian  affairs.  It  was  owing  to  the  instigation  also 
of  these  priests,  that  the  five  nations  about  this  time 
committed  hostilities  on  the  back  parts  of  Mar)'- 
land  and  Virginia,  which  occasioned  a  grand  con- 
vention at  Albany,  in  the  year  1684.  Lord  Howard 
of  Effingham,  the  governor  of  Virginia,  was  present, 
and  made  a  covenant  with  them  for  preventing  fur- 
ther depredations,  towards  the  accomplishment  of 
which,  Colonel  Dongan  was  very  instrumental. 

While  Lord  Howard  was  at  Albany,  a  messenger 
from  De  la  Barre,  then  governor  of  Canada,  arrived, 
complaining  of  the  Senneca  Indians,  lor  interrupt- 
ing the  French  in  their  trade  with  the  more  distant 
Indians,  commonly  included  among  us  by  the  ge- 
neral name  of  the  Far  Nations.  Colonel  Dongan, 
to  whom  the  message  was  sent,  communicated  it  to  the 
Sennecas,  who  admitted  the  charge,  but  justified 
their  conduct,  alleging,  that  the  French  supplied 
arms  and  ammunition  to  the  Twightwies,  with  whom 
they  were  then  at  war.  De  la  Barre,  at  the  same 
time,  meditating  nothing  less  than  the  total  destruc- 
tion of  the  five  nations,  proceeded  with  an  army  of 
1 700  men  to  the  lake  Ontario.  Mighty  preparations 
were  made  to  obtain  the  desired  success :  fresh 
troops  were  impoited  from  France,  and  a  letter 
procured  from  the  duke  of  York  to  Colonel  Dongau 


518 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


commanding  him  to  lay  no  obstacles  in  the  way.    king,  my  master,  has  commanded  me  to  make.    He 
The  officers  posted  in  the  out  forts,  even  as  far  as    doth  not  wish  them  to  force  him  to  send  a  great 
Messilimakinae,    were   ordered    to   rendezvous    at    army  to  Cadarackui  fort,  to  begin  a  war  which  must 
Niagara,   with  adl  the  western  Indians  they  could    be  fatal  to  them.     He  would  be  sorry  that  this  fort, 
engage.     Dongan,  regardless  of  the  duke's  orders,    that  was  the  work  of  peace,  should  become  the  pri- 
appriscd  the   Indians  of  the  French  designs,  and    son  of  your  warriors.     We  must  endeavour,  on  both 
promised  to  assist  them.     After  six  weeks  delay  at   sides,  to  prevent  such  misfortunes.     The  French, 
fort  Frontenac,  during  which  time  a  great  sickness    who  are  the  brethren  and  friends  of  the  five  nations, 
occasioned   by   bad  provisions,   broke  out   in  the    will  never  trouble  their  repose,  provided  that  the 
French  army,   De  la  Barre  found  it  necessary  to    satisfaction  which  I  demand,  be  given ;  and  that  the 
conclude  the  campaign  with  a  treaty,  for  which  pur-    treaties  of  peace  be  hereafter  observed.     I  shall  be 
pose  he  crossed  the  lake,  and  came  to  the  place    extremely  grieved,  if  my  words  do  not  produce  the 
which,  from  the  distress  of  his  army,  was  called  La    effect  which  I  expect  from  them;  for  then  I  shall 
Famine.     Dongan  sent  an  interpreter  among  the    be  obliged  to  join  with  the  governor  of  New  York, 
Indians,  by  all  means  to  prevent  them  from  attend-    who  is  commanded  by  his  master  to  assist  me,  and 
ing  the  treaty.     The  Mohawks  and   Sennecas  ac-    burn  the  castles  of  the  five  nations,  and  destroy  you. 
cordingly  refused  to  meet  De  la  Barre,  but  the  Oney-    This  belt  conh'rms  my  words." 
does,  Onondagas,  and  Cayugas,  influenced  by  the        Garrangula  heard  these  threats  with  contempt, 
missionaries,  were  unwilling  to  hear  the  interpreter,    because  he  had  learnt  the  distressed  state  of  the 
except  before  the  priests,  one  La  Main,  and  three    French  army,  and  knew  that  they  were  incapable 
other  Frenchmen,  and  afterwards  waited  upon  the    of  executing  the  designs  with  which  they  set  out ; 
French  governor.     Two  days  after  their  arrival  in    and  therefore,  after  walking  five  or  six  times  round 
the  camp,   Monsieur  De  la  Barre  addressing  him-    the  circle,  he  answered  the  French  governor,  who 
self  to   Garrangula,  an  Onoudaga  chief,  made  the    sat  in  an  elbow  chair,  in  the  following  strain : 
following  speech,  the  Indians  and  French  officers  at        "  Yonnondio, — 1  honour  you,   and  the  warriors 
the  same  time  forming  a  circle  round  about  him.         that  are  with  me  likewise  honour  you.     Your  in- 
" The  king,  my  master,  being  informed  that  the    terpreter  has  finished  your  speech;   I  now  begin 
five  nations  have  often  infringed  the  peace,  has  or-    mine.     My  words  make  haste  to  reach  your  ears ; 
dered  me  to  come  hither  with  a  guard,  and  to  send    hearken  to  them. 

Ohguesse  to  the  Onondagas,  to  bring  the  chief  Sa-  "  Yonnondio,-you  must  have  believed,  when  you 
chems  to  my  camp.  The  intention  of  the  great  left  Quebec,  that  the  sun  'had  burnt  up  all  the 
king  is,  that  you  and  I  may  smoke  the  calumet  of  forests,  which  render  our  country  inaccessible  to  the 
peace  together :  but  on  this  condition  that  you  pro-  French,  or  that  the  lakes  had  so  far  overflown  the 
mise  me,  in  the  name  of  the  Sennecas,  Cayugas,  banks,  that  they  had  surrounded  our  castles,  and 
Onondagas,  and  Mohawks,  to  give  entire  satisfac-  that  it  was  impossible  for  us  to  get  out  of  them, 
tion  and  reparation  to  his  subjects,  and  for  the  fu-  Yes,  Yonnondio,  surely  you  must  have  dreamt  so, 
tare  never  to  molest  them.  and  the  curiosity  of  seeing  so  great  a  wonder  has 

"  The  Sennecas,  Cayugas,  Onondagas,  Oneydoes,  brought  you  so  far.  Now  you  are  undeceived,  since 
and  Mohawks,  have  robbed  and  abused  all  the  trad-  I  and  the  warriors  here  present,  are  come  to  assure 
ers  that  were  passing  to  the  Illinois  and  Miames,  you,  that  the  Sennecas,  Cayugas,  Onondagas,  Oney- 
and  other  Indian  nations,  the  children  of  my  king,  does,  and  Mohawks,  are  yet  alive.  I  thank  you,  in 
They  have  acted,  on  these  occasions,  contrary  to  their  name,  for  bringing  back  into  their  country  the 
the  treaty  of  peace  with  my  predecessor.  I  am  or-  calumet  which  your  predecessor  received  from  their 
dered,  therefore,  to  demand  satisfaction,  and  to  tell  hands.  It  was  happy  for  you,  that  you  left  under- 
them  that,  in  case  of  refusal,  or  their  plundering  ground  that  murdering  hatchet  that  has  been  so 
us  any  more,  I  have  express  orders  to  declare  war.  often  died  in  the  blood  of  the  French.  Hear,  Yon- 
This  belt  confirms  my  words.  The  warriors  of  the  nondio,  I  do  not  sleep,  I  have  my  eyes  open,  and 
five  nations  have  conducted  the  English  into  the  the  sun  which  enlightens  me  discovers  to  me  a 
lakes  which  belong  to  the  king,  my  master,  and  great  captain  at  the  head  of  a  company  of  soldiers, 
brought  the  English  among  the  nations  that  are  his  who  speaks  as  if  he  were  dreaming.  He  says,  that 
children,  to  destroy  the  trade  of  his  subjects,  and  to  he  only  came  to  the  lake  to  smoke  on  the  great 
withdraw  these  nations  from  him.  They  have  car-  calumet  with  the  Onondagas.  But  Garrangula 
ried  the  English  thither,  notwithstanding  the  pro-  says,  that  he  sees  the  contrary,  that  it  was  to  knock 
hibition  of  the  late  governor  of  New  York,  who  fore-  them  on  the  head,  if  sickness  had  not  weakened  the 
saw  the  risk  that  both  they  and  you  would  run.  I  arms  of  the  French. 

am  willing  to  forget  those  things,  but  if  ever  the  like  "  I  see  Yonnondio  raving  in  a  camp  of  sick  men, 
shall  happen  for  the  future,  I  have  express  orders  to  whose  lives  the  great  spirit  has  saved,  by  inflicting 
declare  war  against  you.  This  belt  confirms  my  this  sickness  on  them.  Hear,  Yonnondio  !  our  wo- 
words.  Your  warriors  have  made  several  barbarous  men  had  taken  their  clubs,  our  children  and  old  men 
incursions  on  the  Illinois  and  Umameis  ;  they  have  had  carried  their  bows  and  arrows  into  the  heart  of 
massacred  men,  women,  and  children,  and  have  your  camp,  if  our  warriors  had  not  disarmed  them 
made  many  of  these  nations  prisoners,  who  thought  and  kept  them  back,  when  your  messenger,  Oh- 
themselves  safe  in  their  villages  in  time  of  peace ;  guesse,  came  to  our  castles.  It  is  done,  and  I  have 
these  people,  who  are  my  king's  children,  must  not  said  it.  Hear,  Yonnondio  !  we  plundered  none  of 
be  your  slaves ;  you  must  give  them  their  liberty,  1  the  French,  but  those  that  carried  guns,  powder, 
and  send  them  back  into  their  own  country.  If  the  and  ball  to  the  Twightwies  and  Chictaghicks,  be- 
five  nations  shall  refuse  to  do  this,  I  have  express  cause  those  arms  might  have  cost  us  our  lives.  Herein 
orders  to  declare  war  against  them.  This  belt  con- 1  we  follow  the  example  of  the  Jesuits,  who  stave  all 
firms  my  words.  the  kegs  of  rum  brought  to  our  castles,  lest  the 

"  This  is  what  I  have  to  say  to  Garrangula,  that  drunken  Indians  should  knock  them  on  the  head, 
he  may  carry  tq  the  Sennecas,  Onondagas,  Oneydoes,  Our  warriors  have  not  beaver  enough  to  pay  for  all 
Cayugas,  anr!  Mohawks,  the  declaration  which  the  j  these  arms  that  they  have  taken,  and  our  old  men 


UNITED  STATES. 


519 


are  not  afraid  of  the  war.  This  belt  preserves  my 
words. 

"  We  carried  the  English  into  our  lakes,  to  trade 
there  with  the  Utawawas  and  Quatoghies,  as  the 
Adirondacks  brought  the  French  to  our  castles,  to 
carry  on  a  trade,  which  the  English  say  is  theirs. 
We  are  born  free ;  wo  neither  depend  on  Yonnon- 
dio  nor  Corlear. 

"  We  may  go  where  we  please,  and  carry  with 
us  whom  we  please,  and  buy  and  sell  what  we  please : 
if  your  allies  be  your  slaves,  use  them  as  such,  com- 
mand them  to  receive  no  other  but  your  people. 
This  belt  preserves  my  words. 

"  We  knocked  the  Twightwies  and  Chictaghicks 
on  the  head,  because  they  had  cut  down  the  trees  of 
peace,  which  were  the  limits  of  our  country.  They 
have  hunted  beavers  on  our  lands  :  they  have  acted 
contrary  to  the  customs  of  all  Indians,  for  they  left 
none  of  the  beavers  alive,  they  killed  both  male 
and  female.  They  brought  the  Satanas  into  the 
country,  to  take  part  with  them,  after  they  had  con- 
certed ill  designs  against  us.  We  have  done  less 
than  either  the  English  or  French,  that  have  usurped 
the  lands  of  so  many  Indian  nations,  and  chased 
them  from  their  own  country.  This  belt  preserves 
my  words. 

"  Hear,  Yonnondio,  what  I  say  is  the  voice  of  all 
the  five  nations — hear  what  they  answer — open  your 
ears  to  what  they  speak.  The  Sennecas,  Cayugas, 
Onondagas,  Oneydoes,  and  Mohawks  say,  that  when 
they  buried  the  hatchet  at  Cadarackui  (in  the  pre- 
sence of  your  predecessor)  in  the  middle  of  the  fort ; 
they  planted  the  tree  of  peace  in  the  same  place,  to 
be  there  carefully  preserved,  that,  in  place  of  a  re- 
treat for  soldiers,  that  port  might  be  a  rendezvous 
for  merchants :  that  in  place  of  arms  and  ammuni- 
tion of  war,  beavers  and  merchandize  should  only 
enter  there. 

"  Hear,  Yonnondio,  take  care  for  the  future,  that 
so  great  a  number  of  soldiers  as  appear  there  do  not 
choak  the  tree  of  peace  planted  in  so  small  a  fort. 
It  will  be  a  great  loss  if,  after  it  had  so  easily  taken 
root,  you  should  stop  its  growth,  and  prevent  its 
covering  your  country  and  ours  with  its  branches. 
I  assure  you,  in  the  name  of  the  five  nations,  that 
our  warriors  shall  dance  to  the  calumet  of  peace 
under  its  leaves,  and  shall  remain  quiet  on  their 
mats,  and  shall  never  dig  up  the  hatchet,  till  their 
brother  Yonnondio  or  Corlear  shall,  either  jointly 
or  separately,  endeavour  to  attack  the  country  which 
the  great  spirit  has  given  to  our  ancestors.  This 
belt  preserves  my  words,  and  this  other,  the  authority 
which  the  five  nations  have  given  me." 

Then  Garrangula,  addressing  himself  to  Monsieur 
La  Main,  said  "  Take  courage  Ohguesse,  you  have 
spirit,  speak,  explain  my  words,  forget  nothing,  tell 
all  that  your  brethren  and  friends  say  to  Yonnondio 
your  governor,  by  the  mouth  of  Garrangula,  who 
loves  you,  and  desires  you  to  accept  of  this  present 
of  beaver,  and  take  part  with  me  in  my  feast,  to 
which  I  invite  you.  This  present  of  beaver  is  sent 
to  Yonnondio,  on  the  part  of  the  five  nations." 

Enraged  at  this  bold  reply  De  la  Barre,  as  soon 
as  the  peace  was  concluded,  retired  to  Montreal, 
and  ingloriously  finished  an  expensive  campaign,  as 
Dr.  Golden  observes,  in  a  scold  with  an  old  Indian. 

De  la  Barre  was  succeeded  by  the  Marquis  de 
Nouville,  colonel  of  the  dragoons,  who  arrived  with 
a  reinforcement  of  troops  in  1685.  The  marquis 
was  a  man  of  courage,  and  an  enterprising  spirit, 
and  not  a  little  animated  by  the  consideration,  that 
he  was  sent  over  to  repair  the  disgrace  which  his 


predecessor  had  brought  upon  the  French  colony. 
The  year  after  his  arrival  at  Quebec,  he  wrote  a 
letter  to  the  minister  in  France,  recommending  the 
scheme  of  erecting  a  stone  fort,  sufficient  to  contain 
four  or  five  hundred  men,  at  Niagara,  not  only  to 
exclude  the  English  from  the  lakes,  but  to  command 
the  fur  trade,  and  subdue  the  five  nations.  Don- 
gan,  who  was  jealous  of  his  designs,  took  umbrage 
at  the  extraordinary  supplies  sent  to  fort  Frontenac, 
and  wrote  to  the  French  governor,  signifying  that, 
if  he  attacked  the  confederates,  he  would  consider  it 
as  a  breach  of  the  peace  subsisting  between  the  two 
crowns ;  and  to  prevent  his  building  a  fort  at  Nia- 
gara, he  protested  against  it,  and  claimed  the  coun- 
try as  dependent  upon  the  province.  De  Nonville, 
in  his  answer,  denied  that  he  intended  to  invade  the 
five  nations,  though  the  necessary  preparations  for 
that  purpose  were  then  carrying  on,  and  yet  Char- 
levoix  commends  him  for  his  piety  and  uprightness. 
Colonel  Dongan,  who  knew  the  importance  of  the 
Indian  alliance,  placed  no  confidence  in  the  decla- 
rations of  the  marquis,  but  exerted  himself  in  pre- 
paring the  confederates  for  the  war ;  and  the  French 
author  just  mentioned  does  him  honour,  while  he 
complains  of  him  as  a  perpetual  obstacle  in  the  way 
of  the  execution  of  their  schemes. 

De  Nonville,  to  prevent  the  interruption  of  the 
French  trade  with  the  Twiglitwies,  determined  to 
divert  the  five  nations,  and  carry  the  war  into  their 
country.  To  that  end,  in  1687,  he  collected  2,000 
troops,  and  600  Indians,  at  Montreal,  and  issued 
orders  to  all  the  officers  in  the  more  westerly  coun- 
try to  meet  him  with  additional  succours  at  Niagara, 
on  an  expedition  against  the  Sennecas.  An  English 
party,  under  one  M'Gregory,  at  the  same  time  was 
gone  out  to  trade  on  the  lakes,  but  the  French,  not- 
withstanding the  peace  then  subsisting  between  the 
two  crowns,  intercepted  them,  seized  their  effects, 
and  imprisoned  their  persons.  Monsieur  Fonti,  com- 
mandant among  the  Chictaghics,  who  was  coming 
to  the  general's  rendezvous  at  Niagara,  did  the  like 
to  another  English  party,  which  he  met  with  in  lake 
Erie — both  which  attacks  were  open  infractions  of 
the  treaty  at  Whitehall,  executed  in  November, 
1686;  by  which  it  was  agreed,  that  the  Indian  trade 
in  America  should  be  free  to  the  English  and  French. 
The  five  nations,  in  the  mean  time,  were  preparing 
to  give  the  French  army  a  suitable  reception. 
Monsieur  Compauie,  with  two  or  three  hundred  Ca- 
nadians in  an  advanced  party,  surprised  two  villages 
of  the  confederates,  who,  at  the  invitation,  and  on 
the  faith  of  the  French,  seated  themselves  down 
about  eight  leagues  from  lake  Fadarackui  or  Onta- 
rio. To  prevent  their  escape  with  intelligence  to 
their  countrymen,  they  were  carried  to  the  fort,  and 
all  but  thirteen  died  in  torments  at  the  stake,  sing- 
ing, with  an  heroic  spirit,  in  their  expiring  moments, 
the  perfidy  of  the  French.  The  rest,  according  to 
the  express  orders  of  the  French  king,  were  sent  to 
the  gallies  in  Europe.  The  marquis  having  em- 
barked his  whole  army  in  canoes,  set  out  from  the 
fort  at  Cadurackui  on  the  23d  of  June,  one  half  of 
them  passing  along  the  north,  and  the  other  on  the 
south  side  the  lake ;  and  both  arrived  the  same  day 
at  Tyronpequait,  and  shortly  after  set  out  on  their 
march  towards  the  chief  village  of  the  Sennecas,  at 
about  seven  leagues  distance.  The  main  body  was 
composed  of  the  regulars  and  militia,  the  front  and 
rear  of  the  Indians  and  traders.  The  scouts  ad- 
vanced the  second  day  on  their  march  as  far  as  the 
corn  of  the  village,  and  within  pistol-shot  of  500 
iis,  wlu  lay  upon  their  bellies, 


520 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


The  French,  who  imagined  the  enemy  were  all  fled, 
quickened  their  march,  to  overtake  the  women  and 
old  men.  But  no  sooner  had  they  reached  the  foot 
of  a  hill,  about  a  mile  from  the  villages,  than  the 
Sennecas  raised  the  war  shout,  and  in  the  same  in- 
stant charged  upon  the  whole  army  both  in  the  front 
and  rear.  Universal  confusion  ensued.  The  bat- 
talions divided,  fired  upon  each  other,  and  fled  into 
the  wood.  The  Sennecas  improved  the  disorder  of 
the  enemy,  till  they  were  repulsed  by  the  French 
Indians.  According  to  Charlevoix's  account,  which 
may  be  justly  suspected,  the  enemy  lost  but  six 
men,  and  had  twenty  wounded  in  the  conflict.  Of 
the  Sennecas,  he  says,  sixty  were  wounded,  and 
forty-five  slain.  The  marquis  was  so  much  dispi- 
rited, that  he  could  not  be  persuaded  to  pursue  the 
enemy  that  day ;  which  gave  the  Sennecas  an  op- 
portunity to  burn  their  village,  and  get  off.  Two 
old  men  remained  in  the  castle  to  receive  the  gene- 
ral, and  regale  the  barbarity  of  his  Indian  allies. 
After  destroying  the  corn  in  this  and  several  other 
villages,  the  army  retired  to  the  banks  of  the  lake, 
and  erected  a  fort  with  four  bastions  on  the  south- 
east side  of  the  straights  at  Niagara,  in  which  they 
left  one  hundred  men  under  the  command  of  Le 
Chevalier  de  la  Troye,  with  eight  months  provisions; 
but  these  being  chiefly  blocked  up,  all,  except  seven 
or  eight  of  them,  who  were  accidentally  relieved, 
perished  through  famine.  Soon  after  this  expedition 
Colonel  Dongan  met  the  five  nations  at  Albany. 
To  what  intent,  appears  from  the  speech  he  made 
to  them  on  the  5th  of  August,  which  is  quoted,  in 
order  to  shew  his  vigilance  and  zeal  for  the  province 
committed  to  his  care,  and  a  sample  of  the  mode  of 
conducting  business. 

"  Brethren, — I  am  very  glad  to  see  you  here  in 
this  house,  and  am  heartily  glad  that  you  have  sus- 
tained no  greater  loss  by  the  French,  though  I  be- 
lieve it  was  their  intention  to  destroy  you  all,  if  they 
could  have  surprised  you  in  your  castles. 

"  As  soon  as  I  heard  their  design  to  war  with 
you,  I  gave  you  notice,  and  came  up  hither  myself, 
that  I  might  be  ready  to  give  all  the  assistance  and 
advice  that  so  short  a  time  would  allow  me. 

"  I  am  now  about  sending  a  gentleman  to  Eng- 
land to  the  king,  my  master,  to  let  him  know  that 
the  French  have  invaded  his  territories  on  this  side 
of  the  great  lake,  and  warred  upon  the  brethren,  his 
subjects.  I  therefore  would  willingly  know,  whether 
the  brethren  have  given  the  governor  of  Canada  any 
provocation  or  not ;  and  if  they  have,  how,  and  in 
what  manner ;  because  I  am  obliged  to  give  a  true 
account  of  this  matter.  This  business  may  cause  a 
war  between  the  king  of  England,  and  the  French 
king,  both  in  Europe  and  here,  and  therefore  I  must 
know  the  truth. 

"  I  know  the  governor  of  Canada  dare  not  enter 
into  the  king  of  England's  territories  in  a  hostile 
manner,  without  provocation,  if  he  thought  the  bre- 
thren were  the  king  of  England's  subjects ;  but  you 
have,  two  or  three  years  ago,  made  a  covenant  chain 
with  the  French,  contrary  to  my  command,  (which 
I  knew  could  not  hold  long),  being  void  of  itself 
among  the  Christians ;  for  as  much  as  subjects  (as 
you  are)  ought  not  to  treat  with  any  foreign  nation, 
it  not  lying  in  your  power.  You  have  brought  this 
trouble  on  yourselves,  and,  as  I  believe,  this  is  the 
only  reason  of  their  falling  on  you  at  this  time. 

"  Brethren,  I  took  it  very  ill,  that  after  you  had 
put  yourselves  into  the  number  of  the  great  king  of 
England's  subjects,  you  should  ever  offer  to  make 
peace  or  war,  without  my  consent.  You  know  that 


we  can  live  without  you,  but  you  cannot  live  without 
us;  you  never  found  that  I  told  you  a  lie,  and  I  of- 
ferred  you  the  assistance  you  wanted,  provided  that 
you  would  be  advised  by  me ;  for  I  know  the  French 
better  than  any  of  you  do. 

"  Now  since  there  is  a  war  begun  upon  you  bv 
the  governor  of  Canada;  I  hope  without  any  provo- 
cation by  you  given ;  I  desire  and  command  you,  that 
you  hearken  to  no  treaty  but  by  my  advice  ;  which 
if  you  follow  you  shall  have  the  benefit  of  the  great 
chain  of  friendship  between  the  great  king  of  Eng- 
land and  the  king  of  France,  which  came  out  of 
England  the  other  day,  and  which  I  have  sent  to 
Canada  by  Anthony  le  Junard :  in  the  meantime  I 
will  give  you  such  advice  as  will  be  for  your  good  ; 
and  will  supply  you  with  such  necessaries  as  you 
will  have  need  of. 

"  First.  My  advice  is,  as  to  what  prisoners  of  the 
French  you  shall  take,  that  you  draw  not  their  blood, 
but  bring  them  home,  and  keep  them  to  exchange 
for  your  people,  which  they  have  prisoners  already, 
or  may  take  hereafter. 

"  Secondly.  That  if  it  be  possible  that  you  can 
order  it  so,  I  would  have  you  take  one  or  two  of 
your  wisest  sachems,  and  one  or  two  of  your  chief 
captains,  of  each  nation,  to  be  a  council  to  manage 
all  affairs  of  the  war.  They  to  give  orders  to  the 
rest  of  the  officers  what  they  are  to  do,  that  your 
designs  may  be  kept  private;  for  after  it  comes 
among  so  many  people,  it  is  blazed  abroad,  and  your 
designs  are  often  frustrated;  and  those  chief  men 
should  keep  a  correspondence  with  me  by  a  trusty 
messenger. 

"  Thirdly.  The  great  matter  under  consideration 
with  the  brethren  is,  how  to  strengthen  themselves, 
and  weaken  the  enemy.  My  opinion  is,  that  the 
brethren  should  send  messengers  to  the  Utawawas, 
Twichtwies,  and  the  further  Indians,  and  to  send 
back  likewise  some  of  the  prisoners  of  these  nations, 
if  you  have  any  left,  to  bury  the  hatchet,  and  to 
make  a  covenant  chain,  that  they  may  put  away  all 
the  French  that  are  among  them,  and  that  you  will 
open  a  path  for  them  this  way,  (they  being  the  king 
of  England's  subjects  likewise,  though  the  French 
have  been  admitted  to  trade  with  them ;  for  all  that 
the  French  have  in  Canada,  they  had  it  of  the  great 
king  of  England),  that,  by  that  means,  they  may 
come  hither  freely,  where  they  may  have  every  thing 
cheaper  than  among  the  French :  that  you  and  they 
may  join  together  against  the  French,  and  make  so 
firm  a  league,  that  whoever  is  an  enemy  to  one, 
must  be  to  both. 

"  Fourthly.  Another  thing  of  concern  is,  that  you 
ought  to  do  what  you  can  to  open  a  path  for  all  the 
north  Indians  and  Mahikanders  that  are  among  the 
Utawawas  and  further  nations.  I  will  endeavour  to 
do  the  same  to  bring  them  home;  for,  they  not 
daring  to  return  home  your  way,  the  French  keep 
them  there  on  purpose  to  join  with  the  other  nations 
against  you,  for  your  destruction  ;  for  you  know, 
that  one*  of  them  is  worse  than  six  of  the  others  ; 
therefore,  all  means  must  be  used  to  bring  them 
home,  and  use  them  kindly  as  they  pass  through 
your  country. 

"  Fifthly.  My  advice  further  is,  that  messengers 
go  in  behalf  of  all  the  five  nations,  to  the  Christian 
Indians  at  Canada,  to  persuade  them  to  come  home 
to  their  native  country.  This  will  be  another  great 
means  to  weaken  your  enemy  ;  but  if  they  will  not 
be  advised,  you  know  what  to  do  with  them. 

"  Sixthly.  I  think  it  very  necessary  foi  the 
brethren's  security  and  assistance,  and  to  the  en- 


UNITED  STATES. 


521 


damaging  the  French,  to  buiid  a  fort  upon  the  lake, 
\vhere  I  may  keep  stores  and  provisions  in  case  of 
necessity ;  and  therefore  I  would  have  tho  brethren 
let  me  know  what  place  will  be  most  convenient 
for  it. 

"  Seventhly.  I  would  not  have  the  brethren  keep 
thrir  corn  in  their  castles,  as  I  hear  the  Onondagas 
do,  but  bury  it  a  great  way  in  the  woods,  where  few 
people  may  know  where  it  is,  for  fear  of  such  an 
accident  as  happened  to  the  Sennecas. 

"  Eighthly.  I  have  given  my  advice  in  your  ge- 
neral assembly,  by  Mr.  Dirk  Wessels  and  Akus,  the 
interpreter,  how  you  are  to  manage  your  parties, 
and  how  necessary  it  is  to  get  prisoners,  to  exchange 
for  your  own  men  that  are  prisoners  with  the  French, 
and  I  am  glad  to  hear  that  the  brethren  are  so 
united  as  Mr.  Dirk  Wessels  tells  me  you  are,  and 
that  there  was  no  rotten  members  nor  French  spies 
among  you. 

"  Ninthly.  The  brethren  may  remember  my  ad- 
vice which  I  sent  you  this  spring,  not  to  go  to  Cada- 
rackui ;  if  you  had,  they  would  have  served  you,  as 
they  did  your  people  that  came  from  hunting  thither, 
for  I  told  you  that  I  knew  the  French  better  than 
you  did. 

"  Tenthly.  There  was  no  advice  or  proposition 
that  I  made  to  tho  brethren  all  the  time  that  the 
priest  lived  at  Onondaga,  but  what  he  wrote  to 
Canada,  as  I  found  by  one  of  his  letters,  which  he 
gave  to  an  Indian  to  carry  to  Canada,  but  which 
was  brought  hither;  therefore,  I  desire  the  brethren 
not  to  receive  him,  or  any  French  priest  any  more, 
having  sent  for  English  priests,  with  whom  you  may 
be  supplied  to  your  content. 

"  Eleventhly.  I  would  have  the  brethren  look  out 
sharp,  for  fear  of  being  surprised.  I  believe  all  the 
strength  of  the  French  will  be  at  their  frontier 
places,  viz.  at  Cadarackui  and  Oniagara,  where  they 
have  built  a  fort  now,  and  at  Trois  Rivieres,  Mont- 
real, and  Chambly. 

"  Twelfthly.  Let  me  put  you  in  mind  again,  not 
to  make  any  treaties  without  my  means,  which  will 
be  more  advantageous  for  you,  than  your  doing  it 
by  yourselves^,  for  then  you  will  be  looked  upon  as 
the  king  of  England's  subjects,  and  let  me  know, 
from  time  to  time,  every  thing  that  is  done. 

"  Thus  far  I  have  spoken  to  you  relating  to  the  war." 

Not  long  after  this  interview,  a  considerable  party 
of  Mohawks  and  Mahikanders,  or  river  Indians,  be- 
set fort  Chambly,  burnt  several  houses,  and  returned 
with  many  captives  to  Albany.  Forty  Onondagas, 
about  the  same  time,  surprised  a  few  soldiers  near 
fort  Frontenac,  whom  they  confined  instead  of  the 
Indians  sent  home  to  the  gallies,  notwithstanding 
the  utmost  address  was  used  to  regain  them,  by 
Lamberville,  a  French  priest,  who  delivered  them 
two  belts,  to  engage  their  kindness  to  the  prisoners, 
and  prevent  their  joining  the  quarrel  with  the  Sen- 
necas. The  belts  being  sent  to  Colonel  Dongan,  he 
wrote  to  De  Nonville,  to  demand  the  reason  of 
their  being  delivered.  Pere  le  Vaillant  was  sent 
about  the  beginning  of  the  year  1688,  under  colour 
of  bringing  an  answer,  but  in  reality  as  a  spy.  Col. 
Dongan  told  him,  that  no  peace  could  be  made  with 
the  five  nations,  unless  the  Indians  sent  to  the  gal- 
lies,  and  the  Caghnuaga  proselytes,  were  returned 
to  their  respective  cantons,  the  forts  at  Niagara  and 
Frontenac  razed,  and  the  Sennecas  had  satisfaction 
made  them  for  the  damage  they  had  sustained. 
The  Jesuit,  in  his  return,  was  ordered  not  to  visit 
the  Mohawks. 

Dongan,  who  was  fully  sensible  of  the  importance 


of  the  Indian  interest  to  the  English  colonies,  was 
for  compelling  the  French  to  apply  to  him  in  all  their 
affairs  with  the  five  nations  ;  while  they,  on  the  other 
hand,  were  for  treating  with  them  independent  of 
the  English.  For  this  reason,  among  others,  he 
refused  them  the  assistance  they  frequently  required, 
till  they  acknowledged  the  dependence  of  the  con- 
federates on  the  English  crown.  King  James, 
a  bigotted,  popish,  priest-ridden  prince,  ordered 
his  governor  to  give  up  this  point,  and  to  persuade 
the  five  nations  to  send  messengers  to  Canada,  to 
receive  proposals  of  peace  from  the  French.  For 
this  purpose,  a  cessation  of  arms  and  mutual  re- 
delivery  of  prisoners  was  agreed  upon.  Near  1200 
of  the  confederates  attended  this  negociation  at 
Montreal,  and  in  their  speech  to  De  Nonville,  in- 
sisted with  great  resolution  upon  the  terms  proposed 
by  Colonel  Dongan  to  Father  le  Vaillant.  The 
French  governor  declared  his  willingness  to  put  an 
end  to  the  war,  if  all  his  allies  might  be  included  in 
the  treaty  of  peace,  if  the  Mohawks  and  Sennecaa 
would  send  deputies  to  signify  their  concurrence, 
and  the  French  might  supply  fort  Frontenac  with 
provisions.  The  confederates,  accordingtothe  French 
accounts,  acceded  to  these  conditions,  and  the  treaty 
was  ratified  in  the  field.  But  a  new  rupture  not 
long  after  ensued,  from  a  cause  entirely  unsuspected. 
The  Dinondadies  had  been  inclined  to  trade  with 
the  English  at  Missilimakinac,  and  their  alliance 
was  therefore  become  suspected  by  the  French. 
Adario,  their  chief,  thought  to  regain  the  ancient 
confidence,  which  had  been  reposed  in  his  country- 
men, by  a  notable  action  against  the  five  nations  ; 
and  for  that  purpose  put  himself  at  the  head  of  100 
men:  nothing  was  more  disagreeable  to  him,  than 
the  prospect  of  peace  between  the  French  and  the 
confederates  ;  for  that  event  would  not  only  render 
the  amity  of  the  Dinondadies  useless,  but  give  the 
French  an  opportunity  of  resenting  their  late  fa- 
vourable conduct  towards  the  English.  Impressed 
with  these  sentiments,  out  of  affection  to  his  country, 
he  intercepted  the  ambassadors  of  the  five  nations, 
at  one  of  the  falls  in  Cadarackui  river,  killed  some 
and  took  others  prisoners,  telling  them  that  the 
French  governor  had  informed  him,  that  fifty  war- 
riors of  the  five  nations  were  coming  that  way.  As 
the  Dinondadies  and  confederates  were  then  at  war, 
the  ambassadors  were  astonished  at  the  perfidy  of 
the  French  governor,  and  could  not  help  communi- 
cating the  design  of  their  journey.  Adario,  in  pro- 
secution of  his  crafty  scheme,  counterfeited  the  ut- 
most distress,  anger,  and  shame,  on  being  made  the 
ignominious  tool  of  De  Nonville's  treachery,  and 
addressing  himself  to  Dekanesora,  the  principal  am- 
bassador, said  to  him,  "  Go,  my  brethren,  I  untie 
your  bonds,  and  send  you  home  again,  though  our 
nations  be  at  war.  The  French  governor  has  made 
me  commit  so  black  an  action,  that  I  shall  never  be 
easy  after  it,  till  the  five  nations  shall  have  taken 
full  revenge."  This  outrage  and  indignity  upon  the 
rights  of  ambassadors,  the  truth  of  which  they  did 
not  in  the  least  doubt,  animated  the  confederates  to 
the  keenest  thirst  after  revenge ;  and  accordingly 
1200  of  their  men,  on  the  26th  of  July,  1688,  landed 
on  the  south  side  of  the  island  of  Montreal,  while 
the  French  were  in  perfect  security;  burnt  their 
houses,  sacked  their  plantations,  and  put  to  the 
sword  all  the  men,  women,  and  children,  without 
the  skirts  of  the  town.  A  thousand  French  were 
slain  in  this  invasion,  and  twenty-six  carried  into  cap- 
tivity and  burnt  alive.  Many  more  were  made  pri- 
soners in  another  attack  in  October,  and  the  lower 


522 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA, 


part  of  the  island  wholly  destroyed.  Only  three  of 
the  confederates  were  lost,  in  all  this  scene  of  mi- 
sery and  desolation. 

The  foregoing  account  is  from  Dr.  Golden,  who 
differs  from  Charlevoix,  who  says,  that  the  invasion 
was  late  in  August,  and  the  Indians  1500  strong ; 
and  the  loss  of  the  French  only  200. 

The  news  of  this  attack  on  Montreal  no  sooner 
reached  the  garrison  at  the  lake  Ontario,  than  they 
eet  fire  to  the  two  barks  which  they  had  built  there, 
and  abandoned  the  fort,  leaving  a  match  to  28  bar- 
rels of  powder,  designed  to  blow  up  the  works.  The 
soldiers  went  down  the  river  in  such  precipitation, 
that  one  of  the  battoes  and  her  crew  were  all  lost  in 
shooting  a  fall.  The  confederates  in  the  mean  time 
seized  the  fort,  the  powder,  and  the  stores ;  and  of 
all  the  French  allies,  who  were  very  numerous,  only 
the  Nepicirinians  and  Kikabous  adhered  to  them  in 
their  calamities.  The  Utawawas  and  seven  other 
nations  instantly  made  peace  with  the  English ;  and 
but  for  the  uncommon  sagacity  and  address  of  the 
Sieur  Perot,  the  western  Indians  would  have  mur- 
dered every  Frenchman  amongst  them.  Nor  did  the 
distresses  of  the  Canadians  end  here.  Numerous 
scouts  from  the  five  nations  continually  infested 
their  borders.  The  frequent  depredations  that  were 
made,  prevented  them  from  the  cultivation  of  their 
fields,  and  a  distressing  famine  raged  through  the 
whole  country.  Nothing  but  the  ignorance  of  the 
Indians,  in  the  art  of  attacking  fortified  places, 
saved  Canada  from  being  now  utterly  cut  off.  It 
was  therefore  unspeakably  fortunate  to  the  French, 
that  the  Indians  had  no  assistance  from  the  English, 
and  as  unfortunate  to  us,  that  our  colonies  were 
then  incapable  of  affording  succours  to  the  confede- 
rates, through  the  malignant  influence  of  those  exe- 
crable measures,  which  were  pursued  under  the  in- 
famous reign  of  king  James  the  Second.  Colonel 
Dongan,  whatever  his  conduct  might  have  been  in 
civil  affairs,  did  all  that  he  could  in  those  relating 
to  the  Indians,  and  fell  at  last  into  the  king's  dis- 
pleasure, through  his  zeal  for  the  true  interest  of  the 
province. 

While  these  things  were  transacting  in  Canada, 
a  scene  of  the  greatest  importance  was  opening  at 
New  York.  A  general  disaffection  to  the  govern- 
ment prevailed  among  the  people.  Papists  began 
to  settle  in  the  colony  under  the  smiles  of  the  go- 
vernor. The  collector  of  the  revenues,  and  several 
principal  officers,  threw  off  the  mask,  and  openly 
avowed  their  attachment  to  the  doctrines  of  Rome. 
A  Latin  school  was  set  up,  and  the  teacher  strongly 
suspected  for  a  Jesuit.  The  people  of  Long  Island, 
who  were  disappointed  in  their  expectation  of  the 
favours  promised  by  the  governor  on  his  arrival, 
were  become  his  personal  enemies ;  and  in  a  word, 
the  whole  body  of  the  people  trembled  for  the  pro- 
testant  cause.  Here  the  leaven  of  opposition  first 
began  to  work.  Their  intelligence  from  England, 
ef  the  designs  there  in  favour  of  the  prince  of  Orange, 
elevated  the  hopes  of  the  disaffected.  But  no  man 
dared  to  act,  till  after  the  rupture  in  Boston.  Sir 
Edmond  Andross,  who  was  perfectly  devoted  to  the 
arbitrary  measures  of  king  James,  by  his  tyranny 
in  New  England  had  drawn  upon  himself  the  uni- 
versal odium  of  a  people  animated  with  the  love  of 
liberty,  and  in  the  defence  of  it  resolute  and  cou- 
rageous ;  and  therefore,  when  they  could  no  longer 
endure  his  despotic  rule,  they  seized  and  imprisoned 
him,  and  afterwards  sent  him  to  England.  The 
government,  in  the  mean  time,  was  vested  in  the 
hands  of  a  committee  for  the  safety  of  the  people,  of 


which  Mr.  Bradstreet  was  chosen  president.  Upon 
the  news  of  this  event,  several  captains  of  the  New 
York  militia  convened  themselves  to  concert  mea- 
sures in  favour  of  the  prince  of  Orange.  Amongst 
these,  Jacob  Leisler  was  the  most  active  ;  a  man  in 
tolerable  esteem  among  the  people,  and  of  a  mode- 
rate fortune,  but  destitute  of  every  qualification  ne 
cessary  for  the  enterprise.  Milborne,  his  son-in- 
law,  an  Englishman,  directed  all  his  councils,  while 
Leisler  as  absolutely  influenced  the  other  officers. 

The  first  thing  they  contrived,  was  to  seize  the 
garrison  in  New  York;  and  the  custom,  at  that 
time,  of  guarding  it  every  night  by  the  militia,  gave 
Leisler  a  fine  opportunity  of  executing  the  design. 
He  entered  it  with  forty-nine  men,  and  determined 
to  hold  it  till  the  whole  militia  should  join  him.  Col. 
Dongan,  who  was  about  to  leave  the  province,  then 
lay  embarked  in  the  bay,  having  a  little  before  re- 
signed the  government  to  Francis  Nicholson,  the 
lieut.-governor.  The  council,  civil  officers,  and  ma- 
gistrates of  the  city  were  against  Leisler,  and  there- 
fore many  of  his  friends  were  at  first  fearful  of 
openly  espousing  a  cause  disapproved  by  the  gentle- 
men of  figure.  For  this  reason,  Leisler's  first  de- 
claration in  favour  of  the  prince  of  Orange  was  sub- 
scribed only  by  a  few  among  several  companies  of 
the  trained  bands.  While  the  people,  for  four  days 
successively,  were  in  the  utmost  perplexity  to  de- 
termine what  part  to  choose,  being  solicited  by  Leis- 
ler on  the  one  hand,  and  threatened  by  the  lieut.- 
governor  on  the  other,  the  town  was  alarmed  with 
a  report,  that  three  ships  were  coming  up,  with  or- 
ders from  the  prince  of  Orange.  This  falsehood  was 
very  seasonably  propagated  to  serve  the  interest  of 
Leisler;  for  on  that  day,  the  3d  of  June,  1689,  his 
party  was  augmented  by  the  addition  of  six  captains 
and  400  men  in  New  York,  and  a  company  of  70 
men  from  East  Chester,  who  all  subscribed  a  second 
declaration,  mutually  covenanting  to  hold  the  fort 
for  that  prince.  Colonel  Dongan  continued  till  this 
time  in  the  harbour,  waiting  the  issue  of  these  com- 
motions;  and  Nicholson's  party  being  now  unable 
to  contend  with  their  opponents,  were  totally  dis 
persed,  the  lieut.-governor  himself  absconding  the 
very  night  after  the  last  declaration  was  signed. 

Leisler  being  now  in  complete  possession  of  the 
fort,  sent  home  an  address  to  King  William  and 
Queen  Mary,  as  soon  as  he  received  the  news  of 
their  accession  to  the  throne.  It  is  a  tedious,  in- 
correct, ill-drawn  narrative  of  the  grievances  which 
the  people  had  endured,  and  the  methods  lately 
taken  to  secure  themselves,  ending  with  a  recogni- 
tion of  the  King  and  Queen  over  the  whole  English 
dominions. 

This  address  was  soon  followed  by  a  private  letter 
from  Leisler  to  King  William,  which,  in  very  broken 
English,  informs  his  majesty  of  the  state  of  the  gar- 
rison, the  repairs  he  had  made  to  it,  and  the  temper 
of  the  people,  and  concludes  with  strong  protesta- 
tions of  his  sincerity,  loyalty,  and  zoal.  Jost  Stoll, 
an  ensign,  on  the  delivery  of  this  letter  to  the  king, 
had  the  honour  to  kiss  his  majesty's  hand,  but 
Nicholson  the  lieut.-governor,  and  one  Ennis,  an 
episcopal  clergyman,  arrived  in  England  before  him ; 
and  by  falsely  representing  the  late  measures  in 
New  York,  as  proceeding  rather  from  their  aversion 
to  the  church  of  England,  than  zeal  for  the  prince 
of  Orange,  Leisler  and  his  party  were  deprived  of 
the  rewards  and  notice  which  their  activity  for  the 
revolution  justly  deserved.  For  though  the  king 
made  Stoll  the  bearer  of  his  thanks  to  the  people 
for  their  fidelity,  he  so  little  regarded  Leisler's  com- 


UNITED  STATES. 


523 


plaints  against  Nicholson,  that  he  was  soon  after 
preferred  to  the  government  of  Virginia.  Dongan 
returned  to  Ireland,  and  succeeded  to  the  earldom 
of  Limerick. 

Leisler's  sudden  investure  with  supreme  power 
over  the  province,  and  the  probable  prospects  of 
King  William's  approbation  of  his  conduct,  could 
not  but  excite  the  envy  and  jealousy  of  the  late 
council  and  magistrates,  who  had  refused  to  join  in 
aiding  the  revolution ;  and  hence  the  spring  of  all 
their  aversion  both  to  the  man  and  his  measures. 
Colonel  Bayard,  and  Courtland  the  mayor  of  the 
city,  were  at  the  head  of  his  opponents,  and  finding 
it  impossible  to  raise  a  party  against  him  in  the  city, 
they  very  early  retired  to  Albany,  and  there  endea- 
voured to  foment  the  opposition.  Leisler,  on  the 
other  hand,  fearful  of  their  influence,  and  to  extin- 
guish the  jealousy  of  the  people,  thought  it  prudent 
to  admit  several  trusty  persons  to  a  participation  of 
that  power  which  the  militia  on  the  1st  of  July  had 
committed  solely  to  himself.  In  conjunction  with 
these,  (who,  after  the  Boston  example,  were  called 
the  committee  of  safety)  he  exercised  the  govern- 
ment, assuming  to  himself  only  the  honour  of  being 
president  in  their  councils.  This  model  continued 
till  the  month  of  December,  when  a  packet  arrived 
with  a  letter  from  the  Lords  Carmarthen,  Hallifax, 
and  others,  directed  "To  Francis  Nicholson,  Esq.; 
or  in  his  absence,  to  such  as  for  the  time  being  take 
care  for  preserving  the  peace  and  administering  the 
laws,  in  their  majesty's  province  of  New  York,  in 
America."  This  letter  was  dated  the  '29th  of  July, 
and  was  accompanied  with  another  from  Lord  Not- 
tingham, dated  the  next  day,  which  empowered 
Nicholson  to  take  upon  him  the  chief  command, 
and  to  appoint  for  his  assistance  as  many  of  the 
principal  freeholders  and  inhabitants  as  he  should 
think  fit,  requiring  him  also  "  to  do  every  thing  apper- 
taining to  the  office  of  lieut. -governor,  according  to  the 
laws  and  customs  of  New  York  until  further  orders." 

Nicholson  having  absconded  before  this  packet 
came  to  hand,  Leisler  considered  the  letter  as  di- 
rected to  himself,  and  from  this  time  issued  all  kinds 
of  commissions  in  his  own  name,  assuming  the  title 
as  well  as  authority  of  lieut.-governor.  On  the  llth 
of  December,  he  summoned  the  committee  of  safety, 
and,  agreeably  to  their  advice,  swore  the  following 
persons  for  his  council.  Peter  de  Lanoy,  Samuel 
Staats,  Hendrick  Jansen,  and  Johannes  Vermilie, 
for  New  York ;  Gerardus  Beekman,  for  King's 
County  ;  Samuel  Edsel,  for  Queen's  County ;  Tho- 
mas Williams,  for  West  Chester ;  and  William  Law- 
rence, for  Orange  County. 

Except  the  eastern  inhabitants  of  Long  Island, 
all  the  southern  part  of  the  colony  cheerfully  sub- 
mitted to  Leisler's  command.  The  principal  free- 
holders, however,  by  respectful  letters,  gave  him 
hopes  of  their  submission,  and  thereby  prevented 
his  betaking  himself  to  arms,  while  they  were  pri- 
vately soliciting  the  colony  of  Connecticut  to  take 
them  under  its  jurisdiction.  They  had  indeed  no 
aversion  to  Leisler's  authority  in  favour  of  any  other 
party  in  the  province,  but  were  willing  to  be  incor- 
porated with  a  people,  from  whence  they  had  origi- 
nally colonized ;  and  therefore  as  soon  as  Connecti- 
cut declined  their  request,  they  openly  appeared  to 
be  advocates  for  Leisler.  At  this  juncture  the  Long 
Island  representation  was  drawn  up. 

The  people  of  Albany,  in  the  meantime,  were 
determined  to  hold  the  garrison  and  city  for  king 
William,  independent  of  Leisler,  and  on  the  26th 
of  October,  which  was  before  the  packet  arrived 


from  Lord  Nottingham,  formed  themselves  into  a 
convention  for  that  purpose.  As  Leisler's  attempt 
to  reduce  this  country  to  his  command,  was  the  ori- 
ginal cause  of  the  future  divisions  in  the  province,  and 
in  the  end  brought  about  his  own  ruin,  it  may  not 
be  improper  to  give  the  resolution  of  the  convention 
at  large,  a  copy  of  which  was  sent  down  to  him. 

"  Peter  Schuyler,  mayor,  Dirk  Wessels,  recorder, 
Jan  Wendal,  Jan  Jansen  Bleeker,  Claes  Ripse, 
David  Schuyler,  Albert  Ryckman,  aldermen.  Kil- 
lian  V.  Renslaer,  justice,  Captain  Marte  Gerritse, 
justice,  Captain  Gerrit  Teunisse,  Dirk  Teunisse, 
justices,  Lieutenant  Robert  Saunders,  John  Cuyler, 
Gerrit  Ryerse,  Evert  Banker,  Rynier  Barentse. 

"  Resolved, — Since  we  are  informed,  by  persons 
coming  from  New  York,  that  Captain  Jacob  Leisler 
is  designed  to  send  up  a  company  of  armed  men, 
upon  pretence  to  assist  us  in  this  country,  who  in- 
tend to  make  themselves  master  of  their  majesties 
fort  and  this  city,  and  carry  divers  persons  and  chief 
officers  of  this  city  prisoners  to  New  York,  and  so 
disquiet  and  disturb  their  majesties  liege  people; 
that  a  letter  be  written  to  Alderman  Levinus  Van 
Schaic,  now  at  New  York,  and  Lieutenant  Jochim 
Staets,  to  make  narrow  enquiry  of  the  business,  and 
to  signify  to  the  said  Leisler,  that  we  have  received 
such  information ;  and  withal  acquaint  him,  that 
notwithstanding  we  have  the  assistance  of  ninety- 
five  men  from  our  neighbours  of  New  England,  who 
are  now  gone  for,  and  100  men  upon  occasion,  to 
command,  from  the  county  of  Ulster,  which  we  think 
will  be  sufficient  this  winter,  yet  we  will  willingly 
accept  any  such  assistance  as  they  shall  be  pleased 
to  send  for  the  defence  of  their  majesties  county  of 
Albany;  provided  they  be  obedient  to,  and  obey 
such  orders  and  commands  as  they  shall  from  time 
to  time  receive  from  the  convention ;  and  that  by 
no  means  they  will  be  admitted  to  have  the  com- 
mand of  their  majesties  fort  or  this  city ;  which  we 
intend,  by  God's  assistance,  to  keep  and  preserve 
for  the  behoof  of  their  majesties,  William  and  Mary, 
king  and  queen  of  England,  as  we  hitherto  have 
done  since  their  proclamation ;  and  if  you  hear  that 
they  persevere  with  such  intentions,  so  to  disturb 
the  inhabitants  of  this  county,  that  you  then,  in  the 
name  and  behalf  of  the  convention  and  inhabitants 
of  the  city  and  county  of  Albany,  protest  against 
the  said  Leisler,  and  all  such  persons  that  shall  make 
attempt  for  all  losses,  damages,  blood-shed,  or  what- 
soever mischiefs  may  ensue  thereon ;  which  you  are 
to  communicate  with  all  speed,  as  you  perceive  their 
design." 

Taking  it  for  granted,  that  Leisler  at  New  York, 
and  the  convention  at  Albany,  were  equally  affected 
to  the  revolution,  nothing  could  be  more  egregiously 
foolish,  than  the  conduct  of  both  parties,  who,  by 
their  intestine  divisions,  threw  the  province  into 
convulsions,  and  sewed  the  seeds  of  mutual  hatred 
and  animosity,  which,  for  a  long  time  after,  greatly 
embarrassed  the  public  affairs  of  the  colony.  When 
Albany  declared  for  the  Prince  of  Orange,  there 
was  nothing  else  that  Leisler  could  properly  re- 
quire :  and  rather  than  sacrifice  the  public  peace  of 
the  province  to  the  trifling  honour  of  resisting  a 
man  who  had  no  evil  designs,  Albany  ought  in  pru- 
dence to  have  delivered  the  garrison  into  his  hands, 
till  the  king's  definite  orders  should  arrive.  But 
while  Leisler,  on  the  one  hand,  was  inebriated  with 
his  new-gotten  power,  so  on  the  other,  Bayard, 
Courtland,  Schuyler,  and  others,  could  not  brook  a 
submission  to  the  authority  of  a  man,  mean  in  his 
abilities,  and  inferior  in  his  degree.  Animated  by 


524 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


these  principles,  both  parties  prepared,  the  one  to 
reduce,  the  other  to  retain,  the  garrison  of  Albany. 
Mr.  Livingston,  a  principal  agent  for  the  conven- 
tion, retired  into  Connecticut,  to  solicit  the  aid  of 
that  colony,  for  the  protection  of  the  frontiers  against 
the  French.  Leisler,  suspecting  that  they  were  to 
be  used  against  him,  endeavoured  not  only  to  pre- 
vent these  supplies,  but  wrote  letters,  to  have  Li- 
vingston apprehended,  as  an  enemy  to  the  reigning 
powers,  and  to  procure  succours  from  Boston,  falsely 
representing  the  convention  as  in  the  interest  of  the 
French  and  king  James. 

Jacob  Milborne  was  commissioned  for  the  reduc- 
tion of  Albany.  Upon  his  arrival  there,  a  great 
number  of  the  inhabitants  armed  themselves,  and 
repaired  to  the  fort,  then  commanded  by  Mr.  Schuy- 
ler,  while  many  others  followed  the  other  members 
of  the  convention  to  a  conference  with  him  at  the 
city  hall.  Milborne,  to  gain  over  the  crowd,  de- 
claimed much  against  king  James,  popery,  and  arbi- 
trary power;  but  his  oratory  was  lost  upon  the 
hearers,  who,  after  several  meetings,  still  adhered 
to  the  convention.  Milborne  then  advanced  with  a 
fow  men  up  to  the  fort,  and  Mr.  Schuyler  had  the 
utmost  difficulty  to  prevent  both  his  own  men,  and 
the  Mohawks,  who  were  then  in  Albany,  and  per- 
fectly devoted  to  his  service,  from  firing  upon  Mil- 
borue's  party,  which  consisted  of  an  inconsiderable 
number.  In  these  circumstances,  he  thought  proper 
to  retreat,  and  soon  after  departed  from  Albany. 
In  the  spring,  he  commanded  another  party  upon 
the  same  errand,  and  the  distress  of  the  country  on 
an  Indian  irruption,  gave  him  all  the  desired  success. 
No  sooner  was  he  possessed  of  the  garrison,  than 
most  of  the  principal  members  of  the  convention 
absconded.  Upon  which,  their  effects  were  arbitra- 
rily seized  and  confiscated,  which  so  highly  exaspe- 
rated the  sufferers,  that  their  posterity  for  a  long 
time  vented  the  bitterest  invectives  against  Leisler 
and  his  adherents. 

In  the  midst  of  those  intestine  confusions  at  New 
York,  the  people  of  New  England  were  engaged  in 
a  war  with  the  Owenagungas,  Ourages,  and  Peno- 
cooks.  Between  these  and  the  Schakook  Indians 
there  was  then  a  friendly  communication,  and  the  same 
was  suspected  of  the  Mohawks,  among  whom  some 
of  the  Owenagungas  had  taken  sanctuary.  This 
gave  rise  to  a  conference  between  several  commis- 
sioners from  Boston,  Plymouth,  and  Connecticut, 
and  the  five  nations,  at  Albany,  in  September,  1689, 
the  former  endeavouring  to  engage  the  latter  against 
those  eastern  Indians  who  were  then  at  war  with 
the  New  England  colonies.  Tahajadoris,  a  Mohawk 
sachem,  in  a  long  oration,  answered  the  English 
message,  and,  however  improbable  it  may  seem  to 
Europeans,  repeated  all  that  had  been  said  the  pre- 
ceding day.  The  art  they  have  in  assisting  their 
memories  is  this.  The  sachem  who  presides  has  a 
bundle  of  sticks  prepared  for  the  purpose,  and  at  the 
close  of  every  principal  article  of  the  message  de- 
livered to  them,  gives  a  stick  to  another  sachem, 
charging  him  with  the  remembrance  of  it.  By  this 
means  the  orator,  after  a  previous  conference  with 
the  Indians,  is  prepared  to  repeat  every  part  of  the 
message,  and  give  it  its  proper  reply.  This  custom 
is  invariably  pursued  in  all  their  public  treaties. 

The  conference  did  not  answer  the  expectation 
of  the  people  of  New  England,  the  five  nations  dis- 
covering a  great  disinclination  to  join  in  the  hostilities 
against  the  eastern  Indians.  To  atone  for  which, 
they  gave  the  highest  protestations  of  their  willing- 
ness to  distress  the  French,  against  whom  the  Eng- 


lish had  declared  war,  on  7th  of  May  preceding. 
That  part  of  the  speech,  ratifying  their  friendship 
with  the  English  colonies,  is  singularly  expressed. 
"  We  promise  to  preserve  the  chain  inviolably,  and 
wish  that  the  sun  may  always  shine  in  peace  over  all 
our  heads  that  are  comprehended  in  this  chain.  We 
give  two  belts.  One  for  the  sun  and  the  other  for  ils 
beams.  We  make  fast  the  roots  of  the  tree  of  peace 
and  tranquillity,  which  is  planted  in  this  place.  Its 
roots  extend  as  far  as  the  utmost  of  your  colonies :  if 
the  French  should  come  to  shake  this  tree,  we  would 
feel  it  by  the  motion  of  its  roots,  which  extend  into 
our  country.  But  we  trust  it  will  not  be  in  the  go- 
vernor of  Canada's  power  to  shake  this  tree,  which 
has  been  so  firmly  and  long  planted  with  us." 
The  Indian  conception  of  the  league  is  couched 
under  the  idea  of  a  chain  extended  from  a  ship  to  a 
tree,  and  every  renewal  of  this  league  they  call 
brightening  the  chain. 

Nothing  could  have  been  more  advantageous  to 
the  colonies,  and  especially  to  New  York,  than  the 
success  of  the  five  nations  against  Canada.  The 
miseries  to  which  the  French  were  reduced  rendered 
them  secure  against  their  inroads,  till  the  work  of 
the  revolution  was  in  a  great  measure  accomplished ; 
aud  to  their  distressed  condition  we  must  principally 
ascribe  the  defeat  of  the  French  design  of  conquer- 
ing the  province.  De  Cailiers,  who  went  to  France 
in  1668,  first  projected  the  scheme,  and  the  troubles 
in  England  encouraged  the  French  court  to  make 
the  attempt.  Caffiniere  commanded  the  ships,  which 
sailed  for  that  purpose  from  Rochfort ;  subject, 
nevertheless,  to  the  Count  de  Frontenac,  who  was 
general  of  the  land  foices,  destined  to  march  from 
Canada  by  the  route  of  Sorel  river  and  the  lake 
Champlain.  The  fleet  and  troops  arrived  at  Che- 
bucta,  the  place  of  rendezvous,  in  September ;  from 
whence  the  count  proceeded  to  Quebec,  leaving  or- 
ders with  Caffiniere  to  sail  for  New  York,  and  con- 
tinue in  the  bay  in  sight  of  the  city,  but  beyond  the 
fire  of  the  cannon,  till  the  1st  of  December,  when, 
if  he  received  no  intelligence  from  him,  he  was  or- 
dered to  return  to  France,  after  unlading  the  am- 
munition, stores,  and  provisions  at  Port-Royal,  now 
Annapolis.  The  count  was  in  high  spirits,  and  fully 
determined  upon  the  enterprise,  till  he  arrived  at 
Quebec;  where  the  news  of  the  success  of  the  five 
nations  against  Montreal,  the  loss  of  his  favourite 
fort  at  lake  Ontario,  and  the  advanced  season  of  the 
year,  defeated  his  aims,  and  broke  up  the  expedition. 
De  Nonville,  who  was  recalled,  carried  the  news  of 
this  disappointment  to  the  court  of  France,  leaving 
the  chief  command  of  the  country  in  the  hands  of 
Count  Frontenac.  This  gentleman  was  a  man  of 
courage,  and  well  acquainted  with  the  affairs  of  that 
country.  He  was  then  in  the  68th  year  of  his  age, 
and  yet  so  far  from  consulting  his  ease,  that  in  a  few 
days  after  he  landed  at  Quebec,  he  re-embarked  n 
a  canoe  for  Montreal,  where  his  presence  was  abso- 
lutely necessary,  to  animate  the  inhabitants  and  re- 
gain their  Indian  alliances.  A  war  between  the 
English  and  French  crowns  having  broken  out,  the 
count  betook  himself  to  every  art  for  concluding  a 
peace  between  Canada  and  the  five  nations;  and 
for  this  purpose,  the  utmost  civilities  were  shewn  to 
Taweraket  and  the  other  Indians,  who  had  been  sent 
to  France  by  De  Nonville,  and  were  now  returned. 
Three  of  those  Indians,  who  doubtless  were  struck 
with  the  grandeur  and  glory  of  the  French  monarch, 
were  properly  sent  on  the  important  message  of 
conciliating  the  friendship  of  the  five  nations.  These, 
agreeably  to  their  alliance  with  New  York,  sent  two 


UNITED  STATES. 


525 


sachems  to  Albany  in  December,  with  a  notice  that 
a  council  for  that  purpose  was  to  be  held  at  Onon- 
daga.  It  is  a  just  reflection  upon  the  people  of 
Albany,  that  they  regarded  the  treaty  so  slightly,  as 
only  to  send  four  Indians  and  the  interpreter  with 
instructions,  in  their  name,  to  dissuade  the  con- 
federates from  a  cessation  of  arms;  while  the  French, 
on  the  other  hand,  had  then  a  Jesuit  among  the 
Oneydoes.  The  council  began  on  the  22d  of  Janu- 
ary 1690,  and  consisted  of  eighty  sachems.  Sade- 
kanaghtie,  an  Onondaga  chief,  opened  the  confer- 
ence. The  whole  was  managed  with  great  art  arid 
formality,  and  concluded  in  shewing  a  disposition 
to  make  peace  with  the  French,  without  perfecting 
it;  guarding,  at  the  same  time,  against  the  least 
umbrage  to  the  English. 

Among  other  measures  to  detach  the  five  nations 
from  the  British  interest,  and  raise  the  depressed 
spirit  of  the  Canadians,  the  Count  de  Frontenac 
thought  proper  to  send  out  several  parties  against 
the  English  colonies.  D'Aillebout,  De  Mantel  and 
Le  Moyne  commanded  that  against  New  York,  con- 
sisting of  about  200  French  and  some  Caghnuaga 
Indians,  who  being  proselytes  from  the  Mohawks, 
were  perfectly  acquainted  with  that  country.  Their 
orders  were,  in  general,  to  attack  New  York;  but 
pursuing  the  advice  of  the  Indians,  they  resolved, 
instead  of  Albany,  to  surprise  Schenectady,  a  village 
seventeen  miles  north-west  from  it,  and  about  the 
same  distance  from  the  Mohawks.  The  people  of 
Schenectady,  though  they  had  been  informed  of  the 
designs  of  the  enemy,  were  in  the  greatest  security ; 
judging  it  impracticable  for  any  men  to  march  se- 
veral hundred  miles,  in  the  depth  of  winter,  through 
the  snow,  bearing  their  provisions  on  their  backs. 
Besides,  the  village  was  in  as  much  confusion  as  the 
rest  of  the  province  ;  the  officers  who  were  posted 
there  being  unable  to  preserve  a  regular  watch,  or 
any  kind  of  military  order.  Such  was  the  state  of 
Schenectady,  as  represented  by  Colonel  Schuyler, 
who  was  at  that  time  mayor  of  the  city  of  Albany, 
and  at  the  head  of  the  convention. 

After  two  and  twenty  days  march,  the  enemy  fell 
in  with  Schenectady,  on  the  8th  of  February;  and 
were  reduced  to  such  streights,  that  they  had  thoughts 
of  surrendering  themselves  prisoners  of  war.  But 
their  scouts,  who  were  a  day  or  two  in  the  village 
entirely  unsuspected,  returned  with  such  encourag- 
ing accounts  of  the  absolute  security  of  the  people, 
that  the  enemy  determined  on  the  attack.  They 
entered,  on  Saturday  night  about  eleven  o'clock,  at 
the  gates,  which  were  found  unshut ;  and,  that  every 
house  might  be  invested  at  the  same  time,  divided 
into  small  parties  of  six  or  seven  men.  The  inhabit- 
ants were  in  a  profound  sleep  and  unalarmed,  till 
their  doors  were  broken  open.  Never  were  people 
in  a  more  wretched  consternation.  Before  they 
were  risen  from  their  beds,  the  enemy  entered  their 
houses,  and  began  the  perpetration  of  the  most  in- 
human barbarities.  No  tongue,  says  Col.  Schuyler, 
can  express  the  cruelties  that  were  committed.  The 
whole  village  was  instantly  in  a  blaze.  Women 
with  child  ripped  open,  and  their  infants  cast  into 
the  flames,  or  dashed  against  the  posts  of  the  doors. 
Sixty  persons  perished  in  the  massacre,  and  twenty- 
seven  were  carried  into  captivity.  The  rest  fled 
naked  towards  Albany,  through  a  deep  snow  which 
fell  that  very  night  in  a  terrible  storm;  and  twenty- 
five  of  these  fugitives  lost  their  limbs  in  the  flight 
through  the  severity  of  the  frost.  The  news  of  this 
dreadful  tragedy  reaehed  Albany  about  break  of 
day,  and  an  universal  dread  seized  the  inhabitants 


of  that  city,  the  enemy  being  reported  to  be  1,400 
strong.  A  party  of  horse  was  immediately  dis- 
patched to  Schenectady,  and  a  few  Mohawks  then 
in  town,  fearful  of  being  intercepted,  were  with  diffi- 
culty sent  to  apprise  their  own  castles. 

The  Mohawks  were  unacquainted  with  this  bloody 
scene  till  two  days  after  it  happened,  our  messengers 
being  scarce  able  to  travel  through  the  great  depth 
of  the  snow.  The  enemy,  in  the  mean  time,  pillaged 
the  town  of  Schenectady  till  noon  the  next  day,  and 
then  wont  off  with  their  plunder,  and  about  forty  of 
their  best  horses.  The  rest,  with  all  the  cattle  they 
could  find,  lay  slaughtered  in  the  streets. 

The  design  of  the  French,  in  this  attack,  was  to 
alarm  the  fears  of  the  Indian  allies,  by  shewing  that  the 
New  York  people  were  incapable  of  defending  them. 
Every  art  also  was  used  to  conciliate  their  friendship, 
for  they  not  only  spared  those  Mohawks  who  were 
found  in  Schenectady ,  but  several  other  particular  per- 
sons, in  compliment  to  the  Indians,  who  requested  that 
favour.  Several  women  and  children  were  also  re- 
leased at  the  desire  of  Captain  Glen,  to  whom  the 
French  offered  no  violence;  the  officer  declaring  he 
had  strict  orders  against  it,  on  the  score  of  his  wife's 
civilities  to  certain  French  captives  in  the  time  of 
Colonel  Dongan. 

The  Mohawks,  considering  the  deceptive  arts  of 
the  French,  and  that  the  Caghnuagas  who  were  with 
them  were  once  a  part  of  their  own  body,  behaved 
as  well  as  could  be  reasonably  expected.  They 
joined  a  party  of  young  men  from  Albany,  fell  upon 
the  rear  of  the  enemy,  and  either  killed  or  captured 
twenty-five.  Several  sachems,  in  the  mean  time,  came 
to  Albany,  and  very  affectingly  addressed  the  inhabit- 
ants, who  were  just  ready  to  abandon  the  country ; 
urging  their  stay,  and  exciting  an  union  of  all  the 
English  colonies  against  Canada.  Their  sentiments 
concerning  the  French,  appear  from  the  following 
speech  of  condolence  :  "  Brethren,  we  do  not  think, 
that  what  the  French  have  done  can  be  called  a 
victory  :  it  is  only  a  farther  proof  of  their  cruel  de- 
ceit :  the  governor  of  Canada  sent  to  Onondaga,  and 
talks  to  us  of  peace  with  our  whole  house ;  but  war 
was  in  his  heart,  as  you  now  see  by  woful  experience. 
He  did  the  same,  formerly,  at  Cadaracqui,  and  in 
the  Sennecas  country.  This  is  the  third  time  he 
has  acted  so  deceitfully.  He  has  broken  open,  our 
house  at  both  ends ;  formerly  in  the  Sennecas 
country,  and  now  here.  We  hope,  however,  to  bo 
revenged  of  them." 

Agreeably  to  this  declaration,  the  Indians  soon 
after  treated  the  chevalier  D'Eau  and  the  rest  of 
the  French  messengers,  who  came  to  conclude  the 
peace  proposed  by  Taweraket,  with  the  utmost  in- 
dignity ;  and  afterwards  delivered  them  up  to  the 
English.  Besides  this,  their  scouts  harassed  the 
borders  of  the  enemy  and  fell  upon  a  party  of  French 
and  Indians,  in  the  river,  about  120  miles  above 
Montreal,  under  the  command  of  Louvigni,  a  cap- 
tain who  was  going  to  Missilimakinac,  to  prevent 
the  conclusion  of  the  peace  between  the  Utawawas 
and  Quatoghies,  with  the  five  nations.  The  loss  in 
this  skirmish  was  nearly  equal  on  both  sides.  One 
of  the  English  prisoners  was  delivered  to  the  Uta- 
wawas, who  ate  him.  In  revenge  for  this  barbarity, 
the  Indians  attacked  the  island  of  Montreal  at 
Trembling  Point,  and  killed  an  officer  and  twelve 
men ;  while  another  party  carried  off  about  fifteen 
prisoners  taken  at  Riviere  Puante,  whom  they  after- 
wards slew  through  fear  of  their  pursuers,  and  others 
burnt  the  French  plantations  at  St.  Eurs.  But 
what  rendered  this  year  most  remarkable  was,  the 


526 


HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


expedition  of  Sir  William  Phipps  against  Quebec. 
He  sailed  up  the  river  with  a  fleet  of  thirty-two  sail 
and  came  before  the  city  in  October.  Had  he  im- 
proved his  time  and  strength,  the  conquest  would 
have  been  easy  ;  but  by  spending  three  days  in  idle 
consultations,  the  French  governor  brought  in  his 
forces,  and  entertained  such  a  mean  opinion  of  the 
English  knight,  that  he  not  only  despised  his  sum- 
mons to  surrender,  but  sent  a  verbal  answer,  in  which 
he  called  king  William  an  usurper,  and  poured  the 
utmost  contempt  upon  his  subjects.  The  messenger 
who  carried  the  summons  insisted  upon  a  written 
answer,  and  that  within  an  hour ;  but  the  Count 
De  Frontenac  absolutely  refused  it,  adding,  "  I'll 
answer  your  master  by  the  mouth  of  my  cannon, 
that  he  may  learn  that  a  man  of  my  condition  is  not 
to  be  summoned  in  this  manner."  Upon  this,  Sir 
William  made  two  attempts  to  land  below  the  town, 
but  was  repulsed  by  the  enemy,  with  considerable 
loss  of  men,  cannon,  and  baggage.  Several  of  the 
ships  also  cannonaded  the  city,  but  without  any 
success.  The  forts  at  the  same  time  returned  the  fire, 
and  obliged  them  to  retire  in  disorder.  The  French 
writers,  in  their  accounts  of  this  expedition,  univer- 
sally censure  the  conduct  of  Sir  William,  though 
they  confess  the  valour  of  his  troops.  La  Hontan, 
who  was  then  at  Quebec,  says,  he  could  not  have 
acted  in  a  manner  more  agreeable  to  the  French,  if 
he  had  been  in  their  interest.  Among  the  causes  of 
the  ill  success  of  the  fleet,  the  author  of  the  life  of 
Sir  William  Phipps  mentions  the  neglect  of  the 
conjoined  troops  of  New  York,  Connecticut,  and 
the  Indians,  to  attack  Montreal,  according  to  the 
original  plan  of  operations.  He  says  that  they 
marched  to  the  lake,  but  there  found  themselves  un- 
provided with  battoes,  and  that  the  Indians  were 
dissuaded  from  the  attempt.  By  what  authority  these 
assertions  may  be  supported,  does  not  appear. 
Charlevoix  says,  the  English  colonial  troops  were 
disappointed  iii  the  intended  diversion,  by  the  small- 
pox, which  seized  the  camp,  killed  300  men,  and 
terrified  our  Indian  allies. 

From  the  revolution  to  the   second  expedition  against 
Canada. 

While  the  Indians  were  faithfully  exerting  them- 
selves against  the  common  enemy,  Colonel  Henry 
Sloughter,  who  had  a  commission  to  be  governor  of 
this  pi'ovince,  dated  the  4th  of  January,  1689,  ar- 
rived, and  published  it  on  the  19th  of  March,  1691. 
Never  was  a  governor  more  necessary  to  the  pro- 
vince, than  at  this  critical  conjuncture  ;  as  well  for 
reconciling  a  divided  people,  as  for  defending  them 
against  the  wiles  of  a  cunning  adversary.  But  either 
through  the  hurry  of  the  king's  affairs,  or  the  power- 
ful interest  of  a  favourite,  a  man  was  sent  over  ut- 
terly destitute  of  every  qualification  for  government — 
licentious  in  his  morals,  avaricious,  and  poor.  The 
council  present  at  his  arrival  were — Joseph  Dudley, 
Frederick  Philipse,  Stephen  Van  Courtland,  Ga- 
briel Mienville,  Chudley  Brook,  Thomas  Willet, 
William  Pinhorne. 

If  Leisler  had  delivered  the  garrison  to  Colonel 
Sloughter,  as  he  ought  to  have  done,  upon  his  first 
landing,  besides  extinguishing,  in  a  great  degree, 
the  animosities  then  subsisting,  he  would  doubtless 
have  attracted  the  favourable  notice  both  of  the 
governor  and  the  crown.  But  being  a  weak  man, 
he  was  so  intoxicated  with  the  love  of  power,  that 
though  he  had  been  well  informed  of  Sloughter's  ap- 
pointment to  the  government,  he  not  only  shut  him- 
belf  up  in  the  fort  with  Bayard  and  Nichols,  whom 


he  had,  before  that  time,  imprisoned,  but  refused  to 
deliver  them  up,  or  to  surrender  the  garrison.  From 
this  moment,  he  lost  all  credit  with  the  governor, 
who  joined  the  other  party  against  him.  On  the 
second  demand  of  the  fort,  Milborne  and  Delanoy 
came  out,  under  pretence  of  conferring  with  his 
excellency,  but  in  reality  to  discover  his  designs. 
Sloughter,  who  considered  them  as  rebels,  threw 
them  both  into  gaol.  Leisler,  upon  this  event, 
thought  proper  to  abandon  the  fort,  which  Colonel 
Sloughter  immediately  entered.  Bayard  and  Nichols 
ere  now  released  from  their  confinement,  and 
sworn  of  the  privy  council.  Leisler  having  thus 
ruined  his  cause,  was  apprehended  with  many  of 
his  adherents,  and  a  commission  of  oyer  and  ter- 
miner  issued  to  Sir  Thomas  Robinson,  Col.  Smith, 
and  others,  for  their  trials. 

In  vain  did  they  plead  the  merit  of  their  zeal  for 
king  William,  since  they  had  so  lately  opposed  his 
governor.  Leisler,  in  particular,  endeavoured  to 
justify  his  conduct,  insisting  that  Lord  Nottingham's 
letter  entitled  him  to  act  in  the  quality  of  lieutenant- 
governor.  Whether  it  was  through  ignorance  or 
sycophancy,  does  not  appear ;  but  the  judges,  in- 
stead of  pronouncing  their  own  sentiments  upon  this 
part  of  the  prisoner's  defence,  referred  it  to  the 
governor  and  council,  praying  their  opinion,  whether 
that  letter,  "  or  any  other  letters,  or  papers,  in  the 
packet  from  Whitehall,  can  be  understood,  or  in- 
terpreted, to  be  and  contain  any  power  or  direction 
to  Captain  Leisler,  to  take  the  government  of  this 
province  upon  himself,  or  that  the  administration 
thereupon  be  holden  good  in  law."  The  answer 
was,  as  might  have  been  expected,  in  the  negative ; 
and  Leisler  and  his  son  were  condemned  to  death 
for  high  treason.  These  violent  measures  drove 
many  of  the  inhabitants,  who  were  fearful  of  being 
apprehended,  into  the  neighbouring  colonies,  which 
shortly  after  occasioned  the  passing  an  act  of  general 
indemnity. 

From  the  surrender  of  the  province  to  the  year 
1683,  the  inhabitants  were  ruled  by  the  duke's 
governors  and  their  councils,  who,  from  time  to  time, 
made  rules  and  orders,  which  were  esteemed  to  be 
binding  as  laws. 

Those  acts,  which  were  made  in  1683,  and  after 
the  duke's  accession  to  the  throne,  when  the  people 
were  admitted  to  a  participation  of  the  legislative 
power,  are  for  the  most  part  decayed  or  lost.  Few 
minutes  relating  to  them  remain  on  the  council 
books,  and  none  in  the  journals  of  the  house. 

As  this  assembly,  in  1691,  was  the  first  after  the 
revolution,  it  may  not  be  improper  to  take  some 
particular  notice  of  its  transactions.  All  laws  made 
antecedent,  to  this  period,  are  disregarded  both  by 
the  legislature  and  the  courts  of  law.  In  the  collec- 
tion of  acts,  published  in  1752,  the  compilers  were 
directed  to  begin  at  this  assembly. 

It  began  the  9th  of  April,  according  to  the  writs 
of  summons  issued  on  the  20th  of  March  preceding. 
The  journal  of  the  house  opens  with  a  list  of  the 
members  returned  by  the  sheriffs.  City  and  county 
of  New  York — James  Graham,  William  Merret,  Jac. 
Van  Courtlandt,  Johannes  Kip.  City  and  county 
of  Albany  -Derrick  Wessels,  Levinus  Van  Scayck, 
County  ofRichmond — Elias  Dukesbury,  John  Dally. 
County  of  West  Chester— John  Pell.  County  of 
Suffolk — Henry  Pierson,  Matthew  Howell.  Ulster 
and  Dutchess  county — Henry  Beekman,  Thomas 
Garton.  Queen's  County — John  Bound,  Nathaniel 
Percall.  King's  County — Nicholas  Stillwell,  John 
Poland. 


UNITED  STATES. 


527 


The  members  for  queen's  county,  being  Quakers, 
were  afterwards  dismissed  for  refusing  the  oaths  di- 
rected by  the  governor's  commission ;  but  all  the 
rest  were  qualified  before  two  commissioners  ap- 
pointed for  that  purpose.  James  Graham  was  elected 
their  speaker,  and  approved  by  the  governor.  The 
majority  of  the  members  of  this  assembly  were 
against  the  measures  which  Leisler  pursued  in  the 
latter  part  of  his  time,  and  hence  we  find  the  house, 
after  considering  a  petition,  signed  by  sundry  per- 
sons against  Leisler,  unanimously  resolved,  that  his 
dissolving  the  4ate  convention,  and  imprisoning  se- 
veral persons,  was  tumultuous,  illegal,  and  against 
their  majesties  right,  and  that  the  late  depredations 
on  Schencctady  were  to  be  attributed  to  his  usurp- 
ation of  all  power. 

They  resolved  against  the  late  forcible  seizures 
made  of  effects  of  the  people,  and  against  the  levy- 
ing of  money  on  their  majesties  subjects.  And  as 
to  Leisler' s  holding  the  fort  against  the  governor, 
it  was  voted  to  be  an  act  of  rebellion. 

The  house  having,  by  these  resolves,  prepared  the 
way  of  their  access  to  the  governor,  addressed  him 
in  these  words : 

"  May  it  please  your  Excellency, — We,  their  ma- 
jesties most  dutiful  and  loyal  subjects,  convened,  by 
their  majesties  most  gracious  favour,  in  general  as- 
sembly, in  this  province,  do,  in  all  most  humble 
manner,  heartily  congratulate  your  excellency,  that 
as,  in  our  hearts,  we  do  abhor  and  detest  all  the  re- 
bellious, arbitrary,  and  illegal  proceedings  of  the 
late  usurpers  of  their  majesties  authority  over  this 
province,  so  we  do,  from  the  bottom  of  our  hearts, 
with  all  integrity,  acknowledge  and  declare,  that 
there  are  none  that  can  or  ought  to  have  right  to 
rule  and  govern  their  majesties  subjects  here,  but 
by  their  majesties  authority,  which  is  now  placed  in 
your  excellency ;  and  therefore  we  do  solemnly  de- 
clare that  we  will,  with  our  lives  and  fortunes,  sup- 
port and  maintain  the  administration  of  your  ex- 
cellency's government,  under  their  majesties,  against 
all  their  majesties  enemies  whatsoever:  and  this  we 
humbly  pray  your  excellency  to  accept,  as  the  sin- 
cere acknowledgment  of  all  their  majesties  good 
subjects,  within  this  their  province;  praying  for 
their  majesties  long  and  happy  reign  over  us,  and 
that  your  excellency  may  long  live  and  rule,  as  ac- 
cording to  their  majesties  most  excellent  constitution 
of  governing  their  subjects  by  a  general  assembly." 

Before  this  house  proceeded  to  pass  any  acts,  they 
unanimously  resolved,  "  That  all  the  laws  consented 
to  by  the  general  assembly,  under  James.  Duke  of 
York,  and  the  liberties  and  privileges  therein  con- 
tained, granted  to  the  people,  and  declared  to  be 
their  rights,  not  being  observed,  nor  ratified  and  ap- 
proved by  his  royal  highness,  nor  the  late  king,  are 
null  and  void,  and  of  none  effect ;  and  also,  the  se- 
veral ordinances,  made  by  the  late  governors  and  coun- 
cils, being  contrary  to  the  constitution  of  England, 
and  the  practice  of  the  government  of  their  majesties 
other  plantations  in  America,  are  likewise  null  and 
void,  and  of  no  effect,  nor  force,  within  this  province." 

Among  the  principal  laws  enacted  this  session, 
we  may  mention  that  for  establishing  the  revenue, 
which  was  drawn  into  precedent.  The  sums  raised  by 
it  were  made  payable  into  the  hands  of  the  receiver- 
general,  and  issued  by  the  governor's  warrant.  By 
this  means  the  governor  became,  for  a  season,  inde- 
pendent of  the  people,  and  hence  we  find  frequent 
instances  of  the  assemblies  contending  with  him  for 
the  discharge  of  debts  to  private  persons,  contracted 
on  the  faith  of  government. 


Antecedent  to  the  English  revolution,  innumera- 
ble were  the  controversies  relating  to  public  town- 
ships and  private  rights ;  and  hence  an  act  was  now 
passed,  for  the  confirmation  of  ancient  patents  and 
grants,  intended  to  put  an  end  to  those  debates.  A 
law  was  also  passed  for  the  establishment  of 
courts  of  justice,  though  a  perpetual  act  had  been 
made  to  that  purpose  in  1683,  and  the  old  court  of 
assize  entirely  dissolved  in  1684.  As  this  enacted 
in  1691  was  a  temporary  law,  it  was  disputed  by 
some,  whether  the  establishment  of  the  courts  for 
general  jurisdiction,  by  an  ordinance,  was  consistent 
with  the  preceding  act,  or  the  general  rules  of  law. 
Upon  the  erection  of  the  supreme  court,  a  chief  jus- 
tice, and  four  assistant  judges,  with  an  attorney-ge- 
neral, were  appointed.  The  chief  justice,  Joseph 
Dudley,  had  a  salary  of  130/.  per  annum;  Johnson, 
the  second  judge,  100Z.,  and  both  were  payable  out 
of  the  revenue ;  but  William  Smith,  Stephen  Van 
Courtlandt,  and  William  Finhornc,  the  other  judges, 
and  Newton,  the  attorney -general,  had  nothing  al- 
lowed for  their  services. 

It  has,  more  than  once,  been  a  subject  of  animated 
debate,  whether  the  people  in  this  colony  had  a 
right  to  be  represented  in  assembly,  or  whether  it 
was  a  privilege  enjoyed  through  the  grace  of  the 
crown.  A  memorable  act  passed  this  session,  virtu- 
ally declared  in  favour  of  the  .former  opinion  upon 
that  and  several  other  of  the  principal  and  distin- 
guishing liberties  of  Englishmen  ;  but  it  was  after- 
wards repealed  by  the  English  parliament,  in  the 
year  1697,  by  an  act,  entitled,  "  An  act  declaring 
what  are  the  rights  and  privileges  of  their  majesties 
subjects  inhabiting  within  their  province  of  New 
York." 

Colonel  Sloughter  proposed,  immediately  after  the 
session,  to  set  out  to  Albany ;  but  as  Leisler's  party 
were  enraged  at  his  imprisonment  and  the  late 
sentence  against  him,  his  enemies  were  afraid  new 
troubles  would  spring  up  in  the  absence  of  the  go- 
vernor ;  for  this  reason,  both  the  assembly  and  coun- 
cil advised  that  the  prisoners  should  be  immediately 
executed.  Sloughter,  who  had  no  inclination  to 
favour  them  in  this  request,  chose  rather  to  delay 
such  a  violent  step,  being  fearful  of  cutting  off  two 
men,  who  had  vigorously  appeared  for  the  king,  and 
so  signally  contributed  to  the  revolution.  Nothing 
could  be  more  disagreeable  to  their  enemies,  whose 
interest  was  deeply  concerned  in  their  destruction. 
And  therefore,  when  no  other  measures  could  pre- 
vail with  the  governor,  tradition  informs  us,  that 
Colonel  Sloughter  was  invited  to  an  entertainment, 
and  prevailed  on,  when  intoxicated,  to  sign  the  death- 
warrant,  on  the  authority  of  which,  before  he  reco- 
vered his  senses,  the  prisoners  were  executed.  Leis- 
ler's son  afterwards  carried  home  a  complaint  to 
king  William  against  the  governor.  His  petition 
was  referred,  according  to  the  common  course  of 
plantation  affairs,  to  the  lords  commissioners  of  trade, 
who,  after  hearing  the  whole  matter,  reported  on 
the  llth  of  March,  1692,  "  That  they  were  humbly 
of  opinion,  that  Jacob  Leisler  and  Jacob  Milborne, 
deceased,  were  condemned  and  had  suffered  accord- 
ing to  law."  Their  lordships,  however,  interceded 
for  their  families,  as  fit  objects  of  mercy,  and  this 
induced  Queen  Mary,  who  approved  the  report,  on 
the  17th  of  March,  to  declare,  "  That  upon  the 
humble  application  of  the  relations  of  the  said  Jacob 
Leisler  and  Jacob  Milborne,  deceased,  her  majesty 
will  order  the  estates  of  Jacob  Leisler  and  Jacob 
Milborne  to  be  restored  to  their  families,  as  objects 
of  her  majesty's  mercy."  The  bodies  of  these  un- 


628 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


happy  sufferers  were  afterwards  taken  up,  and  in- 
terred, with  great  pomp,  in  the  old  Dutch  church, 
in  the  city  of  New  York.  Their  estates  were  re- 
stored to  their  families,  and  Leisler's  children,  in 
the  public  estimation,  were  rather  dignified  than 
disgraced,  by  the  fall  of  their  ancestor. 

These  distractions  in  the  province  so  entirely  en- 
grossed the  public  attention,  that  the  Indian  allies, 
who  had  been  left  solely  to  contend  with  the  common 
enemy,  grew  extremely  disaffected.  The  Mohawks 
ill  particular  highly  resented  this  conduct,  and,  at 
the  instance  of  the  Caghnuagas,  sent  a  messenger 
to  Canada,  to  confer  with  Count  Frontenac  about  a 
peace.  To  prevent  this,  Colonel  Sloughter  had  an 
interview  at  Albany,  in  June,  with  the  other  four 
nations,  who  expressed  their  joy  at  seeing  a  go- 
vernor again  in  that  place.  They  told  him,  that 
their  ancestors,  as  they  had  been  informed,  were 
greatly  surprised  at  the  arrival  of  the  first  ship  in 
that  country,  and  were  curious  to  know  what  was  in 
its  huge  belly.  That  they  found  Christians  in  it, 
and  one  Jacques,  with  whom  they  made  a  chain  of 
friendship,  which  they  had  preserved.  All  the  In- 
dians, except  the  Mohawks,  assured  the  governor  at 
this  meeting  of  their  resolution  to  prosecute  the 
war.  The  Mohawks  confessed  their  negotiations 
with  the  French,  that  they  had  received  a  belt  from 
Canada,  prayed  the  advice  of  the  governor,  and 
afterwards  renewed  their  league  with  all  our  colonies. 

Sloughter  soon  after  returned  to  New  York,  and 
ended  a  short,  weak,  and  turbulent  administration, 
for  he  died  suddenly  on  the  23d  of  July,  1691.  Some 
were  not  without  suspicions  that  he  came  unfairly 
to  his  end ;  but  the  certificate  of  the  physician  and 
surgeons  who  opened  his  body,  by  an  order  of  coun- 
cil, confuted  these  conjectures,  and  his  remains  were 
interred  in  Stuyvesant's  vault,  next  to  those  of  the 
old  Dutch  governor. 

At  the  time  of  Sloughter's  decease,  the  govern- 
ment devolved,  according  to  the  late  act  for  declar- 
ing the  rights  of  the  people  of  the  province,  on  the 
council,  in  which  Joseph  Dudley  had  a  right  to  pre- 
side; but  they  committed  the  chief  command  to 
Richard  Ingolsby,  a  captain  of  an  independent  com- 
pany, who  was  sworn  into  the  office  of  president  on 
the  26th  of  July,  1691.  Dudley  soon  afterwards 
returned  to  this  province  from  Boston,  but  did  not 
think  proper  to  dispute  Ingolsby's  authority,  though 
the  latter  had  no  title,  nor  the  greatest  abilities  for 
government,  and  was  besides  obnoxious  to  the  party 
who  had  joined  Leisler,  having  been  an  agent  in  the 
measures  which  accomplished  his  ruin.  To  the  late 
troubles,  which  were  then  recent,  and  the  agree- 
ment subsisting  between  the  council  and  assembly 
we  must  ascribe  it,  that  the  former  tacitly  acknow- 
ledged Ingolsby's  right  to  the  president's  chair;  for 
they  concurred  with  him  in  passing  several  laws  in 
autumn  and  the  spring  following,  the  validity  of 
which  was  never  disputed. 

This  summer  Major  Schuyler,  with  a  party  of 
Mohawks,  passed  through  the  lake  Champlain,  and 
made  a  bold  irruption  upon  the  French  settlement 
at  the  north  end  of  it.  De  Callieres,  the  governor 
of  Montreal,  to  oppose  him,  collected  a  small  army 
of  800  men,  and  encamped  at  La  Prairie.  Schuyler 
had  several  conflicts  with  the  enemy,  and  slew  about 
300  of  them,  which  exceeded  in  number  his  whole 
party.  The  French,  ashamed  of  their  ill  success, 
attributed  it  to  the  want  of  order,  too  many  desiring 
to  have  the  command.  But  the  true  cause  was  the 
ignorance  of  their  officers  in  the  Indian  manner  of 
fighting.  They  kept  their  men  in  a  body,  while  the 


English  colonists  posted  themselves  behind  trees, 
hidden  from  the  enemy.  Major  Schuyler's  design, 
in  this  descent,  was  to  animate  the  Indians  and  pre- 
serve their  enmity  with  the  French.  They,  accord- 
ingly, continued  their  hostilities  against  them,  and, 
by  frequent  incursions,  kept  the  country  in  constant 
alarm. 

In  the  midst  of  these  distresses,  the  French  go- 
vernor preserved  his  sprightliness  and  vigour,  ani- 
mating every  body  about  him  After  he  had  nego- 
tiated with  the  TJtawawas,  who  came  to  trade  at 
Montreal,  he  sent  them  home  under  the  care  of  a 
captain  and  110  men;  and  to  secure  their  attach- 
ment to  the  French  interest,  gave  them  two  Indian 
prisoners,  and,  besides,  sent  very  considerable  pre- 
sents to  the  western  Indians,  in  their  alliance.  The 
two  captives  were  afterwards  burnt.  The  five  na- 
tions, in  the  mean  time,  grew  more  and  more  in- 
censed, and  continually  harassed  the  French  bor- 
ders. M.  Beaucour,  a  young  French  gentleman,  in 
the  following  winter  marched  a  body  of  about  300 
men  to  attack  them  at  the  isthmus,  at  Niagara.  In- 
credible were  the  fatigues  they  underwent  in  this 
long  march  over  the  snow,  bearing  their  provisions 
on  their  backs.  Eighty  men  of  the  five  nations 
opposed  the  French  party,  and  bravely  maintained 
their  ground  till  most  of  them  were  cut  off.  In  re- 
turn for  which,  the  confederates  in  small  parties  ob- 
structed the  passage  of  the  French  through  lake  On- 
tario, and  the  river  issuing  out  of  it,  and  cut  off  their 
communication  with  the  western  Indians.  An  In- 
dian called  Black  Kettle  commanded  in  these  in- 
cursions of  the  five  nations,  and  his  successes,  which 
continued  the  whole  summer,  so  exasperated  the  count 
that  he  ordered  an  Indian  prisoner  to  be  burnt  alive. 
The  bravery  of  this  savage  was  as  extraordinary,  as 
the  torments  inflicted  on  him  were  cruel.  He  sang 
his  military  achievements  without  interruption, 
even  while  his  barbarous  executioners  practised  all 
possible  cruelties.  They  broiled  his  feet,  thrust  his 
fingers  into  red-hot  pipes,  cut  his  joints,  and  twisted 
the  sinews  with  bars  of  iron.  After  this  his  scalp 
was  ripped  off,  and  hot  sand  poured  on  the  wound. 
We  cannot  but  shrink  with  horror  and  disgust  from 
the  conduct  of  the  French,  who  were  boasting  them- 
selves the  most,  if  not  the  only,  civilized  nation  in 
the  world,  and  who,  with  all  the  advantages  of  edu- 
cation, and  professing  Christianity,  were  surpassing 
the  Indians,  whom  they  reviled  as  savages,  in  base 
and  remorseless  atrocities. 

In  June,  1692,  Captain  Ingolsby  met  the  five 
nations  at  Albany,  and  encouraged  them  to  perse- 
vere in  the  war.  The  Indians  declared  their  enmity 
to  the  French  in  the  strongest  terms,  and  as  heartily 
professed  their  friendship  to  us.  "  Brother  Cor- 
lear,"  said  the  sachem,  "  we  are  all  subjects  of  one 
great  king  and  queen,  we  have  one  head,  one  heart, 
one  interest,  and  are  all  engaged  in  the  same  war." 
The  Indians  at  the  same  time  did  not  forget,  at  this 
interview,  to  condemn  the  inactivity  of  the  English, 
telling  them,  that  the  destruction  of  Canada  would 
not  make  one  summer's  work  against  their  united 
strength,  if  vigorously  exerted. 

Colonel  Benjamin  Fletcher  arrived  with  a  com- 
mission to  be  governor  on  the  29th  of  August,  1692, 
which  was  published  the  next  day,  before  the  follow- 
ing members,  in  council  :  —  Frederick  Philipse, 
Nicholas  Bayard,  Chudley  Brooke,  Thomas  Willet, 
Stephen  Van  Courtlandt,  Gabriel  Mienville,  Wil- 
liam Nicoll,  and  Thomas  Johnson. 

William  Pinhorne,  one  of  that  board,  being  a 
non-resident  was  refused  the  oaths ;  and  Joseph 


UNITED  STATES. 


529 


Dudley,  for  the  same  reason,  removed  both  from  his 
scat  in  council  and  his  office  of  ch  ef  justice;  Caleb 
Heathcote  and  John  Young  succeeded  them  in 
council ;  and  William  Smith  was  seated  in  Dudley's 
place  on  the  bench. 

Colonel  Fletcher  brought  over  with  him  a  pre- 
sent to  the  colony  of  arms,  ammunition,  and  warlike 
stores ;  in  gratitude  for  which,  he  exhorted  the  coun- 
cil and  assembly,  who  were  sitting  at  his  arrival,  to 
send  home  an  address  of  thanks  to  the  king.  It 
consists,  principally,  of  a  representation  of  the  great 
expense  the  province  was  continually  at  to  defend 
the  frontiers,  and  praying  his  majesty's  direction, 
that  the  neighbouring  colonies  might  be  compelled 
to  join  their  aid  for  the  support  of  Albany.  The 
following  passage  in  it  shews  the  sense  of  the  legis- 
lature, upon  a  matter  which  was  afterwards  very 
much  debated.  "  When  these  countries  were  pos- 
sessed by  the  Dutch  West-India  company,  they  al- 
ways had  pretences  (and  had  the  most  part  of  it 
within  their  actual  jurisdiction)  to  all  that  tract  of 
land  (with  the  islands  adjacent)  extending  from 
the  west  side  of  Connecticut  river  to  the  lands  lying 
on  the  west  side  of  Delaware  bay,  as  a  suitable  por- 
tion of  land  for  one  colony  or  government ;  all  which, 
including  the  lands  on  the  west  of  Delaware  bay  or 
river,  were  in  the  duke  of  York's  grant,  from  his 
majesty  King  Charles  II.,  whose  governors  also 
possessed  those  lands  on  the  west  side  of  Delaware 
bay  or  river.  By  several  grants  as  well  from  the 
crown,  as  from  the  duke,  the  said  province  has  been 
so  diminished,  that  it  is  now  decreased  to  a  very 
few  towns  and  villages ;  the  number  of  men  fit  to 
bear  arms  in  the  whole  government  not  amounting 
to  3,000,  who  are  all  reduced  to  great  poverty." 

Fletcher  was  by  profession  a  soldier,  a  man  of 
strong  passions,  and  inconsiderable  talents,  very 
active,  and  equally  avaricious.  Nothing  could  be 
more  fortunate  to  him,  than  his  early  acquaintance 
with  Major  Schuyler,  at  Albany,  at  the  treaty  for 
confirmation  of  the  Indian  alliance,  the  autumn 
after  his  arrival.  No  man  then  in  the  province  un- 
derstood the  state  of  affairs  with  the  five  nations 
better  than  Major  Schuyler.  He  had  so  great  an 
influence  over  them,  that  whatever  Quider,  as  they 
called  him  (instead  of  Peter,  which  they  could  not 
pronounce),  recommended  or  disapproved,  had  the 
force  of  a  law.  This  power  over  them  was  sup- 
ported, as  it  had  been  obtained,  by  repeated  offices 
of  kindness,  and  his  singular  bravery  and  activity 
in  the  defence  of  his  country.  These  qualifications 
rendered  him  singularly  serviceable  and  necessary, 
both  to  the  province  and  the  governor.  For  this 
reason,  Fletcher  took  him  into  his  confidence,  and 
on  the  25th  of  October  raised  him  to  the  council 
board.  Under  the  tutelage  of  Major  Schuyler,  the 
governor  became  daily  more  and  more  acquainted 
with  the  Indian  affairs;  his  constant  application  to 
which  procured  and  preserved  him  a  reputation  and 
influence  in  the  colony.  Without  this  knowledge, 
and  which  was  all  that  he  had  to  distinguish  himself, 
his  incessant  solicitations  for  money,  his  passionate 
temper  and  bigoted  principles,  must  necessarily  have 
rendered  him  obnoxious  to  the  people,  and  kindled 
a  hot  fire  of  contention  in  the  province. 

The  old  French  governor,  who  found  that  all  his 
measures  for  accomplishing  a  peace  with  the  five 
nations  proved  abortive,  was  now  meditating  a  blow 
on  the  Mohawks.  He  accordingly  collected  an  army 
of  600  or  700  French  and  Indians,  and  supplied 
them,  with  every  thing  necessary  for  a  winter  cam- 
paign. They  set  out  from  Montreal  on  the  15th  of 

HIST.  OF  AMBR.— Nos.  67  &  68. 


January,  1693;  and  after  a  march  attended  with 
incredible  hardships,  they  passed  by  Schenectady  on 
the  6th  of  February,  and,  that  night,  captured  five 
men,  and  some  women  and  children,  at  the  first 
castle  of  the  Mohawks.  The  second  castle  was 
taken  with  equal  ease,  the  Indian  inhabitants  being 
in  perfect  security,  and  for  the  most  part  at  Sche- 
nectady. At  the  third,  the  enemy  found  about  forty 
Indians  in  a  war  dance,  designing  to  go  out  upon 
some  enterprise  the  next  day.  Upon  their  entering 
the  castle  a  conflict  ensued,  in  whicn  the  French  lost 
about  thirty  men.  Three  hundred  of  the  Indian 
allies  were  made  captives  in  this  descent ;  and,  but 
for  the  intercession  of  the  savages  in  the  French  in- 
terest, would  all  have  been  put  to  the  sword. 

The  Indians  were  enraged,  and  with  good  reason, 
at  the  people  of  Schenectady,  who  gave  them  no 
assistance  against  the  enemy,  though  they  had  notice 
of  their  marching  by  that  village.  But  this  was 
atoned  for  by  the  succours  from  Albany.  Colonel 
Schuyler  voluntarily  headed  a  party  of  200  men, 
and  went  out  against  the  enemy.  On  the  15th  of 
February  he  was  joined  by  near  300  Indians,  ill 
armed,  and  many  of  them  boys.  A  pretended  de- 
serter, who  came  to  dissuade  the  Indians  from  the 
pursuit,  informed  him  the  next  day,  that  the  French 
had  built  a  fort,  and  waited  to  fight  him  ;  upon  which 
he  sent  to  Ingolsby,  the  commandant  at  Albany,  as 
well  for  a  reinforcement,  as  for  a  supply  of  provi- 
sions ;  for  the  greatest  part  of  his  men  came  out 
with  only  a  few  biscuits  in  their  pockets,  and  at  the 
time  they  fell  in  with  the  enemy,  on  the  17th  of  the 
month,  had  been  several  days  without  any  kind  of 
food.  Upon  approaching  the  French  army,  sundry 
skirmishes  ensued ;  the  enemy  endeavouring  to 
prevent  Indians  in  alliance  with  the  English  from 
felling  trees  for  their  protection.  Capt.  Syms,  with 
80  regulars  of  the  independent  companies,  and  a 
supply  of  provisions,  arrived  on  the  19th,  but  the 
enemy  had  marched  off  the  day  before,  in  a  great 
snow  storm.  They,  however,  pursued  them,  and 
would  have  attacked  their  rear,  if  the  Mohawks  had 
not  been  averse  to  it.  When  the  French  reached 
the  north  branch  of  Hudson's  river,  luckily  for  them, 
a  cake  of  ice  served  them  to  cross  over  it,  the  river 
being  open  both  above  and  below.  The  frost  was 
now  extremely  severe,  and  the  Mohawks  fearful  of 
an  engagement;  upon  which  Schuyler,  who  had 
retaken  about  fifty  Indian  captives,  desisted  from  the 
pursuit  on  the  20th  of  February ;  four  of  his  men 
and  as  many  Indians  being  killed,  and  twelve 
wounded.  The  Indians,  at  this  time,  were  so  dis- 
tressed for  provisions,  that  they  fed  upon  the  dead 
bodies  of  the  French ;  and  the  enemy  in  their  turn 
were  reduced,  before  they  got  home,  to  eat  up  their 
shoes.  The  French  in  this  enterprise  lost  80  men, 
and  had  above  30  wounded. 

Fletcher's  extraordinary  dispatch  up  to  Albany, 
upon  the  first  news  of  this  descent,  gained  the  es- 
teem both  of  the  public  and  the  Indian  allies. 

The  express  reached  New  York  on  the  12th  of 
February,  at  ten  o'clock  in  the  night,  and  in  less 
than  two  day£,  the  governor  embarked  with  300 
volunteers.  The  river,  which  was  heretofore  very 
uncommon  at  that  season,  was  open.  Fletcher 
landed  at  Albany,  and  arrived  at  Schenectady  the 
17th  of  the  month,  which  is  about  160  miles  from 
New  York ;  but  he  was  still  too  late  to  be  of  any 
other  use  than  to  strengthen  the  ancient  alliance. 
The  Indians,  in  commendation  of  his  activity  on  the 
occasion,  gave  him  the  name  of  Cayenguirugo,  or 
The  great  Swift  Arrow. 

3  G 


530 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


Fletcher  re-turned  to  New  York,  and  in  March 
met  the  assembly,  who  were  so  well  pleased  with  his 
fate  vigilance,  that  besides  giving  him  the  thanks  of 
the  house,  they  raised  6000/.  for  a  year's  pay  of  300 
volunteers  and  their  officers,  for  the  defence  of 
the  frontiers. 

As  the  greatest  part  of  this  province  consisted  of 
Dutch  inhabitants,  all  the  governors,  as  well  in  the 
duke's  time  as  after  the  revolution  of  1688,  thought 
it  good  policy  to  encourage  English  preachers  and 
schoolmasters  in  the  colony.  No  man  could  be  more 
bent  upon  such  a  project  than  Fletcher,  a  bigot  to 
the  episcopal  form  of  church  government.  He,  ac- 
cordingly, recommended  this  matter  to  the  assembly, 
on  his  first  arrival,  as  well  as  at  their  present  meet- 
ing. The  house,  from  their  attachment  to  the  Dutch 
language,  and  the  model  of  the  church  of  Holland, 
secured  by  one  of  the  articles  of  surrender,  were  en- 
tirely disinclined  to  the  scheme,  which  occasioned  a 
warm  rebuke  from  the  governor,  in  his  speech  at 
the  close  of  the  session,  in  these  words  :  "  Gentle- 
men, the  first  thing  that  I  did  recommend  to  you, 
at  our  last  meeting,  was  to  provide  for  a  ministry, 
and  nothing  is  done  in  it.  There  are  none  of  you, 
but  what  are  big  with  the  privileges  of  Englishmen 
and  Magna  Charta,  which  is  your  right ;  and  the 
same  law  doth  provide  for  the  religion  of  the  church 
of  England,  against  sabbath-breaking  and  all  other 
profanity.  But  as  you  have  made  it  last,  and  post- 
poned it  this  session,  I  hope  you  will  begin  with  it  the 
next  meeting,  and  do  somewhat  to  ward  it  effectually." 

The  news  of  the  arrival  of  the  recruits  and  am- 
munition at  Canada,  the  late  loss  of  the  Mohawks, 
and  the  unfulfilled  promises  of  assistance  made  from 
time  to  time  by  the  English,  together  with  the  in- 
cessant solicitations  of  Milet,  the  Jesuit,  all  conspired 
to  induce  the  Oneydocs  to  sue  for  a  peace  with  the 
French.  To  prevent  so  important  an  event,  Fletcher 
met  the  five  nations  at  Albany,  in  July  1693>  with  a 
considerable  present  of  knives,  hatchets,  clothing, 
and  ammunition,  which  had  been  sent  over  by  the 
crown  for  that  purpose.  The  Indians  consented  to 
a  renewal  of  the  ancient  league,  and  expressed  their 
gratitude  for  the  king's  donation  with  singular 
force.  "  Brother  Cayenguarago,  we  roll  and  wallow 
in  joy,  by  reason  of  the  great  favour  the  great  king 
and  queen  have  done  us,  in  sending  us  arms  and 
ammunition  at  a  time  when  we  are  in  the  greatest 
need  of  them ;  and  because  there  is  such  unity 
among  the  brethren.''  Col.  Fletcher  pressed  their 
delivering  up  to  him  Milet,  the  old  priest,  which 
they  promised,  but  never  performed.  On  the  con- 
trary, he  had  influence  enough  to  persuade  all  but 
the  Mohawks  to  treat  about  the  peace  at  Onondaga, 
though  the  governor  exerted  himself  to  prevent  it. 

Soon  after  this  interview,  Fletcher  returned  to 
New  York ;  and,  in  September,  met  a  new  assem- 
bly, of  which  James  Graham  was  chosen  speaker. 
The  governor  laboured  at  this  session  to  procure  the 
establishment  of  a  ministry  throughout  the  colony, 
a  revenue  to  his  majesty  for  life,  the  repairing  the 
fort  in  New  York,  and  the  erection  of  a  chapel. 
That  part  of  his  speech,  relating  to  the  ministry, 
was  in  these  words :  "  I  recommended  to  the  former 
assembly  the  settling  of  an  able  ministry,  that  the 
worship  of  God  may  be  observed  among  us ;  for  I 
find  that  great  and  first  duty  very  much  neglected. 
Let  us  not  forget  that  there  is  a  God  that  made  us, 
who  will  protect  us  if  we  serve  him.  This  has  been 
always  the  first  thing  I  have  recommended,  yefthe 
last  in  your  consideration.  I  hope  you  arc  all  satis 
fied  of  the  great  necessity  and  duty  that  lies  upon 


you  to  do  this,  as  you  expect  his  blessing  upon  your 
labours."  The  zeal  with  which  this  affair  was  re- 
commended, induced  the  house,  on  the  12th  of  Sep- 
tember, to  appoint  a  committee  of  eight  members, 
to  agree  upon  a  scheme  for  settling  a  ministry  in 
each  respective  precinct  throughout  the  province. 
This  committee  made  a  report  the  next  day,  but  it 
was  recommitted  till  the  afternoon,  and  then  de- 
ferred to  the  next  morning.  Several  debates  arising 
about  the  report  in  the  house,  it  was  again  "  recom- 
mitted for  further  consideration."  On  the  15th  ui' 
September  it  was  approved,  the  establishment  being 
then  limited  to  several  parishes  in  four  counties, 
and  a  bill  ordered  to  be  brought  in  accordingly ; 
which  the  speaker  (who,  on  the  18th  of  September, 
was  appointed  to  draw  all  their  bills)  produced  on 
the  19th.  It  was  read  twice  on  the  same  day,  and 
then  referred  to  a  committee  of  the  whole  house. 
The  third  reading  was  on  the  21st  of  September, 
when  the  bill  passed,  and  was  sent  up  to  the  governor 
and  council,  who  immediately  returned  it  with 
an  amendment,  to  vest  his  excellency  with  an  epis- 
copal power  of  inducting  every  incumbent,  adding 
to  that  part  of  the  bill  near  the  end,  which  gave  the 
right  of  presentation  to  the  people,  these  words, 
"  and  presented  to  the  goveinor  to  be  approved  and 
collated."  The  house  declined  their  consent  to  the 
addition,  and  immediately  returned  the  bill,  praying, 
"  that  it  may  pass  without  the  amendment,  having, 
in  the  drawing  of  the  bill,  had  a  due  regard  to  the 
pious  intent  of  settling  a  ministry  for  the  benefit  of 
the  people."  Fletcher  was  so  exasperated  with  their 
refusal,  that  he  no  sooner  received  the  answer  of  the 
house,  than  he  convened  them  before  him,  and  in 
an  angry  speech  broke  up  the  session.  That  part 
of  it,  relating  to  this  bill,  is  given,  because  it  is  cha- 
racteristic of  the  man  and  the  times. 

"  Gentlemen,  there  is  also  a  bill  for  settling  a 
ministry  in  this  city  and  some  other  countries  of  the 
government.  In  that  very  thing  you  have  shewn  a 
great  deal  of  stiffness.  You  take  upon  you,  as  if 
you  were  dictators :  I  sent  down  to  you  an  amend- 
ment of  three  or  four  words  in  that  bill,  which, 
though  very  immaterial,  yet  was  positively  denied. 
I  must  tell  you  it  seems  very  unmannerly.  There 
never  was  an  amendment  yet  desired  by  the  council 
board  but  what  was  rejected.  It  is  the  sign  of  a 
stubborn  ill  temper. 

"  But,  gentlemen,  I  must  take  leave  to  tell  you, 
if  you  seem  to  understand  by  these  words,  that  none 
can  serve  without  your  collation  or  establishment, 
you  are  far  mistaken.  For  I  have  the  power  of  col- 
lating or  suspending  any  minister,  in  my  govern- 
ment, by  their  majesties  letters  patent ;  and  whilst 
I  stay  in  the  government,  I  will  take  care  that 
neither  heresy,  sedition,  schism,  or  rebellion,  be 
preached  among  you,  nor  vice  and  profanity  en- 
couraged. It  is  my  endeavour  to  lead  a  virtuous 
and  pious  life  amongst  you,  and  to  give  a  good  ex- 
ample :  I  wish  you  all  to  do  the  same.  You  ought 
to  consider,  that  you  have  but  a  third  share  in  the 
legislative  power  of  the  government;  and  ought  not 
to  take  all  upon  you,  nor  be  so  peremptory.  You 
ought  to  let  the  council  have  a  share.  They  are  in 
the  nature  of  the  house  of  lords,  or  upper  house ; 
but  you  seem  to  take  the  whole  power  in  your  hands, 
and  set  up  for  every  thing.  You  have  set  a  long 
time  to  little  purpose,  and  have  been  a  great  charge 
to  the  country.  Ten  shillings  a  day  is  a  large  al- 
lowance, and  you  punctually  exact  it.  You  have 
been  always  forward  enough  to  pull  down  the  fees  of 
other  ministers  in  the  government.  Why  did  you 


UNITED  STATES. 


531 


not  think  it  expedient  to  correct  your  own,  to  a  more 
moderate  allowance  ? 

"  Gentlemen,  I  shall  say  no  more  at  present,  but 
that  you  do  withdraw  to  your  private  affairs  in  the 
country.  1  do  prorogue  you  to  the  10th  of  January 
next,  and  you  are  hereby  prorogued  to  the  10th  day 
of  January  next  ensuing." 

The  violence  of  this  man's  temper  is  very  evident 
in  all  his  speeches  and  messages  to  the  assembly ; 
and  it  can  only  be  attributed  to  the  ignorance  of  the 
times,  that  the  members  of  that  house,  instead  of 
asserting  their  equality,  peaceably  put  up  with  his 
rudeness.  Certainly  they  deserved  better  usage  at 


afresh,  and  the  assembly  were  obliged  to  augment 
both  their  detachments  and  supplies.     The  Count 


Frontenac  now  levelled  his  wrath 


against 


the  Mohawks,  who  were  more  attached  than  any 
other  of  the  five  nations  to  the  interest  of  the  pro- 
vince ;  but  as  his  intentions  had  taken  air,  he  pru- 
dently changed  his  measures,  and  sent  a  party  ot 
300  men  to  the  Isthmus  at  Niagara,  to  surprise  those 
of  the  five  nations  that  might  be  hunting  there. 
Among  a  few  that  were  met  with,  some  were  killed, 
and  others  taken  prisoners,  and  afterwards  burnt  at 
Montreal.  The  allied  Indians  imitated  the  count's 
example,  and  burnt  ten  Dewagunga  captives. 


his  hands.     For  the  revenue,  established   the  last )      Colonel  Fletcher  and  his  assembly  having  conic 


year,  was,  at  this  session,  continued  five  years  longer 
than  was  originally  intended.  This  was  rendering 
the  governor  for  a  time  independent  of  the  people. 
For,  at  that  day,  the  assembly  had  no  treasure,  but 
the  amount  of  all  taxes  went  of  course  into  the  hands 
of  the  receiver-general,  who  was  appointed  by  the 
crown.  Out  of  this  fund,  monies  were  only  issuable 
by  the  governor's  warrant;  so  that  every  officer  in 
the  government,  from  Mr.  Blaithwait,  who  drew 
annually  five  per  cent,  out  of  the  revenue,  as  audi- 
tor-general, down  to  the  meanest  servant  of  the  pub- 
lic, became  dependent,  solely,  on  the  governor.  And 
hence  we  find  the  house,  at  the  close  of  every  ses- 
sion, humbly  addressing  his  excellency  for  the  trifling 
wages  of  their  own  clerk.  Fletcher  was,  notwith- 
standing, so  much  displeased  with  them,  that  soon 
after  the  prorogation  he  dissolved  the  assembly. 

The  members  of  the  new  assembly  met  according 
to  the  writ  of  summons,  in  March,  1694,  and  chose 
Colonel  Peirson  for  their  speaker,  Mr.  Graham 
being  left  out  at  the  election  for  the  city.  The 
shortness  of  this  session,  which  continued  only  to 
the  latter  end  of  the  month,  was  owing  to  the  dis- 
agreeable business  the  house  began  upon,  of  exami- 
ning the  state  of  the  public  accounts,  and  in  parti- 
cular the  muster-rolls  of  the  volunteers  in  the  pay 
of  the  province.  They,  however,  resumed  it  again 
in  September,  and  formally  entered  their  dissatis- 
faction with  the  receiver-general's  accounts.  The 
governor,  at  the  same  time,  fostered  the  discontent, 
by  a  demand  of  additional  pay  for  the  king's  soldiers, 
then  just  arrived,  and  new  supplies  for  detachments 
in  defence  of  the  frontiers.  He  at  last  prorogued 
them,  after  obtaining  an  act  for  supporting  100  men 
upon  the  borders.  The  same  disputes  revived  again 
in  the  spring,  1695  ;  and  proceeded  to  such  lengths, 
that  the  assembly  asked  the  governor's  leave  to  print 
their  minutes,  that  they  might  appeal  to  the  public. 
It  was  at  this  session,  on  the  12th  of  April,  1695, 
that,  upon  a  petition  of  five  churchwardens  and  ves- 
trymen of  the  city  of  New  York,  the  house  declared 
it  their  opinion,  "  That  the  vestrymen  and  church- 
wardens have  power  to  call  a  dissenting  protestant 
minister,  and  that  he  is  to  be  paid  and  maintained 
as  the  act  directs."  The  intent  of  this  petition  was 
to  refute  an  opinion  which  prevailed,  that  the  late 
ministry  act  was  made  for  the  sole  benefit  of  epis- 
copal clergymen. 

The  quiet,  undisturbed  state  of  the  frontiers,  while 
the  French  were  endeavouring  to  make  a  peace 
with  the  five  nations,  and  the  complaints  of  the 
volunteers,  who  had  not  received  their  pay,  added 
much  to  the  unwillingness  of  the  assembly  to  answer 
Fletcher's  perpetual  demands  of  money.  But  when 
the  Indians  refused  to  comply  with  the  terms  of 
peace  demanded  by  the  French  governor,  which 
were  to  suffer  him  to  rebuild  the  fort  at  Cadaraqui, 
and  to  include  the  Indian  allies,  the  war  broke  out 


to  an  open  rupture  in  the  spring,  he  called  another 
in  June,  of  which  James  Graham  was  chosen  speaker. 
The  Count  Frontenac  was  then  repairing  the  old 
fort  at  Cadaraqui ;  and  the  intelligence  of  this,  and 
the  king's  assignment  of  the  quotas  of  the  several 
colonies  for  an  united  force  against  the  French,  were 
the  principal  matters  which  the  governor  laid  be- 
fore the  assembly.  The  list  of  the  quotas  was  this: 
Pennsylvania  80J.,  Massachusetts  bay  350/.,  Mary- 
land 160/.,  Virginia  240/.,  Rhode  Island  and  Provi- 
dence 48J.,  Connecticut  V20L,  and  New  York  200/. 

As  a  number  of  forces  were  now  arrived,  the  as- 
sembly were  ia  hopes  the  province  would  be  relieved 
from  raising  any  more  men  for  the  defence  of  the 
frontiers ;  and  to  obtain  this  favour  of  the  governor, 
ordered  1,OOOJ.  to  be  levied,  one-half  to  be  presented 
to  him,  and  the  rest  he  had  leave  to  distribute  among 
the  English  officers  and  soldiers.  A  bill  for  this 
purpose  was  drawn,  but  though  his  excellency  thanked 
them  for  their  favourable  intention,  he  thought  it 
not  for  his  honour  to  consent  to  it.  After  passing 
several  iav/s,  the  session  broke  up  in  perfect  har- 
mony, the  governor  in  his  great  grace  recommending 
it  to  the  house,  to  appoint  a  committee  to  examine 
the  public  accounts  against  the  next  sessions. 

In  September,  Fletcher  went  up  to  Albany,  with 
very  considerable  presents  to  the  Indians,  whom  he 
blamed  for  suffering  the  French  to  rebuild  the  fort 
at  Cadaraqui,  or  Frontenac,  which  commands  the 
entrance  from  Canada  into  the  great  lake  Ontario. 

While  these  works  were  carrying  on,  the  Dio- 
nandadies,  who  were  then  poorly  supplied  by  the 
French,  made  overtures  of  a  peace  with  the  five 
nations,  which  the  latter  readily  embraced,  because 
it  was  owing  to  their  fears  of  these  Indians,  who 
lived  near  the  lake  Misilimachinac,  that  they  never 
dared  to  march  with  their  whole  strength  against 
Canada.  The  French  commandant  was  fully  sensible 
of  the  importance  of  preventing  this  alliance.  The 
civilities  of  the  Dionandadies  to  the  prisoners,  by 
whom  the  treaty,  to  prevent  a  discovery,  was  nego- 
ciated,  gave  the  officer  the  first  suspicion  of  it.  One 
of  them  had  the  unhappiness  to  fall  into  the  hands 
of  the  French,  who  put  him  to  the  most  exquisite 
torments,  that  all  future  intercourse  with  the  Dio- 
nandadies might  be  cut  off.  Dr.  Golden,  in  just  re- 
sentment for  this  inhuman  barbarity,  published  the 
whole  process  from  La  Potherie's  History  of  North 
America,  as  follows  : — 

"  The  prisoner  being  first  made  fast  to  a  stake,  so 
as  to  have  room  to  move  round  it,  a  Frenchman 
began  the  horrid  tragedy,  by  broiling  the  flesh  of 
the  prisoner's  legs  from  his  toes  to  his  knees,  with 
the  red-hot  barrel  of  a  gun.  His  example  was  fol- 
lowed by  an  Utawawa,  who  being  desirous  to  outdo 
the  French  in  their  refined  cruelty,  split  a  furrow 
from  the  prisoners  shoulder  to  his  garter,  and  filling 


it  with  gunpowder,   set  fire  to  it. 


This  gave  him 
3G2 


532 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


exquisite  pain,  and  raised  excessive  laughter  in  his 
tormentors.  When  they  found  his  throat  so  much 
parched,  that  he  was  no  longer  able  to  gratify  their 
ears  with  his  howling,  they  gave  him  water,  to  enable 
him  to  continue  their  pleasure  longer.  But  at  last 
his  strength  failing,  an  Utawawa  flayed  off  his  scalp, 
and  threw  burning  hot  coals  on  his  skull.  They 
then  untied  him,  and  bid  him  run  for  his  life.  He 
began  to  run,  tumbling,  like  a  drunken  man.  They 
shut  up  the  way  to  the  east,  and  made  him  run 
westward,  the  country  (as  they  think)  of  departed 
miserable  souls.  He  had  still  force  left  to  throw 
stones,  till  they  put  an  end  to  his  misery  by  knock- 
ing him  on  the  head.  After  this  every  one  cut  a 
slice  from  his  body,  to  conclude  the  tragedy  with  a 
feast." 

From  the  time  Colonel  Fletcher  received  his  in- 
structions, respecting  the  quotas  of  these  colonies 
for  the  defence  of  the  frontiers,  he  repeatedly,  but 
in  vain,  urged  their  compliance  with  the  king's  di- 
rection ;  he  then  carried  his  complaints  against  them 
home  to  his  majesty,  but  all  his  applications  were 
defeated  by  the  agents  of  those  colonies  who  re- 
sided in  England.  As  soon  therefore  as  he  had  laid 
this  matter  before  the  assembly,  in  autumn  1G95, 
the  house  appointed  William  Nicol  to  go  home  in 
the  quality  of  an  agent  for  this  province,  for  which 
they  allowed  him  1,000/. :  but  his  solicitations  proved 
unsuccessful.  Fletcher  maintained  a  good  corres- 
pondence with  the  assembly,  through  the  rest  of  his 
administration;  and  nothing  appears  upon  their 
journals  worth  the  reader's  attention. 

The  French  never  had  a  governor  in  Canada  so 
vigilant  and  active  as  the  Count  de  Frontenac.  He 
had  no  sooner  repaired  the  old  fort,  called  by  his 
name,  than  he  formed  a  design  of  invading  the  coun- 
try of  the  five  nations,  with  a  great  army.  For  this 
purpose,  in  1696,  he  convened  at  Montreal  all  the 
regulars,  as  well  as  militia,  under  his  command; 
the  Owenagungas,  Quatoghies  of  Loretto,  Adiron- 
dacks,  Sokakies,  Nipiciriniens,  the  converted  pray- 
ing Indians  of  the  five  nations,  and  a  few  Utawawas. 
Instead  of  waggons  and  horses,  (which  are  useless 
in  such  a  country  as  he  had  to  march  through)  the 
army  was  conveyed  through  rivers  and  lakes,  in 
light  barks,  which  were  portable,  whenever  the  ra- 
pidity of  the  stream  and  the  crossing  an  isthmus 
rendered  it  necessary.  The  count  left  La  Chine,  at 
the  south  end  of  the  island  of  Montreal,  on  the  7th 
of  July.  Two  battalions  of  regulars,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Le  Chevalier  de  Callieres,  headed  by  a 
numbe'i  of  Indians,  led  the  van,  with  two  small 
pieces  of  cannon,  the  mortars,  grenadoes,  and  am- 
munition. After  them  followed  the  provisions; 
then  the  main  body,  with  the  count's  household,  a 
considerable  number  of  volunteers  and  the  engineer, 
and  four  battalions  of  the  militia  commanded  by 
Monsieur  de  Ramezai,  governor  of  Trois  Rivieres*. 
Two  battalions  of  regulars  and  a  few  Indians, 
under  the  Chevalier  de  Vaudrueil,  brought  up  the 
rear.  Before  the  army  went  a  parcel  of  scouts,  to 
descry  the  tracks  and  ambuscades  of  the  enemy. 

After  12  days  march  they  arrived  at  Cadaracqui, 
about  180  miles  from  Montreal,  and  then  crossed 
the  lake  to  Oswego.  Fifty  men  marched  on  each 
side  of  the  Onondaga  river,  which  is  narrow  and 
rapid.  When  they  entered  the  little  lake,  the  army 
divided  into  two  parts,  coasting  along  the  edges, 
that  the  enemy  might  be  uncertain  as  to  the  place 
of  their  landing;  and  where  they  did  land  they 
erected  a  fort.  The  Onondagas  had  sent  away  their 
wives  and  children,  and  were  determined  to  defend 


their  castle,  till  they  were  informed  by  a  deserter 
of  the  superioi  strength  of  the  French,  and  the  na- 
ture of  bombs,  which  were  intended  to  be  used 
against  them — and  then,  after  setting  fire  to  their 
village,  they  retired  into  the  woods.  As  soon  as  the 
count  heard  of  this,  he  marched  to  their  huts  in  order 
of  battle;  being  himself  carried  in  an  elbow  chair, 
behind  the  artillery.  With  this  mighty  appaiatus 
he  entered  it,  and  the  destruction  of  a  little  Indian 
corn  was  the  great  acquisition.  A  brave  sachem, 
then  about  100  years  old,  was  the  only  person  who 
tarried  in  the  castle  to  salute  the  old  general.  The 
French  Indians  put  him  to  torment,  which  he  en- 
dured with  astonishing  presence  of  mind.  To  one 
who  stabbed  him  with  a  knife,  he  said,  "  you  had 
better  make  me  die  by  fire,  that  these  French  dogs 
may  learn  how  to  suffer  like  men:  you  Indians, 
their  allies,  you  dogs  of  dogs,  think  of  me  when 
you  are  in  like  condition."  "  Never  perhaps,"  says 
Charlevoix,  "  was  a  man  treated  with  more  cruelty, 
nor  did  any  ever  bear  it  with  superior  magnanimity 
and  resolution."  This  sachem  was  the  only  man, 
of  all  the  Onondagas,  that  was  killed  ;  and  had  not 
thirty-five  Oneydoes,  who  waited  to  receive  Vau- 
drueil at  their  castles,  been  afterwards  basely  car- 
ried into  captivity,  the  count  would  have  returned 
without  the  least  mark  of  triumph.  As  soon  as  he 
began  his  retreat,  the  Onondagas  followed,  and  an- 
noyed his  army  by  cutting  off  several  batteaus. 

This  expensive  enterprise,  and  the  continual  in- 
cursions of  the  five  nations  on  the  country  near 
Montreal,  again  spread  a  famine  through  all  Canada. 
The  count,  however,  kept  up  his  spirits  to  the  last ; 
and  sent  out  scalping  parties,  who  infested  Albany, 
as  the  allied  Indians  did  Montreal,  till  the  treaty  of 
peace  signed  at  Ryswick,  in  1697. 

Richard,  Earl  of  Bellamont,  was  appointed  to 
succeed  Colonel  Fletcher  in  the  year  1695,  but  did 
not  receive  his  commission  till  the  18th  of  June, 
1697;  and  as  he  delayed  his  voyage  till  after  the 
peace  of  Ryswick,  which  was  signed  the  10th  of  Sep- 
tember following,  he  was  blown  off  the  coast  to  Bar- 
badoes,  and  did  not  arrive  before  the  2d  of  April,  1698. 

During  the  late  war  the  seas  were  extremely  in- 
fested with  English  pirates,  some  of  whom  sailed 
out  of  New  York ;  and  it  was  strongly  suspected 
that  they  had  received  too  much  countenance  there, 
even  from  the  government,  during  Fletcher's  ad- 
ministration. His  lordship's  promotion  to  the  chief 
command  of  the  Massachusetts  bay  and  New  Hamp- 
shire, as  well  as  this  province,  was  owing  partly  to 
his  rank,  but  principally  to  the  affair  of  the  pirates  ; 
and  the  multiplicity  of  business  to  which  the  charge 
of  three  colonies  would  necessarily  expose  him,  in- 
duced the  earl  to  bring  over  with  him  John  Nansan, 
his  kinsman,  in  the  quality  of  lieutenant-governor. 
When  Lord  Bellamont  was  appointed  to  the  govern- 
ment of  these  provinces,  the  king  did  him  the  ho 
nour  to  say,  "  that  he  thought  him  a  man  of  reso- 
lution and  integrity,  and  with  these  qualities  more 
likely  than  any  other  he  could  think  of,  to  put  a  stop 
to  the  growth  of  piracy." 

Before  the  earl  set  out  for  America,  he  became 
acquainted  with  Robert  Livingston,  Esq.  who  was 
then  in  England,  soliciting  his  own  affairs  before 
the  council  and  the  treasury.  The  earl  took  occa- 
sion, in  one  of  his  conferences  with  Mr.  Livingston, 
to  mention  the  scandal  the  province  was  under  on 
account  of  the  pirates.  The  latter,  who  confessed 
it  was  not  without  reason,  brought  the  earl  ac- 
quainted with  one  Kid,  whom  he  recommended  as 
a  man  of  integrity  and  courage,  that  knew  the 


UNITED  STATES. 


533 


pirates  and  their  rendezvous,-  and  would  undertake 
to  apprehend  them,  if  the  king  would  employ  him 
in  a  good  sailing  frigate  of  thirty  guns  and  one 
hundred  and  fifty  men.  The  earl  laid  the  proposal 
before  the  king,  who  consulted  the  admiralty  upon 
that  subject ;  but  this  project  dropped,  through  the 
uncertainty  of  the  adventure,  and  the  French  war, 
which  gave  full  employment  to  all  the  ships  in  the 
navy.  Mr.  Livingston  then  proposed  a  private  ad- 
venture against  the  pirates,  offering  to  be  concerned 
with  Kid,  a  fifth  part  in  the  ship  and  charges,  and 
to  be  bound  for  Kid's  execution  of  the  commission. 
The  king  then  approved  of  the  design,  and  reserved 
a  tenth  share,  to  shew  that  he  was  concerned  in  the 
enterprise.  Lord  Chancellor  Somers,  the  duke  of 
Shrewsbury,  the  earls  of  Romney  and  Oxford,  Sir 
Edmund  Harrison  and  others,  joined  in  the  scheme, 
agreeing  to  the  expense  of  6000J.  But  the  manage- 
ment of  the  whole  affair  was  left  to  Lord  Bellamont, 
who  gave  orders  to  Kid  to  pursue  his  commission, 
which  was  in  common  form.  Kid  sailed  from  Ply- 
mouth, for  New  York,  in  April  1696;  and  after- 
wards turned  pirate,  burnt  his  ship,  and  came  to 
Boston,  where  the  earl  apprehended  him.  His  lord- 
ship wrote  to  the  secretary  of  state,  desiring  that 
Kid  might  be  sent  for.  The  Rochester  man  of  war 
was  dispatched  upon  this  service,  but  being  driven 
back,  a  general  suspicion  prevailed  in  England, 
that  all  was  collusion  between  the  ministry  and  the 
adventurers,  who,  it  was  thought,  were  unwilling 
Kid  should  be  brought  home,  lest  he  might  discover 
that  the  chancellor,  the  duke,  and  others,  were  con- 
federate* in  the  piracy.  The  matter  even  proceeded 
to  such  lengths,  that  a  motion  was  made  in  the 
house  of  commons,  that  all  who  were  concerned  in 
the  adventure  might  be  turned  out  of  their  employ- 
ments ;  but  it  was  rejected  by  a  great  majority. 

The  tory  party,  who  excited  these  clamours, 
though  they  lost  their  motion  in  the  house,  after- 
ward impeached  several  whig  lords;  and,  among 
other  articles,  charged  them  with  being  concerned 
in  Kid's  piracy.  But  these  prosecutions  served  only 
to  brighten  the  innocency  of  those  against  whom 
they  were  brought ;  for  the  impeached  lords  were 
honourably  acquitted  by  their  peers. 

Lord  Bellamont's  commission  was  published  in 
council  on  the  day  of  his  arrival ;  Colonel  Fletcher, 
•who  still  remained  governor  under  the  proprietors 
of  Pennsylvania,  and  Lieut-Governor  Nanfan  being 
present.  The  members  of  the  council  were  Frederick 
Philipse,  Stephen  Van  Cortlandt,  Nicholas  Bayard, 
Gabriel  Mienvielle,  William  Smith,  William  Nicoll, 
Thomas  Willet,  William  Pinhorne,  John  Lawrence. 

After  the  earl  had  dispatched  Capt.  John  Schuyler, 
and  Dellius,  the  Dutch  minister  of  Albany,  to 
Canada,  with  the  account  of  the  peace,  and  to  solicit 
a  mutual  exchange  of  prisoners ;  he  laid  before  the 
council  the  letters  from  Secretary  Vernon  and  the 
East  India  company,  relating  to  the  pirates,  inform- 
ing that  board  that  he  had  an  affidavit,  that  Fletcher 
had  permitted  them  to  land  their  spoils  in  this  pro- 
vince, and  that  Mr.  Nicoll  bargained  for  their  pro- 
tections, and  received  for  his  services  800  Spanish 
dollars.  Nicoll  confessed  the  receipt  of  the  money 
for  protections,  but  said  it  was  in  virtue  of  a  late 
act  of  assembly,  allowing  privateers  on  their  giving 
security ;  but  he  denied  the  receipt  of  any  money 
from  known  pirates.  One  Weaver  was  admitted  at 
this  time  into  the  council  chamber,  and  acted  in  the 
quality  of  king's  counsel,  and  in  answer  to  Mr. 
Nicoll,  denied  that  there  was  any  such  act  of  assem- 
bly as  Le  mentioned.  After  considering  the  whole 


matter,  the  council  advised  his  excellency  to  send 
Fletcher  home,  but  to  try  Nicoll  in  New  York,  be- 
cause his  estate  would  not  bear  the  expense  of  a 
trial  in  England.  Their  advice  was  never  carried 
into  execution,  which  was  probably  owing  to  a  want 
of  evidence  against  the  parties  accused.  It  is  never- 
theless certain,  that  the  pirates  were  frequently  in 
the  sound,  and  supplied  with  provisions  by  the  in- 
habitants of  Long  Island,  who  for  many  years  after- 
wards, were  so  infatuated  with  a  notion  that  the 
pirates  buried  great  quantities  of  money  along  the 
coast,  that  there  is  scarce  a  point  of  land,  or  an 
island,  without  the  marks  of  their  cupidity.  Some 
credulous  people  ruined  themselves  by  these  re- 
searches, and  propagated  a  thousand  idle  fables, 
afterwards  passing  current  among  the  vulgar. 

As  Fletcher,  through  the  whole  of  his  administra- 
tion, had  been  entirely  influenced  by  the  enemies  of 
Leisler;  nothing  could  be  more  agreeable  to  the 
numerous  adherents  of  that  unhappy  man,  than  the 
earl's  disaffection  to  the  late  governor.  It  was  fur 
this  reason,  they  immediately  devoted  themselves  to 
his  lordship,  as  the  head  of  their  party. 

The  majority  of  the  members  of  the  council  were- 
Fletcher's  friends,  and  there  needed  nothing  more 
to  render  them  obnoxious  to  his  lordship.  Leisler's 
advocates  at  the  same  time  'mortally  hated  them, 
not  only  because  they  had  imbrued  their  hands  in 
the  blood  of  the  principal  men  of  their  party,  but 
also  because  they  had  engrossed  the  sole  confidence 
of  the  late  governor,  and  brought  down  his  resent- 
ment upon  them.  Hence,  at  the  commencement  of 
the  earl's  administration,  the  members  of  the  coun- 
cil had  everything  to  iear;  while  the  party  they 
had  depressed,  began  once  again  to  erect  its  head 
under  the  smiles  of  a  governor  who  was  fond  of  their 
aid,  as  they  were  solicitous  to  conciliate  his  favour. 
Had  the  earl  countenanced  the  enemies,  as  well  as 
the  friends  of  Leisler,  which  he  might  have  done, 
his  administration  would  doubtless  have  been  easier 
to  himself  and  advantageous  to  the  province.  But 
his  inflexible  aversion  to  Fletcher  prevented  his 
acting  with  that  moderation,  which  was  necessary 
to  enable  him  to  govern  both  parties.  The  fire  of 
his  temper  appeared  very  early,  on  his  suspending 
Mr.  Nicoll  from  the  board  of  council,  and  obliging 
him  to  enter  into  recognizance  in  2,()UO/.  to  answer 
for  his  conduct  relating  to  the  protections.  But 
his  speech  to  the  new  assembly,  convened  on  the 
18th  of  May,  gave  the  fullest  evidence  of  his  abhor- 
rence of  the  late  administration.  Philip  French 
was  chosen  speaker,  and  waited  upon  his  excellency 
with  the  house,  when  his  lordship  spoke  to  them  in 
the  following  manner  :— 

"  I  cannot  but  observe  to  you,  what  a  legacy  my 
predecessor  has  left  me,  and  what  difficulties  to 
struggle  with — a  divided  people,  an  empty  purse,  a 
few  miserable,  naked,  half-starved  soldiers,  not  half 
the  number  the  king  allowed  pay  for,  the  fortifications, 
and  even  the  governor's  house,  very  much  out  of 
repair — and  in  a  word  the  whole  government  out  of 
frame.  It  hath  been  represented  to  the  government 
in  England,  that  this  province  has  been  a  noted  re- 
ceptacle of  pirates,  and  the  trade  of  it  under  no  re- 
striction, but  the  acts  of  trade  violated  by  the  neg- 
lect and  connivance  of  those  whose  duty  it  was  to 
have  prevented  it." 

After  this  introduction,  he  puts  them  in  mind  that 
the  revenue  was  near  expiring  :  "  It  would  be  hard," 
he  says,  "if  I  that  come  among  you  with  an  honest 
mind,  and  a  resolution  to  be  just  to  your  interest, 
should  meet  with  greater  difficulties,  in  the  discharge 


534 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


of  his  majesty's  service,  than  those  that  have  gone 
before  me.  I  will  take  care  there  shall  be  no  mis- 
application of  the  public  money.  I  will  pocket 
none  of  it  myself,  nor  shall  there  be  any  embezzle- 
ment by  others ;  but  exact  accounts  shall  be  given 
you,  when,  and  as  often,  as  you  shall  require." 

It  was  customary  with  Fletcher  to  be  present  in 
the  field  to  influence  elections ;  and  as  the  assembly 
consisted  at  this  time  of  but  nineteen  members,  they 
were  too  easily  influenced  to  serve  the  private  ends  of 
a  faction.  For  that  reason,  his  lordship  was  warm  in 
a  scheme  of  increasing  their  number,  at  present  to 
thirty,  and  so  in  proportion  as  the  colony  became 
more  populous;  and  hence  we  find  the  following 
clause  in  his  speech  : — "  You  cannot  but  know,  what 
abuses  have  been  formerly  in  elections  of  members 
to  serve  in  the  general  assembly,  which  tends  to  the 
subversion  of  your  liberties.  I  do  therefore  recom- 
mend the  making  of  a  law  to  provide  against  it." 

The  house,  though  unanimous  in  a  hearty  address 
of  thanks  to  the  governor  for  his  speech,  could  scarce 
agree  upon  any  thing  else.  It  was  not  till  the  be- 
ginning of  June,  that  they  had  finished  the  con- 
troversies relating  to  the  late  turbulent  elections; 
arid  even  then  six  members  seceded  from  the  house, 
which  obliged  his  excellency  to  dissolve  the  assembly 
on  the  14th  of  June,  1698.  About  the  same  time, 
the  governor  dismissed  two  of  the  council — Pin- 
horne  for  disrespectful  words  of  the  king,  and  Brouk 
the  receiver-general,  who  was  also  turned  out  of 
that  office,  as  well  as  removed  from  his  place  on  the 
bench. 

In  July,  the  disputes  with  the  French,  concerning 
the  exchange  of  prisoners,  obliged  his  excellency  to 
go  up  to  Albany.  When  the  earl  sent  the  account 
of  the  conclusion  of  the  peace  to  the  governor  of 
Canada,  all  the  French  prisoners  were  restored,  and 
as  to  those  among  the  Indians,  he  promised  to  order 
them  to  be  safely  escorted  to  Montreal.  His  lord- 
ship then  added,  "  I  doubt  not,  sir.  that  you  on  your 
part  will  also  issue  an  order  to  relieve  the  subjects 
of  the  king,  captured  during  the  war,  whether 
Christians  or  Indians." 

The  count,  fearful  of  being  drawn  into  an  implicit 
acknowledgment  that  the  five  nations  were  subject 
to  the  English  crown,  demanded  the  French  prison 
ers  among  the  Indians  to  be  brought  to  Montreal ; 
threatening,  at  the  same  time,  to  continue  the  war 
against  the  confederates,  if  they  did  not  comply  with 
his  request.  After  the  earl's  interview  with  them, 
he  wrote  a  second  letter  to  the  count,  informing  him, 
that  they  had  importunately  begged  to  continue 
under  the  protection  of  the  English  crown,  professing 
an  inviolable  subjection  and  fidelity  to  his  majesty; 
and  that  the  five  nations  were  always  considered  as 
subjects,  which,  says  his  lordship,  "can  be  manifested 
to  all  the  world  by  authentic  and  solid  proofs."  His 
lordship  added,  that  he  would  not  suffer  them  to  be 
insulted,  and  threatened  to  execute  the  laws  of  Eng- 
land upon  the  missionaries,  if  they  continued  any 
longer  in  the  five  cantons.  A  resolute  spirit  run 
through  the  whole  letter,  which  concludes  in  these 
words  :— "  If  it  is  necessary  I  will  arm  every  man 
in  the  provinces,  under  my  government,  to  oppose 
you;  and  redress  the  injury  that  you  may  perpe 
trate  against  our  Indians."  The  count,  in  his  ans- 
wer, proposed  to  refer  the  dispute  to  the  commis 
saries  to  be  appointed  according  to  the  treaty  o 
Ryswick.  The  count  misunderstood  the  treaty.  N( 
provision  was  made  by  it  for  commissaries  to  settle 
the  limits  between  the  English  and  French  posses 
fions,  but  only  to  examine  and  determine  the  con 


roverted  rights  and  pretensions  to  Hudson's  bay 
The  Earl  of  Bellamont  continued  the  claim,  insist- 
ng  that  the  French  prisoners  should  be  delivered 
ip  at  Albany. 

The  French  count  dying  while  this  matter  was 
ontroverted,  Monsieur  de  Callieres,  his  successor, 
ent  ambassadors  the  next  year  to  Onondaga,  there 
o  regulate  the  exchange  of  prisoners,  which  was 
accomplished  without  the  earl's  consent,  and  thus 
he  important  point  in  dispute  remained  unsettled. 
The  Jesuit  Bruyas,  who  was  upon  this  embassage, 
ffered  to  live  at  Onondaga;  but  the  Indians  refused 
lis  belt,  saying  that  Corlear,  or  the  governor  of 
^ew  York,  had  already  offered  them  ministers  for 
heir  instruction. 

Great  alterations  were  made  in  council  at  his  ex- 
cellency's return  from  Albany.    Bayard,  Meinvielle, 
Willet,  Townly,  and  Lawrence,  were  all  suspended 
n  the  28th  of  September;  and  Colonel  Abraham 
Depeyster,  Robert  Livingston,  and  Samuel  Staats, 
ailed   to  that   board.      The  next  day,   Frederick 
Philipse  resigned  his  seat,  and  Robert  Walters  was 
sworn  in  his  stead. 

The  new  assembly,  of  which  James  Graham  was 
chosen  speaker,  met  in  the  spring,  His  excellency 
spoke  to  them  on  the  21st  of  March,  1699. 

As  the  late  assembly  was  principally  composed  of 
;\nti-Leislerians,  so  this  consisted  almost  entirely  of 
the  opposite  party.  The  elections  were  attended 
with  great  outrage  and  tumult,  and  many  applica- 
tions made  relating  to  the  returns  ;  but  as  Abraham 

overneur,  who  had  been  secretary  to  Leisler,  got 
returned  for  Orange  county,  and  was  very  active  in 
the  house,  all  the  petitions  were  rejected  without 
ceremony. 

Among  the  principal  acts  passed  in  this  session, 
there  was  one  for  indemnifying  those  who  were  ex- 
cepted  out  of  the  general  pardon  in  1691;  another 
against  pirates  ;  one  for  the  settlement  of  Milborne's 
estate;  and  another  to  raise  1,500J.  as  a  present  to 
his  lordship,  and  500/.  for  the  lieut.-governor,  his 
kinsman  ;  besides  which,  the  revenue  was  continued 
for  six  years  longer.  A  necessary  law  was  also  made 
for  the  regulation  of  elections,  containing  the  sub- 
stance of  the  English  statutes  of  8  Hen.  VI.  c.  7, 
and  the  7  and  8  Will.  III. 

This  assembly  took  also  into  consideration  sundry 
extravagant  grants  of  land,  which  Colonel  Fletcher 
had  made  to  several  of  his  favourites.  Among  these, 
two  grants  to  Dellius,  the  Dutch  minister,  and  one 
to  Nicholas  Bayard,  were  the  most  considerable. 
Dellius  was  one  of  the  commissioners  for  Indian  af- 
fairs, and  had  fraudulently  obtained  the  Indian  deeds, 
according  to  which  the  patents  had  been  granted. 
One  of  the  grants  included  all  the  lands  within 
twelve  miles  on  the  east  side  of  Hudson's  river,  and 
extended  twenty  miles  in  length,  from  the  north 
bounds  of  Saraghtoga.  The  second  patent,  which 
was  granted  to  him  in  company  with  Pinhorne, 
Bancker,  and  others,  contained  all  the  lands  within 
two  miles  on  the  Mohawks  river,  and  along  its  banks 
to  the  extent  of  fifty  miles.  Bayard's  grant  was 
also  for  lands  in  that  country,  and  very  extravagant. 
Lord  Bellamout,  who  justly  thought  these  great  pa- 
tents, with  the  trifling  annual  reservation  of  a  few 
skins,  would  impede  the  settlement  of  the  country, 
as  well  as  alienate  the  affections  of  our  Indian  allies, 
wisely  procured  recommendatory  instructions  from 
the  lords  justices,  for  vacating  those  patents,  which 
was  now  regularly  accomplished  by  a  law,  and  Del- 
lius thereby  suspended  from  his  ministerial  function. 
The  earl  having  thus  carried  all  his  points  at 


UNITED  STATES. 


535 


Now  York,  set  out  for  Boston  in  June,  and  after  he 
had  settled  his  salary  there,  and  apprehended  the 
pirate  Kidd,  returned  again  in  the  autumn. 

The  revenue  being  settled  for  six  years,  his  lord- 
ship had  no  occasion  to  meet  the  assembly  till  the 
summer  of  the  year  1700,  and  then  indeed  little  else 
was  done  than  to  pass  a  few  laws. — One  for  hanging 
every  popish  priest  that  came  voluntarily  into  the 
province,  which  was  occasioned  by  the  great  num- 
ber of  French  Jesuits,  who  were  continually  prac- 
tising upon  the  friendly  Indians.  By  another,  pro- 
vision was  made  for  erecting  a  fort  in  the  country 
of  the  Onondagas,  but  was  repealed  a  few  months 
after  the  king's  providing  for  that  purpose. 

The  earl  was  a  man  of  ability  and  polite  manners ; 
and  being  a  mortal  enemy  to  the  French,  as  well  as 
a  lover  of  liberty,  he  would  doubtless  have  been  of 
considerable  service  to  the  colony;  but  he  died  there 
on  th«  5th  of  March,  in  1701,  when  he  was  but  just 
become  acquainted  with  the  country. 

The  earl  of  Bellamont's  death  was  the  source  of 
new  troubles;  for  Nanfan,  the  lieut-governor,  being 
then  absent  in  Barbadoes,  a  dispute  arose  among 
the  counsellors  concerning  the  exercise  of  the  pow- 
ers of  government.  Abraham  de  Peyster,  Samuel 
Staats,  Robert  Walters,  and  Thomas  Weaver,  who 
sided  with  the  party  that  adhered  to  Leisler,  insisted 
that  the  government  was  devolved  upon  the  council, 
who  had  a  right  to  act  by  a  majority  of  voices ;  but 
Colonel  Smith  contended  that  all  the  powers  of  the 
late  governor  were  devolved  upon  him,  as  president, 
he  being  the  eldest  member  of  that  board.  Colonel 
Schuyler  and  Robert  Livingston,  who  did  not  ar- 
rive in  town  till  the  21st  of  March,  joined  Mr. 
Smith,  and  refused  to  appear  at  the  council-board, 
till  nearly  the  middle  of  April.  The  assembly, 
which  was  convened  on  the  second  of  that  month, 
were  in  equal  perplexity,  for  they  adjourned  from 
day  to  day,  waiting  the  issue  of  this  rupture.  Both 
parties  continuing  inflexible,  those  members  who 
opposed  Colonel  Smith  sent  down  to  the  house  a 
representation  of  the  controversy,  assigning  a  num- 
ber of  reasons  for  the  sitting  of  the  assembly,  which 
the  house  took  into  their  consideration,  and  on  the 
16th  of  April  resolved,  that  the  execution  of  the 
earl's  commission  and  instructions,  in  the  absence 
of  the  lieut-governor,  was  the  right  of  the  council 
by  majority  of  voices,  and  not  of  any  single  mem- 
ber of  that  board :  and  this  was  afterwards  the  opi- 
nion of  the  lords  of  trade.  The  disputes,  neverthe 
less,  continuing  in  the  council,  strenuously  sup- 
ported by  Mr.  Livingston,  the  house,  on  the  19th  of 
April,  thought  proper  to  adjourn  themselves  to  the 
first  Tuesday  in  June. 

In  this  interval,  on  the  18th  of  May,  John  Nan 
fan,  the  lieut.-governor,  arrived,  and  settled  the  con 
troversy,  by  taking  upon  himself  the  supreme  com 
mand. 

Mr.  Nanfan  brought  the  welcome  intelligence 
that  the  king  had  given  2,000/.  sterling  for  the  de 
fence  of  Albany  and  Schenectady,  as  well  as  500/ 
more  for  erecting  a  fort  in  the  country  of  Onondagas 
And,  not  long  after,  an  ordinance  was  issued,  agree 
ably  to  the  special  direction  of  the  lords  of  trade 
for  erecting  a  court  of  chancery,  to  sit  the  h'rsl 
Thursday  in  every  month.  By  this  ordinance  the 
powers  of  the  chancellor  were  vested  in  the  governor 
and  council,  or  any  two  of  that  board  :  commissions 
were  also  granted,  appointing  masters,  clerks,  anc 
a  register :  so  that  this  court  was  completely  organ 
ised  on  the  2d  of  September,  1701. 

Attwood,  who  was  then  chief  justice  of  the  supremi 


court,  was  now  sworn  of  the  council.  Abraham  de 
Peyster  and  Robert  Walters  were  his  assistants  on 
he  bench ;  and  the  former  was  also  made  deputy 
auditor-general,  under  Mr.  Blaithwait.  Sampson 
Shelton  Broughton  was  the  attorney-general,  and 
came  into  that  office  when  Attwood  took  his  seat  on 
the  bench,  before  the  decease  of  Lord  Bellamont. 
Both  these  had  their  commissions  from  England. 
The  lieut-governor,  and  the  major  part  of  the  board 
of  council,  together  with  the  several  other  officers 
above  named,  being  strongly  in  the  interest  of  the 
Leislerian  party,  it  was  not  a  little  surprising,  that 
Mr.  Nanfan  dissolved  the  late  assembly  on  the  1st 
of  June. 

Great  were  the  struggles  at  the  ensuing  elections, 
which,  however,  generally  prevailed  in  favour  of 
those  who  joined  Leisler  at  the  revolution :  and 
hence,  when  the  new  assembly  met  on  the  19th  of 
August,  1701,  Abraham  Governeur  was  elected  for 
their  speaker.  Dutchess  was  thought  heretofore 
incapable  of  bearing  the  charge  of  a  representation  : 
but  the  people  of  that  county,  now  animated  by  the 
heat  of  the  times,  sent  Jacob  Rutsen  and  Adrian 
Garretsen  to  represent  them  in  assembly. 

Mr.  Nanfan,  in  his  speech  to  the  house,  informs 
them  of  the  memr:  iMe  grant  made  to  the  crown,  on 
the  19th  oi'  July,  by  the  five  nations,  of  a  vast  tract 
of  land,  to  prevent  the  necessity  of  their  submitting 
to  the  French  in  case  of  a  war ;  that  his  majesty  had 
given  out  of  his  exchequer  2,500/.  sterling  for  forts, 
and  800Z.  to  be  laid  out  in  presents  to  the  Indians; 
and  that  he  had  also  settled  a  salary  of  300£.  on  a 
chief  justice,  and  150/.  on  the  attorney-general,  who 
were  both  now  arrived  here. 

The  fire  of  contention,  which  had  lately  appeared 
in  the  tumultuous  elections,  blazed  out  afresh  in  the 
house.  Nicoll,  the  late  counsellor,  got  himself  elected 
for  Suffolk,  and  was  in  hopes  of  being  seated  in  the 
chair :  but  Abraham  Governeur  was  chosen  speaker. 
Several  members  contended,  that  he,  being  an 
alien,  was  unqualified  for  that  station.  To  this  it 
was  answered,  that  he  was  in  the  province  in  the 
year  1683,  at  the  time  of  passing  an  act  to  natural- 
ise all  the  free  inhabitants,  professing  the  Christian 
religion ;  and  that  for  this  reason,  the  same  ob- 
jection against  him  had  been  over-ruled  at  the  last 
assembly.  In  return  for  this  attack,  Governeur  dis- 
puted NicolFs  right  to  sit  as  a  member  of  that  house ; 
and  succeeded  in  a  resolve,  that  he  and  Mr.  Wes- 
sels,  who  had  been  returned  for  Albany,  were  both 
unqualified,  according  to  the  late  act,  they  being 
neither  of  them  residents  in  the  respective  counties 
for  which  they  were  chosen.  This  occasioned  an 
imprudent  secession  of  seven  members,  who  had 
joined  the  interest  of  Mr.  Nicoll ;  which  gave  their 
adversaries  an  opportunity  to  expel  them,  and  in- 
troduce others  in  their  stead. 

Among  the  first  opposers  of  Captain  Leisler,  none 
was  more  considerable  than  Mr.  Livingston.  The 
measures  of  the  convention  at  Albany  were  very 
much  directed  by  his  advice ;  and  he  was  peculiarly 
obnoxious  to  his  adversaries,  because  he  was  a  man 
of  sense  and  resolution,  two  qualifications  rarely  to 
be  found  united  in  one  person  at  that  period.  Mr. 
Livingston's  intimacy  with  the  late  earl  had,  till 
this  time,  been  his  defence  against  the  rage  of  the 
party  which  he  had  formerly  opposed ;  but  as  that 
lord  was  now  dead,  and  Mr.  Livingston's  conduct 
in  council,  in  favour  of  Colonel  Smith,  had  given 
fresh  provocation  to  his  enemies,  they  were  fully 
bent  upon  his  destruction.  It  was  in  execution  of 
this  scheme,  that  as  soon  as  the  disputed  elections 


53G 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


were  jver,  the  house  proceeded  to  examine  the  state 
of  the  public  accounts,  which  they  partly  began  at 
the  late  assembly. 

The  pretence  was,  that  he  refused  to  account  for 
the  public  monies  he  had  formerly  received  out  of  the 
excise ;  upon  which,  a  committee  of  both  houses  ad- 
vised the  passing  a  bill  to  confiscate  his  estate,  unless 
he  agreed  to  account  by  a  certain  day.  But  instead 
of  this,  an  act  was  afterwards  passed  to  oblige  him  to 
account  for  a  sum  amounting  to  near  18,000/.  While 
this  matter  was  transacting,  a  new  complaint  was 
forged,  and  he  was  summoned  before  another  com- 
mittee of  both  houses,  relating  to  his  procuring  the  five 
nations  to  signify  their  desire  that  he  should  be  sent 
home  to  solicit  their  affairs.  The  criminality  of  this 
charge  could  only  be  seen  by  his  enemies.  Besides, 
there  was  no  evidence  to  support  it,  and  therefore 
the  committee  required  him  to  purge  himself  by  his 
own  oath.  Mr.  Livingston,  who  was  better  ac- 
quainted with  English  law  and  liberty  than  to 
countenance  a  practice  so  odious,  rejected  the  inso- 
lent demand  with  disdain ;  upon  which  the  house, 
by  the  advice  of  the  committee,  addressed  the  lieut.- 
governor,  to  pray  his  majesty  to  remove  him  from 
his  office  of  secretary  of  Indian  affairs,  and  that  the 
governor,  in  the  meantime,  would  suspend  him  from 
the  exercise  of  his  commission.  Mr.  Livingston's 
reason  for  not  accounting  was  truly  unanswerable ; 
his  books  and  vouchers  were  taken  into  the  hands 
of  the  government,  and  detained  from  him. 

It  was  at  this  favourable  conjuncture  that  Jacob 
Leisler's  petition  to  the  king,  and  his  majesty's  let- 
ter to  the  late  earl  of  Bellamont,  were  laid  before 
the  assembly.  Leisler,  displeased  with  the  report 
of  the  lords  of  trade,  that  his  father  and  his  brother, 
Milborne,  had  suffered  according  to  law,  laid  his 
case  before  the  parliament,  and  obtained  an  act  to 
reverse  the  attainder.  After  which,  he  applied  to 
the  king,  complaining  that  his  father  had  disbursed 
about  4,000/.,  in  purchasing  arms  and  forwarding 
the  revolution;  in  consequence  of  which  he  procured 
the  following  letter  to  Lord  Bellamont,  dated  at 
Whitehall  the  6th  of  February,  1699—1700. 

"  My  Lord, — The  king  being  moved  upon  the 
petition  of  Mr.  Jacob  Leisler,  and  having  a  gracious 
sense  of  his  father's  services  and  sufferings,  and  the 
ill  circumstances  the  petitioner  is  thereby  reduced 
to,  his  majesty  is  pleased  to  direct,  that  the  same  be 
transmitted  to  your  lordship,  and  that  you  recom- 
mend his  case  to  the  general  assembly  of  New 
York,  being  the  only  place  where  he  can  be  relieved, 
and  the  prayer  of  his  petition  complied  with. 
"  I  am,  my  Lord,  your  Lordship's 

"  Most  obedient  and  humble  servant, 
"  JERSEY." 

As  soon  as  this  letter  and  the  petition  were  brought 
into  the  house,  the  sum  of  1,000/.  was  ordered  to  be 
levied  for  the  benefit  of  Mr.  Leisler,  as  well  as  several 
sums  for  other  persons,  by  a  bill  for  paying  the  debts 
of  the  government;  which,  nevertheless,  did  not 
pass  into  a  law  till  the  next  session.  Every  thing 
that  was  done  at  this  meeting  of  the  assembly,  which 
continued  till  the  18th  of  October,  was  under  the  in- 
fluence of  a  party  spirit ;  and  nothing  can  be  a  fuller 
evidence  of  it  than  an  incorrect,  impertinent,  ad- 
dress to  his  majesty,  which  was  drawn  up  by  the 
house  at  the  close  of  the  session,  and  signed  by  four- 
teen of  the  members.  It  contains  a  tedious  narra- 
tive of  their  proceedings  relating  to  the  disputed 
elections,  and  concludes  with  a  little  incense,  to 
regale  some  of  the  then  principal  agents  in  the  pub- 
lic affairs,  in  these  words  ; 


"  This  necessary  account  of  ourselves  and  oui  un- 
happy divisions,  which  we  hoped  the  moderation  of 
our  lieut. -governor,  the  wisdom,  and  prudence  of 
William  Attwood,  Esq.  our  chief  justice,  and  Thomas 
Weaver,  Esq.  your  majesty's  collector  and  receiver- 
general,  might  have  healed,  we  lay  before  your  ma- 
jesty with  all  humility,  and  deep  sense  of  your  ma- 
jesty's goodness  to  us,  lately  expressed  in  sending 
over  so  excellent  a  person  to  be  our  chief  justice." 

The  news  of  the  king's  having  appointed  Lord 
Cornbury  to  succeed  the  Earl  of  Bellamont,  so 
strongly  animated  the  hopes  of  the  Anti-Leislerian 
party,  that  about  the  commencement  of  the  year 
1702,  Nicholas  Bayard  promoted  several  addresses 
to  the  king,  the  parliament,  and  Lord  Cornbury, 
which  were  subscribed  at  a  tavern  kept  by  one 
Hutchins,  an  alderman  of  the  city  of  New  York. 
In  that  to  his  majesty  they  assured  him,  "  That  the 
late  differences  were  not  grounded  on  a  regard  to 
his  interest,  but  the  corrupt  designs  of  those  who 
laid  hold  on  an  opportunity  to  enrich  themselves  by 
the  spoils  of  their  neighbours."  The  petition  to  the 
parliament  says,  that  Leisler  and  his  adherents 
gained  the  fort,  at  the  revolution,  without  any  oppo- 
sition ;  that  he  oppressed  and  imprisoned  the  people 
without  cause,  plundered  them  of  their  goods,  and 
compelled  them  to  flee  their  country,  though  they 
were  well  affected  to  the  prince  of  Orange.  That 
the  Earl  of  Bellamont  appointed  indigent  sheriffs, 
who  returned  such  members  to  the  assembly  as  were 
unduly  elected,  and  in  his  lordship's  esteem.  That 
he  suspended  many  from  the  board  of  council,  who 
were  faithful  servants  of  the  crown,  introducing  his 
own  tools  in  their  stead.  Nay  they  denied  the  au- 
thority of  the  late  assembly,  and  added,  that  the  house 
had  bribed  both  the  lieut.-governor  and  the  chief 
justice ;  the  one  to  pass  their  bills,  the  other  to  de- 
fend the  legality  of  their  proceedings.  A  third  ad- 
dress was  prepared  to  be  presented  to  Lord  Corn- 
bury,  to  congratulate  his  arrival,  as  well  to  pre- 
possess him  in  their  favour,  as  to  prejudice  him 
against  the  opposite  party. 

Nothing  could  have  a  more  natural  tendency  to 
excite  the  wrath  of  the  lieut.-governor,  and  the  re- 
venge of  the  council  and  assembly,  than  the  reflec- 
tions contained  in  those  several  addresses.  Nanfan 
had  no  sooner  received  intelligence  of  them  than  he 
summoned  Hutchins  to  deliver  them  up  to  him,  and 
upon  his  refusal  committed  him  to  jail,  on  the  19th 
of  January  ;  the  next  day  Nicholas  Bayard,  Rip 
Van  Dam,  Philip  French,  and  Thomas  Wenham, 
hot  with  party  zeal,  sent  an  imprudent  address  to 
the  lieut.-governor,  boldly  justifying  the  legality  of 
the  address,  and  demanding  his  discharge  out  of 
custody.  We  have  before  observed,  that  upon 
Sloughter's  arrival  in  1691,  an  act  was  passed,  to 
recognise  the  right  of  King  William  and  Queen 
Mary  to  the  sovereignty  of  this  province.  At  the 
end  of  that  law,  a  clause  was  added  in  these  words  : 
"  That  whatsoever  person  or  persons  shall,  by  any 
manner  of  ways,  or  upon  any  pretence  whatsoever, 
endeavour,  by  force  of  arms  or  otherwise,  to  disturb 
the  peace,  good  and  quiet  of  their  majesties'  govern- 
ment, as  it  is  now  established,  shall  be  deemed  and 
esteemed  as  rebels  and  traitors  unto  their  majesties, 
and  incur  the  pains,  penalties,  and  forfeitures,  as 
the  laws  of  England  have  for  such  offences  made 
and  provided."  Under  pretext  of  this  law,  which 
Bayard  himself  had  been  personally  concerned  in 
enacting,  Mr.  Nanfan  issued  a  warrant  for  commit- 
ting him  to  jail  as  a  traitor  on  the  21st  of  January, 
1702 ;  and  lest  the  mob  should  interpose,  a  company 


UNITED  STATES. 


537 


of  soldiers  for  a  week  after  constantly  guarded  the 
prison. 

Through  the  uncertainty  of  the  time  of  Lord 
Cornbury's  arrival,  Mr.  Nanfan  chose  to  bring  the 
prisoner  to  his  trial  as  soon  as  possible;  and  for 
that  purpose  issued  a  commission  of  oyer  and  ter- 
miner,  on  the  12th  of  February,  to  William  Attwood 
the  chief  justice,  and  Abraham  de  Peyster  and  Ro- 
bert Walters,  who  were  the  puisne  judges  of  the 
supreme  court ;  and  not  long  after  Bayard  was  ar- 
raigned, indicted,  tried,  and  convicted  of  high  trea- 
son. Several  reasons  were  afterwards  offered  in 
arrest  of  judgment;  but  as  the  prisoner  was  un- 
fortunately in  the  hands  of  an  enraged  party,  Attwood 
overruled  what  was  offered,  and  condemned  him  to 
death  on  the  16th  of  March. 

Bayard  applied  to  Mr.  Nanfan  for  a  reprieve,  till 
his  majesty's  pleasure  might  be  known;  and  ob- 
tained it,  not  without  great  difficulty,  nor  till  after  a 
seeming  confession  of  guilt  was  extorted.  Hutchins. 
who  was  also  convicted,  was  bailed  upon  the  pay- 
ment of  forty  pieces  of  eight  to  the  sheriff;  but 
Bayard,  who  refused  to  procure  him  the  gift  of  a 
farm  of  about  1,500/.  value,  was  not  released  from 
his  confinement  till  after  the  arrival  of  Lord  Corn- 
bury,  who  not  only  gave  his  consent  to  an  act  for 
reversing  the  late  attainders,  but  procured  the  queen's 
confirmation  of  it,  upon  their  giving  security  accord- 
ing to  the  advice  of  Sir  Edward  Northey,  not  to 
bring  any  suits  against  those  who  were  concerned 
in  their  prosecution  ;  which  the  attorney-general 
thought  proper,  as  the  act  ordained  all  the  proceed- 
ings to  be  obliterated. 

After  these  trials,  Nanfan  erected  a  court  of  ex- 
chequer, and  again  convened  the  assembly,  who 
thanked  him  for  his  late  measures,  and  passed  an 
act  to  outlaw  Philip  French,  and  Thomas  Wenham, 
who  absconded  from  Bayard's  commitment ;  another 
to  augment  the  number  of  representatives,  and  se- 
veral others— which  were,  all  but  one,  afterwards  re- 
pealed by  Queen  Anne.  During  this  session,  Lord 
Cornbury  being  daily  expected,  the  lieut.-governor 
suspended  Mr.  Livingston  from  his  seat  in  council, 
and  thus  continued  to  abet  Leisler's  party  to  the 
end  of  his  administration. 

Lord  Cornbury's  arrival  opened  a  new  scene. 
His  father,  the  earl  of  Clarendon,  adhered  to  the 
cause  of  the  late  abdicated  king,  and  always  refused 
the  oaths  both  to  King  William  and  Que'en  Anne. 
But  the  son  recommended  himself  at  the  revolution, 
by  appearing  very  early  for  the  prince  of  Orange, 
being  one  of  the  first  officers  that  deserted  King 
James's  army.  King  William,  in  gratitude  for  his 
services,  gave  him  a  commission  for  this  govern- 
ment, which  upon  the  death  of  the  king  was  renewed 
by  Queen  Anne,  who  at  the  same  time  appointed 
him  to  the  chief  command  of  New  Jersey,  the  go- 
vernment of  which  the  proprietors  had  lately  sur- 
rendered into  her  hands.  As  Lord  Cornbury  came 
to  this  province  in  very  indigent  circumstances, 
hunted  out  of  England  by  a  host  of  hungry  creditors, 
he  was  bent  upon  getting  as  much  money  as  he 
could  squeeze  out  of  the  purses  of  an  impoverished 
people.  His  talents  were,  perhaps,  not  superior  to 
the  most  inconsiderable  of  his  predecessors ;  but  in 
his  zeal  for  the  church  he  was  surpassed  by  none. 
With  these  bright  qualifications  he  began  his  ad- 
ministration on  the  3d  of  May,  1702,  assisted  by  a 
council  consisting  of  the  following  members  :— 

William  Attwood,  William  Smith,  Peter  Schuyler, 
Abraham  de  Peyster,  Samuel  Staatt,  Robert  Wal- 
ters, Thomas  Weaver,  Sampson  Shelton  Broughton, 


Wolfgang  William  Romar,  William  Lawrence, 
Gerardus  Beekman,  Rip  Van  Dam. 

His  lordship  without  the  least  disguise  espousing 
the  anti-Leislerian  faction,  Attwood,  the  chief  jus- 
tice, and  Weaver,  who  acted  in  quality  of  solicitor- 
general,  thought  proper  to  retire  from  his  frowns  to 
Virginia,  whence  they  sailed  to  England;  the  former 
concealing  himself  under  the  name  of  Jones,  while 
the  latter  called  himself  Jackson.  Col.  Heathcote 
and  Doctor  Bridges  succeeded  in  their  places  at  the 
council  board. 

The  following  summer  was  remarkable  for  an  un- 
common mortality,  which  prevailed  in  the  city  of 
New  York  and  makes  a  grand  epoch  among  the 
inhabitants,  distinguished  by  the  "  time  of  the  great 
sickness."  The  fever  killed  almost  every  patient 
seized  with  it,  and  was  brought  here  in  a  vessel, 
from  St.  Thomas  in  the  West  Indies,  an  island  re- 
markable for  contagious  diseases.  On  this  occasion 
Lord  Cornbury  had  his  residence  and  court  at  Ja- 
maica, a  pleasant  village  on  Long  Island,  distant 
about  twelve  miles  from  the  city. 

The  inhabitants  of  Jamaica  consisted  at  that  time 
partly  of  original  Dutch  planters,  but  mostly  of 
New  England  emigrants,  encouraged  to  settle  there 
after  the  surrender  by  the  Duke  of  York's  conditions 
for  plantations,  one  of  which  was  in  these  words : — 
"  That  every  township  should  -be  obliged  to  pay  their 
own  ministers,  according  to  such  agreements  as  they 
should  make  with  them  ;  the  minister  being  elected 
by  the  major  part  of  the  householders  and  inhabi- 
tants of  the  town."  These  people  had  erected  an 
edifice  for  the  worship  of  Goa,  and  enjoyed  a  hand- 
some donation  of  a  parsonage-house  and  glebe,  for 
the  use  of  their  minister.  After  the  ministry  act 
was  passed  by  Col.  Fletcher,  in  1693,  a  few  Episco- 
palians crept  into  the  town,  and  viewed  the  Presby- 
terian church  with  a  jealous  eye.  The  town  vote, 
in  virtue  of  which  the  building  had  been  erected, 
contained  no  clause  to  prevent  its  being  hereafter 
engrossed  by  any  other  sect.  The  episcopal  party, 
who  knew  this,  formed  a  design  of  seizing  the  edifice 
for  themselves,  which  they  shortly  after  carried  into 
execution,  by  entering  the  church  between  the 
morning  and  evening  service,  while  the  Presbyterian 
minister  and  his  congregation  were  in  perfect  se- 
curity, unsuspicious  of  the  zeal  of  their  adversaries 
and  a  fraudulent  ejectment  on  a  day  consecrated  to 
sacred  rest. 

Great  outrage  ensued  among  the  people,  for  the 
contention  was  animating  and  important.  The  ori- 
ginal proprietors  of  the  house  tore  up  the  seats,  and 
afterwards  got  th^  key  and  the  possession  of  the 
church,  which  were  shortly  after  again  taken  from 
them  by  force  and  violence.  In  these  controversies 
the  governor  abetted  the  episcopal  zealots,  and  ha- 
rassed the  others  by  numberless  prosecutions,  heavy 
fines,  and  long  imprisonments ;  through  fear  of 
which  many,  who  had  been  active  in  the  dispute, 
fled  out  of  the  province.  Lord  Cornbury's  situation 
should  have  prevented  him  from  taking  part  in  so 
ignominious  a  quarrel ;  but  his  lordship's  sense  of 
honour  and  justice  was  as  weak  and  indelicate  as 
his  bigotry  was  violent  and  uncontrolable ;  and 
hence  we  find  him  guilty  of  an  act  implicating  a 
number  of  vices,  which  no  man  could  have  perpe- 
trated without  violence  to  the  very  slightest  remains 
of  generosity  and  justice.  When  his  excellency  re- 
tired to  Jamaica,  one  Hubbard,  the  Presbyterian 
minister,  lived  in  the  best  house  in  the  town.  His 
lordship  begged  the  loan  of  it  for  the  use  of  his  own 
family,  and  the  clergyman  put  himself  to  uo  small 


538 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


inconvenience  to  favour  the  governor's  request; 
but  in  return  for  the  generous  benefaction,  his  lord- 
ship perfidiously  delivered  the  parsonage-house  into 
the  hands  of  the  episcopal  party,  and  encouraged 
one  Cardwell,  the  sheriff,  a  mean  fellow  who  after- 
wards put  an  end  to  his  own  life,  to  seize  upon  the 
glebe,  which  he  surveyed  into  lots  and  farmed  for 
the  benefit  of  the  episcopal  church.  These  tyrannical 
measures  justly  inflamed  the  indignation  of  the  in- 
jured sufferers,  and  that  again  the  more  embittered 
his  lordship  against  them.  They  resented,  and  he 
prosecuted ;  nor  did  he  confine  his  pious  rage  to 
the  people  of  Jamaica.  He  detested  all  who  were 
of  the  same  denomination ;  nay,  averse  to  every 
sect  except  his  own,  he  insisted  that  neither  the 
ministers  nor  schoolmasters  of  the  Dutch,  the  most 
numerous  persuasion  in  the  province,  had  a  right  to 
preach  or  instruct  without  his  licence  ;  and  some  of 
them  tamely  submitted  to  his  unauthoritative  rule. 

While  his  excellency  was  exerting  his  bigotry, 
during  the  summer  season,  at  Jamaica,  the  elections 
were  carrying  on  with  great  heat,  for  an  assembly 
which  met  him  at  that  village,  in  the  fall.  It  con- 
sisted principally  of  the  party  which  had  been  borne 
down  by  the  Earl  of  Bellamont  and  his  kinsman  ; 
and  hence  we  find  Philip  French,  who  had  lately 
been  outlawed,  was  returned  a  representative  for 
New  York,  and  William  Nicoll  elected  into  the 
speaker's  chaii.  Several  extracts  from  his  lord- 
ship's speech  are  laid  before  the  reader,  as  a  speci- 
men of  his  temper  and  designs.  "  It  was  an  ex- 
treme surprise  to  me  (says  his  lordship)  to  find  this 
province,  at  my  landing  at  New  York,  in  such  a  con- 
vulsion as  must  unavoidably  have  occasioned  its  ruin, 
if  it  had  been  suffered  to  go  on  a  little  longer.  The 
many  complaints  that  were  brought  to  me  against 
the  persons  I  found  here  in  power,  sufficiently 
proved  against  them,  and  the  miserable  accounts  I 
had  of  the  condition  of  our  frontiers,  made  me  think 
it  convenient  to  delay  my  meeting  you  in  general 
assembly,  till  I  could  inform  myself  in  some  measure 
of  the  condition  of  this  province,  that  I  might  be 
able  to  offer  to  your  consideration  some  few  of  those 
things  which  will  be  necessary  to  be  done  forthwith 
for  the  defence  of  the  country." 

He  then  recommends  their  fortifying  the  port  of 
New  York,  and  the  frontiers ;  adding,  that  he  found 
the  soldiers  naked  and  unarmed :  after  which,  he 
proposes  a  militia  bill,  the  erection  of  public  schools, 
and  an  examination  of  the  provincial  debts  and  ac- 
counts: and  not  only  promises  to  make  a  faithful 
application  of  the  monies  to  be  raised,  but  that  he 
would  render  them  an  account.  The  whole  speech 
is  sweetened  with  this  gracious  conclusion :  "  Now, 
gentlemen,  I  have  no  more  to  trouble  you  with,  but 
to  assure  you,  in  the  name  of  the  great  queen  of  Eng- 
land, my  mistress,  that  you  may  safely  depend  upon 
all  the  protection  that  good  and  faithful  subjects  can 
desire  or  expect  from  a  sovereign,  whose  greatest 
delight  is  the  welfare  of  her  people,  under  whose 
auspicious  reign  we  are  sure  to  enjoy  what  no  nation 
in  the  world  dares  claim  but  the  subjects  of  Eng- 
land; I  mean,  the  free  enjoyment  of  the  best  reli- 
gion in  the  world,  the  full  possession  of  all  lawful 
liberty,  and  the  undisturbed  enjoyment  of  our  free- 
holds and  properties.  These  are  some  of  the  many 
benefits  which  I  take  the  inhabitants  of  this  pro- 
vince to  be  well  entitled  to  by  the  laws  of  England ; 
and  I  am  glud  of  this  opportunity  to  assure  you,  that 
as  long  as  I  have  the  honour  to  serve  the  queen  in 
the  government  of  this  province,  those  laws  shall  be 
put  in  execution,  according  to  the  intent  with  which 


they  were  made ;  that  is,  for  the  preservation  and 
protection  of  the  people,  and  not  for  their  oppression. 
I  heartily  rejoice  to  see,  that  the  free  choice  of  the 
people  has  fallen  upon  gentlemen,  whose  constant 
fidelity  to  the  crown,  and  unwearied  application  to 
the  good  of  their  country,  is  so  universally  known." 

The  house  echoed  back  an  address  of  high  com- 
pliment to  his  lordship,  declaring,  "  That,  being 
deeply  sensible  of  the  misery  and  calamity  the  coun- 
try lay  under  at  his  arrival,  they  were  not  suffici- 
ently able  to  express  the  satisfaction  they  had,  both 
in  their  relief  and  their  deliverer." 

Well  pleased  with  a  governor  who  headed  their 
party,  the  assembly  granted  him  all  his  requests; 
1,80U/.  was  raised,  for  the  support  of  180  men,  to 
defend  their  frontiers — besides  2,000/.  more,  as  a 
present  towards  defraying  the  expenses  of  his  voy- 
age. The  queen,  by  her  letter  of  the  20th  of  April, 
in  the  next  year,  forbad  any  such  donations  for  the 
future.  It  is  observable,  that  though  the  county  of 
Dutchess  had  no  representatives  at  this  assembly, 
yet  such  was  then  the  known  indigence  of  that  now 
populous  and  flourishing  county,  that  but  18/.  were 
apportioned  for  their  quota  of  these  levies. 

Besides  the  acts  above-mentioned,  the  house 
brought  up  a  militia  bill,  and  continued  the  revenue 
to  the  1st  of  May,  1709;  and  a  law  passed  to  esta- 
blish a  grammar-school,  according  to  his  lordship's 
recommendation.  Besides  the  great  harmony  that 
subsisted  between  the  governor  and  his  assembly, 
there  was  nothing  remarkable,  except  two  resolu- 
tions against  the  court  of  chancery,  moved  by  Mr. 
Nanfan,  occasioned  by  a  petition  of  several  disap- 
pointed suitors,  who  were  displeased  with  a  decree. 
The  resolutions  were  in  these  words :  "  That  the 
setting  up  a  court  of  equity  in  this  colony,  without 
consent  of  general  assembly,  is  an  innovation  with- 
out any  former  precedent,  inconvenient,  and  con- 
trary to  the  English  law."  And  again:  "  That  the 
court  of  chancery,  as  lately  erected,  and  managed 
here,  was  and  is  unwarrantable,  a  great  oppression 
to  the  subject,  of  pernicious  example  and  conse- 
quence ;  that  all  proceedings,  orders,  and  decrees 
in  the  same,  are,  and  of  right  ought  to  be,  declared 
null  and  void ;  and  that  a  bill  be  brought  in  accord- 
ing to  these  two  resolutions,"  which  was  done;  but 
though  his  lordship  was  by  no  means  disinclined  to 
fix  contempt  on  Nanfan's  administration,  yet  as  this 
bill  would  diminish  his  own  power,  himself  being 
the  chancellor,  the  matter  was  never  moved  farther 
than  to  the  order  for  the  ingrossment  of  the  bill 
upon  the  second  reading. 

Though  a  war  was  proclaimed  by  England  on  the 
4th  of  May,  1702,  against  France  and  Spain ;  yet,  as 
the  five  nations  had  entered  into  a  treaty  of  neutral- 
ity with  the  French  in  Canada,  this  province,  in- 
stead of  being  harassed  on  its  borders  by  the  enemy, 
carried  on  a  trade  very  advantageous  to  all  those 
who  were  concerned  in  it.  The  governor,  however, 
continued  his  solicitations  for  money  with  unremit- 
ted  importunity ;  and  by  alarming  the  assembly 
which  met  in  April,  1703,  with  his  expectation  of  an 
attack  by  sea,  1,500J.  were  raised,  under  pretence 
of  erecting  two  batteries  at  the  Narrows;  which, 
instead  of  being  employed  for  that  use,  his  lordship, 
notwithstanding  the  province  had  expended  22,000/. 
during  the  late  peace,  ventuied  to  appropriate  to 
his  private  advantage.  But  while  he  was  robbing 
the  public,  he  consented  to  several  laws  for  the 
emolument  of  the  clergy. 

Whether  it  was  owing  to  the  extraordinary  saga- 
city of  the  house,  or  their  presumption  that  his  lord- 


UN,TED  STATES. 


539 


ship  was  as  little  to  be  trusted  as  any  of  his  prede- 
cessors, that  after  voting  the  above  sum  for  the  bat- 
teries, they  added,  that  it  should  be  "  for  no  other 
use  whatsoever,"  is  left  for  the  reader  to  determine. 
It  is  certain  they  now  began  to  see  the  danger  of 
throwing  the  public  money  into  the  hands  of  a  re- 
ceiver-general appointed  by  the  crown,  from  whence 
the  governor,  by  his  warrants,  might  draw  it  at  his 
pleasure.  To  this  cause  we  must  assign  it,  that  in 
an  address  to  his  lordship,  on  the  19th  of  June,  1703, 
they  desire  and  insist,  that  some  proper  and  suffi- 
"  cient  person  might  be  commissioned  treasurer,  for 
the  receiving  and  paying  such  monies  now  intended 
to  be  raised  for  the  public  use,  as  a  means  to  ob- 
struct misapplications  for  the  future."  Another 
address  was  sent  home  to  the  queen,  complaining  of 
the  ill  state  of  the  revenue,  through  the  frauds  which 
had  formerly  been  committed,  the  better  to  facilitate 
the  important  design  of  having  a  treasurer  depend- 
ent on  the  assembly.  The  success  of  these  measures 
will  appear  in  the  sequel. 

Though  the  frontiers  enjoyed  the  profoundest 
tranquillity  all  the  next  winter,  and  1,300/.  had 
been  expended  in  supporting  100  fuzileers  about 
Albany,  besides  the  four  independent  companies  in 
the  pay  of  the  crown,  yet  his  excellency  demanded 
provisions  for  150  men,  at  the  next  meeting  of  the 
assembly,  in  April,  1704.  The  house  having  reason 
to  suspect  that  the  several  sums  of  eighteen  and 
thirteen  hundred  pounds,  lately  raised  for  the  public 
service,  had  been  prodigally  expended  or  embezzled, 
prudently  declined  any  further  aids,  till  they  were 
satisfied  that  no  misapplication  had  been  made.  For 
this  purpose  they  appointed  a  committee,  who  re- 
ported that  there  was  a  balance  of  near  1,0001.  due 
to  the  colony.  His  lordship,  who  had  hitherto  been 
treated  with  great  complaisance,  took  offence  at  this 
parsimonious  scrutiny,  and  ordered  the  assembly  to 
attend  him;  when,  after  the  example  of  Fletcher, 
whom,  excepting  his  superior  activity,  his  lordship 
mostly  resembled,  he  made  an  angry  speech,  in 
which  he  charges  them  with  innovations  never  at- 
tempted by  their  predecessors,  and  hopes  they  would 
not  force  him  to  exert  "  certain  powers"  vested  in 
him  by  the  queen.  But  what  he  more  particularly 
took  notice  of,  was  their  insisting  in  several  late 
bills,  upon  the  title  of  "  general  assembly,"  and  a 
saving  of  the  "  rights  of  the  house,"  in  a  resolution 
agreeing  to  an  amendment  for  preventing  delay ; 
with  respect  to  which,  his  lordship  used  these  words  : 
"  I  know  of  no  right  that  you  have  as  an  assembly, 
but  such  as  the  queen  is  pleased  to  allow  you."  As 
to  the  vote,  by  which  they  found  a  balance  due  to 
the  colony  of  913Z.  15s.,  "  it  is  true,"  (says  his  lord- 
ship), "  the  queen  is  pleased  to  command  me,  in  her 
instructions,  to  permit  the  assembly,  from  time  to 
time,  to  view  and  examine  the  accounts  of  money, 
or  value  of  money,  disposed  by  virtue  of  the  laws 
made  by  them ;  but  you  can  in  no  wise  meddle  with 
that  money ;  but  if  you  find  any  misapplication  of 
any  of  that  money,  you  ought  to  acquaint  me  with 
it,  that  I  may  take  care  to  see  those  mistakes  recti- 
fied, which  I  shall  certainly  do." 

The  house  bore  these  rebukes  with  the  utmost 
passiveness,  contenting  themselves  with  little  else 
than  a  general  complaint  of  the  deficiency  of  the 
revenue,  which  became  the  subject  of  their  parti- 
cular consideration  in  the  autumn.  The  governor,  on 
the  one  hand,  then  proposed  an  additional  duty  of 
ten  per  cent,  on  certain  goods  not  immediately  im- 
ported from  Europe,  to  which  the  assembly,  on  the 
other,  was  utterly  averse,  and  as  soon  as  they  re- 


solved against  it,  the  very  printer,  clerk,  and  door- 
keeper, were  denied  the  payment  of  their  salaries. 
Several  other  demands  being  made  for  the  public 
debts,  the  house  resolved  to  address  his  lordship  for 
an  exact  account  of  the  revenue ;  which,  together 
with  their  refusal  to  admit  the  council's  amendment 
of  a  money  bill,  gave  him  such  high  provocation, 
that  he  was  induced  to  dissolve  an  assembly,  whose 
prodigal  liberality  had  justly  exposed  them  to  the 
•esentment  of  the  people.  The  new  assembly,  which 
met  on  the  14th  of  June,  1705,  neglected  the  affair 
of  the  revenue,  and  the  additional  duty,  though  his 
ordship  strongly  recommended  them  both.  Among 
the  principal  acts  passed  at  this  meeting,  is  that  for 
:he  benefit  of  the  clergy,  who  were  entitled  to  the 
salaries  formerly  established  by  Colonel  Fletcher; 
which,  though  less  than  his  lordship  recommended, 
was,  doubtless,  a  grateful  offering  to  his  unceasing 
zeal  for  the  church,  manifested  in  a  part  of  his 
speech  at  the  opening  of  the  session,  in  these  words : 
"  The  difficulties  which  some  very  worthy  ministers 
of  the  church  of  England  have  met  with,  in  getting 
the  maintenance  settled  upon  them  by  an  act  of  the 
eneral  assembly  of  this  province,  passed  in  the 
year  1693,  moves  me  to  propose  to  you  the  passing 
an  act,  explanatory  of  the  forementioned  act,  that 
those  worthy  good  men,  who  have  ventured  to  come 
so  far,  for  the  service  of  God  in  his  church,  and  the 
good  and  edification  of  the  people,  to  the  salvation 
of  their  souls,  may  not  for  the  future  be  vexed,  as 
some  of  them  have  been ;  but  may  enjoy  in  quiet 
that  maintenance  which  was  by  a  law  provided  for 
them.  I  farther  recommended  to  you,  the  passing 
of  an  act  to  provide  for  the  maintenance  of  some 
ministers,  in  some  of  the  towns  at  the  east  end  of 
Long  Island,  where  I  do  not  find  any  provision  has 
been  yet  made  for  propagating  religion." 

The  harbour  being  wholly  unfortified,  a  French 
privateer  actually  entered  it  in  1705,  and  put  the 
inhabitants  into  great  consternation.  The  assembly, 
at  their  session  in  June,  the  next  year,  were  not 
disinclined,  through  the  importunity  of  the  people, 
to  put  the  city  in  a  better  posture  of  defence  for  the 
future ;  but  being  fully  convinced,  by  his  lordship's 
embezzlement  of  1,5001.,  formerly  raised  for  two 
batteries  at  the  Narrows,  and  near  1,000£.  levied 
for  the  protection  of  the  frontiers,  that  he  was  no 
more  to  be  trusted  with  public  monies,  offered  a  bill 
for  raising  3,OOOJ.  for  fortifications,  appointing  that 
sum  to  be  deposited  in  the  hands  of  a  private  per- 
son of  their  own  nomination  ;  but  his  excellency  did 
not  pass  ittill  their  next  meeting  in  the  autumn,  when 
he  informed  them  that  he  had  received  the  queen's 
command,  "  to  permit  the  general  assembly  to  name 
their  own  treasurer,  when  they  raised  extraordinary 
supplies  for  particular  uses,  and  which  are  no  part 
of  the  standing  and  constant  revenue  ;  the  treasurer 
being  accountable  to  the  three  branches  of  the  le- 
gislature, and  the  governor  always  acquainted  with 
the  occasion  of  issuing  such  warrants." 

His  lordship's  renewing  the  proposal  of  raising 
fortifications  at  the  Narrows,  which  he  had  himself 
hitherto  scandalously  prevented,  is  a  proof  of  his  ex- 
cessive effrontery  and  contempt  of  the  people ;  and 
the  neglect  of  the  house  to  take  the  least  notice, 
either  of  that  matter  or  the  revenue,  occasioned 
another  dissolution. 

Before  we  proceed  to  the  transactions  of  the  new 
assembly,  which  did  not  meet  till  the  year  1708,  it  will 
not  be  improper  to  lay  before  the  reader  the  account 
of  a  memorable  proof  of  that  persecuting  spirit,  which 
influenced  Lord  Cornbury's  whole  administration. 


540 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


The  inhabitants  of  the  city  of  New  York  consisted 
at  this  time  of  Dutch  Calvinists,  upon  the  plan  of  the 
church  of  Holland — French  refugees,  on  the  Geneva 
model — a  few  English  Episcopalians — and  a  still 
smaller  number  of  English  and  Irish  Presbyterians, 
who  having  neither  a  minister  nor  a  church,  used 
to  assemble  themselves  every  Sunday  at  a  private 
house,  for  the  worship  of  God.  Such  were  the  cir- 
cumstances when  Francis  M'Kemie  and  John  Hamp- 
ton, two  Presbyterian  ministers,  arrived  in  January, 
1707.  As  soon  as  Lord  Cornbury,  who  hated  the 
whole  persuasion,  heard  that  the  Dutch  had  con- 
sented to  M'Kemie's  preaching  in  their  church,  he 
arbitrarily  forbad  it;  so  that  the  public  worship  on 
the  next  sabbath  was  performed  with  open  doors  at 
a  private  house.  Mr.  Hampton  preached  the  same 
day  at  the  Presbyterian  church  in  New  Town,  dis- 
tant a  few  miles  from  the  city.  At  that  village  both 
these  ministers  were  two  or  three  days  after  appre- 
hended by  Cardwel  the  sheriff,  pursuant  to  his  lord- 
ship's warrant  for  preaching  without  his  licence. 
From  hence  they  were  led  in  triumph  a  circuit  of 
several  miles  through  Jamaica  to  New  York.  They 
appeared  before  his  lordship  with  an  undaunted 
courage,  and  had  a  conference  with  him,  in  which 
it  is  difficult  to  determine  whether  his  lordship  ex- 
celled in  the  character  of  a  savage  bigot,  or  an  ill- 
mannerly  tyrant.  The  ministers  were  no  lawyers, 
or  they  would  not  have  founded  their  justification  on 
the  supposed  extent  of  the  English  act  of  toleration. 
They  knew  not  that  the  ecclesiastical  statutes  had 
no  relation  to  this  colony,  and  that  its  religious  state 
consisted  in  a  perfect  parity  between  protestants  of 
all  denominatipns.  They  erroneously  supposed  that 
all  the  penal  laws  extended  to  this  province,  and 
relied  for  their  defence  on  the  toleration,  offering 
testimonials  for  their  having  complied  with  the  act 
of  parliament  in  Virginia  and  Maryland,  and  pro- 
mised to  certify  the  house,  in  which  M'Kemie  had 
preached,  to  the  next  sessions.  His  lordship's  dis- 
course with  them  was  the  more  ridiculous,  because 
he  had  Bickley,  the  attorney-general,  to  assist  him. 
Against  the  extension  .of  the  statute,  they  insisted 
that  the  penal  laws  were  limited  to  England,  and  so 
also  the  toleration  act,  because  the  sole  intent  of  it 
was  to  take  away  the  penalties  formerly  established. 
But  grant  the  position,  and  the  consequence  they 
drew  from  it,  it  argues  that  his  lordship  and  Mr.  At- 
torney were  either  very  weak,  or  influenced  by 
evil  designs.  If  the  penal  laws  did  not  extend 
to  the  plantations,  then  the  prisoners  were  inno- 
cent, for  where  there  is  no  law  there  can  be  no 
transgression ;  but  according  to  these  incomparable 
sages,  if  the  penal  laws  and  the  toleration  were 
restricted  to  the  realm  of  England,  as  they  con- 
tended, then  the  poor  clergymen  for  preaching 
without  his  licence,  were  guilty  of  a  heinous 
crime  against  his  private  unpublished  instructions; 
and  for  this  cause  he  issued  an  informal  precept  to 
the  sheriff  of  New  York,  for  their  commitment  to 
jail  till  further  orders.  They  continued  in  confine- 
ment, through  the  absence  of -Mompesson,  the  chief 
justice,  who  was  in  New  Jersey,  six  weeks  and  four 
days ;  but  were  then  brought  before  him  by  a  writ 
of  habeas  corpus.  Mompesson  being  a  man  of  learn- 
ing in  his  profession,  and  his  lordship  now  apprised 
of  the  illegality  of  his  first  warrant,  issued  another 
on  the  very  day  of  the  teste  of  the  writ,  in  which  he 
virtually  contradicts  what  he  had  before  insisted  on  at 
his  conference  with  the  prisoners.  For  according  to 
this,  they  were  imprisoned  for  preaching  without 

•:"»  -     r'**A  as  the  toleration  act  required,  though 


they  had  offered  themselves  to  the  sessions  during 
their  imprisonment.  They  were  then  bailed  to  the 
next  supreme  court,  which  began  a  few  days  after. 
Great  pains  were  taken  to  secure  a  grand  jury  for 
the  purpose,  and  among  those  who  found  the  indict, 
ment,  to  their  shame  be  it  recorded,  were  several 
Dutch  and  French  protestauts. 

Mr.  M'Kemie  returned  to  New  York  from  Vir- 
ginia, in  June,  and  was  now  come  to  his  trial  on  the 
indictment  found  at  the  last  court.  As  to  Mr. 
Hampton,  he  was  discharged,  no  evidence  being  of- 
fered to  the  grand  jury  against  him. 

Bickley,  the  attorney-general,  managed  the  prose- 
cution  in  the  name  of  the  queen ;  Reignere,  Nicoll, 
and  Jamison  appeared  for  the  defendant  The  trial 
was  held  on  the  6th  of  June,  and  being  a  cause  of 
great  expectation,  a  numerous  audience  attended. 
Roger  Mompesson  sat  on  the  bench  as  chief  justice, 
with  Robert  Milward  and  Thomas  Wenham  for  his 
assistance.  The  indictment  was  in  substance  that 
Francis  M'Kemie,  pretending  himself  to  be  a  pro- 
testant  dissenting  minister,  contemning  and  endea- 
vouring to  subvert  the  queen's  ecclesiastical  supre- 
macy, unlawfully  preached  without  the  governor's 
licence  first  obtained,  in  derogation  of  the  royal  au- 
thority and  prerogative;  that  he  used  other  rites 
and  ceremonies  than  those  contained  in  the  common 
prayer  book ;  and  lastly,  that  being  unqualified  by 
law  to  preach,  he  nevertheless  did  preach  at  an  ille- 
gal conventicle  ;  and  both  these  last  charges  were 
laid  to  be  contrary  to  the  form  of  the  English  statutes. 
For  it  seems  that  Mr.  Attorney  was  now  of  opinion, 
that  the  penal  laws  did  extend  to  the  American 
plantations,  though  his  sentiments  were  the  very 
reverse  at  the  first  debate  before  his  excellency, 
but  Bickley  was  rather  remarkable  for  a  voluble 
tongue,  than  a  penetrating  head  or  much  learning. 
To  support  this  prosecution,  he  endeavoured  to 
prove  the  queen's  ecclesiastical  supremacy  in  the 
colonies,  and  that  it  was  delegated  to  her  noble 
cousin  the  governor;  and  hence  he  was  of  opinion, 
that  his  lordship's  instructions  relating  to  church 
matters  had  the  force  of  law.  He,  in  the  next  place, 
contended  for  the  extension  of  the  statutes  of  uni- 
formity, and  upon  the  whole  was  pleased  to  say,  that 
he  had  no  doubt  the  jury  would  find  a  verdict  tor  the 
queen.  Reignere,  for  the  defendant,  insisted  that 
preaching  was  no  crime  by  the  common  law,  that 
the  statutes  of  uniformity  and  the  act  of  toleration 
did  not  extend  here,  and  that  the  governor's  instruc- 
tions were  not  laws.  Nicoll  spoke  to  the  same  pm* 
pose,  and  so  did  David  Jamison  ;  but  M'Kemie  con- 
cluded the  whole  defence  in  a  speech,  which  set  his 
capacity  in  a  very  advantageous  light.  The  chief 
justice,  in  his  charge,  advised  a  special  verdict,  but 
the  jury  found  no  difficulty  to  acquit  the  defendant, 
who,  through  the  shameful  partiality  of  the  court, 
was  not  discharged  from  his  recognizance  till  they 
had  illegally  extorted  all  the  fees  of  his  prosecution, 
which  together  with  his  expenses,  amounted  to  eighty- 
three  pounds  seven  shillings  and  sixpence. 

Lord  Cornbury  was  now  daily  losing  the  favour 
of  the  people.  The  friends  of  Leisler  held  him  in 
the  utmost  abhorrence  from  the  beginning :  and 
being  all  spies  upon  his  conduct,  it  was  impossible 
for  his  lordship  to  commit  the  smallest  crime  un- 
noticed. His  persecution  of  the  Presbyterians  very 
early  increased  the  number  of  his  enemies.  The 
Dutch  too  were  fearful  of  his  religious  rage  against 
them,  as  he  disputed  their  right  to  call  and  settle 
ministers,  or  even  schoolmasters,  without  his  special 
licence.  His  excessive  avarice,  his  embezzlement 


UNITED  STATES. 


541 


of  the  public  money,  and  his  sordid  refusal  to  pay 
his  private  debts,  bore  so  heavily  upon  his  reputa- 
tion, that  it  was  impossible  for  his  adherents,  either 
to  support  him  or  themselves  against  the  general 
opposition.  Such  being  the  temper  of  the  people, 
his  lordship  did  not  succeed  according  to  his  wishes 
in  the  new  assembly,  which  met  on  the  19th  of 
August,  1708.  The  members  were  all  against  him, 
and  William  Nicoll  was  again  chosen  speaker. 

Among  the  several  things  recommended  to  their 
consideration,  the  affair  of  the  revenue,  which  was 
to  expire  in  May  following,  and  the  propriety  of 
making  presents  to  the  Indians,  were  the  chief.  The 
house  were  not  insensible  of  the  importance  of  the 
Indian  interest,  and  of  the  infinite  arts  of  the  French 
to  seduce  them  from  our  alliance ;  but  suspicious 
that  his  lordship,  who  heretofore  had  given  himself 
little  concern  about  that  matter,  was  seeking  a  fresh 
opportunity  to  defraud  the  public,  they  desired  him 
to  give  them  a  list  of  the  articles  of  which  the  pre- 
sents were  to  consist,  together  with  an  estimate  of 
thecharge,before  they  would  provide  for  that  donation. 

With  respect  to  the  revenue  his  lordship  was  not 
so  successful,  for  the  assembly  resolutely  refused  to 
continue  it ;  though  they  consented  to  an  act  to  dis- 
charge him  from  a  contract  of  25(K  and  upwards, 
which  he  had  made  with  one  Hanson  for  the  public 
service.  Thomas  Byerly  was  at  that  time  collector 
and  receiver-general,  and  by  pretending  that  the 
treasury  was  exhausted,  the  debts  of  the  govern- 
ment were  unpaid.  This  gave  rise  to  many  pe- 
titions to  the  assembly  to  make  provision  for  their 
discharge.  Colonel  Schuyler,  who  had  expended 
large  sums  on  the  public  credit,  was  among  the 
principal  sufferers,  and  joined  with  several  others  in 
an  application  to  the  house,  that  Byerly  might  be 
compelled  to  account.  The  disputes  relating  to  this 
matter  took  up  a  considerable  part  of  the  session, 
and  were  litigated  with  great  heat.  Upon  the  whole, 
an  act  was  passed  for  refunding  700/.  which  had  been 
misapplied. 

The  resolutions  of  the  committee  of  grievances, 
approved  by  the  house,  shew  the  general  objections 
of  the  people  to  his  lordship's  administration.  These 
were  made  at  the  beginning  of  the  session,  and  yet 
we  find  this  haughty  nobleman  subdued  by  the  opposi- 
tion against  him,  and  so  dispirited  through  indigence, 
and  the  incessant  solicitations  of  his  creditors,  that 
he  not  only  omitted  to  justify  himself,  but  to  shew 
even  an  impotent  resentment.  For  after  all  the 
censures  of  the  house,  he  tamely  thanked  them  for 
passing  the  bill  to  discharge  him  from  a  small  debt, 
which  they  could  not  in  justice  have  refused.  The 
resolutions  were  in  these  words : 

"  Resolved,  That  it  is  the  opinion  of  this  com- 
mittee, that  the  appointing  coroners  in  this  colony, 
without  their  being  chosen  by  the  people,  is  a  griev- 
ance, and  contrary  to  law. 

"  Resolved,  That  it  is,  and  always  has  been  the 
unquestionable  right  of  every  freeman  in  this  colony, 
that  he  hath  a  perfect  and  entire  property  in  his 
goods  and  estate. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  imposing  and  levying  of  any 
monies  upon  her  majesty's  subjects  of  this  colony, 
under  any  pretence  or  colour  whatsoever,  without 
consent  in  general  assembly,  is  a  grievance,  and  a 
violation  of  the  people's  property. 

"  Resolved,  That  for  any  officer  whatsoever  to 
extort  from  the  people  extravagant  and  unlimited 
fees,  or  any  money  whatsoever,  not  positively  es- 
tablished and  regulated  by  consent  in  general  as- 
sembly, is  unreasonable  and  unlawful,  a  great  griev- 


ance, and  tending  to  the  utter  destruction  of  all 
property  in  this  plantation. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  erecting  a  court  of  equity 
without  consent  in  general  assembly  is  contrary  to 
law,  without  precedent,  and  of  dangerous  conse- 
quence to  the  liberty  and  property  of  the  subjects. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  raising  of  money  for  the  go- 
vernment, or  other  necessary  charge,  by  any  tax, 
impost,  or  burthen  on  goods  imported,  or  exported ; 
or  any  clog,  or  hindrance  on  traffic  or  commerce,  is 
found  by  experience  to  be  the  expulsion  of  many, 
and  the  impoverishing  of  the  rest  of  the  planters, 
freeholders,  and  inhabitants  of  this  colony ;  of  most 
pernicious  consequence,  which  if  continued  will  un- 
avoidably prove  the  ruin  of  the  colony. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  excessive  sums  of  money 
screwed  from  masters  of  vessels  trading  here,  un- 
der the  notion  of  port-charges,  visiting  the  said  ves- 
sels by  supernumerary  officers,  and  taking  extraordi 
nary  fees,  is  the  great  discouragement  of  trade,  and 
strangers  coming  amongst  us,  beyond  the  precedent 
of  any  other  port,  and  without  colour  of  law. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  compelling  any  man  upon 
trial  by  a  jury,  or  otherwise,  to  pay  any  fees  for  his 
prosecution,  or  any  thing  whatsoever,  unless  the 
fees  of  the  officers  whom  he  employs  for  his  neces- 
sary defence,  is  a  great  grievance,  and  contrary  to 
justice." 

Lord  Cornbury  was  no  less  obnoxious  to  the 
people  of  New  Jersey,  than  t»  those  of  New  York. 
The  assembly  of  that  province,  impatient  of  his  ty- 
ranny, drew  up  a  complaint  against  him,  which  they 
sent  home  to  the  queen. 

Her  majesty  graciously  listened  to  the  cries  of 
her  injured  subjects,  divested  him  of  his  power,  and 
appointed  Lord  Lovelace  in  his  stead;  declaring 
that  she  would  not  countenance  her  nearest  relations 
in  oppressing  her  people. 

As  soon  as  this  nobleman  was  superseded,  his  credit- 
ors threw  him  into  the  custody  of  the  sheriff  of  New 
York ;  and  he  remained  there  till  the  death  of  his 
father,  when,  succeeding  to  the  earldom  of  Clarendon, 
he  returned  to  England. 

The  colonies  never  had  a  governor  so  universally 
detested,nor  a*ny  one  who  so  richly  deserved  public 
abhorrence.  In  spite  of  his  noble  descent,  his  be- 
haviour was  trifling,  mean,  and  extravagant. 

It  was  not  uncommon  for  him  to  dress  himself  in 
a  woman's  habit,  and  then  to  patrole  the  fort  in 
which  he  resided.  Such  freaks  of  low  humour  ex- 
posed him  to  the  universal  contempt  of  the  people; 
but  their  indignation  was  kindled  by  his  despotic 
rule,  savage  bigotry,  insatiable  avarice,  and  injus- 
tice, not  only  to  the  public,  but  even  his  private 
creditors.  For  he  left  some  of  the  lowest  tradesmen 
in  his  employment  unsatisfied  in  their  just  demands. 

John  Lord  Lovelace,  baron  of  Hurley,  was  ap- 
pointed to  this  government  in  the  spring,  1708,  tut 
did  not  arrive  here  till  the  18th  of  December  follow- 
ing. Lord  Cornbury's  oppressive,  mean  adminis- 
tion  had  long  made  the  people  very  desirous  for  a 
change;  and  therefore  his  successor  was  received 
with  universal  joy.  Having  dissolved  the  general 
assembly  soon  after  his  accession  to  the  government, 
he  convened  a  new  one  on  the  5th  of  April,  1709, 
which  consisted  of  members  of  the  same  interest 
with  the  last,  who  re-elected  William  Nicoll.  the  former 
speaker,  into  the  chair.  His  lordship  told  them,  at 
the  beginning  of  the  session,  "  that  he  had  brought 
with  him  large  supplies  of  soldiers  and  stores  of  war, 
as  well  as  presents  for  the  Indians,"  than  which  no- 
thing could  be  more  agreeable  to  the  people.  He 


542 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


lamented  the  greatness  of  the  provincial  debts,  and  j  rence,    was   the   first  projector  of  this   enterprise, 


the  decay  of  public  credit;  but  still  recommended 
their  raising  a  revenue  for  the  same  term  with  that 
established  by  the  act  in  the  llth  year  of  the  late 
reign.  He  also  pressed  the  discharge  of  the  debts 
of  the  government,  and  their  examination  of  the 
public  accounts,  "  that  it  may  be  known  (said  he) 
what  this  debt  is,  and  that  it  may  appear  hereafter 
to  all  the  world  that  it  was  not  contracted  in  my 
time."  This  oblique  reflection  upon  his  predeces- 
sor, who  was  now  ignominiously  imprisoned  by  his 
creditors,  was  displeasing  to  nobody. 

Though  the  assembly,  in  their  answer,  heartily 
congratulated  his  lordship's  arrival,  and  thanked 
the  queen  for  her  care  of  the  province,  yet  they 
sufficiently  intimated  their  disinclination  to  raise 
the  revenue,  which  the  governor  had  requested. 
"  Our  earnest  wishes  (to  use  the  words  of  the  ad- 
dress) are,  that  suitable  measures  may  be  taken  to 
encourage  the  few  inhabitants  to  stay  in  it,  and 
others  to  come.  The  just  freedom  enjoyed  by  our 
neighbours  by  the  tender  indulgence  of  the  govern- 
ment, has  extremely  drained  and  exhausted  us  both 
of  people  and  stock ;  whilst  a  different  trpatment,  the 
wrong  methods  too  long  taken,  and  severities  practised 
here,  have  averted  and  deterred  the  useful  part  of 
mankind  from  settling  and  coming  hitherto."  To- 
wards the  close,  they  assure  him,  "  that  as  the  be- 
ginning of  his  government  gave  them  a  delightful 
prospect  of  tranquillity,  so  they  were  come  with 
minds  prepared  to  consult  the  good  of  the  country, 
and  his  satisfaction." 

The  principal  matter  which  engaged  the  attention 
of  the  assembly,  was  the  affair  of  the  revenue.  Lord 
Cornbury's  conduct  had  rendered  them  utterly  averse 
to  a  permanent  support  for  the  future,  and  yet  they 
were  unwilling  to  quarrel  with  the  new  governor. 
They,  however,  at  last  agreed,  on  the  5th  of  May, 
to  raise  2,500J.  to  defray  the  charges  of  the  govern- 
ment to  the  1st  of  May  ensuing,  1,600/.  of  which 
was  voted  to  his  excellency,  and  the  remaining  sums 
towards  a  supply  of  firewood  and  candies  to  the 
several  forts  in  New  York,  Albany,  and  Schenec- 
tady;  and  for  payment  of  small  salaries  to  the 
printer,  clerk  of  the  council,  and  Indian  interpreter. 

This  new  project  of  providing,  annually,  for  the 
support  of  government,  was  contrived  to  prevent 
the  mischief,  to  which  the  long  revenues  had  for- 
merly exposed  the  colonists.  But  as  it  rendered  the 
governor,  and  all  the  other  servants  of  the  crown 
dependent  upon  the  assembly,  a  rupture  between 
the  several  branches  of  the  legislature  would  doubt- 
less have  ensued ;  but  on  the  9th  of  May,  the  very 
day  in  which  the  vote  passed  the  house,  his  lordship 
died  of  a  disorder  contracted  in  crossing  the  ferry  at 
his  first  arrival  in  the  city  of  New  York.  His  lady- 
remained  long  after  his  death,  soliciting  for  the  sum 
voted  to  her  husband ;  but  though  the  queen  inter- 
posed by  a  letter,  in  her  behalf,  nothing  was  allowed 
till  several  years  afterwards. 

From  the  Canada  expedition,  in  1709,  to  the  arrival 
of  Governor  Burnet. 

On  the  death  of  the  governor,  the  chief  command 
devolved  upon  Richard  Ingoldsby,  the  lieut-gover- 
nor,  the  same  who  had  exercised  the  government 
several  years  before,  upon  the  decease  of  Colonel 
Sloughter.  His  short  administration  is  remarkable, 
not  for  his  extraordinary  talents,  for  he  was  a  dull 
man,  but  for  a  second  fruitless  attempt  against  Ca- 
nada. Colonel  Vetch,  who  had  been  several  years 
before  at  Quebec,  and  sounded  the  river  of  St.  Law- 


The  ministry  approved  of  it,  and  Vetch  arrived  in 
Boston,  and  prevailed  upon  the  New  England  colo- 
nies to  join  in  the  scheme.  After  that,  he  came  to 
New  York,  and  concerted  the  plan  of  operations 
with  Francis  Nicholson,  formerly  lieut.-governor, 
who,  at  the  request  of  Ingoldsby,  the  council,  the 
assembly,  Gurdon  Saltonstal,  the  governor  of  Con- 
necticut, and  Charles  Cockin,  lieut.-governor  of 
Pennsylvania,  accepted  the  chief  command  of  the 
provincial  forces  intended  to  penetrate  into  Canada 
by  way  of  lake  Champlain.  Impoverished  as  the 
colonists  were,  the  assembly  joined  heartily  in  the 
enterprise.  It  was  at  this  juncture  the  first  act  for 
issuing  bills  of  credit  was  passed;  an  expedient 
without  which  they  could  not  have  contributed  to 
the  expedition,  the  treasury  being  then  totally  ex- 
hausted. Universal  joy  now  brightened  every  man's 
countenance,  because  all  expected  the  complete  re- 
duction of  Canada  before  the  ensuing  fall.  Big 
with  the  pleasing  prospect  of  an  event,  which  would 
put  an  end  to  ail  the  ravages  of  an  encroaching, 
merciless  enemy,  extend  the  British  empire,  and 
augment  trade,  the  colonists  exerted  themselves  to 
the  utmost  for  the  success  of  the  expedition.  As 
soon  as  the  design  was  made  known  to  the  house, 
twenty  ship  and  house  carpenters  were  impressed 
into  the  service  for  building  batteaus.  Commis 
sioners  also  were  appointed  to  purchase  provisions 
and  other  necessaries,  and  empowered  to  break  open 
houses  for  that  purpose;  and  to  impress  men,  ves 
sels,  horses,  and  waggons,  for  transporting  the 
stores.  Four  hundred  and  eighty-seven  men,  be- 
sides the  independent  companies,  were  raised,  and 
detached  to  Albany,  by  the  27th  of  June ;  from 
whence  they  advanced,  with  the  main  body,  to  the 
Wood  Creek.  Three  forts  were  built  there,  besides 
many  block-houses  and  stores  for  the  provisions, 
which  were  transported  with  great  dispatch.  The 
province  of  New  York  (all  things  considered)  had 
the  merit  of  having  contributed  more  than  any  of 
her  neighbours  towards  this  expedition.  Pennsyl- 
vania gave  no  kind  of  aid,  and  New  Jersey  was 
only  at  the  expense  of  3,000/.  One  hundred  bat- 
teaus, as  many  birch  canoes,  and  two  of  the  forts, 
were  built  entirely,  and  the  other  fort,  for  the  most 
part,  at  the  charge  of  this  government.  All  the 
provisions  and  stores  for  the  army  were  transported 
at  their  expense  ;  and  besides  their  quota  of  volun- 
teers, and  the  independent  companies,  they  pro- 
cured and  maintained  600  Indians,  and  victualled 
1,000  of  their  wives  and  children  at  Albany  during 
the  campaign. 

Having  thus  put  themselves  to  the  expense  of 
above  20,000^.  towards  this  enterprise,  the  delay  of 
the  arrival  of  the  fleet  spread  a  general  discontent 
through  the  country ;  and,  early  in  the  fall,  the  as- 
sembly addressed  the  lieut.-governor,  to  recall  their 
forces  from  the  camp.  Vetch  and  Nicholson  soon 
after  broke  up  the  campaign,  and  retired  to  New- 
Port,  in  Rhode  Island,  where  there  was  a  congress 
of  governors.  Ingoldsby,  who  was  invited  to  it,  did 
not  appear,  in  compliance  with  the  inclination  of  the 
assembly,  who,  incensed  at  the  public  disappoint- 
ment, harboured  great  jealousies  of  all  the  first  pro- 
moters of  the  design.  As  soon,  therefore,  as  Lord 
Sunderland's  letters,  which  arrived  here  on  the  21st 
of  October,  were  laid  before  the  house,  they  re- 
solved to  send  an  address  to  the  queen,  to  lay  before 
her  a  true  account  of  the  manner  in  which  the  pro- 
vince exerted  itself  in  the  late  undertaking. 

Had  this  expedition  been  vigorously  carried  on, 


UNITED  STATES. 


it  doubtless  would  have  succeeded.  The  public  af- 
fairs at  home  wore  conducted  by  a  wise  ministry. 
The  allied  army  triumphed  in  repeated  successes  in 
Flanders;  and  the  court  of  France  was  in  no  con- 
dition to  give  assistance  to  so  distant  a  colony  as 
Canada.  The  Indians  of  the  five  nations  were  en- 
g-aged,  through  the  indefatigable  solicitation  of  Co- 
lonel Schuyler,  to  join  heartily  in  the  attempt ;  aiid 
the  eastern  colonies  had  nothing  to  fear  from  the 
Omvenugunas,  because  those  Indians  had  a  little 
before  concluded  a  peace  with  the  confederates. 
In  America  every  thing  was  ripe  for  the  attack. 
At  home  Lord  Sunderland,  the  secretary  of  state, 
Itad  proceeded  so  far,  as  to  dispatch  orders  to  the 

3ueen's  ships  at  Boston,  to  hold  themselves  in  rea- 
iness,  and  the  British  troops  were  upon  the  point 
of  their  embarkation.  At  this  juncture,  the  news 
arrived  of  the  defeat  of  the  Portuguese,  which  re- 
ducing the  allies  to  great  streights,  (he  forces  in- 
tended fot  the  American  adventure  were  then  or- 
dered to  their  assistance,  and  the  thoughts  of  the  mi- 
nistry entirely  diverted  from  the  Canada  expedition. 

As  there  was  not  a  man  in  the  province  who  had 
more  extended  views  of  the  importance  of  driving 
the  French  out  of  Canada  than  Colonel  Schuyler, 
so  neither  did  any  person  more  heartily  engage  in 
the  late  expedition.  To  preserve  the  friendship  of 
the  five  nations,  without  which  it  would  be  impossi- 
ble to  prevent  our  frontiers  from  becoming  a  field  of 
blood,  he  studied  all  the  arts  of  insinuating  himself 
into  their  favour.  He  gave  them  all  possible  en 
couragement  and  assistance,  and  very  much  im- 
paired his  own  fortune  by  his  liberality  to  their 
chiefs.  They  never  came  to  Albany,  but  they  re- 
sorted to  his  house,  and  even  dined  at  his  table  ;  and 
by  this  means  he  obtained  an  ascendancy  over  them, 
which  was  attended  with  very  good  consequences  to 
the  province ;  for  he  could  always,  in  a  great  de- 
gree, obviate  or  eradicate  the  prejudices  and  jealou 
sies  by  which  the  French  Jesuits  were  incessantly 
labouring  to  debauch  their  fidelity. 

Impressed  with  a  strong  sense  of  the  necessity  of 
some  vigorous  measures  against  the  French,  Colonel 
Schuyler  was  extremely  discontented  at  the  late  dis- 
appointment; and  resolved  to  make  a  voyage  to 
England,  at  his  private  expense,  the  better  to  incul- 
cate on  the  ministry  the  absolute  necessity  of  re- 
ducing Canada  to  the  crown  of  Great  Britain.  For 
that  purpose  he  proposed  to  carry  home  with  him 
five  Indian  chiefs.  The  house  no  sooner  heard  ol 
his  design,  than  they  came  to  a  resolution,  which 
in  justice  to  his  distinguished  merit,  ought  not  to  be 
suppressed.  It  was  this: 

"  Resolved,  nemine  contradicente,  that  the  hum 
ble  address  of  the  lieut.-governor,  council,  and  ge- 
neral assembly  of  this  colony  to  the  queen,  repre- 
senting the  present  state  of  this  plantation,  be  com 
mitted  to  his  charge  and  care,  to  be  presented  by 
himself  to  her  sacred  majesty;  he  being  a  person 
who  not  only  in  the  last  war,  when  he  commanded 
the  forces  of  this  colony  in  chief  at  Canada,  but  also 
in  the  present,  has  performed  faithful  services  to 
this  and  the  neighbouring  colonies ;  and  behavec 
himself  in  the  offices  with  which  ha  has  been  in- 
trusted, with  good  reputation,  and  the  general  satis- 
faction of  the  people  in  these  parts." 

The  arrival  of  the  five  sachems  in  England  made 
a  great  stir  through  the  whole  kingdom.  The  mob 
followed  them  wherever  they  went,  and  small  cuts 
of  them  were  sold  among  the  people.  The  courl 
was  at  that  time  in  mourning  for  ths  death  of  the 
prince  of  Denmark :  the  sachems  were  therefore 


Iressed  in  black  under-clothes,  after  the  English 
nanner;  but,  instead  of  a  blanket,  they  had  each  a 
scarlet-in-grain  cloth  mantle,  edged  with  "gold,  thrown 
)ver  all  their  other  garments.  This  dress  was  di- 
rected by  the  dressers  of  the  play-house,  and  given 
jy  the  queen,  who  was  advised  to  make  a  shew  of 
:hem.  A  more  than  ordinary  solemnity  attended 
the  audience  they  had  of  her  majesty.  Sir  Charles 
Cotterel  conducted  them,  in  two  coaches,  to  St. 
James's ;  and  the  lord  chamberlain  introduced  them 
into  the  royal  presence.  Their  speech,  on  the  19th 
of  April,  1710,  was  in  these  words  : — 

"  Great  Queen, — We  have  undertaken  a  long 
voyage,  which  none  of  our  predecessors  could  be 
prevailed  upon  to  undertake,  to  see  our  great  queen, 
and  relate  to  her  those  things  which  we  thought  ab- 
solutely necessary  for  the  good  of  her,  and  us  her 
allies,  on  the  other  side  of  the  water. 

"  We  doubt  not  but  our  great  queen  has  been  ac- 
quainted with  our  long  and  tedious  war,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  her  children,  against  her  enemies  the 
French ;  and  that  we  have  been  as  a  strong  wall  for 
their  security  even  to  the  loss  of  our  best  men.  We 
were  mightily  rejoiced,  when  we  heard  our  great 
queen  had  resolved  to  send  an  army  to  reduce  Ca- 
nada, and  immediately,  in  token  of  friendship,  we 
hung  up  the  kettle,  and  took  up  the  hatchet,  and, 
with  one  consent,  assisted  Colonel  Nicholson  in 
making  preparations  on  this  side  the  lake;  but,  at 
length,  we  were  told  our  great  queen,  by  some  im- 
portant affairs,  was  prevented  in  her  design,  at  pre- 
sent, which  made  us  sorrowful,  lest  the  French, 
who  had  hitherto  dreaded  us,  should  now  think  us 
unable  to  make  war  against  them.  The  reduction 
of  Canada  is  of  great  weight  to  our  free  hunting; 
so  that  if  our  great  queen  should  not  be  mindful  of 
us,  we  must,  with  our  families,  forsake  our  country, 
and  seek  other  habitations,  or  stand  neuter,  either 
of  which  will  be  much  against  our  inclinations. 

"  In  token  of  the  sincerity  of  these  nations,  we 
do,  in  their  names,  present  our  great  queen  with 
these  belts  of  wampum,  and  in  hopes  of  our  great 
queen's  favour,  leave  it  to  her  most  gracious  con- 
sideration." 

While  Colonel  Schuyler  was  at  the  British  court, 
Captain  Ingoldsby  was  displaced,  and  Gerardus  Beek- 
man  exercised  the  powers  of  government,  from  the 
10th  of  April,  1710,  till  the  arrival  of  Brigadier 
Hunter,  on  the  14th  of  June  following.  The  coun- 
cil then  present  were,  Mr.  Beekman,  Mr.  Van  Dam, 
Colonel  Benslaer,  Mr.  Mompesson,  Mr.  Barbaru'1, 
Mr.  Philipse. 

Hunter  was  a  native  of  Scotland,  and,  when  a 
boy,  put  apprentice  to  an  apothecary.  He  left  his 
master,  and  went  into  the  army ;  and,  being  a  man 
of  wit  and  personal  beauty,  recommended  himself 
to  Lady  Hay,  whom  he  afterwards  married.  In  the 
year  1707  he  was  appointed  lieut.-governor  of  Vir- 
ginia, but  being  taken  by  the  French  in  his  voyage 
to  that  colony,  he  was  "carried  into  France,  and, 
upon  his  return  to  England,  appointed  to  succeed 
to  the  government  of  the  province  of  New  York  and 
New  Jersey. 

Governor  Hunter  carried  over  with  him  near  three 
thousand  palatines,  who  the  year  before  fled  to  Eng- 
land from   the   rage   of  persecution   in  Germany. 
Many  of  these  people  settled  in  the  city  of  New 
York,  where  they  built  a  Lutheran  church.     Others 
settled  on  a  tract  of  several  thousand  acres,  in  the 
manor  of  Livingston.     Their  village  there,  called 
i  the  camp,  was  one  of  the  pleasantest  situations  on 
J  Hudson's  river:  opposite,  on  the  west  bank,   were 


544 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


many  other  families  of  them.     Queen  Anne's  libe-  I 
rality  to  these  people  was  not  more  beneficial  to( 
them  than  serviceable  to  the  colony.     They  behaved 
themselves  peaceably,  and  lived  with  great  industry. 

The  late  attempt  to  attack  Canada  proving  abor- 
tive, exposed  the  colony  to  consequences  equally 
calamitous,  dreaded,  and  foreseen.  While  the  pre- 
parations were  making  to  invade  it,  the  French  ex- 
erted themselves  in  cajoling  their  Indian  allies  to 
assist  in  the  repulse ;  and  as  soon  as  the  scheme 
dropped,  numerous  parties  were  sent  out  to  harass 
the  English  frontiers.  These  irruptions  were  prin- 
cipally made  on  the  northern  parts  of  New  England, 
where  the  most  savage  cruelties  were  daily  com- 
mitted. New  York  had  indeed  hitherto  escaped, 
being  covered  by  the  Indians  of  the  five  nations ; 
but  the  danger  induced  Governor  Hunter,  soon 
after  his  arrival,  to  make  a  voyage  to  Albany,  where 
he  met  the  confederate  chiefs,  and  renewed  the  old 
covenant.  While  there,  he  was  strongly  solicited 
by  the  New  England  governments,  to  engage  the 
Indians  in  a  war  with  those  who  were  daily  ra- 
vaging their  borders ;  but  he  prudently  declined  a 
measure,  which  might  have  exposed  his  own  pro- 
vince to  a  general  devastation.  A  treaty  of  neu- 
trality subsisted  at  that  time  between  the  confeder- 
ates and  the  Canada  French  and  their  Indians; 
which,  depending  upon  the  faith  of  lawless  savages, 
was  at  best  but  precarious,  and  yet  the  only  security 
we  had  for  the  peace  of  the  borders.  A  rupture  be- 
tween them  would  have  involved  the  colony  in  a 
scene  of  misery,  at  a  time  of  all  others  most  unsea- 
sonable. However  the  people  of  New  England 
might  censure  the  governor,  it  was  a  proof  of  his 
wisdom  to  refuse  their  request.  For  besides  a  want 
of  men  and  arms  our  forts  were  fallen  down,  and 
the  treasury  exhausted. 

The  new  assembly  met  at  New  York  on  the  1st 
of  September.  Mr.  Nicoll,  the  speaker,  Mr.  Living- 
ston, Mr.  De  Lancey,  and  Colonel  Morris,  were  the 
members  most  distinguished  for  their  activity  in  the 
house.  Mr.  De  Lancey  was  a  protestant  refugee, 
a  native  of  Caen  in  Normandy;  and  by  marrying  a 
daughter  of  Mr.  Courtlandt,  connected  with  a  family 
then,  perhaps,  the  most  opulent  and  extensive  of 
any  in  the  province.  He  was  an  eminent  merchant, 
and  by  a  successful  trade  had  amassed  a  very  con- 
siderable fortune.  But  of  all  these,  Colonel  Morris 
had  the  greatest  influence  on  public  affairs.  He  was 
a  man  of  letters,  and,  though  a  little  whimsical  in 
his  temper,  was  grave  in  his  manners  and  of  pene- 
trating parts.  Being  excessively  fond  of  the  so- 
ciety of  men  of  sense  and  reading,  he  was  never 
wearied  at  a  sitting,  till  the  spirits  of  the  whole  com- 
pany were  dissipated.  From  his  infancy  he  had 
lived  in  a  manner  best  a lapted  to  teach'  him  the 
nature  of  man,  and  to  fortify  his  mind  for  the  vicis- 
situdes of  life.  He  very  early  lost  both  his  father 
and  mother,  and  fell  under  the  patronage  of  his 
uncle,  formerly  an  officer  of  very  considerable  rank 
in  Cromwell's  army,  who,  after  the  restoration,  dis- 
guised himself  under  the  profession  of  quakerism, 
and  settled  on  a  fine  farm  within  a  few  miles  of  the 
city,  called  after  his  own  name,  Morrisania.  Being 
a  boy  of  strong  passions,  the  general  indications  of 
a  fruitful  genius,  he  gave  frequent  offence  to  his 
uncle,  and  on  one  of  these  occasions,  through  fear 
of  his  resentment,  strolled  away  into  Virginia,  and 
thence  to  Jamaica  in  the  West  Indies,  where,  to 
support  himself,  he  set  up  for  a  scrivener.  After 
several  years  spent  in  this  vagabond  life,  he  returned 
again  to  his  uncle,  who  received  the  young  prodigal 


with  joy ;  and,  to  reduce  him  to  regularity,  brought 
about  his  marriage  with  a  daughter  of  Mr.  Graham, 
a  lady,  with  whom  he  lived  above  fifty  years,  in 
the  possession  of  every  enjoyment  which  good  sense 
and  polite  manners  in  a  woman  could  afford.  The 
greatest  part  of  his  life,  before  the  arrival  of  Mr. 
Hunter,  was  spent  in  New  Jersey,  where  he  sig- 
nalised himself  in  the  service  both  of  the  proprietors 
and  the  assembly.  He  was  one  of  the  council  in 
that  province,  and  a  judge  of  the  supreme  court 
there  in  1692.  Upon  the  surrender  of  the  govern- 
ment to  Queen  Anne,  in  1702,  he"  was  named  to  be 
governor  of  the  colony ;  but  the  appointment  was 
changed  in  favour  of  Lord  Cornbury,  the  queen's 
cousin.  The  assembly  employed  him  to  draw  up 
their  complaint  against  Lord  Cornbury,  and  he 
was  made  the  bearer  of  it  to  the  queen.  Though 
he  was  indolent  in  the  management  of  his  private 
affairs,  yet,  through  the  love  of  power,  he  was  al- 
ways busy  in  matters  of  a  political  nature,  and  no 
man  in  the  colony  equalled  him  in  the  knowledge 
of  the  law  and  the  arts  of  intrigue.  From  this  cha- 
racter the  reader  will  easily  perceive,  that  Governor 
Hunter  shewed  his  prudence  in  taking  Mr.  Morris 
into  his  confidence,  his  talents  and  advantages  ren- 
dering him  either  a  useful  friend  or  formidable  foe. 
Such  were  the  acting  members  of  this  assembly. 
When  Brigadier  Hunter  spoke  to  them,  he  recom- 
mended the  settling  a  revenue,  the  defence  of  the 
frontiers,  and  the  restoration  of  the  public  credit, 
which  Lord  Cornbury  had  almost  entirely  destroyed. 
To  stifle  the  remaining  sparks  of  ancient  feuds,  he 
concluded  with  these  words :  "  If  any  go  about  to 
disturb  your  peace,  by  reviving  buried  parties  or 
piques,  or  creating  new  ones,  they  shall  meet  with 
no  countenance  or  encouragement  from  me ;  and  I 
am  sure  they  deserve  as  little  from  you."  The  ad- 
dress of  the  house  was  perfectly  agreeable  to  the 
governor.  They  promised  to  provide  for  the  sup- 
port  of  government,  and  to  restore  the  public  credit, 
as  well  as  to  protect  the  frontiers.  In  answer  to 
the  close  of  his  speech,  they  declared  their  hope, 
"  that  such  as  excited  party  contentions  might  meet 
with  as  little  credit,  and  as  much  disgrace,  as  they 
deserve."  This  unanimity,  however,  was  soon  in- 
terrupted. Colonel  Morris,  for  some  warm  words 
dropped  in  a  debate,  was  expelled  the  house ;  and 
soon  after  a  dispute  arose  between  the  council  and 
assembly,  concerning  some  amendments  made  by 
the  former,  to  a  bill,  "  For  the  treasurer's  paying 
sundry  sums  of  money."  The  design  of  it,  in  men- 
tioning the  particular  sums,  and  rendering  them 
issuable  by  their  own  officer,  was  to  restrain  the  go- 
vernor from  repeating  the  misapplications  which 
had  been  so  frequent  in  a  late  administration.  The 
council,  for  that  reason,  opposed  it,  and  adhered  to 
their  amendments ;  which  occasioned  a  prorogation 
on  the  25th  of  November,  after  the  passing  of  se- 
veral other  necessary  laws. 

Mr.  Hunter  cautiously  avoided  entering  publicly 
into  the  dispute  between  the  two  houses,  till  he 
knew  the  sentiments  of  the  ministry,  and  then 
opened  the  spring  sessions  with  a  speech  too  singu- 
lar not  to  be  inserted. 

"Gentlemen — I  hope  you  are  now  come  with  a 
disposition  to  answer  the  ends  of  your  meeting,  that 
is,  to  provide  a  suitable  support  for  her  majesty's 
government  here,  in  the  manner  she  has  been 
pleased  to  direct ;  to  (indjout  means  to  restore  the 
public  credit,  and  to  provide  better  for  your  own 
security. 

"  They  abuse  you  who  tell  you  that  you  are  hardly 


UNITED  STATES. 


545 


dealt  by  in  the  augmentation  of  salaries.  Her  ma- 
jesty's instructions,  which  I  communicated  to  you 
at  our  last  meeting,  might  have  convinced  you,  that 
it  was  her  tenderness  towards  her  subjects  in  the 
plantations,  who  suffered  under  an  established  cus- 
tom of  making  considerable  presents  to  their  go- 
vernors by  acts  of  assembly,  that  induced  her  to  allot 
to  each  of  them  such  a  salary  as  she  judged  sufficient 
for  their  support,  in  their  respective  stations,  with 
a  strict  prohibition  of  all  such  presents  for  the  future ; 
which  instruction  has  met  with  a  cheerful  and  grate- 
ful compliance  in  all  the  other  colonies. 

"  If  you  have  been  in  any  thing  distinguished,  it 
is  by  an  extraordinary  measure  of  her  royal  bounty 
and  care.  I  hope  you  will  make  suitable  returns, 
lest  some  insinuations,  much  repeated  of  late  years, 
should  gain  credit  at  last,  that  however  your  resent- 
ment has  fallen  upon  the  governor,  it  is  the  govern- 
ment you  dislike. 

"  It  is  necessary  at  this  time  that  you  be  told  also, 
that  giving  money  for  the  support  of  government, 
and  disposing  of  it  at  your  pleasure,  is  the  same 
with  giving  none  at  all.  Her  majesty  is  the  sole 
judge  of  the  merits  of  her  servants.  This  right  has 
never  yet  been  disputed  at  home,  and  should  I  con- 
sent to  give  it  up  abroad,  I  should  render  myself 
unworthy  not  only  of  the  trust  reposed  in  me,  but  of 
the  society  of  my  fellow  subjects,  by  incurring  her 
highest  displeasure.  If  I  have  tired  you  by  a  long 
speech,  I  shall  make  amends,  by  putting  you  to  the 
trouble  of  a  very  short  answer. 

"  Will  you  support  her  majesty's  government  in 
the  manner  she  has  been  pleased  to  direct,  or  are 
you  resolved  that  burden  shall  lie  still  upon  the  go- 
vernor, who  cannot  accuse  himself  of  any  thing  that 
may  have  deserved  this  treatment  at  ymir  hands  ? 

"Will  you  take  care  of  the  debts  of  the  govern- 
ment? or,  to  increase  my  sufferings,  must  I  con- 
tinue under  the  torture  of  the  daily  cries  of  such  as 
have  just  demands  upon  you,  and  are  in  misery,  with- 
out the  power  of  giving  them  any  hopes  of  relief? 

"  Will  you  take  more  effectual  care  of  your  own 
safety,  in  that  of  your  frontiers ;  or  are  you  resolved 
for  the  future  to  rely  upon  the  security  of  an  open 
winter,  and  the  caprice  of  your  savage  neighbours  ? 
I  shall  be  very  sorry  if  this  plainness  offends  you. 
I  judge  it  necessary  towards  the  establishing  and 
cultivating  a  good  understanding  betwixt  us.  I  hope 
it  will  be  so  construed,  and  wish  heartily  it  may 
have  that  effect." 

Perplexed  with  this  remarkable  speech,  the  as- 
sembly, after  a  few  days,  concluded  that  as  his  ex- 
cellency had  prorogued  them  in  February,  while  he 
was  at  Burlington,  in  the  province  of  New  Jersey, 
they  could  not  sit  and  act  as  a  house  ;  upon  which, 
they  were  the  same  day  dissolved. 

The  five  Indian  sachems,  carried  to  England  by 
Colonel  Schuyler,  having  seen  all  the  curiosities  in 
London,  and  been  much  entertained  by  many  per- 
sons of  distinction,  returned  to  Boston  with  Commo- 
dore Mart/a  and  Colonel  Nicholson;  the  latter  oi 
whom  commanded  the  forces  designed  against  Port 
Royal  and  the  coast  of  Nova  Scotia.  In  this  enter- 
prise the  New  England  colonies,  agreeable  to  their 
wonted  courage  and  loyalty,  lent  their  assistance ; 
and  the  reduction  of  the  garrison,  which  was  then 
called  Annapolis  Royal,  was  happily  completed  on 
the  2d  of  October,  1710.  Animated  by  this  and 
some  other  successes  in  Newfoundland,  Nicholson 
again  urged  the  prosecution  of  the  scheme  for  the 
reduction  of  Canada ;  which  having  been  strongly 
recommended  by  the  Indian  chiefs,  as  the  only 

HIST.  OF  AMER. — Nos.  69  &  70. 


effectual  means  to  secure  the  northern  colonies,  was 
now  again  resumed. 

Towards  the  execution  of  this  project,  5,000  troops 
from  England  and  Flanders  were  sent  over  under 
;he  command  of  Brigadier  Hill,  the  brother  of  Mrs. 
Masham,  the  queen's  new  confidant,  on  the  disgrace 
of  the  duchess  of  Marlborough.     The  fleet  of  trans- 
ports, under  the  convoy  of  Sir  Hovenden  Walker, 
arrived  after  a  month's  passage  at  Boston,  on  the 
4th  of  June,  1711.     The  provisions  with  which  they 
expected  to  be  supplied  there  being  not  provided, 
the  troops  landed.     Nicholson,  who  was  to  command 
the  land  forces,  came   immediately  to  New  York, 
where  Mr.  Hunter  convened  the  assembly  on  the 
2d  of  July.     The  re-election  of  the  same  members 
who  had  served  in  the  last,  was  a  sufficient  proof  of 
the  general  aversion  to  the  establishment  of  a  re- 
venue.    Robert  Livingston,  junior,  who  married  the 
only  daughter  of  Col.  Schuyler,  came  in  for  Albany; 
and  together  with  Mr.  Morris,  who  was  again  chosen 
for  the  borough  of  West  Chester,  joined  the  govern- 
or's interest.     Brigadier  Hunter  informed  the  as- 
sembly of  the  intended  expedition,  and  the  arrival 
of  the  fleet  and  forces ;  that  the  quota  of  this  pro- 
vince, settled  by  the  council  of  war  at  New  London, 
was  GOO  private  sentinels  and  their  officers;  besides 
which,  he  recommended  their  making  provision  for 
building  batteaus,  transporting  the  troops  and  pro- 
visions, subsisting  the  Indians,  and  for  the  contin- 
gent charges ;    nor  did  he  forget  to  mention  the 
support  of  government  and  the  public  debts. 

The  house  was  so  well  pleased  with  the  design 
upon  Canada,  that  they  voted  an  address  of  thanks 
to  the  queen,  and  sent  a  committee  to  Nicholson,  to 
congratulate  his  arrival,  and  make  an  honourable 
acknowledgment  of  his  "  sedulous  application  to  her 
majesty  for  reducing  Canada."  In  a  few  days  time 
an  act  was  passed  for  raising  forces,  and  the  assem- 
bly by  a  resolution,  according  to  the  governor's  ad- 
vice, restricted  the  price  of  provisions  to  certain 
particular  sums.  Bills  of  credit,  for  forwarding  the 
expedition,  were  now  also  struck  to  the  amount  of 
10,000^.,  to  be  sunk  in  five  years,  by  a  tax  on  estates 
real  and  personal.  After  these  supplies  were  granted, 
the  governor  prorogued  the  assembly,  though  no- 
thing was  done  relating  to  the  ordinary  support  of 
government. 

While  these  preparations  were  making  at  New 
York,  the  fleet,  consisting  of  twelve  men  of  war, 
forty  transports,  and  six  store  ships,  with  forty 
horses,  a  fine  train  of  artillery  and  all  manner  of 
warlike  stores,  sailed  for  Canada  from  Boston  on 
the  30th  of  July;  and  about  a  month  afterwards 
Nicholson  appeared  at  Albany,  at  the  head  of  an 
army  of  4,000  men,  raised  in  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
and  Connecticut :  the  several  regiments  being  com- 
manded by  Colonel  Ingoldsby,  Colonel  Whiting,  and 
Colonel  Schuyler,  the  latter  of  whom  procured  600 
of  the  five  nations  to  join  the  army. 

The  French  in  Canada  were  not  unapprised  of 
these  designs.  Vaudreuil,  the  governor-general, 
sent  his  orders  from  Montreal,  to  the  Sieur  Do 
Beaucourt,  to  hasten  the  works  he  was  about  at 
Quebec,  and  commanded  that  all  the  regulars  and 
militia  should  be  held  in  readiness  to  march  on  the 
first  warning.  Four  or  five  hundred  Indians,  of  the 
more  distant  nations,  arrived  at  the  same  time  at 
Montreal,  with  Messieurs  St.  Pierre  and  Tonti,  who, 
together  with  the  Caughnuaga  proselytes,  took  up 
the  hatchet  in  favour  of  the  French.  Vaudreuil, 
after  dispatching  several  Indians  and  two  mission- 
aries among  the  five  nations,  to  detach  them  from 

3H 


546 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  interest  of  New  York,  went  to  Quebec,  which 
Beaueourt  the  engineer  had  sufficiently  fortified  to 
sustain  a  long  siege.  All  the  principal  posts  below 
the  city,  on  both  sides  of  the  river,  were  prepared 
to  receive  the  British  troops  in  case  of  their  landing. 
On  the  14th  of  August,  Sir  Hovenden  Walker  ar- 
rived with  the  fleet  in  the  mouth  of  St.  Lawrence 
river,  and  fearing  to  lose  the  company  of  the  trans- 
ports, the  wind  blowing  fresh  at  north-west,  he  put 
into  Gaspy  bay,  and  continued  there  till  the  20th  of 
the  same  month.  Two  days  after  he  sailed  from 
thence,  the  fleet  was  in  the  utmost  danger,  for  they 
had  no  soundings,  were  without  sight  of  land,  the 
wind  high  at  east-south-east,  and  the  sky  darkened 
by  a  thick  fog.  In  these  circumstances  the  fleet 
brought  to  by  the  advice  of  the  pilots,  who  were  of 
opinion  that  if  the  ships  lay  with  their  heads  to  the 
southward,  they  might  be  driven  by  the  stream  into 
the  midst  of  the  channel;  but  instead  of  that,  in  two 
hours  after  they  found  themselves  on  the  north 
shore  among  rocks  and  islands,  and  upon  the  point 
of  being  lost.  The  men  of  war  escaped,  but  eight 
transports,  containing  800  souls,  officers,  soldiers, 
and  seamen,  were  cast  av/ay.  Two  or  three  days 
being  spent  in  recovering  what  they  could  from  the 
shore,  it  was  determined,  at  a  consultation  of  sea 
officers,  to  return  to  some  bay  or  harbour,  till  a  fur- 
ther resolution  could  be  taken.  On  the  14th  of 
September  they  arrived  at  Spanish  river  bay,  where 
a  council  of  war,  consisting  of  land  and  sea  officers, 
considering  that  they  had  but  ten  weeks  provision, 
and  judging  that  they  could  not  depend  upon  a  sup- 
ply from  New  England,  unanimously  concluded,  to 
return  home  without  making  any  further  attempts; 
arid  they  accordingly  arrived  at  Portsmouth  on  the 
9th  of  October,  when  the  Edgar,  a  70  gun  ship,  was 
blown  up,  having  on  board  above  400  men,  besides 
many  persons  who  came  to  visit  their  friends. 

As  soon  as  the  Marquis  de  Vaudreuil,  by  the  ac- 
counts of  the  fishermen  and  two  other  ships,  had 
reason  to  suspect  that  our  fleet  was  returned,  he 
went  to  Chambly,  and  formed  a  camp  of  3,000  men 
to  oppose  Nicholson's  army.,  intended  to  penetrate 
Canada  at  that  end.  But  he  was  soon  informed 
that  our  troops  were  returned,  upon  the  news  of  the 
disaster  which  had  befallen  the  fleet,  and  that 
the  people  of  Albany  were  in  the  utmost  conster- 
nation. 

Apprehensive  thai  the  enemy  would  fall  upon  the 
borders,  as  they  afterwards  really  did,  in  small  par- 
ties, upon  the  miscarriage  of  the  enterprise,  Go- 
vernor Hunter  pressed  the  assembly,  in  autumn,  to 
continue  a  number  of  m«n  in  pay  the  ensuing  win- 
ter, and  to  repair  the  out-forts.  After  the  house 
had  passed  several  votes  to  this  purpose  his  excel- 
lency, during  the  session,  went  u^  to  Albany  to 
withdraw  the  forces  of  the  colony,  and  give  orders 
for  the  necessary  repairs. 

The  public  debts,  by  this  unfortunate  expedition, 
were  become  greatly  enhanced,  and  the  assembly  at 
last  entered  upon  measures  for  the  support  of  the 
government,  and  sent  up  to  the  council  several  bills 
for  that  purpose.  The  latter  attempted  to  make 
amendments,  which  the  other  would  not  admit,  and  a 
warm  controversy  arose  between  these  two  branches 
of  the  legislature.  The  council  assigned  instances 
that  amendments  had  formerly  been  allowed ;  and, 
besides  this  argument,  drawn  from  precedent,  in- 
sisted that  they  were  a  part  of  the  legislature,  con- 
stituted as  the  assembly  were  "  by  the  mere  grace 
of  the  crown;"  adding,  that  the  lords  of  trade  had 
determined  the  matter  in  tJ^ir  favour.  The  house, 


nevertheless,  adhered  to  their  resolutions,  and  ans- 
wered in  these  words : 

"  It  is  true,  the  share  the  council  have  (if  any) 
iu  the  legislation,  does  not  flow  from  any  title  they 
have  from  the  nature  of  that  board,  which  is  only  to 
advise ;  or  from  their  being  another  distinct  state, 
or  rank  of  people  iu  the  constitution,  which  they 
are  not,  being  all  commons  ;  but  only  from  the  mere 
pleasure  of  the  prince  signified  in  the  commission. 
On  the  contrary,  the  inherent  right  the  assembly 
have  to  dispose  of  the  money  of  the  freemen  of  this 
colony  does  not  proceed  from  any  commission,  let- 
ters patent,  or  other  grant  from  the  crown;  but 
from  the  free  choice  and  election  of  the  people,  who 
ought  not  to  be  divested  of  their  property  (nor  justly 
can)  without  their  consent.  Any  former  conde- 
scensions, of  other  assemblies,  will  not  prescribe  to 
the  council  a  privilege  to  make  any  of  those  amend- 
ments, and  therefore  they  have  it  not.  If  the  lords 
commissioners  for  trade  and  plantations  did  con- 
ceive no  reason  why  the  council  should  not  have 
right  to  amend  money  bills,  this  is  far  from  con- 
cluding there  are  none.  The  assembly  understand 
them  very  well,  and  are  sufficiently  convinced  of  the 
necessity  they  are  in,  not  to  admit  of  any  encroach- 
ment so  much  to  their  prejudice." 

Both  houses  adhered  obstinately  to  their  respect- 
ive opinions :  in  consequence  of  which,  the  public 
debts  remained  unpaid,  though  his  excellency  could 
not  omit  passing  a  bill  for  paying  to  himself  3,750 
ounces  of  plate. 

Upon  the  return  of  the  fleet,  Dudley,  Saltonstal, 
and  Cranston,  the  governors  of  the  eastern  colonies, 
formed  a  design  of  engaging  the  five  nations  in  a 
rupture  with  the  French,  and  wrote  on  that  head  to 
Mr.  Hunter;  who,  suspicious  that  his  assembly 
would  not  approve  of  any  project  that  might  in- 
crease the  public  debts,  laid  their  letter  before  the 
house ;  and,  according  to  his  expectations,  they  de- 
clared against  the  scheme. 

About  this  time  Colonel  Hunter,  by  the  advice  of 
his  council,  began  to  exercise  the  office  of  chancellor, 
having,  on  the  4th  of  October,  appointed  Messrs. 
Van  Dam  and  Philipse,  masters,  Mr.  Whilcman, 
register,  Mr.  Harrison,  examiner,  and  Messrs. 
Sharpas  and  Broughton,  clerks.  A  proclamation 
was  then  issued,  to  signify  the  sitting  of  the  court 
on  Thursday  in  every  week.  This  gave  rise  to  these 
two  resolutions  of  the  house. 

"  Resolved,  that  the  erecting  a  court  of  chancery, 
without  consent  in  general  assembly,  is  contrary  to 
law,  without  precedent,  and  of  dangerous  conse- 
quence to  the  liberty  and  property  of  the  subjects. 

"  That  the  establishing  fees,  without  consent  in 
general  assembly,  is  contrary  to  law."  The  council 
made  these  votes  the  subject  of  part  of  a  long  re- 
presentation, which  they  shortly  after  transmitted 
to  the  lords  of  trade,  who,  in  a  letter  to  the  governor 
in  answer  to  it,  approved  of  his  erecting  a  court  of 
equity,  and  blamed  the  assembly,  adding,  "  That 
her  majesty  has  an  undoubted  right  of  appointing 
such,  and  so  many  courts  of  judicature  in  the  planta- 
tions, as  she  shall  think  necessary  for  the  distribution 
of  justice." 

At  the  next  meeting,  in  May,  1712,  Colonel 
Hunter  strongly  recommended  the  public  debts  to 
the  consideration  of  the  assembly,  informing  them, 
that  the  lords  of  trade  had  signified  their  opinion, 
with  respect  to  the  amending  money  bills,  in  favour 
of  the  council.  The  house  neglected  the  matters 
laid  before  them,  and  the  governor  broke  up  the 
sessions,  bv  a  short  prorogation  of  three  days.  After 


UNITED  STATES. 


547 


which  they  soon  passed  an  act  for  paying  his  excel- 
ency  8,025  ounces  of  plate.  Public  affairs  never 
rrore  a  more  melancholy  aspect  than  at  this  juncture. 
Among  the  five  nations,  many  emissaries  from 
\he  French  were  daily  seducing  them  from  the  Bri- 
tsh  interest,  and  the  late  ill  success  gave  such  a 
powerful  influence  to  their  solicitations,  that  the  In- 
ilians,  even  at  Catt's  Kill,  sent  a  belt  of  wampum 
to  those  in  Dutchess  county  to  prepare  for  a  war. 
The  Sennecas  and  Shawanas  were  also  greatly  dis- 
affected, and  it  was  generally  apprehended,  that 
they  would  fall  upon  the  inhabitants  along  Hudson's 
river.  An  invasion  was  strongly  suspected  by  sea 
on  the  city  of  New  York,  wliere  they  had  been 
alarmed,  in  April,  by  an  insurrection  of  the  negroes; 
who,  iu  execution  of  a  plot  to  set  fire  to  the  town, 
had  burnt  down  a  house  in  the  night,  and  killed 
several  people  who  came  to  extinguish  the  fire,  for 
which  nineteen  of  them  were  afterwards  executed. 
But  distressed  as  the  colony  then  was,  the  assembly 
were  inflexibly  averse  to  the  establishment  of  a  reve- 
nue, which  had  formerly  been  wickedly  misapplied 
and  exhausted.  At  the  ensuing  session,  in  the  fall,  Col. 
Hunter  proposed  a  scheme  to  the  assembly,  which 
was,  in  substance,  that  the  receiver-general  should 
give  security,  residing  in  the  colony,  for  the  due 
execution  of  his  office ;  and  every  quarter  account, 
to  the  governor  and  council,  for  the  sums  he  might 
receive.  That  the  creditors  of  the  government  should, 
every  three  months,  deliver  in  their  demands  to  the 
governor  and  council;  when,  if  that  quarter's  reve- 
nue equalled  the  amount  of  such  debts,  the  go- 
vernor, by  the  advice  of  council,  should  draw  for  it : 
but  if  the  revenue  for  that  quarter  should  fall  short 
of  the  governor's  demands,  then  the  warrants  were 
to  be  drawn  for  so  much  only  as  remained,  and  the 
creditors  should  afterwards  receive  new  drafts  for 
their  balances  in  the  next  quarter.  That  no  war- 
rant should  be  issued,  until  the  quarterly  account 
of  the  revenue  was  given  in ;  but  that  then  they 
should  be  paid  in  course,  and  an  action  of  debt  be 
given  against  the  receiver-general  iu  case  of  refusal. 
That  he  should  account  also  to  the  assembly  when 
required,  and  permit  all  persons  to  have  recourse 
to  his  books.  The  house  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  this 
plausible  project,  and,  displeased  with  a  letter  from 
the  lords  of  trade  favouring  the  council's  claim  to 
amend  money  bills,  they  agreed  upon  an  address  to 
the  queen,  protesting  their  willingness  to  support 
her  government,  complaining  of  misapplications  in 
the  treasury,  intimating  their  suspicions  that  they 
were  misrepresented,  arid  praying  an  instruction  to 
the  governor  to  give  his  consent  to  a  law,  for  sup- 
porting an  agent  to  represent  them  at  the  court  of 
Great  Britain.  Provoked  by  this  conduct,  and  to 
put  an  end  to  the  disputes  subsisting  between  the 
two  houses,  his  excellency  dissolved  the  assembly. 

Before  the  meeting  of  the  next  assembly  the  peace 
of  Utrecht  was  concluded,  on  the  31st  of  March, 
1713, — a  peace,  in  the  judgment  of  many,  disho- 
nourable to  Great  Britain,  and  injurious  to  her  al- 
lies. We  shall  only  merely  refer  to  it  with  relation 
to  Indian  affairs.  Lord  Bellamont,  after  the  peace 
at  Ryswick,  contended  with  the  governor  of  Canada, 
that  the  five  nations  ought  to  be  considered  as  sub- 
jects of  the  British  crown,  and  the  point  was 
disputed  even  after  the  death  of  Count  Fronteuac. 
It  does  not  appear  that  any  decision  of  that  matter 
was  made  between  the  two  crowns,  till  the  treaty  of 
Utrecht,  the  15th  article  of  which  is  in  these  words : 

"  The  subjects  of  France  inhabiting  Canada,  and 
others,  shall  hereafter  give  no  hindrance  or  molest- 


ation to  the  live  nations,  or  cantons  of  Indiana,  sub- 
ect  to  the  dominion  of  Grout  Britain,  nor  to  tho 
ither  nations  of  America  who  are  friends  to  th« 
same.  In  like  manner,  the  subjects  of  Gru;\t  Bri- 
tain shall  behave  themselves  peaceably  towards  the 
Americans  who  are  subjects  or  friends  to  France ; 
and  on  both  sides  they  shall  enjoy  full  liberty  of 
going  and  coming  on  account  of  trade.  Also  the 
natives  of  these  countries  shall,  with  the  same  li- 
berty, resort,  as  they  please,  to  the  British  arid 
French  colonies,  for  promoting  trade  on  one  side 
and -the  other,  without  any  molestation  or  hind- 
rance, either  on  the  part  of  the  British  subjects,  or 
of  the  French.  But  it  is  to  be  exactly  and  distinctly 
settled  by  commissaries,  who  are,  and  who  ought  to 
be  accounted,  the  subjects  of  Britain  or  of  France." 
In  consequence  of  this  treaty,  the  British  crown 
became  entitled,  at  least  for  any  claim  that  could 
justly  be  interposed  by  the  French,  to  the  sovereignty 
over  the  country  of  the  five  nations. 

Brigadier  Hunter  was  disappointed  in  his  expec- 
tations upon  the  late  dissolution;  for  though  the 
elections  were  very  hot,  and  several  new  members 
came  in,  yet  the  majority  were  in  the  interest  of  the 
late  assembly,  and  on  the  27th  of  May,  1713,  chose 
Mr.  Nicoll  into  the  chair.  The  governor  spoke 
to  them  with  great  plainness,  informing  them  that 
it  would  be  in  vain  to  endeavour  to  lodge  the  money 
allotted  for  the  support  of  government  in  any  other 
than  the  hands  of  the  queen's  officers.  "  Neverthe- 
less (says  he)  if  you  are  so  resolved,  you  may  put 
the  country  to  the  expense  of  a  treasurer,  f(5r  tho 
custody  of  money  raised  for  extraordinary  uses." 
He  added,  that  he  was  resolved  to  pass  no  law,  till 
provision  was  made  for  the  government.  The  mem- 
bers were  therefore  reduced  to  the  dilemma  of  pass- 
ing a  bill  for  that  purpose,  or  breaking  up  immedi- 
ately. They  chose  the  former,  and  the  governor 
gave  his  assent  to  that,  and  an  excise  bill  on  strong 
liquors,  producing  to  the  treasury  about  1,000/. 
per  annum.  After jf short  recess,  several  other  laws 
were  enacted  in  the  autumn.  But  the  debts  of  the 
government  still  remained  unnoticed,  till  the  summer 
of  the  year  1714.  A  long  session  was  then  almost 
entirely  devoted  to  that  single  affair.  Incredible 
were  the  numbers  of  the  public  creditors.  New  de- 
mands were  every  day  made;  amounting  to  near 
28,000/.  To  pay  this  prodigious  sum,  recourse  was 
had  to  the  circulation  of  bills  of  credit  to  that  value. 
These  were  lodged  in  the  hands  of  the  province 
treasurer,  and  issued  by  him  only,  according  to  the 
directions  of  the  act. 

The  news  of  the  queen's  death  arriving  in  the 
ensuing  autumn,  a  dissolution  ensued;  and  a  new 
house  met  in  May,  1715,  which  continued  only 
to  the  21st  of  July.  For  the  governor  being  now 
determined  to  subdue  those  whom  he  could  not  al- 
lure, again  dissolved  the  assembly.  He  succeeded 
in  his  design ;  for  though  Mr.  Nicoll  was  re-elected 
into  the  chair  on  the  9th  of  June,  1716,  yet  we 
plainly  perceive,  by  the  harmony  introduced  be- 
tween the  several  branches  of  the  legislature,  that 
the  majority  of  the  house  were  now  in  the  interest 
of  the  governor. 

An  incontestible  evidence  of  their  good  under- 
standing appeared  at  the  session  in  autumn,  1717 
when  the  governor  informed  them  of  a  mcmoria. 
which  had  been  sent  home,  reflecting  upon  his  ad- 
ministration. The  house  immediately  voted  an  ad- 
dress to  him,  which  was  conceived  in  terms  of  the 
utmost  respect,  testifying  their  abhorrence  of  the 
memorial,  as  a  false  and  malicious  libel.  It  was 

3H  2 


548 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


supposed  to  be  written  by  Mulford,  a  representative 
for  Suffolk  county,  who  always  opposed  the  mea- 
sures that  were  taken  to  preserve  the  friendship  of 
the  five  nations,  and  foolishly  projected  a  scheme 
to  cut  them  off.  It  was  printed  in  England,  and 
delivered  to  the  members  at  the  door  of  the  house 
of  commons,  but  never  had  the  author's  intended 
effect. 

It  was  at  this  meeting  the  council,  on  the  31st  of 
October,  sent  a  message  by  Mr.  Alexander,  then 
deputy  secretary  to  the  house,  desiring  them  "  to 
appoint  proper  persons,  for  running  the  division 
line  between  this  colony  and  the  province  of  New 
Jersey,  his  excellency  being  assured  the  legislature 
of  the  province  of  New  Jersey  will  bear  half  the  ex- 
pense thereof."  The  assembly  had  a  bill  before 
them  at  that  time,  which  afterwards  passed  into  a 
law,  for  the  payment  of  the  remaining  debts  of  the 
government,  amounting  to  many  thousand  pounds  ; 
in  which,  after  a  recital  of  the  general  reasons  for 
ascertaining  the  limits  between  New  York  and  New 
Jersey  on  the  one  side,  and  Connecticut  on  the 
other,  a  clause  was  added  to  defray  the  expense  of 
those  services.  Seven  hundred  and  fifty  ounces  of 
plate  were  enacted  "  to  be  issued  by  warrant,  under 
the  hand  and  seal  of  the  governor  of  this  province 
for  the  time  being,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  con- 
sent of  his  majesty's  council,  in  such  parts  and  por- 
tions as  shall  be  requisite  for  that  service,  when  the 
survey,  ascertaining,  and  running  the  said  line, 
limit,  and  boundary,  shall  be  begun  and  carried  on 
by  the  mutual  consent  and  agreement  of  his  excel- 
lency and  council  of  this  province,  and  the  proprie- 
tors of  the  soil  of  the  said  province  of  New  Jersey." 
According  to  this  law,  the  line  "  agreed  on  by  the 
surveyors  and  commissioners  of  each  colony  was  to 
be  conclusive."  Another  sum  was  also  provided  by 
the  same  clause,  for  running  the  line  between  New 
York  and  Connecticut;  and  in  the  year  1719,  an 
act  was  passed  for  the  settlement  of  that  limit. 

Whether  it  was  because  Mr.  Nicoll  was  disgusted 
with  the  governor's  prevailing  interest  in  the  house, 
or  owing  to  his  infirm  state  of  health,  that  he  desired,  by 
a  letter  to  the  general  assembly,  on  the  18th  of  May, 
1718,  to  be  discharged  from  the  speaker's  place,  is 
uncertain.  His  request  was  readily  granted,  and 
Robert  Livingston,  Esq.,  chosen  in  his  stead.  The 
concord  between  the  governor  and  this  assembly 
was  now  wound  up  to  its  highest  pitch,  as  is  evi- 
denced by  his  last  speech  to  the  house  on  the  24th 
of  June,  1719,  and  their  address  in  answer  to  it. 

"  Gentlemen,  I  have  now  sent  for  you,  that  you 
may  be  witness  to  my  assent  to  the  acts  passed 
by  the  general  assembly  in  this  session.  I  hope 
that  what  remains  unfinished  may  be  perfected  by 
to-morrow,  when  I  intend  to  put  a  close  to  this  session. 

"  I  take  this  opportunity  also  to  acquaint  you, 
that  my  late  uncertain  state  of  health,  the  care  of 
my  little  family,  and  my  private  affairs,  on  the  other 
side,  have  at  last  determined  me  to  make  use  of 
that  license  of  absence,  which  has  been  some  time 
ago  so  graciously  granted  me ;  but  with  a  firm  re- 
solution to  return  to  you  again,  if  it  is  his  majesty's 
pleasure  that  I  should  do  so;  but  if  that  proves 
otherwise,  I  assure  you  that  whilst  I  live  I  shall  be 
watchful  and  industrious  to  promote  the  interest 
and  welfare  of  this  country,  of  which  I  think  I  am 
under  the  strongest  obligations  for  the  future  to  ac- 
count myself  a  countryman. 

"  I  look  with  pleasure  on  the  present  quiet  and 
flourishing  state  of  the  people  here,  whilst  I  reflect 
on  that  in  which  I  found  them  at  my  arrival.  As 


the  very  name  of  party  or  faction  seems  to  be  for- 
gotten, may  it  for  ever  lie  buried  in  oblivion,  and 
no  strife  ever  happen  amongst  you,  but  that  laudable 
emulation,  who  shall  approve  himself  the  most  zea- 
lous servant  and  most  dutiful  subject  of  the  best  of 
princes,  and  most  useful  member  of  a  well  estab- 
lished and  flourishing  community,  of  which  you, 
gentlemen,  have  given  a  happy  example,  which  I 
hope  will  be  followed  by  future  assemblies.  I  men- 
tion it  to  your  honour,  and  without  ingratitude  and 
breach  of  duty  I  could  do  no  less." 

Colonel  Morris  and  the  new  speaker  were  the 
authors  of  the  answer  to  this  speech,  though  it  was 
signed  by  all  the  members. 

"Sir,  when  we  reflect  upon  your  past  conduct, 
your  just,  mild,  and  tender  administration,  it 
heightens  the  concern  we  have  for  your  departure, 
and  makes  our  grief  such  as  words  cannot  truly  ex- 
press. You  have  governed  well  and  wisely,  like  a 
prudent  magistrate — like  an  affectionate  parent;  and 
wherever  you  go,  and  whatever  station  the  divine 
providence  shall  please  to  assign  you,  our  sincere 
desires  and  prayers  for  the  happiness  of  you  and 
yours,  shall  always  attend  you. 

"  We  have  seen  many  governors,  and  may  see 
more ;  and  as  none  of  those  who  had  the  honour  to 
serve  in  your  station,  were  ever  so  justly  fixed  in 
the  affectwros  of  the  governed,  so  those  to  come  will 
acquire  no  mean  reputation,  when  it  can  be  said  of 
them,  their  conduct  has  been  like  yours. 

"  We  thankfully  accept  the  honour  you  do  us,  in 
catting  yourself  our  countryman ;  give  us  leave  then 
to  desire,  that  you  will  not  forget  this  as  your  country, 
and  if  you  can,  make  haste  to  return  to  it. 

"  But  if  the  service  of  our  sovereign  will  not  ad- 
mit of  what  we  do  earnestly  desire,  and  his  com- 
mands deny  us  that  happiness  ;  permit  us  to  address 
you  as  our  friend,  and  give  us  your  assistance,  when 
we  are  oppressed  with  an  administration  the  reverse 
of  yours." 

Colonel  Hunter  departing  the  province,  the  chief 
command  devolved,  the  31st  of  July,  1719,  on  Peter 
Schuyler,  Esq.,  then  the  eldest  member  of  the  board 
of  council.  As  he  had  no  interview  with  the  assem- 
bly during  his  short  administration,  in  which  he 
behaved  with  great  moderation  and  integrity ;  there 
is  very  little  observable  in  his  time,  except  a  treaty 
at  Albany  with  the  Indians,  for  confirming  the  an- 
cient league ;  and  the  transactions  respecting  the 
partition  line  between  New  York  and  New  Jersey ; 
concerning  the  latter  of  which  the  following  is  a 
summary. 

The  two  provinces  were  originally  included  in 
the  grant  of  King  Charles  to  the  Duke  of  York.  New 
Jersey  was  afterwards  conveyed  by  the  duke  to  Lord 
Berkley  and  Sir  George  Carteret.  This  again,  by 
a  deed  of  partition,  was  divided  into  East  and  West. 
Jersey,  the  former  being  released  to  Sir  George 
Carteret,  and  the  latter  to  the  assigns  of  Lord  Berk- 
ley. The  line  of  division  extended  from  Little  Egg 
Harbour  to  the  North  Partition  Point  on  Delaware 
river,  and  thus  both  those  tracts  became  concerned 
in  the  limits  of  the  province  of  New  York.  The 
original  rights  of  Lord  Berkley  and  Sir  George 
Carteret  were  vested  in  two  different  sets,  consist- 
ing each  of  a  great  number  of  persons,  known  by 
the  general  name  of  the  proprietors  of  East  and 
West  Jersey,  who,  though  they  surrendered  the 
powers  of  government  to  Queen  Anne,  in  the  year 
1702,  still  retained  their  property  in  the  soil.  These 
were  the  persons  interested  against  the  claim  of  New 
York.  It  is  agreed  on  all  sides,  that  the  deed  to 


UNITED  STATES. 


549 


New  Jersey  was  to  be  first  satisfied  out  of  that  great 
tract  granted  to  the  duke,  and  that  the  remainder 
was  the  right  of  New  York.  The  proprietors  in- 
sisted upon  extending  their  northern  limits  to  a  line 
drawn  from  the  latitude  of  41°  40'  on  Delaware,  to 
the  latitude  of  41°  on  Hudson's  river;  and  alleged 
that  before  the  year  1671,  the  latitude  of  41°  was 
reputed  to  be  fourteen  miles  to  the  northward  of 
Tappan  Creek,  part  of  those  lands  having  been  settled 
under  New  Jersey  till  1684.  They  farther  con- 
tended, that  in  1684  or  1685,  Dongan  and  Lawrie 
(the  former  governor  of  New  York,  and  the  latter 
of 'New  Jersey)  with  their  respective  councils  agreed, 
that  the  latitude  on  Hudson's  river  was  at  the  mouth 
of  Tappan  Creek,  and  that  a  line  from  thence  to  the 
latitude  of  41°  46'  on  Delaware  should  be  the 
boundary  line.  In  1686,  Robinson,  Wells,  and 
Keith,  surveyors  of  the  three  several  provinces, 
took  two  observations,  and  found  the  latitude  of  41° 
to  be  1'  and  25"  to  the  northward  of  the  Yonker's 
mills,  which  is  four  miles  and  forty-five  chains  to 
the  southward  of  the  mouth  of  Tappan  Creek.  But 
against  these  observations  the  proprietors  offered 
sundry  objections.  It  was  not  pretended  by  any  of 
the  litigants,  that  a  line  according  to  the  station 
settled  by  Dongan  and  Lawrie  was  actually  run ; 
so  that  the  limits  of  these  contending  provinces 
must  long  have  existed  in  the  uncertain  conjectures 
of  the  inhabitants  of  both;  and  yet  the  inconve- 
niences of  this  unsettled  state,  through  the  infancy 
of  the  country,  were  very  inconsiderable.  In  the 
year  1701,  an  act  passed  in  New  York  relating  to 
elections,  which  annexed  Wagachemeck,  and  great 
and  little  Minisirik,  certain  settlements  near  Dela- 
ware, to  Ulster  county.  The  intent  of  this  law  was 
to  quiet  disputes  before  subsisting  between  the  in- 
habitants of  those  places,  whose  votes  were  required 
both  in  Orange  and  Ulster.  The  natural  conclusion 
from  hence  is,  that  the  legislature  of  New  York 
then  deemed  those  plantations  not  included  within 
the  New  Jersey  grant. 

Such  was  the  state  of  this  affair  till  the  year  1717, 
when  provision  was  made  by  New  York  for  running 
the  line.  The  same  being  done  in  New  Jersey  the 
succeeding  year,  commissions  for  that  purpose  under 
the  great  seals  of  the  respective  colonies,  were  issued 
in  May,  1719.  The  commissioners,  by  indenture 
dated  the  26th  of  July,  fixed  the  North  Station 
Point  on  the  northernmost  branch  of  Delaware, 
called  the  Fish  Kill;  and  from  thence  a  random 
line  was  run  to  Hudson's  river,  terminating  about 
five  miles  to  the  northward  of  the  mouth  of  Tappan 
Creek.  In  August,  the  surveyors  of  East  Jersey 
met  for  fixing  the  station  on  Hudson's  river.  All 
the  commissioners  not  attending  through  sickness, 
nothing  further  was  done.  What  had  already  been 
transacted,  however,  gave  a  general  alarm  to  many 
persons  interested  in  several  patents  under  New 
York,  who  before  imagined  their  rights  extended  to 
the  southward  of  the  random  line.  The  New  York 
surveyor  afterwards  declined  proceeding  in  the  work, 
complaining  of  faults  in  the  instrument  which  had 
been  used  in  fixing  the  North  Station  on  Delaware. 
The  proprietors,  on  the  other  hand,  thought  they 
answered  his  objections,  and  the  matter  rested  with- 
out much  contention  till  the  year  1740.  Frequent 
quarrels  multiplying  after  that  period,  relating  to 
the  rights  of  soil  and  jurisdiction  southward  of  the 
line  in  1719,  a  probationary  act  was  passed  in  New 
Jersey,  in  February,  1748,  for  running  the  line  ex- 
parte,  if  the  province  of  New  York  refused  to  join 
in  the  work.  The  New  York  assembly  soon  after 


directed  their  agent  to  oppose  the  king's  confirma- 
tion of  that  act,  and  it  was  accordingly  dropped, 
agreeably  to  the  advice  of  the  lords  of  trade,  whose 
report  of  the  18th  of  July,  1753,  on  a  matter  of  so 
much  importance,  it  is  thought  right  here  to  insert. 

"To  the  king's  most  excellent  majesty. 

"  May  it  please  your  majesty, — We  have  lately 
had  under  our  consideration,  an  act  passed  in  your 
majesty's  province  of  New  Jersey  in  1747-8,  entitled 
An  act  for  running  and  ascertaining  the  line  of  par- 
tition and  division  betwixt  this  province  of  New 
Jersey,  and  the  province  of  New  York. 

"  And  having  been  attended  by  Mr.  Paris,  so- 
licitor in  behalf  of  the  proprietors  of  the  eastern 
division  of  New  Jersey,  with  Mr.  Hume  Campbell 
and  Mr.  Henley  his  counsel  in  support  of  the  said 
act ;  and  by  Mr.  Charles,  agent  for  the  province  of 
New  York,  with  Mr.  Forrester  and  Mr  Pratt  his 
counsel  against  the  said  act,  and  heard  what  each 
party  had  to  offer  thereupon;  we  beg  leave  humbly 
to  represent  to  your  majesty,  that  the  considerations 
which  arise  upon  this  act  are  of  two  sorts,  viz.,  such 
as  relate  to  the  principles  upon  which  it  is  founded, 
and  such  as  relate  to  the  transactions  and  circura 
stances  which  accompany  it. 

"  As  to  the  first,  it  is  an  act  of  the  province  of 
New  Jersey  interested  in  the  determination  of  the 
limits,  and  in  the  consequential  advantages  to  arise 
from  it. 

"  The  province  of  New  Jersey,  in  its  distinct  and 
separate  capacity,  can  neither  make  nor  establish 
boundaries :  it  can  as  little  prescribe  regulations  for 
deciding  differences  between  itself  and  other  parties 
concerned  in  interest. 

"The  established  limits  of  its  jurisdiction  and 
territory  are  such  as  the  grants  under  which  it 
claims  have  assigned.  If  those  grants  are  doubtful, 
and  differences  arise  upon  the  constructions,  or 
upon  the  matters  of  them,  we  humbly  apprehend 
that  there  are  but  two  methods  of  deciding  them ; 
either  by  the  concurrence  of  all  parties  concerned 
in  interest,  or  by  the  regular  and  legal  forms  of  ju- 
dicial proceedings;  and  it  appears  to  us,  that  the 
method  of  proceeding  must  be  derived  from  the  im- 
mediate authority  of  the  crown  itself,  signified  by 
a  commission  from  your  majesty  under  the  great 
seal ;  the  commission  of  subordinate  officers  and  of 
derivative  powers  being  neither  competent  nor  ade- 
quate to  such  purposes;  to  judge  otherwise  would 
be,  as  we  humbly  conceive,  to  set  up  ex-parte  de- 
terminations and  incompetent  jurisdictions  in  the 
place  of  justice  and  legal  authority. 

"  If  the  act  of  New  Jersey  cannot  conclude  other 
parties,  it  cannot  be  effectual  to  the  ends  proposed ; 
and  that  it  would  not  be  effectual  to  form  an  abso- 
lute decision  in  this  case,  the  legislature  of  that 
province  seems  sensible,  whilst  it  endeavours  to 
leave  to  your  majesty's  determination  the  decision 
of  one  point  relative  to  this  matter,  and  of  consider- 
able importance  to  it ;  which  power  your  majesty 
cannot  derive  from  them,  without  their  having  the 
power  to  establish  the  thing  itself,  without  the  assist- 
ance of  your  majesty. 

"  As  we  are  of  opinion,  that  the  present  act,  with- 
out the  concurrence  of  other  parties  concerned  in 
interest,  is  unwarrantable  and  ineffectual ;  we  shall 
in  the  next  place  consider  what  transactions  and 
proceedings  have  passed,  towards  obtaining  such 
concurrence. 

"The  parties  interested,  are  your  majesty  and  the 
two  provinces  of  New  York  and  New  Jersey.  Your 
majesty  is  interested  with  respect  to  your  sovereignty, 


550 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


seigneurie,  and  property;  and  the  said  provinces 
with  respect  to  their  government  and  jurisdiction. 

"  With  regard  to  the  transactions  on  the  part  of 
New  York,  we  beg  leave  to  observe,  that  whatever 
agreements  have  been  made  formerly  between  the 
two  provinces  for  settling  their  boundaries ;  what- 
ever acts  of  assembly  have  passed,  and  whatever 
commissions  have  been  issued  by  the  respective  go- 
vernors and  governments;  the  proceedings  under 
them  have  never  been  perfected,  the  work  remains 
unfinished,  and  the  disputes  between  the  two  pro- 
vinces subsist  with  as  much  contradiction  as  ever; 
but  there  is  a  circumstance  that  appears  to  us  to 
have  still  more  weight,  namely,  that  those  transac- 
tions were  never  properly  warranted  on  the  part  of 
the  crown :  the  crown  never  participated  in  them, 
and  therefore  cannot  be  bound  with  respect  to  its 
interests  by  proceedings  so  authorised. 

"  The  interest  which  your  majesty  has  in  the  de- 
termination of  this  boundary,  may  be  considered  in 
three  lights :  either  as  interests  of  sovereignty,  re- 
specting mere  government ;  of  seigneurie,  which  re- 
spect escheats,  and  quit-rents;  or  of  property,  as  rela- 
tive to  the  soil  itself;  which  last  interest  takes  place 
in  such  cases,  where  either  your  majesty  has  never 
made  any  grants  of  the  soil,  or  where  such  grants 
have,  by  escheats,  reverted  to  your  majesty. 

"  With  regard  to  the  first  of  these  interests,  viz. 
that  of  sovereignty,  it  has  been  alleged  to  us  in 
support  of  the  act,  that  it  is  not  materially  affected 
by  the  question,  as  both  provinces  are  under  your 
majesty's  immediate  direction  and  government;  but 
they  stand  in  a  very  different  light  with  respect  to 
your  majesty's  interest  in  the  quit-rents  and  escheats ; 
in  both  which  articles  the  situation  of  the  two  pro- 
vinces appears  to  us  to  make  a  very  material  altera- 
tion ;  for  although  the  province  of  New  Jersey  is 
not  under  regulations  of  propriety  or  charter  with 
respect  to  its  government,  yet  it  is  a  proprietary 
province  with  respect  to  the  grant  and  tenure  of  its 
territory ;  and  consequently,  as  New  York  is  not  in 
that  predicament,  the  determination  of  the  boundary 
in  prejudice  to  that  province,  will  affect  your  ma- 
jesty's interest  with  respect  to  the  tenure  of  such 
lands  as  are  concerned  in  this  question;  it  being 
evident,  that  whatever  districts  are  supposed  to  be 
included  in  the  limits  of  New  Jersey,  will  immedi- 
ately pass  to  the  proprietors  of  that  province,  and 
be  held  of  them,  by  which  means  your  majesty 
would  be  deprived  of  your  escheats,  and  the  quit-rents 
would  pass  into  other  hands, 

"  To  obviate  this  objection,  it  has  been  alleged, 
that  the  crown  has  already  made  absolute  grants  of 
the  whole  territory  that  can  possibly  come  in  ques- 
tion under  the  denomination  of  this  boundary,  and 
reserved  only  trifling  and  inconsiderable  quit-rents 
on  those  grants.  But  this  argument  does  not  seem 
to  us  to  be  conclusive,  since  it  admits  an  interest  in 
your  majesty,  the  greatness  or  smallncss  of  which  is 
merely  accidental;  and  therefore  does  not  affect  the 
essence  of  the  question :  and  we  beg  leave  to  ob- 
serve, that  in  the  case  of  exorbitant  grants  with  in- 
considerable quit-rents;  and  where  consequently  it 
may  reasonably  be  supposed,  that  the  crown  has 
been  deceived  in  such  grants  by  its  officers ;  your 
majesty's  contingent  right  of  property  in  virtue  of 
your  seigneurie,  seems  rather  to  be  enlarged  than 
diminished. 

"  This  being  the  case,  it  appears  to  us,  that  Go- 
vernor Hunter  ought  not  to  have  issued  his  commis- 
sion for  running  the  line  above-mentioned,  without 
having  previously  received  the  royal  direction  and 


instruction  for  that  purpose  ;  and  that  a  commission 
issued  without  such  authority  can  be  considered, 
with  respect  to  the  interests  of  the  crown,  in  no 
other  light  than  as  a  mere  nullity  -.  and  even  with 
respect  to  New  York,  we  observe,  that  the  said 
commission  is  questionable,  as  it  does  not  follow  the 
directions  of  the  above-mentioned  act,  passed  in  1717, 
which  declares,  that  the  commission  to  be  issued, 
shall  be  granted  under  the  joint  authority  of  the 
governor  and  council  of  that  province, 

"  But  it  has  been  further  urged,  that  the  crown 
has  since  confirmed  these  transactions,  either  by 
previous  declarations  or  by  subsequent  acquiescence, 
and  consequently  participated  in  them,  so  far  as  to 
conclude  itself:  we  shall  therefore,  in  the  next 
place,  beg  leave  to  consider  the  circumstances  urged 
for  this  purpose. 

"  It  has  been  alleged,  that  the  crown,  by  giving 
consent  to  the  aforesaid  act,  passed  in  New  York 
in  1717,  for  paying  and  discharging  several  debts 
due  from  that  colony,  &c.,  concluded  and  bound 
itself,  with  respect  to  the  subsequent  proceedings 
had  under  the  commission  issued  by  Governor 
Hunter ;  but  the  view  and  purport  of  that  act  appears 
to  us  so  entire,  and  so  distinctly  formed  for  the  pur- 
pose of  raising  money  and  establishing  funds;  so 
various  and  so  distinct  from  any  consideration  of  the 
disputes  subsisting  in  the  two  provinces,  with  respect 
to  the  boundaries;  that  we  cannot  conceive  a  single 
clause  in  so  long  and  so  intricate  an  act,  can  be  a 
sufficient  foundation  to  warrant  the  proceedings  of 
Governor  Hunter  subsequent  to  it,  without  a  special 
authority  from  the  crown  for  that  purpose;  and 
there  is  the  more  reason  to  be  of  this  opinion,  as 
the  crown,  by  giving  its  assent  to  that  act,  can  be 
construed  to  have  assented  only  to  the  levying  money 
for  a  future  purpose ;  which  purpose  could  not  be 
effected  by  any  commission  but  from  itself;  and 
therefore  can  never  be  supposed  to  have,  thereby, 
approved  a  commission  from  another  authority, 
which  was  at  that  time  already  issued,  and  carrying" 
into  execution,  previous  to  such  assent. 

"  We  further  beg  leave  humbly  to  represent  to 
your  majesty,  that  the  line  of  partition  and  division 
between  your  majesty's  province  of  New  York  and 
colony  of  Connecticut,  having  been  run  and  ascer- 
tained, pursuant  to  the  directions  of  an  act  passed 
at  New  York  for  that  purpose,  in  the  year  1719, 
and  confirmed  by  his  late  majesty  in  1723;  the 
transactions  between  the  said  province  and  colony, 
upon  that  occasion,  have  been  alleged  to  be  similar 
to,  and  urged  as,  a  precedent,  and  even  as  an  ap- 
probation, of  the  matter  now  in  question :  but  we 
are  humbly  of  opinion,  that  the  two  cases  are  mate- 
rially, and  essentially,  different.  The  act  passed 
in  New  York,  in  1719,  for  running  and  ascertain- 
ing the  lines  of  partition  and  division  between  that 
colony  and  the  colony  of  Connecticut,  recites,  that 
in  the  year  1683,  the  governor  and  council  of  New 
York,  and  the  governor  and  commissioners  of  Con- 
necticut, did,  in  council,  conclude  an  agreement 
concerning  the  boundaries  of  the  two  provinces; 
that,  in  consequence  of  this  agreement,  commission- 
ers and  surveyors  were  appointed  on  the  part  of 
each  government,  who  did  actually  agree,  deter- 
mine, and  ascertain,  the  lines  of  partition ;  marked 
out  a  certain  part  of  them,  and  fixed  the  point  from 
whence  the  remaining  pait  should  be  run  :  that  the 
several  things  agreed  on  and  done  by  the  said  com- 
missioners, were  ratified  by  the  respective  governors ; 
entered  on  record  in  each  colony,  in  March,  1700; 
approved  and  confirmed  by  order  of  King  William 


UNITED  STATES, 


551 


the  Third,  in  his  privy  council;  and  by  his  said 
majesty's  letter  to  his  governor  of  New  York. 
From  this  recital  it  appears  to  us,  that  those  trans- 
actions were  not  only  carried  on  with  the  participa- 
tion, but  confirmed  by  the  express  act  and  authority 
of  the  crown  ;  and  that  confirmation  made  the  found- 
ation of  the  act  passed,  by  New  York,  for  settling 
the  boundaries  between  the  two  provinces ;  of  all 
which  authority  and  foundation  the  act,  we  now 
lay  before  your  majesty,  appears  to  us  to  be  entirely 
destitute. 

"  Upon  the  whole,  as  it  appears  to  us,  that  the 
act  in  question  cannot  be  effectual  to  the  ends  pro- 
posed; that  your  majesty's  interest  may  be  mate- 
rially affected  by  it,  and  that  the  proceedings  on 
which  it  is  founded  were  not  warranted  in  the  first 
instance  by  the  proper  authority,  but  carried  on 
without  the  participation  of  the  crown :  we  cannot 
think  it  adviseable  to  lay  this  act  before  your  ma- 
jesty, as  fit  to  receive  your  royal  approbation. 
"  Which  is  most  humbly  submitted, 

"  Dunk  Halifax, 
"  J.  Grenville, 

Whitehall,  "  James  Oswald, 

July  18,  1753.  "  Andrew  Stone." 

From  the  year  1720  to  the  commencement  of  the  ad- 
ministration of  Colonel  Cosby. 

William  Burnet,  Esq.  took  upon  him  the  govern- 
ment of  this  province,  qn  the  17th  of  September, 
1720.  The  council  named  in  his  instructions  were, 
Colonel  Schuyler,  Colonel  Depeyster,  Captain  Wal- 
ter, Colonel  Beckman,  Mr.  Van  Darn,  Colonel 
Keathcote,  Mr.  Barbaric',  Mr.  Philipse,  Mr.  Byerly, 
Mr.  Clarke,  Dr.  Johnston,  Mr.  Harrison. 

Mr.  Burnet,  as  has  been  already  observed,  in  the 
account  of  his  government  of  Massachusetts,  was  the 
son  of  the  famous  Bishop  Burnet.  His  fortune  was 
very  inconsiderable,  for  he  suffered  much  in  the 
South  Sea  scheme.  While  in  England,  he  had  the 
office  of  comptroller  of  the  customs  at  London,  which 
he  resigned  to  Brigadier  Hunter,  as  the  latter,  in 
his  favour,  did  the  government  of  this  and  the  co- 
lony of  New  Jersey.  Mr.  Burnet's  acquaintance 
with  that  gentleman  gave  him  an  opportunity  to 
obtain  good  intelligence  both  of  persons  and  mat- 
ters in  the  colony.  The  brigadier  recommended  all 
his  old  friends  to  the  favour  of  his  successor,  and  he 
made  few  changes  amongst  them.  Colonel  Schuyler 
and  Mr.  Philipse  were,  indeed,  removed  from  the 
council  board  by  his  representations,  for  their  op- 
posing, in  council,  the  continuance  of  the  assembly, 
after  his  arrival.  Mr.  Morris,  the  chief  justice,  was 
his  principal  confidant.  Dr.  Golden  and  Mr.  Alex- 
ander, two  Scotch  gentlemen,  had  the  next  place  in 
his  esteem.  They  were  both  men  of  learning,  good 
morals,  and  solid  parts.  The  former  was  well  ac- 
quai-nted  with  the  affairs  of  the  province,  and  parti- 
cularly those  which  concerned  the  French  in  Ca- 
nada and  the  Indjan  allies.  The  latter  was  bred  to 
the  law,  and  though  no  speaker,  at  the  head  of  his 
profession  for  sagacity  and  penetration ;  and  in  ap- 
plication to  business  no  man  could  surpass  him. 
Nor  was  he  unacquainted  with  the  affairs  of  the 
public,  having  served  in  the  secretary's  office,  the 
best  school  in  the  province  for  instruction  in  mat- 
ters of  government;  because  the  secretary  enjoyed 
a  plurality  of  offices,  conversant  with  all  the  busi- 
ness of  the  colony.  Both  those  gentlemen  were,  by 
Mr.  Burnet,  soon  raised  to  the  council-board,  as 
were  also  Mr.  Morris,  jun.,  Mr.  Van  Horn,  whose 
daughter  he  married,  and  Mr.  Kennedy,  who  suc- 


ceeded Byerly,  both  at  the  council-board  and  in 
the  office  of  receiver-general. 

Of  all  the  governors,  none  had  such  extensive  and 
just  views  of  our  Indian  affairs,  and  the  dangerous 
neighbourhood  of  the  French,  as  Governor  Burnet, 
in  which  Mr.  Livingston  was  his  principal  assistant. 
His  attention  to  these  matters  appeared  at  the  very 
commencement  of  his  administration  ;  for  in  his  first 
speech  to  the  assembly,  the  autumn  after  his  arrival, 
he  laboured  to  implant  the  same  sentiments  in  the 
breasts  of  the  members;  endeavouring  to  alarm 
their  fears,  by  the  daily  advances  of  the  French, 
their  possessing  the  main  passes,  seducing  the  In- 
dian allies,  and  increasing  their  new  settlements  in 
Louisiana. 

Chief  justice  Morris,  whose  influence  was  very 
great  in  the  house,  drew  the  address  in  answer  to 
the  governor's  speech,  which  contained  the  follow- 
ing passage,  manifesting  the  confidence  they  re- 
posed in  him :  "  We  believe  that  the  son  of  that 
worthy  prelate,  so  eminently  instrumental  under  our 
glorious  monarch,  William  the  Third,  in  delivering 
us  from  arbitrary  power,  and  its  concomitants,  po- 
pery, superstition,  and  slavery;  has  been  educated 
in,  and  possesses,  those  principles  that  so  justly  re- 
commended his  father  to  the  council  and  confidence 
of  protestant  princes;  and- succeeds  our  former  go- 
vernor, not  only  in  power,  but  inclination,  to  do  us 
good." 

From  an  assembly,  impressed  with  such  favoura- 
ble sentiments,  his  excellency  had  the  highest  reason 
to  expect  a  submissive  compliance  with  every  thing 
recommended  to  their  notice.  The  public  business 
proceeded  without  suspicion  or  jealousy,  and  nothing 
intervened  to  disturb  the  tranquillity  of  the  political 
state.  Among  the  most  remarkable  acts  passed  this 
session,  we  may  reckon  that,  for  a  five  years'  sup- 
port; another  for  laying  a  duty  of  two  per  cent, 
prime  cost  on  the  importation  of  European  goods, 
which  was  soon  after  repealed  by  the  king;  and  a 
third,  for  prohibiting  the  sale  of  Indian  goods  to 
the  French.  The  last  of  these  was  a  favourite  act 
of  the  governor's,  and  though  a  law  very  advanta- 
geous to  the  province,  became  the  source  of  an  un- 
reasonable opposition  against  him,  which  continued 
through  his  whole  administration.  From  the  conclu- 
sion of  the  peace  of  Utrecht,  a  great  trade  was  carried 
on  between  Albany  and  Canada,  for  goods  saleable 
among  the  Indians.  The  chiefs  of  the  confederates 
wisely  foresaw  its  ill  consequences,  and  complained 
of  it  to  the  commissioners  of  Indian  affairs,  who 
wrote  to  Mr.  Hunter,  acquainting  him  of  their  dis- 
satisfaction. The  letter  was  laid  before  the  house, 
but  no  effectual  step  taken  to  prevent  the  mischief, 
till  the  passing  of  this  act,  which  subjected  the 
traders  to  a  forfeiture  of  the  effects  sold,  and  the 
penalty  of  100Z.  Mr.  Burnet's  scheme  was  to  draw 
the  Indian  trade  into  the  colony's  power;  to  ob- 
struct the  communication  of  the  French  with  the 
Indian  allies,  which  gave  them  frequent  opportuni- 
ties of  seducing  them  from  their  fidelity;  and  to  re- 
gain the  Caofhnuagas,  who  became  interested  in  their 
disaffection,  by  being  the  carriers  between  Albany 
and  Montreal.  Among  those  who  were  more  im- 
mediately prejudiced  by  this  new  regulation,  the 
importers  of  those  goods  from  Europe  were  the  chief; 
and  hence  the  spring  of  their  opposition  to  the  go- 
vernor. Frequent  reference  being  made  to  "  com- 
missioners of  Indian  affairs,"  it  is  necessary  to  de- 
scribe the  nature  of  their  office.  As  the  governors 
resided  at  New  York,  it  became  necessary  that  some 
persons  should  be  commissioned,  at  Albany,  to  re- 


55'J 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


ceive  intelligence  from  the  Indians,  and  treat  with 
them  upon  emergencies.,  which  gave  rise  to  the  office 
of  "  commissioners  of  Indian  affairs,"  who  in  gene- 
ral, transacted  all  such  matters  as  might  be  done  by 
the  governor.  They  received  no  salaries,  but  con- 
siderable sums  were  deposited  in  their  hands  for 
occasional  presents.  There  are  regular  minutes  of 
their  transactions  from  the  year  1675.  These  were 
in  separate  quires,  till  1751,  when  they  were  bound 
up  in  four  large  volumes,  in  folio.  And  in  them  all 
the  Indian  treaties  are  entered.  The  books  were 
kept  by  a  secretary,  commissioned  in  England. 
The  commandant  at  Oswego  was  generally  a  com- 
missioner. The  office  would  probably  have  been 
more  advantageous  if  the  commissioners  had  not 
been  traders,  than  which  nothing  is  more  ignoble  in 
the  judgment  of  the  Indians. 

All  possible  arts. were  used,  both  here  and  in 
England,  to  preserve  the  good  temper  of  the  assem- 
bly. Brigadier  Hunter  gave  the  ministry  such  fa- 
vourable accounts  of  the  members,  that  Colonel 
Schuyler,  during  his  presidentship,  had  orders  from 
Mr.  Secretary  Craggs,  neither  to  dissolve  them  him- 
self, nor  permit  them  to  be  dissolved ;  and  at  the 
spring  session,  in  the  year  1721,  Mr.  Burnet  in- 
formed them,  that  his  continuance  of  them  was 
highly  approved  at  home.  Horace  Walpole,  the 
auditor-general,  who  had  appointed  Mr.  Clarke  for 
his  deputy,  thought  this  a  favourable  conjuncture 
for  procuring  five  per  cent,  out  of  the  treasury.  But 
the  house  were  averse  to  his  application,  and  on  the 
2d  of  June,  Abraham  Depeyster,  jun.,  was  appointed 
treasurer  by  the  speaker's  warrant,  with  the  consent 
of  the  governor,  in  the  room  of  his  father,  who  was 
infirm  ;  upon  which  he  entered  into  a  recognizance 
of  5;000/.  to  the  king,  before  a  judge  of  the  supreme 
court,  for  the  faithful  execution  of  his  trust,  which 
was  lodged  in  the  secretary's  office.  The  house,  at 
the  same  time,  in  an  address,  declared  their  willing- 
ness that  the  treasurer  should  account ;  but  utterly 
refused  to  admit  of  any  draughts  upon  the  treasury 
for  the  auditor-general,  who  was  constrained  to  de'- 
pend  entirely  upon  the  revenue,  out  of  which  he  re- 
ceived about  200/.  per  annum. 

Mr  Burnet  being  well  acquainted  with  the  geo- 
graphy of  the  country,  wisely  concluded,  that  it  was 
to  the  last  degree  necessary  to  get  the  command  of 
the  great  lake  Ontario,  as  well  for  the  benefit  of  the 
trade,  and  the  security  of  the  friendship  of  the  five 
nations,  as  to  frustrate  the  French  designs,  of  con- 
fining the  English  colonies  to  narrow  limits  along 
the  sea  coast,  by  a  chain  of  forts  on  the  great  passes 
from  Canada  to  Louisiana.  Towards  the  subversion 
of  this  scheme,  he  began  the  erection  of  a  trading 
house  at  Oswego,  in  the  country  of  the  Sennecas,  in 
1722 ;  and  recommended  a  provision  for  the  resid- 
ence of  trusty  persons  among  them,  and  the  Onon- 
dagas,  which  last  possessed  the  centre  of  the  five 
cantons.  This  year  was  remarkable  for  a  congress 
of  several  governors  and  commissioners,  on  the  re- 
newal of  the  ancient  friendship  with  the  Indians  at 
Albany.  Mr.  Burnet  prevailed  upon  them  to  send 
a  message  to  threaten  the  Eastern  Indians  with  a 
war,  unless  they  concluded  a  peace  with  the  Eng- 
lish, who  were  very  much  harassed  by  their  frequent 
irruptions.  On  the  20th  of  May,  in  the  year  fol- 
lowing, the  confederates  were  augmented  by  their 
reception  of  above  eighty  Nicariagas,  besides  wo- 
men and  children,  as  they  had  been  formerly,  by 
the  addition  of  the  Tuscaroras.  The  country  of  the 
Nicariagas  was  on  the  north  side  of  Missilimakinack, 
but  the  Tuscaroras  possessed  a  tract  of  land  near 


the  sources  of  James's  river,  in  Virginia,  from 
whence  the  encroachments  of  the  English  induced 
them  to  remove,  and  settle  near  the  south-east  end 
of  the  Oneyda  lake. 

The  strict  union  subsisting  between  the  several 
branches  of  the  legislature,  gave  a  handle  to  Mr. 
Burnet's  enemies  to  excite  a  clamour  against  him. 
Jealousies  were  industriously  sown  in  the  breasts  of 
the  people.  The  continuance  of  an  assembly,  after 
the  accession  of  a  new  governor,  was  represented  as 
an  anti-constitutional  project ;  and  though  the  af- 
fairs of  the  public  were  conducted  with  wisdom  and 
spirit,  many  were  so  much  imposed  upon,  that  a 
rupture  between  the  governor  and  the  assembly  was 
thought  to  be  absolutely  necessary  for  the  weal  and 
safety  of  the  community.  But  this  was  not  the  only 
stratagem  of  those  who  were  dissatisfied  at  the  pro- 
hibition of  the  French  trade.  The  London  mer- 
chants were  induced  to  petition  the  king  for  an 
order  to  his  governor,  prohibiting  the  revival  of  tho 
act  made  against  it,  or  the  passing  any  new  law  of 
that  tendency.  The  petition  was  referred  to  the 
board  of  trade,  and  backed  before  their  lordships, 
with  suggestions  of  the  most  notorious  falsehoods. 
The  lords  of  trade  prudently  advised,  that  no  such 
directions  should  be  sent  to  Mr.  Burnet  till  he  had 
an  opportunity  of  answering  the  objections  against 
the  act.  They  were  accordingly  sent  over  to  him, 
and  he  laid  them  before  his  council.  Dr.  Coldeu 
and  Mr.  Alexander  exerted  themselves  in  a  me- 
morable report  in  answer  to  them,  which  drew  upon 
them  the  resentment  of  several  merchants  who  had 
first  excited  the  London  petition,  and  laid  the 
foundation  for  a  variance  between  their  families, 
which  manifested  itself  on  many  occasions.  As  this 
report  illustrates  the  state  of  the  colony  at  this  period, 
it  is  introduced. 

"  May  it  please  your  excellency, 

"  In  obedience  to  your  excellency's  commands, 
in  council,  the  29th  of  October,  referring  to  us  a 
petition  of  several  merchants  in  London,  presented 
to  the  king's  most  excellent  majesty,  against  re- 
newing an  act  passed  in  this  province,  entitled,  '  An 
'  act  for  encouragement  of  the  Indian  trade,  and 
'  rendering  it  more  effectual  to  the  inhabitants  of 
'  this  province,  and  for  prohibiting  the  selling  of 
'  Indian  goods  to  the  French.'  As  likewise  the  se- 
veral allegations  of  the  said  merchants  before  the 
right  honourable  the  lords  of  trade  and  plantations, 
we  beg  leave  to  make  the  following  remarks. 

"  In  order  to  make  our  observations  the  more 
distinct  and  clear,  we  shall  gather  together  the  se- 
veral assertions  of  the  said  merchants,  both  in  their 
petition,  and  delivered  verbally  before  the  lords  of 
trade,  as  to  the  situation  of  this  province,  with  re- 
spect to  the  French  and  Indian  nations ;  and  observe 
on  them,  in  the  first  place,  their  being  the  foundation 
on  which  all  their  other  allegations  are  grounded. 
Afterwards  we  shall  lay  before  your  excellency  what 
we  think  necessary  to  observe  on  the  other  parts  of 
the  said  petition,  in  the  order  they  are  in  the  peti- 
tion, or  in  the  report  of  the  lords  of  trade. 

"  In  their  geographical  accounts  they  say,  '  Be- 
'  sides  the  nations  of  Indians  that  are  in  the  English 
'  interest,  there  are  very  many  nations  of  Indians, 
4  who  are  at  present  in  the  interest  of  the  French, 
'  who  lie  between  New  York  and  the  nations  of 
'  Indians  in  the  English  interest.  The  French  and 
'  their  Indians  would  not  permit  the  English  In- 
'  dians  to  pass  over  by  their  forts.  The  said  act 
'  restrains  them  (the  five  nations)  from  a  free  com- 
'  merce  with  the  inhabitants  of  New  York. 


UNITED  STATES 


553 


"  '  The  five  Indian  nations  are  settled  upon  the 
'  banks  of  the  river  St.  Lawrence,  directly  opposite 
1  to  Quebec,  two  or  three  hundred  leagues  distant 
'  from  the  nearest  British  settlements  in  New  York. 

"  '  They  (the  five  nations  of  Indians)  were  two  or 

*  three  hundred  leagues  distant  from  Albany ;  and 

*  that  they  could  not  come  to  trade  with  the  Eng- 
'  lish,  but  by  going  down  the  river  St.  Lawrence, 
'  and  from  thence  through  a  lake  which  brought 

*  them  within  eighteen  leagues  of  Albany.' 

"  These  things  the  merchants  have  thought  it 
safe  for  them,  and  consistent  with  their  duty  to  his 
sacred  majesty,  to  say  in  his  majesty's  presence, 
and  to  repeat  them  afterwards  before  the  right  ho- 
nourable the  lords  of  trade,  though  nothing  can  be 
more  directly  contrary  to  the  truth.  For  there  are 
no  nations  of  Indians  between  New  York  and  the 
nations  of  Indians  in  the  English  interest,  who  are 
now  six  in  number,  by  the  addition  of  the  Tusca- 
roras.  The  Mohawks  (called  Annies  by  the  French), 
one  of  the  five  nations,  live  on  the  south  side  of  a 
branch  of  Hudson's  river,  (not  on  the  north  side  as 
they  are  placed  in  the  French  maps)  and  but  forty 
miles  directly  west  from  Albany,  and  within  the 
English  settlements;  some  of  the  English  farms, 
upon  the  same  river,  being  thirty  miles  further  west. 
The  Oneydas  (the  next  of  the  five  nations)  lie  like- 
wise west  from  Albany,  near  the  head  of  the  Mo- 
hawks river,  about  100  miles  from  Albany.  The 
Onondagas  lie  about  130  miles  west  from  Albany  ; 
and  the  Tuscaroras  live  partly  with  the  Onondagas. 
The  Cayugas  are  about  160  miles  from  Albany ;  and 
the  Sennecas  (the  furthest  of  all  these  nations)  are 
not  above  240  miles  from  Albany,  as  may  appear 
from  Mr.  D' Isle's  map  of  Louisiana,  who  lays  down 
the  five  nations  under  the  name  of  Iroquois ;  and 
goods  are  daily  carried  from  this  province,  to  the 
Sennecas,  as  well  as  to  those  nations  that  lie  nearer, 
by  water  all  the  way,  except  three  miles  (or  in  the 
dry  season  five  miles),  where  the  traders  carry  over 
land  between  the  Mohawks  river  and  the  Wood 
Creek,  which  runs  into  the  Oneydas  lake,  without 
going  near  either  St.  Lawrence  river,  or  any  of  the 
lakes  upon  which  the  French  pass,  which  are  en- 
tirely out  of  their  way. 

"The  nearest  French  forts  or  settlements  to  Al- 
bany, are  Chambly  and  Montreal,  both  of  them 
lying  about  north  and  by  east  from  Albany,  and 
are  near  200  miles  distant  from  it.  Quebec  lies 
about  380  miles  north-east  from  Albany.  So  far  is 
it  from  being  true,  that  the  five  nations  are  situated 
upon  the  banks  of  the  river  St.  Lawrence,  opposite 
to  Quebec,  that  Albany  lies  almost  directly  between 
Quebec  and  the  five  nations.  And  to  say  that  these 
Indians  cannot  come  to  trade  at  Albany,  but  by 
going  down  the  river  St.  Lawrence,  and  then  into 
a  lake  eighteen  leagues  from  Albany  (we  suppose 
they  mean  lake  Champlain)  passing  by  the  French 
forts,  is  to  the  same  purpose  as  if  they  should  say,  that 
one  cannot  go  from  London  to  Bristol,  but  by  way 
of  Edinburgh. 

"Before  we  go  on  to  observe  other  particulars, 
we  beg  leave  further  to  remark,  that  it  is  so  far  from 
being  true,  that  the  Indians  in  the  French  interest 
lie  between  New  York  and  our  five  nations  of  In- 
dians ;  that  some  of  our  nations  of  Indians  lie  be- 
tween the  Fench  and  the  Indians,  from  whence  the 
French  bring  the  far  greatest  quantity  of  their  furs ; 
for  the  Sennecas  (whom  the  French  call  Sonontouons) 
are  situated  between  lake  Erie  and  Cadaracqui  lake, 
(called  by  the  French  Ontario)  near  the  great  fall 
of  Niagara,  by  which  all  the  Indians  that  live  round 


lake  Erie,  round  the  lake  of  the  Hurons,  round  the 
lake  of  the  Illinois,  or  Michegan,  and  round  the 
great  upper  lake,  generally  pass  in  their  way  to 
Canada.  All  the  Indians  situated  upon  the  branches 
of  the  Mississippi,  must  likewise  pass  by  the  same 
place,  if  they  go  to  Canada.  And  all  of  them  like- 
wise, in  their  way  to  Canada,  pass  by  our  trading- 
place  upon  the  Cadaracqui  lake,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Onondaga  river.  The  nearest  and  safest  way  of 
carrying  goods  upon  the  Cadaracqui  lake,  towards 
Canada,  being  along  the  south  side  of  that  lake, 
(near  where  our  Indians  are  settled,  and  our  trade 
of  late'  is  fixed)  and  not  by  the  north  side  and  Ca- 
daracqui, or  Frontenac  fort,  where  the  French  are 
settled. 

"  Now  that  we  have  represented  to  your  excel- 
lency, that  not  one  word  of  the  geography  of  these 
merchants  is  true,  upon  which  all  their  reasoning  is 
founded;  it  might  seem  needless  to  trouble  your 
excellency  with  any  further  remarks,  were  it  not  to 
show  with  what  earnestness  they  are  promoting  the 
French  interest,  to  the  prejudice  of  all  his  majesty's 
colonies  in  North  America,  and  that  they  are  not 
ashamed  of  asserting  any  thing  for  that  end,  even 
in  the  royal  presence. 

"  First  they  say,  '  that  by  the  act  passed  in  this 
'  province,  entitled,  An  act.  for  the  encouragement 
'  of  the  Indian  trade,  &c.,  all  trade  whatsoever  is 
'  prohibited  in  the  strictest  manner,  and  under  the 
'  severest  penalties,  between  the  inhabitants  of  New 
'  York  government,  and  the  French  in  Canada.' 

"  This  is  not  true ;  for  only  carrying  goods  to 
the  French,  which  are  proper  for  the  Indian  trade, 
is  prohibited.  The  trade,  as  to  other  things,  is  left 
in  the  same  state  it  was  before  that  act  was  made, 
as  it  will  appear  to  any  person  that  shall  read  it ; 
and  there  are,  yearly,  large  quantities  of  other 
goods,  openly  carried  to  Canada,  without  any  hind- 
rance from  the  government  of  New  York.  What- 
ever may  be  said  of  the  severity  and  penalties  in 
that  act,  they  are  found  insufficient  to  deter  some 
from  carrying  goods  clandestinely  to  the  French ; 
and  the  legislature  of  this  province  are  convinced, 
that  no  penalties  can  be  too  severe  to  prevent  a 
trade,  which  puts  the  safety  of  all  his  majesty's  sub- 
jects of  North  America  in  the  greatest  danger. 

"  Their  next  assertion  is,  '  All  the  Indian  goods 
{  have  by  this  act  been  raised  25Z.  to  30Z.  per  cent.' 
This  is  the  only  allegation  in  the  whole  petition 
that  there  is  any  ground  for.  Nevertheless,  though 
the  common  channel  of  trade  cannot  be  altered 
without  some  detriment  to  it  in  the  beginning ;  we 
are  assured  from  the  custom-house  books,  that  there 
has  been  every  year,  since  the  passing  of  this  act, 
more  furs  exported  from  New  York,  than  in  the 
year  immediately  before  the  passing  of  this  act. 
It  is  not  probable  that  the  greatest  difference  be- 
tween the  exportation  of  any  year  before  this  act, 
and  any  year  since,  could  so  much  alter  the  price  of 
beaver,  as  it  is  found  to  be  this  last  year.  Beaver 
is  carried  to  Britain  from  other  parts  besides  New 
York,  and  it  is  certain  that  the  price  of  beaver  is 
not  so  much  altered  here  by  the  quantity  in  our 
market,  as  by  the  demand  for  it  in  Britain.  But  as 
we  cannot  be  so  well  informed  here,  what  occasions 
beaver  to  be  in  greater  demand  in  Britain,  we  must 
leave  that  to  be  enquired  after  in  England.  How- 
ever, we  are  fully  satisfied  that  it  will  be  found  to 
be  for  very  different  reasons  from  what  the  merchants 

"  The  merchants  go  on  and  say,  '  Whereas,  on 
'  the  other  hand,  this  branch  of  the  New  York  trade, 


554 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


'  by  the  discouragements  brought  upon  it  by  this 
'  act,  is  almost  wholly  engrossed  by  the  French,  who 
'  have  already  by  this  act  been  encouraged  to  send 

*  proper    European  goods  to  Canada,   to   carry  on 

*  this  trade,  so  that  should  this  act  be  continued,  the 
'  New  York  trade,  which  is  very  considerable,  must 
4  be  wholly  lost  to  us,  and  centre  in  the  French. 
'  Though  New  York  should  not  furnish  them,  the 

*  French  would  find  another  way  to   be   supplied 

*  therewith,  either  from  some  other  of  his  majesty's 

*  plantations,  or  it  might  be  directly  from  Europe. 
'  Many  of  the  goods,  which  the  Indians  want,  being 

*  as  easy  to  be  had  directly  from  France  or  Holland, 
'  as  from  Great  Britain.' 

"  This  is  easily  answered,  by  informing  your  ex- 
cellency, that  the  principal  of  the  goods  proper  for 
the  Indian  market,  are  only  of  the  manufactures  of 
Great  Britain,  or  of  the  British  plantations,  viz., 
strouds,  or  stroud-waters,  and  other  woollens,  and 
rum.  The  French  must  be  obliged  to  buy  all  their 
woollens  (the  strouds  especially)  in  England,  and 
thence  carry  them  to  France,  in  order  to  their  trans- 
portation to  Canada. 

"  The  voyage  to  Quebec,  through  the  bay  of  St. 
Lawrence,  is  well  known  to  be  the  most  dangerous 
of  any  in  the  world,  and  only  practicable  in  the 
summer  months.  The  French  have  no  commodities 
in  Canada,  by  reason  of  the  cold  and  barrenness  of 
the  soil,  proper  for  the  West  India  markets;  and 
therefore  have  no  rum  but  by  vessels  from  France, 
that  touch  at  their  islands  in  the  West  Indies.  New 
York  has,  by  reason  of  its  situation,  both  as  to  the 
sea  and  the  Indians,  every  way  the  advantage  of 
Canada.  The  New  York  vessels  make  always  two 
voyages  in  a  year  from  England,  one  in  summer, 
and  another  in  winter,  and  several  voyages  in  a  year 
to  the  West  Indies.  It  is  manifest,  therefore,  that 
it  is  not  in  the  power  of  the  French  to  import  any 
goods  near  so  cheap  to  Canada,  as  they  are  imported 
to  New  York. 

"  But  to  put  this  out  of  all  controversy,  we  need 
only  observe  to  your  excellency,  that  strouds  (with- 
out which  no  considerable  trade  can  be  carried  on 
with  the  Indians)  are  sold  at  Albany  for  101.  a 
piece ;  they  were  sold  at  Montreal,  before  this  act 
took  place,  at  13/.  2*.  6d.,  and  now  they  are  sold 
there  for  25£.  and  upwards;  which  is  an  evident 
proof,  that  the  French  have  not  in  these  four  years 
time  (during  the  continuance  of  this  act),  found  out 
any  other  way  to  supply  themselves  with  strouds ; 
and  likewise  that  they  cannot  trade  without  them, 
seeing  they  buy  them  at  so  extravagant  a  price. 

"  Jt  likewise  appears,  that  none  of  the  neigh- 
bouring colonies  have  been  able  to  supply  the  French 
with  these  goods,  and  those  that  know  the  geography 
of  the  country,  know  it  is  impracticable  to  do  it  at 
any  tolerable  rate,  because  they  must  carry  their 
goods  ten  times  further  by  land  than  we  need  to  do. 

"  We  are  likewise  assured,  that  the  merchants  of 
Montreal  lately  told  Mr.  Vaudreuil,  their  governor, 
that  if  the  trade  from  Albany  be  not  by  some  means 
or  other  encouraged,  they  must  abandon  that  set- 
tlement. We  have  reason  therefore  to  suspect,  that 
these  merchants  (at  least  some  of  them)  have  been 
practised  upon  ".->y  *_he  French  agents  in  London ; 
for  no  doubh,  tas  French  will  leave  no  method  un- 
tried to  defeat  the  present  designs  of  this  govern- 
ment, seeing  they  are  more  afraid  of  the  conse- 
?uences  ofthis  trade  between  New  York  and  the 
ndians,  than  of  all  the  warlike  expeditions  that 
ever  were  attempted  against  Canada. 

"  But  to  return  to  the  petitioners.     '  They  con- 


'  ceive  nothing  can  tend  more  to  the  withdrawing 
'  the  affections  of  the  five  nations  of  Indians  from 
'  the  English  interest,  than  the  continuance  of  the 
'  said  act,  which  in  its  effects  restrains  them  from 
'  a  free  commerce  with  the  inhabitants  of  New  York, 
'  and  may  too  probably  estrange  them  from  the 
'  English  interest;  whereas,  by  a  freedom  of  com- 
'  merce,  and  an  encouraged  intercourse  of  trade 
'  with  the  French  and  their  Indians,  the  English 
'  interest  might,  in  time,  be  greatly  improved  and 
'  strengthened.' 

"  It  seems  to  us  a  strange  argument  to  say,  that 
an  act,  the  whole  purport  of  which  is  to  encourage 
our  own  people  to  go  among  the  Indians,  and  to 
draw  the  far  Indians  through  our  Indian  country  to 
Albany  (and  which  has  truly  produced  these  effects) 
would,  on  the  contrary,  restrain  them  from  a  free 
commerce  with  the  inhabitants  of  New  York,  and 
may  too  probably  estrange  thorn  from  the  English 
interest;  and  therefore  that  it  would  be  much  wiser 
in  us  to  make  use  of  the  French,  to  promote  the 
English  interest ;  and  for  which  end,  we  ought  to 
encourage  a  free  intercourse  between  them  and  our 
Indians.  The  reverse  of  this  is  exactly  true,  in  the 
opinion  of  our  five  nations ;  who,  in  all  their  public 
treaties  with  this  government,  have  represented 
against  this  trade,  as  the  building  the  French  forts 
with  English  strouds;  that  the  encouraging  a  free- 
dom of  commerce  with  our  Indians,  and  the  Indians 
round  them,  who  must  pass  through  their  country 
to  Albany,  would  certainly  increase  both  the  Eng- 
lish interest  and  theirs,  among  all  the  nations  to 
the  westward  of  them;  and  that  the  carrying  the 
Indian  market  to  Montreal  in  Canada,  draws  all 
the  far  Indians  thither. 

"  The  last  thing  we  have  to  take  notice,  is  what 
the  merchants  asserted  before  the  lords  of  trade,  viz. 
'  That  there  has  not  been  half  the  quantity  of  Euro- 
'  pean  goods  exported  since  the  passing  of  this  act, 
'  that  used  to  be.'  We  are  well  assured,  that  this 
is  no  better  grounded  than  the  above  facts  they  as- 
sert with  the  same  positiveness.  For  it  is  well 
known,  almost  to  every  person  in  New  York,  that 
there  has  not  been  a  less,  but  rather  a  greater, 
quantity  of  European  goods  imported  into  this  place, 
since  the  passing  of  this  act,  than  was  at  any  time 
before  it,  in  the  same  space  of  time.  As  this  ap- 
pears by  the  manifests  in  the  custom  house  here, 
the  same  may  likewise  be  easily  proved  by  the  cus- 
tom house  books  in  London. 

"  As  all  the  arguments  of  the  merchants  run  upon 
the  ill  effects  this  act  has  had  upon  the  trade,  and 
the  minds  of  the  Indians,  every  one  of  which  we 
have  shewn  to  be  asserted  without  the  least  foun- 
dation to  support  them;  there  nothing  now  remains, 
but  to  shew  the  good  effects  this  act  has  produced, 
which  are  so  notorious  in  this  province,  that  we 
know  not  one  person  that  now  opens  his  mouth 
against  the  act. 

"  Before  this  act  passed,  none  of  the  people  of 
this  province  travelled  into  the  Indian  countries  to 
trade.  We  have  now  above  forty  young  men,  who 
have  been  several  times  as  far  as  the  lakes  trading, 
and  thereby  become  well  acquainted  not  only  with 
the  trade  of  the  Indians,  but  likewise  with  their 
manners  and  languages ;  and  those  have  returned 
with  such  large  quantities  of  furs,  that  great  num- 
bers are  resolved  to  follow  their  example ;  so  that 
we  have  good  reason  to  hope,  that  in  a  little  time 
the  English  will  draw  the  whole  Indian  trade  of  the 
inland  countries  to  Albany,  and  into  the  country  of 
the  five  nations.  This  government  has  built  a  pub 


UNITED  STATES. 


555 


lie  trading  house  upon  Cataracqui  lake,  at  Ironde- 
quat,  in  the  Sennecas  land,  and  another  is  to  be 
built,  next  spring,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Onondagas 
river.  All  the  far  Indians  pass  by  these  places,  in 
their  way  to  Canada ;  and  they  are  not  above  half 
so  far  from  the  English  settlements  as  they  are  from 
the  French. 

"  So  far  it  is  from  being  true  what  the  merchants 
say,  *  That  the  French  forts  interrupt  all  communi- 
*  cation  between  the  Indians  and  the  English/  that 
if  these  places  be  well  supported,  as  they  easily  can 
be  from  our  settlements,  in  case  of  a  rupture  with 
the  French  it  will  be  in  the  power  of  this  province 
to  intercept  the  greatest  part  of  the  trade  between 
Canada  and  the  Indians  round  the  lakes  and  the 
branches  of  the  Mississippi.  Since  this  act  passed, 
many  nations  have  come  to  Albany  to  trade,  in 
peace  and  friendship,  whose  names  had  not  so  much 
as  been  heard  of  among  us.  In  the  beginning  of 
May,  1723.  a  nation  of  Indians  came  to  Albany, 
singing  and  dancing,  with  their  calumets  before 
them,  as  they  always  do  when  they  come  to  any 
place  where  they  have  not  been  before.  We  do  not 
rind  that  the  commissioners  of  Indian  affairs,  were 
able  to  inform  themselves  what  nation  this  was. 

"  Towards  the  end  of  the  same  month,  eighty 
men,  besides  the  women  and  children,  came  to  Al- 
bany in  the  same  manner.  These  had  one  of  our 
five  nations  with  them  for  an  interpreter,  by  whom 
they  informed  the  commissioners,  that  they  were  of 
a  great  nation,  called  Nehkereages,  consisting  of 
six  castles  and  tribes;  and  that  they  lived  near  a 
place,  called  by  the  French,  Missimakinah,  between 
the  upper  lake  and  the  lake  of  the  Hurons.  These 
Indians  not  only  desired  a  free  commerce,  but  like- 
wise to  enter  into  a  strict  league  of  friendship  with 
us  and  our  six  nations,  that  they  might  be  accounted 
the  seventh  nation  in  the  league;  and  being  received 
accordingly,  they  left  their  calumet,  as  a  pledge  of 
their  fidelity.  In  June  another  nation  arrived,  but 
from  what  part  of  the  continent  we  have  not  learned. 

"  In  July  the  Twightwies  arrived,  and  brought  an 
Indian  interpreter  of  our  nations  with  them,  who 
said,  that  they  were  called  by  the  French,  Miamies, 
and  that  they  lived  upon  one  of  the  branches  of  the 
river  Mississippi.  At  the  same  time  some  of  the 
Tahsagrondie  Indians,  who  live  between  lake  Erie 
and  the  lake  Hurons,  near  a  French  settlement,  did 
come  and  renew  their  league  with  the  English,  nor 
durst  the  French  hinder  them.  In  July  this  year, 
another  nation  came,  whose  situation  and  name  we 
know  not;  and  in  August  and  September  several 
parties  of  the  same  Indians  that  had  been  here  last 
year :  but  the  greatest  numbers  of  these  far  Indians 
have  been  met  this  year  in  the  Indian  country  by 
our  traders,  every  one  of  them  endeavouring  to  ge't 
before  another,  in  order  to  reap  the  profits  of  so  ad- 
vantageous a  trade,  which  has  all  this  summer  long 
kept  about  forty  traders  constantly  employed,  in 
going  between  our  trading  places,  in  our  Indian 
country,  and  Albany. 

"  All  these  nations  of  Indians,  who  came  to  Al- 
bany, said,  that  the  French  had  told  them  many 
strange  stories  of  the  English,  and  did  what  they 
could  to  hinder  their  coming  to  Albany,  but  that 
they  had  resolved  to  break  through  by  force.  The 
difference  on  this  score  between  the  Tahsagrondie 
Indians  and  the  French  (who  have  a  fort,  and  set- 
tlement there,  called  by  them  Le  Droit)  rose  to 
that  height  this  summer,  that  Mr.  Tonti,  who  com- 
manded there,  thought  it  proper  to  retire,  and  re- 
turn to  Canada  with  many  of  his  men. 


"  We  are,  for  these  reasons,  well  assured,  that 
this  year  there  will  be  more  beaver  exported  for 
Great  Britain  than  ever  was  from  this  province  in 
one  year;  and  that  if  the  custom-house  books  at 
London  be  looked  into,  it  will  be  found,  that  there 
will  be  a  far  greater  quantity  of  goods  for  the  Indi- 
ans f  strouds  especially)  sent  over  next  spring,  than 
ever  there  was  at  any  one  time  to  this  province. 
For  the  merchants  here  tell  us,  that  they  have  at 
this  time  ordered  more  of  these  goods  than  ever  was 
done  at  any  one  time  before. 

"  These  matters  of  fact  prove,  beyond  contradic- 
tion, that  this  act  has  been  of  the  greatest  service  to 
New  York,  in  making  us  acquainted  with  many 
nations  of  Indians,  formerly  entirely  unknown,  and 
strangers  to  us ;  withdrawing  them  from  their  de- 
pendance  upon  the  French,  and  uniting  them  to 
us  and  our  Indians,  by  means  of  trade  and  mutual 
offices  of  friendship. 

"  Of  what  great  consequence  this  may  be  to  the 
British  interest  in  general,  as  to  trade,  is  apparent 
to  any  body.  It  is  no  less  apparent  likewise,  that 
it  is  of  the  greatest  consequence  to  the  safety  of  all 
the  British  colonies  in  North  America.  We  feel, 
too  sensibly,  the  ill  effects  of  the  French  interest  in 
the  present  war  betwixt  New  England,  and  only  one 
nation  of  Indians  supported  by  the  French.  .Of 
what  dismal  consequences  then  might  it  be,  if  the 
French  should  be  able  to  influence,  in  the  same 
manner,  so  many  and  such  numerous  nations,  as  lie 
to  the  westward  of  this  province,  Pennsylvania  and 
Maryland  ?  On  the  other  hand,  if  all  these  nations 
(who  assert  their  own  freedom,  and  declare  them- 
selves friends  to  those  that  supply  them  best  with 
what  they  want)  be  brought  to  have  a  dspendaace 
upon  the  English  (as  we  have  good  reason  to  hope 
in  a  short  time  they  will)  the  French  of  Canada,  in 
case  of  a  war,  must  be  at  the  mercy  of  the  English. 

"  To  these  advantages  must  be  added,  that  many 
of  our  young  men  having  been  induced  by  this  act  to 
travel  among  the  Indians,  they  learn  their  manners, 
their  languages,  and  the  situation  of  all  their 
countries,  and  become  inured  to  all  manner  of  fa- 
tigues and  hardships ;  and  a  great  many  more  being 
resolved  to  follow  their  example,  these  young  men, 
in  case  of  war  with  the  Indians,  will  be  of  ten  times 
the  service,  that  the  same  number  of  the  common 
militia  can  be  of.  The  effects  of  this  act  have  like- 
wise so  much  quieted  the  minds  of  the  people,  with 
respect  to  the  security  of  the  frontiers,  that  our  set- 
tlements are  now  extended  above  thirty  miles  fur- 
ther west  towards  the  Indian  countries,  than  they 
were  before  it  passed. 

"  The  only  thing  that  now  remains  to  answer,  is 
an  objection  which  we  suppose  may  be  made.  What 
can  induce  the  merchants  of  London  to  petition 
against  an  act,  which  will  be  really  so  much  for 
their  interest  in  the  end  ?  The  reason  is,  in  all 
probability,  because  they  only  consider  their  present 
gain  ;  and  that  they  are  not  at  all  concerned  for  the 
safety  of  this  country,  in  encouraging  the  most  ne- 
cessary undertaking,  if  they  apprehended  their  profit 
for  two  or  three  years  may  be  lessened  by  it.  This 
inclination  of  the  merchants  has  been  so  notorious, 
that  few  nations,  at  war  with  their  neighbours,  have 
been  able  to  restrain  them  from  supplying  their  ene- 
mies with  ammunition  and  arms.  The  Count  D'Es- 
trade,  in  his  letters  in  1638,  says,  that  when  the 
Dutch  were  besieging  Antwerp,  one  Beiland,  who 
had  loaded  four  fly-boats  with  arms  and  powder  for 
Antwerp,  being  taken  up  by  the  prince  of  Orange's 
order,  and  examined  at  Amsterdam,  said  boldly, 


556 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


that  the  burghers  of  Amsterdam  had  a  right  to  trade 
every  where :  that  he  could  name  a  hundred  that  ( 
were  factors  for  the  merchants  at  Antwerp,  and  that 
he  was  one.  '  That  trade  cannot  be  interrupted, 
*  and  that  for  his  part  he  was  very  free  to  own,  that 
4  if  to  get  any  thing  by  trade  it  was  necessary  to 
4  pass  through  hell,  he  would  venture  to  burn  his 
4  sails.'  When  this  principle,  so  common  to  mer- 
chants, is  considered,  and  that  some  in  this  place 
have  got  estates  by  trading  many  years  to  Canada, 
it  is  not  to  be  wondered,  that  they  have  acted  as 
factors  for  Canada  in  this  affair,  and  that  they  have 
transmitted  such  accounts  to  their  correspondents  in 
London,  as  are  consistent  with  the  trust  reposed  in 
them  by  the  merchants  of  Canada. 

44  In  the  last  place,  we  are  humbly  of  opinion, 
that  it  may  be  proper  to  print  the  petition  of  the 
merchants  of  London,  and  their  allegations  before 
the  lords  of  trade,  together  with  the  answers  your 
committee  has  made  hitherto,  in  vindication  of  the 
legislature  of  this  province,  of  which  we  have  the 
honour  to  be  a  part,  if  your  excellency  shall  approve 
of  our  answers  ;  that  what  we  have  said  may  be  ex- 
posed to  the  examination  of  every  one  in  this  place, 
where  the  truth  of  these  matters  of  fact  is  best  known, 
and  that  the  correspondents  of  these  merchants  may 
have  the  most  public  notice  to  reply,  if  they  shall 
think  it  proper,  or  to  disown,  in  a  public  manner, 
that  they  are  the  authors  of  such  groundless  informa- 
tions. All  which  is  unanimously  and  humbly  sub- 
mitted by  "  Your  excellency's 

"  Most  obedient  humble  servants, 
"  R.  Walter,  Rip  Van  Dam,  John  Barbaric,  Fr. 
Harrison,  Cadwallader  Golden,  James  Alexander, 
Abraham  Van  Home." 

Governor  Burnet  transmitted  this  report  to  the 
board  of  trade,  and  it  had  the  intended  effect. — About 
the  latter  end  of  the  year  1724,  an  unfortunate  dis- 
pute commenced  in  the  French  church,  of  which, 
because  it  had  no  small  influence  on  the  public  af- 
fairs of  the  government,  we  shall  give  a  short  account. 
The  persecutions  in  France  which  ensued  upon 
the  revocation  of  the  edict  of  Nantz,  drove  the  pro- 
testant  subjects  of  Louis  XIV.  into  the  territories 
of  other  princes.  Many  of  them  fled  even  into  this 
province :  the  most  opulent  settled  in  the  city  of 
New  York — others  went  into  the  country  and  planted 
New  Rochelle — and  a  few  seated  themselves  at  the 
New  Paltz  in  Ulster  county.  Those  who  resided 
in  New  York  soon  erected  a  church,  upon  the  prin- 
ciples and  model  of  that  in  Geneva ;  and  by  their 
growth  and  foreign  accessions  formed  a  congrega- 
tion, for  numbers  and  riches,  superior  to  all  but  the 
Dutch.  They  had  two  ministers.  Rou,  who  was  a 
man  of  learning,  but  arrogant,  luxurious,  and  pas 
sionate.  Moulinaars,  his  colleague,  was  distin- 
guished for  his  mild  spirit,  dull  parts,  and  regular 
life.  Rou  despised  his  fellow -labourer,  and  for  a 
long  time  commanded  the  whole  congregation,  by 
the  superiority  of  his  talents  in  the  pulpit.  The 
other,  impatient  of  repeated  affronts  and  open  con- 
tempt, raised  a  party  in  his  favour,  and  this  year 
succeeded  in  the  election  of  a  set  of  elders  disposed 
to  humble  the  delinquent.  Rou,  being  suspicious  of 
the  design,  refused  to  acknowledge  them  duly  elected. 
Incensed  at  this  conduct,  they  entered  an  act  in  their 
minutes,  dismissing  him  from  the  pastoral  charge  ol 
the  church,  and  procured  a  ratification  of  the  act 
under  the  hands  of  the  majority  of  the  people.  Go- 
vernor Burnet  had,  long  before  this  time,  admitted 
Rou  into  his  familiarity  on  the  score  of  his  learning, 
aud  that  consideration  encouraged  a  petition  to 


lim  from  Rou's  adherents,  complaining  against  the 
elders.  The  matter  was  then  referred  to  a  commit- 
tee of  the  council,  who  advised  that  the  congregation 
should  be  abolished,  to  bring  their  differences  to  an 
amicable  conclusion.  Some  overtures,  to  that  end, 
were  attempted,  and  the  elders  offered  to  submit  the 
ontroversy  to  the  Dutch  ministers.  But  Rou,  who 
knew  that  the  French  church  without  a  synod  was 
unorganized,  and  could  not  restrain  him,  chose  rather 
to  bring  his  bill  in  chancery  before  the  governor. 

Mr.  Alexander  was  his  counsel,  and  Mr.  Smith,  a 
young  lawyer,  of  the  first  reputation  as  a  speaker, 
appeared  for  the  elders.  He  pleaded  to  the  juris- 
diction of  the  court,  insisting,  that  the  matter  was 
entirely  ecclesiastical ;  and,  in  the  prosecution  of 
bis  argument,  entered  largely  into  an  examination 
of  the  government  of  the  protestant  churches  in 
France.  According  to  which,  he  shewed  that  the 
consistory  were  the  proper  judges  of  the  point  in 
dispute,  in  the  first  instance ;  and  that  from  thence 
an  appeal  lay  to  a  collogue,  next  to  a  provincial, 
and  last  of  all  to  a  national  synod.  Mr.  Burnet 
nevertheless  over-ruled  the  plea,  and  the  defendants, 
being  fearful  of  a  decree  that  might  expose  their 
own  estates  to  the  payment  of  Rou's  salary,  thought 
it  adviseable  to  drop  their  debates,  reinstate  the  mi- 
nister, and  leave  the  church. 

All  those  who  opposed  Rou  were  displeased  with 
the  governor ;  among  these  Mr.  De  Lancey  was  the 
most  considerable  for  his  wealth  and  popularity. 
He  was  very  rigid  in  his  religious  profession,  one 
of  the  first  builders,  and  by  far  the  most  generous 
benefactor,  of  the  French  church,  and  therefore  left 
it  with  the  utmost  reluctance.  Mr.  Burnet,  before 
this  time,  had  considered  him  as  his  enemy,  because 
he  had  opposed  the  prohibition  of  the  French  trade  ; 
and  this  led  him  into  a  step,  which,  as  it  was  a  per- 
sonal indignity,  Mr.  De  Lancey  could  never  recol- 
lect without  resentment.  This  gentleman  was  re- 
turned for  the  city  of  New  York,  in  the  room  of  a 
deceased  member,  at  the  meeting  of  the  assembly  in 
September,  1725.  When  he  offered  himself  for"  the 
oaths,  Mr.  Burnet  asked  him  how  he  became  a  sub- 
ject of  the  crown?  he  answered,  that  he  was  de- 
nized  in  England,  and  his  excellency  dismissed  him, 
taking  time  to  consider  the  matter.  Mr.  De  Lan- 
cey then  laid  before  the  house  an  act  of  a  notary 
public,  certifying  that  he  was  named  in  a  patent  of 
denization,  granted  in  the  reign  of  James  the  Se- 
cond ;  a  patent  of  the  same  kind,  under  the  great 
seal  of  the  province,  in  1686;  and  two  certificates, 
one  of  his  having  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance,  ac- 
cording to  an  act  passed  in  the  colonies  in  1683,  and 
another  of  his  serving  in  several  former  assemblies. 
The  governor,  in  the  meantime,  consulted  the  chief 
justice,  and  transmitted  his  opinion  to  the  house, 
who  resolved  in  favour  of  Mr.  De  Lancey.  Several 
other  new  representatives  came  in,  at  this  session, 
upon  the  decease  of  the  old  members ;  and  Adolpli 
Philipse,  who  had  been,  as  we  have  seen  some  time 
before,  dismissed  from  the  council-board,  was  elected 
into  the  speaker's  chair,  in  the  absence  of  Mr.  Li- 
vingston. The  majority,  however,  continued  in  the 
interest  of  the  governor;  and  consented  to  the  re- 
vival of  the  several  acts,  which  had  been  passed  for 
prohibiting  the  French  trade ;  which,  in  spite  of  all 
the  restraints  laid  upon  it,  was  clandestinely  carried 
on  by  the  people  of  Albany.  Oswego,  nevertheless, 
thrived:  fifty-seven  canoes  went  there  this  summer, 
and  returned  with  738  packs  of  beaver  and  deer- 
skins. 

Nothing  could  more  naturally  excite  the  jealousy 


UNITED  STATES. 


557 


of  the  French,  than  the  erection  of  a  new  trading- 
house  at  the  mouth  of  the  Onandaga  river.     Fear- 
ful of  losing  a  profitable  trade,  -which  they  had  al- 
most entirely  engrossed,  and  the  command  of  the 
lake   Ontario,   they  launched  two  vessels  in  it  in 
1726,  and  transported  materials  for  building  a  large 
store -house,  and  repairing  the  fort  at  Niagara.     The 
scheme  was  not  only  to  secure  to  themselves  the  en- 
trance into  the  west  end  of  the  lake,  as  they  already 
had  the  east,    by   the  fraudulent  erection   of  fort 
Frontenac  many  years  before ;  but  also  to  carry 
their  trade  more  westerly,  and  thus  render  Oswego 
useless,  by  shortening  the  travels  of  the  western  In- 
dians near  200  miles.     Baron   de  Longueil,  who 
had  the  chief  command  in  Canada,  on  the  death  of 
the  Marquis  de  Vaudreuil  in  October,  1725,  was  so 
intent,  upon  this  project,  that  he  went,  in  person,  to 
the  Onbndaga  canton,  for  leave  to  raise  the  store- 
house at  Niagara :  and  as  those  Indians  were  most 
of  all  exposed  to  the  intrigues  of  the  Jesuits,  who 
constantly  resided  amongst  them ;  he  prevailed  upon 
them  by  fraud,  and  false  representations,  to  consent 
to  it,  for  their  protection  against  the  English.     But 
as  soon  as  this  matter  was  made  known  to  the  other 
nations,  they  declared  the  permission  granted  by 
the  Onondagas  to  be  absolutely  void ;  and  sent  de- 
puties to  Niagara,  with  a  message,  signifying  thai 
the  country  in  which  they  were  at  work  'belonged 
solely  to  the  Sennecas,  and  required  them  immedi- 
ately to  desist.     The  French,  notwithstanding,  were 
regardless  of  the  embassage,  and  pushed  on  theii 
enterprise  with  all  possible  dispatch,  while  Joncaire 
exerted  all  his  address  among  the  Indians,  to  pre- 
vent the  demolition  of  the  works.     Canada  was  very 
much   indebted  to  the  intrigues  of  this  man.     He 
had  been  adopted  by  the  Sennecas,  and  was  vvel 
esteemed  by  the  Ouondagas.     He  spoke  the  Indian 
language,  as  Charlcvoix   informs  us,  with  a  native 
eloquence,  and  had  lived  amongst  them,  after  theii 
manner,  from  the  beginning  of  Queen  Anne's  reign 
All  these  advantages  he  improved  for  the  interes 
of  his  country;  he  facilitated  the  missionaries  in 
their  progress  through  the  cantons,  and  more  than 
-  any  man  contributed  to  render  their  dependence 
upon  the  English  weak  and  precarious.    Convince? 
of  this,  Colonel  Schuyler  urged  the  Indians,  at  hi 
treaty  with  them,  in  1719,  to  drive  Joncaire  out  o 
their  country,  but  his  endeavours  were  fruitless. 

The  Jesuit,  Charlevoix,  does  honour  to  Mr.  Bur 
net,  in  declaring  that  he  left  no  stone  unturned,  t( 
defeat  the  French  designs  at  Niagara.  Nor  is  i 
much  to  be  wondered  at.  For  besides  supplanting 
his  favourite  trade  at  Oswego,  it  tended  to  the  de 
fection  of  the  tive  nations ;  and,  in  case  of  a  rup 
ture,  exposed  the  frontiers  of  cur  southern  colcmie 
to  the  ravages  of  the  French  and  their  allies.  Mr 
Burnet,  upon  whom  these  considerations  made  th 
deepest  impression,  laid  the  matter  before  the  house 
remonstrated  against  the  proceedings  to  Longuei 
in  Canada,  wrote  to  the  ministry  in  England,  wh 
complained  of  them  to  the  French  court,  and  me 
the  confederates  at  Albany,  endeavouring  to  con 
vince  them  of  the  danger  they  themselves  would  b 
in,  from  an  aspiring,  ambitious,  neighbour.  H 
spoke  first  about  the  affair  privately  to  the  Sachems 
and  afterwards,  in  the  public  conference,  infonne< 
them  of  all  the  encroachments  which  the  French 
had  made  upon  their  fathers,  and  the  ill  usage  the 
had  met  with,  according  to  La  Potherie's  account 
published  with  the  privilege  of  the  French  king,  a 
Paris,  in  1722.  He  then  reminded  them  of  th 
kind  treatment  they  had  received  from  the  English 


who  constantly  fed  and  clothed  them,  and  never  at- 
empted  any   act   of  hostility  to   their   prejudice, 
^his  speech  was  extremely  well  drawn,  the  thoughts 
ieing  conceived  in  strong  figures,  particularly  ex- 
rcssive  and   agreeable  to  the  Indians.     The  go- 
ernor  required  an  explicit  declaration  of  their  senti- 
ments concerning  the  French  transactions  at  Nia- 
ara,  and  their  answer  was  truly  categorical.    "  We 
peak  now  in  the  name  of  all  the  six  nations,  and 
ome  to  you  howling.     This  is  the  reason  why  we 
lowl,  that  the  governor  of  Canada  encroaches  on 
ur  land,  and  builds  thereon."     After  which  they 
ntreated  him  to  write  to  the   krng   for  succour. 
VIr.  Burnet  embraced  this  favourable  opportunity 
o  procure  from  them  a  deed,  surrendering  their 
country  to  his  majesty,  to  be  protected  for  their 
use,  and  confirming  their  grant  in  1701,  concerning 
which  there  was  only  an  entry  in  the  books  of  the 
secretary  for  Indian  affairs.     Besides  the  territories 
at  the  west  end  of  lake  Erie,  and  on  the  north  side 
of  that,  and  the  lake  Ontario,  which  were  ceded  in 
L701 ;  the  Indians  now  granted,  for  the  same  pur- 
pose, all  their  habitations  from  Oswego  to  Cayahoga 
river,  which  disembogues  into  lake  Erie,  and  the 
country  extending  sixty  miles  from  the  southern- 
most banks  of  those  lakes.     Though  the  first  sur- 
render, through  negligence,  was  not  made  by  the 
execution  of  a  formal  deed  under  seal;  yet  as  it 
was  transacted  with  all  the  solemnity  of  a  treaty, 
and  as  the  second  surrender  confirms  the  first,  no 
intermediate  possession  by  the  French  could  preju- 
dice the  British  title  derived  by  the  cession  1701. 

It  happened  very  unfortunately,  that  his  excel- 
lency's hands  were  then  more  weakened  than  ever, 
by  the  growing  disaffection  in  the  house.  The  in- 
trigues of  his  adversaries,  and  the  frequent  deaths 
of  the  members,  had  introduced  such  a  change  in 
the  assembly,  that  it  was  with  difficulty  he  procured 
a  three  years  support.  The  clamours  of  the  people 
ran  so  high  without  doors  for  a  new  election,  that 
he  was  obliged  to  dissolve  the  house,  and  soon  after 
another  dissolution  ensued  on  the  death  of  the  king. 
The  French,  in  the  meantime,  completed  their  works 
at  Niagara,  and  Mr.  Burnet,  who  was  unable  to  do 
any  thing  else,  erected  a  fort,  in  1727,  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  post  and  trade  at  Oswego.  This  ne- 
cessary undertaking  was  pregnant  with  the  most 
important  consequences,  not  only  to  this  but  to  all 
the  colonies;  and  though  the  governor's  seasonable 
activity  deserved  the  highest  testimonials  of  grati- 
tude, he  was  obliged  to  build  the  fort  at  his  private 
expense;  and  a  balance  of  56J.  principal,  though 
frequently  demanded,  remained  long  after  due  to 
his  estate. 

Beauharnois,  the  governor  of  Canada,  who  super- 
seded Longuiel,  was  so  incensed  at  the  building  of 
the  fort,  that  he  sent  a  written  summons,  in  July, 
to  the  officer  posted  there,  to  abandon  it;  and 
though  his  predecessor  had  done  the  same  a  little 
before  at  Niagara,  in  the  county  of  the  Sennecas,  the 
acknowledged  subjects  of  the  British  crown,  yet, 
with  a  singular  effrontery,  he  dispatched  De  la  Chas- 
saigne,  a  man  of  parts,  and  governor  of  Trois  Ri- 
vieres, to  New  York,  with  the  strongest  complaints 
to  Mr.  Burnet  upon  that  head.  His  excellency  sent 
him  a  polite,  but  resolute  answer,  on  the  8th  of  Au- 
gust, in  which  he  refuted  the  arguments  urged  by 
the  French  governor-general;  and  remonstrated 
against  the  proceedings  of  the  last  year  at  Niagara. 
°The  new  assembly  met  in  September,  1727,  and 
consisted  of  members  all  ill  affected  to  the  governor. 
The  long  continuance  of  the  last,  the  clamours  which 


558 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


were  excited  by  several  late  important  decrees  in 
chancery,  the  affair  of  the  French  church,  and  es- 
pecially'the  prohibiting  the  Canada  trade,  were  the 
causes  to  which  the  loss  of  his  interest  is  to  be  as- 
cribed. Mr.  Philipse,  the  speaker,  was  piqued  at  a 
decree  in  chancery  against  himself,  which  very 
much  affected  his  estate ;  and  the  members,  who 
were  very  much  influenced  by  him,  came,  on  the 
25th  of  November,  into  the  following  resolutions. 
Colonel  Hicks,  from  the  committee  of  grievances, 
reported, — "  That  as  well  by  the  complaints  of  se- 
veial  people,  as  by  the  general  cry  of  his  majesty's 
subjects  inhabiting  this  colony,  they  find  that  the 
court  of  chancery,  as  lately  assumed  to  be  set  up 
here,  renders  the  liberties  and  properties  of  the  said 
subjects  extremely  precarious ;  and  that  by  the  vio- 
lent measures  taken  in  and  allowed  by  it,  some  have 
been  ruined — others  obliged  to  abandon  the  colony 
— and  many  restrained  in  it,  either  by  imprison- 
ment or  by  'excessive  bail  exacted  from  them  not  to 
depart,  even  when  no  manner  of  suits  are  depend- 
ing against  them :  and  therefore  are  of  opinion,  that 
the  extraordinary  proceedings  of  that  court,  and  the 
exorbitant  fees  and  charges,  countenanced  to  be 
exacted  by  the  officers  and  practitioners  thereof,  are 
the  greatest  grievance  and  oppression  this  colony 
hath  ever  felt :  and  that  for  removing  the  fatal  con- 
sequences thereof,  they  had  come  to  several  resolu- 
tions, which  being  read,  were  approved  by  the  house, 
and  are  as  follow : 

"  Resolved,  that  the  erecting  or  exercising  in  this 
colony,  a  court  of  equity  or  chancery  (however  it 
may  be  termed)  without  consent  in  general  assem- 
bly, is  unwarrantable,  and  contrary  to  the  laws  of 
England,  and  a  manifest  oppression  and  grievance 
to  the  subjects,  and  of  pernicious  consequence  to 
their  liberties  and  properties. 

"  Resolved,  that  this  house  will  at  their  next 
meeting  prepare,  and  pass,  an  act  to  declare  and 
adjudge  all  orders,  ordinances,  devices,  and  pro- 
ceedings of  the  court,  so  assumed  to  be  erected  and 
exercised  as  abovementioned,  to  be  illegal,  null,  and 
void,  as  by  law  and  right  they  ought  to  be. 

"  Resolved,  that  this  house,  at  the  same  time,  will 
take  into  consideration,  whether  it  be  necessary  to 
establish  a  court  of  equity  or  chancery  in  this  colony ; 
in  whom  the  jurisdiction  thereof  ought  to  be  vested, 
and  how  far  the  powers  of  it  shall  be  prescribed  and 
limited." 

Mr.  Burnet  no  sooner  heard  of  these  votes,  than 
he  called  the  members  before  him  and  dissolved  the 
assembly.  They  occasioned,  however,  an  ordinance 
in  the  spring  following,  as  well  to  remedy  sundry 
abuses  in  the  practice  in  chancery,  as  to  reduce  the 
f^es  of  that  court,  which,  on  account  of  the  popular 
clamours,  were  so  much  diminished,  that  ever  after 
it  was  abandoned  by  all  gentlemen  of  eminence  in 
the  profession. 

We  are  now  come  to  the  close  of  Mr.  Burnet's 
administration,  when  he  was  appointed  to  the  chief 
command  of  Massachusetts.  Though  there  had  never 
been  a  governor  to  whom  the  colony  was  so  much  in- 
debted as  to  him ;  yet  the  influence  of  a  faction,  in  the 
judgment  of  some,  rendered  his  removal  necessary 
for  the  public  tranquillity.  Insensible  of  his  merit, 
many  considered  it  as  a  most  fortunate  event;  and 
till  the  ambitious  designs  of  the  French  king,  with 
respect  to  America,  awakened  attention  to  the  ge- 
neral welfare,  Mr.  Burnet's  administration  was  as 
little  esteemed  as  that  of  the  meanest  of  his  prede- 
cessors. 

He  was  very  fond  of  New  York,  and  left  it  with 


reluctance.  His  marriage  connected  him  with  a 
numerous  family,  and,  besides  an  universal  acquaint- 
ance, there  were  some  gentlemen  with  whom  he 
contracted  a  strict  intimacy  and  friendship. 

The  excessive  love  of  money,  a  disease  common 
to  all  his  predecessors,  and  to  some  who  succeeded 
him,  was  a  vice  from  which  he  was  entirely  free. 
He  sold  no  offices,  nor  attempted  to  raise  a  fortune 
by  indirect  means,  for  he  lived  generously,  and 
carried  scarce  any  thing  away  with  him  but  his 
books.  These  and  the  conversation  of  men  of  let- 
ters, were  to  him  inexhaustible  sources  of  delight. 
His  astronomical  observation^  have  been  usei'ul ; 
but  by  his  comment  on  the  Apocalypse,  he  exposed 
himself  to  some  harsh  criticisms. 

John  Montgomerie,  Esq.,  received  the  great  seal 
of  this  province  from  Mr.  Burnet,  on  the  15th  of 
April,  1728,  having  a  commission  to  supersede  him 
here  and  in  New  Jersey.  The  council  board  con- 
sisted of  Mr.  Walters,  Mr.  Van  Dam,  Mr.  Barbarie, 
Mr.  Clarke,  Mr.  Harrison,  Dr.  Colden,  Mr.  Alex- 
ander, Mr.  Morris,  jun.,  Mr.  Van  Home,  Mr.  Pro- 
vost, Mr.  Livingston,  Mr.  Kennedy. 

The  governor  was  a  Scotch  gentleman,  and  bred 
a  soldier;  but  in  the  latter  part  of  his  life  he  had 
little  concern  with  arms,  having  served  as  groom  of 
the  bed-chamber  to  George  II.  when  prince  of  Wales. 
This  station,  and  a  seat  in  parliament,  paved  the 
way  to  his  preferment  in  America.  In  his  talents 
for  government  he  was  much  inferior  to  his  prede- 
cessor, for  he  had  neither  strength  nor  acuteness  of 
parts,  and  was  but  little  acquainted  with  any  kind 
of  literature. 

All  parties  being  weary  of  contention  a  calm  en- 
sued, and  the  governor's  good  humour  helped  to  ex- 
tinguish the  discontent :  having  no  particular  scheme 
to  pursue,  and  confining  himself  to  the  exercise  of 
the  common  acts  of  government,  the  public  affairs 
flowed  on  in  a  very  calm  manner. 

The  two  causes  of  dissension  with  the  late  admi- 
ministration  were  carefully  avoided  by  the  preseut 
governor,  for  he  dissolved  the  assembly  called  by 
his  predecessor,  before  they  had  ever  been  convened ; 
and  as  to  the  chancery  he  himself  countenanced  the 
opposition  to  it,  by  declining  to  sit,  till  enjoined  to 
exercise  the  office  of  chancellor  by  special  orders 
from  England. 

He  then  obeyed  the  command,  but  not  without  dis- 
covering his  reluctance ;  and  modestly  confessing 
to  the  practisers,  that  he  thought  himself  unquali- 
fied for  the  station.  Indeed  the  court  of  chancery 
was  evidently  his  aversion,  and  he  never  gave  a 
single  decree  in  it,  nor  more  than  three  orders ;  and 
these,  both  as  to  matter  and  form,  were  first  settled 
by  the  counsel  concerned. 

Mr.  Philipse  was  chosen  speaker  of  the  assembly 
which  met  on  the  23d  of  July,  and  continued  sitting 
in  perfect  harmony  till  autumn.  After  his  excel- 
lency had  procured  a  five  years  support,  and  several 
other  laws  of  less  considerable  moment,  he  went  up 
to  Albany,  and  on  the  1st  of  October,  held  a  treaty 
with  the  the  six  nations  for  a  renewal  of  the  ancient 
covenant.  He  gave  them  great  presents,  and  en- 
gaged them  in  the  defence  of  Oswego.  Nothing 
could  be  more  seasonable  than  this  interview ;  for 
the  French,  who  viewed  that  important  garrison  and 
the  increasing  trade  there  with  the  most  restless 
jealousy,  prepared,  early  in  the  spring  following,  to 
demolish  the  works.  Governor  Burnet  gave  the. 
first  intelligence  of  this  design,  in  a  letter  to  Colonel 
Montgomerie,  dated  at  Boston  the  31st  of  March, 
1729.  The  garrison  was  thereupon  immediately  re- 


UNITED  STATES. 


559 


inforcecl  by  a  detachment  from  the  independent 
companies ;  which  together  with  the  declared  reso- 
lution of  the  Indians  to  protect  the  fort,  induced  the 
French  to  desist  from  the  intended  invasion. 

Thus  far  the  Indian  affairs  appeared  to  be  under 
a  tolerable  direction ;  but  these  fair  prospects  were 
soon  obscured  by  the  king's  repealing,  on  the  llth 
of  December,  1729,  all  the  acts  which  Mr.  Burnet, 
with  so  much  labour  and  opposition,  procured  for 
the  prohibition  of  an  execrable  trade  between  Albany 
and  Montreal.  To  whose  intrigues  this  event  is  to 
be  ascribed,  cannot  be  certainly  determined.  But 
that  it  was  pregnant  with  the  worst  consequences, 
was  soon  sufficiently  evinced.  Nothing  could  more 
naturally  tend  to  undermine  the  trade  at  Oswego, 
to  advance  the  French  commerce  at  Niagara,  to 
alienate  the  Indians  from  their  fidelity  to  Great 
Britain,  and  particularly  to  rivet  the  defection  of 
the  Caghnuagas.  For  these  residing  on  the  south 
side  of  St.  Lawrence,  nearly  opposite  to  Montreal, 
were  employed  by  the  French  as  their  carriers,  and 
thus  became  interested  against  the  colonists  by  mo- 
tives of  the  most  prevailing  nature.  One  would 
imagine  that,  after  ail  the  attention  bestowed  on 
this  affair  in  the  late  administration,  the  objections 
against  this  trading  intercourse  with  Canada  must 
have  been  obvious  to  the  meanest  capacity ;  and  yet 
from  the  time  Mr.  Burnet  removed  to  Boston,  it  was 
rather  encouraged  than  restrained. 

The  year  1731  was  distinguished  only  by  the 
complete  settlement  of  the  disputed  boundary  be- 
tween this  province  and  the  colony  of  Connecticut. 
An  event,  considering  the  colonizing  spirit  and  ex- 
tensive claims  of  the  people  of  New  England,  of  no 
small  importance,  and  concerning  which  it  is  pro- 
per to  give  a  succinct  account. 

The  partition  line  agreed  upon,  in  1664,  being 
considered  as  fraudulent,  or  erroneous,  a  second 
agreement,  suspended  only  for  the  king's  and  the 
duke's  approbation,  was  concluded  on  the  23d  of 
November,  1683,  between  Colonel  Dongan  and  his 
counsel,  and  Robert  Trent,  Esq.  then  governor  of 
Connecticut,  and  several  other  commissioners  ap- 
pointed by  that  colony.  The  line  of  partition,  then 
agreed  to  be  established,  was  to  begin  at  the  mouth 
of  Byram  brook,  "Where  it  falleth  into  the  sound, 
at  a  point  called  Lyon's  Point,  to  go  as  the  said 
river  runneth,  to  the  place  where  the  common  road, 
or  wading-place,  over  the  said  river  is ;  and  from 
the  said  road  or  wading-place,  to  go  north-north- 
west into  the  country,  as  far  as  will  be  eight  Eng- 
lish miles  from  the  aforesaid  Lyon's  Point;  and 
that  a  line  of  twelve  miles  being  measured  from  the 
said  Lyon's  Point,  according  to  the  line  or  general 
course  of  the  sound  eastward :  where  the  said  twelve 
miles  endeth,  another  line  shall  be  run  from  the 
sound,  eight  miles  into  the  country  north-north- 
west, and  also,  that  a  fourth  line  be  run  (that  is  to 
say)  from  the  northernmost  end  of  the  eight  miles 
line,  being  the  third-mentioned  line,  which  fourth 
line  with  the  first-mentioned  line,  shall  be  the  bounds 
where  they  shall  fall  to  run;  and  that  from  the 
easternmost  end  of  the  fourth-mentioned  line  (which 
is  to  be  twelve  miles  in  length)  a  line  parallel  to 
Hudson's  river,  in  every  place  twenty  miles  distant 
from  Hudson's  river,  shall  be  the  bounds  there,  be- 
tween the  said  territories  or  province  of  New  York, 
and  the  said  colony  of  Connecticut,  so  far  as  Con- 
necticut colony  doth  extend  northwards  ;  that  is,  to 
the  south  line  of  the  Massachusetts  colony:  only  it 
is  provided,  that  in  case  the  line  from  Byram  brook's 
mouth,  north-north-west  8  miles,  and  the  line  that  is 


then  to  run  twelve  miles  to  the  end  of  the  third  fore- 
mentioned  line  of  eight  miles,  do  diminish  or  take 
away  land,  within  twenty  miles  of  Hudson's  river, 
that  then  so  much  as  is  in  land  diminished  of  twenty 
miles  of  Hudson's  river  thereby,  shall  be  added  out 
of  Connecticut  bounds  unto  the  line  afore-mentioned, 
parallel  to  Hudson's  river  and  twenty  miles  distant 
from  it ;  the  addition  to  be  made  the  whole  length 
of  the  said  parallel  line,  and  in  such  breadth,  as 
will  make  up,  quantity  for  quantity,  what  shall  be 
diminished  as  aforesaid/' 

Pursuant  to  this  agreement  some  of  the  lines  were 
actually  run  out,  and  a  report  made  of  the  survey, 
which,  on  the  24th  of  February,  1684,  was  con- 
firmed by  the  governor  of  each  colony  at  Milford  in 
Connecticut.  Here  the  matter  rested,  till  a  dispute 
arose  concerning  the  right  of  jurisdiction  over  the 
towns  of  Rye  and  Bedford,  which  occasioned  a  so- 
licitation at  home  ;  and  on  the  28th  of  March,  1700, 
King  William  was  pleased  to  confirm  the  agree- 
ment of  1683. 

Nineteen  years  afterwards,  a  probationary  act 
was  passed,  empowering  the  governor  to  appoint 
commissioners,  as  well  to  run  the  line  parallel  to 
Hudson's  river,  as  to  re-survey  the  other  lines  and 
distinguish  the  boundary.  The  Connecticut  agent 
ipposed  the  king's  confirmation  of  this  act,  but  it 
was  approved  on  the  23d  of  January,  1723.  Two 
years  after,  the  commissioners  and  surveyors  of  both 
colonies  met  at  Greenwich,  and  entered  first  into  an 
agreement,  relating  to  the  method  of  performing 
the  work. 

The  survey  was  immediately  after  executed  in 
part,  the  report  being  dated  on  the  12th  of  May, 
1725  ;  but  the  complete  settlement  was  not  made 
till  the  14th  of  May,  1731,  when  indentures,  certi- 
fying the  execution  of  the  agreement  in  1725,  were 
mutually  signed  by  the  commissioners  and  surveyors 
of  both  colonies.  Upon  the  establishment  of  this 
partition,  a  tract  of  land  lying  on  the  Connecticut 
side,  consisting  of  above  60,000  acres,  from  its 
figure  called  the  Oblong,  was  ceded  to  New  York, 
as  an  equivalent  for  lands  near  the  Sound  sur- 
rendered to  Connecticut. 

The  very  day  after  the  surrender  made  by  that 
colony,  a  patent  passed  in  London  to  Sir  Joseph 
Eyles  and  others,  intended  to  convey  the  whole 
Oblong.  A  grant  posterior  to  the  other  was  also 
regularly  made  here  to  Hauley  and  company,  of  the 
greatest  part  of  the  same  tract,  which  the  British 
patentees  brought  a  bill  in  chancery  to  repeal.  But 
the  defendants  filed  an  answer,  containing  so  many 
objections  against  the  English  patent,  that  the  suit 
remained  unprosecuted,  and  the  American  pro- 
prietors have  ever  since  held  the  possession.  Mr. 
Harrison,  of  the  council,  solicited  this  controversy 
for  Sir  Joseph  Eyles  and  his  partners,  which  con- 
tributed in  a  great  degree  to  the  troubles  so  re- 
markable in  a  succeeding  administration. 

Governor  Montgomerie  died  on  the  1st  of  July, 
1731,  and  being  a  man  of  a  kind  and  humane  dis- 
position, his  death  was  not  a  little  lamented.  The 
chief  command  then  devolved  upon  Rip  Van  Dam, 
Esq.,  he  being  the  oldest  counsellor,  and  an  emi- 
nent merchant  of  a  fair  estate,  though  distinguished 
morfe  for  the  integrity  of  his  heart,  than  his  capacity 
to  hold  the  reins  of  government.  He  took  the  oaths 
before  Mr.  Alexander,  Mr.  Van  Home,  Mr.  Ken- 
nedy, Mr.  De  Lancey,  and  Mr.  Courtlandt. 

This  administration  is  unfortunately  signalised  by 
the  memorable  encroachment  at  Crown  Point.  The 
French,  in  Canada,  were  always  jealous  of  the  in- 


560 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


creasing  strength  of  tho  English  colonies ;  and  this 
jealousy  led  them  to  concert  a  regular  system  of 
conduct  for  their  defence.  To  confine  the  English 
to  scant  limits  along  the  sea-coast  was  the  grand  ob- 
ject they  had  long  in  view ;  and  seizing  the  important 
passes  from  Canada  to  Louisiana,  seducing  the  In- 
dian allies,  engrossing  the  trade,  and  fortifying  the 
routes  into  their  country,  were  all  proper  expedients 
towards  the  execution  of  their  plan.  By  erecting 
this  new  fort,  they  secured  the  absolute  command  of 
lake  Champlain,  through  which  the  colonists  must 
pass,  if  ever  a  descent  were  to  be  made  upon  Canada, 
either  to  conquer  the  country,  or  harass  its  out- 
settlements.  The  garrison  was,  at  first,  situated  on 
the  east  side  of  the  lake,  near  the  south  end ;  but 
was  afterwards  built  upon  a  commodious  point  on 
the  opposite  side.  Of  all  their  infractions  of  the 
treaty  of  Utrecht,  none  was  more  palpable  than  this. 
The  country  belonged  to  the  six  nations,  and  the 
very  spot  upon  which  this  fort  was  erected  was  in- 
cluded within  a  patent,  to  Dellius  the  Dutch  mi- 
nister of  Albany,  granted  under  the  great  seal  of 
this  province  in  1696.  Through  this  lake  the 
French  parties  made  their  incursions  upon  Sche- 
nectady,  the  Mohawks'  castles,  and  Deerfield;  and 
the  erection  of  this  fort  was  apparently  adapted  to 
facilitate  the  inroads  of  the  enemy  upon  the  frontiers 
of  the  colonies  of  New  York,  Massachusetts,  and 
New  Hampshire.  For  it  served  not  only  as  an  asy- 
lum to  fly  to,  after  the  perpetration  of  their  inhu- 
manities, but  for  a  magazine  of  provisions  and  am- 
munition; and  though  it  was  not  much  above  120 
miles  from  the  very  city  of  Albany,  yet  by  the  con- 
veyance through  Sorel  river  and  the  lake,  it  could  be 
reinforced  from  Montreal  in  three  or  four  days. 

The  Massachusetts  government  foresaw  the  dan- 
gprous  consequences  of  the  French  fort  at  Crown 
Point,  and  Governor  Belcher  gave  the  first  in- 
formation of  it,  in  a  letter  from  Boston  to  Mr.  Van 
Dam.  He  informed  him  of  the  vote  of  the  general 
court,  to  bear  their  proportion  of  the  charge  of  an 
embassage  to  Canada,  to  forbid  the  works,  and 
pressed  him  to  engage  the  opposition  of  the  six  na- 
tions. Van  Dam  laid  the  letter  before  his  council, 
on  the  4th  of  February,  1732 ;  who,  with  singular 
calmness,  advised  him  to  write  to  the  commissioners 
of  Indian  affairs,  at  Albany,  ordering  them  to  en- 
quire whether  the  land  belonged  to  the  confederates 
or  the  river  Indians.  Whether  the  governor  ever 
wrote  to  the  commissioners,  we  have  not  been  able  to 
discover;  nor  whether  any  complaint  of  the  en- 
croachment was  sent  home,  according  to  the  second 
advice  of  council  on  the  llth  of  February;  who, 
besides  the  first  step,  were  now  pleased  to  recom- 
mend his  transmitting  Governor  Belcher's  letter  and 
the  Boston  vote  to  the  several  south-western  colonies. 

A  very  good  scheme,  in  some  measure,  to  repair 
this  supineness,  was  afterwards  projected,  by  set- 
tling the  lands  near  lake  George  with  protestant 
Highlanders  from  Scotland.  Captain  Laughlin 
Campbel,  encouraged  by  a  proclamation  to  that  pur- 
pose, came  over  in  1737,  and  ample  promises  were 
made  to  him.  He  went  upon  the  land,  viewed,  and 
approved  it ;  and  was  entreated  to  settle  there,  even 
by  the  Indians,  who  were  taken  with  his  Highland 
dress.  Mr.  Clarke,  the  lieut.-governor,  promised 
him,  in  a  printed  advertisement,  the  grant  of  30,000 
acres  of  land,  free  from  all  but  the  charges  of  the 
survey  and  the  king's  quit-rent.  Confiding  on  the 
faith  of  the  government,  Captain  Campbel  went 


testant  families,  consisting  of  423  adults,  besides  a 
great  number  of  children.  Private  faith  and  pub- 
lic honour  loudly  demanded  tho  fair  execution  of  a 
project,  so  expensive  to  the  undertaker  and  bene- 
ficial to  the  colony.  But  it  unfortunately  dropped, 
through  the  sordid  views  of  some  persons  in  power, 
who  aimed  at  a  share  in  the  intended  grant ;  to 
which  Campbel,  who  was  a  man  of  spirit,  would  not 
consent. 

Captain  Campbel  afterwards  made  an  attempt  to 
redress  himself,  by  an  application  to  the  colonial 
assembly,  and  then  to  the  board  of  trade  in  Eng- 
land. The  first  proved  abortive,  and  such  were  the 
difficulties  attending  the  last,  that  he  left  his  colo- 
nists to  themselves ;  and,  with  the  poor  remains  of 
his  broken  fortune,  purchased  a  small  farm  in  this 
province.  No  man  could  have  been  better  qualified 
for  such  an  undertaking.  He  had  a  high  sense  of 
honour,  excellent  judgment,  and  was  of  a  military 
disposition.  Upon  the  news  of  the  rebellion  in  Scot- 
land, he  went  home;  fought  under  the  duke,  re- 
turned to  his  family,  and  soon  after  died ;  leaving  a 
widow  and  several  children,  who  long  felt  the  con- 
sequences of  his  disappointments. 

Mr.  Van  Dain  finished  his  administration  on  the 
1st  of  August,  1732;  when  William  Colsby,  Esq. 
arrived,  with  a  commission  to  govern  this  and  the 
province  of  New  Jersey. 

Having  been  the  advocate,  in  parliament,  of  the 
American  colonies,  he  was  at  first  popular,  but  soon 
lost  the  affection  and  confidence  of  the  people.  By 
his  instigation,  one  Zenger,  the  printer  of  a  news- 
paper, was  prosecuted  for  publishing  an  article,  de- 
clared to  be  derogatory  to  the  dignity  of  his  majes- 
ty's government.  He  was  zealously  defended  by 
able  counsel,  and  an  independent  jury  gave  a  ver- 
dict of  acquittal.  The  people  applauded  their  con* 
duct,  and  the  magistrates  of  the  city  of  New  York 
presented  to  Andrew  Hamilton,  one  of  his  defend- 
ers, the  freedom  of  the  city,  in  a  gold  box,  and 
their  thanks  for  "  his  learned  and  generous  defence 
of  the  rights  of  mankind,  and  the  liberty  of  the  press." 

Governor  Colsby  died  in  1736,  and  was  succeeded 
by  George  Clark,  at  that  time  senior  counsellor, 
but  soon  after  appointed  lieut-governor.  Again 
was  revived  the  contest  which  had  ended,  twenty 
years  before,  in  the  victory  gained  by  Governor 
Hunter  over  the  house  of  representatives.  The  co- 
lony being  in  debt,  the  house  voted  to  raise  the  sum 
of  6,000^. ;  but,  in  order  to  prevent  its  misapplica- 
tion, declared,  that  it  should  be  applied  to  the  pay- 
ment of  certain  specified  debts.  Offended  by  this 
vote,  Clark  resorted  to  the  expedient  which  had 
usually  been  adopted  to  punish  or  intimidate;  he 
immediately  dissolved  the  assembly. 

At  the  next  election  great  exertions  were  made 
by  the  opposing  parties.  The  popular  party  was 
triumphant.  At  their  second  session  the  house 
voted  an  address  to  the  lieut.-governor,  which  is 
worthy  of  particular  notice.  In  bold  and  explicit 
language  they  state  some  of  the  vital  principles  of 
free  government,  refer  to  recent  misapplications  of 
money,  and  proceed : 

"  We  therefore  beg  leave  to  be  plain  with  your 
honour,  and  hope  you  will  not  take  it  amiss  when 
we  tell  you,  that  you  are  not  to  expect  that  we  will 
either  raise  sums  unfit  to  be  raised,  or  put  what  we 
shall  raise  into  the  power  of  a  governor  to  misapply, 
if  we  can  prevent  it ;  nor  shall  we  makeup  any  other 
deficiencies  than  what  we  conceive  fit  and  just  to 


home  to   Isla,  sold  his  estate,   and,   shortly  after,    be  paid ;  nor  continue  what  support  or  revenue  we 
transported,  at  his  own  expense,  eighty-three  pro- 1  shall  raise,  for  any  longer  time  than  one  year;  nor 


UNITED  STATES. 


561 


do  we  think  it  convenient  to  do  even  that,  until 
such  laws  are  passed  as  we  conceive  necessary  for 
the  safety  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  colony,  who 
have  reposed  a  trust  in  us  for  that  only  purpose,  and 
which  we  are  sure  you  will  think  it  reasonable  we 
should  act  agreeably  to ;  and  by  the  grace  of  God 
we  shall  endeavour  not  to  deceive  them." 

With  a  body  of  men,  so  resolute  in  asserting  their 
rights,  the  lieut.-governor  wisely  forbore  to  contend. 
He  thanked  them  for  their  address,  and  promised 
his  cordial  co-operation  in  all  measures  calculated 
to  promote  the  prosperity  of  the  colony.  He  gave 
his  assent  to  a  law,  providing  for  the  more  frequent 
election  of  representatives;  which  law,  however, 
two  years  afterwards,  was  abrogated  by  the  king. 

But  between  a  house  of  representatives  and  a 
chief  magistrate,  deriving  their  authority  from  dif- 
ferent sources,  harmony  could  not  long  subsist.  Mr. 
Clark,  in  his  speech  at  the  opening  of  the  next  ses- 
sion, declared  that  unless  the  revenue  was  granted 
for  as  long  a  time  as  it  had  been  granted  by  former 
assemblies,  his  duty  to  his  majesty  forbade  him  from 
assenting  to  any  act  for  continuing  the  excise,  or  for 
paying  the  colonial  bills  of  credit.  The  house  una- 
nimously resolved,  that  it  would  not  pass  any  bill 
for  the  grant  of  money,  unless  assurance  should  be 
given  that  the  excise  should  be  continued,  and  the 
bills  of  credit  redeemed. 

The  lieut-governor  immediately  ordered  the  mem- 
bers to  attend  him.  He  told  them  that  "  their  pro- 
ceedings were  presumptuous,  daring,  and  unprece- 
dented ;  that  he  could  not  look  upon  them  without 
astonishment,  nor  with  honour  suffer  the  house  to 
sit  any  longer;"  and  he  accordingly  dissolved  it. 
Little  more  than  a  year  had  elapsed,  since  the 
members  were  chosen  ;  but  in  that  time  they  had, 
by  their  firm  and  spirited  conduct  in  support  of  the 
rights  of  the  people,  merited  the  gratitude  of  their 
constituents. 

About  this  time,  a  supposed  "  negro  plot"  occa- 
sioned great  commotion  and  alarm  in  the  city  of 
New  York.  The  frequent  occurrence  of  fires,  most 
of  which  were  evidently  caused  by  design,  first  ex- 
cited the  jealousy  and  suspicion  of  the  citizens. 
Terrified  by  danger  which  lurked  unseen  in  the 
midst  of  them,  they  listened  with  eager  credulity  to 
the  declaration  of  some  abandoned  females,  that  the 
negroes  had  combined  to  burn  the  city,  and  make 
one  of  their  number  governor.  Many  were  ar- 
rested and  committed  to  prison.  Other  witnesses, 
not  more  respectable  than  the  first,  came  forward ; 
other  negroes  were  accused,  and  even  several  white 
men  were  designated  as  concerned  in  the  plot. 

When  the  time  of  trial  arrived,  so  strong  was  the 
prejudice  against  the  miserable  negroes,  that  every 
lawyer  in  the  city  volunteered  against  them.  Igno- 
rant and  unassisted,  nearly  all  who  were  tried  were 
condemned.  Fourteen  were  sentenced  to  be  burned, 
eighteen  to  be  hung,  seventy-one  to  be  transported, 
and  all  these  sentences  were  executed.  Of  the 
whites  two  were  convicted  and  suffered  death. 

All  apprehension  of  danger  having  subsided,  many 
began  to  doubt  whether  any  plot  had  in  fact  been 


concerted.  None  of  the  witnesses  were  persons  of 
credit;  their  stories  were  extravagant  and  often  con- 
tradictory ;  and  the  project  was  such  as  none  but 
fools  or  madmen  would  form.  The  two  white  men 
were  respectable  ;  one  had  received  a  liberal  educa- 
tion, but  he  was  a  catholic,  and  the  prejudice  against 
catholics  was  too  violent  to  permit  the  free  exercise 
of  reason.  Some  of  the  accused  were  doubtless 
guilty  of  setting  fire  to  the  city ;  but  the  proof  of 
the  alleged  plot  was  not  sufficiently  clear  to  justify 
the  numerous  and  cruel  punishments  that  were  in- 
flicted. 

In  April,  1740,  the  assembly  again  met.  It  had 
now  risen  to  importance  in  the  colony.  The  ad- 
herence of  the  representatives  to  their  determination 
not  to  grant  the  revenue  for  more  than  one  year, 
made  annual  meetings  of  the  assembly  necessary. 
This  attachment  to  liberty  was  mistaken  for  the 
desire  of  independence.  Lieut.-governor  Clark, 
in  a  speech  delivered  in  1741,  alludes  to  "  a  jealousy 
which  for  some  years  had  obtained  in  England,  that 
the  plantations  were  not  without  thoughts  of  throw- 
ing off  their  dependence  on  the  crown." 

In  1743,  George  Clinton  was  sent  over  as  go- 
vernor of  the  colony.  Like  most  of  his  predecessors 
he  was  welcomed  with  joy;  and  one  of  his  earliest 
measures  confirmed  the  favourable  accounts  which 
had  preceded  him,  of  his  talents  and  liberality.  To 
show  his  willingness  to  repose  confidence  in  the  peo- 
ple, he  assented  to  a  bill  limiting  the  duration  of  the 
present  and  all  succeeding  assemblies.  The  house 
manifested  its  gratitude  by  adopting  the  measures 
he  recommended  for  the  defence  of  the  province 
against  the  French,  who  were  then  at  war  with 
England. 

In  1745,  the  savages  in  alliance  with  France 
made  frequent  invasions  of  the  English  territories. 
The  inhabitants  were  compelled  to  desert  Hosick; 
Saratoga  was  destroyed;  the  western  settlements  of 
New  England  were  often  attacked  and  plundered. 
Encouraged  by  success,  the  enemy  became  more 
daring,  and  small  parties  ventured  within  the  su- 
burbs of  Albany,  and  there  laid  in  wait  for  prisoners. 
It  is  even  said  that  one  Indian,  called  Tomonwile- 
mon,  often  entered  the  city  and  succeeded  in  taking 
captives. 

Distressed  by  these  incursions,  the  assembly,  in, 
1746,  determined  to  unite  with  the  other  colonies 
and  the  mother  country  in  an  expedition  against 
Canada.  They  appropriated  money  to  purchase 
provisions  for  the  army,  and  offered  liberal  bounties 
to  recruits.  But  the  fleet  from  England  did  not 
arrive  at  the  appointed  time ;  the  other  colonies  were 
dilatory  in  their  preparations,  and  before  they  were 
completed,  the  season  for  military  operations  had 
passed  away.  A  sufficient  account  of  which  has  been 
already  given  in  the  histories  of  the  other  colonies. 

Early  in  the  next  year  a  treaty  was  concluded, 
and  the  inhabitants  were  for  a  short  period  relieved 
from,  the  burdens  and  distresses  of  war.  And  no- 
thing of  very  great  importance  took  place  from 
this  period,  to  the  commencement  of  the  revolu- 
tionary war,  of  which  a  general  history  will  be  given. 


HIST.  OF  AMER.— Nos.  71  &  72. 


31 


NEW    JERSEY. 


First  settlers  —  Acquirement  by  the  English — Lord 
Berkeley  and  Sir  George  Carteret,  proprietors — Pur- 
chase of  Elizabeth  Toun,  and  settlement  of  Newark, 
Middletoum,  and  Shrewsbury — Philip  Carteret,  go- 
vernor— Purchases  from  the  Indians — Capt.  Berry, 
deputy  governor — Currency — Sir  Georye  Carieret's 
additional  instructions. 

As  the  first  settlement  of  this  part  of  the  United 

tates,  and  the  contests  with  tho  foreign  settlers  have 

Ireauy  been  sufficiently  enlarged  upon  in  the  history 

f  the  state  of  New  York,  we  shall  at  first  merely 

•ecapitulatc  such  events  as  are  necessary  to   give  a 

connected  view  of  its  early  colonization. 

The  first  settlement  of  New  Jersey  was  made  by 
the  Danes,  about  the  year  1624,  at  a  place  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Hudson,  about  three  miles  west  of  New 
York,  called  Bergen,  from  a  city  of  that  name  in 
Norway.  Soon  afterwards  several  Dutch  families 
seated  themselves  in  the  vicinity  of  New  York.  In 
1625,  a  company  was  formed  in  Sweden,  under  the 
patronage  of  King  Gustavus  Adolphus,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  planting  a  colony  in  America.  The  next 
year,  a  number  of  Swedes  and  Finns  emigrated,  and 
purchased  of  the  natives  the  land  on  both  sides  of 
the  river  Delaware,  but  made  their  first  settlement 
on  its  western  bank  near  Christina  creek. 

About  the  year  1640,  the  English  began  a  planta- 
tion at  Elsmgburgh,  on  its  eastern  bank.  The 
Swedes,  in  concert  with  the  Dutch,  who  then  pos- 
sessed New  York,  drove  them  out  of  the  country. 
The  former  built  a  fort  on  the  spot  whence  the  Eng- 
lish had  been  driven ;  and  gaining  thus  the  com- 
mand of  the  river,  claimed  and  exercised  authority 
over  all  vessels  that  entered  it,  even  those  of  the 
Dutch,  their  late  associates. 

They  continued  ia  possession  of  the  country,  on 
both  sides  of  the  Delaware,  until  1655,  when  Peter 
Stuyvesant,  governor  of  the  New  Netherlands,  hav- 
ing obtained  assistance  from  Holland,  conquered 
all  their  posts,  and  transported  most  of  the  Swedes 
to  Europe.  The  Dutch  were  now  in  possession  of 
the  territory  comprising,  at  this  time,  the  states  of 
New  Jersey,  New  York,  and  Delaware. 

This  extensive  territory,  however,  soon  changed 
masters.  King  Charles  II,  having  granted  it  to  the 
Duke  of  York,  sent  an  armament  in  1664  to  wrest 
it  from  the  Dutch,  which,  after  reducing  New  York, 
proceeded  to  the  settlements  on  the  Delaware, 
which  immediately  submitted.  In  the  same  year 
the  duke  conveyed  that  portion  of  his  grant,  lying 
between  Hudson  and  Delaware  rivers,  to  Lord 
Berkeley  and  Sir  George  Carteret;  as  already  nar- 
rated in  the  history  of  New  York.  This  tract  was 
called  New  Jersey,  in  compliment  to  Sir  George, 
who  had  been  governor  of  the  island  of  Jersey,  and 
had  held  it  for  King  Charles  in  his  contest  with  the 
parliament.  The  two  proprietors  formed  a  consti- 


tution for  the  colony,  securing  equal  privileges  and 
liberty  of  conscience  to  all,  and  it  consequently  be- 
came popular  and  rapidly  increased. 

In  1664,  John  Bailey,  Daniel  Denton,  and  Luke 
Watson,  of  Jamaica,  on  Long  Island,  purchased  of 
certain  Indian  chiefs,  inhabitants  of  Staten  Island, 
a  tract  of  land,  on  part  of  which  the  town  of  Eliza- 
beth now  stands,  and  for  which  (on  their  petition) 
Richard  Nicolls,  governor  under  the  duke,  granted 
a  patent  to  John  Baker,  of  New  York,  John  Ogden, 
of  Northampton,  John  Bailey,  and  Luke  Watson, 
and  their  associates,  dated  at  fort  James  in  New- 
York,  the  2d  of  December.  This  was  before  Lord 
Berkeley's  and  Sir  George  Carteret' s  title  was 
known  ;  and  by  this  means,  this  part  of  the  province 
had  some  few  very  early  settlements,  and  whether 
even  Middletovvu  and  Shrewsbury  had  not  Dutch 
and  English  inhabitants  before,  cannot  now  be  as- 
certained. About  this  time  there  was  a  great  influx 
of  industrious  and  reputable  farmers,  the  English 
inhabitants  from  the  west  end  of  Long  Island 
almost  generally  removing  to  settle  here,  most  of 
whom  fixed  about  Middletown,  from  whence  by  de- 
grees they  extended  their  settlements  to  Freehold 
and  its  neighbourhood.  To  Shrewsbury  there  came 
many  families  from  New  England  ;  and  there  were 
soon  four  towns  in  the  province,  viz.,  Elizabeth, 
Newark,  Middletown,  and  Shrewsbury ;  and  these 
with  the  adjacent  country  were  in  a  few  years  plenti- 
fully inhabited,  by  the  accession  of  many  Scotch,  by 
settlers  from  England,  and  those  of  the  Dutch  who 
had  remained,  and  also  by  some  emigrants  from  the 
neighbouring  colonies. 

Lord  Berkeley  and  Sir  George  Carteret  ap- 
pointed Philip  Carteret  governor  of  New  Jersey, 
and  gave  him  power,  with  the  advice  of  the  major 
part  of  the  council,  to  grant  lands  to  all  such  as  by 
the  concessions  were  entitled  thereto ;  and  though 
there  is  no  provision  in  the  concessions  for  bargain- 
ing with  the  Indians,  Governor  Carteret  on  his  ar- 
rival thought  it  prudent  to  purchase  their  rights, 
which  was  to  be  done  for  sums  very  inconsiderable, 
in  comparison  with  the  damage  a  neglect  might 
have  occasioned.  Though  the  Indians  about  the 
English  settlements  were  not  at  this  time  consider- 
able as  to  numbers,  they  were  strong  in  their  alli- 
ances, and  besides  of  themselves  could  easily  annoy 
the  out-plantations  ;  and  there  having  been  before 
several  considerable  skirmishes  between  the  Dutch 
and  them,  in  which  some  blood  had  been  spilt,  they 
were  not  considered  to  be  friendly ;  the  governor 
therefore  ordered  that  the  settlers  were  either  tfl 
purchase  of  the  Indians  themselves,  or  if  the  lands 
were  before  purchased,  they  were  to  pay  their  pro* 
portions.  The  event  justified  his  caution;  for  a* 
the  Indians  parted  with  the  lands  to  their  own  satis- 
faction, they  became,  instead  of  jealous  enemies, 
serviceable  neighbours,  and  though  frequent  report* 


UNITED  STATES. 


563 


of  their  coming  to  kill  the  white  people  sometimes 
disturbed  their  repose,  no  instance  occurs  of  their 
hurting  the  English. 

Governor  Carteret  did  not  arrive  until  the  latter 
end  of  the  summer  of  1665,  during  which  time  the 
province  was  under  Nicolls's  jurisdiction.     On  the 
arrival   of   the   former,    he    summoned    a   council, 
granted  lands,   and   administered   the   government 
according  to  the   plan    of  the   two    chief  proprie- 
tors ;  and  took  up  his  residence  at  Elizabeth  Town, 
to   which  it  is  said   he   gave   the  name   after    Eli- 
zabeth, wife  of  Sir  George  Carteret.      With  him 
came  about  thirty  people,  some  of  them  servants, 
who   brought   goods    proper    for    the    planting   a 
new  country;    and  the   governor   soon   afterwards 
sent  persons  into  New  England  and  other  places, 
to  publish  the  proprietors'  terms,  or  concessions  as 
they   were  called,  and  to  invite  people   to    settle 
there,  upon  which  many  soon  came  from  thence ; 
some  settled  at  Elizabeth  Town,  others  at  Wood- 
bridge,   Piscatawa,  and  Newark.      The  ship    that 
brought  the  governor,  having  remained  about  six 
months,   returned  to  England,   and  the  year  after 
made  another  voyage,     Sundry  other  vessels  were 
from  time  to  time  sent  by  the  proprietors  with  peo- 
ple and  goods,  to  encourage  the  planting  and  peo- 
pling their  lands.     Thus  the  province  of  East  New 
Jersey  increased  in  settlement,  and  continued  to 
grow  till  the  invasion  in  1673,  when    the    Dutch 
having  got  possession  of  the  country,  some  stop  was 
put  to   the  English   government ;    but  the   treaty 
afterwards  between  Charles  II.   and  the  states-ge^ 
neral  at  London,  1673-4,  settled  all  general  diffi 
culties  of  that  kind  by  the  sixth  article,  which  states 
"  That  whatever  country,  island,  town,  haven,  castle 
or  fortress,  hath  been,  or  shall  be  taken  by  eithe 
party  from  the  other  since  the  beginning  of  the  lat< 
unhappy  war,   whether  in  Europe  or  elsewhere,  am 
before  the  expiration  of  the  times  above  limited  fo 
hostility,  shall  be  restored  to  the  former  owner  in 
the   same  condition  it  shall  be  in  at  the  time  o 
publishing  this  peace." 

Though  the  inhabitants  were  at  variance  amon 
themselves,  there  was  a  constant  resort  of  settler 
between  the  years  1665  and  1673,  which  increase 
even  faster  afterwards.  The  Elizabeth  Town  pur 
chasers  and  others,  setting  up  a  right  differing  i: 
some  respects  from  that  of  the  proprietors,  an 
other  incidents  of  an  inconsiderable  natuie  occur 
ing,  nourished  by  a  more  vindictive  spirit  on  a 
sides  than  was  necessary  or  prudent,  occasione 
much  disturbance.  Carteret  «ailed  for  England  i 
the  summer  of  1672,  and  left  Capt.  John  Berry  as  hi 
deputy.  He  returned  in  1674,  and  found  the  in 
habitants  more  disposed  to  union  among  themselves 
and  bringing  with  him  the  king's  proclamation,  an 
a  fresh  commission  and  instructions  from  Sir  Georg 
Carteret,  he  summoned  the  people,  and  had  the 
all  published,  which  had  a  good  effect  towards  re 
storing  his  authority,  and  the  public  peace.  H 
remained  governor  till  his  death  in  1682.  In  h 
time  the  general  assemblies  and  supreme  courts  si 
at  Elizabeth  Town,  and  the  councils  generally 
there  the  secretary's  office,  and  most  other  publ 
offices  were  held  j  and  there  also  most  of  the  office 
of  the  government  resided. 

Eight  white  wampum,  or  four  black,  passed  at  th 
time  as  a  stiver;  twenty  stivers  made  what  they  call 
a  guilder,  which  was  about  sixpence  currency.  Th 
white  wampum  was  worked  out  of  the  inside  of  th 
great  conques  into  the  form  of  a  bead,  and  perforate 
to  string  on  leather.  The  black  or  purple  was  work* 


ut  of  the  inside  of  the  mussell  or  clam-shell ;  they 
ere  sometimes  wove  as  broad  as  the  hand,  and  about 
70  feet  long ;  these  the  Indians  call  belts,  and  corn- 
only  gave  and  received  at  treaties,  as  seals  of 
cir  friendship.  For  lesser  matters  a  single  string 
given.  Every  bead  is  of  a  known  value,  and  a 
elt  of  a  less  number  is  made  to  equal  one  of  a 
reater,  by  so  many  as  is  wanting  fastened  to  the 
elt  by  a  string. 

Wampum  was  the  chief  currency  of  the  country  : 
reat  quantities  had  been  formerly  brought  in,  but 
le  Indians  had  carried  so  much  away,  it  was  now 
rown  scarce ;  and  this  was  thought  to  be  owing  to 
;s  low  value.  To  increase  it,  the  governor  and 
ouncil  at  York  issued  a  proclamation  in  1673,  that 
nstead  of  eight  white  and  four  black,  six  white  and 
iree  black  wampums  should  pass  in  equal  value  as 

stiver  or  penny;  and  three  times  so  much  the 
alue  in  silver.  This  proclamation  was  published 
t  Albany,  Eusopus,  Delaware,  Long  Island,  and 
arts  adjacent. 

Mention  has  already  been  made  that  Sir  George 
Carteret,  by  his  instructions  to  Governor  Carteret, 
onfirmed  the  original  concessions,  with  additions 
.nd  explanations.  These  bore  date  the  13th  of 
Fuly,  1674:  and,  among  other  things,  they  directed 
hat  the  governor  and  council  should  allow  eighty 
acres  per  head,  to  settlers  above  ten  miles  from  the 
,ea,  the  Delaware,  or  other  river  navigable  with 
>oats ;  and  to  those  that  settled  nearer,  sixty  acres : 
hat  the  land  should  be  purchased  from  the  Indians, 
as  occasion  required,  by  the  governor  and  council, 
n  the  name  of  the  proprietors,  who  were  to  be  re- 
mid  by  the  settlers  with  charges :  that  all  strays  of 
leasts  at  land,  and  wrecks  at  sea,  should  belong  to 
the  proprietor;  and  that  all  persons  discovering 
any  such  thing,  should  have  satisfaction  for  their 
pains  and  care,  as  the  governor  and  council  might 
think  fit 

Major  Andross  appointed  governor  at  New  York — 
Takes  possession  at  Delaware — Arrival  of  the  first 
English  settlers  to  West  Jersey,  under  the  Duke  of 
York's  title — Lord  Berkeley  assigns  his  moiety  of 
New  Jersey  to  Byllinge,  and  he  in  trust  to  others — 
Their  letter  and  first  commission — New  Jersey  di- 
vided into  the  provinces,  East  and  West  Jersey  ;  and 
the  declaration  of  the  West  Jersey  proprietors. 

About  the  month  of  October,  1674,  Major  Ed- 
mund Andross  arrived  as  governor,  under  the  Duke 
of  York  ;  he  soon  after  authorized  Captain  Cantwell 
and  William  Tomm  to  take  possession  of  the  fort 
and  stores  at  New  Castle,  for  the  king's  use,  pursu- 
ant to  the  late  treaty  of  peace,  and  to  take  such 
other  measures  for  their  settlement  and  repose  at 
New  Castle,  the  Hoarkills,  and  other  parts  of  Dela- 
ware, as  they  thought  best ;  requiring  them  to  be- 
have towards  the  neighbouring  colonies  in  an  ami- 
cable manner. 

The  half  part  of  the  province  of  New  Jersey, 
belonging  to  Lord  Berkeley,  was  about  this  time 
(1675)  sold  to  John  Fenwick,  in  trust  for  Edward 
Byllinge  and  his  assigns.  Fenwick  in  1675  ar- 
rived from  London  after  a  good  passage,  and  landed 
at  a  pleasant  spot  situate  near  Delaware,  by  him 
called  Salem,  probably  from  the  peaceable  aspect  it 
then  bore.  Ha  brought  with  him  two  daughters 
and  many  servants,  two  of  which,  Samuel  Hedge 
and  John  Adams,  afterwards  married  his  daughters; 
the  other  passengers  were,  Edward  Champness, 
Edward  Wade,  Samuel  Wade.  John  Smith  and  his 
wife,  Samuel  Nichols,  Richard  Guy,  Richard  Noble, 

312 


664 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Richard  Hancock,  John  Pledger,  Hipolite  Lufever, 
and  John  Matlock :  these,  and  others  with  them, 
were  masters  of  families,  and  most  of  them  quakers. 
This  was  the  first  English  ship  that  came  with  emi- 
grants to  West  Jersey,  and  none  followed  for  nearly 
two  years,  owing  probably  to  a  difference  between 
Fenwick  and  Byllinge. 

But  this  difference  being  settled  to  the  satisfaction 
of  both  parties,  by  the  good  offices  of  William  Penn, 
Byllinge  agreed  to  present  his  interest  in  the  pro- 
vince of  New  Jersey  to  his  creditors,  as  all  that  he 
had  left  towards  their  satisfaction,  and  desired 
Penn  to  join  Gawen  Lawrie  and  Nicholas  Lucas 
(two  of  his  creditors)  in  becoming  his  trustees. 
Penn,  at  first  unwilling,  was  by  the  importunity  of 
some  of  the  creditors  prevailed  on ;  and  with  the 
others  accepting  the  charge,  they  became  trustees 
for  one  moiety  or  half  part  of  the  province,  which 
though  then  undivided,  they  soon  sold  a  consider- 
able number  of  shares  of  their  propriety  to  different 
purchasers,  who  thereupon  became  proprietors  (ac- 
cording to  their  different  shares)  in  common  with 
them ;  and  it  being  necessary  that  some  scheme 
should  be  laid  down,  as  well  for  the  better  distri- 
bution of  rights  to  land,  as  to  promote  the  settle- 
ment, and  ascertain  a  form  of  government;  terms 
were  drawn,  mutually  agreed  on,  and  signed  by 
most  part  of  the  subscribers.  It  was  next  the  busi- 
ness of  the  proprietors  who  held  immediately  under 
Lord  Berkeley  to  procure  a  division  of  the  province, 
which  after  some  time  was  effected;  and  then  as  an 
expedient  for  the  present  well-ordering  matters, 
they  wrote  the  following  letter,  which  is  inserted,  as 
containing  at  once  an  explanation  of  their  conduct, 
and  as  illustrative  of  the  manners  of  the  period. 

"  London,  26th  of  the  6th  month,  1676. 
"Richard  Hartshorne, — We  have  made  use  of 
thy  name  in  a  commission  and  instructions,  which 
we  have  sent  by  James  Wasse,  who  is  gone  in 
Samuel  Groome's  ship  for  Maryland,  a  copy  of  which 
is  here  inclosed ;  and  also  a  copy  of  a  letter  we  have 
sent  to  John  Fenwick,  to  be  read  to  him  in  pre- 
sence of  as  many  of  the  people  that  went  with  him 
as  may  be;  and  because  we  both  expect,  and  als 
entreat,  and  desire  thy  assistance  in  the  same,  we 
will  a  little  shew  things  to  thee,  that  thou  mayest  in- 
form not  only  thyself,  but  friends  there ;  which  in 
short  is  as  follows. 

"  1st.  We  have  divided  with  George  Carteret,  and 
have  sealed  deeds  of  partition,  -each  to  the  other 
and  we  have  all  that  side  on  Delaware  river  fron 
one  end  to  the  other ;  the  line  of  partition  is  from 
the  east  side  of  little  Egg  Harbour,  straight  north 
through  the  country,  to  the  utmost  branch  of  Dela 
ware  river,  with  all  powers,  privileges,  and  immu 
nities  whatsover ;  ours  is  called  New  West  Jersey 
his  is  called  New  East  Jersey. 

"  2d.  We  have  made  concessions  by  ourselves 
being  such  as  friends  here  and  there   (we  question 
not)  will  approve  of,  having  sent  a  copy  of  them  by 
James  Wassc ;  there  we  lay  a  foundation  for  afte 
ages  to  understand   their  liberty  as  men  and  chris 
tians,  that  they  may  not  be  brought  into  bondage,  bu 
by  their  own  consent;  for  we  put  the  power  in  th 
people,  that  is  to  say,  they  to  meet  and  choose  on 
honest  man  for  each  propriety,  who  hath  subscribe 
to  the  concessions  ;  all  these  men  to  meet  as  an  as 
sembly  there,  to  make  and  repeal  laws,  to  choose 
governor,  or  a  commissioner,  and  twelve  assistants 
to  execute  the  laws  during  their  pleasure ;  so  ever 
man  is  capable  to  choose  or  be  chosen.     No  man  t 
b.«  arrested,  condemned,  imprisoned,  or  molested  i 


is  estate  or  liberty,  but  by  twelve  men  of  the 
eighbourhood.  No  man  to  lie  in  prison  for  debt, 
ut  that  his  estate  satisfy  as  far  as  it  will  go,  and 
e  set  at  liberty  to  work.  No  person  to  be  called 
i  question  or  molested  for  his  conscience,  or  for 
orshipping  according  to  his  conscience  ;  with  many 
lore  things  mentioned  in  the  said  concessions. 

"  3.  We  have  sent  over  by  James  Wasse,  a  com- 
mission under  our  hands  and  seals,  wherein  we  im- 
ower  thyself,  James  Wasse  and  Richard  Guy,  or 
ny  two  of  you,  to  act  and  do  according  to  the  in- 
truclions,  of  which  here  is  a  copy ;  having  also 
ent  some  goods,  to  buy  and  purchase  some  land  of 
ic  natives. 

"  4.  We  intend  in  the  spring  to  send  over  some 
more  commissioners,   with   the  friends  and  people 
lat  cometh  there,  because  James  Wasse  is  to  re- 
urn   in   Samuel   Groom's  ship  for  England  :    for 
lichard  Guy,  we  judge  him   to  be  an  honest  man, 
et  we  are  afraid  that  John  Fenwick  will  hurt  him, 
nd  get  him  to  condescend  to  things  that  may  not 
e  for  the  good  of  the  whole  ;  so  we  hope  thou  wilt 
alance  him  to  what  is  just  and  fair,  that  John  Fen- 
wick betray  him  not,   that  things  may  go  on  easy 
without  hurt  or  jar,  which  is  the  desire  of  all  friends; 
ind  we  hope  West  Jersey  will  be  soon  planted,  it 
>eing  in  the  minds  of  many  friends  to  prepare  for 
heir  going  against  the  spring. 

"  5.  Having  thus  far  given  thee  a  sketch  of  things, 
we  come  now  to  desire  thy  assistance,  and  the  assist- 
ance of  other  friends  in  your  parts;  and  we  hope  it 
will  be  at  length  an  advantage  to  you  there,  both 
upon  truth's  account,  and  other  ways ;  and  in  re- 
jard  many  families  more  may  come  over  in  the 
spring  to  Delaware  side,  to  settle  and  plant,  and 
,vill  be  assigned  by  us  to  take  possession  of  their 
^articular  lots  ;  we  do  intreat  and  desire,  that  thou, 
snowing  the  country,  and  how  to  deal  with  the  na- 
:ives,  we  say,  that  thee  and  some  other  friends  would 
go  over  to  Delaware  side  as  soon  as  this  comes  to 
your  hands,  or  as  soon  as  you  can  conveniently; 
and  James  Wasse  is  to  come  to  a  place  called  New 
Castle,  on  the  other  side  of  Delaware  river,  to  stay 
for  thee,  and  any  that  will  go  with  him ;  and  you 
all  to  advise  together  and  find  out  a  fit  place  to 
take  up  for  a  town,  and  agree  with  the  natives  for  a 
tract  of  land,  and  then  let  it  be  surveyed  and  di- 
vided into  one  hundred  parts,  for  that  is  the  method 
we  have  agreed  to  take,  and  we  cannot  alter  it ; 
and  if  you  set  men  to  work  to  clear  some  of  the 
ground,  we  would  be  at  the  charges ;  and  we  do  in- 
tend to  satisfy  thee  for  any  charge  thou  art  at,  and 
for  thy  pains.  This  we  would  not  have  neglected  ; 
for  we  know,  and  you  that  are  there  know,  that  if 
the  land  be  not  taken  up  before  the  spring,  that 
many  people  come  over  there,  the  natives  will  in- 
sist on  high  demands,  and  so  we  shall  suffer  by 
buying  at  dear  rates,  and  our  friends  that  cometh 
over  be  at  great  trouble  and  charges  until  a  place 
be  bought  and  divided,  for  we  do  not  like  the  tract 
of  land  John  Fenwick  hath  bought,  so  as  to  make 
it  our  first  settlement ;  but  we  would  have  thee  and 
friends  there,  to  provide  and  take  up  a  place  on 
some  creek  or  river,  that  may  lie  nearer  you,  and 
such  a  place  as  you  may  like ;  for  may  be  it  may 
come  in  your  minds  to  come  over  to  our  side,  when 
you  see  the  hand  of  the  Lord  with  us,  and  so  we 
can  say  no  more,  but  leave  the  thing  with  you,  be- 
lieving that  friends  there  will  have  a  regard  to 
friends  settling,  that  it  may  be  done  in  that  way  and 
method,  that  may  be  for  the  good  of  the  whole ; 
rest  thy  friends,  Gawen  Laurie,  William  Penn, 


UNITED  STATES. 


565 


Nicholas  Lucas,   E.  Byllinge,   John  Edridge,   Ed- 
moud  Warner. 

"  London,  the  18th  of  6th  month  called 
August,  1676. 

"  We  whose  names  are  hereunder  subscribed,  do 
give  full  power,  commission,  and  authority,  unto 
James  Wasse,  Richard  Hartshorne,  and  liichard 
Guy,  or  any  two  of  them,  to  act  and  do  for  us  ac 
cording  to  the  following  instructions ;  and  we  do 
engage  to  ratify  and  confirm  whatsoever  they  shall 
do  in  prosecution  of  the  same. 

"  1.  We  desire  you  to  get  a  meeting  with  John 
Fenwick,  and  the  people  that  went  with  him,  (but 
we  would  not  have  you  tell  your  business,)  until  you 
get  them  together;  then  shew  and  read  the  deed  of 
partition  with  George  Carteret ;  also  the  transac- 
tions between  William  Penn,  Nicholas  Lucas,  Ga- 
wen  Lawrie,  John  Edridge,  and  Edmond  Warner, 
and  then  read  our  letter  to  John  Fenwick  and  the 
rest,  and  shew  John  Fenwick  he  hath  no  power  to 
sell  any  land  there,  without  the  consent  of  John 
Edridge  and  Edmond  Warner. 

"  2.  Know  of  John  Fenwick,  if  he  will  be  willing 
peaceably  to  let  the  land  he  hath  taken  up  of  the 
natives  be  divided  into  one  hundred  parts,  accord- 
ing to  our  and  his  agreement  in  England,  casting 
lots  for  the  same,  we  being  willing  that  those  who  being 
settled  and  have  cultivated  ground  now  with  him,  shall 
enjoy  the  same,  without  being  turned  out,  although 
they  fall  into  our  lots  :  Always  provided,  that  we  be 
reimbursed  the  like  value  and  quantity  in  goodness 
out  of  John  Fen  wick's  lots  :  And  we  are  also  con- 
tent to  pay  our  ninetieth  parts  of  what  is  paid  to 
the  natives  for  the  same,  and  for  what  James  Wasse 
hath  purchased  of  John  Fenwick,  and  he  setting  out 
the  same  unto  him,  not  being  in  a  place  to  be  al- 
lotted for  a  town  upon  a  river,  but  at  a  distance,  and 
the  said  John  Fenwick  allowing  us  the  like  value  in 
goodness  in  some  other  of  his  lots;  we  are  willing 
he  shall  possess  the  same  from  any  claiming  by  or 
under  us ;  and  for  the  town  lots  we  are  willing  he 
enjoy  the  same  as  freely  as  any  purchaser  buying 
of  us. 

"  3.  Take  informations  from  some  that  know  the 
soundings  of  the  river  and  creeks,  and  that  are  ac- 
quainted in  the  country ;  and  when  James  Wasse  is 
in  Maryland,  he  may  enquire  for  one  Augustin, 
who  as  we  hear  did  sound  most  part  of  Delaware 
river  and  the  creeks.  lie  is  an  able  surveyor;  see 
to  agree  with  him  to  go  with  you  up  the  river  as  far 
as  over  against  New  Castle,  or  further  if  you  can, 
so  far  as  a  vessel  of  a  hundred  ton  can  go,  for  we 
intend  to  have  a  way  cut  across  the  country  to 
Sandy-Hook,  so  the  further  up  the  way  the  shorter ; 
and  there,  upon  some  creek  or  bay  in  some  healthy 
ground,  find  out  a  place  fit  to  make  a  settlement 
for  a  town ;  and  then  go  to  the  Indians  and  agree 
with  them  for  a  tract  of  land  about  the  said  place, 
of  twenty  or  thirty  miles  long,  more  or  less,  as  you 
see  meet,  and  as  broad  as  you  see  meet.  If  it  be  to 
the  middle,  we  care  not;  only  enquire  if  George 
Carteret  hath  not  purchased  some  there  already, 
that  so  you  may  not  buy  it  over  again. 

"  4.  Then  lay  out  four  or  five  thousand  acres  for 
a  town ;  and  if  Augustin  will  undertake  to  do  it  rea- 
sonably, let  him  do  it,  for  he  is  the  fittest  man ;  and 
if  he  think  he  cannot  survey  so  much,  being  in  the 
winter  time,  then  let  him  lay  out  the  less  for  a  town 
at  present,  if  it  be  but  two  thousand  acres,  and  let 
hita  divide  it  in  a  hundred  parts ;  and  when  it  is 
done,  let  John  Fenwick,  if  he  please,  be  there  ;  how- 
ever, let  him  have  notice :  but,  however,  let  some 


of  you  be  there  to  see  the  lots  cast  fairly  by  one 
person  that  is  not  concerned.  The  lots  are  from 
number  one  to  a  hundred,  and  put  the  same  num- 
bers of  the  lots  on  the  partition  trees  for  distinction. 

"  5.  If  John  Fenwick,  and  those  concerned  with 
him,  be  willing  to  join  with  you  in  those  things  as 
above,  which  is  just  and  fair,  then  he  or  any  of  them 
may  go  along  with  you  in  your  business ;  and  let 
them  pay  their  proportion  of  what  is  paid  to  the  na- 
tives, with  other  charges  :  And  so  he  and  they  may 
dispose  of  their  lots  with  consent  of  John  Edridge 
and  Edmond  Warner ;  which  lots  are,  20,  21,  26, 
27,  36,  47,  50,  57,  63,  72. 

"  6.  If  John  Fenwick  and  his  people  refuse  to  let 
the  land  they  have  taken  up  of  the  natives  be  di- 
vided, and  refuse  to  join  with  you,  you  may  let  the 
country  know  in  what  capacity  John  Fenwick 
stands,  that  he  hath  no  power  over  the  persons  or 
estates  of  any  man  or  woman  more  than  any  other 
person. 

"  7.  What  land  you  take  of  the  natives,  let  it  be 
taken,  viz.  ninety  parts  for  the  use  of  William  Penn, 
Gawen  Lawrie,  and  Nicholas  Lucas,  and  ten  parts 
for  John  Edridge  and  Edmond  Warner. 

"  8.  After  you  have  taken  the  land  as  above,  and 
divided  for  a  town  or  settlement,  and  cast  lots  for  the 
same  as  above  ;  then  if  any  have  a  mind  to  buy  one 
or  more  proprieties,  sell  them  at  two  hundred  pound 
specie,  they  taking  their  lots  as  theirs  do;  paying 
to  you  in  hand  the  value  of  fifty  pounds  in  part  of 
a  propriety,  and  the  rest  on  sealing  their  convey- 
ance in  London,  and  so  they  may  presently  settle. 
When  any  of  the  lots  fall  to  us,  that  is  to  say,  he 
that  buyeth  a  propriety  may  settle  on  any  one  lot 
of  ninety  parts  ;  which  said  persons  that  buy  and 
what  lots  fall  to  them,  there  they  may  settle,  and 
acquaint  us  what  numbers  they  are  ;  and  if  any  will 
take  land  to  them  and  their  heirs  for  ever,  for  every 
acre  taken  up  in  a  place  laid  out  for  a  town,  accord- 
ing to  the  concessions,  they  are  not  to  have  above  . 
what  shall  fall  by  lot  to  a  propriety  in  a  town. 

'•'  9.  What  charges  James  Wasse  is  at,  by  taking 
up  the  land  of  the  natives,  we  do  oblige  to  pay  the 
same  unto  him  again,  with  what  profits  is  usual 
there  upon  English  goods ;  and  he  may  pitch  upon 
two  lots,  one  in  each  town,  if  they  be  taken  up  be- 
fore he  comes  away  to  his  own  proper  use,  for  his 
trouble  and  pains.  And  we  do  also  engage  to  allow 
and  pay  what  charges  any  of  our  commissioners 
shall  disburse  in  executing  these  our  instructions, 
to  th?m  or  their  assigns. 

'  10.  Let  us  be  advised  by  the  first  ship  that 
cometh  for  England,  of  all  proceedings  hereupon, 
and  write  to  the  friends  at  Sandy  Hook,  letting  them 
know  how  things  are,  and  that  we  have  divided  with 
George  Carteret,  and  that  our  division  is  all  along  on 
Delaware  river;  and  that  we  have  made  conces- 
sions by  ourselves,  which  we  hope  will  satisfy  friends 
there.  If  John  Fenwick,  or  any  of  the  people  with 
him,  d»sire  a  copy  of  the  deed  of  partition,  let  them 
have  it. 

'11.  We  desire  that  our  original  deed  maybe 
kept  in  your  own  custody,  that  it  may  be  ready  to 
shew  unto  the  rest  of  the  commissioners,  whir:h  we 
ntend  to  send  over  in  the  spring,  with  full  power 
'or  settling  things,  and  to  lay  out  land  and  dispose 
upon  it,  and  for  the  settling  some  method  of  govern- 
ment accoi'dirig  to  the  concessions. 

'•'  12.  If  you  cannot  get  Augustin  to  go  with  you, 
or  that  he  be  unreasonable  in  his  demands;  then 
send  a  man  to  Thomas  Bushroods,  at  Essex  lodge, 
n  York  river,  for  William  Elliot,  who  writes  to 


566 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Gawin  Lawrie  this  year,  and  offered  himself  to  be 
surveyor,  and  tell  him  you  had  orders  from  said 
Lawrie  to  send  for  him,  and  take  him  with  you. 
He  will  be  willing  to  be  there  all  winter,  and  will 
survey  and  do  other  things.  He  had  a  good  occu- 
pation in  Virginia,  but  was  not  able  to  keep  it;  he 
is  a  fair  conditioned  sober  man  ;  let  him  stay  there 
all  winter,  and  order  him  something  to  live  upon. 

"  13.  If  the  said  Elliot  go  with  you,  give  him  di- 
rections what  to  do.  If  you  cannot  stay  till  a  place 
for  a  town  be  surveyed,  yet  we  think  you  may  stay 
until  you  have  not  only  pitched  upon  a  place  for  a 
town,  but  also  upon  a  place  for  a  second  town  and 
settlement,  and  have  marked  out  the  place  round 
about  there,  and  let  William  Elliot  divide  both, 
which  no  doubt  but  he  may  do  before  the  spring, 
that  we  send  over  more  commissioners  and  people; 
and  if  John  Fenwick  be  willing  to  go  on  jointly  with 
you  there,  his  surveyor  may  go  along  and  help  ours, 
and  the  charges  shall  be  brought  in  for  both  pro- 
portionably  on  all.  Mind  this,  and  speak  to  Rich- 
ard Guy,  or  Richard  Hartshorne,  and  leave  orders 
with  them  to  let  William  Elliot  have  provisions  for 
himself  till  spring,  and  we  shall  order  them  satisfac- 
tion for  the  same ;  and  if  there  be  no  house  near 
the  place  you  take  up  for  the  surveyors  to  lodge  in, 
then  let  there  be  a  cottage  built  for  them  on  the 
place,  and  we  will  allow  the  charges. 

"  14.  And  whei'eas  there  is  tackling  there  already, 
for  fitting  of  a  sloop  as  we  judge,  in  the  custody  of 
Richard  Guy  ;  we  also  give  you  power  if  you  see 
meet,  and  that  it  be  of  necessary  use  and  advantage 
for  the  whole  concern,  you  may  order  these  ship- 
carpenters  to  build  a  sloop  suitable  for  these  mate- 
rials, and  appoint  them  some  provision  for  their  food, 
and  for  the  rest  of  their  wages  they  shall  either 
have  it  in  a  part  of  the  sloop,  or  be  otherwise  satis- 
fied in  the  spring  of  the  year ;  the  said  sloop  to  be 
ordered  and  disposed  upon  by  you  until  more  com- 
missioners come  over  with  further  instructions. 

"  15.  For  the  goods  we  have  sent  over  with  James 
Wasse  are  to  be  disposed  upon  for  purchasing  land 
from  the  natives  or  otherwise  as  need  is,  giving  us 
account  thereof. 

"  Nicholas    Lucas,    Edmond  Wai'ner,    William 
Penn,  Gawin  Lawrie,  E.  Byllinge." 

The  instrument  for  dividing  the  province  being 
agreed  on  by  Sir  George  Carteret  on  the  one  part, 
and  the  said  E.  Byllinge,  William  Penn,  Gawen 
Lawrie,  and  Nicholas  Lucas  on  the  other,  they  to- 
gether signed  a  quintipartite  deed,  dated  the  1st 
day  of  July,  1676. 

The  line  of  division  being  thus  far  settled,  each 
took  their  own  measures  for  further  peopling  and 
improving  their  different  shares.  Sir  George  Car- 
teret had  greatly  the  advantage  respecting  improve- 
ments, his  part  being  (as  we  have  seen)  already 
considerably  peopled.  The  western  proprietors 
soon  published  a  description  of  their  moiety,  on 
which  many  removed  thither ;  but  lest  any  should 
not  sufficiently  weigh  the  importance  of  this  under- 
taking, and  for  other  reasons,  the  three  principal 
proprietors  published  the  following  precautionary 
cpistle. 

"  Dear  friends  and  brethren, — In  the  pure  love 
and  precious  fellowship  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
we  very  dearly  salute  you  :  Forasmuch  as  there  was 
a  paper  printed  several  months  since,  entitled,  '  The 
description  of  New  West  Jersey,'  in  the  which  our 
names  were  mentioned  as  trustees  for  one  undivided 
moiety  of  the  said  province  :  And  because  it  is  al- 
leged that  some,  partly  on  this  account,  and  others 


apprehending,  that  the  paper  by  the  manner  of  its 
expression  came  from  the  body  of  friends,  as  a  re- 
ligious society  of  people,  and  not  from  particulars, 
have  through  these  mistakes  weakly  concluded  that 
the  said  description  in  matter  and  form  might  be 
writ,  printed  and  recommended  on  purpose  to  prompt 
and  allure  people  to  dissettle  and  transplant  them- 
selves, as  it  is  also  by  some  alleged  :  And  because 
that  we  are  informed,  that  several  have,  on  that  ac- 
count, taken  encouragement  and  resolution  to  trans- 
plant themselves  and  families  to  the  said  province ; 
and  lest  any  of  them  (as  is  feared  by  some)  should 
go  out  of  a  curious  and  unsettled  mind,  and  others 
Lo  shun  the  testimony  of  the  blessed  cross  of  Jesus, 
of  which  several  weighty  friends  have  a  godly  jea- 
lousy upon  their  spirits,  lest  an  unwarrantable  for- 
wardness should  act  or  hurry  any  beside  or  be- 
yond the  wisdom  and  counsel  of  the  Lord,  or  the 
freedom  of  his  light  and  spirit  in  their  own  hearts, 
and  not  upon  good  and  weighty  grounds, — it  truly 
laid  hard  upon  us,  to  let  friends  know  how  the  mat- 
ter stands,  which  we  shall  endeavour  to  do  with  all 
clearness  and  fidelity. 

'  1.  That  there  is'such  a  province  as  New  Jersey, 
is  certain. 

;'  2.  That  it  is  reputed  of  those  who  have  lived 
and  have  travelled  in  that  country,  to  be  wholesome 
of  air  and  fruitful  of  soil,  and  capable  of  sea-trade,  is 
also  certain  ;  and  it  is  not  right  in  any  to  despise  or 
dispraise  it,  or  dissuade  those  that  find  freedom  from 
the  Lord,  and  necessity  put  them  on  going. 

"  3.  That  the  Duke  of  York  sold  it  to  those  called 
Lord  Berkeley,  baron  of  Stratton,  and  Sir  George 
Carteret,  equally  to  be  divided  between  them,  is 
also  certain. 

"  4.  One  moiety  or  half  part  of  the  said  province 
being  the  right  of  the  said  Lord  Berkeley,  w"as  sold 
by  him  to  John  Fenwick,  in  trust  for  Edward  Byl- 
linge, and  his  assigns. 

"  5.  Forasmuch  as  E.  B.  (after  William  Penn 
had  ended  the  difference  between  the  said  Edward 
Byllinge  and  John  Fenwick)  was  willing  to  present 
his  interest  in  the  said  province  to  his  creditors,  as 
all  that  he  had  left  him  towards  their  satisfaction,  he 
desired  William  Penn  (though  every  way  uncon- 
cerned) and  Gawen  Lawrie,  and  Nicholas  Lucas, 
two  of  his  creditors,  to  be  trustees  for  performance 
of  the  same  ;  and  because  several  of  his  creditors, 
particularly  and  very  importunately  pressed  William 
Penn  to  accept  of  the  trust  for  their  sakes  and  se- 
curity,— we  did  all  of  us  comply  with  those  and  the 
like  requests,  and  accepted  of  the  trust. 

"  6.  Upon  this  we  became  trustees  for  one  moiety 
of  the  said  province,  yet  undivided ;  and  after  no 
little  labour,  trouble,  and  cost,  a  division  was  ob- 
tained between  the  said  Sir  George  Carteret  and  us, 
as  trustees.  The  country  is  situated  and  bounded 
as  is  expressed  in  the  printed  description. 

"7.  This  now  divided  moiety  is  to  be  cast  into 
one  hundred  parts,  lots,  or  proprieties;  ten  of  which, 
upon  the  agreement  made  betwixt  E.  Byllinge  and 
J.  Fenwick,  were  settled  and  conveyed  unto  J.  Fen- 
wick, his  executors  and  assigns,  with  a  considerable 
sum  of  money,  by  way  of  satisfaction  for  what  he 
became  concerned  in  the  purchase  from  the  said 
Lord  Berkeley,  and  by  him  afterwards  conveyed  to 
John  Ejdridge  and  Edmond  Warner,  their  heirs  and 
assigns* 

"  8.  The  ninety  parts  remaining  are  exposed  to 
sale,  on  the  behalf  of  the  creditors  of  the  said  E.  B. 
And  forasmuch  as  several  friends  are  concerned  as 
creditors,  as  well  as  others,  and  the  disposal  of  so 


UNITED  STATES. 


567 


great  a  part  of  this  country  being  in  our  hands ;  we 
did  in  real  tenderness  and  regard  to  friends,  and 
especially  to  the  poor  and  necessitous,  make  friends 
the  first  offer,  that  if  any  of  them,  though  particu- 
larly those  that  being  low  in  the  world,  and  under 
trials' about  a  comfortable  livelihood  for  themselves 
and  families,  should  be  desirous  of  dealing  for  any 
part  or  parcel  thereof,  that  they  might  have  the  refusal. 

"9. 'This  was  the  real  and  honest  intent  of  our 
hearts,  and  not  to  prompt  or  allure  any  out  of  their 
places,  either  by  the  credit  our  names  might  have 
with  our  people  throughout  the  nation,  or  by  repre- 
senting the  thing  otherwise  than  it  is  in  itself. 

"  As  for  the  printed  paper  sometime  since  set  forth 
by  the  creditors,  as  a  description  of  that  province, 
we  say  as  to  two  passages  in  it,  they  are  not  so 
clearly  and  safely  worded  as  ought  to  have  been, 
particularly  in  seeming  to  limit  the  winter  season  to 
so  short  a  time ;  when  on  further  information,  we 
hear  it  is  sometime  longer  and  sometime  shorter 
than  therein  expressed;  and  the  last  clause  relating 
to  liberty  of  conscience,  we  would  not  have  any  to 
to  think,  that  it  is  promised  or  intended  to  main- 
tain the  liberty  of  the  exercise  of  religion  by  force 
and  arms,  though  we  shall  never  consent  to  any  the 
least  violence  on  conscience ;  yet  it  was  never  de- 
signed to  encourage  any  to  expect  by  force  of  arms 
to  have  liberty  of  conscience  fenced  against  invad- 
ers thereof.  ..;  *  • 

"  10.  And  be  it  known  unto  you  all,  in  the  name 
and  fear  of  Almighty  God — his  glory  and  honour, 
power  and  wisdom,  truth  and  kingdom,  is  dearer  to 
us  than  all  visible  things ;  and  as  our  eye  has  been 
single,  and  our  heart  sincere  to  the  living  God,  in 
this  as  in  other  things,  so  we  desire  all  whom  it  may 
concern,  that  all  groundless  jealousies  may  be  judged 
down  and  watched  against,  and  that  all  extremes 
may  be  avoided  on  all  hands  by  the  power  of  the 
Lord  :  that  nothing  which  hurts  or  grieves  the  holy 
life  of  truth  in  any  that  goes  or  stays,  may  be  ad- 
hered to ;  nor  any  provocations  given  to  break  pre- 
cious unity. 

"  This  am  I,  William  Penn,  moved  of  the  Lord, 
to  write  unto  you,  lest  any  bring  a  temptation  upon 
themselves  or  others ;  and  in  offending  the  Lord 
slay  their  own  peace :  "  Blessed  are  they  that  can 
see  and  behold  him  their  leader,  their  ovderer.  their 
conductor  and  preserver,  in  staying  or  going  :  Whose 
is  the  earth  and  the  fullness  thereof,  and  the  cattle 
upon  a  thousand  hills."  And  as  we  formerly  writ, 
we  cannot  but  repeat  our  request  unto  you,  that  in 
whomsoever  a  desire  is  to  be  concerned  in  this  in- 
tended plantation,  such  would  weigh  the  thing  be- 
fore the  Lord,  and  not  headily  or  rashly  conclude  on 
any  such  remove ;  and  that  they  do  not  offer  vio- 
lence to  the  tender  love  of  their  near  kindred  and 
relations ;  "  but  soberly  and  conscientiously  endea- 
vour to  obtain  their  good  wills,  the  unity  of  friends 
where  they  live ;  that  whether  they  go  or  stay,  it 
may  be  of  good  favour  before  the  Lord  (and  good 
people)  from  whom  only  can  all  heavenly  and 
earthly  blessings  come."  This  we  thought  good  to 
write  for  the  preventing  of  all  misunderstandings, 
and  to  declare  the  real  truth  of  the  matter  ;  and  so 
we  commend  you  all  to  the  Lord,  who  is  the  watch- 
man ofchis  Israel.  We  are  your  friends  and  breth- 
ren, Wm.  Penn,  Gawen  Lawrie,  Nicholas  Lucas." 

Arrival  of  more  settlers  to  West  Jersey — their  difficul- 
ties— their  purchases  from  the  Indians — they  lay 
out  a  town — some  of  their  first  sentiments  of  the 
country,  and  an  account  of  the  Duke  of  York's  two 


last  grants,  being  for  the  provinces  East  and  West 
New  Jersey,  separately. 

Among  other  purchasers  of  the  West  Jersey  lands, 
were  two  companies,  one  made  up  of  some  friends 
(quakers)  in  Yorkshire  ;  the  other  of  some  friends 
in  London:  who  each  contracted  for  considerable 
shares,  for  which  they  had  patents.  Thomas  Hutch- 
inson,  Thomas  Pierson,  Joseph  Helmsly,  George 
Hutchinson,  and  Mahlon  Stacy,  all  of  the  county  of 
York,  England,  were  principal  creditors  to  E. 
Byllinge,  to  whom  several  of  the  other  creditors 
made  assigments  of  their  debts,  which  together 
amounted  to  the  sum  of  2,450/.  sterling,  and  who 
took  in  satisfaction  of  the  said  sum  seven  full  equal 
and  undivided  ninetieth  parts  of  ninety  equal  and 
undivided  hundred  parts  of  West  Jersey ;  and  the 
same  was  conveyed  to  them,  and  their  heirs,  by 
William  Penn,  Gawen  Lawrie,  Nicholas  Lucas,  and 
Edward  Byllinge,  by  deed  bearing  date  "  the  1st  of 
the  month  called  March,  1676."  And  by  another 
conveyance  of  the  same  date,  from  and  to  the  same 
persons,  in  satisfaction  for  other  debts  to  the  amonnt 
of  1,050Z.  sterling,  three  other  full  equal  and  undi- 
vided ninetieth  parts  of  the  aforesaid  ninety  equal 
undivided  hundred  parts  of  West  Jersey  were  also 
conveyed.  In  1677,  commissioners  were  sent  by 
the  proprietors,  with  power  to  buy  the  lands  of  the 
natives,  to  inspect  the  rights  of  such  as  claimed 
property,  and  to  order  the  lands  laid  out ;  and  in 
general  to  administer  the  government,  pursuant  to 
the  terms.  These  commissioners  were  Thomas  Olive, 
Daniel  Wills,  John  Kinscy,  John  Penford,  Joseph 
Helmsley,  Robert  Stacy,  Benjamin  Scott,  Richard 
Guy,  and  Thomas  Foulke.  They  came  in  the  Kent, 
Gregory  Marlow,  master,  being  the  second  ship 
from  London,  to  the  western  parts.  After  a  tedious 
passage  they  arrived  at  New-Castle,  the  16th  of 
June,  old  style.  King  Charles  II,  being  in  his 
barge  on  the  Thames,  came  along-side,  seeing  a 
great  many  passengers,  and  when  informed  whither 
they  were  bound,  asked  if  they  were  all  quakers, 
and  gave  th«m  his  blessing.  They  landed  their 
passengers,  230  in  number,  about  Rackoon  creek, 
where  the  Swedes  had  some  scattered  habitations, 
but  they  were  too  numerous  to  be  all  provided  for 
in  houses  ;  some  were  obliged  to  lay  their  beds  and 
furniture  in  cow  stalls,  and  apartments  of  that  sort ; 
among  other  inconveniences  to  which  this  exposed 
them,  the  snakes  were  now  plenty  enough  to  be 
frequently  seen  upon  the  hovels  under  which  they 
sheltered.  Most  of  the  passengers  in  this  ship  were 
of  those  called  quakers,  some  of  good  estates  in  Eng- 
land. The  commissioners  had  before  left  them, 
and  were  by  this  time  arrived  at  a  place  called 
Chygoes  Island  (afterwards  Burlington)  their  busi- 
ness being  to  treat  with  the  Indians  about  the  land  there 
and  to  regulate  the  settlements,  having  not  only  the 
proprietors  but  Governor  Andross's  commission  for 
that  purpose ;  for  in  their  passage  hither,  they  had 
first  dropped  anchor  at  Sandy  Hook,  while  the  com- 
missioners went  to  New  York  to  acquaint  him  with 
their  design ;  for  though  they  had  concluded  the 
powers  they  had  from  the  proprietors  were  sufficient 
to  their  purpose,  they  thought  it  a  proper  respect  to 
the  Duke  of  York's  commission,  to  wait  on  his  go- 
vernor upon  the  occasion ;  he  treated  them  civilly, 
but  asked  them  if  they  had  any  thing  from  the  duke, 
his  master  ?  They  replied,  nothing  particular ; 
that  he  had  conveyed  that  part  of  his  country  to 
Lord  Berkeley,  and  he  to  Byllinge,  &c.,  in  which 
the  government  was  as  much  conveyed,  as  the  soil. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


The  governor  replied,  "  All  that  will  not  clear  me ; 
if  I  should  surrender  without  the  duke's  order,  it  is 
as  much  as  my  head  is  worth ;  but  if  you  had  but  a 
line  or  two  from  the  duke,  I  should  be  as  ready  to 
surrender  it  to  you,  as  you  would  be  to  ask  it." 
Upon  which  the  commissioners,  instead  of  excusing 
their  imprudence  in  not  bringing  such  an  order,  be- 
gan to  insist  upon  their  right,  and  strenuously  to 
assert  their  independency  :  but  Andross  putting  his 
hand  on  his  sword,  told  them  that  he  should  defend 
the  government  from  them  till  he  received  orders 
from  the  duke,  his  master,  to  surrender  it;  he  how- 
ever softened,  and  told  them  he  would  do  what  was 
in  his  power  to  make  them  easy,  till  they  could 
send  home  to  get  redress ;  and  "in  order  thereto, 
would  commission  the  same  persons  mentioned  in 
the  commission  they  produced.  This  they  accepted, 
and  undertook  to  act  as  magistrates  under  him,  till 
further  orders  came  from  England,  and  proceed  in 
relation  to  their  land  affairs,  according  to  the  me- 
thods prescribed  by  the  proprietors. 

When  arrived  at  their  government,  they  applied 
to  the  Swedes  for  interpreters  between  them  and  the 
Indians.  Israel  Helmes,  Peter  Rambo,  and  Lacy 
Cock,  were  recommended.  By  their  help  they  made 
a  purchase  from  Timber  Creek  to  Rankokas  Creek, 
another  from  Oldman's  Creek  to  Timber  Creek. 
After  this  they  got  Henric  Jacobson  Falconbre,  to 
be  their  interpeter,  and  purchased  from  Rankokas 
Creek  to  Assunpinck.  But  when  they  had  agreed 
upon  this  last  purchase,  they  had  not  Indian  goods 
sufficient  to  pay  the  consideration,  yet  gave  them 
what  they  had,  to  get  the  deed  signed ;  they  were 
however  obliged  to  agree  with  the  Indians  not  to 
settle  till  the  remainder  was  paid.  The  deed  for  the 
lands  between  Rankokas  Creek  and  Timber  Creek 
bears  date  the  l()th  of  September,  1677  ;  that  for  the 
lands  from  Oldman's  creek  to  Timber  creek  the 
27th  of  September,  1677,  and  that  from  Rankokas 
creek  to  Assunpinck  the  10th  of  Octooer,  1677.  By 
the  consideration  paid  for  the  lands  between  Old- 
man's and  Timber  creek,  a  judgment  may  be  formed 
of  the  rest.  It  consisted  of  30  matchcoats,  20  guns, 
30  kettles  and  one  great  one,  30  pair  of  hose, 
20  fathom  of  duffolds,  30  petticoats,  30  narrow  hose, 
30  bars  of  lead,  15  small  barrels  of  powder,  70  knives, 
30  Indian  axes,  70  combs,  60  pair  of  tobacco  tongs, 
60  scissars,  60  tinshaw  looking-glasses,  120  awl- 
blades,  120  fishhooks,  2  grasps  of  red  paint,  120 
needles,  60  tobacco  boxes,  120  pipes,  200  bells,  100 
Jews-harps,  6  anchors  of  rum.  In  the  year  1703, 
another  purchase  was  made  by  the  council  of  pro- 
prietors of  West-Jersey,  of  land  lying  above  the 
falls  of  Delaware  ;  another  also  about  that  time  of 
lands  at  the  head  of  Rankokas  river,  and  several 
purchases  afterwards  included  the  whole  of  the  lands 
worth  taking  up  in  West- Jersey,  except  a  few  planta- 
tions reserved  to  the  Indians ;  one  of  these  in  particu- 
lar ought  to  be  noted  in  this  place,  to  the  honour  of 
John  Wills,  sometime  one  of  the  council,  by  whose  ad- 
vice the  Indian  sachem,  called  king  Charles,  laid  an 
English  right  on  a  large  plantation,  atWeekpink,  con- 
taining a  valuable  tract  of  land,  in  the  county  of  Bur- 
lington, which  is  so  contrived  as  to  remain  unalienable 
from  his  posterity,  who  now  enjoy  the  benefit  of  it. 

Having  travelled  through  the  country  and  viewed 
the  land,  the  Yorkshire  commissioners,  Joseph 
Helmsley,  William  Emley  and  Robert  Stacy,  on 
behalf  of  the  first  purchasers,  chose  from  the  falls  of 
Delaware  down,  which  was  hence  called  the  first 
tenth ;  the  London  commissioners,  John  Penford. 
Thomas  Oliye,  Daniel  Wills,  and  Benjamin  Scott, 


on  behalf  of  the  ten  London  proprietors,  chosen  at  Ar- 
wamus,  (in  and  about  where  the  town  of  Gloucester 
now  is)  this  was  called  the  second  tenth ;  to  begin 
a  settlement  there,  Olive  sent  up  servants  to  cut  hay 
for  cattle  he  had  bought :  when  the  Yorkshire  com- 
missioners found  the  others  were  like  to  settle  at  such 
a  distance,  they  told  them  if  they  would  agree  to 
fix  by  them,  they  would  join  in  settling  a  town  in 
pursuance  of  the  charter  brought  with  them  from 
England,  and  that  they  should  have  the  largest 
share,  in  consideration  that  they  (the  Yorkshire 
commissioners)  had  the  best  land  in  the  woods. 
Being  few,  and  the  Indians  numerous,  they  agreed 
to  it.  The  commissioners  employed  Noble,  a  sur- 
veyor, who  came  in  the  first  ship,  to  divide  the  spot. 
After  the  main  street  was  ascertained,  he  divided  the 
land  on  each  side  into  lots;  the  easternmost  among 
the  Yorkshire  proprietors,  the  other  among  the  Lon- 
doners ;  to  begin  a  settlement,  ten  lots  of  nine  acres 
each,  bounding  on  the  west,  were  laid  out,  which 
being  done,  some  emigrants  from  Wickaco,  chiefly 
those  concerned  in  the  Yorkshire  tenth,  arrived  the 
latter  end  of  October.  The  London  commissioners 
also  employed  Noble,  to  divide  the  part  of  the 
island  yet  unsurveyed,  between  the  ten  London  pro- 
prietors, in  the  manner  beforementioned.  The  town 
thus  by  mutual  consent  laid  out,  was  named  at  first 
New  Beverley,  then  Bridlington,  which  was  ulti- 
mately changed  to  Burlington.  Some  of  the  masters 
of  families  that  came  in  the  ship  last  mentioned,  and 
settled  in  that  neighbourhood,  were  Thomas  Olive, 
Daniel  Wills,  William  Peachey,  William  Clayton, 
John  Crips,  Thomas  Eves,  Thomas  Harding,  Thomas 
Nositer,  Thomas  Fairnsworth,  Morgan  Drewet,  Wil- 
liam Pennton,  Henry  Jenings,  William  Hibes,  Sa- 
muel Lovett,  John  Woolston,  William  Woodmancy. 
Christopher  Saunders,  and  Robert  Powell ;  John 
Wilkinson  and  William  Perkins,  were  likewise  with 
theirfamiliespassengers,but  dying  on  the  voyage,  the 
latter  were  exposed  to  additional  hardships,  which  were 
however  moderated  by  the  care  of  their  fellow  emi- 
grants. Perkins  was  early  in  life  convinced  of  the 
principles  of  those  called  Quakers,  and  lived  well  in 
Leicestershire;  but  seeing  an  account  of  the  country 
written  by  Richard  Hartshorne,  and  forming  views 
of  advantage  to  his  family,  though  in  his  52d  year, 
he,  with  his  wife,  four  children  and  some  servants, 
embarked  in  this  ship;  among  the  latter  was  one 
Marshall,  a  carpenter,  particularly  serviceable  in 
fitting  up  habitations  for  the  new  comers ;  but  it 
being  late  in  the  autumn  when  they  arrived,  the 
winter  was  much  spent  before  the  work  was  begun  ; 
in  the  interim  they  lived  in  wigwams,  built  after  the 
manner  of  the  Indians.  Indian  corn  and  venison, 
supplied  by  the  Indians,  was  their  chief  food. 
These  people  were  not  then  much  corrupted  with 
strong  liquors,  but  generally  very  friendly  and 
helpful  to  the  English ;  notwithstanding  it  was 
thought  endeavours  had  been  used  to  make  them 
otherwise,  by  insinuations  that  the  English  sold  them 
the  small  pox  in  their  matchcoats.  This  distemper 
was  among  them,  and  a  company  getting  together 
to  consult  about  it,  one  of  their  chiefs  said,  "In  my 
grandfather's  time  the  small-pox  came  :  In  my 
father's  time  the  small-pox  came ;  and  now  in  my 
time  the  small-pox  is  come."  Then  stretching  his 
hands  towards  the  skies,  said,  "  it  came  from 
thence."  To  this  the  rest  assented. 

The  next  ship  which  arrived  was  the  Willing 
Mind,  which  brought  about  sixty  or  seventy  pas- 
senders.  Some  settled  at  Salem,  others  at  Burling- 
ton ;  among  the  fnrni'.'r  uere  J-unes  Nevill,  Henry 


UNITED  STATES. 


Salter  and  George  Deacon,  with  their  families.  In 
this  year  also  arrived  the  Fly  boat  Martha,  of  Bur- 
lington, Yorkshire,  with  114  passengers,  who  de- 
signed to  settle  the  Yorkshire  tenth. 

In  one  of  these  ships,  or  about  this  time,  arrived 
John  Kinsey,  then  a  young  man  ;  his  father  one  of 
the  commissioners  aforementioned,  dying  on  his  ar- 
rival, the  care  of  his  family  fell  to  him  ;  he  was 
afterwards  a  man  of  distinguished  services  in  seve- 
ral public  stations ;  and  his  son  after  him,  of  the 
same  name,  was  a  chief  justice  of  Pennsylvania. 
Many  that  came  servants,  succeeded  better  than 
some'  that  brought  estates  ;  the  first  inured  to  indus- 
try, and  the  ways  of  the  country,  became  wealthy, 
while  the  others  'were  obliged  to  spend  what  they  had 
in  the  difficulties  of  first  improvements  ;  and  others 
living  too  much  on  their  original  stock,  for  want  of 
sufficient  care  to  improve  their  estates,  have,  in 
many  instances,  dwindled  to  indigency  and  want. 

The  following  letters  from  some  of  these  early 
emigrants  and  founders  of  this  state,  is  inserted  as 
a  document  interesting  to  those  who  like  to  con- 
template the  first  shoots  of  a  vigorous  and  thriving 
empire. 

"  From  Burlington,  in  Delaware  river, 
the  26th  of  the  8th  Month,  1677. 
"  Dear  Friend, — Through  the  mercy  of  God,  we 
are  safely  arrived  at  New  Jersey ;  my  wife  and  all 
mine  are  very  well,  and  we  have  our  healths  rather 
better  here  than  we  had  in  England ;  indeed  the 
country  is  so  good,  that  I  do  not  see  how  it  can 
reasonably  be  found  fault  with  :  as  far  as  I  perceive, 
all  the  things  we  heard  of  it  in  England,  are  very 
true;  and  I  wish  that  many  people  (that  are  in 
straits)  in  England,  were  here.  Here  is  good  land 
enough  lies  void,  would  serve  many  thousands  of 
families;  and  we  think  if  they  cannot  live  here,  they 
can  hardly  live  in  any  place  in  the  world ;  but  we 
do  not  desire  to  persuade  any  to  come,  but  such  as 
are  well  satisfied  in  their  own  minds.  A  town  lot  is 
laid  out  for  us  in  Burlington,  which  is  a  convenient 
place  for  trade;  it  is  about  115  miles  up  the  river  De- 
laware ;  the  country  and  air  seems  to  be  very  agree- 
able to  our  bodies,  and  we  have  very  good  stomachs 
to  our  victuals.  Here  is  plenty  of  provision  in  the 
country ;  plenty  of  fish  and  fowl,  and  good  venison 
very  plentiful,  and  much  better  than  ours  in  Eng- 
land; for  it  eats  not  so  dry,  but  is  full  of  gravy,  like 
fat  young  beef.  You  that  come  after  us  need  not 
fear  the  trouble  that  we  have  had,  for  now  here  is 
land  ready  divided  against  you  come.  The  Indians 
are  very  loving  to  us,  except  here  and  there  one, 
when  they  have  gotten  strong  lipuors  in  their  heads, 
which  they  now  greatly  love.  But  for  the  country, 
in  short,  I  like  it  very  well ;  and  I  do  believe,  that 
this  river  of  Delaware  is  as  good  a  river  as  most  in 
the  world :  it  exceeds  the  river  of  Thames  by  many 
degrees. 

"  Here  is  a  town  laid  out  for  twenty  proprieties,  and 
a  straight  line  drawn  from  the  river  side  up  the  land, 
which  is  to  be  the  main  street,  and  a  market  place 
about  the  middle.  The  Yorkshire  ten  proprietors  are 
to  build  on  one  side,  and  the  London  ten  the  other 
side ;  and  they  have  ordered  one  street  to  be  made 
along  the  river  side,  which  is  not  divided  with  the 
rest,  but  in  small  lots  by  itself;  and  every  one  that 
hath  any  part  in  a  propriety,  is  to  have  his  share  in 
it.  The  town  lots  for  every  propriety  will  be  about 
ten  or  eleven  acres,  which  is  only  for  a  house, 
orchard  and  gardens;  and  the  corn  and  pasture 
ground  is  to  be  laid  out  in  great  quantities. 

"I  am  thy  loving  friend, — John  Crips." 


Thomas  Hooten  to  his  wife,  dated  29th  8th 
Month,  1677. 

"  My  Dear, — I  am  this  present  at  the  town  calkd 
Burlington,  where  our  land  is  ;  it  is  ordered  to  be  a 
town  for  the  ten  Yorkshire  and  ten  London  proprie- 
tors. I  like  the  place  well ;  our  lot  is  the  second 
next  the  water  side  :  It  is  like  to  be  a  healthful 
place,  and  very  pleasant  to  live  in.  I  came  hither 
yesterday,  being  the  28th  of  October,  with  some 
friends  that  were  going  to  New  York.  I  am  to  be 
at  Thomas  Olive's  house,  till  I  can  provide  better  for 
myself:  I  intend  to  build  a  house,  and  get  some 
corn  into  the  ground  ;  and  I  know  not  how  to  write 
concerning  thy  coming,  or  not  coming  hither ;  the 
place  I  like  very  well,  and  believe  that  we  may 
live  here  very  well :  but  if  it  be  not  made  free,  I 
mean  as  to  the  customs  and  government,  then  it  will 
not  be  so  well,  and  may  hinder  many  that  have  de- 
sires to  come.  But  if  those  two  things  be  cleared, 
thou  may  take  thy  opportunity  of  coming  this  summer. 
"  Thomas  Hooten. 

The  customs  here  referred  to  were  those  imposed  at 
New  Castle,  Delaware,  upon  all  comers;  the  govern- 
ment was  yet  administered  by  virtue  of  governor  An- 
dross's  commission;  both  which  were  unexpected  and 
disagreeable;  but  these  objections  were  soon  removed. 
William  Clarke  to  the' proprietors. 

"  New  Jersey,  20th  2nd  Month,  1678. 

"  Dear  Friends, — I  doubt  not  but  it  will  be  great 
satisfaction  to  you,  to  hear  of  mine  and  the  rest  of 
friends'  passage  to,  and  safe  arrival  in  New  Jersey : 
we  took  ship  the  16th  of  November,  and-  made  the 
land  of  New  Jersey  in  thirty-four  days.  Now 
friends,  as  to  this  country,  there  has  been  so  much  said 
by  several  persons  in  commendation  thereof,  both 
as  to  the  increase  of  all  sorts  of  grain  and  fruits ; 
as  also  of  the  plenty  of  fish,  fowl,  deer,  swine,  &c. 
that  I  shall  not  need  to  add  any  thing  to  it;  but  in 
short,  this  I  have  to  say,  that  I  do  not  know  any 
one  thing  to  fall  short  of  what  was  reported  of  this 
province,  but  that  more  might  truly  have  been  said 
of  its -pleasant  situation,  wholesome  air,  and  gene- 
ral and  great  increase  of  all  things  planted,  and 
especially  of  Indian  corn,  which  is  a  very  good  and 
serviceable  grain  many  ways ;  the  English  wheat 
and  barley  primely  good ;  but  rie  and  pease  much 
better  than  any  I  ever  saw  in  England  or  Ireland. 
I  doubt  not  but  you  have  had  an  account  of  all 
other  matters  before  this  (by  those  who  came  to 
Jersey  before  me)  comes  to  your  hands  ;  and  I  have 
no  other  end  in  this,  than  keeping  you  from  the 
rash  censures  of  poople  that  know  it  not ;  as  also 
for  the  good  and  prosperity  of  this  good  country,  &c. 

"  Directed  for  William  Penn,  Gawen  Lawrie,  or 
Edward  Byllinge.  "  William  Clark." 

John  Cnps  to  his  brother  and  sister. 

"Burlington,  in  New-Jersey,  upon  the  river  Dela- 
ware, the  19th  of  4th  Month,  called  June,  1678. 

"  Dear  and  loving  brother  and  sister, — I  have 
received  both  your  letters,  wherein  I  understand 
your  faith  concerning  this  country  is  much  shaken, 
through  several  false  reports  given  thereof;  which 
may  be  proved  false  under  the  hands  of  several 
good  friends ;  I  hope  as  worthy  to  be  believed  as 
that  reporter ;  and  such  as  have  had  more  experi- 
ence of  this  place  than  he  had,  or  could  have,  in 
so  short  a  time  ;  besides  he  came  among  us  shortly 
after  our  coming  hither,  when  things  were  not 
settled  in  that  order  amongst  us,  as  now  they  are  ; 
neither  indeed  did  he  find  such  entertainment  from 
some,  as  he  expected ;  which  I  suppose  makes  him 
speak  the  worst  he  can  devise  of  this  place  •  but  I 


570 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


question  not  but  this  report  will  in  a  short  time  be 
wiped  away,  some  of  which  in  my  knowledge  is 
grossly  untrue,  as  well  as  contradictions  to  his  own 
words ;  for  1  remember  when  I  travelled  with  him 
through  part  of  New-Jersey,  he  confessed  that 
much  of  this  land  was  as  good  or  better  than  the 
land  in  Rhode-Island  :  and  it  is  really  my 
judgment,  that  those  people  that  cannot  be  con- 
tented with  such  a  country,  and  such  land  as  this 
is,  they  are  not  worthy  to  come  here  :  and  this  I 
can  truly  tell  you,  if  I  were  now  in  England  with 
you  (and  which  I  should  be  very  glad  to  see)  yet 
if  all  I  had  in  the  world  would  but  bring  me  hither, 
I  would  freely  leave  you  and  my  native  country, 
and  come  to  New-Jersey  again;  which  I  have  said 
many  a  time  heretofore,  but  now  write  it  under  my 
hand,  and  it's  really  the  truth,  whether  you  will 
believe  it  or  not ;  and  farther,  I  can  truly  tell  you, 
that  I  desire  not,  nor  dare  to  write  the  least  un- 
truth, to  draw  you,  nor  any  others  to  this  place ; 
but  I  am  resolved,  if  I  never  see  your  faces  more, 
to  leave  you  to  your  own  freedom.  But  I  hope  you 
are  not  insensible  of  my  love  and  desires  for  you  ; 
though  I  am,  I  say,  constrained  to  forbear  persuad- 
ing you,  or  anyone  else  against  their  own  freedoms ; 
yet  I  think  it  my  duty  to  let  you,  and  all  men  know 
the  truth  of  things  as  near  as  I  can.  Your  letter 
saith,  '  it's  reported  the  water  is  not  so  good  as  in 
England.'  I  do  not  remember  that  ever  I  tasted 
better  water  in  any  part  of  England,  than  the 
springs  of  this  place  do  yield  ;  of  which  is  made 
very  good  beer  and  ale  ;  and  here  is  also  wine  and 
cyder.  And  whereas  your  letter  to  me  saith,  '  se- 
veral have  come  back  from  this  country  to  Eng- 
land :'  Two  or  three  I  suppose  ;  there  are  lazy  idle 
persons  that  have  done  so  ;  but  on  the  other  hand, 
here  are  several  persons,  men  of  estates,  that  have 
been  here,  and  have  gone  back  to  England,  and 
sold  their  estates  and  returned  with  their  whole 
families  hither  again  ;  which  methinks  should  take 
many  of  these  scruples  out  of  the  way,  if  nothing 
else  were  said  or  done  in  praise  of  this  country ; 
but  I  suppose  there  are  many  in  England,  that  de- 
sire to  hear  ill  of  this  place,  because  they  would 
keep  their  friends  there  with  them  ;  and  they  think 
we  never  write  enough  of  the  bad  properties  of  the 
country,  and  vermin  in  it.  Now  this  I  may  say,  in 
short,  that  here  are  bears,  wolves,  foxes,  rattle- 
snakes, and  several  other  creatures,  (I  do  believe 
because  I  see  the  Indians  have  such  skins  to  sell) 
but  I  have  travelled  several  hundreds  of  miles,  to 
and  fro,  and  I  never  to  my  knowledge  saw  one  of 
those  creatures,  except  two  rattle-snakes,  and  I 
killed  them  both ;  I  suppose  the  fear  of  those  crea- 
tures in  England,  is  far  worse  to  some  there,  than 
the  hurt  of  them  is  here ;  and  as  for  the  musketto- 
ily,  we  are  not  troubled  with  them  in  this  place  ;  our 
land  for  the  most  part  lying  high  and  healthy,  and 
they,  for  the  most  part,  are  in  a  low  boggy  ground. 
Thomas  Budd  and  his  family  are  arrived ;  the  ship 
lyeth  before  this  town,  that  brought  them ;  I  wish 
you  have  not  cause  to  repent  that  you  came  not 
along  with  them ;  they  had  a  very  good  passage,  and 
so  had  the  London  ship ;  they  are  both  in  the  river 
at  this  time.  I  understand  by  Thomas  Budd,  that 
he  did  satisfy  you  as  near  as  he  could  of  the  truth 
of  things  here  ;  and  you  had  as  much  reason  to  be- 
lieve him,  as  that  other  person,  and  more  too ;  for 
Thomas  had  far  more  experience  of  this  place,  than 
he  could  have  in  the  short  time  he  was  among  us  ; 
so  of  these  things  I  shall  forbear  to  write  any  further 
at  present.  John  Crips." 


"  To  the  truth  of  the  contents  of  these  things,  we 
subscribe  our  names;  Daniel  Wills,  Thomas  Olive, 
Thomas  Harding,  Thomas  Budd,  William  Peachy." 

In  the  latter  end  of  1678,  the  Shield  arrived  from 
Hull  with  more  emigrants,  and  dropped  anchor  be- 
fore Burlington,  being  the  first  ship  that  came  so  far 
up  the  Delaware,  against  Coaquanock  (the  Indian 
name  of  the  place  where  Philadelphia  now  stands). 
Being  a  bold  shore,  she  went  so  near  in  turning, 
that  part  of  the  tackling  struck  the  trees;  some  on 
board  then  remarked  it  was  a  fine  spot  for  a  town. 
A  fresh  gale  brought  her  to  Burlington  ;  she  moored 
to  a  tree,  and  the  next  morning  the  people  came  a- 
shore  on  the  ice,  so  hard  had  the  river  frozen.  And 
a  second  ship,  full  of  emigrants,  also  arrived  from 
London. 

It  has  already  been  stated  in  the  account  of  New 
York,  that  Charles  II.,  on  the  re-delivery  of  their 
provinces  by  the  Dutch,  after  their  short  conquest 
in  1673,  to  prevent  any  possibility  of  legal  cavilling 
that  might  arise  upon  a  plea  of  the  property  being 
thus  alienated  from  the  purchasers,  granted  new 
letters  patent  bearing  date  the  29th  day  of  June, 
1674,  to  the  Duke  of  York,  for  the  several  provinces, 
which  by  the  former  letters  patent  had  been  granted 
to  him;  of  which  New  Jersey  was  a  part.  And  in 
1678,  upon  the  application  of  the  assigns  of  Lord 
Berkeley,  the  duke  make  them  a  new  grant  of  West 
New  Jersey  ;  and  in  like  manner  by  an  instrument 
bearing  date  the  10th  of  October,  granted  the  east- 
ern moiety  of  New  Jersey  to  the  grandson  of  Sir 
George  Carteret. 

Letters  from  some  of  the  settlers  of  West  Jersey — and 
arguments  against  the  customs  imposed  at  the  Hoar 
Kill  by  the  governor  of  New  York. 

The  following  abstract  of  Mahlon  Stacy's  letter 
to  his  brother  Revell,  and  some  others,  dated  "  the 
26th  of  the  4th  month,  1680,"  will  give  the  reader 
the  best  idea  of  the  state  of  the  colony. 

"  But  now  a  word  or  two  of  those  strange  reports 
you  have  of  us  and  our  country;  I  affirm  they  are 
not  true,  and  fear  they  were  spoke  from  a  spirit  of 
envy.  It  is  a  country  that  produceth  all  things  for 
the  support  and  sustenance  of  man  in  a  plentiful 
manner ;  if  it  were  not  so,  I  should  be  ashamed  of 
what  I  have  before  written ;  but  I  can  stand,  having 
truth  on  my  side,  against  and  before  the  face  of  all 
gainsayers  and  evil  spies:  I  have  travelled  through 
most  of  the  places  that  are  settled,  and  some  that 
are  not,  and  in  every  place  I  find  the  country  very 
apt  to  answer  the  expectation  of  the  diligent :  I 
have  seen  orchards  laden  with  fruit  to  admiration, 
their  very  limbs  torn  to  pieces  with  the  weight, 
and  most  delicious  to  the  taste,  and  lovely  to  be- 
hold; I  have  seen  an  apple  tree  from  a  pippin 
kernel,  yield  a  barrel  of  curious  cider ;  and 
peaches  in  such  plenty,  that  some  people  took 
their  carts  a  peach  gathering;  I  could  not  but 
smile  at  the  conceit  of  it.  They  are  a  very  deli- 
cate fruit,  and  hang  almost  like  our  onions  that  are 
tied  on  ropes.  I  have  seen  and  known  this  sum- 
mer, forty  bushels  of  bold  wheat  of  one  bushel 
sown ;  and  many  more  such  instances  I  could 
bring,  which  would  be  too  tedious  here  to  mention. 
We  have  from  the  time  called  May  until  Michael- 
mas, great  store  of  very  good  wild  fruits,  as  straw- 
berries, cranberries,  and  hurtleberries,  which  are 
like  our  bilberries  in  England,  but  far  sweeter, 
they  are  very  wholesome  fruits.  The  cranberries 
much  like  cherries  for  colour  and  bigness,  which 
may  be  kept  till  fruit  come  in  again ;  an  excellent 


UNITED  STATES. 


571 


sauce  is  made  of  them  for  venison,  turkeys,  and 
other  great  fowl,  and  they  are  better  to  make  tarts 
than  either  gooseberries  or  cherries  ;  we  have  them 
brought  to  our  houses  by  the  Indians  in  great 
plenty.  My  brother  Robert  had  as  many  cherries 
this  year  as  would  have  loaded  several  carts.  It 
is  my  judgment  by  what  I  have  observed,  that  fruit 
trees  in  this  country  destroy  themselves  by  the  very 
weight  of  their  fruit;  as  for  venison  and  fowls,  we 
have  great  plenty.  We  have  brought  home  to  our 
houses  by  the  Indians,  seven  or  eight  fat  bucks  of 
a  day,  aud  sometimes  put  by  as  many  ;  having  no 
occasion  for  them,  and  fish  in  their  season  very 
plenteous.  My  cousin  Revell  and  I,  with  some  of 
my  men,  went  last  third  month  into  the  river  to 
catch  herrings,  for  at  that  time  they  came  in  great 
shoals  into  the  shallows;  we  had  neither  rod  nor 
net,  but  after  the  Indian  fashion  made  a  round 
pinfold,  about  two  yards  over  and  a  foot  high, 
but  left  a  gap  for  the  fish  to  go  in  at.  and  made  a 
bush  to  lay  in  the  gap  to  keep  the  fish  in;  and 
when  that  was  done,  we  took  two  long  birches  and 
tied  their  tops  together,  and  went  about  a  stone's 
cast  above  our  said  pinfold,  then  hawling  these 
birchen  boughs  down  the  stream,  where  we  drove 
thousands  before  us,  but  so  many  got  into  our  trap 
as  it  would  hold,  and  then  we  began  to  hawl  them 
on  shore  as  fast  as  three  or  four  of  us  could,  by  two 
or  three  at  a  time,  and  after  this  manner,  in  half 
an  hour,  we  could  have  filled  a  three  bushel  sack 
of  as  good  and  large  herrings  as  ever  I  saw;  and 
as  to  beef  and  pork,  here  is  great  plenty  of  it,  and 
cheap  ;  and  also  good  sheep.  The  common  grass 
of  this  country  feeds  beef  very  fat;  I  have  killed 
two  this  year,  and  therefore  I  have  reason  to  know 
it;  besides  I  have  seen  this  fall,  in  Burlington, 
killed,  eight  or  nine  fat  oxen  and  cows  on  a  market 
day,  and  all  very  fat.  And  though  I  speak  of  her- 
rings only,  lest  any  should  think  we  have  little 
other  sorts,  we  have  great  plenty  of  most  sorts  of 
fish  that  ever  I  saw  in  England ;  besides  several 
other  sorts  that  are  not  known  there,  as  rocks,  cat- 
fish, shads,  sheeps-heads,  sturgeons :  and  fowls 
plenty,  as  ducks,  geese,  turkies,  pheasants,  par- 
tridges, and  many  other  sorts  that  I  cannot  re- 
member, and  would  be  too  tedious  to  mention.  In- 
deed the  country,  take  it  as  a  wildei'ness,  is  a  brave 
country,  though  no  place  will  please  all.  But  some 
will  be  ready  to  say,  he  writes  of  conveniences  but 
not  of  inconveniences.  In  answer  to  those,  I 
honestly  declare  there  is  some  barren  land,  as  (I 
suppose)  there  is  in  most  places  of  the  world,  and 
more  wood  than  some  would  have  upon  their  lands; 
neither  will  the  country  produce  corn  without  la- 
bour, nor  cattle  be  got  without  something  to  buy 
them,  nor  bread  with  idleness ;  else  it  would  be  a 
brave  country  indeed ;  and  I  question  not,  but  all 
then  would  give  it  a  good  word;  for  my  part  I  like 
it  so  well,  I  never  had  the  least  thought  of  return- 
ing to  England,  except  on  the  account  of  trade. 

"  Mahlon  Stacy." 

In  a  letter  to  William  Cook,  of  Sheffield,  and 
others,  Stacy  wrote  thus  : 

"  This  is  a  most  brave  place,  whatever  envy  or 
evil  spies  may  speak  of  it ;  I  could  wish  you  all 
here.  Burlington  will  be  a  place  of  trade  quickly  ; 
for  here  is  way  for  trade;  I,  with  eight  more,  last 
winter  bought  a  good  ketch  of  fifty  tons,  freighted 
her  out  at  our  own  charge,  and  sent  her  to  Barbadoes, 
and  so  to  sail  to  Saltertugas,  to  take  in  part  of  her 
lading  in  salt,  and  the  rest  in  Barbadoes  goods  as 
she  came  back;  which  said  voyage  she  hath  ac- 


complished very  well,  and  now  rides  before  Bur- 
lington discharging  her  lading,  and  so  to  go  to  tho 
West  Indies  again ;  and  we  intend  to  freight  her 
out  with  our  own  corn.  We  have  wanted  nothing 
since  we  came  hither,  but  the  company  of  our  good 
friends  and  acquaintance ;  all  our  people  are  very 
well,  and  in  a  hopeful  way  to  live  much  better  than 
ever  they  did,  and  not  only  so,  but  to  provide  well 
for  their  posterity.  They  improve  their  lands  and 
have  good  crops;  and  if  our  Mends  and  country- 
men come,  they  will  find  better  reception  than  we 
had  by  far  at  first,  before  the  country  was  settled 
as  now  it  is.  I  know  not  one  among  the  people 
that  desires  to  be  in  England  again  ;  I  mean  since 
settled.  I  wonder  at  our  Yorkshire  people,  that 
they  had  rather  live  in  servitude,  and  work  hard 
all  the  year,  and  not  to  be  three-pence  the  better  at 
the  year's  end,  than  stir  out  of  the  chimney-corner 
and  transport  themselves  to  a  place  where,  with  the 
like  pains,  in  two  or  three  years  they  might  know 
better  things. 

"  I  never  repented  my  coming  hither,  nor  yet 
remembered  thy  arguments  and  out-cry  against  New 
Jersey  with  regret.  I  live  as  well  to  my  content, 
and  in  as  great  plenty  as  ever  I  did,  and  in  a  far 
more  likely  way  to  get  an  estate.  Though  I  hear 
some  have  thought  I  was  too  large  in  my  former,  I 
affirm  it  to  be  true ;  having  seen  more  with  mine 
own  eyes  in  this  time  since,  than  ever  yet  I  wrote 
of.  "Mahlon  Stacy." 

From  the  Falls  of  Delaware,  in  West  New  Jer- 
sey, the  26th  of  the  4th  month,  1680. 

The  inhabitants  of  West  Jersey,  had  hitherto 
either  pounded  their  corn,  or  ground  it  with  hand 
mills  ;  but  about  this  time  Olive  had  built  his  water 
mill  on  his  plantation,  nigh  Rankokas  creek ;  and 
in  this  year  Stacy  finished  his  mill  at  Trenton. 
These  two  were  the  only  mills  that  ground  for  the 
country  several  of  the  first  years  after  their  ar- 
rival. 

Though  the  passengers  who  had  already  come  to 
West  Jersey,  were  well  satisfied  with  the  country, 
things  in  general  answering  beyond  their  expecta- 
tion, yet  they  were  under  one  great  inconvenience. 
We  have  seen  that  the  governor  of  New  York  had 
very  early  imposed  ten  per  cent,  on  all  goods  im- 
ported at  the  Hoar  Kill ;  and  on  exports  something 
of  the  kind  still  subsisted:  5/.  per  cent  being  de- 
manded of  the  settlers  at  their  arrival  or  afterwards, 
at  the  officer's  pleasure;  and  that  not  according  to  the 
prime  cost  of  the  goods,  but  upon  the  amount  in  the 
invoice,  as  shipped  in  England.  This  was  evi- 
dently an  arbitrary  act,  neither  West  Jersey  nor 
the  Hoar  Kill  were  legally  under  their  jurisdiction  ; 
the  settlers  from  the  first  complained  of  the  hard- 
ship, but  bore  it  with  tolerable  patience  till  about 
1680,  when  they  had  it  redressed  by  the  interposi- 
tion of  their  friends  in  England,  who  applying  to  the 
Duke  of  York,  he  referred  the  matter  to  counsel, 
where  it  rested  for  a  considerable  time  ;  but  at  last 
by  the  diligence  of  W.  Penn.  George  Hutchinson, 
and  others,  was  reported  in  their  favour.  Sir  John 
Werden,  on  the  Duke's  behalf,  wrote  to  have  it 
discontinued.  The  arguments  used  against  this 
duty  or  impost,  may  be  seen  by  the  following  docu- 
ment. 

"  To  those  of  the  duke's  commissioners,  whom  he 
has  ordered  to  hear,  and  make  report  to  him  con- 
cerning the  customs  demanded  in  New  West  Jer- 
sey, in  America,  by  his  governor  of  New  York. 

"1.  The  king  has  granted  to  the  Duke  of  York 
a  tract  of  laud  in  America,  consisting  of  several 


572 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Indian  countries,  with  such  powers  and  authorities 
as  are  requisite  to  make  laws,  and  to  govern  and 
preserve  the  territory  when  planted :  but  with  this 
restriction  twice  expressed,  and  several  times  re- 
ferred to,  viz.,  '  So  always  as  the  said  statutes,  or- 
dinances, and  proceedings  be  not  contrary,  but  as 
near  as  may  be,  agreeable  to  the  laws,  statutes,  and 
government  of  this  our  realm  of  England.'  In 
another  place,  thus,  '  And  further,  it  may  be  lawful 
for  our  dearest  brother,  his  heirs  and  assigns,  by 
these  presents,  to  make,  ordain,  and  establish  all 
manner  of  orders,  laws,  directions,  instruments,  and 
forms  of  government,  and  magistrates  fit  and  neces- 
sary for  the  territory  aforesaid :'  but  still  with  this 
limitation,  '  so  always  as  the  same  be  not  contrary 
to  the  laws  and  statutes  of  this  our  realm  of  Eng- 
land, but  as  near  as  may  be  agreeable  thereto.' 

"  2.  The  Duke  of  York,  by  virtue  of  this  grant 
from  the  king  to  him,  for  a  competent  sum  of  money 
(paid  by  the  Lord  John  Berkeley  and  Sir  George 
Carteret),  granted  and  sold  to  them  a  tract  of  land, 
called  now  by  the  name  of  New  Ccesarea,  or  New 
Jersey;  and  that  in  as  ample  manner  as  it  was 
granted  by  the  king  to  the  duke. 

"  Thus  then  we  come  to  buy  that  moiety  which 
belonging  to  Lord  Berkeley,  for  a  valuable  con- 
sideration, and  in  the  conveyance  he  made  us, 
powers  of  government  are  expressly  granted ;  for 
that  only  could  have  induced  us  to  buy  it;  and  the 
reason  is  plain ;  because  to  all  prudent  men  the  go- 
vernment of  any  place  is  more  inviting  than  the 
soil ;  for  what  is  good  land  without  good  laws — the 
better  the  worse.  And  if  we  could  not  assure  peo- 
ple of  an  easy,  and  free,  and  safe  government,  both 
with  respect  to  their  spiritual  and  worldly  property ; 
that  is,  an  uninterrupted  liberty  of  conscience,  an  in- 
violable possession  of  their  civil  rights  and  freedoms, 
by  a  just  and  wise  government ;  a  mere  wilderness 
would  be  no  encouragement,  for  it  were  a  madness 
to  leave  a  free,  good,  and  improved  country,  to 
plant  in  a  wilderness,  and  there  adventure  many 
thousands  of  pounds,  to  give  an  absolute  title  to 
another  person  to  tax  us  at  will  and  pleasure.  This 
single  consideration,  we  hope,  will  excuse  our  desire 
of  the  government ;  not  asserted  for  the  sake  of 
power  but  safety;  and  that  not  only  for  ourselves, 
but  others,  that  the  plantation  might  be  encouraged. 

"  3.  The  Lord  Berkeley  and  Sir  George  Car- 
teret, considering  how  much  freedom  invites,  that 
they  might  encourage  people  to  transport  them- 
selves into  those  parts,  made  and  divulged  certain 
concessions,  containing  a  model  of  government : 
Upon  these  several  went,  and  are  there  planted; 
the  country  was  thus  possessed,  and  the  said  go- 
vernment uninterruptedly  administered  by  the  said 
Lord  Berkeley  and  Sir  George  Carteret,  or  their 
deputy,  for  several  years ;  during  which  time  no 
custom  was  demanded. 

"  4.  We  dealt  with  the  said  Lord  Berkeley,  upon 
the  sight  of  these  concessions,  and  the  presumption 
that  neither  he  nor  Sir  George  Carteret,  would  at- 
tempt to  act  anything  they  had  not  power  to  do  ; 
much  less,  that  they  or  either  of  them,  would  pre- 
tend to  sell  a  power  they  never  had ;  since  that 
would  not  only  be  a  cheat  to  the  people  that  dealt 
with  them  for  it,  but  an  high  affront  to  the  duke. 

"  5.  The  moiety  of  New  Caesarea,  or  New  Jersey, 
thus  bonght  of  the  said  Lord  Berkeley,  we  dispose 
of  part  of  our  interest  to  several  hundreds  of  peo- 
ple, honest  and  industrious  ;  these  transport  them- 
selves, and  with  them  such  household  stuff  and 
tools,  as  are  requisite  for  planters  to  have.  They 


land  at  Delaware  bay,  the  bounds  of  the  country 
we  bought;  the  passage  God  and  nature  made  to 
it ;  at  their  arrival  they  are  saluted  with  a  demand 
of  custom,  of  five  per  cent,  and  that  not  as  the 
goods  may  be  there  worth,  but  according  to  the  in- 
voice as  they  cost  before  shipped  in  England ;  nor 
did  they  take  them  as  they  came,  but  at  pick  and 
choose,  with  some  severe  language  to  boot.  This 
is  our  grievance  ;  and  for  this  we  made  our  appli- 
cation to  have  speedy  redress,  not  as  a  burden 
only,  with  respect  to  the  quantum  or  the  way  of 
levying  it,  or  any  circumstances  made  hard  by  the 
irregularity  of  the  officers,  but  as  a  wrong ;  for  we 
complain  of  a  wrong  done  us ;  and  ask  yet  with 
modesty,  quo  jure  ?  Tell  us  the  title  by  what  right 
or  law  are  we  thus  used  ;  that  may  a  little  mitigate 
our  pain  ?  Your  answer  hitherto  hath  been  this  : 
'That  it  was  a  conquered  country;  and  that  the 
king,  being  the  conqueror,  he  has  power  to  make 
laws,  raise  money,  &c.  and  that  this  power  Jure  re- 
yale,  the  king  hath  vested  in  the  duke,  and  by  that 
right  and  sovereignty,  the  duke  demands  that  cus- 
tom we  complain  of.'  But  suppose  the  king  were 
an  absolute  conqueror  in  the  case  depending,  doth 
his  power  extend  equally  over  his  own  English  peo- 
ple, as  over  the  conquered  ?  Are  not  they  some 
of  the  letters  that  make  up  the  word  conqueror  ? 
Did  Alexander  conquer  alone,  or  Csesar  beat  by 
himself?  No.  Shall  their  armies  of  countrymen 
and  natives  lie  at  the  same  mercy  as  the  van- 
quished, and  be  exposed  to  the  same  will  and  power 
with  their  captive  enemies  ?  The  Norman  duke, 
more  a  conqueror  of  England,  by  his  subjection  to 
our  laws,  and  pretence  to  a  title  by  them,  than  of 
heraldry  by  his  arms,  used  not  the  companions  of 
his  victory  so  ill :  Natural  right  and  humane  pru- 
dence, oppose  such  doctrine  all  the  world  over ; 
for  what  is  it  but  to  say,  that  people  free  by  law 
under  their  prince  at  home,  are  at  his  mercy  in 
the  plantations  abroad  ;  and  why  ?  because  he  is  a 
conqueror  there,  but  still  at  the  hazard  of  the  lives 
of  his  own  people,  and  at  the  cost  and  charge  of 
the  public  :  We  could  say  more,  but  choose  to  let 
it  drop.  But  our  case  is  better  yet;  for  the  king's 
grant  to  the  Duke  of  York,  is  plainly  restrictive  to 
the  laws  and  government  of  England,  and  that 
more  than  once,  as  is  before  expressed.  Now  the 
constitution  and  government  of  England,  as  we 
humbly  conceive,  are  so  far  from  countenancing 
any  such  authority,  as  it  is  made  a  fundamental  in 
our  constitution  and  government,  that  the  King  of 
England  cannot  justly  take  his  subjects'  goods 
without  their  consent . '  This  needs  no  more  to  be 
proved,  than  a  principle ;  'tis  jus  indigene,  an  home- 
born  right,  declared  to  be  law  by  diverse  statutes ; 
as  in  the  great  charter,  ch.  29,  and  34  Edward  III., 
ch.  2 ;  again,  25  Edward,  ch.  7.  Upon  this  were 
many  of  the  parliament's  complaints  grounded; 
but  particularly  that  of  the  same  king's  reign,  at 
is  delivered  by  Matthew  Westminster,  in  these 
words :"  [The  manuscript  copy  whence  this  is 
taken,  is  here  defaced  :  It  contains  a  number  of 
authorities  from  Bracton,  Fortesque,  the  petition  of 
right,  &c.j  "  To  give  up  this  (the  power  of  making 
laws)  is  to  change  the  government,  to  sell,  or  rather 
resign  ourselves  to  the  will  of  another;  and  that 
for  nothing :  For  under  favour  we  buy  nothing  of 
the  duke,  if  not  the  riyht  of  an  undisturbed  colo- 
nizing, and  that  as  Englishmen  with  no  dimunition, 
but  expectation  of  some  increase  of  those  freedoms 
and  privileges  enjoyed  in  our  own  country  ;  for  the 
soil  is  none  of  his,  'tis  the  natives',  by  the  jus  yen- 


UNITED  STATES. 


b/3 


tium,  by  the  law  of  nations  ;  and  it  would  be  an  ill 
argument  to  convert  to  Christianity,  to  expel  instead 
of  purchasing  them  out  of  those  countries:  If  then 
the  country  be  theirs,  it  is  not  the  duke's;  he  can- 
not sell  it ;  then  what  have  we  bought  ?  We  are 
yet  unanswered  in  this  point,  and  desire  you  to  do 
it  with  all  due  regard  to  the  great  honour  and  jus- 
tice of  the  duke.  If  it  be  not  the  right  of  coloniz- 
ing there,  which  way  have  we  our  bargain,  that  pay 
an  arbitrary  custom,  neither  known  to  the  laws  of 
England,  nor  the  settled  constitution  of  New  York, 
and  those  other  plantations  ?  To  conclude  this 
point,  we  humbly  say,  that  we  have  not  lost  any 
part  of  our  liberty,  by  leaving  our  country ;  for  we 
leave  not  our  king,  nor  our  government,  by  quit- 
ting our  soil ;  but  we  transplant  to  a  place  given 
by  the  same  king,  with  express  limitation  to  erect 
no  polity  contrary  to  the  same  established  govern- 
ment, but  as  near  as  may  be  to  it ;  and  this  varia- 
tion is  allowed  but  for  the  sake  of  emergencies  ; 
and  that  latitude  bounded  with  these  words,  for  the 
good  of  the  adventurer  and  planter;  which  that  ex- 
action of  custom  can  never  be,  in  that  it  not  only 
varies  to  the  discouragement  and  prejudice  of  the 
planter,  but  contradicts  his  native  laws,  rights  and 
liberties,  and  lays  a  foundation  for  another  sort  of 
government  than  that  which  was  only  known  to 
his  fathers  ;  unto  the  just  defence  of  which  he  is 
engaged  by  nature  and  municipal  laws :  So  far  the 
point  of  law. 

"  We  shall  now  insist  upon  the  equity  of  our 
case  :  First,  This  very  tax  of  five  per  cent,  is  a 
thing  not  to  be  found  in  the  duke's  conveyances, 
but  an  after-business  ;  a  very  surprize  to  the 
planter,  and  such  an  one,  as  could  they  have  fore- 
seen, they  would  have  sooner  taken  up  in  any  other 
plantation  in  America.  In  the  next  place, 

"  2.  New  Jersey  never  paid  custom  before  last 
peace,  and  that  peace  re-invests  every  proprietor  by 
articles.  Now  we  bought  it  when  free,  since  which 
time  this  imposition  is  born ;  must  we  be  subjected 
to  the  payment  of  one  tax,  of  greater  value  than  the 
country  ?  This  in  plain  English,  is  under  another 
name,  paying  for  the  same  thing  twice  over;  nay, 
had  the  soil  been  purchased  of  the  Indians,  by  those 
of  whom  we  bought  it,  and  given  us  ;  it  had  been 
dearly  accepted,  upon  this  condition,  and  with  this 
incumbrance  ;  but  it  was  bought  by  us,  and  that  for 
a  valuable  consideration  here  ;  and  is  now  pur- 
chased again  of  the  natives  there  too  ;  this  makes 
our  case  extreme  hard,  and  we  pray  relief. 

"  3.  Custom  in  all  governments  in  the  world,  is 
laid  upon  trade,  but  this  upon  planting  is  unprece- 
dented. Had  we  brought  commodities  to  these 
parts  to  sell,  made  profit  out  of  them,  and  returned 
to  the  advantage  of  traders  ;  there  had  been  some 
colour  or  pretence  for  this  exaction  ;  but  to  require 
and  force  a  custom  from  persons  for  coming  to 
their  property,  their  own  terra  firma,  their  habita- 
tions ;  in  short,  for  coming  home,  is  without  a  paral- 
lel ;  this  is  paying  custom  not  for  trading,  but 
landing;  not  for  merchandizing,  but  planting;  in 
very  deed  for  hazarding  ;  for  there  we  go  ;  carry 
over  our  families  and  estates  ;  adventure  both  for 
the  improvement  of  a  wilderness,  and  are  not  only 
told  we  must  pay  hereafter  out  of  our  gains  and 
improvements,  but  must  pay  out  of  our  poor  stock 
and  principal,  (put  into  goods)  five  pounds  in  the 
hundred;  and  not  as  they  are  there  worth,  but  as 
they  here  cost ;  and  this  for  coming  to  plant :  So 
that  the  plain  English  of  the  tragedy  is  this,  we 
twice  buy  this  moiety  of  New  Jersey,  first  of  Lord 


Berkeley,  and  next  of  the  natives  ;  and  what  for  ? 
the  better  to  mortgage  ourselves  and  posterity  to 
the  duke's  governors,  and  give  them  a  title  to  our 
persons  and  estates,  that  never  had  any  before. 
But  pray  consider,  can  there  be  a  house  without  a 
bottom ;  or  a  plantation  before  a  people  ?  if 
not,  can  there  be  a  custom  before  a  trade  ?  Thus 
much  for  the  equitable  part  of  our  plea  ;  the  next 
and  last,  is  the  prudential.  We  do  offer  several 
things  in  point  of  prudence,  why  the  duke  should 
desist  from  the  exaction  :  First,  there  can  be  no 
benefit  to  a  prince  in  America,  there  can  be  no 
trade,  without  a  people  ;  there  will  be  no  people 
where  there  is  no  encouragement;  nor  can  there 
be  any  encouragement  where  people  have  not 
greater  privileges  by  going  than  staying;  for  if 
their  condition  be  not  meliorated,  they  will  never 
forego  the  comfort  of  their  kindred  they  must  leave 
behind  them,  nor  forsake  their  native  country,  run 
the  hazard  of  the  seas,  nor  lastly,  expose  them- 
selves to  the  wants  and  difficulties  of  a  wilderness  ; 
but  on  the  contrary,  if  they  have  less  privileges 
there  than  at  home,  'tis  every  way  to  worst  them- 
selves to  go ;  for  they  do  not  only  pay  custom  here 
for  going,  but  there  for  arriving:  which  is  not  done 
in  any  other  plantation,  even  when  our  men  go  to 
merchandize  and  not  to  plant,  which  is  our  case. 
Besides  there  is  no  end  of  this  power;  for  since  we 
are  by  this  precedent,  assessed  without  any  law, 
and  thereby  excluded  our  English  right  of  common 
assent  to  taxes  ;  what  security  have  we  of  anything 
we  possess  ?  we  can  call  nothing  our  own,  but  are 
tenants  at  will,  not  only  for  the  soil  but  for  all  our 
personal  estates  ;  we  endure  penury  and  the  sweat 
of  our  brows,  to  improve  them  at  our  own  hazard 
only.  This  is  to  transplant,  not  from  good  to  better, 
but  from  good  to  bad ;  this  sort  of  conduct  has  de- 
stroyed government,  but  never  raised  one  to  any 
true  greatness  ;  nor  ever  will  in  the  duke's  terri- 
tories, whilst  so  many  countries  equally  good  in  soil 
and  air,  surrounded  with  greater  freedom  and  secur- 
ity. Whereas  if  the  duke  please  to  make  all  planters 
easy  and  safe  in  their  liberty  and  property,  such  a 
just  and  free  government  will  draw  in  other  places, 
encourage  persons  to  transplant  into  his  country, 
and  his  disbursements  will  soon  be  at  an  end  ;  his 
revenues,  with  satisfaction  to  the  people,  presently 
visibly  augmented.  Next  this  encouragement  will 
bring  shipping  and  seamen,  which  not  only  takes  off 
abundance  of  idle  people,  but  our  native  growth 
and  manufacture,  and  the  export,  of  them;  and  the 
import  of  the  produce  of  these  plantations,  will  in  a 
little  time  overflow,  and  advance  the  revenue  of  the 
crown.  Virginia  and  Barbadoes  are  proofs  unde- 
niable in  the  case. 

"  Lastly,  the  duke's  circumstances,  and  the 
people's  jealousies  considered,  we  humbly  sub- 
mit it,  if  there  can  be  in  their  opinion,  a 
greater  evidence  of  a  design  to  introduce  an  ur.li- 
mited  government,  than  both  to  exact  sue  h  an  un- 
terminated  tax  from  English  planters,  and  to  conti- 
nue it  after  so  many  repeated  complaints ;  and  on 
the  contrary,  if  there  can  be  anything  so  happy  to  the 
duke's  present  affairs,  as  the  opportunity  he  hath  to 
free  that  country  with  his  own  hand,  and  to  make  us 
all  owers  of  our  liberty  to  his  favour  and  justice  ; 
so  will  Englishmen  here  Inow  what  to  hope  for,  by 
the  justice  and  kindness  he  shews  to  Englishmen 
there ;  and  all  men  to  see  the  just  model  of  his  go- 
vernment in  New  York,  to  be  the  scheme  and 
draught  in  little,  of  his  ad  ministration  in  Old  Eng- 
land at  large,  if  the  crown  should  ever  devolve  upon 


574 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


his  head.  The  conclusion  is  this,  that  for  all  these 
reasons  in  law,  equity  and  prudence,  alleged ;  you 
would  please  to  second  our  request  to  the  duke,  that 
like  himself,  he  would  void  this  taxation,  and  put 
the  country  in  such  an  English  and  free  condition, 
that  he  may  be  as  well  loved  and  honoured,  as  feared 
by  all  the  inhabitants  of  his  territory ;  that  being 
great  in  their  affections,  he  may  be  great  by  their 
industry ;  which  will  yield  him  that  wealth,  that 
parent  of  power,  that  he  may  be  as  great  a  prince 
by  property  as  by  title." 

That  this  custom  was  now  taken  off,  will,  among 
other  things,  appear  by  the  following  letter  from 
Samuel  Jenings,  directed  to  William  Penn,  Edward 
Byllinge,  or  Gawen  Lawrie. 

"  Dear  Friends, — This  may  give  you  an  account 
of  mine  and  my  families  safe  arrival  in  New  Jersey, 
with  all  the  rest  that  came  with  us.  I  might  say 
something  concerning  our  passage  at  sea,  but  I 
wave  it  for  want  of  time,  and  in  fine  may  observe 
all  was  well ;  for  which  I  bless  God ;  and  the  Lord 
keep  us  all  sensible  of  it,  with  the  rest  of  his  mer- 
cies for  ever. 

"  Dear  friends,  about  six  weeks  since,  we  arrived 
in  Delaware  river,  where  I  expected  to  have  met  with 
a  combat,  in  the  denial  of  customs.  In  our  passage 
at  sea,  I  had  communicated  to  all  that  had  any  con- 
siderable cargo  on  board,  the  opinion  of  council, 
concerning  the  illegal  demand  thereof,  with  what 
else  I  thought  might  be  for  their  information  ;  which 
thus  far  prevailed,  that  most  if  not  all  concerned, 
seemed  resolved  to  deny  the  paying  of  custom  here; 
having  paid  all  the  king's  duties  in  England.  In 
good  time  we  came  to  anchor  in  Delaware,  where 
one  Peter  Alrick  (who  used  to  collect  the  customs) 
came  aboard,  and  brought  a  handsome  present  to  our 
commander,  and  sent  for  me  into  the  round-house, 
where  they  both  were,  and  Peter  told  me  he  had  no- 
thing to  say  to  us  relating  to  customs ;  he  had  no 
commission  for  it,  nor  did  he  he  know  of  any  body 
that  had ;  so  we  had  all  our  goods  safely  landed 
after  this  unexpected  easy  manner. 

"  In  pursuance  of  the  trust  committed  to  me  after 
my  arrival,  I  acquainted  those  nominated  in  the 
commission  with  me  of  it ;  but  in  a  short  time  after 
I  received  your  letters,  giving  an  account  of  a  new 
grant  obtained,  wherein  the  customs  are  taken  off,  a 
free  port  confirmed,  and  the  government  settled  on 
Edward  Byllinge ;  which  I  doubt  not  will  be  very 
acceptable  to  every  honest  man  ;  but  as  yet  I  have 
not  had  time  to  let  the  people  in  general  know  it ; 
and  now  seeing  the  ports  are  made  legally  free,  and 
the  government  settled,  I  would  not  have  anything 
to  remain  as  a  discouragement  to  planters.  Here 
are  several  good  and  convenient  settlements  already, 
and  here  is  land  enough  and  good  enough  ibr  many 
more."  Samuel  Jenings. 

New  Jersey,  the  17th  of  October,  1680. 

The  first  form  of  government  in  West  Jersey,  under  the 
proprietors. —  The  first  laws  they  made. — The  regu- 
lation relative  to  the  partitioning  of  land. 

The  western  part  of  New  Jersey  was  now  become 
populous,  by  the  accession  of  many  settlers.  Jen- 
ings, who  arrived  in  the  latter  end  of  1680,  received 
a  commission  from  Byllinge,  (whom  the  proprietors 
in  England,  as  mentioned  before,  had  chosen  go- 
vernor) to  be  his  deputy.  He  called  an  assembly, 
and  with  them  agreed  upon  certain  fundamental  prin- 
ciples for  the  government  of  the  province  as  follows. 

"  Province  of  West  New  Jersey,  in  America,  the 
25th  of  the  9th  Month  called  November,  1681. 


"  Forasmuch  as  it  hath  pleased  God  to  bring  us 
nto  this  province  of  West  New  Jersey,  and  settle 
us  here  in  safety,  that  we  may  be  a  people,  to  the 
praise  and  honour  of  his  name,  who  hath  so  dealt 
with  us,  and  for  the  good  and  welfare  of  our  posterity 
to  come.  We,  the  governor  and  proprietors,  free- 
holders and  inhabitants  of  West  New  Jersey,  by- 
mutual  consent  and  agreement,  for  the  prevention  of 
innovations  and  oppression,  either  upon  us  or  our  pos- 
terity, and  for  the  preservation  of  the  peace  and  tran- 
quility  of  the  same  ;  and  that  all  may  be  encouraged 
to  go  on  cheerfully  in  their  several  places,  we  do 
make  and  constitute  these  our  agreements,  to  be  as 
fundamentals  to  us,  and  our  posterity,  to  be  held  in- 
violable ;  and  that  no  person  or  persons  whatsoever 
shall  or  may  make  void  or  disannul  the  same,  upon 
any  pretence  whatsoever. 

"  1 .  That  there  shall  be  a  general  free  assembly 
for  the  province  aforesaid,  yearly  and  every  year, 
at  a  day  certain,  chosen  by  the  free  people  of  the 
said  province,  whereon  all  the  representatives  for  the 
said  province  shall  be  summoned  to  appear,  to  con- 
sider of  the  affairs  of  the  said  province,  and  to  make 
and  ordain  such  acts  and  laws  as  shall  be  requisite 
and  necessary  for  the  good  government  and  pros- 
perity of  the  free  people  of  the  said  province  ;  and 
(if  necessity  shall  require)  the  governor  for  the  time 
being,  with  the  consent  of  his  council,  may  and  shall 
issue  out  writs  to  convene  the  assembly  sooner,  to 
consider  and  answer  the  necessities  of  the  people  of 
the  said  province. 

"  2.  That  the  governor  of  the  province  aforesaid, 
his  heirs  or  successors,  for  the  time  being,  shall  not 
suspend  or  defer  the  signing,  sealing  and  confirm- 
ing of  such  acts  and  laws  as  the  general  assembly 
(from  time  to  time  to  be  elected  by  the  free  people 
of  the  province  aforesaid)  shall  make  or  enact  for 
the  securing  of  the  liberties  and  properties  of  the 
said  free  people  of  the  province  aforesaid. 

"  3.  That  it  shall  not  be  lawful  for  the  governor  of 
the  said  province,  his  heirs  or  successors,  for  the 
time  being,  and  council,  or  any  of  them,  at  any  time 
or  times  hereafter,  to  make  or  raise  war  upon  any 
account  or  pretence  whatsoever,  or  to  raise  any  mi- 
litary forces  within  the  province  aforesaid,  without 
the  consent  and  act  of  the  general  free  assembly,  for 
the  time  being. 

"  4.  That  it  shall  not  be  lawful  for  the  governor 
of  the  said  province,  his  heirs  or  successors,  for  the 
time  being,  and  council,  or  any  of  them,  at  any  time 
or  times  hereafter,  to  make  or  enact  any  law  or  laws 
for  the  said  province,  without  the  consent,  act  and 
concurrence  of  the  general  assembly.  And  if  the 
governor  for  the  time  being,  his  heirs  or  successors, 
and  council,  or  any  of  them,  shall  attempt  to  make 
or  enact  any  such  law  or  laws,  of  him  or  themselves, 
without  the  consent,  act  and  concurrence  of  the 
general  assembly ;  that  from  thenceforth,  he,  they, 
or  so  many  of  them,  as  shall  be  guilty  thereof,  shall 
upon  legal  conviction,  be  deemed  and  taken  for  ene- 
mies to  the  free  people  of  the  said  province;  and  such 
act  so  attempted  to  be  made,  to  be  of  no  force. 

"  5.  That  the  general  free  assembly,  from  time  to 
time,  to  be  chosen  as  aforesaid,  as  the  representa- 
tives of  the  people,  shall  not  be  prorogued  or  dis- 
solved, before  the  expiration  of  one  whole  year,  to 
commence  from  the  day  of  their  election,  without 
their  own  free  consent. 

"  6.  That  it  shall  not  be  lawful  for  the  governor  of 

the  said  province,  his  heirs  or  successors,  for  the 

!  time  being,  and  council,  or  any  of  them,  to  levy  or 

raise  any  sum  or  sums  of  money,  or  any  other  tax 


UNITED  STATES. 


575 


whatsoever ;    without  the  act,  consent  and  concur- 
rence of  the  general  Assembly. 

"  7.  That  all  officers  of  state  or  trust,  relating  to 
the  said  Province,  shall  be  nominated  and  elected  by 
the  general  free  assembly  for  the  time  being,  or  by 
their  appointment ;  which  officer  and  officers,  shall 
be  accountable  to  the  general  free  assembly,  or  to 
such  as  the  said  assembly  shall  appoint. 

"  8.  That  the  governor  of  the  province  aforesaid, 
his  heirs  or  successors,  for  the  time  being,  or  any  of 
them,  shall  not  send  ambassadors,  or  make  treaties. 
or  enter  into  alliances,  upon  the  public  account  of 
the  said  province,  without  the  consent  of  the  said 
general  free  assembly.. 

"  9.  That  no  general  free  assembly  hereafter  to  be 
chosen  by  the  free  people  of  the  province  aforesaid, 
shall  give  to  the  governor  of  the  said  province  for 
the  time  being,  his  heirs  or  successors,  any  tax  or 
custom  for  longer  time  than  for  one  whole  year. 

"  10.  That  liberty  of  conscience,  in  matters  of  faith 
and  worship  towards  God,  shall  be  granted  to  all 
people  within  the  province  aforesaid,  who  shall  live 
peaceably  and  quietly  therein  ;  and  that  none  of  the 
free  people  of  the  said  province,  shall  be  rendered  in- 
capable of  office  in  respect  of  their  faith  and  worship. 
"  Upon  the  governor's  acceptance  and  perform- 
ance of  the  proposals  herein  before  expressed,  we  the 
general  free  assembly,  proprietors  and  freeholders  oi 
the  province  of  West  New  Jersey  aforesaid,  do  ac- 
cept and  receive  Samuel  Jenings,  as  deputy  governor. 
In  testimony  whereof  I  have  hereunto/put  my  hand 
and  seal,  the  day  and  year  above  written."* 

"  Samuel  Jenings,  deputy  governor. 
Subscribed  also  "  Thomas  Olive,  speaker." 
This  assembly  was  held  from  the  21st  till  the  28th 
of  November,  and  passed  six  and  thirty  laws  (beside 
the  above)  many  of  which  were  repealed  in  a  few 
years  afterwards.  The  principal  were  to  the  follow 
ing  effect.  That  it  should  be  the  business  of  the  go- 
vernor and  commissioners  to  see  that  all  courts  exe 
cuted  their  offices,  and  to  punish  such  officers  as 
should  violate  the  laws.  That  lands  legally  taken  up 
and  held,  planted  and  possessed  seven  years,  shoulc" 
not  be  subject  to  alteration.  That  all  offices  of trus 
should  subscribe  to  do  equal  right  and  justice.  Tha 
no  person  should  be  condemned  or  hurt,  without  a 
trial  of  twelve  men  ;  and  that  in  criminal  cases,  the 
party  arraigned  to  except  against  thirty-five,  or  more 
upon  valid  reasons.  That  in  every  court,  three  jus 
tices  or  commissioners  at  least,  to  sit  and  assist  th 
jury  in  cases  of  law,  and  pronounce  the  judgments  t( 
the  jury.  That  false  witnesses  be  fined,  and  dis 
abled  from  being  after  admitted  in  evidence,  or  int 
any  public  office  in  the  province.  That  persons  pro 
secuting  for  private  wrong  (murder,  treason  an 
theft  excepted)  might  remit  the  penalty  or  punish 
ment  either  before  or  after  condemnation.  Tha 
juries  should  be  summoned  by  the  sheriff,  and  non 
be  compelled  to  fee  an  attorney  to  plead  his  cause 
That  all  wills  should  be  first  proved  and  registered 
and  then  duly  performed.  That  upon  persons  d^ 
intestate,  and  leaving  a  wife  and  child,  or  children 
the  governor  and  commissioners  for  the  time  being 
should  take  security,  that  the  estate  should  be  dul; 
administered,  and  the  administrator  to  secure  two 
thirds  for  the  child  or  children,  the  other  to  the  wi 
dow ;  where  there  was  no  children,  one  moiety  o 
half  the  estate,  was  to  go  to  the  next  of  kin,  th 
other  half  to  the  widow ;  always  provided,  such  estat 
exceeded  one  hundred  pounds  ;  otherwise  the  widoA 
to  have  the  whole  ;  and  in  cases  of  leaving  children 
and  no  provision,  the  charge  of  bringing  them  up  t 


e  paid  out  of  the  public  stock.  That  felons  should 
make  restitution  fourfold,  or  as  twelve  of  the  neigh- 
ourhood  should  determine;  and  such  as  hurt  or 
buse  the  person  of  any,  to  be  punished  according 
o  the  nature  of  the  offence.  That  whosoever  pre- 
umed,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  sell  any  strong  li- 
uors  to  any  Indian  or  Indians,  should  forfeit  for 
very  such  offence,  the  sum  of  three  pounds.  That 
en  men  from  Burlington,  and  ten  from  Salem, 
hould  be  appointed  to  lay  out  and  clear  a  road  from 
iurlingtou  to  Salem,  at  the  public  expence.  That 
wo  hundred  pounds  should  be  equally  levied  and 
.ppropriated  for  the  charges  of  government,  upon  the 
everal  tenths,  twenty  pounds  each ;  every  man  to 
>e  assessed  according  to  his  estate  ;  and  all  handi- 
rafts,  merchants  and  others,  at  the  discretion  of  the 
issessors.  Persons  thinking  themselves  aggrieved, 
ad  the  liberty  of  appealing  to  the  commissioners  of 
he  tenth  they  belonged  to.  The  following  regulations 
•elative  to  the  possession  of  lands  were  also  enacted. 
"  The  methods  of  the  commissioners  for  settling 
nd  regulation  of  lands. 

"  We  whose  names  are  hereunder  written,  com- 
missioners nominated,  elected,  and  chosen  by  the 
general  free  assembly,  proprietors  and  freeholders 
of  the  province  of  West  New  Jersey,  the  23d  day 
of  November  last  past,  for  the  settling  and  regulat- 
ng  of  lands,  and  other  concerns  within  the  said 
province  ;  do,  by  and  with  the  approbation  and  con- 
sent of  the  governor  of  the  said  province,  and  coun- 
cil, in  pursuance  of  the  said  trust  in  us  reposed, 
hereby  fully  agree  upon  these  rules  and  methods 
hereinafter  following  (that  is  to  say)  : 

"  1.  That  the  surveyor  shall  measure  the  front  of 
the  river  Delaware,  beginning  at  Assunpink  creek, 
and  from  thence  down  to  Cape  May,  that  the  point  of 
the  compass  may  be  found  for  the  running  the  par- 
tition lines  between  each  tenth. 

"  '2.  That  each  and  every  tenth,  or  ten  proprieties, 
shall  have  their  proportion  of  front  to  the  river  De- 
laware, and  so  far  back  into  the  woods  as  will  make 
or  contain  sixty-four  thousand  acres  for  their  first 
settlement,  and  for  the  subdividing  the  Yorkshire 
and  London  two-tenths. 

"  3.  To  allow  three  thousand  and  two  hundred 
acres  where  the  parties  concerned  please  to  chuse 
it  within  their  own  tenth  ;  to  be  taken  up  according 
to  the  rules  or  methods  following,  viz. :  One-eighth 
part  of  a  propriety,  and  so  for  smaller  parts,  to  have 
their  full  proportion  of  the  said  land  in  one  place 
(if  they  please)  and  greater  purchasers  or  shares 
not  to  exceed  500  acres  to  one  settlement. 

"  4.  All  lands  so  taken  up  and  surveyed,  shall 
be  seated  within  six  months  after  it  is  so  taken  up ; 
and  if  the  same  shall  not  be  seated  within  the  said 
time,  then  such  choice  and  survey  shall  be  void,  and 
the  same  lands  shall  be  free  for  any  other  purchaser 
to  take  up ;  provided  he  or  they  so  taking  up  the 
same,  do,  or  shall  seat  it  within  one  month  after  it 
is  so  taken  up. 

"5.  That  no  person  or  persons  shall  take  up 
lands  on  both  sides  of  a  creek,  to  one  settlement, 
except  the  commissioners  for  the  time  being,  shall 
see  good  cause  for  their  so  doing. 

"  6.  That  no  person  or  persons  shall  have  more 
than  forty  perches  front  to  the  river,  or  navigable 
creek,  for  each  and  every  one  hundred  acres,  ex- 
cept it  fall  upon  a  point,  so  that  it  cannot  otherwise 
be  avoided  ;  and  in  such  cases  it  shall  be  left  to 
the  discretion  of  the  commissioners  then  for  the  time 
being. 

"  7.  That  all  lands  be  laid  out  on  straight  lines, 


576 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


that  no  vacancies  be  left  between  lands,  but  tha 
they  be  joined  one  seat  to  another,  except  the  com 
missioners  then  for  the  time  being,  shall  for  goo 
causes  order  it  otherwise. 

"  8.  That  all  persons  shall  take  their  just  propo 
tions  of  meadow,  which  shall  be  laid  forth  at  the  di 
cretion  of  the  commissioners  then  for  the  time  being 
"9.  That  all  persons  who  are  already  seatet 
shall  have  liberty  to  make  his  settlement  his  choice 
if  he  please  ;  provided  he  or  they  observe  and  folio 
the  rule  or  method  herein  prescribed. 

"  10.  That  every  proprietor  shall  have  400  acre 
to  a  propriety,  and  so  proportionably  to  lesser  qua 
tities  for  their  town  lot,  over  and  above  their  afore 
said  3,200  acres ;  which  may  be  taken  any  wher 
within  their  own  tenth,  either  within  or  without  th 
town  bounds. 

"  II.  That  no  person  or  persons  who  have  already 
taken  up  a  town  lot,  shall  have  liberty  to  leave  il 
and  take  a  lot  elsewhere ;  but  shall  keep  the  sam 
he  hath  taken  up  as  his  town  lot. 

"  12.  That  Thomas  Wright  shall  keep  his  settle 
ment,  containing  400  acres ;  and  that  the  cominis 
sioners  for  Yorkshire  side,  shall  allow  to  the  town 
bounds,  300  acres,  to  be  taken  up  adjoining  to  th 
town  bounds,  on  Lazy  Point,  in  lieu  thereof. 

"  13.  That  no  purchaser  shall  take  up  more  lam 
within  the  town  bounds,  than  belongs  to  his  town 
lot,  by  virtue  of  his  purchase. 

"  14.  That  no  person  or  persons  (who  are  no 
purchasers  to  whom  town  lot  or  lots  are  given)  shal 
dispose  of,  or  sell  his  or  their  said  lot  or  lots  of  land 
from  their  house  or  houses  respectively ;  and  tha 
if  any  such  person  or  persons  as  aforesaid,  shall  dis 
pose  of,  or  sell  such  said  lot  or  lots  apart  from  hi: 
or  their  said  house  or  houses,  then  such  said  sale  o 
lot  or  lots  shall  be  void  and  of  no  effect,  and  the  same 
lot  or  lots  shall  from  thence  become  forfeit,  to  the 
use  of  the  town  of  Burlington,  to  be  disposed  o 
therein  at  the  discretion  of  the  commissioners  then 
for  the  time  being. 

"  15.  That  no  person  or  persons  from  hence  for- 
ward shall  take  up  any  land,  without  special  order 
from  two  or  more  of  the  commissioners  for  the  time 
being,  first  had  and  obtained. 

•'16.  That  all  and  every  settlement  and  settle- 
ments already  made,  which  are  not  consonant  and 
agreeable  to  the  rules  and  methods  aforesaid,  shall 
be  liable  to  regulation,  according  to  the  said  rules 
and  methods. 

"  17.  That  the  proprietors  who  are  yet  remaining 
in  England,  shall  have  notice  that  we  find  it  neces- 
sary for  the  speedy  settlement  of  this  province,  and 
for  the  interest  of  all  concerned  therein,  to  allow  to 
every  propriety  as  aforesaid,  3,200  acres  for  our 
first  choice ;  and  in  case  much  people  shall  come, 
as  may  be  reasonably  expected,  who  have  purchased 
no  land  in  England,  and  desire  to  settle  amongst 
us  ;  that  then  we  reserve  liberty  to  take  up  so  much 
land  more  as  shall  fall  to  every  propriety,  not  ex- 
ceeding 5,200  acres,  which  was  allowed  to  us  for 
our  first  settlement.  Provided  nevertheless,  that 
none  shall  take  up  any  proportion  of  land,  but  as 
they  shall  settle  it,  or  cause  it  to  be  settled,  which  is 
to  be  done  after  the  aforesaid  3,200  acres  shall  be 
justly  taken  up  and  settled. 

"  18.  That  all  public  highways  shall  be  set  forth, 
at  any  time  or  times  hereafter,  at  the  discretion  of 
the  commissioners  for  the  time  being,  in  or  through 
any  lands  taken  up,  or  to  be  taken  up  ;  allowing 
the  owners  of  such  lands  where  such  public  high- 
ways shall  be  laid  forth,  reasonable  satisfaction  at 


the  discretion  of  the  commissioners,  in  lieu  thereof. 

"  19.  Yet  nevertheless,  it  is  hereby  commanded 
and  agreed  by  the  authority  aforesaid,  that  the 
rules  and  methods  herein  before  agreed  on,  shall 
not  make  void  or  disannul  all  or  any  settlement  or 
settlements  heretofore  made,  in  the  Yorkshire  tenth, 
who  have  seated  according  to  a  former  agreement, 
viz.,  not  having  taken  up  more  than  fifty  perches  for 
each  and  every  hundred  acres  on  the  river  or  navi- 
gable creek,  and  having  kept  their  due  breadth  and 
bounds  from  the  river  or  creek. 

"  Signed  and  sealed  the  5th  of  December,  1681, 
by  Samuel  Jenings,  governor,  Thomas  Olive,  Tho- 
mas Budd,  Robert  Stacy,  Benjamin  Scott,  Thomas 
Gardiner,  Daniel  Wills,  Mahlon  Stacy,  Thomas 
Lambert. 

"  20.  That  all  persons  who  have  already  taken 
up  any  lands,  within  the  first  and  second  tenth  in 
this  province,  shall  bring  in  their  deeds  or  writings, 
to  shew  their  title  to  such  lands  as  they  have  taken 
up,  to  Benjamin  Scott,  Robert  Stacy,  Thomas  Budd, 
and  Thomas  Gardiner,  on  or  before  the  12th  day  of 
this  instant  January,  next  ensuing  the  day  of  the 
date  hereof. 

"  21.  That  all  person  or  persons  hereafter  to  take 
up  land  within  the  said  first  and  second  tenth,  shall 
first  make  application  to  the  said  Benjamin  Scott, 
Robert  Stacy,  Thomas  Budd,  and  Thomas  Gardiner, 
or  any  two  of  them  ;  and  shall  also  before  the  said 
commissioners  solemnly  declare  and  aver,  upon  the 
penalty  of  the  law  of  perjury  to  pass  against  them, 
that  the  quantity  or  portion  of  land  contained  in 
their  respective  deeds  or  other  writings,  do  really 
and  in  good  conscience  belong  and  appertain  to 
him  or  them  so  requiring  a  warrant  or  warrants,  for 
laying  forth  his  or  their  land,  so  as  the  said  com- 
missioners may  be  thereby  satisfied  with  the  just- 
ness of  his  or  their  title  thereto  ;  then,  and  not  be- 
fore, the  said  commissioners,  or  any  two  of  them,  shall 
and  may  grant  out  a  warrant  to  the  surveyor  or  his 
deputy,  to  lay  out  and  survey  the  respective  propor- 
tion of  land  to  him  or  them  due  and  appertaining, 
as  aforesaid  ;  enjoining  the  surveyor  or  his  deputy, 
o  make  return  of  his  said  warrant  and  survey,  at 
he  next  court  after  such  warrant  granted,  to  be 
leld  at  Burlington;  that  the  same  maybe  registered 
y  order  of  the  said  court. 

"  22.  That  all  proprietors  and  purchasers,  within 
he  said  first  and  second  tenths,  shall  and  may  have 
iberty  to  take  his  and  their  full  proportions  of  land 
s  before  within  is  agreed  upon,  of  the  first  and 
econd  choice  in  one  place  ;  provided  he  or  they  so 
oing  take  not  up  more  than  500  acres  of  land  in 
ne  settlement. 

"  Witness  our  hands  and  seals,  the  14th  day  of 
be  llth  month,  1681,  Samuel  Jenings,  governor, 
homas  Olive,  Robert  Stacy,  Thomas  Budd,  Daniel 
^Vills,  Thomas  Gardiner,  Benjamin  Scott." 

inother  ship  arrives  at  West  Jersey — Proceedings  of 
the  general  assembly  of  West  Jersey — Sir  George 
Carteret's  death — Conveyance  to  the  twelve  eastern 
proprietors — Their  proposals  and  regulations  in 
several  respects;  particularly  in  disposing  of  lands 
and  building  a  toivn  at  Ambo  point — The  twelve 
proprietors  each  take  a  partner,  and  thence  are 
called  the  twenty -f our  ;  to  whom  the  Duke  of  York 
makes  a  thiid  and  last  grant — The  twenty-four 
establish  the  council  of  proprietors  of  East  Jersey,  on 
the  footing  it  now  is — A  general  view  of  the  im- 
provements in  East  Jersey,  in  1682 — A  compendium 
of  some  of  the  jirst  laws  passed  at  Elizabeth-town— 


UNITED  STATES. 


577 


Doubts  started  whether  the  government  of  West 
Jersey  was  granted  with  the  soil — Jenings  continued 
governor  of  West  Jersey  ;  and  laws  passed  there. 

In  the  year  1682,  a  large  ship,  of  550  tons  bur- 
then, arrived  at  West  Jersey,  which  got  aground  in 
Delaware  bay  ;  where,  after  laying  eight  days,  by 
a  favourable  wind  and  tide,  it  was  got  off;  and 
coming  up  the  river,  landed  her  passengers,  being 
360  in  number,  between  Philadelphia  and  Burling- 
ton on  the  Jersey  shore.  Their  provisions  being 
nearly  exhausted,  they  sent  ten  miles  to  an  Indian 
town  near  Rankokus  creek,  for  Indian  corn  and 
pease.  The  chief  of  this  tribe  being  then  there, 
treated  them  kindly,  and  directed  such  Indians  as 
had  provisions,  to  bring  it  in  next  morning,  who  ac- 
cordingly brought  plenty ;  which  being  delivered 
and  put  in  bags,  the  messengers  took  leave  of  the 
chief,  who  kindly  ordered  some  of  the  Indians  to 
carry  their  bags  for  them  to  their  canoes. 

The  assembly  of  West  Jersey  having,  at  their 
last  sitting,  adjourned  to  the  1st  of  February  this 
year  (1682)  met ;  but  not  being  a  full  house,  they 
adjourned  to  the  14th,  and  then  dissolved  them- 
selves without  doing  any  business.  Another  being 
called,  sat  from  the  2d  to  the  llth  of  the  month  fol- 
lowing. The  members  returned  by  the  sheriff  for 
the  respective  tenths,  to  serve  in  this  assembly, 
were,  Thomas  Olive,  speaker,  Mahlon  Stacy, 
Joshua  Wright,  John  Lambert,  Thomas  Lambert, 
William  Emley,  Godfrey  Hancock,  Daniel  Leeds, 
Thomas  Wright,  Samuel  Borden,  Robert  Stacy, 
Thomas  Budd,  Daniel  Wills,  sen.,  Thomas  Gardi- 
ner, John  Crips,  John  White,  John  Chaffin,  Ber- 
nard Davenish,  Isaac  Marriott,  William  Peachy, 
William  Cooper,  Mark  Newby,  Thomas  Thackery, 
Robert  Zane,  James  Nevil,  Richard  Guy,  Mark 
Reeves,  Richard  Hancock,  John  Smith,  John 
Pledger,  Edward  Wade,  George  Deacon,  and 
Samuel  Hedge.  Hitherto  the  members  had  been 
chosen  by  the  electors  from  all  the  tenths  indiscri- 
minately ;  but  this  assembly  declared  it  their  judg- 
ment, and  the  judgment  of  those  they  represented, 
that  the  most  regular  method  for  preserving  the 
liberty  and  property  of  the  people  by  a  free  assem- 
bly, was,  that  such  of  the  ten  proprieties,  as  were 
now  peopled,  should  each  choose  ten  representa- 
tives (and  the  others  also  as  they  became  peopled), 
and  resolving,  that  twenty-four,  the  speaker  one, 
should  make  the  quorum,  they  chose  the  council, 
justices,  commissioners  for  laying  out  land,  and 
other  officers. 

This  done,  the  governor,  council,  and  assembly, 
passed  sundry  laws;  by  some  of  which  it  was  en- 
acted, that  each  of  the  ten  proprietors  should  have 
liberty  to  sell  as  far  as  500  acres  of  land,  within 
their  respective  tenths,  or  take  such  other  expedient 
as  they  should  judge  fit,  for  defraying  the  public 
charges,  for  the  tenths  respectively ;  to  which  pur 
pose,  Mahlon  Stacy  and  Thomas  Lambert  were  ap- 
pointed within  the  first  or  Yorkshire  tenth  ;  Thomas 
Budd  and  Thomas  Gardiner,  for  the  second  or  Lon- 
don tenth ;  William  Cooper  and  Mark  Newby  for 
the  third  or  Irish  tenth  ;  and  Samuel  Jenings  and 
Thomas  Budd,  within  the  remaining  six  tenths.  As 
for  J.  Fenwick,  who  owned  the  other  tenth,  they 
seem  not  to  have  considered  him.  That  the  three 
pounds  fine,  formerly  imposed  on  such  as  sold  rum 
or  other  strong  liquor  to  the  Indians,  should  go  one 
half  to  the  informer,  the  other  to  the  public  stock, 
where  the  offence  was  given ;  and  that  every 
foreigner  offending  therein,  should  forfeit  five 
HIST.  OF  AMER. — Nos.  73  &  ?4. 


lounds,  to  be  disposed  of  in  like  manner.  That  for 
he  more  convenient  payment  of  small  sums  of 
money,  Mark  Newby's  coppers,  called  Patrick's 
lalf-pence,  should  pass  as  half-pence  current  pay  ; 
provided  he  gave  security  to  the  speaker,  for  the  use 
)f  the  general  assembly  for  the  time  being,  that  he, 
lis  executors  and  administrators  would  change  them 
on  demand,  and  provided  none  were  obliged  to  take 
more  than  five  shillings  in  one  payment.  That  for 
preventing  clandestine  and  unlawful  marriages, 
justices  should  have  power  to  solemnize  them,  the 
parties  having  first  published  their  intentions  four- 
teen days  in  some  public  place  appointed  for  that 
purpose ;  any  justice  presuming  to  marry  without 
the  consent  or  knowledge  of  parents  or  trustees  (if 
such  consent  could  be  reasonably  obtained),  was  to 
be  fined  at  the  discretion  of  the  general  assembly ; 
of  which  marriage  the  register  was  to  make  public 
entry  of  the  day  it  was  solemnized ;  the  births  of 
children,  and  decease  of  all  persons,  were  also  to  be 
entered  in  the  public  register  of  the  respective 
tenths ;  and  for  preventing  differences  between 
masters  and  servants,  where  no  covenants  were 
made,  all  servants  were  to  have,  at  the  expiration 
of  their  service,  according  to  the  custom  of  the 
country,  ten  bushels  of  corn,  necessary  apparel,  two 
hoes  and  an  axe.  That  all  servants  of  full  age,  com- 
ing into  the  province  without  indentures,  or  other 
agreements,  should  serve  four  years,  from  the  ship's 
entry,  (to  take  which  entries  custom-house  officers 
were  before  appointed,)  and  that  all  under  the  age 
of  one-and-twenty  years,  who  came  without  inden- 
tures, should  within  three  months  after  their  arrival, 
be  brought  to  the  court,  in  the  district  where  the 
party  resided ;  which  court  was  to  appoint  the  time 
of  servitude.  That  for  preventing  deceits,  lands 
should  pay  debts,  where  personal  estates  were  insuf- 
ficient. That  for  encouragement  of  building  a  saw- 
mil],  one  thousand  acres  should  be  sold  to  William 
Frampton,  to  accommodate  him  with  land  for  that 
purpose ;  and  more  as  the  governor  and  commis- 
sioners should  judge  convenient.  That  for  the  bet- 
ter settling  and  confirmation  of  lands,  six  of  the 
commissioners,  with  the  governor,  should  (where 
there  was  occasion)  make  an  inspection  into  such 
as  were  or  should  be  taken  up;  that  on  finding  these 
legally  located,  they  might  after  public  notice  in 
the  court,  and  no  just  reason  to  the  contrary,  con- 
firm the  same  at  the  next  court.  That  there  should 
be  four  courts  of  session  held  at  Burlington  and 
Salem  yearly.  That  the  twenty  pounds  formerly 
granted  the  governor,  the  five  pounds  to  the  speaker, 
and  the  five  pounds  to  the  clerk,  should  be  raised  by 
tax;  nine  pounds  six  shillings  and  eight-pence  by 
the  Yorkshire,  London,  and  Salem  tenths  each, 
and  forty  shillings  by  the  third  tenth  ;  the  whole, 
being  thirty  pounds,  was  to  be  delivered  to  Thomas 
Budd  and  Thomas  Gardiner,  in  skins,  corn,  or 
money;  and  the  remainder  of  the  two  hundred 
pounds,  formerly  directed  to  be  raised  to  defray  the 
charges  of  government,  to  be  a  debt  due  from  the 
other  proprieties. 

The  representatives  of  West  Jersey  were  still  an- 
nually chosen ;  and  continued  to  be  so  until  the 
surrender  of  the  proprietary  government,  in  1702. 
The  council,  (who  were  justices  ex-officio,)  justices 
of  peace,  and  inferior  officers  of  government,  were 
chosen  by  them  ;  the  governor  was  appointed  by 
the  proprietors,  who  governed  them  by  a  deputy, 
till  the  succeeding  year  ;  when  the  assembly,  under- 
standing that  Byllinge,  for  some  selfish  reasons,  in- 
clined -to  turn  Jenings  out,  who  had  hitherto  been 

3  k 


578 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


deputy  governor,  to  the  general  satisfaction  of  the  go- 
verned ;  they  undertook,  by  their  choice,  to  continue 
him  governor  of  the  province,  pretending  a  right  to  do 
this,  because  in  the  constitutions,  power  was  given 
to  six  parts  in  seven  of  the  assembly,  to  make  such 
alterations  for  the  public  good,  (the*  laws  of  liberty 
of  conscience,  of  property,  of  yearly  assemblies,  of 
juries,  and  of  evidence,  excepted)  as  they  found  ne- 
cessary ;  and  that  no  advantage  might  be  taken  of 
such  judicial  proceedings,  as  had  not  been  exactly 
agreeable  to  the  concessions,  they  confirmed  and 
ratified  them  all. 

About  this  time,  the  settlers  in  many  parts  were 
exceedingly  distressed  for  food;  and  several  were 
only  supported  by  what  they  could  procure  with 
their  guns  ;  which,  as  powder  and  shot  were  some- 
times very  scarce,  was  but  a  precarious  supply. 

Sir  George  Carteret,  sole  proprietor  of  East  Jer- 
sey, who  died  in  1679,  had,  by  will,  ordered  that 
province  to  be  sold,  to  pay  his  debts ;  which  was 
done  accordingly,  by  his  widow  and  executors,  by 
indenture  of  lease  and  release,  bearing  date  the  1st 
and  2d  of  February,  1681-2,  to  William  Penn, 
Robert  West,  Thomas  Rudyard,  Samuel  Groome, 
Thomas  Hart,  Richard  Mew,  Thomas  Wilcox,  of 
London,  goldsmith,  Ambrose  Rigg,  John  Haywood, 
Hugh  Hartshorne,  Clement  Plumsted,  and  Thomas 
Cooper,  their  heirs  and  assigns ;  who  were  thence 
called  "  the  twelve  proprietors."  They  being  toge- 
ther so  seized,  in  this  year  (1682)  published  an  ac- 
count of  the  country,  together  with  a  fresh  project 
for  a  town,  and  their  method  of  disposing  of  their  lands. 

Their  plan  was  popular,  and  took  much,  espe- 
cially among  the  Scotch,  of  whom  many  had  already 
arrived :  and  in  this  and  some  of  the  immediately 
succeeding  years,  came  many  more.  Among  them 
was  George  Keith,  who  some  time  after  became 
surveyor-general,  and  was  accounted  exceedingly 
skilful. 

The  twelve  proprietors  did  not  long  hold  the  pro- 
vince to  themselves,  but  by  particular  deeds,  took 
each  a  partner:  their  names  were,  James  Earl  of 
Perth,  John  Drummond,  Robert  Barclay,  Robert 
Gordon,  Aarent  Sonmans,  Gawen  Lawrie,  Edward 
Byllinge,  James  Braine,  William  Gibson,  Thomas 
Barker,  Robert  Turner,  and  Thomas  Warne;  these 
with  the  other  twelve,  were  subsequently  called 
"  the  twenty-four  proprietors."  To  them  the  Duke 
of  York  made  a  fresh  grant  of  East  New  Jersey, 
bearing  date  the  14th  of  March,  1682. 

This  was  the  duke's  third  and  last  grant  of  East 
Jersey ;  soon  after  which,  the  twenty-four  proprie- 
tors, by  an  instrument  under  most  of  their  hands, 
established  "  a  council  of  proprietors ;"  and  gave 
them  power  to  appoint,  oversee,  and  displace  all  offi- 
cers necessary  for  the  management  of  their  property ; 
to  take  care  of  all  lands  belonging  to  the  general 
proprietors;  to  demise  them  for  terms  of  years,  and 
to  appoint  dividends  ;  to  examine  the  rights  of  the 
particular  proprietors  who  demanded  their  shares  of 
those  dividends,  and  to  grant  warrants  to  the  sur- 
veyor-general (whom  they  chose  themselves)  for  the 
appropriating  the  quantity  of  acres  due  to  such 
share ;  to  sue  trespassers  upon  the  general  proprie- 
tors' land ;  and  in  general,  to  manage  the  affairs 
which  related  to  the  general  proprietors.  This 
c  ouncil  always  to  consist  of  at  least  one-third  of  the 
general  proprietors,  or  their  proxies ;  and  to  have 
two  general  meetings  yearly,  at  Perth  Amboy ; 
uhichwere  at  first  held  immediately  after  the  su- 
pi  erne  courts  there,  but  were  afterwards  altered  to 
the  first  Tuesday  iu  April,. and  secopd  in  September. 


The  province  of  East  New  Jersey  was  now  tolera- 
bly settled;  and  it  was  reduced  to  some  regularity, 
as  appears  from  the  following  accounts,  published 
by  secretary  Nicolls  of  New  York,  in  1682. 

Shrewsbury,  near  Sandy  Hook,  adjoining  the 
river  or  creek  of  that  name,  was  already  a  township, 
consisting  of  several  thousand  acres,  with  large 
plantations  contiguous  ;  the  inhabitants  were  com- 
puted to  be  about  400.  Lewis  Morris,  of  Barbadoes, 
had  iron  works  and  other  considerable  improvements 
here. 

Middletown  was  supposed  to  consist  of  100  fami- 
lies ;  several  thousand  acres  allotted  for  the  town, 
and  many  thousands  for  the  several  out-plantations  : 
John  Bowne,  Richard  Hartshorne,  and  Nicholas 
Davis,  had  each  well  improved  settlements  here ;  a 
court  of  sessions  was  held  twice  or  thrice  a-year,  for 
Middletown  and  Piscataway,  and  their  jurisdictions. 
Several  plantations  were  settled  on  the  north  side  of 
Rariton  river,  below  Piscataway ;  several  also 
higher  up  Rariton,  and  about  the  Falls ;  among 
which  John  Palmer,  of  Staten  Island.  Thomas 
Codrington,  John  Robinson,  White  and  company, 
and  Edsall  and  Company,  of  New  York,  and  captain 
Corsen,  had  settlements ;  some  land  was  likewise 
located  by  Millstone  river,  up  Rariton,  supposed  to 
be  near  the  division  line. 

Woodbridge  had  several  improved  plantations  in 
it,  and  the  country  round  ;  Delaplairs,  the  surveyor- 
general,  was  one  of  the  settlers  here.  This  town 
claimed  more  privileges  than  others ;  was  incorpo- 
rated by  charter,  and  had  erected  a  court-house  and 
prison  (such  as  they  were).  There  were  here  about 
one  hundred  and  twenty  families  ;  a  large  quantity 
of  land  in  the  town,  and  for  the  plantations  round, 
many  thousand  acres ;  of  which  plantations  there 
were  several  on  the  north  side  of  the  river  that  di- 
vides Elizabeth  Town  and  Woodbridge. 

At  the  entrance  of  the  creek,  on  the  north  side, 
called  Carteret' s  Point,  north  of  Staten  Island,  were 
other  plantations,  from  Elizabeth  Town  to  the  bounds 
of  New  York.  Within  Elizabeth  Town  claim,  was 
a  settlement  in  partnership  between  the  proprietor 
Carteret,  and  governor  P.  Carteret ;  the  latter  had 
built  a  house  and  resided  here ;  the  town  was  sup- 
posed to  consist  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  families. 

On  the  north  of  Milford  or  Newark  river,  was  a 
large  tract  belonging  to  Kingsland  and  Sanfoord. 
Higher  up  the  river,  another  to  captain  Berrie  ;  who 
dividing  it,  several  plantations  were  soon  settled  on 
it.  Still  further  up  the  river,  an  island  belonging  to 
Christopher  Hoogland,  of  Newark  ;  above  that  again 
was  a  large  tract  owned  by  Jacques  Cartelayne,  and 
partners  ;  who  now  made  some  settlement.  These 
tracts  were  within  the  jurisdiction  of  Newark.  New- 
ark was  then  said  to  be  a  compact  town,  consisting 
of  about  one  hundred  families. 

Near  the  mouth  of  the  bay,  upon  the  side  of  Over- 
prook  creek,  adjacent  to  Hackinsack  river,  several 
of  the  rich  valleys  were  then  settled  by  the  Dutch  ; 
and  near  Snakehill  was  a  fine  plantation,  owned  by 
Pinhorn  and  Eickbe ;  for  half  of  which,  Pinhoru 
is  said  to  have  paid  5002.  There  were  other  settle- 
ments on  Hackinsack  river;  and  on  a  creek  near 
it,  Sarah  Kiersted,  of  New  York,  had  a  tract  given 
her  by  an  old  Indian  sachem,  for  services  in  inter- 
preting between  the  Indians  and  Dutch,  on  which 
several  families  were  settled.  John  Berrie  had  a 
large  plantation,  two  or  three  miles  above,  where  he 
then  lived,  and  had  considerable  improvements  ;  as 
had  also  near  him,  his  son-in-law  Smith,  and  one 
Baker  from  Barbadoes.  On  the  west  side  of  the 


UNITED  STATES. 


579 


'creek,  opposite  to  Berrie,  were  other  plantations ; 
but  none  more  northerly.  There  was  a  considerable 
settlement  on  Bergen  Point,  then  called  Constable 
Hook,  and  first  improved  by  Edsall,  in  Nicolls's 
time.  Other  small  plantations  were  improved  along 
Bergen  Neck,  to  the  east,  between  the  Point  and  a 
little  village  of  twenty  families.  Further  along  lived 
sixteen  or  eighteen  families;  and  opposite  New 
York,  about  forty  families  were  seated  ;  southward 
from  this,  a  few  families  settled  together  at  a  place 
called  the  Duke's  Farm  ;  and  further  up  the  country, 
was  a  place  called  Hobuck,  formerly  owned  by 
a  Dutch  merchant,  who,  in  the  Indian  wars  with  the 
Dutch,  had  his  wife,  children  and  servants  murdered 
by  the  Indians,  and  his  house  and  stock  destroyed  by 
them  ;  but  it  was  now  settled  again,  and  a  mill  erect- 
ed there.  Along  the  river  side,  to  the  north,  were 
lands  settled  by  William  Lawrence,  Samuel  Edsall 
and  captain  Beinh'eld ;  and  at  Haversham,  near  the 
High  Lands,  governor  Carteret  had  taken  up  two 
large  tracts ;  one  for  himself,  the  other  for  Andrew 
Campyue  and  company  ;  which  were  now  but  little 
improved.  The  plantations  on  both  sides  of  the 
Neck,  to  its  utmost  extent,  as  also  those  at  Hackin- 
sack,  were  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Bergen  Town, 
situate  about  the  middle  of  the  Neck  ;  where  was  a 
court  held  by  select  men  or  overseers,  consisting 
of  four  or  more  in  number,  as  the  people  thought 
best,  chosen  annually  to  try  small  causes,  as  had 
been  the  practice  in  all  the  rest  of  the  towns  at  first. 
Two  courts  of  sessions  were  held  here  yearly,  from 
which,  if  the  cause  exceeded  twenty  pounds,  the 
party  might  appeal  to  the  governor,  council  and 
court  of  deputies  or  assembly. 

Bergen,  a  compact  town,  which  had  been  fortified 
against  the  Indians,  contained  about  seventy  families  ; 
its  inhabitants  chiefly  Dutch,  some  of  whom  had 
been  settled  there  upwards  of  forty  years.  Upon  the 
whole  there  were  at  this  time  supposed  to  be  about 
seven  hundred  families  settled  in  the  towns  of  East 
Jersey ;  which,  reckoning  five  to  a  family,  were 
3500  inhabitants;  besides  the  out-plantations,  which 
were  thought  to  contain  half  as  many  more,  though 
these  could  not  be  so  well  guessed  at. 

P.  Cavteret  continued  governor  of  East  Jersey 
after  the  quint-partite  division,  till  about  the  year 
1681.  His  salary  was  generally  50/.  a-year,  paid 
in  country  produce,  at  prices  fixed  by  law,  and  some- 
times four  shillings  a  day  besides,  to  defray  his 
charges  while  a  sessions  was  held  ;  the  wages  of  the 
council  and  assembly  during  their  sitting  in  legisla- 
tion, was,  to  each  member  three  shillings  a  day. 
The  rates  for  public  charges  were  levied  at  two  shil- 
lings per  head  for  every  male  above  fourteen  years  old. 

The  council  in  16G8  consisted  of  six,  viz.  Nicho- 
las Verlet,  Robert  Bond,  Robert  Vanquellin,  Daniel 
Pierce,  Samuel  Edsall,  William  Pardon. 

The  assembly  then  consisted  of  twelve;  the  first 
meu-.bers  amounted  only  to  the  ten  following :  Cas- 
per Steenmets,  Baltazar  Bayard,  for  Bergen.  John 
Ogden,  sen.,  John  Brackett,  for  Elizabeth  Town. 
Robert  Treat,  Samuel  Svvarne,  for  Newark.  John 
Bishop,  Robert  Dennis,  for  Woodbridge.  James 
Grover,  John  Bound,  for  Middle  town  and  Shrews- 
bury. 

The  sessions  were  mostly  held  at  Elizabeth  Town, 
but  sometimes  at  Woodbridge,  and  once  or  more  at 
Middletown  and  Piscatawa.  Some  of  the  first  laws 
as  published  by  the  legislature  at  Elizabeth  Town, 
were  to  the  following  effect.  That  persons  resisting 
authority,  should  be  punished  at  the  discretion  of 
the  court.  That  men  from  16  to  60  years  of  age, 


should  provide  themselves  with  arms,  on  penalty  of 
one  shilling  foi  the  first  week's  neglect,  and  two  for 
every  week  after.  That  for  burglary  or  highway 
robbery,  the  punishment  should  be,  for  the  first  of- 
fence, burning. in  the  hand  ;  for  the  second,  in  the 
forehead;  in  both,  to  make  restitution ;  and  for  the 
third  offence,  death.  For  stealing,  for  the  first  of- 
fence, treble  restitution  ;  and  the  like  for  the  second 
and  third  offence,  with  such  increase  *of  punishment 
as  the  court  saw  cause,  even  to  death,  if  the  party 
appeared  incorrigible;  but  if  not,  and  unable  to 
make  restitution,  they  were  to  be  sold  for  satisfac- 
tion, or  to  receive  corporal  punishment.  That  con- 
spiracies or  attacks  upon  towns  or  forts,  should  be 
death.  That  undutiful  children,  smiting  or  cursing 
their  father  or  mother,  except  provoked  thereunto 
for  self-preservation,  upon  complaint  of,  and  proof 
from  their  parents,  or  either  of  them,  should  be  pu- 
nished with  death.  That  in  case  of  adultery,  the 
party  to  be  divorced,  corporally  punished  or  ba- 
nished, or  either,  or  all  of  them,  as  the  court 
should  judge  proper.  That  for  night-walking  and 
revelling  after  the  hour  of  nine,  the  parties  to  be 
secured  by  the  constable  or  other  officer  till  morning, 
and  then  not  giving  a  satisfactory  account  to  the 
magistrate,  to  be  bound  over  to  the  next  court,  and 
there  receive  such  punishment,  as  should  be  inflicted. 
That  the  meeting  of  the  assembly  should  be  always 
on  the  first  Tuesday  in  November,  yearly,  and 
oftener,  if  the  governor  and  council  thought  neces- 
sary ;  and  that  they  should  fix  the  governor's  salary; 
the  deputies  of  each  town  to  be  chosen  on  the  1st 
of  January,  according  to  the  concessions ;  any  de- 
puty absenting  himself  at  such  times,  was  to  be  fined 
40s.  for  every  day's  absence.  That  301.  should  be 
levied  for  provincial  charges,  i.  e.  5/.  to  be  paid  by 
each  town.  That  in  winter,  wheat  should  be  five 
shillings  a  bushel;  summer,  four  and  sixpence, 
pease  at  three  shillings  and  sixpence,  Indian  corn 
at  three  shillings,  rye  at  four  shillings,  barley  at  four 
shillings,  beef  at  two-pence  halfpenny  per  pound, 
and  pork  at  three-pence  halfpenny.  That  no  son, 
daughter,  maid,  or  servant,  should  marry  without 
the  consent  of  his  or  their  parents,  masters  or  over- 
seers, without  being  three  times  published  in  some 
public  meeting  or  kirk,  near  the  party's  abode,  or 
notice  being  set  up  in  writing  at  some  public-house 
near  where  they  lived,  for  fourteen  days  before ; 
then  to  be  solemnized  by  some  approved  minister, 
justice  or  chief  officer,  who,  on  penalty  of  20/.,  and 
to  be  put  out  of  office,  were  to  marry  none  who  had 
not  followed  those  directions.  That  fornication 
should  be  punished  at  the  discretion  of  the  court,  by 
marriage,  fine,  or  corporal  punishment;  and  that 
no  life  should  be  taken  but  by  virtue  of  some  law, 
and  the  proof  of  two  or  three  witnesses. 

There  being  doubts  started,  whether  the  govern- 
ment of  West  New  Jersey  had  been  granted  with 
the  soil,  and  reports  to  that  effect  being  industriously 
spread  in  the  province,  as  well  as  in  England,  to 
the  prejudice  of  the  possessor's  title,  as  was  ima- 
gined ;  the  assembly  in  the  spring  this  year  (1682) 
thought  it  their  business  to  obviate  this,  and  other 
points,  by  unanimously  resolving,  as  to  the  first, 
"  That  the  land  and  government  of  West  New  Jer- 
sey were  purchased  together."  And  that  as  to  the 
question,  -'  Whether  the  concessions  agreed  upon 
by  the  proprietors  and  people,  and  subscribed  in 
London  and  West  Jersey,  were  agreed  upon  to  be 
the  fundamentals  and  ground  of  the  government  of 
West  New  Jersey,  or  not?  Resolved  in  the  affirmative, 
nemiue  contradicente  :  onlv  John  Feuwiek  oxcepted 

3K2 


580 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


his  tenth ;  which  he  said  at  that  time  was  not  under 
the  same  circumstances,  but  now  freely  consenteth 
thereto." 

Jenings  was  at  this  assembly  chosen  governor, 
having  hitherto  acted  as  Byllinge's  deputy.  The 
commissioners  and  other  officers  of  government, 
being  also  chosen,  they  severally  took  their  qualifi- 
cations; and  having  agreed  that  the  governor  should 
be  chairman,  or  speaker ;  that  he  should  sit  as  a 
member  with  them,  and  they  together  with  the  coun- 
cil, and  that  the  chairman  should  have  a  double  vote, 
passed  sundry  laws,  among  which  was  the  following: 

"  And  whereas  it  hath  pleased  God,   to   commit 
this  country  and  province  into  the  hands  of  such 
who  (for  the  generality  of  them)  are  fearing  God, 
and  painful  and  industrious  in  the  promoting  and 
improving  the  said   province ;    and   for   the   better 
preventing  of  such  as  are  profane,  loose,  and  idle, 
and  scandalous,  from  settling  amongst  us,  who  are, 
and  will  be,  not  only  unserviceable,  but  greatly  bur- 
thensome  to  the  province  :    It   is   therefore  hereby 
enacted  by  the  authority  aforesaid,  that  all  person  j 
and  persons,  who  shall  transport  him  or  themselves  j 
into   this   province,   shall,   within   eighteen   months  \ 
after  he  or  they  shall  arrive  in  the  said  province, 
procure  and  produce  a  certificate,  under  the  hands  ; 
of  such  of  that  religious  society,  to  whom  he  or  they  ] 
did  belong,  or  otherwise  from  two  magistrates  (if , 
procurable),  or  two  constables  or  overseers  of  the  j 
poor,  with  three  or  more  creditable  persons  of  the  ; 
neighbourhood,  who  inhabit   or  belong  to  the  place 
where  he  or  they  did  last  reside,  as  may  give  satis- ' 
faction  (that  is   to  say),  that  he  or  they  came  not ; 
clandestinely  or  fraudulently  away ;  and   if  unmar- ! 
ried,  that  he  or  she  are  clear  from  former  engage-  ; 
ments   in  that  particular ;  and  also,  that  he  or  she  ; 
are  such  as  live  soberly  and  honestly,  to  the  best  of! 
their  knowledge;  and  that  no  justice  shall  presume 
to  marry  any  such  person  or  persons,   who  shall  \ 
come  into  this  province,  before  such  certificate  be ! 
produced;  or  that  it  be  laid  before  the  governor  or 
two  justices,  and  give  them  sufficient  satisfaction  \ 
concerning  their  clearness ;  and  that  all  such  per-  ! 
son  and  persons  who  shall  settle  in  the  said  province,  [ 
and  shall  refuse  or  neglect  to  produce  such  certifi-  j 
cate  as  aforesaid,  within  the  said  eighteen  months, 
shall  be  fined  at  the  discretion  of  the  governor  and  ' 
council  of  the  said  province,  not  exceeding  20/. ;  the 
same  to  be  levied  by  distress  and  sale   on  the  of- 
fender's goods,  and  to  be  paid  into  the  hands  of  the 
treasurer  of  the  said  province." 

Robert  Barclay  appointed  governor  of  East  Jsrsey,  and 
T.  Rudyard,  deputy — Letters  from    Rudyard,  and  I 
others,  concerned  in  that  settlement. 

We  have  seen  that  the  Scotch  had  a  considerable  I 
share  in  the  settlement  of  East  Jersey,  many  of 
whom  settled  about  Amboy,  and  up  the  Rariton. 
The  twelve  proprietors  appointed  Robert  Barclay 
(author  of  the  Apology,)  governor  for  life  ;  and  Tho- 
mas Rudyard  (a  lawyer  or  attorney  in  London, 
noted  for  his  assistance  at  the  trial  of  Penn  and 
Mead,)  deputy  governor;  which  last  arrived  at  his 
government  the  latter  end  of  last,  or  beginning  of 
this  year  (1683).  His  account  of  the  country,  soon 
after  his  arrival,  may  not  be  unacceptable.  The 
following  letters  are  given  verbatim,  as  they  are 
the  best,  and  indeed  only  accounts  that  give  an 
idea  of  the  character  and  circumstances  of  the  early 
settlers.  It  must  be  remembered,  with  regard  to  the 
style  of  composition,  that  most  of  the  writers  were 
quakera. 


"East  Jersey,  the  30th  of  the  3d  month, 

called  May,  1683. 

"  Dear  B.  G. — To  be  as  particular  in  my  turn, 
were  but  thy  due,  yet  I  cannot  promise  so  much  ; 
however,  I  may  give  thee  some  general  account  of 
the  province,  and  of  our  satisfaction  with  our  pre- 
sent lot,  the  short  time  I  have  experienced  this  :  but 
to  give  thee  also,  as  thou  desires,  a  character  of 
Pennsylvania  and  West  Jersey,  that  will  be  a  task 
I  must  be  excused  to  undertake,  lest  I  give  offence, 
or  at  least  bring  me  under  censure  as  partial.  Were 
I  not  concerned  in  any  of  the  provinces,  I  might 
satisfy  thy  curiosity ;  but  being  chiefly  interested  in 
this,  I'll  be  very  cautious  meddling  with  my  neigh- 
bours, more  than  here,  one  with  another ;  so  I  may 
use  my  freedom  with  my  neighbours,  which  they 
take  not  ill,  but  not  write  what  may  be  taken  other- 
ways.  They  lie  so  near  adjacent,  that  they  may  be 
said,  in  a  sense,  to  be  but  one  country ;  and  what's 
said  for  one,  in  general  may  serve  for  all.  I  have 
been  at  Burlington,  and  at  Pennsylvania,  as  far  as 
Philadelphia,  which  lies  about*  twenty  miles  below 
Burlington  :  that  journey  by  land  gave  me  some 
view  of  all  the  provinces,  and  made  me  considerably 
to  estimate  this  of  East  Jersey,  having  some  con- 
veniencies  esteemed  by  me,  which  the  others  are  not 
so  plentifully  furnished  withal,  viz.,  fresh  and  salt 
meadows,  which  now  are  very  valuable ;  and  no  man 
here  will  take  up  a  tract  of  land  without  them,  being 
the  support  of  their  stock  in  winter,  which  other 
parts  must  supply  by  store,  and  taking  more  care 
for  English  grass.  But  know,  where  salt  marshes 
are  not,  there  is  no  musketoes,  and  that  manner  of 
land  the  more  healthy ;  and  this  was  often  answered 
me,  when  I  have  been  making  comparisons.  I  must 
tell  thee  their  character  in  print,  by  all  that  reads  it 
here,  is  said  to  be  modest,  and  much  more  might 
have  been  said  in  it's  commendation.  We  have 
one  thing  more  particular  to  us,  which  the  others 
want  also,  which  is  vast  oyster  banks,  which  is  con- 
stant fresh  victuals,  during  the  winter,  to  English  as 
well  as  Indians ;  of  these  there  are  many  all  along  our 
coasts  from  the  sea  as  high  as  against  New  York, 
whence  they  come  to  fetch  them  ;  so  we  are  supplied 
with  salt  fish  at  our  doors,or  within  half  a  tide' s  passage; 
and  fresh  fish  in  abundance,  in  every  little  brook,  as 
pearch,  trout,  eels,  &c.,  which  we  catch  at  our  doors. 
Provisions  here  are  very  plentiful,  and  people  ge- 
nerally well  stocked  with  cattle.  New  York  and 
Burlington  have  hitherto  been  their  market;  few  or 
no  trading  men  being  here  in  this  province :  I  be- 
lieve it  hath  been  very  unhappy  heretofore,  under  an 
ill-managed  government;  and  most  of  the  people 
are  such  who  have  been  invited  from  the  adjacent 
colonies,  by  the  goodness  of  its  soil,  and  convenient 
situation.  At  Amboy  we  are  now  building  some 
small  houses,  of  30  feet  long  and  1 8  feet  broad,  fit- 
ting to  entertain  workmen,  and  such  who  will  go 
and  build  larger.  The  stones  lie  exceeding  Well 
and  good  up  the  Rariton  river  a  tide's  passage,  and 
oyster  shells  upon  the  point,  to  make  lime  withal ; 
which  will  wonderfully  accommodate  us  in  building 
good  houses  cheap — warm  for  winter,  and  cool  for 
summer;  and  durable  covering  for  houses  are 
shingles,  oak,  chesnut,  and  cedar ;  we  have  plenti- 
ful here  of  all — the  last  endures  a  man's  life,  if  he 
lives  to  be  old.  There  are  five  or  six  saw-mills  going 
up  here  this  spring;  two  at  work  already,  which 
abates  the  price  of  boards  half  in  half,  and  all  other 
timber  for  building ;  for  although  timber  costs  no- 
thing, yet  workmanship  by  hand  was  London  price, 
or  near  upon  it,  and  sometimes  more ;  which  these 


UNITED  STATES, 


581 


mills  abate ;  we  buy  oak  and  chesnut  boards  no 
cheaper  than  last  year.  My  habitation  with  Samuel 
Groome  is  at  Elizabeth  Town,  and  here  we  came 
first ;  it  lies  on  a  fresh  small  river ;  with  a  tide,  ships 
of  30  or  40  tons,  come  before  our  doors.  Through- 
out this  town  is  good  English  grass,  and  bears  a 
very  good  burthen.  We  cannot  call  our  habitations 
solitary ;  for,  what  with  the  public  employ,  I  have 
little  less  company  at  my  house  daily  than  I  had  in 
George  Yard,  although  not  so  many  passers  by  my 
doors.  The  people  are  generally  a  sober  professing 
people,  wise  in  their  generation,  courteous  in  their 
behaviour,  and  respectful  to  us  in  office  among  them. 
As  for  the  temperature  of  the  air,  it  is  wonderfully 
suited  to  the  humours  of  mankind,  the  wind  and 
weather  rarely  holding  in  one  point,  or  one  kind,  for 
tea  days  together ;  it  is  a  rare  thing  for  a  vessel  to 
be  wind-bound  for  a  week  together,  the  wind  seldom 
holding  in  a  point  more  than  48  hours;  and  in  a 
short  time  we  have  wet  and  dry,  warm  and  cold 
weather,  which  changes  we  often  desire  in  England, 
and  look  for  before  they  come  ;  yet  this  variation 
creates  not  cold,  nor  have  we  the  tenth  part  of  the 
colds  we  have  in  England:  I  never  had  any  since 
I  came,  and  in  the  midst  of  winter  and  frosts,  could 
endure  it  with  less  cloaths  than  in  'England,  for  ge- 
nerally I  go  with  the  same  cloaths  I  used  to  wear 
in  summer  with  you,  but  warm  cloaths  hurt  not. 
I  bless  the  Lord,  I  never  had  better  health,  nor  my 
family;  my  daughters  are  very  well  improved  in 
that  respect,  and  tell  me  they  would  not  change 
their  place  for  George  Yard,  nor  would  I.  People 
here  are  generally  settled  where  the  tide  reaches  ; 
and  although  this  is  good  land  and  well  timbered, 
and  plentifully  supplied  with  salt  marsh,  yet  there 
is  much  better  land  up  higher  on  the  river,  where 
they  may  go  up  with  small  boats,  where  many  now 
are  settling.  There's  extraordinary  land,  fresh 
meadows  overflowed  in  the  winter  time,  that  pro- 
duces multitudes  of  winter  corn  ;  and  it's  believed 
will  endure  twenty,  thirty,  or  fifty  years  ploughing, 
without  intermission,  and  not  decay.  Such  land 
there  is  at  Esopus,  on  Hudson's  river,  which  hath 
bore  winter  corn  about  twenty  years  without  help, 
and  is  as  good  as  at  first,  and  better.  William 
Penn  took  a  view  of  the  land  this  last  month  when 
here,  and  said  he  had  never  seen  such  before  in  his 
life.  All  the  English  merchants,  and  many  of  the 
Dutch,  have  taken,  and  are  desirous  to  take  up 
plantations  with  us  :  our  country  here,  called  Ber- 
gen, is  almost  Dutchmen;  at  a  town  called  New- 
ark, seven  or  eight  miles  hence,  is  made  great 
quantities  of  cider,  exceeding  any  we  can  have 
from  New  England,  Rhode  Island,  or  Long  Island. 
I  hope  to  make  twenty  or  thirty  barrels  out  of  our 
orchard  next  year,  as  they  have  done  who  had  it 
before  me;  for  that,  it  must  be  as  Providence  or- 
ders. Upon  our  view  and  survey  of  Amboy  point, 
we  find  it  extraordinary  well  situate  for  a  great 
town  or  city,  beyond  expectation ;  at  low  water, 
round  about  the  point,  are  oysters  of  two  kinds, 
small  as  English,  and  others  two  or  three  mouth- 
fulls,  exceeding  good  for  roasting  and  stewing  ;  the 
people  say,  our  oysters  are  good,  and  in  season  all 
summer;  the  first  of  the  third  month  I  eat  of  them 
at  Amboy  very  good.  The  point  is  good  lively  land, 
ten,  some  places  twenty  foot  above  the  water  mark. 
About  it  are  several  coves,  where  vessels  may  lay 
up  conveniently  ;  besides,  great  ships  of  any  burthen 
may  all  ride  before  the  town,  land-locked  against 
all  winds ;  there  Rariton  river  runs  up,  or  rather 
down,  50  for  larger— some  say  100  miles,  for  small 


boats.  I  saw  several  vines  upon  the  point,  which 
produces,  as  they  say,  good  grapes  in  their  season ; 
this  country  is  very  full  of  them,  but  being  not  pre- 
sent profit,  few  regard  them  more  than  to  pick 
them  as  they  lay  in  their  way,  when  they  are  ripe. 
We  have  store  of  clams  esteemed  much  better  than 
oysters;  on  festivals  the  Indians  feast  with  them; 
there  are  shallops,  but  in  no  great  plenty.  Fish  we 
have  great  store,  as  our  relation  sets  forth ;  but 
they  are  very  good  when  catchcd  (as  the  proverb 
is).  I  have  several  barrels  by  me  now,  which  are 
good  for  our  table  and  for  sale.  I  brought  a  sea 
net  over  with  me,  which  may  turn  to  good  account; 
sea  nets  are  good  merchandize  here ;  mine  cost  me 
about  four  or  five  pounds,  and  can  have  twenty 
pounds  for  it  if  I  would  sell  it  now.  I  may  write 
of  many  such  matters  in  our  province,  which  may 
invite  persons  here ;  but  so  am  resolved  to  conclude, 
knowing  that,  in  probability,  there  is  not  an  indus- 
trious man,  but  by  God's  blessing  may  not  only 
have  a  comfortable,  but  plentiful  supply  of  all  things 
necessary  for  this  life ;  with  the  salutation  of  my 
true  affection  to  all,  &c.,  I  rest  thy  affectionate 
friend.  "  Thomas  Rudyard." 

Gawen  Lawrie  arrived  this  year  (1683)  as  deputy- 
governor  of  East  Jersey,  under  Robert  Barclay,  and 
chose  a  fresh  council,  of  whom  Richard  Hartshorne 
was  one.  There  having  been  considerable  disturb- 
ances in  the  province,  especially  about  Middletown 
and  Woodbridge,  relating  to  town  affairs ;  their 
prudent  conduct  contributed  to  the  quiet  of  the  pro- 
vince. The  two  following  letters,  written  soon  after 
Lawrie's  arrival,  contain,  as  well  his  sentiments  of 
the  country,  as  some  of  the  principal  transactions  of 
those  times. 

Gawen  Lawrie,  to  the  proprietors  at  London. 
"  Elizabeth  Town,  1st  Month  2d,  1684. 

"  I  took  up  several  days  with  countrymen,  and 
others,  to  view  the  ground  and  water ;  at  last  I 
pitched  upon  a  place,  where  a  ship  of  300  tons  may 
ride  safely  within  a  plank  length  of  the  shore,  at 
low  water  ;  adjoining  thereto  is  a  piece  of  marsh 
ground,  about  twelve  perches  broad,  and  twenty 
perches  long,  and  high  land  on  each  side  like  our 
quays  by  London  bridge  ;  this  may  be  eauly  cut 
round,  for  small  vessels  to  come  to  the  quay,  and  lie 
safe.  Round  this  island  I  set  out  lots,  one  acre 
a-piece,  viz.  four  pole  at  the  quay,  and  forty  pole 
backward  ;  from  thence  along  the  river  near  half  a 
mile.  I  laid  out  the  like  lots,  very  pleasant  for 
situation,  where  they  can  see  the  ships  coming  in 
the  bay  of  Sandy-hook,  for  near  twenty  miles  ;  the 
ships  may  ride  along  by  the  town,  as  safe  as  at 
London,  just  at  the  point  by  the  town.  Rariton 
river  runs  up  by  the  country,  a  great  way;  there 
boats  of  forty  tons  may  go ;  and  the  river  by  the 
town  goes  to  New  York,  Hudson's  river,  Long 
island,  Staten  island,  and  so  to  New  England. 
There  is  no  such  place  in  all  England,  for  con- 
veniency  and  pleasant  situation :  there  are  sixty 
lots  upon  the  river,  and  forty  backward  between 
those  and  the  river;  and  those  backward,  have  a 
highway  100  feet  broad ;  where  I  have  laid  out  a 
place  for  a  market,  with  cross  streets  from  the  river 
to  the  market ;  where  the  town  houses  are  to  be 
built.  When  this  was  done,  I  laid  out  400  acres,  to 
be  divided  into  forty-eight  parts,  viz.  thirty-six  to 
each  proprietor ;  and  those  who  have  lots  in  the 
town,  I  grant  them  half  lots  in  this ;  to  pay  for  the 
lots  in  the  town,  twenty  pounds ;  or  if  a  half  lot  of 
thirty-six  acres,  forty  pounds.  I  laid  400  acres  to 
lie  until  the  proprietors  agree  to  divide  it,  as  people 


582 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


come  over.  There  are  sixteen  lots  taken  up  by  the 
Scotch  proprietors;  and  eight  lots  by  the  proprie- 
tors that  are  here.  There  are  twenty  lots  taken  up 
in  the  town,  by  other  people.  I  engage  with  all,  that 
they  shall  build  a  house  of  thirty  feet  long,  and 
eighteen  broad,  and  eighteen  feet  high  to  the  rais- 
ing ;  to  be  finished  within  a  year ;  to  pay  for  laying 
out,  forty  shillings  a  lot,  and  four  pence  per  annum 
quit  rent.  There  are  several  begun  already  to 
build.  I  have  laid  out  forty  or  fifty  acres  for  the 
governor's  house.  The  highway  and  wharf  between 
the  river  to  be  100  feet  broad;  and  to  leave  a  row 
of  trees  along  upon  the  river,  before  the  houses,  for 
shade  and  shelter,  exceeding  pleasant.  I  have 
agreed  for  two  houses  of  like  dimensions,  to  be  built 
for  the  proprietors  ;  and  also  a  house  for  the  go- 
vernor, of  sixty-six  feet  long,  and  eighteen  broad  ; 
if  the  quit  rents  come  in,  I  intend  three  or  four 
houses  more  for  the  proprietors.  I  can  easily  let 
them.  This  work  took  me  up  five  weeks.  After  I 
had  finished  it,  I  set  the  people  to  work,  Scottish 
and  English,  about  fifty  persons ;  some  preparing 
for  building,  others  to  clearing  ground  to  get  corn 
sown  this  spring.  Then  came  in  a  boat  privately 
to  Elizabeth  Town  the  12th  past.  Next  morning  I 
went  to  New  York  to  visit  the  governor;  staid 
there  two  or  three  days ;  he  was  very  kind,  and 
promised  a  fair  correspondence ;  so  I  did  not  pub- 
lish my  commission  until  this  day,  before  the  coun- 
cil ;  they  have  been  kind  and  courteous.  Now  is 
the  time  to  send  over  people  for  settling ;  there  are 
30,000  acres  of  land  in  several  places,  belonging 
to  the  proprietors,  formerly  taken  up  by  Carteret : 
so  here  is  land  enough.  The  Scots  and  William 
Dockwra's  people  coming  now  and  settling,  ad- 
vance the  province  more  than  it  hath  been  ad- 
vanced these  ten  years.  Therefore,  forthwith  send 
over  some  families  and  servants ;  I  shall  presently 
set  them  out  land,  and  it  will  bring  in  considerable 
profit,  in  a  few  years.  Hero  wants  nothing  but 
people.  There  is  not  a  poor  body  in  all  the  pro- 
vince ;  here  is  abundance  of  provision ;  pork  and 
beef  at  two-pence  per  pound  ;  fish  and  fowl  plenty. 
Oysters  which  I  think  would  serve  all  England. 
Wheat  four  shillings  sterling  per  bushel ;  Indian 
wheat  two  shillings  and  six-pence  per  bushel :  it  is 
exceeding  good  for  food  every  way,  pnd  two  or 
three  hundred  fold  increase.  Cider  good  and  plenty, 
for  one  penny  per  quart.  Good  drink  that  is  made 
of  water  and  molasses,  stands  in  about  two  shillings 
per  barrel,  wholesome  like  our  eight  shilling  beer 
in  England.  Good  venison  plenty,  brought  us  in 
at  eighteen-pence  the  quarter  :  eggs  at  three-pence 
per  dozen.  All  things  very  plenty ;  land  as  good 
as  ever  I  saw :  vines,  walnuts,  peaches,  strawber- 
ries, and  many  other  things  plenty  in  the  woods. 
The  proprietors  have  150  or  200  acres,  three  miles 
from  the  town,  up  Rariton  river  salt  marsh,  where  I 
intend  to  let  the  people  of  Amboy  cut  grass  for  hay, 
until  we  otherwise  order  it  by  lots  to  them.  I 
reckon  there  is  laid  out  for  the  town,  governor's 
house,  and  public  highways,  near  or  about  200 
acres ;  so  there  rests  1800  acres.  I  laid  out  400 
acres,  as  I  said ;  the  rest  to  lie  in  common  until 
divided :  I  have  put  two  houses  in  repair,  upon  the 
river,  called  the  point,  two  miles  from  Elizabeth 
Town ;  have  let  one  of  them,  with  ten  acres  of  pas- 
ture ground,  and  ten  acres  of  woody  ground,  for 
seven  years,  at  twenty-six  pounds  per  annum  ;  the 
man  to  clear  the  ten'  acres  of  woody  ground,  and 
make  it  fit  for  ploughing  or  pasture.  I  intend  to 
let  the  other  al*o,  with  some  land.  All  the  houses 


Were  like  to  drop  down  ;  all  the  land  lying  without 
fence ;  and  a  barn  quite  fallen  down,  and  destroyed . 
another  without  any  cover ;  and  that  other  next  to 
the  house  where  I  dwell,  all  to  pieces ;  and  all  the 
fences  and  out-houses  were  down,  but  repaired  be 
fore  I  came.  I  am  getting  up  a  ferry-boat  at 
Perth,  for  men  and  horses,  to  go  and  come  to  Bur- 
lington and  Pennsylvania,  and  New  York.  Also  I 
am  treating  with  one,  to  set  up  a  house  midway  to 
Burlington,  to  entertain  travellers,  and  a  ferry- 
boat to  go  to  New  York ;  all  which  is  for  promot- 
ing Perth,  that  being  the  centre.  Also  you  should 
give  me  power  to  set  out  a  line,  between  the  go- 
vernor of  New  York  and  us  ;  he  calls  on  me  for  it, 
because  several  plantations  on  the  river  are  settled, 
and  we  know  not  yet  on  what  side  they  will  fall ; 
so  I  cannot  at  present  mention  all  particulars, 
which  you  must  supply,  by  some  general  clauses  or 
words  ;  for  it  is  not  possible  for  you  to  understand 
what  is  for  the  good  of  the  province,  as  I  do,  that 
am  here  ;  and  be  not  sparing  to  send  over  people, 
it  will  bring  you  it  again,  with  large  profits  ;  for 
here  is  a  gallant  plentiful  country,  and  good  land. 
I  have  given  you  a  large  account  of  the  little  time 
I  have  been  here.  I  have  none  to  write  for  me, 
but  you  must  send  a  copy  of  this  to  Scotland ;  and 
with  it  your  further  instructions,  to  be  signed  and 
sent  me  forthwith.  I  will  be  bound  till  it  come  ;  I 
rest  your  friend,  sic  subscribitur,  Gawen  Lawrie." 
The  same  to  a  friend  in  London. 

"  East  Jersey,  1st  Month  26th,  1684. 
"  I  promised  to  write,  but  had  not  time  till  now; 
I  shall  give  thee  a  brief  account  of  the  country,  no 
fiction,  but  truth.  It  is  beyond  what  I  expected  ;  it 
is  situate  in  a  good  air,  which  makes  it  healthy  ;  and 
there  is  great  conveniency  for  travelling  from  places 
through  and  about  the  province,  in  boats — from  a 
small  canoe,  to  vessels  of  thirty,  forty  or  fifty  tons, 
and  in  some  places  one  hundred  :  in  the  bay  coming 
up  to  Amboy-point,  where  the  town  of  Perth  is  now 
in  building,  a  ship  of  three  hundred  ton  may  easily 
ride  close  to  the  shore  within  a  plank's  length  of  the 
houses  of  the  town  ;  and  yet  the  land  there,  nor  other 
in  the  province,  is  not  low,  swampy,  marshy  ground, 
but  pretty  high  ground,  rising  from  the  water  side  at 
Amboy-point.  The  bank  of  the  river  is  twenty  feet, 
in  some  places  thirty,  and  in  some  forty  feet  high ; 
and  yet  hath  many  conveniences  for  landing  goods. 
The  soil  is  generally  black,  in  some  places  a  foot 
deep,  beareth  great  burdens  of  corn,  and  naturally 
bringeth  forth  English  grass  :  two  years  ploughing, 
the  ground  is  tender,  and  the  ploughing  is  very  easy. 
The  trees  grow  generally  not  thick,  but  some  places 
ten,  in  some  fifteen,  in  some  twenty-five  or  thirty 
upon  an  acre ;  this  I  find  generally,  but  in  some 
particular  places  there  is  one  hundred  upon  an  acre ; 
but  that  is  very  rare.  The  trees  are  very  tall  and 
straight, the  general  are  oak,  beech,  walnut;  chesnuts 
and  acorns  lie  thick  upon  the  ground,  for  want  of 
eating  ;  peaches,  vines,  strawberries  and  many  other 
sorts  of  fruit  grow  commonly  in  the  woods  ;  there  is 
likewise  gumtree,  cedar,  whitewood  like  our  fir  tree  ; 
walnuts,  chesnuts  and  others  lie  thick  on  the 
ground ;  there  is  great  plenty  of  oysters,  fish,  fowl ; 
pork  is  two  pennies  the  pound,  beef  and  venison  one 
penny  the  pound,  a  whole  fat  buck  for  five  or  six 
shillings  ;  Indian  corn  for  two  shillings  and  six-pence 
per  bushel,  oats  twenty-pence,  and  barley  two  shil- 
lings per  bushel,  We  have  good  brick  earth,  and 
stones  for  building  at  Amboy,  and  elsewhere.  The 
country  farm  houses  are  built  very  cheap  A  car- 
penter, with  a  man's  own  servants,  builds  the  house; 


UNITED  STATES 


583 


they  have  alt  materials  for  nothing,  except  nails; 
their  chimneys  are  of  stones  ;  they  make  their  own 
ploughs  and  carts  for  the  most  part,  only  the  iron 
work  is  very  dear.  The  poorer  sort  set  up  a  house 
of  two  or  three  rooms  themselves,  after  this  manner; 
the  walls  are  of  cloven  timber,  about  eight  or  ten 
inches  broad,  like  planks,  set  one  end  to  the 
ground,  and  the  other  nailed  to  the  raising,  which 
they  plaster  within ;  they  build  a  barn  after  the 
same  manner,  and  these  cost  not  above  5/.  a  piece ; 
and  then  to  work  they  go.  Two  or  three  men  in  one 
year  will  clear  fifty  acres,  in  some  places  sixty,  and 
in  some  more.  They  sow  corn  the  first  year,  and 
afterwards  maintain  themselves ;  and  the  increase 
of  corn,  cows,  horses,  hogs  and  sheep  comes  t">  the 
landlord.  Several  merchants  of  New  York  have 
left  their  several  plantations  there,  to  come  to  East 
Jersey,  two  or  three  may  join  together,  with  may  be 
twelve,  fifteen  or  twenty  servants,  and  one  overseer, 
which  cost  them,  nothing  for  the  first  year,  except 
some  shoes,  stockings  and  shirts.  I  have  been  to 
see  these  plantations,  and  find  they  have  a  great 
increase  by  them ;  they  maintain  their  families  at 
New  York  with  all  provisions,  and  sell  a  great  deal 
yearly  ;  and  for  servants,  our  English  people  are  far 
better  husbandmen  than  the  New  Englanumen ; 
the  servants  work  not  so  much  by  a  third  as  they  do 
in  England,  and  I  think  feed  much  better ;  for  they 
have  beef,  pork,  bacon,  pudding,  milk,  butter,  and 
good  beer  and  cider  for  drink;  when  they  are  out 
of  their  time,  they  have  land  for  themselves,  and 
generally  turn  farmers  for  themselves.  Servants' 
wages  are  not  under  two  shillings  a-day,  besides 
victuals;  and  at  Amboy-point  two  shillings  and 
six-pence  per  day.  At  Amboy  we  have  one  setting 
up  to  make  malt,  but  we  want  a  brewer ;  I  wish 
thou  would  scud  over  some  to  set  up  a  brewhouse, 
and  a  bakehouse  to  bake  bread  and  biscuit;  for  a 
biscuit-maker  wemust  have,  to  vend  our  meat  to  the 
plantations.  Send  over  some  husbandmen  and 
country  fellows  that  plough,  sow,  reap,  thresh,  and 
look  after  cattle  ;  a  carpenter  or  two,  and  a  smith 
for  ploughs  and  horses  ;  and  a  cooper,  which  we  want 
very  much  :  if  thou  will  send  a  dozen  of  servants, 
most  of  them  countrymen,  I  will  set  thee  out  a  gal- 
lant plantation  of  500  or  1000  acres,  on  a  river  side  ; 
but  thou  must  send  over  some  goods  to  stock  it 
withal:  I  desire  thee  to  encourage  some  of  our 
friends,  especially  the  proprietors,  to  send  over  some 
servants  to  stock  some  land;  and  when  they  have 
cleared  it,  if  they  have  a  mind  to  let  it,  here  are 
tenants  to  take  it,  and  if  they  will  sell  it,  here  are 
also  purchasers.  There  is  one  man  since  I  came 
here,  sold  his  plantation  for  1500/. ;  the  whole  was 
1600  or  1800  acres,  whereof  only  120  acres  were 
cleared;  upon  which  he  had  a  house,  garden,  and 
orchard,  and  barn  planted.  I  know  several  men 
who  let  cleared  land  at  six  shillings  and  eight-pence, 
and  at  ten  shillings  the  acre,  yearly  rent;  which  is 
a  good  encouragement  for  sending  over  servants  to 
plant :  I  write  not  this  as  an  idle  story,  but  as 
things  really  and  truly  are.  I  have  sent  for  servants 
myself  to  settle  a  farm  ;  for  if  the  proprietors  will 
not  do  so,  I  see  not  what  they  can  expect.  The 
Scots  have  taken  a  right  course,  they  have  sent  over 
many  servants,  and  are  likewise  sending  more  ;  they 
have  likewise  sent  over  many  poor  families,  and 
given  them  a  small  stock ;  and  these  families,  some 
for  seven,  some  for  ten  years,  give  the  half  of  their 
increase  to  the  landlord,  except  the  milk,  which  the 
tenant  hath  to  himself.  I  have  set  them  out  laud, 
and  they  are  at  work  :  I  believe  they  will  have  forty 


acres  cleared  this  spring  and  this  summer :  I  am  to 
set  them  out  more,  so  that  in  a  short  time  they  will 
have  a  great  increase  coming  in.  This  will  raise 
the  price  of  the  land  here,  and  is  the  reason  that  se- 
veral from  New  York  bounds  come  to  me  to  take  up 
land,  for  they  believe  now  this  province  will  be  im- 
proving, and  our  land  is  better  than  theirs ;  that 
every  proprietor's  sending  over  ten  people,  will  also 
be  a  great  advantage  to  himself;  encourage  others 
to  take  up  land  and  bring  all  the  division  that  hath 
been  here,  to  an  end ;  for  these  men  seeing  that  they 
shall  be  balanced,  are  already  more  compliant  than 
they  were  ;  now  I  have  laid  these  things  before  thee, 
and  desire  thee  to  impart  them  to  some  of  the 
proprietors  and  other  friends,  that  they  may  consider 
of  the  same.  I  am  thy  loving  friend,  sic  subscribitur. 
"  GAWEN  LAWRIE." 

John  Barclay,  Arthur  Forbes,  and  Gawen  Lawrie,in 
answer  to  certain  queries  of  the  Scots  proprietors,  say, 
after  describing  the  country,  much  in  the  same  terms  as 
the  foregoing  letters,  "We  shall  now  answer  as  far  as 
we  are  capable,  your  queries.  To  the  first  we  cannot 
positively  give  an  account  of  the  whole  length  and 
breadth  of  the  province ;  but  we  are  informed  that  it 
is  a  great  deal  broader  than  ye  expected ;  for  those 
that  have  travelled  from  the  extent  of  our  bounds  on 
Hudson's  river,  straight  over  to  the  Delaware,  say  it 
is  100  miles,  or  upwards;  we  shall  know  that  cer- 
tainly after  a  while ;  for  the  line  betwixt  us  and 
New  York,  is  to  be  run  straight  over  to  Delaware 
river,  about  three  weeks  hence  ;  and  after  that  the 
line  betwixt  us  and  West  Jersey  ;  after  which  we 
shall  be  able  to  give  a  true  account  of  the  bounds  of 
that  province. 

"  When  the  bounds  are  so  exactly  laid  out,  we  can 
the  easier  guess  at  the  number  of  acres,  and  by  that 
time  may  be  able  to  give  an  account  what  number  of 
acres  is  already  taken  up ;  but  there  is  no  fear  of 
want  of  land. 

"  The  quantity  of  meadow  ground,  we  cannot  de- 
termine, having  travelled  as  yet,  but  little  in  the 
province ;  but  wherever  we  have  travelled  there  is 
meadow  in  abundance,  both  on  the  water  sides  and 
on  the  upland. 

"  There  is  also  other  good  ground  in  some  places, 
great  quantities  free  of  wood,  which  is  fit  either  for 
corn  or  grass ;  and  the  ground  all  over  brings  forth 
good  English  grass  naturally,  after  it  is  ploughed. 

"  There  are  also  commons  upon  the  country,  but 
what  quantity  we  cannot  tell ;  there  is  little  kept  in 
them  save  wild  horses,  which  the  people  take  up  when 
they  have  occasion  :  there  is  also  land  fit  for  pastur- 
age for  sheep  ;  and  there  is  sheep  in  the  country, 
but  what  number  the  ablest  planters  have  we  know 
not,  but  some  we  see  have  good  flocks. 

"  An  exact  map  of  the  country  is  not  yet  drawn, 
nor  can  you  quickly  expect  it,  for  it  will  take  up  a 
great  deal  of  time,  charge,  and  pains  to  do  it. 

"  There  are  also  hills  up  in  the  country,  but  how 
much  ground  they  take  up  we  know  not ;  they  are 
said  to  be  stony,  and  covered  with  wood ;  and  be- 
yond them  is  said  to  be  excellent  land. 

"  There  be  people  of  several  sorts  of  religions,  but 
few  very  zealous  ;  the  people,  being  mostly  New 
England  men,  do  mostly  incline  to  their  way  ;  and 
in  every  town  there  is  a  meeting-house,  where  they 
worship  publicly  every  week.  They  have  no  public 
laws  in  the  country  for  maintaining  public  teachers, 
but  the  towns  that  have  them,  make  way  within 
themselves  to  maintain  them ;  we  know  none  that 
have  a  settled  preacher,  that  follows  no  other  em- 
ployment, save  one  town,  Newark. 


,84 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA 


"  There  are  not  many  out-plantations  that  are  not 
within  the  bounds  of  some  town  ;  yet  there  are  some, 
and  those  are  the  richest ;  what  number  there  are  we 
know  not ;  some  have  great  quantities  of  land,  and 
abundance  cleared. 

"  The  richest  planters  have  not  above  eight  or  ten 
servants :  they  will  have  some  of  them  a  dozen 
cows,  yea,  some  twenty  or  thirty;  eight  or  ten 
oxen ;  horses  more  than  they  know  themselves,  for 
they  keep  breeding  mares ;  and  keep  no  more  horses 
at  home  than  they  have  occasion  to  work ;  the  rest 
they  let  run  in  the  woods  both  winter  and  summer, 
and  take  them  as  they  have  occasion  to  use  them. 
Swine  they  have  in  great  flocks  in  the  woods  ;  and 
sheep  in  flocks  also ;  but  they  let  them  not  run  in 
the  woods,  for  fear  of  being  destroyed  by  wolves. 
Their  profit  arises  from  the  improvement  of  their 
land,  and  increase  of  their  bestial. 

"  There  will  be  in  most  cf  the  towns  already  settled 
at  least  100  houses,  but  they  are  not  built  so  regular 
as  the  towns  in  our  country ;  so  that  we  cannot 
compare  them  with  any  town  we  know  in  Scotland. 
Every  house  in  the  town  hath  a  lot  of  four  acres 
lying  to  it ;  so  that  every  one  building  upon  his 
own  lot,  makes  the  town  irregular  and  scattered. 
Their  streets  are  laid  out  too  large,  and  the  sheep 
in  the  towns  are  mostly  maintained  in  them ;  they 
are  so  large  that  they  need  no  trouble  to  pave  them. 

"  Betwixt  Sandy  Hook  and  Little  Egg  Harbour, 
lie  two  towns,  Middletown  and  Shrewsbury.  There 
is  no  land  taken  up  that  way,  but  what  is  (now)  in 
the  bounds  of  these  two  towns  ;  what  kind  of  land 
it  is  we  know  not,  having  never  travelled  that  way. 
Barnagat  or  Burning-hole,  is  said  to  be  a  very  good 
place  for  fishing ;  and  there  is  some  desiring  to  take 
up  land  there,  who  inform  us  that  it  is  good  land, 
and  abundance  of  meadow  lying  to  it. 

"  There  are  no  fishermen  that  follow  only  that 
trade,  save  some  that  go  a  whaling  upon  the  coasts ; 
and  for  other  fish  there  is  abundance  to  be  had 
every  where  through  the  country,  in  all  the  rivers  ; 
and  the  people  commonly  fish  with  long  sieves  or 
long  nets,  and  will  catch  with  a  sieve  one,  some- 
times two  barrels  a  day  of  good  fish,  which  they  salt 
up  mostly  for  their  own  use,  or  to  sell  to  others. 

"  There  are  no  ships  belonging  to  this  province 
particularly,  or  built  here,  save  one  which  Samuel 
Groome  built  here  the  last  summer,  which  stands 
yet  on  the  stocks  (a  stop  being  put  to  it  by  his 
death)  ;  there  is  conveniency  enough  to  build  ships. 
The  ships  in  this  part  trade  mostly  to  the  West 
India  islands,  and  some  to  Newfoundland,  where  the 
provision  of  this  country  vends. 

"  There  is  land  here  in  several  places,  after  it  is 
cleared  and  brought  into  a  farm,  set  out  for  rents, 
as  in  our  country,  at  five,  eight,  and  ten  shillings 
per  acre,  according  to  the  goodness  and  situation 
of  the  said  land;  and  those  that  will  be  at  the 
charge  to  clear  land,  may  get  tenants  to  take  upon 
these  terms ;  but  whether  it  will  turn  to  good  ac- 
count or  not,  because  little  experienced  as  yet  with 
the  charge  of  clearing  of  land,  we  will  not  positively 
inform. 

"  There  are  several  places  of  the  country  fit  for 
mills ;  and  several,  both  corn  and  saw  mills,  already 
set  up,  and  good  encouragement  to  set  up  more. 

"The  acres  are  here  reckoned  according  to  the 
English  account,  sixteen  feet  to  the  rood ;  twenty 
long  and  eight  broad  make  an  acre.  One  English 
butt  of  wheat,  which  is  eight  English  gallons,  or 
Scots  quarts,  commonly  sows  an  acre  ;  two  bushels 
of  barley  also  an  acre  ;  and  two  bushels  of  oats  an 


acre  and  half.  English  peck,  which  is  four  English 
quarts  or  Scotch  shopens  of  Indian  corn,  plants  one 
acre. 

"  There  are  but  few  Indian  natives  in  this  country, 
their  strength  is  inconsiderable,  they  live  in  the 
woods,  and  have  small  towns  in  some  places  far  up 
in  the  country;  they  plant  a  little  Indian  com, 
shoot  deer  and  other  wild  beasts  and  fowls  for  their 
food.  They  have  kings  among  themselves  to  govern 
them;  for  religion  they  have  none  at  all;  they  do 
not  refuse  to  sell  lauds  at  occasion.  The  prices  of 
grain  and  other  provisions  here  at  present : — Indian 
corn  two  shillings  and  six-pence  the  bushel :  wheat 
four  shillings  ;  rye  three  shillings ;  oats  one  shilling 
and  eight-pence;  beef  one  penny;  pork  two-pence; 
venison  one  penny;  mutton  three-pence  the  pound, 
this  English  measure  and  weight ;  but  mark,  these 
things  being  valued  in  this  country  money,  there  is 
a  fifth  part  difference  betwixt  it  and  sterling  money; 
so  that  wheat  being  valued  here  at  four  shillings  the 
bushel,  is  but  three  shillings  and  three-pence  ster- 
ling, and  so  of  the  rest  proportionably. 

"  Here  you  have  an  account  of  things,  as  far  as 
we  are  capable  to  give  at  present ;  with  which  we 
hope  you  will  be  satisfied,  while  further  opportunity 
and  better  experience  give  us  occasion  to  write 
more ;  and  so  we  rest  your  friends  and  well-wishers 
to  all  our  countrymen ;  sic  subscribitur, 

"  Elizabeth-town,  in  East  Jersey,  the  29th  of 

the  first  month,  called  March,  1684. 

"  JOHN  BARCLAY." 
"  ARTHUR  FORBES." 

"  This  I  have  heard  read,  and  do  also  subscribe 
to  the  truth  thereof,  and  rest,  G.  L." 

Manner  of  the  West  Jersey  Government  in  1684 — 
Their  unsettled  state,  and  succession  of  governors- 
Danger  of  suffering  for  u-ant  of  food  in  1687 — The 
division  line  run  by  G.  Keith;  and  agreement  be- 
tween the  governors  Coxe  and  Barclay-^  Alteration 
in  the  manner  of  locating  lands  in  West  Jersey — 
No  person  in  We&t  Jersey  to  purchase  from  the  In- 
dians, without  the  consent  of  the  council  of  propri- 
etors; and  instructions  respecting  deeds  and  war- 
rants for  taking  up  lands. 

The  assembly  of  West  Jersey  at  their  meeting,  th-e 
20th  of  March,  this  year  (1684),  chose  Thomas  Olive 
governor,  and  chairman  or  speaker  ;  in  both  which 
capacities  he  now  acted;  the  several  branches  of  the 
legislature  we  have  seen  doing  their  business  in 
common  together ;  the  choice  of  the  people  being 
the  foundation  of  the  whole,  whose  representatives 
were  distinctly  returned  from  their  respective  first, 
second,  third  and  Salem  tenths,  which  were  all  the 
tenths  yet  settled.  At  their  first  meetings  they 
chose  the  governor,  council,  commissioners  to  lay 
out  land,  and  all  the  other  officers  of  government. 

(1685.)  Olive  had  been  twice  governor  of  West 
Jersey  before,  and  continued  on  the  last  choice  in 
that  station  for  a  year  past;  but  Byllinge  having 
desisted  from  the  claims  which  the  assembly  and 
their  constituents  had  thought  unjust,  and  which 
bad  been  the  cause  of  their  undertaking  in  opposi- 
tion to  him  to  choose  the  governor,  and  he  in  this 
year  sending  a  fresh  commission  to  John  Skeine  to 
be  his  deputy,  the  assembly  and  people  submitted 
:o  him,  though  they  had  before  refused  William 
Welsh  in  that  capacity,  while  Byllinge  continued, 
what  they  considered,  his  unjust  claim. 

The  year  1686  seems  to  have  been  a  dangerous 
one  in  East  Jersey,  if  the  law  then  passed  against 
wearing  swords  was  properly  founded.  According 


UNITED  STATES. 


585 


to  that,  several  persons  had  received  abuses,  and 
were  put  in  great  fear  from  quarrels  and  challenges; 
to  prevent  which  for  the  future,  none  were  to  give 
a  challenge,  upon  pain  of  six  months'  imprison- 
ment, without  bail  or  mainprize,  and  a  ten  pound 
fine  ;  whoever  accepted  or  concealed  the  challenge, 
was  also  to  forfeit  ten  pounds :  no  person  was  "  to 
wear  any  pocket-pistols,  skeins,  stilladers,  daggers 
or  dirks,  or  other  unusual  weapons,"  upon  pain  of 
five  pounds  forfeiture  for  the  first  offence,  and  for 
the  second  to  be  committed;  and  on  conviction, 
imprisoned  for  six  months,  and  moreover  to  pay  a 
fine  of  ten  pounds :  no  planter  was  to  go  armed 
with  sword,  pistol,  or  dagger,  upon  penalty  of  five 
pounds.  Officers,  civil  and  military,  soldiers  in 
service,  and  strangers  travelling  upon  lawful  occa- 
sions, were  excepted. 

The  settlers  in  both  West  Jersey,  and  Pennsyl- 
vania, about  the  year  1687,  were  embarrassed  on 
account  of  their  crops  having  in  great  part  failed ; 
several  families  were  compelled  to  subsist  on  what 
could  be  spared  by  such  of  their  neighbours  as  were 
better  provided ;  which  was  very  little,  in  propor- 
tion to  the  quantity  requisite.  Some  near  the  rivers 
had  lived  weeks  upon  fish,  others  were  forced  to 
put  up  with  herbs;  but  unexpectedly,  in  the  midst 
of  their  distress,  a  vessel  arrived  from  New  Eng- 
land, bound  to  Philadelphia,  laden  with  corn,  which 
proved  an  agreeable  supply  ;  and  this  vessel  meet- 
ing with  so  good  a  market,  others  soon  followed  ;  so 
that  the  settlers  were  not  afterwards  exposed  to  such 
extremities. 

In  this  year,  George  Keith,  surveyor-general  of 
East  Jersey,  by  order  of  the  proprietors  there,  at- 
tempted to  run  the  division  line  between  East  and 
West  Jersey  ;  pursuant  to  an  award  on  the  terms 
established  in  the  quintipartite  deed.  He  began 
with  a  line  from  Little  Egg- harbour,  north  by  west, 
and  three  degrees  five  minutes  more  westerly,  as  the 
compass  then  pointed  for  a  part ;  the  line  he  ran 
sixty  miles  in  length,  till  he  fell  upon  the  corner  of 
Dobie's  plantation,  on  the  south  branch  of  Rariton. 
This,  by  order  of  the  council  of  proprietors  of  West 
Jersey,  was  subsequently,  about  the  year  1721,  tra- 
versed by  John  Chapman,  who  was  esteemed  a  care- 
ful surveyor  ;  and  upon  the  computation  it  appeared, 
that  the  line  at  the  time  of  his  traverse,  was  north 
sixteen  degrees  and  forty-three  minutes  west,  which 
leaves  a  variation  of  two  degrees  and  twenty  three 
minutes'  in  that  thirty-four  years.  The  remaining 
part  of  Keith's  line  was  from  Dobie's  plantation, 
along  the  rear  of  that  and  other  tracts  and  planta- 
tions, as  they  were  before  patented  and  surveyed  in 
right  of  the  proprietors  of  the  eastern  division  of 
New  Jersey,  until  it  intersects  that  part  of  the 
norlh  branch  of  Rariton  river,  which  descends  from 
a  fall  of  water,  commonly  called  and  known  by  the 
Indian  name  of  Allamitung,  then  running  from  that 
point  of  intersection  up  the  branch  or  stream  of  the 
fall  of  Allamitung. 

Upon  the  original  running  of  this  line,  the  western 
proprietors  thought  too  much  of  their  best  lands 
were  surveyed  to  the  eastward  j  and  were  uneasy 
with  it. 

In  the  autumn  of  1688,  the  governors  of  East  and 
West  Jersey,  on  behalf  of  each  division,  entered 
into  the  following  agreement. 

"  London,  September  5,  1688. 

"  It  is  agreed  this  day,  by  Dr.  Daniel  Coxe,  go- 
vernor of  the  province  of  West  Jersey,  on  behalf  of 
himself,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  proprietors  of  that 
province,  on  the  one  part ;  and  Robert  Barclay,  go- 


vernor of  the  province  of  East  Jersey,  on  behalf  of 
himself  and  all  the  rest  of  the  proprietors  of  that 
province,  on  the  other  part ;  as  followeth,  viz. 

"  For  the  final  determination  of  all  differences, 
concerning  the  deed  of  partition  ;  and  all  other  dis- 
putes and  controversies  about  dividing  the  lands, 
and  settling  the  bounds  between  East  and  West 
Jersey. 

"  1.  The  line  of  partition  run  straight  from  Little 
Egg-harbour,  to  the  most  westerly  corner  of  John 
Dobie's  plantation,  as  it  stands  on  the  south  branch 
of  Rariton  river,  shall  be  the  bounds  so  far  between, 
East  and  West  Jersey,  and  shall  not  be  altered ; 
but  remain  as  it  stands,  on  a  printed  draught  of  the 
proprietors'  lands,  surveyed  in  East  Jersey,  and 
drawn  by  John  Reid,  and  since  printed. 

"  2.  From  thence  to  run  along  the  back  of  the 
adjoining  plantations,  until  it  comes  to  James  Dun- 
dass's  plantation ;  and  from  thence,  at  the  most 
north-westerly  part  thereof,  a  line  to  lie  down  with 
a  line  on  the  back  of  those  plantations,  and  so  to 
run  north-eastward,  till  it  touch  the  north  branch  of 
Rariton  river,  as  it  is  struck  upon  the  map  already ; 
but  saving  the  plantations  already  laid  out,  to  be 
within  the  line,  if  they  happen  to  stand  a  little 
more  westerly  than  that  line  is  marked. 

"  3.  From  the  north  end  of  the  line,  where  it 
touches  Rariton  north  branch-;  thence  forward  the 
largest  stream  or  current  of  water  belonging  to  the 
said  north  branch,  shall  be  the  bound  or  partition  ; 
and  so  continuing  along  the  same,  unto  the  north 
end  thereof,  for  the  bounds  so  far. 

"  4.  From  the  said  north  end  of  the  branch,  a 
short  straight  line  to  run  to  touch  the  nearest  part 
of  Passaick  river ;  and  so  following  the  course  of 
that  river,  continuing  Poquanick  river,  so  long  as  it 
runs  northerly  or  north-westerly ;  those  rivers  still 
to  be  the  bounds  between  both  provinces ;  and  if 
Poquanick  river  do  not  run  far  enough  to  the  lati- 
tude of  forty-one  degrees  ;  then  from  the  said  river, 
a  straight  line  to  be  run  northward  to  the  latitude ; 
and  that  to  be  the  utmost  north  partition  point,  and 
from  the  said  point  in  a  straight  line  due  east  to  the 
partition  point  on  Hudson's  river,  between  East 
Jersey  and  New  York:  provided  always,  that  all 
plantations  and  tracts  of  land,  laid  out  and  surveyed, 
before  this  agreement  arrives  in  East  Jersey,  shall 
remain  to  the  parties  concerned  ;  and  the  partition 
shall  so  run  as  to  include  them  within  East  Jersey 
bounds. 

"  Lastly,  Dr.  Coxe  doth  covenant  and  promise, 
to  make  good  the  agreements  above  written,  and 
warrant  the  title  and  quiet  possession  of  all  the  lands 
so  to  be  appropriated  to  the  proprietors  of  East  Jer- 
sey, according  to  the  limits  and  bounds  above-men* 
tioned,  against  all  persons  that  shall  or  may  pre- 
tend, or  claim  any  interest  to  any  of  the  said  lands, 
as  West  Jersey  proprietors.  And  Robert  Barclay 
doth  covenant  and  promise  to  make  good  the  agree- 
ment above  written,  and  warrant  the  title  and  quiet 
possession  of  lands,  so  to  be  appropriated,  to  the 
proprietors  of  West  Jersey,  according  to  the  limits 
and  bounds  above-mentioned,  against  all  persons 
that  shall  or  may  pretend  or  claim  any  interest  to 
any  of  the  said  lands,  as  East  Jersey  proprietors. 
For  performance  of  all  and  every  the  respective 
articles  and  covenants  herein-mentioned,  they  do 
mutually  bind  themselves,  each  to  the  other,  in  the 
sum  of  5,0001 ,  to  be  well  and  truly  paid  on  the 
areach  of  any  of  the  clauses  and  covenants,  herein 
before-mentioned.  In  witness  whereof,  they  ha /a 
nterchangeably  set  their  hands  and  seals,  the  day 


586 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


and  year  first  above  written.        "  Robert  Barclay." 

"  Sealed  and  delivered  in  the  presence  of  David 

Hewling  ;   Stephen  Lucock." 

Notwithstanding  this  agreement,  and  that  the 
parties  at  several  times  seemed  desirous  the  line 
should  be  properly  run  out  and  fixed,  the  necessary 
preliminaries  could  never  be  sufficiently  settled; 
those  of  East  Jersey  being  thought  by  the  western 
proprietors  to  have  the  advantage. 

In  order  to  keep  the  transactions  relative  to  the 
division  line  together,  we  have  advanced  a  year. 
We  must  now  return  and  notice  the  manner  of  lo- 
cating the  proprietors'  lands  in  West  Jersey ;  the 
divisions  and  sub-divisions  of  shares  had  multiplied 
demands,  and  introduced  a  necessity  for  other  mea- 
sures than  had  been  hitherto  in  practice  ;  accord- 
ingly in  1687,  the  proprietors  found  it  expedient  to 
appoint  certain  trustees  and  commissioners  to  settle 
their  matters. 

On  this  arrangement  afterwards  was  founded  the 
constitution  of  "  The  Council  of  proprietors  of 
West  Jersey."  The  following  minutes  being  some 
of  their  first  enactments,  will  give  an  example  of 
their  powers  and  proceedings  : 

"  At  a  meeting  of  several  proprietors  of  West 
Jersey,  at  Burlington,  on  the  6th  day  of  the  7th 
month,  anno  domini  1688,"  amongst  a  variety  of 
other  matters,  it  is  agreed,  "  That  every  proprietor, 
and  every  person  interested  in  proprieties,  shall  pay 
to  the  use  of  Daniel  Coxe,  to  any  person  appointed 
to  receive  it,  as  a  reimbursement  for  the  money  laid 
out  by  him,  in  the  Indian  purchase  lately  made  in 
the  lower  counties,  the  sum  of  twelve  shillings  and 
six-pence  for  every  thousand  acres,  and  so  propor- 
tionably  to  be  taken  up  out  of  that  purchase ;  the 
first  year  to  begin  the  1st  day  of  April  last  past,  and 
from  that  time  twelve  months  to  advance  eighteen- 
pence  upon  every  year  ensuing,  until  the  time  that 
the  money  aforesaid  be  paid  for ;  the  land  to  be 
laid  out  within  the  bounds  of  the  same  purchase,  as 
consideration  for  the  monies  disbursed  by  the  said 
Daniel  Coxe  in  the  said  Indian  purchase  of  the 
whole  tract,  which,  by  the  surveyor  Andrew  Robe- 
son,  is  computed  to  be  three  hundred  thousand  acres 
of  good  land,  capable  and  worthy  of  improvements  ; 
which  money  being  paid,  the  party  so  paying  shall 
be  acquitted  of  all  other  payments  on  the  considera- 
tion aforesaid. 

"  That  the  surveyor  for  the  time  being,  be  en- 
gaged not  to  set  out  any  land  within  the  limits  of 
this  Indian  purchase,  until  the  money  abovemen- 
tioned  be  paid  and  secured  as  abovesaid. 

"  And  it  is  further  agreed,  that  for  the  land  taken 
tip  by  order  of  the  said  Dr.  Coxe,  above  the  falls  of 
Delaware,  every  proprietor  taking  up  any  part 
thereof,  shall  pay  to  Dr.  Coxe,  or  his  order,  the  sum 
of  twenty-five  shillings  per  thousand  acres,  and  two 
shillings  and  six-pence  yearly  consideration,  till  the 
money  be  paid. 

"  It  is  agreed,  ordered,  and  concluded  by  autho- 
rity of  the  council  abovesaid,  that  Samuel  Jenings 
be,  and  is  hereby  appointed  commissioner,  to  exa- 
mine all  deeds,  taking  a  minute  of  the  same,  and 
issue  warrants  to  the  surveyor-general,  for  the  sur- 
veying and  taking  up  of  lands  ;  keeping  a  record 
of  the  same,  and  this  for  the  inhabitants  within  the 
county  of  Burlington,  or  to  any  others  as  occasion 
shall  require. 

"And  it  is  ordered,  that  for  the  support  of  the 
service,  every  warrant  for  land  under  one  hundred 
acres  shall  pay  the  sum  of  one  shilling ;  and  one 
hundred  acres  and  above,  under  one  thousand,  shall 


pay  the  sum  of  cighteen-ponce ;  and  one  thousand 
acres  and  upwards,  shall  pay  th«  sum  of  two  shil- 
lings and  six-pence. 

"It  is  also  ordered,  that  no  person  or  persons 
whatsoever,  shall  presume  to  purchase  any  land  from 
the  Indians,  without  the  consent  of  this  council  first 
obtained,  otherwise  to  be  prosecuted  as  our  common 
enemy." 

"  At  a  meeting  on  the  llth  of  the  8th  month  : 

"Agreed  and  concluded,  that  all  deeds  granted 
only  by  Edward  Byllinge,  in  and  before  the  year 
1682,  shall  be  adjudged  and  esteemed  insufficient 
for  the  commissioners  to  grant  warrants  upon." 

"  Instructions  for  the  commissioners  to  observe 
and  follow,  in  their  examining  of  deeds,  and  grant- 
ing of  warrants  for  the  taking  up  of  lands. 

"  1.  Agreed  and  ordered  by  the  council  aforesaid, 
that  the  commissioners  grant  no  warrants  but  upon 
the  producing  of  good  deeds,  authentic  copies,  or  an 
extract  of  the  record  of  such  deed  under  the  regis- 
ter's hand,  &c. 

"  2.  That  all  deeds  granted  only  by  Edward  Byl- 
linge, in  and  before  the  year  1682,  shall  be  accounted 
insufficient  for  the  commissioners  to  grant  warrants 
upon. 

"  3.  That  there  shall  be  given  a  particular  war- 
rant for  every  several  deed,  or  particular  purchase. 

"4.  That  the  president  of  the  council  for  the  time 
being,  shall,  from  time  to  time,  grant  warrants  for 
the  commissioners,  for  the  taking  up  of  their  own 
lands. 

;l  5.  That,  the  commissioners  shall  not  direct  their 
warrants  to  the  surveyor-general  for  the  laying 
forth  of  his  own  lands,  but  to  some  other  person,  at 
the  discretion  of  the  commissioner  that  gives  forth 
the  warrant. 

"6.  That  every  proprietor  coming  for  a  warrant, 
shall  first  sign  to  an  instrument,  to  be  presented  to 
them  for  their  compliance,  to  pay  his  and  their  re- 
spective and  proportionable  share  of  such  incident 
charge,  for  the  management  of  the  proprietor's  af- 
fairs ;  as  in  the  said  instrument  here  following,  may 
further  appear. 

'The  form  of  the  instrument  to  be  signed  by  the 
proprietors  before  they  have  warrants  granted  for 
the  taking  up  of  their  lands. 

'  We  the  subscribers  having  taken  into  considera- 
tion the  necessity  of  the  incident  charges,  that  will 
attend  the  council  of  proprietors,  in  the  employ  and 
concern  wherein  we  have  placed  and  constituted 
them,  for  the  carrying  on  and  discharging  of  those 
inevitable  charges  that  will  follow  upon  the  prosecu- 
tion of  our  affairs ;  we  do  therefore  hereby  bind,  and 
oblige  ourselves,  each  for  himself  and  not  for  one 
another,  to  comply  with  and  pay  our  proportions 
respectively  of  the  aforesaid  charges,  as  our  said 
council  shall  from  time  to  time  give  us  an  account 
f,  and  find  needful  to  be  raised.  In  witness  where- 
of we  have  hereunto  set  our  hands,  the  &c." 

In  the  year  1691,  Dr.  Coxe  conveyed  the  govern- 
ment of  West  Jersey  and  territories,  to  "  The  West 
Jersey  Society,"  consisting  of  the  following  persons: 
Sir  Thomas  Lane,  knt.,  Michael  Watts,  Edward 
Harrison,  Thomas  Skinner,  James  St.  Johns,  Ni- 
cholas Hayward,  Mordecai  Abbot,  Nicholas  Bat- 
ersby,  Robert  Curtis,  John  Juriu,  Richard  Bram- 
lall,  Robert  Mitchell,  Charles  Mitchell,  James 
Boddington,  John  Gunston,  Arthur  Shallet,  John 
Lamb,  William  Wightman,  Joseph  Brooksbank, 
William  Thompson,  Henry  Harrington,  John  Love, 
Thomas  Phipps,  Isaac  Cocks,  John  Sweetable,  Tho- 
mas Bromfield,  John  Norton,  Robert  Hackshaw, 


UNITED  STATES. 


587 


John  Bridges,  Joseph  Paise,  Edward  llichier,  Wil- 
liam Dunk,  Edward  Habberdfield,  John  Albersou, 
Edward  West,  Edward  Pauncefort,  Obadiah  Bur- 
net,  Francis  Michel,  Benjamin  Steele,  John  Slaney, 
Nehemiah  Ervving,  John  Wilcocks,  Richard  Mayo, 
Jonah  Netteeway,  William  Brooks,  Tracey  Paunce- 
fort, Joseph  Allen,  and  Richard  Greenaway- 

A  flood  at  Delaware  falL — Death  and  character  of 
Thomas  Olive — Commotions  in  East  and  West  Jer- 
sey— Surrender  of  the  two  governments  to  Queen 
Anne — Her  acceptance,  and  commission  to  Lord 
Cornbury. 

The  first  settlers  of  the  Yorkshire  tenth  in  West 
Jersey,  had  several  of  them  built  upon  the  low  lauds, 
near  the  falls  of  Delaware,  where  they  had  lived, 
and  been  improving  for  nearly  sixteen  years ;  they 
had  been  told  by  the  Indians,  that  their  buildings 
were  liable  to  be  damaged  by  freshes,  or  springs, 
and  the  situation  of  the  place  must  have  made  it 
probable.  They  had,  however,  got  up  several 
wooden  tenements  and  outhouses,  which  in  the 
spring  were  accordingly  generally  demolished.  The 
snows  suddenly  melting  above,  caused  an  uncom- 
mon overflow  of  the  river  ;  there  have  been  many 
great  floods  since,  but  none  quite  so  high ;  it  came 
upon  them  so  unexpectedly,  that  many  were  in  their 
houses  surrounded  with  water,  and  conveyed  to  the 
opposite  shore,  by  neighbours  from  thence,  in  canoes. 
The  water  continued  rising  till  it  reached  the  upper 
stories  of  some  of  their  houses,  then  most,  or  all  of 
them  gave  way,  and  were  dashed  to  pieces ;  many 
cattle  were  drowned;  beds,  kettles,  and  other  fur- 
niture were  picked  up  on  the  shores  below  ;  the 
frights  and  damages  were  considerable ;  two  per- 
sons in  a  house,  carried  away  by  the  sweeping  tor- 
rent, lost  their  lives  before  they  could  be  got  out. 
This  casualty  taught  the  owners  to  fix  their  habita- 
tions on  higher  ground,  and  was  what  is  commonly 
called  "  the  great  flood  at  Delaware  falls." 

It  was  in  the  spring  of  this  year  that  the  proprietors 
of  West  Jersey  first  appointed  Col.  Andrew  Hamil- 
ton to  be  their  governor.  And  about  this  time  also 
died  Thomas  Olive,  who  since  the  first  settlement 
of  West  Jersey,  had  been  a  man  of  importance  there; 
he  came  over  one  of  the  London  commissioners  in 
1677,  was  sometime  governor,  in  which  station  he 
behaved  with  great  circumspection  and  prudence ; 
while  a  common  magistrate  he  had  a  ready  method 
of  business,  often  performing  the  office  with  good  ef- 
fect, without  any  ceremony,  on  the  stumps  in  his  mea- 
dows. He  generally  contrived  to  postpone  sudden 
complaints,  till  deliberation  had  shown  them  to  be 
justly  founded,  and  then  seldom  failed  of  accommo- 
dating matters  without  much  expense  to  the  parties. 
He  had  been  imprisoned  and  otherwise  a  sufferer 
for  religion  in  England  ;  and  by  his  preaching  and 
writing,  as  well  as  other  public  and  private  conduct, 
had  gained  the  general  love  and  esteem. 

We  have  now  arrived  at  the  year  1701,  a  me- 
morable era  in  New  Jersey,  on  account  of  the  dis- 
turbances and  confusions  that  agitated  several  par- 
ties, and  caused  a  total  change  in  the  form  of  go- 
vernment. Each  province  had  many  and  different 
proprietors,  who  promoted  separate  schemes  and 
interests,  which  sometimes  interfered  with  each 
other.  To  facilitate  particular  purposes,  one  party 
would  have  the  choice  and  management  of  a  go- 
vernor, while  another  refused  any  but  of  their  own 
nomination,  and  a  third  objected  to  proposals  from 
either.  In  such  a  state  of  affairs  moderate  councils 
could  not  be  heard;  a  contaminating  spirit  of  party 


and  discord  took  place  of  order  and  peace;  every 
expedient  to  restore  union  and  regularity  proved 
unsuccessful ;  and  faction  prevailed,  and  particular 
animosities  were  nourished  to  that  degree,  that  the 
delays  of  time  seemed  only  to  give  opportunity  of 
accumulating  fresh  occasions  of  disgust  and  uneasi- 
ness ;  a  detail  of  particulars  would  be  an  ungrateful, 
we  hope  an  unnecessary  task.  The  following  in- 
stance may  suffice  as  a  specimen  of  the  whole. 

Jeremiah  Bass,  (in  the  spring  of  1698,)  under  a 
pretence  of  a  commission  he  had  received  from 
some  of  the  proprietors  of  East  Jersey,  with  the 
king's  approbation,  superseded  Andrew  Hamilton, 
the  then  governor  of  both  East  and  West  Jersey  ; 
but  in  the  next  year  it  appeared  that  Bass  had  not 
obtained  the  king's  approbation  of  his  commission, 
nor  was  it  granted  by  enough  of  the  proprietors  to 
make  it  valid,  which  induced  great  numbers  of  the 
inhabitants  to  refuse  obedience  to  him,  and  to  the 
magistrates  and  officers  by  him  appointed;  some 
persons  being  imprisoned  for  refusing  obedience,  it 
was  resented  by  others  with  great  indignation,  and 
feuds  and  confusion  followed.  To  accommodate 
matters  for  the  time,  Andrew  Hamilton  was  again 
appointed  governor  by  a  fresh  commission  from 
some  of  the  proprietors ;  but  a  great  number  re- 
fused obedience  to  him,  and  the  magistrates  and 
officers  under  him,  in  like  manner,  and  for  the  same 
reasons  as  they  had  refused  Bass  and  those  he  ap- 
pointed. The  disorders  in  the  Eastern  division 
during  this  time,  made  such  an  impression  on  the 
minds  of  many,  that  they  readily  hearkened  to 
overtures  made  for  a  surrender  of  the  government  to 
the  crown.  A  considerable  part  of  West  Jersey 
was  also,  for  similar  reasons,  disposed  to  a  resigna- 
tion. The  commotions  in  both,  which  had  been  in- 
creasing for  some  years,  now  seemed  to  be  arrived 
to  a  crisis,  and  all  things  tended  to  a  surrender  of 
the  powers  of  the  government;  which  was  at  length 
brought  about  in  the  beginning  of  the  next  year. 

Meanwhile  sundry  petitions  and  remonstrances 
were  sent  home,  complaining  loudly  of  their  grie- 
vances and  confusions,  and  praying  redress.  And 
in  1702,  a  surrender  was  made  to  the  queen,  em- 
powering her  to  elect  a  governor,  which  was  imme- 
diately accepted,  and  Edward  Lord  Viscount  Corn- 
bury,  grandson  to  the  great  Chancellor  Clarendon, 
was  appointed  governor  of  New  Jersey.  His  com- 
mission, as  follows,  we  give,  together  with  the  in- 
structions, because  they  form,  as  it  were,  a  new 
constitution  for  the  province. 

"  Anne,  by  the  grace  of  God,  of  England,  Scot- 
land, France,  and  Ireland,  Queen,  defender  of  the 
faith,  &c.  To  our  trusty  and  well  beloved  Edward 
Hyde,  Esq.,  commonly  called  Lord  Cornbury, 
greeting:  Whereas  in  the  government  of  that  coun- 
try, which  was  formerly  granted  by  King  Charles 
II.,  under  the  name  of  Nova  Csesaria,  or  New  Jer- 
sey, and  which  has  since  been  subdivided  by  the 
proprietors,  and  called  East  New  Jersey,  and  West 
New  Jersey,  such  miscarriages  have  happened,  that 
the  said  country  is  fallen  into  disorder  and  confu- 
sion; which  has  accordingly  been  represented  to 
our  dearest  brother  the  late  king,  in  several  peti- 
tions, memorials  and  other  papers,  signed  by  the 
general  proprietors,  and  by  great  numbers  of  the 
inhabitants ;  arid  by  means  of  that  disorder  the 
public  peace  and  administration  of  justice,  whereby 
the  properties  of  our  subjects  should  be  preserved 
there,  is  interrupted  and  violated,  and  the  guard 
and  defence  of  that  country  so  totally  neglected, 
that  the  same  is  in  imminent  danger  of  being  lost 


588 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


from  the  crown  of  England.  And  whereas  the  afore- 
said proprietors,  being  sensible  that  the  said  country, 
and  our  good  subjects  the  inhabitants  thereof,  can- 
not be  defended  and  secured  by  any  other  means 
than  by  our  taking  the  government  of  the  same 
under  our  immediate  care,  have  executed  and  made 
a  formal  and  entire  surrender  of  their  right,  or  pre- 
tended right  and  title,  to  the  government  of  that 
country  unto  us.  We  therefore,  reposing  especial 
trust  and  confidence  in  the  prudence,  courage,  and 
loyalty  of  you  the  said  Lord  Cornbury,  out  of  our 
especial  grace,  certain  knowledge,  and  mere  motion, 
have  thought  fit  to  constitute  and  appoint,  and  by 
these  presents  do  constitute  and  appoint,  you  the 
said  Lord  Cornbury,  to  be  our  captain-general  and 
governor-in- chief,  in  and  over  the  aforesaid  country 
of  Nova  Caesaria,  or  New  Jersey,  viz.  the  division 
of  East  and  West  New  Jersey,  in  America,  which 
we  have  thought  fit  to  re-unite  into  one  province, 
and  settle  under  one  entire  government.  And  we 
do  hereby  require  and  command  you,  to  do  and  exe- 
cute all  things  in  due  manner  that  shall  belong  unto 
your  said  command,  and  the  trust  we  have  reposed 
in  you,  according  to  the  several  powers  and  direc- 
tions granted  or  appointed  you  by  this  present  com- 
mission, and  the  instructions  and  authorities  here- 
with given  you,  or  by  such  further  powers,  instruc- 
tions or  authorities  as  shall  at  any  time  hereafter 
be  granted,  or  appointed  you  under  our  signet  and 
sign  manual,  or  by  our  order  in  our  privy  council, 
and  according  to  such  reasonable  laws  and  statutes 
as  shall  be  made  and  agreed  upon  by  you,  with  the 
advice  and  consent  of  the  council  and  assembly  of 
our  said  province,  under  your  government,  in  such 
manner  and  form  as  is  hereafter  expressed.  And 
our  will  and  pleasure  is,  that  you  the  said  Lord 
Cornbury,  having  after  the  proclamation  of  these 
cur  letters  patent,  first  taken  the  oaths  appointed 
by  act  of  parliament  to  be  taken  instead  of  the  oath 
of  allegiance  and  supremacy,  and  the  oath  men- 
tioned in  an  act,  entitled,  '  An  act  to  declare  the 
alteration  in  the  oath  appointed  to  be  taken  by  the 
act,'  entitled,  '  An  act  for  the  further  security  of  his 
majesty's  person,  and  the  succession  of  the  crown  in 
the  protestant  line,  and  for  the  extinguishing  the 
hopes  of  the  pretended  Prince  of  Wales,  and  all 
other  pretenders  and  their  open  and  secret  abettors, 
and  for  the  declaring  the  association  to  be  deter- 
mined ;'  as  also  the  test  mentioned  in  the  act  of 
parliament  made  in  the  twenty-fifth  year  of  the 
reign  of  King  Charles  II.,  entitled,  '  An  act  for 
preventing  dangers  which  may  happen  from  popish 
recusants ;'  together  with  the  oath  for  the  due  exe- 
cution of  the  office  and  trust  of  our  captain-general 
and  governor-in-chief,  in  and  over  our  said  province 
of  Nova  Caesaria,  or  New  Jersey,  as  well  with  re- 
gard to  the  equal  and  impartial  administration  of 
justice,  in  all  causes  that  shall  come  before  you,  as 
otherwise  ;  and  likewise  the  oath  required  to  be 
taken  by  governors  of  plantations,  to  do  the  utmost 
that  the  laws  relating  to  the  plantations  be  observed; 
all  which  our  council  in  our  said  province,  or  any 
three  of  the  members  thereof,  have  hereby  full 
power  and  authority,  and  are  required  to  administer 
unto  you ;  and  in  your  absence  our  lieutenant-go- 
vernor, if  there  be  any  upon  the  place;  you  shall 
administer  unto  each  of  the  members  of  our  said 
council,  as  also  to  our  lieutenant-governor,  if  there 
be  any  upon  the  place,  as  well  the  oath  appointed 
by  the  act  of  parliament  to  be  taken  instead  of  the 
oath  of  allegiance  and  supremacy,  and  the  oath 
mentioned  in  the  said  act,  entitled,'  '  An  act  to  de- 


clare the  alteration  in  the  oath  appointed  to  be 
taken  by  the  act,'  entitled,  «  An  act  for  the  further 
security  of  his  majesty's  person,  and  the  succession 
of  the  crown  in  the  protestant  line,  &c.'  as  the  fore- 
mentioned  test,  and  the  oath  for  the  due  execution 
of  their  places  and  trusts.  And  we  do  hereby  give 
and  grant  unto  you,  full  power  and  authority,  to 
suspend  any  of  the  members  of  our  said  council 
from  sitting,  voting,  and  assisting  therein,  if  you 
shall  see  just  cause  for  so  doing.  And  if  it  shall  at 
any  time  happen,  that  by  the  death,  departure  out 
of  our  said  province,  or  suspension  of  any  of  our 
said  counsellors,  or  otherwise,  there  shall  be  want- 
ing in  our  said  council,  any  three  whereof  we  do 
appoint  to  be  a  quorum,  our  will  and  pleasure  is, 
that  you  signify  the  same  unto  us  by  the  first  op- 
portunity, that  we  may  under  our  signet  and  sign 
manual,  constitute  and  appoint  others  in  their 
stead  ;  but  that  our  affairs  may  not  suffer  at  that 
instant,  for  want  of  a  due  number  of  counsellors,  if 
ever  it  should  happen  that  there  should  be  less  than 
seven  of  them  residing  in  our  said  province,  we  do 
hereby  give  and  grant  unto  you  the  said  Lord  Corn- 
bury,  full  power  and  authority  to  choose  as  many 
persons  out  of  the  principal  freeholders,  inhabitants 
thereof,  as  will  make  up  the  full  number  of  our  said 
council  to  be  seven,  and  no  more ;  which  persons 
so  chosen  and  appointed  by  you,  shall  be  to  all  in- 
tents and  purposes  counsellors  in  our  said  province, 
until  either  they  shall  be  confirmed  by  us,  or  that  by 
the  nomination  of  others  by  us,  under  our  sign 
manual  and  signet,  our  said  council  shall  have  seven 
or  more  persons  in  it.  And  we  do  hereby  give  and 
grant  unto  you,  full  power  and  authority,  with  the 
advice  and  consent  of  our  said  council  from  time  to 
time,  as  need  shall  require,  to  summon  and  call 
general  assemblies  of  the  freeholders  and  planters 
within  your  government,  in  manner  and  form  as 
shall  be  directed  in  our  instructions  which  shall  be 
given  you,  together  with  this  our  commission.  Our 
will  and  pleasure  is,  that  the  persons  thereupon 
duly  elected,  by  the  major  part  of  the  freeholders 
of  the  respective  counties  and  places  so  returned, 
and  having  before  sitting  taken  the  oaths  appointed 
by  act  of  parliament  to  be  taken  instead  of  the  oaths 
of  allegiance  and  supremacy,  and  the  oath  men- 
tioned in  the  aforesaid  act,  entitled,  '  An  act  to  de- 
clare the  alteration  in  the  oath  appointed  to  be  taken 
by  the  act,'  entitled,  'An  act  for  the  further  security 
of  his  majesty's  person,  and  the  succession  of  the 
crown  in  the  protestant  line,  and  for  extinguishing 
the  hopes  of  the  pretended  Prince  of  Wales,  and  all 
other  pretenders,  and  their  open  and  secret  abet- 
tors, and  for  declaring  the  association  to  be  deter- 
mined;' as  also  the  afore -mentioned  test;  which 
oath  you  shall  commissionate  fit  persons  under  our 
seal  of  Nova  Csesaria,  or  New  Jersey,  to  adminis- 
ter unto  them,  and  without  taking  of  which  oaths 
and  subscribing  the  said  test,  none  shall  be  capa- 
ble of  sitting  though  elected  : — shall  be  called  and 
held  the  general  assembly  of  that  our  province,  and 
that  you  the  said  Lord  Cornbury,  by  and  with  the 
advice  and  consent  of  our  council  and  assembly,  or 
the  major  part  of  them  respectively,  shall  have'  full 
power  and  authority  to  make,  constitute  and  ordain 
laws,  statutes,  and  ordinances,  for  the  public  poace, 
welfare  and  good  government  of  our  said  province, 
and  of  the  people  and  inhabitants  thereof,  and  »uch 
others  as  shall  resort  thereto,  and  for  the  benefit  of 
us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  which  said  laws,  sta- 
tutes, and  ordinances  are  not  to  be  repugnant,  but 
as  near  as  may  be,  agreeable  unto  the  laws  and 


UNITED  STATES. 


589 


statutes  of  this  our  kingdom  of  England;  provided 
that  all  such  laws,  statutes,  and  ordinances,  of  what 
nature  or  duration  soever,  be  within  three  months 
or  sooner,  after  the  making  thereof,  transmitted  to 
us,  under  our  seal  of  Nova  Caesaria  or  New  Jersey, 
for  our  approbation  or  disallowance  of  them,  as 
also  duplicates  thereof  by  the  next  conveyance,  or 
in  case  any  or  all  of  them  being  not  before   con- 
firmed by  us,  shall  at  any  time  be  disallowed  and 
not  approved,  and  so  signified  by  us,  our  heirs  or  suc- 
cessors, under  our  or  their  sign  manual  and  signet, 
or  by  order  of  our  or  their  privy  council,  unto  you 
the  said   Lord  Cornbury  or  to  the  commander-in- 
chief  of  our  said  province  for  the  time  being,  then 
such   and  so  many  of  them  as  shall  be  disallowed 
and  not  approved  "shall  from  henceforth  cease,  de- 
termine, and  become  utterly  void  and  of  none  ef- 
fect, anything  to  the  contrary  thereof  notwithstand- 
ing. And  to  the  end  that  nothing  may  be  passed  or 
done  by  our  said  council  or  assembly,  to  the  preju- 
dice of  our  heirs  and  successors,  we  will  and  ordain, 
that  you  the   said  Lord  Corubury,  shall   have  and 
enjoy  a  negative  power  in  the  making  and  passing  of 
all  laws,  statutes,  and  ordinances  as  aforesaid.    And 
that  you  shall  and  may  likewise  from  time  to  lime, 
as  you  shall  judge  it  necessary,   adjourn,   prorogue 
and  dissolve,  all  general  assemblies.     Our  will  and 
pleasure  is,  that  you  shall  and  may  use  and  keep 
the  public  seal  of  our  province  of  Nova  Caesaria,  or 
New  Jersey,  for  sealing  all  things  whatsoever  that 
pass  the  great  seal  of  our  said  province  under  your 
government.     And  we  do  further  give  and  grant 
unto  you  the  said   Lord  Cornbury,  full  power  and 
authority,  from  time  to  time,  and  at  all  times  here- 
after,  by  yourself,  or  by  any  other  to  be  authorized 
by  you  in  that  behalf,  to  administer  and  give  the 
oaths  appointed  by  act  of  parliament,  instead  of  the 
oath  of  allegiance  and  supremacy,  to  all  and  every 
such  person  and  persons  as  you  shall  think  fit,  who 
shall  at  any  time  or  times  pass  into  our  said  pro- 
vince, or  shall  be  resident  or  abiding  there.     And 
do  further  give  and  grant  unto  you,  full  power  and 
authority,  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  our  said 
council,  to  erect,  constitute,  and  establish  such  and 
so   many  courts   of  judicature  and   public  justice 
within  our  said  province  under  your  government,  as 
you  and  they  shall  think  fit  and  necessary,  for  the 
hearing  and  determining  of  all  causes  as  well  crimi- 
nal as  civil,  according  to  law  and  equity,  and  for 
awarding  execution  thereupon,  with  all  reasonable 
and  necessary  powers,  authorities,  fees  and  privi 


do  hereby  give  and  grant  unto  you,  full  power  and 
authority,  where  you  shall  see  cause,  or  judge  any 
offender  or  offenders  in  criminal  matters,  or  any 
fines  or  forfeitures  due  unto  us,  fit  objects  of  our 
mercy,  to  pardon  all  such  offenders,  and  to  remit  all 
such  offences,  fines  and  forfeitures,  treasons  and 
wilful  murder  only  excepted ;  in  which  case  you 
shall  likewise  have  power  upon  extraordinary  occa- 
sions, to  grant  reprieves  to  the  offenders,  until  and 
to  the  intent  our  royal  pleasure  may  be  known 
therein.  And  we  do  by  these  presents,  authorise 
and  impower  you  to  collate  any  person  or  persons 
to  any  churches,  chapels,  or  other  ecclesiastical  be- 
nefices within  our  said  province,  as  often  as  any  of 
them  shall  happen  to  be  void.  And  we  do  hereby 
give  and  grant  unto  you  the  said  Lord  Cornbury, 
by  yourself,  and  by  your  captains  and  commanders 
by  you  to  be  authorised,  full  power  and  authority  to 
levy,  arm,  muster,  command,  and  employ  all  per- 
sons  whatsoever  residing  within  our  said  province 
of  Nova  Caesaria,  or  New  Jersey,  and  as  occasion 
shall  serve,  them  to  transport  from  one  place  to 
another  for  the  resisting  and  withstanding  of  all 
enemies,  pirates,  and  rebels,  both  at  sea  and  land, 
and  to  transport  such  forces  to  any  of  our  plantations 
in  America,  if  necessity  shall  require,  for  the  defence 
of  the  same,  against  the  invasion  and  attempts  of 
any  of  our  enemies,  pirates  and  rebels,  if  there  shall 
be  occasion,  to  pursue  and  prosecute  in  or  out  of 
the  limits  of  our  said  province  and  plantations,  or 
any  of  them ;  and  if  it  shall  please  God  them  to 
vanquish,  apprehend  and  take,  and  being  taken, 
either  according  to  law  to  put  to  death,  or  keep  and 
preserve  alive  at  your  discretion,  and  to  execute 
martial  law  in  time  of  invasion,  insurrection,  or 
war,  and  to  do  and  execute  all  and  every  other 
thing  and  things,  which  to  any  captain-general  and 
governor-in-chief  doth  or  ought  of  right  to  belong. 
And  we  do  hereby  give  and  grant  unto  you  full 
power  and  authority,  by  and  with  the  advice  and 
consent  of  our  said  council,  to  erect,  raise,  and 
build  in  our  said  province  of  Nova  Caesaria,  or 
New  Jersey,  such  and  so  many  forts,  platforms, 
castles,  cities,  boroughs,  towns,  and  fortifications,  as 
you,  by  the  advice  aforesaid,  shall  judge  necessary, 
and  the  same  or  any  of  them,  to  fortify  and  furnish 
with  ordinance,  ammunition,  and  all  sorts  of  arms 
fit  and  necessary  for  the  security  and  defence  of  our 
said  province ;  and  by  the  advice  aforesaid,  the 
same  or  any  of  them  again  to  demolish  or  dismantle 
as  may  be  most  convenient.  And  forasmuch  as 


leges  belonging   unto  them ;   and  also   to   appoint    many  mutinies  and   disorders  may  happen,  by  per 


and  commissionate  fit  persons  in  the  several  parts 
of  your  government,  to  administer  the  oaths  ap- 
pointed by  act  of  parliament  to  be  taken  instead  of 
the  oath  of  allegiance  and  supremacy,  and  the  oath 
mentioned  in  the  aforesaid  act,  entitled,  '  An  act 
to  declare  the  alteration  in  the  oath  to  be  taken  by 
the  act,'  entitled,  '  An  act  for  the  further  security  of 
his  majesty's  person,  and  the  succession  of  the 
crown  in  the  protestant  line,  &c.;'  as  also  the  test  unto 
such  persons  as  shall  be  obliged  to  take  the  same. 
And  we  do  hereby  authorise  and  empower  you,  to 
constitute  and  appoint  judges,  and  in  cases  requisite 
commissioners  of  oyer  and  terminer,  justices  of  the 
peace,  and  other  necessary  officers  and  magistrates 
in  our  said  province,  for  the  better  administration 
of  justice,  and  putting  the  laws  in  execution,  and  to 
administer,  or  cause  to  be  administered  unto  them, 
such  oath  or  oaths  as  are  usually  given  for  the  due 
execution  and  performance  of  offices  and  places,  and 
for  the  clearing  of  truth  in  judicial  causes.  And  we 


ns  shipped  and  employed  at  sea,  during  the  time 
of  war ;  to  the  end  that  such  may  be  better  governed 
and  ordered,  we  do  hereby  give  and  grant  unto  you 
the  said  Lord  Cornbury,  full  power  and  authority, 
to  constitute  and  appoint  captains,  lieutenants, 
masters  of  ships,  and  other  commanders  and  officers, 
and  to  grant  unto  such  captains,  lieutenants,  mas- 
ters of  ships,  and  other  commanders,  and  officers, 
commissions,  to  execute  the  law  martial  during  the 
time  of  war,  and  to  use  such  proceedings,  authori- 
ties, corrections,  executions,  upon  any  offender  or 
offenders  who  shall  be  mutinous,  seditious,  disor- 
derly, or  any  ways  unruly  at  sea,  or  during  the  time 
of  their  abode  or  residence  in  any  of  the  ports,  har 
bours, 
shall  be 

during  the  time  of  war  as  aforesaid.  Provided,  that 
nothing  herein  contained  shall  be  construed  to  the 
enabling  you,  or  any  by  your  authority,  to  hold  plea 
or  have  any  jurisdiction  of  any  offence,  cause,  mat- 


or  quays  of  our  said  province,  as  the   cause 
e  found  to  require,  according  to  martial  law, 


590 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


ter  or  thing  committed  or  done  upon  the  high  sea 
or  within  any  of  the  harbours,   rivers  or  creeks   o 
our  said  province  under  your  government,  by  anj 
captain,  commander,  lieutenant,  master,  officer,  sea 
men,  soldier,  or  other  person  whatsoever,  who  shal 
be  in  actual  service  and  pay,  in  or  aboard  any  o 
our  ships  of  war,  or  the  vessels  acting  by  immediate 
commission  or  warrant  from  our  high  admiral  o 
England,  under  the  seal  of  our  admiralty,  or  from 
the  commissioners  for  executing  the  office  of  ou: 
high  admiral  of  England  for  the  time  being ;  bu 
that  such  captain,   commander,  lieutenant,   master 
officers, seamen,  soldiers,  and  other  persons  offending 
shall  be  left  to  be  proceeded  against  as  the  merit  o 
their  otfences  shall  require,   either  by  commissior 
under  our  great  seal  of  England,  as  the  statute  o 
the  28th  of  King  Henry  VIII.  directs,  or  by  com- 
mission  from  our  high  admiral  of  England,   or  from 
our  commissioners  for  executing  the  office  of  our 
high  admiral  of  England,  for  the  time  being,  ac- 
cording to  the  act  of  parliament  passed  in  the  thir 
teenth  year  of  King  Charles  II.,   entitled,   '  An  act 
for  establishing  articles  and  orders,  for  the  regula- 
ting and  better  government  of  his  majesty's  navy, 
ships  of  war,  and  forces  by  sea,'  and  not  otherwise 
Provided  nevertheless,  that  all  disorders  and  mis- 
demeanors committed  'on  shore  by  any  captain,  com- 
mander, lieutenant,  master,  officer,  seaman,  soldier, 
or  any  other  person  whatsoever,  belonging  to  any 
of  our  ships  of  war,  or  other  vessels  acting  by  imme- 
diate commission,  or  warrant  from  our  high  admiral 
of  England,  under  the  seal  of  our  admiralty,  or  from 
our  commissioners  for  executing  the  office   of  high 
admiral  of  England,  for  the  time  being,  may  be  tried 
and  punished  according  to  the  laws  and  place  where 
any  such  disorders,  offences  and  misdemeanors,  shall 
be   committed  on  shore,  notwithstanding  such  of- 
fender be  in  our  actual   service  and  in  our  pay  on 
board  any  such  our  ships  of  war  or  other  vessels, 
acting  by  immediate  commission  or  warrant  from 
our  high  admiral,  or  from  our  commissioners  for 
executing   the  office  of  high  admiral  for  the   time 
being  as  aforesaid,  so  as  he  shall  not  receive  any 
protection  for  the  delaying  of  justice,  for  such  of- 
fences committed  on   shore,   from  any  pretence  of 
his   being  employed   in   our  service  at  sea.      Our 
will   and  pleasure  is,  that  all  publick  money  raised, 
or  that  shall  be  raised,  by   any  act  hereafter  to  be 
made  within  our  said  province,  and  issued   out  by 
warrant  from  you,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  con- 
sent of  our  council,  and  disposed  of  by  you  for  the 
support  of  the   government,  and  otherwise ;  we  do 
hereby  give  you  the  said  Lord  Cornbury,  full  power 
and  authority  to  order  and  appoint  fairs,  marts,  and 
markets,    as    also  such    and  so  many   ports,   har- 
bours, quays,  havens,  and  other  places  for  the  con- 
veniency  and  security  of  shipping,  and  for  the  load- 
ing and  unloading  of  goods  and  merchandize,  as  by 
you,  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  our  said  council, 
shall  be   thought  fit  and  necessary.      And  we  do 
hereby  require  and  command  all  officers  and  magi- 
strates, civil  and  military,  and   all  other  the  inhabi- 
tants of  our  said  province,  to  be   obedient,   aiding 
and  assisting  unto  you  the  said  Lord  Cornbury,  in 
the  execution  of  this  our  commission,   and  of  the 
powers  and   authorities   herein   contained;   and  in 
case  of  your  death  or  absence  out  of  our  said  pro- 
vince, to  be  obedient,  aiding  and   assisting  to  such 
person  as  shall  be  appointed  by  us,  to  be  our  lieu- 
tenant-governor, or  commander-in-chief  of  the  said 
province,  to  whom  we   do  therefore  by  these  pre- 
sents, give  and  grant  all  and  singular  the  privileges 


and  authorities  aforesaid,  to  be  by  him  executed  and' 
enjoyed  during  our  pleasure,  or  until  your  arriral 
within  our  said  province :  And  if  upon  your  death 
or  absence  out  of  our  said  province,  there  be  no  per- 
son upon  the  place  commissionated  or  appointed  by 
us  to  be  our  lieutenant-governor,  or  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  said  province  ;  our  will  and  pleasure  is, 
that  the  then  present  council  of  our  said  province  do 
take  upon  them  the  administration  of  the  govern- 
ment, and  execute  this  commission,  and  the  several 
powers  and  authorities  herein  contained,  and  that 
such  counsellor  who  shall  be  at  the  time  of  your 
death  or  absence,  residing  within  our  said  province, 
and  nominated  by  our  instructions  to  you,  before 
any  other  at  that  time  residing  there,  do  preside  in 
our  said  council,  with  such  privileges  and  preemi 
nences  as  may  be  necessary  in  those  circumstances, 
for  the  due  and  orderly  carrying  on  the  public  service 
in  the  administration  of  the  government  as  afore- 
said, until  our  pleasure  be  further  known,  or  until 
your  return.  Lastly,  we  do  hereby  declare,  ordain 
and  appoint,  that  you  the  said  Lord  Cornbury,  shall 
and  may  hold,  execute,  and  enjoy  the  office  and  place 
of  captain-general  and  governor-in-chief,  in  and 
over  our  province  of  Nova  Csesaria,  or  New  Jersey,  to- 
gether with  all  and  singular  th  e  powers  and  authorities 
hereby  granted  unto  you}  for  and  during  our  will 
and  pleasure,  from  and  after  the  publication  of  this 
our  commission.  In  witness  whereof  we  have  caused 
these  our  letters  to  be  made  patents  :  Witness  our- 
self  at  Westminster,  the  5th  day  of  December,  in 
the  first  year  of  our  reign." 

Instructions  from  Queen  Anne  to  Lord  Cornbury. 

"  Instructions  for  our  right  trusty  and  well  beloved 
Edward  Lord  Cornbury,  our  captain-general  and 
governor-in-chief,  in  and  over  our  province  of 
Nova  Cffisaria,  or  New  Jersey,  in  America. 
Given  at  our  Court  at  St.  James's,  the  sixteenth 
day  of  November,  1702,  in  the  first  year  of  our 
reign. 

"  1.  With  these  our  instructions  you  will  receive 
our  commission  under  our  great  seal  of  England, 
constituting  you  our  captain-general  and  governor- 
in-chief  of  our  province  of  New  Jersey. 

"  2.  You  are  with  all  convenient  speed  to  repair 
to  our  said  province,  and  being  there  arrived,  you. 
are  to  take  upon  you  the  execution  of  the  place 
and  trust  we  have  reposed  in  you,  and  forthwith  to 
call  together  the  following  persons,  whom  we  do  by 
these  presents  appoint  and  constitute  members  of 
our  council  in  and  for  that  province,  viz.  Edward 
Hunloke,  Lewis  Morris,  Andrew  Bowne,  Samuel 
Jenings,  Thomas  Revell,  Francis  Davenport,  Wil- 
iam  Pinhorne,  Samuel  Leonard,  George  Deacon. 
Samuel  Walker,  Daniel  Leeds,  William  Sandford, 
nd  Robert  Quarry,  esquires. 

"  3.  And  you  are  with  all  due  solemnity,  to 
cause  our  said  commission  under  our  great  seal  of 
England,  constituting  you  our  captain-general  and 
governor-in-chief  as  aforesaid,  to  be  read  and  pub- 
ished  at  the  said  meeting  of  our  council,  and  to 
?ause  proclamation  to  be  made  in  the  several  most 
mblic  places  of  our  said  province,  of  your  being 
constituted  by  us  our  captain-general  and  govcrncr- 
n-chief  as  aforesaid. 

"  4.  Which  being  done,  you  shall  yourself  take, 
,nd  also  administer  to  each  of  the  members  of  our 
aid  council  so  appointed  by  us,  the  oaths  appointed 
>y  act  of  parliament  to  be  taken  instead  of  the 
iaths  of  allegiance  and  supremacy,  and  the  oath 
nentioned  in  an  act,  entitled,  '  An  act  to  declare 


•UNITED  STATES. 


the  alteration  in  the  oath  appointed  to  be  taken  by 
the  act,'  entitled,  '  An  act  for  the  further  security  of 
his  majesty's  person,  and  the  succession  of  the 
crown  in  the  protestant  line.  &c. ;'  as  also  the  test 
mentioned  in  an  act  of  parliament  made  in  the 
twenty-fifth  year  of  the  reign  of  King  Charles  II., 
entitled,  'An  act  for  preventing  dangers  which  may 
happen  from  popish  recusants  ;'  together  with  an 
oath  for  the  due  execution  of  your  and  their  places 
and  trusts,  as  well  with  regard  to  the  equal  and  im- 
partial administration  of  justice  in  all  causes  that 


thereof  without  good  and  sufficient  cause.  And  in 
case  of  suspension  of  any  of  them,  you  are  to  cause 
your  reasons  for  so  doing,  together  with  the  charges 
and  proofs  against  the  said  persons,  and  their  an- 
swers thereunto  (unless  you  have  some  extraordinary 
reason  to  the  contrary)  to  be  duly  entered  upon  the 
council  books  ;  and  you  are  forthwith  to  transmit 
the  same,  together  with  your  reasons  for  not  enter- 
ing them  upon  the  council  books,  (in  case  you  do  not 
enter  them)  unto  us  and  to  our  commissioners  for 
trade  and  plantations  as  aforesaid. 


hii  come  before  you,  as  otherwise,  and  likewise  j  "  13.  You  are  to  signify  our  pleasure  unto  the 
the  oath  required  to  be  taken  by  governors  of  plant-  |  members  of  our  said  council,  that  if  any  of  them 
ations,  to  do  their  utmost,  that  the  laws  relating  to  !  shall  at  any  time  hereafter  absent  themselves,  and 
the  plantations  be  observed.  continue  absent  above  the  space  of  two  months  to- 

"5.  You  are  forthwith  to  communicate  unto  our  j  gether  from  our  said  province  without  leave  from 
said  council,  such  and  so  many  of  these  our  instruc-  j  you,  or  from  our  governor  or  commander-in-chief  of 
tions,  wherein  their  advice  and  consent  are  mentioned  j  our  said  province,  for  the  time  being,  first  obtained; 
to  be  requisite,  as  likewise  all  such  others  from  time  :  or  shall  remain  absent  for  the  space  of  two  years,  or 
to  time,  as  you  shall  find  convenient  for  our  service  the  greater  part  thereof  successively,  without  our 
to  be  imparted  to  them.  j  leave  given  them  under  our  royal  sign  manual;  their 

''  6.  And  whereas  the  inhabitants  of  our  said  place  or  places  in  our  said  council,  shall  immediately 
province  have  of  late  years  been  unhappily  divided,  thereupon  become  void,  and  that  we  will  forthwith 
and  by  their  enmity  to  each  other,  our  service  and  ;  appoint  others  in  their  stead. 

their  own  welfare  have  been  very  much  obstructed ;  "14.  And  in  order  to  the  better  consolidating 
you  are  therefore  in  the  execution  of  our  commis-  and  incorporating  the  two  divisions  of  East  and 
sion,  to  avoid  the  engaging  yourself  in  the  parties  ;  West  New  Jersey,  into  and  under  one  government, 
which  have  been  formed  amongst  them,  and  to  use  our  will  and  pleasure  is,  that  with  all  convenient 
such  impartiality  and  moderation  to  all,  as  may  speed,  you  call  together  one  general  assembly  for 
best  conduce  to  our  service,  and  the  good  of  the  the  enacting  of  laws  for  the  joint  and  mutual  good 
colony.  of  the  whole;  and  that  the  said  general  assembly 

"  7.  You  are  to  permit  the  members  of  our  said  do  sit  in  the  first  place  at  Perth  Amboy,  in  East 
council,  to  have  and  enjoy  freedom  of  debate  and  New  Jersey,  and  afterwards  the  same,  or  other  the 
vote,  in  all  affairs  of  public  concern,  that  may  be  !  next  general  assembly,  at  Burlington,  in  West  New 
debated  in  council.  j  Jersey ;  and  that  all  future  general  assemblies  do 

"  8.  And  although  by  our  commission  aforesaid,  I  sit  at  one  or  the  other  of  those  places  alternately,  or 
we  have  thought  fit  to  direct  that  any  three  of  our  (in  cases  of  extraordinary  necessity)  according  as 
counsellors  make  a  quorum,  it  is  nevertheless  our  you  with  the  advice  of  our  foresaid  council,  shall 


will  and  pleasure,  that  you  do  not  act  with  a  quorum 
of  less  than  five  members,  except  in  case  of  necessity. 
"  9.  And  that  we  may  be  always  informed  of  the 
names  and  characters  of  persons"  fit  to  supply  the 
vacancies  which  shall  happen  in  our  said  council, 

you  are  to  transmit  unto  us,  by  one  of  our  principal !  habitants,  householders,  of  the  city  or  town  of  Perth 
secretarys  of  state,  and  to  our  commissioners  for  \  Amboy,  in  East  New  Jersey ;  two  by  the  inhabit- 
trade  and  plantations,  with  all  convenient  speed,  the  j  ants,  householders,  of  the  city  and  town  of  Burling- 
names  and  characters  of  six  persons,  inhabitants  of  ton  in  West  New  Jersey  ;  ten  by  the  freeholders  of 


think  fit  to  appoint  them. 

"  15.  And  our  further  will  and  pleasure  is,  that 
the  general  assembly  so  to  be  called,  do  consist  of 
four  and  twenty  representatives,  who  are  to  be 
chosen  in  the  manner  following,  viz.  two  by  the  ' 


the  eastern  division,  and  six  other  persons,  inhabit- 
ants of  the  western  division  of  our  said  province, 
wh<m  you  shall  esteem  the  best  qualified  for  that 
trust ;  and  so  from  time  to  time  when  any  of  them 
shall  die,  depart  out  of  our  said  province,  or  become 
otherwise  unfit,  you  are  to  nominate  unto  us  so  many 
other  persons  in  their  stead,  that  the  list  of  twelve 
persons  fit  to  supply  the  said  vacancies,  viz.,  six  out 
of  the  east,  and  six  out  of  the  west  division,  as  afore- 
said, may  be  always  compleat. 

"  10.  You  are  from  time  to  time  to  send  to  us  as 
aforesaid,  and  to  our  commissioners  for  trade  and 
plantations,  the  names  and  qualities  of  any  members 
by  you  put  into  our  said  council,  by  the  first  conve- 
niency  after  your  so  doing. 

"11.  And  in  the  choice  and  nomination  of  the 
members  of  our  said  council,  as  also  of  the  principal 
officers,  judges,  assistants,  justices,  and  sheriffs,  you 
are  always  to  take  care  that  they  be  men  of  good 
life,  and  well  affected  to  our  government,  of  good 
estates  and  abilities,  and  not  necessitous  people  or 
much  in  debt. 

'  12.  You  are  neithe*  to  augment  nor  diminish 
the  number  of  our  said  council,  as  it  is  hereby  esta- 
blished, nor  to  suspend  any  of  the  present  members 


East  New  Jersey,  and  ten  by  the  freeholders  of 
West  New  Jersey ;  and  that  no  person  shall  be  ca- 
pable of  being  elected  a  representative  by  the  free- 
holders of  either  division,  or  afterwards  of  sitting  in 
general  assemblies,  who  shall  not  have  1,000  acres 
of  land,  of  an  estate  of  freehold  in  his  own  right, 
within  the  division  for  which  he  shall  be  chosen; 
and  that  no  freeholder  shall  be  capable  of  voting  in 
the  election  of  such  representative,  who  shall  not 
have  100  acres  of  land  of  an  estate  of  freehold  in 
his  own  right,  within  the  division  for  which  he  sh?ll 
so  vote :  And  that  this  number  of  representatives 
shall  not  be  enlarged  or  diminished,  or  the  manner 
of  electing  them  altered,  otherwise  than  by  an  act 
or  acts  of  the  general  assembly  there,  and  confirmed 
by  the  approbation  of  us,  our  heirs  and  successors. 

"  16.  You  are  with  all  convenient  speed  to  cause 
a  collection  to  be  made  of  all  the  laws,  orders,  rules, 
or  such  as  have  hitherto  served  or  been  reputed 
as  laws  amongst  the  inhabitants  of  our  said  pro- 
vince of  Nova  Cfesaria,  or  New  Jersey,  and,  to- 
gether with  our  aforesaid  council  and  assembly,  you 
are  to  revise,  correct,  and  amend  the  same,  as  may 
be  necessary ;  and  accordingly  to  enact  such  and  so 
many  of  them,  as  by  you  with  the  advice  of  our  said 


592 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


council  and  assembly,  shall  be  judged  proper  and 
conducive  to  our  service,  and  the  welfare  of  our  said 
province,  that  they  may  be  transmitted  unto  us,  in 
authentic  form,  for  our  approbation  or  disallowance. 

"17.  You  are  to  observe  in  the  passing  of  the 
said  laws,  and  of  all  other  laws,  that  the  stile  enact- 
ing the  same,  be  by  the  governor,  council,  and  assem- 
bly, and  no  other. 

"  18.  You  are  also  as  much  as  possible  to  observe, 
in  the  passing  of  all  laws,  that  whatever  may  be  re- 
quisite upon  each  different  matter,  be  accordingly 
provided  for  by  a  different  law,  without  intermixing 
in  one  and  the  same  act,  such  things  as  have  no 
proper  relation  to  each  other;  and  you  are  espe- 
cially to  take  care  that  no  clause  or  clauses  be  in- 
serted in,  or  annexed  to  any  act,  which  shall  be 
foreign  to  what  the  title  of  such  respective  act  imports. 

"  19.  You  are  to  transmit  authentic  copies  of  the 
forementioned  laws  that  shall  be  enacted,  and  of  all 
laws,  statutes,  and  ordinances,  which  shall  at  any  time 
hereafter  be  made  or  enacted  within  our  said  province, 
each  of  them  separately,  under  the  public  seal,  unto 
us,  and  to  our  said  commissioners  for  trade  and 
plantations,  within  three  months  or  by  the  first  op- 
portunity after  their  being  enacted,  together  with 
duplicates  thereof  by  the  next  conveyance,  upon 
pain  of  our  high  displeasure,  and  of  the  forfeiture  of 
that  year's  salary,  wherein  you  shall  at  any  time, 
or  upon  any  pretence  whatsoever,  omit  to  send 
over  the  said  laws,  statutes,  and  ordinances  as 
aforesaid,  within  the  time  above  limited,  as  also  of 
such  other  penalty  as  we  shall  please  to  inflict.  But 
if  it  shall  happen,  that  during  time  of  war,  no  ship- 
ping shall  come  from  our  said  province,  or  other 
our  adjacent  or  neighbouring  plantations,  within 
three  months  after  the  making  such  laws,  statutes, 
and  ordinances,  whereby  the  same  may  be  trans- 
mitted as  aforesaid,  then  the  said  laws,  statutes,  and 
ordinances  are  to  be  so  transmitted  as  aforesaid,  by 
the  next  conveyance  after  the  making  thereof  when- 
ever it  may  happen,  for  our  approbation  or  disallow- 
ance of  the  same. 

"  20.  You  are  to  take  care,  that  in  all  acts  or 
orders  to  be  passed  within  that  our  province  in  any 
case  for  levying  money  or  imposing  fines  and  penal- 
ties, express  mention  be  made  that  the  same  is 
granted  or  reserved  to  us,  our  heirs  or  successors,  for 
the  public  uses  of  that  our  province,  and  the  support 
of  the  government  thereof,  as  by  the  said  act  or 
orders  shall  be  directed. 

"21.  And  we  do  particularly  require  and  com- 
mand, that  no  money,  or  value  of  money  whatso- 
ever, be  given  or  granted  by  any  act  or  order  of 
assembly,  to  any  governor,  lieutenant-governor,  or 
commander-in-chief  of  our  said  province,  which 
shall  not  according  to  the  stile  of  acts  of  parliament 
in  England,  be  mentioned  to  be  given  and  granted 
unto  us,  with  the  humble  desire  of  such  assembly, 
that  the  same  be  applied  to  the  use  and  behoof  of 
such  governor,  lieutenant-governor,  or  commander- 
in-chief,  if  we  shall  so  think  fit;  or  if  we  shall  not 
approve  of  such  gift  or  application,  that  the  said 
money  or  value  of  money,  be  then  disposed  of  and 
appropriated  to  such  other  uses  as  in  the  said  act  or 
order  shall  be  mentioned  ;  and  that  from  the  time 
the  same  shall  be  raised,  it  remain  in  the  hands  of 
the  receiver  of  our  said  province  until  our  royal 
pleasure  shall  be  known  therein. 

"  22.  You  shall  also  propose  with  the  said  gene- 
ral assembly,  and  use  your  utmost  endeavours  with 
them,  that  an  act  be  passed  for  raising  and  settling 
a  public  revenue  for  defraying  the  necessary  charge 


of  the  government  of  our  said  province,  in  which 
provision  be  particularly  made  for  a  competent 
salary  to  yourself,  as  captain-general  and  governor- 
in-chief  of  our  said  province,  and  to  other  our  suc- 
ceeding captain-generals,  for  supporting  the  dignity 
of  the  said  office,  as  likewise  due  provision  for  the 
salaries  of  the  respective  members  of  our  council 
and  assembly,  and  of  all  other  officers  necessary 
for  the  administration  of  that  government. 

"  23.  Whereas  it  is  not  reasonable  that  any  of 
our  colonies  or  plantations  should  by  virtue  of  any 
exemptions  or  other  privileges  whatsoever,  be  allow- 
ed  to  seek  and  pursue  their  own  particular  advan- 
tages, by  methods  tending  to  undermine  and  pre- 
judice our  other  colonies  and  plantations,  which 
have  equal  title  to  our  royal  care  ;  and  whereas  the 
trade  and  welfare  of  our  province  of  New  York, 
would  be  greatly  prejudiced,  if  not  intirely  ruined, 
by  allowing  unto  the  inhabitants  of  Nova  Csesaria, 
or  New  Jersey,  any  exemption  from  those  charges, 
which  the  inhabitants  of  New  York  are  liable  to ; 
you  are  therefore  in  the  settling  of  a  public  revenue 
as  before  directed,  to  propose  to  the  assembly,  that 
such  customs,  duties,  and  other  impositions  be  laid 
upon  all  commodities  imported  or  exported  in  or 
out  of  our  said  province  of  Nova  Caesaria,  or  New 
Jersey,  as  may  equal  the  charge  that  is  or  shall  be 
laid  upon  the  like  commodities  in  our  province  of 
New  York. 

"  24.  And  whereas  we  are  willing  in  the  best 
manner  to  provide  for  the  support  of  the  govern- 
ment of  our  said  province,  by  setting  apart  suffici- 
ent allowances  to  such  as  shall  be  our  governor  or 
commander-in-chief,  residing  for  the  time  being 
within  the  same  ;  our  will  and  pleasure  therefore  is, 
that  when  it  shall  happen,  that  you  shall  be  absent 
from  the  territories  of  New  Jersey  and  New  York, 
of  which  we  have  appointed  you  governor,  one  full 
moiety  of  the  salary  and  of  all  perquisites  and 
emoluments  whatsoever,  which  would  otherwise 
become  due  unto  you,  shall,  during  the  time  of  your 
absence  from  the  said  territories,  be  paid  and  satis- 
fied unto  such  governor  or  commander-in-chief  who 
shall  be  resident  upon  the  place  for  the  time  being, 
which  we  do  hereby  order  and  allot  unto  him  to- 
wards his  maintenance,  and  for  the  better  support 
of  the  dignity  of  that  our  government. 

"  25.  Whereas  great  prejudice  may  happen  to 
our  service  and  the  security  of  our  said  province 
under  your  government  by  your  absence  from  those 
parts,  without  a  sufficient  cause  and  especial  leave 
from  us ;  for  prevention  thereof,  you  are  not,  upon 
any  pretence  whatsoever,  to  come  to  Europe  from 
your  government,  without  first  having  obtained 
leave  for  so  doing,  under  our  signet  and  sign  manu- 
al, or  by  our  order  in  our  privy  council. 

"  26.  You  are  not  to  permit  any  clause  whatso- 
ever to  be  inserted  in  any  law  for  the  levying  money, 
or  the  value  of  money,  whereby  the  same  shall  not 
be  made  liable  to  be  accounted  for  unto  us  here  in 
England,  and  to  our  high  treasurer,  or  to  our  com- 
missioners of  our  treasury  for  the  time  being. 

"  27.  You  are  to  take  care  that  fair  books  of  ac- 
counts of  all  receipts  and  payments  of  all  such 
money  be  duly  kept,  and  the  truth  thereof  attested 
upon  oath,  and  that  the  said  books  be  transmitted 
every  half  year  or  oftner,  to  our  high  treasurer,  or 
to  our  commissioners  of  our  treasury  for  the  time 
being,  and  to  our  commissioners  for  trade  and 
plantations,  and  duplicates  thereof  by  the  next 
conveyance  ;  in  which  books  shall  be  specified  every 
particular  gum  raised  or  disposed  of,  together  with 


UNITED  STATES. 


593 


the  names  of  the   persons  to  whom   any    payment  j  propose  to  the  general  assembly  of  our  said  province, 
shall  be  made,  to  the  end  we  may  be  satisfied  of  the    the   passing  of  such  act  or  acts,  whereby  the  right 


right  and  due   application  of   the    revenue  of  our 
said  province. 

"  28.  You    are  not  to   suffer  any  public  money 
whatsoever,  to  be   issued  or  disposed  of  otherwise 


and  property  of  the  said  general  proprietors  to  the 
soil  of  our  said  province  may  be  confirmed  to  them, 
according  to  their  respective  rights  and  title  ;  to- 
gether  with  all  such  quit-rents  as  have  been  re- 


than  by  warrant  under  your  hand,  by  and  with  the  served,  or  are  or  shall  become  due  to  the  said  general 
advice' and  consent  of  our  said  council;  but  the  |  proprietors,  from  the  inhabitants  of  our  said  pro- 
assembly  may  be  nevertheless  permitted  from  time  ,  vince  ;  and  all  such  privileges  as  are  expressed  in  the 
to  time  to  view  and  examine  the  accounts  of  money  conveyances  made  by  the  said  duke  of  York,  except- 
disposed  of  by  virtue  of  laws  made  ing  only  the  right  of  government,  which  remains  in 


or  value  of  money 

by  them,   which   you  are 

there  shall  be  occasion. 


to   signify  unto   them   as 


And  it  is  our  express  will  and   pleasure, 


And  you  are  further  to  take  care,  that  by  the 
said  act  or  acts  so  to  be  passed,  the  particular  titles 
and  estates  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  that  province, 


that  no  law  for  raising  any  imposition  of  wines  or  I  and  other  purchasers  claiming  under  the  said  gene 


other  strong  liquors,  be  made  to  continue  for  less 
than  one  whole  year;  as  also  that  all  laws  what- 
soever for  the  good  government  and  support  of  our 
said  province,  be  made  indefinite,  and  without 
limitation  of  time,  except  the  same  be  for  a  tempo- 
rary end,  which  shall  expire  and  have  its  full  effect 
within  a  certain  time. 

"  30.  And  therefore  you  shall  not  re-enact  any 
law  which  shall  have  been  once  enacted  there  by 
you,  except  upon  very  urgent  occasions,  but  in  no 
case  more  than  once  without  our  express  consent. 

"  31.  You  shall  not  permit  any  act  or  order  to 
pass  in  our  said  province,  whereby  the  price  or 
value  of  the  current  coin  within  your  government, 
(whether  it  be  foreign  or  belonging  to  our  domi- 
nions) may  be  altered,  without  our  particular  leave 
or  direction  for  the  same. 

"  32.  And  you  are  particularly  not  to  pass  any 
law  or  do  any  act,  by  grant,  settlement,  or  other- 
wise, whereby  our  revenue,  after  it  shall  be  settled, 
may  be  lessened  or  impaired,  without  our  especial 
leave  or  commands  therein. 

"  33.  You  shall  not  remit  any  fines  or  forfeitures 
whatsoever,  above  the  sum  of  ten  pounds,  nor  dis- 
pose of  any  escheats,  fines  or  forfeitures  whatsoever, 
until,  upon  signifying  unto  our  high  treasurer,  or 
to  our  commissioners  of  our  treasury  for  the  time 


being,  and  to  our  commiss 


for  trade  and  plant- 


ations, the  nature  of  the  offence  and  the  occasion 
of  such  fines,  forfeitures,  or  escheats,  with  the  par- 
ticular sums  or  value  thereof,  (whicli  you  are  to  do 
with  all  speed)  you  shall  have  received  our  directions 
therein;  but  you  may  in  the  mean  time  suspend 
the  payment  of  the  said  fines  and  forfeitures. 

"  34.  You  are  to  require  the  secretary  of  our  said 
province,  or  his  deputy  for  the  time  being,  to  fur- 
nish you  with  transcripts  of  all  such  acts  and  pub- 
lick  orders  as  shall  be  made  from  time  to  time, 
together  with  a  copy  of  the  journals  of  the  council, 
'to  the  end  the  same  may  be  transmitted  unto  us, 
and  to  our  commissioners  for  trade  and  plantations 
as  above  directed,  which  he  is  duly  to  perform,  upon 
pain  of  incurring  the  forfeiture  of  his  place. 

"  35.  You  are  also  to  require  feom  the  clerk  of 
the  assembly,  or  other  proper  officer,  transcripts 
of  all  the  journals  and  other  proceedings  of  the  said 
assembly,  to  the  end  the  same  may  in  like  manner 
be  transmitted  as  aforesaid. 

"  36.  Our  will  and  pleasure  is,  that  for  the  better 
quieting  the  minds  of  our  good  subjects,  inhabitants 
of  our  said  province,  and  for  settling  the  properties 
and  possessions  of  all  persons  concerned  therein, 
either  as  general  proprietors  of  the  soil  under  the 
first  orginal  grant  of  the  said  province,  made  by 
the  late  King  Charles  II.,  to  the  late  duke  of 
York,  or  as  particular  purchasers  of  any  parcels  of 
land  from  the  said  general  proprietors,  you  shall 

HIST.  OF  AMER. — Nos.  75  &  76. 


ral  proprietors,  be  confirmed  and  settled  as  of  right 
does  appertain,  under  such  obligations  as  shall  tend 
to  the  best  and  speediest  improvement  or  cultivation 
of  the  same.  Provided  always,  that  you  do  not 
consent  to  any  actor  acts,  to  lay  any  tax  upon  lands 
that  lie  unprofitable. 

"  37.  You  shall  not  permit  any  other  person  or 
persons  besides  the  said  general  proprietors,  or  their 
agents,  to  purchase  any  land  whatsoever  from  the 
Indians  within  the  limits  of  their  grant. 

"  38.  You  are  to  permit  the  surveyors  and  other 
persons  appointed  by  the  fore-mentioned  general 
proprietors  of  the  soil  of  that  province,  for  surveying 
and  recording  the  surveys  of  land  granted  by  and 
held  of  them,  to  execute  accordingly  their  respective 
trusts  :  And  you  are  likewise  to  permit,  and  if  need 
be,  aid  and  assist  such  other  agent  or  agents,  as 
shall  be  appointed  by  the  said  proprietors  for  that 
end,  to  collect  and  receive  the  quit-rents  which  are 
or  shall  be  due  unto  them,  from  the  particular  pos- 
sessors of  any  parcels  or  tracts  of  land  from  time  to 
time.  Provided  always,  that  such  surveyors, 
agents  or  other  officers  appointed  by  the  said  gene- 
ral proprietors,  do  not  only  take  proper  oaths  for 
the  due  execution  and  performance  of  their  respec- 
tive offices  or  employments,  and  give  good  and 
sufficient  security  for  their  so  doing,  but  that  they 
likewise  take  the  oaths  appointed  by  act  of  parlia"- 
ment  to  be  taken  instead  of  the  oaths  of  allegiance 
and  supremacy,  and  the  oath  mentioned  in  the 
aforesaid  act,  entitled,  'An  act  to  declare  the  alter- 
ation in  the  oath  appointed  to  be  taken  by  the  act,' 
entitled,  '  An  act  for  the  further  security  of  his  majes 
ty's  person  and  the  succession  of  the  crown  in  the 
protestant  line,  and  for  extinguishing  the  hopes  of 
the  pretended  prince  of  Wales,  and  all  other  pre- 
tenders, and  their  open  and  secret  abettors,  and 
for  declaring  the  association  to  be  determined ;'  as 
also  the  fore-mentioned  test.  And  you  are  more 
particularly  to  take  care  that  all  lands  purchased 
from  the  said  proprietors,  be  cultivated  and  im- 
proved by  the  possessors  thereof. 

"  39.  You  shall  transmit  unto  us,  and  to  our  com- 
missioners for  trade  and  plantations,  by  the  first  op- 
portunity, a  map  with  the  exact  description  of  our 
whole  territory  under  your  government,  and  of  the 
several  plantations  that  are  upon  it. 

40.  You  are  likewise  to  send  a  list  of  officers 
employed  under  your  government,  together  with  all 
public  charges. 

"  41.  You  shall  not  displace  any  of  the  judges, 
justices,  sheriffs,  or  other  officers  or  ministers  within 
our  said  province,  without  good  and  sufficient  cause 
to  be  signified  unto  us,  and  to  our  said  commission- 
ers for  trade  and  plantations ;  and  to  prevent  arbi- 
trary removal  of  judges  and  justices  of  the  peace, 
vou  shall  not  express  any  limitation  of  time  iu  the 

3  L 


594 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


commissions  which  you  are  to  grant,  with  the  advice 
and  consent  of  the  council  of  our  said  province,  to 
persons  fit  for  those  employments,  nor  shall  you 
execute  yourself,  or  by  deputy,  any  of  the  said 
offices,  nor  suffer  any  persons  to  execute  more  offices 
than  one  by  deputy. 

"  42.  Whereas  we  are  given  to  understand,  that 
there  are  several  offices  within  our  said  province 
granted  under  the  great  seal  of  England,  and  that 
our  service  may  be  very  much  prejudiced  by  reason 
of  the  absence  of  the  patentees,  and  by  their  ap- 
pointing deputies  not  fit  to  officiate  in  their  stead  ; 
you  are  therefore  to  inspect  the  said  offices,  and  to 
inquire  into  the  capacity  and  behaviour  of  the  per- 
sons now  exercising  them,  and  to  report  thereupon 
to  us,  and  to  our  commissioners  for  trade  and  plant- 
ations, what  you  think  fit  to  be  done  or  altered  in 
relation  thereunto  ;  and  you  are  upon  the  misbe- 
haviour of  any  of  the  said  patentees,  or  their  depu- 
ties, to  suspend  them  from  the  execution  of  their 
places,  till  you  shall  have  represented  the  whole 
matter  and  received  our  directions  therein;  but 
you  shall  not  by  colour  of  any  power  or  authority 
hereby  or  otherwise  granted  or  mentioned  to  be 
granted  unto  you,  take  upon  you  to  give,  grant  or 
dispose  of  any  office  or  place  within  our  said  pro- 
vince, which  now  is  or  shall  be  granted  under  the 
great  seal  of  England,  any  further  than  that  you 
may  upon  the  vacancy  of  any  such  office  or  place, 
or  suspension  of  any  such  officer  by  you  as  aforesaid, 
put  in  any  fit  person  to  officiate  in  the  interval  till 
you  shall  have  represented  the  matter  unto  us,  and 
to  our  commissioners  for  trade  and  plantations  as 
aforesaid,  (which  you  are  to  do  by  the  first  oppor- 
tunity) and  till  the  iaid  office  or  place  be  disposed 
of  by  us,  our  heirs  or  successors,  under  the  great 
seal  of  England,  or  that  our  further  directions  be 
given  therein. 

"  43.  In  case  any  goods,  money,  or  other  estate 
of  pirates,  or  piratically  taken,  shall  be  brought 
in,  or  found  within  our  said  province  of  Nova- 
Caesaria,  or  New  Jersey,  or  taken  on  board  any 
ships  or  vessels,  you  are  to  cause  the  same  to  be 
seized  and  secured  until  you  shall  have  given  us  an 
account  thereof,  and  received  our  pleasure  concern- 
ing the  disposal  of  the  same  :  But  in  case  such 
goods  or  any  part  of  them  are  perishable,  the  same 
shall  be  publickly  sold  and  disposed  of,  and  the 
produce  thereof  in  like  manner  secured  until  our 
further  order. 

"44.  And  whereas  commissions  have  been  granted 
unto  several  persons  in  our  respective  plantations 
in  America,  for  the  trying  of  pirates  in  those  parts 
pursuant  to  the  act  for  the  more  effectual  suppression 
of  piracy,  and  by  a  commission  already  sent  to  our 
province  of  New  York,  you  (as  captain-general  and 
governor-in-chief  of  our  said  province  of  New  York) 
are  empowered,  together  with  others  therein  men- 
tioned, to  proceed  accordingly  in  reference  to  our 
provinces  of  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Connec- 
ticut ;  our  will  and  pleasure  is,  that  in  all  matters 
relating  to  pirates,  you  govern  yourself  according 
to  the  intent  of  the  act  and  commission  aforemen- 
tioned ;  but  whereas  accessaries  in  cases  of  piracy 
beyond  the  seas,  are  by  the  same  act  left  to  be 
tried  in  England,  according  to  the  statute  of  the 
second  of  King  Henry  VIII.,  we  do  hereby 
further  direct  and  require  you  to  send  all  such  ac- 
cessaries in  cases  of  piracy  in  our  aforesaid  pro- 
vince of  Nova  Cajsaria  or  New  Jersey,  with  the 
proper  evidences  that  you  may  have  against  them, 
into  England,  in  order  to  their  being  tried  here. 


"  45.  You  shall  not  erect  any  court  or  office  of 
judicature,  not  before  erected  or  established,  with- 
out our  especial  order. 

"  46.  You  are  to  transmit  unto  us  and  to  our 
commissioners  for  trade  and  plantations,  with  all 
convenient  speed,  a  particular  account  of  all  esta- 
blishments of  jurisdictions,  courts,  offices,  and 
officers,  powers,  authorities,  fees  and  privileges, 
which  shall  be  granted  or  settled  within  the  said 
province,  by  virtue  and  in  pursuance  of  our  com- 
mission and  instructions  to  you  our  captain-general 
and  governor-in-chief  of  the  same,  to  the  end  you 
may  receive  our  further  direction  therein. 

"  47.  And  you  are,  with  the  advice  and  consent  of 
our  said  council,  to  take  especial  care  to  regulate 
all  salaries  and  fees  belonging  to  places,  or 
paid  upon  emergencies,  that  they  be  within  the 
bounds  of  moderation,  and  that  no  exaction  be 
made  on  any  occasion  whatsoever;  as  also,  that 
tables  of  all  fees  be  publickly  hung  up  in  all  places 
where  such  fees  are  to  be  paid ;  and  you  are  to 
transmit  copies  of  all  such  tables  of  fees  to  us,  and 
to  our  commissioners,  for  trade  and  plantations  as 
aforesaid. 

"  48.  Whereas  it  is  necessary  that  our  rights  and 
dues  be  preserved  and  recovered,  and  that  speedy 
and  effectual  justice  be  administered  in  all  cases 
relating  to  our  revenue,  you  are  to  take  care,  that 
a  court  of  exchequer  be  called  and  do  meet  at  all 
such  times  as  shall  be  needful,  and  you  are  to  in- 
form us  and  our  commissioners  for  trade  and  plant- 
ations, whether  our  service  may  require  that  a 
constant  court  of  exchequer  be  settled  and  esta- 
blished there. 

"  49.  You  are  to  take  care  that  no  man's  life, 
member,  freehold,  or  goods  be  taken  away  or 
harmed  in  our  said  province,  otherwise  than  by  es- 
tablished and  known  laws,  not  repugnant  to,  but  as 
much  as  may  be,  agreeable  to  the  laws  of  England. 

"  50.  You  shall  administer,  or  cause  to  be  ad- 
ministered, the  oaths  appointed  by  act  of  parliament 
to  be  taken  instead  of  the  oaths  of  allegiance  and 
supremacy,  and  the  oath  mentioned  in  the  aforesaid 
act,  entitled,  '  An  act  to  declare  the  alteration  in 
the  oath  appointed  to  be  taken  by  the  act,'  entitled, 
'An  act  for  the  further  securityof  his  majesty's  person, 
and  the  succession  of  the  crown  in  the  protestant 
line,  and  for  extinguishing  the  hopes  of  the  pre- 
tended prince  of  Wales,  and  all  other  pretenders, 
and  their  open  and  secret  abettors,  and  for  declar- 
ing the  association  to  be  determined ;'  as  also  the 
fore-mentioned  test,  to  the  members  and  officers  of 
the  council  and  assembly,  and  to  all  judges,  justices, 
and  all  other  persons  that  hold  any  office  or  place  of 
trust  or  profit  in  the  said  province,  whether  by 
virtue  of  any  patent  under  our  great  seal  of  Eng- 
land, or  otherwise,  without  which  you  are  not  to 
admit  any  person  whatsoever  into  any  publick  office, 
nor  suffer  those  who  have  been  admitted  formerly 
to  continue  therein. 

"  51.  You  are  to  permit  a  liberty  of  conscience  to 
all  persona  (except  papists)  so  they  may  be  con- 
tented with  a  quiet  and  peaceable  enjoyment  of  the 
same,  not  giving  offence  or  scandal  to  the  govern- 
ment. 

"  52.  And  whereas  we  have  been  informed,  that 
divers  of  our  good  subjects  inhabiting  those  parts, 
do  make  a  religious  scruple  of  swearing,  and  by 
reason  of  their  refusing  to  take  an  oath  in  courts  of 
justice  and  other  places,  are  or  may  be  liable  to 
many  inconveniences ;  our  will  and  pleasure  is, 
that  in  order  to  their  ease  in  what  they  conceive 


UNITED  STATES. 


595 


to  be  matter  of  conscience,  so  far  as  may  be  consist- 
ent with  good  order  and  government,  you  take 
care,  that  an  act  be  passed  in  the  general  assembly 
of  our  said  province,  to  the  like  effect  as  that  passed 
here  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  years  of  his  majesty's 
reign,  entitled,  '  An  act,  that  the  solemn  affirm* 
tion  and  declaration  of  the  people  called  Quakers, 
shall  be  accepted,  instead  of  an  oath  in  the  usual 
form,'  and  that  the  same  be  transmitted  to  us,  and 
to  our  commissioners  for  trade  and  plantations  as 
before  directed. 

"  53.  And  whereas  we  have  been  further  informed, 
that  in  the  first  settlement  of  the  government  of  our 
said  province,  it  may  so  happen,  that  the  number 
of  inhabitants  fitly  qualified  to  serve  in  our  council 
in  the  general  assembly,  and  in  other  places  of 
trust  or  profit  there,  will  be  but  small ;  it  is  there- 
fore our  will  and  pleasure,  that  such  of  the  said 
people  called  quakers,  as  shall  be  found  capable  of 
any  of  those  places  or  employments,  and  accordingly 
be  elected  or  appointed  to  serve  therein,  may  upon 
their  taking  and  signing  the  declaration  of  allegi- 
ance to  us  in  the  form  used  by  the  same  people 
here  in  England,  together  with  a  solemn  declaration 
for  true  discharge  of  their  respective  trusts,  be  ad- 
mitted by  you  into  any  of  the  said  places  or  em- 
ployments. 

"  54.  You  shall  send  an  account  unto  us,  and  to 
our  commissioners  for  trade  and  plantations,  of  the 
present  number  of  planters  and  inhabitants,  men, 
women  and  children,  as  well  masters  as  servant"., 
free  and  unfree,  and  of  the  slaves  in  our  said  pro- 
vince, as  also  a  yearly  account  of  the  increase  or 
decrease  of  them,  and  how  many  of  them  are  fit  to 
bear  arms  in  the  militia  of  our  said  province. 

"  55.  You  shall  also  cause  an  account  to  be  kept 
of  all  persons  born,  christened  and  buried,  and 
you  shall  yearly  send  fair  abstracts  thereof  to  us, 
and  to  our  commissioners  for  trade  and  plantations 
as  aforesaid. 

"  56.  You  shall  take  care,  that  all  planters  and 
Christian  servants,  be  well  and  fitly  provided  with 
arms,  and  that  they  be  listed  under  good  officers, 
and  when  and  as  often  as  shall  be  thought  fit,  mus- 
tered and  trained,  whereby  they  may  be  in  a  better 
readiness  for  the  defence  of  our  said  province  under 
your  government ;  and  you  are  to  endeavour  to  get 
an  act  passed,  (if  not  already  done)  for  apportion- 
ing the  number  of  white  servants  to  be  kept  by 
every  planter. 

"  57.  You  are  to  take  especial  care,  that  neither 
the  frequency,  nor  unreasonableness  of  their 
inarches,  musters  and  trainings,  be  an  unnecessary 
impediment  to  the  affairs  of  the  inhabitants. 

"  58.  You  shall  not,  upon  any  occasion  whatso- 
ever, establish,  or  put  in  execution,  any  articles  of 
war,  or  other  law  martial,  upon  any  of  our  subjects, 
inhabitants  of  our  said  province,  without  the  advice 
and  consent  of  our  council  there. 

"  59.  And  whereas  there  is  no  power  given  you 
by  your  commission,  to  execute  martial  law  in  the 
time  of  peace  upon  soldiers  in  pay,  and  that  never- 
theless it  may  be  necessary  that  some  care  be  taken 
for  the  keeping  of  good  discipline  amongst  those, 
that  we  may  at  any  time  think  fit  to  send  into  our 
said  province,  (which  may  properly  be  provided  for 
by  the  legislative  power  of  the  same)  you  are  there- 
fore to  recommend  to  the  general  assembly  of  our 
said  province,  that  they  prepare  such  act  or  law 
for  the  punishing  of  mutiny,  desertion  and  false 
musters,  and  for  the  better  preserving  of  good  dis- 
cipline amongst  the  said  soldiers,  as  may  best 
answer  those  ends. 


"60.  And  whereas  upon  complaints  that  have 
been  made  of  the  irregular  proceedings  of  the  cap- 
tains of  some  of  our  ships  of  war,  in  the  pressing  of 
seamen  in  several  of  our  plantations;  we  have 
thought  fit  to  order,  and  have  given  directions  to 
our  high-admiral  accordingly,  that  when  any  cap- 
tain or  commander  of  any  of  our  ships  of  war,  in 
any  of  our  said  plantations,  shall  have  occasion  for 
seamen,  to  serve  on  board  our  ships  under  their 
command,  they  do  make  their  applications  to  the 
governors,  and  commanders-in-chief  of  our  planta- 
tions respectively,  to  whom  as  vice-admirals,  we  are 
pleased  to  commit  the  sole  power  of  impressing 
seamen  in  any  of  our  plantations  in  America,  or  in 
sight  of  any  of  them,  you  are  therefore  hereby  re- 
quired upon  such  application  made  to  you,  by  anv 
of  the  commanders  of  our  said  ships  of  war,  within 
our  province  of  Nova  Caesaria,  or  New  Jersey,  to 
take  care  that  our  said  ships  of  war  be  furnished 
with  a  number  of  seamen  that  may  be  necessary 
for  our  service  on  board  them  from  time  to  time. 

"  61 .  And  whereas  together  with  other  powers  of 
vice-admiralty,  you  will  receive  authority  from 
our  dearest  husband  Prince  George  of  Denmark, 
our  high-admiral  of  England,  and  of  our  plantations, 
upon  the  refusal  or  neglect  of  any  captain  or  com- 
mander of  any  of  our  ships  of  war,  to  execute  the 
written  orders  he  shall  receive  from  you  for  our  ser- 
vice, and  the  service  of  our  province  under  your 
government,  or  upon  his  negligent  or  undue  execu 
tion  thereof,  to  suspend  him,  such  captain  or  com- 
mander, from  the  exercise  of  his  said  office  of  captain 
or  commander,  and  to  commit  him  into  safe  custody 
either  on  board  his  own  ship  or  elsewhere,  at  your 
discretion,  in  order  to  his  being  brought  to  answer 
for  such  refusal  or  neglect,  by  commission  either 
under  our  great  seal  of  England,  or  from  our  high- 
admiral,  or  our  commissioners  for  executing  the 
office  of  our  high-admiral  of  England  for  the  time 
being. 

"  62.  And  whereas  you  will  likewise  receive 
directions  from  our  said  dearest  husband,  as  our 
high-admiral  of  England,  and  of  our  plantations, 
that  the  captain  or  commander,  so  by  you  suspended 
shall  during  such  his  suspension  and  commit- 
ment, be  succeeded  in  his  said  office  by  such  com- 
mission or  warrant  officer  of  our  said  ship,  appointed 
by  our  said  high-admiral  of  England,  or  by  our 
commissioners  for  executing  the  office  of  our  high- 
admiral  of  England  for  the  time  being,  as  by  the 
known  practice  and  discipline  of  our  navy,  does 
and  ought  to  succeed  him  next  as  in  case  of  death, 
sickness,  or  other  ordinary  disability  happening  to 
the  commander  oi?  any  of  our  ships  of  war  and  not 
otherwise,  you  standing  also  accountable  for  the 
truth  and  importance  of  the  crime  and  misdemea- 
nor, for  which  you  shall  so  proceed  to  the  suspend- 
ing of  such  our  captain  or  commander ;  you  are  not 
to  exercise  the  said  power  of  suspending  any  such 
captains  or  commanders  of  our  ships  of  war,  other- 
wise than  by  virtue  of  such  commission  or  authority 
from  our  said  high-admiral ;  any  former  custom  or 
usage  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 

"  63.  Whereas  it  is  absolutely  necessary,  that 
we  be  exactly  informed  of  the  state  of  defence  of 
all  our  plantations  in  America,  as  well  in  relation 
to  the  stores  of  war  that  are  in  each  plantation,  as  to 
the  forts  and  fortifications  there,  and  what  more 
may  be  necessary  to  be  built  for  the  defence  and 
security  of  the  same ;  you  are  so  soon  as  possible, 
to  prepare  an  account  thereof,  with  relation  to  our 
said  province  of  Nova  Csesaria,  or  Nevr  Jersey,  in 

3  L2 


596 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  most  particular  manner,  and  you  are  therein  to 
express  the  present  state  of  the  arms,  ammunition, 
and  other  stores  of  war,  either  in  any  publick  ma- 
gazines, or  in  the  hands  of  private  persons,  together 
with  the  state  of  all  places  either  already  fortified, 
or  that  you  judge  necessary  to  be  fortified  for  the 
security  of  our  said  province" ;  and  you  are  to  trans- 
mit the  said  account  to  us,  and  to  our  commis- 
sioners for  trade  and  plantations  by  the  first  oppor- 
tunity, and  other  like  accounts  yearly  in  the  same 
manner. 

"  64.  And  that  we  may  be  the  better  informed 
of  the  trade  of  our  said  province,  you  are  to  take 
especial  care,  that  due  entries  be  made  in  all  ports 
in  our  said  province  of  all  goods  and  commodities, 
their  species  or  quantities  imported  or  exported 
from  thence,  with  the  names,  burden,  and  guns  of 
all  ships  importing  and  exporting  the  same,  also 
the  names  of  their  commanders,  and  likewise  ex- 
pressing from  and  to  what  places  the  said  ships  do 
come  and  go,  a  copy  whereof  the  naval  officer  is 
to  furnish  you  with,  and  you  are  to  transmit  the 
same  unto  us,  or  our  high  treasurer,  or  our  com- 
missioners of  our  treasury  for  the  time  being,  and 
to  our  commissioners  for  trade  and  plantations 
quarterly,  and  duplicates  thereof  by  the  next  con- 
veyance. 

"65.  And  whereas  great  losses  have  been  sus- 
tained by  our  subjects,  trading  to  our  plantations 
in  America,  by  ships  sailing  from  tnose  parts  with- 
out convoy,  or  without  the  company  of  other  ships, 
which  might  protect  them  from  our  enemies,  by 
which  means  many  of  them  have  been  taken  by  the 
French  in  their  return  to  England ;  to  the  end  there- 
fore theships  of  our  subjectsmaybe  the  bettersecured 
in  their  return  home,  you  are  to  take  care  that  dur- 
ing this  time  of  war,  no  ships  trading  to  our  pro- 
vince of  Nova  Ca^saria,  or  New  Jersey,  be  per- 
mitted to  come  from  thence  to  England,  but  in 
fleets,  or  under  the  convoy  or  protection  of  some  of 
our  ships  of  war,  or  at  such  a  time  as  you  shall  re- 
ceive notice  from  hence,  of  their  meeting  such  con- 
voys, as  may  be  appointed  for  the  bringing  them 
safe  to  some  of  our  ports  in  this  kingdom  ;  and  in 
case  of  any  danger,  you  are  to  expect  directions 
from  hence,  what  precautions  shall  be  further  ne- 
cessary for  their  security. 

"  66.  You  are  likewise  to  examine  what  rates 
and  duties  are  charged  and  payable  upon  any  goods, 
imported  or  exported  within  our  province  of  Nova 
Csesaria,  or  New  Jersey,  whether  of  the  growth  or 
manufacture  of  the  said  province  or  otherwise,  and 
to  use  your  best  endeavours  for  the  improvement  of 
the  trade  in  those  parts. 

"67.  And  whereas  orders  have  been  given  for 
the  commissioning  of  fit  persons  to  be  officers  of 
our  admiralty  and  customs  in  our  several  plantations 
in  America ;  and  it  is  of  great  importance  to  the 
trade  of  this  kingdom,  and  to  the  welfare  of  all  our 
plantations,  that  illegal  trade  be  every  where  dis- 
couraged :  You  are  therefore  to  take  especial  care, 
that  the  acts  of  trade  and  navigation  be  duly  put  in 
execution ;  and  in  order  thereunto,  you  are  to  give 
constant  protection  and  all  due  encouragement  to 
the  said  officers  of  our  admiralty  and  customs,  in 
the  execution  of  their  respective  offices  and  trusts 
within  our  territories  under  your  government. 

"68.  You  are  from  time  to  time  to  give  an  ac- 
count as  before  directed,  what  strength  your  border- 
ing neighbours  have,  be  they  Indians  or  others,  by 
sea  and  land,  and  of  the  condition  of  their  planta- 
tions, and  what  correspondence  you  do  keep  with  them. 


"  69.  You  shall  take  especial  care,  that  God  Al 
mighty  be  devoutly  and  duly  served  throughout  your 
government,  the  book  of  common  prayer  as  by  law 
established  read  each  Sunday,  and  holy-day,  and 
the  blessed  sacrament  administered  according  to  the 
rites  of  the  church  of  England. 

"  70.  You  shall  be  careful  that  the  churches  al- 
ready built  there,  be  well  and  orderly  kept,  and  that 
more  be  built,  as  the  colony  shall  by  God's  blessing 
be  improved ;  and  that  besides  a  competent  main- 
tenance to  be  assigned  to  the  minister  of  each  or- 
thodox church,  a  convenient  house  be  built  at  the 
common  charge  for  each  minister,  and  a  competent 
proportion  of  land  assigned  to  him,  for  a  glebe  and 
exercise  of  his  industry. 

"  71.  And  you  are  to  take  care,  that  the  parishes 
be  so  limited  and  settled,  as  you  shall  find  most  con 
venient  for  the  accomplishing  this  good  work. 

"  72.  You  are  not  to  prefer  any  minister  to  any 
ecclesiastical  benefice  in  that  our  province,  without 
a  certificate  from  the  right  reverend  father  in  God 
the  lord  bishop  of  London,  of  his  being  conformable 
to  the  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  church  of  Eng- 
land, and  of  a  good  life  and  conversation.  And  if 
any  person  already  preferred  to  a  benefice,  shall  ap- 
pear to  you  to  give  scandal  either  by  his  doctrine 
or  manners,  you  are  to  use  the  best  means  for  the 
removal  of  him,  and  to  supply  the  vacancy  in  such 
manner  as  we  have  directed. 

"  73.  You  are  to  give  order,  that  every  orthodox 
minister  within  your  government,  be  one  of  the 
vestry  in  his  respective  parish,  and  that  no  vestry 
be  held  without  him,  except  in  case  of  sickness,  or 
that  after  the  notice  of  a  vestry  summoned,  he  omit 
to  come. 

"  74.  You  are  to  enquire  whether  there  be  any 
minister  within  your  government,  who  preaches  and 
administers  the  sacrament  in  any  orthodox  church  or 
chapel,  without  being  in  due  orders,  and  to  give  ac- 
count thereof  to  the  said  lord  bishop  of  London. 

"  75.  And  to  the  end  the  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction 
of  the  said  lord  bishop  of  London,  may  take  place  in 
our  said  province  so  far  as  conveniently  may  be,  we 
do  think  fit  that  you  give  all  countenance  and  en- 
couragement to  the  exercise  of  the  same,  excepting 
only  the  collating  to  benefices,  granting  licences  for 
marriages,  and  probate  of  wills,  which  we  have  re- 
served to  you  our  governor,  and  the  commander-in- 
chief  of  our  said  province  for  the  time  being. 

"  76.  And  you  are  to  take  especial  care,  that  a 
table  of  marriages  established  by  the  canons  of  the 
church  of  England,  be  hung  up  in  every  orthodox 
church,  and  duly  observed,  and  you  are  to  endea- 
vour to  get  a  law  passed  in  the  assembly  of  our  said 
province,  (if  not  already  done)  for  the  strict  observ- 
ation of  the  said  table. 

"  77.  You  are  to  take  care,  that  drunkenness  and 
debauchery,  swearing  and  blasphemy,  be  discounte- 
nanced and  punished.  And  for  the  further  discoun- 
tenance of  vice,  and  encouragement  of  virtue  and 
good  living,  (that  by  such  example  the  infidels  may 
be  invited  and  desire  to  partake  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion) you  are  not  to  admit  any  person  to  publick 
trusts  and  employments  in  our  said  province  under 
your  government,  whose  ill-fame  and  conversation 
may  occasion  scandal. 

"  78.  You  are  to  suppress  the  ingrossing  of  com- 
modities as  tending  to  the  prejudice  of  that  freedom 
which  commerce  and  trade  ought  to  have,  and  to 
settle  such  orders  and  regulations  therein,  with  the 
advice  of  the  council,  as  may  be  most  conducive  to 
the  benefit  and  improvement  of  that  colony. 


UNITED  STATES. 


597 


"  79.  You  are  to  give  all  due  encouragement  and 
invitation  to  merchants  and  others,  who  shall  bring 
trade  unto  our  said  province,  or  any  way  contribute 
to  the  advantage  thereof,  and  in  particular  the  royal 
African  company  of  England. 

"  80.  And  whereas  we  are  willing  to  recommend 
unto  the  said  company,  that  the  said  province  may 
have  a  constant  and  sufficient  supply  of  merchant- 
able Negroes,  at  moderate  rates,  in  money  or  com- 
modities ;  so  you  are  to  take  especial  care,  that  pay- 
ment be  duly  made,  and  within  a  competent  time 
according  to  their  agreements. 

"  81.  And  you  are  to  take  care,  that  there  be  no 
trading  from  our  said  province  to  any  place  in 
Africa,  within  the  charter  of  the  royal  African  com- 
pany, otherwise  than  prescribed  by  an  act  of  parlia- 
ment, entitled,  '  An  act  to  settle  the  trade  to  Africa.' 

"  82.  And  you  are  yearly  to  give  unto  us,  and  to 
our  commissioners  for  trade  and  plantations,  an  ac- 
count of  what  number  of  Negroes  our  said  province 
is  yearly  supplied  with,  and  at  what  rates. 

"  83.  You  are  likewise  from  time  to  time,  to  give 
unto  us,  and  to  our  commissioners  for  trade  and 
plantations  as  aforesaid,  an  account  of  the  wants  and 
defects  of  our  said  province,  what  are  the  chief  pro- 
ducts thereof,  what  new  improvements  are  made 
therein  by  the  industry  of  the  inhabitants  or  planters, 
and  what  further  improvements  you  conceive  may 
be  made,  or  advantages  gained  by  trade,  and  in 
what  manner  we  may  best  advance  the  same. 

"84.  You  are  not  to  grant  commissions  of  mar- 
que or  reprisals,  against  any  prince  or  state,  or  their 
subjects  in  amity  with  us,  to  any  person  whatsoever, 
without  our  especial  command. 

"  85.  Our  will  and  pleasure  is,  that  appeals  be 
made  in  cases  of  error  from  the  courts  in  our  said 
province  of  Nova  Caesaria,  or  New  Jersey,  unto  you 
and  the  council  there  ;  and  in  your  absence  from 
our  said  province,  to  our  cormnanuer-in-chief  for 
the  time  being,  and  our  said  council  in  civil  causes, 
wherein  such  of  our  said  council  as  shall  be  at  that 
time  judges  of  the  court  from  whence  such  appeal 
shall  be  made  to  you  our  governor  and  council,  or 
to  the  commander-in-chief  for  the  time  being,  and 
council  as  aforesaid,  shall  not  be  admitted  to  vote 
upon  the  said  appeal,  but  they  may  nevertheless  be 
present  at  the  hearing  thereof,  to  give  the  reasons 
of  the  judgment  given  by  them,  in  the  cause  where- 
in such  appeal  shall  be  made.  Provided  neverthe- 
less, that  in  all  such  appeals,  the  sum  or  value  ap- 
pealed for  excee'd  100/.  sterling,  and  that  security 
be  first  duly  given  by  the  appellant  to  answer  such 
charges  as  shall  be  awarded  in  case  the  first  sen- 
tence be  affirmed. 

"  86.  And  if  either  party  shall  not  rest  satisfied 
with  the  judgment  of  you,  or  the  commander-in- 
vhief  for  the  time  being,  and  council  as  aforesaid ; 
Our  will  and  pleasure  is,  that  they  may  then  appeal 
unto  us,  in  our  privy  council,  provided  the  sum  or 
value  so  appealed  for  unto  us,  do  exceed  2001.  ster- 
ling, and  that  such  appeal  be  made  within  fourteen 
days  after  sentence;  and  that  good  security  be 
given  by  the  appellant,  that  he  will  effectually  pro- 
sooute  the  same,  and  answer  the  condemnation,  as 
also  pay  such  costs  and  damages  as  shall  be  awarded 
D)  us,  iu  case  the  sentence  of  you,  or  the  command- 
er-in-chief for  the  time  being,  and  council,  be  af- 
firmed. And  provided  also,  that  execution  be  not 
suspended  by  reason  of  any  such  appeal  to  us. 

"87.  You  are  also  to  permit  appeals  to  us  in 
council,  in  all  cases  of  fines  imposed  for  misde- 
meanors ;  provided  the  fines  so  imposed,  amount  to 


or  exceed  the  value  of  2001.,  the  appellant  first  giv- 
ing good  security,  that  he  will  effectually  prosecute 
the  same,  and  answer  the  condemnation,  if  the  sen- 
tence by  which  such  fine  was  imposed  in  our  said 
province  of  Nova  Caesaria,  or  New  Jersey,  shall  be 
confirmed. 

"  88.  You  are,  for  the  better  administration  of 
justice,  to  endeavour  to  get  a  law  passed  (if  not  al- 
ready done)  wherein  shall  be  set  the  value  of  men's 
estates,  either  in  goods  or  lands,  under  which  they 
shall  not  be  capable  of  serving  as  jurors. 

"  89.  You  shall  endeavour  to  get  a  law  passed 
for  the  restraining  of  any  inhuman  severity,  which 
by  ill  masters  or  overseers  may  be  used  towards 
thSir  Christian  servants,  and  their  slaves,  and  that 
provision  be  made  therein,  that  the  wilful  killing  of 
Indians  and  Negroes  may  be  punished  with  death, 
and  that  a  fit  penalty  be  imposed  for  the  maiming 
of  them. 

"  90.  You  are  also,  with  the  assistance  of  the 
council  and  assembly,  to  find  out  the  best  means  to 
facilitate  and  encourage  the  conversion  of  Negroes 
and  Indians  to  the  Christian  religion. 

"  91.  You  are  to  endeavour  with  the  assistance  of 
the  council  to  provide  for  the  raising  of  stocks,  and 
building  of  publick  work-houses,  in  convenient  places, 
for  the  employing  of  poor  and  indigent  people. 

"  92.  You  are  to  propose  an  act  to  be  passed  in 
the  assembly,  whereby  the  creditors  of  persons  be- 
coming bankrupts  in  England,  and  having  estates 
in  our  aforesaid  province  of  New  Jersey,  may  be  re- 
lieved and  satisfied  for  the  debts  owing  to  them. 

"  93.  You  are  to  encourage  the  Indians  upon  all 
occasions,  so  as  they  may  apply  themselves  to  the 
English  trade  and  nation,  rather  than  to  any  other 
of  Europe. 

"  94.  And  whereas  the  preservation  of  the  north- 
ern frontiers  of  our  province  of  New  York,  against 
the  attempts  of  any  enemy  by  land,  is  of  great  im- 
portance to  the  security  of  our  other  northern  planta- 
tions on  the  continent  of  America,  and  more  especi- 
ally of  our  said  province  of  New  Jersey,  which  lies 
so  near  adjoining  to  our  province  of  New  York, 
and  the  charge  of  erecting  and  repairing  the  for- 
tifications, and  of  maintaining  the  soldiers  neces- 
sary for  the  defence  of  the  same,  is  too  great  to  be 
borne  by  the  single  province  of  New  York,  without 
due  contributions  from  others  concerned  therein,  for 
which  reason,  we  have  upon  several  occasions,  re- 
quired such  contributions  to  be  made,  and  accord- 
ingly settled  a  quota  to  regulate  the  proportions 
thereof;  you  are  therefore  to  take  further  care,  to 
dispose  the  general  assembly  of  our  said  province 
of  New  Jersey,  to  the  raising  of  such  other  supplies 
as  are  or  may  be  necessary  for  the  defence  of  our 
province  of  New  York,  according  to  the  significa- 
tion of  our  will  and  pleasure  therein,  which  has  al- 
ready been  made  to  the  inhabitants  of  New  Jersey, 
or  which  shall  at  any  time  hereafter  be  made  to  you 
our  governor,  or  to  the  commander-in-chief  of  our 
said  province  for  the  time  being. 

"  95.  And  in  case  of  any  distress  of  any  of  our 
plantations,  you  shall  upon  application  of  the  re- 
spective governors  to  you,  assist  them  with  what  aid 
the  condition  and  safety  of  your  government  will 
permit,  and  more  particularly  in  case  our  province 
of  New  York  be  at  any  time  attacked  by  an  enemy, 
the  assistance  you  are  to  contribute  towards  the  de- 
fence thereof,  whether  in  men  or  money,  is  accord- 
ing to  the  fore-mentioned  quota  or  repartition,  which 
has  already  been  signified  to  the  inhabitants  of  our 
foresaid  province  under  your  government,  or  ac- 


598 


THE  HISTORY  Ol  AMERICA. 


cording  to  such  other  regulations  as  we  shall  here- 
after make  in  that  behalf,  and  signify  to  you  or  the 
commander-in-chief  of  our  said  province  for  the 
time  being. 

"  96.  And  for  the  greater  security  of  our  pro- 
vince of  New  Jersey,  you  are  to  appoint  fit  officers 
and  commanders  in  the  several  parts  of  the  country 
bordering  upon  the  Indians,  who  upon  any  invasion 
may  raise  men  and  arms  to  oppose  them,  until  they 
shall  receive  your  directions  therein. 

"  97.  And  whereas  we  have  been  pleased  by  our 
commission  to  direct,  that  in  case  of  your  death  or 
absence  from  our  said  province,  and  in  case  there 
be  at  that  time  no  person  upon  the  place  commis- 
sionated  or  appointed  by  us  to  be  our  lieutenant-go- 
vernor or  commander-in-chief,  the  then  present 
council  of  our  said  province,  shall  take  upon  them 
the  administration  of  the  government,  and  execute 
our  said  commission,  and  the  several  powers  and 
authorities  therein  contained  in  the  manner  therein 
directed;  it  is  nevertheless  our  express  will  and 
pleasure,  that  in  such  case  the  said  council  shall 
forbear  to  pass  any  acts,  but  what  are  immediately 
necessary  for  the  peace  and  welfare  of  our  said 
province,  without  our  particular  order  for  that 
purpose. 

"  98.  You  are  to  take  cave,  that  all  writs  be  is- 
sued in  our  name  throughout  our  said  province. 

"  99.  Forasmuch  as  great  inconveniences  may 
arise  by  the  liberty  of  printing  in  our  said  province, 
you  are  to  provide  by  all  necessary  orders,  that  no 
person  keep  any  press  for  printing,  nor  that  any 
book,  pamphlet,  or  other  matters  whatsoever  be 
printed  without  your  especial  leave  and  licence  first 
obtained. 

"  100.  And  if  any  thing  shall  happen  that  may 
be  of  advantage  and  security  to  our  said  province, 
which  is  not  herein,  or  by  our  commission  to  you 
provided  for,  we  do  hereby  allow  unto  you,  with  the 
advice  and  consent  of  our  council  of  our  said  pro- 
vince, to  take  order  for  the  present  therein,  giving 
unto  us  by  one  of  our  principal  secretaries  of  state, 
and  to  our  commissioners  for  trade  and  plantations, 
speedy  notice  thereof,  that  so  you  may  receive  our 
ratification  if  we  shall  approve  of  the  same. 

"  101.  Provided  always,  that  you  do  not  by  any 
colour  of  any  power  or  authority  hereby  given  you, 
commence  or  declare  war,  without  our  knowledge 
and  particular  commands  therein,  except  it  be 
against  Indians,  upon  emergencies,  wherein  the 
consent  of  our  council  shall  be  had,  and  speedy  no- 
tice given  thereof  unto  us  as  aforesaid.  . 

"  102.  And  you  are  upon  all  occasions  to  send 
unto  us  by  one  of  our  principal  secretaries  of  state, 
and  to  our  commissioners  for  trade  and  plantations, 
a  particular  account  of  all  your  proceedings,  and  of 
the  condition  of  affairs  within  your  government. 

"  103.  And  whereas  the  lords  spiritual  and  tem- 
poral in  parliament,  upon  consideration  of  the  great 
abuses  practised  in  the  plantation  trade,  did  by  an 
humble  address,  represent  to  his  late  majesty,  the 
great  importance  it  is  of,  both  to  this  our  kingdom 
and  to  our  plantations  in  America,  that  the  many 
good  laws  which  have  been  made  for  the  govern- 
ment of  the  said  plantations,  and  particularly  the 
act  passed  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  years  of  his 
said  majesty's  reign,  en  litled,  '  An  act  for  prevent- 
ing frauds,  and  regulaf  ng  abuses  in  the  plantation 
trade,'  be  strictly  observed.  You  are  therefore  to 
take  notice,  that  whereas  notwithstanding  the  many 
good  laws  made  from  time  to  time,  for  preventing 
frauds  in  the  plantation  trade,  it  is  nevertheless 


manifest,  that  very  great  abuses  have  been  and  con- 
tinue still  to  be  practised  to  the  prejudice  of  the 
same,  which  abuses  must  needs  arise,  either  from 
the  insolvency  of  the  persons  who  are  accepted  for 
the  security,  or  from  the  remissness  or  connivance 
of  such  as  have  been,  or  are  governors  in  the  se- 
veral plantations,  who  ought  to  take  care,  that  those 
persons  who  give  bond  should  be  duly  prosecuted,  in 
case  of  non  performance;  we  take  the  good  of  our 
plantations  and  the  improvement  of  the  trade  there- 
of, by  a  strict  and  punctual  observance  of  the  seve- 
ral laws  in  force  concerning  the  same,  to  be  of  so 
great  importance  to  the  benefit  of  this  our  kingdom, 
and  to  the  advancing  of  the  duties  of  our  customs 
here,  that  if  we  shall  be  hereafter  informed,  tbat  at 
any  time  there  shall  be  any  failure  in  the  due  observ- 
ance of  those  laws,  within  our  foresaid  province  of 
Nova  Caesaria,  or  New  Jersey,  by  any  wilful  fault 
or  neglect  on  your  part,  we  shall  look  upon  it  as  a 
breach  of  the  trust  reposed  in  you  by  us,  which  we 
shall  punish  with  the  loss  of  your  place  in  that  go- 
vernment, and  such  further  marks  of  our  displeasure, 
as  we  shall  judge  reasonable  to  be  inflicted  upon 
you,  for  your  offence  against  us,  in  a  matter  of 
this  consequence,  that  we  now  so  particularly  charg* 
you  with." 

Lord  Cornbury  convenes  the  first  general  assembly 
after  the  surrender— His  speech,  their  address,  and 
other  proceedings— Queen  Anne's  proclamation  for 
ascertaining  the  rates  of  coitt — Lord  Cornbury  dis- 
solves the  assembly,  and  convenes  a  new  one — Its 
proceedings  and  dissolution — A  summary  of  the 
establishment  and  practice  of  the  council  of  proprie- 
tors of  West  Jersey — Another  assembly  called. 

(1703.)  The  distinction  of  the  two  provinces 
East  and  West  Jersey,  being  henceforth  as  to  all 
matters  of  government  laid  aside,  and  both  united 
in  one  under  the  name  of  Nova  Csesaria,  or  New 
Jersey ;  we  now  enter  upon  a  series  of  more  regular 
proceedings. 

Contrary  to  the  expectation  of  those  concerned 
in  the  surrender,  we  soon  find  them  jointly  strug- 
gling for  the  preservation  of  their  privileges  against 
the  encroachments  of  a  governor,  who,  if  his  abili- 
ties had  been  equal  to  his  birth  and  interest,  must 
be  allowed  to  have  been  as  formidable  an  antago- 
nist in  that  capacity  as  any  that  ever  proceeded  to 
the  colonies  ;  besides  being  the  son  of  a  family  that 
had  merited  highly  in  the  revolution,  he  was  first 
cousin  to  Queen  Anne.  With  such  interest,  had  he 
desired  to  promote  unanimity,  instead  of  basely  abet- 
ting animosities,  he  had  a  fair  opportunity  of  restoring 
the  public  tranquillity,  and  of  laying  the  foundation  of 
the  prosperity  of  the  province ;  but  that  honourable 
duty  was  reserved  for  another. 

Lord  Cornbury  arrived  in  New  Jersey  in  the 
month  of  August,  1703.  Having  published  his 
commission  at  Amboy  and  Burlington,  he  returned 
to  his  government  of  New  York ;  but  soon  came 
back  and  convened  the  general  assembly  to  meet 
him  at  Perth  Amboy,on  the  tenth  of  November.  The 
names  of  the  first  members  of  council  after  the  sur- 
render are  in  Lord  Cornbury's  instructions.  The 
first  representatives  were,— for  the  eastern  division. 
Obadiah  Bown,  Jedediah  Allen,  Michael  Howde^ 
Peter  Van  Este,  John  Reid,  John  Harrison,  Cor- 
nelius Tuuison,  Richard  Hartshorne,  Col.  Richard 
Townley.  For  the  western  division.  Thomas 
Lambert,  William  Biddle,  William  Stevenson, 
Restore  Lippincott,  John  Kay,  John  Hugg,  jun., 
Joseph  Cooper,  William  Hall,  John  Mason,  John 


UNITED  STATES 


589 


Smith.  For  the  town  of  Burlington.  Peter  Fret- 
well,  Thomas  Gardiner.  City  of  Perth  Amboy. 
Thomas  Gordon,  Miles  Forster.  The  assembly 
chose  Thomas  Gardiner,  speaker,  who  was  pre- 
sented and  accepted,  and  then,  conformably  to  the 
practice  of  parliament,  made  a  demand  of  the  par- 
ticular privileges  of  assemblies  as  follows  : 

"  That  the  members,  with  their  servants,  may 
be  free  from  arrests  or  molestation  during  the 
sessions. 

"  That  they  have  free  access  to  your  excellency's 
person,  when  occasion  requires. 

"  That  they  may  have  liberty  of  speech,  and  a 
favourable  construction  of  all  debates  that  may  arise 
among  them. 

"  That  if  any  misunderstanding  shall  happen  to 
arise  between  the  council  and  this  house,  that  in 
such  a  case  a  committee  of  the  council  may  be  ap- 
pointed to  confer  with  a  committee  of  this  house  for 
adjusting  and  reconciling  all  such  differences.  And, 

"  That  these  our  requests  may  be  approved  of  by 
your  excellency  and  council,  and  entered  in  the 
council  books." 

The  governor,  in  answer,  told  them,  he  granted 
the  three  first  as  the  just  and  undoubted  right  of  the 
house ;  but  rejected  the  fourth  as  an  innovation, 
and  accordingly  ordered  an  entry  of  the  same  in  the 
council-books ;  which  being  done,  he  made  the  fol- 
lowing speech  to  the  council  and  general  assembly. 

"  Gentlemen, — The  proprietors  of  East  and  West 
New  Jersey,  having  upon  very  mature  considera- 
tion, thought  fit  to  surrender  to  her  most  sacred 
majesty  the  great  queen  of  England,  my  mistress, 
all  the  powers  of  government  which  they  supposed 
were  vested  in  them ;  the  queen  has  been  pleased 
to  unite  these  formerly  two  provinces  now  into  one, 
under  the  name  of  Nova  Caesaria  or  New  Jersey ; 
her  majesty  has  been  pleased  graciously  to  honour 
me  with  the  trust  of  this  government,  and  has  com- 
manded me  to  assure  you  of  her  protection  upon  all 
occasions ;  and  you  may  assure  yourselves,  that 
under  her  auspicious  reign,  you  will  enjoy  all  the 
liberty,  happiness,  and  satisfaction,  that  good  sub- 
jects can  wish  for;  under  a  most  gracious  queen, 
and  the  best  laws  in  the  universe,  I  mean  the  laws 
of  England,  which  all  the  world  would  be  glad  to 
partake  of,  and  none  are  so  happy  to  enjoy,  but  those 
whose  propitious  stars  have  placed  them  under  the 
most  happily  constituted  monarchy :  I  will  not  ques- 
tion, but  that  you,  on  your  parts,  will  do  all  that 
can  be  expected  from  faithful  subjects,  both  for  the 
satisfaction  of  the  queen,  and  the  good  and  safety  of 
your  country  ;  which  must  be  attended  with  general 
satisfaction  to  all  people. 

"  In  order  to  attain  these  good  ends,  I  must 
earnestly  recommend  it  both  to  you,  gentlemen  of 
her  majesty's  council,  and  you  gentlemen  of  the 
assembly,  to  apply  yourselves  heartily  and  seriously 
to  the  reconciling  the  unhappy  differences  which 
have  happened  in  this  province  ;  that  as  the  queen 
has  united  the  two  provinces,  so  the  minds  of  all 
the  people  may  be  firmly  united  in  the  service  of 
the  queen,  and  good  of  the  country  ;  which  are  all 
one,  and  cannot  be  separated  without  danger  of 
destroying  both. 

"  Gentlemen,  you  are  now  met  in  general  assem- 
bly, on  purpose  to  prepare  such  bills  to  be  passed 
into  laws,  to  be  transmitted  into  England  for  her 
majesty's  approbation,  as  may  best  conduce  to  the 
settling  of  this  province  upon  a  lasting  foundation 
of  happiness  and  quiet;  only  I  must  recommend  it 
to  you,  that  the  bills  you  shall  think  fit  to  offer, 


may  not  be  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  England,  but 
as  much  as  may  be,  agreeable  to  them. 

"  I  must  recommend  to  you,  gentlemen,  in  the 
wording  of  your  bills,  to  observe  the  stile  of  enact- 
ing by  the  governor,  council  and  assembly;  and 
likewise,  that  each  different  matter  may  be  enacted 
by  a  different  law,  to  avoid  confusion. 

"  In  all  laws  whereby  you  shall  think  fit  to  grant 
money,  or  to  impose  any  fines  or  penalties,  express 
mention  may  be  made,  that  the  same  is  granted  or 
reserved  unto  her  majesty,  her  heirs  or  successors, 
for  the  public  use"  of  this  province,  and  the  support 
of  the  government  thereof. 

"  Gentlemen,  I  am  farther  commanded  by  the 
queen,  to  recommend  it  to  you,  to  raise  and  settle 
a  revenue  for  defraying  the  necessary  charges  of  the 
government  of  this  province,  in  order  to  support  the 
dignity  of  it. 

"  I  am  likewise  commanded  to  recommend  to 
your  care,  the  preparing  one  or  more  bill  or  bills 
whereby  the  right  and  property  of  the  general  pro- 
prietors to  the  soil  of  this  province  may  be  con- 
firmed to  them,  according  to  their  respective  titles,  to- 
gether with  al\  quit-rents  and  all  other  privileges  as 
are  expressed  in  the  conveyances  made  by  the  duke 
of  York ;  except  only  the  right  of  government, 
which  remains  in  the  queen. 

"  Now,  gentlemen,  I  have  acquainted  you  with 
some  of  those  things  which  the  queen  is  desirous  to 
have  done  :  I  shall  likewise  acquaint  you,  that  her 
majesty  has  been  graciously  pleased  to  grant  to  all 
her  subjects  in  this  province,  (except  papists)  liberty 
of  conscience.  I  must  further  inform  you,  that  the 
queen  has  commanded  me  not  to  receive  any  present 
from  the  general  assembly  of  this  province  ;  and 
that  no  person  who  may  succeed  me  in  this  govern- 
ment, may  claim  any  present  for  the  future,  I  ain 
commanded  to  take  care,  that  her  majesty's  orders 
may  be  entered  at  large  in  the  council  books,  and 
the  books  of  the  general  assembly. 

"  Now,  gentlemen,  I  have  no  more  to  offer  to 
you  at  this  time,  only  I  recommend  to  you  dispatch 
in  the  matter  before  you,  and  unanimity  in  your 
consultations,  as  that  which  will  always  best  and 
most  effectually  conduce  to  the  good  of  the  whole." 

The  governor's  speech  being  read  in  the  house, 
produced  the  following  address. 

"  May  it  please  your  excellency, 

"  I  am  commanded  by  this  house,  to  return  your 
excellency  our  hearty  thanks  for  your  excellency's 
many  kind  expressions  to  them,  contained  in  your 
excellency's  speech  ;  and  it  is  our  great  satisfaction, 
that  her  majesty  has  been  pleased  to  constitute  your 
excellency  our  governor. 

"  We  are  well  assured  the  proprietors,  by  their 
surrender  of  their  rights  to  the  government  of  this 
province,  have  put  us  in  circumstances  much  better 
:han  we  were  in  under  their  administration,  they 
not  being  able  to  protect  us  from  the  villainies  of 
wicked  men  ;  and  having  an  entire  dependance  on 
ler  majesty,  that  she  will  protect  us  in  the  full  en- 
joyment of  our  rights,  liberties  and  properties,  do 
thank  your  excellency  for  that  assurance  you  are 
pleased  to  give  us  of  it,  and  think  our  stars  have 
been  very  propitious  in  placing  us  under  the  govern- 
ment, and  direction  of  the  greatest  of  queens,  and 
the  best  of  laws.  And  we  do  entreat  your  excel- 
lency to  believe,  that  our  best  endeavours  shall  not 
be  wanting  to  accomplish  those  things  which  shall 
be  for  the  satisfaction  of  the  queen,  the  general 
good  of  our  country,  and  (if  possible)  to  the  univer- 
sal satisfaction  of  all  people.  With  our  prayers  to 


600 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  God  of  heaven,  we  shall  join  our  utmost  endea- 
vours to  unite  our  unhappy  differences  ;  and  hope 
with  the  assistance  of  your  excellency  and  council 
it  will  not  be  impossible  to  accomplish  that  blessed 
work.  We  shall  follow  the  directions  given  in 
your  excellency's  speech,  with  what  dispatch  the 
nature  of  the  things  require ;  and  hope,  that  all 
our  consultations  may  conduce  to  the  best  and 
greatest  ends. 

"  Memorandum,  that  all  the  members  of  this 
house  do  agree  to  the  subject  matter  above  written, 
though  several  of  them  dissent  from  some  of  the 
expressions  therein  contained." 

This  address  presented,  the  assembly,  after  re- 
gulating elections  complained  of,  prepared  several 
bills  ;  one  only  received  the  governor's  assent ; 
which  related  to  the  purchasing  of  lands  of  the  In- 
dians, and  had  been  prepared  pursuant  to  an  article 
in  Lord  Cornbury's  instructions.  It  prohibits  pur- 
chases or  gifts  of  lands  being  made  or  received  from 
the  Indians  without  licence  of  the  proprietors,  after 
the  1st  December,  1703,  under  penalty  of  forfeit- 
ing forty  shillings  per  acre  ;  it  also  was  retrospect- 
ive, and  made  void  all  Indian  bargains,  gifts,  leases 
or  mortgages,  without  an  English  title,  unless 
covered  with  a  propriety  right  in  six  months  there- 
after. 

Tfte  governor  put  an  end  to  this  session,  Decem- 
ber 13th,  by  observing  to  the  assembly,  that  the 
season  being  far  advanced,  it  was  absolutely  neces- 
sary to  conclude  business  :  that  he  wished  the 
several  bills  before  himself  and  them  could  have 
been  dispatched  ;  but  that  the  matters  contained  in 
them  were  of  so  great  moment,  the  difficulties  so 
many,  and  the  time  so  short,  that  it' was  impossible 
to  finish  them  :  that  being  now  acquainted  with  the 
nature  of  those  difficulties,they  should  come  prepared 
in  the  spring  to  remove  them,  and  provide  such  good 
laws  as  might  effectually  ascertain  the  rights  of  the 
several  proprietors,  and  fully  secure  every  man's 
property  :  these  being  the  points  which  would  most 
conduce  jto  the  peace  and  welfare  of  the  colony,  re- 
commended the  council  and  assembly  to  employ 
their  serious  thoughts,  that  the  most  effectual  means 
to  attain  those  desirable  ends  might  be  discovered, 
and  to  point  out  other  useful  laws,  and  concludes 
with  observing,  that  they  would  ever  find  him  ready 
to  consent  to  all  such  things  as  should  be  for  the 
good  of  the  whole. 

In  1704,  great  inconvenience  was  experienced 
by  the  same  coin  bearing  a  different  value  in  each 
colony ;  to  remedy  this  by  one  general  medium, 
Queen  Anne  published  her  proclamation  for  as- 
certaining the  value  of  foreign  coin  in  America; 
which  claims  a  place  here. 

"  By  the  QUEEN. 
"  A  proclamation  for  settling  and  ascertaining  the 

current   rates  of  foreign  coins   in  her  majesty's 

colonies  and  plantations  in  America. 

"  We  having  had  under  our  consideration  the 
different  rates  at  which  the  same  species  of  foreign 
coins  do  pass  in  our  several  colonies  and  plantations 
in  America,  and  the  inconveniencies  thereof,  by  the 
indirect  practice  of  drawing  the  money  from  one 
plantation  to  another,  to  the  great  prejudice  of  the 
trade  of  our  subjects;  and  being  sensible,  that  the 
same  cannot  be  otherwise  remedied,  than  by  reduc- 
ing of  all  foreign  coins  to  the  same  current  rate 
within  all  our  dominions  in  America  ;  and  the  prin- 
cipal officers  of  our  mint  having  laid  before  us  a 
table  of  the  value  of  the  several  foreign  coins  which 
usually  pass  in  payments  in  our  said  plantations, 


according  to  the  weipht  aiul  the  HSSHVS  niude  01 
them  in  our  mint,  thereby  sho'.ving  ilie  just  prnpdr- 
tion  which  each  coin  ought  lo  liavu  to  the  other, 
which  is  as  followeth,  viz  Sevill  pu.-<  es  of  rigtn, 
old  plate,  seventeen  penny-weight,  twelve  grains, 
|  four  shillings  ;nul  six-ponce  :  Sevill  pieces  of  eight, 
new  pinto,  fourteen  penny-weight,  three  shillings 
and  seven-pence  one  farthing;  Mexico  pieces  of  eight, 
seventeen  penny-weight  twelve  grains,  lour  shillings 
and  six-pence  ;  pillar  pieces  of  eight,  seventeen 
penny-weight  twelve  grains,  four  shillings  and  six- 
pence three  farthings;  Peru  pieces  of  eight,  old 
plate,  seventeen  penny-weight  twelve  grains,  four 
shillings  and  five-pence  or  thereabouts;  cross  dol- 
lars, eighteen  penny-weight,  four  shillings  and  foui- 
pence  three  farthings;  ducatoonsof  Flanders,  twenty 
penny-weight  and  twenty-one  grains,  five  shillings 
and  six-pence ;  eau's  of  France  or  silver  Lewis, 
seventeen  penny-weight  twelve  grains,  four  shillings 
and  six-pence  ;  crusadoes  of  Portugal,  eleven  penny- 
weight four  grains,  two  shillings  and  ten-pence  one 
farthing  ;  the  silver  pieces  of  Holland,  twelve  penny- 
weight and  seven  grains,  five  shillings  and  two- 
pence one  farthing;  old  rix  dollars  of  the  empire, 
eighteen  penny-weight  and  ten  grains,  four  shillings 
and  six-pence;  the  half,  quarters  and  other  parts  in 
proportion  to  their  denominations  ;  and  light  pieces 
in  proportion  to  their  weight.  We  have  therefore 
thought  fit,  for  remedying  the  said  inconveniencies, 
by  the  advice  of  our  council,  to  publish  and  declare, 
that  from  and  after  the  first  day  of  January  next 
ensuing  the  date  hereof,  no  Sevill,  pillar,  or  Mexico 
pieces  of  eight,  though  of  the  full  weight  of  seven- 
teen penny-weight  and  a  half,  snail  be  accounted,  re- 
ceived, taken  or  paid,  within  any  of  our  said  colo- 
nies or  plantations,  as  well  those  under  proprietors 
and  charters,  as  under  our  immediate  commission 
and  government,  at  above  the  rate  of  six  shillings 
per  piece,  current  money,  for  the  discharge  of  any 
contracts  or  bargains  to  be  made  after  the  said  first 
day  of  January  next ;  the  halves,  quarters,  and  other 
lesser  pieces  of  the  same  coins,  to  be  accounted, 
received,  taken,  or  paid  in  the  same  proportion; 
and  the  currency  of  all  pieces  of  eight  of  Peru,  dol- 
lars and  other  foreign  species  of  silver  coins,  whether 
of  the  same  or  baser  alloy,  shall  after  the  said  first 
day  of  January  next,  stand  regulated,  according  to 
their  weight  and  fineness,  according  and  in  propor- 
tion to  the  rate  before  limited  and  set  for  the  pieces 
of  Sevill,  pillar  and  Mexico;  so  that  no  foreign 
silver  coin  of  any  sort  be  permitted  to  exceed  the 
same  proportion  upon  any  account  whatsoever. 
And  we  do  hereby  require  and  command  all  our 
governors,  lieutenant-governors,  magistrates,officers, 
and  all  other  our  good  subjects,  within  our  said 
colonies  and  plantations,  to  observe  and  obey  our 
directions  herein,  as  they  tender  our  displeasure. 
Given  at  our  castle  at  Windsor,  the  eighteenth  day 
of  June,  1704,  in  the  third  year  of  oar  reign." 

Lord  Cornbury  met  the  assembly  at  Burlington 
the  7th  of  September,  and  recommended  the  pre- 
paring a  bill  to  ascertain  the  rights  of  the  general 
proprietors  to  the  soil  of  the  province ;  to  settle  a 
fund  for  support  of  government;  and  a  French 
privateer  having  committed  depredations  on  the 
settlers  about  Sandy  Hook,  he  thence  took  occasion 
to  press  for  a  law  to  establish  amilitia,  and  fix  a  watch- 
house  on  the  Navesink  hills.  The  house  took  these 
matters  into  consideration.  It  does  not  appear  but 
they  intended  to  make  such  provision  on  those  occa- 
sions as  suited  the  circumstances  of  the  province,  yet 
their  proceedings  on  the  whole  were  not  agreeable 


UNITED  STATES. 


cot 


to  the  governor,  and  on  the  28th,  therefore,  he  ab- 
ruptly sent  for  and  dissolved  them,  and  issued  writs 
for  a  new  election,  to  meet  at  Burlington  the  13th 
of  November  following.  This  election  was  indus- 
triously managed,  and  a  majority  of  members  pro- 
cured to  suit  the  views  of  the  governor;  they  met 
at  the  time,  and  being  divided  in  the  choice  of  a 
speaker,  Peter  Fretwell  and  John  Bowne,  candi- 
dates, and  the  votes  equal,  they  called  upon  their 
clerk,  (William  Anderson,)  to  give  the  castiag  vote, 
which  he  did  for  Fretwell,  who  was  accordingl} 
placed  in  the  chair;  then  receiving  the  speech 
they  by  an  address  complimented  Lord  Cornbury 
with  going  through  the  affairs  of  government  "  with 
great  diligence  and  exquisite  management,  to  the 
admiration  of  his  friends,  and  envy  ofhis  enemies ;" 
and  passed  a  bill  to  raise  2,OOOJ.  per  annum,  by  tax, 
for  support  of  government,  to  continue  two  years. 

Several  other  laws  were  passed  this  session,  and 
amongst  them  one  for  establishing  a  militia,  by  the 
unnecessary  severity  of  which,  those  conscientiously 
scrupulous  of  bearing  arms  in  many  parts  were 
great  sufferers. 

On  the  12th  of  December,  the  governor  adjourned 
them  till  next  year,  with  more  encomiums  on  their 
conduct,  than  many  of  them  got  from  their  consti 
tuents  on  their  return  home  ;  during  this  whole  ses- 
sion, they  had  tamely  suffered  the  arbitrary  prac- 
tices of  the  governor  to  deprive  them  of  three  of 
their  most  substantial  members,  Thomas  Gardiner, 
Thomas  Lambert,  and  Joshua  Wright,  under  pre 
tence  of  their  not  owning  land  enough  to  qualify 
them  to  sit  there,  though  they  were  known  to  be 
men  of  sufficient  estates  ;  and  the  same  assembly  at 
their  next  meeting  at  Amboy,  in  1705,  themselves  de- 
clare, "  the  members  had  heretofore  satisfied  the  house 
of  their  being  duly  qualified  to  sit  in  the  same  ;"  and 
they  were  then  admitted,  when  the  purposes  of  their 
exclusion  were  answered :  this  sitting  was  in  Oc- 
tober and  November,  but  produced  nothing  of  much 
consequence ;  the  session  which  followed  at  the 
same  place  in  October,  1706,  likewise  proved  un- 
successful; and  now  the  governor  again  dissolved 
the  assembly. 

In  the  llth  month  this  year  (1706),  the  council 
of  proprietors  for  the  western  division,  met  accord- 
ing to  their  usual  practice ;  there  were  present, 
William  Biddle,  president.  Samuel  Jenings,  George 
Deacon,  John  Wills,  William  Hall,  Christopher 
Wetherill,  and  John  Kay ;  to  this  council,  Lord 
Cornbury  sent  an  order  to  resolve  him  in  certain 
points  proposed  to  them,  which  for  some  reasons 
were  postponed;  but  in  the  spring  next  year,  he 
sent  for  the  council  of  proprietors  to  attend  him  in 
council  at  Burlington,  and  there  proposed  sundry 
questions  on  the  same  subject,  demanding  a  catego- 
rical answer  to  each ;  they  soon  resolved  him  by 
sending  a  summary  of  their  constitution  and  esta- 
blishment as  follows : 

"  The  answer  delivered  to  the  governor's  three  ques- 
tions, delivered  to  him  by  the  council  of  pro- 
prietors. 

"  Whereas  our  governor  the  Lord  Cornbury,  was 
pleased  at  our  attending  on  him  in  council,  the  13th 
day  of  this  instant  May,  to  require  answers  to  three 
questions,  viz.,  who  was  the  council  of  proprietors* 
the  last  year;  and  who  are  chosen  for  this  year 
1707,  and  to  have  the  names  of  them? — the  second 
is,  what  are  the  powers  the  said  council  pretend  to 
have  ? — the  third,  by  whom  constituted  ? 

"  And  in  obedience  thereto,  we  being  part  of  the 
trustees,  or  agents  commonly  called  the  council  of 


proprietors,  are  willing  to  give  all  the  satisfaction 
we  are  able,  in  humble  answer  to  his  lordship's  re- 
quirings,  viz. : 

"  1.  The  persons  chosen  for  the  last  year  tn  serve 
the  proprietors  as  agents  or  trustees,  were  William, 
Biddle,  Samuel  Jenings,  George  Deacon,  John 
Wills,  and  ChristopherWetherill,  for  the  county  of 
Burlington;  and  John  Reading,  Francis  Ceilings, 
John  Kay,  and  William  Hall,  of  Salem,  for  the 
county  of  Gloucester,  and  below  ;  and  for  this  pre- 
sent year  1707,  William  Biddle,  Samuel  Jenings, 
Lewis  Morris,  George  Deacon,  John  Wills,  John 
Kay,  John  Reading,  Thomas  Gardiner  and  Wil- 
liam Hall  of  Salem. 

"  2.  In  the  year  1677,  the  first  ship  that  came 
here  from  England,  which  brought  the  first  inhabit- 
ants that  came  to  settle  in  these  remote  parts,  by 
virtue  of  Byllinge's  right,  before  she  sailed,  the  pro- 
prietors being  met  together  at  London,  thought  it 
advisable  to  settle  some  certain  method  how  the 
purchasers  of  land  from  Byllinge,  &c.,  should  have 
their  just  rights  laid  forth  to  them,  concluded  on  a 
number  of  persons,  viz.,  Joseph  Helmsly,  William 
Emly,  John  Penford,  Benjamin  Scott,  Daniel  Wills, 
Thomas  Olive,  and  Robert  Stacy,  as  should  be  call- 
ed commissioners,  and  they  were  first  impowered  to 
purchase  what  land  they  could  from  the  Indians, 
and  then  to  inspect  all  rights,  as  any  lands  were 
claimed,  and  when  satisfied  therein,  to  order  the 
laying  it  out  accordingly  ;  which  commissioners 
when  arrived  here,  did  forthwith  make  several  pur- 
chases of  land,  and  acted  as  aforesaid,  for  some  time, 
till  some  of  them  being  not  longer  able  to  struggle 
with  such  hunger,  and  many  other  great  hardships 
as  were  then  met  withal,  returned  again  for  Eng- 
land ;  so  for  preventing  confusion  among  the  peo- 
ple, the  assembly  took  the  trouble  of  it  on  them ; 
this  continued  in  practice  till  about  the  year  1687  ; 
then  the  assembly  having  much  other  business,  and 
being  not  able  to  spend  their  time  and  money  abroad, 
would  not  longer  be  troubled  with  that  business,  as 
was  wholly  belonging  to  the  proprietors,  and  so 
threw  it  out  of  the  house,  and  told  the  proprietors 
they  might  choose  a  convenient  number  of  persons 
of  themselves  to  transact  their  own  business  :  Ac- 
cordingly the  14th  of  February,  the  same  year,  the 
proprietors  met  at  Burlington,  and  then  and  there 
chose  and  elected  eleven  persons  of  themselves,  to 
act  for  the  whole  for  the  next  ensuing  year  ;  but 
then  finding  that  so  many  and  at  such  distances 
being  hard  to  be  got  together,  they  next  year  chose 
but  nine,  and  accordingly  signed  instruments  for 
the  confirming  that  constitution,  of  which  his  lord- 
ship has  a  copy ;  and  the  same  methods  have  been 
every  year  since  practised  to  this  present  year  1707, 
and  in  all  this  time  no  inconvenience  hath  arisen 
from  it,  but  on  the  contrary,  much  ease  and  advan- 
tage to  the  proprietors;  as  by  a  further  declaration 
of  many  other  of  the  proprietors  under  their  hands, 
is  ready  to  be  proved. 

"  Now  as  to  the  powers  of  those  that  are  now  and 
have  all  along  been,  they  are  the  same  with  the  first 
that  came  over  from  England  in  the  year  1677 ; 
that  is  to  say,  to  purchase  land  of  the  Indians,  with 
the  consent  and  advice  of  the  said  proprietors  as 
chose  them,  and  to  inspect  the  rights  of  every  man 
as  shall  claim  any  land,  so  that  the  same  may  be 
surveyed  to  him  or  them ;  and  for  the  more  easy 
and  speedy  settling  of  the  province,  commissioners 
lave  been  appointed  in  each  county,  to  inspect  all 
rights  as  aforesaid;  the  said  agents,  trustees,  or 
counsel,  also  to  choose  a  recorder,  a  surveyor-general, 


602 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


and  rangers  in  each  county,  to  range  for  the  benefit 
of  the  said  general  proprietors,  and  to  appoint  per- 
sons to  prevent  the  wasting  and  destroying  of  the 
proprietors'  timber,  upon  their  unsurveyed  lands,  &c. 

"  The  proprietors  residing  in  England,  have  had 
knowledge  of  a  committee  of  the  agents  or  trustees 
of  the  proprietors  Here,  who  were  to  act  and  nego- 
tiate their  affairs  by  their  agents,  from  time  to  time, 
acting  in  conjunction  with  them,  as  Adlord  Boud, 
John  Tatham,  agents  to  Doctor  Coxe ;  and  when 
Jeremiah  Bass  was  agent,  he  acted  with  them  also ; 
after  him,  when  our  late  Governor  Hamilton  was 
made  agent,  he  acted  as  one  of  the  said  agents, 
trustees  or  counsel  for  several  years,  and  was  presi- 
dent of  the  same ;  and  now  Lewis  Morris,  as  agent 
to  the  society,  is  one  of  the  said  trustees  or  counsel ; 
and  not  only  the  agents  of  the  proprietors  at  home, 
but  any  proprietor  now  hath,  and  have  had  liberty, 
to  come  and  meet  with  the  said  agents,  trustees  or 
counsel,  when  he  or  they  pleased. 

"  Lastly,  as  to  the  constitution  of  the  said  agents, 
trustees,  or  committee,  and  by  whom  constituted ; 
it  is  on  certain  days  in  the  county  of  Burlington 
and  Gloucester,  yearly  and  every  year,  they  are 
chosen  by  the  proprietors.  The  above  is  as  good  an 
account  as  we  that  are  present  are  able  to  give,  in 
answer  to  what  was  required  of  us  by  his  lordship, 
and  pray  it  may  find  acceptance  as  such  ;  but  if  any 
further  thing  may  seem  needful  to  be  answered,  we 
humbly  pray  it  may  for  this  time  be  suspended,  till 
the  whole  can  be  got  together." 

The  writs  for  a  new  assembly  were  returnable  to 
Burlington  the  5th  of  April,  1707.  In  this  assembly 
it  soon  appeared,  Lord  Cornbury  had  not  the  same 
success  in  elections  as  in  the  last  choice ;  his  con- 
duct was  arbitrary,  and  the  people  dissatisfied ;  the 
assembly  chose  Samuel  Jenings,  speaker,  received 
the  governor's  speech,  and  soon  after  resolved  into 
a  committee  of  the  whole  house  to  consider  griev- 
ances ;  this  committee  continued  sitting  from  day 
to  day,  till  at  length  they  agreed  upon  fifteen  re- 
solves, and  by  petition  to  the  queen  laid  them  be- 
fore her,  on  the  8th  of  the  month,  called  May,  they 
also  represented  their  grievances  to  the  governor 
as  follows : 

"  May  it  please  the  governor, 

"  We.  her  majesty's  loyal  subjects,  the  representa- 
tives of  the  province  of  New  Jersey,  are  heartily 
sorry,  that  instead  of  raising  such  a  revenue  as  is 
by  the  governor  (as  we  suppose  by  the  queen's  di- 
rections) required  of  us,  we  are  obliged  to  lay  before 
him  the  unhappy  circumstances  of  this  province  :  it 
is  a  task  we  undertake  not  of  choice,  but  necessity, 
and  have  therefore  reason  to  hope,  that  what  we  say 
may  meet  with  a  more  favourable  reception. 

"  We  pray  the  governor  to  be  assured,  it  is  our 
misfortune  extorts  this  procedure  from  us,  and  thai 
we  should  betray  the  trust  reposed  in  us  by  GUI 
country,  did  we  not  endeavour  to  obtain  relief. 

"  The  governor  encourages  us  to  hope  he  will  not 
be  deaf  to  our  entreaties,  nor  by  his  denial  render 
our  attempts  for  the  best  ends  fruitless. 

"We  may  not  perchance  rightly  apprehend  all 
the  causes  of  our  sufferings,  but  have  reason  to  think 
some  of  them  are  very  much  owing  to  the  governor's 
long  absence  from  this  province,  which  renders  it 
very  difficult  to  apply  to  him  in  some  cases  which 
may  need  a  present  help. 

"  It  were  to  be  wished  the  affairs  of  New  York 
would  admit  the  governor  oftener  to  attend  those  o 
New  Jersey,  he  had  not  then  been  unacquainted 
with  our  grievances;  and  we  are  inclined  to  believe 


they  would  not  have  grown  to  so  great  a  number. 
"  It  is  therefore,  in  the  first  place,  humbly  pre- 
ented  to  the  governor's  consideration,  that  some 
persons  under  sentence  of  death  for  murder,  have 
lot  only  remained  till  this  time  unexecuted,  (they 
jeing  condemned  not  long  after  Lord  Cornbury's 
accession  to  this  government)  but  often  have  been 
uffeired  to  go  at  large ;  it's  possible  the  governor 
las  not  been  informed  that  one  of  those  persons  is 
a  woman  who  murdered  her  own  ch.Ud ;  another  of 
;hem  a  woman  who  poisoned  her  husband.  The 
Jeeping  of  them  so  long  has  been  a  very  great 
charge,  and  how  far  it's  a  reflection  on  the  publick 
administration,  to  suffer  such  wretches  to  pass  with 
mpunity,  we  dare  not  say  ;  but  sure  the  blood  of 
hose  innocents  cries  aloud  for  vengeance,  and  just 
Heaven  will  not  fail  to  pour  it  down  upon  our  al- 
ready miserable  country,  if  they  are  not  made  to 
suffer  according  to  their  demerits. 

"  Secondly,  we  think  it  a  great  hardship,  that 
persons  accused  for  any  crime,  should  be  obliged  to 
pay  court  fees,  notwithstanding  the  jury  have  not 
found  the  bill  against  them  ;  they  are  men  generally 
chose  out  of  the  neighbourhood,  and  should  be  the 
most  substantial  inhabitants,  who  cannot  well  be 
supposed  to  be  ignorant  of  the  character  of  the  per- 
son accused,  nor  want  as  good  information  as  may 
be  had  ;  when  therefore  they  do  not  find  the  bill,  it 
is  very  reasonable  to  suppose  the  accused  person  in- 
nocent, and  consequently  no  fees  due  from  him; 
we  pray  therefore,  that  the  governor  will  give  his 
assent  to  an  act  of  assembly  to  prevent  the  like  for 
the  future ;  otherwise  no  person  can  be  safe  from 
the  practices  of  designing  men,  or  the  wicked  effects 
of  a  vindictive  temper. 

"  Thirdly,  the  only  office  tor  probate  of  wills  being 
in  Burlington,  it  must  be  very  expensive  and  incon 
venient  for  persons  who  live  remote  to  attend  it, 
especially  for  the  whole  eastern  division ;  we  there- 
fore pray  the  governor  will  assent  to  an  act  to  set- 
tle such  an  office  in  each  county,  or  at  least  in  each 
division  of  this  province,  and  that  the  officers  be 
men  of  good  estates,  and  known  integrity  in  the 
said  county  or  division. 

"  Fourthly,  that  the  secretary's  office  is  not  also 
kept  at  Amboy,  but  that  all  the  eastern  division  are 
forced  to  come  to  Burlington,  that  have  any  busi- 
ness at  said  office,  is  a  grievance  which  we  hope 
the  governor  will  take  care  to  redress ;  it  seeming 
inconsistent  with  the  present  constitution  of  govern- 
ment established  by  the  queen,  which  doth  not  ad- 
mit one  of  the  divisions  of  this  province  to  enjoy 
more  privileges  than  the  other ;  we  therefore  entreat 
the  governor  not  to  take  it  amiss,  that  we  desire  his 
assent  to  an  act  to  be  passed  to  oblige  the  secretary 
to  keep  the  office  at  both  places. 

"  Fifthly,  the  granting  of  patents  to  cart  goods 
on  the  road  from  Burlington  to  Amboy,  for  a  cer- 
tain number  of  years,  and  prohibiting  others,  we 
think  to  be  a  grievance  that  is  contrary  to  the  sta 
tute  21  Jac.  I.  c.  3.  against  monopolies  ;  and  being 
so,  we  doubt  not,  will  easily  induce  the  governor  to 
assent  to  an  act  to  prevent  all  such  grants  for  the 
future  ;  they  being  destructive  to  that  freedom  which 
trade  and  commerce  ought  to  have. 

"  Sixthly,  the  establishing  fees  by  any  other 
power  or  authority  than  by  the  governor,  counsel 
and  representatives  met  in  general  assembly,  we 
take  to  be  a  great  grievance,  directly  repugnant  to 
Magna  Charta,  and  contrary  to  the  queen's  express 
instructions  in  the  governor's  instructions,  which 
says,  '  You  are  to  take  care  that  no  man's  life, 


UNITED  S1ATES. 


member,  freehold,  or  goods,  be  taken  away  or  harmed 
in  our  province,  under  your  government,  otherwise 
than  by  established  and" known  laws,  not  repugnant 
to,  but  as  near  as  much  as  may  be,  agreeable  to  the 
laws  of  England ;'  we  therefore  pray,  that  the  go- 
vernor will  assent  to  an  act  to  be  passed  to  settle 
fees ;  without  which  we  think  no  more  can  be  legally 
demanded,  than  the  persons  concerned  by  agree- 
ment oblige  themselves  to  pay. 

"  Seventhly,  the  governor  putting  the  former  pub- 
lick  records  of  the  eastern  division  of  this  province 
into  the  hands  of  Peter  Sonman,  pretended  agent 
to  the  proprietors,  one  that  does  not  reside  in  the 
province,  nor  has  not  given  security  for  the  well 
and  true  keeping  of  them,  as  is  by  the  queen  di- 
rected, and  kept  them  so  that  her  majesty's  sub- 
jects cannot  have  recourse  to  them ;  and  their  being 
carried  out  of  the  division,  is  a  great  and  crying 
grievance.  They  are  the  only  evidences  that  one- 
half  of  this  province  has  to  prove  the  titles  to  their 
estates,  and  this  house  is  humbly  of  opinion,  they 
ought  to  be  so  kept,  that  persons  may  have  recourse 
to  them ;  and  in  the  hands  of  such  of  whose  fidelity 
there  is  no  reason  to  doubt ;  this  being  a  thing  so 
reasonable,  encourages  us  to  request  the  governor 
to  assent  to  an  act  to  be  passed  to  put  them  in  pro- 
per hands  for  the  future,  that  the  country  may  not 
be  under  the  same  disappointments  they  now  are. 

"  These,  governor,  are  some  of  the  grievances 
this  province  complains  of,  and  which  their  repre- 
sentatives desire  may  be  redressed ;  but  there  are 
others  of  a  higher  nature,  and  attended  with  worse 
consequences;  they  cannot  be  just  to  the  governor, 
themselves,  or  their  country,  should  they  conceal 
them.  We  did  expect  when  the  government  of  the 
Jersies  was  surrendered,  to  feel  the  benign  influ- 
ences of  the  queen's  mild  government,  under  her 
more  immediate  administration,  and  to  be  protected 
in  the  full  enjoyment  of  our  liberties  and  properties, 
the  last  of  which  we  thought  ourselves  something- 
more  secure  in  than  some  of  the  neighbouring  plant- 
ations, and  had  an  entire  dependance  that  her 
majesty's  royal  bounty  and  goodness  would  never 
be  wanting  to  make  us  easy  and  happy,  even  be- 
yond our  wishes.  It  is  cur  misfortune,  that  we  must 
say,  the  success  has  not  answered  the  expectation, 
and  the  queen's  subjects  here  have  felt  the  reverse 
of  what  they  had  most  reason  to  hope  ;  that  greatest 
and  best  of  princes  is,  without  all  peradventure, 
ignorant  of  our  pressures,  or  we  had  long  since  had 
relief;  she  is  too  good  to  continue  even  the  deserved 
sufferings  of  the  miserable,  and  has  more  of  heaven 
in  her  th  in  to  hear  the  cry  of  those  that  groan  under 
oppression,  and  the  unkind  effects  of  mistaken 
powe-,  to  whom  we  owe  our  miseries  ;  and  what  they 
are  the  sequel  shows. 

"  In  the  first  place,  the  governor  has  prohibited 
the  proprietors'  agents,  commonly  called  the  council 
of  proprietors,  from  granting  any  warrants  for  taking 
up  of  land  in  the  Western  division  of  this  province. 
We  cannot  see  by  what  law  or  reason  any  man's 
property  can  be  disposed  of  by  the  governor  without 
his  consent.  The  proprietors  when  they  surrendered 
their  government,  did  not  part  with  their  soil,  and 
may  manage  it  as  they  think  fit,  and  are  not  to 
take  directions  from  any  person  whatsoever,  how 
and  when  to  do  it;  if  any  persons  concerned  be 
grieved,  the  laws  are  open,  by  which  disputes  in 
property  are  decided ;  and  he  doubtless  will  not 
be  left  remediless.  We  are  very  sorry  the  governor 
gives  us  occasion  to  say,  it  is  a  great  encroachment 
on  the  proprietors'  liberties ;  but  we  are  not  sur- 


prised al  it,  when  a  greater  encroachment  on  our 
liberties  lead  the  way  to  it,  and  that  was  the  go- 
vernor's refusing  to  swear  or  attest  three  members 
of  the  last  assembly  upon  the  groundless  suggestions 
of  Thomas  Revel  and  Daniel  Leeds,  two  members 
of  the  queen's  council,  by  which  they  were  kept 
out  of  the  assembly.  We  are  too  sensibly  touched 
with  that  procedure,  not  to  know  what  must  be  the 
unavoidable  consequences  of  a  governor's  refusing 
to  swear  which  of  the  members  of  an  assembly  he 
thinks  fit ;  but  to  take  upon  himself  the  power  of 
judging  of  the  qualifications  of  assembly-men,  and 
to  keep  them  out  of  the  house  (as  the  governor  did 
the  aforesaid  three  members  nigh  eleven  months  till 
he  was  satisfied  in  that  point)  after  the  house  had 
declared  them  qualified,  is  so  great  a  violation  of  the 
liberties  of  the  people,  so  great  a  breach  of  the  privi- 
leges of  the  house  of  representatives,  so  much  as- 
suming to  himself  a  negative  voice  to  the  freeholders' 
election  of  their  representatives,  that  the  governor 
is  entreated  to  pardon  us,  if  this  is  a  different  treat- 
ment from  what  we  expected  :  it  is  not  the  effects  of 
passionate  heats,  the  transports  of  vindictive  tempers, 
but  the  serious  resentments  of  a  house  of  represent- 
atives, for  a  notorious  violation  of  the  liberties  of 
the  people,  to  whom  they  could  not  be  just,  iior 
answer  the  trust  reposed  in  them,  should  they  de- 
cline letting  the  governor  know  they  are  extremely 
dissatisfied  at  so  unkind  a  treatment,  especially 
when  its  causes  and  effects  conspire  to  render  it  so 
disagreeable. 

"  It  is  notoriously  known,  that  many  considerable 
sums  of  money  have  been  raised  to  procure  the  dis- 
solution of  the  first  assembly,  to  get  clear  of  the 
proprietors'  quit-rents,  and  to  obtain  such  officers  as 
the  contributors  should  approve  of;  this  house  has 
great  reason  to  believe,  the  money  so  gathered  was 
given  to  Lord  Cornbury,  and  did  induce  him  to  dis- 
solve the  then  assembly,  and  by  his  own  authority 
keep  three  members  out  of  the  next  assembly, 
and  put  so  many  mean  and  mercenary  men 
into  office ;  by  which  corrupt  practice,  men  of 
the  best  estates  are  severely  harassed,  her  ma- 
jesty's good  subjects  in  this  province  so  impo- 
verished, that  they  are  not  able  to  give  that  support 
to  her  majesty's  government  as  is  desired,  or  as 
they  would  be  otherwise  inclined  to  do ;  and  we 
cannot  but  be  very  uneasy  when  we  find  by  these 
new  methods  of  government,  our  liberties  and  pro- 
perties so  much  shaken,  that  no  man  can  say  he  is 
master  of  either,  but  holds  them  as  tenant  by  cour- 
tesy an  J  at  will,  and  may  be  stript  of  them  at  plea- 
sure. Liberty  is  too  valuable  a  thing  to  be  easily 
parted  with,  and  when  such  mean  inducements  pro- 
cure such  violent  endeavours  to  tear  it  from  us,  we 
must  take  leave  to  say,  they  have  neither  heads, 
hearts,  nor  souls,  that  are  not  moved  with  the 
miseries  of  their  country,  and  are  not  forward  with 
their  utmost  power  lawfully  to  redress  them. 

"  We  conclude,  by  advising  the  governor  to  con- 
sider what  it  is  tha't  principally  engages  the  affec- 
tions of  a  people,  and  he  will  find  no  other  artifice 
needful  than  to  let  them  be  unmolested  in  the  en- 
joyment of  what  belongs  to  them  of  right;  and  a 
wise  man  that  despises  not  his  own  happiness,  will 
earnestly  labour  to  regain  their  love. 
"  By  order  of  the  house, 

"  SAMUEL  JENINGS,  Speaker/ 

By  this  remonstrance  may  be  seen  much  of  the 
history  of  the  times,  and  that  though  matters  were 
carried  to  arbitrary  lengths,  there  were  not  wanting 
in  the  province  men  of  discernment  to  see  and  la- 


604 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


ment  the  unhappy  situation  of  their  country,  and 
of  spirit  to  oppose  its  greatest  enemies :  several 
such  were  in  this  assembly,  the  speaker  in  particu- 
lar, had  very  early  known  New  Jersey,  had  lived 
through  many  changes  and  commotions,  to  see  great 
alterations  in  it ;  much  concerned  in  public  transact- 
ions, he  knew  what  belonged  to  a  public  character  ; 
he  had  governed  the  western  part  of  the  province 
for  several  years,  with  integrity  and  reputation; 
saw  the  advantages  of  a  just  confidence,  and  knew 
it  could  not  be  acquired  any  other  way ;  that  though 
the  office  was  in  itself  respectable,  it  was  the  honest 
execution  of  it  according  to  its  dignity,  that  pro- 
duced the  intended  service,  and  secured  the  appro- 
bation of  a  kind  but  watchful  mistress ;  for  such 
Queen  Anne  was  accounted  to  her  governors.  Jen- 
ings  was  also  undaunted,  and  Lord  Cornbury  on 
his  part  exacted  the  utmost  decorum ;  while  as 
speaker  he  was  delivering  the  remonstrance,  the 
latter  frequently  interrupted  him  with  "  stop,  what's 
that,"  &c.,  at  the  same  time  putting  on  a  counte- 
nance of  authority  and  sternness,  with  intention  to 
confound  him ;  with  due  submission,  yet  firmness, 
whenever  interrupted,  he  calmly  desired  leave  to 
read  the  pas-sages  over  again,  and  did  it  with  an 
additional  emphasis  upon  those  most  complaining;  so 
that  on  the  second  reading  they  became  more  ob- 
servable than  before :  he  at  length  got  through, 
when  the  governor  desired  the  house  to  attend  him 
again  "  on  Saturday  next,  at  11  o'clock,  to  receive 
his  answer;"  he  did  not  get  ready  till  the  12th, 
when  sending  for  the  house,  he  delivered  his  answer. 

Lord  Cornbury' s  answer  to  the  assembly's  remonstrance. 

"  Gentlemen, —  On  Thursday  last  I  received  a 
paper  from  you,  which  you  call  a  remonstrance  ;  I 
then  told  you  it  was  of  an  extraordinary  nature,  and 
contained  many  particulars,  which  though  they  lay 
open  enough  to  receive  an  immediate  answer,  yet 
because  I  would  not  put  it  in  your  power  to  say  I 
had  given  you  a  rash  inconsiderate  answer,  I  would 
make  no  return  to  it  till  the  Saturday  following,  at 
which  time  I  sent  you  word  by  the  secretary,  that 
I  should  not  expect  your  attendance  till  this  day. 
I  shall  not  take  notice  of  any  thing  in  your  pre- 
amble, but  the  two  last  clauses  of  it;'  in  the  first  of 
which  you  say,  that  you  have  reason  to  think  that 
some  of  your  sufferings  are  owing  to  the  governor's 
long  absence  from  this  province,  which  renders  it 
very  difficult  to  apply  to  him  in  some  cases  that  may 
need  a  present  help  :  This  is  so  far  from  being  true, 
that  besides  my  being  twice  in  this  province  every 
year,  and  have  never  staid  less  than  a  month,  some- 
times six  weeks,  or  more,  the  post  goes  every  week 
to  New  York,  by  which  I  may  be  easily  informed 
of  any  emergency;  moreover,  the  lieut. -governor, 
Colonel  Ingoldsby,  resides  constantly  in  this  pro- 
vince, and  would  certainly  have  done  right  to  any 
persons  that  would  have  complained  to  him;  which 
makes  tins  allegation  very  frivolous. 

"  In  the  next  clause»-you  say,  that  it  were  to  be 
wished  that  the  affairs  of  New  York  would  admit 
the  governor  ot'tener  to  attend  those  of  New  Jersey 
The  affairs  of  New  York  have  never  hindered  the 
governor  from  attending  those  of  New  Jersey, 
whenever  it  has  been  requisite ;  and  I  can  safely 
say,  I  don't  know  of  any  grievances  this  province 
labours  under,  except  it  be  the  having  a  certain 
number  of  people  in  it,  who  will  never  be  faithful 
to,  nor  live  quietly  under  any  government,  nor 
suffer  their  neighbours  to  enjoy  any  peace,  quiet, 
or  happiness,  if  they  can  help  it. 


"  I  now  begin  with  your  articles. 

"Two  women  that  have  been  condemned  for 
murdering,  have  not  been  executed,  there  having 
appeared  most  notorious  malice  and  revenge  in 
some  people,  who  were  zealous  in  these  prosecutions; 
the  queen  is  the  fountain  of  honour,  justice,  and 
mercy;  and  as  she  is  so,  she  may  when  she  pleases 
exert  her  mercy,  either  in  reprieving  or  pardoning 
any  criminal.  That  power  of  pardoning  and  re 
prieving  after  condemnation,  the  subjects  of  this 
province,  her  majesty  has  been  pleased  to  intrust 
me  with;  and  I  am  no  ways  accountable  to  any  per- 
son or  number  of  persons  whatsoever,  for  what  I  do 
in  those  matters,  but  to  the  queen's  majesty  alone. 

"  As  for  what  you  say,  with  relation  to  the  ap- 
prehensions you  have,  that  just  Heaven  will  not  fail 
:o  pour  down  vengeance  upon  your  already  miser- 
able country,  if  these  criminals  are  not  made  to 
suffer  according  to  their  demerits  :  I  am  of  opinion 
that  nothing  has  hindered  the  vengeance  of  just 
heaven  from  falling  upon  this  province  long  ago, 
but  the  infinite  mercy,  goodness,  long-suffering,  and 
forbearance  of  Almighty  God,  who  has  been  abun- 
dantly provoked  by  the  repeated  crying  sins  of  a 
perverse  generation  among  us,  and  more  especially 
by  the  dangerous  and  abominable  doctrines  and  the 
wicked  lives  and  practices  of  a  number  of  people ; 
some  of  whom,  under  the  pretended  name  of  Christ- 
ians, have  dared  to  deny  the  very  essence  and  being 
of  the  Saviour  of  the  world.  It  is  a  strange  thing, 
that  such  an  assembly  of  men  as  the  representatives 
of  the  people  of  this  province  are  or  ought  to  be, 
should  complain  of  any  thing  under  the  name  of 
hardship,  before  they  had  informed  themselves 
whether  the  thing  they  had  a  mind  to  complain  of, 
were  really  a  hardship  or  not :  this  plainly  is  your 
case  at  this  time  ;  for  if  you  had  asked  any  man  that 
knows  any  thing  of  the  practice  of  the  law  in  Eng- 
land, you  would  have  found,  that  if  any  proceedings 
had  been  carried  on  against  any  persons  supposed 
to  be  guilty,  they  have  always  paid  the  court  fees, 
notwithstanding  the  grand  jury  have  not  found  the 
bill ;  and  this  is  so  known  a  practice,  that  it  is  not  to 
be  disputed  ;  but  when  men  will  intermeddle  with,  or 
pretend  to  things  which  they  neither  know  nor  un- 
derstand, they  cannot  fail  of  misguiding  themselves, 
and  misleading  those  that  have  a  mind  to  be  guided 
by  them. 

"  Indeed,  if  juries  in  this  country  were  as  they 
ought  to  be,  the  supposition  might  in  some  measure 
be  allowed;  but  we  find  by  woful  experience,  that 
there  are  many  men  who  have  been  admitted  to 
serve  upon  grand  and  petty  juries,  who  have  con- 
vinced the  world  that  they  have  no  regard  for  the 
oaths  they  take,  especially  among  a  sort  of  people, 
who  under  a  pretence  of  conscience,  refuse  to  take 
an  oath  ;  and  yet  many  of  them,  under  the  cloak  of 
a  very  solemn  affirmation,  dare  to  commit  the 
greatest  enormities,  especially  if  it  be  to  serve  a 
friend,  as  they  call  him ;  and  these  are  the  design- 
ing men,  and  the  vindictive  tempers,  of  which  all 
the  queen's  good  subjects  ought  to  beware,  and  be 
protected  from ;  and  these  are  the  crying  sins 
which  will  undoubtedly  draw  down  the  vengeance 
of  just  Heaven  upon  thus  province  and  people,  if  not 
timely  and  seriously  repented  of. 

"If  I  could  persuade  myself  to  wonder  at  any  of 
the  enormities  contained  in  this  remonstrance  (and 
which  I  would  do  if  it  came  from  any  other  men),  it 
should  be  at  this;  because  no  reasonable  man  can 
persuade  himself  to  believe,  that  a  number  of  men 
chosen  by  their  country  to  represent  them,  would 


UNITED  STATES. 


605 


presume  to  complain  of  a  thing  as  a  grievance, 
when  the  thing  complained  of  is  in  fact  not  true ; 
for  the  office  of  probate  of  wills  is  wherever  the  go- 
vernor is,  consequently  not  at  Burlington  only. 
Ever  since  the  queen  has  done  me  the  honour  to 
entrust  me  with  the  government  of  this  province,  I 
have  never  failed  of  being  in  the  province  twice 
every  year,  once  at  Burlington  and  once  at  Amboy, 
except  the  last  year,  that  I  had  the  unspeakable 
misfortune  of  losing  a  wife,  whom  I  loved  as  my 
own  soul,  after  a  very  long  tedious  sickness,  during 
which  I  am  persuaded  no  reasonable  man  could  ex- 
pect I  should  leave  her  for  any  time ;  and  yet  not- 
withstanding that,  I  was  twice  at  Amboy  last  year, 
where  anybody  that  had  a  will  to  prove,  might  have 
had  it  done  if  they  had  pleased  ;  besides  my  being 
twice  every  year  in  the  province,  considering  the 
remoteness  of  Cape  May  county  and  the  county  of 
Salem,  I  did  appoint  a  surrogate  at  Burlington,  be- 
fore whom  any  of  the  inhabitants  of  either  division 
might  have  had  their  wills  proved ;  I  did  not  think 
it  necessary  to  appoint  one  in  the  Eastern  division, 
because  the  inhabitants  of  that  division  who  are 
most  remote  from  New  York,  are  within  a  very 
easy  day's  journey  of  my  surrogate  at  Burlington, 
and  much  the  major  part  of  the  people  of  that  divi- 
sion are  within  a  small  day's  journey  of  New  York, 
where  their  private  affairs  daily  call  many  of  them, 
and  where  any  of  them  may  have  their  wills  proved 
without  any  injury  to,  or  encroachments  upon  their 
properties,  rights  or  privileges.  This  is  so  certain 
a  truth,  that  I  am  persuaded  all  judicious  and  im- 
partial men  will  look  upon  this  complaint  to  be 
malicious,  scandalous,  and  frivolous,  contrived  only 
to  amuse  poor  ignorant  people  with  notions  of  griev- 
ances ;  when  in  truth  there  is  no  manner  of  cause  of 
complaint.  Besides,  what  you  desire  is  a  direct 
invasion  of  the  queen's  prerogative  ;  for  it  belongs 
to  her  majesty  alone  to  appoint  who  shall  take 
probate  of  wills,  and  grant  letters  of  administra- 
tion ;  and  that  power  the  queen  has  been  pleased  to 
vest  in  the  governor ;  and  I  am  sure  I  will  never  so 
far  betray  the  trust  her  majesty  has  honoured  me 
with,  as  to  sacrifice  her  prerogative  loyal,  to  the 
humours  of  any  person  or  persons  whatsoever.  But 
of  all  the  people  in  the  world,  the  quakers  ought  to 
be  the  last  to  complain  of  the  hardships  of  travel- 
ling a  few  miles  upon  such  an  occasion,  who  never 
repine  at  the  trouble  and  charges  of  travelling 
several  hundred  miles  to  a  yearly  meeting,  where  it 
is  evidently  known,  that  nothing  was  ever  done  for 
the  good  of  the  country,  but  on  the  contrary  con- 
tinual contrivances  are  carried  on  for  the  under- 
mining of  the  government  both  in  church  and  state. 
"  You  have  had  as  little  regard  to  the  truth  of 
matter  of  fact  in  this  ccmplaint,  as  io  some  of  the 
rest ;  for  it  is  certain,  that  the  secretary's  office  is 
kept  at  Amboy,  as  well  as  at  Burlington,  as  far  as 
the  nature  of  the  thing  requires,  and  it  can  admit 
of,  for  the  records  of  the  Eastern  division,  or  at 
least  so  many  of  them  as  the  agent  for  the  proprie- 
tors of  that  division  could  hitherto  recover  from  one 
Thomas  Gordon,  into  whose  hands  they  were  put 
in  the  time  of  the  proprietors'  government,  and  who 
has  embezzled  several  of  them,  for  which  he  must 
be  answerable  :  there  is  a  supreme  court  held  once 
every  year  at  Amboy,  there  is  no  more  at  Burlington ; 
so  that  one  division  does  not  enjoy  more  privileges 
and  advantages  than  the  other  ;  and  you  have  no 
more  reason  to  desire  a  secretary's  office  to  be  set- 
tled at  Amboy,  than  the  people  of  the  county  of 
Cumberland  would  have,  to  desire  a  secretary  of 


state's  office  to  be  settled  in  their  county,  because 
it  is  a  great  way  for  them  to  travel  to  London 
when  they  have  any  business  in  the  secretary's 
office  ;  the  thing  is  inconsistent  in  itself,  to  have 
two  secretaries'  offices  in  the  same  province,  and 
consequently  unreasonable,  and  I  am  pretty  well 
satisfied  without  precedent ;  besides,  I  don't  know 
any  body  that  can  claim  the  right  or  power  of  ap- 
pointing a  secretary  in  this  province  but  the  queen, 
and  she  has  been  pleased  to  appoint  one  under  the 
great  seal  of  England,  and  her  majesty  is  pleased 
to  think  one  sufficient,  as  undoubtedly  it  is ;  but  if 
you  had  thought  that  another  had  been  necessary, 
it  would  have  been  much  moie  modest  to  have  ac- 
quainted me  with  it,  that  1  might  have  humbly 
represented  it  to  her  majesty,  rather  than  to  have 
remonstrated  that  as  a  grievance,  which  is  done  in 
pursuance  of  the  queen's  commands.  But  this  is  of 
the  same  nature  with  the  rest  of  your  complaints, 
contrived  on  purpose  to  amuse  the  poor  ignorant 
people  with  a  notion  of  grievances,  when  in  truth 
there  is  not  the  least  colour  or  cause  of  complaint. 
I  could  wish,  since  you  had  a  mind  to  colour  this 
complaint  with  the  authority  of  an  act  of  parliament 
of  England,  that  you  had  advised  with  some  lawyer, 
to  know  whether  this  could  be  any  ways  brought 
under  that  statute,  or  can  by  any  construction  in 
the  world  be  called  a  monopoly ;  but  where  a  man 
engrosses  a  commodity  into  his  own  hands,  and  im- 
poses what  unreasonable  price  he  pleases  upon  that 
commodity,  or  where  a  man  is  suffered  to  enjoy 
any  trade  or  occupation  exclusive  of  others,  to  the 
prejudice  of  the  public,  or  particularly  the  hinder- 
ing or  burthening  of  trade  ;  the  thing  now  com- 
plained of  is  so  far  from  being  of  that  nature,  that 
it  is  directly  contrary ;  for  by  the  patent  now  com 
plained  of,  the  subjects  of  this  province  have  the 
conveniency  of  sending  such  quantities  of  goods  to 
and  from  Burlington  and  Amboy,  as  their  private 
occasions,  or  the  nature  of  their  trade  requires,  at 
reasonable  and  certain  rates,  and  at  certain  times, 
which  they  never  could  do  before ;  for  before  the 
settling  of  this  waggon,  if  any  persons  had  occasion 
to  send  any  goods  to  or  from  either  of  those  places, 
they  were  forced  to  hire  a  waggon,  though  perhaps 
they  had  not  the  tenth  part  of  a  load,  and  were 
forced  to  pay  such  rates  as  the  owners  of  the  wag- 
gon thought  fit  to  impose  upon  them ;  whereas  at 
present  every  body  is  sure  once  a  fortnight  to  have 
an  opportunity  of  sending  any  quantity  of  goods, 
great  or  small,  at  reasonable  rates,  without  being 
in  danger  of  being  imposed  upon  at  the  will  of  the 
owner  of  the  waggon  ;  and  the  settling  of  this  wag- 
gon is  so  far  from  being  a  grievance  or  a  monopoly, 
that  by  this  means  and  no  other,  a  trade  has  been 
carried  on  between  Philadelphia,  Burlington,  Amboy 
and  New  York,  which  was  never  known  before j 
and  in  all  probability  would  never  have  been,  had 
it  not  been  for  this  certain  convenient  way  of  send- 
ing such  quantity  of  goods  as  people  pleased  from 
place  to  place  ;  and  in  all  the  parts  of  Europe, 
the  having  public  carriages  for  goods  has  always 
been  esteemed  of  absolute  necessity,  and  the  want 
of  them  has  been  looked  upon  as  a  hardship.  But 
it  seems  those  things  which  in  the  wisest  and  best 
governments  in  Europe,  have  not  only  been  thought 
convenient  but  esteemed  of  absolute  necessity,  are 
found  out  by  some  of  our  wiser  people  here,  to  be 
grievances  and  monopolies.  This  being  undoubt- 
edly true,  it's  plain  the  patent  complained  of  cannot 
come  within  the  statute  of  the  21  Jac.  I.  chap.  3. 
This  1  believe  will  be  sufficient  to  convince  all  reft. 


60G 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


sonable  men,  how  frivolous  and  unreasonable  this 
complaint  is.  I  shall  observe,  that  when  I  was 
first  applied  to  for  a  patent  for  the  allowing  this 
waggon,  which  was  by  one  Dellaman,  who  in  Colo- 
nel Hamilton's  time  was  permitted  to  drive  a  wag- 
gon for  carrying  goods,  though  under  no  regula- 
tion, either  with  respect  to  times  of  going,  or  prices 
for  carrying  goods,  and  then  was  no  monopoly ; 
before  I  would  grant  it,  I  did  acquaint  the  council 
with  it,  and  desired  them  to  let  me  know  if  they 
apprehended  any  inconveniency  in  granting  such  a 
patent;  those  gentlemen  were  all  of  opinion,  there 
could  be  no  inconveniency  in  it,  but  rather  a  great 
conveniency ;  and  indeed  experience  has  proved 
that  opinion  to  be  true ;  nay,  Mr.  Lewis  Morris 
himself,  the  chief  promoter  of  these  unreasonable 
and  frivolous  complaints  at  this  time,  who  had  the 
honour  to  be  one  of  her  majesty's  council,  expressed 
himself  very  fully  to  that  purpose.  Indeed,  had  that 
gentleman  ever  been  consistent  with  himself  in  any 
two  actions  of  his  life,  I  should  wonder  how  he 
could  so  soon  alter  his  opinion  in  a  case  of  that  na- 
ture ;  but  his  behaviour  at  all  times  having  fully 
convinced  the  world  that  he  never  was  so,  makes 
me  cease  wondering.  This  clause  of  your  remon- 
strance is  indeed  of  a  more  extravagant  nature  than 
the  former,  for  you  presume  to  call  that  a  great 
grievance,  and  affirm  it  to  be  directly  contrary  to 
magna  charta,  and  contrary  to  the  queen's  express 
directions  in  the  governor's  instructions  r  which  is 
most  certainly  exactly  pursuant  to,  and  in  obedience 
of  the  express  words  contained  in  the  queen's  instruct- 
ions to  the  governor;  so  that  you  make  the  governor's 
faithful  obedience  to  the  instructions  the  queen 
has  honoured  him  with,  to  be  a  great  grievance ; 
which  is  no  less  than  accusing  her  most  sacred 
majesty,  the  best  of  queens,  of  commanding  her 
governor  to  do  things  which  in  themselves  are  great 
grievances ;  how  grateful  a  return  this  is  to  her 
majesty,  for  the  repeated  favours  she  has  been 
pleased  to  shew  to  this  province  and  people,  let  the 
world  judge. 

"  That  clause  of  my  instructions  which  you  recite 
in  this  article,  has  no  manner  of  relation  to  fees ; 
indeed  there  is  another  clause  in  my  instructions, 
which  directs  how,  and  by  whom,  all  fees  shall  be 
settled,  and  the  queen's  commands  have  been  ob- 
served ;  the  words  of  the  clause  are  those,  '  And 
you  are,  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  our  said 
council,  to  take  especial  care  to  regulate  all  salaries 
and  fees  belonging  to  places,  or  paid  upon  emer- 
gencies, that  they  be  within  the  bounds  of  modera- 
tion, and  that  no  exaction  be  made'oa  any  occasion 
whatsoever ;  as  also  that  tables  of  all  fees  be  pub- 
lickly  hung  up  in  all  places  where  such  fees  are  to 
be  paid,  and  you  are  to  transmit  copies  of  ail  such 
tables  of  fees  to  us,  and  to  our  commissioners  for 
trade  and  plantations  as  aforesaid ;'  and  I  challenge 
every  one  of  you,  and  all  mankind,  to  shew,  how, 
when,  and  where,  any  man's  life,  member,  free- 
hold, or  goods  have  been  taken  away,  or  harmed  in 
this  province,  since  it  came  under  her  majesty's 
government,  otherwise  than  by  established  and 
known  laws,  not  repugnant  to,  but  as  much  as  may 
be,  agreeable  to  the  laws  of  England.  When  I 
first  read  this  clause,  I  could  not  imagine  what  it 
was  put  in  for,  unless  it  were  on  purpose  to  arraign 
the  queen's  express  commands  to  me.  First,  Mr. 
Sonmans  is  not  the  pretended  agent,  but  the  law- 
fully constituted  agent  for  the  proprietors  of  the 
Eastern  division  of  this  province,  and  has  qualified 
himself  according  to  the  queen's  instructions  to  me, 


and  he  does  reside  the  greatest  part  of  his  time  in 
the  province  ;  the  records  are  not  carried  out  of  the 
Eastern  division,  unless  it  be  thoso  which  Thomas 
Gordon  has  imbezzled ;  but  those  that  came  to  the 
hands  of  Mr.  Sonmans  are  kept  at  Amboy,  where 
any  body  may  have  recourse  to  them  that  will  de- 
sire it,  at  any  reasonable  hour;  and  the  country  1* 
not  under  any  disappointment  upon  that  account  J 
besides,  the  records  of  the  Eastern  division  were  put 
into  the  hands  of  the  proprietors'  agent,  by  an  order 
from  England,  upon  a  complaint  made  in  England, 
that  the  records  were  not  in  the  hands  of  the  pro- 
prietors' agents. 

'  These,  governor,  are  some  of  the  grievances.' 
"  This  is  certainly  one  of  the  boldest  assertions 
that  ever  was  made,  especially  when  there  appears 
no  manner  of  proof  to  make  it  out.  When  I  read 
these  two  clauses  ;  for  there  are  two  before  you 
come  to  enumerate  these  grievances  of  an  higher 
nature,  and  attended  with  worse  consequences,  I 
expected  to  have  found  myself,  or  some  other  per- 
sons intrusted  with  me  in  the  administration  of  the 
government  over  her  majesty's  subjects  in  this  pro- 
vince, not  only  accused,  but  made  plainly  appear, 
by  undeniable  manifest  proofs,  beyond  the  possibi- 
lity of  a  contradiction,  to  be  guilty  of  the  most 
enormous  crimes.  Who  can  imagine  when  such  a 
body  of  men,  as  the  representatives  of  a  province, 
venture  to  say,'  that  they  did  expect  when  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Jersies  was  surrendered,  to  feel  the 
influences  of  the  queen's  mild  government  under  her 
more  immediate  administration,  and  to  be  protected 
in  the  full  enjoyment  of  their  liberties  and  proper- 
ties ;  the  last  of  which  they  thought  themselves  a 
little  more  secure  in,  than  some  of  the  neighbour- 
ing plantations,  and  had  an  entire  dependance 
that  her  majesty's  royal  bounty  and  goodness  would 
never  be  wanting  to  make  them  easy  and  happy, 
even  beyond  their  wishes  ;  it  is  their  misfortune, 
that  they  must  say,  the  success  has  not  answered 
the  expectation;  and  the  queen's  subjects  here  have 
felt  the  reverse  of  what  they  had  most  reason  to 
hope  that  the  greatest  and  best  of  princes  is  without 
all  peradventure  ignorant  of  their  pressures,  or  they 
had  long  since  had  relief ;  she  is  too  good  to  con- 
tinue even  the  deserved  sufferings  of  the  miserable, 
and  has  more  of  heaven  in  her,  than  not  to  hear  the 
cries  of  those  that  groan  under  oppression  and  the 
unkind  effects  of  mistaken  power,  to  whom  they 
owe  their  misery' ;  who  would  not,  I  say,  after  such 
assertions,  expect  to  see  the  governor  proved  guilty 
either  of  treason,  or  betraying  the  trust  reposed  in 
him  by  the  queen,  by  depriving  the  subjects  of  their 
lives,  their  estates  or  properties,  or  at  least  denying 
them  justice,  and  perverting  the  laws,  to  the  op- 
pression, instead  of  administering  them  for  the 
protection  and  preservation  of  the  people  committed 
to  his  charge  ?  These  or  the  like  crimes  manifestly 
proved,  are  the  only  things  that  can  justify  men  in 
the  accusing  a  governor  of  corrupt  practice,  and  of 
shaking  the  liberties  and  properties  of  the  people ; 
but  if  none  of  these  things  can  be  proved,  but  on 
the  contrary,  it  does  appear  plainly,  that  no  one  act 
of  severity,  much  less  of  injustice  or  oppression,  has 
been  done  since  the  government  of  this  province 
came  under  the  queen,  but  that  there  has  been  an 
impartial,  just  and  equal  administration  of  justice 
observed  thoughout  the  whole  course  of  my  govern- 
ment, and  that  many  acts  of  mercy  have  been  ex- 
tended to  persons  who  deserved  to  be  severely  pu- 
nished ;  then  what  sort  of  creatures  must  these  bold 
accusers  appear  to  be,  in  the  eyes  of  all  impartial 


UNITED  STATES. 


607 


and  judicious  men  !  That  these  are  truths  beyond 
all  contradiction,  and  which  all  the  people  of  this 
province  know,  I  do  challenge  you.  and  every  one 
of  you,  to  prove  the  contrary.  And  though  I  know 
very  well,  that  there  are  several  unquiet  spirits  in 
the  province,  who  will  never  be  content  to  live 
quiet  under  any  government  but  their  own,  and  not 
long  under  that  neither,  as  appears  by  their  methods 
of  proceeding  when  the  government  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  proprietors  ;  when  many  of  these  very 
men  who  are  now  the  remonstrancers,were  in  author- 
ity, and  used  the  most  arbitrary  and  illegal  methods 
of  proceeding  over  their  fellow  subjects  that  were 
ever  heard  of;  yet  I  am  satisfied,  there  are  very 
few  men  in  the  province,  except  Samuel  Jenings 
and  Lewis  Morris,  men  known  neither  to  have 
good  principles,  nor  good  morals,  who  have  ven- 
tured to  accuse  a  governor  of  such  crimes,  without 
any  proof  to  make  out  their  accusation  ;  but  they 
are  capable  of  any  thing  but  good. 

"  But  that  the  unreasonableness  of  these  com- 
plaints may  appear  the  plainer,  let  us  consider  what 
these  enormities  of  mine  are,  that  have  turned  the 
benign  influences  of  the  queen's  mild  government 
into  oppression,  and  the  unkind  effect  of  mistaken 
power.  First,  by  the  instructions  her  most  sacred 
majesty  the  queen  has  honoured  me  with,  I  am  to 
allow  all  such  agents  as  the  general  proprietors 
shall  appoint,  such  agents  qualifying  themselves  by 
taking  such  oaths  as  the  queen  is  pleased  to  direct, 
and  no  others;  no  persons  under  the  name  of  a 
council  of  proprietors  have  ever  tendered  themselves 
to  take  those  oaths,  consequently  they  are  not  capa- 
ble of  acting  as  agents.  Besides,  I  say,  those 
people  who  call  themselves  a  council  of  proprietors, 
are  a  parcel  of  people,  pretending  to  act  by  a  power 
derived  from  certain  persons,  who  have  no  power 
to  grant ;  the  governor  has  therefore  done  in  this 
case  nothing  but  his  duty,  in  hindering,  as  far  as 
in  him  lay,  that  pretended  council  of  proprietors 
from  acting  illegally,  which  they  have  long  done  to 
the  prejudice  of  her  majesty's  subjects.  This  is  a 
truth  I  cannot  doubt  of,  because,  besides  the  other 
reasons  I  have  to  satisfy  me  in  that  point,  you  have 
voted  my  putting  the  records  of  the  Eastern  division 
into  the  hands  of  Peter  Sonmans,  to  be  a  grievance ; 
though  Mr.  Sonmans  has  qualified  himself  long 
ago;  so  that  the  council  of  proprietors  not  having 
qualified  themselves  at  all,  is  a  much  greater  griev- 
ance. By  the  queen's  instructions  to  me,  she  is 
pleased  to  direct,  that  no  person  shall  be  capable  of 
being  elected  a  representative  by  the  freeholders  of 
either  division,  or  afterwards  sitting  in  general 
assembly,  who  shall  not  have  one  thousand  acres  of 
land,  of  an  estate  of  freehold  in  his  own  right, 
within  the  division  for  which  he  shall  be  chosen  ; 
two  gentlemen  of  the  council  informed  me,  that 
three  persons,  whose  names  they  then  mentioned, 
were  not  qualified;  upon  which  I  refused  to  take 
their  attestations  (for  they  were  all  Quakers),  and 
in  so  doing,  I  did  my  duty.  I  recommended  it  to 
the  assembly  at  that  time,  to  proceed,  in  the  first 
place,  to  inquire  into  that  matter ;  but  they  did  not 
think  fit  to  do  it,  till  they  had  sat  about  three  weeks, 
ind  then  they  sent  me  a  message,  to  desire  those 
rhree  members  might  be  sworn,  for  they  were  satis- 
fied tney  were  qualified  :  I  sent  them  word,  that  if 
they  would  communicate  to  me  the  proofs  which 
had  satisfied  them,  I  should  be  ready  to  admit  them ; 
but  that  they  would  not  do.  In  some  few  days  the 
assembly  was  adjourned  to  meet  at  Burlington, 
Where  they  met  at  the  time  appointed,  and  sent  me 


the  same  message  as  they  had  done  before  ;  I  sent 
them  the  same  answer ;  upon  which  they  ordered 
the  three  members  to  produce  to  me  taa  proofs  of 
their  qualifications  ;  which  haviug  done,  I  admitted 
them  immediately,  which  I  could  not  do  before, 
without  breaking  the  queen's  instructions ;  so  that 
it  was  entirely  through  their  own  stubbornness  that 
they  were  not  admitted  sooner,  and  no  intent  or 
desire  of  mine  to  keep  them  out.  If  I  had  had  a 
mind  to  keep  any  members  out  of  the  house,  I  could 
have  made  objections  which  they  could  never  have 
answered;  but  such  practices  are  below  me;  and  it 
is  not  true  that  I  have  made  any  violation  of  the 
liberties  of  the  people,  nor  have  assumed  to  myself 
a  negative  voice  to  the  freeholders'*  election  of  repre- 
sentatives, as  this  house  of  representatives  has  lately 
most  notoriously  done.  But  of  that  more  anon. 

*'  Indeed  the  treatment  I  have  met  with  from  this 
house  of  representatives,  is  far  different  from  what  I 
and  all  reasonable  men  expected  from  most  of  them, 
thinking  them  endowed  with  reason  and  common 
justice  to  mankind  ;  but  it  is  not  different  from  what 
I  expected  from  Samuel  Jenings  and  Lewis  Morris, 
two  men  notoriously  known  always  to  have  been 
disturbers  of  the  quiet  and  peace  of  this  province, 
men  always  possessed  with  passionate  heats,  and  the 
transports  of  most  vindictive  tempers,  but  never 
capable  of  such  serious  resentments  as  would  become 
a  house  of  representatives,  if  there  were  any  occasion 
given  them  to  show  any ;  how  they  have  been  able 
to  prevail  with  the  major  part  of  the  house  to  join 
with  them,  in  destroying  as  far  as  in  them  lay,  the 
reputation  of  a  gentleman  who  has  the  honour  to 
serve  the  queen  as  governor  of  this  province,  and  is 
so  far  from  deserving  such  treatment  from  them, 
that  he  has  always  done  to  the  utmost  of  his  power, 
for  the  good,  welfare  and  prosperity  of  this  province 
and  people,  and  would  have  done  much  more  if  the 
assembly  would  have  put  it  into  his  power,  by  pre- 
paring such  bills  as  the  governor  at  the  beginning 
of  every  sessions  has  recommended  to  them,  and  the 
condition  of  the  country  required ;  but  that  they 
must  answer  for  to  God  and  their  own  consciences,, 
and  perhaps  one  day  to  me. 

"  Whether  many  considerable  sums  of  money 
have  been  raised  or  not,  I  know  not ;  and  if  they 
were  raised,  for  what  intent  and  purpose  they  were 
raised  I  know  not;  but  this  I  know,  that  if  any 
money  was  raised,  it  was  not  given  to  me,  nor  was 
ever  any  money  offered  to  me  to  procure  the  dissolu- 
tion of  the  first  assembly,  or  to  get  clear  of  the  pro- 
prietors' quit- rents,  or  to  obtain  such  officers  as  the 
contributors  should  approve  of,  as  is  falsely  alleged. 
The  reasons  why  I  dissolved  the  first  assembly  were 
evident  to  all  mankind;  for  it  was  plain  that  house 
never  intended  to  do  any  thing  for  the  support  of 
the  queen's  government,  nor  for  the  good  of  the 
country;  and  indeed  better  could  not  be  expected 
from  an  assembly  so  corruptly  chosen  as  that  was ; 
for  some  of  the  now  remonstrancers,  and  some  other 
people,  prevailed  with  Thomas  Gordon,  then  sheriff 
of  the  county  of  Middlesex,  to  refuse  a  poll  when 
demanded ;  and  when  the  people,  injured  by  that 
practice,  complained  to  the  house  of  representatives, 
they  had  a  day  assigned  them  to  be  heard,  but  were 
limited  to  bring  but  twenty  witnesses ;  the  people 
attended  at  the  day  appointed,  with  the  number  of 
witnesses  they  were  allowed  to  bring,  but  were  then 
by  the  house  refused  to  be  heard,  not  only  by  them- 
selves but  by  their  council,  and  their  witnesses  re- 
fused to  be  examined ;  though  at  the  same  time  they 
heard  Thomas  Gordon,  who  was  complained  against, 


608 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


and  did  examine  some  witnesses  on  his  behalf;  upon 
which  the  petition  of  the  complainants  was  dismissed 
thereby  supporting  the  illegal  proceedings  of  the 
sheriff;  this  was  a  violation  of  the  rights  of  the  peo- 

Ele  with  a  vengeance,  and  a  sufficient  reason  (if  1 
ad  no  other)  for  the  dissolving  that  assembly,  that 
the  people  might  once  more  have  a  free  choice  o 
their  representatives.  As  for  getting  clear  of  the 
proprietors'  quit-rents,  it  is  such  an  absurdity  to 
mention,  that  nobody  would  be  guilty  of  it  bu( 
Samuel  Jenings  and  Lewis  Morris  ;  for  it  is  evident 
that  at  the  beginning  of  every  sessions  I  have  re- 
commended to  the  assembly,  to  prepare  a  bill  or 
bills  for  settling  the  rights  of  the. proprietors,  which 
I  suppose  will  be  a  full  answer  to  that  part ;  and  as 
I  know  of  no  such  men  as  contributors,  so  can  I 
have  no  such  application  made  to  me.  I  have  not 
knowingly  put  any  mean  or  mercenary  men  into 
office ;  indeed,  at  my  first  coming  into  the  govern- 
ment of  this  province,  I  desired  the  gentlemen  of 
the  council  to  recommend  persons  to  me  fit  to  be 
put  into  offices,  military  and  civil ;  several  of  them 
gave  me  lists,  and  amongst  the  rest  Mr.  Lewis 
Morris  gave  me  one,  which  I  have  still  by  me,  in 
which,  indeed,  by  experience  I  find  there  are  some 
mean  scandalous  men;  but  I  cannot  accuse  anybody 
else  of  doing  the  like.  Thus  much  I  thought  myself 
obliged  to  say,  in  answer  to  your  remonstrance,  to 
satisfy  the  world  of  the  falsehood  of  your  allegations 
and  the  unreasonableness  of  your  complaints.  I 
have  said  the  less  in  answer  to  the  scandalous  reflect- 
ions you  have  cast  upon  me,  because  I  do  not 
doubt,  but  upon  my  most  humble  application  to  her 
most  sacred  majesty  the  queen,  she  will  be  gra- 
ciously pleased  to  allow  me  to  take  such  measures 
as  may  be  most  proper  to  procure  me  ample  satis- 
faction, for  the  great  and  extravagant  injuries  you 
have  done  me.  As  for  the  advice  you  conclude 
with,  I  shall  only  say,  that  I  can  never  answer  the 
taking  advice  from  men  who  do  not  know  how  to 
govern  themselves,  and  who  have  always  opposed 
the  service  of  the  queen,  and  the  interest  and  good 
of  the  country,  which  are  inseparable. 

"  Now,  gentlemen,  I  shall  take  notice  to  you  of 
some  of  your  late  unaccountable  proceedings  in  this 
assembly,  which  I  can't  pass  by  without  a  breach  of 
the  trust  reposed  in  me  by  her  majesty  ;  and  first,  I 
shall  observe,  that  at  the  opening  of  the  sessions,  I 
recommended  to  you  the  settling  a  revenue,  and  the 
preparing  several  bills  which  I  thought  might  be 
useful  for  the  country  ;  and  I  told  you,  that  if  you 
found  any  thing  else  necessary  to  be  provided  for 
by  a  law,  you  should  always  find  me  ready  to  agree 
to  any  thing  that  might  be  reasonable ;  but  instead 
of  proceeding  upon  those  things  so  necessary,  that 
they  ought  to  have  employed  your  first  thoughts, 
you  have  squandered  away  your  time  in  hawking 
after  imaginary  grievances,  for  the  space  of  one 
whole  month,  without  making  one  step  towards  the 
service  of  the  queen,  or  the  country  ;  you  have  pre- 
sumed to  take  the  queen's  subjects  into  the  custody 
of  the  serjeant-at-arms,  who  are  not  members  of 
your  house,  which  you  can't  lawfully  do,  and  is  a 
notorious  violation  of  the  liberties  of  the  people; 
you  have  taken  upon  you  to  administer  an  oath  to 
one  of  your  members,  and  have  expelled  him  the 
house  for  refusing  to  take  an  oath,  which  you  could 
not  legally  administer  to  him  :  this  is  most  certainly 
robbing  that  member  of  his  property,  and  a  most 
notorious  assuming  to  yourselves  a  negative  voice 
to  the  freeholders'  election  of  their  representatives, 
for  which  there  can  be  no  precedent  found.  You 


have  arbitrarily  taken  upon  you  to  command  the 
high  sheriff  of  this  county,  to  discharge  a  prisoner 
who  was  in  his  custody,  at  the  suit  of  one  of  the 
queen's  subjects;  and  he  has  been  weak  enough  to 
do  it,  for  which  he  lies  liable  to  be  sued  for  an  es- 
cape, whenever  the  gentleman  thinks  fit  to  do  it, 
and  from  which  you  can't  protect  him:  this  is  a  no- 
torious violation  of  the  rights  of  the  subjects,  and  a 
manifest  interruption  of  justice.  You  have  taken 
upon  you  to  appoint  one  of  your  members  to  act  as 
clerk  of  the  committee  of  the  whole  house,  which 
you  have  no  power  to  do  ;  and  the  party  officiating 
is  liable  to  be  prosecuted  for  acting  without  lawful 
authority,  and  without  being  qualified  to  act.  These, 
gentlemen,  are  some  of  the  irregularities  you  have 
been  guilty  of  this  sessions ;  some  of  them  are  en- 
croachments upon  the  queen's  prerogative,  the  rest 
are  all  notorious  infractions  upon  the  liberties  and 
properties  of  the  people. 

"  I  was  going  to  conclude,  with  giving  you  some 
wholesome  advice,  but  I  consider  that  will  be  but 
labour  lost,  and  therefore  shall  reserve  it  for  per- 
sons who  I  hope  will  make  a  right  use  of  it." 

The  Assembly's  reply  to  Lord  Cornbury's  answer  to 
their  remonstrance. 

The  assembly  did  not  immediately  enter  upon 
the  consideration  of  a  reply,  having  before  them 
the  treasurer,  Peter  Fauconier's  accounts,  in  which 
they  found  many  articles  extraordinary  in  their 
nature,  several  of  them  being  paid  by  the  go- 
vernor's, (Cornbury,)  order  only,  and  the  whole 
without  vouchers ;  they  sent  for  the  treasurer,  who 
when  he  attended,  refused  to  lay  his  vouchers  before 
them  without  the  governor's  commands,  whereupon 
two  members  were  sent  to  the  governor,  to  desire 
him  to  order  the  treasurer  to  lay  the  vouchers  of  his 
accounts,  and  the  orders  for  the  payment  of  the 
sums  therein  mentioned  before  them ;  the  governor 
said  he  had  already  ordered  it,  though  it  was  what 
he  could  not  legally  do,  because  the  lord-high-trea- 
surer had  appointed  an  auditor-general  for  the  pro- 
vince, and  he  not  being  in  it,  had  deputed  one  to 
audit  the  accounts,  and  that  the  treasurer  was  ac- 
countable only  to  the  lord-high-treasurer ;  but  if 
the  house  was  dissatisfied  with  any  articles  in  the 
accounts,  and  thought  proper  to  apply  to  him,  he 
would  satisfy  them.  This  was  not  done ;  and  the 
accounts,  extraordinary  as  they  were,  remained  un 
settled  till  Hunter's  administration  several  years 
aftei-.  Several  bills  of  consequence  were  now  also 
under  consideration;  but  Lord  Cornbury,  apprehen- 
sive of  the  conduct  of  the  house,  adjourned  it  till 
the  next  September,  to  meet  him  at  Amboy.  In  the 
October  following  they  met  accordingly,  when  the 
first  thing  concluded  on,  was  a  reply  to  the  fore- 
going answer  to  their  remonstrance ;  and  the 
next,  that  they  would  raise  no  money  till  the  go- 
vernor consented  to  redress  the  grievances  of  the 
country,  which  if  he  did,  they  would  raise  1,50U/. 
for  support  of  government  for  one  year. 

On  the  28th,  the  house  sent  a  committee  to  ac- 
tjuaint  the  governor,  that  having  seen  his  answer  to 
their  remonstrance  in  print,  they  thought  it  proper 
to  make  a  reply  to  it,  and  desired  to  know  when  he 
would  admit  them  to  wait  on  him  with  it  :  the  go- 
vernor said,  he  would  return  an  answer  in  due 
;ime  ;  they  waited  for  his  message  till  next  day,  and 
;hen  concluding  he  intended  to  elude  giving  them 
an  opportunity  of  presenting  it,  sent  a  committee 
with  it,  but  he  would  not  receive  it ;  upon  which  they 
jrdered  it  to  be  entered  in  their  journal,  as  follows : 


UNITED  STATES. 


£09 


"  May  it  pleasa  your  excellency, 

"  We',  the  representatives  of  this  her  majesty's 
province  of  New  Jersey,  finding  her  majesty's  sub- 
jects greatly,  and  as  we  are  very  well  satisfied  with 
good  reason,  aggrieved,  thought  we  could  not  .an- 
swer the  trust  reposed  in  us  by  our  country,  should 
we  not  endeavour  to  get  those  hardships  removed 
under  which  they  labour. 

"  It  was  needless  to  hunt  after  imaginary  grie- 
vances, real  ones  in  too  great  numbers  presenting 
themselves;  and  though  from  you  we  have  missed 
of  obtaining  that  relief  that  the  justice  of  our  com- 
plaints entitled  us  to,  yet  we  do  not  despair  of  being 
heard  by  her  sacred  majesty,  at  whose  royal  feet  we 
shall  in  the  humblest  manner  lay  an  account  of  our 
sufferings ;  and  however  contemptible  we  are,  or 
are  endeavoured  to  be  made  appear,  we  are  per- 
suaded her  majesty  will  consider  us  as  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  province  of  New  Jersey,  who  must 
better  know  what  are  the  grievances  of  the  country 
they  represent  than  a  governor  can  do,  who  regularly 
ought  to  receive  informations  of  that,  kind  from 
them;  and  we  do  not  doubt  that  glorious  queen  will 
make  her  subjects  here  as  easy  and  happy  as  she  can. 

"  When  we  told  your  excellency,  we  had  reason 
to  think  some  of  our  sufferings  were  very  much 
owing  to  your  excellency's  long  absence  from  this 
province,  which  rendered  it  very  difficult  to  apply 
to  your  lordship  in  some  cases  that  might  need  a 
present  help,  we  spoke  truth ;  and  notwithstanding 
all  your  excellency  has  said  of  a  month's  or  twelve 
weeks  in  a  year,  and  the  weekly  going  of  a  post ; 
we  cannot  be  persuaded  to  believe,  that  nine  months 
and  upwards  in  a  year  is  not  a  long  absence,  espe- 
cially when  the  seal  of  the  province  is  carried  and 
kept  out  of  the  government  all  that  time  ;  and  the 
Honourable  Colouel  Ingoldsby,  the  lieut.-governor, 
so  far  from  doing  right,  that  he  declined  doing  any 
act  of  government  at  all ;  whether  he  governs  him- 
self by  your  excellency's  directions  or  not,  we  can- 
not tell ;  but  sure  we  are,  that  this  province  being 
as  it  were  without  government  for  above  nine  months 
in  a  year,  we  must  still  think  it  a  great  grievance, 
and  not  made  less  so  by  carrying  the  seal  of  the 
province  to  New  York,  and  laying  her  majesty's 
subjects  under  a  necessity  of  applying  from  the  re- 
motest part  of  this  province,  for  three  parts  of  the 
year  and  better,  to  your  excellency  at  fort  Ann,  in 
New  York,  from  which  place  most  of  the  commis- 
sions and  patents  granted  during  your  excellency's 
absence  are  dated  (by  what  authority  we  shall  not 
inquire),  notwithstanding  a  lieutenant-governor  re- 
sides in  the  province,  and  is  by  her  majesty's  com- 
mission empowered  to  execute  the  queen's  letters 
patents,  and  the  powers  therein  contained,  during 
your  excellency's  absence  from  this  province  of 
New  Jersey;  without  which  powers  given  and  duly 
executed,  a  lieutenant-governor  is  useless  and  an 
unnecessary  charge ;  and  we  cannot  think  that  her 
sacred  majesty,  who  honoured  that  gentleman  with 
so  great  a  mark  of  her  royal  favour,  as  giving  him 
a  commission  for  lieutenant-governor  of  New  Jersey, 
did  at  the  same  time  inhibit  him  from  executing  the 
powers  therein  exprest. 

"Things  are  sometimes  best  illustrated  by  their 
contraries;  and  perhaps  the  most  effectual  way  to 
convince  the  world,  that  this  complaint  is  frivolous 
and  untrue,  as  by  your  excellency  alleged,  would 
be,  for  your  excellency  to  bring  the  seal  of  the  pro- 
vince of  Now  York  to  Burlington,  keep  it  there, 
and  do  all  the  acts  of  government  relating  to  the 
province  of  New  York,  at  Burlington,  in  New  Jer- 

HIST.  OF  AMER. — Nos,  77  &  78. 


sey,  for  above  three-fourths  of  a  year,  and  let  the 
lieutenant-governor  reside  at  New  York  during  that 
time,  without  doing  any  act  of  government,  adjourn 
their  assemblies  on  the  very  day,  or  day  before  they 
are  to  meet,  that  they  may  not  lose  the  advantage 
of  travelling  to  New  York,  from  the  remotest  part 
of  that  province,  and  at  a  time  when  it  cannot  be 
done  without  the  utmost  prejudice  to  their  affairs  ; 
it's  hardly  probable  they  would  be  pleased  under 
such  an  administration,  notwithstanding  the  case  of 
informing  your  excellency  every  week  by  the  post, 
of  any  emergency  that  might  happen. 

"  We  are  apt  to  believe,  upon  the  credit  of  your 
excellency's  assertion,  that  there  may  be  a  number 
of  people  in  this  province  who  will  never  be  faithful 
to,  or  live  quietly  under  any  government,  nor  suffer 
their  neighbours  to  enjoy  any  peace,  quiet,  or  hap- 
piness, if  they  can  help  it ;  such  people  are  pests  in 
all  governments,  have  ever  been  so  in  this,  and  we 
know  of  none  who  can  lay  a  fairer  claim  to  these 
characters  than  many  of  your  excellency's  favourites. 

"  What  malice  and  revenge  were  in  the  prose- 
cution of  the  condemned  persons,  we  don't  know; 
we  never  heard  of  any  till  now,  and  hardly  can  be 
persuaded  to  believe  it's  possible  there  should  be  in 
both  the  instances. 

"  It  is  not  impossible,  there .  might  be  malice  in 
the  prosecution  of  the  woman  who  was  condemned 
for  poisoning  her  husband,  there  not  being  (as  is 
said)  plain  proof  of  the  fact,  but  it  was  proved  she 
had  attempted  it  before  more  than  once ;  and  there 
were  so  many  other  concurring  circumstances  as 
did  induce  the  jury,  who  were  of  the  neighbourhood 
(and  well  knew  her  character)  to  find  her  guilty, 
and  it  is  hardly  probable  their  so  doing  was  an  act 
of  malice. 

"  The  woman  who  murdered  her  own  child,  did 
it  in  such  a  manner,  and  so  publicly,  that  it  is  un- 
reasonable to  suppose  there  could  be  any  malice  in 
the  prosecution  of  her,  and  we  cannot  think  (not- 
withstanding your  excellency's  assertions)  that  you 
can  or  may  believe  there  was.  This  woman  was  a 
prisoner  in  the  sheriff's  custody  for  breach  of  the 
peace,  and  going  about  some  of  the  household  affairs 
the  sheriff  employed  her  in,  with  a  knife  in  her  hand, 
her  child  who  was  something  froward,  followed  her 
crying;  upon  which  the  mother  turned  back  to  it 
and  cut  its  throat;  but  not  having  cut  it  deep 
enough,  the  child  still  followed  her  all  bloody,  and 
crying,  O  !  mother  you  have  hurt  me :  the  mother 
turned  back  a  second  time  and  cut  it  effectually, 
and  then  took  it  up  and  carried  it  to  the  sheriff  or 
his  wife,  at  whose  ieet  she  laid  it.  How  far  such  a 
wretch  is  entitled  to  the  queen's  favour,  her  majesty 
can  best  tell  when  she  is  made  acquainted  with  the 
fact ;  but  sure  we  are,  she  never  gave  your  excel- 
lency the  power  of  pardoning  wilful  murder:— 
whether  your  excellency  has  or  has  not  reprieved 
them,  you  best  know,  and  are  only  accountable  to 
her  majesty  for  your  procedures  therein ;  though 
we  have  too  much  reason  to  believe,  the  favourable 
opinion  your  excellency  has  so  publicly  expressed 
of  her,  has  been  a  great  reason  to  induce  her  to 
make  her  escape,  which  she  has  done.  We  thought 
it  our  duty,  humbly  to  represent  that  matter  to  your 
excellency's  consideration,  and  had  reason  to  be 
apprehensive  of  the  judgments  of  Almighty  God, 
whose  infinite  mercy  has  hitherto  suspended  the 
execution  of  his  justice,  notwithstanding  that  great 
provocations  have  been  given  him  by  impiety,  pro- 
phatieness,  and  debauchery,  under  the  mask  of  a 
pretended  zeal  for  his  tjlory,  and  love  for  his  church, 

3  M 


610 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


It  is  not  our  business  to  enter  into  religious  contro- 
versies;  we  leave  them  to  divines,  who  ought  best 
to  understand  things  of  that  nature,  and  who  may 
perhaps  inform  us  what  is  meant  by  denying  the 
very  essence  of  the  Saviour  of  the  world. 

"  We  cannot  yet  be  persuaded,  that  an  innocent 

})erson  should  pay  foes  ;  what  the  practice  in  Eng- 
and  is  we  did  never  inquire,  but  believe,  that  per- 
sons acquitted  by  a  grand  jury  do  not  pay  those 
extravagant  fees  they  are  made  to  pay  here  ;  we 
did  not  govern  ourselves  by  the  practice  there,  but 
the  unreasonableness  of  the  thing ;  and  your  excel- 
lency does  grant,  that  what  we  say  is  in  some  mea- 
sure to  be  allowed,  were  the  juries  in  this  country 
such  as  they  ought  to  be;  we  hope  they  are,  and 
our  experience  has  not  convinced  us,  that  persons 
who  under  pretence  of  conscience  refuse  an  oath, 
have  yet  no  regard  for  the  oaths  they  take,  as  your 
excellency  says.  The  temptations  to  resentment 
prove  often  too  powerful,  and  irresistibly  engage 
us  in  unbecoming  heats,  and  when  the  characters 
of  men  are  written  with  pens  too  deeply  dipt  in  gall, 
it  only  evinces  a  want  of  temper  in  the  writer.  Our 
juries  here  are  not  so  learned  or  rich  as  perhaps 
they  are  in  England ;  but  we  doubt  not  full  as  ho- 
nest. We  thought  the  only  office  for  probate  of 
wills  was  at  Burlington,  but  your  excellency  has 
convinced  us,  that  it  is  wherever  your  excellency  is, 
and  consequently  may  be  at  York,  Albany,  the  east 
end  of  Long  Island,  or  in  Connecticut,  or  New 
England,  or  any  place  more  remote  should  your 
excellency's  business  or  inclination  call  you  there, 
which  is  s'o  far  from  making  it  less  a  grievance,  that 
it  rather  makes  it  more  so ;  and  notwithstanding 
those  soft,  cool,  and  considerate  terms  of  malicious, 
scandalous,  and  frivolous,  with  which  your  excel- 
lency vouchsafes  to  treat  the  assembly  of  this  pro- 
vince, they  are  of  opinion,  that  no  judicious  or  im- 
partial men  will  think  it  reasonable  that  the  inhabit- 
ants of  one  province  should  go  into  another  to  have 
their  wills  proved,  and  take  letters  of  administra- 
tion at  Fort  Ann,  from  the  governor  of  New  York, 
for  what  should  regularly  be  done  by  the  governor 
of  New  Jersey  in  Jersey,  to  which  place  all  the  acts 
of  government  relating  to  New  Jersey  are  limited 
by  the  queen's  letters  patents  under  the  great  seal 
of  England ;  and  when  your  excellency  is  absent 
from  New  Jersey,  to  be  executed  by  the  lieutenant- 
governor;  and  by  the  said  letters  patents  not  the 
least  colour  of  authority  is  given  to  your  excellency, 
to  do  any  act  of  government  relating  to  New  Jer- 
sey, any  where  but  in  Jersey ;  nor  is  there  any 
instruction  (that  we  know  of)  contradicting  the 
said  letters  patents  any  where  upon  record  in  this 
province,  to  warrant  your  excellency's  conduct  in 
that  affair.  If  this  be  not  cause,  and  just  cause  of 
complaint,  we  do  not  know  what  is ;  we  are  inclined 
to  believe  the  province  of  New  York  would  think  it 
so,  were  they  to  come  to  Amboy  or  Burlington  to 
prove  wills,  &c. 

"  We  do  not  think,  that  what  we  desire  is  an  in- 
vasion of  the  queen's  right,  but  what  her  majesty, 
without  infringement  of  her  prerogative  royal,  may- 
assent  to;  and  their  late  majesties  of  blessed 
memory,  did,  by  their  governor  Colonel  Fletcher, 
assent  to  an  act  made  in  New  York,  in  the  year 
1692,  entitled,  '  An  act  for  the  supervising  intes- 
tates estates,  and  regulating  the  probate  of  wills, 
and  granting  letters  of  administration ;'  by  which 
the  court  of  common  pleas  in  the  remote  counties 
of  that  province,  were  empowered  to  take  the  ex- 
amination of  witnesses  to  any  will  within  their  re- 


spective counties,  and  certify  the  same  to  the  secre- 
tary's office  ;  and  the  judges  of  the  several  courts 
in  those  remote  counties,  empowered  to  grant  pro- 
bates of  any  will,  or  letters  of  administration,  to 
any  person  or  persons,  where  the  estate  did  not  ex- 
ceed 50/.;  what  has  been  done  there  may  with  as 
much  reason  be  done  here,  without  sacrificing  the 
queen's  prerogative  royal  to  the  humours  or  caprices 
of  any  person  or  persons  whatsoever. 

"It  is  the  general  assembly  of  the  province  of 
New  Jersey  that  complains,  and  not  the  quaker?, 
with  whose  persons  (considered  as  quakers)  or 
meetings  we  have  nothing  to  do,  nor  are  we  con- 
cerned in  what  your  excellency  says  against  them  ; 
they  perhaps  will  think  themselves  obliged  to  vindi- 
cate their  meetings  from  the  aspersions  which  your 
excellency  so  liberally  bestows  upon  them,  and 
evince  to  the  world  how  void  of  rashness  and  incon- 
sideration  your  excellency's  expressions  are,  and 
how  becoming  it  is  for  the  governor  of  a  province  to 
enter  the  lists  of  controversy,  with  a  people  who 
thought  themselves  entitled  to  his  protection  of  them 
in  {he  enjoyment  of  their  religious  liberties ;  those 
of  them  who  are  members  of  this  house,  have  begged 
leave,  in  behalf  of  themselves  and  their  friends,  to 
tell  the  governor  they  must  answer  him  in  the  words 
of  Nehemiah  to  Sanballat,  contained  in  the  8th 
verse  of  the  6th  chapter  of  Nehemiah,  viz.,  '  There 
is  no  such  thing  done  as  thou  sayest,  but  thou  feign- 
est  them  out  of  thine  own  heart.' 

"  We  are  so  well  assured  the  fact  is  true,  that  the 
secretary's  office  is  kept  at  Burlington  only,  that  we 
still  are  of  opinion  it  is  a  grievance  for  the  reasons 
we  have  assigned  ;  the  proprietors'  records  have  not 
any  thing  to  do  with  the  secretary's  office,  but  is 
an  office  wholly  belonging  to  the  proprietors,  and 
altogether  at  their  disposal ;  and  is  not  a  secretary's 
office  kept  at  Amboy,  either  as  far  as  the  nature  of  the 
thing  requires  or  can  admit  of,  or  any  way  at  all. 

"  And  as  the  assemblies  and  courts  sit  alternately 
at  Amboy  and  Burlington,  so  it  is  highly  reasonable 
the  secretary's  office  should  be  kept  alternately  also 
at  both  these  places,  or  by  deputy  in  one  of  them, 
and  may  be  very  well  done  without  making  two  se- 
cretaries. 

"  Both  this  and  the  rest  of  our  complaints  are  not 
with  design  to  amuse  the  people,  but  are  just  and 
reasonable ;  and  we  believe  will  by  the  people  be 
thought  to  be  grievances  till  they  are  redressed ; 
who  can  no  more  think  it  reasonable  that  all  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Eastern  division  should  come  to 
the  office  at  Burlington,  than  that  all  of  the  Western 
division  should  go  to  Amboy. 

"  We  are  still  of  opinion,  the  grant  we  complain 
of  is  against  the  statute  we  mentioned,  because  it  is 
exclusive  of  others,  and  to  the  prejudice  of  the  pub- 
lic. It  can  never  be  thought  reasonable  to  pro- 
hibit any  body  to  cart  their  own  goods,  or  any  body's 
else,  as  by  virtue  of  that  grant  has  been  done  ;  and 
not  only  in  the  road  from  Amboy  to  Burlington,  but 
in  the  road  from  Shrewsbury  ;  and  a  patent  may  as 
well  be  granted  to  "keep  horses  to  hire,  by  which  a 
man  may  be  hindered  to  ride  his  own.  It  is  destruc- 
tive to  the  common  rights  of  men,  and  a  great  griev- 
ance, and  we  had  reason  to  endeavour  to  get  it  re- 
dressed. 

"  It  is  true,  a  certain  convenience  for  transporta- 
tion of  goods  is  no  doubt  of  great  use,  and  the  profit 
that  accrues  by  such  undertakings,  is  the  motive 
that  induces  any  persons  to  be  at  the  charge  of 
them,  and  providing  fit  carriages  for  that  end,  and 
of  ascertaining  the  times  and  prices  of  carrying ; 


UNITED  STATES. 


611 


and  the  more  providers  of  such  carriages,  the  more 
certain  and  cheap  the  transportation,  and  freest 
from  imposition  ;  and  consequently  the  fewer  car- 
riages, the  less  certain  and  dearer,  and  the  persons 
under  a  necessity  of  using  them  more  subject  to  be 
imposed  upon  by  the  carrier ;  now  whether  granting 
by  which  others  are  excluded,  waving  the  unlawful- 
ness of  it,  be  a  means  to  increase  the  number  of  the 
undertakers  in  that  kind,  or  to  lessen  them,  and 
confine  those  who  have  any  occasion  to  transport 
goods,  to  give  such  price  as  he  that  has  the  patent 
thinks  fit  to  impose,  we  leave  to  all  men  of  common 
sense  to  judge  ;  and  if  experience  may  be  admitted 
to  determine  that  matter,  it  is  plain  that  transporta- 
tion of  goods,  both  by  land  and  water,  is  dearer 
than  it  was  before  the  granting  of  that  patent.  It 
is  true,  the  certainty  was  not  so  great  as  now,  for 
now  we  are  certain  that  a  man  cannot  with  his  own 
carts  carry  his  own  goods,  but  that  if  he  does  they 
will  be  seized  ;  and  if  that  be  one  of  the  conveni- 
ences which  the  wise  people  in  Europe  think  of  ab- 
solute necessity,  we  shall  think  it  no  irony  to  be 
called  wiser  in  differing  from  them,  and  calling  them 
monopolies  as  they  are,  and  prejudicial  to  trade,  and 
especially  that  between  York  and  Amboy,  Burling- 
ton and  Philadelphia ;  which  did  not  owe  its  begin- 
ning to  your  excellency's  patent,  but  was  begun 
long  before  your  excellency  had  any  thing  to  do 
with  New  Jersey,  and  in  all  probability  had  much 
more  increased  were  it  not  for  that  patent ;  and  we 
believe  whenever  the  gentlemen  of  the  law  will  give 
your  excellency  their  true  opinion  of  it,  you  will  not 
be  long  in  doubt  whether  it  is  a  monopoly  or  not. 
We  thought  it  a  monopoly,  as  we  do  still,  and  a 
grievance,  as  is  also  both  that  and  other  grants 
made  by  your  excellency  at  fort  Ann  in  New 
York,  for  any  thing  in  Jersey. 

"Your  excellency  has  neither  by  birth  nor  ac- 
quisition, a  right  to  the  sovereignty  of  New  Jersey ; 
nor  have  you  any  power  of  governing  the  queen's 
subjects  here,  but  what  her  majesty  is  pleased  to 
grant  you  by  her  letters  patents,  under  the  great 
seal  of  England ;  by  which  letters  patents  the 
powers  therein  contained,  are  limited  to  that  country, 
which  was  formerly  granted  by  King  Charles  II., 
under  the  name  of  Nova  Caesaria  or  New  Jersey, 
and  which  has  since  been  subdivided  by  the  proprie- 
tors, and  called  East  New  Jersey,  and  West  New 
Jersey,  and  which  her  majesty  is  pleased  to  reunite 
under  one  entire  government,  viz.  '  The  divisions 
of  East  and  West  New  Jersey,  in  America ;  and  in 
case  of  your  excellency's  death,  or  absence  from 
that  country,  which  was  subdivided  by  the  proprie- 
tors, and  called  East  New  Jersey  and  West  New 
Jersey,  the  powers  of  government  are  lodged  in 
other  hands,'  Now  either  fort  Ann  and  the  city  of 
New  York,  is  in  that  country  granted  by  King 
Charles  II.,  and  subdivided  by  the  proprietors 
thereof,  and  called  East  New  Jersey  and  West  New 
Jersey ;  or  your  excellency  is  absent  from  New 
Jersey,  when  you  are  at  fort  Ann  in  New  York  ; 
that  fort  Ann  is  in  New  Jersey,  we  believe,  that 
even  your  excellency  will  think  impracticable  to 
persuade  us  to  do  so  much  violence  to  our  reason  as 
to  believe  ;  therefore  your  excellency  when  at  fort 
Ann,  or  any  where  in  New  York,  is  absent  from 
New  Jersey  ;  and  what  the  consequence  is  we  need 
not  say,  thinking  the  pretence  of  a  power  to  do  acts 
of  government  relating  to  New  Jersey,  at  fort.  Ann, 
in  New  York,  to  be  so  manifestly  absurd,  as  to 
need  nothing  further  to  be  said  against  it, 

44  There  is  nothing  more  common  in  the  statutes 


than  the  establishing  fees,  and  we  are  of  opinion 
that  all  fees  have  been  established  by  act  of  parlia- 
ment ;  and  indeed  it  seems  to  us  unreasonable  they 
should  be  established  by  any  other  authority  ;  for  if 
a  governor,  either  with  or  without  his  council,  can 
appoint  what  sums  of  money  shall  be  paid  for  fees, 
he  may  make  them  large  "enough  to  defray  the 
charge  of  government,  without  the  formality  of  an 
act  of  assembly,  to  raise  a  revenue  for  the  necessary 
support  of  the  same ;  and  if  it  does  not  come  up  to 
the  taxing  of  the  queen's  subjects,  without  their 
consent  in  assembly,  we  are  to  seek  what  does. 

'"  We  cannot  think  the  clause  of  your  excellency's 
instructions,  which  we  have  recited,  to  be  so  foreign 
to  the  matter  of  fees,  as  your  excellency  says  it  is; 
for  the  enforcing  the  payment  of  fees  by  any  autho- 
rity but  that  of  the  assembly's,  is  taking  away  a 
man's  goods  otherwise  than  by  established  or  known 
laws,  except  the  act  of  a  governor  and  council  be  a 
law,  which  we  think  is  not,  nor  never  intended  by 
the  queen  it  should  ;  nor  do  we  think,  by  the  instruc- 
tions your  excellency  mentions,  you  are  to  establish 
fees  ;  but  only  to  regulate  those  already  appointed, 
and  to  take  care  that  no  exaction  was  used  ;  but  if 
it  did,  your  excellency  has  convinced  the  world, 
that  you  do  not  think  yourself  bound  by  the  queen's 
instructions,  but  where  the  law  binds  also. 

"  As  in  the  case  of  Ormston,  -where  nothing  could 
be  more  positive  than  her  majesty's  directions  ;  yet 
your  excellency  did  not  think  yourself  ministerial, 
or  by  not  complying  with  her  majesty's  orders,  that 
you  accused  the  best  of  queens,  with  commanding 
her  governor  to  do  a  thing  which  was  not  warranted 
by  law ;  nor  never  inquired,  whether  the  refusing 
obedience  to  her  commands,  was  a  fit  return  for  the 
many  favours  she  had  bestowed  upon  you ;  but  go- 
verned yourself  in  that  singular  instance  as  near  as 
you  could  by  the  law.  The  seventh  clause  was  not 
put  in  to  arraign  the  queen's  express  commands  to 
your  excellency  ;  but  to  complain  of  the  great  hai'd- 
ships  her  majesty's  subjects  lay  under,  by  your  excel- 
lency's putting  the  records  there  mentioned,  into  the 
hands  of  Peter  Sonmans,  who  is  not  the  proprietors' 
recorder,  nor  had  no  express  command  from  the 
queen  to  put  the  books  into  his  hands ;  and  may  in 
part  answer  the  challenge  made  by  your  excellency 
in  the  last  part  of  the  next  foregoing  clause  ;  for  your 
excellency  had  commanded  the  said  records  to  be 
put  into  the  hand  of  Mr.  Bass,  the  queen's  secretary ; 
upon  which,  application  was  made  to  her  majesty, 
who  was  pleased  to  give  an  order  in  favour  of  the 
proprietors;  and  without  all  peradventure,  it  was 
intended  they  should  be  in  the  hands  of  the  proprie- 
tors' recorder,  which  Mr.  Thomas  Gordon  was  at 
that  time,  and  regularly  is  still,  being  constituted  by 
the  majority  of  the  proprietors  in  the  Eastern-  divi- 
sion, and  by  your  excellency  sworn.  Mr.  John 
Barclay  was  als'o  by  your  excellency  sworn,  and  i 
proclamation  issued  in  his  favour  ;  since  which  Mr. 
Peter  Sonmans  arrived  from  England,  and  upon 
application  to  your  excellency,  was  by  your  excel- 
lency admitted  receiver-general  of  the  quit-rents, 
and  the  proprietors'  records  by  your  excellency  put 
into  his  hands ;  which,  with  submission,  we  think 
could  not  be  done  regularly  by  your  excellency. 
For  in  the  first  place,  they  were  constituted  by  the 
majority  of  the  proprietors,  whose  servants  they 
were,  and  to  whom  they  were  accountable,  and  to 
none  else. 

"  2.  These  places  were  the  properties  of  Mr.  Tho- 
mas Gordon  and  Mr.  John  Barclay ;  and  to  deprive* 
them  of  them,  without  due  course  of  law,  is  what 

3  M  2 


€12 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


your  excellency  has  no  authority  to  do,  nor  can 
have. 

"  3.  Whether  they  were  made  by  the  greater  or 
lesser  part  of  the  proprietors,  your  excellency  was 
no  ways  concerned,  nor  had  any  right  of  determin- 
ing in  the  favour  of  either  one  or  other,  the  law 
being  open  to  any  who  thought  themselves  ag- 
grieved. 

"  4.  Those  books  and  records  were  the  properties 
of  the  general  proprietors  ;  and  if  your  excellency 
can  dispossess  any  proprietor  of  them  (for  Thomas 
Gordon  was  a  proprietor),  and  put  them  into  the 
hands  of  another,  you  may  by  the  same  rule  dis- 
possess any  one  of  their  goods,  and  give  them  to 
who  you  think  fit,  and  any  proprietor  of  their  pro- 
perty, and  give  it  to  which  of  the  proprietors  you 
think  fit,  as  is  actually  done  by  your  excellency  in 
the  case  of  Sonmans ;  and  was  attempted  with  the 
same  violence  in  favour  of  Mr.  Bass.  It  will  not  be 
a  sufficient  answer  to  this,  to  say,  Sonmans  was 
proprietors'  agent;  which  whether  he  was  or  was 
not,  your  excellency  had  no  right  to  determine  to 
any  other  purpose  but  administering  an  oath  to  him, 
after  which  he  was  of  course  to  be  allowed ;  and  so 
ought  as  many  agents  as  the  proprietors  made,  who 
were  not  accountable  to  your  excellency  for  any 
procedures  in  the  proprietors'  affairs,  that  were  not 
unlawful. 

"  5.  Soomans  neither  had,  nor  pretended  to  have, 
at  that  time  (whatever  he  has  done  since)  any  right 
or  colour  of  right,  to  be  the  proprietors'  recorder, 
not  any  mention  being  made  of  it  in  that  very  lame 
commission  he  had ;  and  were  he  to  have  the  top  of 
his  pretences,  it  would  but  to  be  deputy  to  a  person 
in  England  ;  and  whether  he  has  a  right  or  not,  is  a 
great  question,  and  regularly  only  determinable  at 
the  common  law;  but  your  excellency's  shorter 
method  of  procedure  saves  disputes  of  that  kind. 
If  this  be  acting  according  to  established  and  known 
laws,  not  repugnant  to,  but  as  agreeable  as  may  be, 
to  the  laws  of  England ;  if  this  be  administering 
those  laws  for  the  preservation  and  protection  of 
the  people,  we  would  be  very  gladly  informed,  what 
perverting  of  them  can  be  ;  as  to  the  matter  of  fact, 
we  aver  it  to  be  truth,  that  Mr.  Sonmans  did  not 
reside  in  the  province,  had  not  given  security  for 
the  keeping  of  those  records,  as  by  the  queen  is 
positively  directed,  they  were  carried  out  of  the 
Eastern  division,  and  were  produced  at  the  su- 
preme court  at  Burlington  at  the  time  of  our  com- 
plaint. 

"  Those  things,  and  that  gentleman's  character, 
are  so  well  known,  that  it  is  needless  to  offer  any 
thing  else  in  justification  of  that  reasonable  request 
we  made,  that  they  might  be  so  kept  as  her  ma- 
jesty's subjects  might  have  recourse  to  them,  and 
in  the  hands  of  such  of  whose  fidelity  there  is  no 
reason  to  doubt. 

"  These,  may  it  please  your  excellency,  were  the 
grievances  we  complained  of;  and  they  were  but  a 
small  number  of  many  we  could  with  equal  justice 
remonstrate ;  and  which,  notwithstanding  those  soft, 
cool,  and  considerate  terms  of  false,  scandalous, 
and  malicious,  and  other  bitter  invectives  which 
your  excellency  so  often  uses  to  the  representative 
body  of  a  country;  we  are  still  of  opinion,  they  are 
not  imaginary,  but  real  grievances,  not  false,  but 
God  knows  too  true ;  and  which  it  was  our  duty, 
in  discharge  of  the  trust  reposed  in  us,  to  get  re- 
dressed. 

"  Our  sad  experience  has  convinced  us,  that  our 
endeavours  have  not  met  with  a  tucccss  answerable 


to  what  might  ressouably  be  our  expectations,  and 
that  instead  of  redressing  the  grievances  of  the 
country,  their  number  is  increased.  Before  we 
enumerated  those  grievances  of  a  higher  nature, 
and  attended  with  worse  consequences,  we  first  said, 
the  treatment  the  people  of  New  Jersey  had  re- 
ceived, was  very  different  from  what  they  had 
reason  to  expect  under  the  government  of  a  queen 
deservedly  famous  for  her  just,  equal  and  mild  ad- 
ministration ;  that  the  hardships  they  endured,  were 
not  owing  to  her  majesty,  who  they  were  well 
assured,  would  by  no  means  make  any  of  her  sub- 
jects miserable,  nor  continue  their  misfortunes  were 
she  acquainted  with  them,  and  in  her  power  to  give 
them  relief;  but  that  the  oppressions  they  groaned 
under,  were  the  unkind  effects  of  mistaken  power ; 
and  what  these  effects  were,  and  who  the  cause  of 
them,  we  proceeded  to  show ;  and  if  the  instances 
we  there  give  be  true,  it  will  then  appear  to  the 
world,  that  the  expressions  we  have  used  are  the 
softest  could  be  chosen,  and  very  far  short  of  what 
the  nature  of  the  thing  could  bear,  and  that  these 
bold  accusers  are  a  sort  of  creatures  called  honest 
men,  just  to  the  trust  reposed  in  them  by  the 
country,  who  will  not  suffer  their  liberties  and  pro- 
perties to  be  torn  from  them  by  any  man,  how  great 
soever,  if  they  can  hinder  it. 

"  And  that  the  reasonableness  of  our  complaints 
may  appear  the  plainer,  we  shall  consider  what 
your  excellency  has  said  in  answer,  and  leave  it  to 
our  superiors,  and  to  all  just  and  impartial  men, 
whether  we  are  not  a  people  the  most  abused  of  any 
of  her  majesty's  subjects. 

"  As  to  the  first  instance,  your  excellency  does 
acknowledge  the  fact  to  be  true,  and  offers  the  fol- 
lowing reasons  to  justify  your  conduct  to  the  council 
ofproprietors.  The  first  is,  that  by  her  majesty's 
directions  you  are  to  allow  of  all  such  agents  as  the 
general  proprietors  shall  appoint,  such  agents  qua- 
lifying themselves  by  taking  such  oaths  as  the 
queen  is  pleased  to  direct,  and  no  other ;  that  no 
persons  under  the  name  of  a  council  of  proprietors, 
have  ever  tendered  themselves  to  take  such  oaths  ; 
consequently  they  are  not  capable  of  acting  as 
agents. 

"  2.  That  the  council  of  proprietors  are  a  people 
pretending  to  act  by  a  power  derived  from  certain 
persons  'who  have  no  power  to  grant,  and  that  this  is 
a  truth,  viz.  that  they  are  a  people  pretending  to  act 
by  a  power  derived  from  certain  persons,  who  had 
uo  power  to  grant,  your  excellency  is  satisfied  ; 
besides  other  reasons,  by  this  in  particular,  that  the 
assembly  have  voted  to  put  the  records  into  the 
hands  of  Peter  Sonmans,  to  be  a  grievance;  whereas 
their  not  qualifying  themselves  is  a  greater  griev- 
ance. To  set  this  mattej  in  a  true  light,  it  will  not 
be  improper  to  produce  the  words  of  the  instruct- 
ions, which  are  as  follows  :  "  You  are  to  permit 
the  surveyors  and  other  persons  appointed  by  the 
before-mentioned  general  proprietors  of  the  soil  of 
that  province,  for  surveying  and  recording  the 
surveys  of  lands  granted  by  and  held  of  them,  to 
execute  accordingly  their  respective  trusts.  And 
you  are  likewise  to  permit,  and  if  need  be,  to  aid 
and  assist  such  other  agent  or  agents,  as  shall  be 
appointed  by  the  said  proprietors  for  that  end,  to 
collect  and  receive  the  quit-rents,  which  are  or 
shall  be  due  unto  them,  from  the  particular  possessor 
of  any  tracts  or  parcel  of  land  from  time  to  time ; 
provided  always,  that  such  surveyors,  agents,  or 
other  officers  appointed  by  the  said  general  proprie- 
tors, do  not  only  take  proper  oaths  for  the  due 


UNITED  STATES. 


613 


execution  and  performance  of  their  respective 
offices  and  employments,  and  give  good  and  suffici- 
ent security  for  their  so  doing ;  but  that  they  like- 
wise take  the  oaths  appointed  by  act  of  parliament 
to  be  taken  instead  of  the  oaths  of  allegiance  and 
supremacy ;  as  also  the  test,  and  subscribe  the 
before-mentioned  association ;  all  which  you  are 
accordingly  to  require  of  them,  and  not  otherwise 
to  admit  any  person  into  any  such  office  or  employ- 
ment.' After  the  proprietors  had  surrendered  their 
power  of  government,  relating  to  their  soil,  they  were 
under  a  necessity  of  employing  persons  to  survey 
and  record  the  surveys  of  lands  granted  by  and 
held  of  them  ;  and  in  the  Eastern  division,  several 
quit-rents  being  due  to  them,  there  was  a  necessity 
of  having  one  or  more  agents  to  collect  and  receive 
those  rents ;  which  persons  (because  the  crown  in- 
tended that  the  proprietors  by  the  surrender  of  their 
government,  should  by  no  means  be  insecure  in 
their  properties)  your  excellency  was  directed  not 
only  to  permit  such  officers  to  be  and  execute  their 
respective  trusts,  but  also  to  aid  and  assist  them,  if 
need  were  ;  and  because  such  offices  were  places  of 
trust,  both  with  respect  to  the  proprietors  and  the 
inhabitants,  it  was  directed,  that  they  should  take 
proper  oaths,  and  give  good  and  sufficient  security; 
and  that  they  who  enjoyed  those  places  of  trust, 
might  be  persons  well  affected  to  the  present  govern- 
ment, there  was  especial  care  taken,  to  direct,  that 
they  should  lake  the  oaths  appointed  by  act  of 
parliament  to  be  taken,  which  your  excellency  was 
to  require  of  them,  and  not  otherwise  to  admit  them 
to  execute  those  trusts.  From  all  which  we  observe, 
first,  that  no  agents  are  concerned  in  that  instruct- 
ion, but  such  as  were  to  survey  and  record  the 
surveys  of  lands,  and  collect  the  quit-rents. 

"  2.  That  the  proprietors  were  not  limited  to 
employ  a  certain  number  of  agents,  but  might  em- 
ploy as  many  as  they  thought  fit;  all  which  your 
excellency  was  to  aid  and  assist  if  need  were. 

"  3.  Your  excellency  was  not  to  expect  while 
they  tendered  themselves  to  take  the  oaths  appointed, 
but  to  require  them  to  take  them,  and  upon  their 
refusal,  not  to  admit  them;  for  it  was  impossible  they, 
or  any  else,  should  deem  themselves  bound  by  the 
queen's  instructions  to  certain  performances,  ex- 
cept such  instructions  had  been  made  public,  and 
they  made  acquainted  with  it. 

"  Now,  in  the  first  place,  your  excellency  never 
published  any  such  instruction,  nor  ever  did  require 
those  agents,  called  the  council  of  proprietors,  to 
comply  with  it  by  taking  any  oaths. 

"  2.  The  council  of  proprietors  are  not  such 
agents  as  the  instructions  mention. 

"  3.  Were  that  instruction  binding,  your  excel- 
lency has  by  no  means  complied  with  it;  for  the 
surveyor  appointed  by  the  proprietors  of  the  Western 
division,  has  several  times  tendered  himself  to  take 
and  subscribe  according  to  her  majesty's  directions, 
and  has  been  refused. 

"4.  Mr.  Sonmans,  though  a  bankrupt,  and  his 
powers  disputed,  was  admitted  to  keep  the  records  of 
the  Eastern  division,  and  that  without  any  security  ; 
and  persons  who  were  sworn  to  those  places,  and  em- 
ployed by  proprietors,  and  a  greater  number,  not 
only  not  permitted  to  act,  but  deprived  of  their 
places  (with  which  your  lordship  had  nothing  to  do) 
without  a  due  course  of  law,  forcibly  by  your  lord- 
ship's directions. 

"  Lastly,  the  council  of  proprietors  are  attorneys 
to  private  men,  for  the  taking  care  of  their  several 
properties,  and  are  neither  concerned  in  that  in- 


struction, nor  bound  by  it ;  if  they  were,  we  shall 
not  dispute  how  far  that  instruction  may  be  a  law  to 
your  lordship,  but  we  are  sure  it  is  so  to  nobody  else, 
but  where  the  laws  of  the  land  bind  without  it;  and 
if  so,  it  is  no  sufficient  warrant  to  destroy  any  man's 
property,  or  deprive  him  of  the  use  of  it,  without 
the  judgment  of  his  peers  ;  for  your  lordship  cannot 
but  know — if  you  do  not,  the  last  clause  of  the  petition 
of  right  will  tell  you — that  the  queen's  servants  are  to 
serve  her  according  to  law,  and  not  otherwise  ;  and 
every  gentleman  of  the  law  can  inform  your  excel- 
lency, if  he  pleased,  that  the  queen's  authority  or 
warrant  produced  (if  you  had  done  any  such  thing) 
cannot  justify  the  commission  of  an  unlawful  act, 
which  this  certainly  must  be,  except  the  law  pro- 
vides that  no  man  must  make  an  attorney  but 
with  your  lordship's  approbation.  As  to  the  second 
reason,  to  use  your  excellency's  expressions,  if  we 
could  wonder  at  any  thing  your  excellency  has 
done,  it  would  be  at  the  reason  your  excellency 
gives,  as  much  as  at  the  action  ;  it  being  a  plain  pre- 
tending to  a  right  of  judging  solely  who  have  a 
right  to  their  estates,  and  who  not,  and  according 
to  that  judgment  to  permit  them  to  retain  or  force 
them  to  part  with  their  possessions ;  for  in  the  first 
place,  that  matter  was  never  brought  before  your 
lordship,  and  what  information  you  had  (if  you  had 
any)  was  private  ;  and  we  are  told  no  freeman  can 
be  dispossessed  of  his  freehold  but  by  judgment  of  his 
peers,  or  the  law  of  the  land ;  but  here  is  at  once  a 
determination  that  a  number  of  proprietors,  nigh 
or  above  nine-tenths  of  the  whole,  have  no  right  to 
grant,  and  accordingly  they  are  prohibited  taking 
up  or  disposing  of  their  lands ;  for  the  council  of 
proprietors  are  all  proprietors  themselves,  except 
Mr.  Morris  their  president ;  and  we  can't  see  but 
any  freeman,  or  number  of  freemen,  in  the  province, 
may  be  dispossessed  by  the  same  measures;  for  it  is 
but  your  lordship's  saying,  the  persons  they  had 
their  lands  from  had  no  right  to  grant,  and  then  or- 
der the  possessors  to  make  no  further  improvements, 
nor  to  dispose  of  any  of  their  lands,  and  thus  con- 
clude them  without  the  tedious  formality  of  the  old 
magna  charta  way :  and  who  is  hardy  enough  to  dis- 
pute with  a  man  that  commands  two  provinces  ? 

"  2.  What  your  excellency  asserts,  with  relation 
to  the  council  of  proprietors,  viz.,  that  they  were 
persons  deriving  a  power  from  those  who  had  no 
right  to  grant,  is  what  your  excellency  neither  did 
nor  could  know ;  that  you  did  not  know  it,  no- 
thing is  more  plain;  because  your  excellency,  some 
days  after  your  lordship's  answrer  to  our  remon- 
strance, summoned  some  of  the  council  of  proprie- 
tors before  yourself  in  council,  and  there  asked 
them  the  following  questions  :  viz.,  First,  who  the 
late  council  of  proprietors  were  ?  Secondly,  who 
were  the  present  council  of  proprietors  ?  Thirdly, 
who  they  derived  their  powers  from  ?  Fourthly, 
what  their  powers  were  ?  By  which  it  appears,  your 
excellency  neither  knew  who  the  council  of  pro- 
prietors were,  what  their  powers  were,  nor  who  they 
derived  them  from  ;  which  is  very  far  from  knowing 
whether  the  persons  who  gave  them  those  powers 
had  power  to  grant  or  not ;  and  that  your  excel- 
lency could  not  know  is  as  plain ;  because  the  deeds 
of  what  proprietors  are  in  this  country  you  never 
did  see ;  and  those  that  are  in  England  you  could 
not  see. 

"  How  your  excellency  is,  from  our  voting  the 
putting  the  records  into  Mr.  Sonnaan's  hands  to  be 
a  grievance,  satisfied  that  the  persons  from  wham 
the  council  of  proprietors  derive  their  power  have 


614 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


no  power  to  grant,  is  very  much  beyond  our  poor 
capacities  to  understand,  and  may  perhaps  be  of  the 
number  of  those  unanswerable  objections  your  lord- 
ship tells  us  of  in  your  answer.  To  the  next  clause, 
your  lordship  justifies  your  proceedings  with  the 
assembly-men  as  being  your  duty,  and  that  what 
you  did  was  by  virtue  of  the  queen's  instructions : 
how  far  they  will  justify  your  excellency's  conduct 
is  our  next  business  to  speak  to  ;  but  in  the  first 
place  we  are  obliged  to  your  excellency  for  acknow- 
ledging the  matter  of  fact,  which,  though  notoriously 
known,  was  omitted  to  be  entered  in  the  journals  of 
this  house,  by  your  excellency's  faithful  servant,  Mr. 
William  Anderson,  late  clerk  of  this  house. 

"  By  the  queen's  instructions,  not  the  least  colour 
of  authority  is  given  to  your  excellency  to  be  a 
judge  of  the  qualifications  of  assembly-men,  so  as  to 
admit  or  reject  them ;  which  is  not  only  a  direct  con- 
tradiction to  the  very  nature  and  being  of  assemblies, 
but  must  render  the  liberties,  lives,  and  properties 
of  the  people  entirely  at  your  excellency's  disposal, 
which,  as  her  majesty  never  intended,  so  without 
doubt  she  never  did  intend  by  any  instruction  to 
make  so  precarious  ;  and  how  well  she'll  be  pleased 
at  wresting  her  instructions  to  authorize  what  we 
are  well  satisfied  she  will  be  very  far  from  counte- 
nancing, time  may  inform  us.  This  house  could 
not  be  so  much  wanting  to  themselves,  and  the  pro- 
vince they  represent,  as  to  omit  taking  notice  of  a 
procedure,  which  tends  to  destroy  the  very  being  of 
assemblies,  by  rendering  them  the  tools  of  a  go- 
vernor's arbitrary  pleasure,  and  the  enemies  instead 
of  the  preservers  of  the  liberties  of  their  country  ; 
and  we  are  well  assured  that  nothing  your  excel- 
lency has  said,  will  persuade  the  world  to  believe, 
that  your  excellency  or  any  other  governor  has  that 
power  you  pretend  to,  or  that  it  can  be  consistent 
with  tlie  liberties  of  a  free  people. 

"That  there  were  considerable  sums  of  money 
raised;  that  most  of  them  were  raised  with  intent 
and  purpose  to  give  to  your  lordship,  to  procure  the 
dissolution  of  the  last  assembly,  and  procure  such 
officers  as  the  contributors  should  approve  of;  that 
in  all  probability  the  money  so  raised  was  given  to 
your  lordship  ;  that  the  assembly  was  dissolved ; 
that  the  contributors  were  complied  with  as  far  as 
could  be  ;  that  you  did  receive  from  Doctor  John 
Johnston  '2001.  upon  the  score  of  the  proprietors  of 
the  Eastern  division  of  New  Jersey,  are  such  noto- 
rious truths,  that  it  is  a  vanity  to  deny  them,  and 
will  be  believed  notwithstanding  all  the  force  of 
evasive  arts  to  persuade  to  the  contrary.  And  since 
we  have  mentioned  Doctor  Johnston,  it  is  not  amiss 
to  inquire  whether  the  services  you  were  to  do  the 
proprietors  were  such  as  your  lordship  ought,  or 
ought  not  to  have  done ;  if  they  were  such  as  you 
ought  to  have  done,  you  ought  not  to  have  taken 
money  for  the  doing  of  them ;  if  they  were  such  as 
you  ought  not  to  have  done,  much  less  ought  your 
lordship  to  have  taken  money ;  and  had  you  not 
been  more  than  ordinarily  concerned  in  those  pri- 
vate contributions,  without  all  peradventure  would 
have  used  all  possible  endeavours  to  have  detected 
the  thing,  and  not  given  those  public  marks  of  your 
favour  to  the  persons  most  concerned  in  the  per- 
suading and  procuring  of  them. 

"  As  to  what  relates  to  the  assembly,  as  your 
lordship  is  not  accountable  to  this  house  for  what 
reasons  you  dissolved  them,  neither  is  this  house  to 
your  lordship  for  their  proceedings  ;  they  acted  as 
became  a  house  of  representatives  in  the  affair  ot 
Mr.  Gordon,  and  what  they  did  was  not  without 


your  lordship's  approbation ;  if  that  could  add  any 
;hing  to  the  power  they  had.  As  to  your  excellency's 
reflections  on  private  men,  it  is  below  the  repre- 
sentative body  of  a  province  to  take  any  further 
notice  of  them,  than  to  do  that  justice  to  the  two 
worthy  members  of  this  house,  as  to  say,  they  both 
have  and  deserve  better  characters  than  your  ex- 
cellency gives  them ;  and  that  the  humblest  appli- 
cation you  can  make  to  her  majesty  will  never  in 
duce  her  to  grant  you  a  power  to  use  any  means  to 
procure  a  satisfaction  but  what  the  laws  allow  of 
without  such  application  :  we  concluded  by  acquaint- 
ing your  excellency,  that  the  way  to  engage  the 
affections  of  a  people,  was  to  let  them  be  unmolested 
in  the  quiet  enjoyment  of  those  things  which  belong 
to  them  of  right,  and  should  have  dated  our  happi- 
ness from  your  excellency's  complying  with  so  rea- 
sonable and  just  a  desire  ;  to  which  your  excellency 
replied,  that  you  could  never  answer  taking  advice 
from  men  who  did  not  know  how  to  govern  them- 
selves, and  who  have  always  opposed  the  service  of 
the  queen,  and  interest  and  good  of  their  country. 
We  shall  wave  the  admirable  coolness  of  temper, 
and  considerateness  of  the  reflection,  and  say,  your 
excellency  could  hardly  have  used  plainer  terms,  to 
tell  us  you  will  not  let  us  be  quiet  in  the  enjoyment 
of  what  belongs  to  us  of  right ;  and  your  excellency's 
proceedings  since  that,  has  effectually  convinced 
the  world  that  we  have  not  put  a  wrong  construction 
on  your  excellency's  expressions. 

"Are  not  her  majesty's  loyal  subjects  hauled  to 
gaols,  and  there  lie  without  being  admitted  to  bail  ? 
and  those  that  are  the  conditions  of  their  recogni- 
sances are,  that  if  your  excellency  approves  not  of 
their  being  bailed  they  shall  return  to  their  prisons; 
several  of  her  majesty's  good  subjects  forced  to  ab- 
scond and  leave  their  habitations,  being  threatened 
with  imprisonment,  and  no  hopes  of  receiving  the 
benefit  of  the  law;  when  your  excellency's  absolute 
will  is  the  sole  measure  of  it.  One  minister  of  the 
church  of  England,  dragged  by  a  sheriff  from  Bur- 
lington to  Amboy,  and  there  kept  in  custody,  with- 
out assigning  any  reason  for  it,  and  at  last  hauled  by 
force  into  a  boat  by  your  excellency,  and  transported 
like  a  malefactor,  into  another  government,  and 
there  kept  in  a  garrison  a  prisoner,  and  no  reason 
assigned  for  these  violent  procedures,  but  your  ex- 
cellency's pleasure.  Another  minister  of  the  church 
of  England,  laid  under  a  necessity  of  leaving  the 
province,  from  the  reasonable  apprehensions  of 
meeting  with  the  same  treatment ;  no  orders  of  men 
either  sacred  or  civil,  secure  in  their  lives,  their 
liberties,  or  estates  ;  and  where  these  procedures 
will  end,  God  only  knows. 

"  If  these,  and  what  we  have  named  before,  be 
acts  of  mercy,  gentleness,  and  good  nature  ;  if  this 
be  doing  for  the  good,  welfare,  and  prosperity  of 
the  people  of  this  province  ;  if  this  be  the  admiuiu 
tering  laws  for  the  protection  and  preservation  of 
her  majesty's  subjects,  then  have  we  been  the  most 
mistaken  men  in  the  world,  and  have  had  the  falsest 
notion  of  things ;  calling  that  cruelty,  oppression, 
and  injustice,  which  are  their  direct  opposite?,  and 
those  things  slavery,  imprisonment,  and  hardships, 
which  are  freedom,  liberty,  and  ease  ;  and  must 
henceforth  take  France,  Denmark,  the  Muscovian, 
Ottoman  and  Eastern  empires,  to  be  the  best  models 
of  a  gentle  and  happy  government 

"  Your  excellency  at  last  endeavours  to  persuade 
the  country,  that  the  assembly  instead  of  protecting 
are  invading  the  liberties  of  the  people  ;  and  if  wo 
might  have  the  liberty  of  using  some  of  your  excel- 


UNITED  STATES. 


615 


lency's  cool  and  considerate  terms,  perhaps  the  fol- 
lowing instances  might  justify  those  expressions ; 
but  we  leave  that  to  just  and  impartial  men,  who 
no  doubt  will  apply  them  where  they  are  most  due. 
"  Your  excellency  asserts  in  the  first  place,  '  you 
have  presumed  to  take  the  queen's  subjects  into 
the  custody  of  the  serjeant-at-arms,  who  are  not 
members  of  your  house,  which  you  can't  lawfully 
do,  and  is  a  notorious  violation  of  the  liberties  of 
the  people.'  Answer  :  There  is  nothing  more 
known,  than  that  the  contrary  to  what  your  ex- 
cellency says  is  true,  and  hardly  a  session  of  par- 
liament but  affords  multitudes  of  instances,  nay, 
several  instances  can  be  produced  during  the  time 
of  your  excellency's  being  iu  the  house  of  commons ; 
and  what  your  excellency  means  by  asserting  a 
thing  which  every  body  that  knows  any  thing  knows 
is  not  so,  we  can't  tell. 

"  Secondly,  '  You  have  taken  upon  you  to  ad- 
minister an  oath  to  one  of  your  members,  and  have 
expelled  him  from  the  house  for  refusing  to  take  an 
oath  which  you  could  not  legally  administer  to  him  ; 
this  is  most  certainly  robbing  that  member  of  his 
property,  and  a  most  notorious  assuming  to  your- 
selves a  negative  voice  to  the  freeholders'  election 
of  their  representatives,  for  which  there  can  be  no 
precedent  found.'  Answer:  We  never  did  admi- 
nister an  oath  (though  we  think  we  have  power  so 
to  do)  ;  what  oaths  were  administered  were  adminis- 
tered by  justices  of  the  peace  before  us  :  we  expelled 
that  member  for  several  contempts,  for  which  we 
are  not  accountable  to  your  excellency,  nor  nobody 
else  in  this  province  :  we  might  lawfully  expel  him, 
and  if  we  had  so  thought  fit,  might  have  rendered  him 
incapable  of  ever  sitting  in  this  house  ;  and  of  this 
many  precedents  may  be  produced.  We  are  the 
freeholders'  representatives :  and  how  it's  possible 
we  should  assume  a  negative  voice  at  the  election 
of  ourselves,  is  what  wants  a  little  explanation  to 
make  it  intelligible. 

"  Thirdly,  '  You  have  arbitrarily  taken  upon  you 
to  command  the  high-sheriff  of  this  county,  to  dis- 
charge a  prisoner  who  was  in  his  custody  at  the  suit 
of  one  of  the  queen's  subjects  ;  and  he  has  been 
weak  enough  to  do  it,  for  which  he  lies  liable  to  be 
sued  for  an  escape  whenever  the  gentleman  thinks 
fit  to  do  it,  and  from  which  you  can't  protect  him ; 
this  is  a  notorious  violation  of  the  right  of  the  sub- 
ject, and  a  manifest  interruption  of  justice.'  An- 
swer :  The  person  we  ordered  to  be  discharged,  was 
an  evidence  attending  by  order  of  the  house,  and 
under  the  protection  of  this  house ;  who  were  only 
wanting  to  themselves  in  not  sending  the  high-sheriff 
and  lawyers  to  the  same  place,for  daring  to  offer  so  pub- 
lic an  affront  to  the  representative  body  of  a  country. 
"  Fourthly,  '  You  have  taken  upon  you  to  ap- 
point one  of  your  members  to  act  as  clerk  of  the 
committee  of  the  whole  house,  which  you  have  no 
power  to  do,  &c.'  Answer  :  Your  excellency  has 
been  so  very  much  mistaken  in  all  the  foregoing 
clauses,  that  we  have  great  reason  to  believe  you 
are  so  in  this.  This  house  has  always  till  of  late 
made  their  own  clerks,  and  your  excellency  cannot 
show  us  any  law  why  we  may  not  do  it  still,  should 
we  think  fit  to  insist  on  it.  We  have  made  no  en- 
croachments on  her  majesty's  prerogative  royal, 
nor  never  intended  to  do  it,  but  shall  to  our  utmost 
study  to  preserve  it,  and  honourably  support  her  go- 
vernment over  us,  and  hope  your  excellency  will 
think  it  for  the  service  of  the  queen  to  comply  with 
our  reasonable  desires ;  which  will  very  much  en- 
courage us  so  to  do. 


J"  Divers  of  the  members  of  this  assembly  being 
of  the  people  called  Quakers,  do  assent  to  the  mat- 
ter and  substance,  but  make  some  exception  to  the 
style.  "  By  order  of  the  house, 

"  P.  M.  Die  Veneris,          "  SAMUEL  JEN  INGS, 
24  Octobris,  1707.  "  Speaker." 

Memorial  of  the  West  Jersey  proprietors  residing  in 
England,  to  the  lords  commissioners  for  trade  and 
plantations — The  lieutenant-governor,  until  some  of 
the  council,  address  the  queen — The  last  meeting  of 
assembly  under  Cornbury's  administration —  They 
continue  their  complaints — Samuel  Jenings'  death 
and  character. 

It  being  necessary  to  narrate  the  foregoing  pro- 
ceedings together,  the  following  memorial  has  been 
deferred  a  little  out  of  course  as  to  strict  order  of 
time.  The  western  proprietors  residing  in  England 
had  much  resented  Lord  Cornbury's  treatment  of 
the  inhabitants,  especially  in  relation  to  the  three 
members  being  kept  out  of  the  assembly,  by  which 
he  gained  a  majority  devoted  to  his  measures;  and 
thus  they  complain. 
"  To  the  right  honourable  the  lords  commissioners 

for  trade  and  plantations. 
"  The  humble  memorial  of  the  proprietors  of  the 

Western  division  of  the  province  of  New  Jersey, 

in  America. 

"  We  humbly  acknowledge  your  lordships'  great 
justice,  in  making  the  terms  of  our  surrender  of  go- 
vernment part  of  the  Lord  Cornbury's  instructions 
relating  to  the  said  province,  and  heartily  wish  his 
excellency  had  given  us  occasion  of  acknowledging 
his  due  observation  of  the  instruction,  instead  of 
troubling  your  lordships  with  a  complaint  of  his 
breach  of  them,  which  we  are  fully  assured,  from 
undoubted  testimonies,  his  excellency  has  made  in 
the  following  instances  :  and  though  he  endeavours 
to  palliate  his  proceedings  there,  by  frequently  and 
publicly  asserting,  that  your  lordships  consented  to 
no  terms  upon  our  surrender;  yet  were  that  as  great 
a  truth  as  it  is  a  mistake,  and  those  instructions  had 
been  only  of  grace  and  favour,  we  conceive  him  to 
be  obliged,  and  ourselves  entitled  to  his  punctual 
observation  of  them. 

"  It  is  one  of  the  terms  consented  to  by  your 
lordships,  and  one  of  his  excellency's  instructions 
from  your  lordships,  that  the  general  assembly 
shall  consist  of  four-and-twenty  representatives; 
two  to  be  chosen  by  the  inhabitants,  householders 
of  the  city  or  town  of  Perth  Amboy ;  two  by  the 
inhabitants,  householders  of  the  city  or  town  of 
Burlington ;  ten  to  be  chosen  by  the  freeholders-  of 
the  Eastern,  and  ten  by  the  freeholders  of  the 
Western  division  ;  in  which  election,  every  elector 
is  to  have  one  hundred  acres  of  freehold  land  in  his 
own  right,  within  the  division  for  which  he  shall 
choose ;  and  every  person  elected  is  to  have  one 
thousand  acres  of  freehold  land  in  his  own  rigbt, 
within  the  division  for  which  he  shall  be  chosen. 

"  This  instruction,  which  we  relied  on  as  the 
chief  security  of  our  estates  in  that  province,  his 
excellency  has  not  only  violated,  but  has  totally 
destroyed  that  part  of  our  constitution  ;  and  in  such 
a  manner  as  will  render  all  assemblies  a  mere  piece 
of  formality,  and  only  the  tools  of  a  governor's 
arbitrary  pleasure. 

"  For  setting  which  proceeding  in  a  due  light, 
we  must  crave  leave  to  lay  before  your  lordships 
the  account  we  have  received  of  it  from  our  agent, 
and  other  reputable  persons  of  that  province. 

"  An  asaembly  having  been  called  and  chosen,  in 


616 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  year  1703,  pursuant  to  your  lordships'  instruct- 
ions, prepared  bills  for  settling  the  rights  of  the 
proprietors  and  planters,  and  for  raising  a  revenue 
of  thirteen  hundred  pounds  per  annum,  for  three 
years  (which  they  knew  was  the  utmost  the  country 
could  bear),  for  th«  support  of  the  government ;  but 
his  excellency  requiring  a  greater  sum,  several  per- 
sons, our  constant  enemies  and  invaders  of  our 
properties,  and  who  therefore  opposed  the  bill  for 
settling  our  rights,  undertook  to  procure  an  as- 
sembly more  obedient  to  his  excellency's  demands  ; 
and  by  that  and  other  arguments,  which,  out  of 
regard  to  his  honour,  we  choose  to  wave  the  men- 
tion of,  prevailed  upon  him  to  dissolve  that  assembly, 
and  to  call  another  to  sit  in  November  last ;  the 
writs  were  issued,  and  the  election  directed  to  be 
made,  in  such  haste,  that  in  one  of  the  writs  the 
qualification  of  the  persons  to  be  elected  was 
mmtted,  and  the  sheriff  of  one  county  not  sworn 
till  three  days  before  the  election,  and  many  of  the 
towns  had  not  any  (much  less  due)  notice  of  the  day 
of  election  ;  but  passing  by  these,  and  many  other 
illegal  artifices  used  by  those  undertakers,  to  obtain 
an  assembly  to  their  own  humour,  we  shall  insist 
only  upon  one  grand  instance,  which  is  not  to  be 
parrallel'd  in  any  of  her  majesty's  plantations,  and 
could  not  have  been  attempted  without  his  excel- 
lency's encouragement,  nor  put  in  practice  without 
his  concurrence. 

"  When  this  assembly  was  met,  and  attended  his 
excellency  in  council,  in  order  to  be  sworn,  Mr. 
llevell  and  Mr.  Leeds  (two  of  the  governor's 
council,  and  of  the  undertakers  to  procure  such  an 
assembly  as  they  had  promised),  suspecting  the 
strength  of  their  party,  objected  against  three  of 
the  members  returned,  as  persons  not  having  each 
one  thousand  acres  of  land,  and  therefore  unquali- 
fied to  serve  in  the  assembly  ;  though  these  persons 
had  such  estates  in  land,  and  were  generally  known 
to  have  so,  and  at  the  time  of  their  election  had 
convinced  Revell  and  Leeds,  who  opposed  them 
under  that  pretence,  of  the  truth  of  it ;  and  this 
objection  was  not  examinable  or  determinable  by 
his  excellency  or  his  council,  or  otherwise  than  in 
the  house  of  representatives,  who  are  the  only  pro- 
per judges  of  their  own  members ;  yet  his  excel- 
lency, upon  this  bare  suggestion  of  Revell  and 
Leeds,  refused  to  swear  these  members,  and  ex- 
cluded them  from  sitting  to  serve  their  country ; 
this  attempt  was  seconded  by  another  trick  of  Revell 
and  Leeds,  who  immediately  sent  the  following 
note  to  the  house  of  representatives. 

"  'To  the  honourable  the  house  of  representatives. 

"  '  Gentlemen, — We  underwritten,  supposing  we 
/iad  good  reason  to  charge  three  of  the  persons 
returned  to  serve  as  representatives  in  this  general 
assembly  ;  but  upon  due  consideration  find  it  diffi- 
cult to  come  to  a  true  determination  thereof,  until 
we  can  by  further  inquiry  find  the  truth  of  what 
we  have  been  informed  of;  we  therefore  humbly 
desire  fourteen  days  time  further,  that  we  may  be 
able  more  fully  to  inform  this  house  therein,  which 
we  humbly  suppose  at  present  cannot  reasonably 
he  expected  from  us ;  we  subscribe  ourselves  your 
humble  supplicants,  THOMAS  REVELL. 

"  '  Nov.  15,  1704  DANIEL  LEEDS/ 

"  The  counties  for  which  they  were  chosen  to 
serve,  expressed  a  great  dissatisfaction  at  the  ex- 
clusion of  their  members  ;  and  these  and  several 
other  representatives  delivered  an  address  to  his 
excellency,  for  having  them  admitted  to  their  right ; 
which  met  with  no  other  reception,  than  being 


called  a  piece  ofinsolen.ee  and  ill  manners. 

"  By  this  exclusion  of  three  members,  and  the 
contempt  of  the  address  for  their  admission,  the 
undertakers  gained  a  majority  by  one  in  the  house 
of  representatives,  who  adjourned  the  hearing  of 
this  case,  until  they  had  reaped  the  fruits  of  their 
iniquity,  and  accomplished  the  ends  for  which  it 
was  contrived  ;  for  whilst  this  case  was  depending, 
a  bill  for  taking  away  the  qualifications  of  electors 
and  the  elected,  and  placing  the  right  of  choosing 
and  being  chosen  in  the  freeholders  generally, 
without  any  express  value  of  their  estates,  was  pre- 
pared and  passed,  wherein  there  is  this  remarkable 
and  self-condemning  declaration  of  his  excellency's 
proceedings,  viz.  that  representatives  met  in  general 
assembly  are  and  shall  be  the  judges  of  the  qualifi- 
cations of  their  own  members. 

"  After  this  and  one  other  act,  which  we  shall 
hereafter  take  notice  of  in  its  proper  place,  were 
passed,  a  day  of  hearing  was  allowed  to  the  three 
excluded  members,  and  notice  of  it  given  to  Revell 
and  Leeds,  who  would  not  vouchsafe  to  appear ; 
but  having  already  obtained  their  ends,  graciously 
signified  by  a  message,  their  mistake  in  their  ob- 
jection to  those  members. 

"  The  house  proceeded  in  the  inquiry,  and  by 
deeds  and  other  authentic  proofs,  was  so  fully 
satisfied  of  the  estates  of  the  excluded  members,  and 
that  llerell  and  Leeds  had  been  convinced  thereof, 
at  the  time  of  their  elections,  that  the  house  unani- 
mously declared  them  duly  qualified,  and  sent  two 
of  their  body  to  acquaint  his  excellency  of  it,  and 
to  pray  they  might  be  sworn;  but  his  excellency, 
whether  out  of  a  desire  of  assuming  the  glory  of  his 
arbitrary  proceeding  wholly  to  himself,  or  of  mak- 
ing the  country  sensible  that  notwithstanding  the 
act  so  lately  passed,  declaring  the  house  judges  of 
their  own  members ;  he  was  resolved  to  exercise 
that  power  for  the  future ;  or  for  what  other  reason 
we  know  not, — told  those  messengers  he  must  be 
satisfied  of  their  qualifications,  as  well  as  the  house  ; 
and  still  keeps  them  out  of  the  assembly. 

"  This  we  conceive  to  be  the  assuming  a  negative 
voice  to  the  freeholders'  election  of  their  represen- 
tatives ;  and  such  an  invasion  of  the  rights  of  the 
assembly,  as  will,  if  tolerated  or  connived  at,  place 
the  whole  legislature  in  the  governor ;  for  if  he  can, 
at  his  pleasure,  reject  three  representatives,  he  may 
reject  all,  and  make  what  laws  he  thinks  fit  without 
the  formality  of  an  assembly ;  but  if  this  notorious 
violation  of  our  constitution  had  not  been  made  by 
him,  and  the  assembly  had  consisted  of  its  full  pro- 
portion of  duly  elected  members,  we  conceive,  ani 
are  advised,  that  his  excellency  had  no  authority, 
nor  any  probable  colour  from  his  instructions  for 
passing  this  act;  for  though  the  instruction  relating 
to  the  election  of  general  assemblies,  allows  an  alte- 
ration by  act  of  assembly,  of  the  number  of  the 
representatives,  and  the  manner  of  their  being 
elected,  it  leaves  no  power  to  the  general  assembly 
to  alter  the  qualifications  of  the  electors  or  elected  j 
which  was  intended  to  be  a  standing  and  unalter- 
able part  of  the  constitution,  as  most  agreeable  to 
the  constitution  of  England,  where  the  electors  of 
knights  of  the  counties  must  have  a  certain  fixed 
freehold  ;  and  the  elected  are  generally  the  princi- 
pal landed  men  of  their  respective  counties;  but 
the  alteration  now  made  was  intended  to  put  the 
election  representatives  into  the  hands  of  the  mean- 
est of  the  people,  who  being  impatient  of  any  su- 
periors, will  never  fail  to  choose  such  from  amongst 
themselves  as  may  oppress  us.  and  destrov  our  rights 


UNITED  STATE*. 


617 


"  It  is  another  term  of  our  surrender,  and  an  in- 
struction to  his  excellency,  that  no  act  should  be 
made  to  lay  a  tax  upon  unprofitable  lands ;  but  his 
excellency  has  encouraged  and  assented  to  a  bill  in 
this  last  assembly,  for  taxing  (without  distinction) 
all  lauds  belonging  to  the  inhabitants  there,  and  to 
all  others  not  inhabiting  there  who  have  settled  any 
plantations,  either  by  tenants,  servants,  or  negroes; 
it  is  objection  enough  to  this  act,  that  there  is  no 
other  colony  in  America  wherein  uncultivated  lands 
are  taxed ;  and  as  this  act  was  intended,  so  none 
more  effectual  could  have  been  contrived  to  preju- 
dice the  country  in  general,  or  the  proprietors  in 
particular ;  for  if  any  man  has  a  thousand  or 
more  acres  of  laud,  which  he  can  neither  manure 
nor  sell  (as  most  of  the  first  planters  have),  he  must 
pay  a  tax  for  this  land  which  may  eat  up  the  great- 
est part  of  the  profit  of  what  he  can  and  does  culti- 
vate, or  he  must  desert  the  whole ;  and  if  we,  who 
have  great  tracts  of  land  of  many  thousand  acres  to 
sell,  let  or  settle  but  a  few  acres  to  maintain  our 
agents  or  servants,  we  must  pay  a  tax  for  all  the 
residue,  which  yields  us  nothing.  In  consequence 
of  this  act  several  persons  who  had  agreed  with  our 
agent  for  lands,  have  renounced  their  bargains,  and 
removed  into  other  countries,  where  they  can  pur- 
chase great  tracts  of  land,  and  preserve  them  for  their 
posterity  to  settle  on ;  and  we,  unless  relieved  from 
this  oppression,  must  deliver  up  our  lands  or  our 
purses.  This  tax  is  imposed  by  the  act  passed  in 
the  assembly  for  raising  a  revenue  of  '2,000/.  per 
annum,  for  two  years,  for  the  support  of  her  ma- 
jesty's government  within  that  province  ;  and  we 
have  great  reason  to  believe  it  to  be  part  of  the  re- 
turn promised  by  the  undertakers  to  his  excellency, 
for  his  dissolving  the  former  assembly,  and  curtail- 
ing the  last  of  three  members. 

"  It  is  another  term  of  our  surrender,  and  an  in- 
struction to  his  excellency,  that  the  surveyors  and 
other  persons  appointed  by  us,  for  surveying  and 
recording  the  surveys  of  land  granted  and  sold  by 
us,  shall  be  permitted  to  execute  their  trusts ;  but 
his  excellency  has  taken  upon  him,  even  contrary 
to  the  advice  of  his  council,  to  appoint  fees  for 
patenting  lands,  which  has  created  an  opinion  in 
the  people,  that  the  power  of  granting  lands  is  in 
him,  has  lessened  the  credit  of  our  title  to  lands 
and  encouraged  the  planters  to  dispute  our  right. 

"  His  excellency  has  ordered  all  public  books, 
records  and  papers,  to  be  delivered  by  our  late 
cretary  to  Mr.  Bass,  our  great  debtor,  and  therefore 
our  avowed  enemy,  and  has  carried  our  records  oi 
deeds  and  conveyances  out  of  the  province  ;  by 
this  method  the  proprietors  of  both  the  divisions  are 
deprived  of  all  means  to  justify  their  past  admini- 
stration of  the  evidences  of  their  grants  of  lands  to 
the  purchasers  under  them  (all  the  surveys  and 
patents  being  recorded  in  those  books),  and  will  de- 
stroy the  office  of  our  register,  or  at  least  will  disable 
him  to  perform  his  duty  in  some  cases ;  which  by 
acts  of  general  assembly  he  is  obliged  to  do. 

"  It  is  a  further  term  of  our  surrender,  and  in- 
structions to  his  excellency,  that  all  officers  be  ap- 
pointed by  advice  of  the  council;  but  his  excellency 
has  constituted  several  officers  without  such  advice, 
and  particularly  a  sheriff  of  Burlington,  who  was 
therefore  suspended  by  order  of  council,  and  yel 
continued  to  act  under  his  lordship's  appointment. 

"  We  are  further  informed,  that  his  excellency 
hath  put  several  mean  and  contemptible  persons 
into  the  commission  of  the  peace,  particularly  one 
******  whom  he  knew  to  be  under  prosecution  for 


elony  ;  and  has  given  commissions  in  the  militia  to 
others,  who  have  no  estate  in  the  province,  and  there- 
fore are  not  like  to  be  zealous  in  the  defence  of  it. 

"  It  is  matter  of  some  wonder  to  us,  that  after  so 
many  acts  of  despotic  power,  his  excellency  did  not 
assume  to  himself,  or  obtain  from  the  last  assembly, 
an  authority  of  licencing  any  persons  to  purchase 
Sands  from  the  Indians,  but  condescends  to  apply  to 
your  lordships  for  an  alteration  of  his  instructions 
in  that  particular ;  there  wants  only  the  breach  of 
this  instruction  to  complete  the  ruin  of  our  interests 
n  New  Jersey,  and  we  humbly  hope  your  lordships 
will  not  enable  him  to  give  that  finishing  stroke. 
This  instruction,  founded  upon  the  right  which  the 
crown  of  England  claims  by  the  law  of  nations  to 
all  countries  discovered  by  English  subjects,  \vas 
intended  to  assert  that  right  against  the  pretences 
of  many  planters,  who  set  up  the  Indians'  title  in 
competition  with  it ;  and  if  that  right  be  taken  from 
the  grantees  of  the  crown,  all  patents  and  grants  of 
the  whole  main  land  of  North  America,  have  been 
only  royal  frauds  under  the  sanction  of  the  great 
seal  of  England,  and  no  man  will  ever  after  pur- 
chase lands  under  that  title. 

"  His  excellency  was  lately  so  fully  satisfied  of 
the  policy  and  reasonableness  of  asserting  this  right 
to  the  crown  and  its  grantees,  that  in  the  year  1703, 
he  recommended  and  assented  to  an  act  of  assem- 
bly, for  restraining  all  persons  besides  the  proprie- 
tors from  purchasing  lands  from  the  Indians  under 
great  penalties,  and  for  vacating  all  such  purchases 
formerly  made,  unless  the  purchasers  took  a  fresh 
grant  from  the  proprietors ;  of  which  act  we  humbly 
pray  your  lordships'  perusal. 

"  We  are  purchasers  for  ready  money,  under  a 
grant  from  King  Charles  II.,  and  are  willing  to  sell 
our  lands  and  the  Indians'  title  to  it  at  reasonable 
rates,  according  to  the  goodness  of  the  soil  and 
situation,  and  ought  not  to  be  compelled  to  accept 
a  quit-rent  (much  less  a  quit-rent  to  be  let  by  other 
persons  than  ourselves,  as  his  excellency  proposes) 
instead  of  selling  for  ready  money  ;  nor  ought  our 
properties  to  be  at  the  disposal  of  a  governor.  It 
is  not  the  want  of  a  power  in  the  planters  to  pur- 
chase lands  from  the  Indians,  but  the  taxing  of 
uncultivated  lands,  and  overturning  the  constitution 
for  assembly-men,  that  has  occasioned  those  persons 
mentioned  by  his  excellency,  to  remove  to  Penn- 
sylvania and  other  colonies. 

"  May  it  please  your  lordships  ; 

"  The  usage  we  have  received  from  his  excel- 
lency is  so  contrary  to  the  terms  of  our  surrender 
of  government,  to  the  assurances  we  had  from  your 
lordships  of  the  due  observance  of  them,  and  to  the 
plain  instructions  given  by  your  lordships  to  his 
excellency  ;  that  we  humbly  hope  it  will  not  be 
thought  any  immodesty  or  want  of  duty  in  us,  to 
protest,  as  we  do  protest,  against  all  the  proceedings 
of  the  last  assembly,  wherein  by  the  arbitrary  ex- 
clusion of  three  members  without  any  just  excep- 
tion, the  country  was  not  duly  represented,  and  to 
beg  your  lordships'  intercession  with  her  majesty, 
that  the  acts  passed  in  that  assembly  may  not  bo 
confirmed  by  her  royal  assent. 

"  We  further  pray,  that  Colonel  Lewis  Morris, 
who  has  been  a  second  time  suspended  from  his 
place  in  council,  by  his  excellency,  only  for  using 
the  freedom  which  every  member  of  the  council  is 
entitled  to,  and  ought  to  exercise,  of  opposing  any 
bill  brought  before  them,  if  he  conceives  it  preju- 
dicial to  the  interest  either  of  the  country  in  general, 
or  of  any  particular  persons,  may  be  restored  ;  and 


618 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


that  your  lordships  will  please  to  place  in  the  room 
of  such  as  are  dead,  some  of  the  persons  following 
viz.,  Mr.  Miles  Foster,  Mr.  Richard  Townley,  Mi 
Hugh  Huddy,  Mr.  William  Hall,  and  Mr.  Job 
Harrison,  who  are  men  of  known  integrity  an 
estates;  and  as  a  further  security  of  our  estate 
there,  and  that  no  persons  may  at  any  time  be  ac 
mitted  of  the  governor's  council,  or  to  be  in  th 
commission  of  the  peace,  or  of  the  militia,  but  sue 
who  have  real  estates  in  the  province  suitable  t 
their  stations,  and  who  reside  there. 

"Signed  by  Thomas  Lane,  Paul  Dominique 
John  Bridges,  Robert  Mitchel,  Thomas  Burrow 
Francis  Mitchel,  Eben.  Jones,  Joseph  Broosbank 
John  Norton,  J.  Bennet,  E.  Richier,  Tho.  Skinner 
Richard  Greenaway,  Joseph  Collins,  Cha.  Mitche] 
Joseph  Micklethwait,  Tho.  Lewes,  Wm.  Snelling.' 
Two  days  after  Lord  Cornbury  had  refused  t 
receive  the  assembly's  reply,  he  sent  for  them;  ani 
though  several  important  bills  were  unfinished,  ad 
journed  the  house  to  the  spring  next  year.  No 
receiving  the  reply  in  form,  he  escaped  the  neces 
sity  of  attempting  to  clear  up  what  he  could  not  d< 
with  justice  or  equity.  As  very  glaring  facts  con 
firmed  the  truth  of  the  charges  against  him,  h( 
thought  the  most  effectual  way  of  avoiding  them  was 
to  lodge  a  complaint  with  the  queen;  accordingly 
'his  adherent  the  lieutenant-  governor  Ingoldsby 
with  some  of  the  council,  signed  and  privately 
transmitted  an  address  as  follows. 

"  To  the  queen's  most  excellent  majesty. 
"  The  humble   address  of  the  lieutenant-governo 
and  council  of  Nova  Caesaria  or  New  Jersey,  in 
America. 

"  May  it  please  your  majesty  ; 
"  We  the  lieutenant-governor  and  council  o 
your  majesty's  province  of  Nova  Caesaria  or  New 
Jersey,  having  seriously  and  deliberately  taken 
into  consideration  the  proceedings  of  the  present 
assembly  or  representative  body  of  this  province, 
thought  ourselves  bound,  both  in  duty  and  con- 
science, to  testify  to  your  majesty,  our  dislike  and 
abhorrence  of  the  same ;  being  very  sensible,  that 
the  unaccountable  humours  and  pernicious  designs 
of  some  particular  men,  have  put  them  upon  so 
many  irregularities,  with  intention  only  to  occa- 
sion divisions  and  distractions,  to  the  disturbance 
of  the  great  and  weighty  affairs  which  both  your 
majesty's  honour  and  dignity,  as  well  as  the  peace 
and  welfare  of  the  country,  required.  Their  high 
encroachments  upon  your  majesty's  prerogative 
royal ;  notorious  violations  of  the  rights  and  liber- 
ties of  the  subjects ;  manifest  interruptions  of 
justice,  and  most  unmannerly  treatment  of  his 
excellency  the  Lord  Cornbury,  would  have  induced 
us  sooner  to  have  discharged  our  duty  to  your  ma- 
jesty, in  giving  a  full  representation  of  the  unhappy 
circumstances  of  this  your  majesty's  province  and 
government ;  had  we  not  been  in  hopes  that  his 
excellency  the  Lord  Cornbury's  full  and  ample 
answer  to  a  most  scandalous  libel,  called  the  re- 
monstrance of  the  assembly  of  Nova  Ceesaria  or 
New  Jersey,  which  was  delivered  to  the  governor 
by  the  assembly  at  Burlington  in  May  last,  would 
have  opened  the  eyes  of  the  assembly,  and  brought 
them  back  to  their  reason  and  duty ;  but  finding 
that  those  few  turbulent  and  uneasy  spirits  in  the 
assembly  have  still  been  able  to  influence  and 
amuse  the  judgments  of  many  well-meaning  men  in 
that  body,  as  appears  by  another  late  scandalous 
and  infamous  libel,  called,  '  The  reply  of  the  house 
of  representatives  of  the  province  of  New  Jersey, 


to  an  answer  made  by  his  excellency  Edward 
Viscount  Cornbury,  governor  of  the  said  province, 
to  the  humble  remonstrance  of  the  aforesaid  house  : 
We  are  now  obliged  humbly  to  represent  to  your 
majesty  the  true  cause,  which  we  conceive  may 
lead  to  the  remedy  of  these  confusions. 

"  The  first  is  owing  to  the  turbulent,  factious, 
uneasy,  and  disloyal  principles  of  two  men  in  that 
assembly,  Mr.  Lewis  Morris,  and  Samuel  Jenings,  a 
quaker;  men  notoriously  known  to  be  uneasy  under 
all  government;  men  never  known  to  be  consistent 
with  themselves  ;  men  to  whom  all  the  factions  and 
confusions  in  the  government  of  New  Jersey  and 
Pennsylvania  for  many  years  are  wholly  owing ; 
men  that  have  had  the  confidence  to  declare  in  open 
council,  that  your  majesty's  instructions  to  your 
governors  in  these  provinces  shall  not  oblige  or 
bind  them,  nor  will  they  be  concluded  by  them, 
further  than  they  are  warranted  by  the  law,  of  which 
also  they  will  be  the  judges;  and  this  is  done  by 
them  (as  we  have  all  the  reason  in  the  world  to 
believe)  to  encourage  not  only  this  government,  but 
also  the  rest  of  your  governments  in  America,  to 
throw  off  your  majesty's  royal  prerogative,  and 
consequently  to  involve  all  your  dominions  in  this 
part  of  the  world,  and  the  honest,  good  and  well- 
neaning  people  in  them,  in  confusion,  hoping 
thereby  to  obtain  their  wicked  purposes. 

"  The  remedy  for  all  these  evils,  we  most  humbly 
propose,  is,  that  your  majesty  will  most  graciously 
[)lease  to  discountenance  those  wicked  designing 
nen,  and  show  some  dislike  to  this  assembly's  pro- 
ceedings, who  are  resolved  neither  to  support  this 
your  majesty's  government  by  a  revenue,  nor  take 
:are  to  defend  it  by  settling  a  militia.  The  last 
libel,  called  '  the  reply,  &c.'  came  out  so  suddenly, 
that  as  yet  we  have  not  had  time  to  answer  it  in  a*U 
ts  particulars  ;  but  do  assure  your  majesty  it  is  for 
he  most  part  false  in  fact,  and  that  part  of  it  which 
carries  any  face  of  truth,  they  have  been  malicious 
and  unjust  in  not  mentioning  the  whole  truth  ;  which 
rould  have  fully  justified  my  Lord  Cornbury's  just 
conduct. 

"  Thus,  having  discharged  this  part  of  our  duty, 
vhich  we  thought  at  present  incumbent  upon  us,  we 
>eg  leave  to  assure  your  majesty,  that  whenever  we 
hall  see  the  people  of  this  province  labour  under  any 
hing  like  a  grievance,  we  shall,  according  to  our 
luty,  immediately  apply  to  the  governor,  with  our 
est  advice  for  the  redress  of  it ;  and  we  have  no 
eason  yet  to  doubt  of  a  ready  compliance  in  him ; 
we  shall  not  be  particular,  but  crave  leave  to  refer 
o  his  excellency's  representation  of  them  to  the 
ight  honourable  the  lords  commissioners  for  trade 
nd  plantations. 

"  The  strenuous  asserting  of  your  majesty's  pre- 
ogative  royal,  and  vindicating  the  honour  of  your 
overnor  the  Lord  Cornbury,  will,  in  our  humble 
pinion,  be  so  absolutely  necessary  at  this  juncture, 
iiat  without  your  so  doing,  your  majesty  will  find 
ourself  deceived  either  in  expectation  of  a  revenue 
or  support  of  the  government,  or  militia  for  its 
efence. 

"  In  hopes  your  majesty  will  take  these  important 
lings  into  your  consideration,  and  his  excellency 

Lord  Cornbury,  with  all  the  members  of  your 
najesty's  council,  into  your  royal  favour  and  pro- 
ection ;  we  shall  conclude  with  our  most  fervent 
rayers  to  the  Most  High,  to  lengthen  your  days, 
nd  increase  your  glories;  and  that  ourselves  in 
articular,  and  all  others  in  general,  who  reap  the 
enefit  of  your  majesty's  most  gentle  and  happy 


UNITED  STATES. 


619 


government,  may  be,  and  ever  continue  the  most 
loyal  and  dutiful  of  subjects  to  the  most  glorious 
and  best  of  queens. 

"  Richard  Ingoldsby,  William  Pinhorne,  R. 
Mompeson,  Thomas  Revell,  Daniel  Leeds,  Daniel 
Coxe,  Richard  Townley,  Robert  Quarry,  William 
Sandford." 

On  the  5th  of  May,  1708,  the  assembly  met  at 
Burlington.  Jenings  their  speaker  being  indis- 
posed, Thomas  Gordon  was  chosen  to  succeed  him. 
They  received  the  speech ;  and  delivered  their 
address  the  12th  ;  which  containing  the  old  story 
of  grievances,  so  displeased  the  governor,  that  he 
immediately  adjourned  them  to  the  September  fol- 
lowing, to  meet  at  Amboy,  but  in  the  interval  dis- 
solved them  ;  and  being  himself  soon  after  super- 
seded, he  met  them  no  more ;  the  business  of  the 
last  session  began  by  his  telling  them  in  his  speech  : 
"  It  was  the  great  desire  he  had  to  see  the  service  of 
the  queen,  and  good  of  the  province  carried  on, 
supported  and  provided  for,  that  induced  him  to 
call  them  together ;  to  prepare  and  pass  such  laws 
as  were  proper;  and  that  he  might  not  be  wanting 
in  his  duty,  he  should  point  out  what  he  thought 
required  their  immediate  notice  ;  the  first  was  a  bill 
for  support  of  government  ;  that  the  revenue  the 
queen  expected  was  1500/.  per  annum,  to  continue 
21  years  ;  next  the  reviving  or  le-enacting  the  mili- 
tia bill,  which  was  likely  soon  to  expire ;  that  he 
had  every  session  since  he  had  been  governor,  re- 
commended the  passing  a  bill  or  bills  for  confirm- 
ing the  right  and  property  of  the  soil  of  the  pro- 
vince to  the  general  proprietors,  according  to  their 
respective  rights  and  titles ;  as  also  to  settle  and 
confirm  the  particular  titles  and  estates  of  all  the 
inhabitants  of  the  province,  and  others,  claiming 
under  the  proprietors  ;  that  he  was  still  of  opinion, 
such  a  bill  would  best  conduce  to  the  improvement, 
as  well  as  peace  and  quiet  of  the  province  ;  that  he 
had  last  year  recommended  the  passing  of  bills  for 
erecting  and  repairing  prisons  and  court-houses  in 
the  different  counties,  and  the  building  of  bridges  in 
places  where  they  were  wanting,  by  general  tax ; 
and  as  late  experience  had  taught  the  necessity  of 
settling  the  qualifications  of  jurymen,  he  desired 
they  would  prepare  bills  for  these  purposes;  and 
revive  such  of  the  acts  of  assembly  passed  in  the 
time  of  the  proprietary  government  as  would  be  of 
use,  that  they  might  be  presented  for  the  queen's 
approbation." 

The  assembly  in  their  address  on  this  occasion, 
declared,  they  then  were,  and  always  had  been  ready 
and  desirous  to  support  the  government  to  the  ut- 
most of  their  poor  abilities  ;  that  they  were  heartily 
sorry  for  the  misunderstanding  between  the  govern- 
or and  them ;  that  about  twelve  months  ago  they 
had  humbly  represented  to  him,  some  of  the  many 
grievances  their  country  laboured  under ;  most  of 
which  they  were  sorry  to  say,  yet  remained,  and 
daily  increased ;  that  they  found  the  queen's  good 
subjects  of  the  province  were  continually  prose- 
cuted by  informations,  upon  frivolous  pretences, 
which  rendered  that  excellent  constitution  of  grand 
juries  useless  ;  and  if  continued,  would  put  it  in  the 
power  of  an  attorney-general  to  raise  his  fortune 
upon  the  ruin  of  his  country. 

That  they  found  it  a  great  charge  to  the  country, 
that  juries  and  evidences  were  brought  from  remote 
parts  of  the  province,  to  the  supreme  courts  at 
Burlington  and  Amboy :  that  it  was  a  great  griev- 
ance that  the  practice  of  the  law  was  so  precarious, 
that  innocent  persons  were  prosecuted  upon  inform- 


ations, and  actions  brought  against  several  of  the 
queen's  subjects,  in  which  the  gentlemen  licenced 
to  practise  the  law  were  afraid  to  appear  for  them  ; 
or  if  they  appeared,  did  not  discharge  their  duty  to 
their  clients,  for  fear  of  being  suspended,  without 
being  convicted  of  any  crime  deserving  it,  or 
reason  assigned ;  as  was  done  at  Burlington,  in 
May  last,  to  the  damage  of  many  of  the  queen's 
good  subjects. 

That  they  found  the  representatives  of  this  her 
majesty's  province  so  slighted,  and  their  commands 
so  little  regarded,  that  the  clerk  of  the  crown  had 
refused  to  issue  a  writ  for  the  electing  a  member 
wanting  in  their  house ;  they  hoped  he  would  con- 
sider, and  remove  these  and  many  other  inconve- 
niences and  grievances  that  the  province  laboured 
under;  which  would  enable  them  to  exert  the  ut- 
most of  their  abilities,  in  supporting  her  majesty's 
government,  and  would  make  them  happy  under 
the  mild  and  meek  administration  of  a  great  and 
glorious  queen  ;  that  they  doubted  not,  were  her 
majesty  rightly  informed  of  the  poverty  and  circum- 
stances of  their  country,  and  that  their  livelihoods 
depended  upon  the  seasons  o'i  the  year;  their  most 
gracious  sovereign  would  pity  their  condition,  and 
never  expect  the  settlement  of  any  support  of  go- 
vernment, further  than  from  one  year  to  another. 

That  they  found  the  present  militia  bill  so  great  a 
grievance  to  their  country,  they  could  never  think 
of  reviving  or  re-enacting  it,  as  it  now  was;  though 
they  were  heartily  willing  to  provide  for  the  defence 
of  their  country,  which  they  hoped  might  be  done 
with  greater  ease  to  the  people  ;  that  they  had  been, 
and  still  were  endeavouring  to  answer  her  majesty's 
commands,  in  confirming  the  right  and  property  of 
the  soil  of  the  province  to  the  general  proprietors, 
according  to  their  respective  rights  sud  titles;  and 
likewise  to  confirm  and  settle  the  particular  titles 
and  estates  of  all  the  inhabitants,  and  other  pur- 
chasers, claiming  under  the  proprietors ;  but 
though  they  had  several  times  met  in  general  as- 
sembly, they  had  not  opportunity  to  perfect  it; 
they  acknowledge  the  favour  of  being  put  in  mind 
of  providing  prisons,  court-houses,  and  bridges, 
where  such  were  wanting,  which  they  should  take 
into  consideration. 

That  they  had  a  bill  for  settling  the  qualifications 
of  juries,  prepared  last  sitting  at  Amboy,  and  should 
now  present  it;  and  thanking  him  for  reminding 
them  of  reviving  their  former  laws,  say,  they  had 
before  appointed  a  committee  for  that  end ;  but 
were  impeded  by  Bass,  the  secretary,  positively 
refusing  to  let  them  have  the  perusal  of  them  ;  and 
that  as  they  had  always  used  their  utmost  endea- 
vour in  the  faithful  service  of  the  queen,  and  for 
the  benefit  of  the  country,  so  they  should  still  con- 
tinue to  do  it  with  all  the  dispatch  they  were  ca- 
pable of. 

Here  we  part  with  Lord  Cornbury's  administra- 
tion. We  have  in  the  history  of  New  York  wit- 
nessed his  arbitrary  and  injudicious  conduct  in  that 
province,  and  also  had  the  particulars  of  his  degra- 
dation and  ultimate  departure  from  the  colonies. 

We  now  also  part  with  his  opponent  S.  Jenings; 
whose  indisposition  continued  about  twelve  mouths 
before  his  death.  His  many  services  have  occasi- 
oned him  to  be  often  mentioned.  His  religion  was 
that  of  the  quakers;  and  he  was,  very  young,  an 
approved  minister  among  them.  His  influence  was 
entirely  grounded  on  reliance  on  his  sincerity,  pro- 
bity, and  abilities.  It  is  reported  of  him,  that  he 
was  of  an  obliging,  affectionate  disposition,  yet 


620 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


of  a  hasty  warm  temper;  that  he,  notwithstanding, 
controlled  it  with  circumspection  and  prudence,  so 
that  few  occasions  escaped  to  the  disadvantage  of 
his  character,  or  of  any  cause  he  engaged  in ;  that 
he  saw  the  danger  to  which  his  natural  impetuosity 
exposed  him;  knew  his  preservation  lay  in  a  close 
attention  to  his  cooler  prospects,  and  diligently 
guarding  his  failing,  experienced  the  benefit  in 
many  trying  events ;  that  his  integrity  and  fortitude 
in  all  stations  were  acknowledged ;  that  his  judg- 
ment was  the  rule  of  his  conduct,  and  by  what  can 
now  be  gathered,  this  seems  to  have  been  but  seldom 
injudiciously  founded  :  that  alive  to  the  more  ge- 
nerous emotions  of  a  mind  formed  to  benevolence 
and  acts  of  humanity,  he  was  a  friend  to  the  wroiiged 
and  the  unhappy ;  tender,  compassionate,  disinter- 
ested, and  with  great  opportunities  left-  but  a  small 
estate ;  that  abhorring  oppression  in  every  shape, 
his  whole  conduct  discovered  a  will  to  relieve  and 
befriend  mankind,  far  above  the  littleness  of  party 
or  sinister  views ;  that  his  sentiments  of  right  and 
liberty  were  formed  on  principles  adapted  to  the 
improvement  of  a  new  country,  or  indeed  any 
country  ;  that  he  was,  notwithstanding  all  this, 
sometimes  thought  pertinacious,  but  chiefly  on  ac- 
count of  his  political  attachments  ;  but  in  these  in- 
stances, better  knowledge  of  his  principles,  and  the 
sincerity  with  which  he  acted,  totally  effaced  those 
impressions,  and  left  him  friends  where  none  were 
expected.  Much  of  his  time,  as  we  have  seen,  was 
long  devoted  to  the  public,  and  with  such  a  desire 
to  be  useful,  occasions  were  not  wanting.  West  Jer- 
sey and  Pennsylvania  (where  he  resided  many 
years),  and  New  Jersey  after  the  surrender,  for 
near  twenty-eight  years  successively,  were  repeated 
witnesses  of  his  conduct  in  various  capacities.  Like 
all  philanthropists  he  met  with  ingratitude ;  but 
although  all  his  endeavours  were  not  successful,  he 
survived  personal  animosity  in  a  great  measure,  and 
lived  just  long  enough  to  see  public  affairs  emerg- 
ing from  an  unpromising  state  of  litigation  and  con- 
troversy to  more  quiet  than  had  been  known  for 
many  years.  His  three  daughters  (who  were  all 
the  children  he  left)  intermarried  with  three  bro- 
thers of  the  name  of  Stephenson,  whose  posterity 
long  resided  in  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania. 

In  the  latter  end  of  this  year  (1708)  a  new  as- 
sembly was  elected ;  but  upon  the  new  governor's 
arrival  it  was  dissolved. 

Lord  Lovelace  arrives  as  governor — His  death;  is  suc- 
ceeded by  the  Lieutenant-governor  Ingoldsby —  Ar- 
rival of  Governor  Hunter — The  aid  for  the  expedi- 
tion to  Canada— A  new  assembly  chosen, 

John  Lord  Lovelace,  baron  of  Hurley,  being  ap- 
pointed to  succeed  Lord  Cornbury,  he  summoned 
the  council  to  meet  him  at  Bergen,  December  20, 
1708,  published  his  commission,  and  met  a  new  as- 
sembly in  the  spring  at  Perth  Amboy,  and  informed 
them  by  speech  : — 

"  That  he  was  very  sensible  of  great  difficulties 
attending  the  honourable  employment  in  which  her 
majesty  had  placed  him,  and  he  hoped  they  would 
never  fail  to  assist  him  to  serve  the  queen  and  her 
people;  that  her  majesty  had  shown  in  the  whole 
course  of  her  reign  (a  reign  glorious  beyond  ex- 
ample) how  much  she  aimed  at  the  good  and  pros- 
perity of  her  people  ;  having  with  indefatigable 
pains  united  her  two  kingdoms  of  England  and 
Scotland,  and  continued  the  same  application  to 
unite  the  minds  of  all  her  subjects;  that  this  was 
her  great  care,  and  ought  to  be  the  care  of  those 


whom  she  deputed  to  govern  the  distant  provinces, 
not  happy  enough  by  situation  to  be  under  her  more 
immediate  government ;  that  as  he  could  not  set 
before  him  a  better  pattern,  he  should  endeavour  to 
recommend  himself  to  them,  by  following,  as  far  as 
he  was  able,  her  example ;  that  he  should  not  give 
them  any  just  cause  of  uneasiness  under  his  admi- 
nistration, and  hoped  they  would  bear  with  one 
another ;  that  past  differences  and  animosities  ought 
to  be  buried  in  oblivion,  and  the  peace  and  welfare 
of  the  country  only  pursued  by  each  individual ; 
that  her  majesty  would  not  be  burthensome  to  her 
people ;  but  there  being  an  absolute  necessity  that 
the  government  be  supported,  he  was  directed  to 
recommend  that  matter  to  their  consideration ;  that 
they  knew  best  what  the  province  could  conveniently 
raise  for  its  support,  and  the  easiest  methods  of 
raising  it;  that  the  making  a  law  for  putting  the 
militia  on  a  better  footing  than  it  at  present  stood, 
with  as  much  ease  to  the  people  as  possible,  required 
their  consideration;  that  he  should  always  be  ready 
to  give  his  assent  to  whatever  laws  they  found  ne- 
cessary for  promoting  religion  and  virtue,  for  the 
encouragement  of  trade  and  industry,  and  dis- 
couragement of  vice  and  profaneness,  and  for  any 
other  matter  or  thing  relating  to  the  good  of  the 
province." 

The  assembly  in  their  turn  told  the  governor  by 
addre^,  that  they  esteemed  it  their  great  happiness 
that  Ler  majesty  had  placed  a  person  of  so  much 
temper  and  moderation  over  them,  and  made  no 
question  he  would  surmount  every  difficulty  with 
honour  and  safety. 

That  her  majesty's  reign  would  make  a  bright 
leaf  in  history  ;  that  it  was  the  advantage  of  the 
present,  and  would  be  the  admiration  of  future  ages, 
not  more  for  her  success  abroad  than  prudence  at 
home  ;  that  though  their  distance  had  and  might 
sometimes  be  disadvantageous  to  them,  yet  they  ex- 
perienced the  effect  of  her  princely  care,  in  putting 
an  end  to  the  worst  administration  New  Jersey 
ever  knew,  by  sending  him,  whose  government 
would  always  be  easy  to  her  majesty's  subjects  here, 
and  satisfactory  to  himself,  whilst  he  followed  so 
great  and  good  an  example. 

That  they  had  no  animosities  with  one  another, 
but  firmly  agreed  to  do  themselves  and  their  country 
justice;  that  they  were  persuaded  none  that  de- 
served public  censure  would  have  a  shave  in  his 
esteem,  and  doubted  not  of  meeting  with  his  hearty 
concurrence  in  every  measure  that  conduced  to 
peace  and  good  order. 

That  they  should  support  the  government  to  the 
utmost  of  their  abilities,  and  most  willingly  so  at  a 
time  when  they  were  freed  from  bondage  and  ar- 
bitrary encroachments,  and  were  convinced  that  vice 
and  immorality  would  no  more  receive  the  public 
countenance  and  approbation. 

They  assured  him  all  his  reasonable  desires  would 
be  commands  to  them;  and  promised  it  should  be 
their  study  to  make  his  administration  as  easy  and 
happy  as  they  could. 

The  session  lasted  a  month,  in  which  business  went 
on  with  unusual  smoothness :  the  assembly  obtained 
from  the  governor  a  copy  of  the  address  from  the 
lieutenant-governor  and  council  to  the  queen,  in 
1707;  they  thanked  him  for  the  favour,  and  re- 
quested he  would  desire  the  lieutenant-governor, 
and  all  that  signed  the  address,  to  attend  him  at 
such  time  as  he  thought  fit  to  appoint,  to  prove  their 
allegations;  and  that  the  house  might  have  leave  to 
{be  present,  and  have  opportunity  of  making  their 


UNITED  STATES. 


621 


defence,  in  order  to  clear  themselves  from  such 
imputations. 

The  governor  showed  a  ready  inclination  to  grant 
this  request,  and  appointed  a  day  for  a  hearing ; 
but  hy  the  artifices  of  those  concerned,  it  was 
evaded  from  time  to  time  :  whether  they  at  last 
gained  their  point  does  not  appear. 

Most  of  the  inhabitants  of  New  Jersey  now 
pleased  themselves  with  the  prospect  of  happy  times ; 
with  a  change  of  governors  followed  a  change  of 
measures  and  favourites  ;  impartiality  and  candour 
succeeded  trick  and  design ;  the  tools  of  the  former 
administration  having  nothing  but  the  protection  of 
that  to  support  them,  sunk  into  neglect. 

It  had  been  Lord  Cornbury's  weakness  to  en- 
courage men  that  would  flatter  his  vanity,  and  bend 
to  his  humours  and  measures — these  were  sure  of 
his  favour;  but  the  case  was  otherwise  now.  Such 
of  the  former  favourites  as  yet  continued  in  the 
council,  were  not  without  their  share  of  disestecm ; 
even  the  confidence  which  had  been  usually  put  in 
that  board,  on  passing  the  support  bill,  was  discon- 
tinued. The  assembly  declaring  to  Lovelace,  that 
though  they  had  an  entire  confidence  in  his  justice 
and  prudence,  respecting  the  disposition  of  the 
money  for  support  of  government,  they  "  had  not 
that  confidence  in  the  gentlemen  that  were  now  of 
her  majesty's  council ;"  and  that  this  was  the  rea- 
son they  had  altered  the  former  method,  and  there- 
fore requested  he  would  favourably  represent  it  to 
the  queen  in  their  behalf. 

The  law  regulating  the  qualification  of  represent- 
atives to  serve  in  general  assembly  was  now  passed; 
the  substance  of  this  and  the  additional  one  passed 
at  a  different  session,  but  in  the  same  year,  is,  that 
every  voter  shall  have  100  acres  of  land  in  his  own 
right,  or  be  worth  50Z.  current  money;  that  the 
person  elected  shall  have  1,000  acres  in  his  own 
right,  or  be  worth  500/.  current  money,  in  personal 
estate  ;  that  the  representatives  and  electors  shall 
be  freeholders,  and  have  estates  sufficient  to  qualify 
him  or  them  in  the  division  where  electing  or 
chosen ;  that  the  house  of  representatives  shall  be 
judges  of  the  qualification  of  their  members ;  that 
the  same  forfeitures  shall  attend  undue  returns  as 
in  England;  and  that  no  person  shall  be  chosen  a 
representative,  who  with  his  family  does  not  reside 
in  the  province. 

The  inhabitants  had  begun  with  reason  to  promise 
themselves  happier  times  than  heretofore,  but,  to 
their  great  disappointment,  Lord  Lovelace  died  with- 
in a  few  days  afterwards,  and  the  administration 
devolved  on  the  Lieutenant-governor  Ingoldsby,  who 
laid  before  the  assembly  the  design  of  the  crown, 
respecting  an  expedition  against  Canada,  under  the 
Colonels  Nicholson  and  Vetch,  and  for  which  they 
immediately  voted  3,000/.  for  the  service,  by  an 
emission  of  paper  bills  of  credit,  but  did  not  now 
pass  the  bill. 

The  lieutenant-governor  adjourned  them  for  a 
few  weeks,  and  then  told  them  he  had  given  them 
another  opportunity  of  doing  their  duty  to  her  ma- 
jesty, and  what  their  country  required  at  their  hands. 

That  he  found  in  their  votes  at  last  sitting  a  re- 
solve for  raising  3,000/.  for  her  majesty's  service ; 
that  this  was  now  become  a  debt,  and  they  had  only 
to  consider  of  ways  and  means  of  raising  it ;  and 
that  a  proper  application  was  made  for  the  paying 
of  their  quota  of  men  appointed  for  reducing  Canada. 

The  assembly  prepared  three  bills,  one  for  raising 
3,OOOJ.,  another  for  enforcing  its  currency,  and  a 
third  for  the  encouragement  of  volunteers  going  on 


the  Canada  expedition ;  these  bills  having  received 
the  governor's  assent,  the  house  was  adjourned  to 
the  1st  of  November,  to  meet  at  Burlington  ;  ip 
November  ihey  met-  accordingly,  but  deferred  busi- 
ness till  December,  when  they  sat  ten  weeks,  passed 
eighteen  bills,  were  then  adjourned,  and  afterwards 
prorogued  from  time  to  time,  till  dissolved  by  Go- 
vernor Hunter  in  1710. 

As  the  accounts  of  both  the  expeditions  against 
Canada  have  been  enlarged  on  sufficiently  in  the 
preceding  histories,  we  shall  not  enter  on  them  here, 
especially  as  New  Jersey  only  afforded  its  aid  with 
the  above-mentioned  contribution. 

Brigadier  Hunter  arrived  governor  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1710,  and  called  a  new  assembly  on  the  6th 
of  December  ;  they  chose  John  Kay,  of  Gloucester, 
speaker,  and  received  the  governor's  speech,  which 
was  as  follows : 

"  Gentlemen — I  am  little  used  to  make  speeches, 
so  you  shall  not  be  troubled  with  a  long  one  ;  if 
honesty  is  the  best  policy,  plainness  must  be  the 
best  oratory ;  so  to  deal  plainly  with  you,  so  long  as 
these  unchristian  divisions  which  her  majesty  has 
thought  to  deserve  her  repeated  notice,  reign  amongst 
you,  I  shall  have  small  hopes  of  a  happy  issue  to 
our  meeting. 

"  This  is  an  evil  which  every  .body  complains  of, 
but  few  take  the  right  method  to  remedy  it ;  let 
every  man  begin  at  home,  and  weed  the  rancour  out 
of  his  own  mind,  and  the  work  is  done  at  once. 

"  Leave  disputes  of  property  to  the  laws,  and  in- 
juries to  the  avenger  of  them;  and  like  good  sub- 
jects and  good  Christians,  join  hearts  and  hands  for 
the  common  good. 

"  I  hope  you  all  agree  in  the  necessity  of  support- 
ing the  government,  and  will  not  differ  about  the 
means ;  that  it  may  the  better  deserve  your  support, 
I  shall  endeavour  to  square  it  by  the  best  rule  that 
I  know,  that  is  the  power  from  whence  it  is  derived ; 
which  all  the  world  must  own  to  be  justice  and  good- 
ness itself. 

"  There  are  several  matters  recommended  to  you 
by  her  majesty,  to  be  passed  into  laws,  which  I 
shall  lay  before  you  at  proper  seasons ;  and  shall 
heartily  concur  with  you  in  enacting  whatsoever 
may  be  requisite  for  the  public  peace  and  welfare, 
the  curbing  of  vice,  and  encouraging  of  virtue. 

"  If  what  I  have  said,  or  what  I  can  do,  may- 
have  the  blessed  effect  I  wish  for,  I  shall  bless  the 
hour  that  brought  me  hither  ;  if  I  am  disappointed, 
1  shall  pray  for  that  which  is  to  call  me  back, 
for  all  power  except  that  of  doing  good  is  but  a 
burthen." 

On  the  reception  of  this  speech,  the  assembly 
voted  the  following  address. 

"  May  it  please  your  excellency, 

"  We  sincerely  congratulate  your  accession  to  the 
government  of  this  province,  and  hope  the  long 
wished-for  time  is  come,  in  which  the  unchristian 
causes  of  our  divisions  will  be  taken  away,  which 
we  persuade  ourselves  you  will  be  as  willing  as  we 
conceive  you  are  able  to  do,  by  divesting  a  few  de- 
signing men  of  that  authority,  which  they  use  to 
the  worst  purposes. 

"  We  have  experienced  repeated  instances  of  her 
majesty's  care  over  us;  among  which  one  was,  the 
sending  the  good  Lord  Lovelace,  who  put  an  end 
to  an  administration,  the  then  assembly  of  this  pro- 
vince, with  great  justice  stiled  the  worst  New 
Jersey  had  ever  known  ;  that  good  man  lived  long 
enough  to  know  how  much  the  province  had  been 
oppressed,  though  not  to  remove  the  causes.  An- 


622 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


other  instance  of  her  majesty's  royal  favour,  we 
esteem,  is  the  sending  your  excellency  to  govern 
us,  and  we  persuade  ourselves  your  conduct  will 
evince  it  so  to  be. 

"  We  hope  great  things  from  you,  and  none  but 
what  are  just ;  let  not  ill  men  be  put  or  continued 
in  power  to  oppress ;  let  her  majesty's  subjects 
enjoy  their  liberties  and  properties,  according  to 
the  laws,  and  let  not  those  laws  be  warpt  to  gratify 
the  avarice  or  resentment  of  any,  and  then  we  may 
safely  leave  disputes  of  property  to  them ;  this,  we 
are  humbly  of  opinion,  is  the  greatest  honesty,  and 
we  make  no  question  you  esteem  it  to  be  the  best 
policy. 

"  We  always  thought  it  equally  reasonable  to 
support  a  government,  and  to  deny  that  support  to 
tyranny  and  oppression ;  we  should  be  glad  our 
abilities  would  come  up  to  what  we  esteem  your 
merits  :  what  we  are  able  to  do,  shall  be  sincerely 
done,  and  in  as  agreeable  a  manner  as  we  are 
capable ;  all  your  desires,  which  we  doubt  not  will 
be  reasonable,  shall  be  commands  to  us,  who  will 
be  always  ready  to  join  in  any  thing  that  may  con- 
duce to  the  public  benefit,  and  your  own  ;  and 
hope  you  may  never  want  will  and  power  to  punish 
wickedness  and  vice,  and  encourage  true  religion 
and  virtue ;  which  if  you  do,  we  shall  esteem  you 
our  deliverer,  and  posterity  shall  mention  your 
name  with  honour. 

"  Divers  members  of  this  assembly,  being  of  the 
people  called  quakers,  concur  to  the  substance  of 
this  address,  with  their  usual  exception  to  the  stile." 

This  session  continued  more  than  two  months ; 
the  governor  and  assembly  agreed  cordially,  but  a 
majority  of  the  council  differed  from  both,  notwith- 
standing an  accession  of  several  new  members. 

Ever  since  the  surrender,  the  province  had  been 
involved  in  great  confusion,  on  account  of  the 
people  called  quakers  being  denied  to  serve  on 
juries,  under  pretence  that  an  oath  was  absolutely 
necessary ;  the  inhabitants  in  many  parts,  were 
chiefly  such,  and  juries  could  not  be  got  without 
them  ;  the  assembly  seeing  the  confusion  that  had 
and  would  unavoidably  follow  such  refusal,  passed 
a  bill  for  ascertaining  the  qualification  of  jurors, 
and  enabling  the  people  called  quakers  to  serve 
on  them,  &c.  and  another  respecting  the  affirma- 
tion. The  reports  of  the  committee  will,  among 
other  things,  show  the  conduct  of  the  council  on 
this  occasion. 

"  The  house,  according  to  order,  resolved  itself 
into  a  committee  of  the  whole  house,  to  consider 
further  of  the  papers  laid  before  this  house  by  his 
excellency ;  and  after  some  time  spent  therein, 
Mr.  Speaker  resumed  the  chair,  and  Doctor  John- 
ston reported  from  the  said  committee,  that  the 
43d  article  of  her  majesty's  instructions  being  read, 
requiring  an  act  to  be  passed,  for  settling  the  pro- 
perties and  possessions  of  all  persons  concerned  in 
this  province ;  they  do  think  it  to  be  a  matter  of 
the  greatest  concern,  for  the  quieting  the  minds  of 
the  people  and  making  the  province  happy,  and  do 
think  it  will  be  to  no  purpose  at  present  to  spend 
time  about  such  a  bill,  seeing  the  council  has 
put  them  out  of  all  hopes  of  having  any  such  act 
to  pass. 

"  Doctor  Johnston  also  reported  from  the  said 
committee,  that  the  60th  article  of  her  majesty's 
instructions  being  read,  requiring  an  act  to  be 
passed,  for  those  people  that  make  a  religious 
scruple  of  swearing,  to  the  like  effect  of  that  passed 
in  the  7th  and  8th  of  King  William  III.  in  Eng- 


land, so  far  as  may  be  consistent  with  good  order 
and  government ;  that  the  house  have  already  sent 
up  such  an  act  to  the  council  for  their  concurrence, 
as  near  to  the  like  effect  as  the  circumstance  of  this 
colony  will  admit ;  which  the  council  rejected  with- 
out committing  the  same. 

"  And  further,  that  the  94th  article  of  her  ma- 
jesty's  instructions  being  read,  requiring  an  act  to 
be  passed  ascertaining  qualifications  of  jurors;  that 
the  same  was  included  in  the  bill,  entitled,  'An  act 
for  ascertaining  the  qualifications  of  jurors,  and 
enabling  the  people  called  quakers  to  serve  on 
them,  &c.'  which  the  council  rejected  without  com- 
mitting the  same,  as  is  reported  before  to  the  60th 
article. 

"  And  that  he  was  desired  to  move,  that  they 
might  have  leave  to  sit  again." 

By  this  report,  it  seems  the  assembly  had  no  ex- 
pectation of  obtaining  these  matters  this  session  ; 
they  took  into  consideration  the  militia  act,  passed 
in  Lord  Cornbury's  time,  by  which  the  quakers  in 
many  parts  of  the  province  had  been  greatly  op- 
pressed; they  appointed  Doctor  Johnston,  Isaac 
Sharp,  Jacob  Spicer,  William  Sandford,  John  Reid, 
and  Robert  Wheeler,  a  committee,  "  to  prepare 
and  bring  in  a  bill,  for  explaining  an  act  of  this 
province,  past  in  the  third  year  of  her  majesty 
Queen  Anne,  entitled,  '  An  act  for  settling  the  mili- 
tia of  this  province,  and  for  relieving  persons  ag- 
grieved thereby.' " 

A  bill  was  brought  in,  and  sundry  officers  who 
had  been  more  rigorous  in  distressing  than  the 
law  warranted,  were  sent  for,  to  answer  for  their 
conduct  at  the  bar  of  the  house,  and  ordered  to 
render  an  account  of  the  goods  distrained ;  this 
gone  through,  the  bill  passed,  in  which  provision 
was  made  for  the  relief  of  the  sufferers ;  but  the 
council  rejected  it,  as  they  had  done  the  other 
bills. 

They  next  took  into  consideration  the  address 
got  up  by  the  partisans  of  Lord  Cornbury,  which 
has  been  already  given,  and  made  the  following  re- 
solutions with  regard  to  it. 

"  A  copy  of  a  paper  entitled,  'The  humble  address 
of  the  lieutenant-governor  and  council  of  Nova 
Ceesaria  or  New  Jersey,  in  America,  to  the  queen's 
most  excellent  majesty ;  signed  by  Richard  In- 
goldsby,  William  Pinhorne,  Roger  Mompesson, 
Thomas  Revell,  Daniel  Leeds,Daniel  Coxe,Richard 
Townly,  William  Sandford,  and  Robert  Quarry, 
in  the  year  .1707;'  was  read  in  the  house;  and 
being  taken  into  consideration,  the  question  was 
put,  whether  the  said  humble  address  (as  it  is  called) 
of  the  lieutenant-governor  and  council  to  the  queen's 
most  excellent  majesty,  be  a  false  and  scandalous 
representation  of  the  representative  body  of  this 
province,  or  not  ?  it  was  carried  in  the  affirmative. 
A  motion  being  made,  and  the  question  being  put, 
whether  this  house  do  address  her  majesty  for  the 
justification  of  the  proceedings  of  the  represent- 
ative body  of  this  province,  in  the  present  and 
former  assemblies,  or  not  ?  it  was  carried  in  the 
affirmative. 

"  A  motion  being  made,  and  the  question  being 
put,  whether  any  person  that  has  signed  the  above- 
mentioned  false  and  scandalous  representation  of 
the  representative  body  of  this  province  be  a  fit 
member  to  sit  in  this  house,  unless  he  acknowledge 
his  fault  to  this  house,  or  not  ?  it  was  carried  in  the 
negative. 

"  Major  Sandford,  one  of  the  members  of  this 
house,  having  acknowledged  that  he  signed  the 


UNITED  STATES. 


623 


above-mentioned  address  to  her  majesty,  was  asked 
if  he  would  acknowledge  his  fault  to  this  house  for 
the  same  ?  His  answer  was,  he  signed  it  as  he  was 
one  of  her  majesty's  council,  and  was  only  account- 
able to  her  majesty  for  the  same;  wherefore  the 
question  was  put,  whether  Major  Sandford  be  ex- 
pelled this  house  for  the  same,  or  not  ?  It  was  car- 
ried in  the  affirmative. 

"  Ordered,  that  Major  Sandford  be  expelled  this 
house,  for  signing  a  false  and  scandalous  paper, 
called  the  humble  address  of  the  lieutenant-governor 
and  council  to  her  majesty,  in  the  year  1707  ;  and 
he  is  expelled  this  house  accordingly." 

Representation  of  the  Assembly  to  Governor  Hunter  ; 
and  kis  Answer. 

Pursuant  to  the  resolutions  of  the  house,  an  ad- 
dress was  prepared  and  sent  to   the   queen,   and  a 
representation  to  Governor  Hunter.     This  last  is  a 
particular  answer  to  the  charges,  and  was  as  followeth : 
"  The  humble  representation  of  the  general  assem- 
bly of  her  majesty's  province  of  New  Jersey. 
"To  his  excellency  Robert  Hunter,  Esq.,  captain- 
general  and  governor-in-chief  of  the  provinces  of 
New  Jersey   and  New  York,   in   America,  and 
vice-admiral  of  the  same,  &c- 

"  May  it  please  your  excellency  ; 
"  When  the  Lord  Lovelace  was  pleased  to  let  the 
representative  body  of  this  province  know,  that  her 
majesty  desired  to  be  informed  of  the  causes  of  the 
differences  between  the  gentlemen  of  the  council  and 
them,  nothing  could  be  more  satisfactory  ;  because 
they  entirely  depended,  that  a  person  of  so  much 
justice  and  veracity  would  put  things  in  their  true 
light ;  and  had  he  lived  long  enough  to  have  com- 
plied with  her  majesty's  commands,  we  had  not  now 
been  under  the  necessity  of  laying  the  following 
representation  before  your  excellency. 

"  We  are  very  sorry  we  have  so  much  reason  to 
say,  it  was  lately  our  misfortune  to  be  governed  by 
the  Lord  Cornbury,  who  treated  her  majesty's  sub- 
jects here  not  as  freemen  who  were  to  be  governed 
by  laws,  but  as  slaves,  of  whose  persons  and  estates 
he  had  the  sole  power  of  disposing.  Oppression 
and  injustice  reigned  every  where  in  this  poor,  and 
then  miserable,  colony  ;  and  it  was  criminal  to  com- 
plain or  seem  any  way  sensible  of  these  hardships 
we  then  suffered;  and  whatever  attempts  were  made 
for  our  relief,  not  only  pioved  ineffectual,  but  was 
termed  insolence,  and  flying  in  the  face  of  authority 
The  most  violent  and  imprudent  stretches  for  arbi 
trary  power  were  stamped  with  the  great  name  o 
the  queen's  prerogative  royal ;  and  the  instruments 
and  strenuous  assertors  of  that  tyranny  were  the 
only  persons,  who  in  his  esteem  and  their  own 
were  for  supporting  her  majesty's  government 
bribery,  extortion,  and  a  contempt  of  laws,  both  hu 
man  and  divine,  were  the  fashionable  vices  of  thai 
time ;  encouraged  by  his  countenance,  but  more  by 
his  example;  and  those  who  could  most  daringly 
and  with  most  dexterity  trample  upon  our  liberties 
had  the  greatest  share  both  in  the  government  o: 
this  province  and  his  favour.  This  usage  we  bore 
with  patience  a  great  while,  believing  that  the  mea. 
sures  he  took  proceeded  rather  from  want  of  inform 
ation  or  an  erroneous  judgment,  than  the  depravity 
of  his  nature  ;  but  repeated  instances  soon  con- 
vinced us  of  our  mistaken  notions;  and  that  he  was 
capable  of  the  meanest  things,  and  had  sacrificed 
his  own  reputation,  the  laws,  and  our  liberties,  t< 
his  avarice.  No  means  were  left  uuessayed  tha 
gave  hopes  of  gratifying  that  sordid  passion:  the 


country  was  filled  with  prosecutions  by  informations 
)f  the  attorney-general,  contrary  to  law:  those  of 
icr  majesty's  subjects  who  are  called  quakers,  were 
severely  harassed,  under  pretence  of  refusing   obe- 
dience to  an  act  of  assembly  for  settling  the  militia 
of  this  province,  when  neither  the  letter  nor  meaning 
of  that  act  justified  the  severities  used  on  that  ac- 
count ;  the  measures  that  were  then  taken,  being 
chiefly  such  as  the  implacable  malice  of  their  adver- 
saries suggested.     The  rights  of  the  general  pro- 
prietors,  which  upon  the  surrender  of  the  govern- 
ment were  promised  to  be  preserved  inviolable  to 
;hem,  and  which  her  majesty,  by  her  instructions, 
aad  taken  all  possible  care  to  do,  were  by  him  in- 
vaded in  a  very  high  degree ;  their  papers  and  re- 
gisters, being  the  evidences  they  had  to  prove  their 
iitles  to  their  lands  and  rents,   violently  and  arbi- 
trarily forced  from  them,  and   they  inhibited  from 
selling  or  disposing  of  those  lands;  by  which  means 
their  titles  were  made  precarious,  the  value  of  land 
through  the  whole  province  fell  very  much,  and  a 
great  stop  was  put  to  the  settlement  and  improve- 
ment of  it :  to  be  short,  all  ranks  and  conditions  of 
men  grossly  abused,  and  no  corner  of  the  country 
without  complaints  of  the  hardships  they  suffered 
from  the  exercise  of  a  despotic  and  mistaken  power. 
An  administration  so  corrupt,  so.  full  of  tyranny  and 
oppression  in  all  its  parts,  induced  the  assembly  to 
have  a  regard  to  the  cries  of  that  unhappy  country 
they  represented,  and  to  endeavour  (if  possible)  some 
redress  ;  and  accordingly,  in  a  most  humble  manner, 
remonstrated  to  his  lordship  their  grievances,  who 
was  of  opinion  their   remonstrance  lay  open  to  a 
very  ready  answer;  but  that  he  might  give  them  no 
occasion  to  say  he  had  done  it  with  heat  and  passion, 
he  took  some  few  days  to  do  it;  but  with  what  coolness 
and  temper  it  was  done,  those  who  have  seen  it  can 
judge  ;  they  both  lie  before  your  excellency.  (No.  1 
and  2.)     Some  time    after,  the   assembly   were  ad- 
journed; and  when  we  met  again,  made  a  reply  to  that 
answer,  which  reply  (No.  3)  lies  before  your  excel- 
lency ;  but  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  procured  the 
desired  effects ;  on  the  contrary,  the  number  of  our 
grievances   was  increased,  some  of  the  most  con- 
siderable of  our  inhabitants  deserted  the  province, 
and  many   of  those   that  remained  thought  them- 
selves unsafe  in  it ;  the  only  hopes  they  had  was  the 
arrival  of  the  Lord  Lovelace,  which  supported  their 
sinking  spirits,  and  gave  them   an  expectation  of 
better  days. 

"  Upon  the  first  sitting  of  the  assembly,  after  his 
arrival,  he  communicated  to  them  a  paper,  called, 
'  The  address  of  the  lieutenant-governor  and  council 
of  New  Jersey.'  It  was  no  surprise  to  us  to  find 
any  thing  indecent  or  virulent  proceeding  from  such 
men  ;  but  it  was  with  some  concern  we  beheld  what 
endeavours  they  had  used,  to  render  her  most  gra- 
cious majesty  disaffected  with  her  honest  and  loyal 
subjects  here,  by  accusations  which  were  not  only 
false,  but  what  they  knew  to  be  so  at  the  time  of 
their  writing  of  them,  and  which  we  had  made  ap- 
pear to  be  so,  had  they  not  used  evasions  and  shifts 
to  avoid  coming  to  the  test,  in  the  time  of  Lord 
Lovelace,  and  while  the  assembly  was  sitting ;  then 
they  seemed  to  be  for  reconciling  matters,  and  bury- 
ing every  thing  in  oblivion,  in  hopes  their  own  deeds 
of  darkness  might  partake  of  the  same  covering  ; 
and  hoped  the  sweetness  of  that  noble  lord's  temper, 
and  inclinations  to  peace,  might  secure  them  from 
that  examine  which  was  necessary  to  expose  them 
n  their  true  colours;  and  how  much  on  that  occa- 
ion  they  fawned  and  flattered,  appears  by  au  address 


624 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


of  theirs  to  him,  which  for  the  peculiarity  of  the 
language  (and  we  might  say  the  unintelligibleness 
of  the  terms)  ought  never  to  be  forgotten.  It  be- 
gins thus :  '  Your  lordship  has  not  one  virtue  or 
more,  but  a  complete  accomplishment  of  all  perfec- 
tions, &c. ;'  and  at  the  same  time  they  were  deifying 
him  (if  such  an  address  could  do  it)  they  were  ca- 
balling and  articling  against  him,  triumphed  in  his 
death,  and  have  barbarously  treated  his  memory ; 
and  notwithstanding  the  laws  of  heaven  and  nature, 
(as  they  are  pleased  to  express  themselves)  and  all 
the  fine  things  they  say  of  you,  added  to  the  justness 
of  your  administration,  they'll  give  you  the  same 
treatment  when  they  can  ;  the  knowledge  we  have 
of  their  practices  has  made  us  trespass  a  little 
longer  on  your  excellency's  patience  than  we  at 
first  designed  :  but  to  return  to  the  address,  we  be- 
lieve the  gentlemen  of  the  council  have  transmitted 
something  to  one  of  her  majesty's  secretaries  of 
state,  which  they  called  proofs,  and  with  all  the  se- 
crecy they  could,  hoping  it  may  obtain  at  that  dis- 
tance, especially  when  backed  by  some  whose  in- 
terest it  is,  that  all  they  have  said  be  credited.  To 
prevent  the  ill  consequences  that  may  attend  the 
belief  of  what  they  have  said,  or  indeed  can  say, 
we  shall  endeavour  to  prove  every  article  of  the  said 
address  false;  and  that  the  subscribers  knew  several 
of  them  to  be  so  at  the  time  of  their  signing  ;  what 
we  say  is  public,  not  carried  on  in  darkness,  to 
prevent  that  reply,  which  the  gentlemen  concerned 
to  justify  themselves,  and  upon  the  spot,  may  make 
if  they  can. 

"  We  begin  with  the  title  of  the  address;  which 
is,  '  The  humble  address  of  the  lieutenant-governor 
and  council  of  Nova  Csesaria  or  New  Jersey  in 
America.' 

"  This  carries  a  falsehood  in  the  very  front  of  it ; 
for  it  was  no  act  of  council ;  but  signed  by  some  in 
the  Western,  and  by  others  in  the  Eastern  division 
of  New  Jersey,  by  one  or  two  in  New  York,  at  dif- 
ferent times,  being  privately  carried  about  by  a 
messenger  of  my  Lord  Cornbury's;  and  some  were 
raised  out  of  their  beds  to  sign  it ;  it  never  passed 
the  council;  was  never  minuted  in  the  council- 
books,  and  the  lieutenant-governor  has  several 
times  protested  he  signed  it  without  ever  reading 
it.  The  gentleman  of  the  council  cannot  deny  the 
truth  of  this;  if  they  do,  we  can  prove  it;  but  to 
justify  themselves,  they  say  it  was  signed  by  the 
lieutenant-governor  and  the  gentlemen  of  the  coun- 
cil, though  not  in  council.  So  that  it's  plain  they 
designed  to  abuse  the  queen,  by  giving  it  the  stile  of 
an  act  of  council,  which  her  majesty  and  every 
body  that  reads  it  would  take  to  be  so,  when 
they  knew  in  their  consciences  it  was  not  so ;  but 
that  their  malice  or  servile  fears  induced  them  to 
sign  it,  and  may  not  improperly  be  called,  forging 
an  act  of  council;  it's  apparent  that  Roger  Mom- 
pesson,  Esq.  signed  it  by  himself;  that  it  was 
brought  to  him  as  an  act  of  council,  and  that  as 
such  he  thought  himself  obliged  to  sign  it,  as  by  his 
reasons  for  signing  it  appears  ;  which  reasons  could 
have  had  no  weight,  had  he  not  understood  it  to  be 
so  ;  for  he  owns  he  never  examined  into  the  parti- 
culars of  it. 

"The  first  article  is, '  We  the  lieutenant-governor 
and  council  of  her  majesty's  province  of  Nova 
Caesaria  or  New  Jersey,  having  seriously  and  deli- 
berately taken  into  consideration  the  proceedings  of 
the  present  assembly  or  representative  body  of  this 
province,  thought  ourselves  bound,  both  in  duty  and 
conscience,  to  testify  to  your  majesty  our  dislike 


and  abhorrence  of  the  same.'  This  is  true,  if  sign- 
ing any  thing  without  reading  or  examining  into  the 
particulars  of  it,  and  by  some  between  sleeping  and 
waking,  be  arguments  of  seriousness  and  delibera- 
tion, otherwise  not ;  except  by  the  words  '  seriously* 
and  'deliberately,'  be  meant,  their  resolutions  on  all 
occasions  to  do  what  the  Lord  Cornbury  commanded 
them;  as  indeed  their  signing  this  address,  and 
their  conduct  in  every  other  thing,  did  but  too 
plainly  evince,  to  be  the  only  seriousness  and  deli- 
beration they  were  capable  of.  When  Col.  Quarry 
signed  that  address,  we  believe  he  was  misled,  and 
depended  too  much  on  the  credit  of  others  ;  we  must 
do  him  the  justice  to  own,  that  he  has  of  late  de- 
clined joining  with  them  in  many  of  their  hot  and 
rash  ;methods,  aud  behaves  himself  at  present  like 
a  man  of  temper,  who  intends  the  service  of  the 
queen  and  good  of  the  country.  These  addressers 
tell  her  majesty,  that  they  were  in  duty  and  con- 
science bound  to  testify  their  dislike  and  abhorrence 
of  the  same  to  her.  Had  they  abhorred  falsehood, 
and  discharged  their  duty  as  in  conscience  they  were 
bound  to  do,  in  refusing  to  join  with  the  Lord 
Cornbury,  in  all  his  arbitrary  and  unjust  measures, 
and  particularly  in  that  scandalous  address  (pardon 
the  expressions),  the  country  would  not  have  had 
that  just  cause  to  complain,  as  now  they  have,  and 
in  probability  always  will,  while  they  continue  in 
their  present  stations.  There  were  no  proceedings 
in  that  assembly  that  any  honest  man  had  reason  to 
dislike  ;  and  their  endeavours  for  the  good  of  the 
country  deserve  the  highest  praise,  and  ought 
never  to  be  forgotten  by  New  Jersey. 

"  The  second  article  is,  '  That  the  unaccountable 
humours  and  pernicious  designs  of  some  particular 
men,  have  put  them  upon  so  many  irregularities, 
with  intention  only  to  occasion  divisions  and  dis- 
tractions, to  the  disturbance  of  the  great  and 
weighty  affairs  which  her  majesty's  honour  and 
dignity,  and  the  peace  and  welfare  of  the  country, 
required.'  The  so  many  irregularities  are,  we 
suppose,  what  the  Lord  Cornbury  mentioned  in  his 
answer  to  their  remonstrance ;  which  that  house 
replied  to ;  as  may  be  seen  in  their  reply ;  and 
whether  they  were  irregularities  or  no.  the  world 
can  judge  :  but  be  they  what  they  will,  the  address- 
ors  are  never  able  to  prove  that  the  unaccountable 
humours  of  some  particular  men  put  them  upon 
them;  they  may  indeed  boldly  say  they  did,  and  if 
that  will  do,  they  may  say  again,  that  it  was  with 
intention  to  occasion  divisions,  &c. ;  but  that  neither 
proves  that  any  particular  men  influenced  that 
assembly,  nor  that  the  intentions  of  doing  so  were 
as  they  say  ;  that  being  impossible  for  them  to 
know  ;  and  if  we  may  be  allowed  to  know  the  in- 
tentions of  that  assembly,  they  were  far  otherwise 
than  what  the  addressers  represent  them  to  have 
been. 

"  The  3d  article  was,  '  That  we  had  highly  en* 
croached  upon  her  majesty's  prerogative  royal.' 

"  The  4th,  '  That  we  had  notoriously  violated  the 
rights  and  liberties  of  the  subject.' 

"  The  5th,  '  That  we  had  manifestly  interrupted 
justice.' 

"  These  three  articles  are  what  the  Lord  Corn- 
bury,  in  his  answer  to  the  remonstrance,  charges 
that  assembly  with,  which  are  fully  answered  in 
the  aforesaid  reply,  and  proved  to  be  false  charges; 
and  this  the  addressers  knew  wrhen  they  signed  the 
address,  if  ever  they  read  the  reply  or  address 
(which  is  very  much  to  be  questioned)  ;  and  we  be- 
lieve, if  the  truth  were  known,  notwithstanding 


UNITED  STATES. 


625 


their  pretensions  to  seriousness  and  deliberation, 
tney  had  little  more  hand  in  it  than  setting  their 
hands  to  it,  as  we  shall  endeavour  to  evince.  It  is 
undeniably  true,  that  it  was  signed  at  different  times, 
and  in  different  places ;  it  then  must  be  true,  that 
it  was  brought  ready  drawn  to  the  signers,  and  it's 
very  probable  that  they  did  not  read  it,  certainly 
not"  with  any  consideration.  The  lieutenant  go- 
vernor, as  we  observed  before,  has  owned  he  did  not ; 
and  the  late  chief  justice,  Roger  Mompesson,  Esq., 
a  man  as  likely  to  read  and  consider  as  any  of 
them,  owns  under  his  hand,  he  never  did  examine 
the  particulars  of  it ;  which  is,  in  other  words,  own- 
ing he  did  not  read  it ;  and  it's  not  very  likely  the 
rest  should.  These  three  articles  are  the  very 
words  used  by  the  Lord  Cornbury  in  his  answer  : 
the  whole  address  seems  to  be  an  abridgement  of 
that  answer,  several  sentences  the  same,  the  stile 
i he  same,  and  the  same  vein  of  intemperance  and 
ill  nature  through  them  both  ;  and  in  all  likelihood 
done  by  his  lordship,  who  made  the  addressers 
father  whatever  his  lordship  was  ashamed  to  own 

"  The  Gth  article  is,  *  That  the  remonstrance  was 
a  most  scandalous  libel.' 

"  The  7th,  'That  the  Lord  Cornbury  made  a  full 
and  ample  answer  to  it.' 

"  The  8th,  '  That  the  reply  of  the  house  of  repre- 
sentatives of  the  province  of  New  Jersey,  was  a 
scandalous  and  infamous  libel ;'  and  they  add,  on 
thai  head,'  this  last  libel  came  out  so  suddenly,  that 
they  had  not  time,  as  yet,  to  answer  it  in  all  its 
particulars.' 

"  Certainly  it  is  impossible  that  ever  men  in 
their  right  wits,  after  reading  such  an  address, 
should  sign  it !  Was  it  ever  known,  that  any  book 
or  paper  wrote  by  a  house  of  commons,  was  called  a 
Libel,  and  a  most  scandalous  and  infamous  libel  ? 
If  the  gentlemen  had  intended  to  show  their  talents 
of  railing  and  abusive  language  ;  they  could  hardly 
have  taken  a  more  effectual  way,  than  by  that  ad- 
dress-, which  if  it  prove  nothing  else,  proves  them 
to  be  very  much  masters  of  those  qualifications  ; 
but  we  cannot  be  of  opinion,  that  their  calling  the 
remonstrance  or  reply  a  libel,  proves  them  to  be 
so  ;  nor  had  they  any  reason  to  expect  it  would  be 
taken  by  her  majesty,  for  any  thing  more  than  a 
demon stratiba  of  their  want  of  temper  ;  for  if  those 
two  papers  were  libels,  then  the  house  of  represent- 
atives  might  have  been  punished  for  them,  or  at 
least  prosecuted ;  and  if  so,  any  vote,  resolve,  ad- 
dress or  remonstrance  that  they  made,  or  any  other 
bouse  of  representatives  could  make,  would  subject 
the  said  house  of  representatives  (the  authors  of 
them)  to  the  same  inconvenieucy,  whenever  the 
gentlemen  of  the  council  were  pleased  to  call  them 
so.  This  is  so  contrary  to  the  known  practice  of 
England,  to  the  laws,  to  the  rights  and  privileges  of 
the  house,  that  it  is  a  needless  labour  to  prove, 
either  that  the  gentlemen  never  read  what  they 
signed,  or  knew"  what  they  signed  to  be  false  a't 
the  time  of  their  signing  of  it.  But  to  say  a 
little  more,  the  remonstrance  and  reply  are  so 
far  from  being  false,  that  they  are  most  true. 
Several  of  the  facts  are  owned  by  the  Lord  Corn- 
bury,  and  where  he  either  evades  or  denies  them, 
they  are  made  out  in  the  reply.  His  bribery  was 
proved  by  a  crowd  of  evidences  in  the  house  ;  and 
whatever  else  is  charged  upon  him,  he  knew  to 
be  true ;  and  it  is  neither  in  the  power  of  his  full 
and  ample  answer,  nor  even  of  the  address  itself, 
to  persuade  the  contrary.  The  assembly  say  indeed 
in  their  remonstrance,  '  Had  the  affairs  of  New 

HIST,  or  AMEK. — Nos.  79  £  80. 


York  admitted  his  Lordship  ol'tcncr  to  attend  those" 
of  New  Jersey,  he  had  not  then  been  unacquainted 
with  their  grievances  ;  and  that  they  were  inclined 
to  believe  they  would  not  have  grown  to  so  great  a 
number.'  This,  perhaps,  may  be  one  of  the  false- 
hoods the  addressers  mean  ;"  and  truly  it  ought  to 
be  acknowledged,  that  the  then  assembly  had  no 
reason  to  believe  hisLovdship's  presence  in  this  pro- 
vince would  have  any  other  effect,  than  the  increas- 
ing, instead  of  diminishing  their  grievances  :  but 
when  the  addressers  say,  that  the  '  reply  came  so 
suddenly  out,  that  as  yet,  they  had  uo't  time  to 
answer  it  in  all  its  particulars  ;'  they  seem  to  imply, 
that  they  had  answered  it  in  some  of  them ;  which 
has  not  been  done,  no,  not  as  yet,  though  it  has 
been  out  above  three  years.  And,  '  its  coming  out 
so  suddenly,  &c.'  is  a  great  mistake,  to  say  no, worse 
of  it ;  for  it  had  been  out  above  six  months  before 
their  address  was  signed.  This  is  another  proof 
that  they  never  read  the  address  before  they  signed 
it;  or  if  they  did,  that  they  knew  what  they  signed 
to  was  false,  at  the  time  of  their  signing. 

"  The  9th  article  is,  'That  these  disturbances  arc 
owing  wholly  to  Mr.  Lewis  Morris  and  Samuel 
Jenings,  men  of  turbulent,  factious,  uneasy  and 
disloyal  principles ;  men  notoriously  known  to  be 
uneasy  under  all  government,  and  men  never  known 
to  he  consistent  with  themselves.' 

"  The  10th  article  is,  '  That  to  these  men  are 
owing  all  the  factions  and  confusions  in  the  govern 
ments  of  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania.' 

"  These  articles  are  not  only  the  stile  of  the  Lord 
Cornhury's  answer  to  the  renlonstrance  ;  but  for  the 
most  part  the  very  words.  If  Mr.  Morris  and  Mr, 
Jenings  were  such  men  as  the  addressers  say  they 
are,  viz.  turbulent  and  factious,  uneasy  under  all 
government,  and  the  causers  of  the  factions  and 
confusions  of  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania;  then 
certainly  to  continue  thus  turbulent,  &c.  evinced  they 
were  not  inconsistent  with  themselves,  but  con- 
stantly pursued  the  same  measures.  This  was  an 
expression  the  Lord  Cornbury  was  very  fond  of,  and 
very  much  used,  and  the  addressors  here  have  been 
but  the  parrots  of  his  thoughts ;  and  all  they  have 
said  of  these  gentlemen  (one  of  whom  is  in  his  grave 
viz.  Mr.  Jenings)  is  a  notorious  abuse  ;  for  what- 
ever was  done  by  the  assembly  (if  it's  their  pro- 
cedures they  call  disturbances)  was  not  done  either 
by  the  influence  of  Mr.  Morris  or  Mr.  Jenings.  but 
from  a  just  sense  of  their  duty,  in  discharge  of  the 
trust  reposed  iii  them  by  the  country,  and  to  pre- 
vent the  ill  effects  of  an  arbitrary  and  unjust  use  of 
power,  by  the  Lord  Cornbury,  so  much  encouraged 
by  the  slavish  compliances  of  the  addressors,  men 
never  known  to  be  consistent  with  themselves,  nor 
we  fear  never  will. 

"  We  should  not  trouble  your  excellency  longer 
on  this  head,  did  we  not  know  this  is  an  article 
which  the  addressors  think  they  can  justify,  and 
which  they  suppose  will  prove  a  sufficient  defence 
for  all  they  have  said  ;  therefore,  to  put  this  matter 
in  some  measure  out  of  dispute,  we  say,  in  the  first 
place,  that  should  they  be  able  to  prove  what  they 
say  in  that  article,  yet  it  would  not  justify  their 
other  accusations,  nor  the  severe  reflections  they 
have  unjustly  made  on  the  representative  body  of 
this  province.  2dly,  It  plainly  appears  by  the  jour- 
nals of  the  house,  that  the  assembly  insisted  rn  the 
same  things  when  neither  Mr.  Morris  nor  Mr. 
Jenings  were  among  them  ;  and  now  endeavour  to 
evince  to  your  excellency,  that  their  proceedings 
•were  reasonable.  3dly,  The  disturbances  in  Jer  "* 

3  N 


626 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA 


or  Pennsylvania,  ascribed  to  Mr.  Morris  or  Mr. 
Jenings,  were  no  other  than  the  opposition  of  an 
unlawful  and  unjust  authority,  and  that  during  the 
proprietors'  government,  before  it  was  surrendered 
to  the  queen  ;  so  not  a  fit  matter  to  have  been  at 
that  time  seriously  and  deliberately  meddled  with 
by  the  addressers,  and  could  be  done  with  no  other 
intent  but  to  mislead  the  queen  into  a  belief  that 
Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey  were  then  disturbed 
by  these  gentlemen.  4thly,  We  do  not  find  that 
ever  Mr.  Morris  was  concerned  at  all,  even  during 
that  time,  in  the  Western  division  of  New  Jersey  or 
Pennsylvania. 

"  The  llth  article  is,  '  That  this  is  done  with  de- 
sign to  throw  off  the  queen's  prerogative  royal,  and 
consequently  to  involve  all  her  majesty's  dominions 
in  this  part  of  the  world,  and  the  honest  and  good 
well-meaning  men  in  them,  in  confusion,  hoping 
thereby  to  obtain  their  wicked  purposes.' 

"  It  is  evident  from  this  article,  that  the  accusa- 
tions of  Mr.  Morris  and  Mr.  Jenings  were  to  mis- 
lead the  queen  into  such  a  belief  as  we  have  in- 
stanced :  1st,  from  their  using  the  term  (is  done) — 
being  in  the  present  tense  :  2dly,  they  assigned  the 
reason  why  it  is  done,  viz.,  not  only  to  encourage 
this  government,  but  all  the  governments  in  America, 
to  throw  off  her  majesty's  preiogative  royal,  and  as 
a  consequence  of  that,  to  involve  all  her  dominions 
in  this  part  of  the  world,  &c.,  in  confusion  ;  which 
is,  in  plain  English,  throwing  off  our  allegiance,  and 
revolting  from  the  crown  of  England :  the  addressors, 
in  the  first  place,  suppose  all  the  plantations  on  the 
continent  of  America  inclinable  to  a  revolt  when- 
ever they  have  an  opportunity;  or  at  least  it*  they 
don't  believe  it  themselves,  would  have  the  queen 
believe  so,  and  be  apprehensive  of  some  danger 
from  it ;  which,  if,  she  had,  it's  natural  enough  to 
suppose  such  severe  methods  would  have  been 
taken,  as  would  prevent  any  such  thing ;  so  that 
what  the  addressors  have  said,  is  not  only  an  accu- 
sation of  all  the  plantations  in  America — of  want  of 
loyalty  and  affection  to  her  majesty — but  an  en- 
deavour to  alienate  her  affections  from  them  We 
thank  God  it  has  not  had  the  ill  effects  they  intended, 
and  hope  no  representation  founded  on  the  malice 
of  any  men,  ever  will;  but  that  the  authors  of  them 
may  always  meet  with  as  little  credit  as  they  deserve. 
Can  it  be  thought,  or  could  the  addressors  them- 
selves ever  seriously  and  deliberately  think,  that 
the  province  of  New  Jersey  (one  of  the  most  in- 
considerable of  all  her  majesty's  colonies,  and  the 
most  incapable  of  making  any  defence,  having  no 
fortification  that  exceeds  a  stone  house,  and  of  them 
but  very  few;  a  great  part  of  whose  people  are 
quakers,  who  by  their  principles  are  against  fight- 
ing,) would  be  so  unaccountably  mad,  as  to  throw  off 
their  allegiance  (especially  to  be  the  first  in  doing 
it)  and  expose  themselves  to  unavoidable  ruin  and 
destruction  ?  Whoever  can  seriously  think  this, 
and  with  deliberation  assert  it,  ought  very  seriously, 
and  without  much  deliberation,  to  be  confined  to  the 
society  of  mad-men,  as  persons  that  can  seriously 
and  deliberately  believe  and  say  any  thing;  which 
is  all  we  shall  say  to  this  ridiculous,  as  well  as  mali- 
cious charge,  and  pass  to  the  12th  article  ;  than 
which  nothing  more  untrue,  and  knowingly  so, 
could  be  asserted,  as  we  shall  by  what  follows  make 
out ;  the  article  runs  thus  :  '  That  the  assembly  are 
resolved  neither  to  support  the  queen's  governmenl 
with  a  revenue,  nor  defend  it  by  settling  a  militia. 
"  Now  it  is  plain  that  this  house  never  did  denj 
to  raise  a  sufficient  support  for  the  government,  anc 


ook  proper  care  concerning  the  militia,  as  by  the 
everal  acts  for  those  ends  does  more  largely  appear ; 
nay,  when  the  expedition  against  Canada  was  on 
"oot,  we  gave  3,000/.  for  that  end,  over  and  above 
he  support  of  government ;  and  the  casting  vote 
or  the  raising  that  money,  and  the  settling  the 
militia  now,  was  given  by  Mr.  Hugh  Middleton,  one 
reputed  a  quaker ;  so  that  it  will  very  easily  appear, 
,hat  accusation  of  the  addressors  was  not  onlv  very 
untrue,  but  that  they  knew  it  to  be  so  at  the  time 
of  their  signing  it ;  nay  more,  we  shall  make  it  ap- 
>ear,  that  the  gentlemen  of  the  council  have  used 
;heir  utmost  endeavours  to  defeat  the  government 
>f  a  necessary  support,  and  to  frustrate,  as  much  as 
n  them  lay,  the  expedition  against  Canada ;  so  that 
;he  accusation  lies  most  justly  against  them,  and 
not  against  us ;  for  the  acts  for  the  support  of  the 
government,  and  settling  the  militia,  made  in  the 
ime  of  the  good  Lord  Lovelace,  were  passed  by 
hem  with  the  greatest  difficulty ;  and  the  act  fo'r 
raising  3,000/.,  towards  carrying  on  the  expedition 
against  Canada,  was,  at  their  direction,  by  Elisha 
Lawrence  and  Gershom  Mott,  two  of  their  tools, 
who  were  members  of  this  house,  (and  were  not 
quakers)  voted  out,  and  who  on  the  first  and  second 
reading  voted  for  it,  concealing  their  design  of  voting 
against  it,  till  the  time  of  their  voting;  and  not 
';>eing  quakers,  were  not  suspected  of  voting  against 
t,  otherwise  care  had  been  taken  to  put  it  out  of 
Jieir  power;  and  to  make  it  appear  that  it  was  done 
with  design,  by  direction  of  the  lieutenant-governor 
and  council,  to  cast  a  reflection  on  the  house,  and 
;o  justify  their  allegations  in  their  address,  even  at 
the  expense  of  defeating  the  expedition ;  the  Lieu- 
;enant-governor  Colonel  Ingoldsby,  though  assured 
by  the  speaker  and  other  members  of  the  house,  that 
if  the  house  was  prorogued  but  for  twenty-four 
hours,  care  should  be  taken  the  bill  should  pass  ; 
who  presently  after  did,  notwithstanding,  adjourn 
the  house  from  the  13th  of  June  to  the  28th  of  July 
following ;  a  time  so  long,  that  if  the  house  and 
council  had  been  never  so  willing,  the  season  would 
by  that  time  have  been  so  far  advanced,  that  it  had 
been  of  no  use  then  to  have  raised  either  men  or 
money  towards  that  expedition,  as  the  lieutenant- 
governor  and  council  very  well  knew ;  and  had  not 
the  honourable  Colonel  Nicholson,  and  Colonel 
Vetch,  in  an  extraordinary  manner,  pressed  the  call- 
ing the  house  sooner  than  the  time  appointed,  viz., 
on  the  23d  day  of  June,  neither  money  nor  men 
had  been  raised  on  that  account:  this,  we  think, 
comes  up  to  a  demonstration,  that  these  gentlemen, 
rather  than  not  gratify  their  resentments,  and  give 
some  colour  of  justifying  what  they  had  said,  chose 
to  sacrifice  the  service  of  the  queen,  and  the  com- 
mon good,  on  so  extraordinary  an  occasion,  to  their 
private  piques:  and  indeed  their  procedures  ever 
since  have  confirmed  the  country  in  that  opinion, 
and  exposed  their  conduct  to  a  just  censure,  and 
showed  that  they  have  been  so  far  from  '  endeavour- 
ing (as  they  say,  in  the  last  article)  by  application 
to  the  governor  to  remove  the  grievances,  if  any 
were  ;'  that  if  their  best  advice  was  at  any  time  of- 
fered, it  was  rather  how  to  continue  and  render 
them  more  intolerable.  We  are  sorry  we  have  so 
much  reason  to  say  this  as  we  have ;  but  a  long  and 
uninterrupted  series  of  despotic  and  arbitrary  go- 
vernment  exacts  it  from  us  ;  and  which  we  are  sure 
they  will,  to  their  power,  continue  as  long  as  to  the 
great  misfortune  of  this  colony,  they  remain  in  any 
places  of  public  trust. 

"  To  enter  into  a  detail  of  their  several  nial-  ad- 


UNITED  STATES, 


627 


ministrations,  it  would  take  up  more  time  than  we 
can  at  present  spare,  and  stretch  the  bounds  of  this 
representation  to  too  great  a  length.  We  have  al- 
ready laid  before  your  excellency  some  proofs  against 
Mr.  Hall,  one  of  the  council,  of  his  extortion,  and 
imprisoning  and  selling  the  queen's  subjects ;  who, 
if  they  had  been  guilty  of  the  crimes  alleged  against 
them,  ought  to  have  been  prosecuted  accordingly, 
and  not  discharged  on  any  hopes  of  private  gain ; 
and  if  not  guilty,  ought  not  to  have  been  laid  in  prison 
and  in  irons,  and  by  those  hardships  forced  to  be- 
come his  servants,  rather  than  endure  them.  But 
a.  man  that  could,  after  taking  up  adrift  several 
casks  of  flour,  deny  them  to  the  owner,  and  sell 
Ihem,  Is  capable  of  any  thing  that  is  ill ;  and  how 
fit  for  so  honourable  a  post  as  one  of  her  majesty's 
council,  or  indeed  any  other  place  of  trust  in  this 
government,  is  most  humbly  submitted  to  your  ex- 
cellency's consideration. 

"  Were  there  nothing  against  Mr.  Peter  Son- 
mans  but  his  being  indicted  for  perjury,  from  which 
by  a  packed  jury  he  was  cleared,  as  appears  by  the 
memorial  (No.  4.),  there  being  but  too  much  reason 
to  believe  he  was  justly  accused,  it  would  be  no 
mean  reason  to  lay  him  aside  from  her  majesty's 
council ;  it  being  some  sort  of  reflection  to  continue 
a  person  even  supposed  guilty  of  so  heinous  a  crime 
in  so  high  a  post,  which  her  majesty  in  a  particular 
manner  has  endeavoured  to  secure  the  honour  of, 
by  directing  in  her  instructions,  that  'no  person 
necessitous  or  much  in  debt  shall  be  of  it ;'  much 
less  a  person  known  to  be  a  bankrupt,  as  Sonmans 
is,  and  who  at  this  time,  and  for  some  years  past, 
has  lived  in  open  attd  avowed  adultery,  in  contempt 
of  the  laws,  which  his  being  in  power  not  only  pro- 
tects him  from  being  punished,  but  enables  him  to 
carry  on  his  wicked  designs,  by  imposing  on  the 
honest  and  simple  people,  who  suspect  no  trick  from 
a  person  of  his  rank  ;  as  appears  by  the  depositions 
relating  to  the  Amboy  petition  against  Doctor 
Johnston  and  Mr.  Reid ;  and  to  stretch  and  warp 
the  laws  to  the  manifest  prejudice,  ruin,  and  un- 
doing of  many  of  her  majesty's  subjects,  whose  com- 
plaints from  the  several  parts  of  the  province,  (so 
unfortunate  as  to  be  under  his  direction,)  we  make 
no  doubt  have  long  ere  this  reached  your  excellency's 
ears  ;  and  which,  we  persuade  ourselves,  will,  when 
your  excellency  is  satisfied  with  the  truth  of  them, 
have  their  proper  effects. 

"  The  courts  of  law  in  which  the  gentlemen  of 
the  council  were  judges,  instead  of  being  a  protect 
ion  and  security  to  her  majesty's  subjects,  of  their 
liberties  and  properties,  in  disputes  that  came  be- 
fore them,  became  the  chief  invaders  and  destroy- 
ers of  them  both ;  and  what  should  have  been  the 
greatest  benefit,  proved  the  greatest  grievance,  as 
we  shall  instance  in  a  few  of  the  many  things  we 
could  :  And  first,  notwithstanding  her  majesty,  for 
the  ease  of  her  subjects  here,  has  been  pleased  to 
appoint  the  supreme  court  of  this  province  to  be 
held  alternately  at  Amboy  in  the  Eastern,  anc 
Burlington  in  the  Western  division  of  this  province : 
yet  the  causes  of  one  division  are  tried  in  the  other^ 
and  juries  and  evidences  carried  for  that  end,  at  the 
great  and  needless  charge  of  those  concerned,  as 
well  as  great  expense  and  loss  of  time  to  the  peopl 
in  general,  who  can  receive  no  benefit  by  the 
courts  being  held  alternately,  if  the  ends  for  which 
they  are  so  held,  be  not  answered,  and  causes  triec 
in  the  same  division  to  which  they  do  belong ;  be 
sides,  it  is  a  practice  of  very  mischievous  conse 
quence,  making  the  people  entirely  depend  on  anc 


je  subject  to  the  judges  of  the  said  court,  who  can 
by  that  method  lay  any  persons  they  do  not  like, 
under  the  necessity  of  being  at  the  before-mentioned 
charge,  and  make  them  that  way  sensible  of  their 
•esentments ;  which,  as  we  have  instanced,  they 
lave  been  too  ready  and  willing  on  all  occasions  to 
do.  Secondly,  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  the  un- 
doubted right,  as  well  as  great  privilege  of  the  suk- 
ect,  was  by  William  Pinhorne,  Esq.,  second  jUdgto 
)f  the  supreme  court,  denied  to  Thomas  Gordon, 
Esq.,  then  speaker  of  the  assembly;  and,  who  notwith- 
standing the  station  he  was  in,  was  kept  fifteen  hours 
a  prisoner,  Until  he  applied  by  the  said  Pinhorne's 
son,  an  attorney-at-law,  and  then,  and  not  before, 
ic  was  admitted  to  bail ;  which  fact,  as  well  as  other 
:hings,  may  appear  by  the  said  Gordon's  case  (No. 
>.),  now  laid  before  your  excellency.  The  proceed- 
ings against  a  person  in  that  station,  and  at  that 
;ime,  made  it  but  too  evidently  appear,  that  the  said 
Pinhorne  would  not  stick  to  join  with  the  Lord 
Dornbury  iu  the  most  daring  and  violent  measures, 
to  subvert  the  liberties  of  this  country  ;  and  cannot 
be  looked  on  by  this  house,  or  any  succeeding  as- 
sembly, duly  considering  the  procedure  and  the  ad- 
dress above  mentioned,  afterwards  signed  by  him, 
but  as  a  person  ready  and  willing  on  any  occasion 
to  attempt  upon  their  liberties,  and  overthrow  them, 
it'  he  can ;  and  how  safe  we  can  think  ourselves 
while  he  continues  in  power  to  hurt,  is  most  humbly 
submitted. 

"  Many  persons  prosecuted  upon  informations, 
have  been,  at  their  excessive  charge-,  forced  to  at- 
tend court  after  court,  and  not  brought  to  trial, 
when  there  was  no  evidence  to  ground  such  informa- 
tions on  ;  but  they  kept  prisoners,  in  hopes  that  some 
might  be  in  time  procured ;  and  two  of  them,  to 
wit,  David  Johnston  and  his  wife,  after  some  weeks' 
imprisonment,  not  admitted  to  bail  till  they  entered 
into  a  recognisance,  the  condition  of  which  was, 
'  That  if  the  Lord  Cornbury  was  dissatisfied  with 
admitting  them  to  bail,  upon  notice  thereof  signi- 
fied to  them,  they  should  return  to  their  imprison- 
ment:' his  lordship  was  dissatisfied,  and  Leeds  and 
Revell,  who  took  the  recognisance^  sent  their  orders 
to  them  to  return  according  to  the  condition  of  it. 

"  Actions  have  been  suffered  to  continue,  after 
the  persons  in  whose  names  they  were  brought, 
have  in  open  court  disavowed  them,  declaring  they 
had  never  given  orders  for  any  such  actions  to  be 
brought. 

"  Actions  upon  frivolous  pretences  have  been 
postponed,  and  the  trials  delayed  to  serve  particular 
persons,  when  the  juries  and  evidences  were  all 
ready,  and  attending  on  the  trials. 

"  Though  it  be  the  right  of  the  subject,  by  proper 
writSj  to  remove  actions  from  any  inferior  to  a  su- 
perior court ;  yet  at  the  court  of  sessions  held  at 
Burlington,  in  December  1709,  Col.  Daniel  Coxe, 
Col.  Hugh  Huddy,  Col.  Thomas  Revell,  and  Daniel 
Leeds,  Esq.,  justices  of  the  said  county,  did  reject  a 
writ  of  certiorari,  obtained  by  Mr.  George  Willocks, 
and  allowed  by  Roper  Mompesson,  chief  justice, 
and  committed  said  Willocks  till  he  entered  into 
recognisance,  to  appear  at  the  next  court  of  oyer 
and  terminer.  , 

"  The  case  of  Peter  Blacksfield,  who,  by  a  mis- 
take or  design,  was  divested  of  his  estate,  and  ruined, 
is  so  well  known  to  your  excellency,  that  we  need 
say  nothing  more  about  it. 

"  The  people  called  quakers,  who  are  by  her  ma- 
jesty admitted  to  plates  of  the  most  considerable 
trust  within  this  province,  are  sometimes  admitted 

3N2 


628 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


to  be  evidences  ;  as  one  Mr.  Beaks,  a  quaker,  was  in 
a  capital  case  against  one  Thomas  Bates,  at  a  court 
of  oyer  and  terminer,  held  by  Justice  Mompesson, 
Col.  Coxe,  Col.  Huddy,  and  others ;  on  which  evi- 
dence he  was  condemned  to  be  executed ;  and  gome- 
times  they  have  been  refused  to  be  .jurors  or  evi- 
dences, either  in  civil  or  criminal  cases;  so  that  their 
safety,  or  receiving  the  benefit  of  her  majesty's  fa- 
vour, seems  not  to  depend  on  the  laws,  or  her  direct- 
ions, but  the  humours  and  caprices  of  the  gentle- 
men who  were  judges  of  the  courts.  We,  with  all 
humanity,  take  leave  to  inform  your  excellency, 
that  the  Western  division  was  settled  by  those  peo- 
ple, who  combated  with  all  the  inconveniences  at- 
tending a  new  settlement ;  and  with  great  difficulty 
and  charge  have,  from  a  wilderness,  improved  it  to 
be  what  you  now  see  it  is ;  there  are  great  numbers 
of  them  in  it,  and  should  they  not  be  admitted  as 
evidences  or  jurors,  they  would  be  very  unsafe;  for 
it  is  in  the  power  of  ill  men  to  come  into  their  re- 
ligious assemblies,  and  murder  as  many  as  they 
please,  and  with  impunity,  though  looked  on  by 
hundreds  of  quakers;  or  break  open  their  houses 
and  rob  with  safety  :  and  the  encouragement  the 
gentlemen  of  the  council  have  given  to  the  meanest 
of  the  people,  to  abuse  them,  confirms  us  in  the 
opinion,  that  there  wants  not  those  who  have  will 
enough  to  perpetrate  the  greatest  mischiefs  on  that 
people,  when  they  can  escape  the  punishment  due 
to  their  crimes. 

"  The  procedure  of  the  whole  body  of  the  council, 
in  relation  to  Mr.  Barclay,  is  a  demonstration  of 
their  arbitrariness  and  partiality,  as  by  his  case, 
now  laid  before  your  excellency,  will  more  fully 
appear.  When  he  produced  a  commission  before 
them,  from  the  proprietors  in  England,  which 
superseded  that  lame  one  given  to  Mr.  Soninans; 
they  (as  appears  by  an  order  of  council)  took  the 
said  commission  from  him ;  than  which  nothing 
could  be  more  arbitrary  and  unjust ;  for  that  com- 
mission was  the  property  of  Mr.  Barclay,  and  he 
had  the  right  of  executing  the  powers  of  it ;  and  if 
any  persons  were  aggrieved,  or  the  commission  not 
good,  the  law  was  open  to  dispute  it ;  and  a  copy  oi 
it  Rent  to  the  queen  would  have  answered  all  the 
just  ends  that  sending  the  original  could  do.  Il 
was  indeed  a  short  way  of  determining  in  favour  ol 
Peter  Sonmans,  and  putting  it  out  of  the  power  oi 
Mr.  Barclay  to  right  himself  during  that  admini- 
stration. The  gentlemen  may  call  this  a  strenuous 
asserting  of  the  queen's  prerogative  royal ;  but  we 
can  call  it  by  no  other  name  than  an  open  robbery, 
'committed  in  their  judicial  capacity,  under  a  pre- 
tence of  authority;  than  which  nothing  could  be 
worse,  or  of  more  pernicious  consequence. 

"  To  conclude,  all  persons  not  friends  to  the 
gentlemen  of  the  council,  or  some  of  them,  were 
sure  in  any  trial  at  law  to  suffer ;  every  thing  was 
done  in  favour  of  these  that  were  :  justice  was  ba- 
nished, and  trick  and  partiality  substituted  in  its 
place  ;  no  man  was  secure  in  his  liberty  or  estate  ; 
but  both  subjected  to  the  caprices  of  an  inconsiderate 
party  of  men  in  power,  who  seemed  to  study  nothing 
more  than  to  make  them  as  precarious  as  possible 
Your  excellency's  coming,  has  put  a  check  to  tha 
violent  torrent  of  injustice  and  oppression,  that  bor< 
down  every  thing  before  it;  and  we  hope,  tha 
during  your  administration,  ill  men  will  not  have 
authority  to  hurt,  nor  their  representations  gain  any 
credit  with  a  person  so  able  to  discern  the  motives 
of  them ;  which  are  no  other  than  the  gratification 
of  their  own  resentments,  even  at  the  price  of  the 


>ublic  safety,  as  we  have  in  great  measure  already 
>roved  ;  and  their  proceedings   now  do  plainly  con- 
irm  what  we  have  offered  :  for  what  can  be  the  in- 
ent  of  rejecting  our  bills   without  committing  of 
hem,  but  to  irritate  us  to  that  degree,  that  nothing 
might  be  done,  either  towards  the  support  of  the  go- 
vernment, or  the  settling  of  a  militia,  that  they  might 
lave  wherewithal  to  justify  themselves  in  what  they 
lave  said  of  us  ?     What  was  the  cause  of  their  re- 
ecting  the  bill   for   preventing    of  corruption    in 
courts  of  justice,  but  the  consciousness  of  their  own 
crimes,    and  the  fears  they  had  of  that  examine, 
which  must  necessarily  have   exposed  their  conduct 
to  a  due  censure  ?     What  was  it  that  made   them 
:hrow  out  the  bill  against  bankrupts  (though  made 
by  her  majesty's  express  direction),  and  profess  them- 
selves against  any  bill  whatsoever  on  that  head,  but 
:he  dread  they  had  of  feeling  the  just  consequences 
of  it  themselves  ?     Nay,  one  of  them,  William  Pin- 
horne,  Esq.,  by  name,  was  pleased  to   say,   it  was 
with  horror  and  amazement  he  beheld   a  bill  with 
that  title ;  we  are  not  so  fond  of  the  bill  as  it  was 
drawn,  but  that  we  would  have  readily  joined  with 
the  council  in   any  reasonable   amendments,    had 
they  offered  them ;   but  we  think  no  honest  man 
could  be  against  a  bill  that  makes  the  estates  of 
persons  becoming  bankrupts,  liable  to  pay  their  just 
debts ;  and  we  hope  New  Jersey  won't  long  be  a 
sanctuary  for  such.     The  bill,  entitled,  '  An  act  for 
enabling  persons  aggrieved  by  an  act  for  settling 
the  militia  of  this  province,'  was,  to  make   the  dis- 
tresses unreasonably  and  illegally  made  on  pretence 
of  the  militia  act,  returnable  to  the  owners,  and  to 
punish  the  persons  that  did  it;  but  this   they  will 
not  pass,  knowing  that  so  just  an  act  would  be  at- 
tended with  consequences  they  can  by  no  means 
bear;  the  instruments  of  that  oppression  being  to 
be  protected  by  them   at  any  rate,  and  nothing  to 
be  heard  against  them,  because  they  were  officers  of 
the  government,  though  their  practices  were  never 
so  unreasonable  or  unjust,  and   her  majesty's  sub- 
jects left  remediless,  and  must  patiently  sit  down, 
after  having  their  houses  and  plantations  plundered, 
and  their  persons  abused  by  a  crew  of  needy  and 
mercenary  men,  under  pretence  of  law  ;  but  it  was 
such  persons  as  were  useful  to  them,  and  such  they 
must,   for  their  own  safety,  protect.     It  is  for  this 
reason  they  combine  together  to  secure,  as  far  as 
they  are  able,  Jeremiah  Bass,  their  clerk,  the  secre- 
tary of  this  province,  and  prothonotary  of  the  su- 
preme court;  in  all   these  offices  his  pen  is  to  be 
directed  by  them;  they  dread  an  honest  man  in  these 
offices.     How  he  has  behaved  himself,   is  in  some 
measure  known  to  your  excellency,  especially  in  the 
case  of  Dennis  Linch,  the  Maidenhead  people,  and 
Peter  Blacksfield ;  the  two  last  are  notorious  mal- 
versations in  his  office,  and  appear  under  his  hand, 
and  by  the  minute  books  of  the  supreme  court;  and 
it  is  no  excuse  in  him,  when  men  are  turned  out  of 
their  estates  and  ruined,  to  say,  it  was  a  mistake; 
if  such  an  excuse  would   do,   it  is  very  easily  made 
on  any  occasion;  and  in  this  province  can  be  safe 
when  such  a  person  continues  in  offices  of  so  great 
trust.     All  the  original  copies  of  the  laws  passed  in 
the  time  of  the  just  Lord  Lovelace,  are  somehow  or 
other  made  away  with.    Bass  offers  to  purge  himself 
by  his  oath,  that  he  has  them  not,   nor   knows  any 
thing  of  them  ;  and  it  may  be  so,  for  aught  we  know; 
but  in  this  province  where  he  is  known,   it  is  also 
known,  that  few  men  ever  believed  his  common 
conversation,   and  several   juries   have  refused   to 
credit  his  oaths ;  he  corroborates  what  he  says  with 


UNITED  STATES. 


629 


the  evidence  of  Peter  Sonmans,  one  of  the  council, 
a  person  once  indicted  for  perjury  ;  and  how  he  was 
cleared,  the  aforesaid  memorial  makes  out ;  so  that 
we  do  not  think  him  a  person  of  sufficient  credit  to 
determine  that  point.     It  is  certain  that  the  secre- 
tary's office  is  the  place  those  laws  ought  to  be   in, 
and  he  ought  not  on  any  pretence  to  have  parted 
with  them  out  of  the   province.     It  is  certain  the 
lieutenant-governor    ought,    within   three    months 
after  the  passing  of  them,  to  have   sent  copies  of 
them  to  the  lords  commissioners  for  trade  and  plant- 
ations, and  duplicates   of  them  by  the  next  convey 
ance  after ;  and  this  under  pain  of  her  majesty's 
highest  displeasure,  and  the  forfeiture  of  that  year' 
salary,  on  which  he  should  on  any  pretence  whatso- 
ever omit  the  doing  of  it :  how  comes  it  then  about 
that  neither  the  secretary  Bass,  nor  Mr.  Cockrill, 
private   secretary  to   the   Lord  Lovelace,  and  who 
lived  six  months  after  his  master's  death,  was  never 
examined  about  them  ?      Mr.  Cockrill  could  have 
cleared  up  that  matter  while  alive,  if  the  lieutenant- 
governor  could  be  thought  so  grossly  to  neglect  what 
he  knew  to  be  his  duty ;  why  did  not  Mr.  Bass  ap- 
ply to  him  in  all  that  time  for  those  laws  ?     If  he 
had   parted  with  them,   as   he  pretends,    so  much 
against  his  will,  it  was  very  natural  to  suppose  he 
would  have  used  the  utmost  application  to  get  them 
again ;  yet  no  one  inquiry  is  said  to  be  made  after 
them,  either  by  Bass  or  the  lieutenant-governor,   of 
the  Lady  Lovelace,  who   staid  in  New  York  long 
after  the  death  of  her  lord,  or  of  his  secretary  ;  nor 
no  noise   at  all  made  about  them  till  this  time,  so 
long  after  the  arrival  of  your  excellency  :   can  any 
body  think  it  was  the  interest  of  either  the  Lord  or 
Lady  Lovelace,  or  his  secretary,  or  any  of  his  lord- 
ship's friends,  to  destroy  a  law  which  gave  the  Lord 
Lovelace   800J.,    and  without  which   he  could  not 
have  it  ?     But  it  does  appear  to  be  the  interest  of 
the  lieutenant-governor  and  his  friends   to   destroy 
it ;  for  they  had  got  an  act  passed,  which  took  from 
the  Lord  Lovelace  330/,  of  that  money,  arid  gave  it 
to  the  lieutenant-governor  ;  and  270/.  more  of  it  was 
given   to  him  for  the  support  of  the   government. 
Had  he  sent  the  act  made  in  favour  of  the   Lord 
Lovelace   to  the  queen  for  her  approbation    or  dis- 
allowance, and  her  majesty  had  approved  of  it,  as 
in  all  probability  she  would  have  done,  then  the  act 
made  in  Colonel  Ingoldsby's  favour  had  been  void ; 
but  had  the  other  gone  home  first,  there  was  an  ex- 
pectation it  might  pass,  the  quceft  knowing  no  more 
about  the  first  act,  than  that  a  vote  had  passed  in 
favour  of  the  Lord  Lovelace, 

"  And  to  make  it  plainly  appear,  that  Colonel 
Ingoldsby  and  the  gentlemen  of  the  council  were 
apprehensive  of  the  danger  of  sending  those  acts  to 
England,  to  the  act  we  have  now  past,  for  making 
the  printed  copies  as  effectual  as  if  the  originals 
were  in  the  secretary's  office,  that  your  excellency 
ir,ay  be  enabled  to  transmit  them  to  her  majesty, 
they  have  added  a  pi'ovidiug  clause,  that  the  act 
made  in  Col.  Ingoldsby's  tune  (\y  lich  takes  that 
money  from  the  Lord  Lovelace)  s'  all  not  by  this 
act  we  have  past,  be  made  void  in  tne  whole  or  any 
part  thereof,  but  continue  in  full  force  and  virtue 
as  if  this,  act  had  never  been  made.  This  amend- 
ment they  insist  on,  though  they  knew,  and  do  know, 
we  will  never  agree  to  a  clause  so  foreign  to  the 
title  and  intent  of  the  bill ;  but  this  is  done  by  them 
with  design  that  the  bill  shall  not  pass,  by  which 
means  her  majesty  will  be  without  authentic  copies 
of  the  acts  during  that  good  lord's  administration  ; 
and  they  hope  will  confirm  the  acts  past  in  Colonel 


Ingoldsby's  time.  What  we  have  said  on  this  head, 
shows  very  plainly  who  are  the  persons  that  ought, 
with  most  reason  to  be  charged,  with  the  making 
away  those  original  laws. 

"  We  are  concerned  we  have  so  much  reason  to 
expose  a  number  of  persons,  combined  to  do  New 
Jersey  all  the  hurt  that  lies  in  their  power.  Her 
majesty  has  been  graciously  pleased  to  remove  Col. 
Richard  Ingoldsby  from  being  lieutenant-governor, 
and  we  cannot  sufficiently  express  our  gratitude  for 
so  singular  a  favour  ;  and  especially  for  appointing 
your  excellency  to  be  our  governor.  We  have  all 
the  reason  in  the  world  to  be  well  assured,  you  will 
not  forget  that  you  are  her  subject,  but  will  take 
care  that  justice  be  duly  administered  to  the  rest  of 
her  subjects  here  ;  which  can  never  be  done  while 
William  Pinhorne,  Roger  Mompesson,  Daniel  Coxe, 
Richard  Townley,  Peter  Sonmans,  Hugh  Huddy, 
and  William  Hall,  or  Jeremiah  Bass,  Esqrs.,  con- 
tinue in  places  of  trust  within  this  province ;  nor 
can  we  think  our  liberties  or  properties  safe  while 
they  do;  but  if  they  aie  continued,  must  with  our 
families  desert  the  province,  and  seek  some  safer 
place  of  abode.  We  shall  wait  till  your  excellency 
can  transmit  accounts  of  the  state  of  this  colony  to 
her  majesty,  and  assure  you  that  we  will  on  all  oc- 
casions very  readily,  to  our  power,  comply  with  her 
majesty's  directions,  and  be  wanting  in  nothing 
that  may  conduce  to  make  your  administration 
happy,  both  to  yourself  and  us. 

"  Signed  by  order  of  the  house  of  representatives, 

"  WILLIAM  BRADFOKD,  Clerk." 
"  Die  Veneris,  A.  M.  9  Feb.  1710." 

This  representation  was  received  kindly  by  the 
governor;  he  answered,  "that  her  majesty  had 
»iven  him  directions  to  endeavour  to  reconcile  the 
differences  that  were  in  this  province;  but  if  he  could 
not,  that  he  should  make  a  just  representation  to 
her ;  and  that  he  did  not  doubt,  but  that  upon  the 
representation  he  should  make,  her  majesty  would, 
take  such  measures  as  should  give  a  general  satis- 
faction." 

The  governor  accordingly  backing  the  remon- 
strance to  the  queen,  got  all  the  counsellors  re- 
moved that  were  pointed  out  by  the  assembly,  as  the 
cause  of  their  grievances,  and  their  places  supplied 
3y  others.  The  business  of  this  session  being  finish- 
ed, the  governor  prorogued  the  ht/use. 

A  session  of  general  assembly — A  second  expedition 
to  Canada — Meeting  of  a  New  Assembly — Last 
session  in  Hunter'*  time — An  act  passed  for  run- 
ning the  division  line  between  East  and  West  Jersey 
—  William  Bicrnet  arrives  as  governor— Is  succeeded 
by  John  Montgomerie,  Esq. — Lewis  Morris  appointed 
Governor,  separate  from  New  York~— Affairs  until 
the  revolution. 

Governor  Hunter  convened  the  assembly  in 
;he  summer,  1711,  and  opened  business,  with 
celling  them,  "  That,  her  majesty's  instructions 
which  he  was  commanded  to  communicate,  would 
discover  the.  reason  of  his  calling  them  together  at 
his  time;  and  that  he  doubted  not  the  matters 
herein  contained  would  be  agreeable  to  them,  arid 
he  success  profitable. 

"  That  the  fleet  and  forces  destined  for  the  reduc- 
ion  of  Canada  were  arrived  in  good  health  and 
condition,  and  would  proceed  in  a  little  time ;  that 
vhat  was  required  on  their  parts,  was  the  levying  in 
ach  division  180  effective  private  men,  besides 
officers,  and  to  provide  for  their  encouragement, 
lay,  and  provisions,  as  well  as  transportation  over 


630 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  lakes,  and  other  incidental  charges  attending 
the  service." 

The  assembly  resolved  to  encourage  this  expedi- 
tion, by  raising  to  the  value  of  12,500  ounces  of  plate, 
in  bills  of  credit,  to  be  sunk,  together  with  the  for- 
mer 3000/.,  by  a  subsequent  tax  ;  and  provided  bills 
fur  raising  volunteers  to  go  on  the  expedition,  and 
ibr  remitting  the  money. 

The  governor  passed  the  bills,  and  dismissed 
tlvnn  with  thanks,  for  the  cheerful  dispatch  they 
had  given. 

This  wa,s  the  second  expedition  against  Canada, 
the  particulars  of  which  have  been  fully  given  in 
the.  preceding  histories. 

In  1712  died  Thomas  Gardiner,  of  Burlington, 
several  times  mentioned  before;  he  was  well  ac- 
quainted with  public  business,  a  good  surveyor,  and 
useful  member  of  society ;  several  years  one  of  the 
council,  treasurer  of  the  Western  division,  and  the 
first  speaker  of  assembly  after  the  union  of  the  go- 
vernments of  East  and  West  Jersey. 

The  7th  of  December,  1713,  the  governor  called 
the  assembly,  and  next  day  informed  them,  that  he 
was  glad  to  see  them  after  so  long  an  absence,  and 
believed  they  were  not  sorry  to  meet  him  in  so 
good  company ;  that  the  tender  regard  her  majesty 
had  to  their  quiet,  in  particular  at  a  time  when  she 
had  blessed  the  world  with  a  general  peace,  called 
for  their  pious  endeavours,  and  could  not  fail  of 
meeting  the  returns  due  from  the  most  grateful 
people,  to  the  best  and  most  indulgent  princes ; 
that  he  was  persuaded  the  efforts  of  such  as  had 
been  removed  from  places  of  trust  by  the  queen,  at 
their  request,  would  be  too  impotent  to  destroy  the 
peace,  by  breaking  that  mutual  confidence,  or  dis- 
turbing that  harmony,  that  then  subsisted  between 
the  several  branches  of  the  legislature  ;  that  full  of 
this  confidence,  he  recommended  to  their  immediate 
care,  the  providing  for  past  arrears,  and  future 
support  of  her  majesty's  government,  the  discoun- 
tenancing vice  and  immorality,  the  improvement 
of  trade  and  encouragement  for  planting  and 
peopling  the  province  ;  that  this  could  not  be  bet- 
ter effected  than  by  a  law  to  affirm  and  ascertain  the 
respective  properties  of  the  proprietors  and  people, 
if  they  thought  it  practicable. 

That  the  gentlemen  of  the  present  council,  hav- 
ing no  views  or  interests  differing  from  theirs,  if 
they  would  agree  to  frequent  and  amicable  confer- 
en,ces  with  them,  or  a  number  of  them,  upon  all 
matters  under  deliberation,  it  would  save  much 
time  and  effectually  disappoint  all  contrivances  of 
their  enemies  j  "  Who.  in  return  for  their  being  at 
present  no  counsellors,  had  ridiculously  endeavoured 
to  Persuade  some  that  they  were  n,o  assembly." 

The  assembly  replied,  "  That  they  were  indeed 
glad  to  meet  him  in  such  good  company ;  and  as  the 
persons  who  had  hitherto  obstructed  the  welfare  of 
their  country,  were  removed,  they  presumed  on  his 
favour  oftener  than  heretofore ;  they  acknowledged 
themselves  under  the  greatest  obligatious  to  the  best 
of  queens,  and  hoped  their  actions  would  demon- 
strate they  were  not  ungrateful." 

Among  other  bills  passed  this  session,  was  that 
entitled,  "  An  act  that  the  solemn  affirmation  and 
declaration  of  the  people  called  quakers,  shall  be 
accepted  instead  of  an  oath  in  the  usual  form,  and 
for  qualifying  and  enabling  the  said  people  to  serve 
as  jurors,  and  to  execute  any  office  or  place  of 
trust  or  profit  within  this  province." 

This  bill  was  introduced  on  the  governor's  com- 
municating to  the  house  tbo  queen's  instruction  on 


that  head,  after  it  was  fully  adjusted  by  the  council 
and  assembly;  the  second  enacting  clause  was 
thought  to  be  designedly  left  out  by  the  secretary, 
who  had  it  to  engross,  and  it  so  passed  the  council 
without  being  perceived  ;  but  on  reading  it  again 
in  the  assembly  it  was  discovered,  and  the  secre- 
tary making  his  acknowledgment  at  the  bar  of  the 
house,  it  passed  over.  This  act  continued  till  the 
year  1732,  and  then  was  supplied  by  another. 

Other  laws  were  also  passed;  and  this  session 
concluded  to  mutual  satisfaction. 

"  I  thank  you,"  says  the  governor  in  his  conclud- 
ing speech  to  the  house,  "  for  what  has  been  done 
this  sessions  for  the  support  of  this  her  majesty's 
overnment,  and  do  not  doubt,  but  that  you  will 
receive  ample  thanks  from  those  who  sent  you,  for 
the  many  good  laws  that  have  been  passed ;  some 
things  that  in  their  nature  were  acts  of  favour,  I 
have  agreed  that  they  thould  be  made  acts  of  as- 
sembly, that  your  share  may  be  greater  in  the 
rateful  acknowledgment  of  your  country. 

"  I  hope  my  conduct  has  convinced  the  world,  (I 
cannot  suppose  you  want  any  further  conviction) 
that  I  have  no  other  view  than  the  peace  and  pros- 
perity of  this  province ;  if  such  a  few  as  are  enemies 
to  both,  are  not  to  be  reduced  by  reason,  I  shall 
take  the  next  best  and  most  effectual  measure  to 
do  it." 

The  government  was  conducted  in  so  quiet  a 
manner  that  we  find  no  public  transactions  to  notice, 
until  the  year  1716,  when  Governor  Hunter  met  a 
new  assembly  at  Perth  Amboy,  in  the  spring,  who 
chose  Colonel  Daniel  Coxe,  speaker;  being  pre- 
sented and  accepted,  the  governor  by  speech  in- 
formed them, 

"  That  the  dissolution  of  one  assembly  by  the 
demise  of  the  late  queen,  of  another  by  the  arrival 
of  a  new  patent  from  the  present  king,  (George  I.) 
constituting  him  governor  of  the  province,  and  of 
a  third  by  reason  of  a  circumstance  well  known, 
together  with  the  long  sessions  at  York,  and  his 
necessary  attendance  on  the  service  of  the  frontiers, 
had  been  the  occasion  of  putting  off  their  meeting 
till  now;  that  on  his  part  he  brought  with  him  a 
firm  purpose  for  the  advantage  of  the  subject  and 
service  of  the  crown  ;  which,  (says  he)  '  I  have 
ever  pursued,  and  now  bid  a  fair  defiance  to  the 
most  malicious  to  assign  one  single  instance  in  which 
I  have  acted  counter  to  what  I  now  profess,  notwith- 
standing the  false  and  groundless  accusations  and 
insinuations  to  the  contrary,  from  two  persons  ou 
the  other  side,  who  pretended  to  have  been  in- 
structed from  this ;  which  though  they  met  with 
that  contempt  at  home  they  deserved,  I  could  not 
without  injustice  to  myself  let  pass  unmeiitioned 
here."  ' 

The  assembly  being  now  convened  at  Amboy, 
when  it  ought  in  turn  to  have  been  at  Burlington, 
were  determined  to  remonstrate  against  the  infringe- 
ment of  the  usual  custom  of  alternately  meeting  at 
each  of  those  places,  and  accordingly  represented 
to  the  governor,  that  in  the  year  1709,  an  act  was 
passed,  entitled,  "  An  act  for  ascertaining  the  place 
of  the  sitting  of  the  representatives,  to  meet  in 
general  assembly ;"  that  in  March,  1710.  (he  afore- 
said act  was  confirmed,  finally  enacted  and  ratified 
by  her  late  majesty,  with  the  advice  of  her  privy- 
council,  and  transmitted  to  him  (the  governor)  by 
the  lords  commissioners  for  trade  and  plantations, 
the  16th  of  said  month. 

That  as  they  found  themselves  entirely  inclina- 
ble to  pay  all  due  regard  and  obedience  to  his 


UNITED  STATES. 


631 


majesty's  and  the  governor's  commands,  so  they 
could  not  but  think  it  their  duty  to  maintain  the 
known  established  laws  of  the  province. 

And  as  that  law  had  the  royal  sanction,  and  had 
gone  through  all  the  usual  forms  both  here  and 
in  Great  Britain,  necessary  to  the  confirming  and 
perpetuating  of  it,  they  were  of  opinion  it  was  still 
in  force. 

The  governor  replied,  That  his  majesty's  in- 
structions, which  were  laws  to  him,  having  restored 
that  affair  to  the  just  and  equal  footing  upon  which 
it  was  put  by,  and  at  the  time  of  the  surrender  of  the 
government  by  the  proprietors,  he  could  not  give 
his  consent  to  any  alteration,  or  give  way  to  any 
thing  that  might  elude  the  intent  and  purpose  of 
that  instruction  without  giving  juster  grounds  of 
complaint  against  him  than  he  had  hitherto  given  ; 
and  that  he  had  reasons  of  great  weight,  which  made 
it  impracticable  for  him  to  hold  either  council  or 
assembly  at  Burlington  at  this  time. 

The  dispute  being  principally  founded  on  the  new 
commission  to  the  governor,  upon  the  accession  of 
King  George  I.  to  the  throne  ;  the  assembly  thought 
proper  to  let  it  drop,  and  pursue  what  was  before 
them  at  the  place  where  they  were  then  convened  : 
matters  however  did  not  proceed  agreeably ;  the 
speaker  disliked  the  governor,  and  influenced  many 
of  the  members :  and  the  governor  perceiving  that 
there  was  no  prospect  of  their  answering  the  design 
of  their  meeting  at  that  time,  prorogued  them. 

He  summoned  them  to  meet  again  at  Amboy  on 
the  14th  of  May,  when  only  nine  members  appear- 
ing, they  waited  five  days,  and  then  presented  an 
address,  requesting  the  governor  would  take  such 
methods  as  he  should  see  meet,  to  cause  the  absent 
members  to  attend  the  service  ;  he  sent  warrants 
to  several  of  them,  commanding  their  attendance, 
as  they  would  answer  the  contrary  at  their  peril; 
four  presently  appeared,  and  there  being  now  thir- 
teen met,  the  governor  sent  for  them,  and  recom- 
mended their  meeting  at  the  house  and  choosing  a 
speaker,  (for  their  speaker  was  absent  among  the 
rest)  in  order  to  enable  themselves  to  send  their 
serjeant-at-arms  for  those  that  were  still  absent. 

The  thirteen  met  the  21st,  but  the  speaker  being 
still  absent,  they  proceeded  to  a  new  choice,  and 
placed  John  Kinsey  in  the  chair. 

This  done,  and  the  new  speaker  presented,  the 
governor  delivered  the  following  speech  : 
"  Gentlemen, 

"  The  last  time  you  were  here  upon  the  like  oc- 
casion, I  told  you,  that  I  thought  fit  to  approve  of 
whatever  choice  you  thought  fit  to  make  of  a  speaker. 
I  now  tell  you  that  I  heartily  approve  of  the  worthy 
choice  you  have  made. 

"  As  the  conduct  of  that  gentleman,  who  last 
filled  the  chair,  sufficiently  convinced  you  of  a  com- 
bination between  him  and  his  associates,  to  de- 
feat all  the  purposes  of  your  present  meeting ;  I 
hope,  and  cannot  doubt  but  it  will  open  the  eyes  of 
all  such  as  by  his  and  their  evil  acts,  and  sinistrous 
practices,  ha,ve  been  misled  and  imposed  upon  ;  so 
that  for  the  future,  here,  they  will  not  find  it  so  easy 
a  matter  to  disturb  the  peace  of  the  country. 

"  I  must  refer  you  to  what  \  said  at  the  opening 
of  the  assembly ;  but  harvest  drawing  near,  I  am 
afrajid  you'll  hardly  have  time  for  more  business 
than  what  is  absolutely  and  immediately  requisite  ; 
that  is  the  support  of  the  government,  and  the  pub- 
lic credit ;  you  know  that  the  date  of  the  currency 
of  your  bills  of  credit  is  near  expiring,  so  there  will 
be  wanting  a  new  law  to  remedy  the  evil  that  must 


attend  the  leaving  the  country  without  a  currency 
for  ordinary  uses,  as  well  as  trade. 

"  ROBERT  HUNTER." 

The  house  then  examined  into  the  conduct  of 
their  late  speaker,  and  the  absent  members,  who  on 
the  question  were  all  at  different  times  severally 
expelled  for  "  contempt  of  authority  and  neglect 
of  the  service  of  their  country,"  and  writs  issued 
for  new  elections. 

The  8th  of  next  month,  soon  after  the  speaker's 
exclusion,  but  before  the  other  members  were  ex- 
pelled, the  assembly  presented  their  address  as 
follows : 

"  May  it  please  your  excellency, 

"  Your  administration  has  been  a  continued 
series  of  justice  and  moderation,  and  from  your  past 
conduct  we  dare  assure  ourselves  of  a  continuation 
of  it,  and  we  will  not  be  wanting  in  our  endeavours 
to  make  suitable  returns,  both  in  providing  a  hand- 
some support  of  the  government,  and  of  such  a 
continuance  as  may  demonstrate  to  you  and  the 
world,  the  sense  we  have  of  our  duty  and  your 
worth. 

"  The  gentleman,  our  late  speaker,  has  added 
this  one  instance  of  folly  to  his  past  demeanour, 
to  convince  us  and  the  world,  that  in  all  stations, 
whether  of  a  counsellor,  a  private  man,  or  a  repre- 
sentative, his  study  has  been  to  disturb  the  quiet  and 
tranquillity  of  this  province,  and  act  in  contempt  of 
laws  and  government;  we  are  sensible  of  the  effects 
it  has  had,  and  may  have  on  the  public  peace  ;  and 
our  expulsion  of  him,  we  hope,  evinces  that  we  are 
not  the  partisans  of  his  heat  and  disaffection  to  the 
present  government.  We  are  very  sorry  he  has  been 
capable  to  influence  so  many  into  a  combination 
with  him,  to  make  effectual  his  ill  purposes ;  but 
we  hope  it  is  rather  the  effect  of  weakness  than 
malice,  and  that  their  eyes  are  now  so  much  opened 
that  they'll  return  to  their  duty,  and  join  with  us  in 
providing  for  the  public  credit,  and  whatever  else 
may  make  this  province  happy,  and  your  excel- 
lency easy." 

Next  the  assembly  resolved,  "  That  the  late 
members  whom  they  had  expelled,  should  not  sit  as 
members  of  the  house  if  they  should  be  returned  on 
a  new  election,  during  this  sessions  of  assembly." 

Notwithstanding  this  resolve,  several  of  the  same 
members  were  returned ;  but  refused  seats  in  the 
house,  and  the  electors  obliged  to  choose  over 
again. 

The  governor  then  prorogued  them  to  the  3d  of 
October.  In  November  the  same  house  met  at  Cros- 
wicks,  the  small-pox  being  at  Burlington ;  the  go- 
vernor opened  the  business  of  this  session  by  telling 
them,  That  supporting  government  and  public  cre- 
dit, required  their  immediate  deliberation  ^  that 
they  knew  the  funds  for  the  first  hM  expired  fi.fteer 
months  ago,  and  that  the  other  had  suffered  much 
by  the  obstinacy  of  some  in  refusing  the  payment  of 
taxes,  or  remissness  in  others  in  collecting  or  put- 
ting the  laws  in  execution,  sufficient  (if  duly  ex- 
ecuted) to  have  answered  the  end.,  and  in  a  great 
measure  prevented  or  remedied  that  evil ;  that  he 
doubted  not  they  were  now  met  with  a  good  disposi- 
tion, as  well  as  in  full  freedom,  all  clogs  and  bars 
being  removed,  to  pursue  to  effect  the  good  ends  of 
their  meeting,  an,d  to  make  good  their  engagements 
and  promises  in  several  addresses ;  that  the  true 
interest  of  the  people  and  government  were  the 
same,  to  wit,  a  government  of  laws  ;  that  no  other 
deserved  the  name;  Jiiat  this  was  never  separated, 
or  separable  but  in  imagination  by  men  of  craft, 


032 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


such  as  were  either  abettors  of  lawless  power  on  the 
one  hand,  or  confusion  and  anarchy  on  the  other; 
that  the  first  was  not  the  case  of  this  province,  and 
\ve  had  well-grounded  hopes  that  all  endeavours 
towards  the  latter  were  ceased. 

This  session  proved  long  and  fruitful,  continuing 
above  two  months ;  and  sixteen  public  and  private 
bills  received  the  governor's  assent. 

In  1718  died  Samuel  Smith,  one  of  the  members 
of  assembly  for  Burlington;  he  had  sought  happi- 
ness in  obscurity,  but  being  against  his  inclination 
called  to  this  and  other  public  stations,  he  passed 
through  them  with  a  clear  reputation.  In  private 
life  he  was  inoffensive,  benevolent,  and  respected. 

This  year  was  remarkable  for  an  uncommon 
storm  of  hail :  which  fell  larger  than  had  been  remem- 
bered before  in  the  provinces,  and  killed  many  wild 
pigeons,  and  other  birds,  and  did  considerable 
damage. 

(1719.)  In  the  spring  Governor  Hunter  again  met 
the  assembly  at  Perth  Amboy ;  but,  at  the  desire 
of  the  members,  their  private  affairs  interfering, 
they  were  adjourned  to  the  winter,  when  meeting, 
he  represented, 

"  That  the  revenue  was  some  time  since  expired; 
that  when  this  came  under  consideration,  he  de- 
sired an  augmentation  of  the  officers'  salaries ;  that 
in  former  acts  they  were  so  scanty  and  so  retrenched 
from  what  they  had  been,  that  the  officers  were  not 
enabled  to  perform  their  respective  dutic?. 

"  That  the  assembly  of  N  ew  York  had  passed  an 
act  for  running  the  division  line  betwixt  this  pro- 
vince; and  that  upon  supposition,  that  another  for 
the  same  purpose  would  be  passed  here  ;  that  the 
justice  due  to  the  proprietors  and  the  disturbances 
among  the  people,  made  such  a  law  immediately 
necessary;  that  he  had  formerly  recommended 
their  providing  for  an  agent  at  the  court  of  Great 
Britain,  and  now  repeated  it;  that  the  lords  com- 
missioners for  trade  had  in  several  of  their  letters 
complained  of  the  want  of  one ;  that  this  was  the 
only  province  i-n  his  majesty's  dominions  that  had 
none  ;  that  by  means  of  this  omission  their  business 
in  England  stood  still ;  that  that  could  not  be  de- 
layed without  danger  or  loss  to  the  public,  since  his 
administration  had  been  negotiated  by  persons  em- 
ployed by  him.  at  his  own  very  great  expense, 
which  he  hoped  they  would  consider;  that  as  to 
projects  of  trade,  he  had  no  reason  to  change  his 
opinion  since  they  last  met;  that  to  this  subject  he 
referred  them  on  what  he  then  spoke." 

The  assembly  said  in  their  address,  "  That  they 
were  not  insensible  the  present  circumstances  of 
the  goveinment  as  well  as  of  the  country,  made 
their  meeting  necessary,  notwithstanding  the  ri- 
gour of  the  season  ;  that  they  were  not  unmindful 
that  the  revenue  was  expired,  nor  of  their  duty  in 
a  reasonable  support ;  that  they  were  willing  to  pass 
an  act  for  running  the  division  line  betwixt  this  pro- 
vince and  New  York ;  but  conceived  the  expense 
of  that  affair  belonged  to  the  proprietors  of  the  con- 
tested lands  ;  that  they  were  very  sensible  an  agent 
for  the  province  at  the  court  of  Great  Britain  was 
very  necessary,  but  were  sorry  the  circumstances  of 
the  province  were  such,  that  they  could  not  make 
u  suitable  provision  for  so  useful  an  officer ;  and 
that  they  would  readily  come  into  any  measures 
that  might  be  effectual  to  promote  the  trade  and 
prosperity  of  the  province." 

This  session  produced  eleven  public  and  private 
bills  ;  among  them  was  one  for  running  and  ascer- 
taining the  division  line  betwixt  New  Jersey  and 


New  York;  but  this  act  was  never  put  iu  execution 
further  than  fixing  the  north  partition  point ;  this 
was  done  by  indenture  made  the  25th  of  July,  1719, 
between  II.  Walter,  Isaac  Hicks  and  Allane  Jarrat, 
surveyor-general,  on  the  part  of  New  York;  John 
Johnston  and  George  Willocks,  on  behalf  of  East 
Jersey  ;  Joseph  Kirkbride  and  John  Reading,  en. 
behalf  of  West  Jersey  ;  and  James  Alexander,  sur- 
veyor-general, on  behalf  of  both  East  and  West 
Jersey :  these  commissioners  and  surveyors  duly 
authorized,  met  at  the  place,  and  after  many  obser- 
vations of  the  latitude,  unanimously,  by  the  deed 
aforesaid,  fixed  the  north  partition  point  on  the 
northernmost  branch  of  Delaware  ;  which  they  found 
to  be  that  branch  called  the  Fish  Kill.  This  done, 
the  commissioners  for  West  Jersey  thought  they 
were  not  further  concerned ;  the  others,  though 
both  greatly  interested  in  having  it  settled,  left  it  in 
uncertainty  till  1764,  when  by  acts  of  assembly  of 
both  colonies,  it  was  referred  to  be  finally  settled 
and  determined  by  commissioners  to  be  appointed 
by  the  crown.  Another  act  also  passed  for  running 
and  ascertaining  the  line  of  division  between  East 
and  West  Jersey. 

The  beginning  of  the  summer  this  year  (1719) 
afforded  a  fair  prospect  of  a  plentiful  harvest,  and 
much  was  expected  from  a  great  crop  in  the  ground  ; 
but  an  unseasonable  quantity  of  rain  coming  on,  it 
proved  very  bad,  and  many  lost  their  corn  entirely; 
it  was  long  called  the  wet  harvest. 

(1720.)  We  are  now  come  to  the  end  of  Governor 
Hunter's  administration,  who  resigned  in  favour  of 
William  Burnet  (son of  the  celebrated  bishop),  and 
returned  to  England  ;  he  nad  a  ready  art  at  pro- 
curing money,  few  loved  it  more ;  and  this  foible 
it  is  said  drew  him  into  schemes,  gaming,  and  con- 
siderable losses.  His  address  here  was  engaging 
and  successful,  he  assented  to  most  of  the  laws  the 
people  wanted,  and  filled  the  offices  with  men  of 
character.  He  had  before,  so  early  as  the  year 
1705,  been  appointed  lieutenant-governor  of  Vir- 
ginia, under  George  earl  of  Orkney,  and  was  on 
his  voyage  thither  taken  prisoner  to  France. 

The  assembly  at  the  sessions  last  mentioned, 
fixed  for  salary  and  incidental  charges  600Z.  per 
annum ;  for  two  years  this  had  been  the  accustomed 
support,  since  the  surrender,  except  once  in  Lord 
Cornbury's  time  ;  500/.  was  provided  in  the  succeed- 
ing  administrations,  till  Lewis  Morris,  in  1738, 
became  governor  of  New  Jersey,  separate  from 
New  York  ;  when  it  was  augmented  to  1000/  per 
annum,  and  60/.  house-rent,  with  500/.  addition  the 
first  year,  for  expenses  attending  his  voyage,  &c. 

Governor  Burnet  met  the  assembly  soon  after  his 
arrival,  but  little  business  was  then  thought  neces- 
sary, nor  did  they  very  well  agree  ;  that  house  had 
been  continued  a  long  time,  and  were  now  dis- 
solved, and  writs  issued  for  a  new  election. 

The  members  returned  were  convened  early  in 
the  spring  1721 ;  they  chose  Dr.  John  Johnston, 
speaker. 

The  governor  opened  the  assembly  with  the  fol- 
lowing speech : 
"  Gentlemen, 

"  The  choice  which  the  country  has  made  of  you 
to  represent  them,  gives  me  a  happy  opportunity  of 
knowing  their  sentiments  ;  now  when  they  have 
been  fully  informed  of  mine  in  the  most  public  man- 
ner, I  have  no  reason  to  doubt,  that  after  so  much 
time  given  them  to  weigh  and  consider  every  par- 
ticular, you  bring  along  with  you  their  hearty  reso- 
lutions to  support  his  majesty's  government,  in 


UNITED  STATES. 


such  au  ample  and  honourable  manner  as  will  be-  j  gratitude,  and  obedience  to  their  sovereign  King 
come  you  to  offer,  and  me  to  accept;  and  in  doing  |  George,  his  issue,  and  magistrates  in  their  respect- 


this,  I  must  recommend  to  you  not  to  think  of  me, 
so  much  as  of  the  inferior  officers  of  this  government, 
who  want  your  care  more,  and  whose  salaries  have 
hitherto  amounted  to  a  very  small  share  of  the  pub- 
lic expense.  I  cannot  neglect  this  occasion  of  con- 
gratulating you  upon  the  treasures  lately  discovered 
in  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  which  cannot  fail  of  cir- 
culating for  the  general  good,  the  increase  of  trade, 
and  the  raising  the  value  of  estates ;  and  now  you 
are  just  beginning  to  taste  of  new  blessings,  I  can- 
not but  remind  you  of  those  which  you  have  so  long 
enjoyed,  and  without  which  all  other  advantages 
would  but  have  increased  your  sufferings,  under  a 
Popish  king  and  a  French  government. 

"  You  can  ascribe  your  deliverance  from  these  to 
nothing  but  the  glorious  revolution,  begun  by  King 
William  III.,  of  immortal  memory,  and  completed  by 
the  happy  accession  of  his  present  majesty,  King 
George,  to  the  throne  of  Great  Britain,  and  his 
entire  success  against  his  rebellious  subjects  at 
home,  and  all  his  enemies  abroad. 

"  To  this  remarkable  deliverance,  by  an  over- 
ruling hand  of  Providence,  you  owe  the  preservation 
of  your  laws  and  liberties,  the  secure  enjoyment  of 
your  property,  and  a  free  exercise  of  religion,  ac- 
cording to  the  dictates  of  your  conscience.  These 
invaluable  blessings  are  so  visible  among  us,  and 
the  misery  of  countries  where  tyranny  and  persecu- 
tion prevail,  so  well  known,  that  I  need  not  mention 
them,  to  raise  in  your  minds  the  highest  sense  of 
your  obligations  to  serve  God,  to  honour  the  king, 
and  love  your  country.  "  W.  BURNET." 

The  assembly  presented  the  following  address  :— 
"  May  it  please  your  excellency; 

"  We  gladly  embrace  this  opportunity  to  assure 
your  excellency,  that  our  sentiments  and  those  we 
represent,  arc  one  and  the  same,  cheerfully  to  de- 
monstrate our  loyalty  to  our  sovereign  King  George, 
and  submission  to  his  substitute,  and  readiness  to 
support  his  government  over  us  in  all  its  branches, 
in  the  most  honourable  manner  the  circumstances 
of  this  province  will  allow ;  which  we  hope  your 
excellency  will  accept  of,  though  it  fall  short  of 
what  the  dignity  of  his  majesty's  governor  and  the 
inferior  officers  of  the  government  might  expect, 
were  the  province  in  a  more  flourishing  condition. 

"  WTe  thankfully  acknowledge  your  excellency's 
congratulation,  and  doubt  not  when  the  imaginary 
treasures  (except  Mr.  Schuyler's)  become  real,  the 
country  will  not  be  wanting  in  their  duty  to  his  ma- 
jesty, in  making  your  excellency  and  the  officers  of 
the  government  partakers  of  the  advantage. 

"  We  doubt  not  but  your  excellency  will  extend 
your  goodness  to  countenance  any  proposal  that  may 
tend  to  the  public  utility. 

"  We  hope  your  excellency  will  excuse  us  in  fall- 
ing short  of  words,  to  express  our  thankful  acknow- 
ledgements to  God  Almighty  and  those  under  him, 
who  have  been  instruments  in  working  deliverance 
to  that  glorious  nation  to  which  we  belong,  from 
popery,  tyranny,  and  arbitrary  power,  wishing  it 
may  always  be  supplied  with  great  and  good  men, 
that  will  endeavour  their  utmost  to  maintain  his 
majesty's  royal  authority,  and  assert  and  defend  the 
laws,  liberties;  and  properties  of  the  people,  against 
all  foreign  and  domestic  invaders. 

"  We  beg  your  excellency  to  believe  the  sincerity 
of  our  thoughts,  that  there  are  none  of  his  majesty's 
subjects  that  entertain  hearts  more  loyal  and  af- 
fectionate, and  desire  more  to  testify  their  duty, 


ive  degrees,  than  do  the  representatives  of  his  ma- 
jesty's province  of  New  Jersey. 

"  JOHN  JOHNSTON,  Speaker." 

Sundry  bills  were  prepared  this  sessions ;  among 
these,  one  had  a  title  too  singular  to  be  omitted° 
"  An  act  against  denying  the  divinity  of  our  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ,  the  doctrine  of  the  blessed  Trinity,  the 
truth  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  spreading  atheistical 
books."  Assemblies  in  the  colonies  have  rarely 
troubled  themselves  with  these  subjects,  perhaps 
never  before  or  since ;  it  probably  arose  from  the 
governor's  motion,  who  had  a  turn  that  way,  and 
had  himself  written  a  book  to  unfold  some  part  of 
the  apocalypse ;  the  bill  was  however  rejected  on  the 
second  reading  in  the  assembly.  The  sessions  con- 
tinued near  two  months,  the  support  was  settled  at 
500/.  a-year,  for  five  years;  the  governor  after 
passing  that,  and  several  other  bills,  dismissed  the 
house  with  the  following  speech  : 

"  Gentlemen, — I  have  so  many  reasons  to  thank 
you  for  your  proceedings  in  this  affair,  that  should  I 
mention  them  all,  time  would  not  suffice  me ;  two  I 
cannot  but  acknowledge  in  a  most  particular  man- 
ner; the  acts  for  the  cheerful  and  honourable  sup- 
port, and  for  the  security  of  his  majesty's  govern- 
ment in  this  province. 

"  I  cannot  but  say,  that  I  look  upon  the  latter  as 
the  noblest  present  of  the  two ;  as  I  think  honour 
always  more  than  riches.  The  world  will  now  see 
the  true  cause  of  our  misunderstandings  in  the  last 
assembly,  and  that  we  met  in  the  innocency  and 
simplicity  of  our  hearts ;  that  the  enemy  had  sown 
such  seeds  of  dissension  among  us,  that  defeated  all 
our  good  purposes,  and  made  us  part  with  a  wrong 
notion  of  one  another. 

"  It  has  pleased  God  now  to  discover  the  truth, 
and  no  man  in  his  sober  senses  can  doubt  that  the 
hand  of  Joab  was  then  busy,  as  it  is  now  certain 
that  it  has  at  this  time. 

"  It  is  a  peculiar  honour  to  me  to  be  thus  justified 
in  all  my  conduct  by  the  public  act  of  the  whole 
legislature  ;  and  God  knows  my  heart,  that  I  am 
not  fond  of  power,  that  I  abhor  all  thoughts  of  re- 
venge, and  that  I  study  to  keep  a  conscience  void 
of  offence  towards  God  and  towards  man. 

"  After  the  publication  of  the  acts,  I  desire  you 
to  return  to  your  house,  and  after  having  entered 
this  speech  in  your  minutes,  to  adjourn  yourselves 
to  the  1st  day  of  October  next;  that  though  it  is 
not  probable  we  should  meet  so  soon,  it  may  not  be 
out  of  our  power  if  occasion  should  be. 

"  May  ft,  1722.  "  W.  BURNET." 

Governor  Burnet,  after  this,  continued  to  preside 
over  New  York  and  New  Jersey  till  1727 ;  when 
he  was  removed  to  Boston,  and  succeeded  by  John 
Montgomerie,  Esq. 

In  1727  the  following  act  was  passed,  which 
though  but  short,  was  ultimately  found  to  be  of  great 
importance. 

"  An  act  for  the  limitation  of  actions,  and  for  avoid- 
ing suits  in  law. 

"  For  quieting  men's  estates  and  avoiding  of  suits : 
Be  it  enacted  by  the  governor,  council,  and  general 
assembly  of  this  province,  and  it  is  hereby  enacted 
by  the  authority  of  the  same,  That  all  the  statutes 
now  in  force,  in  that  part  of  Great  Britain,  called 
England,  concerning  the  limitation  of  actions,  real 
and  personal,  shall,  and  are  hereby  declared  to  be 
in  force  in  this  province  from  the  publication  here- 
of, as  fully  and  effectually  as  if  every  of  them  were 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


herein  at  length  repeated  and  enacted ;  any  law, 
usage,  or  custom  to  the  contrary  in  any  wise  not- 
withstanding." 

The  following  extracts  from  the  proceedings  of 
the  house  of  assembly  of  the  colony  of  New  Jersey, 
show  the  first  steps  towards  getting  a  separate  go- 
vernor appointed. 

"  Die  Jovis,  9th  of  January,  1728.  A  motion 
being  made,  whether  the  having  a  distinct  governor 
for  New  Jersey  be,  in  the  opinion  of  the  house,  for 
the  advantage  of  the  province,  or  not  ?  A  debate 
arising  thereon,  and  the  question  being  put,  the 
previous  vote  was  demanded,  whether  that  question 
be  now  put  or  not  ?  It  was  carried  in  the  affirma- 
tive: and  then  the  question  was  put,  whether  the 
having  a  distinct  governor  for  New  Jersey  be,  in 
the  opinion  of  the  house,  for  the  advantage  of  the 
province,  or  not  ?  It  was  carried  in  the  affirmative. 
Then  the  house  adjourned  till  three  o'clock,  P.  M. 

"  Three  o'clock,  P.  M.,  the  house  met  according 
to  adjournment.  Resolved,  nemine  contradicente, 
that  the  house  will  enter  into  consideration,  what 
may  be  the  most  effectual  method  for  obtaining  a 
distinct  governor  for  this  province  hereafter ;  and 
it  is  ordered,  that  Mr.  Kinsey,  Mr.  Stacy,  Mr. 
Lambert,  Mr.  Eaton,  Mr.  Sonmans,  and  Mr.  Bon- 
nell,  wait  on  his  excellency  and  council,  with  this 
and  the  last  resolve,  and  desire  their  concurrence 
therein,  and  a  conference  touching  the  manner 
most  likely  to  effect  it ;  and  withal,  to  signify  to 
the  governor  and  that  board,  that  it  is  in  nowise  the 
intention  of  this  house  to  give  him  the  least  un- 
easiness (were  it  in  their  power)  during  the  time 
he  may  continue  in  commission  ;  but  only  to  take 
such  measures  as  may  best  conduce  to  the  end 
aforesaid,  when  his  commission  may  determine  by 
the  king's  pleasure  or  otherwise  ;  and  this  they  con- 
ceive a  duty  incumbent  upon  them.  Then  the  house 
adjourned  till  to-morrow,  nine  o'clock,  A.  M. 

"  To  the  king's  most  excellent  majesty. 
"  The  humble  petition  of  the  representatives  of  the 
province  of  New  Jersey,  in  America,  in  general 
assembly  convened. 

"  Most  gracious  sovereign, 

"  We,  your  majesty's  most  loyal  and  dutiful  sub- 
jects, the  representatives  of  your  province  of  New 
Jersey,  in  general  assembly  convened,  by  the  early 
care  your  majesty  has  been  pleased  to  show  for  the 
general  benefit  of  all  your  people,  are  animated  to 
believe,  that  nothing  which  may  contribute  to  the 
advantage  and  prosperity  of  this,  (though  small  and 
distant)  part  of  your  dominions,  will  be  denied  us  ; 
we  therefore  beg  leave  thus  to  approach  your  royal 
presence,  in  discharge  of  that  duty  we  owe  to  your 
majesty  and  to  our  country,  in  the  most  humble 
manner  here  to  represent: 

44  That  the  inhabitants  of  this  colony  (formerly 
a  proprietary  government),  since  the  surrender 
thereof  to  the  crown,  have  always  been  under  the 
same  governor  with  your  majesty's  province  of  New 
York;  that  we  humbly  apprehend  it  would  much 
more  conduce  to  the  benefit  of  this  province,  and 
no  prejudice  to  that  of  New  York,  were  their  go- 
vernors, as  are  the  governments,  distinct. 

"  It  is  a  peculiar  happiness  many  of  our  fellow 
subjects  enjoy,  to  be  near  your  royal  person,  and  to 
partake  of  the  immediate  influence  of  so  good  a  go- 
vernment; but  since  our  distance  deprives  us  of 
that  great  benefit,  it  might  (we  humbly  conceive) 
in  some  degree  be  recompensed,  by  having  a  per- 
son clothed  with  your  majesty's  authority  constantly 
residing  amongst  us.  This  we  cannot  expect  while 


under  the  same  governor  with  New  York  ;  that  go 
vernment  necessarily  taking  up  so  much  of  our 
governor's  time,  that  but  a  small  part  of  it  can  fall 
to  our  share ;  and  his  residence  being  chiefly  there, 
renders  applications  to  him  from  hence,  on  ordi- 
nary occasions,  difficult,  and  in  extraordinary  cases 
(however  willing)  he  may  be  unable  to  relieve  un- 
til the  affairs  of  that  province  will  permit  his  coming 
into  New  Jersey. 

"Under  the  like  difficulties,  (and  for  the  like 
reason)  we  have  laboured  in  respect  to  our  princi- 
pal officers,  who  have  formerly  been  inhabitants  of 
that  colony ;  which  not  only  renders  them  less  use- 
ful in  their  several  stations,  but  by  spending  their 
salaries  there,  drained  us  of  money,  which  would 
otherwise  have  circulated  amongst  us. 

"  Our  having  the  same  governor  with  the  colony 
of  New  York  at  first,  was  (as  we  humbly  conceive) 
because  this  province  was  then  in  its  infancy,  the 
inhabitants  few,  and  it  might  justly  have  been 
thought  too  heavy  a  burthen  to  maintain  a  governor 
of  our  own  ;  but  since  we  are  now  much  more  nu- 
merous, and  are  as  able  and  willing  to  support 
one,  as  divers  of  our  neighbouring  colonies,  who  en 
joy  that  benefit;  we  are  humbly  of  opinion,  the 
granting  this  colony  such  a  governor,  might  tend  to 
increase  our  wealth,  and  put  us  in  a  condition  to 
emulate  our  neighbours  in  trade  and  navigation. 

"  We  entreat  your  majesty  to  believe,  that  no- 
thing we  here  say  proceeds  from  any  dissatisfaction 
to  our  present  governor ;  on  the  contrary,  we  are 
well  pleased  with  his  government,  and  desire  it  may 
continue  during  your  royal  pleasure;  but  all  we 
humbly  ask,  is,  that  when  your  majesty  shall  think 
fit  to  put  a  period  to  his  government,  you  will  then 
graciously  condescend  to  bestow  a  distinct  governor 
on  this  your  colony  of  New  Jersey. 

"  That  your  majesty  may  long  live  to  enjoy  the 
crown  you  wear  with  ease  and  delight,  exceeding 
in  honour  your  illustrious  ancestors  ;  that  when  you 
part  with  an  earthly  diadem,  it  may  be  to  receive  a 
crown  more  permanent  and  glorious,  and  that  Great 
Britain,  and  these  your  dominions,  may  be  always 
happy  in  a  sovereign,  whose  virtues  are  so  con- 
spicuous (as  in  duty  we  are  bound),  shall  be  the 
prayers  of,  may  it  please  your  majesty, 

"  Your  majesty's  most  dutiful  and'most  loyal 

subjects. 
"  By  order  of  the  house, 

"  JOHN  KINSEY,  jun.,  Speaker." 
"  Divers  of  the  members  of  this  assembly  being 
of  the  people  called  quakers,  concur  to  the  matter 
and  substance  of  this  address,  but  make  some  ex- 
ception to  the  stile." 

This  petition  proceeding  in  the  usual  routine  to 
the  lords  of  trade,  they  made,  after  a  considerable 
delay,  the  following  report  upon  it. 
"  To  the   right  honourable  the  lords  of  the  com- 
mittee of  his  majesty's  most  honourable  privy 
council. 

"  My  Lords, — We  have  considered  the  humble 
petitions  of  the  president  and  council,  the  speaker, 
and  several  members  of  the  assembly,  of  his  ma- 
jesty's province  of  New  Jersey;  of  the  grand  jury 
of  the  said  province,  and  Mr.  Richard  Partridge, 
agent  for  New  Jersey ;  together  with  two  other 
papers  annexed  to  the  last-mentioned*  petition  ;  all 
of  them  referred  to  us  by  your  lordships  on  the  24th 
day  of  May  last ;  humbly  praying,  for  the  reasons 
contained,  that  when  his  majesty  shall  nominate  a 
governor  for  the  province  of  New  York,  the  province 
of  New  Jersey  may  not  be  included  in  his  commis 


UNITED  STATES. 


635 


•ion,  but  that  his  majesty  would  be  graciously 
pleased  to  appoint  a  separate  governor  for  the  said 
province  of  New  Jersey. 

"  We  have  considered  the  reasons  given  by  the 
petitioners  for  this  separation,  and  upon  the  best 
information  we  have  been  able  to  procure,  we  take 
leave  to  acquaint  your  lordships,  that  the  allega- 
tions of  the  several  petitions  appear  to  be  of  great 
consequence  ;  and  we  cannot  doubt  but  that  a  sepa- 
rate governor,  whom  the  province  is  willing  to  sup- 
port, would  be  a  means  to  give  a  quicker  dispatch 
to  their  public  affairs,  to  increase  their  trade  and 
number  of  people,  and  very  much  advance  the  in- 
terest of  the  province. 

"Wherefore  we  are  humbly  of  opinion,  that  his 
majesty  may  be  graciously  pleased  to  comply  with 
the  prayer  oi'  these  petitions. 

"  We  are,  my  lords,  your  lordship's  most  obedient 
and  most  humble  servants,         "  T.  PELHAM, 
•'  Whitehall,  "  ORL.  BKIDGMAN, 

Aug.  5,  1736."  "  JA.  BRUDEXELL." 

lu  1731  Governor  Montgomerie  had  died  ;  to  him 


had  succeeded  William  Cosby,  Esq.,  who  continued 
until  his  death  in  1731 ;  and  then  the  government 
had  devolved  on  the  president  of  the  council,  John 
Anderson,  Esq.,  who  also  died  two  weeks  after  his 
assumption  of  the  government.  He  was  succeeded 
by  John  Hamilton,  Esq.,  who  governed  two  years ; 
until,  after  much  delay,  the  wishes  of  the  province 
were  gratified  by  the  granting  a  separate  commis- 
sion to  Lewis  Morris,  Esq.,  who  in  1738  was  ap- 
pointed governor  of  New  Jersey  only,  and  a  sepa- 
rate governor  was  allowed  to  New  York.  This  was 
the  last  public  transaction  of  any  great  impoitance, 
until  the  revolutionary  war.  The  seclusion  from 
the  Indian  frontier,  and  the  thriving  nature  of  the 
colony,  caused  public  affairs  to  proceed  very  calmly; 
and  this  province,  therefore,  furnishes  no  further  ma- 
terials for  history,  until  it  took  its  share  in  the  great 
contest  for  national  independence.  At  the  time  we 
leave  it,  it  possessed  a  population  of  about  40,000 
souls;  and  a  general  desire  for  mental  improve- 
ment had  manifested  itself  in  the  foundation  of  a 
college,  called  Nassau  Hall,  at  Princeton. 


CONNECTICUT. 


Tfie  patent  of  Connecticut — The  discovery  of  Connecti- 
cut river — Description  of  other  rivers — Plymouth 
and  Dutch  houses — Prospects  of  trade  upon  the 
river. 

The  great  Plymouth  company  (of  which  a  suffici- 
ent account  has  already  been  given)  wished  to  make 
grants  of  their  lands  as  fast  as  they  could  find  pur- 
chasers ;  and  the  persecution  of  the  non-conformists 
was  so  severe  in  England,  that  men  of  fortune,  as 
well  as  others,  were  anxious  to  provide,  for  them- 
selves and  their  friends,  a  retreat  in  America. 

On  the  19th  of  March,  1631,  Robert  earl  of 
Warwick,  president  of  the  council  of  Plymouth, 
under  his  hand  and  seal,  granted  and  confirmed  to 
the  Honourable  William  Viscount  Say  and  Seal, 
Robert  Lord  Brook,  Robert  Lord  Rich,  Charles 
Fiennes,  Esq.  Sir  Nathaniel  Rich,  Sir  Richard 
Saltonstall,  and  others,  to  the  number  of  eleven, 
and  to  their  heirs,  assigns,  and  associates,  for  ever, 
"  All  that  part  of  New  England,  in  America,  which 
lies  and  extends  itself  from  a  river  there,  called 
Narraganset  river,  the  space  of  forty  leagues  upon 
a  straight  line  near  the  sea-shore,  towards  the  south- 
west, west  and  by  south,  or  west  as  the  coast 
lieth  towards  Virginia,  accounting  three  English 
miles  to  the  league,  and  all  and  singular  the  lands 
and  hereditaments  whatsoever,  lying  and  being 
within  the  bounds  aforesaid,  north  and  south  in 
latitude  and  breadth,  and  in  length  and  longitude 
of,  and  within  all  the  breadth  aforesaid,  throughoul 
all  the  main  lands  there,  from  the  Western  ocean 
to  the  south  seas;  and  all  lands,  grounds,  soil, 
wood  and  wood-lands,  ground,  havens,  ports,  creeks 
and  rivers,  waters,  fishings  and  hereditaments  what- 
soever, lying  within  the  said  space,  and  every  parl 
and  parcel  tnereof ;  and  also,  all  islands  lying  in 
America  aforesaid,  in  the  said  seas,  or  either  o: 
them,  on  the  western  or  eastern  coasts,  or  jiarts  of 


the  said  tracts  of  land,  by  these  presents  to  be  given 
or  granted."  The  council  of  Plymouth,  the  pre- 
ceding year,  1630,  granted  this  whole  tract  to  the 
Earl  of  Warwick,  and  it  had  been  confirmed  to  him 
by  a  patent  from  King  Charles  I. 

This  is  the  original  patent  of  Connecticut.  The 
settlers  of  the  two  colonies  of  Connecticut  and  New 
Haven  were  the  patentees  of  Viscount  Say  and 
Seal,  Lord  Brook,  and  their  associates,  to  whom 
the  patent  was  originally  given. 

President  Clap  describes  the  extent  of  the  tract, 
conveyed  by  this  patent,  in  the  words  following : 
"  All  that  part  of  New  England  which  lies  west 
from  Narraganset  river,  a  hundred  and  twenty  miles 
on  the  sea-coast ;  and  from  thence,  in  latitude  and 
breadth  aforesaid,  to  the  South  sea.  This  grant 
extends  from  Point  Judith  to  New  York  ;  and  from 
thence,  in  a  west  line  to  the  south  sea  :  and  if  we 
take  Narraganset  river  in  its  whole  length,  this 
tract  will  extend  as  far  north  as  Worcester  :  it  com- 
prehends the  whole  of  the  colony  of  Connecticut, 
and  much  more."  Neal,  Douglass,  Hutchinson, 
and  all  ancient  historians  and  writers,  have  repre- 
sented all  the  New  England  grants  as  extending 
west  from  the  Atlantic  ocean  to  the  south  sea.  In- 
deed the  words  of  the  patent  are  most  express,  de- 
claring its  extent  to  be  south-west  or  west,  to- 
wards Virginia,  to  be  in  length  and  longitude 
throughout  all  the  main  lands  to  the  South  sea. 

And  from  this  construction  of  the  patents,  con- 
gress have  taken  a  formal  surrender  of  the  unap- 
propriated western  lands  from  particular  states, 
and  from  Connecticut  no  less  than  from  others. 

The  first  discovery  of  Connecticut  was  of  its 
principal  river  and  the  fine  meadows  lying  upon  its 
bank.  Whether  the  Dutch  at  New  Netherlands,  or 
the  people  of  New  Plymouth,  were  the  first  disco 
verers  of  the  river,  is  not  certain.  Both  the  English 


636 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


and  Dutch  claimed  to  be  the  first  discoverers,  and 
both  purchased  and  made  a  settlement  of  the  lands 
upon  it  nearly  at  the  same  time. 

In  1631,  Wahquimacut,  a  sachem  upon  the  river 
Connecticut,  made  a  journey  to  Plymouth  and 
Boston,  earnestly  soliciting  the  governors  of  each 
of  the  colonies  to  send  men  to  make  settlements 
upon  the  river.  He  represented  the  exceeding 
fruitfulness  of  the  country,  and  promised  that  he 
would  supply  the  English,  if  they  would  make  a 
settlement  there,  with  corn  annually,  and  give  them 
eighty  beaver  skins.  He  urged  that  two  men  might 
be  sent  to  view  the  country.  Had  this  invitation 
been  accepted,  it  might  have  prevented  the  Dutch 
claim  to  any  part  of  the  lands  upon  the  river,  and 
opened  an  extensive  trade,  in  hemp,  furs,  and 
deer  skins,  with  all  the  Indians  upon  it,  aud  far 
into  Canada. 

The  governor  of  Massachusetts  treated  the  sachem 
and  his  company  with  generosity,  but  paid  no  fur- 
ther attention  to  his  proposal.  Mr.  Winslow,  the 
governor  of  Plymouth,  judged  it  worthy  of  more  at- 
tention. It  seems,  that  soon  after  he  went  to  Con- 
necticut, and  discovered  the  river  and  the  adjacent 
parts.  The  commissioners  of  the  united  colonies, 
in  their  declaration  against  the  Dutch,  in  1653, 
say,  "  Mr.  Winslow,  one  of  the  commissioners  for 
Plymouth,  discovered  the  fresh  river  when  the 
Dutch  had  neither  trading-house  nor  any  pretence 
to  a  foot  of  land  there." 

It  very  soon  appeared  that  the  earnestness  with 
which  the  Indian  sachem  solicited  the  English  to 
make  settlements  on  the  river,  originated  in  the 
distressed  state  of  the  river  Indians.  Pekoah,  at 
that  time  the  great  sachem  of  the  Pequims,  or  Pe- 
quots',  was  conquering  them,  and  driving  their 
sachems  from  that  part  of  the  country.  The  In- 
dian king  imagined  that,  if  he  could  persuade  the 
English  to  make  settlements  there,  they  would  de 
fend  him  from  his  too  powerful  enemies.  * 

(1632.)  The  next  year,  the  people  of  New  Ply- 
mouth made  more  particular  discoveries  upon  thi 
river,  and  found  a  place  near  the  mouth  of  the  little 
river,  in  Windsor,  at  which  they  judged  a  trading 
house  might  be  erected,  which  would  be  advanta 
geous  to  the  colony. 

The  Indians  represented  that  the  river  Connecti 
cut  extended  so  far  north,  and  so  near  the  grea 
lake,  that  they  passed  their  canoes  from  the  lak 
into  it ;  and  that  from  the  great  swamps  about  th 
lake  came  most  of  the  beaver  in  which  they  traded 
One  of  the  branches  of  Onion  river,  in  Vermont 
is  within  ten  miles  of  Connecticut  river.  This  wa 
anciently  called  the  French  river.  The  French  am 
Indians  from  Canada  came  by  this  river,  and  from 
this  into  Connecticut,  when  they  made  their  attack 
on  the  northern  frontiers  of  New  England  an 
Connecticut. 

Connecticut  river  has  its  source  in  that  gran 
ridge  of  mountains  which  divides  the  waters  of  New 
England  and  Canada,  and  extends  north-easterl 
to  the  gulf  of  St.  Lawrence.  The  source  of  it 
highest  branch  is  in  about  45  degrees  and  a  half,  o 
46  degrees  of  north  latitude.  Where  it  enters  Ne1 
England,  in  45  degrees  of  north  latitude,  it  is  te 
rods  in  breadth,  and  in  running  sixty  miles  furthe; 
it  becomes  twenty-four  rods  wide.  It  forms  th 
boundary  line  between  New  Hampshire  and  Vermon 
about  two  hundred  miles.  Thence  running  throug 
the  states  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  it  di 
embogues  its  waters  into  Long  Island  sound,  b< 
tweeu  Saybrook  and  Lyme.  It  runs  with  a  gent! 


ow,  as  its  course  is  between  three  and  four  hun- 
red  miles.  Its  breadth  through  Connecticut,  as  a 
.edium,  is  between  a  hundred  rods  and  half  a  mile, 
n  the  high  spring  floods  it  overflows  its  banks, 
nd  in  some  places  is  nearly  two  miles  in  breadth. 
s  its  banks  are  generally  low,  it  forms  and  ferti- 
ses  a  vast  tract  of  the  finest  meadow;  in  which  a 
one  is  scarcely  to  be  found.  The  general  course 
f  this  beautiful  river,  above,  and  between  the 
tates  of  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont,  is  nearly 
outh-west.  At  a  small  distance  from  its  mouth  is 
bar  of  sand,  apparently  formed  by  the  conflux  of 
ic  river  and  tide.  Upon  this  there  are  but  ten  feet 
f  water  at  full  tide.  The  bar  is  at  such  a  distance 
rom  the  mouth  of  the  river,  that  the  greatest  floods 
o  not  increase  the  depth  of  the  water.  This  is 
ome  obstruction  to  navigation,  but  any  vessel, 
hich  can  pass  the  bar,  may  proceed  without  ob- 
truction  as  far  as  Middletown,  thirty  miles  from 
he  sound  ;  and  vessels  of  eighty,  and  a  hundred 
ons,  go  up  to  Hartford,  fifty  miles  from  the  river's 
uouth.  By  means  of  locks  and  cuts,  at  the  falls, 
t  is  now  navigable  for  boats,  more  than  three 
undred  miles. 

In  Connecticut  there  is  one  exception  to  the 
owness  of  the  river's  banks.  About  three  miles 
•elow  Middletown  the  river  makes  its  way  through 
wo  mountains,  by  which  its  breadth  is  contracted 
o  about  forty  rods.  This  occasions  the  waters, 
ometimes,  in  the  spring  floods,  to  lise,  even  at 
iartford,  twenty  feet  above  the  common  surface 
>f  the  river.  This,  for  the  length  of  its  course,  its 
gentle  flow,  its  excellent  waters,  the  rich  and  ex- 
.ensive  meadows  which  it  forms,  and  the  immense 
quantities  of  fish,  with  which  it  abounds,  is  one  of 
;he  finest  rivers  in  New  England. 

None  of  the  ancient  adventurers,  who  discovered 
he  great  continent  of  North  America,  or  New  Eng- 
and,  made  any  discovery  of  this  river ;  and  it  does 
not  appear  that  it  was  known  to  any  civilized  nation, 
until  some  years  after  the  settlement  of  the  English 
and  Dutch,  at  Plymouth  and  New  Netherlands. 

From  this  fine  river,  which  the  Indians  called 
Quonehtacut,  or  Connecticut,  (in  English,  the  long 
river,)  the  colony  originally  took  its  name  ;  and 
it  may  be  accounted  one  of  the  principal  sources  of 
its  wealth.  • 

The  Housatonick  and  the  little  or  Farmington 
river,  westward  of  it,  and  Pequot  river,  now  called 
the  Thames,  on  the  east,  are  also  considerable 
sources  of  its  prosperity.  The  Housatonick,  now 
commonly  called  Stratford  river,  has  two  principal 
branches.  One  rises  in  Lanesborough.  and  the 
other  in  Windsor,  in  the  county  of  Berkshire,  in 
Massachusetts.  When  ij;  enters  Connecticut,  be- 
tween Salisbury  and  Canaan,  it  is  about  fifty  rods 
wide,  and  running  through  the  whole  length  of  the 
colony,  it  flows  into  the  sound  between  Milford 
and  Stratford.  It  is  navigable  twelve  miles  to 
Derby.  Between  Milford  and  Stratford  it  is  about 
eighty  rods  wide,  and  there  is  about  four  fathoms  of 
water.  Were  it  not  obstructed,  by  a  bar  of  shells, 
at  the  mouth,  it  would  admit  large  ships.  Between 
Salisbury  and  Canaan  is  a  cataract  where  the  water 
of  the  whole  river  falls  perpendicularly  sixty  feet. 
The  fall  produces  a  perfectly  white  sheet  of  water, 
and  various  rainbows. 

The  Naugatuck,  or  Waterbury  river,  is  another 
considerable  branch  of  the  Housatonick.  Its  source 
is  in  Torrington  and  running  through  Harwinton, 
Plymouth  and  Waterbury,  it  empties  itself  into  the 
Housatonick  at  Derby. 


UNITED  STATES. 


637 


The  little,  or  Farmington  river  rises  in  Becket, 
in  Massachusetts,  crosses  the  boundary  line  be- 
weeu  the  colonies  at  Hartland,  and  passing  through 
Berkhempsted  and  New  Hartford,  runs  south  below 
the  centre  of  Farmington  ;  then,  making  a  remark- 
able  turn,  it  runs  back  nearly  a  north  course  twelve 
or  fourteen  miles  into  Simsbury,  where  it  turns 
easterly,  and  running  into  Windsor,  discharges 
its  waters  into  Connecticut  river  nearly  in  the 
centre  of  the  town.  This  formerly  was  replenished 
with  all  kinds  of  fish  in  as  great  a  profusion  as  Con- 
necticut. The  numerous  dams,  which  more  lately 
have  been  erected  upon  it,  have  very  greatly  ob- 
structed their  passage. 

Pequot  river,  or  the  Thames,  empties  into  the 
sound  at  New  London.  It  is  navigable  fourteen 
miles  to  Norwich  landing.  Here  it  loses  its  name, 
and  branches  into  Shetucket  on  the  east,  and  Nor- 
wich, or  little  river,  on  the  west.  About  a  mile 
from  the  mouth  of  the  little  river  is  a  romantic 
cataract. 

The  Shetucket,  which  name  it  bears  as  far  only 
as  the  southern  boundary  of  Windham,  is  formed 
fey  the  Willamantick  and  Quenibaug  rivers.  The 
Willamantick  has  its  source  in  Massachusetts, 
enters  Connecticut  at  Stafford,  and  is  the  boundary 
line  between  Tolland  and  Wellington,  Coventry 
and  Mansfield,  and  passing  by  Windham,  loses 
fctsself  in  the  Shetucket.  Quenibaug  rises  in  Brim- 
field,  in  Massachusetts,  and  passing  through  Stur- 
bridge  and  Dudley,  crosses  the  line  between  that 
state  and  Connecticut,  at  Thompson  ;  and  dividing 
Pomfret  from  Killingly,  Canterbury  from  Plainfield, 
and  Lisbon  from  Preston,  flows  into  the  Shetucket. 

The  colony  is  watered  and  fertilized  by  numerous 
other  rivers,  of  less  extent  and  utility. 

As  the  people  of  Plymouth  had  explored  Con- 
necticut river,  and  fixed  upon  a  place  convenient 
for  building  and  commerce,  and  found  the  original 
proprietors  of  the  soil  desirous  of  their  making  set- 
tlements among  them,  they  judged  it  an  affair  worthy 
of  public  and  immediate  attention. 

In  July,  1633,  Mr.  Winslow  and  Mr.  Bradford 
therefore  made  a  journey  to  Boston,  to  confer  with 
Governor  Winthrop  and  his  council,  on  the  subject. 
Governor  Winslow  and  Mr.  Bradford  proposed  it  to 
them,  to  join  with  Plymouth,  in  a  trade  to  Connec- 
ticut for  hemp  and  beaver,  and  to  erect  a  house  for 
the  purposes  of  commerce.  It  was  represented  as 
necessary,  to  prevent  the  Dutch  from  taking  pos- 
session of  that  fine  country,  who,  it  was  reported, 
were  about  to  build  upon  the  river ;  but  Governor 
Winthrop  -declined  the  motion  :  objecting  that  it 
was  not  jumper  to  make  a  plantation  there,  because 
there  were  three  or  four  thousand  warlike  Indians 
upon  the  river ;  and  because  the  bar  at  the  mouth 
of  it  was  stich,  that  small  pinnaces  only  could  pnter 
it  at  high  water;  and  because  that,  seven  months 
in  the  year,  no  vessels  could  go  into  it,  by  reason  of 
the  ice.  and  the  violence  of  the  stream. 

The  Plymouth  people  therefore  determined  to 
undertake  the  .enterprise  at  their  own  risk.  Pre- 
parations were  made  for  erecting  a  trading-house, 
and  establishing  a  small  company  upon  the  river. 
In  the  mean  time,  the  master  of  a  vessel  from  Mas- 
sachusetts, who  was  trading  at  New  Netherlands, 
showed  to  Walter  Van  Twiller,  the  Dutch  governor, 
the  commission  which  the  English  had  to  trade  and 
sHttle  in  New  England;  and  that,  his  majesty  the 
king  of  England  had  granted  all  these  parts  to  his 
own  subjects.  He  therefore  desired  that  the  Dutch 
would  not  build  at  Connecticut.  This  appears  to 


have  been  done  at  the  direction  of  Governor  Win- 
throp ;  for,  in  consequence  of  it,  the  Dutch  governor 
wrote  a  very  complaisant  letter  to  him,  in  which  he 
represented,  that  the  lords,  the  States-general,  had 
granted  the  same  country  to  the  West  India  com- 
pany. He  requested,  therefore,  that  the  English 
would  make  no  settlements  at  Connecticut,  until 
the  affair  should  be  determined  between  the  court 
of  England  and  the  States-general:  This  appears 
to  have  been  a  piece  of  policy  in  the  Dutch  go- 
vernor to  keep  the  English  still,  until  the  Dutch  had 
got  a  firm  footing  upon  the  river. 

Several  vessels,  this  year,  went  into  Connecticut 
river  to  trade.  John  Oldham,  from  Dorchester,  and 
three  men  with  him,  also  travelled  through  the 
wilderness  to  Connecticut,  to  view  the  country  and 
trade  with  the  Indians.  The  sachem  upon  the  river 
made  him  most  welcome,  and  gave  him  a  present 
in  beaver.  He  found  that  the  Indian  hemp  grew 
spontaneously  in  the  meadows,  in  great  abundance : 
and  he  purchased  a  quantity  of  it;  \\hich  upon  trial, 
appeared  much  to  exceed  the  hemp  which  grew  in 
England. 

William  Holmes,  of  Plymouth,  with  his  company, 
having  prepared  the  frame  of  a  house,  with  boards 
and  materials  for  covering  it  immediately,  put  them 
on  board  a  vessel,  and  sailed  for  Connecticut. 
Holmes  had  a  commission  from  the  governor  of 
Plymouth,  and  a  chosen  company,  to  accomplish  his 
design.  When  he  came  into  the  river,  he  found 
that  the  Dutch  had  got  in  before  him,  made  a  light 
fort,  and  planted  two  pieces  of  cannon ;  this  was 
erected  at  the  place  since  called  Hartford.  The  Dutch 
forbid  Holmes'  going  up  the  river,  stood  by  their 
cannon,  ordered  him  to  strike  his  colours,  or  they 
would  fire  upon  him :  but  he  was  a  man  of  spirit, 
assured  them  that  he  had  a  commission  from  the  go- 
vernor of  Plymouth  to  go  up  the  river,  and  that  he 
must  obey  his  orders :  they  poured  out  their  threats, 
but  he  proceeded,  and  landing  on  the  west  side  of 
the  river,  erected  his  house  (October  1633)  a  little 
below  the  mouth  of  the  little  river,  in  Windsor.  The 
house  was  covered  with  the  utmost  dispatch,  and 
fortified  with  palisadoes.  The  sachems,  who  were 
the  original  owners  of  the  soil,  had  been  driven 
from  this  part  of  the  country,  by  the  Pequots  ;  and 
were  now  "carried  home  on  board  Holmes'  vessel. 
Of  them  the  Plymouth  people  purchased  the  land, 
on  which  they  erected  their  house.  This,  Governor 
Wolcott  says,  was  the  first  house  erected  in  Con- 
necticut. The  Dutch,  about  the  same  time,  erected 
a  trading- house  at  Hartford. 

It  was  with  great  difficulty  that  Holmes  and  his 
company  erected  and  fortified  their  house,  and  kept 
it  afterwards.  The  Pequot  Indians  were  offended 
at  their  bringing  home  the  original  proprietors,  and 
the  Dutch  that  they  had  settled  there,  and  were 
about  to  rival  them  in  trade,  and  in  the  possession 
of  those  excellent  lands  upon  the  river:  they  were 
obliged  therefore  to  combat  both,  and  to  keep  a  con- 
stant watch  upon  them. 

The  Dutch,  before  the  Plymouth  people  took  pos- 
session of  the  river,  had  invited  them,  in  an  ami- 
cable manner,  to  trade  at  Connecticut ;  but  when 
they  were  apprised  that  they  were  making  prepara- 
tions for  a  settlement  there,  they  repented  of  the 
invitation,  and  spared  no  exertions  to  prevent  them. 

On  the  8th  of  June,  1634,  the  Dutch  had  sent 
Jacob  Van  Curter,  to  purchase  lands  upon  the  Con- 
necticut. He  made  a  purchase  of  about  twenty 
acres  at  Hartford,  of  Nepuquash,  a  Pequot  leader. 
Of  this  the  Dutch  took  possession  in  October,  and 


638 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


on  the  25th  of  the  month,  Curler  protested  against 
William  Holmes,  the  builder  of  the  Plymouth  house. 
Some  time  afterwards,  the  Dutch  governor,  Walter 
Van  Twiller,  of  fort  Amsterdam,  dispatched  a  rein- 
forcement to  Connecticut,  designing  to  drive  Holmes 
and  his  company  from  the  river.  A  band  of  seventy 
men,  under  arms,  with  banners  displayed,  assaulted 
the  Plymouth  house,  but  they  found  it  so  well  forti- 
fied, and  the  men  who  kept  it  so  vigilant  and  de- 
termined, that  it  could  not  be  taken  without  blood- 
shed :  they  therefore  came  to  a  parley,  and  finally 
returned  in  poace. 

The  people  of  New  Plymouth  had  carried  on  a 
trade  upon  Connecticut  river  for  nearly  two  years 
before  they  erected  a  trading-house.  They  found 
the  country  to  be  excellent,  and  the  trade  profitable ; 
but  that,  were  there  a  house  and  company  to  re- 
ceive the  commodities  which  were  brought  down 
from  the  inland  country,  the  profits  would  be  much 
greater.  The  country  abounded  with  beaver.  The 
Dutch  purchased  not  less  than  ten  thousand  skins 
annually.  Plymouth  and  Massachusetts  people 
sometimes  sent,  in  a  single  ship,  for  England,  a 
thousand  pounds  sterling  worth  of  otter  and  beaver 
skins.  The  extent  of  Connecticut  river,  the  numer- 
ous Indians  upon  it,  and  the  easy  communication 
which  they  had  with  the  lakes,  and  natives  of 
Canada,  gave  an  extensive  opening  for  a  trade  in 
furs,  skins,  corn,  hemp,  and  all  kinds  of  commodities 
which  the  country  afforded. 

This  was  a  year  of  great  sickness  at  Plymouth. 
They  lost  twenty  of  their  people.  Some  of  them 
were  their  principal  and  most  useful  inhabitants. 

The  state  of  the  country  of  Connecticut  when  th?  set- 
tlement of  the  colony  commenced — Its  trees  and 
fruits  —  Its  animals — Number,  situation,  genius, 
manners,  arms,  utensils,  and  wars  of  the  Indians. 

When  the  English  became  first  acquainted  with 
that  tract  comprised  within  the  settled  part  of  Con- 
necticut, it  was  a  vast  wilderness.  Except  in  places 
where  the  timber  had  been  destroyed,  and  its  growth 
prevented  by  frequent  fires,  the  groves  were  thick 
and  lofty.  The  Indians  so  often  burned  the  country, 
to  take  deer  and  other  wild  game,  that  in  many  of 
the  plain,  dry  parts  of  it,  there  was  but  little  small 
timber.  Where  lands  were  thus  burned  there  grew 
bent  grass,  or  as  some  called  it,  thatch,  two,  three, 
and  four  feet  high,  according  to  the  strength  of  the 
land.  This,  with  other  combustible  matter,  which 
the  fields  and  groves  produced,  when  dry,  in  the 
Spring  and  fall,  burned  with  violence  and  killed  all 
the  small  trees.  The  large  ones  escaped,  and  gene- 
rally grew  to  a  notable  height  and  magnitude.  In 
this' manner  the  natives  so  thinned  the  groves,  that 
they  were  able  to  plant  their  corn  and  obtain  a  crop. 

The  constant  fall  of  foliage,  with  the  numerous 
kinds  of  weeds  and  wild  grass,  which  annually  died 
and  putrified  on  the  lands,  yielded  a  constant  ma- 
nure, and  exceedingly  enriched  them.  Vegetation 
was  rapid,  and  all  the  natural  productions  of  the 
(country  luxuriant. 

It  abounded  with  the  finest  oaks  of  all  kinds,  with 
chestnut,  walnut,  and  wild  cherry  trees,  with  all  kinds 
of  maple,  beech,  birch,  ash,  and  elm.  The  butter- 
nut tree,  buttonwood,  basswood,  poplar,  and  sassa- 
fras trees,  were  to  be  found  generally  upon  all  tracts 
in  Connecticut.  White,  yellow,  and  pitch  pine 
white  and  red  cedar,  hemlock  and  spruce,  grew 
plenteou.sly  in  many  places.  In  the  north  am 
north-western  part  of  the  colony  were  excellent  grove 
of  pine,  with  spruce  and  fir  trees.  The  white  woo( 


ree  also,  notable  for  its  height  and  magnitude 
making  excellent  boards  and  clapboards,  was  the 
natural  growth  of  the  country.  In  some  towns  white 
wood  trees  have  grown  in  great  abundance.  All 
>ther  kinds  of  small  trees,  of  less  utility,  common 
,o  New  England,  flourished  in  Connecticut. 

The  country  abounded  with  a  great  variety  of 
wild  fruit.  In  the  groves  were  walnuts,  chestnuts, 
mtternuts,  hazlenuts  and  acorns  in  great  abund- 
ance. Wild  cherries,  currants  and  plums,  were 
natural  productions.  In  the  low  lands,  on  the 
>anks  of  the  rivers,  by  the  brooks  and  gutters,  there 
was  a  variety  and  plenty  of  grapes.  The  country 
also  abounded  with  an  almost  endless  variety  of  es- 
culent and  medicinal  berries, herbs  and  roots.  Among 
he  principal  and  most  delicious  of  these  were  straw- 
berries, blackberries  of  various  kinds,  raspberries, 
dewberries,  whortleberries,  bilberries,  blueberries 
and  mulberries.  Cranberries  also  grew  plenteously 
n  the  meadows,  which  when  well  prepared  furnish 
a  rich  and  excellent  sauce.  Juniperberries,  bar- 
)enies  and  bayberries,  which  are  of  the  medicinal 
cind,  grow  spontaneously  in  Connecticut.  The 
alter  is  an  excellent  and  useful  berry,  producing 
a  most  valuable  tallow.  It  is  of  a  beautiful  green, 
and  has  a  fine  perfume.  Beside  these,  there  was  a 
profusion  of  various  other  kinds  of  berries  of  less 
consideralion.  Some  even  of  these,  however,  are 
very  useful  in  various  kinds  of  dyes  and  in  certain 
medicinal  applications. 

The  earth  spontaneously  produced  ground  nuts, 
artichokes,  wild  leeks,  onions,  garlics,  turnips, 
wild  pease,  plantain,  radish,  and  other  esculent 
roots  and  herbs. 

Among  the  principal  medicinal  vegetables  of 
Connecticut  are  the  blood  root,  seneca  snake  root, 
iquorice  root,  dragon  root,  pleurisy  root,  spikenard, 
elecampane,  Solomon's  seal,  sarsaparilla,  senna,  bit- 
tersweet, ginseng,  angelica,  masterwort,  motherwort, 
ungwort,  consumption  root,  great  and  small  canker 
weed,  high  and  low  centaury,  sweet  and  blue  flag, 
elder,  maidenhair,  pennyroyal,  celandine,  mallow, 
marsh  mallow,  slippery  elm,  adder's  tongue  and  rattle- 
snake weed.  Indeed  a  great  proportion  of  the  roots 
and  plants  of  the  country,  with  the  bark,  buds  and 
roots  of  many  of  the  trees,  are  used  medicinally. 
There  is  a  great  variety  of  plants  and  flowers,  the 
names  and  virtues  of  which  are  not  known. 

The  country  was  no  less  productive  of  animals 
than  of  natural  fruit.  In  the  groves  there  were 
plenty  of  deer,  moose,  fat  bears,  turkeys,  herons, 
partridges,  quails,  pigeons,  and  other  wild  game, 
which  were  excellent  for  food.  There  were  surh 
incredible  numbers  of  pigeons  in  New  England, 
when  the  English  became  first  acquainted  with  it, 
as  filled  them  with  a  kind  of  astonishment.  Such 
numerous  and  extensive  flocks  would  be  seen  flying 
for  some  hours,  in  the  morning,  thai  they  would 
obscure  the  light.  An  American  historian  writes, 
"  It  passeth  credit,  if  but  the  truth  were  written." 

Connecticut  abounded  in  furs.  Here  were  otters, 
beaver,  the  black,  grey,  and  red  fox,  the  racoon, 
mink,  musk-rat,  and  various  other  animals,  of  the 
fur  kind.  The  wolf,  wild  cat,  and  other  animals, 
common  in  New  England,  were  equally  so  in  Con- 
necticut. Wolves  were  numerous  in  all  parts  of 
New  England,  when  the  settlements  commenced, 
and  did  great  damage  to  the  planters,  killing  their 
sheep,  calves,  and  young  cattle. 

The  country  afforded  an  almost  incredible  plenty 
of  water-fowl,  namely,  wild  geese,  and  ducks  of  all 
kinds,  wigeons,  sheldrapes,  bvoadbills,  and  teal  of 


UNITED  STATES. 


639 


various  sorts,   which  were  both  wholesome  and  pa- 
latable. 

There  was  also  a  great  variety,  and  an  abundance 
of  fish.  Connecticut  river,  in  particular, was  noted 
for  excellent  salmon. 

As  Connecticut  abounded  in  wild  animals,  so  it 
did  also  with  wild  and  savage  men.  In  no  part  of 
New  England  were  the  Indians  so  numerous,  in 
proportion  to  the  extent  of  territory,  as  in  Connec- 
ticut. The  sea-coast,  harbours,  bays,  numerous 
ponds  and  streams,  with  which  the  country  abound- 
ed, the  almost  incredible  plenty  of  fish  and 
fowl  which  it  afforded,  were  exceedingly  adapted 
to  their  convenience  and  mode  of  living.  Its  fer- 
tility and  the  excellence  of  its  waters,  naturally  col- 
lected them  in  great  numbers  to  this  tract.  Neither 
wars,  nor  sickness,  had  so  depopulated  this  as  they 
had  some  other  parts  of  New  England. 

From  the  accounts  given  of  the  Connecticut  In- 
dians, they  cannot  be  estimated  at  less  than  twelve 
or  sixteen  thousand.  They  might  possibly  amount 
to  twenty.  They  could  muster,  at  least,  tl:ree  or 
four  thousand  warriors.  It  was  supposed,  in  1633, 
that  the  River  Indians  only  could  bring  this  number 
into  the  field.  These  were  principally  included 
within  the  ancient  limits  of  Windsor,  Hartford, 
Weatherstieid,  and  Middletown.  Within  the  town 
of  Windsor  only,  there  were  ten  distinct  tribes,  or 
sovereignties.  About  the  year  1670,  their  bowmen 
were  reckoned  at  two  thousand.  At  that  time,  it 
was  the  general  opinion,  that  there  were  nineteen 
Indians,  in  that  town,  to  one  Englishman.  There 
was  a  great  body  of  them  in  the  centre  of  the  town. 
They  had  a  large  fort  a  little  north  of  the  plat  on 
which  the  first  meeting-house  was  erected.  On  the 
east  side  of  the  river,  on  the  upper  branches  of  the 
Podunk,  they  were  very  numerous.  There  were 
also  a  great  number  in  Hartford.  Besides  those  on 
the  west  side  of  the  liver,  there  was  a  distinct  tribe 
in  East  Hartford.  These  were  principally  situated 
upon  the  Podunk,  from  the  northern  boundary  of 
Hartford,  to  its  mouth,  where  it  flows  into  the  Con- 
necticut. Totanimo,  their  first  sachem  with  whom 
the  English  had  any  acquaintance,  commanded  two 
hundred  bowmen.  These  were  called  the  Podunk 
Indians. 

At  Mattabesick,  now  Middletown,  was  the  great 
sachem  Sowheag.  His  fort,  or  castle,  was  ou  the 
high  ground,  facing  the  river,  and  the  adjacent 
country,  on  both  sides  of  the  river,  was  his  sachem- 
dom. This  was  extensive,  comprehending  the 
ancient  boundaries  of  Weathersfield,  then  called 
Pyquaug,  as  well  as  Middletown.  Sequin  was  saga- 
more at  Pyquaug,  under  Sowheag,  when  the  English 
began  their  settlements.  On  the  east  side  of  the 
river,  in  the  tract  since  called  Chatham,  was  a 
considerable  clan,  called  the  Wongung  Indians. 
At  Machemoodus,  now  called  East  Haddam,  was 
a  numerous  tribe,  famous  for  their  pawaws,  and 
worshipping  of  evil  spirits.  South  of  these  in  the 
easternmost  part  of  Lyme,  were  the  western  Ne- 
hanticks.  These  were  confederate  with  the  Pequots. 
South  and  east  of  them,  from  Connecticut  river  to 
the  eastern  boundary  line  of  the  colony,  and  north- 
east or  north,  to  its  northern  boundary  line,  lay  the 
Pequot  and  Moheagan  country.  This  tract  was 
nearly  thirty  miles  square,  including  the  counties 
of  New  London,  Windham,  and  the  principal  part 
of  the  county  of  Tolland. 

Historians  have  treated  of  the  Pequots  and  Mo- 
heagans as  two  distinct  tribes,  and  have  described 
the  Pequot  country  as  lying  principally  within  the 


three  towns  of  New  London,  Groton,  and  Stoning- 
ton.  All  the  tract  above  this,  as  far  north  and 
east  as  has  been  described,  they  have  represented 
as  the  Moheagan  country.  Most  of  the  towns  in 
this  tract,  if  not  all  of  them,  hold  their  lands  by 
virtue  of  deeds  from  Uncas,  or  his  successors,  the 
Moheagan  sachems.  It  is,  however,  much  to  be 
doubted  whether  the  Moheagans  were  a  distinct 
nation  from  the  Pequots.  They  appear  to  have 
been  a  part  of  the  same  nation,  named  from  the 
place  of  their  situation.  Uncas  was  evidently  of 
the  royal  line  of  the  Pequots,  both  by  his  father  and 
mother;  and  his  wife  was  daughter  of  Tatobam,  one 
of  the  Pequot  sachems.  He  appears  to  have  been 
a  leader,  or  petty  sachem,  under  Sassacus,  the 
great  prince  of  the  nation.  When  the  English  first 
came  to  Connecticut,  he  was  in  a  state  of  rebellion 
against  him,  in  consequence  of  some  misunderstand- 
ing between  them  ;  and  of  little  power  or  conse- 
quence among  the  Indians. 

The  Pequots  were  by  far  the  most  warlike  na- 
tion in  Connecticut,  or  even  in  New  England.  The 
tradition  is,  that  they  were  originally  an  inland 
tribe  ;  but,  by  their  prowess,  came  down  and  settled 
themselves  in  that  fine  country  along  the  sea-coast, 
from  Nehantick  to  Narraganset  bay.  When  the 
English  began  their  settlements  at  Connecticut, 
Sassacus  had  twenty-six  sachems,  or  principal  war- 
captains,  under  him.  The  next  to  himself,  in  dig- 
nity, was  Mononottoh.  The  chief  seat  of  these  In- 
dians was  at  New  London  and  Groton.  New 
London  was  their  principal  harbour,  and  called 
Pequot  harbour.  They  had  another  small  harbour 
at  the  mouth  of  Mystic  river.  Their  principal  fort 
was  on  a  commanding  and  most  beautiful  eminence, 
in  the  town  of  Groton,  a  few  miles  south-easterly 
from  fort  Griswold.  It  commanded  one  of  the  finest 
prospects  of  the  sound  and  the  adjacent  country 
which  is  to  be  found  upon  the  coast.  This  was  the 
royal  fortress,  where  the  chief  sachem  had  his  re- 
sidence. He  had  another  fort  near  Mystic  river,  a 
few  miles  to  the  eastward  of  this,  called  Mystic  fort. 
This  was  also  erected  upon  a  beautiful  hill,  or  emi- 
nence, gradually  descending  towards  the  south  and 
south-east.  The  Pequots,  Moheagans,  and  Nehan- 
ticks,  could,  doubtless,  muster  a  thousand  bowmen. 
The  Pequots  only  were  estimated  at  seven  hundred 
warriors.  Upon  the  lowest  computation  we  there- 
fore find  at  least  three  thousand  warriors  on  tha 
river  Connecticut,  and  in  the  eastern  part  of  the 
colony.  If  we  reckon  every  third  person  a  bowman, 
as  some  have  imagined,  then  the  whole  number  of 
Indians,  in  the  town  and  tract  mentioned,  would 
be  nine  thousand  ;  but  if  there  were  but  one  to  four 
or  five,  as  is  most  probable,  then  there  were  twelve 
or  fifteen  thousand. 

West  of  Connecticut  river  and  the  towns  upon  it, 
there  were  not  only  scattered  families  in  almost 
every  part,  but,  in  several  places,  great  bodies  of 
Indians.  At  Simsbury  and  New  Hartford  they  were 
numerous;  and  upon  those  fine  meadows,  formed 
by  the  meanders  of  the  little  river  at  Tunxis,  now 
Farmington,  and  the  lands  adjacent,  was  another 
very  large  clan.  There  was  a  small  tribe  at  Guil 
ford,  under  the  sachem  squaw,  or  queen,  of  Menun 
katuck.  At  Branford  and  East  Haven  there  was 
another.  They  had  a  famous  burying-ground  at 
East  Haven,  which  they  visited  and  kept  up  with 
mu^h  ceremony  for  many  years  after  the  settlement 
of  New  Haven.  At  Milford,  Derby,  Stratford,  Nor- 
walk,  Stamford,  and  Greenwich,  their  numbers  were 
formidable.  At  Milford,  the  Indian  name  of  which 


340 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA 


was  Wopowage,  there  were  great  numbers;  not 
only  in  the  centre  of  the  town,  but  south  of  it,  at 
Milford  point.  On  the  west  part  of  the  town  was 
another  party.  They  had  a  strong  fortress,  with 
flankers  at  the  four  corners,  about  half  a  mile  north 
of  Stratford  ferry.  This  was  built  as  a  defence 
against  the  Mohawks.  At  Turkey  hill,  in  the  north- 
west part  of  Milford,  there  was  another  large  set- 
tlement. 

In  Derby  there  were  two  large  clans.  And  there 
was  one  at  Paugusset.  This  last  clan  erected  a 
strong  fort  against  the  Mohawks,  situated  on  the 
bank  of  the  river,  nearly  a  mile  above  Derby  ferry. 

At  the  falls  of  Naugatuck  river,  four  or  five  miles 
above,  was  another  tribe.  At  Stratford,  the  Indi- 
ans were  equally,  if  not  more  numerous.  In  that 
part  of  the  town  only  which  is  comprised  within 
the  limits  of  Huntington,  their  warriors,  after  the 
English  had  knowledge  of  them,  were  estimated  at 
three  hundred  ;  and,  before  this  time,  they  had  been 
much  wasted  by  the  Mohawks. 

The  Indians  at  Stamford  and  Greenwich,  and  in 
that  vicinity,  probably  were  not  inferior  in  num- 
bers to  those  at  Stratford.  There  were  two  or  three 
tribes  of  Indians  in  Stamford  when  the  English 
began  the  settlement  of  the  town.  In  Norwalk 
were  two  petty  sachemdoms;  so  that  within  these 
towns  there  was  a  large  and  dangerous  body  of  savages. 
These,  with  the  natives  between  them  and  Hudson's 
river,  gave  extreme  trouble  to  the  Dutch.  The 
Norwalk  and  Stamford  Indians  gave  great  alarm, 
and  occasioned  much  expense  to  the  English,  after 
they  made  settlements  in  that  part  of  the  colony. 
In  the  town  of  Woodbury  there  were  also  great 
numbers  of  Indians.  The  most  numerous  body  of 
them  was  in  that  part  of  the  town,  since  named 
South  Britain. 

It  would  doubtless  be  a  moderate  computation  to 
reckon  all  these  different  clans  at  a  thousand  war- 
riors, or  four  or  five  thousand  people.  There  must, 
therefore,  have  been  sixteen,  and  it  may  be,  twenty 
thousand  Indians  in  Connecticut  when  the  settle- 
ment of  it  commenced. 

East  of  Connecticut  were  the  Narraganset  In- 
dians :  these  were  a  numerous  and  powerful  body. 
When  the  English  settled  Plymouth,  their  fighting 
men  were  reckoned  at  three  or  four  thousand.  Fifty 
years  after  this  time,  they  were  estimated  at  two 
thousand.  The  Pequots and  Narragansets maintained 
perpetual  war,  and  kept  up  an  implacable  animosity 
between  them.  The  Narragansets  were  the  only 
Indians  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Pequots  which  they 
had  not  conquered.  To  these  their  very  name  was 
dreadful.  They  said  Sassacus  was  "all  one  God; 
no  man  could  kill  him." 

On  the  north-easterly  and  northern  part  of  the 
colony  were  the  Nipmuck  Indians.  Their  principal 
seat  was  about  the  great  ponds  in  Oxford,  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, but  their  territory  extended  southward 
into  Connecticut  more  than  twenty  miles.  This 
was  called  the  Wabbequasset  and  Whetstone  coun- 
try ;  and  sometimes,  the  Moheagau  conquered 
country,  as  Uncas  had  conquered  and  added  it  to 
his  sachemdom. 

The  Connecticut,  and  indeed  all  the  New  Eng- 
land Indians,  were  large,  straight,  well-proportioned 
men.  Their  bodies  were  firm  and  active,  capable 
of  enduring  the  greatest  fatigues  and  hardships. 
Their  passive  courage  was  almost  incredible.  When 
tortured  in  the  most  cruel  manner,  though  flayed 
alive,  though  burnt  with  fire,  cut  or  torn  limb  from 
*imb,  they  would  not  groan,  or  show  any  signs  of 


distress  ;  and  in  some  instances  they  would  glory 
over  their  tormentors,  saying  that  their  hearts  would 
never  be  soft  until  they  were  cold,  and  representing 
their  torments  as  sweet  as  Englishmen's  sugar. 
When  travelling  in  summer,  or  winter,  they  re- 
garded neither  heat  nor  cold.  They  were  exceed- 
ingly light  of  foot,  and  would  travel  or  run  a  very 
great  distance  in  a  day.  Mr.  Williams  says,  "I 
have  known  them  run  between  eighty  and  a  hundred 
miles  in  a  summer's  day,  and  back  again  within  two 
days."  As  they  were  accustomed  to  the  wood«, 
they  ran  in  them  nearly  as  well  as  on  plain  ground. 
They  were  exceedingly  quick-sighted,  to  discover 
their  enemy,  or  their  game,  and  equally  artful  to 
conceal  themselves.  Their  features  were  tolerably 
regular.  Their  faces  were  generally  full  as  broad 
as  those  of  the  English,  but  flatter ;  they  have  a 
small,  dark-coloured  good  eye,  coarse  black  hair, 
and  a  fine  white  set  of  teeth.  The  Indian  children, 
when  born,  are  nearly  as  white  as  the  English  child- 
ren; but  as  they  grow  up,  their  skin  grows  darker, 
and  becomes  nearly  of  a  copper  colour.  The  shapes 
both  of  the  men  and  women,  especially  the  latter, 
are  excellent.  A  crooked  Indian  is  rarely  if  ever 
to  be  seen. 

The  Indians  in  general  were  quick  of  apprehen- 
sion, ingenious,  and  when  pleased,  nothing  could 
exceed  their  courtesy  and  friendship.  Gravity  and 
eloquence  distinguished  them  in  council,  address 
and  bravery  in  war.  They  were  not  more  easily 
provoked  than  the  English  ;  but  when  once  they 
had  received  an  injury,  it  was  never  forgotten.  In 
anger  they  were  not,  like  the  English,  talkative  and 
boisterous,  but  sullen  and  revengeful.  Indeed,  when 
they  were  exasperated,  nothing  could  exceed  their 
revenge  and  cruelty.  When  they  have  fallen  into 
the  power  of  an  enemy,  they  have  not  been  known 
to  beg  for  life,  nor  even  to  accept  it  when  offered 
them.  They  have  seemed  rather  to  court  death. 
They  were  exceedingly  improvident.  If  they  had  a 
supply  for  the  present,  they  gave  themselves  no 
trouble  for  the  future.  The  men  declined  all  labour, 
and  spent  their  time  in  bunting,  fishing,  shooting, 
and  warlike  exercises.  They  were  excellent  marks- 
men, and  rarely  missed  their  game,  whether  running 
or  flying. 

They  imposed  all  the  drudgery  upon  their  women, 
who  gathered  and  brought  home  their  wood,  planted, 
dressed,  and  gathered  in  their  corn ;  bore  home 
the  venison,  fish  and  fowl  which  the  men  took  in 
hunting ;  and  when  they  travelled,  carried  the  child- 
ren, packs,  and  provisions  ;  they  submitted  patiently 
to  such  treatment,  considering  it  as  the  hard  lot  of 
the  women,  and  repaid  the  ungenerous  usage  with 
smiles  and  good  humour.  The  Indian  men  cared 
little  for  their  children  when  young,  and  were  sup- 
posed at  certain  times  to  sacrifice  them  to  the  devil. 

The  Indian  women  were  strong  and  masculine  } 
and  as  they  were  more  inured  to  exercise  and  hard- 
ship than  the  men,  were  even  more  firm  and  capable 
of  fatigue  and  suffering  than  they.  They  endured 
the  pains  of  child-bearing  without  a  groan.  It  was 
not  uncommon  for  them,  soon  after  labour,  to  take 
their  children  upon  their  backs  and  travel  as  they 
had  done  before. 

The  clothing  of  the  Indians  in  New  England  was 
the  skins  of  wild  beasts.  The  men  threw  a  light 
mantle  of  skins  over  them,  and  wore  a  small  flap, 
but  were  not  very  punctilious.  The  women  were 
much  more  modest;  and  wore  a  coat  of  skins  girt 
about  their  loins,  which  reached  down  to  their  hams, 
which  they  never  put  off  in  company.  If  tho  hu*« 


UNITED  STATES. 


641 


band  chose  to  sell  his  wife's   beaver  petticoat,  she  j  squashes   were  the  only  eatables  for  which  they  la- 
could  not  be  persuaded  to  part  with  it,  until  he  had 
provided  another  of  some  sort. 

In  the  winter,  their  blanket  of  skins,  which  hung 
loose  in  the  summer,  was  tied  or  wrapped  more 
closely  about  them.  The  old  men  in  the  severe  sea- 
sons also  wore  a  sort  of  trowsers  made  of  skins,  and 
fastened  to  their  girdles.  They  wore  shoes  without 
heels,  which  they  called  mockasins.  These  were 
made  generally  of  moose  hide,  but  sometimes  of 
buck-skin.  They  were  shaped  entirely  to  the  foot, 
gathered  at  the  toes  and  round  the  ankles,  and  mad 
fast  with  strings. 


Their  ornaments  weie  pendants  in  their  cars  and 
nose,  carved  of  bone,  shells,  and  stone.  These  were 
in  the  form  of  birds,  beasts,  and  fishes.  They  also 
wore  belts  of  wampompeag  upon  their  arms,  over 
their  shoulders  and  about  their  loins.  They  cut 
their  hair  into  various  antic  forms  and  stuck  them 
with  feathers.  They  also,  by  incisions  into  which 
they  conveyed  a  black  or  blue  unchangeable  dye, 
made  on  their  cheeks,  arms,  and  other  parts  of  their 
bodies,  the  figures  of  moose,  deer,  bears,  wolves, 
hawks,  eagles,  and  all  such  living  creatures  as  were 
most  agreeable  to  their  fancies.  These  pictures 
were  indelible,  and  lasted  during  life.  The  sachems, 
on  great  days,  when  they  designed  to  show  them- 
selves in  the  full  splendour  of  majesty,  not  only 
covered  themselves  with  mantles  of  moose,  or  deer 
skins,  with  various  embroideries  of  white  beads,  and 
with  paintings  of  different  kinds;  but  they  wore  the 
skin  of  a  bear,  wild  cat,  or  some  terrible  creature, 
upon  their  shoulders  and  arms.  They  had  also 
necklaces  offish-bones,  and  painting  themselves  in 
a  frightful  manner,  made  a  most  ferocious  and  hor- 


appearance.      The  warriors  who,   on    public 


rible 

occasions,  dressed  themselves  in  the  most  wild  and 

terrific  forms,  were  considered  as  the  best  men. 

The  Indian  houses  or  wigwams  were,  at  best,  but 
poor  smoky  cells.  They  were  constructed  generally 
like  arbours  of  small  young  trees,  bent  and  twisted 
together,  and  so  curiously  covered  with  mats  or 
bark,  that  they  were  tolerably  dry  and  warm.  The 
Indians  made  their  fire  in  the  centi-e  of  the  house, 
and  there  was  an  opening  at  the  top  which  emitted 
the  smoke.  For  the  convenience  of  wood  and 
water,  these  huts  were  commonly  erected  in  groves, 
near  some  river  or  spring.  When  the  wood  failed, 
the  family  removed  to  another  place. 

They  lived  in  a  miserable  manner:  their,  food 
was  coarse  and  simple,  without  any  kind  of  season- 
ing :  they  had  neither  spice,  salt,  bread,  nor  butter, 
cheese,  nor  milk ;  and  they  drank  nothing  better 
than  water :  they  fed  on  the  flesh  and  entrails  of 
moose,  deer,  bears,  and  all  kinds  of  wild  beasts  and 
fowls ;  on  fish,  eels,  and  creeping  things.  In  the 
hunting  and  fishing  seasons,  they  had  venison, 
moose,  fat  bears,  racoons,  geese,  turkeys,  ducks,  and 
fish  of  all  kinds.  In  the  summer,  they  had  green 
corn,  beans,  squashes,  and  the  various  fruits  which 
the  country  naturally  produced.  In  the  winter  they 
subsisted  on  corn,  beans,  fish,  nuts,  groundnuts, 
acorns,  and  the  very  gleanings  of  the  grove. 

They  had  no  set  meals,  but  like  other  wild  crea- 
tures, ate  when  they  were  hungry,  and  could  find 
any  thing  to  satisfy  the  cravings  of  nature.  Some 
times  they  had  little  or  nothing  for  several  days  ; 
but  when  they  had  provisions,  they  feasted.  If  they 
fasted  for  some  time,  they  were  sure  at  the  next 
meal  to  make  up  for  all  they  had  lost  before.  They 


boured.  The  earth  was  both  their  seat  and  their 
table.  With  trenchers,  knives,  and  napkins,  they 
had  no  acquaintance. 

Their  household  furniture  was  of  small  value. 
Their  best  bed  was  a  mat  or  skin ;  they  had  neither 
chair  nor  stool.  They  ever  sat  upon  the  ground, 
commonly  with  their  elbows  upon  their  knees  :  this 
is  the  manner  in  which  their  great  warriors  and 
counsellors  now  sit,  even  in  the  most  public  treaties 
with  the  English.  A  few  wooden  and  stone  vessels 
and  instruments  serve  all  the  purposes  of  domestic 
life.  They  had  no  steel  nor  iron  instrument.  Their 
knife  was  a  sharp  stone,  shell,  or  kind  of  reed,  which 
they  sharpened  in  such  a  manner,  as  to  cut  their 
hair,  make  their  bows  and  arrows,  and  serve  for 
all  the  purposes  of  a  knife.  They  had  axes  of  stone, 
somewhat  similar  in  shape  to  ours ;  but  with  this 
difference,  that  they  were  made  with  a  neck  in- 
stead of  an  eye,  and  fastened  with  a  withe,  like  a 
blacksmith's  chisel.  They  had  mortars  and  stone 
pestles,  and  chisels  ;  and  great  numbers  of  these 
have  been  found  in  the  country,  and  kept  by  the 
people  as  curiosities.  They  dressed  their  corn 
with  a  clamshell,  or  with  a  stick,  made  flat  and 
sharp  at  one  end.  These  were  all  the  utensils  which 
they  had,  either  for  domestic  use,  or  for  hus- 
bandry. 

Their  arts  and  manufactures  were  confined  to  a 
very  narrow  compass.  Their  only  weapons  were 
bows  and  arrows,  the  tomahawk  and  the  wooden 
sword  or  spear.  Their  bows  were  of  the  common 
construction :  their  bowstrings  were  made  of  the 
sinews  of  deer,  or  of  the  Indian  hemp.  Their  ar- 
rows were  constructed  of  young  elder-sticks,  or  of 
other  straight  sticks  and  reeds ;  and  were  headed 
with  a  sharp  flinty  stone,  or  with  bones.  The  ar- 
row was  cleft  at  one  end,  and  the  stone  or  bone  was 
put  in  and  fastened  with  a  small  cord.  The  toma- 
hawk was  a  stick  of  two  or  three  feet  in  length,  with 
a  knob  at  one  end :  sometimes  it  was  a  stone  hat- 
chet, or  a  stick,  with  a  piece  of  deer's  horn  at  one 
end,  in  the  form  of  a  pick-axe.  Their  spear  was  a 
straight  piece  of  wood,  sharpened  at  one  end, 
and  hardened  in  the  fire,  or  headed  with  bone  or 
stone. 

With  respect  to  navigation,  they  had  made  no 
improvements  beyond  the  construction  and  ma- 
nagement of  the  hollow  trough  or  canoe.  They 
made  their  canoes  of  the  chestnut,  whitewood,  and 
pine  trees.  As  these  grew  straight  to  a  great  length, 
and  were  exceedingly  large  as  well  as  tall,  they 
constructed  some,  which  would  carry  sixty  or  eighty 
men :  these  were  first  rates ;  but  commonly  they 
were  not  more  than  twenty  feet  in  length,  aud  two 
in  breadth.  The  Pequots  had  many  of  these,  in 
which  they  passed  over  to  the  Islands  for  plunder. 

The  construction  of  these,  with  such  miserable 
tools  as  the  Indians  possessed,  was  a  great  curiosity. 
When  they  had  found  a  tree  to  their  purpose,  to 
fell  it  they  made  a  fire  at  the  root,  and  kept  burn- 
ing it  and  cutting  it  with  their  stone  axe,  until  it 
fell ;  then  they  kindled  a  fire  at  such  a  distance 
from  the  butt  as  they  chose,  and  burned  it  off 
again.  By  burning  and  working  with  their  axe, 
and  scraping  with  sharp  stones  and  shells,  they 
made  it  hollow  and  smooth.  In  the  same  manner 
they  shaped  the  ends,  and  finished  it. 

They  constructed  nets,  twenty  and  thirty  feet  in 
length,  for  fishing  ;  especially  for  the  purpose  of 


had  but  little  food  from  the  earth,  except  what  it    catching  sturgeon :  which  were  wrought  with  cords 
i,pontaueously  produced.     Indian  corn,  beans  and    of  Indian  hemp,  twisted  by  the  hands  of  the  women. 
HUT.  OF  AMER.— Nos.  81  &  82.  3  O 


642 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


They  had  also  hooks  made  of  flexible  bones,  which 
they  used  for  fishing. 

With  respect  to  religion  and  morals,  the  Indians 
in  New  England  were  in  the  most  deplorable  con- 
dition. They  believed,  according  to  the  most  re- 
ceived accounts,  that  there  was  a  great  Spirit,  or 
God,  whom  they  called  Kitchtan.  They  imagined 
that  he  dwelt  far  away  in  the  south-west,  and  that 
he  was  a  good  God.  But  they  worshipped  a  great 
variety  of  other  gods.  They  paid  homage  to  the  five 
and  water,  thunder  and  lightning,  and  to  whatever 
they  imagined  to  be  superior  to  themselves,  or  ca- 
pable of  doing  them  an  injury.  They  paid  their 
principal  homage  to  Hobbamocko;  who  they  ima- 
gined was  an  evil  spirit  and  did  them  mischief ;  and 
so,  from  fear,  they  worshipped  him,  to  keep  him  in 
good  humour.  They  appeared  to  have  no  idea  of  a 
Sabbath,  and  not  to  regard  any  particular  day  more 
than  another.  But  in  times  of  uncommon  distress, 
by  reason  of  pestilence,  war,  or  famine,  and  upon 
occasion  of  great  victories  and  triumph,  and  after  the 
in-gathering  of  the  fruits,  they  assembled  in  great 
numbers,  for  the  celebration  of  their  superstitious 
rites.  The  whole  country,  men. women  and  children, 
came  together  upon  these  solemnities.  The  manner 
of  their  devotion  was,  to  kindle  large  fires  in  their 
wigwams,  or  more  commonly  in  the  open  fields, 
and  to  sing  and  dance  round  them  in  a  wild  arid 
violent  manner.  Sometimes  they  would  all  shout 
aloud,  with  the  moat  antic  and  hideous  notes.  They 
made  rattles  of  shells,  which  they  shook,  in  a  wild 
and  violent  manner,  to  fill  up  the  confused  noise. 
After  the  English  settled  in  Connecticut,  and  they 
could  purchase  kettles  of  brass,  they  used  to  strain 
skins  over  them,  and  beat  upon  them,  to  augment 
their  wretched  music.  They  often  continued  these 
wild  and  tumultuous  exercises  incessantly,  for  four 
or  five  hours,  until  they  were  worn  down  and  spent 
with  fatigue.  Their  priests,  or  powaws,  who  led 
in  these  exercises,  were  dressed  in  the  most,  odd 
and  surprising  manner,  with  skins  of  odious  and 
frightful  creatures  about  their  heads  and  bodies : 
they  sometimes  sang,  and  then  broke  forth  into 
strong  invocations,  with  starts  and  strange  motions 
and  passions:  when  they  paused,  the  other  Indians 
groaned,  making  wild  and  doleful  sounds.  At  these 
times,  they  sacrificed  their  skins,  Indian  money, 
and  the  best  of  their  treasures.  These  were  taken 
by  the  powaws,  and  all  cast  into  the  fires  and  con- 
sumed  together.  After  the  English  came  into  the 
country,  and  they  had  hatchets  and  kettles,  they 
sacrificed  them  in  the  same  manner.  The  English 
were  also  persuaded  that  they  sometimes  sacrificed 
their  children,  as  well  as  their  most  valuable  com- 
modities. No  Indians  in  Connecticut  were  more 
noted  for  these  superstitions  than  those  of  Wopo- 
wage  and  Machemoodus.  Milford  people  observing 
an  Indian  child,  nearly  at  one  of  these  times  of 
their  devotion,  dressed  in  an  extraordinary  manner, 
with  all  kinds  of  Indian  finery,  had  the  curiosity  to 
inquire  what  could  be  the  reason.  The  Indians 
answered,  that  it  was  to  be  sacrificed,  and  the  peo- 
ple supposed  that  it  was  given  to  the  devil.  The 
evil  spirit,  which  the  New  England  Indians  called 
Hobbamocko,  the  Virginia  Indians  called  Okee.  So 
deluded  were  these  unhappy  people,  that  they  be- 
lieved these  barbarous  sacrifices  to  be  absolutely 
necessary ;  and  imagined  that  unless  they  appeased 
and  conciliated  their  gods  in  this  manner,  they 
would  neither  suffer  them  to  have  peace,  nor  har- 
vests, fish,  venison,  fat  bears,  nor  turkeys ;  but 
would  visit  them  with  a  general  destiuction. 


With  respect  to  morals,  they  were  indeed  misera- 
bly depraved.  Mr.  Williams  and  Mr.  Callender, 
who,  at  an  early  period,  were  acquainted  with  the 
Indians  in  Rhode  Island,  Mr.  Hooker,  and  others, 
have  represented  them  as  sunk  into  the  lowest  state 
of  moral  turpitude,  and  as  the  very  dregs  of  human 
nature.  Though  the  character  which  they  gave 
them  was,  in  some  respects,  exaggerated  and  ab- 
surd, yet  it  cannot  be  denied  that  they  were  wor- 
hippers  of  evil  spirits,  liars,  thieves,  and  murder- 
ers. They  certainly  were  insidious  and  revengeful, 
almost  without  a  parallel  ;  and  they  wallowed  in 
gross  sensualities.  Groat  pains  were  taken  with  the 
Nanaganset  and  Connecticut  Indians,  to  civilize 
them,  and  tench  them  Christianity  ;  but  the  sachems 
rejected  the  Gospel  with  indignation  and  contempt. 
They  would  not  suffer  it  to  be  preached  to  their 
subjects.  Indeed,  both  made  it  a  public  interest 
to  oppose  its  propagation  among  them.  Their 
policy,  religion,  and  manners  were  directly  opposed 
to  its  pure  doctrines  and  morals. 

The  manner  of  their  courtship  and  marriages 
manifested  their  impurity.  When  a  young  Indian 
wished  for  marriage,  he  presented  the  girl  with 
whom  he  was  enamoured,  with  bracelets,  belts,  and 
chains  of  wampum.  If  she  received  his  presents, 
they  cohabited  together  for  a  time,  upon  trial,  and 
if  they  were  pleased  Avith  each  other,  they  were 
joined  in  marriage  ;  but  if,  after  a  few  weeks,  they 
were  not  suited,  the  man,  leaving  his  presents, 
quitted  the  girl,  and  sought  another  mistress,  and 
she  another  lover.  In  this  manner  they  courted, 
until  two  met  who  were  agreeable  to  each  other. 
Before  marriage  the  consent  of  the  sachem  was  ob- 
tained, and  he  always  joined  the  hands  of  the  young 
pair  in  wedlock. 

The  Indians,  although  they  indulged  in  other  in- 
tercourse, had  one  wife,  who  was  the  governess  of 
the  family,  and  whom  they  generally  kept  during 
life.  In  cases  of  adultery*  the  husband  either  put 
away  the  guilty  wife,  or  satisfied  himself  by  the  in- 
fliction of  some  severe  punishment.  Husbands  and 
wives,  parents  and  children,  lived  together  in  the 
same  wigwams,  without  any  different  apartment, 
and  made  no  great  privacy  of  such  actions  as  the 
chaster  animals  keep  from  open  view. 

The  Indian  government,  generally,  was  absolute 
monarchy.  The  will  of  the  sachem  was  his  law. 
The  lives  and  interests  of  his  subjects  were  at  his 
disposal.  But  in  all  important  affairs,  he  consulted 
his  counsellors.  When  they  had  given  their  opin- 
ions, they  deferred  the  decision  of  every  matter  to 
him.  Whatever  his  determinations  were,  they  ap- 
plauded his  wisdom,  and  without  hesitation  obeyed 
his  commands.  In  council,  the  deportment  of  the 
sachems  was  grave  and  majestic  to  admiration. 
They  appeared  to  be  men  of  great  discernment  and 
policy.  Their  speeches  were  cautious  and  politic. 
The  conduct  of  their  counsellors  and  servants  was 
profoundly  respectful  and  submissive. 

The  counsellors  of  the  Indian  kings  in  New  Eng- 
land were  termed  the  paniese.  These  were  not 
only  the  wisest,  but  largest  and  bravest  men  to  be 
found  among  their  subjects.  They  were  the  imme- 
diate guard  of  their  respective  sachems,  who  made 
neither  war  nor  peace,  nor  attempted  any  weighty 
affair,  without  their  advice.  In  war,  and  all  great 
enterprises,  dangers,  and  sufferings,  these  discovered 
a  boldness  and  firmness  of  mind  exceeding  all  the 
other  warriors. 

To  preserve  this  order  among  the  Indians,  great 
pains  were  taken.  The  stoutest  and  most  promising 


UNITED  STATES. 


643 


boys  were  chosen,  and  trained  up  with  peculiar  care, 
in  the  observation  of  certain  Indian  rites  and  cus- 
toms. They  were  kept  from  all  delicious  meats, 
trained  to  coarse  fare,  and  made  to  drink  the  juice 


the  crimes  nor  the  punishments  are  esteemed  so  in- 
famous, among  the  Indians,  as  to  groan  or  shrink 
under  suffering.  The  sachems  were  so  absolute  in 
their  government,  that  they  contemned  the  limited 


of  bitter  herbs,  until  it  occasioned  violent  vomitings.  |  authority  of  the  English  governors. 
They  were  beaten  over  their  legs  and  shins   with        The  Indians  had  no  kind  of  coin ;  but  they  had 
through    brambles    and  |  a  sort  of  money,   which  they   called  wampum,   or 


sticks,   and  made   to   run 
thickets,  to  make  them  hardy,  am. 


as  the  Indians 


said,  to  render  them  more  acceptable  to  Hobba- 


raocko. 


These  paniese,  or  ministers  of  state,  were  in  league 
with  the  priests,  or  powaws.  To  keep  the  people  in 
awe,  they  pretended,  as  well  as  the  priests,  to  have 
converse  with  the  invisible  world,  and  that  Hob- 
barnocko  often  appeared  to  them. 

Among  the  Connecticut  Indians,  and  among  all 
the  Indians  in  New  England,  the  crown  was  here- 
ditary, always  descending  to  the  eldest  son.  When 
there  was  no  male  issue,  the  crown  descended  to  the 
female.  The  blood-royal  was  held  in  such  venera- 
tion, that  no  one  was  considered  as  heir  to  the  crown 
but  such  as  were  royally  descended  on  both  sides. 
When  a  female  acceded  to  the  crown,  she  was  called 
the  sunk  squaw,  or  queen  squaw.  There  were  many 
petty  sachems,  tributary  to  other  princes,  on  whom 
they  were  dependant  for  protection,  and  without 
whose  consent  they  made  neither  peace,  war,  nor 
alliances  with  other  nations. 

The  revenues  of  the  crown  consisted  in  the  con- 
tributions of  the  people.  They  carried  corn,  and 
the  first  fruits  of  their  harvest  of  all  kinds,  beans, 
squashes,  roots,  berries,  and  nuts,  and  presented 
them  to  their  sachem.  They  made  him  presents  of 
flesh,  fish,  fowl,  moose,  bear,  deer,  beaver,  and 
other  skins.  One  of  the  paniese  was  commonly  ap- 
pointed to  receive  the  tribute.  When  the  Indians 


brought  it,  he 
out  to  them,  am 


notice  to  his  sachem,  who  went 
by  good  words  and  somo  small  gifts, 


expressed  his  gratitude.  BY  these  contributions,  his 
table  was  supplied ;  so  that  he  kept  open  house  for 
all  strangers  and  travellers.  Besides,  the  prince 
claimed  an  absolute  sovereignty  over  the  seas  within 
his  dominion.  Whatever  was  stranded  on  the  coast, 
all  wrecks  and  whales  floating  on  the  sea,  and  taken, 
were  his.  In  war,  the  spoils  of  the  enemy,  and  all 
the  women  and  royalties  of  the  prince  conquered, 
belonged  to  him  who  made  the  conquest. 

The  sachem  was  not  only  examiner,  judge,  and 


wampumpeag,  which,  as  has  been  observed  before, 
consisted  of  small  beads,  most  curiously  wrought  out 
of  shells,  and  perforated  in  the  centre,  so  that  they 
might  be  strung  on  belts,  in  chains  and  bracelets. 
These  were  of  several  sorts.  The  Indians  in  Con- 
necticut, and  in  New  England  in  general,  made 
black,  blue,  and  white  wampum.  Six  of  the  white 
beads  passed  for  a  penny, 
or  blue  ones  for  the  same. 


and  three  of  the  black 
The  five  nations  made 


of  justice  between  one  man  and  another.  In  cases 
of  dishonesty,  the  Indians  proportioned  the  punish- 
ment to  the  number  of  times  in  which  the  delinquent 
had  been  found  guilty.  For  the  first  offence,  he 
was  reproached  for  his  villany  in  the  most  disgrace- 
ful manner ;  for  the  second,  he  was  beaten  with  a 
cudgel  upon  his  naked  back.  If  he  still  persisted 
in  his  dishonest  practices,  and  was  found  guilty  a 
third  time,  he  was  sure,  besides  a  sound  drubbing, 
to  have  his  nose  slit,  that  all  men  might  know  and 
avoid  him.  Murder  was,  in  all  cases,  punished  with 
death.  The  sachem  whipped  the  delinquent  and 
slit  his  nose,  in  cases  which  required  these  punish- 
ments ;  and  he  killed  the  murderer,  unless  he  were 
at  a  great  distance.  In  this  case,  in  which  execu- 
tion could  not  be  done  with  his  own  hands,  he  sent 
his  knife,  by  which  it  was  effected.  The  Indians 
would  not  receive  any  punishment  which  was  not 
capital,  from  the  hands  of  any  except  their  sachems. 
They  would  neither  be  beaten,  whipped,  nor  slit  by 
an  officer:  but  their  prince  might  inflict  these 
punishments  to  the  greatest  extremity,  and  they 
would  neither  run,  cry,  nor  flinch.  Indeed,  neither 


another  sort,  which  were  of  a  purple  colour.  The 
white  beads  were  wrought  out  of  the  inside  of 
the  great  conches,  and  the  purple  out  of  the  inside 
of  the  muscle  shell.  They  were  made  perfectly 
smooth,  and  the  perforation  was  done  in  the 
neatest  manner.  Indeed,  considering  that  the 
Indians  had  neither  knife,  drill,  nor  any  steel  or 
iron  instrument,  the  workmanship  was  admirable. 
After  the  English  settled  in  Connecticut,  the  In- 
dians strung  these  beads  on  belts  of  cloth  in  a  very 
curious  manner.  The  squaws  made  caps  of  cloth 
rising  to  a  peak  over  the  top  of  the  head,  and  the 
fore  part  was  beautified  with  wampum,  curiously 
wrought  upon  them.  The  six  nations  now  weave 
and  string  them  in  broad  belts,  which  they  give  in 
their  treaties,  as  a  confirmation  of  their  speeches 
and  the  seals  of  their  friendship. 

The  Indians  of  Connecticut  and  New  England, 
although  consisting  of  a  great  number  of  different 
nations  and  clans,  appear  all  to  have  spoken  radi- 
cally the  same  language. 

The  Indians  in  Connecticut,  and  in  all  parts  of 
New  England,  made  great  lamentations  at  the  burial 
of  their  dead.  Their  manner  of  burial  was  to  dig 
holes  in  the  ground  with  stakes,  which  were  made 
broad  and  shai-pened  at  one  end.  Sticks  were  laid 
across  the  bottom,  and  the  corpse,  which  was  pre- 
viously wrapped  in  skins  and  mats,  was  let  down 
upon  them.  The  arms,  treasures,  utensils,  paint, 
and  ornaments  of  the  dead,  were  buried  with  them, 
and  a  mound  of  earth  was  raised  upon  the  whole. 
In  some  instances  the  Indians  appear  to  have  used 


executioner,  in  all  criminal  cases,  but  in  all  matters    a  kind   of  embalming,  by  wrapping  the   corpse  in 


large  quantities  of  a  strong  scented  red  powder.  In 
some  parts  of  New  England,  the  dead  were  buried  in 
a  sitting  posture  with  their  faces-towards  the  east. 
The  women  on  these  occasions  painted  their  faces 
with  oil  and  charcoal,  and  while  the  burial  was  per- 
forming, they,  with  the  relatives  of  the  dead,  made 
the  most  hideous  shrieks,  howlings,  and  lament- 
ations. Their  mourning  continued,  by  turns,  at  night 
and  in  the  moi'ning,  for  several  days^  During  this 
term  all  the  relatives  united  in  bewailing  the  dead. 

When  the  English  began  the  settlement  of  Con- 
necticut, all  the  Indians  both  east  and  west  of  Con- 
necticut river,  were  tributaries,  except  the  Pequots, 
and  some  few  tribes  which  were  in  alliance  with 
them.  The  Pequots  had  spread  their  conquests 
over  all  that  part  of  the  state  east  of  the  river. 
They  had  also  subjugated  the  Indians  on  the  sea- 
coast,  as  far  eastward  as  Guilford.  Uncas  there- 
fore, after  the  Pequots  were  conquered,  extended 
his  claims  as  far  as  Hammonasset,  in  the  eastern 
part  of  that  township.  The  Indians  in  these  parts 
were  therefore  tributaries  to  the  Pequots. 

The  Mohawks  had  not  only  carried  their  conquests 

302 


644 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


as  far  southward  as  Virginia,  but  eastward,  as  far 
as  Connecticut  river.  The  Indians  therefore,  in 
the  western  parts  of  Connecticut,  were  their  tribu- 
taries. Two  old  Mohawks,  every  year  or  two, 
might  be  seen  issuing  their  orders  and  collecting 
their  tribute,  with  as  much  authority  and  haughti- 
ness as  a  Roman  dictator. 

It  is  indeed  difficult  to  describe  the  dread  of  this 
terrible  nation,  which  had  fallen  on  all  the  Indians 
in  the  western  parts  of  Connecticut.  If  they  neg- 
lected to  pay  their  tribute,  the  Mohawks  would  come 
down  against  them,  plunder,  destroy,  and  carry  them 
captive  at  pleasure  ;  and  when  they  made  their  ap- 
pearance in  the  country,  the  Connecticut  Indians 
would  instantly  raise  a  cry  from  hill  to  hill,  a  Mo- 
hawk !  a  Mohawk  !  and  fly  without  attempting  the 
least  resistance.  The  Mohawks  would  cry  out,  in 
the  most  terrible  manner,  in  their  language,  import- 
ing "  We  are  come,  we  are  come,  to  suck  your 
blood."  When  the  Connecticut  Indians  could  not 
escape  to  their  forts,  they  would  immediately  flee 
to  the  English  houses  for  shelter,  and  sometimes 
the  Mohawks  would  pursue  them  so  closely  as  to 
enter  with  them,  and  kill  them  in  the  presence  of 
the  family.  If  there  was  time  to  shut  the  doors  they 
never  entered  by  force,  nor  did  they,  upon  any  oc- 
casion, do  the  least  injury  to  the  English.  When 
they  came  into  this  part  of  the  country  for  war,  they 
used  their  utmost  art  to  keep  themselves  undis- 
covered. They  would  conceal  themselves  in  swamps 
and  thickets,  watching  their  opportunity,  and  then 
on  a  sudden  rise  upon  their  enemies  and  kill  or  cap- 
ture them,  before  they  had  time  to  make  any 
resistance. 

About  the  time  when  the  settlement  of  New  Ha- 
ven commenced,  or  not  many  years  after,  they 
came  into  Connecticut,  and  surprised  the  Indian 
fort  at  Paugusset.  To  prevent  the  Connecticut 
Indians  from  discovering  them,  and  that  not  so 
much  as  a  track  of  them  might  be  seen,  they  marched 
in  the  most  secret  manner,  and  when  they  came 
near  the  fort  travelled  wholly  in  the  river.  Secret- 
ing themselves  near  the  fort,  they  watched  their 
opportunity,  and  suddenly  attacking  it,  with  their 
dreadful  yellings  and  violence,  they  soon  took  it  by 
force,  and  killed  and  captured  whom  they  pleased. 
Having  plundered  and  destroyed,  at  their  pleasure, 
they  returned  to  their  strong  holds  west  of  Albany. 

The  Indians  in  Connecticut  who  were  slaugh- 
tered and  oppressed,  either  by  the  Pequots  or  Mo- 
hawks, were  generally  friendly  to  the  settlement  of 
the  English  among  them ;  as  they  expected,  by 
their  means,  to  be  defended  against  their  terrible 
and  cruel  oppressors.  They  also  found  themselves 
benefitted  by  trading  with  them;  thus  furnishing 
themselves  with  knives,  hatchets,  axes,  hoes,  kettles 
and  various  instruments  and  utensils  which  they 
prized  ;  and  t|iey  found  a  much  better  market  for 
their  furs,  corn,  poultry,  and  all  their  vendible 
commodities.  The  English  were  also  careful  to 
treat  them  with  justice  and  humanity,  and  to  make 
such  presents  to  their  sachems  and  great  captains 
as  should  keep  them  in  good  humour.  By  these 
means  the  English  lived  in  tolerable  peace  with 
all  the  Indians  in  Connecticut,  except  the  Pequots, 
for  about  forty  years. 

The  Indians,  at  their  first  settlement,  performed 
many  acts  of  kindness  towards  them.  They  in- 
structed them  in  the  manner  of  planting  and  dress- 
ing the  Indian  corn :  carried  them  upon  their  backs 
through  rivers  and  waters;  gave  them  much  useful 
information  respecting  the  country,  and  when  the 


English  or  their  children  were  lost  in  the  woods, 
and  were  in  danger  of  perishing  with  hunger  or 
cold,  they  conducted  them  to  their  wigwams,  fed 
them,  and  restored  them  to  their  families  and  pa- 
rents ;  they  often  also  supplied  them  with  corn, 
when  suffering  from  famine. 

The  people  at  Dorchester,  Watertown  and  Newtown, 
finding  themselves  straitened  in  the  Massachusetts, 
determine  to  remove  to  Connecticut — -Debates  in 
Massachusetts  relative  to  their  removal — The  general 
court  at  first  prohibit  it,  but  afterwards  give  its 
consent — The  people  remove  and  settle  the  towns  of 
Windsor,  Hartford  and  Weathersfield — Hardships 
and  losses  of  the  first  winters. 

(1634.)  Such  numbers  were  constantly  emigrat- 
ing to  New  England,  in  consequence  of  the  per- 
secution of  the  puritans  in  England,  that  the 
people  at  Dorchester,  Watertown  and  Newtown,  in 
Massachusetts,  began  to  be  much  straitened  by  the 
accession  of  new  planters.  By  those  who  had  been 
at  Connecticut,  they  had  received  intelligence  of 
the  excellent  meadows  upon  the  river,  and  they 
therefore  determined  to  remove,  and  once  more  brave 
the  dangers  and  hardships  of  making  new  settle- 
ments. 

Upon  application  to  the  general  court  for  the 
enlargement  of  their  boundaries,  or  for  liberty  to 
remove,  they,  at  first,  obtained  consent  for  the 
latter.  However,  when  it  was  afterwards  disco- 
vered that  their  determination  was  to  plant  a  new 
colony  at  Connecticut,  there  arose  a  strong  opposi- 
tion ;  so  that  when  the  court  convened  in  Septem- 
ber, there  was  a  warm  debate  on  the  subject,  and 
a  great  division  between  the  houses.  Indeed,  the 
whole  colony  was  affected  with  the  dispute. 

Mr.  Hooker  (a  clergyman  who  had  left  England 
from  persecution.)  took  up  the  affair  and  pleaded  for 
the  people.  He  urged,  that  they  were  so  straitened 
for  accommodations  for  their  cattle,  that  they  could 
not  support  the  ministry,  neither  receive,  nor  as- 
sist any  more  of  their  friends  who  might  come 
over  to  them.  He  insisted  that  the  planting  of 
towns  so  near  together  was  a  fundamental  error  in 
their  policy.  He  pleaded  the  fertility  and  happy 
accommodations  of  Connecticut:  urged  that  settle- 
ments upon  the  river  were  necessary  to  prevent  the 
Dutch  and  others  from  possessing  themselves  of  so 
fruitful  and  important  a  part  of  the  country ;  and 
that  the  minds  of  the  people  were  strongly  inclined 
to  plant  themselves  there. 

On  the  other  side  it  was  insisted,  that  in  point  of 
conscience  they  ought  not  to  depart,  as  they  were 
united  to  the  Massachusetts  as  one  body,  and  bound 
by  oath  to  seek  the  good  of  that  commonwealth; 
and  that  on  principles  of  policy  it  could  not,  by 
any  means,  be  granted:  and  it  was  further  pleaded, 
that  as  the  settlements  in  the  Massachusetts  were 
new  and  weak,  they  were  in  danger  of  an  assault 
from  their  enemies :  that  the  departure  of  Mr. 
Hooker  and  the  people  of  those  towns  would  not 
only  draw  off  many  from  the  Massachusetts,  but 
prevent  others  from  settling  in  the  colony.  Be- 
sides, it  was  said,  according  to  Scriptural  phrase, 
that  the  removing  of  a  candlestick  was  a  great  judg- 
ment: and  that  by  suffering  it  they  should  expose 
their  brethren  to  great  danger,  both  from  the  Dutch 
and  Indians.  Indeed,  it  was  affirmed  that  they 
might  be  accommodated  by  the  enlargements  of- 
fered them  by  the  other  towns.  After  a  long 
and  warm  debate,  the  governor,  two  assistants,  and 
a  majority  of  the  representatives,  were  for  granting 


UNITED  STATES. 


645 


liberty  for  Mr.  Hooker  and  the  people  to  transplant 
themselves  to  Connecticut.  The  deputy-governor, 
however,  and  six  of  the  assistants  were  in  the  nega- 
tive, and  so  no  vote  could  be  obtained.  This  made 
a  considerable  ferment,  not  only  in  the  general 
court,  but  in  the  colony ;  so  that  Mr.  Cotton  was 
desired  to  preach  on  the  subject  to  quiet  the  court 
and  the  people  of  the  colony. 

Individuals,  however,  were  determined  to  prose- 
cute the  business,  and  made  preparations  effectually 
to  carry  it  into  execution ;  and  it  appears  that  some 
of  the  Watertown  people  went  this  year  (1634)  to 
Connecticut,  and  erected  a  few  huts  at  Pyquag, 
now  Weathersfield,  in  which  a  small  number  of  men 
made  a  shift  to  winter  :  at  least  this  is  the  tradition, 
and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Meeks,  of  Weathersfield,  in  his 
manuscript  says,  Weathersfield  is  the  oldest  town 
on  the  river. 

(1635.)  While  the  colonists  were  thus  prosecuting 
the  business  of  settlement  in  New  England,  the 
Right  Honourable  James,  Marquis  of  Hamilton, 
obtained  a  grant  from  the  council  of  Plymouth, 
April  20th,  1635,  of  all  that  tract  of  country  which 
lies  between  Connecticut  river  and  Narraganset 
river  and  harbour,  and  from  the  mouths  of  each  of 
the  said  rivers  northward  60  miles  into  the  country. 
However,  by  reason  of  its  interference  with  the 
grant  to  the  Lord  Say  and  Seal,  Lord  Brook,  &c., 
or  for  some  other  reason,  the  deed  was  never  exe- 
cuted. The  Marquis  made  no  settlement  upon  the 
land,  and  the  claim  became  obsolete. 

The  next  May  (1635),  the  Newtown  people,  de- 
termining to  settle  at  Connecticut,  renewed  their 
application  to  the  general  court,  and  obtained  liberty 
to  remove  to  any  place  which  they  should  choose, 
with  this  proviso,  that  they  should  continue  under 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Massachusetts ;  and  conse- 
quently a  number  cf  Mr.  Warham's  people  went 
this  summer  into  Connecticut,  and  made  prepara- 
tions to  bring  their  families,  and  make  a  permanent 
settlement  on  the  river.  The  Watertown  people 
gradually  removed,  and  prosecuted  their  settlement 
at  Weathersfield.  At  the  same  time,  the  planters 
at  Newtown  began  to  make  preparations  for  remov- 
ing to  Hartford  the  next  spring.  Meanwhile, 
twenty  men  arrived  in  Massachusetts,  sent  over  by 
Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  to  take  possession  of  a  great 
quantity  of  land  in  Connecticut,  and  to  make  settle- 
ments under  the  patent  of  Lord  Say  and  Seal,  with 
whom  he  was  a  principal  associate.  The  vessel  in 
which  they  came  over,  on  her  return  to  England, 
in  the  fall,  was  cast  away  on  the  isle  Sable. 

As  the  Dorchester  men  had  now  set  down  at 
Connecticut,  near  the  Plymouth  trading-house, 
Governor  Bradford  wrote  to  them,  complaining  of 
their  conduct,  as  injurious  to  the  people  of  Ply- 
mouth, who  had  made  a  fair  purchase  of  the  Indians, 
and  taken  a  prior  possession. 

The  Dutch  also,  alarmed  by  the  settlements  mak- 
ing in  Connecticut,  wrote  to  Holland  for  instruct- 
ions and  aid,  to  drive  the  English  from  their  settle- 
ments upon  the  river. 

The  people  at  Connecticut  having  made  such  pre- 
parations as  were  judged  necessary  to  effect  a  per- 
manent settlement,  began  to  remove  their  families 
and  property.  On  the  15th  of  October,  1635,  about 
sixty  men,  women,  and  children,  with  their  horses, 
cattle,  and  swine,  commenced  their  journey  from 
the  Massachusetts,  through  the  wilderness,  to  Con- 
necticut river.  After  a  tedious  and  difficult  jour- 
ney, through  swamps  a,nd  rivers,  over  mountains 
and  rough  ground,  which  were  passed  with  great 


difficulty  and  fatigue,  they  arrived  safely  at  the 
places  of  their  respective  destination.  They  were 
so  long  on  their  journey,  and  so  much  time  and 
pains  were  spent  in  passing  the  river,  and  in  getting 
their  cattle  over,  that,  after  all  their  exertions, 
winter  came  upon  them  before  they  were  prepared, 
which  was  the  occasion  of  much  distress  and  damage. 

Nearly  at  the  same  time,  Mr.  John  Winthrop, 
son  of  Governor  Winthrop,  of  Massachusetts,  ar- 
rived at  Boston,  with  a  commission  from  Lord  Say 
and  Seal,  Lord  Brook,  and  other  noblemen  and 
gentlemen  interested  in  the  Connecticut  patent,  to 
erect  a  fort  at  the  mouth  of  Connecticut  river  ;  arid 
their  lordships  sent  over  men,  ordnance,  ammuni- 
tion, and  2,000/.  sterling,  for  the  accomplishment 
of  their  design. 

Mr.  Winthrop  was  directed,  by  his  commission, 
immediately  on  his  arrival,  to  repair  to  Connecti- 
cut, with  fifty  able  men,  and  to  erect  the  fortifica- 
tions, and  to  build  houses  for  the  garrison,  and  others 
who  might  choose  to  go  to  settle  in  Connecticut.  They 
were  first  to  build  houses  for  their  then  present  ac- 
commodation, and  after  that,  such  as  should  be  suit- 
able for  the  reception  of  persons  of  property ;  the 
latter  were  to  be  erected  within  the  fort,  and  it  was 
required  that  the  planters,  at  the  beginning,  should 
settle  themselves  near  the  mouth  of  the  river,  and 
set  down  in  bodies,  that  they  might  be  in  a  situa- 
tion for  intrenching  and  defending  themselves.  The 
commission  made  provision  for  the  reservation  of  a 
thousand  or  fifteen  hundred  acres  of  good  land,  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  fort,  as  nearly  adjoining  to 
it  as  might  be  convenient. 

Mr.  Winthrop,  having  intelligence  that  the  Dutch  ' 
were  preparing  to  take  possession  of  the  mouth  of 
the  river,  as  soon  as  he  could  engage  twenty  men, 
and  furnish  them  with  provisions,  dispatched  them 
in  a  small  vessel,  of  about  thirty  tons,  to  prevent 
their  getting  the  command  of  the  river,  and  to  ac- 
complish the  service  to  which  he  had  been  appointed. 
A  few  days  after  the  party,  sent  by  Mr.  Winthrop, 
arrived  at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  a  Dutch  vessel  ap- 
peared off  the  harbour,  from  New  Netherlands, 
sent  on  purpose  to  take  possession  of  the  entrance 
of  the  river,  and  to  erect  fortifications ;  but  the 
English  had,  by  this  time,  mounted  two  pieces  of 
cannon,  and  prevented  their  landing,  and  thus  pre- 
served to  themselves  this  fine  tract  of  country. 

Mr.  Winthrop  was  appointed  governor  of  the 
river  Connecticut,  and  the  parts  adjacent,  for  the 
term  of  one  year.  He  erected  a  fort,  built  houses, 
and  made  a  settlement,  according  to  his  instructions. 
One  David  Gardiner,  an  expert  engineer,  assisted 
in  the  work,  planned  the  fortifications,  and  was  ap- 
pointed lieutenant  of  the  fort.  Mr.  Davenport  also, 
and  others,  who  afterwards  settled  New  Haven, 
were  active  in  this  affair,  and  hired  Gardiner  in  be- 
half of  their  lordships. 

As  the  settlement  of  the  three  towns  on  Connec- 
ticut river  was  began  before  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Win- 
throp, and  the  design  of  their  lordships  to  make 
plantations  upon  it  was  known,  it  was  agreed  that 
the  settlers  on  the  river  should  either  remove,  upon 
full  satisfaction  made,  by  their  lordships,  or  else 
sufficient  room  should  be  found  for  them  and  their 
companies  at  some  other  place. 

The  winter  set  in  this  year  much  sooner  than 
isual,  and  the  weather  was  stormy  and  severe.  By 
the  15th  of  November,  Connecticut  river  was  frozen 
over,  and  the  snow  was  so  deep,  and  the  season  so 
tempestuous,  that  a  considerable  number  of  the 
cattle,  which  had  been  driven  on  from  the  Massa- 


646 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


chusetts,  could  not  be  brought  across  the  river.  The 
people  had  so  little  time  to  prepare  their  huts  and 
houses,  and  to  erect  sheds  and  shelters  for  their 
cattle,  that  the  sufferings  of  man  and  beast  were 
extreme.  Indeed,  the  hardships  and  distresses  of 
the  first  planters  of  Connecticut  scarcely  admit  of  a 
description.  To  carry  much  provision  or  furniture 
through  a  pathless  wilderness,  was  impracticable. 
Their  principal  provisions  and  household  furniture 
•were,  therefore,  put  on  board  several  small  vessels, 
which,  by  reason  of  delays  and  the  tempestuousriess  of 
the  season,  were  either  cast  away  or  did  not  arrive. 
Several  vessels  were  wrecked  on  the  coasts  of  New 
England,  by  the  violence  of  the  storms.  Two  shal- 
lops laden  with  goods,  from  Boston  to  Connecticut, 
in  October,  were  cast  away  on  Brown's  island,  near 
the  Gurnet's  nose  ;  and  the  men,  with  every  thing 
on  board,  were  lost.  A  vessel,  with  six  of  the  Con- 
necticut people  on  board,  which  sailed  from  the 
river  for  Boston,  early  in  November,  was,  about  the 
middle  of  the  month,  cast  away  in  Manamet  bay. 
The  men  got  on  shore,  and,  after  wandering  ten 
days  in  deep  snow  and  a  severe  season,  without 
meeting  with  any  human  being,  arrived,  nearly 
spent  with  cold  and  fatigue,  at  New  Plymouth. 

By  the  latter  end  of  November,  or  beginning  of 
December,  provisions  generally  failed  in  the  settle- 
ments on  the  river.  Some  of  the  settlers  driven  by 
hunger,  attempted  their  way,  in  this  severe  season, 
through  the  wilderness,  from  Connecticut  to  Massa- 
chusetts ;  but  of  thirteen,  in  one  company,  who 
made  this  attempt,  one,  in  passing  the  rivers,  fell 
through  the  ice,  and  was  drowned;  and  the  other 
twelve  were  ten  days  on  their  journey,  and  would 
all  have  perished,  had  it  not  been  for  the  assistance 
of  the  Indians.  Indeed,  such  was  the  distress  in 
general  that,  by  the  3d  and  4th  of  December,  a 
considerable  part  of  the  new  settlers  were  obliged 
to  abandon  their  habitations.  Seventy  persons, 
men,  women,  and  children,  were  necessitated,  in 
the  extremity  of  winter,  to  go  down  to  the  mouth  of 
the  river,  to  meet  their  provisions,  as  the  only  ex- 
pedient to  preserve  their  lives.  Not  meeting  with 
the  vessels  which  they  expected,  they  all  went  on 
board  the  Rebecca,  a  vessel  of  about  sixty  tons; 
which  two  days  before  was  frozen  in  twenty  miles 
up  the  river  ;  but  by  the  falling  of  a  small  rain  and 
the  influence  of  the  tide,  the  ice  became  so  broken, 
and  was  so  far  removed,  that  they  made  a  shift  to 
get  out ;  the  vessel  ran,  however,  upon  the  bar,  and 
the  people  were  forced  to  unlade  it  to  get  it  off:  it 
was  then  reladen,  and  in  five  days  reached  Boston. 

The  people  who  kept  their  stations  on  the  river 
suffered  in  an  extreme  degree.  After  all  the  help 
they  were  able  to  obtain  by  hunting,  and  from  the 
Indians,  they  were  obliged  to  subsist  on  acorns 
malt,  and  grains.  Numbers  of  the  cattle,  which 
could  not  be  got  over  the  river  before  winter,  livec 
through  without  any  thing  but  what  they  found  in 
the  woods  and  meadows.  They  wintered  as  well 
or  better,  than  those  which  were  brought  over,  ant 
for  which  all  the  provision  was  made,  and  pains 
taken,  of  which  the  owners  were  capable.  However, 
a  great  number  of  cattle  perished.  The  Dorchester 
or  Windsor  people  lost,  in  this  single  article,  about 
200/.  sterling,  and  their  other  losses  were  very  con 
siderable. 

It  is  difficult  to  describe,  or  even  to  conceive,  the 
apprehensions  and  distresses  of  a  people,  in  these 
circumstances :  all  the  horrors  of  a  dreary  wilder 
ness  spread  themselves  around  them.     They  wer 
encompassed  with  numerous  fierce  and  cruel  tribes 


f  wild  and  savage  men,  who  could  have  easily 
lestroyed  them  in  their  feeble  and  distressed  condi- 
•ion.  They  had  neither  bread  for  themselves,  nor 
children ;  neither  habitations  nor  clothing  conveni- 
t-nt  for  them.  Whatever  emergency  might  happen, 
hey  were  cut  off,  both  by  land  and  water,  from  any 
uccour  or  retreat. 

For  a  few  years  after  the  settlements  on  the  river 
commenced,  they  bore  the  same  name  with  the  towns 
n  the  Massachusetts,  whence  the  first  settlers  came. 

(1636.)  The  Connecticut  planters  at  first  settled 
under  the  general  government  of  the  Massachusetts, 
jut  they  held  courts  of  their  own,  which  consisted 
of  two  principal  men  from  each  town  ;  and,  on  great 
and  extraordinary  occasions,  these  were  joined  with 
committees,  as  they  were  called,  consisting  of  three 
men  from  each  town.  These  courts  had  power  to 
;ransact  all  the  common  affairs  of  the  colony,  and 
with  their  committees,  had  the  power  of  making 
war  and  peace,  and  treaties  of  alliance  and  friend- 
hip  with  the  natives  within  the  colony. 

The  first  court  in  Connecticut  was  holden  at 
Newtown,  April  26th,  1636.  It  consisted  of  Roger 
Ludlow,  Esq.,  Mr.  John  Steel,  Mr.  William  Swain, 
Mr.  William  Phelps,  Mr.  William  Westwood,  and 
Mr.  Andrew  Ward.  Mr.  Ludlow  had  been  one  of 
the  magistrates  of  Massachusetts  in  1630,  and  in 
1631  had  been  chosen  lieutenant-governor  of  that 
colony.  At  this  court  it  was  ordered,  that  the  in- 
habitants should  not  sell  arms  nor  ammunition  to 
the  Indians.  Various  other  affairs  were  also  trans- 
acted relative  to  the  good  order,  settlement,  and  de- 
fence of  these  infant  towns. 

Several  of  the  principal  gentlemen  interested  in 
the  settlement  of  Connecticut,  Mr.  John  Haynes, 
who  at  this  time  was  governor  of  Massachusetts, 
Mr.  Henry  Wolcott,  Mr.  Wells,  the  ministers  of 
the  churches,  and  others,  had  not  yet  removed  into 
the  colony.  As  soon  as  the  spring  advanced,  and 
the  travelling  would  admit,  the  hardy  men  began 
to  return  from  the  Massachusetts  to  their  habitations 
on  the  river.  No  sooner  was  the  grass  sufficiently 
grown,  that  cattle  could  live  in  the  woods,  and  ob- 
structions removed  from  the  river,  so  that  vessels 
could  go  up  with  provisions  and  furniture,  than  the 
people  began  to  return  in  large  companies  to  Con- 
necticut ;  and  many  who  had  not  removed  the  last 
year,  prepared,  with  all  convenient  dispatch,  for  a 
journey  to  the  new  settlements  upon  the  river. 

About  the  beginning  of  June,  Mr.  Hooker,  Mr. 
Stone,  and  about  a  hundred  men,  women,  and  child- 
ren took  their  departure  from  Cambridge,  and  tra- 
velled more  than  a  hundred  miles,  through  a  track- 
less wilderness,  to  Hartford.  They  had  no  guide 
but  their  compass  ;  made  their  way  over  mountains, 
through  swamps,  thickets,  and  rivers,  which  were 
not  passable  but  with  great  difficulty.  They  drove 
with  them  160  head  of  cattle,  and  by  the  way  sub- 
sisted on  the  milk  of  their  cows.  Mrs.  Hooker 
was  borne  through  the  wilderness  upon  a  litter.  The 
people  generally  carried  their  packs,  arms,  and 
some  utensils.  They  were  nearly  a  fortnight  on 
their  journey.  This  adventure  was  the  more  re- 
markable, as  many  of  this  company  were  persons  of 
property,  who  had  lived  in  England  in  luxury  and 
affluence,  and  were  entire  strangers  to  fatigue  and 
danger. 

The  removal  of  Dorchester  people  to  Windsor  is 
said  to  have  been  disagreeable  to  their  ministers ; 
but,  as  their  whole  church  and  congregation  re- 
moved, it  was  necessary  that  they  should  go  with 
them.  However,  Mr.  Maverick  died  in  March, 


UNITED  STATES. 


647 


before  preparations  were  made  for  his  removal.  He 
expired  in  the  60th  year  of  his  age.  He  was 
characterized  as  a  man  of  great  meekness,  and 
as  laborious  and  faithful  in  promoting  the  welfare 
both  of  the  church  and  commonwealth.  Mr.  War- 
ham  removed  to  Windsor  in  September,  but  he  did 
not  judge  it  expedient  to  bring  his  family  until  bet- 
ter accommodations  could  be  made  for  their  recep- 
tion. Soon  after  the  removal  of  Mr,  Warham  from 
Dorchester,  a  new  church  was  gathered  in  that 
town,  and  Mr.  Mather  was  ordained  their  pastor, 
Mr.  Phillips,  pastor  of  the  church  at  Watertown, 
did  not  remove  to  Weathersfield.  Whether  it  was 
against  his  inclination,  or  whether  the  people  did 
not  invite  him,  does  not  appear.  They  chose  Mr. 
Henry  Smith  for  their  minister,  who  came  from 
England  in  office. 

The  colony  of  New  Plymouth  professed  them- 
selves to  be  greatly  aggrieved  at  the  conduct  of  the 
Dorchester  people,  in  settling  on  the  lands,  where 
they  had  made  a  purchase,  and  where  they  had  de- 
fended themselves  and  that  part  of  the  country 
against  the  Dutch.  .They  represented  that  it  had 
been  a  great  injury  to  them  that  the  Dutch  and 
Indians  had  given 'them  so  much  trouble  as  they 
had  done,  but  that  it  was  still  more  grievous  to  be 
supplanted  by  their  professed  friends.  Mr.  Win- 
slow  of  Plymouth  made  a  journey  to  Boston,  in  the 
spring,  before  Governor  Hay  lies  and  some  other 
principal  characters  removed  to  Connecticut,  with 
a  view  to  obtain  compensation  for  the  injury  done 
to  the  Plymouth  men,  who  had  built  the  trading- 
house  upon  the  river.  The  Plymouth  people  de- 
manded a  sixteenth  part  of  the  lands  and  100 
pounds  as  a  compensation  ;  but  the  Dorchester  peo- 
ple would  not  comply  with  their  demands.  There 
however  appeared  to  be  so  much  justice  in  making 
them  some  compensation  for  the  purchase  they  had 
made,  and  the  good  services  which  they  had  done, 
that  sometime  after,  the  freeholders  of  Windsor 
gave  them  fifty  pounds,  forty  acres  of  meadow,  and 
a  large  tract  of  upland  for  their  satisfaction. 

At  a  court  holden  at  Dorchester,  it  was  ordered, 
that  every  town  should  keep  a  watch,  and  be  well 
supplied  with  ammunition.  The  constables  were 
directed  to  warn  the  watches  in  their  turns,  and  to 
make  it  their  care  that  they  should  be  kept  accord- 
ing to  the  direction  of  the  court.  They  also  were 
required  to  take  care  that  the  inhabitants  were 
well  furnished  with  arms  and  ammunition,  and 
kept  in  a  constant  state  of  defence.  And  at  a  third 
court,  therefore,  holden  at  Watertown,  an  order 
was  given,  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  several  towns 
should  train  once  a  month,  and  the  officers  were 
authorized  to  train  those  who  appeared  very  unskil- 
ful more  frequently,  as  circumstances  should  require. 
The  courts  were  holden  at  each  town  by  rotation, 
according  to  its  turn. 

A  settlement  was  made,  this  year,  at  Springfield, 
by  Mr.  Pyncheonand  his  company  from  Roxbury. 
This  for  about  two  years  was  united  in  govern- 
ment with  the  towns  in  Connecticut.  In  Novem- 
ber, Mr.  Pyncheon  for  the  first  time  appears  among 
the  members  of  the  court. 

All  the  powers  of  government,  for  nearly  three 
years,  seem  to  have  been  in  the  magistrates,  of 
whom  two  were  appointed  in  each  town.  These 
gave  all  orders,  and  directed  all  the  affairs  of  the 
plantation.  The  freemen  appear  to  have  had  no 
voice  in  making  the  laws,  or  in  any  part  of  the  go- 
vernment, except  in  some  instances  of  general  and 
and  uncommon  concern.  In  these  instances,  com- 


mittees were  sent  from  the  several  towns.  Juries 
were  employed  in  jury  cases,  from  the  first  settle- 
ment of  the  colony. 

This  was  a  summer  and  year  of  great  and  various 
labours,  demanding  the  utmost  exertion  and  dili- 
gence. Many  of  the  planters  had  to  remove  them- 
selves and  effects  from  a  distant  colony.  At  the 
same  time,  it  was  absolutely  necessary  that  they 
should  obtain  a  tolerable  harvest  to  prevent  the 
recurrence  of  the  distresses  and  losses  of  the  pre- 
ceding year.  It  was  of  equal  importance  to  the 
planters,  not  only  to  make  roads  for  their  particular 
convenience,  but  from  town  to  town  ;  that  on  any 
emergency  they  might  immediately  assist  each 
other.  But  it  was  with  great  difficulty  that  these 
purposes  could  be  at  first  accomplished.  The  plant- 
ers had  not  been  accustomed  to  felling  the  groves, 
to  clearing  and  cultivating  new  lands.  They  were 
strangers  in  the  country,  and  knew  not  what  kinds 
of  grain  would  be  most  congenial  with  the  soil,  and 
produce  the  greatest  profits,  nor  had  they  any  ex- 
perience how  the  ground  must  be  cultivated  that  it 
might  yield  a  plentiful  crop.  They  had  few  oxen, 
or  instruments  for  husbandry.  Every  thing  was  to 
be  prepared,  or  brought  from  a  great  distance,  and 
procured  at  a  dear  rate.  Besides  all  these  labours 
and  difficulties,  much  time  was  taken  up  in  con- 
stant watchings,  trainings,  and  preparations  for  the 
defence  of  themselves  and  children.  The  Pequots 
had,  already,  murdered  a  number  of  the  English  ; 
some  of  the  Indians,  in  Connecticut,  were  their 
alljes  ;  and  they  had  maintained  a  great  influence 
over  them  all.  They  were  a  treacherous  and  de- 
signing people;  so  that  there  could  be  no  safety 
but  in  a  constant  preparation  for  any  emergency. 

Some  of  the  principal  characters,  who  undertook 
this  great  work  of  settling  Connecticut,  and  were 
the  civil  and  religious  fathers  of  the  colony,  were 
Mr.  Haynes,  Mr.  Ludlow,  Mr.  Hooker,  Mr.  War- 
ham,  Mr.  Hopkins,  Mr.  Wells,  Mr.  Willis,  Mr. 
Whiting,  Mr.  Wolcott,  Mr.  Phelps,  Mr.  Webster, 
and  Captain  Mason.  These  were  of  the  first  class 
of  settlers,  and  all,  except,  the  ministers,  were 
chosen  magistrates  or  governors  of  the  colony.  Mr. 
Swain,  Mr.  Talcott,  Mr.  Steel,  Mr.  Mitchell,  and 
others,  were  from  Boston.  Mr.  John  Haynes,  Mr. 
Hooker,  Mr.  Hopkins,  Mr.  Stone,  Mr.  George 
Wyllys,  Mr.  Wells,  Mr.  Whiting,  Mr.  Thomas 
Webster,  and  Mr.  John  Talcott,  were  ail  of  Hart- 
ford. Mr.  Ludlow,  Mr.  Henry  Wolcott,  Mr.  War- 
ham,  Mr.  William  Phelps,  and  Captain  John  Ma- 
son, were  some  of  the  principal  planters  of  Wind- 
sor. Mr.  William  Swain,  Mr.  Thurston  Rayner, 
Mr.  Henry  Smith,  Mr.  Andrew  Ward,  Mr.  Mit- 
chell, and  Mr.  John  Deming,  were  some  of  the 
chief  men  who  settled  the  town  of  Weathersfield. 
These  were  the  civil  and  religious  fathers  of  the 
colony.  They  formed  its  free  and  happy  constitu- 
tion, were  its  legislators,  and  some  of  the  chief  pil- 
lars of  the  church  and  commonwealth.  They,  with 
many  others  of  the  same  excellent  character,  em- 
ployed their  abilities  and  their  estates  for  the  pros- 
perity of  the  colony. 

While  the  three  plantations  on  the  river  were 
making  the  utmost  exertions  for  a  permanent  set- 
tlement, Mr.  Winthrop  was  no  less  active,  in  erect- 
ing fortifications  and  convenient  buildings  at  its 
entrance.  Though  he  had,  the  last  year,  sent  on 
one  company  after  another,  yet  the  season  was  so 
far  advanced,  and  the  winter  set  in  so  early,  and 
with  sut.'h  severity,  that  little  more  could  be  done 
than  just  to  keep  the  station.  When  the  spring 


648 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMEKICA. 


advanced,  the  works  were,  therefore,  urged  on  with 
eagerness.  Mr.  Winthrop  and  his  people  were 
induced,  not  only  in  faithfulness  to  their  trust,  but 
from  fears  of  a  visit  from  the  Dutch,  and  from  the 
state  of  that  warlike  people,  the  Pequots  in  the 
vicinity,  to  hasten  and  complete  them  with  the 
utmost  dispatch.  A  good  fort  was  erected,  and  a 
number  of  houses  were  built.  Some  cattle  were 
brought  from  the  Massachusetts  for  the  use  of  the 
garrison.  Small  parcels  of  ground  were  improved, 
and  preparations  made  for  a  comfortable  sub- 
sistence and  good  defence. 

There  were,  at  the  close  of  this  year,  about  two 
hundred  and  fifty  men  in  the  thre'e  towns  on  the 
river,  and  there  were  twenty  men  in  the  garrison, 
at  the  entrance  of  it,  under  the  command  of  .Lieu- 
tenant Gardiner.  The  whole  consisted,  probably, 
of  about  eight  hundred  persons,  or  of  a  hundred  and 
sixty  or  seventy  families. 

The  war  with  the  Pequots — Their  defeat — A  second 
expedition  against  them  conjointly  with  Massachu- 
setts—  The  great  swamp  fight — The  Pequots  subdued 
—  The  survivor*  incorporated  with  the  Moheayans 
and  Narragansets,  and  their  name  extinguished. 

(1634.)The  Indians  in  general  were  jealous  of  the 
English,  from  the  first  settlement  of  New  England, 
and  wished  to  drive  them  from  the  country  ;  but  va- 
rious circumstances  combined  to  frustrate  their  de- 
signs. And  it  was  nearly  sixteen  years  before  they 
commenced  open  hostilities  upon  their  English  neigh- 
bours. But  no  sooner  had  the  latterbegun  to  trade 
and  make  settlements  at  Connecticut,  than  the 
warlike  Pequots  or  Pequods,  began  to  assault  them. 

In  1634  a  number  of  Indians,  who  were  not 
native  Pequots,  but  a  tribe  in  confederacy  with 
them,  murdered  a  Captain  Stone  and  a  Captain 
Norton,  with  their  whole  crew,  consisting  of  eight 
men  ;  and  afterwards  plundered  and  sunk  the  vessel. 

The  November  following,  the  Pequots  sent  a 
messenger  to  Boston,  to  desire  peace  with  the  En- 
glish ;  and  made  an  offer  of  a  great  quantity  of 
beaver  skins  and  wampumpeag,  to  persuade  the 
governor  to  enter  into  a  league  with  them.  The 
governor  replied,  that  the  Pequots  must  send  men 
of  more  importance,  and  that  he  would  then  treat 
with  them.  Consequently  the  Pequots  sent  two 
messengers  carrying  a  present,  and  earnestly  solicit- 
ing peace  :  and  the  governor  assured  them,  that 
the  English  were  willing  to  be  at  peace  with  them  ; 
but  insisted,  that,  as  they  had  murdered  Captain 
Stone  and  his  men,  they  must  deliver  up  the  mur- 
derers, and  make  full  compensation.  The  messen- 
gers pretended  that  Captain  Stone  had  used  the 
Indians  ill,  and  provoked  them  to  kill  him :  that 
their  sachem,  who  was  concerned  in  the  affair,  had 
been  killed  by  the  Dutch,  and  that  the  Indians  who 
perpetrated  the  murder,  were  all  dead  but  two ;  and 
that,  if  they  were  guilty,  they  would  desire  their 
sachem  to  deliver  them  up  to  justice.  They  offered 
to  concede  all  their  right  at  Connecticut  river  if 
the  English  should  desire  to  settle  there  ;  and  en- 
gaged  to  assist  them  as  far  as  was  in  their  power, 
in  "making  their  settlements;  and  they  also  promised 
that  they  would  give  the  English  four  hundred 
fathoms  of  wampum,  forty  beaver,  and  thirty  otter 
skins.  After  mature  deliberation,  the  governor 
and  his  council  entered  into  a  treaty  with  them,  on 
the  conditions  which  they  had  proposed.  The  En- 
glish were  to  send  a  vessel  with  cloths,  to  trade 
with  them  fairly,  as  with  friends  and  allies. 

The  reason  for  their  so  earnestly  soliciting  peace 


was,  that  the  Narragansets  were  making  war  upon 
them  ;  and  the  Dutch,  to  revenge  some  injuries, 
had  killed  one  of  their  sachems,  with  several  of 
their  men,  and  captured  a  number  more.  They 
artfully  suggested  to  the  governor  and  council  of 
Massachusetts,  their  desire  that  they  would  be  me- 
diators between  them  and  the  Narragansets ;  and 
intimated,  that  part  of  the  present  which  they  were 
to  send,  might  be  given  to  them  for  the  purpose 
of  obtaining  a  reconciliation.  Such  was  their 
notion  of  honour,  that  though  they  wished  for  peace 
with  their  enemy,  yet  they  would  not  directly  offer 
any  thing  for  that  purpose.  This  treaty  was  signed 
by  the  parties,  (1635,)  but  hostages  were  not  taken 
to  secure  the  performance  of  the  articles,  and  the 
Pequols  never  performed  one  of  them  :  and  they 
afterwards  became  more  hostile  than  ever. 

(1636.)  The  next  year,  one  John  Oldharn,  who 
had  been  trading  at  Connecticut,  being  also  mur- 
dered near  Block  Island,  the  governor  and  council 
of  Massachusetts  dispatched  Captain  Endicott, 
with  ninety  volunteers,  to  avenge  these  murders 
and  demand  reparation.  The  Narraganset  sachems 
in  consequence  sent  home  Mr.  Oldham's  two  boys, 
and  made  such  satisfaction  as  the  English  ac- 
cepted ;  but  the  other  Indians  would  make  no  com- 
pensation ;  and  Captain  Endicott  was,  therefore, 
instructed  to  proceed  to  Block  Island,  put  the  men 
to  the  sword,  and  take  possession  of  the  island ; 
and  only  spare  the  women  and  children.  Then  to- 
proceed  to  the  Pequots  and  demand  the  surrender 
of  the  murderers  of  Captains  Stone  and  Norton, 
and  of  the  other  Englishmen  who  were  of  their  com- 
pany :  and  also  a  thousand  fathoms  of  wampum  for 
damages,  and  a  number  of  their  children  for  hosta- 
ges, until  the  murderers  should  be  delivered,  and 
satisfaction  made.  He  sailed  from  Boston  August 
25th,  and  after  a  slight  skirmishing  with  the  In- 
dians, who  quickly  tied,  he  ravaged  their  country, 
destroying  their  wigwams,  and  their  corn. 

Sassacus  and  the  other  leaders  of  the  Pequots 
were  men  of  daring  spirits ;  who  had  conquered 
and  governed  the  nations  around  them  without  con- 
trol. They  viewed  the  English  as  intruders,  who 
had  made  settlements  in  Connecticut  without  their 
consent,  and  brought  home  the  Indian  kings  whom 
they  had  conquered,  and  restored  to  them  their 
authority  and  lands.  Excited  by  these  circum- 
stances, and  more  particularly  by  Endicott's  late 
expedition,  they  determined  to  endeavour  to  ex- 
tirpate the  English.  For  this  purpose,  they  con- 
ceived the  plan  of  uniting  the  Indians  generally 
against  them ;  and  spared  no  art  to  make  peace 
with  the  Narragansets,  who  for  a  time  hesitated: 
but  the  goveinor  of  Massachusetts,  to  secure  them, 
sent  for  Miantonimoh,  their  chief  sachem,  and 
entered  into  a  treaty ;  that  there  should  be  a  firm 
peace  between  them  and  the  English,  and  their 
posterity:  that  neither  party  should  make  peace 
with  the  Pequots,  without  the  consent  of  the  other  : 
that  they  should  not  harbour  the  Pequots,  and  that 
they  should  return  all  fugitive  servants,  and  deliver 
over  to  the  English,  or  put  to  death  all  murderers. 
The  English  were  to  give  them  notice,  when  they 
went  out  against  the  Pequots,  and  they  were  to 
furnish  them  with  guides.  It  was  also  stipulated,  that 
free  trade  should  be  maintained  between  the  parties. 

The  Pequots  now  began  a  series  of  petty  hostili- 
ties against  the  settlers,  and  continued  to  harass 
and  distress  them  for  many  months  ;  occasional 
skirmishes  taking  place  when  the  settlers  could  come 
in  contact  with  them. 


UNITED  STATES. 


649 


(1637.)  The  circumstances  of  the  Connecticut 
settlers  at  this  time  wore  a  most  gloomy  aspect. 
They  had  sustained  great  losses  in  cattle  aiid  goods 
in  the  preceding  years,  and  even  this  year  they  Vf?rs 
unfortunate  with  respect  to  their  cattle.  They  had 
no  hay  but  what  they  cut  from  the  spontaneous  pro- 
ductions of  an  uncultivated  country ;  and  to  make 
good  English  meadows  was  a  work  of  time.  The 
wild,  coarse  grass,  which  the  people  cut,  was  often 
mowed  too  late,  and  but  poorly  made,  and  they  had 
not  always  a  sufficient  quantity  even  of  this  :  they 
had  no  corn,  or  provender,  with  which  they  could 
feed  them ;  and,  amidst  the  multiplicity  of  affairs, 
which,  at  their  first  settlement,  demanded  their  at- 
tention, they  could  not  provide  such  shelters  for 
them  as  were  necessary  during  the  long  and  severe 
winters  of  this  northern  climate.  Some  of  their 
cattle  were  lost,  and  those  which  lived  through 
the  winter  were  very  meagre  ;  provisions  were  very 
coarse  and  scanty;  and  the  people  were  not  only 
inexperienced  in  the  husbandry  of  the  country,  but 
had  not  above  ten,  if  so  many,  ploughs  in  the  whole 
colony,  and  were  consequently  obliged  to  use  hoes, 
which  rendered  cultivation  exceedingly  slow  and 
laborious.  Valuable  as  money  was,  a  good  cow 
could  not  be  purchased  under  3W. ;  a  pair  of  bulls 
or  oxen  not  under  40/.  A  mare  from  England  or 
Flanders,  sold  at  30/. ;  and  Indian  corn  at  about  fts. 
a  bushel :  and  labour,  and  other  articles  bore  a  pro- 
portionable price. 

In  addition  to  all  these  difficulties,  an  insidious 
and  savage  enemy  was  destroying  the  lives  and 
property  of  the  colonists,  attempting  to  raise  the 
numerous  Indian  tribes  of  the  country  against  them, 
and  threatening  the  utter  ruin  of  the  whole  colony. 
The  inhabitants  were  in  a  feeble  state,  and  few  in 
number ;  they  wanted  all  their  men  at  home,  to 
prosecute  the  necessary  business  of  the  plantations, 
and  had  not  a  sufficiency  of  provisions  for  them- 
selves; and  there  would  therefore  be  the  greatest 
difficulty  in  furnishing  a  small  army  with  provisions 
abroad :  they  could  neither  hunt,  fish,  nor  cul- 
tivate their  fields,  nor  travel  at  home,  or  abroad, 
but  at  the  peril  of  their  lives ;  they  were  obliged  to 
keep  a  constant  watch  by  night  and  day,  to  go 
armed  to  their  daily  labours,  and  to  the  public 
worship  ;  and  they  lay  down  and  rose  up  in  fear 
and  danger  :  if  they  had  raised  a  party  of  men 
and  sent  them  to  fight  the  enemy  on  their  own 
ground,  it  would  have  rendered  the  settlements  pro- 
portionably  weak  at  home. 

In  this  important  crisis,  a  court  was  summoned 
at  Hartford,  on  Monday  the  1st  of  May.  As  they 
were  to  deliberate  on  matters  in  which  the  lives  of 
the  subjects  and  the  very  existence  of  the  colony 
were  concerned,  the  towns  for  the  first  time  sent 
committees.  The  spirited  measures  adopted  by  this 
court,  render  the  names  of  the  members  worthy  of 
perpetuation.  The  magistrates  were  Roger  Ludlow, 
Esq.,  Mr.  Welles,  Mr.  Swain,  Mr.  Steel,  Mr.  Phelps, 
and  Mr.  Ward.  The  committees  were  Mr.  Whi- 
ting, Mr.  Webster,  Mr.  Williams,  Mr.  Hull,  Mr. 
Chaplin,  Mr.  Talcott,  Mr.  Geffords,  Mr.  Mitchell, 
and  Mr.  Sherman. 

The  court,  on  mature  deliberation,  considering 
that  the  Pequots  had  killed  nearly  thirty  of  the 
English  ;  that  they  had  tortured  and  insulted  their 
captives  in  the  most  horrible  manner;  that  they 
v/ere  attempting  to  engage  all  the  Indians  to  unite 
for  the  purpose  of  extirpating  the  English ;  and  the 
danger  the  whole  colony  was  in,  unless  some  decisive 
blow  could  be  immediately  given  their  enemies,  de- 


termined that  an  offensive  war  should  be  carried 
on  against  them,  by  the  three  towns  of  Windsor, 
Hartford,  and  Weathersfield ;  and  they  voted  that 
90  men  should  be  raised  forthwith — 42  from  Hart- 
ford, 30  from  Windsor,  and  18  from  Weathersfield. 
Notwithstanding  the  necessities  and  poverty  of  the 
people,  all  necessary  supplies  were  voted  for  this 
little  army  ;  and  no  sooner  was  this  resolution 
adopted,  than  the  people  prosecuted  the  most  vigo- 
rous measures  to  carry  it  into  immediate  and  effect- 
ual execution. 

The  report  of  the  slaughter  and  horrid  cruelties 
practised  by  the  Fequots  against  the  people  of  Con- 
necticut, roused  the  other  colonies  to  unanimous 
and  spirited  exertioEs  against  the  common  enemy; 
and  Massachusetts  determined  to  send  200,  and 
Plymouth  40  men,  to  assist  Connecticut  in  prose- 
cuting the  war.  Captain  Patrick  with  40  men  was 
sent  forward,  before  the  other  troops,  from  Massa- 
chusetts and  Plymouth,  could  be  ready  to  march, 
with  a  view  that  he  might  seasonally  form  a  junct- 
ion with  the  party  from  Connecticut. 

On  Wednesday,  the  10th  of  May,  the  troops  from 
Connecticut  fell  down  the  river  for  the  fort  at  Say- 
brook.  They  consisted  of  90  Englishmen,  and  about 
70  Moheagau  and  river  Indians* ;  who  embarked  on 
board  a  pink,  a  pinnace,  and  a  shallop.  The  In- 
dians were  led  by  Uncas,  sachem  of  the  Moheagans, 
and  the  whole  was  commanded  by  Captain  John 
Mason,  who  had  been  bred  a  soldier  in  the  old 
countries.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Stone,  of  Hartford,  went 
as  chaplain.  After  a  variety  of  dangers  and  hard- 
ships, this  small  band  of  settlers  succeeded  in  dis- 
persing the  Pequots ;  and  in  about  three  weeks 
from  the  time  they  embarked  at  Hartford,  they  re- 
turned again  to  their  respective  habitations.  They 
were  received  with  the  greatest  exultation.  As  the 
people  had  been  deeply  affected  with  their  danger, 
and  full  of  anxiety  for  their  friends,  while  nearly 
half  the  effective  men  in  the  colony  were  in  service, 
upon  so  hazardous  an  enterprise,  the  safe  return  of 
so  many  of  their  children  and  neighbours  filled 
them  with  exceeding  joy  and  thankfulness.  Few 
enterprises  have  ever  been  achieved  with  more  per- 
sonal  good  conduct;  by  seventy-seven  brave  men 
Connecticut  was  saved,  and  the  most  warlike  and 
terrible  Indian  nation  in  New  England  defeated 
and  ruined.  The  Pequots  were,  indeed,  so  panic- 
struck,  that  burning  their  wigwams  and  destroying 
their  fort,  they  fled  and  scattered  into  various  parts 
of  the  country.  Sassacus,  Mononotto,  and  seventy 
or  eighty  of  their  chief  counsellors  and  warriors, 
took  their  route  towards  Hudson's  river. 

Just  before  Captain  Mason  went  out  upon  the  ex- 
pedition against  the  Pequots,  the  Dutch  performed 
a  very  neighbourly  office  for  Connecticut.  Twc 
girls,  who  had  been  captured  at  Weathersfield,  had, 
through  the  humanity  and  mediation  of  Mononotto's 
squaw,  been  spared  from  death,  and  kindly  treated. 
The  Dutch  governor,  receiving  intelligence  of  their 
circumstances,  determined  to  redeem  them  at  any 
rate,  and  dispatched  a  sloop  to  Pequot  harbour  for 
that  purpose,  to  make  large  offers  for  their  redemp- 
tion, but  the  Pequots  would  not  accept  them ;  but 
the  Dutch  had  a  number  of  Pequots  on  board,  and 
they  offered  the  Pequots  six  of  their  own  men  for 
the  two  maids ;  who  were  accepted,  and  the  young 
women  were  restored.  The  Massachusetts'  govern- 
ment sending  some  assistance,  the  war  was  re- 
newed against  the  remaining  Pequots  ;  and  a  final 
victory  gained,  called  "the  great  swamp  fight," 
near  Fairfield 


650 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


The  Pequot  women  and  children,  who  had  been 
captured,  were  divided  among  the  troops.  Some 
were  carried  to  Connecticut,  and  others  to  the  Mas- 
sachusetts; the  latter  state  sent  a  number  of  the 
women  and  boys  to  the  West  Indies,  and  sold  them 
for  slaves.  It  was  supposed  that  about  seven  hun- 
dred Pequots  were  destroyed.  The  women  who  were 
captured,  reported  that  thirteen  sachems  had  been 
slain,  and  that  thirteen  yet  survived;  among  the 
latter  were  Sassacus  and  Mononotto,  the  two  chief 
sachems ;  who  with  about  twenty  of  their  best  men 
fled  to  the  Mohawks,  and  carried  off  with  them 
wampum  to  the  amount  of  500/.  The  Mohawks 
ultimately  surprised  and  slew  them  all  except  Mo- 
nonotto.  The  scalp  of  Sassacus  was  sent  to  Con- 
necticut in  the  autumn,  and  Mr.  Ludlow  and  seve- 
ral other  gentlemen  going  into  Massachusetts,  in 
September,  carried  a  lock  of  it  to  Boston  as  a  rare 
sight,  and  a  sure  demonstration  of  the  death  of  their 
mortal  enemy. 

Among  the  Pequot  captives  were  the  wife  and 
children  of  Mononotto ;  she  was  particularly  no- 
ticed by  the  English  for  her  great  modesty,  hu- 
manity, and  good  sense ,  and  made  it  as  her  only 
request,  that  she  might  not  be  injured  either  as  to 
her  offspring  or  personal  honour;  and  as  a  requital  of 
her  kindness  to  the  captured  maids,  her  life  and  the 
lives  of  her  children  were  not  only  spared,  but  they 
were  particularly  recommended  to  the  care  of  Go- 
vernor Winthrop ;  who  gave  charge  for  their  pro- 
tection and  kind  treatment. 

After  the  swamp-fight,  the  Pequots  became  so 
weak  and  scattered,  that  the  Narragansets  and  Mo- 
heagans constantly  killed  them,  and  brought  in 
their  heads  to  Windsor  and  Hartford ;  and  those 
who  survived  were  so  hunted  and  harassed,  that  a 
number  of  their  chief  men  repaired  to  the  Eng- 
lish, at  Hartford,  for  relief;  and  offered,  if  their 
lives  might  be  spared,  that  they  would  become  the 
servants  of  the  English,  and  be  disposed  of  at  their 
pleasure.  This  was  granted,  and  the  court  inter- 
posed for  their  protection. 

(1638.)  Uncas  and  Miantonimoh,  with  the  Pe- 
quots, by  the  direction  of  the  magistrates  of  Con- 
necticut, met  at  Hartford ;  and  it  was  demanded  by 
them,  how  many  of  the  Pequots  were  yet  living  ? 
they  answered,  about  two  hundred,  besides  women 
and  children.  The  magistrates  then  entered  into  a 
firm  covenant  with  them,  to  the  following  effect : 
that  there  should  be  perpetual  peace  between  Mian- 
tonimoh and  Uncas,  and  their  respective  Indians ; 
and  that  all  past  injuries  should  be  remitted,  and 
for  ever  buried  :  that  if  any  injuries  should  be  done 
in  future  by  one  party  to  the  other,  that  they  should 
not  immediately  revenge  it,  but  appeal  to  the  Eng- 
lish to  do  them  justice.  It  was  stipulated,  that  they 
should  submit  to  their  determination,  and  that  if 
either  party  should  be  obstinate,  that  then  they 
might  enforce  submission  to  their  decisions.  It  was 
further  agreed,  that  neither  the  Moheagans,  nor 
Narragansets  should  conceal,  or  entertain  any  of 
their  enemies  ;  but  deliver  up  or  destroy  all  such 
Indians  as  had  murdered  any  English  man  or  wo- 
man. The  English  then  gave  the  Pequot  Indians 
to  the  Narragansets  and  Moheagans;  eighty  to 
Miantonimoh,  twenty  to  Ninnigret,  and  the  other 
hundred  to  Uncas;  to  be  received  and  treated  as 
their  men.  It  was  also  covenanted,  that  the  Pe- 
quots should  never  more  inhabit  their  native  country 
nor  be  called  Pequots,  but  Narragansets  and  Mo- 
heagans. It  was  also  further  stipulated,  that  neither 
the  Narragansets,  nor  Moheagans  should  possess  any 


part  of  the  Pequot  country  without  the  consent  of  the 
English.  The  Pequots  were  to  pay  a  tribute  at  Con- 
necticut annually,  of  a  fathom  of  wampumpeag 
for  every  Sannop,  of  half  a  fathom  for  every  young 
man,  and  of  a  hand  for  every  male  papoose.  On 
these  conditions  the  magistrates,  in  behalf  of  the 
colony,  stipulated  a  firm  peace  with  all  the  Indians. 
The  conquest  of  the  Pequots  struck  all  the  In- 
dians in  New  England  with  terror,  and  they  were 
possessed  with  such  fear  jf  the  displeasure  and  arms 
of  the  English,  that  they  had  no  open  war  with 
them  for  nearly  forty  years.  This  happy  event 
gave  great  joy  to  the  colonies;  and  a  day  of  public 
thanksgiving  was  appointed. 

Effects  of  the  war — Great  scarcity — Settlement  of  New 
Haven — Plantation  covenant — Means  for  the  de- 
fence of  the  colony — Captain  Mason  made  major- 
general — Civil  constitution  of  Connecticut,  formed 
by  voluntary  compact — First  general  election  at 


na  magistrates — Irene, 
•incipal  laws  of  the  cole 


rights  of  the  people,  and  principal  LOWS  oj  me  colony 
Constitution  and  laws  of  New  Haven — Purchase 
and  settlement  of  several  towns  in  Connecticut  and 
New  Haven. 

(1638.)  Though  the  war  with  the  Pequots  was 
now  happily  terminated,  yet  the  effects  of  it  were 
severely  felt  by  the  inhabitants ;  and  the  conse- 
quences were,  scarcity  and  a  debt,  which,  in  the 
low  state  of  the  colony,  it  was  exceedingly  difficult 
to  pay.  Almost  every  article  of  food  or  clothing 
was  purchased  at  the  dearest  rate ;  and  the  planters 
had  not  yet  reaped  any  considerable  advantage  from 
their  farms.  Such  a  proportion  of  their  labourers 
had  been  employed  in  the  war,  and  the  country  was 
so  uncultivated,  that  all  the  provision  which  had  been 
raised,  or  imported,  was  in  no  measure  proportion- 
ate to  the  wants  of  the  people.  The  winter  was 
uncommonly  severe,  which  increased  the  distress  of 
the  colony.  The  snow  lay  from  the  4th  of  Novem- 
ber until  the  23d  of  March,  and  it  was,  at  some 
times,  3  and  4  feet  deep.  The  court  at  Connecti- 
cut foreseeing  that  the  people  would  be  in  great 
want  of  bread,  contracted  with  a  Mr.  Pyncheon  for 
500  bushels  of  Indian  corn,  which  he  was  to  pur- 
chase of  the  Indians,  and  a  greater  quantity  if  it 
could  be  obtained.  The  inhabitants  were  prohibited 
to  bargain  for  it  privately,  and  limited  to  certain 
prices,  lest  it  should  raise  the  price,  while  he  was 
making  the  purchase.  A  committee  was  also  ap- 
pointed by  the  court,  to  send  a  vessel  to  Narragan- 
set,  to  buy  of  the  natives  in  that  quarter.  But  not- 
withstanding every  precaution  which  was  taken,  the 
scarcity  became  such,  that  corn  rose  to  the  extra- 
ordinary price  of  twelve  shillings  by  the  bushel;  and 
twelve  shillings  sterling  at  that  time  was  doubtless 
equal  to  eighteen  or  twenty  shillings  lawful  money. 
In  this  distressing  situation  a  committee  was  sent  to 
an  Indian  settlement  called  Pocomtock,  since  Deer- 
field,  where  they  purchased  such  quantities,  that  the 
Indians  came  down  to  Windsor  and  Hartford  with 
fifty  canoes  at  one  time,  laden  with  Indian  corn. 
The  people  considered  this  as  a  great  deliver- 
ance ;  and  those  who,  in  England,  had  fed  on  the 
finest  wheat,  were  thankful  for  such  coarse  fare  as 
Indian  bread,  for  themselves  and  children. 

In  this  low  state  of  the  colony,  the  court  found  it 
necessary  to  order  the  towns  immediately  to  furnish 
themselves  with  magazines  of  powder,  lead,  and 
shot,  and  every  man  to  be  completely  armed,  and 
furnished  with  ammunition.  The  court  were  also 
obliged  to  impose  a  tax  of  550/.,  to  be  collected  iin 


UNITED  STATES. 


651 


mediately,  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  war ;  and 
this  appears  to  have  been  the  first  public  tax  in 
Connecticut.  Agawam,  since  named  Springfield, 
though  it  sent  no  men  to  the  war,  yet  bore  its  pro- 
portion of  the  expense.  The  first  secretary  and 
treasurer  appears  to  have  been  Mr.  Clement  Chap- 
lin ;  who  was  authorized  to  issue  his  warrants  for 
gathering  the  tax  which  had  been  imposed  in  the 
following  ratio  :  Agawam,  867.  16s.,  Windsor,  158/. 
2«.f  Hartford,  251  /.  2*.,  and  Weathersfield  124/. 

Captain  John  Mason  was  appointed  major-gene- 
ral of  the  militia  of  Connecticut ;  and  the  reverend 
Mr.  Hooker  was  desired  to  deliver  him  the  military 
staff.  The  general  was  directed  to  call  out  the 
militia  of  each  town,  ten  times  in  a  year,  to  in- 
struct them  in  military  discipline ;  and  received  out 
of  the  public  treasury  40  pounds  annually  for  his 
services. 

As  it  was  of  the  highest  importance  to  the  colony 
to  cultivate  peace,  and  a  good  understanding  with 
the  Indians,  laws  were  enacted  to  prevent  all  per- 
sons from  offering  them  the  least  private  insult  or 
abuse. 

While  the  planters  of  Connecticut  were  thus 
exerting  themselves  in  prosecuting  and  regulating 
the  affairs  of  that  colony,  another  was  projected  and 
settled  at  Quinnipiack,  (sometimes  spelt  Quillipi- 
ack,  and  Quinnepioke,)  afterwards  called  New 
Haven.  On  the  26th  of  July,  1637,  Mr.  John 
Davenport,  Mr.  Samuel  Eaton,  Theophilus  Eaton 
and  Edward  Hopkins,  Esquires,  Mr.  Thomas  Greg- 
son,  and  many  others  of  good  characters  and  for- 
tunes, had  arrived  at  Boston.  Mr.  Davenport  had 
been  a  famous  minister  in  the  city  of  London,  and 
was  a  distinguished  character  for  piety,  learning, 
and  good  conduct  Many  of  his  congregation,  on 
account  of  the  esteem  which  they  had  for  his  person 
and  ministry,  followed  him  into  New  England. 
Mr.  Eaton  and  Mr.  Hopkins  had  been  merchants 
in  London,  possessed  great  estates,  and  were  men 
of  eminence  for  their  abilities  and  integrity.  The 
fame  of  Mr.  Davenport,  and  the  reputation  and  pro- 
perty of  the  principal  gentlemen  of  this  company, 
made  the  people  of  Massachusetts  exceedingly  de- 
sirous of  their  settlement  in  their  state,  and  great 
pains  were  taken,  not  only  by  particular  persons 
and  towns,  but  by  the  general  court,  to  fix  them  in 
the  colony.  Charlestown  made  them  large  offers  ; 
and  Newberry  proposed  to  give  up  the  whole  town 
to  them ;  and  the  general  court  offered  them  any 
place  which  they  should  choose  ;  but  they  were  de- 
termined to  plant  a  distinct  colony.  By  the  pursuit 
of  the  Pequots  to  the  westward,  the  Connecticut 
settlers  became  acquainted  with  that  fine  tract  along 
the  shore,  from  Saybrook  to  F  airfield,  and  with  its 
several  harbours.  It  was  represented  as  fruitful, 
and  happily  situated  for  navigation  and  commerce  : 
and  the  company  therefore  projected  a  settlemeni 
in  that  part  of  the  country. 

In  the  autumn  of  1637,  Mr.  Eaton,  and  others 
who  were  of  the  company,  made  a  journey  to  Con 
necticut,  to  explore  the  lands  and  harbours  on  th< 
sea-coast,  and  pitched  upon  Quinnipiack  for  th< 
place  of  their  settlement ;  where  they  erected  a 
poor  hut,  in  which  a  few  men  subsisted  through  the 
winter. 

On  the  30th  ef  March,  1638,  Mr.  Davenport 
Mr.  Prudden,  Mr.  Samuel  Eaton,  and  Theophilu 
Eaton,  Esq.,  with  the  people  of  their  company,  saile( 
from  Boston  for  Quinuipiack  ;  and  in  about  a  fort 
night  arrived  at  their  desired  port.  On  the  18th 
of  April,  they  kept  their  first  Sabbath  in  the  place 


.'he  people  assembled  under  a  large  spreading  oak, 
,nd  Mr.  Davenport  preached  to  them  from  the  sixth 
hapter  of  Matthew. 

One  of  the  principal  reasons  which  these  colonists 
ssigned  for  their  removing  from  Massachusetts, 
was,  that  they  should  be  more  out  of  the  way  and 
rouble  of  a  general  governor  of  New  England,  who, 
1  this  time,  was  an  object  of  great  fear  in  all  the 
dantations.  What  foundation  there  was  for  the 
lope  of  exemption  from  the  control  of  a  general 
governor,  by  this  removal,  had  one  been  sent,  does 
lot  appear.  It  is  probable  that  the  motive  which 
md  the  greatest  influence  with  the  principal  men, 
was  the  desire  of  being  at  the  head  of  a  new  govern- 
ment, modelled,  both  in  civil  and  religious  matters, 

reeably  to  their  own   opinions.     It  had  been  an 

servation  of  Mr.  Davenport's,  that  whenever  a 
reformation  had  been  effected  in  the  church,  in  any 
part  of  the  world,  it  had  rested  where  it  had  been 
eft  by  the  reformers.  It  could  not  be  advanced 
another  step.  He  was  now  embarked  in  a  design 
f  forming  a  civil  and  religious  constitution,  as  near 
s  possible  to  Scripture  precept  and  example.  The 
rincipal  gentlemen,  who  had  followed  him  into 
America,  had  the  same  views.  In  laying  the  foun- 
lations  of  a  new  colony,  there  wafe  a  fair  probability 
that  they  might  accommodate  all  matters  of  church 
and  commonwealth  to  their  own  feelings  and  senti- 
ments. But  in  the  Massachusetts,  the  principal 
men  \\ere  lixed  in  the  chief  seats  of  government, 
which  they  were  likely  to  keep,  and  their  civil  and 
religious  polity  was  already  formed.  Besides,  the 
antinomian  controversy  and  sentiments,  which  had 
taken  such  root  at  Boston,  were  exceedingly  dis- 
agreeable to  Mr.  Davenport,  and  the  principal  gen- 
tlemen of  his  company,  and  he  had  taken  a  decided, 
though  prudent  part,  against  them. 

Soon  after  they  arrived  at  Quinnipiack,  in  the 
close  of  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer,  they  entered 
nto  what  they  termed  a  plantation-covenant.  In 
this  they  solemnly  bound  themselves,  "That,  as  in 
matters  that  concern  the  gathering  and  ordering  of 
a  church,  so  also  in  all  public  offices,  which  con- 
cern civil  order,  as  choice  of  magistrates  and  officers, 
making  and  repealing  laws,  dividing  allotments  of 
inheritance,  and  all  things  of  like  nature,  they 
would,  all  of  them,  be  ordered  by  the  rules  which 
the  Scripture  held  forth  to  them."  This  was  adopted 
as  a  general  agreement,  until  there  should  be  time 
for  the  people  to  become  more  intimately  acquainted 
with  each  other's  religious  views,  sentiments,  and 
moral  conduct ;  which  was  supposed  to  be  necessary 
to  prepare  the  way  for  their  covenanting  together, 
as  Christians,  in  church  and  state. 

The  aspects  of  nature  on  the  country,  about  this 
time,  were  very  gloomy,  and  especially  unfavour- 
able to  new  plantations!  The  spring,  after  a  long 
and  severe  winter,  was  unusually  backward.  Scarcely 
any  thing  grew,  for  several  weeks.  The  planting 
season  was  so  cold  that  the  corn  rotted  in  the  ground, 
and  the  people  were  obliged  to  re-plant  two  or  three 
times.  But  at  length  the  warm  season  came  on, 
and  vegetation  exceeded  all  their  expectations. 

On  the  first  of  June,  between  the  hours  of  three 
and  four  in  the  afternoon,  there  was  a  great  and 
memorable  earthquake  throughout  New  England. 
It  came  with  a  report  like  continued  thunder,  or 
the  rattling  of  numerous  coaches  upon  a  paved 
street.  The  shock  was  so  great,  that  in  many  places, 
the  tops  of  the  chimneys  were  thrown  down,  and  the 
pewter  fell  from  the  shelves.  It  shook  the  waters 
and  ships  in  the  harbours,  and  all  the  adjacent 


652 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


islands.  The  duration  of  the  sound  and  tremour  was 
about  four  minutes,  and  the  earth  was  unquiet  for 
nearly  twenty  days.  The  weather  was  clear,  the 
wind  westerly,  and  the  course  of  the  earthquake 
from  west  to  east. 

The  planters  at  Quinnipiack  determined  to  make 
an  extensive  settlement ;  and,  if  possible,  to  main- 
tain perpetual  peace  and  friendship  with  the  In- 
dians. They,  therefore,  paid  an  early  attention  to 
the  making  of  such  purchases  and  amicable  treaties 
as  might  most  effectually  answer  their  designs. 

On  the  24th  of  November,  1638,  Theophilus 
Eaton,  Esq.  Mr.  Davenport,  and  other  English 
planters,  entered  into  an  agreement  with  Momau- 
guin, sachem  of  that  part  of  the  country,  and  his 
counsellors,  respecting  the  lands.  The  articles  of 
agreement  were  to  this  effect  : 
•  "  That  Momauguin  is  the  sole  sachem  of  Quinni- 
piack, and  had  an  absolute  power  to  alieue  and 
dispose  of  the  same.  That,  in  consequence  of  the 
protection  which  he  had  tasted,  by  the  English, 
from  the  Peouots  and  Mohawks,  he  yielded  up  all 
his  right,  title,  and  interest  to  all  the  land,  rivers, 
ponds,  and  trees,  with  all  the  liberties  and  appur- 
tenances belonging  to  the  same,  unto  Theophilus 
Eaton,  John  Davenport,  and  others,  their  heirs 
and  assigns  forever.  He  covenanted,  that  neither 
he,  nor  his  Indians,  would  terrify,  nor  disturb  the 
English,  nor  injure  them  in  any  of  their  interests  ; 
but  that,  in  every  respect,  they  would  keep  true 
faith  with  them." 

The  English  covenanted  to  protect  Momauguin 
and  his  Indians,  when  unreasonably  assaulted  and 
terrified  by  other  Indians ;  and  that  they  should 
always  have  a  sufficient  quantity  of  land  to  plant 
on,  upon  the  east  side  of  the  harbour,  between  that 
and  Saybrook  fort  They  also  covenanted,  that  by 
way  of  free  and  thankful  retribution,  they  gave 
unto  the  said  sachem,  and  his  council  and  company, 
twelve  coats  of  English  cloth,  twelve  alchymy 
spoons,  twelve  hatchets,  twelve  hoes,  two  dozen  o 
knives,  twelve  porringers,  and  four  cases  of  French 
knives  and  scissars. 

This  agreement  was  signed  and  legally  executed 
by  Momauguin  and  his  council  on  the  one  part,  anc 
Theophilus  Eaton  and  John  Davenport  on  the 
other.  Thomas  Stanton,  who  was  the  interpreter 
declared  in  the  presence  of  God,  that  he  had  faith 
fully  acquainted  the  Indians  with  the  said  articles 
and  returned  their  answers. 

In  December  following,  they  made  another  pur 
chase  of  a  large  tract,  which  lay  principally  north 
of  the  former',  of  Montowese,  sou  of  the  grea 
sachem  at  Mattabeseck,  ten  miles  in  length,  nortl 
and  south,  and  thirteen  miles  in  breadth.  It  ex 
tended  eight  miles  east  of  the  river  Quinnipiack 
and  five  miles  west  of  it  towards  Hudson's  river 
and  included  all  the  lands  within  the  ancient  limit 
of  the  old  towns  of  New  Haven,  Branford,  anc 
Wallingford,  and  almost  the  whole  contained  in  the 
present  limits  of  those  towns,  and  of  the  towns  o 
East  Haven,  Woodbridge,  Cheshire,  Hamden,  an 
North  Haven.  For  this  last  tract  of  ten  miles  nortl 
and  south,  and  thirteen  east  and  west,  the  Englis 
gave  thirteen  coats,  and  allowed  the  Indians  grounc 
to  plant,  and  liberty  to  hunt  within  the  lands 
These  have  since  been  made  out  of  the  three  ol 
towns. 

The  New  Haven  adventurers  were  the  most  opu 
lent  company  which  came  into  New  England,  an 
they  designed  to  plant  a  capital  colony.  They  lai 
out  their  town-plat  in  squares,  designing  it  for 


reat  and  elegant  city.  In  the  centre  was  a  large, 
eautiful  square,  which  was  encompassed  with 
thers,  making  nine  in  the  whole. 

The  first  principal  settlers  were  Theophilus  Eaton, 
2sq.  Mr.  Davenport,  Mr.  Samuel  Eaton,  Mr. 
'homas  Gregson,  Mr.  Robert  Newman,  Mr.  Mat- 
icw  Gilbert,  Mr.  Nathaniel  Turner,  Mr.  Thomas 
''ugill,  Mr.  Francis  Newman,  Mr.  Stephen  Good- 
ear,  and  Mr.  Joshua  Atwater. 

Mr.  Eaton  had  been  deputy-governor  of  the  East 
ndia  company,  and  was  three  years  himself  in  the 
ast  Indies,  and  had  served  the  company  so  well, 
tiat  he  received  from  them  presents  of  great  value, 
le  had  also  been  on  an  embassy  from  the  court  of 
England  to  the  king  of  Denmark.  He  was  origi- 
ally  a  London  merchant,  who  had,  for  many  years, 
raded  to  the  East  Indies,  had  obtained  a  great 
state,  and  brought  over  a  large  sum  of  money  into 
"Jew  England.  Others  were  merchants  of  good 
istates,  and  they  designed  to  have  founded  a  great 
r ad  ing  city. 

There  appears  no  act  of  civil,  military,  or  eccle- 
iastical  authority  during  the  first  year  ;  nor  is  there 
any  appearance  that  this  colony  was  ever  straitened 
'or  bread,  as  the  other  colonies  had  been. 

Mr.  Prudden,  and  his  company,  who  came  with 
Mr.  Davenport,  -continued  the  first  summer  at 
Quinnipiack,  and  were  making  preparations  for  the 
ettlement  of  another  township. 

When  Mr.  Davenport  removed  to  Quinnipiack, 
VIr.  Hopkins  came  to  Hartford,  and  soon  after  in- 
corporated with  the  settlers  at  Connecticut. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  three  towns  upon  Connec- 
icut  river,  finding  themselves  without  the  limits  of 
;he  Massachusetts'  patent,  conceived  the  plan  of 
'orming  themselves,  by  voluntary  compact,  into  a 
distinct  commonwealth ;  and  on  the  14th  of  Janu- 
ary, 1639,  all  the  free  planters  convened  at  Hart- 
?ord,  and,  on  mature  deliberation,  adopted  a  con- 
stitution of  government.  They  introduce  their 
constitution,  with  a  declaration,  that  for  the  esta- 
blishment of  order  aiid  government,  they  associated, 
and  conjoined  themselves  to  be  one  public  state  or 
commonwealth  ;  and  did,  for  themselves  and  suc- 
cessors, and  such  as  should  be,  at  any  time  joined  to 
them,  confederate  together,  to  maintain  the  liberty 
and  purity  of  the  Gospel,  which  they  professed,  and 
the  discipline  of  the  churches,  according  to  its  in- 
stitution; and  in  all  civil  affairs,  to  be  governed 
according  to  such  laws  as  should  be  made  agree- 
ably to  the  constitution,  which  they  were  then  about 
to  adopt. 

The  constitution,  which  then  follows,  ordains, 
that  there  shall  be,  annually,  two  general  courts, 
or  assemblies  ;  one  on  the  second  Thursday  in  April, 
and  the  other  on  the  second  Thursday  in  Septem- 
ber :  that  the  first  shall  be  the  court  of  election, 
in  which  shall  be  annually  chosen,  at  least,  six 
magistrates,  and  all  other  public  officers.  It  or- 
dains, that  a  governor  should  be  chosen,  distinct 
from  the  six  magistrates,  for  one  year,  and  until 
another  should  be  chosen  and  sworn :  and  that  the 
governor  and  magistrates  should  be  sworn  to  a  faith- 
ful execution  of  the  laws  of  the  colony,  and  in  cases 
in  which  there  was  no  express  law  established,  to 
be  governed  by  the  Divine  word.  Agreeably  to  the 
constitution,  the  choice  of  these  officers  was  to  be 
made  by  the  whole  body  of  the  freemen,  convened 
in  general  election.  It  provided,  that  all  persons 
who  had  been  received  as  members  of  the  several 
towns,  by  a  majority  of  the  inhabitants,  and  had 
taken  the  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  commonwealth, 


UNITED  STATES. 


653 


should  be  admitted  freemen  of  the  colony.     It  re- 
quired that  the  governor  and  magistrates  should  b 
elected  by  ballot;    the  governor   by  the   greates 
number  of  votes,  and  the  magistrates  by  a  majority 
However,   it  provided,  that  if  it  should  so  happen  a 
any  time   that  six  should  not  have  a  majority,  tha 
in  such  case  those  who  had  the    greatest  number  o 
suffrages  should  stand  as  duly  elected  for  that  year 
No  person   might  be  governor,  unless  he  were 
member  of  some  regular  church,  and  had  previousl 
been  a  magistrate  in  the  colony.     Nor  could  an 
man  be  elected  to  the  office  more  than  once  in  tw 
years.     No  one  could  be  chosen  into  the  magistral 
who  was  not  a  freeman  of  the  colony,  and  had  been 
nominated  either  by  the  freemen  or  the   genera 
court.     The  assembly  were  authorized  to  nominal 
in  cases  in  which  they  judged  it  expedient.  Neithe 
the  governor,  nor  magistrates,  might  execute  any 
part  of  their  office  until  they   had   been   publicl; 
sworn,  in  the  face  of  the  general  assembly. 

The  constitution  also  ordained,  that  the  severa 
towns  should  send  their  respective  deputies  to  the 
election  :  and  that  when  it  was  finished,  they  shoul 
proceed  to  do  any  public  service,  as  at  any  othe 
courts:  and  that  the  assembly,  in  September,  shouk 
be  for  the  enacting  of  laws,  and  other  public  ser 
vices.  It  authorized  the  governor,  either  by  himsel 
or  his  secretary,  to  issue  his  warrants  for  calling  the 
assemblies,  one  month  at  least,  before  the  time  o 
their  appointed  meetings.  Upon  particular  emer- 
gencies, he  might  convene  them  in  seventeen  days_ 
or  even  upon  shorter  notice,  stating  the  reasons  in 
his  warrant.  Upon  the  reception  of  the  governor's 
warrants,  in  April  and  September,  the  constables 
of  the  respective  towns  were  obliged  to  warn  all  the 
freemen  to  elect  and  send  their  deputies. 

The  constitution  ordained,  that  the  three  towns 
of  Windsor,  Hartford,  and  Weathersfield  should 
each  of  them  send  four  deputies  to  every  genera] 
court;  and  that  the  other  towns,  which  should  be 
added  to  the  colony  in  future,  should  send  such  a 
number  as  the  court  should  determine,  proportionate 
to  the  body  of  their  freemen  ;  declared  the  deputies 
to  be  vested  with  the  whole  power  of  the  respective 
towns  which  they  represented  ;  authorized  them  to 
meet  separately,  and  determine  their  own  elections, 
to  fine  any  person  who  should  obtrude  himself  upon 
them,  when  he  had  not  been  duly  chosen,  and  to 
fine  any  of  their  members  for  disorderly  conduct. 
when  they  were  assembled  :  and  it  further  provided, 
that  in  case  the  governor  and  the  major  part  of  the 
magistrates  should,  upon  any  urgent  occasion,  neg- 
lect or  refuse  to  call  an  assembly,  the  freemen 
should  petition  them  to  summon  one ;  and  if,  upon 
the  petition  of  a  major  part  of  the  freemen  in 
the  colony,  they  still  refused  or  neglected,  then 
the  constables  of  the  several  towns  should,  upon  the 
petition  of  the  major  part  of  the  freemen,  convoke 
an  assembly.  It  also  ordained,  that  when  this 
assembly  was  convened,  it  should  have  power  of 
choosing  a  moderator ;  and  when  it  was  thus  formed, 
should  exercise  all  the  powers  of  any  other  general 
assembly.  Particularly  it  was  authorized  to  call 
any  court,  magistrate  or  any  other  person  before 
it,  and  to  displace,  or  inflict  penalties  according  to 
the  nature  oi'  the  offence. 

All  general  assemblies,  called  by  the  governor, 
were  to  consist  of  the  governor,  four  magistrates, 
and  the  major  part  of  the  deputies.  When  there 
was  an  equal  vote,  the  governor  had  a  casting  voice. 
The  constitution  also  provided,  that  no  general 
court  should  be  adjourned  or  dissolved,  without  the 


consent  of  a  major  part  of  the  members  :  and  that, 
whenever  a  tax  was  laid  upon  the  inhabitants,  the 
sum  to  be  paid  by  each  town  should  be  determined 
by  a  committee,  consisting  of  an  equal  number  from 
each  of  the  respective  towns. 

The  form  of  oaths  to  be  administered  to  the  go- 
vernor and  magistrates  was  also  adopted  in  the  ge- 
neral convention  of  the  free  planters.  Such  was 
the  original  constitution  of  Connecticut,  which  was 
so  sensibly  framed,  that  it  has  continued  with  little 
alteration  to  the  present  time. 

Agreeably  to  the  constitution,  the  freemen  con- 
vened at  Hartford,  on  the  second  Thursday  in  April, 
and  elected  their  officers  for  the  year  ensuing.  John 
Haynes,  Esq.  was  chosen  governor,  and  Roger 
Ludlow,  George  Wyllys,  Edward  Hopkins,  Tho- 
mas Wells,  John  Webster  and  William  Phelps, 
Esqs.,  were  chosen  magistrates.  Mr.  Ludlow,  the 
first  of  the  six  magistrates,  was  deputy-governor. 
Mr.  Hopkins  was  chosen  secretary,  and  Mr.  Wells 
treasurer. 

The  deputies  sent  to  this  first  Connecticut  ge- 
neral assembly,  were  Mr.  John  Steele,  Mr.  Spen- 
cer, Mr.  John  Pratt,  Mr.  Edward  Stebbins,  Mr. 
Gaylord,  Mr.  Henry  Wolcott,  Mr.  Stoughton,  Mr. 
Ford,  Mr.  Thurston  Rayner,  Mr..  James  Boosy,  Mr. 
George  Hubbard,  and  Mr.  Richard  Crab. 

The  general  assembly  proceeded  as  they  had 
leisure,  and  as  occasion  required,  to  enact  a  system 
of  laws.  The  laws  at  first  were  few,  and  time  was 
taken  to  consider  and  digest  them.  The  first  statute 
in  the  Connecticut  code  is  a  kind  of  declaration,  or 
bill  of  rights.  It  ordains,  that  no  man's  life  shall 
be  taken  away ;  no  man's  honour  or  good  name  be 
stained ;  no  man's  person  shall  be  arrested,  restrain- 
ed, banished,  dismembered,  nor  anywise  punished  : 
That  no  man  shall  be  deprived  of  his  wife  or  child- 
ren ;  no  man's  goods  or  estate  shall  be  taken  away 
from  him,  nor  anywise  endangered,  tinder  colour  o'f 
law,  or  countenance  of  authority,  unless  it  should  be 
by  the  virtue  of  some  express  law  of  the  colony 
warranting  the  same,  established  by  the  general 
court,  and  sufficiently  published ;  or  in  case  of  the 
defect  of  such  law,  in  any  particular  case,  by  some 
clear  and  plain  rule  of  the  Word  of  God,  in  which 
;he  whole  court  shall  concur.  It  was  also  ordained, 
hat  all  persons  in  the  colony,  whether  inhabitants 
or  not,  should  enjoy  the  same  law  and  justice  with- 
ut  partiality  or  delay.  These  general  precepts 
bore  the  same  aspect,  and  breathed  the  same  spirit 
of  liberty  and  safety,  with  respect  to  the  subjects 
universally,  which  is  exhibited  in  the  constitution. 

The  planters  of  Quinnipiack  continued  more  than 
a  year  without  any  civil  or  religious  constitution, 
ir  compact,  further  than  had  been  expressed  ia 
heir  plantation-covenant. 

Meanwhile,  Mr.  Henry  Witfield,  William  Leet, 
3sq.,  Samuel  Desborough,  Robert  Kitchel,  William 
Chittenden,  and  others,  who  were  part  of  Mr.  Daven- 
jort's  and  Mr.  Eaton's  company,  arrived  from  Eng- 
and  to  assist  them  in  their  new  settlement.  These 
vere  principally  from  Kent  and  Surrey,  in  the  vi- 
cinity of  London.  Mr.  Whitfield's  people,  like  Mr. 
Davenport's,  followed  him  into  New  England. 
There  were  now  three  ministers,  with  many  of  the 
ncmbers  of  their  former  churches  and  congrega- 
ions,  collected  in  this  infant  colony,  and  combined 
n  the  same  general  agreement. 

On  the  4th  of  June,  all  the  free  planters  at  Quin- 
lipiack  convened  in  a  large  barn  of  Mr.  Newman's, 
nd,  in  a  very  formal  and  solemn  manner,  proceeded 
o  lay  the  foundations  of  their  civil  and  religious  polity. 


654 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Mr.  Davenport  introduced  the  business,  by  a  ser- 
mon from  the  words  of  David,  "  Wisdom  htih 
builded  her  house,  she  hath  hewn  out  her  seven 
pillars."  His  design  was  to  show,  that  the  church, 
the  house  of  God,  should  be  formed  of  seven  pillars, 
or  principal  brethren,  to  whom  all  the  other  mem- 
bers of  the  church  should  be  added.  After  a  solemn 
invocation  of  the  Divine  Majesty,  he  proceeded  to 
represent  to  the  planters,  that  they  were  met  to  con- 
sult respecting  the  settlement  of  civil  government 
according  to  the  will  of  God,  and  for  the  nomination 
of  persons,  who,  by  universal  consent,  were  in  all 
respects  the  best  qualified  for  the  foundation-work 
of  a  church.  He  enlarged  on  the  great  importance 
of  the  transactions  before  them,  and  desired  that 
no  man  would  give  his  voice  in  any  matter  until  he 
fully  understood  it ;  and  that  all  would  act  without 
respect  to  any  man,  but  give  their  vote  in  the  fear 
of  God.  He  then  proposed  a  number  of  questions, 
in  consequence  of  which  the  following  resolutions 
were  passed. 

1.  "That  the  Scriptures  hold  forth  a  perfect  rule 
for  the  direction  and  government  of  all  men  in  all 
duties  which  they  are  to  perform  to  God  and  men, 
as  well  in  families  and  commonwealth,  as  in  matters 
of  the  church. 

2.  ''That  as  inmatters  which  concerned  the  gather- 
ing and  ordering  of  a  church,  so  likewise  in  all 
public   offices  which  concern   civil  order,    as   the 
choice  of  magistrates  and  officers,  making  and  re- 
pealing laws,  dividing   allotments   of  inheritance, 
and  all  things  of  like  nature,  they  would  all  be  go- 
verned by  those  rules  which  the   Scripture   held 
forth  to  them. 

3.  "  That  all  those  who  had  desired  to  be  received 
as  free  planters,  had  settled  in  the  plantation,  with 
a  purpose,   resolution,  and  desire  that  they  might 
be  admitted  into  church  fellowship  according   to 
Christ. 

4.  "  That  all  the  free  planters  held  themselves 
bound  to  establish   such  civil  order  as   might  besi 
conduce  to  the  securing  of  the  purity  and  peace  o 
the  ordinance  to  themselves  and  their  posterity  ac 
cording  to  God." 

When  these  resolutions  had  been  passed,  and  the 
people  had  bound  themselves  to  settle  civil  govern 
ment  according  to  the  Divine  word,  Mr.  Davenpor 
proceeded  to  represent  to  them,  what  men  they 
must  choose  for  civil  rulers  according  to  the  Divine 
word,  and  that  they  might  most  effectually  secure 
to  them  and  their  posterity  a  just,  free,  and  peace 
able  government.  Time  was  then  given  to  discus 
and  deliberate  upon  what  he  had  proposed.  Afte 
full  discussion  and  deliberation,  it  was  determined — 

5.  "That  church  members  only  should  be  fre 
burgesses  ;  and  that  they  only  should  choose  magis 
trates  among  themselves,  to  have  power  of  transact 
ing  all  the  public  civil  affairs  of  the  plantation  : 
making  and  repealing  laws,  dividing  inheritances 
deciding  of  differences  that  may  ariee,  and  doing 
things  and  businesses  of  like  nature." 

That  civil  officers  might  be  chosen,  and  govern 
ment  proceed  according  to  these  resolutions,  it  wa 
necessary  that  a  church  should  be  formed.  With 
out  this  there  could  be  neither  freemen  nor  magis 
trates.  Mr.  Davenport  therefore  proceeded  to  mak 
proposals  relative  to  the  formation  of  it,  in  such 
manner,  that  no  blemish  might  be  left  on  the  "  be 
gainings  of  church  work."  It  was  then  resolved  t 
this  effect : 

6.  "  That  twelve  men  should  be  chosen,  that  the 
fitness  for  the  foundation-work  might  be  tried,  an 


at  it  should  be  in  the  power  of  those  twelve  men 
choose  seven  to  begin  the  church." 
It  wai    agreed   that  if  seven   men  could   not  be 
und  among  the  twelve  qualified  for  the  foundation- 
ork,  that  such  other  persons  should  be   taken  into 
e  number,  upon  trial,  as   should  be  judged  most 
uitable.     The  form  of  a  solemn  charge,   or  oath, 
as  drawn  up  and  agreed  upon  at  this  meeting  to 
e  given  to  all  the  freemen. 

Further,  it  was  ordered,  that  all  persons,  who 
.ould  be  received  as  free  planters  of  that  corpora- 
on,  should  submit  to  the  fundamental  agreement 
bove  related,  and  in  testimony  of  their  submission 
lould  subscribe  their  names  among  the  freemen, 
ixty-three  subscribed  on  the  4th  of  June,  and  there 
ere  added  soon  after  about  fifty  other  names, 
^.fter  a  proper  term  of  trial,  Theophilus  Eaton,  Esq., 
dr.  John  Davenport,  Robert  Newman,  Matthew 
ilbert,  Thomas  Fugill,  John  Punderson,  and  Jere- 
iah  Dixon,  were  chosen  for  the  seven  pillars  of 
ne  church. 

October  25th,  1639,  the  court,  as  it  is  termed, 
onsisting  of  these  seven  persons  only,  convened, 
nd  after  a  solemn  religious  address,  they  proceeded 
o  form  the  body  of  freemen,  and  to  elect  their  civil 
fficers. 

In  the  first  place,  all  former  trust,  for  managing 
tie  public  affairs  of  the  plantation,  was  declared  to 
ease,  and  be  utterly  abrogated.  Then  all  those 
who  had  been  admitted  to  the  church  after  the 
gathering  of  it,  in  the  choice  of  the  seven  pillars, 
md  all  the  members  of  other  approved  churches, 
vho  desired  it,  and  offered  themselves,  were  admit- 
ed  members  of  the  court  A  solemn  charge  was 
hen  publicly  given  them,  to  the  same  effect  as  the 
reemen's  charge,  or  oath,  which  they  had  pre- 
riously  adopted.  The  purport  of  this  was  nearly 
he  same  with  the  oath  of  fidelity,  and  with  the  free- 
men's administered  at  the  present  time.  Mr.  Da- 
venport expounded  several  Scripture  texts  to  them, 
describing  the  character  of  civil  magistrates  given 
n  the  sacred  oracles.  To  this  succeeded  the  elect- 
on  of  officers.  Theophilus  Eaton,  Esq.  was  chosen 
governor,  Mr.  Robert  Newman,  Mr.  Matthew  Gil- 
>ert,  Mr.  Nathaniel  Turner,  and  Mr.  Thomas  Fu- 
ill,  were  chosen  magistrates.  Mr.  Fugill  was  also 
chosen  secretary,  and  Robert  Seely,  marshal. 

Mr.  Davenport  gave  Governor  Eaton  a  charge  in 
open  court,  from  Deuteronomy  i.  16,  17,  "And  I 
charged  your  judges  at  that  time,  saying,  Hear  the 
causes  between  your  brethren,  and  judge  righteously 
between  every  man  and  his  brother,  and  the  stranger 
that  is  with  him.  Ye  shall  not  respect  persons  in 
judgment,  but  ye  shall  hear  the  small  as  well  as  the 
!jreat ;  ye  shall  not  be  afraid  of  the  face  of  man,  for 
the  judgment  is  God's  :  and  the  cause  that  is  too 
bard  for  you,  bring  it  unto  me  and  I  will  hear  it." 

It  was  decreed,  by  the  freemen,  that  there  should 
be  a  general  court  annually,  in  the  plantation,  on 
the  last  week  in  October,  which  was  ordained  a 
court  of  election  in  which  all  the  officers  of  the 
colony  were  to  be  chosen.  This  court  determined, 
that  the  Word  of  God  should  be  the  only  rule  for 
ordering  the  affairs  of  government  in  that  common- 
wealth. 

This  was  the  original  constitution  of  New  Haven. 
All  government  was  originally  in  the  church,  and 
the  members  of  the  church  elected  the  governor, 
magistrates,  and  all  other  officers.  The  magistrates, 
at  first,  were  no  more  than  assistants  of  the  governor, 
and  they  could  not  act  in  every  sentence  or  determina- 
tion of  the  court.  No  deputy  governor  was  chosen,  nor 


UNITED  STATES. 


655 


were  any  laws  enacted  except  the  general  resolutions 
which  have  been  noticed  ;  but  as  the  plantation  en- 
larged, and  new  towns  were  settled,  new  orders 
were  given ;  the  general  court  received  a  new  form, 
laws  were  enacted,  and  the  civil  polity  of  this  juris- 
diction gradually  advanced,  in  its  essential  parts,  to 
a  near  resemblance  of  the  government  of  Connecticut. 

While  these  affairs  were  transacted  at  Quinni- 
piack,  or  New  Haven,  plantations  commenced  at 
Wopowage  and  Menunkatuck,  now  named  Milford 
and  Guilford.  Wopowage  was  purchased  February 
12th,  1639,  and  Menunkatuck  the  September  fol- 
lowing, and  both  were  settled  this  year.  The 
churches  of  Mr.  Prudden  and  Mr.  Whitfield  were 
formed  upon  the  plan  of  Mr.  Davenport's;  each 
consisting  of  seven  principal  men,  or  pillars ;  and 
they  appear  to  have  been  gathered  at  the  same  time. 
The  planters  were  in  the  original  agreement  made 
in  Mr.  Newman's  barn,  on  the  4th  of  June.  The 
principal  men  or  pillars  in  the  town  of  Wopowage 
were  Mr.  Peter  Prudden,  William  Fowler,  Edmund 
Tapp,  Zechariah  Whitman,  Thomas  Buckingham, 
Thomas  Welch,  and  John  Astwood.  The  principal 
planters  of  Menunkatuck  were  Henry  Whitfield, 
Robert  Kitchel,  William  Leet,  Samuel  Desborough, 
William  Chittenclen,  John  Bishop,  and  John  Caf- 
finge.  The  lands  in  Milford  and  Guilford,  as  well 
as  in  New  Haven,  were  purchased  by  these  princi- 
pal men,  in  trust,  for  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  re- 
spective towns  and  townships.  Every  planter,  after 
paying  his  proportionate  part  of  the  expenses,  arising 
from  laying  out  and  settling  the  plantation,  drew  a 
lot  or  lots  of  land,  in  proportion  to  the  money  or 
estate  which  he  had  expended  in  the  general  pur- 
chase, and  to  the  number  of  heads  in  his  family. 
These  principal  men  were  judges  in  the  respective 
towns,  composing  a  court,  to  judge  between  man 
and  man,  divide  inheritances  and  punish  offences 
according  to  the  written  word,  until  a  body  of  laws 
should  be  established. 

Most  of  the  principal  settlers  of  Milford  were 
from  Weathersfield.  They  first  purchased  of  the 
Indians  all  that  tract  which  lies  between  New  Haven 
and  Stratford  river,  and  between  the  sound  on  the 
south,  and  a  stream  called  Two-mile  brook  on  the 
north,  which  is  the  boundary  line  between  Milford 
and  Derby.  This  tract  comprised  all  the  lands 
within  the' old  township  of  Milford,  and  a  small  part 
of  the  township  of  Woodbridge.  The  planters  made 
other  purchases  which  included  a  large  tract  on  the 
west  side  of  Stratford  river,  principally  in  the  town- 
ship of  Huntingtoa.  In  the  first  township  meeting 
in  Milford  the  number  of  free  planters,  or  of  church 
members,  was  forty-four. 

It  may  not  be  improper  here  to  notice  that  the 
word  "town"  when  used  of  settlements  in  the  United 
States,  is  generally  synonymous  with  the  English 
word  "township,"  it  including  a  district  round  the 
principal  village  ;  which  is  mostly,  but  not  always, 
of  the  same  name  as  the  township. 

The  Indians  were  so  numerous  in  this  plantation, 
that  the  English  judged  it  necessary  for  their  own 
safety,  to  compass  the  whole  town-plat,  including 
nearly  a  mile  square,  with  a  fortification.  It  was 
so  closely  enclosed  with  strong  palisadoes,  as  entirely 
to  exclude  the  Indians  from  that  part  of  the  town. 

The  purchasers  of  Guilford  agreed  with  the  In- 
dians, that  they  should  move  off  from  the  lands 
which  they  had  purchased  ;  and  according  to  agree- 
ment they  soon  all  removed  from  the  plantation. 

The  number  of  the  first  free  planters  appears  to 
have  been  about  forty.  They  were  all  husbandmen 


and  it  was  at  great  expense  and  trouble  that  they 
obtained  even  a  blacksmith  to  settle  in  the  planta- 
tion. As  they  were  from  Surrey  and  Kent,  in  Eng- 
land, they  took  much  pains  to  find  a  tract  of  land 
resembling  that  from  which  they  had  removed. 
They  therefore  finally  pitched  upon  Guilford,  which, 
toward  the  sea,  where  they  made  the  principal  set- 
tlement, was  low,  moist,  rich  land,  liberal  indeed  to 
the  husbandman,  especially  the  great  plain  south  of 
the  town,  which  had  been  already  cleared  and  en- 
riched by  the  natives.  The  vast  quantities  of  shells 
and  manure,  which,  in  a  course  of  ages,  they  had 
brought  upon  it  from  the  sea,  had  contributed  much 
to  the  natural  richness  of  the  soil.  There  were  also 
nearly  adjoining  to  this,  several  necks,  or  points  of 
land,  near  the  sea,  clear,  rich,  and  fertile,  prepared 
for  immediate  improvement.  These,  with  the  in- 
dustry of  the  inhabitants,  soon  afforded  them  a  com- 
fortable subsistence. 

At  the  same  time  when  these  settlements  com- 
menced, two  new  ones  were  made  under  the  juris- 
diction of  Connecticut. 

Mr.  Ludlow,  who  went  with  the  troops  in  pursuit 
of  the  Pequots,  to  Sasco,  the  great  swamp  in  Fair- 
field,  was  so  pleased  with  that  fine  tract  of  country, 
that  he  soon  projected  the  scheme  of  a  settlement 
in  that  part  of  the  colony;  and  this  jear,  he,  with 
a  number  of  others,  began  a  plantation  at  Un- 
quowa,  which  was  the  Indian  name  of  the  town. 
At  first  there  were  but  about  eight  or  ten  families, 
who,  probably,  removed  from  Windsor,  with  Mr. 
Ludlow,  who  was  the  principal  planter.  Very  soon 
after,  another  company  came  from  Watertown  and 
united  with  Mr.  Ludlow  and  the  people  from  Wind- 
sor. A  third  company  removed  into  the  plantation 
from  Concord ;  so  that  the  inhabitants  soon  became 
numerous,  and  formed  themselves  into  a  distinct 
township,  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Connecticut. 
The  first  adventurers  purchased  a  large  tract  of 
land  of  the  natives,  and  soon  after  Connecticut  ob- 
tained charter  privileges,  the  general  assembly 
gave  them  a  patent.  The  township  comprises  the 
four  parishes  of  Fairfield,  Green's  Farms,  Green- 
field and  Reading  ;  and  part  of  the  parish  of  Strat- 
field.  The  lands  in  this  tract  are  excellent,  and  at 
an  early  period  the  town  became  wealthy  and  re- 
spectable. 

Settlements  commenced  the  same  year  at  Cup- 
heag  and  Pughquonnuck,  since  named  Stratford. 
That  part  which  contains  the  town-plat,  and  lies 
upon  the  river,  was  called  Cupheag,  and  the  west- 
ern part,  bordering  on  Fairfield,  Pughquonnuck. 
It  appears  that  settlements  were  made  in  both  these 
places  at  the  same  time.  Mr.  Fairchild,  who  was 
a  principal  planter,  and  the  first  gentleman  in  the 
town  vested  with  civil  authority,  came  directly 
from  England.  Mr.  John  and  Mr.  William  Curtiss 
and  Mr.  Samuel  Hawley  were  from  Roxbury,  and 
Mr.  Joseph  Judson  and  Mr.  Timothy  Wilcoxson 
from  Concord,  in  Massachusetts.  These  were  the 
first  principal  persons  in  the  town  and  church  of 
Stratford.  A  few  years  after  the  settlement  com- 
menced, Mr.  John  Birdseye  removed  from  Milford, 
and  became  a  man  of  eminence  both  in  the  town 
and  church.  There  were  also  several  of  the  chief 
planters  from  Boston,  and  Mr.  Samuel  Wells,  with 
his  three  sons,  John,  Thomas  and  Samuel,  from 
Weathersfield.  Mr.  Adam  Blackman,  who  had 
been  episcopally  ordained  in  England,  and  a 
preacher  of  some"  note,  first  at  Leicester,  and  after 
wards  in  Derbyshire,  was  their  minister,  and  one 
of  the  first  planters.  It  is  said  that  he  was  fol- 


656 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


lowed  by  a  number  of  adherents  into  this  country, 
to  whom  he  was  so  dear,  that  they  said  to  him,  in 
the  language  of  Ruth,  "  Intreat  us  not  to  leaye 
thee,  for  whither  thou  goest  we  will  go;  thy  people 
shall  be  our  people,  and  thy  God  our  God."  These, 
doubtless,  collected  about  him  in  this  infant  settlement. 

The  whole  township  was  purchased  of  the  natives, 
but,  at  first,  Cupheag  and  Pughquonnuck  only  ; 
where  the  settlements  began.  The  purchase  was 
not  completed  until  1672;  and  there  was  a  reser- 
vation of  good  lands  at  Pughquonnuck,  Golden-hill, 
and  another  place,  called  Coram,  for  the  improve- 
ment of  the  Indians. 

The  township  is  bounded  upon  the  east  by  the 
Housatonick,  or  Stratford  river ;  on  the  south  by 
the  Sound  ;  by  Fairfield  on  the  west ;  and  New- 
town  on  the  north.  It  comprises  the  four  parishes 
of  Stratford,  Ripton,  North  Stratford  and  New 
Stratford,  and  a  considerable  part  of  Stratfield.  The 
lands  in  this  town, like  those  inFairfield,  are  good,and 
its  situation  is  exceedingly  beautiful  and  agreeable. 

While  these  plantations  were  forming  in  the 
south-western  part  of  Connecticut,  another  com- 
menced on  the  west  side  of  the  mouth  of  Connecti- 
cut river.  A  fort  had  been  built  here  in  1G35  and 
1636,  and  preparations  had  been  made  for  the  re- 
ception of  persons  of  property ;  but  the  war  with 
the  Pequots,  the  uncultivated  state  of  the  country, 
and  the  low  condition  of  the  colony,  prevented 
people  coming  from  England,  to  take  possession  of 
a  township,  and  make  settlements  in  this  tract  ; 
and  until  this  time,  there  had  been  only  a  garrison 
of  about  twenty  men  in  the  place,  who  had  made 
some  small  improvement  of  the  lands,  and  erected  a 
few  buildings  in  the  vicinity  of  the  fort.  But  about 
Midsummer,  Mr.  George  Fenwick,  with  his  wife 
and  family,  arrived  in  a  ship  of  250  tons  ;  and 
another  ship  came  in  company  with  him ;  both  des- 
tined to  Quinnipiack.  Mr:  Fenwick  and  others 
came  over  with  a  view  to  take  possession  of  a  large 
tract  upon  the  river,  in  behalf  of  their  lordships,  the 
original  patentees,  and  to  plant  a  town  at  the  mouth 
of  the  river.  A  settlement  was  soon  made,  and 
named  Saybrook,  in  honour  of  their  lordships,  Say 
and  Seal  and  Brook.  Mr.  Fenwick,  Mr.  Thomas 
Peters,(who  was  the  first  minister  in  the  plantation,) 
Captain  Gardiner,  Thomas  Leffingwell,  Thomas 
Tracy,  and  Captain  John  Mason,  were  some  of  the 
principal  planters ;  but  the  names  of  Hunting- 
ton,  Baldwin,  Reynolds,  Backus,  Bliss,  Waterman, 
Hyde,  Post,  Smith,  and  almost  all  the  names  af- 
terwards to  be  found  at  Norwich,  are  to  be  found 
among  the  first  inhabitants  of  Saybrook.  The  go- 
vernment of  the  town  was  entirely  independent  of 
Connecticut,  for  nearly  ten  years,  until  after  the 
purchase  made  of  Mr.  Fenwick  in  1644.  It  was 
first  taxed  bv  the  colony  in  the  October  session, 
1645;  and  it  appears  by  the  tax  imposed,  that  the 
proportion  of  the  towns  of  Hartford,  Windsor,  and 
Weathersfield,  were  to  this  as  six  to  one.  The 
settlement  did  not  increase  to  any  considerable  de- 
gree until  about  the  year  1646,  when  Mr.  James 
Fitch,  a  young  gentleman,  was  ordained  to  the 
pastoral  care  of  the  church  and  congregation  ;  and 
a  considerable  number  of  families  from  Hartford 
and  Windsor  removed  and  made  settlements  in  the 
township.  Irs  original  boundaries  extended  east- 
ward five  miles  beyond  the  river,  and  from  its  mouth 
northward  six  miles ;  including  a  considerable  part 
of  the  town  of  Lyme  ;  westward  they  extended  to 
Hammonasset,  the  Indian  name  of  the  tract  com- 
prised in  the  limits  of  Killingworth,  and  north 


eight  miles  from  the  sea.  Mr.  Fenwick  and  Cap- 
tain Mason  were  magistrates,  and  had  the  prin- 
cipal  government  of  the  to'.vn. 

Great  difficulties  had  arisen  the  last  vear  be- 
tween the  English  at  Pyquaug,  now  Weathersfield, 
and  Sowheag  and  his  Indians.  It  was  discovered 
that  some  of  the  Indians  of  Pyquaug,  under  Sow- 
heag, had  been  aiding  the  Pequots  in  the  destruc- 
tion which  they  had  made  there  the  preceding  year, 
and  were  instrumental  in  bringing  them  against  the 
town.  Sowheag  entertained  the  murderers,  and 
treated  the  people  of  Weathersfield  with  haughtiness 
and  insult.  The  court  at  Connecticut,  on  hearing 
the  differences,  determined,  that,  as  the  English  at 
Weathersfield  had  been  the  aggressors,  and  gave 
the  first  provocation,  the  injuries  which  Sowheag 
had  done  should  be  forgiven,  and  that  he  should, 
on  his  good  conduct  for  the  future,  be  restored  to 
their  friendship.  Mr.  Stone  and  Mr.  Goodwin  were 
appointed  a  committee  to  compromise  all  differences 
with  him.  However,  as  Sowheag  could  not,  by 
any  arguments,  or  fair  means,  be  persuaded  to  give 
up  the  murderers,  but  continued  his  outrages  against 
the  English,  the  court,  this  year,  determined  that 
a  hundred  men  should  be  sent  down  to  Mattabeseck, 
to  take  the  delinquents  by  force  of  arms.  The  court 
ordered  that  their  friends  at  Quinnipiack  should 
be  certified  of  this  resolution,  that  they  might  adopt 
the  measures  necessary  for  the  defence  of  the  plant- 
ations. It  was  also  determined  to  have  theirhadvice 
and  consent  in  an  affair  of  such  general  concernment. 

Governor  Eaton  and  his  council  fully  approved  of 
the  design  of  bringing  the  delinquents  to  con- 
dign punishment ;  but  they  disapproved  of  the  man- 
ner proposed  by  Connecticut.  They  feared  that  it 
would  be  introductive  of  a  new  Indian  war;  which 
they  represented  would  greatly  endanger  the  new- 
settlements,  and  be  many  ways  injurious  and 
distressing;  as  they  wanted  peace,  and  all  their 
men  and  money,  to  prosecute  the  design  of  planting 
the  country.  They  also  represented  that  a  new  war 
would  not  only  injure  the  plantations  in  these  re- 
spects, but  would  prevent  the  coming  over  of  new 
planters,  whom  they  expected  from  England  ;  and 
they  were,  therefore,  determinately  against  seeking 
redress  by  an  armed  force ;  and  Connecticut, 
through  their  influence,  receded  from  the  resolution 
which  they  had  formed  with  respect  to  Sowheag 
and  Mattabeseck. 

Nevertheless,  as  the  Pequots  had  violated  their 
covenant,  and  settled  at  Pawcatuck,  in  the  Pequot 
country,  the  court  dispatched  Major  Mason,  with 
forty  men,  to  drive  them  off,  burn  their  wigwams, 
and  bring  away  their  corn.  Uncas,  with  a  hundred 
men  and  twenty  canoes,  assisted  in  the  enterprise. 
When  they  arrived  at  Pawcatuck  bay,  Major  Ma- 
son met  with  three  of  the  Pequot  Indians,  and  sent 
them  to  inform  the  others  of  the  design  of  his  com- 
ing, and  what  he  should  do,  unless  they  would 
peaceably  desert  the  place  ;  they  promised  to  give 
him  an  immediate  answer,  but  never  returned. 

The  major  sailed  up  a  small  river,  landed,  and 
beset  the  wigwams  so  suddenly,  that  the  Indians 
were  unable  to  carry  off  either  their  corn  or  trea- 
sures ;  and  some  of  the  old  men  had  not  time  to 
make  their  escape.  As  it  was  now  the  Indian  har- 
vest, he  found  a  great  plenty  of  coin. 

While  Uncas's  Indians  were  plundering  the  wig- 
wams, about  sixty  others  came  rushing  down  a  hill 
towards  them.  The  Moheagans  stood  perfectly 
still,  and  spoke  not  a  word,  until  they  came  within 
about  thirty  yards  of  them;  then,  shouting  and 


UNITED  STATES. 


G57 


yelling,  in  their  terrible  manner,  they  ran  to  meet 
them,  and  fell  upon  them  striking  with  bows  and 
cutting  with  knives  and  hatchets,  in  their  mode  oi 
fighting.  The  Major  made  a  movement  to  cut  off 
their  retreat,  which  they  perceived,  and  instantly 
fled  ;  but  as  it  was  not  desired  to  kill,  or  irritate  them 
more  than  was  absolutely  necessary,  the  English 
did  not  fire  upon  them.  Seven  were  captured ;  and 
they  behaved  so  outrageously,  that  it  was  designed 
to  take  off  their  heads  ;  but  one  Otash,  a  Narragan- 
set  sachem,  brother  to  Miantonimoh,  pleaded  that 
they  might  be  spared,  because  they  were  his  bro- 
ther's men,  who  was  a  friend  to  the  English.  He 
offered  to  deliver  the  heads  of  so  many  murderers 
in  lieu  of  them ;  and  considering  that  no  blood  had 
been  shed,  and  that  the  proposal  tended  both  to 
mercy  and  peace,  the  request  was  granted,  and 
they  were  committed  to  the  care  of  Uncas  until  the 
conditions  should  be  performed. 

The  light  of  the  next  morning  no  sooner  appeared, 
than  it  discovered  300  Indians  in  arms  on  the  oppo- 
site side  of  the  creek ;  who,  alarmed  at  the  appear- 
ance of  the  settlers,  fled,  and  secreted  themselves 
behind  rocks  and  trees.  The  colonists  called  to 
them,  representing  their  desire  of  speaking  with 
them;  and  Major  Mason  acquainted  them  with  the 
Pequots'  breach  of  covenant  with  the  English,  as 
they  were  not  to  settle  or  plant  in  any  part  of  their 
country.  The  Indians  replied,  that  the  Pequots 
were  good  men,  and  that  they  would  fight  for  them, 
and  protect  them.  Major  Mason  replied,  it  was  not 
far  to  the  head  of  the  creek ;  that  he  would  meet 
them  there,  and  they  might  try  what  they  could  do 
at  fighting;  to  which  the  Indians  answered,  they 
would  not  fight  with  Englishmen,  for  they  were 
spirits  ;  but  they  would  fight  with  Uncas.'  The 
Major  assured  them,  that  he  should  spend  the  day 
in  burning  wigwams,  and  carrying  off  the  corn,  and 
they  might  fight  when  they  had  an  opportunity. 
The  colonists  beat  up  their  drums,  and  fired  the'ir 
wigwams ;  and  then  loaded  their  bark  with  Indian 
corn ;  and  Uncas's  Indians,  the  twenty  canoes  in 
which  they  passed  to  Pawcatuck,  and  thirty  more, 
which  they  took  from  the  Indians  there,  with  kettles, 
trays,  mats,  and  other  Indian  luggage,  and  returned 
in  safety. 

During  those  transactions  in  Connecticut,  the 
Dutch,  at  New  Netherlands,  were  increasing  in 
numbers  and  strength.  A  new  governor,  William 
Kieft,  a  man  of  'ability  and  enterprise,  had  arrived 
at  their  seat  of  government ;  and  had  prohibited  the 
English  trade  at  the  fort  of  Good  Hope,  in  Hartford, 
and  protested  against  the  settlement  at  Quinnipiack. 
These  circumstances  gave  some  alarm  to  the  settlers 
in  Connecticut ;  and  the  court  at  Hartford  appoint- 
ed a  committee  to  go  down  to  the  mouth  of  the  river, 
to  consult  with  Mr.  Fenwick,  relative  to  a  general 
confederation  of  the  colonies,  for  mutual  offence 
and  defence.  The  Deputy-governor  Mr.  Ludlow, 
Mr,  Thomas  Wells,  and  Mr.  Hooker,  went  upon  this 
business  ;  and  they  were  also  instructed  to  confer 
with  Mr.  Fenwick  relative  to  the  patent.  The 
court  approved  of  the  conduct  of  the  committee ; 
and  with  respect  to  the  article  of  confederation,  de- 
clared its  willingness  to  enter  into  a  mutual  agree- 
ment of  offence  and  defence,  and  of  all  offices  of 
love  between  the  colonies.  Mr.  Fenwick  was  in 
favour  of  a  union  of  the  New  England  colonies ; 
but  with  respect  to  the  patent  of  the  river,  it  was 
agreed  that  the  affair  should  rest  until  the  minds 
of  the  noblemen  and  gentlemen  particularly  inter- 
ested could  be  more  fully  known. 
HIST.  OF  AMER. — Nos.  83  £  84. 


Governor  Hayues  and  Mr.  Wells  were  appointed 
to  repair  to  Pughquonnuck,  and  administer  the  oath 
of  fidelity  to  the  inhabitants ;  to  admit  such  of  them 
as  were  qualified  to  the  privileges  of  freemen ;  and 
to  appoint  officers  for  the  town,  both  civil  and  mili- 
tary ;  and  they  were  also  authorized  to  invite  the 
freemen  to  send  their  deputies  to  the  general  courts 
at  Hartford.  It  was  not  unusual  for  the  general  as- 
sembly to  fine  its  members.  Mr.  Ludlow,  the 
deputy-governor,  was  fined  for  absence,  and  for  his 
conduct  at  Pughquonnuck ;  and  it  was,  probably, 
on  account  of  the  displeasure  of  the  court  towards 
him  that  this  committee  was  appointed. 

At  an  adjourned  general  assembly,  the  court  in- 
corporated the  several  towns  in  the  colonies,  vesting 
them  with  full  powers  to  transact  their  own  affairs. 
It  was  enacted,  that  they  should  have  power  to 
choose,  from  among  themselves,  three,  five,  or  seven 
of  their  principal  men,  to  be  a  court  for  each  town. 
One  of  the  three,  five,  or  seven,  was  to  be  chosen 
moderator.  The  major  part  of  them,  always  includ- 
ing him,  constituted  a  quorum.  A  casting  voice 
was  allowed  him,  in  cases  in  which  there  was  an. 
equal  division.  He,  or  any  two  of  the  court,  were 
authorized  to  summon  the  parties  to  appear  at  the 
time  and  place  appointed,  and  might  grant  execu- 
tion against  the  party  offending.  They  were  au- 
thorized to  determine  all  matters  of  trespass  or  debt, 
not  exceeding  forty  shillings.  An  appeal  might  be 
made  from  this  court,  at  any  time  before  execution 
was  given  out ;  and  it  was  appointed  to  sit  once  in 
two  months. 

It  was  ordained,  that  every  town  should  keep  a 
public  ledger,  in  which  every  man's  house  and 
lands,  with  the  boundaries  and  quantity,  according 
to  the  nearest  estimation,  should  be  recorded.  All 
lands  also  granted  and  measured  to  any  man  after- 
wards, and  all  bargains  and  mortgages  of  lands 
were  to  be  put  on  record,  and  until  this  was  done 
they  were  to  be  of  no  validity.  The  towns  were 
also  empowered  to  dispose  of  their  own  lands ;  which 
was  the  origin  of  the  privileges  of  particular  towns 
"n  Connecticut. 

Besides  the  court  in  each  town,  there  was  the 
court  of  magistrates,  termed  the  particular  court, 
which  held  a  session  once  in  three  months.  To  this 
ay  all  appeals  from  the  other  courts  ;  and  in  this 
were  tried  all  criminal  causes,  and  actions  of  debt 
exceeding  forty  shillings,  and  all  titles  of  land.  In- 
deed, this  court  possessed  all  the  authority,  and  did 
all  the  business  now  possessed  and  done  by  the 
county  and  superior  courts ;  and  for  a  considerable 
time  they  were  vested  with  such  discretionary  powers, 
as  none  of  the  courts  at  this  day  would  venture  to 
exercise. 

Nepaupuck,  a  famous  Pequot  chieftain,  who  had 
frequently  stained  his  hands  in  English  blood,  was 
condemned  by  the  general  court  at  Quinnipiack, 
for  murder.  It  appeared,  that  in  the  year  1637,  he 
killed  John  Finch,  of  Weathersfield,  and  captured 
one  of  Mr.  Swain's  daughters;  and  that  he  had  also 
assisted  in  killing  the  three  men,  who  were  going 
down  Connecticut  river  in  a  shallop.  His  head 
was  cut  off,  and  set  upon  a  pole  in  the  market-place. 
It  will,  doubtless,  hardly  be  granted,  in  this  en- 
lightened age,  that  the  subjects  of  princes,  killing 
men  by  their  orders,  in  war,  ought  to  be  treated  as 
murderers ;  and  though  the  first  planters  of  New 
England  and  Connecticut  were  men  of  eminent 
piety  and  strict  morals,  yet,  like  other  good  men, 
they  were  subject  to  misconception  and  influence  of 
passion.  Their  beheading  sachems,  whom  they 

3P 


658 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


took  in  war,  killing  the  male  captives,  and  enslav- 
ing the  women  and  children  of  the  Pequots,  after 
it  was  finished,  was  treating  them  with  a  cruelty 
which,  on  the  benevolent  principles  of  Cnristianity, 
it  will  be  difficult  ever  to  justify.  The  executing 
of  all  those  as  murderers  who  were  active  in  killing 
any  of  the  English  people,  and  obliging  all  the  In- 
dian nations  to  bring  in  such  persons,  or  their 
heads,  was  an  act  of  severity  unpractised  at  this  day 
by  civilized  and  Christian  nations  ;  and  the  decapi- 
tation of  their  enemies,  and  the  setting  their  heads 
upon  poles,  was  a  kind  of  barbarous  triumph,  too 
nearly  symbolizing  with  the  examples  of  uncivilized 
nations.  The  further  we  are  removed  from  every 
resemblance  of  these,  and  the  more  deeply  we  im- 
bibe those  divine  precepts,  "  Love  your  enemies : 
Whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  unto  you, 
do  ye  even  so  to  them,"  the  greater  will  be  our 
dignity  and  happiness. 

The  progress  of  purchase,  settlement,  and  law,  in  the 
colonies  of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven— The  efftct 
of  the  conquest  of  the  Pequots  on  the  natives,  and 
the  manner  in  which  tliey  were  treated — Purchases 
of  them— Towns  settled— Divisions  at  Weather sfield 
occasion  the  settlement  of  Stamford — Contests  with 
the  Dutch  and  Indians— 'Capital  laws  of  Connecti- 
cut—The confederation  of  the  United  Colonies — 
Further  contests  with  the  Indians — Precautions  of 
the  colonies  to  prevent  war— The  Dutch  apply  to 
New  Haven  for  assistance, 

(1640.)  Although  the  conquest  of  the  Pequots 
extended  the  claim  of  Connecticut,  to  a  great  pro- 
portion of  the  lands  in  the  settled  part  of  the  colony, 
yet  to  remove  all  grounds  of  complaint  or  uneasi- 
ness, the  English  planters  made  fair  purchases  of 
almost  the  whole  tract  of  country  within  the  settled 
part  of  Connecticut. 

After  the  conquest  of  the  Pequots,  in  consequence 
of  the  covenant  made  with  Uncas,  in  1638,  and  the 
gift  of  a  hundred  Pequots  to  him,  he  became  im- 
portant. A  considerable  number  of  Indians  col- 
lected to  him,  so  that  he  became  one  of  the  principal 
sachems  in  Connecticut,  and  even  in  New  England ; 
and  he  was  able  to  raise  four  or  five  hundred  war- 
riors. As  the  Pequots  were  now  conquered,  and  as 
he  assisted  in  the  conquest,  and  was  a  Pequot  him- 
self, he  laid  claim  to  all  that  extensive  tract  called 
the  Moheagan  or  Pequot  country.  Indeed,  it  seems 
he  claimed,  and  was  allowed  to  sell  some  part  of 
that  tract  which  was  the  principal  seat  of  the  Pe- 
quots. The  sachems  in  other  parts  of  Connecticut, 
who  had  been  conquered  by  the  Pequots,  and  made 
their  allies,  or  tributaries,  considered  themselves, 
by  the  conquest  of  this  haughty  nation,  as  restored 
to  their  former  rights.  They  claimed  to  be  inde- 
pendent sovereigns,  and  to  have  a  title  to  all  the 
lands  which  they  had  at  any  time  before  possessed. 
The  planters,  therefore,  to  show  their  justice,  and 
to  maintain  the  peace  of  the  country,  from  time  to 
time,  purchased  of  the  respective  sachems  and  their 
Indians  all  the  lands  which  they  settled,  excepting 
the  towns  of  New  London,  Groton,  and  Stonington, 
which  were  considered  as  the  peculiar  seat  of  the 
Pequot  nation.  The  inhabitants  of  Windsor,  Hart- 
ford, and  Weathersfield,  either  at  the  time  of  their 
settlement,  or  soon  after,  bought  all  those  extensive 
tracts  which  they  settled,  of  the  native  original  pro- 
prietors of  the  country.  Indeed,  Connecticut  plant- 
ers generally  made  repeated  purchases  of  their 
lands.  The  colony  not  only  bought  the  Moheagan 
country  of  Uncas,  but  afterwards  all  the  particular 


towns  were  purchased  again,  either  of  him  or  his 
successors,  when  the  settlements  in  them  commenced. 
Besides,  the  colony  was  often  obliged  to  renew  its 
leagues  with  Uncas  and  his  successors,  the  Moheagan 
sachems  ;  and  to  make  new  presents  and  take  new 
deeds,  to  keep  friendship  with  the  Indians  and  pre- 
serve the  peace  of  the  country :  and  was  obliged  to 
defend  Uncas  from  his  enemies,  which  was  an  oc- 
casion of  no  small  trouble  and  expense.  The  laws 
obliged  the  inhabitants  of  the  several  towns  to  re- 
serve to  the  natives  a  sufficient  quantity  of  planting 
ground;  and  they  were  allowed  to  hunt  and  fish 
upon  all  the  lands  no  less  than  the  English. 

The  colonies  made  laws  for  their  protection  from 
insult  and  fraud ;  and  the  inhabitants  suffered  them  to 
erect  wigwams,  and  to  live  on  the  very  lands  which 
they  had  purchased  of  them  ;  and  to  cut  their  fire- 
wood on  their  uniuclosed  lands,  for  more  than  a 
whole  century  after  the  settlements  began.  The 
lands,  therefore,  though  really  worth  nothing  at  that 
time,  cost  the  planters  very  considerable  sums,  be- 
sides the  purchase  of  their  patents  and  the  right  of 
pre-emption. 

In  purchasing  the  lands  and  making  settlements, 
in  a  wilderness,  the  first  planters  of  Connecticut 
expended  great  estates.  It  has  been  the  opinion 
of  the  best  judges,  who  have  had  the  most  perfect 
acquaintance  with  the  ancient  affairs  of  the  colony, 
that  many  of  the  adventurers  expended  more,  in 
making  settlements  in  Connecticut,  than  all  the 
lands  and  buildings  were  worth,  after  all  the  im- 
provements which  they  had  made  upon  them. 

At  the  general  election  in  Connecticut,  this  year, 
Mr.  Hopkins  was  chosen  governor,  and  Mr.  Haynes 
deputy-governor ;  and  Mr.  Ludlow  was  chosen  ma- 
gistrate in  the  place  of  Mr.  Hopkins.  The  other 
magistrates  were  the  same  who  were  elected  the 
last  year;  and  the  same  governor,  deputy-governor 
and  magistrates,  who  were  in  office  at  New  Haven 
the  last  year,  were  re-elected  for  this. 

As  the  colonists,  both  in  Connecticut  and  New 
Haven,  were  the  patentees  of  Lord  Say  and  Seal, 
Lord  Brook,  and  the  other  gentlemen  interested  in 
the  old  Connecticut  patent,  and  as  that  patent 
covered  a  large  tract  of  country,  both  colonies  were 
desirous  of  securing  the  native  title  to  the  lauds, 
with  all  convenient  dispatch  ;  and  several  large  pur- 
chases were  made  this  year  both  by  Connecticut 
and  New  Haven. 

Connecticut  made  presents  to  Uncas,  the  Mohea- 

fan  sachem,  to  his  satisfaction,  and  on  the  1st  of 
eptember,  1640,  obtained  of  him  a  clear  and  ample 
deed  of  all  his  lands  in  Connecticut,  except  the 
lands  which  were  then  planted.  These  he  reserved 
for  himself  and  the  Mohcagans.  The  same  year, 
Governor  Haynes,  in  behalf  of  Hartford,  made  a 
purchase  of  Tunxis,  including  the  towns  of  Farm- 
ington  and  Southington,  and  extending  westward 
as  far  as  the  Mohawk  country. 

The  people  of  Connecticut,  about  the  same  time, 
purchased  Waranoke  and  soon  began  a  plantation 
there,  since  called  Westfield.  Governor  Hopkins 
erected  a  trading-house,  and  had  a  considerable  in- 
terest in  the  plantation. 

Mr.  Ludlow  made  a  purchase  of  the  pastern  part 
of  Norwalk,  between  Saugatuck  and  Norwalk  rivers ; 
Captain  Patrick  bought  the  middle  part  of  the  town- 
ship, and  a  few  families  seem  to  have  planted  them- 
selves in  about  the  time  of  these  purchases ;  but 
it  was  not  properly  settled  until  about  the  year  1651, 
when  the  planters  made  a  purchase  of  the  western 
part. 


UNITED  STATES. 


659 


About  the  same  time,  Robert  Feaks  and  Daniel  j 
Patrick  bought   Greenwich,    which  purchase    was 
made  in  behalf  of  New  Haven,  but  through  the  in- 
trigue of  the  Dutch  governor,  and  the  treachery  of 
the  purchasers,  the  first  inhabitants  revolted  to  the 
Dutch.     They  were  incorporated   and  vested  with  1 
town   privileges  by  Peter  Stuyvesant,   governor  of! 
New  Netherlands.      The  inhabitants  were  driven  ' 
off  by  the  Indians,  in  their  war  with  the  Dutch,  and 
made  no  great  progress  in  the  settlement  until  after 
Connecticut  obtained  the  charter,    and  they  were 
taken  under  the  jurisdiction  of  this  colony. 

Captain  Howe  and  other  Englishmen,  in  behalf 
of  Connecticut,  purchased  a  large  tract  of  the  In- 
dians, the  original  proprietors,  on  Long  Island. 
This  tract  extended  from  the  eastern  part  of  Oyster 
bay  to  the  western  part  of  Howe's  or  Holines's 
bay  to  the  middle  of  the  great  plain.  It  lay  on  the 
northern  part  of  the  island  and  extended  southward 
about  half  its  breadth.  Settlements  were  immedi- 
ately begun  upon  the  lands  ;  and  by  the  year  1642, 
had  made  considerable  advancement. 

New  Haven  made  a  purchase  of  all  the  lands 
at  Rippowams,  of  Ponus  and  Toquamske,  the  two 
sachems  of  that  tract,  which  contained  the  whole 
town  of  Stamford.  A  reservation  of  planting  ground 
was  made  for  the  Indians. 

Another  large  purchase,  sufficient  for  a  number 
of  plantations,  was  made  by  Captain  Turner,  agent 
for  New  Haven,  on  both  sides  of  Delaware  bay  or 
river,  with  a  view  to  trade,  and  for  the  settlement 
of  churches.  The  colony  of  New  Haven  erected 
trading-houses  upon  the  lands,  and  sent  nearly  fifty 
families  to  make  settlements  upon  them.  The 
settlements  were  made  under  the  jurisdiction  of 
New  Haven,  and  in  close  combination  with  that 
colony  in  all  their  fundamental  articles. 

It  also  appears  that  New  Haven,  or  their  con- 
federates, purchased  and  settled  Yennycock,  South- 
hold,  on  Long  Island;  and  Mr.  John  Youngs,  who 
had  been  a  minister  at  Hingham  in  England,  came 
over,  with  a  considerable  part  of  his  church,  and 
here  fixed  his  residence.  He  gathered  his  church 
anew,  on  the  21st  of  October,  and  the  planters 
united  themselves  with  New  Haven  ;  however,  they 
soon  departed  from  the  rule  of  appointing  none  to 
office,  or  of  admitting  none  to  be  freemen,  but  mem- 
bers of  the  church.  New  Haven  insisted  on  this  as 
a  fundamental  article  of  their  constitution,  and  they 
were,  therefore,  for  a  time  obliged  to  conform  to 
this  law  of  the  jurisdiction.  Some  of  the  principal 
men  were  the  Reverend  Mr.  Youngs,  Mr.  William 
Wells,  Mr.  Barnabas  Horton,  Thomas  Mapes, 
John  Tuthill  and  Matthias  Corwin. 

Laws  were  enacted,  both  by  Connecticut  and 
New  Haven,  prohibiting  all  purchases  of  the  In- 
dians, by  private  persons,  or  companies,  without 
the  consent  of  their  respective  general  courts.  These 
were  to  authorize  and  direct  the  manner  of  every 
purchase. 

The  general  court,  at  New  Haven,  this  year,  made 
a  grant  of  Totoket  to  Mr.  Samuel  Eaton,  brother 
of  Governor  Eaton,  upon  condition  of  his  procuring 
a  number  of  his  friends,  from  England,  to  make  a 
settlement  in  that  tract  of  country. 

At  this  court  it  was  decreed,  that  the  plantation 
at  Quinnipiack  should  be  called  New  Haven. 

(1641.)  At  the  general  election,  this  year,  at 
Hartford,  John  Haynes,  Esq.  was  chosen  governor, 
and  George  Wyllys,  Esq.  deputy-governor.  Mr. 
Hopkins  was  chosen  magistrate,  and  the  other  prin- 
cipal officers  were  re-elected. 


The  brethren  of  the  cLuich  at  Weathersfield 
removed  without  their  pastor,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Phil- 
lips ;  and,  having  no  settled  minister  at  first,  fell 
into  unhappy  contentions  and  animosities;  which 
continued  for  a  number  of  years,  and  divided  the 
inhabitants  of  the  town,  as  well  as  the  brethren  of 
the  church  ;  and  they  were  the  means  of  scattering 
the  inhabitants,  and  of  the  formation  of  new  settle- 
ments and  churches  in  other  places.  Great  pains 
were  taken,  by  the  ministers  on  the  river,  to  com- 
pose the  differences  and  unite  the  church  and  town  ; 
but  they  were  unable  to  effect  a  union ;  and  Mr. 
Davenport  and  some  of  the  brethren  of  the  church 
at  New  Haven  were  sent  for,  to  advise  and  attempt 
a  reconciliation  ;  who  gave  advice  somewhat  differ- 
ent from  that  which  had  been  given  by  the  minis- 
ters and  churches  on  the  river ;  and,  it  seems,  sug- 
gested the  expediency  of  one  of  the  parties  removing 
and  making  a  new  settlement,  if  they  could  not  by 
any  means  be  united  among  themselves.  Some 
were  pleased  with  the  advice,  others  disliked  it,  and 
the  parties  could  not  agree  which  of  them  should 
remove.  The  church,  which  consisted  of  seven 
members  only,  was  divided  three  against  four.  The 
three  claimed  to  be  the  church,  and  therefore 
pleaded,  that  they  ought  not  to  remove,  but  the 
four,  as  they  were  the  majority,  insisted  that  it  was 
their  right  to  stay. 

The  church  at  Watertown,as  they  had  not  dis- 
missed their  brethren  at  Weathersfield,  from  their 
care,  judged  it  their  duty  to  make  them  a  visit, 
and  to  attempt  to  heal  the  divisions  which  had 
sprung  up  among  them.  For  this  benevolent  pur- 
pose, several  of  the  brethren  made  a  journey  to 
Connecticut ;  but  they  succeeded  no  better  in  their 
endeavours  than  those  who  had  been  before  them. 
It  now  appeared  to  be  the  opinion,  that  it  was  ex- 
pedient for  one  of  the  parties  to  remove,  but  it 
could  not  be  agreed  which  of  them  should  be  ob- 
liged igain  to  make  a  new  settlement.  At  length 
a  number  of  principal  men,  who  were  the  most 
pleased  with  the  advice  of  Mr.  Davenport  and  the 
New  Haven  brethren,  and  to  whom  the  govern- 
ment of  that  colony  was  most  agreeable,  determined 
to  remove,  and  settle  in  combination  with  New 
Haven. 

Therefore,  Mr.  Andrew  Ward  and  Mr.  Robert 
Coe  of  Weathersfield,  in  behalf  of  themselves  and 
about  twenty  other  planters,  purchased  Rippowams 
of  New  Haven  ;  and  the  whole  number  obliged 
themselves  to  remove,  with  their  families,  the  next 
year,  before  the  last  November.  This  spring  the 
settlement  commenced.  The  principal  planters 
were  the  Rev.  Mr.  Richard  Dentou,  Mr.  Matthew 
Mitchel,  Mr.  Thurston  Rayner,  Mr.  Andrew  Ward, 
Mr.  Robert  Coe,  and  Mr.  Richard  Gildersleve.  Mr. 
Denton  was  among  the  first  planters  of  the  town, 
and  continued  their  minister  about  three  or  four 
years.  After  that  time  he  removed  with  part  of  his 
church  and  congregation  to  Hempstcd ;  and  set- 
tled that  town  about  the  year  1643  or  1644. 

At  the  general  election,  this  year,  (1641,)  in 
New  Haven,  Theophilus  Eaton,  Esq.  was  chosen 
governor,  and  Mr.  Stephen  Goodyear  deputy-go- 
vernor. The  magistrates  were  Mr.  Gregson,  Mr. 
Robert  Newman,  Mr.  Matthew  Gilbert,  and  Mr. 
Wakeman ;  and  Thomas  Fugill  was  appointed 
secretary,  and  Mr.  Gregson  treasurer. 

Upon  the  general  election,  (1642,)  at  Hartford, 
there  was  a  considerable  change  with  respect  to 
civil  officers.  George  Wyllys,  Esq.  was  elected 
governor,  and  Roger  Ludlow,  Esq.  doputy-govern- 

3P2 


660 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


or.  Eight  magistrates  were  chosen  for  Connecti- 
cut. This  is  the  first  instance  of  more  than  six. 
The  magistrates  were  John  Haynes,  Esq.  Mr. 
Phelps,  Mr.  Webster,  Captain  Mason,  Mr.  Wells, 
Mr.  Whiting,  Edward  Hopkins,  Esq.  and  Mr.  Wil- 
liam Hopkins. 

The  Indians  were  exceedingly  troublesome  this 
year  ;  and  as  it  was  suspected  that  they  were  form- 
ing a  combination  for  a  general  war,  all  trading  with 
them,  in  arms  or  any  instruments  of  iron,  was  ex- 
pressly prohibited,  both  by  Connecticut  and  New 
Haven.  Each  colony  concerted  measures  of  de- 
fence ;  and  a  constant  watch  was  kept  in  all  the 
plantations  ;  and  on  the  Sabbath  a  strong  guard  was 
set  at  the  places  of  public  worship. 

At  this  court,  the  magistrates  were  desired  to 
write  to  the  Dutch,  and,  as  far  as  possible,  to  pre- 
vent their  vending  arms  and  ammunition  to  the  na- 
tives, and  to  settle  all  disputes  between  them  and 
the  colony  with  respect  to  claims.  But  notwithstand- 
ing all  their  endeavours,  the  Dutch  behaved  with 
great  insolence,  and  did  much  damage  to  both  the 
English  colonies. 

The  Dutch,  at  Hartford,  gave  entertainment  to 
fugitives  from  the  English ;  helped  them  when  con- 
fined to  fiie  off  their  irons  ;  and  persuaded  servants 
to  run  from  their  masters  and  then  gave  them  enter- 
tainment. They  purchased  goods  which  had  been 
stolen  from  the  English,  and  would  not  return  them, 
and  assisted  criminals  in  breaking  gaol. 

Besides  these  misdemeanors  at  Hartford,  the 
Dutch  governor,  William  Kieft,  caused  the  English 
settlements  on  Long  Island,  which  had  now  ad- 
vanced, on  the  lands  purchased  by  Captain  Howe, 
as  far  as  Oyster  bay,  to  be  broken  up  ;  and  some  of 
the  English  planters  were  forcibly  seized  and  im- 
prisoned, and  others  driven  from  their  settlements. 

To  the  colony  of  New  Haven  the  Dutch  were  still 
more  hostile  and  injurious.  Notwithstanding  the 
fair  purchases  which  that  colony  had  made,  by  their 
agents  at  Delaware,  Governor  Kieft,  without  any 
legal  protest  or  warning,  dispatched  an  armed  force, 
and  with  great  hostility  burned  the  English  trad- 
ing-houses, violently  seized  and  for  a  time  detained 
their  goods,  and  would  not  give  them  time  to  take 
an  inventory  of  them  ;  they  also  took  the  company's 
boat,  and  a  number  of  the  English  planters,  and 
kept  them  as  prisoners.  The  damages  done  the 
English  at  Delaware  were  estimated  at  a  thousand 
pounds  sterling. 

The  same  year  the  Swedish  governor  and  Dutch 
agent  uniting  in  a  crafty  design  against  Mr.  Lam- 
berton,  a  principal  gentleman  of  New  Haven,  made 
an  injurious  attempt  upon  his  life.  They  accused 
him  of  having  joined  in  a  plot  with  the  Indians  to 
cut  off  the  Swedes  and  Dutch;  and  attempted,  by 
giving  his  men  strong  drink,  and  by  threatenings 
and  allurements,  to  influence  them  to  bear  testi- 
mony against  him.  They  proceeded  so  far  as  to 
jmprison  and  try  him  for  treason  ;  and  when,  not- 
withstanding these  unfair  means,  and  that  they 
were  both  his  accusers  and  judges,  they  could  not 
find  any  evidence  against  him,  they  arbitrarily  im- 
posed a  fine  upon  "him,  for  trading  at  Delaware, 
though  within  the  limits  of  the  purchase  and  juris- 
diction of  New  Haven. 

At  another  time,  when  Mr.  Lamberton  was  occa- 
sionally at  Manhatoes,  in  the  capacity  of  an  agent 
for  New  Haven,  the  Dutch  governor,  Kieft,  by- 
force  and  threatenings  compelled  him  to  give  an 
account  of  all  his  beaver,  within  the  limits  of  New 
Haven,  at  Delaware,  and  to  pay  an  impo 


the  whole.  The  Dutch  did  other  damages,  and  in 
suited  the  English  in  various  other  instances.  Both 
Connecticut  and  New  Haven,  from  year  to  year, 
complained  and  remonstrated  against  them,  but 
could  obtain  no  redress. 

While  the  colonies  were  increasing  in  numbers 
and  settlements,  progress  in  law  and  jurisprudence, 
in  the  regular  establishment  of  courts  and  the  times 
of  their  sessions,  was  also  necessary  for  the  advance- 
ment, order  and  happiness  of  the  respective  juris- 
dictions. 

This,  so  far  as  the  numerous  affairs  of  the  colo- 
nies would  permit,  was  an  object  of  special  atten- 
tion. The  capital  laws  of  Connecticut  were,  this 
year,  nearly  completed  and  put  upon  record.  The 
several  passages  of  Scripture  on  which  they  were 
founded  were  particularly  noticed  in  the  statute. 
Thev  were  twelve  in  number,  and  to  the  following? 
effect. 

If  any  man  or  woman  shall  have  or  worship  any 
God  but  the  true  God,  he  shall  be  put  to  death. 
Deut.  xiii.  6.  xvii.  21.  Exodus  xxii.  2. 

If  any  person  in  this  colony  shall  blaspheme  the 
name  of  God  the  Father,  Son,  or  Holy  Ghost,  with 
direct,  express,  presumptuous  or  high-handed  blas- 
phemy, or  shall  curse  in  like  manner,  he  shall  be 
put  to  death.  Levit.  xxiv.  15,  16. 

If  any  man  or  woman  be  a  witch,  that  is,  hath  or 
consulted  with  a  familiar  spirit,  they  shall  be  put  to 
death.  Exodus  xxii.  18.  Levit.  xx.  22.  Deut 
xviii.  10,  11. 

If  any  person  shall  commit  wilful  murder,  upon 
malice,  hatred  or  cruelty,  not  in  a  man's  own  de- 
fence, nor  by  casualty  against  his  will,  he  shall  be 
put  to  death.  Exodus  xxi.  12,  13,  14.  Numbers 
xxxv.  30,  31. 

If  any  person  shall  slay  another  through  guile, 
either  by  poisoning,  or  other  such  devilish  practices, 
he  shall  be  put  to  death.  Exodus  xxi.  14. 

For  the  remainder,  see  Leviticus  xx.  11,  12,  13, 
14,  15,  16.  Also  Deut.  xxii.  25.  Exodus  xxi.  16, 
and  Deut,  xix.  16,  18,  19. 

It  was  also  enacted,  that  if  any  person  should 
conspire  against  the  commonwealth,  attempt  an 
insurrection,  invasion,  or  rebellion  against  it,  he 
should  be  put  to  death. 

Wilful  arson,  the  cursing  and  smiting  of  father 
or  mother,  and  notorious  stubbornness  in  children, 
after  a  certain  age,  were,  soon  after,  made  capital 
offences,  by  the  laws  of  the  colony,  and  added  to 
the  list  of  the  capital  laws. 

Before  this  time,  incontinence  and  wanton  beha- 
viour had  been  prmished  with  whipping  at  the  tail 
of  the  cart,  by  fining,  or  obliging  the  delinquents 
to  marry,  at  the  discretion  of  the  particular  courts. 

The  general  court  approved  of  what  the  particular 
courts  had  done,  in  these  cases,  and  authorized 
them  in  future  to  punish  such  delinquents  by  fines, 
by  committing  them  to  the  house  of  correction,  or 
by  corporal  punishment,  at  the  discretion  of  the 
court. 

As  some  loose  persons  deserted  the  English  settle- 
ments, and  lived  in  a  profane  manner,  a  law  was  en- 
acted, that  all  persons  who  should  be  convicted  of 
this  crime  should  be  punished  with  three  years'  im- 
prisonment, at  least  in  the  house  of  correction,  with 
line,  or  corporal  punishment,  as  the  particular 
court  should  direct. 

(1643.)  At  a  general  court  in  New  Haven,  April 
5,  considerable  progress  was  made  in  the  laws  and 
government  of  that  colony.    Deputies  were  admitted 
st  upon    to  the   court,    and  an  addition  was  made   to  the 


UNITED  STATES. 


661 


number  of  magistrates.  Stamford,  for  the  first  time, 
sent  Captain  John  Underbill  and  Mr.  Richard  Gild- 
ersleve  to  represent  the  town.  Mr.  Mitchel  and 
Mr.  Rayner  were  nominated  for  magistrates  in 
Stamford.  Mr.  Rayner  was  appointed  by  the  court. 
Captain  Underbill,  Mr.  Mitchel,  Mr.  Andrew  Ward, 
and  Mr.  Robert  Coe  were  appointed  assistant 
judges  to  Mr.  Rayner.  This  court  was  vested  with 
the  same  powers  as  the  court  at  New  Haven,  and 
was  the  first  instituted  in  Stamford.  Mr.  William 
Leet  and  Mr.  Desborough  were  admitted  magis- 
trates for  Menunkatuck,  and  that  plantation  was 
named  Guilford. 

This  year  John  Haynes,  Esq.  was  elected  go- 
vernor, and  Mr.  Hopkins  deputy-governor.  Mr. 
Wolcott  and  Mr.  Swain  wore  chosen  magistrates; 
and  Mr.  Phelps  and  Mr.  William  Hopkins  were 
not  elected.  Mr.  Whiting  was  chosen  treasurer, 
and  Mr.  Wells  secretary.  It  appears  to  have  been 
customary,  for  a  number  of  years,  to  choose  the  se- 
cretary and  treasurer  among  the  magistrates. 

Juries  appear  to  have  attended  the  particular 
courts,  in  Connecticut,  from  their  first  institution. 
They  seem  to  have  been  regularly  enrolled  about 
the  year  1641.  or  1642.  But  the  particular  courts 
found  great  difficulties  with  respect  to  their  proceed- 
ings. There  were  no  printed  laws  for  the  inhabit- 
ants to  study,  and  many  of  the  common  people  had 
attended  very  little  to  law  and  evidence.  The  jury, 
therefore,  very  often  would  be  so  divided  that  they 
could  not  agree  upon  any  verdict;  and  when  they 
were  agreed,  it  did  not  always  appear  to  the  court 
that  they  brought  in  a  just  one.  A  rather  extra- 
ordinary law  therefore  passed  this  court,  regulating 
the  juries.  The  court  decreed  that  the  jury  should 
attend  diligently  to  the  case,  and  to  the  evidence ; 
and  if  they  could  not  all  agree  in  a  verdict,  they 
should  offer  their  reasons  upon  the  case  to  the  court, 
and  the  court  should  answer  them,  and  send  out  the 
jury  again.  If,  after  deliberating  upon  the  case,  they 
could  not  bring  in  a  joint  verdict,  it  was  decreed 
that  it  should  be  determined  by  a  major  vote;  and 
that  this  should,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  be 
deemed  a  full  and  sufficient  verdict;  upon  which 
judgment  should  be  entered,  and  execution,  and  all 
other  proceedings  should  be  as  though  there  had 
been  a  joint  verdict  of  the  jury.  It  was  also  pro- 
vided, that  if  the  jury  should  be  equally  divided, 
six  and  six,  they  should  represent  the  case  to  the 
court,  with  their  reasons,  and  a  special  verdict 
should  be  drawn,  and  a  major  vote  of  the  court,  or 
magistrates,  should  determine  the  cause,  and  all 
matters  respecting  it  should  be  as  though  there  had 
been  a  joint  verdict  of  the  jury. 

At  this  court  it  was  ordained  that  a  grand  jury 
of  twelve  men  should  attend  the  particular  courts, 
annually,  in  May  and  September,  and  as  often  as 
the  governor  and  court  should  judge  expedient.  It 
was  also  enacted,  that  the  grand  jury  should  be 
•warned  to  give  their  attendance.  This  is  the  first 
notice  of  a  grand  jury,  at  any  court. 

A  general  confederation  of  the  New  England 
colonies  had  been  proposed,  and  in  agitation  for 
several  years.  In  1638,  articles  of  union  for  amity, 
offence  and  defence,  mutual  advice  and  assistance, 
upon  all  necessary  occasions,  were  drawn,  and  for 
further  consideration  referred  to  1639.  Connecticut 
and  Mr.  Fenwick  agreed  to  confederate  for  these 
purposes.  From  this  time  Connecticut  had  annually 
appointed  some  of  her  principal  men  to  go  to  Mas- 
sachusetts to  complete  the  designed  confederacy. 
Governor  Haynes  and  Mr.  Hooker,  in  1639,  were 


nearly  a  month  in  Massachusetts,  labouring  to  carry 
t  into  effect.  New  Haven  paid  equal  attention  to 
an  affair  so  important  to  the  colonies.  The  circum- 
stances of  the  English  nation,  and  the  state  of  the 
colonies  in  New  England,  at  this  time,  made  it  a 
natter  of  urgent  necessity.  For  the  accommodation 
of  particular  companies,  the  colonies  had  extended 
:heir  settlements  upon  the  rivers  and  sea-coasts 
much  further,  and  had  made  them  in  a  more  scat- 
tered manner,  than  was  at  first  designed.  No  aid 
could  be  expected  from  the  parent  country,  let 
emergencies  be  ever  so  pressing.  The  Dutch  had 
so  extended  their  claims,  and  were  so  powerful  and 
hostile,  as  to  afford  a  just  ground  of  general  alarm. 
All  the  plantations  were  compassed  with  numerous 
tribes  of  savage  men.  The  Narragansets  appeared 
hostile,  and  there  were  the  appearances  of  a  general 
combination  among  the  Indians  in  New  England, 
to  extirpate  the  English  colonies.  There  were,  not- 
withstanding its  utility,  impediments  in  the  way  of 
effecting  even  so  necessary  and  important  a  union. 
The  Massachusetts  was  much  more  numerous  and 
powerful  than  the  other  colonies,  and  it  was  in  vari- 
us  respects  more  respectable  and  important;  it  was 
therefore  a  matter  of  difficulty  to  form  a  union 
upon  equal  terms.  The  other  colonies  were  not 
willing  to  unite  upon  unequal  terms,  and  there  were 
also  disputes  between  Connecticut  and  Massachu- 
setts. The  colony  of  Massachusetts  claimed  part 
of  the  Pequot  country,  on  the  account  of  the  assis- 
tance which  they  afforded  in  the  Pequot  war.  There 
was  also  a  difference  with  respect  to  the  boundary 
line  between  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut.  Both 
colonies  claimed  the  towns  of  Springfield  and  West- 
field,  and  these  difficulties  retarded  the  union. 

However, -Connecticut,  New  Haven,  and  Ply- 
mouth, all  dispatched  commissioners  to  Boston,  in 
May,  at  the  time  of  the  session  of  the  general  court. 
The  commissioners  from  Connecticut  were,  Governor 
Haynes  and  Mr.  Hopkins ;  Mr.  Fenwick,  from  Say- 
brook  ;  Governor  Eaton  and  Mr.  Gregson,  from 
New  Haven;  Mr.  Winslow  and  Mr.  Collier,  from 
Plymouth.  The  general  court  of  Massachusetts 
appointed  Governor  Winthrop,  Mr.  Dudley,  and 
Mr.  Bradstrcet,  of  the  magistrates;  and  of  the  depu- 
ties, Mr.  Hawthorne,  Mr.  Gibbons,  and  Mr.  Tyng. 
There  appeared,  at  this  time,  a  spirit  of  harmony 
and  mutual  concession  among  the  commissioners, 
and  on  the  19th  of  May,  1643,  the  articles  were 
completed  and  signed.  "  The  commissioners  were 
unanimous  in  adopting  them ;  but  those  from  Ply- 
mouth did  not  sign  them,  as  they  had  not  been  au- 
thorized by  the  court;  but  at  the  meeting  of  the  com- 
missioners in  September,  they  came  vested  with 
plenary  powers,  and  signed  them. 

The  commissioners,  in  the  introductory  part,  de- 
clare, with  respect  to  the  four  colonies  of  Massa- 
chusetts, Plymouth,  Connecticut,  and  New  Haven, 
and  the  plantations  under  their  respective  jurisdic- 
tions, that,  as  they  all  came  into  these  parts  of 
America  with  one  and  the  same  end  and  aim,  to 
advance  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and 
enjoy  the  liberties  of  the  Gospel  in  purity  and  peace, 
they  conceived  it  their  bounden  duty  to  enter  into 
a  present  confederation  among  themselves,  for  mu- 
tual help  and  strength  in  all  future  concernments  ; 
that,  as  in  nation  and  religion,  so  in  other  respects 
they  be  and  continue  one,  and  henceforth  be  called 
by  the  name  of  "  The  United  Colonies  of  New  Eng- 
land." 

They  declare,  that  the  said  united  colonies,  for 
themselves  and  their  posterity,  did,  jointly  and  se- 


662 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


verally,  enter  into  a  firm  and  perpetual  league  of 
friendship  and  amity,  of  offence  and  defence,  mu- 
tual aid  and  succour,  upon  all  just  occasions,  both 
for  preserving  and  propagating  the  truth  and  liberty 
of  the  Gospel,  and  for  their  own  mutual  safety  and 
welfare. 

The  articles  reserved  to  each  colony  an  entire 
and  distinct  jurisdiction.  By  them,  no  two  colonies 
might  be  united  in  one,  nor  any  other  colony  be  re- 
ceived into  the  confederacy,  without  the  consent  of 
the  whole. 

Each  colony  was  authorized  to  send  two  commis- 
sioners annually,  always  to  be  church  members,  to 
meet  on  the  first  Monday  in  September,  first  at 
Boston,  then  at  Hartford,  New  Haven,  and  Ply- 
mouth. This  was  to  be  the  annual  order,  except 
that  two  meetings  successively  were  always  to  be  at 
Boston. 

The  commissioners,  when  met,  were  authorized 
to  choose  a  president  from  among  themselves,  for 
the  preservation  of  order.  They  were  vested  with 
plenary  powers  for  making  war  and  peace,  laws  and 
rules  of  a  civil  nature  and  of  general  concern.  Es- 
pecially to  regulate  the  conduct  of  the  inhabitants 
towards  the  Indians,  towards  fugitives,  for  the  ge- 
neral defence  of  the  country,  and  for  the  encourage- 
ment and  support  of  religio'n. 

The  expense  of  all  wars,  offensive  or  defensive, 
was  to  be  borne  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  the 
male  inhabitants  in  each  colony,  between  sixteen 
and  sixty  years  of  age. 

Upon  notice  from  three  magistrates  of  any  of  the 
colonies  of  an  invasion,  the  colonies  were  immediately 
to  send  assistance,  the  Massachusetts  a  hundred, 
and  each  of  the  other  colonies  forty-five  men.  If  a 
greater  number  was  necessary,  the  commissioners 
were  to  meet  and  determine  the  number. 

All  determinations  of  the  commissioners,  in  which 
six  were  agreed,  were  binding  upon  the  whole.  If 


themselves,  and  to  secure  the  peace  and  rights  of 
the  country :  it  was  one  of  the  principal  means  of 
the  preservation  of  the  colonies,  during  the  civil 
wars  and  unsettled  state  of  affairs  in  England  :  and 
it  was  the  grand  source  of  mutual  defence  in  Philip's 
war,  and  of  the  most  eminent  service  in  civilizing 
the  Indians,  and  propagating  the  Gospel  among 
them.  The  union  subsisted  more  than  forty  years, 
until  the  abrogation  of  the  charters  of  the  New  Eng- 
land colonies,  by  King  James  the  Second. 

The  Indians  were  so  tumultuous  and  hostile,  that 
its  whole  influence  was  necessary  to  prevent  a  gene- 
ral war.  The  troubles  originated  in  the  ambitious 
and  perfidious  conduct  of  Miantonimoh,  chief  sa- 
chem of  the  Narragansets.  After  the  Pequot  war, 
he  attempted  to  set  himself  up  as  universal  sachem 
over  all  the  Indians  in  New  England  ;  and  without 
regard  to  the  league  made  between  him,  the 
English,  and  the  Moheagans,  at  Hartford,  in  1638, 
when  the  Pequots  were  divided  between  him,  and 
Uncas,  he  warred  against  him  :  and  at  the  same 
time  used  all  the  arts  of  which  he  was  master,  by 
presents  and  intrigue,  to  inflame  the  other  Indians, 
and  excite  a  general  insurrection  against  the  En- 
glish plantations. 

Connecticut  was  for  making  war  immediately, 
and  sent  pressing  letters  to  the  court  at  Boston, 
urging  that  a  hundred  men  might  be  sent  to  Say- 
brook  fort,  to  assist  against  the  enemy,  as  circum- 
stances might  require :  but  the  court  of  Massachu- 
setts pretended  to  doubt  of  the  facts  alleged,  acd 
would  not  consent.  In  the  mean  time  Miantonimoh 
hired  one  of  Uncas's  men  to  assassinate  him  :  who 
made  an  attempt  in  the  spring,  and  shot  Uncas 
through  his  arm  :  and  then  ran  off  to  the  Narragan- 
sets, reporting,  through  the  Indian  towns,  that  he 
had  killed  Uncas.  But  when  it  was  known  that 
:  Uncas  was  only  wounded,  Miantonimoh  and  the 
j  Pequot  reported  that  Uncas  had  cut  through  his 


there  were  a  majority,  yet  under  six,  the  affair  was    arm  with  a  flint,  and  then  charged  the  Pequot  with 
to  be  referred  to  the  general  court,  of  each  colony,    shooting  him.     However,  Miantonimoh   soon  after 


and  could  not  be  obligatory,  unless  the  courts  unani- 


mously concurred. 

No  colony  might  enga 


in  a  war,  without  the 


consent  of  the  whole  union,  unless  upon  some  urgent 
and  sudden  occasion.  Even  in  such  case,  it  was  to 
be  avoided  as  far  as  possible,  consistent  with  the  ge- 
neral safety. 

If  a  meeting  were  summoned,  upon  any  extraor- 
dinary occasion,  and  the  whole  number  of  commis- 
sioners did  not  attend,  any  four  who  were  met, 
might,  in  cases  which  admitted  of  no  delay,  deter- 
mine upon  a  war,  and  send  to  each  colony  for  its 
proportion  of  men.  A  number,  however,  less  than 
six  could  not  determine  the  justice  of  a  war,  nor  have 
power  to  settle  a  bill  of  charges,  nor  make  levies. 

If  either  of  the  confederates  should  break  any 
article  of  the  confederation,  or  injure  one  of  the 
other  colonies,  the  affair  was  to  be  determined  by 
the  commissioners  of  the  three  other  confederates. 

The  articles  also  made  provision,  that  all  servants 
running  from  their  masters,  and  criminals  flying 


pprehending 
he  might  be 


going  to  Boston,  in  company  with  the  Pequot  who 
had  wounded  Uncas,  the  governor  and  magistrates, 
upon  examination,  found  clear  evidence  that  the 
Pequot  was  guilty  of  the  crime,  with  which  he  had 
been  charged.  They  had  designs  of  a 
him  and  sending  him  to  Uncas,  that 
punished  :  but  Miantonimoh  pleaded  that  he  might 
be  suffered  to  return  with  him,  and  promised  that 
he  would  send  him  to  Uncas.  Indeed,  he  so  ex- 
culpated himself,  and  made  such  fair  promises,  that 
they  gave  up  their  design,  and  permitted  them  to 
depart  in  peace  ;  and  about  two  days  after,  Mian- 
tonimoh murdered  the  Pequot  on  his  return,  that 
he  might  make  no  further  discovery  of  his  treache- 
rous conduct. 

About  the  same  time  much  trouble  arose  from 
Sequassen,  a  sachem,  upon  Connecticut  river.  Seve- 
ral of  his  men  killed  a  principal  Indian  belonging  to 
Uncas  ;  and  he.  or  some  of  his  warriors,  had  also 
waylaid  Uncas  himself,  as  he  was  going  down  the 
river,  and  shot  several  arrows  at  him.  Uncas  made 


from  justice,  from  one  colony  to  another,  should,  |  a  complaint  to  the  governor  and  court  at  Connecti 
upon  demand,  and  proper  evidence  of  their  character,  |  cut,  of  these  outrages  ;  andGovernor  Haynes  and  the 
as  fugitives,  be  returned  to  their  masters,  and  to  the  I  court  took  great  pains  to  make  peace  between  Un- 
colonies  whence  they  had  made  their  escape ;  that  j  cas  and  Sequassen.  Upon  hearing  their  several 
in  all  cases  law  and  justice  might  have  their  course,  stories,  it  appeared  that  Uncas  required  that  six  of 


This 


union  of  the  highest   consequence  to 


the  New  England  colonies  :  it  made  them  formid- 


Sequassen's  men  should  be  delivered  to  him,  for  the 
murder  of  his  man,  because   he  was  a  great  man. 


able  to  the  Dutch  and  Indians,  and  respectable  !  Governor  Haynes  and  the  court  laboured  to  dis- 
among  their  French  neighbours:  it  was  happily  suade  Uncas  from  his  demand  of  six  men  for  one ; 
adapted  to  maintain  a  general  harmony  among  J  and  urged  him  to  be  satisfied  upon  Sequassen's 


UNITED  STATES. 


663 


delivering  up  the  murderer;  and  at  length,  with 
much  persuasion  and  difficulty,  Uncas  consented  to 
accept  of  the  murderer  only.  But  Sequassen  would 
not  agree  to  deliver  him  ;  as  he  was  nearly  allied  to 
Miantonimoh,  and  one  of  his  peculiar  favourites ;  and 
Sequassen  chose  rather  to  fight,  and  was  overcome 
by  Uncas,  who  killed  a  number  of  his  men  and 
burned  his  wigwams. 

Miantonimoh,  without  consulting  the  English, 
according  to  agreement,  without  proclaiming  war, 
or  giving  Uncas  the  least  information,  raised  an 
army  of  nine  hundred,  or  a  thousand  men,  and 
marched  against  him.  Uncas's  spies  discovered 
the  army  at  some  distance,  and  gave  him  intelli- 
gence ;  and  although  he  was  unprepared,  he  col- 
lected between  four  and  five  hundred  of  his  bravest 
men  ;  and  having  marched  three  or  four  miles,  the 
armies  met  upon  a  large  plain.  When  they  had 
advanced  within  bow-shot  of  each  other,  Uncas  had 
recourse  to  a  stratagem,  with  which  he  had  previ- 
ously acquainted  his  warriors.  He  desired  a  parley, 
and  both  armies  halted  in  the  face  of  each  other ; 
and  Uncas,  advancing  in  the  front  of  his  men,  ad- 
dressed Miantonimoh  to  this  effect:  "You  have  a 
number  of  stout  men  with  you,  and  so  have  I  with 
me.  It  is  a  great  pity  that  such  brave  warriors 
should  be  killed  in  a  private  quarrel  between  us 
only.  Come  like  a  man,  as  you  profess  to  be,  and 
let  us  fight  it  out.  If  you  kill  me,  my  men  shall  be 
yours ;  but  if  I  kill  you,  your  men  shall  be  mine  :" 
to  which  Miantonimoh  replied,  "  My  men  came  to 
fight,  and  they  shall  fight."  Uncas  fell  instantly 
on  the  ground,  and  his  men  discharged  a  shower  of 
arrows  upon  the  Narragansets ;  and,  without  a  mo- 
ment's interval,  rushing  upon  them  in  the  most 
furious  manner,  with  their  hideous  Indian  yell,  put 
them  immediately  to  flight.  Tho  Moheagans  pur- 
sued the  enemy  with  the  same  fury  and  eagerness 
with  which  they  commenced  the  action ;  and  the 
Narragansets  were  driven  down  rocks  and  preci- 
pices. Some  of  Uncas's  bravest  men,  who  were 
most  light  of  foot,  coming  up  with  Miantonimoh, 
pulled  him  back,  impeding  his  flight,  and  passed 
him.  that  Uncas  might  take  him ;  who  rushing  for- 
ward, like  a  lion  greedy  of  his  prey,  seized  him  by 
his  shoulder  :  he  found  he  was  now  in  the  power  of 
the  man  whom  he  had  hated,  and  had  attempted  to 
destroy ;  but  he  sat  down  sullen  and  spake  not  a 
word.  Uncas  gave  the  Indian  whoop  and  called  up 
his  men,  who  were  behind,  to  his  assistance  ;  and  the 
victory  was  completed.  Among  the -prisoners  were 
a  brother  of  Miantonimoh  and  two  sons  of  Canoni- 
cus,  a  chief  sachem  of  the  Narragansets.  Two  of 
Miantonimoh's  captains,  who  formerly  were  Uncas's 
men,  but  had  treacherously  deserted  him,  discover- 
ing his  situation,  took  him  and  carried  him  to  Un- 
cas, expecting  in  this  way  to  reconcile  themselves 
to  their  sachem  ;  but  Uncas  and  his  men  slew  them. 
Miantonimoh  made  no  request,  either  for  himself 
or  his  men ;  but  continued  in  the  same  sullen, 
speechless  mood.  Uncas,  demanded  of  him  why  he 
would  not  speak ;  saying,  "  Had  you  taken  me,  I 
should  have  besought  you  for  my  life."  And  although 
the  sullen  chieftain  would  not  ask  it,  he  gave  him  his 
life,  and  returned  with  great  triumph  to  Moheagan, 
carrying  his  captive  as  an  illustrious  trophy  of  his 
victory. 

One  Samuel  Gorton  and  his  company  had  pur- 
chased lands  of  Miantonimoh,  under  the  jurisdiction 
of  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth ;  and  expected  to 
be  vindicated  in  their  claims,  by  him,  against  those 
colonies,  and  against  the  Massachusetts  and  Ply- 


mouth sachems,  who  were  the  original  proprietors ; 
therefore,  when  the  news  of  Uncas's  victory,  and  of 
the  capture  of  Miantonimoh,  arrived  at  Providence, 
they  sent  to  him  to  deliver  Miantonimoh,  threatening 
him  that  the  power  of  the  English  should  be  em- 
ployed against  him,  if  he  refused  to  comply.  Uncas, 
therefore,  carried  his  prisoner  to  Hartford,  to  ad- 
vise with  the  governor  and  magistrates,  with  respect 
to  his  conduct  in  such  a  situation,  who  were  of  the 
opinion  that,  as  there  was  no  open  war  between 
them  and  the  Narragansets,  it  was  not  prudent  for 
them  to  intermeddle  with  the  quarrel ;  but  advised 
that  the  whole  affair  should  be  referred  to  the  com- 
missioners of  the  united  colonies  at  their  meeting  in 
September. 

When  Miantonimoh  came  to  Hartford,  he  most 
earnestly  pleaded  to  be  left  in  the  custody  of  the 
English :  expecting  more  safety  and  better  treat- 
ment with  them.  Uncas  consented  to  leave  him  at 
Hartford,  but  insisted  that  he  should  be  kept  as 
his  prisoner. 

On  the  7th  of  September,  the  commissioners  met 
at  Boston.  Governor  Winthrop  and  Thomas  Dud- 
ley, Esquires,  were  commissioners  for  Massachu- 
setts; George  Fenwick  a.nu  Edward  Hopkins, 
Esquires,  for  Connecticut;  and  Theophilus  Eaton 
and  Thomas  Gregsou,  Esquires,  for  New  Haven. 
Governor  Winthrop  was  chosen  President.  The 
whole  affair  of  Uncas  and  Miantonimoh  was  laid 
before  the  commissioners,  and  the  facts  already  re- 
lated, were,  in  their  opinon,  fully  proved;  not  only 
his  attempts  upon  the  life  of  Uncas,  but  that  he  had 
been  the  principal  author  of  inflaming  and  stirring 
up  the  Indians  to  a  general  confederacy  against  all 
the  English  plantations  :  it  also  appeared  that,  in- 
stead of  delivering  the  Pequot,  who  had  shot  Uncas, 
as  he  promised  in  open  court,  he  had  murdered 
him  on  the  road  from  Boston  to  Narraganset ;  and 
it  was  also  affirmed  that  the  Narragansets  had  sent 
for  the  Mohawks,  and  that  they  were  come  within 
a  day's  journey  of  the  English  settlements,  and 
were  kept  back  only  by  the  capture  of  Miantonimoh  : 
and  that  they  were  waiting  for  his  release,  to 
prosecute  their  designs  against  the  English,  or 
Uncas,  or  against  both,  as  the  Indians  should 
determine.  The  commissioners  laid  the  affair  be- 
fore five  or  six  of  the  principal  ministers  in  Massa- 
chusetts, and  took  their  advice  relative  to  the  law- 
fulness and  justice  of  putting  him  to  death;  who 
gave  it  as  their  opinion,  that  he  ought  to  be  put  to 
death;  and  thereupon  the  commissioners  resolved, 
That  as  it  was  evident  that  Uncas  could  not  be 
safe,  while  Miantonimoh  lived  ;  but  that,  either  by 
secret  treachery  or  open  force,  his  life  would  be 
continually  in  danger,  he  might  justly  put  such  a 
false  and  blood-thirsty  enemy  to  death."  They  de- 
termined Uncas  should  not  do  it  in  any  of  the  Eng- 
lish plantations,  but  in  his  own  jurisdiction  ;  and 
at  the  same  time  advised  that  no  torture  or  cruelty 
should  be  exercised  in  the  manner  of  his  execution. 
They  also  determined  that  if  the  Narragansets,  or 
any  other  Indians,  should  unjustly  assault  Uncas, 
on  account  of  the  execution  of  Miantonimoh,  the 
English  should,  upon  his  desire,  assist  him  against 
such  violence. 

Governor  Winthrop  writes,  "  It  was  clearly  dis- 
covered to  us  that  there  was  a  general  conspiracy 
among  the  Indians  to  cut  off  all  the  English ;  and 
that  Miantonimoh  was  the  head  and  contriver  of  it : 
that  he  was  of  a  turbulent  and  proud  spirit,  and 
would  nevei-  be  at  rest ;  and  that  he  had  killed  the 
Pequot  contrary  to  his  promise." 


664 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


The  commissioners  had  received  intimations,  that 
the  Narragansets  had  it  in  contemplation  to  capture 
one  or  more  of  them,  with  a  view  to  the  redemption 
of  Miantoiiimoh;  and  their  determination  respect- 
ing his  execution  was  therefore  kept  as  a  profound 
secret,  until  after  the  return  of  the  commissioners 
of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven,  lest  it  should  in- 
flame and  encourage  them  to  make  the  attempt. 

Previously  to  the  meeting  of  the  commissioners, 
the  Dutch  governor  had  written  a  letter  to  Governor 
Winthrop,  containing  high  congratulations  on  the 
union  of  the  colonies,  and  at  the  same  time  making 
grievous  complaints  of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven, 
as  having  committed  insufferable  injuries  against 
the  Dutch,  and  as  having  given  misinformation  re- 
specting them  to  their  agent  in  Europe  ;  and  he  de- 
sired a  categorical  answer  from  Governor  Winthrop, 
whether  he  would  aid  or  desert  them,  that  he  might 
know  who  were  his  friends,  and  who  were  his  ene- 
mies. The  governor,  after  consulting  with  some 
few  of  his  council,  who  were  at  hand,  wrote  an  an- 
swer in  part  to  the  Dutch  governor,  reserving  to 
himself  one  more  full  at  the  session  of  the  general 
court.  He  represented  his  sorrow  for  the  differ- 
ences which  had  arisen,  between  the  Dutch  and  his 
brethren  at  Hartford,  suggesting  that  they  might  be 
settled  by  arbitrators,  either  in  England,  Holland, 
or  America ;  observed,  that  by  the  articles  of  con- 
federation each  colony  was  obliged  to  seek  the 
safety  and  welfare  of  the  other  colonies,  no  less  than 
its  own ;  hoped  that  this  would  not  interrupt  the 
friendship  which  had  subsisted  between  them  and 
the  Dutch;  stated  that  the  controversy  at  Hartford 
was  for  a  small  piece  of  land  only,  which,  in  so  vast 
a  continent  as  this,  was  of  too  little  value  to  make 
a  breach  between  protestauts  so  related  in  profes- 
sion and  religion  as  the  Dutch  and  English  were ; 
and  finally  desired  that  each  party  would  carefully 
avoid  all  injuries,  until  the  differences  between,  them 
should  be  amicably  accommodated  by  an  impartial 
hearing  and  adjudication,  either  in  Europe  or 
America. 

The  affair  was  then  brought  before  the  commis- 
sioners. Governor  Eaton  and  Mr.  Gregson  com- 
plained of  the  outrages  which  the  Dutch  had  com- 
mitted against  the  persons  and  property  of  the 
English,  within  the  limits  of  New  Haven,  at  Dela- 
ware, and  in  other  places,  and  made  proof  of  the 
injuries  of  which  they  complained.  The  conduct  of 
the  Dutch  towards  Connecticut  was  also  laid  before 
the  commissioners  by  Governor  Hopkins  and  Mr. 
Fenwick. 

Upon  which  the  president  was  directed  to  write 
a  letter,  in  the  name  of  the  commissioners,  to  the 
Dutch  governor,  stating  the  particular  injuries 
which  the  Dutch  had  done  the  English  colonies, 
and  to  demand  satisfaction.  It  was  also  directed, 
that  as  Governor  Winthrop  had  in  part  answered 
the  Dutch  governor's  letter  respecting  Connecticut, 
he  would  now,  in  further  answer  to  it,  particularize 
the  injuries  done,  both  to  Connecticut  and  New 
Haven,  and  demand  an  answer;  and  he  was  also  au- 
thorized to  assure  the  Dutch,  that  as  they  would  not 
wrong  others,  so  neither  would  they  desert  their  con- 
federates in  a  just  cause. 

The  Indians  at  this  period  were  beginning  to  ac- 
quire the  use  of  fire-arms.  The  French,  Dutch,  and 
others,  for  the  sake  of  gain,  were  vending  them 
arms  and  ammunition;  and  they  were  in  such  a 
tumultuous  and  hostile  state,  as  had  the  appearance 
of  a  general  war.  The  commissioners,  therefore, 
gave  orders  that  the  militia,  in  the  several  colonies. 


should  be  frequently  trained,  and  completely  furnish- 
ed with  arms  and  ammunition.  All  the  companies 
were  to  be  mustered  and  reviewed  four  times  in 
year  ;  and  it  was  ordered  that  all  the  towns  should 
prepare  magazines,  in  proportion  to  the  number  of 
their  militia. 

The  commissioners  having  given  the  necessary 
directions  for  the  execution  of  Miantonimoh,  and 
for  the  general  safety  of  the  country,  dispersed  and 
returned  to  their  respective  colonies. 

Immediately  upon  the  return  of  the  commission- 
ers of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven,  Uncas,  with  a 
competent  number  of  his  most  trusty  men,  was  or- 
dered to  repair  forthwith  to  Hartford;  where  he 
was  made  acquainted  with  the  determination  of  the 
commissioners,  and,  receiving  his  prisoner,  marched 
with  him  to  the  spot  where  he  had  been  taken.  At 
the  instant  they  arrived  on  the  ground,  one  of 
Uncas's  men,  who  marched  behind  Miautonimoh, 
split  his  head  with  a  hatchet,  killing  him  at  a  single 
stroke.  He  was  probably  unacquainted  with  his 
fate,  and  knew  not  by  what  means  he  fell.  Uncas 
cut  out  a  large  piece  of  his  shoulder,  and  ate  it  in 
savage  triumph ;  saying,  "  it  was  the  sweetest  meat 
he  ever  ate,  it  made  his  heart  strong." 

The  Moheagans,  by  the  order  of  Uncas,  buried 
him  at  the  place  of  his  execution,  and  erected  a 
great  heap,  or  pillar,  upon  his  grave.  This  event 
gave  the  place  the  name  of  Sachem's  Plain.  Two 
Englishmen  were  sent  with  Uncas  to  witness  that 
execution  was  done,  and  to  prevent  all  torture 
and  cruelty  in  the  manner  of  its  performance ;  and 
Connecticut  and  New  Haven,  agreeably  to  the  di- 
rection of  the  commissioners,  sent  a  party  of  soldiers 
to  Moheagan,  to  defend  Uncas  against  any  assault 
which  might  be  made  upon  him  by  the  Narragansets, 
in  consequence  of  the  execution  of  their  sachem. 

Governor  Winthrop,  at  the  same  time,  according 
to  the  orders  which  he  had  received  from  the  com- 
missioners, dispatched  messengers  to  Canonicus, 
the  Narraganset  sachem,  and  the  Narraganset  In- 
dians, to  certify  to  them  that  the  English  had  noticed 
their  perfidy,  in  violating  the  league  between  them 
and  the  English,  from  time  to  time,  notwithstanding 
the  English  had  treated  them  with  love  and  integrity. 
These  messengers  assured  them,  that  they  had  disco- 
vered their  mischievous  plots,  in  joining  with  Mianto- 
nimoh, in  purchasing  aid  of  the  Indians,  and  by  gifts, 
threats,  and  allurements,  exciting  them  to  a  con- 
federacy to  root  out  the  whole  body  of  the  English ; 
represented  to  them  their  treachery  in  waging  war 
with  Uncas,  contrary  to  their  express  covenant  with 
him  and  with  the  English ;  and  justified  the  execu- 
tion of  Miantonimoh,  by  Uncas,  as  he  was  his  lawful 
captive,  and  as  he  had  practised  treachery  and 
murder  against  him  and  his  subjects;  and  insisted 
that  it  was  both  just  and  agreeable  to  the  practice 
of  the  Indians  in  similar  cases,  and  necessary  for 
the  safety  of  Uncas,  the  peace  of  the  country,  and 
even  of  the  Narragansets  themselves.  While  they 
firmly  and  fully  represented  these  facts  to  them, 
they,  in  the  name  of  the  united  colonies,  tendered 
them  peace  and  safety  ;  and  assured  them  that  they 
would  defend  Uncas  and  all  their  allies,  whether 
English  or  Indians,  in  their  just  rights  ;  and  if  they 
desired  peace,  they  would  exercise  equal  care  and 
friendship  towards  them. 

The  commissioners  gave  orders,  that  Connecticut 
should  provide  for  the  defence  of  Uncas  against  any 
assault  of  the  Narragansets,  or  any  other  Indians. 

Upon  the  general  election  at  New  Haven,  in 
October,  Governor  Eaton  and  Mr.  Stephen  Good- 


UNITED  STATES. 


665 


year  were  re-elected  governoi  and  deputy-governor 
Mr.  William  Fowler  and  Mr.  Edward  Tapp  were 
elected  magistrates  for  Milford,  and  Thurston  Ray- 
ner  for  Stamford.  This  year,  for  the  first  time,  the 
general  court  at  New  Haven,  are  distinctly  recorded 
and  distinguished  by  the  names  of  governor,  deputy 
governor,  magistrates,  and  deputies. 

It  appears  that  the  plantation  at  Yennycock  had 
not  fully  attended  to  the  fundamental  article  of  ad- 
mitting none  to  be  free  burgesses  but  members  of 
the  church ;  and  it  was  therefore  at  this  general  court 
decreed,  "  That  none  should  be  admitted  free  bur- 
gesses in  any  of  the  plantations  but  such  as  were 
members  of  some  approved  church  in  New  England: 
that  such  only  should  have  any  vote  in  elections; 
and  that  no  power  for  ordering  any  civil  affairs 
should  be  put  into  the  hands  of  any  but  such." 

It  was  also  enacted,  that  each  town  in  the  juris- 
diction should  choose  their  own  judges  in  ordinary 
cases ;  who  were  authorized  to  judge  in  civil  cases 
not  exceeding  twenty  shillings,  and  in  criminal 
cases,  in  which  the  punishment  did  not  exceed  set- 
ting the  delinquent  in  the  stocks,  whipping  him,  or 
fining  not  exceeding  five  pounds.  If  there  were  a 
magistrate,  or  magistrates,  in  the  towns  in  which 
these  town-coutts  were  holden,  then  the  magistrate, 
or  magistrates,  were  to  sit  in  the  court,  and  judg- 
ment was  to  be  given  with  a  due  respect  to  their 
advice.  From  these  courts,  there  was  liberty  of  ap- 
peal to  the  court  of  magistrates. 

It  was  granted,  that  all  the  free  burgesses  in  the 
plantations  should  vote  in  the  choice  of  governors, 
magistrates,  secretary,  and  treasurer  ;  and  also  that 
each  town  should  have  a  magistrate,  if  they  desired 
it,  chosen  from  among  their  own  free  burgesses. 

At  this  general  court,  a  court  of  magistrates  was 
appointed,  consisting  of  all  the  magistrates  in  the 
jurisdiction.  They  were  to  meet  twice,  annually,  at 
New  Haven,  on  the  Mondays  preceding  the  gene- 
ral courts  in  April  and  October ;  and  were  authorized 
to  receive  appeals  from  the  plantation-courts,  and 
to  try  all  important  causes,  civil  and  criminal. 
Every  magistrate  was  obliged,  on  penalty  of  a  fine, 
to  give  his  attendance.  Four  magistrates  consti- 
tuted a  quorum.  All  judgments  of  the  court  were 
to  be  determined  by  a  major  vote.  All  trials  were 
decided  by  the  bench.  It  does  not  appear  that  juries 
were  ever  used  in  the  colony  of  New  Haven. 

The  court  enacted,  that  there  should  be  two  gene- 
ral courts  for  this  colony,  to  meet  at  New  Haven, 
on  the  first  Wednesday  in  April,  and  the  last  in 
October,  annually.  It  was  decreed,  that  the  gene- 
ral court  should  consist  of  a  deputy-governor,  ma- 
gistrates, and  two  deputies  from  each  town.  In  the 
last  of  these  general  courts,  a  governor,  deputy-go- 
vernor, magistrates,  secretary,  treasurer,  and  mar- 
shal, or  high  sheriff,  were  to  be  annually  chosen. 
The  governor,  or,  in  his  absence,  the  deputy- go- 
vernor, had  power  to  call  a  general  court,  upon 
pressing  emergencies,  and  whenever  it  might  be 
necessary.  All  the  members  were  obliged  to  attend, 
upon  penalty  of  twenty  shillings  fine  in  case  of  de- 
fault. It  was  ordained,  that  in  this  court  should 
subsist  the  supreme  power  of  the  commonwealth; 
and  particularly  that  it  should,  "  with  all  care  and 
diligence,  endeavour  to  maintain  the  purity  of  re- 
ligion, and  to  suppress  all  irreligion,  according 
to  the  best  light  they  could  obtain  from  the  divine 
oracles,  and  by  the  advice  of  the  elders  and  churches 
in  the  jurisdiction,  so  far  as  it  might  concern  the 
civil  power." 

The  Dutch  were  this  year  exceedingly  harassed 


and  distressed  by  the  Indians,  and  made  application 
to  Governor  Eaton  and  the  general  court,  soliciting 
that  a  hundred  men  might  be  raised  in  the  planta- 
tions for  their  assistance  against  such  barbarous 
enemies. 

The  war  between  the  Dutch  and  Indians  arose 
from  a  drunken  Indian,  in  his  intoxication,  having 
killed  a  Dutchman.  The  Dutch  demanded  the 
murderer,  but  he  was  not  to  be  found;  and  they 
then  made  application  to  their  governor  to  avenge 
the  murder ;  who,  judging  it  would  be  unjust  or  un- 
safe, considering  the  numbers  of  the  Indians,  and 
the  weak  and  scattered  state  of  the  Dutch  settle- 
ments, neglected  to  comply  with  their  repeated 
solicitations.  In  the  mean  time  the  Mohawks,  as 
the  report  was,  excited  by  the  Dutch,  fell  suddenly 
on  the  Indians,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Dutch  settle 
ments,  and  killed  nearly  thirty  of  them.  Others 
fled  to  the  Dutch  for  protection ;  and  one  Marine, 
a  Dutch  captain,  getting  intelligence  of  their  state, 
made  application  to  the  Dutch  governor,  and  ob- 
tained a  commission  to  kill  as  many  of  them  as  it 
should  be  in  his  power  ;  and  collecting  a  company 
of  armed  men,  he  fell  suddenly  upon  the  Indians', 
and  made  a  promiscuous  slaughter  of  men,  women 
and  children,  to  the  number  of  seventy  or  eighty. 
This  instantly  roused  the  Indians,  in  that  part  of 
the  country,  to  a  furious  and  bloody  war.  In  the 
spring,  and  beginning  of  the  summer,  they  burnt  the 
Dutch  out-houses ;  and  driving  their  cattle  into 
their  barns,  they  burned  the  barns  and  cattle  toge- 
;her ;  killed  twenty  or  more  of  the  Dutch  people, 
and  pressed  so  hard  upon  them  that  they  were  ob- 
liged to  take  refuge  in  their  fort,  and  to  seek  help 
of  the  English.  The  Indians  upon  Long  Island 
united  in  the  war  with  those  on  the  main,  and 
burned  the  Dutch  houses  and  barns.  The  Dutch 
governor  in  this  situation  invited  Captain  Under- 
lill  from  Stamford  to  assist  him  in  the  war ;  Ma- 
rine, the  Dutch  captain,  was  so  exasperated  with 
;his  proceeding  that  he  presented  his  pistol  at  the 
governor,  and  would  have  shot  him,  but  was  pre- 
vented :  one  of  Marine's  tenants  however  discharged 
lis  musket  at  the  governor,  and  the  ball  just  missed 
lim  ;  upon  which  the  governor's  sentinel  shot  the 
.enant  dead  upon  the  spot.  The  Dutch,  who  at  first 
were  clamorous  for  a  war  with  the  Indians,  were 
now,  when  they  experienced  the  loss  and  dangers 
if  it,  so  irritated  at  the  governor,  for  the  orders 
which  he  had  given,  that  he  could  not  trust  himself 
among  them,  and  he  was  obliged  to  keep  a  constant 
guard  of  fifty  Englishmen  about  his  person.  In  tho 
iummer  and  fall  the  Indians  killed  fifteen  more  of 
he  Dutch  people,  and  drove  in  all  the  inhabitants 
»f  the  English  and  Dutch  settlements,  west  of 
Stamford. 

In  prosecution  of  their  works  of  destruction,  they 
made  a  visit  to  the  neighbourhood  where  Mrs.  Hut- 
chinson,  who  had  been  so  famous  at  Boston,  for  her 
Antinomian  and  familistical  tenets,  had  made  a  set- 
tlement. The  Indians  at  first  appeared  with  the 
ame  friendship  with  which  they  used  to  frequent 
her  house  ;  but  they  murdered  her  and  all  her 
'amily,  Mr.  Collins,  her  son-in-law,  and  several 
)ther  persons,  belonging  to  other  families  in  the 
neighbourhood,  to  the  number  of  eighteen;  and 
with  an  implacable  fury,  prosecuted  the  destruct- 
on  of  the  Dutch,  and  of  their  property,  in  all 
,hat  part  of  the  country.  They  killed  and  burned 
heir  cattle,  horses  and  barns  without  resistance ; 
ind  having  destroyed  the  settlements  in  the  country, 
,hey  passed  over  to  the  Dutch  plantations  on  Long 


660 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Island,  doing  all  the  mischief  of  which  they  were 
capable.  The  Dutch,  who  escaped,  were  confined 
to  their  fort,  and  were  obliged  to  kill  and  eat  their 
cattle,  for  their  subsistence. 

Governor  Eaton  and  the  general  court  having 
maturely  considered  the  purport  of  the  Dutch  go- 
vernor's letter,  rejected  the  proposal  for  raising  men 
and  assisting  in  the  war  against  the  Indians.  Their 
principal  reasons  were,  that  joining  separately  in 
war,  was  prohibited  by  the  articles  of  confedera- 
tion ;  and  that  they  were  not  satisfied  that  the 
Dutch  war  with  the  Indians  was  just.  Nevertheless 
it  was  determined,  that  if  the  Dutch  needed  corn 
and  provisions  for  men  or  cattle,  by  reason  of  the 
destruction  which  the  Indians  had  made,  the  court 
would  give  them  all  the  assistance  in  its  power. 

The  Indians  at  Stamford  caught  too  much  the 
spirit  of  the  Western  Indians  in  their  vicinity,  who 
were  at  war  with  the  Dutch ;  and  appeared  so  tu- 
multuous and  hostile,  that  the  people  at  Stamford 
were  in  great  fear  that  they  should  soon  share  the 
fate  of  the  settlements  to  the  westward  of  them. 
They  wrote  to  the  general  court  at  New  Haven,  that 
in  their  apprehensions  there  were  just  grounds  of  a 
wai  with  those  Indians,  and  that  if  their  houses 
should  be  burned,  because  the  other  plantations 
would  not  consent  to  war,  they  ought  to  bear  the 
damage. 

The  Narraganset  Indians  were  enraged  at  the 
death  of  their  sachem.  The  English  were  univer- 
sally armed.  The  strictest  watch  and  guard  was 
kept  in  all  the  plantations.  In  Connecticut  every 
family,  in  which  there  was  a  man  capable  of  bearing 
arms,  was  obliged  to  send  one  completely  armed, 
every  Sunday,  to  defend  the  places  of  public  wor- 
ship ;  and  indeed  all  places  wore  the  aspect  of  a 
general  war. 

Public  fasts  appointed — Indians  continue  hostile,  and 
commit  murder — Acts  of  the  commissioners  respecting 
them — Branford  settled — Towns  in  Connecticut — 
Message  of  the  commissioners  to  the  Narragansets— 
Their  agreement  respecting  Uncas — Long  Island 
Indians  taken  under  the  protection  of  the  United 
Colonies — Massachusetts  claims  part  of  the  Pequot 
country  and  Waranoke — Determination  of  the  com- 
missioners respecting  said  claim — Agreement  with 
Mr.  Fenwick  relative  to  Saybrook  fort  and  the  ad- 
jacent country — Fortifications  advanced — Ertraor- 
dinary  meeting  of  the  commissioners  to  suppress  the 
outrages  of  the  Narragansets — War  proclaimed  and 
troops  sent  against  them — They  treat  and  prevent 
war — Fail  field  objects  to  a  jury  of  six — Controversy 
with  the  Dutch— The  Indians  plot  against  the  life  of 
Governor  Hopkins  and  othar  principal  gentlemen  at 
Hartford — Damages  at  Windsor — Battle  between 
the  Dutch  and  Indians — Losses  of  New  Haven — 
Dispute  with  Massachusetts  relative  to  the  impost  at 
Saybrook — Mr.  Winthrop's  claim  of  the  Nehantic 
country — Settlement  of  accounts  between  the  colonies. 

(1644.)  The  affairs  both  of  Old  and  New  England 
wore  so  gloomy  an  aspect  at  this  time,  that  the 
pious  people  in  the  colonies  judged  extraordinary 
fasting  and  prayer  to  be  their  indispensable  duty. 
The  flames  of  civil  discord  were  kindled  in  England, 
and  the  tumultuous  and  hostile  state  of  the  natives 
in  the  united  colonies  threatened  them  with  a  bloody 
and  merciless  Indian  war.  The  general  court  of 
Connecticut  therefore  ordained  a  monthly  fast, 
through  the  colony,  to  begin  on  Wednesday  the 
6th  of  January.  New  Haven  had  before  appointed 
a  fast  at  the  same  time  in  all  the  plantations  in  that 


jurisdiction  ;  and,  indeed,  this  was  practised  through- 
out  the  united  colonies,  during  (he  civil  wars  in 
England.  The  colonists  sympathized  with  their 
brethren,  in  their  native  country,  and  conformed 
to  them  in  their  days  of  humiliation  and  prayer. 

The  freemen  of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven  ex- 
hibited a  remarkable  example  of  steadiness  in  the 
election  of  civil  officers.  Nearly  the  same  persons 
were  chosen  annually  into  places  of  principal  trust 
as  long  as  they  lived.  This  year  Edward  Hopkins, 
Esq.  was  chosen  governor,  and  John  Haynes,  Esq. 
deputy-governor.  The  other  magistrates  were  the 
same  as  they  had  been  the  last  year,  except  Mr. 
William  Swain,  who  was  chosen  into  the  magis- 
tracy. Mr.  Haynes  and  Mr.  Hopkins  were  gene- 
rally elected,  alternately  governor  and  deputy-go- 
vernor, during  their  respective  lives.  The  reason 
of  this  annual  change  of  them,  from  governor  to 
deputy-governor,  was  because  the  constitution  pro- 
hibited the  choice  of  the  same  governor  more  than 
once  in  two  years. 

At  New 'Haven,  Governor  Eaton  was  annually 
elected  to  the  office  of  governor  during  his  life  ;  and 
Mr.  Stephen  Goodyear  was  generally  chosen  dep- 
uty-governor. 

The  Indians  were  no  more  peaceable  this  year 
than  they  were  the  last.  Those  in  the  western  part 
of  Connecticut  still  conducted  themselves  in  a  hos- 
tile manner.  In  the  spring  they  murdered  a  man 
belonging  to  Massachusetts,  between  Fairfield  and 
Stamford  ;  and  atiout  six  or  eight  weeks  aftei  the 
murder  was  discovered,  the  Indians  promised  to  de- 
liver the  murderer,  at  Uncoway,  if  Mr.  Ludlow 
would  appoint  men  to  receive  him.  Mr.  Ludlow 
sent  ten  men  for  that  purpose ;  but  as  soon  as  the 
Indians  came  within  sight  of  the  town,  they,  by 
general  consent,  unbound  the  prisoner  and  suffered 
him  to  escape.  The  English  were  so  exasperated  at 
this  insult,  that  they  immediately  seized  on  eight  or 
ten  of  the  Indians,  and  committed  them  to  prison. 
There  was  among  them  one  or  two  sachems  ;  and 
consequently  the  Indians  arose  in  great  numbers 
about  the  town,  and  exceedingly  alarmed  the  peo- 
ple both  at  Fairfield  and  Stamford.  Mr.  Ludlow 
wrote  to  New  Haven  for  advice ;  and  the  court  de- 
sired him  to  keep  the  Indians  in  durance,  and  as- 
sured him  of  immediate  assistance,  should  it  be 
necessary.  A  party  of  twenty  men  were  draughted 
forthwith,  and  prepared  to  march  to  Stamford  upon 
the  shortest  notice.  The  Indians  were  held  in  cus- 
tody, until  four  sachems,  in  those  parts,  appeared 
and  interceded  for  them,  promising  that  if  the 
English  would  release  them,  they  would  within  a 
month  deliver  the  murderer  to  justice. 

Not  more  than  a  month  after  their  release,  an 
Indian  went  boldly  into  the  town  of  Stamford,  and 
made  a  murderous  assault  upon  a  woman  in  her 
house.  Finding  no  man  at  home,  he  took  up  a 
lathing  hammer,  and  approached  her  as  though  ha 
were  about  to  put  it  into  her  hand ;  but  as  she  was 
stooping  down  to  take  her  child  from  the  cradle,  he 
struck  her  upon  the  head;  she  fell  instantly ;  and 
he  then  struck  her  twice  with  the  sharp  part  of  the 
hammer,  which  penetrated  her  skull.  Supposing 
her  to  be  dead,  he  plundered  the  house,  and  made  his 
escape,  but  soon  after,  the  woman  so  far  recovered 
as  to  describe  the  Indian,  and  his  manner  of  dress. 
Her  wounds,  which  at  first  appeared  to  be  mortal, 
were  finally  healed  ;  but  her  brain  was  so  affected, 
that  she  lost  her  reason 

At  the  same  time,  the  Indians  rose  in  those  parts 
with  the  most  tumultuous  and  hostile  appearances. 


UNITED  STATES. 


667 


They  refust-d  to  come  to  the  English,  or  to  have  any 
treaty  with  them;  they  appeared,  in  a  very  alarm- 
ing manner,  about  several  of  the  plantations,  firing 
their  pieces,  and  exceedingly  terrifying  the  inhabit- 
ants ;  and  they  deserted  their  wigwams,  and  neg- 
lected to  weed  their  corn.  Most  of  the  English 
judged  it  unsafe  to  travel  by  land,  and  some  of  the 
plantations  were  obliged  to  keep  a  strong  guard 
and  watch,  night  and  day;  and  as  they  had  not 
numbers  sufficient  to  defend  themselves,  they  made 
application  to  Hartford  and  New  Haven  for  assist- 
ance ;  which  both  sent  aid  to  the  weaker  parts  of 
their  respective  colonies.  New  Haven  sent  help  to 
Fairfield  and  Stamford,  as  they  were  much  nearer 
to  them  than  to  Connecticut. 

After  a  great  deal  of  alarm  and  trouble,  the  In- 
dian, who  had  attempted  the  murder  of  the  woman, 
was  delivered  up,  and  executed  at  New  Haven. 
The  executioner  cut  off  his  head  with  a  falchion ; 
but  from  want  of  dexterity  he  gave  the  Indian  eight 
blows  before  he  effected  the  execution  ;  and  the  in- 
trepid savage  sat  erect  and  motionless  until  his  head 
was  severed  from  his  body. 

Both  the  colonies  of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven 
were  put  to  great  expense  this  year  in  defending 
themselves,  and  they  were  obliged  to  bear  the  whole 
charge,  as  the  measures  adopted  for  their  defence, 
were  taken  by  the  order  of  their  respective  legisla- 
tures, and  not  by  the  direction  of  the  commissioners. 
The  unhappy  divisions  which  continued  at  Wea- 
thersfield  occasioned  another  settlement  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  New  Haven.  As  Mr.  Eaton,  to 
whom  Totoket  had  been  granted,  in  1640,  had  not 
performed  the  conditions  of  the  grant,  New  Haven, 
for  the  accommodation  of  a  number  of  people  at 
AVeathersfield,  made  a  sale  of  it  to  Mr.  William 
Swain,  and  others  of  that  town  ;  who  sold  it  at  the 
price  which  it  cost  them,  stipulating  with  Mr.  Swain 
and  his  company  that  they  should  unite  with  that 
colony  in  all  the  fundamental  articles  of  govern- 
ment. The  settlement  of  the  town  immediately 
commenced.  At  the  same  time,  Mr.  Abraham 
Pierson,  with  a  part  of  his  church  and  congregation, 
from  Southampton,  on  Long  Island,  removed  and 
united  with  the  people  of  Weathersfield  in  the  set- 
tlement of  the  town.  A  regular  church  was  soon 
formed,  and  Mr.  Pierson  was  chosen  pastor.  The 
town  was  named  Branford.  Mr.  Swain  was  the 
principal  planter,  and  a  few  years  after  was  chosen 
one  of  the  magistrates  of  the  colony  of  New  Haven, 
as  he  had  previously  been  of  the  colony  of  Connecticut. 
The  meeting  of  the  commissioners  this  year  was 
at  Hartford.  Mr.  Simon  Bradstreet  and  Mr.  Wil- 
liam Hawthorne  were  commissioners  from  the  Mas- 
sachusetts; Mr.  Edward  Winslow  and  Mr.  William 
Brown,  from  Plymouth;  Governor  Hopkins  and 
Mr.  George  Fenwick,  from  Connecticut;  and  Go- 
vernor Eaton  and  Mr.  Thomas  Gregson,  from  New 
Haven. 

No  sooner  was  the  meeting  opened,  than  a  pro- 
posal was  made  by  the  commissioners  from  Massa- 
chusetts, directed  by  their  general  court,  that  the 
commissioners  from  that  colony  should  always  have 
preference  to  the  commissioners  of  the  other  colonies 
and  be  allowed  to  subscribe  first,  in  the  same  order 
in  which  the  articles  of  confederation  had  been  signed 
Upon  consideration  of  the  proposal,  the  commis 
sioners  were  unanimously  of  the  opinion,  that  no 
such  thing  had  either  been  proposed,  granted,  or 
practised,  by  the  commissioners  of  the  other  juris 
dictions,  in  any  of  their  former  meetings,  though 
the  articles  had  been  subscribed  in  the  presence  o:~ 


the  general  court  of  the  Massachusetts.  They  re- 
solved, that  the  commission  was  free,  and  might  not 
receive  any  thing  but  what  was  expressed  by  the 
articles  of  confederation,  as  imposed  by  any  general 
court.  Nevertheless,  they  determined  that  on  ac- 
count of  their  respect  to  the  Massachusetts,  they 
willingly  granted  that  their  commissioners  in  that 
and  in  all  future  meetings  should  subscribe  first, 
after  the  president,  and  the  commissioners  of  the 
other  colonies  in  such  order  as  they  were  named  in 
the  articles  ;  viz.  Plymouth,  Connecticut,  and  New 
laven. 

The  Indians  were  this  year  almost  every  where 
roublesome,  and  in  some  places  in  a  high  state  01 
tostility.  In  Virginia  they  generally  rose,  and 
made  a  most  horrible  massacre  of  the  English  ;  and 
t  was  imagined  that  there  was  a  general  combina- 
ion  among  the  southern  and  New  England  Indians 
o  destroy  all  the  colonies.  The  Narraganset  In- 
iians,  regardless  of  all  their  covenants  with  the 
English  and  with  Uncas,  continued  in  acts  of  con- 
tant  hostility  against  the  latter,  and  so  oppressed 
he  sachems  and  Indians  under  the  protection  of 
he  Massachusetts,  that  they  were  obliged  to  dis- 
patch a  party  of  men  for  their  defence  and  assist- 
nce,  in  fortifying  against  these  oppressors. 

The  commissioners  immediately  sent  Thomas 
Stanton,  their  interpreter,  and  Nathaniel  Willet, 
nto  the  Narraganset  and  Moheagan  countries,  with 
>articular  instructions  to  their  respective  sachems. 
They  were  instructed  to  acquaint  the  sachems,  that 
he  commissioners  were  then  met  at  Hartford;  and 
;hat  if  they  would  appear  and  lay  their  respective 
grievances  before  them,  they  would  judge  impar- 
ially  between  them :  that  the  commissioners  had 
leard  the  report  which  they  had  spread  abroad  con- 
cerning Uncas,  that  he  had  taken  a  ransom,  in  part, 
?or  Miantonimoh,  and  afterwards  had  put  him  to 
death ;  and  that  he  refused  to  return  the  ransom. 
They  were  directed  to  assure  them,  that  Uncas  ut- 
terly denied  the  charge:  that,  nevertheless,  if  they 
ould  go  themselves,  or  send  some  of  their  principal 
men  to  Hartford,  the  commissioners  would  impar- 
;ially  hear  this,  and  all  other  differences  subsisting 
aetween  them  and  the  Moheagans,  and  assist  them 
in  the  settlement  of  an  amicable  correspondence 
between  the  two  nations ;  and  that  the  parties  should 
tiave  a  safe  passage  to  and  from  Hartford,  without 
any  injury  from  the  English.  According  to  their 
nstructions,  they  demanded  of  both  parties?  that 
they  should  commit  nc  acts  of  hostility  against  each 
other  in  their  travels  to  Hartford,  nor  on  their  re- 
turn to  their  respective  countries ;  and  that  all 
hostilities  against  each  other's  plantations  should 
cease  during  the  hearing  and  treaty  proposed.  If 
either  of  the  parties  should  refuse  to  go  or  send  to 
Hartford,  the  treaty  made  in  1638  was  to  be  urged 
against  them,  and  their  engagements  not  to  go  to 
war  with  each  other  until  they  had  acquainted  the 
English  with  their  grievances,  and  taken  their  ad- 
vice. Directions  were  given  that  it  should  be  de- 
manded of  the  party  refusing,  what  their  designs 
were  ?  Whether  they  were  for  peace  or  war  ? 
Whether  they  designed  to  perform  their  treaties 
made  with  the  English  of  Massachusetts  and  Con- 
necticut ?  Or  whether  they  considered  them  as  all 
broken  and  void?  The  interpreter  was  charged 
fully  to  state  ail  these  articles  to  the  Indians,  and, 
having  taken  their  answers  in  writing,  to  read  them 
to  the  sachems,  that  they  might  understand  and 
acknowledge  them  to  be  the  very  answers  which 
they  bad  given. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


In  consequence  of  this  message,  the  Narraganset 
Indians  sent  one  of  their  sachems,  with  other  chief 
men,  to  prove  their  charge  against  Uncas,  and  to 
treat  with  the  English.  They  also  bound  them- 
selves to  confirm  what  their  deputies  should  do  in 
their  name.  Uncas  also  made  his  appearance, 
and  the  commissioners  went  into  a  full  hearing  of 
all  differences  between  the  parties.  Upon  heaving 
the  case,  the  commissioners  found  that  there  never 
had  been  any  agreement  between  the  Narragansets 
and  Uncas  for  the  redemption  of  Miantonimoh, 
nor  anything  paid,  in  whole  or  in  part,  for  his  ran- 
som. 'Notwithstanding,  they  declared  that  if  the 
Narragansets  should  hereafter  be  able  to  prove  what 
they  had  alleged  against  Uncas,  that  they  would 
order  him  to  make  full  satisfaction.  They  also  re- 
solved, that  neither  the  Narragansets  nor  Nehan- 
ticks  should  make  any  war  or  assault  upon  Uncas, 
or  any  of  his  men,  until  thoy  should  make  proof  of 
the. pretended  ransom,  and  thztt  Uncas  had  refused 
to  make  them  satisfaction. 

The  Narraganset  sachem  and  his  counsellors, 
upon  consultation  together,  stipulated,  in  behalf  of 
the  Narraganset  and  Nehantick  Indians,  that  no 
hostility  should  be  committed  against  Uncas,  or  any 
of  his  Indians,  until  after  the  next  year's  time  of 
planting  corn.  They  also  covenanted,  that  before 
they  began  war  they  would  give  thirty  days'  notice, 
either  to  the  governor  of  Massachusetts  or  Con- 
necticut. Thus,  for  the  present,  by  the  vigorous 
and  prudent  exertions  of  the  colonies  and  their 
commissioners,  an  Indian  war  was  prevented. 

Yoncho,  Wiantanse,  Moughmatow,  and  Weena- 
ganinim,  sachems  of  Monhauset  and  its  vicinity,  on 
Long  Island,  with  their  companies,  appeared  before 
the  commissioners,  and  represented  that  they  anc 
the  Long  Island  Indians  had  been  tributaries  to 
the  English  ever  since  the  Pequot  war,  and  tha 
they  had  never  injured  the  English  nor  the  Dutch 
but  had  been  friendly  to  both.  They  therefore 
desired  a  certificate  of  their  relation  to  the  English 
and  to  be  taken  under  the  protection  of  the  unitec 
colonies.  Upon  this  representation,  the  commis 
sioners  gave  them  a  certificate,  and  declared  tha 
it  was  their  desire,  while  they  continued  peaceable 
and  did  not  intermeddle  with  the  quarrels  of  othe 
Indians,  that  they  and  their  companies  might  enjoi 
ample  peace,  without  any  disturbance  from  the 
English,  or  any  in  connexion  or  friendship  with 
them. 

In  this  meeting,  the  commissioners  of  Massachu 
setts  laid  claim  to  part  of  the  Pequot  country,  or 
the  footing  of  joint  conquest ;  and  desired  that  a 
division  of  the  country  might  be  made,  01  some 
way  prescribed,  by  which  the  affair  might  be  com 
promised. 

Mr.  Fenwick,  in  behalf  of  himself,  and  the  noble 
men  and  gentlemen  in   England,  particularly  in 
terested   in  the   lands   in   question,    pleaded,    tha 
nothing   in   their   absence    might    be    determinec 
against  their  title.     He  insisted  that  Pequot    har 
bour,  and  the   lands   in  the  adjacent  country,  wer 
of  great  consequence  to  the  gentlemen  interested  in 
the  Connecticut  patent;  and  said  they  had  a  specia 
respect  to  them,  in  their  consultations,  relative  to  a 
plantation  in  these  parts. 

The  commissioners  judged  that  a  convenien 
time  ought  to  be  given  to  those  noble  personages  t< 
plead  their  right,  and  that  all  patents  of  equa 
authority  ought  to  have  the  same  construction,  bot 
with  reference  to  propriety  and  jurisdiction. 
The  commissioners  of  Massachusetts  also  mad 


laim  to  Waianoke,  now  Westficld,  as  lying  within 
he  limits  of  their  patent.  Mr.  Fenwiek,  at  tho 
ame  time,  claimed  it  as  covered  by  the  patent  of 
Connecticut.  However,  as  it  appeared  to  the  com- 
missioners that  Mi-.  Femvick  hud  promised,  before 
his  meeting,  either  to  clear  his  title  to  Waranoke, 
r  submit  to  the  government  of  Massachusetts,  they 
etermined  that  Waranoke,  with  Mr.  Hopkins's 
rading-house,  and  the  other  houses  and  lands  in 
hat  plantation,  should  be  under  the  jurisdiction  of 
Massachusetts,  until  it  should  be  made  evident  to 
rljich  colony  they  belonged ;  but  that  the  propriety 
f  the  land  should  belong  to  the  purchasers,  pro- 
ided  it  should  not  exceed  two  thousand  acres. 

The  Reverend  Mr.  Shepard  wrote  to  the  commis- 
ioners,  representing  the  necessity  of  further  assist- 
ance for  the  support  of  scholars  at  Cambridge, 
whose  parents  were  needy,  and  desired  them  to  en- 
tourage a  general  contribution  through  the  colonies. 
The  commissioners  approved  the  motion ;  and,  for 
;he  encouragement  of  literature,  recommended  it  to 
.he  general  courts  in  the  respective  colonies,  to  take 
t  into  their  consideration,  and  to  give  it  general 
encouragement.  The  genera?!  courts  adopted  the 
recommendation,  and  contributions  of  grain  and 
irovisions  were  annually  made,  through  the  united 
colonies,  for  the  charitable  end  proposed. 

At  this  meeting  a  plan  was  concerted  by  the 
commissioners  for  a  general  trade  with  the  Indians, 
by  a  joint  stock.  It  was  proposed  to  begin  the  trade 
with  a  stock  of  five  or  six  thousand  pounds,  and  to 
increase  it  to  twenty  thousand  or  more ;  and  that 
each  general  court  should  approve  and  establish 
the  trade,  with  peculiar  privileges,  for  the  term  of 
twenty  years  :  but  it  was  never  adopted.  It  seems 
it  did  not  agree  with  the  views  of  the  general  court 
of  Massachusetts ;  and  this,  notwithstanding  the 
confederation,  rendered  all  the  determinations  of 
the  commissioners  void,  which  were  not  agreeable 
to  their  views  and  interests. 

As  the  Indians  were  numerous,  and  began  to 
learn  the  use  of  fire-arms,  all  trading  with  them,  in 
any  of  the  united  colonies,  in  guns,  ammunition, 
swords,  or  any  warlike  instruments,  directly  or  in- 
directly, was  prohibited,  upon  the  penalty  of  a  fine 
of  twenty  times  the  value  of  the  articles  thus  unlaw- 
fully sold.  It  was  also  recommended  to  the  several 
courts,  to  prohibit  all  vending  of  arms  and  ammu- 
nition to  the  French  or  Dutch,  because  they  imme- 
diately disposed  of  them  to  the  Indians;  and  every 
smith  was  forbidden  to  mend  a  gun  or  any  warlike 
instrument  for  an  Indian,  under  a  severe  penalty. 

Southampton,  on  Long  Island,  was,  by  the  ad- 
vice of  the  commissioners,  taken  under  the  juris- 
diction of  Connecticut.  This  town  had  been  settled 
in  1640 ;  by  the  inhabitants  of  Lynn,  in  Massachu- 
setts, who  had  become  so  straitened  at  home,  that 
about  the  year  1639  they  contracted  with  the  agent 
of  Lord  Sterling  for  a  tract  of  land  on  the  west 
end  of  Long  Island.  They  also  made  a  treaty  with 
the  Indians,  and  began  a  settlement,  but  the  Dutch 
gave  them  so  much  trouble,  that  they  were  obliged 
to  desert  it,  and  remove  further  eastward  ;  and 
they  ultimately  collected  nearly  a  hundred  families, 
and  made  a  permanent  settlement  at  Southamp- 
ton. By  the  advice  of  the  general  court  of  Massa- 
chusetts, they  entered  into  a  combination  among 
themselves  to  maintain  civil  government;  and  a 
number  of  them  regularly  formed  themselves  into 
church  state,  before  they  removed  to  the  island,  and 
called  Mr.  Abraham  Pierson,  who  had  been  a  mi 
nister  in  Yorkshire,  in  England,  to  be  their  pastor. 


UNITED  STATES. 


669 


Upon  his  arrival  in  New  England,  he  became  a 
member  of  the  church  at  Boston,  whence  he  was 
called  to  the  work  of  the  ministry  at  Southamp- 
ton. This  year  he  removed  with  part  of  his  church 
to  Brantbrd ;  as  it  seems  that  they  were  not  pleased 
that  the  town  had  put  itself  under  the  jurisdiction 
of  Connecticut. 

This  year  a  committee,  consisting  of  the  go- 
vernor, deputy-governor,  and  several  other  gentle- 
men, were  appointed  by  the  general  court  of  Con- 
necticut, to  treat  with  George  Fenwick,  Esquire, 
relative  to  the  purchase  of  Saybrook  fort,  and  of  all 
guns,  buildings,  and  lands  in  the  colony,  which  he, 
aud  the  lords  and  gentlemen  interested  in  the 
patent  of  Connecticut,  might  claim.  The  next 
December  they  came  to  an  agreement  with  Mr. 
Fenwick  to  the  following  effect : — 

"  Articles  of  agreement  made  and  concluded 
betwixt  George  Fenwick,  Esquire,  of  Saybrook 
fort,  on  the  one  part,  and  Edward  Hopkins,  John 
Haynes,  John  Mason,  John  Steele,  and  James 
Boosy,  for,  and  on  the  behalf  of  the  jurisdiction  of 
Connecticut  river,  on  the  other  part,  the  5th  of 
December,  1644. 

"  The  said  George  Fenwick,  Esq.  doth  make 
over  to  the  use  and  behoof  of  the  jurisdiction  of 
Connecticut  river,  to  be  enjoyed  by  them  for  ever, 
the  fort  at  Saybrook,  with  the  appurtenances :  all 
the  land  upon  the  river  Connecticut;  and  such 
lands  as  are  yet  undisposed  of  shall  be  ordered  and 
given  out  by  a  committee  of  five,  whereof  George 
Fenwick,  Esq.  is  always  to  be  one.  The  said 
George  Fenwick  doth  also  promise,  that  all  the 
lands  from  Narraganset  river,  to  the  fort  of  Say- 
brook,  mentioned~in  a  patent  granted  by  the  Earl 
of  Warwick,  to  certain  nobles  and  gentlemen,  shall 
fall  in  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Connecticut,  if  it 
come  into  his  power." 

On  the  part  of  Connecticut  it  was  stipulated, 
"  That  the  said  George  Fenwick,  Esq.  should  enjoy 
all  the  housing  belonging  to  the  fort  for  the  space 
of  ten  years.  And  that  a  certain  duty  on  corn, 
biscuit,  beaver,  and  cattle,  which  should  be  exported 
from  the  river's  mouth  should  be  paid  to  him  during 
the  said  term." 

Upon  the  4th  of  February,  1645,  the  general 
court  of  Connecticut  confirmed  this  agreement  with 
Mr.  Fenwick,  and  passed  an  act  imposing  a  duty  of 
two-pence  per  bushel  upon  all  grain,  six-pence  upon 
every  hundred  weight  of  biscuit,  and  a  small  duty 
upon  all  beaver  exported  from  the  mouth  of  the 
river,  during  the  term  of  ten  years,  from  the  first 
day  of  March  ensuing.  It  was  also  enacted,  that 
an  entry  should  be  made  of  all  grain  laden  on 
board  any  vessel,  of  the  number  of  bushels,  and  of 
the  weight  of  biscuit,  and  that  a  note  of  the  same 
be  delivered  to  Mr.  Fenwick,  upon  the  penalty  of 
forfeiting  the  one  half  of  all  such  grain  and  biscuit 
as  should  be  put  on  board  and  not  thus  certified. 
The  colony,  on  the  whole,  paid  Mr.  Fenwick 
1,600£.  sterling,  merely  for  the  jurisdiction  right,  or 
for  the  old  patent  of  Connecticut.  The  general 
court,  the  next  July,  ordered  that  a  tax  of  two  hun- 
dred pounds  should  be  levied  on  the  plantations  in 
the  colony,  to  defray  the  charge  of  advancing  the 
fortifications  at  Saybrook  fort.  A  committee  was 
appointed,  at  the  same  time,  to  bargain  with  Mr. 
Griffin  for  that  purpose,  and  to  make  provision  for 
the  immediate  completion  of  the  fortifications  in 
view.  A  letter  was  also  dispatched  from  the  court 
to  Mr.  Fenwick,  desiring  him,  if  his  circumstances 
would  permit,  to  make  a  voyage  to  England,  to 


obtain  an  enlargement  of  the  patent,   and  to  pro- 
mote other  interests  of  the  colony. 

Notwithstanding  the  unwearied  pains  the  com- 
missioners of  the  colonies,  and  the  colonies  them- 
selves, had  taken  to  prevent  hostilities  among  the 
Indians,  and  to  preserve  the  peace  of  the  country, 
the  perfidious  Narragansetswere  continually  waging 
war.  Pessacus  and  the  Narraganset  Indians,  in 
violation  of  all  their  treaties,  had  repeatedly  in- 
vaded the  Moheagan  country  and  assaulted  Uncas 
in  his  fort.  They  had  killed  and  taken  numbers  of 
his  men,  and  so  pressed  him,  that  both  Connecticut 
and  New  Haven  were  obliged  to  dispatch  parties 
of  men  to  his  assistance,  to  prevent  the  enemy 
from  completely  conquering  him  and  his  country. 

Governor  Winthrop  therefore  called  a  special 
meeting  of  the  commissioners,  at  Boston,  on  the 
28th  of  June,  1645.  Governor  Winthrop  and  Mr. 
Herbert  Pelham  were  commissioners  for  Massa- 
chusetts, Mr.  Thomas  Prince  and  Mr.  John  Brown 
for  Plymouth,  Edward  Hopkins  and  George  Fen- 
wick, Esquires,  for  Connecticut,  Governor  Eaton 
and  Mr.  Stephen  Goodyear  for  New  Haven. 

Immediately  on  the  meeting  of  the  commissioners, 
they  dispatched  messengers  into  .the  Narraganset 
and  Moheagan  countries  ;  who  were  charged  to  ac- 
quaint the  sachems  and  Indians  of  the  respective 
tribes,  that  if  they  would  go  to  Boston  the  commis- 
sioners would  impartially  hear  and  determine  all 
their  differences ;  and  that,  however  the  treaty 
might  end,  they  should  be  allowed  to  go  and  return 
in  safety.  The  sachems,  at  first,  seemed  to  give 
some  fair  speeches,  but  finally  determined  that  they 
would  neither  go  nor  send  to  Boston.  The  Narra- 
gansets  insulted  and  abused  the  messengers,  and 
uttered  threats  against  the  English.  One  of  the 
sachems  declared  that  he  would  kill  their  cattle 
and  pile  them  in  heaps ;  and  that  an  Englishman 
should  no  sooner  step  out  at  his  doors  than  the  Indians 
would  kill  him.  He  declared  that  whoever  began 
the  war,  he  would  continue  it ;  and  that  nothing 
should  satisfy  him  but  the  head  of  Uncas  ;  and  the 
messengers  were  obliged  to  return  without  effecting 
any  good  purpose.  Mr.  Williams,  of  Rhode  Island, 
wrote  to  the  commissioners,  assuring  them  that  an 
Indian  war  would  soon  break  out;  and  that,  as  a 
preparative,  the  Narragausets  had  concluded  a  neu- 
trality with  Providence  and  the  towns  upon  Aquid- 
ney  Island. 

These  reports  roused  the  English ;  and  the  com- 
missioners, considering  that  the  Narragansets  had 
violated  all  their  treaties3  and  highly  insulted  the 
united  colonies  and  abused  their  messengers,  deter- 
mined that  an  immediate  war  with  them  was  both 
justifiable  and  necessary. 

However,  as  they  wished  to  act  with  prudence  as 
well  as  spirit,  and  to  give  general  satisfaction  in 
an  affair  of  such  moment,  they  desired  the  advice  of 
the  magistrates,  elders,  and  a  number  of  the  prin- 
cipal military  officers  in  the  Massachusetts.  These 
assembled,  and  were  unanimously  of  the  opinion, 
that  their  engagements  obliged  them  to  defend 
Uncas  and  the  Moheagans  :  that  the  defence  which 
they  were  obliged  to  give,  according  to  the  common 
acceptation  of  such  engagements,  extended  not 
barely  to  the  defence  of  Uncas  and  his  men  in  their 
fort,  but  to  his  estate  and  liberties ;  and  that  the 
aid  to  be  given  must  be  immediate,  or  he  would  be 
totally  ruined. 

It  was  therefore  determined  that  a  war  with 
the  Indians  was  just,  that  the  case  should  be  stated 
in  short,  and  war,  with  the  reasons  of  it,  be  pro- 


€70 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


claimed.  A  day  of  fasting  and  prayer  was  appoint- 
ed on  the  4th  of  September  ;  and  it  was  resolved, 
that  300  men  should  be  forthwith  raised,  and  sent 
against  the  enemy.  Massachusetts  were  to  furnish 
190,  Plymouth  and  Connecticut  40  each,  and  New 
Haven  30.  As  the  troops  from  Connecticut  and 
New  Haven,  who  had  assisted  in  defending  Uncas, 
the  former  part  of  the  summer,  were  about  to  re- 
turn to  their  respective  colonies,  40  men  were  im- 
pressed in  the  Massachusetts,  and  marched  in  three 
days,  completely  armed  and  victualled.  These  were 
commanded  by  Humphry  Atherton.  Orders  were 
dispatched  to  the  troops  to  be  raised  in  Connecticut 
and  New  Haven,  to  join  them  at  Moheagan.  A 
commission  was  forwarded  to  Captain  Mason  to 
take  the  command  of  all  the  troops,  until  the  whole 
army  should  form  a  junction.  The  chief  command 
of  the  army  was  given  to  Major  Edward  Gibbons, 
of  Massachusetts.  He  was  instructed  not  only  to 
defend  Uncas,  but  to  invade  and  distress  the  Narra- 
gansets  and  Nehan ticks,  with  their  confederates. 
He  had  instructions  to  offer  them  peace ;  and  if 
they  would  receive  it  upou  honourable  terms,  he, 
with  his  officers,  had  power  to  make  a  treaty  with 
them.  If  they  would  neither  fight  nor  make  peace, 
the  commander  had  orders  to  build  forts  in  the  Ne- 
hantick  and  Narraganset  country;  to  which  he 
might  gather  the  enemy's  corn  and  goods,  as  far  as 
it  should  be  in  his  power. 

The  Narragansets  had  sent  a  present  to  Governor 
Winthrop,  of  Boston,  desiring  that  they  might  have 
peace  with  the  English,  but  wage  war  with  Uncas, 
and  avenge  the  death  of  Miantonimoh.  The  go- 
vernor refused  to  receive  the  present  upon  such 
terms  ;  but  the  messengers,  by  whom  it  was  carried, 
urging  that  they  might  leave  it  until  they  could 
consult  their  sachems,  he  suffered  it  to  be  left  with 
him.  The  commissioners  ordered,  that  it  should  be 
immediately  returned ;  and  Captain  Hurding,  Mr. 
Wilbore,  and  Benedict  Arnold,  were  sent  into  the 
Narraganset  country,  to  return  the  present,  and  to 
assure  Pessacus,  Canonicus,  Janimo,  and  the  other 
sachems  of  the  Narraganset  and  Nehantick  Indians, 
that  they  would  neither  receive  their  presents,  nor 
give  them  peace,  until  they  should  make  satisfac- 
tion for  past  injuries,  and  give  security  for  their 
quiet  conduct  for  the  future.  They  were  to  inform 
the  Indians  that  the  English  were  ready  for  war, 
and  that  if  war  was  their  choice  they  would  direct 
their  affairs  for  that  purpose  ;  and  at  the  same  time 
they  had  orders  to  assure  them,  that  if  they  would 
make  satisfaction  for  the  damages  which  they  had 
done,  and  give  security  for  their  peaceable  conduct 
in  time  to  come,  they  should  know  that  the  English 
were  as  desirous  of  the  peace,  and  as  tender  of  the 
blood  of  the  Narragausets,  as  they  had  ever  been. 

The  messengers  prosecuted  their  journey  with 
great  dispatch,  and  brought  back  word  that  Pessa- 
cus, chief  sachem  of  the  Narragansets,  and  others, 
were  coming  to  Boston  forthwith,  vested  with  full 
powers  to  treat  with  the  commissioners.  The  mes- 
sengers, though  sent  on  purpose  to  carry  back  the 
present,  and  to  assure  the  Indians  that  the  English 
would  not  receive  it,  returned  with  it  to  Boston. 
They  also  wrote  to  Captain  Mason,  acquainting  him 
that  there  were  hopes  of  peace  with  the  Indians. 

The  commissioners,  therefore,  while  they  acknow- 
ledged the  pains  and  expedition  with  which  they 
had  accomplished  their  journey,  censured  them  for 
not  attending  to  their  instructions.  Especially,  they 
judged  them  worthy  of  censure  for  bringing  back 
the  present,  and  for  writing  to  Captain  Mason. 


The  latter,  they  imagined,  could  have  no  other 
effect  than  to  retard  his  operations. 

The  Indians  finding  that  an  army  was  coming 
into  the  heart  of  their  country,  made  haste  to  meet 
the  commissioners,  and  ward  off  the  impending  blow. 
A  few  days  after  the  return  of  their  messengers, 
Pessacus,  Meeksamo,  the  eldest  son  of  Canonicus, 
and  Wytowash,  three  principal  sachems  of  the  Nar- 
ragansets, and  Awashequen,  deputy  of  the  Nehan- 
ticks,  with  a  large  train,  arrived  at  Boston. 

They  at  first  denied  and  excused  many  particu- 
lars which  the  commissioners  charged  upon  them. 
They  insisted  on  the  old  story  of  the  ransom',  and 
proposed  to  make  a  truce  with  Uncas,  until  the 
next  planting  time,  or  for  a  year.  The  commis- 
sioners assured  them,  that  matters  were  now  come 
to  a  crisis,  and  that  they  would  accept  of  no  such 
terms.  They  charged  the  Indian  sachems  with 
their  perfidious  breach  of  treaties,  with  the  injuries 
they  had  done  to  Uncas,  with  their  insults  to  the 
English,  and  with  the  great  trouble  and  expense  to 
which  they  had  put  them,  to  defend  Uncas  and 
maintain  the  peace  of  the  country.  The  Indians 
finally,  though  with  great  reluctance,  acknowledged 
their  breach  of  treaties ;  and  one  of  the  sachems  pre- 
sented the  commissioners  with  a  stick,  signifying 
by  that  token  that  he  submitted  the  terms  of  war 
and  peace  into  their  hands,  and  wished  to  know 
what  they  required  of  the  Indians. 

The  commissioners  represented  to  them,  that  the 
charge  and  trouble  which  they  had  brought  on  the 
colonies  was  very  great,  besides  all  the  loss  and 
damages  which  Uncas  had  sustained.  They  charged 
all  these  upon  their  infraction  of  the  treaties  which 
they  had  made  with  the  colonies,  and  with  Uncas. 
They  assured  the  Indians,  that  though  two  thousand 
fathom  of  white  wampum  would  by  no  means  be 
equal  to  the  expense  to  which  they  had  put  the 
colonies,  entirely  by  their  violation  of  their  treaties; 
yet,  to  show  their  moderation,  they  would  accept  of 
that  sum  for  all  past  damages.  It  was  required 
that  they  should  restore  to  Uncas  all  the  captives 
and  canoes  which  they  had  taken  from  him;  that 
they  should  submit  all  matters  of  controversy  be- 
tween them  and  Uncas  to  the  commissioners  at 
their  next  meeting;  and  that  they  should  maintain 
perpetual  peace  with  the  English,  and  all  their  sub- 
jects and  allies.  Finally,  hostages  were  demanded 
as  a  security  for  the  performance  of  the  treaty. 
These,  indeed,  were  hard  terms.  The  Indians  made 
many  exceptions  to  them ;  but  as  they  knew  the 
English  were  gone  into  their  country,  and  were 
fearful  that  hostilities  would  be  commenced,  even 
while  the  treaty  was  pending,  they  submitted  to 
them.  Some  abatement  was  made  as  to  the  times 
of  payment  at  first  proposed,  and  it  was  agreed  that 
Uncas  should  restore  to  the  Narragansets  all  cap- 
tives and  canoes  which  he  had  taken  from  them. 
This  gave  the  Narragansets  and  Nehanticks  some 
ease  ;  but  it  was  with  great  reluctance  that  they 
finally  signed  the  articles. 

On  the  30th  of  August  the  articles  were  signed, 
and  the  Indians  left  several  of  their  number,  as 
hostages,  until  the  children,  who  had  been  agreed 
upon  for  a  permanent  security,  should  be  delivered. 
The  troops  which  had  been  raised  were  disbanded, 
and  the  day  appointed  for  a  general  fast  was  cele- 
brated as  a  day  of  general  thanksgiving. 

New  Haven,  this  year,  appointed  Mr.  Gregson 
their  agent  to  the  parliament  in  England,  to  procure 
a  patent  for  the  colony.  The  court  at  New  Haven 
voted  that  it  was  a  proper  time  to  join  with  Con- 


UNITED  STATES. 


671 


necticut,  iu  procuring  a  patent  from  parliament 
for  these  parts.  It  appears  that  both  Connecticut 
and  New  Haven,  at  this  time,  had  it  in  contempla- 
tion to  obtain  charters  from  parliament  for  their 
respective  jurisdictions;  but  Mr.  Fenwick,  who 
had  been  desired  to  undertake  a  voyage  for  this 
purpose,  in  behalf  of  Connecticut,  did  not  accept 
the  appointment,  and  Mr.  Gregson  was  lost  at  sea. 
In  consequence  of  these  circumstances,  and  the 
state  of  affairs  in  England  afterwards,  the  business 
rested  until  after  the  restoration. 

This  year  Tunxis  was  named  Farmington.  At 
this  time  there  were  in  the  colony  of  Connecticut 
eight  taxable  towns  ;  Hartford,  Windsor,  Weathers- 
field,  Stratford,  Fairfield,  Saybrook,  Southamp- 
ton, and  Farmington.  In  the  colony  of  New  Haven 
were  six;  New  Haven,  Milford,  Guilford,  South- 
hold,  Stamford,  and  Branford. 

In  1646  there  was  an  alteration  in  the  act  re- 
specting juries.  In  16 14,  an  act  had  passed  autho- 
rizing the  court  of  magistrates  to  increase  or  miti- 
gate the  damages  given  by  verdict  of  the  jury.  It 
was  now  enacted,  that  whatever  alterations  should 
be  made  of  this  kind,  at  any  time,  should  be  made 
in  open  court,  in  the  presence  both  of  the  plaintiff 
and  defendant,  or  upon  affidavit  made,  that  they 
had  been  summoned  to  appear. 

At  this  court  the  town  of  Fairfield  made  objections 
to  that  part  of  the  act  passed  in  1644,  which  ad- 
mitted of  a  jury  of  six.  They  insisted  on  twelve 
jurymen  in  all  cases  triable  by  a  jury  ;  but  con- 
sented, that  eight  out  of  twelve  should  bring  in  a 
verdict.  It  does  not  appear  that  a  jury  of  six  was 
ever  empannelled  after  this  time.  The  laws  were 
soon  after  revised,  and  ordained  a  jury  of  twelve  in 
all  cases  which  required  a  jury. 

The  commissioners  of  the  united  colonies  met 
this  year  at  New  Haven.  The  Dutch  continuing 
their  injurious  conduct  against  the  English,  com- 
plaints were  made  to  the  commissioners  of  the  re- 
cent and  repeated  insults  and  damages  which  they 
had  received  from  them.  Instead  of  making  them 
the  least  satisfaction  for  past  injuries,  they  pro- 
ceeded to  new  instances  of  insolence  and  abuse. 
Kieft  wrote  a  most  imperious  letter  to  Governor 
Eaton,  charging  him  and  the  people  at  New  Haven 
with  an  insatiable  desire  of  possessing  that  which 
belonged  to  the  Dutch  nation.  He  affirmed,  that 
contrary  to  ancient  league?,  between  the  kings  of 
England  and  the  States  General,  contrary  to  the 
law  of  nations,  and  his  protestations,  they  had  indi- 
rectly entered  upon  the  limits  of  New  Netherlands. 
He  therefore  protested  against  them,  as  breakers  of 
the  peace  and  disturbers  of  the  public  tranquillity. 
Indeed  he  proceeded  so  far  as  to  threaten,  that  if 
the  English  at  New  Haven  did  not  restore  the 
places  which  they  had  usurped,  and  repair  the 
losses  which  the  Dutch  had  sustained,  that  they 
would,  by  such  means  as  God  should  afford,  recover 
them.  He  affirmed  that  the  Dutch  would  not  view 
it  as  inconsistent  with  the  public  peace,  but  should 
impute  all  the  evils  which  might  ensue,  to  the 
English. 

Governor  Eaton  replied  to  this  letter,  that  the 
colony  under  his  government  had  never  entered 
upon  any  land  to  which  the  Dutch  had  any  known 
title  :  that,  notwithstanding  all  the  injuries  received 
from  the  Dutch,  and  the  very  unsatisfying  answers 
which  their  governor  had  given  from  time  to  time, 
the  colony,  in  his  apprehensions,  had  done  nothing 
inconsistent  with  the  law  of  God,  the  law  of  nations, 
nor  with  the  ancient  leagues  subsisting  between 


England  and  Holland.  He  therefore  assured  him, 
that  the  colony  would  cheerfully  submit  all  differ, 
ences,  between  them  and  the  Dutch,  to  an  impartial 
hearing  and  adjudication,  either  in  Europe  or 
America. 

The  Dutch  at  Hartford  maintained  a  distinct 
and  independent  govepnment.  They  resisted  the 
laws  of  the  colony,  and  counteracted  the  natural 
rights  of  men.  They  inveigled  an  Indian  woman 
who,  having  been  liable  to  public  punishment,  fled 
from  her  master  ;  and  though  her  master  demanded 
her  as  his  property,  and  the  magistrates,  as  a  crimi- 
nal, on  whom  the  law  ought  to  have  its  course,  yet 
they  would  not  restore  her.  The  Dutch  agent  at 
Hartford  resisted  the  guard  ;  drew  his  rapier  upon 
the  soldiers,  and  broke  it  upon  their  arms.  Ho 
then  escaped  to  the  fort,  and  there  defended  him- 
self with  impunity. 

The  commissioners  of  Connecticut  and  NewHaven 
made  complaint  of  these  insults  and  misdemeanors 
to  the  commissioners  of  the  united  colonies,  and 
laid  open  the  whole  conduct  of  the  Dutch  towards 
them.  They  represented,  that  in  answer  to  their 
complaints  of  past  injuries,  they  had,  instead  of 
satisfaction,  received  nothing  but  injury  and  abuse. 

The  commissioners,  upon  a  deliberate  view  of 
the  case,  wrote  to  the  Dutch  governor,  stating  how 
they  had  written  to  him  from  time  to  time  ;  and,  in 
consideration  of  the  great  necessity  for  peace,  had 
attempted  to  compromise  the  differences  which  had 
so  long  subsisted  between  the  Dutch  and  their  con- 
federates. They  observed  to  the  governor,  that  ho 
had  returned  nothing  but  an  ignoramus,  with  an 
offensive  addition,  which  they  left  to  his  review  and 
better  consideration.  They  stated  the  affair  at 
Hartford,  and  observed,  that  had  the  Dutch  agent 
been  slain,  in  the  insolent  affront  which  he  had 
given,  his  blood  would  have  been  upon  his  own 
head.  They  assured  him,  that  his  agent  and  the 
company  at  Hartford  had  proceeded  to  an  intoler- 
able state  of  conduct :  that  they  had  forcibly  taken, 
away  their  cattle  from  authority,  and  made  an  as- 
sault upon  a  man  who  had  legally  sought  justice  for 
damages  which  he  had  sustained  :  that  they  struck 
him,  and  in  a  hostile  manner  took  his  team  and 
loading  from  him.  The  commissioners  noticed  the 
letter  of  the  Dutch  governor  to  the  colony  of  New 
Haven,  and  manifested  their  approbation  of  the 
answer  which  Governor  Eaton  had  given.  They 
expressed  their  hopes  that  it  would  give  satisfaction; 
and  concluded  by  observing,  that  to  prevent  all 
inconveniences  which  might  arise  from  any  part  of 
the  proceedings,  they  had  sent  an  express,  by  whom 
they  wished  to  receive  such  an  answer  as  might 
satisfy  them  of  his  concurrence  with  them,  to  em- 
brace and  pursue  righteousness  and  peace. 

Several  of  the  English  who  had  traded  with  tho 
Dutch,  had  not  been  able  to  recover  their  just  debts, 
and  Governor  Kieft  would  not  afford  them  that  as- 
sistance which  was  necessary  for  the  obtaining  of 
justice.  Mr.  Whiting,  of  Connecticut,  complained 
that  an  action  had  been  carried  against  him  at 
Manhatoes  in  his  absence,  and  when  he  had  no 
agent  to  exhibit  his  evidence,  or  plead  his  cause; 
and  also,  that  upon  demanding  a  just  debt,  long 
since  due  frorn  the  Dutch,  the  governor  neglected 
to  give  him  that  assistance  which  was  necessary  for 
the  recovery  of  his  right. 

The  commissioners  wrote  also  to  Governor  Kieft 
on  this  subject;  desiring  him  to  grant  Mr.  Whiting 
a  review  in  the  case  specified,  and  proper  assistance 
in  the  recovery  of  his  debts  from  the  Dutch;  and 


672 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


assured  him,  that  all  the  colonies  would  grant  simi- 
jar  favours  to  the  Dutch  in  all  their  courts. 

By  their  express,  the  commissioners  received  two 
jetters  from  the  Dutch  governor,  in  answer  to  what 
they  had  written,  couched  in  the  same  offensive 
strain  as  the  former  letters.  He  denied  that  the 
woman  who  had  been  detained  by  the  Dutch  at 
Hartford,  was  a  servant,  with  many  other  facts 
which  had  been  stated  by  the  commissioners :  and 
instead  of  submitting  the  affairs  in  dispute  to  a 
fcgal  decision,  either  in  Europe  or  America,  he 
still  threatened  to  avenge  the  injuries  of  which  he 
complained,  by  force  of  arms.  With  respect  to 
other  matters  of  special  importance,  he  passed  them 
without  the  least  notice.  He  compared  the  com- 
missioners to  eagles  which  soar  aloft,  and  always 
despise  the  little  fly  ;  but  he  assured  them,  that  the 
Dutch  by  their  arms  would  manfully  pursue  their 
rights.  He  then  finished  his  letters  in  this  remark- 
able manner : — "  We  protest  against  all  you  com- 
missioners, met  at  the  Red  Mount,as  against  break- 
ers of  the  common  league,  and  also  infringers  of 
the  rights  of  the  lords,  the  states,  our  superiors,  in 
that  you  have  dared,  without  our  express  and  special 
consent,  to  hold  your  general  meeting;  within  the 
limits  of  New  Netherlands."  The  Dutch  called 
New  Haven  the  Red  Mount,  and  the  Red  Hills, 
from  the  appearance  of  the  rocks  west  and  north  of 
the  town. 

The  commissioners  made  a  short  reply,  assuring 
the  Dutch  governor,  that  they  could  prove  the  facts 
which  they  had  stated  to  him  in  their  letters  ;  and 
that  the  woman  whom  the  Dutch  had  detained,  was 
a  servant,  and  an  important  part  of  her  master's 
property  ;  that  she  had  fled  from  civil  justice,  and, 
by  the  confession  of  Mr.  David  Provost,  Dutch 
agent  at  Hartford,  had  been  defiled.  They  insisted 
that  the  conduct  of  the  Dutch  at  Hartford  was  in- 
tolerable, and  complained  that  he  had  given  no 
orders,  to  redress  the  grievances  which  they  had 
mentioned.  They  also  complained  that  he  had 
made  no  reply  to  so  many  important  articles,  con- 
cerning which  they  had  written  to  him.  With  re- 
jpect  to  the  protest,  with  which  he  had  closed  his 
tetter,  they  observed  that  though  it  was  offensive, 
yet  it  agreed  with  the  general  strain  of  his  writing; 
and  that  he  had  no  more  reason  to  protest  against 
their  boldness  in  holding  their  session  at  New  Ha- 
ven, than  they  had  to  protest  against  his  boldness 
in  the  protest  which  he  had  sent  them. 

This  year  a  plot  was  concerted  among  the  In- 
dians, for  the  destruction  of  a  number  of  the  prin- 
cipal inhabitants  of  Hartford.  Sequassen,  a  petty 
sachem  upon  the  river,  hired  one  of  the  Waronoke 
Indians  to  kill  Governor  Hopkins  and  Governor 
Haynes,  with  Mr.  Whiting,  one  of  the  magistrates. 
Sequassen's  hatred  of  Uncas  was  insatiable,  and 
probably  was  directed  against  these  gentlemen  on 
account  of  the  just  and  faithful  protection  which 
ihey  had  afforded  him.  The  plan  was,  that  the 
Waranoke  Indian  should  kill  them,  and  charge  the 
murder  upon  Uncas,  and  by  that  means  engage  the 
English  against  him  to  his  ruin.  After  the  massa- 
cre of  these  gentlemen,  Sequassen  and  the  mur- 
derer were  to  make  their  escape  to  the  Mohawks. 
Watohibrough,  the  Indian  hired  to  perpetrate  the 
murder,  after  he  had  received  several  girdles  of 
wampum  as  part  of  his  reward,  considering  how  j 
Bushheag,  the  Indian  who  attempted  to  kill  the  ; 
woman  at  Stamford,  had  been  apprehended  and  ex-  j 
ecuted  at  New  Haven,  conceived  that  it  would  be  j 
dangerous  to  murder  English  sachems :  he  also  re  i 


volved  in  his  mind,  that  if  the  English  should  not 
apprehend  and  kill  him,  he  should  always  be  afraid 
of  them,  and  have  no  comfort  in  his  life ;  and  also 
recollected,  that  the  English  gave  a  reward  to  the 
Indians  who  discovered  and  brought  in  Bushheag. 
He  therefore  determined,  it  would  be  better  to  dis- 
cover the  plot  than  to  be  guilty  of  so  dangerous  an 
action;  and  he  came  to  Hartford  a  few  days  after 
he  had  received  the  girdles,  and  discovered  the  plot. 
Nearly  at  the  same  time  the  Waranoke  Indians  did 
much  damage  to  the  people  at  Windsor,  burning  up 
their  tar  and  turpentine,  and  destroying  their  tools 
and  instruments  to  the  value  of  100/.  or  more.  The 
magistrates  at  Hartford  issued  a  warrant,  and  ap- 
prehended the  Indian  whom  they  supposed  to  be 
guilty;  but  the  Indians  rose  and  made  an  assault 
upon  the  officers,  and  rescued  him. 

Upon  complaint  and  evidence  of  these  misde- 
meanors, the  commissioners  sent  messengers  to 
Sequassen,  demanding  his  appearance  at  New 
Haven,  and  they  ordered  that  if  he  would  not  vo- 
luntarily appear,  all  means  consistent  with  the  pre- 
servation of  his  life  should  be  used  to  take  him. 
Messengers  were  also  sent  to  Waranoke  to  the 
Indians  who  had  done  the  mishief  at  Windsor,  with 
orders  to  seize  the  delinquents,  and  bring  them  off, 
if  they  judged  they  could  do  it  with  safety ;  but 
Sequassen  had  art  enough  to  keep  out  of  their 
hands,  and  those  who  had  done  the  damage  could 
not  be  found.  The  messengers  were  insulted,  and 
the  Indians  boasted  of  their  arms,  primed  and 
cocked  their  pieces  in  their  presence,  and  threat- 
ened that  if  a  man  should  be  carried  away,  they 
would  all  rise. 

The  commissioners,  on  the  whole,  judged  it  not 
expedient,  in  the  state  in  which  the  Indians  then 
were,  to  proceed  any  further  than  to  resolve,  that 
if  any  Indian  or  Indians,  of  what  plantation  soever, 
should  do  any  damage  to  the  English  colonies,  or  to 
any  of  their  inhabitants,  that  upon  due  proof  of  it, 
they  would,  in  a  peaceable  manner,  demand  satis- 
faction. But  if  any  sagamore,  or  plantation  of 
Indians,  should  hide,  convey  away,  entertain,  or 
protect  such  offender  or  offenders,  that  then  the 
English  would  demand  satisfaction  of  such  Indian 
sagamore  or  plantation,  and  do  themselves  justice, 
as  they  might  upon  all  such  offenders.  At  the 
same  time  they  declared  that  they  would  keep 
peace  and  amity  with  all  other  Indians.  This  reso- 
lution was  to  be  made  known  to  the  Waranoke 
Indians  in  particular. 

The  Indians,  at  particular  times,  were  very  mis- 
chievous, and  gave  much  trouble  to  all  the  planta- 
tions. Some  time  after  the  settlement  at  Milford, 
the  Indians  set  all  the  adjacent  country  on  fire  ; 
and  it  was  supposed  that  their  design  was  to  burn 
the  town :  but  the  inhabitants  were  so  fortunate  as 
to  stop  the  fires  at  the  swamps  and  brooks  which 
surround  it  on  the  west  and  north,  by  which  means 
the  town  was  preserved. 

The  Mohawks,  though  not  hostile  to  the  English, 
by  coming  down  and  murdering  the  Connecticut 
Indians,  put  the  plantations  in  fear,  and  gave  them 
not  a  little  trouble.  Some  years  after  the  settle- 
ment of  Milford,  they  came  into  the  town,  and 
secreted  themselves  in  a  swamp,  about  half  a  mile 
east  of  Stratford  ferry,  with  a  view  to  surprise  the 
Indians  at  the  fort.  The  English  accidentally  dis- 
covering them,  gave  notice  of  it  to  the  Milford  In- 
dians :  who  set  up  the  war  whoop,  and  collected 
such  numbers  that  they  ventured  to  attack  them ; 
and  the  Mohawks  were  overpowered,  and  several  of 


UNITED  STATES. 


673 


them  taken.  One  stout  captive  the  Milfo'rd  In- 
dians determined  to  kiil  by  famine  and  torture; 
and  they  therefore  stripped  him  naked  and  tied 
him  up  in  the  salt  meadows,  for  the  musquitoes  to 
torment,  and  hunger  to  destroy  him.  An  English- 
man, one  Hine,  finding  him  in  this  pitiable  condi- 
tion, loosed  and  fed  him,  and  enabled  him  to  make 
his  escape;  which  humane  action  very  much  con- 
ciliated the  Mohawks  towards  the  English,  and  es- 
pecially towards  the  family  of  the  Hines,  whom,  it 
is  said,  they  ever  afterwards  particularly  noticed, 
and  treated  with  uncommon  friendship. 

The  Narraganset  and  Nehantick  Indians  neg- 
lected to  perform  ;my  part  of  the  treaty  which  they 
had  made  the  last  year.  They  neither  paid  the 
wampum  stipulated,  nor  met  the  commissioners  at 
New  Haven,  to  settle  the  dirFereiv.-es  between  them 
and  Uncas ;  nor  restored  the  captives  nor  canoes 
taken  from  him,  nor  made  him  any  compensation 
for  the  damages  which  thoy  had  done  him.  They 
had  attempted  to  deceive  the  English  with  respect 
to  the  hostages  ;  and  instead  of  the  children  of  their 
sachems  and  chief  men,  whom  they  agreed  to  de- 
liver, they  made  an  attempt  to  impose  upon  them 
children  of  the  lowest  rank ;  and  even  to  this  time 
they  had  not  brought  those  whom  they  had  pro- 
mised. They  were  still  intriguing  with  the  Mo- 
hawks, and  by  presents  and  various  arts  attempting 
to  engage  them  against  the  English  colonies.  The 
commissioners  judged  that  they  had  just  occasion 
to  avenge  the  injuries  which  they  had  received, 
and  to  seek  a  recompense  by  force  of  arms.  How- 
ever, that  they  might  show  their  love  of  peace,  and 
their  forbearance  towards  these  barbarians,  they 
dispatched  another  message  to  them  ;  in  which  a 
full  representation  was  made  of  the.se  particulars; 
and  they  were  assured  that  the  commissioners  were 
apprised  of  their  intrigues,  an;l  that  in  the  eyes  of 
all  the  colonies  they  had  rendered  themselves  a 
perfidious  people. 

The  war  between  the  Dutch  and  Indians  con- 
tinuing, a  great  and  general  battle:  was  fought  be- 
tween them  in  that  part  of  Horseneck  commonly 
known  by  the  name  of  Strickland's  plain.  The 
action  was  long  and  severe,  both  parties  fighting 
with  firmness  and  obstinacy.  The  Dutch,  with 
much  difficulty,  kept  the  field,  and  the  Indians  wi;h- 
drew.  Great  numbers  were  slain  on  both  sides,  and 
the  graves  of  tiie  dead,  for  a  century  or  more,  ap- 
peared like  a  number  of  small  hills. 

The  New  Haven  colon ista  having  been  disappoint- 
ed in  trade,  and  having  sustained  great  damages  at 
Delaware,  and  the  Lirgo  estates  which  they  brought 
into  New  England  vapidly  dec-lining  this  year,  made 
uncommon  exertions  to  retrieve  their  former  losses. 
Combining  their  money  and  labours,  they  built  a 
ship  at  Rhode  Island  of  150  tons,  and  freighted  her 
for  England  with  the  best  part  of  their  commercial 
estates ;  and  Mr.  Gregson,  Captain  Turner,  Mr. 
Lamberton,  and  five  or  six  of  their  principal  men 
embarked  on  board.  They  sailed  from  New  Haven 
in  January,  1647  ;  and  were  obliged  to  cut  through 
the  ice  to  get  out  of  the  harbour  :  the  ship  founder- 
ed at  sea,  and  was  never  heard  of  after  she  sailed. 
This,  with  the  former  losses  which  the  company  had 
sustained,  broke  up  all  their  expectations  with  re- 
spect to  trade  ;  and  as  they  conceived  themselves 
disadvantageous!}7  situated  for  husbandry,  they 
adopted  the  design  of  leaving  the  country.  They 
were  invited  to  Jamaica,  in  the  West  Indies ;  and 
also  to  Ireland  :  where  they  entered  into  treaties  for 
the  city  of  Galloway,  which  they  designed  to  have 

HIST.  OF  AMER. — Nos.  85  £  86 


settled  as  a  small  province  for  themselves.  Never- 
theless they  were  disappointed  with  respect  to  all 
these  designs  ;  and  their  posterity,  whom  they  feared 
would  be  reduced  to  beggary,  became  ultimately 
respectable  landholders,  and  flourished  no  less  than. 
their  neighbours. 

(1647.)  At  the  election,  this  year,  at  Hartford, 
nine  magistrates  were  chosen.  Mr.  Cosmore  and 
Mr.  Howe  were  elected  for  the  first  time.  The  other 
magistrates  were  the  same  as  in  the  preceding  years. 

At  this  session  of  the  general  court,  an  explana- 
tion or  addition  was  made  to  the  tenth  fundamental 
article.  By  this  article,  as  it  stood,  it  was  the 
opinion  of  some,  that  no  particular  court  could  be 
holden  unless  the  governor  and  four  magistrates 
were  present.  It  was  therefore  decreed,  that  the 
governor  or  deputy-governor,  with  two  magistrates, 
should  have  power  to  keep  a  particular  court,  ac- 
cording to  the  laws  established;  and,  that  in  case 
neither  the  governor,  nor  deputy-governor,  should 
be  present,  or  able  to  sit,  if  three  magistrates  should 
meet  and  choose  one  of  themselves  moderator,  they 
might  keep  a  particular  court,  which  to  all  intents 
and  purposes  should  be  deemed  as  legal  as  if  the 
governor  or  deputy-governor  were  present.  All 
orders  contrary  to  this  were  repealed. 

As  tobacco,  about  this  time,  was  coming  into  use 
in  the  colony,  a  yery  curious  law  was  made  for  its 
regulation  or  suppression,  by  which  it  was  ordered, 
that  no  person  under  twenty  years  of  age,  nor  any 
other,  who  had  not  already  accustomed  himself  to 
the  use  of  it,  should  take  any  tobacco  until  he  had 
obtained  a  certificate  from  under  the  hand  of  an 
approved  physician  that  it  was  useful  for  him,  and 
until  he  had  also  obtained  a  licence  from  the  court. 
All  others,  who  had  addicted  themselves  to  the  use 
of  it,  were  prohibited  from  taking  it  in  any  com- 
pany, or  at  their  labours,  or  in  travelling,  unless 
ten  miles  at  least  from  any  company  ;  and  though 
not  in  company,  not  more  than  once  a  day,  upon 
pain  of  a  fine  of  six-pence  for  every  such  offence. 
One  substantial  witness  was  to  be  a  sufficient  proof 
of  the  crime.  The  constables  of  the  several  towns 
were  to  make  presentment  to  the  particular  courts, 
and  it  was  ordered  that  the  fine  should  be  paid 
without  gainsaying. 

At  a  court  in  June,  it  was  ordered,  that  the  fort 
and  guns  at  Saybrook  should  be  delivered  to  Cap- 
tain John  Mason,  and  that  he  should  give  Mr.  Fen- 
wick  a  receipt  for  the  premises.  At  the  desire  of 
the  people  there,  Captain  Mason  was  appointed  to 
the  chief  command  of  the  fort,  and  was  authorized 
to  govern  all  the  soldiers  and  inhabitants  of  the 
town  ;  and  to  call  them  forth  and  put  them  in  such 
array  as  might  be  necessary  for  the  general  defence 
of  the  country.  Orders  were  given  that  the  fortifi- 
cations should  be  repaired,  and  that  the  country  rate 
of  Saybrook  should  be  appropriated  to  that  purpose. 

This  court  granted  to  the  soldiers  of  the  respective 
train-bands  in  the  colony  the  privilege  of  choosing 
their  own  officers,  to  be  commissioned  by  the  court. 

The  conduct  of  the  Narraganset  and  Nehantick 
Indians  was  so  treacherous  and  hostile,  that  at 
Midsummer  an  extraordinary  meeting  of  the  com- 
missioners was  called  at  Boston.  The  commission- 
ers were,  Thomas  Dudley  and  John  Endicot, 
Esquires,  from  Massachusetts ;  Mr.  William  Brad- 
ford and  Mr.  John  Brown,  from  Plymouth  ;  Gover- 
nor Hopkins  and  Captain  John  Mason,  from  Con- 
necticut; Governor  Eaton  and  Mr.  Goodyear,  from 
New  Haven.  Thomas  Dudley  was  chosen  pre- 
sident. 

3Q 


674 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


The  Narraganset  and  Nehantick  Indians  had  not 
only  neglected  the  performance  of  every  part  of 
their  treatier,  vith  the  English,  but  were,  by  all 
their  arts,  plotting  against  them.  By  their  wam- 
pum they  were  hiring  all  the  Indian  nations  round 
about  them  to  combine  against  the  colonies;  and 
had  sent  messengers  and  presents  to  the  Mohawks, 
to  engage  them  in  the  general  confederacy.  As  this 
faithless  conduct  was  the  occasion  of  the  meeting, 
the  commissioner's  immediately  dispatched  messen- 
gers to  Pessacus,  Ninigrate,  Webetomaug,  and  all 
their  confederates,  to  declare  to  them  their  breach 
of  covenant,  and  to  demand  their  attendance  at 
Boston.  The  messengers  were  instructed  to  assure 
them,  that  if  they  did  not  appear,  they  would  send 
to  them  no  more.  Pessacus  owned  that  he  had 
broken  covenant,  and  said  it  was  the  constant  grief 
of  his  spirit.  He  pretended  he  would  gladly  go  to 
Boston,  but  he  was  unwell,  and  could  not  travel. 
This  was  a  mere  pretence,  as  there  was  no  appear- 
ance of  indisposition  upon  him.  He  excused  himself 
for  not  keeping  the  treaty,  because  he  was  frightened 
into  it  by  the  sight  of  the  English  army,  which  was 
about  to  invade  his  country  ;  and  he  represented  that 
he  was  in  fear  if  he  did  not  make  it,  the  English 
would  follow  him  home  and  kill  him.  He  declared, 
however,  that  he  would  send  his  whole  mind  by 
Ninigrate,  and  that  he  would  abide  by  whatever  he 
should  transact  in  the  affair. 

On  the  3d  of  August,  Ninigrate,  with  two  of 
Pessacus's  men,  and  a  number  of  the  Nehantick 
Indians,  arrived  at  Boston.  When  Ninigrate  came 
before  the  commissioners,  he  pretended  great  igno- 
rance of  the  treaties  between  the  English  and  the 
Indians.  He  declared  that  he  knew  no  cause  why 
the  Narragansets  should  pay  so  much  wampum.  He 
said  they  owed  nothing  to  the  English.  The  com- 
missioners acquainted  him,  that  it  was  on  account 
of  their  breach  of  treaty,  and  the  great  charge 
which  by  that  means  they  had  brought  on  the 
colpnies,  that  the  Narragansets  engaged  to  pay 
such  a  quantity.  Well  knowing  his  deceit,  they 
charged  him  as  being  the  very  man  who  had  been 
the  principal  cause  of  all  their  trouble  and  expense, 
relative  to  the  Indians.  They  declared  to  him 
that  he  was  the  sachem  who  had  threatened  to  pile 
their  cattle  in  heaps,  and  to  kill  every  Englishman 
who  should  step  out  at  his  doors.  At  so  home  a 
charge,  which  he  could  not  deny,  he  was  not  a  lit- 
tle chagrined.  However,  he  excused  the  matter 
with  as  much  art  as  possible.  With  respect  to  the 
wampum,  he  declared  that  the  Narragansets  had 
not  a  sufficiency  to  pay  the  sum  required.  The  com- 
missioners replied  that  the  Narragansets  were  a 
great  nation,  and  that  they  could  at  any  time,  upon 
short  notice,  pay  a  greater  amount  than  they  de- 
manded. They  considered  it  a  matter  of  policy,  as 
far  as  was  consistent  with  justice,  to  strip  them  of 
their  wampum,  to  prevent  their  hiring  the  Mo- 
hawks, and  other  Indians  to  join  with  them  in  a 
general  war  against  the  colonies ;  and  therefore 
insisted  that  the  whole  sum  should  be  paid.  Nini- 
grate, after  he  had  taken  time  to  consult  with  his 
council,  the  other  deputies  who  were  with  him, 
answered  that  he  was  determined  to  give  the  colo- 
nies full  satisfaction ;  and  desired  ten  days  to  send 
messengers  to  Narraganset,  to  collect  the  wampum 
due,  and  offered  himself  a  hostage  until  their  re- 
turn. The  messengers  returned  with  no  more  than 
two  hundred  fathoms.  Ninigrate  imputed  this  to 
his  absence  ;  and  begged  for  liberty  to  return,  pro- 
mising that  if  the  whole  sum  should  not  be  paid  by 


the  next  spring,  the  commissioners  might  take  his 
head,  and  seize  his  country.  The  commissioners 
agreed  with  him,  that  if  within  twenty  days  he 
would  deliver  a  thousand  fathoms  of  wampum,  and 
the  remainder  which  was  due  by  the  next  planting 
time,  they  would  dismiss  him.  They  also,  for  his 
encouragement,  acquainted  him,  that  although  they 
might  justly  put  the  hostages  to  death  for  their  de- 
lays and  breach  of  covenant,  yet  they  would  forth- 
with deliver  them  to  him  ;  and  if  they  should  find 
him  punctual  to  his  engagements,  they  would 
charge  former  defects  to  Pessacus.  These  terms 
he  gladly  accepted. 

The  commissioners  from  Connecticut,  the  last 
year,  made  complaint  that  Mr.  Pyncheon  and  the 
inhabitants  at  Springfield  refused  to  pay  the  impost 
which  had  been  imposed  by  Connecticut  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  fort  at  Saybrook.  The  com- 
missioners judged  that  the  fort  was  of  great  conse- 
quence to  the  towns  on  the  river ;  but  as  the  affair 
of  the  impost  had  not  been  laid  before  the  general 
court  of  Massachusetts,  and  as  the  commissioners 
of  that  colony  had  no  instructions  respecting  it,  a 
full  hearing  had  been  deferred  to  this  meeting. 

Meanwhile,  the  general  court  of  the  Massachu- 
setts had  taken  up  the  affair,  and  passed  a  number 
of  resolutions  respecting  the  impost.  These  are  a 
curiosity,  exhibiting  a  lively  picture  of  human  na- 
:ure,  and,  in  the  course  of  conduct  consequent  upon 
;hem,  will  afford  a  general  specimen  of  the  manner 
in  which  the  Massachusetts  anciently  treated  her 
sister  colonies.  The  resolutions  were  at  this  meet- 
ng  laid  before  the  commissioners,  and  were  to  the 
following  effect. 

1.  That  the  jurisdiction  at  Hartford  had  not  a 
legal  power  to  force  any  inhabitant  of  another  juris- 
diction to  purchase  any  fort  or  lands  out  of  their 
jurisdiction. 

2.  That  it  was  injurious  to  require  custom  for  the 
maintenance  of  a  fort  which  is  not  useful  to  those  of 
whom  it  was  demanded. 

3.  That  it  was  unequal  for  Connecticut  to  impose 
a  custom  upon  their  friends  and  confederates,  who 
have  no  more  benefit  of  the  river,  by  the  exporting 
or  importing   of  goods,  than  strangers  of  another 
nation,  who,  though  they  lived  in   Hartford,  paid 
none. 

4.  That  the  propounding  and  standing  upon  an 
imposition  of  custom,  to  be  paid  at  the  river's  mouth, 
by  such  as  were  of  our  jurisdiction,  hindered  our 
confederation  ten  years,  and  there  was  never  any 
paid  to  this  day  ;  and  that  now  to  impose  it  upon 
them,  after  their  confederation,    would   put  them 
upon  new  thoughts. 

5.  That  it  appeared  to  them  very  hard  that  any 
of  their  jurisdiction   should  be  forced  to  such  a  dis- 
advantage as   would  necessarily  enslave  their  pos- 
terity,   by  imposing   such    rates    and   customs,    as 
would  either  constrain  them   to  depart  from   their 
habitations,  or  weaken  their   estates  ;  especially  as 
they  were  with  the  first  who  took  possession  of  the 
river,  and  were  at  great  charge  of  building,  &c 
which  if  they  had  foreseen  they  would  not  have  made 
a  plantation  at  that  place. 

6.  If  Hartford  jurisdiction    shall   make    use   of 
their  power  over  any  of  ours,  we   have   the  same 
power  to  imitate  them  in  the  like  kind,  which  they 
desired  might  be  forborne  on  both  sides      These  re- 
solutions were    signed  by    the    secretary   of    the 
colony 

Mr.  Hopkins  replied  in  behalf  of  Connecticut, 
that  the  first  article  laboured  under  a  great  mistake 


UNITED  STATES, 


675 


that  the  imposition  was  neither  to  buy  lands  nor  th 
fort.  He  observed  also,  that  it  was  not  material  t 
what  purpose  an  impost  was  applied  if  it  were  lawfu 
in  itself,  and  did  not  exceed  the  bounds  of  modera 
tion.  With  respect  to  the  second  article,  he  sai 
that  it  impeached  all  states  and  nations  of  injustic 
no  less  than  Connecticut ;  that  their  practice  in  a] 
similar  cases  warranted  the  impost.  He  urge( 
that  for  twelve  years  the  fort  at  Saybrook  had  been 
of  special  service  to  Springfield  ;  and  that  it  was  s 
still,  and  might  be  for  a  number  of  years  to  come 
He  therefore  insisted  that  it  was  strictly  just  tha 
the  inhabitants  of  that  town  should  pay  the  impost 
He  said  he  was  willing  to  risk  the  case  and  have  i 
decided  on  the  principles  of  strict  justice.  Tin 
third  article  he  observed  was  a  mere  presumption 
and  had  no  just  foundation  ;  besides,  if  it  wen 
founded,  he  argued  that  the  comparison  was  no 
equal.  The  whole  of  the  fourth  article  he  said  wa: 
a  mistake  ;  that  the  confederation  was  completed  h 
about  five  years  from  the  first  mentioning  of  it,  am 
that  it  was  not  retarded  by  the  means  suggested 
nor  were  they  ever  mentioned.  With  reference  tf 
the  fifth  article,  he  replied,  that  all  taxes  weakenei 
states,  and  if  this  v.ere  aground  of  objection  agains 
the  impost,  then  no  tax  or  impost  could  ever  b< 
laid.  He  insisted  that  the  impost  was  just  anc 
moderate,  and  therefore  could  not  enslave  the  in- 
habitants of  Springfield.  The  towns  in  Connecticut 
he  observed,  were  settled  before  Springfield,  and 
that  town  had  been  at  no  expense  in  making  settle- 
ments more  than  the  towns  in  Connecticut.  He 
said  if  Connecticut  at  any  time  should  become  ex- 
orbitant in  its  impositions  upon  any  of  the  colonies, 
they  would  find  a  remedy  in  the  confederation.  With 
reference  to  the  last  article,  he  declared  his  willing- 
ness in  all  similar  cases  to  submit  to  the  like  im- 
position. 

The  commissioners  upon  a  full  hearing,  deter- 
mined that  it  was  of  weighty  consideration  to  all 
the  plantations  upon  the  river,  that  thn  mouth  of  it 
should  be  secured,  and  a  safe  passage  for  goods  up 
and  down  the  river  be  maintained,  though  at  some 
expense  ;  and,  that  as  Springfield  enjoyed  the  be- 
nefit, the  inhabitants  should  pay  the  impost  of  two- 
pence per  bushel  for  corn,  and  a  penny  on  the 
pound  for  beaver,  or  twenty  shillings  upon  every 
hogshead.  Nevertheless,  out  of  respect  and  tender- 
ness to  the  Massachusetts,  it  was  resolved  that 
Springfield,  or  the  general  court,  might  have  the 
liberty  of  exhibiting  further  reasons  against  the  im- 
post if  any  should  occur. 

At  this  meeting,  Mr.  John  Winthrop,  of  Pequot, 
laid  claim  to  the  whole  country  of  the  western  Ne- 
hanticks,  including  a  considerable  part  of  the  town 
of  Lyme.  He  represented  that  he  obtained  the 
title  to  this  large  tract  partly  by  purchase,  and 
partly  by  deed  of  gift,  before  the  Pequot  war.  He 
petitioned  the  commissioners  to  this  effect  -."Whereas 
I  had  the  land  at  Nehantick  by  deed  of  gift  and 
purchase  from  the  sachem  before  the  Pequot  war, 
I  desire  the  commissioners  would  confirm  it  unto 
me,  and  clear  it  of  all  claims  of  English  and  In- 
dians, according  to  the  equity  of  the  case."  As  he 
had  no  deed  nor  writing  respecting  the  land,  he 
produced  the  testimony  of  three  Nehantick  Indians ; 
who  testified  that  before  the  Pequot  war,  Sashions, 
their  sachem,  called  all  his  men  together,  and  told 
them  that  he  was  determined  to  give  his  country  to 
the  governor's  son,  who  lived  at  Pattaquassetj  or 
Pamaquasset,  (Saybrook,)  and  that  his  men  gave 
their  consent;  that  afterwards  he  went  to  Mr.  Win- 


throp, at  Pattaquasset,  and  when  he  came  back* 
said  that  he  had  granted  all  his  country  to  the  go- 
vernor's son  ;  and  also,  that  he  had  received  coats 
for  it,  which  they  saw  him  bring  home.  Three  En- 
glishmen  also  testified  that  they  had  heard  the  In- 
dians report  the  same  concerning  the  grant  of  the 
Nehantick  or  Neanticut  country  to  Mr.  Winthrop. 
Thomas  Stanton  deposed,  that  he  remembered  Sa- 
shions, sachem  of  the  Nehanticks,  did  give  his 
country  to  Mr.  John  Winthrop,  before  the  Pequot 
war,  and  that  he  was  interpreter  in  that  business. 

The  commissioners  of  Connecticut  pleaded  against 
the  claim  of  Mr.  Winthrop,  that  his  purchase  bore 
no  date ;  that  the  tract  pretended  to  be  purchased 
or  given  was  not  circumscribed  within  any  limits ; 
and  that  it  did  not  appear  that  the  Indian  who 
granted  the  lands  had  any  right  in  them;  that 
the  grant  was  verbal,  and  at  most  could  be  but 
a  vague  business.  They  also  urged  that  it  did  not 
appear  but.  that  Mr.  Winthrop  purchased  the  lands 
for  the  noblemen  and  gentlemen,  in  whose  service 
he  was  at  that  time  employed  ;  and  that  as  the  lands 
had  been  conquered  at  the  hazard  and  expense  of 
Connecticut  before  Mr.  Winthrop  made  known  his 
claim,  whatever  it  was,  it  was  then  dormant,  and  of 
no  validity.  They  further  insisted,  that,  as  they 
were  not  prepared  to  give  a  full  answer,  no  decision 
might  be  made  until  Connecticut  should  be  fully 
heard  with  respect  to  the  premises. 

The  commissioners  declined  any  decision  of  the 
controversy  ;  but  it  does  not  appear  that  Mr.  Win- 
Lhrop  ever  after  prosecuted  his  claim.  As  it  seems 
Mr.  Winthrop  about  this  time  had  a  design  of  pur- 
hasing  Long  Island,  the  commissioners  took  occa- 
ion  to  inform  him,  that  the  Island  was  already 
under  engagements  for  considerable  sums  of  money 
;o  a  number  of  persons  in  Connecticut  and  New 
Haven  ;  and  represented  that  any  title  which 
might  be  derived  from  Mr.  Cope,  would  be  very 
>recarious,  as  he  had  confessed  a  short  time  before 
lis  death. 

The  commissioners  this  year  brought  in  the  num- 
)er  of  polls  in  the  several  colonies,  and  made  a  set- 
lement  of  their  accounts.  The  whole  expenditure 
>f  the  confederates  was  1043J.  10s.  There  was  due 
o  Connecticut  155/.  17s.  Id.  which  the  colony  had 
expended  in  the  general  defence,  more  than  its  pro- 
>ortion;  and  New  Haven  had  expended  71.  more 
han  its  proportion.  This  was  exclusive  of  all  the 
expense  which  these  two  colonies  had  borne  in  de- 
ending  themselves  against  the  Indians  at  Stamford 
md  its  vicinity,  and  in  attempting  to  bring  the 
murderers  of  the  English  to  condign  punishment. 
Massachusetts  and  Plymouth  paid  the  balance  to 
Connecticut  and  New  Haven. 

Peter  Stuyvesant,  who   the   last  year  had  been 

ppointcd    governor  of  New   Netherlands,  arrived 

his   year   at  Manhadoes,  and    commenced  his  go- 

ernment  of  the  Dutch  settlements.     The  commis- 

ioners  wrote  him  a  long  letter  of  congratulation  ; 

ut  complained  that  the  Dutch  sold  arms  and  am- 

lunition  to   the  Indians,  and  even   in  the  English 

lantations  ;  and  desired  that  an  immediate   stop 

might  be  put  to  so  dangerous  a  trade.     They  made 

omplaint  also  that   the   Dutch  had  laid  so  severe 

n  impost   upon  all  goods,  as  greatly  discouraged 

rading  with    them,  while   all  the  harbours  in  the 

n'tcd  colonies  were  open  and  free  to  them. 

This  winter   the  fort  and  buildings  at  Saybrook 

[accountably  took  fire,  and,  with  some  goods,  were 

estroyed.      The  damage    was  estimated    at   more 

an  a  thousand  nonnds. 

3Q2 


676 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


Settlement  of  New  London — Salaries  first  granted  to 
civil  (ifficers — Troubles  with  the  Narragansvt  In- 
dians— Rhode  Island  petitions  to  be  united  iviih  the 
colonies  in  confederation —  The  Massachusetts  re- 
sume the  affair  of  the  impost — Mr.  Westerhouse  com- 
plains of  the  seizure  of  his  vessel  by  the  Dutch,  in 
the  harbour  of  New  Haven — Murders  committed  by 
the  Indians;  resolutions  respecting  the  murderers — 
Body  of  laws  compiled — Debates  relative  to  the  set- 
tlement of  Delaware —  The  Pequots  revolt  from 
Uncas,  and  petition  the  English — Resolution  re- 
specting them— Mr.  Westerhouse  petitions  to  make 
reprisals  from  the  Dutch — Letter  to  the  Dutch  go- 
vernor— Further  altercations  respecting  the  impost 
-—Final  issue  of  that  affair — The  conduct  of  the 
Massachusetts  upon  its  decision,  and  the  declaration 
of  the  commissioners  respecting  it — Their  treatment 
of  Connecticut  respecting  the  line  between  the  colo- 
nies—  TJie  court  of  Connecticut  determine  to  avenge 
the  death  of  John  Whitmore. 

(16  18.)  The  last  year  several  persons  had  begun 
settlements  at  Pequot  harbour,  where  lots  had  been 
laid  out  for  them,  but  part  of  them  were  soon  dis- 
couraged and  left  the  plantation.  This  year  Mr. 
Richard  Blinman,  who  had  been  a  minister  in  Eng- 
land, removed  from  Gloucester  to  this  new  setttle- 
ment ;  in  consequence  of  which  a  considerable  ad- 
dition was  made  to  the  number  who  had  kept  their 
station ;  and  by  the  next  year  there  was  such  an 
accession,  that  the  inhabitants  consisted  of  more 
than  forty  families.  Some  of  the  principal  men 
were  John  Winthrop,  Esq.,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Blinman, 
Thomas  Minot,  Samuel  Lothrop,  Robert  Allyn,  and 
James  Avery.  For  their  encouragement,  the  gene- 
ral court  granted  them  a  three  years'  exemption  from 
all  colonial  taxation.  Mr.  Winthrop  was  authorized 
to  superintend  the  affairs  of  the  plantation.  The 
next  year  a  court  was  appointed  for  the  trial  of 
small  causes ;  the  judges  of  which  were  Mr.  Win- 
throp, Thomas  Minot,  and  Samuel  Lothrop.  The 
Indian  name  of  the  place  was  Nameaug,  alias 
Towawog;  but  in  1654  the  whole  tract,  now  com- 
prised within  the  towns  of  New  London  and  Groton, 
was  called  Pequot,  from  the  name  of  the  harbour 
and  original  inhabitants  ;  and  by  that  name  it  was 
known  for  about  four  years.  On  the  24th  of  March, 
1G58,  the  assembly  passed  an  act  respecting  it, 
which  is  so  curious  and  characteristic  of  the  feelings 
of  the  early  settlers,  as  to  be  worthy  of  quotation. 

"  Whereas,  it  hath  been  the  commendable  prac- 
tice of  the  inhabitants  of  all  the  colonies  of  these 
parts,  that  as  this  country  hath  its  denomination 
from  our  dear  native  country  of  England,  and 
thence  is  called  New  England  ;  so  the  planters,  in 
their  first  settling  of  most  new  plantations,  have 
given  names  to  those  plantations  of  some  cities  and 
towns  in  England,  thereby  intending  to  keep  up, 
and  leave  to  posterity,  the  memorial  of  several 
places  of  note  there,  as  Boston,  Hartford,  Windsor, 
York,  Ipswich,  Braintree,  Exeter;  this  court  con- 
sidering, that  there  hath  yet  no  place  in  any  of  the 
colonies  been  named  in  memory  of  the  city  of  Lon- 
don, there  being  a  new  plantation  within  this  juris- 
diction of  Connecticut,  settled  upon  that  fair  river 
Mcheagan,  in  the  Pequot  country,  being  an  excel- 
lent harbour  and  a  fit  and  convenient  place  for 
future  trade,  it  being  also  the  only  place  which  the 
English  in  these  parts  have  possessed  by  conquest, 
and  that  upon  a  very  just  war,  upon  that  great  and 
warlike  people,  the  Pequots,  we  therefore,  that  we 
might  thereby  leaveto  posterity  that  we  have  memory 


of  that  renowned  city  of  London,  from  whence  we 
had  our  transportation,  have  thought  fit,  in  honour 
I  to  that  famous  city,  to  call  the  said  plantation  New 
London."  The  name  of  the  river  was  also  changed, 
and  called  the  Thames. 

Until  this  time  the  governors  and  magistrates 
appear  to  have  served  the  people  for  the  pure  honour 
and  love  of  the  public  good ;  but  the  general  court 
now  took  the  affair  into  their  consideration,  and 
granted  the  governor  30/.  annually;  the  same  sum 
was  also  voted  for  the  deputy-governor,  who  had 
presided  the  preceding  year  :  and  these  appear  to 
have  been  the  first  salaries  given  to  any  civil  officers 
ip  the  colony,  and  to  have  been  a  compensation  for 
the  expense  of  the  office,  rather  than  for  the  ser- 
vice performed. 

Upon  the  election  at  Hartford,  Mr.  Hopkins  was 
chosen  governor,  arid  Mr.  Ludlow  deputy-governor. 
Mr.  Haynes  supplied  the  vacancy  made  by  the  ad- 
vancement of  Mr.  Ludlow,  and  Mr.  Cullick  was 
elected  magistrate  and  secretary  in  the  place  of  Mr. 
Whiting. 

In  September  the  commissioners  of  the  united 
colonies  assembled  at  Plymouth;  their  names  were 
John  Endicot  and  Simon  Bradstreet,  from  Massa- 
chusetts ;  William  Bradford  and  John  Brown,  from 
Plymouth ;  Governor  Hopkins  and  Roger  Ludlow, 
from  Connecticut ;  Governor  Eaton  and  John  Ast- 
wood,  from  New  Haven. 

The  Indians,  both  in  the  Nehantick  and  Narra- 
ganset  country,  and  in  the  western  parts  of  Con- 
necticut, had  been  more  perfidious  and  outrageous 
this  year  than  at  any  time  since  the  Pequot  war ; 
and  instead  of  performing  the  promises  which  they 
had  made  the  last  year,  hired  the  Mohawk  and  Po- 
comtock  Indians  to  unite  with  them  in  an  expedi- 
tion for  the  total  destruction  of  Uncas  and  the  Mo- 
heagans.  The  Pocomtocks  made  preparations  and 
assembled  for  the  purpose ;  but  waited  several  days 
for  the  arrival  of  the  Mohawks,  who  were  to  have 
joined  them  at  that  place.  The  Narragansets  and 
Nehanticks  removed  their  old  men,  women,  and 
children  into  swamps  and  fastnesses,  and  prepared 
an  army  of  800  men,  who  were  to  form  a  junction 
with  the  Mohawks  and  Pocomtocks,  in  Connecticut, 
near  the  Moheagans. 

The  governor  and  council,  apprised  of  their  de- 
signs, dispatched  Thomas  Stanton,  their  interpreter, 
and  others  to  Pocomtock ;  who  found  the  Pocom- 
tocks actually  met  in  arms,  and  waiting  for  the  ar- 
rival of  the  Mohawks ;  and  they  learnt  that  the  Mo- 
hawks had  400  fire-arms,  and  plenty  of  ammunition. 
The  Pocomtocks  acknowledged  that  they  had  heen 
hired  by  the  Narragansets,  which  proved  a  con- 
federacy, which  was  justly  alarming  to  the  colony  ; 
but  several  happy  circumstances  united  their  in- 
fluence to  frustrate  this  formidable  combination ; 
and  the  early  discovery  of  the  designs  of  the  enemy, 
by  the  people  of  Connecticut,  and  the  precautions 
which  were  taken,  had  a  great  effect.  The  Pocom- 
tocks and  Mohawks  were  assured  that  the  English 
would  defend  Uncas  against  all  his  enemies,  and 
would  avenge  all  injuries  which  they  should  do  him: 
the  Mohawks  had  one  or  two  of  their  sachems  and  a 
number  of  their  men  killed  by  the  French,  and 
therefore  did  not  proceed  ;  and  the  Pocomtocks  did 
not  choose  to  march  without  them :  the  Narragan- 
sets, thus  deserted,  were  afraid  to  proceed ;  and 
the  expedition  failed. 

The  Narragansets  not  only  plotted  against  the 
united  colonies,  but  committed  many  outrages 
against  the  people  of  Rhode  Island  •,  where  they 


UNITED  STATES. 


677 


made  forcible  entries  into  the  houses,  struck  and 
abused  the  owners,  and  stole  and  purloined  their 
goods.  At  Warwick  especially,  they  were  exceed- 
ingly troublesome,  having  killed  in  that  plantation 
about  a  hundred  cattle,  exclusive  of  other  injuries 
which  they  did  to  the  inhabitants ;  and  the  Rhode 
Islanders  were  so  harassed,  that  they  made  appli- 
cation, by  their  representatives,  to  the  commissioners 
to  be  admitted  to  the  confederation  of  the  united 
colonies. 

The  commissioners  replied,  that  they  perceived 
their  state  to  be  full  of  confusion  and  danger,  and 
that  they  were  desirous  of  giving  them  both  advice 
and  help ;  but  added,  that  as  the  plantation  made  at 
Rhode  Island  fell  within  the  limits  of  the  ancient 
patent  granted  to  the  colony  of  New  Plymouth, 
they  could  not  receive  them  as  a  distinct  confederate; 
they  therefore  proposed,  that  if  the  Rhode  Islanders 
would  acknowledge  themselves  to  be  within  the  lim- 
its of  Plymouth  colony,  they  would  advise  how  they 
might  be  'received  on  equitable  terms,  with  a  tender 
regard  for  their  convenience ;  and  that  they  would 
afford  them  the  same  advice  and  protection  which 
they  did  the  other  plantations  within  the  united 
colonies. 

The  commissioners  sent  messengers  again  to  the 
Narraganset  and  Nehuntick  Indians,  to  remonstrate 
with  them,  and  demand  the  arrears  of  wampum  which 
were  yet  unpaid.  Their  outrages  against  the  in- 
habitants of  Rhode  Island  were  particularly  noticed, 
and  the  sachems  were  peremptorily  charged  to  keep 
their  men  under  better  government. 

The  general  court  of  Massachusetts  was  by  no 
means  pleased  with  the  determination  of  the  com- 
missioners, the  last  year,  relative  to  the  impost  to 
be  paid  at.  Saybrook ;  and  a  committee  was  there- 
fore appointed  to  draw  up  an  answer  to  the  obser- 
vations and  pleadings  of  Governor  Hopkins  before 
the  commissioners  at  their  former  sessions. 

The  committee  introduced  their  answer  with  a 
number  of  questions  relative  to  the  articles  of  con- 
federation;  some  of  which  were  calculated  to  ex- 
hibit them  as  entirely  contemptible;  others  related 
to  the  power  of  the  commissioners,  and  to  the  degree 
in  which  obedience  was  due  to  their  determinations. 
They  inquired  whether  a  non-compliance  with  the 
orders  of  the  commissioners  would  be  a  breach  of 
the  articles  of  confederation  ?  and  complained  that 
they  had  not  a  greater  number  of  commissioners,  as 
Massachusetts  was  much  larger  than  the  other  colo- 
nies :  they  proposed  that  they  should  have  the  pri- 
vilege of  sending  three  commissioners,  and  that  the 
meetings  of  the  confederates  should  be  triennial; 
and  proceeded  to  a  long  reply  to  the  arguments  of 
Governor  Hopkins,  and  attempted  to  vindicate  the 
reasons  which  they  had  given  before  against  the  im- 
post. In  addition  to  what  they  had  formerly  offered, 
they  endeavoured  to  show  that  if  Springfield  was 
benefitted  by  the  fort  at  Saybrook,  and  ought  to 
pay  the  impost  on  that  account,  that  New  Haven, 
Stamford,  and  all  the  towns  on  that  side  of  the 
river,  ought  also  to  pay;  because  they  had  been 
already  benefitted,  and  might  be  hereafter :  and  if 
this  was  the  case,  as  they  pleaded,  they  objected 
against  the  commissioners  of  New  Haven  as  dis- 
qualified to  judge  in  the  case  :  they  also  objected 
against  the  decision  of  the  commissioners,  because 
it  was  made,  as  they  said,  without  a  sight  of  the 
Connecticut  patent:  they  insisted,  that  if  the  patent 
had  been  produced,  there  might  have  been  some 
clause  which  would  have  helped  their  case ;  and 
pleaded  a  priority  of  possession.  They  affirmed, 


that  the  first  possession  of  Saybrook  fort  was  taken 
by  Mr.  John  Wiuthrop,  in  November,  .1635,  and 
their  possession  was  before  that:  for  those  who 
went  from  Watertown,  Cambridge,  Roxbury,  and 
Dorchester,  the  summer  before,  took  possession  in 
their  name  and  right;  and  had  a  commission  of 
government  from  them,  and  some  ordnance  for  their 
defence  ;  and,  in  fine,  they  urged  that  if  the  impost 
were  lawi'ul,  it  was  not  expedient;  and  that  they  could 
view  it  in  no  other  light  than  as  a  source  of  con- 
tention, to  interrupt  their  union  and  brotherly  love. 
This  document  was  adopted  by  the  general  court. 

Governor  Hopkins  and  Mr.  Ludlow,  in  reply  oh 
the  part  of  the  Connecticut  commissioners,  insisted 
on  the  answers  which  had  been  given  the  last  year  to 
the  arguments  of  the  general  court  of  the  Massachu- 
setts ;  they  attempted  to  show,  that  notwithstanding 
all  which  had  been  urged,  the  arguments  in  favour 
of  the  impost  remained  unanswered,  and  in  their 
full  force  ;  they  observed,  that  whatever  propositions 
might  have  been  made  by  the  Massachusetts,  in 
1638,  with  respect  to  the  exemption  of  plantations 
under  theii  government  from  an  impost,  nothing 
was  ever  granted  upon  that  head ;  and  that  affairs 
were  now  in  a  very  different  state  from  what  they 
were  at  the  time  of  the  confederation  :  they  urged, 
that  now  the  charge  of  the  fort  and  garrison  at 
Saybrook  lay  upon  the  colony,  which  was  not  the 
case  at  that  time ;  and  that  nothing  could  be  fairly 
pleaded  from  the  circumstances  in  which  the  colo- 
nies confederated.  With  respect  to  priority  of 
right,  and  the  commission  which  had  been  mention- 
ed, they  observed  that  the  commission  of  govern 
ment  was  taken,  talvo  jure,  ol  the  interest  of  tht 
gentlemen  who  had  the  patent  of  Connecticut ;  this 
commission  taking  rise  from  the  desire  of  the  people 
that  removed,  who  judged  it  inexpedient  to  go  away 
without  any  frame  of  government,  not  from  any 
claim  of  the  Massachusetts'  jurisdiction  over  them 
by  virtue  of  patent.  With  reference  to  the  decision 
of  the  commissioners,  without  seeing  the  Connecti- 
cut patent,  they  observed  that  a  copy  of  it  was  ex- 
hibited at  the  time  of  the  confederation ;  that  it  had 
been  well  known  to  many  ;  and  that  the  Massachu- 
setts in  particular  knew  that  it  had  recently  been 
owned  by  the  honourable  committee  of  parliament; 
and  that  equal  respect  and  power  had  been  given 
by  it  to  all  within  its  limits,  as  had  been  either  to 
Massachusetts  or  Plymouth,  within  the  limits  of 
theii  respective  patents.  As  to  the  inexpediency 
of  the  impost,  as  tending  to  disturb  the  peace  and 
brotherly  love  subsisting  between  the  colonies,  they 
replied,  that  it  was  their  hope  and  earnest  desire 
that  in  all  the  proceedings  of  the  confederation, 
truth  and  peace  might  embrace  each  other.  But 
they  insisted,  that  pleading  for  truth  and  righteous- 
ness ought  by  no  means  to  disturb  peace  or  bro- 
therly affection.  Indeed,  they  maintained,  that 
things  which  were  rational  and  consistent  with 
truth  and  righteousness,  should  never  be  an  occa 
sion  of  offence  to  any. 

The  commissioners  of  Connecticut,  at  this  time, 
produced  an  authentic  copy  of  their  patent,  and 
Governor  Hopkins  offered  to  attest  it  upon  oath. 
As  this  was  the  third  year  since  the  affair  of  the 
impost  had  been  litigated  before  the  commissioners, 
it  was  urged,  that  it  might  have  a  final  issue,  agree 
able  to  truth  and  righteousness.  Governor  Hop- 
kins and  Mr.  Ludlow  disputed  the  southern  bound- 
ary of  Massachusetts,  and  claimed  Springfield  as 
lying  within  the  limits  described  in  the  patent  of 
Connecticut. 


678 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


The  commissioners  judged  that  the  objections  of- 
fered against  the  gentlemen  from  New  Haven  were 
insufficient,  and  the  commissioners  from  Massachu- 
setts gave  them  up :  and  after  a  full  hearing  and 
mature  deliberation  on  the  whole  matter,  the  former 
order,  in  favour  of  Connecticut,  was  confirmed. 

Notwithstanding  the  congratulatory  letter  which 
the  commissioners  addressed  to  Stuyvesant,  the 
Dutch  governor,  at  their  last  session,  he  proved  a 
very  disagreeable  neighbour :  he  gave  no  answer  to 
the  complaints  which  had  been  stated  to  him  in 
their  letter ;  and  he  transmitted  no  account  of  the 
customs  laid  upon  the  English  merchants,  nor  of 
the  cases  in  which  the  Dutch  made  seizures,  so  that 
it  was  extremely  difficult  to  know  on  what  terms 
they  could  trade,  or  how  to  escape  fines  and  seizures. 
By  his  order,  a  vessel  of  Mr.  Westerhouse,  a  Dutch 
merchant  and  planter  at  New  Haven,  was  seized 
while  riding  at  anchor  within  the  harbour,  who  pre- 
ferred a  complaint  to  the  commissioners ;  and  proved 
that  when  he  sailed  from  Virginia,  he  made  a  full 
payment  of  all  the  customs.  The  commissioners 
wrote  to  the  Dutch  governor  on  the  subject,  and  re- 
monstrated against  such  a  flagrant  insult  to  the 
united  colonies,  and  against  the  injustice  done  to 
Mr.  Westerhouse;  and  at  the  same  time  protested 
against  the  Dutch  claim  to  all  the  lands,  rivers,  and 
streams,  from  Cape  Henlopen  to  Cape  Cod ;  and 
asserted  their  right  to  all  the  lands  and  plantations 
in  the  united  colonies,  as  anciently  granted  by  the 
kings  of  England  to  their  subjects,  and  since  pur- 
chased by  them  of  the  Indians  as  the  original  pro- 
prietors. At  the  same  time  they  assured  him,  that 
they  expected  satisfaction,  both  for  the  injury  and 
affront  in  taking  a  ship  out  of  one  of  their  harbours  : 
they  represented  in  strong  terms  the  absolute  neces- 
sity of  a  meeting  for  the  adjustment  of  the  differ- 
ences between  the  Dutch  and  the  united  colonies ; 
and  professed  themselves  to  be  inclined  to  pursue  all 
proper  counsels  for  that  purpose ;  and  added,  as  his 
letters  to  them,  as  well  as  to  the  governors  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  New  Haven,  had  been  expressed  in 
very  indeterminate  language,  they  wished  him  to 
be  more  explicit;  they  avowed  their  determination, 
that  until  such  time  as  the  Dutch  should  come  to  an 
amicable  settlement  of  the  points  in  controversy, 
neither  their  merchants  nor  mariners  should  enjoy 
any  privilege,  in  any  of  the  English  plantations  or 
harbours,  either  of  anchoring,  searching,  or  seizing, 
more  than  the  English  did  at  the  Manhadoes;  and 
declared  that  if,  upon  search,  they  should  find  arms 
and  ammunition  on  board  any  of  the  Dutch  ships, 
for  the  mischievous  purpose  of  vending  them  within 
the  limits  of  the  united  colonies  to  the  Indians,  they 
would  seize  them  until  further  inquiry  and  satisfac- 
tion should  be  made;  and  that  they  would  treat  the 
Dutch  mariners  and  merchants  in  the  English  har- 
bours and  plantations  in  the  same  manner  in  which 
the  English  had  been  treated  by  them. 

Soon  after  the  meeting  of  the  commissioners,  Mr. 
John  Whitmore,  of  Stamford,  a  worthy  man,  and 
one  of  the  representatives  of  the  town  in  the  general 
court  at  New  Haven,  was  murdered  by  the  Indians. 

(1649.)  At  the  general  election  in  Connecticut, 
Mr  Haynes  was  chosen  governor,  and  Mr.  Hop- 
kins deputy-governor.  Mr.  Ludlow  took  his  place 
again  among  the  magistrates ;  and  the  other  officers 
remained  as  they  had  been  the  preceding  year. 

In  consequence  of  the  burning  of  the  old  fort  at 
Saybrook,  a  new  one  was  begun  the  last  year  at  a 
place  called  the  new  fort  hill ;  and  at  this  session  of 
the  assembly,  orders  were  given  for  the  erecting  of 


a  new  dwelling-house  in  the  fort,  and  for  complet 
ing  the  works  and  buildings  at  Saybrook.  The 
magistrates  were  empowered  to  impress  suitable 
hands  for  carrying  the  business  into  effect,  and  ap- 
propriations were  made  for  that  purpose. 

As  the  commissioners  of  Massachusetts,  in  their 
pleadings  before  the  commissioners  of  the  united 
colonies  at  their  last  session,  had  expressed  their 
doubts  whether  the  act  of  Connecticut,  imposing 
a  duty  upon  certain  articles  exported  from  Connec- 
ticut river,  had  any  respect  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Springfield,  the  general  court  declared  that  they 
had  particular  respect  to  them,  as  under  the  go 
vernmentof  the  Massachusetts.  They  also  resolved, 
that,  in  their  most  serious  judgment,  nothing  was 
imposed  on  them  more  than  was  strictly  just,  or 
than  had  been  imposed  on  themselves ;  and  that 
they  ought  to  submit  to  the  impost;  and  further 
declared,  that  the  execution  of  the  act,  with  respect 
to  their  brethren  at  Springfield,  had  been  deferred, 
only  that  the  judgment  of  the  commissioners  of  the 
other  colonies  might  be  had  on  the  premises.  The 
assembly  also  resolved,  that  they  were  not  satisfied 
that  Springfield  was  within  the  true  limits  of  the 
Massachusetts'  patent  ;  and  expressed  their  earnest 
wishes  that  the  line  might  be  speedily  and  fully  set- 
tled, in  righteousness  and  peace.  It  was  finally 
ordered,  that  these  resolutions  should  be  laid  before 
the  commissioners  at  their  next  meeting. 

Mr.  Ludlow,  who  had  for  several  years  succes- 
sively been  desired  by  the  general  court  to  make  a 
collection  of  the  laws  which  had  been  enacted,  and 
to  revise,  digest,  and  prepare  a  body  of  laws  for  the 
colony,  had  now  completed  the  work,  and  at  this 
session  a  code  was  established. 

Until  this  time,  punishments  in  many  instances 
had  been  uncertain  and  arbitrary  ;  and  had  been 
left  wholly  to  the  discretion  of  the  court.  Defama- 
tion had  in  some  instances  been  punished  by  fines, 
repeated  scourging,  and  imprisonment.  For  viola- 
tion of  the  Sabbath,  there  is  an  instance  of  imprison- 
ment during  the  pleasure  of  the  court.  Want  of 
chastity  in  single  persons  was  sometimes  punished 
by  setting  the  delinquent  in  the  pillory,  and  by 
whipping  him  from  one  town  to  another.  But,  from 
this  time,  the  laws  in  general  became  fixed,  and  the 
punishment  of  particular  crimes  were  specified. 

The  statute  now  required  a  jury  of  twelve  meu  : 
that  in  cases  in  which  they  were  doubtful  with  re- 
spect to  law,  they  should  bring  in  a  non  liquet,  or 
special  verdict ;  and  that  matter  of  law  should  be 
determined  by  the  bench,  as  it  is  at  the  present 
time.  But  if,  after  the  jury  had  been  sent  out  re- 
peatedly, the  court  judged  they  had  mistaken  the 
evidence  and  brought  in  a  wrong  verdict,  they  were 
authorized  in  civil  cases  to  empannel  a  new  jury. 
The  court  also  retained  the  power  of  lessening  and 
increasing  the  damages  given  by  the  jury,  as  they 
judged  most  equitable.  All  cases  of  life,  limb,  or 
banishment  were  determined  by  a  special  jury  of 
twelve  able  men,  and  a  verdict  could  not  be  ac- 
cepted unless  the  whole  jury  were  agreed.  From 
this  time  Connecticut  had  the  appearance  of  a  well 
regulated  commonwealth. 

An  extraordinary  meeting  of  the  commissioners 
was  held  this  year  at  Boston  ;  the  members  of  which 
were  Thomas  Dudley,  Esq.,  Mr.  Simon  Bradstreet, 
William  Bradford,  Esq.,  Mr.  John  Brown,  Edward 
Hopkins,  Esq.,  Mr.  Thomas  Wells,  Governor  Ea- 
ton, and  Mr.  John  Astwood. 

Governor  Eaton,  in  behalf  of  the  colony  of  New 
Haven,  proposed  that  effectual  measures  might  be 


UNITED  STATES. 


679 


immediately  adopted  for  the  settlement  of  De 
laware  bay.  The  title  which  a  number  of  mer- 
chants at  New  Haven  had  to  extensive  tracts 
on  both  sides  of  the  river,  by  virtue  of  purchases 
from  the  Indians,  was  laid  before  the  commis- 
sioners ;  and  the  fertility  of  the  soil,  the  healthi- 
ness of  the  country,  the  convenience  of  the  several 
rivers,  the  great  advantages  of  settlements,  and 
a  well  regulated  trade  there,  not  only  to  New 
Haven,  but  to  all  the  New  England  colonies,  were 
strongly  represented. 

The  commissioners,  after  a  full  hearing  and  ma- 
ture deliberation,  were  of  the  opinion,  that  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  colonies  were  such,  that  it  would 
not  be  prudent  at  that  time,  by  any  public  act,  to 
encourage  the  settlement  of  those  tracts.  Besides 
the  contest  with  the  Dutch  and  the  danger  of  involv- 
ing the  colonies  in  war,  it  was  observed  that  they 
had  scarcely  sufficient  numbers  of  men  at  home  for 
their  own  defence,  and  the  prosecution  of  the  neces- 
sary affairs  of  their  respective  plantations ;  and  it 
was  therefore  recommended  to  the  merchants  and 
gentlemen  at  New  Haven,  either  to  settle  or  sell 
the  lands  which  they  possessed  there.  The  commis- 
sioners also  resolved,  that  if  any  persons  in  the  uni- 
ted colonies  should  attempt,  without  their  consent, 
to  make  settlements  on  the  lands,  or  to  do  any  thing 
injurious  to  the  rights  of  the  purchasers,  that  they 
would  neither  own  nor  protect  them  in  their  unjust 
attempts. 

The  murder  of  Mr.  Whitmore,  and  the  other 
murders  which  the  Indians  had  committed  against 
the  English,  were  fully  considered  :  and  the  com- 
missioners resolved  that  the  guilty  should  be  deli- 
vered up  ;  and  it'  they  were  not,  that  the  sachem  at 
Stamford,  or  his  son,  should  be  apprehended  and 
kept  in  prison,  until  they  should  be  secured,  and 
justice  have  its  course. 

Some  time  before  the  meeting  of  the  commis- 
sioners, the  Indians  upon  Long  Island  perpetrated 
a  murder  at  Southhold ;  and  having  risen  in  a  hostile 
manner  for  several  days  round  the  town,  the  inha- 
bitants were  obliged  to  arm  and  stand  upon  their 
defence  against  them  for  a  considerable  time;  and 
afterwards  to  keep  a  strong  and  vigilant  guard  by 
night.  The  town  was  not  only  exceedingly  alarmed 
and  distressed,  but  put  to  great  expense  ;  and  they 
therefore  made  application  to  the  commissioners  for 
relief;  who  would  not  consent  that  the  colonies  in 
general  should  bear  any  of  the  charge  in  such  in- 
stances ;  and  determined  in  this  case,  as  they  had 
done  before  with  respect  to  the  other  towns  in  the 
jurisdictions  of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven,  which 
had  suffered  in  the  like  manner,  and  had  been  ob- 
liged to  bear  all  the  expense  of  defending  Stamford 
and  other  places. 

The  Narraganset  and  Nehantick  Indians  still  per- 
sisted in  their  murderous  designs  against  Uncas, 
and  in  their  perfidious  conduct  towards  the  colonies  ; 
and  the  alarming  aspect  of  affairs,  with  respect  to 
them,  was  the  occasion  of  this  extraordinary  meet- 
ing. An  Indian  who  was  hired  by  the  Narraganset 
and  Nehantick  sachems  to  kill  Uncas,  as  he  was 
going  on  board  a  vessel  in  the  Thames,  ran  him 
through  the  breast  with  a  sword  ;  but  though  the 
wound  at  first  was  judged  to  be  mortal,  Uncas  finally 
recovered.  At  this  meeting  he  presented  himself 
before  the  commissioners,  and  complained  of  the 
assault  made  upon  him;  and  affirmed,  that  these 
sachems  had  hired  the  Mohawks  and  other  Indians 
against  him,  as  well  as  an  assassin  to  kill  him  se- 
Tetly.  He  complained  also  that  the  Narragansets 


had  neither  restored  his  canoes  nor  his  captives,  as 
had  been  expressly  demanded- and  stipulated ;  and 
prayed  that,  as  he  had  ever  been  friendly  and  faith- 
ful to  the  colonies,  they  would  provide  for  his  safety, 
avenge  these  outrages,  and  do  him  justice.  Nini- 
grate  was  examined  before  the  commissioners  on 
these  points ;  and  it  was  proved,  by  the  confession 
of  the  Mohawks  themselves,  that  the  Narragansets 
had  hired  them  against  Uncas.  The  colonies  were 
at  the  same  time  alarmed  with  the  report,  that  one 
of  the  brothers  of  Sauacus.  or  his  son,  was  about  to 
marry  the  daughter  of  Niaigrate  ;  and  it  was  con- 
jectured, that  the  Narraganset  and  Nehantick  In- 
dians were  concerting  a  plan  to  collect  the  scattered 
remains  of  the  Pequots,  and  to  set  them  up  as  a 
distinct  nation  with  the  son,  or  brother  of  Sassa- 
cus,  at  their  head. 

The  Pequots,  who  had  been  given  to  Uncas,  had 
now  for  more  than  two  years  revolted  from  him,  and 
lived  separately,  as  a  distinct  clan :  in  1647  they 
had  complained  to  the  commissioners  that  Uncas 
and  the  Moheagans  had  abused  them;  and  repre- 
sented that,  though  they  had  submitted  and  been 
faithful  to  him,  assisted  him  in  his  wars,  been  es- 
teemed as  his  men,  and  paid  him  tribute,  he  had 
nevertheless  grossly  injured  them:  they  said  that 
he  had  required  tribute  of  them,  from  time  to  time, 
upon  mere  pretences ;  and  that  since  they  had  been 
put  under  him,  they  paid  him  wampum  forty  times  : 
hat  upon  the  death  of  one  of  his  children,  he  gave 
lis  squaw  presents,  and  ordered  them  to  comfort 
ler  in  the  same  way ;  and  that  they  presented  her 
with  a  hundred  fathom  of  wampum  :  that  Uncas  was 
ileased,  and  promised  that  for  the  future  he 
would  esteem  and  treat  them  as  Moheagans ;  but 
that  notwithstanding  this  engagement,  they  were 
wronged  every  way,  and  deprived  of  their  just  rights. 
Obachickquid,  one  of  their  chief  men,  complained 
hat  Uncas  had  taken  away  his  wife  and  used  her  as 
lis  own ;  and  they  proved  that  Uncas  had  wounded 
some  of  them,  and  plundered  the  whole  company ; 
they  therefore  prayed  that  theEnglish  wouldinter 
>ose  for  their  relief,  and  take  them  under  their 
>rotection. 

The  commissioners  found  these  charges  so  well 
upported,  that  they  ordered  Uncas  to  be  reproved, 
and  decreed  that  he  should  restore  Obachickquid 
is  wife,  and  pay  damages  for  the  injuries  he  had 
lone   the  Pequots ;  and  also  fined  him  a  hundred 
'athom  of  wampum.     Nevertheless,  as  it  had  been 
letermined  by  Connecticut  that  the  name  of  the 
?equots   should   be    extinguished,    and   that    they 
hould  not  dwell  in  their  own  country,  it  was  re- 
olved  that  they  should  return,  and  be  in  subjection 
o    Uncas ;  but   he  was   directed   to    receive  them 
without  revenge,  and  to  govern  them  with  moder- 
ation in  all  respects,  as  he  did  the  Moheagans.   They 
did  not  however  return  to  Uncas ;  but  annually  pre- 
ented    their  petition   to    the    commissioners  to  be 
;aken  under  the  protection  of  the   English,  and  to 
become  their  subjects;  pleading,   that  though  their 
ribe  had   done  wrong  and   were  justly  conquered, 
•et  that  they  had  killed  no  English  people;  and 
hat  Wequash  had   promised  them,  if  they  would 
flee  their  country,  and  not  injure  the  colonies,  that 
hey  would  do  them  no  harm.     To  relieve  them,  as 
ar  as  might  be  consistent  with  former  determina- 
,ions,  the   commissioners  recommended  it  to  Con- 
ecticut    to  provide   some   place  for  them,    which 
might  not  injure  any  particular  town,  where  they 
might  plant  and  dwell  together ;  but  at  the  same 
irne   they  were  directed  to  be  iu   subjection    to 


G80 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Uncas ;  and  he  was  again  enjoined  to  govern  them 
with  impartiality  and  kindness. 

Mr.  Westerhouse  about  this  time  renewed  his 
complaint  respecting  the  seizure  of  his  vessel  in 
the  harbour  of  New  Haven  :  and  alleged,  that  be- 
sides the  loss  of  his  vessel,  and  the  advantages  of 
trading,  the  prime  cost  of  his  goods  was  2UOO/. ; 
and  that,  after  repeated  application  to  the  Dutch 
governor,  he  had  not  been  able  to  obtain  the  least 
compensation;  he  had  therefore  petitioned  the  go- 
vernment of  New  Haven,  that  some  Dutch  vessel 
might  be  taken  by  way  of  reprisal ;  and  now  peti- 
tioned the  commissioners  for  liberty  to  make  reprisals, 
by  way  of  indemnification,  until  he  should  obtain 
satisfaction. 

Though  the  commissioners  declared  against  the 
injustice  of  the  seizure,  and  regretted  both  the  in- 
sult done  to  the  united  colonies,  and  the  damages 
sustained  by  Mr.  Westerhouse,  yet  they  declined 
granting  him  a  commission  to  make  reprisals,  judg- 
ing it  expedient  first  to  negotiate. 

They  therefore  wrote  to  the  Dutch  governor, 
that  Mr.  Westerhouse  had  applied  to  them  for  a 
commission  to  make  reprisals,  and  that  they  had 
not  granted  his  petition,  as  they  wished  first  to  ac- 
quaint him  with  the  motion,  and  to  represent  to 
him  the  equity  of  making  reprisals,  unless  justice 
should  be  done  him  some  other  way  :  they  again 
avowed  their  claim  to  all  parts  of  the  united  colo- 
nies ;  asserted  the  right  of  New  Haven  to  Delaware 
bay,  and  assured  him  that  it  would  not  be  given  up  : 
they  also  complained  of  his  letter  the  last  year,  as  in 
various  respects  unsatisfactory ;  and  that  with  regard 
to  that  dangerous  trade  of  arms  and  ammunition 
carried  on  with  the  Indians  at  fort  Aurania  and  in 
the  English  plantations,  it  was  wholly  silent :  they 
observed,  that  all  differences  between  them  and  the 
Dutch  might  have  been  amicably  settled,  had  it 
pleased  him  to  attend  the  meeting  of  the  commis- 
sioners at  Boston,  according  to  the  invitation 
which  they  had  given  him;  but  as  that  was  not 
agreeable  to  him,  they  avowed  their  designs  of  mak- 
ing provision  for  their  own  safety. 

To  prevent  the  vending  of  arms  and  ammunition 
to  the  Indians  in  the  united  colonies,  they  passed 
the  following  resolve  :  "  That  after  due  application 
hereof,  it  shall  not  be  lawful  for  any  Frenchman, 
Dutchman,  or  person  of  any  foreign  nation,  or  any 
Englishman  living  among  them,  or  under  the  go- 
vernment of  any  of  them,  to  trade  with  any  Indian 
or  Indians  within  this  jurisdiction,  either  directly 
or  indirectly,  by  themselves  or  others,  under  the 
penalty  of  confiscation  of  all  such  goods  and  vessels 
as  shall  be  found  so  trading,  or  the  true  value 
thereof,  upon  just  proof  of  any  goods  or  vessels  so 
traded  or  trading." 

The  gentlemen  from  Massachusetts,  at  this  meet- 
ing, again  brought  forward  the  dispute  between 
them  and  Connecticut  relative  to  the  impost ;  and 
pretended  that  Mr.  Fenwick,  some  years  before, 
had  promised  to  join  with  them  in  running  the  line  ; 
but  that  as  he  had  not  done  it,  and  it  had  now  been 
done  by  them,  at  their  own  expense,  and  to  their 
satisfaction,  it  ought  to  be  satisfactory  to  all  others, 
•who  could  make  no  legal  claim  to  the  adjacent 
lands ;  which  they  insisted  Connecticut  could  not, 
because  they  had  no  patent. 

The  commissioners  from  Connecticut  denied  the 
facts  which  had  been  stated;  and  insisted  that  Mr. 
Fenwick  never  had  agreed  to  run  the  line  with  them  ; 
and  that  their  running  the  line  at  their  own  ex- 
pense was  not  owing  to  any  defect  of  his,  nor  on 


the  part  of  Connecticut ;  for  they  ran  the  line  a 
year  before  the  dispute  with  Mr.  Fenwick  respect- 
ing Waranoke ;  besides,  they  said,  what  he  pro- 
mised at  that  time  was  not  to  run  the  line,  but  to 
clear  his  claim  to  that  plantation.  With  respect  to 
the  patent,  they  acknowledged  they  had  not  in- 
deed exhibited  the  original,  but  a  true  copy,  to  the 
authenticity  of  which  Mr.  Hopkins  could  give  oath: 
they  observed  it  was  well  known  that  they  had  a  pa- 
tent ;  that  the  original  was  in  England,  and  could 
not  then  be  exhibited ;  and  that  the  Massachusetts 
insisting  on  this  point  was  an  entire  bar  to  the  ami- 
cable settlement  of  the  line  between  the  colonies. 
Mr.  Hopkins  insisted  that  the  southerly  extent  of 
the  Massachusetts  patent  ought  first  to  be  mutually 
settled  ;  then  he  proposed  that  the  line  should  be 
run  by  skilful  men,  mutually  chosen,  and  at  the 
mutual  expense  of  the  colonies.  The  commissioners 
from  Connecticut  indeed  declared,  that  it  was  evi- 
dent, beyond  all  doubt,  that  Springfield  at  first 
was  settled  in  combination  with  Connecticut ;  and 
that  it  had  been  acknowledged  to  be  so  even  by  the 
colony  of  Massachusetts  ;  but  they  affirmed,  that 
when  propositions  were  sent  by  Governor  Winthrop, 
to  the  plantations  upon  the  river  in  1637,  relative 
to  a  confederation  of  the  New  England  colonies, 
Mr.  Pyncheon,  in  prosecution  of  that  design,  was 
in  1638  chosen  and  sent  as  a  commissioner  from 
Connecticut,  to  act  in  their  behalf;  that  it  was  at 
this  time,  and  never  before,  that  he  suggested  his 
apprehensions  that  Springfield  would  fall  within  the 
limits  of  Massachusetts  ;  and  that  this  was  received 
as  a  fact  without  any  evidence  of  what  had  been 
alleged;  they  also  expressed  it  as  their  full  per- 
suasion, that  Mr.  Pyncheon's  representations  and 
motion  at  that  time  originated  from  private  discon- 
tent, in  consequence  of  a  censure  laid  upon  him 
by  the  general  court  of  Connecticut;  they  con- 
cluded by  expressing  their  earnest  wishes,  that 
both  the  government  of  the  Massachusetts  and  their 
commissioners  would  consider  that  they  did  not 
comply  with  the  advice  of  the  commissioners  relative 
to  the  present  dispute  ;  and  that  they  insisted  upon 
what  they  knew  could  not  at  that  time  be  obtained: 
they  charged  them  with  an  unwillingness  to  submit 
the  differences  subsisting  between  them  and  Con- 
necticut, to  the  mature  and  impartial  judgment  of 
the  commissioners  of  the  other  colonies,  according 
to  the  true  intent  of  the  confederation  ;  and,  in  a 
very  modest  and  respectful  manner,  they  referred 
it  to  the  serious  consideration  of  their  brethren  of 
the  Massachusetts,  whether  their  conduct  was  not 
directly  contrary  to  the  articles  and  design  of  the 
confederates,  to  which  they  all  ought  to  pay  a  con- 
scientious regard. 

The  commissioners  finally  decided  the  contro- 
versy in  favour  of  Connecticut;  upon  which  the 
gentlemen  from  Massachusetts  produced  an  order 
of  their  general  court,  passed  by  way  of  retaliation, 
imposing  a  duty  upon  all  goods  belonging  to  any  of 
the  inhabitants  of  Plymouth,  Connecticut,  or  New 
Haven,  imported  within  the  castle,  or  exported 
from  any  part  of  the  bay. 

The  commissioners  from  Plymouth,  Connecticut 
and  New  Haven,  in  consequence  of  this  extraordi- 
nary act,  drew  up  the  following  declaration  and 
remonstrance,  addressed  to  the  general  court  of 
Massachusetts. 

"  A  difference  between  the  Massachusetts  and 
Connecticut,  concerning  an  impost  at  Saybrook, 
required  of  Springfield,  having  long  depended,  the 
commissioners  hoped,  according  to  the  advice  at 


UNITED  STATES. 


681 


Plymouth,  might  at  this  meeting  have  been  satis- 
fyingly  issued  ;  but  upon  the  perusal  of  some  late 
orders  made  by  the  general  court  of  the  Massachu- 
setts, they  find  that  the  line  on  the  south  side  of  the 
Massachusetts  jurisdiction  is  neither  run,  nor  the 
place  whence  it  should  be  run  agreed :  that  the 
original  patent  for  Connecticut,  or  an  authentic 
exemplification  thereof,  (though  Mr.  Hopkins  hath 
offered  upon  oath  to  assert  the  truth  of  the  copy  by 
himself  presented,)  is  now  required;  and  that  a 
burthensome  custom  is  by  the  Massachusetts  lately 
imposed,  not  only  upon  Connecticut,  interested  in 
the  impost  at  Saybrook,  but  upon  Plymouth  and 
New  Haven  colonies,  whose  commissioners  as  arbi- 
trators, according  to  an  article  in  the  confederation, 
have  been  only  exercised  in  the  question,  and  that 
upon  the  desire  of  the  Massachusetts,  and  have  im- 
partially, according  to  their  best  light,  declared 
their  apprehensions  ;  which  custom  and  burthen 
(grievous  in  itself)  seems  the  more  unsatisfying 
and  heavy,  because  divers  of  the  Massachusetts'  de- 
puties who  had  a  hand  in  making  the  law,  acknow- 
ledge, and  the  preface  imports  it,  that  it  is  a  return 
or  retaliation  upon  the  three  colonies  for  Saybrook; 
and  the  law  requires  it  of  no  other  English,  nor  of 
any  stranger  of  what  nation  soever.  How  far  the 
premises  agree  with  the  law  of  love,  and  with  the 
tenor  and  import  of  the  articles  of  confederation, 
the  commissioners  tender  and  recommend  to  the 
serious  consideration  of  the  general  court  for  the 
Massachusetts  :  and  in  the  mean  time  desire  to  be 
spared  in  all  future  agitations  respecting  Springfield." 

Governor  Hutchinson  observes,  that  this  law  was 
produced  to  the  dishonour  of  the  colony:  that  had 
the  Massachusetts  imposed  a  duty  upon  goods  from 
Connecticut  only,  they  might  at  least  have  had  a 
colour  to  justify  them ;  but  that  extending  their  re- 
sentment to  the  other  colonies,  because  their  com- 
missioners had  given  judgment  against  them,  ad- 
mitted of  no  excuse  :  it  was  a  mere  exertion  of 
power,  and  a  proof  of  their  great  superiority,  which 
enabled  them  in  effect  to  depart  from  the  union, 
whenever  they  found  it  to  be  for  their  interest :  if 
it  had  been  done  by  a  single  magistrate,  it  would 
have  been  pronounced  tyrannical  and  oppressive ; 
and  he  finally  observes,  that  in  all  ages  and  coun- 
tries communities  of  men  have  done  that,  of  which 
most  of  the  individuals  of  whom  they  consisted, 
would,  acting  separately,  have  been  ashamed. 

The  Massachusetts  treated  Connecticut  in  the 
same  ungenerous  manner,  with  respect  to  the  line 
between  the  colonies.  In  1642  they  employed  one 
Nathaniel  Woodward  and  Solomon  Saft'ery,  whom 
Douglass  calls  two  obscure  sailors,  to  run  the  line 
between  them  and  Connecticut,  who  arbitrarily 
fixed  a  boundary,  at  the  exact  point  to  which  three 
miles  south  of  every  part  of  Charles  river  would 
carry  them  ;  thence  by  water  they  proceeded  up 
Connecticut  river,  and  setting  up  their  compass  in 
the  same  latitude  as  they  supposed,  declared  that 
the  line  struck  the  chimney  of  one  Bissell's  house, 
the  most  northern  building  then  in  the  town  of 
Windsor ;  and  this  included  a  whole  range  of  towns 
south  of  the  true  line  between  the  colonies.  Con- 
necticut considered  the  boundary  fixed  as  entirely 
arbitrary,  and  six  or  eight  miles  further  south  than 
it  ought  to  have  been  ;  and  imagined  that  the  error 
at  Windsor  was  still  greater,  as  no  proper  allow 
ance  had  been  made  for  the  variation  of  the  needle  : 
they  viewed  the  manner  in  which  this  had  been  ef- 
fected, as  contrary  to  all  the  rules  of  justice,  and  to 
the  modes  in  which  differences  of  that  magnitude 


ought  to  be  accommodated :  the  utmost  extent  of 
Narraganset  river  was  their  north  line,  and  they 
were  persuaded  that  this  would  run  so  far  north  as 
to  comprehend  the  town  of  Springfield,  and  other 
towns  in  the  same  latitude ;  and  therefore  neither 
Connecticut,  nor  the  commissioners  of  the  united 
colonies,  considered  any  boundary  as  properly  set- 
tled whence  the  line  should  be  run,  nor  any  line  run 
between  the  colonies. 

Connecticut  wished  to  have  the  southern  bound- 
ary of  Massachusetts  mutually  settled  and  the  line 
run,  at  the  joint  expense  of  the  two  colonies;  but 
Massachusetts  would  neither  consent  to  this,  nor 
even  allow  that  the  copy  of  the  Connecticut  patent 
was  authentic ;  and  for  nearly  70  years  they  en- 
croached upon  this  colony,  and  settled  whole  towns 
within  its  proper  limits. 

The  general  court  of  Connecticut  adopted  the  re- 
commendation of  the  commissioners,  with  respect 
to  the  prohibition  of  all  trading  of  foreigners  among 
the  Indians  of  the  united  colonies ;  and  made  the 
penalty  to  be  the  confiscation  of  all  vessels  and 
goods  employed  in  such  trade. 

The  court  also,  after  conferring  with  New  Haven, 
determined  to  avenge  the  murder  of  John  Whit- 
more,  of  Stamford ;  and  considered  under  all  the 
circumstances,  and  the  conduct  of  the  Indians  in 
the  town,  and  bordering  upon  it,  resolved  that  it 
was  lawful  to  make  war  upon  them ;  and  it  was 
therefore  ordered  that  50  men  should  be  imme- 
diately drafted,  armed,  and  victualled,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  bringing  the  murderers  to  punishment,  or 
of  arresting  other  Indians,  until  the  delinquents 
should  be  delivered  to  justice.  These  spirited  mea- 
sures appear  to  have  had  the  desired  effect;  and  the 
Indians  at  Stamford  it  seems  became  peaceable, 
and  there  is  nothing  further  upon  the  records  re- 
specting any  trouble  with  them. 

Court  of  Election  at  Hartford — Grants  to  Captain 
Mason"— Message  to  Ninigrute—The  line  is  Jlxed 
between  tlie  English  and  Dutch  plantations — Agree- 
ments with  Mr.  Fenwick  occasion  general  uneasiness 
— An  act  for  the  encouragement  of  seeking  and  im- 
proving mines — Norwalk  and  Mattabeseck  settled — 
The  colony  of  New  Haven  make  another  attempt  to 
settle  at  Delaivarft — The  Dutch  governor  seizes  the 
company,  and  frustrates  the  design — French  com- 
missioners from  Canada — War  determined  with  the 
Dutch  and  Indians — Massachusetts  prevents  it — 
Alarm  and  distress  of  the  plantations — Appeal  to 
Cromwell  and  the  parliament  for  assistance — The 
tumultuous  state  of  the  settlements. 

(1650.)  Upon  the  election  at  Hartford,  Mr.  Hop- 
kins was  chosen  governor,  and  Mr.  Haynes  deputy- 
governor.  Mr.  Clark  was  added  to  the  magistrates. 
The  court  now  consisted  of  thirty-two  members;  the 
governors,  ten  assistants,  and  twenty  deputies. 

The  court  had  granted  1,000  acres  of  land  to 
Captain  Mason,  for  his  good  services  in  the  Pequot 
war ;  500  to  himself,  and  500  to  be  given  to  his  five 
best  officers  and  soldiers;  and  it  was  now  ordered, 
that  the  500  acres  granted  to  the  soldiers  should  be 
laid  out  for  them  at  Pequot,  or  in  the  Neanticut 
country.  The  next  year  the  court  made  a  grant  of 
Chippachauge  island,  in  Mystic  bay,  and  110  acres 
of  land  at  Mystic  to  the  captain. 

The  commissioners  Mr.  Simon  Bradstreet  and 
Mr.  William  Hawthorne,  Mr.  Thomas  Prince  and 
Mr.  John  Brown,  and  Governors  Hopkins  and 
Haynes,  Eaton  and  Goodyear,  met  September  5th,  at 
Hartford.  Governor  Hopkins  was  chosen  president. 


682 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


As  the  Narragansets  still  neglected  to  pay  the 
tribute  which  had  been  so  many  years  due,  the  com- 
missioners dispatched  Captain  Atherton,  of  Massa- 
chusetts, with  twenty  men,  to  demand  and  collect  the 
arrears  ;  and  he  was  authorized  if  they  should  not  be 
paid,  to  seize  on  the  best  articles  he  could  find,  to 
the  full  amount  of  what  was  due ;  or  on  Pessacus, 
the  chief  sachem,  or  any  of  his  children,  and  carry 
them  off.  Upon  his  arrival  among  the  Narragan- 
sets, he  found  the  sachem  recurring  to  his  former 
arts,  putting  him  off  with  deceitful  and  dilatory  an- 
swers, and  not  suffering  him  to  approach  his  pre- 
sence ;  and  at  the  same  time  collecting  his  warriors 
about  him.  The  captain,  therefore,  marched  directly 
to  the  door  of  his  wigwam,  where,  posting  his  men, 
he  entered  himself  with  his  pistol  in  his  hand,  and 
seizing  Pessacus  by  the  hair  of  his  head,  drew  him 
from  the  midst  of  his  attendants,  declaring  that  if 
they  should  make  the  least  resistance  he  would  dis- 
patch him  in  an  instant;  this  decisive  measure  gave  him 
such  an  alarm,  that  he  immediately  paid  all  the  arrears. 

Ninigrate,  sachem  of  the  Nehanticks,  continuing 
his  perfidious  practices,  began  to  lay  claim  to  the 
Pequot  country,  and  appeared  to  be  concerting  a 
plan  to  recover  it  from  the  English.  Captain  Ather- 
ton therefore  paid  him  a  visit  according  to  his  in- 
structions, and  assured  him  that  the  commissioners 
were  no  strangers  to  his  intrigues,  in  marrying  his 
daughter  to  the  brother  of  Sassacus  ;  in  collecting 
the  Pequots  under  him  as  though  he  designed  to 
become  their  head ;  and  in  his  claims  and  attempts 
respecting  the  Pequot  country ;  and  remonstrated 
against  his  conduct  as  directly  opposite  to  all  the 
covenants  subsisting  between  him  and  the  English 
colonies ;  and  having  in  this  spirited  manner  ac- 
complished his  business,  he  returned  in  safety. 

Meanwhile  Stuyvesant,  the  Dutch  governor,  ar- 
rived at  Hartford.  He  had  been  often  invited  to 
attend  the  meeting  of  the  commissioners,  with  a 
view  to  the  accommodation  of  the  difficulties  sub- 
sisting between  him  and  the  English  colonies ;  but 
he  chose  to  treat  by  writing,  and  on  the  13th  of 
September  he  commenced  his  correspondence  with 
the  commissioners.  In  his  letter  he  complained  of 
the  encroachments  made  upon  the  West  India  com- 
pany, and  the  injuries  done  them  both  by  Connecti- 
cut and  New  Haven  ;  and  pretended  that  the  Dutch, 
in  behalf  of  that  company,  had  purchased  the  lands 
upon  the  river  of  the  native  Americans,  before  any 
other  nation  had  bought  them,  or  laid  any  claim  to 
them.  He  therefore  demanded  a  full  surrender 
of  those  lands,  and  such  compensation  as  the  nature 
of  the  case  required  :  he  also  complained  of  the  act 
of  prohibiting  all  foreigners  to  trade  in  the  English 
colonies,  and  that  the  English  sold  goods  so  cheap 
to  the  natives,  as  to  ruin  the  trade  for  other  nations : 
and  concluded  with  intimations  of  his  willingness  to 
settle  a  general  provisional  line  between  the  Dutch 
and  English  plantations,  by  a  joint  writing  to  their 
superiors  in  England  and  Holland,  or  by  the  deci- 
sion of  agents  mutually  chosen  and  empowered  for 
that  purpose. 

The  commissioners,  observing  that  his  letter  was 
dated  at  New  Netherlands,  replied,  that  they  would 
not  treat  unless  he  would  alter  the  name  of  the 
place  whence  he  wrote ;  he  answered,  that  if  they 
would  not  date  at  Hartford,  he  would  not  at  New- 
Netherlands,  but  at  Connecticut.  They  consented 
that  he  should  date  at  Connecticut,  but  claimed  a 
right  for  themselves  to  date  at  Hartford.  He  gave 
up  the  right  of  dating  at  the  Netherlands,  and  the 
treaty  proceeded. 


The  commissioners  replied  to  his  complaints,  to 
the  effect,  that  their  title  to  Connecticut  river  and 
the  adjacent  country  had  been  often  asserted,  and 
made  sufficiently  evident  both  to  the  Dutch  and 
English ;  and  that  they  hoped  amply  to  prove  their 
title  to  what  they  enjoyed  by  patent,  purchase,  and 
possession :  consequently  they  insisted  that  they 
had  made  no  encroachments  on  the  honourable 
West  India  company,  nor  done  them  the  least  in- 
jury :  they  affirmed,  that  they  knew  not  what  the 
Dutch  claimed,  nor  upon  what  grounds ,  that  at 
some  times  they  claimed  all  the  lands  upon  the 
river,  and  at  oth'ers  a  part  only ;  that  their  claim 
was  founded  sometimes  upon  one  statement,  and  at 
other  times  upon  another;  and  that  it  had  been  so 
various  and  uncertain,  as  to  involve  the  whole  affair 
in  obscurity.  With  respect  to  trade,  they  observed 
that  they  had  the  same  right  to  regulate  it  within 
their  jurisdiction,  which  the  Dutch,  French,  and 
other  nations  had  to  regulate  it,  within  their  respec- 
tive dominions :  that  their  merchants  had  a  right 
to  deal  with  the  natives  on  such  terms  as  they 
pleased  ;  and  that  they  presumed  they  did  not  trade 
to  their  own  disadvantage.  They  also  gave  inti- 
mations that  if  the  then  present  treaty  should  suc- 
ceed agreeably  to  their  wishes,  they  might  recon- 
sider the  act  of  trade,  and  repeal  the  prohibition 
respecting  foreigners. 

They  then  proceeded  to  a  lengthy  and  particular 
statement  of  the  grievances  they  suffered  from  the 
Dutch  ;  particularly  representing  those  which  have 
been  already  noticed,  with  several  other  more  re- 
cent injuries.  Especially,  that  the  Dutch  agents 
had  gone  off  from  Hartford  without  paying  for  the 
goods  which  they  had  taken  up  :  that  their  success- 
ors had  refused  to  make  any  settlement  of  their  ac- 
counts ;  and  that  the  Dutch  governor  had  not 
obliged  them  to  make  payment :  that  the  Dutch 
bought  stolen  goods,  and  would  make  no  compensa- 
tion to  the  English,  whose  property  they  were ;  and 
that  they  had  not  only  formerly  helped  criminals  to 
file  off  their  irons  and  make  their  escape,  but  that 
they  had  been  guilty  of  a  recent  instance  of  similar 
conduct ;  and  that  a  Dutch  servant  had  lately  as- 
sisted a  criminal,  committed  for  a  capital  offence, 
to  break  gaol  and  make  his  escape ;  and  that  the 
Dutch  called  him  to  no  account  for  so  gross  a  mis- 
demeanor. 

Various  letters  passed,  and  several  days  were 
pent,  in  these  altercations,  and  at  last  the  commis- 
sioners chose  Mr.  Bradstreet,  of  Massachusetts,  and 
Mr.  Prince,  of  Plymouth,  as  arbitrators  to  hear 
and  compose  all  differences  with  respect  to  injury 
and  damages ;  to  make  provisional  boundaries  in 
all  places  where  their  respective  limits  were  contro- 
verted, and  to  settle  a  just  and  free  correspondence 
between  the  parties.  The  Dutch  governor  chose 
Thomas  Willet  and  George  Baxter  for  the  same 
purpose.  And  both  parties,  in  the  most  ample 
manner,  authorized  the  arbitrators  to  hear  and  de- 
termine, in  a  full  and  absolute  manner,  all  differ- 
ences between  the  two  nations  in  this  country. 

The  arbitrators,  after  a  full  hearing  of  the  parties, 
came  to  the  following  determination,  which  they 
drew  up  in  the  following  form  of  an  agreement. 

'  Articles  of  an  agreement,  made  and  concluded 
at  Hartford,  upon  Connecticut  river,  September 
19th,  1650,  betwixt  the  delegates  of  the  honoured 
commissioners  of  the  united  English  colonies,  and 
the  delegates  of  Peter  Stuyvesant,  governor-gene- 
ral of  New  Netherlands. 

'  1.  Upon  a  serious  consideration  of  the  differ- 


UNITED  STATES. 


683 


ences  and  grievances  propounded  by  the  two  Eng- 
lish colonies  of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven,  and  the 
answer  made  by  the  Dutch  governor,  Peter  Stuyve- 
sant,  Esq.,  according  to  the  trust  and  power  com- 
mitted to  us,  as  arbitrators  and  delegates  betwixt 
the  said  parties :  we  find  that  most  of  the  offences 
or  grievances  were  things  done  in  the  time,  or  by 
the  order  and  command  of  Mons.  Kieft,  the  former 
governor,  and  that  the  present  honourable  governor 
is  not  prepared  to  make  answer  to  them ;  we  there- 
fore think  meet  to  respite  the  full  consideration  and 
judgment  concerning  them,  till  the  present  governor 
may  acquaint  the  H.  M.  (High  and  Mighty)  States 
and  West  India  company  with  the  particulars,  that 
so  due  reparation  may  accordingly  be  made. 

"2.  The  commissioners  for  New  Haven  com- 
plained of  several  high  and  hostile  injuries  which 
they,  and  others  of  that  jurisdiction,  have  received 
from  and  by  order  of  the  aforesaid  Mons.  Kieft,  in 
Delaware  bay  and  river,  and  in  their  return  thence 
as  by  their  former  propositions  and  complaints  may 
more  fully  appear ;  and  besides  the  English  right, 
claimed  by  patent,  presented  and  showed  several 
purchases  they  have  made  on  both  sides  the  river 
and  bay  of  Delaware,  of  several  large  tracts  of  land 
unto,  and  somewhat  above  the  Dutch  house  or  fort 
there,  with  the  consideration  given  to  the  said  sa- 
chems and  their  companies  tor  the  same,  acknowledg- 
ed and  cleared  by  the  hands  of  the  Indians,  who  they 
affirmed  were  the  true  proprietor?,  and  testified  by 
many  witnesses.  They  also  affirmed,  that  according 
to  the  best  of  their  apprehensions,  they  have  sus- 
tained 1,OOOZ.  damage  there,  partly  by  the  Swedish 
governor,  but  chiefly  by  order  from"  Mons.  Kieft. 
And  therefore  required  due  satisfaction,  and  a 
peaceable  possession  of  the  aforesaid  lands,  to  en- 
joy and  improve  according  to  their  just  rights.  The 
Dutch  governor,  by  way  of  answer,  affirmed  and 
insisted  on  the  title  and  right  to  Delaware,  or  the 
south  river  as  they  call  it,  and  to  the  lands  there,  as 
belonging  to  the  H.  M.  States  and  West  India  com- 
pany, and  professed  he  must  protest  against  any 
other  claim ;  but  is  not  provided  to  make  any  such 
proof,  as  in  such  a  treaty  might  be  expected,  nor 
had  he  commission  to  treat  or  conclude  any  thing 
therein.  Upon  consideration  whereof,  we,  the  said 
arbitrators  or  delegates,  wanting  sufficient  light  to 
issue  or  determine  any  thing  in  the  premises,  are 
necessitated  to  leave  both  parties  in  statu  quo  prius, 
to  plead  and  improve  their  just  interest  at  Dela- 
ware, for  planting  or  trading  as  they  shall  see  cause; 
only  we  desire  that  all  proceedings  there,  as  in 
other  places,  may  be  carried  on  in  love  and  peace 
till  the  right  may  be  further  considered  and  justly 
issued,  either  in  Europe  or  here,  by  the  two  states 
of  England  and  Holland. 

"  3.  Concerning  the  seizing  of  Mr.  Westerhouse's 
ship  and  goods,  about  three  years  since,  in  New 
Haven  harbour,  upon  a  claim  to  the  place,  the  ho- 
noured governor,  Peter  Stuyvcsant,  Esq.,  professed 
that  what  passed  in  writing  that  way  was  through 
error  of  his  secretary,  his  intent  not  being  to  lay 
any  claim  to  the  place,  and  withal  affirming  that 
he  had  orders  to  seize  any  Dutch  ship,  or  vessel,  in 
any  of  the  English  colonies  or  harbours,  which 
should  trade  there  without  express  licence  or  com- 
mission. We  therefore  think  it  meet,  that  the  com- 
missioners of  New  Haven  accept  and  acquiesce  in 
this  answer." 

"  Concerning  the  bounds  and  limits  betwixt  the 
English  united  colonies,  and  the  Dutch  province 
of  New  Netherlands,  we  agree  as  followeth 


"  I.  That  upon  Long  Island,  a  line  run  from  the 
westernmost  part  of  Oyster  bay,  and  so  a  straight 
and  direct  line  to  the  sea,  shall  be  the  bounds  be- 
twixt the  English  and  Dutch  there,  the  easterly 
part  to  belong  to  the  English,  and  the  westernmost 
to  the  Dutch. 

"  2.  The  bounds  upon  the  main  to  begin  at  the 
west  side  of  Greenwich  bay,  being  about  four  miles 
from  Stamford,  and  so  to  run  a  northerly  line  20 
miles  up  into  the  country,  and  after,  as  it  shall  be 
agreed,  by  the  two  governments  of  the  Dutch  and 
New  Haven,  provided  the  said  line  come  not  within 
ten  miles  of  Hudson's  river.  And  it  is  agreed  that 
the  Dutch  shall  not,  at  any  time  hereafter,  build 
any  house  or  habitation  within  six  miles  of  the  said 
line;  the  inhabitants  of  Greenwich  to  remain  (till 
further  consideration  thereof  be  had)  under  the  go- 
vernment of  the  Dutch. 

"  3.  The  Dutch  shall  hold  and  enjoy  all  the 
lands  in  Hartford,  that  they  are  actually  possessed 
of,  known  and  set  out  by  certain  marks  and  bounds, 
and  all  the  remainder  of  the  said  land  on  both  sides 
of  Connecticut  river,  to  be  and  remain  to  the  En- 
glish there. 

"  And  it  is  agreed,  that  the  aforesaid  bounds  and 
limits,  both  upon  the  island -and  main,  shall  be 
observed  and  kept  inviolable,  both  by  the  English 
of  the  united  colonies,  and  all  the  Dutch  nation, 
without  any  encroachment  or  molestation,  until  a 
full  and  final  detprmination  be  agreed  upon  in  Eu- 
rope, by  the  mutual  consent  of  the  two  states  of 
England  and  Holland. 

"  And  in  testimony  of  our  joint  consent  to  the 

several  foregoing  conclusions,  we  have  hereunto  set 

our  hands  this  19th  day  of  September,  Anno  Dom. 

1650.       "  SIMON  BKADSTUEET,    THOMAS  PRINCE, 

"  THOMAS  WILLET,   GEORGE  BAXTER." 

The  Dutch  governor  promised  also,  and  his 
agents,  Messrs.  Willet  and  Baxter,  engaged  for 
him,  that  Greenwich  should  be  put  under  the  go- 
vernment of  New  Haven,  to  whom  it  originally 
belonged.  It  was  also  agreed,  that  the  same  line 
of  conduct  which  had  been  adopted  with  respect  to 
fugitives,  by  the  united  colonies,  in  the  eighth  ar- 
ticle of  confederation,  should  be  strictly  observed 
between  them  and  the  Dutch,  in  the  province  of 
New  Netherlands.  The  Dutch  governor  also  ac- 
quainted the  commissioners,  that  he  had  orders 
from  Europe  to  maintain  peace  and  good  neigh- 
bourhood with  the  English  in  America;  and  he 
proceeded  so  far  as  to  make  proposals  of  a  nearer 
union  and  frindship  between  the  Dutch  and  the 
united  colonies,  but  the  commissioners  declined 
acting  upon  these  proposals,  without  consulting 
their  constituents  ;  and  recommended  the  consider- 
ation of  them  to  their  respective  general  courts. 

While  this  settlement  with  the  Dutch  seemed  to 
give  a  favourable  aspect  to  the  affairs  of  the  colo- 
nies, there  arose  a  great  and  general  uneasiness  in 
Connecticut  relative  to  the  agreements  which  had 
been  made  with  Mr.  Fen  wick,  and  as  to  the  state  of 
the  accounts  between  him  and  the  colony.  By  the 
first  agreement,  besides  the  impost  on  several  arti- 
cles exported  from  the  mouth  of  the  river  for  ten 
years,  the  people  were  obliged  to  pay  one  shilling 
annually  for  every  milch  cow  and  mare  in  the  co- 
lony, and  the  same  sum  for  every  swine  killed 
either  for  market  or  private  use.  Springfield  re- 
fused to  pay  the  impost ;  and  i-t  seems  that  Con- 
necticut was  obliged  by  the  conduct  of  Massachu- 
setts, to  repeal  the  act  relating  to  the  imposition. 
By  reason  of  the  controversy  which  arose  between 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Connecticut  and  Massachusetts,  and  some  other 
circumstances,  several  of  the  towns  during  the  two 
first  years  paid  but  a  small  proportion  of  what  had 
been  stipulated;  and  the  colony  therefore,  on  the 
17th  of  February,  1646,  had  made  a  new  agreement 
with  Mr.  Fenwick,  which  was  to  the  effect  ; — 
That,  instead  of  all  former  grants,  he  should  receive 
from  the  colony  annually,  one  hundred  and  eighty 
pounds  for  ten  year?  ;  he  was  to  collect  what  was 
due  from  Springfield,  and  to  enjoy  certain  profits 
arising  from  the  beaver  trade;  and  a  hundred  and 
seventy  or  eighty  pounds  was  also  to  be  paid  to  him 
from  Saybrook  and  one  or  two  newly  settled  towns. 
The  whole  amount  appears  to  have  been  more  than 
2000'.,  which  th.pi  colony  paid  for  the  right  of  juris- 
diction, and  the  ordnance,  arms  and  stores  at  the  fort. 
(1651.)  As  different  apprehensions  had  arisen 
respecting  these  agreements,  and  the  state  of  affairs 
between  Mr.  Fenwick  and  the  colony,  the  general 
court  appointed  committees  to  meet  at  Saybrook  to 
ascertain  them  ;  and  to  quiet  the  minds  of  the  peo- 
ple, notice  was  given  to  every  town  of  the  time  and 
place  of  the  meeting  of  the  committees,  and  each 
was  authorized  to  send  representatives  to  hear  the 
disputes  and  report  the  issue,  with  the  reasons  of  it, 
to  their  constituents. 

Mr.  John  Winthrop,  at  the  election,  was  chosen 
into  the  magistracy.  The  assembly  consisted  of 
thirty-four  members,  twelve  magistrates  and  twenty 
two  deputies. 

The  colony  of  Rhode  Island  at  this  time  gave 
great  trouble  to  her  neighbours,  by  giving  enter- 
tainment to  criminals  and  fugitives  ;  and  Connecti- 
cut found  it  so  prejudicial  to  the  course  of  justice 
and  to  the  rights  of  individuals,  that  the  court  re- 
solved to  recommend  the  consideration  of  the  affair 
to  the  commissioners  of  the  united  colonies. 

About  this  time  also,  Augustus  Harriman,  a  Dutch 
trader,  with  his  vessel,  was  seized  by  the  people 
of  Saybrook  for  illicit  trade  with  the  Indians.  Th< 
court  fined  him  4QL  and  confiscated  his  vessel  ane 
cargo ;  and  made  him  give  a  statement  in  writing 
that  he  had  been  well  treated. 

Mr.  Winthrop  imagining  that  Connecticut  con- 
tained mines  and  minerals,  which  might  be  im 
proved  to  his  great  advantage,  as  well  as  to  thi 
public  emolument,  induced  the  assembly  to  pas 
the  following  act. 

'•'  Whereas  in  this  rocky  country,  among  thesi 
mountains  and  rocky  hills,  there  are  probabilitie 
of  mines  of  metals,  the  discovery  of  which  may  b 
of  great  advantage  to  the  country,  in  raising  a  stapL 
commodity ;  and  whereas  John  Winthrop,  Esq 
doth  intend  to  be  at  charges  and  adventure  for  th 
search  and  discovery  of  such  mines  and  minerals 
for  the  encouragement  thereof,  and  of  any  that  shal 
adventure  with  the  said  John  Winthrup,  Esq.  ii 
the  said  business,  it  is  therefore  ordered  by  th 
court,  that  if  the  said  John  Winthrop,  Esq.  sha! 
discover,  set  upon,  and  maintain  such  mines  o 
lead,  copper  or  tin;  or  any  minerals,  as  antimony 
vitriol,  black  lead,  alum,'  stone  salt,  salt  springs 
or  any  other  the  like,  within  this  jurisdiction;  an 
shall  set  up  any  work  for  the  digging,  washing  an 
melting,  or  any  other  operation  about  the  sai 
mines  or  minerals,  as  the  nature  thereof  requireth 
that  then  the  said  John  Winthrop,  Esq.  his  heirs 
associates,  partners  or  assigns,  shall  enjoy  for  eve 
said  mines,  with  the  lands,  wood,  timber  and  watei 
within  two  or  three  miles  of  said  mines,  for  th 
necessary  carrying  on  of  the  works,  and  maintain 
ing  of  the  workmen,  and  provision  of  coal  for  th 


me  :  provided  it  be  not  within  the  bounds  of  anv 
wn  already  settled,  or  any  particular  persons  pro- 
erty  ;  and  provided  it  be  not  in,  or  bordering  upon 
ny  place,  that  shall  or  may  by  the  court  be  judged 
t  to  make  a  plantation  of." 

Though  the  eastern  and  middle  parts  of  Norwalk 
ad  been  purchased  more  than  ten  years,  yet  there 
ad  been  only  a  few  scattering  inhabitants  within 
ts  limits.  But  the  last  year  upon  the  petition  of 
Nathan  Ely  and  Richard  Olmstead,  the  court  gave 
"berty  for  its  settlement,  and  ordained  that  it  should 
e  a  town  by  the  name  of  Norwalk.  The  western 
art  of  it  was  purchased  on  the  loth  of  February, 
'he  inhabitants  at  this  time  consisted  of  about 
wenty  families.  About  four  years  after,  the  general 
ourt  vested  them  with  town  privileges. 

The   settlement  of  Mattabeseck  also  commenced 
bout  the  same  time:  the  principal  planters  of  which 
re  re  from  England,  Hartford,   and  Weathersfield  : 
.  number  also  joined  from  Rowley,  Chelmsford,  and 
Woburn,  in  Massachusetts  ;  and  by  the  close  of  this 
ear  it  became  considerably  settled.    In  November, 
653,  the  general  court  gave  it  the  name  of  Middle- 
own  ;  and  twenty  years  after  the  number  of  shares 
was  fixed  at  fifty -two  ;  which  was  the  whole  number 
f  the  householders  at  that  period,  within  the  town. 

The  agreement  made  the  last  year  with  the  Dutch 
governor,  and  his  professions  of  amity,  encouraged 
he  English  to  prosecute  the  settlement  of  the  lands 
which  they  had  purchased  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
Dutch;  and  fifty  men  from  New  Haven  and  Toto- 
ket  made  preparations  to  settle  their  lands  at  Dela- 
ware ;  and  accordingly  this  spring,  they  hired  a 
vessel  to  transport  themselves  and  their  effects  into 
;hose  parts.  They  had  a  commission  from  Governor 
Eaton,  and  he  wrote  an  amicable  letter  to  the 
Dutch  governor,  acquainting  him  with  their  de- 
ign ;  assuring  him,  that  according  to  the  agree- 
ment at  Hartford,  they  would  settle  upon  their  own 
lands,  and  give  no  disturbance  to  their  neighbours. 
A  letter  of  the  same  import  was  also  addressed  to 
him  from  the  governor  of  Massachusetts.  But  no 
sooner  had  Governor  Stuyvesant  received  the  let- 
ters, than  he  arrested  the  bearers,  and  committed 
them  close  prisoners  under  guard.  Then  sending 
for  the  master  of  the  vessel  to  come  on  shore  that 
he  might  speak  with  him,  he  arrested  and  committed 
him  ;  and  others  as  they  came  on  shore  to  visit  and 
assist  their  neighbours,  were  also  confined.  The 
Dutch  governor  desired  to  see  their  commission, 
promising  it  should  be  returned  when  he  had  taken 
a  copy ;  but  when  it  was  demanded  back  of  him, 
he  would  not  return  it;  nor  would  he  release  the 
men  from  confinement  until  he  had  forced  them  to 
give  it  under  their  hands,  that  they  would  not  pro- 
secute their  voyage  ;  but  without  loss  of  time  return 
to  New  Haven  ;  at  the  same  time  threatening,  that 
if  he  should  afterwards  find  any  of  them  at  Dela- 
ware, he  would  not  only  seize  their  goods,  but 
send  them  prisoners  into  Holland.  He  also  caused 
a  considerable  part  of  the  estate  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Southampton  to  be  attached,  and  would  not  suffer 
them  to  remove  it  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  En- 
glish. Upon  these  violent  proceedings,  Captain 
Tapping,  Mr.  Fordham,  and  others,  complained, 
and  petitioned  the  commissioners  for  redress. 

The  commissioners  met  this  year  at  New  Haven. 
The  members  were  Mr.  Bradstreet,  Captain  John 
Hawthorne,  Mr.  John  Brown,  Mr.  Timothy  Hather- 
ly,  Governor  Hopkins.  Mr.  Ludlow,  and  Governors 
Eaton  and  Goodyear.  Governor  Eaton  was  chosen 
president. 


UNITED  STATES. 


Jasper  Crane  and  William  Tuttle,  in  behalf  o 
themselves,  and  many  others,  inhabitants  of  New 
Haven  and  Totoket,  also  presented  a  petition  to 
the  commissioners,  complaining  of  the  treatment 
which  they  had  received  from  the  Dutch  governor, 
and  representing  that  they  had  sustained  more  than 
300/.  damage,  besides  the  insult  and  injury  done  to 
the  united  colonies ;  they  represented  that  the 
Dutch  had  seized  upon,  and  were  about  to  fortify 
the  very  lands  which  they  had  bought  of  the  origina 
proprietors  at  Delaware :  that,  had  it  not  been  for 
the  injustice  and  violence  of  the  Dutch,  the  New 
England  colonies  might  have  been  greatly  enlarged 
by  settlements  in  those  parts ;  that  the  Gospel  might 
have  been  published  to  the  natives,  and  much  good 
done,  not  only  to  the  colonies  at  present,  but  t 
posterity .  they  also  represented,  that  the  Dutch 
were,  by  gifts  and  art,  enticing  the  English  to  make 
settlements  under  their  jurisdiction  ;  and  insisted, 
that  suffering  them  thus  to  insult  the  English,  and 
to  seize  on  lands  to  which  they  could  show  no  just 
claim,  would  encourage  them  to  drive  them  from 
their  other  settlements,  and  to  seize  on  their  lands 
and  property  whenever  they  pleased;  and  that  it 
would  make  them  contemptible  among  the  natives, 
as  well  as  among  all  other  nations ;  they,  therefore, 
pressed  the  commissioners  to  act  with  spirit,  and 
immediately  to  redress  the  injuries  which  had  been 
done  to  them  and  the  colonies. 

The  commissioners  declined  acting  against  the 
Dutch,  without  previously  attempting  to  obtain  re- 
dress by  negotiation.  They  wrote  to  Stuyvesant, 
insisting  that  he  had  acted  in  direct  contravention 
of  the  agreement  at  Hartford,  and  noticed  that  in  a 
letter  to  Governor  Eaton,  he  had  threatened  force 
of  arms  and  bloodshed  to  any  who  should  go  to 
make  settlements  upon  their  lands  at  Delaware,  to 
which  he  was  unable  to  show  any  claim ;  they  re- 
presented to  him,  how  unjustifiable  it  appeared  at 
Hartford,  not  only  to  the  commissioners,  but  even 
to  the  arbitrators  of  his  own  choosing  ;  they  charged 
him  with  a  breach  of  the  engagement  of  Mr.  Willet 
and  Mr.  Baxter,  in  his  behalf,  with  respect  to  the 
restoration  of  Greenwich  to  the  government  of  New 
Haven  ;  they  remonstrated  against  his  conduct,  in 
imprisoning  the  people  of  New  Haven  and  Totoket, 
in  detaining  their  commission  and  frustrating  their 
voyage  ;  and  also  in  beginning  to  erect  fortifications 
upon  the  lands  of  the  New  Haven  people  at  Dela- 
ware ;  they  affirmed,  that  they  had  as  good  a  right, 
to  the  Manhadoes  as  the  Dutch  had  to  those  lands  ; 
declared  that  the  colonies  had  just  cause  to  vindi- 
cate and  promote  their  interests,  and  to  redress  the 
injuries  which  had  been  done  to  their  confederates; 
and  finally  protested,  that  whatever  inconveniences 
or  mischief  might  arise  upon  it  would  be  wholly 
chargeable  to  his  unneighbourly  and  unjust  conduct. 
At  the  same  time,  for  the  encouragement  of  the 
petitioners,  they  resolved,  that  if  at  any  time  within 
twelve  months  they  should  attempt  the  settlement 
of  their  lands  at  Delaware,  and  at  their  own  charge 
transport  150  or  at  least  100  men,  well  armed,  with 
a  good  vessel  or  vessels  for  such  an  enterprise,  with 
a  sufficient  quantity  of  ammunition,  and  warranted 
by  a  commission  from  the  authority  at  New  Haven ; 
that  then,  if  they  should  meet  with  any  opposition 
from  the  Dutch  or  Swedes,  they  would  afford  them 
a  sufficient  force  for  their  defence.  They  also  re- 
solved, that  all  English  planters  at  Delaware,  either 
from  New  Haven,  or  any  other  of  the  united  colo- 
nies, should  be  under  the  jurisdiction  of  New  Haven. 
The  Pequots  among  the  Mohcagans  and  Narra- 


gansets,  aud  those  who  had  removed  to  Long  Island, 
had  to  this  time  neglected  to  pay  any  part  of  the 
tribute,  which  had  been  stipulated  at  Hartford,  in. 
1638,  upon  condition  that  the  English  would  spare 
their  lives  and  defend  them  from  their  enemies; 
and  the  general  court  had  therefore  given  orders, 
that  it  should  be  collected  forthwith,  and  had  ap- 
pointed Captain  Maton  to  go  to  Long  Island,  and 
demand  it  of  the  Pequots  there,  as  well  as  of  those 
in  other  places. 

Uncas,  with  a  number  of  the  Moheagans,  and  of 
Ninigrate's  men,  in  consequence  presented  himself 
before  the  commissioners,  and  in  behalf  of  the  Pe- 
quots paid  a  tribute  of  about  300  fathoms  of  wam- 
pum ;  aud  then,  in  their  name,  demanded  why  this 
tribute  was  required  ?  how  long  it  was  to  continue  ? 
and  whether  it  must  be  paid  by  the  children  yet 
unborn  ? 

The  commissioners  answered,  that  by  covenant 
it  had  been  annually  due  ever  since  the  year  1638: 
that  after  a  just  war,  in  which  the  Pequots  were 
conquered,  the  English,  to  spare  as  far  as  might 
be  the  blood  of  the  guilty,  accepted  of  a  small  tri- 
bute as  expressed  in  the  covenant;  they  insisted 
that  they  had  a  right  to  demand  it  as  a  just  debt ; 
and  observed  that  twelve  years'  tribute  was  now  due, 
reckoning  only  to  the  year  1650 ;  but  that  to  show 
their  lenity  and  encourage  the  Pequots,  if  they 
would  behave  themselves  peaceably,  and  pay  the 
tribute  agreed  upon,  for  ten  years,  reckoning  from 
1650,  they  would  give  them  all  which  was  due  for 
past  years ;  and  that  at  the  expiration  of  the  ten  years 
they  and  their  children  should  be  free.  This,  it 
seems,  they  thankfully  accepted,  and  afterwards  be- 
came as  faithful  friends  to  the  English  as  the  Mo- 
heagans, and  assisted  them  in  their  wars  with  other 
Indians,  especially  in  that  against  Philip  and  the 
Narragansets. 

While  the  commissioners  were  at  New  Haven, 
two  French  gentlemen,  Monsieur  Godfrey  and  Mon- 
sieur Gabriel  Druillets,  arrived  in  the  capacity  of 
commissioners  from  Canada.  They  had  been  sent 
by  the  French  governor,  Monsieur  D'Aillebout, 
to  treat  with  the  united  colonies  ;  and  presented 
three  commissions,  one  from  Monsieur  D'Aillebout, 
another  from  the  council  of  New  France,  and  a 
third  to  Monsieur  Gabriel  Druillets,  who  had  been 
authorized  to  publish  the  doctrines  and  duties  of 
Christianity  among  the  Indians. 

In  behalf  of  the  French  in  Canada,  and  the 
christianized  Indians  in  Acadia,  they  petitioned  for 
aid  against  the  Mohawks  and  warriors  of  the  six 
nations ;  and  urged  that  the  war  was  just,  as  the 
Mohawks  had  violated  the  most  solemn  leagues, 
and  were  perfidious  and  cruel :  that  it  was  a  holy 
war,  as  the  Acadians  were  converted  Indians,  and 
the  Mohawks  treated  them  barbarously  because 
of  their  Christianity  ;  and  insisted  that  it  was  a 
common  concern  to  the  French  and  English  na- 
tions, as  the  war  with  the  six  nations  interrupted 
the  trade  of  both  with  the  Indians  in  general. 

Monsieur  Druillets,  who  appeared  to  be  a  man  of 
address,  opened  the  case  to  the  best  advantage,  dis- 
playing all  his  art,  and  employing  his  utmost  ability 
to  persuade  the  commissioners  to  engage  in  the  war 
against  the  six  nations.  He  urged,  that  if  they 
would  not  consent  to  join  in  the  war,  they  would  at 
[east  permit  the  enlistment  of  volunteers  in  the  , 
united  colonies  for  the  French  service,  and  grant 
them  a  free  passage  through  the  colonies,  by  land 
or  water,  as  the  case  might  require,  to  the  Mohawk 
country  .  he  also  pleaded,  that  the  christianized  In- 


C86 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


dians  might  be  taken  under  the  protection  of  the 
united  colonies,  and  made  large  promises  of  the 
ample  compensation  which  the  French  would  make 
the  colonies  for  these  services ;  promising,  if  these 
points  could  be  gained,  they  would  enter  imme- 
diately upon  a  treaty  for  the  establishment  of  a  free 
trade  between  the  French  and  English  in  all  parts 
of  America. 

The  reply  of  the  commissioners  exhibits  policy 
and  prudence;  showing  that  they  were  not  ignorant 
of  men,  nor  of  the  arts  of  negotiation.  They  an- 
swered, that  they  looked  upon  such  Indians-as  had 
received  the  yoke  of  Christ,  with  a  different  feeling 
than  upon  those  who  were  still  heathens ;  that  they 
pitied  the  Acadians,  but  saw  no  way  to  help  them 
without  exposing  the  English  colonies  and  their 
own  neighbouring  Indians  to  war ;  and  that  some 
of  those  Indians  professed  Christianity  no  less  than 
the  Acadi'ans :  that  it  was  their  desire,  by  all  just 
means,  to  keep  peace  with  all  men,  even  with  these 
barbarians  ;  and  that  they  had  no  occasion  for  war 
with  the  Mohawks,  who  in  the  war  with  the  Pequots 
had  shown  a  real  respect  to  the  English  colonies, 
and  had  never  since  committed  any  hostility  against 
them  :  that  they  felt  a  readiness  to  perform  all  offices 
of  righteousness,  peace,  and  good  neighbourhood 
towards  the  French  colony;  but  that  they  could 
not  permit  the  enlistment  of  volunteers,nor  the  march- 
ing of  the  French  and  their  Indians  through  the 
colonies,  without  giving  grounds  of  offence  and  war 
to  the  Mohawks,  and  exposing  both  themselves  and 
the  Indians  whom  they  ought  to  protect;  that  the 
English  engaged  in  no  war  until  they  were  satisfied 
that  it  was  just,  nor  until  peace  had  been  offered  on 
reasonable  terms,  and  had  been  refused :  that  the 
Mohawks  were  neither  in  subjection  to  the  English, 
nor  in  league  with  them;  so  that  they  had  no  means 
of  informing  themselves  what  they  could  say  in  their 
own  vindication  ;  that  they  were  exceedingly  dis- 
satisfied with  that  mischievous  trade,  which  the 
French  and  Dutch  had  carried  on,  and  still  con- 
tinued with  the  Indians  in  vending  them  arms  and 
ammunition,  by  which  they  were  encouraged,  not 
only  against  the  Christian  Indians  and  catechumens, 
but  against  all  Christians  in  Europe  as  well  as 
America;  but  if  all  other  difficulties  were  removed, 
they  represented,  they  had  no  such  short  and  con- 
venient passage  by  land  or  water,  as  might  be  had  by 
Hudson's  river  to  fort  Aurania  and  beyond,  in  the  pos- 
session of  the  Dutch ;  and  they  concluded  by  ob- 
serving, that  the  honoured  French  deputies,  as  they 
conceived,  had  full  powers  to  settle  a  free  trade  be- 
tween the  English  and  French  colonies ;  but  if,  for 
reasons  best  known  to  themselves,  it  was  designed 
to  limit  the  English  by  the  same  restraints  and  pro- 
hibitions to  which  the  unprivileged  French  were 
subjected,  not  suffering  them  to  trade  until  they 
had  obtained  a  particular  licence  from  the  governor 
and  company  of  New  France,  they  must  wait  a 
more  favourable  opportunity  for  negotiation;  but 
whenever  such  an  opportunity  should  offer,  they  in- 
timated they  should  readily  embrace  it. 

The  commissioners,  apprehending  that  there  was 
little  prospect  of  obtaining  a  redress  of  their  griev- 
ances from  the  Dutch,  by  remonstrance  and  nego- 
tiation, wrote  to  Mr.  Winslow,  agent  for  Massachu- 
setts in  England,  on  the  subject;  and  desired  Mr. 
Winslow  to  inquire  how  the  parliament  and  council 
of  state  esteemed  the  ancient  patents,  and  how  any 
engagements  of  the  colonies  against  the  Dutch,  for 
the  defence  of  their  rights,  would  be  viewed  by  the 
parliament. 


The  people  at  New  Haven  persisted  in  their  pur 
pose  of  making,  if  possible,  a  permanent  settlement 
upon  their  lands  at  Delaware.  They  were  sensible 
that  such  was  the  situation  of  their  affairs,  that  a 
leader,  who  was  not  only  a  politician,  but  a  man  of 
known  courage,  military  skill  and  experience,  would 
be  of  great  importance  to  the  enterprise  ;  and  there- 
fore made  application  to  Captain  Mason  to  remove 
with  them  to  Delaware,  and  take  on  him  the  ma- 
nagement of  the  company ;  and  it  seems  he  had  a 
design  of  complying  with  their  requests,  but  the 
general  court  at  Connecticut  would  not  consent;  and 
unanimously  desired  him  to  entertain  no  thoughts 
of  changing  his  situation,  which  frustrated  the  design. 

The  grand  list  of  the  colony  appears  this  year,  for 
the  first  time,  upon  the  records,  but  contains  the 
lists  of  seven  towns  only;  the  others  either  paying 
no  taxes,  or  their  lists  not  being  completed  and  re- 
turned. The  amount  of  the  whole  was  75,492£. 
10s.  6d.;  and  it  appears  that  the  townships  at  this 
period  were  not,  upon  an  average,  more  than  equal 
to  the  common  parishes  at  this  day. 

(1052.)  At  the  general  election  in  Connecticut, 
the  former  magistrates  were  re-elected. 

The  commencement  of  hostilities  the  last  year, 
between  England  and  Holland,  the  perfidious  ma- 
nagement of  the  Dutch  governor,  and  the  appre- 
hensions of  the  rising  of  the  Indians,  spread  a 
general  alarm  through  the  colony. 

The  assembly  convened  on  the  30th  of  June,  and 
adopted  several  measures  tor  the  common  safety; 
and  orders  were  given,  that  the  cannon  at  Saybrook 
should  be  well  mounted  on  carriages ;  that  the  fort 
should  be  supplied  with  ammunition ;  and  that  the 
inhabitants  who  were  scattered  abroad  should  collect 
their  families  into  it,  and  hold  themselves  in  a  state 
of  readiness  for  their  common  defence. 

The  Indians  in  the  vicinity  of  the  several  planta- 
tions, within  the  colony,  were  required  to  give  testi- 
mony of  their  friendship  and  fidelity  to  the  English, 
by  delivering  up  their  arms  to  the  governor  and 
magistrates ;  and  those  who  refused  were  to  be 
considered  as  enemies. 

(1653.)  S'uyvesant,  the  Dutch  governor,  made  no 
satisfaction  for  former  injuries,  but  added  new  in- 
sults and  grievances  to  those  which  were  past ;  again 
revived  the  claims  which  he  had  renounced  at  Hart- 
ford;  and  though  he  restrained  the  Dutch  from 
open  hostility,  yet  he  used  all  his  arts  with  the  In- 
dians to  engage  them  to  attack  the  English  colo- 
nists ;  and  in  March,  discovery  was  made  that  he 
was  conniving  with  the  Indians  for  the  extirpation 
of  the  English  colonies.  An  extraordinary  meeting 
of  the  commissioners  was  immediately  called,  at 
which  were  Governor  Endicott,  Mr.  William  Haw- 
thorne, William  Bradford,  Esq.,  Mr.  John  Brown, 
Mr.  Ludlow,  Captain  Cullick,  Governor  Eaton,  and 
Captain  John  Astwood.  Governor  Endicott  was 
chosen  president. 

Upon  a  close  attention  to  the  reports  which  had 
been  spread,  and  a  critical  examination  of  the  evi- 
dence, all  the  commissioners,  except  those  of  the 
Massachusetts,  were  of  the  opinion  that  there  had 
been  a  plot  concerted  by  the  Dutch  governor  and 
the  Indians,  for  the  destruction  of  the  English  colo- 
nies. Ninigrate,  it  appeared,  had  spent  the  winter 
at  the  Manhadoes,  with  Stuy  vesant,  on  the  business ; 
and  had  been  over  Hudson's  river  among  the  western 
Indians;  had  procured  a  meeting  of  the. sachems; 
made  ample  declarations  against  the  English  ;  and 
solicited  their  aid  against  the  colonies.  He  was 
brought  back  in  the  suring  in  a  Dutch  sloop,  with 


UNITED  STATES. 


687 


arms  and  ammunition  from  the  Dutch  governor ; 
and  the  Indians,  for  some  hundreds  of  miles,  ap- 
peared to  be  disaffected  and  hostile.  Tribes,  which 
before  had  been  always  friendly  to  the  English,  be- 
came inimical ;  and  the  Indians  boasted  that  they 
were  to  have  goods  from  the  Dutch  at  half  the  price 
for  which  the  English  sold  them,  and  powder  as 
plenty  as  the  sand.  The  Long  Island  Indians  tes- 
tified to  the  plot ;  and  nine  sachems,  who  lived  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  Dutch,  sent  their  united  testi- 
mony to  Stamford,  "that  the  Dutch  governor  had  so- 
licited them,  by  promising  them  guns,  powder,  swords, 
wampum,  coats,  and  waistcoats,  to  cut  off  the  Eng- 
lish;" the  messengers  who  were  sent,  declared, 
"  they  were  as  the  mouth  of  the  nine  sagamores 
who  all  spake  they  would  not  lie  :"  and  one  of  the 
nine  sachems  afterwards  came  to  Stamford,  with 
other  Indians,  and  testified  the  same.  The  plot 
was  also  confessed  by  a  Wampeag  and  a  Narragan- 
set  Indian,  and  was  confirmed  by  Indian  testimonies 
from  all  quarters.  It  was  expected  that  a  Dutch 
fleet  would  arrive,  and  that  the  Dutch  and  Indians 
would  unite  in  the  destruction  of  the  English  plan- 
tations ;  and  it  was  rumoured  that  the  time  for  the 
massacre  was  fixed  upon  the  day  of  the  public  elec- 
tion, when  the  freemen  would  be  generally  from 
home. 

The  country  was  exceedingly  alarmed,  especially 
Connecticut  and  New  Haven.  They  were  greatly 
hindered  in  their  ploughing,  sowing,  planting,  and 
in  all  their  affairs,  and  were  worn  down  with  con- 
stant watching  and  guarding,  and  put  to  great  ex- 
pense for  the  common  safety. 

Six  of  the  commissioners  were  satisfied  that  they 
had  just  grounds  of  war  with  the  Dutch;  and  drew 
up  a  general  declaration  of  their  grievances  for  the 
satisfaction  of  the  people.  They  also  stated  the 
evidence  they  had  of  the  conspiracy,  which  they 
supposed  was  then  in  hand ;  but  determined,  never- 
theless, before  they  commenced  hostilities  against 
the  Dutch,  to  acquaint  the  governor  with  the  dis- 
covery which  they  had  made,  and  to  give  him  an 
opportunity  of  answering  for  himself. 

In  the  mean  time  letters  arrived  from  the  Dutch 
governor,  in  which  he  appeared  with  great  confi- 
dence absolutely  to  deny  the  plot  which  had  been 
charged  upon  him,  and  offered  to  go  or  send  to 
Boston  to  clear  his  innocence  ;  or  desired  that  some 
persons  might  be  deputed  and  sent  to  the  Manha- 
does, to  examine  the  charges  and  receive  his  an- 
swers; but  other  letters  arrived  at  the  same  time 
confirming  the  evidence  of  the  conspiracy,  and  re- 
presenting that  the  Indians  were  urged  to  carry  it 
into  execution. 

The  commissioners  determined  to  send  agents  to 
the  governor;  and  with  the  utmost  dispatch  made 
choice  of  Francis  Newman,  one  of  the  magistrates 
of  New  Haven,  Captain  John  Leveret,  afterwards 
governor  of  Massachusetts,  and  Mr.  William  Davis, 
whom  they  vested  with  plenary  powers  to  examine 
the  whole  affair,  and  to  receive  the  governor's  an- 
swer, according  to  his  own  proposals. 

Stuyvesant,  in  bis  letters,  pretended  to  express 
his  astonishment  that  the  English  should  give  credit 
to  Indian  testimony  ;  and  the  commissioners  there- 
fore, in  their  reply,  charged  him  with  making  use  of 
heathen  testimony  against  New  Haven ;  and  ob- 
served that  Kieft,  his  predecessor,  had  used  Indian 
testimonies  against  the  English  in  a  strange  manner, 
in  a  case  of  treason,  and  life  or  death  ;  they  also 
acquainted  him  with  the  bloody  use  which  the  Dutch 
governor  and  his  council  had  made  of  the  confession 


of  the  Japanese,  against  Captain  Towerson  and  the 
English  Christians  at  Amboyna,  though  it  was  ex- 
torted by  torture.  At  the  same  time  they  wrote  to 
Monsieur  Montague  and  Captain  Newton,  who 
were  of  the  Dutch  governor's  council,  that  his 
protestations  of  innocence  gave  them  no  satisfaction  ; 
and  charged  the  treasurer  as  well  as  the  governor 
with  the  plot ;  and  demanded  satisfaction  for  past 
injuries,  and  security  for  the  future. 

While  their  agents  were  employed  at  the  Manha- 
does,  they  determined  on  the  number  of  men  to  be 
raised  in  case  of  a  war;  and  for  the  first  expedition 
they  resolved  to  send  out  five  hundred ;  and  ap- 
pointed Captain  Leveret  to  the  chief  command. 
They  also  determined,  that,  should  they  engage  in 
war  with  the  Dutch,  the  commissioners  of  the  united 
colonies  should  meet  at  New  Haven,  to  give  all 
necessary  directions  respecting  the  expedition,  and 
to  order  the  war  in  general. 

Notwithstanding  the  fair  proposals  which  Gover- 
nor S;uyvesant  had  made,  he  would  submit  to  no 
examination  by  the  agents  any  further  than  a  com- 
mittee of  his  own  appointing  should  consent;  two 
of  which  committee  were  persons  who  had  been 
complained  of  for  misdemeanors  at  Hartford ;  and 
one  of  them  had  been  confined  for  his  crimes. 
The  agents  conceived  that  the  very  proposal  of  such 
persons  as  a  committee  was  a  high  affront  to  them, 
to  the  united  colonies,  and  to  the  English  nation. 
But  in  addition  to  this,  the  Dutch  governor  would 
not  suffer  the  witnesses  to  speak  unless  they  were 
previously  laid  under  such  restraints  as  would  pre- 
vent all  benefit  from  their  evidence.  The  agents 
therefore  not  only  objected  to  the  committee,  and 
declined  all  connexion  with  them,  but  remonstrated 
against  the  restraints  proposed  to  be  laid  on  the 
witnesses ;  and  finding  that  nothing  could  be  ef- 
fected with  respect  to  the  design  of  their  agency, 
they  in  a  spirited  manner  demanded  satisfaction  for 
insults  and  injuries  past,  and  security  against  future 
abuse,  and  took  leave  of  the  Manhadoes. 

As  they  returned  they  took  various  testimonies 
respecting  the  plot;  some  from  the  Indians,  and 
others  from  the  English,  sworn  before  proper  au- 
thority ;  but  before  their  return  the  commissioners 
were  dispersed,  and  the  general  elections  were 
finished.  The  courts  at  Connecticut  and  New  Ha- 
ven voted  their  respective  quotas  of  men,  appointed 
their  officers,  and  gave  orders  that  all  necessary 
preparations  should  be  made  for  the  designed  ex- 
pedition. 

On  the  election  at  Hartford,  the  foraier  officers 
were  re- chosen.  The  time  of  election,  at  New 
Haven,  had  been  changed  from  October  to  May; 
and  this  year  was  on  the  25th  of  the  month.  The 
governors  were  the  same  as  they  had  been  for  seve- 
ral years,  Eaton  and  Goodyear.  The  magistrates 
were,  Mr.  William  Fowler,  Mr.  John  Astwood, 
William  Leet,  Esq.,  Mr.  Joshua  Atwater,  and  Mr. 
Francis  Newman.  Mr.  Atwater  was  treasurer,  and 
Mr.  Newman  secretary. 

Immediately  on  the  return  of  the  agents  from 
the  Manhadoes,  the  general  court  of  Massachusetts 
summoned  another  extraordinary  meeting  of  the 
commissioners,  at  Boston,  about  the  latter  end  of 
May.  The  commissioners  were  the  same  who  com- 
posed the  last  meeting,  except  Mr.  Bradstreet,  in 
the  room  of  Governor  Endicott,  who  was  obliged  to 
attend  the  general  court. 

The  agents  made  a  report  of  the  treatment  which 
they  had  received  from  the  Dutch,  and  of  such  evi. 
dence  as  they  had  taken  of  the  plot  on  their  return. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


The  commissioners  were  also  certified  that  the  In- 
dians on  Long  Island  had  charged  the  fiscal 
(treasurer)  with  the  plot ;  and  that  Captain  Under- 
hill,  having  reported  what  the  Indians  declared, 
was  seized  and  carried  by  a  guard  of  soldiers  from 
Flushing  to  the  Manhadoes,  where  he  was  confined 
by  the  fiscal,  until  what  he  had  reported  was  affirmed 
to  his  face:  then  he  was  dismissed  without  trial,  and 
all  his  charges  borne.  No  sooner  had  the  agents 
taken  theii  departure  from  the  Manhadoes,  than 
the  captain,  because  he  had  been  active  in  exhibit- 
ing the  evidence  of  the  Dutch  and  Indian  conspi- 
racy, notwithstanding  all  the  important  services  he 
had"  rendered  the  Dutch,  was  ordered  to  depart. 
The  commissioners  received  a  letter  from  him  May 
24th,  representing  the  extreme  danger  in  which  he 
and  all  the  English  were,  assuring  them,  that  as 
necessity  had  no  law,  he  had,  li'ke  Jeptha,  put  his 
life  in  his  hand  to  save  English  blood  ;  and  that  he 
was  waiting  their  orders,  with  loyalty  to  them  and 
the  parliament,  to  vindicate  the  rights  of  the  nation. 
The  Dutch  demanded  that  all  the  English  among 
them  should  take  an  oath  of  fidelity  to  them;  which, 
in  case  of  war,  might  have  compelled  them  to  fight 
against  their  own  nation. 

The  people  of  Hampstead,  at  the  same  time,  repre- 
sented that  they  were  in  the  utmost  danger,  and 
wrote  in  the  most  pressing  manner  for  arms  and 
ammunition  to  defend  themselves.  Letters  were 
also  sent  from  Connecticut  and  New  Haven,  with 
intelligence  that  the  Dutch  governor,  by  presents  of 
wampum,  coats,  and  other  articles,  was  exciting 
the  Mohawks  and  various  Indian  tribes  to  rise  and 
attack  the  English,  both  on  Long  Island  and 
on  the  main. 

A  long  letter  from  the  Dutch  governor  was  also 
received,  in  which,  in  general  terms,  he  excused  him- 
self relative  to  the  plot ;  but  he  gave  no  encourage- 
ment to  hope  for  the  least  satisfaction  ;  or  that  the 
colonies  should  be  more  safe  from  injury  and  insult 
for  the  future.  Indeed  he  still  insulted  them,  re- 
newing the  claims,  both  to  Connecticut  and  New 
Haven,  which  he  had  given  up  at  Hartford. 

All  the  commissioners  voted  for  war  against  the 
Dutch,  excepting  Mr.  Bradstreet,  who  was  under 
the  influence  of  the  general  court  of  Massachusetts, 
who  were  using  all  their  arts  to  oppose  the  commis- 
sioners, and  prevent  open  hostility.  The  commis- 
sioners, however,  so  strenuously  urged  the  justice 
and  necessity  of  an  immediate  war  with  the  Dutch, 
and  so  spiritedly  remonstrated  against  the  conduct 
of  the  court,  as  violators  of  the  articles  of  union, 
that  they  appointed  a  committee  of  conference  with 
them,  and  desired  that  a  statement  of  the  case  might 
be  made,  and  the  advice  of  the  elders  taken  on  the 
subject.  The  committee  of  the  court  were  Major 
Denison  and  Captain  Leveret. 

The  commissioners  replied,  that  their  former  de- 
claration, their  letter  to  the  Dutch  governor,  and 
the  evidence  before  them,  afforded  clear  and  suffi- 
cient light  in  the  affair,  but,  nevertheless,  they  ap- 
pointed Captain  Hawthorne,  Mr.  Bradford,  and 
Governor  Eaton,  a  committee  to  confer  with  the 
gentlemen  appointed  by  the  court  of  Massachusetts. 
Governor  Eaton  drew  up  a  statement  of  the  case 
in  behalf  of  the  committee  of  the  commissioners  ; 
but  the  committee  from  the  general  court,  would  not 
consent  to  it,  and  drew  up  another  statement  of 
their  own.  Undei  the  influence  of  tne  general  court, 
and  the  different  representation  which  their  com- 
mittee had  made,  the  elders  gave  their  opinion  : 

"  That  the  proofs  and  presumptions  of  the  execra- 


ble plot,  tending  to  the  destruction  of  so  many  of 
the  dear  saints  of  God,  imputed  to  the  Dutch  go- 
vernor and  the  fiscal,  were  of  such  weight  as  to  in- 
duce them  to  believe  the  reality  of  it ;  yet  they  were 
not  so  fully  conclusive  as  to  clear  up  a'present  pro- 
ceeding to  war  before  the  world  ;  and  to  bear  up 
their  hearts  with  that  fulness  of  persuasion,  which 
was  meet  in  commending  the  case  to  God  in  prayer, 
and  to  the  people  in  exhortations;  and  that  it 
would  be  safest,  for  the  colonies  to  forbear  the  use  of 
the  sword  ;  but  advised  to  be  in  a  posture  of  defence 
and  readiness  for  action,  until  the  mind  of  God 
should  be  more  clearly  known,  either  for  a  more 
settled  peace,  or  manifest  grounds  of  war." 

In  the  mean  time  all  the  commissioners,  except 
Mr.  Bradstreet,  continued  determined  for  war. 
Governor  Eaton  insisted  that  the  Dutch  had  for 
many  years  during  a  succession  of  governors,  rmu- 
tiplied  injuries  and  hostile  affronts  with  treachery 
and  falsehood  against  the  English,  to  their  very 
great  damage  :  that  these  injuries  had  been  fully 
and  repeatedly  represented  to  them,  and  satisfac- 
tion demanded";  yet  that  nothing  had  been  received 
in  return  but  dilatory,  false  and  offensive  answers : 
he  observed  that  the  governor  and  his  associates 
had  been  formerly  suspected  and  accused  of  insti- 
gating the  Indians  against  the  English ;  and  that 
now  a  treacherous  and  bloody  plot  had  been  disco- 
vered, and  charged  upon  him  and  his  fiscal,  by 
more  witnesses  than  could  have  been  expected  ;  that 
by  it  the  peace  of  the  country  had  been  disturbed, 
their  own  lives,  the  lives  of  their  children,  and  all 
their  connexions,  had  been  in  constant  jeopardy  : 
that  though  they  had  allowed  the  Dutch  governor  a 
fair  opportunity  of  clearing  himself,  of  making  sa- 
tisfaction, and  securing  the  colonies  for  the  future  ; 
yet  that  by  his  conduct  he  had  increased  the  evi- 
dence of  his  guilt ;  and  that  he  had  given  the  colo- 
nies no  security  for  their  future  peace  and  safety ; 
nor  had  they  the  least  reason  to  expect  any  :  that 
the  English,  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Dutch, 
were  in  the  most  immediate  danger,  not  only  from 
them,  but  the  Indians,  through  their  instigation,  De- 
cause  they  would  not  submit  to  an  oath  to  join  with 
them  in  fighting  against  their  own  nation  :  that  the 
insolence,  treachery,  and  bitter  enmity  which  the 
Dutch  had  manifested  against  the  nation  of  England, 
and  all  the  English  abroad  as  they  had  opportunity, 
were  sufficient  to  assure  them  that  as  soon  as  the 
States-general  should  be  able  to  send  a  small  fleet 
to  the  Manhadoes,  the  colonists  could  not  be  safe, 
either  in  their  persons  or  property,  by  land  or  sea  : 
and  further,  that  the  state  of  the  commonwealth  of 
England  and  of  the  colonies  was  such  as  called  for 
war;  and  that  if  either  of  the  colonies  should  refuse 
to  join  in  it  against  the  common  enemy,  and  if  any 
of  the  plantations  through  such  refusal  should  be 
destroyed,  the  guilt  of  such  blood  would  lie  upon 
them. 

Some  faithful  people  in  the  Massachusetts  were 
entirely  opposed  to  the  conduct  of  their  general 
court,  and  ventured  to  express  their  opinion.  The 
Rev.  Mr.  Norris,  of  Salem,  sent  a  writing  to  the 
commissioners,  representing  the  necessity  of  a  war  ; 
and  urged  that  if  the  colonies  in  their  then  present 
circumstances  should  neglect  to  engage  in  it,  it 
would  be  a  declaration  of  their  neutrality  in  the 
contest ;  might  be  viewed  in  that  light  by  the  par- 
liament ;  and  be  of  great  and  general  disservice  to 
their  interests  :  that  the  spending  of  so  much  time 
in  parleys  and  treaties,  after  all  the  injuries  they  had 
received,  and  while  the  enemy  was  insulting  them, 


UNITED  STATES. 


089 


and  fortifying  against  them,  would  make  them  con- 
temptible" among  the  Indians:  that  it  was  dishonour- 
ing God,  in  whom  they  professed  to  trust,  and  bring- 
ing a  scandal  among  themselves;  and  insisted  that 
as  their  brethren  had  sent  their  moan  to  them,  and 
desired  their  assistance,  if  they  should  refuse,  th 
curse  of  the  angel  of  the  Lord  against  Meroz  would 
come  upon  them  :  and  this  he  said  he  presented  in 
the  name  of  many  pensive  hearts. 

But  nothing  could  induce  the  Massachusetts  to 
unite  with  their  brethren  in  a  war  against  the 
Dutch ;  the  general  court,  in  direct  violation  of  the 
articles  of  confederation,  resolved  that  no  determi- 
nation of  the  commissioners,  though  they  should  all 
agree,  should  bind  the  general  court  to  join  in  an 
offensive  war,  which  should  appear  to  such  general 
court  to  be  unjust.  This  declaration  gave  great 
uneasiness  to  the  commissioners,  and  to  the  sister 
colonies  ;  and  it  nearly  effected  a  dissolution  of  their 
union.  The  commissioners  finding  that  the  Massa- 
chusetts would  not  submit  to  their  determination,  nor 
afford  any  assistance  to  her  confederates,  dissolved. 

In  this  important  crisis,  Governor  Haynes  called 
a  special  court  on  the  25th  of  June,  which  resolved, 
that  the  fears  and  distresses  of  the  English,  border- 
ing upon  the  Dutch,  and  the  damages  which  they 
had  sustained,  should  be  forthwith  represented  to  the 
magistrates  in  Massachusetts :  that  the  opinion  of 
the  court  respecting  the  power  of  the  commissioners 
to  make  war,  and  the  reasons  of  their  opinion  should 
be  communicated :  they  also  determined  that  their 
messengers  should  humbly  pray  that  war  might  be 
carried  on  against  the  Dutch,  according  to  the  deter- 
mination of  the  commissioners.  The  messengers 
were  also  instructed  to  use  their  influence,  that 
three  magistrates  might  have  power  to  call  a  meet- 
ing of  the  commissioners  at  Hartford  or  New  Ha- 
ven, to  conduct  the  affairs  of  the  war  as  occasion 
might  require ;  but  if  this  could  not  be  obtained 
they  were  to  desire  that  liberty  might  be  given  to 
enlist  volunteers  in  the  Massachusetts,  for  the  de- 
fence of  the  colonies. 

Governor  Haynes  and  Mr.  Ludlow  were  ap- 
pointed to  confer  with  Governor  Eaton  and  his 
council  on  the  subject.  The  court  at  New  Haven 
were  no  less  clear  and  unanimous  in  the  opinion  of 
the  power  of  the  commissioners  to  declare  war  and 
make  peace  than  the  general  court  at  Connecticut ; 
and  that  all  the  colonies  were  absolutely  bound  by 
their  determination.  Both  colonies  united  in  send- 
ing the  messengers,  and  in  the  purport  of  their  mes- 
sage ;  but  nothing  more  could  be  obtained  than 
the  calling  of  another  meeting  of  the  commissioners 
at  Boston;  who  met  on  the  llth  of  September; 
and  at  which  the  resolutions  of  the  general  courts  of 
Connecticut  and  New  Haven  were  produced,  ex- 
pressing their  entire  approbation  of  the  determina- 
tion of  the  commissioners,  and  remonstrating  against 
the  declaration  of  the  general  court  of  Massachu- 
setts, and  the  sense  which  they  had  put  on  the 
articles  of  confederation. 

The  general  court  of  Massachusetts  returned  for 
answer,  that  since  their  brethren  of  the  other  colo- 
nies had  apprehensions  different  from  theirs,  they 
judged  it  might  conduce  most  to  peace  to  wave  the 
point  in  controversy;  and  at  the  same  time  intimated 
they  had  no  occasion  to  answer  them. 

The  commissioners  refused  to  accept  this  as  an 
answer ;  and  insisted  that  they  had  ample  powers 
from  all  the  other  colonies  to  determine  in  all  affairs 
of  peace  and  war;  and  that  this  was  consistent 
with  the  grammatical  and  true  sense  of  the  articles  of 

HIST.  OF  AMER. — Nos.  87  £  88. 


confederation;  and  that  it  was  totally  inconsistent, 
not  only  with  the  articles  of  union, "but  with  the 
welfare  of  the  colonies,  that  they  should  be  at  so 
much  expense  and  trouble  to  meet  and  deliberate 
on  the  general  interests  of  the  confederates,  if  their 
determinations  were  to  be  annulled  by  one  court 
and  another. 

The  Massachusetts  court,  on  their  part,  insisted, 
that  the  determinations  of  the  commissioners  could 
not  bind  them  to  a  war  which  they  could  rw)t  deem 
to  be  just  ;  and  that  it  was  inconsistent  with  the 
liberties  of  the  colonies,  that  their  decisions  should 
compel  them  to  action. 

The  commissioners  replied,  that  no  power  could 
bind  men  to  do  that  which  was  absolutely  unlawful ; 
but  that  their  authority  was  as  absolute,  with  respect 
to  war  and  peace,  as  any  authority  could  be  ;  and 
that  it  was  their  province  only  to  judge  of  the 
justice  of  the  cause  :  they  maintained  that  it  could 
be  no  infringment  of  the  rights  of  the  colonies  to 
be  bound  by  the  acts  of  their  own  agents,  vested  with 
plenary  powers  for  those  very  acts;  and  represented 
the  religious  and  solemn  manner  in  which  the  con- 
federation was  made ;  that  by  its  express  words,  it 
was  a  perpetual  league  for  thejn  and  their  posterity, 
in  which  their  eight  commissioners,  or  any  six  of 
them,  should  have  full  power  to  determine  all  affairs 
of  war  and  peace,  leagues,  aids,  £c. :  that  every 
article  had  been  examined,  not  only  by  a  committee 
of  the  four  general  courts,  but  by  the  whole  court 
of  Massachusetts,  at  the  time  when  it  was  com- 
pleted :  that  many  prayers  were  addressed  to  Heaven 
for  its  accomplishment,  while  it  was  under  conside- 
ration; and  that  the  carrying  of  it  into  execution 
had  been  an  occasion  of  abundant  thanksgiving: 
that  after  practising  upon  it  for  ten  years,  the  colo- 
nies had  experienced  the  most  salutary  effects,  to 
the  great  and  general  advantage  of  all  the  confeder- 
ates :  that  the  violation  of  it  would  be  matter  of 
great  sin  in  the  presence  of  God,  and  of  scandal 
before  men  ;  and  they  referred  it  to  the  serious  con- 
sideration of  the  general  court,  whether  they  would 
not,  in  his  sight  who  knew  all  hearts,  be  guilty  of 
this  sin  and  scandal? 

The  general  court  earnestly  requested  that  they 
would  drop  the  dispute,  and  enter  upon  business, 
and  their  commissioners  also  pressed  the  same. 
But,  with  a  spirit  of  magnanimity  and  firmness, 
becoming  their  character,  they  utterly  refused ;  de- 
termining, to  a  man,  after  drawing  a  remonstrance 
against  the  Massachusetts,  to  return  to  their  respec- 
tive colonies,  and  leave  the  event  with  the  supreme 
ruler. 

No  sooner  had  the  general  court  intelligence  of 
what  was  transacting,   than  they  dispatched  a  writ- 
ing to  the  commissioners,  apparently  retracting  all 
which  they  had  before  advanced  in  opposition  to 
them ;  but  it  was   expressed   in  very  doubtful  Ian 
guage.     However,  upon  the  reception  of  this,  they 
proceeded  to  business. 

Ninigrate,  ever  since  the  Pequot  war,  had  been 
the  common  pest  of  the  colonies :  he  had  violated 
all  his  contracts  with  them  ;  had  fallen  on  the  Long 
Island  Indians,who  were  in  alliance  with  theEnglish, 
and  slain  many  of  them ;  and  carried  others,  men, 
women,  and  children  into  captivity :  and  by  his 
hostilities,  he  gave  alarm  and  trouble  to  the  En- 
glish plantations  on  the  island,  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  the  Indians.  When  messengers  had  been 
sent  to  him,  demanding  that  he  would  return  the  cap- 
tives, and  desist  from  war,  he  absolutely  refused ;  and 
would  give  no  account  of  his  conduct;  and  he  had  now 

3R 


C90 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


spent  the  winter  with  the  Dutch  governor,  in  con- 
certing measures  against  the  PJnglish  colonies ;  and 
had  been  beyond  Hudson's  river  spiriting  up  the 
Indians  there,  as  well  as  in  other  quarters,  to  a 
general  rising  against  them.  The  commissioners 
therefore  declared  war  against  him,  and  appointed 
the  number  of  men  and  officers  for  the  service. 
They  also  again  resolved  upon  war  against  the 
Dutch,  and  ail  the  commissioners  joined  in  these 
resolutions  except  Mr.  Bradstreet ;  but  they  were 
to  no  purpose.  The  general  court  refused  to  bear 
any  part  in  the  war  against  either. 

The  commissioners  protested  against  the  members 
of  the  court  of  Massachusetts,  as  violators  of  the 
confederation  ;  and  pressed  it  as  an  indispensable 
duty  to  avenge  the  blood  of  innocents,  who  had  de- 
pended on  them  for  safety,  and  had  suffered  on  the 
account  of  their  faithfulness  to  the  colonies,  to  re- 
cover their  wives  and  children  from  captivity ;  to 
protect  their  friends  from  the  insults  of  barbarous 
and  bloody  men ;  and  to  vindicate  the  honour  of 
themselves  and  of  the  nation. 

The  Massachusetts  nevertheless  persisted  in  their 
opposition  to  the  commissioners,  and  would  bear  no 
part  in  the  war.  Their  desertion  of  their  confeder- 
ates was  matter  of  great  injury  and  distress  to  them, 
especially  to  the  people  of  Connecticut  and  New 
Haven ;  who  were  not  only  obliged  to  put  up  with 
all  former  insults  arid  damages  from  the  Dutch,  but 
after  they  had  been  at  great  expense  in  fortifying 
and  guarding  against  the  Dutch  and  Indians,  and 
had  been  worn  down  with  anxiety  and  watching, 
from  the  very  opening  of  the  spring,  were  still  left 
to  their  fears,  and  obliged  to  combine  together  for 
mutual  defence,  in  the  best  manner  of  which  they 
were  capable. 

The  general  courts  of  Connecticut  and  New  Ha- 
ven were  convoked  soon  after  the  return  of  the 
commissioners.  That,  at  New  Haven  met.  on  the 
12th  of  October,  and  the  court  at  Connecticut  on 
the  25th  of  November.  Both  considered  the  court 
of  Massachusetts  as  having  wilfully  violated  the 
articles  of  union ;  and  the  general  court  at  New- 
Haven  expressly  resolved,  "that  the  Massachusetts 
had  broken  their  covenant  with  them,  in  acting 
directly  contrary  to  the  articles  of  confederation." 

Both  colonies  therefore  determined  to  seek  re- 
dress from  the  commonwealth  of  England  ;  Captain 
Astvvood  was  appointed  agent  to  the  Lord-protector 
Cromwell,  and  parliament,  to  represent  their  state, 
and  to  solicit  ships  and  men  for  the  reduction  of  the 
Dutch.  Connecticut  and  New  Haven  conferred 
together,  by  their  committees,  and  letters  were  sent 
iu  the  name  of  both  the  general  courts,  containing 
a  complete  statement  of  their  circumstances.  The 
address  concluded  in  the  words  following  :  "  That 
unless  the  Dutch  be  either  removed,  or  so  far  at 
least  subjected,  that  the  colonies  may  be  free  from 
injurious  affronts,  and  secured  against  the  dangers 
and  mischievous  effects  which  daily  grow  upon  them 
by  their  plotting  with  the  Indians,  and  furnishing 
them  with  arms  against  the  English ;  and  that  the 
league  and  confederation  between  the  four  united 
English  colonies  be  confirmed  and  settled  accord- 
ing to  the  true  sense,  and  till  this  year  the  continued 
interpretation  of  the  articles,  the  peace  and  com- 
fort of  these  smaller  western  colonies,  will  be  much 
hazarded  and  more  and  more  impaired.  But  as 
they  conceive  it  their  duty  thus  fully  to  represent 
their  afflicted  condition  to  your  excellency,  so  they 
humbly  leave  themselves,  with  the  remedies,  to  your 
consideration,  and  wisdom." 


As  Governor  Hopkins  was  now  in  England,  he 
was  desired  to  give  all  assistance  in  his  power  to 
the  agent  whom  they  had  agreed  to  send;  and  Con- 
necticut dispatched  letters  to  the  parliament,  to 
General  Monk  and  Mr.  Hopkins. 

As  Stamford  was  a  frontier  town,  a  guard  of  men 
was  dispatched  for  its  defence ;  and  Connecticut 
and  New  Haven  provided  a  frigate  of  ten  or  twelve 
guns,  with  forty  men,  to  defend  the  coast  against 
the  Dutch,  and  to  prevent  Ninigrate  and  his  In- 
dians from  crossing  the  sound,  in  prosecution  of  his 
hostile  designs  against  the  Indians  in  alliance  with 
the  colonies. 

The  towns  bordering  upon  the  Dutch,  on  Long 
Island,  were  in  great  distress  and  alarm.  Captain 
Underbill  sent  to  his  friends  at  Rhode  Island  for 
assistance  ;  and,  with  such  Englishmen  as  he  could 
obtain,  made  the  best  defence  in  his  power ;  but 
Hampstead  and  some  other  towns  were  still  con- 
tinually harassed,  and  suffered  much  damage  and 
insult  from  the  Dutch. 

The  Dutch,  at  New  Netherlands,  waited  only  for 
a  reinforcement  from  Holland  to  attack  and  reduce 
the  English  colonies;  and  it  was  reported  and 
feared,  that  when  the  signals  should  be  given  from, 
the  Dutch  ships,  the  Indians  would  rise,  fire  the 
English  buildings,  and  begin  their  work  of  de- 
struction. 

Providence,  however,  combined  a  number  of  cir- 
cumstances for  the  preservation  of  the  exposed 
colonies.  The  defeat  of  the  Dutch  fleet  by  the 
English,  and  the  spoil  which  they  made  upon  their 
trade,  prevented  the  arrival  of  the  expected  rein- 
forcements ;  the  Indians  could  not  be  united  ;  and 
many  of  the  sachems  said,  the  English  had  done 
them  no  injury,  and  they  would  not  fight  them ;  and 
the  early  intelligence,  received  by  the  colonies,  of 
the  plans  which  they  and  the  Dutch  were  concert- 
ing, and  the  constant  watch  and  guard  which  the 
plantations  had  maintained,  disconcerted  them. 

Other  calamities  however  arose.  Some  of  the 
towns,  and  many  of  the  people,  in  the  colonies  of 
Connecticut  and  New  Haven,  were  so  dissatisfied 
that  the  war  was  not  prosecuted  against  the  Dutch, 
according  to  the  resolution  of  the  commissioners, 
that  they  were  with  great  difficulty  restrained  from 
open  mutiny  and  rebellion.  Stamford  and  Fairfield 
in  particular  became  very  disorderly;  the  former 
complaining  that  the  government  was  bad,  and  the 
charges  unreasonable,  and  that  they  were  neglected 
and  deprived  of  their  just  privileges;  and  they  sent 
to  the  general  court  at  New  Haven,  desiring  them 
to  piosecute  the  war  against  the  Dutch.  They 
also  resolved  to  raise  a  number  of  men,  and  prayed 
for  permission  to  enlist  volunteers  in  the  several 
towns.  Fairfield  held  a  meeting  on  the  subject, 
and  determined  to  prosecute  the  war,  and  appointed 
Mr.  Ludlow  commander-in-chief.  He  had  been 
one  of  the  commissioners  at  the  severaLoneetings 
relative  to  the  affair,  and  had  been  very  zealous 
and  active  for  the  war  ;  and  conceiving  himself  and 
the  town  in  imminent  danger,  unless  the  Dutch 
could  be  removed  from  the  neighbourhood,  too 
hastily  accepted  of. the  appointment.  Robert  Bas- 
set and  John  Chapman,  who  were  the  heads  of  this 
party,  attempted  to  foment  insurrections,  and,  with- 
out any  instructions  or  authority,  to  raise  volunteers 
for  an  expedition  against  the  Netherlands. 

The  general  court  at  New  Haven  judged  that  the 
season  was  too  far  advanced  to  undertake  the  enter- 
prise, but  nevertheless  determined  to  consult  Con- 
necticut, and  to  proceed  or  not  as  the  council  there 


UNITED  STATES. 


691 


should  judge  most  expedient ;  who  decided  that  as 
it  was  now  the  latter  part  of  November,  ships  and 
men  could  not  be  seasonably  provided. 

Deputy-governor  Goodyear  and  Mr.  Newman, 
who  were  dispatched  to  Stamford  to  compose  the 
minds  of  the  people,  called  a  meeting  of  the  town, 
and  laboured  to  quiet  them ;  but  could  make  no 
impression  upon  them  until  they  read  an  order  of 
the  committee  of  parliament,  requiring  that  the 
plantations  should  be  in  subjection  to  the  authority 
of  their  respective  jurisdictions,  which  appeared  to 
have  some  good  effect.  But  as  the  inhabitants  had 
been  at  great  expense,  not  only  in  watching  and 
guarding  the  town,  but  in  erecting  fortifications 
about  the  meeting-house,  they  insisted  that  the 
colony  should  bear  a  part  of  the  expense,  and  pro- 
vide a  guard  during  the  winter  T  he  public  bur- 
thens this  year  were  great;  the  expenses  of  the 
colony  of  New  Haven  being  about  400/.  The 
court  made  some  abatements  in  favour  of  Stamford; 
but  Basset  and  Chapman  were  punished  for  attempt- 
ing to  make  an  insurrection  in  the  colony,  and 
others  were  bound  in  large  bonds  to  their  good  be- 
haviour. The  general  court  of  Connecticut,  at  their 
session  in  November,  ordered  that  201.  should  be 
paid  to  the  support  of  a  fellowship  in  Cambridge 
college. 

The.  death  and  character  of  Governor  Haynes — The 
freemen  of  Connecticut  meet,  and  appoint  a  mo- 
derator—  Mr.  Ludlow  removes  to  Virginia — The 
spirited  conduct  of  the  people  at  Milford  in  recover- 
ing Afanning's  vessel  —  The  freemen  add  to  the 
fundamental  articles — Fleet  arrives  at  Boston  for 
the  reduction  of  the  Dutch — The  colonies  agree  to 
raise  men  to  assist  the  armament  from  England — 
Peace  prevents  the  expedition — The  general  court 
at  New  Haven  charge  the  Massachusetts  with  a 
breach  of  the  confederation — They  refuse  to  join  in 
a  war  against  Ninigrate,  and  oblige  Connecticut 
and  New  Haven  to  provide  for  the  defence  of  them- 
selves and  their  allies — Ninigrate  continuing  his 
hostile  measures,  the  commissioners  send  messengers 
to  him — His  answer  to  them — They  declare  war, 
and  send  an  army  against  him — The  art  of  Massa- 
chusetts, and  the  deceit  of  Major  Willard,  defeat 
the  designed  expedition — The  number  of  rateable 
polls,  and  the  amount  of  the  list  of  Connecticut— 
The  Pequots  are  taken  under  their  protection — 
Ninigrate  persisting  in  his  hostilities  against  the 
Indians  upon  Long  Island,  the  general  court  adopt 
measures  for  the  defence  of  the  Indians  and  the 
English  Inhabitants  there — New  Haven  complete 
and  print  their  laws — The  answer  of  New  Haven  to 
the  protector's  invitation,  that  they  would  remove  to 
Jamaica — Reply  of  the  commissioners  to  the  Dutch 
governor — Uncas  embroils  the  country — Deaths  and 
characters  of  Governors  Eaton  and  Hopkins — Settle- 
ment of  Stonington — Mr.  Winthrop  chosen  governor 
—  The  third  fundamental  article  is  altered  by  the 
freemen — Mr.  Fitch  and  his  church  and  people  re- 
move to  Norwich — Final  settlement  of  accounts  with 
ths  heirs  of  Mr.  Fenwick — Deputy-governor  Mason 
resigns  the  Moheagan  lands  to  the  colony. 

(1654.)  The  colony  sustained  a  great  loss  this 
year  in  the  death  of  Governor  Haynes.  He  had 
from  the  beginning  employed  his  estate  and  labours 
for  its  emolument,  and  bore  a  large  share  in  its 
hardships  and  dangers.  He  was  a  gentleman,  origin- 
ally from  the  county  of  Essex,  in  England,  where 
he  had  an  elegant  seat,  called  Copford  Hall,  worth 
1,00(M.  sterling  a-year.  He  came  into  New  Eng- 


land with  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hooker,  in  1632,  and  settled 
with  him  first  at  Cambridge  in  Massachusetts.  His 
distinguished  abilities,  prudence,  and  piety  so  re- 
commended him  to  the  people,  that  in  1635  he  was 
chosen  governor  of  Massachusetts  ;  and  he  was  not 
considered  in  any  respect  inferior  to  Governor  Win- 
throp. His  growing  popularity,  and  the  fame  of 
Mr.  Hooker,  who,  as  to  strength  of  genius,  and  his 
lively  and  powerful  manner  of  preaching,  rivalled 
Mr.  Cotton,  were  supposed  to  have  had  no  small 
influence  upon  the  general  court,  in  their  granting 
liberty  to  Mr.  Hooker  and  his  company  to  remove 
to  Connecticut. 

Mr.  Hopkins  was  in  England,  and  the  colony 
had  neither  governor  nor  deputy-governor  present 
to  act  in  its  behalf.  The  freemen  therefore  in 
February  convened  at  Hartford,  and  elected  Mr. 
Thomas 'Wells  moderator  of  the  general  court,  until 
a  governor  should  be  chosen. 

About  this  time  there  happened  a  great  contro- 
versy between  Uncas  and  the  inhabitants  of  New 
London,  relative  to  their  respective  limits ;  and  the 
inhabitants  carried  the  dispute  so  far  as  to  rise  and 
take  possession  of  his  forts  and  many  of  his  wig- 
wams; but  the  assembly  interposed  and  gave  orders, 
that  the  Indians  should  not  be  injured,  and  that  the 
people  should  be  accountable  for  all  damages  which 
they  had  done  them;  and  a  committee  was  ap- 
pointed to  fix  the  boundaries  between  New  London 
and  Uncas,  and  to  compose  all  differences  between 
the  parties. 

Nearly  at  the  same  time  the  colony  received  an 
order  from  the  English  parliament,  requiring  that 
the  Dutch  should  be  treated,  in  all  respects,  as  the 
declared  enemies  of  the  commonwealth  of  England. 
In  conformity  to  this  order,  the  general  court  was 
convened,  and  an  act  passed  sequestering  the  Dutch 
house,  lands,  and  property  of  all  kinds  at  Hartford, 
for  the  benefit  of  the  commonwealth;  and  the  court 
also  prohibited  all  persons  whatsoever  from  improv- 
ing the  premises,  by  virtue  of  any  former  claim, 
or  title,  Had,  made,  or  given  by  any  of  the  Dutch 
nation,  or  any  other  person,  without  their  approbation. 

In  the  proclamation  for  a  general  fast  this  spring, 
the  great  breach  sustained  by  the  colony,  in  the 
death  of  the  governor ;  the  alienation  of  the  colo- 
nies, on  account  of  the  violation  of  the  articles  of 
confederation ;  the  spreading  of  erroneous  opin- 
ions in  the  churches ;  the  mortality  which  had 
been  among  the  people  of  Massachusetts ;  and  the 
calamitous  state  of  the  English  nation,  were  parti- 
cularized as  matters  of  humiliation. 

The  colony  was  this  year  deprived  of  Mr.  Ludlow, 
one  of  its  chief  magistrates.  He  was  one  of  the 
most  zealous  for  prosecuting  the  war  against  the 
Dutch,  and  no  one  was  more  displeased  that  the 
colonies  did  not  follow  the  determinations  of  the 
commissioners ;  he  might  apprehend  himself  to  be 
particularly  in  danger  at  Fairfield  ;  and  besides,  he 
had  taken  a  very  hasty  and  unadvised  step  in  ac- 
cepting the  command  of  men  to  go  against  the 
Dutch  without  any  legal  appointment ;  and  he  had, 
no  doubt,  apprehensions  on  that  account,  or  at  least 
that  the  freemen  would  neglect  him  ;  and  for  some, 
or  all  of  these  reasons,  about  this  time,  he  removed 
with  his  family  to  Virginia.  He  was  clerk  of  the 
town  of  Fairfield,  and  carried  off  their  records  and 
other  public  writings.  He  came  originally  from, 
the  west  of  England  with  Mr.  Warham  and  his 
company ;  and  in  1630  he  was  chosen  into  the  ma- 
gistracy of  the  Massachusetts'  company,  and  iu 
1634,  deputy-governor  of  that  colony ;  he  had  been 


692 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


twice  elected  deputy-governor  of  Connecticut,  and 
was  every  year  magistrate  or  deputy- governor,  from 
his  first  coming  into  the  colony  in  1635,  until  the 
time  of  his  departure.  He  appears  to  have  been 
distinguished  for  his  abilities,  especially  his  know- 
ledge of  the  law,  and  the  rights  of  mankind ;  and 
he  rendered  most  essential  services  in  forming  the 
original  civil  constitution,  and  in  compiling  the 
first  Connecticut  code,  printed  at  Cambridge  in 
1672  :  had  he  but  possessed  a  happier  temper,  he 
would  have  been  the  idol  of  the  people,  and  shared 
in  all  the  honours  which  they  could  have  given  him. 
Nearly  about  the  same  lime,  an  affair  happened 
in  which  the  people  of  Milford  exhibited  a  noble 
spirit  of  zeal  and  enterprise.  One  Captain  Man- 
ning, master  of  a  ten-gun  ship  had  been  apprehend- 
ed for  an  unlawful  trade  with  the  Dutch,  at  the  Mari- 
hadoes ;  and  while  the  affair  was  upon  trial  before 
the  court  at  New  Haven,  his  men  ran  off  with  the 
ship  from  Milford  harbour;  but  the  people  com- 
pletely armed  and  manned  a  vessel,  with  so  much 
dispatch,  that  they  pressed  hard  upon  the  ship  be- 
fore she  could  reach  the  Dutch  island  ;  and  the  men 
perceiving  they  must  be  taken,  unless  they  immedi- 
ately abandoned  the  ship,  made  their  escape  in  their 
boat ;  the  ship  thus  left  adrift,  was  recovered,  and 
brought  into  Milford  harbour,  and,  with  all  her 
goods,  condemned  as  a  lawful  prize. 

At  the  general  election,  MJ. "Hopkins,  though  in 
England,  was  chosen  governor.  Mr.  Wells  was 
appointed  deputy-governor.  Mr.  Webster,  Mr. 
Mason,  Mr.  Winthrop,  Mr.  Cullick,  Mr.  Wolcott, 
Mr.  Clark,  Mr.  Wyllys,  son  of  George  Wyllys, 
and  Mr.  John  Talcott,  were  elected  magistrates. 
Mr.  Cullick  was  secretary,  and  Mr.  Talcot  treasurer. 
At  this  court,  the  freemen  passed  the  following 
resolution  as  an  addition  to  the  fundamentals  of 
their  constitution  : — "  That  the  major  part  of  the 
magistrates,  in  the  absence  of  the  governor  and  de- 
puty-governor, shall  have  power  to  call  a  general 
court;  and  that  any  general  court  being  legally 
called  and  met,  the  major  part  of  the  magistrates 
and  deputies  then  met  in  the  absence  of  the  gover- 
nor and  deputy-governor,  shall  have  power  to 
choose  unto,  and  from  among  themselves,  a  mode- 
rator, which  being  done,  they  shall  be  deemed  as 
legal  a  general  court  as  if  the  governor  or  deputy- 
governor  were  present." 

At  the  election  in  New  Haven,  the  only  altera- 
tion in  public  officers  was  the  addition  of  Mr.  Sa- 
muel Eaton,  of  New  Haven,  to  the  magistrates,  and 
the  choice  of  Mr.  Benjamin  Fenn,  in  the  room  of 
Captain  John  Astwood. 

About  the  same  time,  in  answer  to  the  petitions 
of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven,  Major  Sedgwick 
and  Captain  Leveret  arrived  at  Boston,  from  En- 
gland, with  a  fleet  of  three  or  four  ships,  and  a 
small  number  of  land-forces,  sent  by  Cromwell  the 
lord-protector,  for  the  reduction  of  the  Dutch.  On 
the  8th  of  June,  Governor  Eaton  received  a  letter 
from  the  protector,  certifying  that  he  had  sent 
ships  and  ammunition  for  the  assistance  of  the  colo- 
nies ;  and  with  this  came  a  letter  from  Major  Sedg- 
wick and  Captain  Leveret,  requesting  that  com- 
missioners might  be  sent  immediately  from  each  of 
the  governments,  to  consult  with  them  on  the  ob- 
jects of  the  designed  expedition.  Mr.  William 
Leet  and  Mr.  Jordan  were  appointed  commission- 
ers for  New  Haven  ;  and  were  authorized  to  engage, 
in  behalf  of  that  jurisdiction,  to  furnish  all  the  men 
and  provisions  which  it  could  spare.  An  embargo 
was  laid  on  all  provisions,  and  every  measure  adopted 


that  the  utmost  assistance  might  be  given  in  the 
enterprise;  and  such  was  the  zeal  of  the  general 
court,  that  they  instructed  their  commissioners  to 
engage  the  assistance  of  that  colony,  though  no 
other,  except  Connecticut,  should  join  with  them. 

On  the  13th  of  June,  the  general  court  of  Con- 
necticut convened  at  Hartford,  and  appointed  Ma- 
jor John  Mason  and  Mr.  Cullick  commissioners. 
They  were  directed  to  proceed  with  the  utmost  dis- 
patch to  Boston  ;  and,  in  behalf  of  Connecticut,  to 
engage  any  number  of  men,  if  possible  not  ex- 
ceeding two  hundred,  but  rather  than  the  expedition 
should  fail,  four  or  five  hundred. 

The  general  court  of  Massachusetts  was  convoked 
on  the  9th  of  June,  but  did  not  agree  to  raise  any 
nen  themselves ;  but  they  granted  liberty,  never- 
heless,  for  Major  Sedgwick  and  Captain  Leveret  to 
raise  five  hundred  volunteers.  The  commissioners 
finally  agreed  upon  800  men,  as  sufficient  for  the 
enterprise.  The  ships  were  to  furnish  two  hundred 
soldiers ;  three  hundred  volunteers  were  to  be 
raised  in  Massachusetts;  two  hundred  men  were  to 
be  sent  from  Connecticut ;  and  a  hundred  and  thirty- 
three  from  New  Haven.  But  while  preparations 
ere  making  with  vigour  and  dispatch,  the  news  of 
peace  between  England  and  Holland  prevented 
all  further  proceedings  relative  to  the  affair. 

The  total  defeat  of  the  Dutch  fleet,  the  loss  of 
Admiral  Tromp  and  a  great  number  of  their  mer- 
chantmen, made  the  Dutch  in  earnest  for  peace ; 
and  it  was  expeditiously  concluded  on  the  5th  of 
April.  The  news  of  it  arrived  in  America  almost 
as  soon  as  the  fleet;  and  the  commander-in-chief 
therefore  employed  his  forces,  with  the  Massachu- 
setts volunteers,  in  dispossessing  the  French  from 
Penobscot,  St.  John's,  and  the  adjacent  coast. 
This  was  doubtless  one  object  of  the  expedition, 
and  not  undertaken  without  orders  from  the  pro- 
tector. 

It  wras  not  expected  that  there  would  have  been 
any  meeting  of  the  commissioners  this  year ;  as 
Massachusetts  had  violated  the  articles  of  union, 
and  the  colonies  had  protested  against  them,  as 
breakers  of  the  most  solemn  confederation.  The 
general  court  of  Massachusetts  had  also  represented 
to  the  other  colonies,  that  the  articles  needed  ex- 
planation and  emendation,  that  they  might  be  con- 
sistent with  the  rights  of  the  several  general  courts; 
and  indeed  it  had  proposed  a  meeting  of  the  com- 
missioners for  that  purpose ;  but  the  other  colonies 
viewed  the  articles  as  perfectly  intelligible,  and  con- 
sistent with  the  rights  of  the  confederates  ;  and  they 
therefore  rejected  the  motion.  The  general  court 
of  New  Haven  had  voted  that  there  was  no  occasion 
for  appointing  commissioners  that  year. 

On  the  5th  of  July,  Governor  Eaton  received  a 
letter  from  the  general  court  of  the  Massachusetts, 
waving  an  answer  to  the  letter  jointly  written  from 
the  general  courts  of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven, 
and  lamely  excusing  their  non-compliance  with  the 
resolution  of  the  commissioners,  on  the  account  of 
their  not  being  able  to  apprehend  the  justice  of  the 
war  with  the  Dutch  and  Ninigrate.  They  com 
plained  of  the  other  colonies,  for  treating  them  as 
violators  of  the  confederacy  ;  professed  themselves 
to  be  passionately  desirous  of  its  continuance,  ac- 
cording to  the  genuine  construction  of  the  articles  ; 
and  gave  notice  that  they  had  chosen  commission- 
ers, and  had  determined  to  empower  them  as  had 
been  usual. 

The  general  court  at  New  Haven  replied,  that 
they  and  the  other  colonies  had  justly  charged  them 


UNITED  STATES. 


693 


with  a  violation  of  their  covenant,  and  urged,  that, 
according  to  their  own  interpretation  of  the  articles, 
they  stood  responsible  to  them  for  the  infraction ; 
and  that,  according  to  the  eleventh  article  of  the 
confederation,  they  were  to  be  treated  by  them  ac- 
cording to  the  magnitude  of  their  fault;  that  her 
sister  colonies  had  not  only  condemned  their  con- 
duct, but  had  sent  messengers  and  taken  proper 
pains  to  inform  them,  and  adjust  the  difference  be- 
tween them ;  but  that  they  had  treated  them  in  a 
very  disagreeable  manner,  and  their  endeavours 
had  been  to  no  good  purpose  ;  but  added  that,  never- 
theless, if  the  combination  might  be  again  firmly 
settled,  according  to  the  original  intention  and 
grammatical  sense  of  the  articles,  they  would,  with- 
out further  satisfaction,  forgetting  what  was  past, 
cheerfully  renew  their  covenant,  and  send  their 
commissioners  to  meet,  at  any  time  and  place,  for 
that  end.  This  wa?  subscribed  by  the  secretary, 
and  sent  to  Hartford,  to  be  subscribed  by  the  gene- 
ral court  of  Connecticut;  and  to  be  transmitted  in 
the  name  of  each  of  the  colonies  to  the  Massachu- 
setts; and  this  it  seems  was  done. 

As  the  general  court  of  the  Massachusetts  would 
not  join  with  the  confederated  colonies  against  Nini- 
grate,  he  prosecuted  the  war  against  the  Long 
Island  Indians,  and  it  was  supposed  that  his  design 
was  to  destroy  both  those  Indians  and  the  Mohea- 
gans  ;  for  which  purpose  he  had  hired  (he  Mohawks, 
Pocomtocks,  and  Wampanoags,  afterwards  called 
Philip's  Indians,  to  assist  him.  By  a  collection  of 
such  numbers  of  Indiana  from  tha  westward,  north- 
ward, and  eastward,  the  general  peace  of  the  country 
would  have  been  greatly  endangered,  and  the  Long 
Island  Indians,  who  had  put  themselves  under  the 
protection  of  the  English,  exposed  to  a  total  extir- 
pation. They  had  already  been  obliged,  not  only 
to  fortify  themselves,  and  to  use  every  precaution 
for  their  own  defence,  but  to  suffer  the  loss  of  many 
of  their  people,  who  had  been  already  either  slain 
or  captured. 

The  deputy-governor  and  council  of  Connecticut 
judged  it  an  affair  of  such  importance,  that  they 
determined  to  dispatch  Major  Mason,  with  ammu- 
nition, and  a  number  of  men,  to  the  assistance  of  the 
Indians  upon  the  Island  :  and  the  deputy-governor 
and  Mr.  Clark  acquainted  Governor  Eaton  with 
their  views  and  determination,  and  desired  that 
the  colony  of  New  Haven  would  send  Lieutenant 
Seely,  with  a  detachment  of  men,  and  with  supplies 
of  ammunition,  to  second  their  design.  The  court 
of  New  Haven  complied  with  the  desire  of  Connec- 
ticut ;  and  Lieutenant  Seely  had  orders  to  join 
Major  Mason  at  Saybrook.  They  were  instructed 
to  sequent  the  Montauket  Indians,  that  the  colo- 
nies made  them  that  present  of  ammunition,  wholly 
for  their  own  defence,  and  not  to  enable  them  to 
injure  Ninigrate,  or  any  other  Indians,  unless  they 
should  make  an  attack  upon  them ;  and  that,  while 
they  continued  faithful  to  the  English,  they  would 
bj  their  friends.  It  was  at  the  same  time  ordered 
that,  if  Ninigrate  should  invade  the  Long  Island 
Indians,  the  English  officers  should  use  their  en- 
deavours to  persuade  them  to  peace,  and  to  refer 
their  differences  to  the  decision  of  the  commission- 
ers ;  but  if  he  would  fight,  they  were  commanded 
to  defend  themselves,  and  the  Indians  in  alliance 
with  the  colonies,  in  the  best  manner  they  could. 

In  September  the  commissioners  convened  at 
Hartford.  They  consisted  of  the  following  gentle- 
men, Mr.  Simon  Bradstreet,  Major  Deuison,  Mr. 
Thomas  Prince,  Mr.  John  Brown,  Major  Mason, 


Mr.  John  Webster,  Governor  Eaton,  and  Mr. 
Francis  Newman.  Governor  Eaton  was  chosen 
president.  They  immediately  dispatched  messen- 
gers to  Ninigrate,  demanding  his  appearance  at 
Hartford,  and  the  payment  of  the  tribute  so  long 
due  for  the  Pequots  under  him  ;  and  on  the  18th, 
Mr.  Jonathan  Gilbert  returned,  and  made  a  report 
of  Ninigrate's  answer,  in  the  following  words  : 

'•  Concerning  the  Long  Island  Indians,  he  an- 
swered, wherefore  should  he  acquaint  the  commis- 
sioners, as  the  Long  Island  Indians  began  with, 
him,  and  had  slain  a  sachem's  son,  and  sixty  of  his 
men  ;  and  therefore  he  will  not  make  peace  with 
the  Long  Islanders;  but  doth  desire  that  the  En- 
glish will  let  him  alone  ;  and  that  the  commissioners 
would  not  request  him  to  go  to  Hartford;  for  he 
hath  done  no  hurt.  "What  should  he  do  there.?  If 
our  governor's  son  were  slain,  and  several  other 
men,  would  you  ask  counsel  of  another  nation,  how 
and  when  to  right  yourselves  ?  And  added,  that 
he  would  neither  go  nor  send  to  Hartford.  Con- 
cerning the  upland  Indians,  his  answer  was,  that 
they  were  his  friends,  and  came  to  help  him  against 
the  Long  Islanders,  who  had'  killed  several  of  his 
men.  Wherefore  should  he  acquaint  the  commis- 
sioners of  it  ?  He  did  but  right  his  own  quarrel, 
which  the  Long  Islanders  began  with  him."  With, 
respect  to  the  tribute  due  for  the  Pequots,  though 
he  had  never  paid  it,  yet  he  pretended  there  was 
none  due. 

The  commissioners  considering  his  perfidious  con- 
duct the  last  year,  his  present  answer,  and  that 
lenity  and  forbearance  had  been  an  encouragement 
of  his  insolence  and  barbarity,  ordered  forty  horse- 
men, and  two  hundred  and  seventy  infantry  to  be 
raised,  to  chastise  his  haughtiness.  The  Massa- 
chusetts were  to  raise  the  forty  horsemen,  and  a 
hundred  and  fifty-three  footmen  ;  Connecticut  forty- 
five,  and  New  Haven  thirty-one.  Orders  were  also 
given,  that  twenty  horse  from  Massachusetts,  twenty- 
four  men  from  Connecticut,  and  sixteen  from  New 
Haven,  should  be  immediately  dispatched  into  the 
Nehantick  country  ;  and  the  commissioners  nomi- 
nated Major  Gibbons,  Major  Denison,  or  Captain 
Atherton,  to  the  chief  command ;  leaving  it,  in  com- 
plaisance to  the  general  court  of  Massachusetts  to 
appoint  which  of  the  three  should  be  most  agreeable 
to  them;  but  the  Massachusetts'  court  rejecting  these 
who  were  men  of  known  spirit  and  enterprise, 
appointed  Major  Willard.  The  commissioners  in- 
structed him  to  proceed  with  such  troops  as  should 
be  found  at  the  place  of  general  rendezvous,  by  the 
13th  of  October,  directly  to  Ninigrate's  quarters, 
and  demand  of  him  the  Pequots,  who  had  been  put 
under  him,  and  the  tribute  which  was  due  ;  and  if 
Ninigrate  should  not  deliver  them  and  pay  the  tri- 
bute, he  was  required  to  take  them  by  force.  He 
was  also  instructed  to  demand  of  Ninigrate  a  ces- 
sation from  all  further  hostilities  against  the  Long 
Islanders ;  and  if  he  would  not  comply  with  these 
demands,  he  had  express  orders  to  subdue  him ; 
and  if  a  greater  number  of  men  should  be  found 
necessary,  his  instructions  were  to  send  for  such  a 
number  as  he  should  judge  sufficient  to  carry  the 
expedition  into  effect.  The  place  of  rendezvous 
was  at  Thomas  Stanton's,  in  the  Narraganset 
country ;  but  when  the  major  arrived  there,  he  found 
that  Ninigrate  had  fled  into  a  swamp,  at  fourteen  or 
tifteen  miles  distance  from  the  army,  and  had  left 
his  country,  corn,  and  wigwams,  without  defence; 
which  might  have  been  laid  waste,  without  loss  or 
danger ;  but  the  major  neglected  the  opportunity. 


694 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


About  a  hundred  Pequots  took  this  opportunity 
to  renounce  the  government  of  Ninigrate,  and  to 
put  themselves  under  the  protection  and  government 
of  the  English. 

The  major,  on  his  return,  pleaded  in  excuse,  that 
his  instructions  were  equivocal,  and  the  season  for 
inarching  unfavourable.  The  commissioners,  how- 
ever, were  very  dissatisfied,  and  observed  to  him, 
"  That  while  the  army  was  in  the  Narraganset 
country,  Ninigrate  had  his  mouth  in  the  dust ;  and 
that  he  would  have  submitted  to  any  reasonable 
terms  which  might  have  been  imposed  upon  him ;" 
and  they  charged  the  major  with  neglecting  an  op- 
portunity of  humbling  his  pride  ;  and  referred  it  to 
his  consideration  what  satisfaction  ought  to  be  ex- 
pected from  him,  and  those  of  his  council,  who  ad- 
vised and  joined  with  him  in  his  measures. 

(1655.)  Governor  Hutchinson  has  observed,  that 
Major  Willard  was  a  Massachusetts  man,  and  al- 
though that  colony  had  so  far  complied  with  the 
rest,  as  to  join  in  sending  out  the  forces,  yet  they 
were  still  desirous  of  avoiding  an  open  war.  This 
was  the  second  time  of  their  preventing  a  general 
war,  contrary  to  the  minds  of  six  of  the  commis- 
sioners of  the  other  colonies. 

The  whole  number  of  rateable  persons  in  the 
colony  of  Connecticut  this  year  was  775,  and  the 
grand  list  was  79,073/.  By  the  number  of  persons, 
and  the  amount  of  the  lists  in  each  town,  an  idea 
may  be  formed  of  their  proportion  to  each  other. 
Towns.  Persons.  Estates. 

Hartford,  177  £  19,609 

Windsor,  165  15,833 

Weathersfield,  113  12,602 

Fairfield,  94  8,634 

Saybrook,  53  4,437 

Stratford,  72  7,958 

Farmington,  46  5,519 

Middletown,  31  2,172 

Norwalk  24  2,309 

775  £  79,073 

Upon  the  election  at  Hartford,  Thomas  Wells, 

Esq.  was  chosen  governor,  and   Mr.  John  Webster, 

deputy-governor.      The  magistrates   elected,   were 

Mr.  Hopkins,  Mr.  Mason,  Mr.  Winthrop,  Mr.  Wol- 

cott,  Mr.  Cullick,  Mr.  Clark,  Mr.  Wyllys,  Mr.  Tal- 

cott,  Mr.  John  Cosmore,  and  Mr.  Thomas  Tapping 

Mr.  Cullick  was  secretary,  and  Mr.  Talcott  treasurer. 

At  the  general  election  in  New  Haven,  this  year, 

there  was  no  alteration  of  their  officers. 

The  Pequots  persevering  in  their  petitions  to  be 
taken  under  the  protection  and  government  of  the 
English,  the  commissioners  this  year  granted  their 
request ;  and  places  of  residence  were  subsequently 
appointed  for  them  by  the  general  court  of  Con- 
necticut, about  Pawcatuck  and  Mistic  rivers.  They 
were  allowed  to  hunt  on  the  lands  west  of  the  latter, 
and  were  collected  together  in  these  two  places,  and 
an  Indian  governor  was  appointed  over  them  in  each 
place.  General  laws  were  made  for  their  govern- 
ment. Blasphemy,  murder,  witchcraft,  and  con- 
spiracy against  the  colonies,  were  prohibited  upon 
pain  of  death ;  and  sabbath-breaking,  adultery,  and 
drunkenness,  were  prohibited  under  proper  penal- 
ties ;  he  who  stole  was  required,  on  conviction,  to 
pay  double  damages :  they  were  prohibited  to  make 
war  with  other  Indians,  or  to  join  with  them  in  their 
wars,  unless  it  were  in  their  own  just  defence,  with- 
out the  consent  of  the  commissioners  of  the  united 
colonies ;  and  they  were  obliged  to  submit  to  the 
Indian  governors,  whom  they  should  appoint  over 


them,  and  pay  them  the  same  tribute  which  they 
had  stipulated  to  pay  to  the  English. 

After  the  return  of  Major  Willard  and  the  troops 
under  his  command,  from  the  Narraganset  country, 
N migrate  assumed  his  former  animosity,  and  con- 
tinued the  war  against  the  Indians  upon  Long 
Island.  Mr.  Thomas  James,  minister  of  Easthamp- 
ton,  Captain  Tapping  of  Southampton,  Captain  Un- 
derbill and  others,  wrote  to  the  commissioners,  that 
both  the  English  and  Indians  on  the  Island  were  in 
a  calamitous  and  distracted  condition,  and  in  im- 
minent danger  on  account  of  his  constant  hostilities. 
They  assured  them,  that  the  Indians  upon  the  Is- 
land could  not  hold  out  much  longer,  but  must  sub- 
mit themselves  and  their  country  to  the  Narragan- 
sets,  unless  they  should  have  some  speedy  assistance; 
and  entreated  them  to  consult  some  effectual  mea- 
sures to  prevent  such  a  calamity. 

In  con&equence  of  this  intelligence  they  ordered 
that  a  vessel,  well  armed  and  manned,  should  lie  in 
the  road  between  Neanticut  and  the  Island,  to  watch 
the  motions  of  Ninigrate  ;  and  if  he  should  attempt 
to  pass  the  sound,  to  stave  and  destroy  his  canoes. 
Captain  John  Youngs  was  appointed  to  command 
this  vessel  of  observation ;  and  was  authorized  to 
draught  men  from  Saybrook  and  New  London,  as 
emergencies  might  require.  An  encouraging  mes- 
sage was  sent  to  the  Montauket  sachem,  acquaint- 
ing him  with  the  measures  the  English  were  taking 
for  his  defence  ;  and  the  commissioners  sent  him  a 
supply  of  ammunition.  Provision  was  also  made 
that  South  and  East  Hampton,  with  all  the  adjacent 
towns,  should  be  completely  furnished  with  all 
articles  necessary  for  war  ;  and  orders  were  given 
that  if  the  Indians  could  not  maintain  their  ground, 
in  any  assault,  they  should  flee  towards  some  of  the 
neighbouring  towns ;  and  that  if  the  enemy  should 
pursue  them  within  two  miles  of  any  of  the  settle- 
ments, the  inhabitants  should  immediately  repair  to 
their  assistance.  Intelligence  of  these  resolutions 
was  dispatched  to  the  Narragansets,  as  well  as  the 
Long  Islanders. 

All  the  united  colonies  were  exceedingly  offended 
at  the  conduct  of  Major  Willard,  except  the  Massa- 
chusetts, under  whose  influence  he  was  supposed  to 
act ;  and  the  general  court  at  New  Haven  resolved, 
that  he  had  not  followed  his  instructions  in  the  ex- 
pedition against  Ninigrate;  but  that  they  were 
willing  to  suspend  their  judgment,  with  respect  to 
the  measures  to  be  taken  with  him,  until  they  should 
be  certified  of  the  opinions  of  the  other  confederates. 
Whatever  their  opinions  or  wishes  were.  Major 
Willard  was  safe  under  the  wing  of  the  Massachu- 
setts ;  and  Connecticut  and  New  Haven  had  prin- 
cipally to  bear  the  unhappy  consequences  of  his 
perfidious  conduct;  and  they  were  obliged  the  next 
year,  at  their  own  expense,  to  continue  the  com- 
mission of  Captain  Youngs  to  cruise  between  the 
main  and  Long  Island,  to  prevent  the  designs  of 
Ninigrate;  and  they  also  found  it  necessary  to 
furnish  both  men  and  provisions  for  the  defence  of 
the  Islanders. 

Governor  Eaton  had  been  desired  to  perfect  a 
code  of  laws  for  the  colony  of  New  Haven  ;  and  for 
his  assistance  in  the  compilation,  he  was  requested 
by  the  general  court  to  consult  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cot- 
ton's discourse  on  civil  government  in  a  new  plan- 
tation, and  the  laws  of  Massachusetts.  Having  ac- 
complished the  work,  and  the  laws  having  been 
examined  and  approved  by  the  elders  of  the  juris- 
diction, they  were  presented  to  the  members  of  the 
general  court,  who  ordered  that  500  copies  should 


UNITED  STATES. 


695 


be  printed ;  and  the  copy  was  sent  to  England  tha 
the  impression  might  be  made  under  the  inspectioi 
of  Governor  Hopkins,  who  procured  them  to  b 
printed  at  his  own  expense,  and  sent  back  th 
number  proposed,  with  some  other  valuable  book 
as  a  present.  The  laws  were  distributed  to  th 
several  towns  in  the  jurisdiction. 

This  year  died  Henry  Wolcott,  Esq.,  in  the  78tl 
year  of  his  age.  He  was  the  owner  of  a  good  estat* 
in  Somersetshire,  in  England;  and  his  youth,  it  i 
said,  was  spent  in  gaiety  and  country  pastimes  ;  bu 
afterwards,  under  the  instructions  of  Mr.  Edwarc 
Elton,  his  mind  was  entirely  changed,  and  turne 
to  religious  subjects.  As  the  puritans  were  then 
treated  with  great  severity,  he  sold  about  8,000/ 
worth  of  estate  in  England,  and  arrived  in  Nev 
England  with  Mr.  Warham,  in  May  1630,  and  set 
tied  first  at  Dorchester,  in  Massachusetts.  In  1636 
he  removed  to  Windsor,  and  was  one  of  the  princi 
pal  planters  of  that  town ;  and  was  chosen  into  the 
magistracy  in  1643.  He  left  an  estate  in  Englam 
which  rented  at  about  60/.  a-year,  which  the  familj 
for  some  time  enjoyed ;  but  it  was  afterwards  sold 
After  his  decease,  some  one  of  his  descendants  was 
annually  chosen  into  the  magistracy  for  a  term  o: 
nearly  eighty  years,  until  the  year  1754,  when  Go. 
vernor  Wolcott  left  the  chair. 

At  the  election  in  Connecticut,  Mr.  John  Webstei 
was  chosen  governor,  and  Mr.  Wells  deputy-go- 
vernor. This  was  the  only  alteration  in  the  magis- 
tracy. 

(1656.)  At  New  Haven  the  former  governors 
and  magistrates  were  re-  chosen ;  and  Mr.  John 
Wakeman  was  appointed  treasurer.  The  general 
court  took  great  pains  to  put  the  colony  in  a  state 
of  defence.  Orders  were  given  for  the  raising  a 
troop  of  sixteen  horse  in  the  five  towns  upon  the 
sea-coast,  with  complete  arms  and  furniture,  who, 
for  their  encouragement,  were  exempted  from  taxa- 
tion, and  from  training  with  the  foot,  and  were  to 
enjoy  all  the  privileges  of  troopers  in  Massachusetts. 
This  was  the  first  troop  in  any  part  of  Connecticut. 
It  was  also  ordered,  that  all  the  common  soldiers 
should  be  trained  to  shooting  at  a  mark;  that  they 
should  be  furnished  with  ammunition  for  that  pur- 
pose at  the  public  expense,  and  that  prizes  should 
be  prepared  for  the  best  marksmen  ;  and  the  soldiers 
were  directed  to  play  at  cudgels,  and  at  the  broad 
sword,  that  they  might  know  how  to  defend  them- 
selves and  their  country. 

The  protector,  Cromwell,  having  conquered  Ja- 
maica, made  it  a  favourite  object  to  remove  the 
people  of  New  England  to  that  island ;  and  art- 
fully represented,  that  they  had  as  great  an  induce- 
ment to  transport  themselves  from  New  England  to 
Jamaica,  as  they  had  for  emigrating  from  Old  Eng- 
land to  New,  for  the  advancement  of  their  interests; 
and  he  likewise  represented,  that  it  would  have  a 
tendency  to  the  destruction  "  of  the  man  of  sin  :" 
he  wrote  particularly  to  New  Haven  on  the  subject, 
and  sent  them  a  copy  of  his  instructions  relative  to 
the  affair. 

Governor  Eaton  had,  some  time  before  this,  laid 
the  letters  received  on  this  subject  before  the  gene- 
ral court.  The  several  plantations  in  the  colony 
had  been  made  acquainted  with  their  contents,  and 
the  deputies  had  been  desired  to  return  their  opinion 
to  the  court,  and  after  a  long  and  serious  debate,  the 
court  resolved,  "  That  though  they  could  not  but 
acknowledge  the  love,  care,  and  tender  respect  of 
his  highness,  the  Lord  Protector,  to  New  England 
in  general,  and  to  this  colony  in  particular,  yet,  for 


divers  reasons,  they  cannot  conclude  that  God  calls 
them  to  a  present  remove  thither."  And  the  go- 
vernor was  desired  to  write  to  the  lord-protector, 
acknowledging  his  great  care  and  love  towards  the 
colony. 

The  commissioners  of  the  united  colonies,  who 
this  year  held  their  meeting  at  Plymouth,  received 
a  very  plausible  letter  from  Stuyvesant,  the  Dutch 
governor,  expressing  his  joy  that  God  had  quenched 
the  bloody  war  between  the  Dutch  and  the  English, 
in  Europe;  and  expressing  his  warm  desires  that  it 
might  redound  to  the  great  advantage  of  the  sub- 
jects of  the  two  nations  in  these  remote  parts  of  the 
earth,  he  solicited  a  nearer  union  between  the  Dutoh 
and  the  united  colonies ;  and  at  the  same  time  cer- 
tified, that  he  had  received  a  ratification  of  the 
agreement  made  at  Hartford,  in  1650,  under  the 
seal  of  the  High  and  Mighty  States  of  the  United 
Bolgic  Provinces  ;  and  desired  that  time  and  place 
might  he  appointed  for  delivering  and  interchanging 
the  ratifications. 

The  governor  was  so  well  known  to  the  commis- 
sioners, that  neither  the  plausibility  of  his  letter, 
nor  the  very  Christian  manner  in  which  it  was  writ- 
ten, made  any  deep  impression  upon  them.  They 
replied,  in  short,  that  the  peace  was  matter  of  joy 
to  them,  and  they  wished  the  continuance  of  it  in 
Europe,  and  in  all  the  plantations  abroad  ;  and  gave 
assurances  that  the  preservation  of  it  should  be  their 
constant  endeavour.  Nevertheless,  they  gave  no 
intimation  that  they  desired  a  nearer  union,  or  to 
ratify  the  agreement :  and  observed,  that  no  repara- 
tion for  the  damages  had  been  made  the  colonies, 
and  that  they  had  not  heard  that  he  designed  to 
make  any  ;  that  they  heard  he  yet  laid  claim  to 
Oyster  bay,  and  that  he  had  made  no  proper  resig- 
nation of  Greenwich  ;  and  therefore  desired  him  to 
be  explicit  on  these  points. 

The  last  year,  complaints  were  made  to  the  court 
at  New  Haven,  that  the  inhabitants  of  Greenwich 
were  under  little  government,  and  behaved  them- 
selves in  a  lawless  manner.  They  acknowledged  to 
drunkenness  among  themselves,  and  among  the  In- 
dians, by  i-eason  of  which  damages  were  done  to 
hemselves  and  to  the  towns  in  the  vicinity,  and  the 
lublic  peace  was  disturbed.  They  also  received 
ihildren  and  servants  who  fled  from  the  correction 
f  their  parents  and  masters,  and  unlawfully  joined 
persons  in  wedlock,  with  other  misdemeanors. 

Upon  this,  the  general  court  asserted  their  right 
o  Greenwich,  and  ordered  the  inhabitants  to  sub- 
nit  to  their  jurisdiction  ;  but  they  continued  much 
n  the  same  state,  and  sent  a  letter  to  the  court  in 
May  denying  their  jurisdiction,  and  refusing  any 
ubjection  to  the  colony,  unless  they  should  be  com- 
iclled  to  it  by  the  parliament.  The  court  therefore 
esolved,  that  unless  they  should  appear  before  the 
ourt,  and  make  submission  by  the  25th  of  June, 
tichard  Crab  and  others,  who  were  the  most  stub- 
iorn  among  them,  should  be  arrested  and  punished 
ccording  to  law;  and  they  ultimately  subjected 
bemselves  to  the  government  of  New  Haven. 

Uncas,  though  friendly  to  the  English,  appears  to 
ave  been  a  turbulent  sachem,  who  by  his  violent 
onduct  and  provoking  language  was  often  embroil- 
ng  the  country,  and  bringing  trouble  upon  himself 
nd  the  colonies.  He  inade  an  assault  upon  the 
3odunk  Indians  at  Hartford;  and  he,  or  his  brother, 
nvaded  the  Norwootucks  ;  he  upbraided  the  Narra- 
ansets  with  their  slaughtered  sachems,  and  chal- 
enged  them  to  fight;  and  among  other  instances 
f  misconduct,  he  proved  treacherous  to  the  Mon- 


696 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


taukct  sachem,  and  joined  with  Ninigrate  in  his 
perfidious  practices.  By  these  means  the  country 
was  so  disquieted,  that  it  was  with  great  difficulty 
the  commissioners  maintained  the  general  peace ; 
who  at  last  interposed,  and  obliged  Uncas  to  make 
restitution  to  the  Indians  whom  he  had  injured,  and 
prohibited  his  making  war  without  their  consent  and 
advice;  but  after  all  "their  precautions,  the  country 
was  still  more  alarmed  the  next  year. 

(1657.)  In  April,  the  Indians  committed  a  horrid 
murder  at  Farmington,  and  besides  Mesapano,  who 
was  the  principal  actor,  the  Norwootuck  and  Po- 
comtock  Indians  were  supposed  to  be  accomplices ; 
and  the  Montaukets,  after  all  the  trouble  and  ex- 
pense which  the  English  had  been  at  for  their  de- 
'  fence,  became  tumultuous,  and  did  great  damage  to 
the  inhabitants  of  Southampton. 

The  general  court  at  Hartford  gave  orders  that 
the  Indians,  who  perpetrated  the  murder  at  Farm- 
ington, should  be  apprehended,  and  that  the  sachems 
of  the  Pocomtock  and  Norwootuck  Indians  should 
deliver  up  the  delinquents  among  them  ;  and  Major 
Mason  was  ordered  with  a  detachment  to  Long  Is- 
land, to  bring  the  Indians  there  to  a  just  and  peace- 
able conduct,  and  adjust  affairs  between  them  and 
the  English. 

At  the  general  election  in  Connecticut,  1657,  Mr. 
John  Winthrop  was  elected  governor,  and  Mr. 
Thomas  Wells  deputy-governor.  Mr.  Webster  was 
chosen  the  first  magistrate.  The  other  officers  were 
the  same  who  had  been  appointed  the  last  year. 
The  freemen,  at  the  election  in  New  Haven,  made 
no  alteration  in  their  magistrates. 

The  general  court  at  Hartford  this  year  was  un- 
commonly thin,  consisting  of  twenty-two  members 
only.  The  danger  of  the  plantations,  and  of  par- 
ticular families,  from  the  hostile  state  of  the  In- 
dians, appears  to  have  been  the  reason  of  this 
slender  assemblage.  The  Montaukets,  Moheagans, 
Narragansets,  and  Norwootucks,  engaged  in  im- 
placable wars  with  each  other,  and  often  pursued 
one  another  into  the  English  plantations,  and  even 
into  the  houses,  and  killed  each  other  in  the  pre- 
sence of  the  families,  to  their  great  alarm  and  asto- 
nishment. Uncas  was  so  pressed  by  the  Narragan- 
sets, that  Connecticut  was  obliged  to  send  men  to 
his  fortress  to  assist  him  in  defending  himself  against 
them,  and  the  Narragansets  consequently,  in  several 
instances,  threatened  and  plundered  the  inhabitants 
of  Connecticut. 

In  consequence,  when  the  commissioners  met  in 
September,  they  sent  messengers  to  the  Indians  ge- 
nerally, commanding  them  to  cease  from  war,  until 
their  grievances,  and  the  grounds  of  their  conten- 
tions, should  be  heard  :  they  assured  them  that  they 
would  hear  and  determine  impartially,  without  fa- 
vouring any  of  the  parties ;  and  represented  to  them 
the  covenants  which  they  had  made  with  the  Eng- 
lish, and  the  entire  inconsistency  of  their  conduct 
with  those  engagements. 

This  year  the  colony  of  New  Haven,  and  indeed 
all  the  New  England  colonies,  sustained  a  heavy 
loss  in  the  death  of  Governor  Eaton.  He  was  a 
minister's  son,  born  in  England,  at  Stony  Stratford, 
in  Oxfordshire,  and  was  brought  up  as  an  East  India 
merchant,  and  was  sometime  deputy-governor  of 
the  company  trading  to  the  East  Indies.  For  se- 
veral years  he  was  agent  for  the  king  of  England 
at  the  court  of  Denmark  ;  and  after  his  return  he 
was  a  merchant  of  great  business  and  respectabiMty 
in  the  city  of  London.  Upon  the  persecution  of 
the  puritans  by  Laud,  he  left  his  native  country 


and  came  into  New  England  with  Mr.  Davenport, 
his  minister,  in  1637 ;  and  was  one  of  the  original 
patentees  of  the  Massachusetts,  and  soon  after  his 
arrival  was  chosen  one  of  the  magistrates  of  that 
colony;  and  on  the  settlement  of  New  Haven  he 
was  chosen  governor  of  that  colony,  and  was  annu- 
ally re-elected  until  his  death.  He  is  represented 
as  a  comely  man,  and  the  impartiality  with  which 
he  administered  justice  was  exemplary.  In  honour 
to  his  memory,  and  the  good  services  which  he  had 
rendered  the  colony,  his  funeral  charges  were  borne, 
and  a  handsome  monument  erected  at  the  public 
expense. 

Nearly  at  the  same  time  died  his  son-in-law,  Ed- 
ward Hopkins,  Esq.,  for  a  number  of  years  governor 
of  Connecticut,  where  he  conducted  the  affairs  of 
government  with  great  integrity,  and  was  universally 
beloved.  He  was  a  man  of  exemplary  piety  and 
charity ;  and  besides  the  relief  he  dispensed  to  the 
poor  with  his  own  hands,  he  gave  considerable 
sums  pf  money  to  others  to  be  disposed  of  to  chari- 
table purposes.  When  he  went  into  England,  on 
the  occasion  of  his  brother's  death,  who  had  been 
warden  of  the  English  fleet,  he  designed  to  return 
again  to  his  family  and  friends  in  New  England; 
but  he  was  very  soon  particularly  noticed,  and. 
made  first  warden  of  the  fleet  in  the  room  of  his 
brother.  He  was  then  chosen  commissioner  of  the 
admiralty  and  navy,  and  finally  member  of  parlia- 
ment. These  unexpected  preferments  altered  hig 
designs,  and  determined  him  to  send  over  for  his 
family,  and  to  spend  the  remainder  of  his  days  in 
his  native  country;  but  his  constitution  was  entirely 
wasted,  and  he  died  in  the  58th  year  of  his  age.  ; 

His  will  was  highly  expressive  of  that  publii 
spirit  and  charity  which  had  so  distinguished  hiir 
in  life.  A  part  of  his  estate  in  New  England  way 
disposed  of  to  charitable  purposes ;  and  to  hij 
friends  ;  and  the  remainder  he  bequeathed  to  his 
"  father,  Theophilus  Eaton,  Esq.,  Master  John  Da- 
venport, Master  John  Cullick,  and  Master  William 
Goodwin,  in  full  assurance  of  their  trust  and  faith- 
fulness, in  disposing  of  it  according  to  the  true  in- 
tent and  purpose  of  him,  the  said  Edward  Hopkins, 
which  was  to  give  some  encouragement  in  those 
foreign  plantations,  for  the  breeding  up  of  hopeful 
youths,  in  a  way  of  learning,  both  at  the  grammar- 
school  and  college,  for  the  public  service  of  the 
country,  in  future  times."  He  also  made  a  dona- 
tion of  500/.  more,  out  of  his  estate  in  England,  to 
the  said  trustees,  in  further  prosecution  of  the  same 
public  ends,  "  for  the  upholding  and  promoting  the 
kingdom  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  in  those  parts  of 
the  earth."  This  last  donation  was  considered  as 
made  to  Harvard-college,  and,  by  virtue  of  a  de- 
cree in  chancery,  was  paid  in  1710.  The  interest 
given  in  New  England  was  estimated  at  about 
1000/.  sterling ;  and  was  appropriated  to  the  sup- 
port of  the  grammar-schools  in  New  Haven,  Hart- 
ford, and  Hadley.  The  money  originally  belonged 
to  New  Haven  and  Hartford;  but  as  a  considera- 
ble number  of  the  people  of  Hartford  afterwards 
removed  to  Hadley,  and  were  principal  settlers  of 
that  town,  they  received  their  proportion  of  the 
donation. 

(1658.)  At  a  general  court  in  Hartford,  March 
llth,  1658,  a  troop  of  thirty  horsemen  was  esta- 
blished in  Connecticut,  and  Richard  Lord  was  ap- 
pointed captain. 

This  year  there  was  a  very  considerable  altera- 
tion with  respect  to  governors  and  the  council,  both 
in  Connecticut  and  New  Haven.  At  the  electioa 


UNITED  STATES. 


G97 


in  Connecticut,  Thomas  Wells,  Esq.,  was  elected 
governor,  and  John  Winthrop,  Esq.,  deputy-  go- 
vernor. To  the  magistrates  last  year,  who  were 
again  re-chosen,  there  was  an  addition  of  Mr.  Mat- 
thew Allen,  Mr.  Phelps,  Mr.  John  Wells,  Mr.  Treat, 
Mr.  Baker,  Mr.  Mulford,  and  Mr.  Alexander 
Knowles.  There  appear  to  have  been  sixteen 
magistrates,  and  twenty-six  deputies  ;  making  forty- 
two  members. 

On  the  election  at  New  Haven,  Mr.  Francis 
Newman  was  chosen  governor,  and  William  Leet, 
deputy-governor.  Mr.  Jasper  Crane  was  added  to 
the  magistrates,  and  Mr.  William  Gibbard  was  ap- 
pointed secretary. 

This  year  a  considerable  settlement  was  made  in 
the  tract  between  the  Mistic  and  Pawcatuck  rivers; 
formerly  called  Pequot,  and  originally  belonging 
to  New  London.  The  first  man  who  had  settled 
upon  this  spot,  was  William  Cheesebrough,  from 
Rehoboth,  in  1649:  when  a  complaint  was  exhi- 
bited against  him  for  carrying  on  an  illicit  trade 
with  the  Indians,  for  repairing  their  arms,  and 
endangering  the  public  safety ;  and  the  general 
court  of  Connecticut  declared  that  they  had  a  clear 
title  to  those  lands  ;  summoned  him  before  them ; 
and  reprimanded  him  for  settling  upon  them  with- 
out their  approbation  ;  for  withdrawing  himself  from 
Christian  society  and  ordinances  ;  and  for  unlaw- 
fully trading  with  and  assisting  the  Indians.  He 
confessed  his  faults;  but  pleaded,  in  excuse,  that 
he  had  been  encouraged  by  Mr.  Winthrop,  who 
claimed  a  right  at  Pawcatuck  ;  and  as  he  gave 
bonds  for  his  good  conduct,  he  was  allowed  to  con- 
tinue upon  the  land  ;  and  the  court  promised  him, 
that  if  he  would  procure  a  sufficient  number  of 
planters,  they  would  give  them  all  proper  encou- 
ragement, in  making  a  permanent  settlement. 
About  ten  or  twelve  families  this  year  made  set- 
tlements in  that  quarter ;  and  finding  that  there 
was  a  controversy  between  Connecticut  and  the 
Massachusetts,  with  respect  both  to  title  and  juris- 
diction, they,  on  the  30th  of  June,  entered  into  a 
voluntary  contract  to  govern  themselves,  and  con- 
duct their  affairs  in  peace,  until  it  should  be  deter- 
mined to  which  colony  they  should  submit.  The 
principal  planters  were  George  Denison,  Thomas 
Stanton,  Thomas  Shaw,  William  Elisha,  and  Sam- 
uel Cheeseborugh,  and  Moses  and  Walter  Palmer. 
These,  with  some  others,  were  signers  of  the  vo- 
luntary compact. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  commissioners,  the  Massa- 
chusetts claimed  that  tract  of  country,  by  virtue  of 
the  assistance  which  they  afforded  Connecticut  in  the 
conquest  of  the  Pequots.  The  commissioners  re- 
solved, "  That  the  determination  did  arise  only 
from  the  several  rights  of  conquest,  which  were  not 
greatly  different ;  yet  that  being  tender  of  any  in- 
convenience which  might  arise  to  those  who  were 
already  possessed,  either  by  commission  from  Mas- 
sachusetts or  Connecticut,  in  any  part  thereof, 
should  they  be  put  off  their  improvements ;  also, 
upon  inquiry,  finding  that  the  Pequot  country, 
which  extended  from  Nehantick  to  Wekapaug, 
about  ten  miles  eastward  from  Mistic  river,  may 
conveniently  accommodate  two  plantations,  did, 
respecting  things  as  they  then  stood,  conclude,  that 
Mistic  river  be  the  bounds  between  them,  as  to  pro- 
priety and  jurisdiction,  so  far  as  conquest  may  give 
title.  Always  provided,  that  such  as  are  already 
accommodated,  by  commission  of  either  of  the  said 
governments,  or  have  grants  of  any  tracts  of  land, 
«n  either  side  of  the  Mistic  river,  be  not  molested 


in  any  of  their  possessions  or  rights,  by  any  other 
grants." 

Upon  the  petition  of  the  planters  the  general 
court  of  the  Massachusetts  made  them  a  grant  of 
eight  miles  from  the  mouth  of  Mistie  river  towards 
Wekapaug,  and  eight  miles  northward  into  the 
country,  and  uamed  the  plantation  Southerton.  It 
continued  under  the  government  of  Massachusetts 
until  after  Connecticut  obtained  a  royal  charter. 

This  was  a  year  of  great  sickness  and  mortality 
in  Connecticut,  and  in  New  England  in  general. 
Religious  controversies  at  the  same  time  ran  high, 
and  gave  great  trouble  to  church  and  common- 
wealth ;  and  the  Indians  continued  their  wars  with 
implacable  animosi.y.  The  commissioners  em- 
ployed all  their  wisdom  and  influence  to  make 
peace  ;  but  they  could  not  reconcile  those  barba- 
rians :  and  the  crops  were  light,  and  it  was  a  year 
of  fear,  perplexity,  and  sorrow. 

(1659.)  John  Winthrop,  Esq.  was  chosen  gover- 
nor of  Connecticut  for  the  year  1659,  and  Thomas 
Wells,  Esq.  deputy-governor.  Captain  Tapping 
and  Mr.  Robert  Bond  were  elected  magistrates,  in, 
the  room  of  Mr.  Knowles  and  Mr.  Mulford. 

At  the  election  in  New  Haven,  the  same  gover- 
nor and  council  were  re-chosen ,  and  indeed  little 
alteration  was  made  with  respect  to  them,  until  the 
union  of  that  colony  with  Connecticut. 

At  the  October  session,  Cromwell  bay,  or  Se- 
tauket,  on  Long  Island,  at  the  desire  of  the  inha- 
bitants, was  admitted  as  a  member  of  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  Connecticut 

(1660.)  Mr.  John  Winthrop  was  re- chosen  gorer- 
nor.  This  was  the  first  time  that  any  governor  had 
been  elected  to  that  office  more  than  once  in  two 
years.  Major  Mason  was  advanced  to  the  place  of 
deputy-governor.  The  magistrates  were  Mr.  Henry 
Clark,  Mr.  Wyllys,  Mr.  Phelps,  Mr.  Allen,  Mr. 
Treat,  Mr.  Gould,  Mr.  Tapping,  Mr.  Ogden,  Mr. 
Bond,  Mr.  Daniel  Clark,  and  Mr.  Taicott.  Mr. 
Daniel  Clark  was  secretary,  and  Mr.  Taicott  trea- 
surer. 

Mr.  Webster  and  Mr.  Wells  appear  now  to  be  no 
more.  They  bad  been  annually  chosen  into  the 
magistracy,  for  about  twenty  years,  and  both  had 
the  honour  of  the  chief  seat  of  government. 

At  this  election,  the  freemen  having  found  by 
long  experience  that  the  clause  in  the  third  funda- 
mental article,  incapacitating  any  person  to  be 
chosen  governor  more  than  once  in  two  years,  was 
prejudicial  rather  than  advantageous  to  the  colony, 
resolved,  that  there  should  be  liberty  for  the  annual 
choice  of  the  same  person  as  governor,  or  of  any 
other  whom  they  should  judge  best  qualified  to  serve 
the  commonwealth. 

During  the  wars  between  Uncas  and  the  Narra- 
gansets,  the  latter  besieged  his  fort  near  the  bank 
of  the  Thames,  until  his  provisions  were  nearly  ex- 
hausted, and  he  found  that  he  and  his  men  must 
soon  perish,  by  famine  or  sword,  unless  he  could 
obtain  speedy  relief ;  but  he  found  means  of  com- 
municating his  danger  to  the  scouts,  who  had  been 
sent  out  from  Saybrook  fort ;  and  he  represented  the 
great  danger  the  English  in  those  parts  would  be  in 
immediately,  if  they  should  suffer  the  Moheagans 
to  be  destroyed. 

Upon  this  intelligence,  one  Thomas  LefKngwell, 
an  ensign  at  Saybrook,  an  enterprising,  bold  man, 
loaded  a  canoe  with  beef,  corn,  and  peas,  and, 
under  cover  of  the  night,  paddled  from  Saybrook 
into  the  Thames,  and  had  the  address  to  get  the 
whole  into  the  fort ;  and  the  enemy  soon  perceiving 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA, 


that  Uncas  was  relieved,  raised  the  siege.  For  this 
service,  Uncas  gave  Leffingwell  a  deed  of  a  great 
part,  if  not  of  the  whole  town  of  Norwich  ;  and  in 
June,  1659,  Uncas,  with  his  two  sons,  Owaneco 
and  Attawanhood,  by  a  more  formal  and  authentic 
deed,  made  over  to  Leffingwell,  John  Mason,  Esq., 
the  Rev.  James  Fitch,  and  others,  consisting  of 
thirty-five  proprietors,  the  whole  township  of  Nor- 
wich, which  is  about  nine  miles  square  ;  and  the 
company  gave  Uncas  and  his  sons  about  seventy 
pounds,  as  a  further  compensation  for  so  large  and 
fine  a  tract.  \ 

Preparations  were  immediately  made  for  its  settle- 
ment; and  this  spring,  (1660,')  the  Rev.  James 
Fitch,  with  the  principal  part  of  his  church  and  con- 
gregation, removed  from  Saybrook,  and  planted 
the  town  of  Norwich.  Three  or  four  planters  joined 
them  from  New  London,  and  two  or  three  from 
the  towns  of  Plymouth  and  Marshfield,  in  Massa- 
chusetts ;  in  1663  the  general  assembly  ordered 
that  the  deed  should  be  recorded ;  and  the  limits 
were  afterwards  ascertained,  and  the  town  received 
a  patent  of  the  whole. ' 

The  Moheagans  were  a  great  defence,  and  of  es- 
sential service  to  the  town  for  many  years  ;  as  they 
kept  out  their  scouts  and  spies,  and  so  constantly 
watched  their  enemies,  that  they  gave  the  earliest 
notice  of  their  approach.  The  hostile  Indians  at 
one  time  came  near  to  the  town,  upon  the  Sabbath, 
with  a  design  to  make  a  descent  upon  it;  but  view- 
ing it  from  an  eminence,  and  seeing  the  Moheagan 
huts,  they  were  intimidated,  and  went  off  without 
doing  the  least  damage. 

This  year  the  town  of  Huntington,  upon  Long  Is- 
land, was  received  as  a  member  of  the  Connecticut 
jurisdiction. 

The  general  court  ordered,  that  grand  jurors 
should  be  appointed  in  every  town  to  make  present- 
ment of  all  breaches  of  law,  in  their  respective 
towns ;  the  presentments  to  be  made  to  the  particu- 
lar court  in  May  and  October. 

The  accounts  with  the  heirs  of  George  Fenwick 
had  not  been  closed,  nor  discharges  given,  relative 
to  the  purchase  made  of  the  fort  at  Saybrook,  and 
the  old  patent  of  Connecticut ;  which  was  the  occa- 
sion of  great  uneasiness  among  the  people ;  and  the 
three  towns  of  Hartford,  Windsor,  and  Weathers- 
field,  presented  petitions  to  the  general  court,  pray- 
ing that  the  accounts  might  be  adjusted,  and  the 
colony  discharged.  In  consequence,  a  large  com- 
mittee was  appointed  to  make  a  complete  settle- 
ment with  the  said  heirs  ;  who  having  prepared  the 
accounts  for  a  final  adjustment,  the  general  court, 
at  their  session  in  October,  authorized  them,  in 
their  behalf,  to  perfect  and  confirm  the  writings; 
and  the  governor  was  authorized,  in  their  name,  to 
affix  the  public  seal  of  the  colony  to  those  which 
were  to  be  delivered  to  Captain  Cullick,  and  Eliza- 
beth his  wife,  heirs  of  the  said  George  Fenwick, 
Esq.,  and  to  receive  of  them  the  writings,  to  be  de- 
livered to  the  court,  in  favour  of  the  colony.  Ac- 
cordingly, on  the  7th  of  October,  the  colony  dis- 
charged Captain  Cullick  and  his  wife,  and  their 
heirs,  and  they  gave  an  ample  discharge  to  the 
colony  of  Connecticut,  from  all  sums  of  money  due 
to  Fenwick,  by  virtue  of  the  agreements  made  with 
Mr.  Fenwick. 

Thus,  after  the  term  of  sixteen  years,  from  the 
first,  and  fourteen  from  the  second  agreement  with 
Mr.  Fenwick,  the  colony  completed  a  settlement 
respecting  the  fort  and  lands  holden  by  him ;  and 
became  legally  possessed  of  the  tract  conveyed  to 


the  lords  and  gentlemen  severally  named  in  the 
patent.  Upon  a  final  adjustment  of  the  accounts, 
it  appeared  that  Mr.  Cullick  and  the  heirs  of  Mr. 
Fenwick  were  indebted  500/.  sterling  to  the  colony, 
which  had  been  paid  them,  more  than  what  was 
due  according  to  the  original  agreements  with  Mr 
Fenwick. 

John  Mason,  Esq.,  now  deputy-governor,  had 
some  time  since  been  authorized,  in  behalf  of  the 
colony,  to  purchase  of  Uncas  all  the  lands  which  he 
had  reserved  for  himself  and  the  Moheagans,  in  the 
deed  of  1640,  under  the  name  of  planting-giounds  ; 
and  having  effected  the  purchase,  he  made  a  sur 
render  of  the  lands,  in  the  presence  of  the  general 
court.  The  following  is  the  minute  of  the  trans- 
action : 

"  Hartford,  session  of  the  general  court,  March 
14,  1660  (i.  e.  1661,  according  to  the  present  mode 
of  dating). 

"  The  jurisdiction  power  over  that  land,  which 
Uncas  and  WTawequa  have  made  over  to  Major 
Mason,  is  by  him  surrendered  to  this  colony.  Never- 
theless, for  the  laying  out  of  those  lands  in  farms,  or 
plantations,  the  court  doth  leave  it  in  the  hands  of 
Major  Mason.  It  is  also  ordered  and  provided, 
with  the  consent  of  Major  Mason,  that  Uncas  and 
Wawequa,  and  their  Indians  and  successors,  shall 
be  supplied  with  sufficient  planting-ground  at  all 
times,  as  the  court  sees  cause,  out  of  that  land. 
And  the  Major  doth  reserve  to  himself  a  compe- 
tency to  make  a  farm." 

For  want  of  form,  and  a  more  legal  manner  of 
conveyance,  with  respect  to  those  lands,  originated 
the  memorable  Mason  case,  or  controversy,  as  it 
was  called ;  which  continued  about  seventy  years, 
and  was  an  occasion  of  great  trouble  and  expense 
to  the  colony. 

The  general  court  of  Connecticut  declare  their  loi/alty 
and  submission  to  Charles  II.  ;  determine  to  address 
his  majesty,  and  apply  for  charter  privileges — Go- 
vernor Winthrop  is  appointed  the  colony's  ayetd — 
Regicides  condemned — Whalley  and  Gojjf'e  arrive  at 
Boston'— The.  kiny  proclaimed — Governor  Winthrop 
obtains  the  charter  of  Connecticut — J^'r.vi  (jocernur 
and  council  under  the  charter — Representation  of 
the  constitution  it  ordains,  and  the  privileges  it  con- 
veys— Difficulties  of  the  colony  of  New  Haver, — 
Charier  of  Connecticut  arrives — Proceeding*  of 
Connecticut  in  consequence  of  the  charter — They 
extend  their  jurisdiction  to  all  places  within  the 
limits  of  their  patent,  and  challenge  New  Haven 
colony,  as  under  their  jurisdiction — Controi-<.'i:<i/ 
between  the  two  colonies — Settlement  of  KiliiiK/- 
u-orth — Patent  of  the  Duke  of  York — Colonel  Ni- 
chols and  commissioners  arrive,  reduce  all  the  Dut'-h 
settlements — Their  extraordinary  powers — Impor- 
tant crisis  of  Connecticut — Boundaries  between 
Connecticut  and  New  York — Union  of  Connecticut 
and  New  Haven. 

(1660.)  The  colony  having  purchased  the  patent, 
and  the  government  of  England  having  been  settled 
in  Charles  II.  and  parliament,  the  general  court 
determined  to  make  application  for  a  charter  under 
the  royal  signature.  They  therefore  avowed  their 
allegiance  to  the  king  ;  declared  that  all  the  inhabi 
tants  of  this  colony  were  his  faithful  subjects ;  and 
that  it  was  necessarv  ^o  petition  him  for  his  grace, 
and  the  continuance  and  confirmation  of  their  rights 
and  privileges.  The  court  resolved,  that  the  500'. 
due  from  Mr.  Cullick  should  be  appropriated  to  tho 
prosecution  of  their  application  for  a  patent. 


UNITED  STATES. 


699 


(1661.)  At  the  session  in  May,  a  petition  to  the 
king  was  presented  by  the  governor,  and  approvec 
by  the  general  court.  That  it  might,  however,  be 
made  as  perfect  as  possible,  the  governor  and  deputy- 
governor,  Mr.  Wyllys,  Mr.  Allen,  Mr.  Warham 
Mr.  Stone,  Mr.  Hooker,  Mr.  Whiting,  and  the  se- 
cretary, were  appointed  a  committee  for  its  emenda- 
tion ;  and  they  were  authorized  to  make  all  such 
alterations  as  they  should  judge  expedient,  provided 
the  substance  of  it  were  retained;  they  were  also 
directed  to  write  letters  to  any  noble  personages  in 
England,  to  whom  it  might  be  expedient  to  make 
application,  and  to  transact  whatever  might  be  ne- 
cessary respecting  the  petition  and  the  procurement 
of  a  patent. 

Governor  Winthrop  was  appointed  agent  to  pre- 
sent the  petition  to  his  majesty,  and  to  transact  all 
affairs  in  England,  respecting  the  general  welfare 
of  the  colony ;  and  he  had  particular  instructions 
from  the  general  court  for  the  management  of  the 
business  of  his  agency ;  and  was  specially  directed 
to  obtain  the  consent,  and  take  the  advice  of  the 
nobles  and  gentlemen  who  had  been  interested  in 
the  old  patent  of  Connecticut;  and  to  engage  the 
friendship  and  influence  of  all  those  who  might  be 
active  and  serviceable  with  respect  to  the  interests 
of  the  colony. 

In  the  petition  to  his  majesty,  it  was  represented 
that  the  greatest  part  of  the  colony  had  been  pur- 
chased and  obtained  by  great  and  valuable  con- 
siderations ;  that  some  other  part  thereof  had  been 
obtained  by  conquest ;  and  that  it  had  with  great 
difficulty,  at  the  sole  endeavours,  expense,  and 
charges  of  themselves  and  their  associates,  under 
whom  they  claimed,  been  subdued  and  improved, 
and  thereby  become  a  considerable  enlargement  and 
addition  to  his  majesty's  dominions  and  interests  in 
New  England. 

At  the  same  time  a  letter  was  addressed  to  Lord 
Say  and  Seal,  representing  the  encouragements 
which  their  fathers  and  some  of  their  surviving  as- 
sociates received  from  him,  to  transplant  themselves 
into  the  inland  parts  of  this  vast  wilderness,  and 
their  assurances  of  his  patronage  and  favour ;  they 
also  stated  that  Mr.  George  Fenwick,  several  years 
after  he  had  taken  possession  of  the  entrance  of 
Connecticut  river,  determining  to  return  to  Eng- 
land, proposed  to  sell  the  fort  at  Saybrook,  with  all  the 
buildings  and  appurtenances  there,  together  with  all 
the  lands  upon  the  river  as  far  eastward  as  Narragan- 
set  bay, with  the  right  of  jurisdiction,  to  the  colony. 
They  represented  that  this,  at  first,  was  strenuously 
opposed  by  many  of  the  inhabitants,  as  they  ima- 
gined bis  lordship,  and  the  other  noble  patentees, 
had  very  bountiful  intentions  towards  them ;  and 
that  such  a  procedure  would  be  extremely  contrary 
to  their  designs.  Nevertheless,  that  afterwards,  as 
some  of  those  gentlemen,  who  had  the  greatest  in- 
terest in  the  affections  of  their  lordships,  were  re- 
moved by  death ;  and  as  Mr.  Fenwick  pretended 
to  be  the  only  patentee,  and  threatened  that  unless 
the  colony  would  purchase  the  lands  on  his  own 
terms,  he  would  either  impose  duties  upon  the  peo- 
ple, or  sell  the  premises  to  the  Dutch,  they  finally 
agreed  with  him  and  paid  him  1,600/.  for  them ; 
as  the  only  way  in  which  the  peace  and  safety  of 
the  community  could  be  preserved.  As  a  further 
matter  of  grievance  they  complained,  that  besides  this 
great  abuse,  Mr.  Fenwick  had  given  them  no  legal 
document  to  oblige  himself  or  his  heirs  to  fulfil  his 
engagements  ;  and  that  they  had  nothing  to  secure 
them  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  rights  and  privileges 


as  a  distinct  commonwealth.  They  further  made 
complaint  of  encroachments  made  upon  them  on 
the  north  by  the  Massachusetts,  and  by  them  and 
others  towards  the  Narragansets;  and  that  they 
knew  not  how  to  support  their  claims,  or  ascertain 
their  boundaries,  without  a  patent. 

The  only  alteration  which  had  been  made  at  the 
election,  this  year,  in  Connecticut,  was  the  choice 
of  Mr.  Thurston  Rayner  into  the  magistracy;  but  at 
New  Haven  the  alteration  was  very  considerable. 

Francis  Newman,  Esq.,  who  had  succeeded  Go- 
vernor Eaton  in  the  chief  seat  of  government,  was 
now  dead.  He  had  been  for  many  years  secretary 
under  the  administration  of  Governor  Eaton,  and 
was  well  acquainted  with  the  affairs  of  the  colony ; 
and  is  represented  as  a  man  of  piety  and  unblemished 
morals,  happily  imitating  his  predecessors  both  in 
public  and  private  life. 

Upon  the  election  William  Leet,  Esq.  was  chosen 
governor,  and  Mr.  Matthew  Gilbert,  deputy-go- 
vernor. Mr.  Benjamin  Fenn,  Mr.  Robert  Treat, 
Mr.  Jasper  Crane,  Mr.  John  Wakeman,  and  Mr. 
William  Gibbard,  were  elected  magistrates.  The 
spirit  of  republicanism  however  was  so  high  at  New 
Haven,  that  several  of  them  would  not  accept  their 
appointments  and  take  the  oaths  prescribed.  Mr 

akemau  and  Mr.  Gibbard  utterly  refused.  Mr. 
Fenn  was  hardly  prevailed  with  to  accept  his  office; 
but  he  at  last  took  the  oath,  with  this  previous  ex- 
planation, that  it  was  only  with  reference  to  the 
articular  laws  of  that  colony  ;  and  that  if  any  thing 
foreign  should  present,  it  should  give  no  offence  if 
ie  should  decline  acting.  Mr.  James  Bishop  was 
chosen  secretary,  and  Mr.  Robert  Allen,  treasurer. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  Whalley  and  Goffe, 
;wo  of  Charles  I.'s  judges,  then  lately  proclaimed  as 
regicides,  sought  refuge  in  New  Haven  ;  but  as  an 
account  has  already  been  given  of  this  transaction 
n  the  history  of  Massachusetts,  we  shall  only  thus 
refer  to  it  he're. 

The  New  Haven  assembly  excused  themselves 
or  not  making  an  address  or  application  to  his  ma- 
esty,  because  it  was  to  them  a  new  and  unprece- 
dented affair,  and  they  were  ignorant  of  the  proper 
brm ;  and  that  they  could  not  agree  in  one  which 
might  be  acceptable :  and  as  the  form  in  which  the 
.•olony  of  Massachusetts  made  their  submission  to 
he  king  had  been  laid  before  them,  they  declared, 
hat  it  was  to  their  satisfaction,  and  th-at  from  their 
icarts  they  acknowledged  and  said  the  same ;  and 
hey  promised  full  subjection  and  entire  allegiance 
o  his  majesty  King  Charles  II.  Upon  making  this 
iubmission  and  declaration,  they  supplicated  for  the 
same  immunities  and  privileges  with  their  sister 
colonies,  and  declared  their  expectations  of  the  full 
enjoyment  of  them. 

At  the  same  time  they  declined  making  any  par- 
icular  address  to  the  king,  on  account  of  their 
liability  to  procure  a  proper  agent  to  present  it  to 
lis  majesty  ;  and  in  their  embarrassment,  they  de- 
iired  the  general  court  of  Massachusetts  to  represent 
,hem  to  the  king  as  cordially  owning  and  complying 
with  their  address,  as  though  it  had  been  said  and 
made  by  themselves.  They  expressed  their  opinion 
>f  the  necessity  of  a  general  agent  for  New  Eng- 
and,  to  supplicate  the  royal  favour  to  defeat  the 
designs  of  their  enemies,  and  to  procure  for  them 
ill  acts  of  indemnity  and  grace  ;  and  agreed  to  bear 
,hoir  proportionable  part  of  the  expense,  and  they 
mmediately  sent  an  agent  to  Boston.  One  great 
cause  of  complaint  against  the  colonies,  had  been 
heir  not  proclaiming  the  king.  But  as  he  had  now 


700 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


been  proclaimed  in  all  the  other  colonies  in  New 
England,  the  general  couit  at  New  Haven  judged 
it  expedient  formally  to  proclaim  him  there. 

The  form  was  curious.  It  was  expressed  in  the 
following  concise  words  :— "  Although  we  have  not 
received  any  form  of  proclamation,  by  order  from 
his  majesty  or  council  of  state,  for  proclaiming  his 
majesty  in  this  colony,  yet  the  court  taking  en- 
couragement from  what  has  been  done  in  the  rest 
of  the  united  colonies,  hath  thought  fit  to  declare 
publicly,  and  proclaim,  that  we  do  acknowledge  his 
royal  highness  Charles  II.,  king  of  England,  Scot- 
land, France,  and  Ireland,  to  be  our  sovereign  lord 
and  King ;  and  that  we  do  acknowledge  ourselves, 
the  inhabitants  of  this  colony,  to  be  his  majesty's 
loyal  and  faithful  subjects." 

About  this  time,  it  seems,  Governor  Winthrop 
took  his  passage  for  England  ;  and  on  his  arrival 
there,  he  made  application  to  Lord  Say  and  Seal, 
and  other  friends  of  the  colony,  for  their  counte- 
nance and  assistance. 

Lord  Say  and  Seal,  who  appears  to  have  been 
the  only  nobleman  living,  who  was  one  of  the  origi- 
nal patentees  of  Connecticut,  received  the  address 
from  the  colony  most  favourably,  and  gave  Gover- 
nor Winthrop  all  the  assistance  in  his  power.  The 
governor  was  a  man  of  address,  and  arrived  in  En- 
gland at  a  fortunate  time  for  Connecticut ;  Lord 
Say  and  Seal,  the  great  friend  of  the  colony,  had 
been  particularly  instrumental  in  the  restora- 
tion ;  and  was  made  lord  privy  seal ;  and  the  Earl 
of  Manchester,  another  friend  of  the  puritans,  and 
of  the  rights  of  the  colonies,  was  chamberlain  of  his 
majesty's  household.  He  was  also  an  intimate 
friend  of  Lord  Say  and  Seal,  and  had  been  united 
with  him  in  defending  the  colonies,  and  pleading 
for  their  establishment  and  liberties.  Mr.  Win- 
throp had  an  extraordinary  ring,  which  had  been 
given  his  grandfather  by  King  Charles  I.,  which  he 
presented  to  the  king ;  and  which,  it  is  said,  ex- 
tremely pleased  him.  Under  these  circumstances, 
the  petition  of  Connecticut  was  presented,  and  was 
received  with  unusual  favour. 

Upon  the  20th  of  April,  1662,  were  granted  the 
letters  patent,  conveying  the  most  ample  privileges, 
and  confirming  the  whole  tract  of  country,  granted 
by  Charles  I.  to  the  earl  of  Warwick,  and  which 
was  the  next  year  by  him  consigned  to  Lord  Say  and 
Seal,  Lord  Brook  and  others.  The  patent  granted 
the  lands  in  free  and  common  socage  ;  and  the  facts, 
stated  and  pleaded  in  the  petition,  were  recognised 
in  the  charter,  nearly  in  the  same  form  of  words,  as 
reasons  of  the  royal  grant,  -and  of  the  ample  privi- 
leges which  it  conveyed. 

It  ordained,  that  John  Winthrop,  John  Mason, 
Samuel  Wyllys,  Henry  Clarke,  Matthew  Allen, 
John  Tapping,  Nathan  Gould,  Richard  Treat, 
Richard  Lord,  Henry  Wolcott,  John  Tulcott, 
Daniel  Clarke,  John  Hogden,  Thomas  Wells, 
Obadiah  Bruen,  John  Clark,  Anthony  Hawkins, 
John  Deming,  and  Matthew  Canfield,  and  all  such 
others  as  then  were,  or  should  afterwards  be  ad- 
mitted and  made  free  of  the  corporation,  should 
for  ever  after  be  one  body  corporate  and  politic,  in 
fact  and  name,  by  the  name  of  the  "  Governor  and 
Company  of  the  English  colony  of  Connecticut 
ID  New  England  in  America;"  and  that  by  the 
lame  name  they  and  their  successors  should  have 
perpetual  succession.  They  were  capacitated,  as 
persons  in  law,  to  plead  and  be  impleaded,  to  de- 
fend and  be  defended,  in  all  suits  whatsoever :  to 
purchase,  possess,  lease,  grant,  demise,  and  sell 


lands,  tenements,  and  goods,  in  as  ample  a  manner 
as  any  of  his  majesty's  subjects  or  corporations  in 
England.  And  it  ordained,  that  there  should  be, 
annually,  two  general  assemblies;  one  holden  on 
the  second  Thursday  in  May,  and  the  other  on  the 
second  Thursday  in  October;  each  to  consist  of  the 
governor,  deputy  governor,  and  twelve  assistants, 
with  two  deputies  from  every  town  or  city.  John 
Winthrop  was  appointed  governor,  and  John  Mason, 
deputy-governor,  and  the  gentlemen  named  above, 
magistrates,  until  a  new  election  should  be  made. 

The  company  were  authorized  to  have  a  common 
seal,  to  appoint  judicatories,  make  freemen,  con- 
stitute officers,  establish  laws,  impose  fines,  assem- 
ble the  inhabitants  in  marshal  array  for  the  com- 
mon defence,  and  to  exercise  martial  law  in  all 
cases  in  which  it  might  be  necessary.  And  it  was 
specially  ordained,  that  all  the  king's  subjects  in 
the  colony  should  enjoy  all  the  privileges  of  free 
and  natural  subjects  within  the  realm  of  England ; 
and  that  the  patent  should  always  have  the  most 
favourable  construction  for  the  benefit  of  the  gover- 
nor and  company. 

The  charter  did  not  come  over  until  after  the 
election,  which  took  place  on  the  15th  of  May; 
when  the  freemen  made  no  alteration  in  their 
officers. 

Many  of  the  colony  of  New  Haven  appear  to 
have  been  exceedingly  opposed  to  Charles  II.,  and 
to  the  royal  instructions  which  they  had  received  ; 
and  it  had  been  with  great  difficulty  that  the  go- 
vernor and  council  had  managed  the  government  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  keep  peace  among  the  people, 
and  not  incur  the  displeasure  of  the  king  and  his 
council;  and  although  they  had  done  as  little  as 
possible  in  conforming  to  his  majesty's  orders,  yet 
they  had  done  more  than  was  pleasing  to  all  ;  and 
there  had  been  great  complaints  and  tumults. 

Governor  Leet,  therefore,  at  the  court  of  election, 
represented  to  them  the  great  difficulties  and  dan- 
gers of  the  year  past,  and  the  Divine  goodness  to- 
wards them,  in  the  continuation  of  their  civil  and 
religious  privileges;  acknowledged  himself  to  be 
subject  to  many  imperfections,  yet  professed  that, 
in  his  office,  he  had  acted  conscientiously,  consult- 
ing the  common  safety  and  happiness  ;  declared  his 
readiness  to  give  the  reasons  of  his  conduct  to  any 
brother,  or  brethren,  who  would  come  to  him  in 
an  orderly  manner ;  and  acknowledged  their  kind 
affection  and  patience  towards  him  in  covering  and 
passing  by  his  infirmities. 

Upon  this  the  election  proceeded,  and  he  was 
chosen  governor,  and  Matthew  Gilbert  deputy-go- 
vernor. Mr.  William  Jones  and  Mr.  William  Gib- 
bard  were  chosen  magistrates  for  New  Haven  ;  Mr. 
Benjamin  Fenn  and  Mr.  Robert  Treat,  for  Milford  ; 
and  Mr.  Jasper  Crane,  for  Branford.  Several  of 
the  magistrates  took  the  oath  this  year,  with  the 
explanations  and  exceptions  which  they  had  made 
the  last. 

Before  the  session  of  the  general  assembly  of 
Connecticut,  in  October,  the  charter  was  brought 
over;  and  as  the  governors  and  magistrates,  ap- 
pointed by  the  king,  were  not  authorized  to  serve 
after  this  time,  a  general  election  was  appointed 
on  the  9th  of  October.  John  Winthrop,  Esq.  was 
chosen  governor,  and  John  Mason,  Esq.  deputy 
governor.  The  magistrates  were,  Matthew  Allen, 
Samuel  Wyllys,  Nathan  Gould,  Richard  Treat, 
John  Ogden,  John  Topping,  John  Talcott,  Henry 
Wolcott,  Daniel  Clarke,  and  John  Allen,  Esquires, 
Mr.  Baker,  and  Mr.  Sherman.  John  Talcott, 


UNITED  STATES. 


701 


Esq.  was  treasurer,  and  D.  Clarke,  Esq.  secretary. 

Upon  the  day  of  the  election,  the  charter  was 
publicly  read  to  the  freemen,  and  declared  to  be- 
long to  them  and  their  successors.  They  then  pro- 
ceeded to  make  choice  of  Mr.  Wyllys,  Mr.  Talcott, 
and  Mr.  Allen,  to  receive  the  charter  into  their 
custody,  and  to  keep  it  in  behalf  of  the  colony ;  and 
it  was  ordered,  that  an  oath  should  be  administered 
by  the  court,  to  the  freemen,  binding  them  to  a 
faithful  discharge  of  the  trust  committed  to  them. 

The  general  assembly  established  all  former 
officers,  civil  and  military,  in  their  respective  places 
of  trust ;  and  enacted,  that  all  the  laws  of  the  co- 
lony should  be  continued  in  full  force,  except  such 
as  should  be  found  contrary  to  the  tenor  of  the 
charter.  It  was  also  enacted,  that  the  same  colony 
seal  should  be  continued. 

The  major  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  Southhold, 
several  of  the  people  at  Guilford,  and  of  the  towns 
of  Stamford  and  Greenwich,  tendering  their  per- 
sons and  estates  to  Connecticut,  and  petitioning  to 
enjoy  the  protection  and  privilege*  of  this  common- 
wealth, were  accepted  by  the  assembly,  and  pro- 
mised the  same  protection  and  freedom,  which  were 
common  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  colony  in  gene- 
ral. At  the  same  time,  it  was  enjoined  those,  to 
conduct  themselves  peaceably,  as  became  Chris- 
tian?, towards  their  neighbours,  who  did  not  submit 
lo  the  jurisdiction  of  Connecticut;  and  that  they 
should  pay  all  taxes  due  to  the  ministers,  with  all 
other  public  charges  then  due.  A  message  was  also 
sent  to  the  Dutch  governor,  certifying  him  of  the 
charter,  granted  to  Connecticut,  and  desiring  him 
by  no  means  to  trouble  any  of  his  majesty's  subjects 
within  its  limits,  with  impositions,  or  prosecutions 
from  that  jurisdiction. 

The  assembly  gave  notice  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Winchester,  that  they  were  comprehended  within 
the  limits  of  Connecticut ;  and  required  that  they 
should  conduct  themselves  as  peaceable  subjects. 

It  was  also  resolved,  that  the  inhabitants  of  Mis- 
tic  and  Pawcatuck  should  no  more  exercise  any 
authority,  by  virtue  of  commissions  from  any  other 
colony,  but  should  elect  their  town  officers,  and 
manage  all  their  affairs  according  to  the  laws  of 
Connecticut.  It  was  also  resolved  that  this  and 
some  other  towns  should  pay  twenty  pounds  each 
towards  defraying  the  expense  of  procuring  the 
charter.  It  appears  from  the  appropriations  made, 
and  taxes  imposed,  to  pay  the  charges  of  Governor 
Winthrop's  agency,  that  the  charter  cost  the  colony 
about  thirteen  hundred  pounds  sterling. 

Huntingdon,  Setauket,  Oyster  Bay,  and  all  the 
towns  upon  Long  Island,  were  obliged  to  submit  to 
the  authority,  and  govern  themselves  agreeably  to  the 
laws  of  Connecticut ;  and  a  court  was  instituted  at 
Southhold,  consisting  of  Captain  John  Youngs,  and 
the  justices  of  South  and  East  Hampton.  And  it 
was  also  resolved,  that  all  the  towns,  which  should 
be  received  under  their  jurisdiction,  should  bear 
their  equal  proportion  of  the  charge  of  the  colony, 
in  procuring  the  patent. 

As  the  charter  included  the  colony  of  New  Ha- 
ven, Mr.  Matthew  Allen,  Mr.  Samuel  Wyllys,  and 
the  Rev.  Messrs.  Stone  and  Hooker,  were  ap- 
pointed a  committee,  to  proceed  to  New  Haven, 
and  to  treat  with  their  friends  there,  respecting  an 
amicable  union  of  the  two  colonies;  which  they  ac- 
cordingly did  ;  and  after  a  conference  with  the  go- 
vernor, magistrates,  and  principal  gentlemen  in 
the  colony,  left  the  following  declaration  to  be  com- 
municated to  the  freemen. 


"  We  declare,  that  through  the  providence  of  the 
Most  High,  a  large  and  ample  patent,  and  therein 
desirable  privileges  and  immunities  from  his  ma- 
jesty, being  come  to  our  hand,  a  copy  whereof  we 
have  left  with,  you  to  be  considered,  and  yourselves 
upon  the  sea-coast  being  included  and  interested 
therein,  the  king  having  united  us  in  one  body  po- 
litic, we,  according  to  the  commission  wherewith 
we  are  intrusted  by  the  general  assembly  of  Con- 
necticut, do  declare  in  tfieir  name  that  it  is  both 
their  and  our  earnest  desire  That  there  may  be  a 
happy  and  comfortable  union  between  yourselves 
and  us,  according  to  the  tenor  of  the  charter ; 
that  inconveniences  and  dangers  may  be  prevented, 
peace  and  truth  strengthened  and  established, 
through  our  suitable  subjection  to  the  terms  of  the 
patent,  and  the  blessing  of  God  upon  us  therein." 

To  which  the  authority  of  New  Haven  made  the 
following  reply: 

"  We  have  received  and  perused  your  writings, 
and  heard  the  copy  read  of  his  majesty's  letters  pa- 
tent to  Connecticut  colony ;  wherein,  though  we 
do  not  find  the  colony  of  New  Haven  expressly  in- 
cluded, yet  to  show  our  desire  that  matters  may  be 
issued  in  the  conserving  of  peace  and  amity,  with 
righteousness  between  them  and  us,  we  shall  com- 
municate your  writing,  and  a  copy  of  the  patent,  to 
our  freemen,  and  afterwards,  with  convenient  speed, 
return  their  answer.  Only  we  desire  that  the  issu- 
ing of  matters  may  be  respited,  until  we  may  re- 
ceive fuller  information  from  Mr.  Winthrop,  or 
satisfaction  otherwise  ;  and  that  in  the  mean  time 
this  colony  may  remain  distinct,  entire,  and  unin- 
terrupted as  heretofore  :  which  we  hope  you  will 
see  cause  lovingly  to  consent  unto  ;  and  signify  the 
same  to  us  with  convenient  speed." 

On  the  4th  of  November,  the  freemen  of  the  co- 
lony of  New  Haven,  convened  in  general  court ; 
when  the  governor  communicated  the  writings  to 
the  court,  and  ordered  a  copy  of  the  patent  to  be 
read  ;  and  after  a  short  adjournment  for  consider- 
ation in  an  affair  of  so  much  importance,  the  free- 
men met  again,  and  proceeded  to  a  large  discussion 
of  the  subject. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Davenport  was  entirely  opposed  to 
a  union  with  Connecticut  ;  and  proceeded,  there- 
fore, to  offer  a  number  of  reasons  why  the  inhabi- 
tants of  New  Haven  could  not  be  included  in  the 
patent  of  that  colony,  and  for  which  they  ought  by 
no  means  voluntarily  to  form  a  union.  He  pro- 
mulgated his  reasons  in  writing,  for  the  considera- 
tion of  the  freemen ;  wherein  it  was  insisted,  that 
New  Haven  had  been  owned  as  a  distinct  govern- 
ment, not  only  by  her  sister  colonies,  by  the  par- 
liament, and  the  protector,  during  their  administra- 
tion, but  by  his  majesty  King  Charles  II.  That  it  was 
against  the  express  articles  of  confederation,  by 
which  Connecticut  was  no  less  bound  than  the 
other  colonies:  that  New  Haven  had  never  been 
certified  of  any  such  design  as  their  incorporatioir 
with  Connecticut ;  and  that  they  had  never  been 
heard  on  the  subject.  It  was  further  urged,  that 
had  it  been  designed  to  unite  them  with  Connecti- 
cut, some  of  their  names  at  least  would  have  been 
pat  into  the  patent  with  the  other  patentees  ;  but 
none  of  them  were  there;  and  it  was  urged,  that  it 
would  be  incompatible  both  with  their  honour  and 
most  essential  interests  to  consent  to  a  union. 

Governor  Leet  excused  himself  from  speaking  on 
the  subject,  desiring  rather  to  heai  the  freemen 
speak  their  minds  freely,  and  to  act  themselves. 
After  the  affair  had  been  fully  debated,  the  free- 


702 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA, 


men  resolved  that  an  answer  to  Connecticut  should 
be  drawn  up  under  the  following  heads. 

"  1.  Bearing  a  proper  testimony  against  the  great 
sin  of  Connecticut,  in  acting  so  contrary  to  righte- 
ousness, amity,  and  peace. 

"  2.  Desiring  that  all  further  proceedings,  rela- 
tive to  the  affair,  might  be  suspended  until  Mr. 
Winthrop  should  return,  or  they  might  otherwise 
obtain  further  information  and  satisfaction. 

"  3.  To  represent,  that  they  could  do  nothing  in 
the  affair  until  they  had  consulted  the  other  con- 
federates." 

The  freemen  appointed  all  their  magistrates  and 
elders,  with  Mr.  Law,  of  Stamford,  a  committee 
to  draw  up  an  answer  to  the  general  assembly  of 
Connecticut;  and  they  were  directed  to  subjoin  the 
weighty  arguments  which  they  had  against  a 
uinion  ;  and  if  these  should  not  avail,  they  were  di- 
rected to  prepare  an  address  to  his  majesty,  pray- 
ing for  relief. 

The  committee  consequently  drew  up  a  long  let- 
ter, in  which  they  declared,  that  they  did  not  find 
any  command  in  the  patent,  to  dissolve  covenants, 
and  alter  the  orderly  settlement  of  New  England  ; 
nor  a  prohibition  against  their  continuance  as  a  dis- 
tinct government.  They  represented,  that  the  con- 
duct of  Connecticut,  in  acting  at  first  without  them, 
confirmed  them  in  those  sentiments ;  and  that  the 
way  was  still  open  for  them  to  petition  his  majesty, 
and  obtain  immunities,  similar  to  those  of  Connec 
ticut.  They  declared,  that  they  must  enter  their 
appeal  from  the  construction  which  Connecticut  pul 
upon  the  patent ;  and  desired  that  they  might  nol 
be  interrupted  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  distinct 
privileges.  They  solicited,  that  proceedings  relativ 
to  a  union  might  rest,  until  they  might  obtain 
further  information,  consult  their  confederates,  am 
know  his  majesty's  pleasure  concerning  them. 

The  committee  then  proceeded  to  represent  th< 
unreasonable  and  injurious  conduct  of  Connecticu 
towards  them,  in  beginning  to  exercise  jurisdiction 
within  their  limits,  before  they  had  given  them  an) 
intimations  that  they  were  included  in  their  char 
ter ;  before  they  had  invited  them  to  an  amicable 
union ;  and  before  they  had  any  representation  it 
their  assembly,  or  name  in  their  patent.  Thej 
urged,  that  in  such  a  procedure,  they  had  encou 
raged  division,  and  given  countenance  to  disaffectec 
persons :  that  they  had  abetted  them  in  slighting 
solemn  covenants  and  oaths,  by  which  the  peace  o 
the  towns  and  churches  in  that  colony  was  greatl) 
disturbed.  Further,  they  insisted,  that  by  thi 
means,  his  majesty's  pious  designs  were  counter 
acted,  and  his  interests  disserved  :  that  great  scanda 
was  brought  upon  religion  before  the  natives,  "  an 
the  beauty  of  a  peaceable,  faithful  and  brotherl 
walking  exceedingly  marred  among  themselves.' 
They  also  represented  that  these  transactions  wer 
entirely  inconsistent  with  the  engagements  of  Go 
vernor  Winthrop,  contrary  to  his  advice  to  Con 
necticut,  and  tended  to  bi'ing  injurious  reflection 
and  reproach  upon  him.  They  earnestly  praye 
for  a  copy  of  all  which  he  had  written  to  the  deputy 
governor  and  company  on  the  subject;  declare 
themselves  exceedingly  injured  and  grieved;  an 
entreated  the  general  assembly  of  Connecticut  t 
adopt  speedy  and  effectual  measures  to  repair  th 
breaches  which  they  had  made,  and  to  restore  thei 
to  their  former  state,  as  a  confederate  and  siste 
colony. 

Connecticut  made  no  reply  to  this  letter ;  but  at 
general  assembly,  bolden  March   llth,    1663,  aj 


Dinted  the  deputy-governor,  Messrs.  Matthew  and 
ohn  Allen,  and  Mr.  John  Talcott,  a  committee  to 
•eat  with  their  friends  at  New  Haven  on  the  sub- 
ict  of  a  union.  But  the  hasty  measures  which 
ic  general  assembly  had  taken,  in  admitting  the 
isaffected  members  of  the  several  towns,  under  the 
urisdiction  of  New  Haven,  to  their  protection,  and 

the  privileges  of  freemen  of  their  corporation, 
nd  in  that  way  beginning  to  dismember  that  colony 
efore  they  had  invited  them  to  incorporate  with 
icm,  had  so  soured  their  minds  and  prejudiced 
lem,  that  this  committee  had  no  better  success 
lan  the  former. 

In  consequence  of  the  claims  of  Connecticut,  and 
f  what  had  passed  between  the  two  colonies,  Go- 
ernor  Leet  called  a  special  assembly  at  New  Ha- 
en,  on  the  6th  of  May ;  when  it  was  proposed  to 

court,  whether,  considering  the  present  state  of 
ae  colony,  and  the  affairs  depending  between  them 
nd  Connecticut,  any  alteration  should  be  made 
with  respect  to  the  time  or  manner  of  their  election  ? 
?he  freemen  resolved  that  no  alteration  should  be 
made.  They  then  determined  upon  a  remonstrance, 
r  declaration,  being  sent  to  the  general  assembly 
f  Connecticut ;  in  which  they  gave  an  historical 
iccount  of  the  ends  of  their  coming,  with  their  bre- 
hren  in  the  united  colonies,  into  New  England, 
ind  of  the  solemn  manner  in  which  these  colonies 
ad  confederated  ;  and  repeated  many  of  their  for- 
mer complaints  against  Connecticut.  The  court 
ilso  affirmed,  that  they  were  necessitated  to  bear 
;estimony  against  the  appointment  of  constables  and 
other  officers,  in  the  towns  under  their  jurisdiction, 
and  the  dismembering  of  their  colony,  by  receiving 
heir  disaffected  people  under  the  protection  of  a 
egislature  distinct  from  theirs,  and  in  which  they 
lad  no  representation  ;  and  remonstrated  against  it, 
as  distracting  the  colony,  destroying  the  comfort, 
and  hazarding  the  lives  and  liberties  of  their  confe- 
derates ;  and  as  giving  great  offence  to  their  con- 
sciences, and  as  matter  of  high  provocation  and 
complaint  before  God  and  man. 

While  these  affairs  were  transacted  in  the  colo- 
nies, the  petition  and  address  of  New  Haven,  to 
ihe  king,  arrived  in  England  ;  upon  which  Governor 
Winthrop,  who  was  yet  there,  by  the  advice  of  the 
friends  of  both  colonies,  agreed,  that  no  injury 
should  be  done  to  New  Haven,  and  that  the  union 
and  incorporation  of  the  two  colonies  should  be  vo- 
luntary;  and  he  therefore,  on  the  3d  of  March,  1663, 
wrote  to  the  deputy-governor  and  company  of  Con- 
necticut, informing  them  of  his  engagements  to  the 
agent  of  New  Haven;  and  that,  before  he  took  out 
the  charter,  he  had  given  assurance  to  their  friends 
that  their  interests  and  privileges  should  not  be  in- 
jured by  the  patent.  He  represented,  that  they 
were  bound  by  the  assurances  he  had  given  ;  and 
therefore  wished  them  to  abstain  from  all  further 
injury  and  trouble  of  that  colony ;  and  imputed 
what  they  had  done  to  their  ignorance  of  the  engage- 
ments which  he  had  made ;  and  at  the  same  time, 
intimated  his  assurance,  that,  on  his  return,  he 
should  be  able  to  effect  an  amicable  union  of  the 
colonies. 

At  the  election  in  Connecticut,  Mr.  Howell  and 
Mr.  Jasper  Crane  were  chosen  magistrates,  instead 
of  Mr.  John  Allen  and  Mr.  John  Ogden.  Mr.  John 
Allen  was  appointed  treasurer. 

Connecticut  now  laid  claim  to  West  Chester,  and 
sent  one  of  their  magistrates  to  cite  the  inhabitants 
to  the  choice  of  their  officers,  and  to  administer  the 
proper  oaths  to  such  as  they  should  elect.  They 


UNITED  STATES. 


703 


also  extended  their  claim  to  the  Narraganset  country, 
and  appointed  officers  for  the  government  of  the  in- 
habitants at  Wickford. 

Notwithstanding  the  remonstrance  of  the  court  at 
New  Haven,  their  appeal  to  the  king,  and  the 
engagements  of  Governor  Winthrop,  Connecticut 
pursued  the  affair  of  a  union  in  the  same  manner 
in  which  it  was  begun  ;  and  at  a  session  of  the  gene- 
ral assembly,  August  19th,  1663,  the  deputy-gover- 
nor, Mr.  Wyllys,  Mr.  Daniel  Clarke,  and  Mi. 
John  Allen,  were  appointed  a  committee  to  treat 
with  their  friends  of  New  Haven,  Milford,  Guilford, 
and  Branford,  relative  to  their  incorporation  with 
Connecticut.  Provided  they  could  not  effect  a 
union  by  treaty,  they  were  authorized  to  read  the 
charter  publicly  at  New  Haven,  and  to  make  decla- 
ration to  the  people  there,  that  the  assembly  could 
not  but  resent  their  proceedings  as  a  distinct  juris- 
diction, since  they  were  evidently  included  within 
the  limits  of  the  charter,  granted  to  the  corporation 
of  Connecticut ;  and  they  were  instructed  to  pro- 
claim that  the  assembly  desired,  and  could  not  but 
expect,  that  the  inhabitants  of  New  Haven,  Milford, 
Guilford,  Branford,  and  Stamford,  would  yield  sub- 
jection to  the  government  of  Connecticut. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  commissioners  in  Septem- 
ber, New  Haven  was  owned  by  the  colonies  as  a 
distinct  confederate  ;  and  Governor  Leet  and  Mr. 
Fenn,  who  had  been  sent. from  that  jurisdiction, 
exhibited  a  complaint  against  Connecticut  of  the 
injuries  which  they  had  done  by  encroaching  upon 
their  rights,  receiving  their  members  under  their 
government,  and  encouraging  them  to  disown  their 
authority,  to  disregard  their  oath  of  allegiance,  and 
to  refuse  all  attendance  on  their  courts.  They  fur- 
ther complained  that  Connecticut  had  appointed 
constables  in  several  of  their  towns,  to  the  great  dis- 
quiet and  injury  of  the  colony;  and  prayed  that 
effectual  measures  might  be  taken  to  redress  their 
grievances,  to  prevent  further  injuries,  and  secure 
their  rights  as  a  distinct  confederate. 

Governor  Winthrop  and  Mr.  John  Talcott,  com- 
missioners from  Connecticut,  replied,  that  in  their 
opinion  New  Haven  had  no  just  grounds  of  com- 
plaint ;  that  Connecticut  had  never  designed  them 
any  injury,  but  had  made  to  them  the  most  friendly 
propositions,  inviting  them  to  share  with  them 
freely  in  all  the  important  and  distinguishing  privi- 
leges which  they  had  obtained  for  themselves ;  that 
they  had  sent  committees  amicably  to  treat  with 
them;  that  they  were  still  treating,  and  would 
attend  all  *ust  and  friendly  means  of  accommo- 
dation. 

The  commissioners  of  the  other  colonies  having 
fully  heard  the  parties,  determined  that  as  the  co- 
lony of  New  Haven  had  been  "  owned  in  the  arti- 
cles of  confederation  as  distiru  t  from  Connecticut, 
and  having  been  so  owned  by  the  colonies  jointly 
in  the  present  meeting,  in  all  their  actings,  they 
may  not  by  any  acts  of  violence  have  their  liberty 
of  jurisdiction  infringed  by  any  other  of  the  united 
colonies,  without  breach  of  the  articles  of  confede- 
ration ;  and  that  where  any  act  of  power  hath  been 
exerted  against  their  authority,  that  the  same  ought 
to  be  recalled,  and  their  power  reserved  to  them 
entire,  until  such  time  as  in  an  orderly  way  it 
shall  be  otherwise  disposed."  With  respect  to  the 
particular  grievances  mentioned  by  the  commis- 
sioners of  New  Haven,  the  consideration  of  them 
was  referred  to  the  next  meeting  of  the  commission- 
ers at  Hartford. 

The  extending  of  the  claims  of  Connecticut  to  all 


the  plantations  upon  Long  Island,  to  West  Chester, 
and  the  neighbouring  towns,  alarmed  Stuyvesant, 
the  Dutch  governor ;  and  he  therefore  appeared  be- 
fore  the  commissioners  at  Boston,  and  complained 
of  the  infraction  of  the  articles  of  agreement,  con- 
cluded at  Hartford,  between  the  English  and  Dutch, 
and  desired  the  commissioners  to  determine  whe- 
ther they  considered  those  articles  as  binding  or 
not.  As  this  complaint  more  especially  respected 
Connecticut,  Governor  Winthrop  and  Mr.  Talcott 
replied  in  behalf  of  their  constituents  ;  and  pleaded, 
that,  as  it  was  an  affair  of  great  concernment,  and. 
as  Connecticut  had  not  been  informed  of  any  such 
complaint,  and  they  had  no  instructions  relative  to 
the  subject,  the  decision  of  it  might  be  deferred 
until  the  next  meeting  of  the  commissioners. 

The  commissioners  resolved,  that  saving  their 
allegiance  to  his  majesty,  and  his  claim  to  the  lands 
in  controversy,  and  the  right  of  Connecticut  co- 
lony, by  virtue  of  their  charter,  they  did  for  them- 
selves esteem  the  articles  of  agreement  in  1650  to 
be  binding,  and  that  they  would  not  countenance 
the  violation  of  them  ;  and  they  advised  the  parties 
concerned  to  refer  all  matters  respecting  the  subject 
to  the  next  meeting  of  the  commissioners ;  and  in 
the  mean  time  recommended  that  the  articles  of 
agreement  should  be  observed,  and  that  all  persons 
in  the  places  in  controversy  should  be  acquitted 
from  penalties  and  damages  on  the  account  of  their 
having  resisted  the  authority  of  the  Dutch. 

Connecticut  was  now  attacked  from  all  quarters. 
While  the  colony  was  without  a  royal  grant,  its 
neighbours  made  encroachments  with  impunity ; 
and  now,  when  it  extended  its  claims,  by  virtue  of 
regal  authority,  they  all  complained,  and  took  all 
possible  advantage  of  former  encroachments  and 
decisions,  at  times  when  they  could  plead  no  such 
authority ;  and  as  all  the  united  colonies,  except 
Plymouth,  were  affected  by  the  claims  of  the  co- 
lony, so  they  were  mutually  interested  in  opposing 
and  determining  against  them. 

As  Connecticut  had  new  claimed  Pawcatuck,  or 
Southerton,  and  prohibited  the  exercise  of  any  au- 
thority there,  except  such  as  was  derived  from  the 
legislature  of  that  colony,  the  inhabitants  had  exhi- 
bited three  addresses  to  the  general  court  of  Massa- 
chusetts, petitioning  for  relief  and  protection ;  and 
the  commissioners  from  Massachusetts,  Mr.  Brad- 
street  and  Mr.  Danforth,  laid  the  complaints  and 
petitions  before  the  commissioners  of  the  other  co- 
lonies, and  prayed  for  relief,  according  to  the  provi- 
sion made  in  such  cases,  in  the  articles  of  confe- 
deration. 

The  court  of  commissioners  advised  that  the  affair 
should  be  deferred  for  the  present;  that  Connecti 
cut  should  apply  to  the  general  court  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts for  an  amicable  settlement ;  and  that,  if 
this  should  not  be  effected,  the  aggrieved  party 
might  make  application  to  the  commissioners  at 
their  next  meeting.  In  the  mean  time,  they  ad- 
vised that  affairs  at  Southerton  should  be  managed 
according  to  their  former  decisions. 

When  the  general  assembly  of  Connecticut  as- 
sembled in  October,  they  paid  particular  attention 
to  these  occurrences ;  and  notwithstanding  all  that 
had  happened  relative  to  New  Haven,  the  following 
act  passed. 

"  This  court  doth  declare,  that  they  can  do  no 
less  for  their  own  indemnity,  than  to  manife&c  their 
dissatisfaction  with  the  plantations  of  New  Haven, 
Milford,  Guilford,  Stamford,  and  Branford,  in  their 
distinct  standing  from  us  in  point  of  government; 


704 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


it  being  directly  opposite  to  the  tenor  of  the  charter 
lately  granted  to  our  colony  of  Connecticut,  in  which 
these"  plantations  are  included.  We  do  also  expect 
their  submission  to  our  government,  according  to 
our  charter,  and  his  majesty's  pleasure  therein 
expressed  ;  it  being  a  stated  conclusion  with  the 
commissioners,  that  jurisdiction  right  goeth  with 
patent.  And  whereas,  the  aforesaid  people  of  New 
Haven,  Milford,  Guilford,  Stamford,  and  Bran- 
ford,  pretend  they  have  power  of  government  dis- 
tinct from  us,  we  do  hereby  declare,  that  our  coun- 
cil will  be  ready  to  attend  them,  or  a  committee  of 
theirs ;  and  if  they  can  rationally  make  it  appear 
that  they  have  such  power,  and  that  we  have 
wronged  them  according  to  their  complaints,  we 
shall  be  ready  to  attend  them  with  due  satisfaction." 

The  assembly  appointed  a  committee  to  compose 
a  letter  to  the  gentlemen  at  New  Haven,  and  to 
enclose  to  them  the  preceding  resolution. 

Agents  were  sent  to  this  assembly  from  the  Man- 
hadoes,  to  treat  with  the  legislature,  relative  to  the 
differences  subsisting  between  them  and  the  Dutch  ; 
and  a  petition  at  the  same  time  was  presented  from 
the  English  plantations  upon  Long  Island,  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  Dutch,  praying  for  the  protection 
and  privileges  of  the  corporation  of  Connecticut. 
Upon  which  the  assembly  resolved,  "  that,  as  they 
were  solicitous  to  maint  in  the  interests  and  peace 
of  his  majesty's  subjects,  and  yet  to  attend  all  ways 
of  righteousness,  so  that  they  might  hold  a  friendly 
correspondence  with  their  neighbours  at  the  Man- 
hadoes,  they  would  for  the  present  forbear  all  acts 
of  authority  towards  the  English  plantations  on  the 
west  end  of  Long  Island,  provided  the  Dutch  would 
forbear  to  exercise  any  coercive  power  towards 
them ;  and  this  court  shall  cease  from  further  at- 
tendance unto  the  premises,  until  there  be  a  sea- 
sonable return  from  the  General  Stevenson,  to  those 
propositions  his  messengers  carried  with  them,  or 
until  there  be  an  issue  of  the  difference  between 
them  and  us.  And  in  case  the  Dutch  do  unjustly 
molest  or  offer  violence  unto  them,  we  declare  that 
we  shall  not  be  willing  to  see  our  countrymen,  his 
majesty's  natural  born  subjects,  and  his  interests 
interrupted  or  molested  by  the  Dutch  or  any  others; 
but  we  shall  address  ourselves  to  use  such  just  and 
lawful  means  as  God  shall  in  his  wisdom  offer  to 
our  hands  for  their  indemnity  and  safety,  until  his 
majesty  our  sovereign  lord  the  king  shall  please  to 
declare  his  royal  pleasure  for  their  future  settlement." 

As  Governor  Winthrop  was  now  returned  from 
England,  the  assembly  embraced  the  first  opportu- 
nity to  present  him  with  the  thanks  of  the  colony 
for  the  great  pains  he  had  taken,  and  the  special 
services  he  had  rendered  it,  in  procuring  the 
charter. 

The  legislature,  determining  to  secure  as  far  as 
possible  the  lands  within  the  limits  of  their  charter, 
authorized  one  Thomas  Pell  to  purchase  of  the  In- 
dian proprietors  all  that  tract  between  West  Ches- 
ter and  Hudson's  river,  and  the  waters  which  made 
the  Manhadoes  an  island ;  and  resolved  that  it 
should  be  added  to  West  Chester. 

On  the  towns  on  the  west  end  of  Long  Island  pe- 
titioning to  be  under  the  government  of  Connecti- 
cut, the  assembly  declared,  that  as  the  lines  of 
their  patent  extended  to  the  adjoining  islands,  they 
accepted  those  towns  under  their  jurisdiction. 

It  was  resolved  in  October,  that  Hammonasset 
should  be  a  town  ;  and  the  same  month,  twelve  plant- 
ers, principally  from  Hartford,  Windsor,  and  Guil- 
ford^ fixed  their  residence  there.  It  was  subsequently 


named  Killingworth ;  and  in  1703,  the  assembly 
gave  them  a  patent,  confirming  to  the  proprietors 
all  the  lands  within  the  limits  of  the  town.  The 
name  originally  designed  was  Kennelworth,  and 
thus  it  is  written  for  some  years  on  the  records  of 
the  colony,  but  by  mistake  it  was  recorded  Killing- 
worth,  and  this  name  finally  prevailed. 

While  these  affairs  were  transacted  in  Connecti- 
cut, the  colony  of  New  Haven  persisted  in  their 
opposition  to  an  incorporation  with  that  govern- 
ment; and  on  the  22d  of  October,  their  general 
court  convened,  and  Governor  Leet  stated,  that  since 
the  meeting  of  the  commissioners,  the  committee 
had  written  to  Connecticut.  "  That  as  the  commis- 
sioners had  unanimously  established  the  confedera- 
tion, and  the  distinct  and  entire  jurisdiction  of  each 
confederate  colony,  they  judged  that  it  would  not 
be  unacceptable  to  present  to  their  general  assembly 
a  request,  that  they  would  act  in  conformity  to  the 
advice  of  the  commissioners,  and  recall  all  former 
acts,  inconsistent  with  their  determinations.  They 
insisted,  that  a  compliance  with  their  wishes  would 
be  no  obstruction  to  an  amicable  treaty  ;  but  that 
its  tendency  would  be  sooner  to  effect  the  union, 
which  they  desired  :  that  it  could  by  no  means  en- 
danger their  patent,  nor  any  of  their  chartered 
rights  ;  and  that  they  had  the  countenance  of  all  the 
confederates,  to  apologize  for  them  in  their  present 
request,  and  in  maintaining  their  rights  as  a  dis- 
tinct jurisdiction."  Governor  Leet  further  informed 
the  court  that  their  committee  had  desired  an  an- 
swer to  their  letter,  before  the  present  session  of 
their  general  court,  and  previously  to  their  answer- 
ing the  proposals  made  to  them  by  Connecticut. 

The  freemen  of  the  colony  of  New  Haven  were 
not  only  opposed  to  an  incorporation  with  Connec- 
ticut, but  even  to  treating  with  them,  under  the 
then  present  circumstances  ;  and  the  court,  after  a 
long  and  serious  debate,  considering  that  the  gene- 
ral court  of  Connecticut  had  not  complied  with  their 
request,  but  still  claimed  a  right  of  jurisdiction 
over  them,  and  countenanced  the  malcontents  in 
their  several  towns,  were  decidedly  against  any 
further  treaty  ;  and  consequently  a  resolution  was 
adopted.  "  That  no  treaty  be  made  by  this  colony 
with  Connecticut,  before  such  acts  of  power,  ex- 
erted by  them  upon  any  of  our  towns,  be  revoked 
and  recalled,  according  to  the  honourable  Mr.  Win- 
throp's  letter  engaging  the  same,  the  commission- 
ers'determination,  and  our  frequent  desires." 

The  court  ordered  that  the  magistrates,  or  other 
officers  where  there  were  no  magistrates,  should 
issue  warrants  according  to  law,  to  attach  the  per- 
sonal estate  of  those  who  upon  legal  demand  had 
refused,  or  should  refuse,  to  make  payment  of  their 
rates.  It  was  provided,  that  in  case  of  resistance 
and  forcible  rescue,  violence  should  not  be  used  to 
the  shedding  of  blood,  unless  it  were  in  a  man's 
own  del'ence.  The  court  further  determined  to  make 
application  to  the  English  government,  and  to  peti- 
tion the  king  for  a  bill  of  exemption  from  the  go- 
vernment of  Connecticut,  and  to  leave  the  affaii 
of  procuring  a  patent  to  the  wisdom  of  their  agents 
in  England,  as  they  should  judge  to  be  most  ex- 
pedient. 

A  tax  of  300/.  was  levied  upon  the  colony,  for 
the  purpose  of  enabling  them  to  prosecute  this 
affair ;  and  a  day  of  extraordinary  fasting  and 
prayer  was  appointed  to  supplicate  Diviue  mercy  to 
direct  them  to  the  proper  means  of  obtaining  an  es 
tablished  and  permanent  enjoyment  of  their  just 
rights  and  privileges. 


UNITED  STATES. 


705 


The  affairs  of  the  colony  of  New  Haven  were 
now  exceedingly  embarrassed,  and  approached  to 
an  important  crnis.  The  colony  was  much  in  debt : 
many  were  disaffected  with  the  government,  and 
refused  to  pay  any  thing  for  its  support:  and  when 
the  officers  attempted  to  collect  the  taxes  which  had 
been  imposed,  they  repaired  to  Connecticut  for 
protection  ;  and  with  too  little  appearance  of  justice 
or  brotherly  affection,  were  protected  by  its  legisla- 
ture. Indeed  the  colony  was  so  reduced,  that  it 
could  not  pay  the  stated  salaries  of  its  principal 
officers;  and  while  the  court  expressed  their  ardent 
desire  to  pay  the  salaries  which  had  been  usual,  yet 
they  found  they  were  not  able  to  give  the  governor 
more  than  forty  pounds,  and  the  deputy-governor  j 
not  more  than  ten. 

No  sooner  did  the  officers  begin  to  distrain  the 
rates  of  those  who  refused  to  pay,  than  it  produced 
the    most    alarming   and  dangerous   consequences. 
One  John  Rossiter  of  Guilford  and  his  son,  who  had  j 
both  been  punished  for  misdemeanors  by  the  autho- 
rity of  the  colony  of  New  Haven,  made  a  journey 
to  Hartford,   and  obtained  two  of  the  magistrates  of 
Connecticut ,  a  constable,  and  several  others  to  come 
down  to  Guilford  on  the  night  of  the  30th  of  Decem- 
ber.   By  firing  a  number  of  guns  in  the  night,  they 
greatly  alarmed  and  disturbed  the  town ;  and  some 
of  the  men  from  Connecticut  were  rough,  and  used 
violent  and  threatening  language.    In  such  a  crisis,  ! 
Governor  Leet  judged  it  expedient  to  send  immedi-  ' 
ately  to  Branford   and  New  Haven   for  assistance ;  \ 
and  both   those  towns  were    alarmed  in  the  night,  | 
arid  forwarded  men  to  the  aid  of  the  governor  ;  and  j 
the  governor  and  magistrates  conducted  affairs  with 
such    moderation   and  prudence,  that    no    mischief  j 
was  done ;  and  the  gentlemen  from  Connecticut  re-  j 
monstrated  agair  st  collecting  taxes  from  those  who  j 
had  been  taken  under  the  protection  of  that  colony,  j 
and  desired  New  Haven  to  suspend  the  affair  for 
further  consideration. 

Governor  Leet  therefore  convoked  a  special  court 
at  New  Haven  on  the  7th  of  January,  1664 ;  and 
opened  the  public  business  by  acquainting  the  court 
that  it  was  the  earnest  desire  of  the  magistrates 
from  Connecticut,  and  of  Mr.  Rossiter  and  his  sou, 
that  the  act  of  the  general  court  of  New  Haven,  re- 
lative to  the  distraining  of  taxes,  might  be  suspended 
until  there  could  be  another  conference  between  the 
colonies;  at  which  they  were  in  expectation  that 
all  difficulties  might  be  amicably  settled.  He  also 
laid  before  the  court  the  representations  which  the 
gentlemen  from  Connecticut  had  made  of  the  great 
danger  there  would  be  in  carrying  that  act  into  ex- 
ecution, in  direct  opposition  to  the  authority  of  Con- 
necticut ;  and  it  was  desired  that  the  court  would 
maturely  consider  the  affair. 

The  court  insisted  that  all  former  treaties  with 
Connecticut  had  been  without  any  good  effect ;  and 
persisted  in  the  resolution,  that,  until  the  members, 
which  had  been  so  unrighteously  taken  from  them, 
should  be  restored,  they  would  hold  no  further  treaty 
with  that  colony.  Mr.  Davenport  and  Mr.  Street 
were  appointed  to  make  a  draught  of  their  griev- 
ances, to  be  transmitted  to  the  general  assembly  of 
Connecticut;  and  they  drew  up  a  long  and  sensible 
remonstrance,  which  they  termed  "  New  Haven 
case  stated."  The  subject  was  introduced  with  a 
declaration  ;  that  it  was  their  deep  sense  of  the  in- 
juries which  the  colony  had  suffered  by  the  claims 
and  encroachments  which  had  been  made  upon  then- 
just  prerogatives  and  privileges,  which  had  induced 
them,  unanimously,  though  with  great  reluctance, 

HIST.  OF  AMEK. — Nos.  89  £  90. 


to  declare  their  grievances  to  them;  and  they  pro- 
ceeded then  to  declare  that  they  settled  at  New 
Haven,  with  the  consent  of  Connecticut ;  had  pur- 
chased the  whole  tract  of  land,  which  they  bad  set- 
tled upon  the  sea-coast,  of  the  Indians,  the  original 
proprietors  of  the  soil ;  and  had  quietly  possessed  it 
nearly  six-and  twenty  years:  that  they  had  ex- 
pended great  estates,  in  clearing,  fencing,  and  cul- 
tivating the  lands,  without  any  assistance  from  Con- 
necticut;  and  had  formed  themselves,  by  voluntary 
compact,  into  a  distinct  commonwealth.  They  then 
cited  a  great  variety  of  instances  in  which  Connecti- 
cut, the  united  colonies,  the  parliament,  and  pro- 
tector, the  king,  and  his  council,  had  owned  them 
as  a  distinct  colony;  and  they  insisted,  that  notwith- 
standing they  had  now  procured  a  patent  including 
New  Haven,  not  only  without  their  concurrence, 
but  contrary  to  their  desire  previously  expressed ; 
and  contrary  to  the  express  articles  of  the  confede- 
ration, and  to  their  own  engagements,  not  to  include 
them  in  the  charter :  further  they  affirmed,  that 
Mr.  Winthrop,  before  his  departure  for  England, 
had  by  his  letters  given  assurance  that  it  was  not 
designed  to  include  New  Haven  in  the  patent;  and 
that  the  magistrates  of  Connecticut  had  agreed,  that 
if  the  patent  should  include  them,  they  should  be  at 
full  liberty  to  incorporate  with  them  or  not,  as  should 
be  most  agreeable  to  their  inclinations :  they  al- 
leged that,  contrary  to  all  the  premises,  to  justice, 
to  good  faith,  to  brotherly  kindness,  to  the  peace 
and  order  of  church  and  commonwealth,  Connecti- 
cut, even  in  their  first  assembly,  proceeded  to  the 
dismemberment  of  the  colony  of  New  Haven,  by 
receiving  its  members  from  Stamford,  Guilford,  and 
Southhold;  that  after  such  dismemberment,  they 
had  preposterously  pretended  to  treat  with  them  re- 
lative to  a  union  ;  and  that  after  a  conference  with 
the  committee  from  Connecticut,  and  the  reading 
of  their  charter,  it  did  not  appear  that  they  were 
so  much  as  mentioned,  or  that  it  had  any  reference 
to  them :  they  declared  that,  in  a  full  persuasion  of 
his  majesty's  pleasure,  to  continue  them  a  distinct 
jurisdiction,  they  had  assured  the  committee  of  their 
design  to  appeal  to  him,  and  know  his  royal  pur- 
pose ;  that  though  they  immediately  sent  their  ap- 
peal, yet  that  out  of  tender  respect  to  the  peace 
and  honour  of  Mr.  Winthrop,  they  advised  their 
friends  in  England  to  acquaint  him  with  their  pa- 
pers, that  he  might  adopt  some  effectual  expedient 
to  compromise  the  unhappy  differences  between  the 
two  colonies  ;  and  that  it  was  on  the  account  of  Mr. 
Winthrop's  engagements  to  their  friends,  that 
their  rights  and  interests  should  not  be  disquieted 
nor  injured,  that  the  appeal  to  his  majesty  was  then 
suspended.  From  a  statement  of  these,  and  some 
Other  facts  and  circumstances,  they  attempted  to 
demonstrate  their  rights  as  a  distinct  colony,  and 
the  injustice,  unfaithfulness,  ingratitude,  and  cru- 
elty of  Connecticut,  in  their  claims  upon  them,  and 
in  the  manner  of  their  prosecuting  them.  Their 
beginning  to  dismember  their  colony,  by  receiving 
and  protecting  their  subjects  and  malcontents,  pre- 
vious to  any  treaty  with  them ;  their  appointing 
officers,  creating:  animosities,  and  raising  alarms  in 
their  several  towns,  were  especially  insisted  on  as 
contrary  to  all  their  covenants,  as  brethren  and  con 
federate's,  and  contrary  to  all  order,  peace  an,11 
justice. 

The  general  assembly  of  Connecticut,  at  their 
session  in  May,  avowed  their  claim  to  Long  Island, 
as  one  of  the  adjoining  islands  mentioned  in  their 
charter,  except  some  preceding  right  should  appear, 

3  S 


706 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


approved  by  his  majesty ;  and  officers  were  ap- 
pointed by  the  court  at  Hampstead,  Jamaica,  New- 
town,  Flushing,  Oyster  Bay,  and  all  the  towns 
upon  the  west  end  of  the  island. 

Upon  the  general  election  at  New  Haven,  the 
freemen  proceeded  to  the  choice  of  their  civil  of- 
ficers, as  had  been  usual.  Governor  Leet  was  re- 
chosen,  and  Mr.  William  Jones  was  elected  deputy- 
governor.  Matthew  Gilbert,  Esq.  the  former  de- 
puty-governor, Mr.  Benjamin  Fenn,  Mr.  Jasper 
Crane,  Mr.  Treat,  and  Mr.  Nash,  were  appointed 
magistrates.  The  two  last  would  not  accept  the 
office.  The  governor  and  deputy-governor  were 
chosen  commissioners  for  the  next  meeting  at 
Hartford. 

The  colony  was  now  become  so  weak,  and  the 
affairs  of  it  so  embarrassed,  by  the  claims  and  pro- 
ceedings of  Connecticut,  that  the  general  court 
either  did  no  business,  or  judged  it  expedient  to 
put  nothing  upon  record.  At  this  crisis  an  event 
took  place,  which  alarmed  all  the  New  England  co- 
lonies, and  at  once  changed  the  opinions  of  the 
commissioners,  and  of  New  Haven,  with  respect  to 
their  incorporation  with  Connecticut.  King  Charles 
II.,  on  the  12th  of  March,  1664,  gave  a  patent  to 
his  brother  the  Duke  of  York  and  Albany,  of  several 
extensive  tracts  of  land  in  North  America,  the 
boundaries  of  which  are  given  in  the  account  of  this 
transaction  in  our  notice  of  New  York ;  as  are  also 
the  results  of  the  Dutch  war. 

The  short  time  the  king's  commissioners  stayed 
at  Boston,  before  they  proceeded  upon  their  ex- 
pedition against  the  Dutch,  was  sufficient  to  disco- 
ver something  of  their  extraordinary  powers,  and 
gave  such  a  notion  of  the  high  and  arbitrary  manner 
in  which  they  proceeded,  as  spread  a  general  alarm, 
and  awakened  in  the  colonies  serious  apprehensions 
for  their  liberties.  Mr.  Whiting,  who  was  at  Bos- 
ton, and  learned  much  of  their  temper,  was  sent 
back  in  haste  to  give  information  of  the  danger,  in 
which  it  was  apprehended  the  colonies  all  were ;  to 
advise  New  Haven  to  incorporate  with  Connecticut 
without  delay;  and  to  make  a  joint  exertion  for 
the  preservation  of  their  chartered  rights.  This 
was  pressed,  not  only  as  absolutely  necessary  for 
New  Haven,  but  for  the  general  safety  of  the 
country. 

In  consequence  of  this  intelligence,  a  general 
court  was  convened  at  New  Haven  on  the  llth  of 
August,  1664;  and  Governor  Leet  communicated 
the  intelligence  which  he  had  received  from  their 
friends  at  Boston.  He  acquainted  them  that  Mr. 
Whiting  and  Mr.  Bull  had  made  a  visit  to  New 
Haven,  and  in  their  own  names,  and  in  behalf  of 
the  magistrates  of  Connecticut,  pressed  their  imme- 
diate subjection  to  their  government  ;  and  the  court 
was  further  certified,  that  after  some  treaty  with 
those  gentlemen,  their  committee  had  given  an  an- 
swer, purporting,  that  if  Connecticut  would,  in  his 
majesty's  name,  assert  their  claim  to  the  colony  of 
New  Haven,  and  secure  them  in  the  full  enjoyment 
of  all  the  immunities  which  they  had  proposed,  and 
engage  to  make  a  united  exertion,  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  their  chartered  rights,  they  would  make 
their  submission.  After  a  long  debate  the  court  re- 
solved, that  if  Connecticut  should  come  and  assert 
their  claim,  as  had  been  agreed,  they  would  submit 
until  the  meeting  of  the  commissioners  of  the  united 
colonies.  The  magistrates  and  principal  gentlemen 
of  the  colony  seem  to  have  been  sensible,  not  only 
of  the  expediency,  but  necessity  of  an  incorporation 
with  Connecticut ;  but  the  opposition,  however,  was 


so  general  among  the  people,  that  nothing  further 
could  be  effected. 

The  court  of  commissioners  was  so  near  at  hand, 
that  Governor  Winthrop  and  his  council  adjudged  it 
nrtt  expedient  to  make  any  further  demands  upon 
New  Haven  until  their  advice  could  be  known. 
However,  when  the  general  assembly  met  early  in 
September,  the^  presented  a  remonstrance  against 
the  sitting  of  Governor  Leet  and  Deputy-governor 
Jones  with  the  commissioners  ;  and  declared  in  it 
that  New  Haven  was  not  a  colony,  but  a  part  of 
Connecticut,  and  avowed  their  claim  to  it  as  such. 
They  insisted,  that  owning  that  as  a  colony  distinct 
from  Connecticut,  after  his  majesty  had,  by  his  let- 
ters patent,  incorporated  it  with  that  colony,  was 
inconsistent  with  the  king's  pleasure  ;  would  endan- 
ger the  rights  of  all  the  colonies,  and  especially  the 
charter-rights  of  Connecticut  ;  and  at  the  same 
time  declared  that  they  would  have  a  tender  regard 
to  their  friends  and  brethren  at  New  Haven,  and 
exert  themselves  to  accommodate  them  with  all  the 
immunities  and  privileges  which  were  conveyed  by 
their  charter. 

On  the  first  of  September,  the  court  of  commis- 
sioners met  at  Hartford  ;  and  the  commissioners  from 
New  Haven  were  allowed  their  seats  with  the  other 
confederates  ;  and  the  case  between  them  and  Con- 
necticut was  fully  heard  ;  and  though  the  court  did 
not  approve  of  the  manner  in  which  Connecticut 
had  proceeded,  yet  they  earnestly  pressed  a  speedy 
and  amicable  union  of  the  two  colonies.  To  remove 
all  obstructions  on  their  part,  the  commissioners 
recommended  it  to  the  general  courts  of  Massachu- 
setts and  Plymouth,  that,  in  case  the  colony  of  New 
Haven  should  incorporate  with  Connecticut,  they 
might  then  be  owned  as  one  colony,  and  send  two 
commissioners  to  each  meeting;  and  that  the  de- 
terminations of  any  four  of  the  six  should  be  equally 
binding  on  the  confederates,  as  the  conclusions  of 
six  out  of  eight  had  been  before.  It  was  also  pro- 
posed to  the  court,  that  the  meeting,  which  of  course 
had  been  at  New  Haven,  should  be  at  Hartford ; 
and  it  was  determined  that  their  meetings  for  the 
future  should  be  triennial. 

In  compliance  with  the  advice  of  the  commission- 
ers, Governor  Leet  convened  the  general  Court  at 
New  Haven,  on  the  14th  of  September,  and  com- 
municated the  advice  which  had  been  given,  and 
papers  from  the  committee  of  Connecticut,  ad- 
vising and  urging  them  to  unite  ;  who  referred  it  to 
their  most  serious  consideration,  whether,  if  the 
king's  commissioners  should  visit  them,  they  would 
not  be  much  better  able  to  vindicate  their  liberty 
and  just  rights  in  union  with  Connecticut,  under  a 
royal  patent,  than  in  their  then  present  circum- 
stances ;  but  after  the  fullest  discussion  of  the  sub- 
ject, no  vote  for  union  or  treaty  could  be  obtained. 

New  Haven  and  Branford  were  more  fixed  and 
obstinate  in  their  opposition  to  an  incorporation 
with  Connecticut  than  any  of  the  other  towns  in 
that  colony  ;  Mr.  Davenport  and  Mr.  Pierson  seem 
to  have  been  among  its  chief  supporters  ;  and  they, 
with  many  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  colony,  were 
more  rigid,  with  respect  to  the  terms  of  church  com- 
munion, than  the  ministers  and  churches  of  Con- 
necticut generally  were.  The  ministers  and  churches 
of  the  latter  were,  a  considerable  number  of  them, 
in  favour  of  the  propositions  of  the  general  council, 
which  met  at  Cambridge,  in  1662,  relative  to  the 
baptism  of  children,  whose  parents  were  not  in  full 
communion ;  the  ministers  and  churches  of  New 
Haven  were  universally  and  completely  against 


UNITED  STATES. 


707 


them.  Mr.  Davenport,  and  others  of  that  colon 
were  of  opinion,  that  all  government  should  be  i 
the  church ;  and  no  person  could  be  a  freema 
there,  unless  he  were  a  member  in  full  commu 
nion.  But  in  Connecticut,  all  orderly  persons  pos 
sessing  a  freehold  to  a  certain  amount,  might  b 
made  free  of  the  corporation.  Those  who  were  s 
strong  in  the  opposition,  were  doubtless  jealous  tha 
a  union  would  mar  the  purity  and  order  of  thei 
churches,  and  have  a  bad  influence  on  the  civil  ad 
ministrations.  The  removal  of  the  seat  of  govern 
ment;  the  apprehension  which  some  had  of  losiiij 
their  places  of  trust  and  general  influence ;  wit! 
strong  prejudices  and  passions  against  Connecticut 
on  account  of  the  injuries  which  it  was  conceived  i 
had  done  the  colony,  all  operated  in  forming  thi 
opposition. 

This  event,  however,  was  approaching,  and  grew 
more  and  more  urgent.  Milford  at  this  time  broke 
off  from  them,  and  would  not  send  either  magis 
trate  or  deputies  to  the  general  court;  and  Mr 
Richard  Law,  a  principal  gentleman  at  Stamford 
also  deserted  them. 

In  this  state  of  affairs,  the  general  assembly  o 
Connecticut  met  on  the  13th  of  October.  It  was  an 
important  crisis  with  the  colony ;  and  there  havi 
been  few  instances  of  so  many  important  objects  o 
consideration  at  one  time  presenting  themselves  tc 
a  colonial  legislature.  Their  liberties  were  not  only 
in  equal  danger  with  those  of  their  sister  colonies, 
from  the  extraordinary  powers  and  arbitrary  dispo- 
sitions and  measures  of  the  king's  commissioners,  but 
the  Duke  of  York,  a  powerful  antagonist,  had  re- 
ceived a  patent,  covering  Long  Island,  and  all  that 
part  of  the  colony  west  of  Connecticut  river :  the 
Massachusetts  were  encroaching  upon  them  on  their 
northern  and  eastern  boundaries :  William  aad  Ann, 
the  duke  and  duchess  of  Hamilton,  had  petitioned 
his  majesty  to  restore  to  them  the  tract  of  country 
granted  to  their  father,  James,  marquis  of  Hamil- 
ton, in  the  year  1635 ;  and  his  majesty  had  on  the 
6th  of  May,  1664,  referred  the  case  to  the  determi- 
nation of  Colonel  Nichols  and  the  other  commis- 
sioners ;  and  in  addition  to  all  these,  the  state  of 
affairs  with  New  Haven  was  unsettled. 

In  these  circumstances,  the  legislature  viewed  it  as 
a  point  of  extreme  importance  to  conciliate  the 
commissioners,  and  obtain  the  good  graces  of  the 
king;  and  for  this  purpose,  they  ordered  a  present 
of  five  hundred  bushels  of  corn,  to  be  made  to  the 
king's  commissioners  ;  and  a  large  committee  was 
appointed  to  settle  the  boundaries  between  Connec- 
ticut and  the  duke  of  York ;  and  a  committee,  con- 
sisting of  Mr.  Allen,  Mr.  Wyllys,  Mr.  Talcott,  and 
Mr.  Newbury,  was  also  appointed  to  settle  the 
boundary  line  between  this  colony  and  Massachu- 
setts, and  between  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island. 

Mr.  Sherman,  Mr.  Allen,  and  the  secretary,  were 
authorized  to  proceed  to  New  Haven,  and  by  order 
of  the  general  assembly,  "  in  his  majesty's  name,  to 
require  the  inhabitants  of  New  Haven,  Milford, 
Branford,  Guilford,  and  Stamford,  to  submit  to  the 
government  established  by  his  majesty's  gracious 
grant  to  this  colony,  and  to  receive  their  answer;" 
and  they  had  instructions  to  declare  all  the  freemen 
in  those  towns,  free  of  the  corporation  of  Connecti- 
cut; and  to  make  all  others,  in  the  respective  towns 
mentioned,  qualified  according  to  law,  freemen  of 
Connecticut,  and  they  were  directed  to  administer 
to  them  the  freeman's  oath.  They  were  also  autho- 
rized to  make  declaration,  that  the  assembly  in- 
vested William  Leet  and  William  Jones,  Esquires, 


Mr.  Gilbert,  Mr.  Fenn,  Mr.  Crane,  Mr.  Treat,  and 
Mr.  Law,  with  the  powers  of  magistracy ;  to  go- 
vern their  respective  plantations  agreeably  to  the 
laws  of  Connecticut,  or  such  of  their  own  'laws  as 
were  not  inconsistent  with  the  charter,  until  their 
session  in  May  next ;  and  it  was  likewise  pro- 
claimed, that  all  other  officers,  civil  and  military, 
were  established  in  their  respective  places  ;  and 
that  cognisance  should  not  be  taken  of  any  case 
which  had  been  prosecuted  to  a  final  adjudication, 
in  any  of  the  courts  of  that  colony. 

Governor  Winthrop,  Mr.  Allen,  Mr.  Gould,  Mr. 
Richards,  and  John  Winthrop,  the  committee  ap- 
pointed to  settle  the  boundaries  between  Connecti- 
cut and  New  York,  waited  on  the  commissioners 
upon  York  Island ;  and  after  they  had  been  fully 
heard  in  behalf  of  Connecticut,  the  commissioners 
determined,  "  That  the  southern  bounds  of  his  ma- 
jesty's colony  of  Connecticut  is  the  sea ;  and  that 
Long  Island  is  to  be  under  the  government  of  his 
royal  highness  the  duke  of  York,  as  is  expressed 
by  plain  words  in  the  said  patents  respectively.  We 
also  order  and  declare,  that  the  creek  or  river 
called  Mamaronock,  which  is  reputed  to  be  about 
twelve  miles  to  the  east  of  West  Chester,  and  a  line 
drawn  from  the  east  point  or  side,  where  the  fresh 
water  falls  into  the  salt  at  high- water  mark,  north- 
north-west,  to  the  line  of  Massachusetts,  be  the 
western  bounds  of  the  said  colony  of  Qpnnecticut; 
and  the  plantations  lying  westward  of  that  creek, 
and  line  so  drawn,  to  be  under  his  royal  highness's 
government ;  and  all  plantations  lying  eastward  of 
that  creek  and  line,  to  be  under  the  government  of 
Connecticut." 

In  consequence  of  the  acts  of  Connecticut,  and  the 
determination  of  the  commissioners,  relative  to  the 
boundaries  of  the  colony,  a  general  court  was  called 
at  New  Haven  with  the  freemen,  and  as  many  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  colony  as  chose  to  attend,  on 
the  13th  of  December,  1664;  when  the  following 
resolutions  were  unanimously  passed. 

"  1.  That,  by  this  act  or  vote,  we  be  not  under- 
stood to  justify  Connecticut's  fonner  actings,  nor 
any  thing  disorderly  done  by  their  own  people  oa 
such  accounts. 

"  2.  That,  by  it  we  be  not  apprehended  to  have 
any  hand  in  breaking  or  dissolving  the  confederation. 

"  3.  Yet,  in  loyalty  to  the  king's  majesty,  when 
an  authentic  copy  of  the  determination  of  his  ma- 
esty's  commissioners  is  published,  to  be  recorded 
with  us  if  thereby  it  shall  appear  to  our  committee 
that  we  are  by  his  majesty's  authority  now  put  un- 
der Connecticut  patent,  we  shall  submit  by  a  neces- 
sity brought  upon  us  by  the  means  of  Connecticut 
aforesaid  ;  but  with  a  salvo  jure  of  our  former  rights 
and  claims,  as  a  people,  who  have  not  yet  been 
icard  in  point  of  plea." 

The  members  of  the  court  then  present,  the  elders 
f  the  colony,  with  Mr.  John  Nash,  Mr.  James 
Bishop,  Mr.  Francis  Bell,  Mr.  Robert  Treat,  and 
VIr.  Richard  Baldwin,  were  appointed  a  committee 
o  consummate  a  union  between  the  colonies. 

Several  letters  passed  between  the  committees  of 
he  two  colonies  on  the  subject,  in  which  the  com- 
nittee  of  New  Haven  signified  that  the  officers  in 
hat  colony  would  continue  to  act  in  their  respec- 
ive  offices,  and  expressed  their  good  designs  and 
wishes  towards  Connecticut,  and  their  loyalty  to 
is  majesty.  They  also  represented  their  expecta- 
ions  that  the  governor  and  company,  according  to 
leir  engagements,  would  give  them  all  the  advan 
ages  aud  privileges  which  they  could  do,  consist- 

3S  2 


708 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


ent  with   the  patent,  and  their  desires  still  to  con- 
tinue the  confederation. 

The  committee  of  Connecticut,  in  answer  to  New 
Haven,  assured  them  of  their  willingness  to  bestow 
on  them  all  the  privileges  granted  in  their  charter ; 
and  pleaded  the  necessity  and  importance  of  theii 
incorporation  with  Connecticut,  as  they  were  nearly 
in  the  centre  of  the  colony,  as  an  apology  for  the 
measures  which  they  had  taken.  They  also  ex- 
pressed their  strong  desire  that  New  Haven  should 
cordially  unite  with  them,  and  by  no  means  view  it 
as  amattar  of  constraint ;  that  mutual  candour  might 
be  exercised  ;  and  that  all  reflections  and  past  con- 
duct, disagreeable  to  either  of  them,  be  entirely 
buried  and  for  ever  forgotten. 

(1665.)  The  general  assembly  of  Connecticut  ap- 
pointed no  committee  to  meet  with  that  chosen  by 
the  general  court  of  New  Haven  ;  and  of  this  their 
committee  complain  in  their  last  letter.  However,  at  a 
session  of  theirs,  the  20th  of  April,  1665,  they  passed 
several  resolutions  for  the  further  completion  of  the 
union  ;  among  which  it  was  resolved,  that  William 
Leet,  and  William  Jones,  Esquires,  Mr.  Benjamin 
Fenn,  Mr.  Matthew  Gilbert,  Mr.  Jasper  Crane, 
Mr.  Alexander  Bryan,  Mr.  Law,  and  Mr.  Robert 
Treat,  should  stand  in  the  nomination  for  magis- 
trates at  the  next  election.  They  also  passed  the 
following  declaration  :  "  That  all  acts  of  the  autho- 
rity of  Nyw  Haven,  which  had  been  uncomfortable 
to  Connecticut,  should  never  be  called  to  an  ac- 
count, but  be  buried  in  perpetual  oblivion." 

The  king's  commissioners  presented  the  follow- 
ing propositions,  or  requisitions  from  his  majesty,  to 
this  assembly. 

"  1 .  That  all  householders  inhabiting  this  colony, 
take  the  oath  of  allegiance,  and  that  the  adminis- 
tration of  justice  be  in  his  majesty's  name. 

"  2.  That  all  men  of  competent  estates  and  of 
civil  conversation,  though  of  different  judgments, 
may  be  admitted  to  be  freemen,  and  have  liberty  to 
choose,  or  to  be  chosen  officers,  both  military  and 
civil. 

"  3.  That  all  persons  of  civil  lives  may  freely 
enjoy  the  liberty  of  their  consciences,  and  the  wor- 
ship of  God  in  that  way  which  they  think  best ; 
provided  that  this  liberty  tend  not  to  the  disturbance 
of  the  public,  nor  to  the  hinderance  of  the  mainte- 
nance of  ministers,  regularly  chosen,  in  each  respec- 
tive parish  or  township. 

"  4.  That  all  laws,  and  expressions  in  laws,  de- 
rogatory to  his  majesty,  if  any  such  have  been  made 
in  these  troublesome  times,  may  be  repealed,  al- 
tered, and  taken  off  the  file." 

The  assembly  answered  in  the  manner  following : 

"  .1.  That  according  to  his  majesty's  pleasure, 
expressed  in  our  charter,  our  governor  formerly  ap- 
pointed meet  persons  to  administer  the  oath  of  alle- 
giance, who  have,  according  to  their  order,  adminis- 
tered the  said  oath  to  several  persons  already ;  and 
the  administration  of  justice  among  us  hath  been,  is, 
and  shall  be,  in  his  majesty's  name. 

"  2.  That  our  order  for  the  admission  of  freemen 
is  consonant  with  that  proposition. 

"  3.  We  know  not  of  any  one  that  hath  been 
troubled  by  us  for  attending  his  conscience,  provided 
he  hath  not  disturbed  the  public. 

"  4.  We  know  not  of  any  law,  or  expressions  of 
law,  that  are  derogatory  to  his  majesty  among  us ; 
but  if  any  such  be  found,  we  count  it  our  duty  to 
repeal,  alter,  and  take  them  off  the  file  ;  and  to  this 
we  attended  upon  the  receipt  of  our  charter." 

About  this  time  the  council  gave  the  following 


answer  to  the  commissioners  relative  to  the  claim 
and  petition  of  the  duke  of  Hamilton  :  "  That  the 
grant  of  Connecticut  to  the  nobk-s  and  gentlemen,  of 
whom  they  purchased,  was  several  years  prior  to  the 
marquis  of  Hamilton's  :  that  with  great  difficulty  they 
had  conquered  a  potent  and  barbarous  people,  who 
spread  over  a  great  part  of  that  tract  of  country, 
which  he  claimed;  and  that  it  was  but  a  small  com- 
pensation for  the  blood  and  treasure  which  they  had 
expended  in  conquering  it,  and  defending  it  for  his 
majesty's  interest,  against  the  Dutch  and  other 
foreigners :  that  they  had  peaceably  enjoyed  that 
tract  for  about  thirty  years:  that  they  had  with 
great  labour  and  expense  cultivated  the  lands  to 
their  own  and  his  majesty's  interest ;  and  that  his 
majesty,  of  his  grace,  had  been  pleased  to  confirm  it 
to  them  by  his  royal  charter,  in  which  these  reasons 
had  been  recognised." 

They  at  the  same  time  solicited  their  honours  the 
commissioners,  to  present  their  humble  acknowledg- 
ments to  his  majesty  for  his  abundant  grace,  in  the 
granting  of  their  charter,  and  for  his  gracious  letter, 
sent  them  by  his  commissioners,  re-ratifying  their 
privileges,  civil  and  ecclesiastical. 

At  the  general  election,  May  llth,  1665,  when 
the  two  colonies  of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven 
united  in  one,  the  following  gentlemen  were  chosen 
into  office.  John  Winthrop,  Esq.  was  elected  ga- 
vernor,  John  Mason,  Esq.  deputy-governor,  and 
Matthew  Allen,  Samuel  Wyllys,  Nathan  Gould, 
John  Talcott,  Henry  Wolcott,  John  Allen,  Samuel 
Sherman,  James  Richards,  William  Leet,  William 
Jones,  Benjamin  Fenn,  and  Jasper  Crane,  Esquires, 
magistrates.  John  Talcott,  Esq.  was  treasurer,  and 
Daniel  Clark  secretary.  A  proportionable  number 
of  the  magistrates  were  of  the  former  colony  of  New 
Haven;  all  the  towns  sent  their  deputies ;  and  the 
assembly  appears  to  have  been  very  friendly 

This  assembly  enacted,  that  Hastings  and  Rye 
should  be  one  plantation,  by  the  name  of  Rye ;  and 
county  courts  were  first  instituted  by  that  name.  It 
was  enacted,  that  there  should  be  two  county  courts 
holden  annually  in  New  Haven ;  one  on  the  second 
Thursday  in  June,  the  other  on  the  third  Thursday 
in  November;  the  court  to  consist  of  five  judges, 
two  magistrates,  and  three  justices  of  the  quorum. 
A  similar  court  was  appointed  at  New  London  ;  and 
the  following  October,  that  was  made  a  distinct 
county. 

At  the  session  in  October,  a  county  court  was 
appointed  at  Hartford  instead  of  the  quarterly  courts ; 
which  was  to  be  holden  annually  in  the  months  of 
March  and  September.  The  county  courts  had  cog- 
nisance of  all  cases  except  those  of  life,  limb,  or 
banishment;  but  in  cases  of  more  than  twenty  shil- 
lings, the  law  required  that  a  jury  should  be  einpan- 
nelled.  At  the  same  time,  a  superior  court  was 
appointed  to  be  holden  at  Hartford,  the  Tuesday 
before  the  session  of  the  general  assembly  in  May 
and  October ;  which  was  to  consist  of  eight  magis- 
trates at  least,  and  always  to  be  attended  with  a 
jury.  In  this  court  were  tried  all  appeals  from  the 
several  county  courts,  and  all  capital  actions,  of 
life,  limb,  and  banishment. 

All  the  towns,  formerly  under  the  jurisdiction  of 
New  Haven,  were  satisfied  with  the  union  of  the 
colonies,  except  Branford  ;  where  Mr.  Pierson  and 
almost  his  whole  church  and  congregation  were  so 
displeased,  that  they  soon  removed  into  N  ewark,  in 
NewJersey  ;  and  carried  off  the  records  of  the  church 
and  town,  and  after  it  had  been  settled  about  five- 
and-twenty  years,  left  it  almost  without  inhabitants. 


UNITED  STATES. 


709 


For  more  than  twenty  years  from  that  time,  there 
\vas  not  a  church  formed  in  the  town ;  but  people 
from  various  parts  of  the  colony  gradually  moved 
iato  it,  and  purchased  the  lands  of  the  first  plant- 
ers, so  that  in  about  twenty  years  it  became  re-set-, 
tied ;  and  in  1685  it  was  re-invested  with  town 
privileges. 

The  union  of  the  colonies  was  a  happy  event.  It 
greatly  contributed  to  the  convenience,  strength, 
peace,  and  welfare  of  the  inhabitants  of  both,  and 
of  their  posterity;  greater  privileges  New  Haven 
could  not  have  enjoyed,  had  they  been  success- 
ful in  their  applications  to  his  majesty  ;  and  after 
much  expense,  they  might  have  failed  in  their  at- 
tempts and  lost  their  liberties,  or  have  been  joined 
to  Connecticut  at  last.  Had  they  remained  a  dis- 
tinct colony,  the  charges  of  government  would  have 
been  greater ;  and  their  situation,  in  so  central  a 
part  of  the  colony,  would  have  been  extremely  in- 
convenient, especially  for  Connecticut. 

War  was  proclaimed  this  year  in  London,  in  the 
month  of  March,  between  England  and  Holland ; 
and  intelligence  had  been  given  to  the  colony,  that 
De  Ruyter  the  Dutch  admiral  had  orders  to  visit 
New  York.  The  colony  was  alarmed,  and  put  into 
a  state  of  defence;  but  the  admiral  was  diverted 
from  the  enterprise,  and  the  year  passed  in  peace. 
It  was  now  thirty  years  since  the  settlement  of  the 
colony  commenced,  yet  after  the  defalcation  of 
Long  Island,  it  consisted  of  nineteen  towns  only 
which  paid  taxes.  The  grand  list  was  no  more  than 
£153,620  16*.  bd. 

A  view  of  the  churches  of  Connecticut  and  New  Ha- 
ven— Ecclesiastical  laws — Care  to  diffuse  general 
knowledge;  its  happy  influence — Attempts  to  Jo  and 
a  college  at  New  Hacen — No  sectaries  in  Connecti- 
cut nor  Neiv  Haven  until  after  the  union — Deaths 
and  characters  of  several  of  the  first  ministers — 
Dissensions  in  the  church — Laws  against  the  Qua- 
kers— A  synod  proposed  and  convened — Dissensions 
continued  at  Hartford  and  at  Weathersfield — Set- 
tlement of  Hadley — Synod  at  Boston. 

Connecticut,  no  less  than  other  parts  of  New 
England,  was  settled  with  a  particular  view  to  re- 
ligion. It  was  the  design  of  the  first  planters  to 
erect  churches  in  the  strictest  conformity  to  Scrip- 
ture example ;  and  to  transmit  evangelical  purity, 
in  doctrine,  worship,  and  discipline,  with  civil  and 
religious  liberty  to  their  posterity.  And  to  see  how 
far  they  accomplished  their  desire,  we  must  in 
some  degree  retrace  the  period  already  travelled 
over,  and  view  it  with  regard  entirely  to  ecclesias- 
tical concerns. 

The  first  churches,  though  their  numbers  were 
small,  and  they  had  to  combat  all  the  hardships, 
dangers,  and  expense  of  new  settlements,  com- 
monly supported  two  able  experienced  ministers  : 
with  the  first  three  churches  settled  in  Connecticut, 
there  were  at  Hartford,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hooker  and 
Mr.  Stone;  at  Windsor,  Mr.  Warham  and  Mr. 
Hewet;  and  at  Weathersfield,  Mr  Prudden,  in  1638, 
while  his  people  were  making  preparations  to  re- 
move from  New  Haven  to  Milford.  To  the  garri- 
son at  Saybrook  fort,  Mr.  John  Higginson,  son  of 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Higginson,  of  Salem,  preached  three 
or  four  of  the  first  years.  At  New  Haven,  at  first 
were  Mr.  Davenport  and  Mr.  Samuel  Eaton,  bro- 
ther to  Governor  Eaton.  At  Milford,  Mr.  Prudden 
was  pastor,  and  the  church  invited  Mr.  John  Sher- 
man, afterwards  minister  of  Watertown,  in  Massa- 
chusetts, to  be  their  teacher ;  but  he  declined  their 


invitation,  and  that  church  never  had  but  one  settled 
minister  at  the  same  time.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Whit- 
field  was  pastor  of  the  church  at  Guilford,  and  about 
the  year  1641  Mr.  Higgiuson  removed  from  Say- 
brook,  and  became  teacher,  as  an  assistant  to  Mr. 
Whitfield  in  that  church.  After  Mr.  Prudden  left 
Weathersfield,  Mr:  Henry  Smith  was  elected,  and 
ordained  pastor  of  the  church  and  congregation  in 
that  town.  About  the  time  that  Mr.  Higginson  left 
Saybrook,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Thomas  Peters  became 
chaplain  to  Colonel  Fenwick,  and  the  people  there. 
Upon  the  removal  of  Mr.  Eaton  from  New  Haven, 
Mr.  William  Hook  was  installed  teacher,  as  an  as- 
sistant of  Mr.  Davenport.  The  six  first  towns  in 
Connecticut  and  New  Haven  enjoyed  the  constant 
labour  of  ten  able  ministers.  This  was  as  much  as 
one  minister  to  about  fifty  families,  or  to  two  hun- 
dred and  sixty  or  seventy  souls.  As  other  towns 
settled,  churches  were  gathered,  and  ministers  in- 
stalled or  ordained.  Mr.  Jones  was  chosen  pastor 
at  Fairfield,  Mr.  Adam  Blackmail,  at  Stratford, 
and  Mr.  Richard  Denton,  at  Stamford.  Mr.  Abra- 
ham Pierson  was  pastor  of  the  church  at  Branfurd, 
and  it  seems  one  Mr.  Brucy  assisted  him  as  a 
teacher  for  some  time.  Fourteen  or  fifteen  of  these 
ministers  had  been  episcopally  ordained  in  England 
before  they  came  into  America. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Richard  Blynman,  first  pastor  of 
the  church  at  New  London,  was  also  ordained  in 
England.  After  he  came  into  this  country,  he  set- 
tled first,  as  pastor  of  the  church  at  Gloucester,  in 
Massachusetts  ;  and  from  thence  he  removed  to  New 
London  in  1648. 

From  these  reverend  fathers,  the  ministers  of 
Connecticut  trace  their  ordinations  ;  especially  from, 
Mr.  Hooker,  Mr.  Warham,  Mr.  Davenport,  and 
Mr.  Stone. 

With  respect  to  their  religious  sentiments,  and 
those  of  their  followers,  they  were  puritans;  a  name 
given,  says  Fuller,  "to  abuse  pious  people,  who  endea- 
voured to  follow  the  minister  with  a  pure  heart,  and 
laboured  for  a  life  pure  and  holy."  When  armini- 
anism  began  to  prevail,  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
reign  of  James  I.,  those  who  were  calvinistic  were 
termed  doctrinal  puritans ;  and  it  was  finally  used, 
as  a  stigma  for  all  Christians  who  were  strict  in 
morals,  calvinistic  in  sentiment,  and  unconformed 
to  the  liturgy,  ceremonies,  and  discipline  of  the 
established  church. 

This  was  truly  thr  character  of  the  first  ministers 
and  churches  in  this  colony ;  who  were  strictly  cal- 
vinistic, agreeing  in  doctrine  with  their  brethren  of 
the  established  church,  and  with  all  the  protestant 
reformed  churches.  In  discipline,  they  were  con- 
gregationalists,  and  dissented  from  the  national 
establishment  ;  but  they  firmly  believed  that  it  was 
the  sole  prerogative  of  Christ  to  direct  the  mode  of 
worship  and  discipline  in  his  own  house.  They  were 
persuaded,  that  the  Scriptures  were  a  perfect  rule, 
not  only  of  faith  and  manners,  but  of  worship  and 
discipline  ;  and  that  all  churches  ought  to  be  formed 
entirely  after  the  pattern  exhibited  in  the  New 
Testament. 

Some  of  the  ministers  of  Connecticut  were  dis- 
tinguished for  literature,  piety,  and  ministerial  gifts. 
Mr.  Hooker,  Mr.  Davenport,  Mr.  Stone,  and  some 
others,  were  men  of  great  learning  and  abilities : 
and  all  were  of  the  strictest  morals.  Mr.  Neal,  after 
giving  a  catalogue  of  the  ministers  who  first  illumi- 
nated the  churches  of  New  England,  bears  this  tes- 
timony concerning  them.  "  I  will  not  say  that  all 
the  ministers  mentioned  were  men  of  the  first  rate 


710 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


for  learning,  but  I  can  assure  the  reader,  they  had 
a  better  share  of  it  than  most  of  their  neighbouring 
clergy  at  that  time  :  they  were  men  of  great  sobri- 
ety afad  virtue,  plain,  serious,  affectionate  preach- 
ers, exactly  conformable  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
church  of  England,  and  took  a  great  deal  of  pains  to 
promote  a  reformation  of  manners  in  their  several 
parishes."  They  not  only  fasted  and  prayed  fre- 
quently with  their  people  in  public,  but  kept  many 
days  of  secret  fasting,  prayer,  and  self-examination, 
in  their  studies;  and  some  of  them,  it  seems,  fasted 
and  prayed  in  this  private  manner  every  week.  Be- 
sides the  exercises  on  the  Lord's  day,  they  preached 
lectures,  not  only  in  public,  but  from  house  to 
house ;  and  they  were  diligent  and  laborious  in 
catechising  and  instructing  the  children  and  young 
people,  both  in  public  and  private. 

The  people  who  followed  them  into  the  wilder- 
ness, were  their  spiritual  children,  who  imbibed  the 
same  spirit  and  sentiments,  and  esteemed  them  as 
their  fathers.  Many  of  them  were  men  of  property, 
as  Haynes,  Hopkins,  Wyllys,  Ludlow,  Wolcott, 
Eaton,  Gregson,  Desborough,  Leet,  and  others, 
who  were  governors  and  magistrates  in  their  respec- 
tive colonies.  The  people  in  general  were  pious, 
and  strictly  moral;  and  instances  of  intemperance, 
wantonness,  Sabbath-breaking,  fraud,  or  any  other 
gross  immorality,  for  many  years,  were  rarely  found 
among  them. 

It  was  the  opinion  of  the  principal  divines,  who 
first  settled  New  England  and  Connecticut,  that  in 
every  church,  completely  organized,  there  was  a 
pastor,  teacher,  ruling  elder,  and  deacons.  These 
distinct  offices  they  imagined  were  clearly  taught 
in  certain  passages  of  the  Epistles ;  and  from  these 
they  argued  the  duty  of  all  churches,  which  were 
able  to  be  thus  furnished.  In  this  manner  were  the 
churches  of  Hartford,  Windsor,  New  Haven,  and 
other  towns  organized ;  but  those  churches  which 
were  not  able  to  support  a  pastor  and  teacher,  had 
their  ruling  elders  and  deacons.  Their  ruling  elders 
were  ordained  with  no  less  solemnity  than  their 
pastors  and  teachers.  Where  no  teacher  could  be 
obtained,  the  pastor  performed  the  duties,  both  of 
pastor  and  teacher.  It  was  the  general  opinion, 
that  the  pastor's  work  consisted  principally  in  ex- 
hortation, in  working  upon  the  will  and  affections  ; 
and  to  this  the  whole  force  of  his  studies  was  to  be 
directed  ;  that  by  his  judicious,  powerful,  and  af- 
fectionate addresses  he  might  win  his  hearers  to 
the  love  and  practice  of  the  truth  ;  but  the  teacher 
\vas  doctw  in  ecclesia,  whose  business  it  was  to  teach, 
explain,  and  defend  the  doctrines  of  Christianity. 

The  business  of  the  ruling  elder  was  to  assist  the 
pastor  in  the  government  of  the  church.  He  was 
particularly  set  apart  to  watch  over  all  its  members ; 
to  prepare  and  bring  forward  all  cases  of  discipline  ; 
to  visit  and  pray  with  the  sick ;  and,  in  the  absence 
of  the  pastor  and  teacher,  to  pray  with  the  congre- 
gation, and  expound  the  Scriptures. 

The  pastors  and  churches  of  New  England  main 
tained,  with  the  reformed  churches  in  general,  that 
bishops  and  presbyters  were  only  different  names 
for  the  same  office  ;  and  that  all  pastors,  regularly 
separated  to  the  Gospel  ministry,  were  Scripture  bi- 
shops. They  also  insisted,  agreeably  to  the  primi- 
tive practice,  that  the  work  of  every  pastor  was 
confined  principally  to  one  particular  church  anc 
congregation,  who  could  all  assemble  at  one  place 
whom  he  could  inspect,  and  who  could  all  unite  to- 
gether in  acts  of  worship  and  discipline.  Indeed.  th( 
first  ministers  of  Connecticut  and  New  England  a 


irst  maintained,  that  all  the 
was  confined  to  his  own  church  and  congregation  : 
and  that  the  administering  of  baptism  and  the 
Lord's  supper  in  other  churches  was  irregular. 

With  respect  to  ordination,  they  held  that  it  did 
not  constitute  the  essentials  of  the  ministerial  office. 
'  Ordination  is  an  approbation  of  the  officer,  and 
lolemn  setting  and  confirmation  of  him  in  his  office, 
jy  prayer,  and  laying  on  of  hands,"  says- Mr.  Hooker. 
[t  was  viewed  by  the  ministers  of  New  England, 
as  no  more  than  putting  the  pastor  elect  into  office, 
or  a  solemn  recommending  of  him  and  his  labours 
to  the  blessing  of  God.  It  was  the  general  opinion 
:hat  elders  ought  to  lay  on  hands  in  ordination,  if 
there  were  a  presbytery  in  the  church ;  but  if  there 
were  not,  the  church  might  appoint  some  other 
elders,  or  a  number  of  the  brethren  to  that  service. 

It  was  acknowledged  that  synods  or  general  coun- 
cils were  an  ordinance  of  Christ,  and  in  some 
cases  expedient  and  necessary  :  that  their  business 
was  to  give  light  and  counsel  in  weighty  concerns, 
and  bear  testimony  against  corruption  in  doctrines 
and  morals.  While  it  was  granted,  that  their  de- 
terminations ought  to  be  received  with  reverenee, 
and  not  to  be  counteracted,  unless  apparently  re- 
pugnant to  the  Scriptures,  it  was  insisted  that  they 
had  no  juridical  power.  The  churches  of  Connecti- 
cut originally  maintained,  that  the  right  of  choosing 
and  settling  their  ministers,  of  exercising  discipline 
and  performing  all  juridical  acts  was  in  the  church, 
when  properly  organized  ;  and  they  denied  all  ex- 
ternal or  foreign  power  of  presbyteries,  synods, 
general  councils,  or  assemblies.  Hence  they  were 
termed  congregational  churches. 

The  fathers  of  Connecticut,  as  to  polities,  were 
republicans.  They  rejected  with  abhorrence  the 
doctrines  of  the  divine  right  of  kings,  passive  obe- 
dience, and  non-resistance.  With  Sidney,  Hamp. 
den,  and  other  great  thinkers,  they  believed  that  all 
civil  power  and  government  was  originally  in  the 
people ;  and  upon  these  principles  they  formed 
their  civil  constitutions. 

The  churches  of  New  Haven,  Milford,  and  Guil- 
ford,  were  formed  first  by  the  choice  of  seven  per- 
sons, from  among  the  brethren,  who  were  termed 
the  pillars.  A  confession  of  faith  was  drawn  up,  to 
which  they  all  assented,  as  preparatory  to  their  co- 
venanting together  in  church  estate.  They  then 
entered  into  covenant,  first  with  God,  to  be  his 
people  in  Christ,  and  then  with  each  other,  to  walk 
together  in  the  strict  and  conscientious  practice  of 
all  Christian  duties,  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  all  the 
ordinances  and  privileges  of  the  church  of  Christ. 
The  confessions  of  faith  contained  a  summary  of 
Christian  doctrine,  and  were  strictly  calvinistic. 
The  covenants  were  full,  solemn,  and  impressive, 
importing,  "  that  they  avouched  the  Lord  Jehovah, 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  to  be  their  sovereign 
Lord  and  supreme  Good  ;  and  that  they  gave  them- 
selves up  to  him,  through  Jesus  Christ,  in  the  way 
and  on  the  terms  of  the  covenant  of  grace."  They 
covenanted  with  each  other  to  uphold  the  divine 
worship  and  ordinances,  in  the  churches  of  which 
they  were  members ;  to  watch  over  each  other  as 
brethren;  to  bear  testimony  against  all  sin;  and  to- 
teach  all  under  their  care  to  fear  and  serve  the  Lord. 
The  other  brethren  joined  themselves  to  the  seven 
pillars,  by  making  the  same  profession  of  faith,  and 
covenanting  in  the  same  manner.  The  members, 
previously  to  their  covenanting  with  each  ther,  gave 
one  another  satisfaction  with  respect  to  their  r^ 
pentance,  faith,  and  purposes  of  holy  living. 


UNITED  STATES. 


It  appears  that  the  churches  of  New  Haven  and 
Milford  were  gathered  to  the  seven  pillars,  on  the 
22d  of  August,  1639.  The  tradition  is,  that  soon 
after,  Mr.  Davenport  was  chosen  pastor  of  the 
church  at  New  Haven ;  and  that  Mr.  Hooker  and 
Mr.  Stone  came  and  assisted  in  his  installation. 
Mr.  Prudden  was  installed  pastor  of  the  church  at 
Milford,  April  8th,  1640,  upon  a  day  of  solemn 
fasting  and  prayer.  Imposition  of  hands  was  per- 
formed by  Zechariah  Whitman,  William  Fowler, 
and  Edmond  Tapp.  They  were  appointed  to  this 
service  by  the  other  brethren  of  the  church.  The 
installation  was  at  New  Haven,  and  it  seems  that, 
the  hands  of  the  brethren  were  imposed  in  the 
presence  of  Mr.  Davenport  and  Mr.  Eaton. 

Though  the  members  of  Mr.  Whitfield's  church 
were,  in  the  original  agreement,  at  New  Haven, 
engaged  to  embody  into  church  estate,  in  the 
same  manner  as  New  Haven  and  Milford  churches 
did,  yet  they  delayed  the  completion  of  the  work 
for  a  considerable  time.  Probably,  it  was  because 
their  company  were  not  yet  all  arrived.  But  in 
April,  1643,  Mr.  Whitfield,  Mr.  Higginson,  Mr. 
Samuel  Desborough,  Mr.  William  Leet,  Mr.  Jacob 
Sheaf,  Mr.  John  Mipham,  and  Mr.  John  Hoadley, 
were  elected  the  seven  pillars.  On  the  19th  of 
June,  all  the  other  church  members  were  gathered 
unto  these  seven  persons.  Mr.  Higginson,  who 
had  been  preaching  about  two  years  at  Guilford, 
with  Mr.  Whitfield,  was,  at  this  time,  elected 
teacher  in  that  church.  Mr.  Whitfield  had  not 
separated  from  the  episcopal  church  when  he  came 
into  New  England ;  but  as  he  came  over  in  orders, 
and  his  church  came  generally  with  him,  there 
are  no  intimations  of  his  installation. 

The  circumstance  of  the  seven  pillars  in  these 
three  churches  appears  to  have  been  peculiar  to 
them;  and  there  are  no  intimations  of  it  in  the 
formation  of  any  other  churches.  The  churches  in 
the  other  towns  were  gathered,  by  subscribing  si- 
milar confessions  of  faith,  and  covenanting  toge- 
ther in  the  same  solemn  manner,  upon  days  of 
fasting  and  prayer.  Neighbouring  elders  and 
churches  were  present  on  those  occasions,  assisted 
in  the  public  solemnities,  and  gave  their  consent. 
When  new  members  were  admitted  to  full  commu- 
nion in  any  of  the  first  churches  of  Connecticut, 
they  gave  satisfaction  to  the  brethren  of  their  sin- 
cere repentance  towards  God,  and  faith  in  Christ. 
They  commonly  made  a  relation  of  their  religious 
expediences,  and  were  then  admitted  to  full  com- 
munion, by  a  public  profession  of  their  faith,  and 
by  covenanting  in  the  manner  which  has  been  re- 
presented. 

Mr.  Eaton  continued  but  a  short  time  at  New 
Haven,  and  then  returned  to  England.  Mr.  Wil- 
liam Hook  succeeded  him  as  teacher  in  the  chui'ch. 
Mr.  Denton,  after  spending  three  or  four  years  at 
Stamford,  removed  to  Hampstead  on  Long  Island ; 
and  upon  his  removal  the  church  sent  two  of  their 
members  to  seek  a  minister.  They  travelled  on  foot, 
through  the  wilderness,  to  the  eastward  of  Boston, 
where  they  found  Mr.  John  Bishop,  who  left  Eng- 
land before  he  had  finished  his  academical  studies, 
and  had  completed  his  education  in  this  country ; 
and  they  engaged  him  to  go  with  them  to  Stamford; 
and  he  travelled  with  them  on  foot ;  and  continued 
with  them,  in  the  ministry,  nearly  fifty  years. 

Mr.  Peters,  after  preaching  three  or  four  yeai-s 
at  Saybrook,  returned  to  England ;  and  in  1646  a 
church  was  formed  in  that  town,  by  the  direction 
and  assistance  of  the  Rey.  Mr.  Hooker  and  some 


other  ministers.  At  the  same  time  Mr.  James 
Fitch,  who  had  perfected  his  theological  studies, 
under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Hooker,  was  ordained 
their  pastor.  The  tradition  is,  that  though  Mr. 
Hooker  was  present,  yet  that  hands  were  imposed 
by  two  or  three  of  the  principal  brethren,  whom 
the  church  had  appointed  to  that  service. 

On  the  13th  of  October,  1652,  a  church  was 
gathered  at  Farmington,  and  Mr.  Roger  Newton 
was  ordained  pastor ;  and  the  same  year,  Mr.  Tho- 
mas Han  ford  began  to  preach  at  Nor  walk,  and 
some  time  after  a  church  was  formed  in  the  town, 
and  Mr.  Han  ford  ordained  pastor. 

In  1660,  Mr.  Fitch  and  the  greatest  part  of  his 
church  removed  to  Norwich.  Mr.  Thomas  Buck- 
ingham succeeded  him  in  the  ministry  at  Saybrook. 
A  council  of  ministers  and  churches  assisted  at  his 
ordination,  but  the  imposition  of  hands  was  per- 
formed by  the  brethren,  as  it  had  been  before  in 
the  ordination  of  Mr.  Fitch.  The  council  consi- 
dered it  as  an  irregular  proceeding,  but  the  brethren 
were  so  tenacious  of  what  they  esteemed  their  light, 
that  it  could  not  be  prevented  without  much  incon- 
venience. 

These  fifteen  churches  were  the  whole  number 
formed  in  the  colony,  and  in  which  ministers  had 
been  installed  or  ordained,  at  the  time  of  the  union. 
The  settlements  and  churches  upon  Long  Island 
had  been  adjudged  to  the  jurisdiction  of  New  York  ; 
and  there  wei'e  several  other  towns  which  paid  taxes, 
where  churches  were  not  formed,  nor  pastors  or- 
dained; namely,  Stonington,  Middletown,  Green- 
wich, and  Rye.  Nevertheless,  at  the  two  former 
there  was  constant  preaching;  and  the  general  court 
would  not  suffer  any  new  plantation  to  be  made  which 
would  not  support  an  able,  orthodox  preacher. 

At  Stonington,  Mr.  Zechariah  Brigden  officiated 
about  three  years,  until  his  death  in  1663.  To 
him  succeeded  Mr.  James  Noyes,  the  same  year, 
who  preached  more  than  fifty-five  years  in  the 
town,  but  he  was  not  ordained  until  more  than  ten 
years  after  his  first  preaching  to  the  people. 

At  Middletown,  Mr.  Nathaniel  Collins  was  preach- 
ing, but  not  ordained.  Mr.  Stow  also  preached 
there,  before,  or  with,  Mr.  Collins.  Greenwich 
and  Rye  were  but  just  come  under  the  jurisdiction 
of  Connecticut,  and  not  in  circumstances  for  the 
support  of  ministers;  and  had  only  occasional 
preaching  for  a  considerable  time. 

At  the  time  of  the  union  the  colony  contained 
about  1,700  families,  eight  or  nine  thousand  inha- 
bitants, and  they  constantly  enjoyed  the  instruc- 
tions of  about  twenty  ministers.  Upon  an  average, 
there  was  as  much  as  one  minister  to  every  eighty- 
five  families,  or  to  about  430  souls ;  and  in  some  of 
the  new  plantations,  thirty  families  supported  a 
minister,  and  commonly  there  were  not  more  than 
forty  when  they  called  and  settled  a  pastor;  and 
in  several  of  the  first  churches  there  were  often  not 
more  than  nine  or  ten  male  members.  Exclusive 
of  Hartford,  Windsor,  New  Haven,  and  Guilford, 
there  appears  to  have  been  none  in  which  there 
were  more  than  sixteen  or  seventeen  male  commu- 
nicants at  their  formation. 

The  most  perfect  harmony  subsisted  between  the 
legislature  and  the  clergy.  Many  of  the  latter  who 
first  came  into  the  country  had  good  estates,  and 
assisted  their  poorer  brethren  and  parishioners  in 
making  new  settlements.  They  possessed  a  very 
great  proportion  of  the  literature  of  the  colony  • 
and  were  the  principal  instructors  of  youth.  They 
had  given  a  striking  evidence  of  their  integrity  and 


'12 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


self-denial,  iu  emigrating  into  this  rough  and  dis- 
tant country,  for  the  sake  of  religion,  and  were 
faithful  and  zealous  in  their  labours  ;  and  many  of 
these  circumstances  combined  to  give  them  an  un- 
common influence  over  their  hearers,  of  all  ranks 
and  characters.  For  many  years  they  were  con- 
sulted by  the  legislature,  in  all  affairs  of  import- 
ance, civil  or  religious :  they  were  appointed  on 
committees,  with  the  governors  and  magistrates,  to 
advise  and  assist  them  in  the  most  delicate  and  im- 
portant concerns  of  the  commonwealth. 

The  ministers  and  churches  of  Connecticut  ab- 
horred the  Antinomian  heresy,  which  so  distracted 
the  church  at  Boston,  and  some  others  in  the  Mas- 
sachusetts; and  in  the  first  general  council  in  New 
England  (1638),  Mr.  Hooker  and  Mr.  Davenport 
bore  a  noble  testimony  against  the  prevailing  spirit 
of  that  time. 

Iu  the  next  general  council  (1648)  in  New  Eng- 
land, ten  years  after,  the  ministers  and  churches  of 
Connecticut  and  New  Haven  were  present,  and 
united  in  the  form  of  discipline  which  it  recom- 
mended. And  in  this  discipline  the  churches  of 
New  England,  in  general,  abided  for  more  than 
thirty  years;  which,  with  the  ecclesiastical  laws, 
formed  the  religious  constitution  of  the  colonies. 

In  the  "  platform,"  as  it  is  termed,  it  is  declared 
to  be  evident,  "  That  necessary  and  sufficient 
maintenance  is  due  to  ministers  of  the  word,  from 
the  law  of  nature  and  nations,  the  law  of  Moses, 
the  equity  thereof,  and  also  the  rule  of  common 
reason:"  that  it  is  matter  of  indispensable  duty,  a 
debt  due,  and  not  an  affair  of  alms  or  free  gift. 
"  That  not  only  members  of  churches,  but  all  who 
are  taught  in  the  word,  are  to  contribute  unto  him 
that  teacheth  in  all  good  things :  and  that  the  ma- 
gistrate is  to  see  that  the  ministry  be  duly  provided 
for." 

An  early  provision  was  therefore  made,  by  law, 
in  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  for  the  support 
of  the  ministry;  and  in  the  latter  all  persons  were 
obliged,  by  law,  to  contribute  to  the  support  of  the 
church,  as  well  as  of  the  commonwealth.  All  rates 
respecting  the  support  of  ministers,  or  any  ecclesi- 
astical affairs,  were  to  be  made  and  collected  in  the 
same  manner  as  the  rates  of  the  respective  towns ; 
and  special  care  was  taken,  that  all  persons  should 
attend  the  means  of  public  instruction.  The  law- 
obliged  them  to  be  present  at  the  public  worship 
on  the  Lord's-day,  and  upon  all  days  of  public 
fasting  and  prayer,  and  of  thanksgiving,  appointed 
by  civil  authority,  on  penalty  of  a  fine  of  five 
shillings  for  every  instance  of  neglect.  The  con- 
gregational churches  were  adopted  and  established 
by  law ;  but  provision  was  made  that  all  sober,  or- 
thodox persons,  dissenting  from  them,  should,  upon 
the  manifestation  of  it  to  the  general  court,  be  al- 
lowed peaceably  to  worship  in  their  own  way.  It 
was  enacted,  "  That  no  persons  within  this  colony 
shall  in  any  wise  embody  themselves  into  church 
estate,  without  consent  of  the  general  court,  and 
approbation  of  neighbouring  elders."  The  laws 
also  prohibited  that  any  ministry  or  church  admi- 
nistration should  be  entertained,  or  attended,  by 
the  inhabitants  of  any  plantation  in  the  colony, 
distinct  and  separate  from,  and  in  opposition  to, 
that  which  was  openly  and  publicly  observed  and 
dispensed  by  the  approved  minister  of  the  place ; 
except  it  was  by  the  approbation  of  the  court  and 
neighbouring  churches.  The  penalty  for  every 
breach  of  this  act  was  bl. 

The  court  declared,  that  the  civil  authority  esta- 


blished in  the  colony,  "Had  power  and  liberty  to 
see  the  peace,  ordinances,  and  rules  of  Christ  ob- 
served in  every  church,  according  to  his  word; 
and  also  to  deal  with  any  church  member  in  a  way 
of  civil  justice,  notwithstanding  any  church  relation, 
office,  or  interest."  The  law  also  provided,  that 
no  church  censure  should  degrade  or  depose  any 
man  from  any  civil  dignity,  office,  or  authority, 
which  he  should  sustain  in  the  colony. 

In  the  grant  of  all  new  townships,  special  care 
was  taken  by  the  legislature,  that  the  planters 
should  not  be  without  a  minister,  and  the  stated 
administration  of  Gospel  ordinances ;  and  every 
town,  consisting  of  fifty  families,  was  obliged,  by 
the  laws,  to  maintain  a  good  school,  in  which  read- 
ing and  writing  should  be  well  taught;  and  in 
every  county-town  a  good  grammar-school  was  insti- 
tuted ;  and  large  tracts  of  land  were  given,  and  appro- 
priated by  the  legislature,  to  afford  them  a  perma- 
nent support. 

The  select  men  of  every  town  were  obliged,  by 
law,  to  keep  a  vigilant  eye  upon  all  the  inhabitants, 
and  to  take  care  that  all  the  heads  of-  families 
should  instruct  their  children  and  servants  to  read 
the  English  tongue  well ;  and  that  once  every  week 
they  should  catechise  them  in  the  principles  of  re- 
ligion. The  penalty  for  every  instance  of  neglect 
in  this  respect  was  twenty  shillings  for  any  family 
so  neglecting.  The  select  men  were  also  autho- 
rized to  take  care  that  all  families  should  be  well 
furnished  with  bibles,  orthodox  catechisms,  and 
books  on  practical  godliness ;  and  it  was  provided 
by  the  legislature,  that  the  capital  laws  should  be 
taught  weekly  in  every  family. 

The  colony  of  New  Haven,  from  the  beginning, 
made  provision  for  the  interests  of  religion,  learn- 
ing, and  the  good  conduct  of  the  inhabitants,  with 
no  less  zeal  than  Connecticut. 

The  care  and  piety  of  the  first  planters  did  not 
rest  here ;  but  they  were  careful,  as  soon  as  their 
circumstances  would  permit,  to  found  public  semina- 
ries,  in  which  young  men  might  be  instructed  in 
the  liberal  arts,  prepared  for  the  ministry,  and  all 
places  of  importance,  in  civil  or  religious  life ;  but 
as  Connecticut  and  New  Haven  were  not  able,  of 
themselves,  at  first  to  erect  a  college,  they  united 
with  Massachusetts,   and   contributed   to  the   sup- 
port of  that   at   Cambridge    by   frequent    private 
j  contributions,  and  money  from  the  public  treasury ; 
!  and  for  a  course  of  years  the  inhabitants  educated 
I  their  sons  at  that  university. 

By  these  means  knowledge,  at  an  early  period, 
|  was  generally  diffused  among  people  of  all  ranks ; 
I  and  the  advantages  of  this  public  and  private  in- 
:  struction,  and  constant  attention  to  the  morals,  in- 
:  dustry,  and  good  conduct  of  the  inhabitants,  have 
j  been  made  manifest  in  the  high  degree  of  civil, 
;  ecclesiastical,  and  domestic  peace  and  order,  which, 
'  for  so  long  a  period,  have  rendered  them  eminent 
among  their  neighbours. 

Cambridge  "  platform,"  in  connexion  with  the 
ecclesiastical  laws,  was  the  religious  constitution  of 
Connecticut,  for  about  sixty  years,  until  the  compi- 
lation of  the  Saybrook  agreement. 

The  colony  of  New  Haven,  sensible  of  the  im- 
portance of  public  seminaries,  and  of  the  inconve- 
nience of  sending  their  sons  to  so  great  a  distance 
as  Cambridge  for  an  education,  at  an  early  period, 
attempted  the  founding  of  a  college  ;  and  a  propo- 
'  sal  for  this  purpose  was  made  to  the  general  court, 
i  in  1654;  and  Uie  next  year,  at  the  session  in  May, 
New  Haven  made  a  donation  of  300/.,  and  Milford 


UNITED  STATES. 


713 


p*>posed  to  give  1001.  more,  for  the  encouragement 
of  the  design.  The  court  proposed  it  to  the  depu- 
ties of  the  other  towns  to  inquire,  and  make  report 
what  they  would  give;  and  Mr.  Davenport,  who 
was  the  principal  promoter  of  the  affair,  about  the 
same  time,  wrote  to  Governor  Hopkins,  who  was 
then  in  England,  upon  the  subject;  and,  it  seems, 
solicited  his  assistance.  Soon  after,  some  lands 
were  given  by  the  people  of  New  Haven  for  the 
further  encouragement  of  so  laudable  an  under- 
taking ;  and  upon  these  favourable  prospects,  the 
legislature,  in  1659,  proceeded  to  institute  a  gram- 
mar-school at  New  Haven ;  and  it  was  ordered, 
that  401.  annually  should  be  paid  out  of  the  public 
treasury  for  its  support ;  and  1001.  were  also  ap- 
propriated for  the  purchase  of  books  for  the  school. 
In  1660  the  donation  of  Governor  Hopkins  having 
come  into  the  possession,  and  being  at  the  disposal 
of  Mr.  Davenport,  he,  on  the  30th  of  May,  surren- 
dered it  into  the  hands  of  the  general  court,  for  the 
purpose  of  founding  a  college.  He  proposed  that 
this  donation  should  be  united  with  the  lands  which 
had  been  already  given,  and  with  such  other  dona- 
tions as  might  be  made  by  the  legislature,  for  the 
same  purpose.  The  elders  of  the  several  churches 
in  the  colony  were  nominated  as  trustees.  As  Mr. 
Davenport  was  the  only  surviving  legatee  of  Gover- 
nor Hopkins,  with  respect  to  that  part  of  the  dona- 
tion which  had  fallen  to  the  share  of  New  Haven, 
he  desired  that,  for  the  better  discharge  of  the 
trust  which  had  been  reposed  in  him,  he  might  have 
a  negative  upon  the  corporation,  with  respect  to 
the  disposal  of  that,  whenever  he  could  exhibit  sub- 
stantial reasons,  that  it  was  about  to  be  applied  to 
any  purpose  contrary  to  the  design  of  the  donor. 

The  general  court  thankfully  accepted  the  dona- 
tion, upon  the  terms  on  which  it  had  been  surren- 
dered :  they  appropriated  the  lands  which  had  been 
given  to  New  Haven  to  the  support  of  the  college  ; 
agreed  to  collect  the  money  given  by  Governor 
Hopkins ;  and  besides  all  other  grants  previously 
made,  enacted  that  a  1001.  stock  should  be  paid  in 
from  the  treasury  of  the  colony,  in  such  time  and 
manner  as  the  court  should  order :  it  was  also  or- 
dained, that  both  the  grammar-school  and  college 
should  be  at  New  Haven.  One  Mr.  Peck  was  ap- 
pointed master  of  the  school ;  but  this  and  the  col- 
lege were  of  short  continuance.  The  troubles  in 
which  the  colony  was  involved  by  the  claims  of 
Connecticut,  and  the  defection  of  such  numbers  of 
their  inhabitants,  so  impoverished  and  weakened  it, 
that  a  support  could  not  be  obtained  for  the  instruc- 
tor; and  he  became  discouraged,  and  the  court 
gave  up  the  school ;  and,  by  the  same  means,  the 
design  of  a  college  also  miscarried.  After  the 
union,  the  colony  made  further  provision  for  a 
grammar-school,  and  all  the  lands  and  money, 
which  had  been  given  for  that  and  the  college,  were 
appropriated  to  its  support;  and  the  school  revived, 
and  has  continued  to  the  present  time. 

For  a  long  course  of  years  the  churches  enjoyed 
great  peace  and  harmony. 

Mr.  Hewett,  teacher  in  the  church  at  Windsor, 
died  September  4th,  1644:  and  the  Rev.  Thomas 
Hooker,  the  father  and  pillar  of  the  churches  in 
Connecticut,  died  July  7th,  1647,  in  the  61st  year 
of  his  age.  He  was  born  in  England,  at  Marshfield, 
in  the  county  of  Leicester,  in  1586 ;  and  appears  to 
have  been  educated  at  Emmanuel-college,  Cant- 
bridge,  England.  Afterwards  he  was  promoted  to 
a  fellowship  in  the  same  college,  where  he  acquit- 
ted himself  with  such  ability  and  faithfulness,  as 


commanded  universal  approbation  and  applause. 
While  at  college,  in  his  youth,  he  was  visited  with 
those  strong  convictions  of  sin  which  characterized 
the  Puritans.  He  was  naturally  a  man  of  strong 
and  lively  passions ;  but  obtained  a  happy  govern- 
ment of  himself.  In  his  day  he  was  one  of  the 
most  animated  and  powerful  preachers  in  New 
England ;  and  in  his  sermons  he  insisted  much  on 
the  application  of  redemption ;  was  searching,  ex- 
perimental, and  practical.  In  conversation  he  was 
pleasant  and  entertaining,  but  always  grave ;  and 
he  was  exceedingly  prudent  in  the  management  of 
church  discipline.  It  was  not  an  uncommon  in- 
stance with  him  to  give  away  five  or  ten  pounds  at  a 
time  to  poor  widows,  orphans,  and  necessitous  people; 
and  at  a  certain  time,  when  there  was  a  great 
scarcity  at  Southampton,  upon  Long  Island,  Mr. 
Hooker,  with  some  friends  who  joined  with  him, 
sent  the  people  a  small  vessel,  freighted  with  seve- 
ral hundred  bushels  of  corn  for  their  relief.  In 
family  religion  and  government  he  was  strict  and 
prudent.  He  died  of  an  epidemical  fever,  which 
prevailed  that  year  in  the  country,  and  when  dying, 
said,  "  I  am  going  to  receive  mercy."  He  closed 
his  own  eyes,  and  appeared  to  die  with  a  smile  in 
his  countenance. 

Mr.  Henry  Smith,  first  pastor  of  the  church  at 
Weathersfield,  died  in  1648,  and  was  succeeded  by 
the  Rev.  Jonathan  Russell.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Prud- 
den  died  in  1656,  in  the  56th  year  of  his  age.  Be- 
fore he  came  into  New  England,  he  was  a  preacher 
"n  Herefordshire,  and  on  the  borders  of  Wales. 
His  ministry  was  attended  with  uncommon  success; 
and  when  he  came  to  Connecticut,  it  seems  that 
many  good  people  followed  him,  that  they  might 
enjoy  his  pious  ministrations.  He  had  the  character 
of  a  most  zealous  preacher,  and  had  a  singular  talent 
for  reconciling  contending  parties,  and  maintaining 
peace  among  his  neighbours. 

He  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  Roger  Newton,  who 
removed  from  Farrnington,  and  was  installed  at 
Milford,  August  22d,  1660.  Hands  were  imposed 
at  his  installation,  by  Zechariah  Whitman,  ruling 
elder,  deacon  John  Fletcher,  and  Robert  Treat, 
who  were  appointed  to  that  service  by  the  brother- 
lood.  Mr.  Samuel  Hooker,  son  of  the  famous  Mr. 
Hooker,  of  Hartford,  succeeded  Mr.  Newton  at 
Farmington.  He  was  ordained  in  July,  1661. 
These  deaths  were  all  before  the  charter.  There 
were  also  a  number  of  removals  of  some  of  the 
principal  ministers.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Whitfield,  after 
ae  had  laboured  eleven  years  with  the  people  at 
Guildford,  returned  again  to  England.  Some  time 
n  the  year  1650  he  took  leave  of  his  flock  and  con- 
rregation,  and  embarked  for  his  native  country. 
Hie  was  exceedingly  beloved  by  his  congregation, 
and  they  accompanied  him  to  the  water's  side  with 
many  tears.  He  had  a  large  family  of  nine  chil- 
dren, whom  he  supported  principally  out  of  his  own 
estate,  as  most  of  his  people  were  poor ;  but  finding 
hat  his  estate  was  much  exhausted,  and  that  he 
must  still  labour  under  many  and  great  inconveni- 
ences, if  he  continued  in  this  country ;  and  having 
numerous  and  pressing  invitations  to  return  to 
England,  he  at  last  complied.  Before  he  came 
o  Connecticut  he  enjoyed  one  of  the  best  church 
ivings  in  England,  at  Okely,  in  Surrey.  His 
rharity  was  happily  proportioned  to  his  opulence ; 
and  while  he  was  at  Okely  he  procured  another 
ious  and  able  preacher,  that  he  might  go  abroad 
ind  give  assistance  to  other  churches  and  poor 
>eoplc.  While  he  was  in  England  his  house  waa 


714 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


a  place  of  resort  for  the  distressed  ;  and  though  he 
was,  for  twenty  years,  a  conformist,  yet  his  house 
was  a  place  of  retreat  for  Mr.  Cotton,  Mr. 
Hooker,  Mr.  Goodwin,  and  other  pious  non-con- 
formists. After  he  came  into  New  England,  he 
expended  much  of  his  interest  in  assisting  his  poor 
people;  and  was  a  popular  preacher,  delivering 
himself  with  a  peculiar  dignity  and  solemnity. 
After  his  return  to  England,  he  appears  to  have 
finished  his  life  in  the  ministry,  at  the  city  of  Win- 
chester. In  consequence  of  Mr.  Whitfield's  estate 
and  expenses,  in  purchasing  and  settling  the  plan- 
tation, and  of  Mr.  Fenwick's  gift  of  the  eastern 
part  of  the  township  to  him,  a  large  portion  of  the 
best  land  in  the  town  was  allotted  to  him.  On  his 
return  to  England  he  offered,  upon  very  low  terms, 
to  sell  all  his  lands  to  the  town.  But  the  people 
were  poor,  and  imagined  they  should  soon  follow 
their  pastor,  and  neglected  to  purchase.  Mr. 
Whitfield,  therefore,  sold  them  to  Major  Robert 
Thompson,  in  England,  by  whose  heirs  they  have 
been  holden,  to  the  great  damage  of  the  town,  to 
this  time. 

Several  of  the  principal  men  returned  to  Eng- 
land with  Mr.  Whitfield ;  particularly  Mr.  Samuel 
Desborough,  Mr.  Jordan  and  others.  Mr.  Desbo- 
rough,  after  his  return,  was  made  lord-keeper  of 
the  great  seal,  and  one  of  the  seven  counsellors  of 
the  kingdom  of  Scotland. 

Mr.  Higginson  continued  his  ministry,  as  teacher 
in  the  church  at  Guilford,  until  about  the  year  1659, 
when,  upon  the  death  of  his  father,  he  returned  to 
Salem,  and  succeeded  him  in  the  pastoral  office, 
over  the  church  in  that  town. 

Mr.  William  Hook,  who  for  about  fourteen  years 
had  been  teacher  in  the  church  at  New  Haven, 
about  the  year  1655  returned  to  England.  Mr. 
Eaton  and  Mr.  Hook  have  been  represented  as  men 
of  great  learning  and  piety,  and  as  possessing  ex- 
cellent pulpit  talents.  A  writer  of  Mr.  Eaton's 
character,  says,  "  he  was  a  very  holy  man,  a  per- 
son of  great  learning  and  judgment,  and  a  most 
incomparable  preacher."  As  he  dissented  from  Mr. 
Davenport,  with  respect  to  the  form  of  civil  govern- 
ment; his  brother,  Governor  Eaton,  advised  him 
to  remove.  After  his  return  to  England,  he  became 
pastor  of  a  church  at  Duckenfield,  in  the  parish  of 
Stockport,  in  Cheshire.  Mr.  Hook,  after  his  re- 
turn, was  sometime  minister  at  Exmouth,  in  Devon- 
shire ;  and  then  master  of  the  Savoy,  in  the  Strand, 
London,  and  chaplain  to  the  greatest  man  then  in 
the  nation.  After  the  restoration,  he  was  silenced 
for  non-conformity,  May  24th,  1662;  and  on  the 
21st  of  March,  1667,  he  died  in  the  vicinity  of 
London.  Mr.  Eaton  was  a  companion  with  him  in 
tribulation ;  for  soon  after  the  restoration  of  Charles 
II.,  he  was  silenced,  and  suffered  persecution. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Blynman,  after  he  had  laboured 
about  ten  years  in  the  ministry  at  New  London,  in 
1658,  removed  to  New  Haven ;  but  after  a  short 
stay  in  that  town,  he  took  shipping  and  returned  to 
England ;  and  lived,  to  a  good  old  age,  in  the  city  of 
Bristol. 

Mr.  Nicholas  Street  succeeded  Mr.  Hook,  as 
teacher  in  the  church,  at  New  Haven,  about  the 
year  1659 ;  and  Mr.  Blynman  was  succeeded  in 
office  at  New  London,  by  Mr.  Gershom  Bulkley, 
from  Concord,  in  Massachusetts. 

The  first  ministers  in  the  colonies  being  thus  dead 
or  removed,  and  a  new  generation  risen  up,  who 
had  not  all  imbibed  the   sentiments  and   spirit  of  j 
their  pious  fathers,  alterations  were  insisted  on  with  • 


respect  to  church  discipline  and  baptism;  and  great 
dissensions  arose  in  the  churches.  They  began  first 
in  the  church  at  Hartford,  not  many  years  after  Mr. 
Hooker's  decease.  The  origin  of 'them  appears  to 
have  been  a  difference  between  the  Rev.  Mr.  Stone 
and  Mr.  Goodwin,  the  ruling  elder  in  the  church, 
upon  some  nice  points  of  Congregationalism.  It 
seems,  that  some  member  had  been  admitted,  or 
baptism  administered,  which  Elder  Goodwin  con- 
ceived to  be  inconsistent  with  the  rights  of  the  bro- 
therhood, and  the  strict  principles  of  the  congrega- 
tional churches  ;  and  perhaps  he  imagined  himself 
not  to  have  been  properly  consulted  and  regarded. 
Thus  not  only  this  church  became  divided  and  in- 
flamed with  the  controversy,  but  it  spread  into 
almost  all  the  neighbouring  churches,  which  inter- 
ested themselves  in  the  controversy,  some  taking 
one  side,  and  some  another,  as  their  connexions, 
prejudices,  and  particular  sentiments  led  them  ; 
and  finally  the  whole  colony  became  affected  with 
the  dispute,  and  the  general  court  particularly  in- 
terested themselves  in  the  affair.  The  brethren  in 
the  church  at  Hartford  became  so  inflamed,  and 
imbibed  such  prejudices  and  uncharitable  feelings 
towards  each  other,  that  it  was  with  great  difficulty 
they  could  be  persuaded  to  keep  together;  and  to 
prevent  an  entire  division  of  the  church,  it  appears, 
that  about  the  years  1654  and  1655,  several  coun- 
cils of  the  neighbouring  elders  and  churches  were 
called  to  compose  the  differences  between  the  par- 
ties. They  laboured  to  satisfy  them  with  respect 
to  the  points  in  controversy;  but  the  brethren  at 
Hartford  imagined,  that  all  the  elders  and  churches 
in  Connecticut  and  New  Haven  were  prejudiced 
in  favour  of  one  party  or  the  other,  and  therefore 
they  would  not  hear  their  advice.  For  this  reason, 
it  was  judged  expedient  to  call  a  council  from  the 
other  colonies  ;  and  sometime  in  the  year  1656,  a 
number  of  elders  and  churches  from  Massachusetts 
came  to  Hartford,  and  gave  their  opinion  and 
advice  to  the  church  and  the  aggrieved  brethren  ; 
but  as  the  church  did  not  comply  with  the  result, 
the  parties  became  more  alienated  and  embittered  ; 
and  Elder  Goodwin  was  joined  by  Governor  Web- 
ster, Mr.  Whiting,  Mr.  Cullick,  and  other  princi- 
pal gentlemen  at  Hartford,  in  defending  what  they 
esteemed  the  true  principles  of  Congregationalism. 

Meanwhile,  there  was  a  strong  party  in  the  co- 
lony of  Connecticut,  who  were  for  admitting  all 
persons  of  a  regular  life  to  a  full  communion  in  the 
churches,  upon  their  making  a  profession  of  the 
Christian  religion,without  any  inquiry  with  respect 
to  a  change  of  heart ;  and  for  treating  all  baptized 
persons  as  members  of  the  church :  some  carried 
the  affair  still  further,  and  insisted,  that  all  persons 
who  had  been  members  of  churches  in  England,  or 
had  been  members  of  regular  ecclesiastical  parishes 
there,  and  supported  the  public  worship,  should  be 
allowed  to  enjoy  the  privileges  of  members  in  full 
communion  in  the  churches  of  Connecticut ;  and 
they  also  insisted,  that  all  baptized  persons,  upon 
owning  the  covenant,  as  it  was  called,  should  have 
their  children  baptized,  though  they  came  not  to 
the  Lord's  table. 

Numbers  of  them  took  this  opportunity  to  intro- 
duce into  the  assembly  a  list  of  grievances,  on  ac- 
count of  their  being  denied  their  just  rights  and 
privileges  by  the  ministers  and  churches.  A  dis- 
pate  had  arisen  in  the  churches  and  congregations, 
relative  to  the  choice  of  a  pastor  ;  and  it  was  urged, 
that  it  did  not  belong  to  the  churches  solely  to  choose 
the  pastor  for  themselves  and  the  congregation  ; 


UNITED  STATES. 


715 


but  as  the  inhabitants  in  general  had  an  equal  con- 
cern for  themselves  and  their  children,with  the  mem- 
bers of  the  church,  in  the  qualifications  of  their 
pastor,  and  as  they  were  obliged  to  contribute  their 
proportion  to  his  support,  they  had  a  just  right  to 
give  their  voice  in  his  election.  The  denying  them 
this  right  was  considered  as  a  great  grievance  ;  and 
many  of  the  churches,  and  some  or  other  of  the 
members  in  all  of  them,  it  seems,  maintained  that 
the  choice  of  a  pastor  belonged  to  them  solely, 
exclusive  of  the  congregation:  that  there  was  no 
Scripture  example  of  any  person's  ever  giving  a 
suffrage  in  the  choice  of  a  pastor  but  members  of 
the  church :  that  pastors  were  ordained  over  the 
churches  only,  and  were  termed  the  elders,  pastors, 
and  angels  of  the  churches.  These,  and  a  number 
of  other  points  were  now  warmly  agitated  in  the 
colony ;  and  the  general  state  of  the  country  was 
greatly  altered  from  what  it  was  at  its  first  settle- 
ment. The  people  then  were  generally  church 
members,  and  eminently  pious.  They  loved  strict 
religion,  and  followed  their  ministers  into  the  wil- 
derness for  its  sake  ;  but  with  many  of  their  children, 
and  with  others  who  had  since  emigrated  into  this 
country,  it  was  not  so.  They  had  made  no  open 
profession  of  religion,  and  their  children  were  not 
baptized;  which  created  uneasiness  in  them,  as 
well  as  in  their  ministers.  They  wished  for  the 
honours  and  privileges  of  church  members  for  them- 
selves, and  baptism  for  their  children  ;  but  they 
were  not  persuaded  that  they  were  "  regenerated," 
and  knew  not  how  to  comply  with  the  rigid  terms 
of  the  congregational  churches.  A  considerable 
number  of  the  clergy,  and  the  churches  in  general, 
zealously  opposed  all  innovations,  and  exerted  them- 
selves to  maintain  the  first  practice  and  purity  of 
the  churches ;  and  hence  dissensions  arose. 

The  general  court,  it  seems,  with  a  view  to  recon- 
cile the  church  at  Hartford,  and  to  compose  difficul- 
ties, which  were  generally  rising  in  the  colony,  at 
their  session  in  May,  1656,  took  the  affair  into 
their  serious  consideration.  They  appointed  a  com- 
mittee, consisting  of  Governor  Webster,  Deputy- 
governor  Wells,  Mr.  Cullick,  and  Mr.  Talcott,  all 
of  Hartford,  to  consult  with  the  elders  of  the  colony 
respecting  the  grievances  complained  of;  and  to 
desire  their  assistance  in  making  a  draft  of  the 
heads  of  them,  that  they  might  be  presented  to  the 
general  courts  of  the  united  colonies  for  their  ad- 
vice ;  and  the  general  courts  were  desired  to  give 
their  answers  with  as  much  expedition  as  possible. 

While  the  churches  were  thus  divided,  they  were 
alarmed  by  the  appearance  of  the  Quakers  ;  a  num- 
ber of  whom  arrived  at.  Boston,  in  July  and  August, 
and  had  been  committed  to  the  common  gaol.  A 
great  number  of  their  books  had  been  seized  with  a 
view  to  burn  them  ;  and  in  consequence  of  their 
arrival,  and  the  disturbance  they  had  made  at  Bos- 
ton, the  commissioners  of  the  united  colonies,  at 
their  court  in  September,  recommended  it  to  the 
several  general  courts,  "  That  all  Qaakers,  Ranters, 
and  other  notorious  heretics,  should  be  prohibited 
coming  into  the  united  colonies  ;  and  that,  if  any 
should  come,  or  arise  amongst  them,  they  should 
be  forthwith  secured,  and  removed  out  of  all  the 
jurisdictions." 

In  conformity  to  this  recommendation,  the  gene- 
ral court  of  Connecticut,  in  October,  passed  the 
following  act: — "  That  no  town  within  this  jurisdic- 
tion, shall  entertain  any  Quakers,  Ranters,  Ada- 
mites, or  such  like  notorious  heretics;  nor  suffer 
them  to  continue  in  them  above  the  space  of  four- 


teen days,  upon  the  penalty  of  five  pounds  per  weeK, 
for  any  town  entertaining  any  such  person*:  but  the 
townsmen  shall  give  notice  to  the  two  next  magis- 
trates, or  assistants,  who  shall  have  power  to  send 
them  to  prison  for  securing  them,  until  they  can 
conveniently  be  sent  out  of  the  jurisdiction.  It  is 
also  ordered,  that  no  master  of  a  vessel  shall  land 
any  such  heretics  ;  but  if  they  do,  they  shall  be  com- 
pelled to  transport  them  again  out  of  the  colony,  by 
any  two  magistrates  or  assistants,  at  their  first  set- 
ting sail  from  the  port  where  they  landed  them; 
during  which  time,  the  assistant  or  magistrate  shall 
see  them  secured,  upon  penalty  of  twenty  pounds 
for  any  master  of  any  vessel  that  shall  not  trans- 
port them  as  aforesaid." 

The  court  at  New  Haven  passed  a  similar  law : 
and  in  1658  both  courts  made  an  addition  to  this 
law,  increasing  the  penalties  and  prohibiting  all 
conversation  of  the  common  people  with  any  of  those 
heretics,  and  all  persons  from  giving  them  any  en- 
tertainment, upon  the  penalty  of  five  pounds.  The 
law,  however,  was  of  short  continuance,  and  no- 
thing of  importance  appears  to  have  been  trans- 
acted upon  it,  in  either  of  the  colonies. 

Upon  the  representations  made  of  the  grievance 
which  had  been  matter  of  complaint  to  the  general 
courts  of  the  confederate  colonies,  the  court  of  Mas- 
sachusetts advised  that  a  general  council  should  be 
called,  and  sent  letters  to  the  other  courts,  signify 
ing  their  opinion.  The  general  court  of  New  Haven 
wrote  an  answer  to  the  grievances,  and  to  the  QUPS 
tions  proposed  respecting  them ;  which  they  supposed 
sufficient :  but  the  general  court  of  Connecticut, 
nevertheless,  on  the  26th  of  February,  1657,  deter- 
mined to  have  a  general  council ;  and  they  ap- 
pointed Mr.  Warham,  Mr.  Stone,  Mr.  Blynman, 
and  Mr.  Russell,  to  meet  the  elders,  who  should  be 
delegated  from  the  other  colonies  at  Boston,  the 
next  June  ;  and  to  assist  in  debating  the  questions 
proposed  by  the  general  court  of  Connecticut,  or 
any  of  the  other  courts,  and  report  the  determi- 
nation of  the  council  to  the  general  court. 

The  church  at  Hartford  continuing  their  conten- 
tions, the  court  directed  the  elders,  who  were  going 
to  Boston,  to  confer  with  the  several  ministers  in  the 
Massachusetts,  who  had  been  of  the  council,  relative 
to  the  circumstances  of  that  church,  and  to  desire 
them  to  come  to  Connecticut,  and  give  their  assist- 
ance in  council  at  Hartford.  The  court  also  directed 
the  church  there  to  send  for  the  former  council : 
and  to  state  the  matters  with  which  they  were  not 
satisfied  ;  and  if  this  council  should  not  be  so  happy 
as  to  give  them  satisfaction,  then  they  were  di- 
rected to  invite  Mr.  Sherman  of  Watertown,  and 
several  other  ministers  from  the  Massachusetts,  to 
make  a  visit  at  Hartford,  and  attempt  the  healing 
of  the  breach  made  in  the  church  there. 

Governor  Webster,  Mr.  Cullick,  and  Mr.  Steel 
dissented  from  the  resolution  of  the  assembly,  and 
declared,  in  open  court,  that  it  did  not  appear  tc 
them  that  the  measures  adopted  by  the  court  were 
any  where  directed  by  the  Divine  word,  or  calcu 
lated  to  restore  peace  to  the  churches.  They  ap- 
pear to  have  been  of  the  aggrieved  brethren  at 
Hartford,  and  satisfied  with  the  result  of  the  former 
council,  to  which  the  church  did  not  submit.  They 
doubtless  judged  it  more  agreeable  to  Scripture  and 
reason,  and  especially  to  the  principles  of  congrega 
tional  churches,  to  choose  a  council  for  themselves 
when  they  should  judge  it  expedient,  than  to  nave 
one  imposed  upon  them  by  legislative  authority. 
The  general  court  at  New  Haven  were  utterly 


716 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


opposed  to  a  general  council;  and,  upon  receiving 
a  letter  from  the  Massachusetts,  inviting  them  to 
send  a  number  of  their  elders  to  assist  in  the  coun- 
cil, they,  in  a  long  letter,  remonstrated  against  it, 
and  excused  themselves  from  sending  any  of  their 
ministers.  They  represented,  that  the  petition  and 
questions,  exhibited  to  the  general  court  of  Con- 
necticut, were  unwarrantably  procured,  and  of 
dangerous  tendency :  that  they  heard  the  petition- 
ers were  confident  that  they  should  obtain  great 
alterations  both  in  civil  government  and  church 
discipline  :  that  they  had  engaged  an  agent  to  prove, 
"  That  parishes  in  England,  consenting  to  and 
continuing  meetings  to  worship  God,  were  true 
churches,"  and  that  the  members  of  those  parishes, 
coming  into  New  England,  had  a  right  to  all  church 
privileges;  though  they  made  no  profession  of  a 
work  of  faith  and  holiness  upon  their  hearts  :  they 
expressed  their  apprehensions,  that  a  general  coun- 
cil at  that  time  would  endanger  the  peace  and 
purity  of  the  churches  :  they  acquainted  the  gene- 
ral court  of  Massachusetts  that  they  had  sent  an 
answer  to  all  the  questions  proposed  to  the  court  ol 
Connecticut;  and  that  it  was  their  opinion  that  the 
legislature  and  elders  of  that  colony  were  sufficient 
to  determine  all  those  points  without  any  assistance 
from  abroad :  they  observed  that,  on  account  of  the 
removal  of  Mr.  Whitfield  and  Mr.  Hook,  and  the 
late  death  of  Mr.  Prudden,  their  elders  could  not 
be  spared;  and  with  their  letter,  they  sent  the 
answers,  which  they  had  given  to  the  questions  to 
be  debated,  and  they  entreated  the  court  and  their 
elders  seriously  to  consider  them.  They  desired 
that,  as  the  court  had  formed  their  civil  polity  and 
laws  upon  the  Divine  word,  and  as  the  elders  and 
churches  had  gathered  and  received  their  discipline 
from  the  same,  they  would  exert  themselves  to  pre- 
serve them  inviolable  :  and  observed  that,  consider- 
ing the  htate  of  affairs  in  Connecticut,  unless  the 
general  court  of  Massachusetts  should  firmly  ad- 
here to  their  then  constitution,  and  the  counci" 
should  have  the  Divine  presence  with  them,  their 
meeting  might  be  of  the  most  unhappy  consequence 
to  the  churches. 

The  colonies  of  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts 
persisted  in  calling  a  general  council;  and  the 
questions  proposed  for  discussion,  as  they  stanc 
upon  the  records,  are  the  following : — 

1.  Whether  federal  holiness,  or  covenant  interest 
be  not  the  proper  ground  of  baptism  ? 

2.  Whether  communion  of  churches,  as  such,  be 
not  warrantable  by  the  word  of  God? 

3.  Whether  the  adult  seed  of  visible  believers 
not  cast  out,  be  not  true  members,  and  subjects  o 
church  watch  ? 

4.  Whether  ministerial  officers  are  not  as  trul 
bound  to  baptize  the  visible  disciples  of  Christ,  pro 
videntially  settled   among    them,    as    officially   * 
preach  the  word  ? 

5.  Whether  the  settled  inhabitants  of  the  country 
being  members  of  other  churches,  should  have  thei 
children  baptized  amongst  us,  without  themselve 
first  orderly  joining  in  churches  here  ? 

6.  Whether  membership,   in  a   particular  insti 
tuted  church,  be  not  essentially  requisite,  under  th 
Gospel,  to  entitle  to  baptism  ? 

7.  Whether  adopted   children,  and  such  as  ar 
bought  with  money,  are  covenant  seed  ? 

8.  Whether   things   new   and   weighty   may   b 
managed,  in  a  church,  without  concurrence  of  offi 
cers,   and    consent  of  the    fraternity   of  the   sam 
church  ?     And  if  things  of  conimon  concernmen 


len  how  far  the  consent  of  neighbouring  churches 
to  be  sought  ? 

9.  Whether  it  doth  not  belong  to  the  body  of  a 
wn,  collectively  taken,  jointly  to  call  him  to  be 
it-ir  minister,  whom  the   chu»ch  shall  choose  to  be 

eir  officer? 

10.  Whether  the  political  and  external  adminis- 
•ation  of  Abraham's  covenant  be  not  obligatory  to 
ospel  churches  ? 

11.  Unto   whom  shall  such  persons  repair,  that 
re  grieved  at  any  church  process  or  censure ;  or 
helher  they  must  acquiesce  in  the  church's  cen- 

ure  to  which  they  belong  ? 

12.  Whether  the  laying  on  of  hands  in  ordina- 
ation  belong  to  presbyters  or  brethren  ? 

13.  Whether   the    church,    her    invitation    and 
lection  of  an   officer,  or  preaching  elder,  necessi- 
dtes  the  whole  congregation  to  sit  down  satisfied, 
s  bound  thereby  to  accept  him  as  their  minister, 
hough  invited  and  settled  without  the  town's  con- 
ent? 

14.  What  is  the  Gospel  way  to  gather  and  settle 
hurches  ? 

15.  From  whom  do  ministers  receive  their  com- 
nission  to  baptize  ? 

16.  Whether  a  synod  hath  a  decisive  power? 

17.  Whether  it  be  not  justifiable,  by  the  word  of 
lod,   that   civil  authority  indulge   congregational 

nd  presbyterian  churches,  and  their  discipline  in 
he  churches  ? 

It  appears,  by  the  records,  that  several  other 
questions  were  proposed,  but  these  are  all  which 
are  to  be  found  upon  them. 

The  council  convened  at  Boston,  June  4th,  1657, 
and,  after  a  session  of  a  little  more  than  a  fortnight, 
rave  an  elaborate  answer  to  twenty-one  questions. 
The  elders  from  Connecticut  brought  back  an  au- 
hentic  copy  of  the  result  of  the  council,  and  pre- 
sented it  to  the  general  court,  at  a  session  on  the 
L2th  of  August;  and  the  court  ordered,  that  copies 
hould  be  sent  forthwith  to  all  the  churches  in  the 
colony;  and  if  any  of  them  should  have  objections 
gainst  the  answers  which  had  been  given,  they 
were  directed  to  transmit  them  to  the  general 
court,  at  the  session  in  October. 

The  answers  were  afterwards  printed  in  London, 
under  the  title  of  "  A  disputation  concerning  church 
members  and  their  children."  Several  of  the  ques- 
tions involve  each  other;  but  the  principal  one 
was  that  respecting  baptism  and  church  member- 
ship ;  and  an  answer  to  this,  in  effect,  answered  a 
considerable  part  of  the  other  questions.  With 
respect  to  this  latter,  it  was  asserted,  "  That  it  was 
the  duty  of  infants,  who  confederated  in  their  pa- 
rents, when  grown  up  unto  years  of  discretion, 
though  not  fit  for  the  Lord's  supper,  to  own  the 
covenant  they  made  with  their  parents,  by  entering 
thereinto,  in  their  own  persons ;  and  it  is  the  duty 
of  the  churches  to  call  upon  them  for  the  perform- 
ance thereof;  and  if,  being  called  upon,  they  shall 
refuse  the  performance  of  this  great  duty,  or  other- 
wise continue  scandalous,  they  are  liable  to  be  cen- 
sured for  the  same  by  the  church.  And  in  case 
they  understand  the  ground  of  religion,  and  are  not 
scandalous,  and  solemnly  own  their  covenant  in 
their  own  persons,  wherein  they  give  up  themselves 
and  their  children  unto  the  Lord,  and  desire  bap- 
tism for  them,  we  see  not  sufficient  cause  to  deny 
baptism  unto  their  children." 

The  answer  to  this  question  was,  in  effect,  an 
answer  to  the  other  respecting  the  right  of  towns  to 
vote  in  the  election  of  ministers ;  for  if  they  were 


UNITED  STATES 


717 


aH  members  of  the  church  by  baptism,  and  under 
its  discipline,  they  doubtless  had  a  right  to  vote 
with  the  church  in  the  election  of  their  pastor. 
Indeed,  there  was  no  proper  ground  of  distinction 
between  them  and  the  church  ;  and  hence,  it  seems, 
the  answer  to  that  question  was  to  this  effect,  "  That 
though  it  was  the  right  of  the  brotherhood  to  choose 
their  pastor,  and  though  it  was  among  the  arts  of 
antichrist  to  deprive  them  of  this  powe~,  yet  they 
ought  to  have  a  special  regard  to  the  baptized,  by 
the  covenant  of  God,  under  their  watch." 

The  decisions  of  the  council  do  not  appear  to 
have  had  any  influence  to  reconcile,  but  rather  to 
inflame  the  churches;  and  a  number  of  ministers, 
and  the  churches  pretty  generally,  viewed  this  as  a 
great  innovation,  and  entirely  inconsistent  with 
the  principles  on  which  the  churches  of  New  Eng- 
gland  were  originally  founded,  and  with  the  princi- 
ples of  Congregationalism. 

The  church  at  Hartford,  and  the  aggrieved  bre- 
thren, instead  of  being  satisfied  and  reconciled,  ap- 
peared to  be  thrown  into  a  state  of  greater  aliena- 
tion and  animosity ;  and  the  aggrieved  soon  after 
withdrew  from  Mr.  Stone  and  the  church,  and  were 
about  forming  a  union  with  the  church  at  Weathers- 
field.  Among  them  were  Governor  Webster,  Mr. 
Goodwin,  ruling  elder  in  the  church,  Mr.  Cullick, 
and  Mr.  Bacon,  principal  men  both  in  the  church 
and  town.  Mr.  Stone  and  the  church  were  about 
to  proceed  against  the  receders,  but  the  general 
court  interposed,  and  passed  an  act,  prohibiting  the 
church  at  Hartford  to  proceed  any  further  against 
the  members  who  had  withdrawn  from  their  com- 
munion, and  prohibited  those  members  to  join 
with  the  church  at  Weathersfield,  or  any  other 
church,  until  further  attempts  should  be  made  for 
their  reconciliation  with  their  brethren.  By  the 
act  it  appears,  that  the  churches  in  the  colony  were 
generally  affected  with  the  dispute  at  Hartford,  and 
viewed  it  as  a  common  cause,  with  respect  to  all  the 
congregational  churches ;  and  it  exhibits,  in  so 
strong  a  point  of  light,  the  authority  which  the  ge- 
neral court  imagined  they  had  a  right  to  exercise 
over  the  churches,  and  the  spirit  of  those  times,  as 
to  deserve  to  be  quoted.  It  was  as  follows  :  "  This 
court  orders,  in  reference  to  the  sad  difficulties  that 
are  broken  out  in  the  several  churches  in  this  colony, 
and  in  special,  betwixt  the  church  at  Hartford  and 
the  withdrawers ;  and  to  prevent  further  troubles 
and  sad  consequences,  that  may  ensue  from  the 
premises  to  the  whole  commonwealth,  that  there  be, 
from  henceforth,  an  utter  cessation  of  all  further 
prosecution,  either  oil  the  church's  part  at  Hartford 
towards  the  withdrawers  from  them;  and,  on  the 
other  part,  that  those  that  have  withdrawn  from  the 
church  at  Hartford,  shall  make  a  cessation  in  pro- 
secuting their  former  propositions  to  the  church  at 
Weathersfield,  or  any  other  church,  in  reference  to 
their  joining  there,  in  church  relation,  until  the 
matters  in  controversy  betwixt  the  church  at  Hart- 
ford and  the  withdrawn  members,  be  brought  to  an 
issue,  in  that  way  the  court  shall  determine." 

The  court  having  desired  the  elders  of  the  colony 
to  meet  them,  and  assist  in  adopting  some  measures 
by  which  the  divisions  in  the  churches,  and  especi- 
ally in  that  at  Hartford,  might  be  healed,  adjourned 
about  a  fortnight;  but  assembled  again  on  the 
24th  of  March.  Whether  the  elders  met  them,  or 
not,  does  not  appear ;  but  the  advice  of  the  assem- 
bly at  this  time  was,  that  Mr.  Stone,  with  the 
church  and  brethren  who  had  withdrawn,  should 
meet  together;  and,  in  a  private  conference,  if 


possible,  agree  upon  some  terms  by  which  they 
might  be  reconciled.  Governor  Wells,  and  Depu- 
ty-governor Winthrop  were  appointed  to  meet 
with  them,  and  employ  their  wisdom  and  influence 
to  make  peace. 

It  seems,  that  the  church  did  not  comply  with 
this  advice ;  or  if  there  were  any  meeting  of  the 
parties,  nothing  was  done  to  effect  an  accommoda- 
tion ;  and  it  appears  that  Mr.  Stone  viewed  the 
withdrawn  brethren  as  in  the  hands  of  the  church 
at  Hartford,  and  the  matters  to  be  determined  as 
not  lying  before  any  council  or  the  general  court; 
and  he  would  not  admit  that  he,  or  the  church,  had 
counteracted  the  advice  of  the  former  council ;  and 
therefore,  at  the  session  in  May,  petitioned  that 
the  following  propositions  might  be  entered  upon 
the  records  of  the  colony,  and  that  the  withdrawn 
brethren,  or  some  person  whom  they  should  ap- 
point, would  dispute  them  with  him  in  the  presence 
of  the  court. 

"  1.  The  former  council,  at  Hartford,  June  26. 
is  utterly  cancelled,  and  of  no  force. 

4i  2.  There  is  no  violation  of  the  last  agreement, 
(made  when  the  reverend  elders  of  the  Massachu- 
setts were  here,)  either  by  the  church  of  Christ  at 
Hartford,  or  their  teacher. 

"  3.  The  withdrawn  brethren  have  offered  great 
violence  to  the  fore-mentioned  agreement. 

"  4.  The  withdrawn  brethren  are  members  of 
the  church  of  Christ  at  Hartford. 

"  5.  Their  withdrawing  from  the  church  is  a  sin 
exceeding  scandalous  and  dreadful,  and  of  its  own 
nature  destructive  to  this  and  other  churches. 

"  6.  The  controversy  between  the  church  of 
Christ  at  Hartford,  and  the  withdrawn  persons,  is 
not  in  the  hands  of  the  churches,  to  be  determined 
by  them.  "  SAMUEL  STONE." 

It  does  not  appear  that  the  court  gave  their  con- 
sent, that  the  propositions  should  be  disputed  before 
them,  or  that  they  enacted  any  thing  at  this  court 
respecting  the  affairs  of  the  church,  or  the  brethren 
who  had  withdrawn ;  but  at  a  session,  in  August, 
they  insisted  that  the  church  and  aggrieved  bre- 
thren should  meet  together,  according  to  their  for- 
mer advice,  and  debate  their  difficulties  among 
themselves,  and  that  the  points  in  controversy  should 
be  clearly  stated. 

At  this  time  a  complaint  was  exhibited  against 
Governor  Webster,  Mr.  Cullick,  Elder  Goodwin, 
and  others,  who  had  withdrawn  from  their  brethren  ; 
but  the  court  would  not  hear  it  at  that  time ;  and 
ordered,  that  if  the  church  and  brethren  would  not 
agree  to  meet  together  and  debate  their  differences 
among  themselves,  each  party  should  choose  three 
as  indifferent  elders  as  could  be  found  ;  who  should 
afford  all  the  light  and  assistance  in  their  power, 
towards  settling  the  differences  according  to  the 
Divine  oracles;  and  that  both  parties  should  peace- 
ably submit  to  their  advice ;  and  if  either  of  the 
parties  should  refuse  to  make  choice  of  three  gen- 
tlemen, for  the  design  proposed,  the  court  deter- 
mined to  choose  for  them.  The  church  rejected  the 
proposal,  and  the  court  chose  Mr.  Cobbett,  Mr. 
Mitchel,  and  Mr.  Danforth,  for  them ;  and  as  a  re- 
serve, if  either  should  fail,  Mr.  Brown  was  chosen. 
The  aggrieved  brethren  chose  Mr.  Davenport,  Mr. 
Norton,  and  Mr.  Fitch;  and,  as  a  reserve,  Mr. 
Street.  The  council  were  to  meet  on  the  17th  of 
September ;  but  the  church,  it  seems,  would  not 
send  for  the  council,  and  so  it  did  not  assemble. 

At  a  session  of  the  general  court  the  next  year, 
March  9th,  1659,  it  was  determined,  that  as  its  past 


718 


THE  H (STORY  OP  AMERICA. 


labours  to  promote  unanimity  at  Hartford  had  been 
frustrated  by  the  non-compliance  of  the  parties,  the 
secretary,  in  the  name  of  the  court,  should  desire 
the  elders,  who  had  been  formerly  appointed,  to 
meet  at  Hartford  on  the  3d  of  June  succeeding, 
and  afford  their  assistance  in  healing  the  breach 
which  had  been  made  there.  It  was  also  enacted, 
that  the  church  at  Hartford,  and  the  brethren  who 
had  withdrawn,  should  jointly  bear  the  expenses  of 
the  former  council,  and  of  making  provision  for 
that  which  had  been  then  appointed. 

The  council  consisted  of  the  elders  and  churches 
ol  Boston,  Cambridge,  Charlestown,  Ipswich,  Ded- 
ham,  and  Sudbury;  who  assembled,  according  to 
appointment,  and  were  zealous  in  their  labours  to 
soften  the  minds  and  conciliate  the  affections  of  the 
parties ;  and  though  they  did  not  effect  a  reconci- 
liation, yet  they  brought  the  brethren  much  nearer 
together  than  they  had  been,  and  left  the  church 
and  town  in  a  better  state  than  they  had  enjoyed 
for  years  before. 

On  the  15th  of  June  the  court  assembled,  and 
perceiving  the  good  effects  of  this  council,  desired 
the  same  gentlemen  to  meet  again  at  Hartford,  on 
the  19th  of  August;  and  upon  the  choice  and 
desire  of  the  brethren  who  had  withdrawn,  the  Rev. 
John  Sherman,  and  the  church  at  Watertown,  and 
the  elder  and  church  at  Dorchester,  were  also  in- 
vited to  come  with  them. 

The  general  court,  in  this  state  of  the  controversy, 
ordered  the  heads  of  the  complaint,  which  had  been 
exhibited  against  the  withdrawn  brethren,  to  be 
drawn  up  and  sent  to  them,  and  they  were  required 
to  appear  before  the  court  in  October,  and  answer 
to  them.  The  church  agreed  to  the  whole  council, 
and  the  aggrieved  to  seven  of  them.  The  general 
court  ordered,  that  both  parties  should  submit  to 
the  judgment  of  the  council,  and  that  it  should  be  a 
final  issue. 

The  council  convened  again  at  Hartford,  and  so 
far  composed  the  difficulties  which  had  so  long  sub- 
sisted, as  to  prevent  a  separation  at  that  time ;  and 
some  of  the  chief  characters  were  soon  removed  by 
death.  Mr.  Cullick  went  to  Boston,  and  a  consi- 
derable number  to  Hadley ;  and,  by  these  means, 
the  church  was  restored  to  a  tolerable  state  of  peace 
and  brotherly  affection ;  but  it  was  viewed  by  some 
of  its  own  members,  and  others,  as  having,  in  some 
degree,  departed  from  the  strict  principles  of  the  first 
congregational  churches  in  New  England;  and 
seems  afterwards  to  have  divided  nearly  on  the  same 
grounds. 

Doctor  Mcther,  in  his  Magnalia,  represents  that 
it  was  difficult,  even  at  the  time  of  the  controversy,  to 
find  what  were  the  precise  points  in  dispute.  In- 
deed, what  the  particular  act  or  sentiment  in  Mr. 
Stone  or  the  church  was,  which  gave  Elder  Goodwin 
disgust,  and  began  the  dissension,  does  not  fully 
appear.  Nothing  however  is  more  evident,  from 
the  questions  propounded,  which  it  appears  were 
drawn  by  the  very  heads  of  the  parties,  and  by  the 
gentlemen  chosen  by  the  disaffected  brethren,  and 
rejected  by  the  church,  than  that  the  whole  contro- 
versy respected  the  qualifications  for  baptism,  church 
membership,  and  the  rights  of  the  brotherhood.  Mr. 
Stone's  ideas  of  Congregationalism  appear  to  have 
bordered  more  on  presbyterianism,  and  less  on  in- 
dependence, than  those  of  the  first  ministers  in  the 
country  in  general;  as  his  definition  of  Congrega- 
tionalism was,  "  That  it  was  a  speaking  aristocracy 
in  the  face  of  a  silent  democracy." 

The   Hartford  controversy  was,  for  its  circum- 


stances, duration,  and  obstinacy,  the  most  remark- 
able of  any  in  its  day  ;  and  it  affected  all  the  churches, 
and  insinuated  itself  into  all  the  affairs  of  societies, 
towns,  and  the  whole  commonwealth.  Dr.  Mather, 
in  his  figurative  style,  says,  "  From  the  fire  of  the 
altar,  there  issued  thunderings  and  lightnings,  and 
earthquakes,  through  the  colony;"  which  was  con- 
sidered as  very  remarkable,  as  the  church  at  Hart- 
ford had  been  famous  for  its  instruction,  peace,  and 
brotherly  love. 

The  commissioners  of  the  united  colonies,  in  Sep- 
tember, 1656,  wrote  a  friendly  and  pacific  letter  on 
the  subject:  in  which  they  say,  "  We  have,  with 
much  sorrow  of  heart,  heard  of- your  differences, 
and  that  the  means  attended  hitherto,  for  composing 
them,  have  proved  ineffectual.  We  cannot  but  be 
deeply  sensible  of  the  sad  effects  and  dreadful  con- 
sequences of  dissensions,  heightened  and  increased 
in  a  church  of  such  eminence  for  light  and  love;" 
and  they  represented  to  them,  that  though  all  the 
churches  sympathized  with  them,  yet  they  them- 
selves would  be  sure,  in  the  first  place,  to  ftel  the 
smart;  and  they  most  earnestly  exhorted  them  not 
only  to  be  exceedingly  cautious  of  all  further  provo- 
cations, but  to  employ  all  their  wisdom  and  exer- 
tions for  a  reconciliation. 

The  proclamation  for  a  public  thanksgiving  in 
November,  recognised  the  success  of  the  council,  in 
composing  the  difficulties  at  Hartford,  as  an  event 
demanding  public  joy  and  praise.  The  church  at 
Weathersfield  interested  themselves  in  the  dispute 
at  Hartford,  and  became  divided  and  contentious; 
and  some  of  the  brethren  exhibited  a  complaint  to 
the  court  against  Mr.  Russell,  for  joining  with  the 
church  in  excommunicating  one  of  the  brethren,  as 
it  was  alleged,  without  giving  him  a  copy  of  the 
complaint  exhibited  against  him,  and  without  ac- 
quainting him  with  his  crime.  The  general  court 
ordered,  that  Mr.  Russell  should  be  reproved  for 
acting  contrary  to  the  usage  of  the  churches;  and 
the  brethren  were  divided  with  respect  to  their 
church  state.  Some  insisted,  that  they  were  no 
church,  because  they  had  never  been  gathered  ac- 
cording to  Gospel  order;  or  if  they  had  been  a 
church,  that  the  members  of  it  had  moved  away  in 
such  a  manner,  as  had  destroyed  its  very  existence: 
and  many  were  inviolably  attached  to  Mr.  Russell, 
while  others  strenuously  opposed  him. 

In  this  state  of  affairs,  the  general  court  appointed 
the  elders  and  churches  of  Hartford  and  Windsor, 
a  council  to  hear  the  difficulties  which  had  arisen  in 
the  church  and  town ;  but  the  parties  could  not  be 
reconciled ;  and  Mr.  Russell  removed  to  Hadley, 
where  he  and  a  number  of  his  warm  friends  from 
Hartford  and  Weathersfield  planted  a  new  town  and 
church.  The  general  court  resolved,  that  a  church 
had  been  regularly  gathered  at  Weathersfield  by 
the  consent  of  the  general  court,  and  approbation 
of  neighbouring  elders;  and  that,  though  divers  of 
the  members  had  removed  to  other  places,  yet  the 
brethren  there  were  the  true  and  undoubted  church 
of  Weathersfield,  and  so  to  be  accounted,  notwith- 
standing any  thing  which  might  appear.  Thus  ter- 
minated the  controversy;  and  Mr.  Bulkley,  in 
1666,  removed  from  New  London,  and  succeeded 
Mr.  Russell  in  the  pastoral  office.  The  same  year, 
Mr.  Simon  Bradstreet,  from  Charlestown,  came  to 
New  London,  and  took  the  pastoral  charge  of  the 
church  there. 

About  the  time  of  Mr.  Russell's  removal  from 
Weathersfield,  the  minds  of  the  people  at  Middle- 
town  became  alienated  from  Mr.  Stow,  who  appears 


UNITED  STATES. 


719 


to  have  been  the  first  minister  in  that  town  ;  and  a 
committee  of  ministers  and  civilians,  appointed  by 
the  general  court,  dismissed  him,  on  account  of  the 
evil  temper  of  the  people  towards  him. 

Many  of  the  ministers  and  of  the  people  in  the 
country  were  for  extending  baptism,  according  to 
the  determination  of  the  general  council  in  1657  ; 
but  the  churches  were  so  generally  and  warmly  op- 
posed to  it,  that  it  could  not  be  effected  without  a 
synod;  and  as  this  and  the  "consociation"  of 
churches  were  favourite  points,  which  a  large  num- 
ber of  the  clergy  and  principal  civilians  in  Massa- 
chusetts and  Connecticut  wished  to  carry,  the  gene- 
ral court  of  Massachusetts  appointed  a  synod  of  all 
the  ministers  in  that  colony,  to  deliberate  and 
decide  on  those  points.  The  questions  proposed 
were, 

1.  Who  are  the  subjects  of  baptism  ? 

2.  Whether,  according  to  the  word  of  God,  there 
ought  to  be  a  consociation  of  churches  ? 

The  council  met  at  Boston,  in  September,  1662  ; 
and  their  answer  to  the  first  question  was  substan- 
tially the  same  with  that  given  by  the  council  in 
1657  ;  and  they  declared,  "  That  church  member.*, 
who  were  admitted  in  minority,  understanding  the 
doctrine  of  faith,  and  publicly  professing  their 
assent  thereunto,  not  scandalous  in  life,  and 
solemnly  owning  the  covenant  before  the  church, 
wherein  they  give  up  themselves  and  children  to  the 
Lord,  and  subject  themselves  to  the  government  of 
Christ  in  his  church,  their  children  are  to  be  bap- 
tized." They  further  resolved,  "  That  the  members 
of  orthodox  churches,  being  sound  in  the  faith,  and 
not  scandalous  in  life,  and  presenting  due  testimony 
thereof,  these  occasionally  coming  from  one  church 
to  another,  may  have  their  children  baptized  in 
the  church  whither  they  came,  by  virtue  of  commu- 
nion of  churches."  And  they  also  gave  their  opinion 
in  favour  of  the  consociation  of  churches. 

However,  the  council  were  not  unanimous ;  seve- 
ral learned  and  pious  men  protested  against  the  de- 
termination relative  to  baptism.  The  Rev.  Charles 
Chauncey,  president  of  Harvard-college;  Mr.  In- 
crease Mather,  afterwards  doctor  in  divinity;  Mr. 
Mather,  of  Northampton  ;  and  others,  were  warmly 
in  the  opposition  ;  and  President  Chauncey  wrote  a 
tract  against  the  resolution  respecting  baptism,  en- 
titled Antisynodalia;  and  Mr.  Increase  Mather 
also  wrote  in  opposition  to  the  council;  and  Mr. 
Davenport,  and  all  the  ministers  in  the  colony  of 
New  Haven,  and  numbers  in  Connecticut,  were 
against  the  resolutions.  The  churches  were  more 
generally  opposed  to  them  than  the  clergy. 

The  general  court  of  Connecticut  took  no  notice 
of  the  synod,  nor  of  the  dispute,  but  left  the  elders 
and  churches  at  liberty  to  act  as  they  pleased  :  these 
were  attempting  to  form  a  union  with  New  Haven; 
and,  as  the  ministers  and  churches  of  that  colony 
were  unanimous  in  their  opposition  to  the  synod", 
the  court  probably  judged  it  impolitic  at  that  time 
to  act  any  thing  relative  to  these  ecclesiastical 
points. 

While  the  churches  were  agitated  with  these  dis- 
putes, Mr.  Stone  died  in  England,  July  20th,  1663. 
He  had  his  education  at  Emmanuel-college,  in  the 
university  of  Cambridge  ;  and  was  eminently  pious 
and  exemplary  ;  abounded  in  fastings  and  prayer, 
and  was  a  most  strict  observer  of  the  Christian  Sab- 
bath. Preparatory  to  this,  he  laboured  to  abstract 
himself  on  the  Saturday  evening,  and  was  careful 
not  to-  speak  a  word  which  was  not  serious  ;  and 
spent  much  tiuie  in  the  instruction  of  his  family, 


commonly  delivering  to  them  the  sermon  which  he 
designed  to  preach  on  the  morrow,  or  some  other, 
which  might  be  best  calculated  for  their  instruction 
and  edification.  His  sermons  were  doctrinal,  re- 
plete with  sentiment,  and  concisely  and  closely 
applied.  He  was  esteemed  one  of  the  most  accurate 
and  acute  disputants  of  his  day  ;  and  was  celebrated 
for  his  wit,  pleasantry,  and  good  humour. 

All  the  original  ministers  of  Connecticut  and 
New  Haven,  except  Mr.  Warham  and  Mr.  Daven- 
port, had  now  finished  their  course,  or  returned  to 
England  ;  and  most  of  their  brethren,  who  composed 
the  first  «hurches,slept  with  them  in  the  dust ;  and  the 
first  governors  and  magistrates  were  now  also  dead. 

The  next  year  the  general  court  of  Connecticut 
came  to  a  resolve,  with  a  view  to  enforce  the  reso- 
lution of  the  synod  in  the  words  following  : — 

"  This  court  understanding  by  a  writing  presented 
to  them  from  several  persons  of  this  colony,  that 
they  are  aggrieved,  that  they  are  not  entertained  in 
church  fellowship,  this  court  having  duly  considered 
the  same,  desiring,  that  the  rules  of  Christ  may  be 
attended,  do  commend  it  to  the  ministers  and 
churches  in  this  colony,  to  consider  whether  it  be 
not  their  duty  to  entertain  all  such  persons,  who 
are  of  an  honest  and  godly  conversation,  having  a 
competency  of  knowledge  in  the  principles  of  reli- 
gion, and  shall  desire  to  join  with  them  in  church 
fellowship,  by  an  explicit  covenant ;  and  that  they 
have  their  children  baptized:  and  that  all  the  chil- 
dren of  the  church  be  accepted  and  accounted  real 
members  of  the  church ;  and  that  the  church  ex- 
ercise a  due  Christian  care  and  watch  over  them : 
and  that  when  they  are  grown  up,  being  examined 
by  the  officer,  in  the  face  of  the  church,  it  appear 
in  the  judgment  of  charity,  that  they  be  duly  quali- 
fied to  participate  in  that  great  ordinance  of  the 
Lord's  supper,  by  their  being  able  to  examine  them- 
solves  and  discern  the  Lord's  body,  such  persons 
be  admitted  to  full  communion. 

*'  The  court  dcsireth  the  several  officers  of  the 
respective  churches  would  be  pleased  to  consider, 
whether  it  be  not  the  duty  of  the  court  to  order  the 
churches  to  practise  according  to  the  premises,  if 
they  do  not  practise  without  such  order.  If  any 
dissent  from  the  contents  of  this  writing,  they  are 
desired  to  help  the  court,  with  such  light  as  is  with 
them,  the  next  session  of  this  assembly." 

The  secretary  was  directed  to  send  a  copy  of  this 
resolution  to  all  the  ministers  and  churches  in  the 
colony  ;  and  the  elders  and  churches  who  would  not 
comply  with  the  proposed  innovation,  had  not  only 
to  combat  the  arguments  and  influence  of  the  synod, 
but  the  influence  of  the  uneasy  people  in  the  congre- 
gations, and  of  the  general  court;  but  it  was  but 
slowly,  and  with  great  difficulty,  that  the  practice 
of  owning  the  covenant,  and  baptizing  the  children 
of  parents  who  did  not  enter  into  full  communion, 
and  attend  both  the  sacraments,  was  introduced. 
But  few  churches  for  many  years  admitted  the  prac- 
tice, and  some  never  did ;  and  it  appears  that,  not- 
withstanding tbe  influence  of  the  general  court,  and 
the  resolutions  of  the  synods,  or  general  councils, 
a  majority  of  the  churches  in  Connecticut  were 
against  it.  They  imagined  that  such  a  latitude  in 
baptism,  and  admission  of  members  to  communion, 
would  subvert  the  very  design  for  which  the  churcheb 
of  New  England  were  planted. 

The  discipline  and  usages  of  the  Connecticut 
churches  continued  yet  'or  some  time  nearly  in  the 
same  situation  in  which  they  had  been  from  the  be- 
ginning. The  clergy  and  churches  were  strict  itt 


720 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  admission  of  members  to  full  communion  ;  and 
those  who  were  admitted,  generally  made  a  public 
relation  of  their  Christian  sentiments. 

The  elders  and  churches  were  exceedingly  strict, 
with  respect  to  those  whom  they  ordained;  examin- 
ing them  not  only  in  the  three  learned  languages 
and  doctrinal  points  of  theology,  with  respect  to 
cases  of  conscience,  and  their  ability  to  defend 
Christianity  and  its  doctrines  against  infidels',  but 
with  respect  to  their  own  sentiments  of  religion. 
All  those  who  were  to  be  ordained  over  any  church, 
previously  to  their  separation  to  the  sacred  office, 
satisfied  the  brotherhood  of  their  spiritual  birth,  and 
were  admitted  to  their  communion  and  fellowship  ; 
and  none  were  ordained,  or  installed  over  any 
church,  until  they  had  been  admitted  to  its  full  com- 
munion and  fellowship  ;  and  they  were  also  strict  in 
the  formation  of  churches ;  none  could  be  formed, 
nor  any  minister  ordained,  without  liberty  from  the 
general  court,  and  the  approbation  of  the  neighbour- 
ing elders  and  churches. 

From  the  preceding  view,  it  appears  that  before 
the  union  there  were  fifteen  churches  in  Connecticut, 
exclusive  of  those  which  had  been  formed  upon  Long 
Island ;  and  that  there  had  been  thirty-one  ministers 
in  the  colony ;  of  whom  about  twenty-five  or  twenty- 
six  had  been  installed  or  ordained;  and  that  twenty- 
one  were  ministering  to  the  people  at  the  time  of  the 
union  ;  nineteen  of  whom  had  been  installed  or  or- 
dained. The  other  two,  Mr.  Noyes  and  Mr.  Collins, 
were  afterwards  settled  in  the  ministry,  in  the  towns 
where  for  some  years  they  had  been  labouring. 

Conduct  of  the  king's  commissioners — Counties  and 
county  courts  regulated — Governor  Winthrop's  estate 
freed  from  taxation — Towns  settled'— Controversy 
with  Rhode  Island — The  grounds  of  it — Courts  ap- 
pointed in  the  Narraganset  country — Laws  revised 
and  printed — War  with  the  Dutch — Claims  and  con- 
duct of  Major  Edmund  Andross,  Governor  of  New 
York — Protest  against  him — Conduct  of  Captain 
Thomas  Bull — Proclamation  respecting  the  insult 
received  from  Major  Andross — Philip's  war — Cap- 
tains Hutchinson  and  Lothrop  surprised  and  slain — 
Treachery  of  the  Springfield  Indians — Hadley  at- 
tacked by  the  enemy — The  assembly  make  provision 
for  the  defence  of  Connecticut — Expedition  against 
the  Narraganset  Indians — The  reasons  of  it — The 
great  swamp  Jight — Loss  of  men — Courage  exhibited, 
and  hardships  endured — Captain  Pierce  and  his 
party  cut  off- — Nanunttenoo  taken — Success  of  Cap- 
tains Denison  and  A  very — Captain  Wadsworth  and 
his  party  slain— Death  and  character  of  Governor 
Winthrop — Success  of  Major  Talcott — Attack  upon 
Hadley — The  enemy  beaten  and  begin  to  scatter — 
They  are  pursued  to  Housatonick — Sachem  of  Qua- 
baug  and  Philip  killed — Number  of  the  enemy  before 
the  war — Their  destruction — Loss  of  the  colonies — 
Connecticut  happy  in  preserving  its  own  towns  and 
assisting  its  neighbours 

(1665.)  After  the  reduction  of  the  Dutch  settle- 
ments, Colonel  Nichols  fixed  his  residence  at  New 
York,  to  manage  the  affairs  of  government;  and 
Sir  Robert  Carr,  Cartwrith,  and  Maverick,  the 
other  commissioners,  went  to  Boston,  and  proceeded 
upon  the  business  of  their  commission.  After  they 
had  communicated  their  instructions  to  the  general 
court,  and  made  a  number  of  requisitions  inconsist- 
ent with  the  chartered  rights  of  the  colony,  and 
some  inconsistent  with  the  rights  of  conscience  and 
of  the  churches,  they  went  from  Boston  to  Narra- 
ganset ;  aud  held  courts  at  Warwick  and  Southerton, 


and  spent  a  considerable  time  in  hearing  the  com- 
plaints of  the  Indians,  in  determining  the  titles  of 
the  English  to  their  lands;  and  without  any  colour 
of  authority  from  their  commission,  undertook  to 
make  a  new  province;  and  amongst  other  arbitrary 
resolves,  decided  that  the  deed  of  the  Rhode  Islanders, 
from  the  Indians,  was  of  no  force.  Captain  Ather- 
ton,  and  others,  had  made  a  large  purchase  of  the 
Indians  in  Narragauset,  east  of  Pawcatuck  river, 
and  the  planters  had  put  themselves  under  the  go- 
vernment of  Connecticut ;  but  the  commissioners 
determined  that  Captain  Atherton's  deed  was  not 
legal,  because  there  was  no  mention  of  the  sum 
which  he  had  paid.  However,  as  it  appeared  that  a 
full  consideration  had  been  paid  the  Indians  for  the 
lands,  the  commissioners  ordered  the  natives  to  pay 
to  the  purchasers  a  certain  quantity  of  wampum, 
and  the  planters  to  move  off  from  the  lands ;  and  as 
the  Narraganset  sachems  had  in  1664,  made  their 
subjection  to  the  king  of  England,  acknowledging 
themselves  to  be  his  subjects,  they  declared  that  the 
country  belonged  to  his  majesty,  and  that  in  future 
it  should  be  called  "  the  king's  province  ;"  and  they 
determined,  that  no  person  of  what  colony  soever 
should  presume  to  exercise  any  authority  within  that 
tract,  except  those  who  should  be  authorized  by  them, 
until  his  majesty's  pleasure  should  be  known.  They 
also  further  decreed,  that  the  king's  province  should 
extend  westward  to  the  middle  of  Pawcatuck  river, 
and  northward  as  far  as  the  south  line  of  Massachu- 
setts ;  and  in  the  plenitude  of  their  power,  they  also 
ordered  that  the  Pequots,  to  whom  the  general  as- 
sembly of  Connecticut  had,  agreeably  to  a  resolu 
tion  of  the  commissioners  of  the  united  colonies, 
assigned  a  tract  of  land  on  the  east  of  Pawcatuck, 
should  be  removed  and  settled  in  some  other  place, 
which  the  assembly  should  appoint  west  of  that  river ; 
and  they  came  to  these  important  decisions,  with- 
out giving  Connecticut  any  notice,  or  ever  hearing 
what  reasons  the  colony  had  to  offer  against  them. 

When  they  had  finished  their  business  in  Narra- 
ganset, they  returned  to  Boston  ;  and  there  proceeded 
in  the  same  arbitrary  manner.  They  came  to  no 
determination  with  respect  to  the  claim  of  the  duke 
of  Hamilton,  but  returned  the  answer  of  Connecticut 
to  the  king,  and  made  a  very  friendly  report  to  him 
of  the  manner  in  which  they  had  been  received  by 
the  colony  of  Connecticut,  and  of  the  loyalty  and 
attachment  of  the  people  to  his  royal  person  ;  and 
in  consequence  the  king  sent  a  gracious  letter  to  the 
colony  ;  in  which  he  says,  "  We  cannot  but  let  you 
know  how  much  we  are  pleased.  Although  your 
carriage  doth  of  itself  most  justly  deserve  our  praise 
and  approbation,  yet  it  seems  to  be  set  off  with  more 
lustre  by  the  contrary  deportment  of  the  colony  of 
Massachusetts.  We  shall  never  be  unmindful  of 
this  your  loyal  and  dutiful  behaviour." 

At  the  general  election,  May  llth,  1666,  the' 
former  governor  and  council  were  re-elected. 

The  general  assembly  at  this  session  proceeded 
to  ascertain  the  limits  of  the  counties  and  the  busi- 
ness of  the  county  courts ;  and  it  was  enacted,  that 
the  towns  upon  the  river,  from  the  north  bounds  of 
Windsor,  with  Farmington,  to  thirty  miles  inland, 
should  be  one  county,  to  be  called  the  county  of 
Hartford ;  and  that  from  Pawcatuck  river,  with 
Norwich,  to  the  west  bounds  of  Hammonasset, 
should  be  one  county,  by  the  name  of  the  county  of 
New  London;  and  that  from  the  east  bounds  of 
Stratford  to  the  western  boundary  of  the  colony, 
be  another  county,  to  be  known  by  the  name  of  the 
county  of  Fail-field.  The  county  courts  were  to 


UNITED  STATES. 


721 


consist  of  one  magistrate  at  least,  and  of  two  jus 
ticesof  the  quorum;  and  if  three  magistrates  were 
present,  they  were  authorized  to  proceed  to  business, 
though  the  justices  were  absent.  The  probation  of 
wills  and  all  testamentary  matters,  which  before  had 
been  transacted  in  the  court  of  magistrates,  were 
referred  to  the  county  courts,  with  the  liberty  of 
appeal  to  the  superior  court. 

lu  1667,  no  alteration  was  made  with  respect  to 
the  governor  and  council,  but  Governor  Winthrop, 
at  first  declined  his  office  ;  and  the  assembly  ap- 
pointed a  committee,  and  desired  to  know  the  rea- 
sons of  his  desire  to  leave  the  chair ;  and  they  re- 
ported the  reasons  to  the  assembly  ;  which  it  seems 
were,  that  the  expense  of  his  office  was  such,  that  he 
could  not,  consistently  with  his  duty  to  himself  and 
family,  continue  in  it,  without  some  further  allow- 
ance from  the  colony.  The  assembly  continued  their 
earnest  desire,  that  he  would  accept  the  trust  to 
which  he  had  been  chosen ;  and  to  enable  him  to 
support  his  office  with  dignity,  the  legislature  freed 
all  his  estate  in  the  colony  from  taxation,  and 
granted  him  1101.  out  of  the  public  treasury.  Upon 
these  encouragements,  in  connexion  with  the  desire 
and  unanimity  of  the  freemen,  he  consented  to  ac- 
cept his  appointment. 

About  the  year  1664,  settlements  had  commenced 
on  the  east  side  of  Connecticut  river,  upon  the  tract, 
on  that  side,  which  originally  belonged  to  the  town 
of  Saybrook;  and  in  May,  1667,  the  inhabitants 
were  so  increased,  that  the  assembly  made  them  a 
distinct  town  by  the  name  of  Lyme.  The  Indian 
name  for  the  eastern  part  of  the  town  was  Nehan- 
tick. 

At  the  election  in  1668  the  freemen  elected  Mr. 
Alexander  Bryan,  Mr.  James  Bishop,  Mr.  Anthony 
Hawkins,  and  Mr.  Thomas  Wells,  magistrates,  in- 
stead of  Mr.,  Matthew  Allen,  Mr.  Sherman,  Mr. 
Crane,  and  Mr.  Clark. 

In  this  and  the  next  year  several  new  settlements 
were  made  and  new  towns  incorporated;  and  on 
the  20th  of  May,  1662,  a  purchase  was  made  of  the 
Indians,  of  a  township  of  land  termed  thirty  miles 
island;  the  Indian  name  of  the  tract,  east  of  the 
river,  was  Machemoodus.  The  original  proprietors 
were  twenty-eight ;  who  began  their  settlements  on 
the  west  side  of  the  river,  and  the  inhabitants  were 
so  increased,  that  in  the  session  in  October,  1668, 
the  plantation  was  vested  with  town  privileges,  and 
named  Haddam.  The  extent  of  the  township  was 
six  miles  east  and  west  of  the  river. 

About  the  same  time  a  settlement  was  made  at 
Massacoe.  In  April,  1644,  the  general  court  of 
Connecticut  had  given  liberty  to  Governors  Hopkins 
and  Haynes  to  dispose  of  the  lands  upon  Tunxis 
river,  called  Massacoe,  to  such  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Windsor  as  they  should  judge  expedient ;  and  in 
1647  the  court  resolved  that  Massacoe  should  be 
purchased  by  the  country,  and  a  committee  was  ap- 
pointed to  dispose  of  it  to  such  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Windsor  as  they  should  choose;  and  a  purchase  of 
the  lands  was  made  of  the  Indians,  and  settlemente 
b?gan  under  the  town  of  Windsor.  The  plantation, 
at  first,  was  considered  as  an  appendix  or  part  of 
that  town :  but  in  the  session  in  May,  1670,  it  was 
enacted,  that  Massacoe  should  be  a  distinct  town, 
by  the  name  of  Symsbury;  and  the  limits  were 
ordered  to  be  ten  miles  northward  from  the  north 
bounds  of  Farmington,  and  ten  miles  westward  from 
the  western  bounds  of  Windsor. 

About  the  same  time  New  Haven  village  was  in- 
coiporated  and  made  a  town,  by  the  name  of  "Wal- 

HIST.  OF  AMKR.— Nos.  91  &  92 


lingford.  The  purchase  of  the  town  had  been  made 
by  Governor  Eaton,  Mr.  Davenport,  and  other 
planters  of  New  Haven,  in  December,  IG38;  but 
the  settlement  was  not  projected  until  1669 ;  when 
a  committee  was  appointed  by  the  town  of  New 
Haven,  vested  with  powers  to  manage  the  \vhole 
affair  of  the  settlement;  which  held  the  lands  in 
trust,  and  acted  in  all  the  affairs  of  the  town,  as 
trustees,  until  May  1672,  when  the  trust  was  re- 
signed to  the  town. 

.At  the  general  election,  May  1670,  William 
Leet,  Esq.  was  chosen  deputy-governor,  and  Major 
Mason,  who  for  many  years  had  been  deputy-gover- 
nor, was  chosen  the  first  magistrate. 

Until  this  time  the  great  body  of  the  freemen  had 
annually  convened  at  Hartford,  upon  the  day  of 
election,  to  make  choice  of  the  governor,  magis- 
trates, and  civil  officers,  appointed  by  charter,  to  be 
elected  on  that  day ;  but  the  freemen  were  now  be- 
come so  numerous,  and  it  had  been  found  to  be  so 
expensive  and  inconvenient,  that  it  was  judged  ne- 
cessary to  alter  the  mode  of  election ;  and  the  as- 
sembly resolved,  "  That  henceforth  all  the  freemen 
of  this  jurisdiction,  without  any  further  summons, 
from  year  to  year,  shall  or  may  upon  the  second 
Thursday  in  May,  yearly,  in  person  or  in  proxy,  at 
Hartford,  attend  and  consummate  the  election  of 
governor,  deputy-governor,  and  assistants,  and  such 
other  public  officers  as  his  majesty  hath  appointed, 
by  our  charter,  then  yearly  to  be  chosen:"  at  the 
same  time  a  law  was  made,  regulating  the  freemen's 
meetings  and  the  mode  of  election,  nearly  the  same 
with  that  respecting  the  election  at  the  present  time. 

While  the  colony  was  thus  extending  its  settle- 
ments, and  regulating  its  internal  police,  great  dis- 
sensions arose  respecting  the  boundaries  between 
Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island;  aud  from  year  to 
year  Connecticut  had  appointed  committees  to  settle 
the  boundary  line  between  the  colonies,  but  all  their 
attempts  had  been  unsuccessful. 

In  1668  the  assembly  appointed  Mr.  Wyllys,  and 
Mr.  Robert  Thompson,  of  London,  by  petition  or 
otherwise,  to  represent  the  affair  to  his  majesty,  and 
obtain  a  resolution  respecting  the  boundary  line ;  but 
nothing  decisive,  however,  was  effected ;  and  mean- 
while, the  conduct  of  Rhode  Island  was  such,  that 
the  general  assembly  of  Connecticut  declared  it  to 
be  intolerable,  and  contrary  to  the  settlement  made 
by  his  majesty's  commissioners ;  and  the  assembly, 
therefore,  in  May  1670,  appointed  Mr.  Leet,  the 
deputy-governor,  John  Allen,  and  James  Richards, 
Esquires,  Captain  John  Winthrop,  and  Captain 
Benjamin  Newbury,  a  committee  to  meet  at  New 
London,  the  June  following,  to  treat  with  such  gen- 
tlemen from  Rhode  Island  as  should  be  sent,  pro- 
perly authorized  to  act  in  the  affair;  and  concern- 
ing the  injuries  which  the  inhabitants  of  that  colony 
had  done  to  the  people  of  Connecticut.  They  were 
not  only  vested  with  plenary  powers  to  compromise 
these  difficulties,  but,  in  case  the  commissioners 
from  Rhode  Island  would  not  agree  to  some  equita- 
ble mode  of  settlement,  to  reduce  the  people  of 
Squamacuck  and  Narraganset  to  obedience  to  this 
colony ;  and  were  also  authorized  to  hold  courts  in 
the  Pequot  and  Narraganset  country,  and  to  hear 
and  determine  all  cases  of  injury  which  had  been 
done  to  the  inhabitants  of  Connecticut,  according 
to  law ;  and  to  appoint  all  officers,  necessary  for 
the  peaceable  government  of  that  part  of  the  colony. 

The  commissioners  of  the  two  colonies  met  at 
New  London,  but  could  effect  no  settlement  of  the 
controversy;  as  the  commissioners  from  R*hode 

3  T 


722 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Island  insisted  that  Pawcatuck  river  was  their 
boundary,  according  to  the  express  words  of  their 
charter;  and  those  from  Connecticut,  that  their 
charter,  which  was  prior  to  that  of  Rhode  Island, 
bounded  them  easterly  upon  Narraganset  Bay  and 
river,  and  that  the  Pequot  country,  which  they  had 
conquered,  extended  ten  miles  east  of  Pawcatuck ; 
and  that  therefore  they  had  a  right  to  that  part, 
both  by  charter  and  conquest.  As  no  agreement 
could  be  effected,  the  committee  from  Connecticut 
went  into  the  Narraganset  country,  and  read  the 
charter  at  Wickford,  and  the  plantations  east  of 
Pawcatuck  river;  and,  in  the  name  of  the  general 
assembly  of  Connecticut,  demanded  the  submission 
and  obedience  of  the  people  to  its  authority  and 
laws;  and  appointed  officers  for  the  good  govern- 
ment of  the  people. 

Both  colonies  had  something  plausible  to  plead. 
The  case,  when  truly  stated,  seems  to  be,  that  the 
old  patent  of  Connecticut,  to  Lord  Say  and  Seal, 
Lord  Brook,  and  their  associates,  bounded  the  tract 
conveyed  eastward,  by  Narraganset  Bay  and  river ; 
and  the  charter  granted  in  April  1662,  gave  the  same 
boundaries  as  the  old  patent  in  1631 ;  but  Pawca- 
tuck river  was  never  known  by  the  name  of  Nar- 
raganset river,  and  it  made  no  bay;  consequently 
the  mouth  of  it,  and  the  sea  there,  could  not  be 
called  Narraganset  bay.  But  when  Mr.  John  Clark 
was  in  England,  as  agent  for  the  colony  of  Rhode 
Island,  in  1663,  there  arose  much  difficulty  between 
him  and  Mr.  Winthrop,  respecting  the  boundaries 
between  the  two  colonies ;  and  they  were  advised, 
by  their  friends,  to  submit  the  controverted  points 
to  arbitrators,  in  England,  to  which  they  consented; 
and  consequently  William  Breereton,  Esq.,  Major 
Robert  Thompson,  Captain  Richard  Deane,  Captain 
John  Brookhaven,  and  Doctor  Benjamin  Worseley, 
were  mutually  chosen  to  hear  and  determine  the  dis- 
putes ;  and  they  came  to  the  following  determina- 
tion : — 

"  First,  That  a  river  there  commonly  called  and 
known  by  Pawcatuck  river,  shall  be  the  certain 
bounds  between  those  two  colonies,  which  said  river 
shall,  for  the  future,  be  also  called  alias  Narragance 
or  Narraganset  river. 

"  Secondly,  If  any  part  of  that  purchase  at  Qui- 
nebaug  doth  lie  along  upon  the  east  side  of  the 
river,  that  goeth  down  by  New  London,  within  six 
miles  of  the  said  river,  that  then  it  shall  wholly  be- 
long to  Connecticut  colony,  as  well  as  the  rest  which 
lieth  on  the  western  side  of  the  aforesaid  river. 

"  Thirdly,  That  the  proprietors  and  inhabitants 
of  that  land  about  Mr.  Smith's  trading-house, 
claimed  or  purchased  by  Major  Athertou,  Captain 
Hutchinson,  Lieutenant  Hudson,  and  others,  or 
given  unto  them  by  Indians,  shall  have  free  liberty 
to  choose  to  which  of  those  colonies  they  will  belong. 

"  Fourthly,  That  propriety  shall  not  be  altered 
nor  destroyed,  but  carefully  maintained  through  the 
said  colonies." 

To  this  the  two  agents,  John  Winthrop  and  John 
Clark,  Esquires,  interchangeably  set  their  hands 
and  seals,  as  an  agreement  finally  terminating  the 
controversy  between  them,  on  the  7th  of  March, 
.1663 ;  and,  in  consequence,  the  charter  of  Rhode 
Island,  granted  July  8th,  1663,  bounded  that  colony 
westward  by  Pawcatuck  river,  and  ordained,  with 
particular  reference  to  the  agreement,  which  is  re- 
cognised in  the  charter,  that  this  river  should  be 
called  alias  Narragance  or  Narraganset  river;  and 
that  the  same  shall  be  holden  by  the  colony  oi 
Rhode  Island,  "  any  grant,  or  clause  in  a  late  grant, 


,o  the  governor  and  company  of  Connecticut  co- 
ony  in  America,  to  the  contrary  thereof,  in  any 
wise  notwithstanding." 

The    proprietors   mentioned    in    the    agreement, 
made  choice  of  the  government  of  Connecticut,  July 
3d,    1663,  and  were  taken  under   the  jurisdiction 
nd  protection  of  this  colony. 

Connecticut  insisted,  that  Mr.  Winthrop's  agency 
was  finished  before  the  agreement  with  Mr.  Clark, 
and  that  he  had  never  received  any  instructions 
?rom  the  colony,  authorizing  him  to  enter  into  any 
such  compact;  and  it  was  also  pleaded,  that  his 
majesty  could  not  re-grant  that  which  he  had  pre- 
viously granted  to  Connecticut;  at  the  same  time 
Rhode  Island  insisted  on  the  agreement  between 
Mr.  Winthrop  and  Mr.  Clark,  and  on  the  limits 
granted  in  the  charter  of  that  colony ;  and  hence 
arose  a  controversy  between  the  colonies,  which 
ontinued  more  than  sixty  years. 

Governor  WTinthrop,  at  the  session  in  October, 
again  proposed  a  resignation  of  his  office,  and  de- 
sired the  consent  and  approbation  of  the  general 
assembly,  who  were  utterly  opposed  to  it ;  and 
through  the  influence  of  the  houses  he  was  persuaded 
to  keep  the  chair;  and,  at  the  next  session,  a  salary 
of  15U/.  was  granted  him,  and,  at  various  times 
after,  several  valuable  tracts  of  land.  These  consi- 
derations, with  the  great  unanimity  and  esteem  of 
he  freemen,  prevailed  with  him  to  continue  in, 
office  until  his  death. 

In  1671  the  former  officers  were  all  re-chosen. 

During  eighteen  or  twenty  years,  attempts  had 
been  making  to  settle  a  township  at  Paugasset ;  and 
about  the  year  1663,  it  appears  that  Governor  Good- 
year, and  several  other  gentlemen  in  New  Haven, 
made  a  purchase  of  a  considerable  tract  there. 
About  the  year  1654  some  few  settlements  were 
made;  and  the  next  year,  at  the  session  in  October, 
the  planters  presented  a  petition  to  the  general 
couit  at  New  Haven,  to  be  made  a  distinct  town, 
and  to  order  their  affairs  independently  of  the  other 
towns.  The  court  granted  their  petition ;  gave 
them  liberty  to  purchase  a  tract  sufficient  for  a 
township ;  released  them  from  taxes  ;  and  appointed 
Richard  Baldwin  moderator  to  call  meetings,  and 
conduct  the  affairs  of  the  plantation.  At  the  next 
court,  however,  Mr.  Prudden,  and  the  people  of 
Milford,  made  such  strong  remonstrances  against 
the  act,  that  the  court  determined  the  people  at 
Paugasset  should  continue,  as  they  had  been,  under 
the  town  of  Milford,  unless  the  parties  should  come 
to  an  agreement,  respecting  the  incorporation  of 
the  inhabitants  there  into  a  distinct  township.  In 
1657  and  1659  a  purchase  was  made  of  the  lands  of 
the  chief  sagamores,  Wetanamow  and  Raskenute; 
and  the  purchase  appears  to  have  been  confirmed 
afterwards  by  Okenuck,  the  chief  sachem.  Some 
of  the  first  planters  were  Edward  Wooster,  Edward 
Riggs,  Richard  Baldwin,  Samuel  Hopkins,  Thomas 
Langdon,  and  Francis  French ;  who  preferred  a 
petition  to  the  general  assembly  of  Connecticut, 
praying  for  town  privileges,  in  1671.  The  assembly 
determined  that  their  south  bounds  should  be  the 
north  line  of  Milford,  and  that  they  should  extend 
their  limits  twelve  miles  northward,  to  a  place 
called  the  notch.  For  their  encouragement,  it  was 
promised  that,  as  soon  as  there  should  be  thirty 
families  in  the  plantation,  they  should  be  vested 
with  town  privileges ;  and  about  four  years  after, 
(Oct.  1675,)  they  renewed  their  application;  re- 

E resenting  that  they  then  consisted  of  twelve  fami- 
es,  and  that  eleven  more  were  about  moving  di 


UNITED  STATES. 


723 


rectly  into  the  plantation :  that  they  had  procured 
a  minister,  built  him  a  house,  and  made  provision 
for  the  enjoyment  of  Divine  ordinances;  and,  upon 
these  representations,  the  assembly  formed  them 
into  a  town,  by  the  name  of  Derby. 

Major  John  Mason,  who  for  many  years  had  been 
deputy-governor,  and  rendered  many  important 
services  to  the  colony,  being  far  advanced  in  years, 
and  visited  with  many  infirmities,  about  this  time 
excused  himself  from  the  service  of  the  common- 
wealth; and  at  the  next  election,  May  9th,  1672, 
Mr.  John  Nash  was  chosen  magistrate,  to  fill  the 
vacancy  made  by  his  resignation. 

Until  this  time  the  colony  had  kept  their  laws  in 
manuscript,  and  had  promulgated  them,  by  sending 
copies  to  be  publicly  read  in  the  respective  towns ; 
and  this  year  the  first  code  of  Connecticut  was  pub- 
lished. It  was  printed  at  Cambridge,  in  Massachu- 
setts; and  consisted  of  between  seventy  and  eighty 
pages  of  print,  and  of  nearly  the  same  number  of 
blank  pages  in  small  folio.  The  preface  is  written 
in  the  most  religious  manner,  sufficiently  solemn 
for  an  introduction  to  a  body  of  sermons ;  of  which 
the  following  introduction  is  a  specimen :  "  To  our 
beloved  brethren  and  neighbours,  the  inhabitants 
of  Connecticut,  the  general  court  of  that  colony 
wish  grace  and  peace  in  our  Lord  Jesus."  It  re- 
cognises the  design  of  the  first  planters,  "  who,"  as 
the  court  express  it,  "  settled  these  foundations," 
for  the  maintaining  of  "  religion  according  to  the 
Gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  ;"  which  it  declares  "  ought 
to  be  the  endeavour  of  all  those  that  shall  suc- 
ceed to  uphold  and  encourage  unto  all  generations." 
The  assembly  enacted,  that  every  family  should 
have  a  law  book ;  and  in  the  blank  pages  all  the 
laws  enacted  after  1672  were  inserted  in  writing, 
until  the  year  1699,  when  the  book  was  filled  up. 

At  the  election,  May  8th,  1673,  Robert  Treat, 
Esq.  was  chosen  into  the  magistracy;  and,  at  the 
same  court,  Richard  Smith  was  appointed  a  com- 
missioner at  Narraganset,  and  vested  with  the  pow- 
ers of  magistracy  through  that  country.  A  court  of 
commissioners  was  also  instituted  there,  which  had 
cognisance  of  all  cases  not  exceeding  twenty  pounds, 
provided  that  all  such  as  exceeded  forty  shillings 
should  be  tried  by  a  jury.  A  commissioner,  or  as 
we  term  the  same  officer,  a  justice  of  the  peace,  was 
appointed  at  Pettyquamscot. 

As  war  had  been  declared  in  England  the  last 
year  against  the  Dutch,  the  colony  was  put  into  a 
state  of  defence  ;  and  a  troop  of  horse  was  raised  in 
each  county.  On  the  30th  of  July  a  small  Dutch 
fleet,  under  the  command  of  Commodores  Cornelius 
Everste,  and  Jacob  Benkes,  arrived  at  New  York ; 
and  one  John  Manning,  who  commanded  the  fort 
and  island  there,  treacherously  delivered  them  up 
to  the  enemy,  without  firing  a  gun,  or  attempting 
the  least  resistance;  and  the  inhabitants  of  New 
York  and  New  Jersey  generally  submitted  to  the 
Dutch  without  opposition.  About  the  same  time 
the  Dutch  captured  a  vessel  of  Mr.  Sillick's  of  this 
colony,  near  one  of  the  harbours  of  the  western 
towns. 

A  special  assembly  was  convoked  at  Hartford,  on 
the  7th  of  Angust;  and  orders  were  immediately 
issued,  that  the  respective  troops  in  the  colony, 
with  500  dragoons,  should  be  ready  for  service ; 
and  that  all  the  trainbands  should  be  complete  in 
their  arms.  The  same  day,  Mr.  James  Richards 
and  Mr.  William  Roswell  were  dispatched  with  a 
letter  from  the  assembly  to  the  Dutch  commodores, 
to  know  their  further  intentions ;  and  the  assembly 


remonstrated  against  their  conduct,  in  capturing 
Mr.  Sillick's  vessel,  and  in  demanding  the  submis- 
sion of  his  majesty's  English  subjects,  upon  Long 
Island,  and  that  they  should  take  the  oath  of  allegi- 
ance to  the  States-general;  they  declared  that  the 
united  colonies  were,  by  his  majesty,  constituted 
the  defenders  of  the  lives  and  liberties  of  his  sub- 
jects, in  these  parts  of  his  dominions,  and  assured 
them  that  they  would  be  faithful  to  their  trust.  The 
governor,  deputy-governor,  and  a  number  of  the 
council,  were  appointed  a  committee  of  war,  to  act 
as  emergencies  should  require. 

The  Dutch  commanders  returned  a  soldier-like 
answer  to  the  messengers  and  letter  from  Connecti- 
cut, purporting  that  they  had  a  commission  to  do  all 
damages  in  their  power  to  their  enemies,  by  land 
and  sea :  that  they  had  summoned  the  towns  upon 
Long  Island  to  submit  to  them ;  and  that  unless 
they  should  comply,  they  would  reduce  them  to 
their  subjection  by  force  of  arms  :  that  as  the  vessel 
they  had  taken  was  their  enemy's,  it  was  strange  to 
them  that  any  questions  were  proposed  concerning 
it:  and  that  while  they  doubted  not  of  the  faithful- 
ness of  the  united  colonies  in  defending  their  ma- 
jesty's subjects,  they  should  not  be  less  zealous  and 
faithful  in  the  service  of  the  States-general. 

On  the  llth  of  August  the  committee  of  war, 
which  met  at  Hartford,  appear  to  have  apprehended 
an  immediate  invasion ;  as  they  gave  orders  that 
the  whole  of  the  militia  of  the  colony  should  be 
ready  to  march  at  an  hour's  warning,  to  any  place 
which  might  be  attacked.  They  also  made  such 
arrangement  of  the  dragoons,  and  sent  such  assist 
ance  to  their  friends  upon  Long  Island,  as  pre- 
vented an  invasion  of  any  part  of  the  colony,  and 
the  plunder  and  destruction  of  the  English  upon 
the  island. 

On  the  meeting  of  the  assembly,  in  October, 
letters  were  sent  to  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth, 
to  solicit  their  united  assistance  against  the  Dutch, 
and  to  know  their  opinion  relative  to  proclaiming 
war,  arid  engaging  in  offensive  operations  against 
them;  and  Mr.  John  Banks  was  sent  express  to 
the  Dutch  commanders,  with  a  spirited  remonstrance 
against  the  conduct  of  the  Dutch,  who  had  threat- 
ened the  towns  on  the  island  with  destruction,  by 
fire  and  sword,  unless  they  would  submit  and  swear 
allegiance  to  the  States-general.  They  had  sent 
ships  and  an  armed  force  towards  the  east  end  of 
the  island  to  subdue  the  people,  but  had  been  pre». 
vented ;  and  the  assembly  assured  them  that  they 
knew  how  to  avenge  themselves  upon  their  planta- 
tions, and  not  only  so,  but  upon  their  head-quar- 
ters, if  the  colonies  should  rise,  and  warned  them  of 
the  consequences  of  injuring  the  English  towns 
upon  the  island. 

Connecticut,  upon  consulting  their  confederates, 
found  it  to  be  the  general  opinion  to  act  offensively 
against  the  Dutch;  and,  consequently,  a  special 
assembly  was  called  on  the  26th  of  November,  and 
war  was  immediately  proclaimed  against  them;  by 
which  it  was  determined,  that  an  expedition  should 
be  undertaken  against  New  York,  in  conjunction 
with  the  other  confederates.  Major  Treat  was  ap- 
pointed to  command  the  troops  from  Connecticut. 

The  Dutch  not  only  threatened  the  English  towns 
on  the  island  with  destruction,  but,  it  seems,  made 
several  descents  upon  it,  with  a  view  to  attack  them : 
however,  by  the  assistance  of  the  troops  from  Con- 
necticut, they  were,  in  all  instances,  repulsed,  and 
driven  from  the  island;  and  before  suitable  prepa- 
rations could  be  made  for  an  attack  upor  the  Dutch. 

3T2 


724 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


at  their  head-quarters,  the  season  was  too  far  ad- 
vanced for  military  operations;  and  early  in  the 
spring  the  news  of  a  general  pacification  between 
England  and  Holland  prevented  all  further  pro- 
ceedings of  this  kind.  The  whole  militia  of  the 
colony,  at  this  time,  amounted  to  no  more  than 
2,070  men;  one-fourth  of  which,  it  seems,  were 
mounted  as  dragoons,  and  employed  for  the  defence 
of  the  colony,  and  of  his  majesty's  English  subjects 
upon  Long  Island. 

The  only  alteration  made  by  the  election  in  1674 
was  the  choice  of  Thomas  Topping,  Esq.  instead  of 
Mr.  Hawkins. 

As  the  inhabitants  of  Long  Island  had  been  pro- 
tected and  governed  the  latter  part  of  the  last  year 
by  Connecticut,  they  made  application,  at  this  as- 
sembly, for  the  further  enjoyment  of  its  protection 
and  government ;  and  the  legislature  accepted  them, 
and  appointed  officers  in  the  several  English  towns, 
as  they  had  done  at  their  session  the  preceding  Oc- 
tober. 

Upon  the  application  of  the  town  of  Wickford 
and  other  plantations  in  Narraganset,  the  legislature 
took  them  under  the  government  of  this  colony ; 
and  a  court  was  instituted  at  Stonington,  for  the 
government  of  the  people  in  Narraganset,  that  "  they 
might  not  live  in  dissolute  practices,  to  the  dis- 
honour of  God,  of  the  king  and  nation,  and  to  the 
scandalizing  of  the  very  heathens." 

The  legislature,  in  1672,  granted  liberty  to  Mr. 
Sherman,  Mr.  William  Curtiss,  and  their  associates, 
to  make  a  plantation  at  Pomperaug;  and  such  a 
number  of  settlements  had  been  made  there,  in 
about  two  years,  that  the  assembly,  in  May  1674, 
enacted  that  it  should  be  a  township,  by  the  name 
of  Woodbury. 

Scarcely  had  the  colonies  recovered  from  one  ca- 
lamity and  danger,  before  new  and  more  terrible 
causes  of  alarm  and  danger  presented  themselves  ; 
and  not  only  Connecticut,  but  all  the  New  England 
colonies,  approached  a  most  distressing  and  im- 
portant period,  in  which  their  very  existence  was 
endangered. 

Upon  the  pacification  with  the  Dutch,  the  Duke 
of  York,  to  remove  all  doubt  and  controversy  re- 
specting his  property  in  America,  took  out  a  new 
patent  from  the  king,  Juue  29th,  1674,  granting 
the  same  territory  described  in  the  former  patent ; 
and  two  days  after  he  commissioned  Major,  after- 
wards Sir  Edmund  Andross,  so  be  governor  of  New 
York,  and  all  his  territories  in  these  parts.  The 
major  was  a  mere  tool  of  the  duke,  and  a  tyrant 
over  the  people.  We  have  already,  in  the  history 
of  New  York,  pourtrayed  his  despotic  and  unjust 
conduct.  We  have  also  already  given  the  history 
of  the  war  with  the  Indians,  usually  called  Philip's 
war,  in  the  account  of  the  previous  colonies;  so 
that  it  is  only  necessary  to  repeat  the  circumstances 
which  may  appertain  more  particularly  to  Connec- 
ticut. 

Notwithstanding  the  priority  of  the  patent  of 
Connecticut  to  the  Duke  of  York's,  and  the  deter- 
mination of  his  majesty's  commissioners  about  ten 
years  before,  Andross  set  up  the  duke's  claim  to  all 
that  part  of  the  colony  which  lies  to  the  westward  of 
Connecticut  river,  and  he  threatened  the  colony 
with  an  invasion;  and,  at  the  same  time,  Philip, 
sac&em  of  the  Wampanoags,  commenced  his  hosti- 
lities against  the  colonies. 

On  the  20th  of  June,  1675,  his  Indians  attacked 
bwanzey,  one  of  the  frontier  towns  of  New  Plymouth, 
and  insulted  the  English,  rifled  their  houses,  and 


killed  their  cattle.  Four  days  after  they  killed 
nine,  and  wounded  seven  of  the  inhabitants;  but 
the  troops  of  that  colony  marched  immediately  to 
the  defence  of  the  town;  and  ra  four  days  they 
were  reinforced  with  several  companies  from  Boston. 
On  the  2Sth  the  troops  were  drawn  forth  against 
the  enemy ;  who  instantly  fled  before  them  for  a 
mile  or  two,  and  took  refuge  in  a  swamp ;  and  the 
next  day  Major  Savage  arrived  with  more  troops, 
and  a  general  command  from  Boston.  He  marched 
the  army  into  the  Indian  towns,  to  surprise  their 
head-quarters,  and  give  them  battle  upon  their  own 
grounds;  but  they  found  the  enemy's  towns,  and 
even  the  seat  of  Philip,  deserted  with  marks  of  the 
utmost  precipitation.  As  the  Indians  fled,  they 
marked  their  route  with  the  burning  of  buildings, 
the  scalps,  hands,  and  heads  of  the  English,  which 
they  had  taken  off  and  fixed  upon  poles  by  the  way- 
side. As  the  troops  could  not  come  up  with  the 
enemy,  they  returned  to  their  head-quarters  at 
Swanzey. 

About  the  same  time  it  was  discovered  that  Major 
Andross  was  about  to  make  a  hostile  invasion  of  the 
colony,  and  to  demand  a  surrender  of  its  most  im- 
portant posts  to  the  government  of  the  duke  of 
York  ;  and  detachments  from  the  militia  were  there- 
fore sent,  with  the  utmost  expedition,  to  New  Lon- 
don and  Saybrook.  Captain  Thomas  Bull,  of 
Hartford,  commanded  the  party  sent  to  Saybrook. 

About  the  8th  or  9th  of  July  the  people  of  that 
town  were  surprised  by  the  appearance  of  Major 
Andross,  with  an  armed  force,  in  the  sound,  making 
directly  for  the  fort;  as  they  had  received  no  intel- 
ligence of  the  affair,  nor  instructions  from  the  go- 
vernor and  council,  how  to  conduct  themselves  upon 
such  an  emergency,  they  were  at  first  unde- 
termined whether  to  make  any  resistance  or  not; 
but  they  did  not  hesitate  long;  and  the  fort  was 
manned,  and  the  militia  of  the  town  drawn  out  for 
its  defence.  At  this  critical  juncture  Captain  Bull, 
with  his  company,  arrived,  and  the  most  vigorous 
exertions  were  made  for  the  defence  of  the  fort  and 
town;  and  on  the  llth,  Major  Andross,  with  seve- 
ral armed  sloops,  drew  up  before  the  fort,  hoisted 
the  king's  flag  on  board,  and  demanded  a  surrender 
of  the  fortress  and  town ;  but  Captain  Bull  raised 
the  king's  colours  in  the  fort,  and  arranged  his  men 
in  the  best  manner ;  and  appeared  determined  and 
desirous  for  action.  The  major  did  not  like  to  fire 
on  the  king's  colours,  and  perceiving  that,  should  he 
attempt  to  reduce  the  town  by  force,  it  would  be  a 
bloody  affair,  judged  it  expedient  not  to  fire  upon 
the  troops;  but  he,  nevertheless,  lay  off  the  fort  all 
that  day,  and  part  of  the  next. 

The  critical  state  of  the  colony  had  occasioned 
the  meeting  of  the  assembly  at  Hartford,  on  the  9th 
of  July ;  which  immediately  proceeded  to  draw  up 
a  declaration,  or  protest,  against  the  major,  in  the 
words  following : — 

"  Whereas,  we  are  informed  that  Major  Edmund 
Andross  is  come  with  some  considerable  force  into 
this  his  majesty's  colony  of  Connecticut,  which  might 
be  construed  to  be  in  pursuance  of  his  letter  to  us, 
to  invade  or  intrude  upon  the  same,  or  upon  some 
part  of  our  charter  limits  and  privileges,  and  so  to 
molest  his  majesty's  good  subjects,  in  this  juncture 
when  the  heathen  rage  against  the  English,  and  by 
Sre  and  sword  have  destroyed  many  of  his  majesty's 
*ood  subjects,  our  neighbours  of  Plymouth  colony, 
and  still  are  carrying  their  heads  about  the  country, 
as  trophies  of  their  good  success ;  and  yet  are  pro- 
ceeding further  in  their  cruel  designs  against  the 


UNITED  STATES. 


725 


English;  in  faithfulness  to  our  royal  sovereign,  and 
in  obedience  to  his  majesty's  commands,  in  his  gra- 
cious charter  to  this  colony,  we  can  do  no  less  than 
publicly  declare  and  protest  against  the  said  Major 
Edmund  Andross,  and  these  his  illegal  proceedings, 
as  also  against  all  his  aiders  and  abettors,  as  dis- 
turbers of  the  peace  of  his  majesty's  good  subjects 
in  this  colony ;  and  that  his  and  their  actions,  in 
this  juncture,  tend  to  the  encouragement  of  the  hea- 
then to  proceed  in  the  effusion  of  Christian  blood, 
which  may  be  very  like  to  be  the  consequence  of  his 
actions,  and  which  we  shall  unavoidably  lay  at  his 
door,  and  use  our  utmost  power  and  endeavour  (ex- 
pecting therein  the  assistance  of  Almighty  God)  to 
defend  the  good  people  of  this  colony  from  the  said 
Major  Andross  his  attempts  ;  not  doubting  but  his 
majesty  will  countenance  and  approve  our  just  pro- 
ceedings therein,  they  being  according  to  the  com- 
mission we  have  received  from  his  majesty  in  his 
gracious  charter  to  this  colony ;  by  which  power  and 
trust  so  committed  unto  us,  we  do  again  forewarn 
and  advise  the  said  Major  Andross,  and  all  his  aiders 
and  abettors,  to  forbear  and  desist  such  forenamed 
unjust  and  unwarrantable  practices,  as  they  expect 
to  answer  the  same,  with  all  such  just  damages  and 
costs  as  may  arise  or  accrue  thereby.  And  we  do 
further,  in  his  majesty's  name,  require  and  command 
all  the  good  people,  his  majesty's  subjects  of  this 
colony  of  Connecticut,  under  our  present  govern- 
ment, utterly  to  refuse  to  attend,  countenance  or 
obey  the  said  Major  Edmund  Andross,  or  any  under 
him,  in  any  order,  instruction,  or  command,  diverse 
from  or  contrary  to  the  laws  and  orders  of  this  co- 
lony here  established,  by  virtue  of  his  majesty's 
gracious  charter,  granted  to  this  colony  of  Connec- 
ticut, as  they  will  answer  the  contrary  at  their 
peril.  God  save  the  king." 

This  was  voted  unanimously  ;  and  was  sent  by  an 
express  to  Saybrook,  with  instructions  to  Captain 
Bull  to  propose  to  Major  Andross  the  reference  of 
the  affair  in  dispute  to  commissioners,  to  meet  in 
any  place  in  this  colony  which  he  should  choose  ; 
and  early  in  the  morning  of  the  12th  of  July,  the 
major  desired  that  he  might  have  an  interview  with 
the  ministers  and  chief  officers.  Imagining  proba- 
bly, that  if  he  could  read  the  duke's  patent  and  his 
own  commission,  it  would  make  an  impression  upon 
the  people,  and  that  he  should  gain  by  art  that  which 
he  could  not  by  force  of  arms.  He  was  allowed  to 
come  on  shore  with  his  suit ;  but  meanwhile  the 
express  arrived  with  the  protest,  and  instructions 
from  the  assembly ;  and  Captain  Bull  and  his  offi- 
cers, with  the  officers  and  gentlemen  of  the  town, 
met  the  major  at  his  landing,  and  acquainted  him 
that  they  had  at  that  instant  received  instructions  to 
tender  him  a  treaty,  and  to  refer  the  whole  matter 
in  controversy  to  commissioners,  capable  of  deter- 
mining it  according  to  law  and  justice.  The  major 
rejected  the  proposal,  and  forthwith  commanded,  in 
his  majesty's  name,  that  the  duke's  patent,  and  the 
commission  which  he  had  received  from  his  royal 
highness,  should  be  read ;  but  Captain  Bull  com- 
manded him,  in  his  majesty's  name,  to  forbear  read- 
ing; and  when  his  clerk  attempted  to  persist  in 
reading,  the  captain  repeated  his  command  with 
such  a  voice  and  manner  as  convinced  the  major  it 
was  not  safe  to  proceed.  The  captain  then  ac- 
quainted him  that  he  had  an  address  from  the  assem- 
bly to  him,  and  read  the  protest.  Finding  he  could 
make  no  impression  upon  the  officers  or  people,  and 
that  the  legislature  of  the  colony  were  determined  to 
defend  themselves,  in  the  possession  of  their  char- 


tered rights,  he  gave  up  his  design  of  seizing  tho 
J  fort;  and  represented  the  protest  as  a  slender  affair 
and  an  ill  requital  of  his  kindness  ;  tut  said,  how-, 
ever,  he  should  do  no  more.  The  militia  of  the 
town  guarded  him  to  his  boat,  and  going  on  board 
he  soon  sailed  for  Long  Island. 

The  general  assembly  upon  receiving  an  account 
of  the  major's  conduct,  came  to  the  following  reso- 
lution. 

"  This  court  orders  that  thjs  declaration  shall 
forthwith  be  sent  forth  to  the  several  plantations, 
sealed  with  the  seal  of  the  colony,  and  signed  by  the 
secretary,  to  be  there  published. 

"  Forasmuch  as  the  good  people  of  his  majesty's 
colony  of  Connecticut  have  met  with  much  trouble 
and  molestation  from  Major  Edmund  Andross,  his 
challenge  and  attempts  to  surprise  the  main  part  of 
said  colony,  which  they  have  so  rightfully  obtained, 
so  long  possessed  and  defended  against  all  invasions 
of  Dutch  and  Indians,  to  the  great  grievance  of  his 
majesty's  good  subjects  in  their  settlements,  and  to 
despoil  the  happy  government  by  charter  from  his 
majesty  granted  to  themselves,  and  under  which 
they  have  enjoyed  many  halcyon  days  of  peace  and 
tranquillity  to  their  great  satisfaction,  and  to  the 
content  of  his  majesty,  graciously  expressed  by 
letters  to  them,  so  greatly  engaging  their  loyalty 
and  thankfulness,  as  makes  it  intolerable  to  be  put 
off  from  so  long  and  just  settlement  under  his  ma- 
jesty's government  by  charter.  Hereupon,  for  the 
prevention  of  misrepresentations  into  England,  by 
the  said  Major  Andross  against  us  for  our  refusal, 
and  withstanding  his  attempts  made  with  hostile  ap- 
pearances to  surprise  us  at  Saybrook,  while  we  were 
approaching  towards  a  savage  Indian  enemy  that 
had  committed  much  outrage  and  murder  by  fire  and 
sword  upon  our  neighbours  about  Plymouth ;  this 
court  have  desired  the  honourable  John  Winthrop 
and  James  Richards,  Esquires,  or  either  of  them, 
(intending  a  voyage  to  England  upon  their  own 
occasions,)  to  take  with  them  the  narrative  and 
copies  of  all  the  transactions  betwixt  us,  and  to  give 
a  right  understanding  for  clearing  our  innocence, 
and  better  securing  our  enjoyments  as  occasion 
shall  offer." 

Notwithstanding  every  precaution  and  exertion  of 
the  colonies,  the  Indians  continued  plundering,  burn- 
ing, killing,  and  capturing  the  colonists,  and  kept 
the  whole  country  in  continual  fear  and  alarm  ; 
especially  the  inhabitants  of  Massachusetts,  Ply- 
mouth, and  Rhode  Island. 

Besides  other  damages  not  so  considerable,  Cap- 
tain Hutchinson,  who  had  been  sent  with  a  party  of 
horse  to  treat  with  the  Nipmuck  Indians,  was  drawn 
into  an  ambush  near  Brookfield,  and  mortally 
wounded;  and  sixteen  of  his  company  were  killed. 
The  enemy  then  rushed  in  upon  the  town,  and 
burnt  all  the  dwelling-houses  except  one,  which  was 
defended  by  the  garrison,  until  it  was  reinforced 
two  days  after  by  Major  Willard ;  when  they  retired, 
having  burned  twenty  dwelling-houses,  with  all  the 
barns  and  out-houses,  and  killed  all  the  cattle  and 
horses  which  they  could  find.  In  September,  Had- 
ley,  Deerfield,  and  Northfield,  on  Connecticut  river, 
ere  attacked,  and  numbers  of  the  inhabitants  killed 
and  wounded;  and  most  of  the  buildings  in  Deer- 
field  were  burnt,  and  Northfield  was  soon  after 
abandoned  to  the  enemy.  There  were  a  number  of 
skirmishes  about  the  same  time  in  that  part  of  the 
country,  in  which  the  English  on  the  whole  were 
losers.  Captain  Beers  was  surprised  near  North 
field,  by  a  large  body  of  the  enemy,  and  he  and 


726 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


twenty  of  his  party  were  killed  ;  and  the  officers 
who  commanded  in  that  quarter,  finding  that  by 
sending  out  parties  they  sustained  continual  loss 
and  disappointment,  and  effected  nothing  of  import- 
ance, determined  to  collect  a  magazine  at  Hadley, 
-and  garrison  the  town.  At  Deerfield,  there  were 
about  three  thousand  bushels  of  wheat  in  stack 
which  it  was  resolved  to  thresh  out,  and  bring  down 
to  Hadley;  and  while  Captain  Lothrop,  with  a 
chosen  corps  of  young  men,  the  flower  of  the  county 
of  Essex,  was  guarding  the  teams  employed  in  this 
service,  seven  or  eight  hundred  Indians  suddenly 
attacked  him;  and  though  he  fought  with  great 
bravery,  yet  he  fell  with  nearly  his  whole  party. 
Ninety  or  a  hundred  men  being  killed  on  the  spot. 
Captain  Mosely,  who  was  stationed  at  Deerfield, 
marched  to  reinforce  Captain  Lothrop,  but  arriv- 
ing too  late  was  obliged  to  fight  the  whole  body  of 
the  enemy  for  several  hours,  until  Major  Treat 
of  Connecticut,  with  about  a  hundred  and  sixty 
Englishmen  and  Moheagan  Indians,  marched  to  his 
assistance,  and  put  the  enemy  to  flight.  The  fall  of 
Captain  Lothrop  and  such  a  fine  body  of  men,  was 
a  heavy  loss  to  the  country ;  especially  to  the  county 
of  Essex,  filling  it  with  great  aud  universal  lamen- 
tation. 

The  commissioners  about  the  middle  of  Septem- 
ber, ordered  1000  men  to  be  raised  for  the  general 
defence,  500  of  which  were  to  be  dragoons  with  long 
arms.  Connecticut  was  required  to  raise  315  men 
for  her  proportion ;  and  a  considerable  part  of  this 
force  was  employed  by  Connecticut,  under  Major 
Treat,  for  the  defence  of  the  upper  towns.  Captain 
Watts  had  been  sent  with  a  company  to  Deerfield 
some  time  before. 

During  the  term  of  about  forty  years,  the  Indians 
in  the  vicinity  of  Springfield  had  lived  in  the  great- 
est harmony  with  the  English,  and  still  made  the 
strongest  professions  of  friendship  ;  yet  about  this 
time  they  conspired  with  Philip's  warriors  for  the 
destruction  of  that  town.  At  the  distance  of  about 
a  mile  from  it  they  had  a  fort ;  and  the  evening  be- 
fore they  made  their  assault,  they  received  into  it 
about  three  hundred  of  Philip's  warriors ;  but  one 
Toto,  a  Windsor  Indian,  betrayed  the  plot,  and 
dispatches  were  immediately  sent  off  from  Windsor 
to  Springfield,  and  to  Major  Treat,  who  lay  at  West- 
field  with  the  Connecticut  troops,  to  apprise  them 
Of  the  danger.  The  people  at  Springfield  were  so 
strongly  persuaded  of  the  friendship  of  those  Indians, 
that  they  would  not  credit  the  report ;  and  one  Lieu- 
tenant Cooper,  who  commanded  there,  was  so  infatu- 
ated, that  as  soon  as  the  morning  appeared,  instead 
of  collecting  his  men  and  preparing  for  the  defence 
of  the  town,  he,  with  another  man,  rode  out  with  a 
design  to  go  to  the  fort  and  discover  the  truth  of  the 
report.  He  soon  met  the  enemy,  who  killed  his 
companion,  and  shot  several  balls  through  his  body ; 
but  as  he  was  a  man  of  great  strength  and  courage, 
he  kept  his  horse,  though  mortally  wounded,  until  he 
reached  the  first  garrison-house  and  gave  the  alarm. 
The  enemy  immediately  commenced  a  furious  attack 
upon  the  town,  and  began  to  set  fire  to  the  build- 
ings ;  and  the  inhabitants  were  in  the  utmost  con- 
sternation ;  having  no  one  to  command  them,  and 
must  soon  have  all  fallen  a  bloody  sacrifice  to  a 
merciless  foe,  had  not  Major  Treat  appeared  to 
their  relief;  who  upon  receiving  intelligence  of  the 
designs  of  the  enemy,  marched  without  loss  of  time  ; 
but  meeting  with  considerable  hinderance  in  crossing 
the  river  for  want  of  boats,  his  arrival  was  not  in 
time  to  prevent  the  attack.  He  soon,  however,  drove 


off  the  enemy  and  saved  the  inhabitants,  and  a  coo 
siderable  part  of  the  town.  But  great  damage  had 
been  done ;  no  less  than  thirty  dwelling-houses, 
besides  barns  and  out-houses,  having  been  burned. 
Major  Pyncheon  and  Mr.  Purchas  sustained  each 
the  loss  of  a  thousand  pounds  ;  and  Mr.  Pelatiah 
Glover,  minister  of  the  town,  lost  his  house,  with  a 
large  and  excellent  library. 

In  this  stage  of  the  war,  the  general  assembly  of 
Connecticut  convened,  October  14th  ;  and  sensible 
of  the  good  conduct  of  Major  Treat,  in  defending 
the  colony  and  the  towns  on  Long  Island  against 
the  Dutch,  and  in  relieving  Captain  Mosely  and 
Springfield,  returned  him  public  thanks,  appointed 
him  to  the  command  of  all  the  troops  to  be  raised  in 
the  colony,  to  act  against  the  enemy,  and  desired 
his  acceptance  of  the  service. 

.  Upon  intelligence  from  the  Rev.  Mr.  Fitch,  that  a 
large  body  of  the  enemy  were  approaching  the 
town  of  Norwich,  Major  Treat  was  directed  to  march 
thither  for  the  defence  of  that  part  of  the  colony  ; 
but  soon  after  his  orders  were  countermanded,  and 
he  proceeded  to  Northampton  ;  where  he  arrived  in 
time  to  render  his  country  another  piece  of  important 
service.  The  enemy  had  been  so  elated  with  their 
various  successes,  that  having  collected  about  eight 
hundred  of  their  warriors,  they  made  a  furious 
attack  upon  Hadley ;  and  almost  every  part  of  the 
town  was  assaulted  at  the  same  instant ;  but  it  was 
defended  by  officers  and  men  of  vigilance  and  spirit, 
so  that  the  enemy  every  where  met  with  a  warm  re- 
ception. Several  parties  of  the  Massachusetts'  troops 
who  were  in  the  neighbouring  garrisons,  flew  to  thei; 
assistance,  and  Major  Treat  advancing  with  his 
usual  dispatch  from  Northampton,  soon  attacked 
them  with  his  whole  force,  and  they  were  put  to  a 
total  flight;  and  they  sustained  such  loss,  and  were 
so  disheartened,  that  from  this  time  the  main  body 
of  them  left  that  part  of  the  country,  and  held  their 
general  rendezvous  in  Narraganset.  Some  few, 
however,  remained,  doing  damage  as  they  had  op- 
portunity, and  keeping  the  people  in  constant 
alarm. 

From  the  intelligence  communicated  to  the  gene- 
ral assembly  of  Connecticut  during  the  October 
session,  it  appeared  that  the  enemy  had  designs 
upon  almost  all  the  frontier  towns  in  the  colony ; 
and  each  county  was  therefore  required  to  raise 
sixty  dragoons,  complete  in  arms,  horses  and  ammu- 
nition, for  the  immediate  defence  of  the  colony, 
wherever  their  services  might  be  necessary.  Captain 
A  very  was  appointed  to  the  command  of  forty  Eng- 
lishmen from  the  towns  of  New  London,  Stoning- 
ton  and  Lyme,  with  such  a  number  of  Pequots  as 
be  should  judge  expedient,  for  the  defence  of  that 
part  of  the  country,  and  the  annoyance  of  the 
enemy  as  occasion  should  present.  Captain  John 
Mason  was  appointed  to  command  another  party  of 
twenty  Englishmen,  and  the  Moheagan  Indians; 
and  these  parties  were  ordered  to  post  themselves  in 
the  best  manner  to  guard  the  eastern  towns,  and  to 
act  conjointly  or  separately  as  emergencies  should 
require.  An  army  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  dra- 
goons was  appointed  to  act  against  the  enemy  under 
the  command  of  Major  Treat ;  and  it  was  ordered 
that  all  the  towns  should  be  fortified,  and  that  every 
town  should  provide  the  best  places  of  defence  of 
which  it  was  capable,  for  the  security  of  the  women 
and  children,  who  were  directed  to  repair  to  them, 
upon  the  first  intimations  of  danger.  The  inhabi- 
tants of  the  towns  on  the  frontiers,  who  were  few  in 
number,  and  most  exposed,  were  advised  to  remove 


UNITED  STATES. 


727 


their  best  effects,  and  people  unable  to  defend  them- 
selves to  retire  into  the  more  populous  parts  of  the 
colony,  where  they  would  be  in  a  more  probable 
state,  of  safety. 

The  proportion  whichConnecticut  sent  to  the  united 
army  of  the  confederate  states,  was  315  English- 
men and  150  Moheagan  and  Pequot  Indians  ;  which 
were  divided  into  five  companies,  commanded  by 
Captains  Seely,  Gallup,  Mason,  Watts,  and  Mar- 
shall; the  corps  being  commanded  by  Major  Treat; 
and  the  honourable  Josiah  Winslow,  Esq.,  governor 
of  New  Plymouth,  was  appointed  commander  in 
chief.  The  orders  of  the  commissioners  to  Connec- 
ticut were  issued  at  Boston,  the  12th  of  November; 
by  which  :t  was  required  that  the  troops  should  ren- 
dezvous at  New  London,  Norwich,  and  Stonington, 
by  the  10th  of  December. 

The  Connecticut  troops  arrived  at  Pettyquamscot, 
on  the  17th  of  December;  where  there  had  been  a 
number  of  buildings  in  which  the  troops  expected  to 
have  been  covered  and  kindly  entertained ;  but  the 
enemy,  a  day  or  two  before,  had  killed  ten  men  and 
five  women  and  children,  and  burned  all  the  houses 
and  barns.  The  next  day  they  formed  a  junction 
"with  the  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth  forces.  We 
shall  not  recapitulate  the  history  of  this  war,  except 
only  in  such  particulars  as  relates  to  Connecticut. 

Of  the  300  Englishmen  from  Connecticut,  eighty 
were  killed  and  wounded ;  twenty  in  Captain  Seely's, 
twenty  in  Captain  Gallup's,  seventeen  in  Captain 
Watts's,  nine  in  Captain  Mason's,  and  fourteen  in 
Captain  Marshall's  company.  Of  these  about  forty 
were  killed  or  died  of  their  wounds.  About  half  the 
loss  in  this  bloody  action  fell  upon  Connecticut. 
The  legislature  of  the  colony,  in  a  representation  of 
the  services  they  had  performed  in  the  war,  say, 
"  In  that  signal  service,  the  fort  fight  in  Narragan- 
set,  as  we  had  our  full  number  in  proportion  with 
the  other  confederates,  so  all  say  they  did  their  full 
proportion  of  service.  Three  noble  soldiers,  Seely, 
courageous  Marshall,  and  bold  Gallup,  died  in  the 
bed  of  honour ;  and  valiant  Mason  a  fourth  captain, 
had  his  death's  wound.  There  died  many  brave 
officers  and  sentinels,  whose  memory  is  blessed; 
and  whose  death  redeemed  our  lives.  The  bitter 
cold,  the  tarled  swamp,  the  tedious  march,  the  strong 
fort,  the  numerous  and  stubborn  enemy  they  con- 
tended with,  for  their  God,  king  and  country,  be 
their  trophies  over  death.  He  that  commanded  our 
forces  then,  and  now  us,  made  no  less  than  seven- 
teen fair  shots  at  the  enemy,  and  was  thereby  as  oft 
a  fair  mark  for  them.  Our  mourners  over  all  the 
colony  witness  for  our  men,  that  they  were  not  un- 
faithful in  that  day."  It  is  the  tradition  that  major, 
afterwards  Governor  Treat,  received  a  ball  through 
the  brim  of  his  hat,  and  that  he  was  the  last  man 
who  left  the  fort  in  the  dusk  of  the  evening,  com- 
manding the  rear  of  the  army.  The  burning  the 
wigwams,  the  shrieks  and  cries  of  the  women  and 
children,  and  the  yelling  of  the  warriors,  exhibited 
a  most  horrible  and  affecting  scene,  so  that  it  greatly 
moved  some  of  the  soldiers  ;  and  many  of  them  were 
visited  with  strong  scruples  of  conscience,  feeling  it 
to  be  contrary  to  the  Gospel,  to  have  waged  the  war 
with  the  Indians,  to  the  burning  them  in  their  wig- 
wams. 

The  Connecticut  troops  having  sustained  such  a 
loss  of  officers,  and  being  so  disabled,  Major  Treat 
judged  it  necessary  to  return  to  Connecticut,  where 
he  might  recruit  them,  and  cover  them  with  more 
convenience  than  could  possibly  be  done  in  that 
part  of  the  country.  The  wounded  men  who  were  [ 


not  able  to  travel,  were  put  on  board  vessels  and 
carried  to  Rhode  Island.  The  Connecticut  troops 
in  their  March  from  Stonington  to  Pettyquamscoi,* 
killed  six  and  captured  seven  of  the  enemy  ;  and  on 
their  journey  home,  killed  and  captured  about  thirty 
more. 

The  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth  troops  kept  the 
field  the  greater  part  of  the  winter,  and  the  Indians 
still  continued  their  hostilities. 

In  February,  1676,  a  number  of  volunteers  from 
Conn-ecticut,  belonging  principally  to  New  London, 
Norwich,  and  Stonington,  formed  themselves  into 
companies  under  Major  Palms,  Captain  George 
Denison. Capt.  James  Avery,  and  Captain  John  Stan 
ton,  for  the  annoyance  of  the  enemy.  They  engaged 
a  number  of  Moheagans,  Pequots,  and  Narragansets, 
to  be  associates  with  them  for  the  sake  of  plunder, 
and  other  rewards.  The  Moheagans  were  com- 
manded by  Onecho,  one  of  the  sons  of  Uncas;  the 
Pequots  by  Cassasiuamon,  their  chief;  and  the  Nar- 
ragansets, consisting  of  about  twenty  men,  by  Cata- 
pazet.  These  latter  were  Ninigrate's  men,  who  in 
time  past  had  given  the  colonies  so  much  trouble  ; 
but  at  this  time  they  remained  quiet,  and  would  not 
join  the  other  Narraganset  sachems. 

The  principal  seat  of  Ninigrate  was  at  Westerly, 
which  formerly  belonged  to  Stonington.  He  put 
himself  under  the  English,  and  he  and  his  Indians 
were  the  only  ones  who  were  not  destroyed  or  driven 
from  that  part  of  the  country. 

These  companies  began  to  range  the  Narraganset 
country,  and  harass  the  enemy,  the  latter  part  of 
February,  and  continued  making  their  incursions 
from  that  time  until  the  enemy  were  driven  from 
hose  quarters.  As  soon  as  one  company  returned, 
another  went  out  immediately,  so  as  to  keep  the 
enemy  in  continual  alarm.  Their  success  was  ad- 
mirable. 

Captain  Denison,  of  Stonington,  on  the  27th  of 
March,  began  a  very  successful  incursion  into  the 
country. 

NanunUenoo,  orCanonnchet,  the  head  sachem  of 
all  the  Narragansets,  son  of  Miantonimoh,  inheritor 
of  all  his  pride,  and  of  his  hatred  towards  the  Eng- 
lish, had  ventured  down  from  the  northern  wilderness 
to  Seaconk,  near  the  seat  of  Philip,  to  procure 
seed-corn,  to  plant  the  towns  which  the  English  had 
deserted  upon  Connecticut  river.  He  lately  had 
been  aiding  in  the  slaughter  of  a  Captain  Pierce 
and  his  men ;  and  after  Captain  Denison  and  his 
party  had  wearied  themselves  for  several  days  in 
seeking  them,  they  came  upon  their  tracts  near 
Biackston's  river,  and  soon  discovered  by  a  squaw 
whom  they  took,  that  Nanunttenoo  was  in  a  wigwam 
not  far  distant.  The  captain  made  dispositions  im- 
mediately to  surprise  him;  and  some  of  his  party 
discovering  them,  ran  off  with  great  precipitation  ; 
but  one  more  faithful  than  the  rest  entered  the  wig- 
wam and  acquainted  him  with  his  danger.  He  in- 
stantly fled  with  all  his  speed ;  but  Catapazet,  the 
friendfylndian  chief,  suspecting  from  the  manner  of  his 
running,  that  it  was  Nanunttenoo,  gave  chase  with 
as  much  eagerness  as  he  fled  ;  and  the  other  Indians 
joined  in  the  pursuit.  They  pressed  him  so  hard 
that  he  soon  threw  off  his  blanket,  and  then  his 
silver  laced  coat,  which  had  been  given  him  at  Bos- 
ton :  his  pursuers,  like  blood-hounds,  employed  their 
utmost  exertions  to  seize  him;  and  at  length  his 
foot  slipped  upon  a  smooth  stone  as  he  was  plunging 
through  a  river,  and  he  fell  and  wetted  his  gun : 
one  Monopoide,  a  Pequot,  -outrunning  the  other 
Indiaxs,  leaped  into  the  river  after  him,  and  soon 


728 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


laid  hold  upon  him ;  and  although  he  was  a  powerful 
man,  and  of  great  courage,  yet  he  made  no  resist- 
ance. One  Robert  Stanton,  a  young  man,  was  the 
first  Englishman  who  came  up  to  him.  He  asked 
him  several  questions;  but  this  haughty  sachem, 
looking  with  disdain  upon  his  youthful  countenance, 
replied,  in  broken  English,  "  You  too  much  child ; 
no  understand  matters  of  war — Let  your  captain 
come ;  him  I  will  answer."  This  party,  in  about 
sixteen  days,  killed  and  took  nearly  fifty  of  the 
enemy,  without  the  loss  of  a  single  man ;  among 
whom  was  this  chief,  and  a  number  of  counsellors 
and  war  captains. 

Nanunttenoo  would  not  accept  of  life  when  offered 
upon  the  condition  that  he  should  make  peace  with 
the  English ;  nor  would  he  so  much  as  send  one  of 
his  counsellors  to  make  a  single  proposal  for  that 
and  when  he  was  told  that  it  was  deter- 
to  put  him  to  death,  he  said,  "  He  liked  it 
well ;  that  he  should  die  before  his  heart  was  soft, 
or  he  had  spoken  any  thing  unworthy  of  himself." 
He  was  shot  by  the  Moheagan  sachem,  and  the 
principal  Pequots,  at  Stonington. 

These  brave  volunteers  and  their  flying  parties 
had,  at  this  time,  killed  and  captured  44  of  the  enemy, 
and,  before  the  end  of  April,  76  more;  among  j 
whom  was  another  celebrated  sachein.  They  made 
in  the  spring,  summer,  and  autumn,  ten  or  twelve 
expeditions,  in  which  they  killed  and  captured  230 
of  the  enemy,  took  50  muskets,  and  brought  in 
160  bushels  of  their  corn.  They  drove  all  the  Nar- 
raganset  Indians  out  of  their  country,  except  those 
at  Westerly  under  Ninigrate;  and  in  all  these  ex- 
peditions they  had  not  one  man  killed  or  wounded. 

While  Connecticut  had  the  happiness  of  giving  a 
check  to  the  war,  the  colony  sustained  a  heavy  loss 


pur 
mi 


irpose ; 
itfed  to 


Dny  s 

in  the  death  of  Governor  Winthrop  .  He  had  been 
chosen  one  of  the  commissioners  from  Connecticut, 
the  May  preceding,  to  the  court  of  the  commission- 
ers of  the  united  colonies  ;  and  upon  the  meeting  of 
this  court,  early  in  the  spring,  he  went  to  Boston, 
where  he  was  taken  sick,  and  died,  April  5th,  1676, 
in  the  seventy-first  year  of  his  age.  He  was  ho- 
nourably interred  at  Boston,  in  the  same  tomb  with 
his  father. 

He  was  the  eldest  son  of  the  honourable  John 
Winthrop,  Esq.  the  first  governor  of  Massachusetts, 
and  was  born  at  Groton  in  England,  in  1605.  His 
father  gave  him  a  liberal  education  at  the  University 
of  Cambridge,  in  England;  and  afterwards  sup- 
ported him  some  years  at  the  University  of  Dublin, 
in  Ireland.  As  travelling  was  then  considered  a 
necessary  accomplishment  to  a  young  gentleman, 
he  travelled  into  France,  Holland,  Germany,  Italy, 
and  Turkey.  With  these  advantages  he  returned 
to  England,  not  only  a  great  scholar,  rich  in  expe- 
rience and  literature,  but  a  most  accomplished  gen- 
tleman. He  was  a  puritan  of  distinguished  piety 
and  morals ;  and,  after  his  return  from  his  travels, 
he  came  into  New  England,  with  his  father's  family, 
in  1631,  and  was  chosen  one  of  the  magistrates  of 
the  colony  of  Massachusetts.  He  afterwards  returned 
into  England ;  and  in  1635  came  back  with  a  com- 
mission to  erect  a  fort  at  the  mouth  of  Connecticut 
river,. and  to  be  governor  of  that  part  of  the  country. 
In  1651  he  was  chosen  one  of  the  magistrates  of 
Connecticut;  and  in  1657  he  was  elected  governor, 
and  the  next  year  deputy-governor.  In  1659  he 
was  again  chosen  governor;  from  which  time  he 
was  annually  re-chosen  to  that  office,  until  his 
death.  He  was  one  of  the  greatest  chemists  and 


of  philosophical  transactions,  and  one  of  the 
distinguished  characters  in  New  England.  He 
rendered  many  important  services  to  the  colony, 
and  died  greatly  and  universally  lamented. 

At  the  election,  May  llth,  William  Lect,  Esq. 
was  chosen  governor,  and  Robert  Treat,  Esq.  de- 
puty-governor. Captain  John  Mason  was  chosen 
magistrate,  to  fill  the  vacancy  made  by  the  ad- 
vancement of  Major  Treat  to  the  office  of  deputy- 
governor.  No  alteration  was  made  with  respect  to 
the  other  officers. 

The  assembly  voted  350  men,  who,  with  the 
friendly  Indians,  were  to  be  a  standing  army. 
Major  John  Talcott  was  appointed  to  the  chief 
command ;  and  the  Rev.  Gershom  Bulkley,  of 
Weathersfield,  was  appointed  surgeon,  and  Mr. 
James  Fitch,  chaplain.  Mr.  Bulkley  was  esteemed 
as  one  of  the  greatest  physicians  and  surgeons  then 
in  Connecticut  The  assembly  ordered  that  the 
surgeon  and  chaplain  should  be  of  the  council  of 
war. 

Major  Talcott,  on  his  appointment  to  the  com 
mand  of  the  army,  resigned  the  office  of  treasurer, 
and  William  Pitkin,  Esq.  was  appointed  to  that 
office  by  the  assembly. 

The  first  general  rendezvous  of  the  army  this 
year  was  at  Norwich;  from  whence  Major  Talcott 
marched  in  the  beginning  of  June,  with  about 
250  English  soldiers,  and  200  Moheagan  and  Pequot 
Indians,  towards  the  Wabaquasset  country,  scour- 
ing the  woods  through  that  long  tract.  They  found 
the  fort  and  wigwams  at  Wabaquasset  and  the 
country  every  where  deserted.  Nothing  more, 
therefore,  could  be  done  than  demolish  the  Indian 
fortress,  and  destroy  about  fifty  acres  of  corn  which 
the  enemy  had  planted.  On  the  5th  of  June  the 
army  marched  to  Chanagongum,  in  the  Nipmuck 
country;  where  they  killed  nineteen  Indians,  and 
took  thirty-three  captives.  They  then  proceeded  to 
Quabaug,*or  Brookfield,  and  thence  to  Northamp- 
ton. This  was  a  long  march,  in  which  the  troops 
suffered  greatly  for  want  of  provisions;  and  it 
has  ever  since,  in  Connecticut,  been  known  by  the 
name  of  the  long  and  hungry  march.  Major  Tal- 
cott expected  to  have  met  with  the  Massachusetts 
forces  at  Brookfield,  or  in  that  vicinity,  but  they 
did  not  arrive. 

On  the  12th  of  June,  four  days  after  the  arrival 
of  the  Connecticut  troops  at  Northampton,  about 
700  Indians  made  a  furious  attack  upon  Hadley ; 
but  Major  Talcott,  with  his  party,  soon  appeared 
for  the  relief  of  the  garrison,  and  drove  off  the 
enemy. 

Some  time  after,  the  Massachusetts  forces  arrived, 
and,  in  conjunction  with  Major  Talcott  and  his 
soldiers,  scoured  the  woods  on  both  sides  the  river, 
as  far  as  the  falls  at  Deerfield;  but  the  enemy,  by 
this  time,  had  made  their  escape  from  that  part  of 
the  country.  They,  however,  broke  up  their  fish- 
eries, destroyed  their  fish  and  other  stores,  recovered 
some  stolen  goods,  and  returned,  without  effecting 
any  thing  very  important. 

After  Major  Talcott  had  spent  about  three  weeks 
in  service  upon  the  river,  he  left  that  quarter,  and 
marched  through  the  wilderness,  towards  Providence 
and  the  Narraganset  country;  and  on  the  1st  of 
July  came  near  a  large  body  of  the  enemy,  of  whom 
he  captured  four.  Two  days  after,  Major  Talcott 
surprised  the  main  body  of  them,  by  the  side  of  a 
large  cedar  swamp ;  where  he  made  such  a  dispo- 
sition of  his  men,  and  attacked  them  so  suddenly, 


physicians  of  his  age,  a  member  of  the  Royal  Society  I  that  a  coiwiderable  number  v;erc  killed,  and  taken 


UNITED  STATES. 


729 


on  the  spot,  and  the  remainder  were  driven  into  the 
swamp,  which  the  troops  encompassed  ;  and,  after  an 
action  of  two  or  three  hours,  killed  and  took  171  more. 

The  troops  then  marched  to  Providence,  and 
invested  the  neck  there,  and  afterwards  Warwick 
neck;  in  which  places  they  killed  and  captured 
67.  About  the  5th  of  July  the  army  returned  to 
Connecticut ;  and,  in  their  route,  took  60  more  of 
the  enemy.  From  about  the  beginning  of  April  to 
the  6th  of  July,  the  Connecticut  volunteers,  and  the 
troops  under  Major  Talcott,  killed  and  captured 
about  420  of  the  enemy. 

The  enemy,  about  this  time,  fell  into  a  state  of 
division  and  fear.  They  found  that,  by  attempting 
to  destroy  their  English  neighbours,  they  had  ut- 
terly ruined  themselves;  and  a  complication  of 
evils  conspired  for  their  destruction.  The  destruc- 
tion of  their  fort  and  principal  stores,  in  the  dead 
of  winter,  the  burning  of  their  wigwams,  and  bring- 
ing off  their  corn  and  beans,  in  all  parts  of  the 
country,  put  them  to  inexpressible  hardships  and 
distresses.  They  had  been  able  to  plant  but  little 
in  the  spring ;  and  what  they  had  planted,  the  Eng- 
lish had  destroyed  ;  they  had  been  driven  from  the 
sea  and  rivers,  and  cut  off  from  almost  every  kind 
of  subsistence;  they  had  been  obliged  to  lie  in 
swamps  and  marshes;  to  feed  on  horse-flesh,  and 
unwholesome  food;  all  which  engendered  diseases: 
so  that  they  became  utterly  reduced  and  disheart- 
ened. They  could  not  keep  together  in  any  consi- 
derable bodies,  for  want  of  sustenance ;  and  were 
pursued  and  hunted  from  swamp  to  swamp,  and 
from  one  lurking  place  to  another;  so  that  in  July 
and  August  they  began  to  come  in  to  the  English 
in  large  bodies,  and  surrender  themselves  to  the 
mercy  of  their  conquerors. 

Major  Talcott,  after  his  return  from  Narraganset, 
having  recruited  his  men  a  short  time  in  Connecti- 
cut, took  his  station  at  Westfield ;  and  while  he  lay 
there,  a  large  body  of  the  enemy  was  discovered 
fleeing  to  the  westward.  He  pursued  them,  and  on 
the  third  day,  about  half  way  between  Westfield 
and  Albany,  discovered  them  lying  on  the  west  side 
of  Housatonick  river,  entirely  secure.  It  was 
judged  too  late  in  that  day  to  attack  them  to  any 
purpose;  and  the  army,  therefore,  retreated,  and 
lay  upon  their  arms,  in  great  silence,  during  the 
night.  Towards  morning,  the  troops  were  formed 
in  two  divisions ;  one  of  which  was  ordered  to 
pass  the  river  below  the  enemy,  and  to  advance  and 
compass  them  in  on  that  side  ;  and  the  other  party, 
creeping  silently  up  to  the  east  bank  of  the  river, 
were  to  lie  prepared  instantly  to  fire,  when  they 
should  receive  the  signal  from  the  other  division, 
who,  when  they  had  reached  their  ground,  were  to 
fire  a  single  gun.  But  this  well  contrived  plan  was 
in  some  measure  disconcerted.  An  Indian  had  left 
his  companions  asleep,  and  proceeded  down  the 
river  to  catch  fish ;  and,  as  the  division  on  the  west 
side  of  the  river  was  advancing  to  surround  the 
enemy,  he  discovered  them,  and  cried  out,  "  Awan- 
nux,  Awannux."  Upon  this,  one  of  the  party  fired, 
and  killed  hirn  on  the  spot;  and  the  other  division, 
on  the  east  bank  of  the  river,  supposing  this  to  be 
the  signal  gun,  discharged  upon  the  enemy,  as  they 
were  rising  in  surprise,  or  lay  upon  the  ground,  and 
killed  and  wounded  a  great  number  of  them.  Those 
who  were  not  killed,  or  disabled  by  wounds,  instantly 
fled,  leaving  their  camp,  baggage,  provisions,  and 
many  of  their  arms ;  but  as  the  division  on  the  west 
side  had  not  advanced  to  the  ground  designed,  be- 
fore the  alarm  was  given,  the  enemy  made  their 


escape  with  much  less  damage  than  they  could 
otherwise  have  done.  The  troops  pursued  them  for 
some  distance,  but  the  woods  were  so  extremely 
thick,  that  they  were  compelled  soon  to  return. 
The  sachem  of  Quabaug  or  Brookfield  was  killed, 
and  44  other  Indians  were  killed  and  taken. 

This  dreadful  and  distressing  war,  in  which  so 
many  of  these  miserable  Indians  perished,  victims 
to  their  want  of  civilization,  was  put  an  end  to  by 
the  death  of  Philip,  the  great  sachem,  in  August 
(1676).  After  this  event  the  Indians  in  this  part 
of  the  country  generally  submitted  to  the  English, 
or  fled  and  incorporated  with  distant  nations. 

Connecticut  offered  the  same  conditions  to  these 
Indians  upon  their  submission,  which  had  been, 
given  to  the  Pequots.  That  they  should  have  life, 
liberty,  protection,  and  ground  to  plant ;  some  princi- 
palincendiaries  and  murderers  beingexcepted.  They 
disdained,  however,  to  accept  the  terms,  and  the 
Nipmucks,  Nashawas,  Pocomtocks,  and  the  Hadley 
and  Springfield  Indians,  fled  to  the  French  and 
their  Indians,  in  Canada;  and  about  200  of  them, 
after  their  surprise  at  Housatonick  river,  fled  to  the 
Moheaganders,  upon  Hudson's  river. 

When  Philip  began  the  war,  he  and  his  kinswo- 
man Wetamoe  had  about  500  warriors,  and  the 
Narragansets  nearly  2,000;  and  the  Nipmuck, 
Nashawa,  Pocomtock,  Hadley,  and  Springfield 
Indians,  were  considerably  more  numerous.  It  is 
probable,  therefore,  that  there  were  about  3,000 
warriors  combined  for  the  destruction  of  the  New 
England  colonies,  exclusive  of  the  eastern  Indians ; 
but  the  war  terminated  in  their  entire  conquest, 
and  almost  total  extinction ;  and,  at  the  same  time, 
opened  a  wide  door  to  extensive  settlement  and  po- 
pulation. 

This,  however,  in  its  connexion  with  the  war 
with  the  eastern  Indians,  which  commenced  about 
the  same  time,  was  the  most  impoverishing  and  dis- 
tressing of  any  which  New  England  has  ever  expe- 
rienced, from  its  first  settlement  to  the  present  time. 
The  war  with  the  eastern  Indians  continued  until 
the  spring  of  the  year  1678.  The  enemy  killed  and 
captured  great  numbers  of  the  people,  and  nearly 
twenty  fishing  vessels,  with  their  crews,  and  most  of 
the  settlements  in  those  parts  were  swept  away,  and 
the  country  was  reduced  to  their  domination. 

About  600  of  the  inhabitants  of  New  England, 
the  greatest  part  of  whom  were  the  flower  and 
strength  of  the  country,  either  fell  in  battle,  or  were 
murdered  by  the  enemy,  and  there  were  few  fami- 
lies or  individuals  who  had  not  lost  some  near  rela- 
tive or  friend.  Twelve  or  thirteen  towns  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, Plymouth,  and  Rhode  Island,  were  ut- 
terly destroyed,  and  others  greatly  damaged;  and 
about  600  buildings,  chiefly  dwelling-houses,  were 
consumed  with  fire ;  and  an  almost  insuperable  debt 
was  contracted  by  the  colonies,  at  a  time  when  their 
numbers,  dwellings,  goods,  cattle,  and  all  their  re* 
sources,  were  greatly  diminished. 

The  foregoing  statement  is  made  from  an  ac- 
curate enumeration  of  the  various  numbers  men- 
tioned, in  the  ancient  histories  of  the  lives  lost,  and 
of  the  towns  and  buildings  burned.  But  as  there 
were,  doubtless,  many  persons  killed,  and  others 
who  died  of  their  wounds,  not  mentioned  in  those 
accounts,  they  must  have  exceeded  the  number  here 
stated.  The  histories  of  those  times  rarely  mention 
the  burning  of  barns,  stores,  and  out-houses;  and 
sometimes  there  is  notice  of  the  burning  of  part  of 
a  town,  and  of  the  buildings  in  such  a  tract,  without 
any  specification  of  the  number.  All  the  buildings 


730 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


in  Narraganset,  from  Providence  to  Stonington,  a 
tract  of  about  50  miles,  were  burned,  or  otherwise 
destroyed,  by  the  enemy,  but  the  number  is  not 
mentioned.  The  loss  of  buildings  must  therefore 
have  been  much  greater  than  has  been  mentioned. 
The  militia  of  Connecticut,  in  1675,  amounted  to 
2,250  men.  Of  these,  the  commissioners  required 
315,  as  their  proportion  of  the  1,000  men  then  to 
be  raised.  If  the  proportion  was  just,  there  were 
about  7,150  of  the  militia  of  the  united  colonies; 
and  reckoning  every  fifth  man  a  soldier,  and  five 
persons  to  every  family,  there  were  7,150  families, 
and  35,750  inhabitants,  at  that  time  in  the  united 
colonies.  According  to  this  estimation,  about  one 
fencible  man  in  eleven  was  killed,  and  every  eleventh 
family  was  burnt  out ;  or  an  eleventh  part  of  the 
whole  militia,  and  of  all  the  buildings  of  the  united 
colonies,  were  swept  away  by  this  predatory  war. 
This  greatly  exceeded  the  loss  in  the  war  of  inde- 
pendence with  Great  Britain,  in  proportion  to  the 
numbers  and  wealth  of  the  United  States. 

Connecticut,  indeed,  had  suffered  little,  in  com- 
parison with  her  sister  colonies.  Her  towns  and 
inhabitants  had  been  preserved  from  the  ravages  of 
the  enemy ;  but  about  a  seventh  part  of  the  whole 
militia  was  out  upon  constant  service,  besides  the 
volunteers;  and  a  great  proportion  was  obliged  to 
watch  and  guard  the  towns  at  home.  Many  towns 
were  necessitated  to  fortify  themselves  with  an  en- 
closure of  palisades,  and  to  prepare  and  fortify  par 
ticular  dwellings  for  garrison-houses,  to  which  the 
aged  people,  women,  and  children,  might  repair,  in 
case  of  attack.  For  three  years  after  the  war  com- 
menced, the  inhabitants  paid  eleven-pence  in  the 
pound,  upon  the  grand  list,  exclusive  of  all  town 
and  parish  taxes ;  and,  after  the  war  was  finished, 
they  had  a  considerable  debt  to  discharge.  The 
colony,  nevertheless,  was  comparatively  fortunate 
The  numerous  Indians  within  it  were  not  only  peace 
able,  but  the  Moheagans  and  Pequots  were  of  great 
service  in  the  war.  It  had  not  one  party  of  men 
surprised  and  cut  off  during  the  war;  nor  did  it 
sustain  any  considerable  loss  of  men  at  any  time, 
except  in  taking  the  fort  in  Narraganset.  At  the 
same  time  the  legislature  and  people  were  happy,  in 
giving  seasonable  and  powerful  assistance  to  their 
confederates,  and  in  repeatedly  rescuing  whole  town 
and  parties,  when  in  the  most  imminent  danger. 

Measures  adopted  to  discharge  the  public  debt,  and 
settle  the  country  in  peace —  The  reasons  of  the 
colony's  claim  to  Narraganset —  The  former  settlers 
and  owners  of  land  there  apply  to  Connecticut  for 
protection — Major  Treat  goes  to  the  upper  towns 
upon  Connecticut  river,  to  treat  with  the  Indians — 
Fasts  appointed  through  New  England — Act  con- 
earning  the  conquered  lands  in  Narraganset — ATa 
vigation  act  grievous  to  the  colonies — Governor  Lee 
takes  the  oath  respecting  trade  and  navigation — 
Answers  to  queries  from  the  lords  of  trade  and  plan 
tations — Protest  against  Sir  Edmund  Andross's  claim 
to  Fisher's  Island — Character  of  Governor  Leet — 
Commissioners  appointed  by  his  majesty  to  examine 
and  make  report  concerning  all  claims  to  the  Nar 
raganset  country,  or  king's  province— 'They  repor 
in  favour  of  Connecticut — Answers  to  the  renewed 
claim  of  the  duke  of  Hamilton,  and  opinions  on  th 
case — Connecticut  congratulates  the  arrival  of  Co- 
lonel Dungan,  governor  of  New  York,  and  agree 
with  him  respecting  the  boundary  line  between  tha 
colony  and  Connecticut— Petition  to  King  Jame 
II.  —  Settlement  of  Waterbury — Quo  n-arrant 


against  the  colony — The  assembly  petition  hit  ma- 
jesty to  continue  their  charter  privileges — Sir  Ed- 
mund Andross  made  governor  of  New  England- 
Arrives  at  Hartford,  and  takes  the  government,  by 
order  of  his  majesty — The  oppression  and  cruelty  of 
his  administration. 

Connecticut  had  now  conquered  the  Narraganset 
ountry,  and,  in  conjunction  with  the  other  confe- 
erates,  terminated  the  war  in  this  part  of  New 
England.  The  legislature,  therefore,  addressed 
hemselves  to  discharge  the  public  debt ;  to  settle 
he  friendly  Indians  in  a  state  of  peace  among  them- 
elves,  and  with  the  colonies ;  and  to  extend  their 
ettlements  in  the  Narraganset  country,  as  well  as 
n  other  parts  of  their  jurisdiction.  To  discharge 
he  public  debt,  they  levied  a  tax  of  eight-pence  in 
he  pound,  upon  the  whole  list  of  the  colony,  in 
October  annually,  during  the  term  of  two  years. 
They  appointed  a  committee  to  hear  all  affairs, 
which  the  Moheagans,  Pequots,  and  Narragansets, 
under  Ninigrate,  or  Ninicraft,  had  to  lay  before 
hem ;  and  to  do  whatever  they  should  judge  expe- 
dient to  promote  peace  among  them,  and  to  pre- 
serve their  friendship  and  attachment  to  the  Eng- 
ish.  For  their  encouragement,  the  legislature 
granted  liberty  for  them  to  hunt,  in  all  the  con- 
quered lands,  during  their  pleasure;  and  authorized 
them  to  kill  and  destroy  any  of  the  enemy  who 
should  return  to  their  country,  without  submitting 
;o  the  colony,  and  accepting  the  terms  which  had 
aeen  offered  them. 

At  the  election  in  May  1677,  there  was  no  alter- 
ation in  the  legislature,  excepting  the  choice  of 
Andrew  Leet,  Esq.  into  the  magistracy,  instead  of 
Oaptain  John  Mason,  who  died  the  September  be- 
fore, of  the  wounds  he  had  received  in  taking  the 
Narraganset  fort.  The  same  governor,  deputy-go- 
vernor, and  magistrates  were  re-elected  for  several 
years  successively.  A  committee  was  appointed  by 
;he  assembly,  to  settle  all  affairs  of  government  in 
the  Narraganset  country,  and  to  report  what  places 
there  were  there  adapted  to  the  purpose  of  planting 
new  towns. 

As  the  Rhode  Islanders  had  deserted  the  country, 
in  the  war,  and  had  done  nothing  in  the  defence  of 
it,  and  as  the  Connecticut  volunteers  had  driven  the 
enemy  entirely  from  that  extensive  tract,  the  legis- 
lature determined  to  plant  and  govern  it,  as  part  of 
this  colony. 

For  various  reasons  they  considered  the  act  of 
the  king's  commissioners,  determining  that  Rhode 
Island  and  Narraganset  should  be  a  province  for  the 
king,  as  a  mere  nullity ;  that  commission  gave  no 
power  to  make  new  colonies  ;  and  it  required  that 
Colonel  Nichols  should  always  be  one  of  the  council, 
that  any  of  its  acts  might  be  valid ;  but  he  was  not 
present  at  that  determination;  and  Colonel  Nichols 
himself,  with  two  or  three  of  his  council,  afterwards 
reversed  that  judgment. 

In  the  same  point  of  light  th-ey  viewed  the  agre* 
ment  with  Mr.  Clark,  as  it  was  subsequent  to  Ms 
Winthrop's  obtaining  the  Connecticut  charter  ;  aflik. 
moreover,  that  agreement  was  entirely  alien  from 
the  business  of  his  agency,  and  without  any  instruc- 
tions or  authority  from  the  colony.  It  was  also  con- 
sidered as  a  nullity  in  another  point  of  light,  as  the 
charter  to  Rhode  Island  recognised  and  had  refe- 
rence to  one  article  of  the  agreement  only,  and  at 
Rhode  Island  had  never  submitted  to  one  of  thfc 
other  articles ;  but  in  direct  contravention  of  them,, 
they  had  invaded  the  property  of  the  settlers  name? 


UNITED  STATES. 


731 


in  it,  wantonly  carried  off  the  productions  of  their 
lands  and  fruits  of  their  labours,  driven  off  their  cat- 
tle, forced  the  inhabitants  from  their  possessions, 
burned  their  fences,  and  even  pulled  down  their 
houses.  They  had  claimed  jurisdiction  over  them, 
after  they  had  in  the  year  1663  chosen  to  belong  to 
Connecticut,  and  formally  put  themselves  under  the 
government  of  that  colony ;  and  had  not  regarded 
the  agreement  even  with  respect  to  the  boundaries, 
but  attempted  to  extend  their  limits  beyond  what 
was  expressed  in  the  charter.  Besides,  when  the 
king  had  previously  granted  that  tract  to  Connecti- 
cut, there  remained  in  law  and  reason  no  further 
right  in  him  to  that  country.  He  had  nothing  there 
further  to  grant;  and  therefore  he  could  grant  no- 
thing there  to  Rhode  Island.  Connecticut  well 
knew  that  Pawcatuck  never  was  called  Narraganset 
river,  and  that  the  Narragansets  never  extended 
their  claims  so  far  westward  ;  but  that  Pawcatuck, 
and  the  country  some  miles  to  the  east  of  it,  be- 
longed to  the  Pequots.  For  these  reasons,  the  legis- 
lature considered  their  title  and  claim  to  this  part 
of  the  colony  as  clear  and  just,  as  to  any  other. 

Elisha  Hutchinson,  William  Hudson,  and  others, 
their  associates,  claiming  a  large  tract  in  the  Pe- 
quot  and  Narraganset  country,  applied  to  the  gene- 
ral assembly  for  their  assistance  and  protection, 
against  Rhode  Island,  in  the  re-settlement  of  their 
lands  ;  and  the  assembly  determined  to  extend  their 
protection  and  government  to  them. 

At  the  session  in  October,  the  upper  towns  upon 
Connecticut  river  sent  messengers  to  the  assembly, 
acquainting  them  that  there  were  considerable 
bodies  of  Indians  collected  together  in  their  vicinity  ; 
and  that  they  made  proposals  of  peace.  They  there- 
fore solicited  the  assembly  to  send  Major  Treat, 
the  deputy-governor,  with  a  detachment  of  40  men, 
to  Northampton,  to  treat  with  them,  or  to  defend 
those  towns  as  occasion  might  require.  The  as- 
sembly complied  with  the  request,  and  the  deputy- 
governor  proceeded  immediately  te  Northampton ; 
and  was  instructed,  in  the  first  place,  to  use  his  ut- 
most endeavours  for  the  redemption  of  the  captives, 
with  money,  goods,  or  by  any  other  means  in  his 
power.  The  terms  of  peace  which  he  was  autho- 
rized to  propose,  were  life  and  liberty,  upon  the  sub- 
mission of  the  Indians  to  the  English,  in  the  several 
places  where  they  should  be  settled.  It  does  not 
appear  that  many  of  the  northern  Indians  accepted 
the  terms  proposed,  or  ever  returned  to  their  for- 
mer places  of  abode ;  and  little  more  appears  to 
have  been  effected  by  the  treaty,  than  the  redemp- 
tion of  some  of  the  captives. 

(1678.)  The  colonies  at  this  time  had  many 
enemies,  and  the  most  injurious  complaints  and  un- 
favourable representations  were  made  of  them  in 
England.  Edward  Randolph,  especially,  was  in- 
defatigable in  his  complaints  against  them,  and  in 
aggravating  whatever  he  imagined  might  serve  to 
their  disadvantage.  He  came  over  to  Boston,  in 
1676,  and  annually,  in  person  or  by  writing,  made 
complaints  against  them;  and  generally  returned 
to  England  in  the  autumn,  and  in  the  spring  or 
summer  returned  fraught  with  new  mischief.  He 
busied  himself  among  other  affairs  in  complaining 
of  the  colonies  for  their  opposition  to  the  acts  of 
trade  and  navigation  ;  and  unhappily  for  Great  Bri- 
tain and  the  colonies,  they  were  suffering  under  an 
arbitrary  prince,  inimical  to  the  civil  and  religious 
rights  of  his  subjects.  His  ear  was  open  to  com- 
plaints against  those  who  did  not  cheerfully  submit 
to  his  despotic  impositions  j  and  he  readily  promoted 


tho.se  who  made  them.  The  colonies  knew  how 
affairs  were  conducted  in  England,  and  were  deeply 
apprehensive  of  the  danger  they  were  in,  of  a  total 
deprivation  of  their  liberties. 

The  commissioners  of  the  united  colonies,  in  these 
circumstances,  recommended  a  general  fast  to  the 
confederate  colonies  to  humble  themselves  for  their 
offences,  and  to  pray  for  the  Divine  favour  in  the 
continuation  of  their  just  rights  and  privileges  ;  and 
in  consequence  of  this  recommendation,  the  general 
assembly  of  Connecticut  appointed  the  third  Tues- 
day in  November  a  public  fast,  in  union  with  their 
confederates,  to  humble  themselves,  and  pray  for 
the  purposes  recommended. 

The  general  assembly  at  their  session  in  May 
1679,  to  prevent  the  people  of  Rhode  Island,  and 
other  intruders,  from  taking  up  lands  in  Narragan- 
set, enacted,  that  none  of  the  conquered  lands  should 
be  taken  up  or  laid  out  into  farms,  without  special 
and  express  order  from  them. 

The  Rhode  Islanders  in  the  time  of  danger  had 
deserted  the  country  and  bore  no  part  in  the  war ; 
but  as  soon  as  the  inhabitants,  who  had  settled  under 
Connecticut,  began  to  return  to  their  former  settle- 
ments, to  build  upon  their  lands,  and  cultivate  their 
farms  under  the  government  of  this  colony,  the 
legislature  of  Rhode  Island  began  to  usurp  authority 
and  practise  their  former  vexations. 

John  Cranston,  Esq.,  governor  of  Rhode  Island, 
held  a  court  in  Narraganset,  in  September,  and 
made  attempts  to  introduce  the  authority  and  officers 
of  Rhode  Island  into  that  part  of  Connecticut;  and 
the  general  assembly,  in  October,  protested  against 
his  usurpation,  and  declared  his  acts  to  be  utterly 
void.  They  also  prohibited  all  the  inhabitants  to 
receive  any  office  from  the  legislature  of  Rhode  Is- 
land, or  to  yield  obedience  to  its  authority. 

(1680.)  The  acts  of  trade  and  navigation  were  ex- 
ceedingly grievous  to  the  colonies;  who  viewed 
them  as  utterly  inconsistent  with  their  chartered 
rights ;  and  were  extremely  unwilling  to  submit  to 
them.  Massachusetts  never  would  fully  submit ; 
but  as  it  was  matter  of  great  and  continual  com- 
plaint against  the  colonies,  and  as  his  majesty  in- 
sisted on  the  respective  governors  taking  the  oath, 
respecting  trade  and  navigation,  it  was  judged  ex- 
pedient that  Governor  Leet  should  take  it  in  the 
presence  of  the  assembly ;  and  it  was  accordingly 
administered  to  him,  at  the  session  in  May  1680. 

This  assembly  ordered  that  a  letter  should  be 
written  to  the  general  court  of  Massachusetts,  de- 
siring their  concurrence  in  mutually  settling  the  line 
between  that  colony  and  Connecticut;  and  it  was 
requested,  that  the  court  would  appoint  a  committee 
fully  authorized  for  that  purpose,  to  join  with  one 
from  Connecticut  vested  with  similar  powers.  If  the 
general  court  of  the  Massachusetts  should  refuse  to 
comply  with  this  proposal,  then  the  governor  and 
his  council,  with  such  as  they  should  appoint  to 
that  service,  were  authorized  to  run  the  line  with- 
out them. 

The  lords  of  trade  and  plantations  having  trans- 
mitted a  number  of  queries  to  the  governor  and  com- 
pany, the  governor  and  council  were  desired  to 
answer  them;  and  by  their  answers,  it  appears, 
that  there  were  26  towns  in  the  colony:  that 
the  militia,  including  horse  and  foot,  consisted, 
in  1679,  of  2,507  men:  that  the  annual  exports  were 
about  9,OOOZ. :  that  there  were  in  the  colony  about 
twenty  small  merchants  trading  to  Boston,  New 
York,'  Newfoundland,  and  the  West  Indies :  and 
that  its  shipping  consisted  of  four  ships,  three  pinks, 


732 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


eight  sloops,  and  other  small  vessels,  amounting  in 
the  whole  to  27,  the  tonnage  of  which  was  only  1,050. 
The  number  of  inhabitants  is  not  mentioned,  but, 
from  the  number  of  the  militia,  it  must  have  been 
nearly  12,000.  To  one  of  the  inquiries,  the  follow- 
ing answer  is  given  :  "  If  so  be  Hartford,  New 
London,  New  Haven,  and  Fairfield,  might  be  made 
free  ports,  for  fifteen  or  twenty  years,  it  would  be  a 
means  to  bring  trade  there,  and  much  increase  the 
navigation  and  wealth  of  this  poor  colony." 

About  this  time,  Sir  Edmund  Andross,  governor 
of  New  York,  asserted  his  right  of  jurisdiction  over 
Fisher's  Island,  as  included  in  the  duke  of  York's 
patent. 

Upon  this  claim,  the  legislature  of  the  colony 
asserted,  "  that  the  said  island  was  a  part  and 
member  of  this  colony  of  Connecticut,  and  under 
the  government  thereof;  and  that  they  have  ever 
exercised,  and  shall,  and  will  exercise  government 
there,  as  occasion  shall  require ;  and  do  hereby 
declare  and  protest  against  Sir  Edmund  Andross, 
and  all  other  persons,  their  claims,  or  exercise  of 
any  authority  or  government,  on.  or  over  the  said 
island." 

At  the  election  in  1683,  Major  Robert  Treat  was 
chosen  governor,and  James  Bishop  deputy-governor. 
The  former  magistrates  were  generally  re-chosen ; 
but  by  reason  of  several  vacancies  which  had  been 
made,'  Captain  Robert  Chapman,  Captain  James 
Fitch,  Mr.  Samuel  Mason,  and  Mr  Joseph  Whiting, 
were  elected  magistrates.  The  change  of  governors 
was  occasioned  by  the  death  of  Governor  Leet,  who 
after  faithfully  serving  the  colonies  for  many  years, 
had  now  finished  his  course. 

The  Governor  William  Leet,  Esq.  was  bred  a 
lawyer  in  England,  and  was  for  a  considerable  time 
clerk  of  a  bishop's  court.  In  this  service  he  became 
acquainted  with  the  conduct  of  the  bishops  towards 
the  puritans,  with  the  pleas,  and  serious  conversa- 
tion and  conduct  of  the  latter  when  arraigned  before 
them.  He  observed  the  great  severity  which  the 
court  exercised  towards  them,  for  going  to  hear  good 
sermons  in  the  neighbouring  parishes  when  they  had 
none  at  home,  and  what  light  matters  they  made  of 
licentious  and  gross  sins,  and  how  much  better  per- 
sons guilty  of  such  crimes  were  treated  than  the 
puritans.  This  brought  him  to  a  serious  considera- 
tion of  the  affair,  and  to  acquaint  himself  more  tho 
roughly  with  the  doctrines  and  discipline  of  the 
puritans.  In  consequence  of  this  he  became  a  pu- 
ritan, left  the  bishop's  court,  and  in  1638  came 
into  New  England  with  Mr.  Whitfield  and  his  com- 
pany. He  was  one  of  the  seven  pillars  of  his  church. 
In  1643,  he  was  chosen  magistrate  for  the  colony  ol 
New  Haven,  and  was  annually  re-elected  until 
May  1658.  He  was  then  chosen  deputy-governor 
of  that  colony,  in  which  office  he  continued  until  he 
was  elected  governor  in  1661.  He  continued  chief 
magistrate  of  that  colony  until  the  union  in  1665 
He  was  then  chosen  one  of  the  magistrates  of  Con- 
necticut. In  1669,  he  was  elected  deputy-governor, 
and  was  annually  re-elected  until  1676,  when  he 
was  chosen  governor  of  Connecticut.  During  the 
term  of  40  years,  he  was  magistrate,  deputy-gover- 
nor, or  governor  of  one  or  other  of  the  colonies.  In 
both  colonies  he  presided  in  times  of  the  greatest 
difficulty,  yet  always  conducted  himself  with  such 
integrity  and  wisdom,  as  to  meet  the  public  appro- 
bation. After  he  was  chosen  governor  of  Connecti- 
cut, he  removed  to  Hartford,  where  he  died  full  o 
years  and  good  works.  He  left  a  numerous  offspring 
As  there  had  been  long  disputes  relative  to  th< 


^arraganset  country,  and  as  the  king,  in  conse- 
[uence  of  the  act  of  his  commissioners  in  1665, 
laimed  it  as  his  province,  commissioners  were  ap- 
>ointed  to  hear  and  determine  all  titles  and  claims 
especting  that  tract;  and  on  the  7th  of  April,  1683, 
Cing  Charles  II.  granted  a  commission  to  Edward 
^ranfield,  Esq.,  lieutenant-governor  of  New  Hamp- 
hire,  William  Stoughton,  Joseph  Dudley,  Edward 
landolph,  Samuel  Shrimpton,  John  Fitz  Win- 
hrop,  Edward  Palms,  Nathaniel  Saltonstall,  and 
Tohn  Pyncheon,  jun.  Esquires,  or  any  three  of 
hem,  of  whom  Edward  Cranfield,  or  Edward  Ran- 
dolph, was  to  be  of  the  quorum,  "  to  examine  and 
nquire  into  the  respective  claims  and  titles,  as  well 
>f  his  majesty,  as  of  all  persons  and  corporations 
whatsoever,  to  the  immediate  jurisdiction,  govern- 
ment, or  propriety  of  the  soil  of  a  certain  tract  of 
and  within  his  majesty's  dominion  of  New  Eng- 
and,  called  the  king's  province,  or  Narraganset 
country;  and  to  call  before  them  any  person,  or 
>ersons,  and  to  search  records  as  they  shall  find  re- 
quisite, and  the  proceedings  therein,  with  th*  opi- 
nions upon  the  matters  that  shall  be  examined  by 
'-hem,  to  state,  and  with  all  convenient  speed  report 
-hereof  to  make  to  his  majesty." 

The  commissioners  convened  on  the  22d  of  Au- 
gust, 1683,  at  the  house  of  Richard  Smith,  in  the 
Narraganset  country;  where  they  summoned  all 
persons  and  corporations,  in  whatever  place,  who 
were  concerned  in  the  title  or  government  of  that 
country,  to  appear  before  them,  and  to  produce  all 
charters,  deeds,  records,  letters,  and  orders  from 
bis  majesty  and  council,  or  of  any  of  his  commission- 
ers, to  the  respective  colonies,  governors,  or  go- 
vernments, which  might  give  information  on  the 
subject.  At  the  time'and  place  appointed,  the  re- 
cords represent,  "  that  there  was  the  greatest  ap- 
pearance of  the  most  ancient  English  and  Indians, 
then  living,  to  testify  the  truth  of  their  knowledge," 
respecting  the  matters  then  to  be  determined. 

The  commissioners,  having  fully  heard  every 
thing  respecting  the  claims  and  title  to  that  part  of 
New  England,  adjourned  to  Boston,  and  there  made 
a  report  to  his  majesty  in  an  ample  manner,  declar- 
ing that  the  government  of  it  belonged  to  Connecti- 
cut. The  following  is  an  abstract  of  such  parts  of 
the  report  as  affected  Connecticut. 

'  In  humble  obedience  to  your  majesty's  com- 
mands, we,  your  majesty's  commissioners,  have  seri- 
ously considered  the  several  claims  before  us.  We 
find  that  your  majesty,  by  your  letters  patent,  dated 
at  Westminister,  the  23d  of  April,  in  the  fourteenth 
year  of  your  majesty's  reign,  granted  to  the  governor 
and  company  of  Connecticut,  and  their  successors, 
all  that  part  of  your  dominions  in  New  England, 
bounded  on  the  east  by  Narraganset  bay,  where  the 
said  river  falls  into  the  sea,  and  on  the  north  by  the 
line  of  the  Massachusetts  plantation,  and  on  the 
south  by  the  sea. 

*  We  have  also  had  information,  that  some  time 
after  your  majesty's  grant  and  said  patent  was  sent 
to  your  colony  of  Connecticut,  the  said  country  of 
the  Narraganset  was  likewise,  by  patent,  granted  by 
your  majesty  to  the  governor  and  company  of  Rhode 
Island  plantation,  and  is,  by  charter,  bounded  by  a 
river  called  Pawcatuck,  which  by  said  charter  is 
for  ever  to  be  accounted  and  called  the  Narraganset 
river  :  and  this  latter  grant  of  your  majesty  to 
Rhode  Island  seems  to  be  founded  upon  advice  sub- 
mitted to  by  John  Winthrop,  Esq.,  said  to  be  agent 
for  Connecticut  colony,  and  Mr.  John  Clark,  agent 
for  Rhode  Island :  to  which  Connecticut  plead, 


UNITED  STATES. 


that  Mr.  Winthrop's  agency  for  them  ceased,  when 
he  had  obtained  and  sent  the  patent  to  them ;  and 
that  no  submission  or  act  of  his  could  invalidate, 
or  deprive  them  of  any  of  the  benefits  graciously 
granted  by  your  majesty's  charter :  and  that,  not- 
withstanding the  seeming  boundaries,  set  by  said 
articles,  signed  by  Mr.  Winthrop  and  Mr.  Clark,  it 
is  in  the  same  articles  provided,  that  the  proprie- 
tors and  inhabitants  of  the  Narraganset  country 
should  choose  to  which  of  the  two  governments  to 
belong,  and  that  they  unanimously  chose  and  sub- 
jected to  the  government  of  Connecticut. 

"  With  humble  submission,  we  cannot  see  any 
cause  to  judge  that  the  said  Pawcatuck  river  anci- 
ently was,  or  ought  to  be,  called  or  accounted  the 
Narraganset  river. 

"  1.  Because  it  lies  some  miles  within  the  Pequot 
country,  a  nation,  till  extirpated  by  the  English, 
often,  or  always  at  war  with  the  Narragansets,  and 
to  which  territories  the  Narragansets  never  pre- 
tended. 

"  2.  Because  Pawcatuck  river  falls  into  the  sea 
many  miles  westward  of  any  part  of  Narraganset 
bay,  which  is  the  river  anciently  called  Narragan- 
set river,  both  because  it  on  the  eastward  washes 
and  bounds  the  whole  length  of  the  Narraganset 
country  ;  and  for  that  Plymouth  colony,  which  hath 
now  been  planted  near  threescore  years,  have  ever 
since  bounded  themselves  according  to  the  sense  and 
meaning,  or  limitation  of  their  patent,  by  the  same 
bay,  called  Narraganset  river,  towards  the  south. 

"  Thus,  after  most  strict  and  impartial  inquiry 
and  examination,  having  stated,  we  most  humbly 
lay  before  your  majesty  the  several  original  claims 
and  pretensions  offered  to  us  with  respect  to  the  pro- 
priety, both  of  jurisdiction  and  soil  in  your  majes- 
ty's province,  or  Narraganset  country;  and  in  fur- 
ther obedience  to  your  said  commission,  have  seri- 
ously weighed  and  considered  all  evidences,  pleas, 
proofs,  and  allegations,  &c.  and  with  most  humble 
submission  and  reservation  of  your  majesty's  right, 
offer  our  opinions,  that  by  virtue  of  your  said  letters 
patent,  granted  to  Connecticut,  jurisdiction  in,  auc 
through  the  said  province,  or  Narraganset  country, 
of  right  belongs  to  the  colony  of  Connecticut ;  anc 
that  propriety  of  soil,  as  derived  from  Mr.  Winthrop 
and  Major  Atherton,  is  vested  upon  the  heirs  an 
assigns  of  said  Mr.  Winthrop,  the  heirs  of  Thomas 
Chiffinch,  Esq.,  Major  Atherton,  Mr.  Richard  Smith. 
Mr.  Simon  Lynde,  Mr.  Elisha  Hutchinson,  Mr 
John  Saffin,  Mr.  Richard  Wharton  and  partners. 

"  Finally,  we  hold  it  our  duty  humbly  to  inform 
your  majesty,  that  so  long  as  the  pretensions  of  th 
Rhode  Islanders  to  the  government  of  the  said  pro- 
vince continue,  it  will  much  discourage  the  settle 
ment  and  improvement  thereof;  it  being  very  im 
probable,  that  either  the  aforenamed  claimers,  01 
others  of  like  reputation  and  condition,  will  remove 
their  families,  or  expend  their  estates  under  so  loos 
and  weak  a  government. 

"  Your  majesty's  most  loyal  and  obedient  subjects 

"EDWARD  CRANFIELD,  WILLIAM  STOUGHTON 

SAMUEL  SHRIMPTON,  JOHN  PYNCHEON,  jun. 

NATHANIEL  SALTONSTALL. 

"  Boston,  Oct.  20th,  1683." 

Connecticut  had  no   sooner  gained    their  poin 

against  the  claims  of  the   king  and   Rhode  Island 

than  they  were  obliged  to  compete  with  a  new  anta 

gonist.     Edward   Randolph,   Esq.   on    the    30th   o 

June,  1683,  had  received  a  power  of  attorney  from 

William  and  Ann,  duke  and  duchess  of  Hamilton 

and  James,  earl  of  Arrau,  son  and  heir  of  William 


nd  Ann,  and  grandson  of  James,  marquis  of  Ha- 
nilton,  to  sue  for  and  recover  their  right  and  interest 
n  lands,  islands,  houses,  and  tenements,  in  New  Eng- 
and  ;  and  he  appeared  before  the  commissioners  at 
Boston,  and  in  the  name  of  the  said  duke,  duchess, 
and  earl,  claimed  the  lands  which  they  supposed 
lad  been  granted  to  their  ancestor,  in  the  deed  of 
1635. 

This  renewed  claim  of  that  tract  of  country  oc- 
casioned answers  from  the  proprietors  of  the  lands, 
and  from  Connecticut,  with  several  opinions  on  the 
case.  The  following  is  their  substance. 

Mr.  Saftin,  in  November,  in  behalf  of  the  pro- 
prietors, replied : — 

"  The  ends  aimed  at  and  propounded  in  the  king's 
charter  to  the  great  council  of  Plymouth,  was  the 
propagation  of  the  Gospel  among  the  heathen,  and 
the  enlargement  of  his  majesty's  empire,  by  planta- 
tion ;  and  whatsoever  grants  were  made  by  said 
council,  were  founded  upon  those  considerations; 
which  being  not  pursued,  rendereth  all  grants  of 
land  void.  Qwi  sentit  commodum,  incommodum  sen- 
ire  debet  et  onus.  (He  who  enjoys  the  benefit  of  a 
grant,  ought  to  bear  its  disadvantage  and  burthen.) 
And  it  doth  not  appear  that  his  grace  (as  other 
patentees,)  did  transport  any  person,  or  plant  any 
colony,  nor  used  any  other  means,  either  to  instruct 
the  natives,  or  purchase  their  right  in  the  lands,  or 
appointed  any  agent  to  take  possession,  in  order  to 
the  improvement  of  the  same.  But  it  is  probable, 
that  the  duke,  understanding  a  former  patent  was 
granted  by  the  council  of  Devon,  to  the  Lords  Say 
and  Brook,  &c.  in  and  about  the  year  163J,  and 
purchased  and  improved  by  the  colony  of  Connecti- 
cut, might  divert  him  from  any  procedure  therein. 
The  copy  of  said  patent,  as  we  have  been  informed, 
when  exhibited  by  John  Winthrop,  Esq.  before  the 
king  in  council,  the  then  Lord-chancellor  Hyde 
declared  the  Lords  Say  and  Brooke's  title  to  be 
good  and  unquestionable;  and  upon  that  interest, 
we  presume,  it  was  that  Connecticut  made  applica- 
tion to  his  majesty,  and  that  then  charter  was 
granted ;  the  Lords  Say  and  Brook,  and  partners, 
having  expended  9,000/.  in  settlement  of  the  landa 
claimed  by  his  grace ;  and  had  made  considerable 
improvements  and  fortifications  upon  the  lands  in 
several  places,  divers  years  before  the  date  of  Duke 
Hamilton's  grant. 

"  Our  present  gracious  sovereign,  &c.  hath,  by 
his  royal  letters,  manifested  his  approbation  of  the 
purchase,  possession,  and  improvement  of  his  loyal 
subjects,  the  proprietors  here.  The  said  proprietors 
have  been  necessarily  engaged  in  a  bloody  war 
with  the  Indians,  in  their  late  rebellion. 

"  We  further  humbly  offer,  that,  in  regard  that 
the  copy  of  the  duke's  deed,  presented  by  Mr. 
Randolph,  in  behalf  of  his  grace,  seems  to  have  no 
signification  of  any  hand  or  seal  affixed  to  it,  nor 
mention  made  of  any  witnesses,  said  to  be  the  ori- 
ginal instrument,  (yet  affirmed  to  be  a  true  copy 
thereof,)  it  may  be  presumed  the  said  original  deed 
was  never  completed  according  to  law." 

And  the  governor  and  council  of  Connecticut 
answered,  December  13th,  1683,  as  follows : — 

"  As  to  the  substance  of  the  duke's  claim,  so  far 
as  it  concerns  us,  it  is  preceded,  some  years,  by  a 
grant  from  the  right  honourable  Robert  earl  of 
Warwick,  to  the  Lord  Say,  and  other  persons  of 
honour  and  credit,  March  19th,  1631,  whereas  his 
grace's  deed  was  made  four  years  after,  viz,  on  the 
20th  of  April,  1635. 

"  By  virtue  of  his  majesty's  grant  to  Lords  Say, 


734 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Brook,  &c.  they,  and  their  assigns,  our  predecessors 
did,  at  their  own  proper  charge,  about  the  year 
1634,  begin  to  enter  upon  the  said  lands,  and  so 
have  continued  ever  since,  in  actual  possession  and 
improvement  thereof,  without  challenge  or  claim 
from  Duke  Hamilton:  which  improvement  hath 
been  with  great  cost,  hazard,  and  labour  of  his  ma- 
jesty's subjects;  yet,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  and 
his  majesty's  grace,  hath,  in  a  good  measure,  an- 
swered the  ends  of  those  grants  or  patents ;  as  the 
propagating  the  Christian  religion,  and  the  increase 
and  enlargement  of  his  majesty's  empire :  of  all 
which  his  grace  Duke  Hamilton  hath,  in  these 
parts,  done  nothing  that  we  know  of. 

"  His  present  majesty,  understanding  the  condi- 
tion of  his  subjects  in  this  colony,  upon  our  humble 
address,  April  23d,  1662,  was  graciously  pleased  to 
grant  us  a  charter,  for  holding  the  lands  therein 
granted  firm,  to  us  and  our  successors  for  ever; 
and  in  his  letters,  dated  April  23d,  1664,  sent  to  us 
by  his  majesty's  honourable  commissioners,  he  is 
pleased  to  call  his  grant  a  renewing  of  our  charter, 
which  must  relate  to  that  grant  made  by  the  earl  of 
Warwick,  in  the  year  1631  ;  for  we  had  no  other, 
before  his  majesty's  grant  and  confirmation  afore- 
said. 

"  Under  these  securities  and  encouragements,  we 
laid  out  our  estates,  labours,  &c.  and  suddenly  after 
our  first  settling  we  were  engaged  in  a  bloody  war, 
anno  37,  with  the  Pequots,  which  was  chargeable 
and  expensive  to  us.  Also,  in  the  year  1675,  a 
great  people,  who  inhabited  the  Narraganset  coun- 
try, rose  up  against  his  majesty's  subjects,  who 
were  planted  in  these  parts,  slew  many  of  them, 
burnt  their  houses,  and  destroyed  their  cattle, 
whereby  we  were  engaged  in  another  bloody  war, 
which  was  the  cause  of  great  expense  of  blood  and 
treasure,  (his  grace  Duke  Hamilton  being  no  par- 
taker with  us  in  any  of  those  expenses,  or  helper  of 
Us  therein,)  and  by  the  assistance  of  Almighty  God, 
and  countenance  of  his  majesty,  in  both  these  fore- 
mentioned  wars,  we  overcame  our  enemies  that  rose 
up  against  us,  without  which  all  our  grants  would 
have  been  of  little  benefit  to  us. 

"  It  is  required  by  his  majesty's  good  laws,  as  in 
the  21st  of  King  James,  16th,  that  the  duke,  and 
all  others,  should  have  sued  out  his  claims :  the 
reason  of  which  law,  as  it  is  very  great,  so  it  is 
pleadable  on  our  account;  for  it  being  latent  unto 
us,  for  nearly  50  years,  would  prove  our  ruin,  if 
thereupon  our  property  be  altered.  Had  the  duke's 
grace,  or  his  predecessors  timeously  set  his  claim, 
in  competition  with  Lord  Say's  patent,  that  we  had 
Itirchased,  the  people  had  known  how  to  have  ap- 
jilied  themselves ;  but  after  half  a  century's  settle- 
ment, as  aforesaid,  we  hope  his  majesty  will  be 
pleased  to  secure  the  same  to  his  good  subjects  here. 
"  We  desire  that  we  may  have  a  more  fit  oppor- 
tunity to  make  a  more  full  answer,  and  to  present 
our  proofs. 

"  Per  order  of  the  governor  and  council, 
"  signed  per  me, 

"  JOHN  ALLEN,  Secretary." 
Some  years  after,  several  opinions,  by  gentlemen 
eminent  for  their  learning  in  the  law,  were  given 
ou  the  case,  both  as  it  respected  the  duke  of  Ha- 
milton and  the  colony  of  Rhode  Island. 

Sir  Francis  Pemberton,  having  largely  stated  the 
case  between  Connecticut  and  the  duke  of  Hamil- 
ton, says,  "  Marquis  Hamilton,  nor  his  heirs,  or 
any  deriving  from  him,  have  ever  had  possession,  or 
laid  out  any  thing  upon  the  premises,  nor  made 


any  claim,  in  said  country,  until  the  year  1683, 
which  was  about  48  years  after  said  grant,  the  said 
heir  by  his  attorney,  claimed  the  said  lands,  at  Bos- 
ton in  New  England,  which  is  above  70  miles  from 
the  premises,  and  in  another  country. 

"  The  heir  of  said  Marquis  Hamilton,  after  three- 
score and  two  years,  demands  the  said  premises,  or 
a  quit-rent.  I  am  of  the  opinion,  that  the  heir  of 
M.  H.  after  such  purchases,  and  so  long  quiet  en- 
joyment of  them,  &c.  ought  not  to  recover  any  oi 
the  lands  or  grounds  or  quit-rents  out  of  them. 

"  I  am  of  opinion,  that  these  purchasers,  by 
virtue  of  their  purchases,  and  so  long  and  uninter- 
rupted possession  under  them,  have  an,  undoubted 
right  and  title  to  these  grounds  and  lands,  and  the 
buildings  and  improvement  of  them,  and  ought  not 
now,  after  so  much  money  laid  out  upon  them,  and 
such  enjoyment  of  them,  to  be  disturbed  in  their 
possession  of  them.  FRANCIS  PEMBERTON." 

Mr.  Trevor  having  stated  the  case  between  Con- 
necticut and  Rhode  Island,  gives  his  opinion  to  the 
lords  of  trade  and  plantations  in  the  words  follow- 
ing :  "  I  am  humbly  of  opinion,  that  this  grant  to 
Rhode  Island  is  void  in  law,  because  the  country  of 
Narraganset  bay  was  granted  before  to  Connecticut, 
and  that  therefore  the  government  of  Narraganset 
bay  doth,  of  right,  belong  to  Connecticut,  and  not 
to  Rhode  Island:  all  which  is  humbly  submitted  to 
your  honour's  great  wisdom. 

"  Oct.  28,  1696.  "  THOMAS  TREVOR." 

The  aspects  of  the  colony  this  year  (1683)  were 
exceedingly  gloomy.  Besides  the  dangers  which 
threatened  them,  with  respect  to  their  civil  and  re- 
ligious privileges,  the  people  were  visited  with  great 
sickness  and  mortality ;  and  the  instances  of  death 
among  the  clergy  were  uncommonly  numerous. 
The  fruits  of  the  field  were  also  diminished,  and  the 
inhabitants  in  various  ways  impoverished  and  dis- 
tressed. 

The  general  assembly,  in  October,  considered  the 
Divine  dispensations  so  afflictive,  as  to  demand 
their  deepest  humiliation ;  and  a  general  fast  was 
appointed,  and  the  people  called  upon  to  repent 
and  humble  themselves.  The  proclamation  is  in- 
troduced in  these  words,  "  Whereas  it  is  evident  to 
all  who  observe  the  footsteps  of  Divine  Providence, 
that  the  dispensations  of  God  towards  his  poor  wil- 
derness people,  have  been  very  solemn,  awful,  and 
speaking,  for  many  years  past;  and  particularly 
towards  ourselves  in  this  colony,  this  present  year, 
by  occasion  of  general  sickness  in  most  places,  and 
more  than  ordinary  mortality  in  some,  as  also  ex- 
cessive rains  and  floods  in  several  plantations,  short- 
ening us  in  our  enjoyments;  and  considering  also 
the  holy  hand  of  God,  in  bereaving  so  many  churches 
and  congregations  of  a  settled  ministry,  whereby 
they  are  left,  and  have  been,  some  of  them,  a  long 
time,  as  sheep  without  a  shepherd,  as  if  the  Lord 
"ntended,  for  our  sins,  to  quench  the  light  of  our 
Israel." 

Colonel  Dungan,  having  lately  arrived  at  New 
York,  the  assembly,  in  November,  appointed  Major 
Nathan  Gould,  Captain  John  Allen,  and  Mr.  Wil- 
iam  Pitkin,  a  committee,  to  congratulate  him  upon 
his  arrival,  at  his  seat  of  government .;  and  to  agree 
with  him  upon  a  settlement  of  boundaries  between 
:he  colonies.  The  committee  were  instructed  not 
;o  exceed  his  demands  of  twenty  miles  east  of  Hud- 
sou's  river:  to  examine  his  powers  to  treat,  and  if 
hey  were  only  conditional,  to  treat  with  him  upon 
he  same  terms  They  were  directed  to  insist  that 
there  was  no  mistake  with  respect  to  the  rise  of  the 


UNITED  STATES 


735 


line  at  Memoronock  ;  and  if  they  should  be  obliged 
to  give  up  jurisdiction  at  any  place,  to  preserve  pro- 
perty inviolably  to  the  proprietors ;  and  to  insist  on 
the  former  line,  unless  it  should,  in  any  place,  ap- 
proach nearer  to  Hudson's  river  than  the  distance 
of  twenty  miles.  In  fine,  they  were  required  to 
make  his  honour  sensible  that  the  former  line  was 
legal  and  firm,  and  that  the  present  settlement  -was 
solely  for  the  purpose  of  promoting  peace  and  a  good 
correspondence  between  his  majesty's  colony  of 
Connecticut  and  the  duke's  territories,  and  their 
successive  governors. 

As  the  colony  had  been  certified  by  letters  from 
the  king,  of  a  conspiracy  against  himself  and  the 
duke  of  York,  the  assembly  addressed  him  on  the 
subject.  They  declared,  in  the  strongest  terms,  their 
utmost  abhorrence  of  all  plots  against  his  royal  per- 
son and  government:  that  they  prayed  for  kings 
and  all  men,  and  especially  for  his  majesty,  and  all 
in  authority  under  him :  that  they  feared  God  and 
honoured  the  king  ;  and  in  such  suppliant  language 
as  follows,  they  prayed  for  the  continuance  of  their 
chartered  rights. 

"  Most  dread  sovereign,  we  humbly  pray  the 
continuance  of  your  grace  and  favour  in  the  full  en- 
joyment of  those  former  privileges  and  liberties  you 
have,  out  of  your  princely  grace  and  bounty,  be- 
stowed upon  us  in  your  royal  charter,  granted  this 
corporation,  that  our  poor  beginnings  may  prosper, 
under  your  shadow,  to  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  en- 
largement of  your  majesty's  dominions." 

The  number  of  persons  giving  in  their  lists,  Oct. 
1683,  was  2,735,  and  the  grand  list  was  159,385/. 

The  committee  appointed  to  agree  with  Colonel 
Dungan,  with  respect  to  the  line  of  partition  be- 
tween Connecticut  and  New  York,  came  to  an 
agreement  respecting  it  November  28th,  1683 ; 
when  it  was  agreed,  "  That  the  line  should  begin  at 
Byram  river,  where  it  falleth  into  the  sound  at  a 
point  called  Lyon's  point,  to  go  as  the  said  river 
runneth  to  the  place  where  the  common  road,  or 
wadinjr  place,  over  the  said  river  is  ;  and  from  the 
said  road  or  wading  place,  to  go  north  north-west 
into  the  country,  as  far  as  will  be  eight  English 
miles  from  the  aforesaid  Lyon's  point ;  and  that  a 
line  of  twelve  miles,  being  measured  from  the  said 
Lyon's  point,  according  to  the  line  or  general  course 
of  the  sound  eastward,  where  the  said  twelve  miles 
endeth,  another  line  shall  be  run  from  the  sound, 
eight  miles  into  the  country,  north  north-west,  and 
abo  that  a  fourth  line  be  run,  (that  is  to  say,)  from 
the  northernmost  end  of  the  eight  miles  line,  being 
the  third  mentioned  line,  which  fourth  line,  with 
the  first  mentioned  line,  shall  be  the  bounds  where 
they  shall  fall  to  run ;  and  that  from  the  eastern- 
most end  of  the  fourth  mentioned  line,  (which  is  to 
be  twelve  miles  in  length,)  a  line  parallel  to  Hud- 
son's riv«r,  in  every  place  twenty  miles  distant  from 
Hudson's  river,  shall  be  the  bounds  there,  between 
the  said  territories  or  province  of  New  York,  and 
the  said  colony  of  Connecticut,  so  far  as  Connecti- 
cut colony  doth  extend  northwards ;  that  is  to  the 
south  line  of  the  Massachusetts  colony :  only  it  is 
provided,  that  in  case  the  line  from  Byram  brook's 
mouth,  north  north-west  eight  miles,  and  the  line, 
that  is  then  to  run  twelve  miles  to  the  end  of  the 
third  fore-mentioned  line  of  eight  miles,  to  diminish 
or  take  away  land  within  twenty  miles  of  Hudson's 
river,  that  then  so  much  as  is  in  land  diminished  of 
twenty  miles  of  Hudson's  river  thereby  shall  be 
added  out  of  Connecticut  bounds  unto  the  line  afore- 


miles  distant  from  it ;  the  addition  to  be  made  the 
whole  length  of  the  said  parallel  line,  and  in  such 
breadth  as  will  make  up  quantity  for  quantity,  what 
shall  be  diminished  as  aforesaid." 

The  assembly  in  the  session  of  May,  1684,  ap- 
proved of  this  agreement,  and  appointed  Major  Na- 
than Gould,  Mr.  Jehu  Burr,  and  Mr.  Jonathan 
Selleck,  to  lay  out  the  lines  according  to  the  stipu- 
lation ;  and  they  accordingly  were  run,  and  on  the 
24th  of  February,  1685,  were  ratified  by  Governor 
Dungan  and  Governor  Treat. 

Great  complaints  had  been  made  in  England 
against  the  colonies  for  harbouring  pirates;  and 
that  no  laws  had  been  made  against  them ;  and  a 
letter  had  been  written  to  the  governor  and  com- 
pany, by  Lyonel  Jenkins,  Esq.,  complaining  of  this 
neglect,  and  demanding,  in  the  king's  name,  that  a 
law  should  forthwith  be  made  against  piracy.  A 
special  assembly  was  consequently  called  on  the  5th 
of  July,  and  a  law  enacted  against  it,  and  a  copy  of 
it  forwarded  immediately  to  his  majesty's  secretary 
of  state. 

At  the  election  1685,  Giles  Hamlin  was  chosen 
into  the  magistracy,  in  the  place  ot  Mr.  Topping, 
who  seems  to  have  died  about  this  time. 

The  legislature  at  this  session  addressed  a  letter 
of  condolence  to  his  majesty  King  James  II.  on 
account  of  the  death  of  his  brother  King  Charles  II., 
and  congratulating  him  on  his  peaceful  accession  to 
the  throne  of  his  ancestors.  They  presented  him 
with  the  strongest  assurances  of  their  loyalty  and 
attachment  to  his  royal  person  and  government; 
and  at  the  same  time,  sensible  of  their  danger  under 
a  prince  of  his  character,  they  most  humbly  be- 
sought him  to  continue  to  them  their  civil  and  reli- 
gious privileges,  and  that  he  would  preserve  to  them 
the  peaceable  enjoyment  of  their  property. 

Upon  the  petition  of  a  number  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Farmiugton,  presented  to  the  assembly  in  1673, 
a  committee  was  appointed  to  view  Mattatock,  and 
report  to  the  assembly,  whether  a  plantation  might 
not  be  made  in  that  tract ;  and  in  May  1674,  the 
committee  reported  that  it  was  a  place  sufficient  to 
accommodate  30  families.  Upon  this  report,  a  com- 
mittee was  appointed  to  settle  a  plantation  there ; 
and  the  settlement  commenced.  The  number  of 
shares  was  about  28  ;  and  on  May  13th,  1686,  they 
appear  to  have  been  vested  with  town  privileges,  by 
the  name  of  Waterbury. 

The  despotic  conduct  of  Charles  II.,  in  his  latter 
years,  and  of  James,  at  the  commencement  of  his 
reign,  are  well  known.  The  latter  particularly,  as 
we  have  already  seen,  extended  his  tyranny  to  the 
colonies  ;  and  in  July  1685,  a  quo  warranto  was 
issued  against  the  governor  and  company  of  Connec- 
ticut, requii'ing  their  appearance  before  him,  within 
eight  days  of  St.  Martin's,  to  show  by  what  warrant 
they  exercised  certain  powers  and  privileges. 

The  governor  having  received  intelligence  of  the 
measures  adopted  against  the  colony  on  the  6th  of 
July,  1686,  called  a  special  assembly,  to  consult 
what  might  be  done  for  the  preservation  of  the  just 
rights  of  the  colony;  and  the  assembly,  after  most 
serious  deliberation,  addressed  a  letter  in  the  most 
suppliant  terms  to  his  majesty,  beseeching  him  to 
pardon  their  faults  in  government,  and  continue 
them  a  distinct  colony,  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  their 
civil  and  religious  privileges ;  they  especially  be- 
sought him  to  recall  the  writ  of  quo  warranto,  whicjr 
they  heard  had  been  issued  against  them,  though  i 
had  not  yet  arrived  :  they  pleaded  the  charter  wiuti 


mentioned,  parallel  to  Hudson's  river,  and  twenty  i  they  received  of  his  royal  brother,  and  his  commeiv 


730 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


dation  of  them,  for  their  loyalty,  in  his  gracious 
letters,  and  his  assurances  of  the  continuance  of 
their  civil  and  religious  rights  ;  and  they  made  the 
strongest  professions  of  loyalty,  and  of  their  con- 
stant supplications  to  the  Supreme  Ruler,  that  he 
would  save  and  bless  his  majesty. 

On  the  21st  of  July,  1686,  two  writs  of  quo  war- 
ranto,  brought  over  by  Edward  Randolph,  that  in- 
defatigable enemy  of  the  colonies,  were  delivered 
to  Governor  Treat.  The  time  of  appearance  before 
his  majesty  was  passed  before  the  writs  arrived. 

Upon  the  reception  of  the  writs,  and  a  letter  from 
Richard  Normansel,  one  of  the  sheriffs  of  London, 
the  governor  immediately  convoked  another  special 
assembly,  which  met  on  the  28th  of  July  ;  and  the 
assembly  appointed  Mr.  Whiting  to  be  their  agent, 
to  present  their  petition  to  the  king.  He  was  in- 
structed to  represent  the  time  of  the  colony's  re- 
ceiving the  quo  warrantos,  and  of  the  impossibility 
of  its  making  its  appearance  at  the  time  appointed  : 
and  also  the  great  injury  which  the  colonists  would 
sustain,  by  the  suspending  their  charter  rights ; 
and  especially  by  a  division  of  the  colony.  If  Con- 
necticut could  not  be  continued  a  distinct  govern- 
ment, he  was  instructed  to  supplicate  his  majesty  to 
continue  to  them  the  enjoyment  of  their  property, 
their  houses  and  lands,  and  especially  their  religious 
privileges. 

On  the  28th  of  December,  another  writ  of  quo 
warranto  was  served  on  the  governor  and  company, 
bearing  date  October  23d,  requiring  their  appear- 
ance before  his  majesty  "  within  eight  days  of  the 
purification  of  the  Virgin."  Though  the  writs  gave 
no  proper  time  for  the  appearance  of  the  colony, 
and  consequently  no  time  at  all  ;  yet  they  declared 
all  its  chartered  rights  vacated,  upon  its  not  appear- 
ing at  the  time  and  place  ;  and  the  design  was  to 
re-unite  all  the  colonies  to  the  crown.  That.  James 
II.  was  an  obstinate  and  bigoted  tyrant,  few  at  the 
present  day  dispute.  Nearly  50  corporations  in 
England,  and  the  corporation  of  the  Bermudas  had 
had  their  charters  taken  from  them.  The  charter  of 
Massachusetts  had  been  vacated,  and  Rhode  Island 
had  submitted  to  the  king.  A  general  government 
had  been  appointed  over  all  New  England,  except 
Connecticut.  By  the  commission,  instituting  this 
general  government,  Connecticut  was  totally  ex- 
cluded from  all  jurisdiction  in  the  Narraganset 
country,  or  king's  province. 

The  governor  and  company  of  Connecticut,  how- 
ever, in  these  discouraging  circumstances,  spared  no 
pains,  nor  omitted  any  means  for  the  preservation  of 
their  chartered  rights.  A  special  assembly  was 
called  on  the  26th  of  January,  1687,  after  the  re- 
ception of  the  third  writ  of  quo  warranto,  to  delibe- 
rate on  the  measures  to  be  adopted  in  the  then  pre- 
sent circumstances  of  the  colony ;  but  little  more, 
however,  was  done,  than  to  desire  the  governor  and 
council  to  transact  all  business,  which  they  should 
judge  necessary  and  expedient,  further  to  be  done 
for  the  preservation  of  their  privileges. 

The  election  in  May  proceeded  regularly,  but  the 
assembly  did  nothing  important.  Fear  and  hesita- 
tion appear  to  have  attended  the  legislature  ;  and 
they  knew  not  what  course  to  steer,  with  safety, 
either  to  themselves  or  their  constituents.  They, 
with  the  colony  in  general,  were  in  great  apprehen- 
sion, lest,  after  all  their  expense  and  dangers  in 
settling  and  defending  the  country,  and  all  their 
self-denial  and  sufferings  for  the  sake  of  enjoying 
the  worship  and  ordinances  of  Christ,  according  to 
the  Gospel,  they  should  not  only  be  deprived  of  all 


their  civil  and  religious  liberties,  but  even  of  their 
houses  and  lands;  as  they  felt  that  there  was  no 
security  for  any  thing  under  a  prince  like  James 
II. ;  ho  had  indeed  in  his  letters  promised  them  the 
preservation  of  all  their  liberties  ;  yet  without  any 
fault  on  their  part,  he  was  arbitrarily  wresting  them 
from  their  hands.  It  is  difficult  to  conceive,  and 
much  more  to  express,  the  anxiety  experienced  in 
this  terrible  crisis. 

Mr.  Whiting  exerted  himself  in  England  to  pro- 
cure all  the  influence,  and  make  all  the  opposition  he 
possibly  could,  against  a  general  governor  of  the 
colonies,  and  especially  to  prevent  the  suspension 
of  the  government  of  Connecticut,  according  to  char- 
ter; but  he  found  his  utmost  exertions  to  be  in 
vain  ;  and  he  wrote  to  the  governor,  January  15th, 
1687,  that  if  the  governor  and  council  would  defend 
their  charter  at  law,  they  must  send  over  one  or 
more  from  among  themselves.  A  special  assembly 
was  called  upon  the  reception  of  the  agent's  letter, 
which  convened  on  the  15th  of  June,  to  deliberate 
on  the  expediency  of  sending  another  agent ;  but 
matters  appeared  so  unfavourable,  that  it  was  deter- 
mined not  to  send  another  ;  and  Mr.  Whiting  was 
thanked  for  his  services  in  favour  of  the  colony,  and 
desired  to  continue  them. 

Mr.  Dudley,  while  president  of  the  commissioners, 
had  written  to  the  governor  and  company,  advising 
them  to  resign  the  charter  into  the  hands  of  his  ma- 
jesty, and  promising  to  use  his  influence  in  favour 
of  the  colony.  His  commission  was  superseded  by 
a  commission  to  Sir  Edmund  Andross  to  be  gover- 
nor of  New  England ;  who  arrived  at  Boston  on 
the  19th  of  December,  1686.  The  next  day  his 
commission  was  published,  and  he  took  on  him  the 
administration  of  government ;  and  soon  after  his 
arrival  he  wrote  to  the  governor  and  company,  that 
he  had  a  commission  from  his  majesty,  to  receive 
their  charter,  if  they  would  resign  it ;  and  he  pressed 
them,  in  obedience  to  the  king,  and  as  they  would 
give  him  an  opportunity  to  serve  them,  to  resign  it 
to  his  pleasure.  At  this  session  of  the  assembly,  the 
governor  received  another  letter  from  him,  acquaint- 
ing him  that  he  was  assured  by  the  advice  which  he 
had  received  from  England,  that  judgment  was  by 
that  time  entered  upon  the  quo  warranto  against 
their  charter,  and  that  he  soon  expected  to  receive 
his  majesty's  commands  respecting  them.  He  urged 
them,  as  he  represented  it,  that  he  might  not  be 
wanting  in  serving  their  welfare,  to  accept  his  majes- 
ty's favour,  so  graciously  offered  them,  in  a  present 
compliance  and  surrender.  Colonel  Dungan  also 
used  his  influence  to  persuade  them  to  resign,  and 
put  themselves  under  his  government ;  but  the  co- 
lony insisted  on  their  charter  rights,  and  on  the  pro- 
mise of  King  James,  as  well  as  of  his  brother,  to 
defend  and  secure  them  in  the  enjoyment  of  their 
privileges  and  estates;  and  would  not  surrender 
their  charter  to  either.  However,  in  their  petition 
to  the  king,  in  which  they  prayed  for  the  continu- 
ance of  their  chartered  rights,  they  desired,  if  this 
could  not  be  obtained,  and  it  should  be  resolved  to 
pu  them  under  another  government,  that  it  might 
be  under  Sir  Edmund's,  as  the  Massachusetts  had 
been  their  former  correspondents  and  confederates, 
and  as  they  were  acquainted  with  their  principles 
and  manners ;  and  this  was  construed  into  a  resig- 
nation, though  nothing  could  be  further  from  the 
design  of  the  colony. 

The  assembly  met  as  usual  in  October,  and  the 
government  continued  according  to  charter,  until 
the  last  of  the  month.  About  this  time  Sir  Edmund, 


UNITED  STATES. 


737 


with  his  suit,  and  more  than  60  regular  "troops 
came  to  Hartford,  when  the  assembly  were  sitting, 
demanded  the  charter,  and  declared  the  govern- 
ment under  it  to  be  dissolved.  The  assembly  were 
extremely  reluctant  and  slow  with  respect  to  any 
motion  to  bring  it  forth ;  and  the  tradition  is,  that 
Governor  Treat  strongly  represented  the  great  ex- 
pense and  hardships  of  the  colonists  in  planting  the 
country  ;  the  blood  and  treasure  which  they  had 
expended  in  defending  it,  both  against  the  savages 
and  foreigners ;  to  what  hardships  and  dangers  he 
himself  had  been  exposed  for  that  purpose  ;  and 
that  it  was  like  giving  up  his  life,  now  to  surrender 
the  patent  and  privileges  so  dearly  bought,  and  so 
long  enjoyed.  The  important  affair  was  debated  and 
kept  in  suspense  until  the  evening,  when  the  char- 
ter was  brought  and  laid  upon  the  table,  where  the 
assembly  were  sitting ;  but  by  this  time  great 
numbers  of  people  were  assembled,  and  men  suffici- 
ently bold  to  undertake  whatever  might  be  neces- 
sary. The  lights  were  instantly  extinguished,  and 
one  Captain  Wadsforth,  of  Hartford,  in  the  most 
silent  and  secret  manner,  carried  off  the  charter, 
and  secreted  it  in  a  large  hollow  tree,  fronting  the 
house  of  the  Hon.  Samuel  Wyllys,  then  one  of  the 
magistrates  of  the  colony.  All  remained  peaceable 
and  orderly;  and  the  candles  were  officiously  re- 
lighted ;  but  the  patent  was  gone,  and  no  discovery 
could  be  made  of  it,  or  of  the  person  who  had  con- 
veyed it  away.  Sir  Edmund  from  henceforth  as- 
sumed the  government,  and  the  records  of  the  co- 
lony were  closed  in  the  following  words. 
.  "  At  a  general  court  at  Hartford,  October  31st, 
1G87,  his  excellency,  Sir  Edmund  Andross,  knight, 
and  captain-general  and  governor  of  his  majesty's 
territories  and  dominions  in  New  England,  by  order 
from  his  majesty,  James  II.,  king  of  England, 
Scotland,  France,  and  Ireland,  the  31st  of  October, 
1687,  took  into  his  hands  the  government  of  the 
colony  of  Connecticut,  it  being,  by  his  majesty, 
annexed  to  Massachusetts,  and  other  colonies  under 
his  excellency's  government.  Fixis.'1 

Sir  Edmund  appointed  officers,  civil  and  military, 
through  the  colony,  according  to  his  pleasure.  He 
had  a  council,  at  first,  consisting  of  about  40  per- 
sons, and  afterwards,  of  nearly  50;  and  four  of 
this  number,  Governor  Treat,  John  Fitz  Winthrop, 
Wait  Winthrop,  and  Joha  Allen,  Esquires,  were  of 
Connecticut. 

Sir  Edmund  began  his  government  with  the  most 
flattering  professions  of  his  regard  to  the  public 
safety  and  happiness.  He  instructed  the  judges  to 
administer  justice,  as  far  as  might  be  consistent 
with  the  new  regulations,  according  to  the  former 
laws  and  customs  ;  but  he  soon  laid  a  restraint  upon 
the  liberty  of  the  press ;  and  then,  one  far  more 
grievous  upon  marriage;  which  was  prohibited, 
unless  bonds  were  previously  given,  with  sureties, 
to  the  governor;  that  were  to  be  forfeited,  in  case 
it  should  afterwards  appear  that  there  was  any  law- 
ful impediment  to  the  marriage.  Magistrates  only 
were  allowed  to  join  people  in  wedlock ;  and  the 
governor  not  only  deprived  the  clergy  of  the  perqui- 
site from  marriages,  but  soon  suspended  the  laws  for 
their  support,  and  would  not  suffer  any  person  to  be 
obliged  to  pay  any  thing  to  his  minister;  and  also 
menaced  the  people,  that  if  they  resisted  his  will, 
their  meeting-houses  should  be  taken  from  them, 
and  that  any  person  who  should  give  two  pence  to  a 
non-conformist  minister,  should  be  punished. 

The  fees  of  all  officers,  under  this  new  administra- 
tion, were  exorbitant.  The  common  fee  for  the 

HIST,  OF  AMER. — Nos.  93  &  94. 


probate  of  a  will  was  50s.;  the  administrators, 
how  distant  soever,  were  obliged  to  appear  at  Bos- 
ton, to  transact  all  business  relative  to  the  set- 
tlement of  estates;  a  grievous  oppression  of  the  poor 
people. 

We  have  already  enlarged  upon  Andross's  arbi- 
trary proceedings,  in  the  hi-story  of  Massachusetts; 
upon  which  colony  it  appears  he  most  fully  vented 
his  despotism.  Connecticut  had  been  less  obnox- 
ious to  government;  and  as  it  was  further  re- 
moved from  the  seat  of  government,  was  less 
under  the  notice  and  influence  of  this  arbitrary 
governor. 

,*..  Governor  Treat  was  a  father  to  the  people,  and 
felt  for  them  in  their  distressed  circumstances ;  and 
the  other  gentlemen,  who  were  of  the  council,  and 
had  the  principal  management  of  affairs  in  Connec- 
ticut, were  men  of  principle  and  patriotism.  They 
took  advantage  of  Sir  Edmund's  first  instructions, 
and  as  far  as  they  possibly  could,  consistently  with 
the  new  regulations,  governed  the  colony  according 
to  the  former  laws  and  customs.  The  people  were 
patient  and  peaceable ;  but  they  were  no  strangers 
to  what  was  transacted  in  the  neighbouring  colonies, 
and  expected  soon  fully  to  share  with  them,  in  all 
their  miseries.  It  was  generally  believed,  that  An- 
dross was  a  papist;  that  he  had  employed  the  Indi- 
ans to  ravage  the  frontiers,  and  supplied  them  with 
ammunition ;  and  that  he  was  making  prepara- 
tions to  deliver  the  country  into  the  hands  of  the 
French. 

All  the  motives  to  great  actions,  to  industry,  eco- 
nomy, enterprise,  wealth,  and  population,  were  in  a 
manner  annihilated;  and  a  general  inactivity  per- 
vaded the  whole  public  body.  Liberty,  property, 
and  every  thing  which  ought  to  be  dear  to  men, 
every  day,  grew  more  and  more  insecure ;  and  all 
the  colonies  were  in  a  state  of  general  despondency, 
with  respect  to  the  restoration  of  their  privileges, 
and  the  truth  of  the  maxim,  "  when  the  wifrked 
beareth  rule  the  people  mourn,"  was  every  where 
exemplified  in  a  striking  manner. 

Revolution  in  New  England — Connecticut  resume  their 
government — Address  to  King  William —  Troops 
raised  for  the  defence  of  the  eastern  settlements  in 
New  Hampshire  and  the  province  of  Maine — French 
and  Indian  war — Schenectady  destroyed — Connec- 
ticut dispatch  a  reinforcement  to  Albany — Expedi- 
tion against  Camda — The  land  army  retreats,  and 
the  enterprise  proves  unsuccessful — Leisler's  abuse 
of  Major  General  Winthrop — The  assembly  of  Con- 
necticut approve  the  general's  conduct— Thanks  are 
returned  to  Mr.  Mather,  Agent  Whiting,  and  Mr. 
Porter — Opinions  respecting  the  charter,  and  the 
legality  of  Connecticut's  assuming  their  government — 
Windham settled — The  Mohawk  castles  are  surprised, 
and  the  country  alarmed — Connecticut  send  troops 
to  Albany — Colonel  Fletcher,  governor  of  New  York, 
demands  the  command  of  the  militia  of  Connecti- 
cut—  The  colony  petition  King  William  on  the  sub- 
ject— -Colonel  Fletcher  comes  to  Hartford,  and,  in 
person,  demands  that  the  legislature  submit  the  mi- 
litia to  his  command;  but  they  refuse — Captain 
Wadsit'orth  prevents  the  reading  of  hit  commission, 
and  the  colonel  judges  it  expedient  to  leave  the  co- 
lony—  The  case  of  Connecticut  relative  to  the  militia 
stated — His  majesty  determines  in  favour  of  the 
colony — Committees  are  appointed  to  settle  the  boun- 
dary line  between  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts — 
General  Winthrop  returns,  and  receives  public 
thanks — Congratulation  of  the  earl  of  Bellamonl, 

3  U 


738 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


appointed  governor  of  New  York  and  Massachu- 
setts— Dispute  with  Rhode  Island  continues— Com- 
mittee to  settle  the  boundaries — Expenses  of  the 
war — Peace. 

Scarcely  any  thing  could  be  more  gloomy  and 
distressful  than  the  state  of  public  affairs  in  New 
England  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  1689.  But 
on  the  5th  of  November,  1688,  the  prince  of  Orange 
Lad  landed  at  Torbay,  in  England ;  and  immediately 
published  a  declaration  of  his  design,  in  visiting  the 
kingdom.  A  copy  of  this  was  received  at  Boston, 
by  one  Mr.  Winslow,  a  gentleman  from  Virginia, 
in  April  1689;  and  Governor  Andross  and  his 
council  were  so  alarmed  with  the  news,  that  they 
ordered  Mr.  Winslow  to  be  arrested,  and  committed 
to  gaol,  for  bringing  a  false  and  traitorous  libel  into 
the  country.  They  also  issued  a  proclamation,  com- 
manding all  the  officers  and  people  to  be  in  readi- 
ness to  prevent  the  landing  of  any  forces,  which 
the  prince  of  Orange  might  send  into  that  part  of 
America;  but  the  people,  who  groaned  under  their 
burthens,  secretly  wished  and  prayed  for  success  to 
his  glorious  undertaking.  The  leaders  in  the  coun- 
try determined  quietly  to  wait  the  event;  but  the 
great  body  of  the  inhabitants  had  less  patience; 
tjnd  stung  with  past  injuries,  and  encouraged  at  the 
first  intimations  of  relief,  the  fire  of  liberty  re-kin- 
dled, and  the  flame,  which  for  a  long  time  had  been 
smothered  in  their  bosoms,  burst  forth  with  irresis- 
tible violence. 

On  the  18th  of  April  the  inhabitants  of  Boston 
and  the  adjacent  towns  rose  in  arms,  made  them- 
selves masters  of  the  castle,  seized  Sir  Edmund  An 
dross  and  his  council,  and  persuaded  the  old  governor 
and  council,  at  Boston,  to  resume  the  government. 

On  the  9th  of  May,  1689,  Governor  Robert  Treat 
Deputy-governor  James  Bishop,  and  the  former  ma 
gistrates,  at  the  desire  of  the  freemen,  resumed  the 
government  of  Connecticut;  and  Major-genera" 
John  Winthrop  was,  at  the  same  time,  chosen  int< 
the  magistracy,  to  complete  the  number  appointee 
by  charter.  The  freemen  voted,  that,  for  the  pre 
sent  safety  of  that  part  of  New  England  called  Con 
necticut,  the  necessity  of  its  circumstances  so  requi 
ring,  "  they  would  re-establish  government,  as  i 
was  before,  and  at  the  time  when  Sir  Edmund  An 
dross  took  it,  and  so  have  it  proceed,  as  it  did  be 
fore  that  time,  according  to  charter;  engaging  them 
selves  to  submit  to  it  accordingly,  until  there  shoul 
be  a  legal  establishment  among  them." 

The  assembly  having  met,  came  to  the  followin^ 
resolution  :  "  That  whereas  this  court  hath  been  in 
terrupted  in  the  management  of  the  government  i 
this  colony  of  Connecticut,  for  nineteen  month 
past,  it  is  now  enacted,  ordered,  and  declared,  tha 
all  the  laws  of  this  colony,  made  according  to  char 
ter,  and  courts  constituted  for  the  administration  o 
government,  as  they  were  before  the  late  interrup 
tion,  shall  be  of  full  force  and  virtue  for  the  future 
and  until  this  court  shall  see  cause  to  make  furthe 
and  other  alterations,  according  to  charter."  The 
then  confirmed  all  military  officers  in  their  respec 
ive  posts,  and  proceeded  to  appoint  their  civil  ofh 
cers,  as  had  been  customary  at  the  May  session. 

It  was  expected  that  it  might  soon  be  necessar 
to  transact  matters  of  the  highest  importance,  r 
specting  the  most  essential  rights  of  the  colony 
and  the  deputies  therefore  resolved,  that  if  occasio 
should  require  any  thing  to  be  acted  respecting  the 
charter,  the  governor  should  call  the  assembly,  and 
not  leave  the  affair  with  the  council. 


Upon  the  26th  of  May  a  ship  arrived  at  Boston, 
ith  advice  that  William  and  Mary  were  proclaimed 
ng  and  queen  of  England.  The  joyful  news  soon 
cached  Connecticut ;  and  a  special  assembly  wa« 
ailed,  which  convened  on  the  13th  of  June.  On 
le  same  day,  William  and  Mary  were  proclaimed 
ith  great  ceremony  and  joy  ;  and  never  was  there 
reater  or  more  general  joy  in  New  England, 
ban  upon  their  accession  to  the  throne  of  Great 
Jritain. 

The  legislature  addressed  his  majesty  in  the  most 
yal  manner;  and  presented  their  grateful  acknow- 
edgments  to  him,  for  his  zeal  for  the  welfare  of  the 
ation,  and  for  the  protestant  interest.     At  the  same 
ime,  they  stated   their  charter  privileges,  and  the 
manner  in  which   Sir  Edmund  Andross  had  sup- 
ressed  their  government ;  and  they  prayed  for  his 
majesty's  directions,  and  his  gracious  confirmation 
f  their  charter  rights.     It  was  ordered,  that  Mr. 
Whiting  should  present  their  address. 

Meanwhile  a  revolution  had  been  made  at  New 
fork;  where  one  Captain   Jacob  Leisler  had  as- 
umed  the  government  of  that  province,  and  kept 
he  fort  and  city  in  behalf  of  King  William.     He 
ad  written  to  Connecticut,  and  solicited  assistance 
n  ^defending  the  province ;  and  the  assembly  ap- 
>ointed  Major  Gould,  and  Captain  James  Fitch,  to 
roceed  to  New  York,  and  confer  with  Leisler  and 
lis  council  relative  to  the  defence  of  the  frontiers. 
The  committee,  with  Captain  Leisler,  were  autho- 
rized to  determine  the  number  of  men  to  be  employed, 
.nd  the  measures  to  be  adopted  for  that  purpose; 
and  in  consequence  of  their  determination,  the  go- 
ernor  and  council  dispatched  Captain  Bull,  with  a 
company,  to  Albany,  for  the  defence  of  that  part  of 
he  country,  and  to  assist  in  a  treaty  with  the  five 
nations,  with  a  view  to  secure  their  friendship  and 
attachment,  as  far  as  possible,  to  the  English  colo- 
nies ;  a  detachment  of  men  was  also  sent  for  the 
defence  of  the  fort  and  city  of  New  York. 

While  the  French  and  Indians  were  threatening 
he  northern  frontiers,  the  eastern  Indians  were 
:arrying  on  their  depredations  in  the  eastern  parts 
of  New  England ;  and  in  September  a  special  as- 
sembly was  called  on  that  account.  Commissioners 
were  appointed  to  consult  with  the  commissioners  of 
the  other  colonies,  relative  to  the  war  in  those  parts ; 
and  as  it  was  imagined  the  Indians  there  had  been 
injured  by  Governor  Andross  and  his  officers,  the 
commissioners  were  instructed  to  inquire  into  the 
grounds  of  the  war  with  them ;  and  if  it  should  ap- 
pear that  they  had  been  injured,  to  use  their  utmost 
influence,  that  justice  might  be  done  them,  and  the 
country  quieted  in  that  way.  But  if  they  found  the 
war  to  be  just  and  necessary,  they  were  authorized 
to  engage  the  colony's  full  proportion  of  men,  un- 
less it  should  amount  to  more  than  200.  Two  com- 
panies were  afterwards  appointed  to  that  service, 
under  the  command  of  Captains  George  Denison 
and  Ebenezer  Johnson. 

At  the  session  in  October  it  was  resolved,  that  in 
consequence  of  the  great  expense  of  the  colony,  in 
defending  his  majesty's  subjects  in  other  parts,  it 
was  necessary  to  withdraw  the  aid  which  they  had 
sent  to  New  York. 

At  this  general  court,  the  law  respecting  the 
choice  of  the  governors  and  magistrates  was  enacted 
nearly  in  the  words  in  which  it  now  stands;  but  it 
instituted  a  mode  of  nomination  different  from  the 
present ;  which  was  to  be  made  on  the  third  Tues- 
day in  March  annually,  and  the  votes  were  to  be 
carried  to  Hartford  by  the  constables  of  the  county 


UNITED  STATES. 


739 


towns,  and  on  the  last  Tuesday  in  the  month  were, 
by  them,  to  be  sorted  and  counted  ia  the  council- 
chamber. 

While  the  revolution  delivered  the  nation  from 
vassalage  and  popery,  it  involved  it  in  an  immediate 
war  with.  France,  and  the  colonies  in  a  French  and 
Indian  war ;  and  a  large  number  of  troops,  and  a 
considerable  fleet,  were  sent  from  France,  in  1689, 
with  a  special  view  to  the  reduction  of  New  York. 
But  as  we  have  already  given  an  account  of  this 
war  in  the  previous  histories,  we  shall  not  enlarge 
on  it  here. 

A  special  assembly  was  held  on  the  llth  of  April, 
1690,  when  letters  were  laid  before  the  assembly 
from  Massachusetts,  soliciting  that  soldiers  might  be 
sent  from  Connecticut,  to  guard  the  upper  towns 
upon  Connecticut  river;  and  that  there  might  be  a 
general  meeting  of  commissioners  from  the  several 
colonies  at  Rhode  Island,  to  consult  the  common 
defence.  There  were  also  letters  from  Captain 
Leisler,  at  New  York,  and  from  Colonel  Schuyler, 
and  other  principal  gentlemen  at  Albany,  urging, 
that  Captain  Bull  and  the  soldiers  there  might  be 
continued,  and  that  reinforcements  might  be  for- 
warded for  the  defence  of  that  place  and  the  adja- 
cent country ;  and  it  was  also  urged,  that  Connec- 
ticut would  unite  with  the  other  colonies,  in  raising 
an  army  for  the  reduction  of  Canada. 

The  assembly  determined,  that  there  was  a  ne- 
cessity for  their  utmost  exertions  to  prevent  the  set- 
tlement of  the  French,  at  Albany ;  and  it  was  re- 
solved, that  two  companies,  of  100  inen  each,  should 
be  raised  and  sent  forward  for  that  purpose.  The 
colony  also  gave  assistance  to  the  frontier  towns  of 
Massachusetts  upon  the  river. 

For  the  defence  of  Connecticut,  it  was  ordered 
that  a  constant  watch  should  be  kept  in  the  several 
towns,  and  that  all  the  males  in  the  colony,  except 
the  aged  and  infirm,  should  keep  guard  in  their 
turns ;  and  if  the  aged  and  infirm  were  registered  at 
more  than  501.  in  the  list,  they  were  obliged  to  pro- 
cure a  man,  in  their  turns,  to  watch  and  guard  in 
their  stead. 

Though  the  colony  had  received  no  instructions 
from  King  William,  confirming  their  charter,  or 
directing  the  mode  of  government,  yet  at  the  gene- 
ral election,  the  freemen  proceeded,  as  had  been 
usual,  to  the  choice  of  their  officers ;  and  Robert 
Treat,  Esq.  was  re-chosen  governor,  and  James 
Bishop,  Esq.  deputy-governor.  Samuel  Wyllys, 
Nathan  Gould,  William  Jones,  John  Allen,  Andrew 
Leet,  James  Fitch,  Samuel  Mason,  Samuel  Talcott, 
John  Burr,  William  Pitkin,  Nathaniel  Stanley, 
and  Daniel  Witherell,  Esquires,  were  chosen  ma- 
gistrates. 

At  this  session  of  the  assembly,  that  part  of  Wea- 
thersfield  which  lay  on  the  east  side  of  Connecticut 
river,  was  made  a  distinct  town,  by  the  name  of 
Glastenbury. 

The  proposed  meeting  of  commissioners  was  holden 
at  New  York,  instead  of  Rhode  Island,  ou  the  1st 
of  May,  1690.  The  commissioners  from  Connecti- 
cut, were  Nathan  Gould,  and  William  Pitkin,  Es- 
quires. 

Though  General  Winthrop,  who  had  been  ap- 
pointed commander-in-chief,  had  acted  in  perfect 
conformity  to  the  agreement  of  the  commissioners, 
at  New  York,  and  to  the  instructions  which  had 
been  given  him,  and  though  he. had  taken  all  his 
measures  by  the  advice  of  his  officers,  in  repeated 
councils  of  war,  yet  Leisler,  Milborn,  and  their 
party,  were  filled  with  the  utmost  rage  and  madness 


at  a  retreat  he  thought  necessary.  Leisler,  how- 
ever, took  advantage  of  the  general,  after  the  army 
had  crossed  Hudson's  river,  and  lay  encamped  on  the 
west  side  of  it,  and  arrested  and  confined  him,  that  he 
might  try  him  by  a  court-martial  of  his  own  ap- 
pointment He  was  some  days  under  the  arrest; 
but  when  he  was  brought  to  trial,  the  Mohawks, 
who  were  in  the  camp,  crossed  the  river  and  brought 
him  off,  with  great  triumph,  and  to  the  universal 
joy  of  the  army.  Leisler,  Milborn,  and  their  party, 
were  so  enraged  with  some  of  the  principal  gentle- 
men in  Albany,  who  were  of  the  general's  council, 
that  they  were  obliged  to  flee  to  Connecticut  for 
safety ;  and  Livingston  and  others  resided  some 
time  at  Hartford.  Leisler  also  confined  the  com- 
missary of  the  Connecticut  troops,  so  that  the  army 
suffered  for  want  of  his  assistance. 

This  was  viewed  by  Connecticut  as  a  most  illegal 
proceeding;  not  only  highly  injurious  to  General 
Winthrop  and  the  colony,  but  to  all  New  England. 
The  governor  and  council  remonstrated  against  his 
conduct,  and  demanded  the  release  of  General 
Wiuthrop  and  their  commissary;  and  declared, 
that  it  belonged  not  to  him  to  judge  of  the  general's 
conduct,  but  to  the  colonies  in  general;  that  it  was 
inconsistent  with  the  very  instructions  which  he 
had  subscribed  with  his  own  hand ;  and  that,  if  he 
proceeded  in  his  unprecedented  and  violent  mea- 
sures, they  would  leave  him  and  New  York  to  them- 
selves,  without  any  further  aid  from  Connecticut, 
let  the  consequences  be  what  they  might. 

At  the  general  court,  in  October,  a  narrative  of 
the  conduct  of  the  general  was  exhibited,  attested 
by  the  officers  of  the  army,  and  by  numbers  of  the 
principal  gentlemen  of  Albany ;  and  attested  answers 
of  the  Indians  to  the  several  councils  of  war,  with 
such  other  evidence  as  the  assembly  judged  proper 
to  examine,  were  heard.  Upon  a  full  examination 
of  the  affair,  the  assembly  resolved  :  "  That  the  ge- 
neral's conduct  in  the  expedition  had  been  with 
good  fidelity  to  his  majesty's  interest,  and  that  his 
confinement  at  Albany,  on  the  account  thereof,  de- 
served a  timely  vindication,  as  being  very  injurious 
and  dishonourable  to  himself,  and  the  colonies  of 
New  England,  at  whose  instance  he  undertook  that 
difficult  service ;"  and  the  court  appointed  two  of  the 
magistrates,  in  their  name,  "  To  thank  the  general 
for  his  good  service  to  their  majesties,  and  to  this 
colony,  and  assure  him,  that,  on  all  seasonable  oc- 
casions, they  would  be  ready  to  manifest  their  good 
sentiments  of  his  fidelity,  valour,  and  prudence." 
The  assembly  made  him  a  grant  of  40J.  as  a  pre- 
sent, which  they  desired  him  to  accept,  as  a  further 
testimonial  of  their  entire  approbation  of  his  services. 

Besides  the  troops  employed  in  the  expedition 
against  Canada,  Connecticut  maintained  a  company 
upon  the  river,  for  the  defence  of  the  towns  in 
Hampshire;  and  upon  an  alarm  ia  the  winter,  the 
governor  and  council  dispatched  a  company  to 
Deerfield,  for  the  protection  of  that  and  the  neigh- 
bouring towns. 

At  the  election  in  May  1691,  all  the  former  officers 
were  re-elected. 

On  the  account  of  the  death  of.  the  Deputy-gover- 
nor James  Bishop,  Esq.,  a  special  assembly  was 
convened,  on  the  9th  of  July,  1691  ;  when  William 
Jones,  Esquire,  was  chosen  deputy-governor,  and 
Captain  Caleb  Stanley,  magistrate. 

The  Rev.  Increase  Mather,  of  Boston,  was  a 
most  faithful  friend  to  the  liberties  of  his  country ; 
and  though  he  was  agent  for  the  Massachusetts,  yet 
he  was  indefatigable  in  his  labours,  and,  as  opportu- 

3U2 


7*40 


THE  HISTOR1  OF  AMERICA. 


nity  presented,  performed  essential  services  for  the 
other  colonies.  At  the  accession  of  William  and 
Mary  he  had  prevented  the  bill  for  establishing  the 
former  governors  of  New  England;  and  he  had  united 
all  his  influence  with  Mr.  Whiting  for  the  bene- 
fit of  Connecticut.  One  Mr.  James  Porter  had  also 
been  very  serviceable  to  the  colony ;  and  the  assem- 
bly, therefore,  ordered  that  a  letter  of  thanks  should 
be  addressed  to  both  those  gentlemen,  for  the  ser- 
vices which  they  had  rendered  the  colony.  They 
were  also  desired  to  use  their  influence  to  obtain 
from  his  majesty  a  letter,  approving  of  their  admi- 
nistration of  government,  according  to  charter,  as 
legal ;  and  expressing  his  determination  to  protect 
them  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  civil  and  religious 
privileges. 

The  violation  of  the  charters  in  England  had  been 
declared  illegal  and  arbitrary;  and  the  charter  of 
the  city  of  London,  and  those  of  other  corporations 
in  Great  Britain,  had  been  restored.  The  case  of 
Connecticut,  respecting  their  charter,  had  been 
stated,  and  the  opinions  of  gentlemen  of  the  law 
had  been  given  relative  to  the  legality  of  the  go- 
vernment assumed  by  the  colony,  as  follows : — 

"  Query,  Whether  the  charter  belonging  to  Con- 
necticut, "in  New  England,  is,  by  means  of  their 
involuntary  submission  to  Sir  Edmund  Andross's 
government,  void  in  law,  so  as  that  the  king  may 
send  a  governor  to  them,  contrary  to  their  charter 
privileges,  when  there  has  been  no  judgment  en- 
tered against  their  charter,  nor  any  surrender  there- 
of upon  record  ? 

"  I  am  of  opinion  that  such  submission,  as  is  put, 
in  this  case,  doth  not  invalidate  the  charter,  or  any 
of  the  powers  therein,  which  were  granted  under 
the  great  seal ;  and  that  the  charter  not  being  sur- 
rendered under  the  common  seal,  and  that  surren- 
der duly  enrolled  of  record,  nor  any  judgment  of 
record  entered  against  it,  the  same  remains  good 
and  valid  in  law;  and  the  said  corporation  may 
lawfully  execute  the  powers  and  privileges  thereby 
granted,  notwithstanding  such  submission,  and  ap- 
pointment of  a  governor  as  aforesaid, 

"  2d  August,  1690.  EDWARD  WARD. 

"  I  am  of  the  same  opinion,  J.  SOMEKS. 

"  I  am  of  the  same  opinion ;  and  as  this  matter 
is  stated  there  is  no  ground  of  doubt. 

"  GEO.  TREBY." 

The  people  at  the  eastward,  in  New  Hampshire 
and  the  province  of  Maine,  had  been  extremely  dis- 
tressed by  the  war,  and  a  very  great  proportion  of 
them  driven  from  their  settlements ;  and  it  had  also 
been  found  exceedingly  difficult  to  persnade  men  to 
keep  garrison  for  the  defence  of  that  part  of  the 
country.  The  general  court  of  Connecticut,  there- 
fore, appointed  a  contribution  through  the  colony 
for  the  encouragement  of  the  soldiers  who  should 
keep  garrison  there,  and  for  the  relief  of  poor  fami- 
lies, which  had  kept  their  stations,  or  been  driven 
from  them  by  the  ravages  of  the  enemy.  The  clergy 
were  directed  to  exhort  the  people  to  liberal  con- 
tributions for  these  charitable  purposes.  The  num- 
ber of  persons  this  year,  rateable  in  the  colony,  was 
3,109,  and  the  grand  list  183,159/. 

At  the  election,  May  1692,  William  Jones,  Esq. 
was  chosen  deputy-governor  by  the  freemen.  Mr. 
Caleb  Stanley  and  Mr.  Moses  Mansfield  were  chosen 
magistrates.  Governor  WTinthrop  and  the  other 
magistrates  were  the  same  they  had  been  the  year 
before. 

The  French,  the  last  year,  while  the  troops  were 
employed  in  the  expedition  against  Canada,  made 


a  descent  upon  Block  Island,  plundered  the  houses, 
and  captured  most  of  the  inhabitants.  This  greatly 
alarmed  the  people  of  New  London,  Stonington, 
and  Saybrook;  and  detachments  of  the  militia  were 
sent  to  the  sea-port  towns  for  their  defence.  The 
assembly,  therefore,  about  this  time  ordered  that 
New  London  should  be  fortified;  and  that  the  forti- 
fications at  Saybrook  should  be  repaired. 

In  February  1693,  dispatches  were  sent  to  Con- 
necticut, acquainting  Governor  Treat,  that  the 
French  had  invaded  his  majesty's  territories,  and 
taken  the  fortresses  of  his  allies  ;  and  a  demand  was 
made  of  200  men,  complete  in  their  arms,  to  march 
forthwith  to  Albany. 

A  special  assembly  was  called  on  the  21st  of  Fe- 
bruary, 1693,  and  it  was  ordered  that  150  men 
should  be  sent  immediately  to  Albany,  or  any  other 
place  which  the  governor  should  judge  to  be  most 
for  his  majesty's  interest.  Fifty  of  the  troops  marched 
for  Albany  the  next  day. 

Scarcely  had  the  assembly  dispersed,  before 
another  express  arrived,  from  Sir  William  Phipps, 
requiring  a  corps  of  100  English  men,  and  50  In- 
dians, to  assist  in  the  defence  of  the  eastern  settle- 
ments, in  the  province  of  Maine  and  Massachusetts ; 
and  on  the  6th  of  March  another  special  assembly 
was  convened,  and  the  legislature  granted  a  cap- 
tain's company  of  60  English  men,  and  about  40 
Indians,  under  the  command  of  Captain  William 
Whiting. 

Major-general  Fitz  John  Winthrop  was  chosen 
magistrate  at  the  election,  which  was  the  only  alter- 
ation made  among  the  magistrates  this  year. 

The  general  court  ordered  a  letter  to  be  addressed 
to  the  governor  of  Massachusetts,  once  more  desir- 
ing him  and  that  colony  amicably  to  join  with  Con- 
necticut in  running  the  partition  line  between  the 
two  colonies;  and  William  Pitkin,  Esq.,  Mr.  Samuel 
Chester,  and  Captain  William  Whiting,  were  ap- 
pointed a  committee  to  run  the  line.  They  had  in- 
structions to  begin,  according  to  the  express  words 
of  the  patent  of  Massachusetts,  three  miles  south  of 
every  part  of  Charles  river,  and  thence  to  run  to  the 
westernmost  bounds  of  Symsbury. 

Colonel  Benjamin  Fletcher,*  governor  of  New 
Yorkywho  had  arrived  at  the  seat  of  his  government, 
Augusv,  29th,  1692,  had  received  a  commission  en- 
tirely inconsistent  with  the  charter  rights  and  safety 
of  the  colonies  ;  being  vested  with  plenary  powers 
of  commanding  the  whole  militia  of  Connecticut  and 
the  neighbouring  provinces.  He  consequently  in- 
sisted on  the  command  of  the  militia  of  Connecticut ; 
but  as  this  was  expressly  given  to  the  colony  by 
charter,  the  legislature  would  not  submit  to  his  re- 
quisition. They,  however,  judged  it  expedient  to 
refer  it  to  the  freemen,  whether  they  would  address 
a  petition  to  his  majesty,  praying  for  the  continu- 
ance of  the  militia  in  the  power  of  the  colony,  ac- 
cording to  their  charter,  and  for  the  continuance 
and  preservation  of  all  their  chartered  rights  and 
privileges.  There  were  2,180  persons,  or  suffrages 
for  addressing  his  majesty,  and  the  freemen  de- 
clared, that  they  would  bear  their  proportionable 
charge  with  the  rest  of  the  colony,  in  prosecuting 
the  affair  to  a  final  issue. 

At  a  special  assembly,  September  1st,  1693,  the 
court  appointed  a  petition  to  be  drafted,  to  be  pre- 
sented to  his  majesty  King  William,  on  the  subject; 
and  Major-general  Fitz  John  Winthrop  was  ap- 
pointed agent  to  present  the  petition,  and  employ 
his  best  endeavours  for  the  confirmation  of  all  the 
chartered  privileges  of  the  colony.  He  was  desired, 


UNITED  STATES. 


741 


&s  soon  as  possible  to  take  his  passage  to  England,  I  terms  with  him  respecting  the  mililia,  until  his  ma- 
and  upon  his  arrival  there,  to  lay  the  business  as  I  jesty's  pleasure  should  be  further  known  ;  but  no 
expeditiously  as  might  be,  before  his  majesty,  and  I  terms  could  be  made  with  him  short  of  an  explicit 
prosecute  the  affair  to  an  issue,  with  all  convenient  I  submission  of  the  militia  to  his  command, 
dispatch.  On  the  26th  of  October,  he  came  to  Hartford, 

lie  was  instructed  to  make  a  full  representation  I  while  the  assembly  were  sitting,  and  in  his  majesty's 
of  the  great  hardships,  expense,  and  dangers  of  the  name,  demanded  their  submission  of  the  militia  to 
inhabitants,  in  planting  and  defending  the  colony;  his  command,  as  they  would  answer  it  to  his  ma- 
and  that  these  had  been  born  wholly  by  themselves,  I  jesty  ;  and  that  they  would  give  him  a  speedy  an- 
without  any  assistance  from  the  parent  country  :  1  swer  in  one  word,  Yes,  or  No.  He  subscribed'him- 
that  it  would  endanger  and  ruin  the  colony  if  the  I  self  his  majesty's  lieutenant,  and  commander-in- 
nailitia  should  be  taken  from  it,  and  commanded  by  I  chief  of  the  militia,  and  of  all  the  forces  by  sea  or 
strangers  at  the  distance  of  N  ew  York  and  Boston  :  I  land,  and  of  all  the  forts  and  places  of  strength  in 
that  it  would  wholly  incapacitate  them  to  defend  I  the  colony  of  Connecticut.  He  ordered  the  militia 
themselves,  their  wives,  and  children  :  that  before  I  of  Hartford  under  arms,  that  he  might  beat  up  for 
they  could  obtain  instructions  from  such  a  distance,  I  volunteers  ;  and  it  was  judged  expedient  to  call  the 
upo'n  any  sudden  emergency,  the  colony  might  be  I  trainbands  in  Hartford  together;  but  the  assembly 
depopulated  and  ruined:  that  a  stranger  at  a  dis- 1  insisted,  that  the  command  of  the  militia  was  ex- 
tance  might  not  agree  with  the  governor  and  coun- 1  pressly  vested  by  charter  in  the  governor  and  com- 
cil  in  employing  the  militia  for  the  defence  of  the  I  pany  ;  and  that  they  could  by  no  means,  consist- 
property,  lives,  and  liberties  of  the  subjects  ;  and  I  ently  with  their  just  rights  and  the  common  safety, 
that  the  life  and  support  of  the  laws,  and  the  very  I  resign  it  into  any  other  hands ;  and  they  further 
existence  of  their  civil  constitution  depended  on  the  I  insinuated,  that  his  demands  were  an  invasion  of 
militia.  He  was  also  instructed  further  to  represent  I  their  essential  privileges,  and  subversive  of  their 
the  state  of  the  militia  of  Connecticut,  with  respect  I  constitution. 

to  its  difference  from  that  of  the  militia  of  England  :  I  Upon  this,  Colonel  Bayard,  by  the  governor's 
that  from  the  scattered  state  and  small  number  off  command,  sent  a  letter  into  the  assembly,  declaring 
the  inhabitants,  it  had  been  necessary  that  all  males,  I  that  the  governor  had  no  design  upon  the  civil  rights 
from  sixteen  years  of  age,  should  belong  to  the  I  of  the  colony ;  but  would  leave  them  in  all  respects 
militia,  and  be  made  soldiers,  so  that  if  the  militia  I  as  he  found  them;  he  then  tendered  a  commission 
were  taken  from  the  colony,  there  would  be  none  I  to  Governor  Treat,  empowering  him  to  command 
left  but  magistrates,  ministers,  physicians,  aged  and  I  the  militia  of  the  colony ;  and  declared  that  the 
infirm  people,  to  defend  their  extensive  sea-coasts  I  governor  insisted,  that  they  should  acknowledge  it 
and  frontiers;  and  that  giving  the  command  of  the  I  an  essential  right,  inherent  in  his  majesty,  to  com- 
militia  to  the  governor  of  another  colony,  was,  in  I  mand  the  militia ;  and  that  he  was  determined  not 
effect,  to  put  their  persons,  interests,  and  liberties  I  to  set  his  foot  out  of  the  colony  until  he  had  seen  his 
entirely  into  his  power.  The  agent  was  also  directed  I  majesty's  commission  obeyed:  and  that  he  would 
to  represent  the  entire  satisfaction  of  the  colony  with  I  issue  his  proclamation,  showing  the  means  he  had 
the  present  government,  and  the  great  advantages  I  taken  to  give  satisfaction  to  his  majesty's  subjects 
resulting  from  it :  that  giving  the  command  of  the  I  of  Connecticut,  and  that  he  should  distinguish  the 
militia  to  the  governor  of  another  province,  would  I  disloyal. 

exceedingly  endanger,  if  not  entirely  destroy  that  I  The  assembly,  nevertheless,  would  not  give  up 
general  contentment,  and  all  the  advantages  thence  I  the  command  of  the  militia ;  nor  would  Governor 
arising  to  his  majesty  and  his  subjects  :  that  out  of  I  Treat  receive  a  commission  from  Colonel  Fletcher. 
3000  freemen  in  the  colony,  2,200  actually  met,  I  The  trainbands  of  Hartford  assembled,  and,  as  the 
and  gave  their  suffrages  for  the  present  address ;  I  tradition  is,  while  Captain  Wadsworth,  the  senior 
and  that  the  greatest  part  of  the  other  800  were  for  I  officer,  was  walking  in  front  of  the  companies,  and 
it,  but  were  by  their  particular  affairs  prevented  from  I  exercising  the  soldiers,  Colonel  Fletcher  ordered  his 
attending  at  the  respective  meetings,  when  the  I  commission  and  instructions  to  be  read.  Captain 
suffrages  were  taken  :  that  the  inhabitants  were  uni- 1  Wadsworth  instantly  uttered  the  command,  "  Beat 
versally  for  the  revolution;  and  that  in  the  whole  I  the  drums;"  and  there  was  such  d,  roaring  of  them 
colony,  there  were  not  more  than  four  or  five  mal- 1  that  nothing  else  could  be  heard.  Colonel  Fletcher 
contents.  He  was  also  charged  to  assure  his  ma- I  commanded  silence;  but  no  sooner  had  Bayard 
jesty,  that  the  militia  should  be  improved  with  the  I  made  an  attempt  to  read  again,  than  Wadsworth 
utmost  prudence  and  faithfulness  for  his  majesty's  I  cried,  "  Drum,  drum,  I  say."  The  drummers  un- 
service,  in  the  defence  of  the  frontiers  of  Massachu-  I  derstood  their  business,  and  instantly  beat  up  with 
setts  and  New  York;  and  to  lay  before  him  what  |  all  the  art  of  which  they  were  masters.  "  Silence! 

silence  !"  said  the  colonel ;  but  no  sooner  was  there 
a  pause,  than  Wadsworth  again   cried   with  great 


the  colony  had  already  done  ;  especially  for  the  pro- 
vince of  New  York,  in  their  late  distressed  condi- 
tion. That  for  its  defence,  and  the  securing  of  the  I  vehemence,  "  Drum  !  drum  !  I  say ;"  and  turning  to 
five  nations  in  his  majesty's  interest,  they  had  ex- 1  his  excellency,  said,  "  If  I  am  interrupted  again  1  will 
pended  more  than  3000/.,  and  lost  a  number  of  their  I  make  the  sun  shine  through  you  in  a  moment."  He 
men ;  and  further,  General  Winthrop  was  directed,  so  I  spoke  with  such  energy  in  his  voice  and  meaning  in 
far  as  might  be  judged  expedient,  to  plead  the  rights  I  his  countenance,  that  no  further  attempts  were  made 
granted  in  the  charter,  especially  that  of  command-  I  to  read  or  enlist  men  ;  and  such  numbers  of  people 
ing  the  militia,  and  the  common  usage,  ever  since  I  collected  together,  and  their  spirits  appeared  so 
the  grant  of  the  charter,  for  a  long  course  of  years.  I  high,  that  the  governor  and  his  suit  judged  it 
The  colony  wished  to  serve  his  majesty's  interest,  I  expedient  soon  to  leave  the  town  and  return  to 
and  as  far  as  possible,  consistently  with'  their  char- 1  New  York. 

tered  rights,  to  maintain  a  good  understanding  with  I  The  assembly  at  this  sitting  granted  500/.  to  sup- 
Governor  Fletcher;  and  William  Pitkin,  Esq.  was,  I  port  Major-general  Winthrop  in  his  agency  at  the 
therefore,  sent  to  New  York,  to  treat  and  make  |  court  of  Great  Britain. 


742 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


On  the  7th  of  February,  1694,  a  special  assembly 
\vas  called  in  consequence  of  a  letter  from  King 
William,  relative  to  the  fortifying  of  Albany;  and 
in  compliance  with  his  majesty's  requisition,  the 
assembly  granted  600£.  to  be  paid  into  the  hands  of 
Colonel  Fletcher,  for  the  defence  of  Albany  ;  and  a 
rate  of  one  penny  on  the  pound  was  levied  to  raise 
the  money. 

The  rateable  polls  in  the  colony  were  at  this 
time  about  2,347,  and  the  grand  list  137,G46/. 

For  the  defence  of  the  plantations  in  New  York, 
and  the  towns  upon  the  river,  in  the  county  of 
Hampshire,  the  assembly  ordered,  that  the  commis- 
sioned officers,  who  were  the  nearest  to  the  places, 
which  should  at  any  time  be  attacked,  should  dis- 
patch immediate  succours  to  them ;  andprovision  was 
also  made  that  the  several  detachments  of  the  mili- 
tia should  be  furnished  with  all  articles  necessary 
for  their  marching  in  any  emergency,  upon  the 
shortest  notice. 

Major-general  Winthrop  arrived  safe  in  England, 
and  presented  the  petition,  with  which  he  had  been 
entrusted,  to  his  majesty;  and  a  statement  of  the 
case  of  Connecticut  was  drawn  and  laid  before  the 
king;  in  which,  besides  the  facts  stated  in  the  in- 
structions of  Mr.  Winthrop,  it  was  alleged  that  in 
the  charter,  granted  by  King  Charles,  the  command 
of  the  militia  was,  in  the  most  express  and  ample 
manner,  given  to  the  colony ;  and  that  the  gover- 
nor had  always  commanded  it  for  the  common  safety : 
that  in  the  charter  there  was  a  clause  for  the  most 
beneficial  construction  of  it  for  the  corporation  ; 
and  another  of  non  olstante  to  all  statutes  repugnant 
to  said  grant.  It  was  also  represented,  that  who- 
ever commanded  the  persons  in  a  colony  would  also 
command  their  purse,  and  be  the  governor  of  the 
colony :  that  there  was  such  a  connexion  between 
the  civil  authority  and  the  command  of  the  militia, 
that  one  could  not  subsist  without  the  other :  that  it 
was  designed  to  govern  the  colonies  in  America,  as 
nearly  as  might  be  in  conformity  to  the  laws  of  En- 
gland; and  that  the  king  and  his  lieutenants  ceuld 
not  draw  out  all  the  militia  of  a  county ;  but  a  cer- 
tain part  only,  in  proportion  to  its  numbers  and 
wealth.  It  was  therefore  pleaded,  that  Governor 
Fletcher's  commission  ought  to  be  construed  with 
the  same  restriction  :  that  were  not  the  command 
of  the  king  and  his  lieutenants  restricted  by  acts  of 
parliament,  the  subjects  could  not  be  free ;  and 
that  for  the  same  reason,  Governor  Fletcher's  com- 
mand ought  to  be  restrained  by  the  laws  of  Connec- 
ticut, so  far  as  they  were  not  repugnant  to  the  laws 
of  England.  It  was  further  stated,  that  it  was  im- 
possible for  Governor  Fletcher  so  well  to  judge  of 
the  dispositions  and  abilities  of  each  town  and  divi- 
sion in  Connecticut,  or  be  so  much  mastej  of  the 
affections  of  the  people  in  time  of  need,  as  those  who 
dwelt  among  them  and  had  been  chosen  to  command 
them;  and  therefore  he  could  not  be  so  well  quali- 
fied for  the  local  and  ordinary  command  of  the  mili- 
tia ;  nor  serve  the  interests  of  his  majesty,  or  the 
colony  in  that  respect,  so  satisfactorily  and  effec- 
tually as  its  own  officers. 

His  majesty's  attorney  and  solicitor-general  gave 
their  opinion  in  favour  of  Connecticut's  command 
ing  the  militia;  and  on  the  19th  of  April,  1694,  his 
majesty  in  council  determined  according  to  the  re- 
port which  they  had  made.  The  quota  of  Connecti- 
cut, during  the  war,  was  fixed  at  120  men,  to  be  at 
the  command  of  Governor  Fletcher,  and  the  rest  o: 
the  militia  to  be  commanded  as  had  been  usual  by 
the  governor  of  Connecticut. 


Upon  the  solicitations  of  Governor  Fletcher  and 
Sir  William  Phipps,  agents  and  a  number  of  troops 
were  sent  to  attend  a  treaty  with  the  five  nations : 
;he  expense  of  which  to  the  colony  was  about  400/. 

A  committee  was  appointed  again  in  the  May 
session,  to  run  the  partition  line  between  Connecti- 
cut and  Massachusetts.  Massachusetts  was  invited 
:o  join  with  them,  but  as  that  court  refused,  the  com- 
mittee of  Connecticut,  by  the  direction  of  the  as- 
sembly, ran  the  line  without  them  •  and  in  October 
1695,  the  general  assembly  renewed  their  applica- 
tion to  the  general  court  of  Massachusetts,  entreat- 
ng  them  to  unite  amicably  in  running  the  boundary 
Line,  or  to  agree  to  it,  as  it  had  been  run  by  Con- 
necticut. They  stated  how  it  ran,  and  what  en- 
croachments they  had  made  upon  the  colony.  The 
Massachusetts  insisted,  however,  upon  the  old  line, 
made  by  Woodward  and  Saffery,  and  would  not  take 
any  measures  to  accommodate  the  difference. 

At  the  court  of  election,  May  1G9G,  Eleazer 
Kimberly  was  chosen  secretary ;  and  upon  the  re- 
quisition of  Governor  Fletcher,  a  compan)  of  GO 
men  were  ordered  to  Albany,  under  the  command  of 
Captain  William  Whiting;  whilst  40  dragoons  were 
also  forwarded  to  the  county  of  Hampshire,  for  the 
security  of  the  inhabitants  in  that  part  of  Massa- 
chusetts. 

About  this  time  the  town  of  Danbury  was  incor- 
porated ;  the  whole  number  of  families  amounted  to 
only  24. 

At  the  general  court,  May  1697,  Colonel  Hut- 
chinsou  and  Captain  Byfield  were  sent  from  Boston, 
to  solicit  the  raising  of  such  a  number  of  troops  a» 
should  enable  Massachusetts  to  attack  the  eastern 
enemy  at  their  head-quarters.  The  legislature  judged 
themselves  unable  to  furnish  such  a  number,  as 
would  be  necessary  for  that  purpose,  in  addition  to 
the  troops  they  must  raise  for  the  defence  of  their 
own  frontiers  of  New  York,  and  the  county  of 
Hampshire  ;  but  agreed  to  furnish  a  party  of  about 
60  Englishmen  and  40  Indians,  to  range  the  woods, 
near  the  walk  of  the  enemy,  and  to  defend  the  fron- 
tiers of  the  county  of  Hampshire. 

At  a  general  assembly,  January  22d,  1698,  an 
alteration  was  made  in  the  constitution  of  the  county 
court ;  by  which  it  was  provided,  that  it  should  con- 
sist of  one  chief  judge  and  four  justices  of  the  quo- 
rum in  each  county,  appointed  by  the  assembly. 

Major-general  Fitz-John  Winthrop,  having  re- 
turned from  his  successful  agency  at  the  court  of 
Great  Britain,  was  received  with  great  joy,  by  the 
legislature  and  the  people  in  general;  and  the  as- 
sembly presented  him  with  their  thanks  for  the  good 
services  he  had  rendered  to  the  government:  and  as 
a  further  testimonial  of  the  high  sense  which  they 
entertained  of  his  merit,  fidelity,  and  labours  for 
the  public,  they  voted  him  a  gratuity  of  300/. 

On  the  18th  of  June,  1697,  Richard,  earl  of  Bel- 
lamont,  having  received  his  commission  to  be  go- 
vernor of  New  York  and  Massachusetts,  and  being 
every  day  expected  at  New  York  ;  the  general  court 
of  Connecticut  were  desirous  to  display  their  respect, 
and  to  conciliate  his  good  graces ;  and  to  that  end 
appointed  General  Winthrop,  Major  Jonathan  Sil- 
lick,  and  the  Rev.  Gurdon  Saltonstall,  upon  the 
first  notice  of  his  arrival  at  New  York,  to  wait  upon 
him,  and  in  the  name  of  the  general  assembly  of 
Connecticut,  to  congratulate  him. 

Notwithstanding  the  determination  of  Lieutenant- 
governor  Cranfield,  and  the  king's  commissioners, 
and  the  report  to  his  majesty  concerning  the  right 
of  Connecticut  to  the  Narraganset  country,  the  cou- 


UNITED  STATES. 


743 


troversy  between  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  still 
continued ;  and  the  king  would  not  confirm  the 
judgment  and  report  of  the  commissioners.  The 
Rhode  Islanders,  though  they  had  violated  every 
article  of  the  agreement  between  Mr.  Winthrop  and 
Mr.  Clark,  were  yet  ready  to  plead  it  against  Con- 
necticut, whenever  it  should  suit  their  convenience. 
A  letter  from  the  lords  of  trade  and  plantations  was 
laid  before  the  assembly,  advising  Connecticut  to  a 
settlement  of  boundaries  with  that  colony ;  and  upon 
this  recommendation,  the  general  court  appointed 
Major  James  Fitch,  Captain  Daniel  Witherell,  and 
the  Rev.  James  Noyes,  commissioners  to  treat  with 
Rhode  Island,  and  to  attempt  an  amicable  settle- 
ment. 

The  peace  of  Ryswick,  September  llth,  1697, 
once  more  delivered  Great  Britain  and  her  colonies 
from  the  calamities  of  war ;  and  the  Americans  re- 
joiced at  the  return  of  peace.  Connecticut  had 
been  happy  in  the  preservation  of  her  frontiers,  in 
the  loss  of  few  men,  and  in  the  effectual  aid  which 
she  had  given  to  her  sister  colonies  ;  but  neverthe- 
less, the  war  had  been  very  expensive,  and  exceed- 
ingly vexatious. 

Governor  Fletcher  caused  the  colony  much  unne- 
cessary trouble  and  expense ;  as  upon  almost  every 
rumour  of  danger,  he  would  send  on  his  expresses 
to  Connecticut ;  and  the  governor  and  council,  and 
sometimes  the  assembly,  were  obliged  to  meet,  and 
dispatch  troops  to  some  place ;  and  by  these  con- 
tinual false  alarms,  he  almost  wore  out  the  gover- 
nor and  council  with  meetings,  and  harassed  the 
militia.  The  whole  colony  was  so  harassed  with  his 
vexatious  management,  that  the  governor  wrote  to 
Mr.  Winthrop,  while  he  was  in  England,  desiring 
him  to  represent  his  conduct  to  his  majesty,  and 
pray  for  relief. 

But  these  miseries  were  now  at  an  end.  The 
successful  agency  of  General  Winthrop,  his  safe 
return  to  his  country,  the  blessings  of  peace,  and 
the  appointment  and  arrival  of  the  earl  of  Bella- 
mont  to  the  government  of  the  neighbouring  pro- 
vinces, united  their  influence  to  diffuse  universal 
joy;  and  the  legislature  appointed  a  day  of  public 
thanksgiving. 

General  Winthrop  is  elected  governor*— The  assembly 
divide  and  form  into  two  houses— 'Purchase  and  set- 
tlement of  several  towns — The  boundary  line  between 
Connecticut  and  New  York  surveyed  and  fixed-- 
Attempts for  running  and  establishing  the  line  be- 
tween Massachusetts  and  Connecticut — Owaneco  and 
the  Moheagans  claim  Colchester  and  other  tracts  in 
the  colony — Attempts  to  compose  all  differences  with 
them— Grant  to  the  volunteers — The  assembly  en- 
acts, that  the  session  in  October  shall  for  the 
future  be  in  New  Haven — An  act  enlarging  the 
boundaries  of  New  London,  and  acts  relative  to 
towns  and  patents — Measures  adopted  for  the  de- 
fence of  the  colony — Appointment  of  king's  atttor- 
neys — Attempts  to  despoil  Connecticut  of  its  charter 
—  Bill  for  re-uniting  the  charter  governments  to 
the  crown — Sir  Henry  Ashurst  petitions  against, 
and  prevents  the  passing  of  the  bill— -Governor  Dud- 
ley. Lord  Cornbury,  and  other  enemies  conspire 
against  the  colony — They  exhibit  grievous  complaints 
against  it — Sir  Henry  Ashurst  defends  the  colony, 
and  defeats  their  attempts — Quakers  petition — Mo- 
heagan  case — Survey  and  bounds  of  the  pretended 
Afoheagan  country— Dudley's  court  at  Stoning  ton — 
The  colony  protest  against  it — Dudley's  treatment  of 
the  colony— Judgment  against  it-*-Pelition  to  her 


majesty  on  the  subject — New  commissions  are  granted 
— Act  in  favour  of  the  clergy — State  of  the  colony. 

At  the  election  in  1698,  there  was  a  consider 
able  alteration  in  the  legislature.  Major-general 
Fitz-John  Winthrop,  by  his  address,  and  the  suc- 
cess of  his  agency  in  England,  had  rendered  himself 
so  popular,  that  he  was  elected  governor;  and  the 
former  governor,  Treat,  who  had  for  many  years 
presided,  and  who  had  grown  old  in  the  service  of 
the  colony,  was  elected  deputy-governor ;  William 
Jones,  Esq.,  who  for  a  number  of  years  had  been 
deputy-governor,  was  left  out  of  the  council.  Mr. 
Joseph  Curtis  was  chosen  magistrate,  to  fill  the 
vacancy  made  by  the  preferment  of  General  Win- 
throp. 

Until  the  session  in  October  1698,  the  assembly 
consisted  of  but  one  house,  and  the  magistrates  and 
deputies  appear  to  have  acted  together ;  but  at  this 
time  it  was  enacted,  that  the  general  assembly 
should  consist  of  two  houses:  that  the  governor,  or, 
in  his  absence,  the  deputy-governor  and  magistrates, 
should  compose  the  first,  which  should  be  called  the 
upper  house :  that  the  other  should  consist  of  the 
deputies,  regularly  returned  from  the  several  towns 
in  the  colony,  which  should  be  called  the  lower 
house.  This  house  was  authorized  to  choose  a 
speaker  to  preside,  and  when  formed,  to  make  such 
officers  and  rules  as  they  should  judge  necessary  for 
their  own  regulation.  It  was  also  enacted,  that  no 
act  should  be  passed  into  a  law  of  this  colony,  nor 
any  law,  already  enacted,  be  repealed,  nor  any 
other  act,  proper  to  this  general  assembly,  be  passed, 
except  by  the  consent  of  both  houses. 

At  the  general  court,  in  October,  an  act  passed, 
regulating  the  county  court;  which  ordained,  that  it 
should  consist  of  one  chief  judge,  and  two  justices 
of  the  quorum. 

In  1699  the  governor  and  deputy-governor  were 
re-elected;  and  Richard  Christopher  was  chosen 
into  the  magistracy,  and  Captain  Joseph  Whiting, 
treasurer. 

At  this  session  the  lower  house,  for  the  first  time, 
formed  separately,  and  chose  Mr.  John  Chester 
speaker,  and  Cap'tain  William  Whiting  clerk.  At 
this  assembly  an  act  was  passed,  exempting  the 
clergy  from  taxation ;  and  several  enactments  were 
made",  relative  to  the  settlement  of  new  townships. 

In  June  1659,  Governor  Winthrop  obtained 
leave  of  the  assembly  to  purchase  a  large  tract  at 
Quinibaug;  and  soon  after,  he  made  a  purchase 
of  Allups,  alias  Hyemps,  and  Mashaushawit,  the 
Indian  proprietors,  of  the  lands  comprised  in  the 
townships  of  Plainfield  and  Canterbury,  lying  on 
both  sides  of  Quinibaug  river.  There  were  some 
few  families  on  the  lands  at  the  time  of  the  purchase  ; 
but  the  planters  were  few,  until  the  year  1689,  when 
a  number  of  people,  chiefly  from  Massachusetts, 
made  a  purchase  of  the  heirs  of  Governor  Winthrop, 
and  began  settlements  in  the  northern  part  of  the 
tract.  At  their  session,  in  May  1699,  the  general 
assembly  vested  the  inhabitants  with  town  privi- 
leges ;  and  the  next  year  it  was  named  Plainfield. 

The  legislature,  in  the  October  session,  1698, 
enacted,  that  a  new  plantation  should  be  made  at 
Jeremy's  farm ;  which  it  was  determined  should  be 
bounded  southerly  byLyme, westerly  by  Middletown, 
and  easterly  by  Norwich  and  Lebanon.  This  was 
usually  termed  the  plantation  at  twenty  mile  river. 
The  settlement  began  about  1701 ;  and  in  1703,  the 
assembly  gave  the  planters  a  patent,  confirming  to 
them  the  whole  tract.  Some  of  the  principal  plant- 


744 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


ors  were  the  Rev.  John  Bulkley,  Samuel  Gilbert, 
Michael  Taintcr,  Samuel  Northam,  John  Adams, 
Joseph  Pomeroy,  and  John  Loomis. 

At  the  same  sessioa  a  plantation  was  granted, 
upon  the  petition  of  the  inhabitants  of  Guilford,  at  a 
place  called  Cogingchaug;  which  was  bounded 
northerly  by  Middletown,  easterly  by  Haddam, 
westerly  by  Wallingford,  and  southerly  by  Guilford. 
The  petitioners  were  31,  but  few  of  them  moved  on 
to  the  lands ;  and  for  this  reason,  the  settlement 
went  on  but  slowly.  The  two  first  planters  were 
Caleb  Seward  and  David  Robinson,  from  Guilford; 
and  some  others  afterwards  removed  from  the  same 
town,  and  made  settlements  there.  May  llth,  1704, 
it  was  named  Durham;  but  the  number  of  inha- 
bitants was  very  small;  and  in  1707  they  did  not 
exceed  fifteen.  The  inhabitants  held  meetings,  and 
acted  as  a  town,  but  were  not  incorporated  with 
town  privileges,  until  May  1708;  and  after  this 
time  t&e  plantation  increased  rapidly.  There  was 
a  great  accession  of  inhabitants  from  Northampton, 
Stratford,  Milford,  and  other  towns. 

Committees  were  again  appointed,  at  the  session 
in  October,  to  attempt  a  settlement  of  the  bounda- 
ries between  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  and 
between  this  colony  and  Rhode  Island ;  but,  like  all 
former  ones,  they  were  unsuccessful. 

March  28th,  1700,  the  king,  in  council,  confirmed 
the  agreement  made  between  Connecticut  and  New 
York,  in  1683,  respecting  the  boundary  line  between 
the  two  colonies.  New  York  neglected,  however, 
to  run  the  line;  and  Connecticut,  therefore,  about 
twelve  years  after,  applied  to  Governor  Hunter,  to 
appoint  commissioners  to  complete  the  running  of 
the  line,  and  mark  it  with  proper  bounds.  He  laid 
the  affair  before  the  legislature  of  New  York;  but 
as  they  would  adopt  no  measures  for  that  purpose, 
and  as  there  was  no  appearance  that  they  ever  in- 
tended to  do  so,  Connecticut  presented  a  petition  to 
George  the  First,  praying  that  he  would  issue  his 
royal  commands  to  his  government  of  New  York, 
that  they  should  forthwith  appoint  commissioners, 
in  concert  with  Connecticut,  to  complete  the  run- 
ning of  the  line,  and  the  erecting  of  proper  monu- 
ments. In  consequence  of  this,  the  legislature  of 
New  York,  in  1719,  passed  an  act,  empowering 
their  governor  to  appoint  commissioners  to  run  the 
line  parallel  to  Hudson's  river,  to  re-survey  the 
former  lines,  and  to  distinguish  the  boundary;  and 
in  May  17'25,  the  commissioners  and  surveyors  of 
the  two  colonies  met  at  Greenwich,  and,  having 
agreed  upon  the  manner  in  which  the  work  should 
be  accomplished,  the  survey  was  executed,  in  part, 
immediately,  and  a  report  of  what  they  had  done 
was  made  to  the  respective  legislatures  of  Connecti- 
cut and  New  York.  On  the  14th  of  May  1731,  a 
complete  settlement  was  made ;  and  by  the  parti- 
tion line,  finally  established,  Connecticut  ceded  to 
New  York  a  tract  of  60,000  acres,  as  an  equivalent 
for  lands  which  New  York  had  surrendered  to  Con- 
necticut, lying  upon  the  sound.  This  tract,  from 
its  figure,  has  been  called  the  Oblong. 

But  to  return.  In  1700  the  governor  and  coun- 
cil were  all  re-elected. 

Many  acts  of  violence,  since  the  last  session  of 
the  assembly,  had  been  committed  against  the  inha- 
bitants of  Windsor  and  Simsbury,  by  the  people  of 
Enfield  and  Suffield ;  who  had  made  encroachments 
two  miles  upon  the  land  of  those  towns. 

To  compose  these  difficulties,  the  assembly  ap- 
pointed William  Pitkin,  Esq.,  Mr.  John  Chester, 
and  Mr.  William  Whiting,  a  Committee,  with  ple- 


nary powers,  to  address  the  general  court  of  Massa- 
chusetts, and  to  represent  to  them  the  readiness  of 
the  legislature  of  Connecticut,  to  join  with  them  in 
any  just  measures  for  an  amicable  settlement  of  the 
boundary  line.  The  court  of  Massachusetts  ap- 
pointed Colonel  Hutehinson,  Mr.  Taylor,  Mr.  An- 
thrum,  and  Mr.  Prout,  a  committee,  but  with  limit- 
ed powers,  to  fiud  the  southernmost  line  of  Massa- 
chusetts, run  by  Nathaniel  Woodward  and  Solomon 
Saffery.  The  general  court  also,  on  the  5th  of 
June,  passed  an  act,  in  answer  to  the  proposal  made 
by  Connecticut,  in  which  they  insisted  on  the  line 
run  by  Woodward  and  Saffery ;  who  were  termed 
skilful  and  approved  artists.  The  court  also,  in 
their  act,  insisted  that  all  grants  made  by  them  to 
the  inhabitants  of  Woodstock,  or  of  any  other  place, 
should  remain  good  and  valid  to  the  grantees,  though 
the  places  should  be  found  south  of  the  line  of  Mas- 
sachusetts ;  and  to  these  hard  terms  the  committee 
acceded,  upon  the  condition  that  all  the  grants 
made  by  Connecticut,  to  the  inhabitants  of  Wind- 
sor and  Simsbury,  should  be  acknowledged  as  valid, 
and  the  land  granted  be  reserved  to  the  proprietors. 
But  the  court  of  Massachusetts  would  not  concede 
even  this;  and  no  accommodation  could  therefore 
be  effected. 

The  general  court  of  Massachusetts  determined 
to  rely  upon,  and  maintain  the  line  run  by  their 
sailors,  in  1642;  and  insisted  that  it  had  been  the 
boundary  between  the  colonies  for  nearly  60  years: 
that  the  colony  of  Connecticut  was  bounded  on  the 
south  line  of  Massachusetts,  which  they  said  was 
not  an  imaginary,  but  well  known  line ;  and  also 
pleaded,  that  Mr.  Wiuthrop,  when  he  procured  the 
charter,  knew  that  to  be  the  line,  and  that  no  other 
could  be  intended. 

Connecticut,  on  the  other  hand,  maintained  that 
the  south  line  of  Massachusetts,  according  to  the 
express  words  of  their  charter,  was  a  line  running 
due  west  from  a  point,  or  station,  three  miles  south 
of  every  part  of  Charles  river;  and  that  the  station 
fixed  by  Woodward  and  Saffery  was  too  far  south. 
It  was  also  insisted  that,  even  allowing  Woodward's 
and  Saffery's  station  to  be  right,  a  due  west  line 
from  it  would  run  far  north  of  Bissell's  ferry- 
house  at  Windsor.  The  committee,  appointed  by 
the  court  of  Massachusetts,  reported  that  the  line 
would  run  north  of  Bissell's  house;  yet  the  court  of 
Massachusetts  would  not  run  the  line,  nor  come  to 
any  accommodation ;  but  insisted  on  the  line  as  it 
had  been  run  by  them  in  1642,  and  on  Connecticut's 
ceding  their  rights  to  all  the  lands  which  they  had 
granted,  whether  they  lay  north  or  south  of  said 
line. 

Though  Colchester  held  their  lands  from  the 
colony,  which  claimed  by  virtue  of  Uncas's  deed 
in  1640,  Major  Mason's  purchase,  in  behalf  of 
the  colony,  and  surrender  of  the  lands  in  the  pre- 
sence of  the  general  assembly,  and  by  virtue  of 
Joshua's  will;  and  though  the  inhabitants  had 
deeds  from  Owaneco,  and  the  Moheagan  sachems, 
covering  the  whole  tract,  yet  they  met  with  great 
difficulties,  in  the  settlement  of  the  town  from  Owa- 
neco and  the  Moheagans,  who  were  made  uneasy, 
and  incited  to  mischief  by  designing  men.  The 
Masons,  Daniel  Clark,  Nicholas  Hallam,  Major 
Palms,  Major  Fitch,  and  others,  about  this  time, 
conceived  the  plan  of  obtaining  a  large  tract  of 
land,  comprising  Colchester,  part  of  Lyme,  and 
New  London,  Plainfield,  Canterbury,  and  Wind- 
ham,  for  themselves;  and  imagined  that  the  sur- 
render of  Major  Mason,  in  the  general  assembly. 


UNITED  STATES. 


743 


was  not  legal,  and  that  the  circumstances  of  those 
early  transactions  were  so  far  obliterated  from  the 
memory  of  the  living,  that  they  should  be  able  to 
recover  in  law  all  the  lands  made  over  by  Uncas,  to 
Major  Mason,  acting  as  agent  of  the  colony  in  1659. 

The  legislature,  though  they  considered  their 
title  to  the  lands  in  the  colony  legal  and  indubita- 
ble, yet  judged  it  expedient,  rather  than  to  have 
any  difficulty  with  the  Indians,  to  treat  with  them; 
and  the  governor  and  council  being  appointed  a 
committee  for  these  purposes,  were  instructed  to 
obtain  a  quit  claim  of  the  Indians  upon  reasonable 
terms,  and  to  advise  the  inhabitants,  with  respect 
to  their  settlements.  Captain  Samuel  Mason,  who 
was  one  of  the  magistrates,  was  particularly  desired 
(o  use  his  influence  with  the  Indians  to  promote  the 
design,  and  quiet  the  planters. 

From  the  first  settlement  of  the  colony,  it  had 
been  customary  to  make  grants  of  land  to  officers, 
soldiers,  and  others,  who  had  been  specially  ser- 
viceable to  the  colony ;  and  grants  had  been  made 
to  Major  Mason,  to  his  officers  and  soldiers,  in  the 
Pequot  war.  This  encouraged  the  volunteers,  who 
had  performed  such  signal  services  in  the  Narra- 
ganset  war,  to  make  application  to  the  assembly 
for  the  grant  of  a  new  township,  as  an  acknowledg- 
ment of  their  good  services;  and  upon  the  petition 
of  Captain  Thomas  Leffingwell,  of  Norwich,  and 
Mr.  John  Frink,  of  Stonington,  in  behalf  of  them- 
selves and  other  volunteers,  the  general  assembly, 
in  October  1696,  granted  them  a  township,  of  six 
miles  square,  to  be  taken  up  in  the  conquered  lauds ; 
and  a  committee  having  surveyed  the  lands,  and 
made  their  report  to  the  assembly,  four  years  after, 
a  township  was  confirmed  to  the  petitioners,  by  the 
name  of  Voluntown.  It  was  bounded  by  a  due 
north  line,  from  the  pond  at  the  head  of  Pawcatuck 
river  to  Greenwich  path,  thence  west  to  the  bounds 
of  Preston,  thence  bounded  by  Preston  and  Sto- 
nington to  Pawcatuck  river,  and  thence  by  the  river 
to  the  pond,  the  first-mentioned  bounds.  Nineteen 
years  after,  the  assembly  granted  an  addition  of  a 
considerable  tract  on  the  north  part  of  the  township. 

In  1701  Governor  Winthrop  and  Deputy-gover- 
nor Treat  were  re-chosen.  The  magistrates  were 
Andrew  Leet,  James  Fitch,  Samuel  Mason,  Daniel 
Witherel,  Nathaniel  Stanley,  Moses  Mansfield, 
John  Hamlin,  Nathan  Gould,  William  Pitkin, 
Joseph  Curtis,  John  Chester,  and  Josiah  Rossiter, 
Esquires.  Joseph  Whiting,  Esq.  was  re-elected 
treasurer,  and  Eleazar  Kimberly,  secretary. 

Ever  sinoe  the  union  of  the  colonies  the  assem- 
bly had  convened  at  Hartford,  both  in  May  and 
October  ;  but  at  this  session  an  act  passed,  that  the 
assembly,  in  October,  should  be  holden  at  the  usual 
time  in  New  Haven ;  and  it  was  also  enacted,  that 
the  court  of  magistrates  which  had  been  commonly 
holden  at  Hartford  in  October  should,  for  the  future, 
be  holden  at  New  Haven,  on  the  first  Tuesday  of 
the  same  month.  A  respectable  committee  was  ap- 
pointed again  this  year,  to  make  a  settlement  of  the 
boundary  line  with  Rhode  Island,  and  committees 
were  appointed,  from  year  to  year,  for  the  same 
purpose,  but  all  attempts  for  a  long  time  were  un- 
successful. 

The  election  in  1702  made  no  alteration  in  the 
legislature. 

The  inhabitants  of  Windham  having  agreed  upon 
a  division  of  that  town,  on  the  30th  of  January,  1700, 
the  assembly,  at  this  session,  confirmed  the  agree- 
ment, and  enacted  that  Windham  should  be  divided 
into  two  towns,  and  that  the  town  at  the  north  end 


should  be  called  Mansfield ;  and  the  following  May 
the  assembly  vested  them  with  distinct  town  privi- 
leges; and  granted  patents,  at  the  fame  time,  to 
both  townships.  The  Indian  name  of  Mansfield 
was  Nawbesetuck.  Settlements  had  been  made 
here  soon  after  they  commenced  at  Windkam, 

Danbury  had  been  surveyed  for  a  town  in  1693, 
soon  after  a  plantation  was  made  upon  the  lands. 
Some  of  the  principal  planters  were  James  Beebee, 
Thomas  Taylor,  Samuel  and  James  Benedict,  John 
Hoit,  and  Josiah  Starr.  The  general  court,  at  this 
session,  gave  them  a  patent,  granting  them  a  town- 
ship, extending  eight  miles  in  length,  north  and 
south,  and  six  miles  in  breadth,  according  to  the 
original  survey. 

In  October  the  general  assembly  was  holden  at 
New  Haven. 

The  colony  having  received  intelligence  of  tho 
death  of  King  William,  and  a  gracious  letter  from 
Queen  Anne,  voted  that  a  letter  should  be  addressed 
to  her  majesty,  congratulating  her  upon  her  happy 
accession  to  the  throne  of  her  ancestors,  and  ex- 
pressing their  thanks  for  the  favourable  notice  she 
had  taken  of  the  colony. 

The  only  alteration  made  by  the  election,  in  May 
1703,  was  "the  choice  of  Peter  Burr,  Esq.  into  the 
magistracy. 

At  this  assembly  an  addition  was  made  to  the 
town  of  New  London  of  all  that  tract,  lying  north 
of  the  former  bounds,  included  in  a  line  drawn  from 
the  north-eastern  corner  of  Lyme,  to  the  south- 
western corner  of  Norwich,  as  it  goes  down  to 
trading  cove ;  and  a  patent  was,  at  the  same  time, 
given  to  the  inhabitants,  confirming  this  and  all 
other  parts  of  the  town  to  them  for  ever. 

At  the  same  session  it  was  enacted,  that  all  the 
townships  in  this  colony,  to  which  the  assembly  had 
given  patents,  should  remain  a  full  and  clear  es- 
tate, with  all  the  privileges  and  immunities  therein 
granted,  in  fee  simple  to  the  proprietors,  their  heirs 
and  assigns  for  ever ;  and  it  was  also  enacted,  that 
all  lands  sequestered,  and  given  to  public  or  private 
uses,  should  remain  for  ever,  for  the  ends  for  which 
they  had  been  given. 

England,  Germany,  and  Holland,  in  May  1702, 
declared  war  against  France  and  Spain;  and,  con- 
sequently, the  American  colonies  were  again  in- 
volved in  a  French  and  Indian  war;  and  the  legis- 
lature, at  the  session  in  October,  found  it  necessary 
to  adopt  measures  for  the  safety  of  the  country.  A 
requisition  was  made  by  Governor  Dudley,  and  the 
general  court  of  Massachusetts,  of  a  detachment  of 
100  men,  to  assist  them  in  the  war  against  the 
eastern  Indians ;  and  soldiers  were  detached,  and 
sent  forth  for  the  defence  of  the  western  towns  in 
Connecticut.  A  committee  of  war  was  appointed  to 
send  troops  into  the  county  of  Hampshire,  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  to  the  frontier  towns  in  this  colony, 
as  emergencies  should  require. 

At  this  assembly  it  was  enacted,  that  the  town  of 
Plainfield  should  be  divided,  and  that  the  inhabi- 
tants on  the  west  side  of  the  river  should  be  a  dis- 
tinct town,  by  the  name  of  Canterbury.  It  appears 
that  the  settlement  of  this  tract  commenced  about 
the  year  1690.  The  principal  settlers,  from  Con- 
necticut, were  Major  James  Fitch  and  Mr.  Solomon 
Tracy,  from  Norwich,  Mr.  Tixhall  Ellsworth  and 
Mr.  Samuel  Ashley,  from  Hartford ;  but  much  the 
greatest  number  jpere  from  Newtown,  Woburn, 
Dorchester,  Barnstable,  and  Medfield,  in  Mas- 
sachusetts ;  among  whom  were  John,  Richard, 
and  Joseph  Woodward,  William,  Obadiah,  and 


746 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Joseph  Johnson,  Josiah  and  Samuel  Cleaveland, 
Elisha  Paine,  Paul  Davenport,  and  Henry  Adams. 

On  the  15th  of  March,  1704,  a  special  assembly 
was  convened  to  provide  for  the  common  safety  ; 
and  to  prevent  mischief  from  the  allied  Indians,  and 
preserve  them  from  being  corrupted  and  drawn 
away  by  the  enemy,  both  the  civil  and  military 
officers  in  the  respective  towns  were  directed  to 
take  special  care  of  them ;  to  keep  them  within  their 
own  limits,  and  not  to  suffer  them,  upon  their  peril, 
to  remove  from  the  places  which  should  be  assigned 
them,  nor  to  hold  any  correspondence  with  the 
enemy,  or  any  foreign  Indians,  nor  by  any  means 
to  harbour  them.  A  premium  of  ten  pounds  was  also 
proposed  as  an  encouragement  to  every  friendly  In- 
dian who  should  bring  in  and  deliver  up  one  who 
was  an  enemy. 

Orders  were  given  requiring  every  particular 
town,  in  the  colony,  to  convene  and  determine  upon 
the  manner  of  fortifying  and  defending  themselves  ; 
and  in  case  of  any  sudden  attack  or  invasion,  the 
commissioned  officers  in  the  several  towns  were  au- 
thorized to  detach  and  send  forth  any  number  of 
soldiers,  not  exceeding  half  the  militia,  to  repel 
and  pursue  the  enemy.  It  was  resolved  that  a 
grand  scout  should  be  employed  by  the  committee 
of  war  upon  the  frontiers,  for  the  discovery  and  an- 
noyance of  the  enemy  ;  and  until  this  could  be  sent 
forth,  it  was  determined  that  small  scouts  from  the 
frontier  towns  should  be  constantly  kept  out,  to  dis- 
cover and  give  notice  of  the  motions  of  the  enemy. 
It  was  ordered  that  the  100  men  solicited  by  the 
Massachusetts,  should  be  raised  forthwith,  to  act 
against  the  Eastern  Indians,  and  that  Governor 
Dudley  should  be  requested  to  call  them  out  imme- 
diately. A  detachment  of  60  men  was  ordered  for 
the  public  service,  principally  with  a  view  to  the 
defence  of  the  county  of  Hampshire,  to  be  under 
the  command  of  the  committee  of  war  in  Connecti- 
cut, and  the  commanding  officer  in  that  county. 

At  the  court  of  election,  May  1704,  the  former 
governors  and  magistrates  were  re-chosen.  John 
Alien,  Esq.  was  chosen  magistrate,  to  fill  the  va- 
cancy made  by  the  death  of  Moses  Mansfield,  Esq. 

Committees  were  appointed  in  the  several  counties 
to  meet  together,  to  consult  and  determine  upon 
the  best  measures  for  the  general  defence  and 
safety. 

As  the  deserting  or  giving  up  of  any  place  would 
encourage  the  enemy,  and  materially  effect  the 
welfare  of  the  colony,  it  was  enacted,  that  if  any 
persons  or  families,  in  any  of  the  frontier  towns, 
should  desert  their  habitations  or  places  of  resi- 
dence without  leave  from  the  assembly,  they  should 
xbrfeit  their  freehold  of  lands  and  tenements  in  that 
place ;  and  it  was  further  enacted,  that  if  any  male 
person,  of  the  age  of  sixteen  years,  should  so  re- 
move from  any  frontier  town,  he  should  pay  a  fine 
of  101.,  and  that  the  fine  should  be  applied  to  the 
defence  of  the  town  from  which  he  had  removed. 

Good  policy  required,  that  as  great  a  number  of 
the  friendly  Indians  as  possible  should  be  employed 
in  the  public  service ;  and  gentlemen  were,  there- 
fore, appointed  to  enlist  them  as  volunteers.  Re- 
wards were  given  for  this  purpose  ;  as  the  Indians 
were  the  best  troops  to  scout  and  range  the  woods ; 
and  in  proportion  as  they  offered  themselves,  En- 
glishmen, whose  labours  were  much  more  useful, 
were  kept  at  home. 

Besides  the  100  men  dispatched  to  the  eastward, 
400  were  raised  for  the  defence  of  this  colony,  and 
of  the  county  of  Hampshire  j  who  were  required  to 


be  always  ready ;  and  that  they  might  be  com  • 
pletely  so  both  in  summer  and  winter,  it  was  ordered, 
that  they  should  be  furnished  with  snow  shoes,  that 
they  might  travel  and  run  upon  the  snow.  A  num- 
ber of  men  in  every  town  were  obliged  to  prepare 
themselves  in  this  manner. 

For  the  maintenance  of  good  morals,  the  sup- 
pression of  vicious  and  disorderly  practices,  and  the 
preservation  of  the  common  peace,  the  assembly  or- 
dered, that  a  sober  religious  man  be  appointed  by 
the  county  court,  in  each  of  the  counties,  to  be  an 
attorney  for  her  majesty,  to  prosecute  all  criminal 
offenders. 

The  colony  at  this  time  was  in  the  most  critical 
situation  ;  as  it  was  not  only  in  danger,  and  put  to 
great  expense  on  account  of  the  war,  but  it  was 
continually  harassed  by  the  demands  of  Joseph 
Dudley,  Esq.,  governor  of  Massachusetts,  and  of 
Lord  Cornbury,  governor  of  New  York  and  the 
Jerseys,  for  men  and  money,  as  they  pretended  for 
the  defence  of  their  respective  governments. 

At  the  same  time  the  colony  had  a  number  of 
powerful  enemies,  who,  by  misrepresentation  ana 
every  other  artifice  in  their  power,  were  seeking  to 
deprive  them  both  of  their  lands  and  all  their  char- 
tered rights  and  privileges.  Governor  Dudley, 
Lord  Cornbury,  and  their  instruments,  combined 
together  to  despoil  the  colony  of  its  charter,  and 
subject  it  entirely  to  their  government ;  and  it  ap- 
pears, from  the  letters  and  acts  on  file,  that  Dudley 
wished  to  unite  all  New  England  under  his  own  go- 
vernment. At  the  same  time,  it  seems  he  flattered 
Lord  Cornbury,  that  if  they  could  effect  the  re-union 
of  all  the  charter  governments  to  the  crown,  ho 
should  not  only  have  the  government  of  the  southern 
colonies,  but  of  Connecticut.  Dudley  was  a  man  of 
great  intrigue  and  duplicity,  as  we  have  already 
seen  in  the  account  of  Massachusetts.  He  had  been 
connected  with  Sir  Edmund  Andross  in  the  govern- 
ment of  New  England,  and  was  an  enemy  to  all  the 
chartered  rights  of  the  colonies  ;  and  while  he  was 
soliciting  the  government  of  Massachusetts,  he  had 
a  view  to  the  government  of  all  New  England.  As 
he  had  conceived  this  plan  as  early  as  the  latter  part 
of  the  reign  of  King  William,  he  opposed  whatever 
he  suspected  would  operate  against  it,  and  prevent 
the  suspension  of  all  government  by  charter ;  and 
when  he  found,  therefore,  that  Sir  Henry  Ashurst 
was  appointed  agent  for  Connecticut,  he  opposed  his 
undertaking  the  agency  with  all  his  influence,  be- 
cause he  knew  his  friendship  to  the  colonies,  and 
that  he  was  a  powerful  man.  He  united  all  his  in- 
fluence with  the  court  party,  and  the  enemies  to  the 
liberties  of  the  colonies,  to  vacate  all  the  charters  in 
America ;  and  so  far  succeeded,  that  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  reign  of  King  William,  a  bill  was  pre- 
pared for  re-uniting  all  the  charter  governments  to 
the  crown  ;  and  early  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne, 
it  was  brought  into  parliament.  It  imported,  that 
the  charters  given  to  the  several  colonies  in  New 
England,  to  East  and  West  New  Jersey,  Pennsyl- 
vania, Maryland,  Carolina,  the  Bahama  and  Lucay 
Islands,  were  prejudicial  and  repugnant  to  the  trade 
of  the  kingdom,  and  the  welfare  of  his  majesty's 
subjects  in  the  other  plantations,  and  to  his  ma- 
jesty's revenue  arising  -from  the  customs.  It  also 
further  alleged,  that  irregularities,  piracies,  and 
unlawful  trade,  were  countenanced  and  encouraged 
by  the  authority  in  the  chartered  colonies ;  and  it 
therefore  enacted,  "  That  all  and  singular,  the 
clauses,  matters,  and  things,  contained  in  any  char- 
ters, or  letters  patent,  granted  by  the  great  seal 


UNITED  STATES. 


747 


of  England,  by  any  of  his  royal  predecessors,  b1 
his  present  majesty,  or  the  late  queen,  to  any  of  the 
said  plantations,  or  to  any  persons  in  them,  shouli" 
be  utterly  void,  and  of  none  effect."  It  furthe 
enacted,  "  that  all  such  power,  authority,  privileges 
and  jurisdictions  should  be,  and  were  re-united 
annexed  to,  and  vested  in  his  majesty,  his  heirs  anc 
successors,  in  right  of  the  crown  of  England,  to  al 
intents  and  purposes,  as  though  no  such  charters 
or  letters  patent  had  been  had  or  made." 

Sir  Henry  Ashurst,  viewing  the  act  as  unjust 
and  subversive  of  the  civil  and  religious  rights  o 
the  colony,  preferred  a  petition  to  the'  House  o 
Lords,  representing  "  that  said  bill  would,  do  greal 
injustice  to  the  inhabitants  of  Connecticut  :  that  it 
would  make  void  the  charter  granted  to  the  colony 
by  King  Charles  II. :  that  the  government  was  b) 
said  charter  granted  to  them,  and  was  so  interwoven 
with  their  property,  that  it  could  not  be  taken  away 
without  exposing  them  to  the  utmost  confusion,  i 
not  to  utter  ruin  :  that  the  inhabitants  had  never 
been  accused  of  mal-administration,  piratical  or  un- 
lawful trade  ;  and  that  their  case  was  different  from 
his  majesty's  other  plantations  in  America.  He, 
therefore,  humbly  prayed  to  be  heard  by  his  council, 
at  the  bar  of  the  house  in  their  behalf."  In  conse- 
quence of  this,  it  was  granted,  May  3d,  1701,  that 
the  petitioner  should  be  heard  against  the  bill. 

Sir  Heury  was  a  zealous  man,  had  honourable 
connexions,  and  his  influence  at  court  was  very 
considerable  ;  and  he  raised  all  the  opposition  to  the 
passing  of  the  bill  in  his  power.  Representations 
were  made  not  only  of  the  ample  rights  and  privi- 
leges granted  to  Conuecticutjby  charter,  but  that  they 
were  granted  for  important  considerations,  and  par- 
ticular services  performed  :  that  the  inhabitants,  at 
great  expense  and  danger,  had  purchased,  subdued, 
and  planted  an  extensive  country  ;  had  defended  it 
against  the  Dutch,  French,  and  other  enemies  ol 
the  nation;  had  enlarged  his  majesty's  dominions, 
and  increased  commerce,:  that  the  charter  not  only 
gave  the  inhabitants  powers  of  government,  but 
secured  the  title  of  their  lands  and  tenements;  and 
that,  under  these  circumstances,  the  passing  of  the 
bill  would  be  an  act  of  great  injustice  ;  would  be 
ruinous  to  the  colony,  and  prejudicial  to  the  gene- 
ral interest.  It  was  insisted,  that  it  would  be  still 
more  arbitrary  and  unjust,  as  the  colony  had  not 
been  even  accused  of  mal-administration,  piratical 
or  illegal  practices,  or  so  much  as  heard  on  the  sub- 
ject ;  and  it  was  pleaded,  that  the  colony  had  ever 
been  loyal  and  obedient,  and  if  any  irregularities  or 
inadvertencies  should  finally  be  found  ft  the  govern- 
ment, they  would,  on  the  first  notice  of  them,  un- 
doubtedly be  reformed.  At  the  same  time,  the  taking 
away  of  so  many  charters  was  at  once  calculated  to 
destroy  all  confidence  in  the  crown,  in  royal  patents 
and  promises  ;  to  discourage  all  further  enterprise  in 
settling  and  defending  the  country  ;  to  create  uni- 
versal discontent  and  disaffection  in  the  colonies; 
and  to  produce  effects  much  more  prejudicial  to  the 
nation,  than  any  of  those  which  were  then  matter  of 
complaint;  and  it  would  also  afford  an  alarming 
precedent  to  all  the  chartered  corporations  in  En- 
gland. These  various  considerations  operated  so 
powerfully  against  the  bill,  that  it  could  not  be 
carried  through  the  houses. 

Governor  Dudley  and  Lord  Cornbury,  however, 
were  not  discouraged.  They  determined  to  make  a 
more  open  and  powerful  opposition  to  the  charter 
rights  of  Connecticut ;  and  they  determined  as  much 
stress  had  been  laid  on  the  argument,  that  Con- 


necticut had  never  been  accused  of  .mal-administra- 
tion, piracy,  or  any  illegal  trade,  to  invalidate  it 
by  a  direct  impeachment  of  the  colony  of  high  mis- 
demeanors. They  were  both  powerful  enemies, 
and  the  colony  had  enemies  among  themselves.  Ni' 
cholas  Hallam,  Major  Palms,  Captain  Mason, 
Daniel  Clark,  and  others-,  had  either  appealed  to 
England  against  the  colony,  or  were  scheming  to 
possess  themselves  of  large  tracts  of  land,  and  for 
that  purpose,  were  encouraging  the  Moheagan  con- 
troversy. Hallam  had  appealed  to  England  against 
the  colony,  and  lost  his  cause ;  and  the  king,  in 
council,  had  established  the  judgment  given  against 
him  in  the  courts  of  Connecticut.  Major  Palms, 
who  had  married  the  daughter  of  John  Winthrop, 
Esq.,  the  first  governor  of  Connecticut,  under  the 
charter,  had  imagined  himself  injured  by  the  admi- 
nistrators on  the  governor's  estate,  and  had  brought 
an  action  against  them ;  and  losing  his  cause  before 
the  courts  in  this  colony,  he  had  appealed  to  En- 
gland. He  was  particularly  irritated  against1  the 
colony,  and  against  his  brother-in-law,  Fitz-John 
Winthrop,  Esq.,  then  governor  of  the  colony.  These 
malcontents  all  united  their  influence,  by  the  gross- 
est misrepresentations,  to  injure  the  colony  in  its 
most  essential  interests. 

Lord  Cornbury  was  poor,  and  not  unwilling  by 
any  means  to  get  money.  He  had  made  a  demand 
of  450£.  upon  the  colony,  for  the  defence  of  New 
York  ;  but  Connecticut  judged  that  it  was  not  their 
duty  to  comply  with  his  demand,  as  their  expenses 
already  were  as  great  as  the  colony  was  able  to  bear. 

Dudley  and  Cornbury,  therefore,  proceeded  to 
draw  up  articles  of  complaint  against  the  colony ; 
and  Dudley  employed  one  Bulkley  to  write  a  folio 
book,  which  he  termed  "  the  Doom  or  Miseries  of 
Connecticut;"  in  which  he  not  only  exceedingly 
misrepresented  and  criminated  the  colony,  but  ex- 
patiated on  the  advantages  of  a  general-governor  of 
New  England,  and  highly  recommended  the  govern- 
ment of  Sir  Edmund  Andross. 

Among  other  complaints,  the  principal  articles 
particularly  charged,  were,  summarily  these  :  that, 
the  governor  did  not  observe  the  acts  of  trade  and 
navigation,  but  encouraged  illegal  commerce  and 
piracy  :  that  the  colony  was  a  receptacle  of  pirates, 
encouraged  and  harboured  by  the  government :  that 
the  government  harboured  and  protected  soldiers, 
seamen,  servants,  and  malefactors,  who  made  their 
escape  from  other  places,  and  would  not  deliver 
them  up  when  demanded.  It  was  also  charged 
against  the  colony  that  it  harboured  great  numbers 
of  young  men  from  Massachusetts  and  New  York, 
where  they  were  obliged  to  pay  taxes  for  the  expenses 
of  the  war,  and  induced  them  to  settle  there,  princi- 
pally, because  it  imposed  no  taxes  for  that  purpose  : 
;hat  the  colony  would  not  furnish  their  quota  for  the 
fortification  of  Albany  and  New  York,  and  the  as- 
sistance of  Massachusetts  Bay,  against  the  French, 
and  Indians  :  and  that  if  any  of  her  majesty's  sub- 
"ects  of  the  other  colonies  sued  for  debt  in  any 
»f  the  courts  of  the  colony,  no  justice  could  be  done 
hem,  if  the  debt  were  against  any  of  its  inhabi- 
tants. It  was  also  charged,  that  Connecticut,  under 
the  colour  of  their  charter,  made  capital  laws ;  tried 
murders,  robberies,  and  other  crimes,  and  punished 
with  death  and  banishment ;  and  that  their  courts 
f  judicature  were  arbitrary  and  unjust ;  that  the 
egislature  would  not  suffer  the  laws  of  England  to 
)e  pleaded  in  their  courts,  unless  it  were  to  serve 
heir  own  purposes  :  that  they  had  refused  to  grant 
appeals  to  her  majesty  in  council,  and  had  given 


748 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


"great  vexation  to  those  who  had  demanded  them  : 
that  the  government  had  refused  to  submit  to  her 
majesty,  and  to  his  royal  highness's  commission  of 
vice  admiralty,  and  for  commanding  its  militia ; 
and  had  defeated  the  powers  which  had  been  given 
to  the  governors  of  her  majesty's  neighbouring 
colonies  for  that  purpose.  Finally,  it  was  charged 
that  the  legislature  had  made  a  law,  that  Christians, 
who  were  not  of  their  communion,  should  not  meet 
to  worship  God  without  licence  from  their  assembly, 
which  law  extended  even  to  the  church  of  England, 
as  well  as  to  Christians  of  other  denominations  tole- 
rated in  England. 

While  Governor  Dudley  was  thus  attempting  the 
ruin  of  the  colony  in  the  court  of  England,  he  kept 
up  the  appearance  of  the  most  entire  friendship  to- 
wards it,  in  this  country ;  and  in  a  letter,  of  about 
the  same  date  with  his  complaints,  thanked  the 
legislature  for  the  'great  supplies  which  they  had 
given  him  and  the  colony. 

The  general  assembly"  had  appointed  the  most  re- 
spectable committees,  and  taken  great  pains  to 
compromise  all  difficulties  with  Owaneco  and  the 
Moheagans;  and  though  they  had  made  repeated 
purchases  and  obtained  ample  deeds  of  their  lands, 
yet,  rather  than  have  any  uneasiness  among  the 
Indians,  they  offered  Owaneco  such  a  sum  of  money 
as  was  entirely  satisfactory  to  him  ;  but  Mason  and 
the  other  malcontents,  who  .wished  to  possess  the 
Indian  lands,  would  not  suffer  him  to  accept  it,  and 
frustrated  all  attempts  for  an  accommodation. 

While  Mason  and  other  enemies  were  practising 
these  arts  in  Connecticut,  Hallam,  assisted  by 
Dudley  and  his  party,  with  other  malcontents  on  both 
sides  of  the  water,  was  making  grievous  complaints 
in  England,  of  the  injustice  and  cruelty  of  the 
colony  towards  Owaneco,  in  driving  him  from  his 
lands,  and  depriving  the  Moheagans  even  of  their 
planting-grounds.  It  was  pretended,  that  in  the 
late  grant  and  patent  to  the  town  of  New  London, 
the  legislature  had  conveyed  away  all  his  lands  in 
that  quarter,  whereas  particular  care  was  taken, 
both  in  the  grant  and  patent,  to  secure  all  the  pro- 
perty and  privileges  of  the  Moheagans.  The  as- 
sembly had  taken  the  most  faithful  and  tender  care 
of  them,  from  the  first  settlement  of  the  colony  to 
that  time ;  and  according  to  their  agreement  with 
Major  Mason,  then  deputy-governor  of  the  colony, 
when  he  resigned  the  Moheagan  land  to  the  as- 
sembly, they  granted  him  a  farm  of  500  acres,  and 
it  was  laid  out  to  him  at  a  place  called  by  the  In- 
dians, Pomakuk.  They  had  also  reserved  a  fine 
tract  of  land,  of  between  4  and  5000  acres  to 
the  Moheagans  to  plant  on,  which  was  much  more 
than  sufficient  for  that  purpose;  but  the  repre- 
sentations which  these  evil-minded  men  were 
constantly  making  to  Owaneco  and  his  people,  at 
some  times  made  them  uneasy,  and  some  of  them 
probably  imagined  that  they  were  really  injured 
At  the  same  time,  the  affair  was  so  represented  in 
England,  as  made  impressions  on  the  minds  of  many 
very  unfavourable  to  the  colony. 
.  In  this  situation  of  affairs,  Hallam,  assisted  b) 
the  malcontents  in  England  and  America,  preferret 
a  complaint  and  petition  to  her  majesty,  Queen 
Anne,  representing,  that  the  sachems  of  the  Mo- 
heagan tribe  of  Indians  were  the  original  and  chie 
proprietors  of  all  the  lands  in  the  colony  :  that  the) 
were  a  great  people,  and  had  received  and  treatec 
the  first  planters  in  a  peaceable  and  friendly  manner 
that  for  an  inconsiderable  value,  they  had  granted 
their  lands  to  them,  reserving  to  themselves  a  smal 


arcel  only  for  planting-ground ;  and  that  the  gene- 
al  assembly  of  Connecticut  h*d  passed  an  act  by 
vhich  they  had  taken  that  from  them,  which,  until 
hat  time,  they  had  always  enjoyed.  For  these 
easons  it  was  prayed  that  her  majesty  would  appoint 
Commissioners  to  examine  into  all  these  matters, 
nd  into  all  the  other  injuries  and  violences  which 
lad  been  done  to  the  Moheagans,  and  to  determine 
respecting  them  according  to  equity. 

The  queen,  imposed  upon  and  deceived  by  these 
epresentations,  and  not  waiting  to  give  the  colony 
in  opportunity  to  be  heard,  on  the  19th  of  July, 
704,  granted  a  commission  to  Joseph  Dudley,  Esq., 
he  great  enemy  of  the  colony,  Thomas  Povey,  Esq., 
ieutenant-governor  of  Massachusetts,  Major  Ed- 
ward Palms,  and  others,  to  the  number  of  twelve, 
authorizing  them  to  hear  and  determine  the  whole 
affair,  reserving  liberty  to  either  to  appeal  to  her 
majesty  in  council. 

At  the  session  in  May,  a  respectable  committee 
was  appointed,  with  ample  powers,  to  examine  into 
all  the  complaints  of  Owaneco  and  the  Moheagan 
[ndians,  and  to  report  to  the  assembly  in  October. 
The  committee  appointed  time  and  place,  and  at- 
empted  to  accomplish  the  business  for  which  they 
lad  been  appointed  ;  but  Captain  Mason,  whom 
Owaneco  had  chosen  for  his  guardian,  had  skill 
enough  to  frustrate  the  design ;  by  making  a  journey 
:o  Boston,  at  the  very  time,  and  Owaneco  would  do 
nothing  without  him.  In  the  mean  time  the  com- 
mission was  granted  by  the  queen,  and  the  colony 
were  unhappily  drawn  into  a  long  and  expensive 
controversy. 

The  Masons  claimed  the  lands  purchased  by  their 
ancestor,  Deputy-governor  John  Mason,  by  virtue 
of  a  deed  given  to  him  by  Uncas,  in  1659,  while  he 
acted  as  agent  of  the  colony,  and  denied  the  legality 
of  the  surrender  which  he  had  made  of  them  in  the 
general  assembly,  the  next  year.  They  insisted, 
that  it  respected  nothing  more  than  the  jurisdiction 
right,  and  that  the  title  to  the  soil  was  vested  in 
their  family,  as  guardians  or  overseers  of  the  In- 
dians ;  but  while  they  pretended  great  concern  for 
the  Indians,  their  sole  object  was  to  hold  all  those 
lands  included  in  the  deed  for  themselves  and  others, 
who  had  united  with  them  in  prosecution  of  the  af- 
fair against  the  colony. 

Sir  Henry  Ashurst,  wishing  to  preserve  the  im- 
portant privileges  of  the  colony,  had  taken  pains  to 
postpone  the  hearing  of  the  complaints  against  it,  as 
far  as  possible,  that  the  governor  and  company  might 
have  intelligence  concerning  them,  and  send  their 
answer;  but  on  the  12th  of  February,  1705,  the 
hearing  came  on  before  her  majesty  in  council. 
Governor  Dudley  and  Lord  Cornbury  had  spared 
no  trouble  to  carry  their  point  before  her  majesty ; 
and  the  former  had  been  careful  to  procure  and  lay 
before  her  an  opinion  of  the  attorney-general,  in 
King  William's  reign,  "  that  he  might  send  a  go- 
vernor to  Connecticut."  Further,  to  prepare  the 
way  for  the  decision  which  he  wished,  he  procured 
another  opinion  of  the  attorney  and  solicitor-gene- 
ral, .respecting  the  case  of  Connecticut,  as  it  then 
appeared,  "  that  if  it  were  as  Governor  Dudley  had 
represented,  there  was  a  defect  in  the  government: 
that  the  colony  was  not  able  to  defend  itself,  and  in 
imminent  danger  of  being  possessed  by  the  queen's 
enemies  :  and  that  in  such  case,  the  queen  might 
send  a  governor  for  civil  and  military  government ; 
but  not  to  alter  the  laws  and  customs." 

The  queen  had  directed  Sir  Henry  to  appear  and 
show  reasons,  if  any  he  had,  why  she  should  not 


UNITED  STATES. 


749 


appoint  a  governor  over  the  colony  ;  and  as  he  con- 
sidered every  thing  dear  to  it  at  stake,  he  made 
exertions  in  some  measure  proportionate  to  the  mag- 
nitude of  the  cause.  Lord  Paget,  a  man  of  great 
influence,  was  his  brother  by  marriage,  and  he  was 
related  to,  or  intimately  connected  with  other  prin- 
cipal characters  at  court ;  and  he  obtained  all  the 
influence  which  he  possibly  could,  either  by  himself 
or  his  connexions,  in  favour  of  the  colony.  He  re- 
tained two  of  the  best  council  in  England ;  both 
members  of  parliament,  possessing  an  estate  of  a 
1000/.  a  year.  He  stood  firm  against  all  the  charges 
of  Dudley,  Lord  Cornbury,  Congreve,  and  others, 
against  the  colony,  and  by  his  counsel  for  an  hour 
and  a  half,  defended  it  against  all  the  art  and 
intrigue  of  its  adversaries,  and  all  the  law  learning 
and  eloquence  of  the  attorney  and  solicitor-general. 

As  Connecticut  was  entirely  ignorant  of  the 
charges  brought  against  it,  and  no  information  or 
evidence  could  be  thence  obtained,  Sir  Henry  and 
his  council  were  compelled  to  employ  such  means  as 
were  in  their  power.  They  amply  stated  the  rights 
and  privileges  granted  by  the  royal  charter,  the 
territory  it  conveyed,  and  the  powers  with  which  it 
vested  the  governor  and  company.  They  showed, 
that  these  patents  were  confirmed  by  a  non  obstante, 
and  were  always  to  be  construed  in  the  most  favourable 
light  for  the  grantees.  It  was  demonstrated,  that 
the  legislature  were  vested  with  ample  powers  to 
make  laws,  criminal  and  capital,  as  well  as  civil ; 
to  inflict  banishment,  death,  and  all  other  capital 
punishments,  in  all  capital  cases,  no  less  than  in 
others.  It  was  also  represented,  that  the  gover- 
nors, or  commanders  in  chief,  were,  by  charter, 
vested  with  plenary  powers  to  assemble  in  martial 
array,  and  put  in  warlike  posture  the  inhabitants  of 
the  'colony,  for  their  defence,  and  to  commission 
others  for  the  like  purposes.  It  was  also  clearly 
shown  that,  by  charter,  they  had  the  same  right  to 
fish,  trade,  and  do  all  other  business,  and  enjoy  all 
other  privileges,  by  land  and  sea,  which  any  other 
of  her  majesty's  subjects  had  a  right  to  do,  or  en- 
joy. It  was  therefore  urged,  that  all  those  matters, 
charged  against  the  colony,  respecting  their  making 
capital  laws,  and  inflicting  capital  punishments, 
whether  death  or  banishment,  were  no  crimes ;  but 
things  which  the  legislature  not  only  had  a  right, 
but  were  bound  in  faithfulness  to  do,  as  circum- 
stances might  require.  For  the  same  reason,  it 
was  also  insisted,  that  the  colonies  claiming  a  right 
to  command  their  own  militia,  and  defeating  the 
•designs  of  the  governors  of  the  other  colonies,  who 
wished  to  command  it,  were  no  crimes.  It  was  in- 
sisted, that  doing  them  was  no  more  than  defending 
themselves  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  legal  rights. 

With  respect  to  the  irregularity  and  injustice  of 
the  courts  in  Connecticut,  it  was  observed,  that  ge- 
neral charges  deserved  no  reply  :  that  it  did  not  ap- 
pear that  what  was  charged  was  any  thing  more 
than  mere  hearsay  and  clamour ;  but  it  was  pleaded 
that,  on  the  contrary,  they  had  substantial  evidence 
of  the  justice  of  the  courts  in  Connecticut.  That 
several  appeals  had  been  made  to  her  majesty,  from 
the  judgment  of  those  courts :  that  these  had  been 
different  cases,  and  in  every  instance  the  judgments 
given  by  the  courts  in  Connecticut  had  been  ap- 
proved by  her  majesty,  and  the  lords  committee  of 
council.  This,  it  was  said,  was  a  notable  evidence 
of  their  justice ;  and  that,  so  far  as  appeared,  there 
had  been  no  injustice  or  irregularity  in  any  one 
^ourt  iu  the  colony. 

With  respect  to  Governor  Dudley's  complaint, 


that  Connecticut  did  not  furnish  the  men  which  he 
demanded,  and  that  of  Lord  Cornbury,  that  it  did 
not  comply  with  his  demands  for  money,  it  was 
answered,  that  it  did  not  appear  from  the  charter, 
that  the  colony  was  obliged  to  comply  with  those 
requisitions:  that  the  governors  of  other  colonies 
had  no  right  to  command  the  legislature  and  people 
of  Connecticut;  and  that  they  were  under  no  obli- 
gations to  obey  them,  any  further  than  it  should  be 
required  by  her  majesty.  It  was  further  observed, 
with  respect  to  the  money,  that  it  appeared  from 
his  lordship's  letter,  that  the  general  assembly  of 
Connecticut  had  taken  the  requisition  into  their 
consideration,  and  had  determined  to  know  her  ma- 
jesty's pleasure,  before  they  gave  away  their  money. 
It  was  affirmed,  that  there  was  nothing  disloyal  in 
such  a  determination :  that  the  colony  had  a  right 
to  grant,  or  not  to  grant,  their  money,  as  they  judged 
it  expedient  or  not :  that  they  had  a  right  to  know 
the  purpose  for  which  they  granted  it;  and  that 
their  referring  it  to  her  majesty's  pleasure,  was  au 
implication  of  their  obedience  to  it,  whenever  it 
should  be  known. 

With  reference  to  Connecticut's  harbouring  de- 
serters, malefactors,  pirates,  and  the  like,  it  was 
observed,  that  it  was  a  general  charge  of  little 
weight,  and  deserved  no  answer.  It  was  affirmed 
to  be  a  common  thing,  even  in  England,  for  sol- 
diers and  others  to  go  from  one  country  into  another, 
and  not  to  be  found;  yet  it  might  not  be  any  crime 
or  fault  in  the  country  where  they  secreted  them- 
selves. As  to  Captain  Matthews's  finding  two  sol- 
diers at  Stamford,  and  sending  for  Majur  Silleck  to 
secure  them,  it  did  not  appear  that  there  was  the 
least  fault  in  the  major.  It  was  evident,  from  his 
lordship's  letter,  that  he  went  to  Stamford,  that  the 
soldiers  were  brought,  and  that,  while  the  major 
and  Matthews  were  conversing  together  in  a  pri- 
vate room,  they  made  their  escape.  It  was  said,  it 
might  be  more  the  fault  of  Matthews  than  of  Silleck; 
for  it  did  not  appear  that  Matthews  was  kept  there 
by  any  force  or  constraint,  but  was  examining  into 
the  affair,  or  talking  generally  upon  the  subject. 

With  relation  to  the  complaint  of  Lord  Cornbury, 
in  his  letter  of  June  1703,  "  that  he  laboured  under 
great  misfortunes,  in  relation  to  the  neighbouring 
provinces  :  that  the  coast  of  Connecticut  is  opposite 
to  two-thirds  of  Long  Island;  by  which  means  they 
filled  all  that  part  of  the  island  with  European 
goods,  cheaper  than  their  merchants  could,  because  . 
they  paid  duties,  and  those  of  Connecticut  paid 
none ;  nor  would  they  be  subject  to  the  acts  of  na- 
vigation ;  by  which  means  there  had  been  no  trade  be- 
tween the  city  of  New  York  and  the  east  end  of  Long 
Island,  from  whence  the  greatest  part  of  the  whale 
oil  came ;  and  that  it  was  difficult  to  persuade  those 
people  that  they  belonged  to  that  province,"  it  was 
replied,  that  there  appeared  to  be  no  fault  in  Con- 
necticut in  this  respect.  It  was  maintained,  that 
the  inhabitants  had  a  right  to  trade  where  they 
pleased,  if  it  were  not  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  Eng- 
land. It  also  was  pleaded,  that  there  was  no  evidence 
that  they  had  been  guilty  of  any  illegal  trade  or 
practices ;  and  that  they  were  a  poor  people,  and 
carried  on  little  trade. 

In  a  letter  of  the  same  date  with  the  former  his 
lordship  had  observed,  "  that  he  was  satisfied  this 
vast  continent,  which  might  be  made  very  useful  to 
England,  if  right,  measures  were  taken,  would  never 
be  so,  till  all  the  propriety  and  charter  governments 
were  brought  under  the  crown."  To  this  it  was  re- 
plied, that  this  might,  or  it  might  not  be  the  case ; 


750 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


that  the  same,  as  circumstances  might  be,  might  be 
said  of  all  the  charters  in  England. 

It  was,  however,  much  insisted  on,  that  the  at- 
torney and  solicitor-general  had  reported,  "  that 
her  majesty  might  appoint  a  governor  for  Connec- 
ticut." To  this  the  council  for  the  colony  answered, 
that  the  report  was  hypothetical,  founded  on  the 
supposition  that  the  colony  was  not  able  to  defend 
itself,  and  was  in  danger  of  falling  into  the  hands  of 
her  majesty's  enemies ;  but  that  there  was  no  evi- 
dence of  these  facts.  It  did  not  appear,  they  said, 
that  Connecticut  was  in  a  more  defenceless  state, 
or  in  greater  danger  of  becoming  a  prey  to  her  ma- 
jesty's enemies  than  any  of  the  other  colonies  ;  and 
it  was  pleaded,  that  the  attorney  and  solicitor-ge- 
neral had  not  reported,  that  either  of  these  was  t'nt. 
case,  and  therefore  their  opinion  could  not  be  made 
a  plea  for  sending  a  governor  to  Connecticut. 

Further,  it  was  strenuously  maintained,  that  it 
was  an  essential  right  of  every  individual  and  cor- 
poration to  be  heard  before  they  were  condemned  ; 
and  that  the  governor  and  company  of  Connecticut 
ought  to  be  heard  upon  the  articles  exhibited  against 
them,  before  any  judgmentbe  formed  respecting  them. 
It  was  observed,  that  governors,  who,  by  enlarging 
their  own  territories,  might  increase  their  honours 
and  profits,  were  apt  to  complain :  that  they  were 
under  peculiar  temptations,  especially  at  such  a  dis- 
tance, where  it  was  so  difficult  to  make  inquiry,  and 
obtain  the  truth:  that  there  was  more  reason  to 
suspect  the  governors  complaining,  than  the  gover- 
nor of  Connecticut,  who  acted  with  a  council  and 
an  assembly.  It  was  therefore  affirmed,  that  there 
was  every  reason  that  the  colony  should  be  heard 
in  its  own  defence.  If  either  the  governor  of  New 
England  or  New  York  were  impeached,  and  the 
same  complaints  made  against  them,  said  the  coun- 
sel, which  they  have  brought  against  Connecticut, 
her  majesty  would  do  nothing  with  respect  to  them 
until  they  had  been  heard.  It  would  be  contrary 
to  all  law  and  reason ;  much  more  so,  to  treat  a 
whole  colony  in  this  manner,  in  a  case  in  which 
their  charter  might  be  forfeited,  and  their  fortunes 
ruined.  It  was  observed,  that  governors  appointee 
during  pleasure,  often  committed  barbarous  acts  to 
enrich  themselves;  and  that  they  had  nothing  to 
lose  but  their  office ;  whereas  the  colony  of  Connec 
ticut  was  of  great  substance,  and  had  every  thing  t< 
lose :  that  even  in  ordinary  cases,  in  which  th< 
character  and  property  of  one  man  only  were  con 
cerned,  nothing  was  determined,  but  upon  sufficien 
evidence,  given  upon  oath,  and  that  it  could  never  b< 
reasonable  to  condemn  a  colony  upon  mere  sugges 
tions  :  that  it  might  appear,  upon  a  full  examination 
that  the  governor  of  Connecticut  was  much  bette 
qualified  to  govern  than  the  governor  of  New  Yorl 
or  Massachusetts.  It  was  therefore  pleaded,  tha 
the  articles  of  complaint  might  be  sent  to  the  gover 
nor  and  company  of  Connecticut,  and  that  the; 
might  have  an  opportunity  to  answer  for  themselves 
that  there  could  be  no  danger  in  this ;  and  if  an 
irregularities  should  be  found  in  the  management  o 
their  government,  they  would  most  certainly  reforr 
and  obey  her  majesty's  commands. 

Upon  this  full  hearing,  it  was  determined  that  th 
lords  of  trade  should  draw  out  the  principal  article 
of  complaint,  and  send  a  copy  of  them  to  the  gover 
nor  of  Connecticut,  and  to  the  two  principal  com 
plainants,  Governor  Dudley  and  Lord  Cornbury 


overnor  Dudley  and  Lord  Cornbury  were  also  di- 
jcted  to  transmit   their  evidence   of  the   articles 
Barged,  publicly  and  legally  taken. 
By  this  means,  Dudley,  Cornbury,  and  their  abet- 
rs,  were  caught  in  their  own  snare,  their  selfish- 
ess  and  duplicity  were  made  to  appear,  in  a  strong 
oint  of  light,  and  their  whole  scheme  at  once  totally 
uined.     They  were   totally  unable  to  support  the 
larges  which  they  had  brought  against  the  colony, 
t  the   same   time,  the   legislature  of  Connecticut 
ould  produce  the  most  substantial  evidence,  that 
ic  very  reverse  of  what  had  been  pretended,  was  true, 
'hey  had  the  last,  and  this  year  between  500  and 
00  men  in  actual  service.     Four  hundred  of  this 
umber  had  been  employed,  principally  in  the  de- 
ence  of  Massachusetts  and  New  York.     The  com- 
ittee  of  war,  consisting  of  the  governor,  most  of 
ie  council,  and  other  principal  men  in  the  colony, 
ad  met,  with  officers  and  commissioners  from  Mas- 
achusetts,  and  most  harmoniously  united  with  them 
n  opinion,  and  measures  for  the  common  defence, 
legislature  were  not  only  able  to  prove  these 
acts,  from  the  records  of  the  colony,  and  from  the 
esolutions  of  the  committee  of  war,  but  what  was 
till  more  confounding  to  Governor  Dudley,  to  pro- 
luce  a  letter  of  his,  under  his  own  hand  and  signa- 
ure,  acknowledging  their  generous  and  prompt  as- 
iistance  in  the  war,  and  thanking  them  for  the  aid 
which   they   had  given   him.     They  produced  sub- 
stantial evidence,  that  when  they  had  scarcely  20001. 
n   circulating  medium,   in  the   whole  colony,  they 
lad,  in  three  years,  expended  more  than  that  sum 
n  the  defence  of  her  majesty's  provinces  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  New  York.     They  were  able  to  evince, 
that   they   had  shown   the  utmost  loyalty    and  at- 
tachment to  the  queen ;  been  punctual  in  their  ob- 
servance of  the  acts  of  trade  and  navigation ;  had 
not  been  pirates  themselves,  nor  at  any  time  har- 
aoured    pirates,   deserters,    servants,   or   criminals 
among  them. 

With  respect  to  appeals  to  her  majesty,  the  le- 
gislature affirmed,  that  they  had  not  refused  to  ad- 
ult them,  only  in  cases  in  which  proper  security,  or 
sufficient  bondsmen  had  not  been  offered.  In  the 
of  Major  Palms,  which  seem  to  have  been 
the  only  instances  of  which  complaint  had  been 
made,  the  court  judged  that  the  security  offered  was 
insufficient.  The  men  who  offered  themselves  to 
be  bound  appeared  to  have  little  or  no  property. 
As  to  the  vexations  complained  of,  these  respected 
the  obtaining  of  copies  of  the  judgments  of  the 
courts  in  his  case.  It  seems  he  applied  to  the  as- 
sembly for  them,  but  the  assembly  declined  giving 
them,  insisting  that  it  was  not  their  province  to 
give  copies  of  the  doings  of  other  courts.  He  was 
therefore  referred  to  the  courts  in  which  the  judg- 
ments had  been  given. 

In  the  appeals  of  Major  Palms,  and  in  all  other 
instances,  the  judgments  of  the  courts  in  Connecti- 
cut were  finally  established;  and  upon  a  full  exa- 
raination  of  the  complaints,  they  appeared  not  only 
groundless,  but  invidious.  The  loyalty,  justice,  and 
honour  of  the  colony  appeared  more  conspicuous 
than  they  had  done  before :  but  it  was  some  time 
before  the  evidence  of  the  true  state  of  the  case 
could  be  collected  and  transmitted  to  England. 

Meanwhile,  Dudley  and  Cornbury  never  lost 
sight  of  their  object,  but  vigorously  prosecuted  the 
design  of  subverting  the  government.  There  had 


and  that  Connecticut  should  send  their  answer,  with  j  been,  nearly  50  years  before,  a  law  enacted  against 
evidence  respecting  the  several  articles,  legally  j  the  quakers,  but  it  does  not  appear  that  it  had  ever 
taken,  and  sealed  with  the  public  seal  of  the  colony,  been  acted  upon  in  Connecticut,  and  was,  at  that 


UNITED  STATES. 


751 


time,  become  obsolete.  It  appears  'by  a  letter  of 
the  governor's,  to  Sir  Henry  Ashurst,  that  he  did 
not  know  of  one  person,  then  in  the  colony,  who 
was  acknowledged  to  be  a  quaker;  but  Governor 
Dudley,  by  some  means,  obtained  a  copy  of  the  law, 
and  procured  a  publication  of  it  in  Boston.  The 
knowledge  of  it  was  communicated  to  the  quakers 
in  England,  and  they  were  incited  to  petition  for  a 
repeal  of  the  law  of  Connecticut  against  the  qua- 
kers. A  petition,  about  the  beginning  of  April,  was 
preferred  to  her  majesty  on  the  subject,  reciting  this 
law,  and  representing,  that  it  was  calculated  to  ex- 
tirpate their  friends  from  that  part  of  her  majesty's 
dominion,  and  praying  that  she  would  disallow  the 
said  law.  Sir  Henry  Ashurst  presented  a  petition 
to  the  lords  of  trade  and  plantation,  to  whom  the 
petition  of  the  quakers  had  been  referred,  praying 
them  to  advise  her  majesty  to  come  to  no  determi- 
nation on  the  subject,  until  the  colony  should  have 
notice  of  the  petition,  and  have  time  to  send  their 
answer.  He  represented,  that  the  law  was  made 
against  Adamites  and  Ranters  :  that  it  was  become 
obsolete,  and  quakers  lived  as  peaceably  in  Connec- 
ticut as  in  any  of  her  majesty's  plantations.  He  re- 
presented to  their  lordships,  that  there  had  been 
more  complaints  exhibited  against  this  poor  colony, 
in  three  or  four  years,  without  any  crime  proved, 
than  had  been  before  from  the  time  of  its  first  settle- 
ment, which  made  him  believe  that  there  were  dis- 
affected persons,  who  were  attempting  by  all  means 
to  make  them  weary  of  their  charter  government : 
that  before  the  appointment  of  a  certain  governor 
for  New  England,  the  colony  had  enjoyed  uninter- 
rupted peace  for  many  years,  and  would  have  done 
to  that  time,  had  it  not  been  for  his  misrepresenta- 
tions. He  assured  them,  that  he  had  been  informed 
that  Governor  Dudley  had,  about  two  years  before, 
ordered  the  act  against  the  quakers  to  be  printed  in 
Boston,  on  purpose  that  the  quakers  in  England 
might  join  with  his  other  instruments  in  clamours 
against  Connecticut,  to  deprive  it  of  its  charter  pri- 
vileges. 

Her  majesty,  upon  the  advice  of  the  lords  of 
trade  and  plantations,  declared  the  act  against  the 
quakers  null  and  void,  without  giving  the  colony  a 
hearing. 

Sir  Henry  Ashurst,  writing  to  the  colony  soon 
after,  says,  "  You  see  how  you  are  every  way  at- 
tacked." 

The  enemies  of  the  colony  in  Connecticut  and 
New  England  were  no  less  active  than  those  on  the 
other  side  of  the  water.  As  they  had  obtained  a 
commission  for  the  trial  of  the  case  between  Connec- 
ticut and  the  Moheagans,  they  spared  no  pains  to 
carry  their  point;  and  on  the  5th  of  July,  1705, 
Captain  John  Chandler,  in  behalf  of  Owaneco, 
Captain  Samuel  Mason,  Hallam,  and  others,  who 
interested  themselves  in  recovering  the  lands  from 
the  colony,  began  the  survey  of  the  Moheagan 
country,  and  having  accomplished  the  work,  drew 
a  map  of  it,  with  a  view  to  the  trial,  before  Dudley's 
court,  which  was  approaching.  The  governor  sent 
an  officer  and  prohibited  his  entering  upon  the  sur- 
vey ;  but  the  party  gave  large  bonds  to  indemnify 
him,  and  he  proceeded  notwithstanding.  The  boun- 
daries, as  surveyed  and  reported  by  Chandler,  Cap- 
tain John  Parke,  Edward  Culver,  and  Samuel 
S terry,  who  assisted  him,  were  on  the  south  from  a 
large  rock  in  Connecticut  river,  near  eight  mile 
island  in  the  bounds  of  Lyme,  eastward,  through 
Lyme,  New  London,  and  Grotou,  to  Ah-yo-sup- 
suck,  a  pond  in  the  north-eastern  part  of  Stoning- 


ton ;  on  the  east,  from  this  pond  northward,  to 
Mah-man-suck,  another  pond,  thence  to  Egunk- 
sank-a-poug,  whetstone  hills ;  from  thence  to  Man- 
hum-squeeg,  the  whetstone  country.  From  this 
boundary,  the  line  ran  south-west  a  few  miles  to  Ac- 
quiunk,  the  upper  falls  in  Quinibaug  river.  Thence 
the  line  ran  a  little  north  of  west,  through  Pomfret, 
Ashford,  Willington,  and  Tolland,  to  Mo-she-nup- 
suck,  the  notch  of  the  mountain,  now  known  to  be 
the  notch  in  Bolton  mountain.  From  thence  the 
line  ran  southerly,  through  Bolton,  Hebron,  and 
East  Haddam,  to  the  first-mentioned  bounds.  This 
it  appears  was  the  Pequot  country,  to  the  whole  of 
which  the  Moheagans  laid  claim,  after  the  conquest 
of  the  Pequot  nation,  except  some  part  of 'New 
London,  Groton,  and  Stonington,  which  had  been 
the  chief  seat  of  that  warlike  tribe.  The  Mohea- 
gans claimed  this  tract  as  their  hereditary  country, 
and  the  Wabbequ asset  territory,  which  lay  north 
of  it,  they  claimed  by  virtue  of  conquest. 

On  the  23rd  of  August,  1705,  the  court  of  com- 
missioners, appointed  by  her  majesty,  to  examine 
into  the  affair  of  the  Moheagan  lands,  convened  at 
Stonington.  Writs  had  been  previously  issued, 
summoning  the  governor  and  company,  with  the 
claimers  of  lands  in  controversy,  and  all  parties  con- 
cerned, to  attend  at  time  and  place.  The  court 
consisted  of  Joseph  Dudley,  Esq.,  president,  Edward 
Palms,  Giles  Sylvester,  Jahleel  Brenton,  Nathaniel 
Byfield,  Thomas  Hooker,  James  Avery,  John 
Avery,  John  Morgan,  and  Thomas  Leffingwell. 

It  seems  that  the  governor  and  general  assembly  of 
Connecticut  had  not  been  served  with  a  copy  of  the 
commission,  by  which  the  court  was  instituted,  and 
viewed  it  as  a  court  of  inquiry  only,  to  examine 
and  make  report  to  her  majesty,  and  not  to  try  and 
determine  the  title  of  the  lands  in  dispute.  The 
committee  appointed  by  the  assembly,  to  appear 
before  the  court,  were  conditionally  instructed. 
Provided  the  court  was  instituted  for  inquiry  only, 
they  were  to  answer  and  show  the  unreasonableness 
of  the  Moheagan  claims,  and  the  false  light  in  which 
the  affair  had  been  represented ;  but  if  the  design 
was  to  determine  with  respect  to  the  title  of  the  co- 
lony, they  were  directed  to  enter  their  protest  against 
the  court,  and  withdraw.  All  inhabitants  of  the  co- 
lony, personally  interested  in  any  of  the  lands  in 
controversy,  were  forbidden  to  plead  or  make  any 
answer  before  the  court. 

Governor  Winthron  addressed  the  following  letter 
to  the  president. 

"  New  London,  August  21st,   1705. 

"  Sir, — I  understand  by  your  excellency's  letter 
of  July  3()th,  your  intentions  to  be  at  Stonington, 
on  the  23d  instant,  to  hear  the  complaints  of  Owa- 
neco against  this  government.  I  have,  therefore, 
in  obedience  to  her  majesty's  commands,  directed 
and  empowered  William  Pitkin,  John  Chester,  Elea- 
zar  Kimberly,  Esquires,  Major  William  Whiting, 
Mr.  John  Elliot,  and  Mr.  Richard  Lord, 'to  wait  on 
your  excellency,  and  show  the  unreasonableness  of 
those  complaints,  and  the  unpardonable  affront  put 
upon  her  majesty,  by  that  false  representation,  and 
the  great  trouble  to  yourself  thereby ;  and  I  con- 
clude, in  a  short  hearing,  your  excellency  will  be 
able  to  represent  to  her  majesty,  that  those  com- 
plaints are  altogether  groundless.  The  gentlemen 
shall  assist  your  excellency's  inquiry,  in  summon- 
ing such  persons  as  you  shall  please  to  desire,  and 
all  things  else,  reserving  the  honour  and  privileges 
of  the  government." 

When  the  committee  came  before  the  court,  they 


752 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


perceived  that  they  determined  to  try  the  title  of  the 
colony  to  the  lands,  and  judicially  to  decide  the 
whole  controversy ;  and  they  resolved,  therefore, 
not  to  make  any  answer  or  plea  before  them,  but  to 
protest  against  their  proceedings.  The  protest  is 
entered  as  follows  : — 

"  To  his  excellency,  Joseph  Dudley,  Esq.,  cap- 
tain-general and  governor-in -chief  of  her  ma- 
jesty's colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  &c. 

"  We,  the  commissioners  of  her  majesty's  colony 
of  Connecticut,  are  obliged,  by  our  instructions  from 
this  government,  to  certify  your  excellency,  that, 
in  obedience  to  her  majesty's  commands  to  this  co- 
lony, we  are  ready  to  show  the  injustice  of  those  com- 
plaints against  the  government,  made  by  Owaneco, 
to  her  majesty  in  council,  if  your  excellency  sees 
good  that  the  complaints  be  produced,  (provided  the 
commissioners  mentioned  in  her  majesty's  commis- 
sion, with  your  excellency,  be  qualified  to  act  as 
members  of  the  court  of  inquiry  constituted  thereby,) 
that'so  your  excellency  and  commissioners  may,  upon 
inquiry,  be  enabled  to  make  such  a  true  and  just  re- 
port of  the  matters  of  fact,  mentioned  in  said  com- 
plaints to  her  majesty,  as  you  shall  see  meet.  But 
if  your  excellency  (as  appears  to  us,)  does  construe 
any  expressions  'in  the  said  commission,  so  as  to 
empower  the  said  commissioners,  by  themselves,  to 
inquire  and  judicially  determine  concerning  the 
matter  in  controversy,  mentioned  in  the  said  com- 
plaint, concerning  the  title  of  land  or  trespass,  and 
do  resolve  to  proceed  accordingly,  as  we  cannot  but 
judge  it  to  be  contrary  to  her  majesty's  most  just 
and  legal  intentions,  in  said  commission ;  so  we 
must  declare  against  and  prohibit  all  such  proceed- 
ings, as  contrary  to*  law  and  to  the  letters  patent 
under  the  great  seal  of  England,  granted  to  this  her 
majesty's  colony,  and  contrary  to  her  majesty's 
order  to  this  government,  concerning  the  said  com- 
mission "and  complaint,  as  well  as  to  the  krroivn 
rights  of  her  majesty's  subjects,  throughout  all  her 
dominions,  and  such  as  we  cannot  allow  of.  We 
only  add,  that  it  seems  strange  to  us,  that  your  ex- 
cellency should  proceed  in  such  a  manner,  without 
first  communicating  your  commission  to  the  general 
assembly  of  this  her  majesty's  colony. 

"  WILLIAM  PITKIN,  &c. 

«'  August  24th,  1705." 

The  inhabitants  who  had  deeds  of  the  lands  in 
controversy,  made  default  as  well  as  the  colony  ;  but 
the  court  proceeded  to  an  exparte  hearing.  Owaneco, 
Mason,  Hallam,  and  their  council,  produced  such 
papers  and  evidence,  and  made  such  representations 
as  they  pleased,  without  any  person  to  confront 
them;  and  after  such  a  partial  hearing  of  one  day 
only,  the  court  determined  against  the  colony,  and 
adjudged  to  Owaneco  and  the  Moheagans  a  tract  of 
land  called  Massapeag,  lying  in  the  town  of  New 
London ;  and  another  tract  of  about  1 100  acres  in 
the  northern  part  of  the  town,  which  the  assembly 
had  granted  as  an  addition  to  that  township,  in 
1703.  The  court  also  adjudged  to  them  a  tract  in 
the  town  of  Lyme,  two  miles  in  breadth,  and  nine 
miles  in  length,  with  the  whole  tract  contained  in 
the  town  of  Colchester.  The  court  ordered  Connec- 
ticut immediately  to  restore  all  those  lands  to  Owa- 
neco, and  filed  a  bill  of  cost  against  the  colony  of 
573J.  12*.  8d.  Thus  a  cause  of  such  magnitude,  in 
which  the  essential  interests  of  a  whole  colony,  and  the 
fortunes  of  hundreds  of  individuals,  were  concerned, 
was  carried  wholly  by  intrigue  and  the  grossest  mis- 
representations. The  commission  was  granted  by 
her  majesty,  upon  an  ex  parts  hearing,  upon  the 


representation  of  the  enemies  of  the  colony;  and  the 
men  who  carried  on  the  intrigue,  were  appointed 
judges  in  their  own  case.  Without  hearing  the  case, 
contrary  to  all  reason  and  justice,  they  gave  judg- 
ment against  the  colony,  and  hundreds  of  indivi- 
duals ;  and  they  gave  away  lands  holden  by  con- 
quest, purchased,  ancient  deeds  from  the  original 
proprietors,  well  executed  and  recorded  by  charter, 
acts,  and  patents  from  the  assembly,  and  by  long 
possession.  The  chief  judge  had  been  using  all  his 
art  and  influence  to  ruin  the  colony,  and  was  now 
supposed  to  be  scheming  fora  portion  of  its  lands,  as 
well  as  for  the  government ;  Major  Palms  had  been 
a  long  time  in  controversy  with  the  colony,  was  ex- 
ceedingly imbittered  against  it,  and  against  the  go- 
vernor, his  brother-in-law ;  and  others  of  the  com- 
missioners were  supposed  to  be  confederate  with 
Mason  and  Clarke,  and  interested  in  the  lands  in 
controversy.  Hallam,  Clarke,  and  several  of  the 
commissioners  were  witnesses  and  judges  in  their 
own  cause,  and  heard  themselves,  and  no  others. 
Owaneco  was  placed  in  state  on  the  right  hand  of 
the  president,  and  the  colony  were  treated  worse 
than  criminals. 

After  the  court  had  given  judgment  against  the 
colony,  on  the  24th  of  August,  they  spent  three 
days  in  hearing  such  complaints  as  Owaneco,  Ma- 
son, and  other  persons  interested  in  the  lands,  or 
inimical  to  the  colony,  were  pleased  to  make  ;  and 
when  they  had  heard  all  the  complaints  and  misre- 
presentations which  they  had  to  make,  they  repre- 
sented to  her  majesty,  that  Owaneco  complained  he 
was  disseised  of  a  tract  of  land,  containing  about 
7000  acres,  called  Mamaquaog,  lying  northward  of 
Windham  ;  of  another  tract  called  Plainfield,  and 
considerable  skirts  and  parcels  of  land,  encroached 
upon  and  taken  in  by  the  towns  of  Lebanon,  Wind- 
ham,  and  Canterbury.  The  court  prohibited  all  her 
majesty's  subjects  fron  entering  upon,  or  improving 
any  of  those  lands,  until  a  further  hearing  and  de- 
termination of  the  case ;  and  further,  in  the  pleni- 
tude of  their  power,  they  appointed  Captain  John 
Mason  to  be  trustee  or  guardian  to  Owaneco  and 
his  people,  and  to  manage  all  their  affairs ;  and  they 
represented,  from  the  evidence  of  Major  James 
Fitch  and  Captain  John  Mason,  that  the  colony  had 
left  the  Indians  no  land  to  plant  on,  and  that  they 
consisted  of  150  warriors,  100  of  whom  had  been 
in  the  actual  service  of  the  country  that  very  year. 

These  Indians  were  enlisted,  and  sent  out  by  the 
colony  of  Connecticut,  and  went  as  cheerfully  into 
service  this  year  as  they  had  done  at  any  time  be- 
fore;  which  gave  demonstrative  evidence," that  there 
was  no  general  uneasiness  among  the  Moheagans. 
Had  there  been,  two-thirds  of  their  warriors  would 
not  have  enlisted  into  the  service  of  the  government; 
and  indeed  Owaneco  himself  was  uneasy  only  when 
the  Masons,  Clarke,  Fitch,  Hallam,  and  others, 
made  him  so ;  who  were  scheming  to  deprive  him 
and  the  Moheagans  of  their  lands.  So  far  was  it 
from  being  true,  that  Connecticut  had  injured  them, 
or  taken  their  lands  from  them,  they  had  treated 
them  with  great  kindness,  defended  them  by  their 
arms,  and  at  their  own  expense,  and  prevented 
their  being  orerpowered  by  their  enemies.  They 
had  left  them  a  fine  tract  of  land,  of  between  4  and 
5000  acres,  between  New  London  and  Norwich ; 
and  both  in  the  grant  and  patent  to  New  London, 
there  was  an  express  reservation  of  all  the  rights 
and  property  of  the  Indians.  The  colony  had  not 
only  reserved  lands  for  the  Moheagans,  but  for  all 
other  Indians  in  it,  to  plant  upon;  and  suffered 


UNITED  STATES. 


753 


them  to  hunt,  fish,  and  fowl  in  all  parts  of  it,  and 
even  to  build  their  wigwams,  and  cut  such  wood 
and  timber  as  they  needed,  in  any  of  their  unin- 
closed  lands. 

Dudley's  court,  having  finished  such  business  as 
was  agreeable  to  its  wishes,  adjourned  until  the  next 
May ;  but  it  never  met  again  ;  and  before  that  time, 
the  intrigue  and  duplicity  of  Governor  Dudley  and 
the  malcontents  became  so  evident,  that  all  their 
designs  were  frustrated. 

The  assembly,  at  their  session  in  October,  ap- 
pointed a  committee  to  examine  into  all  matters  re- 
specting the  Indians,  and  the  complaints  which  had 
been  made  against  the  colony,  and,  as  soon  as  pos- 
sible, to  transmit  a  particular  and  full  answer  to 
their  agent.  They  were  instructed  fully  to  ac- 
quaint him  with  a  true  statement  of  the  Moheagan 
case,  and  of  the  whole  management  of  Dudley  and 
his  court.  They  were  to  represent  that  Dudley, 
Palms,  and  others  of  the  commissioners,  were  in- 
terested, and  parties  in  the  cause,  and  to  insist, 
that  the  manner  in  which  the  commission  was  pro- 
cured to  Governor  Dudley,  Major  Palms,  and 
others,  was  matter  of  intrigue,  and  the  whole  pro- 
cess arbitrary  and  illegal. 

Sir  Henry  Ashurst,  on  receiving  the  papers  rela- 
tive to  the  case,  presented  a  petition  to  her  majesty, 
representing  the  title  of  the  colony  to  all  the  lands 
in  controversy,  by  conquest,  purchase,  royal  charter, 
long  possession  and  improvement;  and  further, 
that  Uncas,  when  the  English  became  first  ac- 
quainted with  him,  was  a  revolted  Pequot,  expelled 
his  country,  and  had  not  a  sufficient  number  of  men 
to  make  a  hunt;  and  that  the  lands  reserved  to 
him  were  not  reserved  to  him  in  consequence  of  any 
right  of  his,  but  was  a  matter  of  mere  permission  : 
that  Joseph  Dudley,  Esq.,  Hallam,  Palms,  the  Ave- 
rys,  Morgan,  and  Leffingwell,  had  grants  of  several 
parts  of  the  controverted  lands,  and,  in  their  own 
names,  or  in  the  name  of  John  Mason,  were  at- 
tempting to  set  up  their  titles  to  them :  that  Dud- 
ley and  Hallam,  by  misrepresentation,  had  obtained 
a  commission  from  her  majesty,  by  surprise,  under 
the  great  seal  of  England,  directed  to  the  said  Dud- 
ley, Palms,  the  two  Averys,  Morgan,  Leffingwell, 
and  others,  most  of  whom  were  of  Dudley's  and 
Hallam's  denomination,  and  under  his  influence; 
and  that  in  the  court,  thus  instituted,  they  were  the 
accusers,  parties,  and  judges:  that  they  had  assumed 
to  themselves  jurisdiction,  in  a  summary  way,  to 
try  her  majesty's  petitioners'  titles  to  their  lands, 
and  to  evict  and  disseise  them  of  their  freeholds, 
properties,  and  ancient  possessions,  without  any 
legal  process,  or  so  much  as  the  form  of  a  trial. 
All  which,  it  was  represented,  tended  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  all  the  rights  of  the  colony,  and  was  directly 
contrary  to  divers  acts  of  parliament,  made  and 
provided  in  such  cases ;  and  the  agent,  therefore, 
in  behalf  of  the  colony,  appealed  from  the  judgment 
of  the  said  court  to  her  majesty,  in  council,  and 
prayed  that  the  case  might  be  heard  before  her. 

In  consequence  of  this  petition,  her  majesty, 
some  time  after,  appointed  a  commission  of  review ; 
and  the  affair  was  kept  in  agitation  nearly  70  years ; 
but  it  was  always,  upon  a  legal  hearing,  determined 
in  favour  of  the  colony.  The  final  decision  was  by 
Gi-orge  the  Third,  in  council. 

The  commissioners  of  review,  in  174.3,  not  only 
determined  the  title  of  the  lands  to  be  in  the  colony 
of  Connecticut,  but  "  That  the  governor  and  com- 
pany had  treated  the  said  Indians  with  much  hu- 
manity at  all  times ;  and  had,  at  all  times,  provided 

HIST.  OF  AMEB. — Nos.  95  £  96. 


them  with  a  sufficiency,  at  least,  of  lands  to  plant 
on ;  and  that  no  act,  or  thing  appeared,  either  be- 
fore the  judgment  of  Joseph  Dudley,  Esq.  or  since, 
by  which  they,  the  said  governor  and  company,  had 
taken  from  the  Indians,  or  from  their  sachem,  any 
tracts  of  land  to  which  the  Indians  or  their  sachem 
had  any  right,  by  reservation,  or  otherwise,  either 
in  law  or  equity." 

The  agent  of  the  colony  petitioned  her  majesty 
in  its  behalf,  to  hear  the  complaints  exhibited  by 
Governor  Dudley  and  his  accomplices,  that  it  might 
have  an  opportunity  of  demonstrating  how  false  and 
groundless  they  were ;  and  he  also  prayed,  that  as 
Dudley  had  surprise^  her,  to  grant  a  commission  of 
high  powers  to  the  subversion  of  the  rights  of  her 
loyal  subjects,  and  contrary  to  her  gracious  inten- 
tions towards  them,  and  had  abused  her  name  and 
authority  to  serve  his  own  dark  designs,  that  her 
majesty  would,  in  some  exemplary  manner,  dis- 
countenance the  said  Dudley  and  his  abettors. 

However,  it  does  not  appear  that  Dudley  or  Lord 
Cornbury  were  ever  obliged  to  bring  forward  any 
evidence  in  support  of  the  charges  which  they  had 
exhibited,  or  that  her  majesty,  by  any  public  act, 
discountenanced  their  intrigue  and  falsehood.  They 
had  such  powerful  friends  at  court,  that  they  seem 
to  have  palliated,  and  kept  the  affair,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, out  of  public  view;  and  it  seems  to  have  been 
passed  by  without  any  further  examination. 

There  was  no  alteration  made  in  the  legislature 
at  the  election  in  1706. 

The  assembly  adopted  the  same  measures  for  the 
defence  of  Connecticut  and  the  neighbouring  colo- 
nies, which  they  had  done  the  year  preceding;  and 
the  same  officers  were  appointed,  and  the  same 
number  of  men  sent  into  the  field. 

The  colony  had  assurances  from  their  agent,  Sir 
Henry  Ashurst,  that  they  had  a  clear  right  to  com- 
mand their  own  militia;  that  the  governors  of  the 
neighbouring  colonies  had  no  right  to  command 
their  men,  or  money;  and  that  this  was  the  opinion 
of  the  best  council  in  the  nation.  He  also  assured 
them,  that  they  were  under  no  obligations  to  them, 
to  do  any  thing  more,  than  to  furnish  such  quotas 
as  her  majesty  should  require. 

At  the  session  in  October,  the  assembly  passed 
the  following  act  in  favour  of  the  clergy,  "  That  all 
the  ministers  of  the  Gospel  that  now  are,  or  here- 
after shall  be  settled  in  this  colony,  during  the  con- 
tinuance of  their  public  service  in  the  Gospel  minis- 
try, shall  have  their  estates,  lying  in  the  same  town 
where  they  dwell,  and  all  the  polls  belonging  to  their 
several  families  exempted,  and  they  are  hereby  ex. 
empted  and  freed  from  being  entered  in  the  public 
lists  and  payment  of  rates."  By  virtue  of  this  act,  for 
the  encouragement  of  the  clergy  of  this  colony,  they 
have  always  from  that,  to  the  present  time,  been 
exempted  from  taxation.  The  legislature  had  be- 
fore released  their  persons  from  taxation,  but  not 
their  families  and  estates. 

The  colony,  at  this  period,  was  in  very  low  cir- 
cumstances. Its  whole  circulating  cash  amounted 
only  to  about  2000J.  Such  had  been  its  expense  in 
the  war,  and  in  defending  itself  against  the  attempts 
of  its  enemies  in  England  and  America,  that  the 
legislature  had  been  obliged  to  levy  a  tax,  in  about 
three  years,  of  more  than  two  shillings  in  the  pound, 
on  the  whole  list  of  the  colony.  The  taxes  were 
laid  and  collected  in  grain,  pork,  beef,  and  other 
articles  of  country  produce  ;  which  were  transported 
to  Boston  and  the  West  Indies,  and  by  this  means 
money  and  bills  of  exchange  were  obtained,  to  pay 

3  X 


754 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  bills  drawn  upon  the  colony  in  England,  and  to 
discharge  its  debts  at  home.  These  poor  circum- 
stances, and  the  misrepresentations,  abuse,  and 
dangers  from  their  enemies,  were  endured  with  an 
exemplary  magnanimity;  and  under  the  pressure 
of  all  this  expense  and  danger,  they  cheerfully  sup- 
ported the  Gospel  ministry  and  ordinances,  in 
their  respective  towns  and  parishes.  They  con- 
templated their  dangers  and  deliverances  with 
thanksgiving,  and  rejoiced  in  the  enjoyment  of 
their  privileges. 

The  country  is  alarmed— Means  of  defence-— New 
townships  granted  and  settled — The  Rev.  Gurdon 
Saltonstall  chosen  governor — Act  empowering  the 
freemen  to  choose  the  governor  from  among  them- 
selves at  large — Acts  relative  to  the  settlement  of  the 
boundary  line  with  Massachusetts — Garrisons  erected 
in  the  towns  on  the  frontiers— Expedition  against 
Canada — First  emission  of  paper  money — Address 
to  her  majesty — Loss  of  the  colony  at  Wood  Creek — 
Expedition  against  Port  Royal — Acts  respecting  the 
superior  court — Settlement  of  the  boundary  line  be- 
tween Massachusetts  and  Connecticut — Return  of 
peace— Toums  settled  under  Massachusetts — State 
of  the  colony. 

Such  reports  of  the  preparations  of  the  French 
and  Indians,  to  make  a  descent  upon  some  part  of 
New  England,  were  spread  abroad,  about  the  be- 
ginning of  the  year  1707,  as  gave  a  general  alarm 
to  the  country;  and  on  the  6th  of  February,  1707, 
a  council  of  war,  consisting  of  the  governor,  most 
of  the  council,  and  a  considerable  number  of  the 
chief  military  officers  in  the  colony,  convened  at 
Hartford.  A  letter  was  received  from  Deputy-go- 
vernor Treat,  and  another  from  Major  Schuyler  at 
Albany,  giving  intelligence  that  the  French  and 
Indians,  in  their  interest,  were  about  to  make  a  de- 
scent upon  New  England;  and  information  was 
also  communicated,  that  suspicions  were  enter- 
tained that  the  Pohtatuck  and  Owiantuck  Indians 
designed  to  join  the  French  and  Indians  from  Ca- 
nada. 

The  committee  resolved,  that  the  western  fron- 
tier towns,  Simsbury,  Waterbury,  Woodbury,  and 
Danbury,  should  be  fortified  with  all  possible  dis- 
patch ;  and  as  Waterbury  had  sustained  great  losses 
by  inundations,  it  was  further  resolved,  for  their  en- 
couragement to  fortify  their  houses  strongly,  that 
the  governor  and  council  would  use  their  influence 
with  the  assembly,  that  their  country  rates  should 
be  abated.  It  was  also  resolved,  that  each  of  these 
towns  should  keep  a  scout  of  two  faithful  men,  to  be 
sent  out  every  day  to  discover  the  designs  of  the 
enemy,  and  give  intelligence  should  they  make  their 
appearance  near  the  frontier  towns. 

To  prevent  damages  from  the  Pohtatuck  and 
Owiantuck  Indians,  Captain  John  Minor  and  Mr. 
John  Sherman  were  appointed  to  remove  them  to 
Stratford  and  Fairfield;  and  if  from  sickness  or 
any  other  cause  they  could  not  be  removed,  it  was 
ordered  that  a  number  of  their  chief  men  should  be 
carried  down  to  those  towns,  and  kept  as  hostages 
to  secure  the  fidelity  of  the  rest. 

On  the  2d  of  April  a  special  assembly  was  con- 
vened in  consequence  of  letters  from  Governor 
Dudley ;  who  had  proposed  to  send  an  army  of 
1000  men  against  L'Acadia,  and  requested  Con- 
necticut to  join  with  Massachusetts  in  the  expedi- 
tion. 

After  the  affair  had  been  maturely  considered, 
the  assembly  determined  not  to  comply  with  the 


proposal;  and  the  reasons  given  were,  that  they  had 
lot  been  consulted,  nor  had  had  any  opportunity  of 
consenting  to  the  expedition  :  that  the  neighbour- 
ing colonies,  who  were  equally  interested  in  the 
expedition  with  themselves,  were  not  called  upon 
to  do  any  thing;  ar?d  that  the  vast  expense  of  de- 
Fending  the  county  of  Hampshire  and  their  own 
frontiers,  incapacitated  them  to  join  in  the  enter- 
prise. 

At  the  general  election  this  year  the  governor 
anfl  council  were  all  re-elected. 

Upon  the  petition  of  John  Pratt,  Robert  Chap- 
man, John  Clark,  and  Stephen  Post,  appointed  a 
committee  in  behalf  of  the  legatees  of  Joshua  Uncas, 
the  assembly  granted  a  township  which  they  named 
Hebron ;  the  settlement  of  which  began  in  June 
1704.  The  first  settlers  were  William  Shipmau, 
Timothy  Phelps,  Samuel  Filer,  Caleb  Jones,  Ste- 
phen Post,  Jacob  Root,  Samuel  Curtis,  Edward 
Sawyer,  Joseph  Youngs,  and  Benoni  Trumbull ; 
who  came  from  Windsor,  Saybrook,  Long  Island, 
and  Northampton.  The  settlement  went  on  but 
slowly ;  partly  on  account  of  the  opposition  made  by 
Mason  and  the  Moheagans,  and  partly  in  conse- 
quence of  the  extensive  tracts  claimed  by  proprie- 
tors, who  made  no  settlements.  But  several  acts 
of  the  assembly  were  made,  and  committees  ap- 
pointed, to  encourage  and  assist  the  planters ;  and 
by  these  means  they  so  increased  in  numbers  and 
wealth,  that  in  about  six  or  seven  years  they  were 
enabled  to  erect  a  meeting-house,  and  settle  a  mi- 
nister among  them. 

At  the  session  in  October  the  assembly  granted  a 
township  to  Nathan  Gould,  Peter  Burr,  Captain 
John  Wakeman,  Jonathan  Sturges,  and  other  in- 
habitants of  the  town  of  Fairfield,  bounded  southerly 
on  Danbury,  easterly  on  New  Milford,  and  westerly 
upon  the  colony  line.  It  extended  fourteen  miles 
northward  from  Danbury;  and  was  afterwards 
named  New  Fairfield.  The  war,  for  several  years, 
prevented  all  attempts  for  the  settlement  of  this 
tract. 

As  the  frontier  towns  had  exhibited  much  zeal  in 
fortifying  themselves  agreeably  to  the  directions  of 
the  governor  and  council,  the  assembly  made  them 
a  liberal  compensation. 

About  this  time  the  colony  sustained  a  great  loss, 
in  the  death  of  the  honourable  Fitz-John  Winthrop, 
Esq..  and  a  special  assembly  was  convoked  on  the 
17th  of  December,  by  Deputy-governor  Treat,  at 
New  Haven,  for  the  purpose  of  electing  another  go- 
vernor; which  ordered  that  the  votes  of  both  houses 
should  be  mixed  before  they  were  sorted  and  counted, 
and  that  the  majority  of  voces  should  determine  the 
choice.  And  in  this  method  the  Reverend  Gurdon 
Saltonstall  was  chosen  governor. 

Four  of  the  magistrates,  the  speaker  of  the  house, 
with  three  of  the  other  deputies,  were  appointed  a 
committee  to  acquaint  him  with  the  choice,  and  so- 
licit his  acceptance  of  the  important  trust  to  which 
he  had  been  chosen  ;  and  a  letter  was  addressed  to 
him  by  the  assembly,  desiring  him  to  accept  of  the 
choice  which  they  had  made,  and,  with  the  com- 
mittee appointed  to  wait  on  him,  to  answer  the  let- 
ters of  their  agent,  and  transact  whatever  the  exi- 
gencies of  the  government  might  require.  A  letter 
was  also  addressed  to  his  church  and  congregation 
at  New  London,  acquainting  them  with  the  call,  which 
the  assembly  imagined  Mr.  Saltonstall  had  to  leave 
the  ministry,  andlo  dispose  them  to  submit  to  sucii  a 
dispensation.  The  magistrates,  upon  Mr.  Salton 
stall's  acceptance  of  the  trust  to  which  he  had  beea 


UNITED  STATES. 


755 


chosen,  were  directed  to  administer  to  him  the  oath 
of  the  governor,  and  the  oath  respecting  trade  and 
navigation;  and  on  the  first  of  January,  1708,  Go- 
vernor Saltonstall  accepted  of  his  office,  and  took 
the  oaths  appointed  by  law. 

This  assembly  repealed  the  law  which  required  that 
the  governor  should  always  be  chosen  from  among  the 
magistrates  in  nomination,  and  gave  liberty  for  the 
freemen  to  elect  him  from  among  themselves  at 
large  ;  and,  consequently,  at  the  election,  May  13th, 
1708,  Governor  Saltonstall  was  chosen  governor  by 
the  freemen.  Nathan  Gould,  Esq.  was  elected  De- 
puty-governor; the  former  magistrates  were  re- 
chosen,  aad  Mr.  John  Haynes,  for  the  first  time, 
was  elected  one  of  the  council.  The  former  trea- 
surer and  secretary  were  re-chosen. 

A  township  was  granted,  in  the  course  of  this 
session,  at  Pohtatuck,  afterwards  named  Newtown. 

Connecticut,  for  a  long  course  of  years,  had  been 
at  great  trouble  and  expense,  in  attempting  the 
settlement  of  the  boundary  line  between  this  colony 
and  Massachusetts;  and  the  inhabitants  of  Windsor 
and  Simsbury  had  been  often  exceedingly  injured, 
in  their  persons  and  property,  by  the  people  of 
Suffield  and  Enfield,  more  especially  by  the  former ; 
who  had  not  only  encroached  upon  their  lands  and 
cut  down  their  timber,  but  often  seized  upon  their 
tar  and  turpentine,  and  even  upon  their  persons, 
and  forcibly  carried  them  to  Suffield ;  and  in  con- 
sequence of  these  outrages,  great  animosities  had 
arisen  between  the  inhabitants  of  these  towns,  arid 
many  lawsuits  had  been  commenced.  The  assem- 
bly, as  far  as  possible,  to  terminate  these  evils, 
enacted,  that  commissioners  should  be  appointed, 
with  full  powers,  to  run  the  line  with  such  commis- 
sioners as  Massachusetts  should  appoint  for  that 
purpose.  These  commissioners  were  directed  to 
take  care  that  the  line  should  be  run  by  skilful  ar- 
tists, with  good  instruments ;  and  to  take  their  sta- 
tion three  miles  south  of  every  part  of  Charles  river, 
whence  Mr.  James  Taylor  and  the  commissioners  of 
this  colony  ran  the  line  in  1702;  and  to  run  thence 
a  due  west  line,  and  to  make  and  set  up  substantial 
marks  and  monuments  in  the  line  between  the  colo- 
nies. And  to  prevent  all  further  contention,  it  was 
enacted,  that  the  inhabitants  of  Windsor,  Simsbury, 
Suffield,  and  Enfield,  should  not  make  any  im- 
provement on  the  contested  lands,  until  the  line 
should  be  run  and  settled ;  and  also,  that  all  suits 
should  rest  until  the  county  court  at  Hartford,  in 
October.  But  it  was  at  the  same  time  provided, 
that  the  court  of  Massachusetts  should  give  the 
same  orders  to  the  people  of  that  province,  who 
claimed  upon  the  line,  and  should  immediately  unite 
with  Connecticut  in  settling  the  boundary  between 
the  colonies. 

It  was  also  further  enacted,  that,  upon  running 
the  line,  all  the  most  ancient  grants  made  to  the 
proprietors,  by  either  government,  should  give  title 
and  property  to  the  settlers  on  either  side  of  the 
line ;  and  that  unless  the  court  of  Massachusetts 
would  agree  to  the  running  of  the  line  in  this  man- 
ner, a  petition  should  be  addressed  to  her  majesty, 
praying  her  to  give  orders  that  the  divisional  line 
might  be  run. 

The  assembly,  at  this  session,  ordered  that  a 
township  should  be  laid  out  east  of  Woodstock,  eight 
miles  in  length,  and  six  in  breadth;  the  inhabitants 
of  which  district  were  vested  with  the  privileges  of 
a  distinct  town,  by  the  name  of  Killingly.  At  this 
session  the  assembly  ordered,  "  that  the  ministers  of 
the  Gospel  preach  a  sermon  to  the  freemen,  on  the 


day  appointed  by  law  to  choose  their  civil  rulers,  in 
the  towns  where  they  meet,  proper  for  their  direc- 
tion in  the  work  before  them  ;"  which  seems  to  have 
been  the  oiigin  of  preaching  freemen's  meeting 
sermons  in  Connecticut. 

The  affairs  of  the  war  were  conducted  this  year 
in  the  same  manner  as  they  had  been  the  preceding. 
Colonel  William  Whiting  commanded  a  body  of 
horse  and  infantry  in  the  county  of  Hampshire,  and 
scouting  parties  and  garrisons  were  maintained  on 
the  frontiers  of  the  colony. 

At  the  session  in  October,  it  was  enacted,  that 
two  garrisons  should  be  maintained,  at  the  public 
expense,  at  Simsbury,  and  two  at  Waterbury ;  and 
garrisons  were  to  be  kept  at  Woodbury  and  Dan- 
bury,  as  the  council  of  war  should  judge  expedient. 

At  the  election  in  1709,  Mr.  Saltonst*!!  was  re- 
chosen  governor,  and  Nathan  Gould,  deputy-gover- 
nor. The  magistrates  were  Daniel  Witherell,  Na- 
thaniel Stanley,  John  Hamlin,  William  Pitkin, 
John  Chester,  Joseph  Curtis,  Josiah  Rossrter,  Richard 
Christopher,  Peter  Burr,  John  Allen,  John  Haynes, 
and  Samuel  Eells,  Esquires;  and  Captain  Joseph 
Whiting  was  treasurer,  and  Caleb  Stanley  secretary, 

A  letter  was  laid  before  this  assembly  from  her 
majesty,  relative  to  an  expedition  against  the  French 
in  Canada,  an  account  of  which  has  already  been 
sufficiently  given  in  the  histories  of  the  previous 
colonies. 

The  legislature  of  Connecticut  voted  and  raised 
their  quota,  of  350  men,  with  cheerfulness  and  ex- 
pedition;  and  Colonel  Whiting  was  appointed  to 
command  them.  The  assembly  also  voted  an  ad- 
dress of  thanks  to  her  majesty,  for  her  royal  care 
and  favour  to  the  colonies,  in  devising  means  for 
the  removal  of  an  enemy,  by  whom  the  colonies  had 
been  so  great  and  repeated  sufferers. 

This  undertaking,  which  proved  so  fruitless,  was 
a  great  loss  and  expense  to  the  colonies;  but  Con- 
necticut only  sustained  the  loss  of  about  90  men. 

This  expedition  occasioned  the  first  emission  of 
paper  money  in  Connecticut;  which  was  ordered 
at  a  special  assembly,  on  the  8th  of  June,  by  the 
following  enactment: — 

"  It  is  resolved,  that  to  assist  in  the  expedition, 
for  want  of  money  otherwise  to  carry  it  on,  there  be 
forthwith  imprinted  a  certain  number  of  bills  of 
credit  on  the  colony,  in  suitable  sums,  from  two  shil- 
lings to  5/.,  which,  in  the  whole,  shall  amount  to 
the  sum  of  8000/.  and  no  more."  It  was  also  enacted, 
that  the  bills  should  be  issued  from  the  treasury  as 
money,  but  should  be  received  in  payments  at  one 
shilling  on  the  pound  better  than  money ;  one 
half  only  to  be  signed  and  issued  at  first,  a'nd  the 
other  to  remain  unsigned,  until  it  should  be  found 
necessary  to  put  it  into  circulation  ;  and  taxes  were 
imposed  for  the  calling  in  of  one  half  of  it  within 
the  term  of  one  year,  and  the  .other  at  the  expira- 
tion of  two  years. 

Notwithstanding  the  war,  the  colony  made  pro- 
gress in  settlement;  and  in  1708  John  Belden, 
Samuel  Keeler,  Matthew  Seymour,  Matthias  St. 
John,  and  other  inhabitants  of  Norvvalk,  to  the  num- 
ber of  25,  purchased  a  large  tract,  between  that 
town  and  Danbury,  bounded  west  on  the  partition 
line  between  Connecticut  and  New  York.  The 
purchase  was  made  of  Catoonah,  the  chief  sachem, 
and  other  Indians,  who  were  the  proprietors  of  that 
part  of  the  country ;  and  the  deed  bears  date  Sep- 
tember 30th,  1708.  At  this  session  it  was  ordained 
that  it  should  be  a  distinct  township,  by  the  name 
of  Ridgefield. 

3X2 


756 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


The   only  alteration   made,  by  the   election,  in 

1710,  was  the  choice  of  Matthew  Allen,  Esq.  in  the 
place  of  Daniel  Witherell,  Esq. 

As  we  have  very  fully  related  the  particulars  of 
the  war  of  this  period  in  the  account  of  Massachu- 
setts, we  shall  proceed  with  the  home  affairs  of 
Connecticut. 

In  May  1711,  Joseph  Taicott  was  chosen  into  the 
magistracy  in  the  place  of  Josiah  Rossiter,  Esq.  ; 
and  an  important  alteration  was  also  made  respect- 
ing the  superior  court;  which  until  this  time  had 
been  holden  at  two  places  only,  Hartford  and  New 
Haven,  and  at  two  terms  annually;  which  was 
found  to  occasion  much  expense  and  inconvenience  ; 
and  it  was  therefore  resolved,  that  the  superior  court 
should  sit  twice  annually,  in  each  of  the  counties, 
and  that  all  actions  should  be  tried  in  the  county  in 
which  they  originated. 

This  assembly  also  made  a  grant  of  a  township  at 
a  place  called  Pohtatuck,  from  a  river  of  that  name 
upon  which  part  of  it  lies.  At  this  session  it  was  in- 
corporated and  named  Newtown. 

When  the  assembly  met  in  October,  an  address 
was  prepared  to  be  presented  to  her  majesty  repre- 
senting the  exertions  of  the  colony  in  her  service, 
condoling  her  on  the  disappointment  with  respect  to 
the  expedition,  and  praying  for  the  continuance  of 
her  favour  to  the  colony. 

A  township  had  been  given  several  years  previous 
to  this  period  by  Uncas,  sachem  of  the  Moheagans, 
lying  north  of  Lebanon  and  west  of  Mansfield,  to 
certain  legatees  in  Hartford ;  and  the  donation  was 
approved  by  the  assembly.  The  legatees  conveyed 
their  right  to  William  Pitkin,  Joseph  Taicott,  Wil- 
liam Whiting,  and  Richard  Lord,  to  be  a  committee 
to  lay  out  the  township  and  make  settlements  on  the 
lands;  and  on  the  9th  of  May,  1706,  the  general 
assembly  had  authorized  those  gentlemen  to  act  as 
a  committee  for  this  purpose  ;  and  on  October  llth, 

1711,  this   committee  was  re-appointed,  with   one 
Nathaniel  Rust,  who  had  already  settled  upon  the 
lands,  more  effectually  to  carry  into  execution  the 
design  of  their  former  appointment ;  and  the  town- 
ship, at  the  same  session,  was  named  Coventry.  Na- 
thaniel Rust  and  some  others  first  settled  in  the 
town  about  the  year  1700 ;  but  the  settlement  of  it 
has  generally  been  dated  from  1709 ;  as  in  that  year 
a  number  of  householders  from  Northampton  and 
other  places,  moved  into  the  town,  and  the  inhabit- 
ants were  so  increased  in  about  two  years,  that  they 
were  now  incorporated  with  the  privileges  of  other 
towns. 

In  consequence  of  letters  from  Governor  Dudley, 
of  Boston,  and  from  General  Nicholson,  relative  to 
the  unsuccessfulness  of  the  late  expedition,  a  special 
assembly  was  called,  November  3d,  1711.  The 
design  of  which  was  to  consult  the  best  means  of 
acquainting  her  majesty  truly  how  the  affair  was  ; 
what  exertioae  the  colonies  had  made,  and  that  it 
was  not  through  any  fault  of  theirs  that  the  enter- 
prise was  frustrated ;  and  it  was  resolved,  that  the 
colonies  should  make  a  joint  representation,  and 
that  the  pilots  should  be  sent  to  England,  to  be  ex- 
amined concerning  the  unfortunate  naval  expedition 
against  Canada.  The  assembly  accordingly  deter- 
mined that  John  Mayhew,  of  New  London,  who 
was  the  only  pilot  from  Connecticut,  should  forth- 
with proceed  to  Great  Britain,  with  the  pilots  from 
Massachusetts. 

The  election  in  1712  made  little  or  no  alteration 
with  respect  to  public  officers;  and  nothing  very 
material  appears  to  have  been  transacted  this  year. 


The  legislature  made  the  usual  provision   for  the 
lefenceof  this  colony  and  the  county  of  Hampshire. 

Nathan  Gould,  Esq.  the  deputy-governor,  was 
appointed  chief  Judge  of  the  superior  court ;  and 
William  Pitkin,  Richard  Christopher,  Peter  Burr, 
and  Samuel  Eells,  Esquires,  were  appointed  assist- 
ant judges.  In  the  absence  of  the  deputy-governor, 
William  Pitkin  was  appointed  chief  jndge  ;  and  in 
case  either  of  the  other  judges  were  absent,  any  one 
of  the  magistrates  was  authorized  to  sit  in  his  stead. 
Until  this  time,  the  judges  of  the  superior  court  had 
been  allowed  nothing  more  than  the  fees  of  it;  and  an 
act  was  therefore  passed  at  the  October  session, 
that  the  judges  for  the  time  being,  upon  laying 
their  accounts  before  the  assembly,  should  be  al- 
lowed an  honourable  compensation  for  their  ex- 
penses and  services. 

About  this  time,  the  inhabitants  of  New  Milford 
were  incorporated  and  vested  with  town  privileges. 

Ab&tt  this  time,  William  Partridge,  Esq.  of  New- 
bury,  and  Jonathan  Belcher,  of  Boston,  opened  a 
copper  mine  at  Simsbury  :  and  for  their  encourage 
ment,  the  assembly  exempted  the  miners,  operators, 
and  labourers  from  military  duties,  for  the  term  of 
four  years. 

At  the  election  in  May  1713,  Mr.  John  Sher- 
man, who  had  been  some  time  speaker  of  the 
lower  house,  was  chosen  into  the  magistracy. 

In  October  1687,  a  grant  of  lands,  commonly 
called  the  Mashamoquet  purchase,  had  been  made 
by  the  general  assembly,  to  Major  James  Fitch, 
Lieutenant  William  Ruggles,  Mr.  John  Gore,  Mr. 
John  Pierpont,  Mr.  John  Chandler,  Mr.  Benjamin 
Sabin,  Mr.  Samuel  Craft,  Mr.  John  Grosvenor,  Mr. 
Joseph  Griffin,  Mr.  Samuel  and  John  Ruggles,  and 
Mr.  Nathan  Wilson  ;  most  of  whom  were  planters 
from  Roxbury,  in  Massachusetts ;  and  some  of 
whom  had  moved  on  to  the  lands  in  1686,  before  the 
grant  was  made;  and  ultimately  in  the  year  1713, 
the  inhabitants  were  incorporated  and  vested  with 
town  privileges :  and  the  name  was  changed  from 
Mashamoquet  to  Pomfret. 

In  1708,  the  assembly  of  Connecticut  had  deter- 
mined, that,  unless  the  province  of  Massachusetts 
would  accept  of  the  terms  which  they  had  proposed, 
relative  to  the  line  between  them,  they  would  make 
application  to  her  majesty,  desiring  that  orders 
might  be  given,  that  Massachusetts  forthwith  should 
mutually  join  with  Connecticut  in  running  and  set- 
tling the  boundary  line  between  the  colonies  ;  but 
Massachusetts  at  that  time  would  not  consent  to  run 
the  line  as  it  had  been  proposed  ;  and  would  not 
even  grant  that  there  had  been  any  mistake  in  run- 
ning it;  and  insisted,  if  there  had,  that,  as  it  had 
been  ran  so  long  before  the  charter  was  granted  to 
Connecticut,  and  they  had  been  in  possession  of  the 
lands  in  controversy  for  66  years,  and  several  towns 
and  plantations  had  been  settled  upon  them,  it  was 
not  then  reasonable  to  draw  it  into  question.  The 
assembly  of  Connecticut,  therefore,  in  1709,  ap- 
proved a  letter,  addressed  to  the  lords  of  trade, 
giving  reasons  why  the  line  run  by  Woodward  and 


affery  ought  not  to  be  established;  and  it  seems  to 
been  the   determination  of  the  legislature  to 


have 


have  appealed  to  her  majesty  with  respect  to  the 
partition  line  ;  but  several  circumstances  finally  pre- 
vented their  so  doing.  Governor  Dudley  who 
was  a  man  of  great  duplicity,  had  many  friends  and 
great  influence  at  court;  and  Connecticut  had  none. 
Sir  Henry  Ashurst,  also  their  agent  for  many  years, 
appears  now  to  have  been  no  more ;  and  they  had 
not  yet  sufficient  time  to  fix.  upon  and  have  nroof  of 


UNITED  STATES. 


757 


the  fidelity  and  ability  of  another  in  his  place ;  the 
colony  was  poor,  and  Jiad  been  put  to  great  expense 
in  defending  itself  against  the  complaints  of  Gover 
nor  Dudley,  Lord  Cornbury,  and  other  enemies, 
and  against  the  claims  of  Mason  and  his  party  ;  anc 
the  English  ministry  were  high  tories,  and  inimica 
to  all  charter  governments.  The  legislature  were 
therefore  apprehensive  that  their  enemies  were 
again  concerting  measures  to  deprive  them  of  all  the 
privileges  which  they  had  so  dearly  bought ;  and  as 
Massachusetts  in  some  measure  agreed  to  the  terms 
proposed  in  1708,  it  was,  under  all  the  circum- 
stances, judged  most  expedient  to  make  the  besl 
settlement  which  could  be  obtained,  without  an  ap- 
peal to  England. 

Consequently  upon  the  13th  of  July,  1713,  com- 
missioners, fully  empowered  from  each  of  the  colo- 
nies, came  to  an  arrangement  which  was  adopted  by 
each  court.  As  they  were  both  careful  to  secure  the 
property  to  the  persons  to  whom  they  had  made 
grants  of  lands,  and  to  maintain  the  jurisdiction  over 
the  towns  which  they  had  respectively  settled  ;  it  was 
expressly  stipulated  as  a  preliminary,  that  the  towns 
should  remain  to  the  governments  by  which  they  had 
been  settled  ;  and  that  the  property  of  as  many  acres 
as  should  appear  to  be  gained  by  one  colony  from 
the  other,  should  be  conveyed  out  of  other  unim- 
proved land,  as  a  satisfaction  or  equivalent.  With 
respect  to  about  two  miles,  claimed  by  Windsor 
upon  the  town  of  Suffield,  concerning  the  validity 
of  which  there  had  been  a  long  contest,  it  was  agreed", 
that  if  the  tract  fell  within  the  line,  it  should  be- 
long to  Connecticut. 

On  running  the  line,  it  was  found  at  Connecticut 
river,  to  run  90  rods  north  of  the  north-east  bounds 
of  Suffield ;  and  it  appeared  that  Massachusetts  had 
encroached  upon  Connecticut  107,793  acres,  run- 
ning a  due-west  line  from  Woodward's  and  Saffery's 
station  ;  and  Massachusetts,  therefore,  made  a  grant 
of  such  a  quantity  of  land  to  Connecticut,  which 
was  accepted  as  equivalent ;  and  the  whole  was  sold 
in  sixteen  shares,  in  1716,  for  the  sum  of  683J.  New 
England  currency  ;  a  little  more  than  a  farthing  per 
acre,  and  shows  of  what  small  value  land  was  es- 
teemed at  that  day.  It  affords  also  a  striking  de- 
monstration, that,  considering  the  expense  of  pur- 
chasing them  of  the  natives,  and  of  defending  them, 
they  cost  originally  often  ten  times  their  value. 
The  money  was  applied  to  the  use  of  the  college. 

Notwithstanding  the  long  and  expensive  contro- 
versy of  Connecticut  with  the  colony  of  Rhode  Island, 
relative  to  the  Narraganset  country,  and  notwith- 
standing the  king's  commissioners,  and  lawyers,  of 
the  greatest  note,  determined,  that  the  title  was  un- 
doubtedly in  the  governor  and  company  of  this  co- 
lony, yet  it  was  judged  expedient  to  give  up  the 
claim.  Lands  were  of  so  little  value,  and  contro- 
versies before  the  king  and  council  so  expensive,  and 
the  event  so  uncertain,  that  the  legislature  deter- 
mined rather  to  comply  with  Governor  Winthrop's 
and  Clark's  agreement,  than  to  prolong  the  contro- 
versy. The  court  party,  both  in  King  William's 
and  Queen  Anne's  reign,  appeared  reluctant  to 
establish  the  charter  limits  of  Connecticut  at  Narra- 
ganset river  and  bay ;  otherwise  they  would  have 
advised  to  establish  the  judgment  of  the  king's  com- 
missioners. The  court  probably  were  influenced  by 
political  principles ;  and  the  establishment  of  the 
eastern  boundary  of  Connecticut  at  Narraganset 
river  and  bay,  would  have  ruined  Rhode  Island,  by 
reducing  them  to  limits  too  small  for  a  colony.  Con- 
necticut was,  doubtless,  fully  sensible  of  these  dis- 


positions of  the  sovereigns  and  court  of  Great  Bri- 
tain, and  it  probably  operated  as  a  strong  motive  to 
induce  them  to  give  up  their  claim. 

In  October  1702,  a  committee  had  been  appointed 
to  make  a  complete  settlement  of  the  boundary  line 
between  the  colonies,  reserving  to  all  persons  con- 
cerned, their  entire  property  in  lands  and  buildings, 
according  to  the  agreement  of  Governor  Winthrop 
and  Mr.  Clark  ;  and  on  the  12th  of  May,  1703,  the 
committees  from  the  two  colonies  had  agreed,  "  that 
the  middle  channel  of  Pawcatuck  river,  alias  Nar- 
raganset river,  as  it  extends  from  the  salt  water  up- 
wards, till  it  comes  to  the  mouth  of  Ashaway  river, 
where  it  falls  into  the  said  Pawcatuck  river,  and 
from  thence  to  run  a  straight  line  till  it  meet  with 
the  south-west  bounds  or  corner  of  Warwick  grand 
purchase,  which  extends  20  miles  due  west  from  a 
certain  rock,  lying  at  the  outmost  point  of  Warwick 
neck,  which  is  the  south-easterly  bounds  of  said  pur- 
chase ;  and  from  the  said  south  west  bounds,  or 
corner  of  said  purchase,  to  run  upon  a  due  north 
line,  till  it  meet  with  the  south  line  of  the  province 
of  Massachusetts  Bay,  in  New  England  :  this  to  be, 
and  for  ever  remain  to  be,  the  fixed  and  stated  line 
between  the  said  colonies  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode 
Island.  Always  provided,  and  it  is  hereby  intended, 
that  nothing  in  the  afore-mentioned  agreement,  or 
any  clause  thereof,  shall  be  taken  or  deemed  to  be 
the  breach  or  making  void  of  the  fourth  article  in 
the  agreement  made  between  the  agents  of  the  said 
colonies  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island,  viz.  John 
Winthrop,  Esq.  and  Mr.  Daniel  Clark,  for  main- 
taining property,  dated  April  7th,  1663,  but  that 
the  same  shall  be  kept  and  justly  performed,  accord- 
ing to  the  true  intent  and  meaning  thereof;  and 
that  all  former  grants  and  purchases,  granted  by,  or 
made  within  either  of  the  colonies,  and  all  other 
ancient  grants  confirmed  by  the  authority  of  Con- 
necticut colony  within  the  township  of  Westerly,  in 
the  colony  of  Rhode  Island,  shall  be  duly  preserved 
and  maintained,  as  fully  and  amply  to  all  intents 
and  purposes,  as  if  they  were  lying  or  continued 
within  the  bounds  of  the  colony,  by  the  authority  of 
which  it  was  granted  or  purchased'."  But  notwith- 
standing this  agreement,  Rhode  Island,  about  this 
time,  disowned  its  authenticity,  pretending  that  their 
commissioners  were  not  empowered  to  conclude  fully 
and  finally  upon  such  settlement;  and  the  cause  was 
beard  by  the  king  in  council,  some  years  after,  and 
decided  according  to  the  agreement  of  the  commis- 
sioners as  stated  above ;  and  subsequently,  on  Sep- 
tember 27th,  1728,  the  line  was  finally  ascertained 
and  distinguished  by  proper  monuments  and  bounda- 
ries. Roger  Wolcott,  James  Wadsworth,  and 
Daniel  Palmer,  on  the  part  of  Connecticut,  and 
William  Wanton,  Benjamin  Ellery,  and  William 
Jenks,  in  behalf  of  Rhode  Island,  being  the  com- 
mittees for  running  and  final  fixing  of  the  line. 

No  colony,  perhaps,  had  ever  a  better  right  to 
he  lands  comprised  in  its  original  patent  than  Con- 
necticut, yet  none  has  been  more  unfortunate  with 
respect  to  the  loss  of  territory.  Charles  II.,  in 
favour  of  his  brother  the  duke  of  York,  granted  a 
jreat  part  of  the  lands  contained  within  its  original 
imits  to  him,  and  the  legislature,  for  fear  of  offend- 
ng  those  royal  personages  and  losing  their  charter, 
jave  up  Long  Island,  and  agreed  to  the  settlement 
of  the  boundary  line  with  the  king's  commissioners; 
and  for  the  reasons  which  have  been  suggested  they 
ost  a  considerable  tract  on  the  north,  and  on  the 
east.  Indeed,  considering  the  enemies  and  difficul- 
ies  with  which  they  had  to  combat,  it  is  astonish- 


758 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


ing  that  they  retained   so  much   territory,  and   so 
firmly  defended  their  rights  and  privileges. 

The  peace  of  Utrecht  was  signed  by  the  plenipo- 
tentiaries of  Great  Britain  and  France,  March  30th, 
1713  ;  and  official  accounts  of  the  pacification  and 
orders  for  immediately  proclaiming  the  peace  were 
received  by  the  governor  of  Connecticut,  on  the22d 
of  August ;  and  the  governor  having  called  together 
the  deputy-governor  and  council,  they  on  the  26th, 
made  a  formal  proclamation  of  peace  between  the 
two  nations. 

Upon  the  pacification  with  France,  the  Indians 
buried  the  hatchet,  and  peace  once  more  gladdened 
the  colonies, 

Connecticut  had  not  been  less  fortunate  in  this, 
than  in  former  wars.  A  single  town  had  not  been 
lost,  nor  had  any  considerable  number  of  the  inha- 
bitants fallen  by  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  In  Philip's, 
King  William's,  and  this  war,  only  the  buildings 
and  part  of  the  effects  of  one  town,  Simsbury,  were 
destroyed ;  the  inhabitants  of  which,  according  to 
tradition,  when  consisting  of  about  40  families,  sup- 
posing themselves  in  danger  of  a  surprise,  buried  a 
considerable  part  of  their  effects,  and  generally  re- 
moved back  to  Windsor;  and  the  enemy,  finding 
the  town  nearly  deserted,  fell  upon  it,  burned  the 
buildings,  and  captured  several  of  the  inhabitants. 
When  the  people  moved  back,  such  an  alteration 
had  been  made  by  the  burning  of  the  buildings  and 
the  growth  of  weeds  and  bushes,  that  the  parti- 
cular spot  in  which  they  had  buried  their  effects 
could  not  be  found,  and  they  were  never  recovered. 
This  most  y>robably  was  in  the  spring  of  1676, 
when  the  Narraganset  and  other  Indians  appeared 
in  strong  parties  upon  the  river  above. 

The  expense  of  the  last  war  was  very  consider- 
able. Some  years  the  colony  paid  a  tax  of  aboul 
stcven-penee  and  eight-pence  in  the  pound,  on  the 
whole  list  of  the  colony ;  and  it  was'  found  neces- 
sary to  issue  at  several  times,  from  June  1709,  to 
October  1713,  33.500/.  in  bills  of  credit.  Provi 
sion  had  been  made  by  acts  of  assembly,  for  the 
calling  in  of  the  whole,  within  the  term  of  aboul 
seven  years  from  the  termination  of  the  war  ;  ant 
20,000/.  only  were  in  circulation  in  October  1713 
The  emissions  were  all  in  the  same  form,  and,  by  a 
law  of  the  colony,  the  bills  of  each  were  to  be  re 
ceived  in  all  payments  at  the  treasury,  at  five  pei 
cent,  better  than  money,  or  more  than  expresset 
en  the  face  of  the  bill;  and  in  all  other  payments 
it  was  enacted,  that  they  should  be  received  ai 
money;  and  so  small  was  the  sum,  and  such  was  tin 
advance  at  which  the  bills  were  received  at  the  trea 
sury,  that  they  appear  to  have  suffered  little  or  m 
depieciation.  As  some  of  the  small  bills  had  been 
altered,  and  the  sum  expressed  made  greater  than 
in  the  original  ones,  the  assembly  passed  an  act  for 
calling  them  all  in,  and  emitting  20,000/.  in  new 
bills,  which  the  treasurer  was  directed  to  issue. 

After  pursuing  the  history  of  the  colony  from  it 
first  settlements,  it  appears,  that  notwithstanding 
the  many  difficulties  which  it  had  to  combat  with,  it 
advance  was  considerable  ;  as  the  following  list  wil 
prove. 

Counties  and  Towns,  October  8th,  1713. 


County  of 

Hartford. 

Hartford, 

Weathersfield, 

Windsor, 

Farmington, 

Middletown, 


Time  of 
Settlement. 
1635 
1634 
1635 
1644 
1651 


County  pf  Time  of 

Hartford.  Settlement 

Simsbury,  1650 

Haddam,  1668 
Glastenbury  made 

a  town,  1690 

Waterbury,  1686 


n(i/  of  Time  of      County  of  Time  of 

tford.  Settlement.   New  Haven.       Settlement. 

»Vindham,  1692       New  Haven,          1638 

'lainfield,  1689       Milford,  1639 

iast  Haddam,       1713       Guilford,  1639 

lanterbury,  1703       Branford,  1644 

lansfield,  1703*     Wallingford,          1670 

Colchester,  1699       East  Haven,          1607 

Hebron,  1704*      Derby,  1675 

Willingly,  1708*     Durh'am,  1699 

Coventry.  1709*     New  Milford.         1713* 

County  of  County  of 

Veu>  London.  Fairfield. 

:w  London,        1648       Fairfield,  1639 

Saybrook,  1639       Stratford,  1639 

Norwich,  1660       Greenwich,  1640 

Lyme,  1667       Stamford,  1641 

3tonington,  1658       Norwalk,  1651 

illingworth,         1663       Woodbury  incor- 

reston,  1686  porated,  1674 

jebanon  incorpo-  Danbury,  1693 

rated  1697       Newtown  incorpo- 

Voluulown,  1700  rated,  1711* 

r'omfret  intorpo-  Ridgefield  incor- 

rated,  1713*         porated,  1709* 

It  was  customary  with  the  assembly,  from  the 
irst  settlement  of  the  colony,  to  release  the  infant 
.owns  two,  three,  or  four  years,  at  first,  from  all 
axes  to  the  commonwealth ;  and  especially  while 
they  were  building  meeting-houses  and  settling  mi- 
nisters ;  and  for  these  reasons,  the  eight  towns 
marked  with  asterisks,  at  this  time,  appear  to  have 
been  released  from  public  taxation. 

Attempts  had  been  made  for  the  settlement  of 
Ashford  ;  and  two  families  moved  on  to  the  lands  in 
1710,  but  it  was  not  incorporated  until  October 
1714.  The  assembly  had  also  appointed  committees, 
and  passed  several  acts  respecting  the  settlement  of 
New  Fairfield,  but  it  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
incorporated  at  this  time.  Exclusive  of  the  towns 
on  Long  Island,  and  some  others  in  New  York,  and 
the  town  of  Westerly,  in  Rhode  Island,  Connec- 
ticut had  settled  45  towns  under  its  own  jurisdic- 
tion ;  40  of  which  sent  deputies.  The  house  of  re- 
presentatives, when  full,  consisted  of  80  members. 
The  grand  list  of  the  colony  was  281,083/.  The 
militia  consisted  of  a  regiment  in  each  county,  and 
amounted  to  nearly  4000  eifective  men.  The  num- 
ber of  inhabitants  was  about  17,000. 

The  shipping  consisted  of  two  brigantines,  about 
20  sloops,  and  some  other  small  vessels;  the  num- 
ber of  seamen  did  not  exceed  ]  20. 

There  were  three  considerable  towns  in  the  colony 
under  the  government  of  Massachusetts,  Suffield, 
Enfield,  and  Woodstock.  Suffield  and  Enfield  were 
part  of  Springfield,  which  had  been  purchased  by 
Mr.  Pyncheon  and  his  company,  of  the  natives,  the 
original  proprietors  of  the  soil.  This  township  was 
of  great  extent ;  and  at  first  it  was  supposed  to  be- 
long to  Connecticut,  and  it  always  would,  had  not 
the  boundary  line  been  fixed  contrary  to  the  expecta- 
tions of  the  first  planters.  In  1670,  a  grant  of 
Suffield  had  been  made  to  Major  John  Pyncheon, 
Mr.  Elizur  Holyoke,  Mr.  Thomas  Cooper,  Mr. 
Benjamin  Cooley,  George  Cotton,  and  Rowland 
Thomas,  by  the  general  court  of  Massachusetts,  as 
a  committee  to  lay  it  out  aud  plant  a  township  ;  and 
about  that  time  it  was  settled,  and  incorporated  with 
town  privileges.  Enfield  was  settled  by  people 
from  Massachusetts,  about  the  year  1681  ;  and  a 
grant  of  the  township,  which  is  six  miles  square, 
was  made  to  several  planters  about  two  years  before. 


UNITED  STATES. 


We  take  this  opportunity  of  giving  a  brief  ac- 
count of  the  courts  of  Connecticut. 

The  general  court  or  assembly  usually  met  in 
May  and  October  ;  when  the  sessions  generally  did 
not  exceed  ten  or  twelve  days.  The  expense  of  the 
two  sessions  annually  hardly  amounted  to  400/. ; 
the  salary  of  the  governor  was  200/.,  and  that  of 
the  deputy-governor  50/. ;  and  the  whole  expense  of 
government  probably  did  not  exceed  8001.  an- 
nually. 

The  superior  court  was  made  ambulatory  in  1711 ; 
and  at  the  May  session,  1711,  it  was  enacted,  that 
"  there  should  be  one  superior  court  of  judicature  over 
the  whole  colony  :  that  this  court  should  be  holden 
annually,  within  and  for  the  county  of  Hartford  on 
the  third  Tuesdays  in  March  and  September  :  within 
and  for  the  county  of  New  Haven,  on  the  second 
Tuesdays  in  March  and  September  :  within  and  for 
the  county  of  Fairh'eld,  at  Fairfield,  on  the  first 
Tuesdays  in  March  and  September ;  and  within  and 
for  the  county  of  New  London  on  the  fourth  Tues- 
days in  said  months." 

This  court  consisted  of  one  chief  judge  and  four 
other  judges,  three  of  whom  made  a  quorum.  The 
judges  of  the  court  were  all  magistrates.  William 
Pitkin,  Esq.  was  chief  judge  ;  and  Richard  Chris- 
topher, Peter  Burr,  Samuel  Eells,  and  John  Haynes, 
Esquires,  assistant  judges.  The  salary  of  the  chief 
judge  was  ten  shillings  a  day  while  on  the  public  ser- 
vice; and  the  others  were  allowed  the  fees,  by  law, 
payable  to  the  bench. 

At  the  session  in  May  1665,  counties  were  first 
established;  and  from  that  time  each  county  had  a 
court  of  its  own;  which  consisted  of  a  chief  judge 
and  four  justices  of  the  quorum. 

In  each  county  there  was  also  a  court  of  probates, 
consisting  of  one  judge  and  a  clerk ;  in  which  all 
testamentary  affairs  were  managed ;  and  from  this 
court  appeals  might  be  had  to  the  county  court. 
One  of  the  magistrates  of  the  county  was  commonly 
judge  of  this  court.  It  met  frequently,  and  business 
was  transacted  with  ease  and  dispatch,  and  with 
little  expense. 

The  manufacturers  of  Connecticut  at  this  time 
were  very  inconsiderable  ;  there  was  but  one  clothier 
in  the  colony ;  and  the  utmost  he  could  do  was  to 
full  the  cloth  which  was  made  ;  and  a  great  propor- 
tion of  it  was  worn  without  shearing  or  pressing. 

The  trade  of  the  colony  was  also  very  inconsider- 
ble ;  and  its  foreign  commerce  was  scarcely  any 
thing.  The  only  articles  exported  directly  to 
Great  Britain  were  turpentine,  pitch,  t?.r,  and  fur; 
which  more  generally  were  sent  directlj  to  Boston 
or  New  York,  and  were  exchanged  for  4uch  Euro- 
pean goods  as  were  consumed  in  the  colony.  The 
principal  trade  was  with  Boston,  New  York,  and 
the  West  India  Islands.  To  the  two  former  of  which 
the  merchants  traded  in  the  produce  of  the  colony, 
wheat,  rye,  barley,  Indian  corn,  peas,  pork,  beef, 
and  fat  cattle.  To  the  West  Indies  the  merchants 
exported  horses,  staves,  hoops,  pork,  beef,  and  cat- 
tle;  and  in  return  received  rum,  sugar,  molasses, 
cotton  wool,  bills  of  exchange,  and  sometimes  small 
sums  of  money.  But  little  more  was  imported,  than 
was  found  necessary  for  home  consumption. 

At  this  period  there  was  not  a  printer  in  the  co- 
lony ;  and  consequently  a  great  proportion  of  the 
laws  were  only  in  manuscript.  The  assembly  had 
now  desired  the  governor  and  council  to  procure  a 
printer  to  settle  in  the  colony ;  and  it  was  deter- 
mined to  revise  and  print  the  laws.  The  council 
obtained  Mr.  Timothy  Green,  a  descendant  of  Mr. 


Samuel  Green  of  Cambridge  in  Massachusetts,  th» 
first  printer  in  North  America;  and  the  assembly, 
for  his  encouragement,  agreed  that  he  should  be 
printer  to  the  governor  and  company,  and  that  he 
should  have  5(k,  the  salary  of  the  deputy-governor, 
annually.  He  was  to  print  the  election  sermons, 
the  proclamations  for  fasts  and  thanksgivings,  and 
such  laws  as  were  enacted  at  the  several  sessions  of 
the  assembly.  In  1714,  he  arrived  in  Connecticut, 
and  fixed  his  residence  at  New  London  ;  and  he 
and  his  descendants  were  for  a  great  number  of 
years,  printers  to  the  governor  and  company  of 
Connecticut. 

It  appears  that  one  Thomas  Short,  a  printer,  had 
previously  settled,  though  not  officially,  at  New 
London  about  the  year  1709  ;  and  that  in  1710,  he 
printed  Saybrook  Platform,  and  soon  after  died. 

In  the  period  to  which  we  have  arrived,  almost 
all  the  east  side  of  Connecticut  was  settled.  Ash- 
ford,  Tolland,  Stafford,  Bolton,  and  two  or  three 
other  towns  have  been  settled  in  that  part  of  the 
colony,  and  the  greatest  part  of  the  county  of  Lich- 
field  since  ;  but  the  settlement  of  the  latter  has  been 
attended  with  little  difficulty  in  comparison  with 
what  was  experienced  in  the  planting  and  defending 
of  the  former. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  AFFAIRS  OF  CONNEC- 
TICUT, Jrom  1666  to  1714. 

The  general  assemo^y  appoint  a  synod  to  determine 
points  of  religious  controversy — The  ministers  de- 
cline meeting  under  the  name  of  a  synod — The  as- 
sembly alter  the  name,  and  require  them  to  meet  as 
a  general  assembly  of  the  ministers  and  churches  of 
Connecticut — Seventeen  questions  were  proposed  to 
the  assembly  to  be  discussed  and  answered — The 
assembly  of  ministers  and  churches  meet  and  discuss 
the  questions — The  legislature  declare  that  they  had 
not  been  decided,  and  give  intimations  that  they  did 
not  desire  that  the  ministers  and  churches  of  Connec- 
ticut should  report  their  opinion  upon  them — They 
express  their  desires  of  a  larger  council  from  Massa- 
chusetts and  New  Plymouth — The  Rev.  Mr,  Daven- 
port removes  to  Boston— Dissension  at  Windsor— Mr. 
Bulkley  and  Mr.  Fitch  are  appointed  by  the  assembly 
to  devise  some  way  in  which  the  churches  might  walk 
together,  notwithstanding  their  different  opinions 
relative  to  the  subjects  of  baptism,  church  communion, 
and  the  mode  of  church  discipline — The  church  at 
Hartford  divides,  and  Mr.  Whiting  and  his  adherents 
are  allowed  to  practise  upon  congregational  principles 
—The  church  at  Stratford  allowed  to  divide,  and 
hold  distinct  meetings — Mr.  Walker  and  his  hearers, 
upon  advice,  remove  and  settle  the  town  of  Woodbury 
— Deaths  and  characters  of  the  Rev.  Messrs.  John 
Davenport  and  John  Wdrham — General  attempts 
fora  reformation  of  manners — Religious  state  cf  the 
colony  in  1680 — Attempts  for  the  instruction  and 
christianizing  of  the  Indians  in  Connecticut — Act  of 
the  legislature  respecting  Windsor — The  people  there 
required  peaceably  to  settle  and  support  Mr.  Mather 
—'Owning  or  subscribing  the  covenant  introduced  at 
Hartford — College  founded,  and  tiustees  incorpo- 
rated-^ Worship  according  to  the  mode  of  the  church 
of  England  performed,  in  this  colony,  first  at  Strat- 
ford— Episcopal  church  gathered  thei* — Act  of  as- 
sembly requiring  the  ministers  and  churches  of  Con- 
necticut to  meet  and  form  a  religious  constitution— 
They  meet  and  compile  the  Saybrook  Platform—- 


760 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Articles  of  discipline — Act  of  the  legislature  adopt- 
ing the  Platform— Associations  ;  consociations — Ge- 
neral association — Its  recommendations  relative  to 
the  examination  of  candidates  for  the  ministry,  and 
of  pastors  elect  previous  to  their  ordination— Minis- 
ters, churches,  and  ecclesiastical  societies  in  Connec- 
ticut, in  1713. 

(1666.)  Although  the  legislature  of  Connecticut, 
during  the  controversy  respecting  the  union  of  the 
colonies,  judged  it  expedient  to  transact  nothing  re- 
lative to  the  religious  controversies  then  in  the  coun- 
try, yet,  as  soon  as  the  union  was  well  established, 
they  entered  seriously  upon  measures  to  bring  them 
to  a  final  issue;  and,  for  this  purpose,  they  passed 
the  following  act : — 

"  This  court  doth  conclude,  to  consider  of  some 
way  or  means  to  bring  those  ecclesiastical  matters, 
that  are  in  difference  in  the  several  plantations,  to 
an  issue,  by  stating  some  suitable  accommodation 
and  expedient  thereunto.  And  do  therefore  order, 
that  a  synod  be  called  to  consider  and  debate  those 
matters;  and  that  the  questions  presented  to  the 
elders  and  ministers  that  are  called  to  this  synod, 
shall  be  publicly  disputed  to  an  issue.  And  this 
court  doth  confer  power  to  this  synod,  being  met 
and  constituted,  to  order  and  methodize  the  dispu- 
tation, so  as  may  most  conduce,  in  their  apprehen- 
sion, to  attain  a  regular  issue  of  their  debates." 

The  court  ordered  that  all  the  preaching  elders, 
or  ministers,  who  were  or  should  be  settled  in  this 
colony,  at  the  time  appointed  for  the  meeting  of  the 
synod,  should  be  sent  to,  to  attend  as  members  of 
it :  and  it  was  also  ordered,  that  Mr.  Mitchell,  Mr. 
Brown,  Mr.  Sherman,  and  Mr.  Glover,  of  Massa- 
chusetts, should  be  invited  to  assist  as  members  of 
the  synod  ;  that  upon  the  meeting  of  a  majority  of 
the  preaching  elders  in  the  colony,  they  should  pro- 
ceed as  a  synod  ;  and  that  the  questions  proposed 
by  this  assembly,  should  be  the  questions  to  be  dis- 
puted. The  meeting  of  the  synod  was  appointed 
on  the  third  Wednesday  in  May  1667;  and  the 
secretary  was  directed  to  transmit  to  all  the  ministers 
in  this  colony,  and  those  invited  from  the  Massachu- 
setts, a  copy  of  this  act  of  assembly,  and  of  the 
questions  to  be  disputed. 

It  seems,  that  the  ministers  had  objections  to 
meeting  as  a  synod,  and  to  the  order  of  the  assem- 
bly vesting  them  with  synodical  powers ;  and  the 
legislature,  to  relieve  this  difficulty,  in  their  May 
session,  judged  it  expedient  to  alter  the  name  of  the 
council,  and  to  call  it  an  assembly  of  the  ministers 
of  Connecticut,  called  together  by  the  general  court, 
for  the  discussing  the  questions  stated,  according  to 
their  former  order. 

The  assembly  of  ministers  convened  at  the  time 
appointed,  and  having  conversed  on  the  questions, 
and  voted  not  to  dispute  them  publicly,  adjourned 
until  the  autumn,  determining  then  to  meet  again, 
and  make  their  report,  should  it  be  the  desire  of  the 
legislature.  The  questions  were  the  same  which 
had  been  exhibited  ten  years  before,  and  have  al- 
ready been  given.  The  churches  continued  in 
their  former  strict  method  of  admitting  members  to 
their  communion,  and  maintained  their  right  to 
choose  their  ministers,  without  any  control  from  the 
towns  or  parishes  of  which  they  were  a  part ;  and  it 
does  not  appear,  that  one  church  in  the  colony  had 
yet  consented  to  the  baptism  of  children,  upon  their 
parents  owning  the  covenant,  as  it  was  then  called ; 
and  it  Was  insisted,  as  necessary  to  the  baptism  of 
children,  that  one  of  the  parents,  at  least,  should  be 


a  member  in  full  communion  with  the  church,  and 
in  regular  standing. 

It  seems,  that  the  assembly's  particularly  inviting 
the  gentlemen  from  the  Massachusetts,  in  their 
name,  to  attend  the  general  assembly  of  ministers 
and  churches,  was  to  enlighten  and  soften  the  minds 
of  the  ministers  of  Connecticut  in  those  points,  and 
to  obtain  a  majority  in  the  assembly  for  a  less  rigid 
mode  of  proceeding.  Mr.  Mitchell  was  the  most 
powerful  disputant  of  his  day,  in  New  England,  in 
favour  of  the  baptism  of  children,  upon  their  parents 
owning  the  covenant,  though  they  neglected  to  obey 
and  honour  Christ,  in  attending  the  sacrament  o'f 
the  Lord's  Supper.  It  appeared,  however,  that  this 
party  were  not  able  to  carry  any  point  in  the  as- 
sembly, and  that  the  questions  were  not  likely  to  be 
determined  according  to  the  wishes  of  the  majority 
of  the  legislature ;  and  measures  were  therefore 
adopted  to  prevent  the  meeting  and  result  of  the  as- 
sembly, at  their  adjournment  in  the  autumn. 

In  September,  the  commissioners  of  the  united 
colonies  met  at  Hartford,  and  they  interposed  in 
the  affair;  and  resolved,  "  That  when  questions 
of  public  concernment,  about  matters  of  faith  and 
order,  do  arise  in  any  colony,  that  the  decision 
thereof  should  be  referred  to  a  synod,  or  council  of 
messengers  of  churches,  indifferently  called  out  of 
the  united  colonies,  by  an  orderly  agreement  of  all 
the  general  courts ;  and  that  the  place  of  meeting 
be  at  or  near  Boston,"  which  vote  was,  doubtless, 
obtained  by  the  art  of  those  gentlemen,  among  the 
civilians  and  ministers,  who  wished  to  prevent  the 
meeting  of  the  assembly  of  ministers,  and  their  re- 
sulting upon  the  questions. 

The  reverend  elders,  Warham,  Hooker,  and  Whi- 
ting, in  a  writing  under  their  hands,  represented  to 
the  assembly,  at  their  session  in  October,  that  it  was 
the  desire  of  the  assembly  of  ministers,  that  there 
might  be  a  more  general  meeting  of  ministers  from 
Massachusetts,  to  assist  in  the  consideration  and  de- 
cision of  the  questions  proposed;  and  it  was  also 
represented  to  the  assembly,  that  though  they  and 
others  were  for  disputing  the  questions  publicly,  and 
offered  to  do  it,  yet  the  major  part  of  the  assembly 
refused  the  offer. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Bulkley  and  Mr.  Haynes,  on  the 
other  hand,  in  a  letter  addressed  by  them  to  the  as- 
sembly, represented  that  the  assembly  had  autho- 
rized a  major  part  of  the  ministers  to  methodize  the 
proceedings  of  the  assembly,  and  that  a  majority 
were  against  a  public  disputation  of  the  questions : 
that  it  was  considered  it  would  dishonour  God,  dis- 
serve the  peace  and  edification  of  the  churches,  and 
the  general  interests  of  religion;  and  it  was  judged 
most  expedient  to  deliberate  upon  and  decide  the 
questions  among  themselves,  as  was  usual  in  coun- 
cils, without  a  public  disputation.  They  therefore 
observed,  that  whatever  offers  were  made  them  to 
dispute  the  questions  publicly,  they  could  not  con- 
sisiently  do  it.  as  it  was  contrary  to  a  major  vote  of 
the  assembly  of  the  ministers,  and,  in  their  opinion, 
would  prejudice  the  interest  of  the  churches.  With 
respect  to  the  present  application,  made  by  Messrs. 
Warham,  Hooker,  and  Whiting,  they  observed, 
that  it  appeared  strange  to  them,  as  a  considerable 
number  of  the  ministers  were  positively  against  it, 
and  others  were  neuter,  and  not  in  the  vote  for  a 
more  general  council;  and  that  it  was  the  vote  of 
the  assembly  of  ministers,  to  meet  again  on  the  third 
Wednesday  in  October.  They  assured  the  legisla- 
ture, that  they  were  ready  and  determined  to  obey 
all  their  lawful  commands ;  and  they  desired  infor- 


UNITED  STATES. 


761 


mation  from  them,  whether  the  assembly  of  minis- 
ters should  meet  again,  according  to  adjourn- 
ment, or  not  ?  The  general  assembly  voted,  that 
the  questions  had  not  been  decided,  and  desired  the 
several  churches  and  plantations  in  the  colony  to 
send  their  teaching  elders,  at  their  own  expense,  to 
sit  in  council,  with  such  of  the  elders  of  Massachu- 
setts and  Plymouth  as  should  be  appointed,  to  con- 
sider and  determine  the  points  in  controversy.  The 
assembly  desired,  that  the  general  court  of  Massa- 
chusetts might  be  certified  of  the  affair,  and  would 
appoint  time  and  place  for  the  meeting  of  a  synod, 
if  they  should  judge  it  expedient 

Whether  the  assembly  really  wished  to  have  a 
general  council,  or  whether  this  was  only  a  matter 
of  policy  to  prevent  a  determination  of  the  questions 
contrary  to  their  wishes,  is  not  certain.  No  general 
council,  however,  was  called;  nor  does  it  appear 
that  any  motion  was  made  afterwards  for  that  pur- 
pose ;  and  indeed  the  legislature  seem  to  have  felt 
a  conviction,  that  the  clergy  and  churches  would 
not  give  up  their  private  opinions,  in  faith  and  prac- 
tice, to  the  decisions  of  councils ;  that  honest  men 
would  often  think  differently,  and  that  they  could 
not  be  convinced  and  made  of  one  mind  by  disputing ; 
and  no  further  attempts  were  ever  made  by  them,  to 
bring  those  points  to  a  public  discussion. 

While  these  affairs  were  transacting  in  Connecti- 
cut, a  remarkable  transaction  took  place  in  the  first 
church  at  Boston,  the  most  considerable  church  in 
New  England.  Their  pastor,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wilson, 
was  one  of  the  synod  in  1662,  and  one  who  had 
adopted  its  determinations  relative  to  the  subjects 
of  baptism.  His  church  also  appeared  to  have 
consented  to  the  practice  of  admitting  persons  to 
own  their  covenant,  and  bring  their  children  to 
baptism ;  but,  nevertheless,  after  Mr.  Wilson's  de- 
cease, they  elected  the  Rev.  Mr.  Davenport,  of  New 
Haven,  for  their  pastor.  He  had  publicly  written 
against  the  synod,  and  was  one  of  the  most  strict 
and  rigid  ministers,  with  respect  to  the  admission  of 
members  to  full  communion,  the  subjects  of  bap- 
tism, and  with  respect  to  church  discipline  in  New 
England.  He  had  now  arrived  nearly  to  70  years 
of  age,  yet,  in  J667,  upon  the  application  of  the 
church  and  congregation  at  Boston,  he  accepted 
their  invitation,  and  the  next  year  removed  to  that 
capital.  He  bad  been  about  30  years  minister  at  New 
Haven,  and  was  greatly  esteemed  and  beloved  by  his 
flock ;  and  this  circumstance,  with  his  advanced  period 
of  life,  made  his  removal  very  remarkable.  His 
church  and  people  were  exceedingly  unwilling  that 
he  should  leave  them,  and,  it  seems,  never  formally 
gave  their  consent :  and  the  result,  on  the  whole, 
was  unfortunate.  It  occasioned  a  separation  from 
the  first  church  in  Boston ;  and  the  church  and  con- 
gregation at  New  Haven,  for  many  years,  remained 
in  an  unsettled  state,  unable  to  unite  in  the  choice 
of  any  person  to  take  the  pastoral  charge  of  them. 

The  town  of  Windsor  had,  for  many  years,  been 
almost  in  perpetual  controversy,  relative  to  the  set- 
tlement of  a  minister ;  and  after  Mr.  Warham  be- 
came advanced  in  years  he  wished  for  a  colleague, 
to  assist  him  in  ministerial  labours.  Various 
young  gentlemen  were  invited  to  preach  in  the 
town ;  but  this  occasioned  a  violent  controversy  on 
each  election ;  and  it  appears  that  their  passions 
were  so  inflamed,  that,  occasionally  at  of  tKeir  meet- 
ings, their  language  and  deportment  were  unbro- 
therly  and  irritating.  One  Mr.  Chauncey  was 
preaching  in  the  town,  and  parties  were  warmly  en- 
gaged  for  and  against  him ;  when  the  general  as- 


sembly enacted,  "  That  all  the  freemen  and  house- 
holders in  Windsor  and  Massacoe  should  meet  at 
the  meeting-house,  on  Monday  morning  next,  (Oc- 
tober 10th,  1667,)  by  sun  an  hour  high,  and  bmi£ 
in  their  votes  for  a  minister  to  Mr.  Henry  Wolcott : 
that  those  who  were  for  Mr.  Chauncey  to  be  the 
settled  minister  of  Windsor,  bring  in  a  written  pa- 
per, and  those  who  were  not  for  him,  to  give  in  a 
paper  without  any  writing  upon  it :  that  the  inha- 
bitants, during  the  meeting,  forbear  all  discourse 
and  agitation  of  any  matter,  which  may  serve  to 
provoke  and  disturb  each  other's  spirits,  and  when 
the  meeting  is  over  return  to  their  several  occasions." 

Mr.  Wolcott  reported  to  the  assembly  the  state 
of  the  town,  that  there  were  86  votes  for  Mr.  Chaun- 
cey, and  55  against  him ;  and  the  assembly,  upon 
the  petition  of  the  minor  party,  and  a  full  view  of 
the  state  of  the  town,  gave  them  liberty  to  settle  an 
orthodox  minister  among  themselves,  and  to  the 
church  and  majority  of  the  town  to  settle  Mr. 
Chauncey,  if  they  judged  it  expedient;  and  it  was 
enacted,  that  the  minority  should  pay  Mr.  Chauncey 
until  they  should  obtain  another  minister  to  preach, 
and  reside  in  the  town.  Mr.  Chauncey  was  not 
finally  ordained,  but  the  affair  was  carried  so  far, 
that  a  separation  was  soon  after  made  in*the  church, 
and  a  distinct  church  was  formed  by  the  minority ; 
and  the  town  continued  in.  this  divided  state  for 
about  sixteen  years. 

(1668.)  The  legislature,  having  given  over  all 
further  attempts  to  compose  the  divisions  in  the  co- 
lony, by  public  disputations  and  the  decisions  of 
general  councils,  determined  to  pursue  a  different 
course.  They  conceived  the  design  of  uniting  the 
churches  in  some  general  plan  of  church  commu- 
nion and  discipline,  by  which  they  might  walk,  not- 
withstanding their  different  sentiments,  in  points  of 
less  importance ;  and,  with  this  view,  an  act  passed, 
authorizing  the  Rev.  Messrs.  James  Fitch,  Gershom 
Bulkley,  Joseph  Elliot,  and  Samuel  Wakeman,  to 
meet  at  Saybrook,  and  devise  by  what  means  this  de- 
sirable purpose  might  be  effected.  This  appears  to 
have  been  the  first  step  towards  forming  a  religious 
constitution;  and  from  this  time  it  became  more 
and  more  a  general  object  of  desire  and  pursuit, 
though  many  years  elapsed  before  it  was  accom- 
plished. 

Notwithstanding  the  divisions  in  the  church  at 
Hartford,  some  years  since,  had  been  so  far  com- 
posed and  healed,  that  it  had  been  kept  together 
until  this  time,  yet  there  were  various  sentiments 
among  the  brethren  and  between  the  ministers,  re- 
lative to  the  qualifications  of  church  members,  the 
subjects  of  baptism,  and  the  mode  of  discipline. 
Mr.  Whiting,  and  part  of  the  church,  were  zealous 
for  the  strictly  congregational  way,  as  it  has  been 
called,  practised  by  the  ministers  and  churches,  at 
their  first  coming  into  New  England;  and  Mr. 
Haynes  and  a  majority  of  the  congregation  were 
not  less  engaged  against  it.  The  difference  became 
so  great,  that  it  was  judged  expedient,  both  by  an 
ecclesiastical  council  and  the  assembly,  that  the 
church  and  town  should  be  divided ;  and  an  eccle- 
siastical council  having  first  advised  to  a  division, 
the  general  assembly,  in  October  1669,  passed  the 
following  act:— 

"  Upon  the  petition  presented  by  Joseph  Whi- 
ting, &c.  to  this  court,  for  a  distinct  walking  in  con- 
gregational church  order,  as  hath  been  settled  ac- 
cording to  the  council  of  the  elders,  the  court  doth 
commend  it  to  the  church  at  Hartford  to  take  some 
effectual  course,  that  Mr.  Whiting,  &c.  may  prac- 


762 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


tise  the  congregational  way,  without  disturbance, 
either  from  preaching  or  practice,  diversely  to  their 
just  offence;  or  else  to  grant  their  loving  consent 
to  their  brethren  to  walk  distinct,  according  to  such 
their  congregational  principles ;  which  this  court 
allows  liberty  in  Hartford  to  be  done.  But  if  both 
these  be  refused  and  neglected  by  the  church,  then 
these  brethren  may,  in  any  regular  way,  relieve 
themselves  without  offence  to  this  court." 

And  the  following  February  (1670),  Mr.  Whi- 
ting and  his  adherents  resolved  and  covenanted  in 
the  manner  following,  and  formed  the  second  church 
in  Hartford. 

"  Having  had  the  consent  and  countenance  of 
the  general  court,  and  the  advice  of  an  ecclesiasti- 
cal council  to  encourage  us  in  embodying  as  a  church 
by  ourselves,  accordingly  upon  the  day  of  comple- 
ting our  distinct  state  (viz.  February  12th,  1669-70), 
this  paper  was  read  before  the  messengers  of  the 
churches,  and  consented  to  by  ourselves  :  viz. 

"  The  holy  providence  of  the  Most  High  so  dis- 
posing, that  public  opposition  and  disturbance  hath, 
of  late  years,  been  given,  both  by  preaching  and 
practice,  to  the  congregational  way  of  church  order, 
by  all  manner  of  orderly  establishments  settled, 
and  for  a  long  time  unanimously  approved,  and 
peaceably  practised  in  this  place,  all  endeavours 
also  (both  among  ourselves  and  from  abroad)  with 
due  patience  therein,  proving  fruitless  and  unsuc- 
cessful to  the  removing  of  that  disturbance;  We, 
whose  names  are  after  mentioned,  being  advised  by 
a  council  of  the  neighbouring  churches,  and  allowed 
also  by  the  honourable  general  court,  to  dispose 
ourselves  into  a  capacity  of  distinct  walking,  in 
order  to  a  peaceable  and  edifying  enjoyment  of  all 
God's  holy  ordinances,  Do  declare,  that  according 
to  the  light  we  have  hitherto  received,  the  fore-men- 
tioned congregational  way  (for  the  substance  of  it) 
as  formerly  settled,  professed  and  practised,  under 
the  guidance  of  the  first  leaders  of  this  church  of 
Hartford,  is  the  way  of  Christ ;  and  that  as  such  we 
are  bound  in  duty  carefully  to  observe  and  attend 
it,  until  such  further  light  (about  any  particular 
points  of  it)  shall  appear  to  us  from  the  Scripture, 
as  may  lea'd  us,  with  joint  or  general  satisfaction,  to 
be  otherwise  persuaded.  Some  main  heads  or  prin- 
ciples of  which  congregational  way  of  church  order 
are  those  that  follow:  viz. 

1.  "  That  visible   saints  are  the  only  fit  matter, 
and  confederation  the  only  form  of  a  visible  church. 

2.  "  That  a  competent  number  of  visible  saints, 
(with  their  seed)  embodied  by  a  particular  cove- 
nant, are  a  true,   distinct,   and   entire   church   of 
Christ. 

"  3.  That  such  a  particular  church,  being  orga- 
nized, or  having  furnished  itself  with  those  officers 
which  Christ  hath  appointed,  hath  all  power  and 
privileges  of  a  church  belonging  to  it. 

"  In  special, 

"  1.  To  admit  or  receive  members. 

"  2.  To  deal  with,  and  if  need  be,  reject  offenders. 

"  3.  To  administer  and  enjoy  all  other  ecclesias- 
tical ordinances  within  itself. 

"  4.  That  the  power  of  guidance,  or  leading,  be- 
longs only  to  the  eldership,  and  the  power  of  judg- 
ment, consent,  or  privilege,  belongs  to  the  fraternity, 
or  brethren  in  full  communion. 

"  5.  That  communion  is  carefully  to  be  main- 
tained between  the  churches  of  Christ  according  to 
his  order. 

"  6.  That  counsel,  in  cases  of  difficulty,  is  to  be 
sought  and  submitted  to  accordiasr  to  God." 


Having  made  this  declaration,  the  brethren  pro 
ceeded  to  covenant  in  the  following  manner : — 

"  Since  it  hath  pleased  God,  in  his  infinite  mercy, 
to  manifest  himself  willing  to  take  unworthy  sinners 
near  unto  himself,  even  into  covenant  relation  to 
and  interest  in  him,  to  become  a  God  to  them,  and 
avouch  them  to  be  his  people,  and  accordingly  to 
command  and  encourage  them  to  give  up  themselves 
and  their  children  also  to  him; 

"  We  do,  therefore,  this  day,  in  the  presence  of 
God,  his  holy  angels,  and  this  assembly,  avouch  the 
Lord  Jehovah,  the  true  and  living  God,  even  God 
the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  be  our 
God,  and  give  up  ourselves  and  ours  also  unto  him, 
to  be  his  subjects  and  servants;  promising  through 
grace  and  strength  in  Christ,  (without  whom  we  can 
do  nothing,)  to  walk  in  professed  subjection  to  him 
as  our  Lord  and  Lawgiver,  yielding  universal  obe- 
dience to  his  blessed  will,  according  to  what  disco- 
veries he  hath  made,  or  shall  hereafter  make,  of  the 
same  to  us ;  in  special,  that  we  will  seek  him  in  all 
his  holy  ordinances,  according  to  the  rules  of  the 
Gospel,  submitting  to  his  government  in  this  parti- 
cular church,  and  walking  together  therein,  with  all 
brotherly  love  and  mutual  watchfulness,  to  the  build- 
ing up  of  one  another  in  faith  and  love  unto  his 
praise.  All  which  we  promise  to  perform,  the  Lord 
helping  us,  through  his  grace  in  Jesus  Christ." 

Nearly  at  the  same  time,  when  the  contention! 
commenced  in  the  church  at  Hartford,  the  people 
at  Stratford  fell  into  the  same  unhappy  state  of  con- 
troversy and  division.  During  the  administrations 
of  Mr.  Blackman,  their  first  pastor,  the  church  and 
town  enjoyed  great  peace,  and  conducted  their  ec- 
clesiastical affairs  with  great  unanimity.  However, 
he  was  far  advanced  in  years,  and  about  the  year 
1663  became  very  infirm,  and  unable  to  perform  his 
ministerial  labours ;  and  the  church  therefore  ap- 
plied to  Mr.  Israel  Chauncey,  son  of  the  president, 
Charles  Chauncey,  of  Cambridge,  to  make  them  a 
visit  and  preach  among  them;  and  a  majority  of 
the  church  and  town  chose  him  for  their  pastor, 
and  in  1665  he  was  ordained;  but  a  large  and  re- 
spectable part  of  the  church  and  town  were  opposed 
to  his  ordination.  To  reconcile  them,  it  was  agreed, 
that  if,  after  hearing  Mr.  Chauncey  a  certain  time, 
they  should  continue  dissatisfied  with  his  ministry, 
they  should  have  liberty  to  call  and  settle  another 
minister,  and  have  the  same  privileges  in  the  meet 
ing-house  as  the  other  party.  Accordingly,  after 
hearing  Mr.  Chauncey  the  time  agreed  upon,  and 
not  being  satisfied  with  his  ministerial  conduct,  they 
invited  Mr.  Zechariah  Walker  to  preach  to  them, 
and  finally  chose  him  for  their  pastor.  He  was  or- 
dained to  the  pastoral  office  in  a  regular  manner,  by 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Haynes  and  Mr.  Whiting,  the  minis- 
ters of  Hartford,  some  time  about  the  year  1667,  or 
1668;  and  both  ministers  performed  public  worship 
in  the  same  house.  Mr.  Chauncey  performed  his 
services  at  the  usual  hours,  and  Mr.  Walker  was 
allowed  two  hours  in  the  middle  of  the  day  ;  but  after 
some  time,  it  so  happened  that  Mr.  Walker  con- 
tinued his  service  longer  than  usual;  and  Mr. 
Chauncey  and  his  people  coming  to  the  house,  and 
finding  that  Mr.  Walker's  exercises  were  not 
finished,  retired  to  a  private  house,  and  there  per- 
formed their  afternoon  devotions.  They  were, 
however,  so  much  displeased,  that  the  next  day 
they  went  over  to  Fairfield,  and  exhibited  a  com- 
plaint to  Major  Gould,  one  of  the  magistrates, 
against  Mr.  Walker.  The  major,  upon  hearing  the 
whole  case,  advised  pacific  measures,  aud  that  Mr 


UNITED  STATES. 


763 


Walker  should  be  allowed  three  hours  for  the  time  o 
his  public  exercises. 

In  May  1669,  the  general  assembly  advised  the 
town  to  grant  Mr.  Walker  full  three  hours  for  his 
exercises,  until  the  next  assembly  in  October  ;  am 
in  the  mean  time,  the  parties  were  directed  to  cal 
an  able  council  to  give  them  advice  and  assistance 
and  if  possible  to  reconcile  them.  All  attempts  for  a 
reconcilation,  however,  were  unsuccessful ;  and  both 
parties  became  more  fixed  in  their  opposition  to  each 
other,  and  their  feelings  and  conduct  more  anc 
more  unbrotherly  ;  till  at  length  Mr.  Chauncey  anc 
the  majority  excluded  Mr.  Walker  and  his  hearers 
themeeting-ho:;s>,  and  they  convened  and  worshippec 
in  a  private  dwelling. 

Governor  Winthrop,  disturbed  by  the  controversy 
and  animosities  subsisting  in  the  town,  advised  that 
Mr.  Walker  and  his  church  and  people  should  re- 
move, and  that  a  tract  of  land,  for  the  settlement  ol 
a  new  township,  should  be  granted  for  their  encou- 
ragement and  accommodation  ;  and  Mr.  John  Sher- 
man, Mr.  William  Curtiss,  and  their  associates, 
were  authorized  to  begin  a  plantation  at  Pomperaug. 
Consequently,  Mr.  Walker  and  his  people  removed 
and  settled  the  town  of  Woodbury,  about  the  years 
1673  and  1674. 

The  tradition  is,  that  Mr.  Walker  and  his  church 
were  not  so  independent,  in  their  principles,  as  the 
church  of  Stratford ;  and  that  Mr.  Walker  was  a 
more  experimental  preacher  than  Mr.  Chauncey. 
Mr.  Chauncey  was  learned  and  judicious  ;  and  they 
both  ultimately  became  sensible  that  their  conduct 
towards  each  other,  during  the  controversy  at  Strat- 
ford, had  not  in  all  instances  been  brotherly,  and 
after  some  time,  made  concessions  to  each  other, 
and  became  perfectly  reconciled. 

During  these  transactions,  those  venerable  fathers, 
who  had  been  singularly  instrumental  in  planting 
the  churches  of  Connecticut  and  New  England,  the 
Rev.  John  Davenport,  and  the  Rev.  John  Warham, 
finished  their  course.  Mr.  Davenport  died  at  Boston, 
of  an  apoplexy,  March  15th,  1670,  in  the  73d  year 
of  his  age.  He  was  born  in  England,  in  the  city 
of  Coventry,  in  Warwickshire,  1597.  His  father 
was  mayor  of  the  city  ;  and  at  fourteen  years  of  age, 
he  was  said  to  be  very  religiously  affected,  and  was 
admitted  into  Brazen  Nose-college,  Oxford.  When 
he  was  nineteen,  he  became  a  constant  preacher  in 
the  City  of  London  ;  and  appears  from  his  early  life 
to  have  been  a  man  of  public  spirit,  planning  and 
attempting  to  serve  the  general  welfare  of  the 
church.  About  the  year  1626,  he  united  with  Dr. 
Gouge,  Dr.  Sibs,  and  Mr.  Offspring,  the  lord 
mayor  of  London,  the  king's  sergeant-at-law,  and 
with  several  other  attorneys  and  citizens,  in  a  design 
of  purchasing  impropriations,  and  with  the  profits 
of  them,  to  maintain  a  constant,  able,  and  laborious 
ministry,  in  those  parts  of  the  kingdom  where  the 
poor  people  were  destitute  of  "  the  word  and  ordi- 
nances ;"  and  such  incredible  progress  was  made  in 
this  charitable  design,  that  all  the  church-lands,  in  the 
hands  of  laymen,  would  have  been  soon  honestly 
recovered  to  the  immediate  service  of  the  reformed 
religion ;  had  not  Laud,  viewing  the  undertaking 
with  a  jealous  eye,  lest  it  might  serve  the  cause  of 
non-conformity,  caused  a  bill  to  be  exhibited  in  the 
exchequer  chamber,  by  the  king's  attorney-general, 
against  the  feoffees,  who  had  the  management  of 
the  affair ;  and  by  this  means,  an  act  of  court  was 
procured,  condemning  the  proceedings,  as  danger- 
ous to  the  church  and  state.  The  feoffments  and 
contrivances  made  to  the  charitable  design,  were 


declared  to  be  illegal,   the  company  was  dissolved, 
and  the  money  was  confiscated  to  the  use  of  his  ma- 
jesty.    But  as  the  affair  met  with  general  approba- 
tion, and  multitudes  of  devout  people   extremely 
resented  the  conduct  of  the  court,  the    crime  was 
never  prosecuted.     Laud,    however,    watched  Mr. 
Davenport  with  a  jealous  eye,  and  as  he  soon  after 
discovered  inclinations  to  non-conformity,  he  marked 
him  out  as  an  object  of  his  vengeance.    Mr.  Daven- 
port, therefore,  to  avoid  the  storm,  by  the   consent 
of  his  people,  resigned  his  pastoral  charge  in  Cole- 
man-street ;  hoping  by  this  means  to  enjoy  a  quiet 
life;  but   he  found   his    expectations    sadly   disap- 
pointed ;  for  he  was  so  constantly  harassed  by  one 
busy  and  furious  pursuivant  after  another,  that  he 
was  obliged  to  leave  the  kingdom  and  retire  into 
Holland ;  and   in  1 633,  he  arrived  at  Amsterdam, 
and  at  the  desire  of  the  people,  who  met  him  on  his 
way,  became  colleague  pastor  with  the  aged  Mr.  Pa- 
get.     After  about  two  years,  thinking  that  he  could 
not  conscientiously  administer  baptism  in  the  loose 
way,  to  all  sorts  of  children,  practised  in  the  Dutch 
churches,  he  desisted  from  his  ministry  at  Amster- 
dam.      While   he  was    in   this,  city,    he  received 
letters  from  Mr.  Cotton,    at   Boston,    acquainting 
him,  that  the  order  of  the  churches  and  common- 
wealth was  then  so  settled  in  New  England,  by  com- 
mon consent,  "  that  it  brought  into  his  mind  the 
new  heaven   and  the  new   earth,  wherein  dwelleth 
righteousness."     He  therefore  returned  to  London, 
and  having  shipped  himself  with  a  number  of  pious 
people,  came  into   New  England;  where   he   was 
a  preacher  of  the  Gospel  about  54  years,  nearly  30 
of  which  were  spent  at  New  Haven.     He  is  charac- 
terized as  a  hard  student  and  universal  scholar  ;  as 
laborious,    prudent,  exemplary,  minister;  as  an 
excellent  preacher,  speaking  with  a  gravity,  energy, 
and  agreeableness,  of  which  few  of  his  brethren  were 
capable. 

The  Rev.  John  Warham  survived  Mr.  Davenport 
)ut  a  short  time.  He  expired  on  the  1st  of  April, 
[670;  having  been  for  about  40  years  a  minister  in 
England ;  six  at  Dorchester,  and  34  at  Wind- 
sor. He  was  distinguished  for  piety  and  the  strictest 
morals ;  yet  at  times  was  subject  to  great  gloomi- 
ness and  religious  melancholy ;  and  such  were  his 
apprehensions  at  some  times,  that  when  he  adminis- 
,ered  the  Lord's  supper  to  his  brethren,  he  did  not 
participate  with  them,  fearing,  as  he  said,  "  that  the 
seals  of  the  covenant  did  not  belong  to  him."  It  is 
said  he  was  the  first  minister  in  New  England  who 
used  notes  in  preaching  ;  yet  he  was  applauded  by 
lis  bearers,  as  one  of  the  most  animated  and  ener- 
;etic  preachers  of  his  day;  and  was  considered  as 
ne  of  the  principal  fathers  and  pillars  of  the 
churches  of  Connecticut. 

(1676.)  After  the  close  of  the  war  with  Philip 
and  the  Narraganset  Indians,  the  general  assembly 
•ecommended  it  to  the  ministers  through  the  colony, 
'  to  take  special  pains  to  instruct  the  people  in  the 
duties  of  religion,  and  to  stir  up  and  awaken  them  to 
repentance,  and  a  general  reformation  of  manners.'* 
They  also  appointed  a  day  of  solemn  fasting  and 
>ray'er,  to  supplicate  the  Divine  aid,  that  they  might 
)e  enabled  to  repent,  and  sincerely  amend  their 
ways ;  and  the  same  measures  were  recommended 
at  the  May  session  the  next  year,  and  the  people 
were  called  "  to  humiliation  and  prayer,  under  a 
deep  sense  of  the  abounding  of  sin  and  the  dark 
ispects  of  Providence." 

The  general  court,  about  three  years  after,  for 
he  more  effectual  preservation  and  propagation 


764 


HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


of  religion  to  posterity,  recommended  it  to  the  mi- 
nistry of  this  colony  upon  the  Lord's-day,  to  cate- 
chise" all  the  youth  in  their  respective  congregations, 
under  twenty  years  of  age,  in  the  assembly  of  divines, 
or  some  other  orthodox  catechism;  and  to  continue 
and  increase  unity  in  religious  sentiments  among 
the  people,  and  that  they  might  have  the  advan- 
tage of  participating  in  the  variety  of  ministerial 
gifts,  it  was  also  recommended  to  the  ministers,  to 
attend  a  weekly  lecture  in  each  county,  on  Wednes- 
day, in  such  manner  as  they  should  judge  most 
subservient  to  these  purposes. 

The  religious  state  of  the  colony  at  this  time,  is 
stated  in  an  answer  to  the  queries  of  the  lords  of 
trade  and  plantations,  to  the  following  effect:— 

"  Our  people  in  this  colony  are  some  of  them 
strict  congregational  men,  others  more  large  congre- 
gational men,  and  some  moderate  presbyterians. 
The  congregational  men  of  both  sorts,  are  the  great- 
est part  of  the  people  in  the  colony.  There  are  four 
or  five  seventh-day  men,  and  about  so  many  more 
quakers. 

"  Great  care  is  taken  for  the  instruction  of  the 
people  in  the  Christian  religion,  by  ministers  cate- 
chising of  them,  and  preaching  to  them  twice  every 
Sabbath-day,  and  sometimes  on  lecture  days;  and 
by  masters  of  families  instructing  and  catechising 
their  children  and  servants,  which  they  are  required 
to  do  by  law.  In  our  corporation  are  26  towns, 
and  21  churches.  There  is  in  every  town  in  the 
colony  a  settled  minister,  except  in  two  towns  newly 
begun."  In  some  towns  there  were  two  ministers; 
so  that  there  wrere,  on  the  whole,  then  about  the 
same  number  of  ministers  as  of  towns ;  and  there 
was  about  one  minister  upon  an  average,  to  every 
460  persons,  or  to  about  90  families. 

While  settlements  and  churches  were  forming  in 
various  parts  of  the  colony,  and  the  English  inha- 
bitants were  providing  for  their  own  instruction, 
some  n^ains  were  taken  to  instruct  and  christianize 
the  Connecticut  Indians ;  and  a  law  was  made, 
obliging  those  under  the  protection  of  the  govern- 
ment to  keep  the  Christian  Sabbath.  The  Rev.  Mr. 
Fitch  was  particularly  desired  to  teach  Uncas  and 
his  family  Christianity ;  and  a  large  Bible,  printed 
in  the  Indian  language,  was  provided  and  given  to 
the  Moheagan  sachems,  that  they  might  read  the 
Scriptures.  When  the  council  of  ministers  met  at 
Hartford  in  1657,  the  famous  Mr.  Elliot,  hearing 
of  the  Podunk  Indians,  desired  that  the  tribe  might 
be  assembled,  that  he  might  "  have  an  opportunity 
of  offering  Christ  to  them  for  their  Saviour." 

By  the  influence  of  some  principal  gentlemen, 
they  were  persuaded  to  come  together  at  Hartford, 
and  Mr.  Elliot  preached  to  them  in  their  own  lan- 
guage, and  laboured  to  instruct  them  concerning 
their  Creator  and  Redeemer.  When  he  had  finished 
his  sermon,  and  explained  the  matter  to  them,  he 
desired  an  answer  from  them,  whether  they  would 
accept  of  Jesus  Christ  for  their  Saviour,  as  he  had 
been  offered  to  them  ?  But  their  chief  men,  with 
great  scorn  and  resentment,  utterly  refused  ;  and 
said  the  English  had  taken  away  their  lands,  and 
Were  attempting  now  to  make  them  servants. 

Mr.  Stone  and  Mr.  Newton,  before  this  time,  had 
both  been  employed  at  the  desire  of  the  colony,  to 
teach  the  Indians  in  Hartford,  Windsor,  Farming- 
ton,  and  that  vicinity ;  and  one  John  Minor  was 
employed  as  an  interpreter,  and  was  taken  into  Mr. 
Stone's  family,  that  he  might  be  further  instructed 
and  prepared  for  that  service.  Catechisms  were 
prepared  by  Mr.  Elliot  and  others,  in  the  Indian 


anguage,  and  spread  among  the  Indians  ;  and  the 
lev.  Mr.  Pierson,  it  seems,  learned  the  Indian  lan- 
guage, and  preached  to  the  Connecticut  Indians.  A 
:onsiderable  sum  was  allowed  him  by  the  commis- 
ioners  of  the  united  colonies  ;  and  a  sum  was  also 
granted  by  them,  for  the  instruction  of  the  Indians 
n  the  county  of  New  Haven.  The  ministers  of  the 
.several  towns  where  Indians  lived,  instructed  them 
as  they  had  opportunity ;  but  all  attempts  for  chris- 
tianizing the  Indians  in  Connecticut  were  attended 
with  little  success ;  they  were  engaged  a  great  part 
if  their  time  in  such  implacable  wars  among  them- 
elves,  were  so  totally  ignorant  of  letters  and  the 
Snglish  language,  and  the  English  ministers  in 
general  were  so  entirely  ignorant  of  their  dialect, 
hat  it  was  extremely  difficult  to  teach  them.  Not 
3ne  Indian  church  was  ever  gathered  by  the  En- 
jlish  ministers  in  Connecticut;  but  several  Indians, 
lowever,  in  one  town  and  another,  became  Chris- 
ians,  and  were  baptized  and  admitted  to  full  com- 
munion in  the  English  churches.  Some  few  were 
admitted  into  the  church  at  Farmington,  and  some 
nto  the  church  at  Derby  ;  and  one  of  the  sachems 
)f  the  Indians  at  Naugatuck  Falls,  was  a  member 
)f  the  church  at  Derby,  and  it  has  been  said  that  he 
was  a  sober,  well-conducted  man.  Some  few  of  the 
Moheagans  have  professed  Christianity,  and  been 
many  years  since  admitted  to  full  communion  in  the 
north  church  in  New  London. 

There  was  an  Indian  school  formerly  kept  at  Far- 
mington, at  the  expense  of  the  socioty  for  propaga- 
ting Christian  knowledge  among  the  Indians ;  and 
the  number  of  Indian  scholars  was  sometimes  fifteen 
or  sixteen. 

The  Gospel,  however,  had  by  far  the  most  happy 
effect  upon  the  Quinibaug,  or  Plainfield  Indians,  of 
any  in  Connecticut.  They  ever  lived  peaceably  with 
the  English,  and  about  the  year  1745,  in  the  time 
of  the  great  awakening  and  reformation  in  New  En- 
gland, they  became  greatly  affected  with  the  truths 
of  the  Gospel,  professed  Christianity,  and  gave  the 
strongest  evidence  of  a  real  conversion.  They  were 
entirely  reformed  as  to  their  manner  of  living  ;  and 
became  temperate,  which  it  had  before  been  found 
utterly  impossible  to  effect  by  any  other  means; 
they  held  religious  meetings,  and  numbers  of  them 
formed  into  church  state,  and  had  the  sacraments 
administered  to  them. 

Upon  the  assembly's  granting  liberty  to  the  minor 
party  in  Windsor  to  call  and  settle  an  orthodox  mi- 
nister, they  immediately  called  one  Mr.  Woodbridge 
to  preach  among  them;  who  with  Mr.  Chauncey 
continued  to  preach,  one  to  one  party,  and  the  other 
to  the  other,  from  1667  to  1680.  Several  councils 
had  been  called  to  advise  and  unite  the  parties,  but 
it  seems  none  had  judged  it  expedient  to  ordain 
either  of  the  gentlemen  ;  'but  after  a  separation  of 
about  ten  years,  a  council  advised,  that  both  minis- 
ters should  leave  the  town,  and  that  the  churches 
and  parties  should  unite,  and  call  and  settle  one 
minister  over  the  whole.  As  the  parties  did  not 
submit  to  this  advice,  it  seems  that  another  council 
was  called  three  years  afterwards,  May  1660,  which 
gave  the  same  advice,  but  the  parties  did  not  com- 
ply ;  and  the  general  assembly  (Oct.  14,  1680,; 
therefore  interposed  aud  passed  the  following  act: — 
"  This  court  having  considered  the  petition  of 
some  of  the  Windsor  people,  and  the  sorrowful  condi- 
tion of  the  good  people  there,  and  finding,  that 
notwithstanding  all  means  of  healing  afforded  them, 
they  do  remain  in  a  bleeding  state  and  condition, 
do  find  it  necessarv  for  this  court  to  exert  their 


UNITED  STATES. 


765 


authority  towards  issuing  or  putting  a  stop  to  the 
present  troubles  there;  and  this  court  do  hereby 
declare,  that  they  find  all  the  good  people  of  Wind- 
sor obliged  to  stand  to,  and  rest  satisfied  with  the 
advice  and  issue  of  the  council  they  chose  to  hear 
and  issue  their  matters;  which  advice  being  given, 
and  now  presented  to  the  court,  dated  January  1677, 
this  court  doth  confirm  the  same,  and  order  that 
there  be  a  seasonable  uniting  of  the  second  society 
in  Windsor  with  the  first,  according  to  order  of 
council,  by  an  orderly  preparation  for  their  admis- 
siou;  and  if  there  be  objection  against  the  life  or 
knowledge  of  any,  then  it  be  according  to  the  coun- 
cil's advice  heard  and  issued  by  Mr.  Hooker  and 
the  other  moderator's  successor;  and  that  both  the 
former  ministers  be  released :  and  that  the  com- 
mittee appointed  to  seek  out  for  a  minister,  with  the 
advice  of  the  church  and  town  collectively,  by  their 
major  vote,  do  vigorously  pursue  the  procuring  of 
an  able,  orthodox  minister,  qualified  according  to 
the  advice  of  the  governor  and  council,  and  ministers, 
May  last ;  and  all  the  good  people  of  Windsor  are 
hereby  required  to  be  aiding  and  assisting  therein, 
and  not  in  the  least  to  oppose  and  hinder  the  same, 
as  they  will  answer  the  contrary  at  their  peril." 

In  consequence  of  this  act,  Mr.  Samuel  Mather 
was  invited  to  preach  to  the  people,  and  about  two 
years  after  was  ordained  to  the  pastoral  office  over 
the  whole  town ;  and  the  two  parties  were  generally 
united  in  him,  and  to  complete  the  union  of  the 
town  and  churches,  the  assembly  enacted,  "  That 
the  people  at  Windsor  should  quietly  settle  Mr. 
Mather,  and  communicate  to  his  support:  that 
such  as,  on  examination,  should  satisfy  Mr.  Mather 
of  their  experimental  knowledge,  should,  upon  pro- 
per testimony  of  their  good  conversation,  be  admit- 
ted on  their  return  from  the  second  church." 

Notwithstanding  the  result  of  the  synod  in  1662, 
and  the  various  attempts  which  had  been  made  to 
introduce  the  practice  of  what  has  been  generally 
termed  "  owning  the  covenant,"  it  does  not  appear 
to  have  obtained  in  the  churches  of  this  colony  until 
the  year  1696;  when  it  appears  first  to  have  been 
introduced  by  Mr.  Woodbridge,  at  Hartford.  The 
covenant  proposed,  bearing  date,  February  1696,  is 
as  follows : — 

"  We  do  solemnly,  in  the  presence  of  God  and 
this  congregation,  avouch  God,  in  Jesus  Christ,  to 
be  our  God,  one  God,  in  three  persons,  the  Father, 
the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost;  and  that  we  are  by 
nature  children  of  wrath,  and  that  our  hope  of 
mercy  with  God  is  only  through  the  righteousness 
of  Jesus  Christ,  apprehended  by  faith;  and  we  do 
freely  give  up  ourselves  to  the  Lord,  to  walk  in  com- 
munion with  him,  in  the  ordinances  appointed  in 
his  holy  word,  and  to  yield  obedience  to  all  his 
commandments,  and  submit  to  his  government. 
And  whereas,  to  the  great  dishonour  of  God,  scan- 
dal of  religion,  and  hazard  of  the  damnation  of 
many  souls,  drunkenness  and  uncleanness  are  pre- 
vailing amongst  us,  we  do  solemnly  engage  before 
God,  this  day,  through  his  grace,  faithfully  and  con- 
scientiously to  strive  against  these  evils,  and  the 
temptations  leading  thereunto." 

Sixty-nine  persons,  male  and  female,  subscribed 
this  in  February ;  on  the  8th  of  March,  in  a  fort- 
night after,  83  more  subscribed;  and  in  about  a 
month,  the  number  of  subscribers  amounted  to  192  ; 
which  appears  to  have  been  nearly  the  whole  body 
of  young  people  in  that  congregation. 

The  same  practice  was,  about  the  same  time,  or 
not  many  years  after,  introduced  into  the  other 


church,  and  the  practice  of  owning  the  covenant  by 
people,  and  offering  their  children  to  baptism,  was 
gradually  introduced  into  other  churches. 

The  practice  of  the  ministers  and  churches  at 
Hartford,  in  some  respects,  was  different  from  that 
in  the  others.  The  ministers,  Mr.  Woodbridge  and 
Mr.  Buckingham,  with  their  deacons,  went  round 
among  the  young  people  and  warned  them,  once 
every  year,  to  come  and  publicly  subscribe,  or  own 
the  covenant;  and  when  such  persons  as  had  owned 
or  subscribed  it  came  into  family  state,  they  pre- 
sented their  children  to  baptism,  though  they  made 
no  other  profession  of  religion,  and  neglected  Uie 
sacrament  of  the  Lord's  supper,  and  other  duties 
peculiar  to  members  in  full  communion.  In  other 
churches  the  covenant  was  owned  by  persons  some- 
times before  marriage,  but  more  generally  not  until 
they  became  parents,  and  wished  to  have  baptism 
administered  to  their  children. 

The  practice  of  making  a  relation  of  Christian 
experiences,  and  of  admitting  none  to  full  commu- 
nion, but  such  as  appeared  to  be  Christians  indeed, 
yet  prevailed ;  and  the  number  of  church  members,  in 
full  communion,  was  generally  small ;  and  in  those 
churches  where  the  owning  of' the  covenant  was  not 
practised,  great  numbers  of  children  were  unbaptized. 

While  the  inhabitants  and  churches  in  Connecti- 
cut were  constantly  increasing,  and  the  calls  for  a 
learned  ministry  to  supply  the  churches  became 
more  and  more  urgent,  a  number  of  the  ministers 
conceived  the  purpose  of  founding  a  college  in  Con- 
necticut; that  by  this  means  they  might  educate 
young  men,  from  among  themselves,  for  the  sacred 
ministry,  and  for  various  departments  in  civil  life, 
and  diffuse  literature  and  piety  more  generally 
among  the  people.  The  clergy,  and  people  in  ge- 
neral, by  long  experience,  found  the  great  inconve- 
nience of  educating  their  sons  at  so  great  a  distance 
as  Cambridge,  and  in  carrying  so  much  money  out 
of  the  colony ;  and  began  to  be  aware  that  a  well 
founded  college  might  not  only  serve  the  interests 
of  the  churches  in  this  government,  but  in  the 
neighbouring  colonies,  where  there  were  no  colleges 
erected  ;  and  not  only  prevent  a  large  sum  of  money 
annually  from  being  carried  abroad,  but  bring  some- 
thing considerable  into  it,  from  the  extensive  coun- 
try around  them. 

The  design  was  first  concerted  in  1698,  by  the 
Rev.  Messrs.  Pierpont  of  New  Haven,  Andrew  of 
Milford,  and  Russell  of  Branford;  who  were  the 
principal  persons  iu  carrying  the  affair  into  imme- 
diate execution.  The  following  ten  of  the  principal 
ministers  in  the  colony  were  nominated  as  trustees,  to 
found,  erect,  and  govern  a  college :  the  Reverend 
Messrs.  James  Noyes  of  Stonington,  Israel  Chaun- 
cey  of  Stratford,  Thomas  Buckingham  of  Saybrook, 
Abraham  Pierson  of  Killingworth,  Samuel  Mather 
of  Windsor,  Samuel  Andrew  of  Milford,  Timothy 
Woodbridge  of  Hartford,  James  Pierpont  of  New 
Haven,  Noadiah  Russell  of  Middletown,  and  Joseph 
Webb  of  Fairfield. 

In  1700  these  gentlemen  assembled  at  New  Ha- 
ven, and  formed  themselves  into  a  body  or  society, 
to  consist  of  eleven  ministers,  including  a  rector, 
and  determined  to  found  a  college  in  the  colony  of 
Connecticut;  and  they  had  another  meeting  the 
same  year,  at  Branford,  and  then  founded  the  uni- 
versity of  Yale-college.  Each  gentleman  gave  a 
number  of  books,  and  laying  them  upon  a  table, 
pronounced  words  to  this  effect:  "  I  give  these 
books  for  the  founding  of  a  college  in  this  colony;" 
and  the  trustees  took  possession  of  them,  and  an 


766 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA 


pointed  Mr.  Russell  of  Branford  to  be  keeper  of 
their  library.  About  40  volumes  in  folio  were  thus 
given. 

Various  other  donations,  both  of  books  and  money, 
were  soo-n  after  made,  by  which  a  good  foundation 
was  laid  for  a  public  seminary ;  but  doubts  arising 
whether  the  trustees  were  vested  with  a  legal  capa- 
city for  the  holding  of  lands,  and  whether  private 
donations  and  contributions  would  be  sufficient  to 
effect  the  great  design  which  they  had  in  view,  it 
was,  upon  mature  deliberation,  determined  to  make 
application  to  the  legislature  for  a  charter  of  incor- 
poration. The  draught  of  which  was  made  by  the 
honourable  Judge  Sewall,  and  Mr.  Secretary  Ad- 
dington  of  Boston  ;  and  it  was  presented  to  the  ge- 
neral assembly  with  a  petition  signed  by  a  large 
number  of  ministers  and  other  principal  characters 
in  the  colony,  representing,  "  That  from  a  sincere 
regard  to,  and  zeal  for,  upholding  the  Protestant  re- 
ligion, by  a  succession  of  learned  and  orthodox  men, 
they  had  proposed  that  a  collegiate  school  should  be 
erected  in  this  colony,  wherein  youth  should  be 
instructed  in  all  parts  of  learning,  to  qualify  them 
for  public  employments  in  church  and  civil  state ; 
and  that  they  had  nominated  ten  ministers  to  be 
trustees,  partners  or  undertakers,  for  the  founding, 
endowing,  and  ordering  the  said  school."  The 
gentlemen  were  particularly  named,  and  it  was  de- 
sired that  full  liberty  and  privilege  might  be  granted 
to  them  for  that  end. 

To  facilitate  the  design,  the  honourable  James 
Fitch,  Esq.  of  Norwich,  one  of  the  council,  before 
the  petition  was  heard,  made  a  formal  donation 
tinder  his  hand,  stating,  "  the  great  pains  and 
charge  the  ministers  had  been  at  in  setting  up  a 
collegiate  school;  and  therefore  to  encourage  a 
work  so  pleasing  to  God,  and  beneficial  to  posterity, 
he  gave  a  tract  of  land,  in  Killingly,  of  about  600 
acres;  and  all  the  glass  and  nails  which  should  be 
necessary  to  build  a  college-house  and  hall." 

The  general  assembly,  at  their  session  in  October 
1701,  incorporated  the  trustees  nominated,  granting 
them  a  charter,  and  vesting  them  with  all  powers 
and  privileges  necessary  for  the  government  of  a 
college,  the  holding  of  lands,  and  the  employment 
of  all  money  and  estates  which  might  be  given  for 
the  benefit  of  the  college  ;  and  the  charter  ordained 
that  the  corporation  should  consist  of  ministers  only, 
and  that  none  should  be  chosen  trustees  under  the 
age  of  40  years;  and  their  number  was  not,  at  any 
time,  to  exceed  eleven,  nor  be  less  than  seven.  The 
assembly  made  them  an  annual  grant  of  120/.  equal 
to  about  60/.  sterling. 

The  trustees,  animated  with  their  charter  privi- 
leges, and  the  countenance  of  the  legislature,  met 
the  next  November,  at  Saybrook,  and  chose  the 
Rev.  Abraham  Pierson  of  Killingworth,  rector  of 
the  college,  and  the  Rev.  Samuel  Russell  was 
chosen  a  trustee,  to  complete  the  number  of  the  cor- 
poration. They  also  made  rules  for  the  general 
government  and  instruction  of  the  collegiate  school ; 
amongst  which  it  was  ordered,  "  That  the  rector 
take  special  care,  as  of  ihe  moral  behaviour  of  the 
students  at  all  times,  so,  with  industry,  to  instruct 
and  ground  them  well  in  theoretical  divinity;  and 
to  that  end,  shall  neither  by  himself,  nor  by  any 
other  person  whomsoever,  allow  them  to  be  in- 
structed in  any  other  system  or  synopsis  of  divinity, 
than  such  as  the  trustees  do  order  and  appoint:  but 
shall  take  effectual  care,  that  said  students  be  weekly 
(at  such  seasons  as  he  shall  see  cause  to  appoint) 
caused  memoriter  to  recite  the  assembly's  catechism 


in  Latin,  and  Dr.  Ames's  Theological  Theses,  of 
which,  as  also  Ames's  Cases  of  Conscience,  he  shall 
make,  or  cause  to  be  made,  from  time  to  time,  such 
explanations  as  may,  through  the  blessing  of  God, 
be  most  conducive  to  their  establishment  in  the 
principles  of  the  Christian  Protestant  religion. 

'  The  rector  shall  also  cause  the  Scriptures  daily, 
except  on  the  Sabbath,  morning,  and  evening,  to  be 
read  by  the  students  at  the  times  of  prayer  in  the 
school,  according  to  the  laudable  order  and  usage 
of  Harvard-college,  making  expositions  upon  the 
same;  and  upon  the  Sabbath  shall  expound  prac- 
tical theology,  or  cause  the  non-graduated  stu- 
dents to  repeat  sermons :  and  in  all  other  ways,  ac- 
cording to  the  best  of  his  discretion,  shall,  at  all 
times,  studiously  endeavour,  in  the  education  of  the 
students,  to  promote  the  power  and  purity  of  reli- 
ion,  and  the  best  edification  of  these  New  Eng- 
land churches.  ' 

At  this  meeting  it  was  debated  whore  to  fix  the 
college ;  and  although  the  trustees  were  not  fully  sa- 
tisfied or  agreed  on  the  most  convenient  place,  yet 
they  fixed- upon  Saybrook,  until,  upon  further  con- 
sideration, they  should  have  sufficient  reason  to  alter 
their  opinion.  They  desired  the  rector  to  remove 
himself  and  family  to  Saybrook ;  and  until  that 
could  be  effected,  they  ordered  that  the  scholars 
should  be  instructed,  at  or  near  the  rector's  house, 
in  Killingworth.  The  corporation  made  various 
attempts  to  remove  the  rector  to  Saybrook,  but  his 
people  were  entirely  opposed  to  it,  and  such  other 
impediments  were  in  the  way,  that  it  was  not  ef- 
fected; and  the  students  continued  at  Killingworth 
during  his  life ;  and  the  library,  consequently,  was 
removed  from  Branford,  to  the  "rector's  house. 

The  ministers  had  been  several  years  in  effecting 
their  plan,  and  a  number  of  young  men  had  been 
preparing  for  college,  under  the  instructions  of  seve- 
ral of  the  trustees ;  and  as  soon  as  the  college  be- 
came furnished  with  a  rector  and  tutor,  eight  of 
them  were  admitted,  and  put  into  different  classes, 
according  to  the  proficiency  which  they  had  re- 
spectively made  ;  some  of  whom,  in  a  year  or  two, 
became  qualified  for  a  degree. 

The  first  commencement  was  at  Saybrook.  Sep- 
tember 13th,  1702.  The  following  gentlemen  ap- 
pear, at  this  time,  to  have  received  the  degree  of 
master  of  arts,  Stephen  Buckingham,  Salmon  Treat, 
Joseph  Coit,  Joseph  Moss,  Nathaniel  Chauncey, 
and  Joseph  Morgan  ;  four  of  whom  had  previously 
graduated  at  Cambridge.  They  all  became  minis- 
ters of  the  Gospel,  and  three  of  them,  Mr.  Bucking- 
ham, Mr.  Moss,  and  Mr.  Chauncey,  were  afterwards 
fellows  of  the  college. 

To  avoid  charge  and  other  inconveniences,  for 
some  years  at  first,  the  commencements  were  pri- 
vate; and  Mr.  Nathaniel  Lynde,  of  Saybrook,  ge- 
nerously gave  a  house  and  land  for  the  use  of  the 
college,  so  long  as  it  should  be  continued  in  that 
town.  For  the  further  encouragement  and  accom- 
modation, in  1703,  there  was  a  general  contribution 
through  the  colony,  to  build  a  college-house  at  Say- 
brook,  or  any  other  place  wherever  it  should  finally 
be  judged  most  convenient  to  fix  the  college. 

During  the  term  of  about  70  years  from  the  set- 
tlement of  Connecticut,  the  congregational  had 
been  the  only  mode  of  worship  in  the  colony;  but 
the  society  for  propagating  the  Gospel  in  foreign 
parts,  in  1704,  fixed  the  Rev.  Mr.  Muirson  as  a 
missionary  at  Rye.  Some  of  the  people  at  Stratford 
had  been  educated  in  the  church  of  England  mode 
of  worship,  and  administering  of  the  ordinances, 


UNITED  STATES. 


767 


and  others  were  not  pleased  with  the  rigid  doctrines 
and  discipline  of  the  New  England  churches,  and 
they  made  an  earnest  application  to  Mr.  Muirson  to 
make  a  visit  at  Stratford,  and  preach  and  baptize 
among  them ;  and  accordingly  in  the  year  1706,  he 
came  to  Stratford,  accompanied  with  Colonel  Heath- 
cote,  a  gentleman  zealously  engaged  in  promoting 
the  episcopal  church.  It  appears  that  the  ministers 
and  people,  in  that  and  the  adjacent  towns,  were 
alarmed  at  his  coming,  and  took  pains  to  prevent 
their  neighbours  and  families  from  hearing  him  ; 
but  the  novelty  and  other  circumstances  brought 
together  a  considerable  assembly  ;  and  Mr.  Muirson 
baptized  25  persons,  principally  adults.  This  was 
the  first  step  towards  introducing  the  church  worship 
into  this  colony.  In  April  1707,  he  made  another 
visit  to  Stratford  ;  when  Colonel  Heathcote  accom- 
panied him  as  before  ;  and  he  preached  at  this  time 
at  Fairfield,  as  well  as  at  Stratford;  and  in  both 
towns  baptized  a  number  of  children  and  adult  per 
sons.  Both  the  magistrates  and  ministers  opposed 
the  introduction  of  episcopacy,  and  advised  the  peo- 
ple not  to  attend  the  preaching  of  the  church  mis- 
sionaries ;  but  the  opposition  only  increased  the  zeal 
of  the  church  people  ;  and  Mr.  Muirson,  after  this, 
made  several  journeys  to  Connecticut,  and  itinerated 
among  the  people.  But  there  was  no  missionary 
from  the  society  fixed  in  Connecticut,  until  the  year 
1722,  when  Mr.  Pigot  was  appointed  missionary  at 
Stratford.  The  churchmen  at  first,  in  that  town, 
consisted  of  about  fifteen  families,  among  whom  were 
a  few  husbandmen,  but  much  the  greatest  number 
were  tradesmen  who  had  been  born  in  England, 
and  came  and  settled  there  ;  some  of  whose  neigh- 
bours joined  them,  so  that  Mr.  Pig^ot  had  twenty  com- 
municants, and  about  150  hearers.  In  1723,  Christ- 
church  in  Stratford  was  founded,  and  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Johnson  was  appointed  to  succeed  Mr.  Pigot. 

The  first  plan  of  the  college  was  very  formal  and 
minute,  drawn  in  imitation  of  the  ancient  protestant 
colleges  and  universities  in  France.  It  was  pro- 
posed that  it  should  be  erected  by  a  general  synod  of 
the  consociated  churches  of  Connecticut;  that  it 
should  be  under  the  government  of  a  president  and 
ten  trustees,  seven  of  whom  were  to  be  a  quorum ; 
and  that  the  synod  should  have  the  nomination  of 
the  first  president  and  trustees,  and  have  a  kind  of 
general  influence  in  all  future  elections,  that  the 
governors  might  be  preserved  in  orthodox  senti- 
ments. It  was  designed  also,  that  the  synod  should 
agree  upon  a  confession  of  faith,  to  which  the  pre- 
sident, trustees,  and  tutors  should,  upon  their  ap- 
pointment to  office,  be  required  to  give  their  con- 
sent; and  that  the  college  should  be  called  the 
school  of  the  church  ;  and  that  the  churches  should 
contribute  to  its  support. 

Though  this  plan  was  not  formally  pursued,  yet 
at  a  meeting  of  the  trustees  at  Guilford,  March  17th, 
1 703,  they  wrote  a  circular  letter  to  the  ministers, 
proposing  "  to  have  a  general  synod  of  all  the 
churches  in  the  colony  of  Connecticut,  to  give  their 
joint  consent  to  the  confession  of  faith,  after  the  ex- 
ample of  the  synod  in  Boston,  in  1680 ;"  and  as  this 
proposal  was  universally  acceptable,  the  churches 
md  ministers  of  the  several  counties  met  in  a  con- 
sociated council,  and  gave  their  assent  to  the  West- 
minster and  Savoy  confessions  of  faith.  It  seems, 
that  they  also  drew  up  certain  rules  of  ecclesiastical 
union  in  discipline,  as  preparatory  to  a  general 
synod  which  they  had  still  in  contemplation. 

The  Cambridge  platform,  which  for  about  60 
years  had  been  the  general  plan  of  discipline  and 


church  fellowship  in  New  England,  made  no  pro- 
vision for  the  general  meeting  of  ministers,  or  for 
their  union  in  associations  or  in  consociations,  yet 
at  an  early  period  they  had  a  general  meeting, 
both  in  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts,  and  be^an 
to  form  into  associations.  Their  annual  meetings 
were  at  the  times  of  the  general  election  at  Boston 
and  Hartford;  at  which  period  they  had  handsome 
entertainment  at  the  public  expense.  In  these  gene- 
ral meetings,  they  went  into  consultations  respect- 
ing the  general  welfare  of  the  churches,  the  sup- 
plying them  with  ministers,  providing  for  their 
stated  enjoyment  of  Divine  ordinances,  and  the 
preservation  of  their  peace  and  order.  The  general 
interests  of  literature  were  also  consulted,  and  some- 
times measures  were  adopted  to  assist  the  poor  and 
afflicted  in  particular  instances  of  distress ;  and  also 
the  civilizing  and  christianizing  the  Indians. 

The  ministers  of  particular  neighbourhoods,  in 
various  parts  of  the  country,  held  frequent  meetings 
for  their  mutual  assistance,  and  to  instruct  and  ad- 
vise the  churches  and  people  as  circumstances  re- 
quired ;  and  this  was  particularly  the  practice  in 
Connecticut. 

The  venerable  Mr.  Hooker  was  a  great  friend  to 
the  meeting  and  consociation  of  ministers  anl 
churches,  as  a  grand  mean  of  promoting  purity, 
union,  and  brotherly  affection,  among  the  ministers 
and  churches  ;  and  during  his  life  the  ministers  in 
the  vicinity  of  Hartford  had  frequent  meetings  at 
his  house.  About  a  week  before  his  death,  he  ob- 
served with  great  earnestness,  "  We  must  agree 
upon  constant  meetings  of  ministers,  and  setile  the 
consociation  of  churches,  or  else  we  are  undone. "And 
soon  after  his  decease,  ministers  in  various  parts  of 
New  England,  and  especially  in  Connecticut,  began 
to  establish  constant  meetings,  or  associations,  in 
particular  vicinities,  and  agreed  on  the  business  to 
be  done,  and  the  manner  in  which  they  would 
proceed. 

They  did  not,  however,  all  adopt  the  same  mode. 
Some  of  the  meetings  or  associations  fasted  and 
prayed,  and  discussed  questions  of  importance  for 
mutual  instruction  and  edification.  A  moderator 
was  chosen  to  conduct  the  business  of  the  meetings 
with  order  and  decency,  to  receive  all  communica- 
tions which  might  be  made  from  the  churches,  or 
other  similar  meetings,  and  to  call  the  associated 
brethren  together  on  particular  emergencies. 

Some  of  the  associations  were  very  formal  and 
particular  in  covenanting  together,  and  in  fixing 
the  business  which  should  be  transacted  by  them. 
They  covenanted  to  submit  to  the  counsels,  reproofs, 
and  censures  of  the  associated  brotherhood  ;  and 
that  they  would  not  forsake  the  association,  nor  neg- 
lect the  appointed  meetings  without  sufficient  reasons. 
They  also  engaged,  that  in  the  meetings  they  would 
debate  questions  immediately  respecting  themselves 
and  their  conduct :  that  they  would  hear  and  consi- 
der all  cases  proposed  to  them  from  neighbouring 
churches  or  individuals ;  answer  letters  directed  to 
them  from  particular  churches  or  persons  ;  and  dis- 
cuss any  question  which  had  been  proposed  at  a 
preceding  meeting.  In  some  of  these  associations, 
it  was  agreed  to  meet  statedly  once  in  six  weeks  or 
two  months  ;  and  as  the  design  was  for  their  own 
mutual  improvement  and  the  advancement  of  Chris- 
tianity in  general,  the  associations  attended  a  lecture 
in  the  parishes  in  which  they  convened  for  the  in- 
struction and  edification  of  the  people.  In  Connec- 
ticut, after  the  resolution  of  the  assembly  in  1680,. 
the  ministers  had  county  meetings  every  week. 


768 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


But  th'ese  associations  and  meetings  were  merely 
voluntary,  countenanced  by  no  ecclesiastical  con- 
stitution, attended  only  by  such  ministers,  in  one 
place  and  another,  as  were  willing  to  associate, 
and  could  bind  none  but  themselves.  The  churches 
might  advise  with  them  if  they  chose  it,  or  neglect 
it  at  pleasure.  There  was  no  regular  way  of  intro- 
ducing candidates  to  the  improvement  of  the 
churches,  by  the  general  consent  either  of  them- 
selves or  the  elders  ;  and  when  they  had  finished 
their  collegiate  studies,  if  they  imagined  themselves 
qualified,  and  could  find  some  friendly  gentleman 
in  the  ministry  to  introduce  them,  they  began  to 
preach,  without  any  examination  or  recommendation 
from  any  body  of  ministers  or  churches.  If  they 
studied  with  any  particular  minister  after  they  had 
received  the  honours  of  college,  that  minister  intro- 
duced them  into  the  pulpit  at  pleasure,  without  the 
general  consent  and  approbation  of  their  brethren ; 
but  many  considered  this  to  be  too  loose  a  practice, 
in  a  matter  of  such  immense  importance  to  the  Divine 
honour,  the  reputation  of  the  ministry,  and  the 
peace  and  edification  of  the  churches ;  and  degrees 
at  college  were  esteemed  no  sufficient  evidence  of 
men's  piety,  knowledge  of  theology,  or  ministerial 
gifts  and  qualifications. 

Besides,  it  was  generally  conceded,  that  the  state 
of  the  churches  was  lamentable  with  respect  to  their 
general  order,  government,  and  discipline ;  and 
that  for  the  want  of  a  more  general  and  energetic 
government,  many  churches  ran  into  confusion ; 
that  councils  were  not  sufficient  to  relieve  the  ag- 
grieved and  restore  peace ;  and  as  there  was  no 
general  rule  for  the  calling  of  councils,  council  was 
called  against  council,  and  opposite  results  were 
given  upon  the  same  cases,  to  the  injury  of  the 
authority  of  councils,  and  of  religion. 

For  the  removal  of  these  inconveniences,  there 
were  many  in  the  New  England  churches,  not  only 
among  the  clergy,  but  other  gentlemen  of  principal 
character,  who  earnestly  wished  for  a  nearer  union 
among  the  churches ;  and  a  great  majority  of  the 
legislature  and  clergy  in  Connecticut  were  for  the 
association  of  ministers,  and  the  consociation  of 
churches.  The  synod,  in  1662,  had  given  their 
opinion  fully  in  favour  of  the  consociation  of  churches; 
and  the  heads  of  agreement  drawn  up  and  assented 
to  by  the  united  ministers  in  England,  called  pres- 
byteriau  and  congregational,  in  1692,  had  made 
their  appearance  in  Connecticut;  and,  in  general, 
were  highly  approved.  The  Vllth  article  of  agree- 
ment, under  the  head  of  the  ministry,  makes  ex- 
press provision  for  the  regular  introduction  of  can- 
didates for  the  ministry;  and  the  united  brethren 
say,  "  It  is  expedient,  that  they  who  enter  on  the 
work  of  preaching  the  Gospel,  be  not  only  qualified 
for  the  communion  of  saints;  but  also  that,  except 
in  cases  extraordinary,  they  give  proof  of  their  gifts 
and  fitness  for  the  said  work,  unto  the  pastors  of  the 
churches  of  known  abilities,  to  discern  and  judge 
of  their  qualifications;  that  they  may  be  sent  forth 
with  solemn  approbation  and  prayer;  which  we 
judge  needful,  that  no  doubt  may  remain  concern- 
ing their  being  called  unto  the  work;  and  for  pre- 
venting, as  much  as  in  us  lieth,  ignorant  and  rash 
intruders."  And  in  these  articles  it  is  also  agreed, 
"  that  in  so  great  and  weighty  a  matter,  as  the 
calling  and  choosing  a  pastor,  we  judge  it  ordina- 
rily requisite,  that  every  such  church  consult  and 
advise  with  the  pastors  of  the  neighbouring  congre- 
gations." 

la  this  state  of  the  churches,  the  legislature  passed 


an  act,  at  their  session  in  May  1708,  requiring  the 
ministers  and  churches  to  meet  and  form  an  eccle- 
siastical constitution  ;  and  the  intentions  and  wishes 
of  the  assembly  will,  in  the  best  manner,  be  dis- 
covered by  their  own  act,  which  is  in  the  words  fol- 
lowing : — 

"  This  assembly,  from  their  own  observation,  and 
the  complaint  of  many  others,  being  made  sensible 
of  the  defects  of  the  discipline  of  the  churches  of 
this  government,  arising  from  the  want  of  a  more 
explicit  asserting  of  the  rules  given  for  that  end  in 
the  Holy  Scriptures;  from  which  would  arise  a 
permanent  establishment  among  ourselves,  a  good 
and  regular  issue  in  cases  subject  to  ecclesiastical 
discipline,  glory  to  Christ,  our  head,  and  edification 
to  his  members ;  hath  seen  fit  to  ordain  and  require, 
and  it  is  by  the  authority  of  the  same  ordained  and 
required,  that  the  ministers  of  the  several  counties, 
in  this  government  shall  meet  together,  at  their  re- 
spective county  towns,  with  such  messengers  as  the 
churches  to  which  they  belong  shall  see  cause  to 
send  with  them,  on  the  last  Monday  in  June  next; 
there  to  consider  and  agree  upon  those  methods 
and  rules  for  the  management  of  ecclesiastical  dis- 
cipline, which  by  them  shall  be  judged  agreeable 
and  conformable  to  the  word  of  God,  and  shall,  at 
tfce  same  meeting,  appoint  two  or  more  of  their 
number  to  be  their  delegates,  who  shall  all  meet 
together  at  Saybrook,  at  the  next  commencement 
to  be  held  there;  where  they  shall  compare  the  re- 
sults of  the  ministers  of  the  several  counties,  and 
out  of  and  from  them,  to  draw  a  form  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal discipline,  which,  by  two  or  more  persons  dele- 
gated by  them,  shall  be  offered  to  this  court,  at 
their  session  at  New  Haven,  in  October  next,  to  be 
considered  of  and  confirmed  by  them :  and  the  ex- 
pense of  the  above-mentioned  meetings  shall  be 
defrayed  out  of  the  public  treasury  of  this  colony. 
A  true  copy  of  the  record. 

"  Test.  ELEAZER  KIMBERLY,  Secretary." 

According  to  the  act  of  the  assembly,  the  minis- 
ters and  churches  of  the  several  counties  convened, 
at  the  time  appointed,  and  made  their  respective 
drafts  for  discipline,  and  chose  their  delegates  for 
the  general  meeting  at  Saybrook,  in  September; 
and  the  ministers  and  messengers  chosen  for  this 
council,  and  its  result,  will  appear  from  the  follow- 
ing minutes  :— - 

"  At  a  meeting  of  delegates  from  the  councils  of 
the  several  counties  of  Connecticut  colony,  in  New 
England,  in  America,  at  Saybrook,  Sept.  9th,  1708, 

PRESENT, 

From  the  council  of  Hartford  county  : — The  Rev. 
Timothy  Woodbridge.  Noadiah  Russell  and  Ste- 
phen Mix.  Messenger,  John  Haynes,  Esq. 

From  the  council  in  Fairfield  county : — The  Rev. 
Charles  Chauncey  and  John  Davenport.  Messen- 
ger, deacon,  Samuel  Hoyt. 

From  the  council  in  New  London  county :— -The 
Rev.  James  Noyes,  Thomas  Buckingham,  Moses 
Noyes,  and  John  Woodward.  '  Messengers,  Robert 
Chapman,  deacon,  William  Parker. 

From  the  council  of  New  Haven  county :— The 
Rev.  Samuel  Andrew,  James  Pierpont,  and  Samuel 
Russell. 

"  The  Rev.  James  Noyce  and  Thomas  Bucking- 
ham being  chosen  moderators.  The  Rev.  Stephen 
Mix  and  John  Woodward  beinjj  chosen  scribes.  ' 

"  In  compliance  with  an  order  of  the  general  as- 
sembly, May  13th,  1708,  after  humble  addresses  to 
the  throne  of  grace  for  the  Divine  presence,  assist- 
ance, and  blessing  upon  us,  having  our  eyes  upon 


UNITED  STATES. 


769 


the  word  of  God  and  the  constitution  of  our  churches, 
"We  agree  that  the  confession  of  faith  owned  and 
assented  unto  by  the  elders  and  messengers  assem- 
bled at  Boston,  in  New  England,  May  12th,  1680, 
being  the  second  session  of  that  synod,  be  recom- 
mended to  the  honourable  general  assembly  of  this 
colony,  at  the  next  session,  for  their  public  testi- 
mony'thereunto,  as  the  faith  of  the  churches  of  this 
colony. 

"  We  agree  also,  that  the  heads  of  agreement  as- 
sented to  by  the  united  ministers,  formerly  called 
presbyterian  and  congregational,  be  observed  by 
the  churches  throughout  this  colony. 

"  And  for  the  better  regulation  of  the  adminis- 
tration of  church  discipline,  in  relation  to  all  cases 
ecclesiastical,  both  in  particular  churches  and  coun- 
cils, to  the  full  determining  and  executing  the  rules 
in  all  such  cases,  it  is  agreed, 

"  I.  That,  the  elder,  or  elders  of  a  particular 
church,  with  the  consent  of  the  brethren  of  the 
same,  have  power,  and  ought  to  exercise  church 
discipline,  according  to  the  rule  of  God's  word,  in 
relation  to  all  scandals  that  fall  out  within  the  same. 
And  it  may  be  meet,  in  all  cases  of  difficulty,  for 
the  respective  pastors  of  particular  churches,  to  take 
idvice  of  the  elders  of  the  churches  in  the  neigh- 
bjarhood,  before  they  proceed  to  censure  in  such 
cases. 

"  II.  That  the  churches  which  are  neighbouring 
to  each  other,  shall  consociate  for  mutual  affording 
to  each  other  such  assistance  as  may  be  requisite, 
upon  all  occasions  ecclesiastical.  And  that  the 
particular  pastors  and  churches,  within  the  respective 
counties  in  this  government,  shall  be  one  conso- 
ciation, (or  more,  if  they  shall  judge  meet),  for  the 
end  aforesaid. 

"  III.  That  all  cases  of  scandal,  that  fall  out 
within  the  circuit  of  any  of  the  aforesaid  consocia- 
tions, shall  be  brought  to  a  council  of  the  elders, 
and  also  messengers  of  the  churches  within  the  said 
circuit,  i.  e.  the  churches  of  one  consociation,  if 
they  see  cause  to  send  messengers,  when  there  shall 
be  need  of  a  council  for  the  determination  of  them. 
"  IV.  That,  according  to  the  common  practice  of 
our  churches,  nothing  shall  be  deemed  an  act  or 
judgment  of  any  council,  which  hath  not  the  act  of 
the  major  part  o^the  elders  present  concurring,  and 
such  a  number  of  the  messengers  present,  as  makes 
the  majority  of  the  council :  provided  that  if  any 
such  church  shall  not  see  cause  to  send  any  messen- 
gers to  the  council,  or  the  persons  chosen  by  them 
shall  not  attend,  neither  of  these  shall  be  any  ob- 
struction to  the  proceedings  of  the  council,  or  inva- 
lidate any  of  their  acts. 

"  V.  That  when  any  case  is  orderly  brought  be- 
fore any  council  of  the  churches,  it  shall  there  be 
heard  and  determined  which  (unless  orderly  removed 
from  thence)  shall  be  a  final  issue ;  and  all  parties 
therein  concerned  shall  sit  down  and  be  determined 
thereby.  And  the  council  so  hearing,  and  giving 
the  result  or  final  issue,  in  the  said  case,  as  afore- 
said, shall  see  their  determination  or  judgment  duly 
executed  and  attended,  in  such  way  or  manner  as 
shall,  in  their  judgment,  be  most  suitable  and 
agreeable  to  the  word  of  God. 

"  VI.  That  if  any  pastor  and  church  doth  obsti- 
nately refuse  a  due  attendance  and  conformity  to 
the  determination  of  the  council,  that  hath  the  cog- 
nisance of  the  case,  and  determineth  it  as  above, 
after  due  patience  used,  they  shall  be  reputed  guilty 
of  scandalous  contempt,  and  dealt  with  as  the  rule  of 
God's  word  in  such  case  doth  provide,  and  the  sen- 
HIST.  OF  AMER. — Nos.  97  &  98. 


tence  of  non-communion  shall  be  declared  against 
such  pastor  and  church.  And  the  churches  are  to 
approve  of  the  said  sentence,  by  withdrawing  from 
the  communion  of  the  pastor  and  church,  which  so 
refused  to  be  healed. 

"  VII.  That,  in  case  any  difficulties  shall  arise 
in  any  of  the  churches  in  this  colony,  which  cannot 
be  issued  without  considerable  disquiet,  that  church 
in  which  they  arise,  (or  that  minister  or  member 
aggrieved  with  them,)  shall  apply  themselves  to  the 
council  of  the  consociated  churches  of  the  circuit  to 
which  the  said  church  belongs;  who,  if  they  see 
cause,  shall  thereupon  convene,  hear,  and  deter- 
mine such  cases  of  difficulty,  unless  the  matter 
brought  before  them  shall  be  judged  so  great  in  the 
nature  of  it,  or  so  doubtful  in  the  issue,  or  of  such 
general  concern,  that  the  said  council  shall  judge 
best  that  it  be  referred  to  a  fuller  council,  consisting 
of  the  churches  of  the  other  consociation  within  the 
same  county,  (or  of  the  next  adjoining  consociation 
of  another  county,  if  there  be  not  two  consociations 
in  the  county  where  the  difficulty  ariseth,)  who,  to- 
gether with  themselves,  shall  hear,  judge,  determine, 
and  finally  issue  such  case,  according  to  the  word 
of  God. 

"  VIII.  That  a  particular  church,  in  which  any 
difficulty  doth  arise,  may,  if  they  see  cause,  call  a 
council  of  the  consociated  churches  of  the  circuit 
to  which  the  church  belongs,  before  they  proceed 
to  sentence  therein ;  but  there  is  not  the  same  li- 
berty to  an  offending  brother  to  call  the  council, 
before  the  church  to  which  he  belongs  proceed  to 
excommunication  in  the  said  case,  unless  with  the 
consent  of  the  church. 

"  IX.  That  all  the  churches  of  the  respective 
consociations  shall  choose,  if  they  see  cause,  one  or 
two  members  of  each  church,  to  represent  them  in 
the  councils  of  the  said  churches,  as  occasion  may 
call  for  them,  who  shall  stand  in  that  capacity  till 
lew  be  chosen  for  the  same  service,  unless  any 
church  shall  incline  to  choose  their  messengers 
anew,  upon  the  convening  of  such  councils. 

"  X.  That  the  minister  or  ministers  of  the  county 
towns,  or  where  there  are  no  ministers  in  such 
towns,  the  two  next  ministers  to  the  said  town  shall, 
as  soon  as  conveniently  may  be,  appoint  time  and 
place  for  the  meeting  of  the  elders  and  messengers 
of  the  churches  in  said  county,  in  order  to  their 
forming  themselves  into  one  or  more  consociations, 
and  notify  the  time  and  place  to  the  elders  and 
churches  of  that  county  who  shall  attend  at  the  same, 
the  elders  in  their  persons,  and  the  churches  by 
their  messengers,  if  they  see  cause  to  send  them. 
Which  elders  and  messengers,  so  assembled  in 
council,  as  also  any  other  council  hereby  allowed  of, 
shall  have  power  to  adjourn  themselves,  as  need 
shall  be,  for  the  space  of  one  year,  after  the  begin- 
ning or  first  session  of  the  said  council,  and  no 
longer.  And  that  minister  who  was  chosen  at  the 
last  session  of  any  council  to  be  moderator,  shall, 
with  the  advice  and  consent  of  two  more  elders,  (or 
n  case  of  the  moderator's  death,  any  two  elders  of 
the  same  consociation,)  call  another  council  within 
the  circuit,  when  they  shall  judge  there  is  need 
thereof.  And  all  councils  may  prescribe  rules,  as 
occasion  may  require,  and  whatever  they  judge 
needful  within  their  circuit,  for  the  well  performing 
and  orderly  managing  the  several  acts,  to  be  at- 
tended by  them,  or  matters  that  come  under  their 
cognisance. 

"  XI.  That  if  any  person  or  persons,  orderly 
complained  of  to  a  council,  or  that  are  witnesses  to 

3  Y 


770 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


such  complaints,  (having  regular  notification  to  ap- 
pear,) shall  refuse,  or  neglect  so  to  do,  in  the 
place,  and  at  the  time  specified  in  the  warning 
given,  except  they  or  he  give  some  satisfying  reason 
thereof  to  the  said  council,  they  shall  be  judged 
guilty  of  scandalous  contempt. 

"XII.  That  the  teaching-elders  of  each  county 
shall  be  one  association,  (or  more  if  they  see  cause,) 
which  association  or  associations  shall  assemble 
twice  a  year,  at  least,  at  such  time  and  place  as 
they  shall  appoint,  to  consult  the  duties  of  their 
office,  and  the  common  interest  of  the  churches, 
who  shall  consider  and  resolve  questions  and  cases 
of  importance  which  shall  be  offered  by  any  among 
themselves  or  others ;  who  also  shall  have  power  of 
examining  and  recommending  the  candidates  of  the 
ministry  to  the  work  thereof. 

"  XIII.  That  the  said  associated  pastors  shall 
take  notice  of  any  among  themselves,  that  may  be 
accused  of  scandal  or  heresy,  unto  or  cognisable 
by  them,  examine  the  matter  carefully,  and  if  they 
find  just  occasion  shall  direct  to  the  calling  of  the 
council,  where  such  offenders  shall  be  duly  pro- 
ceeded against. 

"  XIV.  That  the  associated  pastors  shall  also  be 
consulted  by  bereaved  churches,  belonging  to  their 
association,  and  recommend  to  such  churches  such 
persons  as  may  be  fit  to  be  called  and  settled  in  the 
work  of  the  Gospel  ministry  among  them.  And  if 
such  bereaved  churches  shall  not  seasonably  call 
and  settle  a  minister  among  them,  the  said  asso- 
ciated pastors  shall  lay  the  state  of  such  bereaved 
church  before  the  general  assembly  of  this  colony, 
that  they  may  take  order  concerning  them,  as  shall 
be  found  necessary  for  their  peace  and  edification. 

"  XV.  That  it  be  recommended  as  expedient, 
that  all  the  associations  in  this  colony  do  meet  in  a 
general  association  by  their  respective  delegates, 
one  or  more  out  of  each  association,  once  a  year, 
the  first  meeting  to  be  at  Hartford,  at  the  general 
election  next  ensuing  the  date  hereof,  and  so  annu- 
ally in  all  the  counties  successively,  at  such  time 
and  place,  as  they  the  said  delegates  shall  in  their 
annual  meetings  appoint." 

The  confession  of  faith,  heads  of  agreement,  and 
these  articles  of  discipline  having  unanimously 
passed,  and  been  signed  by  the  scribes,  were  pre- 
sented to  the  legislature  the  succeeding  October,  for 
their  approbation  and  establishment;  upon  which 
they  passed  the  following  adopting  act. 

At  a  general  court  holden  at  NewHaven,  Oct.  1708. 

"  The  reverend  ministers,  delegates  from  the 
elders  and  messengers  of  this  government,  met  at 
Saybrook,  September  9th,  1708,  having  presented 
to  this  assembly  a  confession  of  faith,  and  heads  of 
agreement,  and  regulations  in  the  administration 
of  church  discipline,  as  unanimously  agreed  and 
consented  to  by  the  elders  and  churches  in  this 
government ;  this  assembly  doth  declare  their  great 
approbation  of  such  an  happy  agreement,  and  do 
ordain,  that  all  the  churches  within  this  government, 
that  are,  or  shall  be,  thus  united  in  doctrine,  wor- 
ship, and  discipline,  be,  and  for  the  future  shall  be 
owned  and  acknowledged  established  by  law  ;  pro- 
vided always,  that  nothing  herein  shall  be  intended 
or  construed  to  hinder  or  prevent  any  society  or 
church,  that  is  or  shall  be  allowed  by  the  laws  of 
this  government,  who  soberly  differ  or  dissent  from 
the  united  churches  hereby  established,  from  exer- 
cising worship  and  discipline  in  their  own  way,  ac- 
cording to  their  consciences.  A  true  copy. 
"  Test  ELEAZER  KIMBERLY,  Secretary." 


Though  the  council  were  unanimous  in  passinp 
he  platform  of  discipline,  yet  they  were  not  all  of 
me  opinion  :  some  being  for  high  consociational 
government,  and  in  their  sentiments  nearly  presby- 
erians ;  others  were  much  more  moderate  and 
•ather  verged  on  independency ;  but  as  they  were 
exceedingly  desirous  of  "  keeping  the  unity  of  the 
ipirit  in  the  bond  of  peace,"  they  exercised  great 
brbearance  towards  each  other. 

As  it  was  stipulated  that  the  heads  of  agreement 
should  be  observed  through  the  colony,  they  were 
an  important  mean  of  reconciling  numbers  to  the 
constitution,  as  they  did  not  carry  points  so  far  as 
he  articles  of  discipline  ;  and  did  not  make  the  judg- 
ments of  councils  decisive,  in  all  cases,  but  only 
maintained,  that  particular  churches  ought  to  have 
a  reverential  regard  to  their  judgment,  and  not  to 
dissent  from  it  without  apparent  grounds  from  the 
word  of  God.  Neither  did  they  give  the  elders  a 
negative  in  councils  over  the  churches ;  but  even  in 
some  instances  gave  more  latitude  than  the  articles 
f  discipline  ;  and  consequently  served  to  reconcile 
such  elders  and  churches,  as  were  not  for  a  rigid 
consociational  government. 

Notwithstanding  the  Savoy  confession  was  adopted, 
as  the  faith  of  the  Connecticut  churches,  yet  by 
adopting  the  heads  of  agreement,  it  was  agreed,  that 

ith  respect  to  soundness  of  judgment  in  matters  of 
?aith,  it  was  sufficient,  "  That  a  church  acknowledge 
:he  Scriptures  to  be  the  word  of  God,  the  perfect 
and  only  rule  of  faith  and  practice,  aud  own  either 
the  doctrinal  part  of  those  commonly  called  the  arti- 
cles of  the  church  of  England,  or  the  confession  or 
catechisms,  shorter  or  longer,  compiled  by  the 
assembly  at  Westminster,  or  the  confession  agreed 
on  at  the  Savoy,  to  be  agreeable  to  the  said  rule." 

The  Saybrook  platform,  thus  unanimously  recom- 
mended by  the  elders  and  messengers  of  the  churches, 
and  adopted  by  the  legislature,  as  the  religious  con- 
stitution of  the  colony,  met  with  a  general  reception, 
though  some  of  the  churches  were  extremely  op- 
posed to  it. 

Though  Messrs.  Andrew,  Pierpont,  and  Russell, 
were  influential  characters  there,  yet  it  is  observ- 
able that  the  churches  in  the  county  of  Norwich 
sent  no  messengers  to  the  synod  ;  and  the  tradition 
is  that  the  church  and  people  were  so  offended  with 
their  minister,  Mr.  John  Woodward,  for  consenting 
to  it,  that  they  never  would  forgive  him  and  be  re- 
conciled :  but  made  such  opposition  to  his  ministry, 
that  by  the  advice  of  council,  he  resigned  it  and 
left  the  town. 

The  elders  and  messengers  of  the  county  of  Hart- 
ford met  in  council  at  Hartford,  the  next  February, 
and  formed  into  two  distinct  consociations  and  asso- 
ciations for  the  purposes  expressed  in  the  constitu- 
tion ;  and  the  ministers  and  churches  of  the  other 
three  counties  afterwards  formed  themselves  into 
consociations  and  associations.  There  were  there- 
fore, soon  after,  five  consociations  and  the  same 
number  of  associations  in  the  colony.  The  associa- 
tions met  annually  by  a  delegation  of  two  elders 
from  each,  in  a  general  association,  which  had 
a  general  advisory  superintendency  over  all  the 
ministers  and  churches  in  the  colony ;  and  its  advice 
has  generally  been  acceptable  to  the  minister^  and 
churches,  and  cheerfully  carried  into  execution. 
The  meeting  of  the  general  association  was  anciently 
in  September  ;  but  the  time  of  meeting,  after  some 
years,  was  altered  to  the  third  Tuesday  in  June. 

The  corporation  of  the  college  having  now  ob- 
tained a  confession  of  faith,  adopted  by  the  churches 


UNITED  STATES. 


771 


and  legislature  of  the  colony ;  the  trustees  and 
officers  of  the  college,  upon  their  introduction  to 
office,  were  required  to  give  their  assent  to  it,  and 
to  the  Westminster  confession  and  catechisms. 

But  before  this  could  be  effected,  Mr.  Pierson, 
the  president,  was  dead  ;  having  died  on  the  5th  of 
March  1707,  to  the  unspeakable  loss  and  affliction 
both  of  the  college  and  the  people  of  his  charge. 
He  was  educated  at  Harvard- college,  where  he 
graduated,  1668.  He  appears  first  to  have  settled 
in  the  ministry  at  Newark  in  New  Jersey ;  and 
thence  came  to  Killingworth,  and  was  installed  in 
J694.  He  had  the  character  of  being  a  hard  stu- 
dent, a  good  scholar,  and  a  great  divine.  He  was 
greatly  respected  as  a  pastor,  and  he  instructed  and 
governed  the  college  with  general  approbation. 
Upon  his  death,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Andrew  was  chosen  rec- 
tor pro  tempore  ;  and  the  senior  class  were  removed 
to  Milford,  to  be  under  his  immediate  instruction 
until  the  commencement ;  and  the  other  students 
were  removed  to  Saybrook,  and  put  under  the  care 
and  instruction  of  two  tutors. 

The  ministers  of  Connecticut  were  exceedingly 
attentive  to  the  morals  and  qualifications  of  those, 
whom  they  recommended  to  the  improvement  of  the 
churches,  or  ordained  to  the  pastoral  office  ;  and 
the  general  association  in  171*2,  agreed  upon  the 
following  rules,  and  recommended  them  to  the  con- 
sideration of  the  several  associations  for  their  appro- 
bation and  concurrence. 

"  Rules  agreed  upon  for  the  examination  of  can- 
didates for  the  ministry. 

"  Agreed  upon,  that  the  person  to  be  examined 
eoncerning  his  qualifications  for  the  evangelical 
ministry,  shall  be  dealt  with  in  his  examinations, 
with  all  candour  and  gentleness. 

"  1.  That  he  be  able  to  give  satisfaction  to  the 
association  examining  him,  of  his  skill  in  the  He- 
brew, Greek,  and  Latin  tongues. 

"  2.  That  he  be  able  to  give  satisfaction  to  the 
association  examining  him,  of  his  skill  i-n  Logic  and 
Philosophy. 

"  3.  He"  shall  be  examined  what  authors  in  divi- 
nity he  hath  read ;  and  also  concerning  the  main 
grounds  or. principles  of  the  Christian  religion;  and 
shall  therein  offer  just  matter  of  satisfaction  to  the 
association  examining  him;  and  shall  give  his  assent 
to  the  confession  of  faith  publicly  owned  and  de- 
clared to  be  the  confession  of  the  faith  of  the  united 
churches  of  this  colony. 

"  4.  That  if  the  life  and  conversation  of  the  per- 
son to  be  examined  be  not  well  known  to  the  associ- 
ation examining  him,  then  said  person  shall  offer 
sufficient  evidence  to  said  association  of  his  sober 
and  religious  conversation. 

"  5.  That  the  person  to  be  examined  shall  pub- 
licly pray,  and  also  preach  in  the  presence  of  the 
association  examining  him,  from  some  text  of  Scrip- 
ture which  shaU  be  given  him  by  said  association, 


and  at  such  time  and  place  as  they  shall  appoint,  in 
order  to  prove  his  gifts  for  the  ministerial  Work. 

"  Rules  relating  to  the  ordination  of  a  person  to 
the  work  of  the  ministry. 

"  Agreed,  1.  In  case  of  ordination,  those  who  are 
to  ordain  ought  to  be  satisfied,  that  the  person  to  be 
ordained  is  apt  to  teach,  and  of  his  inclination  to 
the  work  of  the  ministry. 

"  2.  That  they  shall  be  satisfied  with  his  prudence 
and  fitness  for  the  management  of  so  great  a  trust, 
as  that  of  the  work  of  the  ministry. 

"  3.  The  persons  to  ordain  shall  be  satisfied,  that 
his  preaching  and  conversation  be  acceptable  to  the 
people  over  whom  he  is  to  be  ordained. 

"  4.  That  he  shall  be  able  to  explain  such  texts 
of  Scripture  as  shall  be  proposed  to  him. 

"  5.  That  he  shall  be  able  to  resolve  such  practi- 
cal cases  of  conscience  as  shall  be  proposed  to  him. 

"  6.  That  he  shall  show,  to  the  satisfaction  of  the 
pastors  to  ordain  him,  his  competent  ability  to  refute 
dangerous  errors,  and  defend  the  truth  against 
gainsayers. 

"  7.  That  he  shall  give  his  consent  to  the  church 
discipline  of  this  colony  as  established  bylaw;  yet 
the  pastors  to  ordain  are  not  to  be  too  severe  and 
strict  with  him  to  be  ordained,  upon  his  sober  dis- 
sent from  some  particulars  in  said  discipline. 

About  this  time  a  very  valuable  addition  of  books 
was  made  to  the  college  library  at  Saybrook.  In 
1713,  Sir  John  Davie,  of  Groton,  gave  a  good  collec- 
tion ;  and  the  next  year  a  much  greater  donation 
was  made  by  the  generosity  and  procurement  of 
Jeremiah  Dummer,  Esq.  of  Boston;  who  was  then 
in  London,  in  the  capacity  of  an  agent  for  several 
of  the  New  England  colonies.  He  sent  over  above 
800  volumes  ;  of  which  120  were  procured  at  his  owu 
charge ;  and  the  rest  were  from  gentlemen  in  En- 
gland, through  his  solicitation  and  influence ;  Sir 
Isaac  Newton,  Sir  Richard  Blackmore,  Sir  Richard 
Steele,  Doctors  Burnet,  Halley,  Bentley,  Kennet, 
Calamy,  and  Edwards,  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Henry 
and  Mr.Whiston  ;  severally  gave  a  collection  of  their 
own  works,  and  Governor  Yale  added  about  40 
volumes.  The  library  now  consisted  of  about  900 
volumes 

The  number  of  ordained  ministers  in  the  colony, 
in  J714,  exclusive  of  those  in  the  towns  under  the 
government  of  Massachusetts,  was  43 ;  and  upon  the 
lowest  computation  there  was  as  much  as  one  or- 
dained minister  to  every  400  persons,  or  to  every 
80  families. 

We  have  now  brought  the  history  of  this  colony, 
both  as  to  its  ecclesiastical  and  civil  affairs,  to  a  pe- 
riod in  which  it  was  firmly  settled ;  and  we  shall 
therefore  discontinue  giving  a  separate  account  of. 
it ;  as  the  public  acts,  of  any  consequence,  in  which 
it  was  afterwards  engaged,  have  been  sufficiently 
noticed  in  the  histories  of  the  more  important  neigh- 
bouring colonies. 


3    Y  2 


RHODE  ISLAND  AND  PROVIDENCE. 


As  Robertson  has  given  all  the  important  parti- 
culars which  are  known  of  this  small  state,  in  his 
introductory  view  of  New  England,  and  as  the  poli- 
tical events  in  which  it  was  engaged  have  been 
already  sufficiently  enlarged  upon  in  the  histories 
of  the  surrounding  colonies,  we  have  little  more  to 
add  than  a  brief  account  of  its  internal  constitution 
and  domestic  policy. 

We  have  already  seen  that  Roger  Williams,  who 
•was  banished  from  Massachusetts,  for  avowing  the 
doctrine,  that  the  civil  magistrate  is  bound  to  grant 
equal  protection  to  every  denomination  of  Christians, 
a  doctrine  too  liberal  for  the  age  in  which  he  lived, 
repaired  to  Seeconk,  where  he  procured  a  grant  of 
land  from  the  Indians.  Being  informed,  by  the  go- 
vernor of  Plymouth,  that  the  land  was  within  the 
'imits  of  that  colony,  he  proceeded  to  Mooshausic, 
where  in  1636,  with  those  friends  who  followed  him, 
he  began  a  plantation. 

He  purchased  the  land  of  the  Indians,  and  in 
.grateful  acknowledgment  of  the  kindness  of  Heaven, 
he  called  the  place  Providence.  Acting  in  confor- 
mity with  the  wise  and  liberal  principle,  for  avow- 
ing and  maintaining  which  he  had  suffered  banish- 
ment, he  allowed  entire  freedom  of  conscience  to 
all  who  came  within  his  borders.  And  to  him  must 
be  given  the  glory  of  having  first  set  a  practical  ex- 
ample of  the  equal  toleration  of  all  religious  sects  in 
the  same  political  community. 

His  benevolence  was  not  confined  to  his  civilized 
brethren.  He  laboured  to  enlighten,  improve  and 
conciliate  the  savages.  He  learned  their  language, 
travelled  among  them,  and  gained  the  entire  con- 
fidence of  their  chiefs.  He  had  often  the  happiness, 
by  his  influence  over  them,  of  saving  from  injury 
the  colony  that  had  proclaimed  him  an  outlaw  and 
driven  him  into  the  wilderness. 

In  1638,  William  Coddington,  and  seventeen 
others,  being  persecuted  for  their  religious  tenets  in 
Massachusetts,  followed  Williams  to  Providence. 
By  his  advice,  they  purchased  of  the  Indians  the 
island  of  Aquetnec,  now  called  Rhode  Island,  and 
removed  thither.  Coddington  was  chosen  their 
judge,  or  chief  magistrate.  The  fertility  of  the  soil, 
and  the  toleration  of  all  Christian  sects,  attracted 
numerous  emigrants  from  the  adjacent  settlements. 

When  the  New  England  colonies,  in  1643,  formed 
their  memorable  confederacy,  Rhode  Island  applied 
to  be  admitted  a  member.  Plymouth  objected ;  as- 
serting that  the  settlements  were  within  her  bounda- 
ries. The  commissioners  decided  that  Rhode  Island 
might  enjoy  all  the  advantages  of  the  confederacy 
if  she  would  submit  to  the  jurisdiction  of  Plymouth 
She  declined,  proudly  preferring  independence  to 
all  the  benefits  of  dependent  union. 

In  1644,  Williams,  having  been  sent  to  Englanc 
as  agent  for  both  settlements,  obtained  of  the  Ply- 
mouth company  a  patent  for  the  territory,  and  per- 
mission for  the  inhabitants  to  institute  a  government 
for  themselves.  In  1647,  delegates  chosen  by  th< 
freemen  held  a  general  assembly  at  Portsmouth 


rganized  a  government,  and  established  a  code  of 
aws.  The  executive  power  was  confided  to  a  presi- 
lent  and  four  assistants  ;  and  upon  the  applications 
>f  the  inhabitants,  Charles  II.,  in  1663,  granted 
he  following  charter  to  Rhode  Island  and  Provi- 
dence Plantations. 

CHARLES  II.,  by  the  grace  of  God,  &c.  To  all. 
o  whom  these  presents  shall  come  greeting.  Whereas 
xe  have  been  informed  by  the  petition  of  our  trusty 
and  well-beloved  subjects,  J«hn  Clarke,  on  the  be- 
half of  Benedict  Arnold,  William  Brenton,  William 

oddington,  Nicholas  Easton,  William  Boulston, 
Tohn  Porter,  John  Smith,  Samuel  Gorton,  John 
Weekes,  Roger  Williams,fcThomas  Olney,  Gregory 
Dexter,  John  Cogeshall,  Joseph  Clarke,  Randall 
rloulden,  John  Greene,  John  Roome,  Samuel  Wild- 
jore,  William  Field,  James  Barker,  Richard  Tew, 
Thomas  Harris,  and  William  Dyre,  and  the  rest  of 
the  purchasers  and  free  inhabitants  of  our  island, 
called  Rhode  Island,  and  the  rest  of  the  colony  of 
Providence  Plantations,  in  the  Narraganset  bay, 
n  New  England,  in  America,  that  they,  pursuing 
with  peace  and  loyal  minds  their  sober,  serious,  and 
religious  intentions,  of  godly  edifying  themselves 
and  one  another  in  the  holy  Christian  faith  and  wor- 
ship, as  they  were  persuaded,  together  with  the 
gaining  over  and  conversion  of  the  poor  ignorant 
Indian  natives  in  those  parts  of  America,  to  the  sin- 
cere profession  and  obedience  of  the  same  faith  and 
worship,  did  not  only  by  the  consent  and  good  en- 
couragement of  our  royal  progenitors,  transport 
themselves  out  of  this  kingdom  of  England  into 
America;  but  also  since  their  arrival  there,  after 
their  first  settlement  among  other  our  subjects  in 
those  parts,  for  the  avoiding  of  discord  and  those 
many  evils  which  were  likely  to  ensue  upon  those 
our  subjects  not  being  able  to  bear  in  those  remote 
parts  their  different  apprehensions  in  religious  con- 
cernments ;  and  in  pursuance  of  the  aforesaid  ends 
did  once  again  leave  their  desirable  stations  and 
habitations,  and  with  excessive  labour  and  travail, 
hazard  and  charge,  did  transplant  themselves  into 
the  midst  of  the  Indian  natives,  who,  as  we  are  in- 
formed, are  the  most  potent  princes  and  people  of 
all  that  country ;  where,  by  the  good  providence  of 
God  (from  whom  the  plantations  have  taken  their 
name),  upon  their  labour  and  industry,  they  have 
not  only  been  preserved  to  admiration,  but  have  in- 

reased  and  prospered,  and  are  seised  and  possessed 
by  purchase  and  consent  of  the  said  natives,  to  their 
full  content,  of  such  lands,  islands,  rivers,  harbours, 
and  roads,  as  are  very  convenient  both  for  planta- 
tions, and  also  for  building  of  ships,  supply  of  pipe- 
staves,  and  other  merchandise,  and  which  lie  very 
commodious  in  many  respects  for  commerce,  and  to 
accommodate  our  southern  plantations,  and  may 
much  advance  the  trade  of  this  our  realm,  and 
greatly  enlarge  the  territories  thereof;  they  having, 
by  near  neighbourhood  to,  and  friendly  society  with 
the  great  body  of  the  Narraganset  Indians,  given 
them  encouragement  of  their  own  accord,  to  subject 


UNITED  STATES. 


773 


themselves,  their  people  and  lands,  unto  us ;  whereby, 
as  is  hoped,  there  may  in  time,  by  the  blessing  of 
God  upon  their  endeavours,  be  laid  a  sure  founda- 
tion of  happiness  to  all  America.  And  whereas,  in 
their  humble  address,  they  have  freely  declared, 
that  it  is  much  on  their  hearts  (if  they  be  permitted) 
to  hold  forth  a  lively  experiment,  that  a  most  flou- 
rishing civil  state  may  stand,  and  best  be  maintained, 
and  that  among  our  English  subjects,  with  a  full 
liberty  in  religious  concernments;  and  that  true 
piety,  rightly  grounded  upon  Gospel  principles,  will 
give  the  best  and  greatest  security  to  sovereignty, 
and  will  lay  in  the  hearts  of  men  the  strongest  obli- 
gations to  true  loyalty ;  now,  know  ye,  that  we 
being  willing  to  encourage  the  hopeful  undertaking 
of  our  said  loyal  and  loving  subjects,  and  to  secure 
them  in  the  free  exercise  and  enjoyment  of  all  their 
civil  and  religious  rights  appertaining  to  them,  as 
ou-r  loving  subjects;  and  to  preserve  unto  them  that 
liberty  in  the  true  Christian  faith  and  worship  of 
God  which  they  have  sought  with  so  much  travail,  and 
with  peaceable  minds  and  loyal  subjection  to  our 
royal  progenitors  and  ourselves  to  enjoy ;  and  be- 
cause some  of  the  people  and  inhabitants  of  the  same 
colony  cannot,  in  their  private  opinion,  conform  to 
the  public  exercise  of  religion  according  to  the 
liturgy,  form,  and  ceremonies  of  the  Church  of  En- 
gland, or  take  or  subscribe  the  oaths  and  articles 
made  and  established  in  that  behalf;  and  for  that 
the  same,  by  reason  of  the  remote  distances  of  those 
places,  will,  as  we  hope,  be  no  breach  of  the  unity 
and  uniformity  established  in  this  nation,  have  there- 
fore thought  fit,  and  do  hereby  publish,  grant,  or- 
dain, and  declare,  that  our  royal  will  and  pleasure 
i.s,  that  no  person  within  the  said  colony,  at  any 
time  hereafter,  shall  be  any  wise  molested,  punished, 
disquieted,  or  called  in  question,  for  any  differences 
in  opinion  in  matters  of  religion,  who  do  not  actually 
disturb  the  civil  peace  of  our  said  colony;  but  that 
all  and  every  person  and  persons  may,  from  time  to 
time,  and  at  all  times  hereafter,  freely  and  fully 
have  and  enjoy  his  and  their  own  judgments  and 
consciences,  in  matters  of  religious  concernment, 
throughout  the  tract  of  land  hereafter  mentioned, 
they  behaving  themselves  peaceably  and  quietly, 
and  not  using  this  liberty  to  licentiousness  and  pro- 
I'iiucness,  nor  to  the  civil  injury  or  outward  disturb- 
ance of  others,  any  law,  statute,  or  clause  therein 
contained,  or  to  be  contained,  usage  or  custom  of 
this  realm,  to  the  contrary  hereof,  in  any  wise  not- 
withstanding. And  that  they  may  be  in  the  better 
capacity  to  defend  themselves  in  their  just  rights 
and  liberties,  against  all  the  enemies  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith,  and  others,  in  all  respects,  we  have  fur- 
ther thought  fit,  and  at  the  humble  petition  of  the 
persons  aforesaid,  are  graciously  pleased  to  declare, 
that  they  shall  have  and  enjoy  the  benefit  of  our 
tote  act  of  indemnity,  and  free  pardon,  as  the  rest 
of  our  subjects  in  other  our  dominions  and  territories 
nave ;  and  to  create  and  make  them  a  body  politic 
or  corporate,  with  the  powers  or  privileges  herein- 
after mentioned.  And  accordingly,  our  will  and 
pleasure  is,  and  of  our  especial  grace,  certain  know- 
ledge, and  mere  motion,  we  have  ordained,  consti- 
tuted, and  declared,  and  by  these  presents,  for  us, 
our  heirs  and  successors,  do  ordain,  constitute,  and 
declare,  that  they  the  said  William  Brenton,  Wil- 
liam Coddington,  Nicholas  Easton,  Benedict  Ar- 
nold, William  Boulston,  John  Porter,  Samuel 
Gorton,  John  Smith,  John  Weekes,  Roger  Wil- 
liams, Thomas  Olney,  Gregory  Dexter,  John  Coge- 
thall,  Joseph  Clarke,  Randall  Houlden,  John 


Greene,  John  Roome,  William  Dyre,  Samuel  Wild- 
bore,  Richard  Tew,  William  Field,  Thomas  Har- 
ris, James  Barker,  Rainsborrow,  •  Wil- 
liams, and  John  Nixon  and  all  such  others  as  are 
now,  or  hereafter  shall  be  admitted,  free  of  the 
company  and  society  of  our  colony  of  Providence 
Plantations,  in  the  Narraganset  bay,  in  New  En- 
gland, shall  be,  from  time  to  time,  and  for  ever 
hereafter,  a  body  corporate  and  politic,  in  fact  and 
name,  by  the  name  of  the  governor  and  company 
of  the  English  colony  of  Rhode  Island  and  Provi- 
dence Plantations,  in  New  England,  in  America; 
and  that  by  the  same  name,  they  and  their  succes- 
sors shall  'and  may  have  perpetual  succession,  and 
shall  and  may  be  persons  able  and  capable  in  the 
law  to  sue  and  be  sued,  to  plead  and  be  impleaded, 
to  answer  and  to  be  answered  unto,  to  defend  and  to 
be  defended,  in  all  and  singular  suits,  causes,  quar- 
rels, matters,  actions,  and  things,  of  what  kind  or 
nature  soever ;  and  also  to  have,  take,  possess,  ac- 
quire, and  purchase  lands,  tenements,  or  heredita- 
ments, or  any  goods  or  chatties,  and  the  same  to 
lease,  grant,  demise,  alien,  bargain,  sell,  and  dis- 

Eose  of,  at  their  own  will  and  pleasure,  as  other  our 
ege  people  of  this  our  realm  of  England,  or  any 
corporation  or  body  politic  within  the  same,  may 
lawfully  do :  and  further,  that  they  the  said  gover- 
nor and  company,  and  their  successors,  shall  and 
may,  for  ever  hereafter,  have  a  common  seal,  to 
serve  and  use  for  all  matters,  causes,  things,  and 
affairs  whatsoever,  of  them  and  their  successois,  and 
the  same  seal  to  alter,  change,  break,  and  make 
new  from  time  to  time,  at  their  will  and  pleasure,  as 
they  shall  think  fit.  And  further,  we  will  and  or- 
dain, and  by  these  presents,  for  us,  our  heirs  and 
successors,  do  declare  and  appoint,  that  for  the  bet- 
ter ordering  and  managing  of  the  affairs  and  busi- 
ness of  the  said  company  and  their  successors,  there 
shall  be  one  governor,  one  deputy-governor,  and 
ten  assistants,  to  be  from  time  to  time  constituted, 
elected,  and  chosen  out  of  the  freemen  of  the  said 
company  for  the  time  being,  in  such  manner  and 
form  as  is  hereafter  in  these  presents  expressed ; 
which  said  officers  shall  apply  themselves  to  take 
care  for  the  best  disposing  and  ordering  of  the  gene- 
ral business  and  affairs  of  and  concerning  the 
lands  and  hereditaments  herein  after  mentioned  to 
be  granted,  and  the  plantation  thereof,  and  the  go- 
vernment of  the  people  there.  And  for  the  better 
execution  of  our  royal  pleasure  herein,  we  do,  for 
us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  assign,  name,  consti- 
tute and  appoint,  the  aforesaid  Benedict  Arnold  to 
be  the  first  and  present  governor  of  the  said  com- 
pany, and  the  said  William  Brenton  to  be  the  de- 
puty-governor, and  the  said  William  Boulston,  John 
Porter,  Roger  Williams,  Thomas  Olney,  John 
Smith,  John  Greene,  John  Cogeshall,  James  Bar- 
ker, William  Field,  and  Joseph  Clarke,  to  be  the 
ten  present  assistants  of  the  said  company,  to  con- 
tinue in  the  said  several  offices  respectively,  until 
the  first  Wednesday  which  shall  be  in  the  month  of 
May  now  next  coming.  And  further,  we  will,  and 
by  these  presents,  for  us,  our  heirs  and  successors, 
do  ordain  and  grant,  that  the  governor  of  the  said 
company  for  the  time  being,  or  in  his  absence,  by 
occasion  of  sickness  or  otherwise,  by  his  leave  or 
permission  the  deputy-governor  for  the  time  being, 
shall  and  may,  from  time  to  time,  upon  all  occasions, 
give  order  for  the  assembling  of  the  said  company, 
and  calling  them  together,  to  consult  and  advise  of 
the  business  and  affairs  of  the  said  company ;  and 
that  for  ever  hereafter,  twice  in  every  year,  that  is 


774 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


to  say,  on  every  first  Wednesday  in  the  month  of 
May,"  and  on  every  last  Wednesday  in  October,  or 
oftener,  in  case  it  shall  be  requisite,  the  assistants, 
and  such  of  the  freemen  of  the  said  company,  not 
exceeding  six  persons  from  Newport,  four  persons 
for  each  of  the  respective  towns  of  Providence, 
Portsmouth,  and  Warwick,  and  two  persons  for 
each  other  place,  town,  or  city,  who  shall  be  from 
time  to  time  thereunto  elected  or  deputed  by  the 
major  part  of  the  freemen  of  the  respective  towns 
or  places  for  which  they  shall  be  so  elected  or  de- 
puted, shall  have  a  general  meeting  or  assembly, 
then  and  there  to  consult,  advise  and  determine,  in 
and  about  the  affairs  and  business  of  the  said  company 
and  plantations.  And  further,  we  do  of  our  especial 
grace,  certain  knowledge,  and  mere  motion,  give 
and  grant  unto  the  said  governor  and  company  of 
the  English  colony  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence 
Plantations,  in  New  England,  in  America,  and 
their  successors,  that  the  governor,  or,  in  his  ab- 
sence, or  by  his  permission,  the  deputy-governor  of 
the  said  company  for  the  time  being,  the  assistants, 
and  such  of  the  freemen  of  the  said  company  as  shall 
be  so  aforesaid  elected  or  deputed,  or  so  many  of 
them  as  shall  be  present  at  such  meeting  or  assem- 
bly as  aforesaid,  shall  be  called  the  general  assem- 
bly; and  that  they,  or  the  greatest  part  of  them 
then  present,  whereof  the  governor  or  deputy-go- 
vernor, and  six  of  the  assistants  at  least,  to  be  seven, 
shall  have,  and  have  hereby  given  and  granted  unto 
them  full  power  and  authority,  from  time  to  time,  and 
at  all  times  hereafter,  to  appoint,  alter,  and  change 
such  days,  times,  and  places  of  meeting,  and  gene- 
ral assembly,  as  they  shall  think  fit :  and  to  choose, 
nominate,  and  appoint  such  and  so  many  persons  as 
they  shall  think  fit,  and  shall  be  willing  to  accept 
the  same,  to  be  free  of  the  said  company  and  body- 
politic,  and  them  into  the  same  to  admit ;  and  to 
elect  and  constitute  such  offices  and  officers,  and  to 
grant  such  needful  commissions  as  they  shall  think 
fit  and  requisite,  for  ordering,  managing,  and  dis- 
patching of  the  affairs  of  the  said  governor  and 
company,  and  their  successors;  and  from  time  to 
time  to  make,  ordain,  constitute,  or  repeal  such  laws, 
statutes,  orders,  and  ordinances,  forms  and  ceremo- 
nies of  government  and  magistracy,  as  to  them  shall 
seem  meet,  for  the  good  and  welfare  of  the  said 
company,  and  for  the  government  and  ordering  of 
the  lands  and  hereditaments  hereinafter  mentioned 
to  be  granted,  and  of  the  people  that  do,  or  at  any 
time  hereafter  shall  inhabit,  or  be  within  the  same ; 
so  as  such  laws,  ordinances,  and  constitutions  so 
made,  be  not  contrary  and  repugnant  unto,  but  as 
near  as  may  be,  agreeable  to  the  laws  of  this  our  realm 
of  England,  considering  the  nature  and  constitution 
of  the  place  and  people  there  ;  and  also  to  appoint, 
order,  and  direct,  erect  and  settle  such  places  and 
courts  of  jurisdiction,  for  hearing  and  determining 
of  all  actions,  cases,  matters,  and  things,  happening 
within  the  said  colony  and  plantation,  and  which 
shall  be  in  dispute,  and  depending  there,  as  they 
shall  think  fit ;  and  also  to  distinguish  and  set 
forth  the  several  names  and  titles,  duties,  powers, 
and  limits,  of  each  court,  office  and  officer,  superior 
and  inferior ;  and  also  to  contrive  and  appoint  such 
forms  of  oaths  and  attestations,  not  repugnant,  but 
as  near  as  may  be  agreeable,  as  aforesaid,  to  the 
laws  and  statutes  of  this  our  realm,  as  are  conve- 
nient and  requisite,  with  respect  to  the  due  admi- 
nistration of  justice,  and  due  execution  and  dis- 
charge of  all  offices  and  places  of  trust,  by  the  per- 
sons that  shall  be  therein  concerned;  and  also  to 


regulate  and  order  the  way  and  manner  of  all  elec- 
tions to  offices  and  places  of  trust,  and  to  prescribe, 
limit,  and  distinguish  the  number  and  bounds  of  all 
places,  towns,  and  cities,  within  the  limits  and 
bounds  hereinafter  mentioned,  and  not  herein  par- 
ticularly named,  who  have,  or  shall  have  the  power 
of  electing  and  sending  of  freemen  to  the  said  ge- 
neral assembly;  and  also  to  order,  direct,  and  au- 
thorize the  imposing  of  lawful  and  reasonable  fines, 
mulcts,  imprisonments,  and  executing  other  punish- 
ments, pecuniary  and  corporal,  upon  offenders  and 
delinquents,  according  to  the  course  of  other  cor- 
porations within  this  our  kingdom  of  England :  and 
again,  to  alter,  revoke,  annul,  or  pardon,  under 
their  common  seal,  or  otherwise,  such  fines,  mulcts, 
imprisonments,  sentences,  judgments,  and  condem- 
nations, as  shall  be  thought  fit ;  and  to  direct,  rule, 
order,  and  dispose  all  other  matters  and  things,  and 
particularly  that  which  relates  to  the  making  of 
purchases  of  the  native;  Indians,  as  to  them  shall 
seem  meet;  whereby  our  said  people  and  inhabi- 
tants in  the  said  plantations  may  be  so  religiously, 
peaceably,  and  civilly  governed,  as  that  by  their 
good  life  and  orderly  conversation  they  may  win 
and  invite  the  native  Indians  of  the  country  to  the 
knowledge  and  obedience  of  the  only  true  God  and 
Saviour  of  mankind;  willing,  commanding,  and 
requiring,  and  by  these  presents,  for  us,  our  heirs 
and  successors,  ordaining  and  appointing,  that  all 
such  laws,  statutes,  orders,  and  ordinances,  instruc- 
tions, impositions,  and  directions,  as  shall  be  so 
made  by  the  governor,  deputy,  assistants,  and  free- 
men, or  such  number  of  them  as  aforesaid,  and 
published  in  writing  under  their  common  seal,  shall 
be  carefully  and  duly  observed,  kept,  performed, 
and  put  in  execution,  according  to  the  true  intent 
and  meaning  of  the  same.  And  these  our  letters 
patent,  or  the  duplicate  or  exemplification  thereof, 
shall  be  to  all  and  every  such  officers,  superior  or 
i-nferior,  from  time  to  time,  for  the  putting  of  the 
same  orders,  laws,  statutes,  ordinances,  instructions, 
and  directions,  in  due  execution  against  us,  our 
heirs  and  successors,  a  sufficient  warrant  and  dis- 
charge. And  further,  our  will  and  pleasure  is,  and 
we  do  hereby  for  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  esta- 
blish and  ordain,  that  yearly,  once  in  the  year  for 
ever  hereafter,  namely,  the  aforesaid  Wednesday  in 
May,  and  at  the  town  of  Newport  or  elsewhere,  if 
urgent  occasion  do  require,  the  governor,  deputy- 
governor,  and  assistants  of  the  said  company,  and 
other  officers  of  the  said  company,  or  such  of  them 
as  the  general  assembly  shall  think  fit,  shall  be  in 
the  said  general  court  or  assembly,  to  be  held  from, 
that  day  or  time,  newly  chosen  for  the  year  ensuing, 
by  the  greater  part  of  the  said  company  for  the  time 
being,  as  shall  be  then  and  there  present.  And  if 
it  shall  happen  that  the  present  governor,  deputy- 
governor,  and  assistants,  by  these  presents  appointed, 
or  any  such  as  shall  hereafter  be  newly  chosen  into 
their  rooms,  or  any  of  them,  or  any  other  the  officers 
of  the  said  company,  shall  die,  or  be  removed  from, 
his  or  their  several  offices  or  places  before  the  said 
general  day  of  election  (whom  we  do  hereby  declare 
for  any  misdemeanor  or  default  to  be  removeablo  by 
the  governor,  assistants,  and  company,  or  such 
greater  part  of  them,  in  any  of  the  said  public 
courts  to  be  assembled  as  aforesaid),  that  then,  and 
in  every  such  case,  it  shall  and  may  be  lawful  to 
and  for  the  said  governor,  deputy-governor,  assist- 
ants, and  company  aforesaid,  or  such  greater  part 
of  them  so  to  be  assembled,  as  is  aforesaid,  in  any  of 
their  assemblies,  to  proceed  to  a  new  election  of  one 


UNITED  STATES. 


775 


or  more  of  their  company,  in  the  room  or  place, 
rooms  or  places,  of  such  officer  or  officers  so  dying 
or  removed,  according  to  their  directions.  And 
immediately  upon  and  after  such  election  or  elec- 
tions made  of  such  governor,  deputy-governor,  as- 
sistant or  assistants,  or  any  other  officer  of  the  said 
company,  in  manner  and  form  aforesaid,  the  autho- 
rity, office,  and  power  before  given  to  the  former 
governor,  deputy-governor,  and  other  officer  and 
officers  so  removed,  in  whose  stead  and  place  new 
shall  be  chosen,  shall,  as  to  him  and  them,  and 
every  of  them  respectively,  cease  and  determine. 
Provided  always,  and  our  will  and  pleasure  is,  That 
as  well  such  as  are  by  these  presents  appointed  to 
be  the  present  governor,  deputy-governor  and  as- 
sistants of  the  said  company,  as  those  which  shall 
succeed  them,  and  all  other  officers  to  be  appointed 
and  chosen  as  aforesaid,  shall,  before  the  undertaking 
the  execution  of  the  said  offices  and  places  re- 
spectively, give  their  solemn  engagement,  by  oath 
or  otherwise,  for  the  due  and  faithful  performance 
of  their  duties  in  their  several  offices  and  places, 
before  such  person  or  persons  as  are  by  these  pre- 
sents hereafter  appointed  to  take  and  receive  the 
same ;  that  is  to  say,  the  said  Benedict  Arnold,  who 
is  hereinbefore  nominated  and  appointed  the  present 
governor  of  the  said  company,  shall  give  the  afore- 
said engagement  before  William  Brenton,  or  any 
two  of  the  said  assistants  of  the  said  company,  unto 
whom  we  do,  by  these  presents,  give  full  power  and 
authority  to  require  and  receive  the  same ;  and  the 
said  William  Brenton,  who  is  hereby  before  nomi- 
nated and  appointed  the  present  deputy-governor 
of  the  said  company,  shall  give  the  aforesaid  en- 
gagement before  the  said  Benedict  Arnold,  or  any 
two  of  the  assistants  of  the  said  company,  unto  whom 
we  do,  by  these  presents,  give  full  power  and  au- 
thority to  require  and  receive  the  same ;  and  the 
said  William  Boulston,  John  Porter,  Roger  Wil- 
liams, Thomas  Olney,  John  Smith,  John  Greene, 
John  Cogeshall,  James  Barker,  William  Field,  and 
Joseph  Clarke,  who  are  hereinbefore  nominated  and 
appointed  the  present  assistants  of  the  company, 
shall  give  the  said  engagement  to  their  offices  and 
places  respectively  belonging,  before  the  said  Bene- 
dict Arnold  and  William  Brenton,  or  one  of  them, 
to  whom  respectively  we  do  hereby  give  full  power 
and  authority  to  require,  administer,  or  receive  the 
same.  And  further,  our  will  and  pleasure  is,  that 
all  and  every  other  future  governor,  or  deputy-go- 
vernor, to  be  elected  and  chosen  by  virtue  of  these 
presents,  shall  give  the  said  engagement  before  two 
or  more  of  the  said  assistants  of  the  said  company 
for  the  time  being,  unto  whom  we  do,  by  these  pre- 
sents, give  full  power  and  authority  to  require,  ad- 
minister, or  receive  the  same ;  and  the  said  assist- 
ants, and  every  of  them,  and  all  and  every  other 
officer  or  officers,  to  be  hereafter  elected  and  chosen 
by  virtue  of  these  presents,  from  time  to  time,  shall 
give  the  like  engagements  to  their  offices  and  places 
respectively  belonging,  before  the  governor  or  de- 
puty-governor for  the  time  being ;  unto  which  said 
governor  or  deputy-governor  we  do,  by  these  presents, 
give  full  power  and  authority  to  require,  administer, 
or  receive  the  same  accordingly.  And  we  do  like- 
wise for  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  give  and  grant 
unto  the  said  governor  and  company,  and  their  suc- 
cessors, by  these  presents,  that  for  the  more  peace- 
able and  orderly  government  of  the  said  plantations, 
it  shall  and  may  be  lawful  for  the  governor,  deputy- 
governor,  assistants,  and  all  other  officers  and  mi- 
nisters of  the  said  company,  in  the  administration 


of  justice  and  exercise  of  government  in  the  said 
plantations,  to  use,  exercise,  and  put  in  execution, 
such  methods,  rules,  orders,  and  directions,  not 
being  contrary  and  repugnant  to  the  laws  and  sta- 
tutes of  this  our  realm,  as  have  been  heretofore 
given,  used,  and  accustomed  in  such  cases  respec- 
tively, to  be  put  in  practice,  until  at  the  next  or 
some"  other  general  assembly,  especial  provision 
shall  be  made  in  the  cases  aforesaid.  And  we  do 
further,  for  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  give  and 
grant  unto  the  said  governor  and  company,  and 
their  successors,  by  these  presents,  that  it  shall  and 
may  be  lawful  to  and  for  tne  said  governor,  or,  in 
his  absence,  the  deputy-governor  and  major  part  of 
the  said  assistants  for  the  time  being,  at  any  time 
when  the  said  general  assembly  is  not  sitting,  to 
nominate,  appoint  and  constitute  such  and  so  many 
commanders,  governors,  and  military  officers,  as  to 
them  shall  seem  requisite,  for  the  leading,  conduct- 
ing, and  training  up  the  inhabitants  of  the  said 
plantations  in  martial  affairs,  and  for  the  defence 
and  safeguard  of  the  said  plantations ;  and  that  it 
shall  and  may  be  lawful  to  and  for  all  and  every 
such  commander,  governor,  and  military  officer, 
that  shall  be  so  as  aforesaid',  or  by  the  governor,  or 
in  his  absence  the  deputy-governor  and  six  of  the 
assistants,  and  major  part  of  the  freemen  of  the 
said  company  present  at  any  general  assemblies, 
nominated,  appointed,  and  constituted,  according 
to  the  teneur  of  his  and  their  respective  commissions 
and  directions,-  to  assemble,  exercise  in  arms,  mar- 
shal, array,  and  put  in  warlike  posture,  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  said  colony,  for  their  especial  defence 
and  safety ;  and  to  lead  and  conduct  the  said  inha- 
bitants, and  to  encounter,  repulse,  and  resist  by- 
force  of  arms,  as  well  by  sea  as  by  land,  to  kill,  slay, 
and  destroy,  by  all  fitting  ways,  enterprises,  and 
means  whatsoever,  all  and  every  such  person  or 
persons  as  shall  at  any  time  hereafter  attempt,  or 
enterprise  the  destruction,  invasion,  detriment,  or 
annoyance  of  the  said  inhabitants  or  plantations; 
and  to  use  and  exercise  the  law  martial  in  such 
cases  only  as  occasion  shall  necessarily  require; 
and  to  take  and  surprise,  by  all  ways  and  means 
whatsoever,  all  and  every  such  person  and  persons, 
with  their  ship  or  ships,  armour,  ammunition,  or 
other  goods  of  such  persons  as  shall  in  hostile  man- 
ner invade  or  attempt  the  defeating  of  the  said 
Elantation,  or  the  hurt  of  the  said  company  and  iu- 
abitants ;  and  upon  just  causes  to  invade  and  de- 
stroy the  natives,  Indians,  or  other  enemies  of  the 
said  colony.  Nevertheless,  our  will  and  pleasure 
is,  and  we  do  hereby  declare  to  the  rest  of  our  co- 
lonies in  New  England,  that  it  shall  not  be  lawful 
for  this  our  said  colony  of  Rhode  Island  and  Provi- 
dence Plantations,  in  New  England,  in  America, 
to  invade  the  natives  inhabiting  within  the  bounds 
and  limits  of  their  said  colonies,  without  the  know- 
ledge and  consent  of  the  said  other  colonies.  And 
it  is  hereby  declared,  that  it  shall  not  be  lawful  to 
or  for  the  rest  of  the  colonies  to  invade  or  molest 
the  native  Indians,  or  any  other  inhabitants,  inha- 
biting within  the  bounds  or  limits  hereafter  men- 
tioned (they  having  subjected  themselves  unto  us, 
and  being  by  us  taken  into  our  special  protection), 
without  the  knowledge  and  consent  of  the  governor 
and  company  of  our  colony  of  Rhode  Island  and 
Providence  Plantation.  Also  our  will  and  pleasure 
is,  and  we  do  hereby  declare  unto  all  Christian 
kings,  princes,  and  states,  that  if  any  person,  which 
shall  hereafter  be  of  the  said  company  or  plantation, 
or  any  other  by  appointment  of  the  said  governor 


776 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


and  company  for  the  time  being,  shall  at  any  time 
or  times  hereafter  rob  or  spoil,  by  sea  or  land,  or  do 
any  hurt,  or  unlawful  hostility,  to  any  of  the  sub- 
jects of  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  or  to  any  of 
the  subjects  of  any  prince  or  state  being  then  in 
league  with  us,  our  heirs  and  successors ;  upon 
complaint  of  such  injury  done  to  any  such  prince 
or  state,  or  their  subjects,  we,  our  heirs  and  suc- 
cessors, will  make  open  proclamation,  within  any 
parts  of  our  realms  of  England  fit  for  that  purpose, 
that  the  person  or  persons  committing  any  such  rob- 
bery or  spoil  shall,  within  the  time  limited  by  such 
proclamation,  make  full  restitution  or  satisfaction 
of  all  such  injuries  done  or  committed,  so  as  the 
said  prince,  or  others  so  complaining,  may  be  fully 
satisfied  and  contented ;  and  if  the  said  person  or 
persons  who  shall  commit  a-ny  such  robbery  or  spoil, 
shall  not  make  satisfaction  accordingly,  within  such 
time  so  to  be  limited,  that  then  we,  our  heirs  and 
successors,  will  put  such  person  or  persons  out  of 
our  allegiance  and  protection ;  and  that  then  it 
shall  and  may  be  lawful  and  free  for  all  princes,  or 
others,  to  prosecute  with  hostility  such  offenders, 
and  every  of  them,  their  and  every  of  their  procu- 
rers, aiders,  abettors,  and  counsellors,  in  that  be- 
half. Provided  also,  and  our  express  will  and 
pleasure  is,  and  we  do  by  these  presents,  for  us,  our 
heirs  and  successors,  ordain  and  appoint,  that  these 
presents  shall  not  in  any  manner  hinder  any  of  our 
loving  subjects  whatsoever  from  using  and  exercising 
the  trade  of  fishing  upon  the  coast  of  New  England, 
in  America,  but  that  they,  and  every  or  any  of  them, 
shall  have  full  and  free  power  and  liberty  to  con- 
tinue and  use  the  trade  of  fishing  upon  the  said 
coast,  in  any  of  the  seas  thereunto  adjoining,  or  any 
arms  of  the  sea,  or  salt  water,  rivers  and  creeks, 
where  they  have  been  accustomed  to  fish,  and  to 
build  and  set  upon  the  waste  land  belonging  to  the 
said  colony  and  plantations  such  wharfs,  stages,  and 
workhouses,  as  shall  be  necessary  for  the  salting, 
drying  and  keeping  of  their  fish  to  be  taken  or  got- 
ten upon  that  coast.  And  further,  for  the  encou- 
ragement of  the  inhabitants  of  our  said  colony  of 
Providence  Plantation  to  set  upon  the  business  of 
taking  whales,  it  shall  be  lawful  for  them,  or  any  of 
them  having  struck  a  whale,  dubertus,  or  other 
great  fish,  it  or  them  to  pursue  unto  that  coast,  and 
into  any  bay,  river,  cove,  creek  or  shore,  belong- 
ing thereto,  and  it  or  them,  upon  the  said  coast,  or 
in  the  said  bay,  river,  cove,  creek,  or  shore  belong- 
ing thereto,  to  kill  and  order  for  the  best  advan- 
tage, without  molestation,  they  making  no  wilful 
waste  or  spoil ;  anything  in  these  presents  con- 
tained, or  any  other  matter  or  thing  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding.  And  further  also,  we  are  graci- 
ously pleased,  and  do  hereby  declare,  that  if  any  of 
the  inhabitants  of  our  said  colony  do  set  upon  the 
planting  of  vineyards,  (the  soil  and  climate  both 
seeming  naturally  to  concur  to  the  production  of 
wines)  or  be  industrious  in  the  discovery  of  fishing- 
banks  in  or  about  the  said  colony,  we  will,  from 
time  to  time,  give  and  allow  all  due  and  fitting 
encouragement  therein,  as  to  others  in  cases  of 
like  nature.  And  further,  of  our  more  ample 
grace,  certain  knowledge,  and  mere  motion,  we 
have  given  and  granted,  and  by  these  presents, 
for  us.  our  heirs  and  successors,  do  give  and  grant 
unto  the  said  governor  and  company  of  the  English, 
colony  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Plantation, 
in  the  Narraganset  bay,  in  New  England,  in  Ame- 
rica, and  to  every  inhabitant  there,  and  to  every 
person  and  persons  trading  thither,  and  to  every 


such  person  or  persons  as  are  or  shall  be  free  of  the 
said  colony,  full  power  and  authority,  from  time  to 
time,  and  at  all  times  hereafter,  to  take,  ship,  Hans- 
port,  and  carry  away,  out  of  any  of  our  realms  and 
dominions,  for  and  towards  the  plantation  and  de- 
fence of  the  said  colony,  such  and  so  many  of  our 
loving  subjects  and  strangers,  as  shall  or  will  wil- 
lingly accompany  them  in  and  to  their  said  colony 
and  plantation,  except  such  person  or  persons  as  are 
or  shall  be  therein  restrained  by  us,  our  heirs  and 
successors,  or  any  law  or  statute  of  this  realm ; 
and  also  to  ship  and  transport  all  and  all  manner  of 
goods,  chattels,  merchandise,  and  other  things  what- 
soever, that  are  or  shall  be  useful  or  necessary  for 
the  said  plantations,  and  defence  thereof,  and  usu- 
ally transported,  and  not  prohibited  by  any  law  or 
or  statute  of  this  our  realm ;  yielding  and  paying 
unto  us  our  heirs  and  successors,  such  the  duties, 
customs  and  subsidies,  as  are  or  ought  to  be  paid  or 
payable  for  the  same.  And  further,  our  will  and 
pleasure  is,  and  we  do  for  us,  our  heirs  and  succes- 
sors, ordain,  declare  and  grant  unto  the  said  gover- 
nor and  company,  and  their  successors,  that  all  and 
every  the  subjects  of  us,  our  heirs  and  successors, 
which  are  already  planted  and  settled  within  our 
said  colony  of  Providence  Plantation,  or  which 
shall  hereafter  go  to  inhabit  within  the  said  colony, 
and  all  and  every  of  their  children  which  have  been 
born  there,  or  which  shall  happen  hereafter  to  be 
born  there,  or  on  the  sea  going  thither  or  returning 
from  thence,  shall  have  and  enjoy  all  liberties 
and  immunities  of  free  and  natural  subjects,  within 
any  the  dominions  of  us,  our  heirs  and  successors, 
to  all  intents,  constructions,  and  purposes  whatso- 
ever, as  if  they  and  every  of  them  were  born  within 
the  realm  of  England.  And  further  know  ye,  that  we, 
of  our  more  abundant  grace,  certain  knowledge,  and 
mere  motion,  have  given,  granted  and  confirmed, 
and  by  these  presents,  for  us,  our  heirs  and  suc- 
cessors, do  give,  grant  and  confirm  unto  the  said 
governor  and  company,  and  their  successors,  all  that 
part  of  our  dominions  in  New  England  in  America, 
containing  the  Nehantick  and  Nanhygausett,  alias 
Narraganset  bay,  and  countries  and  p'arts  adjacent, 
bounded  on  the  west,  or  westerly,  to  the  middle  or 
channel  of  a  river  there,  commonly  called  and  known 
by  the  name  of  Pawcatuck,  alias  Pawcawtuck  river, 
and  so  along  the  said  river,  as  the  greater  or  middle 
stream  thereof  reacheth  or  lies  up  into  the  north 
country,  northward  unto  the  head  thereof,  and  from 
thence  by  a  straight  line  drawn  due  north,  until  it 
meet  with  the  south  line  of  the  Massachusetts  co- 
lony, and  on  the  north  or  northerly,  by  the  afore- 
said south  or  southerly  line  of  the  Massachusetts 
colony  or  plantation,  and  extending  towards  the 
east  or  eastwardly  three  English  miles,  to  the 
east  and  north-east  of  the  most  eastern  and 
north-eastern  parts  of  the  aforesaid  Narragan- 
set bay,  as  the  said  bay  lieth  or  extendeth  itself 
from  the  ocean  on  the  south  or  southwardly,  unto 
the  mouth  of  the  river  which  runneth  towards  the 
town  of  Providence,  and  from  thence  along  the  east- 
wardly side  or  bank  of  the  said  river  (higher  called 
by  the  name  of  Seacunck  river),  up  to  the  falls 
called  Patucket  Falls,  being  the  most  westwardly 
line  of  Plymouth  colony;  and  so  from  the  said  falls, 
in  a  straight  line  due  north,  until  it  meet  with  the 
aforesaid  line  of  the  Massachusetts  colony,  and 
bounded  on  the  south  by  the  ocean,  and  in  parti- 
cular the  lands  belonging  to  the  towns  of  Providence, 
Patuxit,  Warwicke,  Misquammacock,  alias  Pawca- 
tuck, and  the  rest  upon  the  main  land,  in  the  tract 


UNITED  STATES. 


777 


aforesaid,  together  with  Rhode  Island,  Blocke 
Island,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  islands  and  banks  in 
the  Narraganset  bay,  and  bordering  upon  the  coast 
of  the  tract  aforesaid  (Fisher's  island  only  excepted), 
together  with  all  firm  lands,  soils,  grounds,  havens, 
ports,  rivers,  waters,  fishings,  mines  royal,  and  all 
other  mines,  minerals,  precious  stones,  quarries, 
woods,  wood-grounds,  rocks,  slates,  and  all  and 
singular  other  commodities,  jurisdictions,  royalties, 
privileges,  franchises,  pre-eminencies,  and  heredita- 
ments whatsoever,  within  the  said  tract,  bounds, 
lands,  and  islands  aforesaid,  to  them  or  any  of  them 
belonging,  or  in  any  wise  appertaining.  To  have 
and  to  hold  the  same  unto  the  said  governor  and 
company,  and  their  successors  for  ever,  upon  trust, 
for  the  use  and  benefit  of  themselves  and  their  as- 
sociates, freemen  of  the  said  colony,  their  heirs  and 
assigns.  To  be  holden  of  us,  our  heirs  and  suc- 
cessors, as  of  the  manner  of  East  Greenwich,  in  our 
county  of  Kent,  in  free  and  common  soccage,  and  not 
in  capite,  nor  by  knight's  service.  Yielding  and  pay- 
ing therefore  to  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  only 
the  fifth  part  of  all  the  ore  of  gold  and  silver,  which 
from  time  to  time,  and  at  all  times  hereafter,  shall 
be  there  gotten,  had  or  obtained,  in  lieu  and  satis- 
faction of  all  services,  duties,  fines,  forfeitures,  made 
or  to  be  made,  claims  or  demands  whatsoever,  to  be 
to  us,  our  heirs  or  successors,  therefore  or  there- 
about rendered,  made  or  paid  ;  any  grant  or  clause, 
in  a  late  grant  to  the  governor  and  company  of 
Connecticut  colony  in  America,  to  the  contrary 
thereof  in  any  wise  notwithstanding ;  the  aforesaid 
Pawcatuck  river  having  been  yielded  after  much 
debate,  for  the  fixed  and  certain  bounds  between 
these  our  said  colonies,  by  the  agents  thereof;  who 
have  also  agreed,  that  the  said  Pawcatuck  river  shall 
also  be  called  alias  Narrogancett  or  Narrogansett 
river,  and  to  prevent  future  disputes  that  otherwise 
might  arise  thereby,  for  ever  hereafter  shall  be  con- 
strued, deemed,  and  taken  to  be  the  Narrogancett 
river,  in  our  late  grant  to  Connecticut  colony,  men- 
tioned  as  the  easterly  bounds  of  that  colony.  And 
further,  our  will  and  pleasure  is,  that  in  all  matters 
of  public  controversies,  which  may  fall  out  between 
our  colony  of  Connecticut  and  Providence  Planta- 
tion, to  make  their  appeal  therein  to  us,  our  heirs 
and  successors,  for  redress  in  such  cases,  within  this 
our  realm  of  England:  and  that  it  shall  be  lawful 
to  and  for  the  inhabitants  of  the  said  colony  of  Pro- 
vidence Plantation,  without  lett  or  molestation,  to 
pass  and  repass  with  freedom  into  and  through  the 
rest  of  the  English  colonies  upon  their  lawful  and 
civil  occasions,  and  to  converse,  and  hold  commerce, 
and  trade  with  such  of  the  inhabitants  of  our  other 
English  colonies  as  shall  be  willing  to  admit  them 
thereunto,  they  behaving  themselves  peaceably 
among  them;  any  act,  clause,  or  sentence,  in  anv 
of  the  said  colonies  provided,  or  that  shall  be  pro- 
vided,  to  the  contrary  in  any  wise  notwithstanding. 
And  lastly,  we  do  for  us,  our  heirs  and  successors, 
ordain  and  grant  unto  the  said  governor  and  com- 
pany, and  their  successors,  by  these  presents,  that 
these  our  letters  patents  shall  be  firm,  good,  effec- 
tual, and  available,  in  all  things  in  the  law,  to  all 
intents,  constructions,  and  purposes  whatsoever,  ac- 
cording to  our  true  intent  and  meaning  hereinbe- 
fore declared ;  and  shall  be  construed,  reputed,  and 
adjudged  in  all  cases,  most  favourably  on  the  be- 
half, and  for  the  best  benefit  and  behoof  of  the  said 
governor  and  company,  and  their  successors,  al- 
though express  mention,  &c.  In  witness,  &c.  Per 
•if  sum  Reyem. 


In  1665  they  authorized,  by  law,  the  seizure  of 
the  estates  of  Quakers,  who  refused  to  assist  in  de- 
fending the  colony ;  but  this  law  being  generally 
condemned  by  the  people,  was  never  executed. 

When  Andross  was  made  governor  of  New  Eng- 
land, he  behaved  in  the  arbitrary  manner  which  has 
already  been  so  fully  related  in  the  previous  pages; 
he  dissolved  the  charter  government  of  Rhode  Island, 
and  ruled  the  colony,  with  the  assistance  of  a  coun- 
cil appointed  by  himself.  After  he  was  imprisoned 
at  Boston,  the  freemen  met  at  Newport,  and  voted 
to  resume  their  charter.  All  the  officers,  who  three 
years  before  had  been  displaced,  were  restored. 

The  benevolence,  justice,  and  pacific  policy  of 
Williams  secured  to  the  colony  an  almost  total  ex- 
emption from  Indian  or  other  hostility,  and  it  there- 
fore affords  little  of  a  political  nature  to  record. 

From  a  long  period  after  the  year  1710  a  conti- 
nual contest  existed  respecting  an  almost  continual 
system  of  creating  a  capital  by  the  negotiating  of  a 
paper  currency.  The  sums  thus  created  were  far 
more  than  sufficient  for  the  purposes  of  commerce, 
and  indeed,  in  many  instances,  were  created  in  op- 
position to  the  wishes  of  the  mercantile  interest,  for 
the  purpose  of  supplying  the  state  with  money,  and 
filling  the  pockets  of  a  set  of  venal  wretches,  with- 
out subjecting  them  to  the  necessity  of  earning  of  it 
by  their  d'ligence,  so  that  the  history  of  the  go- 
vernment of  this  state  for  70  years  is  a  history  of 
base  peculation  by  means  of  a  paper  money  currency, 
which  was  so  contrived,  that  amongst  themselves  it 
came  out  at  about  two  and  a  half  per  cent,  interest, 
and  they  lent  it  to  the  neighbouring  colonies  at  ten 
per  cent,  as  barefaced  a  cheat  as  ever  was  practised. 
The  interest  of  these  public  iniquitous  frauds  went, 
one  quarter  to  the  several  townships  to  defray  their 
charges,  the  other  three  quarters  were  lodged  in  the 
treasury,  to  defray  the  charges  of  government. 
These  measures  deprived  the  state  of  great  numbers 
of  its  worthy  and  most  respectable  inhabitants ;  had 
a  very  pernicious  influence  upon  the  morals  of  the 
people ;  deprived  many  of  their  just  dues,  and  oc- 
casioned a  ruinous  stagnation  of  trade ;  but  an  effi- 
cient government  has  effectually  abolished  this  ini- 
quitous system,  and  the  confidence  lost  by  it  has 
been  recovered  by  a  steady  and  rigid  attachment  to 
an  integrity  of  conduct  in  all  their  concerns. 

It  now  remains  but  to  give  a  brief  account  of  the 
internal  state  of  this  settlement. 

Rhode  Island  is  the  only  state  of  the  union  that 
is  without  a  written  constitution,  the  government 
being  founded  on  the  provisions  of  the  foregoing 
charter.  The  legislature  of  this  state  consists  of 
two  branches — a  senate  or  upper  house, "composed 
often  members,  besides  the  governor  and  deputy- 
governor,  who  were  called  in  the  charter  assistants — 
and  a  house  of  representatives,  composed  of  deputies 
from  the  several  towns.  The  members  of  the  legis- 
lature are  chosen  twice  a  year;  and  there  are  two 
sessions  of  this  body  annually,  viz.  on  the  first  Wed- 
nesday in  May,  and  the  last  Wednesday  in  October. 

The  supreme  executive  power  is  vested  in  a  go- 
vernor, or,  in  his  absence,  in  the  deputy-governor, 
who,  with  the  assistants,  secretary,  and  general 
treasurer,  are  chosen  annually  in  May  by  the  suf- 
frages of  the  people.  The  governor  presides  in  the 
upper  house,  but  has  only  a  single  voice  in  enacting 
laws.  Suffrage  is  universal. 

There  is  one  supreme  judicial  court,  composed  of 
five  judges,  whose  jurisdiction  extends  over  the  whole 
state,  and  who  holds  two  courts  annually  in  each 
county. 


778 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


lu  each  county  there  is  an  inferior  court  of  com- 
mon pleas  and  general  sessions  of  the  peace,  held 
twice  a  year  for  the  trial  of  causes,  not  capital, 
arising  within  the  county,  from  which  an  appeal 
lies  to  the  supreme  court. 

This  smallest  state  of  the  union  is  only  about  42 
miles  in  average  length,  and  its  mean  breadth  only 
about  29  miles.  It  is  bounded  on  the  north  and 
east  by  the  state  of  Massachusetts,  on  the  south  by 
the  Atlantic  ocean,  and  on  the  west  by  the  state  of 
Connecticut. 

It  is  as  healthful  a  country  as  any  part  of  North 
America.  The  winters  in  the  maritime  parts  are 
milder  than  in  the  inland  country;  the  air  being 
softened  by  a  sea  vapour,  which  also  enriches  the 
soil.  The  summers  are  delightful,  especially  on 
Rhode  Island,  where  the  extreme  heats,  which  pre- 
vail in  other  parts  of  America,  are  allayed  by  cool 
and  refreshing  breezes  from  the  sea. 

Rhode  Island,  from  which  the  state  takes  its 
name,  is  thirteen  miles  in  length;  its  average 
breadth  is  about  four  miles.  It  is  divided  into  three 
townships,  Newport,  Portsmouth,  and  Middletown. 
This  island,  in  point  of  soil,  climate  and  situation, 
may  be  ranked  among  the  finest  and  most  charming 
in  the  world.  In  its  most  flourishing  state  it  has  been 
called  by  travellers  the  Eden  of  America.  Provi- 
dence in  many  parts  is  equally  pleasant,  the  whole 
country  being  beautifully  variegated  and  plentifully 
watered. 

There  is  but  one  mountain  in  this  state,  which  is  in 
the  town  of  Bristol,  called  Mount  Hope  or  (Haup)  ; 
there  is  nothing  in  its  appearance  to  claim  particu- 
lar attention. 

Among  the  rivers  the  following  deserve  particular 
notice.  Providence  and  Taunton  rivers,  both  of 
which  fall  into  Narraganset  bay,  the  former  on  the 
west,  the  latter  on  the  east  side  of  Rhode  Island. 
Providence  river  rises  partly  in  the  Massachusetts, 
and  is  navigable  as  far  as  Providence  for  ships  of 
900  tons,  30-miles  from  the  sea.  Taunton  river  is 
navigable  for  small  vessels  to  Taunton.  The  com- 
mon tides  rise  about  four  feet. 

Fall  river  is  small,  rising  in  Freetown,  and  pass 
ing  through  Tiverton.  The  line  between  the  states 
of  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island,  passes  Fall 
river  bridge.  Patuxet  river  rises  in  Mashapogpond, 
and  five  miles  below  Providence  empties  into  Nar- 
raganset bay.  Pautucket  river,  called  more  nor- 
therly Blackstone's  river,  empties  into  Seekhonck 
river,  four  miles  N.N.E.  from  Providence,  where 
are  the  falls  hereafter  described,  over  which  is 
bridge,  on  the  post-road  to  Boston,  and  40  miles 
from  thence.  The  confluent  stream  empties  into 
Providence  river,  about  a  mile  below  Weybossett,  or 
the  great  bridge.  Naspatucket  river  falls  into  the 
bay  about  one  mile  and  a  half  N.W.  of  Weybosset 
bridge.  Moshassuck  river  falls  into  the  same  bay, 
three-fourths  of  a  mile  north  of  the  bridge.  These 
rivers  united  form  Providence  river,  which,  a 
few  miles  below  the  town,  receives  the  name  of 
Narraganset  bay,  and  affords  fine  fish,  oysters,  and 
lobsters  in  great  plenty  ;  the  bay  makes  up  from 
south  to  north  between  the  mam  land  on  the  east 
and  west.  It  embosoms  many  fertile  islands,  the 
appearance  of  which  and  of  the  circumjacent  country 
in  the  spring  and  summer  seasons,  either  from  the 
land  or  water,  is  extremely  beautiful  and  charming  ; 
the  principal  of  these,  besides  Rhode  Island,  are 
Canonnicut,  Prudence,  Patience,  Hope,  Dyers  and 
Hog  Island.  The  first  of  these,  viz.  Canonnicut 
Island,  lies  west  of  Rhode  Island,  and  is  six  miles 


in  length,  and  about  one  mile  in  breadth ;  it  was 
purchased  of  the  Indians  in  1657,  and  incorporated 
by  an  act  of  assembly  by  the  name  of  the  Island  of 
Jamestown  in  1678. 

Prudence  island  is  nearly  or  quite  as  large  as 
Canonnicut,  and  lies  north  of  it,  and  is  a  part  of  the 
township  of  Portsmouth. 

Block  island,  called  by  the  Indians  Manisses,  is 
21  miles  S.S.W.  from  Newport,  and  is  the  southern- 
most land  belonging  to  the  state  ;  it  was  erected  into 
a  township,  by  the  name  of  New  Shoreham,  in  1672. 
The  inhabitants  of  this  island  were  formerly  noted 
for  making  good  cheese ;  and  they  catch  conside- 
rable quantities  of  cod  fish  round  the  ledges  near 
the  island.  \ 

The  harbours  in  thi.x  state  are,  Newport,  Provi- 
dence, Wickford,  Patuxet,  Warren,  and  Bristol, 
all  of  which  are  advantageous,  and  several  of  them 
commodious.  For  the  safety  and  convenience  of 
sailing  into  Narraganset  bay  and  the  harbour  of 
Newport,  a  light-house  was  erected  in  1749  on 
Beavertail,  at  the  south  end  of  Canonnicut  Island  ; 
the  diameter  of  the  base  is  24  feet,  and  of  the  top 
thirteen  feet ;  the  height  from  the  ground  to  the  top 
of  the  cornice  is  50  feet,  round  which  is  a  gallery, 
and  within  that  stands  the  lantern,  which  is  about 
eleven  feet  high  and  eight  feet  in  diameter.  The 
ground  the  light-house  stands  on  is  about  twelve 
feet  above  the  surface  of  the  sea  at  high-water. 

This  state,  generally  speaking,  is  a  country  for 
pasture,  arid  not  for  grain ;  in  Rhode  Island  alone 
many  thousand  sheep  are  fed,  besides  neat  cattle 
and  horses,  and  a  like  proportion  in  many  other 
parts  of  the  state.  It  however  produces  corn,  rye, 
barley,  oats,  and  in  some  parts  wheat  sufficient  for 
home  consumption  ;  and  the  various  kinds  of  grasses, 
fruits,  culinary  roots  and  plants  in  great  abundance, 
and  in  good  perfection,  and  cider  is  made  for  expor- 
tation. The  north-western  parts  of  the  state  are 
but  thinly  inhabited,  and  are  more  rocky  and  barren 
than  the  other  parts.  The  tract  of  country  lying 
between  South  Kingston  and  rtie  Connecticut  line, 
called  the  Narraganset  country,  is  excellent  grazing 
land,  and  is  inhabited  by  a  number  of  wealthy  far- 
mers, who  raise  some  of  the  finest  neat  cattle  in 
New  England,  weighing  from  16  to  1800  cwt. 
They  keep  large  dairies,  and  make  both  butter  and 
cheese  of  the  best  quality  and  in  very  large  quanti- 
ties for  exportation.  Narraganset  has  been  famed 
for  an  excellent  breed  of  pacing  horses,  remarkable 
for  their  speed  and  hardiness,  and  for  enduring  the 
fatigues  or  a  journey  ;  this  breed  of  horses  has,  how- 
ever, much  depreciated  of  late,  the  best  mares 
having  been  purchased  by  the  people  from  the 
westward. 

The  interior  of  the  earth  offers  a  large  recompense 
to  the  industrious  adventurer.  Iron  ore  is  found  in 
great  plenty  in  several  parts  of  the  state.  The  iron 
works  on  Patuxet  river,  twelve  miles  from  Provi- 
dence, are  supplied  with  ore  from  a  bed  four  miles 
and  a  half  distant,  which  lies  in  a  valley,  through 
which  runs  a  brook;  the  brook  is  turned  into  a 
new  channel,  and  the  ore  pits  are  cleared  of  water 
by  a  steam-engine. 

At  Diamond  Hill,  in  the  county  of  Providence, 
which  is  so  called  from  its  sparkling  and  shining 
appearance,  there  are  a  variety  of  peculiar  stones, 
more  curious  than  at  present  they  appear  to  be  use- 
ful ;  but  not  far  from  this  hill,  in  the  township  of 
Cumberland,  is  a  copper  mine,  mixed  with  iron 
strongly  impregnated  with  loadstone,  of  which  some 
large  pieces  have  been  found  in  the  neighbourhood : 


UNITED  STATES. 


779 


however  no  method  has    yet  been   discovered   to 
work  it  to    advantage,  or   rather,  no  one  has  ye 
been  found  with  sufficient  spirit  to  engage  in  an  un 
dertaking,  which,  though  it  might  be  attended  with 
difficulty  at  first,   could  hardly  fail,  ultimately,   o 
yielding   an  ample  recompense. 

An  abundance  of  limestone  is  found,  particularly 
in  the  county  of  Providence,  of  which  large  quanti- 
ties of  lime  are  made  and  exported.  This  limestone 
is  of  different  colours,  and  is  the  true  marble,  of  the 
white,  plain,  and  variegated  kinds ;  it  takes  a  fine 
polish,  and  works  equal  to  any  in  America. 

There  are  several  mineral  springs,  to  one  o! 
which,  near  Providence,  many  people  resort  to  bathe 
and  drink  the  water. 

The  rivers  and  waters  are  equally  productive;  in 
the  rivers  and  bays  are  plenty  of  sheeps-head,  black- 
fish,  herring,  shad,  lobsters,  oysters  and  clams  ;  anc 
around  the  shores  of  Rhode  Island,  besides  those 
already  mentioned,  are  cod,  halibut,  mackerel,  bass 
haddock,  £c.  to  the  Amount  of  more  than  /Odiffeienl 
kinds,  so  that  in  the  seasons  of  fish  the  markets  pre- 
sent  a  continual  scene  of  bustle  and  hurry.  Rhode 
Island  is  indeed  considered  by  travellers  as  the 
best  fish  market,  not  only  in  the  United  States,  bul 
in  the  world. 

This  state  is  divided  into  five  counties,  riz.  New- 
port,    Providence,    Washington,  Bristol  and  Kent : 
which  are  subdivided  into  the  following  30  townships 
Newport  County. 

Newport,    Portsmouth,    New    Shoreham,    James 
Town,  Middletown,  Tiverton,  Little  Compton. 
Providence  County. 

Providence,  Smithfield,  Scituate,  Glocester,  Cum- 
berland, Cranston,  Johnston,  North  Providence, 
Foster. 

Washington  County. 

Westeily,     North    Kingston,    South    Kingston 
Charlestovvn,  Exeter,  Richmond,  Hopkinton. 
Bristol  County. 

Bristol,  Warren,  Barrington. 
Kent  County. 

Warwick,  East  Greenwich,  West  Greenwich. 
Coventry. 

Newport  lies  in  lat.  41°  35' ;  and  was  first  settled 
by  Mr.  William  Coddiugton,  afterwards  governor, 
and  the  father  of  Rhode  Island,  with  seventeen 
others,  in  1639.  Its  harbour,  which  is  one  of  the 
finest  in  the  world,  spreads  westward  before  the 
town ;  the  entrance  is  easy  and  safe,  and  a  large 
fleet  may  anchor  in  it,  and  ride  in  perfect  security. 
The  town  lies  north  and  south  upon  a  gradual  ascent 
as  you  proceed  from  the  water,  and  exhibits  a  beau- 
tiful view  from  the  harbour,  and  from  the  neighbour- 
ing hills  which  lie  westward  upon  the  main.  West 
of  the  town  is  Goat  Island,  on  which  is  a  fort.  Be- 
tween this  island  and  Rhode  Island  is  the  harbour. 
Front  or  Water  street  is  a  mile  in  length. 

Providence  is  situated  in  lat.  41°  51'  on  both  sides 
of  Providence  river,  is  35  miles  from  the  sea,  and 
30  miles  N.  by  W.  from  Newport ;  it  is  the  oldest 
town  in  the  state  ;  Roger  Williams  and  his  company 
were  its  first  settlers  in  1636. 

This  town  is  divided  into  two  parts  by  the  river, 
and  connected  by  a  bridge,  formerly  called  Wey- 
bosset,  from  a  high  hill  of  that  name  which  stood 
near  the  west  end  of  the  bridge,  but  which  is  now 
removed,  and  its  base  built  upon ;  its  situation 
affording  a  prospect  of  all  vessels  leaving  and  enter- 
ing the  harbour,  renders  it  a  pleasant  place  of  re- 
sort in  the  summer.  Ships  of  almost  any  size  sail 
up  and  down  the  channel,  which  is  marked  out  by 


stakes  erected  at  points,  shoals,  and  beds  lying  in 
the  river,  so  that  strangers  may  come  up  to  the 
town  without  a  pilot.  In  1764  there  were  belonging 
to  the  county  of  Providence  54  sail  of  vessels,  con- 
taining 4320  tons;  they  have  much  increased  since. 

This  town  suffered  by  the  Indian  war  of  1G75, 
when  a  number  of  its  inhabitants  removed  to  Rhode 
Island  for  shelter.  In  the  revolutionary  war  the 
case  was  reversed  ;  many  of  the  inhabitants  of  that 
island  removed  to  Providence. 

Bristol  is  a  pleasant  thriving  town,  about  six- 
teen miles  north  of  Newport,  on  the  main  ;  part  of 
the  town  was  destroyed  hy  the  British,  but  it  has 
since  been  rebuilt;  it  has  an  episcopal  and  acongre- 

Eational  church.  This  town  is  noted  for  raising 
irge  quantities  of  onion  and  other  roots.  A  num- 
ber of  vessels  are  owned  by  the  inhabitants,  and 
they  carry  on  a  considerable  trade  to  Africa,  the 
West  Indies,  and  to  different  parts  of  the  United 
States. 

Warren  is  also  a  flourishing  town,  has  a  very 
lucrative  trade  with  the  West  Indies  and  other 
places,  and  a  considerable  portion  of  business  in 
ship-building. 

Little  Compton,  called  by  the  Indians  Seconnet, 
is  said  to  be  the  best  cultivated  township  in  the 
state,  and  affords  a  greater  supply  of  provisions  for 
market,  such  as  meats  of  the  several  kinds,  but- 
ter, cheese,  vegetables,  &c.  than  any  other  town  of 
its  size.  The  inhabitants,  who  are  an  industrious 
and  sober  people,  and  in  these  respects  an  example 
worthy  the  notice  and  imitation  of  their  brethren  in 
some  other  parts  of  the  state,  manufacture  linen 
and  tow  cloth,  flannels,  &c.  of  an  excellent  quality, 
and  in  considerable  quantities  for  sale. 

About  four  miles  north-east  of  Providence  lies  a 
small  village  called  Pautucket,  a  place  of  some 
trade,  and  famous  for  lamprey  eels,  Through  this 
village  runs  Pautucket  river,  which  empties  into 
Seekhonck  river  at  this  place  :  in  this  river  is  a 
beautiful  fall  of  water ;  directly  over  the  falls  a 
bridge  has  lately  been  built,  which  is  a  work  of  con- 
siderable magnitude  and  much  ingenuity,  which  di- 
vides the  commonwealth  of  Massachusetts  from  the 
state  of  Rhode  Island.  The  fall  in  its  whole  length 
is  upwards  of  50  feet ;  the  water  passes  through 
several  chasms  in  a  rock  which  runs  diametrically 
across  the  bed  of  the  stream,  and  serves  as  a  dam  to 
the  water.  Several  mills  have  also  been  erected 
upon  these  falls,  and  the  spouts  and  channels  which 
have  been  constructed  to  conduct  the  streams  to 
their  respective  wheels,  and  the  bridge,  have  taken 
very  much  from  the  beauty  and  grandeur  of  the 
scene,  which  would  otherwise  have  been  extremely 
romantic. 

In  the  town  of  Middletown>  on  Rhode  Island, 
about  two  miles  from  Newport,  is  a  place  called 
Purgatory ;  it  joins  to  the  sea  on  the  east  side  of  the 
island ;  it  is  a  large  cavity  or  opening,  in  a  high 
bed  of  rocks,  about  twelve  feet  in  diameter  at  top,  and 
about  40  feet  deep  before  you  reach  the  water,  of 
which,  as  it  joins  the  sea,  it  has  always  a  large  depth. 
The  rocks  on  each  side  appear  to  have  been  once 
united,  and  were  probably  separated  by  some  con- 
vulsion in  nature, 

Before  the  revolutionary  war,  the  merchants 
mported  from  Great  Britain  dry  goods;  from 
Africa  slaves  ;  from  the  West  Indies,  sugars,  coffees, 
and  molasses,  and  from  the  neighbouring  colonies 
umber  and  provisions.  With  the  bills  which 
:hey  obtained  in  Surinam  and  the  Dutch  Wesj 
India  islands,  tfaey  paid  their  merchants  in  En. 


780 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


gland;  their  sugars  they  carried  to  Holland;  the 
slaves  from  Africa  they  carried  to  the  West  Indies, 
together  with  the  lumber  and  provisions  procured 
from  their  neighbours  ;  the  rum  distilled  from  the 
molasses  was  carried  to  Africa  to  purchase  negroes  ; 
with  their  dry  goods  from  England  they  trafficked 
with  the  neighbouring  colonies.  By  this  kind  of  cir- 
cuitous commerce  they  subsisted  and  grew  rich  ;  but 
the  war,  and  some  other  events  have  had  a  great, 
and  in  many  respects,  an  injurious  effect  upon  the 
trade  of  this  state.  The  slave  trade,  which  was  a 
source  of  wealth  to  many  of  the  people  in  Newport, 
and  in  other  parts  of  the  state,  has  happily  been 
abolished ;  the  legislature  have  passed  a  law  pro- 
hibiting ships  from  going  to  Africa  for  slaves,  and 
selling  them  in  the  West  India  islands;  and  the 
oath  of  one  seaman  belonging  to  the  ship  is  suffi- 
cient evidence  of  the  fact. 

The  town  of  Bristol  carries  on  a  considerable 
trade  to  Africa,  the  West  Indies,  and  to  different 
parts  of  the  United  States  ;  but  by  far  the  greatest 
part  of  the  commerce  of  this  state  is  at  present  car- 
ried on  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  flourishing  town  of 
Providence. 

The  exports  from  the  state  are  flax-seed,  lumber, 
horses,  cattle,  beef,  pork,  fish,  poultry,  onions,  but- 
ter, cheese,  barley,  grain,  spirits,  and  cotton  and  linen 
goods.  The  imports  consist  of  European  and  West 
India  goods,  and  logwood  from  the  bay  of  Honduras. 
The  constitution  of  this  state  admits  of  no  reli- 
gious establishments  any  further  than  depends  upon 
the  voluntary  choice  of  individuals :  all  men  pro- 
fessing to  believe  in  one  Supreme  Being,  are  equally 
protected  by  the  laws,  and  no  particular  sect  can 
claim  pre-eminence.  This  unlimited  liberty  in  re- 
ligion is  one  principal  cause  why  there  is  such  a 
variety  of  religious  sects  in  Rhode  Island.  The 
Baptists  are  the  most  numerous  of  any  denomina- 
tion in  the  state ;  these,  as  well  as  the  other  Baptists 
in  New  England,  are  chiefly  upon  the  Calvinistic 
plan  as  to  doctrines,  and  Independents  in  regard  to 
church  government.  There  are,  however,  some  who 
profess  the  Arminian  tenets,  others  observe  the 
Jewish,  or  Saturday  Sabbath,  from  a  persuasion  that 
it  was  one  of  the  ten  commandments,  which  they 
plead  are  all  in  their  nature  moral,  and  were  never 
abrogated  in  the  New  Testament,  and  must,  at  least, 
be  deemed  of  equal  validity  for  public  worship,  as 
any  day  particularly  set  apart  by  Jesus  Christ  and 
his  apostles.  These  are  called  Sabbatarian  or  Se- 
venth-day Baptists. 

The  other  religious  denominations  in  Rhode 
Island  are,  Congregationalists,  Friends  or  Quakers, 
Episcopalians,  Moravians,  and  Jews.  Besides  these, 
there  are  a  considerable  number  of  the  people,  who 
can  be  reduced  to  no  particular  denomination 
making  no  external  profession  of  any  religion,  nor 
attending  any  place  of  public  worship. 

In  many  towns  public  worship  is  much  neglected 
by  the  greater  part  of  the  inhabitants ;  they  pay  no 
taxes  for  the  support  of  ecclesiastics  of  any  denomi- 
nation ;  and  a  peculiarity  which  distinguishes  this 
state  from  every  other  Protestant  country  in  the 
known  world,  is,  that  no  contract  formed  by  the  mi- 
nister with  his  people,  for  his  salary,  is  valid  in 
law ;  so  that  ministers  are  dependent  wholly  on  the 
integrity  of  the  people  for  their  support,  since  their 
salaries  are  not  recoverable.  It  ought,  however,  to 
be  observed,  that  ministers  in  general  are  liberally 
maintained,  and  none  who  merit  it  have  much  rea- 
son to  complain  for  want  of  support. 

Throughout  the  whole  of  the  late  war  with  Great 


Britain,  the  inhabitants  of  this  state  manifested  a 
patriotic  spirit ;  their  troops  behaved  gallantly,  and 
hey  are  honoured  in  having  produced  the  second 
general  in  the  field. 

The  literature  of  this  state  is  confined  princi- 
pally to  the  towns  of  Newport  and  Providence. 
At  the  latter  is  Brown  University ;  formerly  called 
Rhode  Island-college.  The  charter  for  founding 
this  seminary  of  learning  was  granted  by  the  gene- 
ral assembly  of  the  state,  by  the  name  of  the  "  Trus- 
tees and  Fellows  of  the  College  or  University,  in 
Lhe  English  colony  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence 
Plantations,"  in  1764,  in  consequence  of  the  peti- 
:ion  of  a  large  number  of  the  most  respectable  cha- 
racters in  the  state.  By  the  charter,  the  corporation 
of  the  college  consists  of  two  separate  branches, 
with  distinct,  and  respective  powers.  The  num- 
ber of  trustees  is  36,  of  whom  22  are  Baptists,  five 
of  the  denomination  of  Friends,  five  Episcopa- 
lians, and  four  Congregationalists.  The  same  pro- 
portion of  the  different  denominations  to  continue  in 
perpetuum.  The  number  of  fellows  (inclusive  of  the 
president,  who  is  a  fellow  ex  officio)  is  twelve,  of 
whom  eight  are  Baptists,  the  others  chosen  indiscri- 
minately from  any  denomination.  The  concurrence 
of  both  branches,  by  a  majority  of  each,  is  neces- 
sary for  the  validity  of  an  act,  except  adjudging  and 
conferring  degrees,  which  exclusively  belongs  to  the 
fellowship  as  a  learned  faculty.  The  president 
must  be  a  Baptist:  professors  and  other  officers  of 
instruction  are  not  limited  to  any  particular  deno- 
mination. There  is  annually  a  general  meeting  of 
the  corporation  on  the  first  Wednesday  in  Septem- 
ber, at  which  time  the  public  commencement  is  held. 

It  was  first  founded  at  Warren,  in  the  county  of 
Bristol,  but  in  the  year  1770  the  college  was  re- 
moved to  Providence,  wheie  a  large,  elegant  build- 
ing was  erected  for  its  accommodation,  by  the  ge- 
nerous donations  of  individuals,  mostly  from  the 
town  of  Providence.  And  in  1804  it  received  its 
present  name  of  Brown  University;  a  wealthy  in- 
dividual of  that  name  having,  by  a  donation  of 
5000  dollars,  gained  the  right  of  having  his  name 
given  to  it,  in  accordance  to  a  clause  in  its  charter, 
which  decreed  that  it  should  receive  the  name  of 
any  liberal  benefactor.  It  is  situated  on  a  hill  to 
the  east  of  the  town;  and  while  its  elevated  situa- 
tion renders  it  delightful,  by  commanding  an  ex- 
tensive, variegated  prospect,  it  furnishes  it  with  a 
pure,  salubrious  air.  The  edifice  is  of  brick,  four 
stories  high,  150  feet  long,  and  46  wide,  with  a 
projection  often  feet  each  side.  It  has  an  entry 
lengthwise,  with  rooms  on  each  side.  There  are  48 
rooms  for  the  accommodation  of  students,  and  eight 
larger  ones  for  public  uses.  The  roof  is  covered 
with  slate. 

This  institution  is  under  the  instruction  of  a  pre- 
sident, a  professor  of  divinity,  a  professor  of  natural 
and  experimental  philosophy,  a  proi'essor  of  mathe- 
matics and  astronomy,  a  professor  of  natural  his- 
tory, and  three  tutors.  Nearly  all  the  funds  of  the 
college  are  at  interest  in  the  treasury  of  the  state, 
and  amount  to  almost  2000/. 

At  Newport  there  is  a  flourishing  academy,  under 
the  direction  of  a  rector  and  tutors. 

In  1752  a  marine  society  was  established  at  New- 
port, for  the  purpose  of  relieving  distressed  widows 
and  orphans  of  maritime  brethren,  and  such  of  their 
society  as  may  need  assistance. 

This  state  contained,  in  1730,  15,302  whites,  and 
2,633  blacks;  in  1748,  29,755  whites,  and  4,373 
blacks;  and  in  1761,35,939  whites,  and  4,697  blacks. 


PENNSYLVANIA    AND    DELAWARE. 


Introduction. 

i  [As  the  great  man  who  gave  his  name  to  the  first 
of  these  colonies  was  the  entire  foundation  of  that 
extensive  state,  it  will  not  be  irrelevant  to  com- 
mence our  history  of  it  with  a  slight  account  of  the 
life  of  its  illustrious  legislator.] 

William  Penn  was  the  eldest  son  of  Sir  William 
Penn,  who  served  both  under  the  Parliament,  and 
King  Charles  II.,  in  several  of  the  highest  mari- 
time offices.  Sir  William,  born  in  Bristol  in  the 
year  1621,  was  the  son  of  Captain  Giles  Penn, 
several  years  consul  for  the  English,  in  the  Medi- 
terranean ;  and  of  the  Penns  of  Penns-lodge,  in 
Wiltshire,  and  the  Penns  of  Penn,  in  the  county  of 
Buckinghamshire,  and  by  his  mother,  from  the  Gil- 
berts, in  Somersetshire,  originally  from  Yorkshire. 

He  was  addicted  from  his  youth  to  maritime  af- 
fairs, and  made  captain  at  21  years  of  age;  rear- 
admiral  of  Ireland  at  23;  vice-admiral  of  Ireland  at 
25;  admiral  to  the  Straits  at  29;  vice-admiral  of 
England  at  31 ;  and  general  in  the  first  Dutch  war 
at  32.  Whence  returning,  anno  1655,  he  was  re- 
turned to  parliament  for  Weymouth.  In  1660  he 
was  made  commissioner  of  the  admiralty  and  navy, 
governor  of  the  town  and  fort  of  Kingsail,  vice-ad- 
miral of  Munster,  and  a  member  of  that  provincial 
council;  and  anno  1664,  he  was  chosen  great  cap- 
tain-commander under  the  duke  of  York,  in  that 
signal  and  most  successful  fight  with  the  Dutch  fleet. 

He  shortly  after  this  took  leave  of  the  sea, 
but  continued  in  his  other  employments  until  1669; 
at  which  time,  through  bodily  infirmities,  occa- 
sioned by  his  arduous  life,  he  withdrew  from  public 
affairs;  and  died  at  Wanstead,  in  Essex,  on  the 
16th  of  September,  1670,  in  the  49th  year  of  his 
age;  leaving  a  large  estate,  in  England  and  Ire- 
la'nd,  to  his  son  William;  to  whom  he  was  per- 
fectly reconciled,  after  the  great  displeasure  he  had 
before  conceived  at  his  joining  in  religious  society 
with  the  Quakers: — "  Thus,"  says  his  son,  "  from  a 
lieutenant  he  passed  through  all  the  eminent  offices 
of  sea  employment,  and  arrived  to  that  of  general 
about  the  30th  year  of  his  age;  in  a  time  full  of  the 
biggest  sea  actions  that  any  history  mentions ;  and 
when  neither  bribes  nor  alliance,  favour  nor  affec- 
tion, but  ability  only,  could  promote."  Having  ac- 
quitted himself  with  honour  and  fidelity  in  all 
his  public  offices,  after  the  restoration  he  was 
knighted  by  King  Charles  II.,  and  became  a  peculiar 
favourite  of  James,  duke  of  York ;  whose  friend- 
ship was,  after  his  death,  continued  to  his  son; 
which,  in  a  particular  manner,  he  requested  of  the 
duke,  on  his  death-bed.  His  wife  was  the  daughter 
of  John  Jasper,  a  Dutch  merchant,  at  Rotterdam. 

The  celebrated  William  Penn,  son  and  heir  of 
the  above-mentiened  Sir  William,  or  Admiral  Penn, 
and  the  first  proprietor  and  governor  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, was  born  in  London,  on  the  14th  of  October, 
1614.  He  was  endowed  with  an  excellent  capacity ; 


and  his  father,  from  the  favourable  prospects  which 
he  had  of  advancing  him,  was  induced  to  give  him 
a  liberal  education  ;  and  about  the  fifteenth  year  of 
his  age  he  was  entered  a  student  at  Christ' s-church- 
college,  Oxford. 

"  At  this  time  more  particularly,"  says  the  writer 
of  his  life,  "  began  to  appear  in  him  a  disposition 
of  mind  after  true  spiritual  religion;  of  which,  be- 
fore he  had  received  some  sense  and  taste,  through 
the  ministry  of  Thomas  Loe,  a  preacher  under  the 
denomination  of  a  Quaker.  In  this  place,  he,  and 
certain  students  of  that  university,  withdrawing 
themselves  from  the  national  way  of  worship,  held 
private  meetings  for  the  exercise  of  religion  ;  where 
they  both  preached  and  prayed  among  themselves; 
which  gave  great  oft'ence  to  the  heads  of  the  col- 
lege. He  being  then  but  sixteen  years  of  age, 
was  fined  for  non-conformity ;  and,  at  last,  for  his 
persevering  in  the  like  religious  practices,  was  ex- 
pelled the  college." 

After  he  returned  home,  he  still  retained  the 
same  turn  of  mind;  which  his  father,  judging  likely 
to  be  a  great  obstacle  to  his  advancement,  endea- 
voured, by  every  means,  to  correct.  But,  after 
having  used  both  argument  and  even  bodily  chas- 
tisement, without  success,  he  was  .so  far  incensed 
against  him,  that  he  turned  him  out  of  his  house. 

Young  Penn's  patience  surmounted  this  outrage, 
till  his  father's  affection  had  subdued  his  anger; 
who  then  sent  him  to  France  in  company  with  some 
distinguished  young  men,  who  were  about  making 
the  grand  tour.  He  continued  there  a  considerable 
time,  aud  his  mind  was  diverted  from  all  serious 
thoughts  of  religion.  He  acquired  a  knowledge  of 
the  French  language,  and  became  a  very  accom- 
plished and  fashionable  young  man  ;  and  his  father, 
on  his  return,  consequently  received  him  with 
great  satisfaction. 

About  the  year  1664  his  spiritual  conflict  is  said 
to  have  been  very  great :  his  natural  inclination,  his 
lively  and  active  disposition,  his  accomplishments, 
his  father's  favour,  the  respect  of  his  friends  and 
acquaintances,  strongly  tempted  him  to  embrace 
the  pleasures  of  the  world,  which  he  fought  against 
with  earnest  supplication.  But  in  the  year  1666, 
and  the  22nd  of  his  age,  his  father  committed  to  his 
management  a  considerable  estate  in  Ireland,  which 
occasioned  his  residence  in  that  country;  and  there 
being  at  Cork  a  religious  meeting  of  the  people 
called  Quakers,  he  was  thoroughly  and  effectually 
convinced  of  their  principles,  by  means  of  the 
preaching  of  one  Thomas  Loe,  who  ten  years  be- 
fore had  made  a  great  impression  upon  him ;  and 
he  thenceforward  constantly  attended  the  religious 
meetings  of  that  people,  even  through  the  heat  of 
persecution. 

Being  again  at  a  meeting  in  Cork,  in  the  year 
1667,  he,  with  many  others,  was  apprehended,  and 
carried  before  the  mayor,  who,  observing  that  his 
dress  was  not  that  usually  worn  by  the  Quakers, 


782 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


would  have  set  him  at  liberty,  upon  bond,  for  his 
good  behaviour ;  but  he  refused  to  take  advantage 
of  the  offer,  and  was,  with  about  eighteen  others, 
committed  to  prison.  During  his  residence  in  Ire- 
land he  had  formed  an  intimate  acquaintance  with 
many  of  the  nobility  and  gentry  ;  and  being  now  a 
prisoner,  he  wrote  a  letter,  on  the  occasion,  to  the 
earl  of  Orrery,  lord-president  ofMunster;  in  which 
he  informed  him  of  his  situation,  pleaded  his  inno- 
cence, and  boldly  exhibited  the  inconsistency  with 
true  Christianity,  as  well  as  the  ill  policy,  of  such 
kind  of  persecution,  especially  in  Ireland.  The 
earl  immediately  ordered  his  discharge :  but  his 
imprisonment  was  so  far  from  terrifying  him,  that 
it  strengthened  him  in  his  resolution  of  a  closer 
union  with  that  people,  whose  religious  innocence 
appeared  to  be  the  only  crime  for  which  they  suf- 
fered. 

His  more  openly  joining  with  the  Quakers 
brought  on  him  a  great  deal  of  odium.  His  father 
sent  for  him  home;  and  upon  his  return,  though 
there  was  no  great  alteration  in  his  dress,  yet  his 
manners  were  manifest  indications  of  the  truth  of 
the  information  which  his  father  had  received. 
"  And  here  my  pen,"  says  the  writer  of  his  life,  "  is 
diffident  of  her  abilities  to  describe  that  most  pa- 
thetic and  moving  contest  between  his  father  and 
him.  His  father,  by  natural  love,  principally  aim- 
ing at  his  sou's  temporal  honour;  he,  guided  by  a 
divine  impulse,  having  chiefly  in  view  his  own 
eternal  welfare ;  his  father,  grieved  to  see  the  well- 
accomplished  son  of  his  hopes,  now  ripe  for  worldly 
promotion,  voluntarily  turn  his  back  on  it;  he,  no 
less  afflicted,  to  think  that  a  compliance  with  his 
earthly  father's  pleasure  was  inconsistent  with  an 
obedience  to  his  heavenly  one ;  his  father  pressing 
his  conformity  to  the  customs  and  fashions  of  the 
times;  he  modestly  craving  leave  to  refrain  from 
what  would  hurt  his  conscience;  his  father  ear- 
nestly entreating  him,  and,  almost  on  his  knees, 
beseeching  him  to  yield  to  his  desire;  he,  of  a 
loving  and  tender  disposition,  in  extreme  agony  of 
spirit,  to  behold  his  father's  concern  and  trouble ; 
his  father  threatening  to  disinherit  him ;  he  hum- 
bly submitting  to  his  father's  will  therein ;  his 
father  turning  his  back  on  him  in  anger;  he  lift- 
ing up  his  heart  to  God  for  strength,  to  support  him 
in  that  time  of  trial !" 

During  this  contest,  the  same  writer  mentions 
one  very  remarkable  instance,  among  others,  of  his 
sincerity.  "  His  father,  finding  him  too  fixed  to  be 
brought  to  a  general  compliance  with  the  customary 
compliments  of  the  times,  seemed  inclinable  to  have 
borne  with  him,  in  other  respects,  provided  he 
would  be  uncovered  in  the  presence  of  the  king, 
the  duke,  and  himself;  this  being  proposed,  he  de- 
sired time  to  consider  of  it ;  which  his  father  sup- 
posing to  be  with  an  intention  of  consulting  his 
friends,  the  Quakers,  about  it,  he  assured  him  that 
he  would  see  the  face  of  none  of  them,  but  retire  to 
his  chamber,  till  he  should  return  him  an  answer. 
Accordingly  he  withrew,  and,  having  humbled  him- 
self before  God,  with  fasting  and  supplication,  to 
know  his  heavenly  mind  and  will,  he  became  so 
strengthened  in  his  resolution,  that,  returning  to 
his  father,  he  humbly  signified,  that  he  could  not 
comply  with  his  desire  therein. 

"  Whan  all  endeavours  proved  ineffectual  to 
shake  his  constancy,  and  his  father  saw  himself  ut- 
terly disappointed  of  his  hopes,  he  could  no  longer 
endure  him  in  his  sight,  but  turned  him  out  of  doors 
the  second  time.  Thus  exposed  to  the  charity  of 


his  friends,  having  no  other  subsistence  (except 
what  his  mother  privately  sent  him),  he  endured 
the  cross  with  a  Christian  patience  and  magnani- 
mity, comforting  himself  with  the  promise  of  Christ ; 
'  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  there  is  no  man,  that  hath 
left  house,  or  parents,  or  brethren,  or  wife,  or  chil- 
dren, for  the  kingdom  of  God's  sake,  who  shall  not 
receive  manyfold  more,  in  this  present  time,  and 
in  the  world  to  come,  life  everlasting.' 

"  After  a  considerable  time,  his  steady  perseverance 
evincing  his  integrity,  his  father's  wrath  became 
somewhat  mollified,  so  that  he  winked  at  his  return 
to,  and  continuance  in  his  family;  and  though  he 
did  not  publicly  seem  to  countenance  him,  yet, 
when  imprisoned  for  being  at  meetings,  he  privately 
used  his  interest  to  get  him  released. 

"  About  the  year  1668,  being  the  24th  of  his  age," 
continues  his  biographer,  "  he  first  appeared  in  the 
work  of  the  ministry,  rightly  called  to,  and  quali- 
fied for,  that  office ;  being  sent  of  God  to  teach 
others  what  himself  had  learned  of  him ;  commis- 
sioned from  on  high  to  preach  to  others  that  holy 
self-denial  which  himself  had  practised ;  to  recom- 
mend to  all  that  serenity  and  peace  of  conscience 
which  himself  had  felt;  walking  in  the  light,  to 
call  others  out  of  darkness;  having  drank  of  the 
water  of  life,  to  direct  others  to  the  same  fountain ; 
having  tasted  of  the  heavenly  bread,  to  incite  all 
men  to  partake  of  the  same  banquet ;  being  re- 
deemed by  the  power  of  Christ,  he  was  sent  to  call 
others  from  under  the  dominion  of  Satan,  into  the 
glorious  liberty  of  the  sons  of  God,  that  they  might 
receive  remission  of  sins,  and  an  inheritance  among 
them  that  are  sanctified  through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ." 

About  this  time  he  published  several  of  his  first 
compositions  now  extant  in  his  printed  works ;  one 
of  which,  entitled,  "The  Sandy  Foundation  shaken," 
was  written  in  consequence  of  a  dispute  which  he 
had  in  London  with  one  Vincent,  a  presbyter.  In 
this  he  exposed  the  vulgar  notion  of  the  Trinity, 
and  some  other  religious  tenets ;  which  gave  so 
much  offence  to  those  in  power  in  the  church,  that 
they  immediately  took  the  old  method  of  reforming 
what  they  called  error,  by  their  strongest  argument 
viz.  "  An  order  for  imprisoning  him  in  the  Tower  of 
London ;"  where  he  was  under  close  confinement, 
and  even  denied  the  visits  of  his  friends.  But  yet 
his  enemies  did  not  obtain  his  conversion  ;  for  when, 
after  some  time,  his  servant  brought  him  word,  that 
the  bishop  of  London  was  resolved  he  should  either 
publicly  recant,  or  die  a  prisoner,  he  made  this  reply  : 
"All  is  well :  I  wish  they  had  told  me  so  before  ;  since 
the  expecting  a  release  put  a  stop  to  some  business  : 
thou  mayest  tell  my  father,  who,  I  know,  will  ask 
thee  these  words;  that  my  prison  shall  be  my 
grave,  before  I  will  budge  a  jot;  for  I  owe  my 
conscience  to  no  mortal  man.  I  have  no  need  to 
fear:  God  will  make  amends  for  all.  They  are 
mistaken  in  me ;  I  value  not  their  threats  and  reso- 
lutions :  for  they  shall  know  I  can  weary  out  their 
malice  and  peevishness;  and  in  me  shall  they  all 
behold  a  resolution  above  fear ;  conscience  above 
cruelty ;  and  a  baffle  put  upon  all  their  designs,  by 
the  spirit  of  patience,  the  companion  of  all  the  tri- 
bulated  flock  of  the  blessed  Jesus,  who  is  the  author 
and  finisher  of  the  faith  that  overcomes  the  world, 
yea,  death  and  hell  too.  Neither  great  nor  good 
things  were  ever  attained  without  loss  and  hard- 
ships. He  that  would  reap  and  not  labour  must 
faint  with  the  wind,  and  perish  in  diappointments  : 
but  a  hair  of  my  head  shall  not  fall  without  the 
providence  of  my  Father,  that  is  over  all. 


UNITED  STATES. 


"  A  spirit  warmed  with  the  love  of  God,"  says 
the  writer  of  his  life,  "  and  devoted  to  his  service, 
ever  pursues  its  main  purpose:  he,  being  now  re- 
strained from  preaching,  applied  himself  to  writing  ; 
several  treatises  were  the  fruits  of  his  solitude,  par- 
ticularly that  excellent  one,  entitled,  '  No  cross,  no 
crown  ;'  a  book,  which,  tending  to  promote  the 
general  design  of  religion,  was  well  accepted,  and 
soon  past  several  impressions." 

He  also,  in  the  year  1669,  wrote  from  the  Tower 
a  letter  to  Lori  Arlington,  then  principal  secretary 
of  state,  by  whose  warrant  he  was  committed,  in  vin- 
dication of  his  innocence,  and  to  remove  some  asper- 
sions cast  upon  him ;  in  this  letter,  with  gi'eat  bold- 
ness, and  elegance  of  style,  he  pleads  the  reason- 
ableness of  toleration  in  religion,  shows  the  extreme 
injustice  of  his  imprisonment,  and  declares  his  firm 
resolution  to  suffer,  rather  than  give  up  his  cause  ; 
he  likewise  requests  the  secretary  to  lay  his  case 
before  the  king,  and  desires  he  may  be  ordered  a 
release;  but,  if  that  should  be  denied,  he  entreats 
the  favour  of  access  to  the  royal  presence,  or  at 
least,  that  the  secretary  himself  would  please  to 
give  him  a  full  hearing,  &c.  And  in  order  to  clear 
himself  from  the  aspersions  cast  on  him,  in  relation 
to  the  doctrines  of  the  Trinity,  the  incarnation,  and 
satisfaction  of  Christ,  he  published  a  little  book  called, 
"  Innocency  with  her  open  face,"  by  way  of  apology 
for  the  "  Sandy  foundation  shaken  ;"  in  which  apology 
he  so  successfully  vindicated  himself,  that  soon  after 
its  publication,  he  was  discharged  from  his  impri- 
sonment ;  which  had  been  of  about  seven  months 
continuance. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  summer  this  year,  he  went 
again  to  Ireland;  and  being  arrived  at  Cork,  he  there 
visited  his  friends  the  Quakers,  who  were  in  prison, 
for  their  religion,  attended  the  meetings  of  his  so- 
ciety, and  afterwards  went  from  thence  to  Dublin  ; 
where  an  account  of  his  friends'  sufferings  being 
drawn  up,  by  way  of  address,  it  was  by  him  pre- 
sented to  the  lord-lieutenant. 

During  his  stay  in  Ireland,  though  his  business, 
in  the  care  of  his  father's  estate,  occupied  a  consi- 
derable part  of  his  time,  yet  he  frequently  attended, 
and  preached  in  the  meetings  of  his  friends,  espe- 
cially at  Dublin  and  Cork ;  in  one  of  which  places 
he  usually  resided.  He  also  wrote  during  his  resi- 
dence there,  several  treatises,  and  took  every  op- 
portunity in  his  power  to  solicit  those  in  authority, 
in  behalf  of  his  friends  in  prison  :  and,  in  the  begin- 
ning of  1670,  through  his  repeated  applications  to 
the  chancellor,  the  Lord  Arran,  |  and  the  lord-lieu- 
tenant, an  order  of  council  was  obtained  for  their 
release.  Having  settled  his  father's  affairs  to  his 
satisfaction,  and  done  his  friends,  the  Quakers,  many 
services,  he  shortly  after  returned  to  England. 

In  the  year  1670  was  passed  the  Conventicle  act, 
which  prohibited  the  meetings  of  the  dissenters, 
under  severe  penalties.  The  rigour  of  this  law  was 
immediately  executed  upon  the  Quakers  ;  who  not 
being  used  to  give  way  in  the  cause  of  religion,  were 
most  exposed.  Being  kept  out  of  their  meeting- 
house in  Gracechurch-street  by  force,  they  met  in  the 
street  itself,  as  near  it  as  they  could  ;  and  William 
Penn,  preaching  there,  was  apprehended,  and  by  a 
warrant,  dated  the  14th  August,  1670,  from  Sir 
Samuel  Starling,  the  lord  mayor,  committed  to 
Newgate  ;  and  at  the  next  sessions  at  the  Old  Bailey, 
was,  together  with  William  Mead,  indicted  for  being 
present  at,  and  preaching  to,  an  unlawful,  seditious 
and  riotous  assembly.  At  his  trial  he  made  such  an 
excellent  defence,  as  discovered  at  once  both  the 


pirit  of  an  Englishman,  and  the  undaunted  mag" 
lanimity  of  a  Christian  ;  insomuch  that  notwith" 
landing  the  most  partial  menaces  of  the  bench,  the 
ury  acquitted  him.  The  trial  itself  was  soon  after 
mnted;  and  it  exhibits  a  signal  instance  of  the 
attempts  of  the  ignorance  and  tyranny  of  that  time. 
Tt  may  be  seen  in  his  printed  works. 

Not  long  after  this  famous  trial,  and  his  discharge 
Vom  Newgate,  his  father  died,  entirely  reconciled 
.o  his  sou  ;  to  whom,  as  before  observed,  he  left  a 
ood  estate.  His  death-bed  declarations  and  ex- 
lortations  are  very  remarkable,  and  may  be  seen 
'n  Penn's  treatise,  entitled,  "  No  cross,  no  crown," 
imong  the  sayings  of  other  eminent  persons. 

He  was  about  this  time  employed  in  defence  of 
lis  religious  principles,  in  a  public  dispute  with  one 
Jeremy  Ives,  a  celebrated  Baptist;  and  afterwards  in 
he  December  of  the  same  year,  being  at  Oxford,  and 
observing  the  cruel  usage  and  persecutionwhich  his  in- 
nocent friends  suffered  there  from  the  junior  scholars, 
oo  much  by  the  connivance  of  their  superiors,  he 
wrote  a  letter  to  the  vice-chancellor,  on  the  subject. 

In  the  winter  this  year,  he  also,  while  residing  at 
Peun  in  Buckinghamshire,  published  a  book,  en- 
titled, "  A  reasonable  caveat  against  Popery  ;" 
wherein  he  both  exposes  and  confutes  many  errune- 
ous  doctrines  of  the  church  of  Rome,  and  establishes 
he  opposite  truths,  by  sound  arguments ;  a  work 
alone  sufficient,  on  the  one  hand,  to  wipe  off  the 
calumny  cast  upon  him,  of  being  a  favourer  of  the 
Romish  religion ;  and  on  the  other,  to  show,  that 
his  principle  being  for  an  universal  liberty  of  con- 
science, he  would  have  had  it  extended,  even  to  the 
papists  themselves,  under  a  security  of  their  not 
persecuting  others. 

In  March  1671,  while  he  was  preaching  at  a  reli- 
fjious  meeting  of  his  friends  in  Wheeler-street,  Lon- 
don, he  was  forcibly  seized  by  a  party  of  soldiers, 
sent  thither  for  that  purpose,  and  carried  to  the 
Tower,  by  an  order  from  the  lieutenant.  In  his  ex- 
amination, on  this  occasion,  before  the  lieutenant 
of  the  Tower,  Sir  John  Robinson,  Starling  the  lord 
mayor,  and  others,  his  behaviour  was  very  spirited. 
It  may  be  seen  in  the  printed  account  of  his  life, 
prefixed  to  his  literary  works ;  in  which,  as  the 
lieutenant's  words  and  conduct  appear  imperious, 
and  manifestly  inimical,  so  his  replies  were  smart, 
and  bold:  and,  on  the  lieutenant's  charging  him 
with  his  having  been  as  bad  as  other  people,  and 
that  both  at  home  and  abroad,  he  received  this  re- 
markable answer  from  W.  Penn,  viz.  "  I  make  this 
bold  challenge  to  all  men.  women  and  children  upon 
earth,  justly  to  accuse  me,  with  ever  having  seen  me 
drunk,  heard  me  swear,  utter  a  curse,  or  speak  one 
obscene  word  (much  less  that  I  ever  made  it  my 
practice),  I  speak  this  to  God's  glory,  that  has  pre- 
served me  from  the  power  of  those  pollutions,  and 
that,  from  a  child,  begot  a  hatred  in  me  towards 
them.  But  there  is  nothing  more  common,  than 
when  men  are  of  a  more  severe  life  than  ordinary, 
for  loose  persons  to  comfort  themselves  with  the 
conceit,  '  that  they  were  once  as  they  are,'  as  if  there 
were  no  collateral,  or  oblique  line  of  the  compass, 
or  globe,  men  may  be  said  to  come  from  to  the 
Arctic  pole,  but  directly  and  immediately  from  the 
Antartic.  '  Thy  words  shall  be  thy  burden,  and  I 
trample  thy  slander,  as  dirt  under  my  feet.'  " 

He  was  sent  prisoner  to  Newgate  for  six  months  ; 
where,  during  his  confinement,  he  wrote  several 
treatises,  and  occasional  pieces  of  controversy,  ex- 
tant in  his  works  ;  and  the  parliament  being  about 
to  take  measures  for  enforcing  with  greater  severity 


784 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  aforesaid  conventicle  act,  he  whose  freedom  o 
spirit  a  prison  could  not  confine  from  advocating 
the  cause  of  liberty,  wrote  from  the  same  place  the 
following  paper,  directed, 

"  To  the  high  court  of  Parliament. 
"  Forasmuch  as  it  hath  pleased  you  to  make  an 
act,  entitled,  '  An  act  for  suppressing  seditious  con- 
venticles, the  dangerous  practices  of  seditious  secta- 
ries, &c.'  and  that,  .under  pretence  of  authority 
from  it,  many  have  taken  the  ungodly  liberty  o 
plundering,  pillaging  and  breaking  into  houses,  to 
the  ruin  and  detriment  of  whole  families,  not  re- 
garding the  poor,  the  widow  and  the  fatherless,  be- 
yond all  precedent,  or  excuse;  and,  that  we  are 
informed  it  is  your  purpose,  instead  of  relaxing  your 
hand,  to  supply  the  defects  of  that  act,  by  such  ex- 
planatory clauses  as  will  inevitably  expose  us  to  the 
fury  and  interest  of  our  several  adversaries;  thai 
under  pretence  of  answering  the  intents  of  the  said 
act,  will  only  gratify  their  private  humours,  ami 
doubtless  extend  it  beyond  its  original  purpose,  to 
the  utter  destruction  of  us,  and  our  suffering  friends. 

"  We,  therefore,  esteem  ourselves  obliged,  in 
Christian  duty,  once  more  to  remonstrate. 

"  First,  That  we  own  civil  government,  or  magis- 
tracy, as  God's  ordinance,  for  the  punishment  of 
evil-doers,  and  the  praise  of  them  that  do  well;  and 
though  we  cannot  comply  with  those  laws  that  pro- 
hibit us  to  worship  God,  according  to  our  consci- 
ences, as  believing  it  to  be  his  alone  prerogative,  to 
preside  in  matters  of  faith  and  worship,  yet  we  both 
own  and  are  ready  to  yield  obedience  to  every  ordi- 
nance of  man,  relating  to  human  affairs,  and  that 
for  conscience  sake. 

"  Secondly,  That  we  deny  and  renounce,  as  a 
horrible  impiety,  all  plots  and  conspiracies,  or  to 
promote  our  interest,  or  religion,  by  the  blood  and 
destruction  of  such  as  dissent  from  us,  or  yet  those 
that  persecute  us. 

"  Thirdly,  That  in  all  revolutions  we  have  de- 
meaned ourselves  with  much  peace  and  patience 
(disowning  all  contrary  actings), notwithstanding  the 
numerous  prosecutions  of  cruel  and  ungodly  men ; 
which  is  a  demonstration  of  our  harmless  behaviour, 
that  ought  not  to  be  of  little  moment  with  you. 

Fourthly,  That  as  we  have  ever  lived  most  peace- 
ably under  all  the  various  governments,  that  have 
*been  since  our  first  appearance  (notwithstanding 
we  have  been  as  their  anvil  to  smite  upon),  so  we  do 
hereby  signify,  that  it  is  our  fixed  resolution  to  con- 
tinue the  same ;  that  where  we  cannot  actually 
obey,  we  patiently  shall  suffer,  (leaving  our  inno- 
cent cause  without  daring  to  love  ourselves  unto  the 
death,  for  our  blessed  testimony's  sake,)  thereby 
manifesting  to  the  whole  world,  that  we  love  God 
above  all,  and  our  neighbours  as  ourselves. 

"  If  this  prevails  not  with  /you  to  suspend  your 
thoughts  of  reinforcing  your  former  act,  we  do  desire 
that  we,  or  some  of  our  friends, 'may  receive  a  free 
hearing  from  you  (as  several  of  us  had  upon  the  first 
act  for  uniformity),  having  many  great  and  weighty 
reasons  to  offer^against  all  such  severe  proceedings, 
to  the  end  all  wrong  measures  of  us,  and  of  our  prin- 
ciples maybe  rectified;  and,  that  you,  being  better 
informed  of  both,  may  remove  our  heavy  burdens, 
and  let  the  oppressed  go  free  ;  for  such  moderation 
will  be  well  pleasing  both  to  God  and  good  men. 

"  From  us  who  are  prisoners,  at  Newgate  (for 
conscience  sake),  on  behalf  of  ourselves,  and  all  our 
suffering  friends  in  England,  &c. 

"  WILLIAM  PENN,  and  several  others. 
"Newgate,  second  month,  1671." 


His  six  months'  imprisonment  in  Newgate,  being 
expired,  he  was  sot  at  liberty,  and  shortly  after  went 
into  Holland  and  Germany.  Of  his  business,  or 
services,  at  this  time,  in  these  countries,  we  find  no 
particular  account,  besides  some  small  memoran- 
dums made  in  his  journal  of  his  subsequent  travels 
afterwards  into  those  countries. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  year  1672,  and  the  28th 
of  his  age,  he  married  Gulielma  Maria  Springett, 
daughter  of  Sir  Wiliaii  Sprinsett,  formerly  of  Dar- 
ling in  Sussex;  who  was  killed  in  the  time  of  the 
civil  wars,  at  the  siege  of  Bamber;  and  whose' 
widow  was  afterwards  married  to  Isaac  Penington, 
of  Peter's  Chalfont,  in  Buckinghamshire;  in  whose 
family  her  daughter  was  brought  up  ;  a  young  woman, 
of  an  excellent  disposition,  and  agreeable  per- 
son. Afterwards,  fixing  upon  a  convenient  habita- 
tion at  Rickmcrsworth,  in  Hertfordshire,  he  re- 
sided there  with  his  family,  often  visiting  the  meet- 
ings of  his  friends. 

In  the  September  of  1672,  he  visited  his  friends 
in  Kent,  Sussex,  and  Surrey  ;  of  which  his  memo- 
randums furnish  us  with  a  proof  of  that  singular  in- 
dustry which  the  dissenting  ministers  exercise  m 
the  discharge  of  their  office  ;  for  in  the  space  of  21 
days,  he  with  his  companion  were  present  at,  and 
preached  to,  as  many  assemblies  of  people,  at  dis- 
tant places,  viz.  Rochester,  Canterbury,  Dover, 
Deal,  Folkstone.  Ashford,  and  other  places  in  Kent ; 
at  Lewes,  Horsham,  Stenning,  &c.  in  Sussex  ;  and 
at  Charlevvood  and  Ryegatf  in  Surrey.  "  Great  was 
their  service  in  these  counties;"  says  the  writer  of 
his  life,  "  their  testimonies,  effectual  to  the  strength- 
ening of  their  friends,  silencing  of  gainsayers,  and 
to  a  general  edification,  were  received  by  the  people 
with  joy,  and  openness  of  heart;  and  themselves 
in  the  performance  of  their  duty,  filled  with  spiritual 
consolation."  Penn  gives  the  following  account  of 
their  last  meeting  in  that  journey,  being  at  Ryegate  : 
"  The  Lord  sealed  up  our  labours  and  travels  ac- 
cording to  the  desire  of  my  soul  and  spirit,  with  his 
heavenly  refreshments,  and  sweet  living  power  and 
word  of  life,  unto  the  reaching  of  all,  and  consola- 
ting  our  own  hearts  abundantly  ;"  and  he  concludes 
his  narrative  with  saying  : — "  And  thus  hath  the 
Lord  been  with  us,  in  all  our  travels  for  his  truth  ; 
and  with  his  blessings  of  peace  are  we  returned; 
which  is  a  reward  beyond  all  worldly  treasure." 

About  this  time  many  opposers  of  the  Quakers, 
some  of  whom  being  dissenters  themselves,  who  had 
enough  to  do  in  time  of  persecution,  by  a  cautious 
privacy,  which  they  called  Christian  prudence,  to 
secure  their  heads  from  the  storm,  began,  under  the 
sun-shine  of  the  king's  indulgence,  to  peep  out,  and 
[in  the  words  of  the  writer  of  Penn's  life)  by  gain- 
saying the  truth,  to  make  its  defence  necessary  ;  so 
that  he  had  plenty  of  controversial  exercise  for  his 
pen,  the  remainder  of  this  year,  and  the  two  next 
ensuing  ;  which  produced  several  valuable  treatises, 
extant  in  his  works,  together  with  many  remark- 
able and  excellent  letters  and  epistles,  written  both 
;o  single  persons,  and  collective  bodies,  in  England, 
Holland,  Germany  and  elsewhere ;  which,  as  they 
are  principally  of  a  religious,  and  some  of  them  of  a 
political  nature,  may  likewise  be  seen  in  his  printed 
writings.",'  Among  these  appears  the  following  letter 
o  a  Roman  Catholic,  viz. 

"  My  Friend, 

"  Christ  Jesus  did  redeem'a  people  with  his  most 
>recious  blood,  and  the  ancient  church  of  Rome, 
imong  other  churches,  was  one ;  but  as  the  sea 
oses  and  gets,  and  as  prosperity  changes  its  sta- 


UNITED  STATES. 


785 


tion,  so  the  chastity  of  the  church  of  Rome  is 
lost;  she  having  taken  in  principles  and  discipline, 
that  are  not  of  Christ,  neither  can  be  found  in  the 
Holy  Scriptures. 

"  If  thou  wert  to  die,  wouldest  not  thou  leave  a 
plain  will  to  thy  children  ?  so  have  Christ  and  his 
apostles,  in  the  Scriptures.  Read,  and  thou  mayest 
behold  the  simplicity,  purity,  meekness,  patience, 
and  self-denial  of  those  Christians  and  churches. 
They  are  Christ's  that  take  up  his  cross  to  the 
glory  and  spirit  of  this  world;  which  the  church  of 
Rome  lives  in.  Behold  the  pride,  luxury,  cruelty, 
that  have,  for  ages,  been  in  that  church,  even  the 
heads  and  chieftains  thereof!  It  is  a  mistake  to 
think  that  Christ's  church,  which  has  lost  its  hea- 
venly qualifications,  because  it  once  was.  What 
is  become  of  Antioch,  Jerusalem,  &c.  both  churches 
of  Christ,  and  before  Rome?  Nor  is  it  number, 
(the  devil  has  that;)  nor  antiquity,  (for  he  has 
that;)  but  Christ-likeness,  and  conformity  to  Jesus; 
who  hath  divorced  those  that  have  adulterated  ;  and 
though  he  had  left  but  two  or  three  (though  there 
were  thousands),  yet  he  would  be  in  the  midst  of 
them  :  and  they  have  been  in  the  wilderness,  people 
crying  in  sackcloth.  The  generality  declined  from 
Christ's  spirit ;  and  it  was  lost,  and  the  teachings 
of  it :  and  then  came  up  form,  without  power,  and 
a  wrathful  spirit,  to  propagate  it;  and  this  made 
up  the  great  whore,  that  looked  like  the  Lamb's 
bride,  Christ's  church,  but  was  not;  which  God  will 
judge.  Remember  that  God  was  not  without  a  church, 
though  the  natural  church  and  priesthood  of  the  Jews 
apostatized :  so  in  the  case  of  the  church  of  Rome. 

"  Now  is  the  Lord  raising  up  his  old  power,  and 
giving  his  spirit,  and  moving  upon  the  waters  (the 
people),  that  out  of  that  state  all  may  come,  and 
know  God  in  spirit,  and  Christ,  his  Son;  whom 
he  has  sent  into  the  people's  hearts,  a  true  light. 
And,  my  friend,  build  not  upon  fancies,  nor  the 
traditions  of  men,  but  Christ  the  sure  foundation, 
as  he  appears  to  thee,  in  thy  conscience ;  that  thou 
mayest  feel  his  power  to  redeem  thee,  up  to  him- 
self, out  of  the  earthly,  sensual  spirit,  to  know  thy 
right  eye  plucked  out,  the  true  mortification ;  and 
this  brings  thee  to  the  church  of  the  first-born,  that 
is  more  divine  and  noble  than  an  outward  glittering 
church,  that  is  inwardly  polluted :  for  know,  as  thou 
sowest,  thou  reapest  in  the  great  day  of  account. 
So  to  God's  spirit,  in  thy  own  conscience,  do  1  re- 
commend thee,  that  leads  out  of  all  evil,  and  quick- 
ens thee  to  God,  as  thou  obeyest  it,  and  makes  thee 
a  child  of  God,  and  an  heir  of  glory.  I  am  in  much 
haste,  and  as  much  love,  "  Thy  true  Friend, 

"WILLIAM  PENN. 
"  London,  ninth  October,  1675." 

In  the  year  1676  he  became  one  of  the  principal 
persons  concerned  in  settling  West  New  Jersey, 
in  America ;  as  we  have  already  seen  in  the  historv 
of  that  colony.  About  this  time  also  he  wrote  to 
some  persons  of  great  rank  in  Germany,  as  appears 
in  his  works;  encouraging  them  to  a  perseverance 
in  the  paths  of  virtue  and  true  religion ;  with  the 
love,  of  which  he  had  understood  their  minds  were 
happily  and  divinely  inspired. 

In  the  year  1677  he  travelled  into  Holland  and 
Germany,  in  company  with  several  of  his  friends, 
the  Quakers,  on  a  religious  visit,  to  these  countries; 
of  which  there  is  extant,  in  his  works,  an  account 
or  journal,  written  by  himself,  in  a  plain  and  simple 
style.  It  does  not  appear  to  have  been  originally 
intended  to  be  published  ;  for,  in  the  preface  to  its 
first  publication,  he  says,  "  It  was  written  for  my 

HIST.  OF  AMER. — Nos.  99  &  100. 


own,  and  some  relations,  and  particular  friends'  sa- 
tisfaction, as  the  long  time  it  hath  lain  silent  doth 
shew,  but  a  copy,  that  was  found  among  the  late 
countess  of  Conway's  papers,  falling  into  the  hands 
of  a  person  that  much  frequented  that  family,  he 
was  earnest  with  me,  both  by  himself  and  others, 
to  have  leave  to  publish  it  for  a  common  good,"  &c. 
In  this  account  are  included  several  letters,  epistles, 
and  religious  productions,  written  during  his  tra- 
vels, to  persons  of  eminence  and  others,  whom  he 
either  visited  in  person,  or  writing.  It  is  continued 
from  the  22d  of  July,  1677,  when  he  left  home,  to 
the  1st  of  November,  when  he  returned  to  his  habi- 
tation, at  Worminghurst,  in  Sussex. 

In  this  journal  mention  is  made  of  his  having  re- 
ligious meetings,  or  paying  personal  visits,  at  Rot- 
terdam, Leyden,  Haerlam,  and  Amsterdam;  in 
which  last  place  he  made  some  stay,  being  em- 
ployed there  in  assisting  to  regulate  and  settle  the 
affairs  of  his  religious  society  in  that  city;  and  from 
thence  he  wrote  to  the  king  of  Poland,-  in  favour  of 
his  persecuted  and  suffering  friends,  the  Quakers, 
at  Dantzic.  He  was  also  at  Naerden,  Osnaburgh, 
and  Herwerden  ;  in  the  last  of- which  places  he  had 
religious  meetings  and  agreeable  conversation  with 
the  Princess  Elizabeth  Palatine  and  others.  He 
visited  Paderborn,  Cassel,  and  Frankfort;  where 
he  made  some  stay,  and  wrote  an  epistle,  "  To  the 
churches  of  Jesus  throughout  the  world,"  &c.  From 
thence  he  went  through  Worms  to  Crisheim,  where 
he  found  a  meeting  of  his  friends,  the  Quakers ; 
and  wrote  to  the  princess  before  mentioned,  and 
the  countess  of  Homes,  two  Protestant  ladies  of 
great  virtue  and  quality,  at  Herwerden.  Thence 
by  Frankenthall  to  Manheim;  from  which  place 
he  wrote  to  the  prince  elector  Palatine  of  Heydel- 
burgh.  He  was  likewise  at  Mentz  and  many  other 
places  on  the  Rhine;  as  Cullen,  Duysburgh,  &c. 
But,  on  account  of  his  being  a  Quaker,  he  was  pro- 
hibitjed  to  enter  into  Mulheim  by  the  Graef,  or  earl 
of  Br'uch  and  Falkensteyn,  lord  of  that  country  ;  on 
which  occasion  he  wrote  to  him  from  Duysburgh,  a 
sharp  letter  of  reproof  and  advice;  and  to  his 
daughter,  the  countess,  a  virtuous  and  religious  lady, 
at  Mulheim,  on  whose  account  his  visit  there  was 
principally  intended,  he  sent  a  consolatory  epistle. 

He  then  visited  Wesel,  Rees,  Emrick,  Cleve, 
Nimeguen,  Lippenhusen,  Groningen,  Embden,  Bre- 
men, and  the  Hague;  and  many  of  these  places 
several  times,  frequently  writing  letters  of  advice 
and  religious  comfort  to  religious  persons  of  great 
quality  and  others.  At  the  last-mentioned  place  he 
corrected  and  finished  several  long  epistles,  of  a 
religious  nature ;  which  were  written  and  intended 
for  the  press,  both  in  his  first  and  second  journey  iu 
Germany;  and  which  are  now  extant  in  his  works. 
From  the  Hague  he  went  to  Delft,  Wonderwick, 
and  so  to  the  Briel ;  and  from  thence  by  the  packet, 
to  Harwich,  and  so  home. 

After  his  return  from  Germany,  the  Quakers  being 
harassed  with  severe  prosecutions  in  the  exchequer, 
on  penalties  of  201.  per  month,  or  two-thirds  of  their 
estates,  by  laws  made  against  Papists,  but  unjustly 
exerted  upon  them ;  Penn  solicited  the  parliament 
for  redress  of  those  grievances,  and  presented  peti- 
tions, on  the  occasion,  both  to  the  lords  and  commons; 
where,  upon  being  admitted  to  a  hearing  before  a 
committee,  on  the  22d  of  the  month  called  March, 
1 678,  he  made  the  following  speeches : — 

"  If  we  ought  to  believe  that  it  is  our  duty,  ac- 
cording to  the  doctrine  of  the  Apostle,  to  be  always 
ready  to  give  an  account  of  the  hope  that  is  in  us, 

3  Z 


786 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


and  that  to  every  sober  and  private  inquirer;  cer- 
tainly much  more  ought  we  to  hold  ourselves  obliged 
to  declare,  with  all  readiness,  when  called  to  it  by 
so  great  authority,  what  is  not  our  hope,  especially 
when  our  very  safety  is  eminently  concerned  in  so 
doing,  and  that  we  cannot  decline  this  discrimina- 
tion of  ourselves  from  Papists,  without  being  con- 
scious to  ourselves  of  the  guilt  of  our  own  suffer- 
ings ;  for  that  must  every  man  needs  be,  that  suffers 
mutely,  under  another  character  than  that,  which 
truly  and  properly  belongeth  to  him,  and  his  belief. 
That  which  giveth  me  a  more  than  ordinary  right 
to  speak,  at  this  time,  and  in  this  place,  is  the  great 
abuse,  that  I  have  received,  above  any  other  of  my 
profession ;  for,  of  a  long  time  I  have  not  only  been 
supposed  a  Papist,  but  a  seminary,  a  Jesuit,  an 
emissary  of  Rome,  and  in  pay  from  the  Pope,  a  man 
dedicating  my  endeavours  to  the  interest  and  ad- 
vancement of  that  party.  Nor  hath  this  been  the 
report  of  the  rabble,  but  the  jealousy  and  insinua- 
tion of  persons  otherwise  sober  and  discreet:  nay, 
some  zealous  for  the  Protestant  religion,  have  been 
so  far  gone  in  this  mistake,  as  not  only  to  think  ill 
of  us,  and  to  decline  our  conversation,  but  to  take 
courage  to  themselves,  to  prosecute  us  for  a  sort  of 
concealed  Papists  ;  and  the  truth  is,  what  with  one 
thing,  and  what  with  another,  we  have  been  as  the 
wool-sacks,  and  common  whipping-stock  of  the  king- 
dom ;  all  laws  have  been  let  loose  upon  us,  as  if  the 
design  were  not  to  reform,  but  to  destroy  us,  and 
that  not  for  what  we  are,  but  for  what  we  are  not. 
It  is  hard,  that  we  must  thus  bear  the  stripes  of  an- 
other interest,  and  be  their  proxy  in  punishment ; 
but  it  is  worse,  that  some  men  can  please  themselves 
in  such  a  sort  of  administration. 

"  I  would  not  be  mistaken,  I  am  far  from  think- 
ing it  fit  that  Papists  should  be  whipped  for  their 
consciences,  because  I  exclaim  against  the  injustice 
of  whipping  Quakers  for  Papists :  no,  for  though 
the  hand  pretended  to  be  lifted  up  against  ttoem, 
hath  (1  know  not  by  what  direction)  lit  ^eavy  upon 
us,  and  we  complain;  yet  we  do  not  mean,  that 
any  should  take  a  fresh  aim  at  them,  or  that  they 
must  come  in  our  room ;  for  we  must  give  the 
liberty  we  ask,  and  cannot  be  false  to  our  princi- 
ples, though  it  were  to  relieve  ourselves ;  for  we 
have  good  will  to  all  men,  and  would  have  none 
suffer  for  a  truly  sober  and  conscientious  dissent, 
on  any  hand :  and  I  humbly  take  leave  to  add,  that 
those  methods,  against  persons  so  qualified,  do  not 
seem  to  me  to  be  convincing,  or  indeed  adequate  to 
the  reason  of  mankind ;  but  this  I  submit  to  your 
consideration. 

"  To  conclude,  1  hope  we  shall  be  held  excused 
of  the  men  of  that  profession,  in  giving  this  dis- 
tinguishing declaration,  since  it  is  not  with  design 
to  expose  them  ;  but,  first,  to  pay  that  regard,  we 
owe  to  the  inquiry  of  this  committee  ;  and,  in  the 
next  place,  to  relieve  ourselves  from  the  daily  spoil 
and  ruin,  which  now  attend  and  threaten  many 
hundreds  of  families,  by  the  execution  of  laws  that 
we  humbly  conceive  were  never  made  against  us." 

He  afterwards  made  a  second  speech  to  the  com- 
mittee as  follows  : — 

"  The  candid  hearing,  our  sufferings  have  re- 
ceived from  the  committee,  and  the  fair  and  easy 
entertainment  that  you  have  given  us,  oblige  me  to 
add  what  ever  can  increase  your  satisfaction  about 
us.  I  hope  you  do  not  believe,  I  would  tell  you  a 
lie  ;  I  am  sure  I  should  choose  an  ill  time  and  place 
to  tell  it  in  ;  but,  I  thank  God  it  is  too  late  in  the 
day  for  that.  There  are  some  here  that  have  known 


me  fom.erly  ;  I  believe  they  will  say,  I  never  was 
that  man ;  and  it  would  be  hard,  if  after  a  volun- 
tary neglect  of  the  advantages  of  this  world,  I 
should  sit  down,  in  my  retirement,  short  of  common 
truth. 

"  Excuse  the  length  of  my  introduction,  it  is  for 
this  I  make  it.  I  was  bred  a  Protestant,  and  that 
strictly  too  :  I  lost  nothing  by  time  or  study  ;  for 
years,  reading,  travel  and  observations  made  the 
religion  of  my  education  the  religion  of  my  judg- 
ment: my  alteration  hath  brought  none  to  that  be- 
lief; and  though  the  posture  lam  in  may  seem  odd, 
or  strange  to  you,  yet  I  am  conscientious  ;  and  (till 
you  know  me  better)  I  hope  your  charity  will  rather 
call  it  my  unhappiness  than  my  crime.  I  do  tell 
you  again,  and  here  solemnly  declare,  in  the  pre- 
sence of  Almighty  God,  and  before  you  all,  that 
the  profession  I  now  make,  and  the  society  I  now 
adhere  to,  have  been  so  far  from  altering  that  Pro- 
testant judgment  I  had,  that  I  am  not  conscious  to 
myself  of  having  receded  from  an  iota  of  any  one 
principle,  maintained  by  those  first  Protestants  and 
reformers  of  Germany,  and  our  own  martyrs,  at 
home,  against  the  Pope,  and  See  of  Rome. 

"  On  the  contrary,  I  do,  with  great,  truth,  assure 
you,  that  we  are  of  the  same  negative  faith  with  the 
ancient  Protestant  church,  and  upon  occasion,  shall 
be  ready  by  God's  assistance  to  make  it  appear, 
that  we  are  of  the  same  belief,  as  to  the  most  funda- 
mental positive  articles  of  her  creed  too.  And, 
therefore  it  is,  we  think  it  hard,  that  though  wo 
deny,  in  common  with  her,  those  doctrines  of  Rome, 
so  zealously  protested  against,  from  whence  the 
name  Protestants  ;  yet  that  we  should  be  so  unhappy 
as  to  suffer,  and  that  with  extreme  severity,  by  those 
very  laws  on  purpose  made  against  the  maintainers 
of  those  doctrines,  we  do  so  deny.  We  choose  no 
suffering,  for  God  knows  what  we  have  already  suf- 
fered, and  how  many  sufficient  and  trading  families 
are  reduced  to  great  poverty  by  it.  We  think  our- 
selves a  useful  people  :  we  are  sure  we  are  a  peace- 
able people  ;  but,  if  we  still  suffer,  let  us  not  suffer 
as  Popish  recusants,  but  as  Protestant  dissenters. 

"  But  I  would  obviate  another  objection,  and 
that  none  of  the  least,  that  hath  been  made  against 
us,  viz. '  That  we  are  enemies  to  government  in  gene- 
ral, and  particularly  disaffected  to  this  we  live  under.' 
I  think  it  not  amiss,  but  very  seasonable,  yea,  my 
duty,  now  to  declare  to  you  (and  that  I  do  with 
good  conscience,  in  the  sight  of  the  Almighty  God), 
first,  that  we  believe  government  to  be  God's  ordi- 
nance ;  and  next,  that  this  present  government  is 
established  by  the  providence  of  God,  and  law  of 
the  land,  and  that  it  is  our  Christian  duty  readily  to 
obey  it,  in  all  just  laws;  and  wherein* we  cannot 
comply,  through  tenderness  of  conscience,  in  all 
such  cases,  not  to  revile,  or  conspire  against  the 
government,  but,  with  Christian  humility  and  pa- 
tience, tire  out  all  mistakes  about  us ;  and  wait  their 
better  information;  who,  we  believe,  do  as  unde- 
servedly as  severely  treat  us  ;  and  I  know  not  what 
greater  security  can  be  given  by  any  people,  or  how 
any  government  can  be  easier  from  the  subjects 
of  it, 

"  I  shall  conclude  with  this;  that  we  are  so  far 
from  esteeming  it  hard,  or  ill,  that  the  house  hath 
put  us  upon  this  discrimination,  that,  on  the  con- 
trary, we  value  it  as  we  ought  to  do,  for  a  high 
favour,  (and  cannot  choose  but  see,  and  humbly 
acknowledge  God's  providence  therein,)  that  you 
should  give  us  this  fair  occasion  to  discharge  our- 
selves of  a  burden  we  have,  not  with  more  patience 


UNITED  STATES. 


787 


than  injustice,  suffered  but  too  many  years  under  ; 
and  I  hope  our  conversation  shall  always  manifest 
the  grateful  resentment  of  our  minds,  for  the  justice 
and  civility  of  this  opportunity  ;  and  so  I  pray  God 
direct  you." 

The  committee  agreed  to  insert  in  a  bill,  then 
depending,  a  proviso,  or  clause,  for  relief,  in  the 
case  complained  of;  and  it  passed  the  House  of 
Commons  :  but  before  it  had  gone  through  the  House 
of  Lords,  it  was  quashed  by  a  sudden  prorogation 
of  the  parliament. 

About  this  time  (1679)  and  the  following  year, 
the  people's  minds  being  disturbed  with  rumours  of 
plots,  apprehensions  of  a  French  invasion,  and  de- 
signs to  subvert  the  Protestant  religion,  and  intro- 
duce Popery,  he  wrote  and  published  several  pieces 
by  way  of  advice  to  his  friends,  the  Quakers,  in  par- 
ticular ;  among  which  was  published,  in  the  year 
1679,  the  excellent  treatise,  entitled,  "  An  address 
to  Protestants  of  all  persuasions,"  &c.  And  in  the 
year  1681,  there  being  a  fresh  persecution  against 
his  friends,  the  Quakers,  in  the  city  of  Bristol,  he 
wrote  them  the  following  epistle  (which  is  here  in- 
serted as  a  characteristic  specimen  of  him  and  his 
style  of  writing)  : — 

"  To  the  friends  of  God  in  the  city  of  Bristol. 

"This  sent  to  be   read  among  them,  when  as- 
sembled to  wait  upon  the  Lord. 
"  My  beloved  in  the  Lord, 

"  I  do  hereby  send  amongst  you  the  dear  and  ten- 
der  salutation  of  my  unfeigned  love,  that  is  held  in 
the  fellowship  of  the  lasting  Gospel  of  peace,  that 
has  many  years  been  preached  and  believed  amongst 
you,  beseeching  the  God  and  Father  of  this  glorious 
day  of  the  Son  of  man,  to  increase  and  multiply  his 
grace,  mercy  and  peace  among  you ;  that  you  may 
be  faithful,  and  abound  in  every  good  word  and  work, 
doing  and  suffering  what  is  pleasing  unto  God ;  that 
you  may  prove  what  is  that  good  and  acceptable 
and  perfect  will  of  God  ;  which  it  becomes  you  to  be 
found  daily  doing ;  that  so  an  entrance  may  be  ad- 
ministered unto  you  abundantly  into  the  kingdom  of 
our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  that  is  an  ever- 
lasting kingdom.  My  beloved  brethren  and  sisters, 
be  not  cast  down  at  the  rage  of  evil  men,  whose 
anger  works  not  the  righteousness  of  God;  and 
whose  cruelty  the  Lord  will  limit.  Nothing  strange, 
or  unusual,  is  come  to  pass,  it  makes  well  for  them, 
that  eye  the  Lord  in  and  through  these  sufferings  : 
there  is  food  in  affliction,  and  though  the  instru- 
ments of  it  cannot  see  it,  all  shall  work  together 
for  good  to  them  that  fear  the  Lord:  keep  your 
ground  in  the  truth,  that  was,  and  is  the  saints'  vic- 
tory. They  that  shrink,  go  out  of  it ;  it  is  a  shield 
to  the  righteous  :  feel  it,  and  see,  I  charge  you  by 
the  presence  of  the  Lord,  that  you  turn  not  aside 
the  Lord's  end  towards  you,  in  this  suffering,  by 
consulting  with  flesh  and  blood,  in  easing  your  ad- 
versaries ;  for  that  will  load  you.  Keep  out  of  base 
bargainings,  or  conniving  at  fleshly  evasions  of  the 
cross.  Our  Captain  would  not  leave  us  such  an  ex- 
ample :  let  them  shrink  that  know  not  why  they 
should  stand;  we  know,  in  whom  we  have  believed  : 
he  is  mightier  in  the  faithful,  to  suffer  and  endure 
to  the  end,  than  the  world,  to  persecute :  call  to 
mind  those  blessed  ancients,  '  That  by  faith  over- 
came of  old,  that  endured  cruel  mockings  and 
scourgings,  yea  moreover,  bonds  and  imprisonments, 
that  accepted  not  deliverance  (to  deny  their  testi- 
mony), that  they  might  obtain  a  better  resurrec- 
tion :' — They  were  stoned  ;  they  were  tempted  ;  they 
vrere  sawn  asunder ;  they  were  slain  With  the  sword  ; 


but  ye  have  not  so  resisted  unto  blood ;  and  it  suffi- 
ceth,  I  hope,  to  you,  that  the  Lord  knoweth  how  to 
deliver  the  godly  out  of  temptation,  and  to  reserve 
the  unjust  unto  the  day  of  judgment,  to  be  punished; 
when  it  may  be  truly  said,  '  It  shall  go  well  with 
the  righteous,  but  very  ill  with  the  wicked.'  The 
Lord  God,  by  his  power,  keep  your  hearts  living 
to  him ;  that  it  may  be  your  delight  to  wait  upon 
him,  and  receive  the  bounty  of  his  love  ;  that,  being 
fed  with  his  daily  bread,  and  drinking  of  his  cup  of 
blessing,  you  may  be  raised  above  the  fear  and  trou- 
ble of  earthly  things  and  grow  strong  in  him,  who 
is  your  crown  of  rejoicing ;  that,  having  answered 
his'  requirings,  and  walked  faithfully  before  'him, 
you  may  receive  in  the  end  of  your  days,  the  wel- 
come sentence  of  gladness.  Eternal  riches  are  be- 
fore you,  an  inheritance  incorruptible :  press  after 
that  glorious  mark :  let  your  minds  be  set  on  things 
that  are  above,  and  when  Christ,  that  is  the  glory 
of  his  poor  people,  shall  appear,  they  shall  appear 
with  him  in  glory ;  when  all  tears  shall  be  wiped 
away,  and  there  shall  be  no  more  sorrow,  or  sigh- 
ing," but  they  that  overcome,  shall  stand  as  Mount 
Sion,  that  cannot  be  removed. 

"  So,  my  dear  friends  and  brethren,  endure,  that 
you  may  be  saved,  and  you  shall  reap,  if  you  faint 
not.  What  should  we  be  troubled  for  ?  our  king- 
dom is  not  of  this  world,  nor  can  be  shaken  by  the 
overturning  here  below.  Let  all  give  glory  to  God 
on  high,  live  peaceably  on  earth,  and  show  good 
will  to  all  men ;  and  our  enemies  will  at  last  see 
they  do  they  know  not  what,  and  repent,  and  glo- 
rify" God  our  heavenly  Father.  O !  great  is  God's 
work  on  earth.  Be  universal  in  your  spirits,  and 
keep  out  all  straightness  and  narrowness  :  look  to 
God's  great  and  glorious  kingdom,  and  its  prospe- 
rity :  our  time  is  not  our  own,  nor  are  we  our  own  : 
God  hath  bought  us  with  a  price,  not  to  serve  our- 
selves, but  to  glorify  him,  both  in  body,  soul  and 
spirit ;  and,  by  bodily  sufferings  for  the  truth,  he 
is  glorified :  look  to  the  accomplishing  of  the  will 
of  God,  in  these  things ;  that  the  measure  of  Christ's 
sufferings  may  be  filled  up  in  us,  who  bear  about 
the  '  dying  of  the  Lord  Jesus ;'  else  our  suffering 
is  in  vain.  Wherefore,  as  the  flock  of  God,  and 
family  and  household  of  faith,  walk  with  your  loins 
girded,being  sober,hoping  to  the  end,  for  the  grace  and 
kindness,  which  shall  be  brought  unto  you,  at  the 
revelation  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  whom  you  and  your's 
are  committed :  his  precious  Spirit  minister  unto 
you,  and  his  own  life  be  shed  abroad  plefcteously 
among  you,  that  you  may  be  kept  blameless  to  the 
end.  I  am  your  friend  and  brother  in  the  fellow- 
ship of  the  suffering  for  truth,  as  it  is  in  Jesus, 

"WILLIAM  PENN. 

"  Worminghurst,  24th  of  the  twelfth  month,  1681." 
Having  thus  far  pursued  his  biography,  and  hav- 
ing already,  in  the  history  of  New  Jersey,  given  an 
account  of  the  share  he  took  in  settling  that  colony, 
we  shall  attend  him  in  the  settlement  and  coloniza- 
tion of  his  province  of  Pennsylvania. 
William   Perm's  tfhief  design  in  the  colonization  of 
Pennsylvania — Cause  and  manner  of  obtaining  the 
grant — King  Charles  H.'s  royal  charter  to  William 
Penn — Boundary  between  Maryland  and  Pennsyl- 
vania, with  the  real  extent  and  content  of  the  latter 
—  The    King's   declaration — Account  of  the    pro- 
vince, terms  of  sale  for  land,  and  conditions  of  settle- 
ment published,  with  advice  to  the   adventurers— 
Free  society  of  traders,  fyc. 

On  the  death  of  Admiral  Penn,  there  was  a  large 

3  Z  2 


788 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


sum  of  money  due  from  the  government  to  him; 
much  of  which  he  himself  had  advanced  for  the 
sea  service;  and  the  rest  was  for  arrears  in  his 
pay.  In  consequence  of  this  debt,  William  Penn, 
in  the  summer  of  the  year  1680,  petitioned  Charles 
II.,  that  letters  patent  might  be  granted  him,  for  a 
tract  of  land  in  America,  lying  north  of  Maryland  ; 
en  the  east,  bounded  by  Delaware  river ;  on  the 
west  limited  as  Maryland;  and  northward  to  extend 
as  far  as  plautable. 

(1681.)  This  was  first  laid  before  the  privy-coun- 
cil, and  afterwards  the  lords  of  the  committee  of 
trade  and  plantations.  After  several  meetings  on 
the  occasion,  in  which  the  objections  from  the  duke 
of  York,  by  his  agent,  Sir  John  Werden,  as  pro- 
prietor of  that  tract  of  land,  since  called  the  coun- 
ties of  New  Castle,  Kent,  arid  Sussex,  on  Delaware; 
and  from  the  Lord  Baltimore,  proprietor  of  Alary- 
land,  were  fully  hoard  and  debated  ;  the  Lord  Chief 
Justice  North,'  and  the  attorney-general,  Sir  Wil- 
liam Jones,  being  consulted  both  respecting  the 
grant  itself,  and  also  the  form,  or  mariner  of  making 
it,  the  affair  was  at  length  decided  in  William 
Penn's  favour;  and  he  was,  by  charter,  dated  at 
Westminster,  the  4th  day  of  March,  1681,  made 
and  constituted  full  and  absolute  proprietor  of  all 
that  tract  of  land  and  province,  now  called  Penn- 
sylvania, and  invested  with  the  powers  of  govern- 
ment of  the  same. 

This  charter  is  as  follows  : — 
"  The  charter  of  Charles  II.,  of  England,  Scotland, 
France,  and  Ireland,  king,  defender  of  the  faith, 
&c.  unto  William  Penn,  proprietary  and  gover- 
nor of  the  province  of  Pennsylvania, 
"  Charles,  by  the  grace  of  God,  king  of  England, 
Scotland,    France,    and    Ireland,    defender   of  thr 
faith,  &c.  to  all,  to  whom  these  presents  shall  come 
greeting : 

"  Whereas  our  trusty  and  well-beloved  subject 
William  Penn,  Esq.,  son  and  heir  of  Sir  William 
Penn,  deceased  (out  of  a  commendable  desire  t( 
enlarge  our  British  empire,  and  promote  such  usefu 
commodities  as  may  be  of  benefit  to  us  and  our  do 
minions,  as  also  to  reduce  the  savage  natives,  by 
just  and  gentle  manners,  to  the  love  of  civil  society 
and  Christian  religion),  hath  humbly  besought  leav< 
of  us,  to  transport  an  ample  colony  unto  a  certain 
country,  hereinafter  described,  in  the  parts  of  Ame 
rica  not  yet  cultivated  and  planted  ;  and  hath  like 
wise  so  humbly  besought  our  royal  majesty  to  give 
grant,  *and  confirm  all  the  said  country,  with  cer 
tain  privileges  and  jurisdictions,  requisite  for  the 
good  goTernment  and  safety  of  the  said  country  an 
colony,  to  him,  and  his  heirs  for  ever. 

"  I*.  Know  ye,  therefore,  that  we  (favouring  the 
petition  and  good  purpose  of  the  said  William  Penn 
and  having  regard  to  the  memory  and  merits  of  hi 
late  father,  in  divers  services,  and  particularly  t 
his  conduct,  courage,  and  discretion,  under  ou 
dearest  brother,  James,  duke  of  York,  in  that  signa 
battle  and  victory,  fought  and  obtained  against  th 
Dutch  fleet,  commanded  by  the  Heer  Van  Opdam,  in 
the  year  16o5  :  in  consideration  thereof,  of  our  spe 
cial  grace;  certain  knowledge,  and  mere  motion 
have  given  and  granted,  and,  by  this  our  presen 
charter,  for  us.  our  heirs  and  successors,  do  give  an 
grant  unto  the  said  William  Penn,  his  heirs  an 
assigns,  all  that  tract,  or  part  of  laud  in  America 
with  the  islands  therein  contained,  as  the  same  f 
bounded,  on  the  east  by  Delaware  river,  from  twelv 
miles  distance  northwards  of  New  Castle  town 
unto  the  43d  degree  of  northern  latitude,  if  the  sai 


ver  doth  extend  so  far  northward,  but  if  the  said 
ver  shall  not  extend  so  far  northward,  then,  by  itia 
aid  river,  so  far  as  it  doth  extend;  and  from  the 
ead  of  the  said  river,  the  eastern  bounds  are  to  be- 
et ermined  by  a  meridian  line,  to  be  drawn  from 
he  head  of  the  said  river,  unto  the  said  43d  degree. 
"he  said  land  to  extend  westward  five  degrees  in 
ongitude,  to  be  computed  from  the  said  eastern 
ouiuls;  and  the  said  lands  to  be  bounded  on  thtr 
orth  by  the  beginning  of  the  43d  degree  of  nor- 
tiern  latitude,  and  on  the  south  by  a  circle,  drawn 
t  twelve  miles  distance  from  New  Castle,  north- 
ward and  westward,  unto  the  beginning  of  the1 
Oth  degree  of  northern  latitude ;  and  then  by  a 
traight  line  westward  to  the  limits  of  longitude 
bove  mentioned. 

•'  II.  We  do  also  give  and   grant  unto  the  said 

William  Penn,  his  heirs  and  assigns,  the  free,  and 

ndisturbed  use,  and  continuance  in,  and  passage 

nto,  and  out  of  all  and  singular  ports,  harbours, 

ays,  waters,  rivers,  isles,  and  inlets,  belonging  unto, 

r  leading  to,   and  from,   the  country,   or  islands 

aforesaid,  and  all  the  soils,  lands,  fields,  woods,  un- 

lerwoods,  mountains,  hills,  fenns,  isles,  lakes,  rivers, 

aters,  rivulets,  bays,  and  inlets,  situated,  or  being 
vithin,  or  belonging  to,  the  limits,  or  bounds,  afore- 
aid,  together  with  the  fishing  of  all  sorts  offish, 
whales,  sturgeon,  and  all  royal,  and  other  fishes,  iit 
he  seas,  bays,  inlets,  waters,  or  livers,  within  the 
^remises,  and  all  the  fish  taken  therein  ;  and  also  all 
veins,  mines,  minerals  and  quarries,  as  well  dis- 
covered as  not  discovered,  of  gold,  silver,  gemms, 
and  precious  stones,  and  all  other  whatsoever,  be  it 
stones,  metals,  or  of  any  other  thing  or  matter 
whatsoever,  found,  or  to  be  found,  within  the  coun- 
try, isles,  or  limits  aforesaid. 

"  III.  And  him,  the  said  William  Penn,  his 
icirs  and  assigns,  we  do  by  this  our  royal  charter, 
for  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  make,  create,  and 
constitute  the  true  and  absolute  proprietary  of  the 
country  aforesaid,  and  of  all  other  the  premises; 
saving  always  to  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  the 
faith  and  allegiance  of  the  said  William  Penn,  his 
heirs  and  assigns,  and  of  all  other  proprietaries, 
tenants  and  inhabitants,  that  are,  or  shall  be,  within 
the  territories  and  precincts  aforesaid ;  and  saving 
also  unto  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  the  sove- 
reignty of  the  aforesaid  country;  to  have,  hold, 
possess,  and  enjoy  the  said  tract  of  land,  country, 
isles,  inlets,  and  other  the  premises,  unto  the  said 
William  Penn,  his  heirs  and  assigns  for  ever,  to  be 
holden  of  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  kings  of 
England,  as  of  our  castle  of  Windsor,  in  the  county 
of  Berks,  in  free  and  common  soccage,  by  fealty 
only,  for  all  services  and  not  in  capite,  or  by  knight 
service:  yielding  and  paying  therefore  to  us,  our 
heirs  and  successors,  two  beaver  skins,  to  be  deli- 
vered at  our  castle  of  Windsor,  on  the  1st  day  of 
January  in  every  year ;  and  also  the  fifth  part  of 
all  gold  and  silver  oar,  which  shall,  from  time  to 
time,  happen  to  be  found  within  the  limits  aforesaid, 
clear  of  all  charges.  And  of  our  further  grace-, 
certain  knowledge,  mere  motion,  We  have  thought 
fit  to  erect,  and  we  do  hereby  erect,  the  aforesaid 
country  and  islands  into  a  province  and  seigniory, 
and  do' call  it  Pensilvania,  and  so  from  henceforth 
will  have  it  called. 

"  IV.  And,  for  as  much  as,  we  have  hereby  made 
and  ordained  the  aforesaid  William  Penn,  his  heirs 
and  assigns,  the  true  and  absolute  proprietaries  of 
all  the  lands  and  dominions  aforesaid,  Know  ye, 
therefore,  that  we  (reposing  special  trust  and  con- 


UNITED  STATES. 


789 


fidence  in  the  fidelity,  wisdom,  justice,  and  provi 
dent  circumspection  of  the  said  William  Penn)  fo; 
us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  do  grant  free,  full,  ant 
absolute  power,  by  virtue  of  these  presents,  to  him 
and  his  heirs,  to  his,  and  their  deputies  and  lieute- 
nants, for  the  good  and  happy  government  of  the 
said  country,  to  ordain,  make,  and  enact,  and, 
under  his  and  their  seals,  to  publish  any  laws  what- 
soever, for  the  raising  of  money  for  public  uses  o 
the  said  province,  or  tor  any  other  end,  appertain 
ing  either  unto  the  public  state,  peace,  or  safety  o 
the  said  country,  or  unto  the  private  utility  of  par- 
ticular persons,  according  unto  their  best  discretion, 
and  with  the  advice,  assent,  and  approbation  of  the 
freemen  of  the  said  country,  or  the  greater  part  of 
them,  or  of  their  delegates,  or  deputies,  whom,  for 
the  enacting  of  the  said  laws,  when,  and  as  often  a? 
need  shall  require,  we  will  that  the  said  William 
Penn,  and  his  heirs,  shall  assemble,  in  such  sort 
and  form,  as  to  him  and  them  shall  seem  best,  and 
the  same  laws  duly  to  execute,  unto  and  upon  all 
people,  within  the  said  country  and  limits  thereof. 

"  V.  And  we  do  likewise  give  and  grant  unto  the 
said  William  Penn,  and  to  his  heirs,  and  their  de- 
puties and  lieutenants,  full  power  and  authority  to 
appoint  and  establish  any  judges  and  justices,  ma- 
gistrates, and  other  officers  whatsoever,  (for  the 
probates  of  wills,  and  for  the  granting  of  adminis- 
tration within  the  precincts  aforesaid,  and  with  what 
power  soever,  and  in  such  form,  as  to  the  said  Wil- 
liam Penn,  or  his  heirs  shall  seem  most  convenient:) 
also  to  remit,  release,  pardon,  and  abolish  (whether 
before  judgment  or  after)  all  crimes  and  offences 
whatsoever,  committed  within  the  said  country, 
against  the  laws  (treason  and  wilful  and  mali- 
cious murder  only  excepted,  and,  in  those  cases,  to 
grant  reprieves,  until  our  pleasure  may  be  known 
therein),  and  to  do  all  and  every  other  thing  and 
things,  which  unto  the  complete  establishment  of 
justice,  unto  courts  and  tribunals,  forms  of  judica- 
ture, and  manner  of  proceedings  do  belong,  al- 
though, in  these  presents,  express  mention  be  not 
made  thereof;  and  by  jiulges,  by  them  delegated,  to 
award  process,  hold  pleas,  and  determine,  in  all 
the  said  courts  and  tribunals,  all  actions,  suits,  and 
causes  whatsoever,  as  well  criminal  as  civil,  personal, 
real,  and  mixt ;  which  laws,  so  as  aforesaid,  to  be 
published,  our  pleasure  is,  and  so  we  enjoin,  re- 
quire, and  command,  shall  be  most  absolute  and 
available  in  law ;  and  that  all  the  liege  people  and 
subjects  of  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  do  observe 
and  keep  the  same  inviolably  in  those  parts,  so  far 
as  they  concern  them,  unde'r  the  pain  therein  ex- 
pressed, or  to  be  expressed.  Provided,  nevertheless, 
That  the  same  laws  be  consonant  to  reason,  and 
not  repugnant  or  contrary,  but  (as  near  as  conve- 
niently may  be)  agreeable  to  the  laws  and  statutes, 
and  rights  of  this  our  kingdom  of  England ;  and 
saving  and  reserving  to  us,  our  heirs  and  successors, 
the  receiving,  hearing,  and  determining  of  the  ap- 
peal and  appeals  of  all,  or  any  person,  or  persons, 
of,  in,  or  belonging  to  the  territories  aforesaid,  or 
touching  any  judgment  to  be  there  made,  or  given. 
"  VI.  And,  for  as  much  as,  in  the  government 
of  so  great  a  country,  sudden  accidents  do  often 
happen,  whereunto  it  will  be  necessary  to  apply 
remedy,  before  the  freeholders  of  the  said  province, 
or  their  delegates,  or  deputies,  can  be  assembled,  to 
the  making  of  laws ;  neither  will  it  be  convenient, 
that  instantly  upon  every  such  occasion,  so  great  a 
multitude  should  be  called  together  :  therefore  (for 
the  better  government  of  the  baid  country)  we  will 


and  ordain,  and  by  these  presents,  for  us,  our  heirt 
and  successors,  do  grant  unto  the  said  William 
Penn  and  his  heirs,  by  themselves,  or  by  their  ma- 
gistrates and  officers,  in  that  behalf,  duly  to  be  or- 
dained,  as  aforesaid,  to  make  and  constitute  tit  and 
wholesome  ordinances,  from  time  to  time,  within  the 
said  country  to  be  kept  and  observed,  as  well  for 
the  preservation  of  the  peace,  as  for  ttie  better  go- 
vernment of  the  people  there  inhabiting  ;  and  pub- 
licly to  notify  the  same  to  all  persons  whom  the 
same  doth,  or  may  any  ways  concern.  Whirh  ordi- 
nances our  will  and  pleasure  is  shall  be  observed 
inviolably  within  the  said  province,  under  the  pains 
therein  to  be  expressed,  so  as  the  said  ordinances 
be  consonant  to  reason,  and  be  not  repugnant  nor 
contrary,  but  (so  far  as  conveniently  may  be)  agree- 
able with  the  laws  of  our  kingdom  of  England,  and 
so  as  the  said  ordinances  be  not  extended,  in  any 
sort,  to  bind,  change,  or  take  away  the  right,  or  in- 
terest of  any  person,  or  persons,  for,  or  in,  their 
life,  members,  freehold,  goods,  or  chattels.  And  our 
farther  will  and  pleasure  is,  Tiiat  the  laws  for  re- 
gulating and  governing  of  property  within  the  said 
province,  as  well  as  for  tiie  descent  and  enjoyment 
of  lands,  as  like-wise  fur  the  enjoyment  and  succes- 
sion of  goods  and  chattels,  and  likewise  as  to  felo- 
nies, shall  be,  and  continue  the  same,  as  they  shall 
be  for  the  time  being  by  the  general  course  of  the 
law  in  our  kingdom  of  England,  until  the  said  laws- 
shall  be  altered  by  the  said  William  Penn,  his  heirs, 
or  assigns,  and  by  the  freemen  of  the  said  province,, 
their  delegates,  or  deputies,  or  the  greater  part  of 
them. 

"  VII.  Affd  to  the  end  that  the  said  William 
Penn,  or  his  heirs,  or  other  the  planters,  owners,  or 
inhabitants  of  the  said  province  may  not,  at  any 
time  hereafter  (by  misconstruction  'of  the  power 
aforesaid)  through  inadvertency,  or  design,  depart 
from  that  faith  and  due  allegiance,  which  by  the 
laws  of  this  our  realm  of  England,  they  and  all  our 
subjects,  in  our  dominions  and  territories,  always 
owe  to  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  by  colour  of  any 
extent,  or  largeness  of  powers  hereby  given,  or  pre- 
tended to  be  given,  or  by  force  or  colour  of  any 
laws  hereafter  to  be  made,  in  the  said  province,  by 
virtue  of  any  such  powers;  our  further  will  and 
pleasure  is,  that  a  transcript  or  duplicate  of  all  laws 
which  shall  be  so,  as  aforesaid,  made  and  published 
within  the  said  province,  shall,  within  five  years 
after  the  making  thereof,  be  transmitted  and  deli- 
vered to  the  privy-council,  for  the  time  being,  of  us, 
our  heirs  and  successors:  and  if  any  of  the  said 
laws,  within  the  space  of  six  months  after  that 
they  shall  be  so  transmitted  and  delivered,  be  de- 
clared by  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  in  our,  or 
their  privy -council,  inconsistent  wiih  the  sove- 
reignty, or  lawful  prerogative  of  us,  our  heirs  and 
successors,  or  contrary  to  the  faith  and  allegiance 
due  to  the  legal  government  of  this  realm,  from  the 
said  William  Penn,  or  his  heirs,  or  of  the  planters 
and  inhabitants  of  the  said  province,  and  that  there, 
upon  any  of  the  said  laws  shall  be  adjudged  and 
declared  to  be  void  by  us,  our  heirs  and  successors, 
under  our  or  their  privy  seal,  that  then,  and  from 
thenceforth  such  laws,  concerning  which  such  judg- 
ment and  declaration  shall  be  made,  shall  become 
void :  otherwise  the  said  laws,  so  transmitted,  shall 
remain  and  stand  in  full  force,  according  to  the  true 
ntent  and  meaning  thereof. 

"  VIII.  Furthermore,  that  this  new  colony  may 
he  more  happily  increase  by  the  multitude  of  people 
esorting  thither;  therefore  we,  for  us,  our  heirs 


790 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


and  successors,  do  give  and  grant  by  these  presents, 
power,  licence,  and  liberty  unto  all  the  liege  people 
and  subjects,  both  present  and  future,  of  us,  our 
heirs  and  successors  (excepting  those,  who  shall 
be  especially  forbidden),  to  transport  themselves  and 
families  unto  the  said  country,  with  such  conveni- 
ent shipping,  as,  by  the  laws  of  this  our  kingdom  of 
England,  they  ought  to  use,  and  with  fitting  provi- 
sion ;  paying  only  the  customs  therefore  due,  and 
there  to  settle  themselves,  dwell  and  inhabit  and 
plant,  for  the  public,  and  their  own  private  ad- 
vantage. 

"  IX.  And  furthermore,  that  our  subjects  may  be 
the  rather  encouraged  to  undertake  this  expedition, 
with  ready  and  cheerful  minds,  know  ye,  That  we, 
of  our  special  grace,  certain  knowledge,  and  mere 
motion,  do  give  and  grant,  by  virtue  of  these  pre- 
sents, as  well  unto  the  said  William  Penn,  and  his 
heirs,  as  to  all  others,  who  shall,  from  time  to  time, 
repair  unto  the  said  country,  full  licence  to  lade 
and  freight  in  any  ports  whatsoever  of  us,  our  .heirs 
and  successors,  according  to  the  laws  made,  or  to 
be  made,  within  our  kingdom  of  England,  and  unto 
the  said  country,  by  them,  their  servants  or  assigns, 
to  transport  all  and  singular  their  goods,  wares  and 
merchandizes,  as  likewise  all  sorts  of  grain  whatso- 
ever, and  all  other  things  whatsoever,  necessary  for 
food  or  clothing  not  prohibited  by  the  laws  and 
statutes  of  our  kingdom  and  dominions,  to  be  carried 
out  of  the  said  kingdom,  without  any  let,  or  moles- 
tation of  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  or  of  any  of  the 
officers  of  us,  our  heirs  or  successors  ;  saving  always 
to  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  the  legal  imposi- 
tions, customs,  or  other  duties  and  payments  for  the 
said  wares  and  merchandizes,  by  any  law  or  statute, 
due,  or  to  be  due  to  us,  our  heirs  and  successors. 

"  X.  And  we  do  further,  for  us,  our  heirs  and 
successors,  give  and  grant  unto  the  said  William 
Penn,  his  heirs  and  assigns,  free  and  absolute  power, 
to  divide  the  said  country  and  islands  into  towns, 
hundreds  and  counties,  and  to  erect  and  incorporate 
towns  into  burroughs,  and  burroughs  into  cities,  and 
to  make  and  constitute  fairs  and  markets  therein, 
with  all  other  convenient  privileges  and  immunities, 
according  to  the  merits  of  the  inhabitants,  and  the 
fitness  of  the  places,  and  to  do  all,  and  every  other 
thing  and  things,  touching  the  premises,  which  to 
him,  or  them,  shall  seem  meet  aud  requisite ;  albeit 
they  be  such,  as  of  their  own  nature  might  other- 
wise require  a  more  special  commandment  and  war- 
rant, than,  in  these  presents,  is  expressed. 

"  XL  We  will  also,  and,  by  these  presents,  for 
us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  we  do  give  and  grant 
licence,  by  this  our  charter,  unto  the  said  William 
Penn,  his  heirs  and  assigns,  and  to  all  the  inhabi- 
tants and  dwellers  in  the  province  aforesaid,  both 
present  and  to  come,  to  import  or  unlade,  by  them- 
selves or  their  servants,  factors,  or  assigns,  all  mer- 
chandizes and  goods  whatsoever,  that  shall  arise  oi 
the  fruits  and  commodities  of  the  said  province, 
either  by  land  or  sea,  into  any  of  the  ports  of  us, 
our  heirs  or  successors,  in  our  kingdom  of  England, 
and  not  into  any  other  country  whatsoever  :  and  we 
give  him  full  power  to  dispose  of  the  said  goods,  in 
the  said  ports ;  and,  if  need  be,  within  one  year 
after  the  unlading  of  the  same,  to  lade  the  said 
merchandize  and  goods  again,  into  the  same  or  other 
ships,  and  to  transport  the  same  into  any  other 
countries,  either  of  our  dominions,  or  foreign,  ac- 
cording to  law;  provided  always,  that  they  pay 
such  customs  and  impositions,  subsidies  and  duties 
for  the  same,  to  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  as  the 


rest  of  our  subjects  of  our  kingdom  of  England,  for 
the  time  being,  shall  be  bound  to  pay,  and  do  ob- 
serve the  acts  of  navigation  and  other  laws,  in  that 
behalf  made. 

"  XII.  And  further  more,  of  our  ample  and  special 
grace,  certain  knowledge  and  mere  motion,  we  do, 
tor  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  grant  unto  the 
said  William  Penn,  his  heirs  and  assigns,  full  and 
absolute  power  and  authority,  to  make,  erect  and 
constitute  within  the  said  province,  and  the  isles  and 
nlets  aforesaid,  such  and  so  many  sea-ports,  har- 
bours, creeks,  havens,  keys,  and  other  places,  for 
discharging  and  unlading  of  goods  and  merchan- 
dize, out  of  the  ships,  boats,  and  other  vessels,  and 
landing  them  unto  such,  and  so  many  places,  and 
with  such  rights,  jurisdictions,  liberties  and  privi- 
leges, unto  the  said  ports  belonging,  as  to  him  and 
them  shall  seem  most  expedient;  and  that  all,  and 
singular  the  ships,  boats,  and  other  vessels  which 
shall  come  for  merchandize  and  trade  into  the  said 
province,  or  out  of  the  same,  shall  be  laden,  or  un- 
laden, only  at  such  ports  as  shall  be  created  and 
constituted  by  the  said  William  Penn,  his  heirs  or 
assigns  (any  use  custom  or  thing  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding).  Provided  that  the  said  William 
Penn  and  his  heirs,  and  the  lieutenants  and  gover- 
nors, for  the  time  being,  shall  admit  and  receive  in 
and  about  all  such  havens,  ports,  creeks  and  keys, 
all  officers  and  their  deputies  who  shall,  from  time 
to  time,  be  appointed  for  that  purpose  by  the  far- 
mers, or  commissioners  of  our  customs  for  the  time 
being. 

"  XIII.  And  we  do  further  appoint  and  ordain, 
and  by  these  presents  for  us,  our  heirs  and  succes- 
sors, we  do  grant  unto  the  said  William  Penn,  his 
heirs  and  assigns,  that  he  the  said  William  Penn, 
his  heirs  and  assigns,  may,  from  time  to  time,  for 
ever,  have  and  enjoy  the  customs  and  subsidies  in  the 
ports,  harbours  and  other  creeks,  and  places  afore- 
said, within  the  province  aforesaid,  payable,  or  due 
for  merchandize  and  wares  there  to  be  laded  and 
unladed,  the  said  customs  and  subsidies  to  be  rea- 
sonably assessed,  upon  any  occasion  by  themselves 
and  the  people  there,  as  aforesaid  to  be  assembled, 
to  whom  we  give  power  by  these  presents,  for  us, 
our  heirs  and  successors,  upon  just  cause,  and  due 
proportion  to  assess  and  impose  the  same  ;  saving 
unto  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  such  impositions 
and  customs,  as  by  act  of  parliament,  are,  and  shall 
be  appointed. 

"  XIV.  And  it  is  our  further  will  and  pleasure, 
that  the  said  William  Penn,  his  heirs  and  assigns, 
shall,  from  time  to  time,  constitute  and  appoint  an 
attorney,  or  agent,  to  reside  in,  or  near  our  city  of 
London  ;  who  shall  make  known  the  place  where  he 
shall  dwell,  or  may  be  found,  unto  the  clerks  of 
our  privy-council  for  the  time  being,  or  one  of  thorn, 
and  shall  be  ready  to  appear  in  any  of  our  courts  at 
Westminster,  to  answer  for  any  misdemeanor,  that 
shall  be  committed,  or  by  any  wilful  default,  or  neg- 
lect, permitted  by  the  said  William  Penn,  his  heirs 
or  assigns,  against  the  laws  of  trade  and  navigation ; 
and  after  it  shall  be  ascertained,  in  any  of  our 
courts,  what  damages  we,  or  our  heirs,  or  succes- 
sors, shall  have  sustained  by  such  default  or  neglect 
the  said  William  Penn,  his  heirs  or  assigns,  shall 
pay  the  same  within  one  year  after  such  taxation, 
and  demand  thereof  from  such  attorney ;  or  in  case 
there  shall  be  no  such  attorney  by  the  space  of  one 
year,  or  such  attorney  shall  not  make  payment  of 
such  damages,  within  the  space  of  a  year,  and  answer 
such  other  forfeitures  aud  penalties,  within  the  said 


UNITED  STATES. 


791 


time,  as  by  acts  of  parliament,  in  England,  arc  ai 
shall  be  provided  according  to  the  true  intent  an 
meaning  of  these  presents;  then  it  shall  be  lawfi 
for  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  to  seize  and  r 
sume  the  government  of  the  said  province  or  countr 
and  the  same  to  retain,  until  payment  shall  be  mac 
thereof:  but  notwithstanding  any  such  seizure,  i 
resumption  of  the  government,  nothing  concernu 
the  propriety  or  ownership  of  any  lands,  tenement 
or  other  hereditaments,  goods  or  chatties  of  any 
the  adventurers,  planters  or  owners,  other  than  th 
respective  offenders  there,  shall  any  ways  be  affecte 
or  molested  thereby. 

"  XV.  Provided  always,  and  our  will  and  plea 
sure  is,  that  neither  the  said  William  Penn,  no 
his  heirs,  nor  any  other,  the  inhabitants  of  the  sai 
province,  shall,  at  any  time  hereafter,  have  or  main 
tain  any  correspondence  with  any  other  king,  princ 
or  state,  or  with  any  of  their  subjects,  who  shal 
then  be  in  war  against  us,  our  heirs  and  successors 
nor  shall  the  said  William  Penn,  or  his  heirs  o 
any  other  inhabitants  of  the  said  province,  mak< 
war,  or  do  any  act  of  hostility  against  any  othe 
king,  prince  or  state,  or  any  of  their  subjects,  wh< 
snail  then  be  in  league  or  amity  with  us,  our  heir 
and  successors. 

"  XVI.  And  because,  in  so  remote  a  country,  an 
situate  near  many  barbarous  nations,  the  incursions 
as  well  of  the  savages  themselves,  as  of  other  ene 
mies,  pirates  and  robbers,  may  probably  be  feared; 
therefore  we  have  given,  and  for  us,  our  heirs  ane 
successors,  do  give  power  by  these  presents,  to  the 
said  William  Penn,  his  heirs  and  assigns,  by  them- 
selves, or  their  captains,  or  other  their  officers,  to  levy 
muster  and  train  all  sorts  of  men,  of  what  condi- 
tion soever,  or  wheresoever  born,  in  the  said  pro- 
vince of  Pennsylvania  for  the  time  being,  and  to 
make  war, and  to  pursue  the  enemies  and  robbers  afore- 
said, as  well  by  sea  as  by  land,  even  without  the 
limits  of  the  said  province,  and,  by  God's  assistance, 
to  vanquish  and  take  them  ;  and  being  taken,  to  put 
them  to  death  by  the  law  of  war,  or  to  save  them,  at 
their  pleasure,  and  to  do  all  and  every  other  thing, 
which  unto  the  charge  and  office  of  a  captain-gene- 
ral of  an  army  belongeth,  or  hath  accustomed  to 
belong,  as  fully  and  freely  as  any  captain-general 
of  an  army  hath  ever  had  the  same. 

"  XVII.  And  furthermore,  of  our  special  grace, 
and  of  our  certain  knowledge  and  mere  motion,  we 
have  given  and  granted,  and,  by  these  presents, 
for  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  do  give  and  grant 
unto  the  said  William  Penn,  hi*  heirs  and  assigns, 
full  and  absolute  power,  licence  and  authority,  that 
he,  the  said  William  Peun,  his  heirs  and  assigns, 
from  time  to  time  hereafter  for  ever,  at  his  or  their 
own  will  and  pleasure,  may  assign,  alien,  grant,  de- 
mise, or  enfeoff  of  the  premises  so  many,  and  such 
parts  and  parcels  to  him,  or  them,  that  shall  be 
willing  to  purchase  the  same,  as  they  shall  think 
fit ;  to  have  and  to  hold  to  them,  the  said  person  or 
persons  willing  to  take  and  purchase,  their  heirs 
and  assigns,  in  fee  simple,  or  fee  tail,  or  for  the  term 
of  life,  lives,  or  years,  to  be  held  of  the  said  William 
Penn,  his  heirs  or  assigns,  as  of  the  said  seigniory 
of  Windsor,  by  such  services,  customs,  or  rents,  as 
shall  seem  meet  to  the  said  William  Penn,  his  heirs 
or  assigns,  and  not  immediately  of  us,  our  heirs  or 
successors. 

"  XVIII.  And  to  the  same  person  or  persons,  and 
to  all  and  every  of  them,  we  do  give  and  grant,  by 
these  presents,  for  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  li- 
cence, authority  and  power,  that  such  person  or 


persons,  may  take  the  premises,  or  any  parcel 
thereof,  of  the  aforesaid  William  Penn,  his  heirs  or 
assigns,  and  the  same  to  hold  to  themselves,  their 
heirs  and  assigns,  in  what  estate  of  inheritance  so- 
ever, in  fee  simple,  or  in  fee  tail,  or  otherwise,  as  to 
him  the  said  William  Peun,  his  heirs  or  assigns, 
shall  seem  expedient :  the  statute  made  in  the 
parliament  of  Edward,  the  son  of  King  Henry, 
late  King  of  England,  our  predecessor  (commonly 
called  the  statute,  '  Quia  Emptores  Ten-arum',' 
lately  published  in  our  kingdom  of  England),  in  any 
wise  notwithstanding. 

"  XIX.  And  by  these  presents,  we  give  and  grant 
licence  unto  the  said  William  Penn  and  his  heirs, 
and  likewise  to  all,  and  every  such  person  or  per- 
sons, to  whom  the  said  William  Penn,  or  his  heirs, 
shall,  at  any  time  hereafter,  grant  any  estate,  or  in- 
heritance, as  aforesaid,  to  erect  any  parcels  of  land, 
within  the  province  aforesaid,  into  manors,  by  and 
with  the  licence,  to  be  first  had  and  obtained  for 
that  purpose,  under  the  hand  and  seal  of  the  said 
William  Penn,  or  his  heirs;  and,  in  every  of  the 
said  manors,  to  have  and  hold  a  court-baron,  with 
all  things  whatsoever,  which  to  a  court-baron  do  be- 
ong,  and  to  have  and  to  hold  view  of  frank  pledge, 
cor  the  conservation  of  the  peace,  and  the  better  go- 
vernment of  those  parts,  by  themselves,  or  their 
stewards,  or  by  the  lords  for  the  time  being,  of  the 
manors  to  be  deputed,  when  they  shall  be  erected, 
and*  in  the  same,  to  use  all  things  belonging  to  the 
fievr  of  frank  pledge.  And  we  do  further  grant 
iccnce  and  authority,  that  every  such  person  or 
)ersons,  who  shall  erect  any  such  manor  or  manors, 
.s  aforesaid,  shall,  or  may,  grant  all,  or  any  part 
f  his  said  land  to  any  person  or  persons,  m  fee 
imple,  or  any  other  estate  of  inheritance  to  be  held 
f  the  said  manors  respectively,  so  as  no  further 
enure  shall  be  created,  but  that  upon  all  further,  or 
ther  alienations  thereafter  to  be  made,  the  said 
ands  so  aliened  shall  be  held  of  the  same  lord  and 
is  heirs,  of  whom  the  aliener  did  then  before  hold, 
nd  by  the  like  rents  and  services,  which  were  be- 
ore  due  and  accustomed. 

"  XX.  And  furthermore,  our  pleasure  is,  and  by 

icse   presents,  for   us,  otir   heirs   and  successors, 

e  do   covenant  and  grant   to  and  with  the  said 

William  Penn,  his  heirs  and  assigns,  that  we,  our 

eirs    and   successors,  shall,  at  no   time  hereafter 

et  or  make,  or  cause  to  be  set  or  made,  any  inipo- 

tion,  custom,  or  other  taxation,  rate,  or  contri- 

ution  whatsoever,  in  and  upon  the  dwellers   and 

nhabitants  of  the  aforesaid  province,  for  their  lands, 

inements,  goods,  or  chattels,  within  the  said  pro- 

ince,  or  in  and  upon  any  goods  and  merchandises 

ithin    the    province,  or  to   be  laden,  or  unladen 

ithin  the  ports,  or  harbours  of  the   said  province, 

nless  the  same  be 'with  the  consent  of  the  proprie- 

ary,  or  chief  governor,  or  assembly,  or  by  act  of 

>arliament  in  England. 

"  XXI.  And  our  pleasure  is,  and  for  us,  our 
;irs  and  successors,  we  charge  and  command,  that 
is  our  declaration  shall  be  from  henceforth,  from 
me  to  time,  be  received  and  allowed,  in  all  our 
mrts,  and  before  all  the  judges  of  us,  our  heirs, 
nd  successors,  for  a  s-ufficient  lawful  discharge,  pay- 
ent  and  acquittance  ;  commanding  all  the  officers 
nd  ministers  of  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  and 
ijoining  them  upon  pain  of  our  highest  displeasure, 
at  they  do  not  presume,  at  any  time,  to  attempt 
iy  thing  to  the  contrary  of  the  premises.or  that  they 
i,  in  any  sort,  withstand  the  same ;  but,  that  they  be", 

all  times,  aiding  and   assisting,  as  is  fitting,  to 


792 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  said  William  Penn,  and  his  heirs,  and  unto  the 
inhabitants  and  merchants  of  the  province  aforesaid, 
their  servants,  ministers,  factors,  and  assigns,  in  the 
full  use  and  fruition  of  the  benefit  of  this  our  charter. 

"  XXII.  And  our  farther  pleasure  is,  and  we  do 
hereby,  for  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  charge  and 
require,  That,  if  any  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  said 
province,  to  the  number  of  twenty,  shall,  at  any  time 
hereafter,  be  desirous,  and  shall,  by  any  writing,  or 
by  any  person  deputed  by  them,  signify  such  their 
desire  to  the  bishop  of  London,  for  the  time  being, 
that  any  preacher,  or  preachers,  to  be  approved  of 
by  the  said  bishop,  may  be  sent  unto  them,  for  their 
instruction;  that  then  such  preacher,  or  preachers, 
shall  and  may  reside  within  the  said  province,  with- 
out any  denial,  or  molestation  whatsoever. 

"  XXIII.  And,  if  perchance  hereafter  any  doubt 
or  question  should  arise  concerning  the  true  sense 
and  meaning  of  any  word,  clause,  or  sentence,  con- 
tained in  this  our  present  charter,  we  will,  ordain, 
and  command,  that,  at.  all  times,  and  in  all  things, 
such  interpretation  be  made  thereof,  and  allowed,  in 
any  of  our  courts  whatsoever,  as  shall  be  adjudged 
most  advantageous  and  favourable  unto  the  said 
William  Penn,  his  heirs  and  assigns :  provided  al- 
ways no  interpretation  be  admitted  thereof,  by  which 
the  allegiance  due  unto  us,  our  heirs  and  successors, 
may  suffer  any  prejudice  or  diminution;  although 
express  mention  be  not  made  in  these  presents  of 
the  true  yearly  value,  or  certainty  of  the  premises, 
or  any  part  thereof,  or  of  other  gifts  and  grants, 
made  by  us,  and  our  progenitors,  or  predecessors, 
unto  the  said  William  Penn  :  any  statute,  act,  ordi- 
nance, provision,  proclamation,  or  restraint,  hereto- 
fore had,  made,  published,  ordained,  or  provided,  or 
any  other  thing,  cause,  or  matter  whatsoever,  to  the 
contrary  thereof  in  any  wise  notwithstanding.  In 
witness  whereof  we  have  caused  these  our  letters  to 
be  made  patent:  witness  ourself,  at  Westminster, 
the  4th  day  of  March,  in  the  33d  year  of  our  reign, 
annoque  Domini,  1681.  "  By  writ  of  privy  seal, 

"  PIGOTT." 

By  the  first  section  of  this  charter  the  extent  and 
boundary  of  the  province  are  expressed  in  such  plain 
terms,  that  it  might  reasonably  be  supposed  they 
could  not  easily  be  misunderstood:  three  degrees  of 
latitude,  included  and  bounded,  between  the  begin- 
ning of  the  40th.  and  the  beginning  of  the  43d  de- 
gree of  north  latitude,  equal  to  about  208  English 
statute  miles,  north  and  south,  with  five  degrees  of 
longitude,  westward  from  Delaware  river,  which,  in 
the  parallel  of  41  degrees,  are  equal  to  nearly  265 
miles,  east  and  west,  are  as  clearly  and  manifestly 
expressed  to  be  granted  to  the  proprietary  of  Penn- 
sylvania, as  words  can  do  it;  and  we  are  otherwise 
sufficiently  certified  that  the  same  space,  or  quantity 
of  land,  was  intended  by  the  king  to  be  included  in 
the  said  grant;  yet  the  dispute  between  the  proprie- 
taries of  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania,  on  this  point, 
was  afterwards  remarkable,  and  of  many  years  con- 
tinuance ;  occasioned  by  each  of  the  respective  pro- 
prietaries claiming  to  himself  the  whole  space,  or 
extent  of  the  land,  contained  in  the  40th  degree 
of  latitude;  which  was  the  north  boundary  o£ 
Maryland,  by  patent  of  that  province ;  and  which, 
though  prior  to  that  of  Pennsylvania,  specifies,  or 
assigns,  no  particular  part  of  the  said  degree,  for 
the  boundary,  as  the  Pennsylvania  grant  doth : 
which  space,  or  degree,  containing  near  70  Englis-h 
miles  in  breadth,  north  and  south,  and  in  length 
westward,  so  far  as  Maryland  extends,  was  no  small 
matter  to  occasion  a  dispute. 


But  notwithstanding  the  clearness  of  the  terms, 
by  which  the  boundary  between  the  said  provinces 
is  expressed  in  their  respective  charters,  as  above 
mentioned,  yet  this  dispute  was,  at  length,  in  the 
year  1732,  finally  settled,  chiefly  in  favour  of  Mary- 
land ;  by  fixing  the  said  boundary  between  the  two 
provinces,  only  fifteen  miles  due  south  of  the  most 
southerly  part  of  Philadelphia,  or  in  the  parallel  of 
39  degrees,  44  minutes  nearly,  instead  of  39  degrees, 
or  at  the  beginning  of  the  40th  degree,  as  mentioned 
and  intended  by  charter ;  which  renders  the  real 
extent  of  Pennsylvania,  north  and  south,  only  about 
155  miles,  instead  of  208,  and  makes  the  square 
miles,  in  the  province  about  41,000,  and  the  num- 
ber of  acres,  26,288,000. 

In  consequence  of  this  charter,  on  the  second  day 
of  the  ensuing  April,  the  king  issued  a  declaratioa 
to  the  inhabitants  and  planters  of  Pennsylvania, 
expressive  of  the  grant,  describing  the  bounds  of 
the  province,  and  enjoining  them  to  yield  all  due 
obedience  to  the  proprietary,  &c.  according  to  the 
powers  granted  by  the  said  charter. 

Penn,  having  obtained  these  necessary  requisites, 
immediately  published  such  an  account  of  the  pro- 
vince as  could  then  be  given ;  with  the  royal  char- 
ter, and  other  information,  offering  easy  terms  of 
sale  for  lands,  viz.  40  shillings  sterling  for  100  acres, 
and  one  shilling  per  annum  for  ever;  and  good 
conditions  of  settlement,  to  such  as  chose  to  be  ad- 
venturers in  the  new  country. 

To  this  offer  and  invitation  to  the  people,  he 
added  such  Christian  advice,  as  indicated  a  rea. 
concern  both  for  their  temporal  and  eternal  felicity, 
which  he  closed  in  these  words  : — 

"  To  conclude,  I  desire  all  my  dear  country- 
folks, who  may  be  inclined  to  go  into  those  parts,  to 
consider  seriously  the  premises,  well  as  the  in- 
conveniency  as  future  ease  and  plenty;  that  so> 
none  may  move  rashly,  or  from  a  fickle,  but  from 
a  solid  mind ;  having,  above  all  things,  an  eye  to 
the  providence  of  God,  in  the  disposing  of  them- 
selves ;  and  I  would  further  advise  all  such,  at  least, 
to  have  the  permission,  if  not  the  good  liking,  of 
their  near  relations ;  for  that  is  both  natural,  and  a 
duty  incumbent  upon  all.  And  by  this  will  natu- 
ral affections  be  preserved,  and  a  friendly  and  pro- 
fitable correspondence  between  them;  in  all  which 
I  beseech  Almighty  God  to  direct  us;  that  his  bless- 
ing may  attend  our  honest  endeavours;  and  then 
the  consequence  of  all  our  undertakings  will  turn 
to  the  glory  of  his  great  name,  and  all  true  happi- 
ness to  us  and  our  posterity.  Amen." 

On  publishing  these  proposals,  a  great  number  of 
purchasers  soon  appeared  in  London,  Liverpool, 
and  especially  about  Bristol ;  among  whom  were 
James  Claypole,  Nicholas  Moore,  Philip  Forde,  and 
others,  who  formed  a  company,  called  "  The  free 
society  of  Traders  in  Pennsylvania."  These  last- 
mentioned  persons,  with  William  Sharloe,  Edward 
Pierce,  John  Simcock,  Thomas  Bracey,  and  Ed- 
ward Brooks,  having  purchased  20,000  acres  of 
land,  in  trust  for  the  said  company,  published  arti- 
cles of  trade,  and  entered  into  divers  branches 
themselves;  which  were  soon  improved  upon  by 
others. 

Conditions,  or  concessions  published— Sailing  of  the 
first  ship  for  Pennsylvania— 'Joseph  Kirkbride,  tifc.—- 
The  proprietor's  manner  of  treating  the  Indians — 
His  letter  to  them— First  frame  of  government  and 
laws  published— Part  of  the  preface  to  the  same—~ 
Purport  of  the  frame,  and  one  of  the  laws — Duktqf 


UNITED  STATES. 


793 


York's  deed  of  release  to  William  Penn — The  ter- 
ritories obtained,  &fc.— Boundary  between  the  terri~ 
lories  and  Maryland. 

The  proprietary,  having  already  made  conside- 
rable sales  of  land,  agreed  wilh  the  adventurers 
and  purchasers  on  the  first  deed  of  settlement,  which 
itself  may  be  regarded  as  an  essay  towards  a  con- 
stitution of  government,  according  to  the  powers 
granted  him  by  charter.  It  consists  chiefly  of  cer- 
tain rules  of  settlement,  of  treating  the  Indians 
with  justice  and  friendship;  and  of  keeping  the 
peace,  agreeable  to  the  customs,  usages,  and  laws 
of  England,  to  be  observed  on  their  arrival  in  the 
country,  and  there  to  be  altered  as  occasion  should 
require.  This  compact  was  published  under  the 
title  of  "  Certain  conditions  or  concessions,  agreed 
upon  by  William  Penn,  proprietary  and  governor 
of  the  province  of  Pennsylvania;  and  those  who 
a-re  the  adventurers  and  purchasers  in  the  same 
province,  the  llth  of  July,  1681."  One  of  the  sti- 
pulations in  this  instrument  very  particularly  shows 
the  provident  care  and  knowledge  of  the  proprietary 
in  a  matter,  whose  continued  neglect  will  doubtless 
in  future  be  found  more  important  to  the  country 
than  has  been  imagined,  viz. 

"  That  in  clearing  the  ground,  care  be  taken  to 
leave  one  acre  of  trees  for  every  tive  acres  cleared, 
especially  to  preserve  oak  and  mulberries  for  silk 
and  shipping." 

Three  ships  sailed  for  Pennsylvania  this  year ; 
two  from  London,  and  one  from  Bristol.  The  John 
and  Sarah,  from  London,  commanded  by  Henry 
Smith,  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  that  arrived 
there;  the  Amity,  Richard  Dimon,  master,  from 
the  same  place,  with  passengers,  was  blown  off,  to 
the  West  Indies  ;  and  did  not  arrive  at  the  province 
till  the  spring  of  the  next  year ;  the  Bristol  Factor, 
Roger  Drew,  commander,  arrived  at  the  place  where 
Chester  now  stands,  on  the  llth  of  December; 
where  the  passengers,  seeing  some  houses,  went  on 
shore,  at  Robert  Wade's  landing,  near  the  lower  side 
of  Chester  Creek  ;  and  the  river  having  been  frozen 
up  that  night,  the  passengers  remained  there  all  the 
winter.  Among  the  passengers  in  these  ships  were 
John  Otter,  Nathaniel  Allen,  and  Edmund  Lovett, 
with  their  families ;  and  several  servants  of  Gover- 
nor Penn.  Joseph  Kirkbride,  then  a  boy,  being 
one  of  them,  who  afterwards  became  a  person  of  im- 
portance in.  the  province.  He  is  an  instance,  among 
many  others  that  might  be  given,  in  the  early  time 
of  this  country,  of  advancement  from  a  low  beginning 
to  rank  of  eminence  and  esteem,  through  industry, 
with  a  virtuous  and  prudent  conduct.  The  difficul- 
ties, hardships,  and  trials  of  many  of  the  well-disposed 
early  settlers,  however  low  in  the  world,  rather  vi- 
sibly tended  to  their  promotion,  and  in  some  res- 
pects rendered  them  more  useful  and  worthy  mem- 
bers of  society  in  this  new  country ;  while  others, 
even  possessed  of  handsome  patrimonies  at  first,  but 
more  improvident,  and  less  accustomed  to  encounter 
with  such  difficulties,  more  commonly  went  to  ruin, 
or^were  reduced  to  indigence.  And  several  worthy 
persons,  who  had  not  been  used  to  labour,  found, 
by  grievous  experience,  that  a  dependence  on  such 
inheritances,  even  with  otherwise  prudent  economy, 
in  the  early  time  of  this  country,  where  servants 
could  scarcely  be  had,  did  not  answer  here,  as 
in  Europe ;  so  that  for  a  series  of  years,  those  of 
the  more  wealthy  who  emigrated,  and  had  before 
been  used  to  a  different  manner  of  life,  sometimes 
lost  much  of  what  they  had  possessed,  and  were  re- 


duced to  greater  miseries  and  trials  than  the  poorer 
and  more  laborious  part  of  the  settlers,  who  were 
generally  more  numerous,  and  got  estates. 

In  one  of  these  ships  sailed  also  William  Mark- 
ham,  a  relation  of  the  proprietary ;  whom  he  had 
appointed  his  deputy-governor,  and  joined  with  him 
certain  commissioners,  to  confer  with  the  Indians, 
or  Aborigines  of  the  country,  respecting  their  lands  j 
and  to  confirm  with  them  a  league  of  peace.  These 
commissioners  were  strictly  enjoined  to  treat  the 
natives  with  all  possible  justice  and  humanity. 

To  cultivate  a  good  understanding  with  these 
natives  was  a  matter  of  sound  policy;  but  Penn 
appears  to  have  acted  from  higher  and  more  dis- 
interested motives ;  for  he  never  received  from  the 
province  any  pecuniary  advantage,  during  a  period 
of  near  37  years'  continuance  from  this  time;  but 
even  lost  much  of  his  other  property  by  it.  His 
ideas  were  too  exalted  to  be  confined  within  the 
narrow  view  of  a  temporary  interest  alone,  and  his 
conduct  respecting  these  poor  and  savage  people 
declared  his  regard  for  universal  justice,  and  the 
natural  rights  of  mankind;  ever  tending  to  impress 
on  their  minds  a  proper  sense  ofeternal  justice,  and 
the  happy  effects  of  kindness  and  peace.  A  speci- 
men of  his  manner  of  treating  these  people  appears 
in  the  following  letter  which  he  sent  them  by  his 
first  deputy  and  commissioners: — 

"  London,  the  1 8th  of  the  eighth  month,  (Oct.)  1 681 . 

"  My  Friends, — There  is  a  great  God  and  power, 
that  hath  made  the  worl<l,  and  all  things  therein ; 
to  whom  you  and  I,  and  all  people  owe  their  being, 
and  well-being;  and  to  whom  you  and  I  must  one 
day  give  an  account  for  all  that  we  do  in  the  world. 

"This  great  God  hath  written  his  law  in  our  hearts, 
by  which  we  are  taught  and  commanded  to  love  and 
help,  and  do  good  to  one  another.  Now  this  great 
God  hath  been  pleased  to  make  me  concerned  in 
your  part  of  the  world ;  and  the  king  of  the  coun- 
try, where  I  live,  hath  given  me  a  great  province 
therein ;  but  I  desire  to  enjoy  it  with  your  love  and 
consent ;  that  we  may  always  live  together,  as 
neighbours  and  friends;  else  what  would  the  great 
God  do  to  us,  who  hath  made  us,  not  to  devour  and 
destroy  one  another,  but  to  live  soberly  and  kindly 
together  in  the  world  ?  Now  I  would  have  you  well 
observe,  that  I  am  very  sensible  of  the  unkindness 
and  injustice  that  have  been  too  much  exercised 
towards  you  by  the  people  of  these  parts  of  the 
world;  who  have  sought  themselves,  and  to  make 
great  advantages  by  you,  rather  than  to  be  examples 
of  goodness  and  patience  unto  you ;  which  I  hear 
hath  been  a  matter  of  trouble  to  you,  and  caused 
great  grudging  and  animosities,  sometimes  to  the 
shedding  of  blood ;  which  hath  made  the  great  God 
angry.  But  I  am  not  such  a  man;  as  is  well  known 
in  my  own  country.  I  have  great  love  and  regard 
towards  you;  and  desire  to  win  and  gain  your  love 
and  friendship  by  a  kind,  just,  and  peaceable  life ; 
and  the  people  I  send  are  of  the  same  mind,  and 
shall,  in  all  things,  behave  themselves  accordingly; 
and,  if  in  any  thing,  any  shall  offend  you,  or  your 
people,  you  shall  have  a  full  and  speedy  satisfaction 
for  the  same,  by  an  equal  number  of  just  men,  on 
both  sides ;  that,  by  no  means  you  may  have  just 
occasion  of  being  offended  against  them. 

"  I  shall  shortly  come  to  you  myself;  at  which 
time  we  may  more  largely  and  freely  confer  and 
discourse  of  these  matters ;  in  the  mean  time  I 
have  sent  my  commissioners  to  treat  with  you  about 
land,  and  a  firm  league  of  peace ;  let  me  desire  you, 
to  be  kind  to  them,  and  the  people,  and  receive 


794 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


these  presents  and  tokens,  which  I  have  sent  you, 
us  a  testimony  of  my  good  will  to  you,  and  my  re- 
solution to  live  justly,  peaceably,  and  friendly  with 
you.  "  I  am  your  loving  Friend, 

"  WILLIAM  PENN." 

In  the  beginning  of  the  year  1682,  Penn  pub- 
litiht-d  his  frame  of  government,  and  certain  laws 
agreed  on  in  Eugland,  by  himself  and  the  purchasers 
under  him,  entitled  "  The  frame  of  the  government 
of  the  province  of  Pennsylvania,  in  America;  to- 
gether with  certain  laws  'agreed  upon  in  England 
by  the  governor,  and  divers  freemen  of  the  afore- 
said province.  To  be  further  explained  and  con- 
firmed there  by  the  first  provincial  council  that 
shall  be  held,  if  they  see  meet." 

In  the  preface  to  this  frame  is  exhibited  a  sketch 
of  the  author's  sentiments  on  the  nature  of  govern- 
ment, in  general,  his  reflections  on  the  different  modes 
of  it,  and  his  inducement  for  forming  his.  After 
having  quoted  several  parts  of  the  Scriptures,  relative 
to  government,  he  proceeds,  in  the  following  words : 

"  This  settles  the  divine  right  of  government  be- 
yond exception,  and  that  for  two  ends ;  first,  to  ter- 
rify evil-doers;  secondly,  to  cherish  those  that  do 
well;  which  gives  government  a  life  beyond  cor- 
ruption ;  and  makes  it  as  durable  in  the  world  as 
good  men  shall  be.  So  that  government  seems  to 
me  a  part  of  religion  itself;  a  thing  sacred  in  its 
institution  and  end.  For,  if  it  does  not  directly  re- 
move the  cause,  it  crushes  the  effects  of  evil;  and 
is,  as  such,  a  lower,  yet  an  emanation  of  the  same 
divine  power,  that  is  both  author  and  object  of  pure 
religion  ;  the  difference  lying  here ;  that  the  one  is 
more  free  and  mental,  the  other  more  corporal  and 
compulsive  in  its  operation:  but  that  is  only  to 
evil-doers ;  government  itself  being  otherwise  as 
capable  of  kindness,  goodness,  and  charity,  as  a 
more  private  society. 

"  They  weakly  err,  that  think  there  is  no  other 
use  of  government  than  correction;  which  is  the 
coarsest  part  of  it :  daily  experience  tells  us,  that 
the  care  and  regulation  of  many  other  affairs,  more 
soft,  and  daily  necessary,  make  up  much  the  greater 
part  of  government;  and  which  must  have  followed 
the  peopling  of  the  world,  had  Adam  never  fallen ; 
and  will  continue  among  men,  on  earth,  under  the 
highest  attainments,  they  may  arrive  at,  by  the  coming 
of  the  blessed  second  Adam,  the  Lord  from  heaven." 

As  to  the  modes,  he  further  observes,—"  I  do  not 
find  a  model  in  the  world,  that  time,  place,  and 
some  singular  emergencies  have  not  necessarily  al- 
tered ;  nor  is  it  easy  to  frame  a  civil  government 
that  shall  serve  all  places  alike."  "  Any  govern- 
ment is  free  to  the  people  under  it  (whatever  be  the 
frame)  where  the  laws  rule,  and  the  people  are  a 
party  to  those  laws ;  and  more  than  this  is  tyranny, 
olygarchy,  or  confusion. 

"  There  is  hardly  one  frame  of  government  in 
the  world  so  ill  designed  by  its  first  founders,  that, 
in  good  hands,  would  not  do  well  enough ;  and  his- 
tory tells  us  the  best,  in  ill  ones,  can  do  nothing 
that  is  great  and  good;  witness  the  Jewish  and 
Roman  states.  Governments,  like  clocks,  go  from 
the  motion  men  give  them;  and  as  governments 
are  made  and  moved  by  men,  so  by  them  are  they 
ruined  too.  Wherefore,  governments  rather  depend 
upon  men,  than  men  upon  governments.  Let  men 
be  good,  and  the  government  cannot  be  bad ;  if  it 
be  ill,  they  will  cure  it.  But,  if  men  be  bad,  let 
government  be  never  so  good,  they  will  endeavour 
to  warp  and  spoil  it  to  their  tarn." — "  That,  there- 
fore, which  makes  a  good  government,  must  keep  it, 


viz.  men  of  wisdom  and  virtue ;  qualities  that,  be* 
cause  they  descend  not  with  worldly  inheritances, 
must  be  carefully  propagated  by  a  virtuous  educa- 
tion of  youth ;  for  which  after  ages  will  owe  more 
to  the  care  and  prudence  of  founders,  and  the  suc- 
cessive magistracy,  than  to  their  parents,  for  their 
private  patrimonies. 

'  These  considerations"  (several  of  which  we 
omit)  "  of  the  weight  of  government,  and  the  nice 
and  various  opinions  about  it,  made  it  uneasy  to  me 
:o  think  of  publishing  the  ensuing  frame,  and  con- 
ditional laws,  foreseeing  both  the  censures  they  will 
meet  with  from  men  of  differing  humours  and  en- 
gagements, and  the  occasion  they  may  give  of  dis- 
course beyond  my  design. 

"  But,  next  to  the  power  of  necessity  (which  is  a 
solicitor  that  will  take  no  denial),  this  induced  me 
:o  a  compliance,  that  we  have  (with  reverence  to 
God,  and  good  conscience  to  men),  to  the  best  of 
our  skill,  contrived  and  composed  the  frame  and 
laws  of  this  government,  to  the  great  end  of  govern- 
ment, viz.  '  To  support  power  in  reverence  with 
the  people,  and  to  secure  the  people  from  the  abuse 
of  power ;'  that  they  may  be  free  by  their  just  obe- 
dience, and  the  magistrates  honourable,  for  their 
just  administration ;  for  liberty  without  obedience 
is  confusion ;  and  obedience  without  liberty  is  sla- 
very. To  carry  this  evenness,  is  partly  owing  to 
the  constitution,  and  partly  to  the  magistracy  :  where 
either  of  these  fail,  government  will  be  subject  to 
convulsions;  but  where  both  arewanting.it  must 
be  totally  subverted :  then,  where  both  mjet,  the 
government  is  like  to  endure;  which  I  humoly  pray, 
and  hope,  God  will  please  to  make  the  lot  of  this  of 
Pennsylvania.  Amen." 

The  "frame"  itself  consisted  of  24  articles;  and 
the  laws  were  40.  By  the  former  the  government 
was  placed  in  the  governor  and  freemen  of  the  pro- 
vince, in  the  form  of  a  provincial  council,  and  gene- 
ral assembly.  By  them  conjunctively  all  laws  were 
to  be  made,  all  officers  appointed,  and  all  public 
affairs  transacted.  Seventy-two  was  the  number  of  the 
council,  to  be  chosen  by  the  freemen  ;  and  though 
the  governor,  or  his  deputy,  was  to  be  perpetual  pre- 
sident, he  had  but  a  treble  vote.  One-third  part  of 
them  was,  at  first,  to  be  chosen  for  three  years,  one- 
third  for  two  years,  and  one-third  for  one  year;  in 
such  manner,  that  there  might  be  an  annual  succes- 
sion of  24  new  members,  each  to  continue  three 
years,  and  no  longer.  The  general  assembly  was, 
the  first  year,  to  consist  of  all  the  freemen,  after- 
wards of  200,  and  never  to  exceed  500.  And  this 
charter,  or  form  of  government,  was  not  to  be 
altered,  changed,  or  diminished,  in  any  part,  or 
clause  of  it,  without  the  consent  of  the  governor,  his 
heirs,  or  assigns,  and  six  parts  of  seven  of  the  free- 
men, in  provincial  council  and  assembly.  And  to 
the  same  power  only  was  the  alteration  of  the  laws 
made  subject :  these  laws  were  of  the  nature  of  an 
original  compact  between  the  proprietary  and  the 
freemen  ;  and  as  such,  were  reciprocally  received 
and  executed  :  one  of  them  was, 

"  That  all  persons  living  in  this  province,  who 
confess  and  acknowledge  the  one  Almighty  and 
Eternal  God  to  be  the  creator,  upholder  and  ruler 
of  the  world,  and  that  hold  themselves  obliged,  in 
conscience,  to  live  peaceably  and  justly  in  civil 
society,  shall,  in  no  ways,  be  molested,  or  preju- 
diced, for  their  religious  perswasion,  or  practice,  in 
matters  of  faith  and  worship ;  nor  shall  they  be 
compelled,  at  any  time,  to  frequent,  or  maintain, 
any  religious  worship,  place,  or  ministry  whatever." 


UNITED  STATES. 


795 


Moreover,  the  proprietary,  to  prevent  all  future 
claim,  or  even  pretence  of  claim,  that  might  be 
made,  of  the  province  by  the  duke  of  York,  or  his 
heirs,  obtained  of  him  his  deed  of  release  for  the 
same,  dated  the  2 1st  of  August,  1682. 

Besides,  as  an  additional  territory  to  the  province, 


tion  of  himself  from  xome  undue  reflections— The 
proprietor  purchases  lands  of  the  Indians,  and  trait* 
them  with  great  justice  and  kindness. 


American  coast,  as  is  supposed  about  Egg  Harbour, 
in  New  Jersey. 

In  passing  up  the  Delaware,  the  inhabitants,  con- 
sisting of  English,  Dutch  and  Swedes,  indiscrimi- 
nately met  the  proprietary,  with  demonstrations  of 
joy.  He  landed  at  Newcastle,  on  the  24th  of  Octo- 
ber ;  and  next  day  had  the  people  summoned  to  the 


Penn  had,  for   a   considerable  time  past,   been 
making   preparation  for  his  voyage   to   America ; 

he  also  this  year,  1682,  procured  of  the  duke  of  which  being  at  last  accomplished,  in  the  month 
York,  his  right,  title  and  interest,  in  that  tract  of  of  August  this  year,  (1682,)  accompanied  by  a 
land,  afterwards  called  "  The  three  lower  counties  number  of  his  friends,  he  went  on  board  the  ship 
on  Delaware,"and  since  "  The  State  of  Delaware,"  Welcome,  of  300  tons  burden,  Robert  Greenaway, 
extending  from  the  south  boundary  of  the  province,  I  commander  ;  and  on  the  30th  of  the  same  month, 
and  situated  on  the  western  side  of  the  river  and  he  wrote,  from  the  Downs,  "  a  valedictory  epistle  to 
bay  of  Delaware,  to  Cape  Henlopeu,  beyond,  or  England,"  containing  "  A  salutation  to  all  faithful 
south  of  Lewistown  ;  which,  by  the  duke,  were  made  friends." 

over  to  William  Penn,  his  heirs  and  assigns,  by  two  The  number  of  passengers  in  this  ship  was  about 
deeds  of  feoffment,  dated  August  24,  1682.  The  I  100,  mostly  Quakers ;  the  major  part  of  whom  were 
first  deed  was  for  the  town  of  Newcastle,  alias  Dela- 1  from  Sussex,  the  proprietary's  place  of  residence, 
ware  town,  and  a  district  of  twelve  miles  round  it,  In  their  passage,  many  of  them  were  taken  sick  of 
as  far  as  the  river  Delaware  ;  in  the  second,  of  the  the  small-pox ;  and  about  30  of  their  number  died, 
same  date,  was  comprehended  that  tract  of  land,  from  In  this  trying  situation,  the  acceptable  company  of 
twelve  miles  south  of  Newcastle  to  the  Hoarkills,  William  Penn  is  said  to  have  been  of  singular  ad- 
otherwise  called  Cape  Henlopen,  divided  into  two  vantage  to  them,  and  his  kind  advice  and  assistance 
counties,  Kent  and  Sussex  ;  which,  with  Newcastle  of  great  service,  during  their'  passage  ;  so  that  in 
district,  were  commonly  called  the  territories  of  the  main,  they  had  a  prosperous  voyage ;  and  in 
Pennsylvania ;  or  the  three  lower  counties  upon  little  more  than  six  weeks,  came  in  sight  of  the 
Delaware. 

These  territories  were  a  part  of  the  country,  called  ! 
New  Netherland,  when  in  possession  of  the  Dutch, 
and  included  in  the  duke  of  York's  second  patent  for 
that  country,  after  its  surrender  by  treaty  of  peace 
to  the  I^giish,  in  1674,  which  extended  westward 
of  Delaware  river. 

The  determining  and  fixing  the  precise  boundary  I  court-house ;  where,  after  possession  of  the  country 
between  this  territory  and  Maryland,  as  well  as  that  was  legally  rendered  him,  he  made  a  speech  to  the 
between  the  respective  provinces,  becoming  after-  old  magistrates,  and  the  people,  signifying  to  them 
wards  a  subject  of  dispute  between  William  Penn  the  design  of  his  coming,  the  nature  and  end  of  go- 
and  the  Lord  Baltimore,  will  hereafter  more  fully  vernment,  and  of  that  more  particularly  which  he 
appear  in  the  course  of  this  history.  For,  though  came  to  establish  ;  assuring  them  of  their  spiritual 
prior  to  making  out  the  grant  of  both  the  province  and  temporal  rights  ;  liberty  of  conscience,  and  civil 
and  territory,  the  Lord  Baltimore  was  duly  in-  freedoms ;  and,  recommending  them  to  live  in  so- 
formed,  fully  heard,  and  all  his  objections  answered,  briety  and  peace,  he  renewed  the  magistrates*  corn- 
on  the  subject,  before  the  lords  of  trade  and  planta-  missions. 

tions  ;  where  the  precise  southern  boundary  of  Penn-  To  form  some  idea  of  the  proportion  of  the  differ- 
sylvauia,  as  expressed  in  the  charter,  must  neces-  ent  sorts  of  people,  on  the  west  side  of  Delaware, 
sarily  have  been  mentioned  to  him,  as  appears  by  about  this  time,  or  prior  to  William  Penn's  ar- 
the  minutes  of  the  committee  of  the  said  board  ;  yet  rival,  on  the  lands,  granted  him,  it  may  be  noted, 
he  afterwards  claimed  not  only  the  whole  territory  that  the  Dutch  then  had  a  meeting  place,  for  reli- 
of  the  lower  counties,  but  also  one  degree  of  north  gious  worship,  at  Newcastle ;  the  Swedes,  three ; 
latitude  included  in  the  grant  of  Pennsylvania,  as  one  at  Christeen,  one  at  Teuecum,  and  one  at  Wico- 
coming  within  his  patent.  I  coa  (now  in  the  suburbs  of  Philadelphia).  The 

The  boundary  and  extent  of  the  former  was  deter-  Quakers  had  three,  viz.  one  at  Upland,  or  Chester, 
mined  by  an  order  of  council,  the  king  being  pre-  one  at  Shackamaxon,  or  about  where  Kensington 
sent,  in  November  1685;  but  it  was  long  before  it  I  now  stands,  in  the  vicinity  of  Philadelphia,  and  one 
was  put  in  execution,  said  to  be  occasioned  princi-  near  the  lower  falls  of  Delaware, 
pally  by  the  delays  and  obstructions  of  the  Lord  Penn  proceeded  to  Upland,  now  called  Chester ; 
Baltimo're.  But  the  line  or  boundary  between  the  I  where,  on  the  4th  December  (about  three  months 
two  provinces  does  not  appear  to  have  been  pre- 1  after  his  sailing  fromEngland)he  called  an  assembly; 
cisely  and  finally  fixed  during  the  life  of  William  which  consisted  of  equal  numbers  of  members  for 
Penn;  or,  till  the  year  1732;  which  will  be  men- 1  the  province,  and  the  three  lower  counties,  called 
tioued  in  its  proper  place.  I  the  territories  ;  that  is,  for  both  of  them,  so  many 

I  of  the  freemen  as  thought  proper  to  appear,  accord- 

Penn  sails  for  Pennsylvania — Writes  a  valedictory  I  ing  to  the  16th  article  of  the  frame  of  government. 
epistle  to  his  friends  in  England — Arrives  in  the  I  This  assembly  chose  Nicholas  Moore,  who  was 
Delaware — His  reception  in  the  country — Holds  an  I  president  of  the  free  society  of  traders,  for  their 
assembly  at  Upland,  (Chester) — Passes  an  act  of  chairman,  or  speaker ;  and  received  as  ample  sa- 
union  between  the  province  and  territory — Natura-  tisfaction  from  the  proprietary,  as  the  inhabitants 
lizes  the  foreigners — Passes  the  laws  agreed  on  in  of  Newcastle  had  done  ;  for  which  they  returned 
England,  in  form — Preamble  to  said  laws  with  I  him  their  grateful  acknowledgments.  The  Swedes, 
their  titles — He  visits  New  York  and  Maryland  ;  I  for  themselves,  deputed  Lacy  Cock  to  acquaint  him, 
and  treats  wilh  the  Lord  Baltimore,  respecting  the  I  "  That  they  would  love,  serve  and  obey  him  with 
boundaries — Extracts  from  two  of  his  letters,  respect- 1  all  they  had  ;"  declaring,  <€  that  it  was  the  best  day 
ing  his  employment  in  the  country,  and  in  vindica-  \  they  ever  saw." 


796 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


At  this  assembly  an  act  of  union  was  passed,  an- 
nexing the  three  lower  counties  to  the  province,  in 
legislation,  on  the  7th  day  of  December,  1682;  like- 
wise an  act  of  settlement,  in  reference  to  the  frame 
of  government  which,  with  some  alterations,  was 
thereby  declared  to  be  accepted  and  confirmed. 

The  Dutch,  Swedes,  and  other  foreigners  were 
then  naturalized :  and  all  the  laws,  agreed  on  in 
England,  with  some  small  alterations,  were  passed 
in  form. 

The  preamble  to  and  titles  of  these  laws  were  as 
follow  :— 

"  The  great  law  :  or,  the  body  of  laws  of  the  pro- 
vince of  Pennsylvania  and  'territories  thereunto 
belonging,  passed  at  an  assembly,  held  at  Ches- 
ter, alias  Upland,  the  seventh  day  of  the  tenth 
mouth,  called  December,  1682. 
"  Whereas,  the  glory  of  God  Almighty,  and  the 
good  of  mankind,  is  the  reason  and  end  of  govern- 
ment ;  and  therefore  government  itself  is  a  vener- 
able ordinance  of  God ;  and  for  as  much  as  •  it  is 
principally  desired  and  intended  by  the  proprietary 
and  govemor,  and  freemen,  pf  the  province  of  Penn- 
sylvania, and  territories  thereunto  belonging,  to 
make  and  establish  such  laws,  as  shall  best  preserve 
true  Christian  and  civil  liberty,  in  opposition  to  all 
unchristian,  licentious  and  unjust  practices,  whereby 
God  may  have  his  due,  Cajsar,  his  due,  and  the 
people,  their  due,  from  tyranny  and  oppression,  on 
the  one  side,  and  insolence  and  licentiousness,  on 
the  other ;  so  that  the  best  and  firmest  foundation 
may  be  laid,  for  the  present  and  future  happiness 
of  both  the  governor,  and  the  people  of  this  pro- 
vince and  territories  aforesaid,  and  their  posterity. 
Be  it  enacted  by  William  Penn,  proprietary  and 
governor,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of 
the  deputies  of  the  freemen  of  this  province,  and  the 
counties  aforesaid,  in  general  assembly  met,  and  by 
the  authority  of  the  same,  that  these  following  chap- 
ters and  paragraphs  be  the  laws  of  Pennsylvania 
and  territories  thereof: — 

"  1.  Concerning  liberty  of  conscience. — 2.  Con 

cerning  qualifications  of  officers,  &c. — 3.  Against 

sweaing  by  God,  Christ,  or  Jesus. — 4.  Against  swear 

ing  by  any  other  thing  or  name. — 5.  Against  speaking 

profanely  of  God,  Christ,   Spirit  or  Scripture. — 6 

Against  cursing. — 7.  Against  defiling  the  marriag« 

bed. — 8    Against  incest. — 9.  Against  sodomy  ant 

bestiality. — 10.   Against  rape,   or  ravishment. — 11 

Against   bigamy. — 12.   Against   drnnkenness. — 13 

Against  suffering  drunkenness. — 14.  Against  health 

drinking. — 15.   Against  selling,  or  exchanging,  o 

rum,  brandy,  or  other  strong  liquors  to  the  Indians 

—  16.  Against  wilful  firing  of  houses. — 17.  Agains 

breaking  into,  or  taking  any  thing  out  of  houses. — 

18.  Lands  and  goods  of  thieves  and  felons,  &c.  liable 

&c. — 19.  Against  fore-cable  entry. — 20.  Against  un 

lawful  assemblies  and  riots. — 21.  Against  assaultin 

or  menacing  of  parents. — 22.  Against  assaulting  o 

menacing  of  magistrates. — 23.  Against  assaulting  o 

menacing  of  masters. — 24.  Against  assault  and  bat 

tery. — 25.  Against  duels. — 26.  Against  liotous  sport 

and  practices,  as  plavs,  &c. — 27.  Against  playin 

at  cards,  dice,  lotteries,  &c. — 28.  Against  sedition 

•—29.  Against  speaking  slightly,  or  abusing  of  ma 

gistrates  or  officers. — SO.Against  reporters,  defamen 

and  spreaders  of  false  news. — 31.  Against  clamorou 

persons,  scolders  and  railers. — 32.  Provision  for  th 

poor. — 33.  Prices  of  beer  and  ale. — 34.  Measure 

and  weights. — 35.   Names  of  days  and  months. 

36.  "Witnesses  lying. — 37.  Pleadings,  processes  an 

records,  to  be  in  English. — 38.  Trials  in  civil  an 


criminal  cases. — 39.  Fees  and  salaries,  bribery  and 
extortion. — 40.  Fines  to  be  moderate,  &c. — 41.  Nu- 
merous suits  avoidable. — 42.  Arrest  of  a  person  de- 
parting the  province,  how. — 43.  Promises,  bargains 
nd  agreements. — 44.  Charters,  gifts,  grants,   con- 
•yances,  bills,  bonds  and  specialties,  deeds,  &c  havr 
on  to  be  recorded. — 45.  What  wills  shall  convey 
nds,  as  well  as  chattels  — 46.  Wills  of  non  compos 
cntis  void. — 47  Reg  s:ry  for  wills,  &c. — 48.  Registry 
r  servant*,  &c. — 49.  Factors,  and  their  employ. — 50. 
gainst  defacers,  corrupters  and  embezzlers,  ofchar- 
rs,  conveyances  and  records,  &c. — 51.  How  lands 
:id  goods  shall  pay  debti. — 5?.  What  prisoners  oail- 
ble. — 53.  Jails  and  jailers. — 54  Prisons  to  be  work- 
ouses. — 55.  Wrongful  imprisonment. — 56.   Where 
le  penalty  is  either  a  sum  of  money  or  iinprison- 
ent,   the  magistrate  shall   inflict  which   he  will. — 
7.  Freemen,  who. — 58.  Elections. — 59.  No  money 
r  goods,  by  way  of  tax,  custom  or  contribution,  to 
e  raised  or  paid,  but  by  law. — 60.  Laws  shall  be 
rinted  and  taught  in  schools. — 61.  All  other  things 
ot  provided   for  herein,  are  referred  to  the  gover- 
or  and  freemen  from  time  to  time." 
The  following  extracts  from  a  letter  of  Penn's 
ated,    Chester  on    Delaware,  29th    of  the   tenth 
nonth,   1682 ;    are    given   as   descriptive    of    the 
ountry,  and  as  characteristic  of  its  first  benevolent 
egislator. 

I  bless  the  Lord,  I  am  very  well,  and  much  sa- 
isfied  with  my  place  and  portion ;  yet  busy  enough  ; 
laving  much  to  do,  to  please  all;  and  yet  to  have 
,n  eye  to  those,  that  are  not  here  to  please  them- 
elves. 

"  I  have  been  also  at  New  York,  Long  Island, 
5ast  Jersey  and  Maryland ;  in  which  I  have  had 
rood  and  eminent  service  for  the  Lord,  &c. 

I  am  now  casting  the  country  into  -townships, 
or  large  lots  of  land.  I  have  held  an  assembly  ;  in 
which  many  good  laws  are  passed;  we  could  not 
afely  stay  till  the  spring  for  a  government.  Ihave 
annexed  the  lower  counties  (lately  obtained)  to  the 
rovince ;  and  passed  a  general  naturalization  for 
strangers  ;  which  hath  much  pleased  the  people. 
As  to  outward  things,  we  are  satisfied;  the  land 
jood,  the  air  clear  and  sweet,  the  springs  plentiful, 
and  provision  good,  and  easy  to  come  at;  an  innu- 
merable quantity  of  wild  fowl  and  fish;  in  fine,  here 
s  what  an  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob  would  be  well 
contented  with  ;  and  service  enough  for  God ;  for 
he  fields  are  here  white  for  harvest.  O;  how  sweet 
s  the  quiet  of  these  parts,  freed  from  the  anxious  and 
troublesome  solicitations,  hurries  and  perplexities 
of  woeful  Europe  ;  and  God  will  thin  her  ;  the  day 
hastens  upon  her,"  &c. 

Blessed  be  the  Lord,  that  of  23  ships  none  mis- 
carried: only  two  or  three  had  the  small-pox;  else 
healthy  and  swift  passages,  generally  such  as  have 
not  been  known  ;  some  but  28  days,  and  few  longer 
than  six  weeks:  blessed  be  God  for  it:  who  is  good 
to  us,  and  follows  us  with  his  abundant  kindness : 
my  soul  fervently  breathes,  that  in  his  heavenly 
guiding  wisdom,  we  may  be  kept;  that  we  may 
serve  him  in  our  day,  and  lay  down  our  heads  in 
peace,  &c. 

"  P.  S.  Many  women,  in  divers  of  the  ships 
brought  to  bed;  they  and  their  children  do  well." 

The  meeting  continued  only  three  days  ;  and  not- 
withstanding the  great  variety  of  dispositions  in,  and 
the  inexperience  of  this  assembly,  yet  a  perfect 
unanimity  prevailed  among  them. 

The  proprietary,  prior  to  his  meeting  this  assem- 
bly, appears  to  have  paid  a  visit  to  New  York,  and 


UNITED  STATES. 


797 


immediately  a  ter  the  adjournment  oi'  it,  ho  we  n't  ti 
Maryland ;  where  he  was  kindly  received  by  the 
Lord  Baltimore,  and  the  principal  persons  of  that 
colony.  There  the  two  proprietaries  held  a  confer- 
ence respecting  the  fixing  and  settling  the  bounda- 
ries between  the  two  provinces  :  but  the  severe  part 
of  the  season  coming  on,  and  there  being  no  appear- 
ance of  speedily  determining  the  affair,  after  two 
days  spent  on  the  occasion,  they  appointed  to  meet 
again  in  the  spring,  and  William  Penn  took  his 
leave  and  departed,  the  Lord  Baltimore  accompany- 
ing him  several  miles,  to  the  house  of  one  William 
Richardson  ;  from  whence  he  proceeded  two  miles 
further,  to  a  religious  meeting  of  his  friends,  the 
Quakers,  at  the  house  of  Thomas  Hooker  ;  and  from 
thence  to  Choptu.uk,  on  the  eastern  side  of  Chesa- 
peake bay  ;  where  was  an  appointed  meeting  of  per- 
sons of  various  ranks  and  qualities. 

Penn  thus  proceeded  with  much  fatigue,  difficulty 
and  expense  to  settle  the  province,  establish  the  go- 
vernment, and  cultivate  a  good  understanding  with 
his  neighbours  ;  though  not  without  enemies  and 
oppositions  of  diferent  kinds,  as  will  hereafter  more 
fully  appear;  and  that,  even  from  some  who  had 
been  his  friends ;  as  may  be  seen  by  the  following 
extract  from  an  old  printed  accouut  of  his  life, 
viz. — "  Nor  was  the  advancement  of  himself,  or 
family,  in  worldly  wealth  and  grandeur,  his  aim  in 
the  administration  of  government  ;  but,  in  the 
greatest  honour  of  his  public  station,  he  still  re- 
tained the  meekness  and  humility  of  a  private  Chris- 
tian ;  the  sincerity  of  his  intentions,  and  with  what 
zeal  and  ardour  he  pursued  a  general  good,  are  best 
expressed  by  his  own  words,  in  a  letter  written  in 
Pennsylvania,  the  latter  part  of  this  year,  (1682) 
to  a  person,  who  had  unduly  reflected  on  him,  viz. 

"  '  I  could  speak  largely  of  God's  dealings  with 
me,  in  getting  this  thing;  what  an  inward  exercise 
of  faith  and  patience  it  cost  me  in  passing.  The 
travail  was  mine,  as  well  as  the  debt  and  cost ; 
through*  the  envy  of  many,  both  professors,  false 
friends,  and  profane  :  my  God  hath  given  it  me  in 
the  face  of  the  world  ;  and  it  is  to  hold  it  in  true 
judgment,  as  a  reward  of  my  sufferings:  and  that  is 
seen  here,  whatever  some  despisers  may  say  or 
think.  The  place  God  hath  given  me  ;  and  I  never 
felt  judgment  for  the  power  I  kept,  but  trouble  for 
what  I  parted  with.  It  is  more  than  a  worldly  title, 
or  patent,  that  hath  cloathed  me  in  this  place. 

"  '  Keep  thy  place ;  I  am  in  mine  ;  I  have  served 
the  God  of  the  whole  earth  since  I  have  been  in  it ; 
nor  am  I  sitting  down  in  a  greatness,  that  I  have 
denied.  I  am  day  and  night  spending  my  life,  my 
time,  my  money,  and  am  not  six-pence  enriched 
by  this  greatness:  costs  iu  getting,  settling,  trans- 
portation and  maintenance,  now  in  a  public  man- 
ner, at  my  own  charge,  duly  considered,  to  say  no- 
thing of  my  hazard,  and  the  distance  I  am  from  a 
considerable  estate,  and,  which  is  more,  my  dear 
wife  and  poor  children. 

"  '  Well, — the  Lord  is  God  of  righteous  judgment : 
had  I  sought  greatness,  I  had  stayed  at  home  ;  where 
the  difference  between  what  I  am  here,  and  was 
offered,  and  could  have  been  there,  in  power  and 
wealth,  is  as  wide  as  the  places  are : — No,  I  came 
for  the  Lord's  sake,  and  therefore  have  I  stood  to 
this  day,  well  and  diligent,  and  successful,  blessed 
by  his  power.  "  Nor  shall  I  trouble  myself  to  tell 
thee  what  I  am  to  the  people  of  this  place,  in  tra- 
vails, watchings,  spendings,  and  my  servants  every 
way  freely,  not  like  a  selfish  man  ;  I  have  many- 
witnesses.  To  conclude,  it  is  now  in  friends' 


nands ;  through  my  travail,  faith  »and  patience  it 
came. — If  friends  here  keep  to  God,  in  the  justice, 
mercy,  equity,  and  fear  of  the  Lord,  their  enemies 
will  be  their  foot-stool :  if  not,  their  heirs  and  my 
heirs  too,  will  lose  all  ;  and  desolation  will  follow  :" 
but  blessed  be  the  Lord,  we  are  well,  and  live  in 
the  dear  love  of  God,  and  the  fellowship  of  his  tender 
heavenly  spirit  ;  and  our  faith  is  for  ourselves  and 
one  another,  that  the  Lord  will  be  with  us,  a  king- 
and  counsellor  for  ever.  Thy  ancient,  though 
grieved  Friend,  WILLIAM  PENN.' 

"  '  Chester,  5tn  of  the  twelfth  month, 
(Feb.)  1682  (1683).'" 

The  proprietary  having  now  returned  from  Ma- 
ryland to  Coaquannock,  the  place  so  called  by  the 
Indians,  where  Philadelphia  now  stands,  began  to 
purchase  lands  of  the  natives ;  whom  he  treated 
with  great  justice  and  sincere  kindness,  in  all  his 
dealings  and  communications  with  them ;  ever 
giving  them  full  satisfaction  for  all  their  lands,  and 
the  best  advice  for  their  real  happiness ;  of  which 
their  future  conduct  showed  they  were  very  sensible; 
and  the  country  afterwards  felt  the  benefit. 

It  was  at  this  time  (1683),  that  he  first  entered 
personally  into  that  lasting  friendship  with  the  Indi- 
ans, which  ever  afterwards  continued  between  them ; 
and  for  the  space  of  more  than  70  years  was  never 
interrupted ;  or,  so  long  as  the  Quakers,  to  whom,  even 
long  after  his  death,  they  always  continued  to  show 
the  greatest  regard,  retained  power  in  the  govern- 
ment sufficient  to  influence  a  friendly  and  just  con- 
duct towards  them,  and  to  prevent,  or  redress  such 
misunderstandings  and  grievances,  as  occasionally 
happened  between  them,  and  any  of  the  inhabitants 
of  the  province,  &c.  A  firm  peace  was  now  reci- 
procally concluded  between  Penn  and  the  Indians ; 
and  both  parlies  mutually  promised  to  live  together 
as  brethren,  without  doing  the  least  injury  to  each 
other.  This  was  solemnly  ratified  by  the  usual  token  of 
a  u  chain  of  friendship  and  covenant  indelible,  never 
to  be  broken,  so  long  as  the  sun  and  moon  endure.'* 

Of  this  kind  of  conference  he  afterwards  had 
many  others,  and  some  on  a  religious  account,  du- 
ring both  times  of  his  residence  in  the  country. 
His  conduct,  in  general,  to  these  people,  was  so 
engaging,  his  justice^in  particular  so  conspicuous, 
and  the  council  and  advice  which  he  gave  them  were  so 
evidently  for  their  advantage,  that  he  became  thereby 
very  much  endeared  to  them ;  and  it  made  such  a  deep 
impression,  that  his  name  and  memory  will  scarcely 
ever  be  effaced,  while  they  continue  a  people. 

That  they  retain  a  remembrance  of  these  transac- 
tions, and  hand  them,  by  tradition,  from  father  to 
son,  many  instances  have  since  more  particularly 
shown.  At  a  conference  between  Governor  Keith 
and  the  five  nations,  held  at  Conestogo,  in  Penn- 
sylvania, in  1721,  the  chief  speaker,  with  a  coun- 
tenance, which  showed  great  respect,  said : — 

"  They  should  never  forget  the  council  that  Wil- 
liam Penn  gave  them ;  and  that  though  they  could 
not  write,  as  the  English  did,  yet  they  could  keep, 
in  the  memory,  what  was  said  in  their  councils ;" 
and  at  the  treaty  renewed,  in  the  year  following,  at 
Albany,  they  mentioned  the  name  of  William  Penn 
with  great  affection,  calling  him  a  "  good  man  ;"  and, 
as  their  highest  compliment  to  Governor  Keith, 
they  used  this  expression,  "  we  esteem  and  love 
you  as  if  you  were  William  Penn  himself:"  telling 
nim,  "  Brother  Onas,"  (which  in  their  language 
signifies  a  Pen,  and  by  which  name  they  call  the 
governors  of  Pennsylvania  ever  since  it  was  first 
settled  by  William  Penn,)  "  we  are  glad  to  hear 


798 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  former  treaties  which  we  have  made  with  Wil- 
liam Penn  repeated  to  us  again." 

Upon  the  governor's  replying,  "  That  he  desirec 
this  visit,  and  the  covenant- chain,  which  is  hereby 
brightened,  may  be  recorded  in  everlasting  remem- 
brance, to  be  sent  down  to  your  and  our  children,  to 
last  as  long  as  the  mountains  and  rivers,  and  while 
the  sun  and  moon  endure  :"— they  answered,  "  We 
desire  that  peace  and  tranquillity,  which  is  now 
established  between  us,  may  be  as  clear  as  the  sun, 
shining  in  its  lustre,  without  any  cloud  or  darkness ; 
and  that  the  same  may  continue  for  ever." 

These  instances,  among  many  others,  that  might 
be  given,  together  with  the  consequent  correspond- 
ing behaviour  of  these  people,  may  show  what  a 
grateful  remembrance  they  retained  of  Penn's  con- 
duct towards  them;  and  what  a  happy  influence  a 
just  and  friendly  treatment  has  on  the  most  savage 
minds. 

Arrivals  of  colonists  in  the  first  year,  and  early  times, 
with  their  general  character-— Some  of  their  settle- 
ments, and  rapid  improvements — Their  difficulties 
and  hardships — Part  of  the  planter's  speech  to  his 
neighbours  and  countrymen — Richard  Toumsend's 
testimony  respecting  the  prosperity  of  Pennsylvania 
frSm  the  first  settlement  of  it,  for  above  40  years. 

Within  the  first  year,  after  the  proper  requisites 
for  a  regular  settlement  were  obtained,  between 
20  and  30  sail  of  ships,  with  passengers,  arrived 
in  the  province,  including  those  which  came  before, 
and  about  the  same  time  with  the  proprietary.  The 
settlers  amounted  to  such  a  large  number,  that  the 
parts  near  Delaware  were  peopled  in  a  very  rapid 
manner,  even  from  about  the  falls  of  Trenton,  down 
to  Chester,  near  50  miles  on  the  river;  besides  the 
settlements  in  the  lower  counties,  which,  at  the 
same  time,  were  very  considerable :  for  the  first 
settlements,  for  the  most  part,  were  made  near  the 
river,  according  to  the  different  shares  of  land,  which 
were  respectively  allotted  for  each  settler;  as  may 
be  seen  in  an  old  map  of  the  first  settled  parts  of 
the  province. 

As  the  first  colonists,  and  those  who  followed,  for 
a  number  of  years  afterwards,  were  more  generally 
of  the  religious  people  called  Quakers;  and  in  their 
native  country  had  suffered  much  on  account  of 
their  religion,  both  in  person  and  property,  through 
the  persecuting  bigotry  of  those  times ;  so,  on  their 
arrival,  their  great  and  primary  concern  is  said  to 
have  been  the  continuance  and  support  of  their  re- 
ligious public  worship,  in  every  part  of  the  country, 
where  they  made  settlements,  in  such  manner*as 
their  situation  and  circumstances  then  permitted ; 
and  though  the  generality  of  them  were  not  ranked 
among  the  rich  and  great,  yet  many  had  valuable 
estates,  were  of  good  familiesfcand  education ;  and 
were  mostly  sober,  industrious,  and  substantial  peo- 
ple, of  low  or  moderate  fortunes,  but  of  good  reputa- 
tion and  character. 

The  first  most  considerable  English  settlement  in 
Pennsylvania  proper,  is  said  to  have  been  near  the 
lower  falls  of  the  river  Delaware,  in  Bucks  county ; 
where  the* Quakers  had  a  regular  and  established 
meeting  for  religious  worship,  before  the  country 
bore  the  name  of  Pennsylvania  :  some  of  the  inha- 
bitants there  having  settled  by  virtue  of  patents, 
from  Sir  Edmund  Andross,  governor  of  New  York. 

The  early  settlers  appear  in  general  to  have  been 
provident  and  cautious  in  their  removal;  so  that 
rashness  and  inconsidcration,  so  common  in  new 
attempts  of  this  kind,  was  not  very  common  among 


them.  Many  of  them  Brought  servants,  and  had 
provided  themselves  with  food  and  clothing  for  such 
a  space  of  time  after  their  arrival,  as,  it  might  be 
reasonably  supposed  their  care  and  industry  would 
afterwards  procure  necessary  subsistence  in  the 
province :  besides,  sufficient  quantities  of  household 
furniture,  utensils,  implements,  and  tools,  and  ne- 
cessary trades  and  occupations,  were  previously  pro- 
vided and  brought  by  not  a  few  of  them. 

The  nature  of  both  their  religious  and  civil 
system  and  conduct  in  general  was  so  reasonable 
and  liberal,  that,  as  they  became  known,  great 
numbers  of  people  were  induced  to  flock  to  the  pro- 
vince from  different  parts  of  Europe,  and  in  such  a 
rapid  manner,  to  colonize  and  improve  it,  as  had 
scarcely  ever  been  paralleled  in  any  other  country 
at  so  great  a  distance  from  the  parent  states,  or 
civilized  part  of  the  world. 

In  this,  and  the  two  next  succeeding  years,  ar- 
rived ships  with  passengers  or  settlers  from  Lon- 
don, Bristol,  Ireland,  Wales,  Cheshire,  Lancashire, 
Holland,  Germany,  £c.  to  the  number  of  about  fifty 
sail. 

Among  those  from  Germany,  were  some  Friends, 
or  Quakers,  from  Krisheim  or  Cresheim,  a  town  not 
far  from  Worms.  They  had  been  early  convinced 
of  the  religious  principles  of  the  Quakers,  by  the 
preaching  of  William  Ames,  an  Englishman ;  for 
which  they  had  bore  a  public  testimony  there,  till 
the  present  time  ;  when  they  all  removed  to  Penn- 
sylvania, and  settled  about  six  or  seven  miles  dis- 
tant from  Philadelphia,  at  a  place  which  they  called 
German  Town. 

"  This  removal,"  says  Sewell,  in  his  history  of  the 
Quakers,  "  did  not  seem  to  be  without  a  singular 
direction  of  "Providence:  for  not  long  after  a  war 
ensued  in  Germany,  where  the  Palatinate  was  al- 
together laid  waste  by  the  French,  and  thousands 
of  families  were  bereft  of  their  possessions,  and  re- 
duced to  poverty." 

Among  those  adventurers  and  settlers  who  ar 
rived  about  this  time  were  also  many  from  Wales, 
of  those  who  are  called  Ancient  Britons,  and  mostly 
Quakers  ;  most  of  whom  were  of  the  original  or 
early  stock  of  that  society  there.  They  had  early 
purchased  of  the  proprietary,  in  England,  forty 
thousand  acres  of  land. 

Those  who  came  at  present  took  up  so  much  of  it 
on  the  west  side  of  Sculkil  river,  as  made  the  three 
townships  of  Merion,  Haverford,  and  Radnor;  and 
in  a  few  years  afterwards,  their  number  was  so  much 
augmented  as  to  settle  the  three  other  townships  of 
New  Town,  Goshen,  and  Uwchland.  After  which 
they  continued  still  increasing,  and  became  a  nu 
merous  and  flourishing  people. 

Notwithstanding  the  precaution  which  many  of 
these  adventurers  had  used,  in  bringing  provisions 
and  other  necessaries  with  them  for  a  certain  time, 
yet  it  cannot  be  reasonably  supposed  that  the  arrival 
of  such  a  large  number  of  people  in  a  wilderness, 
within  the  space  of  two  or  three  years,  would  not 
necessarily  be  attended  with  inconveniencies  and 
difficulties.  Though  the  European  inhabitants  in 
the  country,  prior  to  their  arrival,  were  kind  and 
assisting,  yet  they  were  very  few,  mostly  new 
settlers,  and  consequently  were  but*  meanly  pro- 
vided, either  with  provisions  or  other  accommoda- 
ions ;  insomuch  that  sometimes,  for  many  years 
afterwards,  the  scarcity  which  was  experienced 
among  them  of  the  former  caused  very  alarming 
apprehensions. 

Amidst  many  minute  accounts,  the  following  may 


UNITED  STATES. 


799 


give  some  idea  of  the  early  circumstances  of  the 
province  : — 

John  Scarborough,  of  London,  coach-smith,  ar- 
rived in  the  country  in  1682,  with  his  son  John, 
then  a  youth,  and  settled  in  Middletown  in  Bucks 
county,  among  the  first  in  those  parts,  where  he 
remained  about  two  years,  and  then  embarked  for 
his  native  country,  with  intention  to  bring  over  his 
wife  and  family ;  having  suffered  much  by  persecu- 
tion for  his  religion  in  England,  being  a  Quaker. 

During  his  residence  in  Pennsylvania,  provisions 
were  sometimes  scarce  in  the  part  where  he  re- 
sided ;  but  the  wild  pigeons  came  in  such  great 
numbers,  that  the  air  was  sometimes  darkened  by 
their  flight ;  and  flying  low,  they  were  frequently 
knocked  down,  as  they  flew  in  great  quantities,  by 
those  who  had  no  other  means  to  take  them ; 
whereby  they  supplied  themselves,  and  having 
salted  those  which  they  could  not  immediately  use, 
they  preserved  them  both  for  bread  and  meat. 

Thus  they  were  supplied  several  times  during  the 
first  two  or  three  years,  till  they  had  raised  by  their 
industry  food  sufficient  out  of  the  ground ;  for  the 
tilling  of  which  at  that  time  they  used  hoes,  having 
neither  horses  nor  ploughs.  The  Indians  were  re- 
markably kind,  and  assisted  them,  frequently  sup- 
plying them  with  such  provisions  as  they  could 
spare,  and  other  kindnesses. 

John  Scarborough,  having  placed  vhis  son  under 
the  care  of  a  friend,  sailed  for  England ;  but  he 
never  returned.  His  wife,  who  was  not  a  Quaker, 
being  unwilling  to  leave  her  native  country,  and 

Eersccution  beginning  to  cease,  he  afterwards  gave 
is  possessions  in  Pennsylvania  to  his  son,  whom 
he  had  left  in  the  province,  with  a  strict  charge, 
when  it  should  be  in  his  power,  to  be  kind  to  the 
poor  Indians  for  the  favours  he  had  received  from 
them ;  which  his  son  faithfully  observed  and  com- 
plied with,  and  is  said  to  have  been  a  worthy  man 
and  of  good  character. 

John  Chapman  came  from  England  in  1684. 
The  ship  iu  which  he  came,  by  reason  of  bad 
weather,  put  into  Maryland,  where  he  met  with 
Phineas  Pemberton,  whose  father-in-law,  James 
Harrison,  had  purchased  in  Bucks  county,  Penn- 
sylvania, five  thousand  acres  of  land,  part  of  it  in 
Wright's  town  ;  hence  Chapman  getting  intelli- 
gence of  that  part  of  th;  country,  afterward  settled 
there.  He  went  from  Maryland  with  his  family, 
first  to  Phineas  Pemberton's  plantation,  near  the 
falls  of  Delaware,  who  had  now  made  a  convenient 
settlement,  and  entertained  the  new  comers  with 
much  kindness.  From  hence  Chapman  went  to 
his  purchase  in  Wright's  Town,  where,  within 
about  twelve  months  afterwards,  his  wife  had 
two  sons  at  one  time,  whence  he  called  the  place 
Twins  Borough. 

At  this  time  Chapman's  place  was  the  furthest 
back  in  the  woods  of  any  English  settlement ;  and 
the  Indians,  being  then  numerous,  much  frequented 
his  house  in  great  companies,  and  were  very  kind 
to  him  and  his  family,  as  well  as  to  those  who  came 
after  him  ;  often  supplying  them  with  corn  and 
other  provisions,  which  in  those  early  times,  more 
especially  in  that  part  of  the  country,  were  very 
scarce,  and  hard  to  be  procured. 

In  one  of  these  scarce  times  J.  Chapman's  eldest 
daughter,  Mara,  supplied  his  family  by  an  incident 
unexpected.  Being  near  Neshaminy  creek,  which 
runs  into  the  Delaware,  she  heard  an  unusual 
noise,  like  that  of  something  in  distress ;  upon 
search,  she  found  a  large  buck,  which  had  disen- 


gaged himself  from  a  wolf  that  a  little  before  had 
seized  on  him,  and  had  fled  to  the  creek  for  safety, 
under  a  high  bank  :  the  buck  stood  still  till  she  took 
the  halter  from  the  horse  on  which  she  rude,  and 
with  a  stick  put  it  over  his  horns,  whereby  she  se- 
cured him  till  assistance  came,  on  which  the  wolf 
retired  :  such  incidents  as  this  in  those  times 
were  considered  as  providential  favours. 

Abraham  and  Joseph  Chapman,  the  twins  before 
mentioned,  when  boys,  about  nine  or  ten  years  old, 
going  out  one  evening  to  seek  their  cattle,  met  an 
Indian  in  the  woods,  who  told  them  to  go  back, 
else  they  would  be  lost.  Soon  after  this  they  took 
his  advice,  and  went  back  ;  but  it  was  quite  night 
before  they  got  home,  where  they  found  the  Indian; 
who,  being  careful  lest  they  should  lose  themselves; 
had  repaired  thither  in  the  night  to  see  if  they  had 
returned.  And  their  parents,  about  that  time  going 
to  the.  yearly  meeting  at  Philadelphia,  and  leaving 
a  young  family  at  home  (they  being  Quakers),  the 
Indians  came'  every  day,  to  see  whether  any  thing 
was  amiss  among  them.  Such,  in  many  instances, 
was  the  kind  treatment  and  behaviour  of  the  natives 
or  aborigines  of  this  country  to  the  English,  in 
their  first  and  early  settlement  of  it. 

The  first  business  of  the  settlers  after  their  ar- 
rival, was  to  land  their  property,  and  put  it  under 
such  shelter  as  could  be  found  ;  then,  while  some  of 
them  got  warrants  of  survey,  for  taking  up  so  much 
land  as  was  sufficient  for  immediate  settling,  others 
went  further  into  the  woods,  to  the  different  places 
where  their  lands  were  laid  out;  often  without  any 
path  or  road  to  direct  them ;  for  scarce  any  were 
to  be  found  above  two  miles  from  the  water-side, 
nor  any  sign  of  a  European  ever  having  been  there. 
As  to  the  Indians,  they  seldom  travelled  so  regularly 
as  to  be  traced  or  followed  by  footsteps,  except  per- 
haps, from  one  of  their  towns  to  another  ;  and  their 
huntings  were  rather  like  ships  at  sea,  without  any 
track  or  path.  So  that  all  the  country,  further  than 
about  two  miles  distant  from  the  river  (excepting 
the  Indians'  moveable  settlements),  was  an  entire 
wilderness,  producing  nothing  for  the  support  of 
human  life  but  the  wild  fruits  and  animals  of  the 
woods. 

The  lodgings  of-  some  of  these  settlers  were,  at 
first,  in  the  woods ;  a  chosen  tree  was  frequently  all 
the  shelter  they  had  against  the  inclemency  of  the 
weather,  and  this  sometimes  late  in  the  autumn,  and 
even  in  the  winter  season.-  The  next  coverings  of 
many  of  them  were,  either  caves  in  the  earth,  or 
such  huts  erected  upon  it  as  could  be  most  expedi- 
tiously  procured,  till  better  houses  were  built ;  for 
which  they  had  no  want  of  timber. 

It  is  impossible  that  these  first  adventurers  and 
settlers  could  at  once  obtain  a  proper  method  of  im- 
proving this  wilderness  ;  and  it  is  equally  certain,  that 
the  great  difference  between  the  finally  cultivated 
and  open  countries,  with  the  near  connexions  which 
many  of  them  had  left  behind,  and  the  appearance 
of  a  wild  and  woody  desert,  with  which  they  had 
now  to  encounter  among  savages,  must  have  created 
in  them  very  forcible  emotions,  and  made  at  first 
strong  impressions  on  their  minds.  The  considera- 
tion likewise  of  the  long  and  painful  labour,  and 
inevitable  disappointments  and  hardships,  which, 
more  or  less,  were  naturally  inseparable  from  such 
undertakings,  and  for  a  series  of  years  must  neces- 
sarily be  endured,  before  a  comfortable  subsistence 
could  be  procured  in  the  country,  and  a  sufficient 
portion  of  land  brought  into  proper  order  for  that 
purpose,  must  undoubtedly  have  been  very  affecting  to 


800 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


n  considerate  people,  in  this  new,  remote,  and  solitary 
situation.  But  the  soil  was  fertile,  the  air  in  general 
pure  and  healthy ;  the  streams  of  water  were  good  and 
plentiful,  wood  for  fire  and  building  in  abundance ; 
and,  as  they  were  a  religious  people,  knowing  their 
views  in  this  their  undertaking  to  be  good,  they 
cheerfully  underwent  all  difficulties  of  this  nature, 
and  Providence  blessed  their  industry. 

In  a  short  anonymous  treatise,  printed  and  pub- 
lished "  by  Andrew  Sowle,  in  Shoreditch,  1684," 
the  views  and  motives  of  some  of  these  early  colo- 
nists are  detailed  in  a  very  characteristic  manner. 
We  give  the  introductory  part,  as  a  specimen  of  the 
modes  of  thought  and  habits  of  these  modern  patri- 
archs. 

"  The  Planter's  speech  to  his  neighbours  and  coun- 
trymen of  Pennsylvania,  East  and  West  Jersey, 
and  to  all  such  as  have  transported  themselves 
into  new  colonies,  for  the  sake  of  a  quiet  and 
1    retired  life. 

'<  My  dear  friends  and  countrymen, 

"  Though  it  may  seem  very  impertinent  and  un- 
necessary to  go  about  to  repeat  to  you  the  occasions 
and  motives  that  inclined  you  to  abandon  the  land 
of  your  nativity,  and  those  comfortable  outward 
employments  and  accommodations  which  most  of 
you  had  there,  and  to  adventure  yourselves  to  the 
hazards  of  a  long  voyage  at  sea,  to  come  to  this 
remote  part  of  the  world ;  yet,  lest  you  should  forget 
those  inducements — as  often  it  happens,  that  men, 
by  a  slothful  negligience,  or  ignorance,  after  some 
tract  of  time,  fall  from  their  first  love,  and  blindly 
hurry  themselves  into  the  very  same  mischiefs  which 
they  intended  to  avoid,  and  build  up  again  what 
they  justly  endeavoured  to  destroy,  not  foreseeing 
the  future  ill  consequences  of  their  present  (supposed 
innocent)  actings — I  shall  take  leave  briefly  to  men- 
tion some  few  of  those  weighty  causes  which  I  am 
confident,  originally  swayed  your  spirits  to  this 
transplantation,  and  those  good  ends,  for  the  ob- 
taining of  which,  you  chiefly  removed  hither. 

"  The  motives  of  your  retreating  to'  these  new 
habitations,  I  apprehend  (measuring  your  senti- 
ments by  my  own)  to  have  been, 

"  1.  The  desires  of  a  peaceable  life,  where  we 
might  worship  .God,  and  obey  his  law  with  freedom, 
according  to  the*dictates  of  the  divine  principle, 
unincumbered  with  the  mouldy  errors  of  fierce 
invasions  of  tradition,  politic  craft,  covetous,  or  am- 
bitious cruelty,  &c. 

"  2.  That  we  might  here,  as  on  a  virgin  elysian 
shore,  commence,  or  improve,  such  an  innocent 
course  of  life  as  might  unload  us  of  those  outward 
cares,  vexations,  and  turmoils,  which  before  we  were 
always  subject  unto,  from  the  hands  of  self-designing 
and  unreasonable  men. 

"  3.  That,  as  Lot,  by  flying  to  little  Zoar,  from 
the  ungodly  company  of  a  more  populous,  magnifi- 
cent dwelling,  we  might  avoid  both  being  grieved 
vith  the  sight  of  infectious,  as  well  as  odious  exam- 
ples, of  horrid  swearings,  cursings,  drunkenness, 
gluttony,  uncleanness,  and  all  kinds  of  debauchery, 
continually  committed  with  greediness ;  and  also 
escape  the  judgments  threatened  to.  every  land  pol- 
luted with  such  abominations. 

"  4.  That,  as  trees  are  transplanted  from  one  soil 
to  another,  to  render  them  more  thriving  and  better 
bearers,  so  we  here,  in  peace  and  secure  retire- 
ment, under  the  bountiful  protection  of  God,  and  in 
the  lap  of  the  least  adulterated  nature,  might  every 
one  the  better  improve  his  talent,  and  bring  forth 


more  plenteous  fruits,  to  the  glory  of  God,  and  pub- 
lic welfare  of  the  whole  creation. 

'5.  And  lastly,  That  in  order  hereunto,  by  our 
holy  doctrine,  and  the  practical  teachings  of  our 
exemplary,  abstemious  lives,  transacted  in  all  hu- 
mility, sobriety,  plainness,  self-denial,  virtue,  and 
honesty,  we  might  gain  upon  those  thousands  of 
poor  dark  souls  scattered  round  about  us,  (and  com- 
monly, in  way  of  contempt  and  reproach,  called 
heathens,)  and  bring  them,  not  only  to  a  state  of 
civility,  but  real  piety ;  which  effected,  would  turn 
to  a  more  satisfactory  account,  than  if,  with  the 
proud  Spaniards,  we  had  gained  the  mines  of 
Potosi,  and  might  make  the  ambitious  heroes,  whom 
the  world  admires,  blush  for  their  petty  and  shame- 
ful victories,  which  only  tend  to  make  their  fellow- 
creatures  slaves  to  those  that  are  already  the  devil's 
vassals  :  whereas  hereby  we  might  release  millions 
from  the  chains  of  Satan,  and  not  only  teach  them 
heir  rights  as  men,  and  their  happiness  when  Chris- 
tians, but  bring  them  from  the  power  of  darkness 
'nto  the  marvellous  light,  and  the  glorious  liberty  of 
the  sons  of  the  Most  High. 

"  These  thoughts,  these  designs,  my  friends,  were 
those  that  brought  you  hither ;  and  so  far  only 
as  you  pursue  and  accomplish  them,  you  obtain  the 
end  of  your  journey.  If  these  be  neglected,  though 
your  ports  and  rivers  were  full  of  trading  ships, 
your  land  never  so  populous,  and  loaded  with  most 
vendible  commodities,  yet  I  would  be  bold  to  say, 
that  your  plantations  were  in  a  most  unthriving 
condition  ;  that  like  men  in  a  fever,  tumbling  from 
one  side  of  the  bed  to  the  other,  you  have  shifted 
your  dwelling,  but  not  recovered  your  health ;  nor 
are  one  inch  nearer  your  proposed  happiness  in 
America  than  in  Europe ;  and  have  travelled  some 
thousands  of  miles,  to  as  little  purpose  as  the  Je- 
suits into  Japan  and  China,  or  foolish  pilgrims,  in 
their  tedious,  vain,  journeys  to  Comppstella,  Lo- 
re tto,  or  Jerusalem. 

"  Our  business,  therefore,  here,  in  this  new  land, 
s  not  so  much  to  build  houses,  and  establish  facto- 
ries, and  promote  trade  and  manufactories,  that  may 
enrich  ourselves,  (though  all  these  things,  in  their 
due  place,  are  not  to  be  neglected.)  as  to  erect 
temples  of  holiness  and  righteousness,  which  God 
may  delight  in;  to  lay  such  lasting  frames  and 
foundations  of  temperance  and  virtue,  as  may  sup- 
port the  superstructures  of  our  future  happiness, 
both  in  this  and  the  other  world. 

"  In  order  to  these  great  and  glorious  ends,  it 
will  well  become,  nay,  it  is  the  indispensable  duty  of 
all  that  are  superiors  amongst  us,  to  make  laws,  and 
imitate  customs  that  may  tend  to  innocency,  and  a 
harmless  life;  so  as  to  avoid  and  prevent  all  op- 
pression and  violence,  either  to  men  or  beasts; 
by  which  we  shall  strengthen  the  principle  of 
well-doing,  and  qualify  the  fierce,  bitter,  envious, 
wrathful  spirit;  which  (as  it  is  said  of  fire  and 
water  in  the  extremes,)  is  a  good  servant,  but  a  bad 
master,"  &c. 

In  the  remainder  of  this  curious  tract  many  par- 
ticulars are  proposed,  as  fundamentals  for  future 
laws  and  customs,  tending  principally  to  establish 
a  higher  degree  of  temperance,  and  original  simpli- 
city of  manners.  Every  thing  of  a  military  nature, 
even  the  use  of  warlike  implements,  is  not  only  dis- 
approved, but  also  all  violence,  or  cruelty  towards, 
and  the  wanton  killing  of,  the  inferior  living  crea- 
tures, with  the  eaiting  of  animal  food,  are  also 
strongly  advised  against.  All  which  customs  or 
laws  are  proposed,  "  to  the  end  that  a  higher  de- 


UNITED  STATES. 


801 


gree  of  love,  perfection  and  happiness  might  more 
universally  be  introduced  and  preserved  among 
maf.kind." 

The  first  comers  after  their  arrival  soon  cleared 
land  enough  to  make  way  for  a  crop  of  Indian  corn, 
in  the  succeeding  spring  ;  and  in  a  year  or  two,  thoy 
began  upon  wheat  and  other  grain  ;  thus  they  went 
on  improving,  till  they  got  into  a  comfortable  way 
of  living;  so  that  many  of  them  were  blessed  both 
with  the  necessaries  and  conveniences  of  life  beyond 
their  expectation  ;  and  lived  to  a  good  old  age.  The 
following  extract  from  the  testimony  of  one  of  them, 
a  Quaker,  gives  a  lively  idea  of  their  circum- 
stances. 
"  The  testimony  of  Richard  Townsend,  showing 

the  providential  hand  of  God,  to  him  and  others, 

from  the  first  settlement  of  Pennsylvania,  to  this 

day.     (About  the  year  1727.) 

"Whereas  King  Charles  II.  in  t.he  year  1681, 
was  pleased  to  grant  this  province  to  William  Penn, 
and  his  heirs  for  ever ;  which  act  seemed  to  be  an 
act  of  Providence  to  many  religious,  good,  people  ; 
and  the  proprietor,  William  Penn,  being  one  of  the 
people  called  Quakers,  and  in  good  esteem  among 
them  and  others,  many  were  inclined  to  embark 
along  with  him,  for  the  settlement  of  this  place. 

"  To  that  end,  in  the  year  1682  several  ships 
being  provided,  I  found  a  concern  on  my  mind  to 
embark  with  them,  with  my  wife  and  child  ;  and 
about  the  latter  end  of  the  sixth  month,  having  set- 
tled my  affairs  in  London,  where  I  dwelt,  I  went  on 
board  the  ship  Welcome,  Robert  Greenaway,  com- 
mander, in  company  witn  my  worthy  friend,  Wil- 
liam Peun  ;  whose  good  conversation  was  very  ad- 
vantageous to  all  the  company.  His  singular  care 
was  manifested  in  contributing  to  the  necessities  of 
many,  who  were  sick  of  the  small-pox,  then  on 
board  ;  out  of  which  company  about  30  died.  After 
a  prosperous  passage  of  about  two  months,  having 
had  in  that  time  many  good  meetings  on  board,  we 
arrived  here. 

"  At  our  arrival,  we  found  it  a  wilderness ;  the 
chief  inhabitants  were  Indians,  and  some  Swedes ; 
who  received  us  in  a  friendly  manner :  and  though 
there  was  a  great  number  of  us,  the  good  hand  of 
Povidence  was  seen  in  a  particular  manner  ;  in  that 
provisions  were  found  for  us  by  the  Swedes  and 
Indians,  at  very  reasonable  rates,  as  well  as  brought 
from  divers  other  parts,  that  were  inhabited  before. 

"  Our  first  concern  was  to  keep  up  and  maintain 
our  religious  worship  ;  and,  in  order  thereunto,  we 
had  several  meetings  in  the  houses  of  the  inhabit- 
ants ;  and  one  boarded  meeting-house  was  set  up, 
where  the  city  was  to  be,  near  Delaware ;  and,  as 
we  had  nothing  but  love  and  good-will,  in  our  hearts, 
one  to  another,  we  had  very  comfortable  meetings, 
from  time  to  time  ;  and  after  our  meeting  was  over, 
we  assisted  each  other  in  building  little  houses,  for 
our  shelter. 

"  After  some  time  I  setup  a  mill  on  Chester  creek ; 
which  I  brought  ready  framed  from  London  ;  which 
served  for  grinding  of  corn,  and  sawing  of  boards; 
and  was  of  great  use  tons.  Besides,  I,  with  Joshua 
Tittery,  made  a  net,  and  caught  great  quantities  of 
fish ;  which  supplied  ourselves  and  many  others  ;  so 
that,  notwithstanding  it  wras  thought  near  3000  per- 
sons came  in  the  first  year,  we  were  so  providen- 
tially provided  for,  that  we  could  buy  a  deer  for  about 
two  shillings,  and  a  large  turkey  for  about  one 
shilling,  and  Indian  corn  for  about  two  shillings 
and  six-pence  per  bushel. 

"  And,  as  our  worthy  proprietor  treated  the  In- 
HIST.  or  AMER.— Nos.  101  &  102. 


dians  with  extraordinary  humanity,  they  became 
very  civil  and  loving  to  us,  and  brought  in  abundance 
of  venison.  As,  in  other  countries,  the  Indians  were 
exasperated  by  hard  treatment,  which  hath  been  the 
foundation  of  much  bloodshed,  so  the  contrary  treat- 
ment here  hath  produced  their  love  and  affection. 

"  About  a  year  after  our  arrival,  there  came  in 
about  twenty  families  from  high  and  low  Germany, 
of  religioiis,  good  people  ;  who  settled  about  six 
miles  from  Philadelphia,  and  called  the  place  Ger- 
mautown.  The  country  continually  increasing,  peo- 
ple began  to  spread  themselves  further  back.  '  Also 
a  place  called  North  Wales,  was  settled  by  many  of 
the  Ancient  Britons,  an  honest  inclined  people, 
although  they  had  not  then  made  a  profession  of  the 
truth  as  held'by  us,  yet,  in  a  little  time,  a  large  con- 
viucement  was  among  them ;  and  divers  meeting- 
houses were  built. 

"  About  the  time  in  which  Germantown  was  laid 
out,  I  settled  upon  my  tract  of  land  which  I  had 
purchased  of  the  proprietor  in  England,  about  a 
mile  from  thence ;  where  I  set  up  a  house  and  a 
corn-mill ;  which  was  very  useful  to  the  country, 
for  several  miles  round  :  but  there  not  being  plenty 
of  horses,  people  generally  brought  their  corn  on 
their  backs  many  miles  ; — I  remember  one  man  had 
a  bull  so  gentle,  that  he  used  to  bring  his  corn  on 
him,  instead  of  a  horse. 

"  Being  now  settled  about  six  or  seven  miles 
from  Philadelphia,  where  leaving  the  principal  body 
of  friends,  together  with  the  chief  place  of  provi- 
sions as  before  mentioned,  flesh-meat  was  very  scarce 
with  me  for  some  time;  of  which  I  found  the  want. 
I  remember  I  was  once  supplied  by  a  particular 
instance  of  Providence,  in  the  following  manner  . — 

"  As  I  was  in  my  meadow  mowing  grass,  a  young 
deer  came  and  looked  on  me  ;  I  continued  mowing, 
and  the  deer  in  the  same  attention  to  me ;  upon, 
which  I  laid  down  my  scythe,  and  went  towards  him; 
upon  which  he  ran  off  a  small  distance  ;  I  went  to 
my  work  again,  and  the  deer  continued  looking  on 
me  ;  so  that  several  times  I  left  my  work,  to  go  to- 
wards him  ;  but  he  still  kept  himself  at  a  distance  ; 
at  last,  as  I  was  going  towards  him,  and  he  looking 
on  me  did  not  mind  his  steps,  but  ran  forceably 
against  the  trunk  of  a  tree,  and  stunned  himself  so 
much,  that  he  fell ;  upon  which  I  ran  forward,  and 
getting  upon  him,  held  him  by  the  legs  :  after  a 
great  struggle,  in  which  I  had  almost  tired  him  out, 
and  rendered  him  lifeless,  I  threw  him  on  my 
shoulders,  holding  him  fast  by  the  legs,  and  witlx 
some  difficulty,  from  his  fresh  struggling,  carried 
him  home,  about  a  quarter  of  a  rnile  to  my  house  ; 
where  by  the  assistance  of  a  neighbour,  who  hap- 
pened to  be  there,  and  killed  him  for  me  ;  he  proved 
very  serviceable  to  my  family.  I  could  relate  seve- 
ral other  acts  of  Providence,  of  this  kind,  but  omit. 
them  for  brevity. 

"  As  people  began  to  spread,  and  improve  their 
lands,  the  country  became  more  fruitful;  so  that 
those,  who  came  after  us,  were  plentifully  supplied  ; 
and  with  what  we  abounded  we  began  a  small  trade 
abroad.  And  as  Philadelphia  increased,  vessels 
were  built,  and  many  employed.  Both  country  and 
trade  have  been  wonderfully  increasing  to  this  day ; 
so  that,  from  a  wilderness,  the  Lord,  by  his  good 
hand  of  Providence,  hath  made  it  a  fruitful  field :  on 
which  to  look  back,  and  observe  all  the  steps,  would 
exceed  my  present  purpose ;  yet,  being  now  in  the 
84th  year  of  my  age,  and  having  been  in  this  country 
near "  46  years,  and  my  memory  pretty  clear,  con- 
cerning the  rise  and  progress  of  the  province,  I  cau 
4  A 


802 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


do  no  less  than  return  praises  to  the  Almighty,  when 
I  look  back  and  consider  his  bountiful  hand,  not 
only  in  temporals,  but  in  the  great  increase  of  our 
meetings;  wherein  he  hath  many  times  manifested 
his  great  loving-kindness  m  reaching  to,  and  con- 
vincing many  persons  of  the  principles  of  truth  ;  and 
those  that  were  already  convinced  and  continued 
faithful,  were  not  only  blessed  with  plenty  of  the 
fruits  of  the  earth,  but  also  with  the  dew  of  Heaven. 
I  am  engaged  in  my  spirit,  to  supplicate  the  con- 
tinuance thereof  to  the  present  rising  generation  ; 
that,  as  God  hath  blessed  their  parents,  the  same 
blessing  may  remain  on  their  offspring  to  the  end  of 
time  :  that  it  may  be  so  is  the  hearty  desire  and 
prayer  of  their  ancient  and  loving  friend, 

"  RICHARD  TOWNSEND." 

Foundation  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia — Province  and 
territory  divided  into  counties — First  general  assem- 
bly at  Philadelphia  in  1683 — Proceedings  of  the 
assembly — Second  charter,  or  frame  of  government 
— A  seal  for  each  county  ;  thejirst  sheriff's — First 
grand  and  petit  jury,  with  their  business,  &fc.—— 
Further  account  of  the  situation  and  plan  of  Phi- 
ladelphia —  Penn's  letter  to  the  free  society  of 
traders,  yiviny  an  account  of  Pennsylvania  at  that 
time. 

In  the  latter  part  of  this  year,  1682,  the  propri- 
etary having  finished  his  business  with  the  Indians, 
undertook,  with  the  assistance  of  his  surveyor-gene- 
ral, Thomas  Holme,  to  lay  out  a  place  for  the  city : 
and  the  ground  which  was  chosen  for  that  purpose, 
was  claimed  by  some  Swedes  ;  to  whom  he  gave,  in 
exchange  for  it,  a  larger  quantity  of  land  at  a  small 
distance. 

The  situation  of  this  place,  being  where  Phila- 
delphia now  stands,  along  the  western  side  of  the 
river  Delaware,  then  exhibited  an  agreeable  pros- 
pect ;  it  had  a  high  and  dry  bank  next  the  water, 
with  a  high  shore,  ornamented  with  a  flue  view  of 
pine  trees  growing  upon  it. 

In  this  bank  many  of  the  first  and  early  adven- 
turers had  caves,  or  holes  for  their  residence,  be- 
fore any  houses  were  built,  or  better  accommoda- 
tions prepared  for  them.  The  firs!  house  erected  on 
this  plot  of  ground,  was  built  by  George  Guest, 
and  was  not  finished  at  the  time  of  the  proprietor's 
arrival. 

Soon  afterwards  many  small  houses  were  erected. 
Penn^himself  had  a  large  mansion-house,  built  on 
his  manor  of  Pennsbury,  near  the  side  of  Delaware, 
a  few  miles  below  the  falls  of  Trenton,  and  about 
26  above  the  city  :  which  appears  to  have  been  un- 
dertaken before  his  arrival,  and  intended  for  his 
reception.  Here  afterwards  he  sometimes  resided, 
and  had  meetings  and  conferences  with  the  Indians, 
both  on  a  religious  and  civil  account. 

About  this  time  also  the  proprietor,  with  the  con- 
sent of  the  purchasers  under  him,  divided  the  pro- 
vince and  territories,  each  into  three  counties;  those 
of  the  province  were  called  the  counties  of  Bucks, 
Philadelphia,  and  Chester  ;  those  of  the  territories, 
Newcastle,  Kent,  and  Sussex.  For  which  having 
appointed  sheriffs,  and  other  proper  officers  in  each 
county,  he  issued  writs  for  the  election  of  members 
of  council  and  assembly,  conformable  to  the  cons':- 
tution  at  that  time. 

He  met  the  council  on  the  10th  of  March,  1683, 
O.  S.  at  Philadelphia,  and  the  assembly  two  days 
afterwards.  The  number  of  the  members  for  both 
the  council  and  assembly  consisted  of  twelve,  out  of 
each  county ;  three  for  the  council,  and  ninf  for  the 


assembly,  making  in  all  72.     Those  of  the  council 
were  : — 

William  Markham,  Christopher  Taylor,  Thomas 
Holme,  Lacy  Cock,  William  Haige,  John  Moll, 
Ralph  Withers,  John  Simcock,  Edward  Cantwell, 
William  Clayton,  William  Biles,  James  Harrison, 
William  Clark,  Francis  Whitewell,  John  Richard- 
son, John  Hillyard. 
The  members  of  assembly  for  each  county  were  : 

For  Bucks. — William  Yardley,  Samuel  Darke, 
Robert  Lucas,  Nicholas  Walne,  John  Wood,  John 
Clowes,  Thomas  Fitzwater,  Robert  Hall,  James 
Boyden. 

For  Philadelphia. — John  Songhurst,  John  Hart, 
Walter  King,  Andros  Binkson,  John  Moon,  Thomas 
Wynne,  Speaker,  Griffith  Jones,  William  Warner, 
Swan  Swanson. 

For  Chester.  —  John  Hoskins,  Robert  Wade, 
George  Wood,  John  Blunston,  Dennis  Rochford, 
Thomas  Bracy,  John  Bezer,  John  Harding,  Joseph 
Phipps. 

For  Kent. — John  Biggs,  Simon  Irons,  Thomas 
Hassold,  John  Curtis,  Robert  Bedwell,  William 
Windsmore,  John  Brinkloe,  Daniel  Brown,  Be 
nony  Bishop. 

For  Newcastle. — John  Cann,  John  Darby,  Va- 
lentine Hollingsworth,  Gasparus  Herman,  John 
Dehoaef,  James  Williams,  William  Guest,  Peter 
Alrick,  Henrick  Williams. 

For  Sussex. — Luke  Watson,  Alexander  Draper, 
William  Futcher,  Henry  Bowman,  Alexander  Mo- 
leston,  John  Hill,  Robert  Bracy,  John  Kipshaven, 
Cornelius  Verhoof. 

The  following  are  the  only  particulars  to  be  found 
respecting  the  characters  of  these  members  of  this 
first  provincial  council  and  assembly,  which  met  at 
Philadelphia. 

Captain  William  Markham,  from  London,  was  a 
relation  of  the  proprietor.  He  was  afterwards  some- 
times his  secretary,  aud  sometimes  his  deputy-go- 
vernor. He  appears  to  have  been  a  useful  person, 
of  good  education,  character  and  ability;  and  to 
have  possessed  the  proprietor's  confidence  and 
esteem. 

Christopher  Taylor,  who  is  said  to  have  been  a 
person  of  excellent  character  and  ability,  was  born 
in  Yorkshire,  where  he  had  a  good  education,  and 
wrote  well  in  the  Latin  language.  He  was  an  emi- 
nent preacher  among  the  Quakers;  and  composed 
several  works  in  defence  of  their  religious  principles 
in  England,  as  well  as  his  brother,  Thomas  Taylor. 
He  died  in  1696. 

Captain  Thomas  Holme  came  from  Waterford,  in 
Ireland.  He  was  a  Quaker,  and  surveyor-general 
of  the  province,  appointed  by  commission  from  the 
proprietor,  of  the  18th  April,  1682. 

Lacy  Cock  appears  to  have  been  one  of  the  Swede 
settlers,  prior  to  William  Penn's  arrival. 

John  Simcock  came  from  Ridley,  in  Cheshire, 
England,  where  he  had  suffered  much  for  his  reli- 
gion, being  a  Quaker  preacher.  He  had  a  good 
education,  was  one  of  the  proprietor's  first  commis- 
sioners of  property,  and  one  of  his  most  trusty 
friends  in  the  government.  Sometimes  he  was 
speaker  of  the  assembly ;  and  is  said  to  have  been  a 
very  worthy  and  serviceable  person,  in  the  province 
till  his  death.  He  lived  in  Chester  county  ;  and 
died  on  the  27th  of  January,  1702. 

William  Biles  was  a  preacher  among  the  Quakers, 
among  the  first  settlers  there  ;  where  he  appears  to 
have  taken  up  land,  under  Governor  Andross,  of 
New  York,  prior  to  William  Penn's  grant  of  the 


UNITED  STATES. 


803 


province.     He  is   said    to  have  been  a  very  useful  I  it'  extraordinary  propositions  should  sometimes   be 
person  both   in   the  civil   and  religious  line ;  being 
often  in  the  council  and  assembly,  &c. 

James  Harrison,  who  came  from  Boulton,  in  Lan 
cashire,   was  also  one  of  the  proprietor's  first  com 
missioners  of  property  ;  and  was  for   many   years 
with  him  as  agent  at   Peusbury  ;  he  was  a  man 
good  education,  and  a  preacher  among  the  Quakers. 
William  Haige  had  been  a  merchant  in  London. 
Ralph  Withers  came  from  Bishop's  Canning  in 
Wiltshire  ;  and  Griffith  Jones,  from  Surrey. 

Francis  Whitewell,  who  was  counsellor  for  Kent 
county,  is  said  to  have  been  a  very  serviceable  per- 
son in  the  government,  among  the  first  and  early 
settlers  ;  a  preacher  among  the  Quakers  ;  and  every 
way  a  very  useful  and  worthy  member  of  society. 
He  died  in  the  year  1684  ;  and  William  Darval  was 
chosen  counsellor  in  his  stead. 

Thomas  Wynne  was  speaker  of  the  assembly, 
during  the  two  first  years,  and  was  at  other  times  a 
member  of  it  He  was  one  of  the  people  called 
Quakers,  a  preacher  among  them,  and  came  from 
North  Wales  ;  a  person  of  note  and  good  character. 
He  died  in  the  latter  part  of  the  year  1692  ;  and  was 
the  author  of  some  works  written  in  defence  of  the 
Quakers,  in  his  native  country. 

John  Moon  was  originally  of  Lancashire,  in  Eng- 
land, afterwards  of  Bristol;  he  also  was  an  author 
of  works  in  defence  of  the  Quakers. 

John  Songhurst  came  from  Sussex,  in  England, 
and  was  a  preacher  among  the  Quakers.  He  died 
in  West  Jersey,  and  was  buried  in  Philadelphia,  in 
1688. 

Though  the  charter  of  privileges,  or  frame  of  go- 
vernment, required  a  greater  number  than  were  now 
returned  to  &erve  in  council  and  assembly,  yet  it 
was  left  to  be  explained  and  confirmed  by  the  go- 
vernor, his  heirs  and  assigns,  and  by  the  freemen 
•of  the  province  and  territories.  And  it  being  found 
inconvenient  to  return  the  full  complement  pre- 
scribed by  the  charter,  the  freemen  depended  upon 
the  proprietor's  construction  of  their  choice  in  a 
favourable  manner;  and  alleged  their  reasons, 
both  in  the  sheriffs'  returns,  and  also  by  petitions 
and  addresses,  for  choosing  only  twelve  for  each 
county,  as  sufficient  to  compose  both  the  council 
and  assembly;  and  declared  that  the  number  re- 
turned, namely,  three  for  the  council,  and  nine  for 
the  assembly,  from  each  county,  had  in  them  the 
power  of  the  whole  freemen  of  the  province  and 
territories,  and  consequently,  of  serving  in  these  ca- 
pacities. 

It  was  accordingly  requested  of  the  governor, 
that  this  alteration  might  not  deprive  the  people  of' 
the  benefit  of  their  charter,  though  it  might  seem  to 
be  returned  to  him  again,  by  not  being  accepted  so 
largely  as  granted.  Upon  which  the  governor  an- 
swered, "  That  they  might  amend,  alter,  or  add,  for 
the  public  good;  and  that  he  was  ready  to  settle 
such  foundations  as  might  be  for  their  happiness, 
according  to  the  powers  vested  in  him." 

These  preliminaries  being  settled,  the  different 
branches  of  the  legislature  proceeded  according  to 
the  method  prescribed  in  their  charter  of  privileges ; 
namely,  that  the  governor  and  provincial  council 
should  propose  to  the  assembly,  and  prepare  all 
bills,  which  they,  at  any  time,  should  think  proper 
to  be  passed  into  laws  consistent  with  the  powers 
granted  in  the  king's  letters  patent. 

In  such  popular  and  inexperienced  councils, 
where  every  man  may  propose  any  thing,  which  he 
fancies  will  tend  to  the  public  good,  it  is  no  wonder 


made  ;  and  though  many  singularities  of  this  nature 
do  not  appear  to  have  occurred  in  this  province,  yet, 
-probably,  the  two  following,  which  are  said  to  have 
-been  made,  at  this  time,  may  be  so  considered. 
First,  that  young  men  should  be  obliged  to  marry 
at,  or  before  a  certain  age.  Second,  that  two  sorts 
of  clothes  only  should  be  worn;  one  for  winter,  and 
the  other  for  summer.  Of  the  propositions  which 
were  now  made,  some  were  agreed  to,  and  some 
rejected:  but  the  principal  business  transacted  this 
session,  was  the  alteration  of  the  charter  of  liber- 
ties, called  the  frame  of  government,  which  had 
before  been  in  agitation. 

At  a  council  held  the  20th  of  March,  the  speaker, 
and  two  members  of  assembly  attending  with  some 
bills  which  had  been  sent  to  them,  the  governor  and 
council  desired  a  conference  with  the  whole  house 
and  freemen,  about  the  charter.  Upon  their  at- 
tending, the  governor  asked  them,  "  Whether  they 
chose  to  have  the  old  charter,  or  a  new,  one  ?"  They 
unanimously  requested  a  new  one,  with  such  amend- 
ments as  had  already  been  debated  and  agreed  on. 
To  which  the  governor  consented,  and  made  a 
speech  to  them  on  the  occasion;  in  which  he  de- 
clared their  duty,  and  his  own  willingness  to  oblige 
them.  Next  day  the  house  sent  Griffith  Jones,  and 
Thomas  Fitzwater,  two  of  their  members,  with  a 
written  message  to  the  governor,  containing  their 
thankful  acknowledgments  for  his  kind  speech,  and 
gratefully  embracing  his  offers,  respecting  what  they 
desired  to  be  inserted  iu  their  charter. 

A  committee  of  each  house  was  thereupon  ap- 
pointed to  draw  up  the  charter,  with  amendments. 
Those  of  the  council  were,  John  Moll,  for  New- 
castle; Francis  Whitewell,  for  Kent;  William 
Clark,  for  Sussex;  James  Harrison,  foi  Bucks; 
William  Clayton,  for  Chester;  and  Thomas  Holme, 
for  Philadelphia.  The  committee  of  assembly  were : 
James  Williams,  for  Newcastle;  Benony  Bishop, 
for  Kent;  Luke  Watson,  for  Sussex;  Thomas  Fitz 
water,  for  Bucks ;  Dennis  Rochford,  for  Chester ; 
and  Thomas  Wynne,  the  speaker,  for  Philadelphia 
county. 

At  a  council  held  the  30th  of  March,  this  year, 
the  charter  being  prepared  and  read,  signed,  sealed, 
and  delivered  by  the  governor,  was  received  by 
James  Harrison,  Thomas  Wynne,  and  another 
member,  on  behalf  of  the  assembly  and  freemen, 
who  returned  the  old  one  to  the  governor,  with  the 
hearty  thanks  of  the  whole  house. 

By  this  charter  the  provincial  council  was  to  con 
sist  of  eighteen  persons,  three  from  each  county; 
and  the  assembly  was  to  be  composed  of  36 ;  men 
of  most  note  for  virtue,  wisdom,  and  ability;  by 
whom,  with  the  governor,  all  laws  were  to  be  made, 
officers  chosen,  and  public  affairs  transacted,  in  the 
manner  therein  expressed. 

This  charter  continued  in  force  till  after  the  re- 
volution  in  England;  a'nd  though  in  some  parts,  it 
was  formed  upon  a  generous  plan ;  yet  all  the  laws 
were  thereby  still  to  be  prepared  and  proposed  by 
the  governor  and  council;  and  the  number  of  as- 
semblymen were  to  be  increased  at  their  pleasure. 
This  charter,  with  another  which  followed  in  the 
year  1696,  seemed  to  be  only  preparatory  to  the 
last  charter  of  privileges,  granted  in  1701. 

This  was  the  last  affair  transacted  at  the  session 
of  1683 ;  which  continued  22  days.  The  governor 
and  council,  among  other  regulations,  established  a 
seal  for  each  county,  viz.  for  Philadelphia  an  an- 


chor; for  Bucks  a 


tree  and  vine;   for  Chester 
4  A2 


804 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


plough;  for  Newcastle  a  cassia;  for  Kent  three  ears 
of  Indian  corn;  and  for  Sussex  a  wheat-sheaf. 

The  first  sheriffs  appointed  for  each  county  were : 
for  Philadelphia,  John  Test;  Chester,  Thomas 
Usher;  Bucks,  Richard  Noble;  New  Castle,  Ed- 
mund Cantwell;  Kent,  Peter  Bowcomb;  Sussex, 
John  Vines. 

The  first  grand  jury  in  Pennsylvania  was  sum- 
moned on  the  2nd  of  May,  this  year  (1683),  upon 
some  persons  accused  of  issuing  counterfeit  silver 
money.  The  governor  and  council  sat,  as  a  court 
of  justice,  on  the  occasion.  The  names  of  those 
empannelled  and  attested  to  serve  on  the  grand  jury 
were,  Thomas  Lloyd,  foreman,  Enoch  Flower,  Ri- 
chard Wood,  John  Harding,  John  Hill,  Edward 
Louff,  James  Boyden,  Nicholas  Walne,  John  James, 
John  Vanborson,  Robert  Hall,  Valentine  Hollings- 
worth,  Alexander  Draper,  John  Louff,  John  Wale, 
Samuel  Darke,  John  Parsons,  John  Blunston, 
Thomas  Fitzwater,  William  Guest,  John  Curtis, 
Robert  Lucas,  Henry  Jones,  and  Caleb  Pusey. 

A  bill  or  bills,  being  found  by  the  grand  jury,  a 
petty  jury  was  therefore  empanuelled  and  attested  ; 
whose  names  were :  John  Claypoole,  foreman,  Ro- 
bert Turner,  Robert  Ewer,  Andrew  Binkson,  John 
Barnes,  Joseph  Fisher,  Dennis  Rochford,  William 
Howell,  Walter  King,  Benjamin  Whitehead,  Tho- 
mas Rouse,  and  David  Breiutnall. 

They  convicted  a  person,  whose  name  was  Pick- 
ering, and  two  others,  his  accomplices,  of  coining 
and  stamping  silver  in  the  form  of  Spanish  pieces, 
with  the  alloy  of  too  much  copper  in  it.  Upon 
which  Pickering's  sentence,  as  principal,  was,  "  that 
for  this  high  misdemeanor,  whereof  his  country 
had  found  him  guilty,  he  should  make  full  satisfac- 
tion, in  good  and  current  pay,  to  every  person,  who 
should,  within  the  space  of  one  month,  bring  in  any 
of  this  false,  base,  and  counterfeit  coin,"  which  the 
next  day  was  to  be  called  in  by  proclamation, 
<!  according  to  their  respective  proportions ;  and  that 
the  money  brought  in  should  be  melted  down  before 
it  was  returned  to  him ;  and  that  he  should  pay  a 
fine  of  40/.  towards  the  building  of  a  court-house, 
stand  committed  till  the  same  was  paid,  and  after- 
wards find  security  for  his  good  behaviour." 

This,  and  all  other  affairs  before  the  council  being 
finished,  and  the  members  returned  to  their  habita- 
tions, the  proprietary  applied  himself  to  finish  his 
plan,  and  regulate  the  streets  of  his  favourite  city, 
Philadelphia. 

This  city  is  situated  40  degrees,  or  more  pre- 
cisely 39  degrees,  56  minutes,  54  seconds,  north 
from  the  equator,  and  about  75  degrees,  or  more  ac- 
curately 5  hours,  0  minutes,  35  seconds,  west  from 
London,  on  the  west  side  of  the  river  Delaware  ; 
which  river,  at  this  place,  is  near  one  mile  broad,  at 
the  distance  of  about  40  leagues  from  the  sea, 
along  the  course  of  the  river  and  bay.  The  river 
Sculkil,  which  is  a  branch  of  the  Delaware,  and 
here  runs  nearly  parallel  to  it,  at  the  distance  of 
two  miles  westward,  is  broad  and  deep  enough  for 
large  ships  at  this  place;  but,  on  account  of  a  sand- 
bar at  its  mouth,  where  it  enters  the  Delaware, 
about  four  miles  below  the  city,  its  navigation  for 
large  vessels  is  obstructed :  and  it  has  falls  about 
five  miles  above  the  city,  to  which  the  tide  runs, 
and  no  further.  Over  which  falls,  or  rocks,  at  cer- 
tain times,  in  floods  and  freshes,  boats  and  small 
craft  pass  down  to  the  city,  with  country  produce, 
as  iron,  wheat,  flour,  &c.  from  the  interior  parts  of 
the  province.  The  tide  rises  in  the  Delaware  gene- 
rally about  six  feet  at  the  city,  and  flows  near  30 


miles  above  it,  to  the  falls  at  Trenton,  on  the  Jersey 
shore,  and  is  navigable  all  the  way  for  large  shipping, 
as  far  as  that  place. 

The  original  plan  of  this  city,  as  confirmed  by 
charter,  dated  October  25th,  1701,  extends,  in 
length,  between  the  river  Delaware,  on  the  east, 
and  Sculkil,  on  the  west  of  it,  about  two  miles ;  and 
is,  in  breadth,  one  mile  nearly  on  each  river.  The 
streets,  which  run  right,  and  exactly  parallel  to 
each  other,  nearly  east  and  west,  from  river  to  river, 
are  nine  in  number,  and  they  are  intersected  at 
right  angles  by  23  others,  running  nearly  parallel 
with  the  rivers,  north  and  south;  none  being  less 
than  50,  nor  more  than  100  feet  broad. 

The  proprietor  likewise  assigned  five  squares 
within  this  plan  for  the  public  use  of  the  city,  with 
other  beneficial  regulations;  whose  future  great 
importance  to  the  city  having  since  not  been  suffi- 
ciently considered  and  attended  to,  some  of  them 
have  either  been  neglected  or  violated. 

The  largest  public  square,  at  the  centre,  it  is  said, 
was  intended  to  contain  ten  acres  of  land  ;  the  other 
four  eight  acres  each.  In  the  original  plan  by 
Thomas  Holme,  surveyor-general,  the  proportions, 
dimensions,  and  situations  of  all  the  original  squares 
and  streets,  with  the  names  of  the  latter,  then  given 
them,  and  still  generally  retained,  are  exhibited,  as 
well  as  in  the  following  description  of  it,  viz. 

The  distances  of  the  streets  from  each  other, 
from  east  to  west,  with  their  names  and  dimensions, 
are : —  feet. 

From  Delaware  Front-street  to  Second-street .  396 

Second-street  to  Third-street    496 

Third  to  Fourth 396 

Fourth  to  Fifth 396 

Fifth  to  Sixth 396 

Sixth  to  Seventh 396 

Seventh  to  Eighth *  396 

Eighth  to  Ninth    396 

Ninth  to  Tenth 396 

Tenth  to  Eleventh 396 

Eleventh  to  Broad-street 528 

Ten  streets,  50  feet  each 500 

Distance  from  Delaware  Front-street  to  Broad- 
street  5088 

Distance  from  Sculkil  Front-street  to  Broad- 
street  5088 

Broad-street 100 

Distance  on  High-street,  between  the  two 
Front-streets  of  Delaware  and  Sculkil,  ex- 
clusive of  the  said  two  streets,  and  their 
distances  from  each  river,  equal  to  two 

miles,  wanting  304  feet 10,276 

The  distances,  names,  and  dimensions  of  all  the 
streets,  from  north  to  south,  are  :— 

feet. 

From  Vine-street  to  Sassafras-street 612 

Sassafras  to  Mulberry 614 

Mulberry  to  High 663 

High  to  Chestnut 497 

Chestnut  to  Walnut 510 

Walnut  to  Spruce 821 

Spruce  to  Pine 468 

Pine  to  Cedar 652 

Seven  streets,  50  feet  each 350 

High-street  100  feet,  Mulberry-street,  66  feet     166 

Distance  from  Cedar-street  to  Vine-street,  in- 
clusive, equal  to  one  mile  and  73  feet,  north 
and  south  nearly,  including  all  the  streets  .  5353 


UNITED  STATES. 


805 


Perm,  having  finished  what  related  to  this  excel- 
lent plan  by  the  latter  end  of  August,  or  the  begin- 
ning of  September,  to  the  general  satisfaction  of 
those  concerned,  wrote  a  letter  to  the  committee  of 
the  "  Free  society  of  traders  in  London,"  giving 
some  account  of  it,  and  the  country  in  general,  with 
such  observations  as  the  short  space  of  time  he  had 
resided,  and  his  hurry  of  business,  in  it,  had  per- 
mitted him  to  make. 

As  it  exhibits  a  specimen  of  the  author's  capacity 
for  attending  to  a  variety  of  objects  at  the  same  time, 
and  is  the  best  account,  though  only  an  imperfect 
sketch,  of  the  original  state  of  the  province,  of  its 
Aborigines,  and  its  natural  history,  we  insert  it. 
"  A  letter    from  William  Penn,  proprietor  and  go- 
vernor of  Pennsylvania,  in  America,  to  the  com- 
mittee of  the  free  society  of  traders  of  that  pro- 
vince, residing  in  London  :  containing  a  general 
description   of  the    said  province,   its   soil,    air, 
water,  seasons,   and  produce,  both  natural  and 
artificial,   and  the  good  increase  thereof.     With 
an  account  of  the  natives,  or  aborigines. 

"  My  kind  Friends, 

"  The  kindness  of  yours,  by  the  ship  Thomas 
and  Ann,  doth  much  oblige  me  ;  for  by  it  I  perceive 
the  interest  you  take  in  my  health  and  reputation, 
and  the  prosperous  beginning  of  this  province ; 
which  you  are  so  kind  as  to  think  may  much  depend 
upon  them.  In  return  of  which  I  have  sent  you  a 
long  letter,  and  yet  containing  as  brief  an  account 
of  myself,  and  the  affairs  of  this  province,  as  I  have 
been  able  to  make. 

"  In  the  first  place  I  take  notice  of  the  news  you 
sent  me ;  whereby  1  find  some  persons  have  had  so 
little  wit,  and  so  much  malice,  as  to  report  my  death; 
and,  to  mend  the  matter,  dead  a  Jesuit  too.  One 
might  have  reasonably  hoped,  that  this  distance, 
like  death,  would  have  been  a  pioteetion  against 
spite  and  envy ;  and,  indeed,  absence  being  a  kind 
of  death,  ought  alike  to  secure  the  name  of  the  ab- 
sent as  the  dead;  because  they  are  equally  unable,  as 
such,  to  defend  themselves :  but  they  that  intend 
mischief,  do  not  choose  to  follow  good  rules  to  effect 
it.  However,  to  the  great  sorrow  and  shame  of  the 
inventors,  I  am  still  alive,  and  no  Jesuit;  and,  I 
thank  God,  very  well.  And,  without  injustice  to 
the  authors  of  this,  I  may  venture  to  infer,  that  they 
that  wilfully  and  falsely  report,  would  have  been 
glad  it  had  been  so.  But  I  perceive  many  frivolous 
and  idle  stories  have  been  invented  since  my  de- 
parture from  England;  which,  perhaps,  at  this 
time,  are  no  more  alive  than  I  am  dead. 

"  But,  if  I  have  been  unkindly  used  by  some  I 
left  behind  me,  I  found  love  and  respect  enough 
where  I  came ;  an  universal  kind  welcome,  every 
sort  in  their  way.  For,  here  are  some  of  several 
nations,  as  well  as  divers  judgments :  nor  were  the 
natives  wanting  in  this;  for  their  kings,  queens, 
and  great  men,  both  visited  and  presented  me ;  to 
whom  I  made  suitable  returns,  &c. 

"  For  the  province,  the  general  condition  of  it, 
take  as  followeth  :— 

"  I.  The  country  itself,  its  soil,  air,  water,  seasons, 
and  produce,  both  natural  and  artificial,  is  not  to  be 
despised.  The  land  containeth  divers  sorts  of  earth, 
as  sand,  yellow  and  black,  poor  and  rich :  also 
gravel,  both  loamy  and  dusty ;  and,  in  some  places, 
a  fast  fat  earth,  like  our  best  vales  in  England,  es- 
pecially by  inland  brooks  and  rivers :  God,  in  his 
wisdom,  having  ordered  it  so,  that  the  advantage 
of  the  country  are  divided ;  the  back  lands  being 
generally  three  to  one  richer  than  those  that  lie  by 


navigable  rivers.  We  have  much  of  another  soil ; 
and  that  is  a  black  hazel-mould,  upon  a  stony,  or 
rocky  bottom. 

"  II.  The  air  is  sweet  and  clear,  the  heavens 
serene,  like  the  south  parts  of  France,  rarely  over- 
cast ;  and,  as  the  woods  come,  by  numbers  of  peo- 
ple, to  be  more  cleared,  that  itself  will  refine. 

"III.  The  waters  are  generally  good;  for  the 
:ivers  and  brooks  have  mostly  gravel  and  stony  bot- 
toms ;  and  in  number  hardly  credible.  We  have 
also  mineral  waters,  that  operate  in  the  same  man- 
ner with  Barnet  and  North  Hall,  not  two  miles 
rom  Philadelphia 

"  IV.  For  the  seasons  of  the  year  having,  by 
God's  goodness,  now  lived  over  the  coldest  and  hot- 
test that  the  oldest  liver  in  the  province  can  re- 
member, I  can  say  something  to  an  English  under- 
landing. 

"  First,  of  the  fall ;  for  then  I  came  in  :  I  founa 
it,  from  the  24th  of  October  to  the  beginning  of 
December,  as  we  have  it  usually  in  England  in 
September,  or  rather  like  an  English  mild  spring. 
From  December,  to  the  beginning  of  the  month 
called  March,  we  had  sharp  frosty  weather;  not 
foul,  thick,  black  weather,  as  our  north-east  winds 
bring  with  them,  in  England ;  but  a  sky  as  clear  as 
in  summer,  and  the  air  dry,  cold,  piercing,  and 
hungry;  yet  I  remember  not  that  I  wore  more 
clothes  than  in  England.  The  reason  of  this  cold 
is  given,  from  the  great  lakes  that  are  fed  by  the 
fountains  of  Canada.  The  winter  before  was  as 
mild,  scarcely  any  ice  at  all ;  while  this,  for  a  few 
days,  froze  up  our  great  river  Delaware.  From 
that  month,  to  the  month  called  June,  we  enjoyed 
a  sweet  spring;  no  gusts,  but  gentle  showers,  and 
a  fine  sky.  Yet,  this  I  observe,  that  the  winds  here, 
as  there,  are  more  inconstant,  spring  and  fall,  upon 
that  turn  of  nature,  than  in  summer  or  winter. 
From  thence,  to  this  present  month  (August), 
which  endeth  the  summer  (commonly  speaking), 
we  have  had  extraordinary  heats,  yet  mitigated 
sometimes  by  cool  breezes.  The  wind,  that  ruleth 
the  summer  season,  is  the  south-west ;  but  spring, 
fall,  and  winter,  it  is  rare  to  want  the  north-western 
seven  days  together.  And  whatever  mists,  fogs,  or 
vapours,  foul  the  heavens  by  easterly,  or  southerly 
winds,  in  two  hours  time  are  blown  away ;  the  one 
is  followed  by  the  other:  a  remedy  that  seems  to 
have  a  peculiar  providence  in  it  to  the  inhabitants; 
the  multitude  of  trees,  yet  standing,  being  liable  to 
retain  mists  and  vapours;  and  yet  not  one  quarter 
so  thick  as  I  expected. 

"  V.  The  natural  produce  of  the  country,  of  ve- 
getables, is  trees,  fruits,  plants,  flowers.  The  trees 
of  most  note  are  the  black  walnut,  cedar,  cypress, 
chestnut,  poplar,  gum-wood,  hickory,  sassafras,  ash, 
beech,  and  oak  of  divers  sorts,  as  red,  white,  and 
black ;  Spanish  chestnut,  and  swamp,  the  most  du- 
rable of  all.  Of  all  which  there  is  plenty  for  the 
use  of  man. 

"  The  fruits  that  I  find  in  the  woods  are  the 
white  and  black  mulberry,  chestnut,  walnut,  plums, 
strawberries,  cranberries,  hurtleberries,  and  grapes 
of  divers  sorts.  The  great  red  grape  (now  ripe), 
called  by  ignorance,  the  fox  grape,  because  of  the 
relish  it  hath  with  unskilful  palates,  is  in  itself  an 
extraordinary  grape ;  and  by  art,  doubtless,  may 
be  cultivated  to  an  excellent  wine,  if  not  so  sweet, 
yet  little  inferior  to  the  Frontiniac,  as  it  is  not 
much  unlike  in  taste,  ruddiness  set  aside;  which,  in 
such  things,  as  well  as  mankind,  differs  the  case 
much.  There  is  a  white  kind  of  Muskadel,  and  a 


ace 


HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


little  black  grape,  like  the  cluster  grape  of  England, 
not  yet  so  ripe  as  the  other ;  but  they  tell  me  when 
ripe,  sweeter,  and  that  they  only  want  skilful  Vine- 
rons  to  make  good  use  of  them.  I  intend  to  venture 
on  it  with  my  Frenchman,  this  season,  who  shews 
some  knowledge  in  those  things.  Here  are  also 
peaches  very  good,  and  in  great  quantities;  not  an 
Indian  plantation  without  them  ;  but  whether  natu- 
rally here  at  first,  I  know  not.  However,  one  may 
have  them  by  bushels,  for  little  :  they  make  a  plea- 
sant drink ;  and  I  think  not  inferior  to  any  peacb 
you  have  in  England,  except  the  true  Newington. 
It  is  disputable  with  me,  whether  it  be  best  to  fall  to 
fining  the  fruits  of  the  country,  especially  the  grape, 
by  the  care  and  skill  of  art,  or  send  for  foreign  stems 
and  sets,  already  good  and  approved.  It  seems 
most  reasonable  to  believe,  that  not  only  a  thing 
groweth  best,  where  it  naturally  grows,'  but  will 
hardly  be  equalled  by  another  species  of  the  same 
kind,  that  doth  not  naturally  grow  there.  But,  to 
solve  the  doubt,  I  intend,  if  God  give  me  life  to  try 
both,  and  hope  the  consequence  will  be  as  good  wine, 
as  any  European  countries  of  the  same  latitude  do 
yield. 

"  VI.  The  artificial  produce  of  the  country  is 
wheat,  barley,  oats,  rye,  peas,  beans,  squashes, 
pumkins,  water-melons,'  musk-melons,  and  all  herbs 
and  roots,  that  our  gardens  in  England  usually  bring 
forth." 

Edward  Jones,  son-in-law  to  Thomas  Wynne,  liv- 
ing on  the  Sculkil,  had,  with  ordinary  cultivation, 
for  one  grain  of  English  barley,  70  stalks  and  ears 
of  barley  :  and  it  is  common  in  this  country,  from 
one  bushel  sown,  to  reap  40,  often  50,  and  some- 
times 60.  And  three  pecks  of  wheat  sow  an  acre 
here. 

"  VII.  Of  living  creatures  ;  fish,  fowl,  and  the 
beasts  of  the  woods  ;  here  are  divers  sorts,  some  for 
food  and  profit,  and  some  for  profit  only  :  for  food 
as  well  as  profit,  the  elk,  as  big  as  a  small  ox  ; 
deer  bigger  than  ours;  beaver,  raccoon,  rabbits, 
squirrels  ;  and  some  eat  young  bear,  and  commend 
it.  Of  fowl  of  the  land,  there  is  the  turkey  (40 
and  50  pounds  weight)  which  is  very  great ;  phea- 
sants, heath-birds,  pigeons  and  partridges  in  abun- 
dance. Of  the  water,  the  swan,  goose,  white  and 
grey ;  brands,  ducks,  teal,  also  the  snipe  and  curloe, 
and  that  in  great  numbers ;  but  the  duck  and  teal 
excel ;  nor  so  good  have  I  ever  eat  in  other  countries. 
Of  fish,  there  is  the  sturgeon,  herring,  rock,  shad, 
cats-head,  sheeps-head,  eel,  smelt,  pearch,  roach ; 
and  in  inland  rivers,  trout,  some  say  salmon,  above 
the  falls.  Of  shell-fish,  we  have  oysters,  crabs, 
coccles,  conchs  and  muscles ;  some  oysters  six 
inches  long;  and  one  sort  of  coccles  as  big  as  the 
stewing  oysters  ;  they  make  a  rich  broth.  The 
creatures  for  profit  only,  by  skin  or  fur,  and  that 
are  natural  to  these  parts,  are  the  wild-cat,  panther, 
otter,  wolf,  fox,  fisher,  minx,  musk-rat;  and  of  the 
water,  the  whale,  for  oil ;  of  which  we  have  good 
store;  and  two  companies  of  whalers;  whose  boats 
are  built,  will  soon  begin  their  work  ;  which  hath 
the  appearance  of  a  considerable  improvement : 
to  say  nothing  of  our  reasonable  hopes  of  good  cod 
in  the  bay. 

"  Vlli.  We  have  no  want  of  horses  ;  and  some 
are  very  good,  and  shapely  enough ;  two  ships  have 
been  freighted  to  Barbadoes  with  horses  and  pipe 
staves,  since  my  coming  in.  Here  is  also  plenty  o 
cow-cattle,  and  some  sheep  ;  the  people  plow  mostl) 
with  oxen. 

"  IX.  There  are  divers  plants,  tljat  not  only  the 


Indians  'ell  us,  but  we  have  had  occasion  to  prove, 
by  swellings,  burnings,  cuts,  &c.  that  they  are  of 
great  virtue,  suddenly  curing  the  patient ;  and,  for 
smell,  I  have  observed  several,  especially  one,  the 
wild  myrtle ;  the  other  I  know  not  what  to  tail,  but 
arc  most  fragrant. 

"  X.  The  woods  are  adorned  with  lovely  flowers, 
for  colour,  greatness,  figure  and  variety.  I  have 
seen  the  gardens  of  London  best  stored  with  that 
sort  of  beauty,  but  think  they  may  be  improved  by 
mr  woods  :  I  have  sent  a  few  to  a  person  of  quality 
his  year  for  a  trial. 

"  Thus  much  of  the  country ;  next  of  the  natives 
ir  aborigines. 

"  XI.  The  natives  I  shall  consider,  in  thejir  per- 
ons,  language,  manners,  religion  and  government, 
pith  my  sense  of  their  original.  For  their  persons, 
hey  are  generally  tall,  straight,  well  built,  and  of 
ingular  proportion ;  they  tread  strong  and  clever  ; 
ind  mostly  walk  with  a  lofty  chin.  Of  complexion 
lack,  but  by  design ;  as  the  gipsies  in  England. 
They  grease  themselves  with  bear's  fat  clarified; 
and  using  no  defence  against  sun,  or  weather,  their 
ikins  must  needs  be  swarthy.  Their  eye  is  little  and 
)lack,  not  unlike  a  straight  looked  Jew.  The  thick 
ip  and  flat  nose,  so  frequent  with  the  East  Indians 
and  blacks,  are  not  common  to  them  :  for  I  have 
seen  as  comely  European  like  faces  among  them  of 
30th,  as  on  your  side  the  sea ;  and  truly  an  Italian 
complexion  hath  not  much  more  of  the  white ;  and 
he  noses  of  several  of  them  have  as  much  of  the 
Roman. 

"  XII.  Their  language  is  lofty,  yet  narrow  ;  but, 
ike  the  Hebrew  in  signification,  full ;  like  short- 
land  in  writing,  one  word  serveth  in  the  place  of 
three,  and  the  rest  are  supplied  by  the  undersUnd- 
ng  of  the  hearer  :  imperfect  in  their  tenses,  want- 
ng  in  their  moods,  participles,  adverbs,  conjunc- 
tions, interjections.  I  have  made  it  my  business  to 
understand  it,  that  I  might  not  want  an  interpreter, 
on  any  occasion ;  and  I  must  say,  that  I  know  not 
a  language  spoken  in  Europe,  that  hath  words  of 
more  sweetness,  or  greatness  in  accent  and  empha- 
sis than  theirs  ;  for  instance,  Octocockon,  Ran  cocas, 
Oricton,  Shak,  Marian,  Poquesien  ;  all  which  are 
names  of  places;  and  have  grandeur  in  them. 
Of  words  of  sweetness,  'anna',  is  mother;  '  issimus', 
a  brother;  '  netcap,'  friend  ;  'usqueoret,'  very  good; 
'  pane,'  bread ;  '  metsa,'  eat ;  '  matta,'  no  '  hatta,'  to 
have ;  '  payo,'  to  come ;  Sepassen,  Passijon,  the 
names  of  places;  Tamane,  Secane,  Menanse,  Seca- 
tereus,  are  the  names  of  persons ;  if  one  ask  them 
for  any  thing  they  have  not,  they  will  answer  'mat- 
ta ne  hatta;'  which  to  translate,  is,  '  not  I  have;'  in- 
stead of,  '  I  have  not.' 

"  XIII.  Of  their  customs  and  manners  there  is 
much  to  be  said  ;  I  will  begin  with  children ;  so 
soon  as  they  are  born,  they  wash  them  in  water ; 
and  while  very  young,  and  in  cold  weather  to 
choose,  they  plunge  them  in  the  rivers,  to  harden 
and  embolden  them.  Having  wrapt  them  in  a 
clout,  they  lay  them  on  a  straight  thin  board,  a  lit- 
tle more  than  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  child, 
and  swaddle  it  fast  upon  the  board,  to  make  it 
straight ;  wherefore  all  Indians  have  flat  heads  ; 
and  thus  they  carry  them  at  their  backs.  The  chil- 
dren will  go  very  young,  at  nine  months  commonly ; 
they  wear  only  a  small  clout  round  their  waiste,  till 
they  are  big  :  if  boys,  they  go  a  fishing,  till  ripe  for 
the  woods  ;  which  is  about  fifteen  ;  then  they  hunt ; 
and  after  having  given  some  proofs  of  their  man- 
hood, by  a  good  return  of  skins,  they  may  marry ; 


UNITED  STATES. 


807 


else  it  is  a  shame  to  think  of  a  wife.  The  girls  stay 
With  their  mothers,  and  help  to  hoe  the  ground, 
plant  corn,  and  carry  burdens ;  and  they  do  well 
to  use  them  to  that  young,  which  they  must  do  when 
they  are  old;  for  the  wives  are  the  true  servants  of 
the  husbands  ;  otherwise  the  men  are  very  affection- 
ate to  them. 

'•'  XIV.  When  the  young  women  are  fit  for  mar- 
riage, they  wear  something  upon  their  heads,  for 
an  advertisement,  but  so,  as  their  faces  are  hardly 
to  be  seen,  but  when  they  please.  The  age  they 
marry  at  if  women,  is  about  thirteen  and  fourteen  ; 
if  men,  seventeen  and  eighteen ;  they  are  rarely 
older. 

"  XV.  Their  houses  are  mats,  or  barks  of  trees, 
set  on  poles,  in  the  fashion  of  an  English  barn ; 
but  out  of  the  power  of  the  winds ;  for  they  are 
hardly  higher  than  a  man ;  they  lie  on  reeds  or 
grass.  In  travel  they  lodge  in  the  woods  about  a 
great  fire,  with  the  mantle  of  duffils  they  wear  by 
day,  wrapt  about  them,  and  a  few  boughs  stuck 
round  them. 

"  XVI.  Their  diet  is  maize  or  Indian  corn,  divers 
ways  prepared ;  sometimes  roasted  in  the  ashes ; 
sometimes  beaten  and  boiled  with  water ;  which 
they  call  '  homine  ;'  they  also  make  cakes,  not  un- 
pleasant to  eat.  They  have  likewise  several  sorts 
of  beans  and  pease,  that  are  good  nourishment;  and 
the  woods  and  rivers  are  their  larder. 

"  XVII.  If  an  European  comes  to  see  them,  or 
calls  for  lodging  at  their  house  or  wigwam,  they 
give  him  the  best  place,  and  first  cut.  If  they 
come  to  visit  us,  they  salute  us  with  an  '  Itah  ;'  which 
is  as  much  as  to  say,  good  be  to  you,  and  set  them 
down;  which  is  mostly  on  the  ground,  close  to  their 
heels,  their  legs  upright  ;  it  may  be  they  speak  not 


a  word,  but  observe  all  passages, 
any  thing  to  eat  or  drink,    well : 


If  you  give  them 
for   they  will  not 


ask;  and  be  it  little  or  much,  if  it  be  with  kindness 
they  are  well  pleased,  else  they  go  away  sullen,  but 
say  nothing. 

"  XVIII.  They  are  great  concealers  of  their  own 
resentments;  brought  to  it,  I  believe,  by  the  re- 
venge that  hath  been  practised  among  them.  In 
either  of  these  they  are  not  exceeded  by  the  Italians. 
A  tragical  instance  fell  out  since  I  came  into  the 
country  :  a  king's  daughter  thinking  herself  slighted 
by  her  husband  in  suffering  another  woman  to  lie 
down  between  them,  rose  up,  went  out,  plucked  a 
root  out  of  the  ground  and  ate  it;  upon  which  she 
immediately  died  :  and  for  which,  last  week,  he  made 
an  offering  to  her  kindred,  for  atonement,  and 
liberty  of  marriage ;  as  two  others  did  to  the  kindred 
of  their  wives,  that  died  a  natural  death.  For,  till 
widowers  have  done  so,  they  must  not  marry  again. 
Some  of  the  young  women  are  said  to  take  undue 
liberty  before  marriage,  for  a  portion  :  but  when 
married,  chaste.  When  with  child  thej  know  their 
husbands  no  more  till  delivered;  and  during  their 
month,  they  touch  no  meat  they  eat  but  with  a 
stick,  lest  they  should  defile  it;  nor  do  their  hus- 
bands frequent  them,  till  that  time  be  expired. 

"  XIX.  But,  in  liberality  they  excel ;  nothing  is 
too  good  for  their  friend :  give  them  a  fine  gun, 
coat,  or  other  thing,  it  may  pass  twenty  hands  be- 
fore it  sticks  :  light  of  heart,  strong  affections,  but 
soon  spent.  The  most  merry  creatures  that  live, 
feast  and  dance  perpetually ;  they  never  have  much, 
nor  want  much  :  wealth  circulateth  like  the  blood ; 
all  parts  partake;  and  though  none  shall  want 
what  another  hath,  yet  exact  observers  of  property. 
Some  kings  have  sold,  others  presented  me  with 


several  parcels  of  land:  the  pay,  or  presents  I  made 
them,  were  not  hoarded  by  the  particular  owners ; 
but  the  neighbouring  kings,  and  their  clans  being 
present  when  the  goods  were  brought  out,  the  par- 
ties chiefly  concerned,  consulted  what  and  to  whom 
they  shall  give  them.  To  every  king  then,  by  the 
hands  of  a  person  for  that  work  appointed,  is  a  pro- 
portion sent,  so  sorted  and  folded,  and  with  that 
gravity,  that  is  admirable.  Then  that  king  subdi- 
videth  it  in  like  manner  among  his  dependants, 
they  hardly  leaving  themselves  an  equal  share  with 
one  of  their  subjects  :  and  be  it  on  such  occasions  as 
festivals,  or  at  their  common  meals,  the  kings  distri- 
bute, and  to  themselves  last.  They  care  for  little, 
because  they  want  but  little ;  and  the  reason  is,  a 
little  contents  them.  In  this  they  are  sufficiently 
revenged  on  us  :  if  they  are  ignorant  of  our  plea- 
sures, they  are  also  free  from  our  pains.  They  are 
not  disquieted  with  bills  of  lading  and  exchange, 
nor  perplexed  with  chancery  suits,  and  exchequer 
reckonings.  We  sweat  and  toil  to  live;  their  plea- 
sure feeds  them  ;  I  mean  their  hunting,  fishing  and 
fowling;  and  this  table  is  spread  every  where.  They 
eat  twice  a  day,  morning  and  evening  ;  their  seats 
and  table  are  the  ground.  Since  the  Europeans 
came  into  these  parts,  they  are  grown  great  lovers 
of  strong  liquors,  rum  especially ;  and  for  it  ex- 
change the  richest  of  their  skins  and  furs.  If  they 
are  heated  with  liquors,  they  are  restless  till  they 
have  enough  to  sleep;  that  is  their  cry,  'some  more, 
and  I  will  go  to  sleep  ;'  but  when  drunk,  one  of  the 
most  wretched  spectacles  in  the  world. 

"XX.  In  sickness,  impatient  to  be  cured;  and 
for  it,  give  any  thing,  especially  for  their  children  ; 
to  whom  they  are  extremely  natural.  They  drink 
at  those  times,  a  teran,  or  decoction  of  some  roots 
in  spring  water ;  and  if  they  eat  any  flesh,  it  must 
be  of  the  female  of  any  creature.  If  they  die,  they 
bury  them  with  their  apparel,  be  they  man  or  wo- 
man ;  and  the  nearest  of  kin  fling  in  something  pre- 
cious with  them,  as  a  token  of  their  love  :  their 
mourning  is  blacking  of  their  faces  ;  which  they 
continue  for  a  year.  They  are  choice  of  the  graves 
of  their  dead  ;  for,  lest  they  should  be  lost  by  time, 
and  fall  to  common  use,  they  pick  off  the  grass, 
that  grows  upon  them,  and  heap  up  the  fallen  earth 
with  great  care  and  exactness. 

XXI.  These  poor  people  are  under  a  dark  night 

di 

without  the  help  of  metaphysics :  for  they  say, 
'  There  is  a  great  king  that  made  them,  who  dwells 
in  a  glorious  country,  to  the  southward  of  them  ;  and 
that  the  souls  of  the  good  shall  go  thither,  where 
they  shall  live  again.'  Their  worship  consists  of 
two  parts,,  sacrifice  and  cantico.  Their  sacrifice  is 
their  first  fruits;  the  first  and  fattest  buck  they  kill, 
goeth  to  the  fire ;  where  he  is  all  burnt,  with  a 
mounful  ditty  of  him  that  performeth  the  ceremony;, 
but  with  such  marvellous  fervency,  and  labour  of 
body,  that  he  will  even  sweat  to  a  foam.  The  other 
part  is  their  cantico,  performed  by  round  dances, 
sometimes  words,  sometimes  songs,  then  shouts ; 
two  being  in  the  middle  that  begin  ;  and  by  singing, 
and  drumming  on  a  board,  direct  the  chorus.  Their 
postures  in  the  dance  are  very  antick  and  differing, 
but  all  keep  measure.  This  is  done  with  equal 
earnestness  and  labour,  but  great  appearance  of 
joy.  In  the  fall,  when  the  corn  cometh  in,  they  be- 
gin to  feast  one  another.  There  have  been  two  great 
festivals  already;  to  which  all  come,  that  will.  I 
was  at  one  myself:  their  entertainment  was  a  great 


n  things  relating  to  religion,  and  have  scarce  the  tra- 
lition  of  it :  yet  they  believe  a  God  and  immortality, 


808 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


seat  by  a  spring,  under  some  shady  trees,  and  I  treated  them  well,  they  should  never  do  him,  or  his, 
twenty  bucks,  with  hot  cakes  of  new  corn,  both  any  wrong.' — At  every  sentence  of  which  they 
wheat  and  beans;  which  they  make  up  in  a  square  shouted,  and  said,  Amen,  in  their  way. 
form,  in  the  leaves  of  the  stem,  and  bake  them  in  "  XXIV.  The  justice  they  have  is  pecuniary :  in 
the  ashes ;  and  after  that  they  fall  to  dance.  But  case  of  any  wrong,  or  evil  fact,  be  it  murder  itself, 
they  that  go  must  carry  a  small  present  in  their  they  atone  by  feasts,  and  presents  of  their  wam- 
money ;  it  may  be  sixpence ;  which  is  made  of  the  pum ;  which  is  proportioned  to  the  quality  of  the 
bone  of  a  fish :  the  black  is  with  them  as  gold;  the  offence,  or  person  injured,  or  of  the  sex  they  are  of. 
white,  silver ;  they  call  it  all  wampum.  For,  in  case  they  kill  a  woman  they  pay  double ; 

"XXII.  Their  government  is  by  kings;  which  and  the  reason  they  render  is,  '  That  she  breedeth 
they  call  '  sachama;'  and  those  by  succession,  but  children;  which  men  cannot  do.'  It  is  rare  that 
always  of  the  mother's  side.  For  instance,  the  chil-  they  fall  out,  if  sober;  and,  if  drunk,  they  forgive 
dren'of  him,  who  is  now  king,  will  not  succeed,  but  it,  saying,  '  It  was  the  drink,  and  not  the  man,  that 
his  brother  by  the  mother,  or  the  children  of  his  abused  them.' 

sister,  whose  sons  (and  after  them  the  children  of  "  XXV.  We  have  agreed  that,  in  all  differ- 
her  daughters)  will  reign ;  for  no  woman  inherits.  I  ences  between  us,  six  of  each  side  shall  end  the 
The  reason  they  render  for  this  way  of  descent,  is,  matter.  Do  not  abuse  them,  but  let  them  have 
that  their  issue  may  not  be  spurious.  justice,  and  you  win  them.  The  worst  is,  that  they 

"  XXIII.  Every  king  hath  his  council;  and  are  the  worse  for  the  Christians ;  who  have  propa- 
that  consists  of  all  the  old  and  wise  men  of  his  gated  their  vices,  and  yielded  them  tradition  for  ill, 
nation ;  which,  perhaps,  is  200  people.  Nothing  of  I  and  not  for  good  things.  But  as  low  an  ebb  as 
moment  is  undertaken,  be  it  war,  peace,  selling  of  these  people  are  at,  and  as  inglorious  as  their  own 
land,  or  traffic,  without  advising  with  them;  and  I  condition  looks,  the  Christians  have  not  outlived 
which  is  more,  with  the  young  men  too.  It  is  admira-  their  sight,  with  all  their  pretensions  to  a  higher 
ble  to  consider  how  powerful  the  kings  are,  and  yet  manifestation.  What  good,  then,  might  not  a  good 
how  they  move  by  the  breath  of  their  people.  1 1  people  graft,  where  there  is  so  distinct  a  knowledge 
have  had  occasion  to  be  in  council  with  them,  upon  I  left  between  good  and  evil?  I  beseech  God  to  in- 
treaties  for  land,  and  to  adjust  the  terms  of  trade,  cline  the  hearts  of  all  that  come  into  these  parts,  to 
Their  order  is  thus  :  the  king  sits  in  the  middle  of  outlive  the  knowledge  of  the  natives,  by  a  fixt  obe- 
a  half  moon,  and  hath  his  council,  the  old  and  wise,  dience  to  their  greater  knowledge  of  the  will  of  God; 
on  each  hand ;  behind  them,  or  at  a  little  distance,  I  for  it  were  miserable,  indeed,  for  us  to  fall  under 
sit  the  younger  fry,  in  the  same  figure.  Having  I  the  just  censure  of  the  poor  Indian  conscience, 
consulted  and  resolved  their  business,  the  king  or-  while  we  make  profession  of  things  so  far  tran- 
dered  one  of  them  to  speak  to  me ;  he  stood  up,  scending. 

came  to  me,  and,  in  the  name  of  his  king,  saluted  "  XXVI.  For  their  original,  I  am  ready  to  be- 
me ;  then  took  me  by  the  hand,  and  told  me,  '  He  lieve  them  of  the  Jewish  race ;  I  mean,  of  the  stock 
was  ordered  by  his  king  to  speak  to  me;  and  that  of  the  ten  tribes;  and  that,  for  the  following  rea- 
now  it  was  not  he,  but  the  king,  that  spoke;  be-  sons:  first,  they  were  to  go  to  a  '  land  not  planted, 
cause  what  he  should  say  was  the  king's  mind.'  I  nor  known ;'  which,  to  be  sure,  Asia  and  Africa 
He  first  prayed  me,  '  To  excuse  them,  that  they  were,  if  not  Europe ;  and  he  that  intended  that  ex- 
had  not  complied  with  me,  the  last  time,  he  feared  traordinary  judgment  upon  them,  might  make  the 
there  might  be  some  fault  in  the  interpreter,  being  1  passage  not  uneasy  to  them,  as  it  is  not  impossible 
neither  Indian  nor  English :  besides  it  was  the  In-  I  in  itself,  from  the  easternmost  parts  of  Asia,  to  the 
dian  custom  to  deliberate,  and  take  up  much  time  1  westernmost  of  America.  In  the  next  place ;  I  find 
in  council,  before  they  resolve ;  and  that  if  the  I  them  of  the  like  countenance,  and  their  children  of 
young  people,  and  owners  of  the  land  had  been  as  I  so  lively  resemblance,  that  a  man  would  think  him- 
ready  as  he,  I  had  not  met  with  so  much  delay."  I  self  in  Duke's-place,  or  Berry-street,  in  London, 
Having  thus  introduced  his  matter,  he  fell  to  the  I  when  he  seeth  them.  But  this  is  not  all ;  they  agree 
bounds  of  the  land  they  had  agreed  to  dispose  of,  I  in  rites;  they  reckon  by  moons;  they  offer  their 
and  the  price;  which  now  is  little  and  dear;  that  j  first  fruits;  they  have  a  kind  of  feast  of  tabernacles; 
which  would  have  bought  twenty  miles,  not  baying  1  they  are  said  to  lay  their  altar  upon  twelve  stones; 
now  two.  During  the  time  that  this  person  spoke,  I  their  mourning  a  year ;  customs  of  women,  with 
not  a  man  of  them  was  observed  to  whisper  or  {  man 
smile  ;  the  old,  grave  ;  the  young,  reverent  in  their 
deportment.  They  speak  little,  but  fervently,  and 
with  elegance.  I  have  never  seen  more  natural  sa- 
gacity, considering  them  without  the  help  (I  was 


other  things  that  do  not  now  occur, 
o  much  for  the  natives ;  next,  the  old  planters 
will  be  considered  in  this  relation,  before  I  come  to 
our  colony,  and  the  concerns  of  it. 

"  XXVII.  The  first  planters  in  these  parts  were 


going  to  say,  the  spoil)  of  tradition;  and  he  will  de-  the  Dutch;  and  soon  after  them,  the  Swedes  and 
serve  the  name  of  wise,  that  outwits  them  in  any  I  Finns.  The  Dutch  applied  themselves  to  traffic ; 
treaty  about  a  thing  they  understand.  When  the  the  Swedes  and  Finns  to  husbandry.  There  were 
purchase  was  agreed,  great  promises  passed  between  I  some  disputes  between  them  some  years;  the  Dutch 
us,  '  of  kindness  and  good  neighbourhood,  and  that  I  looking  upon  them  as  intruders  upon  their  purchase 
the  Indians  and  English  must  live  in  love  as  long  I  and  possession  \  which  was  finally  ended  in  the 
as  the  sun  gave  light :'  which  done,  another  made  surrender  made  by  John  Rizeing,  the  Swedish  go- 
a  speech  to  the  Indians,  in  the  name  of  all  the  sa-  vernor,  to  Peter  Styvesant,  governor  for  the  states 
chamakers,  or  kings;  first,  to  tell  them  what  was  of  Holland,  anno  1655. 

done;  next,  to  charge  and  command  them,  'To  "XXVIII.  The  Dutch  inhabit  mostly  those  parts 
love  the  Christians,  and  particularly  live  in  peace  of  the  province  that  lie  upon,  or  near  the  bay;  and 
with  me,  and  the  people  under  my  government ;  the  Swedes  the  freshes  of  the  river  Delaware.  There 
that  many  governors  had  been  in  the  river;  but  is  no  need  of  giving  any  description  of  them;  who  are 
that  no  governor  had  come  himself  to  live  and  stay  better  known  there  than  here;  but  they  are  a  plain, 
here  bef  re ;  and  having  now  such  an  one,  that  had  j  strong,  industrious  people  j  yet  have  made  no  great 


UNITED  STATES. 


80& 


progress  in  culture  or  propagation  of  fruit-trees ;  as 
if  they  desired  rather  to  have  enough,  than  plenty, 
or  traffic.  But  I  presume  the  Indians  made  them 
the  more  careless,  by  furnishing  them  with  the 
means  of  profit,  to  wit,  skins  and  furs,  for  rum,  and 
such  strong  liquors.  They  kindly  received  me,  as 
well  as  the  English,  who  were  few,  before  the  peo- 
ple concerned  with  me  came  among  them.  I  must 
needs  commend  their  respect  to  authority,  and  kind 
behaviour  to  the  English;  they  do  not  degenerate 
from  the  old  friendship,  between  both  kingdoms. 
As  they  are  people  proper  and  strong  of  body,  so 
they  have  fine  children,  and  almost  every  house  full; 
rare  to  find  one  of  them  without  three  or  four  boys, 
and  as  many  girls ;  some  six,  seven  or  eight  sons 
And  I  must  do  them  that  right ;  I  see  few  young 
men  more  sober  and  laborious. 

"  XXIX.  The  Dutch  have  a  meeting  place,  for 
religious  worship,  at  Newcastle;  and  the  Swedes, 
three  ;  one  at  Christina,  one  at  Tenecum  ;  and  one 
at  Wicoco,  within  half  a  mile  of  this  town. 

"  XXX.  There  rests  that  I  speak  of  the  condi- 
tion we  are  in,  and  what  settlement  we  have  made  : 
in  which  I  will  be  as  short  as  I  can  ;  for  I  fear,  and 
not  without  reason,  that  I  have  tried  your  patience 
with  this  long  story.  The  country  lieth  bounded 
on  the  east,  by  the  river  and  bay  of  Delaware,  and 
eastern  sea ;  it  hath  the  advantage  of  many  creeks, 
or  rivers  rather,  that  run  into  the  main  river  or 
bay ;  some  navigable  for  great  ships,  some  for  small 
craft.  Those  of  most  eminency  are,  Christina, 
Brandywine,  Skilpot,  and  Sculkil;  any  one  of 
which  have  room  to  lay  up  the  royal  navy  of  England ; 
there  being  from  four  to  eight  fathom  water. 

"  XXXI.  The  lesser  creeks  or  rivers,  yet  conve- 
nient for  sloops  and  ketches  of  good  burden,  are 
Lewis,  Mespilion,  Cedar,  Dover,  Cranbrook,  Fe- 
versham  and  Georges,  below  ;  and  Chichcster,  Ches- 
ter, Toacawny,  Pammapecka,  Portquessin,  Neshi- 
menck  and  Pennberry,  in  the  freshes ;  many  lesser 
that  admit  boats  and  shallops.  Our  people  are 
mostly  settled  upon  the  upper  rivers;  which  are 
pleasant  and  sweet,  and  generally  bounded  with 
good  land:  the  planted  part  of  the  province  and 
territories  is  cast  into  six  counties,  Philadelphia, 
Buckingham,  Chester,  Newcastle,  Kent  and  Sussex  ; 
containing  about  4000  souls.  Two  general  assem- 
blies have  been  held,  and  with  such  concord  and 
dispatch,  that  they  sat  but  three  weeks ;  and,  at 
least,  70  laws  were  passed  without  one  dissent,  in 
any  material  thing.  But  of  this,  more  hereafter, 
being  yet  raw  and  new  in  our  gear.  However,  I  can- 
not forget  their  singular  respect  to  me,  in  this  in- 
fancy of  things  ;  who,  by  their  own  private  expences, 
so  early  considered  mine,  for  the  public,  as  to  present 
me  with  an  impost  upon  certain  goods  imported  and 
exported.  Which  after  my  acknowledgment  of  their 
affection,  I  did  as  freely  remit  to  the  province,  and 
the  traders  to  it.  And'  for  the  well  government  of 
tne  said  counties,  courts  of  justice  are  established  in 
every  county,  with  proper  officers,  as  justices,  sheriffs, 
clerks,  constables,  &c.,  which  courts  are  held  every 
two  months.  But  to  prevent  law  suits,  there  are 
three  peace  makers  chosen  by  every  county  court, 
in  the  nature  of  common  arbitrators,  to  hear  and 
end  differences  betwixt  man  and  man.  And  spring 
and  fall  there  is  an  orphans'  court,  in  each  county, 
to  inspect  and  regulate  the  affairs  of  orphans  and 
widows. 

"  XXXII.  Philadelphia,  the  expectation  of  those 
that  are  concerned  in  this  province,  is  at  last  laid 
out,  to  the  great  content  of  those  here,  that  are 


any  ways  interested  therein.  The  situation  is  a 
neck  of  land,  and  lieth  between  two  navigable  rivers, 
Delaware  and  Sculkil ;  whereby  it  hath  two  fronts 
upon  the  water,  each  a  mile  ;  and  two  from  river 
to  river.  Delaware  is  a  glorious  river ;  but  the 
Sculkil,  being  100  miles  boatable  above  the  falls, 
and  its  course  north-east,  towards  the  fountain  of 
Susquahanna  (that  tends  to  the  heart  of  the  pro- 
vince, and  both  sides  our  own)  it  is  like  to  Be  a 
great  part  of  the  settlement  of  this  age.  I  say  little 
of  the  town  itself,  because  a  platform  will  be  shewn 
you  by  my  agent ;  in  which  those  who  are  pur- 
chasers of  me,  will  find  their  names  and  interests. 
But  this  I  will  say,  for  the  good  providence  of  God, 
that,  of  all  the  many  places  I  have  seen  in  the  world, 
I  remember  not  one  better  seated ;  so  that  it  seems 
to  me  to  have  been  appointed  for  a  town,  whether 
we  regard  the  rivers,  or  the  conveniency  of  the 
coves,  docks,  springs,  the  loftiness  and  soundness 
of  the  land,  and  the  air,  held  by  the  people  of  these 
parts  to  be  very  good.  It  is  advanced,  within  less 
than  a  year,  to  about  four  score  houses  and  cottages, 
such  as  they  are;  where  merchants  and  handicrafts 
are  following  their  vocations  as  fast  as  they  can, 
while  the  country  men  are  close  at  their  farms ; 
some  of  them  got  a  little  winter  corn  in  the  ground 
last  season ;  and  the  generality  have  had  an  hand- 
some summer  crop,  and  are  preparing  for  their  win- 
ter corn.  They  reaped  their  barley  this  year  in  the 
month  called  May ;  the  wheat  in  the  month  follow- 
ing :  so  that  there  is  time,  in  these  parts,  for  another 
crop  of  divers  things  before  the  winter  season.  We 
are  daily  in  hopes  of  shipping  to  add  to  our  number ; 
for,  blessed  be  God,  here  is  both  room  and  accommo- 
dation for  them :  the  stories  of  our  necessity  being 
either  the  fear  of  our  friends,  or  the  scare-crows  of 
our  enemies  :  for  the  greatest  hardship  we  have  suf- 
fered, hath  been  salt  meat ;  which  by  fowl  in  win- 
ter, and  fish  in  summer,  together  with  some  poultry, 
lamb,  mutton,  veal,  and  plenty  of  venison  the  best 
part  of  the  year,  hath  been  made  very  passable.  I 
bless  God,  1  am  fully  satisfied  with  the  country  and 
entertainment  I  got  in  it :  for  I  find  that  particular 
content,  which  hath  always  attended  me,  where 
God  in  his  providence  hath  made  it  my  place  and 
service  to  reside.  You  cannot  imagine  my  station 
can  be,  at  present,  free  of  more  than  ordinary  busi- 
nes  ;  and  as  such,  I  may  say,  it  is  a  troublesome 
work.  But  the  method  things  are  putting  in,  will 
facilitate  the  charge,  and  give  an  easier  motion  to 
the  administration  of  affairs.  However,  as  it  is  some 
men's  duty  to  plow,  some  to  sow,  some  to  water,  and 
some  to  reap  ;  so  it  is  the  wisdom,  as  well  as  the 
duty  of  a  man,  to  yield  to  the  mind  of  Providence, 
and'  cheerfully,  as  well  as  carefully,  embrace  and 
follow  the  guidance  of  it. 

"  XXXIII.  For  your  particular  concern,  I  might 
entirely  refer  you  to  the  letters  of  the  president  of 
the  society ;  but  this  I  will  venture  to  say,  your  pro- 
vincial settlements,  both  within  and  without  the 
town  for  situation  and  soil,  are  without  exception. 
Your  city  lot  is  a  whole  street,  and  one  side  of  a 
street  from  river  to  river,  containing  near  100  acres, 
not  easily  valued  ;  which  is  besides  your  400  acres, 
in  the  city  liberties,  part  of  your  20,000  acres  in  the 
country.  Your  tannery  hath  such  plenty  of  bark, 
the  saw  mill,  for  timber,  and  the  place  of  the  glass- 
house, are  so  conveniently  posted  for  water  carriage, 
the  city  lot,  for  a  dock,  and  the  whalery,  for  a  sound 
and  fruitful  bank,  and  the  town  Lewis,"  by  it,  to  help 
your  people,  that,  by  God's  blessing,  the  affairs  of 
the  society  will  naturally  grow  in  their  reputation, 


810 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


and  profit.  I  am  sure,  I  have  not  turned  my  back 
upon  any  offer,  that  tended  to  its  prosperity  ;  and 
though  I  am  ill  at  projects,  T  have  sometimes  put  in 
for  a  share  with  her  officers,  to  countenance  and 
advance  her  interest.  You  are  already  informed 
what  is  fit  for  you  further  to  do  ;  whatsoever  tends 
to  the  promotion  of  wine,  and  to  the  manufacture 
of  linen,  in  these  parts,  I  cannot  but  wish  you  to 
promote  ;  and  the  French  people  are  most  likely,  in 
both  respects,  to  answer  that  design.  To  that  end 
I  would  advise  you  to  send  for  some  thousands  of 
plants  out  of  France,  with  some  able  Vinerons,  and 
people  of  the  other  vocation.  But  because  I  believe 
you  have  been  entertained  with  this,  and  some  other 
profitable  subjects  by  your  President,  I  shall  add 
no  more,  but  to  assure  you,  that  I  am  heartily  in- 
clined to  advance  your  just  interest,  and  that  you 
will  always  find  me  your  kind  cordial  friend, 

"WILLIAM  PENN. 
"  Philadelphia,  the  16th  of  the 

sixth  month,  called  August,  1683." 

The  dispute  between  Penn  and  Lord  Baltimore,  respect- 
ing the  boundaries  between  their  territories — Penn's 
letter  to  the  Lords  of  plantations — Lord  Baltimore's 
commission  to  Colonel  George  Talbot,  with  a  demand 
of  the  latter — William  Penn's  answer  to  said  de- 
mand— Incursion  from  Maryland,  attempting  forci- 
ble entry — Difficulty  to  restrain  the  Indians  from 
strong  liquors. 

Penn's  endeavours,  on  his  first  arrival,  to  culti- 
Tate  a  friendly  understanding  with  his  neighbour, 
the  Lord  Baltimore,  and  to  get  the  boundaries  be- 
tween their  respective  provinces  amicably  deter- 
mined, have  already  been  mentioned ;  for  which 
purpose  likewise  it  appears  he  had  appointed  his 
relation  and  deputy,  Captain  William  Markham,  to 
treat  with  the  said  lord  proprietary  of  Maryland, 
before  he  arrived  himself;  and  afterwards  repeatedly 
used  attempts  for  the  same  end.  But  these  endea- 
vours had  not  all  the  desired  success,  which,  so  far 
as  appears,  might  have  been  reasonably  expected. 

The  anxiety  of  the  proprietary  of  Pennsylvania 
for  a  good,  convenient,  and  independent  communi- 
cation, by  water,  between  his  province  and  the  sea, 
for  the  benefit  of  its  trade,  appears  to  have  been 
his  principal  reason  for  fixing  his  southern  boundary 
by  charter,  so  far  south,  as  the  beginning  of  the 
fortieth  degree  of  north  latitude,  intending  thereby 
to  include,  at  least,  so  much  of  the  head,  or  upper 
part,  of  Chesapeake  bay,  within  his  province,  as 
would  furnish,  from  thence,  a  good  and  sufficient 
communication  to  the  ocean,  as  well  as  by  the  Dela- 
ware. The  nature  and  state  of  the  controversy, 
about  this  time,  between  the  two  proprietaries,  on 
this  subject,  more  fully  appear  from  the  following 
letter  of  Penn  to  the  lords  of  the  committee  of  plan- 
tations, in  London ;  to  which  board  the  Lord  Balti- 
more seems  to  have  previously  applied. 

"  Philadelphia,  the  14th  of  the  sixth  month,  1683. 

"  Though  it  be  a  duty,  I  humbly  own,  to  inform 
the  lords  of  the  committee  of  plantations,  of  what 
concerns  his  majesty's  interest  in  the  success  of  this 

Srovince,  I  thought  myself  equally  obliged  to  be 
iscreet  and  cautious  in  doing  it.  To  write,  then, 
there  was  need,  and  not  to  trouble  persons  of  their 
honour  and  business,  with  things  trivial,  at  least,  raw 
and  unfinished  for  their  view.  This  hitherto  put 
me  by  giving  any  account  of  the  state  of  our  affairs, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  mighty  difficulties  I  have  la- 
boured under,  in  the  settlement  of  six-and-twenty 


sail  of  people,  to  content,  within  the  space  of  one 
year  ;  which  makes  my  case  singular  and  excusable, 
above  any  other  of  the  king's  plantations. 

"  But  because  my  agent  has  informed  me  that 
the  proprietor  of  Maryland  has  been  early  in  his 
account  of  our  conference  about  fixing  our  bounds, 
and  made  a  narrative  of  my  affairs,  as  well  before, 
as  at  that  time,  a  little  to  my  disadvantage,  and  the 
rather,  because  my  silence  might  be  interpreted 
neglect,  I  am  necessitated  to  make  some  defence 
for  myself;  which,  as  it  will  not  be  hard  to  make, 
so  I  hope  it  will  be  received  as  just. 

"  1  humbly  say,  then,  first,  that  it  seemed  to  me 
improper  to  trouble  the  lords  with  my  transactions 
with  this  proprietor,  till  we  were  come  to  some  result ; 
which  we«were  not:  for  we  parted  till  spring;  and 
even  then  were  but  to  meet  about  the  methods  of 
our  proceedings. 

"  Next,  This  narrative  was  taken  by  the  lord's 
orders,  without  my  consent  or  knowledge,  in  acoruer 
of  a  room  by  one  of  his  own  attendants. 

"  And,  lastly,  upon  when  notice  was  given  of  this 
usage,  I  complained  to  him,  he  promised,  upon  his 
word  and  honour,  it  should  go  not  farther;  and 
that  it  was  for  his  own  satisfaction  he  did  it ;  I  told 
him  that  mitigated  the  thing  a  little ;  but  if  he 
should  divulge  it  before  I  saw  and  agreed  to  the 
copy,  he  must  pardon  me,  if  I  looked  upon  it  as  a 
most  unfair  practice.  What  that  lord  has  done, 
and  what  to  call  it,  I  leave  to  my  betters ;  but  the 
surprise  and  indigestion  of  the  whole  will,  I  hope 
excuse  me  of  neglect,  or  disrespect :  for  though  I 
am  unceremonious,  1  would,  by  no  means,  act  the 
rude,  or  undutiful. 

"  This  said,  I  humbly  beg  that  I  may  give  a  brief 
narrative  of  the  matter,  as  it  then  passed,  since  has 
been,  and  now  stands,  without  the  weakness  and 
tautology  his  relation  makes  me  guilty  of. 

"  So  soon  as  I  arrived,  which  was  on  the  24th  of 
October  last,  I  immediately  dispatched  two  persons 
to  the  lord  Baltimore,  to  ask  of  his  health,  offer  kind 
neighbourhood,  and  agree  a  time  of  meeting  the 
better  to  establish  it.  While  they  were  gone  of  this 
errand,  I  went  to  New  York,  that  I  might  pay  my 
duty  to  the  duke,  in  the  visit  of  his  government  and 
colony.  At  my  return,  which  was  towards  the  end 
of  November,  I  found  the  messengers,  whom  I  had 
sent  to  Maryland,  newly  arrived,  and  the  time  fixed, 
being  the  19th  of  December.  I  prepared  myself  in 
a/ew  days  for  that  province.  The  llth  of  the  month 
I  came  to  west  river ;  where  I  met  the  proprietor, 
attended  suitable  to  his  character;  who  took  the 
occasion,  by  his  civilities,  to  shew  me  the  greatness 
of  his  power :  the  next  day  we  had  conference 
about  our  business  of  the  bounds,  both  at  the  same 
table,  with  our  respective  members  of  council. 

"  The  first  thing  I  did  was  to  present  the  king's 
letter ;  which  consisted  of  two  parts : — One,  that  the 
lord  Baltimore  had  but  two  degrees;  and  the  other, 
that  beginning  at  Watkins's  point,  he  should  ad- 
measure his  said  degrees,  at  60  miles  to  a  degree. 
This  being  read  by  him,  first  privately,  then  publicly, 
he  told  me,  the  king  was  greatly  mistaken,  and  that 
he  would  not  leave  his  patent,  to  follow  the  king's 
letter,  nor  could  a  letter  void  his  patent ;  and  by 
that  he  would  stand. 

"  This  was  the  substance  of  what  he  said  from 
first  to  last,  during  the  whole  conference.  To  this 
I  answered,  the  king  might  be  misinformed  rather 
than  mistaken,  and  that  I  was  afraid  the  mistake 
would  fall  on  his  side  ;  for  though  his  patent  begins 
at  Watkins's  point,  and  goes  to  the  fortieth  degree 


UNITED  STATES. 


811 


of  north  latitude,  yet  it  presumed  that  to  lie  in  the 
38th  ;  else  Virginia  would  be  wronged,  which  should 
extend  to  that  degree;  however,  this  I  assured  him, 
that  when  I  petitioned  the  king  for  five  degrees 
north  latitude,  and  that  petition  was  referred  to  the 
lords  of  the  committee  of  plantations ;  at  that  time 
it  was  urged  by  some  present,  that  the  Lord  Balti- 
more had  but  two  degrees  ;  upon  which  the  lord 
president,  turning  his  head  to  me,  at  whose  chair  I 
stood,  said, '  Mr.  Penn,  will  not  three  degrees  serve 
your  turn  ?'  I  answered,  *  I  submit  both  the  what 
and  how,  to  the  honourable  board. 

"  To  this  his  uncle,  and  chancellor,  returned, 
that  to  convince  me  his  father's  grant  was  not  by 
degrees,  he  had  more  of  Virginia  given  him,  but 
being  planted,  and  the  grant  intending  only  land 
not  planted,  or  possessed,  but  of  savage  natives,  he 
left  it  out,  that  it  might  not  forfeit  the  rest,  of 
which  the  Lord  Baltimore  takes  no  notice  in  his 
narrative,  that  I  remember. — But,  by  that  answer, 
he  can  pretend  nothing  to  Delaware;  which  was  at, 
and  before  the  passing  of  that  patent,  bought  and 
planted  by  the  Dutch ;  and  so  could  not  be  given  : — 
but  if  it  were,  it  was  forfeited,  for  not  reducing  it,  du- 
ring twenty  years  under  the  English  sovereignty,  of 
which  he  held  it ;  but  was  at  last  reduced  by  the 
king,  and  therefore  his,  to  give  as  he  pleaseth. 

"  Perceiving  that  my  pressing  the  king's  letter 
was  uneasy,  and  that  I  had  determined  myself  to 
dispose  him  with  utmost  softness  to  a  good  compli- 
ance, I  waved  that  of  the  two  degrees,  and  pressed 
the  admeasurement  only,  the  next  part  of  the  letter: 
for  though  it  were  two  degrees  and  a  half  from  Wat- 
kins's  point  to  40  degrees,  yet  let  it  be  measured  at 
GO  miles  to  a  degree,  and  I  would  begin  at  40  de- 
grees, fall  as  it  would : — my  design  was,  that  every 
degree  being  70  miles,  I  should  get  all  that  was 
over  60,  the  proportion  intended  the  Lord  Balti- 
more, by  the  grant  and  computation  of  a  degree,  at 
that  time  of  the  day: — thus  he  had  enjoyed  the  full 
favour  intended  him,  and  I  had  gained  a  door  of 
great  importance  to  the  peopling  and  improving  of 
his  majesty's  province. 

"  But  he  this  also  rejected ; — I  told  him  it  was 
not  the  love  or  need  of  the  land,  but  the  water  ;  that 
he  abounded  in  what  I  wanted,  and  access  and 
harbouring  even  to  excess ;  that  I  would  not  be 
thus  importunate,  but  for  the  importance  of  the 
thing,  to  save  a  province;  and  because  there  was 
no  proportion  in  the  concern  ;  if  I  were  a  hundred 
times  more  urgent  and  tenacious,  the  case  would 
excuse  it;  because  the  thing  insisted  on  was  more 
than  ninety-nine  times  more  valuable  to  me  than 
to  him ;  to  me  the  head,  to  him  the  tail. — I  added, 
that  if  it  were  his,  and  he  gave  it  me,  planting  it 
would  recompense  the  favours,  not  only  by  laying 
his  country  between  two  thriving  provinces,  but  the 
ships,  that  come  yearly  to  Maryland  for  tobacco, 
would  have  the  bringing  of  both  our  people  and 
merchandize;  because  they  can  afford  it  cheaper; 
whereby  Maryland  would,  for  one  age  or  two,  be 
the  mart  of  trade.  But  this  also  had  no  other  en- 
tertainment, but  hopes  that  I  would  not  insist  on 
these  things  at  our  next  meeting  ;  after  three  days 
time  we  parted,  and  I  returned  to  this  province. 

"  When  the  spring  came  I  sent  an  express  to 
pray  the  time  and  place,  when  and  where  I  should 
meet  him,  to  effect  the  business,  we  adjourned  to  at 
that  time.  I  followed  close  upon  the  messenger, 
that  no  time  might  be  lost.  But  the  expectation  he 
twice  had  of  the  Lord  Culpepper's  visit,  disap- 
pointed any  meeting  on  our  affairs,  till  the  month 


called  May;  he  then  sent  three  gentlemen  to  let 
me  know  he  would  meet  me  at  the  head  of  the  bay 
of  Chesapeak  ;  I  was  then  in  treaty  with  the  kings 
of  the  natives  for  land ;  but  three  days  after  we  met 
ten  miles  from  Newcastle,  which  is  30  from  the 
bay.  I  invited  him  to  the  town,  where,  having  en- 
tertained him,  as  well  as  the  town  could  afford,  on 
so  little  notice,  and  finding  him  only  desirous  of 
speaking  with  me  privately,  I  pres'sed  that  we 
might,  at  our  distinct  lodgings,  sit  severally  with 
our  councils,  and  treat  by  way  of  written  memorials ; 
which  would  prevent  the  mistakes  or  abuses  that 
may  follow  from  ill  designs,  or  ill  memory  ;  but  he 
avoided  it,  saying,  '  He  was  not  well,  and  the 
weather  sultry,  and  would  return  with  what  speed 
he  could,  reserving  any  other  treaty  to  another  sea- 
son.'—Thus  we  parted,  at  that  time.  I  had  been 
before  told  by  divers,  that  the  said  Baltimore  had 
issued  forth  a  proclamation,  to  invite  people,  by 
lower  prices,  and  greater  quantities  of  land,  to  plant 
in  the  lower  counties;  in  which  the  duke's  goodness 
had  interested  me.  as  an  inseparable  benefit  to  this 
whole  province.  I  was  not  willing  to  believe  it; 
and,  the  being  in  haste,  I  omitted  to  ask  him:  but 
I  had  not  been  long  returned  before  two  letters 
came  from  two  judges  of  two  of  the  country courts.that 
such  a  proclamation  was  abroad,  that  the  people 
too  hearken  to  it,  but  yet  prayed  my  directions.  I 
bade  them  keep  their  ground,  and  not  fear,  for  the 
king  would  be  judge.  Upon  this  I  dispatched  to 
the  Lord  Baltimore  three  of  my  council,  with  the 
clerk  of  it:  as  they  went  they  got  an  authentic 
copy,  under  the  hand  of  one  of  his  sheriffs,  to  whom 
an  original  had  been  directed :  but,  as  the  last  ci- 
vility, I  would  yield  him,  I  forbad  them  to  seem  to 
believe  any  thing  but  what  they  had  from  his  own 
mouth.  Thus  they  delivered  my  letter. 

"  At  first  he  denied  any  such  proclamation,  turn- 
ing to  two  gentlemen  of  his  council,  who  stood  by, 
he  asked  them  if  they  remembered  any  such  thing  ? 
They  also  denied  it.  Upon  which  the  persons  I 
sent'produced  the  attested  copy ;  which  refreshing 
heir  memories,  they  confessed  there  was  such  a 
proclamation. 

'  But  the  Lord  Baltimore  told  them  that  it  was 
bis  ancient  form,  and  he  only  did  it  to  renew  his 
claim,  not  that  he  would  encourage  any  to  plant 
there.  They  then  prayed  him  to  call  it  in,  lest  any 
trouble  should  ensue  :  but  he  refused  it. — This  was 
during  a  civil  treaty,  without  any  demand  made, 
and  after  the  place  had  been  many  years  in  the 
quiet  possession  of  the  duke. — What  to  call  this  I 
still  humbly  refer  to  my  superiors.  For  his  pre- 
tensions to  those  parts  I  have  thoroughly  instructed 
my  agent ;  who,  I  hope,  will  be  able  to  detect  them 
of  weakness  and  inconsistency.  This  is  a  true, 
though  brief,  narrative  of  the  entertainment,  I  have 
had  from  that  lord,  in  the  business  between  us. 

'  And  because  I  have,  as  in  duty  joined,  sent 
an  agent  extraordinary  to  wait  upon  the  king  and 
his  ministers,  in  the  affairs  of  this  province  (so  soon 
as  I  could  make  any  settlement  in  it)  I  shall  only 
humbly  pray  leave  to  hint  at  two  or  three  things, 
relating  to  the  business  depending  between  this 
lord  and  myself,  about  finding  the  40th  degree  of 
north  latitude. 

'  I.  That  I  have  common  fame  on  my  side, 
grounded  upon  ancient  and  constant  judges,  that 
the  40th  degree  of  north  latitude  lieth  about  Boles's 
Isle.  This  the  Lord  Baltimore  himself  hath  not 
denied;  and  the  country  confesseth;  and  I  shall, 
when  required,  prove  by  some  able  masters  of  ships. 


812 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


"  II.  If  this  were  an  error,  it  is  grounded  upon 
such  skill  and  instruments,  as  gave  measure  to  the 
fame  in  which  his  patent  was  granted: — and  if  he 
hath  got  upon  Virginia  by  that  error,  he  should  not 
get  upon  me  by  an  exacter  knowledge,  considering 
that  Carolina,  which  endeth  by  degrees,  would  as 
much  advance  upon  Virginia,  if  the  reputed  latitude 
of  unprejudiced  times  should  take  no  place  ;  for,  by 
advancing  her  bounds  twenty  miles,  by  a  new  in- 
strument, beyond  the  place ;  which  hath  been  ge- 
nerally taken  for  36f  degrees;  and  Virginia  not 
being  equally  able  to  advance  upon  Maryland,  be- 
cause of  its  being  at  a  place  certain,  she  will  be 
greatly  narrowed  between  both. 

"  III.  I  therefore  most  humbly  pray,  that  the 
judgment  of  ancient  times,  by  which  persons  at  the 
distance  of  England  from  America,  have  governed 
themselves,  may  conclude  that  the  lord's  bounds, 
or  that  he  may  measure  his  two  degrees  according 
to  the  scale  and  computations  of  those  times,  which 
was  60  miles  to  a  degree ;  or,  if  it  be  allowed  that 
he  had  not  his  grant  by  degrees,  that,  at  last,  I 
might  not  lose  the  benefit  of  admeasurement,  as  be- 
fore mentioned,  from  Watkin's-point,  in  whatever 
degree  of  latitude  that  shall  be  found,  to  the  40th 
degree  of  north  latitude,  which  I  humbly  take  the 
more  courage  to  press,  because  a  province  lieth  at 
stake,  in  the  success  of  it. 

"  I  have  only  humbly  to  add,  that  the  province 
hath  a  prospect  of  an  extraordinary  improvement, 
as  well  by  divers  sorts  of  strangers,  as  English  sub- 
jects ;  that,  in  all  acts  of  justice,  we  name  and  ve- 
nerate the  king's  authority;  that  I  have  followed 
the  bishop  of  London's  counsel,  by  buying,  and  not 
taking  away  the  natives'  land;  with  whom  I  have 
settled  a  very  kind  correspondence.  I  return  my 
most  humble  thanks  for  your  former  favours,  in  the 
passing  of  my  patent,  and  pray  God  reward  you,  I 
am  most  ready  to  obey  all  your  commands,  accord- 
ing to  the  obligations  of  them,  and  beseech  you  to 
take  this  province  into  your  protection,  under  his 
majesty  and  him,  whom  his  goodness  hath  made 
governor  of  it,  into  your  favours,  for  that  I  am, 
with  most  sincere  devotion,  noble  lords,  your  thank- 
ful, faithful  friend  and  servant,  to  my  power, 

"  WILLIAM  PENN." 

The  nature  and  state  of  this  controversy,  about 
this  time,  further  appear  by  the  following  papers, 
viz : — 

"  Charles,  Lord  Baltimore,  absolute  lord  and  pro- 
prietary of  the  province  of  Maryland  and  Ava- 
lon, &c.  To  our  dear  cousin  and  counsellor,  Co- 
lonel George  Talbot,  Esq.,  (L.S.) 
"  Reposing  special  confidence  in  your  wisdom 
and  integrity,  I  hereby  nominate  and  appoint,  and 
iuipower  you  to  repair  forthwith  to  the  Sculkil  at 
Delaware  ;  and,  in  my  name,  to  demand  of  William 
Penn,  Esq.,  or  of  his  deputy,  all  that  part  of  the 
land  on  the  west  side  of  the  said  river,  that  lieth  to 
the  southward  of  the  40th  degree,  northern  latitude, 
according  to  an  east  line,  run  out  from  two  obser- 
vations, the  one  taken  the  10th  of  June,  1682,  and 
the  other  the  27th  of  September,  1682,  in  obedience 
to  his  majesty's  commands,  expressed  in  a  letter  of 
the  2d  of  April  1681 ;  which  commands  were,  at 
that  time,  rejected  by  the  agents  of  the  said  Penn 
(notwithstanding  that  by  several  letters  and  wri 
tings  under  their  hands,  it  may  appear  they  pro- 
mised a  compliance  with  his  majesty's  commands 
aforesaid),  and  for  which  you  shall  do  herein,  this 
shall  be  to  you  a  sufficient  power. — Given  under 


my  hand  and  seal,  the  17th  day  of  September,  anno 
1683.  "  C.  BALTIMORE. 

"  Vera  copia  attestata  per  me, 

"  GEORGE  TALBOT." 

"  By  virtue  of  his  lordship's  commission,  whereof 
the  above  is  a  true   copy,  I,  George  Talbot,  do,  in 
;he   name  of  the  right  honourable   Charles,    Lord 
Baltimore,  absolute  lord  and  proprietary  of  Mary- 
and  and  Avalon,  demand  of  you,  Nicholas  Moore, 
deputy  to  William  Penn,   Esq.,  all  the  land  lying 
on  the  west  side  of  Delaware  river,  and  to  the  south- 
ward of  the  40th  degree  of  northerly  latitude,  ac- 
cording to  a  line  run  east,  from  two  observations, 
he  one  taken  the  10th  of  June,  1682,  and  the  other 
m  the  27th  of  September,   1682,  in  obedience  to 
lis  majesty's  commands,  expressed  in  a  letter,  the 
2d  of  April,  1681;  which  commands  were  at  that 
ime  rejected  by  the  said  William  Penn's  agents, 
notwithstanding  that  by  several  letters  and  other 
writings,  under  their  hands,   it  appears  that  they 
>romised  compliance   to   his  majesty's   commands 
aforesaid. — The  land  so  claimed  by  me  for  the  Lord 
Baltimore's  use,  being  part  of  the  said  province  of 
Maryland,  granted  to  his  lordship's  father  by  King 
harles  I.,  of  sacred  memory,  and  now  wrongfully 
letained  by  the  said  William  Penn,  from  his  lord- 
hip.     And,  in  witness,   that  I  make  this  demand, 
have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  seal,  the  24th  day 
if  September,  1683.       GEORGE  TALBOT.     (L.  S)"" 
Penn,  being  at  New  York,  at  the  time  of  this  de- 
mand, after  his  return,  made  the  following  answer, 
iz. 

;  An  answer  to  a  demand  made  to  Nicholas  Moore, 
as  my  deputy,  by  Colonel  George  Talbot,  the  24th 
of  September,  1683,  in  pursuance  of  a  commis- 
sion, from  the  Lord  Baltimore,  proprietary  of 
Maryland  and  Avalon,  dated  the  17th  of  the 
same  month. 

"  The  demand  being  grounded  upon  the  commis- 
sion, I  will  take  things  in  their  order,  and  begin 
with  the  commission. 

'  The  Lord  Baltimore  doth  commissionate  Colonel 
Talbot  to  go  to  the  west  side  of  the  Skulkil  to  de- 
mand of  William  Penn,  Esq.,  or  his  deputy,  all 
[hat  part  of  land  on  the  west  side  of  that  river  that 
lieth  to  the  south  of  the  40th  degree  of  northerly 
latitude. 

"  I.  I  answer,  it  seems  very  slight,  abrupt,  and 
unprecedented  for  any  person  that  is  in  the  quality 
of  a  proprietary  of  a  country,  to  send  to  another  in 
the  same  circumstance,  any  extraordinary  messen- 
ger, agent,  or  commissioner,  without  some  letter  or 
memorial,  to  state  the  demand,  with  the  reasons  of 
it ;  the  practice  of  the  greatest  princes,  and  might 
therefore  (I  conceive)  be  the  condescension  of  lesser 
seigniories. 

"  II.  In  the  next  place,  William  Penn.  Esq., 
and  the  said  Penn  (the  language  of  the  commis- 
sion), is  not  my  American  style,  nor  that  which 
belongs  to  me,  in  the  matter  in  question ;  for,  as 
such,  I  keep  no  deputies. 

"  III.  I  live  not  on  the  west  side  of  Skulkil,  nor 
any  deputy  of  mine ;  and  I  conceive  Colonel  Talbot 
could  not,  by  that  commission,  come  to  the  east  side, 
to  make  his  demand;  which  yet  he  did. 

"  IV.  I  was  absent,  and  at  New  York,  when 
this  commissioner  came  ;  and  I  never  did,  nor  never 
will,  commission  any  deputy  to  treat  and  conclude 
away  my  inheritance,  without  my  particular  direction 
and  command  ;  though,  if  I  were  to  go  for  England, 
I  would  not  disown  the  laws  he  should  make  in  my 
absence,  for  public  good,  when  I  came  back. 


UNITED  STATES. 


813 


"  V.  Colonel  Talbot  is  directed,  in  the  commis- 
sion, to  make  the  demand,  according  to  a  line,  said 
to  be  run,  in  obedience  to  his  majesty's  command, 
in  his  letter  of  the  2d  of  April,  1681 ;  but  I  say  tha 
no  line  is  yet  run  in  obedience  to  his  majesty's  com- 
mand ;  for  the  letter  expressly  saith,  that  the  Lord 
Baltimore,  or  his  agent,  shall,  together  with  my 
agent,  agree  to  the  latitude,  and  then  run  the  line 
and  bound  the  provinces  accordingly ;  which  is  no 
yet  done :  for  those  observations,  and  the  line  run 
by  them,  are  performed  by  the  Lord  Baltimore,  and 
his  agents  only,  and  therefore  not  according  to  his 
majesty's  command,  in  his  letter  of  the  2d  of  April, 
1681,  nor,  in  my  opinion,  common  equity;  for  1 
knew  nothing  of  them. 

"  VI.  To  say  (as  his  commission  doth)  that  my 
commissioners  refused  to  comply  with  the  said  let- 
ter, is  hard  for  me  to  do ;  since  the  chiefest  of  them 
brought  it  in  my  favour.  But  the  truth  is  (if  they 
say  true,  and  circumstances  favour  them),  the  thing 
is  improbable ;  for  the  Lord  Baltimore  would  have 
had  them  agreed  to  have  taken  an  observation  upon 
the  riv^r  Delaware,  when  as  the  king's  letter 
(stating  my  bounds  as  they  are  expressed  in  my 
patent)  begins  twelve  miles  above  Newcastle,  upon 
the  west  side  of  Delaware  river,  and  so  to  run  to 
the  43d  degree  of  north  latitude  upon  the  said  river ; 
which  makes  it  impossible  that  the  Lord  Baltimore 
could  come  within  those  limits  to  take  an  observa- 
tion, or  run  a  line  in  pursuance  of  his  majesty's 
commands,  in  the  said  letter ;  since  taking  an  ob- 
servation on  Delaware  river  (which,  say  they,  he 
pressed)  is  a  plain  violation  of  it.  They  further 
say,  that  they  never  refused,  but  pressed  the  taking 
of  an  observation  according  to  his  majesty's  letter, 
which  is  grounded  on  the  bounds  of  my  patent; 
and  when  the  Lord  Baltimore  and  my  agent  had 
agreed  to  meet  at  Newcastle,  and  to  proceed  ac- 
cording to  his  majesty's  letter,  it  is  true  that  my 
agent  came  not,  and  as  true,  saith  he,  that  the 
reason  was  the  Lord  Baltimore  called  immediately 
at  Chichester,  alias,  Marcus  Hooks,  as  he  went  to 
Newcastle,  and  forbad  the  inhabitants  to  pay  me 
quit-rent,  and  named  the  place  by  a  new  name, 
before  any  line  was  run,  or  any  observation  agreed ; 
which  being  a  declared  breach  of  the  king's  com- 
mands, and  theirjtreaty,  in  the  opinion  of  my  agent,  he 
refused  to  meet  the  next  day  about  a  matter,  the  Lord 
Baltimore  had  in  such  a  manner  already  determined. 
"  VII.  But  what  fault  soever  they  were  in,  sure 
I  am,  that  before  an  observation  was  agreed,  or  any 
line  was  run,  I  came  in,  and  suddenly  after  waited 
upon  the  Lord  Baltimore.  I  presented  him  with 
another  letter  from  his  majesty,  which  he  was  so  far 
from  complying  with,  that  he  looked  upon  the 
king  as  mistaken,  and  set  his  patent  in  direct  op- 
position ;  and  to  this  day  would  never  hear  of  com- 
plying with  it  in  either  of  the  two  points  it  related 
to ;  that  is  to  say,  his  having  but  two  degrees,  and 
that  beginning  them  at  Watkins's  point,  he  should 
admeasure  them,  at  sixty  miles  to  a  degree,  to  ter- 
minate the  north  bounds  of  his  province,  Now,  in 
my  opinion,  it  was  not  proper  to  ground  his  pro- 
ceedings upon  a  former  letter,  in  neglect  of  a  later 
advice  and  command  from  his  majesty :  nor  doth  it 
look  very  just  to  make  the  caution  or  neglect  of  an 
agent,  in  the  absence  of  his  principal,  a  reason 
to  proceed  against  his  principal,  when  present 
with  other  instructions,  without  due  regard  had  to 
him  or  his  allegations.  And  I  must  say,  that  at 
Newcastle,  when  I  pressed  the  Lord  Baltimore  to 
sit  in  one  house  with  his  council,  and  I  would  sit 


with  mine  in  another,  that  we  might  treat  by  written 
memorials  under  our  hands,  to  prevent  mistakes,  ill 
memory,  or  ill  will,  he  refused,  alleging  he  was 
not  well ;  I  did  then  tell  him  I  would  wave  what 
force  or  advantage  I  thought  I  had  by  the  second 
letter,  and  proceed  to  meet  him  at  the  place  he 
desired,  which  was  the  head  of  Chesapeak  bay,  and 
there  try  to  find  the  fortieth  degree  of  north  latitude, 
provided  he  would  first  please  to  set  me  a  gentle- 
manly price ;  so  much  per  mile,  in  case  I  should 
have  no  part  of  the  bay  by  latitude  ;  that  so  I  might 
have  a  back  port  to  this  province.  This  I  writ, 
according  to  his  desire,  and  sent  after  ;  him  to  sell 
he  refused,  but  started  an  exchange  of  part  of  that 
bay  for  the  lower  counties  on  the  bay  of  Delaware. 
This,  I  presume,  he  knew  I  could  not  do,  for  his 
royal  highness  had  the  one  half,  and  I  did  not  prize 
the  thing  I  desired  at  such  a  rate.  Soon  after  this 
meeting,  I  understood  that  he  had  issued  forth  a 
proclamation  some  time  before,  to  invite  people  to 
plant  those  parts  in  my  possession,  under  his  royal 
highness;  and  that  also  before  any  demand  had 
been  made,  or  our  friendly  treaty  ended ;  which  I 
took  so  ill,  in  right  of  his  royal  highness,  and  that 
which  his  goodness  had  made  mine,  that  I  sent  com- 
missioners (first  to  know  the  truth  of  it  from  his 
own  mouth,  before  I  would  credit  the  intelligence 
I  had  received,  and,  if  true)  to  complain  of  the 
breach  of  our  friendly  treaty,  and  that  it  might  be 
repaired  ;  which  he  hath  taken  so  ill  (how  de- 
servedly let  the  whole  world  judge),  that  he  hath 
sent  me  letters  of  a  very  coarse  style,  such  as  in- 
deed could  not  be  answered  without  those  terms 
which  unbecome  men  in  our  public  stations,  who, 
in  the  midst  of  all  disagreements,  ought  to  manage 
themselves  with  coolness  and  exact  civility;  and  if 
in  this  I  have  at  any  time  been  short,  let  me  but 
know  it,  and  I,  that  think  it  a  meanness  of  spirit  to 
justify  an  error  when  committed,  am  not  too  stiff 
to  ask  him  pardon.  Here  I  left  him,  expecting  his 
news  when  he  came  to  the  head  of  the  bay,  in  Sep- 
tember, as  I  thought  he  promised  me  ;  but  instead 
of  that,  an  observation  is  taken,  a  line  run,  and 
trees  marked,  without  my  notice,  and  a  demand 
made  thereupon,  and  all  grounded  on  his  majesty's 
letter  of  the  2d  of  April,  168]  ;  in  which  I  must 
again  say,  I  find  no  such  direction,  which  bringeth 
me  to  the  demand  itself. 

:<  VIII.  To  the  demand,  viz.,  Of  all  that  land 
on  Delaware  river  to  fhe  south  of  the  40th  degree 
of  north  latitude,  I  have  this  to  say,  that  it  is  very 
odd  the  demand  should  be  made  several  months 
after  the  proclamation  was  put  forth,  to  encourage 
people  to  plant  most  of  the  parts  demanded ;  but 
much  more  strange,  that  after  the  Lord  Baltimore 
had  declared  under  his  hand,  that  he  did  not  by  that 
intend  to  break  our  amicable  treaty,  he  should, 
without  further  provocation  given,  proceed  to 
demand  those  parts  !  Certainly,  this  was  not  in- 
tended to  continue  our  friendship  ;  nor  did  it  look 
with  common  decency,  that  Colonel  Talbot  should 
not  think  me  worth  leaving  a  letter  at  my  house, 
where  he  lodged,  when  he  went  away,  as  well  as 
the  land  worth  such  a  demand.  But,  indeed,  his 
arriage  all  along  shews  he  came  to  defy  me,  not 
treat  me  like  either  a  neighbour  or  gentleman.  A 
sudden  change  amusing  the  king's  people,  under 
my  charge,  by  threats,  or  drawing  them  off  their 
obedience  by  degrading  mine,  and  invitations  to  the 
Lord  Baltimore's  government.  This  I  found  at  my 
return  in  his  conduct  (though  not  in  his  commis- 
sion) as  some  of  the  people  do  aver. 


814 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


"  IX.  But,  in  the  next  place,  the  Lord  Baltimore 
hath  no  warrant  to  run  his  line  to  the  river  of  De- 
laware, neither  by  the  king's  letter  nor  his  own 
patent,  if  he  peruseth  them  well,  where  he  will  find 
the  bay,  but  not  the  river,  of  Delaware. 

"  X.  The  land  demanded  is  not  a  part  of  the 
province  of  Maryland,  as  is  expressed  in  the  de- 
mand; for  it  is  in  the  jurisdiction  of  Delaware  (alias 
Newcastle)  which  is  by  several  acts  of  the  assembly 
of  Maryland,  distinguished  and  disowned  from 
being  any  part  of  that  province. 

"XL  The  Lord  Baltimore  hath  no  land  given 
him  by  patent,  but  what  was  unplanted  of  any  but 
savage  nations  ;  and  this  west  side  of  the  river  Dela- 
ware, before,  and  at  the  passing  of  his  patent,  was 
actually  bought  and  possessed  by  a  civil  and  Chris- 
tian people,  in  amity  with  the  crown  of  England ; 
and  by  the  treaty  of  peace  in  1653,  between  the 
English  and  Dutch,  it  was  part  of  one  article  of  the 
treaty,  that  the  Dutch  should  enjoy  those  territories, 
iu  America,  of  which  this  was  a  member ;  and  we 
uo  know,  foreign  actions  of  that  time  and  kind  con- 
tinued firm  after  his  majesty's  restoration ;  for  Ja- 
maica still  remains  to  us ;  and  Dunkirk  itself  was 
not  rendered,  but  sold. — To  be  short,  I  conceive, 
it  is  more  for  the  Lord  Baltimore's  honour  and 
safety,  that  it  should  be  so,  as  I  say,  than  other- 
wise : — for  if  he  claimeth  what  was  possessed  of  the 
Dutch,  on  Delaware  river,  south  of  the  40th  de- 
gree of  north  latitude,  as  what  was  lawfully  under 
the  English  sovereignty,  how  cometh  he  to  suffer 
part  of  his  province  to  remain  under  a  strange  and 
foreign  sovereignty  to  that,  under  which  he  held 
his  claim. 

"  XII.  But,  if  the  Lord  Baltimore  had  a  just 
pretence  to  this  river,  and  former  possession  too, 
which  he  never  had,  yet  being  by  the  Dutch  taken, 
and  by  the  king  taken  from  the  Dutch,  it  becomes 
the  conqueror's  : — for,  it  is  known,  that,  if  any  of 
our  English  merchants  ships  be  taken,  and  possessed 
but  24  hours,  by  an  enemy,  if  retaken  by  the  crown, 
they  are  prize :  and  this  place  was  more  than  24 
years  in  the  hands  of  the  Dutch.  This  made  his 
royal  highness  take  out  fresh  patents,  upon  the 
opinion  of  council  (since  the  last  conquest)  for  his 
territories  in  America.  Nor  is  the  Lord  Baltimore 
in  the  condition  of  an  ordinary  subject  (in  whose 
favour  something  might  be  alledged);  for  he  hath 
regalia,  principality,  though  subordinate  to  the  king, 
as  his  style  shews ;  and  I  conceive  he  is  bound  to 
keep  his  own  dominions,  or  else  lose  them  ;  and  if 
lost  to  a  foreigner,  and  taken  by  the  sovereign,  the 
sovereign  hath  the  right ;  another  conqueror  could 
plead.  This  is  the  present  jus  gentium,  and  law  of 
nations  ;  which  in  foreign  acquests  prevaileth  ;  and 
the  king  accordingly  has  granted  it,  under  his 
great  seal  of  England,  to  his  royal  highness.  And, 
if  there  were  no  truth  in  this,  but  the  Lord 
Baltimore's  patent  were  title  good  enough  for  what 
was  actually  another's  before,  and  which  he  never 
enjoyed  since,  Connecticut  colony  might  put  in  for 
New  York,  as  reasonably  as  the  Lord  Baltimore 
can  for  Delaware,  their  patent  having  that  part  of 
the  Dutch  territories  within  its  bounds,  on  the  same 
mistake. 

"  XIII.  I  shall  conclude  with  this,  that  the  king, 
by  articles  of  peace,  between  him  and  the  states  of 
Holland,  is  the  allowed  owner  of  all  that  territory 
in  America,  once  called  New  Netherland  ;  of  which 
this  is  a  part.  He  hath  been  graciously  pleased  to 
grant  it  by  two  patents,  and  this,  in  controversv, 
by  one,  under  the  great  seal  of  England,  to  his 


dearest  brother,  James,  duke  of  York  and  Albany, 
&c.  And  his  royal  highness,  out  of  his  y.inccly 
goodness,  and  singular  regard,  he  was  pleased  to 
have,  to  the  services  and  losses  of  my  deceased 
father,  hath  interested  me  in  part  of  the  same  ;  go 
that  he  is  lord,  (and  I  am  tenant)  of  him  I  hold, 
and  to  him  I  pay  my  rent ;  and  for  him  I  improve, 
as  well  as  myself  ;  and,  therefore,  1  must  take 
leave  to  refer  the  Lord  Baltimore  to  his  royal  high- 
ness; who  is  a  prince,  doubtless,  of  too  much  honour 
to  keep  any  man's  right,  and  of  too  great  resolu- 
tion, to  deliver  up  his  own  ;  whose  example  I  am 
resolved  to  follow." 

"  Philadelphia,  4th  of  October,  1683." 
Such  appears  to  have  been  the  state  of  this  contro- 
versy, at  this  time.  The  year  1684  commenced 
with  an  incursion  of  a  party  of  people  from  Mary- 
land, making  forcible  entry  on  several  plantations 
into  the  "  Lower  counties  :"  upon  which  the  gover- 
nor and  council,  at  Philadelphia,  sent  a  copy  of 
the  preceding  answer  to  the  Lord  Baltimore's  de- 
mand, with  orders  to  William  Welch,  to  use  his 
influence,  for  ^instating  the  persons,  who  had  been, 
dispossessed  ;  and  in  case  mild  measures  would  not 
do.  he  was  directed  legally  to  prosecute  the  invaders : 
but  the  former  method  appears  at  present  to  have 
answered  the  intention  ;  for  no  more  of  this  kind  of 
conduct  was  heard  of  till  the  next  month ;  when 
some  of  the  inhabitants  were  again  threatened  with 
the  same  outrages,  in  case  of  their  refusal  to  yield 
obedience  to  Lord  Baltimore.  The  government 
issued  a  declaration,  showing  Penn's  title,  and  such 
other  requisites  as  were  thought  most  likely  to  pre- 
vent such  illegal  proceedings  in  future. 

It  is  likewise  observable  about  this  time,  that  the 
methods  then  used,  and  the  law,  which  had  been 
made,  tc  prevent  strong  liquors  from  being  sold  to 
the  Indians,  did  not  fully  answer  the  intention  ; 
for  these  people,  notwithstanding,  through  some  un- 
principled persons  among  the  European  settlers,  in 
a  clandestine  manner,  still  procured  them.  The 
governor,  therefore,  seeing  >the  great  difficulty,  if 
not  the  absolute  impossibility,  of  debarring  them 
from  these  liquors,  called  a  number  of  them  together, 
and  proposed,  that,  on  condition  they  would  be  con- 
tent to  be  punished,  as  the  English  were,  in  con- 
sequence of  drunkenness,  they  should  not  be  hin- 
dered from  the  use  of  them  ?  This  they  readily 
agreed  to ;  and  would  probably  have  been  willing  to 
endure  much  greater  punishment  on  these  terms ; 
so  great  is  their  love  of  strong  liquors.  The  best 
methods  that  prudence  could  dictate,  had  been 
used,  as  it  was  thought,  and  much  advice  given  them 
to  inculcate  an  abhorrence  of  the  vice  of  drunken- 
ness, but  too  generally  without  that  effect,  which 
was  desired ;  their  appetite  having  so  much  the  pre- 
valency  over  their  reason,  and  their  sensual  desires, 
above  their  better  understanding,  that  while  they 
saw  and  acknowledged  the  means  used  for  their 
real  interest  in  this  affair,  to  be  good,  they  lived  in 
the  continued  violation  of  them. 

The  proprietary  obliged  to  return  to  England— Com- 
missions the  provincial  council  to  act  in  his  absence, 
fyc.  —  His  letter  at  his  departure  —  Oldmixon't 
account — Thomas  Langhorne — Death  of  Charlet 
II.,  and  succession  of  James  II.  to  the  crown  of 
England,  with  Penn's  interest  and  service  at  court 
—  The  dispute  between  Penn  and  Lord  Baltimore, 
respecting  the  boundary  of  the  territories  decided, 
$c. — Boundary  lines  between  the  counties  of  the 
province  ascertained— Proceedingi  of  th<s  assembly 


UNITED  STATES. 


815 


against  N.  Moore,  J.  Bridges  and  P.  Robinson — 
Means  used  to  instruct  the  Indians — State  of  the 
province. 

C1684.)  Perm  continued  in  Pennsylvania  and 
sometimes  in  the  adjacent  province  of  New  Jersey, 
and  other  neighbouring  places,  till  the  beginning 
or  the  summer  this  year,  settling  and  establishing 
the  government,  and  assisting  his  friends,  the 
Quakers,  in  regulating  th?  affairs  and  economy  of 
their  religious  society;  and  he  most  probably  would 
have  continued  to  reside  here  much  longer,  had  not 
the  dispute,  between  him  and  the  Lord  Baltimore, 
and  other  important  affairs,  called  him  to  England 
where  his  enemies,  taking  the  advantage  of  his  ab- 
sence, had  thrown  his  affairs  into  a  critical  situa- 
tion, and  rendered  his  presence  absolutely  ne- 
cessary. 

Upon  this  he  signed  a  commission,  empowering 
the  provincial  council  to  act  in  the  government  in 
his  stead;  of  which  Thomas  Lloyd  was  president; 
who  also  had  a  commission  to  keep  the  great  seal. 
Nicholas  Moore,  William  Welch,  William  Wood, 
Robert  Turner,  and  John  Eckley,  were  commis- 
sioned to  be  provincial  judges  for  two  years.  The 
commission  was  as  follows: — 
"  William  Penn,  proprietary  and  governor  of  the 

province  of  Pennsylvania,  and  territories  there- 
unto belonging, 

"  To  my  trusty  and  loving  friends,  Nicholas 
Moore,  William  Welch,  William  Wood,  Robert 
Tu  ner,  and  John  Eckley,  greeting  : 

"  Reposing  special  confidence  in  your  justice, 
wisdom,  and  integrity,  I  do,  by  virtue  of  the  king's 
authority,  derived  unto  me,  constitute  you  provin- 
cial judges  for  the  province  and  territories,  and  any 
legal  number  of  you,  a  provincial  court  of  judica- 
ture, both  fixt  and  circular,  as  is  by  law  directed; 
giving  you,  and  every  of  you,  full  power  to  act 
therein  according  to  the  same,  strictly  charging 
you,  and  every  of  you,  to  do  justice  to  all,  and  of  all 
degrees,  without  delay,  fear,  or  reward;  and  I  do 
hereby  require  all  persons  within  the  province  and 
territories  aforesaid,  to  give  you  due  obedience  and 
respect,  belonging  to  your  station  in  the  discharge 
of  your  duties:  this  commission  to  be  in  force  du- 
ring two  years,  ensuing  the  date  hereof;  you,  and 
every  of  you,  behaving  yourselves  well  therein,  and 
acting  according  to  the  same.  Given  at  Philadel- 
phia, the  4th  of  the  sixth  month,  1684,  being  the 
3'jth  year  of  the  king's  reign,  and  the  fourth  of  my 
government,  WILLIAM  PENN." 

Thomas  Lloyd,  James  Claypoole,  and  Robert 
Turner,  were  empowered  to  sign  patents,  and  grant 
warrants  for  lands ;  and  William  Clark  had  a  ge- 
neral commission,  to  be  justice  of  the  peace  through- 
out the  province  and  territories.  Other  justices 
being  likewise  appointed,  and  all  things  settled  in  a 
promising  and  prosperous  condition,  the  proprietary, 
on  the  12th  of  the  sixth  month,  1G84,  sailed  for 
England. 

Oldmixon  says,  "  the  friendship  and  civility  of 
the  Pennsylvanian  Indians  are  imputed  to  Mr. 
Penn,  the  proprietor's  extreme  humanity  and  bounty 
to  them ;  he  having  laid  out  some  thousands  of 
pounds,  to  instruct,  support,  and  oblige  them.  There 
are  ten  Indian  nations  within  the  limits  of  his  pro- 
vince; and  the  number  of  souls  of  these  barbarians 
is  computed  to  about  6000. — The  number  ef  the 
inhabitants  of  Swedish,  or  Dutch  extraction  may  be 
about  3000  souls." — "  Having  made  a  league  of  amity 
wilt  nineteen  Indian  nations,  between  them  and  all 


the  English  in  America;  having  established  good 
laws,  and  seen  his  chief  city  so  well  inhabited,  that 
there  were  then  near  300  houses,  and  2,500  souls  in. 
it,  besides  twenty  other  townships,  he  returned  to 
England,  leaving  William  Markham,  Esq.,  secre- 
tary, Mr.  Thomas  Holme,  survey  or- general;  and 
the  administration  in  the  hands  of  the  councilj  whose 
president  was  Thomas  Lloyd,  Esq.,  who.  by  virtue 
of  his  office,  held  the  government  several  years,"  &c. 
But  prior  to  his  entirely  leaving  the  country,  he 
wrote  from  on  board  the  ship,  in  which  he  sailed, 
the  following  most  affectionate  farewell,  to  be  com- 
municated to  those  whom  he  left  behind;  which,  as 
a  memorial  of  the  father  of  this  country,  among 
many  others,  may,  in  part,  show  to  posterity  his 
real  concern  for  the  true  happiness  of  the  people, 
both  in  their  temporal  and  spiritual  capacity,  and 
the  prosperity  of  the  country  in  every  respect. 
"  For  T.  Lloyd,  J.  Claypoole,  J.  Simcock,  C.  Tay- 
lor, and  J.  Harrison,  to  be  communicated  in 
meetings  in  Pennsylvania,  &c.  among  friends  :— 

"  Dear  Friends, 

"  My  love  and  my  life  is  to  you  and  with  you ; 
and  no  water  can  quench  it,-  nor  distance  wear  it 
out,  or  bring  it  to  an  end.  I  have  been  with  you, 
cared  over  you,  and  served  you  with  unfeigned 
love;  and  you  are  beloved  of  me,  and  near  to  me, 
beyond  utterance.  I  bless  you,  in  the  name  and 
power  of  the  Lord;  and  may  God  bless  you  with  his 
righteousness,  peace  and  plenty,  all  the  land  over. 
Oh,  that  you  would  eye  him  in  all,  through  all,  and 
above  all  the  works  of  your  hands;  and  let  it  be 
your  first  care  how  you  may  glorify  God  in  your 
undertakings :  for  to  a  blessed  end  are  you  brought 
hither;  and  if  you  see  and  keep  but  in  "the  sense  of 
that  Providence,  your  coming,  staying,  and  im- 
proving will  be  sanctified  ;  '  but  if  any  forget  God, 
and  call  not  upon  his  name,  in  truth,  he  will  pour 
out  his  plagues  upon  them ;  and  they  shall  know 
who  it  is  that  judgeth  the  children  of  men.' 

"  Oh,  now  you  are  come  to  a  quiet  land,  provoke 
not  the  Lord  to  trouble  it.  And  now  liberty  and 
authority  are  with  you,  and  in  your  hands,  let  the 
government  be  upon  his  shoulders,  in  all  your 
spirits  ;  that  you  may  rule  for  him,  under  whom 
the  princes  of  this  world  will,  one  day,  esteem  it 
their  honour  to  govern  and  serve,  in  their  places. 
I  cannot  but  say,  when  these  things  come  mightily 
upon  my  mind,  as  the  Apostles  did,  of  old,  '  What 
manner  of  persons  ought  we  to  be,  in  all  godly  con- 
versation !  '  Truly,  the  name  and  honour  of  the 
Lord  are  deeply  concerned  in  you,  as  to  the  discharge 
of  yourselves,  in  your  present  stations ;  many  eyes 
being  upon  you :  and  remember,  that,  as  we  have 
been  belied  about  disowning  the  true  religion,  so, 
of  all  government,  to  behold  us  exemplary  and 
Christian,  in  the  use  of  that,  will  not  only  stop  our 
enemies,  but  minister  conviction  to  many,  on  that 
account,  prejudiced.  Oh,  that  you  may  see  and 
know  that  service,  and  do  it,  for  the  Lord,  in  this 
your  day  : — 

"  And,  thou,  Philadelphia,  the  virgin  settlement 
of  this  province,  named  before  thou  wert  born,  what 
love,  what  care,  what  service,  and  what  travail  has 
there  been,  to  bring  thee  forth,  and  preserve  thee 
from  such  as  would  abuse  and  defile  thee  ! 

"  Oh,  that  thou  mayest  be  kept  from  the  evil,  that 
would  overwhelm  thee  ;  that,  faithful  to  the  God  of 
thy  mercies,  in  the  life  of  righteousness,  thou  may- 
est be  preserved  to  the  end :  my  soul  prays  to  God 
for  thee,  that  thou  mayest  stand  in  the  day  of  trial, 
that  thy  children  may  be  blessed  of  the  Lord,  and 


si  r> 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


thy  people  saved  by  his  power ;  my  love  to  thee 
has  been  great,  and  the  remembrance  of  thee  affects 
mine  heart  and  mine  eye  !  The  God  of  eternal 
strength  keep  and  preserve  thee,  to  his  glory  and 
thy  peace. 

"  So,  dear  friends,  my  love  again  salutes  you  all, 

wishing   that   grace,   mercy,   and   peace,    with  all 

temporal  blessings,  may  abound  richly  among  you ; 

so  says,  so  prays,  your  friend  and  lover  in  the  truth, 

"  WILLIAM  PENN. 

"  From  on  board  the  Ketch  Endeavour, 
the  sixth  month,  1684." 

In  England,  on  the  sixth  of  February,  1685, 
King  Charles  II.  died;  and  was  succeeded  by 
his  brother,  James,  duke  of  York,  a  professed 
Papist.  The  people  were  thereupon  filled  with 
great  apprehensions  and  fears,  lest,  according  to  the 
usual  practice  of  those  religious  devotees,  who  would 
compel  all  people  under  their  power  to  their  own 
mode  of  religion,  as  in  the  pers2cuting  days  of  Queen 
Mary,  he  should  endeavour,  by  the  ruin  of  the 
Protestant,  to  establish  the  Popish,  power  and  hie- 
rarchy in  the  nation.  So  that  had  the  proprietary 
of  Pennsylvania  at  this  time  fomented  the  general 
uneasiness,  by  encouraging  multitudes,  then  greatly 
alarmed,  he  most  probably  might,  as  himself  said, 
"  Have  put  many  more  thousands  of  people  into  his 
province,  as  well  as  pounds  into  his  pocket  than  he 
did." 

But  the  actions  of  Penn  appear  to  have  had  more 
noble  and  generous  motives  than  those  of  private 
interest,  or  of  a  party  only;  and,  from  that  friend- 
ship and  intimacy  which  he  had  with  the  king 
while  duke  of  York,  he  now  employed  his  interest 
with  him,  not  only  for  the  relief  of  his  suffering 
friends,  the  Quakers  (who  then  had  long  filled  the 
gaols  through  the  nation, on  account  of  their  religion), 
but  also  for  the  benefit  of  such  other  persons  as 
were  in  distress  or  difficulty,  without  distinction  of 
sect  or  party.  Ke  also,  there  is  no  doubt,  in  his 
private  and  friendly  capacity  advised  the  king  both 
for  his  own  real  interest,  and  for  that  of  the  nation 
in  general ;  however  much  real  advice  was  perverted 
or  neglected  by  that  infatuated  monarch. 

For  his  more  convenient  attendance,  therefore, 
at  court,  and  for  the  easier  performance  of  these 
acts  of  humanity,  friendship,  charity,  and  general 
service  to  his  country,  as  well  as  his  own  private 
concerns,  in  the  year  1685,  he  fixed  his  resilience 
near  Kensington  ;  all  which  gave  occasion  to  the 
ignorant,  and  his  malicious  enemies,  to  impute  to 
him  things  in  which  he  was  no  way  concerned. 

Lord  Baltimore's  agent  had,  in  the  year  1683, 
petitioned  Charles  II.,  that  no  fresh  grant  of  land, 
in  the  territories  of  Pennsylvania,  might  pass 
in  favour  of  Penn,  till  that  nobleman's  case  had 
been  heard.  This  petition  was  referred  to  the  lords 
of  the  committee  of  trade  and  plantation;  which, 
after  many  attendances  and  examinations  of  both 
parties,  made  a  report  to  James  II;  who,  in  No- 
vember 1685,  by  an  order  of  council,  determined 
the  affair  between  them;  by  ordering  a  division  to 
be  made  of  all  that  tract  of  land  between  Dela- 
ware and  Chesapeake  bay,  from  the  latitude  of  cape 
Henlopen,  to  the  south  boundary  of  Pennsylvania, 
into  two  equal  parts  ;  of  which  that  share  on  Dela- 
ware was  assigned  to  the  king ;  and  that  on  Chesa- 
peake, to  the  Lord  Baltimore. 

This  division  was,  by  the  king,  in  council,  or- 
dered immediately  to  be  made ;  but  its  execution 
being  many  years  delayed,  Queen  Ann  was  twice 
petitioned  for  a  further  hearing ;  which  being  ob- 


tained, the  first  order  of  council,  of  1685,  was,  by 
the  queen,  ratified  and  confirmed,  in  all  its  parts, 
and  commanded  to  be  put  in  execution,  without 
further  delay. 

In  consequence,  this  territory,  which  before  had 
been  divided  by  William  Penn,  into  the  three 
counties  of  Newcastle,  Kent,  and  Sussex,  became 
bounded  on  the  east,  by  the  river  and  bay  of  Dela- 
ware, and  partly  by  the  ocean  ;  on  the  south,  by  an 
east  and  west  line,  drawn  a  few  miles  south  of  the 
Indian  river,  in  latitude  about  thirty-eight  and  a 
half;  which  line  extends  half-way  between  the 
ocean,  on  the  east,  and  Chesapeake  bay  on  the  west, 
35  miles;  and  from  thence  on  the  west  of  the  said 
counties,  by  a  right  line  nearly  in  a  north  direc- 
tion to  the  south  boundary  of  Pennsylvania;  which 
is  in  a  parallel  of  about  fifteen  miles  due  south 
of  Philadelphia ;  so  that  the  said  line  touches  the 
arch  of  a  circle,  drawn  at  twelves  miles  distance 
from  Newcastle  to  the  river  Delaware ;  and  thence 
from  the  end  of  the  said  line,  on  the  north-eastward, 
to  the  river  Delaware,  by  the  said  arch.  ' 

Hence  the  breadth  of  these  counties,  east  and 
west,  continues  to  decrease  from  their  south  boun- 
dary, where  it  is  35  miles,  till  it  is  only  about 
twelve  miles,  at,  or  near  the  border  of  Pennsylva- 
nia. The  said  north  and  south  line,  from  lati- 
tude 38  degrees,  30  minutes,  to  39  degrees,  41 
minutes,  is  about  85  miles ;  but,  in  consideration  of 
the  space,  included  in  the  north  part  of  the  circle's 
arch,  the  whole  territory  may  probably  be  near 
90  miles  in  length ;  this,  multiplied  by  23,  the  mean 
breadth,  gives  2070  square  miles ;  which  last 
number,  multiplied  by  640,  the  number  of  acres  in 
one  square  mile,  produces  1,324,800,  or  above  one 
million  and  a  quarter  of  acres,  in  this  territory  ; 
now  known  as  the  state  of  Delaware. 

At  a  council  held  in  Philadelphia,  on  the  first 
day  of  the  second  month,  1685,  present  Thomas 
Lloyd,  president,  and  nine  others,  the  lines  of  sepa- 
ration between  the  county  of  Philadelphia  and  those 
of  Bucks  and  Chester  were  confirmed,  according  to 
the  proprietary's  desire,  signified  to  some  of  his 
friends  before  he  left  the  province. 

Nicholas  Moore,  from  London,  one  of  the  pro- 
vincial judges,  being  first  in  commission,  took  place, 
as  prior  judge;  or  in  the  style  of  later  times,  as 
chief  justice  of  the  province,  and  was  a  member  of 
assembly.  Though  he  appears  to  have  been  a  per- 
son of  good  and  useful  abilities,  and  esteemed  by 
the  proprietary,  yet  being  accused  of  mal-practices, 
he  fell  under  the  displeasure  of  the  house;  and  they 
impeached  him  in  form,  by  a  declaration  exhibited 
to  the  council  on  the  15th  of  May,  this  year,  con- 
sisting of  ten  articles  ;  besides  saving  to  themselves 
the  liberty  of  adding  more;  and  concluded  with  a 
request,  that  he  might  be  removed  from  his  great 
offices  and  trust,  and  be  made  to  answer  to  the 
crimes  and  misdemeanors  which  were  brought 
against  him. 

The  council  having  received  the  assembly's  charge 
against  Moore,  ordered  several  of  their  members  to 
acquaint  him  with  the  accusation,  and  to  request  his 
appearance  before  the  council  next  day  ;  but  he  not 
appearing  at  the  time  appointed,  the  articles  against 
him  were  read  a  second  time,  and  notice  given  to 
the  Assembly,  that  they  were  willing  to  hear  their 
proofs.  The  speaker,  John  White,  Abraham  Man, 
Thomas  Usher,  John  Blunston,  William  Barry,  and 
Samuel  Gray,  were  appointed  managers,  for  the 
house  on  the  occasion ;  who  supporting  the  charge, 
the  president  and  council  sent  a  second  notice  to 


UNITED  STATES. 


81? 


Moor  to  appear  at  the  council-chamber  on  the  19th 
but  he  still  neglecting,  after  some  time  of  delaj 
notice  was  again  sent  him  by  a  cotfncil  convene 
on  the  2d  ot  the  fourth  month  following,  "  That  h 
desist  and  cease  from  further  acting,  in  any  plac 
of  authority,  or  judicature,  till  the  articles  of  im 
peachment  exhibited  against  him  bj  the  assemblj 
be  tried,  or,  that  satisfaction  be  ~nade  to  the  board. 
There  does  not  appear  to  be  any  record  of  wha 
these  articles,  or  crimes  and  misdemeanors  were 
which,  undoubtedly,  could  not  be  without  rea 
foundation  :  but,  from  circumstances,  it  seems  rea 
sonable  to  apprehend  there  might  have  been  som 
animosities  and  disagreement,  or  misunderstanding 
among  some  of  the  persons  in  authority  at  this  time 
by  which  things  might  have  been  exaggerated  :  thi 
appears,  in  part,  from  Moore's  obstinacy,  in  refus 
ing  to  appear  before  the  council,  and  also  from  some 
letters  of  the  proprietary,  in  which  he  seems  not  t( 
have  been  well  pleased  with  part  of  these  proceed 
ings  against  him  :  for  N.  Moore,  after  this,  was  in* 
stituted  and  continued  by  the  proprietary,  in  1686 
and  1687,  one  of  his  commissioners  of  government 
a  place  of  the  highest  honour  and  trust,  till  hi< 
death,  about  two  years  after  this  time ;  in  which 
office  there  appears  no  objection  from  any  party 
against  his  conduct. 

The  assembly  had  before  this,  on  the  13th  of  May 
showed  an  instance  of  their  own  authority,  in  ex 
polling,  or  rather  suspending  one  of  their  members 
during  the  session,  viz.  John  Bridges,  of  Kent 
county,  for  contemptuous  language  to  the  house, 
expressed  in  assembly,  and  refusing  to  make  sub- 
mission; but  upon  his  altering  his  mind  the  nexl 
day,  and  making  acknowledgment,  &c.  for  his  of 
fence,  he  was  reinstated. 

And  on  the  18th  Patrick  Robinson,  clerk  of  the 
provincial  circular  courts,  being  admitted  into  the 
house  of  assembly,  and  requested  to  produce  the 
records  of  said  courts  ;  but  he  denying  the  same, 
and  joining  withMoore,  was  for  his  contempt  of  the 
authority  of  the  house,  disobedience  to  their  or- 
ders, and  abusing  the  assembly,  committed  to  the 
sheriffs  custody,  during  the  pleasure  of  the  house, 
and  voted  "  A  public  enemy  tothe  province  of  Penn- 
sylvania and  territories  thereof,  and  a  violator  of  the 
privileges  of  the  freemen,  in  assembly  met." 

The  following  are  extracts  from  the  letters  re- 
ferred to;  in  one  of  which,  dated,  Worminghurst, 
the  1st  of  February,  1687,  to  Thomas  Lloyd, 
he  says,— 

"  Since  my  return  from  Germany  and  Hoi- 
Jand,  where  I  had  blessed  service  for  the  Lord,  I 
have  visited  the  north  and  north-west  parts  of  this 
kingdom  ;  as  Oxfordshire,  Warwickshire,  Stafford- 
ihire,  Darbyshire,  Cheshire,  Lancashire,  West- 
moreland, Bishoprick  and  Yorkshire  ;  and  the  Lord 
Wras  with  me,  in  a  sweet  and  melting  life,  to  my 
great  joy  and  friends',  refreshment." 

"  I  rejoice  that  God  has  preserved  your  health 
so  well,  and  that  his  blessings  are  upon  the  earth  ; 
but  grieved  at  the  bottom  of  my  heart  fo'r  the  heats 
and  disorders  among  the  people,"  &c. — "  This  quar- 
rel about  the  society,"  (meaning  the  free  society  of 
traders,  of  which  N.  Moore  was  president)  "  has 
made  your  great  guns  heard  hither :  I  blame  no- 
thing, nor  the  society  here,  to  be  sure  ;  but  I  could 
•wish  Dr.  Moore  and  P.  R.  could  have  been  softened, 
and  that  J.  Cl.  (probably  J.  Claypoole)  had  been 
more  composed;" — "  that  may  be  a  mighty  politi- 
cal vice,  that  is  not  a  moral  one." — "  Because  thy 
commission  may  expire,  in  the  opinions  of  some,  as 
His?,  or  AMER.— Nn.  103  &  101. 


to  president  of  the  council,  with  thy  membership,  I 
have  considered  how  to  supply  that  defect,  and  that 
of  thy  absence;  and  that  is  another  sort  of  deputa- 
tion than  before;  which  comes  by  the  bearer,  Ed- 
ward Blackfan.  I  entreat  thee  to  consider  of  the  trua* 
reason  of  our  unhappiness,  of  that  side,  among  our 
magistrates:  is  it  not  their  self-value,  and  slighting 
power  in  one  another  ?  Oh,  this  preference  is,  in 
religious  and  civil  societies,  the  bane  of  concord,  that 
is  the  means  of  true  happiness.  Men  should  be 
meek,  humble  and  grave  :  that  draws  reverence  and 
love  together :  this  wise  and  good  men  will  do.  Is 
any  out  of  the  way  ?  They  should  not  so  much  look 
at  his  infirmity,  as  take  care,  they  are  not  also 
overtaken,  eying  how  many  good  qualities  the  of- 
fender has  to  serve  the  public  ;  cind  not  cast  a  whole 
apple  away,  for  one  side  being  defective.  The 
Lord  God  of  peace  and  power,  by  his  blessed  grace, 
each  and  lead  his  people,  in  his  own  blameless  path 
to  the  end." 

In   another  to   the  same,  dated  Worminghurst, 
6th  of  June,  1687,  he  speaks  thus  : — 

"  Though  I  write  in  general,  I  was  willing  to 
salute  thee  in  particular,  hoping  that  this  will  find 
hee  and  thine  well,  and  at  your  ease,  in  poor 
Pennsylvania,  where  nothing  on  my  part,  in  my 
>ower,  shall  be  wanting  to  make  you  so :  I  do  be- 
eech  thee  to  travail  in  the  spirit  of  meekness, 
and  of  the  precious,  gentle  wisdom  of  God,  that  is 
easily  entreated,  and  works  its  way  through  the  hard- 
Jst  rocks,  to  quiet  and  calm  and  determine ;  and 
eaving  things  to  my  coming  too  much :  next, 
•emember  this,  that  though  the  politic  ancients  over- 
ooked  many  ill  things  rather  than,  by  the  severity 
)f  punishment,  to  discourage  planting  their  new 
jolonies,  or  any  sort  from  settling  among  them ; 
vet,  we,  that  have  our  eye  to  another  home,  whose 
lue  we  have  been  taught  to  look  for,  as  the  reason 
>f all  true  prosperity;  and  that  it  has  ever  been  ac- 
ording  to  our  faith,  are  to  act,  as  in  his  sight,  and 
Discharge  ourselves  as  righteous  men,  against  all 
nrighteousness  ;  wherefore,  pray,  let  the  law  have 
ts  course ; — as  for  Dr.  Moore  and  P.  Robinson, 
he  persons  esteemed  the  most  unquiet  and  cross  to 
riends,  try  what  is  possible  to  quiet  them ;  endea- 
our  by  private  visits  and  admonitions  to  sweeten 
hem  ;  much  good  may  come  of  it.  The  Lord  God 
f  endless  power  bless  you,  and  furnish  you,  to  his 
iraise." 

On  the  14th  of  September,  James  Harrison,  James 
Claypoole,  and  Arthur  Cooke  were  nominated  by 
be  council,  to  be  provincial  judges ;  but  Harrison 
nd  Cooke  refusing  to  serve,  and  Claypoole  being 
irevented  by  sickness,  the  council,  in  order  to  an- 
wer  the  expectation  of  such  persons  as  were  c  n- 
erned  in  appeals,  agreed  to  receive  them,  and  to 
it  for  the  decision  of  differences  themselves,  at  the 
me  appointed  for  the  court  to  sit ;  which  was  on 
he  24th.  After  this,  at  their  triennial  election, 
ccording  to  charter,  being  in  part  new  chosen,  they, 
y  fresh  commissions,  appointed  the  several  officer? 
f  government. 

In  this  year,  1685.  the  Quakers,  in  their  yearly 
leeting,  at  Burlington,  in  West  Jersey,  took  addi- 
onal  measures  to  prevent  all  persons  in  their  soci- 
ty,  from  selling  strong  liquors  to  the  Indians, 
.bout  the  same  time,  by  particular  appointment, 
ley  also  had  a  religious  meeting  with  them,  as  they 
equently  had  before ;  to  inform  and  instruct  them 
n  the  principles  of  Christianity,  and  the  practice 
*  a  true  Christian  life. 

The  Indians  generally  heard  patiently  what  was 
4  B 


818 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


said  to  them  on  this  subject,  and  seemed  affected 
with  it  for  a  time  ;  but,  for  the  most  part,  it  ap- 
peared to  make  no  very  durable  impression,  on 
their  minds,  fur  the  proper  regulation  of  their  pas- 
sions and  appetites ;  which,  at  last,  too  generally 
seemed  to  prevail  over  convictions  of  this  nature, 
and  their  better  knowledge. 

Many  preachers  of  this  religious  society,  from 
abroad,  often  had  meetings,  and  serious  discourse 
with  them  for  this  purpose ;  as  well  as  those  who 
had  settled  in  the  country,  particularly,  Samuel 
Jennings,  Thomas  Olive,  William  Penn  and  others, 
from  time  to  time,  laboured  to  inculcate  into  them 
a  just  sense  of  the  benefit  of  a  Christian  life  arid 
conduct. 

The  following  letter  from  the  proprietary  to  the 
magistrates,  concerning  ordinaries,  with  some  others 
about  this  time,  indicate  the  existence  of  some  irre- 
gularities and  abuses  in  the  province,  and  his  anx- 
iety to  have  them  redressed,  viz  : — 
"  Friends, 

"  There  is  a  cry  come  over  into  these  parts  against 
the  number  of  drinking-houses,  and  looseness,  that 
is  committed  in  the  caves."  [Note,  these  caves 
were  some  of  the  first  habitations  of  the  new  settlers, 
under  William  Penn,  till  they  got  better  erected; 
they  were  made  in  the  bank,  along  the  side  of  De- 
laware, where  the  city  now  stands,  which  then  was 
higher  ground.]  "  I  am  pressed  in  my  spirit,  being 
very  apt  to  believe  too  many  disorders,  in  that  re- 
spect, strictly  to  require,  that  speedy  and  effectual 
care  be  taken  : — First,  to  reduce  the  number  of  or- 
dinaries,or  drinking-houses ;  and  that  without  respect 
to  persons  : — Such  to  be  continued,  that  are  most 
tender  of  God's  glory,  and  the  reputation  of  the  go- 
vernment; and  that  all  others,  presuming  to  sell, 
be  punished  according  to  law  : — I  desire  you  to 
purge  these  caves  in  Philadelphia;  they  are  mine 
by  licence  and  time  : — The  three  years  are  expired  ; 
— I  would  have  the  suspected  forthwith  ordered  to 
get  up  housing  elsewhere  ;  and  the  empty  caves  to 
accommodate  the  poor  families,  that  may  come 
over ;  though  they  must  not  stand  long  before  men's 
doors.  Whatever  you  do,  let  virtue  be  cherished, 
and  those  that  show  to  fear  God,  by  a  life  according 
to  it,  be  countenanced,  and  the  evil  person  re- 
buked ;  that  God,  who  blesseth  those  that  fear  him, 
and  call  upon  his  name  in  all  lands,  may  bless  and 
preserve  you. — And  though  this  be  particularly  ad- 
dressed to  you,  let  the  magistrates  of  other  towns 
have  it  to  read  among  them.  I  add  no  more,  but 
my  desires  to  the  God  of  all  our  tender  mercies  to 
be  with  you  all,  in  your  duties  and  places,  to  his 
glory,  and  your  praise  and  Deace  Amen. 
Your  very  loving  friend,  .  WM.  PENN." 

The  following  was  endorsed  on  the  copy  of  the 
above  letter,  viz. 

"  These  are  to  certify,  that  notwithstanding  seve- 
ral within  this  county  of  Philadelphia,  keep  ordi- 
naries, and  sell  strong  liquors  by  retail,  yet  not 
one  of  them  hath  any  licence  for  their  so  doing. 

"WILLIAM  MARKHAM." 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  an  original  let- 
ter, in  the  proprietary's  own  hand-writing,  dated, 
"  sixth  month  1685,"  and  directed  to  ThomasLloyd, 
John  Simcock,  Christopher  Taylor,  James  Harri- 
son, and  Robert  Turner. — Speaking  of  some  per- 
sons in  the  government,  and  certain  disorders, 
he  says, — 

"  I  am  sorry  at  heart  for  your  animosities ;  can- 
not more  friendly  and  private  courses  be  taken,  to 
set  matters  to  right,  in  an  infant  province,  whose 


steps  are  numbered  and  watched?  For  the  love  of 
God,  me,  and  the  poor  country,  be  not  so  govern- 
mentish,  so  noisy,  and  open,  in  your  dissatisfac- 
tions ; — some  folks  love  hunting  in  government  it- 
self."— "  It  is  an  abominable  thing  to  have  three 
warrants  for  one  purchase;  'tis  oppression  that  my 
soul  loaths;  I  do  hereby  require  it,  that  P.  L.be  called 
to  account  for  requests  and  \varrants,&c.  for  town-lot, 
liberty-lot,  and  the  rest  of  the  purchase.  Why  not 
one  warrant  for  all,  at  least,  for  liberty-lot,  and  the 
remainder  ?  This  is  true  and  right  oppression :  be- 
sides, several  things  and  sums  are  set  down,  that 
are  not  in  law,  nor  in  my  regulations,"  &c. 

Perm's  employment  in  Europe — Emigrants  from  Hol- 
land and  Germany — Five  commissioners  of  ttate 
created — The  proprietor's  instructions  to  them— His 
beneficent  employment  in  Enyland  for  the  Quakers, 
Sfc.—  Letter  to  Lloyd — False  alarm  of  an  Indian 
insurrection — Caleb  Vussey — Captain  John  Black- 
well,  Deputy  Governor— The  proprietary's  instruc- 
tions to  him— He  meets  the  assembly,  disagrees  with 
the  council,  and  returns  to  England — Institution  of 
the  first  public  grammar-school  in  Pennsylvania. 

In  the  year  1686  Penn  published  a  further  ac- 
count of  the  province  of  Pennsylvania,  wrote  seve- 
ral pieces  on  religious  subjects,  chiefly  in  defence  of 
toleration  in  religion,  (extant  in  his  works)  and  ap- 
pears to  have  been  in  Germany  and  Holland,  as 
well  as  much  engaged  in  various  services  for  his 
friends,  the  Quakers,  and  in  promoting  religion  and 
virtue  in  different  places,  personally,  in  his  native 
country ;  at  the  same  time  continuing  his  care  and 
endeavours  for  the  benefit,  happiness,  and  prospe- 
rity of  his  province,  though  absent,  by  means  of 
written  directions  and  advice,  from  time  lo  time,  for 
the  prevention  of  disorders,  and  the  redressing  of 
such  things  as  appeared  inconsistent  with  the  real 
interest  of  the  colony. 

But  his  great  expense  and  generosity,  in  the 
original  settlement  of  the  province,  as  well  as  after- 
wards, were  so  very  considerable,  compared  to  his 
private  fortune,  that,  even  before  this  time,  he  be- 
gan to  feel  the  effects  to  such  a  degree,  that  in  his 
letters  to  some  of  his  friends  there,  he  was  obliged 
to  complain  of  the  slowness  and  deficiency  of  the 
returns. 

In  answer  to  a  remonstrance  and  address  to  him, 
respecting  the  front  and  bank  lots  in  Philadelphia, 
dated  "  3d  six  month,  1684,"  he  says, — "  I  have  made 
the  most  purchases,  and  been  at  the  greatest  charge 
of  any  proprietary  and  governor  in  America,"  &c. 

In  a  letter  dated  Bristol,  "  5th  of  nine  month, 
1695,"  directed  to  A.  Cook,  J.  Simcock,  S  Carpen- 
ter, J.  Goodson,  S.  Richardson,  R.Turner,  Ph.  Pern 
berton,  and  D.  Lloyd,  Pennsylvania,  he  declares, — 
"  I  must  say,  that  what  I  have  spent  upon  the  pro- 
vince, as  governor  and  planter,  is  the  foundation  of 
my  present  incurnbrance ;  as  P.  F.  (Philip  Ford) 
knows,  and  asserted  to  the  lords  of  plantations  lately, 
to  be  4,000/.  more  than  the  whole  that  I  ever  received 
for  lands,  besides  what  it  has  cost  me  here,"  &c. 

In  a  letter  to  Thomas  Lloyd,  dated  "  seventh 
month,  1686,"  he  complains,  that  at  that  time  "  his 
quit-rents  were  at  least  500J.  per  annual  value,  and 
then  due,  though  he  could  not  get  one  penny." — 
"  God  is  my  witness,"  says  he.  in  the  same  letter, 
"  I  lie  not ;  I  am  above  6000/.  out  of  pocket,  more 
than  ever  1  saw  by  the  province,  and  throw  in  my 
pains,  care,  and  hazard  of  life,  and  leaving  of  my 
family  and  friends,  to  serve  them,"  &c. 

In  a  letter  to  James  Harrison    dated,  London, 


UNITED  STATES. 


819 


«'  23d  of  seventh  month,  1686,"  speaking  of  his  goin 
to  his  province,  he  says, — "  Besides,  that  the  coun 
try  think  not  on  my  supply,  and  I  resolve  never  t 
act  the  governor,  and  keep  another  family  and  ca 
pacity  upon  my  private  estate;  if  my  table,  cellar 
and  stable  may  be  provided  for,  with  a  barge  an( 
yatch,  or  sloop,  for  the  service  of  governor  and  go 
vernment,  I  may  try  to  get  hence ;  for,  in  the  sigh 
of  God,  I  can  say  I  am  5000/.,  and  more,  behim 
hand,  more  than  ever  I  received,  or  saw,  for  land 
in  that  province,"  &c.— "  There  is  nothing  my  sou 
breathes  more  for  in  this  world,  next  my  dear  fa 
mily's  life,  than  that  I  may  see  poor  Pennsylvani. 
again  ;" — "  but  I  cannot  force  my  way  hence,  am 
see  nothing  done  on  that  side,  inviting,"  &c. 

In,  or  about  this  year,  1686,  arrived  in  the  pro 
vince  many  Friends,  or  Quakers,  and  others  from 
Holland  and  Germany;  who  settled  among  their 
friends  at  German-town,  near  Philadelphia,  am 
increased  that  settlement,  which  was  begun  in  1683 
Some  of  those  who  now  came,  having  sufferec 
considerably  by  fire,  soon  after  their  arrival,  were 
assisted  by  the  Friends,  in  the  city  and  county  of 
Philadelphia. 

The  proprietary  found  much  inconvenience  arose 
from  his  commission  of  the  power  of  government  to 
so  many  persons  as  the  council  consisted  of,  and, 
not  being  well  pleased  with  part  of  their  conduct,  or 
management,  declared, "  that  the  charter  was  forfeited, 
if  he  would  take  advantage  at  it;" — "  and  in  another 
letter  to  the  same,  about  this  time,  he  complains, — 
That  the  provincial  council  neglected,  or  slighted, 
bis  letters  to  them;  that  he  had  religiously  conse- 
crated his  pains  in  a  prudent  manner,  but  it  was 
not  valued,  understood,  or  kept  to ;  so  that  the 
charter  was  over  and  over  again  forfeited,  if  he 
would  take  advantage  at  it; — that  they  entirely 
neglected  the  supply  which  they  had  promised  him ; 
which,  in  consequence  of  his  great  expense,  on  ac- 
count of  the  province,  was  one  cause  that  kept  him 
from  Pennsylvania;  declaring,  "  That  he  would 
not  spend  his  private  estate  to  discharge  a..puhlic 
station."  Hence,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  year 
1686,  by  a  fresh  commission,  he  contracted  the 
number  of  his  representatives,  or  of  the  executive 
part  of  the  government,  to  five  persons  only,  viz. 
Thomas  Lloyd,  Nicholas  Moore,  James  Claypoole, 
Robert  Turner,  and  John  Eckley,  constituting  and 
styling  them  commissioners  of  state,  or,  of  the  go- 
vernment of  Pennsylvania. 

Both  the  cause  of  their  institution,  and  the  nature 
of  their  office,  in  part,  appear  from  the  following 
instructions : — 

"  William  Penn,  proprietor  and  governor, 
"  To  my  trusty  and  well  beloved  friends,  Thomas 
Lloyd",  Nicholas  Moore,  James  Claypoole,  Robert 
Turner,  and  John  Eckley,  or  any  three  of  them 
at  Philadelphia : — 

"  Trusty,  and  well-beloved,  I  heartily  salute  you; 
lest  any  should  scruple  the  termination  of  President 
Lloyd's  commission,  with  his  place  in  the  provincial 
council,  and  to  the  end  that  there  may  be  a  more 
constant  residence  of  the  honorary  and  governing 
part  of  the  government,  for  the  keeping  all  things 
in  good  order,  I  have  sent  a  fresh  commission  of 
deputation  to  you,  making  any  three  of  you  a  quorum, 
to  act  in  the  execution  of  laws,  enacting,  disannul- 
ling, or  varying  of  laws,  as  if  I  myself  were  there 
present,  reserving  to  myself  the  confirmation  of  what 
is  done,  and  my  peculiar  royalties  and  advantages. 

"  First,  You  are  to  oblige  the  provincial  council 
to  their  charter  attendance;  or  to  take  such  a 


council  as  you  think  convenient,  to  advise  and  as- 
sist you  in  the  business  of  the  public:  for  I  will  no 
more  endure  their  most  slothful  and  dishonourable 
attendance,  but  dissolve  the  frame,  without  any 
more  ado :  let  them  look  to  it,  if  further  occasion  be 
given. 

"  Secondly,  That  you  keep  to  the  dignity  of  your 
station,  in  council  and  out;  but  especially  to  suffer 
no  disorder  in  the  council,  nor  the  council  and  as- 
sembly, or  either  of  them,  to  entrench  upon  the 
powers  and  privileges  remaining  yet  in  me. 

"  Thirdly,  That  you  admit  not  any  parleys,  or 
open  conferences,  between  the  provincial  council 
and  assembly:  but  one,  with  your  approbation, 
propose,  and  let  the  other  consent  or  dissent,  ac- 
cording to  charter. 

"  Fourthly,  That  you  curiously  inspect  the  past 
proceedings  of  both,  and  let  me  know  in  what  they 
have  broken  the  bounds,  or  obligations  of  their 
charter. 

"  Fifthly,  That  you,  this  very  next  assembly  ge- 
neral, declare  my  abrogation  of  all  that  has  been 
done  since  my  absence;  and  so,. of  all  the  laws,  but 
the  fundamentals;  and  that  you  immediately  dis- 
miss the  assembly,  and  call  it  again ;  and  pass  such 
of  them  afresh,  with  such  alterations  as  you  and 
they  shall  see  meet;  and  this,  to  avoid  a  greater  in- 
conveniency ;  which  I  foresee,  and  formerly  com- 
municated to  Thomas  Lloyd. 

"  Sixthly,  Inspect  the  qualifications  of  members 
in  council  and  assembly;  and  see  they  be  accord- 
ng  to  charter;  and  especially  of  those  that  have 
:he  administration  of  justice;  and  whatever  you  do, 
et  the  point  of  the  laws  be  turned  against  impiety, 
and  your  severe  brow  upon  all  the  troublesome  and 
exatious,  more  especially  trifling,  appealers. 

"  You  shall  shortly  have  a  limitation  from  the 

dng ;  though  you  have  power  with  the  council  and 

assembly  to  fix  the  matter  and  manner  of  appeals 

as  much  as  to  do  any  justice,  or  prevent  any  dis- 

rder  in  the  province  at  all. 

"  Seventhly,  That  till  then  1  have  sent  you  a 
reclamation  to  that  effect,  according  to  the  powers 
)f  ordinance  making,  and  declared  in  my  letters 
latent,  which  you  may  expose  as  you  please. 

"  Eighthly,  Be  most  just,  as  in  the  sight  of  the 
11-seeing,  all-searching  God;  and  before  you  let 
our  spirits  into  an  affair,  retire  to  him  (who  is  not 
ar  away  from  every  one  of  you ;  by  whom  kings 
eign,  and  princes  decree  justice)  that  he  may  give 
rou  a  good  understanding,  and  government  of  your- 
elves,  in  the  management  thereof;  which  is  that 
vhich  truly  crowns  public  actions,  and  dignifies 
hose  that  perform  them.  You  shall  hear  further 
rom  me  by  C.  King ;  the  ship  is  ready  to  sail,  so 
hall  only  admonish  you  in  general,  that,  next  to 
he  preservation  of  virtue,  have  a  tender  regard  to 
eace,  and  my  privileges,  in  which  enact  from  time 
o  time.  Love,  forgive,  help,  and  serve  one  another ; 
nd  let  the  people  learn  by  your  example,  as  well 
s  by  your  power,  the  happy  life  of  concord.  So 
ommending  you  to  God's  grace  and  keeping,  I  bid 
ou  heartily  farewell.  Given  at  Worminghurst,  in 
)ld  England,  the  first  of  the  twelfth  month,  1686." 
During  most  of  the  time  of  Penn's  absence  from 
is  province,  till  the  reign  of  William  III.,  though 
ot  many  public  transactions,  nor  proceedings  of 
much  importance  and  notoriety,  appear  to  have 
assed  in  Pennsylvania  besides  those  which  respect 
le  labour  and  advantages  of  an  industrious  people, 
n  the  colonisation  of  the  country,  and  laying  a 
oundation  for  future  greatness,  by  facilitating  and 

4B2 


820 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


multiplying  the  reasonable  enjoyments  and  bless- 
ings of  life  j  yet  its  eminent  founder  was  not  the  less- 
active  and  beneficial  to  mankind  in  another  depart- 
ment; and  his  suffering  friends,  the  Quakers,  in 
Great  Britain,  experienced  the  effect  of  his  attend- 
ance and  solicitations  at  court  in  their  favour : 
where  his  frequent  access  to  the  king  brought  him 
into  suspicion  of  being  a  disguised  Jesuit,  and  under 
unjust  censures  and  imputations ;  as  if  he  had  been 
an  adviser,  and  contributed  to  those  arbitrary  mea- 
sures which  that  impolitic  king,  James  II.,  pursued  : 
whereas  his  generous  plan  of  liberty,  so  far  as  his 
power  extended,  and  his  otherwise  well  known  prin- 
ciples of  government,  were  as  contrary  to  those  of 
the  king  as  could  possibly  be,  and  his  religion  no 
less  opposite. 

Nevertheless  he  was  not  only  infamously  aspersed 
and  abused  in  print,  on  these  accounts,  by  many 
illiberal  and  slanderous  works,  published  against 
him,  and  some  of  them,  even,  in  his  own  name,  but 
also  censured  by  some  persons  of  good  understand- 
ing and  character  ;  who,  in  many  respects,  were  his 
friends,  but  not  thoroughly  knowing  him,  fell  into 
the  like  suspicions.  An  instance  of  which  appears 
in  Dr.  Tillotson,  afterwards  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury ;  but  by  means  of  a  friendly  epistolary  corre- 
spondence between  them  on  the  subject,  in  the  year 
1686,  as  appears  in  Penn's  life  prefixed  to  his 
printed  works,  Dr.  Tillotson  was  fully  convinced 
of,  and  as  freely  acknowledged  his  mistake. 

Penn  continued  to  distinguish  himself  in  the  cause 
of  an  impartial  toleration  in  religion,  both  in  wri- 
ting, and  also  by  assiduous  personal  solicitations  at 
court,  as  a  strenuous  and  unwearied  advocate  for 
that  undoubted  right  of  mankind;  of  which  he,  and 
his  friends,  the  Quakers,  had,  through  the  persecu- 
tion and  bigoted  spirit  of  those  times,  been  long  un- 
justly deprived.  Hence,  in  the  fore  part  of  this 
year,  in  consequence  of  the  king's  proclamation 
for  a  general  pardon,  "  about  1300  of  these  people, 
most  of  whom  had  been  imprisoned  divers  years,  for 
their  religion,  were  set  at  liberty."  And  in  April, 
the  next  following  year,  1687,  came  forth  the  king's 
declaration  for  liberty  of  conscience,  suspending 
the  execution  of  all  penal  laws,  in  matters  ecclesi- 
astical. 

For  this  temporary  relief  from  <rruel  suffering,  by 
the  intolerant  and  unjust  laws  of  those  times,  they 
who  had  endured  most  oppression  and  persecution, 
undoubtedly  had  the  greatest  reason  to  be  thankful : 
and  whatever  were  the  supposed  views  of  the  go- 
vernment thereby,  in  too  much  favouring  a  Popish 
party,  yet,  for  the  Quakers  to  refuse,  or  reject  the 
restitution  of  that  natural  right  of  mankind,  and 
most  undoubted  privilege  of  English  people,  and  all 
peaceable  subjects,  merely  because  it  might  be  made 
an  ill  use  of  by  others,  and  was  not  done  in  due 
form,  would  certainly  have  been  the  highest  absur- 
dity :  .and  for  those,  who  had  suffered  more  deeply 
than  all  others,  not  to  acknowledge  and  commend 
the  redress  of  such  a  crying  and  intolerable  griev- 
ance and  affliction,  as  they  had  endured  in  respect 
to  themselves,  so  long  and  so  laboriously  solicited 
by  them,  of  the  preceding  king  and  parliament,  in 
vain,  would  have  showed  the  greatest  ingratitude 
and  insensibility  ;  more  especially,  as  it  was  scarcely 
possible  for  them  to  be  in  a  much  worse  condition 
even  under  a  Popish  hierarchy  itself,  than  they  hac 
for  many  years  endured,  both  under  Cromwell 
Charles  II.  and  their  parliaments,  to  this  time 
without  being  able  to  obtain  redress  any  other  way . 
wherefore,  at  their  next  annual  assembly,  held  in 


Condon  in  the  third  month,  this  year  the  Quakers 
Irew  up  an  address  of  thanks  to  the  king,  and  de- 
luted  Penn  and  others  to  present  it. 

In  the  summer  of  the  year  1687,  W.  Penn,  by 
ome  of  his  letters  to  his  friends  in  Pennsylvania, 
eems  to  have  been  with  the  king,  in  a  progress 
hrough  Berkshire,  Glocestershire,  Worcestershire, 
hropshire,  Cheshire,  Staffordshire,  Warwickshire, 
)xfordshire,  and  Hampshire  :  during  which  journey 
le  had  several  religious  meetings  with  the  people; 
nd  in  some  places,  where  the  king  appears  to  have 
>een  present,  particularly  in  Chester. 

While  Penn  was  thus  variously  and  importantly 
imployed  in  England,  his  province  needed  his  pre- 
cnce ;  and  Thomas  Lloyd,  who  ever  since  the  pro- 
>rietary's  departure  had  chiefly  presided  in  the 
mblic  affairs,  and  sustained  the  weight  and  care  of 
hem,  under  the  different  appointments,  excepting 
wo  short  intermissions,  in  which  Thomas  Holme  and 
iVilliam  Clark  supplied  his  absence,  wanted  to  be 
lischarged  from  the  burden;  and,  before  this  time 
lad  solicited  to  be  released,  by  the  appointment  of 
another  person  in  his  room :  but  a  suitable  person 
or  such  an  appointment  was  not  easy  to  be  found; 
and  the  proprietary  appears  to  have  been  sensible 
of  jt,  by  his  manner  of  writing  at  different  times,  to 
lis  friends  in  the  province,  expressing  his  ardent 
desire  for  his  prosperity,  and  to  reside  in  it  himself; 
n  one  of  which  to  Thomas  Lloyd,  about  this  time, 
\e  says,  "  No  honour,  interest,  or  pleasure,  in  this 
jart  of  the  world,  shall  be  able  to  check  my  desires 
o  live  and  die  among  you  ;  and,  though  to  my  grief, 
my  stay  is  yet  prolonged  on  private  and  public  ac- 
counts, yet,  depend  upon  it,  Pennsylvania  is  my 
worldly  delight,  and  end  of  all  places  on  the  earth. 

"  Now,  though  I  have,  to  please  thee,  given  thee 

quietus  from  all  public  business,  my  intention  is  to 
constitute  thee  deputy-governor,  and  two,  in  the 
character  of  assistants;  either  of  whom  and  thyself, 
;o  be  able  to  do  all  as  fully  as  I  myself  can  do ;  only 
[  wait  thy  consent  to  the  employment ;  of  which 
advise  me,"  &c. ;  and  again,  "  by  all  that  is  reve- 
rent, tender,  and  friendly,  1  beseech  thy  care,  con- 
descension and  help,  for  that  poor  province.  I  am 
here,  serving  God  and  friends,  and  the  nation; 

hich  I  hope  God  will  reward  to  mine  and  you,"  &c. 

Notwithstanding  the  friendly  disposition  which, 
from  the  beginning,  had  been  wisely  cultivated  and 
established  by  the  proprietary  and  inhabitants,  or 
first  settlers,  of  the  province,  with  the  Indians,  and 
afterwards  pursued  in  such  manner,  as  to  leave  no 
reasonable  cause  for  fears  and  suspicions  between 
them ;  yet,  as  in  all  countries  turbulent  persons  are 
found,  whose  delight  is,  if  possible,  to  disturb  the 
public  tranquillity;  so  we  find,  in  the  infancy  of 
this  colony,  when  justice,  peace,  and  harmony  so 
universally  predominated,  it  was  possible,  neverthe- 
less, for  idle  reports,  and  groundless  rumours,  to 
take  place,  and  gain  so  far  on  unguarded  minds,  as 
to  create  very  alarming  apprehensions  respecting 
the  Indians.  The  consideration  of  their  large  num- 
bers at  that  time,  in  proportion  to  the  fewness  of  the 
European  settlers,  rather  favouring  such  apprehen- 
sions ;  of  which  we  have  the  following  instance. 

In,  or  about  the  year  1688,  the  inhabitants  of 
Philadelphia,  and  places  adjacent,  were  alarmed 
with  the  report  of  an  intended  insurrection  of  the 
Indians  to  cut  off  all  the  English  on  an  appointed 
day.  This  was  communicated  by  two  Indian  women 
of  West  Jersey,  to  an  old  Dutch  inhabitant  near 
Chester,  to  be  on  the  next  fourth  day  of  the  week. 
Several  Friends,  or  Quakers,  upon  hearing  this  re- 


UNITED  STATES. 


821 


port,  being  conscious  of  their  just  conduct  towards  |  dians  and  English  ;  and  as  he  made  all,  so  his  love 


the  Indians,  and  sensible  of  nothing  that  could 
reasonably  disgust  them,  endeavoured  to  appease 
the  people's  fears.  The  fourth  day  having  arrived, 
about  ten  o'clock  in  the  night,  a  messenger  arrived 
at  Chester,  out  of  the  woods,  and  told  the  people, 
that  three  families  about  nine  miles  distant,  which 
he  named,  were  all  cut  off  by  the  Indians.  This  re- 
port coming  to  a  Friend,  then  at  Chester,  about 
midnight  he  took  with  him  two  young  mem  on 
horseback,  to  the  place,  in  order  to  examine  into 
the  truth  of  the  affair.  They  found  the  three  houses, 
but  no  body  in  them,  and  yet  no  signs  of  murder  ; 
their  inhabitants,  alarmed  in  a  similar  manner,  had 
fled  to  the  houses  of  their  parents,  at  Ridley  creek, 
about  a  mile  from  thence.  The  master  of  one  of 
these  families  being  from  home,  had  been  informed 
500  Indians  were  actually  collected  at  Naaman's 
creek,  iu  pursuit  of  their  design  to  kill  the  En- 
glish ;  and  as  he  was  hastening  to  his  house,  he 
thought  he  heard  his  boy  crying  out,  and  saying, 
"  What  shall  I  do,  my  dame  is  killed  !"  Upon  which, 
instead  of  going  home,  to  know  the  certainty  of  the 
affair,  he  ran  off,  to  acquaint  the  government  at 
Philadelphia ;  but  being  met  by  a  person  of  more 
prudence  than  himself,  before  he  got  to  the  city,  he 
was  persuaded  by  him  to  return. 

The  report  notwithstanding  soon  arrived  at  the 
city;  and  was  told  with  such  alarming  circumstances, 
that  a  messenger  was  immediately  dispatched  to 
Marcus  Hook,  near  the  said  Naaman's  creek,  to 
inquire  the  truth  of  it.  He  quickly  returned  and 
confirmed  the  report,  but  with  this  variation  ;  that 
it  was  at  Brandywine  creek,  at  an  Indian  town, 
where  the  500  Indians  were  assembled  ;  and,  tha 
they,  having  a  lame  king,  had  carried  him  away 
with  all  their  women  and  children.  These  circum" 
stances  rendered  the  affair  still  more  alarming,  and, 
with  many,  amounted  to  a  certainty. 

The  council  were  at  that  time  sitting  at  Phila- 
delphia on  other  affairs,  when  one  of  them,  a 
Quaker,  supposed  to  be  Caleb  Pusey,  a  much 
esteemed  public  man.,  who  lived  in  Chester  county, 
voluntarily  offered  himself  to  go  to  the  place,  pro- 
vided they  would  name  five  others  to  accompany 
him,  without  weapons  ;  which  being  soon  agreed 
on,  they  rode  to  the  place  ;  but,  instead  of  meeting 
with  500  warriors,  they  found  the  old  king  quietly 
lying  with  his  lame  foot  along  on  the  ground,  and 
his  head  at  ease  on  a  kind  of  pillow,  the  women  at 
work  in  the  field,  and  the  children  playing  toge- 
ther. 

When  they  had  entered  the  wigwam,  the  king 
presently  asked  them  very  mildly,  "  What  they  all 
came  for?"  They  told  him  the  report  which  the 
Indian  women  had  raised  ;  and  asked  him,  whether 
the  Indians  had  any  thing  against  the  English  ? 
He  appeared  much  displeased  at  the  report,  and 
said,  "The  women  ought  to  be  burnt  to  death ;  and 
that  they  had  nothing  against  the  English  ;"  add- 
ing, "  'Tis  true  there  are  about  Ibl.  yet  behind  of 
our  pay  for  the  land,  which  William  Penn  bought, 
but  ai  you  are  still  on  it,  and  improving  it,  to  your 
own  use,  we  are  not  in  haste  for  our  pay ;  but  when 
the  English  come  to  settle  it,  we  expect  to  be  paid." 
This,  the  messengers  thinking  vpry  reasonable, 
told  him,  they  should  undoubtedly  be  paid  for  their 
laud. 

One  of  the  company  further  expressed  himself  to 
the  Indian  king,  in  the  following  manner  :  "  That 
the  great  God,  who  made  the  world,  and  all  things 
therein,  consequently  made  all  mankind,  both  In- 


was  extended  to  all ;  which,  was  plainly  shown, 
by  his  causing  the  rain  and  dews  to  fall  on  the 
ground  of  both  Indians  and  English  alike ;  that  it 
might  equally  produce  what  the  Indians,  as  well  as 
what  the  English  sowed  or  planted  in  it,  for  the 
sustenance  of  life ;  and  also  by  his  making  the  sun 
to  shine  equally  on  all,  both  Indians  and  English, 
to  nourish  them ;  and  that  seeing  the  great  Being, 
which  made  them  all,  extended  his  love  thus  to 
all,  so  they  were  mutually  bound  to  love  oue 
another." 

The  king  answered,  "  What  they  had  said  was 
true ;  and  as  God  has  given  you  corn,  I  would  advise 
you  to  get  it  in;  (it  being  then  harvest  time)  for 
we  intend  you  no  harm;"  They  parted  amicably; 
and  the  messengers,  returning,  put  an  end  to  the 
people's  fears. 

In  consequence  of  a  request  from  Thomas  Lloyd, 
to  be  released  from  the  public  affairs  of  the  govern- 
ment, in  the  latter  part  of  the  year  1688,  Captain 
John  Blackwell  succeeded  to  his  office  of  lieutenant- 
governor.  He  was  a  person  whom  Penn  seems  to 
have  highly  esteemed ;  and,  at  the  time  of  his  ap- 
pointment, was  in  New  England.  His  commission 
was  transmitted  to  him  with  the  following  docu- 
ment. 

(L.  s.)  "  Instructions  for  Lieutenant  Governor 
Blackwell,  or  whom  else  they  may  concern. 

"  I.  That  things  be  transacted  fn  my  name,  by 
the  style  of  my  patent  only,  viz.  absolute  proprie- 
tary of  Pennsylvania,  &c.  if  not  contrary  to  the 
charter  and  laws  of  the  province,  as  I  suppose  not. 

"  II.  That  commissions  signed  and  sealed  by  me 
here  shall  be  sufficient  warrants  and  directions  to 
pass  them  under  the  great  seal. 

"  III.  To  collect  the  laws  that  are  in  being,  and 
end  them  over  to  me,  in  a  stitched  book,  by  the 
very  first"  opportunity ;  which  I  have  hitherto  often, 
and  so  much,  in  vain,  desired. 

"  IV.  To  be  careful  that  speedy,  as  well  as  tho- 
rough and  impartial  justice  be  done ;  and  virtue  in 
all  cherished,  and  vice  in  all  punished. 

"  V.  That  fines  be  in  proportion,  both  to  the 
fault  and  ability  of  the  party,  that  so  they  may  be 
paid. 

"  VI.  That  feuds  between  persuasions,  or  nations, 
or  countries,  be  suppressed  and  extinguished,  if 
any  be  ;  and,  if  none,  that  by  a  good  conduct,  they 
may  be  prevented. 

"  VII.  That  the  widow,  orphan,  and  absent  may 
be  particularly  regarded,  in  their  rights;  for  their 
cry  will  be  loudest  in  all  ears;  but,  by  absent,  1 
mean  such  as  are  so  of  necessity. 

"  VIII.  To  countenance  the  commissioners  of 
property,  where  land  is  unseated,  or  people  are  un- 
ruly in  their  settlements,  or  comply  not  with  rea- 
sonable obligations,  about  bounds,  banks,  timber, 
&c.  For  though  we  come  to  a  wilderness,  it  was 
not  that  we  should  continue  it  so, 

"  IX.  That  the  sheriff's  of  their  respective  counties 
be  charged  with  the  receipt  of  my  rents,  fines,  &c. 
as  they  do  in  England,  and  give  security  to  the  re- 
ceiver-general, for  the  same. 

"  X.  To  have  a  special  care,  that  sheriffs  and 
clerks  of  (he  peace  impose  not  upon  the  people  ; 
and  that  the  magistrates  live  peaceably  and  soberly  ; 
— for  I  could  not  endure  one  loose,  or  litigious  per- 
son in  authority. — Let  them  be  men  having  some 
fear  of  God,  and  hating  covetousness,  whatever  be 
their  persuasion  :  to  employ  others  is  to  profane  an 
ordinance  of  God. 


822 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


"  XL  That  care  be  taken  of  the  roads  and  high- 
ways  in  the  country ;  that  they  might  be  straight 
and  commodious  for  travellers;  for  I  understand 
they  are  turned  about  by  the  planters;  which  is  a 
mischief  that  must  not  be  endured. 

"  XII.  Consider  hy  what  means,  or  methods,  the 
good  and  prosperity  of  the  plantation  may  be  pro- 
moted ;  what  laws,  in  being,  are  unnecessary  or  de- 
fective, and  what  are  wanting ;  and  in  each  par- 
ticular hereof  let  me  have  advice  as  distinctly,  and 
as  speedily  as  may  be. 

"  XIII.  Rule  the  meek  meekly;  and  those  that 
will  not  be  ruled,  rule  with  authority ;  and  God  Al- 
mighty prosper  all  honest  and  prudent  endeavours. 
Given  at  London,  this  25th  of  the  seventh  month, 
1688.  WILLIAM  PENN." 

Blackwell  met  the  assembly  in  May  1689 ;  but 
on  account  of  some  misunderstanding  or  dissension 
between  him  and  some  of  the  council,  the  public 
affairs  were  not  managed  with  the  desired  harmony 
and  satisfaction ;  and  but  little  was  done  during  his 
administration,which  continued  only  till  the  February 
following,  when  he  returned  to  England ;  and  the 
government  of  the  province,  according  to  charter, 
devolved  again  on  the  council,  Thomas  Lloyd  being 
president. 

The  appointment  of  Blackwell,  who  was  not  a 
Quaker,  to  be  deputy-governor,  appears  by  the  pro- 
prietary's letters  to  his  friends,  in  the  province,  to 
have  been,  because  no  suitable  person,  who  was  of 
that  society,  would  undertake  the  office;  that  his 
views  thereby  were  more  for  the  public  good,  than 
his  own  private  interest;  which,  he  declares,  he  was 
sorry  were  not  answered  according  to  his  expecta- 
tion ;  and  that  notwithstanding  he  was  apprehensive 
occasion  had  been  given  by  some  particulars  in  the 
province,  for  this  misunderstanding,  yet  that  he  had 
auly  regarded  their  complaints,  and  afforded  them 
suitable  relief. 

The  year  1689  gave  rise  to  the  Friends'  public 
school  in  Philadelphia;  which  afterwards,  in  the 
year  1697,  upon  the  petition  of  Samuel  Carpenter, 
Edward  Shippen,  Anthony  Morris,  James  Fox,  Da- 
vid Lloyd,  William  Southby,  and  John  Jones,  in 
behalf  of  themselves  and  others,  to  Deputy  Markham, 
was  first  incorporated  by  charter;  and,  after  that, 
confirmed  by  a  fresh  patent  from  William  Penn, 
dated  the  25th  of  October,  1701;  and  also  by 
another,  dated  the  22d  of  the  fifth  month,  1708; 
whereby  the  corporation  was,  "  For  ever  thereafter 
to  consist  of  fifteen  discreet  and  religious  persons, 
of  the  people  called  Quakers,  by  the  name  of  '  The 
overseers  of  the  public  school,  found  in  Philadel- 
phia, at  the  request,  cost,  and  charges  of  the  people 
called  Quakers;'  "  but  its  last  and  present  charter, 
from  William  Penn,  confirming  all  the  preceding 
charters,  and  further  extending  the  corporation  with 
larger  powers  and  privileges,  &c.  is  dated  the  29th 
of  November,  1711:  wherein  the  overseers,  nomi- 
nated and  appointed,  were  Samuel  Carpenter,  the 
elder,  Edward  Shippen,  Griffith  Owen,  Thomas 
Story,  Anthony  Morris,  Richard  Hill,  Isaac  Norris, 
Samuel  Preston,  Jonathan  Dickinson,  Nathan  Stan- 
bury,  Thomas  Masters,  Nicholas  Wain,  Caleb  Pu- 
sey,  Rowland  Ellis,  and  James  Logan ;  by  which 
charter  the  overseers  were  afterwards  to  be  chosen 
by  the  corporation. 

This  was  the  first  institution  of  the  kind  in 
Pennsylvania,  intended  not  only  to  facilitate  the 
acquisition  of  the  more  generally  useful  parts  of 
knowledge,  but  to  promote  a  love  of  more  extensive 
learning.  The  poorer  people  were  instructed  gratis. 


For  these  laudable  purposes,  a  number  of  the 
principal  inhabitants  of  Philadelphia,  being  Quakers, 
in  July  of  this  year,  agreed  with  George  Keith,  who 
then  resided  at  Freehold  (now  called  Monmouth) 
in  New  Jersey,  to  undertake  the  charge.  He  ac- 
cordingly removed  to  Philadelphia,  and  was  the 
first  master  of  that  school;  but  continued  only  about 
one  year.  He  was  a  native  of  Aberdeen,  in  Scot- 
land, a  man  of  learning,  and  had  gained  a  celebrity 
among  the  Quakers.  He  came  to  East  Jersey  many 
years  before  this  time;  was  afterwards  surveyor- 
general  of  that  division;  and,  in  1687,  he  ascer- 
tained and  marked  the  line  of  division  between 
East  and  West  Jersey.  His  salary  for  officiating 
in  this  school  was  50/.  per  annum,  with  a  house  for 
his  family  to  live  in,  a  school-house  provided,  and 
the  profits  of  the  school  beside,  for  one  year.  For 
two  years  more  his  school  was  to  be  made  worth 
1201.  per  annum,  if  he  thought  fit  to  stay  so  long; 
he  was  to  teach  the  poor  gratis.  He  continued  in 
this  station  about  one  year,  and  then  his  usher, 
Thomas  Makin,  was,  at  his  desire,  appointed  to  suc- 
ceed him. 

The  terms  for  teaching  at  this  period  appear,  oy 
the  following  extract  from  the  journals  of  council. 
"  Tenth  month,  26th,  1683,  Enoch  Flower  under- 
takes to  teach  school  in  the  town  of  Philadelphia  on 
the  following  terms,  viz. : — 

"  To  learn  to  read  English,  four  shillings  by  the 
quarter;  to  write,  six  shillings  by  ditto;  to  read, 
write,  and  cast  accounts,  eight  shillings  by  the 
quarter:  boarding  a  scholar,  that  is  to  say,  diet, 
lodging,  washing,  and  schooling,  IQl.  for  one  whole 
year." 

Perm's  difficulties  after  the  revolution  in  England — 
Disagreement  between  the  province  and  territories — 
Declaration  of  the  council,  and  other  proceedings 
relating  to  the  difference — Two  deputy-governors— 
The  proprietor's  concern  at  this  difference — Fur- 
ther proceedings  of  the  province — A  promulgated 
bill — Letter  to  the  proprietary,  Sfc. 

It  has  already  been  observed  that,  during  most 
of  the  time  since  the  proprietary's  return  to  Eng- 
land, in  1684,  much  of  his  public  action  and 
service  were  in  that  nation;  and  that  his  intimacy 
at  court,  and  friendship  with  James  II.,  which 
his  great  obligation  to  that  royal  family,  and  the 
situation  of  his  own  circumstances,  may  easily  ac- 
count for,  exposed  him  to  many  unjust  censures;  but 
in  the  year  1688,  upon  the  change  of  government, 
bis  affairs  there  began  to  have  a  very  different,  and 
more  unfavourable  aspect.  The  attempts  which 
had  been  made  by  the  king,  in  favour  of  popery 
and  arbitrary  pow  er,  had  occasioned  the  measures 
of  the  revolution,  which  now  began  to  take  place  in 
the  government  there,  by  means  of  the  prince  of 
Orange,  "  who,"  says  Penn's  biographer,  "  landed 
at  Torbay,  in  Devonshire,  on  the  5th  of  November, 
1688,  to  the  great  joy  of  the  English  nation.  Many 
of  King  James's  officers  and  army  soon  joined  the 
prince;  and  the  king,  perceiving  the  hearts  of  the 
people  alienated  from  him,  withdrew  himself,  and 
went  over  to  France.  Hence,'  by  a  convention, 
called  shortly  after,  the  said  prince  of  Orange,  and 
the  Princess  Mary,  his  consort,  King  James's  daugh- 
ter, were  declared  king  and  queen  of  England,  £c., 
and  were  proclaimed  on  the  13th  of  February, 
1688-9. 

"  Upon  this  turn  of  the  times,  Penn's  late  friend- 
ship at  court  having  rendered  him  suspected  of  dis- 
affection to  the  present  government,  ou  the  10th  of 


UNITED  STATES. 


823 


December  1688,  when  he  was  walking  in  White- 
hall, he  was  sent  for  by  the  lords  of  the  council, 
hthen  sitting;  though  nothing  appeared  against 
him,  and  he  himself  assured  them, — '  That  he  had 
done  nothing,  but  what  he  could  answer  before  God, 
and  all  the  princes  in  the  world;  that  he  loved  his 
country,  and  the  Protestant  religion  above  his  life, 
and  never  acted  against  either ;  that  all  he  ever 
aimed  at,  in  his  public  endeavours,  was  no  other 
than  what  the  prince  himself  had  declared  for  ;  that 
King  James  was  always  his  friend,  and  in  gratitude, 
he  was  the  king's,  and  did  ever  as  much  as  in  him 
lay,  influence  him  to  his  true  interest.'  Notwith- 
standing they  obliged  him  to  give  securities  for  his 
appearance  the  first  day  of  the  next  term,  which  he 
did ;  and  he  was  then  continued  on  the  same  secu- 
rity, to  Easter-term  following ;  on  the  last  day  of 
which,  nothing  having  been  laid  to  his  charge,  he 
was  cleared  in  open  ( ourt. 

"  In  the  year  1690,  he  was  again  brought  be- 
fore  the  lords  of  the  council,  upon  an  accusation  of 
holding  a  correspondence  with  the  late  King  James ; 
and  they  requiring  sureties  for  his  appearance,  he 
appealed  to  King  William  himself ;  who  after  a 
conference  of  near  two  hours,  inclined  to  acquit 
him,  but,  to  please  some  of  the  council,  he  was  held 
upon  bail  for  a  while ;  and,  in  Trinity-term,  the 
same  year,  was  again  discharged. 

"  He  was  attacked  a  third  time,  and  his  name 
inserted  in  a  proclamation,  dated  July  the  18th, 
1690 ;  wherein  he,  with  divers  others,  to'the  number 
of  eighteen,  were  charged  with  adhering  to  the 
kingdom's  enemies;  but  proof  failing  respecting 
him,  he  was  again  cleared  by  order  of  the  King's- 
bench  court,  at  Westminster,  in  the  last  day  of 
Michaelmas-term,  1690. 

"  Being  now  again  at  liberty,  he  proposed  to  go 
a  second  time  to  Pennsylvania,  and  published  pro- 
posals in  print,  for  another  settlement  there.  He 
had  so  far  prepared  for  this  transportation  that  an 
order  for  a  convoy  was  granted  him  by  the  secretary 
of  state,  when  his  voyage  was  prevented  by  a  fresh 
accusation  against  him,  backed  with  the  oath  of  one 
William  Fuller,  a  wretch,  afterwards  by  parliament 
declared  a  cheat  and  impostor ;  and  a  warrant  was 
thereupon  granted  for  his  apprehension  ;  which  he 
narrowly  escaped,  at  his  return  from  the  funeral  of 
George  Fox,  the  first  preacher  among  the  Quakers, 
on  the  16th  of  January,  1691." 

In  a  letter  to  Thomas  Lloyd,  dated   "  England, 
the  14th  of  June,  1691,"  he  writes  as  follows  : — 
"  Dear  Friend, 

"  My  love  in  the  unchangeable  truth  salutes  thee 
and  thine,  and  the  friends  and  family  of  God  in 
those  parts,  desiring  your  temporal  and  everlasting 
welfare,  with  an  unfeigned  affection. 

"  By  this  time  thou  wilt  have  heard  of  the  re- 
newal of  my  troubles,  the  only  let  of  my  return, 
being  in  the  midst  of  my  preparations,  with  a  great 
company  of  adventurers,  when  they  fell  upon  me. 
The  jealousies  of  some,  and  unworthy  dealing  of 
others  have  made  way  for  them ;  but  under  and 
over  it  all,  the  ancient  rock  has  been  my  shelter  and 
comfort;  and  I  hope  yet  to  see  your  faces,  with  our 
ancient  satisfaction.  The  Lord  grant,  if  it  be  for 
his  glory,  whojse  I  desire  to  be,  in  all  conditions  ; 
for  this  world  passeth  away,  and  the  form  and  beauty 
of  it  fadeth ;  but  there  are  eternal  habitations  for 
the  faithful;  among  whom  I  pray  that  my  lot  may 
be,  rather  than  among  the  princes  of  the  earth. 

"  I  hope  I  need  not  U'-ge  my  circumstances  to 
excite  thy  love  care  and  concern  for  me  and  my 


suffering  interest  in  that  country.  I  know  thou  hast 
better  learned  Christ  and  Cato,  if  I  may  so  say,  and 
wilt  embrace  such  an  opportunity  to  chuse  to  express 
thy  friendship  and  sincerity  ;  nor  is  uncertainty  and 
changeableness  thy  fault;  wherefore  I  will  say  no 
more,  but  desire  that  my  afflictions  may  cease,  if 
not  cure  your  animosities,  or  discontents  within 
yourselves,  if  yet  they  have  continued;  and  that 
thou  wilt  both  in  government,  and  to  my  commis- 
sioners of  property,  yield  thy  assistance  all  thou 
canst.  By  all  this  God  may  prepare  me  to  be  fitter 
for  future  service,  even  to  you  there.  I  ask  the 
people  forgiveness  for  my  long  stay ;  but  when  I  con- 
sider how  much  it  hap  been  my  great  loss,  and  for 
an  ungrateful  generation,  it  is  punishment !  It  has 
been  20.000Z.  to  my  damage  in  the  country,  and 
above  10,OOOZ.  here,  and  to  the  province  500 families; 
but  the  wise  God,  that  can  do  what  he  pleases,  as 
well  as  see  what  is  in  man's  heart,  is  able  to  requite 
all;  and  I  amperswaded,  all  shall  yet  work  together 
for  good,  in  this  very  thing,  if  we  can  overlook  all 
that  stands  in  the  way  of  our  views  Godward,  in 
public  matters.  See  that  all  be  done  prudently  and 
numbly  ;  and  keep  down  irreverence  and  looseness, 
and  cherish  industry  and  sobriety.  The  Lord  God 
Almighty  be  with  you,  and  amongst  you,  to  his 
praise  and  your  peace.  Salute  me  to  John  Simcock, 
R.  Turner,  A.  Cook,  T.  Janny,  Ph.  Pemberton, 
S.  Richardson,  W.  Yardly,  the  Welch  Friends,  and 
Plymouth  Friends,  indeed  to  all  of  them. 

"  Thou  hast  heard  of  our  great  loss  of  dear  John 
Burnyeat,  and  Robert  Lodge,  one  in  Ireland,  and 
t'other  in  England,  in  about  the  same  week;  and 
Robert  Barclay,  Th.  Salthouse,  and  dearly  beloved 
George  Fox  since :  he  died  at  Henry  Gouldney's, 
by  Gracious-street  meeting-house ;  where  he  preached 
his  farewell  the  first-day,  and  departed  the  third, 
at  night,  between  nine  and  ten.  I  was  with  him ; 
he  earnestly  recommended  to  me  his  love  to  you  all ; 
and  said/ William,  mind  our  poor  Friends  in  Ame- 
rica;' he  died  triumphantly  over  death,  very  easily 
foresaw  his  change;  he  was  buried  on  the  sixth-day  ; 
like  a  general  meeting ;  2000  people  at  his  burial, 
Friends  and  others  : — I  was  never  more  public  than 
that  day;  I  felt  myself  easy;  he  was  got  into  his 
Inn,  before  the  storm  that  is  coming  overtook  him; 
and  that  night,  very  providentially  I  escaped  the  mes- 
senger's hands  : — I  shall  add  only,  that  the  Friends 
have  had  an  extraordinary  time,  this  general  meet- 
ing ;  so  that  God  supplied  that  visible  loss  with  his 
glorious  presence.  R.  Davies  there,  but  not  thy 
brother.  In  sincere  love  I  bid  thee,  thy  wife  and 
family,  and  friends  farewell, 

"  Thy  true  friend, 

"  WILLIAM  PENN." 

Though  the  proprietary  had,  both  by  charter 
and  otherwise,  endeavoured  to  connect  the  province 
and  territories  of  Pennsylvania,  in  legislation  and 
government,  so  as  to  form  one  general  assembly'; 
yet  the  jealousies,  and  difference  of  sentiment  in 
some  cases,  which  afterwards  arose  between  the 
representatives  of  each  part,  in  their  legislative  ca- 
pacity, tended  to  create  separate  interests ;  and  these 
d'ssensions  between  them,  were  frequently  the  oc- 
casion of  great  unea<jiness  to  him  ;  whose  view  was 
always  to  keep  them  united,  judging  it  most  for 
their  interest  as  well  as  his  own. 

The  irregularities  which  ensued,  or  were  at- 
tempted, in  the  year  1690,  after  Blackwell's  depar- 
ture for  England,  in  consequence  of  this  difference, 
appear  by  the  following  declaration  of  the  council, 
and  other  public  proceedings 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


(L.s.)  "  By  the  President  and  Council  of  Pennsyl- 
vania and  counties  annexed. 

"  Present, 

"  Thomas  Lloyd,  President. 
"  John  Simcock,  Samuel  Richardson, 

"  William  Clark,  Griffith  Jones, 

"  Arthur  Cook,  Thomas  Duckett, 

"  William  Stockdale,  Griffith  Owen. 

"  William  Yardley, 

"  Whereas,  the  provincial  council,  according  to 
the  powers  of  the  present  commission  of  govern- 
ment, have,  at  their  first  sitting,  chosen  a  presi- 
dent, and  have  since,  in* a  legislative  council, 
continued  him,  till  they  should  see  cause  to  alter 
their  choice ;  and  having  likewise  ordered  the  suc- 
ceeding councils  to  be  called  by  him,  or,  in  his 
absence,  by  notice  sent  by  six  members  from  this 
place ;  yet,  notwithstanding,  these  members,  Wil- 
liam Clark,  Luke  Watson,  Griffith  Jones,  John 
Brinkloe,  John  Cann,  Johannes  D'Kaes,  did  pri- 
vily meet  together,  in  the  couricil-room,  upon  the 
21st  instant,  without  signifying  the  least  syllable  of 
their  intentions  of  having  a  council,  either  to  Tho- 
mas Lloyd,  the  elected  and  continued  president,  or 
to  any  member  of  the  province ;  and  there  in  an 
irregular  and  undue  manner,  have  presumed  to  act, 
as  a  council,  and  have  issued  forth  pretended  com- 
missions, for  constituting  provincial  judges,  con- 
trary to  the  express  letter  of  the  laws,  and  have  no- 
minated some  therein,  who,  under  their  present 
circumstances,  are  unqualified  for  that  station ;  as, 
upon  occasion,  shall  be  made  appear;  and  have 
voted  extravagant  and  contradictory  orders.  This 
board,  having  well  considered  their  disorderly  and 
unprecedented  way  of  meeting,  cannot  but  entirely 
disallow  and  disown  their  so  clandestine  meeting, 
to  be  a  council ;  for  should  such  a  proceeding  be  in 
the  least  countenanced,  the  consequence  thereof 
would  unavoidably  introduce  a  rupture  and  confusion 
in  the  present  frame  of  government:  for,  by  the 
Bame  reason  that  any  six  members  privately  met, 
without  notice  had  from,  or  given  to,  any  of  the  rest, 
may  represent  the  governor  and  council  in  this 
place,  by  the  same  methods,  two  other  six  members 
elsewhere  may  represent  two  governors  and  coun- 
cils more,  at  the  same  time,  in  this  government ;  which 
is  an  absurdity  not  to  be  tolerated.  And  further, 
this  council  being  under  an  obligation  of  asserting 
the  governor's  power  and  authority,  lodged  in  a  re- 
gular provincial  council,  and  for  the  undeceiving  of 
many  well-minded  persons,  who  otherwise  may  be 
abused  by  their  late  sitting,  have  unanimously,  by 
this  instrument  in  writing,  declared  this  to  be  our 
sense  and  judgment,  that  all  entries,  orders,  and 
commissions  made  and  given  forth  by  the  aforesaid 
six  members,  at  the  council-room,  upon  the  21st 
instant,  are  hereby  deemed  null,  and  of  no  force. 
Whereof  all  magistrates,  officers,  and  other  persons 
concerned  in  this  government,  are  to  take  notice 
accordingly.  Given  at  Philadelphia,  25th  of  the 
ninth  month,  1690.  THOMAS  LLOYD,  President." 

This  disagreement  appears  afterwards  to  have  in- 
creased, and,  in  the  fore  part  of  the  year  1691,  pro- 
ceeded to  greater  extremes.  The  following  proposals, 
said  to  be  made  to  the  provincial  council  by  Griffith 
Jones  and  William  Clark,  in  behalf,  and  for  the 
ease  and  satisfaction  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  three 
lower  counties,  or  the  territories,  may  further  show 
the  views  of  the  members  for  the  said  counties,  in 
this  affair,  viz : — 

"  I    That  there  be  forthwith  a  writ  issued  forth, 


for  choosing  a  member  of  council  for  the  county  of 
Sussex,  in  the  room  of  Thomas  Clifton. 

'  II.  That  the  commissions  given  out  by  both 
councils,  for  judges,  be  wholly  laid  aside;  and  that 
the  inhabitants  of  the  three  lower  counties  may  re- 
commend to  the  council  two  persons  to  be  commis- 
sionated  for  judges,  to  act  the  next  spring,  and  that 
to  continue  no  longer. 

"  III.  That,  at  the  next  legislative  council,  a 
bill  be  proposed  by  the  council,  to  enable  the  nine 
members  of  the  lower  counties,  or  any  six  of  them, 
to  appoint  three  judges  to  act  in  that  station,  in  the 
said  three  counties,  and  that  there  be  also  three  for 
the  province  always  provided;  that  the  judges  do 
act  by  the  laws  of  Pennsylvania. 

'  IV.  That  for  the  ease  of  the  charge  there  be  a 
dispensing  with  the  meeting  of  the  assembly,  unless 
it  be  for  the  confirming  of  these  alterations. 

'  V.  That  all  other  officers  be,  from  time  to  time, 
appointed  by  the  said  nine  members  of  the  three 
lower  counties,  or  any  six  of  them,  to  act  there;  and 
that  no  other  officers  may  be  imposed  upon  them. 

;<  VI.  That  the  fairs  for  Newcastle  be  confirmed 
unto  them.  All  which  being  by  you  granted,  we 
hope  may  be  a  means  to  keep  things  quiet ;  which 
shall  be  diligently  endeavoured  by  your  real  friends, 
although  otherwise  represented  or  suspected." 

The  proprietary,  whether  to  gratify,  or  indulge  the 
humour  of  the  colony,  and  thereby  induce  a  coa- 
lescence of  the  two  parties,  or  with  whatever  other 
design,  (which,  no  doubt,  was  well  intended,)  had 
left  to  the  choice  of  the  council  three  different  me- 
thods, or  modes,  of  the  executive  part  of  govern- 
ment, viz.  either  that  of  the  council,  of  five  com- 
missioners, or  of  a  deputy-governor.  This  affair, 
with  other  matters,  being  about  that  time  agitated 
in  council,  and  the  province,  or  the  majority,  in- 
clining to  the  last  of  these  methods,  seven  members, 
for  the  lower  counties,  viz.  William  Clark,  John 
Cann,  John  Brinkloe,  John  Hill,  Richard  Halliwell, 
Albertus  Jacobs,  and  George  Martin,  drew  up  and 
signed  a  formal  protest,  or  declaration,  directed  to 
the  members  of  council,  of  the  province  of  Penn- 
sylvania; dated  "  Philadelphia,  the  first  of  the  se- 
cond month,  1691 ;"  in  which  they  declared, — 

"  I.  That  the  mode  of  the  five  commissioners  was 
the  most  agreeable  to  them,  or  to  the  counties  which 
they  represented. 

"  II.  That  the  commission  of  the  council  was  the 
next,  though  much  less  convenient,  than  that  of  the 
five  commissioners;  on  account  of  the  encroach- 
ments thereby  made  upon  their  rights  and  privileges 
by  the  province,  in  imposing  officers  upon  them, 
without  their  consent  or  approbation. 

"  III.  That  the  method  of  a  deputy-governor  was 
the  most  disagreeable  and  grievous  of  any ;  on  ac- 
count of  the  choice  of  all  officers  being  placed  in  a 
single  person,  and  the  expense  or  charge  of  his  sup- 
port :  therefore  they  would  not  agree  to  accept  of 
that  commission. 

"  IV.  But  that,  rather  than  the  country  should 
be  without  government,  they  would  consent  to  that 
of  the  council;  provided  no  officers  whatever  were 
imposed  upon  any  of  the  three  lower  counties,  with- 
out the  consent  of  the  respective  members  of  coun 
cil  for  these  counties. 

"  V.  That  they  desired  to  excuse  themselves  for 
not  agreeing  to  have  these  things  put  to  the  vote ; 
which,  they  said,  they  had  experienced,  the  mem- 
bers for  the  province  would  scarce  ever  do,  till  they 
were  sure  it  would  go  against  them. 

"  VI.  That  they,  in  behalf  of  the  lower  counties, 


UNITED  STATES. 


825 


protested  against  the  acceptance  of  any  commission, 
but  that  of  the  five  persons,  and  resolved,  that  should 
the  province  act  otherwise,  they  would  govern  them- 
selves by  the  commission,  then  in  force,  till  the 
proprietary's  pleasure  should  be  known  therein." 
And  thereupon  they  immediately  withdrew  their  at- 
tendance. 

What  just  or  sufficient  cause  they  had  for  this 
conduct,  does  not  clearly  appear :  it  gave  many  of 
the  members  of  the  provincial  council,  as  well  as 
the  proprietary  himself,  much  concern  and  unea- 
siness; and  great  endeavours  were  used,  and  much 
pains  taken  by  both,  to  reconcile  them;  but  not  with 
all  the  desired  success  :  their  greatest  ostensible  ob- 
jection against  this  commission  of  a  deputy-gover- 
nor, which  the  province  most  inclined  to,  appeared 
to  be  the  expense  of  his  support,  and  their  jealousy 
of  having  their  officers  removed;  and,  to  relieve 
their  apprehensions  in  these  respects,  at  President 
Lloyd's  request,  John  Simcock,  John  Bristow,  John 
Delavall,  with  David  Lloyd,  went  after  them  to 
Newcastle,  to  endeavour  to  obtain  their  return,  but 
in  vain. 

Hence,  upon  the  province  preferring  the  choice 
of  a  deputy-governor,  contrary  to  the  wish  of  the 
territories,  and  Thomas  Lloyd  being  preferred  to 
that  office,  (which  he  appears  to  have  accepted  with 
some  reluctance,)  the  proprietary  appointed  him 
governor  of  the  province ;  and  the  secretary,  Wil- 
liam Markham,  who  appears  to  have  joined  and 
retired  with  the  protesting  members  in  their  abrupt 
separation,  was  appointed  over  the  lower  counties, 
under  certain  restrictions. 

This  division  of  the  legislature  appears  to  have 
been  much  against  the  proprietary's  mind ;  who 
seems  to  have  apprehended  dangerous,  if  not  fatal 
consequences  from  it.  He  blamed,  or,  at  IcasX,  ap- 
peared displeased  with  Thomas  Lloyd's  conduct  in 
accepting  of  a  partial  choice,  or  that  of  the  province 
only,  as  if  it  were  in  his  power  to  have  prevented 
this  division  ;  but  the  provincial  council  excused 
him  in  a  letter  to  the  proprietary,  and  entirely  ex- 
culpated him  from  being  accessary  to,  or  in  any 
manner  promoting  this  disagreement;  throwing  the 
whole  blame  on  the  territory  men  :  they  declared, 
that,  instead  of  being  a  gainer  by  any  public  offices, 
which  he  had  held,  Thomas  Lloyd  had  wasted,  or 
considerably  injured  his  estate 'thereby  ;  that,  as  he 
was  well  known  to  be  a  lover  and  promoter  of  con- 
cord and  union,  and  preferred  a  private  life,  so, 
"  He  never  accepted  of  that  commission,  but  by  the 
importunity  of  his  friends,  or,  at  the  earnest  re- 
quest of  the  province  itself."  This  letter  was 
signed  by  Arthur  Cook,  John  Simcock,  Samuel 
Richardson,  James  Fox,  George  Murrie,  and  Samuel 
Carpenter. 

The  province  and  territories  continued  in  this 
manner,  about  two  years ;  or,  till  the  arrival  of 
Governor  Fletcher  of  New  York,  in  April  1693  ;  and 
though  they  managed  better  in  this  situation  than 
the  proprietary  at  first  seems  to  have  expected 
from  it,  and  with  more  harmony  than  they  had  done 
for  some  time  before ;  nevertheless,  it  will  hereafter 
appear  that  the  continued  refractoriness  of  the  terri- 
tories, in  their  refusing  to  accept  of  the  new  char- 
ter, in  1701,  was  at  length  the  occasion  of  their 
total  separation  from  the  province  in  legislation. 

The  revolution  and  measures  taken  by  the  pro- 
vince, in  consequence  of  this  conduct  of  the  territo- 
ries, with  the  form  of  the  legislative  proceeding,inthe 
deputyship  of  Governoi  Lloyd,  which  commenced 
about  May  1691,  and  under  the  charter  then  in 


force  are,  in  part,  exhibited  by  the  following  pro- 
mulgated bills,  which  appear  to  have  been  passed 
into  laws,  in  the  same  year. 

"  The  deputy-governor  and  freemen  of  the  pro- 
vince of  Pennsylvania,  in  council  met  at  Philadel- 
phia, on  the  17th  day  of  the  sixth  month,  1691, 
have  prepared  and  published,  according  to  law  and 
charter,  these  following  bills,  for  the  notice  and 
concurrence  of  the  freemen  in  assembly  to  meet,  the 
tenth  day  of  the  seventh  month  next,  at  Philadel- 
phia aforesaid,  in  the  form  and  style  of  laws,  then 
and  there  to  be  confirmed,  amended,  or  rejected,  as 
the  general  assembly  in  their  wisdom  shall  see 
meet. 

"  At  an  assembly  held  at  Philadelphia,  the  tenth 
day  of  the  seventh  month,  anno  dom.  1691. 

"  Whereas,  by  an  act  of  general  assembly  held  at 
Chester,  alias  Upland,  in  the  tenth  month,  1682, 
it  is,  among  other  things,  enacted  by  the  proprie- 
tary and  governor  of  this  province  of  Pennsylvania, 
with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  deputies  of  the 
freemen  of  the  same  province  and  counties  annexed, 
in  the  said  assembly  met,  that  the  counties  of  New- 
castle, Jones  and  Whorekills,  alias  Deal,  should 
be  annexed,  and  are  thereby  annexed,  unto  the 
province  of  Pennsylvania,  as  of  the  proper  territory 
thereof;  and  the  people  therein  should  be  governed 
by  the  same  laws,  and  enjoy  the  same  privileges, 
in  all  respects,  as  the  inhabitants  of  Pennsylvania 
did,  or  should,  enjoy  from  time  to  time,  as  by  the 
same  act,  more  at  large  appears :  but,  lest  the  said 
proprietary  and  freemen  of  the  said  province  should, 
by  the  said  union,  be  deprived  of  the  immunities 
and  powers  then  before  invested  in  them,  apart 
from  the  said  annexed  counties,  by  virtue  of  the 
king's  letters  patent,  and  first  charter  of  liberties, 
or  should  otherwise  be  impeded  or  obstructed,  in 
any  act  of  government,  which  might  relate  to  the 
public  good,  justice,  peace  and  safety  of  the  said 
province,  which  might  not  so  immediately  concern 
the  territories,  it  was  at  the  same  general  assembly, 
further  enacted,  that  all  matters  and  things,  not 
therein  provided  for,  which  should,  or  might  con- 
cern the  public  good,  justice,  peace  and  safety  of 
the  said  province,  and  the  raising  and  imposing 
tax"es,  customs,  duties,  or  charges  whatsoever,  should 
be,  and  are,  thereby  referred  to  the  order,  prudence 
and  determination  of  the  governor  and  freemen  of 
the  said  province,  from  time  to  time ;  which  said 
laws  have  been  sithence  continued  in,  and  by,  the 
succeeding  general  assemblies.  Now,  for  as  much 
as  the  present  state  and  emergency  of  this  govern- 
ment requires  some  speedy  provision,  for  the  sup- 
port and  safety  thereof,  and  for  the  better  establish- 
ing the  justice  and  peace  of  the  same,  by  reason  of 
the  breach,  that  the  representatives  of  the  said  an- 
nexed counties  have  lately  made,  in  wilfully  absent- 
ing themselves  from  their  charteral  attendance  in 
the  last  legislative  council  and  assembly,  and  de- 
clining their  other  incumbent  duties  and  services  to 
the  present  constitutions  of  this  province ;  as  also, 
in  opposing  and  tumultuously  preventing  the  elec- 
tion of  new  members  to  supply  the  neglect  of  the 
said  absenting  representatives,  withstanding  all  pro- 
vincial acts  of  government,  and  denying  the  powers 
of  the  same:  therefore,  for  preventing  all  doubts 
and  scruples  concerning  the  meeting,  sitting  and 
proceeding  of  this  present  general  assembly,  '  Be 
it  declared  and  enacted,'  and  it  is  declared  and  en- 
acted by  the  deputy-governor,  with  the  assent  of 
the  representatives  of  the  freemen  of  the  said  pro- 
vince, in  general  assembly  met,  by  the  king  and 


826 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


queen's  authority,  that  the  meetings  of  council, 
since  the  dissent  and  refusal  aforesaid,  of  the  repre 
sentatives  of  the  said  annexed  counties,  and  the 
meetings  of  the  deputy-governor  and  representa 
tives  of  the  province,  in  provincial  council  and  as> 
sembly  met,  on  the  tenth  day  of  the  third  month 
last  past,  at  Philadelphia,  and  now  sitting  in  this 
present  general  assembly,  are  the  provincial  counci" 
and  assembly  of  this  province  of  Pennsylvania ; 
and  are  hereby  declared,  enacted  and  adjudged  so 
to  be,  to  all  intents,  constructions  and  purposes, 
notwithstanding  the  absence  of  the  representatives 
of  the  said  counties  annexed.  And.  for  removing 
all  objections  that  may  arise  concerning  the  vali- 
dity, force  and  continuation  of  the  laws  of  this  go- 
vernment, '  be  it  further  enacted,  by  the  authority 
aforesaid,'  that  all  these  laws,  that  were  made,  con- 
tinued and  stood  unrepealed  at  the  last  general  as 
sembly,  held  at  Newcastle,  in  the  year  1690,  are 
hereby  declared  and  enacted  to  stand  in  force,  and 
be  continued  respectively,  until  the  publication  of 
other  laws,  which  shall  be  made  by  the  next  gene- 
ral assembly  of  this  province.  Ex  per  David  Lloyd, 
Cl.  Council." 

As  this  division  had  occasioned  much  anxiety  to 
the  proprietary,  of  which  both  parties  were  sensi- 
ble, so  to  relieve  him,  at  least  in  part,  from  his  ap- 
prehensions and  uneasiness  on  that  account,  in  the 
fore  part  of  the  year  1692,  the  two  deputies  and  their 
councils  unitedly  wrote  to  him  the  following  letter  : 
From  the  council-room  at  Philadelphia,  the  6th 
of  the  second  month,  1692. 

"  Worthy  Governor, 

"  These  few  lines  we  hope  may  much  ease  thy 
mind  in  reference  to  thy  exercises,  concerning  the 
affairs  of  thy  government  here,  by  informing  thee, 
that,  with  unanimous  accord,  we  rest  satisfied  with 
thy  two  deputations,  sent  for  executive  government 
of  the  province,  and  counties  annexed  :  and  thy 
deputies  concurring  amicably  at  this  time,  to  act 
as  one  general  government,  in  legislation,  we  have 
proceeded  in  the  preparing  jointly  some  few  bills; 
that  thereby  our  present  united  actings  may  be  as 
well  published,  as  the  respective  services  of  the  go- 
vernment answered.  What  particular  transactions 
of  moment,  which  have  occurred  upon  our  calm 
debates  of  the  choice  of  three,  we  refer  to  the  minutes 
for  thy  satisfaction.  We  heartily  wish  thee  well; 
and,  with  longing  expectations,  desire  thy  speedy 
return  unto  us  ;  where,  we  doubt  not,  but  thou  wilt 
find  a  most  grateful  reception  and  better  face  of 
affairs,  than  may  seem  to  thee  there,  at  this  dis- 
tance :  so  bidding  thee  adieu,  at  this  time  we  remain, 
"  Thy  faithful  and  well-wishing  friends, 
"  THOMAS  LLOYD, 
"  WILLIAM  MARKHAM. 

"  Arthur  Cook,  John  Cann,  Jos.  Growdon,  John 
Delavall,  Rich.  Halliwell,  Griffith  Owen,  George 
Martin,  Win.  Jenkins,  John  Bristow,  Alburtus 
Jacobs,  Hugh  Roberts,  Sa.  Gray,  Samuel  Lewis, 
Richard  Wilson,  William  Biles." 

Schism  and  separation  between  George  Keith  and  the 
Quakers — His  conduct  afterwards — Some  judicial 
proceedings  against  him,  8fc.—  The  magistrates'  de- 
claration of  the  reasons  for  these  proceedings — Penn 
depriaed  of  the  government  by  King  William  and 
Queen  Mary— Their  commission  to  Fletcher,  gover- 
nor of  New  York — Fletcher's  letter  to  Deputy  Lloyd. 

In  the  year  1691  an  affair  happened  among  the 
Quakers,  in  this  part  of  the  world,  which  gave  them 
much  uneasiness  and  trouble  in  their  religious  ca- 


pacity, more  especially  in  this  province,  and  the 
neighbouring  places.  This  was  the  difference  and 
separation  between  them  and  George  Keith  befox; 
mentioned.  He  had  been  an  eminent  preacher  and 
writer  among  them  for  many  years ;  and  had  pul  - 
lished  several  well-written  treatises  in  defence  of 
their  religious  principles,  yet  extant.  He  was  a 
man  of  quick  natural  parts,  and  considerable  lite- 
rary abilities;  acute  in  argument,  and  very  ready 
and  able  in  logical  disputations,  and  nice  distinctions, 
on  theological  subjects;  but  was  said  to  be  of  an 
irritable  temper,  and  overbearing  disposition;  not 
sufficiently  indued  with  the  moderation  and  charity 
that  is  the  distinguishing  characteristic  of  true 
Christianity:  of  which  he  himself  had  not  only  made 
strong  profession,  but  also,  in  his  younger  years, 
as  appears  by  his  writings,  had  a  good  understand- 
ing. His  great  confidence  in  his  own  superior  abi- 
lities seems  to  have  been  one,  if  not  the  chief  in- 
troductory cause  of  this  unhappy  dispute.  He  is 
said  to  have  had  too  much  virulence  in  argument 
and  disputation  on  religioiis  points  of  controversy, 
and  sometimes  to  have  exhibited  an  unbecoming 
vanity  on  gaining  any  advantage  over  his  oppo- 
nents, even  prior  to  the  schism  between  him  and 
his  friends:  for  having,  some  time  before,  been  on 
a  visit  to  New  England,  he  is  represented  as  having 
indulged  his  natural  propensity,  among  the  preach- 
ers and  inhabitants  there,  in  a  very  extravagant 
manner:  which  disposition  of  mind,  from  that  time 
forward,  appeared  to  have  so  far  got  the  ascendancy 
over  him,  that,  on  his  return,  he  began  to  exhibit 
the  same,  even  among  his  friends,  beginning  with 
finding  fault,  proposing  and  urging  new  regulations, 
in  the  society,  in  respect  of  the  discipline  of  it,  and 
complaining,  "  There  was  too  great  a  slackness 
therein."  Upon  his  friends  not  readily  joining 
with  him  and  his  proposals,  in  the  manner  he  ex- 
pected, he  became  still  more  captious,  and  more 
disposed  to  seek  matters  of  reproach  and  offence 
against  many  in  the  society,  and  to  make  the  worst 
of  them;  charging  some  of  his  friends,  who  were 
generally  well  esteemed  and  approved  ministers, 
with  preaching  false  doctrine ;  and  it  is  said,  even 
n  points  contrary  to  what  himself  had  formerly  held 
ind  declared  in  his  writings,  in  defence  of  the 
Quakers  and  their  principles.  He  found  fault  with 
tiis  friends  being  in  the  magistracy,  and  their  exe- 
cuting the  penal  laws  against  malefactors,  as  being 
'nconsistent  with  their  religious-  profession ;  and, 
n  short,  contended  that  he  and  such  as  joined  w  j;h 
lim,  were  the  true  Quakers,  and  all  the  rest,  who 
opposed  him,  were  apostates. 

These  were  the  principal  allegations,  which,  in 
the  beginning  of  the  dispute,  he  appears  to  have 
made  against  the  Quakers.     The  principal  ermrs, 
f  not  the  whole,  with  which  we  find  him  charged  by 
,hem,  at  that  time,  appear  to  be   his  over-bearing 
emper,    and   unchristian   disposition    of  mind,    in 
Crossly  vilifying  and  disparaging  certain  members 
)f  the  society,  who  were  universally  and  highly  ap- 
mived  among   them,   and  entirely  rejecting   their 
advice  and  judgment;  the  consequence  of  an  over- 
eated  and  intemperate  zeal:  which,  at  last,   pro- 
ceeded so  far  as  to  occasion  such  a  breach,  that,  on 
he  20th  of  June,  1692,  "  a  declaration,  or  testimony 
if  denial,"  was  drawn  up  against  him,  at  a  meeting 
if  the   ministers   of  the    society   at  Philadelphia: 
wherein  both  he  and  his  conduct  were  publicly  dis- 
wned  by  them.     This  declaration  was  confirmed 
t  the  next  following  general  yearly  meeting,  held 
at  Burlington,  the  7th  of  September. 


UNITED  STATES. 


827 


He  drew  off  a  large  number  of  people  with  him 
tome  of  considerable  account,  in  the  society;  an 
set  up  separate  meetings,  in  several  places.  Thes 
called  themselves  Christian  Quakers  and  Friends 
boasted  of  their  large  numbers,  and  looked  upor 
the  rest  as  apostates;  many  books  were  written 
and  much  altercation  and  dispute  ensued,  on  bot 
sides 

He  appealed,  or  complained,  to  the  yearly  meet 
ing  of  the  society,  in  London,  against  the  Quaker 
of  Pennsylvania,  who  had  disowned  him,  and  ap 
peared  there  in  person;  where  he  was  confronte< 
by  divers  from  the  province.  But,  in  this  place,  i 
is  said,  his  passion  and  violence  so  far  prevailec 
over  him,  and  his  demeanour  was  so  indecorous  ati< 
outrageous,  that  notwithstanding  all  possible  en 
deavours  for  a  reconciliation,  his  denial  was  there 
finally  confirmed. 

He  thenceforward  became  a  public  and  bitter 
enemy,  as  far  as  in  him  lay,  against  the  Quakers, 
in  general;  preaching  and  writing  against  them 
with  all  imaginable  virulency :  in  which  he  appeared 
afterwards  to  be  employed  by  their  adversaries,  for 
that  purpose ;  for  having  joined  with  the  episcopal 
clergy  in  England,  and  served  there  for  some  time, 
as  a  vicar,  ordained  by  the  bishop  of  London,  he 
afterwards  returned  to  America;  where,  as  a  cler- 
gyman, in  orders,  he  officiated  in  his  new  function 
for  about  twelve  months ;  and,  having  there  given 
the  Quakers  all  the  annoyance  in  his  power,  he  re- 
turned again  to  England  by  way  of  Virginia.  In 
this  visit,  it  is  said,  he  was  generally  slighted,  both 
by  those  who  before  had  been  his  adherents,  and 
others ;  and  that  his  conduct  was  so  glaringly  in- 
consistent with  his  former  pretensions,  and  his  be- 
haviour towards  the  Quakers  so  manifestly  arising 
from  a  malignant  disposition  of  mind,  and  disap- 
pointed malice,  that  notwithstanding  his  superior 
abilities,  he  was  universally  despised. 

After  his  return  to  England,  he  was  fixed  in  a 
benefice  in  Sussex ;  and  continued  to  write  against 
his  former  friends,  as  a  bitter  enemy ;  but,  as  far  as 
appears,  with  a  sinking  reputation.  At  last,  on  his 
death-bed,  from  a  well  authenticated  account,  it  is 
asserted,  he  thus  expressed  himself:  "  I  wish  I  had 
died  when  I  was  a  Quaker;  for  then  I  am  sure  it 
would  have  been  well  with  my  soul." 

This  schism  made  a  great  disturbance  in  the  pro- 
vince for  a  time,  and  in  some  other  places,  among 
the  Quakers;  yet  many,  or  the  major  part,  of  those 
persons,  who  had  thus  separated  themselves,  through 
the  conduct  of  this  person,  are  said  to  have  re- 
turned soon  after  to  the  society. 

But  because  Keith  had,  by  abusive  language  and 
printed  publications,  vilifying  several  persons  in  the 
magistracy,  drawn  upon  himself  some  judicial  pro- 
ceedings ;  some  persons  have  been  disposed  to 
charge  the  Quakers  "  with  persecution  for  religion ;" 
and  as  this  appears  to  be  the  only  case,  in  which 
their  enemies  pretend  to  have  just  ground  to  accuse 
them  of  this  evil,  we  shall  therefore  endeavour  to 
lay  before  the  reader  such  an  account  of  this  trans- 
action, as  the  acccounts  remaining  of  it  will  permit. 
In  the  beginning  of  the  year  1691,  a  person  named 


gistrates  who  granted  this  warrant  being  Quakers, 
George  Keith,  and  his  party,  soon  after  took  occa- 
sion from  thence  to  represent  it  as  inconsistent  with 
their  principles  against  fighting.  He  called  Tho- 
mas Lloyd,  the  deputy-governor,  who  was  ac- 
counted a  person  of  a  mild  temper  and  deportment, 
good  sense,  and  umblemished  character,  and  whose 
unwearied  endeavours  to  serve  him,  are  said  to  have 
merited  a  different  treatment,  "  An  impudent  man, 
and  a  pitiful  governor;"  asking  him,  "  Why  he 
did  not  send  him  to  gaol  ?"  and  telling  him,  "  His 
back  had  long  itched  for  a  whipping  ;  and  that  he 
would  print  and  expose  them  all  over  America,  if 
not  over  Europe  ;"  and  one  of  the  magistrates,  who 
was  well  known  to  be  a  modest  and  peaceable  man, 
he  opprobriously  called,  "  An  impudent  rascal." 

In  addition  to  this,  he  had  published  several 
virulent  pieces ;  one  of  which  indecently  reflected 
on  the  above-mentioned  transaction,  and  on  several 
of  the  principal  magistrates  in  their  judicial  capa- 
city ;  and  thereby  lessening  the  authority  of  the 
magistracy,  in  the  view  of  the  lower  sort  of  people, 

ho  began  thereupon  to  take  greater  liberties ; 
wherefore  the  printers,  William  Bradford  and 
John  M'Comb,  who  had  published  it,  were  by  a 

arrant  from  five  magistrates,  viz.  Arthur  Cook, 
Samuel  Jenings,  Samuel  Richardson,  Humphrey 
Vlurray  and  Robert  Ewer,  taken  up,  examined,  and 
upon  their  contemptuous  behaviour  to  the  court  and 
"ustices  in  their  examination,  and  upon  their  refusal 
o  give  security,  to  answer  at  court,  the  usual  prac- 
,ice  in  all  similar  occasions,  they  were  committed; 
and  though  they  were  under  no  confinement,  being 
sntirely  at  large,  on  their  bare  word  only,  yet, 
which  seems  to  have  been  done  by  them,  to  answer 
ome  particular  design)  at  a  certain  time,  having 
Dccasion  to  sign  a  paper,  when  they  could  not  be 
admitted  into  the  prison  itself,  it  is  said,  they  got 
nto  the  entry  of  it,  and  there  dated,  and  signed  the 
aid  paper,  as  from  the  prison.  But  they  were  soon 
lischarged,  without  being  brought  to  a  trial. 

George  Keith  and  Thomas  Budd  were  also  pre- 
ented  by  the  grand  jury  of  Philadelphia,  as  authors 
if  another  book,  of  the  like  tendency,  in  the  follow- 
ng  words,  viz.  "  We,  of  the  grand  jury,  do  present 
ieorge  Keith  and  Thomas  Budd,  as  authors  of  a 
)ook,  entitled,  *  The  plea  of  the  innocent,'  where 
n  page  third,  about  the  latter  end  of  the  same,  they, 
lie  said  George  K^ith  and  Thomas  Budd,  defam- 
ngly  accused  Samuel  Jenings,  he  being  a  judge 
nd  a  magistrate  of  this  province,  of  being  too  high 
nd  imperious  in  worldly  courts,  calling  him  impu- 
ent,  presumptuous  and  insolent  man,  greatly  ex- 
osing  his  reputation,  and  of  an  ill  precedent,  and 
ontrary  to  the  law,  in  that  case  made  and  pro- 
ided." 

The  lenity  of  the  magistracy  is  said  to  have  been 
ery  remarkable  towards  the  actions  and  behaviour 
fall  these  people,  when  compared  with  the  provoca- 
ons  given  ;  which,  by  apparent  design,  had  not  only 
een,  but  also  still  continued  to  be,  so  extremely 
otorious  and  abusive,  as  well  as  derogatory  to  the 
rincipal  persons  in  authority,  in  their  judicial  ca- 
>acity,  that,  it  is  said,  the  rabble  became  greatly 


Babit,  with  some  others,  stole  a  small  sloop  from  a  |  encouraged  thereby,  to  despise  and  inveigh  against 
wharf  in  Philadelphia  ;  and  in  going  down  the  river  I  the  acts  of  government,  and  to  render  it  more  and 
with  it,  committed  many  robberies  ;  of  which  intel-  more  difficult  to  bring  offenders  to  justice  ;  it  was, 
ligence  being  early  given  to  the  magistrates,  three  therefore,  thought  proper  that  this  presentment 
of  them  gave  out  a  warrant,  in  the  nature  of  a  hue  !  should  be  prosecuted ;  so  the  matter  was  brought  to 
and  cry  to  take  them,  in  order  to  bring  them  to  a  I  trial,  and  the  parties  fined  5/.  each;  but  the  fines 
legal  trial  and  punishment;  and  by  virtue  of  which  j  were  never  exacted. 
they  were  taken,  and  brought  to  justice.  The  uui-  j  All  possible  art  and  means  were  said  to  be  used, 


828 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


by  the  enemies  to  the  Quakers,  the  disaffected  to 
the  administration,  and  the  more  libertine  part  of 
the  people,  to  magnify  these  judicial  proceedings, 
and  to  represent  them  as  being  on  a  religious  ac- 
count; and  with  great  assiduity  and  artifice,  they 
were  by  these  propagated  as  such,  both  at  home  and 
abroad ;  upon  which  the  magistrates  published  the 
reasons  of  iheir  conduct,  in  the  following  paper,  viz  : 
"  At  a  private  sessions  held  for  the  county  of  Phi- 
ladelphia, the  '25th  of  the  sixth  month,  1692,  before 
Arthur  Cook,  Samuel  Jenings,  Samuel  Richardson, 
Humphrey  Murray,  Anthony  Morris,  Robert  Ewer, 
justices  ol  the  county. 

"  Whereas  the  government  of  this  province  being, 
by  the  late  king  of  England's  peculiar  favour,  vested, 
and  since  continued,  in  Governor  Penn,  who  thought 
fit  to  make  his,  and  our  worthy  friend,  Thomas 
Lloyd,  his  deputy-governor,  by,  and  under  whom 
the  magistrates  do  act,  in  the  government ;  and 
whereas  it  hath  been  proved  before  us,  that  George 
Keith,  being  a  resident  here,  did,  contrary  to  his 
duty,  publicly  revile  the  said  deputy-governor,  by 
calling  him  an  impudent  man,  telling  him,  '  He 
was  not  fit  to  be  a  governor,  and  that  his  name 
would  stink;"  with  many  other  slighting  and  abu- 
sive expressions,  both  to  him  and  the  magistrates ; 
(and  he  that  useth  such  exorbitancy  of  speech  to- 
wards our  said  governor  may  be  supposed  will  easily 
dare  to  call  the  members  of  council  and  magistrates 
impudent  rascals,  as  he  hath  lately  called  one,  in  an 
open  assembly,  that  was  constituted  by  the  proprie- 
tary to  be  a  magistrate),  and  he  also  charges  the 
magistrates,  who  are  ministers  here,  with  engrossing 
the  magisterial  power  into  their  hands,  that  they 
might  usurp  authority  over  him;  saying  also,  '  He 
hoped  in  God  he  should  shortly  see  their  power 
taken  from  them ;'  all  which  he  acted  in  an  indecent 
manner. 

"  And  further,  the  said  George  Keith,  with  seve- 
ral of  his  adherents,  having,  some  few  days  since, 
with  unusual  insolence,  by  a  printed  sheet,  called 
'  An  appeal,'  &c.  traduced  and  vilely  misrepresented 
the  industry,  care,  readiness,  and  vigilance  of  some 
magistrates  and  others  here,  in  their  late  proceed- 
ings against  the  privateers,  Babit  and  his  crew,  in 
order  to  bring  them  to  condign  punishment ;  whereby 
to  discourage  such  attempts  for  the  future;  and 
have  thereby  also  defamed  and  arraigned  the  deter- 
minations of  the  principal  judicature,  against  mur- 
derers; and  not  only  so,  but  also  by  wrong  insinua- 
tions, have  laboured  to  possess  the  readers  of  their 
pamphlet,  that  it  is  inconsistent  for  those  who  are 
ministers  of  the  Gospel  to  act  as  magistrates;  which, 
if  granted,  will  render  our  said  proprietary  incapa- 
ble of  the  powers  given  him  by  the  said  king's  let- 
ters patent;  and  so  prostitute  the  validity  of  every 
act  of  government,  more  especially  in  the  executive 
part  thereof,  to  the  courtesy  and  censure  of  all  fac- 
tious spirits,  and  male-contents,  under  the  same. 

"  Now,  forasmuch  as  we,  as  well  as  others,  have 
born,  and  still  do  patiently  endure,  the  said  George 
Keith  and  his  adherents,  in  their  many  persona" 
reflections  against  us,  and  their  gross  revilings  of  our 
religious  society,  yet  we  cannot  without  the  violation 
of  our  trust  to  the  king  and  government,  as  also  to 
the  inhabitants  of  this  government,  pass  by  or  con^ 
nive  at  such  part  of  the  said  pamphlet  and  speeches 
that  have  a  tendency  to  sedition  and  disturbance  o 
the  peace,  as  also  to  the  subversion  of  the  presen 
government,  or  to  the  aspersion  of  the  magistrate1 
thereof. 

"  Therefore,  for  the  undeceiving  of  all  people,  we 


have  thought  fit,  by  this  public  writing,  not  only  to 
signify  that  our  procedure  against  the  persons  now 
in  the  sheriff's  custody,  as  well  as  what  we  intend 
against  others  concerned,  (in  its  proper  place) 
espects  only  that  part  of  the  said  printed  sheet 
vhich  appears  to  have  the  tendency  aforesaid,  and 
not  any  part  relating  to  differences  in  religion ;  but 
also  these  are  to  caution  such  who  are  well  affected 
:o  the  security,  peace,  and  lejjal  administration  of 
ustice  in  this  place,  that  they  give  no  countenance 
o  any  revilers  or  contemners  of  authority,  magi*- 
rates  or  magistracy  ;  as  also  to  warn  all  other 
>ersons  that  they  forbear  the  further  publishing 
and  spreading  of  the  said  pamphlets,  as  they  will 
answer  the  contrary  at  their  peril. 

"  Given  under  our  hands,  and  seal  of  the  county, 
he  day,  year,  and  place,  aforesaid." 

This  affair  of  George  Keith  gave  much  concern 
o  Penn,  who  appeared  at  first  rather  to  have  cen- 
ured  part  of  these  proceedings  against  him  ;  whom 
»e  regarded  as  his  old  friend,  more  especially  his 
.rial,  at  which  by  some  of  his  letters,  he  appeared 
o  be  much  displeased  :  but  after  he  was  made  fully 
icquainted  with  the  nature  and  circumstances  of 
he  whole  transaction,  and  was  convinced  of  George 
ieith's  change  of  conduct,  he  appears  to  have  been 
as  active  as  others  in  endeavouring  to  clear  the 
society  from  the  imputation  of  being  the  cause  of  the 
unhappy  schism.  But  the  difference  between  the 
province  and  territories  continued  still  much  to  affect 
lira,  and  to  increase  his  apprehensions  of  very  dis- 
agreeable consequences,  as  appears  by  his  manner 
of  writing  to  some  of  the  principal  persons  in  the 
administration  about  this  time. 

It  cannot  reasonably  be  imagined  that  the  court 
of  King  William  could  be  very  favourably  disposed 
to  a  person,  who  had  been  so  much  in  the  friend- 
ship of  the  late  king;  and  although  King  William 
himself  seems  to  have  had  a  great  regard  for  him, 
and  although  his  known  general  great  humanity 
and  Christian  spirit,  rendered  him  respected  among 
men  of  opposite  principles,  both  in  religion  and 
politics ;  yet  his  enemies,  when  his  young  colony 
most  needed  his  presence,  managed  in  the  year 
1692  to  deprive  him  of  the  gorernment  of  Penn- 
sylvania and  the  territories ;  the  king  granting  the 
following  commission  to  Benjamin  Fletcher,  Go- 
vernor of  New  York,  dated  October  the  21st,  1692, 
to  take  them  under  his  government.  ' 

"  William  and  Mary,  by  the  grace  of  God,  King 
and  Queen  of  England,  Scotland,  France,  and 
Ireland,  Defender  of  the  Faith,  &c. 

"  To  aur  trusty  and  well-beloved  Benjamin 
Fletcher,  Esquire,  our  Captain-general  and  Com- 
mander-in-chief of  our  province  of  New  York,  and 
the  territories  depending  thereon,  in  America, 
greeting  : — 

"  Whereas,  by  our  commission,  under  our  great 
seal  of  England,  bearing  date  the  eighteenth  day  of 
March,  in  the  fourth  year  of  our  reign,  we  have 
constituted  and  appointed  ydu,  the  said  Benjamin 
Fletcher,  to  be  our  captain-general  and  governur- 
in-chief,  in  and  over  our  province  of  New  Y'ork, 
and  the  dependencies  thereon  in  America  ;  and  have 
thereby  granted  unto  you  full  power  and  authority, 
with  the  advice  and  consent  of  our  council,  as  need 
shall  require,  to  summon  and  call  general  assem- 
blies of  the  inhabitants,  beincr  freeholders  within  the 
said  province,  according  to  the  usage  of  the  pro- 
vince of  New  York;  and  that  the  persons  there- 
upon duly  elected  by  the  major  part  of  the  free- 
holders of  the  respective  counties  and  places,  and  so 


UNITED  STATES. 


829 


returned,  aiid  having  before  their  sitting  taken  the 
oaths  appointed  by  act  of  parliament,  to  be  taken 
instead  of  the  oaths  of  allegiance  and  supremacy, 
and  subscribed  the  test;  and  without  taking  and 
subscribing  whereof  none  shall  be  capable  of  sitting, 
though  elected,  shall  be  called  the  general  assembly 
of  that  our  said  province,  and  have  thereby  granted 
unto  you,  the  said  Benjamin  Fletcher,  by  and  with 
the  consent  of  our  said  council  and  assembly,  or  the 
major  part  of  them,  full  power  and  authority  to 
make,  constitute,  and  ordain  laws,  statutes,  and 
ordinances  for  the  public  peace,  welfare,  and  good 
government  of  our  said  province,  and  of  the  people 
and  inhabitants  thereof;  which  said  laws,  statutes, 
and  ordinances  are  to  be,  as  near  as  may  be,  agree- 
able to  the  laws  and  statutes  of  this  our  kingdom  of 
England  ;  provided  that  all  such  laws,  statutes,  and 
ordinances  be,  within  three  months  or  sooner  after 
the  making  thereof,  transmitted  unto  us,  under  our 
seal  of  New  York,  for  our  approbation  or  disallow- 
ance of  the  same ;  and  in  case  any,  or  all  of  them, 
not  before  confirmed  by  us,  shall  at  any  time  be 
disallowed  and  not  approved,  and  so  signified  by  us, 
our  heirs  and  successors,  under  our  or  their  sign 
manual  or  signet,  or  by  order  of  our  or  their 
privy-council  unto  you,  the  said  Benjamin  Fletcher, 
or  to  the  commander-in-chief  of  the  province  of 
New  York,  for  the  time  being,  then  such  and  so 
many  of  them  as  shall  be  so  disallowed  and  not  ap- 
proved, shall  from  thenceforth  cease,  determine,  and 
become  utterly  void,  and  of  none  effect :  and  to  the 
end  that  nothing  may  be  passed  or  done  by  our  said 
council  and  assembly  to  the  prejudice  of  us,  our 
heirs,  and  successors,  we  have  hereby  willed  and 
ordained  that  you,  the  said  Benjamin  Fletcher,  shall 
have  and  enjoy  one  negative  voice  in  the  making 
and  passing  of  all  laws,  statutes,  and  ordinances,  as 
aforesaid  ;  and  that  you  shall  and  may,  from  time 
to  time,  as  you  shall  judge  it  necessary,  adjourn, 
prorogue,  and  dissolve  all  general  assemblies 
aforesaid. 

"  We,  therefore,  reposing  special  trust  and  con- 
fidence in  tlie  prudence,  courage,  and  loyalty  of 
you,  the  said  Benjamin  Fletcher,  to  be  our  captain- 
general  and  governor-in-rhief,  in  and  over  our  pro- 
vince of  Pennsylvania,  and  in  the  country  of  New- 
castle, and  all  the  tracts  of  land  depending  thereon 
in  America,  and  we  do  accordingly,  by  these  pre- 
sents, command  and  require  you  to  take  the  said 
province  and  country  under  your  government,  and 
for  the  better  ordering,  governing,  and  ruling  over 
said  province  and  country,  and  the  tracts  and  terri- 
tories depending  thereon,  we  do  hereby  give  and 
grant  unto  you,  the  said  Benjamin  Fletcher,  all  and 
every  the  like  powers  and  authorities,  as  in  our  said 
commission,  bearing  date  the  eighteenth  day  of 
March,  in  the  fourth  year  of  our  reign,  are  given, 
granted,  and  appointed  you,  for  the  ruling  and 
governing  our  province  of  New  York,  to  be  exer- 
cised in  like  manner  by  you,  the  said  Benjamin 
Fletcher,  in  and  over  our  said  province  of  Penn 
sylvania,  and  the  country  of  Newcastle,  and  the 
territories  and  tracts  of  land,  depending  thereon  in 
America." 

Governor  Fletcher,  who  received  this  commis- 
sion in  the  commencement  of  1693,  immediately 
repaired  to  his  new  government,  having  first  notified 
his  intention  by  the  following  letter. 

"  To  the  honourable  Thomas  Lloyd,  Esq.,  de- 
puty-governor of  Pennsylvania. 

"  Sir, — Having  received  their  majesties'  com' 
mission,  under  the  great  seal,  for  the  government  o 


Pennsylvania,  and  being  required  to  make  a  speedy 
epair  to  that  province,  I  think  fit  to  acquaint  you, 
hat  I  propose  to  begin  my  journey  from  home,  on 
Monday,  the  24th  instant,  and  desire  the  council, 
and  principal  freeholders  may  have  notice;  that 
.heir  majesties'  commands  may  be  communicated 
o  them,  so  soon  as  I  arrive,  which,  I  hope,  may  be 
the  '29th,  "  I  am,  Sir,  your  very  loving  friend, 

"  BENJAMIN  FLETCHER. 
"  New  York,  April  the  19th,  1693." 
Governor  Fletcher  arrives  at  Philadelphia — Council*! 
address  to  the  governor — Proceedings  of  the  gover- 
nor and  assembly,  fyc. —  The  defence  of  Albany— 
Assembly's  address  to  the  governor,  with  his  answer 
—  The  assembly's  remonstrance,  u-ith  other  proceed- 
ings— A  law  for  the  support  nf  government,  fyc.— 
Assembly's  petition  to  the  governor — Resolve  of  the 
assembly,  and  protest  of  some  of  its  members — Go- 
vernort  Fletcher  dissolves  the  assembly,  appoints 
William  Markham  his  deputy,  and  departs  for  New 
York — Death  of  the  former  deputy-governor,  Tho- 
mas Lloyd. 

(1693.)  Colonel  Fletcher  arrived  at  Philadelphia 
with  more  of  ceremony  than  had  been  usually  seen 
before  in  Pennsylvania;  and  the  persons  in  the 
present  administration  appear  to  have  given  up  the 
government  to  him,  without  any  notification,  or 
order  to  them,  either  from  the  crown,  or  the  proprie- 
tary ;  for  which,  afterwards,  in  a  letter  to  certain  of 
them,  Penn  seems  to  have  blamed  their  conduct, 
pecially  that  of  his  Deputy  Lloyd;  but  yet  con- 
ceiving  they  intended  for  the  best,  he  excused  them. 
He  likewise  wrote  to  Fletcher  himself,  cautioning 
him  to  beware  of  meddling  with  it,  in  the  present 
circumstances,  and  reminding  him  of  his  particular 
obligation  to  him. 

This  the  proprietary  having  mentioned  in  a  letter 
o  his  friends  in  the  province;  the  following  an- 
swer, respecting  the  governor  of  New  York,  was 
returned  by  six  of  them,  viz.  Arthur  Cook,  John 
Simcock,  James  Fox,  Samuel  Richardson,  George 
Murrie,  and  Samuel  Carpenter,  dated  Philadelphia, 
the  18th  of  January,  1694,  "  That  if  the  said  letter 
(to  Fletcher)  had  come  in  time  (as  we  are  informed), 
be  would  hardly  have  proceeded  so  far  in  taking  this 
government;  and,  therefore,  we  could  hare  wished 
t  had  come  sooner,  if  haply  it  had  been  a  means  to 
prevent  so  great  trouble  and  loss  to  thee  and  us; 
who  are  (as  we  stand  related)  great  sharers  with 
thee,  in  all  things  tending  to  the  hurt  of  the  pro- 
ice." 

Governor  Fletcher,  soon  after  his  arrival,  called 
an  assembly :  prior  to  which,  a  dispute,  arising 
between  him  and  the  council,  respecting  the 
mode  of  electing  and  convening  them,  occasioned 
the  following  address  to  him,  from  the  members  of 
the  council,  delivered  on  the  29th  of  April,  viz  : — 

"  To  Benjamin  Fletcher,  captain-general,  and 
governor-in-chief,"  &c. 

"  The  humble  address  of  the  freemen  of  the  pro- 
vince of  Pennsylvania,  presented  by  their  delegates, 
members  of  the  provincial  council,  sheweth, 

"  That,  whereas  the  late  King  Charles  II.,  in  the 
33d  year  of  his  reign,  by  letters  patent,  under  the 
great  seal  of  England,  did,  for  the  consideration 
therein  mentioned,  grant  unto  William  Penn  and 
his  assigns,  this  colony,  or  tract  of  land,  erecting 
the  same  into  a  province,  calling  it  Pennsylvania, 
and  constituting  the  said  William  Penn  absolute 
proprietary  of  the  said  province,  saving  (among 
other  things)  the  sovereignty  thereof,  with  power 
also,  by  virtue  of  the  said  royal  charter,  to  the  said 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


William  Penn,  his  deputies  and  lieutenants,  to 
make  laws,  with  the  advice  and  assent  of  the  free- 
men of  the  said  province,  or  the  greatest  part  of 
them,  or  of  their  delegates,  or  deputies,  whom, 
for  the  enacting  of  the  said  laws,  wnen,  as  often  as 
need  required,  he,  the  said  William  Penn,  should 
assemble,  in  such  sort,  as  to  him  should  seem  best, 
with  divers  other  great  powers,  immunities  and  pri- 
vileges, in  the  same  charter  contained,  which,  rela- 
tion being  thereunto  had,  may  more  at  large  appear. 

"  By  virtue,  and  in  pursuance  whereof  the  said 
proprietary,  William  Penn,  with  the  advice  and 
consent  of  the  freemen  of  this  province,  in  general 
assembly  met,  at  Philadelphia  (in  1683),  did  enact, 
that  the  time  for  the  meeting  of  the  freemen,  to 
choose  their  deputies,  to  represent  them  in  provin- 
cial council,  and  general  assembly,  should  be  on 
the  10th  day  of  the  first  month,  yearly ;  and  the 
members  chosen  for  the  provincial  council  (consist- 
ing of  three  persons  out  of  each  county),  should  give 
their  attendance  within  twenty  days  after  election, 
in  order  to  propose  bills ;  and  the  members  of  as- 
sembly, being  six  out  of  each  county,  should  meet 
on  the  tenth  of  the  third  month,  called  May,  yearly, 
in  order  to  pass  those  proposed  bills  into  laws ;  but 
in  case  any  of  the  said  members  should  either  be  of 
ill  fame,  or  wilfully  absent  from  their  service,  or 
happen  to  die.  it  is  provided  by  another  law  (made 
in  1684),  that  it  shall  be  lawful  for  the  proprietary 
and  governor,  within  ten  days  after  knowledge  of 
the  same,  to  issue  out  a  writ  to  the  sheriff  of  the 
county,  for  which  the  party  was  chosen  immediately 
to  summon  the  freemen  to  elect  another  member,  &c. 

"  Now,  forasmuch  as  the  present  emergency  of 
affairs  in  this  province  may  require  a  general  as- 
sembly to  be  speedily  called,  and  since  we  conceive 
it  hath  pleased  the  king  and  queen  so  far  to  coun- 
tenance our  laws  and  constitution  as  to  direct  the 
present  governancy  to  rule  thereby,  until  the  laws 
be  duly  made,  to  alter  or  amend  the  same ; 

"  We  therefore  earnestly  desire,  that  no  other 
measures  may  be  taken  for  electing,  or  convening, 
cur  legislative  power,  than  our  recited  laws  and  con- 
stitutions of  this  government  prescribe,  the  rather 
for  that  the  said  king  did,  by  his  letters  patent,  en- 
join,  require,  and  command,  that  the  laws  made,  as 
aforesaid,  should  be  most  absolute  and  available  in 
law,  and  that  all  the  liege  people  and  subjects  of 
the  said  late  king,  his  heirs  and  successors,  should 
observe  and  keep  the  same  inviolable  in  these  parts. 
Joseph  Growdon,  John  Bristow,  John  Delavall, 
John  Simcock,  Hugh  Roberts,  Samuel  Lewis,  Ri- 
chard Hough." 

The  assembly,  being  met  on  the  16th  of  May, 
presented  their  speaker,  Joseph  Growdon,  to  the 
governor  for  his  approbation  ;  who  being  accepted, 
the  oaths  and  tests  were  presented  to  the  whole  house, 
in  the  manner  of  other  governments,  under  the  im- 
mediate administration  of  the  crown:  but  some  of 
the  members  being  scrupulous  of  taking  oaths,  and 
refusing  to  be  sworn,  were  indulged  with  subscrib- 
ing to  the  declarations  and  professions,  rrentioned 
in  the  act  of  parliament,  for  liberty  of  conscience, 
made  in  the  first  year  of  King  William  and  Queen 
Mary.  This  the  governor  told  them  was  an  act  of 
grace,  and  not  of  right,  so  as  to  be  drawn  into  prece- 
dent in  future. 

It  does  not  appear  that  either  the  proprietary,  or 
the  people  of  Pennsylvania,  had  forfeited  those  rights 
and  privileges,  whose  enjoyment  had  been  the  com- 
pact of  their  settlement  of  the  province;  of  which 
privileges,  those  which  respected  their  religious  or 


conscientious  scruples  were  the  chief;  but  the  con- 
trary rather  is  manifest.  For,  notwithstanding  what 
was  alleged  for  depriving  the  proprietary  of  the 
government,  it  was  well  known  that  the  suspicion 
of  his  adhering  too  much  to  King  James  was 
the  chief,  if  not  the  only  cause  for  rendering  him 
incapable  of  attending  so  properly  to  it,  as  it  seemed 
at  that  time  to  require :  but  nothing  was  ever  proved 
to  confirm  what  was  alleged  against  him,  in  that 
respect ;  though  it  injured  him  so  far  as  to  oblige 
him  for  a  time  to  secrete  himself,  and  to  be  ab- 
sent too  long  from  his  province  ;  from  which  some 
disorders  occurred,  that  in  all  pobability  would  other- 
wise have  been  prevented  ;  but  none  of  such  mag- 
nitude as  to  prevent  the  regular  administration  of 
justice,  as  seems  to  have  been  alleged  by  the  ene- 
mies of  the  prosperity  of  the  province ;  much  less 
to  give  just  occasion  for  depriving  the  colonists  of 
their  dearly  bought  rights  and  privileges,  granted 
by  charter,  confirmed  by  laws,  and  familiarized  by 
custom  ;  though  it  might  be  called  a  favour  to  enjoy 
them  where  power  alone  has  the  rule,  without  having 
any  regard  to  justice.  For  notwithstanding  the 
governor  was  changed,  yet  it  was  presumed  the 
government,  or  constitution,  was  not  to  be  violated 
or  altered,  and  that  the  inhabitants  of  Pennsylvania 
had  as  just  a  right  to  be  governed  according  to  the 
usages  of  Pennsylvania,  and  their  own  laws  then  in 
force,  as  those  of  New  York  had  to  be  governed 
according  to  the  usage  of  that  province,  though  their 
usages  were  different,  so  long  as  justice  was  equally 
well  administered  by  the  former,  as  by  the  latter, 
and  in  a  manner  more  agreeable  to  them. 

The  assembly,  however,  in  consideration  of  the 
present  circumstances  of  affairs,  thought  it  most 
prudent  to  submit,  though  not  consistent  with  a  pri- 
vilege, to  which,  in  their  apprehension,  they  had  a 
right,  and  below  the  justice  of  their  claim;  and,  for 
the  present,  acknowledged  the  same  as  an  act  of  grace 
and  favour  proceeding  from  the  justice  and  kindness 
of  the  governor. 

The  assembly  being  qualified,  the  governor  com- 
municated to  them  a  letter,  which  he  had  received 
in  the  last  year  from  the  queen,  setting  forth, 
that  the  expense  for  the  preservation  and  defence  of 
Albany  against  the  French,  had  been  intolerable 
to  the  inhabitants  there  ;  and  that,  as  it  was  a  fron- 
tier by  which  several  of  the  other  colonies  were  in 
some  measure  defended,  it  was  thought  reasonable 
that  those  colonies  should  assist  the  'government  of 
New  York  in  the  maintenance  and  defence  of  it 
during  the  war. 

The  first  question  put  by  the  assembly  after  their 
meeting,  was,  "  How  far  the  laws  of  the  province, 
and  constitution  of  the  government,  founded  on  the 
powers  of  the  king's  letters  patent  to  the  proprietary, 
William  Penn,  were  in  force  ?"  upon  which  it  was 
unanimously  resolved,  "That  the  laws  of  this  pro- 
vince, that  were  in  force  and  practice  before  the  ar- 
rival of  this  present  governor,  are  still  in  force  ;  and 
that  the  assembly  have  a  right  humbly  to  move  the 
governor  for  a  continuation  or  confirmation  thereof." 
Accordingly  the  following  address  was  drawn  up  and 
presented  to  the  governor  : — 

"  To  Benjamin  Fletcher,  Esquire,  Captain-gene- 
ral and  Governor-in-chief,  of  the  province  of  Penn- 
sylvania, and  country  of  Newcastle, 

"  The  humble  address  of  the  freemen  of  said 
province  and  country,  Sheweth, 

"  That  since  it  hath  pleased  the  king  and  queen, 
that  the  absence  of  our  proprietary's  personal  atten- 
dance in  this  government  should  be  superseded  by 


UNITED  STATES. 


831 


thee,  or  thy  lieutenant,  we,  the  representatives  of  the 
freemen  of  the  said  province  and  territories  (  with 
due  respect  to  the  powers  of  thy  commission,  am 
nearly  acknowledgment  of  thy  good-will,  care,  anc 
tenderness  towards  us),  do  readily  acquiesce  with 
the  king's  pleasure  therein,  earnestly  beseeching 
that  our  procedure  in  legislation  may  be  according 
to  the  usual  method  and  laws  of  this  government 
founded  upon  the  late  king's  letters  patent;  which 
we  humbly  conceive  to  be  yet  in  force,  and  therefore 
we  desire  the  same  may  be  confirmed  unto  us,  as 
our  rights  and  liberties.  And  we,  with  all  faithful- 
ness and  sincerity,  do  give  what  assurance  we  are 
capable  of,  in  the  present  circumstances  we  are,  to 
answer  the  queen's  letter,  and  thy  request,  accord- 
ing to  our  ability. 

"  Third  month  17th,  1693." 
To  which  the  governor  returned  the  following  an 
swer : — 

"  Gentlemen, 

"  I,  with  the  council,  have  considered  your  ad- 
dress, and  am  sorry  to  find  your  desires  grounded 
upon  so  great  mistakes.  The  absence  of  the  propri- 
etary is  the  least  cause  mentioned  in  their  majesties' 
letters  patent,  for  their  majesties  asserting  their  un- 
doubted right  of  governing  their  subjects  in  this 
province.  There  are  reasons  of  greater  moment; 
as,  the  neglects  and  miscarriages  in  the  late  admi- 
nistration ;  the  want  of  necessary  defence  against  the 
enemy,  and  the  danger  of  being  lost  from  the  crown. 
"  The  constitution  of  their  majesties'  government, 
and  that  of  Mr.  Peun,  are  in  a  direct  opposition 
one  to  the  other ;  if  you  will  be  tenacious  in  stick- 
ling for  this,  it  is  a  plain  demonstration — use  what 
words  you  please — that  indeed  you  decline  the  other. 
"  I  shall  readily  concur  with  you'  in  doing  any- 
thing that  may  conduce  to  your  safety,  prosperity, 
and  satisfaction,  provided  your  requests  are  consist- 
ent with  the  laws  of  England,  their  majesties'  let- 
ters patent,  and  the  trust  and  confidence  their  ma- 
jesties have  reposed  in  me. 

"Time  is  very  precious  to  me:  I  hope  you  will 
desist  from  all  unnecessary  debates,  and  fall  in  ear- 
nest upon  those  matters  I  have  already  mentioned  to 
you,  and  for  which  you  are  principally  convened." 

The  debates  of  the  house,  upon  this  answer  to 
their  address,  produced  the  following  remonstrance 
to  the  governor : — 

"  To  Benjamin  Fletcher,  Esquire,  Captain-gene- 
ral, and  Governor-in-chief,  in  and  over  the  province 
of  Pennsylvania,  country  of  Newcastle,  and  tracts 
of  land  depending; — 

"  The  remonstrance  of  the  freemen  of  the  said 
province  and  country,  in  assembly  met, 

"  Humbly  sheweth, 

"  That  having,  with  all  dutiful  respect,  read  and 
considered  the  governor's  answer  to  cur  address  this 
morning,  we,  in  answer  thereunto,  with  submission 
say,  we  conceive  that  our  desires  were  not  grounded 
on  mistakes,  in  relation  to  the  proprietary's  absence. 
"  But,  as  to  the  other  clause,  mentioned  by  the 
governor,  of  their  majesties  asserting  their  un- 
doubted right  of  governing  their  subjects  in  this 
province,  &c.  we,  with  all  readiness  and  cheerfulness, 
own  accordingly  to  the  right  of  the  king  and  queen, 
whose  prosperity  and  happy  reign  we  heartily  de- 
sire ;  and  as  to  the  other  reasons  rendered,  for  su- 
perseding our  proprietary's  goveinancy,  we  appre- 
hend they  are  founded  on  misinformations :  for  the 
courts  of  justice  were  open  in  all  counties  in  this 
government,  and  justice  duly  executed,  from  the 
highest  crimes  of  treason  and  murder,  to  the  detei- 


mining  the  lowest  differences  about  property,  before 
the  date  or  arrival  of  the  governor's  commission ; 
neither  do  we  apprehend  that  the  province  was  in 
danger  of  being  lost  from  the  crown,  although  the 
government  was  in  the  hands  of  some  whose  prin- 
ciples were  not  for  war ;  and  we  conceive  that  the 
present  governancy  hath  no  direct  opposition  (with 
respect  to  the  king's  government  here  in  general) 
to  our  proprietary,  William  Penn's,  though  the 
exercise  of  thy  authority  at  present  supersedes  that 
of  our  said  proprietary  ;  nevertheless  we  readiy 
own  thee  for  our  lawful  governor,  saving  to  our- 
selves, and  those  whom  we  represent,  our  and  their 
just  rights  and  privileges. 

"  JOSEPH  GROWDON,  Speaker. 
"  The  17th  of  the  Third  month,  1693." 
What  reply  the  governor  made,  or  whether  he 
gave  any,  does  not  appear ;  but  the  assembly  having 
thus  asserted  their  privileges,  proceeded  to  enact 
sundry  laws.  One  for  the  support  of  government; 
and  such  others  as  were  thought  necessary,  either 
to  be  renewed,  or  repealed  for  the  public  good.  The 
law  for  the  support  of  government,  was  entitled, 
"  An  act  for  granting  to  King  William  and  Queen 
Mary  the  rate  of  one  penny  per  pound  upon  the 
clear  value  of  all  real  and  personal  estates,  and  six 
shillings  per  head  upon  such  as  are  uot  otherwise 
rated  by  this  act,  to  be  employed  by  the  governor 
of  this  province  of  Pennsylvania,  and  territories 
thereof,  for  the  time  being,  towards  the  support  of 
this  government." 

These  enactments  were  sent  up  to  the  governor  and 
council,  and  were  detained  by  them  for  sometime,  to 
see  what  the  assembly  would  do,  in  consequence  of 
the  queen's  letter  respecting  the  maintenance  of  Al- 
bany. This  delay,  with  the  governor's  asserting, 
"  that  the  assembly  should  have  no  account  of  the 
rill  (of  supply,  or  for  the  support  of  government)  till 
they  came  in  a  full  house  before  him,  to  give  the  last 
sanction  to  the  laws;"  and,  "that  he  saw  nothing 
would  do,  but  an  annexion  to  New  York,"  induced 
the  house  to  send  the  following  petition  to  the  governor. 
"  To  Benjamin  Fletcher,  Esq.  Captain-general 
and  Governor-in-chief.  in  and  over  the  province  of 
Pennsylvania,  country  of  Newcastle,  and  tracts  of 
and  depending. 

"  The  humble  petition  of  the  freemen  of  the  said 
province  and  country,  in  assembly  met, 

"  Sheweth, 

"  Thai  they  being  deeply  sensible  of  the  many 
nconveniences  that  may  attend  a  misunderstand'- 
ng  between  the  governor  and  freemen,  do  earnestly 
desire  all  occasions  may  be  taken  away,  and  with 
all  humility,  beg  the  governor  would  be  pleased,  in 
ender  regard  to  the  trust,  lodged  in  the  said  repre- 
entatives,  to  condescend  so  far,  as  to  inform  them, 
^hich  of  their  bills  the  governor  will  accept,  amend, 
ir  reject ;  that  by  knowing  which  of  the  said  bills  are 
disliked  by  the  governor,  the  assembly  may  dispose 
hernselves  to  acquiesce  with  the  governor's  pleasure, 
>r  endeavour  to  satisfy  the  governor  and  council  with 
he  reasonableness  of  the  said  bills  ;  which  being  done, 
will  remove  all  doubts  and  troubles  from  our  minds, 
apon  that  occasion,  and  we  shall  proceed  with  cheer- 
\ilness  to  finish  this  general  assembly,  to  the 
:ing's  honour,  and  the  general  satisfaction  of  the 
governor  and  government. 
"Third  month,  31st,  1693." 

Notwithstanding  the  gentle  terms  of  this  petition, 
he  assembly  unanimously  resolved,  "  That  all  bills 
ent  to  the  governor  and  council,  in  order  to  be 
imeudod,  ought  to  be  returned  to  this  house,  to 


832 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


have  their  further  approbation,  upon  such  amend- 
ments, before  they  can  have  their  final  assent,  to 
pass  into  laws ;"  and  there  was  a  party  in  the  house, 
who  strenuously  asserted  their  undoubted  rights,  as 
founded  on  their  then  present  charter  of  privileges, 
but,  being  the  smaller  number,  all  they  could  do 
terminated  in  the  following  protest: — 

"  Philadelphia,  Fourth  month  1st,  1693. 
"  We  whose  names  are  hereunto  subscribed,  re- 
presentatives of  the  freemen  of  this  province,  in  as- 
sembly, do  declare,  it  is  the  undoubted  right  of  this 
house  to  receive  back  from  the  governor  and  council 
all  such  bills  as  are  sent  up  for  their  approbation, 
or  amendments,  and  debate  the  same,  as  the  body 
of  the  bills,  and  that  the  denial  of  that  right  is  de- 
structive to  the  freedom  of  making  laws ;  and  we 
do  also  declare,  it  is  the  right  of  the  assembly,  that 
before  any  bill  for  supplies  be  presented  for  the  last 
sanction,  aggrievances  ought  to  be  redressed: — 
therefore,  we,  with  protestation  (saving  our  just 
rights  in  assembly),  do  declare,  that  the  assent  of 
such  of  us  as  were  for  sending  up  the  bill,  for  the 
supply  this  morning,  was  merely  in  consideration 
of  the  governor's  speedy  departure,  but  that  it  should 
not  be  drawn  into  example,  or  precedent  for  the 
luture. 

"  David  Lloyd,  James  Fox,  John  Swift,  John 
White,  George  Maris,  Samuel  Richardson,  John 
Simcock,  Samuel  Preston,  Samuel  Carpenter, 
Henry  Paynter." 

According  to  the  assembly's  petition  the  governor 
sent  back  several 'bills,  with  his  objections,  for  amend- 
ments ;  which  being  agreed  to,  were  afterwards 
passed.  And  the  rolls  of  such  old  laws,  as  the  as- 
sembly did  not  think  fit  to  repeal,  to  prevent  any 
d  ubt  of  their  being  in  force,  being  sent  up  to 
him,  were  signed  by  him,  for  confirmation.  After 
which  he  dissolved  the  assembly,  by  their  own  ad 
vice,  and  departed  for  his  government  at  New  York, 
having  first  appointed  William  Markham,  lieute- 
nant-governor in  his  stead. 

From  the  sums  raised  by  the  tax  of  one  penny  in 
the  pound,  as  exhibited  in  the  votes  of  assembly, 
may  pretty  nearly  be  estimated  the  value  of  all  the 
private  estates  and  property  at  that  time  in  the 
province  and  territories  : — 

Counties.  Sums. 

Philadelphia £314  11   11 

Newcastle 143  15     0 

Sussex 101     1     9 

Kent 88    2  10 

Ches^r 65    0    7 

Buck    48    4     1 


Total  £760  16     2 
*-          

(1691.)  During  Governor  Fletcher's  administra 
tion  here,  he  appears  to  have  been  several  times  in 
the  province,  but  never  long  at  one  time.  He  me 
the  assembly  again  in  May  1694  ;  and,  in  a  messagi 
to  them,  dated  Philadelphia,  May  23d,  1694,  ac 
quaints  them, 

"  That  ho  had  been  disappointed  in  meeting  them 
sooner,  according  to  his  intention,  and  direction 
given  for  calling  the  assembly ;  by  reason  of  being 
under  a  necessity  to  repair  to  Albany,  on  intima 
tion  given,  that  the  five  nation  Indians,  which  hat 
been  so  long  faithful  to  the  English,  were  now  de 
bauched  to  the  French  interest,  and  entering  into  a 
league  with  the  governor  of  Canada ;  which  was  a 
matter  of  the  highest  importance  to  the  neighbour 
ing  colonies,  and  required  his  utmost  abilities  am 
application  to  prevent. 


4  That  he  was  come  to  lay  the  whole  affair  before 
hem,  assuring  them,  that  their  own  Indians  here 
would  be  compelled  to  join  the  fatal  confederacy. 

"  That,  in  consequence  hereof,  he  had  seen  80 
ne  farms  all  deserted  about  Albany. 

"  That  the  Jerseys  had  done  more  for  the  common 
iefence  than  all  the  other  adjacent  provinces. 

"  That  he  considered  their  principles,  that  they 

ould  not  carry  arms,  nor  levy  money,  to  make  war, 

hough  for  their  own  defence,  yet  he   hoped  they 

would  not  refuse  to  feed  the  hungry  and  cloath  the 

naked;  that  was,  to  supply  the  Indian  nations  with 

uch  necessaries,  as  may  influence  their  continued 

riendship  to  these  provinces. 

"  Lastly,  that  he  was  ready,  as  far  as  in  him  lay, 
onsistent  with  the  rules  of  loyalty,  and  a  just  regard 
o  liberty  and  property,  to  redress  their  grievances 
f  they  had  any."  , 

During  this,  and  the  succeeding  session,  in  Sep- 
ember  this  year,  several  laws  were  passed,  which 
jnds  the  administration  of  Governor  Fletcher. 

What  return  was  made  by  the  house  to  his  re- 
quest, in  the  latter  part  o'f  the  above  message,  does 
not  clearly  appear ;  it  only  appears  that,  in  a  letter 
f  Penn's,  dated  "  Bristol,  fifth  of  the  ninth  month, 
1695,"  which  seems  to  allude  to  part  of  the  present 
proceedings,  he  observes  and  complains  of  "  there 
jeing  factious  persons  in  the  colony,  that  disturbed 
>r  threatened  the  tranquillity  of  the  government ;" 
and  he  blames  the  province  "  for  refusing  to  send 
money  to  New  York,  for  what  he  calls  a  common 
defence,  urging  their  compliance,  and  expressing 
the  danger  of  their  oversetting  the  government 
again  by  such  refusal;"  which,  before  that  time, 
was  restored  to  him,  Markham  being  his  deputy. 

In  a  postscript  to  this  letter,  he  adds, — "  I  must 
say  that  what  I  have  spent  upon  the  province,  as 
governor  and  planter,  is  the  foundation  of  my 
present  incumbrauce,  as  Ph.  F.  (Philip  Ford) 
knows,  and  asserted  to  the  lords  of  plantation* 
lately,  to  be  4,000/.  more  in  the  whole,  than  I  ever 
received  for  lands,  besides  what  it  has  cost  me  here." 
On  the  10th  of  September  this'  year  (1694)  died 
Thomas  Lloyd,  the  proprietary's  late  deputy- 
governor,  aged  about  54  years.  His  father  was  a 
person  of  some  fortune  and  rank,  of  an  ancient 
family  and  estate  called  Dolobran,  in  Montgomery- 
shire, in  North  Wales.  This,  his  son  Thomas 
Lloyd,  was  a  younger  brother,  and  was  educated  in 
the  best  schools,  from  which  he  was  removed  to  the 
University  of  Oxford,  where  he  is  said  to  hare  made 
considerable  proficiency  ;  and,  being  endowed  with 
good  natural  capacity,  and  an  amiable  disposition, 
he  attracted  the  regard  and  esteem  of  persons  ot 
influence,  and  was  afterwards  in  the  way  to  con- 
siderable preferment;  but  he  joined  the  Quakers, 
and  renounced  all  worldly  considerations  for  that 
peace  of  mind,  which  he  believed  to  be  the  effect  of 
true  religion,  and*  became  a  highly  esteemed 
preacher  in  that  society.  In  consequence  of 
which,  having  suffered  much  unmerited  reproach, 
persecution,  and  loss  of  property  in  his  native 
country,  he  afterwards  removed  to  Pennsylvania, 
among"  the  first  or  early  settlers,  and  was  one  of 
Penn's  most  intimate  friends.  He  was  mostly  one 
of  the  principal  persons  in  the  government  from  his 
first  arrival,  and  of  very  great  service  in  the  public 
affairs  :  yet  he  is  said  to  have  accepted  of  the 
eminent  offices,  which  at  different  times  he  held  in 
the  administration,  entirely  from  motives  of  public 
spirit. 


UNITED  STATES. 


8*3 


P*nn  cleared  of  the  accusation*  againtt  him,  and  hit 
government  restored—- Death  of  his  wife,  Gulitlma 
Maria — He  commissions  William  Markham  his 
lieutenant-governor— His  useful  employment  in  Eng- 
land—Hit second  marriage— Dtath  of  his  eldest 
ton,  Springett— Proceedings  of  the  assembly  in 
1696—-  Their  remonstrance,  Sfc. — Further  proceed- 
ings of  the  legislature  ;  wfterein  a  bill  of  settlement 
is  agreed  to  and  passed,  called  the  third  frame  of 
government,  fyc*— State  oj  the  province  about  this 
time— A  proclamation. 

We  now  return  to  Penn ;  who,  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  year  1693,  through  the  mediation  of  his 
friends,  the  lords,  Rochester,  Ranelagh  and  Sidney, 
in  which  the  Lord  Somers,  the  duke  of  Buckingham, 
and  Sir  John  Trenchard  also  assisted,  was  admitted 
to  make  his  justification;  which  he  did  so  effec- 
tually, that  he  was  not  only  readily  acquitted  of  the 
charge  against  him,  but  also  had  his  government 
restored. 

The  three  first-mentioned  lords  went  to  the  king, 
on  the  25th  of  November,  and  represented  to  him 
Penn's  case,  "  As  not  only  hard,  but  oppressive ; 
that  there  was  nothing  against  him,  but  what  im- 
postors, or  those  that  were  fled,  or  that  had,  since 
their  pardon,  refused  to  verify  (and  asked  William 
Penn  pardon,  for  saying  what  they  did),  alleged 
against  him;  that  they  (the  said  lords)  had  long 
known  William  Penn,  some  of  them  30  years,  and 
had  never  known  him  to  do  an  ill  thing,  but  many 
good  offices ;  and  that,  if  it  was  not  for  being  thought 
to  go  abroad  in  defiance  of  the  government,  he 
would  have  done  it  two  years  ago;  that  he  was, 
therefore,  willing  to  wait  to  go  about  his  business  as 
before,  with  leave,  that  he  might  be  the  better  re- 
spected, in  the  liberty  he  took  to  follow  it." 

To  which  the  king  answered,  "  That  William 
Penn  was  his  old  acquaintance,  as  well  as  theirs ; — 
that  he  might  follow  his  business  as  freely  as  ever; 
and  that  he  had  nothing  to  say  to  him." — Upon 
which  they  pressed  him  to  command  one  of  them  to 
declare  the  same  to  the  secretary  of  state,  Sir  John 
Trenchard;  or  that,  if  he  came  to  him,  he  might 
signify  the  same  to  him;  which  the  king  readily 
did ;  and  the  Lord  Sidney,  as  Penn's  nearest  friend, 
was  to  tell  the  secretary;  which  being  done,  the 
secretary,  after  speaking  himself,  and  having  orders 
from  the  king,  appointed  Penn  a  time  to  meet  him 
at  home;  who  then  (November  30th),  in  company 
with  the  marquis  of  Winchester,  told  him,  "  He 
was  as  free  as  ever,"  adding,  "  That  he  doubted  not 
his  prudence  about  his  quiet  living,  so  he  assured 
him  he  should  not  be  molested,  or  injured,  in  any 
of  his  affairs,  at  least  while  he  held  that  post." 

Soon  after  this  Penn  lost  his  wife,  Gulielma 
Maria,  who  died  in  February  1694,  with  whom 
he  had  lived,  in  the  utmost  tenderness,  about 
21  years;  her  excellent  character  is  recorded  by 
himself  in  hig  printed  works.  He  was  reinstated  in 
his  government  of  Pennsylvania  by  letters  patent, 
dated  20th  day  of  August,  in  the  sixth  year  of  the 
reign  of  William  and  Mary,  1694;  after  which  he 
sent  a  commission  to  William  Markham,  constitu- 
ting him  his  lieutenant-governor  of  Pennsylvania 
and  territories,  dated  "  ninth  month  24th,  1694." 

Now  for  several  years  successively  his  beneficent 
services,  and  useful  actions  in  his  native  country, 
particularly  to  his  own  religious  society,  are  repre- 
sented to  have  been  very  considerable ;  in  which  time 
he  published  many  useful  treatises,  on  different  sub- 
tects ;  and  he  was  likewise  a  solicitor  to  the  gorern- 

HIST.  OF  AMKR.— No».  105  &  106. 


ment  for  the  relief  of  his  friends,  the  Quakers,  in 
the  case  of  oaths. 

On  the  5th  of  March,  1696,  he  consummated  his 
second  marriage,  at  Bristol,  with  Hannah,  the 
daughter  of  Thomas  Callowhill,  and  granddaughter 
of  Dennis  Hollister,  an  eminent  merchant  of  that 
city.  She  was  said  to  be  a  religious  young  woman, 
of  excellent  qualities ;  with  whom  he  lived  during 
the  rest  of  his  life ;  and  had  issue  by  her,  four  sons 
and  one  daughter. 

In  the  April  1696,  his  eldest  son,  by  his  former 
wife,  named  Springett,  died  at  Worminghurst,  in 
Sussex,  of  a  consumption,  in  the  21st  year  of  his 
age;  a  most  promising  young  man.  After  this 
William  Penn  paid  a  religious  visit  to  his  friends, 
the  Quakers,  in  Ireland,  accompanied  by  John 
Everett  and  Thomas  Story ;  who  were  likewise  two 
eminent  preachers  in  that  society;  and  he  wrote 
several  treatises  in  vindication  of  his  religious  prin- 
ciples, &c.  till  the  year  1699,  when  he  began  to 
make  preparation  to  revisit  his  province  of  Penn- 
sylvania. 

William  Markham  being,  by  the  proprietary,  after 
his  restoration,  constituted  or  appointed  his  deputy- 
governor,  as  before  observed,  first  under  that  ap- 
pointment, met  a  council  on  the  20th  of  April,  and 
an  assembly,  on  the  10th  of  September,  1695; 
which,  after  they  had  sat  some  time,  appear  to  have 
been  unexpectedly  dissolved  by  Markham.  The 
form  of  the  writ  for  calling  that  assembly  was  as 
follows  :— 

"  (L.  s.)  William  Markham,  Esq.  governor  undet 
Willam  Penn,  absolute  proprietary  of  the  province 
of  Pennsylvania  and  counties  annexed,  to  Arthur 
Meston,  sheriff  of  the  county  of  Kent,  greeting: 

"  Whereas,  their  sacred  Majesties  William  and 
Mary,  by  the  grace  of  God,  king  and  queen  of  En- 
gland, Scotland,  France  and  Ireland,  defenders  of 
the  faith,  &c.,  did,  by  their  letters  patent,  under 
the  great  seal  of  England,  bearing  date  the  21st 
day  of  October,  in  the  fourth  year  of  their  reign, 
for  the  reasons  therein  expressed,  find  it  absolutely 
necessary  to  take  the  government  of  said  province 
of  Pennsylvania  into  their  own  hands,  and  under 
their  immediate  care  and  protection  ;  and,  therefore, 
did  constitute  and  appoint  Benjamin  Fletcher,  Esq. 
captain-general,  and  governor-in-chief  of  their  ma- 
jesties' province  of  New  York,  to  be  captain-gene- 
ral, in  and  over  their  said  majesties'  province  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  country  of  Newcastle,  and  all 
the  tracts  of  land  depending  thereon  in  America, 
thereby  commanding  and  requiring  him,  the  said 
Benjamin  Fletcher,  to  take  the  said  province  of 
Pennsylvania  and  country  under  his  government; 
who  accordingly  took  the  same  under  his  govern- 
ment, by  publication  of  the  said  letters  patent,  in 
the  town  of  Philadelphia,  upon  the  26th  of  April, 
1693  :  and  whereas,  their  sacred  majesties  have 
since  been  most  graciously  pleased,  by  their  letters 
patent,  under  the  great  seal  of  England,  bearing 
date  the  20th  day  of  August,  in  the  sixth  year  of  their 
reign,  for  the  reasons  therein  expressed,  to  restore 
the  said  William  Penn,  proprietary  of  the  said 
province  of  Pennsylvania  and  territories,  unto  the 
administration  of  the  government  thereof:  and, 
whereas,  the  said  William  Penn  has  been  pleased, 
by  his  commission,  under  his  hand  and  seal  of  the 
said  province,  bearing  date  the  29th  day  of  the 
ninth  month,  1694,  to  constitute  me  governor  under 
him,  of  the  said  province  of  Pennsylvania,  and 
counties  annexed,  strictly  charging  and  command- 
ing me,  to  govern  according  to  th«  known  laws  and 
4  C 


&34 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


usages  thereof.  I,  therefore,  by  virtue  of  the  said 
power  and  authority,  derived  unto  me,  command 
you,  that  forthwith  you  summon  all  the  freemen  of 
your  said  county,  to  meet  upon  the  tenth  day  of 
April,  at  the  usual  place  of  meeting,  then  and  there, 
according  to  law  and  charter,  to  choose  three  per- 
sons to  serve  in  provincial  council,  one  for  three 
years,  one  for  two  years,  and  one  other  for  one 
year  ;  and  six  persons  to  serve  as  members  of  as- 
sembly ;  and  upon  the  election  of  members  of  coun- 
cil, to  acquaint  them  to  attend  me  on  the  20th  day 
of  April  next,  at  Philadelphia,  to  form  a  provincial 
council,  to  advise  with  me  in  matters  relating  to  the 
government ;  whereof  they  are  not  to  fail ;  and 
make  return  of  the  names  of  the  said  freemen,  so  to 
be  chosen,  and  of  this  writ,  into  the  secretary's 
office,  for  the  said  province  and  territories,  at  and 
before  the  said  20th  day  of  April  next ; — hereof  fail 
not  at  your  peril ;  and  for  your  so  doing  this  shall 
be  your  sufficient  warrant. 

"  Given  under  my  hand  and  seal  of  the  province, 
this  26th  day  of  March,  annoque  regni  regis  et  re- 
ginae,  Gulielmi  et  Mariae,  nunc  Angliae,  &c.  sep- 
timo,  in  the  fourteenth  year  of  the  proprietary's 
government,  annoque  Domini  1695. 

"  WILLIAM  MARKHAM." 

After  this  he  called  another  assembly,  to  meet  at 
Philadelphia,  on  the  26th  of  October,  1696.  This 
assembly  chose  John  Simcock  of  Chester,  for  their 
speaker ;  and,  in  a  message  to  the  governor,  they 
observed,  that  though  he  had  convened  them  by  his 
writs,  not  so  conformable  to  their  charter,  as  they 
could  desire  (which  was  upon  Fletcher's  plan),  yet 
they  had  obeyed  the  same,  and  considered  what  he 
had  laid  before  them,  viz.  "  To  answer  the  late 
queen's  letter,  and  the  proprietary's  promise  upon 
his  restoration  to  the  government ;"  respecting 
which  they  told  him,  "  That  they  were  unanimously 
ready  and  willing  to  perform  their  duty  therein,  so 
far  as  in  them  lay,  if  the  governor  would  settle  them 
in  their  former  constitution,  enjoyed  before  the  go- 
vernment was  committed  to  Governor  Fletcher's 
trust;"  which  affairs,  with  the  proceedings  of  the 
last  assembly,  appear  more  fully  in  the  following  re- 
monstrance : — 

"To  William  Markham,  governor  under  William 
Penn,  proprietor  of  the  province  of  Pennsylvania, 
and  territories  thereunto  belonging, 

"  The  remonstrance  of  the  freemen  of  the  said 
province  and  territories,  convened  in  assembly,  by 
virtue  of  the  governor's  writs,  at  Philadelphia,  the 
28lh  of  October,  in  the  eighth  year  of  King  Wil- 
liam's reign  over  England,  &c.  annoque  Domini 
1696. 

"  Humbly  sheweth, 

"  That,  whereas,  the  late  King  Charles  II.,  by  his 
royal  charter,  made  in  the  33d  year  of  his  reign, 
under  the  great  seal  of  England,  was  pleased  to 
signify,  that  William  Penn  (out  of  a  commenda- 
ble desire  to  enlarge  the  British  empire,  and  pro- 
mote such  useful  commodities  as  might  be  of  benefit 
to  the  king  and  his  dominions,  as  also  to  induce  the 
savage  nations,  by  gentle  and  just  manners,  to  the 
love  of  civil  society,  and  the  Christian  religion)  had 
humbly  sought  leave  to  transport  an  ample  co- 
lony into  this  country ;  wherefore,  the  said  king, 
favouring  the  petition,  and  good  purpose  of  the  said 
Willim  Penn,  did,  in  and  by  the  said  charter,  for 
him.  his  heirs  and  successors',  give  and  grant  unto 
the  said  William  Penn,  his  heirs  and  assigns,  all 
this  said  country,  and  tract  of  land,  called  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  constituted  him,  the  said  William  Penn, 


absolute  proprietor  thereof,  vesting  him,  and  such 
as  were  to  be  adventurers  with  him,  the  settlers  and 
inhabitants  of  said  province,  with  divers  powers,  pri- 
vileges and  immunities,  under  the  reservations,  pro- 
visos and  restrictions,  in  the  said  charter  specified  ; 
charging  all  officers,  &c.  to  bo,  at  all  times  aiding 
and  assisting  to  the  said  William  Penu,  and  unto 
the  said  inhabitants  and  merchants  of  the  said  pro- 
vince, in  the  full  use  and  fruition  of  the  benefits  of 
the  said  charter. 

"  In  pursuance  whereof  the  said  William  Penn, 
aud  divers  substantial  persons,  who  first  embarked 
ith  him,  in  that  so  commendable  a  design,  did 
soon  afterwards  (by  the  advice  of  learned  councu) 
conclude  upon  a  certain  frame  of  government,  con- 
sistent with  the  powers  of  the  said  patent,  but  suit- 
able with  the  religious  persuasion  of  the  major  part 
of  the  undertakers,  and  well  accommodated  to  all. 
This  model,  together  with  the  franchises  and  im- 
munities expressly  granted  by  the  aforesaid  letters 
patent  to  the  people,  did  induce  them  to  conceive 
(and,  we  hope,  upon  just  grounds  too)  that  since 
the  king  had  been  so  favourably  pleased  to  incor- 
porate them,  and  in  so  great  a  measure,  connected 
the  people's  privileges  with  their  properties,  that 
they  could  not  be  any  more  divested  of  the  one,  than 
the  other,  but  by  due  course  of  law,  and  proved  more 
than  ordinary  motives  to  incline  several  hundreds  to 
transport  themselves  and  families  into  this  country, 
out  of  divers  parts;  so  that  this  province  hath  not 
been  at  first  populated  under  William  Penn's  go- 
vernment, with  transported  felons,  or  criminals, 
but  mostly  the  people  called  Quakers,  men  of  truth 
and  sobriety,  having  visible  estates  and  credit  in 
the  world ;  who,  with  no  less  desires  of  that  free- 
dom, to  answer  the  end  of  the  king's  grant,  (with 
respect  to  propagating  the  Christian  religion)  were 
made  willing  to  leave  their  native  land,  part  with 
their  friends  and  near  relations,  and  remove  them- 
selves into  the  wilderness,  hoping  to  enjoy  their  said 
privileges  and  liberties,  more  than  any  prospect, 
they  had  of  worldly  advantage,  or  preferment;  and 
when  they  arrived  here,  exposed  themselves  and 
tender  families  to  great  hardships  (attending  the 
hazard  and  inconvenienciesof  a  new  plantation),  ex- 
hausted their  estates,  and  have  not  been  at  all 
chargeable  to  the  crown,  in  so  considerable  a  settle- 
ment, as  is  well  known  ;  but  before  they  could  tho- 
roughly come  into  a  comfortable  way  of  living,  and 
put  themselves  into  a  capacity  to  -pay  either  their 
particular,  or  public  debts,  this  government  be- 
came (it  seems)  as  the  butt  of  our  neighbour's  envy  ; 
who,  misrepresenting  things  at  home,  did  obtain  a 
commission  from  the  king  and  queen,  constituting 
Colonel  Fletcher,  commander-in-chief  over  this  pro 
vince  and  territories;  who,  during  his  governancy, 
diverted  the  course  of  our  legislative  procedure,  and 
introduced  another  method ;  and  continued  the 
same,  until  the  said  king  and  queen  were  favour- 
ably pleased,  by  their  letters  patent,  to  restore  the 
said  proprietary  to  the  administration  of  the  govern- 
ment of  this  province  and  territories  ;  upon  which 
restoration,  the  power  and  authority,  which  Colonel 
Fletcher  had  made  use  of,  to  lay  aside  our  charteral 
rights  and  privileges,  were  by  the  said  patent  deter- 
mined, and  made  void. 

"  Wherefore,  the  proprietary  thought  fit  to  au- 
thorize thee  to  act  according  to  the  known  laws 
and  usages  of  this  government:  in  pursuance  whereof 
thou  wast  pleased  to  issue  forth  thy  writs,  directed 
to  the  respective  sheriffs  of  this  province  and  terri- 
tories, commanding  them  to  summon  all  the  free- 


UNITED  STATES. 


835 


men  of  the  respective  counties  to  meet  upon  the 
tenth  day  of  the  month  called  April,  1695,  in  the 
usual  place  of  meeting,  then  and  there,  according 
to  law  and  charter,  to  choose  three  persons  in  each 
county,  to  serve  in  provincial  council,  one  for  three 
years,  one  for  two  years,  and  the  other  for  one  year; 
and  six  persons  out  of  each  county  to  serve  as  mem 
bcrs  of  assembly.  In  obedience  to  which  writs 
elections  were  made,  and  a  general  assembly  began 
to  be  held  here,  on  the  tenth  day  of  September, 
1695  :  and,  truly,  those  of  us,  that  attended  that  ser- 
vice, were  glad,  when  thou  so  frequently  expressed 
thy  readiness  to  confirm  our  rights  and  privileges, 
adding,  '  That  thou  wouldest  not  so  much  as  endea- 
vour to  diminish  them  ;'  which  gave  further  encou- 
ragement to  the  then  representatives  ;  who  with 
much  alacrity,  and  dutiful  acknowledgments  of 
the  king's  justice  and  favour,  in  restoring  the  said 
proprietary  to  his  rights,  did  proceed  to  manifest 
their  affections  to  the  king,  as  well  as  their  readi- 
ness to  answer  his  expectations,  about  supporting 
this  government,  so  far  as  in  conscience  they  could, 
according  to  their  ability,  and  circumstances  •  of 
affairs ;  and  so  agreed  to  make  an  assessment  of 
money,  upon  all  estates  within  this  province  and 
country,  for  the  support  of  government ;  which, 
together  with  the  250Z.  sterling,  thentofore  raised, 
and  made  payable  to  Colonel  Fletcher,  toward  the 
support  of  this  government,  and  not  expressly  ap- 
pointed for  any  other  particular  use,  they,  the  said 
representatives,  humbly  desired  might  be  deemed 
and  taken,  instead  of  the  assistance  required  from 
this  country  ;  the  same  being  in  answer  to  the  late 
queen's  letter,  so  far  as,  in  conscience  and  abilities, 
they  could  comply  therewith ;  and  so  perfected  the 
bill,  ready  for  thy  passing  ;  having  joined  therewith 
only  one  bill,  modelled  with  thy  approbation,  and 
corrected  according  to  thy  own  direction,  contain- 
ing some  fundamental  liberties,  which  we  look  upon 
to  be  as  much  the  people's  rights,  as  the  land  they 
hold. 

"  But,  instead  of  giving  thy  sanction  to  those 
bills,  thou  hast,  contrary  to  the  tenor  of  said  writs, 
and  against  our  legislative  rights  and  privileges,  un- 
dertaken to  dissolve  both  council  and  assembly; 
which,  we  understand,  was  so  surprising  and  unex- 
pected to  the  said  representatives,  that  they  had 
neither  time  to  explain  their  real  intentions,  in  what 
they  urged  and  insisted  on,  or  opportunity  to  see 
the  minutes  of  their  journal  perfected ;  whereby 
their  proceedings  might  have  been  more  fully  and 
fairly  rendered. 

"  And  we  are  given  to  understand,  and  those  of 
us  that  were  concerned  in  that  dissolved  assembly, 
do  declare,  '  That  where  any  thing  has  been  there 
voted,  about  proceeding  in  legislation,  without  the 
formality  of  promulgating  bills,  according  to  char- 
ter, it  was  chiefly  to  expedite  the  passing  of  the 
money-bill,  to  answer  the  late  queen's  letter,  in 
manner  aforesaid,  and  not  intended  to  be  brought 
into  example,  unless  agreed  on,  to  be  inserted  in 
the  other  bill,  or  new  act  of  settlement.'  And  we 
also  understand,  that  where  mention  was  then  made 
of  any  difficulty,  or  inconvenience,  in  resuming  the 
charter,  it  was  but  in  circumstantials,  and  had  re- 
spect only  to  the  time  of  meeting,  number  of  mem- 
bers, and  such  like,  not  that  we  then  did,  or  do  now, 
think  that  the  people  had  any  way  forfeited,  or  lost 
the  benefit  and  privileges  in  those  branches  thereof, 
which  direct  that  this  government,  according  to  the 
powers  of  the  king's  patent,  and  the  late  duke  of 
York's  deeds  of  feoffment,  should  consist  of  the  pro- 


prietary, governor  and  freemen  of  the  said  province 
and  territories,  and  in  form  of  a  provincial  council 
and  assembly,  chosen  by  the  people  ;  and  that  the 
governor,  or  his  deputy,  should  perform  no  act  of 
state  that  relates  to  the  justice,  trade,  treasury,  or 
safety  of  the  province  and  territories,  but  by  the 
advice  of  the  said  provincial  council;  and  such 
other  fundamental  parts  of  the  said  charter,  where- 
with we  are  invested  by  virtue  of  the  king's  letters 
patent,  for  restoring  the  proprietary. 

"  Now,  for  as  much  as  thou  hast  refused  to  pass 
the  said  bill,  or  new  act  of  settlement,  and  not  in- 
clined to  the  advice  of  thy  assistant,  in  issuing  forth 
writs,  for  chusing  members  of  council  and  assem- 
bly, on  the  last  charteral  day  of  election,  but  used 
thy  endeavours  to  discourage  the  people  then  to 
elect,  and  hast  now  convened  us,  contrary  to  our 
former  usage,  notwithstanding  we  still  hold  our- 
selves concerned  to  embrace  this  opportunity,  as 
we  are,  and  shall  be,  ready  upon  all  occasions  to 
express  our  duty  and  affection  to  the  king,  for  hig 
justice  and  favours  to  the  government,  and  our  well- 
wishes  to  thyself,  we  desire  thee  to  take  some  speedy 
course  to  establish  us  in  our  Just  rights  and  privi- 
leges, whereby  we  may  be  in  a  fit  posture  effectually 
to  answer  and  observe  the  king's  command,  relating 
to  this  government,  and  the  proprietary's  engage- 
ments in  that  behalf,  so  far  as  our  religious  per- 
suasions can  admit. 

"  Signed  by  order  of  the  House, 

"  JOHN  SIMCOCKE,  Speaker." 
It  does  not  appear  what   particular   answer   the 

overnor  gave  to  this  remonstrance;  but  the  speaker, 
with  the  house,  waited  upon  him,  at  his  desire  ;  to 
whom  he  delivered  a  letter  from  the  late  Governor 
Fletcher,  requesting  money,  for  the  relief  of  the 
Indians  at  Albany.  Upon  which,  on  the  31st  of 
October,  1696,  a  committee  of  the  house,  being 
joined  by  a  committee  of  the  council,  in  order  to 
answer  the  queen's  letter,  and  preserve  the  peo- 
ple's privileges,  agreed  in  recommending,  "  That 
the  governor,  at  the  request  of  the  assembly, 
would  be  pleased  to  pass  an  act  (of  settlement, 
must  be  understood),  with  a  salvo  to  the  proprietary 
and  people ;  and  that  he  would  also  issue  out  his 
writs,  for  choosing  a  full  number  of  representatives, 
on  the  10th  day  of  the  first  month  next,  to  serve  in 
provincial  council  and  assembly,  according  to  the 
charter,  until  the  proprietary's  pleasure  be  known 
;herein ;  and  that,  if  the  proprietary  shall  disap- 
prove the  same,  then  this  act  shall  be  void,  and  no 
ways  prejudicial  to  him,  nor  the  people,  in  relation 
o  the  validity  or  invalidity  of  the  said  charter."— 
This  was  unanimously  approved  by  the  assembly; 
and  a  bill  of  settlement,  and  a  money  bill  were 
.hereupon  agreed  upon,  and  passed. 

The  money  bill  was  for  raising  300/.,  for  the  sup- 
>ort  of  government,  and  relieving  the  distressed  In- 
dians, inhabiting  above  Albany,  in  answer  to  the 
queen's  letter;  which  money,  being  immediately 
wanted  was  therefore  borrowed,  until  it  could  be 
aised  by  the  act,  and  remitted  to  Colonel  Fletcher, 
at  New  York,  to  be  applied  to  the  use  intended. 

The  bill  of  settlement  being  finished,  besides  four 
ithers  passed  by  Markham,  it  thence  became  the 
hird  frame  of  government ;  and,  being  afterwards 
enforced  by  some  other  laws,  it  continued  in  force 
ill  the  year  1701.  By  this  charter,  or  frame  of 
government,  the  council  was  to  consist  of  only  two 
nembers  out  of  each  county,  and  the  assembly  of 
bur:  making  in  all  twelve  members  of  council,  and 
24  of  the  assembly. 

4  C  2 


83f» 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


In  the  year  1697,  Governor  Fletcher,  of  New 
York,  in  a  letter  to  Markham,  informed  him,  that 
the  300/.,  sent  last,  year,  was  expended  in  contin- 
gencies, to  feed  and  clothe  the  Indians,  as  was  de- 
aired  ;  and  that  he  requested  further  assistance.  A 
committee  of  the  council  and  assembly,  to  whom 
the  affair  was  referred,  in  their  report,  in  answer  to 
this  letter,  expressed  their  acknowledgments  for  his, 
and  that  government's  regard  and  candour  to  them, 
in  applying  that  money  to  the  use  intended ; — but, 
as  to  further  supply  at  present,  they  urged  the  in- 
fancy, poverty,  and  incumbered  state  of  the  colony, 
in  excuse  for  non-compliance ; — at  the  same  time, 
declaring  their  readiness  to  observe  the  king's  fur- 
ther commands,  according  to  their  religious  persua- 
sions and  abilities. 

(1698.)  From  about  this  time,  till  the  arrival  of 
the  proprietary,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  year  1699, 
the  accounts  of  the  public  affairs  appear  defective, 
or  not  many  of  much  importance  occur.  The  pro- 
vince seems,  at  that  time,  to  have  enjoyed  a  state 
of  great  tranquillity  and  prosperity,  v/hen  compared 
with  that  of  other  countries;  but  it  cannot  be  sup- 
posed, without  some  of  those  difficulties,  which  al- 
ways attend  the  settlement  of  new  colonies.  And, 
as  prosperity  and  success  create  envy  in  malignant 
minds,  so  we  find,  in  this  province,  that  whatever 
was  a  little  amiss  at  any  time,  was  greatly  exag- 
gerated, and  its  strue  state  misrepresented,  either 
by  those  who  were  natural  enemies  to  its  prospe- 
rity, or  by  discontented  spirits  within  it,  both  in 
early  time  and  since. 

But  however  the  base  may  endeavour  to  cover 
themselves,  by  mixing  among  those  of  reputation, 
and  the  dishonest  screen  their  character,  by  asso- 
ciating with  the  honest,  yet  something  of  this  ma- 
lignity of  mind  in  some  persons  out  of  the  province, 
besides  what  might,  in  reality,  have  been  wrong  in 
it,  soems  to  have  administered  occasion  for  the  fol- 
lowing proclamation,  published  in  the  year  1698: — 

"  By  the  governor  and  council  of  the  province  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  counties  annexed. 
"  A  Proclamation, 

"  Whereas  our  proprietary  hath  lately  given  us 
to  understand  of  sundry  accusations,  or  complaints, 
against  this  government,  for  conniving  at  illegal 
trade  and  harbouring  of  pirates ;  as  also  of  the  re- 
ports that  are  gone  to  England,  about  the  growth 
of  vice  and  looseness  here.  . 

"  As  to  the  former,  it  is  evident  that  they  are 
the  effects  of  the  envy  and  emulation  of  those,  who, 
by  such  unfair  and  indirect  means,  would  accom- 
plish their  designs  against  this  government :  for 
that  we  are  satisfied  the  generality  of  the  people, 
merchants  and  traders  of  this  province  and  territo- 
ries, are  innocent  and  clear  of  those  imputations. 
And  this  country  so  posited,  Philadelphia  is  become 
the  road,  where  sailors  and  others  do  frequently  pass 
and  repass  between  Virginia  and  New  England,  so 
that  it  cannot  be  avoided,  but  the  bad,  as  well  as 
the  good,  will  be  entertained  in  such  an  intercourse ; 
and  since  common  charity  obliges  us  not  to  pre- 
sume any  persons  guilty  (especially  of  such  great 
enormities),  till  by  some  legal  probability  they  ap- 
pear so  to  be ;  and  though  we  find  that  the  magis- 
trates, and  people  in  general,  are,  and  have  been, 
ready,  and  perhaps  more  active  and  conscientious 
to  serve  the  king  and  his  officers,  against  all  un- 
lawful trade  and  piracy,  when  any  such  offences 
have,  by  any  means,  come  to  their  knowledge,  than 
any  of  those  neighbouring  colonies,  who  have  been 
«fr  qu«reinonious  agaixt™,  in  that  behalf;  yet  we 


gaiMt 


can.  do  no  less  than,  pursuant  to  our  proprietary'i 
commands,  put  all  in  mind  of  their  respective  duties ; 
that  there  be  no  just  cause  for  such  complaints. 

"  And,  as  concerning  vice,  we  also  find,  that  the ' 
magistrates  have  been  careful  and  diligent  to  sup- 
press it ;  but  their  endeavours  have  been  sometimes 
ineffectual  therein ;  by  reason  that  the  ordinaries, 
or  drinking-houses,  especially  in  Philadelphia,  grow 
too  numerous,  and  the  keepers  thereof  disorderly, 
and  regardless  of  the  tenor  and  obligations  of  their 
licenses,  whereby  they  prove  ungrateful  to  the  go- 
vernor, and  a  reproach  to  the  government. 

"  Therefore,  these  are  strictly  to  charge  and 
command  all  magistrates  and  officers  whatsoever, 
within  the  province  and  territories,  as  they  regard 
the  honour  of  God,  and  their  allegiance  to  the  king, 
faithfully  to  put  in  execution  all  the  acts,  or  laws 
of  trade  and  navigation,  and  also  the  laws  and  sta- 
tutes extant  against  piracy,  whenever  there  is  any 
such  occasion;  and  to  use  their  utmost  diligence 
and  care  in  preventing,  suppressing,  and  punishing 
all  vice,  disorders,  and  loose  living,  wheresoever, 
and  in  whomsoever  it  shall  appear.  And  to  that 
end  it  is,  by  the  governor  and  council,  ordained 
that,  from  and  after  the  first  day  of  March  next 
ensuing,  the  justices  of  the  peace  of  each  county, 
in  the  province  and  territories,  at  their  respective 
general  or  private  sessions,  nominate  and  pitch 
upon  such  and  so  many  ordinary  keepers,  or  inn- 
holders,  within  the  respective  counties,  as  they  shall 
be  well  assured  will  keep  orders,  and  discourage 
vice  :  and  the  governor  is  pleased  to  condescend  that 
he  will  license  those  so  approved  of  by  the  justices, 
and  will  permit  no  other,  to  keep  taverns,  inns,  or 
drinking-houses,  within  this  government,  than  such 
as  shall  be  so  recommended,  from  time  to  time. 

"  And  we  further  strictly  charge  and  command 
all  persons,  within  this  government,  as  they  will 
answer  the  contrary  at  their  peril,  that  they  give 
due  assistance  to  the  magistrates  and  officers  afore- 
said, in  putting  the  said  laws  in  execution,  and 
suppressing  vice,  that  the  wrath  of  God,  and  the 
king's  displeasure  may  not  be  drawn  upon  this  poor 
country.  Dated  at  Philadelphia,  the  12th  day  of 
the  twelfth  month,  February,  being  the  ninth  year 
of  the  year  of  William  III.,  of  Englan  !,  &c.  King, 
anno  Domini,  1697-8. 

"  Signed  by  order  of  the  governor  and  council, 
"  Per  PATBICK- ROBINSON." 

Penn,  with  his  wife  and  family,  sail  foT  Pennsylva* 
nia^— Yellow  Fever  in  Pennsylvania—— Proceedings  of 
the  governor  and  assembly  against  piracy  and  illicit 
trade— The  proprietary's  concern  for  the  benefit  of 
the  Indians  and  Negroes,  with  the  measures  used — 
Money  requested  of  the  assembly  for  the  fortifica- 
tions on  the  frontiers  of  New  York — Assembly's 
address  to  the  proprietary  on  this  occasion — Articlet 
of  agreement  bettfeen  Penn  and  the  Indians  about 
Susquehanna,  fyc. 

In  the  August  of  1699,  Penn,  with  his  wife  and 
family,  took  shipping  for  Pennsylvania;  and,  on 
the  third  day  of  the  following  month,  from  on  board 
the  ship,  lying  in  Cowes'  road,  near  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  he  took  his  farewell  of  his  friends,  in  a  va- 
ledictory epistle,  directed  to  all  the  people  called 
Quakers,  in  Europe.  Ke  sailed  on  the  ninth  of 
the  same  mouth;  and  was  near  three  months  at 
sea ;  so  that  he  did  not  arrive  in  Pennsylvania  until 
the  beginning  of  December,  when  a  dangerous  and 
contagious  distemper,  called  the  yellow  fever,  having 
raged  in  the  province,  and  carried  off  great  number* 


UNITEP  STATES. 


837 


df  pco"ple,  had  ceased.  This  remarkable  sickness, 
which,  ia  the  latter  part  of  this  year,  had  caused  a 
great  mortality  in  Philadelphia,  had,  for  some  time 
before,  been  very  fatal  in  the  West  India  Islands. 

Thomas  Story,  who  had  accompanied  Penn  tolre- 
land,  in  the  last  year,  1698 ;  a  man  of  ability,  and  after- 
wards of  much  utility,  to  the  province,  first  arrived 
in  Pennsylvania,  in,  or  about  this  year,  by  way  of 
Virginia,  on  a  religious  visit  to  the  colonies.  In  his 
journal  of  his  life,  speaking  of  this  sickness,  at  Phi- 
ladelphia, where  he  was  then,  he  says :  "  Great 
was  the  Majesty  and  Hand  of  the  Lord,  great  was 
the  fear,  that  fell  upon  all  flesh ;  I  saw  no  lofty, 
or  airy  countenance,  nor  heard  any  vain  jesting, 
to  move  men  to  laughter ;  nor  witty  repartee,  to 
raise  mirth  ;  nor  extravagant  feasting,  to  excite 
the  lusts  and  desires  of  the  flesh  above  measure ; 
but  every  face  gathered  paleness,  and  many  hearts 
were  humbled,  and  countenances  fallen  and  sunk, 
as  such  that  waited  every  moment,  to  be  summoned 
to  the  bar,  and  numbered  to  the  grave." 

The  proprietary  and  his  family  were  received 
with  universal  joy  by  the  inhabitants,  which  was 
greatly  increased  when  it  was  known  that  he  in- 
tended iixing  his  residence  among  them,  during  the 
remainder  of  his  life. 

Soon  after  his  arrival  he  met  the  assembly;  but 
it  being  then  a  very  rigorous  season,  much  public 
business  does  not  appear  to  have  been  transacted ; 
except  attempting  to  discourage  piracy  and  illicit 
trade;  for  which  principally,  they  seem  to  have 
been  convened.  Penn  strongly  represented  to  them 
the  odium  to  which  the  government  was  exposed  on 
this  account ;  and  the  obligations,  which  he  was 
under,  to  his  superiors  to  correct  it.  Two  laws 
were  passed  immediately,  and  measures  taken  to 
clear  the  government  from  all  unjust  imputations 
the  kind. 

In  the  March  of  1700,  Penn,  at  the  monthly  meet- 
ing of  his  friends,  the  Quakers,  in  Philadelphia,  re- 
presented his  anxiety  respecting  the  negroes  and 
Indians;  exhorting  and  pressing  them  to  a  full  dis- 
charge of  their  duty,  in  reference  to  them;  but 
more  especially  urging,  that  they  might  as  frequently 
as  possible  have  the  advantage  of  attending  reli- 
gious meeting,  and  the  benefit  of  being  duly  informed 
in  the  Christian  religion.  A  meeting  was  conse- 
quently appointed  more  particularly  for  the  negroes 
once  every  month;  and  means  were  used  to  have 
more  frequent  meetings  with  the  Indians;  Penn 
taking  part  of  the  charge  upon  himself,  particularly 
the  mode  of  conducting  it,  and  the  procuring  of  in- 
terpreters. 

The  next  assembly  was  convened  at  Philadelphia, 
on  the  10th  of  May ;  which  was  dissolved  in 
the  month  following,  and  another  was  convened  at 
Newcastle,  in  October.  The  upper  counties,  or  the 
province,  being  dissatisfied  with  the  charter,  which 
had  been  passed  by  Markham,  in  1696,  part  of  the 
business  of  these  assemblies  was  the  consideration 
and  preparation  of  a  new  one,  better  adapted  to 
their  inclinations  and  circumstances. 

The  proprietary  had  several  meetings  with  the 
different  assembles,  during  his  residence  in  the 
province ;  wherein  a  great  variety  of  public  busi- 
ness was  transacted  with  much  general  satisfaction. 
Part  of  which  was  the  framing  "a  body  of  laws,  and 
the  new  and  last  charter  of  privileges ;  the  latter  of 
which  was  not  finished  until  the  October  of  the  fol- 
lowing year. 

The  number  of  laws  passed  by  the  proprietary, 
during  his  stay  this  time  in  the  country,  was 


100;  of  which   the  major  part  were  passed  at  New- 
castle. 

In  the  spring  of  the  year  1701,  the  sea-coast  ap- 
pears to  have  been  so  infested  by  pirates,  as  well  as 
the  dangers  consequent  on  a  French  war,  that  the 
governor  and  council  issued  the  following  order,  for 
the  prevention  of  any  surprise  in  that  respect : — 

"  At  a  council  held  in  Philadelphia,  the  2d  of 
the  fourth  month,  1701. 

"  Present,  the  proprietor  and  governor,  Edward 
Shippen,  Samuel  Carpenter,  Thomas  Story,  Grif- 
fith Owen,  Caleb  Pusey. 

"  For  the  greater  security  of  this  province  and 
territories,  and  for  preventing,  as  far  as  may  be, 
surprises  by  vessels  from  sea. 

"  Ordered,  That  the  magistrates,  for  the  county 
of  Sussex,  shall  appoint,  and  take  care  that  a  con- 
stant watch  and  ward  be  kept,  on  the  hithermost 
cape,  near  Lewis,  in  the  said  county:  and  in  case 
any  vessel  appear  from  the  sea,  that  may  with  good 
grounds  be  suspected  of  evil  designs  against  any 
part  of  the  government. 

"  Ordered,  That  the  said  watch  shall  forthwith 
give  notice  thereof,  with  as  exact  a  description  and 
account  of  the  vessel,  as  possibly  they  can,  to  the 
sheriff  of  the  said  county;  who  is  required  imme- 
diately to  dispatch  a  messenger,  express,  with  the 
same  to  the  county  of  Kent;  from  thence  to  be 
forwarded  from  sheriff  to  sheriff,  through  every 
county,  till  it  be  brought  to  the  government  at  Phi- 
ladelphia; which  watch  and  expresses  shall  be  a 
provincial  charge.  "  Signed  by  order, 

"  JAMES  LOGAN,  Secretary." 

In  the  beginning  of  August  1701,  the  proprietary 
acquainted  the  assembly,  "  That  the  occasion  of 
his  calling  them,  at  that  time  (though  it  was  with 
reluctance,  considering  the  seasou),  was,  to  lay  be- 
fore them  the  king's  letter,  requiring  350/.  sterling, 
from  this  government,  towards  the  fortifications  in- 
tended on  the  frontiers  of  New  York ;  and  though 
he  might  have  something  else  to  lay  before  them, 
yet  he  deferred  all  till  they  had  considered  this 
point." 

After  considering  and  debating  on  the  subject  of 
this  letter,  the  assembly  excused  themselves,  at  pre- 
sent, with  complying  with  the  requisition,  by  the 
following  address  to  the  proprietary  :— 

"  To  William  Penn,  proprietary  and  governor  of 
Pennsylvania. 

"  The  humble  address  of  the  Assembly. 

"  May  it  please  our  proprietary  and  governor, 

"  We,  the  freemen  of  the  province  and  territo- 
ries, in  assembly  met,  having  perused  the  king's 
letter,  requiring  a  contribution  of  350J.  sterling,  to- 
wards erecting  of  forts  on  the  frontiers  of  New 
York,  &c.,  and  having  duly  weighed  and  considered 
our  duty  and  loyalty  to  our  sovereign,  do  humbly 
address  and  represent  that,  by  the  reason  of  the  in- 
fancy of  this  colony,  and  the  great  charge  and  cost» 
the  inhabitants  have  hitherto  been  at,  in  the  settle- 
ment thereof,  and  because  of  the  late  great  bums  of 
money,  which  have  been  assessed  on  the  province 
and  territories,  by  way  of  impost  and  taxes,  besides 
the  arrears  of  quit-rents,  owing  by  the  people,  aur 
present  capacity  will  hardly  admit  of  levying  of 
money  at  this  time.  And  further,  taking  into  con- 
sideration, that  the  adjacent  provinces  have  hitherto 
(as  far  as  w«  can  understand)  done  nothing  in  this 
matter;  we  are,  therefore,  humbly  of  opinion,  and 
accordingly  move,  that  the  further  consideration  of 
the  king's  letter  may  be  referred  to  another  meet- 
ing of  assembly,  or  until  more  emergent  occasions 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA 


shall  require  our  further  proceedings  therein.  In 
the  mean  time  we  earnestly  desire  the  proprietary 
would  candidly  represent  our  conditions  to  the  king, 
and  assure  him  of  our  readiness  (according  to  our 
abilities)  to  acquiesce  with,  and  answer  his  com- 
mands, so  far  as  our  religious  persuasions  shall  per- 
mit, as  becomes  loyal  and  faithful  subjects  so  to 
do." 

Though  the  assembly  appeared  not  unwilling  to 
contribute  to  the  common  defence,  if  the  circum- 
stances of  the  colony  would  permit;  and  although 
the  proprietary  himself  particularly  urged  a  compli- 
ance in  his  speech  to  the  next  following  assembly  ; 
yet  the  nature  of  this  requisition  to  such  a  young 
colony,  considering  the  principles  upon  which  it  was 
primarily  planted  and  founded,  seems  to  indicate, 
that  it  was  not  without  enemies  at  court.  The  pa- 
cific principles  and  motives  of  Penn,  and  of  the 
first  and  early  adventurers  in  settling  this  wilder- 
ness, could  not  possibly  be  less  known  at  this  time, 
to  the  administration  at  home,  than  they  were  be- 
fore, to  the  persons  in  power,  when  the  charter  was 
granted  by  Charles  II.;  which  expressly  mentions, 
as  motives,  "  A  commendable  desire  of  William 
Penn  to  enlarge  our  English  empire,  and  promote 
such  useful  commodities  as  may  be  of  benefit  to  us, 
and  our  dominions,  and  also  to  reduce  the  savage 
natives,  by  gentle  and  just  manners,  to  the  love  of 
civil  society,  and  Christian  religion  ;"  and  there- 
fore it  was  judged  extremely  hard  that  they  should  be 
called  on  for  a.  contribution  which  was  contrary  to 
their  well-known  and  long  avowed  principles. 

In  the  April  of  1701,  Connoodaghtoh,  king  of 
the  Susquehanna,  Minquays  or  Conestogo  Indians  ; 
Wopaththa  (alias  Opessah),  king  of  the  Shawanese, 
Weewhinjough,  chief  of  the  Ganawese,  inhabiting 
near  the  head  of  the  Potomack  ;  also  Ahookassongh, 
brother  to  the  emperor  (or  great  king  of  the  Onon- 
dagoes),  of  the  five  nations,  having  arrived  at  Phi- 
ladelphia, with  other  Indians  of  note,  &c.,  in  num- 
ber about  40,  after  a  treaty,  and  several  speeches 
between  them  and  Penn  in  council,  the  following 
deed  was  solemnly  ratified  : — 

"  Articles  of  agreement,  intended,  made,  con- 
cluded and  agreed  upon  at  Philadelphia,  the  23d  day 
of  the  second  month,  called  April,  1701,  between 
William  Penn,  proprietary  and  governor  of  the 
province  of  Pennsilvania,  and  territories  thereunto 
belonging,  on  the  one  part,  and  Connoodaghtoh, 
king  of  the  Indians,  inhabiting  upon,  and  about  the 
river  Susquehanna,  in  the  said  province,  and  Wi- 
daagh  (alias  Orettyagh ;)  Koqueash  and  Andaggy, 
Junekquagh,  chiefs  of  the  said  nations  of  Indians ; 
and  Wopaththa,  king,  and  Lemoytungh  and  Pe- 
moyajoaagh,  chiefs  of  the  nations  of  the  Shawanna 
Indians;  and  Ahookassongh,  brother  to  the  em- 
peror, for,  and  in  behalf  of  the  emperor  ;  and  Wee- 
whinjough, Chequittayh,  Takyewsan  and  Woapras- 
koa,  chiefs  of  the  nations  of  the  Indians,  inhabiting 
in  and  about  the  northern  part  of  the  river  Poto- 
mack, in  the  said  province,  for,  and  in  behalf  of 
themselves  and  successors,  and  their  several  nations 
and  people,  on  the  other  part,  as  followeth  : — 

"  That,  as  hitherto  there  hath  always  been  a 
good  understanding  and  neighbourhood  between  the 
said  William  Penn,  and  his  lieutenants,  since  hii 
first  arrival  in  the  said  province,  and  the  severa 
nations  of  Indians,  inhabiting  in  and  about  the  same 
so  there  shall  be,  for  ever  hereafter,  a  firm  and  last 
ing  peace  continued  between  William  Penn,  his  heirs 
and  successors,  and  all  the  English,  and  other  Chris- 
tian inhabitants  of  the  said  province  and  the  saic 


kings  and  chiefs,  and  their  successors,  and  all  the 
several  people  of  the  nations  of  Indians  aforesaid  ; 
and  that  they  shall,  for  ever  hereafter,  be  as  one 
lead,  and  one  heart,  and  live  in  true  friendship 
and  amity,  as  one  people. 

'  Item,  That  the  said  kings  and  chiefs  (each  for 
limself,  and  his  people  engaging)  shall,  at  no  time, 
mrt,  injure,  or  defraud,  or  suffer  to  be  hurt,  in- 
ured, or  defrauded,  by  any  of  their  Indians,  any 
nhabitant,  or  inhabitants  of  the  said  province1,  either 
heir  persons  or  estates  ;  and  that  the  said  William 
Penn,  his  heirs  and  successors,  shall  not  suffer  to 

done,  or  committed,  by  any  of  the  subjects  of  En- 
gland, within  the  said  province,  any  act  of  hostility, 
>r  violence,  wrong  or  injury  to,  or  against  any  of 
he  said  Indians  ;  but  shall,  on  both  sides,  at  all 
times,  readily  do  justice,  and  perform  all  acts  and 
offices  of  friendship  and  good-will,  to  oblige  each 
ther  to  a  lasting  peac<%  as  aforesaid. 

"  Item,  That  all  and  every  of  the  said  kings  and 
chiefs,  and  all  and  every  particular  of  the  nations 
mder  them,  shall,  at  all  time?,  behave  themselves 
regularly  and  soberly,  according  to  the  la\vs  of  this 
government,  while  they  live  near,  or  among  the 
hristian  inhabitants  thereof,  and  that  the  said 
[ndians  shall  have  the  full  and  free  privileges  and 
mmunities  of  all  the  said  laws,  as  any  other  inha- 
bitant; they  duly  owning  anrt  acknowledging  the 
authority  of  the  crown  of  England,  and  government 
of  this  province. 

'  Item,  That  none  of  the  said  Indians  shall,  at 
any  time,  be  aiding,  assisting,  or  abetting  any  other 
nation,  whether  Indians,  or  others,  that  shall  not,  at 
such  time,  be  in  amity  with  the  crown  of  England, 
and  with  this  government. 

"  Item,  That,  if,  at  any  time,  any  of  the  said 
Indians,  by  means  of  evil-minded  persons,  and 
sowers  of  sedition,  should  hear  any  unkind  or  dis- 
advantageous reports  of  the  English,  as  if  they  had 
evil  designs  against  any  of  the  said  Indians,  in  such 
case,  such  Indians  shall  send  notice  thereof  to  the 
said  William  Penn,  his  heirs,  or  successors,  or  their 
lieutenants,  and  shall  not  give  credence  to  the  said 
reports,  till  by  that  means  they  shall  be  fully  satis- 
fied concerning  the  truth  thereof ;  and  that  the  said 
William  Penn,  his  heirs  and  successors,  or  their 
lieutenants,  shall  at  all  times,  in  such  case,  do  the 
like  by  them. 

"  Item,  That  the  said  kings  and  chiefs,  and  their 
successors,  shall  not  suffer  any  strange  nations  of 
Indians  to  settle,  or  plant,  on  the  further  side  of 
Susquehanna,  or  about  Potomack  river,  but  such  as 
are  there  already  seated,  nor  bring  any  other  In- 
dians into  any  part  of  this  province,  without  the 
special  approbation  and  permission  of  the  said  Wil- 
liam Penn,  his  heirs  and  successors. 

"  Item,  That,  for  the  prevention  of  abuses,  that 
are  too  frequently  put  upon  the  said  Indians,  in 
trade,  the  said  William  Penn,  his  heirs  and  succes- 
sors, shall  not  su|Fer,  or  permit,  any  person  to  trade, 
or  converse  with  any  of  the  said  Indians,  but  such  as 
shall  be  first  allowed  and  approved,  by  an  instru- 
ment under  the  hand  and  seal  of  him,  the  said 
William  Penn,  or  his  heirs,  or  successors,  or  their 
lieutenants  ;  and  that  the  said  Indians  shall  suffer 
no  person  whatsoever  to  buy  or  sell,  or  have  com- 
merce with  any  of  them,  the  said  Indians,  but  such 
as  shall  first  be  approved,  as  aforesaid. 

"  Item,  That  the  said  Indians  shall  not  sell,  or 
dispose  of  any  of  their  skins,  peltry  or  furs,  or  any 
other  effects  of  their  hunting,  to  any  person  or  per- 
sons whatsoever,  out  of  the  said  province,  nor  to  any 


UNITED  STATES. 


%39 


other  person,  but  such  as  shall  be  authorised  to  trade 
with  them,  as  aforesaid  :  and,  that  for  their  encou- 
ragement, the  said  William  Penn,  his  heir's  and  suc- 
cessors, shall  take  care  to  have  them,  the  said  In- 
dians, duly  furnished  with  all  sorts  of  necessary 
goods,  for  their  use  at  reasonable  rates. 

"  Item,  That  the  Potornack  Indians,  aforesaid, 
with  their  colony,  shall  have  free  leave  of  the  said 
William  Pcnn,  to  settle  upon  any  part  of  Potomack 
river,  within  the  bounds  of  this  province:  they 
stiictly  observing  and  practising  all,  and  singular 
the  articles  aforesaid,  to  them  relating. 

"  Item,  The  Indians  of  Couestogo,  upon,  and 
about,  the  river  Su?quehanna,  and  more  especi- 
ally, the  said  Connoodaghtoh  their  king,  doth  fully 
agree  to,  and.  by  these  presents,  absolutely  ratify 
the  bargain  and  sale  of  lands,  lying  near  and  about 
the  said  river,  formerly  made  to  the  said  William 
Penn,  his  heirs  and  successors ;  and  since,  by 
Orettyagh  and  Andaggy,  Junckquagh,  parties  to 
these  presents,  confirmed  to  the  said  William  Penn, 
his  heirs  and  successors,  by  a  deed,  bearing  date, 
the  13th  day  of  September  last,  under  their  hands 
and  seals,  duly  executed.  And  the  said  Connoo- 
daghtoh doth,  for  himself  and  his  nation,  covenant 
and  agree,  that  he  will  at  all  times  be  ready  further 
to  confirm,  and  make  good  the  said  sale,  according 
to  the  tenor  of  the  same  ;  and  that  the  said  Indians 
of  Susquehanna  shall  answer  the  said  William 
Penn,  his  heirs  and  successors,  for  the  good  beha- 
viour and  conduct  of  the  said  Potoraack  Indians ; 
and  for  their  performing  the  several  articles  herein 
expressed. 

"  Item,  The  said  William  Penn  doth  hereby  pro- 
mise, for  himself,  his  heirs  and  successors,  that  he 
and  they  will,  at  all  times,  shew  themselves  true 
friends  and  brothers  to  all,  and  every  of  the  said 
Indians,  by  assisting  them  with  the  best  of  their 
advices,  directions  and  counsels,  and  will,  in  all 
things,  just  and  reasonable,  befriend  them;  they 
behaving  themselves  as  aforesaid,  and  submitting  to 
the  laws  of  this  province,  in  all  things,  as  the  En- 
glish and  other  Christians  therein  do ;  to  which 
they,  the  said  Indians,  hereby  agree  and  oblige 
themselves,  and  their  posterity  for  ever. 

"  In  witness  whereof,  the  said  parties  have,  as  a 
confirmation,  made  mutual  presents  to  each  other; 
the  Indians,  in  five  parcels  of  skins,  and  the  said 
William  Penn,  in  several  English  goods  and  mer- 
chandizes, as  a  binding  pledge  of  the  premises, 
never  to  be  broken  or  violated;  and,  as  a  further 
testimony  thereof,  have  also  to  these  presents  set 
their  hands  and  seals,  the  day  and  year  above 
written." 

The  proprietary  having  subsequently  represented 
to  the  council  the  great  abuses  committed  in  the 
Indian  trade,  with  the  dangers  and  disadvantages 
which  might  arise  from  thence  to  the  province  ;  and 
having  proposed,  that  proper  measures  should  be 
concerted  for  its  regulation,  it  was  resolved,  "  that 
some  effectual  method  should  be  agreed  on  and  used 
for  carrying  on  the  trade  by  a  certain  number,  or 
company  of  persons,  with  a  joint  stock,  under  cer- 
tain regulations  and  restrictions,  more  particularly 
in  regard  to  spirituous  liquors  sold  them;  which 
company  should  use  all  reasonable  means  and  en- 
deavours to  induce  the  Indians  to  a  true  sense  of  a 
proper  value  and  esteem  of  the  Christian  religion, 
by  setting  before  them  good  examples  of  probity 
and  candour,  both  in  commerce  and  behaviour ;  and 
that  care  should  be  taken  to  have  them  duly  in- 
structed in  the  fundamentals  of  Christianity." 


Perm's  motives  fr>r  returning  to  England — His  speech 
to  the  assembly,  with  their  answer— He  takes  leave 

•  oj  the  Indians— Disagreement  between  ilia  province 
and  territories  revived — The  proprietary  endeavours 
to  reconcile  them — His  letter  to  the  assembly,  urging 
their  agreement — The  last  charter  of  Pennsylvania — 
The  proprietary  also  grants  a  charter  to  the  city  of 
Philadelphia  —  Andrew  Hamilton  of  New  Jersey 
being  constituted  deputy-governor,  and  James  Lo- 
gan secretary  of  the  province,  Penn  sails  for  En- 
gland. 

It  was  thought,  from  some  circumstances,  that  the 
proprietary's  real  intention  at  this  time,  was  to  spend 
the  remainder  of  his  life  in  his  province  ;  but  during 
his  absence  from  England,  it  appears  that  measures 
were  in  agitation  there  for  reducing  both  his,  and 
the  other  proprietary  governments  in  America,  into 
regal  ones,  under  pretence  of  advancing  the  prero- 
gative of  the  crown,  and  the  national  advantage  ; 
and  a  bill  for  that  purpose  was  actually  brought 
into  the  House  of  Lords.  Upon  this;,  such  of  the 
owners  of  land  in  Pennsylvania,  as  were  then  in 
England,  immediately  represented  the  hardship  of 
their  case  to  the  parliament,  soliciting  time  for 
Perm's  return,  to  answer  for  himself;  and  dis- 
patched to  him  an  account  of  the  affair,  and  pressed 
his  return  as  soon  as  possible  ;  with  which  he  found 
it  indispensably  necessary  to  comply.  This  first 
occasioned  his  summoning  the  assembly,  which 
agreed  to  the  charter  of  privileges  before  mentioned ; 
to  whom,  on  the  16th  of  September,  1701,  he  made 
the  following  speech  : — • 
"  Friends, 

"  You  cannot  be  more  concerned  than  I  am,  at 
the  frequency  of  your  service  in  assembly,  since  I 
am  very  sensible  of  the  trouble  and  charge  it  con- 
tracts upon  the  country  :  but  the  motives  being  con- 
sidered,  and  that  you  must  have  met  of  course  in 
the  next  month,  I  hope  you  will  not  think  it  an 
hardship  now. 

"  The  reason  that  hastens  your  sessions,  is  the 
necessity  I  am  under,  through  the  endeavours  of 
the  enemies  of  the  prosperity  of  this  country,  to 
go  for  England,  where,  taking  advantage  of  my 
absence,  some  have  attempted  by  false,  or  unrea- 
sonable charges,  to  undermine  our  government,  and 
thereby  the  true  value  of  our  labours  and  prosperity. 
Government  having  been  our  first  encouragement, 
I  confess,  I  cannot  think  of  such  a  voyage  without 
great  reluctancy  of  mind,  having  promised  myself 
the  quietness  of  a  wilderness,  and  that  I  might  stay 
so  long,  at  least  with  you,  as  to  render  every  body 
entirely  easy  and  safe.  For  my  heart  is  among  you, 
as  well  as  my  body,  whatever  some  people  may 
please  to  think  :  and  no  unkindness,  or  disappoint- 
ment shall  (with  submission  to  God's  providence) 
ever  be  able  to  alter  my  love  to  the  country,  and 
resolution  to  return,  and  settle  my  family  and 
posterity  in  it:  but  having  reason  to  believe,  I  can 
at  this  time,  best  serve  you  and  myself  on  that  side 
of  the  water,  neither  the  rudeness  of  the  season,  nor 
tender  circumstances  of  my  family,  can  over-rule  my 
inclinations  to  undertake  it. 

"  Think,  therefore,  (since  all  men  are  mortal) 
of  some  suitable  expedient  and  provision,  for  your 
safety,  as  well  in  your  privileges,  as  property,  and 
you  will  find  me  ready  to  comply  with  whatsoever 
may  render  us  happy,  by  a  nearer  union  of  our 
interests. 

"  Review  again  your  laws  ;  propose  new  ones, 
that  may  better  your  circumstances ;  and  what  you 


«40 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


do,  do  it  quickly,  remembering  that  the  parliament 
•its  the  end  of  next  month ;  and  that  the  sooner  I 
am  there,  the  safer,  I  hope,  we  shall  be  here. 

"  I  must  recommend  to  your  serious  thoughts 
and  care  the  king's  letter  to  me,  for  the  assistance 
of  New  York,  with  350/.  sterling,  as  a  frontier  go- 
vernment;  and  therefore  exposed  to  a  much  greater 
expense,  in  proportion  to  other  colonies;  which  I 
called  the  last  assembly  to  take  into  their  consi- 
deration, and  they  were  pleased,  for  the  reasons 
then  given,  to  refer  to  this. 

"  I  am  also  to  tell  you  the  good  news  of  the  gover- 
nor of  New  York's  happy  issue  of  his  conferences 
with  the  five  nations  of  Indians ;  that  he  hath  not 
only  made  peace  with  them,  for  the  king's  subjects 
of  that  colony;  but  (as  I  had  by  some  letters  before 
desired  him)  for  those  of  all  other  governments  un- 
der the  crown  of  England,  on  the  continent  of 
America,  as  also  the  nations  of  Indians  within  these 
respective  colonies;  which  certainly  merits  our  ac- 
knowledgments. 

"  I  have  done,  when  I  have  told  you,  that  unani- 
mity and  dispatch  are  the  life  of  business,  and  that 
I  desire  and  expect  from  you,  for  your  own  sakes ; 
since  it  may  so  much  contribute  to  the  disappoint- 
ment of  those  that  too  long  have  sought  the  ruin  of 
our  young  country." 

To  this  speech  the  assembly  replied  in  the  follow- 
ing address  :— 

"  May  it  please  the  Proprietary  and  Governor, 

"  We  have,  this  day,  in  our  assembly,  read  thy 
speech,  delivered  yesterday  in  council ;  and,  having 
duly  considered  the  same,  cannot  1m  t  be  under  a 
deep  sense  of  sorrow,  for  thy  purpose  of  so  speedily 
leaving  us,  and  at  the  same  time  taking  notice  of 
thy  paternal  regard  to  us,  and  our  posterity,  the 
freeholders  of  this  province  and  territories  annexed, 
in  thy  loving  and  kind  expressions  of  being  ready 
to  comply  with  whatsoever  expedient  and  provisions 
shall  offer,  for  our  safety,  as  well  in  privileges  as 
property,  and  what  else  may  render  us  happy,  in  a 
nearer  union  of  interests ;  not  doubting  the  per- 
formance of  what  thou  hast  been  so  lovingly  pleased 
to  promise,  we  do,  in  much  humility,  and,  as  a  token 
of  our  gratitude,  return  unto  thee,  the  unfeigned 
thanks  of  this  house.  Subscribed  by  order  of  the 
house,  JOSEPH  GROWDON,  Speaker." 

After  this  the  assembly  presented  to  him  another 
address,  consisting  of  21  articles.  It  respected  his 
successor  in  the  government,  and  the  confirmation 
of  certain  privileges,  therein  specified.  To  every 
one  of  which  he  made  a  special  answer.  The  first 
of  these  articles,  so  far  as  regarded  a  proper  person 
to  succeed  him  as  deputy,  being  particularly  insisted 
on,  he  condescended  so  much  as  to  make  them  an 
offer,  to  nominate  a  substitute  themselves.  From 
which,  acknowledging  the  favour  offered  them,  they 
excused  themselves;  declaring  they  did  not  thiirk 
themselves  qualified  for  the  choice,  and  desired  to 
leave  it  to  his  pleasure.  The  remainder  of  the  pe- 
tition of  this  address,  so  far  as  the  proprietary 
thought  proper  to  comply  with  it,  was  either  after- 
wards granted,  in  the  two  charters  of  the  province 
and  city,  then  in  agitation  or  otherwise  mutually 
agreed." 

The  sachems  of  the  Susquehanna  and  Shawanna, 
and  other  Indians,  having  come  to  Philadelphia  to 
take  leave  of  the  proprietary,  on  the  7th  of  October, 
he  spoke  to  them  in  council,  and  told  them,  "  That 
the  assembly  was  then  enacting  a  law,  according  to 
their  desire,"  to  prevent  their  being  abused  by  sell- 
ing of  rum  among  them;  that  h«  requested  them  to 


unite  all  their  endeavours,  and  their  utmost  extr. 
tion,  in  conjunction  with  those  of  the  government, 
to  put  the  said  law  in  execution." 

At  the  same  time  he  likewise  informed  them, 
"  That  now  this  was  like  to  be  his  last  interview 
with  them,  at  least  before  his  return ;  that  he  had 
always  loved  and  been  kind  to  them;  and  ever 
should  continue  so  to  be,  not  through  any  politic 
design,  or,  on  account  of  self-interest,  but  from  a 
most  real  affection :" — "  And  he  desired  them,  in 
his  absence,  to  cultivate  friendship  with  those  whom 
he  should  leave  behind  in  authority ;  as  they  would 
always,  in  some  degree,  continue  to  be  so  to  them, 
as  himself  had  ever  been;  lastly,  that  be  had 
charged  the  members  of  council,  and  then  also  re- 
newed the  same  charge,  that  they  should,  in  all  re- 
spects,  be  kind  to  them,  and  entertain  them  with 
all  courtesy  and  demonstrations  of  good-will,  as 
himself  had  ever  done:  which  the  said  member* 
promised  faithfully  to  observe; — then,  after  making 
them  some  presents,  they  withdrew." 

But  during  these  transactions,  and  while  th» 
charter  of  privileges  was  under  consideration  and 
preparing,  the  disagreement,  which  had  before  ap- 
peared between  the  members  of  assembly  for  the 
province,  and  those  for  the  territories,  began  again 
to  exhibit  itself,  and  tend  to  an  open  rupture.  The 
territory  men  were  said  to  have  been  for  obtaining 
some  exclusive  powers,  particular  to  themselves, 
which,  being  thought  unreasonable,  could  not,  there- 
fore, be  granted ;  and  not  being  able  to  carry  their 
point,  on  the  10th  instant,  the  members  for  the 
territories  abruptly  left  the  house;  declaring  their 
intention  of  returning  to  their  respective  homes. 
But,  on  the  14th,  most  of  them  appeared  before  th» 
proprietary  in  council,  remonstrating  against  some 
proceedings  of  the  assembly,  on  the  10th  instant, 
which  they  declared  were  in  their  consequence* 
highly  injurious  and  destructive  to  the  privileges  of 
the  "  lower  counties,"  and  which,  consistent  with 
their  duty  to  their  constituents,  they  apprehended 
they  could  not  sit  to  see  carried  into  effect;  and  there- 
fore they  informed  the  governor  they  thought  it  best 
for  them  to  depart  to  their  respective  habitations. 

The  proprietary  inquired  into  the  affair,  and 
heard  and  answered  all  their  reasons  and  objections; 
and  then  told  them,  "  ThaJ  he  took  this  their  con* 
duct  very  unkind,  even  to  himself  in  particular.'* 

At  another  meeting  of  the  proprietary  and  mem- 
bers of  council,  on  the  same  day,  the  assembly 
being  sent  for,  both  those  for  the  province,  and  the 
secluding  members  appeared ;  and  the  proprietary 
told  them,  "  That  his  time  being  short,  he  must 
come  briefly  to  the  point;  that  it  was  no  small 
wound  to  him,  to  think,  that  at  the  earnest  desire 
of  the  lower  counties,  as  well  as  the  good-will  of 
the  upper,  he  had  engaged  in  an  undertaking, 
which  cost  him,  ^at  least,  two  or  three  thousand 
pounds  to  unite  them,  and  yet,  that  they  should  now 
endanger  that  union,  and  divide,  after  they  had 
been  recognised  as  one,  not  only  by  the  king's  com- 
mission to  Governor  Fletcher,  but  also  by  his  let- 
ters patent,  far  his  own  restoration,  and  the  king's 
several  letters:  he  therefore  would  not  have  any 
thing  resolved  on,  but  what,  was  considerate  and 
weighty,  lest  it  should  look  as  unkind,  and  now,  at 
his  departure,  carry  a  very  ill  report  of  them  to 
England." 

The  territory  members  objected,  that  they  werw 
great  sufferers  by  that  act  of  union,  however  it  wa« 
at  first  intended ;  and  could  not  support  th«  burden 
of  the  charge. 


UNITED  STATES. 


841 


The  proprietary  replied,  "  They  were  free  to 
jreak  off,  and  might  act  distinctly  by  themselves ;" 
at  which  they  seemed  pleased,  and  expressed  their 
satisfaction;  "  but  then,"  continued  the  proprietary, 
"  it  must  be  upon  amicable  terms,  and  a  good  un- 
derstanding; that  they  must  first  resolve  to  settle 
the  laws;  and  that,  as  the  interest  of  the  province 
and  that  of  those  lower  counties  would  be  insepara- 
bly the  same,  they  should  both  use  a  conduct  con 
sistent  with  that  relation,"  &c. 

They  appear  to  have  remained  obstinate,  by  the 
following  letter  of  the  proprietary ;  which  was  sent 
the  next  day,  to  the  speaker,  to  be  communicated 
to  the  whole  house. 

"  Friends, 

"  Your  union  is  what  I  desire ;  but  your  peace, 
and  accommodating  one  another,  is  what  I  must 
expect  from  you  :  the  reputation  of  it  is  something ; 
the  reality  much  more.  And  I  desire  you  to  re- 
member and  observe  what  I  say :  yield  in  circum- 
stantials, to  preserve  essentials  ;  and,  being  safe  in 
one  another,  you  will  always  be  so  in  esteem  with 
me.  Make  me  not  sad,  now  I  am  going  to  leave 
you  ;  since  it  is  for  you,  as  well  as  for, 

"  Your  friend  and  proprietary  and  governor, 
"  WILLIAM  PENN." 
"  October  15th,  1701." 

The  proprietary's  influence  and  authority  appear 
to  have  prevailed  on  them,  to  a  present  accommo- 
dation, with  the  provision,  in  the  following  charter, 
for  a  conditional  separation,  if  they  chose  it,  within 
the  space  of  three  years. 

In  May  1700,  the  former  charter  had  been  sur- 
rendered into  the  hands  of  the  proprietary  and  go- 
vernor, by  six  parts  in  seven  of  the  assembly  ;  and 
on  the  28th  day  of  October  1701,  just  before  his 
departure,  the  council,  the  assembly  of  the  province, 
and  several  of  the  principal  inhabitants  of  Philadel- 
phia attending,  he  presented  them  with  their  last 
charter  of  privileges,  which  is  as  follows  : — 

"  The  Charter  of  Privileges, 
"  Granted  by  William  Penn,  Esq.,  to  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Pennsylvania  and  territories. 

"  William  Penn,  proprietary  and  governor  of  the 
province  of  Pennsylvania,  and  territories  thereunto 
belonging  to  all,  to  whom  these  presents  shall  come, 
sendeth  greeting : — 

"  Whereas,  King  Charles  II.,  by  his  letters  pa- 
tent, under  the  great  seal  of  England,  bearing  date 
the  fourth  day  of  March,  in  the  year  1680,  was 
graciously  pleased  to  give  and  grant  unto  me,  and 
my  heirs  and  assigns  for  ever,  this  province  of 
Pennsylvania,  with  divers  great  powers  and  juris- 
dictions, for  the  well  government  thereof. 

"  And  whereas,  the  king's  dearest  brother,  James, 
duke  of  York  and  Albany,  &c.  by  his  deeds  of  feoff- 
ment,  under  his  hand  and  seal,  duly  perfected, 
bearing  date  the  24th  day  of  August,  1682,  did  grant 
unto  me,  my  heirs  and  assigns,  all  that  tract  of 
land,  now  called  the  territories  of  Pennsylvania, 
together  with  powers  and  jurisdictions  for  the  good 
government  thereof. 

"  And  whereas,  for  the  encouragement  of  all  the 
freemen  and  planters  that  might  be  concerned  in 
the  said  province  and  territories,  and  for  the  good 
government  thereof,  I,  the  said  William  Penn,  in 
the  year  1683,  for  me,  my  years  and  assigns,  did 
grant  and  confirm  unto  all  the  freemen,  planters 
and  adventurers  then-in,  divers  liberties,  franchises 
and  properties,  as,  by  the  said  grant,  entitled,  "  The 
frame  of  the  government  of  the  province  of  Penn- 
sylvania and  territories  thereunto  btlonging,  in 


America,"  may  appear;  which  charter,  or  frame, 
being  found,  in  some  parts  of  it,  not  so  suitable  to  the 
present  circumstances  of  the  inhabitants,  was,  m 
the  third  month,  in  the  year  1700,  delivered  up  to 
me,  by  six  parts  of  seven  of  the  freemen  of  this 
province  and  territories,  in  general  assembly  met, 
provision  being  made  in  the  said  charter  for  that 
end  and  purpose. 

"  And  whereas,  I  was  then  pleased  to  promise 
that  I  would  restore  the  said  charter  to  them  again, 
with  necessary  alterations,  or,  in  lieu  thereof,  give 
them  another,  better  adapted  to  answer  the  present 
circumstances  and  conditions  of  the  said  inhabitants  ; 
which  they  have  now  by  the  representatives,  in  ge- 
neral assembly  met,  at  Philadelphia,  requested  me 
to  grant. 

"  Know  ye  therefore,  That,  for  the  further  well- 
being,  and  good  government  of  the  said  province 
and  territories  ;  and  in  pursuance  of  the  rights  and 
powers  before  mentioned,  I,  the  said  William  Penn, 
do  declare,  grant  and  confirm  unto  all  the  freemen, 
planters  and  adventurers,  and  other  inhabitants 
of,  and  in,  the  said  province  and  territories  there- 
unto annexed,  for  ever. 

"  I.  Because  no  people  can  be  truly  happy, 
though  under  the  greatest  enjoyment  of  civil  liber- 
ties, if  abridged  of  the  freedom  of  their  consciences, 
as  to  religious  profession  and  worship;  and  Almighty 
God  being  the  only  Lord  of  conscience,  Father  of 
lights  and  spirits ;  and  the  author,  as  well  as  object 
of  all  divine  knowledge,  faith  and  worship,  who 
only  doth  enlighten  the  mind,  and  persuade  and 
convince  the  understandings  of  people,  I  do  hereby 
grant  and  declare  that  no  person  or  persons,  in- 
habiting this  province  or  territories,  who  shall  con- 
fess and  acknowledge  one  Almighty  God,  the  Crea- 
tor, upholder,  and  ruler  of  the  world  ;  and  profess 
him,  or  themselves  obliged  to  live  quietly  under  the 
civil  government,  shall  be  in  any  case  molested,  or 
prejudiced  in  his  or  their  person,  or  estate,  because 
of  his  or  their  conscientious  persuasion,  or  practice, 
nor  be  compelled  to  frequent,  or  maintain,  any  re- 
ligious worship,  place  or  ministry,  contrary  to  his, 
or  their  mind,  or  to  do  or  suffer  any  other  act,  or 
thing  contrary  to  their  religious  persuasion. 

"  And  that  all  persons,  who  also  profess  to  be- 
lieve in  Jesus  Christ,  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  shall 
be  capable  (notwithstanding  their  other  persua- 
sions, or  practices  in  point  of  conscience  and  re- 
ligion) to  serve  this  government  in  any  capacity, 
both  legislatively  and  executively,  he,  or  they  so- 
lemnly promising,  when  lawfully  required,  allegi- 
ance to  the  king,  as  sovereign,  and  fidelity  to  the 
proprietary  and  governor,  and  taking  the  attests, 
as  now  established  by  law,  made  at  Newcastle,  in 
the  year  1700,  entitled,  '  An  act  directing  the  at- 
tests of  several  officers  and  ministers,'  as  now 
amended  and  confirmed  this  present  assembly. 

'  II.  For  the  well-governing  of  this  province 
and  territories,  there  shall  be  an  assembly,  yearly 
chosen  by  the  freemen  thereof,  to  consist  of  four 
persons  out  of  each  county,  of  most  note  for  virtue, 
wisdom  and  ability  (or  of  a  greater  number  at  any 
time,  as  the  governor  and  assembly  shall  agree), 
upon  the  first  day  of  October,  for  ever ;  and  shall 
sit  on  the  fourteenth  of  the  same  month  at  Phila- 
delphia, unless  the  governor  and  council,  for  the 
time  being,  shall  see  cause  to  appoint  another  place, 
within  the  said  province  or  territories :  which  as- 
sembly shall  have  power  to  choose  a  speaker,  and 
other  their  officers ;  and  shall  be  judges  of  the  qua- 
lifications and  elections  of  their  own  members  •,  sit 


842 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


upon  their  own  adjournments,  appoint  committees  ;  j  tavern,  or  house  of  public  entertainment,  but  such 
propose  bills,   in  order  to  pass  into  laws ;  impeach    who  are  first  recommended  to  him,  under  the  hands 


criminals  and  redress  grievances  ;  aud  shall  have 
all  other  powers  and  privileges  of  an  assembly,  ac- 
cording to  the  rights  of  the  freeborn  subjects  of  En- 
gland, and  as  is  usual  in  any  of  the  king's  planta- 
tions in  America. 

"  And  if  any  county,  or  counties  shall  refuse,  or 
neglect  to  choose  their  respective  representatives, 
as  aforesaid,  or  if  chosen,  do  not  meet  to  serve  in 
assembly,  those,  who  are  so  chosen  and  met,  shall 
have  the  full  power  of  an  assembly,  in  as  ample  a 
manner  as  if  all  the  representatives  had  been  chosen 
and  met,  provided  they  are  not  less  than  two-thirds 


of  the  whole  number,  that  ought  to  meet 

"  And,  that  the  qualifications  of  electors  and 
elected,  and  all  other  matters  and  things  relating  to 
elections  of  representatives  to  serve  in  assemblies, 
though  not  herein  particularly  expressed,  shall  be 
and  remain,  as  by  a  law  of  this  government,  made 
at  Newcastle,  in  the  year  1700,  entitled,  '  An  act 
to  ascertain  the  number  of  members  of  assembly, 
and  to  regulate  the  elections.' 

"  III.  That  the  freemen  in  each  respective  county, 
at  the  time  and  place  of  meeting,  for  electing  their 
representatives,  to  serve  in  assembly,  may,  so  often 
as  there  shall  be  occasion,  choose  a  double  number 
of  persons,  to  present  to  the  governor,  for  sheriffs 
and  coroners,  to  serve  for  three  years  if  they  so  long 
behave  themselves  well,  out  of  which  elections  and 
presentments  the  governor  shall  nominate  and  com- 
missionate  one  for  each  of  the  said  offices,  the  third 
after  such  presentment,  or  else  the  first  named 
such  presentment,  for  each  office  as  aforesaid,  shall 
stand  and  serve  in  that  office  for  the  time  before 
respectively  limited :  in  case  of  death  and  default 
such  vacancies  shall  be  supplied  by  the  governor, 
to  serve  to  the  end  of  the  said  term. 

"  Provided  always,  '  That,  if  the  said  freemen 
shall  at  any  time  neglect,  or  decline  to  choose  a 
person,  or  persons,  for  either,  or  both  the  aforesaid 
offices,  then,  and  in  such  case,  the  persons  that  are, 
or  shall  be,  in  the  respective  offices  of  sheriffs  or 
coroners,  at  the  time  of  election,  shall  remain  there- 
in, until  they  shall  be  removed  by  another  election 
as  aforesaid. 

"  And,  that  the  justices  of  the  respective  coun- 
ties shall,  or  may  nominate,  or  present  to  the  go- 
vernor, three  persons,  to  serve  for  clerk  of  the  peace 
for  the  s-aid  county,  when  there  is  a  vacancy ;  one 
of  wriich  the  governor  shall  commissionate  within 
ten  days  after  such  presentment,  or  else  the  firs 
nominated,  shall  serve  in  the  said  office,  during 
good  behaviour. 

"  IV.  That  the  laws  of  this  government  t-hall  be 
in  this  style,  viz.  '  By  the  governor,  with  the  conseni 
and  approbation  of  the  freemen  in  general  assem 
bly  met,'  and  shall  be,  after  confirmation  by  th( 
governor,  forthwith  recorded  in  the  rolls-office,  anc 
kept  at  Philadelphia;  unless  the  governor  and  as 
sembly  shall  agree  to  appoint  another  place. 

"  V.  That  all  criminals  shall  have  the  same  pri 
vileges  of  witnesses  and  council  as  their  prosecutors 
"  VI.  That  no  person  or  persons  shall,  or  may 
at  any  time  hereafter,  be  obliged  to  answer  an) 
complaint,  matter,  or  thing  whatsoever  relating  t 
property,  before  the  governor  and  council,  or  in 
any  other  place,  but  in  the  ordinary  courts  of  jus 
tice,  unless  appeals  thereunto  shall  be  hereafter  b 
law  appointed. 

"  VII.  That  no  person  within  this  governmen 
shall  be  licensed  by  the  governor  to  keep  ordinary 


fthe  justices  of  the  respective  counties,  signed  in 
pen  court;  which  justices  are,  and  shall  be,  hereby 
mpowered  to  suppress  and  forbid  any  person  keep- 
ng  such  public  house,  as  aforesaid,  upon  their  misbe- 
aviour,  on  such  penalties,  as  the  law  doth,  or  shall 
irect;  and  to  recommend  others,  from  time  to 
ime,  as  they  shall  see  occasion. 

"  VIII.  If  any  person,   through   temptation,    or 

melancholy,  shall  destroy   himself,  his  estate,  real 

nd  personal,  shall,   notwithstanding,    descend  to 

is  wife  and  children,  or  relations,  us  i;  he  had  died 

d   natural   death ;  aud  if  any  person   shall  be  de- 

troyed  or  killed  by  casualty,  or  accident,  there  shall 

>e  no  forfeiture  to  the  governor  by  reason  thereof. 

"'  And  no  act,  law,  or  ordinance  whatsoever  shall, 
at  any  time,  hereafter  be  made  or  done,  to  alter, 
:hange,  or  diminish  the  form,  or  effect  of  this 
:harter,  or  of  any  part,  or  clause,  therein,  contraiy 
,o  the  true  intent,  and  meaning  thereof,  without  tho 
consent  of  the  governor,  for  the  time  being,  and  six 
>arts  of  seven  of  the  assembly  met. 

'  And,  because  the  happiness  of  mankind  de- 
pends so  much  upon  the  enjoying  o*  liberty  of  their 
consciences,  as  aforesaid,  I  do  hereby  solemnly  de- 
clare, promise  and  grant,  for  me,  my  heirs  and  as- 
signs, that  the  first  article  of  this  charter,  relating 
;o  liberty  of  conscience,  and  every  part  and  clause 
therein,  according  to  the  true  intent  and  meaning 
thereof,  shall  be  kept,  and  remain,  without  any  al- 
;eration,  inviolably  for  ever. 

"  And  lastly,  I,  the  said  William  Penn,  proprie- 
:ary  and  governor  of  the  province  of  Pennsylvania, 
and  territories  thereunto  belonging,  for  myself  my 
icirs  and  assigns,  have  solemnly  declared,  granted, 
and  confirmed,  aud  do  hereby  solemnly  declare, 
*rant,  and  confirm,  that  neither  I,  my  heirs  or 
assigns,  shall  procure  or  do  any  thing,  or  things, 
whereby  the  liberties  in  this  charter  contained  and 
expressed,  nor  any  part  thereof,  shall  be  infringed 
or  broken  :  and  if  any  thing  shall  be  procured  or 
done,  by  any  person  or  persons,  contrary  to  these 
presents,  it  shall  be  held  of  no  force  or  effect. 

'  In  witness  whereof,  I,  the  said  William  Peun, 
of  Philadelphia  in  Pennsylvania,  have  uuto  this 
charter  of  liberties  set  my  hand  and  broad  seal,  this 
28th  day  of  October,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord,  1701, 
being  the  thirteenth  year  of  the  reign  of  King 
William  III.,  over  England,  Scotland,  France,  and 
Ireland,  &c.,  and  the  21st  year  of  my  government." 

"  And,  notwithstanding  the  closure  and  test  of 
this  present  charter,  as  aforesaid,  I  think  fit  to  add 
this  following  proviso  thereunto,  as  part  of  the 
same,  that  is  to  say,  That,  notwithstanding  any 
clause  or  clauses  in  the  above-mentioned  charter, 
obliging  the  province  and  territories  to  join  together 
in  legislation,  I  am  content,  and  do  hereby  declare, 
that  if  the  representatives  of  the  province  and  terri- 
tories shall  not  hereafter  agree  to  join  together  in 
legislation,  and  that  the  same  shall  be  signified  to 
me,  or  my  deputy,  in  open  assembly,  or  otherwise 
from  under  the  hands  and  seals  of  the  representa- 
tives, for  the  time  being,  of  the  province  and  terri- 
tories, or  the  major  part  of  either  of  them,  at  any 
time  within  three  years  from  the  date  hereof,  that, 
in  such  case,  the  inhabitants  of  each  of  the  three 
counties  of  this  province  shall  not  have  less  than 
eight  persons  to  represent  them  in  assembly,  for 
the  province;  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  of 
Philadelphia  (when  the  said  town  is  incorporated) 
two  persons,  to  represent  them  in  assembly;  and 


UNITED  STATES. 


84* 


the  inhabitants  of  each  county  in  the  territories  shall 
have  as  many  persons  to  represent  them  in  a  dis- 
tinct assembly  for  the  territories  as  shall  be  by 
them  requested  as  aforesaid. 

"  Notwithstanding  which  separation  of  the  pro- 
vince and  territories,  in  respect  of  legislation,  I  do 
hereby  promise,  grant  and  declare,  that  the  inhabit- 
ants of  both  province  and  territories  shall  separately 
enjoy  all  other  liberties,  privileges  and  benefits 
granted  jointly  to  them  in  this  charter,  any  law, 
usage,  or  custom  of  this  government  heretofore 
made  and  practised,  or  any  law  made  and  passed 
by  the  general  assembly  to  the  contrary  hereof  not- 
withstanding. "WILLIAM  PENN." 

"  This  charter  of  privileges  being  distinctly  read 
in  assembly,  and  the  whole,  and  every  part  thereof, 
being  approved  of,  and  agreed  to  by  us,  we  do  thank- 
fully receive  the  same  from  our  proprietary  and  go- 
vernor of  Philadelphia,  this  28lh  day  of  October, 
1701. 

"  Signed  on  behalf,  and  by  order  of  the  assembly, 
per  JOSEPH'GROWDON,  Speaker. 

"  Edward  Shippen,  Phineas  Pemberton,  Samuel 
Carpenter,  Griffith  Owen,  Caleb  Pusey,  Thomas 
Story,  proprietary  and  governor's  council." 

The  proprietary  likewise  by  letters  patent,  under 
the  gieat  seal,  bearing  even  date  with  this  charter, 
established  a  council  of  state  for  the  province  and 
territories,  "  To'  consult  and  assist  the  proprietary 
himself,  or  his  lieutenants,  or  deputies,  with  the  best 
of  their  advice  and  counsel,  in  public  affairs  ami 
matters  relating  to  the  government,  and  to  the 
peace,  well-being  and  safety  of  the  people  thereof; 
and,  in  the  absence  of  the  proprietary,  or  upon  the 
lieutenant's  death,  or  incapacity,  to  exercise  all, 
and  singular,  the  powers  of  government,"  &c. 

Moreover  before  the  proprietary  left  the  country, 
he  favoured  the  town  of  Philadelphia,  then  become 
very  considerable,  and  in  a  flourishing  condition, 
with  a  particular  memorial  of  his  benevolence,  by 
granting  the  inhabitants  likewise  a  charter  of  privi- 
leges, for  its  particular  regulation. 

By  this  deed,  Philadelphia  is  constituted  a  city, 
bounded,  incorporated  and  endowed  with  certain 
privileges  and  immunities.  Edward  Shippen  was 
appointed  the  first  mayor;  Thomas  Story,  the  re- 
corder, and  Thomas  Farmer,  sheriff;  and  the  first 
town-clerk,  and  clerk  of  the  peace,  court  and  couits, 
as  appointed  in  this  charter,  was  Robert  Ashton. 
The  first  aldermen  thereby  appointed,  were  Joshua 
Carpenter,  Griffith  Jones,  Anthony  Morris,  Joseph 
Wilcox,  Nathan  Stanbury,  Charles  Read,  Thomas 
Masters,  and  William  Carter. 

The  first  common-council-men  were,  John  Parsons, 
William  Hudson,  William  Lee,  Nehemiah  Allen, 
Thomas  Paschall,  John  Budd,  junior,  Edward 
Smont,  Samuel  Buckley,  James  Atkinson,  Penti- 
cost  Teague,  Francis  Cook,  and  Henry  Badcock. 
The  Mayor  to  be  chosen  annually,  by  at  least  five  of 
the  aldermen,  and  nine  of  the  common-council ; 
whose  number  was  to  be  unlimited  ;  and  they  wrere 
afterwards  to  be  chosen,  in  the  same  manner,  by 
themselves,  or  by  the  corporation  ;  consisting  of  the 
mayor,  recorder,  aldermen,  and  common-council- 
men,  by  The  name  of,  "  The  mayor  and  common- 
alty of  Philadelphia,  &c." 

Having  constituted  Andrew  Hamilton,  Esq.  one  of 
the  proprietors  of  East  New  Jersey,  and  some  time 
governor  of  both  East  and  West  New  Jersey,  his 
deputy-governor,  Penn  sailed  for  England ;  James 
Logan  being,  by  commission,  appointed  secretary  of 
the  province,  and  clerk  of  the  council 


King  William  dies,  and  is  succeeded  by  Queen  Anne— 
Penn  in  favour  at  court — Governor  Hamilton's  ad- 
ministration and  death — Province  and  territories 
irreconcilable— They  agree  to  a  separation  in  legis- 
lation •  Edward  Shippen,  president  of  the  council— 
Resolve  of  the  provincial  assembly  after  separation- 
John  Evans  arrives  as  deputy- governor,  and  endea- 
vours to  reunite  the  province  and  territories  in  legis- 
lation, but  in  vain — The  governor  displeased  with 
the  assembly  of  the  pronince — David  Lloyd — Gover- 
nor's proclamation  for  raising  a  militia — He  meets 
the  assembly  of  the  territories  at  Newcastle — The 
provincial  assembly  remonstrate  to  the  proprietary—- 
The governor's  speech  in  1705 — A  very  different 
assembly  elected,  and  more  harmony  succeeds— 
Thomas  Chalkley's  visit  to  the  Indians  at  Connes- 
togo,  with  a  memorial  of  him — Pennsylvania  af- 
fected in  times  of  war,  on  account  of  the  Quakert' 
principles, 

Penn  arrived  at  Portsmouth,  about  the  middle  of 
December.  But  after  his  return  to  England,  the 
bill  before  mentioned,  for  reducing  the  proprietary 
governments  into  regal  ones,  which,  through  the 
solicitations  of  his  friends,  had  been  postponed,  was 
entirely  dropt.  Soon  after  this,  or,  on  the  18th  of 
March  1702,  King  William  died  ;  and  the  Princess 
Anne,  succeeding  to  the  throne,  commenced  her 
reign ;  and  Penn  being  in  her  favour,  was  often  at 
court;  and  on  that  account,  he  took  lodgings  at 
Kensington. 

Governor  Hamilton's  administration  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, after  the  proprietary's  departure,  continued 
only  till  the  February  in  the  next  following  year, 
when  he  died.  The  principal  part  of  his  time 
was  taken  up  in  endeavouring  a  union  between 
the  province  and  territories.  For  this  purpose  Ha- 
milton laboured  much  with  them,  and  used  many 
arguments  to  induce  them  to  unite,  but  without  suc- 
cess. Upon  his  death  the  government  devolved  on 
the  council,  Edward  Shippen  being  president. 

During  the  period  of  this  dispute  for  a  union  be- 
tween the  representatives  of  the  province  and  terri- 
tories, not  much  other  public  business  of  importance 
appears  to  have  been  transacted.  The  latter  per- 
sisted in  an  absolute  refusal  to  join  with  the  former, 
in  legislation,  till  it  was  finally,  in  the  year  1703, 
agreed  and  settled  between  them,  that  they  should 
compose  different  and  distinct  assemblies,  entirely 
independent  of  each  other ;  pursuant  to  the  liberty 
allowed  by  a  clause  in  the  charter  for  that  purpose. 

The  province  now,  by  charter,  also  claimed  a  sepa- 
rate representative  of  its  own,  consisting  of  eight 
members  for  each  of  the  three  counties,  and  two  for  the 
city  of  Philadelphia;  which  members,  being  in  Oct. 
1703,  convened  and  duly  qualified  according  to  law, 
their  first  resolution  was  in  the  following  words  : — 

"  Resolved,  That  the  representatives,  or  dele- 
gates, of  the  freeholders  of  this  province,  according 
to  the  powers  granted  by  the  proprietary  and  gover- 
nor, by  his  charter,  dated  the  28th  day  of  October, 
anno  Domini  1701,  may  meet  in  assembly,  on  the 
14th  day  of  October  yearly,  at  Philadelphia,  or  else- 
where, as  shall  be  appointed  by  the  governor  and 
council,  for  the  time  being  ;  and  so  continue  on 
their  own  adjournments,  from  time  to  time,  during 
the  year  of  their  service,  as  they  shall  find  occasion, 
or  think  fit,  for  preparing  bills,  debating  thereon, 
and  voting  in  order  to  their  being  passed  into  laws  ; 
appointing  committees,  redressing  of  grievances, 
and  impeaching  of  criminals,  as  they  shall  sec 
meet,  in  as  ample  a  manner  as  any  of  the  assem- 


844. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


blies  of  this  province  and  territories  have  hitherto  at 
any  time  done,  or  might  legally  do,  as  effectually, 
to  all  intents  and  purposes,  as  any  of  the-neighbour- 
ing  governments,  under  the  crown  of  England,  have 
power  to  do,  according  to  the  rights  and  privileges 
of  the  freeborn  subjects  of  England,  as  near  as  may 
be,  respecting  the  infancy  of  the  government,  and 
the  capacities  of  the  people  :  and  that  the  said  as- 
sembly, as  often  as  the  governor  for  the  time  being 
shall  require,  attend  on  him,  in  order  to  legislation  ; 
and  to  answer  all  other  just  ends  of  assemblies,  in 
any  emergencies,  or  reasons  of  state  ;  but  shall  not 
be  subject  at  any  time  to  be  by  him  adjourned,  pro- 
rogued, or  dissolved." 

After  this,  when  the  president  and  council  pro- 
posed to  confer  with  the  assembly  about  a  proper 
time  to  meet  again,  the  latter  assumed  the  power 
of  adjourning  wholly  to  themselves ;  and  upon  the 
president  and  council's  objecting  against  this  ex- 
tent of  the  assembly's  claim  of  sitting  wholly  upon 
their  own  adjournments,  &c.,  they  immediately  ad- 
journed themselves  to  the  1st  day  of  the  ensuing 
May,  without  giving  the  council  any  further  time 
to  confer  with  them  about  it. 

Such  was  the  state  of  affairs,  when  John  Evans, 
•who  was  appointed  deputy-governor  by  the  proprie- 
tor, with  the  queen's  royal  approbation,  on  the 
death  of  Andrew  Hamilton,  arrived  in  the  province, 
in  February,  1704;  and  having  first  augmented  the 
number  of  the  members  of  council,  in  April  con- 
vened the  representatives  both  of  the  piovince  and 
territories,  at  the  same  time  and  place,  in  the  coun- 
cil-chamber in  Philadelphia. 

Governor  Evans,  notwithstanding  the  agreement 
made  between  the  province  and  territories,  before 
his  arrival,  respecting  their  future  separation,  in  le- 
gislation, renewed  the  attempt  for  uniting  them. 

On  this  the  members  of  the  territories,  who  before 
appeared  to  have  principally  occasioned  the  division, 
now  seemed  inclined  to  accept  the  charter  on  cer- 
tain conditions,  and  to  unite  with  the  members  of 
the  province ;  but  the  latter,  who  had  so  long  been 
hampered  with  the  refractory  behaviour  of  the 
former,  now,  in  their  turn,  absolutely  refused  to  be 
connected  with  them;  and  adhered  to  their  prior 
agreement  for  a  separation. 

Thus  all  negotiation  on  this  head  came  to  an 
end;  and  the  assembly  of  the  province  incurred 
the  governor's  displeasure,  by  refusing  to  comply 
with  his  recommendation ;  which,  with  the  disputes 
that  afterwards  arose  between  them,  on  three  bills 
proposed  by  the  assembly,  one  to  confirm  the 
great  charter  of  privileges  of  the  province,  another 
to  confirm  that  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  and  a 
bill  of  property,  which  the  governor  refused  to  pass, 
without  such  amendments  as  the  assembly  would 
not  agree  to,  occasioned  such  a  misunderstanding 
between  the  governor  and  the  house,  that  but  little  of 
moment  appears  to  have  been  transacted  during 
the  sittings  of  this,  and  the  next  succeeding  assem- 
bly ;  at  the  head  of  both  which  appeared  David 
Lloyd,  as  speaker. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  year  1704,  Governor 
Evans  met  the  assembly  of  the  lower  counties  at 
Newcastle;  which  was  the  first  assembly  that  had 
acted  there  in  legislation,  independent  of  the  pro- 
vince. Prior  to  the  proprietary's  departure,  he  had 
published  a  proclamation,  to  raise  a  militia,  among 
those  whose  religious  persuasion  did  not  prevent 
their  bearing  of  arms ;  it  being  in  the  time  of  the 
war  between  England,  France,  and  Spain. 

But,  from  what  had  already  passed  between  the 


governor,  and  the  assembly  of  the  province,  the  latter 
fell  into  such  an  ill  humour,  that  in  August,  1704, 
they  privately  drew  up  a  remonstrance,  in  a  letter 
to  the  proprietary ;  which  was  said  to  be  filled  with 
complaints,  highly  reflecting,  even  on  the  proprie- 
tary himself,  as  well  as  the  deputy-governor,  Evans, 
and  the  secretary,  James  Logan.  And  some  time 
after,  when  the  governor  heard  of  this,  he,  by  a 
written  message  to  the  house,  required  a  copy  of  it; 
which  occasioned  further  misunderstandings. 

The  effect  which  these  proceedings  had  with 
the  proprietary  in  England,  may,  in  part,  appear 
from  the  governor's  speech  to  the  assembly,  in  th« 
early  part  of  the  year  1705,  wherein  he  says; 

"  The  proprietary,  gentlemen,  is  su  tar  from 
agreeing  with  your  opinion  in  these  matters,  that 
he  is  gieatly  surprised  to  see,  instead  of  suitable 
supplies,  for  the  maintenance  of  government,  and 
defraying  public  charges,  for  the  public  safety,  time 
only  lost  (while  his  constant  expenses  run  on)  in 
disputes  upon  heads,  which  he  had  as  fully  settled 
before  his  departure,  as  could  on  the  best  precau- 
tions, be  thought  convenient,  or  reasonable,  even 
at  a  time  when  he  was  leaving  you  in  doubt  whether 
it  would  be  possible  to  divert  the  bill,  then  moving 
in  parliament,  for  annexing  all  these  governments 
to  the  crown ;  which  being  now  diverted,  and  him- 
self secure  in  the  possession  of  his  right,  so  long  as 
his  circumstances  shall  render  the  administration 
of  it  practicable,  he  is  the  more  astonished  to  find 
you,  for  whose  sakes  chiefly,  and  not  his  own,  he 
has  undergone  the  late  fatigues,  and  expensive 
troubles,  in  maintaining  it,  express  no  greater 
sense  of  gratitude,  than  has  hitherto  appeared. 

"  The  proprietary  also  further  assures  us,  that 
had  those  three  bills  (of  which  copies  were  sent 
home)  been  passed  into  acts  here,  they  would  cer- 
tainly have  been  vacated  by  her  majesty,  being 
looked  on  by  men  of  skill,  to  whom  they  have  been 
shewn,  as  very  great  absurdities;  but,  what  I  must 
not  be  silent  in  is,  that  he  highly  resents  that  hei- 
nous indignity,  and  most  scandalous  treatment  he 
has  met  with,  in  a  letter  directed  not  only  to  him- 
self, but  also  to  be  shown  to  some  other  persons, 
disaffected  to  him,  in  the  name  of  the  assembly  and 
people  of  this  province,  of  which  I  have  formerly 
demanded  a  copy,  bui  was  then  denied  it,  under  pre- 
tence (when  it  was  too  late)  that  it  should  be  re- 
called :  if  that  letter  was  the  act  of  the  people  truly 
represented,  he  thinks  such  proceedings  are  suffi- 
cient to  cancel  all  obligations  of  care  over  them;  but 
if  done  by  particular  persons  only,  and  'tis  an  im- 
posture in  the  name  of  the  whole,  he  expects  the 
country  will  purge  themselves,  and  take  care  that 
due  satisfaction  be  given  him. 

"  The  proprietary  (who,  it  is  well  known,  has 
hitherto  supported  this  government)  upon  such 
treatment  as  he  has  met  with,  is  frequently  solicited 
to  resign  and  throw  up  all,  without  any  further  care ; 
but  his  tenderness  to  those  in  the  place,  whom  he 
knows  to  be  still  true  and  honest,  prevails  with  him 
to  give  the  people  yet  an  opportunity  of  shewing 
what  they  will  do,  before  all  be  brought  to  a  closing 
period. 

"  Methods  have  been  taken  to  provoke  him  to 
this,  that  there  might  be  the  greater  shew  of  blame 
for  it,  when  done,  though  it  could  not  be  avoided ; 
but  assure  yourselves,  that  he  will  be  justified  by  all 
reasonable  men,  for  withdrawing  the  exercise  of  his 
care  over  those,  that  being  so  often  invited  to  it, 
take  so  little  of  themselves." 

The  nature  and  consequence  of  these   dispute! 


UNITED  STATES. 


845 


appear  to  have  caused  a  considerable  change  in  th< 
choice  of  the  membprs  of  the  next  elected  assembly 
in  October  1705;  of  which  Joseph  Growdon  was 
speaker. 

This  assembly  acted  so  very  different  from  the 
two  last  preceding,  as  to  produce  a  much  better  un 
dcrstanding  between  them  and  the  governor,  in 
consequent  e  of  which  a  great  number  of  laws  wer 
passed,  and  the  public  affairs  of  the  government,  for 
a  time,  bore  a  more  favourable  and  promising  aspect 
In  this  year,  1705,  Thomas  Chalkley,  a  preacher 
among  the  Quakers,  paid  a  religious  visit  to  the 
Indians,  at  Conestogo,  near  the  river  Susquehanna 
in  Pennsylvania,  in  company  with  some  of  his 
friends,  of  the  same  religious  society.  The  Indians, 
who  consisted  chiefly  of  Senecas  and  Shawanese, 
received  them  with  great  kindness  :  they  were  much 
affected  by  their  visit,  more  especially  a  certain 
woman  of  eminence  among  them,  who  appeared  to 
have  authority,  and  spoke  much  in  their  councils; 
the  reason  for' which  was,  when  the  Indians  were 
asked,  one  of  them  replied,  "  Because  some  women 
are  wiser  than  some  men,  and  that  she  was  an  em- 
press among  them."  She  told  Thomas  Chalkley, 
and  the  other  friends,  that  she  looked  upon  the'ir 
coming  to  be  more  than  natural;  because  they 
did  not  come  to  buy  nor  sell,  nor  yet  gain,  but  in 
love  and  respect  to  them,  and  desired  their  welfare 
both  here  and  hereafter.  She  related  to  them  a 
dream  which  she  had  three  days  before  ;  which, 
being  interpreted,  was,  "  That  she  was  in  London, 
and  that  London  was  the  finest  place  she  ever  saw, 
(it  was  like  Philadelphia,  but  much  larger,)  and  she 
went  across  six  streets,  and  in  the  seventh  she  saw 
William  Penn  preaching  to  the  people,  which  was  a 
great  multitude;  and  both  she  and  William  Penn 
rejoiced  to  see  each  other :  after  the  meeting  she 
went  to  him,  and  he  told  her,  that  in  a  little  time 
he  would  come  over  and  preach  to  them  also;  of 
which  she  was  very  glad :  and  now,  she  said,  her 
dream  was  fulfilled ;  for  one  of  his  friends  was  come 
to  Breach  to  them."  And  she  advised  the  Indians  to 
hear  and  treat  the  frieuds  kindly ;  which  they  ac- 
cordingly did. 

This  one  instance,  among  many  which  might  be 
given,  is  here  mentioned,  to  show  the  love  and  re- 
gard these  people  had  for  the  memory  of  William 
Penn;  as  the  consequence  of  his  just  and  kind 
treatment  of  them;  and  the  sense  which  they  had 
of  his  regard  for  their  real  good  and  true  happiness. 
England  was  now  at  war  with  France  and  Spain; 
iu  consequence  of  which  no  part  of  the  British  do- 
minions could  be  entirely  exempt  from  danger.  In 
all  times  of  war  Pennsylvania  is  said  to  have  been 
exposed  more  or  less  to  difficulties,  on  account  of 
the  Quakers,  who  were  the  most  important  and  con- 
siderable part  of  the  inhabitants,  being  principled 
against  war  of  every  kind  :  but  then,  in  consequence 
of  their  pacific  conduct,  it  was  manifest,  more  happy 
effects  were  produced,  in  proportion  as  the  arts  of 
peace  in  a  sober  and  industrious  people  are  prefe- 
rable to  those  of  war;  though  they  were  strenuously 
opposed,  as  well  by  the  internal  as  by  the  external 
enemies  of  the  constitution  of  the  province ;  and 
that  both  through  ignorance  and  design. 

Governor  Evans's  disposition  and  conduct — Hit  treat- 
ment of  the  Quakers'  principles  on  war— False 
alarm  at  Philadelphia— Fort  and  exactions  at  New~ 
castle — Assembly's  address  to  the  governor — Further 
proceeding  and  dispute  between  the  governor  and 
*u*mbly—A*sembly  ditpleased  with  the  tecretcry, 


James  Logan— -The  amembly  impeach  the  secretary 
—•Headfofa  remonstrance  to  the  proprietor—  Diffi- 
culties of  the  proprietor  about  this  time. 
(1705.)  Governor  Evans  appears  to  have  been 
an  active  young  man,  zealous  to  promote  what  he 
thought  the  service  and  interest  of  the  proprietary 
required,  but  not  sufficiently  studying  the  genius 
and  disposition  of  the  people  over  whom  he  presided. 
His  zeal  to  push  his  own  views  in  somethings,  con- 
trary to  those  of  the  assembly,  tended  to  produce 
such  extreme  opposition  and  dislike  between  them, 
as  might  have  had  fatal  effects;  and  his  private 
life  and  conduct  are  represented  to  have  been  such 
as  rendered  him  offensive  to  a  sober  and  religious 
people.  He  was  not  said  to  want  ingenuity  nor 
abilities  so  much  as  a  proper  application  of  them. 
But  his  disappointment,  on  his  first  arrival,  in  not 
being  able  tu  prevail  on  the  assembly  of  the  province 
to  admit  of  a  reunion  with  that  of  the  territories, 
which  he  had  so  much  set  his  mind  upon,  appear  to 
have  occasioned  his  imprudently  joining  with  the 
assembly  of  the  latter  in  some  acts  which  seemed 
more  calculated  to  inconvenience  the  province,  than 
for  any  real  utility  to  either. 

He  had  endeavoured  to  form  a  militia  through 
the  government,  but,  so  far  as  appears,  not  with  mu<5h 
success.  He  knew  the  Quakers'  principles  were 
against  bearing  arms  and  war,  yet  he  appears  to 
have  regarded  and  treated  the  principles  of  the 
Quakers,  in  respect  to  self-defence,  as  a  mere  opinion 
which  would  never  endure  a  serious  trial;  and  by 
'he  following  imprudent  scheme  and  experiment, 
nstead  of  answering  any  useful  intention  to  the 
public,  he  is  said  not  only  to  have  alienated  the 
Quakers  further  from  him,  but  also  highly  disgusted 
such  of  the  people  in  general  as  were  not  concerned 
n  the  contrivance  or  execution  of  it. 

(1706.)  The  governor,  in  conjunction  with  Robert 
French,  of  Newcastle,  Thomas  Clark,  an  attorney, 
if  Philadelphia,  and  some  others-  of  his  associates, 
t  is  said,  for  their  diversion,  and  to  try  the  disposi- 
.ion  of  the  people,— -but  most  probably  that  of  the 
Quakers  chiefly, — concerted  a  scheme  to  raise  and 
•arry  on  a  false  alarm,  in  order  most  effectually  to 
errify  the  inhabitants  by  a  sudden  surprise,  and 
hereby  oblige  them  to  have  recourse  to  arms  for  their 
defence. 

It  was  at  the  time  of  the  fair  in  Philadelphia,  on 

he  16th  of  May,  1706,  that  this  plot  was  put  in  ex- 

•cution.     French  acted  at  Newcastle,  by  sending  up 

a   messenger  to   the  governor  at  Philadelphia,   in 

he   greatest  haste   and   apparent  consternation,  to 

acquaint  him  that  a  number  of  vessels  were  then 

actually  in  the  river,  and  as  high  up  as  a  place  which 

ic  named.     Upon  this  news,  immediately  the  go- 

ernor  acted  his  part;  find,  by  his  emissaries,  made  it 

irculate   through  the  city  ;  while   himself  with  a 

drawn  sword  in  his  hand,  ou  horseback,  rode  through 

he  streets,  in  seeming  great  commotion,  and  com- 

nauded  and  entreated  oeople  of  all  ranks  to  assist 

n  the  emergency. 

The  stratagem  in  part  succeeded ;  and  the  sud- 
lenness  of  the  surprise  threw  many  of  the  people 
nto  very  great  fright  and  consternation,  insomuch 
hat  it  is  said  some  threw  their  plate  and  most  valu- 
able effects  down  their  wells,  that  others  hid  them- 
elv«s  in  the  best  manner  they  could,  while  many 
etired  further  up  the  river,  with  what  they  could 
uost  readily  carr »  off ;  so  that  some  of  the  creekg 
eenned  full  of  boats  and  small  craft;  those  of  a 
arger  size  running  as  far  as  Burlington,  and  some 
n'gher  up  the  river. 


846 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


But  the  design,  it  is  said,  was  suspected  by  the 
more  considerate  part  of  the  people,  even  at  the 
beginning  ;  and  endeavours  were  used  to  prevent  its 
taking  effect ;  but  the  conduct  and  artifice  of  the 
governor,  with  the  help  of  his  numerous  assistants, 
and  the  easy  credulity,  common  to  the  more  incon- 
siderate part  of  the  people,  very  much  frustrated 
these  endeavours. 

James  Logan,  the  secretary,  though  he  was  one 
of  the  people  called  Quakers,  was  accused  or  sus- 
pected of  being  privy  to  the  affair.  He  denied  the 
charge ;  but  endeavoured  to  excuse  the  governor ; 
which  rendered  him  the  more  suspected.  The  de- 
sign, though  it  had  such  a  considerable  effect,  turned 
out  entirely  contrary  to  the  expectation  of  the  au- 
thors and  promoters  of  it ;  for  the  people  were  soon 
undeceived ;  and  when  they  saw  how  grossly  they 
had  been  imposed  upon,  many  of  them  so  highly 
resented  it,  that  the  authors  and  promoters  were 
now  obliged  to  secure  their  own  safety  from  the 
fury  of  an  enraged  populace. 

As  to  the  Quakers,  it  is  said  the  principal  part  of 
them  were  attending  their  religious  meeting  as 
usual  on  that  day  of  the  week,  even  in  the  midst  of 
the  confusion  ;  and,  as  if  they  were  aware  of  the 
design,  behaved  themselves  so  far  consistently,  that 
only  four  persons,  who  had  any  pretence  to  be 
accounted  of  that  society,  appeared  under  arms, 
at  the  place  of  rendezvous  appointed  on  the  occa- 
sion. 

With  this  action,  whereby  the  governor  rendered 
himself  odious  to  the  generality  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Philadelphia,  may  be  mentioned  the  following; 
by  which  he  incurred,  in  a  particular  manner,  the 
displeasure  of  the  trading  part  of  the  province. 

Soon  after  the  assembly  of  the  territories  had  met, 
independently  of  the  province,  the  governor  pro- 
posed to  them  the  building  a  fort  at  Newcastle; 
upon  which  a  law  was  passed  there,  entitled,  "  An  act 
for  erecting  and  maintaining  a  fort  for  her  majesty's 
service,  at  the  town  of  Newcastle  upon  Delaware." 
This  law  imposed  a  duty  of  half-a-pound  of  gun- 
powder, for  every  ton,  on  all  vessels,  except  ships  of 
war;  the  major  part  was  not  owned  by  persons  re- 
siding on  -the  river  and  bay  of  Delaware  ;  and  by  it 
all  vessels,  both  inward  and  outward,  were  obliged 
to  stop,  drop  anchor,  and  the  commander  to  go  on 
shore,  make  report,  and  have  leave  to  pass,  from 
the  commanding  officer  of  the  said  fort,  under  pe- 
nalty of  paying  five  pounds ;  besides  twenty  shil- 
lings for  the  first  gun,  thirty  for  the  second,  and 
forty  for  every  gun  afterwards,  that  should  be  fired 
on  the  occasion,  in  case  of  neglect,  hesides  the  for- 
feiture of  five  pounds,  for  contempt. 

This  law  was  considered  as  a  manifest  infraction 
of  the  privileges  granted  by  the  royal  charter,  and 
still  more  so,  from  the  manner  in  which  it  was  put 
in  execution ;  for  they  had  legally  an  undoubted 
right  to  the  free  use  of  the  river  and  bay;  and  the 
violent  means  which  became  necessary  to  enforce 
so  unjust  a  law,  soon  became  a  great  nuisance,  and 
an  intolerable  grievance  to  the  trading  part  of  Penn- 
sylvania, and  others  concerned  in  its  commerce. 
Besides,  it  was  alleged,  that  the  fort  itself,  as  it  was 
situated  and  circumstanced,  had  it  been  under  better 
management,  and  more  warrantable  direction,  could 
not  possibly  be  much  security  to  the  river,  nor  pro- 
tection to  the  vessels  that  might  happen  to  be  chased 
or  assaulted  in  it. 

The  city  of  Philadelphia  was  much  concerned  at 
these  proceedings,  and  the  traders  were  highly  in- 
censed  at  this  invasion  of  their  immunities ;  aud 


accordingly  endeavours  were  used  to  have  the  affair 
properly  redressed,  but  without  success. 

At  length  Richard  Hill,  one  of  the  governor's 
council,  a  bold  man,  arid  of  considerable  abilities 
and  influence  in  the  province,  together  with  Isaac 
Norris  and  Samuel  Preston,  all  Quakers,  and  men 
of  the  first  rank  and  esteem,  were  determined  to 
try  to  remove  this  nuisance,  by  a  different  method 
from  any  that  had  been  yet  attempted. 

Hill  had  a  vessel,  named  the  Philadelphia  ;  then 
loaded  and  just  going  out  to  sea ;  but  doubting  of 
his  captain's  resolution  to  pass  the  fort,  without 
submitting  to  the  imposition,  he,  in  company  with 
the  other  two,  went  in  the  vessel  down  the  river, 
and  dropt  anchor  a  little  before  they  came  to  the 
fort ;  Norris  and  Preston  went  on  shore,  to  inform 
the  officers,  at  the  fort,  that  the  vessel  was  regu- 
larly cleared ;  and  to  use  such  persuasion,  as  they 
were  capable  of,  that  she  might  pass  without  inter- 
ruption, &c.,  but  to  no  purpose.  Hill,  therefore, 
taking  command  of  the  sloop,  stood  to  the  helm, 
and  passed  the  fort,  without  receiving  any  damage, 
though  the  firing  was  kept  up  till  he  was  clear ; 
and  the  guns  were  pointed  in  such  a  direction, 
that  a  shot  went  through  the  mainsail.  As  soon 
as  the  sloop  was  got  clear  of  the  fort,  John 
French,  the  commander  of  it,  put  off  in  a  boat, 
manned  and  armed,  in  order  to  bring  her  to,  in 
that  manner;  when  he  came  along  side,  Hill  or- 
dered a  rope  to  be  thrown  him,  upon  which  they 
fastened  the  boat,  and  French  went  on  board  ;  the 
rope  was  then  immediately  cut,  and  the  boat  falling 
a  stern,  French  was  conducted  a  prisoner  to  the 
cabin  ;  who  pleaded  his  indisposition  of  body:  upon 
which  Hill  asked  him,  "  If  that  really  was  the  case, 
why  did  he  come  there  ?"  Lord  Cornbury,  governor 
of  New  Jersey,  and  as  such  claiming  to  be  vice-ad- 
miral of  the  river  Delaware,  happened  at  that  time 
to  be  at  Salem,  a  little  lower  down,  on  the  Jersey 
side  of  the  river;  and  to  him  the  prisoner  was  con- 
veyed, to  give  an  account  of  his  conduct.  In  this 
place,  after  French,  in  a  coarse  manner,  had  been, 
sufficiently  reprimanded  by  Lord  Cornbury,  upon  a 
suitable  submission  and  promises  made,  he  was  at 
length  dismissed,  but  not  without  marks  of  derision 
from  some  of  the  attendants. 

This  put  a  finishing  stroke  to  these  proceedings  at 
the  fort  of  Newcastle  ;  and  thus  ended  the  enterprise. 
But  Hill  did  not  suffer  the  affair  to  rest  here  ;  for, 
accompanied  by  a  large  number  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Philadelphia,  he  attended  the  general  assembly  ; 
and,  by  petition,  laid  the  affair  before  them  ;  which 
produced  an  address  to  the  governor,  from  the 
house,  without  so  much  as  one  dissenting  vote, 
dated  the  10th  of  May,  1707,  highly  resenting  these 
proceedings.  And  it  does  not  appear  that  they 
were  afterwards  continued. 

The  act  of  assembly,  for  establishing  courts  of 
judicature  in  the  province,  in  the  year  1701,  having 
been  repealed  I  y  the  crown,  the  governor,  in  order 
to  supply  the  intention  of  that  act,  for  the  regulation 
of  courts,  recommended  to  the  consideration  of  the 
house,  the  draught  of  a  bill,  which  be  had  prepared 
for  that  purpose.  This  the  assembly  not  only  re- 
jected, but  drew  up  one  themselves,  instead  of  it,  so 
widely  different,  that  the  governor  and  they  were 
not  able  to  agree  to  it.  Some  of  the  enactments 
being  described  by  the  governor,  as  tending-  to 
"  break  in  upon  the  proprietary's  powers  of  govern- 
ment, or  his  just  interest."  After  much  dispute 
and  altercation,  and  time  spent  to  no  purpose,  the 
governor  proceeded,  by  an  ordinance,  in  such  case 


UNITED  STATES. 


847 


provided  in  the  royal  charter,  to  open  the  courts  of 
justice,  till  better  provision  and  regulation  should 
be  made  by  act  of  assembly. 

The  house-  being  disappointed  in  not  carrying 
their  point,  in  the  manner  they  desired,  were  very 
much  chagrined.  They  were  headed  by  David  Lloyd, 
their  speaker,  as  before  mentioned,  a  person  of  great 
esteem,  popularity,  and  good  character.  He  had 
been  brought  up  to  the  law  ;  but  through  most  of  his 
public  conduct,  appears  to  have  distinguished  him- 
self in  nothing  so  much,  as  by  his  constant  opposi- 
tion to  the  claims  of  the  proprietary.  Having  failed 
in  this  contest  with  the  governor,  the  assembly  were 
determined,  if  possible,  to  take  their  revenge  on 
the  secretary,  James  Logan,  who  was  also  one  of 
the  council ;  and  they  accordingly  pointed  the  force 
of  their  resentment  against  him  ;  whom  they  re- 
garded in  great  measure,  as  the  cause  of  their  mis- 
carriage in  the  bill  of  courts,  and  of  much  of  the 
misunderstanding  between  them  and  the  governor. 

James  Logan  was  a  man  of  considerable  abilities, 
and  was  perhaps  exceeded  by  few,  in  the  pro- 
vince, in  that  respect.  He  espoused  and  firmly  sup- 
ported the  proprietary's  interest,  and  had  great  in- 
lluence  in  the  council;  but  to  persons  of  inferior 
abilities,  he  is  represented  by  some  to  have  con- 
ducted himself  iu  a  manner  which  rendered  him 
somewhat  unpopular,  and  sometimes  provoked  his 
enemies  to  carry  their  animosity  against  him  to  un- 
warrantable extremes. 

The  nature  and  length  of  this,  and  other  disputes, 
•  with  the  odium,  which  some  parts  of  the  governor's 
private  conduct  are  said  to  have  created,  very 
much  lessened  his  authority,  and  raised  the  spirit 
of  party  to  a  higher  degree  than  had  been  known 
before.  The  consequence  of  which  was,  proceed- 
ings more  or  less  indefensible  on  both  sides:  a  de- 
tail of  which,  as  they  are  published  in  the  journals, 
or  votes  of  the  house  of  assembly  of  those  limes, 
would  be  too  tedious  here  to  be  minutely  stated. 
They  produced  a  number  of  accusations  against 
the  secretary  ;  which  the  assembly  styled  "  articles  of 
impeachment."  Upon  these  the  assembly  took  mea- 
sures to  impeach  him  in  form,  before  the  governor, 
as  an  evil  counsellor,  and  guilty  of  high  misde- 
meanors. But  through  the  governor's  management 
and  protection,  they  were  not  able  to  effect  any 
thing  further  against  him ;  and  there  is  on  record 
his  petition  to  the  governor  and  council,  requesting 
that  proper  measures  should  be  taken  to  clear  his 
character  from  the  false  representations  and  gross 
abuses  of  the  assembly,  by  a  fair  trial. 

The  assembly  being  thus  repulsed  in  respect  to 
Logan,  were  still  more  exasperated ;  and  so  much 
were  they  displeased  with  the  governor's  conduct, 
that  they  were  determined  to  endeavour  to  have  him 
removed.  For  this  purpose,  therefore,  in  the  sum- 
mer of  the  year  J707,  the  assembly  drew  up  a  re-- 
monstrance to  the  proprietary,  containing  the  parti- 
culars of  his  alleged  mal-administration,  with  a 
complaint  against  James  Logan;  the  principal  of 
which  have  already  been  mentioned.  In  this  re- 
monstrance, after  having  reminded  the  proprietary 
of  their  former  complaints,  in  the  year  1704,  they 
further  represent : — 

"  The  lieutenant-governor's  abominable  and  un- 
warrantable conduct  with  the  Indians,  on  a  visit  to 
them,  at  Conestogoe. 

''  His  refusing  to  pass  the  bill  of  courts,  without 
their  agreeing  to  his  amendments  ;  though  they  only 
left  two  of  his  objections  unremoved  ;  and  his  set- 
ting up  courts  by  his  ordinance. 


"  His  refusal  to  try  the  secretary  upon  their  im- 
peachment, by  questioning  his  own  authority  to 
judge,  and  their's  to  impeach,  in  the  method  they 
proposed. 

"  His  imposition  on  the  trade  of  the  province,  by 
means  of  the  law  passed  at  Newcastle;  whereby  he 
unjustly  exacted  large  sums  of  the  people  ;  with  the 
abuses  and  consequences  of  the  said  law. 

"  Certain  unjustifiable  and  oppressive  proceed- 
ings, respecting  the  militia,  which  he  had  formed, 
according  to  his  proclamation  before  mentioned. 

"  His  refusing  to  pass  a  bill  in  the  year  1704,  to 
explain  and  confirm  the  charter  of  the  city  of  Phila- 
delphia. The  multiplying  of  taverns  and  ale-houses 
in  the  city,  as  nurseries  of  vice,  by  his  means ;  and 
his  imposing  licences  on  the  keepers  of  those  houses, 
without  law,  or  precedent. 

"  His  refusing  to  pass  a  bill  in  1704,  for  explain- 
ing and  confirming  the  charter  of  privileges  of  the 
province  ;  his  rejecting  the  people's  choice  of  sheriff 
and  coroner,  for  the  city  and  county  of  Philadelphia, 
in  said  year,  contrary  to  the  said  charter:  his 
licencing  several  taverns  and  ale-houses  in  Phila- 
delphia, against,  and  without  the  recommendation 
of  the  city  magistrates  ;  with  his  sending  a  message 
to  dismiss  the  assembly,  on  their  complaining  of 
his  conduct  against  the  form  and  effect  of  said  char- 
ter, and  known  usage,  &c. 

"  His  appropriating  certain  monies  to  his  own 
use  which  the  assembly  intended  otherwise  ;  and 
his  secreting  the  objections  of  the  lords  of  trade  to 
certain  laws  which  had  been  repealed;  whereby 
they  fell  again  into  the  same  error. 

"  The  project  and  consequences  of  the  false 
alarm. 

"  The  abritrary  exaction  of  twelve  shillings  from 
every  master  of  a  vessel  outward  hound,  for  a  '  let- 
pass,'  notwithstanding  their  being  cleared,  accord- 
ing to  the  acts  of  navigation. 

"  His  permitting  French  Papists  to  trade  with, 
and  reside  among  the  Indians,  and  their  wicked  be- 
haviour among  them. 

"  His  granting  a  commission  for  privateering,  in 
1706. 

"  His  beating  and  evilly  treating  Solomon  Cres- 
son,  the  constable,  for  doing  his  duty  at  a  tavern, 
in  one  of  his  midnight  revels;  though  he  knew  not 
that  the  governor  was  there. 

"  His  excesses  and  debaucheries,  to  the  great 
encouragement  of  wickedness,  and  weakening  the 
hands  of  the  magistrates,  by  his  ill  example,  &c." 

And  against  the  secretary,  James  Logan,  it  was 
alleged, — 

"  That  he  knew  the  above-mentioned  alarm  was 
false  ;  but,  instead  of  using  such  means  as  were  in 
his  power  to  prevent  it,  he,-  by  his  conduct,  under 
pretence  of  coming  at  the  truth  of  the  affair,  made 
it  worse. 

"  That,  as  commissioner  of  property,  to  manage 
the  proprietary's  land  affairs,  he  had  detained  cer- 
tain deeds  for  "lands,  from  the  owners  unjustly  ;  and 
to  some  persons,  denied  patents  for  their  lands, 
to  which  they  were  entitled. 

"  That  he  had  appointed  wood-rangers  at  large, 
over  the  located  lands  of  the  inhabitants,  in  com- 
mon with  those  of  the  proprietary ;  for  which  he 
had  no  right ;  in  which  accordingly  they  took  up 
strays,  &c.  in  an  indiscriminate  manner;  which 
ought  to  have  been  restricted  solely  to  the  proprie- 
tary's lands." 

The  "  remonstrance"  whence  these  were  extracted, 
was  sent  to  their  agents,  George  Whitehead,  Wil- 


848 


THE  HISTORY  OP  AMERICA. 


liam  Mead,  and  Thomas  Lover,  in  London ;  with  a 
very  angry  letter,  to  be  communicated  to  the  pro- 
prietary. 

The  governor,  having  intelligence  of  what  was 
going  forward  in  the  assembly,  by  a  message  to  the 
house,  required  them  to  lay  before  him  the  address 
or  representation,  which  he  was  informed  they  in- 
tended to  send  to  England;  and  desired  they 
would  not  presume  to  send  any  thing  of  that  nature 
out  of  the  government,  till  the  same  had  been  fully 
communicated  to  him,  according  to  justice,  and  the 
practice  of  other  governments.  This  had  no  effect 
with  them;  and  the  assembly  adjourned  to  the  23d 
of  September. 

On  the  first  of  October,  at  the  anniversary 
election,  the  choice  of  representatives,  in  assembly, 
falling  mostly  on  the  same  persons,  as  in  the  pre- 
ceding year,  consequently  but  little  of  moment  was 
done  in  the  public  affairs  of  the  government,  be- 
sides the  continuation  of  the  former  disputes  and 
altercations,  respecting  the  bill  of  courts,  and  the 
other  obnoxious  parts  of  the  governor's  administra- 
tion; whence  both  sides  became  less  disposed  to 
unite  in  any  salutary  purpose,  for  the  public  good. 

But  it  is  observed  of  these  proceedings;  that  al- 
though the  parties  were  very  free  with  each  other's 
conduct,  yet  they  kept  within  the  rules  of  decorum; 
and,  in  all  their  differences,  both  parties,  in  the 
strongest  terms,  professed  their  sincerest  desires  and 
intentions  thereby,  for  the  service  of  their  country ; 
and  that  they  had  nothing  so  much  in  view,  in  these 
proceedings,  as  the  real  and  best  advantage  of  the 
community. 

In  this  state  continued  the  affairs  of  the  province 
till  the  beginning  of  the  year  1709,  when  the  as- 
sembly's complaints  to  the  proprietary  having 
proved  effectual,  Governor  Evans  was  removed  from 
the  administration,  and  Charles  Gookin  succeeded 
him  in  the  government. 

It  appears  not  improbable,  but  that  the  proprie- 
tary for  some  time  past  must  have  been  under  no 
small  uneasiness  and  difficulty  respecting  bis  pro- 
vince. His  great  generosity  and  expense,  in  set- 
tling it,  with  his  other  acts  of  beneficence,  and  the 
attention  due  to  such  a  series  of  conduct,  had  so  far 
impaired  his  estate  in  Europe,  and  involved  him  in 
debt,  that  in  the  year  1708,  in  order  to  pay  the 
same,  he  borrowed  from  certain  of  his  friends  a  large 
sum  of  money ;  for  which  he  mortgaged  the  province. 

Besides,  it  cannot  be  supposed,  but  that  the  na- 
ture of  the  disputes  between  the  assembly  and  his 
deputy-governor  must  have  been  very  disagreeable 
to  him ;  for,  notwithstanding  what  appears  to  have 
been  defective  in  the  conduct  of  the  latter,  it  was 
then  visible,  and  more  so  afterwards,  in  part  of  the 
transactions  of  some  of  these  assembles,  that  a  dis- 
contented and  factious  disposition  was  increasing 
in  the  province;  endeavouring  to  render  the  go- 
vernment uneasy  to  him.  It  is  certain  that,  had 
the  proprietary  made  use  of  the  means,  then  ab- 
solutely in  his  power,  and  which  would  have  been 
to  his  immediate  advantage,  he  might  have  disposed 
of  the  government  to  the  crown ;  to  which  his  pri- 
vate circumstances,  the  solicitations  of  the  ministry, 
and  this  conduct  in  the  province,  so  much  incited 
him. 

Governor  Gookin  arrives — Assembly's  address  to  the 
governor — They  continue  their  former  animosity — 
The  governor'*  answer;  to  which  the  assembly  re- 
ply— The  council's  address  to  the  governor — The 
owsinWy  displeased  with  the  council,  and  present  a 


remonstrance  of  grievances  to  the  governor—  Tht 
governor's  speech  to  the  assembly,  containing  a  mili- 
tary requisition  in  1709. 

Governor  Gookin  arrived  at  Philadelphia,  in  the 
first  month,  March,  1709.  The  proprietary,  in  a 
letter  to  his  friends  in  the  province,  recommended 
him  as  a  person  of  experience  and  moderation,  as 
well  as  of  good  character  and  abilities;  descended 
of  a  good  family  in  Ireland  ;  and  that,  having  taken 
leave  of  a  military  life,  and  his  native  country,  he 
came  with  intention,  if  he  found  the  place  agreeable 
to  his  expectation,  to  settle,  and  spend  the  remain- 
der of  his  life  and  fortune  in  the  province. 

The  assembly  was  sitting  at  the  time  of  his  ar- 
rival, and  immediately  presented  him  with  the  fol- 
lowing congratulatory  address. 

"  The  address  of  the  representatives  of  the  free- 
men of  the  province  of  Pennsylvania,  in  assembly 
met,  the  9th  day  of  the  month  called  March,  1709, 
presented  to  Charles  Gookin,  Esq.,  by  the  queen's 
royal  approbation,  lieutenant-governor  of  the  said 
province,  &c. 

"  May  it  please  the  Governor, 

"  Having  this  opportunity,  we  can  do  no  less 
than  congratulate  thy  seasonable  accession  to  this 
government,  and  render  our  most  grateful  acknow- 
ledgments to  the  queen,  for  her  gracious  acceptance 
of  the  proprietary's  nomination  of  thee,  to  supply 
his  absence,  and  to  him,  for  constituting  a  person  of 
so  fair  a  character,  furnished,  as  we  hope,  with  a 
full  resolution,  as  well  as  power,  to  redress  the  grie- 
vances, and  remove  the  oppressions  that  this  poor 
province  has,  for  some  time,  laboured  under,  occa- 
sioned by  the  irregular  administration  of  the  late 
deputy-governor;  who  was  too  much  influenced  by 
evil  counsel;  to  which  the  miseries  and  confusion 
of  the  state,  and  divisions  in  the  government,  are 
principally  owing. 

"  We  are  ready  to  represent  such  of  those  public 
grievances  as  are  laid  before  us,  or  occur  to  our 
knowledge,  in  particular  articles,  and  bring  them  to 
a  proper  examen;  but,  perceiving  by  thy  message 
to  the  house  yesterday,  that  thou  art  not  ready,  at 
this  time,  to  proceed  with  us  to  business,  we  shall 
take  leave  only  to  mention  some  of  those  things,  of 
which  the  public  weal  of  this  country  loudly  calls 
for  a  most  earnest  application  and  speedy  redress. 

"  In  the  first  place,  we  are  to- lay  before  thee 
that  of  the  false  alarm  in  May  1706;  wherein  the 
late  governor  was  chief  actor;  and  for  which  he  is 
highly  chargeable;  having  shot  at  the  queen's  sub- 
jects, putting  many  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  town 
in  danger  of  their  lives,  and  forced  great  quantities 
of  powder  and  lead  from  the  owners,  and  gave  it  to 
such  as  wasted  it,  when  he  knew  there  was  no  occa- 
sion to  use  it;  whereby  he  deprived  the  place  of 
what  ammunition  might  be  ready  for  those,  that 
had  freedom  to  make  use  of  it  for  their  defence  in 
case  of  an  attack. 

"  The  next  is  that  notorious  act  of  hostility  he 
committed  by  firing  shot  at  the  queen's  subjects 
passing  by  Newcastle  in  the  river,  upon  their  lawful 
trade  to  and  from  this  port. 

"  We  mention  these,  as  they  are,  in  our  opinion, 
offences  of  a  deep  dye,  and  committed  against  the 
queen's  crown  and  dignity,  as  well  as  against  the 
peace,  and  ought  to  be  charged  upon  him,  before  he 
departs  this  province;  but  the  method  of  the  prose- 
cution against  him  we  submit  to  thy  prudent  care 
and  discretion,  and  we  shall  be  ready  to  do  what  it 
proper  on  our  part*. 


UNITED  STATES 


849 


"That  the  treasurer  (S.  Carpenter)  of  the  last 
tax  has  refused  to  comply  with  the  directions  of 
the  assembly  in  paying  the  public  debts,  according 
to  the  respective  orders  drawn  upon  him,  and  signed 
by  the  speaker;  and  that  the  collectors  of  the  said 
tax  who  neglected  their  duty  in  gathering  the  same, 
have  not  been  obliged  thereunto,  according  as  the 
act  of  assembly  in  that  case  directs,  and  more  par- 
ticularly the  collector  of  the  city  and  county  of  Phi- 
ladelphia. 

"  That  the  courts  of  judicature  of  this  province 
have  been,  and  are,  erected  by  ordinances  of  the 
governor  and  council,  against  the  advice,  and  with- 
out the  assent  of  the  assembly ;  which  we  complain 
of  as  a  great  oppression  and  aggrievance  to  the  peo- 
ple we  represent,  and  desire  the  same  may  be 
speedily  redressed,  and  the  bill  prepared  for  the 
establishing  courts,  with  other  useful  bills,  ready  to 
be  presented  to  the  governor,  maybe  considered. 

"  We  are  given  to  understand  that  thou  brought 
some  commands  from  the  queen  to  this  government, 
as  well  as  instructions  from  the  proprietary,  relating 
to  the  public,  which,  with  a  copy  of  thy  commission, 
and  the  royal  approbation,  we  desire  may  be  com- 
municated to  this  house  at  our  next  meeting,  which 
we  intend  on  the  20th  day  of  the  next  month,  and 
shall  adjourn  accordingly,  unless  it  be  thy  pleasure 
to  call  us  sooner ;  which  we  shall  be  ready  to  comply 
with,  not  only  in  expectation  of  a  speedy  redress  of 
our  grievances,  but  to  settle  by  law,  how  money  shall 
be  paid  upon  contracts  made,  before  the  new  cur- 
rency of  money  takes  effect. 

"  Signed  by  order  of  the  House, 

"  DAVID  LLOYD,  Speaker." 

Thus,  by  the  assembly's  very  first  address  to  Go- 
vernor Gookin,  were  the  former  animosities  con- 
tinued ;  for  the  principal  and  ruling  members  of 
the  house  were  still  the  same,  who  had  so  long  been 
accustomed  to  complain  of  grievances,  or  imagine 
things  of  that  kind.  Evans's  wrong  or  impru- 
dent conduct  had  made  such  deep  impression  on 
their  minds,  and  disposed  them  so  much  to  a  discon- 
tented and  angry  disposition,  that  in  some  of  their 
representations,  they  appear  not  only  to  have  ex- 
aggerated what  might  truly  be  called  grievances, 
but  also  complained  of  many  things  as  such,  which, 
according  to  the  laws  and  constitution,  could  not  pro- 
perly come  under  that  name. 

The  governor  gave  a  reply  to  the  assembly's  ad- 
dress on  the  13th  of  April  ensuing,  as  follows  : — 

"  Gentlemen, 

"  It  would  have  proved  a  much  greater  satisfac- 
tion to  me,  if  at  this  first  time  of  my  speaking  to 
you,  I  had  nothing  to  take  notice  of,  but  what  I 
myself  might  have  to  lay  before  you;  but.  your  ad- 
dress, presented  to  me  in  March  last,  when  you 
sent  me  notice  that  you  were  sitting,  will,  before 
we  proceed  to  any  other  business,  require  some 
answer  ;  in  which  I  will  be  plain  and  short,  as  the 
matter  will  bear. 

"  I  thank  you,  gentlemen,  for  your  congratula- 
tions, and  do  assure  you,  that  I  come  with  full  reso- 
lutions on  my  part,  to  employ  the  power,  with  which 
the  proprietary  has  thought  fit  to  honour  me,  and 
her  majesty  has  graciously  pleased  to  approve  of,  to 
render  the  people  of  this  government  as  happy  and 
easy  as  is  possible  for  me,  in  ail  things  that  shall 
concern  their  true  interest,  and  be  to  their  real  ad- 
vantage. I  have  enquired  what  might  be  meant  by 
those  aggrievances,  oppressions  and  confusions, 
which  you  complain  of,  and  whatsoever  I  shall  meet 
with,  that  deserves  those  names,  shall  have  my 
HIST.  OF  AMER.— Nos.  107  &  108. 


ready  concurrence  to  remove  them,  as  far  as  they 
shall  appear ;  but  I  must  say,  that  I  believe,  one 
effectual  method,  to  free  all  people  from  the  appre- 
hensions of  grievances,  will  be  to  lay  all  former 
animosities  and  jealousies  asido,  and,  for  the  future, 
apply  themselves  to  such  business  as  they  are  con- 
cerned in  for  the  public,  with  a  freedom  and  open- 
ness of  temper,  and  an  unbiassed  inclination  to 
promote  the  common  good,  without  any  other  par- 
ticular view :  if  we  should  be  so  fortunate  as  to  take 
example  from  her  majesty's  glorious  administration 
of  her  dominions  at  home,  and  that  of  her  par- 
liament, we  should  not  fail  of  being  extremely 
happy. 

"  As  to  those  two  past  actions  of  my  immediate 
predecessor,  of  which  you  complain,  I  can  only 
inform  you,  that  they  were  both  well  known  in 
Britain,  before  I  left  it ;  and  that  I  had  no  direc- 
tions to  make  any  enquiry  into  them ;  and  that, 
upon  the  best  advice  I  can  receive  here,  I  find  they 
will  not  properly  fall  under  my  cognizance,  in  the 
station  I  am  placed  in,  and  therefore  cannot  think 
it  fit  to  concern  myself  with  them. 

"  But  I  am  obliged  to  observe  to  you  that  the 
council  of  the  province,  now  with  me,  think  them- 
selves very  unjustly  treated  by'  the  mention  you 
have  made  of  them,  if  they  (as  it  is  generally  un- 
derstood) be  intended  by  the  evil  counsel,  of  which 
you  have  taken  notice  ;  and  therefore  will  take  the 
liberty  to  vindicate  themselves,  as  you  will  see,  by 
their  application  to  me  ;  to  which  I  refer  you. 

"  The  charge  against  the  treasurer,  (S.  Carpen- 
ter,) I  find  is  occasioned  by  his  and  the  council's 
understanding  the  act  of  assembly,  by  which  the 
money,  that  comes  into  his  hands,  has  been  granted, 
somewhat  differently  from  what  the  present  and  late 
houses  of  representatives  have  done  :  he  pleads  the 
law,  as  his  best  direction ;  and  you  cannot  but 
agree  that  it  is  fit  that  this  alone  (I  mean  the  law,) 
ought  to  determine  the  matter.  As  far  as  I  have 
hitherto  been  able,  I  have  pressed  the  collection  of 
the  taxes,  and  shall  continue  the  best  of  my  care, 
until  they  be  finished. 

"  The  method  of  establishing  courts  by  the  go- 
vernor and  council,  was  also  well  understood  in 
Great  Britain,  and  was  approved  of  there,  as  being 
grounded  on  unquestionable  powers,  granted  the 
proprietary.  The  bill  formerly  proposed  by  the 
assembly  for  that  purpose,  which  is  now  before  the 
board,  has  not  been  allowed  of;  but  seeing  the  pre- 
sent establishment,  which  was  drawn,  as  I  am  in- 
formed, according  to  the  plan  laid  down  in  that 
bill,  carries  some  inconveniences  with  it,  and  re- 
quires an  alteration.  I  shall  be  ready  to  agree  to 
any  other  reasonable  bill,  that  you  shall  hereafter 
propose,  for  settling  courts  of  judicature,  in  such  a 
regular  method,  as  may  be  a  lasting  rule  for  hold- 
ing them. 

'  I  have  no  instructions,  gentlemen,  from  her 
majesty,  that  will  concern  you ;  those  from  the 
proprietary  being  to  myself,  as  occasion  offers,  and 
where  it  may  be  proper,  I  shall  acquaint  you  with 
the  particulars.  I  have  ordered  copies  of  my  com- 
mission, and  her  majesty's  approbation  to  be  pre- 
pared and  delivered  to  you. 

"  I  should  now  propose  to  your  serious  considera- 
tion some  other  matters  of  the  highest  importance, 
without  which  government  cannot  long  subsist ;  as 
a  due  provision  for  the  support  of  it,  and  for  the 
security  of  the  people ;  but  what  I  shall  principally 
recommend  to  you,  at  this  time,  is  the  latter  part 
of  the  last  paragraph  of  your  address,  viz.  To  pre- 
4  D 


850 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


pare  a  bill  for  settling  by  law,  how  money  shall  Le 
paid  upon  contracts  made,  and  to  be  made,  before 
the  uew  currency  of  money  takes  effect :  this,  as  I 
find,  by  the  great  uneasiness  of  the  people,  is  a 
matter  that  will  require  a  very  speedy  provision, 
and,  therefore,  hope  you  will  find  such  just  and  equal 
methods  for  it>  as  neither  the  debtors,  on  the  one 
hand,  nor  creditors  on  the  other,  may  suffer  by  the 
alteration ;  to  which  I  desire  you  may  forthwith 
proceed,  with  as  little  loss  of  time  as  is  possible ; 
after  which  we  may  have  opportunity  to  enter  into 
consideration  of  such  other  matters  as  may  naturally 
fall  before  you." 

The  governor's  speech  produced  an  answer  from 
the  assembly  on  the  14th;  in  which,  besides  insist- 
ing on  what  they  had  before  advanced,  they  dis- 
tinguished what  they  meant  in  their  address,  when 
they  said,  "  The  late  governor  was  too  much  in- 
fluenced by  evil  counsel,"  by  expressly  throwing  the 
whole  blame  on  James  Logan,  and  some  other  per- 
sons, who  were  not  of  the  governor's  council.  They 
also  promised  to  make  due  provision  for  the  support 
of  government;  and  agreed  to  consider  and  pre- 
pare the  bill,  which  the  governor  recommended,  as 
a  very  necessary  part  of  their  business ;  and  then 
they  hoped  and  expected  a  redress  of  their  griev- 
ances. 

The  following  is  the  council's  address  to  the  go- 
vernor, in  reference  to  the  "  evil  counsel,"  men- 
tioned in  the  address  of  the  assembly. 

"  To  the  honourable  Charles  Gookin,  Esq.  lieu- 
tenant-governor of  the  province  of  Pennsylvania, 
and  counties  of  Newcastle,  Kent,  and  Sussex,  on 
Delaware. 

"  May  it  please  the  Governor, 

'•'  We,  the  members  of  council  for  the  said  pro- 
vince, who  attended  the  board  during  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  late  lieutenant-governor,  upon  view- 
ing the  address  presented  by  the  assembly  on  the 
9th  day  of  March  last,  think  ourselves  obliged  to 
observe,  that  in  the  first  paragraph  of  it,  complain- 
ing of  aggrievances  and  oppressions,  which,  they 
say,  this  province  has,  for  some  time  laboured  under, 
occasioned  by  the  irregular  administration  of  the 
late  deputy-g'overnor,  they  have  thought  fit  to  add 
these  words,  '  who  was  too  much  influenced  by  evil 
counsel ;'  to  whom  the  miseries  and  confusions  of 
the  state,  and  divisions  in  the  government,  are  prin- 
cipally owing. 

"  It  was  long,  may  it  please  the  governor,  before 
we  could  induce  ourselves  to  believe,  that  men,  so 
well  acquainted  with  the  characters  of  most  of  us,  in 
our  several  stations  in  the  country,  could  possibly 
intend  us  by  the  charge,  until,  by  the  observations 
of  others,  we  were  forced  to  take  a  nearer  notice  of 
the  expressions;  upon  which  we  are  sorry  to  find, 
that  the  word  counsel,  as  there  used,  together  with 
the  general  construction  of  the  sentence,  seems  not 
to  admit  of  any  other  interpretation,  but  that  to  us 
principally  is  owing  whatever  the  assembly  has 
thought  fit  to  complain  of,  or  can  reduce,  under  the 
general  terms  they  have  used:  if  they  will  disavow 
any  such  intention,  we  shall  crave  no  other  satis- 
faction ;  but,  if  not,  we  must  then  desire  that  they, 
and  all  men  concerned  in  these  affairs,  may  know, — 

"  That,  notwithstanding  the  proprietary  and  late 
lieutenant-governor,  according  to  the  established 
rules  in  all  governments  whatsoever,  from  the  most 
polite  to  the  most,  barbarous,  nations  in  the  world, 
finding  themselves  under  a  necessity  of  having  a 
council  about  them,  to  advise  with,  in  affairs  of 
government,  have  thought  fit  to  choose  us  for  that 


service,  in  which,  according  to  our  several  solemn 
engagements,  we  have  acquitted  ourselves,  to  the 
aest  of  our  judgments  and  abilities,  yet  not  one  of 
us  receives,  or  ever  expects,  any  other  advantage 
by  it,  than  the  satisfaction  of  having  discharged 
our  duties  to  the  country  we  live  in,  and  to  advance 
the  prosperity  and  happiness  of  it,  as  much  as  may 
lie  in  our  power.  We  have  no  salaries,  nor  allow- 
ance paid  us  by  the  country  for  this,  nor  offices  of 
profit  to  encourage  us;  what  we  do  is  at  our  own 
expense  of  time,  trouble,  and  charge,  and  upon  our 
own  estates  is  all  our  dependence,  which,  giving  us 
as  good  an  interest  in  the  country  as  others  can 
pretend  to,  and  being  out  of  the  reach  of  any  pos- 
sible views  different  from  the  good  of  the  whole,  no 
man,  without  a  manifest  violence  to  his  reason,  can 
imagine  but  that  we  are  as  much  concerned,  and, 
therefore,  would  be  as  careful  to  prevent  and  divert 
any  miseries,  confusions,  or  divisions,  that  may 
threaten  the  province,  as  any  other  set  of  men 
whatsoever;  so  that  this  charge  from  the  assembly, 
f  levelled  against  us,  is  not  only  unjust,  but  will  be 

udged,  we  believe,  exceedingly  ungrateful,  by  all 
that  impartially  consider  us,  and  our  circumstances, 
among  our  neighbours. 

'  After  this  general  accusation,  involving  us  in 
all  things  that  have -been  irregularly  committed,  or 
that  any  person  can  think  so  to  have  been,  they 
enumerate  four  particulars,  which  they  call  ag- 

rievances.  To  the  two  first  we  have  nothing  to 
say;  and  we  hope  no  man  can  believe  that  any  one 
of  us  was  so  much  as  privy  to  them,  much  less  that 
we  advised  them ;  we  here  solemnly  declare,  each 
for  himself,  that  we  did  not.  The  other  two  we  ac- 
knowledge ourselves  to  be  concerned  in,  and  shall 
always  justify:  that  is,  first,  That  we  advised  the 
treasurer  to  take  his  directions  from  the  law  alone, 
and  without  regard  to  the  partial  order  of  the  as- 
sembly to  the  contrary,  to  make  his  payments  in 
equal  portions ;  which,  we  hope,  cannot  be  ac- 
counted a  grievance:  and  in  the  next,  To  prevent 
the  greatest  of  all  possible  grievances,  the  want  of 
public  justice,  of  which,  by  the  measures  taken  by 
the  assembly  of  that  time,  the  country  was  long  de- 
prived ;  we  advised  the  governor  to  make  use  of 
the  powers  with  which  he  was  unquestionably  vested, 
to  open  the  courts  again,  and  to  restore  the  courts 
of  justice  to  the  oppressed  country  ;  which  had  long 
languished  through  the  want  of  it,  until  they  could 
be  otherwise  established.  Men  unacquainted  with 
affairs  of  this  kind,  and  who  must  take  their  infor- 
mation from  others,  may  be  imposed  on  by  persons 
of  design,  and  believe  that  to  be  irregular,  which,  in 
itself,  is  a  most  wholesome  and  necessary  act;  but 
we  can,  with  assurance,  affirm,  that  we  had  full  sa- 
tisfaction, from  men  of  the  best  abilities,  that  what 
we  advised  and  concurred  in  this  matter,  was  regu- 
lar, just,  and  legal. 

"  Upon  the  whole,  may  it  please  the  governor, 
though,  on  the  one  hand,  we  shall  be  exceedingly 
unwilling  to  have  any  misunderstanding  with  the  re- 
presentatives of  the  people,  well  knowing  it  to  be 
an  unhappiness,  that  all  reasonable  measures  should 
be  taken  to  prevent;  yet,  on  the  other,  we  shall  not, 
by  any  contrivances,  be  diverted  from  discharging 
the  trust  reposed  in  us.  during  our  continuance  in 
this  station,  with  honour  and  justice,  to  the  best  oi 
our  abilities;  but,  from  time  to  time,  shall  offer  to 
the  governor  snch  advice  as  we  shall  judge  most 
conducive  to  the  general  good  of  the  province ;  in 
the  wel't'are  of  which  we  are  so  nearly  concerned,  in 
our  several  private  interests;  and  in  the  meantime, 


UNITED  STATES. 


851 


hope  we  may  justly  expect  to  be  secured  from  ca- 
lumny and  misrepresentation. 

"  Edward  Shippen,  Samuel  Carpenter,  Joseph 
Growdon,  Jasper  Yeates,  Samuel  Finney,  William 
Trent,  Caleb  Pusey,  Richard  Hill. 

"  With  an  exception  to  what  is  said  of  offices  of 
profit,  though  I  enjoy  none,  as  a  member  of  council, 
I  sign  this.  "  JAMES  LOGAN. 

"  Philadelphia,  April  13,  1709." 

The  governor  having  laid  this  representation  of 
the  council  before  the  assembly,  it  produced  an  ad- 
dress to  him,  by  way  of  answer,  from  the  house. 
In  this  they  blamed  the  council,  for  seeming  to  ap- 
ply to  themselves,  in  general,  what  was  meant  by 
the  words  evil  counsel;  of  which,  they  said,  they 
had  given  their  explanation  before,  in  their  answer 
to  the  governor's  speech.  They  were  displeased  at 
the  council's  declaring  they  had  nothing  to  say  re- 
specting the  two  particulars  of  Evans's  conduct, 
mentioned  in  the  assembly's  address,  viz.  That  of 
the  false  alarm,  in  1  706.  and  the  affair  at  Newcas- 
tle. As  to  the  other  two  points,  in  regard  to  the 
councils  advising  the  treasurer  and  the  governor, 
as  they  acknowledge  themselves  to  have  done;  the 
assembly  appeared  incensed  at  the  council's  pre- 
suming to  do  the  former,  as  it  was  not  properly 
their  office  ;  and  they  censured  them  for  opposing 
the  late  assembly  in  their  advice  to  the  governor,  on 
the  bill  of  courts,  and  their  assenting,  at  the  same 
time,  to  the  governor's  ordinance,  for  carrying  into 
execution  the  same  thing,  and  so  nearly  in  the 
same  manner,  that  the  said  bill  was  intended  to  do; 
in  short,  they  were  angry  that  the  council  should 
present,  (in  their  words,  patronize)  such  an  address, 
so  opposite  to  the  views  of  the  house,  and  declared, 
they  considered  it  as  an  indignity  offered  to  them, 
as  well  as  to  the  late  assembly. 

After  this  was  laid  before  the  governor,  the  as- 
sembly presented  a  remonstrance,  complaining  of 
many  circumstances  which  they  styled  grievances, 
and  requesting  his  concurrence  to  remove  and  re- 
dress the  same.  Some  of  these  seem  to  have  been 
very  trifling,  and  to  have  been  complained  of  to 
gratify  the  temper  of  the  house ;  the  rest  have  al- 
ready been  mostly  mentioned. 

The  resentment  of  Lloyd,  the  speaker,  against 
Logan,  and  the  ready  devotion  of  the  house  to  his 
humour,  are  represented  to  have  had  too  much 
place,  in  some  of  these  transactions.  It  is  scarcely 
to  be  doubted  that  there  was  real  occasion,  in  some 
cases,  to  complain  of  grievances,  which  demanded 
proper  attention  and  relief;  but  the  word  "griev- 
ance" was  become  common,  and  so  often  used,  that 
its  proper  application  seems  not  always  to  have 
been  sufficiently  attended  to. 

After  having  presented  their  remonstrance,  the 
house  adjourned  ;  and  at  their  next  meeting,  on  the 
1st  of  June,  the  governor  made  them  the  following 
speech,  viz. 

"  Gentlemen, 

"  The  queen,  for  the  good  of  her  subjects  of  the 
provinces,  has  fitted  out  an  expedition  with  great 
expense,  for  the  retaking  of  Newfoundland,  and  for 
the  conquest  of  Canada,  and  has  entrusted  Colonel 
Vetch  with  her  majesty's  letters  to  the  respective 
governors,  and  instructions  to  agree  on  proper  mea- 
sures, for  putting  her  majesty's  designs  in  execu- 
tion. Boston,  lihode  Island  and  Connecticut,  have 
outdone  her  majesty's  expectations  ;  and  I  hope  we 
shall  not  be  wanting  in  our  duty. 

"  The  quota  for  this  province  is  150  men,  besides 
officers,  to  be  victualled  and  paid,  as  those  of  the 


other  governments ;  the  charge,  I  suppose,  will 
amount  to  about  4000J. 

"  Perhaps  it  may  seem  difficult  to  raise  that  num- 
ber of  men,  in  a  country  where  most  of  the  inhabi- 
tants are  obliged,  by  their  principles,  not  to  make 
use  of  arms  ;  but  if  you  will  raise,  for  the  support  of 
government,  the  sum  demanded,  I  do  not  doubt 
getting  the  number  of  men,  whose  principles  allow 
the  use  of  them,  and  commissioners  may  be  ap- 
pointed for  disposal  of  the  country's  money  ;  that 
the  people  may  be  satisfied,  that  the  money  is  ap- 
plied to  no  other  use  than  this  expedition. 

"  I  must  recormnend  to  you  the  present  circum- 
stances of  the  three  lower  counties ;  you  are  not 
now  falsely  alarmed;  Newcastle  seems  the  only 
place  proper  to  make  any  defence;  I  find  them 
ready  and  willing  to  do  any  thing  in  their  power  for 
the  good  of  the  country,  and  look  on  themselves  as 
a  frontier  to  you,  though  a  weak  one;  and  if  they 
perish,  in  all  probability,  your  destruction  will  not 
be  far  off;  therefore,  in  my  opinion,  it  is  your  inter- 
est, that  they  be  furnished  with  all  things  necessary 
to  oppose  the  enemy. 

"  I  have  only  to  add,  that,  as  all  private  affairs 
ought  to  be  postponed  to  her  majesty's  immediate 
service,  so  it  will  not  consist  with  my  duty  to  hearken 
to  any  proposals,  or  enter  into  any  business  with 
you,  till  her  majesty's  commands  be  complied  with  ; 
and,  therefore,  desire  you  will  give  this  affair  all 
possible  dispatch." 

The  assembly  vote  a  present  to  the  queen — Tlie  gover- 
nor1 not  satisfied  with  their  offer  ;  and  they  adjourn 
—Proceedings  of  the  next  meeting  of  assembly—' 
They  agree  to  augment  the  sum,  voted  before  to  the 
queen  •  and  request  the  governor's  concurrence  to 
divers  bills— Further  dispute  between  the  governor 
and  assembly  ;  with  reasons  of  the  former  for  not 
agreeing  with  the  latter  ;  upon  which  they  remon- 
strate to  the  governor,  and  are  much  displeased  with 
the  secretary,  James  Logan — Proceedings  between 
the  governor,  and  the  next  assembly — Their  pro- 
ceedings against  James  Logan — They  are  disap- 
pointed in  their  design  against  him  by  the  governor 
—  The  secretary  goes  to  England,  8fc. 

The  assembly  having  considered  the  governor's 
speech,  several  of  the  members  consulted  a  number 
of  their  principal  constituents  ;  and  in  their  address, 
or  answer  to  the  governor,  they  declared, 

"  That  were  it  not,  that  the  raising  of  money  to 
hire  men  to  fight  (or  kill  one  another)  was  matter 
of  conscience  to  them,  and  against  their  religious 
principles,  they  should  not  be  wanting,  according 
to  their  abilities,  to  contribute  to  those  designs." 
They  expressed  their  regard  and  loyalty  to  the 
queen,  and  their  prayer  for  the  long  continuance  of 
her  reign,  and  concluded,  "  That,  though  they  could 
not,  for  conscience  sake,  comply  with  the  furnishing 
a  supply  for  such  a  defence,  as  the  governor  pro- 
posed, yet,  in  point  of  gratitude  to  the  queen,  for 
her  great  and  many  favours  to  them,  they  had  re- 
solved  to  raise  a  present  of  500/."  &c. 

To  this  they  added,  in  their  address,  "  That 
they  humbly  hoped  he  would  be  pleased  to  accept 
this,  as  a  testimony  of  their  unfeigned  loyalty,  and 
thankful  acknowledgment  for  her  grace 'and  cle- 
mency towards  them,  and  the  rest  of  her  subjects ; 
and  though  the  meanness  of  the  present  were  such 
as  was  unworthy  of  the  favour  of  her  acceptance, 
(which  indeed,  said  they,  was  caused  not  through 
want  of  good-will,  and  loyal  affection,  but  by  in- 
ability and  poverty,  occasioned  by  great,  losses,  late 

4  D  2 


852 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


taxes  misapplied,  lowness  of  the  staple  commo- 
dities of  the  country,  great  damp  upon  trade,  and 
their  neighbours'  non-compliance  with  the  queen's 
proclamation  for  reducing  the  coin,)  yet  they  hoped 
she  would  be  graciously  pleased  to  regard  the  hearty 
and  cordial  affections  of  them,  her  poor  subjects,  in- 
stead of  a  present  of  value  ;  and  to  prevent  mis- 
application thereof,  they  had  agreed,  that  it  should 
be -accounted  part  of  the  queen's  revenue. 

"  They,  therefore,  humbly  entreated  the  gover- 
nor to  put  a  candid  construction  upon  their  pro- 
ceedings, and  represent  them  favourably  to  their 
gracious  sovereign  the  queen ;  to  whom  they 
trusted  they  should  ever  approve  themselves 
(though  poor)  her  most  loyal  and  dutiful  sub- 
jects," &c. 

The  governor  was  dissatisfied  with  this  answer, 
principally  on  account  of  the  smallness  of  the  sum  ; 
and,  in  reply,  represented  the  urgent  necessity  of 
their  further  exerting  themselves,  on  the  occasion. 
But  the  assembly  pleaded  their  poverty  and  inabi- 
lity, and  adhered  to  their  resolve  of  presenting  the 
queen  with  500£.,  requesting  the  governor  to  con- 
sider the  nature  of  such  a  refusal,  and  of  his  inter- 
posing between  them  and  their  sovereign,  in  such 
a  case. 

The  governor  again,  in  his  turn,  pressed  their 
compliance  to  a  more  general  contribution,  de- 
claring his  present  conduct  in  the  affair,  to  be  his 
indispensable  duty,  in  consequence  of  the  queen's 
letter ;  and  of  the  utmost  importance  to  them,  to 
secure  her  favour,  and  disappoint  those  who  de- 
sired a  dissolution  of  the  present  government. 

After  this  several  messages  and  answers  passed 
between  the  governor  and  assembly,  on  the  subject, 
but  without  any  effect;  for  the  house,  being  de- 
termined to  adhere  to  their  resolve,  declared, 
that,  as  the  governor  had  refused  to  give  his  assent 
to  their  proposal  of  raising  the  500Z.,  above  men- 
tioned, and  to  proceed  to  other  business,  till  it  was 
now  late  in  the  season,  they  would  adjourn  till  the 
harvest  was  over. 

Of  this  the  governor,  being  informed  by  a  writ- 
ten message  from  the  house,  it  produced  further 
altercation  ;  the  governor  being  determined  to  pro- 
ceed to  no  other  business  till  that  of  the  queen  was 
first  settled ;  and  the  house  declaring,  they  woulc 
not  agree  to  the  governor's  proposal  of  raising 
money,  either  directly  or  indirectly,  for  the  expedi 
tion  to  Canada,  for  the  reasons  they  had  given 
yet  they  continued  their  resolution  of  raising  500/. 
as  a  present  to  the  queen,  and  intended  to  prepan 
a  bill  for  that  purpose,  at  their  next  meeting,  on 
the  15th  day  of  August  next;  to  which  time  they 
adjourned. 

The  governor  convened  the  assembly  before  the 
time,  to  which  they  had  adjourned  ;  and  told  them 
"  That  their  enemies,  having  plundered  Lewistown 
watered  in  the  bay,  and  sounded  it  as  they  passei 
along,  gave  alarming  apprehensions  of  a  neare 
visit ;  and  that  he  demanded  some  provision  to  bi 
immediately  made,  in  case  of  emergency."  "  Tha 
the  chiefs  of  several  Indian  nations,  being  in  town 
a  supply  was  immediately  requisite,  to  make  them 
a  suitable  present ;  that  the  importance  of  thei 
friendship,  and  the  easy  terms  of  maintaining  il 
were  sufficiently  evident."  "  That,  pf  the  money 
•which  had  been  appropriated  for  tha-t  use,  now  no 
thing  remained  for  a  present  to  them ;  and  that 
though  money  could  not  so  suddenly  be  raised,  a 
the  case  required,  yet  they  might  find  means  t 
procure  credit,  so  as  that  they  might  not  go  awa 


mpty."  "  That  there  was  no  manner  of  provi- 
on  for  the  governor's  support ;  that  the  proprie- 
iry,  on  whom  the  assembly  had  too  often  had  ex- 
ectation  in  the  case,  had,  by  his  late  hard  treat- 
nent,  from  some  whom  he  had  too  far  trusted, 
een  entirely  disabled  (were  it  in  itself  reason- 
ble)  to  continue  any  such  provision ;  conse- 
uently  their  immediate  resolution  was  absolutely 
ecessary  to  contribute  what  was  proper  in  this 
oint;  otherwise  they  must  expect  a  change  that 
ould  prove  more  chargeable." 

The  assembly  expressed  their  concern  for  what 
ad  happened  at  Lewistown ;  and  stated  that  the 
overnor  was  already  acquainted  how  far  the  ge- 
erality  of  the  people  of  the  province  could  op- 
ose  such  an  attempt.  They  wondered  that,  after 
uch  large  sums,  raised  for  the  support  of  govern- 
ment, they  were  notwithstanding  left  so  unprovided, 
s  the  governor  had  represented;  and  they  earnestly 
equested  his  assistance  to  call  the  late  governor 
nd  secretary  to  account  for  the  money,  which,  they 
aid,  should  have  been  applied  to  the  use  of  the  pub- 
ic. To  the  500J.,  which  they  had  already  voted,  they 
greed  to  add  300/.  more  for  the  other  necessary 
xpenses,  besides  200/.  towards  the  governor's  sup- 
iort.  They  intimated  thoir  expectation  of  his  con- 
urrence  to  redress  their  grievances,  and  recom- 
nended  to  his  consideration  a  number  of  bills,  pre- 
lared  by  former  assemblies,  and  agreed  to  by  the 
>resent;  of  which  one  was  for  establishing  courts; 
o  all  which  they  desired  to  have  his  concurrence, 
r  to  know  his  objections. 

These  bills  were  twelve  in  number ;  their  titles 
were,  1.  For  establishing  courts  of  judicature,  in 
.he  province.  2.  For  regulating  and  establishing 
'ees.  3.  For  confirming  patents  and  grants,  and 
o  prevent  law-suits.  4.  For  empowering  religious 
societies,  towns,  &c.,  to  buy,  hold  and  dispose  of 
and,  &c.  5.  Of  privilege  to  a  freeman.  6.  To 
oblige  witnesses  to  give  evidence,  and  to  prevent 
Vise  swearing.  7.  To  prevent  the  sale  of  ill-tanned 
eather.  8.  That  no  public-bouse  or  inn,  withiu 
Lhe  province,  be  kept  without  licence.  9.  Against 
menacing,  and  assault  and  battery.  10.  To  pre- 
vent disputes,  which  may  hereafter  arise  about 
dates  of  conveyances,  and  other  instruments  and 
writings.  11.  For  the  more  effectual  raising  of 
levies,  in  the  several  counties  of  the  province,  and 
the  city  of  Philadelphia,  and  appropriating  the 
same,  12.  For  the  priority  of  the  payment  of  debts 
to  the  inhabitants  of  this  province. 

The  governor,  in  reply,  acknowledged  he  was 
sensible,  that  many  inhabitants  of  the  province  could 
not,  in  any  case,  bear  arms ;  so  he  did  not  propose  it 
to  them,  but  only  a  necessary  supply  in  money, 
without  engaging  any  man  against  his  religious 
persuasion.  That,  in  regard  to  what  they  had  said 
respecting  Colonel  Evans  and  the  secretary,  he 
could  not  understand  it ;  the  former  having  affirmed, 
he  received  only  what  was  directly  allowed  by  the 
assembly  for  his  own  support,  and  thought  himself 
not  at  all  accountable  for  it;  and  thai  the  secretary 
seemed  to  wonder  what  should  induce  the  house  to 
name  him  upon  that  occasion  ;  there  being  none  of  it 
payable  to  him,  but  for  his  own  services  as  an  offi- 
cer. That  he  thanked  them,  for  taking  his  support 
into  their  consideration,  hoping  future  provision  of 
that  kind  would  be  made  more  easy  ;  and  that  he 
would  readily  agree  to  any  thing  consistent  with  his 
duty,  and  the  trust  reposed  in  him. 

That,  respecting  the  bills,  the  proprietary  was 
not  at  all  opposed  to  establishing  courts  by  law, 


UNITED  STATES. 


853 


yet  his  instructions  would  not  permit  him  to  agree 
to  those  points  in  the  bill/  which  broke  in,  either 
upon  his  powers  in  government,  or  his  just  interest; 
why  such  a  bill  should  interfere  with  these,  he  could 
not  see  ;  but  as  he  was  willing  to  agree  to  a  bill,  for 
the  ease  and  security  of  the  people,  in  that  respect, 
properly  regulated,  and  on  his  part,  to  do  his  duty, 
so  he  hoped  they  would  be  careful  to  offer  him  no- 
thing that  he  could  not  assent  to,  without  a  viola- 
tion of  his  honour  and  trust.  He  recommended  their 
reviewing  the  bills,  passed  by  the  former  assemblies; 
and  thanked  them  for  the  provision,  which  they 
had  made  for  the  Indians.  This  speech  concluded 
the  sessions. 

The  assembly  at  their  next  sitting  in  August,  not- 
withstanding the  governor's  warning,  still  remained 
tenacious  of  their  own  method,  and  adhered  to  their 
former  claims.  Upon  which,  at  their  next  meeting, 
on  the  28th  of  Sept.,  he  sent  them  a  written  message, 
which  concludes  with  the  following  paragraph  : — 

"  But  now,  gentlemen,  I  must  be  so  plain  as  to 
tell  you,  that,  though  I  have  been  very  desirous  to 
see  all  these  matters  brought  to  a  ripeness,  that 
they  might  actually  be  passed  into  laws,  yet,  until 
I  see  the  country  as  ready  to  discharge  their  duty, 
in  providing  for  my  support,  in  the  administration, 
independent  of  anj  supply  from  the  proprietary,  who, 
as  I  told  you  before,  cannot  now  (were  it  even  rea- 
sonable) spare  any  part  of  his  estate  here,  to  that 
purpose,  I  shall  account  myself  very  unjust  to  the 
duty  I  owe  myself,  if  I  concur  in  any  other  public 
act  in  legislation,  though  truly  inclinable  to  do  all, 
for  the  advantage  of  the  public,  that  can  reasonably 
be  expected  from  me  :  but  a  governor  cannot  lie 
under  a  greater  obligation  to  the  people,  than  they 
do  to  him ;  nor  can  that  be  accounted  a  free  gift 
from  them,  which  is  but  their  indispensable  duty  ; 
for  at  this  time,  there  is  no  support  for  a  governor 
in  this  government,  but  what  must  be  granted  by  an 
act  of  an  assembly.  You  have  told  me,  that'you 
had  voted  500/.  to  the  queen,  300/.  for  the  service 
of  the  public,  and  200Z.  to  me ;  and  you  have  lately 
informed  me,  that  when  I  had  passed  the  other  acts, 
the  speaker  would  present  a  bill  to  me,  for  raising 
that  money.  It  is  possible  when  the  others  were 
passed,  the  speaker  might  do  so ;  but,  can  it,  in 
reason,  be  expected,  that,  while  you  show  so  un- 
precedented and  unusual  a  diffidence,  on  your  side, 
that  you  would  not  so  much  as  let  me  see  the  bill, 
but  hi  private,  nor  allow,  that  it  should,  upon  any 
terms,  be  communicated  to  the  council,  with  whom 
I  am  to  advise,  (though  you  cannot  but  be  sensible, 
that,  should  I  design  it,  yet  it  is  not  in  my  power 
to  pass  a  bill  into  a  laAV,  until  the  speaker  has  signed 
it.)  which  is  usually  done  at  the  time  of  passing  it. 
Could  it  be  expected,  I  say,  that  I  should  pass  all 
that  you  desired  of  me,  and  then  depend  on  your 
presenting  that  bill?  Or,  can  it  be  thought  reason- 
able, or,  for  the  security  of  the  public,  that  I  should 
pass  an  act,  for  raising  and  applying  SQOL  for 
several  uses,  besides  those  200J.  said  to  be  granted 
to  me,  without  taking  proper  advice  upon  it,  of 
those,  whom  the  discharge  of  my  duty,  as  well  as  my 
inclinations,  obliges  me  to  consult,  in  all  public  mat- 
ters ;  nor  that  I  should  have  it  in  my  power  to  ob- 
ject to,  or  alter,  any  part  of  the  whole  bill,  after  it 
is  presented  ?  No,  gentlemen,  &s  I  have  no  designs 
but  what  are  plain  and  honest,  so  I  must  expect  a 
suitable  treatment;  and,  therefore,  I  now  desire 
you  faithfully  to  lay  before  the  people,  whom  you 
represent,  and  to  whom  you  are  returning,  what  I 
have  here  said  to  you  ;  and.  upon  this  occasion, 


assure  them  from  me.  that  unless  they  take  care  to 
grant  a  requisite  support,  and  in  such  a  manner, 
as  is  fit  to  be  accepted,  I  shall  not  at  all  think  my- 
self concerned  to  attend  the  affairs  of  the  public,  in 
legislation  ;  and  what  measures  the  proprietary  will 
find  himself  obliged  to  take  at  home,  I  have  for- 
merly sufficiently  hinted  to  you  ;  but  as  I  shall  not 
be  wanting,  on  my  side,  to  concur  in  any  thing  that 
is  reasonable,  so  I  hope,  the  next  time  I  meet  the 
representatives  of  the  people,  we  shall  have  such 
confidence  in  each  other,  and  they  will  so  far  con- 
sider their  duty,  and  take  such  methods,  for  effect- 
ing business,  that  all  things  necessary  may  be  con- 
cluded to  our  mutual  satisfaction,  for  the  true  ad- 
vantage and  benefit  of  this  province." 

By  this  plain  declaration  of  the  governor,  the  as- 
sembly easily  perceived,  to  their  great  mortification, 
that,  in  consequence  of  the  proprietary's  instruc- 
tions, the  governor  could  not  pass  any  bill  without 
the  advice  or  approbation  of  his  council;  which, 
how  reasonable  soever  it  might  appear  in  itself,  was 
deemed  to  have  no  foundation  in  the  royal  charter  ; 
by  which  the  whole  power  of  legislation  was  under- 
stood to  be  vested  in  the  governor,  and  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people.  This  the  house  observed 
in  their  remonstrance  to  the  governor  the  next  day, 
declaring,  that  had  they  known  he  was  so  restricted, 
they  would  neither  have  given  him,  nor  themselves, 
so  much  trouble  as  they  had  done  :  they  likewise 
complained  of  some  other  matters,  that  were  not 
redressed :  but  their  greatest  resentment  appears, 
in  this  remonstrance,  to  be  against  the  secretary, 
Logan  ;  against  whom  is  exhibited,  in  a  very  angry 
manner,  a  long  complaint ;  representing  him  as  the 
grand  obstacle  of  their  proceedings  ;  and,  that, 
though  they  had  endeavoured  to  reduce  him  within 
proper  bounds,  yet,  by  reason  of  his  great  influence 
with  the  governor  and  proprietary,  he  was  now  ad- 
vanced above  their  power  ;  obstructing  all  their 
public  transactions,  and  treating  the  members  of  the 
house  with  insult  and  abuse. 

In  the  October  following,  the  same  members  of  as- 
sembly were  principally  re-elected,  and  David 
Lloyd  was  again  chosen  speaker.  The  governor,  in 
his  speech  on  the  17th,  after  having  mentioned 
several  other  affairs,  which  were  yet  unfinished, 
pressed  their  making  due  provision  for  the  support 
of  the  lieutenancy  of  the  government,  and  concluded 
his  speech  as  follows : — 

"  Gentlemen,  you  are  met  for  no  other  end,  than 
to  serve  the  country,  whom  you  represent ;  I  hope, 
therefore,  you  will  study  all  possible  means,  that 
may  contribute  to  the  real  happiness  of  that :  which, 
I  believe,  you  will  find  may  be  much  promoted  by 
improving  a  good  understanding  between  you  arid 
me,  in  our  respective  stations. 

"  I  would  not  willingly  look  back  upon  some  of 
the  proceedings  of  the  last  house,  only  from  thence 
I  must  give  you  a  necessary  caution,  to  dwell  less 
than  has  been  done  on  that  general  language  of 
evil  counsel,  or  counsellors,  generally  used  as  an 
artful  method,  lo  strike  at  the  counselled ;  but  with 
me,  I  believe,  without  occasion;  or  that  of  griev- 
ances and  oppressions,  words,  by  God's  blessing, 
understood  by  few  (I  find)  in  this  province,  who 
form  them  not  in  their  own  imaginations;  for  I 
assure  you,  gentlemen,  if  we  are  not  as  happy  as 
the  circumstances  of  the  place  will  admit,  it  lies 
much  in  your  power  to  make  us  so;  of  which  I 
hope  you  will  consider,  and  use  your  endeavours 
accordingly,  with  a  full  resolution  to  remove  what- 
ever may  stand  in  the  way. 


854 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


"  I  have  already  said,  that  I  would  not  look  back 
to  the  proceedings  of  the  last  house ;  but  the  secre- 
tary has  found  himself  so  much  aggrieved  by  their 
remonstrance,  that  he  has  presented  for  my  perusal 
a  long  defence  ;  in  which  I  shall  not  think  myself 
any  further  concerned,  than  to  observe  to  you,  that, 
to  my  surprise,  he  has  charged  the  speaker  of  that 
house  with  some  proceedings,  which,  if  true,  will  re- 
quire your  consideration,  and  some  further  mea- 
sures to  be  taken  upon  them;  for  which  reason,  I 
have  ordered  him  to  lay  a  copy  of  them  before 
you;  and  I  must  say,  if  that  representation  be  well 
grounded,  I  cannot  see  that,  under  this  government, 
such  a  person  can  be  accounted  fit  for  that  station  ; 
but  at  present  I  shall  no  further  enquire  into  it, 
only  recommend  to  you,  to  proceed  with  diligence, 
in  whatever  is  incumbent  on  you,  in  your  stations, 
as  well  in  this  as  in  all  other  matters  that  may  con- 
cern the  welfare  of  the  public,  and  honour  of  this 
government,  as  now  established." 

This  the  assembly  replied  to  the  next  day;  tell- 
ing the  governor  that,  among  other  things,  they  also 
had  under  consideration  the  making  provision  for 
his  support;  and,  after  having  made  some  angry 
reflections  against  the  secretary,  whom  they  consi- 
dered, in  great  measure,  as  the  cause  of  the  misun- 
derstanding between  them  and  the  governor,  they 
proceeded  to  say;  "  But,  may  it  please  the  gover- 
nor, we  beg  leave  to  observe,  that  the  duty  incum- 
bent on  us,  to  contribute  to  this  general  support  of 
the  lieutenancy,  is  grounded  upon  a  condition  pre- 
cedent; so  that  the  people,  according  to  the  funda- 
mental rules  of  the  English  government,  are  not 
obliged  to  contribute  to  the  support  of  that  adminis- 
tration, which  affords  them  no  redress  when  their 
rights  are  violated,  their  liberties  infringed,  and 
their  representative  body  affronted  and  abused : 
hence  it  is,  that  that  branch  of  the  legislative  autho- 
rity seldom  move  to  give  supplies  till  their  aggriev- 
ances  are  redressed,  and  reparation  made,  for  the 
indignities  they  meet  with  from  the  other  branch 
of  the  same  authority. 

"  We  are  very  sensible  that  the  end  of  our  meet- 
ing is  to  serve  the  country;  and  we  assure  the  go- 
vernor there  shall  be  nothing  wanting  on  our  parts 
to  promote  it,  and  improve  a  good  understanding 
between  him  and  us,  in  our  respective  stations : 
but  let  not  the  language  of  the  representatives  of 
the  people,  about  evil  counsellors,  grievances,  and 
oppressions,  be  irksome  to  the  governor;  for  we 
shall  not  answer  the  true  end  of  our  meeting,  nor 
discharge  our  duty  and  trust  to  those  that  sent  us, 
if  we  be  silent,  and  not  insist  upon  redressing  those 
things  that  are  amiss,  with  a  resolution  to  use  our 
endeavours  to  remove  what  appears  to  stand  in  the 
way. 

"  We  have,  with  all  the  application,  this  short 
time  could  allow,  informed  ourselves  of  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  late  assemblies,  and  find  no  just 
grounds  for  the  governor  to  suppose  that  their  com- 
plaints of  evil  counsel  or  counsellors  have  been  used 
as  methods  to  strike  at  him;  but  we»  believe  it  was 
their  care,  as  we  find  it  to  be  ours,  that  the  gover- 
nor may  not  be  imposed  on,  or  prevailed  with,  to 
adhere  to  evil  counsel,  and  render  his  actings  in- 
consistent. 

"  We  suppose  it  needless  to  be  more  express  than 
the  late  assembly  have  been,  to  demonstrate  what 
an  enemy  the  secretary  has  been  to  the  welfare  of 
this  province ;  and  how  abusive  he  has  been  to  the 
representatives  of  the  people ;  so  that  we  can  do  no 
less  than  repeat  the  request  of  former  assemblies,  to 


have  him  removed  from  the  governor's  council; 
which  we  doubt  not  will  be  a  most  effectual  means  to 
improve  a  good  understanding  between  thee  and  us. 

"  If  the  governor  will  look  back,  and  duly  consi- 
der the  complaints  and  remonstrances  of  the  late 
assemblies,  it  will  appear,  that  grievances  and  op- 
pressions are  words,  which  are  formed  upon  just 
complaints;  and  for  which  the  country  wants  re- 
dress; so  that  what  the  governor  supposes,  on  that 
head,  is  not  candid  towards  the  representatives  of 
the  people. 

"  May  it  please  the  governor,  whatever  might  be 
the  occasion,  or  design  of  the  last  clause  in  thy 
speech,  we  are  of  opinion  it  was  not  well  timed;  for 
if  the  secretary's  charge  against  our  speaker  had 
any  weight,  it  should  have  been  propounded  as  an 
objection  against  the  assembly's  choice  of  him  for 
speaker :  but,  after  thou  hadst  declared  thy  appro- 
bation of  their  choice,  that  thou  shouldst'be  pre- 
vailed upon  so  far  to  patronise  the  secretary's  insi- 
nuation against  the  speaker,  as  to  make  it  a  part  of 
thy  speech  to  us,  before  we  had  seen  or  hoard  the 
charge,  we  can  do  no  less  than  resent  it,  as  an  in- 
dignity offered  to  this  house;  for  though  we  are 
men  that  cannot  be  much  meaner  in  the  governor's 
eye  than  we  are  in  our  own  esteem,  yet  we  must 
put  him  in  mind  that,  since  the  royal  charter  com- 
mits this  part  of  the  legislative  authority  to  our  care, 
we  ought  to  have  the  regard  due  to  our  stations." 

After  this  the  governor  went  to  Newcastle;  and 
in  the  meantime  the  assembly  adjourned.  On  their 
meeting  again,  about  the  beginning  of  November, 
the  secretary,  Logan,  intending  to  go  to  England, 
presented  to  them  a  petition,  requesting  that  prepa- 
ration  might  be  made  for  his  trial,  upon  the  im- 
peachment of  a  former  assembly,  in  the  year  1706. 
They  therefore  proceeded  to  his  case,  and  took  into 
consideration  his  defence;  and  his  charge  against 
their  speaker,  David  Lloyd,  mentioned  in  the  go- 
vernor's speech.  They  carried  their  resentment  so 
far  in  the  affair,  that  they  actually  issued  out  a 
warrant  to  the  high  sheriff  of  the  city  and  county  of 
Philadelphia,  signed  by  the  speaker,  for  apprehending 
the  secretary,  and  for  committing  him  to  the  county 
gaol  of  Philadelphia,  as  tfrey  said,"  For  his  offence, 
in  reflecting  upon  sundry  members  of  this  house  in 
particular,  and  the  whole  house  in  general,  charging 
the  proceedings  of  this  assembly  with  unfairness 
and  injustice."  But,  by  'A-supersedeas  from  the  go- 
vernor, the  execution  of  it  was  prevented,  to  tl:e 
great  displeasure  of  the  assembly ;  as  appears  by 
their  resolves,  in  the  minutes  of  the  house;  wherein 
they  assert,  "  That  this  measure  of  the  governor 
was  illegal  and  arbitrary." 

The  temper  and  disposition  of  the  house  now 
were  such,  that  it  does  not  appear  any  further  transac- 
tions passed  between  the  governor  and  this  assembly. 

But  the  secretary,  by  reason  of  his  useful  abilities, 
and  faithful  services  to  the  proprietary,  was  so  tho- 
roughly fortified  in  both  his  and  the  governor's  es- 
teem and  confidence,  that  he  was  above  the  power 
of  his  opponents.  He  prosecuted  his  voyage  to 
England;  and  with  such  perseverance  and  ability 
vindicated  himself,  and  so  far  succeeded  against  the 
violence  of  the  opposition,  that  he  not  only  survived 
the  storm,  and  continued  in  his  offices,  but  also  was 
afterwards  president  of  the  province ;  and  discharged 
the  office  with  much  reputation  to  himself  and  sa- 
tisfaction to  the  public,  as  will  hereafter  appear; 
and  after  a  wise  recess  of  many  years  from  public 
affairs,  at  last,  in  the  year  1751,  honourably  closed 
his  days. 


UNITED  STATES. 


655 


Party  spirit  endanger*  the  government  and  constitu 
tion—The  proprietor's  letter  to  the  assembly  respect 
ing  their  late  transactions — An  entire  new  assembly 
elected  in  October  17 10 — Harmony  between  the  go- 
vernor and  this  assembly  productive  of  more  ayree 
able  and  better  consequences,  fyc. — Proceedings  Oj 
the  legislature  in  consequence  of  an  express  fron 
England,  received  by  the  governor,  relating  to  a> 
expedition  against  Canada— The  queen's  letter  Oj 
instructions  to  him— The  assembly  vote  2000/.  fo, 
the  queen's  use — Tlie  next  year  produces  a  chan(/( 
in  the  assembly — The  proprietor  agrees  to  dispose  Oj 
the  government  to  the  queen;  and  is  seized  with  a, 
apoplexy — Wine  and  mm  imported  in  1712 — Set 
tlnment  of  New  Garden  and  London  Grove,  it 
Chester  county — Samuel  Carpenter — The  governor', 
u-rit  for  summoning  the  assembly — Altercation  be 
tween  them. 

This  province  appears  to  have  been  never  entirely 
without  a  discontented  party  in  it;  who  thought  it 
their  duty  and  interest  constantly  to  oppose  the 
proprietary,  in  all  cases  indiscriminately,  vvher 
either  his  power  or  interest  was  concerned;  am 
though  frequently  but  small  and  weak,  yet  they 
were  sufficiently  able  to  embarrass  the  public  pro- 
ceedings, and  endanger  the  general  tranquillity; 
and  having,  for  a  number  of  years  past,  by  conti- 
nual complaints  of  great  and  numerous  grievance 
utiredressed,  excited  the  minds  of  many  well-disposed 
persons  in  the  province,  they  at  last  obtained  a  ma- 
jority in  the  assembly  against  him. 

The  increase  of  this  opposition  seems  principally 
to  have  arisen  from  the  proprietary's  absence,  and 
trusting  his  affairs  too  much  to  deputies;  to  which 
the  nature  and  necessity  of  his  situation  and  cir- 
cumstances, in  these  times,  particularly  obliged  him. 

The  opposition  against  Penn  at  last  drew  from  him 
the  following  letter  to  the  assembly. 

"  London,  29th,  4th  mo.  1710. 
"  My  old  Friends, 

"  It  is  a  mournful  consideration,  and  the  cause  of 
deep  affliction  to  me,  that  I  am  forced,  by  the  op- 
pressions and  disappointments  which  have  fallen  to 
my  share  in  this  life,  to  speak  to  the  people  of  that 
province,  in  a  language  I  once  hoped  I  should 
never  have  occasion  to  use.  But  the  many  trou- 
bles and  oppositions  that  I  have  met  with  from 
thence,  oblige  me,  in  plainness  and  freedom,  to  ex- 
postulate with  you,  concerning  the  causes  of  them. 

"  When  it  pleased  God  to  open  a  way  for  me  to 
settle  that  colony,  I  had  reason  to  expect  a  solid 
comfort  from  the  services,  done  to  many  hundreds  of 
people  ;  and  it  was  no  small  satisfaction  to  me,  that 
I  have  not  been  disappointed  in  seeing  them  pros- 
per, and  growing  up  to  a  flourishing  country,  blessed 
with  liberty,  ease,  and  plenty,  beyond  what  many 
of  themselves  could  expect;  and  wanting  nothing 
to  make  themselves  happy,  but  what,  with  a  right 
temper  of  mind,  and  prudent  conduct,  they  might 
give  themselves.  But,  alas  !  as  to  my  part,  instead 
of  reaping  the  like  advantages  some  of  the  greatest 
of  my  troubles  have  arose  from  thence ;  the  many- 
combats  I  have  engaged  in ;  the  great  pains,  and 
incredible  expense,  for  your  welfare  and  ease,  to 
the  decay  of  my  former  estate;  of  which  (however 
some  there  would  represent  it)  I  too  sensibly  feel 
the  effects ;  with  the  undeserved  opposition  I  have 
met  with  from  thence,  sink  me  into  sorrow ;  that,  if 
not  supported  by  a  superior  hand,  might  have  over- 
whelmed me  long  ago.  And  I  cannot  but  think  it 
hard  measure  that,  while  that  has  proved  a  land  of 


freedom  and  flourishing,  it  should  become  to  me,  by 
whose  means  it  was  principally  made  a  country,  the 
cause  of  grief,  trouble,  and  poverty. 

"  For  this  reason  I  must  desire  you  all,  even  of 
all  professions  and  degrees,  for  although  all  have  not 
been  engaged  in  the  measures  that  have  been  taken, 
yet  every  man  who  has  an  interest  there,  is,  or 
must  be,  concerned  in  them,  by  their  effects ;  I  must, 
therefore,  I  say,  desire  you  all,  in  a  serious  and 
true  weightiness  of  mind,  to  consider  what  you  are, 
or  have  been  doing ;  why  matters  must  be  carried 
on  with  these  divisions  and  contentions,  and  what 
rsal  causes  have  been  given  on  my  side  for  that  op- 
position to  me,  and  my  interest,  which  I  have  met 
with ;  as  if  I  were  an  enemy,  and  not  a  friend,  after 
all  I  have  done  and  spent,  both  here  and  there : 
I  am  sure  I  know  not  of  any  cause  whatsoever.  Were 
I  sensible  you  really  wanted  any  thing  of  me,  in  the 
relation  between  us,  that  would  make  you  happier, 
I  should  readily  grant  it,  if  any  reasonably  man 
would  say  it  were  fit  for  you  to  demand ;  provided 
you  would  also  take  such  measures  as  were  tit  for 
me  to  join  with. 

"  Before  any  one  family  had  transported  them- 
selves thither,  I  earnestly  endeavoured  to  form  such 
a  model  of  government  as  might  make  all  concerned 
in  it  easy ;  which,  nevertheless  was  subject  to  be 
altered,  as  there  should  be  occasion.  Soon  after 
we  got  over,  that  model  appeared,  in  some  parts  of  it, 
to  be  very  inconvenii  nt,  if  not  impracticable;  the 
numbers  of  members,  both  in  the  council  and 
assembly,  were  much  too  large;  some  other  matters 
also  proved  inconsistent  with  the  king's  charter  to 
me  :  so  that,  according  to  the  power  reserved  for 
an  alteration,  there  was  a  necessity  to  make  one, 
in  which,  if  the  lower  counties  were  brought  in,  it 
was  well  known,  at  that  time,  to  be  on  a  view  of 
advantage  to  the  province  itself,  as  well  as  to  the 
people  of  those  counties,  and  to  the  general  satis 
faction  of  those  concerned,  without  the  least  appre- 
hension of  any  irregularity  in  the  method. 

"  Upon  this  they  had  another  charter  passed, 
nemine  c.ontradicente ;  which  I  always  desired  might 
be  continued,  while  you  yourselves  would  keep  up 
to  it,  and  put  it  in  practice ;  and  many  there  know 
much  it  was  against  my  will,  that  upon  my  last 
going  over,  it  was  vacated.  But  after  this  was  laid 
aside  (which  indeed  was  begun  by  yourselves,  in 
Colonel  Fletcher's  time)  I,  according  to  my  en- 
gagement, left  another,  with  all  the  privileges  that 
were  found  convenient  for  your  good  government ; 
and  if  any  part  of  it  has  been,  in  any  case,  infringed, 
it  was  never  by  my  approbation.  I  desired  it  might 
be  enjoyed  fully.  But  though  privileges  ought  to 
be  tenderly  preserved,  they  should  not,  on  the  other 
hand,  be  asserted  under  that  name  to  a  licentious- 
ness :  the  design  of  government  is  to  preserve  good 
order;  which  may  be  equally  broke  in  upon  by  the 
turbulent  endeavours  of  the  people,  as  well  as  the 
overstraining  of  power  in  a  governor.  I  designed 
the  people  should  be  secured  of  an  annual  fixed 
dection  and  assembly  ;  and  that  they  should  have 
he  same  privileges  in  it  that  any  other  assembly 
las  in  the  queen's  dominions ;  among  all  which  this 
s  one  constant  rule,  as  in  the  parliament  here, 
hat  they  should  sit  on  their  own  adjournments; 
mt  to  strain  this  expression  to  a  power  to  meet  at 
all  times  during  the  year,  without  the  governor's 
concurrence,  would  be  to  distort  government,  to 
>reak  the  due  proportion  of  the  parts  of  it,  to 
establish  confusion  in  the  place  of  necessary  order, 
and  make  the  legislative  the  executive  part  of  go- 


856 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


vernment.  Yet,  for  obtaining  this  power,  I  per- 
ceive, much  time  and  money  has  been  spent,  and 
freat  struggles  have  been  made,  not  only  for  this, 
ut  some  other  things,  that  cannot  at  all  be  for 
the  advantage  of  the  people  to  be  possessed  of;  par- 
ticularly the  appointing  of  judges  ;  because  the 
administration  might,  by  such  means,  be  so  clogged, 
that  it  would  be  difficult,  if  possible,  under  our  cir- 
cumstances, at  some  times  to  support  it.  As  for  my 
own  part,  as  I  desire  nothing  more  than  the  tran- 
quillity and  prosperity  of  the  province  and  govern- 
ment in  all  its  branches,  could  I  see  that  any  of 
these  things  that  have  been  contended  for  would 
certainly  promote  these  ends,  it  would  be  a  matter  of 
indifference  to  me  how  they  were  settled.  But  see- 
ing the  frame  of  every  government  ought  to  be  regu- 
lar in  itself,  well  proportioned  and  subordinate  in  its 
parts,  and  every  branch  of  it  invested  with  sufficient 
power  to  discharge  its  respective  duty  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  whole,  I  have  cause  to  believe  that 
nothing  could  be  more  destructive  to  it,  than  to  take 
so  much  of  the  provision  and  executive  part  of  the 
government  out  of  the  governor's  hands,  and  lodge 
it  in  an  uncertain  collective  body ;  and  more  espe- 
cially since  our  government  is  dependent,  and  I  am 
answerable  to  the  crown  if  the  administration  should 
fail,  and  a  stop  be  put  to  the  course  of  justice.  On 
these  considerations  I  cann<5t  think  it  prudent  in 
the  people  to  crave  these  powers ;  because  not  only 
I,  but  they  themselves,  would  be  in  danger  of  suf- 
fering by  it;  could  I  believe  otherwise,  T  should 
not  be  against  granting  any  thing  of  this  kind  that 
were  asked  of  me,  with  any  degree  of  common  pru- 
dence and  civility.  But,  instead  of  finding  cause 
to  believe  the  contentions  that  have  been  raised 
about  these  matters,  have  proceeded  only  from  mis- 
takes of  judgment,  with  an  earnest  desire,  notwith- 
standing, at  the  bottom,  to  serve  the  public  (which, 
I  hopo,  has  still  been  the  inducement  of  several 
concerned  in  them)  I  have  had  but  too  sorrowful  a 
view  and  sight  to  complain  of  the  manner  in  which 
I  have  been  treated.  The  attacks  on  my  reputation, 
the  many  indignities  put  upon  me,  in  papers  sent 
over  hither,  into  the  hands  of  those  who  could  not 
be  expected  to  make  the  most  discreet  and  charitable 
tise  of  them ;  the  secret  insinuations  against  my 
justice,  besides  the  attempt  made  upon  my  estate; 
resolves  past  in  the  assemblies,  for  turning  my  quit- 
rents,  never  sold  by  me,  to  the  support  of  government ; 
my  lands  entered  upon,  without  any  regular  method ; 
my  manors  invaded,  (under  pretence  I  had  not 
duly  surveyed  them,)  and  both  these  by  persons 
principally  concerned  in  these  attempts  against  me 
here  ;  a  right  to  my  overplus  land  unjustly  claimed 
by  the  possessors  of  the  tracts,  in  which  they  are 
found;  my  private  estate  continually  exhausting, 
for  the  support  of  that  government,  both  here  and 
there ;  and  no  provision  made  for  it  by  that  coun- 
try ;  to  all  which  I  cannot  but  add,  the  violence 
that  has  been  particularly  shewn  to  my  secretary; 
of  which,  (though  I  shall,  by  no  means,  protect  him 
in  any  thing  he  can  be  justly  charged  with,  but 
suffer  him  to  stand  or  fall  by  his  own  actions.)  I 
cannot  but  thus  far  take  notice  that,  from  all  these 
charges  I  have  seen  or  heard  of,  against  him,  I 
have  cause  to  believe  that,  had  he  been  as  much  in 
opposition  to  me  as  he  has  been  understood  to  stand 
for  me,  he  might  have  met  with  a  milder  treatment 
from  his  prosecutors ;  and,  to  think  that  any  man 
should  be  the  more  exposed  there,  on  my  account, 
and,  instead  of  finding  favour,  meet  with  enmity,  for 
his  being  engaged  in  my  service,  is  a  melancholy 


consideration !  In  short,  when  I  reflect  on  all  these 
heads,  of  which  I  have  so  much  cause  to  complain, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  think  of  the  hardships  I,  and 
my  suffering  family,  have  been  reduced  to,  in  no 
small  measure,  owing  to  my  endeavours  for.  and 
disappointments  from,  that  province,  I  cannot  but 
mourn  the  unhappiness  of  my  portion,  dealt  to  me 
from  those  of  whom  I  had  reason  to  expect  much 
better  and  different  things;  nor  can  I  but  lament 
the  unhappiness  that  too  many  of  them  are  bring- 
ing on  themselves,  who,  instead  of  pursuing  the 
amicable  ways  of  peace,  love  and  unity,  which  I  at 
first  hoped  to  find  in  that  retirement,  are  cherishing 
a  spirit  of  contention  and  opposition  ;  and,  blind  to 
their  own  interest,  are  oversetting  that  foundation 
on  which  your  happiness  might  be  built. 

"  Friends,  the  eyes  of  many  are  upon  you;  the 
people  of  many  nations  of  Europe  look'  on  that 
country  as  a  land  of  ease  and  quiet,  wishing  to 
themselves,  in  vain,  the  same  blessings  they  con- 
ceive you  may  enjoy :  but  to  see  the  use  you  make 
of  them,  is  no  less  the  cause  of  surprise  to  others, 
while  such  bitter  complaints  and  reflections  are  seen 
to  come  from  you,  of  which  it  is  difficult  to  conceive 
even  the  sense  or  meaning.  Where  are  the  dis- 
tresses, grievances,  and  oppressions,  that  the  papers 
sent  from  thence,  so  often  say  you  languish  under  ! 
while  others  have  cause  to  believe  you  have  hitherto 
lived,  or  might  live,  the  happiest  of  any  in  the 
queen's  dominions? 

"  Is  it  such  a  grievous  oppression,  that  the  courts 
are  established  by  my  power,  founded  on  the  king's 
charter,  without  a  law  of  your  making,  when  upon 
the  same  plan  you  propose  ?  If  this  disturb  any, 
take  the  advice  of  other  able  lawyers  on  the  main, 
without  tying  me  up  to  the  opinion  of  principally 
one  man,  whom  I  cannot  think  so  very  proper 
to  direct  in  my  affairs  (for,  I  believe,  the  late 
assembly  have  had  but  that  one  lawyer  amongst 
them,)  and  I  am  freely  content  you  should  have 
any  law,  that,  by  proper  judges,  should  be  found 
suitable.  Is  it  your  oppression  that  the  officers'  fees 
are  not  settled  by  an  act  of  assembly  ?  No  man 
can  be  a  greater  enemy  to  extortion  than  myself: 
do,  therefore,  allow  such  fees  as  may  reasonably 
encourage  fit  persons  to  undertake  these  offices, 
and  you  shall  soon  have  (and  should  have  always 
cheerfully  had)  mine,  and  I  hope,  my  lieutenant's 
concurrence  and  approbation.  Is  it  such  an  op- 
pression, that  licences  for  public-houses  have  not 
been  settled,  as  has  been  proposed?  It  is  a  certain 
sign  you  are  strangers  to  oppression,  and  know 
nothing  but  the  name,  when  you  so  highly  bestow 
it  on  matters  so  inconsiderable;  but  that  business, 
I  find,  is  adjusted.  Could  I  know  any  real  oppres- 
sion you  lie  under,  that  is  in  iny  power  to  remedy 
(and  what  I  wish  you  would  take  proper  measures 
to  remedy,  if  you  truly  feel  any  such,)  I  would  be 
as  ready,  on  my  part,  to  remove  them,  as  you  to 
desire  it;  but  according  to  the  best  judgment  I  can 
make  of  the  complaints,  I  have  seen  (and  you  once 
thought  I  had  a  pretty  good  one,)  I  must,  in  a  deep 
sense  of  sorrow,  say,  that  I  fear,  the  kind  hand  of 
Providence,  that  has  so  long  favoured  and  protected 
you,  will,  by  the  ingratitude  of  many  there  to  the 
great  mercies  of  God,  hitherto  shown  them,  be,  at 
length,  provoked  to  convince  them  of  their  un- 
worthiness;  and  by  changing  the  blessings,  that 
so  little  care  has  been  taken,  by  the  public,  to 
deserve,  into  calamities,  reduce  those  that  have 
been  so  clamorous,  and  causelessly  discontented, 
to  a  true,  but  smarting  sense  of  their  duty.  I  write 


UNITED  STATES. 


857 


not  this  with  a  design  to  include  all;  I  doubt  not, 
many  of  you  have  been  burdened  at,  and  can  by 
no  means  join  in  the  measures  that  have  been 
taken ;  but  while  such  things  appear  under  the 
name  of  an  assembly,  that  ought  to  represent  the 
•whole,  I  cannot  but  speak  more  generally  than  1 
would  desire,  though  I  am  not  unsensible  what 
methods  may  be  used  to  obtain  the  weight  of  such 
a  name. 

"  I  have  already  been  tedious,  and  shall  now, 
therefore,  briefly,  say,  that  the  opposition  I  have 
met  with  from  thence  must,  at  length,  force  me 
to  consider  more  closely  of  my  own  private  and 
sinking  circumstances,  in  relation  to  that  province. 
In  the  mean  time,  I  desire  you  all  seriously  to 
weigh  what  I  have  wrote,  together  with  your  duty 
to  yourselves,  to  me,  and  to  the  world,  who  have 
their  eyes  upon  you,  and  are  witnesses  of  my  early 
and  earnest  care  for  you.  I  must  think  there  is  a 
regard  due  to  me,  that  has  not  of  late  been  paid ; 
pray,  consider  of  it  fully,  and  think  soberly  what 
you  have  to  desire  of  me,  on  the  one  hand,  and 
ought  to  perform  to  me,  on  the  other;  for,  from 
the  next  assembly,  I  shall  expect  to  know  what 
you  resolve,  and  what  I  may  depend  on.  If  I 
must  continue  my  regards  to  you,  let  me  be  en- 
gaged to  it  by  a  like  disposition  in  you  towards  me. 
But,  if  a  plurality,  after  this,  shall  think  they  owe 
me  none,  or  no  more  than  for  some  years  I  have 
met  with,  let  it,  on  a  fair  election,  be  so  declared, 
and  I  shall  then,  without  further  suspense,  know 
what  I  have  to  rely  upon.  God  give  you  his 
wisdom  and  fear  to  direct  you,  that  yet  our  poor 
country  may  be  blessed  with  peace,  love,  and  in- 
dustry, and  we  may  once  more  meet  good  friends, 
and  live  so  to  the  end ;  our  relation,  in  the  truth, 
having  but  the  same  true  interest. 

"  I  am,  with  great  truth,  and  most  sincere  re- 
gard, your  real  Friend,  as  well  as  just  Proprietor 
and  Governor. 

"  WILLIAM  PENN." 

What  reply  was  made  to  this  letter  does  not  ap- 
pear; but  notwithstanding  what  might  have  been 
thought  deficient  or  amiss,  on  the  proprietary's 
side,  the  serious  nature  of  it  could  not  but  affect 
the  considerate  part  of  the  assembly  with  more 
regard  for  the  father  of  their  country,  now,  in  his 
declining  age,  and  for  his  difficult  situation,  oc- 
casioned originally  and  principally  on  account  of 
it ;  and  consequently  in  the  next  annual  election  of 
the  members  of  the  assembly,  in  October  1710,  an 
entire  new  house  was  elected,  of  which  Richard  Hill 
became  speaker. 

The  governor,  in  his  speech  to  the  house,  told 
them,  "  That  he  did  not  doubt  it  was  obvious  to 
every  one's  understanding,  why  he  could  not  agree 
with  the  last  assembly;  but,  as  he  took  them  to 
have  different  sentiments,  they  might  promise  them- 
selves, that  his  ready  assent  to  all  bills,  drawn  up 
for  the  public  good,  would  not  be  wanting;  and 
that,  as  he  had  often  expressed  his  resolution  of 
settling  among  them,  he  could  have  no  aims, 
contrary  to  the  interest  of  the  people  :  that  thus  a 
confidence  might  be  established  in  each  other,  he 
hoped  they  would  cheerfully  proceed  with  their 
bills,  and  make  such  provisions  for  the  support  of 
the  government  as  consisted  with  the  character 
that  the  province  justly  bore,  in  all  her  majesty's 
dominions.  He  concluded  with  recommending 
them  to  dispatch,  and  cautioning  them  to  avoid 
the  expense  of  a  long  sitting;  a  practice,  that 
some  former  assemblies,  by  giving  way  to,  had  left  a 


debt  upon  the  country,   that,  perhaps,   they  would 
not  very  easily  discharge." 

The  good  understanding  which  subsisted  between 
the  governor  and  this  assembly  was  productive  of 
much  more  satisfactory  proceedings,  and  salutary 
effects,  than  had  been  experienced  for  some  years 
before  ;  and  many  laws  were  mutually  agreed  on, 
and  passed  during  the  winter. 

In  the  summer  of  the  year  1711,  Governor  Goo- 
kin,  having  received  an  express  from  England,  re- 
specting the  expedition  against  Canada,  convened 
the  assembly,  and  acquainted  them  with  the  prepa- 
rations of  the  northern  colonies  for  that  end. 

He  recommended  them  to  exert  themselves,  suit- 
ably on  the  occasion,  not  to  be  behind  their  northern 
neighbours,  in  answering  the  queen's  expectation, 
and  to  enable  him  to  raise  and  support  the  quota  of 
men,  assigned  this  province,  or  else,  that,  they  would 
make  an  equivalent ;  and  he  laid  before  the  house 
certain  papers,  with  the  queen's  instructions  to  him, 
relative  to  the  affair  ;  which  last  were  as  follows  : — 
"  Anne  R. 

"  Trusty  and  well  beloved,  we  greet  you  well. 
Whereas,  we  have  sent  our  instructions  to  our  go- 
vernors of  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  and  of  the 
Massachusetts  Bay  and  New  Hampshire,  relating 
to  an  expedition,  we  design  to  make  against  the 
common  enemy,  the  French,  inhabiting  North 
America.  And  whereas,  we  have  directed  our  said 
governors,  and  Francis  Nicholson,  Esq.,  to  com- 
municate to  you  such  part  of  our  said  instructions, 
as  relates  to  the  province  under  your  command.  Our 
will  and  pleasure  is,  that  you  do,  in  all  things,  con- 
form yourself  to  the  said  instructions.  And  we  do 
hereby  command  you  to  be  aiding  and  assisting  in 
carrying  on  the  said  expedition  :  and,  in  order 
thereunto,  that  you  do  meet  our  said  governors, 
and  the  said  Francis  Nicholson,  at  such  place,  and 
at  such  time,  as  they  shall,  for  that  purpose,  signify 
unto  you  ;  and  that  you  put  in  execution  such  things, 
as  shall  then  be  resolved  to  be  acted  and  done,  on 
your  part;  in  doing  of  which,  we  do  expect  you  to 
use  the  utmost  vigour  and  diligence ;  and  for  so 
doing  this  shall  be  your  warrant :  so  we  bid  you 
farewell. 

"  Given  at  our  court,  at  St.  James's,  the  31st  day 
of  February,  1710-11,  in  the  ninth  year  of  our 
reign. 

"  By  her  majesty's  command,          H.  ST.  JOHN. 

"  To  our  trusty  and  well  beloved,  the  governor, 
or  lieutenant-governor,  or  commander-in-chie^  for 
the  time  being,  of  our  province,  of  Pennsylvania, 
in  America." 

The  congress  of  governors,  or  council  of  war, 
met  accordingly  at  New  London,  in  Connecticut, 
where  the  several  quotas,  or  proportions,  expected 
from  each  colony,  were  fixed;  but  on  account  of 
the  short  space  of  time,  and  great  distance,  Gover- 
nor Gookin  could  not  attend  it,  nor  properly  repre- 
sent the  state  and  ability  of  the  province  ;  and  the 
assembly  of  Pennsylvania  thought  the  colony  over- 
rated :  for  this  province  particularly  was  constantly 
at  a  considerable  expense,  for  the  preservation  of  the 
friendship  of  the  Indians,  in  such  manner,  as  was 
very  important  and  interesting  to  all  the  neighbour- 
ing governments,  and  the  general  utility;  they  ne- 
vertheless voted  2000/.,  to  be  raised  upon  the  in- 
habitants of  the  province,  for  the  queen's  use,  by  a 
tax  of  five-pence  half-penny  per  pound,  on  estates, 
and  20s.  per  head,  on  single  freemen  :  and  a  bill 
for  that  purpose  was  passed  by  the  governor. 

In  the  assembly,  elected  October  1711,  there  was 


858 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


a  considerable  change  of  members ;  and  David 
Lloyd's  name  again  appears  among  them;  but 
Richard  Hiil  was  chosen  speaker. 

The  governor,  in  a  speech  to  the  house,  this  win- 
ter, represented;  that  the  proprietary,  in  his  letters 
to  him,  had  signified  his  desire  to  serve  the  people 
of  this  province,  and  left  it  to  themselves  to  think 
on  the  means  that  might  best  conduce  to  their  own 
quiet  and  interest :  at  the  same  time,  offering  his 
ready  concurrence  to  any  thing  of  that  nature,  which 
they  should  propose,  consistent  with  the  honour  and 
interest  of  the  crown,  of  the  proprietary,  and  of  the 
public  welfare  ;  and  recommending  to  their  consi- 
deration, that,  as  to  himself,  he  had  been  above  three 
years  engaged  in  the  affairs  of  the  province,  and 
almost  so  long  in  it,  that  what  he  had  received  from 
the  public,  appeared  by  the  acts  of  the  last  assem- 
bly; and  was  far  short  of  what  the  proprietary 
led  him  to  expect  from  the  people. 

The  house,  in  answer,  thankfully  acknowledged 
the  proprietary's  kind  regard,  and  desires  to  serve 
them,  with  the  governor's  offered  and  ready  con- 
currence to  what  should  contribute  to  that  end. 
They  promised  to  take  care  of  the  governor's  sup- 
port ;  and  accordingly,  afterwards  agreed  on  a  pro- 
vision as  was  mutually  satisfactory. 

The  year  1712  was  remarkable  for  two  things, 
respecting  Pennsylvania  ;  the  first  was,  an  agree- 
ment for  the  sale  of  the  government  of  it,  and  the 
territories,  to  Queen  Anne,  by  the  proprietary  ;  the 
most  probable  inducements  for  which  have  already 
been  alluded  to  :  for  though  a  temporary  alteration 
was  made  the  last  year  in  the  assembly's  conduct, 
respecting  him,  yet  it  appears  he  thought  it  most 
prudent,  in  this  manner,  to  extricate  himself  from 
the  debt  and  difficulties,  in  which  the  province  had 
too  much  involved  him.  The  second  was  a  failure 
of  his  faculties,  supposed  to  be  caused  by  an  apo- 
plexy;  which  rendered  him  incapable  of  public  bu- 
siness, and  consequently  disabled  him  from  exe- 
cuting a  surrender  of  the  government,  according  to 
agreement. 

Governor  Gookin,  in  his  speech  to  the  assembly, 
on  the  15th  of  October  this  year,  of  which  Isaac 
N  orris  was  speaker,  stated,  that  the  proprietary,  in 
a  letter  to  a  member  of  the  council,  had  .sign i lied 
his  intentions  of  surrendering  the  government,  in 
a  lew  months;  in  consequence  of  which  he  had 
reason  to  believe,  he  should  not  be  continued  go- 
vernor under  the  crown  ;  he  declared  his  readiness 
to  serve  them,  during  the  short  time  he  should  pro- 
bably be  in  the  administration;  and  he  requested 
them  to  take  effectual  measures,  to  have  ready,  when 
called  for,  the  sum  granted  by  the  late  assembly ; 
that  the  debts  incurred,  on  account  of  the  Indian 
treaties,  might  be  immediately  discharged,  and  that 
the  Indians,  then  in  town,  be  well  satisfied;  who 
had  proposed,  in  behalf  of  the  five  nations,  to  es- 
tablish a  free  and  open  trade  between  them,  for  the 
future.  He  declared,  that,  as  to  himself,  he  had  but 
a  melancholy  prospect;  that,  after  all  he  could 
hope  for,  and  his  administration  over,  he  should 
find  himself  a  great  loser,  by  coming  to  Pennsylva- 
nia ;  which,  as  they  probably  would  be  the  last  as- 
sembly that  he  should  meet,  he  recommended  to 
their  serious  consideration,  especially  the  expense 
of  his  return. 

The  house,  in  answer,  acquainted  the  gover- 
nor; that,  it  being  inconvenient,  at  that  season, 
for  them  to  attend  in  assembly,  they  intended  to 
adjourn,  and  appoint  a  committee,  to  inspect  the 
public  accounts,  and  to  prepare  matters  for  the  bet- 


ter dispatch  of  business,  at  their  next  meeting; 
and  recommending  the  care  of  the  Indians  to  the 
governor  and  council,  according  to  the  law,  the 
house  adjourned. 

In   the   printed  votes  of  assembly,   this  year,  ap- 
pears  the   following  account  of  the  wine  and  rum 
imported  into  the  province,  taken  from  the  naval 
officer,  and  laid  before  the  house,  on  the  6th  of  Fe- 
bruary,  1713;  which  may  give  some  idea  of  this 
branch  of  trade  in  the  province  at  that  time. 
Wine  imported  since  the  2bth        Rum  imported, 
of  March,  1711,  from  the  574  Hhds., 

place  of  growth.  360  Tierces, 

441  Pipes,  183  Barrels, 

13  Hhds.,  I  Kilderkin, 

23  Qr.  Casks.  200  Gallons, 

From  other  places.  1   Pipe, 

48  Pipos,  19  Casks, 

2  Hhds.,  y  Puncheons, 

2  Qr.  Casks.  4  Groce  Bottles. 

In  the  year  1712,  John  Lowdon,  John  Miller, 
Michael  Lightfoot,  James  Starr,  Thomas  Garnet, 
and  other  Friends,  or  Quakers,  settled  in  New  Gar- 
den, in  Chester  county.  The  first  of  these,  John 
Lowdon,  died  at  Abingdon,  Philadelphia  county,  in 
1714.  He  came  from  Ireland  about  the  year  1*711, 
was  an  eminent  preacher  among  the  Quakers,  tra- 
velled much  in  that  service,  and  was  much  beloved. 

In  October  1713,  Joseph  Growdon  was  speaker 
of  the  assembly;  and  on  the  15th  of  the  mouth  the 
governor,  in  a  speech,  informed  them;  that  the  go- 
vernment was  not  yet  surrendered;  and  that,  being 
still  invested  with  the  proprietary  powers,  he  was 
ready  to  use  them  for  the  welfare  of  the  people,  in 
all  their  reasonable  expectations;  and  that  he  took 
this  opportunity  to  give  the  country  his  thanks  for 
the  care  taken  for  his  support,  by  the  last  assembly, 
and  hoped  its  continuance. 

In  October  1714,  David  Lloyd  was  again  chosen 
speaker  of  the  assembly;  and  notwithstanding,  in 
the  beginning  of  their  year,  they  had  several  ses- 
sions, yet  nothing  material  was  concluded  between 
them  and  the  governor:  they,  therefore,  on  the  26th 
of  the  first  month,  adjourned  themselves  to  the  latter 
part  of  September,  1715;  but  before  that  time, 
early  in  the  spring,  the  governor  summoned  them, 
by  the  following  writ:— 

"  Charles  Gookin,  Esq.  lieutenant-governor  o* 
the  province  of  Pennsylvania,  &c.  To  the  sheriff  Sic. 
Pennsylvania,  ss. 

"  Whereas  the  assembly  of  this  province,  in  the 
month  of  March  last,  divers  matters  of  the  greatest 
weight  and  importance  before  them,  which  required 
to  be  dispatched  for  the  public  good  and  safety, 
notwithstanding  thought  fit,  without  my  consent  or 
approbation,  to  adjourn  themselves  to  the  latter  end 
of  their  yearly  sessions;  by  which  means,  the  ex- 
pectations of  all  good  people,  who  depended  on  a 
uitable  provision  to  be  then  forthwith  made,  to  an- 
swer the  several  exigencies  of  the  government,  be- 
came entirely  disappointed.  The  great  inconve- 
niences of  which  must  still  continue  unremedied 
until  another  assembly  be  chosen,  unless  they  are 
called  together  before  the  time  of  their  said  ad- 
journment. These,  therefore,  are  (by  and  with  the 
advice  of  the  council)  to  require  and  command  you, 
;hat  you  forthwith  summon  all  the  representatives, 
chosen  in  your  county  for  the  said  assembly,  that 
,hey  meet  me  at  Philadelphia  the  second  day  of 
May  next,  to  proceed  to  the  dispatch  of  the  said 
affairs,  and  such  other  matters  as  I  may  have  occa- 
sion to  lay  before  them;  and  without  delay  make 


UNITED  STATES. 


.850 


return  of  this  writ  into  the  secretary's  office.  Given 
under  my  hand  and  lesser  seal  of  the  said  province, 
at  Philadelphia,  the  16th  day  of  April,  Anno  Do- 
mini, 1715." 

The  assembly  met,  in  pursuance  of  this  writ, 
which  appears  to  throw  some  reflection  on  the  man- 
ner of  their  adjournment.  Ill  humour  and  alterca- 
tion, which,  during  the  latter  part  of  the  preceding 
year,  had  been  increasing  between  the  governor 
and  the  assembly,  appeared  now  again  too  much  to 
prevail  between  the  different  branches  of  the  legis- 
lature. 

The  governor  addressed  the  house  with  a  speech, 
blaming  their  adjournment  to  near  the  end  of  their 
year,  without  his  consent;  their  leaving  the  great  ex- 
igencies of  government  unprovided  for;  their  being 
the  cause  of  so  long  an  obstruction  of  the  admin- 
istration of  justice,  with  its  consequences,  by  their 
refusing  to  accommodate  the  bills,  prepared  for  that 
purpose,  so  that  it  might  be  in  his  power  to  pass  the 
same ;  and  their  neglect  of  making  provision  for 
his  support. 

The  assembly,  on  their  side,  threw  the  blame 
upon  the  governor,  for  his  refusing  to  pass  the  bills 
as  they  had  prepared  them,  to  answer  the  exigencies 
of  the  province,  and  the  support  of  the  administration. 
They,  notwithstanding,  afterwards  so  far  agreed,  that 
the  governor  passed  a  considerable  number  of  laws 
before  the  end  of  the  month. 

In  the  year  1714,  Francis  Swain,  John  Smith, 
Joseph  Pennock,  William  Pusey,  and  other  Friends, 
or  Quakers,  settled  at  London  Grove,  in  Chester 
county. 

The  assembly's  address  to  the  governor  respecting 
tumults,  fyc.  in  Philadelphia,  with  his  answer — An 
Indian  treaty  held  in  Philadelphia  in  1715 — The 
assembly's  address  to  George  I. —  The  governor  dis- 
agrees with  both  the  council  and  assembly — The 
assembly's  representation  to  Governor  Gookin,  con- 
taining a  variety  of  matters,  in  1716- 

In  the  summer  of  the  year  1715,  there  was  a 
complaint  made  in  the  house,  of  frequent  tumults 
being  raised  in  Philadelphia,  under  the  pretence 
of  supporting  and  abetting  one  Francis  Philips, 
who  had  been  indicted  for  high  crimes  and  mis- 
demeanors ;  upon  which  the  assembly  presented  to 
the  Governor  the  following  address  : — 

"  To  Charles  Gookin,  Esq.,  Lieutenant-governor 
of  the  province  of  Pennsylvania,  &c.  The  address 
of  the  representatives  of  the  freemen  of  the  said 
province,  in  general  assembly  met,  the  10th  day  of 
June,  1715. 

"  May  it  please  the  Governor, 

"  We  were  in  hopes,  that  the  opening  of  the 
courts  of  justice  might  have  been  a  means  to  put 
a  stop  to  those  tumults,  which  frequently  happened 
in  this  city,  since  the  beginning  of  our  session,  so 
that  our  meeting  now  would  have  been  to  crown 
our  labours  with  a  general  satisfaction. 

"  But,  to  our  great  disappointment,  we  un- 
derstand, by  credible  information,  that  some  of 
those  who  occasioned  those  tumults,  in  order  to 
annoy  their  opposite  party,  are  now  levelling  their 
malignity  against  the  magistrates  of  this  city  and 
county,  and  endeavouring  to  prevail  with  the  go- 
vernor to  be  of  opinion,  that  here  is  no  power  to 
bring  to  trial  a  certain  clergyman,  who  is  charged 
by  indictment,  at  the  king's  suit,  for  committing 
fornication,  against  the  king's  peace,  and  the  law 
of  this  province,  &c. 

"  We  desire  the  governor  to  consider,  that  for- 


nication, and  such  like  offences,  which,  in  other 
places,  may  be  of  ecclesiastical  connusauce,  are, 
by  the  laws  of  this  province,  made  triable  in  the 
quarter  sessions ;  and  as  our  laws  are,  by  the 
royal  charter,  to  be  inviolably  observed;  so  the 
governor  and  magistrates  are  bound  in  duty  to 
cause  the  same  to  be  put  in  execution  :  therefore 
we  are  of  opinion,  that  whoever  doth,  or  shall 
assert,  or  endeavour  to  incense,  or  persuade,  the 
governor,  or  any  other,  that  the  court  of  quarter 
sessions,  as  by  law  established,  hath  no  cognizance 
of  the  said  offences,  are,  and  shall  be,  deemed  ene- 
mies to  the  governor  and  government  of  this 
province. 

"  And  now,  may  it  please  the  governor  to  take 
speedy  care,  by  such  ways  and  means,  as  may  be 
effectual  to  discourage  and  suppress  the  said  tu- 
mults, and  disperse  all  tumultuous  gatherings  of 
people  in  this  city;  and  more  especially  those, 
who  shall  endeavour  to  weaken  the  hands  of  the 
magistrates  in  the  discharge  of  their  duty,  or  shall 
speak,  or  act  in  derogation  to  their  authority,  or 
shall  in  anywise  attempt  to  screen  or  rescue  the 
said  malefactor  from  the  course  of  justice. 

"  As  we  have  been,  and  hope  shall  be,  willing 
to  support  the  tjovernment,  so  we  are  earnestly 
concerned  that  the  king's  subjects  may  be  pro- 
tected under  thy  administration  ;  and  for  that  end 
we  do  insist  that  thou  wilt  be  pleased  to  cause  the 
laws  to  be  duly  put  in  execution ;  and  to  counte- 
nance, and  not  discourage  the  magistrates  and 
officers,  in  the  discharge  of  their  duties ;  that  so  the 
people  may  be  reduced  to  their  former  obedience, 
and  application  for  redress  elsewhere  prevented. 

"  We  also  desire  that  persons  be  commissionated, 
and  courts  called  for  speedy  trial  of  those  criminal 
causes  now  depending." 

The  governor  returned  the  following  answer. 
"  Gentlemen, 

"  The  tumults,  that  have  hitherto  happened, 
I  have  immediately  endeavoured  to  quell,  and  I 
hope  with  good  effect;  the  courts  are  now  opened; 
the  administration  of  justice  is  restored;  and  if 
any  should  be  so  audacious  as  to  oppose  the  ma- 
gistrates, they  should  not  want  my  countenance 
and  assistance  to  suppress  the  attempt:  I  am  sorry 
it  should  be  surmised  to  the  assembly  by  any,  that 
those  who  show  a  malignity  to  the  magistracy  could 
have  grounds  of  hope  to  prevail  with  me  to  favour 
them ;  on  the  contrary,  they  shall  find  (if  there  be 
any  such)  that  I  shall  exert  all  the  authority  with 
which  I  am  invested,  to  support  the  proprietary 
powers  of  government,  and  the  magistrates,  in  the 
execution  of  the  laws,  and  full  discharge  of  their 
duty. 

"  The  commissions,  that  are  not  yet  issued,  will 
be  forthwith  expedited." 

Joseph  Growden  was  chosen  speaker  of  the  as- 
sembly, elected  in  October,  1715.  At  the  first 
meeting  of  this  assembly,  in  the  same  month,  the 
governor  acquainted  them  with  his  intention  of  re- 
turning to  England  in  the  spring ;  on  which  ac- 
count he  had  written  to  the  proprietary  for  his  leave, 
and  to  some  other  persons  of  note,  to  procure  him 
the  king's  licence  of  absence  for  twelve  months  ' 
this  notice  he  gave  them,  that  they  might  dispatck 
such  necessary  business,  while  he  was  with  them,  as 
could  not  be  done  without  a  governor  present. 

Queen  Anne  having  died  in  the  last  year,  this 
assembly  drew  up  and  sent  to  England,  the  fol- 
lowing address  to  the  king,  on  his  accession  to  the 
throne. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


"  To  George,  King  of  Great  Britain,  &c. 
"  The  humble  address  of  the  representatives  of 
the  freemen  of  the  province  of  Pennsylvania,  in  as- 
sembly met,    the  first  of  the  month   called   May, 
1716. 

"  Gracious  Sovereign, 

"  Though  by  divers  concurring  causes,  and  par- 
ticularly the  great  indisposition  of  our  proprietary 
and  governor-in-chief  of  this  province,  we  have  been 
hitherto,  to  our  great  trouble,  prevented  the  oppor- 
tunity of  expressing  to  the  king  our  sincere  joy,  for 
his  happy  and  peaceable  accession  to  the  throne  of 
his  ancestors,  and  thereby  securing  to  all  his  pro- 
testant  subjects  the  full  enjoyment  of  their  religious 
and  civil  rights;  yet  none  could  be  more  sensible 
of  the  great  blessing,  nor  express  a  warmer  zeal  for 
his  service,  in  their  earliest  approaches,  than,  at 
all  times  since,  has  filled  our  thankful  breasts;  and 
although  we  had  not  the  desired  advantage  of  ex- 
pressing these  our  sentiments,  yet  we  became  the 
easier  under  that  disappointment,  by  accounting 
the  majority  of  this  province  included  in  that  gene- 
ral application,  made  by  their  friends  at  London, 
in  behalf  of  the  whole  community,  wherein  our 
thoughts,  with  their  own,  were  most  truly  repre- 
sented. 

"  Such  has  been  the  king's  goodness,  not  only  ex- 
pressed in  his  first  generous  royal  declaration,  and 
repeatedly  since  from  the  throne,  but  more  power- 
fully exerted  through  a  most  wise  and  steady  admi- 
nistration, in  pursuing  every  measure,  that  might 
contribute  to  the  safety  and  happiness  of  his  people  ; 
in  making  the  known  laws  the  invariable  rule  of  his 
government;  in  restoring  the  honour  of  the  British 
nation  abroad;  and  in  procuring  for  his  subjects 
such  advantages,  in  commerce,  as  could  scarce  be 
hoped  for,  after  they  had  been  so  unhappily  given 
away,  that  even  the  remotest  parts  of  the  king's  great 
dominions  feel  the  benign  influences  of  his  paternal 
affection  to  the  whole,  and  are  laid  under  doubled 
obligations  to  make  the  utmost  returns  of  gratitude, 
as  well  as  obedience,  for  their  happiness,  under  his 
auspicious  reign. 

"  It  is,  therefore,  the  more  surprising,  that  there 
should  be  any  of  the  British  race,  within  that  island, 
so  lost  to  all  sense  of  their  own  interest,  as  well  as 
their  engaged  duty  to  a  prince  of  the  most  conspi- 
cuous and  most  consummate  virtues,  as  to  express 
the  least  uneasy  murmurs,  much  less  to  rise  in  an 
open  and  unnatural  rebellion ;  for  the  suppression 
of  which,  by  the  great  wisdom  and  vigilance  of  the 
king  and  his  ministry,  and  faithfulness  of  his  ser- 
vants, we  do,  with  hearts  full  of  the  sincerest  gra- 
titude and  joy,  return  our  most  humble  acknow- 
ledgments to  the  Fountain  of  infinite  goodness  and 
mercy,  that  has  so  eminently  appeared  in  the  sup- 
port of  the  royal  throne,  established  on  the  lasting 
foundation  of  justice,  and  to  the  confusion  of  all  the 
detestable  machinations,  vainly  formed  against  it. 

"  As  for  us,  our  known  principles  are  so  essen- 
tially interwoven  with  the  protestant  interest  of 
Great  Britain,  and  our  greatest  concerns  do  so 
entirely  depend  on  the  preservation  of  thy  person 
and  royal  issue,  long  to  reign  over  us,  that  we 
cannot  possibly  separate  our  own  welfare  from  the 
indispensable  duty  of  showing  ourselves  with  the 
most  hearty  affection,  thy  loyal  and  most  obedien 
subjects. 

"  That  confusion  and  disappointment  may  attenc 
all  the  wicked  devices  of  thy  enemies;  that  the 
minds  of  thy  people  may  be  composed,  and  univer- 
sally inspired  with  the  same  spirit  of  love  and  obedi 


mce,  as  that,  wherewith  we  now  approach  thy 
hrone;  and  that  the  watchful  providence  of  Al- 
mighty God  may  always  attend  the  king,  and  con- 
irm  the  wisdom  and  justice  of  his  rightful  govern- 
ment over  us,  is  the  most  sincere  and  unfeigned 
lesire  of  the  king's  humble  and  dutiful  subjects. 
"  Signed  by  order  of  the  House, 

"  JOSEPH  GROWDON,  Speaker. 
In  October  following,  Richard  Hill  was  chosen 
peaker  of  the  new  assembly ;  during  whose  sessions 
not  much  of  public  importance,  in  a  legislative  ca- 
>acity,  for  the  benefit  of  the  province,  seems  to 
lave  been  transacted  :  for  the  governor,  about  this 
ime,  appears  to  have  differed,  in  sentiment,  not 
>nly  with  the  representatives  of  the  people,  in  his 
refusing  to  qualify  Quakers  for  magistrates,  and  in 
)ther  important  affairs,  but  he  also  disagreed  with 
he  council. 

He  had  repeatedly  charged  the  present  speaker 
)f  the  assembly,  who  was  then  also  mayor  of  the 
;ity  of  Philadelphia,  and  James  Logan,  the  secre- 
tary of  the  province,  men  in  high  office  and  trust, 
with  disaffection  to  the  king ;  of  which  they  com- 
plained to  the  assembly ;  but  he  refused  to  give 
either  them  or  the  house  any  satisfaction  or  proofs 
for  what  he  had  asserted. 

The  assembly,  therefore,  declared  it  their  opi- 
nion, that  the  charge  was  groundless,  and  seemed 
to  be  intended  to  render  these  persons  obnoxious 
to  the  English  government. 

But  these,  and  some  other  matters  of  complaint, 
more  fully  appear  in  the  following  "  representation  " 
which  was  presented  to  the  governor  in  the  Novem- 
ber of  this  year ;  and  a  duplicate  of  it  was  sent  to 
Great  Britain. 

'•'  To  Charles  Gookin,  Esq.,  Lieutenant-gover- 
nor of  the  province  of  Pennsylvania,  &c. 

"  A  representation  of  the  freemen  of  the  said 
province,  in  general  assembly  met,  the  third  of  the 
ninth  month,  1716. 

"  May  it  please  the  Governor, 

"  When  our  proprietary  and  governor  in  chief 
first  obtained  a  grant  of  this  province  from  the 
crown,  and  a  numerous  colony  of  industrious  peo- 
ple settled  therein,  we  are  well  assured  it  was  his 
inclination,  as  well  as  visible  interest,  to  render 
them  as  safe  as  possible,  under  his  administration. 

"  And,  as  his  religious  persuasion,  as  a  dissen- 
ter from  the  established  church  of  England,  was 
well  known,  and  therefore  those  of  the  same  pro- 
fession made  a  great  part  of  the  first  adventurers 
with  him,  it  cannot  be  doubted  but  that  he  would 
ever  think  himself  obliged  to  provide  that  they 
should  enjoy,  in  Pennsylvania,  at  least,  equal  ease 
and  privileges  with  any  other  English  subjects  of 
the  same  rank,  in  any  of  the  king's  dominions. 

"  Accordingly  when  necessitated  to  be  absent 
from  us,  as  he  has,  for  the  most  part  been,  he  took 
care,  from  time  to  time,  to  appoint  such  persons, 
to  be  his  deputies  in  the  government,  in  whose 
moderation  and  tenderness  towards  his  friends,  as 
well  as  loyalty  to  the  crown,  and  justice  to  all  its 
subjects,  he  believed  he  might  confide. 

"  When  the  governor,  therefore,  first  brought 
over  the  proprietary's  commission  of  deputation 
for  the  government,  we  could  not  doubt  but  that, 
being  the  proprietary's  choice,  and  acting  solely  by 
powers,  derived  from  him,  he  would  steadily  pursue 
the  measures,  that  had  generally  been  taken  from 
our  first  settlement,  and  endeavour  to  make  all  the 
subjects  of  the  crown,  under  the  proprietary's  go- 
vernment, equally  secure  and  easy. 


UNITED  STATES. 


861 


"  Oh  this  expectation,  confirmed  by  the  proprie- 
tary's letters  of  recommendation,  the  assemblies, 
not  doubting  the  governor's  good  intentions  towards 
them,  freely  discharged  what  was  incumbent  on 
them,  and  it  is  hoped,  in  no  small  measure,  to  the 
governor's  satisfaction. 

"  Nor  while  the  proprietary's  health  and  former 
abilities  happily  continued,  had  the  inhabitants  much 
reason  to  complain>  but  that  the  governor  made  the 
proprietary's  directions  from  home,  as  far  as  they 
could  be  obtained,  and  the  advice  of  those  the  pro- 
prietary had  instructed  here,  the  rule  (in  great 
measure)  of  his  conduct,  in  what  related  to  the  pro- 
prietary's interest,  or  government,  and  to  the  privi- 
leges of  the  people. 

"  But  whether  it  be  now  owing  to  the  disconti- 
nuance of  those  orders  and  directions,  which  has  fol- 
lowed on  the  late  great  and  melancholy  change  in 
the  proprietary's  health,  or  to  some  unhappy  advice 
from  others,  or  to  any  new  formed  views,  we  know 
not;  but  this  house  of  representatives,  soon  after 
their  first  meeting,  finding  the  governor  had,  at 
length,  so  far  lost  sight  of  the  obligations  he  lay 
under  to  his  principal  and  constituent,  as  to  enter 
on  measures  inconsistent  with  his  interest,  and  our 
constitution,  and  the  liberties  of  the  people,  we 
judged  it  our  indispensable  duty  to  apply,  to  the  go- 
vernor for  redress ;  who  declaring  his  opinion  to  be 
such  as  would  not  admit  of  any,  we  desired,  with 
due  submission,  that  he  would  be  pleased  to  suffer 
the  reasons  of  that  opinion  to  be  argued  before  him ; 
but  finding,  to  our  trouble,  that  all  our  endeavours 
were  in  vain,  we  think  ourselves  obliged,  in  the  dis- 
charge of  the  trust  reposed  in  us,  fully  to  represent  the 
fatal  consequences,  as  well  as  the  unreasonableness, 
of  those  measures,  to  the  end  that  a  proper  relief 
may  be  obtained;  without  which  the  greater  part  of 
the  inhabitants  of  this  province  must  be  rendered 
miserable  ;  which  we  humbly  offer  as  follows  : — 

"  Those  who  accompanied  the  proprietary  in  the 
settlement  of  this  colony,  being  chiefly  (as  has  al- 
ready been  observed)  of  those  called  Quakers,  who, 
lying  under  some  hardships  in  their  native  country, 
because,  for  conscience-sake,  they  could  not  comply 
with  the  laws  there,  for  taking  oaths,  expected  that, 
by  virtue  of'the  powers  of  legislation  granted  by 
the  crown  to  the  proprietary  and  them,  they  might, 
after  the  hazard  and  toil  of  their  removal  hither,  be 
capable  of  enjoying  the  privileges  of  English  sub- 
jects, without  violation  of  their  religious  principles. 
"  Accordingly  the  proprietary  and  assemblies 
provided  laws,  by  which  those  people  might  be  ena- 
bled to  hold  any  offices  (there  being  but  few  others 
at  that  time  to  fill  them),  or  to  give  evidence  in  any 
case  whatsoever. 

"  Some  disputes  afterwards  arising  on  this  sub- 
ject, the  late  queen,  by  her  order  in  council,  dated 
the  21st  of  January,  1702,  was  pleased  to  extend  to 
this  province  the  affirmation  allowed  to  the  Quakers 
in  England,  by  the  seventh  and  eighth  of  William 
III.,  not  only  for  the  purposes  intended  by  that  in 
"England,  but  also  for  the  qualification  of  magistrates 
tfid  officers;  and  the  same  being  from  thence  ap- 
\lied  to  other  cases,  this  order,  on  the  repeal  of  our 
<wn  acts,  in  a  great  measure  supplied  what  was 
necessary  in  this  point  for  the  administration  oi 
justice. 

"  But  the   act  of  parliament  itself  being  near  its 
expiration,  it  was  found  necessary,  as  well  on  that. 
as   some  other  considerations,   to  establish,   by  an 
act  of  the  province,  the  qualifications  of  officers,  an 
the  manner  of  giving  evidence,  by  affirmation ;  and 


he  governor  (upon  the  assembly's  performing  the 
conditions  proposed  them)  passed  acts  for  that,  as 
well  as  other  purposes,  to  answer  the  exigencies  of 
;he  government. 

"  That  the  said  affirmation-acts  should  liave  full 
brce,  according  to  the  intention  of  them,  of  such 
mportance  to  the  ease  and  security  of  the  whole 
rovince,  that  it  could  scarcely  be  supposed,  any 
person  amongst  us,  who  professed  even  the  most 
Blender  regard  for  the  people's  welfare,  would  at- 
erapt  to  deprive  them  of  the  advantages  thereof. 

"  It  is,  therefore,  the  more  surprising,  that  the 
governor  himself  (from  whose  station,  and  the  trust 
reposed  in  him,  by  our  proprietary,  the  most  tender 
concern  for  the  safety  and  well-being  of  all  his  ma- 
esty's  subjects,  under  his  care,  might  reasonably 
e  expected)  should  be  the  principal,  if  not  the  first 
person  in  the  government,  who  would  render  the 
intention  of  those  acts  void  to  us,  though  passed  by 
limself  into  laws  so  lately  before,  by  publicly  de- 
claring his  opinions,  in  such  manner,  as  would 
render  the  said  acts  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  En- 
gland, and  repealed  by  the  act  of  parliament  of  the 
first  of  his  present  majesty  ;  in  -pursuance  of  which 
opinion,  he  has  refused  to  qualify  such  persons  for 
offices,  that  could  not  take  the  oath,  according  to 
the  law  of  England. 

"  The  consequence  of  which  is,  that  as  no  Quaker 
n  Great  Britain  is  qualified  or  permitted  to  give 
evidence,  in  any  criminal  causes,  or  serve  on  any 
juries,  or  bear  any  office,  or  place  of  profit,  in  the 
government ;  so,  should  the  same  hold,  in  this  co- 
lony, not  only  the  great  number  of  the  first  adven- 
turers, with  their  descendants,  of  the  same  profes- 
sion, are  to  be  wholly  excluded  from  having  any 
part,  or  share  in  the  administration  of  justice,  and 
the  execution  of  the  laws  of  the  country,  (which,  as 
it  would  be  a  general  inconvenieucy,  so  would  it 
throw  the  burden  too  heavily  on  a  few  of  the  inhabi- 
tants,) but,  what  is  of  no  less  importance,  for  the 
security  of  those  of  other  professions,  the  greatest 
outrages  and  barbarities,  against  any  person,  may 
be  committed,  in  the  face  of  any  number  of  Quakers, 
and  the  malefactors,  though  brought  to  trial,  must 
escape  with  impunity,  for  want  of  legal  evidence,  if 
that  of  the  Quakers  is  not  to  be  so  accounted ;  of 
which  the  governor  cannot  forget  a  very  memorable 
instance,  when,  (at  a  time,  that  unhappily  there 
was  no  act  of  the  province,  for  an  affirmation,  but 
the  queen's  order  was  thought  sufficient,  during  that 
interval,  for  all  but  capital  cases,)  it  is  presumed  a 
murderer  escaped  the  sentence,  that  was  due  to 
him,  for  want  of  such  evidence,  as  was  esteemed 
legal,  though  more  than  one  Quaker  appeared  in 
court,  who  were  witnesses  to  the  fact 

"  But,  besides  these  inconveniencies,  however 
great,  there  remains  one  further  consequence  of 
that  construction  of  the  act,  which,  perhaps,  the 
governor  is  not  sufficiently  advised  of;  which  is, 
That,  if  no  Quaker,  In  Great  Britain,  nor  the  plan- 
tations, can  bear  any  office,  or  place  of  profit  in 
the  government,  some  may  judge  it  a  natural  in- 
ference, that  the  proprietary  himself  is  equally  af- 
fected by  it ;  and  then  all  powers  derived  from  him, 
as  well  those  lodged  in  the  governor,  by  his  de- 
putation, as  the  magistracy  and  inferior  officers, 
fall  together. 

"  Having  thus  far  pointed  out  the  destructive 
consequences  of  that  opinion,  should  it  fully  take 
place  in  this  province,  we  judge  it,  in  the  next 
place,  incumbent  on  us,  in  duty  to  the  governor, 
and  for  the  discharge  of  the  trust,  reposed  iu  us,  by 


862 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


those  we  represent,  to  offer  to  the  consideration  ol 
the  governor,  and  all  others  concerned,  such  reasons 
as  have  occurred  to  us,  in  our  enquiry  into  this 
head  ;  which  we  hope  (with  submission)  will  render 
it  incontestably  evident  that  the  affirmation-acts  ol 
this  province  are  in  full  force  ;  and  are  neither  re- 
pealed, nor  affected  by  any  act  of  parliament,  that 
has  come  to  our  knowledge :  but  that  the  governor 
is  obliged  to  take  care  that  the  same  be  equally, 
with  any  other  act,  put  duly  in  execution. 

"  By  the  same  royal  charter  of  King  Charles  II., 
by  which  this  province,  with  licence  to  transport  an 
ample  colony  thereunto,  was  granted  to  our  proprie- 
tary, and  the  governor-in  chief,  the  said  king  grants 
to  him  and  his  heirs,  &c.,  power  to  make  laws  jointly 
with  the  people ;  and  directs  the  force  and  limita- 
tion of  them,  in  the  following  words,  as  they  stand 
in  divers  parts  of  said  charier,  but  are  here  col- 
lected, viz. 

"  We,  reposing  special  trust  and  confidence  in 
the  fidelity,  wisdom,  justice  and  provident  circum- 
spection of  the  said  William  Penn,  for  us  and  our 
heirs  and  successors,  do  grant  free,  full  and  abso- 
lute power,  by  virtue  of  these  presents,  to  him  and 
his  heirs,  and  their  deputies  and  lieutenants,  for 
the  good  and  happy  government  of  the  said  coun- 
try, to  ordain,  make,  enact,  and,  under  his  and 
their  seals,  to  publish  any  law  whatsoever,  for 
raising  of  money,  for  the  public  uses  of  the  said  pro- 
vince, or  for  any  other  end,  &c.,  by  and  with  the 
advice,  assent  and  approbation  of  the  freemen  of 
the  said  country,  or  the  greater  part  of  them,  or 
of  their  delegates,  &c.,  and  the  same  laws  duly  to 
execute  unto  and  upon  all  people  within  the  said 
country,  and  limits  thereof;  which  laws,  so  as 
aforesaid  to  be  published,  our  pleasure  is,  and  so 
we  enjoin,  require  and  command,  shall  be  most 
absolute  and  available  in  law :  and  that  all  the 
liege  people  and  subjects  of  us,  our  heirs  and 
successors,  do  observe  and  keep  the  same  inviola- 
bly in  those  parts,  so  far  as  they  concern  them, 
under  the  penalties  therein  expressed,  or  to  be  ex- 
pressed. Provided  nevertheless,  That  the  said  laws 
be  consonant  to  reason,  and  be  not  repugnant,  or 
contrary,  but  as  near  as  conveniently  may  be, 
agreeable  to  the  laws,  statutes  and  rights  of  this 
our  kingdom  of  England.  And  our  further  will  and 
pleasure  is,  That  the  laws  for  regulating  and  go- 
verning property,  within  the  said  province,  as  well 
for  the  descent  and  enjoyment  of  lands,  as  like- 
wise for  the  enjoyment  of  succession  of  goods  and 
chattels,  and  likewise  felonies,  shall  be  and  con- 
tinue the  same  as  they  shall  be,  for  the  time  being, 
by  the  general  course  of  the  law,  in  our  kingdom 
of  England,  until  the  said  laws  shall  be  altered 
by  the  said  William  Penn,  his  heirs  and  assigns, 
and  by  the  freemen  of  the  said  province,  their  de- 
legates, or  their  deputies,  or  the  greater  part  of 
them.  And  to  the  end  that  the  said  William  Penn 
his  heirs,  or  others,  the  planters,  owners,  or  in- 
habitants of  the  said  province,  may  not,  at  any 
time  hereafter,  by  misconstruction  of  the  powers 
aforesaid,  through  inadvertency,  or  design,  depart 
from  that  faith,  and  due  allegiance,  which,  by 
the  laws  of  this  our  realm  of  England,  they,  and 
all  our  subjects,  in  our  dominions  and  territories, 
always  owe  unto  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  &c. 
Our  further  will  and  pleasure  is,  That  a  transcript 
or  duplicate  of  all  laws,  which  shall  be,  as  aforesaid, 
made  and  published,  within  the  said  province,  shall, 
within  five  years  after  the  making  thereof,  be  trans- 
mitted and  delivered  to  the  privy-council  for  the 


time  being,  of  us,  our  heirs  and  successors;  and  if 
any  of  the  said  laws,  within  the  space  of  six  month8, 
after  they  shall  be  so,  as  aforesaid,  transmitted  and 
delivered,  be  declared  by  us,  our  heirs  and  succes- 
sors, in  our  or  their  privy-council,  inconsistent  with 
the  sovereignty,  or  lawful  prerogative  of  us,  our 
heirs,  or  successors,  or  contrary  to  the  faith  and 
allegiance  due,  by  the  legal  government  of  this 
realm,  from  the  said  William  Penu,  or  of  the 
planters,  or  inhabitants  of  this  province  ;  and  that 
thereupon  any  of  the  said  laws  shall  be  adjudged 
and  declared  to  be  void,  by  us,  our  heirs  or  suc- 
cessors, under  our,  or  their  privy  seal,  that  then, 
and  from  thenceforth,  such  laws,  concerning  which 
such  judgment  and  declaration  shall  be  made,  shall 
become  void,  otherwise  the  said  laws  so  trans- 
mitted, shall  remain  and  stand  in  full  force,  accord- 
ing to  the  true  intent  and  meaning  thereof. 

"  Pursuant  to  these  powers,  the  said  acts  of  this 
province,  for  an  affirmation,  were  made  and  pub- 
lished. And  though  a  considerable  part  of  the  five 
years,  limited  in  the  charter,  is  yet  uuexpired,  the 
same  have  been  duly  transmitted;  nor  have  we 
heard  any  thing,  but  that  they  are,  or  may  be,  well 
approved  of;  having  reason  to  hope  that  they  con- 
tain nothing,  for  which  (according  to  the  tenor  of 
the  said  royal  charter)  they  ought  to  be  declared 
void ;  and,  therefore,  are  of  as  full  force,  as  abso- 
lute and  available,  and  to  be  observed  and  kept  as 
inviolably  as  any  law  whatsoever,  that  can  be 
enacted  in  this  province,  and  ought  accordingly  to 
be  as  duly  executed  by  the  governor,  to  the  full  ex- 
tent  thereof. 

"  But  the  governor,  in  answer  to  a  resolution  of 
this  house,  of  the  18th  of  October  last,  which  was, 
That  the  royal  charter  makes  the  acts  of  this  pro- 
vince most  absolute  and  available  in  law,  until 
repealed  by  the  king,  is  pleased  to  say,  That  he 
joins  with  the  assembly  in  this  resolve,  provided 
the  laws  are  not  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  England  ; 
and,  by  the  following  paragraph,  in  the  same  an- 
swer, which  is,  That  he  allows  the  laws  of  the  pro- 
vince had  settled  the  qualifications  of  magistrates 
and  other  officers,  until  the  publication  of  the  act  of 
King  George,  relating  thereto,  he  has,  at  last, 
thought  fit  to  give  so  much  under  his  hand,  as  his 
opinion,  the  natural  construction  whereof  is,  that 
the  said  affirmation-acts  of  this  province  (being  the 
subject  then  in  hand)  were  repugnant  to  the  laws 
of  England,  and  repealed  by  the  said  act  of  par- 
liament. 

"  But  this  we  humbly  offer,  That,  if  it  must  be 
termed  repugnant,  because  it  differs  from,  or  is  not 
the  same  with,  the  act  of  parliament,  then  the  clause 
of  the  royal  charter,  which  grants  power  to  the  go- 
ernor  and  assembly  here  to  alter  the  laws  of  Eng- 
land, for  the  descent  of  lands,  enjoying  estates,  and 
punishing  felonies,  in  the  province  (as  is  above  re- 
cited from  the  said  charter)  appears  to  be  useless 
and  vain. 

"  But  it  is  further  to  be  considered,  That,  as  the 
:erm  repugnant  always  implies  an  absolute  opposi- 
ion,  or  contrariety,  in  matter,  it  cannot  be  said 
that  an  act  of  this  province,  which  enables  those, 
called  Quakers,  to  serve  in  offices,  upon  juries,  and 
o  be  evidence  in  all  cases  (the  cin .  umstances  of 
he  country  requiring  that  it  should  be  so),  is  con- 
;rary  to  an  act  of  Great  Britain,  which  enables  them 
only  to  give  evidence  in  civil  cases;  these  two  dif- 
fer, it  is  true,  and  so  it  was  certainly  considered 
and  expected,  at  the  time  of  the  royal  grant,  that 
our  acts  might,  in  some  measure,  differ  from  those 


UNITED  STATES. 


863 


in  England;  otherwise  those  in  England  would 
suffice ;  and  no  such  power  for  altering  them 
needed  to  have  been  granted :  on  the  contrary, 
the  act  of  this  province,  pursuant  to  the  directions 
of  that  royal  charter,  is  as  nearly  agreeable,  as  to 
our  conveniency  may  be,  to  the  statute  provided  for 
Quakers  in  Great  Britain. 

"  But  the  governor,  we  presume,  could  not  in- 
tend, by  his  answer,  That  this  act,  at  the  time 
of  passing  it,  was  repugnant  to  any  of  the  laws 
of  England,  though  it  differed  from  them,  for  in 
that,  certainly,  he  could  not  have  given  it  his  sanc- 
tion ;  it  must,  therefore,  be  meant,  that  it  is  be- 
come repugnant  only  since  the  supposed  publication 
of  the  British  act,  which  he  conceives  repealed  it ; 
or,  to  state  what  can  be  alledged  on  that  head,  in 
its  full  force,  and  the  plainest  terms  it  will  bear, 
that  the  act  of  the  first  of  King  George,  entitled, 
'  An  act  for  making  perpetual  an  act  of  the  seventh 
and  eighth  years  of  the  reign  of  his  late  majesty, 
King  William  III.,  entitled,  An  act,  that  the  so- 
lemn affirmation  and  declaration  of  the  people  called 
Quakers,  should  be  accepted  instead  of  an  oath,  in 
the  usual  form,  &c.,'  extends  to  this  province  that 
act  of  King  William,  by  these  words  in  the  last 
clause  of  it,  viz.  '  Provided  always,'  That  so  much  of 
this  act,  as  relates  to  the  affirmations  to  be  made  by 
the  people  called  Quakers,  shall  be  extended  to  that 
part  of  Great  Britain,  called  Scotland,  for  ever,  and 
to  the  plantations  belonging  to  the  crown  of  Great 
Britain^  for  five  years,  &c.  Therefore,  that,  as  the 
Quakers  are  not  permitted  by  that  act,  in  Great 
Britain,  to  hold  offices,  serve  on  juries,  or  be  evi- 
dence in  criminal  cases,  so,  by  its  being  extended 
to  the  plantations,  they  are  as  effectually  disabled 
there,  and  that  all  acts  of  this  province,  for  quali- 
fying Quakers,  in  these  cases,  are,  by  the  superior 
force  of  this  act  of  parliament,  repealed,  and  made 
utterly  void. 

"  But  when  the  language  of  the  act  itself  comes  to 
be  considered,  the  whole  seeming  force  of  this  ob- 
jection will,  we  presume,  entirely  disappear;  the 
clause  of  limitation,  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  of 
William  III.,  is  in  these  words:  '  Provided,  and 
be  it  enacted,  That  no  Quaker,  or  reputed  Quaker, 
shall,  by  virtue  of  this  act,  be  qualified  or  permitted 
to  give  evidence,  in  any  criminal  causes,  to  serve 
on  any  juries,  to  bear  any  office,  or  place  of  profit, 
in  the  government,  any  thing  in  this  act  contained 
to  the  contrary  notwithstanding.'  Upon  which  we 
conceive  that  Brigadier  Hunter,  governor,  under 
liis  majesty,  of  the  provinces  of  New  York  and  New 
Jersey,  has  (in  a  case  parallel  with  ours)  observed, 
in  his  printed  declaration  on  that  subject,  under 
the  title  of,  'An  answer  to  what  has  been  offered, 
as  argument  against  the  validity  and  force  of  an 
act  of  assembly,  entitled,  An  act,  that  the  solemn 
affirmation  and  declaration  of  the  people  called 
Quakers,  &c.'  passed  in  the  province  of  New  Jersey, 
in  the  thirteenth  year  of  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne, 
to  be  of  such  force,  as  to  be  worthy  our  recital :  in 
which,  after  he  has  observed,  in  general,  in  the 
following  words  : — c  Into  what  a  woful  condition 
must  the  plantations  be  plunged,  if  such  laws  as 
shall,  by  a  legislature  lawfully  constituted  by  virtue 
of  letters  patent,  under  the  broad  seal,  be  enacted 
for  the  good  government  and  ease  of  the  subjects 
there,  shall,  by  implication,  or  construction,  be 
deemed  to  be  repealed !'  &c.  he  is  pleased  to  say, 
that  act  of  assembly  is  not  so  much  as,  by  implica- 
tion, repealed;  for  the  words  of  that  act,  upon 
which  they  lay  the  stress  of  the  argument,  are  these, 


'  Provided,  that  no  Quaker  shall,  by  virtue  of  this 
act,  be  qualified,  &c.'  Now  I  know  no  Quaker,  con- 
tinues that  gentleman,  that  pretends  he  is,  or  can, 
by  virtue  of  that  act,  be  qualified ;  but  I  believe 
every  Quaker  thinks  that  he  is,  or  may  be,  qualified 
by  an  act  of  assembly,  entitled,  '  An  act,  that  the 
solemn  affirmation  and  declaration  of  the  people 
called  Quakers,  &c.'  passed  in  the  province,  and 
sent  home,  &c.  It  is  as  plain  as  words  can  make 
it.  that  that  act,  of  the  seventh  and  eighth  of  King 
William,  has  no  negative,  but  upon  itself,  and  con- 
sequently cannot  be  alledged  in  bar  to  any  laws 
already  enacted,  in  the  plantations,  or  even  such  as 
may  be  enacted  ;  for  by  these  letters  patent,  which 
gave  a  being  to  this  government  and  legislature,  all 
such  laws,  as  shall  be  enacted  by  the  governor, 
council  and  assembly,  are  declared  to  be  in  full 
force  from  the  time  of  enacting. 

"  The  same  worthy  gentleman  and  governor  is 
further  pleased,  in  the  said  print,  to  publish  an  in- 
struction from  the  late  queen,  in  whose  reign  that 
act  of  assembly  was  made,  directing  him  to  pass 
such  an  act  in  New  Jersey ;  by  which  instruction 
her  majesty  was  pleased  further'  to  declare  her  will 
and  pleasure,  '  That  such  of  the  people  called 
Quakers,  as  shall  be  found  capable  of  serving  in  her 
council,  the  general  assembly,  and  in  other  places 
of  trust  and  profit,  in  New  Jersey,  and  accordingly 
be  elected,  or  appointed,  to  serve  therein,  may, 
upon  their  taking  and  signing  the  declaration  of 
allegiance  to  her  majesty,  in  the  form  used  by  the 
same  people  in  England,  toegther  with  a  solemn  de- 
claration of  the  true  discharge  of  their  respective 
trusts,  be  admitted  by  the  governor  to  any  of  the 
said  places  or  employments.'  And  he  adds,  '  That 
the  same  instructions  are,  word  for  word,  also  con- 
tained in  his  present  majesty's  instructions  to  the 
governor,  dated  the  1st  of  July,  1715.'  By  which 
it  appears,  that  both  the  late  queen  was,  and  his 
present  majesty  is,  willing  that  the  people  called 
Quakers,  immediately  under  their  government,  in 
New  Jersey,  should  enjoy  the  full  privileges  which 
are  craved  here,  as  due  to  the  people,  we  represent, 
by  their  chartered  rights,  under  the  government  of 
our  proprietary,  William  Penn. 

"  To  this  we  may  add  what  has  also  been  ob- 
served, on  the  same  subject,  by  the  chief  justice  of 
New  Jersey,  in  his  speech,  delivered  at  the  supreme 
court  in  May  last,  at  Burlington,  which  is  also 
printed;  wherein  he  clearly  gives  his  opinion  in 
law,  very  nearly  in  the  same  terms  the  gover- 
nor had  done  before,  and  then  proceeds,  in  these 
words,  viz : — 

"  '  The  act  of  parliament  of  Great  Britain  is  an 
enlargement  of  the  Quakers'  privileges  to  what  it 
never  was  before ;  it  makes  that  perpetual  to  them, 
in  England,  which  before  was  temporary  and  ex- 
pired, or  near  expiring,  by  its  own  limitation,  car- 
ries the  same  into  that  part  of  Great  Britain,  called 
Scotland,  where  it  was  not  before,  and  makes  it 
perpetual  there,  and  into  the  plantations  generally 
for  five  years.'  This  does  no  way  hinder,  but  that, 
by  virtue  of  the  act  of  assembly  of  the  province 
(which  is  a  municipal  law  thereof),  the  Quakers,  or 
reputed  Quakers,  are  qualified  to  be  of  juries  and 
evidence,  and  bear  offices  of  trust  and  profit  in  the 
government ;  nor,  but  that  they  may  be  so  qualified 
hereafter,  by  any  other  law  hereafter  to  be  made, 
for  that,  or  the  like  purpose,  although  by  virtue  of 
that  act  of  parliament,  they  are  not  so  qualified. 

"  Having  thus  far  stated  this  point,  we  shall  now 
leave  it;  but  that  we  are  obliged  to  give  the  sense 


864 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


of  this  house  to  that  part  of  the  governor's  answer 
to  our  resolves,  in  which  he  is  pleased  to  say,  That 
though  he  was  of  opinion  he  could  not  be  safe  in 
giving  any  qualification  but  an  oath,  yet  by  a  dedi- 
mus  they  (the  officers  and  witnesses)  might  have 
been  qualified  as  the  law  directs. 

"  On  which  we  must  humbly  observe,  That  though 
it  may  be  very  certain  a  dedimus  potestatem,  duly 
issued  by  the  governor,  is  no  less  sufficient  in  law, 
for  administering  qualifications  to  any  officer,  than 
the  governor's  act,  in  his  own  person;  which,  not- 
withstanding the  governor  has  not  of  late,  that  we 
know  of,  condescended  to,  but  refused  to  admit  such 
of  those  called  Quakers,  as,  by  virtue  of  the  pro- 
prietary's charter  to  the  people,  were  elected  to 
serve  in  certain  offices,  until  that  more  remarkable 
case  of  the  last  qualification  of  the  mayor  of  Phila- 
delphia; yet  no  such  dedimus  will  answer  the  exi- 
gencies of  this  government,  should  the  governor's 
opinion  obtain :  for  should  it  be  taken  for  granted, 
that  the  affirmation-act  of  this  province  is  actually 
repealed  by  the  act  of  parliament,  then  all  such  qualifi- 
cations will  be  construed  illegal,  whether  given  by 
himself,  or  other  persons  empowered  by  him.  And 
as  the  judges  of  the  supreme  court  have  rendered 
their  reasons  to  the  house,  for  their  not  proceeding 
to  try  the  criminals,  now  in  the  respective  gaols  of 
this  province,  viz.  '  That  they  cannot  think  it  pru- 
dent to  proceed,  by  virtue  of  the  governor's  com- 
mission to  them,  in  opposition  to  his  opinion,  in  so 
tender  a  point  as  the  lives  of  his  majesty's  subjects  :' 
so  all  others  must  be  discouraged  in  cases  of  such 
vast  consequence ;  for  no  dedimus  will  make  that 
act  sufficient,  that  is  in  itself  illegal. 

"  It  has,  by  this  time  we  hope,  clearly  appeared, 
from  what  has  been  offered,  That  the  opinion  of 
the  governor  is  (with  submission)  neither  founded 
on  law  nor  reason ;  but  from  hence  we  cannot 
but  desire  the  governor  may  be  induced  more 
seriously  and  maturely  to  consider  how  unac- 
countable and  astonishing  it  must  appear  to  man- 
kind, that,  while  such  a  person  as  Governor  Hun- 
ter, who  holds  his  commission  -directly  from  the 
crown,  is  accountable  to  no  other  principal,  nor 
under  obligations  to  any  called  a  Quaker,  as  a  su- 
perior, has  thought  it  necessary,  in  the  discharge  of 
his  trust,  to  publish  his  reasons,  in  such  a  manner, 
for  removing  mistakes,  and  allaying  the  disturb- 
ances from  thence  fomented ;  at  the  same  time, 
though  such  an  example  be  set  to  us,  at  no  greater 
distance,  than  the  other  bank  of  Delaware,  our 
proprietary,  William  Penn's  lieutenant,  in  the 
province  of  Pennsylvania,  should  be  drawn  into 
measures  so  injurious,  not  only  to  the  interest  of 
his  principal,  from  which  he  derives  his  power, 
but  to  the  very  being  of  the  constitution,  over 
•which  he  is  entrusted  to  preside.  We  heartily 
wish  we  could,  by  any  construction,  find  other 
causes,  to  which  these  procedures  might  be  im- 
puted, than  a  formed  design  ;  but  we  are  justly 
alarmed  at  some  other  late  proceedings  of  the  go- 
vernor, which,  as  they  have  naturally  fallen  under 
our  notice,  we  think  ourselves  also  obliged,  in  duty, 
to  represent : — 

"  When  the  house  had  chosen  their  speaker, 
and  the  governor,  without  any  objection,  approved 
their  choice,  they  proceeded  to  take  the  usual 
qualifications  as  the  law,  in  that  case,  directs ;  but 
upon  the  rumours,  that  had  been  spread,  of  persons 
disaffected  to  his  present  majesty,  that  this  house 
might  give  the  utmost  expressions,  they  could  of 
their  loyalty,  they,  by  a  message  to  the  governor, 


requested  to  know,  if  besides  what  they  had  taken  as 
usual,  the  governor  had  any  directions  from  Great 
Britain,  or  any  other  qualification  to  offer  to  the 
bouse  ;  to  which  he  was  pleased  to  answer,  '  he  had 
not:'  the  house  notwithstanding  resolved  to  neg- 
lect no  part  of  their  duty,  but  to  give  all  the  as- 
surances of  their  loyalty,  in  their  power,  thought  fit 
unanimously  to  take  and  subscribe  the  test,  called 
the  abjuration,  every  one,  in  the  way  prescribed  to 
them  by  the  several  acts  of  parliament,  according 
to  their  religious  persuasions,  and  then  proceeded 
to  the  business  before  them. 

"  But  being  informed  that  the  governor  had, 
at  divers  time,  and  to  sundry  persons,  charged  the 
present  mayor  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  now 
speaker  of  the  house,  as  a  person  disaffected  to 
his  majesty.  King  George ;  and  that  he  further 
alledged,  the  only  cause  of  difference  betwixt  him 
and  the  said  mayor,  was,  because  the  governor 
would  not  agree  to  proclaim  the  Pretender,  or 
words  to  the  same  effect;  the  house  conceived 
themselves  obliged,  in  duty  to  his  said  majesty,  to 
enquire  into  the  grounds  of  this  heinous  charge, 
that,  in  case  there  should  be  any  found,  they  might 
purge  themselves  of  the  scandal. 

"  Accordingly,  having,  in  a  committee  of  the 
whole  house,  taken  full  proofs,  that  the  governor 
had  so  charged  the  speaker,  and  finding,  by  the 
same  evidence,  that  he  had,  in  the  same  manner, 
also  charged  James  Logan,  secretary  of  the  pro- 
vince, they,  by  a  message,  desired  of  the  governor, 
that  he  would  be  pleased  to  lay  before  the  house  his 
grounds  for  these  accusations ;  but  he  returned  no 
other  answer,  than,  '  That  he  thought  himself  not 
obliged  to  render  any  reasons  to  the  house  for  his 
accusation,  but  would  do  it  at  the  board  at  home  ;' 
and  the  members,  sent  on  the  message,  could  not 
persuade  him  to  give  any  leasons  here. 

"  The  house  thereupon  judged  it  still  the  more 
incumbent  on  them  to  enquire  fully  into  the  mat- 
ter ;  and  accordingly  they,  by  a  written  message, 
informed  the  governor,  That,  being  under  a  deep 
concern,  on  all  occasions,  to  show  their  loyalty,  as 
faithful  subjects  to  King  George,  they  could  by  no 
means  think  themselves  discharged  of  their  duty, 
without  further  enquiring  into  the  truth  of  the  re- 
port, which  they  had  received,  and  acquainted  the 
governor  with,  which  affected  their  speaker  and 
another  person,  bearing  considerable  offices  and 
trusts,  in  the  government ;  and  finding  the  gover- 
nor's answer  to  the  last  message  concerning  the 
same,  not  satisfactory,  they  further  acquainted  him, 
that  the  house  intended  immediately  to  resolve  into 
a  committee,  in  order  to  enquire  into  that  matter, 
and  that  the  said  committee  would  be  desirous  to 
receive  from  the  governor,  or  any  other  person,  any 
information  concerning  the  same,  in  order  to  pro 
ceed  to  the  extent  of  what  is  their  duty,  and  purge 
the  house  of  any  member,  or  members  thereof,  that 
may  appear,  or  shall  be  found  guilty  of  disloyalty 
to  the  king,  or  disaffection  to  his  government,  under 
which  the  house  unanimously  declared  themselves 
extremely  happy,  and  well  satisfied. 

"  But  the  governor,  though  another  message 
was  sent  to  him,  to  crave  his  answer,  could  not  be 
prevailed  on  to  give  any,  but  that  he  bad  nothing 
to  lay  before  them ;  the  house  notwithstanding, 
while  formed  into  a  committee  for  that  purpose, 
proceeded  to  make  the  utmost  enquiries  in  their 
power ;  but  could  not  find  the  least  ground  to  sus- 
pect the  persons  charged,  or  to  believe  the  accusa- 
tions against  them,  had  any  manner  of  foundation. 


UNITED  STATES. 


"  Now  what  sentiments  can  be  formed  of  such 
a  conduct,  in  a  person,  acting  in  so  exalted  a  sta- 
tion, the  house  must  acknowledge  themselves  to  be 
at  a  loss  to  determine  !  But  the  house  would  con- 
sider it,  as  no  small  happiness  to  the  whole  pro- 
vince, could  they  be  assured  that  the  governor  had 
no  design,  by  his  representations  to  any  board,  at 
home,  to  raise  a  merit  to  himself,  on  the  ruin  of 
others  ;  who,  could  they  be  heard  there,  and  fully 
known,  might  be  found  as  faithful  and  loyal,  in 
their  stations,  to  the  present  establishment  and 
succession,  as  any  of  the  king's  subjects  whatso- 
ever. 

"  Had  the  governor  believed  the  speaker  to  be 
such  a  person  as  he  has  thought  fit  to  render  him, 
it  was  doubtless  incumbent  on  the  governor  to  ex- 
cept against  him,  when  first  presented  by  the  house 
In  that  station,  or  had  he  suspected  either  the 
speaker,  or  any  other  member,  to  be  disaffected  to 
the  king,  it  might  be  no  less  expected,  that  he 
should  have  recommended  to  the  house,  the  further 
qualification  of  the  abjuration,  as  a  test  to  them: 
but,  if  the  speaker  of  the  house  of  representatives 
of  Pennsylvania,  and  others  acting  in  the  great 
trusts,  are  to  be  rendered  to  the  ministry,  or  to  any 
board,  as  persons  so  notoriously  disaffected,  as  the 
governor's  charges  imply,  and  this  without  the  least 
proof  offered  here,  though  so  importunately,  and 
yet  dutifully  solicited,  it  will  force  all  thinking 
persons  on  apprehensions,  that  there  is  more  in- 
tended by  it,  than  can  safely  be  acknowledged  here, 
where  things  and  persons  are  better  known  than 
can  possibly  be  at  such  a  distance,  as  the  other  side 
of  the  ocean. 

"  Having  proceeded  to  such  a  length,  on  these 
two  important  subjects,  we  should  now  chuse  to 
bring  this  representation  to  a  period,  but  that  the  go- 
vernor's written  answer  to  another  message  from  the 
house  exacts  our  notice ;  in  which  he  is  pleased  to 
say,  That  he  is  given  to  understand,  (for  which  he 
thinks  fit  to  quote  the  language  of  former  assemblies, 
and  some  of  the  council,)  that  this  house  did  not 
design  to  make  laws,  nor  raise  any  money  this  ses- 
sion, but  upon  terms  inconsistent  with  the  gover- 
nor's duty  and  safety  to  comply  with.  To  which  the 
justest  reply  we  can,  at  present  return,  is,  That 
this  house  came  together  with  no  other  views,  than 
to  discharge  their  duty  in  all  respects,  to  the  best 
of  their  skill  and  power  ;  and  they  have  nothing  to 
crave  of  the  governor,  but  what  they  firmly  believe 
is  not  only  his  duty,  but  for  his  honour  and  safety, 
to  grant  them  :  they  would  willingly  have  proceeded 
to  enquire  what  further  laws  may  be  necessary  for 
the  well  being  of  the  province  in  general,  the  go- 
vernor having  told  us,  in  his  speech,  That,  if  we 
should  have  any  other  bills  to  offer,  that  might  be 
for  the  interest  and  tranquillity  of  the  people,  he 
should  be  ready  to  pass  them,  and  promised  himself, 
that  he  would  make  a  return  suitable  to  their  cir- 
cumstances, and  the  advantages  they  will  receive 
by  them :  but  in  his  next  written  message,  he  in- 
formed the  house,  '  That  he  disagreed  from  both  the 
council  and  assembly,  in  his  opinion,  upon  a  point 
of  such  importance  to  the  security,  as  well  as  tran- 
quillity of  the  people,  that  no  bill  of  ours  can  be 
of  more  to  us :'  the  purport  of  which  was,  that  he 
declared  (in  opposition  to  both  council  and  assem- 
bly,) that  one  of  the  last  laws,  he  himself  had  passed, 
which  most  nearly  affected  us,  was  void,  and  this 
by  construction  only  ;  we  could  not,  therefore,  find 
aay  encouragement  from  the  governor's  proposals 
to  us,  to  think  any  other  bill,  we  could  offer,  was 

HIST.  OF  AMER. — Nos.  109  &  110. 


worth  the  soliciting,  and  much  less  deserving,  a 
further  consideration. 

««  To  this  we  must  not  omit  adding,  That  we  find 
judgment  was  given  against  oae  Hugh  Lowdon,  at 
the  court  of  common  pleas,  in  September  last,  where- 
upon the  said  Hugh  Lowdon,  giving  way  to  the 
greatest  resentment  and  rage,  vowed  revenge,  at  the 
utmost  hazards,  against  the  aforesaid  speaker  and 
secretary  (being  two  of  the  justices  of  that  court), 
and  having  furnished  himself  with  pistols,  way-laid 
them,  at  their  doors,  and  meeting  the  speaker  the 
same  night,  he  presented  at  him  a  pistol  loaden  with 
bullets;  although,  by  the  overruling  hand  of  Pro- 
vidence, no  further  mischief  ensued.  As  this  at 
temjit  could  not  but  raise  a  horror  in  the  hearts  of 
all  good  men,  we  find  the  said  Lowdon  was  bound 
over  to  the  court,  now  sitting,  and  indictments  were 
found  against  him,  for  the  same ;  at  which  the  go- 
vernor, instead  of  protecting  the  magistrates,  in  the 
discharge  of  their  trusts,  has  now  thought  fit  to 
grant  Noli  Prosequi's,  in  the  said  Lowdon's  favour, 
in  the  same  manner  he  had  formerly  done  for  one 
Francis  Phillips  (that  scandal  to  his  order,)  when\ 
indicted  and  prosecuted  for  notorious  crimes,  after 
all  the  neighbouring  clergy  had  disowned  him. 
Which  proceedings,  as  they  rendered  the  adminis- 
tration contemptible,  so  we  also  justly  fear  they 
will  encourage  ill-minded  men  to  the  same  attempts, 
in  hopes  of  the  like  favour. 

"  But,  to  sum  up  the  whole,  we  can  truly  say, 
we  are  extremely  troubled,  that  we  cannot  enjoy 
the  same  happiness,  that  most  of  our  neighbours 
respectively  do,  of  seeing  our  governor  take  such 
measures,  as  should,  by  an  agreeable  force,  sway 
the  people's  inclinations,  to  render  him  easy,  in  all 
respects ;  which  can  be  effected  by  no  means  so 
powerfully,  as  first  rendering  them  easy,  in  the  en- 
joyment of  those  privileges,  which  they  have  an  un- 
do'ubted  right  to  :  and  we  are  but  two  well  assured, 
that  the  only  cause  of  a  failure  herein,  is  the  go- 
vernor's mistake,  since  the  proprietary's  indisposi- 
tion, in  the  choice  of  his  advisers ;  who,  whatever 
views  they  may  at  present  form,  will  at  length  be 
found  the  sole  occasion  of  all  the  disappointments 
that  may  fall  to  the  governor's  portion  ;  for  even, 
though  acting  by  commission,  immediately  from  the 
crown,  he  would  have  the  same  injured  people  to 
deal  with." 

Governor  GooJdn  is  superseded  by  Sir  William  Keith 
— Concern  at  the  great  influx  of  foreigners — Dr. 
Griffith  Owen — Address  of  the  governor  and  as- 
sembly to  the  king — Great  harmony  between  the  go- 
vernoj  and  assembly — Penn's  death  and  character. 

(1717.)  It  does  not  appear  that  Governor  Gookin 
made  any  reply  to  this  representation ;  but  in  the 
March  following,  by  a  written  message  to  the  house, 
he  took  his  last  leave  of  them,  in  full  assurance, 
that  he  should  soon  be  superseded  ;  and  without 
making  any  remarks  on  their  conduct,  he  recom- 
mended to  their  consideration  the  charge  of  his  re- 
turning to  seek  another  employment ;  declaring,  that 
the  uncertainty  of  his  being  provided  for  at  home ; 
the  thoughts  of  what  he  had  left,  to  serve  the  pro- 
prietary and  the  province,  and  the  disappointments 
he  had  met  with,  so  filled  his  mind,  that  they  would 
excuse  his  not  saying  any  more. 

The  assembly  gave  him  2001.  on  the  occasion ; 
and  on  the  1st  of  May  following,  he  was  superseded 
by  Sir  William  Keith  ;  who,  by  summons,  convened 
the  assembly  on  the  19th  of  August,  1717 

Sir  William  Keith  was  a  man  of  popular  address, 
4  E 


866 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Wich,  after  so  much  altercation  between  the  as- 
sembly and  the  two  preceding  governors,  Evans 
and  Gookin,  had  the  more  effect,  and  rendered  his 
administration  the  more  acceptable  to  the  province. 
The  following  was  his  first  speech  to  the  assembly : — 
"  Mr.  Speaker,  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Assembly, 
"  Being  informed,  upon  my  arrival  here,  that 
the  season  of  harvest,  then  at  hand,  could  not  well 
permit  you  to  meet  me,  in  your  representative  ca- 
pacity, until  that  busy  time  be  over ;  I  did,  out  of  a 
tender  regard  for  your  interests,  then  .delay  the  sa- 
tisfaction I  still  proposed  to  myself,  in  meeting  with 
this  present  assembly  f  and  I  will  always  endeavour 
to  make  the  time  you  must  necessarily  bestow  on 
the  public  service,  as  easy  and  pleasant  to  your- 
selves as,  I  hope,  it  will  be  profitable  and  satisfac- 
tory to  the  country  in  general. 

"  If  an  affectionate  desire,  to  oblige  and  serve 
the  people  of  this  province,  can  qualify  me,  in  their 
good  opinions,  for  the  station  wherein  I  am  now 
placed,  I  may  then  expect  that  the  country's  and 
the  governor's  interest  will  be  effectually  established 
upon  one  bottom,  as  that  he,  who  truly  wishes  well 
to  either,  cannot  but  find  himself  engaged  to  serve 
both;  and  you  yourselves  may  easily  infer  the 
warmth  of  my  inclinations  towards  the  service  and 
prosperity  of  this  country. 

"  First,  From  the  expensive  application  last 
year,  by  which  I  carefully  introduced  to  his  royal 
highness,  the  prince  of  Wales,  then  regent,  the 
humble  address  of  the  assembly  to  the  king,  in 
such  manner,  as  freely  to  obtain  his  royal  high- 
ness's  most  gracious  assurance,  that  the  people 
called  Quakers,  were  a  body  of  loyal  subjects,  for 
whom  the  king  had  great  regard;  and  that  his 
highness  was  sorry  the  king  was  not  then  present 
to  receive  so  good  an  address ;  but  that  the  Quakers 
might,  at  all  times,  depend  on  his  highness's  good- 
will, to  serve  the,m,  in  any  thing  they  had  to  ask  of 
his  royal  father. 

.  "  Then,  the  diligence  wherewith  I  obtained,  at  a 
considerable  charge,  the  commission  of  governor, 
without  any  other  certain  prospect,  or  advantage, 
but  only  that  I  should  be  thereby  enabled  more  ef- 
fectually to  serve  you. 

"  And  lastly,  by  the  great  fatigue  I  have  under- 
gone, since  my  arrival  here,  that  no  opportunity 
might  be  slipped,  to  encourage  virtue,  and  promote 
the  general  good  of  your  country ;  but  these  consi- 
derations are  trifles,  compared  with  the  indispensa 
ble  obligation,  that  is  of  necessity  upon  you,  to  sup 
port  the  dignity  and  authority  of  this  government 
by  such  a  reasonable  and  discreet  establishment,  as 
the  nature  of  the  thing,  and  your  own  generosit) 
will  direct. 

"  And  whatsoever  you  shall  think  fit  to  do,  in 
that  kind,  pray  let  it  uo  longer  bear  the  undeserve( 
and  reproachful  name  of  a  burden  upon  the  people 
but  rather  let  your  governor  be  enabled  to  relievi 
the  country  from  real  burdens,  by  putting  it  in  hi 
power  to  direct  a  better  economy,  and  more  fruga 
management  of  such  taxes  as  would  answer  the  use 
for  which  they  are  intended,  if  not  squandered  b 
the  bare-faced  partiality  and  unprofitable  expense  o 
the  officers  appointed  to  assess  and  collect  the  same 
"  Gentlemen,  I  doubt  not  but  you  will  take  th 
first  opportunity,  under  a  new  administration,  t 
examine  the  state  of  your  laws,  in  order  to  reviv 
some  that  are  obsolete,  or  expired;  and  to  mak 
sucn  alterations  and  additions  as  shall  be  found  ne 
cessary  for  perfecting  the  constitution,  and  goo 
ord«  of  government  in  this  province. 


For  that  end  I  am,  on  my  part,  ready  to  concur 
ith  you,  in  every  thing,  which  you  can  possibly 
esire,  or  expect  from  a  governor,  who  conscien 
ously  intends  to  observe,  and  steadilv  resolves  to 
ursue  the  duty  of  his  office." 

Two  days  after  the  assembly  presented  him  the 
llowing  address  : — 

"  The  address  of  the  freemen  of  Pennsylvania,  in 
ssembly  met,  in  answer  to  the  governor's  speech  of 
e  20th  instant. 

"  May  it  please  the  Governor, 

"  We  gladly  embrace  this  first  opportunity  to 
ingratulate  the  governor's  happy  and  safe  arrival 

us,  with  an  eye  to  that  good  Providence,  which 
reserved  him  and  his  family  from  pirates;  who, 
t  that  time,  much  infested  our  coast;  some  of 
horn  (as  we  are  informed)  waited  with  hopes  of 
is  falling  into  their  hands. 

"  This  house,  maturely  considering  the  gover- 
or's  speech,  find  themselves  obliged,  in  duty,  to 
ake  grateful  acknowledgments  for  the  governor's 

nder  regards  to  the  interest  of  the  public. 

"  The  governor's  affectionate  desire  to  oblige 
nd  serve  the  people  of  this  province  doth,  and 
aall,  meet  with  dutiful  returns,  in  all  matters  that 
ome  before  us ;  and  this  house  will  contribute  all 
n  their  power  to  preserve  the  interest  of  the  go- 
ernor  and  people  upon  one  bottom. 

"  And  as  we  must  acknowledge  the  people  of  this 
rovince  to  stand  highly  obliged  to  the  governor's 
pplication  and  care,  in  presenting  to  the  prince, 
ben  regent,  the  humble  address  of  the  assembly 
if  this  province,  so  we  gladly  take  this  occasion  to 
onfess  the  warmth  of  our  hearts,  in  loyalty,  duty, 
,nd  affection  to  the  king  and  royal  family,  and  en- 
reat  the  governor,  upon  all  occasions,  so  to  repre- 
ent  us. 

"  We  cannot  but  express  the  pleasure  and  great 
atisfaction  of  this  house,  in  that  the  proprietary 
lath  been  pleased  to  place,  and  his  majesty  to  ap- 
>rove  of,  so  worthy  a  gentleman,  in  commission 
>ver  us  ;  and  hope  our  behaviour,  and  that  of  all  the 
»eople  of  this  province,  will  always  be  such  as  may 
ireserve  the  good  inclinations  of  the  governor  to 
erve  the  country;  an  instance  whereof  we  have  in 
the  fatiguing  journeys  he  hath  taken,  in  the  late 
lot  season,  to  promote  the  good  of  those  under  his 
government. 

'  As  the  governor  was  pleased  to  defer  calling 
us,  for  the  sake  of  harvest,  so  we  crave  leave  to  ob- 
serve to  him,  that  seed-time  being  just  at  hand,  it  will 
ae  a  great  inconveniency  to  many  of  the  members  to 
stay  long  at  this  season,  so  that  we  do  not  undertake, 
at  this  sitting,  to  enter  upon  an  examination  of  our 
laws,  or  any  business  that  will  require  length  of 
time,  but  depend  upon  the  governor's  resolves  and 
ajood  intentions  to  oblige  the  people,  by  concurring 
with  any  thing  they  can  reasonably  desire  for  their 
service. 

;<  We,  on  our  part,  being  fully  satisfied,  in  our 
duty  of  supporting,  as  far  as  in  us  lies,  the  dignity 
and  authority  of  this  government,  have  at  this  time 
voted,  nemine  contradicente,  that  the  sum  of  5002 
shall  be  given  to  the  governor,  and  paid  out.  of  the 
first  public  money  that  shall  arise,  by  any  means,  in 
the  treasury;  and,  to  make  it  more  certain,  are 
now  preparing  a  bill,  which  will  be  offered  to  the 
governor,  (or  augmenting  the  public  stock." 

To  this  address  the  governor  made  the  following 
reply. 

"  Mr.  Speaker,  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Assembly, 
"  I  received  a  very  affectionate  address  from  pur 


UNITED  STATES. 


867 


house  ;  for  which  I  heartily  thank  you  ;  and  the 
generous  acknowledgment,  you  have  been  pleased 
to  make  of  my  late  endeavours  to  serve  this  country, 
cannot  but  greatly  encourage  me  diligently  to  carry 
on  the  same  public  service,  in  all  its  parts. 

"  Your  dutiful  expressions  of  loyalty  and  affection 
to  the  king  and  royal  family,  shall  be  carefully  re- 
presented by  me  to  his  majesty,  and  his  servants, 
in  the  ministry  ;  and  while  the  spirit  of  unanimity, 
and  so  amiable  a  temper,  with  respect  to  govern- 
ment, is  continued  and  preserved  amongst  you,  I 
will  take  upon  me  to  say,  that  you  may  be  firmly 
assured  of  the  king's  favourable  countenance,  and 
gracious  condescension,  in  all  our  applications  to 
the  throne. 

"  Gentlemen,  since  you  have  observed  to  me,  that 
it  will  be  inconvenient  for  you  to  enter  upon  any 
business  now,  which  may  detain  you  from  your 
urgent  affairs,  at  this  time,  in  the  country,  I  cannot 
but  condescend  that  you  may  make  such  an  adjourn- 
ment, as  you  think  will  best  suit  with  the  season 
of  the  year ;  for  I  shall  still  have  a  great  regard  to 
the  opinion,  as  well  as  the  advantage  and  ease,  of 
so  good  an  assembly." 

The  assembly,  which  was  elected  in  October, 
1717,  chose  William  Trent  speaker.  About  which 
time,  the  great  influx  of  foreigners,  into  the  pro- 
vince, created  such  alarm,  that  the  governor,  in  his 
speech  to  the  house,  after  recommending  their  re- 
vising and  amending  their  laws,  proposed  to  their 
consideration,  whether  some  regulation  might  not 
be  necessary,  in  regard  to  the  unlimited  numbers 
of  foreigners  coming  without  licence  from  the  king, 
or  leave  of  the  government.  On  which  affair,  the 
assembly,  in  their  reply,  likewise  expressed  their 
concern  ;  and  desired  that  the  governor  would  either 
appoint  a  committee  of  the  council,  to  join  with 
one  of  the  assembly,  or  proceed  as  he  thought  best. 

As  the  governor  had  lately  written  to  the  secre- 
tary of  state,  on  the  affair,  the  further  consideration 
of  it  was,  for  the  present,  deferred,  in  expectation 
of  advice  from  England.  Having  been  desired  by 
the  assembly  to  give  them  his  assistance,  in  the 
revisal  of  their  laws,  he  willingly  complied  with 
their  request. 

In  the  spring  of  the  year  1718,  he  proposed  to 
join  with  the  house,  in  the  following  address  to  the 
king  ;  which  was  drawn  up  by  him,  and  laid  before 
the  assembly,  for  their  concurrence  ;  to  which,  with 
some  alteration,  or  amendment,  and  an  exception 
to  the  style  of  it,  (not  being  in  the  Quaker  mode,) 
they  acceded;  and  it  being  signed  by  the  governor, 
and  speaker  of  the  assembly,  it  was  accordingly  for- 
warded  to  Great  Britain. 

"  To  the  King's  most  excellent  Majesty. 

"  The  humble  address  and  representation  of  the 
governor  and  general  assembly,  of  your  majesty's 
province  of  Pennsylvania,  met  at  Philadelphia,  the 
—  day  of  May,  1718. 

"  Most  gracious  Sovereign, 

"  We,  your  majesty's  most  dutiful  and  loyal  sub- 
jects and  servants,  being  filled  with  a  dutiful  and 
just  sense  of  that  tender  care  and  concern,  which 
your  majesty  has,  on  every  occasion,  been  pleased 
to  express,  for  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  all  your 
people,  do,  with  profound  humility  and  submission, 
presume  to  address  your  sacred  majesty,  in  behalf 
of  your  majesty's  good  subjects,  the  people  of  this 
province,  whom  we  have  the  honour,  at  this  time, 
to  represent,  in  a  legislative  capacity. 

"'  May  it,  therefore,  please  your  majesty  to  know, 
that,  in  the  year  1681,  this  colony  was  settled  by 


a  considerable  number  of  English  subjects,  called 
Quakers,  under  the  care,  encouragement  and  di- 
rection of  William  Penn,  Esq.,  our  proprietary  and 
governor-in-chief. 

"  That  the  persecution,  which,  in  those  days, 
prevailed  against  Protestant  dissenters,  in  England, 
was  the  principal  motive  and  reason,  why  the  ilrst 
settlers  of  this  country  removed  their  estates  and 
families  hither,  where  they  might  quietly  and 
peaceably  enjoy  that  innocent  liberty  of  conscience, 
which  they  conceived  to  be  every  man's  natural 
right. 

"  That,  by  the  unwearied  application,  industry 
and  expense  of  the  inhabitants,  this  colony  is  now 
increased  to  a  considerable  body  of  people,  whereof 
the  majority  continue  to  remain  in  the  society  of 
Friends,  called  Quakers. 

"  That,  such  being  the  peculiar  and  distinguish- 
ing circumstance  of  this,  from  any  other  colony 
under  his  majesty's  dominions,  in  America,  the 
offices  of  government  must,  of  necessity,  be  supplied, 
and  the  powers  executed,  by  those  of  the  Quaker's 
persuasion,  intermixed  with  suqh  others,  as  are  to 
be  found  here,  in  the  communion  of  the  Church  of 
England,  and  good  Protestant  subjects,  well  affected 
to  your  majesty,  and  your  government. 

"  That  the  happy  influence  of  your  majesty's  most 
equal  and  Just  administration,  every  where,  has 
perfectly  united  our  hearts  and  minds  to  contribute 
our  utmost  endeavours,  for  carrying  on  the  business 
of  the  government  of  this  province,  in  such  manner, 
as  may  be  most  agreeable  and  acceptable  to  your 
majesty,  and  your  ministry  at  home. 

"  That,  for  this  end  we  have  laboured,  more  ge- 
nerally of  late,  to  regulate  the  proceedings  in  our 
courts  of  judicature,  as  near  as  possibly  could  be 
done,  to  the  constitution  and  practice  of  the  laws  of 
England. 

"  That,  from  many  years  experience,  we  are  not 
only  convinced  that  the  solemn  affirmation  allowed 
in  Great  Britain,  to  the  people  called  Quakers,  doth 
in  all  respects,  and  in  every  case,  here,  answer  the 
legal  and  essential  purposes  of  an  oath,  but  also  the 
growing  condition  of  this  colony,  which  brings 
great  numbers  of  people  yearly  from  Europe,  to 
reside  among  us. 

"  The  multitude  of  pirates  abroad,  and  other  loose 
vagrant  people,  who  are  daily  crowding  in,  to  shel- 
ter themselves  undei  the  peaceable  administration 
of  this  government;  and  the  absolute  necessity 
there  is  to  punish  such,  as  shall  dare  to  oppose,  and 
break  through  the  known  laws  of  society  and  huma- 
nity, lays  us  under  the  greatest  obligations,  with 
security  to  our  lives,  as  well  as  the  just  maintenance 
of  your  majesty's  royal  authority  over  us,  not  to 
reject  or  despise  the  solemn  affirmation,  allowed  to 
the  Quakers  ;  without  which,  we  humbly  beg  leave 
to  assure  your  majesty,  judges,  juries,  nor  evidences, 
sufficient,  could  never  yet  be  found  here,  in  the 
most  criminal  and  notorious  cases. 

"  That  formerly,  it  having  been  found  impracti- 
cable to  keep  and  preserve  the  public  peace,  within 
this  government,  any  other  way  than  by  admitting 
the  solemn  affirmation,  in  all  cases  whatsoever,  to 
have  the  same  force  and  effect  in  law  as  an  oath, 
upon  a  representation  thereof  to  the  board  of  trade, 
the  late  Queen  Anne,  by  an  order  in  council,  dated 
the  21st  of  January,  1703,  was  pleased  to  direct,  in 
the  alternative,  viz.  '  That  all  persons,  acting  in 
any  judicial,  or  other  offices,  within  this  province  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  three  lower  counties  upon  Dela- 
ware, should  be  obliged  to  take  an  oath,  or,  in  lieu 

4  E  2 


868 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


thereof,  the  solemn  affirmation  allowed  in  England, 
to  the  people  called  Quakers,  and  that,  in  all  their 
public  and  judicial  proceedings,  the  said  judges  and 
officers  shall  be  obliged  to  administer  the  oaths  ap- 
pointed by  law,  or  the  said  attestation.' 

"  That  the  Quakers,  in  general,  having  approved 
themselves  to  be  an  industrious  and  quiet  people, 
most  heartily  attached  to  your  majesty's  royal  per- 
son and  government,  your  loyal  subjects  of  that 
persuasion,  in  this  province,  do  humbly  hope  that 
your  majesty  will  vouchsafe  to  indulge  their  tender 
consciences,  in  the  case  of  oaths,  with  the  same  free- 
dom that  has  been  granted  to  them  by  your  royal 
predecessors,  and  thereby  we  shall  be  effectually 
enabled  to  perform  our  respective  duties,  in  pre- 
serving your  majesty's  peace,  within  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  this  province,  and  to  enforce  the  just  regard 
and  obedience,  due  unto  your  royal  authority,  as 
becomes,  may  it  please  your  majesty,  your  majes- 
ty's most  loyal,  most  faithful,  and  most  obedient 
subjects  and  servants." 

This  affair  of  the  "  solemn  affirmation  of  the 
Quakers,"  appears  not  to  have  been  finally  settled, 
or  fixed  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  province,  and  ac- 
cording to  that  right,  which  the  inhabitants  thought 
themselves  justly  entitled  to,  until  the  year  1725. 

At  the  conclusion  of  this  session,  near  the  ap- 
proach of  harvest,  the  Governor  Keith,  in  his 
speech,  highly  complimented  the  assembly,  on  ac- 
count of  the  valuable  and  wholesome  laws,  which 
(he  says)  "  were  composed  with  so  much  care,  by 
your  diligent  application,  and  the  great  temper  and 
perfect  unanimity  wherewith  the  public  affairs  had 
been  carried  on,  through  all  the  parts  of  the  admi- 
nistration of  the  government,  for  the  last  twelve 
months;  and  which  must,  by  that  time,  have  con- 
vinced all  reasonable  men  among  them,  of  the  many 
and  great  advantages  that  such  a  harmony  secures 
to  the  commonwealth." 

On  the  30th  of  July,  1718,  at  Rushcomb,  near 
Twyford,  in  Buckinghamshire,  in  England,  ,died 
the  truly  honourable  proprietary  and  founder  of  the 
province  of  Pennsylvania,  William  Penn,aged  about 
74  years.  He  had,  in  the  year  1712,  as  before-men- 
tioned, been  seized  with  some  fits  of  an  apoplectic 
kind ;  which,  for  the  last  six  years  of  his  life,  had 
so  affected  his  faculties,  especially  his  memory,  as 
to  render  him,  in  great  measure,  incapable  of  pub- 
lic business  ;  which,  with  the  gradual  decline  of  his 
strength  of  body,  continued  to  increase  till  the  close 
of  his  life.  Notwithstanding  this  affliction,  he  is 
said  to  have  been  often  sensible  and  intelligent; 
and,  by  his  behaviour  and  expressions,  manifested  that 
he  retained,  till  his  death,  the  happy  enjoyment  of 
that  divine  and  mental  felicity  which  resulted  from 
the  nature  of  his  religion,  and  manner  of  life. 

Much  of  his  character  may  be  seen  in  the  prece- 
ding^ history ;  and  he  is  represented  by  those  who 
had  the  best  opportunity  of  being  acquainted  with 
his  true  character  and  real  merit,  to  have  been-  a 
man  of  great  penetration  and  foresight ;  and  a  sincere 
lover  of  truth.  He  possessed  great  natural  abilities 
and  considerable  acquirements ;  which  he  ever  ren- 
dered subservient  to  the  great  interests  of  religion 
and  virtue.  His  manners  were  gentle  and  en- 
gaging, and  his  powers  of  pleasing  considerable. 

He  may  be  considered  as  one  of  the"  most  power- 
ful instruments,  in  removing  much  of  that  supersti- 
tious bigotry  and  ignorance  which,  for  ages,  had 
overspread,  and,  even  till  his  time,  remained,  in  a 
very  remarkable  manner,  to  darken  the  minds  of 
all  ranks  of  people ;  and  was  one  of  the  first  to  in- 


troduce, in  their  stead,  especially  among  the  higher 
class  of  men,  a  more  liberal  and  rational  way  of 
thinking  on  religious  subjects. 

Actuated  by  the  same  principles,  and  induced  by 
the*same  'motives  of  universal  benevolence  and  im- 
piovement;  he,  in  the  much  admired  effects  of  his 
civil  polity  and  government,  eminently  exemplified 
to  the  world,  by  what  means  war,  violence,  and  in- 
justice may  be  made  to  give  way  to  peace,  and 
Christian  equity  and  beneficence. 

His  printed  works  exhibit  his  manner  of  writing, 
and  the  nature  of  his  compositions.  His  style  is 
easy  and  agreeable,  yet  strong  and  nervous;  with- 
out affectation,  and  not  laboured  with  that  tedious 
formality  of  expression,  which,  about  his  time,  was 
so  much  the  mode.  His  periods  are  generally  short, 
yet  full  and  flowing,  and  he  insensibly  gains  upon 
his  reader,  by  the  simplicity  of  his  expression,  and 
the  force  of  his  reasoning. 

Persons  have  not  been  wanting  who  have  been 
disposed  to  censure  him,  on  account  of  the  con- 
duct of  some  of  his  lieutenant-governors;  and  to 
charge  him  with  withholding  many  advantages, 
which  they  apprehend  were  in  his  power  to  have 
granted  the  province.  But  before  these  accusations 
are  received,  a  due  consideration  should  be  made  of 
his  restricted  means,  and  of  the  smallness  of  his  for- 
tune. When  these  are  fully  considered;  when  it 
is  recollected  that  he  impaired  his  private  property, 
devoted  his  time,  and  all  his  energies  to  the  pro- 
vince, and  to  the  sect  he  so  dearly  loved;  and  when 
all  the  difficulties  he  had  to  contend  with,  of  a  poli- 
tical, religious,  and  private  nature,  are  fully  con- 
templated, he  must  stand  forth  as  one  of  those  ele- 
vated characters  whose  lives  are  a  blessing  to  man- 
kind.. 

Perm's  will — State  of  his  agreement  with  Queen  Anne, 
for  the  sale  of  the  government,  Sfc. — Governor  and 
assembly's  conduct,  on  hearing  of  the  proprietor'* 
decease — Claims  of  the  late  proprietor's  family—* 
Conduct  of  the  governor  and  assembly,  respecting 
said  claim — The  Indians  of  Pennsylvania  attacked 
by  some  foteign  Indians — Proceedings  of  the  go- 
vernor and  assembly — Governor  Keith,  with  the  a$- 
sembly's  consent,  establishes  a  court  of  chancery, 
Sfc. —  The  governor  endeavours  to  prevent  ill  conse- 
quences among  the  Indians — A  treaty  with  the  In- 
dians at  Connestogo. 

(1718.)  The  late  proprietary  left  his  estate  in  En- 
gland and  Ireland,  amounting  to  the  yearly  value 
of  1500J.  sterling,  and  upwards,  to  William  Penn. 
his  eldest  surviving  son  and  heir,  by  Gulielma 
Maria,  his  first  wife,  and  to  the  issue  of  that  mar 
riage ;  which,  at  the  time  of  making  his  last  will,  in 
1712,  besides  his  said  son  William  Penn,  and  his 
daughter  Laetitia,  appears  to  have  consisted  of  three 
grand-children,  Gulielma  Maria,  Springett  and 
William,  the  children  of  his  son  William.  He  could, 
therefore,  make  no  provision,  out  of  the  said  estate, 
for  the  payment  of  his  debts,  which  were  very  con- 
siderable ;  nor  for  his  widow,  (his  second  wife,) 
and  his  offspring  by  her;  who  were  named,  John, 
Thomas,  Margaret,  Richard,  and  Dennis,  and  were 
all  minors. 

His  estate  in  Europe,  at  this  time,  was  esteemed 
of  more  value  than  all  his  property  in  America, 
especially  under  its  then  encumbrance  of  the  mort- 
gage of  1708.  He  disposed  of  the  latter  in  the 
following  manner: — 

"  My  eldest  son  being  well  provided  for  by  a  set- 
tlement of  his  mother's,  and  my  father's  estate,  I 


UNITED  STATES 


869 


give  and  devise  the  rest  of  my  estate,  in  manner 
following.  The  government  of  my  province  of  Penn- 
sylvania and  territories  thereunto  belonging,  and 
powers  relating  thereunto,  I  give  and  devise  to  the 
most  honourable,  the  earl  of  Oxford,  and  Earl  Mor- 
timer, and  to  William,  Earl  Powlett,  so  called,  and 
their  heirs,  upon  trust,  to  dispose  thereof  to  the 
Queen,  or  any  other  person,  to  the  best  advantage 
they  can,  to  be  applied,  in  such  manner  as  I  shall 
hereafter  direct.  I  give  and  devise  to  my  dear  wife, 
Hannah  Penn,  and  her  father  Thomas  Callowhill, 
and  to  my  good  friends,  Margaret  Lowther,  my  dear 
sister,  and  to  Gilbert  Heathcote,  physician,  Samuel 
Waldenfield,  John  Field,  and  Henry  Gouldney,  all 
living  in  England,  and  to  my  friends,  Samuel 
Carpenter,  Richard  Hill,  Isaac  Norris,  Samuel 
Preston,  and  James  Logan,  living  in,  or  near  Penn- 
sylvania, and  to  their  heirs,  all  my  lands,  tene- 
ments and  hereditaments,  whatsoever  rents,  and 
other  profits,  situate,  lying  and  being  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  the  territories  thereunto  belonging,  or 
elsewhere  in  America,  upon  trust,  that  they  shall 
sell,  and  dispose  of,  so  much  thereof,  as  shall  be 
sufficient  to  pay  all  my  just  debts,  and  from  and 
after  payment  thereof,  shall  convey  to  each  of  the 
three  children  of  my  son,  William  Penn,  Gulielraa 
Maria,  Springett  and  William,  respectively,  and 
to  their  respective  heirs,  10,000  acres  of  land,  in 
some  proper  and  beneficial  place,  to  be  set  out  by 
my  trustees  aforesaid.  All  the  rest  of  my  lands  and 
hereditaments  whatsoever,  situate,  lying,  or  being 
in  America,  I  will,  that  my  said  trustees  shall  con- 
vey to,  and  amongst  my  children,  which  I  have  by 
my  present  wife,  in  such  proportion,  and  for  such 
estates  as  my  said  wife  shall  think  fit ;  but  before 
such  conveyance  shall  be  made  to  my  children,  I 
will,  that  my  said  trustees  shall  convey  to  my 
daughter  Aubrey,  whom  I  omitted  to  name  before, 
10,000  acres  of  my  said  lands,  in  such  places,  as  my 
said  trustees  shall  think  fit.  All  my  personal  estate, 
in  Pennsylvania,  and  elsewhere,  and  arrears  of  rent 
due  there,  I  give  to  my  said  dear  wife,  whom  I  make 
my  sole  executrix,  for  the  equal  benefit  of  her,  and 
her  children." 

The  following  is  a  codicil  to  his  will,  in  his  own 
hand  writing.  "  Postscript,  in  my  own  hand,  as  a 
further  testimony  of  my  love  to  my  dear  wife,  I,  of 
my  own  mind,  give  unto  her,  out  of  the  rents  of 
America,  viz.  Pennsylvania,  300/.  a  year,  for  her 
natural  life  ;  and  for  her  care  and  charge  over  my 
children,  in  their  education ;  of  which  she  knows 
my  mind  ;  as  also,  that  I  desire  they  may  settle,  at 
least,  in  good  part,  in  America.  wher«  I  leave  them 
so  good  an  interest,  to  be  for  their  inheritance  from 
generation  to  generation ;  which  the  Lord  preserve 
and  prosper,  Amen." 

Penn,  about  the  time  of  making  his  will,  had  of- 
fered the  government  of  Pennsylvania  for  sale  to 
Queen  Anne  ;  with  whom  afterwards  an  agreement 
was  actually  made,  for  disposing  of  it,  for  12,OOOZ. ; 
of  which  sum,  on  the  9th  of  September,  1712,  or 
soon  after,  he  received  1000/.  But  after  this,  and 
before  a  surrender  of  the  government  was  effected, 
he  was,  hy  sickness,  rendered  incapable  of  execu- 
ting the  agreement;  so  that  the  government,  at  the 
time  of  his  decease,  still  remained  to  be  vested  in 
the  aforesaid  earls,  in  trust,  by  virtue  of  his  will. 
But  it  appears,  that  upon  his  eldest  son,  and  heir  at 
law,  William  Penn,  claiming  the  government  of 
the  province,  after  his  father's  death;  the  question 
arose,  whether,  what  was  devised  to  the  said  earls, 
to  be  sold,  should  be  accounted  part  of  the  real,  or 


personal,"  estate  of  the  testator ;  the  earls,  therefore, 
declined  to  act,  in  their  trust,  without  the  decree  of 
the  court  of  chancery,  for  their  indemnity ;  which 
decree,  the  lords  commissioners,  of  the  treasury  de- 
clared, was  absolutely  necessary,  before  the  residue 
of  the  said  12,000/.  could  be  paid  to  the  executrix 
Hannah  Penn. 

The  news  of  the  long-expected  death  of  the  pro- 
prietary appears  not  to  have  reached  Pennsylvania 
till  after  the  election,  and  first  sitting  of  the  assem- 
bly, in  October  1718;  of  which  assembly  Jonathan 
Dickinson  was  chosen  speaker.  Governor  Keith, 
on  his  being  presented  to  him,  made  the  following 
speech : — 

"  Mr.  Speaker, 

"  The  modesty  and  candour  of  your  deportment, 
for  many  years,  in  public  business,  has  at  this  time, 
in  the  two  most  eminent  stations,  justly  determined 
the  choice  both  of  the  city  and  country  in  general, 
and  this  flourishing  city,  in  particular,  upon  you, 
sir. 

"  And,  from  this  beginning,  I  promise  myself, 
that,  by  your  prudent  example  -and  conduct,  they 
will  at  last  be  persuaded  heartily  to  unite,  in  all 
such  matters  as  .plainly  tend  to  the  honour  and  ad- 
vantage of  the  province,"  &c. 

When  the  account  arrived  of  the  death  of  Penn, 
though  it  was  provided  by  a  law  of  the  province, 
that,  on  the  death  of  the  proprietary,  the  lieutenant- 
governor,  for  the  time  being,  should  continue  the 
government  as  usual,  till  further  order,  from  the 
king,  or  from  the  heirs  of  the  said  proprietary,  or 
governor-in-chief ;  yet  Sir  William  Keith  immedi- 
ately thereupon,  not  only  consulted  the  council,  but 
also  laid  the  minute  of  the  council  thereon  before 
the  assembly  at  their  next  meeting,  in  December,  re- 
questing their  sentiments  on  the  same.  The  house, 
after  mentioning  their  deep  sorrow  at  the  proprie- 
tary's death,  highly  approved  of  both  the  council's 
advice,  and  the  governor's  conduct  in  the  affair, 
and  begged  him  to  continue  his  authority. 

It  was  before  stated,  that  notwithstanding  the 
plain  terms  of  the  late  proprietary's  last  will,  his 
eldest  son,  or  heir  at  law,  William  Penn,  after  his 
father's  decease,  laid  claim  to  the  government  of 
the  province;  which  claim  was  continued  by  his 
eldest  son,  Springett,  after  the  death  of  his  father; 
who  is  said  to  have  died  at  Liege,  about  the  year 
1720. 

The  conduct  of  Governor  Keith,  and  the  pro- 
vincial assembly,  respecting  this  claim,  appears  by 
the  speech  of  the  former  to  the  house,  in  May  1719, 
with  their  answer,  as  follows  :— 

'  Gentlemen  of  the  Council,  Mr.  Speaker,  and 
Gentlemen  of  the  Assembly, 

"  According  to  my  promise,  I  have  called  you 
together,  in  order  to  acquaint  you,  that  I  lately  re- 
ceived a  commission  from  the  honourable  William 
Peun,  Esq.,  as  our  governor-in-chief,  with  instruc- 
tions to  publish  his  accession  to  the  government,  by 
advice  of  the  council,  in  the  most  solemn  manner; 
which  said  commission  and  instructions,  with  the 
minute  of  council  thereupon,  I  have  ordered  to  be 
laid  before  you. 

;<  Since  that  I  have  seen  the  probate  of  the  late 
proprietary's  last  will  and  testament,  in  the  hands  of 
Mr.  Secretary  Logan,  whereby  the  powers  of 
government  over  this  province  seem  to  be  de- 
vised in  trust,  after  a  peculiar  manner ;  and  I  am 
told  these  differences  are  not  likely  to  be  speedily 
adjusted. 

"  Gentlemen,  my  duty  to  the  crown  unquestiona- 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


bly  obliges  me,  while  in  this  station,  at  all  times  to 
use  my  utmost  diligence,  in  preserving  the  good 
order  and  peace  of  the  government,  and  to  keep 
the  king's  subjects  of  this  colony  firm  in  their  alle- 
giance, and  dutiful  obedience  to  his  most  excellent 
majesty,  and  our  sovereign  lord,  King  George;  to 
the  end,  therefore,  that  this  may  be  done,  with  the 
greatest  cheerfulness  and  unanimity,  and  likewise 
that  all  due  respect  might  be  paid  to  Mr.  Penn,  and 
every  other  branch  of  the  late  proprietary's  family, 
I  must  desire  that  you  will  assist  me  with  your  opi- 
nions and  advice ;  which,  I  doubt  not,  will  have  the 
same  weight  with  all  parties  concerned  in  Britain, 
as  you  may  be  assured  it  will  ever  have  with  me. 

"  I  have  received  a  message  from  the  Indian 
chiefs  of  Conestogoe,  by  a  letter  to  Mr.  Secretary 
Logan ;  which  informs  us,  that  our  Indian  hunters 
had  been  attacked,  near  the  head  of  Potowmack  ri- 
ver, by  a  considerable  body  of  southern  Indians, 
come  out  to  war  with  the  five  nations,  and  the  In- 
dian settlements  of  Susquehanna.  They  have  killed 
several  of  our  people,  and  alarmed  them  all ;  so  that 
the  careful  attention  and  vigilance  of  this  govern- 
ment was  never  more  called  upon  than  at  this  junc- 
ture ;  and  much  will  depend  upon  your  unanimous 
and  speedy  resolutions  to  support  the  administration 
in  all  its  parts." 

To  this  the  assembly  returned  the  following  an- 
swer:— 

"  To  the  honourable  William  Keith,  Esq.,  Lieute- 
nant-governor of  the  province  of  Pennsylvania,  &c. 

"  The  address  of  the  representatives  of  the  free- 
men of  the  said  province,  in  assembly  met,  in  an- 
swer to  his  speech  of  the  7th  instant. 
"  May  it  please  the  Governor, 

"  The  memory  of  the  honourable  William  Penn, 
our  late  proprietary  and  governor-in-chief,  being 
dear  to  us,  we  cannot  but  have  a  just  and  due  re- 
gard to  his  family,  and  should  account  it  our  happi- 
ness to  be  govsrned  by  a  branch  thereof,  under  the 
most  auspicious  reign  of  our  royal  sovereign,  King 
George. 

"  And  since  the  governor  has  been  pleased  to 
shew  so  great  a  regard  to  the  advice  of  the  repre- 
sentative body  of  the  freemen  of  this  province,  as  to 
consult  them  in  a  matter  which  so  highly  concerns 
them,  we  must  acknowledge  is  a  great  condescen- 
sion, and  an  additional  instance  of  his  known  af- 
fection to  this  colony,  with  kind  inclinations  to 
preserve  the  public  peace  and  weal  of  this  govern- 
ment 

"  The  contents  of  those  instruments  and  writings, 
which  the  governor  was  pleased  to  lay  before  this 
house,  brought  us  under  a  very  deep  concern,  how 
to  assist  him  with  advice,  suitable  to  the  present 
emergency;  for  we  find  the  first  part  of  the  proprie- 
tary's will  seems  to  vest  a  trust  in  the  noble  lords 
there  named,  in  order  to  accomplish  the  treaty  of 
surrender  of  this  government  to  the  crown,  which 
was  begun  by  our  late  proprietary. 

"  And  though  that  trust  may  occasion  various 
opinions  in  law  and  equity,  yet  that  does  not  so 
much  affect  us  as  the  want  of  ascertaining  the  terms, 
which  we  have  been  always  given  to  expect  would 
accompany  the  surrender,  in  favour  of  the  people 
called  Quakers,  who  embarked  with  the  said  pro- 
prietary, in  the  laudable  design  of  this  considerable 
addition  of  the  British  empire;  and,  therefore, 
think  it  our  duty,  at  this  juncture,  to  claim  those 
rights  and  favours,  which  have  been  promised  us. 

"  The  governor  well  knows  that  the  present  ad- 
ministration of  this  government,  since  the  proprie- 


tary's decease,  is  supported  by  a  law,  confirmed  by 
her  late  majesty,  Queen  Anne ;  and  by  virtue  thereof 
is  to  continue  till  further  order  from  the  king,  or 
the  heirs  of  the  said  late  proprietary  and  governor  ; 
and  notwithstanding  the  great  regard  the  governor 
has  to  the  commission  sent  him  by  the  said  proprie- 
tary's heir  at  law,  yet  since  that  heir  seems  not,  by 
the  aforesaid  will,  invested  with  the  powers  of  go- 
vernment ;  but  the  devise  thereof,  made  to  the  said 
lords,  being  allowed  by  his  own  council  to  be  good; 
and  since  it  doth  not  appear  that  commission  is  at- 
tended with  the  necessary  requisites,  directed  by 
acts  of  parliament,  for  qualifications  of  persons  con- 
cerned in  such  stations,  and  security  of  plantation- 
trade,  we  conceive  it  will  contribute  to  the  peace  of 
this  government,  and  be  safe  for  the  governor,  that 
he,  for  the  present,  forbear  to  publish  the  said  com- 
mission ;  and  hope  there  will  be  no  just  occasion 
given,  if  the  governor  should  wave  superseding  the 
powers  given  him  by  the  said  heir  at  law,  until  he 
receive  the  pleasure  of  the  said  trustees,  or  has  the 
lord  chancellor's  decree  for  his  direction ;  the 
rather,  because  we  understand  that  an  amicable  suit 
is  depending  in  chancery  betwixt  the  executrix, 
and  heir  at  law,  in  order  to  settle  both  their  claims 
to  this  government.  We  heartily  join  with  the 
governor  in  his  good  resolutions,  to  preserve  the 
good  order  and  peace  of  the  government,  and  loy- 
alty of  his  majesty's  subjects,  in  this  colony. 

"  As  touching  the  attack  lately  made  upon  our 
neighbouring  Indians,  we  hope  the  governor  hath 
already  taken  proper  measures  in  that  affair,  to- 
wards quieting  their  minds,  and  will  use  his  utmost 
endeavours  to  prevent  such  incursions  upon  them, 
for  the  future,  by  due  representations  to  the  neigh- 
bouring governments,  and  persuasions  to  our  Indi- 
ans, not  to  give  further  provocations,  but  that  they 
will  fall  in  with  more  peaceable  inclinations;  as 
the  same  will  contribute  to  their  ease  and  safety, 
and  obtain  the  friendship  and  protection  of  this  go- 
vernment ;  and  this  house  gives  the  governor  assu- 
rance, that  the  necessary  charges  thereof  shall  be 
provided  for;  and  that  it  is  their  full  purpose  to 
support  the  administration,  to  the  best  of  their 
power.  Signed,  by  order  of  the  house, 

JONATHAN  DICKINSON,  Speaker,?' 

The  affair  of  the  government  appears  to  have 
been  subsequently  settled  in  favour  of  the  younger 
branch  of  the  family :  the  different  parties,  in  the 
meantime,  mutually  agreeing  to  unite  in  the  ne 
cessary  appointments  and  management  of  the  go- 
vernment of  the  province,  till  the  chancery  suit 
should  be  determined:  so  that  not  only  the  province 
itself,  which  was  vested  for  the  use  of  the  younger 
children  by  him;  but  also  the  government  of  it 
afterwards  descended  to  John,  Thomas,  and  Richard 
Penn,  the  surviving  sons  of  the  younger  branch  of  the 
family ;  who  were  thenceforward  the  proprietaries. 

In  October  1719,  William  Trent,  being  chosen 
speaker  of  the  new  assembly,  the  governor  pre- 
sented them  with  the  royal  assent  to  a  very  import- 
ant law  to  the  province,  which  had  been  passed  by 
him  in  May  1711,  entitled,  "  An  act  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  justice,  and  more  certain  administra- 
tion thereof."  The  success  of  which  he  assured 
them  was  chiefly  owing  to  the  good  correspondence 
that  had  hitherto  subsisted  between  him  and  the 
representatives  of  the  people.  To  which  the  house, 
in  reply,  expressed  their  lasting  obligations  to  the 
governor,  for  his  extraordinary  diligence,  in  so 
speedily  getting  the  royal  approbation  to  the  said 
law,  and  for  his  care  and  services  on  other  occasions. 


UNITED  STATES 


871 


In  the  spring  of  the  year  1720,  the  governor 
made  the  following  proposal  to  the  assembly : — 

"  Upon  some  representations,  that  have  been 
made  to  me,  that  a  court  of  equity,  or  chancery, 
was  very  much  wanted  in  this  government,  I  thought 
proper  to  consult  the  opinions  of  gentlemen  learned 
in  the  law,  and  others  of  good  judgment ;  who  all 
agree,  that  neither  we,  or  the  representative  body 
of  any  of  his  majesty's  colonies,  are  invested  with 
sufficient  powers  to  erect  such  a  court,  or  that  the 
office  of  chancellor  can  be  lawfully  executed  by  any 
person  whatsoever,  except  him,  who,  by  virtue  of 
the  great  seal  of  England,  may  be  understood  to 
aet  as  the  king's  representative,  in  the  place ;  but 
the  opinion  of  your  house,  of  what  may  be  with  safety 
done,  for  your  country's  service,  in  this  case,  shall 
principally  direct  my  conduct." 

The  assembly  agreed  to  the  necessity  of  such  a 
court ;  only,  in  their  address,  they  requested,  that 
such  members  of  the  council,  as  had  heard  the  same 
cause,  in  any  inferior  court,  might  be  exempt  from 
being  assistants  in  the  said  court.  And  from  this 
compliance  a  court  of  chancery  was  established  in 
Pennsylvania,  by  the  following  proclamation. 

"  By  Sir  William  Keith,  Bart.,  Governor  of  the 
province  of  Pennsylvania,  and  the  counties  of  New- 
castle, Kent,  arid  Sussex,  upon  Delaware. 
"  A  Proclamation  : 

"  Whereas  complaint  has  been  made,  That,  courts 
of  chancery,  or  equity,  though  absolutely  necessary, 
in  the  administration  of  justice,  for  mitigating,  in 
some  cases,  the  rigour  of  the  laws,  whose  judgments 
are  tied  down  to  fixed  and  unalterable  rules,  and 
for  opening  a  way  to  the  right  and  equity  of  a 
cause,  for  which  the  law  cannot,  in  all  cases,  make 
a  sufficient  provision,  have,  notwithstanding,  been 
too  seldom  regularly  held,  in  this  province,  in  such 
manner  as  the  aggrieved  subjects  might  obtain  the 
relief,  which  by  such  courts  ought  to  be  granted. 
And  whereas,  the  representatives  of  the  freemen  of 
this  province,  taking  the  same  into  consideration, 
did,  at  their  last  meeting  in  assembly,  request  me, 
that  I  would,  with  the  assistance  of  the  council, 
open  and  hold  such  a  court  of  equity,  for  this  pro- 
vince :  to  the  end,  therefore,  that  his  majesty's  good 
subjects  may  no  longer  labour  under  these  incon- 
veniences, which  are  now  complained  of,  I  have 
thought  fit,  by  and  with  the  advice  of  the  council, 
hereby  to  publish  and  declare,  that  with  their  as- 
sistance, I  propose  (God  willing)  to  open  and  hold 
a  court,  of  chancery,  or  equity,  for  the  province  of 
Pennsylvania,  at  the  court-house  of : Philadelphia, 
on  Thursday,  the  25th  day  of  this  instant,  August ; 
from  which  date  the  said  court  will  be,  and  remain, 
always  open  for  the  relief  of  the  subject,  to  hear  and 
determine  all  such  matters,  arising  within  this  pro- 
vince aforesaid,  as  are  regularly  cognizable  before 
any  court  of  chancery,  according  to  the  laws  and 
constitution  of  that  part  of  Great  Britain,  called 
England  ;  and  his  majesty's  judges  of  his  supreme 
courts,  and  all  other,  whom  it  may  concern,  are  re- 
quired to  take  notice  hereof,  and  to  govern  them- 
selves accordingly. 

"  Given  at  Philadelphia,  the  tenth  day  of  August, 

in  the  seventh  year  of  the  reign   of  our  Sovereign 

Lord,  George,  king  of  Great  Britain,  France,  and 

Ireland,  defenderof  the  faith, annoque  Domini  1720. 

"  WILLIAM  KEITH." 

(1721.)  Of  the  assembly,  which  was  elected  in 
October,  this  year,  Isaac  Norris  was  speaker  ;  and  the 
usual  good  understanding  appears  to  have  continued 
Detween  the  different  branches  of  the  legislature. 


It  will  have  been  observed,  from  what  passed  be- 
tween the  governor  and  the  assembly,  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  year  1719,  that  the  disagreement  which 
happened  about  that  time,  between  the  southern 
Indians,  and  those  of  Pennsylvania  and  more  north- 
ward, demanded  the  attention  of  the  government; 
and  consequently  the  governor,  in  the  spring  of 
this  year,  1721,  made  a  journey  into  Virginia,  on 
this  account;  and  also  held  a  treaty,  in  Penn- 
sylvania, with  the  Indians  of  different  nations, 
after  his  return  :  of  which  the  following  is  an  extract, 
from  the  printed  account  of  it,  published  at  that 
time  in  Philadelphia.  "  The  particulars  of  an 
Indian  treaty,  at  Conestogoe,  between  his  Excel- 
lency Sir  William  Keith,  Bart.,  governor  of  Penn- 
sylvania, and  the  deputies  of  the  Five  Nations. 

"  The  Indian  village  of  Conestogoe  lies  about 
70  miles  distant,  almost  directly  west  of  the  city  ; 
and  the  land  thereabouts  being  exceeding  rich,  it 
is  now  surrounded  with  divers  fine  plantations,  or 
farms;  where  they  raise  quantities  of  wheat,  barley, 
flax  and  hemp,  without  the  help  of  any  dung. 

"  The  company,  who  attended  the  governor,  con- 
sisted of  between  70  and  80  horsemen  ;  many  of 
them  well  armed ;  and,  at  his  return  from  Cones- 
togoe, he  was  waited  upon,  at  the  upper  ferry  of 
Sculkil  river,  by  the  mayor  and  aldermen  of  this 
city,  with  about  200  horse. 

"  On  the  5th  of  July,  the  governor  arrived  at 
Conestogoe,  about  noon  ;  and  in  the  evening,  went 
to  Captain  Civility's  cabbin;  where  four  deputies 
of  the  Five  Nations,  and  a  few  more  of  their  people, 
came  to  see  the  governor  ;  who  spoke  to  them  by  an 
interpreter,  to  the  following  purpose,  viz. 

"  That  this  being  the  first  time  that  the  Five 
Nations  had  thought  fit  to  send  any  of  their  chiefs 
to  visit  him,  he  had  come  a  great  way  from  home 
to  bid  them  welcome ;  that  he  hoped  to  be  better 
acquainted,  and  hold  a  further  discourse  with  them, 
before  he  left  the  place. 

"  They  answered,  That  they  were  come  a  long 
way,  on  "purpose  to  see  the  governor,  and  to  speak 
with  him  ;  that  they  had  heard  much  of  him,  and 
would  have  come  here  before  now  ;  but  that  the 
faults,  or  mistakes,  committed  by  some,  of  their 
young  men,  had  made  them  ashamed  to  show  their 
faces  ;  but  now,  that  they  had  seen  the  governor's 
face,  they  were  well  satisfied  with  their  journey, 
whether  any  thing  else  was  done,  or  not. 

"  The  governor  told  them,  That  to-morrow  morn- 
ing he  designed  to  speak  a  few  words  to  his  brothers 
and  children,  the  Indians  of  Conestogoe,  and  their 
friends,  upon  Susquehanna ;  and  desired  that  the 
deputies  of  the  Five  Nations  might  be  present,  in 
council,  to  hear  what  is  said  to  them. 

"  Conestogoe,  July  6th,  1721. 

"  Present,  Sir  William  Keith,  Bart,  governor. 
Richard  Hill,  Jonathan  Dickinson,  Caleb  Pusey, 
and  Colonel  John  French,  Esqrs.,  James  Logan, 
Esq.  secretary. 

"  The  governor  spoke  to  the  Conestogoe  Indian?, 
as  follows,  viz. 

"  My  Brothers  and  Children, 

"  So  soon  as  you  sent  me  word,  that  your  near 
friends  and  relations,  the  chiefs  of  the  Five  Na- 
tions, were  come  to  visit  you,  I  made  haste,  and 
am  come  to  see  both  you  and  them,  and  to  assure 
all  the  Indians  of  the  continuance  of  my  love  to 
them. 

"  Your  old  acquaintance  and  true  friend,  the 
great  William  Penn,  was  a  wise  man  ;  and,  there- 
fore, he  did  not  approve  of  wars  among  the  Indians 


572 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


whuin  he  loved  ;  because  it  wasted  and  destroyed 
their  people ;  but  always  recommended  peace  to  the 
Indians,  as  the  surest  way  to  make  them  rich  and 
strong,  by  increasing  their  numbers. 

"  Some  of  you  can  very  well  remember  since 
William  Penn,  and  his  friends,  came  first  to  settle 
among  you,  in  this  country :  it  is  but  a  few  years, 
and  like  as  yesterday,  to  an  old  man ;  nevertheless, 
by  following  that  great  man's  peaceable  counsels, 
this  government  is  now  become  wealthy  and  power- 
ful, in  great  numbers  of  people.  And  though  many 
of  our  inhabitants  are  not  accustomed  to  war,  and 
dislike  the  practice  of  men  killing  one  another ; 
yet  you  cannot  but  know,  I  am  able  to  bring  seve- 
ral thousands  into  the  field,  well  armed,  to  defend 
both  your  people  and  ours,  from  being  hurt  by  any 
enemy,  that  durst  attempt  to  invade  us. 

"  However,  we  do  not  forget  that  William  Penn 
often  told  us,  that  the  experience  of  old  age,  which 
is  true  wisdom,  advises  peace ;  and  I  say  to  you, 
that  the  wisest  man  is  also  the  bravest  man  :  for  he 
safely  depends  on  his  wisdom  ;  and  there  is  no  true 
courage  without  it. 

"  I  have  so  great  a  love  for  you,  my  dear  bro- 
thers, who  live  under  the  protection  of  this  govern- 
ment, that  I  cannot  suffer  you  to  be  hurt,  no  more 
than  I  would  my  own  children.  I  am  but  just  now 
returned  from  Virginia ;  where  I  wearied  myself 
in  a  long  journey,  both  by  land  and  water,  only  to 
make  peace  for  you,  my  children,  that  you  may 
safely  hunt  in  the  woods,  without  danger,  from 
Virginia,  and  the  many  Indian  Nations,  that  are  at 
peace  with  that,  government.  But  the  governor  of 
Virginia  expects,  that  you  will  not  hunt  within  the 
great  mountains,  on  the  other  side  of  Potowmack 
river;  being  a  small  tract  of  land,  which  he  keeps 
for  the  Virginia  Indians,  to  hunt  in :  and  ke  pro- 
mises that  his  Indians  shall  not  come  any  more  on 
this  side  Potowmack,  or  behind  the  great  mountains 
this  way,  to  disturb  your  hunting.  And  this  is  the 
condition  I  have  made  for  you  ;  which  I  expect  you 
will  firmly  keep,  and  not  break  it  on  any  conside- 
ration whatsoever. 

"  I  desire  that  what  I  have  now  said  to  you  may 
be  interpreted  to  the  chiefs  of  the  Five  Nations 
present  :  for  as  you  are  a  part  of  them,  they  are,  in 
like  manner,  one  with  us,  as  you  yourselves  are; 
and,  therefore,  our  counsels  must  agree,  and  be 
made  known  to  one  another  :  for  our  hearts  should 
be  open,  that  we  may  perfectly  see  into  one  an- 
other's breasts.  And  that  your  friends  may  speak 
to  me  freely,  tell  them  I  am  willing  to  forget  the 
mistakes,  which  some  of  their  young  men  were  guilty 
of,  amongst  our  people.  I  hope  they  will  grow  wiser 
with  age.  and  hearken  to  the  grave  counsels  of  their 
old  men ;  whose  valour  we  esteem,  because  they  are 
wise  ;  but  the  rashness  of  their  young  men  is  alto- 
gether folly." 

"  At  a  council  held  at  Conestogoe,  July  7th,  1721. 

"  Present,  Sir  William  Keith,  Bart.  Governor. 
Richard  Hill,  Jonathan  Dickinson,  Caleb  Pusey, 
and  Colonel  John  French,  Esqrs.,  James  Logan, 
secretary,  with  divers  gentlemen. 

"  Sinnekae's  Nation. — Ghesaont,  Awennoot. 

"  Onondagoe's  Nation. — Tannawree,  Skeetowass. 

"  Cayoogoe's  Nation. — Sahoode,  Tchehughque. 

"  Smith,  the  Ganawese  Indian,  interpreter  from 
the  Mingoe  language  to  the  Delaware. 

"  John  Cartlidge,  Esq.  and  Mr.  James  le  Tort, 
interpreters  from  the  Delaware  into  English. 

"  Ghesaont,  in  the  name,  and  on  the  behalf  of 


all  the  Five  Nations,  delivered  himself,  in  speaking 
to  the  governor,  as  follows  : — 

"  They  were  glad  to  see  the  governor,  and  his 
council  at  this  place ;  for  they  had  heard  much  of 
the  governor  in  their  towns,  before  they  came  from 
home  ;  and  now  they  find  him  to  be  what  they  had 
then  heard  of  him,  viz.  their  friend  and  brother, 
and  the  same  as  if  William  Penn  were  still  amongst 
them. 

"  They  assure  the  governor  and  council,  that 
they  had  not  forgot  William  Penn's  treaties  with 
them ;  and  that  his  advice  to  them  was  still  fresh 
in  their  memories. 

"  Though  they  cannot  write,  yet  they  retain  every 
thing,  said  in  their  councils,  with  all  the  nations 
they  treat  with  ;  and  preserve  it  as  carefully  in  their 
memories,  as  if  it  was  committed  in  our  method  to 
writing. 

"  They  complain  that  our  traders,  carrying  goods 
and  liquors  up  Susquehanna  river,  sometimes  meet 
with  their  young  people  going  out  to  war,  and  treat 
them  unkindly,  not  only  refusing  to  give  them  a 
dram  of  their  liquor,  but  use  them  with  ill  language, 
and  call  them  dogs,  £c. 

"  They  take  this  unkindly ;  because  dogs  have 
no  sense,  or  understanding  :  whereas  they  are  men, 
and  think  that  their  brothers  should  not  compare 
them  to  such  creatures. 

"  That  some  of  our  traders  calling  their  young 
men  by  these  names,  the  young  men  answered;  '  If 
they  were  dogs,  they  might  act  as  such ;'  where* 
upon  they  seized  a  cag  of  liquor,  arid  ran  away 
with  it." 

This  seems  to  be  told  in  their  artful  way,  to  ex- 
cuse some  small  robberies,  that  had  been  committed 
by  their  young  people. 

Then  laying  down  a  belt  of  wampum  upon  the 
table,  he  proceeded  and  said, 

"  That  all  their  disorders  arose  from  the  use  of 
rum,  and  strong  spirits  ;  which  took  away  their 
sense  and  memory ;  that  they  had  no  such  liquors 
among  themselves ;  but  were  hurt  with  what  we 
furnished  them  ;  and  therefore  desired  ttfat  no  more 
of  that  sort  might  be  sent  among  them." 

He  produced  a  bundle  of  dressed  skins  and 
said, 

"  That  the  Five  Nations  faithfully  remember  all 
their  ancient  treaties ;  and  now  desire  that  the 
chain  of  friendship,  between  them  and  us,  may  be 
made  so  strong,  as  that  none  of  the  links  can  ever 
be  broken." 

Presents  another  bundle  of  raw  skins,  and  ob 
serves, 

"  That  a  chain  may  contract  rust  with  lying,  and 
become  weaker ;  wherefore,  he  desires  it  may  now 
be  so  well  cleaned,  as  to  remain  brighter  and 
stronger,  than  ever  it  was  before." 

Presents  another  parcel  of  skins  and  says, 

"  That,  as  in  the  firmament,  all  clouds  and  dark- 
ness are  removed  from  the  face  of  the  sun,  so  they 
desire  that  all  the  misunderstandings  may  be  fully 
done  away ;  so  that  when  they,  who  are  now  here, 
shall  be  dead  and  gone,  their  whole  people,  with 
their  children  and  posterity,  may  enjoy  the  clear 
sun-shine  of  friendship  with  us  for  ever ;  without 
any  thing  to  interpose,  or  obscure  it." 

Presents  another  bundle  of  skins,  and  says, 

"  That,  looking  upon  the  governor,  as  if  William 
Penn  was  present,  they  desire,  that,  in  case  any  dis- 
orders should  hereafter  happen  between  their  young 
people  and  ours,  we  would  not  be  too  hasty  in  re- 
senting any  such  accident,  until  their  council  and 


UMTED  STATES. 


87S 


ours  can  have  some  opportunity  to  treatamicably  upon 
** ;  and  so  to  adjust  all  matters,  as  that  the  friend- 
ship between  us  may  still  be  inviolably  preserved. 

"  Presents  a  small  parcel  of  dressed  skins,  and 
desires, 

"  That  we  may  now  be  together  as  one  people ; 
treating  one  another's  children  kindly  and  affection- 
ately, on  all  occasions. 

"  He  proceeds  and  says, 

"  That  they  consider  themselves,  in  this  treaty, 
as  the  full  plenipotentiaries  and  representatives  of 
the  Five  Nations ;  and  they  look  upon  the  gover- 
nor, as  the  great  king  of  England's  representative  : 
an;l,  therefore,  they  expect  that  every  thing  now 
stipulated  will  be  made  absolutely  firm  and  good, 
on  both  sides. 

"  Presents  a  bundle  of  bear-skins,  and  says, 

"  That  having  now  made  a  firm  league  with  us, 
as  becomes  our  brothers,  they  complain  that  they  get 
too  little  for  their  skins  and  furs,  so  as  they  cannot 
live  by  their  hunting;  they  desire  us,  therefore,  to 
take  compassion  on  them,  and  contrive  some  way 
to  help  them,  in  that  particular. 

"  Presenting  a  few  furs,  he  speaks  only  as  from 
himself,  to  acquaint  the  governor, 

i!  Thai  the  Five  Nations  having  heard  that  the 
governor  of  Virginia  wanted  to  speak  with  them, 
he  himself,  with  some  of  his  company,  intended  to 
proceed  to  Virginia,  but  do  not  know  the  way  how 
to  get  safe  thither. 

"  On  the  8th  of  July,  the  governor  and  his  coun- 
cil, at  the  house  of  John  Cartlidge,  Esq.,  near  Co- 
nestogoe,  having  advised  upon,  and  prepared  a  pro- 
per present,  in  return  for  that  of  the  Indians,  and 
in  confirmation  of  his  speech,  according  to  custom, 
in  such  cases,  which  consisted  of  a  quantity  of  strowd 
match-coats,  gunpowder,  lead,  biscuit,  pipes  and  to- 
bacco, adjourned  to  Conestogoe  the  place  of  treaty." 

"  At  a  council,  held  at  Conestogoe,  July  8th, 
1721.  P.  M. 

"  Present,  the  same  as  before  ;  with  divers  gen- 
tlemen attending  the  governor,  and  the  chiefs  of  the 
Five  Nations ;  being  all  seated  in  council,  and  the 
presents  laid  down  before  the  Indians,  the  governor 
spoke  to  them,  by  an  interpreter,  in  these  words  : — 
"  My  Friends  and  Brothers, 

"  It  is  a  gr^at  satisfaction  to  me,  that  I  have  this 
opportunity  of  speaking  to  the  valiant  and  wise  Five 
Nations  of  Indians,  whom  you  tell  me,  you  are  fully 
empowered  to  represent. 

"  I  treat  you,  therefore,  as  if  all  these  nations 
were  here  present;  and  you  are  to  understand,  what 
I  now  say,  to  be  agreeable  to  the  mind  of  our  great 
Monarch,  George,  the  king  of  England,  who  bends 
his  care  to  establish  peace  amongst  all  the  mighty 
nations  of  Europe ;  unto  whom  all  the  people,  in 
these  parts,  are,  as  it  were,  but  like  one  drop,  out  of 
a  bucket,  so  that  what  is  now  transacted  between  us, 
must  be  laid  up,  as  the  words  of  the  whole  body  of 
your  people  and  our  people,  to  be  kept  in  perpetual 
remembrance. 

"  I  am  also  glad  to  find  that  you  remember  what 
William  Penn  formerly  said  to  you.  He  was  a  great 
and  a  good  man  :  his  own  people  loved  him ;  he 
loved  the  Indians,  and  they  also  loved  him.  .He 
was  as  their  father  ;  he  would  never  suffer  them  to 
be  wronged ;  neither  would  he  let  his  people  enter 
upon  any  lands,  until  he  had  first  purchased  them  of 
the  Indians.  He  was  just,  and  therefore  the  In- 
dians loved  him. 

"  Though  he  is  now  removed  from  us ;  yet  his 
children  and  people,  following  his  example,  will 


always  take  the  same  measures  ;  so  that  his  and  our 
posterity  will  be  as  a  long  chain,  of  which  he  was 
the  first  link;  and  when  one  link  ends,  another 
succeeds,  and  then  another;  being  all  firmly  bound 
together  in  one  strong  chain,  to  endure  for  ever. 

"  He  formerly  knit  the  chain  of  friendship  with 
you,  as  the  chief  of  all  the  Indians,  in  these  parts; 
and  lest  this  chain  should  grow  rusty,  you  now 
desire  it  may  be  scoured,  and  made  strong,  to  bind 
us,  as  one  people,  together.  We  do  assure  you,  it 
is,  and  has  always  been,  bright  on  our  side  ;  and  so 
we  will  ever  keep  it. 

"  As  to  your  complaint  of  our  traders,  that  they 
have  treated  some  of  your  young  men  unkindly,  I 
take  that  to  be  said  only  by  way  of  excuse  for  the 
follies  of  your  people,  thereby  endeavouring  to  per- 
suade me,  that  they  were  provoked  to  do  what  you 
very  well  know  they  did;  but,  as  I  told  our  own 
Indians,  two  days  ago,  I  am  willing  to  pass  by 
all  these  things  ;  you  may  therefore  be  assured,  that 
our  people  shall  not  offer  any  injury  to  yours ;  or, 
if  I  know  that  they  do,  they  shall  be  severely  pu- 
nished for  it.  So  you  must,  in  like  manner,  strictly 
command  your  young  men,  that  they  do  not  offer 
any  injury  to  ours.  For  when  they  pass  through 
the  utmost  skirts  of  our  inhabitants,  where  there 
are  no  people  yet  settled,  but  a  few  traders,  they 
should  be  more  careful  of  them,  as  having  separated 
themselves  from  the  body  of  their  friends,  purely  to 
serve  the  Indians  more  commodiously  with  what 
they  want. 

"  Nevertheless,  if  any  little  disorders  should  at 
any  time  hereafter  arise,  we  will  endeavour  that  it 
shall  not  break,  or  weaken  the  chain  of  friendship 
between  us :  to  which  end,  if  any  of  your  people 
take  offence,  you  must,  in  that  case,  apply  to  me,  or 
to  our  chiefs.  And  when  we  have  any  cause  to 
complain,  we  shall,  as  you  desire,  apply  to  your 
chiefs,  by  our  friends,  the  Conestogoe  Indians;  but, 
on  both  sides,  we  must  labour  to  prevent  every 
thing  of  this  kind  as  much  as  we  can. 

"  You  complain  that  our  traders  come  into  the 
path  of  your  young  men,  going  out  to  war,  and 
thereby  occasion  disorders  among  them :  I  will, 
therefore,  nay  friends  and  brothers,  speak  very 
plainly  to  you  on  this  head. 

"  Your  young  men  come  down  Susquehanna 
river,  and  take  their  road  through  our  Indian 
towns  and  settlements,  and  make  a  path  between 
us  and  the  people,  against  whom  they  go  out  to 
war.  Now,  you  must  know,  that  the  path  this 
way  leads  them  only  to  the  Indians,  who  are  in 
alliance  with  the  English;  and  first  to  those  who 
are  in  a  strict  league  of  friendship  with  the  gover- 
nor of  Virginia;  just  as  these,  our  friends  arid 
children,  who  are  settled  among  us,  are  in  league 
with  me  and  our  people. 

"  You  cannot,  therefore,  make  war  upon  the  In- 
dians, in  league  with  Virginia,  without  weakening 
the  chain  with  the  English:  for,  as  yve  would  not 
suffer  these,  our  friends  and  brothers  of  Conestogoe, 
and  upon  the  river,  to  be  hurt  by  any  persons, 
without  considering  it  as  done  to  ourselves;  so  the 
governor  of  Virginia  looks  upon  the  injuries  done 
to  his  Indian  brothers  and  friends  as  if  they  were 
done  to  himself.  And  you  very  well  know,  that 
though  you  are  five  different  nations,  yet  you  are 
but  one  people ;  so  as  that  any  wrong  done  to 
one  nation  is  received  as  an  injury  done  you  all. 

"  In  the  same  manner,  and  much  more  so,  it  is 
with  the  English,  who  are  all  united  under  on<; 
great  king,  who  has  more  people,  in  that  one  town, 


874 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


where  he  lives,  than  all  the  Indians  in  North  Ame- 
rica, put  together. 

"  You  are  in  league  with  New  York,  as  your 
ancient  friends,  and  nearest  neighbours ;  and  you 
are  in  league  with  us,  by  treaties  often  repeated, 
and  by  a  chain  which  you  have  now  brightened. 
As,  therefore,  all  the  English  are  but  one  people, 
you  are  ac'trially  in  league  with  all  the  English  go- 
vernments, and  must  equally  preserve  the  peace 
with  all,  as  with  one  government. 

"  You  pleased  me  very  much,  when  you  told  me 
that  you  were  going  to  treat  with  the  governor  of 
Virginia.  Your  nations  formerly  entered  into  a 
very  firm  league  with  that  government ;  and,  if  you 
have  suffered  that  chain  to  grow  rusty,  it  is  time  to 
scour  it;  and  the  Five  Nations  have  done  very 
wisely  to  send  you  there  for  that  purpose. 

"  1  do  assure  you  the  governor  of  Virginia  is  a 
great  and  a  good  man;  he  loves  the  Indians,  as 
his  children,  and  so  protects  and  defends  them ;  for 
he  is  very  strong,  having  many  thousand  Christian 
warriors  under  his  command ;  whereby  he  is  able  to 
assist  all  those  who  ave  in  any  league  of  friendship 
with  him.  Hasten,  therefore,  my  friends,  to  brighten 
and  strengthen  the  chain  with  that  great  man ;  for 
he  desires  it,  and  will  receive  you  kindly.  He  is 
my  great  and  good  friend;  I  have  been  lately  with 
him;  and  since  you  say  you  are  strangers,  I  will 
give  you  a  letter  to  him,  to  inform  him  of  what  we 
have  done,  and  of  the  good  design  of  your  visit  to 
him  and  this  country. 

"  My  friends  and  brothers,  I  told  you  two  days 
ago,  that  we  must  open  our  breasts  to  each  other; 
I  shall,  therefore,  like  your  true  friend,  open  mine 
yet  further  to  you,  for  your  good. 

"  You  see  that  the  English,  from  a  very  small 
people,  at  first,  in  these  parts,  are,  by  peace  amongst 
themselves,  become  a  very  great  people  amongst 
you,  far  exceeding  the  number  of  all  the  Indians  we 
know  of. 

"  But  while  we  are  at  peace,  the  Indians  con- 
tinue to  make  war  upon  one  another;  and  destroy 
each  other,  as  if  they  intended  that  none  of  their 
people  should  be  left  alive;  by  which  means  you 
are,  from  a  great  people,  become  a  very  small  peo- 
ple ;  and  yet  you  will  go  on  to  destroy  yourselves. 

"  The  Indians  of  the  south,  though  they  speak  a 
different  language,  yet  they  are  the  same  peo 
pie,  and  inhabit  the  same  land,  with  those  of  the 
north.  We  therefore  cannot  but  wonder  how  you, 
that  are  a  wise  people,  should  take  delight  in  putting 
an  end  to  your  race:  the  English,  being  your  true 
friends,  labour  to  prevent  this.  We  would  have 
you  strong,  as  a  part  of  ourselves:  for,  as  our 
strength  is  your  strength,  so  we  would  have  yours 
to  be  as  our  own. 

"  I  have  persuaded  all  my  brethren,  in  these 
parts,  to  consider  what  is  for  their  good ;  and  not 
to  go  out  any  more  to  war;  but  your  young  men, 
as  they  come  this  way,  endeavour  to  force  them 
And  because  they  incline  to  follow  the  counsels  of 
peace,  and  the  good  advice  of  their  true  friends,  your 
people  use  them  ill,  and  often  prevail  with  them  to 
go  out,  to  their  own  destruction.  Thus  it  was,  that 
their  town  ofConestogoe  lost  their  good  king  not 
long  ago;  and  thus  many  have  been  lost.  Their 
young  children  are  left  without  parents;  their 
wives  without  husbands ;  the  old  men,  contrary  to 
the  course  of  nature,  mourn  the  death  of  their  young; 
the  people  decay,  and  grow  weak ;  we  lose  our  deai 
friends,  and  are  afflicted.  And  this  is  chiefly  owing 
fco  your  young  men. 


"  Surely,  you  cannot  propose  to  get  either  riche*, 
)r  possessions,  by  going  thus  out  to  war:  for  when 
'ou  kill  a  deer  you  have  the  flesh  to  eat,  and  the 
kin  to  sell;  but  when  you  return  from  war,  you 
>ring  nothing  home  but  the  scalp  of  a  dead  man; 
who,  perhaps,  was  husband  to  a  kind  wife,  and 
ather  to  tender  children,  who  never  wronged  you; 
hough,  by  losing  him,  you  have  robbed  them  of 
heir  help  and  protection;  and,  at  the  same  time, 
jot  nothing  by  it. 

"  If  I  were  not  your  friend,  I  would  not  take  Ihe 
rouble  of  saying  all  these  things  to  you;  which  I 
desire  may  be  fully  related  to  all  your  people,  when 
rou  return  home,  that  they  may  consider  in  time 
what  is  for  their  own  good.  And,  after  this,  if  any 
will  be  so  madly  deaf  and  blind,  as  neither  to  hear 
nor  see  the  danger  before  them,  but  will  go  out  to 
destroy,  and  be  destroyed,  for  nothing,  I  must  de- 
sire that  such  foolish  young  men  would  take  another 
)ath,  and  not  pass  this  way,  amongst  our  people, 
vhose  eyes  I  have  opened;  and  they  haVe  wisely 
learkened  to  my  advice.  So  that  I  must  tell  you 
plainly,  as  I  am  their  best  friend,  and  this  govern- 
ment is  their  protector,  and  as  a  father  to  them,  we 
will  not  suffer  them  any  more  to  go  out,  as  they 
lave  done,  to  their  destruction.  I  say  again  we 
will  not  suffer  it;  for  we  have  ihe  counsel  of  wis- 
dom amongst  us,  and  know  what  is  for  their  good. 
For  though  they  are  weak,  yet  they  are  our  bre- 
thren;  we  will  therefore  take  care  of  them,  that 
they  be  not  misled  with  ill  counsel.  You  mourn 
when  you  lose  a  brother;  we  mourn  when  any  of 
them  are  lost;  to  prevent  which  they  shall  not  be 
suffered  to  go  out,  as  they  have  done,  to  be  de- 
stroyed by  war. 

'  My  good  friends  and  brothers,  I  give  you  the 
same  council,  and  earnestly  desire  that  yoa  will 
follow  it,  since  it  will  make  you  a  happy  people.  I 
give  you  this  advice,  because  I  am  your  true  friend  ; 
but  I  much  fear  you  hearken  to  others,  who  never 
were,  and  never  will  be,  your  friends. 

"  You  know  very  well,  that  the  French  have  been 
your  enemies,  from  the  beginning;  and  though  they 
made  peace  with  you  22  years  ago,  yet,  by  subtle 
practices,  they  still  endeavour  to  ensare  you.  They 
use  arts  and  tricks,  and  tell  you  lies,  to  deceive  you  ; 
and  if  you  would  make  use  of  your  own  eyes,  and 
not  be  deluded  by  their  Jesuits  and  interpreters,  you 
would  see  this  yourselves  :  for  you  know  they  have 
no  goods  of  any  value,  these  several  years  past,  ex- 
cept what  has  been  sent  to  them  from  the  English 
of  New  York,  and  that  is  now  all  over. 

They  give  fair  speeches,  instead  of  real  services  ; 
and  as,  for  many  years,  they  attempted  to  destroy 
you  in  war,  so  they  now  endeavour  to  do  it  in  peace ; 
for  when  they  persuade  you  to  go  out  to  war  against 
others,  it  is  only  that  you  may  be  destroyed  your- 
selves ;  which  we,  as  your  true  friends," labour  to 
prevent ;  because  we  would  have  your  numbers  in- 
crease, that  you  may  grow  strong,  and  that  we  may 
be  all  strengthened  in  friendship  and  peace  to- 
gether. 

"  As  to  what  you  have  said  of  trade,  I  suppose 
the  great  distance,  at  which  you  live  from  us,  has 
prevented  all  commerce  between  us  and  your  peo- 
ple. We  believe  those,  who  go  into  the  woods,  and 
spend  all  their  time  upon  it,  endeavour  to  make 
the  best  bargains  they  can,  for  themselves  ;  so,  on 
your  part,  you  must  take  care  to  make  the  best 
bargains  you  can  with  them.  But  we  hope  our 
traders  do  not  exact ;  for  we  think  that  a  strowd 
coat,  or  a  pound  of  powder,  is  now  sold  for  no  mor« 


UNITED  STATES. 


875 


buck-skins  than  fonnerlyv  Beaver,  indeed,  is  not, 
nf  late,  so  much  used  in  Europe ;  and,1  therefore, 
toes  not  give  so  good  a  price ;  and  we  deal  but 
very  little  in  that  commodity.  But  deer-skins  sell 
very  veil  among  us  ;  and  I  shall  always  take  care 
that  the  Indians  be  not  wronged.  But,  except  other 
measures  be  taken  to  regulate  the  Indian  trade 
every  where,  the  common  method  used  in  trade  will 
still  be  followed  ;  and  every  man  must  take  care  of 
himself;  for  thus  I  must  do  myself,  when  I  buy  any 
thing  from  our  own  people;  if  I  do  not  give  them 
their  price,  they  will  keep  it;  for  we  are  a  free 
people.  But  if  you  have  any  further  proposals  to 
make  about  these  affairs,  I  am  willing  to  hear  and 
consider  them  ;  for  it  is  my  desire  that  the  trade  be 
well  regulated  to  your  content. 

"  I  am  sensible  rum  is  very  hurtful  to  the  In- 
dians ;  we  have  made  laws,  that  none  should  be  car- 
ried amongst  them ;  or,  if  any  is,  that  it  should  be 
staved,  and  thrown  upon  the  ground ;  and  the  In- 
dians have  been  ordered  to  destroy  all  the  rum, 
that  comes  in  their  way,  but  they  will  not  do  it ; 
they  will  have  rum;  and  when  we  refuse  it,  they 
will  travel  to  the  neighbouring  provinces  and  fetch 
it;  their  own  women  go  to  purchase  it,  and  then 
sell  it  amongst  their  own  people,  at  excessive  rates. 
I  would  gladly  make  any  laws  to  prevent  this,  that 
could  be  effectual;  but  the  country  is  so  wide,  the 
woods  are  so  dark  and  private,  and  so  far  out  of  my 
sight,  if  the  Indians  themselves  do  not  prohibit  their 
own  people,  there  is  no  other  way  to  prevent  it ; 
for  my  part,  I  shall  readily  join  in  any  measures, 
that  can  be  proposed,  for  so  good  a  purpose. 

"  I  have  now,  my  friends  and  brothers,  said  all 
that  I  think  can  be  of  service  at  this  time,  and 
I  give  you  these  things  here  laid  before  you,  to  con- 
firm my  words,  viz.  Five  coats,  20  pounds  of  pow- 
der, 40  pounds  of  lead,  for  each  of  the  Five  Nations ; 
that  is,  25  coats,  100  pounds  of  powder,  and  200 
pounds  of  lead,  in  the  whole  ;  which  I  desire  may 
be  delivered  to  them,  with  these  words  in  my  name, 
and  on  behalf  of  this  province :  I  shall  be  glad  to 
see  often  some  of  your  chief  men,  sent  in  the  name 
of  all  the  rest ;  and  desire  you  will  come  to  Phi- 
ladelphia, to  visit  our  families,  and  our  children 
born  there,  where  we  can  provide  better  for  you, 
and  make  you  more  welcome  ;  for  people  always 
receive  their  friends  best  at  their  own  houses.  I 
heartily  wish  you  well  on  your  journey,  and  good 
success  in  it.  And  when  you  return  home,  I  desire 
you  will  give  my  very  kind  love,  and  the  love  of  all 
our  people,  to  your  kings,  and  to  all  their  people. 

"  Then  the  governor  rose  from  his  chair ;  and 
when  he  had  called  Ghesaont,  the  speaker,  to  him, 
he  took  a  coronation  medal  of  the  king,  and  pre- 
sented it  to  the  Indian  in  these  words  : — 

"  That  our  children,  when  we  are  dead,  may  not 
forget  these  things,  but  keep  this  treaty,  between 
us,  in  perpetual  remembrance,  I  here  deliver  to 
you  a  picture  in  gold,  bearing  the  image  of  my  great 
master,  the  king  of  all  the  English  ;  and  when  you 
return  home,  I  charge  you  to  deliver  this  piece  into 
the  hands  of  the  first  man,  or  greatest  chief  of  all  the 
Five  Nations,  whom  you  call  Kannygooah,  to  be 
laid  up  and  kept,  as  a  token  to  our  children's  chil- 
dren ;  that  an  entire  and  lasting  friendship  is  now 
established  for  ever,  between  the  English,  in  this 
country,  and  the  great  Five  Nations." 

The  governor's  concern  to  promote  the  country's  benefit, 
4*c- — Proceedings  in  consequence  of  the  barbarous 
murder  of  an  Indian— Divers  useful  laws  passed, 


urith  snme  of  their  titles,  Sfc.— Increase  of  law-suitt 
— Regulation  of  bread  and  flour — Paper  currency 
scheme  first  introduced  in  1722 — Advocated  by 
the  governor,  and  favoured  by  the  generality  of 
the  people ;  but  disliked  by  some  —  Sentiments 
of  several  gentlemen  and  merchants,  relating  to 
a  paper  currency,  presented  to  the  assembly  — 
Answer  to  these  sentiments,  Sfc. — Governor  Keith's 
judgment  on  the  same  subject,  in  writing,  to  the 
assembly— Reply  to  the  answer  to  the  above  senti- 
ments, 8fc. 

Of  the  assembly,  elected  in  Oct.  1721,  Jeremiah 
Langhorne  was  speaker ;  to  which  assembly,  in  the 
winter,  the  governor,  in  his  speech,  intimated  the 
necessity  of  their  united  and  diligent  application  to 
restore  the  planter's  credit,  without  discouraging  the 
merchant,  by  whose  industry  alone,  he  says,  "Their 
trade  must  be  supported  wi'th  a  sufficient  currency 
of  cash."  He  then  proceeded  :  "  My  mind  is  so  fully 
bent  upon  doing  this  province  some  effectual  service, 
that  I  have  lately  formed  the  design  of  a  considerable 
settlement  amongst  you,  in  order  to  manufacture 
and  consume  the  grain ;  for  which  there  is,  at  this 
time,  no  profitable  market  abroad  ;  and  although 
this  project  will  doubtless,  at  first,  prove  very  charge- 
able and  expensive  to  me,  yet,  if  it  meets  with 
your  approbation,  and  the  good  will  of  the  people, 
I  am  well  assured  it  cannot  fail  of  answering  my 
purpose,  to  do  a  real  service  to  the  country,  and 
every  interest  and  concern  of  mine  shall  ever  be 
built  on  that  bottom." 

The  house  acknowledged,  "  His  zeal  to  restore 
the  planter's  credit,  with  his  just  care  of  the  mer- 
chant, who,  of  late,  with  others  equally,  had  laid 
under  the  greatest  disadvantages  for  want  of  a  suffi- 
cient currency  of  cash,  as  appeared  to  them,  from  the 
melancholy  complaints  of  the  people,  declaring  they 
would  readily  fall  in  with  any  scheme  that  should 
appear  to  them  conducive  to  a  remedy." 

In  the  spring  of  the  year  1722,  an  Indian  was 
barbarously  killed,  within  the  limits  of  the  province, 
somewhere  above  Conestogoe.  This  murder  was 
supposed  to  be  perpetrated  by  one  or  two  persons, 
of  the  name  of  Cartlidge.  The  governor  having 
commissioned  James  Logan,  and  Col.  John  French, 
two  of  his  council,  to  go  to  Conestogoe,  to  inquire 
into  the  affair,  after  their  return,  at  the  request  of 
the  assembly,  laid  their  report  ef  it  before  them. 
The  house,  in  their  address  to  the  governor,  ex- 
pressed their  utmost  concern  on  this  affair :  they 
"  gratefully  acknowledged,  and  highly  commended 
the  governor's  prudent  conduct,  and  steady  admi- 
nistration of  justice ;  but  more  especially  at  that 
time,  on  an  occasion  of  the  greatest  importance  to  the 
peace  and  safety  of  the  government,  by  his  empower- 
ing two  gentlemen  of  his  council  so  able  and  pru- 
dent, on  the  present  emergency ;  whose  wise  con- 
duct (said  they)  is  very  conspicuous  fro-na  their  re- 
port laid  before  the  house  by  the  governor." 

They  earnestly  requested  the  governor  to  persist 
in  his  laudable  endeavour,  to  bring  the  aggressors 
to  condign  punishment,  with  all  possible  speed,  lest, 
by  delay  of  justice,  the  Indians  should  be  induced 
to  withdraw  their  allegiance  to  the  crown  of  Great 
Britain,  and  be  provoked  to  do  themselves  justice, 
in  a  manner  that  might  be  of  most  dangerous  con- 
sequence. They  also  urged,  t(  That  he  would  ad- 
vise with  his  counsel,  in  making  treaties  with  them ; 
for,  as  they  are  some  of  the  principal  inhabitants 
of  this  government,  we  have  no  reason  to  doubt  but 
they  will  be  concerned  for  the  good  of  the  same." 


876 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMEKIC'A. 


They  likewise  mentioned  the  repeated  request  of 
the  Indians,  that  strong  liquors  should  not  be 
carried,  nor  sold  among  them ;  with  the  petition  of 
sundry  inhabitants  of  the  province,  to  the  same 
import;  which  the  laws  hitherto  made,  in  that  case, 
had  not  been  able  to  prevent;  and  they,  therefore, 
requested  the  advice  and  assistance  of  the  governor 
and  council  therein. 

The  governor  declared,  "  That  he  had  carefully 
endeavoured  to  follow  the  late  honourable  proprie- 
tary's steps  in  such  affairs;  to  keep  the  natives  al- 
ways in  a  lively  and  perfect  remembrance  of  his 
love  to  them,  and  to  build  all  their  treaties  of  peace 
with  them,  upon  the  same  principles  and  maxims  of 
good  policy,  which  he  used  and  maintained  when 
he  was  here  himself."  He  likewise  assured  the 
house  that  he  had  at  that  time  all  the  probability, 
which  the  nature  of  the  case  would  admit  of,  of 
settling  matters  again  agreeably  with  the  Indian 
nations. 

Great  pains  w-ere  taken  in  the  affair  of  the  mur- 
der; and  an  Indian  messenger,  Satcheecho,  was 
dispatched  to  the  five  nations ;  the  suspected  per- 
sons were  committed  to  prison;  and  the  governor, 
with  two  of  the  council,  met  and  treated  with  the 
five  nations  at  Albany,  respecting  it;  and  presents 
were  made  to  the  Indians.  The  five  nations  de- 
sired that  the  Cartlidges  should  not  suffer  death ; 
and  the  affair  was,  at  length,  amicably  settled. 

Among  the  laws  passed  by  the  governor,  this 
year,  for  improving  the  produce  of  the  province, 
meliorating  its  staple  commodities,  then  in  bad 
credit  at  foreign  markets,  and  for  other  purposes, 
were  the  following:  "  An  act  to  prohibit  the  selling 
of  rum,  and  other  strong  liquors,  to  the  Indians,  and 
to  prevent  abuses  that  may  happen  thereby." 

"  An  act  for  encouraging  the  making  good  beer, 
and  for  the  consumption  of  grain  in  the  province." 
"  An  act  to  prevent  the  exportation  of  flour  not  mer- 
chantable." "  An  act  for  laying  a  duty  on  negroes 
imported  into  this  province."  "  An  act  for  encou- 
raging and  raising  of  hemp  in  this  province,"  and 
others  of  a  like  tendency. 

Joseph  Growdon  wa?  speaker  of  the  assembly 
elected  in  October  1722.  The  governor,  in  his 
speech  to  this  assembly,  on  the  first  of  February, 
1723,  recommended  them  to  direct  their  atten- 
tion to  the  multiplicity  of  expensive  and  vexatious 
law-suits,  which  had  arisen  of  late  in  an  unprece- 
dented manner. 

In  consequence  of  the  governor's  representation, 
the  committee  of  grievances,  on  the  same  month, 
made  their  report  as  follows,  taken  from  the  printed 
votes : — 

"  We  have  examined  the  sheriff's  docquet,  and 
find  that, 
From  September  1715,  to  September  1716,  the 

number  of  writs  are 431 

From  September  1717,  to  September  1718.  ..   588 
From  September  1719,  to  September  1729     .  .    627 

From  September  1721,  to  September  1722 847 

From  September  to  December,  1722 250 

Several  laws  were  passed,  which  appear  to  have 
the  desired  effect,  and  to  have  remedied  the  evils 
complained  of. 

He  also  urged,  "  That,  for  the  sake  of  the  whole 
country,  who  must  live  >?y  the  product  and  manu- 
facture of  grain,  it  was  absolutely  necessary,  that 
the  making  good  bread  and  flour,  be  so  regulated, 
as  to  recover  their  lost  credit  in  the  market  iu  the 
West  Indies;  upon  which  their  whole  traffic  en- 
Urely  depended." 


About  this  time  the  province  appears  to  have 
been  under  great  difficulties,  respecting  the  decay 
of  its  trade  and  credit,  and  the  want  of  a  sufficient 
circulating  medium  or  currency ;  for  the  relief  of 
which  many  proposals  were  made.  Among  others,  that 
of  paper  money  was  now  introduced ;  which  occa- 
sioned considerable  debate. 

The  governor  was  a  strong  advocate  for  a  paper 
currency,  and  took  great  pains  to  promote  it;  with 
whom  appeared  to  join  the  generality  of  the  people. 
But  the  persons  of  property  and  influence  did  not 
like  the  scheme.  Their  dislike  was  chiefly  founded 
on  the  difficulty  of  preserving  that  kind  of  cur- 
rency from  depreciation;  which  they  saw  had  in 
general  occasioned  mischievous  and  fraudulent  con- 
sequences in  other  provinces;  they  also  disapproved 
of  the  mode  proposed,  of  issuing  and  conducting  the 
same.  So  that  their  opposition  was  not  so  much 
against  a  paper  credit,  properly  guarded  and  con- 
ducted, as  against  fraud,  or  those  modes  of  mana- 
ging it,  which  had  been  so  ruinous  in  other  places. 
Hence,  in  the  February  of  this  year,  when  the 
scheme  was  under  consideration  of  the  assembly, 
Isaac  Norris  and  James  Logan,  in  the  name  and 
behalf  of  several  gentlemen  and  merchants,  pre- 
sented the  following  sentiments  thereon,  in  writing, 
to  the  house. 

"  To  the  honourable  house  of  representatives  of 
the  province  of  Pennsylvania. 

"  Being  admitted,  upon  our  address  to  the  house, 
presented  yesterday,  to  exhibit  any  further  senti- 
ments, in  relation  to  a  paper  credit,  now  vigorously 
pressed  to  be  established  by  law;  we  accordingly 
offer  the  following  heads,  which  may  be  supported 
by  solid  arguments,  when  the  house  thinks  fit  to 
require  them. 

"  First,  That  as  this  province  derives  all  its  powers 
from,  and  is  wholly  dependent  on  the  kingdom  of 
Great  Britain,  it  will  be  the  highest  wisdom  in  our 
legislature,  upon  all  exigencies,  to  direct  themselves 
by  the  same  prudent  and  just  measures  which  the 
parliaments  of  that  kingdom  have  always  pursued, 
in  the  like  cases;  in  whom  nothing  has  been  more 
conspicuous  than  a  most  strict  care,  that  no  subject 
should  lose  by  the  coin,  or  public  credit  of  the 
kingdom. 

"  Secondly,  That  as,  when  the  nation  was  most 
grievously  distressed,  in  the  time  of  a  dangerous 
and  expensive  war,  by  a  general  debasing  of  their 
current  coin,  the  parliament  would  hearken  to  no 
proposal  (though  many  were  made)  for  relieving 
the  state,  by  raising  the  new  minted  money  to  a 
higher  value;  but,  under  the  vastest  difficulties, 
renewed  it.  at  the  same  weight  and  fineness,  to 
pass  at  the  former  rates;  which  they  have  unalter- 
ably kept  to.  And  further,  by  the  sum  of  l,200,000/. 
made  good  to  private  persons  all  the  loss  of  ex- 
changing their  clipped  and  debased  coin,  for  the 
new  milled  money,  which  was  delivered  out  at  a  par 
to  them:  so  the  like  justice  and  prudence  requires 
that  no  further  alteration,  than  what  the  parlia- 
ment has  made  here,  should,  on  any  terms,  be  ad- 
mitted, in  the  value  of  our  gold  and  "silver,  but  that 
it  still  continue,  as  it  now  passes. 

"  Thirdly,  That,  as  the  parliament,  as  often  as 
they  found  it  necessary  to  issue  bills  of  credit,  called 
exchequer  bills,  or  notes,  took  the  utmost  care,  to 
keep  them  equal  in  value  with  silver,  by  giving  the 
Bank  of  England,  when  they  fell  into  any  discount, 
vast  sums  of  money,  to  receive  those  bills  as  their 
own,  and  to  exchange  them  with  ready  cash,  on  the 
demaud  of  the  bearer  :  so  it  appears  absolutely  ne- 


UNITED  STATES. 


877 


cessary,  that  if  bills  of  credit  be  raised  here,  due 
care  should  be  taken  (since  we  can  have  no  such 
banks  in  this  province,  as  are  in  Europe,  whose 
rules  are  to  pay  down  ready  money  for  their  bills, 
upon  demand,)  to  establish  them  on  so  just  a  foun- 
dation, that,  while  in  being,  they  may  still  continue 
of  the  same  value  with  real  money,  according  to  the 
rates,  at  which  they  are  at  first  issued. 

"  Fourthly,  That,  if  those  bills  be  issued  on  any 
easier  terms  to  the  receiver,  than  gold,  or  silver 
would  be,  if  it  were  to  be  paid,  or  lent  out  of  the 
treasury,  by  how  much  easier  these  terms  are  by 
so  much,  at  least,  will  the  bills  fall  in  value;  for 
credit  has  its  own  laws,  as  unalterable  in  themselves, 
as  those  of  motion,  or  gravity  are,  in  naiure,  and 
which,  such  as  are  versed  in  these  affairs  in  Europe, 
as  carefully  consider. 

"  Fifthly,  That  the  schemes  most  commonly 
talked  of,  for  lending  out  sums,  to  be  discharged  by 
annual  payments,  equal  to,  or  not  much  exceeding, 
the  interest,  for  a  certain  number  of  years,  without 
paying  any  principal,  are  partial  and  unjust,  and 
would  be  destructive  to  public  credit ;  because  the 
consideration  given  is  not  an  equivalent  to  the  sum 
received. 

"For  instance,  should  100J.  be  lent  out,  to  be 
discharged,  by  the  payment  only  of  8/.  annually, 
for  sixteen  years;  were  such  an  annuity  to  be  bought, 
according  to  the  known  rules  for  purchasing  estates. 
it  would  here  be  worth  no  more  than  70/.  16s.  and 
3d.  in  ready  money  ;  nor  is  an  annuity  for  9/.  10*. 
per  annum,  for  twelve  years,  worth  more  than  7 1/. 
12s.  In  either  of  these  cases,  the  borrower,  could 
he  discharge  debts  of  that  value  with  it,  though  he 
were  to  pay  the  annuity  in  gold  and  silver,  would 
gain  near  301.  by  the  loan,  but  no  other  person 
would  feel  the  least  advantage  by  it :  now,  if  no 
man  would  let  out  his  own  money  on  these  terms,  none 
ought  to  desire  it  so  of  the  public ;  the  credit  of 
which  is  of  vastly  greater  importance  than  that  of  any 
private  persons;  because  a  failure  in  it  affects  the 
fortune  of  every  individual  in  his  money,  the  me- 
dium of  his  commerce  and  dealing. 

"  Sixthly,  That  all  such  projects  are  either  ex- 
ceedingly weak,  or  unjust  ;  for  the  paper  money  is 
to  be  lent  either  to  all,  who  shall  desire  it,  on  a 
tender  of  the  security  proposed,  or  to  some  only  : 
if  to  all  (as  it  is  natural  for  all  men  to  desire  what 
they  may  gain  by,)  it  will  be  impracticable  to  strike 
enough,  to  answer  all  demands  ;  or,  if  it  were  struck, 
it  would,  because  of  its  quantity,  become  of  little, 
or  no  value ;  if  to  a  few  only,  what  tribunal  can  be 
erected,  to  judge  and  distinguish,  who  of  the  king's 
subjects  are  to  be  admitted  to  the  favour,  and  who 
to  be  rejected?  If  the  poor  only  are  to  be  the  objects, 
they  have  not  security  to  give,  or,  if  they  had,  per- 
haps they  have  as  little  merit  as  any  :  commonly 
people  become  wealthy  by  sobriety  and  industry, 
the  most  useful  qualifications  in  a  commonwealth, 
and  poor  by  luxury,  idleness  and  folly.  What 
rules  then  can  be  found  for  dispensing  the  public 
favours  ? 

"  Seventhly,  That  by  these  schemes,  the  more 
the  currency,  or  paper  money  falls  in  value  (by 
which  word  falling,  is  meant  the  rising  of  gold, 
silver,  English  goods,  and  all  other  commodities, 
in  nominal  value,  which  is  the  certain  proof  of  the 
other's  falling,)  the  greater  is  the  borrower's  advan- 
tage ;  for  the  more  easily  will  he  pay  his  annuity; 
so  that  he  may  happen,  by  virtue  of  the  act,  to  dis- 
charge, with  the  value  of  20Z.,  a  debt  of  100Z.,  due 
to  the  man,  who,  perhaps,  kindly  lent  him  the  money, 


to  relieve  him  in  distress,  or  honestly  sold  him  his 
land,  or  goods,  at  their  real  value,  at  the  time  of 
lending,  or  sale. 

"  Eighthly.That  all  those  deceive  themselves, who, 
because  gold  and  silver  may  be  had  at  NewYoik, 
or  other  places,  in  exchange  for  their  paper  money, 
suppose  that  the  one,  therefore,  is  as  good  as  the 
other,  unless  the  silver  can  be  had  at  eight  shillings 
per  ounce,  or  the  gold  at  six  shillings  per  penny, 
weijjht,  at  New  York,  as  they  were  rated  at  the 
first  striking  of  their  bills  ;  but  when  their  silver 
brings  from  nine  to  ten  shillings  per  ounce,  and 
their  light  pistoles  pass  at  28*.,  or  higher,  then  bills 
are  truly  so  much  fallen  in  value,  as  the  others  are 
advanced.  So,  in  Carolina,  silver  is  to  be  purchased 
for  their  bills,  but  it  is  at  30s.  per  ounce,  though 
they  were  struck,  as  is  said,  at  seven  shillings 
on  ly ! 

"  These  being  premised  as  general  heads,  what 
next  follows,  is  to  point  out  what  are  conceived  to 
be  the  only  means  of  supporting  the  credit  of  such  a 
currency,  if  issued. 

"  First,  That  the  whole  sum  struck  be  but  small, 
and  just  sufficient,  to  pass  from  hand  to  hand,  for  a 
currency. 

"  Secondly,  That  it  be  not  continued  for  any 
longer  time  ;  for  the  paper  will  wear  out,  and  it  will 
not  be  so  easy  to  exchange  it  for  new,  as  some  have 
imagined ;  which,  it  is  much  to  be  doubted,  will  be 
found  impracticable  :  besides,  the  sooner  it  is  to 
expire,  the  more  easily  will  people  be  satisfied  to 
take  it.  But  further,  our  laws  can  continue  in 
force  no  longer  than  five  years,  without  the  royal 
approbation. 

"  Thirdly,  That  care  be  taken  to  force  the  sink- 
ing of  it  in  course,  and  in  a  just  manner,  by  mea- 
sures, that  shall  render  it  absolutely  necessary  for 
the  public  to  have  it  sunk;  which,  it  is  conceived, 
none  of  the  methods  hitherto  discoursed  of  will 
effect.  These  heads,  may  it  please  the  house,  are 
what  we  have  at  present  humbly  to  offer  to  your  con- 
sideration, on  this  subject." 

A  few  days  after  this  was  presented  to  the  house, 
the  governor  also  delivered  them  his  sentiments,  in 
writing,  on  the  same  subject,  as  follows  :— 

"  Mr.  Speaker,  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Assembly, 

"I  have,  at  your  request,  very  carefully  considered 
the  resolutions  of  the  house,  upon  your  journals, 
relating  to  public  credit ;  and  also  some  things, 
which,  I  find,  have  been  offered  to  you  upon  the 
same  subject. 

"  Credit  may,  no  doubt,  be  compared  to  the  ma- 
thematics, in  so  far  as  both  sciences  will  admit  of 
deducing  solid  conclusions  from  self-evident  and 
clear  principles ;  and  yet,  by  the  subtilty  of  an 
artist,  truth,  or  falsehood,  in  either  of  them,  is  often 
so  wrapped  up  and  involved,  that  it  is  lost  unto,  or 
misapprehended  by  the  plainest,  and,  generally 
speaking,  much  the  honestest  part  of  mankind. 

"  But  the  common  necessity,  and  general  interest 
of  the  whole  body  of  the  people,  being  a  subject  of 
importance  on  which  we  ought  to  speak  plainly, 
and  act  freely,  I  shall,  without  any  preamble,  or 
disguise  whatever,  communicate  my  thoughts  to 
you,  in  the  simplest,  and  most  intelligible  manner 
that  I  can. 

"  First,  If  it  be  true  that  the  riches  and  prospe- 
rity of  this  province  chiefly  depend  on  the  manufac- 
ture of  provisions,  and  the  exchanging  of  that 
manufacture,  with  other  things  to  advantage,  it 
will  also  be  true,  that  whatever  increases  the  one, 
and  at  the  same  time,  encourages  the  other,  will 


87S 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


justly  deserve  the  name  of  a  public  good ;  and  the 
majority  of  those,  employed  in  such  manufacture 
and  exchange,  have  therein  a  rij»ht  to  be  considered 
as  the  body  of  the  people,  whom  you  represent. 

"  Secondly,  It  is  evident,  that,  where  there  is  no 
public  debt,  and  a  real  value,  in  lands,  to  be 
pledged,  paper  money  may,  if  there  is  occasion  for 
it,  be  struck  to  advantage,  without  any  risk  at  all ; 
for  though  perhaps  it  may  contribute  to  hurt  some 
weak  people,  in  the  ill  management  of  their  private 
affairs,  yet,  while  any  unfrugal  person  is  lost  to  the 
community,  and  is  succeeded  by  one  more  industri- 
ous than  he,  the  public  cannot  suffer  by  such  a 
change. 

"  Thirdly,  If,  in  the  case  of  a  paper  currency 
among  us,  it  should  happen  to  follow  (as  it  may  be 
supposed  it  will)  that  silver  and  gold  will  be  kept 
up  for  remittances  to  Great  Britain,  we  shall  then 
have  no  other  means  of  dealing  with  one  another, 
but  the  paper:  should  the  quantity,  therefore,  be 
less  than  is  necessary  to  circulate  our  home  trade, 
in  its  natural  course,  usurers  and  sharpers  would 
have  the  same  opportunity  as  they  have  now,  to  lie 
at  catch  for  bargains,  and  make  a  monopoly  of  trade, 
by  engrossing  the  current  money  into  their  hands. 

"  Fourthly..  The  very  essence  and  nature  of  credit, 
as  well  as  the  practice  and  experience  of  the  great- 
est banks  in  Europe,  directs  all  such  bills  to  be  is- 
sued at  something  less  than  the  common  interest, 
for  that  is,  in  effect,  a  premium  by  the  public,  to 
encourage  their  circulation :  and  whosoever  is  pleased 
to  say,  that  the  bank  of  Amsterdam  loses  credit,  by 
lending  money  at  two  per  cent.,  or  the  bank  of 
England,  by  lending  money  at  four  per  cent,  shall 
scarce  prevail  with  me  to  think  the  assertion  worthy 
of  any  answer. 

"  Fifthly,  I  am  not  of  opinion  with  those  gentle- 
men, who  are  pleased  to  alledge,  that  the  value  of 
silver  at  New  York,  which,  in  the  month  of  Sep- 
tember last,  was  from  eight  shillings  and  six-pence 
to  eight  shillings  and  nine-pence,  is  occasioned  by 
their  paper;  for,  in  this  province,  where  there  never 
has  been  any  paper  yet,  from  five  to  ten  per  cent, 
has,  for  several  years,  been  given  in  exchange  for 
silver.  And  as  to  their  computation  of  gold,  the 
gentlemen,  perhaps,  have  not  had  occasion  of  late 
to  be  informed,  that  the  heaviest  pistoles  in  York  go 
at  no  more  than  28s.,  and  smaller,  or  cut  gold,  at 
the  common  standard  value  in  that  province  ;  where, 
it  is  believed,  the  people  could  not  possibly  carry 
on  half  the  quantity  of  their  present  trade  and  busi- 
ness without  the  help  of  paper. 

"  Sixthly,  I  must  also  take  leave  to  differ  in  opi- 
nion with  those  who,  without  enquiry,  and  by  whole- 
sale, are  pleased  to  condemn  all  schemes  of  lending 
m.oney,  to  be  discharged  by  annual  payments;  for 
I  truly  think  that  method  will  not  only  suit  the 
different  circumstances  and  conveniency  of  the  peo- 
ple best,  but  in  all  respects  will  prove  the  safest  and 
most  profitable,  as  well  as  equal;  and  my  reasons 
for  it  are  these  : — 

"  First,  Whatever  quantity  be  issued,  if  one-fifth, 
sixth,  or  tenth  part  of  the  sum,  according  to  the 
time  for  which  it  is  to  last,  must  necessarily  come 
into  office  every  year,  it  may  be  lent  out  again,  at 
five  per  cent,  for  any  time  within  the  term,  to  such 
persons  as  had  no  place,  or  opportunity,  to  come 
into  the  first  loan :  by  which  means  all  the  fright- 
ful, odd  things  mentioned  in  the  gentlemen's  sixth 
observation,  will  presently  vanish;  for  every  man, 
in  this  case,  according  to  his  ability,  may,  if  he 
thinks  fit,  share  in  that  advantage ;  which  the  pub- 


lic most  generously  and  prudently  offers  to  the  ne- 
cessities of  the  people. 

:'  Secondly,  If  so  great  a  share  of  the  whole  comes 
in  yearly  tp  the  office,  in  order  to  be  lent  out  again, 
it  will,  in  a  great  measure,  prevent  engrossing,  and 
help  the  circulation  considerably ;  it  will  also  give 
more  frequent  opportunity  of  discovering  frauds, 
and  gradually  increase  the  public  stock  and  reve- 
nue of  the  bank ;  and  by  that  means  it  will  demon- 
strably  sink  the  original  sum,  within  the  time  pre- 
fixed ;  that  is  to  say,  the  paper,  at  the  end  of  that 
term,  will  either  be  found  in  the  office,  or  its  value 
in  cash,  ready  to  pay  what  shall  then  happen,  by 
accident,  to  be  yet  abroad. 

"  Seventhly,*If  too  great  a  security  is  demanded 
for  the  loan  of  public  money,  I  think  it  will,  in  a 
great  measure,  frustrate  the  design  of  relieving 
many  of  the  middling,  or  most  industrious,  sort  of 
the  people ;  wherefore  it  is  my  opinion,  that  one- 
half  of  the  value  of  ground  rents  may  very  safely 
be  lent  to  those  who  are  willing  and  able  to  give 
such  security. 

"  Eighthly,  If,  upon  further  consideration,  you 
find  that  the  sum  intended  may  be  issued  to  better 
advantage,  for  a  longer  time,  I  think  the  objection, 
that  our  acts  can  only  subsist  five  years,  without 
being  approved,  is  of  no  weight;  for  besides,  that 
it  would  not  be  very  civil,  to  suppose  that  the  legis- 
lative authority  here  would  deliberately  go  upon 
any  act  of  that  importance,  or  indeed  of  any  kind, 
which  we  had  the  least  cause  to  suspect  would  oe 
disagreeable  to  his  majesty,  or  the  sentiments  of  his 
ministry:  we  know  very  well  it  is  in  his  majesty's 
royal  power  and  prerogative,  to  repeal  and  make 
void,  at  any  time,  all  acts  of  assembly,  to  be  made, 
or  passed  in  America :  and,  for  my  part,  if  I  did 
not,  in  my  conscience,  believe  that  the  act,  now 
proposed,  would  be  made  on  such  a  rational,  just 
and  equal  foot,  as  would  rather  claim  his  majesty's 
gracious  favour,  in  assenting  to  it,  than  render  it 
obnoxious  to  his  impartial  justice,  I  should  neither 
have  given  myself  nor  you  this  trouble. 

"  Gentlemen,  these  are  most  frankly  and  sin- 
cerely my  present  sentiments  of  the  matter  before 
you ;  and,  as  I  do  not  find  myself  inclined  to  dis- 
pute, and  much  less  to  shew  any  stiffness  or  obsti 
nacy  in  an  affair  of  such  a  general  concern,  I  shall 
very  much  rely  on  your  diligent  circumspection 
and  care,  for  the  good  of  your  country,  being  still 
ready  and  willing  to  give  you  all  the  assistance  in 
my  power.  *'  WILLIAM  KEITH." 

The  assembly's  conduct  in  the  affair  of  a  paper  cur- 
rency— Further  account  of  the  Pennsylvania  paper 
currency,  till  1749— Governor  Keith  violates  hit 
instructions  from  the  proprietary — Reasons  given  for 
and  against  the  same — The  widow  Penn's  answer  to 
the  remonstrance  of  the  assembly'^Disputes  after- 
wards relative  to  the  proprietor's  instructions. 

(1723.)  In  this  important  affair  the  assembly 
proceeded  with  the  utmost  caution;  for  having  the 
examples  and  mistakes  of  the  other  colonies  before 
their  eyes,  they  saw  the  principal  thing  which  they 
had  to  guard  against,  was  the  depreciation  of  their 
bills;  which  nothing  could  so  much  effect  as  an 
over-quantity,  defect  of  solid  security,  and  of  proper 
provision  to  recall  and  cancel  them ;  so  in  this,  their 
first  experiment  of  the  kind,  they  issued  only  15,000/. 
on  such  terms  as  appeared  most  likely  to  be  effec- 
tual to  keep  up  their  credit,  and  gradually  to  re- 
duce and  sink  them.  The  act  for  this  purpose 
was  passed  by  the  governor,  on  the  second  of  Marcb. 


UNITED  STATES. 


879 


1723.  But,  from  the  advantage  which  was  soon 
experienced  by  this  emission,  together  with  the  in- 
sufficiency of  the  sum,  the  government  was  induced, 
m  the  latter  end  of  the  same  year,  to  emit  30,OOOJ. 
more,  on  the  same  terms. 

But,  that  it  may  appear  with  what  caution  this 
province  at  first  advanced  in  this  affair,  it  may  not 
be  improper  in  this  place  to  give  the  following  re- 
port, drawn  up  by  the  assembly  of  Pennsylvania,  in 
November,  1739,  upon  a  requisition  from  the  go- 
vernment in  Great  Britain,  to  have  the  state  of  the 
paper  currency,  with  the  rates  of  passing,  buying, 
and  selling  gold  and  silver,  in  the  British  colonies, 
from  the  year  1700,  to  that  time,  laid  before  the 
parliament. 

"  An  account  of  the  several  acts,  passed  in  the  pro- 
vince of  Pennsylvania,  for  creating,  or  issuing 
paper  bills,  or  bills  of  credit,  with  the  account  of 
those  bills,  and  the  value  thereof,  in  money  of  Great 
Britain  ;  and  the  provision  made  for  sinking,  or  dis- 
charging the  same,  together  with  the  sum  of  bills 
tbat  have  been  sunk,  or  discharged ;  also  the  sum 
of  bills  subsisting,  or  passing  in  payment,  at  this 
time,  with  the  amount  of  the  value  thereof,  in  money 
of  Great  Britain. 

"  In  the  year  1723,  two  acts  were  passed  for  crea- 
ting the  first  bills  of  credit,  by  which  45,0002.  were 
issued  ;  and  for  the  effectual  discharging,  or  sinking 
the  said  bills,  it  was  therein  provided  and  enacted, 
that  a  real  estate  in  fee  simple,  of  double  the  value 
of  the  sum  lent  out,  should  be  secured  in  an  office 
erected  for  that  purpose;  and  that  the  sums  so  lent 
out  should  be  annually  repaid  into  the  office,  in 
such  equal  sums  or  quotas,  as  would  effectually  sink 
the  whole  capital  sum  of  45,0002.,  within  the  time 
limited  by  the  aforesaid  acts;  which  sum,  being 
computed  in  silver,  as  it  was  then  received,  and 
paid,  among  us,  and  reduced  to  sterling  money  of 
Great  Britain,  amounts  to  29,0902.  13s.  4rf. ;  but  in 
the  year  1726,  the  sum  of  6,1102.  5*.,  part  of  the 
capital  sum  of  45,0002.  by  virtue  of  the  two  afore- 
said acts,  being  totally  sunk  and  destroyed,  the 
province  found  themselves  greatly  straightened  by 
means  thereof,  and  likely  to  become  subject  to  many 
disappointments  and  losses,  for  want  of  a  sufficient 
medium  in  trade,  if  the  remaining  quotas  or  pay- 
ments should  continue  to  be  sunk,  according  to  the 
direction  of  the  acts;  therefore,  an  act  was  then  passed 
for  continuing  the  remaining  sum  of  38,8892.  15s. 
for.  and  during  the  term  of  eight  years,  by  re-emit- 
ting, or  lending  out  again,  the  quotas  or  sums,  to 
be  paid  in  by  the  respective  borrowers,  on  the  same 
securities  and  provisions  as  were  directed  by  the 
former  acts. 

"  The  bills  of  credit,  emitted  in  the  year  1723, 
being  thus  reduced  by  the  sinking  of  the  aforesaid 
sum,  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  province  growing 
exceeding  numerous,  through  the  importation  of 
foreigners,  and  others  settling  among  us  ;  by  which 
means  the  trade  became  greatly  enlarged;  and  the 
difficulties  still  increased,  and  the  province  found 
themselves  under  the  necessity  of  making  an  addi- 
tion to  those  bills  of  credit ;  and  accordingly,  in  the 
year  1729,  the  further  sum  of  30,000/.  was  then 
created,  and  issued  upon  the  same  security  of  real 
estates,  in  fee  simple,  to  be  mortgaged  in  double 
the  value  of  the  sum  lent ;  and  to  be  paid  in  by 
yearly  quotas,  arid  sunk  and  destroyed  as  the  for- 
mer acts  passed  in  the  year  1723,'  had  provided 
and  directed  in  the  case. 

"  In  the  year  1731,  the  acts  for  issuing  bills  of 
crddit,  passed  in  the  year  1723,  being  nearly  ox- 


pired,  and  the  annual  quotas  remaining  due,  on  the 
said  acts,  by  virtue  thereof,  being  at  this  time  to 
be  sunk  and  destroyed,  which  would  unavoidably 
have  involved  the  merchants,  as  well  as  farmers,  in 
new  difficulties,  and  laid  the  province  under  a  ne- 
cessity of  making  new  acts  of  assembly,  for  emit- 
ting more  bills  of  credit  in  lieu  thereof,  an  act  was 
then  passed  for  continuing  the  value  and  currency 
of  those  bills,  for  the  term  of  eight  years,  by  lend- 
ing out  the  same,  as  they  became  due,  with  the 
same  provisions,  and  on  the  same  real  securities 
provided  for,  and  directed  by,  the  former  acts. 

"  The  amount  of  the  bills  of  credit,  in  the  present 
year,  1739,  by  virtue  of  the  several  aforesaid  acts, 
amounting  only  to  69,8892.  15s.,  from  the  daily  in- 
crease of  the  inhabitants,  and  the  continued  impor- 
tation of  foreigners  among  us,  being  found  by  ex- 
perience to  fall  short  of  a  proper  medium  for  nego- 
tiating our  commerce,  and  for  the  support  of  go- 
vernment, an  act  was  passed  for  creating  and  is- 
suing a  further  sum  of  11,110/.  5s.,  and  for  con- 
tinuing the  whole  amount  of  our  bills  of  credit,  for 
a  short  time  of  years,  under  the  same  real  securities, 
and  with  the  same  provisions  and  limitations  as  di- 
rected by  the  former  acts;  by  means  of  which  ad- 
ditional sum,  the  whole  amount  of  the  bills  of  credit, 
current  in  the  province,  is  at  this  time  80,0002. : 
which  sum  being  computed,  as  now  purchased  here, 
and  reduced  to  sterling  money  of  Great  Britain, 
makes  50,1962.  Yet,  notwithstanding  merchants 
and  others  have  given  some  advance,  to  purchase 
gold  and  silver,  we  are  assured,  from  experience, 
that  difference  arises  only  from  the  balance  of  our 
trade  with  Great  Britain  being  in  our  favour,  by 
means  of  the  far  greater  quantity  of  English  goods 
imported  into  this  province,  since  the  creating  ami 
issuing  our  bills  of  credit;  for  the  adventurers  ad- 
vancing  the  price  of  their  commodities,  and,  en- 
couraged by  meeting  with  a  ready  sale,  became 
great  gainers,  while  wheat,  flour,  and  all  the  valu- 
able produce  of  the  province,  continued  at  or  near 
the  usual  prices,  and  are,  at  this  time,  to  be  pur- 
chased with  our  bills  of  credit,  as  low,  or  lower,  than 
has  been  almost  ever  known,  when  gold  and  silver 
were  the  medium  of  our  trade  ;  and  all  tradesmen, 
hired  servants,  and  other  labourers  have  always 
been,  and  are  still,  paid  at  the  same  rates,  and  no 
more,  for  their  labour,  than  they  formerly  received, 
before  the  creating  or  issuing  our  bills  of  credit." 

To  the  above  account,  respecting  the  paper  cur- 
rency of  Pennsylvania,  it  may  be  added,  That,  by 
another  report  of  the  house  of  assembly,  made  in 
the  year  1749,  it  appears,  that  no  more  was  issued 
till  the  year  1746 :  that,  in  the  year  1745,  an  act  of 
assembly  was  passed  for  continuing  the  currency  of 
the  aforesaid  80,0002.  for  sixteen  years  ;  during  the 
first  ten  years  whereof,  the  whole  sum  to  be  kept 
up,  by  lending  out  or  re-mitting  the  yearly  quotas, 
or  payments,  as  they  became  due ;  and,  after  the 
expiration  of  ten  years,  one-sixth  part  of  the  whole 
sum  to  be  paid  in  yearly,  and  sunk  or  destroyed. 
That,  in  the  year  1746,  an  act  was  passed,  giving 
5,0002.  to  the  king's  use,  to  be  sunk  in  ten  yearly 
payments  of  5002.  each ;  so  that  the  whole  amount 
of  bills  of  credit,  current  in  the  province  at  that  time 
(1749),was  only  85,0002.,  then  equal  to  53, 3332.6s.  8e/. 
sterling  money  of  Great  Britain  :  which  sum,  in  the 
said  report,  is  asserted  to  be  much  too  small  to 
carry  on  the  trade  of  the  province,  which  of  late 
years  had  very  much  increased ;  but  that  neverthe- 
less it  was  of  great  utility  and  advantage,  as  fai  as 
It  Rrentj  that  their  payments,  at  that  time,  were 


880 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


made  to  Great  Britain  chiefly  in  gold  and  silver, 
which  for  several  years  had  passed  current  in  the 
province,  at  8s.  tid.  per  ounce  for  silver,  and  (Jl.  5.«. 
per  ounce  for  gold,  &c. 

With  the  above  report  of  the  state  of  the  payer 
currency  of  Pennsylvania  was  likewise,  at  the  same 
time,  the  following  account  of  the  rates  of  gold  and 
silver  coin  delivered  to  the  governor,  as  drawn  up 
by  the  same  committee  of  Ue  house,  who  made  the 
above-said  report,  viz. : — 

"An  account  of  the  several  rates  of  gold  and 
silver  coin,  and  what  prices  they  were  accounted, 
received,  taken,  and  purchased  at,  and  sold  for,  by 
the  ounce;  and  what  rates  gold  and  silver  coin  are 
purchased  at,  and  sold  for,  by  the  ounce,  at  this  time. 
"  From  the  year  1700  to  the  year  1709,  gold  was 
received  and  paid,  at  bl.  10s.  per  ounce,  and  silver 
at  9s.  2d.  per  ounce. 

"  From  the  year  1709  to  the  year  1720,  gold  was 
received  and  paid,  at  bl.  10s.  per  ounce,  and  silver 
at  6s.  10£d.  per  ounce. 

"  From  the  year  1720  to  the  year  1723,  gold  was 
received  and  paid,  at  5/.  10s.  per  ounce,  and  silver 
coin  w-as  purchased  with  gold  at  7s.  5d.  per  ounce. 

"  From  the  year  1723  to  the  year  1726,  gold  was 
purchased,,and  sold  at  6/.  6s.  6d.  per  ounce,  and  sil- 
ver at  8s.  3d.  per  ounce. 

"  From  the  year  1726  to  the  year  1730,  gold  was 
purchased  at  6/.  3s.  9cZ.  per  ounce,  and  silver  at 
8s.  Id.  per  ounce. 

"  From  the  year  1730  to  the  year  1738,  gold  was 
purchased  and  sold  at  6/.  9s.  3d.,  and  silver  at  8*.9d. 
per  ounce. 

"  And  now  in  this  present  year,  1739,  gold  is  pur- 
chased and  sold  at  6/.  9s.  3d.  by  the  ounce,  and  silver 
at  8s.  Qd.  per  ounce.  Submitted  to  the  correction 
of  the  house,  by  Isaac  Norris,  Thomas  Leech 
Abraham  Chapman,  James  Morris,  John  Kearsley, 
Israel  Pemberton. 

"  Philadelphia,  November  23,  1739." 

We  now  return  to  our  narrative. 

In    October    1723,     David    Lloyd    was  electee 

speaker  of  the  assembly,   and  in  the  year  next  fol 

lowing  William  Biles  was  in  the  same  office  ;  during 

which  time,   the  usual  cordiality  appears   to  have 

subsisted  between   the   two  branches  of  the  legis 

lature. 

The  governor,  Sir  William  Keith,  appears  mani 
festly,  riot  only  in  his  administration,  but  also  in  hi; 
general  conduct,  to  have  been  a  great  seeker  of  po 
pularity;  and  he  both  possessed  and  practised  thos 
arts,  which  seldom  fail  to  please  the  populace.  B 
so  doing,  he  doubtless  very  frequently  benefitte< 
the  colony,  but  it  appears  about  this  time  that  h 
violated  the  constitution,  by  his  eagerness  to  receiv 
public  approbation;  courting  the  assembly,  an 
neglecting  the  council.  It  was  one  of  the  funda 
mental  regulations,  "  That  he  should  pass  no  laws 
nor  transact  any  thing  of  moment  relating  to  th 
public  affairs,  without  the  advice  and  approbatio 
of  the  council;  which  instruction,  on  his  ap 
pointment  to  the  government,  he  had  obliged  him 
self  inviolably  to  observe,  but  now  encouraged  b 
the  assembly,  he  declared  it  to  be  illegal,  and  pel 
sisted  in  hi's  not  being  bound  by  any  restraint 
that  nature. 

This  conduct  in  the  latter  end  of  the  year  172 
caused  much  dispute  in  the  province,  tending  un 
happily  further  to  divide  the  interests  of  the  proprie 
taries  and  the  people.  The  chief  actors  in  this  con 
troversy  were  principally  the  governor  and  Davj 
Uoy-1  on  the  one  side  and  on  the  other  Jame 


Logan,  the  secretary,  and  agent  to  the  proprietary's 
family. 

The  governor,  with  those  who  opposed  the  pro- 
prietary interest,  being  the  more  numerous,  ad- 
vanced, "  That  the  power  of  legislation  was,  by  the 
royal  charter,  solely  and  entirely  vested  irl  the  pro- 
rietary,  or  in  his  deputy,  with  the  representatives 
F  the  people ;  that,  as  the  latter,  or  the  delegates, 
f  the  people,  in  their  legislative  capacity,  were  so 
ar  from  being  liable  to  be  bound,  or  restrained  by, 
ny  instructions  from  their  constituents,  that  their 
cts  were  absolutely  binding  upon  them  ;  so  neither 
as  the  former,  or  the  proprietary,  any  just  autho- 
ity  to  lay  restrictions  upon  his  deputy  (whose  acts 
re  also  equally  binding  upon  his  principal),  to 
linder  him  from  acting,  as  he  pleased,  in  conjunc- 
ion  with  the  other  part  of  the  legislature  ;  and  con- 
equently  all  instructions  of  this  nature  were  void 
n  themselves ;  that,  moreover,  by  the  present 
barter  of  privileges,  granted  by  the  proprietary  to 
he  people,  the  council  was  no  part  of  the  legisla- 
ure;  and,  therefore,  had  no  right  to  interfere  in 
icts  of  government,  so  as  to  be  a  restraint  upon  the 
rovernor  therein." 

The  proprietary's  friends,  on  the  other  hand,  al- 
eged  the  reasonableness  and  justice,  and  indeed 
he  absolute  necessity  of  such  a  council,  or  of  the 
ouncil's  having  such  a  check  on  the  deputy-go- 
vernor, both  for  the  safety  of  the  proprietary,  and 
even  the  further  security  of  the  people;  besides 
he  constant  practice  of  the  first  proprietary, 
William  Penn,  and  its  consistency  with  the  nature 
of  an  English  constitution.  "  For,"  said  they, 
'  in  all  the  royal  governments,  the  governors  are 
the  king's  deputies,  or  representatives;  and  there 
s  not  one  of  them  in  America,  who  is  not  bound  by 
similar,  and  much  more  extensive  instructions,  in 
reference  to  their  respective  councils,  notwithstand- 
ng  their  office  of  deputy,  and  representative  capa- 
city. That,  in  the  absence  of  the  proprietary, 
for  a  lieutenant  and  temporary  governor,  to  be  left 
to  act  without  any  check  from  a  council,  was  very 
unsafe  not  only  for  the  proprietary,  but,  if  duly 
considered,  less  secure  to  the  people  themselves." 
That,  by  the  royal  charter,  "  The  full  and  absolute 
power  of  legislation  was  vested  in  the  proprietary, 
or  in  his  deputy,  with  the  advice,  assent,  and  ap- 
probation of  the  freemen,  or  their  delegates,  to  be 
assembled  for  that  purpose,  in  such  sort  and  form, 
as  to  the  said  proprietary  and  them  shall  seem 
best;"  but  that  the  assembly,  by  the  present  charter 
of  privileges,  are  tut  authorized  to  advise,  but  only 
to  enact;  as,  for  that  purpose,  the  council  was  es- 
tablished by  the  original  proprietary. 

The  governor  strenuously  maintained  the  debate, 
and  persisted  in  his  conduct,  till  he  was  superseded 
in  the  government  by  Patrick  Gordon,  in  the  sum- 
mer of  the  year  1726:  before  which  time,  in  the 
month  of  March  preceding,  James  Logan,  in  order 
to  terminate  the  dispute,  presented  to  the  assembly 
a  paper,  in  which  he  thus  expressed  himself: — 

"  James  Logan  never  alledged  that  the  council 
of  this  province,  under  the  present  constitution,  is 
a  part  of  its  legislative  authority;  or  that,  as  a 
council,  they  are  otherwise  concerned  in  it,  than  in 
conjunction  with  the  governor  at  the  board,  or  in 
committees  and  conferences,  by  his  appointment  and 
direction;  or  that  an  act,  passed  by  the  governor 
and  assembly,  without  the  council,  is  not  of  as 
much  force  as  if  it  had  their  concurrence  and  ap- 
probation: but,  even  David  Lloyd  himseit  has 
fully  acknowledged  their  part  in  it,  in  thes«  word* 


UNITED  STATES. 


881 


of  his  print,  viz.  '  that  he  never  knew  any  so  sense- 
less, as  to  say,  that  the  governor  is  excluded  (by 
law  or  charter)  of  having  a  council,  to  advue  and 
assist  in  legislation;'  beyond  which  no  man  ever 
asserted  they  have  a  right  in  this  province. 

"  And  whether  the  proprietary  can  lay  his  deputy 
under  restrictions,  is  now  rendered  fully  intelligible 
to  every  capacity  by  the  governor  himself,  in  reduc- 
ing the  case  to  this  narrow  point,  viz.,  '  That  the 
greatest  of  deputies  can  break  their  instructions  ; 
and  that  they  are  liable  to  be  removed  for  it ;'  be- 
yond which  the  mutter  will  not  bear  a  further  argu- 
ment. 

'•'  All  other  attempts,  therefore,  fo  labour  these 
points,  can  only  tend  to  continue  dishonourable  dis- 
putes in  the  government,  and  engage  the  whole 
country  in  quarrels,  that  can  no  otherwise  affect  it, 
than  by  involving  it  in  reproach,  and  heaping  pro- 
vocations on  the  proprietary's  family." 

By  the  widow  Penn's  answer  to  the  assembly's 
remonstrance  of  the  20th  of  March,  1725,  on  this 
affair  (which  remonstrance  is  mentioned,  but  not 
ins  rted,  in  the  printed  votes  of  the  house),  both  the 
design  of  the  proprietaries,  and  also  the  views  of 
the  persons,  who  were  principally  concerned  in  thus 
representing  the  same^  are  further  intimated  as 
follows  : — 

"  To  the  representatives  of  Pennsylvania,  in  ge- 
neral assembly  met. 

"  It  gave  me  no  small  concern,  when  I  received 
the  remonstrance  of  the  20th  of  March,  1725, 
from  the  late  house  of  representatives  of  the  freemen 
of  the  province  of  Pennsylvania,  with  their  resolu- 
tion, that  some  part  of  a  private  letter  of  instruc- 
tions, sent  by  me  to  the  late  deputy-governor,  was 
contrary  to  the  liberties  and  privileges,  granted  by 
charter  to  the  people  of  that  province  ;  and  my  con- 
cern was  the  greater,  when  I  considered,  that,  as 
their  happiness  had  ever  been  the  peculiar  care  of 
my  late  husband,  in  his  life-time,  so  the  continuance 
of  it  has  been  no  less  the  desire  of  myself,  and  the 
whole  family,  ever  since  his  death.  I  purposed  long 
ere  this  time  to  have  answered  that  remonstrance, 
but  finding  my  sincere  intentions  to  preserve  peace 
and  unanimity  in  the  province,  had  been  manifestly 
perverted,  to  the  great,  disquiet  of  the  people ;  and 
that,  too  by  those  whose  duty  it  was  to  have  acted 
another  part,  I  was  willing  to  lay  hold  of  a  more 
favourable  opportunity,  (when  you  might  be  left  to 
your  own  prudent  deliberations,  without  being  in- 
iluenced  to  misinterpret  the  good  intentions  of  the 
family  towards  you,)  to  assure  you,  that,  if  at  any  time 
I  fall  short  of  doing  any  thing  that  may  advance 
your  interest  and  reputation,  it  must  proceed  only 
i'rom  my  not  having  it  in  my  power.  And  as  to  that 
part  of  my  letter,  which  was  made  use  of  to  procure 
that  remonstrance,  I  do  acknowledge  it  was  designed 
as  a  cautionary  direction,  or  limitation,  upon  the 
acting  governor ;  but  without  the  least  apprehension 
that  it  could  ever  have  been  construed,  by  the  as- 
sembly, as  any  design  upon  the  liberties  of  the  free- 
men of  Pennsylvania  :  because  the  council,  accord- 
ing to  its  constitution,  either  is,  or  ought  to  be, 
composed  of  persons  of  the  best  circumstances  and 
abilities,  residing  and  inhabiting  within  the  said 
province ;  and  whose  interest  must,  without  all 
doubt,  be  the  same  with  your  own,  and  that  of  the 
people  whom  you  represent.  Nor  was  this  instruc- 
tion any  other,  but  in  effect,  the  same  with  what 
had  ever  been  given  by  my  late  husband,  your  pro- 
prietor, to  all  his  deputy-governors:  and  (without 
mentioning  the  unhappy  occasion  given,  for  writing 
HIST.  OF  AMER. — Nos.  Ill  £  113. 


|  that  letter)  I  was  the  rather  induced  to  renew  this 
instruction,  because  by  the  proceedings  of  your  own 
.  hou  -c,  but  a  few  years  ago,  it  appears,  the  then  as- 
,  semhly  expressed  a  very  particular  concern  at  the 
deputy-governor**  declining  to  take  the  advice  of 
i  the  council,  upon  the  bills  sent  to  him  from  their 
j  nous?,  to  be  passed  into  laws  :  and,  therefore,  I  must 
conclude,  that,  if  in  this,  you  had  been  entirely  left 
to  have  followed  the  resolutions  of  your  own  judg- 
ments, you  would  have  continued  of  the  same  sen- 
liments,  and  have  judged  it  a  very  necessaiy  instruc- 
tion at  that  time,  all  circumstances  considered;  (but 
more  especially  if  you  had  been  aware  of  what  has 
happened  but  too  plainly  since,)  that  this  very  re- 
monstrance was  obtained  with  debign  to  wrest  the 
government  out  of  the  hands  of  the  proprietor's 
family  ;  and  by  that  means,  at  once  to  deprive  you 
of  those  valuable  privileges,  secured  to  you,  as  well 
by  the  royal  charter,  granted  to  the  late  proprietor, 
as  by  the  several  grants  and  laws  made  by  him, 
under  the  same  ;  for  the  preservation  of  which  you 
express  so  just  a  concern  :  and  I  do  assure  you,  it  is 
not  easy  for  me  to  say,  whether  for  your  safety,  or 
my  own,  I  am  better  pleased  that  this  attempt  upon 
the  rights  of  our  family,  and  your  privileges,  has 
proved  unsuccessful:  and,  without  saying  any  more 
of  that  piece  of  management,  I  hope,  we  shall,  all  of 
us,  learn  to  cultivate  and  maintain  so  entire  an 
agreement,  and  mutual  good  understanding,  as  may 
preserve  us  from  ever  becoming  a  prey  to  designing 
men  ;  who,  it  is  evident  (notwithstanding  their  fair 
pretences,)  consider  none  of  us  in  any  other  light, 
than  to  serve  their  own  ends  and  purposes,  even, 
though  at  the  expence  of  all  that  is  valuable  to  us. 
My  age,  and  low  state  of  health  make  it  tedious  and 
difficult  for  me  to  apply  my  thoughts  to  business ; 
and,  therefore,  I  shall  add  no  more,  but  that  the 
governor,  appointed  by  my  grandson,  with  the  con- 
currence and  consent  of  the  family,  is,  for  his  pru- 
dence, well  recommended  to  us  here,  and  hath  in 
charge  from  us,  as  much  as  lies  in  his  power,  to  do 
every  thing,  which  he  lawfully  may,  to  make  you  a 
happy  people  ;  which  we  apprehend  to  be  the 
surest  way  to  advance  the  interest  of  our  family  in 
Pennsylvania,  as  well  as  most  agreeable  to  my  own 
inclination  and  desires. 

"  HANNAH  PKNN. 

"  London,  20th  April,  1726." 

To  conclude  the  subject  of  the  lawfulness  of  pro- 
prietary instructions,  or  of  this  kind  of  restrictions, 
in  this  case,  though  it  take  us  beyond  the  present 
time,  it  is  observable  that  the  government  of  Penn- 
sylvania was  absolute1  y  as  much  the  property  and 
estate  of  the  proprietary  under  the  crown,  as  the  soil 
thereof.  It  was  however  subsequently  contended, 
"  That  the  power  given  to  the  deputy-governors  of 
Pennsylvania,  by  the  royal  charter  of  makiug  laws, 
with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  assembly,  for 
public  uses,  &c.,  according  to  their  best  discretion 
is  taken  away  by  the  proprietary  instructions  en- 
forced by  penal  bonds,  and  restraining  ihe  deputy 
from  the  use  of  his  best  discretion."  To  this  the 
proprietaries,  Thomas  and  Richard  Penn,  by  their 
agent,  Ferdinand  John  Paris,  in  November  1758, 
answered  ;  "  As  long  as  instructions  are  constantly 
given  to  every  person  entrusted  with  the  govern- 
ment of  any  British  colony  ;  (and  bonds  also  re- 
quired from  every  such  person,  for  observance  of 
such  instructions,)  as  long  as  instructions  are  con- 
stantly given  to  all  persons  whatsoever,  executing, 
even  the  regal  government  of  his  majesty's  king- 
doms, during  the  royal  absence ;  as  long  as  these 
4  F 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


proprietaries  are  repeatedly  commanded  by  the 
crown,  upon  the  nomination  of  each  successive  lieu- 
tenant-governor, to  give  instructions  to  such  lieutc- 
tenant;  and  as  long  as  a  lieutenant-governor  may, 
by  his  misbehaviour  (if  left  entirely  to  his  discre- 
tion), bring  the  proprietaries'  estate  and  franchises 
into  danger;  so  long  the  proprietaries  must  con- 
tend to  give  instructions  to,  and  take  bonds  from, 
their  lieutenant-governors."  - 

Affirmation,  fyc.  instead  of  an  oath,  established  in 
Pennsylvania — Quakers'  grateful  address  to  the  kiny 
on  tke  occasion — Custom  of  the  Quakers  appearing  in 
courts  of  justice  u-ith  their  huts  on  their  heads  inter- 
rupted and  restored — Their  address  to  the  governor, 
and  his  compliance  with  their  request — He  is  super- 
sededin  the  government  by  Patrick  Gordon,  in  172G — 
Governor  Gordon's  administration — State  of  Penn- 
sylvania about  this  time. 

Tiie  use  of  an  affirmation,  instead  of  an  oath,  was 
one  of  those  privileges,  for  the  enjoyment  of  which 
Pennsylvania  was  first  settled  by  the  Quakers;  and 
which  they  had  enjoyed  uninterrupted  for  above 
twenty  years.  But  after  the  resumption  of  the  go- 
vernment, on  the  laws  being  revised,  in  1700  and 
1701,  the  law  respecting  the  manner  of  giving  evi- 
dence, with  many  others,  was  remitted  to  Queen 
Anne,  in  council,  in  1705;  when  the  said  law  was 
repealed;  not  with  design  to  deprive  the  Quakers 
of  the  privilege,  but  solely  on  account  of  its  making 
the  punishment  for  false  affirming  greater  than  the 
law  of  England  required  for  false  swearing. 

The  repealing  of  this  law  occasioned  much  difficulty 
among  the  Quakers  in  the  province ;  and  numerous 
attempts  were  made,  from  time  to  time,  for  reviving 
their  privilege,  but  without  success,  till  the  year 
1725,  when  an  act,  prescribing  the  forms  of  decla- 
ration of  fidelity,  abjuration,  and  affirmation,  in- 
stead of  the  forms  before  required,  having  been 
passed  in  the  province,  was  ratified  by  the  king  in 
council;  and  thereby  became  perpetual. 

The  Quakers,  in  New  Jersey,  were,  for  a  consi- 
derable time,  subject  to  similar  difficulties,  upon 
the  same  account;  though  the  equity  of  their  right 
to  an  affirmation,  in  their  own  form,  was  as  old  as 
the  constitution;  and,  in  fact,  the  settlement  of  the 
province  primarily  depended  upon  the  enjoyment 
of  that  religious  and  civil  liberty,  of  which  this  was 
a  part:  yet  means  were  found  to  put  a  considerable 
interruption  to  this  just  and  reasonable  privilege; 
which,  at  length,  finally  terminated  in  the  act  of 
the  fusi  year  of  George  II. ;  which  act  was  con- 
firmed, and  rendered  perpetual,  by  the  king  in 
council,  on  the  4th  of  May,  1732. 

The  assembly  of  the  province  of  Pennsylvania, 
in  the  year  1725,  and  also  the  Quakers,  from  their 
yearly  meeting,  at  Philadelphia,  separately,  to  ma- 
nifest their  gratitude  for  the  royal  confirmation  of 
the  affirmation  act  of  Pennsylvania,  addressed  the 
king  on  the  subject.  The  address  of  the  latter  was 
as  follows : — 

"  To  our  gracious  sovereign,  George,  king  of 
Great  Britain,  &c. 

"  The  humble  address  of  his  Protestant  subjects, 
called  Quakers,  from  their  yearly  meeting  held  at 
Philadelphia,  in  the  province  of  Pennsylvania,  the 
21st  day  of  the  7th  month,  1725. 

*'  In  an  humble  sense  of  the  many  blessings  and 
virtues  which  flow  from  the  Divine  Being,  dis- 
pensed to  the  nations  and  people,  over  whom  he 
hath  been  pleased  to  establish  so  gracious  a  prince, 
great,  in  his  goodness  and  love  to  his  people,  great, 


u  the  benignity  of  his  reign,  which  reaches  to  the 
most  distant  of  his  subjects,  and  great  in  the  sight 
uf  the  nations  round  about. 

"  If  any  of  the  present  age  should  yet,  through 
wantonness  or  wickedness,  shut  their  eyes,  and  not 
see,  or  be  thankful  for  such  happiness,  ages  to 
come  will  look  upon  it  with  admiration ;  and  kings 
may  set  before  them  the  example :  posterity  may 
mark  it  in  their  annals  ;  and  if  ever  again  attempts 
should  be  made  upon  true  liberty  and  the  laws, 
princes  may  find  the  mistake  and  dishonour  in  such 
endeavours,  in  former  times,  and  remark  thy  reign, 
as  the  way  to  true  grandeur. 

"  We  have  great  cause,  among  the  rest  of  our 
fellow  subjects,  to  express  our  affection  and  duty  to 
our  sovereign,  and  to  be,  as  we  truly  are,  particu- 
larly thankful  for  the  royal  assent  to  an  act  of  this 
province,  entitled,  '  An  act  for  the  prescribing  forms 
of  declaration  of  fidelity,  abjuration,  and  affirmation, 
instead  of  the  forms  heretofore  required  in  such  cases." 

"  This  benevolence  of  our  king,  in  a  matter, 
which  so  nearly  touches  the  conscience,  makes  deep 
impressions  on  our  hearts;  but  to  the  Almighty, 
who  sees  them,  do  we  earnestly  pray  for  the  long 
continuance  of  his  reign,  and  that  an  increase  of 
blessings  may  be  showered  down  on  his  person  and 
throne,  and  that  his  posterity  may  be  established 
therein." 

With  the  restoration  of  the  enjoyment  of  this 
privilege  to  the  Quakers  in  Pennsylvania,  may  be 
mentioned  that  of  another,  viz.  the  liberty  of  ap- 
pearing covered,  or  with  their  hats  on  their  heads 
(according  to  their  usual  custom  every  where),  in 
all  courts  of  judicature. 

The  institution  of  a  court  of  chancery  in  the  pro- 
vince, in  the  year  1720,  has  been  already  men- 
tioned. At  this  court,  in  which  Sir  William  Keith 
was  president,  John  Kinsey,  a  Quaker,  and  a  law- 
yer of  eminence,  who  was  afterwards  chief  justice 
of  Pennsylvania,  was,  in  the  year  1725,  obliged,  in 
the  way  of  his  business,  to  attend  ;  where  appearing 
with  his  hat  on  his  head,  according  to  the  usual 
manner  of  that  people,  the  president  ordered  it  to 
be  taken  off;  which  was  accordingly  done.  His 
friends,  the  Quakers,  took  the  affair  under  conside- 
ration ;  and  soon  after,  at  their  quarterly  meeting, 
in  Philadelphia,  appointed  a  committee  to  wait  on 
the  governor;  and,  in  a  respectful  manner,  to  re- 
quest him  to  continue  the  privilege,  to  which  the 
Quakers  conceived  themselves  legally  entitled,  '  of 
appearing  in  courts,  or  otherwise,  in  their  own  way, 
according  to  their  religious  persuasion ;'  an  address 
being  accordingly  prepared,  was  presented  to  the 
president,  Governor  Keith;  which,  with  the  entry 
made  thereon,  by  his  order  in  the  court  of  chancery, 
and  certified  by  the  register,  is  as  follows : — 

"  To  Sir  William  Keith,  baronet,  governor  of 
the  province  of  Pennsylvania,  &c 

"  The  humble  address  of  the  people  called  Qua- 
kers, by  appointment  of  their  quarterly  meeting, 
held  in 'Philadelphia,  for  the  city  and  county,  2d  of 
the  2d  month,  1725. 

"  May  it  please  the  governor, 

"  Having  maturely  considered  the  inconveniencies 
and  hardships  which  we  are  apprehensive  all  those 
of  our  community  may  be  laid  under,  who  shall  be 
required,  or  obliged,  to  attend  the  respective  courts 
of  judicature  in  this  province,  if  they  may  not  be 
admitted  without  first  having  their  hats  taken  off 
from  their  heads  by  an  officer ;  as  we  understand 
was  the  case  of  our  "friend,  John  Kinsey,  when  the 
governor  was  pleased  to  command  his  to  be  taken 


UNITED  STATES. 


883 


off,  before  ho  could  be  admitted  to  speak,  in  a  case 
depending  at  the  court  of  chancery,  after  that  h< 
had  declared  that  he  could  not,  for  conscience 
comply  with  the  governor's  order  to  himself,  to  th< 
same  purpose;  which  being  altogether  new  anc 
unprecedented  in  this  province,  was  the  more  sur- 
prising to  the  spectators,  and,  as  we  conceive  (how- 
ever slight  some  may  account  it),  has  a  tendency 
to  the  subversion  of  our  religious  liberties. 

'•  This  province,  with  the  powers  of  government, 
was  granted  by  King  Charles  II.  to  our  proprietor, 
who,  at  the  time  of  the  said  grant,  was  known  to 
dissent  from  the  national  way  of  worship  in  divers 
points,  and  particularly  in  that  part  of  outward  be- 
haviour, of  refusing  to  pay  unto  man  the  honour, 
that  he,  with  all  others  of  the  same  profession,  be- 
lieved to  be  due  only  to  the  Supreme  Being;  and 
they  on  all  occasions  have  supported  their  testi- 
mony, so  far  as  to  be  frequently  subjected  to  the 
insults  of  such  as  required  that  homage. 

"That  the  principal  part  of  those  who  accom 
panied  our  said  proprietor  in  his  first  settlement  of 
this  colony,  with  others  of  the  same  profession  who 
have  since  retired  into  it,  justly  conceived,  that  by 
virtue  of  said  powers  granted  to  our  proprietor, 
they  should  have  a  free  and  unquestioned  right  to 
the  exercise  of  their  religious  principles,  and  their 
persuasion  in  the  aforementioned  point,  and  all 
others,  by  which  they  were  distinguished  from  those 
of  other  professions;  and  it  seems  not  unreasonable 
to  conceive  an  indulgence  intended  by  the  crown, 
in  graciously  leaving  the  modelling  of  the  govern- 
ment to  him  and  them,  in  such  manner  as  may  best 
suit  their  circumstances ;  which  appears  to  have 
been  an  early  care  in  the  first  legislators,  by  seve- 
ral acts,  as  that  for  liberty  of  conscience;  and 
more  particularly,  by  a  law  of  the  province,  passed 
in  the  13th  year  of  King  William,  chap,  xcii.,  now 
in  force :  it  is  provided  that,  in  all  courts,  all  per- 
sons, uf  all  persuasions,  may  freely  appear  '  in  their 
own  way,'  and  '  according  to  their  own  manner,' 
and  there  personally  plead  their  own  cause,  or,  if 
unable,  by  their  friends;  which  provision  appears  to 
be  directly  intended  to  guard  against  all  excep- 
tions to  any  persons  appearing  '  in  their  own  way,' 
as  our  friend  did,  at  the  aforesaid  court. 

(J  Now,  though  no  people  can  be  more  ready,  or 
willing,  in  all  things  essential,  to  pay  all  due  regard 
to  superiors,  and  honour  the  courts  of  justice,  and 
those  who  administer  it,  yet  in  such  points  as  inter- 
fere with  our  conscientious  persuasion,  we  have 
openly  and  firmly  borne  our  testimony  in  all  coun- 
tries and  places  where  our  lots  have  fallen. 

"  We  must,  therefore,  crave  leave  to  hope,  from 
the  reasons  here  humbly  offered,  that  the  governor, 
when  he  has  fully  considered  them,  will  be  of 
opinion  with  us,  that  we  may  justly  and  modestly 
claim  it  as  a  right,  that  we,  and  our  friends,  should 
at  all  times  be  excused,  in  the  government,  from 
any  compliances  against  our  conscientious  persua- 
sions, and  humbly  request  that  ht  would  for  the 
future  account  it  as  such  to  us,  thy  assured  well- 
wishing  friends. 

"  Signed  by  appointment  of  the  said  meeting, 
Richard  Hill,  Richard  Hayes,  Morris  Morris,  An- 
thony Morris,  Evan  PJvans,  John  Goodson,  Row- 
land Ellis,  Reese  Thomas,  Samuel  Preston,  Wil- 
liam Hudson. 

"  The  10th  May,  1725." 

"  On  consideration  had  of  the  humble  address 
presented  to  the  governor,  this  day  read  in  open 
court,  from  the  quarterly  meeting  of  the  people 


called  Quakers,  for  the  city  and  county  of  Philadel- 
phia, it  is  ordered,  that  the  said  address  be  filed 
with  the  register,  and  that  it  be  made  a  standing 
rule  of  the  court  of  chancery  for  the  province  of 
Pennsylvania,  in  all  time  to  come,  that  any  practi- 
tioner of  the  law,  or  other  officer,  or  person  what- 
soever, professing  himself  to  be  one  of  the  people 
called  Quakers,  may  and  shall  be  admitted,  if  they 
so  think  fit,  to  speak,  or  otherwise  officiate,  and  ap- 
ply themselves,  decently  unto  the  said  court,  with- 
out being  obliged  to  observe  the  usual  ceremony  of 
uncovering  their  heads,  by  having  their  hats  taken 
off,  and  such  privilege  hereby  ordered  and  granted 
to  the  people  called  Quakers,  shall  at  no  time  here- 
after be  understood,  or  interpreted,  as  any  con- 
tempt, or  neglect,  of  the  said  court,  and  shall  be 
taken  only  as  an  act  of  conscientious  liberty,  of 
right  appertaining  to  the  religious  persuasion  of 
the  said  people,  and  agreeable  to  their  practice  in 
all  civil  affairs  of  life. 

"  By  Sir  William  Keith,  Chancellor." 

Governor  Keith,  by  his  popular  behaviour  and 
administration,  which,  in  many  cases,  had  been. 
highly  beneficial  to  the  province,  had  so  much  in- 
gratiated himself  in  the  favour  of  many  of  the  peo- 
ple, that  upon  intelligence  of  his  intended  removal 
rom  the  government,  they  were  much  displeased, 
and  petitioned  the  assembly  to  make  him  a  gra- 
tuity :  and  even  after  his  removal  chose  him  for 
a  member  of  assembly,  which  he  accepted. 

Whatever  might  have  been  his  motives  for  his 
popular  conduct,  and  although  he  may  have  been 
anxious  to  gratify  those  whom  he  governed,  more 
hau  was  just  and  prudent,  yet  it  is  most  cer- 
tain that  the  real  interest  of  the  province  of  Penn- 
sylvania was  much  indebted  to  his  care  and  ma- 
nagement. 

After  he  was  superseded  by  Patrick  Gordon,  in 
;he  summer  of  the  year  1726,  he  resided  some 
;ime  in  the  province ;  very  injudiciously  using  all 
lis  power  to  divide  the  inhabitants  and  distress  the 
proprietary  family ;  till  at  length  having  rendered 
limself  odious  to  the  people,  as  he  had  done  before 
;o  the  proprietaries,  he  returned  to  England, 'and  it 
s  said,  died  in  poverty  at  London  about  the  year 
1749. 

Patrick  Gordon  appears  to  have  first  met  the  as- 
embly  of  Pennsylvania,  in  the  beginning  of  Au- 
ust  1726,  though  he  arrived  in  the  province  with 
lis  family  some  time  before.  But  during  the  early 
>art  of  his  administration,  for  two  or  three  years, 
he  public  transactions  were  not  a  little  disturbed  by 
;he  faction  created  by  Sir  William  Keith.  Gor- 
lon's  administration  was  distinguished  by  modera- 
ion  and  prudence  through  a  great  variety  of  pub- 
ic and  important  transactions.  The  author  of  a 
mblication,  entitled  "  The  importance  of  the  Bri- 
ish  plantations  in  America  to  these  kingdoms,  &c. 
sonsidered,"  London,  1731;  gives  the  following 
account  of  the  colony  about  this  period  :— 

"  That  Pennsylvania,  which  has  not  any  pecu- 
iar  staple  (like  Carolina,  Virginia,  and  Mary- 
and),  and  was  begun  to  be  planted  so  late  as 
680,  should  at  present  have  more  white  inhabit- 
ints  in  it  than  all  Virginia,  Maryland,  and  both  the 
Carolinas,  is  extremely  remarkable  !  And  although 
he  youngest  colony  on  the  continent,  they  have, 
>y  far,  the  finest  capital  city  ot  all  British  Ame- 
ica,  and  the  second  in  magnitude.  The  causes 
sually  assigned  for  this  vast  increase  of  white 
)eople  in  so  short  a  time,  are  these,  viz.  First,  their 
ind  treatment  of  the  Indians,  their  neighbours;* 

4  F  2 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


hereby  rendering  that  province  absolutely  safe 
from  their  attempts.  Some  indeed  have  gone  so 
far  as  to  assert,  that  they  are  the  only  British  co- 
lony that  have  treated  the  poor  native  Indians  with 
humanity  :  for  that  no  other  British  colony  admits 
of  the  evidence  of  an  Indian  against  a  white  man  : 
nor  are  the  complaints  of  Indians  against  white 
men  duly  regarded  in  other  colonies;  whereby  these 
poor  people  endure  the  most  cruel  treatment  from 
the  very  worst  of  our  own  people  without  hope  of 
redress  !  And  all  the  Indian  wars  in  our  colonies 
were  occasioned  by  such  means.  Secondly,  the  ex- 
cellency of  Pennsylvania's  laws  ;  whereby  property 
is  effectually  secured  to  all  its  inhabitants.  Thirdly, 
the  unlimited  toleration  for  all  manner  of  religious 
persuasions,  without  permitting  any  claims  to  ec- 
clesiastical power  to  take  place.  All  men,  who  are 
Protestants,  are  indifferently  eligible  to  the  magis- 
tracy and  legislature,  let  their  private  opinions  be 
what  they  will,  without  any  religious  test. 

"  The  product  of  Pennsylvania  for  exportation, 
is  wheat,  flour,  biscuit,  barrelled  beef  and  pork, 
bacon,  hams,  butter,  cheese,  cider,  apples,  soap, 
myrtle-wax  candles,  starch,  hair-powder,  tanned 
leather,  bees'-wax,  tallow-candles,  strong  beer,  lin- 
seed oil,  strong  waters,  deer-skins,  and  other  peltry, 
hemp,  (which  they  have  encouraged  by  an  addi- 
tional bounty  of  three  half-pence  per  pound  weight, 
over  and  above  what  is  allowed  by  act  of  parlia- 
ment,) some  little  tobacco,  lumber,  (i.  e.  sawed 
boards,  and  timber  for  building  of  houses,  cypress 
wood,  shingles,  cask-staves  and  headings,  masts 
and  other  ship  timber,)  also  drugs  of  various  sorts, 
(as  sassafras,  calamus  aromaticus,  snake-root,  &c.) 
Lastly,  (adds  our  author,)  the  Pennsylvanians  build 
about  2000  tons  of  shipping  a  year  for  sale,  over 
and  above  what  they  employ  in  their  own  trade  ; 
which  may  be  about  6000  tons  more.  They  send 
great  quantities  of  corn  to  Portugal  and  Spain,  fre- 
quently selling  their  ships  as  well  as  cargo ;  and 
the  produce  of  both  is  sent  thence  to  England, 
where  it  is  always  laid  out  in  goods  and  sent  home 
to  Pennsylvania.  They  receive  no  less  than  from 
4000  to  6000  pistoles  from  the  Dutch  isle  of  Cura- 
<Joa  alone,  for  provisions  and  liquors.  And  they 
trade  to  Surinam  in  the  like  manner,  and  to  the 
French  part  of  Hispaniola,  as  also  to  the  other 
French  sugar  islands  ;  from  whence  they  bring 
back  molasses,  and  also  some  money.  From  Ja- 
maica they  sometimes  return  with  all  money  and  no 
goods ;  be'cause  their  rum  and  molasses  are  so  dear 
there.  And  all  the  money  they  can  get  from  ail 
parts,  as  also  sugar,  rice,  tar,  pitch,  &c.  is  brought 
to  England,  to  pay  for  the  manufactures,  &c.  they 
carry  home  from  us;  which  (he  affirms)' has  not, 
for  many  years  past,  been  less  than  150,000/.  per 
annum.  They  trade  to  our  provinces  of  New  Eng- 
land, Virginia,  Maryland,  and  Carolina,  and  to  all 
the  islands  in  the  West  Indies  (excepting  the 
Spanish  ones),  as  also  to  the  Canaries,  Madeira,  and 
the  Azores  isles  ;  likewise  to  Newfoundland  for  fish  ; 
which  they  carry  to  Spain,  Portugal,  and  up  the 
Mediterranean,  and  remit  the  money  to  England, 
which,  one  way  or  other,  may  amount  to  60,000/. 

Ssarly ;  but  without  their  trade  to  the  French  and 
utch  colonies  in  the  West  Indies,  they  could  not 
remit  so  much  to  England ;  neither  could  they 
carry  on  their  trade  with  the  Indians  if  they  did 
not  take  off  the  rum  and  molasses,  as  well  as  su- 
gars of  those  colonies,  in  part  of  payment  of  the 
cargoes  they  carry  thither." 


Thomas  Penn  arrives  in  the  province  in  1732 — As- 
sembly's address  to  him,  with  his  answer — Bounda 
ries  between  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland — John 
Penn  arrives  in  1734 — The  assembly's  address  to 
him,  with  his  answer — Lord  Baltimore  attempts  to 
obtain  of  the  king  the  territories — Death  of  John 
Penn  and  Governor  Gordon — Administration  of 
the  Council,  James  Logan,  President — Benjamin 
Franklin — Arrival  of  Governor  Thomas — His  ad- 
ministration— Andrew  Hamilton's  speech  to  the 
assembly. 

In  August,  1732,  Thomas  Penn,  one  of  the  pro- 
prietaries from  England,  arrived  in  the  province, 
where  he  continued  a  number  of  years.  On  the 
15th  of  the  month  the  assembly  "presented  him 
with  the  following  address: — 

"  To  the  honourable  Thomas  Penn,  Esq.,  one 
of  the  proprietaries  of  the  province  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. 

"The  humble  address  of  the  representatives  of 
the  freemen  of  the  said  province,  in  general  assem- 
bly met. 

"  May  it  please  our  honourable  Proprietary. 

"At  the  same  time  that  we  acknowledge  the 
goodness  of  Divine  Providence  in  thy  preserva- 
tion, we  do  most  sincerely  congratulate'  thee  upon 
thy  safe  arrival  into  the  province  of  Pennsylvania. 

"Our  long  and  ardent  desires  to'see  one  of  our 
honourable  proprietaries  amongst  us  are  now  ful- 
filled ;  and  it  is  with  pleasure  we  can  say  thou  art 
arrived  at  a  time  when  the  government  is  in  perfect 
tranquillity,  and  that  there  seems  to  be  no  emula- 
tion amongst  us,  but  who  shall,  by  a  peaceable  and 
dutiful  behaviour,  give  the  best  proof  of  the  sense 
they  have  of  the  blessings  derived  to  us  under  our 
late  honourable  proprietary  your  father,  whose 
goodness  to  his  people  deserves  ever  to  be  remem- 
bered with  gratitude  and  affection. 

"  Be  pleased  to  accept  of  our  best  wishes  for 
thy  health  and  prosperity  ;  and  give  us  leave  to  say, 
as  no  discouragements,  nor  any  artifices  of  ill  men, 
have  hitherto  been  able  to  deter  the  good  people  of 
Pennsylvania  from  a  firm  adherence  to  your  ho- 
nourable family,  so  we  shall  always,  to  the  utmost 
of  our  power,  support  and  maintain  that  govern- 
ment, under  which  we  do,  with  all  gratitude,  ac- 
knowledge we  enjoy  so  many  valuable  privileges." 

To  which  the  proprietor  returned  the  following 
answer : — 

"  That  he  heartily  thanked  the  house  for  their 
affectionate  address ;  and  that,  as  he  looked  upon 
the  interest  of  Pennsylvania,  and  that  of  his  fa- 
mily to  be  inseparable,  the  house  might  assure  it- 
self, that  it  should  be  his  study  to  pursue  those 
measures  which  had  rendered  the  name  and  govern- 
ment of  his  father  so  grateful  to  the  good  people  of 
this  province." 

In  the  year  1732,  on  the  12th  of  May,  a  commis- 
sion was  signed  by  John,  Thomas,  and  Richard 
Penn,  the  proprietaries  of  Pennsylvania,  directed 
to  Governor  Gordon,  Isaac  Norris,  Samuel  Pres- 
ton, James  Logan,  and  Andrew  Hamilton,  Esqs., 
and  to  James  Steel  and  Robert  Charles,  gentlemen, 
appointing  them,  or  any  three,  or  more  of  them, 
commissioners,  "  with  full  power  on  the  part  of 
the  said  proprietaries,  for  the  actual  running, 
marking,  and  laying  out  the  boundary  lines  be- 
tween both  the  province  and  territories  of  Pennsyl- 
vania and  Maryland,  according  to  articles  of  agree- 
ment, indented,  made  and  concluded  upon  the  10th 
of  May,  in  the  same  year,  between  Charles,  Lord 


UNITED  STATES. 


Baltimore,  the  proprietary  of  Maryland,  and  the 
above-mentioned  proprietaries  of  Pennsylvania." 
And  an  instrument  of  the  same  tenour  and  date  was 
executed  by  Lord  Baltimore,  directed  to  Samuel 
Ogle,  Charles  Calvert,  Philemon  Lloyd,  Michael 
Howard,  Richard  Bennit,  Benjamin  Tasker  and 
Mathew  Tilghman  Ward,Esquircs,appointing  them, 
or  any  six,  five,  four  or  three  of  them  commission- 
ers, for  the  same  purposes. 

In  these  articles,  it  is  stipulated  •  "  That  a  due 
east,  and  west  line  shall  be  drawn  from  the  ocean, 
beginning  at  cape  Henlopen,  which  lies  south  of 
cape  Cornelius,  upon  the  eastern  side  of  the  Penin- 
sula ;  and  thence  to  the  western  side  of  the  Penin- 
sula, which  lies  .upon  Chesapeak  bay,  and  as  far 
westward  as  the  exact  middle  of  that  part  of  the 
Peninsula,  where  the  said  line  is  run. 

"  That  from  the  western  end  of  the  said  east  and 
west  line,  in  the  middle  of  the  Peninsula, -a  strait 
line  shall  run  northward  up  the  said  Peninsula,  till  it 
touch  the  western  part  of  the  periphery,  or  arch, 
of  a  circle,  drawn  twelve  English  statute  miles  distant 
from  Newcastle,  westward  towards  Maryland,  so  as 
to  make  a  tangent  thereto,  and  there  the  said  strait 
line  shall  end. 

"  That  from  the  northern  end  of  the  last  men- 
tioned strait  line  drawn  northward,  a  line  shall  be 
continued  due  north,  so  far  as  to  that  parallel  of 
latitude,  which  is  fifteen  English  statute  miles  due 
south  of  the  most  southern  part  of  the  city  of  Phila- 
delphia. 

"  That  in  the  said  parallel  of  latitude,  fifteen 
miles  due  south  from  Philadelphia,  and  from  the 
northern  end  of  the  last  mentioned  north  and  south 
line,  a  line  shall  be  run  due  west  across  Susque- 
hanna  river  to  the  western  boundary  of  Pennsyl- 
vania ;  or  so  far  at  present,  as  is  necessary,  which 
is  only  about  25  miles  westward  of  the  said 
river,  &c. 

"  All  which  lines  to  be  the  boundaries  between 
the  respective  provinces  of  Maryland  and  Pennsyl- 
vania, including  the  territories  of  the  latter." 

Notwithstanding  this  agreement,  the  perform- 
ance was  long  obstructed  by  altercation  between 
the  parties,  about  the  mode  of  doing  it;  said  to  have 
been  occasioned  principally  by  the  proprietary  of 
Maryland.  The  inhabitants  on  the  Pennsylvania 
side,  were  consequently  sometimes  exposed  to  un- 
reasonable demands  from  Maryland  ;  and  it  was  not 
finally  executed  till  the  year  1762;  when  it  was 
agreed  to  employ  two  ingenious  mathematicians, 
Charles  Mason,  and  Jeremiah  Dixon,  after  their 
return  from  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope ;  where  they 
had  been  to  observe  the  transit  of  Venus,  in  the 
year  1761.  Stone  pillars  were  erected,  to  render 
the  boundaries  more  durably  conspicuous. 

In  October  1734,  John  Penn,  the  eldest  of  the 
proprietaries,  and  a  native  of  Pennsylvania,  arrived 
from  England.  The  assembly,  on  the  16th  instant, 
presented  the  following  address  to  him. 

"  To  the  honourable  John  Penn,  Esq.,  one  of  the 
proprietaries  of  the  province  of  Pennsylvania,  &c. 

"  The  address  of  the  representatives  of  the  free- 
men of  the  said  province,  in  general  assembly  met. 
"  May  it  please  the  Proprietary. 

"  Excited  by  affection  and  gratitude,  we  cheer- 
fully embrace  this  opportunity  of  congratulating 
thee  on  thy  safe  arrival  to  the  place  of  thy  nativity. 
When  we  commemorate  the  many  benefits,  bestowed 
on  the  inhabitants  of  this  colony,  the  religious  and 
civil  liberties  we  possess,  and  to  whom  these  valu- 
able nrivileges,  under  God  arid  the  king,  are  owing, 


we  should  be  wanting  to  ourselves,  and  them  that 
we  represent,  did  we  not  do  justice  to  the  memory 
of  thy  worthy  ancestor,  a  man  of  principles  truly 
humane,  an  advocate  for  religion  and  liberty. 

"  What  may  we  not  hope  for  from  the  son  of  so 
great  a  man,  educated  under  his  i.are,  and  influ- 
enced by  his  example  !  May  his  descendants  in- 
herit his  virtues  as  well  as  his  estate,  and  long  con- 
tinue a  blessing  to  Pennsylvania. 

"  Signed,  by  order  of  the  house, 

"  ANDREW  HAMILTON,  Speaker." 

To  which  he  returned  the  following  answer  :  — 
"  Gentlemen. 

•''  I  return  you  my  hearty  thanks  for  this  affection- 
ate address.  The  kind  regard  you  express  for  the 
memory  of  my  father  is  most  agreeable  to  me  ;  and, 
as  it  was  always  his  desire,  so  it  is  strongly  my  in- 
clination, to  do  every  thing  in  my  power,  that  can 
promote  the  happiness  and  prosperity  of  this  pro- 
vince." 

In  the  summer  of  the  year  1735,  Governor  Gordon 
received  accounts  from  England,  that  application 
had  been  made  to  the  king  by  the  Lord  Baltimore, 
proprietor  of  Maryland,  for  obtaining  a  grant,  or 
confirmation,  of  the  three  lower  counties  on  Dela- 
ware, and  a  part  of  Pennsylvania,  as  lands  within 
the  descriptive  part  of  the  charter,  granted  to  his 
ancestors  ;  and  that  his  application  had  been  op- 
posed both  by  a  petition,  presented  to  the  king  by 
Richard  Penn,  one  of  the  proprietaries  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  also  by  a  representation  from  the  Quakers, 
in  behalf  of  the  province  and  territories,  &c.,  upon 
which  occasion  the  assembly  drew  up  an  address  to 
the  king. 

This  affair  seems  to  have  hastened  the  return  of 
the  proprietor  John  Penn,  to  England;  who  soon 
after  this  time  left  the  country  ;  upon  which,  about 
the  middle  of  September,  the  assembly  presented 
him  with  the  following  address  : — 

"  To  the  honourable  John  Penn,  Esq.,  one  of  the 
proprietaries  of  the  province  of  Pennsylvania. 

"  The  humble  address  of  the  representatives  of 
the  freemen  of  the  said  province,  in  general  as- 
sembly met. 

"  May  it  please  the  Proprietary, 

"  That  just  esteem  and  grateful  sense,  which  the 
people  of  this  province  have  always  retained  for  the 
memory  of  thy  honourable  father,  our  late  proprie- 
tary and  governor,  raised  in  them  the  strongest  de- 
sires to  see  some  of  the  descendants  of  that  great 
man  among  us. 

"  As  his  wise  example  gave  us  just  reason  to  hope, 
so  it  was  our  daily  wishes,  that  his  virtues,  as  well  a, 
his  estate,  might  descend  to  his  posterity.  And  it 
is  with  pleasure  we  can  now  say,  it  was  not  in  vain 
we  promised  ourselves  from  thee  that  affection  and 
regard,  which  is  natural  for  a  good  man  to  have  for 
the  place  of  his  nativity. 

"  That  humility,  justice  and  benevolence,  which 
has  appeared  in  thy  conduct  since  thy  arrival  here, 
has  very  deservedly  gained  thee  the  esteem  and  af- 
fections of  the  people  ;  and  we  do,  with  truth  say, 
thy  leaving  us  at  this  time,  gives  an  universal  con- 
cern to  the  inhabitants  of  this  province. 

"  May  thy  voyage  be  prosperous,  and  thy  success 
equal  to  the  justness  of  thy  cause  ;  and  may  we  soon 
have  the  happiness  of  seeing  thee  return  a  blessing 
to  thy  native  country  :  and  give  us  leave  to  hope, 
that,  thou  wilt,  upon  every  occasion,  join  thy  favour- 
able sentiments  towards  the  people  of  this  place, 
with  those  of  thy  honourable  brother,  who,  by  his 
stay  here,  will  have  frequent  opportunities  of  doing 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


what  will  always  endear  your  honourable  family  t 
the  freemen  of  Pennsylvania." 

To  which  the  proprietary  returned  the  following 
answer: — 

"  Gentlemen, — I  am  very  sensible  of  the  concern 
you  express  for  me,  and  am  obliged  to  you  for  thi 
kind  address.  I  am  glad  of  this  opportunity  o 
seeing  the  representatives  of  the  freemen  of  Penn 
sylvania,  at  my  departure ;  and  you  may  be  assurei 
I  shall  make  it  my  particular  care  to  do  every  thing 
in  my  power  that  may  advance  the  interest  of  thi 
my  native  country." 

John  Penn,  of  whom  the  inhabitants  of  Penn 
sylvania  appear  to  have  conceived  a  favourable  opi 
nion,  and  great  expectations,  never  returned;  bu 
died  unmarried,  in  October  1746;  and,  by  his  will 
left  all  his  part  of  the  province,  which  consisted  o 
two  shares,  or  half,  to  his  brother  Thomas,  who, 
from  that  time  forward,  with  the  youngest  brother 
Richard,  became  the  sole  proprietaries. 

Governor  Gordon,  after  a  prudent  and  prosperous 
administration  of  about  ten  years,  died  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1736 ;  when  the  government  devolved  on 
the  council,  James  Logan  being  president;  a  per 
son  of  experience  and  ability. 

Benjamin  Franklin,  afterwards  the  famous  Dr, 
Franklin  of  Philadelphia,  is  first  mentioned  as  being 
chosen  clerk  to  the  assembly,  in  October  1736;  for 
which  office  he  petitioned  the  house  in  succession 
to  Joseph  Growdon. 

President  Logan,  in  conjunction  with  the  council, 
appears  to  have  had  occasion,  among  other  things, 
to  exert  his  abilities  in  the  management  of  the  In- 
dians ;  among  whom  he  had  great  influence.  The 
claims  of  Maryland  also  upon  the  Pennsylvanians, 
who  were  settled  near  the  place  where  the  boundary 
line  ought  to  have  been  marked  out  before  this 
time,  and  the  disturbances  arising  from  the  govern 
ment  and  people  of  Maryland  on  that  account,  gave 
much  uneasiness  and  trouble  to  many  inhabitants 
who  were  settled  within  the  bounds  o'f  Pennsylva- 
nia ;  but  in  general  the  public  affairs  seem  to  have 
been  well  conducted  for  two  years,  that  is  until  the 
arrival  of  George  Thomas,  as  governor,  in  the  sum- 
mer of  the  year  1738. 

Governor  Thomas  appears  to  have  been  a  man  of 
abilities  and  resolution,  but,  in  some  things,  did  not 
sufficiently  understand  the  nature  and  genius  of  the 
people  over  whom  he  presided  :  in  the  early  part  of 
his  administration  his  conduct  seems  to  have  been 
satisfactory  to  the  country ;  but  afterwards,  the  war 
commencing  between  England  and  Spain,  about 
the  year  1740,  his  manner  of  urging  some  military 
demands,  with  which  the  assembly,  being  chiefly 
Quakers,  could  not  comply,  intioduced  much  alter- 
cation and  dispute  for  some  years. 

He  first  met  the  assembly  of  Pennsylvania  in 
August  1738;  and  in  his  first  speech  to  the  house, 
on  the  8th  of  that  month,  informed  them  he  had 
been  appointed  to  the  government  above  a  year  be- 
fore; but  his  embarkation  was  impeded  by  unex- 
pected delays,  made  by  Lord  Baltimore's  objecting 
against  the  proprietaries  of  Pennsylvania  appoint- 
ing a  governor  over  the  three  lower  counties;  which 
objection,  after  some  time,  was  disregarded,  and  his 
appointment,  both  over  the  province,  and  the  said 
counties,  approved  by  the  king. 

In  the  August  of  1739,  the  speaker  of  the  assem- 
bly, Andrew  Hamilton,  took  leave  of  the  house,  on 
account  of  his  age  and  infirmities,  with  the  follow- 
ing speech : — 

"  I  would  beg  leave  to  observe  to  you,  that  it  is 


not  to  the  fertility  of  our  soil,  and  the  commodious- 
ness  of  our  rivers,  that  we  ought  chiefly  to  attribute 
the  great  progress  this  province  has  made,  within 
so  small  a  compass  ofyears,  in  improvements,  wealth, 
trade,  and  navigation,  and  the  extraordinary  increase 
of  people,  who  have  been  drawn  hither,  from  almost 
every  country  in  Europe;  a  progress  which  much 
more  ancient  settlements  on  the  main  of  America 
cannot,  at  present,  boast  of;  no,  it  is  principally, 
and  almost  wholly,  owing  to  the  excellency  of  our 
constitution  ;  under  which  we  enjoy  a  greater  share 
both  of  civil  and  religious  liberty  than  any  of  our 
neighbours. 

"  It  is  our  great  happiness  that,  instead  of  trien- 
nial assemblies,  a  privilege,  which  several  other 
colonies  have  long  endeavoured  to  obtain,  ours  are 
annual ;  and,  for  that  reason,  as  well  as  others,  less 
liable  to  be  practised  upon,  or  corrupted,  either  with 
money  or  presents.  We  sit  upon  our  own  adjournments 
when  we  please,  and  as  long  as  we  think  necessary ; 
and  we  are  not  to  be  sent  a  packing,  in  the  middle 
of  a  debate,  and  d'sabled  from  representing  our 
just  grievances  to  our  gracious  sovereign,  if  there 
should  be  occasion  ;  which  has  often  bee-u  the  fate 
of  assemblies  in  other  places. 

"  We  have  no  officers  but  what  are  necessary; 
none  but  what  earn  their  salaries,  and  those  gene- 
rally are  either  elected  by  the  people,  or  appointed 
by  their  representatives. 

"  Other  provinces  swarm  with  unnecessary  offi- 
cers, nominated  by  the  governors ;  who  often  make 
it  a  main  part  of  their  care  to  support  those  officers, 
(notwithstanding  their  oppressions)  at  all  events. 

hope  it  will  ever  be  the  wisdom  of  our  assemblies 
to  create  no  great  offices  nor  officers,  nor  indeed 
any  officer  at  all,  but  what  is  really  necessary  for 
the  service  of  the  country,  and  to  be  sure  to  let  the 
people,  or  their  representatives,  have,  at  least,  a 
share  in  their  nomination  or  appointment.  This 
will  always  be  a  good  security  against  the  mischie- 
vous influence  of  men  holding  places  at  the  pleasure 
f  the  governor. 

"  Our  foreign  trade  and   shipping  are  free  from 
all  imposts,  except  those  small  duties,  payable  to 
lis   majesty,  by  the  statute  laws  of  Great  Britain. 
The  taxes  which  we  pay  for  carrying  on  the  public 
ervice  are  inconsiderable;   for   the  sole   power  of 
aising  and  disposing  of  the   public  money  for  the 
upport  of  government,  is  lodged  in  the  assembly; 
who   appoint  their    own    treasurer;     and   to    them 
lone    he   is   accountable.     Otru>r   incidental  taxes 
are  assessed,  collected  and  applied  by  persons  annu- 
ally chosen  by  the  people  themselves.     Such  is  our 
iappy  state,  as  to  our  civil  rights. 

Nor  are  we  less  happy  in  the  enjoyment  of  a 
>erfect  freedom  as  to  religion.  By  many  years  ex- 
erience  we  find,  that  an  equality  among  religious 
ocieties,  without  distinguishing  any  one  s*»ct  with 
;reater  privileges  than  another,  is  the  most  effectual 
lethod  to  discourage  hypocrisy,  promote  the  prac- 
ice  of  the  moral  virtues,  and  prevent  the  plagues 
nd  mischiefs  that  always  attend  religious  squab- 
ling. 

"This  is  our  constitution ;  and  this  constitution 

was  framed  by  the  wisdom  of  Mr.    Penn,  the  first 

roprietary  and  foun'der    of  this    province;  whose 

barter  of  privileges,  to  the  inhabitants  of  Pennsyl- 

ania,  will  ever  remain  a  monument  of  his  benevo- 

ence  to  mankind,  and  reflect  more  lasting  honour 

n  his   descendants,   than   the   largest  possessions. 

n  the  framing   this   government  he   reserved    no 

powers   to   himself,    or    his   heirs,   to  oppress   the 


UNITED  STATES. 


887 


people,  no  authority,  but  what  is  necessary  for  our 
protection,  and  to  hinder  us  from  falling  into  anar- 
chy; and  therefore  (supposing  we  could  persuade 
ourselves,  that  all  our  obligations  to  our  great  law- 
giver, and  his  honourable  descendants,  were  entirely 
cancelled,  yet)  our  own  interests  should  oblige  us 
carefully  to  support  the  government,  on  its  present 
foundation,  as  the  only  means  to  secure  to  ourselves 
and  our  posterity  the  enjoyment  of  those  privileges, 
and  the  blessings  flowing  from  such  a  constitution, 
under  which  we  cannot  fail  of  being  happy,  if  the 
fault  is  not  our  own. 

"  Yet  I  have  observed  that  in  former  assemblies 
there  have  been  men  who  have  acted  in  such  a 
manner,  as  if  they  utterly  disregarded  all  those  in- 
estimable privileges,  and  (whether  from  private 
pique  and  personal  dislike,  or  through  mistake,  I 
will  not  determine)  have  gone  great  lengths  in 
risking  our  happiness,  in  the  prosecution  of  such 
measures  as  did  not  at  all  square  with  the  professions 
they  frequently  made,  of  their  love  to  our  government. 

"  When  I  reflect  on  the  several  struggles  which 
many  of  us,  now  present,  have  had  with  those  men, 
in  order  to  rescue  the  constitution  out  of  their 
hands,  which,  through  their  mistakes  (if  they  really 
were  mistakes),  was  often  brought  on  the  brink  of 
destruction,  I  cannot  help  cautioning  you,  in  the 
most  earnest  manner,  against  all  personal  animosity 
in  public  consultations,  as  a  lock,  which  if  not 
avoided,  the  constitution  will,  at  some  time  or  other, 
infallibly  split  upon." 

This  able  man  died  in  the  latter  end  of  the  sum- 
mer, 1741.  He  had  served  in  several  considerable 
stations,  both  in  the  government  of  Pennsylvania 
and  Delaware,  with  honour  and  integrity.  He 
was  a  lawyer  of  considerable  practice  for  many 
years;  and  acquired  much  reputation  in  that  pro- 
fession. 

Conduct  of  Governor  Thomas  respecting  the  enlisting 
soldiers — Assembly's  address  to  Thomas  Penn — Ri- 
otous election  in  1742 — Indian  affairs  in  Governor 
Thomas's  administration — He  resigns  the  govern- 
ment in  1747 — Succeeding  administration  and  go- 
vernors— Disputes  as  to  money-bills  and  quit-rems— 
Conclusion, 

During  the  administration  of  Governor  Thomas, 
it  is  observed  that  the  enlisting  of  indented  or 
bought,  servants  for  soldiers,  was  first  permitted  to 
be  carried  into  execution,  before  the  act  of  parlia- 
ment in  that  case  was  made.  The  number  of 
bought  and  indented  servants,  who  were  thus  taken 
from  their  masters,  as  appears  by  the  printed  votes 
of  the  assembly,  were  about  276;  whose  masters 
were  compensated  by  the  assembly  for  their  loss 
sustained  thereby,  to  the  amount  of  about  2,588£. 

This  enlistment  being  disagreeable  and  injurious 
to  many  of  the  inhabitants,  and  contrary  to  ancient 
usage,  John  Wright,  one  of  the  people  called  Qua- 
kers, a  worthy  magistrate  of  Lancaster  county,  and 
a  member  of  assembly,  having  spoken  freely  against 
it  in  the  assembly,  was,  with  many  others,  dismissed 
from  his  office  as  a  judge ;  but  having  got  previous 
intelligence  of  the  intention,  he  came  to  the  court 
in  May  1741,  and  took  his  leave,  in  a  valedictory 
speech. 

Thomas  Penn,  one  of  tne  proprietaries,  being 
about  to  return  to  England,  the  assembly,  in  the 
August  of  1741,  presented  him  with  the  following 
address : — 

"  May  it  please  the  Proprietary, 

!t  Gratitude  to  the  first  founder  of  our   present 


happy  constitution,  the  regard  paid  to  his  merit, 
and  the  hopes  of  continued  obligations  from  his  de- 
scendants, united  the  desires  of  many  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  this  province  to  see  one  of  them  at  least 
settled  within  it :  this  was  evident  in  the  joy,  which 
discovered  itself  in  the  minds  of  all  sorts  and  de- 
rees  of  men,  on  thy  arrival  among  us. 

"  In  transacting  of  public  affairs  (as  in  those 
which  are  private),  a  diversity  of  sentiments  may 
have  appeared,  sometimes  among  ourselves,  some- 
times perhaps  with  our  proprietaries;  and  yet,  as 
our  different  sentiments  have  been  the  result  of 
honest  minds,  whose  determinations  (though  possi- 
bly mistaken)  were  intended  for  the  public  good,  it 
ought  not,  nor  hath,  erased  those  ties  of  gratitude, 
which  we  desire  may  ever  remain  between  the  de- 
scendants of  our  late  worthy  proprietary,  and  the 
freemen  of  this  province. 

"  The  welfare  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  colony, 
and  that  of  our  proprietary  family,  seem  to  us  mu  • 
tually  to  depend  on  each  other,  and  therefore  it  is 
not  to  be  wondered  at,  that  we  are  so  desirous  of 
their  residence  among  us :  it  being  reasonable  to 
think  we  are  most  secure  from  any  attempts  on  our 
liberties,  when  the  administration  of  government, 
and  the  management  of  the  public  affairs  of  the 
province  are  under  the  immediate  inspection  of 
those,  whose  interest  it  is  to  preserve  our  constitu- 
tion from  any  encroachments. 

"  These  considerations,  as  we  are  informed,  the 
proprietary  is  determined  to  leave  us,  afford  not 
the  most  pleasing  reflections ;  but,  as  we  presume, 
the  affairs  of  the  family  render  it  necessary,  and 
are  in  hopes  that  either  he  himself,  or  some  other 
of  our  proprietaries,  will,  in  a  little  time  return,  it 
behoves  us  to  acquiesce  under  it.  Whatever  little 
differences  in  opinion  may  have  happened,  we  hope 
the  proprietaries  will  believe  the  freemen  of  this 
province  retain  that  regard  which  is  due  to  them ; 
and  would  be  glad  of  any  proper  opportunity  of  de- 
monstrating it :  and  such  is  our  confidence  in  the 
proprietary  family,  that  if  any  attempt  shall  be 
made  to  the  prejudice  of  those  rights  (which  under 
our  gracious  king  we  now  happily  enjoy),  they  will, 
to  the  utmost  of  their  power,  oppose  it,  and  thereby 
lay  us  under  like  obligations  for  the  continuance 
of  those  privileges  which  we  readily  own  are  due  to. 
their  worthy  ancestor,  for  bestowing  them. 

"  As  the  welfare  of  this  province  hath  so  near  a 
dependance  on  that  of  our  proprietary  family,  our 
interest  and  duty  enjoin  our  particular  concern  for 
them ;  give  us  leave,  therefore,  on  this  occasion,  to 
express  our  hearty  desires  for  thy  prosperous  voyage, 
and  safe  return  among  us." 

To  this  address,  the  proprietary  answered  as 
follows : — 

"  Gentlemen, — I  thank  you  for  the  regard  shewn 
to  my  family  in  this  address,  and  for  your  good 
wishes  for  my  prosperous  voyage. 

"  As  I  am  "very  sure  both  my  brothers  and  myself 
have  the  true  interest  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  pro- 
vince very  much  at  heart,  you  may  rest  assured  we 
will  oppose  any  attempts  that  may  be  made  on  their 
just  rights,  wliich  we  think  it  is  our  indispensible 
duty  to  support. 

"  The  affairs  of  my  family  now  call  me  to  Eng- 
land ;  and  I  cannot,  at  our  parting,  better  evidence 
my  regard  for  you,  than  to  recommend  it  to  you  to 
act,  in  your  station,  as  good  subjects  to  the  king, 
really  sensible  of  the  benefits  you  enjoy  under  his 
mild  and  equal  administration ;  and  that  you  will 
take  such  measures  for  the  defence  of  this  provicee» 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


as  the  present  posture  of  affairs  abroad  require,  in 
•which  you  will  have  ail  the  assistance  from  the  go- 
vernor, that  can  be  expected  from  a  gentlerr.an 
in  his  station,  who  has  no  view,  but  the  king's 
honour,  and  the  security  of  your  constitution. 
"  August  20th,  1741." 

Thomas  Prnn,  ou  the  death  of  his  brother  John, 
in  1746,  became  the  principal  proprietor,  and  pos- 
sessed three -fourths  of  the  province.  He  lived 
the  longest  of  the  three  brothers ;  but  he  appears 
never  to  have  been  very  popular  in  the  province : 
he  is  said,  in  general,  to  have  conducted  himself 
rather  too  reservedly  towards  the  people,  and  to 
have  been  too  solicitous  of  his  private  interest. 

In  the  fifth  year  of  Governor  Thomas's  adminis 
tration,  in  October  1742,  at  the  annual  election, 
for  the  members  of  assembly,  in  Philadelphia,  hap- 
pened such  an  instance  of  the  unwarrantable  effect 
of  party  spirit,  as,  at  that  time,  made  a  lasting  im- 
pression on  the  minds  of  many  of  the  inhabitants. 

Liberty,  which  had  long  been  conspicuous  in  the 
province,'  and  of  which  the  early  inhabitants  had, 
in  general,  so  long  showed  themselves  worthy,  by 
not  making  an  improper  use  of  it,  had  drawn  great 
numbers  or'  various  .sorts  of  people  into  the  country  ; 
many  of  whom  were  persons  of  very  different  princi- 
ples and  manners  from  those  of  the  generality  of  the 
more  early  settlers,  and  many  of  their  successors 
and  descendants.  Hence,  in  succeeding  years,  cer- 
tain symptoms  of  an  approaching  change  in  this 
valuable  blessing,  began  to  grow  more  and  more 
conspi(  uous,  through  the  formation  and  increase  of 
party,  among  many  of  the  later  inhabitants  ;  who 
in  their  elections  for  members  of  assembly,  fomented 
the  spirit  of  opposition  against  the  "  old  interest," 
and  the  defenders  of  the  established  constitution  of 
the  province. 

In  the  year  1742,  a  large  number  of  sailors  from 
the  shipping  in  the  river  Delaware,  during  the  time 
of  election,  armed  with  clubs,  unexpectedly  ap- 
peared, in  a  tumultuous  manner,  and  made  a  riot,  at 
the  place  of  election,  knocking  down  a  great  num- 
ber of  the  people,  both  magistrates,  constables  and 
others,  worthy  and  reputable  inhabitants,  who  op- 
posed them  ;  and,  by  violence  having  cleared  the 
ground,  several  of  the  people  were  curried  off  as 
dead.  This  ferocious  conduct  was  repeated  upon 
the  return  of  the  electors;  till  at  last,  many  of  the 
inhabitants,  being  enraged,  took  measures  to  force 
them  into  their  ships,  and  near  5U  of  them  into 
prison;  but  they  were  soon  discharged:  for  it  after- 
wards appeared  that  they  had  Been  privately  em- 
ployed by  some  party  leaders. 

During  Governor  Thomas's  administration,  the 
Indian  affairs  seem  mostly  to  have  been  well  ma- 
naged, and  peace  continued  with  that  people ; 
which  had  always  been  a  matter  of  great  importance, 
as  well  as  expense  to  this  province.  But,  as  before 
observed,  his  ardour  in  pressing  some  matters  of  a 
military  nature,  appears  to  have  introduced  unpro- 
fitable altercation  between  him  and  the  assembly  ; 
but  afterwards  for  many  years  before  his  resignation, 
which  was  in  the  summer  of  the  year  1747,  a  much 
better  understanding  existed  between  them. 

In  consequence  of  Governor  Thomas's  resigna- 
tion, the  administration,  as  usual,  devolved  on  the 
council,  Anthony  Palmer  being  president,  till  No- 
vember 1748;  when  Jaines  Hamilton,  of  Pennsyl-" 
vania,  arrived  governor  from  England  ;  a  gentle- 
man of  considerable  fortune  in  the  province,  and 
well  esteemed  by  the  people  :  the  son  of  Andrew 
Hamilton,  before  mentioned. 


Governor  Hamilton  Continued  till  his  resignation 
in  October  1754;  when  ho  was  succeeded  in  the 
government,  by  Robert  Hunter  Morris  of  New 
Jersey,  son  of  Lewis  Morris,  who  had  been  governor 
of  that  province. 

In  the  year  1756,  William  Denny  from  England, 
succeeded  Governor  Morris  ;  and  continued  in  the 
administration  till  1759  :  at  which  time  he  was  suc- 
ceeded by  James  Hamilton,  second  time  governor ; 
who  continued  till  1763. 

During  the  administration  of  these  latter  gover- 
nors, the  party  politics  of  the  colony  ran  very  high, 
relative  to  the  paper  currency,  and  to  the  exemp- 
tion of  the  proprietaries'  lands  from  taxation.  We 
have  not  thought  it  necessary  to  enter  into  the  viru- 
lent disputes  whkh  agitated  the  legislature  on 
these  hotly  contested  subjects  ;  but  to  give  some  idea 
of  them,  we  append  the  following  document,  which 
Franklin  ^ays,  in  his  account  of  the  conduct  of  the 
assembly  iu  this  contest,  contains  "  as  full  a  vindi- 
cation of  themselves  and  their  conduct,  as  is  in  the 
power  of  thoughts  and  v/ords  to  express  ;  and  con- 
sequently as  full  an  exposition  of  the  claims  and  de- 
mands brought  against  them." 

"  Report  of  a  committee  of  assembly,  September 
23,  1756. 

"  In  obedience  to  the  order  of  the  house,  we  have 
considered  the  proprietaries'  eleventh,  twelfth,  and 
21st  instructions,  relating  to  money  bills,  and  now 
offer  such  remarks  thereon  as  occur  to  us. 

"  The  preamble  to  the  eleventh  instruction  sets 
forth,'  That  the  interest  money  arising  from  the  loan 
of  bills  of  credit  in  this  province,was  intended  by  the 
proprietaries,  and  the  house  of  representatives,  to 
be  applied  for  the  publick  service  of  the  province, 
and  of  the  inhabitants  thereof,  and  should  therefore, 
under  the  direction  of  the  same  power  that  raises  it, 
be  most  carefully  applied  to  those  purposes,  as  a 
greater  security  to  the  people  against  misapplica- 
tions, than  if  it  was  intrusted  only  to  one  branch  of 
the  legislature  ;  and  such  was  the  ancient  practice 
in  their  said  province.'  That  the  interest  money 
was  intended  to  be  applied  for  the  publick  service  of 
the  province,  and  of  the  inhabitants  thereof,  is  un- 
doubtedly right ;  but  that  it  was  ever  the  '  practice,' 
or  that  there  was  ever  even  a  single  instance  of  the 
proprietaries  or  their  deputies  having  a  vote  in  the 
application  of  the  interest  money,  we  must  abso- 
lutely deny.  Their  consent  to  the  disposition  is  not 
required  iu  any  of  our  loan  acts  from  the  beginning 
to  this  day,  the  constant  tenor  of  those  laws  being, 
that  the  '  interest  money  shall  be  disposed  of  as 
the  assembly  of  this  province  shall  from  time  to  time 
order  and  direct.'  Their  consent  was  never  asked, 
unless  in  the  acceptance  of  presents  made  them  out 
of  that  interest,  which  could  not  be  forced  on  them 
without  their  consent;  and  that  kind  of  application 
they  have  indeed  been  graciously  pleased  to  consent 
to  from  time  to  time,  to  the  amount  of  above  30,000/. 
given  to  themselves  out  of  that  fund  and  the  excise. 
If  this  was  a  misapplication,  and  we  know  of  no 
other,  the  power  they  contend  for  would  not  have 
prevented  it;  for  'tis  scarce  probable  they  should 
ever  disapprove  or  refuse  to  sign  acts,  votes  or  re- 
solves, which  they  thought  so  just  and  reasonable. 

"  And  indeed,  had  these  presents  been  always  as 
regular  as  the  seasons,  and  never  intermitted,  be 
the  conduct  of  the  governor  ever  so  inconsistent  with 
the  publick  good,  your  committee  have  reason  to  be- 
lieve, this  new  instruction  had  never  been  formed 
or  thought  of.  But  since  the  representatives  of  the 
people  have  dared  to  signify  their  disapprobation  of 


UNITED  STATES. 


889 


a  governor's  measures,  by  withholding  those  tokens 
of  their  esteem,  affection  and  gratitude,  which  were 
constantly  given  when  they  found  themselves  well 
governed  ;  this  instruction  is  thought  necessary  to 
be  inforced.  Not  for  the  greater  security  of  the 
people  against  misapplication  ;  for  they  never  com- 
plained of  any  ;  but  to  compel  your  continuance  of 
those  presents;  to  compel  an  addition  to  them,  for 
they  are  thought  too  small;  and  to  compel  the  pay- 
ment of  what  they  are  pleased  to  call  the  arrears  of 
such  presents  to  any  governors  from  whom  they 
have  at  any  time  been  withheld.  For  if  the  people's 
money  cannot  be  disposed  of  for  their  own  benefit, 
without  the  proprietary  or  bis  deputy's  consent,  the 
passage  of  the  bill,  or  the  approbation  of  the  re- 
solve, must  be  facilitated,  as  the  proprietaries  were 
pleased  to  tell  us  on  a  former  occasion,  by  a  regard 
to  their  interest, — that  is,  by  putting  at  the  same 
time  into  their  private  pockets  whatever  share  of  the 
publick  money  they  shall  be  pleased  to  insist  on, 
under  the  specious  name  of  salary  or  support ;  though 
by  the  quit-rents,  and  even  by  their  other  fees 
and  perquisites,  established  by  law  or  taken  by  cus- 
tom, they  have  already  a  support  much  more  than 
sufficient. 

"  The  money  arising  by  the  interest  of  the  bills  of 
credit,  as  well  as  that  arising  by  the  excise,  is  paid 
wholly  by  the  people.  To  dispose  of  their  own 
money,  by  themselves  or  their  representatives,  is, 
in  our  opinion,  a  natural  right,  inherent  in  every 
man,  or  body  of  men,  antecedent  to  all  laws.  The 
proprietaries  pay  no  part  of  this  money,  and 
therefore  can  have  no  right  to  a  share  in  the  power 
of  disposing  of  it.  They  might  as  reasonably  claim 
a  right  to  a  negative  in  the  disposition  of  every 
man's  private  fortune,  and  for  the  same  reasons,  to 
wit,  the  man's  greater  security,  and  to  prevent  mis- 
application ;  nay,  the  reasons  would  be  stronger, 
bodies  of  men  not  being  generally  so  apt  to  mis- 
apply their  money,  as  single  prodigals.  The  people 
have  never  complained  that  any  such  misapplication 
has  been  made  by  their  representatives :  on  the 
contrary,  they  have  shewn  their  approbation  of  the 
conduct  of  the  assembly  in  this  tender  point,  by  long 
repeated  annual  elections  of  the  same  men  to  the 
same  trust  in  the  same  office.  They  have  always 
seen  their  money  disposed  of,  from  time  to  time,  for 
the  advantage  and  honour  of  the  pub'.ick,  or  for  the 
king's  immediate  service,  and  they  had  reason  to 
be  contented  with  the  disposition^  "The  public  cre- 
dit has  been  constantly  preserved,  and  every  man 
who  served  the  government,  has  been  always  duly 
and  readily  paid  :  bat  if  this  new-claimed  negative 
in  the  proprietaries  takes  place,  the  people  will  not 
have  it  in  their  power  to  reward  the  man  that  serves 
them,  or  even  to  pay  the  hire  of  the  labourer  that 
works  for  them,  without  the  governor's  leave  first 
purchased;  much  less  will  they  be  allowed  to  sup- 
port an  agent  in  England  to  defend  their  rights,  or 
be  able  to  pay  the  expence  of  prosecuting  their  com- 
plainls  when  oppressed.  And  to  prevent  their  doing 
this,  is,  we  conceive,  another  main  view  of  this 
instruction. 

"  In  short,  it  does  not  appear  to  your  committee 
that  this  extraordinary  instance  of  the  proprietary's 
care  of  the  people's  money,  to  prevent  its  being 
wasted  by  their  own  representatives,  was  for  the 
people  at  all  necessary.  Those  representatives  them- 
selves are  a  part  of  the  people,  and  must  bear  a 
share  of  their  burdens.  For  their  own  sakes,  there- 
fore, as  well  as  to  recommend  themselves  to  the 
esteem  and  regard  of  their  constituents,  it  is  highly 


probable  they  will  execute  that  trust,  as  they  always 
have  done,  with  justice,  prudence  and  frugality  ;  with 
freedom  to  the  king's  service,  and  grateful  genero- 
sity to  governors  that  sincerely  seek  their  welfare, 
and  do  not  join  with  the  proprietaries  to  oppress 
them.  But  this  instruction  might  perhaps  be  ne- 
cessary to  extort  those  grants  to  governors  which 
they  have  been  pleased  to  stile  salary,  and  render 
that  certain,  which  before  depended  on  the  good 
will  of  the  people :  for  how  else  can  the  proprie- 
taries be  sure  of  that  share  of  those  grants,  which, 
by  their  private  contracts  sometimes  made  with 
their  governors,  is  (if  report  says  true,)  to  be  paid 
to  themselves  ? 

"  The  proprietaries  are  however  willing  to  permit 
the  renewal  of  the  80,000/.,  which  is  now  to  sink  in 
a  few  years,  and  even  the  adding  40,OOOJ.  more, 
the  whole  to  be  emitted  on  loan,  provided,  that  the 
eleventh  instruction  be  complied  with,  '  and  half 
the  power  of  applying  the  interest  reserved  to  them-, 
and  provided,  that  all  rents  and  quit-rents  due,  or  to 
be  due  or  payable  to  them,  be  always  paid  accord- 
ing to  the  rate  of  exchange  at  the  times  of  payment 
between  Philadelphia  and  London,  or  some  other 
sufficient  provision  enacted  in  lieu  thereof,  as  was 
done  by  a  former  act.'  Your  committee  cannot 
help  observing  here,  that  the  proprietaries'  tender- 
ness for  their  own  interest  appears  in  this  instruc- 
tion much  stronger  than  their  care  for  that  of  the 
people.  Very  great  emoluments  arise  to  them  by 
emissions  of  paper  money  on  loan,  and  the  interest 
money  is  a  tax  they  are  clear  of.  They  are  there- 
fore willing  the  quantity  should  be  encreased ;  but 
whatever  advantages  they  receive  from  it,  they  are 
resolved  to  suffer  no  disadvantage  from  any  occa- 
sional depreciation :  for  they  will  always  be  paid 
their  rents  and  quit-rents,  according  to  the  rate  of 
exchange  between  Philadelphia  and  London.  By 
the  original  agreements,  those  rents  and  quit-rents 
were  to  be  paid  in  sterling  money  (or  the  vslue  in 
coin  current,)  to  the  proprietary  receivers  in  the 
province.  A  bill  of  exchange,  besides  the  sterling 
sum  conveyed,  includes  all  the  freight,  risk  and 
expense  of  conveying  that  sum  in  specie  to  London. 
Now  we  conceive  the  people  are  not,  nor  can  in 
justice  or  reason  be,  obliged  to  transmit  their  rents 
to  London,  and  pay  them  there  to  the  proprietaries. 
If  the  proprietaries  should  think  fit  to  remove  to 
China,  they  might  as  justly  add  to  their  demand  the 
rate  of  exchange  between  London  and  Canton  : 
this  therefore  is  extortion,  and  ought  never  to  be 
allowed  in  any  future  act,  nor  an  equivalent  made 
for  it.  For  had  that  equivalent  been  really  given  as 
a  matter  of  justice,  and  not  extorted,  as  purchase 
money  for  the  law,  it  would  have  been  extended  to 
the  re'nts  of  private  landlords,  as  well  as  those  of 
the  proprietaries.  Besides,  the  great  sums  to  be 
yearly  remitted  to  them  in  London,  for  which  no 
returns  come  back  to  the  country,  naturally  tend  to 
raise  the  exchange  ;  and  even  put  it  in  the  power 
of  their  agents  to  raise  it  occasionally,  just  before 
the  periodical  times  of  payment  (to  the  great  injury 
of  the  people),  and  to  lower  it  again  at  their  plea- 
sure ;  a  dangerous  power  this,  if  no  inconvenience 
can  arise  to  themselves  by  the  rjse  of  exchange  ! 
The  depreciation  of  money  in  every  country  where 
it  happens,  is  a  common  calamity.  The  proprie- 
tary estate  ought  not  to  be  exempt  from  it,  at  the 
xpence  of  all  other  estates.  There  are  many  fixed 
ground-rents,  and  other  rents  arising  in  the  pro- 
vince belonging  to  the  people,  and  due  to  private 
estates.  These  rents  have  as  much  right  to  be  con- 


890 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


sidered,  and  their  deficiency,  in  case  of  deprecia- 
tion, provided  for  out  of  the  publick  funds,  as  those 
of  the  proprietaries.  But  of  these  they  take  no 
care,  so  their  own  are  secured.  It  appears,  how- 
ever, to  your  committee,  that  all  rents  in  the 
country  ought  to  be  on  the  same  footing,  with  re- 
gard to  any  loss  by  the  depreciation  of  its  cur- 
rency, since  that  is  less  likely  ever  to  happen  which 
it  is  the  interest  of  all  to  prevent. 

"  Your  committee  now  come  to  the  twenty-first 
instruction,  by  the  preamble  of  which  it  is  insinu- 
ated, as  if  acts  for  provincial  taxes  had  been  com- 
mon in  this  province,  and  that  the  proprietary's 
estate  had  been  always  exempted  in  such  acts  ; 
whereas  the  truth  is,  that  there  never  were  but  two 
or  three,  and  those  in  the  early  times  of  the  pro- 
vince, when  the  proprietary's  circumstances  were 
low,  hisi  affairs  encumbered,  and  the  quit-rents  so 
small,  as  to  be  insufficient  for  his  support,  and 
therefore  they  were  not  only  exempted  from  any 
part  of  such  tax,  but  duties  and  licence  fees  were 
granted  to  help  them  out.  For  more  than  40  years, 
as  the  excise  and  interest  money  have  been  sufficient 
for  support  of  government,  no  provincial  taxes 
have  been  levied  (in  this  very  instruction,  a  little 
lower,  they  themselves  acknowledge  none  have 
been  raised  in  their  time),  and  the  proprietary 
estate  has  vastly  encreased :  those  licence  fees  are 
also  vastly  encreased,  and  yet  they  still  receive 
them.  But  that  their  estate  should  now  be  exempt 
from  provincial  taxes,  raised  for  the  defence  of  that 
very  estate,  appears  to  us  extreamly  unreasonable. 
During  the  distress  of  the  family,  there  was  like- 
wise a  voluntary  subscription  among  the  people  to 
pay  the  proprietary's  passage  to  England:  they 
may  from  thence  as  justly  claim  a  right  of  having 
their  expences  borne  by  the  public  whenever  they 
cross  the  seas.  But  when  those  aids  were  granted 
to  the  old  proprietary,  he  had  a  much  better  claim 
to  them  than  his  sons;  for  he  undertook  to  act  as 
an  agent  and  advocate  for  his  people,  in  England ; 
to  defend  and  secure  their  rights  and  privileges  ; 
not  like  his  successors,  to  abolish  and  destroy  them. 

"The instruction  farther  says,  that  '  since  the  ex- 
piration of  those  former  laws,  no  aid  hath  ever 
been  granted  by  the  assembly  to  them  as  proprie- 
taries.' As  proprietaries,  what  right  have  they  to 
aids?  Are  they  not  hereditary  governors  of  the 
province  ?  and  while  they  have  indulged  them- 
selves with  an  almost  constant  residence  in  Eng- 
land, remote  from  their  country,  and  greatly  to  its 
inconvenience  and  prejudice,  have  not  the  assem- 
blies constantly  supported  their  deputy,  sent  by  the 
proprietaries  ^o  do  what  they  ought  themselves  to 
have  done  in  person ;  though  he  was  often  an  im- 
perfect deputy,  restrained  in  those  powers  which 
should  always  subsist  and  be  present  in  every  go- 
vernment for  the  common  welfare  ?  But  they  are 
pleased  to  say,  '  they  have  voluntarily  and  chear- 
t'ully  expended  several  considerable  sums  of  their 
own  money  for  the  advancement  of  the  province.' 
This  they  said  likewise  to  a  former  assembly,  and 
the  answer  was,  '  We  are  unacquainted  with  these 
expences ;  let  the  accounts  be  laid  before  us,  and 
whatever  expenc§  appears  to  have  been  made  for 
the  service  of  the  province  shall  be  allowed,  and 
repaid  with  thanks.'  Those  accounts  have  never 
yet  appeared ;  and  till  they  do,  we  think  they 
ought  not  to  be  made  the  foundation  of  any  claim 
whatever. 

"  They  say' farther,  '  that  they  had  no  reason  to 
suspect  that  the  assembly  would  deviate  so  much 


from  the  former  usage,  as  to  pretend,  by  any  act  of 
theirs,  to  charge  the  proprietary  estate  in  the  pro- 
vince with  the  burden  of  any  taxes.'  Amazing ! 
If  the  assembly  deviated  from  the  former  usage, 
by  taxing  their  own  estates,  and  those  of  their 
constituents  (their  usual  funds  failing)  why  should 
they  not  deviate  in  the  same  manner  in  taxing  the 
proprietary  estate  ?  And  what  are  the  particular 
merits  of  this  family,  that  when  the  whole  British 
nation,  when  every  estate  in  the  kingdom,  as  well 
as  in  this  province,  is  taxed,  towards  the  recovery 
and  defence  of  their  estate  in  Pennsylvania,  that 
very  estate  alone  should  be  exempted,  and  they  so 
confident  of  its  right  to  an  exemption,  as  to  have 
no  reason  to  suspect  the  assembly  would  attempt  to 
tax  it. 

"  But  it  seems  '  the  assembly  have  represented 
them  in  an  untrue  light,  as  if  unwilling  to  assist 
the  publick,  by  contributing  towards  the  defence  of 
the  country,  though  no  application  had  ever  once 
been  made  to  them  for  that  purpose.'  How  far 
they  are  placed  in  an  untrue  light  on  this  account, 
will,  we  presume,  appear  before  we  finish  this  re- 
port. It  appears  too,  by  a  report  of  a  former  com- 
mittee. They  likewise  say,  '  no  application  was  ever 
once  made  to  them  for  their  assistance  towards  the 
defence  of  the  country.'  Heretofore  it  was  thought 
that  the  country  was  best  defended  by  maintaining 
peace  and  a  good  understanding  with  the  Indians. 
This  was  done  from  year  to  year  by  expensive  and 
repeated  presents.  The  proprietary  reaped  great 
advantages  from  this  good  understanding  and  these 
presents,  in  his  bargains  with  the  Indians  for  lands. 
The  expences  grew  yearly  more  and  more  heavy, 
and  repeated  humble  applications  were  made  to  the 
proprietaries,  that  they  would  be  pleased  to  bear  a 
part,  but  without  success.  They  vouchsafed  indeed 
an  answer  to  the  last  application,  but  it  was  to  re- 
ject it  with  the  utmost  pride  and  scorn,  claiming  an 
inherent  right  of  exemption  of  their  estate  from  all 
public  charges  whatsoever,  in  virtue  of  their  being 
governors  as  well  as  proprietaries.  And  the  Sixty 
Thousand  Pound  Bill  is  called  an  attempt  of  the  as- 
sembly, by  '  an  act  of  theirs,'  to  charge  the  proprie- 
tary estate,  as  if  they  had  presumed  to  do  it  aloue, 
by  their  own  authority.  The  assembly  could  not  pos- 
sibly think  of  taxing  the  proprietary  estate,  without 
the  consent  of  the  proprietaries  by  their  deputy  ; 
the  bill  was  therefore  another  humble  application 
to  the  proprietaries  for  their  consent  to  a  thing  so 
reasonable  :  and  the  very  stile  of  it  was,  '  we  pray 
that  it  may  be  enacted.'  But  that  prayer  could 
not  be  granted,  though  the  province  was  on  the 
brink  of  ruin.  And  yet  it  seems  the  proprietaries 
were  not  'unwilling;'  though  their  deputy  do- 
clared  they  had  expressly  restrained  him  even  by 
the  words  of  his  commission  !  The  bill,  however, 
is  stigmatized  with  the  character  of  '  most  unjust 
and  extraordinary.'  Thus  it  is,  when  men  judge 
in  their  own  cases.  These  gentlemen  think  it  un- 
just to  tax  their  estates,  though  all  the  world  thinks 
otherwise.  As  provincial  taxes  had  not  been  usual, 
it  might  be  so  far  extraordinary  ;  but  the  mode  of 
taxation  was  by  no  means  extraordinary,  being  the 
same  with  that  of  raising  our  county  rates  and  le- 
vies, long  used  and  approved  by  the  province.  And 
the  taxing  of  proprietary  lands  is  ust-d  both  in  New 
Jersey  and  Maryland;  and  located  unimproved 
lands  have  formerly  been  taxed  in  this  province. 
Had  such  been  taxed  every  where  from  the  first 
settlement  of  America,  we  conceive  it  would  have 
tended  to  the  increase  of  the  inhabitants ;  and  the 


UNITED  STATES. 


891 


greater  strength  of  the  colonies ;  for  then  such  im- 
mense quantities  of  land  would  not  have  been  mo- 
nopolized and  lain  dormant,  but  people  would  more 
easily  have  obtained  settlements,  and  been  seated 
closer  together. 

"But  the  proprietaries  would  have  it  understood, 
that  it  is  not  for  their  own  sake  only,  that  they  object 
to  the  Fifty  Thousand  Pound  Bill  which  was  refused, 
or  the  Sixty  Thousand  Pound  Act  that  passed. 
They  are  tenderly  concerned  for  the  estates  of  others. 
No  part  of  the  lands  of  a  delinquent,  who  refuses  or 
neglects  to  pay  his  tax,  ought,  in  their  opinion,  to  be 
sold  for  payment ;  though  lands  in  America  are  by  act 
of  parliament  made  liable  to  be  sold  for  discharge  of 
debts,  and  were  almost  always  so  here  by  the  laws  of 
this  province.  If  lands,  or  parts  of  land  may  be  sold 
to  satisfy  private,  why  not  publick  debts  ?  And 
though  it  be  unusual  in  England,  it  has  long  been 
the  practice,  as  we  are  informed,  in  several  of  the 
colonies,  particularly  in  New  England.  But  they 
say,  a  '  tax  of  one  shilling  in  the  pound,  on  the 
whole  value,  is  what  never  was  laid,  nor  can  possi- 
bly be  paid,  in  any  country.'  Strange  !  may  not 
a  country  in  imminent  danger  give  a  twentieth 
part  of  their  estates  to  save  the  other  nineteen  ?  Is 
it  impossible  even  to  give  a  half,  or  three-fourths, 
to  save  the  other  half  or  quarter  ?  May  they  not 
even  give  nineteen  parts  to  save  the  twentieth  ? 
The  proprietary's  gift  of  5000*.,  they  afterwards 
say,  is  twenty  times  more  than  their  tax,  if  fairly 
and  equally  assessed,  could  by  that  bill  have 
amounted  to.  If  so,  it  is  possible  to  give  the  whole 
twenty  parts.  But  it  has  always  been  understood, 
that  estates  are  not  to  be  taxed  to  the  full  value 
they  might  singly  sell  for.  In  the  same  bill  it  was 
provided,  that  located  unimproved  lauds  should  not 
be  valued  in  the  rates  at  more  than  15*.  per  100 
acres  ;  when  it  is  well  known,  that  the  proprietary's 
lowest  price  for  wild  lands  on  the  frontiers,  is 
15*.  10*.  per  hundred;  and  that  the  located  un- 
improved lands  in  their  manors,  are,  some  of 
them  valued  at  300*.  or  400*.  per  100;  they  may 
therefore  well  say,  that  'if  that  tax  had  been 
fully  assessed,  it  must  have  amounted  to  many 
times  the  sum ;'  but  then  their  next  assertion  is 
somewhat  inconsistent,  viz.  :  That  the  bill  laying 
this  tax  was  '  most  unjustly  calculated  for  the  pur- 
pose of  putting  it  in  the  power  of  the  assessors  to 
tax  the  proprietary  estates  up  to  the  full  value, 
and  to  ease  other  persons,  by  taxing  them  so  lightly 
as  only  to  make  up  the  residue  of  the  50,000*.,  in 
which  case,  much  the  greatest  part  of  the  burden 
might  have  been  laid  on  the  proprietary  estates 
alone.'  The  value  of  the  proprietary  estate  has 
long,  for  prudential  reasons,  been  kept  a  profound 
secret ;  and  the  proprietaries  have  lately  given 
5000*.  rather  than  submit  it  to  the  inquiry  of  the  as- 
sessors. But  your  committee  conceive  some  light 
may  be  obtained  on  that  head,  from  this  part  of  the 
instruction  compared  with  the  Fifty  Thousand  Pound 
Bill.  By  that  bill,  their  wild,  unsurveyed,  or  unlo- 
cated  lands,  which  are  many  millions  of  acres,  were 
not  to  be  taxed  at  all,  thoug'h  they  never  sell  any  of 
them  for  less  than  15*.  10s.  per  100  acres.  Their 
taxable  estate  consists  chiefly  in  located  (though 
uncultivated)  tracts  and  manors,  and  in  the  re- 
served quit-rents  arising  from  the  lands  they  have 
sold.  These  manors  and  tracts  are  generally 
choice,  being  of  the  best  lands,  picked  out  of  every 
new  purchase  from  the  Indians  by  their  surveyors, 
before  the  office  is  opened,  and  laid  by  for  a  market, 
not  to  be  disposed  of  till  all  the  surrounding  lands 


are  sold  and  settled.  This  has  increased  their  value 
prodigiously,  so  that  they  are  now,  one  with  an- 
other, valued  at  more  than  300*.  per  100:  yet  by 
the  bill,  they  were  not  to  be  taxed  as  worth  more 
than  15*.  per  100.  And  they  own,  that  by  the 
.same  bill,  '  their  quit-rents  were  to  be  taxed  in 
the  same  manner  as  other  estates,'  consequently,  as 
great  an  abatement  to  be  made  in  the  valuation. 
And  yet  by  this  same  bill,  under  this  very  moderate 
valuation  of  their  estate,  they  say,  it  would  have 
been  in  the  power  of  the  assessors  to  have  laid 
much  the  greatest  part  of  the  burden  on  their 
estates  alone.  Now,  much  the  greatest  part  of 
50,000*.  may  be  40,000*. ;  but  we  will  say  (for  mo- 
deration's sake)  it  is  only  30,000*.,  and  that  sum 
might  have  been  raised  by  that  bill,  on  the  proprie- 
tary estates,  in  two  years,  by  a  tax  of  one  shilling 
in  the  pound,  i.e.  15,000*.  per  annum.  The  shil- 
lings in  15,000*.  are  300,000,  consequently,  their 
estates  at  that  low  valuation  are  worth  300,000*. 
But  if  you  multiply  that  valuation  by  twenty,  to 
bring  it  nearer  the  truth,  those  estates  must  amount 
to  6,000,000*.,  exclusive  of  their  wild  lands  as 
aforesaid.  If  this  computation  be  too  high,  they 
may  be  able  hereafter  to  show  its  mistakes.  At 
present  we  conceive  the  consequences  fairly  drawn 
from  facts  and  their  own  premises.  And  yet  this 
their  enormous  estate  is,  by  their  instructions,  to 
be  exempted,  while  all  their  fellow-subjects  groan 
under  the  weight  of  taxes  for  its  defence !  it  being 
the  first  attacked  in  the  present  war,  and  part  of  it 
on  the  Ohio,  the  prize  contended  for  by  the  enemy. 
For  though  they,  towards  the  end  of  this  instruc- 
tion, pretend  to  be  '  most  ready  and  willing  to  bear 
a  just  proportion  along  with  their  tenants  in  any 
necessary  tax  for  the  defence  of  the  province,'  yet 
this  appears  clearly  to  be  a  mere  pretence,  since 
they  absolute1}-  except  their  quit-rents,  and  their 
located  unimproved  lands,  their  fines,  and  the  pur- 
chase-monies they  have  at  interest ;  that  is,  in  a 
manner,  their  whole  estate,  as  your  committee 
know  of  little  they  have  left  to  be  taxed,  but  a 
ferry-house  or  two,  a  kitchen,  and  a  dog-kennel. 

"  But  unimproved  lands  should  not,  in  our  pro- 
prietaries' opinion,  pay  any  taxes,  because  '  they 
yield  no  annual  profit.'  This  may  deceive  people 
in  England  (where  the  value  of  land  is  much  at  a 
stay),  as  they  are  unacquainted  with  the  nature  of 
landed  estates  in  growing  plantations.  Here  new 
lands,  without  cultivation,  without  fencing,  or  so 
much  as  cutting  down  a  tree,  being  reserved  and 
laid  by  for  a  market  till  the  surrounding  lands  are 
settled,  improve  much  more  in  yearly  value  even 
than  money  at  interest  upon  interest.  Thirty  years 
ago,  the  best  and  richest  lands  near  the  proprietary's 
Conestogoe  manor,  were  worth  and  sold  for  about 
40*.  per  100  acres.  That  manor  was  then  laid  our. 
and  reserved,  containing  near  17,000  acres :  and 
now  the  lands  of  that  very  manor,  which,  though  so 
long  located,  have  never  yet  been  cultivated,  will 
sell  for  350*.  per  100  acres  ;  which  is  near  nine  for 
one,  or  800  per  cent,  advance !  Can  an  estate 
thus  producing  25  per  cent,  per  annum  on  the 
prime  cost,  be  with  any  propriety  called,  '  an 
estate  yielding  no  annual  profit?'  Is  it  not  a  well- 
known  practice  in  the  colonies,  to  lay  out  great 
sums  of  ready  money  for  lands,  without  the  least 
intent  of  cultivation,  but  merely  to  sell  them  again 
hereafter?  Would  people  follow  this  practice  if 
they  could  not  make  more  profit  of  their  money  in 
that  way  than  by  employing  it  in  improvement  of 
land,  in  trade,  or  in  putting  it  to  interest,  though 


892 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


interest  in  the  plantations  is  from  six  to  ten  per 
cent.  Does  not  such  land,  though  otherwise  unim- 
proved, improve  continually  in  its  value  ?  How 
mean  and  unjust  is  it  then,  in  these  gentlemen,  to 
attempt  to  conceal  the  advantages  of  this  kind  of 
estate,  and  screen  it  from  taxes,  by  lurking  under 
the  ambiguous  and  deceitful  terms,  of  unimproved 
lands,  and  lands  yielding  no  annual  profit  ? 

"  Meanly  unjust  indeed,  in  this  instance,  do  they 
appear  to  your  committee  ;  who  cannot  but  observe, 
that  the  proprietaries,  knowing  their  own  inclina- 
tions to  screen  their  own  estates,  and  load  those  of 
the  people,  from  thence  suspected  the  people  might 
be  equally  unjust,  and  intend,  by  the  Fifty  Thousand 
Pound  Bill,  to  ease  their  estates,  and  load  those  of 
the  proprietaries.  '  The  bill,  say  they,  appears  to 
us  to  be  most  unjustly  calculated,  for  the  purpose  of 
putting  it  in  the  power  of  persons,  wholly  chosen 
by  the  people,  to  tax  our  estates  up  to  the  full  value 
therein  mentioned,  and  to  ease  other  persons  by 
taxing  them  so  lightly,  as  only  to  make  up  the  re- 
sidue that  might  be  wanted  to  complete  the  50,UOO/. 
In  which  case  the  persons  chosen  by  the  people 
might  have  laid  by  much  the  greatest  part  of  the 
burden  upon  our  estates  alone.'  Had  they  intended 
to  raise  much  the  greatest  part  of  the  tax  of  50,000£. 
on  the  proprietaries'  estate,  would  the  house  so  rea- 
dily have  accepted  of  5000£.  in  lieu  of  their  share 
of  that  tax  ?  But  why  this  suspicion  of  the  assem- 
bly ?  What  instance  of  injustice  can  the  proprieta- 
taries  charge  them  with,  that  could  give  ground  for 
such  a  supposition  ?  If  they  were  capable  of  "such 
an  intention,  and  an  endeavour  to  get  iniquity  es- 
tablished by  a  law,  must  they  not  be  the  most  unjust 
and  dishonest  of  men  ?  The  assessors,  it  is  true, 
are  chosen  by  the  people ;  they  always  were  so  by 
our  Jaws ;  and  let  a  man's  estate  be  ever  so  great, 
he  has  but  one  vote  in  the  choice  of  them :  but 
have  the  proprietaries  no  friends  in  the  province? 
What  is  become  of  all  their  dependants  and  expect- 
ants ;  those  in  place,  or  hoping  for  places;  the 
thousands  in  their  debt;  the  mortgagors  at  their 
mercy  ?  Will  none  of  these,  out  of  love,  or  hope, 
or  fear,  vote  for  honest  assessors,  that  may  take 
care  the  proprietary  is  not  oppressed  by  the  weight 
of  an  unjust  tax?  Could  the  assembly  be  certain, 
that  the  whole  people  were  so  wicked,  as  to  join  in 
choosing  aud  trusting  sets  of  dishonest  assessors, 
merely  to  wrong  the  proprietary  ?  Are  there  no 
laws  in  the  province  against  perjury?  Are  not  the 
assessors  by  law  to  be  sworn  or  affirmed  to  as- 
sess themselves  and  all  others  impartially?  and 
have  they  not  always  been  chosen  as  men  of  note 
for  probity  and  justice  ?  What  a  dark  prospect 
must  a  man's  own  heart  afford  him,  when  he  can 
from  thonce  form  such  ideas  of  the  hearts  of  a  whole 
people !  A  people  famous  throughout  the  world 
for  the  justice  and  equity  of  their  laws,  the  purity 
of  their  manners,  their  humanity  and  hospitality  to 
strangers,  their  affection  to  their  late  honoured 
proprietary,  their  faithfulness  in  their  manufactures 
and  produce,  and  uprightness  in  all  their  dealings  ! 
and  to  whose  virtue  and  industry  these  very  gentle- 
men owe  all  their  present  greatness  ! 

"  The  proprietaries  are  pleased  farther  to  say, 
'  That  the  laying  taxes  on  the  real  value  of  the  fee- 
simple,  and  the  sale  of  land  for  the  payment  of 
taxes,  are  contrary  to  the  laws  and  statutes  of  Great 
Britain.'  Your  committee  cannot  find  that  any 
laws  or  statutes  were  ever  made  in  Great  Britain 
to  regulate  the  mode  of  laying  taxes  in  the  planta- 
tions; and  if  there  are  none  such,  our  bill  could  not 


be  contrary  to  what  never  existed.  In  Virginia 
the  taxes  are  laid  on  slaves,  and  paid  in  tobacco; 
and  every  colony  has  its  own  mode  of  taxation, 
suited  to  its  own  circumstances,  almost  all  different 
from  each  other,  as  well  as  from  that  used  in  Eng- 
land. But  different  from,  and  contrary  to,  we 
conceive  to  be  distinct  and  different  things;  other- 
wise many  of  our  laws,  even  those  which  have  been 
approved  at  home,  and  received  the  royal  assent, 
are  contrary  to  the  laws  of  England.  But,  as  we 
said  before,  the  laws  of  England  themselves  make 
lands  liable  to  pay  debts  in  the  colonies ;  and  there- 
fore to  sell  them,  or  a  part  of  them,  to  pay  public 
debts,  is  not  contrary  to,  but  conformable  with,  the 
laws  of  England. 

"  But  the  proprietaries  '  cannot  find  that  the  quit- 
rents  reserved  to  the  crown,  in  any  of  the  other 
American  colonies,  have  ever  been  taxed  towards 
the  raising  any  supplies  granted  in  those  colonies ; 
and  indeed  those  quit-rents  are  generally  so  small, 
(meaning  the  king's  quit-rents,  we  suppose,  for 
their  own  surely  are  large  enough),  that  little  or  no 
land  tax  would  be  due  or  payable  on  them,  if  arising 
in  Great  Britain,  &c.'  If  your  committee  are 
rightly  informed,  the  king's  quit-rents  in  the  other 
colonies,  are  applied  to  public  purposes,  generally 
for  the  service  of  the  colony  that  raises  them.  When 
our  proprietaries  shall  think  fit  to  apply  those  arising 
here  in  the  same  manner,  we  believe  no  assembly 
will  attempt  to  tax  them.  The  smallness  of  the 
parts  we  cannot  conceive  to  be  a  good  reason  for  not 
taxing  the  whole.  Where  every  man  worth  less 
than  twenty  shillings  a  year  is  exempt  from  taxes, 
he  who  enjoys  a  thousand  a  year  might,  as  well  as 
our  proprietaries,  plead  to  be  excused,  for  that  his 
income  is  only  20,000s.,  each  of  which  shillings  is 
far  within  the  sum  exempted  by  law.  In  the  whole, 
though  what  arises  from  each  estate  be  no  great 
sum,  their  quit-rents  must  amount  to  a  very  great 
revenue;  and  their  speaking  of  them  in  the  diminu- 
tive terms  of  very  small  quit-rents  or  acknowledg- 
ments, is  only  to  amuse  and  deceive.  They  are 
property  ;  and  property  should  pay  for  its  own  pre- 
servation. They  ought  therefore  to  be  taxed  to  the 
defence  of  the  country.  The  proprietaries  indeed 
say  a  land  tax  was  unnecessary,  as  there  are  many 
other  ways  of  raising  money.  They  would  doubtless 
choose  any  way  in  which  their  estate  could  not  be 
included.  But  what  are  those  mauy  other  ways? 
Britain,  an  independent  state,  can  lay  infinite  du- 
ties, on  all  foreign  wares,  and  imported  luxuries. 
We  are  suffered  little  foreign  trade,  and  almost  all 
our  superfluities  are  sent  us  from  Britain  itself. 
Will  she  permit  us  to  discourage  their  importation 
by  heavy  imposts?  or  to  raise  funds  by  taxing  tier 
manufactures  ?  A  variety  of  excises  and  duties 
serve  only  to  multiply  offices  and  officers,  and  to 
make  a  part  of  the  people  pay  for  another  part  who 
do  not  choose  to  pay.  No  excise  or  duty  was  ever 
a  fair  and  equal  tax  on  property.  The  fairest,  as 
the  proprietaries  themselves  have  acknowledged,  is 
a  poundage  on  all  real  and  personal  estate,  accord- 
ing to  its  value. 

"  We  are  now  to  hear  of  the  generosity  of  the  pro- 
prietaries, who,  as  they  say,  'were  so  far  from  desiring 
not  to  contribute  to  the  defence  and  support  of  his 
majesty's  rights  and  dominions,  that  immediately 
on  the  first  notice  of  the  defeat  of  General  Brad- 
dock,  they  had  sent  over  an  order  upon  their  re- 
ceiver-general, to  pay  5, GOO/.,  as  a  free  gift  towards 
the  defence  of  the  said  province.'  We  may  pre- 
sume to  at-k  why,  when  they  knew  tho 


UNITED  STATES. 


893 


were   continually  worried  to  give  money,  and  the 
bills  in  which  it  was  offered  as  constantly  rejected; 


happy    situation,     the    prostiate    condition   of  our 
bleeding  country,  the  knife  of  the  savages  at  her 


why  did  they  not  unmanacle  •'  eir  governor,  and  at  throat,  our  soldiers  ready  to  mutiny  for  want  of  pay 
the  same  time  set  an  example  of  zeal  for  the  coin-  j  and  necessaries,  our  people  flying  in  despair  from 
mon  cause  by  a  generous  gift  on  their  part,  before  j  the  frontier  for  want  of  protection,  the  assembly  was 
they  heard  of  that  defeat  ?  Why  not,  as  soon  as  j  compelled  (like  Solomon's  true  mother),  to  wave 
they  knew  he  was  sent  to  America?  Why  not,  on  '  " 
Washington's  defeat,  or  before  his  first  expedition, 


as  soon  as  ever  their  province   was  attacked,  and 

they  learnt  that  tho  enemy  had  built  a  fort  in  it? 

But  the  truth  is,  the  order  was  sent,  not  immediately 

on  the  news  of  Braddock's  defeat ;  the  date  of  the 

order  will  show  that  it  was  a  month  after  that  news 

arrived  in  England.     But  it  was  immediately  after 

they   had  advice,  that  the  governor  had  refused  a 

grant  of  50,000/.  to  the  crown  for  the  defence  of 

the  proprietaries'  province,  because  their  estate  was 

taxed  in  the  bill,  alledging  restrictions  from  them 

on  that  head ;  against  which  all  the  world  exclaimed, 

and  an  universal   odium  was  falling  on  their  heads, 

and   the  king's  wrath  justly  dreaded ;  then  it  was, 

that  the  boasted  order  issued.     And  yet,  as  soon  as  |  proprietary  estate  disproportionately,  &c.'  is,  to  our 

their  fears  subsided,  it  was  sincerely  repented,  and 

every  underhand  step  taken  to  get  the  act,  in  which 

their  gift  was  fixed,  disapproved  at  home ;  though, 


her  right,  to  alter  our  money-bills,  abridge  our  free 
grant  to  the  crown  by  one  half,  and,   in  short,  to 


receive  and  enact  a  law  not  agreeable  to  our  judg- 
ments, but  such  as  was  made  for  us  by  the  proprie- 
tary instructions,  and  the  will  and  pleasure  of  the 
governor's  council;  whereby  our  constitution,  and 
the  liberties  of  our  country  are  wounded  iu  the 
most  essential  part,  and  even  violated  and  destroyed. 
We  have  reason  to  confide,  however,  in  the  justice 
of  our  sovereign  and  a  British  parliament,  that  this 
tyranny  shall  not  long  subsist;  and  we  hope  no 
time  will  be  lost  in  making  the  proper  application. 

"  In  tine,  we  must  say,  in  justice  to  the  house, 
that  the  proprietary's  charge  against  the  assembly, 
as  '  being  inclined  by  their  authority  to  tax  the 


if  they  had  succeeded,  when  the  bills  emitted  were 


poor   soldiers,    who  had  received  them  in  pay  for 
their  services,  would  have  been   ruined,  and  multi- 


knowledge,  groundless  and  unjust.  They  had  as 
little  inclination  as  authority  to  wrong  him.  They 
have  not,  it  seems,  authority  enough  to  oblige  him 
to  do  justice.  As  to  their  inclination,  they  bear 


abroad,  and  in  the  hands  of  the  publick,  many  of  the    everyone  of  them,  and  maintain,  the   character  of 

honest  men.  When  the  proprietaries  shall  be  truly 
willing  to  bear  an  equitable  part  of  the  publick 
burden  ;  when  they  shall  renounce  their  exorbitant 


tudes  of  others  greatly  injured.     And,  after  all,  this 

free  gift,  to  be  immediately  paid,  is  not  yet  paid,  j  demand  of  rent   a's  the   exchange    shall    then   be ; 


though  more  than  a  year  is  elapsed  since  the  order 
was  given ;  and  contracts  entered  into  by  the  com- 
missioners in  confidence  of  receiving  that  money, 
are  yet  unsatisfied,  to  the  loss  and  disappointment 
of  many,  and  great  detriment  to  the  service. 

"  However,  if  we  will  have  a  land  tax,  they  are 
pleased  to  form  a  bill  for  us,  or  at  least  to  direct 
what  clauses  shall  be  in,  and  what  shall  not  be  in 
it,  thus  violating  the  most  essential  right  of  the 
commons  in  a  British  constitution  !  and  with  this 
particular  injunction,  that  the  tax  shall  be  laid  for 
no  more  than  one  year;  and  shall  not  exceed  four 
shillings  in  the  pound  ou  the  income;  which,  esti- 
mating estates  at  twenty  years'  purchase,  is  about  a 
fifth  of  a  twentieth,  or,  in  plainer  words,  a  hundredth 
part  of  the  value.  Perhaps  this  may  be  well  enough 
in  times  of  tranquillity;  but  when  a  province  is 
invaded,  must  it  be  given  up  to  the  enemy  if  a  tax 
of  the  hundredth  penny  is  not  sufficient  to  save  it? 
Yes,  that  is  our  present  situation  ;  for  the  proprie- 
taries' instructions  are,  it  seems,  unalterable.  Their 
governor  is  bound  to  observe  and  inforc*  them, 
and  must  see  the  king's  province  perish  before  his 
eyes,  rather  than  deviate  from  them  a  single  tittle. 
This  we  have  experienced  within  a  few  days,  when 
advantage  being  cruelly  takeu  of  our  present  un- 


make restitution  of  the  money  which  they  have 
exacted  from  the  assemblies  of  this  province,  and 
sincerely  repent  of  their  extortion,  they  may  then, 
and  not  till  then,  have  some  claim  to  the  same  noble 


title" 

In    the  year 


John   Penn,   son  of  Richard 


Penn,  one  of  the  proprietaries,  succeeded  Governor 
Hamilton,  in  the  administration,  and  continued  till 
1771  :  when  the  government  devolved  on  the  coun- 
cil, James  Hamilton  being  president  for  a  short 
time ;  till  in  the  latter  part  of  the  same  year,  Ri- 
chard Penn,  brother  of  Johu  Peun,  arrived  from 
England,  invested  with  the  powers  of  government. 

Richard  Penn  was  superseded  in  the  administra- 
tion by  his  brother,  John  Penn,  who  became  a  se- 
cond time  governor  of  the  province,  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  year  1771. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  revolutionary  war  the 
people  adopted  a  new  constitution,  by  which  the 
proprietor  was  excluded  from  all  share  in  the  go- 
vernment. He  was  offered,  and  finally  accepted 
the  sum  of  570,000  dollars,  in  discharge  of  all  quit- 
rents  due  from  the  inhabitants. 

We  have  thus  brought  down  the  history  of  Penn- 
sylvania to  that  period  from  whence  we  intend  to 
give  a  collective  history  of  all  the  states. 


MARYLAND. 


Origin — Government — First  settlers — House  of  assem- 
bly— Laws — Ingle's  insurrection — Power  of  taxa- 
tion—State during  the  protectorate — On  the  acces- 
sion of  William  and  Mary — Inspection  of  t/ie 
church — Establishment  of  the  Protestant  church — 
Value  of  the  colony  to  the  proprietary — General 
view  of  it. 

THE  history  of  Pennsylvania  has  necessarily  in- 
eluded  so  much  of  the  affairs  of  this  state,  owing  to 
the  dissension  of  the  proprietors,  that  we  shall  be 
very  brief  in  our  present  notice. 

This  state  was  granted  by  a  patent  of  King 
Charles  I.,  June  30,  1632,  to  George  Culvert, 
Baron  of  Baltimore,  in  Ireland,  who  had  been 
obliged,  on  account  of  the  French  government,  to 
abandon  the  province  of  Avalon,  in  Newfoundland, 
after  having  expended  25,000/.  in  its  advancemf-nt. 

The  government  of  this  province  was  by  charter 
vested  in  the  proprietary ;  but  it  appears  that  he 
either  never  exercised  these  powers  alone,  or  but 
for  a  short  time;  for  we  find,  in  1637,  that  the 
freemen  rejected  a  body  of  laws  drawn  u-p  in  Eng- 
land, and  transmitted  by  his  lordship,  in  order  to 
be  passed  for  the  government  of  the  province.  In 
the  place  of  these  they  proposed  42  bills  to  be 
enacted  into  laws,  by  the  consent  of  the  proprie- 
tary :  these  were,  however,  never  enacted,  at  least 
they  are  not  on  record. 

The  first  emigration  to  Maryland  consisted  of 
200  gentlemen,  of  considerable  fortune  and  rank, 
with  their  adherents,  chiefly  Roman  Catholics,  who 
hoped  to  enjoy  liberty  of  conscience  under  a  pro- 
prietary of  their  own  profession.  They  sailed  from 
England  in  November  1632,  and  landed  in  Mary- 
land the  beginning  of  1633.  The  honourable  Leo- 
nard Calvert,  brother  to  Lord  Baltimore,  who  was 
the  first  governor,  very  wisely  and  justly  purchased, 
by  presents  of  various  goods,  the  rights  of  the  In- 
dians, and  with  their  free  consent  took  possession 
of  their  town,  which  he  called  St.  Mary's.  The 
country  was  settled  with  so  much  ease,  and  fur- 
nished with  so  many  conveniences,  that  emigrants 
repaired  thither  in  such  numbers,  and  the  colony 
soon  became  populous  and  flourishing. 

In  1638  a  law  was  passed,  constituting  the  first  re- 
gular house  of  assembly,  which  was  to  consist  of  such 
representatives,  called  burgesses,  as  should  be  elected 
pursuant  to  writs  issued  by  the  governor.  These 
burgesses  possessed  all  the  powers  of  the  persons 
fleeting  them;  but  any  other  freemen,  who  did  not 
assent  to  the  election,  might  take  their  seats  in 
jerson.  Twelve  burgesses  or  freemen,  with  the 
lieutenant-general  and  secretary,  constituted  the 
assembly  or  legislature.  This  assembly  sat  at  St. 
Mary's. 

Slavery  seems  to  have  gained  an  early  establish- 
ment in  Maryland,  for  an  act  of  this  assembly  de- 
scribes "  the  people"  to  consist  of  all  Christian 
inhabitants,  "  slaves  only  excepted."  The  perse- 
cuting laws  which  were  passed  by  the  Virginians, 


soon  after  this  period,  against  the  Puritans,  made 
the  latter  emigrate  in  considerable  numbers  to  Ma- 
ryland, that  they  might  enjoy,  under  a  Popish  pro- 
prietary, that  liberty  of  conscience  of  which  they 
were  deprived  by  their  fellow  Protestants. 

In  1642  it  was  enacted,  that  ten  members  of  the 
assembly,  of  whom  the  governor  and  six  burgesses 
were  to  be  seven,  should  be  a  house ;  and  if  sickness 
should  prevent  that  number  from  attending,  the 
members  present  should  mike  a  house. 

In  1644  one  Ingle  excited  a  rebellion,  forced  the 
governor  to  fly  to  Virginia  for  aid  and  protection, 
and  seized  the  records  and  great  seal ;  the  last  of 
which,  with  most  of  the  records  of  the  province, 
were  lost  or  destroyed.  From  this  period,  to  the 
year  1647,  when  order  was  restored,  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  province  are  involved  in  almost  impene- 
trable obscurity. 

In  July  1648,  the  house  of  assembly,  or  more 
properly,  the  burgesses,  requested  that  they  might 
be  separated  into  two  branches — the  burgesses  by 
themselves,  with  a  negative  upon  bills.  This  was 
not  granted  by  the  lieutenant-general  at  that  time; 
bat  in  1650  an  act  was  passed,  dividing  the  assem- 
bly into  two  houses ;  the  governor,  secretary,  and 
any  one  or  more  of  the  council,  formed  the  upper 
house;  the  delegates  from  the  several  hundreds, 
who  now  represent  the  freemen,  formed  the  lower 
house.  At  this  time  there  were  in  the  province  but 
two  counties,  St.  Mary's,  and  the  Isle  of  Kent,  but 
another  (Ann  Arundel)  was  added  the  same  ses- 
sion. This  was  during  the  administration  of  Go- 
vernor Stone. 

In  this  year  there  was  also  passed  "  an  act 
against  raising  money  without  the  consent  of  the 
assembly."  It  enacted,  "  That  no  taxes  shall  be 
assessed  or  levied  on  the  freemen  of  the  province 
without  their  own  consent,  or  that  of  their  deputies, 
first  declared  in  a  general  assembly."  The  printed 
words  and  early  date  of  this  Maryland  act  are 
worthy  of  particular  notice.  The  acts  of  the  gene- 
ral assembly  and  governor  were  of  the  same  force 
in  their  own  province  as  acts  of  parliament  in  Eng- 
land, and  could  not  be  repealed  without  the  concur- 
ring assent  of  the  proprietary  or  his  deputy,  with  the 
other  two  estates. 

In  1654,  during  Cromwell's  usurpation  in  Eng- 
land, an  act  was  passed,  restraining  the  exercise  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  religion.  This  must  have  been 
procured  by  the  mere  terror  of  Cromwell's  power, 
for  the  first  and  principal  inhabitants  were  Catho- 
lics. Indeed  the  power  of  Cromwell  was  not  esta- 
blished in  Maryland  without  force  and  bloodshed. 
His  friends  and"  foes  came  to  an  open  rupture,  an 
engagement  ensued,  Governor  Stone  was  taken 
prisoner,  and  condemned  to  be  shot ;  this  sentence, 
however,  was  not  executed,  but  he  was  kept  a  long 
time  in  confinement. 

In  March  1658,  Josiah  Fendall,  Esq.  was  appointed 
lieutenant-general  of  Maryland,  by  commission 
from  Oliver  Cromwell;  he  dissolved  the  upper 


UNITED  STATES. 


895 


house,  and  surrendered  the  powers  of  government 
into  the  hands  of  the  delegates. 

Upon  the  restoration  it  reverted  to  Lord  Balti- 
more, who,  about  the  year  1GG2,  sent  over  his  son, 
Charles  Calvert,  to  be  his  governor  of  the  province, 
he  having  previously  obtained  a  confirmation  of  the 
grant  of  1631.  This  gentleman,  who  was  after- 
wards himself  Lord  Baltimore,  proved  one  of  the 
best  governors  that  any  English  plantation  ever 
had  in  America.  Though  he  was  a  Roman  Catho- 
lic, he  passed  an  act  of  the  assembly,  by  which  all 
Christians  of  every  denomination  had  liberty  to 
settle  in  the  province ;  and  his  administration  was 
so  mild,  moderate,  and  impartial,  that  the  English 
inhabitants  of  Maryland,  so  early  as  the  year  1665, 
amounted  to  16,000.  Even  the  Indian  nations  sub- 
mitted to  his  authority;  and  when  a  chief  called 
N-xocosco,  was  chosen  what  they  call  emperor  of 
Piscataway,  his  election  was  not  thought  to  be  valid, 
till  it  was  confirmed  by  the  governor  of  Maryland. 
In  every  other  respect  he  kept  his  promises  of  pro- 
tection and  encouragement  to  the  Protestants  as 
well  as  the  Papists  ;  nor  is  there,  during  all  the 
time  of  his  long  government,  (for  he  resided  there 
twenty  years,)  a  single  instance  of  an  invasion  upon 
the  rights,  properties,  or  privileges  of  any  indi- 
vidual. 

Sir  William  Berkeley,  a  violent  royalist,  was  at 
this  time  governor  of  Virginia,  where  many  severe 
laws  passed  against  the  dissenters.  This  son  of  the 
church  of  England  drove  great  numbers  of  them  into 
Maryland,  where  they  were  received  with  open 
arms,  and  kindly  entertained  by  the  popish  proprie- 
tary. In  the  year  1677,  the  Indian  war  in  Vir- 
ginia communicated  itself,  but  in  a  very  small  de- 
gree, to  Maryland,  and  tranquillity  was  soon  restored 
all  over  that  province  by  the  proprietary's  wisdom 
and  moderation.  The  comprehensive  maxims  of 
Lord  Baltimore  did  not  suit  those  of  James  II.  when 
he  mounted  the  throne  of  England.  Though  he 
had  granted  liberty  of  conscience  to  all  the  sectaries 
in  Great  Britain,  that  he  might  the  more  easily 
establish  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  there,  yet  his 
popish  counsellors  suggested  to  him,  that  such  a 
toleration  ought  not  to  take  place  in  a  province 
where  the  bulk  of  the  people  were  already  Roman 
Catholics.  A  resolution  was  therefore  taken  to  de- 
prive Lord  Baltimore  of  the  right  to  nominate  a 
governor  to  his  province  of  Maryland.  Even  after 
the  revolution,  the  design  of  taking  from  him  the 
right  of  nominating  the  governor  of  Maryland  was 
still  pursued.  Advantage  of  the  acts  of  parliament 
against  Papists  was  taken  against  him,  but  Lord 
Baltimore  had  the  spirit  to  dispute  his  right  inch 
by  inch  at  the  council-board;  and  though  his  lord- 
ship retained  that  of  proprietary,  he  was  deprived 
of  that  of  naming  a  governor,  or  a  council,  which 
power  was  vested  in  the  crown.  King  William 
appointed  Sir  Edmund  Andros  to  the  government 
of  Maryland.  This  gentleman  called  together  an 
assembly  in  1692,  who  recognised  the  right  of  King 
William  and  Queen  Mary  to  the  crown,  and  to  pre- 
vent any  inconveniences  arising  from  the  alteration 
of  the  judicature  in  the  province,  an  act  was  passed, 
confirming  all  law  proceedings,  excepting  where 
there  was  any  error  in  process  or  pleas.  When  an 
act  of  parliament  passed  concerning  the  succession  of 
declared  Papists  to  paternal  inheritances,  the  Balti- 
more family  very  wisely  declared  themselves  Pro- 
testants, and  were  ever  after  eminently  attached  to 
the  existing  constitution  in  church  and  state. 

Sir  Edmund  Andros  was  succeeded  in  the  govern- 


ment of  Maryland  by  Colonel  Nicholson,  who  passed 
the  act  of  confirmation  above  mentioned ;  in  which 
there  is  a  proviso,  that  nothing  in  the  act  should 
justify  Sir  Edmund  Andros  in  taking  and  disposing 
of  the  public  revenues,  or  debar  the  assembly,  or 
any  other  person,  of  their  right  or  claims  to  the 
same.  The  proprietary  enjoyed,  as  before,  the  re- 
venues of  the  province,  arising  by  grants  from  the 
assemblies,  the  exportation  of  tobacco,  the  sales  of 
uncultivated  and  unpurchased  lands,  and  various 
other  articles ;  all  which  constituted  a  very  consi- 
derable income.  Maryland  preserved  the  p'rivilege 
of  not  submitting  her  laws  to  Great  Britain  for 
confirmation,  as  long  as  it  was  subjected  to  that 
kingdom.  It  was  natural  for  the  government  of 
•England,  after  the  revolution,  when  the  crown  had 
appropriated  to  itself  the  appointment  of  the  gover- 
nor, to  inquire  more  minutely  into  the  state  of 
Maryland  than  into  that  of  any  other  of  the  Ameri- 
can colonies,  both  as  to  its  ecclesiastical  and  civil 
constitution.  In  1692  it  was  thought  proper  that 
the  bishop  of  London  should  appoint  a  commissary 
in  Maryland,  and  he  made  choice  of  Dr.  Thomas 
Bray,  who  went  thither  to  inspect  the  church  affairs 
of  the  province,  which  he  found  in  great  disorder, 
through  the  influence  of  the  Papists  on  the  one  hand, 
and  that  of  the  Quakers  on  the  other.  An  act  of  the 
assembly  that  same  year,  divided  the  then  counties 
into  30  parishes,  sixteen  of  which  were  supplied 
with  ministers,  provided  with  livings.  By  the  doc- 
tor's care  likewise,  the  people  were  furnished  with 
many  books  of  Protestant  practical  devotion,  and 
sereral  chapels  were  erected.  The  stipends  allowed 
to  the  ministers  were  fixed  by  a  perpetual  law  to  be 
according  to  the  taxable  individuals  in  each  parish. 
Every  Christian  male  of  sixteen  years  old,  Knd  Ne- 
groes, male  and  female,  above  that  age,  to  pay 
40  pounds  of  tobacco  yearly  to  the  minister,  to  be 
levied  by  the  sheriff,  and  thereby  each  minister,  one 
with  another,  would  have  an  income  of  about  20,000 
pounds  weight  of  tobacco,  equivalent  to  about 
100/.  sterling  a  year.  This  encouragement  was 
greatly  owing  to  Colonel  Nicholson's  zeal ;  for  be- 
fore his  time  the  people  of  the  colony  had  never 
seen  any  divines  of  the  church  of  England,  except- 
ing some  itinerent  preachers,  whose  morals  were  a 
reproach  to  their  profession.  This  neglect  had  given 
the  papists,  and  the  other  sectaries,  a  great  sway 
over  the  bulk  of  the  people  ;  but  in  a  few  years  the 
latter  were  so  well  reconciled  to  the  church  of  En- 
gland, that  it  became  the  chief  religion  in  the  pro- 
vince; and  their  audiences  were  even  crowded. 

Colonel  Nicholson  left  his  government  with  a 
good  character,  and  was  succeeded  by  Colonel  Na- 
thaniel Blakiston,  who  promised  to  tread  in  the 
steps  of  his  predecessors  ;  but  he  was  obliged  to  re- 
turn to  England  for  the  recovery  of  his  health ;  and, 
in  1703,  her  majesty  was  pleased  to  appoint  Colonel 
William  Seymour  to  be  governor.  This  gentleman, 
in  his  passage  to  Maryland,  in  the  Dreadnought 
man  of  war,  was  forced  to  put  into  Barbadoes,  and, 
being  afterwards  driven  off  the  coasts  of  Maryland, 
t  was  above  eight  months  from  his  departure  from 
England  before  he  arrived  at  his  government.  He 
likewise  had  a  good  character :  and  the  most  re- 
markable of  the  succeeding  governors  were  the  Colo, 
nels  Corbet  and  Hunt,  Mr.  Calvert,  Mr.  Bladen,  and 
Mr.  Ogle.  The  allowance  of  the  governor's  salary 
was  by  agreement,  with  the  proprietary,  and  there- 
fore uncertain  ;  but  the  value  of  the  proprietary's 
own  revenue  was  very  considerable.  His  original 
]uit-rent  was  fixed  at  two  shillings  sterling  a  year 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


for  every  100  acros.  In  time  ho  patented  vacant 
lands  for  double  that  sum,  and  at  last  he  endea- 
voured to  raise  the  quit-rent  to  ten  shillings  for  every 
100  acres;  but  failed  in  the  attempt,  though  there  is 
little  room  to  doubt,  that  in  the  subsequent  flourish- 
ing state  of  Maryland  ho  may  have  received  that 
sum.  .Some  years  after  the  assembly,  with  the  con- 
sent of  the  lord-proprietary,  granted  him  in  lieu  of 
his  quit-rents  for  three  years,  a  revenue  of  three 
shillings  and  sixpence  sterling  duty  on  every  hogs- 
head of  tobacco,  to  be  paid  by  the  shipper.  By  this 
expedient  the  landed  interest  was  cased  of  the 
burden  of  quit- rents;  but  this  scheme  did  not  hold. 
The  lord-proprietary,  by  this  new  method  of  collec- 
tion, received  no  more  than  5000/,  a  year ;  and 
therefore,  upon  the  expiration  of  the  three  years, 
he  reverted  to  the  revenue  arising  from  his  quit- 
rents.  Besides  those,  he  had  large  estates  in  many 
parts  of  the  province,  which  he  let  to  farm. 

The  situation  of  Maryland,  which  secured  it  in  a 
great  measure  from  the  rapine  and  incursions  of  the 
Indians,  has  at  all  times  preserved  it  in  a  tolerable 
state  of  tranquillity  ;  and  consequently  it  affords  but 
little  subject  for  history ;  the  natives  having  wisely 
applied  themselves  to  the  culture  of  their  country. 
And  as  the  remaining  portion  of  its  history  until 
the  revolutionary  war,  is  best  learnt  in  the  progress 
of  its  domestic  affairs,  we  shall  conclude  this  part 
of  our  account  with  a  slight  view  of  its  interaal 
condition. 

This  state  is  situated  between  38  and  40  degrees 
north  latitude;  its  length  is  about  134  miles,  and 
its  breadth  110.  It  is  bounded  on  the  north  by  the 
state  of  Pennsylvania;  on  the  east  by  the  state  of 
Delaware ;  and  on  the  south-east  and  south  by  the 
Atlantic  ocean  ;  and  a  line  drawn  from  the  ocean 
over  the  peninsula  (dividing  it  from  Accomack 
county  in  Virginia,)  to  the  mouth  of  the  Potomac 
river ;  thence  up  the  Potomac  to  its  source  ;  thence 
by  a  north  line  till  it  intersects  the  southern  bound- 
ary of  Pennsylvania,  in  latitude  39°  43'  18" ;  so 
that  it  has  Virginia  on  the  south,  south-west  and 
west ;  it  contains  about  14,000  square  miles,  of 
which  from  one-sixth  to  one-fourth  is  water. 

The  climate  is  in  general  mild  and  agreeable, 
suited  to  agricultural  productions,  and  a  great  vari- 
ety of  fruit  trees  :  the  air  in  the  interior  of  the 
country  is  salubrious,  and  favourable  to  the  inha- 
bitants, who  in  the  hilly  parts  are  as  healthy  as  in 
any  part  of  the  Union  ;  but  in  the  flat  lauds  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  marshes  and  stagnant  waters,  as 
in  the  other  southern  states,  they  are  subject  to  in- 
termittent and  other  complaints  common  to  swampy 
situations. 

East  of  the  blue  ridge  of  mountains,  which 
stretches  across  the  western  part  of  this  state,  the 
land,  like  that  in  all  the  southern  states,  is  gene- 
rally level  and  free  of  stones;  and  appears  to  have 
been  made  much  in  the  same  way;  of  course  the 
soil  must  be  similar,  and  the  natural  growth  not 
remarkably  different. 

The  ground  is  uniformly  level  and  low  in  most 
of  the  counties  on  the  eastern  shore,  and  conse- 
auently  covered  in  many  places  with  stagnant  water, 
except  where  it  is  intersected  by  numerous  creeks. 
Here  also  are  large  tracts  of  marsh,  which,  during 
the  day,  load  the  atmosphere  with  vapour,  that 
again  falls  in  dew  in  the  close  of  the  summer  and 
fall  seasons. 

Chesapeake  bay  divides  this  state  into  the  eastern 
and  western  divisions.  This  bay,  the  largest  in  the 
United  States,  affords  many  good  fisheries,  and  is 


remarkable  for  the  excellence  of  its  crabs,  and  also 
for  a  particular  species  of  wild  duck,  called  Canvas- 
back.  In  a  commercial  view,  this  bay  is  of  im- 
mense advantage  to  the  state  ;  it  receives  a  num- 
ber of  large  rivers.  From  the  eastern  shore  in  Mary- 
land, among  'other  smaller  ones,  it  receives  the 
Pocomoke,  Nantikoke,  Choptank,  Chester  and  Elk 
rivers ;  from  the  north,  the  rapid  Susquehanna ; 
and  from  the  west,  the  Patapsco,  Severn,  Patuxent 
and  Potomac,  half  of  which  is  in  Maryland,  and  half 
in  Virginia.  Except  the  Susquehanna  and  Potomac, 
these  are  small  rivers.  Patapsco  river  is  but  about 
30  or  40  yards  wide  at  the  ferry,  just  before  it 
empties  into  the  basin  upon  which  Baltimore  stands  ; 
its  source  is  in  York  county,  in  Pennsylvania  ;  its 
course  is  southwardly  till  it  reaches  El'kridge  land- 
ing, about  eight  miles  westward  oi'  Baltimore;  it 
then  turns  eastward,  in  a  broad  bay-like  stream,  by 
Baltimore,  which  it  leaves  on  the  north,  and  passes 
into  the  Chesapeake. 

The  entrance  into  Baltimore  harbour,  about  a 
mile  below  Fell's  Point,  is  hardly  a  pistol-shot  a  cross, 
and  of  course  may  be  easily  defended  against  naval 
force. 

Severn  is  a  short,  inconsidr-rable  river,  passing  by 
Annapolis,  which  it  leaves  to  the  south,  emptying 
by  a  broad  mouth  into  the  Chesapeake. 

Patuxent  is  a  larger  river  than  the  Patapsco  ;  it 
rises  in  Ann  Arundel  county,  and  runs  south-east- 
wardly,  and  then  east  into  the  bay,  fifteen  or  twenty 
miles  north  of  the  mouth  of  the  Potomac.  There 
are  also  several  small  rivers,  such  as  the  Wighcoco- 
mico,  Eastern  Branch,  Munocasy  and  Conegochea- 
gue,  which  empty  into  the  Potomac  from  the  Mary- 
land side. 

The  soil  of  the  good  land  in  Maryland  is  of  such 
a  nature  and  quality  as  to  produce  from  twelve  to 
sixteen  bushels  of  wheat,  or  from  20  to  30  bushels 
of  Indian  corn  per  acre.  Ten  bushels  of  wheat,  and 
fifteen  bushels  of  corn  per  acre,  may  be  the  annual 
average  crops  in  the  state  at  largp. 

Wheat  and  tobacco  are  the  staple  commodities. 
Tobacco  is  generally  cultivated  in  sets,  by  negroes, 
in  the  following  manner:  the  seed  is  sown  in  beds 
of  fine  mould,  and  transplanted  the  beginning  of 
May  ;  the  plants  are  set  at  the  distance  of  three  or 
four  feet  from  each  other,  and  are  hilled  and  kept 
continually  free  of  weeds  :  when  as  many  leaves 
have  shot  out  as  the  soil  will  nourish  to  advantage, 
the  top  of  the  plant  is  broken  off.  which  prevents 
its  growing  higher  :  it  is  carefully  kept  clear  of 
worms,  and  the  suckers,  which  put  out  between  the 
leaves,  are  taken  off  al  proper  times,  till  the  plant 
arrives  at  perfection,  which  is  in  August  :  when  the 
leaves  turn  of  a  brownish  colour,  and  .begin  to  be 
spotted,  the  plant  is  cut  down  and  hung  up  to  dry, 
after  having  sweated  in  heaps  one  night.  When'it 
can  be  handled  without  crumbling,  which  is  always 
in  moist  weather,  the  leaves  are  stripped  from  the 
stalk,  and  tied  in  bundles,  and  packed  for  exporta- 
tion in  hogsheads,  containing  800  or  900  pounds, 
No  suckers  nor  ground  leaves  are  allowed  to  be 
merchantable.  An  industrious  person  may  ma- 
nage 6000  plants  of  tobacco, which  yield  10UO/.,  and 
four  acres  of  Indian  corn. 

In  the  interior  country,  on  the  uplands,  consider- 
able quantities  of  hemp  and  flax  are  raised.  In 
1751,  in  the  month  of  October,  no  less  than  60 
waggons  loaded  with  flax  seed  came  down  to  Balti- 
more from  the  back  country. 

Two  articles  are  said  to  be  peculiar  to  Maryland, 
viz.  the  genuine  white  wheat,  which  grows  in  Kent, 


UNITED  STATES. 


897 


Queen  Ann's  and  Talbot  counties,  on  the  easier 
shore,  and  which  degenerates  in  other  places,  an 
the  bright  kite's  foot  tobacco,  which  is  produced  < 
Elkridge,  on  the  Patuxent,  on  the  western  shore. 
Among  other  kinds  of  amber  is  the  oak,  of  severs 
kinds,  which  is  of  a  straight  grain,  and  easily  rivt 
into  staves  for  exportation.  The  black  walnut  is  i 
demand  for  cabinet,  tables  and  other  furniture.  Th 
apples  of  this  state  are  large,  but  mealy ;  th 
peaches  plenty  and  good  :  from  these  the  inhabitant 
distil  cider  and  peach  brandy. 

In  Worcester  county  a  species  of  grape-vine,  of 
peculiar  kind,  has  been  discovered.  The  b?rk  is  o 
a  gray  colour,  very  smooth,  and  the  wood  of  a  firm 
texture.  They  delight  in  a  high  sandy  soil,  but  wi 
thrive  very  well  in  the  Cyprus  swamps.  The  leaf  i 
very  much  like  that  of  the  English  grape-vine,  sue, 
as  is  propagated  in  the  gardens  near  Philadelphi 
for  table  use.  The  grape  is  much  larger  than  th 
English,  of  an  oval  shape,  and  when  quite  ripe,  i 
black,  adorned  with  a  number  of  pale  red  specks 
which  on  handling  rub  off.  The  pulp  is  a  little  lik 
the  fox  grape,  but  in  taste  more  delicious.  Thes 
grapes  are  ripe  in  October,  and  yield  an  incredibl 
quantity  of  juice,  which,  with  proper  management 
would  no  doubt  make  a  valuable  wine. 

There  is  an  immense  quantity  of  these  vine 
growing  on  the  beach,  open  to  the  sea ;  and  the; 
are  also  found  in  great  plenty  upou  the  ridges  am 
in  the  swamps. 

The  forests  abound  with  nuts  of  various  kinds 
which  are  collectively  called  mast ;  on  this  masi 
great  numbers  of  swine  are  fed,  which  run  wild  in 
the  woods:  these  swine,  when  fatted,  are  caught, 
killed,  barrelled,  and  exported  in  great  quantities, 
This  traffic  formerly  was  carried  on  to  a  very  con- 
siderable extent.  Mines  of  iron  ore  are  found  in 
several  parts  of  this  state,  of  a  superior  quality. 

This  state  is  at  present  divided  into  nineteen 
counties,  eleven  of  which  are  on  the  western  shore 
of  Chesapeake  bay,  viz.  Hartford,  Baltimore,  Ann 
Arundel,  Frederick,  Alleghany.  Washington,  Mont- 
gomery, Prince  George,  Calvert,  Charles  and  St. 
Mary's;  and  eight  on  the  eastern  shore,  viz.  Cecil, 
Kent,  Queen  Ann,  Caroline,  Talbot,  Somerset, 
Dorchester  and  Worcester.  The  principal  towns 
in  this  state  are  as  follow  : — 

Annapolis  (city)  is  the  capital  of  Maryland,  and 
the  wealthiest  town  of  its  size  in  America :  it  is 
situated  at  the  mouth  of  Severn  river,  and  was  origi 
nally  known  by  that  name,  which  was  changed  for 
its  present  one  in  1694,  when  it  was  made  a  port 
i,o\vn,  and  the  residence  of  a  collector  and  naval 
officer  •  it  stands  on  a  healthy  spot,  30  miles  south 
of  Baltimore,  in  north  latitude  39°  2' :  it  is  a  place 
of  but  little  note  in  the  commercial  world.  The 
houses,  about  300  in  number,  are  generally  large 
and  elegant,  indicative  of  great  wealth ;  the  num- 
ber of  inhabitants  do  not  exceed  2500.  The  de- 
sign of  those  wha  planned  the  city  was  to  have  the 
whole  in  the  form  of  a  circle,  with  the  streets  like 
radii,  beginning  at  the  centre  where  the  state-house 
stands,  and  thence  diverging  in  every  direction.  The 
principal  part  of  the  buildings  are  arranged  agree- 
ably to  this  awkward  and  stupid  plan.  It  has  a  state 
house,  which  is  an  elegant  building. 

Baltimore  has  had  the  most  rapid  growth  of  any 
town  on  the  continent,  and  is  the  fourth  in  size  and 
the  fifth  in  trade  in  the  United  States.  It  lies  in 
latitude  39°  21',  on  the  north  side  of  Patapsco  river, 
round  what  is  called  the  basin,  in  which  the  water, 
at  common  tides,  is  about  five  or  six  feet  deep.  Bal- 
HIST.  OK  AMEK. — Nos.  113  &  114. 


timore  is  divided  into  the  town  and  Fell's  Point  by 
a  creek,  over  which  are  two  bridges.  At  Fell's- 
point  the  water  is  deep  enough  for  ships  of  burden  ; 
but  small  vessels  only  go  up  to  the  town.  The  situ- 
ation of  the  town  is  low,  and  was  formerly  un- 
healthy ;  but  the  increase  of  houses,  and  of  course 
of  smoke,  the  tendency  of  which  is  to  destroy  or 
dispel  damp  and  unwholesome  vapours,  and  the 
improvements  that  have  been  made,  particularly 
that  of  paving  the  streets,  have  rendered  it  tolerably 
healthy. 

Market-street  is  the  principal  street  in  the  town, 
and  runs  nearly  east  and  west  a  mile  in  length, 
parallel  with  the  water ;  this  is  crossed  by  several 
other  streets  leading  from  the  water,  a  number  of 
which,  particularly  Calvert,  South  and  Gay-streets, 
are  well  built.  North  and  east  of  the  town  the  land 
rises  and  affords  a  fine  prospect  of  the  town  and 
bay. 

George-town  stands  on  the  bank  of  the  Potomac 
river,  about  160  miles  from  its  entrance  into 
Chesapeake  bay.  The  ground  on  which  it  stands  is 
very  broken,  being  a  cluster  of  little  hills,  which, 
though  at  present  elevated  considerably  above  the 
surface  of  the  river,  were  probably  at  some  former 
aeriod  overflowed ;  as  at  the  depth  of  eight  or  ten 
eet  below  the  surface  marine  shells  have  been 
bund. 

Frederick-town  is  a  fine  flourishing  inland  town, 
>f  upwards  of  300  houses,  built  principally  of  brick 
ind  stone,  and  mostly  on  one  broad  street .  it  is 
ituated  in  a  fertile  country,  about  four  miles  south 
if  Catokton  mountain,  and  is  a  place  of  considerable 
rade :  it  has  four  places  for  public  worship ;  one 
or  Presbyterians,  two  for  Dutch  Lutherans  and 
Ualvinists,  and  one  for  Baptists ;  besides  a  public 
?aol  and  a  brick  market-house. 

Hagars-town  is  but  little  inferior  to  Frederick- 
own,  and  is  situated  in  the  beautiful  and  well  cul- 
ivated  valley  of  Conegocheague,  and  carries  on  a 
onsiderable  trade  with  the  western  country. 

Elkton  is  situated  near  the  head  of  Chesapeake 
>ay,  on  a  small  river  which  bears  the  name  of  the 
own.  It  enjoys  great  advantages  from  the  carry- 
ng  iraue  between  Baltimore  and  Philadelphia,  and 
be  tides  ebb  and  flow  up  to  the  town. 

The  Roman  Catholics,  who  were  the  first  settlers 
n  Maryland,  are  the  most  numerous  religious  sect. 
besides  these,  there  are  Protestant  Episcopalians, 
English,  Scotch,  and  Irish  Presbyterians,  German 
/alvinists,  German  Lutherans,  Friends,  Baptists, 
Vlethodists,  Menonists  and  Nicolites,  or  New  Qua- 
ers,  who  all  enjoy  liberty  of  conscience. 

There  are  many  very  respectable  families  in  Bal- 
more,  who  are  hospitable  to  strangers,  and  maintain 

friendly  and    improving   intercourse   with    each 

ther;  but  the  bulk  of  the  inhabitants,  are  collected 

•oin  almost  all  quarters  of  the  world,  bent  on  the 

ursuit  of  wealth,  varying  in  their  habits,    their 

manners,  and  their  religions. 

The  inhabitants,  except  in  the  populous  towns, 
ve  on  their  plantations,  often  several  miles  distant 
rom  each  other.  To  an  inhabitant  of  the  middle, 
nd  especially  of  the  eastern  states,  which  are 
lickly  populated,  they  appear  to  live  very  retired 
nsocial  lives.  The  effects  of  this  comparative  soli- 
ude  are  visible  in  the  countenances,  as  well  as  in 
le  manners  and  dress  of  many  of  the  country  peo- 
e.  One  observes  comparatively  little  of  that 
teerful  sprightlinflss  of  look  and  action,  which  is 
e  invariable  and  genuine  offspring  of  social  inter- 
iurse ;  nor  do  you  find  that  attention  paid  to  dress 
4  G 


898 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


which  is  common,  arid  which  custom  has  rendered 
necessary  among  people  who  are  liable  to  receive 
company  almost  every  day  :  unaccustomed,  in  a 
great  measure,  to  frequent  and  friendly  visits,  they 
ofttn  suffer  too  much  negligence  in  this  respect.  As 
the  negroes  perform  all  their  manual  labour,  their 
masters  are  left  to  saunter  away  life  in  sloth,  and 
too  often  in  ignorance.  These  observations,  how- 
ever, must  in  justice  be  limited  to  the  people  in  the 
country,  and  to  those  particularly  whose  poverty  or 
parsimony  prevents  their  spending  a  part  of  their 
time  in  populous  towns,  or  otherwise  mingling  with 
the  world;  and  with  these  limitations,  they  will 
equally  apply  to  all  the  southern  states.  The  inha- 
bitants of  the  populous  towns  and  those  from  the 
country  who  have  intercourse  with  them,  are,  in 
their  manners  and  customs,  intelligent  and  agree- 
able. 

That  pride  which  grows  on  slavery,  and  is  habi- 
tual to  those  who,  from  their  infancy,  are  taught  to 
believe  and  feel  their  superiority,  is  a  visible  cha- 
racteristic of  the  inhabitants  of  Maryland  ;  but  with 


this  characteristic  we  must  not  fail  to  connect  that 
of  hospitality  to  strangers,  which  is  equally  univer- 
sal and  obvious.  Many  of  the  women  possess  all 
the  amiable,  and  many  of  the  elegant  accomplish- 
ments of  their  sex. 

Furnaces  for  running  iron  ore  into  pigs  and  hol- 
low ware,  and  forges  to  refine  pig-iron  into  bars, 
are  numerous,  and  worked  to  great  extent  and  profit. 
This  is  the  only  manufacture  of  importance  carried 
on  in  the  state,  except  it  be  that  of  wheat  into  flour 
and  curing  tobacco. 

The  trade  of  Maryland  is  principally  carried  on 
from  Baltimore,  with  the  other  states ;  with  the 
West  Indies,  and  with  some  parts  of  Europe.  To 
these  places  they  send  annually  many  thousand 
hogsheads  «f  tobacco,  besides  large  quantities  of 
wheat,  flour,  pig-iron,  lumber,  and  corn ;  beans, 
pork,  and  flax  seed  in  smaller  quantities ;  and  re- 
ceive in  return,  clothing  for  themselves  and  negroes, 
and  other  dry  goods,  wines,  spirits,  sugars,  and  other 
West  Indian  commodities. 


VIRGINIA. 


ROBERTSON,  in  the  fragments  he  has  left  on  the 
United  States,  has  entered  so  fully  into  the  history 
of  Virginia  that  there  is  little  left  for  us  to  add. 
The  settlement  of  this  colony  is  the  most  important 
part  of  its  history  ;  and  from  the  Eaglish  revolution 
of  1688,  to  the  commencement  of  the  American 
struggle  for  emancipation,  there  is  little  of  an  his- 
torical nature.  Its  position,  remote  from  the  settle- 
ments of  the  French  in  Canada,  and  of  the  Spa- 
niards in  Florida,  was  favourable  to  its  quiet.  New 
England  and  New  York  on  the  one  hand,  Georgia 
and  the  Carolinas  on  the  other,  protected  it  from 
savage  incursions.  Its  affairs  were  administered  by 
governors  appointed  by  the  king,  and  representa- 
tives chosen  by  the  people. 

The  laudable  efforts  of  these  representatives  to 
arrest  the  progress  of  slavery  in  the  colony,  ought 
not  to  be  passed  over  in  silence.  Convinced  of  its 
inhumanity,  and  foreseeing  the  dreadful  evils  which 
it -must  produce,  they  often  passed  laws  prohibiting 
the  importation  of  slaves ;  but  those  who  were  higher 
in  authority,  yielding  to  the  wishes  of  merchants 
engaged  in  the  abominable  traffic,  persisted  with 
criminal  obstinacy  in  withholding  their  assent.  En- 
gland, not  America,  is  responsible  for  the  wretched- 
ness which  her  kings  and  her  officers  were  often 
importuned,  but  refused,  to  avert. 

As  we  have  little  to  say  therefore  on  political 
matters,  we  shall  give  what  we  have,  intermingled 
with  an  account  of  its  physical  condition  ;  which  is 
the  more  necessary,  as  it  took  so  vigorous  a  share 
in  the  great  struggle  for  emancipation ;  to  the  nar- 
ration of  which  we  are  hastening. 

This  state  is  situated  between  75°  25'  and  83o  40' 
west  longitude,  and  36<>  40',  and  40o  43'  north  lati- 
tude. Its  length  is  about  370  miles,  and  its  breadth 
about  200.  It  is  bounded  on  the  east  by  the  Atlantic 
and  Maryland,  on  the  north  by  Ohio,  Pennsylva- 


nia and  Maryland;  on  the  south  by  Carolina  and 
Tennessee,  and  west  by  Ohio  and  Kentucky. 

In  an  extensive  country,  it  will  be  expected  toat 
the  climate  is  not  the  same  in  all  its  parts.  It  is 
remarkable  that,  proceeding  on  the  same  parallel  of 
latitude  westerly,  the  climate  becomes  colder  in  like 
manner  as  when  you  proceed  northwardly.  This 
continues  to  be  the  case  till  you  attain  the  summit 
of  the  Alleghany,  which  is  the  highest  land  between 
the  ocean  and  the  Mississippi.  From  thence,  de- 
scending in  the  same  latitude  to  the  Mississippi,  the 
change  reverses  ;  and,  if  we  may  believe  travellers, 
it  becomes  warmer  there  than  it  is  in  the  same  lati- 
tude on  the  sea  side.  Their  testimony  is  strength- 
ened by  the  vegetables  and  animals  which  subsist 
and  multiply  there  naturally,  and  do  not  on  the  sea- 
coast. 

That  fluctuation  between  heat  and  cold,  so  de- 
structive to  fruit,  in  the  spring  season,  prevails  less 
in  Virginia  than  in  Pennsylvania ;  nor  is  the  over- 
flowing of  the  rivers  in  Virginia  so  extensive  or  so 
frequent  at  that  season,  as  those  of  the  New  Eng- 
land states;  because  the  snows  in  the  former  do  not 
lie  accumulating  all  winter,  to  be  dissolved  all  at 
once  in  the  spring,  as  they  do  sometimes  in  the 
latter.  In  Virginia,  below  the  mountains,  snow 
seldom  lies  more  than  a  day  or  two,  and  seldom  a 
week ;  and  the  large  rivers  seldom  freeze  over. 
The  fluctuation  of  weather,  however,  is  sufficient  to 
render  the  winters  and  springs  very  unwholesome, 
as  the  inhabitants  during  those  seasons  have  to  walk 
m  almost  perpetual  mire. 

The  months  of  June  and  July,  though  often  the 
hottest,  are  the  most  healthy  in  the  year.  The 
weather  is  then  dry,  and  less  liable  to  change  than, 
in  August  and  September,  when  the  rain  com- 
mences, and  sudden  variations  take  place. 

On  the  sea-coast  the  land  is  low,  generally  within 


UNITED  STATES 


twelve  feet  of  the  level  of  the  sea,  intersected  in  al 
directions  with  salt  creeks  and  rivers,  the  heads  of 
which  form  swamps  and  marshes,  and  fenny  ground, 
covered  with  water  in  wet  seasons.  The  unculti- 
vated lands  are  covered  with  large  trees  and  thick 
underwood.  The  vicinity  of  the  sea,  and  salt  creeks 
and  rivers,  occasion  a  constant  moisture  and 
warmth  of  the  atmosphere ;  so  that  although  under 
the  same  latitude,  100,  or  150  miles  in  the  country, 
deep  snows  and  frozen  rivers  frequently  happen,  for 
a  short  season,  yet  here  such  occurrences  are  con- 
sidered as  phenomena;  for  these  reasons,  the  trees 
are  often  in  bloom  as  early  as  the  last  of  February  ; 
from  this  period,  however,  till  the  end  of  April,  the 
inhabitants  are  incommoded  by  cold  rains,  piercing 
winds,  and  sharp  frosts,  which  subject  them  to  the 
inflammatory  diseases,  known  here  under  the  names 
of  pleurisy  and  peripneumony. 

The  whole  country,  below  the  mountains,  is  level, 
and  seems,  from  various  appearances,  to  have 
been  once  washed  by  the  sea.  The  land,  between 
York  and  James  rivers,  is  very  level,  and  its 
surface  about  40  feet  above  high-water  mark.  It 
appears,  from  observation,  to  have  arisen  to  its 
present  height,  at  different  periods  far  distant  from 
each  other,  and  that  at  these  periods  it  was  washed 
by  the  sea;  for  near  York  Town,  where  the  banks 
are  perpendicular,  you  first  see  a  stratum,  inter- 
mixed with  small  shells,  resembling  a  mixture  of 
clay  and  sand,  and  about  five  feet  thick ;  on  this 
lie,  horizontally,  small  white  shells,  cockle,  clam, 
&c.  an  inch  or  two  thick ;  then  a  body  of  earth  si- 
milar to  that  first  mentioned,  eighteen  inches  thick; 
then  a  layer  of  shells  and  another  body  of  earth ;  on 
this  a  layer  of  three  feet  of  white  shells,  mixed  with 
sand,  on  which  lies  a  body  of  oyster-shells,  six  feet 
thick,  which  are  covered  with  earth  to  the  surface. 
The  oyster-shells  are  so  united  by  a  very  strong 
cement,  that  they  fall  only  when  undermined,  and 
then  in  large  bodies,  from  one  to  twenty  tons  weight : 
they  have  the  appearance  on  the  shore  of  large  rocks. 

These  appearances  continue  in  a  greater  or  less 
degree  in  the  banks  of  James  river,  100  miles  from 
the  sea ;  the  appearances  then  vary,  and  the  banks 
are  filled  with  sharks'  teeth,  bones  of  large  and 
small  fish  petrified,  and  many  other  petrifactions, 
some  resembling  the  bones  of  land  and  other  ani- 
mals, and  also  vegetable  substances.  These  ap- 
pearances are  not  confined  to  the  river  banks,  but 
are  seen  in  various  places  in  gullies  at  considerable 
distances  from  the  rivers.  In  one  part  of  the  state, 
for  70  miles  in  length,  by  sinking  a  well,  you  ap- 
parently come  to  the  bottom  of  what  was  formerly 
a  watercourse.  And  even  as  high  up  as  Botetourt 
county,  among  the  Alleghany  mountains,  there  is  a 
tract  of  land,  judged  to  be  40,000  acres,  surrounded 
on  every  side  by  mountains,  which  is  entirely  co- 
vered with  oyster  and  cockle-shells,  and,  by  some 
gullies,  they  appear  to  be  of  considerable  depth. 
A  plantation  at  Day's  point,  on  James  river,  of  as 
many  as  1000  acres,  appears  at  a  distance  as  if 
covered  with  snow,  but  on  examination  the  white 
appearance  is  found  to  arise  from  a  bed  of  clam 
shells,  which,  by  repeated  plowing,  have  become 
fine,  and  mixe<?  with  the  earth. 

It  is  worthy  of  notice,  that  the  mountains  in  this 
state  are  not  solitary,  and  scattered  confusedly  over 
the  face  of  the  country;  but  commence  at 'about 
150  miles  from  the  sea-coast,  and  are  disposed  in 
ridges  one  behind  another,  running  parallel  with 
the  sea-coast,  though  rather  approaching  it  as  they 
advance  north-eastwardly.  To  the  south-west,  as 


the  tract  of  country  between  the  sea-coast  and  the 
Mississippi  becomes  narrower,  the  mountains  con- 
verge into  a  single  ridge ;  which,  as  it  approaches 
the  gulf  of  Mexico,  subsides  into  plain  country, 
and  gives  rise  to  some  of  the  waters  of  that  gulf, 
and  particularly  to  a  river  called  Apalachicpla, 
probably  from  the  Apalachies,  an  Indian  nation  for- 
merly residing  on  it.  Hence  the  mountains  giving 
rise  to  that  river,  and  seen  from  its  various  parts, 
were  called  the  Apalachian  mountains,  being  in  fact 
the  end  or  termination  only  of  the  great  ridges  pass- 
ing through  the  continent.  European  geographers, 
however,  have  extended  the  same  northwardly  as  far 
as  the  mountains  extended ;  some  giving  it  after  their 
separation  into  different  ridges,  to  the  Blue  Ridge, 
others  to  the  north  mountains,  others  to  the  Alle- 
ghany, others  to  the  Laurel  Ridge,  as  may  be  seen 
in  their  different  maps.  But  none  of  these  ridges 
were  ever  known  by  that  name  to  the  inhabitants, 
either  native  or  emigrant,  but  as  they  saw  them  so 
called  in  European  maps.  In  the  same  direction 
generally  are  the  veins  of  lime-stone,  coal,  and  other 
minerals  hitherto  discovered;  and  so  range  the 
falls  of  the  great  rivers :  but  the  courses  of  the 
great  rivers  are  at  right  angles  with  these.  James 
and  the  Potomac  penetrate  through  all  the  ridges  oi 
mountains  eastward  of  the  Alleghany,  which  is  broken 
by  no  watercourse.  The  passage  of  the  Potomac 
through  the  Blue  Ridge  is  perhaps  one  of  the  most  stu 
pendous  scenes  in  nature.  You  stand  on  a  very  high 
point  of  land.  On  your  right  comes  up  the  Shenan- 
doah,  having  ranged  along  the  foot  of  the  mountain 
100  miles  to  seek  a  vent;  on  your  left  approaches 
the  Potomac,  in  quest  of  a  passage  also :  in  the 
moment  of  their  junction  they  rush  together  against 
the  mountain,  rend  it  asunder,  and  pass  off  to  the 
sea.  The  first  glance  of  this  scene  hurries  us  into  the 
opinion,  that  this  earth  has  been  created  by  degrees, 
that  the  mountains  were  formed  first,  that  the  rivers 
began  to  flow  afterwards;  that  in  this  place  par- 
ticularly they  have  been  dammed  up  by  the  Blue 
ridge  of  mountains,  and  have  formed  an  ocean 
which  filled  the  whole  valley;  that  continuing  to 
rise,  they  have  at  length  broken  over  at  this  spot, 
and  have  torn  the  mountain  down  from  its  summit 
to  its  base.  The  piles  of  rock  on  each  hand,  but 
particularly  on  the  Shenandoah,  the  evident  marks 
of  their  disruption  and  avulsion  from  their  beds  by 
the  most  powerful  agents  of  nature,  corroborate  the 
impression:  but  the  distant  finishing  which  nature 
bas  given  to  the  picture,  is  of  a  very  different  cha- 
racter. It  is  a  true  contrast  to  the  fore  ground ;  it 
is  as  placid  and  delightful,  as  that  is  wild  and  tre- 
mendous. For  the  mountain,  being  cloven  asunder, 
presents  to  the  eye,  through  the  cleft,  a  small  catch 
of  smooth  blue  horizon,  at  an  infinite  distance,  in 
the  plain  country,  inviting  you,  as  it  were,  from  the 
riot  and  tumult  roaring  around,  to  pass  through  the 
breach,  and  participate  of  the  calm  below.  Here 
the  eye  ultimately  composes  itself;  and  that  way, 
too,  the  road  actually  leads.  You  cross  the  Poto- 
mac above  the  junction,  pass  along  its  side  througl 
the  base  of  the  mountain  for  three  miles,  its  terribla 
precipices  hanging  in  fragments  over  you,  and 
within  about  twenty  miles  reach  Frederick  Town, 
and  the  fine  country  round  it. 

The  Ouasioto  mountains  are  50  or  60  miles  wide 
at  the  gap.  These  mountains  abound  in  coal,  lime, 
and  free-stone ;  the  summits  of  them  are  generally 
covered  with  a  good  soil,  and  a  variety  of  timber; 
and  the  low  intervale  lands  are  rich,  and  remarkably 
well  watered. 

4  G  2 


900 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


An  inspection  of  a  map  will  give  a  better  idea  o 
the  geography  of  the  rivers,  than  any  description  in 
writing.  Their  navigation,  however,  may  be  im 
perfectly  noted. 

Roahoke,  so  far  as  it  lies  within  this  state,  is  no 
where  navigable  but  for  canoes,  or  light  batteaux 
and  even  for  these,  in  such  detached  parcels,  as  to 
have  prevented  the  inhabitants  from  availing  them- 
selves of  it  at  all. 

James  river,  and  its  waters,  afford  navigation  as 
follows :  the  whole  of  Elizabeth  river,  the  lowest  ol 
those  which  run  into  James  river,  is  a  harbour,  and 
would  contain  upwards  of  300  ships.  The  channel 
is  from  150  to  200  fathoms  wide,  and  at  common 
flood-tide  affords  eighteen  feet  water  to  Norfolk. 
The  Strafford,  a  60  gun  ship,  went  there,  lighten- 
ing herself  across  the  bar  at  Sowell's  point.  The 
Fier  Rodrigue,  pierced  for  64  guns,  and  carrying 
50,  went  there  without  lightening.  Craney  island, 
at  the  mouth  of  this  river,  commands  its  channel 
tolerably  well. 

Nansemond  river  is  navigable  to  Sleepy  Hole, 
for  vessels  of  250  tons ;  to  Suffolk,  for  those  of  100 
tons;  and  to  Milner's,  for  those  of  25.  Pagan 
creek  affords  eight  or  ten  feet  water  to  Smithfield, 
which  admits  vessels  of  twenty  tons.  Chickahominy 
has  at  its  mouth  a  bar,  on  which  is  only  twelve  feet 
water  at  common  flood-tide.  Vessels  passing  that, 
may  go  eight  miles  up  the  river;  those  of  ten  feet 
draught  may  go  four  miles  further,  and  those  of  six 
tons  burthen  twenty  miles  further. 

The  Appamattox  may  be  navigated  as  far  as 
Broadways,  by  any  vessel  which  has  crossed  Harri- 
son's bar  in  James  river;  it  keeps  eight  or  nine 
feet  water  a  mile  or  two  higher  up  to  Fisher's  bar, 
and  four  feet  on  that  and  upwards  to  Petersburg, 
where  all  navigation  ceases. 

James  river  itself  affords  harbour  for  vessels  of 
any  size  at  Hampton  road,  but  not  in  safety  through 
the  whole  winter ;  and  there  is  navigable  water  for 
them  as  far  as  Mulberry  island.  A  40-gun  ship 
goes  to  James-town,  and,  lightening  herself,  may 
pass  to  Harrison's  bar,  on  which  there  is  only  fifteen 
feet  water.  Vessels  of  250  tons  may  go  to  War- 
wick; those  of  125  go  to  Rocket's,  a  mile  below 
Richmond ;  from  thence  is  about  seven  feet  water 
to  Richmond;  and  about  the  centre  of  the  town, 
four  feet  and  a  half,  where  the  navigation  is  inter- 
rupted by  falls,  which,  in  a  course  of  six  miles  de- 
scend about  80  feet  perpendicular :  above  these  it 
is  resumed  in  canoes  and  batteaux,  and  is  prosecuted 
safely  and  advantageously  to  within  ten  miles  of  the 
Blue  Ridge ;  and  even  through  the  Blue  Ridge  a 
ton  weight  has  been  brought;  and  the  expense 
would  not  be  great,  when  compared  with  its  ob- 
ject, to  open  a  tolerable  navigation  up  Jackson's 
river  and  Carpenter's  creek,  to  within  25  miles  of 
Howard's  creek  of  Green  Briar,  both  of  which  have 
then  water  enough  to  float  vessels  into  the  Great 
Kanhawa. 

The  Rivanna,  a  branch  of  James  river,  is  navi- 
gable for  canoes  and  batteaux  to  its  intersection 
with  the  south-west  mountains,  which  is  about  22 
miles. 

York  river,  at  York-town,  affords  the  best  har- 
bour in  the  state  for  vessels  of  the  largest  size.  The 
river  there  narrows  to  the  width  of  a  mile,  and  is 
contained  within  very  high  banks,  close  under 
which  the  vessels  may  ride.  It  holds  four  fathom 
water  at  high  tide  for  25  miles  above  York  to  the 
mouth  of  Ponpotank,  where  the  river  is  a  mile  and 
half  wide,  and  the  channel  only  75  fathoms,  and 


passing  under  a  high  bank.  At  the  confluence  of 
Pamunkey  and  Mattapony  it  is  reduced  to  three 
fathoms  depth,  which  continues  up  Pamunkey  to 
Cumberland,  where  the  width  is  100  yards,  and  up 
Mattapony  to  within  two  miles  of  Frazier's  ferry, 
where  it  becomes  two  and  a  half  fathoms  deep,  and 
holds  that  about  five  miles.  Pamunkey  is  then  ca- 
pable of  navigation  for  loaded  flats  to  Brockman's 
bridge,  50  miles  above  Hanover-town  and  Matta- 
pony, to  Downer's-bridge,  70  miles  above  its  mouth. 
Piankatank,  the  little  rivers  making  out  of  Mob- 
jack  bay,  and  those  of  the  eastern  shore,  receive 
only  very  small  vessels,  and  these  can  but  enter 
them.  Rappahannock  affords  four  fathoms  water  to 
Hobbe's  Hole,  and  two  fathoms  from  thence  to 
Fredericksburg,  110  miles. 

The  Potomac  is  seven  and  a  half  miles  wide  at 
the  mouth;  four  and  a  half  at  Nomony  bay;  three 
at  Aquia ;  one  and  a  half  at  Hallooing  point ;  one 
and  a  quarter  at  Alexandria.  Its  soundings  are 
seven  fathoms  at  the  mouth ;  five  at  St.  George's 
island  ;  four  and  a  half  at  Lower  Matchodic  ;  three 
at  Swan's  point,  and  thence  up  to  Alexandria; 
thence  ten  feet  water  to  the  falls,  which  are  thirteen 
miles  above  Alexandria.  The  tides  in  the  Potomac 
are  not  very  strong,  excepting  after  great  rains, 
when  the  ebb  is  pretty  strong,  then  there  is  little  01 
no  flood  ;  and  there  is  never  more  than  four  or  five 
hours  flood,  except  with  long  and  strong  south 
winds. 

The  distance  from  the  capes  of  Virginia  to  the 
termination  of  the  tide-water  in  this  river  is  above 
300  miles,  and  navigable  for  ships  of  the  greatest 
burden,  nearly  that  distance.  From  thence  this 
river,  obstructed  by  four  considerable  falls,  extends 
through  a  vast  tract  of  inhabited  country  towards  its 
source.  These  falls  are,  1st,  The  Little  Falls,  three 
miles  above  tide-water,  in  which  distance  there  is 
a  fall  of  36  feet ;  2nd,  The  Great  Falls  six  miles 
higher,  where  is  a  fall  of  76  feet  in  one  mile  and  a 
quarter;  3rd,  The  Seneca  Falls,  six  miles  above  the 
former,  which  form  short,  irregular  rapids,  with  a 
?all  of  about  ten  feet ;  and  4th,  The  Shenandoah 
Falls,  60  miles  from  the  Seneca,  where  is  a  fall  of 
about  30  feet  in  three  miles:  from  which  last,  fort 

umberland  is  about  120  miles  distant.  The  ob- 
structions which  are  opposed  to  the  navigation  above 
and  between  these  falls  are  of  little  consequence. 

The  great  Kanhawa  is  a  river  of  considerable 
note  for  the  fertility  of  its  land,  and  still  more,  as 
.eading  towards  the  head  waters  of  James  river. 
The  Great  Falls  are  90  miles  above  the  mouth,  be- 
.ow  which  are  only  five  or  six  rapids,  and  these 
passable,  with  some  difficulty,  even  at  low  water. 
Prom  the  falls  to  the  mouth  of  Green  Briar  is  100 
miles,  and  thence  to  the  lead  mines  120  :  it  is  280 
ards  wide  at  its  mouth. 

The  Little  Kanhawa  is  150  yards  wide  at  the 
mouth  :  it  yields  a  navigation  of  ten  miles  only. 

Besides  the  rivers  we  have  now  mentioned,  there 
are  many  others  of  less  note,  nevertheless  the  state 
does  not  abound   with   good    fish  ;  sturgeon,  shad 
and  herring  are  the  most  plentiful;  perch,  sheeps- 
lead,   drum,  rock  fish,  and  trout,  are  common  ;   De- 
ides   these,  they  have  oysters,  crabs,  shrimps,  &c. 
n  abundance.     The  springs  in  this  state  are  almost 
nnumerable.  In  Augusta  there  is  a  remarkable  cas- 
ade,  it  bears  the  name  of  the  Falling  Spring.     It 
s  a  water  of  James  river,  where  it  is  called  Jack- 
on's  river,  rising  in  the  warm   spring  mountains 
about  twenty  miles  south-west  of  the  warm  spring, 
and  flowing  into  that  valley.     About  three  quarters 


UNITED  STATES. 


901 


of  a  mile  from  its  source  it  falls  over  a  rock  200  fee 
into  the  valley  below.  The  sheet  of  water  is  broken 
in  its  breadth  by  the  rock  in  two  or  three  places, 
but  not  at  all  in  its  height.  Between  the  sheet  and 
rock,  at  the  bottom,  you  may  walk  across  dry 
This  cataract  will  bear  no  comparison  with  that  o 
Niagara,  as  to  the  quantity  of  water  composing  it, 
the  sheet  being  only  twelve  or  fifteen  feet  wide 
above,  and  somewhat  more  spread  below ;  but  it  is 
half  as  high  again. 

The  soil  below  the  mountains  seems  to  have  ac- 
quired a  character  for  goodness  which  it  by  no 
means  deserves.  Though  not  rich,  it  is  well  suited 
to  the  growth  of  tobacco  and  Indian  corn,  and  parts 
of  it  for  wheat.  Good  crops  of  cotton,  flax,  and 
hemp  are  also  raised ;  and  in  some  counties  they 
have  plenty  of  cider,  and  exquisite  brandy,  distilled 
from  peaches,  which  grow  in  great  abundance  upon 
the  numerous  rivers  of  the  Chesapeake. 

The  planters,  before  the  war,  paid  their  principal 
attention  to  the  culture  of  tobacco,  of  which  there 
used  to  be  exported,  generally,  55,000  hogsheads  a 
year.  Since  the  revolution  they  have  turned  their 
attention  more  to  the  cultivation  ot  wheat,  Indian 
corn,  barley,  flax,  and  hemp. 

Horned,  or  neat  cattle,  are  bred  in  great  numbers 
in  the  western  counties  of  Virginia,  as  well  as  the 
states  south  of  it,  where  they  have  an  extensive 
range,  and  mild  winters,  without  any  permanent 
snows.  They  run  at  large,  are  not  housed,  and 
multiply  very  fast. 

The  gentlemen  of  this  state,  being  fond  of  plea- 
sure, have  taken  much  pains  to  raise  a  good  breed 
of  horses,  and  have  succeeded  in  it  beyond  any  of 
the  other  states  in  the  Union.  They  are  more  ele- 
gant, and  will  perform  more  service  than  the  horses 
of  the  northern  states. 

With  respect  to  subterraneous  productions,  Vir- 
ginia is  the  most  pregnant  with  minerals  and  fossils 
of  any  state  in  the  Union.  Mr.  Jefferson  mentions  a 
lump  of  gold  ore  of  about  four  pounds  weight  found 
near  the  falls  of  Ilappahannock  river,  which  yielded 
seventeen  pennyweights  of  gold,  of  extraordinary 
ductility ;  but  no  other  indication  of  gold  has  been 
discovered  in  its  neighbourhood. 

On  the  great  Kauhawa,  opposite  to  the  mouth  of 
Cripple  creek,  and  also  about  25  miles  from  the 
southern  boundary  of  the  state,  in  the  county  of 
Montgomery,  are  mines  of  lead.  The  metal  is 
mixed,  sometimes  with  earth,  and  sometimes  with 
rock,  which  requires  the  force  of  gunpowder  to  open 
it ;  and  is  accompanied  with  a  portion  of  silver,  but 
too  small  to  be  worth  separation  under  any  process 
hitherto  attempted  there.  The  proportion  yielded 
is  from  50  to  80  pounds  of  pure  lead  from  100  pounds 
of  washed  ore.  The  most  common  is  that  of  60 
to  the  100  pounds.  The  veins  are  sometimes  most 
flattering ;  at  others  they  disappear  suddenly  and 
totally.  They  enter  the  side  of  the  hill,  and  pro- 
ceed horizontally. 

A  mine  of  copper  was  opened  in  the  county  of 
Amherst,  on  the  north  side  of  James  river,  and 
another  in  the  opposite  county,  on  the  south  side ; 
but  were  discontinued.  There  are  also  several  iron 
mines  in  this  state. 

The  country,  on  both  sides  of  James  river,  from 
fifteen  to  twenty  miles  above  Richmond,  and  for 
several  miles  northward  and  southward,  is  replete 
with  mineral  coal  of  a  very  excellent  quality.  Being 
in  the  hands  of  many  proprietors,  pits  have  been 
opened  and  worked  to  an  extent  equal  to  the  de- 
mand. 


Mr.  Jefferson  informs  us,  that  he  has  known  one 
instance  of  an  emerald  found  in  this  country.  Ame- 
thysts have  been  frequent,  and  crystals  common; 
yet  not  in  such  numbers  any  of  them  as  to  be 
worth  seeking. 

There  is  very  good  marble,  and  in  very  great 
abundance,  on  James  river,  at  the  mouth  of  Rock- 
fish  :  some  white,  and  as  pure  as  one  might  expect 
to  find  on  the  surface  of  the  earth ;  but  generally 
variegated  with  red,  blue,  and  purple. 

But  one  vein  of  lime-stone  is  known  below  the 
Blue  Ridge ;  its  first  appearance  is  in  Prince  Wil- 
liam, two  miles  below  the  Pignut  ridge  of  moun- 
tains ;  thence  it  passes  on  nearly  parallel  with  that, 
and  crosses  the  Rivanna  about  five  miles  below  it, 
where  it  is  called  the  South-west  ridge;  it  then 
crosses  Hardware,  above  the  mouth  of  Hudson's 
creek,  James  river,  at  the  mouth  of  Rockfish,  at 
the  marble  quarry  before  spoken  of,  probably  runs 
up  that  river  to  where  it  appears  again  at  Ross's 
iron  works,  and  so  passes  off  south-westwardly  by 
Flat  creek  of  the  river  Otter:  it  is  never  more  than 
100  yards  wide.  From  the  Blue  ridge  westwardly 
the  whole  country  seems  to  be  founded  on  a  rock  of 
lime-stone,  besides  infinite  quantities  on  the  sur- 
face, both  loose  and  fixed :  this  is  cut  into  beds, 
which  range  as  the  mountains'  and  sea-coast  do, 
from  south-west  to  north-east,  the  lamina  of  each 
bed  declining  from  the  horizon  towards  a  parrallel- 
ism  with  the  axis  of  the  earth.  Mr. 'Jefferson, 
being  struck  with  this  observation,  made,  with  a 
quadrant,  a  great  number  of  trials  on  the  angles  of 
their  declination,  and  found  them  to  vary  from  22 
to  60  degrees ;  but  averaging  all  his  trials,  the  re- 
sult was  within  one-third  of  a  degree  of  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  pole,  or  latitude  of  Ihe  place,  and  much 
the  greatest  part  of  them  taken  separately  were  lit- 
tle different  from  that;  by  which  it  appears,  that 
these  lamina  are  in  the  main,  parallel  with  the  axis 
of  the  earth.  In  some  instances,  indeed,  he  found 
them  perpendicular,  and  even  reclining  the  other 
way;  but  these  were  extremely  rare,  and  always 
attended  with  signs  of  convulsion,  or  other  circum- 
stances of  singularity,  which  admitted  a  possibility 
of  removal  from  their  original  position.  These  trials 
were  made  between  Madison's  cave  and  the  Potomac. 
Near  the  eastern  foot  of  the  north  mountain  are 
mmense  bodies  of  schist,  containing  impressions  of 
shells  in  a  variety  of  forms.  Mr.  Jefferson  received 
petrified  shells  of  very  different  kinds,  from  the  first 
sources  of  the  Kentucky,  which  bore  no  resemblance 
to  any  he  had  ever  teen  on  the  tide  waters.  It  is 
said,  that  shells  are  found  in  the  Andes,  in  South 
America,  15,000  feet  above  the  level  of  the  ocean. 

There  is  great  abundance,  more  especially  when 
/ou  approach  the  mountains,  of  stone  of  white,  blue, 
)rown,  and  other  -  colours,  fit  for  the  chisel,  good 
mill-stone,  such  also  as  stands  the  fire,  and  slate- 
stone.  We  are  told  of  flint,  fit  for  gun-flints  on 
he  Meherrin  in  Brunswick,  on  the  Mississippi,  be- 
ween  the  Ohio  and  Kaskaskia,  and  on  others  of  the 
western  waters.  Isinglass,  or  mica,  is  in  several 
)laces ;  loadstone  also,  and  an  asbestos  of  a  ligneous 
,exture,  is  sometimes  to  be  met  with. 

Marble  abounds  generally.  A  clay,  of  which; 
ike  the  Stourbridge  in  England,  bricks  are  made, 
which  will  resist  Jong  the  action  of  fire,  has  been 
'ound  on  Tuckahoe  creek  of  James  river,  and  no 
doubt  will  be  found  in  other  places.  Chalk  is  said 
,o  be  in  Botetourt  and  Bedford.  In  the  latter 
:ounty  is  some  earth,  believed  to  be  gypseous. 
Ochres  are  found  in  various  parts. 


902 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


In  the  lime-stone  country  are  many  caves,  the 
earthly  floors  of  which  are  impregnated  with  nitre. 
On  Rich  creek,a  branch  of  the  great  Kanhawa,  about 
60  miles  below  the  lead  mines,  is  a  very  large  one, 
about  twenty  yards  wide,  and  entering  a  hill  a  quar- 
ter or  half  a  mile.  The  vault  is  of  rock,  from  nine 
to  fifteen  or  twenty  feet  above  the  floor.  Mr.  Lynch, 
who  gives  this  account,  undertook  to  extract  the 
nitre.  Besides  a  coat  of  the  salt  which  had  formed 
on  the  vault  and  floor,  he  found  the  earth  highly 
impregnated  to  the  depth  of  seven  feet  in  some 
places,  and  generally  of  three,  every  bushel  yielding 
on  an  average  three  pounds  of  nitre.  Mr.  Lynch 
having  made  about  1000/.  of  the  salt  from  it,  con- 
signed it  to  some  others,  who  have  since  made  large 
quantities.  They  hav  done  this  by  pursuing  the 
cave  into  the  hill,  never  trying  a  second  time  the 
earth  they  have  once  exhausted,  to  see  how  far  or 
soon  it  receives  another  impregnation.  At  least 
fifty  of  these  caves  are  worked  on  the  Greenbriar, 
and  there  are  many  of  them  known  on  Cumberland 
river. 

There  are  several  medicinal  springs,  some  of 
which  are  indubitably  eflicacious,  while  others  seem 
to  owe  their  reputation  as  much  to  fancy,  and  change 
of  air  and  regimen,  as  to  their  real  virtues.  Few  of 
them  have  undergone  a  chemical  analysis  in  skilful 
hands,  or  been  so  far  the  subject  of  observation,  as 
to  have  produced  a  reduction  into  classes,  of  the 
disorders  which  they  relieve  ;  it  is  in  our  power  to 
give  little  account  of  them. 

In  the  lime-stone  country  there  are  many  caverns 
of  very  considerable  extent.  The  most  noted  is  called 
Maddison's  cave,  and  is  on  the  north  side  of  the 
blue  ridge,  near  the  intersection  of  the  Rockingham 
and  Augusta  line  with  the  south  fork  of  the  southern 
river  of  Shenandoah.  It  is  in  a  hill  of  about  200  feet 
perpendicular  height,  the  ascent  of  which,  on  one 
side,  is  so  steep,  that  you  may  pitch  a  biscuit  from 
its  summit  into  the  river  which  washes  its  base.  The 
entrance  of  the  cave  is,  in  this  side,  about  two-thirds 
of  the  way  up.  It  extends  into  the  earth  about  300 
feet,  branching  into  subordinate  caverns,  sometimes 
ascending  a  little,  but  more  generallv  descending, 
and  at  length  terminates  in  two  different  places,  at 
basins  of  water  of  unknown  extent,  and  which  ap- 
pear to  be  nearly  on  a  level  with  the  water  of  the 
river.  The  water  in  these  basins  is  always  cool,  it 
is  never  turbid,  iior  does  it  rise  or  fall  in  times  of 
flood  or  drought.  It  is  probably  one  of  the  many 
reservoirs  with  which  the  interior  parts  of  the  earth 
are  supposed  to  abound,  and  which  yield  supplies 
to  the  fountains  of  water,  distinguished  from  others 
only  by  its  being  accessible.  The  vault  of  this  cave 
is  of  solid  lime-stone,  from  20  to  40  or  50  feet  high, 
through  which  water  is  continually  percolating. 
This,  trickling  down  the  sides  of  the  cave,  has  in- 
crusted  them  over  in  the  form  of  elegant  drapery ; 
and  dripping  from  the  top  of  the  vault,  generates 
on  that,  and  on  the  base  below,  stalactites  of  a  co- 
nical form,  some  of  which  have  met  and  formed 
massive  columns. 

Another  of  these  caves  is  near  the  north  moun- 
tain, in  the  county  of  Frederick.  The  entrance 
into  this  is  on  the  top  of  an  extensive  ridge.  You 
descend  30  or  40  feet,  as  into  a  well,  from  whence 
the  cave  then  extends  nearly  horizontally,  400  feet 
into  the  earth,  preserving  a  breadth  of  from  20  to  50 
feet,  and  a  height  of  from  five  to  twelve  feet.  Mr. 
Jefferson  observes,  that  after  entering  this  cave  a 
few  feet,  the  mercury,  which  in  the  open  air  was  at 
50°,  rose  to  57-  of  Fahrenheit's  thermometer,  an- 


swering to  llp  of  Reaumur' s,and  it  continued  at  that 
to  the  remotest  parts  of  the  cave.  The  uniform  tem- 
perature of  the  cellars  of  the  observatory  of  Paris, 
which  are  90  feet  deep,  and  of  all  subterranean  ca- 
vities of  any  depth,  where  no  chymical  agents  may 
be  supposed  to  produce  a  factitious  heat,  has  been 
found  to  be  10°  of  Reaumur,  equal  to  54|°  of  Fahren- 
heit. The  temperature  of  the  cave  above  mentioned 
so  nearly  corresponds  with  this,  that  the  difference 
may  be  ascribed  to  a  difference  of  instruments. 

At  the  Panther  gap,  in  the  ridge  which  divides 
the  waters  of  the  Cow  and  Calf  pasture,  is  what  is 
called  the  blowing  cave.  It  is  in  the  side  of  a  hill,  is 
of  about  100  feet  diameter,  and  emits  constantly  a 
current  of  air  of  such  force,  as  to  keep  the  \veeas 
prostrate  to  the  distance  of  20  yards  before  it.  This 
current  is  strongest  in  dry  frosty  weather,  and 
weakest  in  long  periods  of  rain.  Regular  inspira- 
tions and  expirations  of  air,  by  caverns  and  fissures, 
have  been  probably  enough  accounted  for,  by  sup- 
posing them  combined  with  intermitting  fountains, 
as  they  must  of  course  inhale  the  air  while  the  re- 
servoirs are  emptying  themselves,  and  again  emit 
it  while  they  are  filling.  But  a  constant  issue  of 
air,  only  varying  in  its  force  as  the  weather  is  drier 
or  damper,  will  require  a  new  hypothesis.  There 
is  another  blowing  cave  in  the  Cumberland  moun- 
tain, about  a  mile  from  where  it  crosses  the  Caro- 
lina line.  All  we  know  of  this  is,  that  it  is  not 
constant,  and  that  a  fountain  of  water  issues  from  it, 

The  natural  bridge  is  on  the  ascent  of  a  hill, 
which  seems  to  have  been  cloven  through  its  length 
by  some  great  convulsion.  The  fissure,  just  at  the 
bridge,  is  by  some  admeasurements  270  feet  deep, 
by  others  only  205.  It  is  about  45  feet  wide  at  the 
bottom,  and  90  feet  at  the  top  ;  this  of  course  de- 
termines the  length  of  the  bridge,  and  its  height 
from  the  water.  Its  breadth  in  the  middle  is  about 
60  feet,  but  more  at  the  ends,  and  the  thickness  of 
the  mass  at  the  summit  of  the  arch  about  40  feet, 
but  more  at  the  ends,  and  90  feet  at  the  top.  A 
part  of  this  thickness  is  constituted  by  a  coat  of  earth, 
which  gives  growth  to  many  large  trees.  The  re- 
sidue, with  the  hill  on  both  sides,  is  solid  rock  of 
lime-stone.  The  arch  approaches  the  semi-elliptical 
form ;  but  the  larger  axis  of  the  ellipsis,  which  would 
be  the  cord  of  the  arch,  is  many  times  longer  than 
the  transverse.  Though  the  sides  of  this  bridge  are 
provided  in  some  parts  with  a  parapet  of  fixed  rocks, 
yet  few  men  have  resolution  to  walk  to  them  and 
look  over  into  the  abyss.  You  involuntarily  fall  on 
your  hands  and  feet,  creep  to  the  parapet  and  peep 
over  it.  If  the  view  from  the  top  be  painful  and 
intolerable,  that  from  below  is  delightful  in  an  equal 
extreme.  This  bridge  is  in  the  county  of  Rockbridge, 
to  which  it  has  given  name,  and  affords  a  public 
and  commodious  passage  over  a  valley,  which  cannot 
be  crossed  elsewhere  for  a  considerable  distance. 
The  stream  passing  under  it  is  called  Cedar  creek  : 
it  is  a  water  of  James  river,  and  sufficient  in  the 
driest  seasons  to  turn  a  grist  mill,  though  its  foun- 
tain is  not  more  than  two  miles  above.  There  is  a 
natural  bridge  similar  to  the  above,  over  Stock 
creek,  a  branch  of  Peleson  river,  in  Washington 
county. 

This  state  is  divided  into  103  counties,  comprised 
within  two  districts,  Eastern  and  Western. 

There  are  no  townships  in  this  state,  and  very 
few  towns  of  consequence,  owing,  probably,  to  the 
intersection  of  the  country  by  navigable  rivers, 
which  brings  the  trade  to  the  doors  of  the  inhabi- 
tants, and  prevents  the  necessity  of  their  going  in 


UNITED  STATES. 


903 


quest  of  it  to  a  distance.  Williamsburgh,  which, 
till  the  year  17bO,  was  the  seat  of  government, 
never  contained  above  1800  inhabitants,  and  Nor- 
folk, the  most  populous  town  then  in  Virginia,  con- 
tained but  6000.  The  towns,  or  more  properly  vil- 
lages or  hamlets,  are  as  follow  : — 

On  James  river  and  its  waters — Norfolk,  Ports- 
mouth, Hampton,  Suffolk,  Smithfield,  Williams- 
burgh,  Petersburgh,  Richmond,  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment, Manchester,  Charlottesville,  New  London. 
On  York  river  and  its  waters,  York,  Newcastle, 
Hanover.  On  Rappahannock,  Urbanna,  Port 
Royal,  Fredericksburgh,  Falmouth.  On  Potomac 
and  its  waters.  Dumfries,  Colchester,  Alexandria, 
Winchester,  Staunton. 

Norfolk  is  the  emporium  for  all  the  trade  of  the 
Chesapeake  bay  and  its  waters ;  and  a  canal  of  eight 
or  ten  miles  brings  to  it  all  that  of  Albemarle 
sound  and  its  waters.  Secondary  to  this  place,  are 
the  towns  at  the  head  of  the  tide  waters,  to  wit,  Pe- 
tersburg on  Appamattox,  Richmond  on  James  river, 
Newcastle  on  York  river,  Fredericksburgh  on  the 
Rappahannock,  and  Alexandria  on  the  Potomac. 

Mount  Vernon,  the  celebrated  seat  of  President 
Washington,  is  pleasantly  situated  on  the  Virginia 
bank  of  the  Potomac,  where  it  is  nearly  two  miles 
wide,  and  is  about  280  miles  from  the  sea,  and 
127  from  Point  Look-out,  at  the  mouth  of  the  river. 
The  area  of  the  mount  is  200  feet  above  the  surface 
of  the  river,  and,  after  furnishing  a  lawn  of  five 
acres  in  front,  and  about  the  same  in  rear  of  the 
buildings,  falls  off  rather  abruptly  on  those  two 
quarters.  On  the  north  end  it  subsides  gradually 
into  extensive  pasture-grounds  ;  while  on  the  south 
it  slopes  more  steeply  in  a  shorter  distance,  and  ter- 
minates with  the  eoach-house,  stables,  vineyard,  and 
nurseries.  On  either  wing  is  a  thick  grove  of  differ- 
ent flowering  forest  trees.  Parallel  with  them,  on 
the  land  side,  are  two  spacious  gardens,  into  which 
one  is  led  by  two  serpentine  gravel  walks,  planted 
with  weeping  willows  and  shady  shrubs.  The  man- 
sion-house itself  (though  much  embellished  by,  yet 
not  perfectly  satisfactory  to  the  chaste  taste  of  Wash- 
ington,) appears  venerable  and  convenient.  A  lofty 
portico,  96  feet  in  length,  supported  by  eight  pil- 
lars, has  a  pleasing  effect  when  viewed  from  the 
water ;  the  whole  assemblage  of  the  green-house, 
school-house,  offices  and  servants'  halls,  when  seen 
from  the  land-side,  bears  a  resemblance  to  a  rural 
village  ;  especially  as  the  lands  on  that  side  are  laid 
out  somewhat  in  the  form  of  English  gardens,  in 
meadows  and  grass  grounds,  ornamented  with  little 
copses,  circular  clumps  and  single  trees.  A  small 
park  on  the  margin  of  the  river,  where  the  English 
fallow-deer  and  the  American  wild  deer  are  seen 
through  the  thickets,  alternately  with  the  vessels  as 
they  are  sailing  along,  add  a  romantic  and  pictu- 
resque appearance  to  the  whole  scenery.  On  the 
opposite  side  of  a  small  creek  to  the  northward,  an 
extensive  plain,  exhibiting  corn-fields  and  cattle 
grazing,  affords  in  summer  a  luxuriant  landscape ; 
while  the  blended  verdure  of  woodlands  and  culti- 
vated declivities,  on  the  Maryland  shore,  variegates 
the  prospect  in  a  charming  manner. 

Fredericksburgh,  in  the  county  of  Spotsylvania, 
is  situated  on  the  south  side  of  Rappahannock  river, 
110  miles  from  its  mouth,  and  contains  about  500 
houses,  principally  on  one  street,  which  runs  nearly 
parallel  with  the  river. 

Richmond,  in  the  county  of  Henrico,  is  the  pre- 
sent seat  of  government,  and  stands  on  the  north 
side  of  James  river,  just  at  the  foot  of  the  falls,  and 


contains  upwards  of  16,000  inhabitants.  Part  of  the 
houses  are  built  upon  the  margin  of  the  river,  con- 
venient for  business  ;  the  rest  are  upon  a  hill  which 
overlooks  the  lower  part  of  the  town,  and  commands 
an  extensive  prospect  of  the  river  and  adjacent 
country.  The  new  houses  are  well  built.  A  large 
state-house,  or  capitol,  has  lately  been  erected  on 
the  hill.  The  lower  part  of  the  town  is  divided  by 
a  creek,  over  which  is  a  convenient  bridge.  A 
bridge  between  300  and  400  yards  in  length  has 
been  thrown  across  James  river,  at  the  foot  of  the 
fall,  by  Colonel  Mayo. 

Petersburgij,  25  miles  southward  of  Richmond, 
stands  on  the  south  side  of  Appamattox  river,  and 
contains  a  population  of  about  8000.  There  is  no 
regularity,  and  very  little  elegance,  in  Petersburgh  ; 
it  is  merely  a  place  of  business.  It  is  very  un- 
healthy, being  shut  out  from  the  access  of  the  winds 
by  high  hills  on  every  side.  This  confined  situation 
has  such  an  effect  upon  the  constitutions  of  the  in- 
habitants, that  they  very  nearly  resemble  those  of 
hard  drinkers ;  hence,  in  the  opinion  of  physicians, 
they  require  a  considerable  quantity  of  stimulating 
aliments  and  vinous  drinks,  to  keep  up  a  balance 
between  the  several  functions  of  the  body. 

Like  Richmond,  Williamsburgh,  and  Norfolk,  if, 
is  a  corporation ;  and  Petersbutgh  city  comprehends 
a  part  of  three  counties.  The  celebrated  Indian 
Queen  Pocahonta,  from  whom  descended  the  Ran- 
dolph and  Bowling  families,  formerly  resided  at  this 
place.  Petersburgh  and  its  suburbs  contain  about 
3000  inhabitants. 

Williamsburgb,  60  miles  eastward  of  Richmond, 
is  situated  between  two  creeks ;  one  falling  into 
James  river,  the  other  into  York  river.  The  dis- 
tance of  each  landing-place  is  about  a  mile  from  the 
town,  which,  with  the  disadvantage  of  not  being 
able  to  bring  up  large  vessels,  are  the  reasons  why 
it  never  flourished.  It  is  regularly  laid  out  in  pa- 
rallel streets,  with  a  square  in  th'e  centre,  through 
which  runs  the  principal  street,  east  and  west,  about 
a  mile  in  length,  and  more  than  100  feet  wide.  At 
the  ends  of  this  street  are  two  public  buildings,  the 
college  and  capitol :  besides  these,  there  is  an  epis- 
copal church,  a  prison,  a  hospital  for  lunatics,  and 
the  palace  ;  all  of  them  extremely  indifferent.  In 
the  capitol  is  a  large  marble  statue,  the  likeness  of 
Narbone  Berkley,  Lord  Botetourt,  a  man  distin- 
guished for  his  love  of  piety,  literature  and  good 
government,  and  formerly  governor  of  Virginia :  it 
was  erected  at  the  expense  of  the  state  some  time 
since  the  year  1791.  The  capitol  is  little  better 
than  in  ruins,  and  this  elegant  statue  is  exposed  to 
the  rudeness  of  negroes  and  boys,  and  is  shamefully 
defaced.  The  unprosperous  state  of  the  college,  but 
principally  the  removal  of  the  seat  of  government, 
have  contributed  much  to  the  decline  of  this  city. 

York-town,  thirteen  miles  eastward  from  Wil- 
liamsburgh, and  fourteen  from  Monday's  point  at 
the  mouth  of  the  river,  situated  on  the  south  side  of 
York  river,  has  been  rendered  famous,  by  the  cap- 
ture of  Lord  Cornwallis  and  his  army,  on  the  19th 
of  October,  1781,  by  the  united  forces  of  France 
and  America. 

James-town  deserves  notice  as  the  site  of  the 
earliest  English  settlements  in  the  United  States  ; 
it  is  now  quite  desolate.  It  was  situated  on  the 
James  river,  in  a  most  picturesque  country. 

Before  the  war,  the  inhabitants  of  this  state  paid 
but  little  attention  to  the  manufacture  of  their  own 
clothing,  and  it  has  been  thought  they  used  to  ira 
port  &s  much  as  seven-eighths  of  their  clothing. 


904 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Before  the  warthis  state  exported  one  year  with 
another,  according  to  the  best  information  that  could 
be  obtained,  as  follows : — 

Amount  in  Dollars. 

55,000  hhds  of  lOOlb.  of  tobacco 1,650,000 

800,000  bushels  of  wheat 666,666 

600,000  bushels  of  Indian  corn 200,000 

Shipping 100,000 

Masts,  planks,  skantling,  shingles 

and  staves 

30,000  barrels  of  tar,   pitch,   and 

pentine 

180  hhds.  of  6001b.  Peltry,  viz. 
skins  of  deer,  beavers,  otters, 
musk-rats,  racoons,  foxes,  &c 

4,000  barrels  of  pork 

Flax-seed,  hemp,  and  cotton 
Pit-coal  and  pig  iron 
5,000  bushels  of  peas 
1,000  barrels  of  beef. 
Sturgeon,  white  shad,  herring 
Brandy,  from  peaches  and  apples 

and  whiskey 

Horses... 


'*•'? 
RJ 


66,666 
40,000 


42,000 

40,000 
8,000 
6,666 
3,333 
3,333 
3,333 


1,666 
1,666 


2,833,329 

This  sum  is  equal  to  eight  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand pounds  Virginia  money,  six  hundred  and  fifty- 
seven  thousand  one  hundred  forty-two  gnineas. 

In  the  year  1758,  this  state  exported  70,000  hogs- 
heads of  tobacco,  which  was  the  greatest  quantity 
ever  produced  in  this  country  in  one  year.  But  its 
culture  has  fast  declined  since  the  commencement 
of  the  war,  and  that  of  wheat  taken  its  place.  The 
price  which  it  commands  at  market  will  not  enable 
the  planter  to  cultivate  it.  Were  the  supply  still 
to  depend  on  Virginia  and  Maryland  alone,  as  its 
culture  becomes  more  difficult,  this  price  would 
rise,  so  as  to  enable  the  planter  to  surmount  those 
difficulties  and  to  live.  But  the  western  country  on 
the  Mississippi,  and  the  midlands  of  Georgia,  hav- 
ing fresh  and  fertile  lands  in  abundance,  and  a 
hotter  sun,  are  able  to  undersell  these  two  states, 
and  will  oblige  them  in  time  to  abandon  the  raising 
of  tobacco  altogether.  And  a  happy  obligation  for 
them  it  will  be.  It  is  a  culture  productive  of  infinite 
wretchedness.  Those  employed  in  it  are  in  a  con- 
tinued state  of  exertion  beyond  the  powers  of  nature 
to  support.  Little  food  of  any  kind  is  raised  by 
them,  so  that  the  men  and  animals  on  these  farms 
are  badly  fed,  and  the  earth  is  rapidly  impoverished. 
The  cultivation  of  wheat  is  the  reverse  in  every  cir- 
cumstance. Besides  clothing  the  earth  with  her- 
bage, and  preserving  its  fertility,  it  feeds  the  la- 
bourers plentifully,  requires  from  them  only  a  mo- 


derate toil,  except  in  the  season  of  harvest,  raises 
great  numbers  of  animals  for  food  and  service,  and 
diffuses  plenty  and  happiness  among  the  whole.  It 
is  easier  to  raise  100  bushels  of  wheat  than  1000 
weight  of  tobacco,  and  it  is  worth  more  when  pro- 
duced. 

It  is  not  easy  to  say  what  are  the  articles  either  of 
necessity,  comfort,  or  luxury,  which  cannot  be 
raised  here,  as  every  thing  hardier  than  the  olive, 
and  as  hardy  as  the  fig,  may  be  raised  in  the  open 
air. 

The  college  of  William  and  Mary  was  founded  in 
the  time  of  King  William  and  Queen  Mary,  who 
granted  to  it  20,000  acres  of  land,  and  a  penny  a 
pound  duty  on  certain  tobaccos  exported  from  Vir- 
ginia and  Maryland,  which  had  been  levied  by  the 
statute  of  25  of  Charles  II.  The  assembly  also  gave 
it,  by  temporary  laws,  a  duty  on  liquors  imported, 
and  skins  and  furs  exported.  From  these  resources 
it  received  upwards  of  3000/.  The  buildings  are  of 
brick,  sufficient  for  an  indifferent  accommodation 
of  perhaps  lUO  students.  By  its  charter  it  was  to 
be  under  the  government  of  20  visitors,  who  were 
to  be  its  legislators,  and  to  have  a  president  and 
six  professors,  who  were  incorporated:  it  was  al- 
lowed a  representative  in  the  general  assembly. 
Under  this  charter,  a  professorship  of  the  Greek  and 
Latin  languages,  a  professor  of  mathematics,  on* 
of  moral  philosophy,  and  two  of  divinity,  were  esta- 
blished. To  these  were  annexed,  for  a  sixth  profes- 
sorship, a  considerable  donation  by  Mr.  Boyle  of 
England,  for  the  instruction  of  the  Indians,  and 
their  conversion  to  Christianity  :  this  was  called  the 
professorship  of  Brafferton,  from  an  estate  of  that 
name  in  England,  purchased  with  the  moneys  given. 
The  admission  of  the  learners  of  Latin  and  Greek 
filled  the  college  with  children  :  this  rendering  it 
disagreeable  to  the  young  gentlemen  already  pre- 
pared for  entering  on  the  sciences,  they  desisted 
from  resorting  to  it,  and  thus  the  schools  for  mathe- 
matics and  moral  philosophy,  which  might  have  been 
of  some  service,  became  of  very  little  use.  The  re- 
venues too  were  exhausted  in  accommodating  those 
who  came  only  to  acquire  the  rudiments  of  science. 
After  the  revolution,  the  visitors  having  no  power 
to  change  those  circumstances  in  the  constitution  of 
the  college  which  were  fixed  by  the  charter,  and 
being  therefore  confined  in  the  number  of  professor- 
ships, undertook  to  change  the  objects  of  the  pro- 
fessorships. They  excluded  the  two  schools  for  divi- 
nity, and  that  for  the  Greek  and  Latin  languages, 
and  substituted  others ;  so  that  at  present  they  stand 
thus — a  professorship  for  law  and  police ;  anatomy 
and  medicine  ;  natural  philosophy  and  mathematics  ; 
moral  philosophy,  the  law  of  nature  and  nations, 
the  fine  arts :  modern  languages ;  for  the  Brafferton. 


NORTH  AND  SOUTH  CAROLINA  AND  GEORGIA. 


Original  grant  to  Sir  Robert  Heath — First  settlers 
from  Virginia  and  Massachusetts — Charter  granted 
Lord  Clarendon  and  others — Locke's  constitutional 
code —  Governor  Sayle — Difficulties  of  the  early  set- 
tlers— Foundation  of  Charlestown — Sir  John  Tea- 
mans,  governor— Treaty  with  Spain — Formation  of 
a  legislature — Contentions  with  the  Spaniards — Do- 
mestic dissensions — Arrival  of  Dutch  settlers — Go- 
vernor West — Description  of  the  country-— Governor 
Morton — Fresh  settlers  on  account  of  the  religious 
persecution  in  England  and  France — Mode  of  ga- 
thering turpentine — Governor  Colleton — Civil  com- 
motions— Seth  Soshel  usurps  the  governorship— Is 
deposed. 

IN  1630,  Charles  t.  granted  to  Sir  Robert  Heath 
all  the  territory  between  30°  and  36°  of  north  la- 
titude, and  extending  from  the  Atlantic  ocean  to 
the  South  sea,  by  the  name  of  Carolina.  Under  this 
grant,  no  settlement  was  made.  Between  1640 
and  1650,  persons  suffering  from  religious  intoler- 
ance in  Virginia,  fled  beyond  her  limits,  and  with- 
out licence  from  any  source,  occupied  that  portion 
of  North  Carolina,  north  of  Albemarle  sound.  They 
found  the  winters  mild  and  the  soil  fertile.  Ao  their 
cattle  and  swine  procured  their  own  support  in  the 
woods  and  multiplied  fast,  they  were  enabled,  with 
little  labour,  to  live  in  the  enjoyment  of  abundance. 
Their  number  was  annually  augmented;  they  ac- 
knowledged no  superior  upon  earth,  and  obeyed  no 
laws  but  those  of  God  and  nature. 

In  1661,  another  settlement  was  made,  near  the 
mouth  of  Clarendon  river,  by  adventurers  from 
Massachusetts.  The  land  being  sterile  and  the 
Indians  hostile,  they,  in  1663,  abandoned  it;  but 
immediately  afterwards,  their  place  was  supplied 
by  emigrants  from  Barbadoes. 

In  the  year  1662,  Edward,  earl  of  Clarendon, 
George,  duke  of  Albemarle,  William,  Lord  Craven, 
John,  Lord  Berkeley,  Antony,  Lord  Ashley,  Sir 
George  Carteret,  Sir  William  Berkeley,  and  Sir 
John  Colleton,  being  apprized  of  the  excellent  soil 
of  this  country,  united  and  formed  a  project  for 
planting  a  colony  in  it.  Upon  application  to  the 
crown  for  a  charter,  Sir  Robert  Heath  having  neg- 
lected to  comply  with  the  condition  of  his  patent, 
Charles  granted  them  all  the  lands  lying  between 
31°  and  36°  of  north  latitude.  Two  years  after- 
wards he  confirmed  this  grant,  and  by  a  second 
charter  enlarged  the  boundaries  of  it,  from  the  29th 
degree  of  north  latitude  to  36°  30",  and  from  these 
points  on  the  sea-coast  westward  in  parallel  lines  to 
the  Pacific  ocean.  Of  this  immense  region  the  king 
constituted  them  absolute  lords  and  proprietors, 
saving  to  himself,  his  heirs  and  successors,  the  so- 
vereign dominion  of  the  country.  At  the  same  time 
he  invested  them  with  all  the  rights,  jurisdiction, 
royalties,  privileges  and  liberties  within  the  bounds 
of  their  province,  to  hold,  use  and  enjoy  the  same, 
in  as  ample  a  manner  as  the  bishop  of  Durham  did 
in  that  county  palatine  in  England.  This  province 


they  were  to  hold  and  possess  of  the  king,  his  heirs 
and  successors,  as  of  his  manor  of  East  Greenwich 
in  Kent,  not  in  capite,  or  by  knight's  service,  but 
in  free  and  common  soccage. 

These  absolute  lords  and  proprietors  were  by 
their  charter  empowered  to  enact,  and,  under  their 
seal,  to  publish  any  laws  or  constitutions  they  judged 
necessary  to  the  public  state  of  the  province,  with 
the  assent,  advice,  and  approbation  of  the  freemen 
of  the  colony ;  to  constitute  counties,  baronies,  and 
colonies  within  the  province;  to  erect  courts  of  ju- 
dicature, and  appoint  civil  judges,  magistrates,  and 
officers;  to  erect  forts,  castles,  cities,  and  towns; 
to  make  war ;  to  levy,  muster,  and  train  men  to  the 
use  of  arms,  and,  in  cases  of  necessity,  to  exercise  the 
martial  law;  to  confer  titles  of  honour,  only  they 
must  be  different  from  those  conferred  on  the  people 
of  England;  to  build  harbours,  make  ports,  and 
enjoy  customs  and  subsidies,  which  they,  with  the 
consent  of  the  freemen,  should  impose  on  goods 
loaded  and  unloaded ;  reserving  the  fourth  part  of 
the  gold  and  silver  ore  found  within  the  province  to 
the  crown.  By  the  said  charter  the  king  granted 
them  the  patronage  and  advowson  of  all  churches 
and  chapels,  to  hold  and  exercise  the  same  rights, 
powers,  and  privileges  as  the  bishop  of  Durham  did 
in  England  :  but  as  it  might  happen  that  several  of 
the  inhabitants  could  not  in  their  private  opinions 
conform  to  the  exercise  of  religion,  according  to 
the  liturgy  and  ceremonies  of  the  church  of  Eng- 
land ;  the  proprietors  had  power  and  authority 
granted  them,  to  allow  the  inhabitants  of  the  pro 
vince  such  indulgences  and  dispensations  as  they 
should  think  reasonable ;  and  no  person,  to  whom 
such  liberty  should  be  granted,  was  to  be  molested, 
punished,  or  called  in  question  for  any  differences 
in  speculative  opinions  with  respect  to  religion  ;  so 
that  all  persons,  of  what  denomination  soever,  had 
liberty  to  enjoy  their  own  judgments  and  consciences 
in  religious  concerns,  provided  they  disturbed  not 
the  civil  order  and  peace  of  the  province.  And  as 
the  assembly  of  freeholders  could  not  be  immedi- 
ately called,  the  proprietors  had  power  granted 
them  to  make  such  orders  and  ordinances  as  might 
be  necessary  to  the  government  of  the  people, 
and  the  preservation  of  peace,  and  as  were  not  re- 
pugnant to  the  laws  and  statutes  of  England.  Li- 
berty was  given  to  the  king's  liege  subjects  to 
transport  themselves  and  families  to  settle  the  pro- 
vince, only  they  were  to  remain  immediately  sub- 
ject to  the  crown  of  England,  and  to  depend  thereon 
for  ever;  and  were  not  compellable  to  answer  to 
any  cause  or  suit  in  any  other  part  of  his  majesty's 
dominions  but  in  England  and  Wales. 

Agreeably  to  the  powers  with  which  the  proprie- 
tors were  invested  by  their  charter,  they  began  to 
frame  a  system  of  laws  for  the  government  of  their 
colony ;  in  which  arduous  task  they  called  in  the 
great  Locke  to  their  assistance.  A  model  of  go- 
vernment, consisting  of  no  less  than  120  different 
articles,  was  framed  by  this  learned  man,  which 


906 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


they  agreed  to  establish,  and  to  the  careful  ob- 
servance of  which,  to  bind  themselves  and  their 
heirs  for  ever.  But  there  is  danger  of  error,  where 
speculative  men  of  one  country  attempt  to  sketch 
out  a  plan  of  government  for  another,  in  a  different 
climate  and  situation.  This  legislator  must  be 
acknowledged  to  have  possessed  great  abilities  and 
merit ;  yet  his  fine-spun  system  proved  in  effect 
useless  and  impracticable.  Several  attempts  were 
afterwards  made  to  amend  these  fundamental  con- 
stitutions, but  all  to  little  purpose  ;  the  inhabitants, 
sensible  of  their  impropriety,  and  how  little  they 
were  applicable  to  their  circumstances,  neither  by 
themselves,  nor  by  their  representatives  in  assem- 
bly, ever  gave  their  assent  to  them  as  a  body  of 
laws,  and  therefore  they  obtained  not  the  force  of 
fundamental  and  unalterable  laws  in  the  colony. 
What  regulations  the  people  found  applicable  and 
useful,  they  adopted  at  the  request  of  their  gover- 
nors ;  but  observed  them  on  account  of  their  own 
proprietv  and  necessity,  rather  than  as  a  system  of 
laws  imposed  on  them  by  British  legislators. 

As  the  proprietors  were  so  fond  of  these  consti- 
tutions, and  expressed  so  much  zeal  for  their  esta- 
blishment, it  may  not  be  improper  to  give  a  short 
and  imperfect  view  of  them,  especially  such  as  were 
allowed  to  take  place  in  the  government  of  the 
colony.  The  eldest  of  the  eight  proprietors  was 
always  to  be  palatine,  and  at  his  decease  was  to  be 
succeeded  by  the  eldest  of  the  seven  survivors.  This 
palatine  was  to  sit  as  president  of  the  palatine's 
court,  of  which  he  and  three  more  of  the  proprietors 
made  a  quorum,  and  had  the  management  and  exe- 
cution of  all  the  powers  of  their  charter.  This  pa- 
latine's court  was  to  stand  in  room  of  the  king,  and 
give  their  assent  or  dissent  to  all  laws  made  by  the 
legislature  of  the  colony.  The  palatine  was  to  have 
power  to  nominate  and  appoint  the  governor,  who, 
after  obtaining  the  royal  approbation,  became  his 
representative  in  Carolina.  Each  of  the  seven 
proprietors  was  to  have  the  privilege  of  appointing 
a  deputy  to  sit  as  his  representative  in  parliament, 
and  to  act  agreeably  to  his  instructions.  Besides  a 
governor,  two  other  branches,  somewhat  similar  to 
the  old  Saxon  constitution,  were  to  be  established, 
an  upper  and  lower  house  of  assembly;  which 
three  branches  were  to  be  called  a  parliament,  and 
to  constitute  the  legislature  of  the  country.  The 
parliament  was  to  be  chosen  every  two  years.  No 
act  of  the  legislature  was  to  have  any  force  unless 
ratified  in  open  parliament  during  the  same  session, 
and  even  then  to  continue  no  longer  in  force  than 
the  next  biennial  parliament,  unless  in  the  mean 
time  it  were  ratified  by  the  hands  and  seals  of  the 
palatine  and  three  proprietors.  The  upper  house 
was  to  consist  of  the  seven  deputies,  seven  of  the 
oldest  landgraves  and  cassiques,  and  seven  chosen 
by  the  assembly.  As  in  the  other  provinces,  the 
lower  house  was  to  be  composed  of  the  representa- 
tives from  the  different  counties  and  towns.  Seve- 
ral officers  were  also  to  be  appointed,  such  as  an 
admiral,  a  secretary,  a  chief  justice,  a  surveyor,  a 
treasurer,  a  marshal,  and  register;  and  besides 
these,  each  county  was  to  have  a  sheriff  and  four 
justices  of  the  peace.  Three  classes  of  nobility 
were  to  be  established,  called  barons,  cassiques,  and 
landgraves ;  the  first  to  possess  twelve,  the  second 
24,  and  the  third  48,000  acres  of  land,  and  their 
possessions  were  to  be  unalienable.  Military  offi- 
cers were  also  to  be  nominated,  and  all  inhabitants, 
from  sixteen  to  60  years  of  age,  as  in  the  times  of 
feudal  government,  when  summoned  by  the  gover- 


nor and  grand  council,  were  to  appear  under  arms, 
and,  in  time  of  war,  to  take  the  field. 

With  respect  to  religion,  three  terms  of  commu- 
nion were  fixed  :  First,  to  believe  that  there  is  a 
God :  Secondly,  That  he  is  to  be  worshipped :  and, 
Thirdly,  that  it  is  lawful,  and  the  duty  of  every 
man  when  called  upon  by  those  in  authority  to 
bear  witness  to  the  truth.  Without  acknowledging 
which,  no  man  was  to  be  permitted  to  be  a  freeman, 
or  to  have  any  estate  or  habitation  in  Carolina. 
But  persecution  for  observing  different  modes  and 
ways  of  worship  was  expressly  forbid,  and  every 
man  was  to  be  left  full  liberty  of  conscience,  and 
might  worship  God  in  that  manner  which  he  in  his 
private  judgment  thought  most  conformable  to  the 
divine  will  and  revealed  word.  This  was  the  opi- 
nion of  Mr.  Locke  with  respect  to  religious  matters. 
He  chose  the  word  of  God  for  his  rule  of  life,  and 
used  to  say,  "  That,  at  the  day  of  judgment,  it 
would  not  be  asked  whether  he  was  a  follower  of 
Luther  or  Calvin;  but  whether  he  embraced  the 
truth  in  the  love  of  it." 

Notwithstanding  these  preparations,  several  years 
elapsed  before  the  proprietors  of  Carolina  made  any 
serious  efforts  towards  its  settlement.  In  1667  they 
fitted  out  a  ship,  gave  the  command  of  it  to  Captain 
William  Sayle,  and  sent  him  out  to  bring  them 
some  account  of  the  coast.  In  his  passage,  Captain 
Sayle  was  driven  by  a  storm  among  the  Bahama 
islands,  which  accident  he  improved  to  the  purpose 
of  acquiring  some  knowledge  of  them ;  particularly 
the  island  of  Providence,  which  he  judged  might  be 
of  service  to  the  intended  settlement  of  Carolina : 
for,  in  case  of  an  invasion  from  the  Spaniards,  this 
island,  fortified,  might  be  made  to  serve  either  as  a 
check  to  the  progress  of  their  arms,  or  a  useful  re- 
treat to  unfortunate  colonists.  Leaving  Providence, 
he  sailed  along  the  coast  of  Carolina,  where  he  ob- 
served several  large  navigable  rivers  emptying 
themselves  into  the  ocean,  and  a  flat  country  co- 
vered with  woods.  He  attempted  to  go  ashore  in 
his  boat,  but  observing  some  savages  on  the  banks 
of  the  rivers,  he  was  obliged  to  drop  his  design ; 
and,  after  having  explored  the  coast  and  the  mouth 
of  the  rivers,  he  took  his  departure,  and  returned  to 
England. 

His  report  to  his  employers,  as  might  naturally 
be  expected,  was  favourable.  He  praised  their 
possessions,  and  encouraged  them  to  engage  with 
vigour  in  the  execution  of  their  project.  His  ob- 
servations respecting  the  Bahama  islands  induced 
them  to  apply  to  the  king  for  a  grant  of  them. 
Charles  bestowed  on  them  by  patent  all  those  islands 
lying  between  the  22nd  and  27th  degrees  of  north 
latitude.  Nothing  then  remained  but  to  make  pre- 
parations for  sending  a  colony  to  Carolina.  Two 
ships  were  procured,  on  board  of  which  a  number 
of  adventurers  embarked,  with  provisions,  arms, 
and  utensils  requisite  for  building  and  cultivation. 
William  Sayle,  who  had  visited  the  country,  was 
appointed  the  first  governor  of  it,  and  received  a 
commission,  bearing  date  July  26,  1669.  The  ex- 
penses of  this  first  embarkation  amounted  to  12,000/., 
which  vigorous  effort  was  a  proof  that  the  proprie- 
tors entertained  no  small  hopes  with  respect  to 
their  palatinate.  The  number  of  men,  however, 
must  have  been  inconsiderable,  and  no  ways  ade- 
quate to  the  undertaking,  especially  when  we  con- 
sider the  multitude  of  savages  that  ranged  through 
that  extensive  wilderness. 

In  what  place  Governor  Sayle  first  landed  is  un- 
certain ;  but  he  was  dissatisfied  with  his  first  situa- 


UNITED  STATES 


907 


tion,  and,  moving  to  the  southward,  took  possession 
of  a  neck  of  land  between  Ashley  and  Cooper  rivers. 
The  earliest  instructions  we  have  seen  upon  record 
were  directed  to  the  governor  and  council  of  Ashley 
river,  in  which  spot  the  first  settlement  was  made 
that  proved  permanent  and  successful.  This  place, 
however,  was  more  eligible  for  the  convenience  of 
navigation  than  for  the  richness  of  its  soil.  But  to 
struggle  amidst  a  complication  of  difficulties  and 
dangers  was  the  lot  of  such  adventurers;  to  sur- 
mount which,  at  this  early  period,  no  small  degree 
of  fortitude,  patience,  and  perseverance  must  have 
been  requisite. 

The  difficulties  of  the  first  settlers  of  Carolina 
must  have  equalled,  if  not  surpassed,  every  thing 
of  the  kind  to  which  men  in  any  age  have  been 
exposed.  To  fell  the  trees  of  the  thick  forest, 
and  build  habitations  fof  themselves,  would  probably 
be  their  first  employment,  before  they  began  to 
clear  their  spots  of  ground  for  raising  the  necessaries 
of  life.  In  such  a  low  country,  and  warm  climate, 
even  this  task  must  have  been  a  considerable  bur- 
den. But  Carolina,  like  other  level  countries,  over- 
flowed with  water,  is  productive  of  many  disor- 
ders, such  as  putrid  fevers,  agues,  dysenteries,  and 
the  like ;  and  to  fix  habitations  on  such  places 
where  the  exhalations  from  stagnated  waters  and 
marshy  swamps  poisoned  the  air,  must  have  ren- 
dered them  extremely  unwholesome.  During  the 
summer  months  the  climate  is  so  sultry,  that  no 
European,  without  hazard,  can  endure  the  fatigues 
of  labouring  in  the  open  air  :  for  the  most  part,  the 
weather,  during  this  season,  is  very  clear  and  serene, 
excepting  when  a  thunder-storm  happens,  which 
cools  the  air,  suddenly  stops  perspiration,  and  be- 
comes exceedingly  dangerous  to  labourers  of  little 
precaution.  Besides,  the  violent  heat  continues 
through  the  night,  and  denies  the  weary  workman 
the  natural  refreshment  of  sleep.  The  autumn  in- 
troduces cool  evenings  and  mornings,  while  the  noon- 
day is  intolerably  warm;  which  change,  together 
with  the  thick  fogs  that  commonly  fall  at  this 
season,  render  it  the  most  unhealthy  division  of 
the  year.  In  winter,  though  the  degree  of  cold  is 
not  so  great  as  in  the  more  northern  climates  of 
America,  yet  it  is  severely  felt  by  the  human  body, 
exhausted  and  relaxed  with  the  summer  heat ;  and 
when  the  wind  shifts  suddenly  from  any  quarter  to 
the  north-west  or  north,  it  blows  extremely  sharp 
and  piercing,  brings  along  with  it  sometimes  frost 
and  snow,  and  renders  the  wannest  clothing  requi- 
site. The  spring  is  the  most  temperate  and  delight- 
ful season  of  the  year  :  it  begins  early,  and  diffuses 
its  enlivening  influence  over  the  fields  and  forests. 
Experience  had  not  yet  taught  the  young  colonists 
the  methods  either  of  improving  the  advantages,  or 
guarding  against  the  disadvantages  of  the  climate,  and 
therefore  it  is  no  wonder  that  they  found  themselves 
involved  at  this  period  in  a  complication  of  hardships. 

To  enhance  their  distress,  they  were  surrounded 
with  tribes  of  warlike  savages-,  who  viewed  them 
with  a  jealous  eye,  and  were  by  no  means  pleased 
at  the  encroachments  made  on  their  natural  pos- 
sesions.  The  tribes  called  Stonoes  and  Westoes 
were  particularly  troublesome.  The  colonists,  in- 
deed, were  furnished  with  arms  and  ammunition 
f .  om  the  storehouse  of  the  proprietors,  yet  as  they 
lived  in  the  midst  of  perpetual  alarms,  their  condi- 
tion must  have  been  deplorable.  Nor  did  the  mus- 
ket give  those  strangers  to  the  woods  such  an  ad- 
vantage over  the  bow  and  arrow  in  the  hands  of 
the  Indians,  as  some  people  may  be  apt  to  imagine. 


The  savage,  quick-sighted,  and  accustomed  to  per- 
petual watchfulness,  springs  from  his  den  behind  a 
bush,  and  surprises  his  enemy  with  the  pointed  ar- 
row before  he  is  aware  of  danger.  He  ranges 
through  the  trackless  forest  like  the  beasts  of  prey, 
and  safely  sleeps  under  the  same  canopy  with  the 
wolf  and  bear.  His  vengeance  is  concealed,  and 
sends  the  tidings  in  the  fatal  blow.  The  first  set- 
tlers were  obliged  to  stand  in  a  continual  posture  of 
defence ;  and  as  they  could  not  be  supposed  to  un- 
derstand the  political  methods  of  managing  their 
barbarous  neighbours,  they  must  have  been  sub- 
jected to  all  the  hardships  arising  from  their  igno- 
rance, and  dangerous  condition. 

While  one  party  was  employed  in  raising  their 
little  habitations,  another  was  always  kept  under 
arms,  to  watch  the  motions  of  these  Indians.  The 
governor  shared  those  hardships  along  with  his  fel- 
low-adventurers, and  by  his  example  animated  and 
encouraged  them  to  perseverance.  The  only  fresh 
provisions  they  could  procure  were  fish  from  the 
river,  and  what  game  they  could  kill  with  their 
gun.  While  the  settlers  were  struggling  under  the 
difficulties  inseparable  from  the  first  state  of  coloni- 
zation, the  ship  Blessing,  belonging  to  the  proprie- 
tors, commanded  by  Captain  Matthias  Halstead, 
happily  arrived,  and  brought  -them,  a  seasonable 
supply  of  necessaries.  At  the  same  time  deputies 
from  the  other  proprietors  came  over,  to  assist  the 
governor  in  the  discharge  of  the  duties  of  his  office. 
They  brought  with  them  23  articles  of  instruction, 
called  Temporary  Agrarian  Laws,  intended  for  the 
equitable  division  of  lands  among  the  people ;  but 
whatever  difficulties  or  inconveniencies  might  occur 
in  the  execution  of  them,  the  governor  had  direc- 
tions to  represent  them  to  the  proprietors,  who  had 
reserved  to  themselves  the  sole  power  of  making  al- 
terations in  them.  At  the  same  time,  the  governor 
received  a  plan  of  a  magnificent  town,  to  be  laid 
out  on  the  neck  of  land  between  the  two  rivers,  to 
be  called  Charles-town,  in  honour  of  the  king. 
Captain  Halstead  was  employed,  during  his  stay,  in 
sounding  the  rivers,  for  the  benefit  of  navigation, 
which  were  found  sufficiently  deep,  and  excellently 
calculated  for  the  purposes  of  trade. 

About  this  time,  the  duke  of  Albemarle,  who  was 
the  first  palatine,  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  the 
earl  of  Craven,  as  eldest  proprietor.  John  Locke, 
Sir  John  Yeamans,  and  James  Carteret,  were 
created  landgraves,  to  make  part  of  the  nobility 
required  by  the  fundamental  constitutions.  Sir 
John  was  the  eldest  son  and  heir  of  Robert  Yea- 
mans,  alderman  of  Bristol,  who  was  imprisoned  and 
executed  in  1 643,  by  order  of  Nathaniel  Fienes,  son 
to  Lord  Say,  who  had  been  appointed  governor  of 
Bristol  by  the  parliament.  His  son,  Sir  John,  was 
afterwards  advanced  to  the  dignity  of  baronet  by 
King  Charles  II.,  in  1664,  as  a  reward  for  the 
steady  loyalty  and  heavy  sufferings  of  his  father. 
But  as  the  violence  of  the  preceding  times,  which 
had  deprived  Sir  John  of  his  father,  had  also  in- 
jured him  in  his  private  fortune,  he  embarked  for 
the  island  of  Barbadoes,  at  that  time  in  a  flourishing 
condition,  to  hide  his  poverty  from  his  acquaintance 
in  England,  and  endeavour  to  acquire  a  fortune 
suitable  to  his  dignity.  When  Carolina  was  settled, 
having  received  a  grant  of  a  large  tract  of  land 
from  the  proprietors,  he,  with  several  respectable 
followers,  retired  to  that  infant  colony,  to  forward, 
by  his  presence  and  example,  the  interest  of  hi» 
generous  and  beloved  friends,  from  whom  he  had 
received  great  encouragement  and  assistance 


008 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


(A.  D.  1671.)  Soon  after  his  arrival  in  Carolina, 
Governor  Sayle  fell  a  sacrifice  to  the  hardships  of 
the  climate.  Upon  his  death  the  council  met,  and 
Sir  John  claimed  the  office  of  vice-palatine  in  con- 
sequence of  his  rank,  being  the  only  landgrave  resi- 
dent in  the  colony.  But  the  council,  who  were 
empoweied  to  elect  a  governor  in  such  a  case,  chose 
to  prefer  Joseph  West,  until  a  special  appointment 
arrived  from  England.  West  was  a  popular  man, 
much  esteemed  among  the  colonists  for  his  activity, 
courage,  and  prudence.  However,  he  did  not  long 
remain  in  office,  for  the  first  vessel  that  arrived 
from  England  brought  a  commission  to  Sir  John 
Yeamans,  constituting  him  governor  of  the  colony. 

Reasons  of  state  contributed  to  render  those  new 
settlements  reasonably  useful  and  important  to  the 
king*  By  this  time  several  of  the  settlers  in  Vir 
ginia  and  Barbadoes  had  been  successful,  and  hav 
ing  surmounted  the  difficulties  attending  the  firs 
state  of  colonization,  were  living  in  easy  and  plen. 
tiful  circumstances.  The  lands  of  Carolina  were 
esteemed  equal,  if  not  superior  in  value,  to  those  o 
the  northern  colonies.  Here  the  ministers  of  the 
king  could  provide  for  his  friends  without  any 
expense  to  the  nation,  and  by  this  means  not  only 
secured  their  attachment,  but  also  extended  his 
power.  Grants  of  land  were  allowed  them  in  Caro- 
lina by  the  proprietors,  where  it  was  thought  they 
might  in  time  enrich  themselves,  and  become  bene- 
ficial to  the  commerce  and  navigation  of  the  mother 
country. 

From  this  period  every  year  brought  new  adven 
turers  to  Carolina.  The  friends  of  the  proprietors 
were  invited  to  it,  by  the  flattering  prospects  of 
obtaining  landed  estates  at  an  easy  rate;  and  others 
took  refuge  there  from  the  rigour  of  their  creditors. 
It  cannot  be  deemed  wonderful  if  many  of  them 
were  disappointed,  especially  such  as  emigrated 
with  sanguine  expectations,  the  manners  and  vices 
of  the  city  were  bad  qualifications  for  rural  industry, 
and  rendered  some  utterly  unfit  for  the  frugal  sim- 
plicity and  laborious  task  of  the  first  state  of  culti- 
vation. Nor  could  the  Puritans,  who  settled  before 
them,  promise  themselves  much  greater  success  than 
their  neighbours  :  though  more  rigid  and  austere  in 
their  manners,  and  more  religiously  disposed,  their 
scrupulosity  about  trifles  and  ceremonies,  and  their 
litigious  dispositions,  created  trouble  to  all  around 
them,  and  disturbed  that  general  harmony  so  neces- 
sary to  the  welfare  and  prosperity  of  the  young 
settlement.  From  the  various  principles  which  ac- 
tuated the  populace  of  England,  and  the  different 
sects  who  composed  the  first  settlers  of  Carolina, 
nothing  less  could  be  expected,  but  that  the  seeds  of 
division  should  be  imported  into  that  country  with 
its  earliest  inhabitants. 

Before  the  year  1667,  there  is  no  mention  made 
of  America  in  any  treaty  between  England  and 
Spain:  but  a  few  years  after  Carolina  was  settled, 
Sir  William  Godolphin  concluded  a  treaty  with 
Spain,  in  which,  among  other  articles,  it  was 
agreed,  "  That  the  king  of  Great  Britain  should 
always  possess,  in  full  right  of  sovereignty  and  pro- 
perty, all  the  countries,  islands,  and  colonies,  lying 
and  situated  in  the  West  Indies,  or  any  part  of 
America,  which  he  and  his  subjects  then  held  and 
possessed,  insomuch  that  they  neither  can  nor  ought 
thereafter  to  be  contested  on  any  account  whatso- 
ever." The  Bucaniers,  who  had  for  many  years 
infested  Spanish  America,  were  now  cut  off  from 
all  future  protection  from  the  English  government 
iu  their  hostile  invasions  of  these  dominions,  and  all 


commissions  formerly  granted  to  such  pirates,  were 
recalled  and  annulled.  By  this  treaty,  the  freedom 
of  navigation  in  these  American  seas  was  opened  to 
both  nations;  and  all  ships  in  distress,  whether 
from  storms,  or  the  pursuit  of  enemies  and  pirates, 
taking  refuge  in  places  belonging  either  to  Britain 
or  Spain,  were  to  be  treated  with  humanity,  to  meet 
with  protection  and  assistance,  and  to  be  permitted 
to  depart  without  molestation.  These  things  merit 
particular  notice,  as  by  this  treaty  Spain  evidently 
gave  up  all  future  pretensions  to  the  country  of 
Carolina  granted  to  the  proprietors  by  the  king  • 
and  this  freedom  of  navigation,  provided  for  in  such 
express  terms,  was  violated,  as  we  shall  afterwards 
see,  by  the  Spaniards,  and  proved  the  occasion  of  a 
destructive  war  between  the  two  nations.  Not  long 
after  this,  a  treaty  of  neutrality  between  Britain 
and  France  was  also  concluded ;  by  which  negotia- 
tions the  possessions  of  Great  Britain,  France,  and 
Spain,  in  the  western  world,  were  better  ascer- 
tained ;  and  the  freedom  of  commerce  and  naviga- 
tion was  more  firmly  established  by  those  three 
great  potentates,  than  had  taken  place  in  any  for- 
mer period. 

In  Carolina  Sir  John  Yeamans  had  entered  on 
the  government  with  an  uncommon  zeal  for  the  suc- 
cess of  the  settlement,  and  a  grateful  anxiety  to 
discharge  the  duties  of  his  trust  with  fidelity  and 
honour.  The  proprietors,  fond  of  their  new  form  of 
government,  had  instructed  him  to  use  his  endea- 
vours to  introduce  it,  as  the  most  excellent  of  its 
kind,  and  wisely  adapted  to  promote  the  prosperity 
and  happiness  of  the  people.  Accordingly,  Sir 
John  summoned  the  people  together,  ordered  the 
fundamental  constitutions  to  be  read,  and  represen- 
tatives to  be  elected.  The  province  was  divided 
into  four  counties,  called  Berkeley,  Colleton,  Cra- 
ven, and  Carteret  counties.  The  people,  who  had 
hitherto  lived  under  a  kind  of  military  government, 
now  began  to  form  a  legislature  for  establishing  civil 
regulations.  Ten  members  were  elected  as  repre- 
sentatives for  Colleton,  and  ten  for  Berkeley  coun- 
ties. A  committee,  consisting  of  Stephen  Bull, 
Ralph  Marshal,  and  William  Owen,  were  nominated 
for  framing  some  public  regulations.  Three  acts 
were  proposed  by  them  as  beneficial ;  the  first,  to 
prevent  persons  leaving  the  colony ;  the  second,  to 
prohibit  all  men  from  disposing  of  arms  and  ammu- 
nition to  Indians;  and  the  third,  for  the  regular 
Building  of  Charles-town. 

Notwithstanding  the  public  treaty  already  men- 
:ioned,  a  religious  society  of  the  Spanish  nation 
aid  claim  to  the  large  territory  of  Florida,  not  only 
on  the  foot  of  prior  discovery,  but  also  by  virtue  of 
a  grant  from  the  pope;  and  the  garrison  kept  at 
Augustine  regarding  the  British  settlement  as  an 
encroachment  on  their  possessions,  were  disposed  to 
hrow  every  difficulty  in  the  way  of  the  Carolineans, 
n  order  to  compel  them  to  relinquish  the  country. 
They  encouraged  indented  servants  to  leave  their 
nasters,  and  fly  to  them  for  liberty  and  protection. 
They  instilled  into  the  savage  tribes  the  most  un- 
'avourable  notions  of  British  heretics,  and  urged 
hem  on  to  the  destruction  of  the  colony.  Good  po- 
icy  required  that  the  governor  should  keep  a  watch- 
ul  eye  on  the  motions  of  such  neighbours,  and  guard 
lis  weak  aud  defenceless  colony  against  the  perni- 
ious  designs  of  their  Spanish  rivals.  Some  men  he 
liscovered  who  were  attempting  to  entice  servants 
o  revolt;  these  were  ordered  to  receive  so  many 
tripes.  Others,  in  defiance  of  the  feeble  power  of 
he  magistrate,  took  to  such  courses  as  were  subver- 


UNITED  STATES. 


909 


sive  of  public  peace  and  justice.  Except  a  few  ne- 
groes whom  Sir  John  Yeamans  and  his  followers 
brought  along  with  them  from  Barbadoes,  there  were 
no  labourers  but  Europeans  for  the  purposes  of  cul- 
ture. Until  the  fields  were  cleared,  cattle  could 
afford  the  planters  no  assistance ;  and  hard  indeed 
was  the  task  of  these  labourers  while  employed  in  fell- 
ing the  large  and  lofty  trees,  exposed  to  the  heat  of 
an  inclement  sky,  and  the  terrors  of  barbarous 
enemies.  After  all,  the  provisions  they  raised  were 
exposed  to  the  plundering  parties  of  savage  neigh- 
bours, and  one  day  often  robbed  them  of  the  dear- 
boughtfruits  of  their  whole  year's  toil. 

During  the  government  of  Sir  John  Yeainans  a 
civil  disturbance  broke  out  among  the  colonists, 
which  threatened  the  ruin  of  the  settlement.  At 
such  a  distance  it  was  very  difficult  for  the  proprie- 
tors to  furnish  their  colony  with  regular  supplies  ; 
and  the  spots  of  sandy  and  barren  land  they  had 
cleared  poorly  rewarded  their  toil.  Small  was  the 
skill  of  the  planter;  and  European  grain,  which  they 
had  been  accustomed  to  sow,  proved  suitable  to 
neither  soil  nor  climate.  The  emigrants  being  now, 
from  sad  experience,  sensible  of  difficulties  insepara- 
ble from  their  circumstances,  began  to  murmur 
against  the  proprietors,  and  to  curse  the  day  they 
left  their  native  land,  to  starve  in  a  wilderness. 
While  they  gathered  oysters  for  subsistence  with 
one  hand,  they  were  obliged  to  carry  their  muskets 
for  self-defence  in  the  other.  A  great  gun  had  been 
given  to  Florence  O'Sullivan,  which  he  placed  on 
an  island  situated  at  the  mouth  of  the  harbour,  to 
alarm  the  town  in  cases  of  invasion  from  the  Spa- 
niards. O'Sullivan  deserted  his  island,  being  ready 
to  perish  with  hunger,  and  joined  the  discontented 
party  in  the  town.  The  people  became  seditious 
and  ungovernable,  and  threatened  to  compel  the 
governor  to  relinquish  the  settlement  :  even  one 
Culpepper,  the  surveyor-general,  joined  them  in 
their  complaints  and  murmurs.  The  greatest  pru- 
dence and  courage  were  requisite  to  prevent  tumults, 
and  animate  the  colonists  to  perseverance.  Florence 
O'Sullivan  was  taken  up  by  the  marshal  on  a  charge 
of  sedition,  and  compelled  to  find  security  for  his 
future  good  behaviour.  One  sloop,  commanded  by 
Joseph  Harris,  was  dispatched  to  Virginia,  another 
to  Barbadoes,  to  bring  provisions.  Happily  before 
their  return  a  seasonable  supply  arrived  from  En- 
gland, together  with  a  number  of  new  settlers,  which 
revived  the  drooping  spirits  of  the  people,  and  en- 
couraged them  to  engage  in  more  vigorous  efforts. 
The  governor,  sensible  of  the  hardships  the  people 
had  suffered,  the  more  readily  forgave  them  for  their 
past  misconduct:  but  as  Culpepper  held  an  office 
from  the  proprietors,  he  sent  him  to  England  to  be 
tried  by  them  for  joining  the  people  in  treasonable 
conspiracies  against  the  settlement. 

The  garrison  at  Augustine  having  intelligence 
from  servants  who  fled  to  them  of  the  discontented 
and  miserable  situation  of  the  colony  in  Carolina, 
advanced  with  a  party  under  arms  as  far  as  the 
island  of  St.  Helena,  to  dislodge  or  destroy  the  set- 
tlers. Brian  Fitzpatrick,  a  noted  villain,  treacher- 
ously deserted  his  distressed  friends  on  purpose  to 
join  their  enemies.  However,  Sir  John  Yeamans 
having  received  a  reinforcement,  set  his  enemies  at 
defiance.  Fifty  volunteers,  under  the  command 
of  Colonel  Godfrey,  marched  against  the  Spaniards, 
who,  on  his  approach,  evacuated  the  island  of  St. 
Helena,  and  retreated  to  Augustine. 

At  this  period,  to  form  alliances  with  Indian  tribes 
was  an  object  of  great  importance  with  the  go- 


vernor and  council ;  and  one  circumstance  proved  fa- 
Tourable  to  the  colony  at  the  time  of  its  settlement. 
The  Westoes,  a  powerful  and  numerous  tribe,  who 
harboured  an  irreconcileable  aversion  to  the  white 
faces  of  strangers,  would  have  proved  a  dangerous 
enemy  to  them,  had  not  their  attention  been  occu- 
pied by  the  Serannas,  another  Indian  nation.  A 
bloody  war  between  these  two  tribes  fortunately  for 
the  settlers  was  carried  on  with  such  fury,  that  in 
the  end  it  proved  fatal  to  both.  This  served  to  pave 
the  way  for  the  introduction  and  establishment  of 
this  British  settlement,  which  otherwise  might  have 
shared  the  same  unhappy  fate  with  the  first  adven- 
turers to  Virginia.  Many  tribes  besides  might  no 
doubt  have  extirpated  the  colony,  but  it  is  proba- 
ble the  governor  studied  by  every  means  to  avoid 
giving  them  any  provocation,  and  to  conciliate  their 
affection  and  esteem. 

After  the  conquest  of  the  Dutch  settlements  in 
New  York,  many  of  the  Dutch  colonists,  who  were 
discontented  with  their  situation,  had  formed  reso- 
lutions of  moving  to  other  provinces.  The  proprie- 
tors of  Carolina  offered  them  lands  and  encourage- 
ment in  their  palatinate,  and  sent  their  ships  Bless- 
ing and  Phoenix,  and  brought  a  number  of  Dutch 
families  to  Charlestown.  Stephen  Bull,  surveyor- 
general  of  the  colony,  had  instructions  to  mark  out 
lands  on  the  south-west  side  of  Ashley  river  for  their 
accommodation.  There  each  of  the  Dutch  emigrants 
drew  lots  for  their  propeity,  and  formed  a  town, 
which  was  called  James-town.  This  was  the  first 
colony  of  Dutch  who  settled  in  Carolina,  whose  in- 
dustry surmounted  incredible  hardships,  and  whose 
success  induced  many  from  Holland  afterwards  to 
follow  them  to  the  western  world.  The  inhabitants 
of  James-town,  afterwards  finding  their  situation 
too  narrow  and  circumscribed,  in  process  of  time 
spread  themselves  through  the  country,  and  the 
town  was  totally  deserted. 

About  the  year  1674,  Sir  John  Yeamans  having 
his  health  much  injured  by  the  climate,  and  his  in- 
defatigable labours  for  the  success  of  the  settlement, 
returned  to  Barbadoes,  where  he  died.  After  his 
departure  the  grand  council  again  chose  Joseph 
West  governor;  and  the  palatine  confirmed  the 
election.  A  meeting  of  all  the  freemen  was  called 
at  Charles-town,  where  they  elected  representatives, 
for  the  purpose  of  making  laws  for  the  government 
of  the  colony.  Thomas  Gray,  Henry  Hughes, 
Maurice  Mathews,  and  Christopher  Portman,  were 
chosen  deputies  from  the  people,  and  took  their  seat 
at  the  upper  house  of  assembly.  These  new  mem- 
bers were  obliged  to  take  an  oath,  that  they  should 
show  equity  and  justice  to  both  rich  and  poor, 
without  favour  or  affection ;  that  they  should  ob- 
serve the  laws  of  England,  and  those  that  should 
hereafter  be  established  in  the  colony ;  that  they 
should  obey  the  rules  and  directions  of  the  proprie- 
tors ;  that  they  should  not  divulge  the  secrets  of  the 
grand  council,  without  sufficient  authority  from 
that  board.  A  question  being  put,  whether  the  de- 
puties of  the  proprietors  should  take  the  same  oath  ? 
it  was  judged  unnecessary,  as  they  held  their  ap- 
pointments during  pleasure,  and  were  immediately 
answerable  to  the  proprietors  for  their  conduct.  The 
colony  at  this  time  had  its  governor,  and  its  upper  and 
lower  house  of  assembly,  which  three  branches  took 
the  name  of  parliament,  agreeably  to  the  constitu- 
tion. This  was  the  first  parliament  that  passed 
acts  which  are  ratified  by  the  proprietors,  and  found 
on  record  in  the  colony. 

It  might  have  been  expected,  that  these  adven 


910 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


turers,  who  were  all  embarked  on  the  same  design, 
would  be  animated  by  one  spirit,  and  zealous  above 
all  things  to  maintain  harmony  and  peace  among 
themselves  ;  they  had  all  the  same  hardships  to 
encounter,  the  same  enemies  to  fear,  and  the  same 
cause,  the  prosperity  of  the  settlement,  to  promote. 
In  such  circumstances,  the  governor  had  good  reason 
to  hope,  that  one  common  desire  of  safety  would 
pervade  the  whole  colony ;  yet  the  contrary  effect 
took  place.  The  most  numerous  party  in  the 
country  were  dissenters,  of  various  denominations, 
from  the  established  church  of  England  ;  a  number 
of  cavaliers  also  having  received  grants  from  the 
proprietors,  had  now  brought  over  their  families  and 
effects,  and  joined  the  Puritans  in  Carolina.  The 
royalists  were  looked  upon  by  the  proprietors  with  a 
partial  eye,  and  met  with  great  indulgence  and  en- 
couragement; by  which  means  they  thrust  them- 
selves into  offices  of  trust  and  authority.  The  Pu- 
ritans, on  the  other  hand,  viewed  them  with  the  eye 
of  envy  and  jealousy,  and  having  suffered  from  them 
in  England,  could  not  bear  to  see  the  smallest  share 
of  power  committed  to  them  in  Carolina.  Hence 
the  seeds  of  strife  and  division,  which  had  been 
imported  into  the  colony,  began  to  spring  forth. 
No  common  dangers  or  difficulties  could  blot  out 
of  their  memories  the  prejudices  and  animosities 
contracted  in  England:  the  odious  terms  of  dis- 
tinction were  revived  and  propagated  among  the 
people,  and  while  one  party  were  attached  to  the 
church  of  England,  the  other,  who  had  fled  from 
the  rigour  of  ecclesiastical  power,  were  jealous  above 
all  things  of  religious  liberties,  and  could  bear  no 
encroachment  on  them.  The  governor  found  that 
matters  of  religion  were  tender  points,  and  there- 
fore wisely  avoided  all  deliberations  about  them, 
choosing  rather  to  leave  every  man  to  his  free  choice, 
than  propose  an  establishment  of  any  kind,  which 
he  saw  would  occasion  trouble  and  division  among 
the  people. 

Another  source  of  difficulty  arose  to  government 
from  the  different  manners  of  these  colonists.  The 
sober  and  morose  Puritans,  were  made  the  objects  of 
ridicule  by  the  royalists,  and  all  the  powers  of  wit  were 
employed  in  exposing  them  to  public  derision  and 
contempt.  The  Puritans,  on  the  other  band,  pos- 
sessed of  no  small  share  of  rancour,  and  exaspe- 
rated by  their  licentious  manners  and  grievous  abuse, 
violently  opposed  their  influence  among  the  people. 
Governor  West,  observing  those  dissensions  break- 
ing out  in  the  settlement,  was  at  no  small  pains  to 
keep  them  within  the  bounds  of  moderation,  but 
having  a  council  composed  of  ambitious  cavaliers, 
was  unable  entirely  to  check  the  disorder.  In  spite 
of  his  authority,  the  Puritans  were  treated  with  inso- 
lence and  neglect,  and  the  colony,  distracted  with 
domestic  differences,  were  ill  prepared  for  defence 
against  external  enemies ;  or  to  provide  for  their 
own  wants. 

At  this  unfavourable  juncture,  the  Indians  from 
Stono,  came  down  in  straggling  parties,  and  plun- 
dered the  plantations  of  the  scanty  fruits  of  labour 
and  industry.  Being  accustomed  to  the  practice  of 
killing  whatever  came  in  their  way,  they  ranked 
the  planters'  hogs,  turkeys  and  geese  among  their 
game,  and  freely  preyed  upon  them.  The  planters 
as  freely  made  use  of  their  arms  in  defence  of  their 
property,  and  several  Indians  were  killed  during 
their  depredations.  This  occasioned  a  war,  and  the 
Indians  poured  their  vengeance  indiscriminately,  as 
usual,  on  the  innocent  and  guilty,  for  the  loss  of 
their  friends.  Governor  West  found  it  necessary  to 


encourage  and  reward  such  of  the  colonists  as  would 
take  the  field  against  them  for  the  public  defence. 
Accordingly,  a  price  was  fixed  on  every  Indian 
the  settlers  should  take  prisoner,  and  bring  to 
Charlestown.  These  captive  savages  were  disposed 
of  to  the  traders,  who  sent  them  to  the  West  Indies, 
and  there  sold  them  for  slaves.  This  traffic  was 
indeed  an  inhuman  method  of  getting  rid  of  trouble- 
some neighbours. 

Though  Carolina  lies  in  the  same  latitude  with 
some  of  the  most  fertile  countries  on  the  globe,  yet 
many  local  circumstances  concur  to  occasion  a  dif- 
ference between  it  and  Palestine,  the  North  of 
Egypt,  or  the  dominions  in  the  same  latitude  in 
China.  Besides  the  bleak  mountains,  frozen  lakes, 
and  the  large  uncultivated  territory  over  which  the 
north  and  north-west  winds  blow  in  winter,  by  which 
they  are  rendered  dangerous ;  when  the  extreme 
heat  of  summer  is  united  with  a  low  marshy  soil, 
where  the  water  stagnates,  and  the  effluvia  arising 
from  it  thicken  and  poison  the  air,  it  must  prove  the 
occasion  of  a  numberless  list  of  fatal  distempers. 
The  winds  in  Carolina  are  changeable  and  erratic, 
and,  about  the  vernal  and  autumnal  equinoxes, 
commonly  boisterous.  In  summer,  they  are  sultry 
and  suffocating ;  in  winter,  cold  and  dry.  Beyond 
doubt,  the  flat  maritime  part  is  a  most  unhealthy 
situation,  and  the  first  settlers  could  scarcely  have 
been  cast  ashore  in  any  quarter  of  the  globe  where 
they  could  be  exposed  to  greater  hazards  from  the 
climate. 

Yet  the  country,  low  and  unhealthy  as  it  is,  af- 
fords many  advantages  for  commerce  and  navigation. 
As  you  approach  towards  the  shore,  the  sea  gradu- 
ally ebbs,  which  furnishes  good  soundings  for  the 
help  of  navigators.  For  80  and  in  some  places  100 
miles  from  the  Atlantic,  the  country  is  an  even  plain ; 
no  rocks,  nor  stones,  nor  scarce  a  hill  of  any  height 
are  to  be  seen.  Backwards  from  this  the  lands  begin 
to  rise  gradually  into  little  hills  and  beautiful  ine- 
qualities, which  continue  increasing  in  height  and 
variation  until  you  advance  to  the  Apalachian  moun- 
tains, 300  miles  and  more  from  the  sea.  Here  a 
vast  ridge  of  mountains  begins,  which  give  rise  to 
four  large  rivers,  called  by  their  Indian  names,  Ala- 
tahama,  Savanna,  Santee  and  Pedee.  Among  the 
hills  these  rivers  are  composed  of  different  branches, 
and  run  in  a  rapid  course ;  but  lose  their  velocity 
when  they  reach  the  plains,  through  which  they 
glide  smoothly  along,  in  a  serpentine  course,  to  the 
ocean.  Up  these  large  rivers  the  tide  flows  a  con- 
siderable way,  and  renders  them  navigable  for  ships, 
brigs,  sloops  and  schooners,  and  smaller  craft  force 
their  way  still  higher  than  the  tide  flows.  Besides 
these  large  rivers,  the  hills  in  the  heart  of  the  country 
give  rise  to  others  of  a  secondary  size,  such  as  Oget- 
chee,  Cusaw,  Cambahee,  Edisto,  Ashley,  Cooper,  and 
Black  rivers  ;  all  which  are  also  navigable  many 
miles  from  the  ocean.  The  coast  is  also  checkered 
with  a  variety  of  fine  islands,  around  which  the  sea 
flows,  and  opens  excellent  channels,  for  the  easy 
conveyance  of  produce  to  the  market. 

By  the  different  trees  which  cover  the  lands  the 
soil  is  distinguished,  which  in  some  places  is  very 
rich,  and  in  others  very  poor.  Where  the  pine-trees 
grow  the  ground  is  sandy  and  barren,  and  produces 
Uttle  except  in  rainy  seasons.  The  oaks  and  hicko- 
ries grow  in  a  lower  and  richer  soil,  running  in 
narrow  streaks  through  the  different  eminences; 
which  grounds,  when  cleared  and  cultivated,  amply 
reward  the  planter.  The  cypresses  and  canes  re- 
quire a  still  deeper  and  more  miry  soil,  which  it 


UNITED  STATES. 


911 


exceedingly  fruitful,  having  had  the  fruits  and  fo- 
liage of  trees  from  the  higher  grounds  flowing  into 
it  from  the  creation.  The  river  swamp-lands,  by 
proper  culture  and  judicious  management,  are  of 
inexhaustible  fertility.  The  savannas  and  open 
plains  are  of  a  deep  fat  mould,  which,  when  drained 
and  freshened,  become  also  fruitful,  and  excellent 
parts  of  a  plantation.  The  marshy  grounds,  some 
of  which  are  fresh,  and  others  salt,  are  much  neg- 
lected, yet  they  yield  a  kind  of  grass  grateful  to 
some  animals,  and  are  used  as  yet  only  for  pas- 
turage. Many  years  elapsed  before  the  planters  found 
out  the  different  grains  suited  to  these  different 
soils.  The  soil  of  the  hilly  country  differs  from  all 
these ;  for  there,  in  the  valleys  between  the  hills,  a 
black  and  deep  loam  is  found,  probably  formed  of 
rotten  trees  and  vegetables,  which  the  showers  and 
floods  have  carried  into  them  from  the  adjacent 
heights.  Marble,  clay,  chalk,  and  gravel  grounds 
are  also  observed  among  these  hills,  in  the  middle 
of  the  country,  and  a  variety  of  soil  nearly  similar 
to  that  found  in  Europe. 

No  earthquakes,  such  as  are  commonly  known  in 
the  West  India  islands,  have  ever  been  felt  here ; 
but  whirlwinds  sometimes  have  made  avenues  through 
the  thick  forests,  by  levelling  the  loftiest  trees,  or 
sweeping  them  away  before  them.  These  terrible 
blasts  are  generally  confined  to  a  narrow  tract,  and 
run  in  an  oblique  and  crooked  direction.  Hurri- 
canes have  also  often  visited  the  country,  and  through 
such  low  and  flat  lands  have  spread  their  desolation 
far  and  wide. 

In  travelling  along  the  coast  of  Carolina,  partly 
by  water  and  partly  by  land,  the  stranger  has  an 
excellent  view  of  its  natural  beauties.  At  a  dis- 
tance the  marshes  and  savannas  appear  like  level 
meadows,  with  branches  or  creeks  of  the  sea  run- 
ning  through  them.  On  one  hand  the  evergreen 
pines  appear,  and  engross  almost  the  whole  higher 
lands  of  the  country ;  on  the  other  the  branching 
oaks  and  stately  hickories  appear ;  a  grove  covered 
with  cypress;  laurels,  palmetoes,  beech,  and  mul- 
berry-trees, all  growing  wild.  In  the  spring  the 
dogwood,  cherry-trees,  and  many  other  blossoms, 
together  with  the  jessamines,  perfume  the  air;  while 
luxuriant  vines  climb  over  the  loftiest  trees,  and 
bushes,  or  shrubs  of  lower  growth,  fill  up  the  thickets. 

At  this  early  period  the  savage  hunters  were 
masters  of  the  woods.  Numbers  of  deer,  timorous 
and  wild,  ranged  through  the  trees,  and  herds  of 
buffaloes  were  found  grazing  in  the  savannas ;  and 
the  feathered  tribes  were  more  remarkable  for  the 
splendour  of  their  plumage  than  the  harmony  of  their 
notes ;  there  was  also  an  abundance  of  reptiles  and 
insects. 

The  alligator,  probably  a  species  of  the  crocodile, 
is  found  here  nigh  the  rivers  and  ponds,  and  is  very 
destructive  to  young  creatures  about  a  plantation. 
The  bear  is  a  fierce  animal,  but  in  many  respects  a 
rich  prize  to  the  Indian  hunter.  The  beaver  is  also 
a  native  of  Carolina,  and  his  fur  is  a  precious  article 
of  American  commerce.  The  racoon  and  opossum 
are  also  natives  of  the  country,  and  are  scarcely 
found  in  any  other  continent.  The  leopard,  the 
panther,  the  wolf,  the  fox,  the  rabbit,  wild  and  pole- 
cats, are  all  found  in  the  country.  Squirrels  of 
various  kinds  and  different  hues  are  numerous ;  one 
of  which  is  called  the  flying-squirrel,  not  from  .its 
having  wings  like  a  bird,  but  from  its  being  fur- 
nished with  a  fine  loose  skin  between  its  fore  and 
hind  legs,  which  it  contracts  or  expands  at  pleasure, 
and  which  buoys  it  up,  and  enables  it  to  spring 


from  branch  to  branch,  at  consideraole  distances, 
with  great  mmbleness. 

In  the  mouth  of  the  rivers,  and  on  the  coast,  the 
shark,  the  porpoise,  the  sword,  the  guarr,  and  devil 
fishes,  are  all  found,  but  in  no  respects  rendered 
useful.  However,  the  sea-coast  and  rivers  furnish 
a  variety  of  fine  fish  for  human  use,  both  of  the  salt 
and  fresh-water  kinds.  The  angel-fish,  so  called 
for  their  uncommon  splendour;  the  sheephead,  so 
named  from  its  having  teeth  like  those  of  sheep; 
the  cavalli,  the  mullet,  the  whiting,  the  plaice,  and 
young  bass,  are  all  esteemed  delicate  food.  Besides 
these,  porgy,  shads,  trout,  stingre,  drum,  cat,  and 
black  fish,  are  all  used,  and  taken  in  great  abun- 
dance. The  fresh-water  rivers  and  ponds  furnish 
stores  of  fish,  all  of  which  are  excellent  in  their 
season.  The  sturgeon  and  rock-fish,  the  fresh-water 
trout,  the  pike,  the  bream,  the  carp  and  roach,  are 
all  fine  fish,  and  found  in  plenty.  Near  the  sea- 
shore vast  quantities  of  oysters,  crabs,  shrimps,  and 
other  shell-fish,  may  be  taken,  and  sometimes  a  kind 
of  turtle. 

Besides  eagles,  falcons,  cormorants,  gulls,  buz- 
zards, hawks,  herons,  cranes,  marsh-hens,  jays, 
woodpeckers;  there  are  wild  turkeys,  pigeons,  black- 
birds, woodcocks,  little  partridges,  plovers,  curlews, 
and  turtle-doves,  in  great  numbers;  and  also  incre- 
dible flocks  of  wild  geese,  ducks,  teal,  snipes,  and 
rice-birds.  There  has  been  found  here,  near  rivers, 
a  bird  of  an  amazing  size,  thought  to  be  a  species  of 
the  pelican.  Under  its  beak,  which  is  very  long,  it 
is  furnished  with  a  large  bag,  which  it  contracts,  or 
lets  loose  at  pleasure,  to  answer  the  necessities  or 
conveniencies  of  life.  The  summer  duck  is  a  well 
known  and  beautiful  creature,  and  has  got  this 
name  to  distinguish  it  from  others  of  the  same  spe- 
cies, which  continue  not  in  the  country  during  the 
summer  months,  but  search  for  a  cooler  retreat. 
The  mocking-bird  of  Carolina  is  a  fine  bold  crea- 
ture, which  mimics  the  various  voices  of  the  forest, 
both  in  captivity,  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  natural 
freedom.  The  red  bird  is  exceedingly  beautiful, 
and  has  a  soft  melodious  note,  but  with  few  varia- 
tions. The  humming-bird  is  remarkable  for  its 
small  size,  flies  from  flower  to  flower  like  a  bee,  and 
is  sometimes  caught  by  children  while  lying  buried 
in  a  large  flower,  of  which  it  sucks  the  juice :  its 
nest  is  very  curious,  and  discovers  amazing  art  and 
contrivance.  These  are  some  of  the  feathered  in- 
habitants of  this  forest,  among  which  there  is  little 
melody,  and,  were  it  otherways,  the  music  would  all 
be  lost,  by  the  continual  croaking  of  frogs,  which 
swarm  in  millions  over  the  flat  country. 

There  is  no  reptile  merits  more  particular  notice 
than  the  rattle-snake,  which  is  one  of  the  most  for- 
midable living  creatures.  It  is  fortunately  fur- 
nished with  a  tail  which  makes  a  rattling  noise,  and 
no  doubt  was  intended  to  warn  every  other  creature 
of  the  danger  of  approaching  nigh  it ;  although  it 
is  harmless  unless  provoked.  It  is  never  the  ag- 
gressor, and  flies  from  man  ;  but  when  pursued,  and 
it  finds  it  cannot  escape,  it  instantly  gathers  it- 
self into  a  coil,  and  prepares  for  self-defence.  It 
has  a  sharp  and  sparkling  eye,  and  quickly  sees 
any  person  approaching  towards  it,  and  winds  its 
course  out  of  the  way  into  some  thicket  or  concealed 
place.  The  greatest  danger  is,  when  it  is  inadver- 
tently trampled  on,  as  it  lies  coiled  among  the  long 
grass,  or  thick  bushes.  On  each  side  of  the  upper 
jaw  there  are  two  long  fangs,  which  are  hollow,  and 
through  which  the  poison  is  injected  into  the  wound. 
When  it  penetrates  a  vein  or  nerve,  sudden  death 


912 


THE  H1STQRY  OF  AMERICA. 


ensues,  unless  some  remedy  be  instantly  applied.  The 
usual  symptoms  from  the  bite  are  acute  pains  from 
the  wound,  inflammatory  swellings  round  it,  sickness 
at  the  stomach,  and  convulsive  vomitings.  The 
Indians,  as  quickly  as  possible,  after  being  bit,  swal- 
low a  strong  dose  of  the  decoction  of  snake-root, 
which  is  found  every  where  growing  in  the  woods ; 
this  causes  a  plentiful  vomit ;  and  at  the  same  time, 
having  sucked  the  poison  out  of  the  wound,  they 
chew  a  little  snake-root,  and  apply  it  externally  to 
it.  This  remedy,  when  applied  in  time,  sometimes 
proves  efficacious.  Besides  the  rattle-snake,  the 
black  and  brown  vipers  have  fangs,  and  are  also 
venomous.  The  horn-snake  is  also  found  here, 
which  takes  its  name  from  a  horn  in  the  tail,  with 
which  it  defends  itself,  and  strikes  with  great  force 
into  every  aggressor.  This  reptile  is  also  deemed 
very  venomous,  and  the  Indians,  when  wounded  by 
it,  usually  cut  out  the  part  wounded  as  quickly  as 
possible,  to  prevent  the  infection  spreading  through 
the  body.  There  are,  besides  these,  a  variety  of 
other  snakes,  such  as  the  green,  the  chicken,  the 
copperbelly,  the  wampum,  the  coach- whip  and  corn- 
snakes  ;  all  of  which  are  esteemed  harmless. 

The  insects  in  Carolina  are  innumerable,  as  might 
naturally  be  expected  from  the  heat  of  the  climate, 
and  the  moistness  of  the  soil.  Bees  are  found  in  seve- 
ral places,  and  they  choose  the  hollow  trees  for  their 
habitation,  but  whether  they  have  been  imported  or 
not  is  uncertain.  The  fire-fly,  is  so  called  from  its 
emitting  sparks  of  fire  in  the  night,  resembling 
flashes  from  the  strokes  of  steel  upon  flint.  About 
the  beginning  of  summer,  when  these  insects  are 
very  numerous,  they  almost  illuminate  the  woods. 
Millions  of  pestiferous  gnats,  called  musquitoes,  are 
hatched  during  the  summer,  and  swarm  over  the 
country  in  such  numbers,  that,  during  the  day,  it 
requires  no  small  trouble  for  the  inhabitants  to  de- 
fend themselves  in  every  quarter  against  them ;  and 
during  the  night,  gauze  pavilions  are  necessarily 
used,  to  exclude  them  from  their  beds,  without  which 
it  is  impossible  to  get  any  rest.  The  sand-flies  are 
also  vexatious  insects,  and  exceedingly  minute ;  yet, 
wherever  they  bite,  their  poison  occasions  itching 
and  painful  inflammation.  Besides  these,  there 
are  ticks,  flies,  wasps,  and  many  more  insects  which 
are  very  troublesome.  To  these  plagues,  with  which 
this  country  is  cursed,  we  may  also  add  the  water 
wood-worms,  which  infest  the  rivers  as  far  as  the 
salt-water  flows,  eat  the  bottoms  of  vessels  into  the 
form  of  honeycombs,  and  prove  extremely  destruc- 
tive to  shipping. 

About  the  year  1682,  Governor  West  having  in- 
curred the  displeasure  of  the  proprietors,  Joseph 
Morton,  who  had  lately  been  created  a  landgrave, 
received  a  commission  from  Lord  Craven,  investing 
him  with  the  government  of  the  colony.  About  the 
same  time,  Joseph  Blake  sold  his  estate  in  England, 
and  with  his  family  and  several  substantial  followers 
retired  to  Carolina.  Lord  Cardross  also,  a  noble- 
man of  Scotland,  having  formed  a  project  for  carry- 
ing over  some  of  his  countrymen  to  Carolina,  em- 
barked with  a  few  families,  and  made  an  attempt  to 
establish  a  colony  on  Port  Royal  Island  :  but  ob- 
serving the  government  in  a  confused  and  fluctua- 
ting state,  he  soon  after  returned  to  Britain.  The 
island  on  which  he  left  his  few  followers  having  ex- 
cellent conveniencies  for  navigation,  was  a  place  of 
all  others  in  the  country  the  most  advantageous  for 
a  settlement ;  but,  to  effect  it,  a  greater  number  of 
emigrants  was  absolutely  requisite.  The  Spaniards 
sent  an  armed  force,  and  dislodged  the  Scotch  set- 


tlers, aftei  which  no  attempts  were  mado  for  manv 
years  towards  establishing  a  colony  in  that  quarter. 

The  proprietors  of  Carolina  had  instructed  Go- 
vernor Morton  to  take  all  Indians  within  400  miles 
of  Charlestown  under  his  protection,  and  to  treat 
them  with  humanity  arid  tenderness  ;  but  such  in- 
structions were  very  disagreeable  to  many  of  the 
people,  especially  to  those  members  of  the  council 
who  were  concerned  in  the  Indian  trade,  and  there- 
fore great  opposition  was  raised  to  the  execution  of 
them.  Maurice  Mathews,  James  Moore,  and  Arthur 
Middleton,  members  of  the  council,  warmly  opposed 
the  governor,  while  he  proposed  regulations  for  the 
peaceable  management  of  Indians,  and  considered 
the  proprietors  as  strangers  to  the  interest  of  their 
colony  by  such  impolitic  restrictions.  The  people 
who  had  lost  some  friends  and  relations  by  the  sa- 
vages were  also  greatly  irritated  against  them, 
and  breathed  nothing  but  vengeance  and  impla- 
cable resentment.  These  members  of  the  coun- 
cil were  removed  from  it  for  their  disobedience ; 
nevertheless  they  had  such  influence  among  the 
people,  as  to  occasion  great  trouble  to  the  governor, 
and  totally  to  subvert  his  authority ;  in  consequence 
of  which,  Joseph  West  appeared  again  at  the  head 
of  the  colony,  and  gave  his  assent  to  several  laws 
made  in  it.  During  which  time  the  people  followed 
their  former  practice,  of  inveigling  and  kidnapping 
Indians  wherever  they  found  them,  and  shipped 
them  off  to  the  West  Indies,  without  any  restraint 
from  government. 

Soon  after,  Governor  West  was  superseded  by  Sir 
Richard  Kirle,  an  Irish  gentleman,  who  died  six 
months  after  his  arrival  in  the  country.  After  his 
decease,  Colonel  Robert  Quarry  was  chosen  his  suc- 
cessor. During  the  time  of  his  government,  a  num- 
ber of  pirates  put  into  Charlestown,  and  purchased 
provisions  with  their  Spanish  gold  and  silver.  These 
public  robbers,  instead  of  being  taken  and  tried  by 
the  laws  of  England,  were  treated  with  great  civility 
and  friend?hip,  in  violation  of  the  laws  of  nations. 
Whether  the  governor  was  ignorant  of  the  treaty 
made  with  Spain,  by  which  England  had  withdrawn 
its  former  toleration  from  these  plunderers  of  the 
Spanish  dominions ;  or  whether  he  was  afraid  to 
bring  them  to  trial  from  the  notorious  courage  of 
their  companions  in  the  West  Indies,  we  have  not 
sufficient  authority  to  affirm;  but  it  is  certain,  that 
Charles  II.  for  several  years  after  the  restoration, 
connived  at  their  depredations,  and  many  of  them 
performed  such  actions  as,  in  a  good  cause,  had 
justly  merited  honours  and  rewards.  Even  as  the 
case  was,  Charles,  out  of  mere  whim,  knighted 
Henry  Morgan,  a  Welchman,  who  had  plundered 
Porto  Bello  and  Panama,  and  carried  off  large 
treasures  from  them.  This  body  of  plunderers 
was  for  several  years  so  formidable  in  the  West 
Indies,  that  they  struck  a  terror  into  every  quarter 
of  the  Spanish  dominions.  Their  gold  and  silver, 
which  they  lavishly  spent  in  the  colony,  ensured  to 
them  a  kind  reception  among  the  Carolineans,  who 
opened  their  ports  to  them  freely,  and  furnished 
them  with  necessaries.  They  could  purchase  the 
favour  of  the  governor,  and  the  friendship  of  the 
people,  for  what  they  deemed  a  trifling  consideration. 
Leaving  their  gold  and  silver  behind  them,for  clothes, 
arms,  ammunition  and  provisions,  they  embarked  in 
quest  of  more.  However,  the  proprietors,  having 
intelligence  of  the  encouragement  given  to  pirates 
by  Governor  Quarry,  dismissed  him  from  the  office 
he  held ;  and,  in  1685,  Landgrave  Joseph  Morton 
was  reinstated  in  the  government  of  the  colony. 


UNITED  STATES. 


913 


During  the  reign  of  James  II.,  the  hardships  unde 
which  the  people  of  Britain  laboured,  and  thi 
troubles  they  apprehended,  brought  much  strengtl 
to  the  colonies.  The  unsuccessful  or  unfortunate 
are  easily  induced  to  emigrate ;  but  the  oppressec 
and  persecuted  are  driven  from  their  country,  how- 
ever closely  their  affections  may  cleave  to  it.  Such 
imprudent  attempts  were  made  by  this  prince 
against  what  the  nation  highly  revered,  that  many 
Protestants  deserted  it,  preferring  the  hardships  of 
the  first  state  of  colonization  abroad  to  oppression  al 
home. 

The  next  acquisition  America  gained,  was  from  th 
revocation  of  the  edict  of  Nantz ;  inconsequence  ol 
which  the  flames  of  persecution  broke  out  in  France, 
and  drove  many  of  its  best  subjects  out  of  that  king- 
dom. These  Protestant  refugees  were  beneficial 
in  many  respects  to  England  and  Holland,  and  served 
greatly  to  promote  the  trade  and  manufactures  ol 
these  nations.  Among  the  other  colonies  in  America 
which  reaped  advantage  from  this  impolitic  measure 
of  France,  Carolina  had  a  large  share.  Many  of  the 
Protestant  refugees,  having  purchased  lands  from 
the  proprietors,  embarked  with  their  families  for 
that  colony,  and  proved  some  of  its  best  and  most 
industrious  inhabitants. 

The  progress  in  cultivation  which  the  colonists  of 
Carolina  had  yet  made  was  small,  and  the  heat  of 
the  climate,  and  the  labours  of  the  field,  had  proved 
fatal  to  many  of  them.  Yet  their  cattle  increased 
in  an  amazing  manner,  and  thrived  exceedingly 
well  in  the  ibrests.  Having  little  winter,  the  woods 
furnished  them  with  both  shelter  and  provisions  all 
the  year;  neither  houses  nor  attendants  were  pro- 
vided for  them,  but  each  planter's  cattle,  distin- 
guished only  by  his  mark,  every  where  grazed  with 
freedom.  Hogs  still  fared  better,  and  increased 
faster.  The  woods  abounded  with  acorns,  and  roots 
of  different  kinds,  on  which  they  fed  and  fattened, 
and  were  reckoned  most  excellent  food.  Stocks  of 
cattle,  at  this  period,  were  a  great  object  with  the 
planters,  for  several  reasons.  Little  labour  was  re- 
quisite to  raise  and  render  them  profitable.  The 
planters  were  at  no  trouble  in  building  houses  for 
them,  nor  at  any  expense  in  feeding  them.  If 
either  cattle  or  hogs  were  fed,  it  must  only  have 
been  intended  to  accustom  them  to  keep  nigh  their 
owner's  abode,  or  to  return  under  his  eye  every 
evening.  Besides,  a  planter  fond  of  hunting  might 
supply  his  family  with  game  through  the  year,  with 
which  the  woods  abounded,  and  save  his  stock. 
Horses  were  also  bred  in  the  same  manner,  and 
though  they  degenerated  greatly,  they  multiplied 
fast.  No  part  of  the  world  could  prove  more  fa- 
vourable to  poultry  of  all  kinds.  By  the  trade  of 
the  colony  to  the  West  Indies,  they  had  rum  and 
sugar  in  return  for  their  lumber  and  provisions ; 
arid  England  supplied  them  with  clothes,  arms,  am- 
munition, and  utensils,  for  building  and  cultivation, 
in  exchange  for  their  deer-skins,  furs,  and  naval 
stores. 

Turpentine  is  the  gum  in  a  liquid  state  of  that 
species  of  the  pine-tree  called  the  pitch-pine,  ex- 
tracted by  incision  and  the  heat  of  the  sun,  while 
the  tree  is  growing.  The  common  manner  of  ob- 
taining it  is  as  follows.  About  the  first  of  January 
the  persons  employed  in  making  turpentine  begin 
to  cut  boxes  in  the  trees,  a  little  above  the  ground, 
and  make  them  large  or  small,  in  proportion  to  the 
size  of  the  tree ;  the  box  of  a  large  tree  will  hold 
two  English  quarts,  of  a  middling  tree  one,  and  of 
a  small  one,  a  pint.  About  the  middle  of  March, 

HIST,  or  AMBR.— Nos.  115  &  116. 


when  the   weather  becomes  warm,   they  begin   to 

bleed,  which  is  done  by  cutting  about  an  inch  into 
the  sap  of  the  tree  with  a  joiner's  hatchet;  these 

channels  made  in  the  green  standing  tree,  are 
framed  so  as  to  meet  in  a  point  where  the  boxes  are 
made  to  receive  the  gum ;  then  the  bark  is  peeled 
off  that  side  of  the  tree  which  is  exposed  to  the  sun, 
that  the  heat  may  extract  the  turpentine.  After 
bleeding,  if  rain  should  happen  to  fall,  it  not  only 
condenses  the  sap,  but  also  contracts  the  orifices  of 
the  vessels  that  discharge  the  gum,  and  therefore 
the  trees  must  be  bled  afresh.  About  fourteen  days 
after  bleeding,  the  boxes  will  be  full  of  turpentine, 
and  must  be  emptied  into  a  barrel.  When  the 
boxes  are  full,  an  able  hand  will  fill  two  barrels  in 
a  day.  A  thousand  trees  will  yield  at  every  ga- 
thering about  two  barrels  and  a  half  of  turpentine, 
and  it  may  be  gathered  once  every  fourteen  days, 
till  the  frost  comes,  which  chills  the  sap,  and  obligeg 
the  labourer  to  apply  to  some  other  employment,  until 
the  next  season  for  boxing  shall  approach.  The 
oil  of  turpentine  is  obtained  by  distillation;  and 
rosin  is  the  remainder  of  the  turpentine,  after  the  oil 
is  distilled  from  it. 

From  the  same  pine-trees  tar  and  pitch  are  also 
made,  but  by  a  different  mode  of  operation.  "  For 
extracting  tar  they  prepare  a  circular  floor  of  clay, 
declining  a  little  towards  the  centre,  from  which 
there  is  laid  a  pipe  of* wood,  extending  almost  hori- 
zontally two  feet  without  the  circumference,  and  so 
let  into  the  ground,  that  its  upper  side  may  be  level 
with  the  floor :  at  the  outer  end  of  this  pipe  they 
dig  a  hole  large  enough  to  hold  the  barrels  of  tar, 
which,  when  forced  out  of  the  wood,  naturally  runs 
to  the  centre  of  the  floor  as  the  lowest  part,  and 
from  thence  along  the  pipe  into  the  barrels.  Mat- 
ters being  thus  prepared,  they  raise  upon  the  clay 
floor  a  large  pile  of  dry  pine-wood  split  in  pieces, 
and  enclose  the  whole  pile  with  a  wall  of  earth, 
leaving  only  a  little  hole  in  the  top,  where  the  fire 
is  to  be  kindled ;  when  that  is  done,  and  the  en- 
closed wood  begins  to  burn,  the  whole  is  stopped 
up  with  earth,  that  there  may  be  no  flame,  but 
only  heat  sufficient  to  force  the  tar  out  of  the  wood, 
and  make  it  run  down  to  the  floor.  They  temper 
the  heat  as  they  think  proper,  by  thrusting  a  stick 
through  the  wall  of  earth,  and  le'tting  the  air  in  at 
as  many  places  as  they  judge  necessary.  As  to 
pitch,  it  is  nothing  more  than  the  solid  part  of  the 
tar  separated  from  the  liquid  by  boiling." 

As  Carolina  abounds  with  this  kind  of  pine  trees, 
vast  quantities  of  pi^ch,  tar,  and  turpentine  might 
lave  been  made  in  it.  At  this  early  period  the  set- 
tlers, having  little  strength  to  fell  the  thick  forest, 
and  clear  the  lands  for  cultivating  grain,  naturally 
applied  themselves  to  such  articles  as  were  in  de- 
mand in  England,  and  for  procuring  which  moderate 

abour  was  requisite.  Lumber  was  a  bulky  article, 
and  required  a  number  of  ships  to  export  it.  Naval 
stores  were  more  valuable  and  less  bulky,  at  the  same 
time  that  the  labour  necessary  to  obtain  them  was 
easier,  and  more  adapted  to  European  constitution 
The  province  as  yet  could  supply  Britain  with 

ery  inconsiderable -quantity  of  naval  stores;  bit 
by  encouraging  the  planters  in  preparing  them,  the 
expense  of  its  vast  importations  from  the  Baltic  might 
jave  been  in  some  measure  saved  to  the  nation. 

Though  Governor  Morton  was  possessed  of  a 
considerable  share  of  wisdom,  and  was  connected 
with  several  respectable  families  in  the  colony,  yet 
o  inconsistent  were  his  instructions  from  England, 
nth  the  prevailing  views  and  interests  of  the  people, 

4  H 


914 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


that  he  was  unable,  without  great  trouble,  to  execute 
the  duties  of  his  trust.  He  was  a  man  of  a  sober 
and  religious  temper  of  mind,  and  had  married  a 
Mr.  Blake's  sister,  lately  arrived  from  England,  by 
which  alliance  it  was  hoped  the  hands  of  government 
would  be  strengthened,  and  a  check  given  to'  the 
more  licentious  and  irregular  party  of  the  people. 
His  council  was  composed  of  John  Boone,  Maurice 
Mathews,  John  Godfrey,  Andrew  Percival,  Arthur 
M'iddleton,  James  Moore,  and  others;  some  of 
whom  differed  widely  from  him  in  opinion  with  re- 
spect to  public  measures,  and  claimed  greater  in- 
dulgences for  the  people  than  he  had  authority  to 
grant.  Hence  two  parties  arose  in  the  colony : 
one  in  support  of  the  prerogative  and  authority  of 
the  proprietors,  the  other  in  defence  of  the  liberties 
of  the  people.  The  former  contended,  that  the  laws 
and  regulations  received  from  England  respecting 
government  ought  to  be  strictly  and  implicitly  ob- 
served: the  latter  kept  in  view  their  local  circum- 
stances, and  maintained,  that  the  freemen  of  the 
colony  were  under  obligations  to  observe  them  only 
so  far  as  they  were  consistent  with  the  interest  of 
individuals,  and  the  prosperity  of  the  settlement. 
In  this  situation  of  affairs,  no  governor  could  long 
support  his  power  among  a  number  of  bold  adven- 
turers, who  improved  every  hour  for  advancing 
the  interest,  and  could  bear  no  restraints  which 
had  the  least  tendency  to  defeat  their  favourite  riews 
and  designs :  for  whenever  he  attempted  to  inter- 
pose his  feeble  authority,  they  insulted  his  person 
and  complained  of  his  administration,  till  he  was 
removed  from  his  office. 

The  proprietors  also  finding  it  prudent  to  change 
their  governor  so  soon  as  he  became  obnoxious  to 
the  people,  James  Colleton  at  this  time  was  ap- 
pointed to  supersede  Joseph  Morton.  He  was  a  bro- 
ther to  Sir  Peter  Colleton,  one  of  the  proprietors,  but 
was  possessed  neither  of  his  address  nor  abilities  for 
the  management  of  public  affairs.  He  left  Barba- 
does  and  retired  to  Carolina,  where  he  built  an  ex- 
cellent house  on  Cooper  river,  in  hopes  of  settling 
in  that  country,  and  long  enjoying,  by  the  influ- 
ence of  his  brother,  the  emoluments  of  his  office  in 
tranquillity  and  happiness.  To  give  him  the  greater 
weight,  he  was  created  a  landgrave  of  the  colony,  to 
which  dignity  48,000  acres  of  land  were  uualienably 
annexed :  but  to  his  mortification  he  soon  found, 
that  the  proprietary  government  had  acquired  but 
little  firmness  and  stability,  and,  by  his  imprudence 
and  rigour,  fell  into  still  greater  disrespect  and 
contempt. 

About  the  year  1687,  having  called  an  assembly 
of  the  representatives,  he  proposed  to  make  some 
new  regulations  respecting  the  government  of  the 
colony.  Having  examined  the  fundamental  consti- 
tutions, and  finding  the  people  disposed  to  make 
many  objections  to  them,  he  thought  proper  to  no- 
minate a  committee,  to  consider  wherein  they  were 
improper  or  defective,  and  to  make  such  alterations 
and  amendments  in  them  as  they  judged  might  be 
conducive  to  the  welfare  of  the  country.  This  com- 
mittee consisted  of  the  Governor,  Paul  Grimball,  the 
secretary,  William  Dunlop,  Bernard  Schinking, 
Thomas  Smith,  John  Far,  and  Joseph  Blake.  Ac- 
cordingly, by  these  men  a  new  code  of  laws  was 
framed,  consisting  of  many  articles  different  from 
the  former,  which  they  called  "  Standing  Laws," 
and  transmitted  to  England  for  the  approbation  of 
the  proprietors.  These  standing  laws,  however,  the 
proprietors  rejected,  and  insisted  on  thfi  observance 
of  the  fundamental  constitution*  ;  and  all  the  while 


the  people  treated  both  with  equal  indifference  and 
neglect. 

At  this  early  period  a  dissatisfaction  with  the  pro- 
prietary government  appeared,  and  began  to  gain 
ground  among  the  people.  A  dispute  having  arisen 
between  the  governor  and  the  house  of  assembly 
about  the  tenures  of  lands  and  the  payment  of  quit- 
rents,  Landgrave  Colleton  determined  to  exert  his' 
authority,  in  compelling  the  people  to  pay  up  their 
arrears  of  quit-rents,  which,  though  very  trifling  and 
inconsiderable,  were  burdensome,  as  not  one  acre 
out  of  a  thousand  of  these  lands  for  which  quit-rents 
were  demanded  yielded  them  any  profit.  For  this 
purpose,  he  wrote  to  the  proprietors,  requesting  them 
to  appoint  such  deputies  as  he  knew  to  be  most  fa- 
vourably disposed  towards  their  government,  and 
would  most  readily  assist  him  in  the  execution  of 
his  office.  Hence  the  interest  of  the  proprietors  and 
that  of  the  people  were  placed  in  opposition,  and  the 
more  rigorously  the  governor  exerted  his  authority, 
the  more  turbulent  the  people  became.  At  last  they 
proceeded  to  avowed  usurpation  :  they  issued  writs  in 
their  own  name,  and  held  assemblies  in  opposition 
to  the  governor  and  the  authority  of  the  proprietors. 
Letters  from  England,  containing  deputations  to 
persons  obnoxious  to  the  people,  they  seized  and 
suppressed,  and  appointed  other  men  better  affected 
to  the  popular  cause.  Paul  Grimball,  the  secretary 
of  the  province,  they  imprisoned,  and  forcibly  took 
possession  of  the  public  records.  The  militia  act 
they  refused  to  settle,  because  recommended  by  the 
governor,  even  though  their  own  security  depended 
on  it.  In  short,  the  little  community  was  turned 
into  a  scene  of  confusion,  and  every  man  acted  as 
he  thought  proper,  without  any  regard  to  legal  au- 
thority, and  in  contempt  of  the  governor  and  other 
officers  of  the  proprietors. 

Landgrave  Colleton,  mortified  at  the  loss  of  power, 
and  alarmed  at  the  bold  and  seditious  spirit  of  the 
people,  was  not  a  little  perplexed  what  step  to  take  in 
order  to  recall  them  to  the  obedience  of  legal  authority. 
Gentle  means  he  perceived  would  be  vaia  and  in- 
effectual. One  expedient  was  suggested,  which  he 
and  his  council  flattered  themselves  might  be  pro- 
ductive of  the  desired  effect,  and  induce  the  people 
through  fear  to  return  to  his  standard,  and  stand  by 
the  person  who  alone  had  authority  to  punish  mutiny 
and  sedition,  which  was  to  proclaim  the  martial  law, 
and  try  to  maintain  by  force  of  arms  the  proprietary 
jurisdiction.  Accordingly,  without  acquainting  the 
people  with  his  design,  he  caused  the  militia  to  be 
drawn  up,  as  if  some  danger  had  threatened  the 
country,  and  publicly  proclaimed  the  martial  law  at 
their  head.  His  design,  however,  did  not  long  re- 
main a  secret,  and  when  discovered,  served  only  to 
exasperate  the  people  the  more.  The  members  of 
the  assembly  met,  and  taking  this  measure  snifter 
their  deliberation,  resolved,  that  it  was  an  encroach- 
ment upon  their  liberties,  and  an  unwarrantable  ex- 
ertion of  power,  at  a  time  when  the  colony  was  in 
no  danger  from  any  foreign  enemy.  The  governor, 
howerer,  insisted  on  the  articles  of  war,  and  triedr-- 
to  carry  the  martial  law  into  execution  ;  but  the 
disaffection  was  too  general  to  admit  of  such  a  re- 
medy. In  the  year  1690,  at  a  meeting  of  the  re- 
presentatives, a  bill  was  brought  in  and  passed,  for 
disabling  Landgrave  James  Colleton  from  holding 
any  office,  or  exercising  any  authority,  civil  or 
military,  within  the  province :  and  so  outrageous 
were  they  against  him,  that  they  gave  him  notice, 
that  in  a  limited  time,  he  must  depart  from  the 
country. 


UNITED  STATES. 


915 


During  these  public  commotions  Seth  Sothell 
pretending  to  be  a  proprietor  by  virtue  of  some  re- 
gulations lately  made  in  England,  usurped  the  go- 
vernment of  the  colony.  At  first  the  people  seemed 
disposed  to  acknowledge  his  authority,  while  the 
current  of  their  enmity  ran  against  Landgrave  Col- 
leton ;  and  as  he  had  stood  forth  as  an  active  and 
leading  man  in  opposition  to  that  governor,  and 
ratified  the  law  for  his  exclusion  and  banishment : 
but  afterwards,  finding  him  to  be  void  of  every  prin- 
ciple of  honour  and  honesty,  they  persecuted  him 
also  with  deserved  and  implacable  enmity.  Such 
was  the  insatiable  avarice  of  this  usurper,  that  his 
popularity  was  of  short  duration.  Every  restraint  of 
common  justice  and  equity  was  trampled  upon  by  him; 
and  oppression,  such  as  usually  attends  the  exal- 
tation of  vulgar  and  ambitious  scramblers  for  power, 
extended  her  rod  of  iron  over  the  distracted  colony 
The  fair  traders  from  Barbadoes  and  Bermuda  were 
seized  as  pirates  by  order  of  this  popular  governor, 
and  confined  until  such  fees  as  he  was  pleased  to 
exact  were  paid  him :  bribes  from  felons  and  trai- 
tors were  accepted  to  favour  their  escape  from  the 
hands  of  justice :  plantations  were  forcibly  taken 
possession  of,  upon  pretences  the  most  frivolous 
and  unjust,  and  planters  were  compelled  to  give 
bonds  for  large  sums  of  money,  to  procure  from  him 
liberty  to  remain  in  possession  of  their  property. 
These,  and  many  more  acts  of  the  like  atrocious 
nature,  did  this  rapacious  governor  commit,  during 
the  short  time  of  his  administration,  to  increase  his 
fees  as  governor  and  proprietor.  At  length  the 
people,  weary  of  his  impositions  and  extortions, 
agreed  to  take  him  by  force,  and  ship  him  off  for 
England.  To  his  other  vile  qualities  he  added 
meanness  of  spirit,  and  humbly  begged  of  them 
liberty  to  remain  in  the  country,  promising  to  sub- 
mit his  conduct  to  the  trial  of  the  assembly  at  their 
first  meeting.  When  the  assembly  met,  thirteen 
different  charges  were  brought  against  him,  and  all 
supported  by  the  strongest  evidence :  upon  which, 
being  found  guilty,  they  compelled  him  to  abjure 
the  government  and  country  for  ever.  An  account 
of  his  conduct  was  drawn  up  and  sent  to  the  pro- 
prietors, which  filled  them  with  indignation.  He 
was  ordered  to  England,  to  answer  the  accusations 
brought  against  him  before  the  palatine's  court, 
and,  in  case  of  refusal,  was  given  to  understand  it 
would  be  taken  as  a  further  evidence  and  confirma- 
tion of  his  guilt.  The  law  for  disabling  Landgrave 
James  Colleton  from  holding  any  authority,  civil 
or  military  in  Carolina,  was  repealed,  and  strict 
orders  were  sent  out  to  the  grand  council,  to  sup- 
port the  power  and  prerogative  of  the  proprietors. 
To  compose  the  minds  of  the  people,  they  declared 
their  detestation  of  such  unwarrantable  and  wanton 
oppression,  and  protested  that  no  governor  should 
ever  be  permitted  to  oppress  them;  enjoining  them, 
at  the  same  time,  to  return  to  the  obedience  of  their 
magistrates,  and  subjection  to  legal  authority. 

Hitherto  this  little  community  had  been  a  scene 
of  continual  contention  and  misery.  The  funda- 
mental constitutions,  which  the  proprietors  thought 
the  most  excellent  form  of  government  possible, 
had  been  little  regarded.  The  governors  had  been 
either  ill  qualified  for  their  office,  or  the  instructions 
given  them  had  been  unacceptable  to  the  people. 
The  inhabitants,  far  from  living  in  friendship  and 
harmony  among  themselves,  had  also  been  seditious 
and  ungovernable.  Indeed,  while  the  proprietary 
government  continued  to  be  thus  weak  and  un- 
stable, its  authority  could  be  little  respected;  and 


while  the  encouragement  given  to  civil  officers  and 
magistrates  was  trifling  and  inconsiderable,  men  of 
judgment  and  ability  would  not  throw  away  their  time 
and  pains  for  supporting  the  honour  and  authority 
of  others,  which  might  be  otherwise  employed  to 
purposes  more  advantageoxis  to  themselves.  The 
titles  of  Landgraves  and  Cassiques  did  not  compen- 
sate for  the  loss  of  such  time  and  labour,  especially 
when  they  were  only  joined  with  large  tracts  of 
land  which,  for  want  of  hands,  must  lie  uncultivated. 
The  money  arising  from  quit-rents  and  the  sale  of 
lands  was  inconsiderable,  hard  to  be  collected,  and 
by  no  means  adequate  to  the  support  of  government. 
The  proprietors  were  unwilling  to  involve  their 
English  estates  for  the  improvement  of  American 
property ;  and  hence  their  government  was  feeble 
and  ill  supported  in  Carolina. 

The  French  refugees — Philip  Ludwell,  governor—- 
Harsh treatment  of  the  refugees — Juries  chosen  by 
ballot — Pirates  favoured  by  the  colonists — Thomas 
Smith,  governor — The  planting  of  rice  introduced — 
The  employment  of  negroes — Indians'  complaints — 
John  Archdale,  governor — His  new  regulations— 
Joseph  Blake,  governor — The  French  in  Florida- 
Refugees  incorporated  by  law — Depredations  of 
pirates — Calamities  of  the  province — James  Moore, 
governor — Lord  Granville,  palatine — An  established 
church  projected — Expedition  against  Augustine— 
The  first  paper  currency — Expedition  against  the 
Apaluchian  Indians— System  of  culture  in  the  co- 
lony. 

The  French  Protestant  refugees  met  with  encou- 
ragement in  England  after  King  William's  acces- 
sion to  the  throne,  and  the  parliament  voted  J5,0(JO/. 
sterling,  to  be  distributed  among  persons  of  rank, 
and  all  such  as  through  age  or  infirmities  were 
unable  to  support  themselves  or  families.  To  arti- 
ficers and  manufacturers  encouragement  was  offered 
in  England  and  Ireland,  which  contributed  much  to 
the  improvement  of  the  silk  and  linen  manufactures 
of  these  kingdoms.  To  husbandmen  and  merchants 
agreeable  prospects  were  opened  in  the  British  co- 
lonies; and,  in  1690,  the  king  sent  a  large  body  of 
these  people  to  Virginia.  Lands  were  allotted  them 
on  the  banks  of  St.  James's  river,  which,  by  their 
industry,  they  soon  improved  into  excellent  estates. 
Others  purchased  lands  from  the  proprietors  of  Ca- 
rolina, transported  themselves  and  families  to  that 
quarter,  and  settled  a  colony  on  Santee  river. 
Others,  who  were  merchants  and  mechanics,  took 
up  their  residence  in  Charlestown,  and  followed 
their  different  occupations.  At  this  period  these 
new  settlers  were  a  great  acquisition  to  Carolina. 
They  had  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  king, 
and  promised  fidelity  to  the  proprietors.  They 
were  disposed  to  look  on  the  colonists,  whom  they 
had  joined,  in  the  favourable  light  of  brethren  and 
fellow-adventurers,  and  though  they  understood  not 
the  English  language,  yet  they  were  desirous  of 
living  in  peace  with  their  neighbours,  and  willing 
to  stand  forth  on  all  occasions  of  danger  with  them, 
for  the  common  safety  and  defence. 

About  the  same  time  Philip  Ludwell,  a  gentleman 
from  Virginia,  being  appointed  governor  of  Caro- 
lina, arrived  in  the  province.  Sir  Nathaniel  John- 
son, who  had  been  general  of  the  Leeward  Islands 
in  the  rei^n  of  King  James,  being  created  a  Cassique 
of  Carolina,  after  the  revolution  retired  to  that 
country,  and  took  his  seat  as  a  member  of  the  coun- 
cil. The  proprietors  having  found  the  fundamental 
constitutions  disagreeable  to  the  people,  and  inef- 

4H2 


916 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


fectual  for  the  purposes  of  government,  repealed  all 
their  former  laws  and  regulations,  excepting  those 
called  Agrarian  Laws,  and  sent  out  a  new  plan  of 
government  to  Mr,  Ludwell,  consisting  of  43  arti- 
cles of  instruction,  for  the  better  management  of 
their  colony.  The  inhabitants,  who  had  been  long 
in  a  turbulent  state,  were  enjoined  to  obedience ; 
but  liberty  was  granted  to  the  representatives  of  the 
people  to  frame  such  laws  as  they  judged  necessary 
10  the  public  welfare,  which  were  to  continue  in  force 
for  two  years,  but  no  longer,  unless  they  were  in 
the  mean  time  ratified  and  confirmed  by  the  pala- 
tine and  three  more  proprietors.  Lands  for  the 
cassiques  and  landgraves  were  ordered  to  be  marked 
out  in  square  plats,  and  freedom  was  granted  them 
to  choose  their  situation.  Hitherto  the  planters  re- 
mained utter  strangers  to  the  value  and  fertility  of 
the  low  lands,  the  swamps  were  therefore  carefully 
avoided,  and  large  tracts  of  the  higher  lands,  which 
were  esteemed  more  precious,  were  surveyed,  and 
marked  out  for  estates  by  the  provincial  nobility. 

Governor  Ludwell,  who  was  a  man  of  great  hu- 
manity, and  considerable  knowledge  and  experi- 
ence in  provincial  affairs,  by  themany  indulgences  he 
was  authorized  to  grant,  had  the  good  fortune  to 
allay  the  ferment  among  the  people,  and  reconcile 
them  to  the  proprietors.  But  this  domestic  tran- 
quillity was  of  short  duration.  New  sources  of  dis- 
content broke  out  from  a  different  quarter.  He  had 
instructions  to  allow  the  French  colony  settled  in 
Craven  county,  the  same  privileges  and  liberties 
with  the  English  colonists.  Several  of  the  refugees 
being  possessed  of  considerable  property  in  France, 
had  sold  it,  and  brought  the  money  with  them  to 
England.  Having  purchased  large  tracts  of  land 
with  this  money,  they  sat  down  in  more  advanta- 
geous circumstances  than  the  poorer  part  of  English 
emigrants.  Some  of  them,  who  had  gone  to  the 
northern  provinces,  hearing  of  the  kind  treatment 
and  great  encouragement  their  brethren  had  received 
in  Carolina,  joined  their  countrymen  there.  Hav- 
ing clergymen  of  their  own  persuasion,  for  whom 
they  entertained  the  highest  respect  and  veneration, 
they  were  disposed  to  encourage  them  as  much  as 
their  narrow  circumstances  would  admit.  Governor 
Ludwell  received  the  foreigners  with  great  civility, 
and  was  not  a  little  solicitous  to  provide  them  with 
settlements  equal  to  their  expectations.  While  these 
refugees  were  entering  on  the  hard  task  of  clearing 
and  cultivating  spots  of  land,  encouraging  and  re- 
lieving each  other  as  much  as  was  in  their  power, 
the  English  settlers  began  to  revive  the  odious  dis- 
tinctions and  rooted  antipathies  of  the  two  nations, 
and  to  consider  them  as  aliens  and  foreigners,  en- 
titled by  law  to  none  of  the  privileges  and  advantages 
of  natural-born  subjects.  The  governor  had  instruc- 
tions to  allow  them  six  representatives  in  assembly ; 
which  privilege  the  Englishmen  considered  as  con- 
trary to  the  English  laws,  and  beyond  the  power  of 
the  proprietors  to  grant;  and  instead  of  considering 
these  persecuted  strangers  as  fellow-labourers,  they 
began  to  execute  the  laws  of  England  respecting 
aliens  in  their  utmost  rigour  against  them.  Their 
turbulent  spirits  thought  it  a  degradation  to  receive 
laws  in  common  with  Frenchmen,  who  they  said 
were  the  favourers  of  a  system  of  slavery  and  abso- 
lute government.  In  this  unfavourable  light  they 
were  held  forth  to  the  people,  to  their  great  preju- 
dice, and  the  occasioning  no  small  jealousies  and  ap- 
prehensions in  the  colony. 

The  refugees,  alarmed  at  these  proceedings,  and 
discouraged  at  the  prospect  of  being  deprived  of  all 


the  rights  and  liberties  of  British  subjects,  began  to 
suspect  that  the  oppression  of  England  would  fall 
heavierupon  them  than  that  of  France  from  which  they 
had  fled.  Dejected  at  the  thoughts  of  labouring  they 
knew  not  for  whom,  if  their  children  could  not  reap 
the  fruits  of  their  labours,  or  if  their  estates  should 
escheat  to  the  proprietors  at  their  decease,  they 
could  consider  themselves  only  as  deceived  and' im- 
posed upon  by  false  promises  and  prospects ;  and 
after  holding  several  consultations  among  them- 
selves about  their  deplorable  circumstances,  they 
agreed  to  state  their  case  before  the  proprietors,  and 
beg  their  advice.  In  answer  to  which  the  proprie- 
tors instructed  Governor  Ludwell  to  inform  them, 
"  that  they  would  enquire  what  does  in  law  qualify 
an  alien  born  for  the  enjoyment  of  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  English  subjects,  and  in  due  time  let 
them  know  ;  that,  for  their  part,  they  would  take 
no  advantages  of  the  present  grievous  circumstances 
of  the  refugees  ;  that  their  lands  should  descend  to 
such  persons  as  they  thought  proper  to  beqeath 
them  ;  that  the  children  of  such  as  had  been  married 
in  the  same  way  were  not  deemed  bastards  in  En- 
gland, nor  could  they  be  considered  as  such  in  Ca- 
rolina, where  such  unlimited  toleration  was  allowed 
to  all  men  by  their  charter."  Though  this  served 
in  some  measure  to  compose  the  minds  of  the  refu- 
gees, yet  while  the  people  harboured  prejudices 
against  them,  the  relief  was  only  partial ;  and  at  the 
next  election  of  members  to  serve  in  assembly,  Craven 
county,  in  which  they  lived,  was  not  allowed  a  single 
representative. 

From  the  first  settlement  of  the  colony,  the  com- 
mon method  of  obtaining  lands  in  it  was  by  pur- 
chase, either  from  the  proprietors  themselves,  or 
from  officers  commissioned  by  them,  who  disposed 
of  them  agreeably  to  their  directions.  Twenty 
pounds  sterling  for  1000  acres  of  land,  and  more  or 
less,  in  proportion  to  the  quantity,  was  commonly 
demanded,  although  the  proprietors  might  accept  of 
any  acknowledgment  they  thought  proper.  The  emi- 
grants having  obtained  warrants,  had  liberty  to  go 
in  search  of  vacant  ground,  and  to  fix  upon  such 
spots  as  they  judged  most  valuable  and  convenient. 
This  was  surveyed,  and  marked  out  to  them,  accord- 
ing to  the  extent  of  their  purchase,  and  plats  and 
grants  were  signed,  registered  and  delivered  to 
them,  reserving  one  shilling  quit-rent  for  every  100 
acres,  to  be  paid  annually  to  the  proprietors.  Such 
persons  as  could  not  advance  the  sum  demanded  by 
way  of  purchase,  obtained  lands  on  condition  of 
paying  one  penny  annual-rent  for  every  acre  Ito  the 
landlords.  The  former,  however,  was  the  common 
method  of  obtaining  landed  estates  in  Carolina^  and 
the  tenure  was  a  freehold.  The  refugees  naving 
purchased  their  estates,  and  meeting  with  sucn  harsh 
treatment  from  the  colonists,  were  greatly  uiscou- 
raged,  and  became  apprehensive,  notwithstanding 
the  promises  of  the  proprietors,  that  they  haoxinly^ 
escaped  one  abyss  of  misery  to  plunge  themselves 
deeper  into  another. 

About  this  time  40  men  arrived  in  a  privateer, 
called  the  Royal  Jamaica,  who  had  been  engaged 
in  a  course  of  piracy,  and  brought  into  the  country 
a  great  quantity  of  Spanish  gold  and  silver.  These 
men  were  allowed  to  enter  into  recognisances  for 
their  good  behaviour  for  one  year,  with  securities, 
till  the  governor  should  hear  whether  the  proprietors 
would  grant  them  a  general  indemnity.  At  another 
time  a  vessel  was  shipwrecked  on  the  coast,  the  crew 
of  which  openly  and  boldly  confessed,  they  had 
been  on  the  Red  sea  plundering  the  dominions  or 


UNITED  STATES. 


917 


the  Great  Mogul:  an  assertion  which  proved  a 
unfortunate  to  themselves  as  it  was  apparently  in 
correct ;  for  it  is  difficult  to  say  when  the  Mogul  em 
pire  was  extended  to  the  Red  Sea  :  it  probably  mean 
the  ships  of  that  monarch.  The  proprietors  wer 
disposed  to  consider  piracy  in  an  inimical  manner 
and  therefore  instructed  Governor  Ludwell  to  chang 
the  form  of  electing  juries,  and  required  that  al 
pirates  should  be  tried  and  punished  by  the  laws  o 
England  made  for  the  suppression  of  piracy.  Befon 
such  instructions  reached  Carolina,  the  pirates,  by 
their  money  and  freedom  of  intercourse  with  the 
people,  had  so  ingratiated  themselves  into  the  public 
favour,  that  it  was  become  no  easy  matter  to  bring 
them  to  trial,  and  dangerous  to  punish  them  as  thei 
deserved.  The  courts  of  law  became  scenes  of  al 
tercation,  discord  and  confusion.  Bold  and  seditious 
speeches  were  made  from  the  bar,  in  contempt  of  the 
proprietors  and  their  government.  Since  no  par- 
dons could  be  obtained  but  such  as  they  had  autho- 
rized the  governor  to  grant,  the  assembly  took  the 
matter  under  deliberation,  and  fell  into  hot  debates 
among  themselves  about  a  bill  of  indemnity.  When 
they  found  the  governor  disposed  to  refuse  his  assent 
to  such  a  bill,  they  made  a  law  empowering  magis- 
trates and  judges  to  put  in  force  the  habeas  corpus 
act  made  in  England.  Hence  it  happened,  that 
several  of  those  pirates  escaped,  purchased  lands 
from  the  colonists,  and  took  up  their  residence  in 
the  country.  While  money  flowed  into  the  colony 
in  this  channel,  the  authority  of  government  was  a 
barrier  too  feeble  to  stem  the  tide,  and  prevent  such 
illegal  practices.  At  length  the  proprietors,  to  gra- 
tify the  people,  granted  an  indemnity  to  all  the 
pirates,  excepting  those  who  had  been  said  to  have 
plundered  the  Great  Mogul,  most  of  whom  found 
means  of  making  their  escape  out  of  the  country. 

In  this  community  there  subsisted  a  constant 
struggle  between  the  people  and  the  officers  of  the 
proprietors  :  the  former  claiming  great  exemptions 
and  indulgences,  on  account  of  their  indigent  and 
dangerous  circumstances;  the  latter  being  anxious 
to  disharge  the  duties  of  their  trust,  and  to  comply 
with  the  instructions  of  their  superiors.  When 
quit-rents  were  demanded,  some  refused  payment, 
and  others  had  nothing  to  offer.  When  actions 
were  brought  against  all  those  who  were  in  arrears, 
the  poor  planters  murmured  and  complained  among 
themselves,  and  were  discontented  at  the  terms  of 
holding  their  lands,  though,  comparatively  speak- 
ing, easy  and  advantageous.  It  was  impossible  for 
any  governor  to  please  both  parties.  The  fees  also 
of  their  courts  and  sheriffs  were  such,  that,  in  all 
actions  of  small  value,  they  exceeded  the  debt  to  be 
recovered  by  them.  To  remedy  this  inconvenience, 
the  assembly  made  a  law  for  empowering  justices  of 
the  peace  to  hear,  and  finally  to  determine,  all  causes 
of  40s.  sterling  value  and  under.  This  was  equally 
agreeable  to  the  people,  as  it  was  otherwise  to  the 
officers  of  justice.  At  length,  to  gratify  the  planters, 
the  governor  proposed  to  the  assembly,  to  consider 
of  a  new  form  of  a  deed  for  holding  lands,  by  which 
he  encroached  on  the  prerogative  of  the  proprietors, 
who  had  reserved  to  themselves  the  sole  power  of 
judging  in  such  a  case,  incurred  their  displeasure, 
and  was  soon  after  removed  from  the  government. 

To  find  another  man  equally  well  qualified  for  the 
trust,  was  a  matter  at  this  time  of  no  small  difficulty 
to  the  proprietors.  Thomas  Smith,  possessed  of 
considerable  property,  was  much  esteemed  by  the 
people  for  his  good  sense  and  sobriety ;  and  such  a 
person  they  deemed  would  be  the  most  proper  to 


succeed  Ludwell,  as  he  would  naturally  be  both 
zealous  and  active  in  promoting  the  prosperity  of 
the  settlement.  Accordingly  a  patent  was  sent  out 
to  him,  creating  him  a  landgrave,  and,  together 
with  it,  a  commission,  investing  him  with  the  go- 
vernment of  the  colony.  Mr.  Ludwell  returned  to 
Virginia,  happily  relieved  from  a  troublesome  office, 
and  Landgrave  Smith,  under  all  possible  advantages, 
entered  on  it.  He  was  previously  acquainted  with 
the  state  of  the  colony,  and  with"  the  tempers  and 
complexions  of  the  leading  men  in  it.  He  knew 
that  the  interest  of  the  proprietors,  and  the  prospe- 
rity of  the  settlement  were  inseparably  connected ; 
and  he  was  disposed  to  allow  the  people,  struggling 
under  many  hardships,  every  indulgence  consistent 
with  the  duties  of  his  trust.  No  stranger  could 
have  been  appointed  to  the  government  that  could 
boast  of  being  in  circumstances  equally  favourable 
and  advantageous. 

About  this  time  a  fortunate  accident  happened, 
which  occasioned  the  introduction  of  rice  into  Ca- 
rolina, a  commodity  which  was  afterwards  found 
very  suitable  to  the  climate  and  soil  of  the  country. 
A  brigantine,  from  the  island  of  Madagascar,  touch- 
ing at  that  place  in  her  way  to  Britain,  came  to 
anchor  off  Sullivan's  island.  •  There  Landgrave 
Smith,  upon  an  invitation  from  the  captain,  paid 
lim  a  visit,  and  received  from  him  a  present  of  a 
>ag  of  seed-rice,  which  he  said  he  had  seen  growing 
n  eastern  countries,  where  it  was  deemed  excellent 
food,  and  produced  an  incredible  increase.  The 
governor  divided  his  bag  of  rice  between  Stephen 
3ull,  Joseph  Woodward,  and  some  other  friends, 
who  agreed  to  make  the  experiment,  and  planted 
heir  small  parcels  in  different  soils.  Upon  trial 
,hey  found  it  answer  their  highest  expectations. 
Some  years  afterwards,  Mr.  Du  Bois,  treasurer  to 
he  East  India  Company,  sent  a  bag  of  seed-rice  to 
Carolina,  which,  it  is  supposed,  gave  rise  to  the  dis- 
inction  of  red  and  white  rice,  which  are  both  cul- 
ivated  in  that  country.  Several  years,  however, 
(lapsed,  before  the  planters  found  out  the  art  of 
>eating  and  cleaning  it  to  perfection,  or  discovered 
hat  the  lowest  and  richest  lands  were  best  adapted 
o  the  nature  of  the  grain ;  yet,  from  this  period, 
he  colonists  persevered  in  planting  it,  and  every 
rear  gave  them  greater  encouragement.  From  this 
mall  beginning  did  the  staple  commodity  of  Caro- 
ina  take  its  rise,  which  soon  became  the  chief  sup- 
>ort  of  the  colony,  and  its  great  source  of  opulence, 
besides  provisions  for  man  and  beast,  as  rice  em- 
>loys  a  number  of  hands  in  trade,  it  became  also  a 
ource  of  naval  strength  to  the  nation,  and  of  course 
more  beneficial  to  it,  than  even  mines  of  silver  and 
old. 

With  the  introduction  of  rice  planting  into  ihlt 
ountry,  and  the  fixing  upon  it  as  its  staple  commc- 
ity,  the  necessity  of  employing  African  slaves  for 
ic  purpose  of  cultivation  was  coupled ;  a  circum- 
iance  which  could  only  be  justified  if  their  labour 
ad  been  voluntary,  and  they  had  been  induced  to 
ettle  in  a  climate  not  unsuitable  to  their  constitution. 

During  the  government  of  Cromwell  in  England, 
onsiderations  of  mercantile  profit  became  connected 
rith  those  of  government.  After  the  conquest  of 
amaica,  it  was  resolved,  that  the  nation  should 
lake  a  commercial  profit  of  every  colony  that  had 
een,  or  should  be,  planted  in  the  western  world 
it  the  restoration  the  same  turn  in  politics  was  also 
dopted,  and  the  parliament  which  brought  about 
lat  great  event  made  a  law,  by  which  it  was  enacted, 
jat  no  sugar,  cotton,  wool,  indigo,  ginger,  fustic 


918 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


upon  Tweed,  upon  pain  of  forfeiture  of  ship  and 
;  that,  for  every  vessel  sailing  from  England, 


or  other  dyeing  wood,  of  the  growth  of  any  English 
plantation  in  Asia,  Africa,  or  America,  should  be 
transported  to  any  other  place  than  to  some  English 
plantation, ^r  to  England,  Ireland,  Wales,  and  Ber- 
wick 
goods 

Ireland,  Wales,  and"  Berwick  upon  Tweed," bond 
shall  be  given,  with  security  of  1000J.  or  2000/.  ster- 
ling, money  of  Great  Britain,  that  if  she  load  any  of 
the  said  commodities  at  such  plantations,  she  shall 
bring  them  to  some  port  of  these  English  dominions. 
And  for  every  vessel  coming  to  the  said  plantations 
the  governor  shall,  before  she  be  permitted  to  load, 
take  such  bond  as  aforesaid,  that  she  shall  carry 
such  commodities  to  England,  Ireland,  Wales,  or 
Berwick  upon  Tweed.  This  laid  the  foundation  of  what 
was  afterwards  called  "  enumerated  commodities;" 
and  to  these  already  mentioned,  rice,  hemp,  copper- 
ore,  beaver-skins,  and  naval  stores,  were  afterwards 
added,  and,  with  some  exceptions,  subjected  to  the 
same  restraint. 

This  navigation  law,  though  it  cramped  the  trade 
of  the  colonies,  yet  has  been  attended  with  many 
beneficial  consequences  to  Britain:  and  while  it 
maintained  the  supreme  power  of  legislation  through- 
out the  empire,  and  wisely  regulated  the  trade  and 
commerce  of  its  foreign  settlements,  it  might  reap 
many  and  substantial  advantages  from  them.  It 
might  render  them  a  market  for  its  own  manufac- 
tures, and  at  the  same  time  supply  itself  with  such 
commodities  as  its  northern  climate  obliged  it  to 
purchase  from  other  nations.  By  such  means  it 
might  enlarge  commerce  and  trade,  at  the  same  time 
it  increased  its  naval  strength.  Colonies  planted  in 
the  same  latitude  with  the  parent  state,  raising  the 
same  productions,  and  enjoying  the  same  privileges, 
must  in  time  be  both  detrimental  and  dangerous ; 
for  while  they  drain  it  of  inhabitants,  they  are 
growing  strong  upon  its  ruins.  They  meet  at  the 
same  market  with  the  same  commodities,  a  compe- 
tition arises  between  them,  and  occasions  jealousies, 
quarrels,  and  animosities. 

From  Carolina  indeed  Britain  had  less  to  fear 
than  from  the  more  northern  colonies,  as  the  lati- 
tude was  more  remote,  and  the  soil  better  suited  to 
different  productions.  Here  the  people  naturally 
engaged  in  pursuits  different  from  those  of  the  mother- 
country,  and  a  mutual  exchange  of  commodities  and 
good  offices  would  of  consequence  the  more  necessa- 
rily take  place.  They  might  barter  their  skins,  furs, 
and  naval  stores,  for  clothes,  arms,  ammunition,  and 

from 


utensils  necessary  for  cultivation,  impoi'ted 
England.  They  might  send  their  provisions,  lum- 
ber, and  Indian  captives  to  the  West  Indies,  and 
receive  the  luxuries  of  these  islands,  and  the  refuse 
of  their  cargoes  of  slaves,  in  return,  without  any 
prejudice  to  Britain  :  for  as  the  two  climates  differed 
greatly,  they  were  of  consequence  adapted  to  differ- 
ent articles  of  produce.  To  such  staples  the  first 
views  of  the  planters  ought  to  have  been  chiefly  di- 
rected, and,  for  their  encouragement  in  raising  them, 
premiums  from  the  proprietors  might  have  been  at- 
tended with  the  most  beneficial  effects. 

Before  this  time  the  Carolineans  had  found  out 
the  policy  of  setting  one  tribe  of  Indians  against 
another,  on  purpose  to  save  themselves.  By  trifling 
presents  they  purchased  the  friendship  of  some  tribes, 
whom  they  employed  to  carry  on  war  with  others, 
which  not  only  diverted  their  attention  from  them, 
but  encouraged  them  to  bring  captives  to  Charles- 
town,  for  the  purpose  of  transportation  to  the  West 
Indies,  and  the  advantage  of  trade. 


In  the  year  1G93,  twenty  Cherokee  chiefs  waited 
on  Governor  Smith,  with  presents  and  proposals  of 
friendship,  craving  the  protection  of  government 
against  the  Esaw  and  Congaree  Indians,  who  had 
destroyed  several  of  their  towns,  and  taken  a  num- 
ber of  their  people  prisoners.  They  complained 
also  of  the  outrages  of  the  Savanna  Indians,  for 
selling  their  countrymen,  contrary  to  former  regu- 
lations established  among  the  different  tribes ;  and 
begged  the  governor  to  restore  their  relations,  and 
protect  them  against  such  insidious  enemies.  The 
governor  declared  to  them,  that  there  was  nothing 
he  wished  for  more  than  friendship  and  peace  with 
the  Cherokee  warriors,  and  would  do  every  thing 
in  his  power  for  their  defence :  that  the  prisoners 
were  already  gone,  and  could  not  be  recalled ;  but 
that  he  would  for  the  future  take  care  that  a  stop 
should  be  put  to  the  custom  of  sending  them  out  of 
the  country.  At  the  same  time  the  Chihaw  king 
complained  of  the  cruel  treatment  he  had  received 
from  John  Palmer,  who  had  barbarously  beat  and 
cut  him  with  his  broad-sword.  In  answer  to  which 
charge  Palmer  was  contumacious,  and  protested,  in 
defiance  and  contempt  of  both  governor  and  council, 
that  he  would  again  treat  him  in  like  manner  upon 
the  same  provocation ;  for  which  he  was  ordered 
into  custody,  until  he  asked  pardon  of  the  house, 
and  found  security  for  his  future  peaceable  beha- 
viour to  the  Indians.  Such  instances  of  harsh 
treatment  serve  to  account  for  many  outrages  of  In- 
dian nations,  who  were  neither  insensible  to  the 
common  feelings  of  human  nature,  nor  ignorant  of 
he  grievous  frauds  and  impositions  they  suffered  in 
the  course  of  traffic.  By  some  planters  indeed  they 
were  used  with  greater  humanity,  and  employed  as 
servants  to  cultivate  their  lands,  or  hunt  for^  fresh 
provisions  to  their  families;  and  as  the  woods 
abounded  with  deer,  rabbits,  turkeys,  geese,  ducks, 
snipes,  &c.,  which  were  all  accounted  game,  an  ex- 
pert hunter  was  of  great  service  in  a  plantation, 
nd  could  furnish  a  family  with  more  provisions  than 
they  could  consume. 

With  respect  to  government,  Carolina  still  re- 
mained in  a  confused  and  turbulent  state.  Com- 
plaints from  every  quarter  were  made  to  the  gover- 
nor, who  was  neither  able  to  quiet  the  minoVnf  the 
people,  nor  afford  them  the  relief  they  wanted.  IKhe 
French  refugees  were  uneasy  that  there  was  no  prb- 
vincial  law  to  secure  their  estates  to  the  heirs  of  theijr 
body,  or  the  next  in  kin,  and  were  afraid  that  the/r 
lands  at  their  death  would  escheat  to\he  proupie- 

ith- 


e  proj 
;~-ftofvv 


tors,  and  their  children  become  beggars 
standing  their  industry  and  application ;  and  con- 
cluded that,  in  such  case,  the  sooner  they  removed 
from  the  colony  the  better  it  would  be  for  themselves 
and  their  posterity.  The  English  colonists  not  only 
kept  up  variances  among  themselves,  but  also  per- 
plexed the  governor  with  their  complaints  of  hard- 
ships and  grievances.  At  last  Landgrave  Smith 
wrote  to  the  proprietors,  and  frankly  told  them,  that 
he  despaired  of  ever  uniting  the  people  in  interest 
and  affection  ;  that  he  and  many  more,  weary  of  the 
fluctuating  state  of  public  affairs,  had  resolved  to 
leave  the  province;  and  that  he  was  convinced 
nothing  would  bring  the  settlers  to  a  state  of  tran- 
quillity and  harmony  but  the  arrival  of  one  of  the 
proprietors,  with  full  powers  to  redress  grievances, 
and  settle  differences. 

The  proprietors,  astonished  at  the  discontented  and 
turbulent  spirit  of  the  people,  y-t  anxious  to  pre- 
vent the  settlement  from  being  deserted  and  ruined, 
resolved  to  try  the  remedy  Smith  had  suggested; 


UNITED  STATES. 


919 


and  accordingly  selected  Lord  Ashley,  to  visit  Caro- 
lina, and  invested  him  with  full  powers  to  establish 
such  regulations  as  he  judged  most  conducive  to  the 
peace  and  welfare  of  the  colony.  Lord  Ashley,  how- 
ever, having  either  little  inclination  to  the  voyage, 
or  being  detained  in  England  by  business  of  greater 
consequence,  John  Archdale  agreed  to  embark  in 
his  place.  Archdale  was  a  man  of  considerable  know- 
ledge and  discretion,  a  Quaker,  and  a  proprietor; 
and  great  trust  was  reposed  in  him,  and  much  was 
expected  from  his  negotiations. 

In  the  mean  time  Landgrave  Smith  having  re- 
signed his  charge,  Daniel  Blake  was  chosen  gover- 
nor, until  the  pleasure  of  the  proprietors  was  known. 
To  no  great  a  height  had  the  antipathy  of  the  English 
settlers  to  the  French  refugees  now  grown,  that  they 
insisted  on  their  total  exclusion  from  a  voice  in  the 
legislature  ;  and  for  this  purpose  an  address  was  pre- 
pared and  signed  by  a  great  number  of  them,  and 
presented  to  Governor  Blake,  praying  that  the  re- 
fugees might  not  only  be  denied  the  privilege  of 
suiting  as  members  of  the  legislative  body,  but  also 
of  a  vote  at  their  election,  and  that  the  assembly 
might  be  composed  only  of  English  members,  chosen 
by  Englishmen.  Their  request,  however,  being  con- 
trary to  the  instructions  of  the  proprietors,  Blake,  it 
is  probable,  judged  beyond  his  power  to  grant,  and 
therefore  matters  relating  to  them  continued  in  the 
same  unsettled  state,  until  the  arrival  of  Governor 
Archdalo,  which  happened  about  the  middle  of  the 
year  1695. 

The  arrival  of  this  pious  man  occasioned  no  small 
joy  among  all  the  settlers,  who  crowded  about  him, 
each  expecting  some  favour  or  indulgence.  Amidst 
the  general  joy,  private  animosities  and  civil  discord 
seemed  for  a  while  to  lie  buried  in  oblivion.  The 
governor  soon  found,  that  three  interesting  matters 
demanded  his  particular  attention.  The  first  was, 
to  restore  harmony  and  peace  among  the  colonists 
themselves ;  the  second,  to  reconcile  them  to  the 
jurisdiction  and  authority  of  the  proprietors;  and  the 
third,  to  regulate  their  policy  and  traffic  with  the  In- 
dian tribes.  For  these  purposes  be  summoned  his 
council  for  advice,  and  the  commissions  to  the  dif- 
ferent deputies  were  read.  The  members  appointed 
were  Joseph  Blake,  Stephen  Bull,  James  Moore, 
Paul  Grimball,  Thomas  Carey,  John  Beresford,  and 
William  Hawett.  All  former  judges  of  the  courts, 
officers  of  the  militia,  and  justices  of  the  peace,  were 
continued  in  their  respective  offices.  But  such  was 
the  national  antipathy  of  the  English  settlers  to  the 
poor  French  refugees,  that  Archdale  found  their 
total  exclusion  from  all  concern  in  legislature  was 
absolutely  necessary  to  the  peaceable  convocation  of 
the  delegates,  and  therefore  issued  writs  directing 
them  only  to  Berkley  and  Colleton  counties.  Ten 
members  for  the  one,  and  ten  for  the  other,  all  En- 
glishmen, were  accordingly  chosen  by  the  freemen 
of  the  same  nation.  At  their  meeting  the  governor 
made  a  seasonable  speech  to  both  houses,  acquaint- 
ing them  with  the  design  of  his  appointment,  his  re- 
gard for  the  colony,  and  great  desire  of  contributing 
towards  its  peace  and  prosperity.  They,  in  return, 
presented  affectionate-addresses  to  him,  and  entered 
on  public  business  with  great  temper  and  unanimity. 
Many  matters  of  general  concern,  by  the  gover- 
nor's sensible  discretion,  were  settled  to  the  satisfac- 
tion of  all,  excepting  the  French  refugees.  The 
price  of  lands  and  the  form  of  conveyances  were  fixed 
by  law.  Three  years'  rent  was  remitted  to  those  who 
held  land  by  grant,  and  four  years  to  such  as  held 
them  by  survey,  without  grant.  Such  lands  as  had  es- 


cheated to  the  proprietors,  were  ordered  to  be  let  out 
or  sold  for  their  lordships'  benefit.  It  was  agreed 
to  take  the  arrears  of  quit-rents  either  in  money  or 
commodities,  as  should  be  most  easy  and  convenient 
for  the  planters.  Magistrates  were  appointed,  for 
hearing  all  causes  between  the  settlers  and  Indians, 
and  finally  determining  all  differences  between  them. 
Public  roads  were  ordered  to  be  made,  and  water 
passages  cut,  for  the  more  easy  conveyance  of  pro- 
duce to  the  market.  Some  former  laws  were  altered, 
and  such  new  statutes  made  as  were  judged  requisite 
for  the  good  government  and  peace  of  the  colony.  In 
short,  public  affairs  began  to  put  on  an  agreeable 
aspect,  and  to  promise  fair  towards  the  future  pro- 
gress and  welfare  of  the  settlement.  But  as  for  the 
French  refugees,  all  the  governor  could  do  for  them 
was,  to  recommend  it  to  the  English  freeholders  to 
consider  them  in  the  most  friendly  and  compassion- 
ate point  of  light,  and  to  treat  them  with  lenity  and 
moderation. 

No  man  could  entertain  more  benevolent  senti- 
ments, with  respect  to  the  ignorant  savages,  than 
Governor  Archdale ;  his  compassion  for  them  was 
probably  one  of  the  weighty  motives  which  induced 
him  to  undertake  the  voyage  to  this  country.  To 
protect  them  against  insults,  and  establish  a  fair 
trade  and  friendly  intercourse  "with  them,  were  re- 
gulations which  both  humanity  required,  and  sound 
policy  dictated.  But  such  was  the  rapacious  spirit 
of  individuals,  that  it  could  be  curbed  by  no  autho- 
rity. Many  advantages  were  taken  of  the  ignorance 
of  Indians  in  the  way  of  traffic.  The  seizing  and 
selling  them  for  slaves  to  the  West  Indian  planters, 
the  colonists  could  not  be  prevailed  on  entirely  to 
resign,  without  much  reluctance.  At  this  time  a  war 
raged  between  two  Indian  nations,  the  one  living  in 
the  British,  the  other  in  the  Spanish  territories.  The 
Yamassees,  a  powerful  tribe  in  Carolina,  having 
made  an  incursion  into  Florida,  took  a  number  of 
Indians  prisoners,  whom  they  brought  to  Charles- 
town  for  sale  to  the  provincial  traders  to  Jamaica 
and  Barbadoes.  Governor  Archdale  no  sooner  heard 
of  their  arrival,  than  he  ordered  the  Spanish  Indians 
to  be  brought  to  him,  and  finding  that  they  had  been 
instructed  in  the  rites  and  principles  of  the  Catholic 
religion,  he  represented  it  as  an  atrocious  crime  to 
sell  Christians  of  any  denomination.  To  maintain 
a  good  understanding  between  the  two  provinces,  he 
sent  the  prisoners  to  Augustine,  and  along  with 
them  the  Yamassee  warriors,  to  treat  of  peace  with 
the  Indians  of  Florida.  The  Spanish  governor  wrote 
a  letter  to  Mr.  Arohdale,  thanking  him  for  his  hu- 
manity, and  expressing  a  desire  to  live  on  terms  of 
friendship  and  peace  with  the  Carolineans.  In  con- 
sequence of  which,  Governor  Archdale  issued  orders 
to  all  Indians  in  the  British  interest,  to  forbear  mo- 
lesting those  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Spain.  0  Ths 
two  kings  being  at  that  time  confederates,  the  like 
orders  were  issued  at  St.  Augustine,  and  in  a  short 
time  they  were  attended  with  beneficial  effects.  Such 
wise  steps  served  not  only  to  prevent  slaughter  and 
misery  among  these  savages  themselves,  but  an  En- 
glish vessel  being  accidentally  shipwrecked  on  the 
coast  of  Florida,  the  Indians  did  the  crew  no  harm, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  conducted  them  safe  to  Augus- 
tine, where  the  commandant  furnished  them  with 
provisions,  and  sent  them  to  the  English  settle- 
ments. 

Governor  Archdale  did  not  confine  his  views  to 
the  establishment  of  a  good  correspondence  with  the 
Indian  nations  on  the  south  of  this  settlement,  but 
extended  them  also  to  those  on  the  north  side  of  it. 


920 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Stephen  Bull,  a  member  of  the  council  and  an  In- 
dian trader,  at  his  request  entered  into  a  treaty  of 
friendship  with  the  Indians  living  on  the  coast  of 
North  Carolina.  This  proved  also  favourable  for 
some  adventurers  from  New  England,  who  were 
soon  after  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty  shipwrecked 
on  that  coast.  These  emigrants  got  all  safe  to  land, 
but  rinding  themselves  surrounded  by  barbarians, 
expected  nothing  but  instant  death.  However,  to 
defend  themselves  in  the  best  manner  they  could, 
they  encamped  in  a  body  on  the  shore,  and  drew  up 
an  intrenchmcnt  around  them ;  where  they  remained 
until  their  small  stock  of  provisions  was  almost  ex- 
hausted. The  Indians,  by  making  signs  of  friend- 
ship, frequently  invited  them  to  quit  their  camp  ; 
but  they  were  afraid  to  trust  them,  until  hunger 
urged  them  to  run  the  hazard  at  all  events.  After 
they  came  out,  the  Indians  received  them  with  great 
civility,  and  not  only  furnished  them  with  provisions, 
but  also  permitted  some  of  them  peaceably  to  travel 
over  land  to  Charlestown,  to  acquaint  the  governor 
with  their  misfortune.  Upon  which  a  vessel  was  sent 
to  North  Carolina,  which  brought  them  to  Cooper 
river,  on  the  north  side  of  which,  lands  were  allotted 
them  for  their  accommodation ;  and  they  formed  that 
bettlement  afterwards  known  by  the  name  of  Christ's- 
church  parish. 

About  the  same  time,  two  Indians  of  different 
tribes  being  intoxicated  with  liquor,  a  vice  which  they 
learned  from  the  English  settlers,  quarrelled  at 
Charlestown,  and  the  one  murdered  the  other.  Among 
these  barbarians,  not  to  avenge  the  death  of  a  friend 
is  considered  as  pusillanimous,  and  whenever  death 
ensues,  drunkenness,  accident,  or  even  self-defence, 
are  in  their  eyes  no  extenuation  of  the  crime.  The 
relations  of  the  deceased,  hearing  of  his  death,  im- 
mediately came  to  Charlestown,  and  demanded  sa- 
tisfaction. Governor  Archdale,  who  had  confined 
the  murderer,  being  desirous  to  save  his  life,  offered 
them  a  compensation  ;  but  they  refused  it,  and  in- 
sisted on  blood  for  blood,  and  death  for  death,  ac- 
cording to  the  law  of  retaliation.  To  prevent  the 
quarrel  spreading  wider  among  them,  he  was  obliged 
to  deliver  the  prisoner  up  to  punishment  and  death. 
While  they  were  conducting  him  to  the  place  of  ex- 
ecution, his  king,  coming  up  to  him,  enjoined  him, 
since  he  must  die,  to  stand  and  die  like  a  man  ;  add- 
ing, at  the  same  time,  that  he  had  often  warned  him 
of  the  danger  of  rum,  and  now  he  must  lose  his  life 
for  neglecting  his  counsel.  •  When  he  had  advanced 
to  the  stake*  to  which  he  was  to  be  fastened,  he  de- 
sired that  they  would  not  bind  him,  promising  not  to 
stir  a  foot  from  the  spot ;  and  accordingly  he  did  not, 
but  with  astonishing  resolution  braved  the  terrors  of 
death. 

It  may  now  be  thought  a  matter  of  surprise  by 
some  men,  especially  by  such  as  know  the  advan- 
tages of  agriculture,  that  the  proprietors  of  Carolina, 
who  were  men  of  knowledge,  and  zealous  for  the  in- 
terest and  improvement  of  the  colony,  paid  so  little 
regard  to  the  only  thing  upon  which  the  subsistence 
of  the  inhabitants  and  the  success  of  the  settlement 
depended.  Instead  of  framing  codes  of  laws,  and 
modelling  the  government  of  the  country  on  princi- 
ples of  speculation,  in  which  men  are  always  in 
danger  of  error,  especially  when  tiring  in  a  different 
climate,  far  remote  from  the  country  they  mean  to 
govern  ;  had  they  established  a  plantation  in  it  for 
the  particular  purpose  of  making  experiments,  to  find 
out  what  productions  were  most  suitable  to  the  soil 
and  climate  ;  this  would  have  been  of  more  real  use 
lhan  all  the  visionary  laws  they  ever  framed.  The 


first  planters  were  men  of  little  knowledge  or  sub- 
stance, many  of  them  utter  strangers  to  the  arts  of 
agriculture ;  and  those  who  had  been  accustomed  to 
husbandry  in  Europe,  followed  the  same  rules,  and 
planted  the  same  grain  in  Carolina,  as  they  had 
formerly  done  in  England  ;  which  were  by  no  means 
adapted  to  the  climate.  They  proceeded  in  their  old 
method,  exhausted  their  strength  in  fruitless  efforts, 
without  presuming  to  imagine,  that  different  arti- 
cles of  produce,  and  a  deviation  from  the  European 
modes  .of  cultivation,  could  be  beneficial.  Hence 
the  planters,  though  they  had  lands  on  the  easiest 
terms,  remained  poor ;  and  the  fault  was  occasioned 
more  by  their  ignorance  and  inexperience  than  by 
the  climate  or  soil. 

Governor  Archdale  having  finished  his  negotia- 
tions in  Carolina,  made  preparations  for  returning 
to  England.  During  his  time,  though  the  govern- 
ment had  acquired  considerable  respect  and  stability, 
yet  the  differences  among  the  people  still  remained. 
Former  animosities  were  rather  smothered  for  awhile 
than  extinguished,  and  were  ready  on  the  first  oc- 
casion to  break  out  again  with  greater  violence.  Be- 
fore he  embarked,  the  council  presented  to  him  an 
address,  to  be  transmitted  to  the  proprietors,  express- 
ing the  deep  sense  they  had  of  their  lordships'  pater- 
nal care  for  their  colony,  in  the  appointment  of  a 
man  of  such  abilities  and  integrity  to  the  government, 
who  had  been  so  happily  instrumental  in  establish- 
ing its  peace  and  security.  They  told  them,  they  had 
now  no  contending  factions  in  government,  or  clash- 
ing interests  among  the  people,  excepting  what  re- 
spected the  French  refugees ;  that,  by  the  gover- 
nor's prudent  conduct,  they  hoped  all  misunder- 
standings between  their  lordships  and  the  colonists 
were  now  happily  removed ;  that  they  would  for  the 
future  cheerfully  concur  with  them  in  every  measure 
for  the  speedy  population  and  improvement  of  the 
country  ;  that  they  were  now  levying  money  for 
building  fortifications,  to  defend  the  province  against 
foreign  attacks,  and  that  they  would  strive  to  main- 
tain harmony  and  peace  among  themsei^es.  Gover- 
nor Archdale  received  this  address  with  peculiar  sa- 
tisfaction, and  promised  to  present  it  to  the  proprie- 
tors on  his  arrival  in  England.  Being  empowered 
to  nominate  a  lieutenant-governor,  he  made  choice 
of  Joseph  Blake,  for  his  successor,  and  embarked  for 
England  about  the  close  of  the  year  16%.^ 

After  Mr.  Archdale's  arrival  in  England,  he  laid 
this  address,  together  with  a  state  of  the  country, 
and  the  regulations  he  had  established  in  it,  before 
the  proprietors,  and  showed  them  the  necessity  of 
abolishing  many  articles  in  the  constitutions,  and 
framing  a  new  plan  of  government.  Accordingly, 
they  began  to  compile  new  constitutions ;  and  from  his 
information  and  intelligence  41  different  articles 
were  drawn  up  and  sent  out  by  Robert  Daniel,  for 
the  better  government  of  the  colony.  But  when  the 
governor  laid  these  new  laws  before  the  assembly  for 
their  assent  and  approbation,  recommending  the 
careful  perusal  and  consideration  of  them,  they 
treated  them  as  they  had  done  the  former  constitu- 
tions, and,  instead  of  taking  them  under  delibera- 
tion, modestly  laid  them  aside. 

A  treaty  of  peace  having  been  concluded  between 
England  and  France,  a  project  was  formed  by  Louis 
XIV.  for  establishing  a  French  colony  at  the  mouth 
of  the  great  river  Mississippi.  To  that  immense  ter- 
ritory lying  to  the  eastward  of  that  river,  and  extend- 
ing along  the  back  of  the  Appalachian  mountains, 
from  the  Mexican  seas  to  Canada,  he  laid  claim, 
which,  in  honour  of  him,  was  afterwards  called 


UNITED  STATES. 


921 


Louisiana.  Some  discerning  men  in  England  early 
warned  thenation  of  danger  to  the  British  settlements 
from  a  French  colony  established  in  this  quarter; 
yet  many  years  elapsed  before  they  began  to  feel  the 
inconvenience  arising  from  it.  It  was  foreseen,  that, 
besides  the  Spaniards,  another  competitor  for  power 
and  dominion  would  spring  up,  in  a  situation  where 
they  had  a  fair  opportunity  of  engrossing  the  trade 
and  affections  of  Indian  tribes,  and  harassing  the 
weakest  frontiers  of  the  British  colonies :  and  doubt- 
less, from  the  influence  and  address  of  the  French- 
men among  Indians,  the  English  settlers  had  more 
to  fear,  than  from  the  religious  zeal  and  bigotry  of 
the  indolent  Spanish  settlers. 

John,  earl  of  Bath,  having  succeeded  Lord  Craven 
as  Palatine,  several  persons  of  character  and  influ- 
ence in  Carolina  were  by  him  created  landgraves ; 
among  whom  were  Edmund  Ballenger,  John  Bayley, 
and  Kobert  Daniel ;  and  Edmund  Bohun  was  ap- 
pointed chief  justice  of  the  colony.  About  the  same 
time  Nicholas  Trott,  a  learned  and  ambitious  man, 
left  the  Bahama  islands,  and  took  up  his  residence 
in  Carolina.  Numbers  from  different  quarters  con- 
tinued to  resort  to  this  country,  and,  notwithstand- 
ing its  warm  and  unhealthy  climate,  the  flattering 
prospects  of  landed  estates  induced  men  to  run  every 
risk ;  and  the  proprietors  neglected  no  means 
which  they  judged  conducive  towards  its  speedy  po- 
pulatinn. 

With  respect  to  the  French  refugees,  the  national 
antipathies  among  the  colonists  now  began  to  abate, 
who,  from  their  quiet  and  inoffensive  behaviour, 
began  to  entertain  more  favourable  sentiments  of 
them.  Along  with  their  neighbours  they  had  de- 
fied the  dangers  of  the  desert,  and  given  ample  proofs 
of  their  fidelity  to  the  proprietors,  their  love  to  the 
people,  and  their  zeal  for  the  success  of  the  colony. 
They  had  cleared  little  spots  of  land  for  raising  the 
necessaries  of  life,  and  in  some  measure  surmounted 
the  difficulties  of  the  first  state  of  colonization.  Yet 
none  of  them  could  boast  of  great  success,  excepting 
one  man  who  had  taught  the  Indians  dancing  and 
music,  for  which  arts  they  discovered  an  amazing 
fondness,  and  liberally  rewarded  him  for  his  instruc- 
tions. At  this  favourable  juncture  the  refugees,  by 
the  advice  of  the  governor  and  other  friends,  peti- 
tioned the  legislature  to  be  incorporated  with  the 
freemen  of  the  colony,  and  allowed  the  same  privi- 
leges and  liberties  with  those  born  of  English  pa- 
rents. Accordingly  an  act  passed  for  making  all 
aliens  free,  for  enabling  them  to  hold  lands,  and  to 
claim  the  same  as  heirs  to  their  ancestors,  who  should 
take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  King  William.  With 
this  condition  the  refugees  joyfully  complied,  and 
the  proprietors,  without  scruple,  ratified  the  law; 
in  consequence  of  which,  the  French  and  English 
settlers,  united  in  interest  and  affection,  and  have 
ever  since  lived  together  in  harmony  and  peace. 

Though  every  person  enjoyed  liberty  of  conscience 
with  respect  to  religion,  yet  as  the  proprietors  were 
Episcopalians,  the  tendency  of  their  government 
leaned  towards  that  mode  of  religious  worship.  Go- 
vernor Blake,  though  a  dissenter  himself,  possessed 
the  most  liberal  sentiments  towards  men  of  a  differ- 
ent persuasion.  During  his  time  a  bill  was  brought 
into  the  assembly,  for  allowing  the  episcopal  minister 
of  Charlestown,  and  his  successors  for  ever,  a  salary 
of  150f.  sterling,  together  with  a  house,  glebe,  and 
two  servants.  Samuel  Marshal,  a  pious  and  learned 
man,  being  the  episcopal  minister  at  that  time,  whose 
prudence  and  ability  had  gained  him  great  esteem 
from  Christians  of  all  denominations,  the  bill  passed 


with  less  opposition.  The  Dissenters  who  found  a  large 
body  of  the  people,  conscious  of  the  amiable  charac- 
ter and  great  merit  of  the  man,  acquiesced  in  the 
measure  ;  and  as  no  motion  had  been  made  respect- 
ing any  established  church, they  seemed  apprehensive 
of  no  ill  consequences  from  it.  However,  soon  after 
this,  when  the  design  of  the  proprietors  became  more 
evident,  this  party,  jealous  above  all  things  of  their 
religious  liberties,  took  the  alarm,  and  opposed  the 
establishment  of  the  church  of  England  amongst 
them  with  such  violence,  as  occasioned  no  small 
ferment  for  many  years  in  the  colony. 

About  this  time  the  coast  of  Carolina  was  infested 
with  pirates,  who  hovered  about  the  mouth  of  Ashley 
river,  and  obstructed  the  freedom  of  trade.  In  the 
last  year  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  planters 
had  raised  more  rice  than  they  could  find  vessels  to 
export.  Forty-five  persons,  from  different  nations, 
Englishmen,  Frenchmen,  Portuguese,  and  Indians, 
had  manned  a  ship  at  the  Havanna,  and  entered  on 
a  cruise  of  piracy.  While  they  were  on  the  coast  of 
Carolina,  the  people  felt  severely  the  pernicious  ef- 
fects of  that  lawless  trade,  which  in  former  times 
they  were  too  apt  to  encourage.  Several  ships  be- 
longing to  Charlestown  were  taken  by  them,  who 
sent  the  crews  ashore,  but  kept  the  vessels  as  their 
prizes.  At  last,  having  quarrelled  among  them- 
selves about  the  division  of  the  spoil,  the  English- 
men proving  the  weaker  party,  were  turned  adrift 
in  a  long-boat.  They  landed  at  Sewee  bay,  and 
from  thence  travelled  over  land  to  Charlestown, 
giving  out  that  they  had  been  shipwrecked,  and  for- 
tunately escaped  to  shore  in  their  boat.  But,  to 
their  disappointment  and  surprise,  no  less  than  three 
masters  of  ships  happened  to  be  at  Charlestown  at 
the  time,  who  had  been  taken  by  them,  and  knew 
them ;  upon  whose  testimony  the  pirates  were  in- 
stantly taken  up,  tried,  and  condemned,  and  seven 
out  of  nine  suffered  death. 

During  the  autumn  of  the  same  year,  a  dreadful 
hurricane  happened  at  Charlestown,  which  did  great 
damage,  and  threatened  the  total  destruction  of  the 
town.  The  lands  on  which  it  is  built  being  low  and 
level,  and  not  many  feet  above  high-water  mark, 
the  swelling  sea  rushed  in  with  amazing  impetuosity, 
and  obliged  the  inhabitants  to  fly  for  shelter  to  the 
second  stories  of  their  houses.  Happily  few  lives 
were  lost  in  the  town ;  but  a  large  vessel,  called  the 
Rising  Sun,  belonging  to  Glasgow,  and  commanded 
by  James  Gibson,  which  had  come  from  Darien 
with  part  of  the  unfortunate  Scotch  settlers,  at  the 
time  of  the  storm  rode  at  anchor  off  the  bar.  This 
ship  the  hurricane  drove  from  her  anchor,  and  dashed 
to  pieces  against  the  sand-banks,  and  every  person 
on  board  perished. 

Nor  was  this  the  only  disaster  which  distinguished 
this  year  in  the  annals  of  Carolina.  A  fire  broke 
also  out  in  Charlestown,  and  laid  the  most  of  it  in 
ashes.  The  small-pox  raged  through  the  town,  and 
proved  fatal  to  multitudes  of  the  younger  population. 

To  complete  their  distress,  another  infectious  dis- 
temper broke  out,  and  carried  off  a  great  number  of 
people,  among  whom  were  Chief  Justice  Bohun, 
Samuel  Marshal,  the  episcopal  clergyman,  John 
Ely,  the  receiver-general,  Edward  Rawlins,  the 
provost-marshal,  and  almost  one  half  of  the  members 
of  assembly.  Never  had  the  colony  been  visited 
with  such  general  distress  and  mortality.  Few  fa- 
milies escaped  a  share  of  the  public  calamities.  Al- 
most all  were  lamenting  the  loss,  either  of  their  ha- 
bitations by  fire,  or  of  friends  or  relations  by  the 
infectious  maladies.  Discouragement  and  despair 


022 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


oppressed  every  one.  Many  of  the  survivors  could 
think  of  nothing  but  abandoning  a  country  in  which 
there  was  so  little  prospect  of  success,  health,  or 
happiness.  They  had  heard  of  Pennsylvania,  and 
how  pleasant  and  flourishing  a  province  it  was  de- 
scribed to  be,  and  therefore  were  determined  to  em- 
brace the  first  opportunity  that  offered  of  retiring  to 
it  with  the  remainder  of  their  families  and  effects. 

Governor  Blake,  deeply  sensible  of  the  public 
distress,  tried  every  means  of  alleviating  the  misery 
of  the  people,  and  encouraging  them  to  perseverance; 
but  the  members  of  assembly  who  survived,  became 
so  negligent  about  public  affairs,  that  he  found  him- 
self under  a  necessity  of  dissolving  the  house,  and 
calling  another,  hoping  that  they  might  be  more 
zealous  and  active  in  concerting  measures  for  the 
public  relief.  Of  this  new  assembly  Nicholas  Trott, 
whose  talents  had  raised  him  above  the  level  of  his 
fellow-representatives,  was  made  speaker,  and  who 
warmly  espoused  the  cause  of  the  people,  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  interest  of  the  proprietors.  The  governor 
and  council  claimed  the  privilege  of  nominating 
public  officers,  particularly  a  receiver-general,  until 
the  pleasure  of  the  proprietors  was  known.  The 
assembly,  on  the  other  hand,  insisted  that  it  belonged 
to  them.  This  occasioned  several  messages  between 
the  two  houses,  and  much  altercation.  However, 
the  upper  house  appointed  their  officer.  The  lower 
house  resolved,  that  the  person  appointed  by  them 
was  no  public  receiver,  and  that  whoever  should  pre- 
sume to  pay  money  to  him  as  such,  should  be  deemed 
an  int'ringer  of  the  privileges  of  assembly,  and  an 
enemy  to  the  country.  Trott  flatly  denied  they 
could  be  called  an  upper  house,  though  they  thus 
styled  themselves,  as  they  differed  in  the  most 
essential  circumstances  from  the  house  of  lords 
in  England;  and  this  led  the  assembly  to  call 
them  the  proprietors'  deputies,  and  to  treat  them 
with  indignity  and  contempt,  by  limiting  them  to 
a  day  to  pass  their  bills,  and  to  an  hour  to  answer 
their  messages.  At  this  time  Trott  was  eager  in 
the  pursuit  of  popularity,  and  by  his  uncommon  abi- 
lities arid  address  succeeded  in  a  wonderful  manner. 
Never  had  any  man,  in  so  short  a  time,  so  tho- 
roughly engrossed  the  public  favour  and  esteem,  or 
carried  matters  with  so  high  a  hand,  in  opposition 
to  the  proprietary  counsellors. 

About  the  close  of  the  year  1700,  Governor  Blake 
died,  and  a  dispute  arose  in  the  upper  house  about 
the  succession  to  the  government.  Joseph  Morton, 
as  eldest  landgrave,  claimed  the  preference,  until 
the  pleasure  of  the  palatine  was  known.  But  James 
Moore,  a  needy,  forward,  and  ambitious  man,  stood 
forth  in  competition,  and,  by  activity  and  art,  gained 
a  number  over  in  support  of  his  pretensions.  He 
objected  to  Landgrave  Morton,  because  he  had  ac- 
cepted a  commission  from  King  William,  to  be  judge 
of  the  court  of  vice-admiralty,  while,  at  the  same 
time,  he  held  one  of  the  proprietors  to  the  same 
office :  this  Moore  and  his  friends  declared  to  be  a 
breach  of  the  trust  reposed  in  him,  and  that  he  might 
with  equal  propriety  have  accepted  of  a  commission 
from  King  William  to  be  governor,  while  he  held 
that  office  of  the  proprietors.  Landgrave  Morton 
replied,  that  there  was  a  necessity  for  holding  a 
commission  from  the  king  to  be  judge  of  the  court 
of  vice-admiralty,  because  it  did  not  appear  from  the 
charter  that  the  proprietors  could  empower  their 
judge  to  try  persons  for  acts  committed  without  the 
bounds  of  their  colony,  and  that  with  such  jurisdiction 
the  judge  of  the  admiralty  ought  for  many  reasons 
always  to  be  vested.  However,  the  upper  house 


deemed  the  objection  offeree  sufficient  to  set  Morton 
aside,  and  James  Moore  was  chosen  successor  to 
Governor  Blake.  From  which  period  the  colony 
may  date  the  beginning  of  further  jealousies  and 
troubles,  which  continued  for  several  years,  and  ob- 
structed its  progress  in  improvement.  Various  in- 
trigues crept  into  the  seat  of  government,  and  seve- 
ral encroachments  were  made  on  the  liberties  and 
privileges  of  the  people,  both  civil  and  religious. 

King  William,  though  he  maintained  the  power 
of  the  established  church,  yet  often  discovered  a 
secret  attachment  to  Presbyterians,  and  on  all  occa- 
sions treated  them  with  lenity  and  moderation. 
Hence  many  of  the  more  zealous  friends  to  the 
church  of  England,  alarmed  at  the  prospects  of  its 
dangerous  situation,  became  eagerly  bent,  not  only 
in  support  of  its  constitution,  but  even  of  its  minu- 
test forms,  usages,  and  vestments.  Lord  Granville, 
among  the  rest,  after  he  was  called  up  to  the  house 
of  peers,  had  there  distinguished  himself  as  an  in- 
flexible bigot  for  the  high  church,  having  been  early 
taught  to  entertain  the  most  supercilious  contempt 
for  dissenters  of  all  denominatioos.  Being  now  also 
palatine  of  Carolina,  he  soon  discovered  that  the 
establishment  of  episcopacy,  and  the  suppression  of 
all  other  modes  of  religious  worship  in  that  country, 
was  the  chief  object  of  his  zeal  and  attention.  James 
Moore  being  considered  as  a  man  more  fit  than 
Landgrave  Morton  for  assisting  him  in  the  accom- 
plishment of  his  favourite  design,  the  more  easily 
obtained  a  confirmation  of  his  election  to  the  go- 
vernment. 

Here  it  may  not  be  improper  to  observe,  that  se- 
veral eminent  men  had  appeared  in  England,  who, 
pitying  the  miserable  state  of  the  western  world  with 
respect  to  religion,  had  proposed  some  public-spi- 
rited design  for  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel  among 
the  heathens  on  that  vast  continent.  Robert  Boyle, 
no  less  distinguished  for  his  eminent  piety  than  uni- 
versal learning,  had  been  appointed  by  Charles  II. 
governor  of  a  corporation  established  foY^he  propa- 
gation of  the  Christian  religion  among  Indians,  the 
natives  of  New  England  and  parts  adjacent,  in 
America.  Queen  Mary  afterwards  discovered  a  great 
desire  for  enlarging  their  plan,  and  for  this  purpose 
gave  a  bounty  of  200/.  sterling,  annually,  to  support 
missionaries  in  that  quarter.  Dr.  Gomptoru  bishop 
of  London,  was  at  pains  to  procure  an  stccolmt  of  the 
state  of  religion  among  the  English  colonies,  from  a 
persuasion  of  the  necessity  of  beginning  this  cha- 
ritable work  among  them;  and  Dr.  Thomas  Bray, 
his  commissary  in  Maryland,  furnished  him  with  one 
suited  to  excite  sympathy  and  compassion  in  every 
pious  and  generous  breast.  At  length  Dr.  Tennison, 
archbishop  of  Canterbury,  undertook  the  laudable 
design,  applied  to  the  crown,  and  obtained  a  char- 
ter, incorporating  a  society  for  the  propagation  of 
the  Gospel  in  foreign  parts.  The  nation  in  general 
entered  into  the  design  with  their  usual  ardour  for 
all  benevolent  institutions.  From  different  parts 
large  benefactions  were  received  by  this  society,  aad 
it  was  soon  enabled  to  support  a  number  of  missio- 
naries in  the  plantations.  Religious  books  were  pur- 
chased, and  sent  out  to  different  provinces,  and  Ca- 
rolina among  the  rest  received  a  number  of  them. 
A  law  passed  for  instituting  a  public  library  in  the 
province,  to  remain  under  the  care  and  custody  of 
the  episcopal  minister  of  Charlestown.  Edward 
Marston  at  this  time  took  the  charge  of  it,  and  was 
disposed  to  contribute  every  thing  in  his  power  to- 
wards rendering:  it  generally  useful.  But  the  dis- 
|  senters,  from  the  choice  of  the  books,  most  of  which 


UNITED  STATES. 


923 


were  wrote  by  episcopal  divines,  aud  in  defence  of 
the  doctrine,  discipline,  and  worship  of  the  church 
of  England,  soon  perceived  the  intention  of  the  so- 
ciety, and  a  library  framed  on  such  a  narrow  foun- 
dation was  treated  with  neglect,  and  proved  utterly 
ineffectual  for  promoting  the  desired  end. 

About  this  time  the  number  of  inhabitants  in  the 
colony  amounted  to  between  5000  and  6000,  besides 
Indians  and  negroes.  In  Charlestown  they  had  one 
minister  of  the  church  of  England,  and  another  of 
the  church  of  Scotland ;  but  in  the  country  there 
was  no  such  thing  as  public  worship,  nor  schools  for 
the  education  of  children ;  and  peuple  living  thus 
scattered  through  a  forest,  were  likely  in  time  to 
sink  by  degrees  into  the  same  state  of  ignorance 
and  barbarism  with  the  natural  inhabitants  of  the 
wilderness.  To  supply  these  destitute  colonists  with 
proper  means  of  instruction,  called  for  the  first  at- 
tention of  the  society ;  for  as  Indians  and  negroes 
would  naturally  take  their  first  religious  impressions 
from, their  neighbours,  to  begin  at  this  place  was 
like  paving  the  way  for  extending  wider  the  bene- 
fits of  instruction. 

To  prepare  the  province  for  the  charitable  assist- 
ance of  this  society,  it  was  judged  necessary  to  have 
the  church  of  England  established  in  it  by  a  pro- 
vincial law,  and  the  country  divided  into  different 
parishes.  The  palatine  imagined  that  these  internal 
troubles  and  differences,  by  which  the  colony  had 
hitherto  been  agitated,  and  the  government  ren- 
dered feeble  and  fluctuating,  were  occasioned  by  the 
clashing  sentiments  of  the  people  with  respect  to 
religion.  To  remedy  this  evil,  he  perceived  that 
some  bond  of  union  was  necessary,  to  carry  on  pub- 
lic measures  with  ease  and  success ;  and  religion 
had  been  deemed  the  firmest  cement  of  every  state. 
He  knew  that  the  episcopal  form  of  church  govern- 
ment was  more  favourable  to  monarchy  and  the  civil 
constitution  than  the  Presbyterian,  as  in  it  a  chain 
of  dependence  subsists,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest 
in  the  church.  While  therefore  he  instructed  Go- 
vernor Moore  to  study  all  possible  means  of  per- 
suading the  assembly  to  acquiesce  in  that  form  con- 
tained in  the  fundamental  constitutions,  he  was 
equally  zealous  for  an  established  church,  that  the 
wheels  of  their  government  might  be  no  more  clogged 
by  religious  dissensions. 

But  as  a  great  majority  of  the  colonists  were  dis- 
senters, who  had  fled  from  England,  on  account  of 
rigorous  acts  of  uniformity,  their  minds  were  ill  dis- 
posed to  admit  of  any  establishment.  Their  former 
prejudices  they  had  not  yet  thrown  aside;  their 
hardships  in  England  they  had  not  yet  forgot.  Their 
private  opinions  respecting  religion  were  various  as 
their  different  complexions,  and  unlimited  toleration 
was  granted  to  all  by  the  charter.  They  could  hear 
of  no  proposals  about  an  established  church,  and  the 
palatine,  at  such  an  unseasonable  time,  showed  more 
zeal  than  prudence  or  good  policy  in  attempting  to 
introduce  it  among  them.  The  governor  found  them 
inflexible  and  obstinate  in  opposing  such  a  measure; 
and  the  people  even  began  to  repent  of  having  passed 
a  law  for  fixing  a  salary  for  ever  on  the  rector  of 
the  episcopal  church,  and  considered  it  as  a  step  to 
further  encroachments. 

The  great  object  with  Governor  Moore  was  to  im- 
prove his  time,  not  knowing  how  long  his  precarious 
power  might  last,  for  bettering  his  indigent  circum- 
stances. It  appeared  to  him,  that  the  traffic  in  In- 
dians was  the  shortest  way  to  riches.  He  therefore 
granted  commissions  to  several  persons,  to  assault 
and  capture  as  many  Indians  as  they  could,  and  re- 


solved to  turn  the  profits  of  such  trade  to  his  own 
private  emolument.  Not  contented  with  this  base 
and  cruel  method  of  acquiring  wealth,  he  formed  a 
design  for  engrossing  the  whole  advantages  arising 
to  the  colony  from  their  commerce  with  Indian  na- 
tions. For  this  purpose  a  bill  was  brought  into  the 
assembly  for  regulating  the  Indian  trade,  and  drawn 
up  in  such  a  manner  as  would  cause  all  the  profits 
of  it  to  centre  in  his  hands.  But  Nicholas  Trott, 
Robert  Stephen,  and  others,  proved  to  the  assembly 
the  pernicious  tendency  of  such  a  bill,  and  therefore 
it  was  thrown  out.  At  which  Governor  Moore  being 
highly  offended,  dissolved  the  house,  in  hopes  of 
procuring  another  more  favourable  to  his  private 
views  and  interests. 

At  the  election  of  the  next  assembly  the  governor 
aud  his  friends  exerted  all  their  power  and  influence 
to  bring  in  men  of  their  own.  Nicholas  Trott,  who 
had  hitherto  appeared  in  the  opposition,  being  now 
appointed  attorney-general,  threw  all  his  influence 
and  weight  into  the  scale  of  government,  turned  his 
back  on  his  former  friends,  and  strongly  supported 
that  tottering  fabric  which  he  had  formerly  endea- 
voured to  pull  down.  Charlestown,  where  all  free- 
holders met  to  give  their  suffrages,  at  the  time  of  this 
election  was  a  scene  of  riot,  intemperance,  and  con- 
fusion. The  sheriff,  having  instructions  so  to  do, 
admitted  every  person  to  vote ;  the  members  of  Col- 
leton  county  say,  even  common  sailors,  servants, 
foreigners,  and  mulattoes.  Such  freeholders  as  stood 
forth  in  opposition  to  the  governor's  party,  were 
abused  and  insulted.  At  length,  when  the  poll  was 
closed,  one  half  of  the  persons  elected  were  found  to 
be  men  of  neither  sense  nor  credit ;  but  being  the 
chosen  creatures  of  the  governor,  it  was  his  business 
to  prevent  all  inquiry  into  the  conduct  of  the  sheriff, 
and  the  qualifications  of  such  members. 

At  this  time  Carteret  county  was  inhabited  only 
by  Indians  ;  but  in  Colleton  county  there  were  no 
less  than  200  freeholders,  who  had  a  right  to  vote 
for  delegates  to  assembly.  The  principal  plantations 
in  it  were  those  of  the  late  Sir  John  Yeamans, 
Landgraves  Morton,  Ballenger,  and  Axtell,  and  those 
of  Blake,  Boone,  Gibbes,  Schinking,  and  others. 
The  people  of  this  county  being  highly  offended  at 
the  manner  of  election,  particularly  the  arts  and  in- 
trigues practised,  and  the  riot  and  intemperance  per- 
mitted at  it,  drew  up  a  representation  of  the  whole 
transaction,  and  transmitted  it  to  the  proprietors  in 
England  :  but  the  palatine  was  too  deeply  concerned 
in  promoting  those  measures  of  which  tney  com- 
plained, to  grant  them  any  favourable  answer.  In 
Berkley  county  the  principal  settlements  were  those 
of  Sir  Nathaniel  Johnson,  Governor  Moore,  Land- 
graves West,  Smith,  Bayley,  and  Daniel ;  together 
with  those  belonging  to  Godfrey,  Mathews,  Izard, 
Colleton,  Grimball,  &c. ;  several  of  whom  were  also 
dissatisfied  with  the  public  proceedings.  But  Craven 
county  being  composed  of  French  refugees,  these 
having  little  knowledge  of  the  English  language, 
were  easily  managed  ;  and  many  indeed  supported  the 
governor  purely  out  of  affection  to  the  proprietors.  In 
short,  the  house  consisted  of  30  members,  one  half 
of  whom  were  elected  from  the  dregs  of  the  people, 
utter  strangers  to  public  affairs,  and  in  every  respect 
unqualified  for  sitting  as  provincial  legislators. 

In  the  mean  time,  a  rupture  took  place  in  Europe 
between  England  and  Spain,  which  turned  the  at- 
tention of  the  colony  to  a  different  object,  and  af- 
forded Governor  Moore  an  opportunity  of  exercising 
his  military  talents,  and  a  new  prospect  of  enriching 
himself  by  Spanish  plunder  or  Indian  captives.  Ac- 


924 


THR  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


cordingly,  instead  of  private  disputes  among  them- 
gelves,  he  proposed  to  the  assembly  an  expedition 
against  the  Spanish  settlement  at  Augustine.  Many 
of  the  people,  from  mercenary  motives,  applauded 
the  proposal ;  however,  men  of  cool  reflection,  hav- 
ing yet  had  no  intelligence  of  the  declaration  of  war, 
were  averse  from  rushing  into  any  hazardous  enter- 
prise, until  they  had  certain  advice  of  it  from  En- 
gland. As  the  expedition  was  projected,  contrary 
to  the  opinion  and  inclination  of  many  Carolineans, 
without  any  recent  provocation  from  the  Spanish 
garrison;  it  is  probable  that  the  governor  engaged 
in  it  chiefly  from  views  of  private  emolument.  Flo- 
rida, he  assured  the  people,  would  be  an  easy  con- 
quest ;  and  treasures  of  gold  and  silver  were  held 
out  to  them  as  the  rewards  of  valour.  In  vain  did 
some  members  of  the  assembly  oppose  it,  by  repre- 
senting the  province  as  weak,  and  ill  provided  for 
warlike  enterprises,  and  by  hinting  at  the  many 
hazards  and  difficulties  always  attending  them ;  in 
vain  did  they  urge  the  strength  of  the  Spanish  fort, 
and  the  expenses  incurred  by  a  fruitless  and  perhaps 
bloody  expedition  :  such  men  were  called  enemies  to 
their  country,  and  represented  as  pusillanimous 
wretches,  who  were  utter  strangers  to  great  and  glo- 
rious undertakings.  Accordingly,  a  great  majority 
of  the  assembly  declared  for  the  expedition,  and  a 
sum  of  '20001.  sterling  was  voted  for  the  service  of 
the  war.  Six  hundred  Indians  were  engaged,  who, 
being  fond  of  warlike  exploits,  gladly  accepted  of 
arms  and  ammunition  offered  them  for  their  aid  and 
assistance.  Six  hundred  provincial  militia  were 
raised,  and  schooners  and  merchant- snips  were  im- 
pressed, for  transports  to  carry  the  forces.  Port 
Royal  was  fixed  upon  as  the  place  of  general  ren- 
dezvous, and  there,  in  September  1702,  the  gover- 
nor, at  the  head  of  his  troops,  embarked  in  an  ex- 
pedition equally  rash  and  fool-hardy  on  one  side,  as 
it  was  well  known  and  unprovoked  on  the  other. 

While  these  preparations  were  going  on  in  Caro- 
lina, the  Spaniards,  apprised  of  the  governor's  de- 
sign, were  making  ready  for  their  defence.  In  the 
plan  of  operations  it  had  been  agreed,  that  Colonel 
Daniel,  who  was  an  officer  of  spirit,  should  go  by  the 
inland  passage  with  a  party  of  militia  and  Indians, 
and  make  a  descent  on  the  town  from  the  land,  while 
the  governor  with  the  main  body  should  proceed  by 
sea,  and  block  up  the  harbour.  Colonel  Daniel  lost 
no  time,  but  advanced  against  the  town,  entered  and 
plundered  it  before  the  governor  got  forward  to  his 
assistance.  But  the  Spaniards  having  laid  up  pro- 
visions for  four  months  in  the  castle,  on  his  approach 
retired  to  it,  with  all  their  money  and  most  valuable 
effects.  Upon  the  arrival  of  Governor  Moore,  the 
place  was  invested  with  a  force  against  which  the 
Spaniards  could  not  appear,  and  therefore  kept  them- 
selves shut  up  in  their  strong  hold.  The  governor 
finding  it  impossible  to  dislodge  them  without  such 
artillery  as  are  necessary  to  a  siege,  dispatched  a 
sloop  to  Jamaica,  on  purpose  to  bring  cannon,  bombs, 
and  mortars,  for  attacking  the  castle  ;  and  Colonel 
Daniel  embarked  and  sailed  with  the  greatest  expe- 
dition to  bring  them.  During  his  absence  two  Spa- 
nish ships,  the  one  of  22  guns  and  the  other  of  six- 
teen, appearing  off*  the  mouth  of  the  harbour,  struck 
such  a  panic  into  the  governor,  that  he  instantly 
raised  the  siege,  abandoned  his  ships,  and  made  a 
precipitate  retreat  to  Carolina  by  land.  In  conse- 
quence of  which  the  Spaniards  in  the  garrison  were 
not  only  relieved,  but  the  ships,  provisions,  and  am- 
munition, belonging  to  the  Carolineans,  fell  also  into 
their  hands.  Colonel  Daniel,  ou  his  return,  stand- 


ing in  for  the  harbour  of  Augustine,  found  to  hia 
surprise  the  siege  raised,  arid  made  a  narrow  escape 
from  the  enemy. 

Military  expeditions  rashly  undertaken,  conducted 
by  a  headstrong  and  inexperienced  officer,  and  ex- 
ecuted by  raw  and  ill-disciplined  troops,  very  rarely 
succeed.  We  are  not  able  to  account  for  the  gover- 
nor's conduct  in  raising  this  siege,  after  he  had  been 
a  month  in  possession  of  the  town,  unless  he  was  in 
immediate  wan*,  of  provisions  or  ammunition,  or  his 
men,  having  little  confidence  in  his  abilities,  threa- 
tened to  desert  him:  for  if  the  Spanish  ships  drew 
more  than  ten  feet  water,  which  it  is  probable  they 
must  have  done,  they  could  not  come  over  the  bar 
to  injure  him :  if  they  landed  their  men,  yet  still 
his  force  was  superior  to  that  of  the  enemy,  and  he 
might  at  least  have  risked  a  battle  on  such  grounds, 
before  he  made  an  inglorious  retreat.  The  Indians 
were  averse  from  leaving  the  field,  without  scalps, 
plunder,  or  glory.  It  is  true,  the  Spanish  ships  of 
war  might  have  prevented  Colonel  Daniel  from  gel- 
ting  into  the  harbour  with  the  supply  of  military 
stores,  yet  the  coast  was  large,  and  afforded  many 
more  places  for  landing  them.  The  governor  had  In- 
dians to  hunt  for  provisions  for  his  men,  and  it  was 
by  no  means  impossible  to  have  starved  the  garrison' 
and  compelled  them  to  surrender.  What  then  can  be 
thought  of  a  commander,  who,  on  the  first  appearance 
of  a  little  danger,  abandoned  his  station,  however  ad- 
vantageous, and  tamely  yielded  up,  not  only  the  town, 
but  also  his  own  ships  and  provisions  to  the  enemy. 

Upon  his  return  to  Carolina  many  severe  reflec- 
tions were  thrown  out  against  him,  as  might  natu- 
rally have  been  expected ;  but  especially  by  that 
party  who  opposed  the  enterprise.  It  is  true,  it 
proved  not  a  bloody  expedition,  the  goternor  having 
lost  no  more  than  two  men  in  it;  yet  it  entailed  a 
debt  of  QQQQl.  sterling  on  a  poor  colony,  which,  at 
that  period,  was  a  grievous  burthen.  The  provin- 
cial assembly,  who  during  the  absence  of  the  gover- 
nor, had  been  under  prorogation,  novNcnet,  to  con- 
cert ways  and  means  for  discharging  this  public 
debt.  Great  dissensions  and  confusion  prevailed 
among  them  ;  but  the  governor,  having  a  Dumber 
of  men  under  arms  to  whom  the  country  s^ood  in- 
debted, despised  all  opposition,  and  silenced  the 
malcontents  by  threats  and  compulsion.  A  bill 
was  brought  into  the  assembly  for  stamping  bills  of 
credit,  to  answer  the  public  expence,  which  were  to 
be  sunk  in  three  years  by  a  duty  laid  upon  liquors, 
skins,  and  furs.  In  this  measure  all  parties  acqui- 
esced, as  it  fell  easy  on  private  persons,  at  the  same 
time  that  it  satisfied  the  public  creditors.  This  was 
the  first  paper  money  issued  in  Carolina,  and,  for 
five  or  six  years  after  the  emission,  it  passed  in  the 
country  at  the  same  value  and  rate  with  the  sterling 
money  of  England.  How,  in  process  of  time,  it 
increased  in  quantity  and  sunk  in  value ;  how  it  was 
deemed  useful  by  debtors  and  prejudicial  by  credi- 
tors, we  shall  afterwards  have  occasion  more  parti- 
cularly to  demonstrate.  At  present  it  may  suffice 
to  observe,  that  it  was  absolutely  necessary  to  sup- 
port the  public  credit,  and  the  most  practicable  me- 
thod the  colony  had  of  defraying  the  expenses  in- 
curred by  the  unsuccessful  expedition. 

Notwithstanding  his  past  misfortunes,  Governor 
Moore,  fond  of  warlike  exploits,  had  still  in  view 
the  striking  some  blow  that  might  distinguish  his 
administration.  The  Appalachian  Indians,  by  their 
connexion  with  the  Spaniards,  had  become  insolent 
and  troublesome.  Mr.  Moore  determined  to  chas- 
tise them,  and  for  this  purpose  marched  at  the  head 


UNITED  STATES. 


926 


of  a  body  of  white  men  and  Indian  allies,  into  th<3  unwholesome  effluvia  from  an' oozy  bottom  and  stag- 
heart  of  their  settlements.  Wherever  he  went  he  I  nated  water  poison  the  atmosphere.  They  sow  it 
carried  fire  and  sword  along  with  him,  and  struck  a  I  in  April,  or  early  in  May,  and  reap  in  the  latter 
terror  into  his  enemies.  The  towns  of  the  unhappy  end  of  August,  or  in  the  mouth  of  September.  After 
tribes  who  lived  between  the  rivers  Alatamaha  and  which  it  is  dried  and  carried  to  the  barn-yard,  and 
Savanna  he  laid  in  ashes,  captured  many  savages,  I  built  in  stacks,  in  like  manner  as  the  corn  in  Europe, 
and  obliged  others  to  submit  to  the  English  govern- 1  After  this  it  is  threshed,  winnowed,  and  ground  in 
ment.  The  governor  received  the  thanks  of  the  I  mills  made  of  wood,  to  free  the  rice  from  the  husk, 
proprietors  for  his  courage,  who  acknowledged  that  Then  it  is  winnowed  again,  and  put  into  a  wooden 
the  success  of  his  arms  had  gained  their  province  a  mortar,  and  beat  with  large  wooden  pestles,  which 
reputation ;  but,  what  was  of  greater  consequence  to  labour  is  so  oppressive  and  hard,  that  the  firmest 
him,  he  wiped  off  the  ignominy  of  the  Augustine  nerves  and  most  vigorous  constitutions  sink  under  it. 
expedition,  and  procured  a  number  of  Indian  slaves,  To  free  it  from  the  dust  and  flour  occasioned  by 
whom  he  employed  to  cultivate  his  fields,  or  sold  for  pounding,  it  is  sifted  first  through  one  sieve,  and 
his  own  profit  and  advantage.  I  then,  to  separate  the  small  and  broken  rice  from  the 

About  this  time  Sir  Nathaniel  Johnson  introduced  large,  through  another.  Last  of  all,  it  is  put  into 
the  raising  of  silk  into  the  country,  which  is  an  arti-  large  barrels  of  enormous  weight,  and  carried  to  the 
cle  of  commerce  exceedingly  profitable,  and,  by  market.  During  the  whole  tedious  process  of  its 
proper  encouragement,  might  have  been  made  very  preparation,  much  care  and  great  strength  are  re- 
beneficial  both  to  the  colony  and  the  mother  country,  quisite,  and  many  thousands  of  lives  from  Africa 
Mulberry-trees  grew  spontaneously  in  the  woods,  I  have  been  sacrificed,  in  order  to  furnish  the  world 
and  thrived  as  well  as  other  natural  productions,  with  this  commodity. 
The  great  demand  for  silk  in  Britain  made  it  an 
object  of  the  highest  consequence;  and  an  article  so 
profitable,  and  so  easily  raised,  ought  to  have  en- 
gaged the  attention  of  the  proprietors. 

To  the  culture  of  cotton  the  climate  and  soil  were 
equally  favourable.  It  might  have  been  planted  on 
lands  newly  cleared,  or  on  light  and  sandy  grounds, 
such  as  the  maritime  parts  of  Carolina,  which  are 
by  no  means  unsuitable  to  the  production.  The  seeds 
are  commonly  sown  about  two  feet  and  a  half  asun- 
der, and  grow  up  like  other  plants.  Indeed  the  fields 
require  to  be  kept  clean,  and  the  fresh  earth  care- 
fully thrown  around  the  plant,  to  defend  it  against 
the  winds;  but  this  is  no  difficult  task,  and  might 
be  performed  by  hands  incapable  of  more  severe  la- 
bour. When  the  pods  burst,  cotton  is  gathered,  and 
separated  from  the  seeds ;  which  is  the  most  tedious 
and  troublesome  part  of  the  business  requisite.  This 
article  also,  though  not  of  importance  enough  to 

have  engrossed  the  whole  attention  of  the  colonists,  I  Nathaniel  Johnson  received  a  commission  from  John, 
might  nevertheless,  in  conjunction  with  other  staples,  Lord  Gran  ville,  investing  him  with  the  government  of 
have  been  rendered  profitable  and  useful.  Carolina,  to  which  office  a  salary  of  200^.  was  annexed, 

Instead  of  these  and   several  other  articles,  to    to  be  paid  annually  by  the  receiver-general  of  the  co- 
which  the  views  of  the  planters  in  the  weaker  and  I  lony.  This  gentleman  had  not  only  been  bred  a  soldier 
earlier  state  of  the  colony  ought  to  have  been  turned  I  from  his  youth,  but  had  been  also  a  member  of  the 
in  some  degree,  we  find  from  this  period  the  culture  I  house  of  commons,   and  was  well  qualified  for  the 
of  rice  engrossing  their  whole  strength  and  atten-    trust.     But  it  being  suspected  that  he  was  no  friend 
tion.     This  commodity  being  an  article  of  provision,  I  to  the  revolution,  the  proprietors  could  not  obtain 
was  indeed  likely  always  to  find  a  good  market ;  I  her  majesty's  approbation  of  him;  but  on  his  under- 
yet  it  was  scarcely  possible  to  have  fixed  on  a  staple    taking  to  qualify  himself  for  the  office  in  such  a 
which  required  more  severe  labour  during  the  whole    manner  as  the  laws  uf  England  required,  to  give  se- 
process  of  its  preparation.     The  warm  climate  and    curity  for  his  observing  the  laws  of  trade  and  navi- 
low  lands  were  doubtless  well  adapted  to  the  nature  I  gation,  and  obey  such  instructions  as  should  be  sent 
of  the  grain,  after  experience  had  taught  the  hus- 1  out  from  time  to  time  by  her  majesty,  he  was  ulti- 
bandman  to  clear  and  cultivate  the  swampy  grounds    mately  accepted;  and  the  lords  commissioners  of 
for  that  purpose  :  yet  it  is  certain  that  the  planters    trade  and  plantations  T.vere  ordered  to  take  care  that 
long  went  on  with  this  article,  and  exhausted  their  I  good  and  sufficient  security  be  given  by  him. 
strength  in  raising  it  on  higher  lands,  which  poorly  I      With  respect  to  his  own  conduct  in  the  govern- 
rewarded  them  for  their  toil.     After  clearing  the    ment  of  the  colony,  he  had  instructions  from  the 
lands  they  commonly  plant  it  in  furrows  made  with    proprietors  to  follow  such  rules  as  had  been  given 
a  hoe,  about  eighteen  inches  asunder.     When  the    to  former  governors,  in  the  fundamental  constitutions 
seed  is  sown,  the  fields  must  be  carefully  kept  clear    and  temporary  laws  entered  upon  record,  and  to  be 
of  noxious  weeds,  which  retard  its  growth,  and  the    guided  by  the  same  as  far  as  in  his  judgment  he 
earth  must  also  be  laid  up  to  the  root  of  the  rice,  to    might  think  expedient.     He  was  required,  with  the 
facilitate  its  progress.     No  work  can  be  imagined    advice  and  assistance  of  his  council,  carefully  to  re- 
more  pernicious  to  health,  than  for  men  to  stand  in    view  the  constitutions,  and  such  of  them  as  he  should 
water  mid-leg  high,  and  often  above  it,  planting  and    think  necessary  to  the  better  establishment  of  go- 
weeding  rice ;  while  the  scorching  heat  of  the  sun    vernment,  and  calculated  for  the  good  of  the  people, 
renders  the  air  they  breathe  ten  or  twenty  degrees  1  he  was  ordered  to  lay  before  the  assembly  for  their 
botter  than  the  human  blood,  and  the  putrid  and  J  concurrence  and  assent.     He  was  to  use  his  endea- 


Sir  Nathaniel  Johnson  appointed  governor — The  church 
of  England  established  by  law — TJie  inhabitants  re- 
monstrate against  it— -Lay  commissioners  appointed— 
The  ads  ratified  by  the  proprietors — The  petition  of 
dissenters  to  the  house  of  lords'—Resolutions  of  the 
house  of  lords — Their  address  to  the  queen— The 
queen's  answer — A  project  formed  for  invading  Ca- 
rolina— A  Spanish  and  French  invasion  repulsed— 
Missionaries  sent  out  by  the  society  in  England— 
Lord  Craven,  palatine — Edward  Tynte,  governor — 
The  revenues  of  the  colony — The  invasion  of  Ca- 
nada— A  French  colony  planted  in  Louisiana— A 
colony  of  palatines  settled — Robert  Gibbes,  governor—- 
Charles Craven,  governor — An  Indian  war  in  North 
Carolina—  The  Tuskorora  Indians  conquered — Bank- 
bills  established — Trade  infested  by  piratet — Several 
English  statutes  adopted. 

On  the  accession  of  Anne  to  the  English  throne,  Sir 


926 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


vours  to  dispose  of  their  lands ;  but  to  take  nothing 
less  than  VOl.  for  1000  acres;  and,  in  all  future 
grants,  to  make  them  escheat  to  the  proprietors,  un- 
less a  settlement  was  made  on  them  within  the  space 
of  four  years.  He  was  to  take  special  care  that  the 
Indians  be  not  abused  or  insulted,  and  to  study  the 
most  proper  methods  of  civilizing  them,  and  creating 
a  firm  friendship  with  them,  in  order  to  protect  the 
colony  against  the  Spaniards  in  the  neighbourhood. 
He  was  to  transmit  to  England  exact  copies  of  all 
laws  passed,  accounts  of  the  lands  sold,  &c. 

It  has  already  been  observed,  that  the  colony  was 
in  a  wretched  state  with  respect  to  religion.  The 
first  emigrants  from  England,  retained  indeed  for  a 
little  time  some  sense  of  it,  and  showed  some  respect 
for  the  ordinances  of  the  Gospel:  but  their  children, 
born  in  a  wilderness,  where  there  was  not  so  much 
as  even  the  semblance  of  public  worship,  were  likely 
to  grow  up  in  ignorance,  and  to  live  entirely  void 
of  all  sense  of  religion.  The  proprietors  were  either 
unable  to  furnish  them  with  the  proper  means  of  in- 
struction, or  they  were  unwilling  to  bear  the  expense 
of  it,  having  as  yet  received  little  recompense  for  the 
past  charges  of  the  settlement.  Not  only  the  emi- 
grants from  England,  but  also  those  from  France 
and  Holland,  were  much  divided  in  their  private 
opinions  with  respect  to  modes  of  religious  worship  ; 
and  for  this  reason  all  governors,  excepting  the  last, 
had  prudently  deferred  interfering  in  a  matter  which 
would  occasion  uneasiness  and  confusion  among  the 
settlers.  Still,  however,  the  establishment  of  the 
c hurch  of  England  in  Carolina  was  the  chief  object 
in  view  with  the  proprietors.  The  palatine  was  a 
bigoted  zealot  for  this  mode  of  ecclesiastical  worship 
and  government :  the  governor  was  strongly  at- 
tached to  it.  James  Moore,  who  was  made  receiver- 
general,  and  Nicholas  Trott,  the  attorney-general, 
were  also  men  of  the  same  complexion.  These  men, 
assisted  by  a  majority  of  the  council,  now  began  to  con- 
cert measures  with  art  and  skill,  and  to  pursue  them 
with  firmness  and  resolution,  for  accomplishing  this 
end,  and  gratifying  the  earnest  desire  of  the  pa- 
latine. 

It  was  not,  however,  without  some  difficulty,  and 
considerable  struggles,that  the  keen  opposition  raised 
by  dissenters,  who  now  plainly  perceived  their  de- 
sign, and  who  had  an  irreconcileable  aversion  from 
episcopacy,  could  be  overcome.  This  the  governor 
and  his  party  foresaw,  and  therefore  it  became  ne- 
cessary first  to  exert  themselves  to  secure  a  majority 
in  the  assembly  in  favour  of  the  measure  they  had  in 
view.  Hitherto  the  riotous  proceedings  at'the  for- 
mer election  had  been  overlooked,  and  the  rioters, 
by  the  countenance  and  protection  of  the  preceding 
governor,  had  escaped  prosecution.  The  grand  jury 
represented  this  neglect  as  a  grievance  to  the  court ; 
but  the  judge  told  them,  "  That  was  a  matter  which 
lay  before  the  governor  and  council,  his  superiors." 
When  the  complaint  was  made  to  the  governor  in 
council,  he  replied,  "  That  these  irregularities  hap- 
pened before  his  appointment  to  the  government, 
but  that  he  would  take  care  to  prevent  them  for  the 
time  to  come."  Notwithstanding  this  declaration, 
if  we  may  believe  the  dissenters,  at  the  following 
election  still  greater  irregularities  prevailed.  By 
the  same  undue  influence  and  violence  the  governor 
and  his  adherents  gained  their  point,  and  secured  a 
majority  in  the  house  ;  so  that  a  species  of  corruption 
had  now  infected  the  great  fountain  of  liberty,  the 
election  of  representatives. 

It  would  appear  that  some  of  the  colonists  at  this 
period  had  distinguished  themselves  by  loose  princi- 


ples and  licentious  language,  and  had  treated  some 
of  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  Christian  religion 
with  the  ridicule  and  contempt  of  professed  infide- 
lity. To  bring  an  odium  upon  this  class  of  dissen- 
ters, and  to  discourage  such  licentious  practices,  a 
bill  was  brought  into  the  new  assembly  for  the  sup- 
pression of  blasphemy  and  profaneness ;  by  which 
bill,  whoever  should  be  convicted  ofhaving  spoken 
or  written  any  thing  against  the  Trinity,  or  the  di- 
vine authority  of  the  Old  or  New  Testament,  by  the 
oath  of  two  or  more  credible  witnesses,  were  to  be 
made  incapable,  and  disabled  in  law  to  all  intents 
and  purposes,  of  being  members  of  assembly,  or  of 
holding  any  office  of  profit,  civil  or  military,  within 
the  province  :  and  whoever  should  be  convicted  of 
such  crimes  the  second  time,  were  also  to  be  disabled 
from  suing  or  bringing  any  action  of  information  in 
any  court  of  law  or  equity,  from  being  guardian  to 
any  child,  executor  or  administrator  to  any  person  ; 
and  without  bail  suffer  imprisonment  for  three  years. 
Which  law,  notwithstanding  its  pretended  motive, 
savoured  not  a  little  of  an  inquisition,  and  intro- 
duced a  species  of  persecution  ill  calculated  to  an- 
swer the  end  for  which  it  was  intended.  To  punish 
men  guilty  of  blasphemy  and  profaneness  in  this 
way,  instead  of  bringing  their  crimes  into  public 
disrepute  and  abhorrence,  served  rather  to  render 
their  persons  objects  of  compassion,  and  induce  men 
to  pity  them  on  account  of  their  sufferings. 

However,  had  Sir  NathanielJohnson  stopt  here, 
many  reasons  might  have  been  urged  in  his  vindica- 
tion ;  but  he  had  other  measures  in  view,  much  more 
unpopular  and  oppressive.  He  looked  upon  dissen- 
ters of  every  denomination  as  enemies  to  the  consti- 
tutions of  both  church  and  state,  and  therefore,  to 
subvert  their  power  and  influence,  or  compel  them 
to  uniformity  of  sentiment,  another  bill  was  brought 
into  the  assembly,  framed  in  sucll^.  manner  as  to  ex- 
clude them  entirely  from  the  heuse\pf  representa- 
tives. This  bill  required  every  manXwho  should 
hereafter  be  chosen  a  member  of  assembly,  to  take 
the  oaths  and  subscribe  the  declaration  appointed  by 
it,  to  conform  to  the  religion  and  worship  of  the 
church  of  England,  and  to  receive  the^acrament  of 
the  Lord's  Supper,  accordingto'tke-rfghts  and  usage 
of  that  church  ;  a  qualification  which  dissenters  con- 
sidered as  having  a  manifest  tendency  to  rob  them 
of  all  their  civil  rights  or  religious  liberties.  To  carry 
this  bill  through  the  house,  all  the  art  and  influence 
of  the  governor  and  his  party  were  requisite.  In 
the  lower  house  it  passed  by  a  majority  of  one  vote, 
and  in  the  upper  house  Landgrave  Joseph  Morton 
was  refused  liberty  to  enter  his  protest  against  it. 
At  this  juncture  no  bill  could  have  been  framed  more 
inconsistent  with  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the 
freemen,  and  more  pernicious  to  the  interest  and 
prosperity  of  the  country.  The  dissenters,  who  were  a 
numerous  and  powerful  body  of  the  people,  were 
highly  offended,  and  raised  a  great  outcry  against  it. 
Seeing  themselves  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  receiv- 
ing laws  from  men  whose  principles  of  civil  and  ec- 
clesiastical government  they  abhorred,  and  subjected 
to  greater  hardships  than  they  suffered  in  England, 
many  had  formed  resolutions  of  abandoning  the  co- 
lony. Loud  clamours  wore  not  only  heard  without 
doors,  but  jealousies  and  discontent  filled  the  hearts 
of  many  within  them,  not  of  dissenters  only,  but  also 
of  those  who  adhered  to  the  church. 

In  this  distracted  state  of  the  colony,  the  inhabi 
tants  of  Colleton  county,  composed  chiefly  of  dis- 
senters, met  and  drew  up  a  state  of  their  grievous 
circumstances,  which  they  resolved  to  transmit  to 


UNITED  STATES. 


927 


the  proprietors,  praying  their  lordships  to  repeal 
this  oppressive  act.  John  Ash,  one  of  the  most  zoa- 
lous  men  in  the  opposition,  agreed  to  embark  for 
England  as  agent  for  the  aggrieved  party,  computed 
to  be  at  least  two-thirds  of  the  whole  inhabitants  of 
the  colony.  The  governor  and  his  friends,  apprized 
of  this  design,  used  all  possible  means  to  prevent 
him  from  obtaining  a  passage  in  any  ship  belonging 
to  Carolina.  Upon  which  Ash  went  to  Virginia,  to 
which  province  his  instructions  were  conveyed  to 
him,  and  from  thence  he  set  sail  for  England. 

After  his  arrival  he  waited  on  Lord  Granville,  the 
palatine,  acquainting  him  with  the  design  of  his 
message  ;  but  met  with  a  very  cold  reception.  That 
nobleman  was  too  deeply  concerned  in  bringing 
about  that  establishment  against  which  Ash  came  to 
.complain,  favourably  to  listen  to  his  representations. 
Accordingly,  after  staying  some  time  in  London, 
and  giving  the  proprietors  all  the  information  in  his 
power  relating  to  public  affairs,  the  only  satisfaction 
he  could  obtain  from  the  palatine  was,  that  he  should 
cause  his  secretary  to  write  to  the  governor  an  ac 
count  of  the  grievances  and  hardships  of  which  Mr. 
Ash  complained,  and  require  an  answer  from  him 
with  respect  to  them.  Mr.  Ash,  observing  how  the 
palatine  stood  affected,  and  despairing  of  success, 
immediately  began  to  draw  up  a  representation  of 
their  case,  which  he  intended  for  the  press  :  but  be- 
fore he  had  finished  it  he  was  taken  sick,  and  died ; 
and  his  papers  fell  into  his  enemies'  hands.  He  was 
a  man  of  a  warm  and  passionate  temper,  and  pos- 
sessed of  all  those  violent  sentiments  which  ill  usage, 
disappointment,  and  oppression,  naturally  kindle 
in  the  human  breast.  His  representation,  intended 
as  an  appeal  to  the  nation  in  general,  for  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  people  under  the  tyrannical  proprietary 
government,  was  full  of  heavy  charges  against  the 
governor  and  his  party  in  Carolina,  and  bitter  re- 
flections on  their  conduct,  which  he  considered  as 
in  the  highest  degree  injurious  to  the  colony. 

Without  doubt  the  lords  proprietors  planned  this 
establishment  with  a  view  to  the  peaceful  influence 
it  wuuld  have  upon  the  civil  government  of  the 
country,  as  the  preamble  to  the  act  expressly  indi- 
cates. Their  feeble  and  fluctuating  state  required 
the  assistance  and  authority  of  an  established  church, 
and  the  sanction  of  religion,  to  give  it  more  weight 
and  influence  with  the  people.  How  far  the  mea- 
sures adopted  served  to  promote  the  desired  end,  and 
were  consistent  with  prudence  and  good  policy,  will 
afterwards  more  clearly  appear. 

Sir  Nathaniel  Johnson  having  advanced  so  far, 
was  determined  to  proceed  in  spite  of  every  obstacle 
thrown  in  his  way.  He  instituted  what  the  inhabitants 
of  Carolina  took  to  be  a  high-commission  court,  like 
that  of  King  James  II.  It  was  enacted,  that  twenty 
lay-persons  be  constituted  a  corporation  for  the  ex- 
ercise of  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  with  full  power 
to  deprive  ministers  of  their  livings  at  pleasure,  not 
for  immorality  only,  but  also  for  imprudence,  or  on 
account  of  unreasonable  prejudices  taken  against 
them.  In  vain  did  many  persons  complain  of  this 
institution,  as  tearing  the  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction 
out  of  the  hands  of  the  bishop  of  London,  in  whose 
diocese  the  whole  British  colonies  in  America  were 
included.  The  governor,  bent  on  carrying  into  ex- 
ecution the  favourite  plan  of  the  palatine,  paid  little 
regard  to  the  uneasy  apprehensions  of  the  people. 
According  to  the  act  for  erecting  churches,  the  co- 
l»ny  was  divided  into  ten  parishes ;  seven  in  Berkley, 
two  in  Colleton,  and  one  in  Craven  counties.  Money 
was  provided  for  building  churches ;  lands  were 


granted  for  glebes  and  churchyards  ;  and  salaries  for 
the  different  rectors  were  fixed  and  appointed,  pay- 
able from  the  provincial  treasury.  When  these  bills 
were  transmitted  to  England,  to  be  ratified  and  con- 
firmed by  the  proprietors,  John  Archdale  opposed 
them,  and  insisted,  that  the  dissenters  of  Carolina 
had  not  yet  forgot  the  hardships  they  suffered  in  En- 
gland  from  acts  of  uniformity  ;  that  the  right  of  pri- 
vate judgment  in  religious  matters  was  the  birthright 
of  every  man  ;  that  undisturbed  liberty  of  conscience 
was  allowed  to  every  inhabitant  of  Carolina  by  the 
charter ;  that  acts  of  conformity,  with  penalties  an- 
nexed to  them,  have  in  general  proved  destructive 
to  the  cause  they  were  intended  to  promote,  and 
were  utterly  inconsistent  with  Protestant  principles  ; 
and  therefore  that  these  bills,  so  unpopular  and 'op- 
pressive in  Carolina,  ought  tot  e  repealed,  as  contrary 
to  sound  policy  and  religious  freedom.  The  majo- 
rity of  the  proprietors,  however,  did  not  view  them 
in  this  light,  and  the  debate  ran  high  between  them. 
At  length  the  palatine,  equally  tyrannical  as  bigoted, 
put  an  end  to  the  dispute,  by  telling  Mr.  Archdale  : 
"  Sir,  you  are  of  one  opinion,  I  am  of  another  ;  our 
lives  may  not  be  long  enough  to  end  the  controversy. 
I  am  for  the  bills,  and  this  is  the  party  that  I  will 
head  and  support."  In  consequence  of  which  the 
acts  were  ratified  by  four  proprietors,  and  the  follow- 
ing letter  was  sent  to  Sir  Nathaniel  Johnson  :  "  Sir, 
the  great  and  pious  work  which  you  have  gone  through 
with  such  unwearied  and  steady  zeal,  for  the  honour 
and  worship  of  Almighty  Gnd,  we  have  also  finally 
perfected  on  our  part ;  and  our  ratification  of  that 
act  for  erecting  churches,  &c.,  together  with  duplicates 
of  all  other  dispatches,  we  have  forwarded  to  you  by 
Captain  Flavel." 

The  episcopal  party  having  now  got  their  favou- 
rite form  of  divine  worship  established  by  law  in  Ca- 
rolina, began  to  erect  churches  in  such  situations  as 
were  most  centrical  and  convenient  for  the  settlers  ; 
and  to  supply  them  with  clergymen,  application  was 
made  to  the  society  in  England  for  the  propagation 
of  the  Gospel.  The  dissenters,  despairing  of  all  hopes 
of  redress  from  the  proprietors,  became  greatly  dis- 
couraged, and  could  not  brook  the  thoughts  of  being 
again  subjected  to  the  same  miseries  which  had  com- 
pelled them  to  leave  their  native  country.  Some 
were  for  transporting  their  families  and  effects  im- 
mediately to  Pennsylvania,  in  order  to  sit  down  under 
Penn's  free  and  indulgent  government;  others  pro- 
posed an  application  to  the  house  of  lords  in  En- 
gland, praying  them  to  intercede  with  her  majesty 
for  their  relief.  For  this  purpose  a  petition  was  drawn 
up,  and  carried  over  by  Joseph  Boone  to  England. 
Several  merchants  in  London,  after  Boone's  arrival, 
being  convinced  of  the  illegal  means  by  which  those 
grievous  acts  were  brought  to  pass,  and  of  their 
pernicious  consequence  to  trade,  joined  the  petition- 
ers. Accordingly,  about  the  beginning  of  the  year 
1706,  the  following  petition  was  presented  to  the 
house  of  lords  :  setting  forth,  "  That  when  the  pro- 
vince of  Carolina  was  granted  to  the  proprietors,  for 
the  better  peopling  of  it,  express  provision  was  made 
in  the  charter  for  a  toleration  and  indulgence  of  all 
Christians,  in  the  free  exercise  of  their  religion  ;  that, 
in  the  fundamental  constitutions,  agreed  to  be  the 
form  of  government  by  the  proprietors,  there  was 
also  express  provision  made,  that  no  person  should 
be  disturbed  for  any  speculative  opinion  in  religion, 
and  that  no  person  should,  on  account  of  religion, 
be  excluded  from  being  a  member  of  the  general  as- 
sembly, or  from  any  other  office  in  the  civil  admi- 
nistration. That  the  said  charter,  being  given  soon 


928 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


after  the  happy  restoration  of  King  Charles  II.,  and 
re-establishment  of  the  church  of  England  by  the 
act  of  uniformity,  many  of  the  subjects  of  the  king- 
dom who  were  so  unhappy  as  to  have  some  scruples 
about  conforming  to  the  rites  of  the  said  church,  did 
transplant  themselves  and  families  into  Carolina ; 
by  means  whereof  the  greatest  part  of  the  inhabitants 
there  were  Protestant  dissenters  from  the  church  of 
England,  and  through  the  equality  and  freedom  of  the 
said  fundamental  constitutions,  all  the  inhabitants 
of  the  colony  lived  in  peace,  and  even  the  ministers 
of  the  church  of  England  had  support  from  Protestant 
dissenters,  and  the  number  of  inhabitants  and  the 
trade  of  the  colony  daily  increased,  to  the  great  im- 
provement of  her  majesty's  customs,  and  the  mani- 
fest advantage  of  the  merchants  and  manufactures 
of  the  kingdom. 

"  But  that,  in  the  year  1703,  when  a  new  assem- 
bly **•+£  to  be  chosen,  which,  by  the  constitution,  is 
chosen  once  in  two  years,  the  election  was  managed 
with  very  great  partiality  and  injustice,  and  all  sorts 
of  people,  even  aliens,  Jews,  servants,  common 
sailors  and  negroes  were  admitted  to  vote  at  elec- 
tions :  that,  in  the  said  assembly,  an  act  was  passed 
to  incapacitate  every  person  from  being  a  member 
of  any  general  assembly  that  should  be  chosen  for 
the  time  to  come,  unless  he  had  taken  the  sacrament 
of  the  Lord's  Supper,  according  to  the  rites  of  the 
church  of  England ;  whereby  all  Protestant  dissenters 
are  made  incapable  of  being  in  the  said  assembly  ; 
and  yet,  by  the  same  act,  all  persons  who  shall  take 
an  oath  that  they  have  not  received  the  sacrament 
in  any  dissenting  congregation  for  one  year  past, 
though  they  have  not  received  it  in  the  church  of 
England,  are  made  capable  of  sitting  in  the  said  as- 
sembly :  that  this  act  was  passed  in  an  illegal  man- 
ner, by  the  governor  calling  the  assembly  to  meet 
the  26th  of  April,  when  it  then  stood  prorogued  to 
the  10th  of  May  following:  that  it  hath  been  rati- 
fied by  the  lords  proprietors  in  England,  who  refused 
to  hear  what  could  be  offered  against  it,  and  con- 
trary to  the  petition  of  170  of  the  chief  inhabitants 
of  the  colony,  and  of  several  eminent  merchants 
trading  hither,  though  the  commons  of  the  same 
assembly  quickly  after  passed  another  bill  to  repeal 
it,  which  the  upper  house  rejected,  and  the  governor 
dissolved  the  house. 

"  That  the  ecclesiastical  government  of  the  colony 
is  under  the  bishop  of  London ;  but  the  governor 
and  his  adherents  have  at  last  done  what  the  latter 
often  threatened  to  do,  totally  abolished  it :  for  the 
same  assembly  have  passed  an  act,  whereby  twenty 
lay-persons,  therein  named,  are  made  a  corporation 
for  the  exercise  of  several  exorbitant  powers,  to  the 
great  injury  and  oppression  of  the  people  in  general, 
and  for  the  exercise  of  all  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction, 
with  absolute  power  to  deprive  any  minister  of  the 
church  of  England  of  his  benefice,  not  only  for  im- 
morality, but  even  for  imprudence,  or  incurable 
prejudices  between  such  minister  and  his  parish; 
and  the  only  minister  of  the  church  established  in 
the  colony,  Mr.  Edward  Marston,  hath  already  been 
cited  before  their  board,  which  the  inhabitants  of  the 
province  take  to  be  a  high  ecclesiastical  commis- 
sion-court, destructive  to  the  very  being  and  essence 
of  the  church  of  England,  and  to  be  held  in  the 
utmost  detestation  and  abhorrence  by  every  man 
that  is  not  an  enemy  to  our  constitution  in  church 
and  state. 

"  That  the  said  grievances  daily  increasing,  your 
petitioner  Joseph  Boone  is  now  sent  by  many  prin- 
cipal inhabitants  and  traders  of  the  colony,  to  re- 


present the  languishing  and  dangerous  situation  of 
it  to  the  lords  proprietors ;  but  his  application  to 
them  has  hitherto  had  no  effect :  that  the  ruin  of 
the  colony  would  be  to  the  great  disadvantage  of  the 
trade  of  this  kingdom,  to  the  apparent  prejudice  of 
her  majesty's  customs,  and  the  great  benefit  of  the 
French,  who  watch  all  opportunities  to  improve  their 
own  settlements  in  those  parts  of  America." 

After  reading  this  petition  in  the  house  of  lords, 
the  palatine  desired  to  be  heard  by  his  council,  which 
was  granted,  and  the  further  consideration  of  the 
matter  was  postponed  for  one  week.  Then  having 
heard  what  Lord  Granville  had  to  offer  in  his  be- 
half, the  lords  agreed  to  address  her  majesty  in 
favour  of  the  distressed  petitioners  of  Carolina. 
They  declared  that,  after  having  fully  and  maturely 
weighed  the  nature  of  the  two  acts  passed  in  Caro- 
lina, they  found  themselves  obliged  in  duty  to  her 
majesty,  and  in  justice  to  her  subjects,  (who,  by  the 
express  words  of  the  charter,  were  declared  to  be 
the  liege  people  of  the  crown  of  England,  and  to 
have  a  right  to  all  the  liberties,  franchises,  and  pri- 
vileges of  Englishmen),  to  come  to  the  following  re- 
solutions :  "  First,  That  it  is  the  opinion  of  this 
house,  that  the  act  of  assembly  in  Carolina,  lately 
passed  there,  signed-and  sealed  by  John,  Lord  Gran- 
ville, for  himself,  Lord  Carteret,  and  Lord  Craven, 
and  by  Sir  John  Colleton,  four  of  the  proprietors  of 
that  province,  in  order  to  the  ratifying  of  it,  entitled, 
An  act  for  the  establishment  of  religious  worship  in 
the  province,  according  to  the  church  of  England,  &c. 
so  far  forth  as  the  same  relates  to  the  establishing  a 
commission  for  the  displacing  of  rectors  and  minis- 
ters of  the  churches  there,  is  not  warranted  by  the 
charter  granted  to  the  proprietors,  as  being  not  con- 
sonant to  reason,  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  the  realm, 
and  destructive  to  the  constitution  of  the  church  of 
England.  Secondly,  That  it  is  the  opinion  of  this 
house,  that  the  act  of  assembly  in  Carolina,  entitled, 
An  act  for  the  more  effectual  preservation  of  the 
government  of  the  province,  by  requiring  all  persons 
that  shall  hereafter  be  chosen  members  tof  the  com- 
mons house  of  assembly,  and  sit  in  thq  same,  to 
take  the  oaths  and  subscribe  the  declaration  ap- 
pointed by  this  act,  and  to  cohformtpxthe  religious 
worship  in  this  province,  according™  the  church  of 
England,  and  to  receive  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's 
Supper,  according  to  the  rites  and  usage  of  the  said 
church,  &c.  is  founded  on  falsity  in  matter  of  fact,  is 
repugnant  to  the  laws  of  England,  contrary  to  the 
charter  of  the  proprietors,  is  an  encouragement  to 
atheism  and  irreligion,  destructive  to  trade,  and  tends 
to  the  depopulation  and  ruin  of  the  province." 

After  which  resolutions  the  house  addressed  her 
majesty  in  the  following  words  :  "  We,  your  ma- 
jesty's dutiful  subjects,  having  thus  humbly  pre- 
sented our  opinion  of  these  acts,  we  beseech  your 
majesty  to  use  the  most  effectual  methods  to  deliver 
the  said  province  from  the  arbitrary  oppressions 
under  which  it  now  lies,  and  to  order  the  authors 
thereof  to  be  prosecuted  according  to  law;  at  the 
same  time  we  represent  to  your  majesty,  how  much 
the  powers  given  by  the  crown  have  been  abused 
by  some  of  your  subjects,  justice  requires  us  to  ac- 
quaint your  majesty,  that  some  of  the  proprietors 
absolutely  refused  to  join  in  the  ratification  of  these 
acts.  We  humbly  beg  permission  to  inform  your 
majesty,  that  other  great  injustices  and  oppressions 
are  complained  of  in  the  petition ;  but  the  nature  of 
the  fact  requiring  a  long  examination,  it  was  not 
possible  for  the  house  to  find  time  for,  so  near  the 
conclusion  of  the  session ;  and  therefor*  we  presume, 


UNITED  STATES. 


929 


•with  all  fluty,  to  lay  the  petition  itself  before  your 
majesty,  at  the  same  time  we  present  our  address. 
We  cannot  doubt  but  your  majesty,  who  from  the 
beginning  of  your  reign  has  shown  so  great  a  con- 
cern and  tenderness  for  all  your  subjects,  will  ex- 
tend your  compassion  for  those  distressed  people, 
who  have  the  misfortune  to  be  at  so  great  a  distance 
from  your  royal  person,  and  not  so  immediately 
under  your  gentle  administration.  Your  majesty 
is  fully  sensible  of  what  great  consequence  the 
plantations  are  to  the  crown  of  England,  and  to  the 
trade  of  your  subjects,  and  therefore  we  rest  as- 
sured, that  as  your  majesty  will  have  them  all  under 
your  royal  care,  so,  in  particular,  you  will  be  gra- 
ciously pleased  to  find  out  and  prosecute  the  most 
effectual  means  for  the  relief  of  the  province  of  Ca- 
rolina." 

To  which  address  the  queeh  returned  the  follow- 
ing answer:  "  I  thank  the  house  for  laying  these 
matters  so  plainly  before  me:  I  am  sensible  of  what 
great  consequence  the  plantations  are  to  England, 
and  will  do  all  in  my  power  to  relieve  my  subjects 
in  Carolina,  and  protect  them  in  their  just  rights." 
But  as  it  likewise  appeared  that  some  of  the  pro- 
prietors themselves  had  refused  to  approve  of  the 
acts,  the  matter  was  further  referred  to  the  lords  of 
trade  and  plantations;  who,  after  examination, 
found  that  all  the  charges  brought  against  the  pro- 
vincial government  and  the  proprietors  were  well 
grounded;  and  represented  further  to  her  majesty, 
that  the  making  of  such  laws  was  an  abuse  of  the 
powers  granted  to  the  proprietors  by  the  charter, 
and  will  be  a  forfeiture  of  it,  and  humbly  begged 
that  she  would  be  pleased  to  give  directions  for  re- 
assuming  the  same  into  her  majesty's  hands,  by  a 
tcire  facias  in  the  court  of  queen's  bench.  The 
queen  approved  of  their  representation,  and  after 
declaring  the  laws  null  and  void,  for  the  effectual 
proceeding  against  the  charter  by  way  of  quo  war- 
ranto,  ordered  her  attorney  and  solicitor-general  to 
inform  themselves  fully  concerning  what  may  be 
most  effectual  for  accomplishing  the  same,  that  she 
might  take  the  government  of  the  colony,  so  much 
abused  by  others,  into  her  own  hands,  for  the  better 
protection  of  her  distressed  subjects.  Here,  how- 
ever, the  matter  was  dropt  for  the  present,  and  no 
further  steps  were  taken  against  the  charter  of  the 
proprietors,  or  for  the  relief  of  the  people. 

In  the  mean  time  the  distant  colonists,  though 
they  had  heard  nothing  of  what  had  passed  in  Eng- 
land relating  to  those  grievous  acts,  became  daily 
more  sensible  of  their  oppressive  nature  and  perni- 
cious consequence.  Several  settlers  had  left  the 
country  on  account  of  them,  and  moved  to  Pennsyl- 
vania. Archibald  Stobo,  a  Presbyterian  minister  in 
Charlestown,  who  had  warmly  opposed  this  esta- 
blishment from  the  beginning,  had  also  convinced 
many  who  remained  of  the  severities  and  hardships 
the  dissenters  in  England  had  suffered  from  the  ri 
gors  of  the  episcopal  government.  Several  circum- 
stances proved  favourable  to  Stobo's  opposition;  he 
possessed  those  talents  which  render  a  minister  con- 
spicuous and  respected,  and  the  people  that  party-zeal 
which  becomes  violent  from  persecution.  To  his 
treasures  of  knowledge  and  excellent  capacity  for 
instruction,  he  added  uncommon  activity  and  dili- 
gence in  the  discharge  of  the  various  duties  of  his 
sacred  function.  He  had  a  natural  aversion  to  the 
episcopal  jurisdiction,  and  no  minister  of  the  colony 
had  engrossed  so  universally  the  public  favour  and 
esteem.  The  governor  and  his  adherents  found  it 
necessary  to  sow  the  seeds  of  division  among  his 

HIST.  OF  AMB*.— Nos,  117  &  118. 


followers,  and,  from  maxims  of  policy,  to  magnify 
his  failings,  in  order  to  ruin  his  great  power  and 
influence. 

But  the  presbyterian  party  were  not  the  only  mal- 
contents during  these  unwarrantable  proceedings  of 
the  legislature.  Many  wise  and  religious  men  of  all 
denominations  condemned  them,  as  grievous  and 
impolitic,  and  opposed  the  acts  of  assembly.  Even 
the  society  for  propagating  the  Gospel  in  England 
disapproved  of  them,  and  resolved  not  to  send  any 
missionaries  to  Carolina,  until  the  clause  relating  to 
lay -commissioners  was  annulled.  So  that  all  im- 
partial men,  in  some  measure,  condemned  the  acts, 
and  seemed  to  detest  both  the  factious  men  who 
framed  them,  and  the  method  by  which  they  had 
been  promoted  in  the  province. 

At  length,  from  these  domestic  troubles  the  atten- 
tion of  the  people  was  drawn  off,  and  turned  towards 
a  more  important  object,  their  common  defence 
against  foreign  enemies.  The  war  between  Great 
Britain  and  France  and  Spain  still  raged  in  Eu- 
rope. The  governor  received  advice  of  a  project 
framed  for  invading  Carolina,  and  had  instructions 
to  put  the  country  in  the  best  posture  of  defence. 
The  Spaniards  pretended  a  right  to  it  on  the  foot  of 
prior  discovery,  considering  it  as  a  part  of  Florida, 
and  had  now  determined  by  force  of  arms  to  assert 
their  right.  Sir  Nathaniel  Johnson,  as  a  military 
commander,  was  well  qualified  for  his  duty.  No 
sooner  had  he  received  intelligence  of  the  designs 
of  his  enemy,  than  he  set  all  hands  to  work  upon  the 
fortifications,  appointed  a  number  of  gunners  to  each 
bastion,  and  held  frequent  musters  to  train  the  men 
to  the  use  of  arms.  A  storehouse  was  prepared, 
and  a  quantity  uf  ammunition  laid  up  in  it.  to  be 
ready  on  the  first  emergency.  A  small  fort,  called 
Fort  Johnson,  was  erected  on  James's  island,  and 
several  great  guns  mounted  on  it.  Trenches  were 
cast  up  on  White  Point,  and  other  places  where 
they  were  thought  necessary.  A  guard  was  sta- 
tioned on  Sullivan's  island,  with  orders  to  kindle  a 
number  of  fires  opposite  to  the  town,  equal  to  the  num- 
ber of  ships  they  might  spy  on  the  coast.  And  every 
prudent  regulation  was  made  to  prevent  a  surprise. 

Carolina. was  at  this  juncture  the  southern  frontier 
of  the  British  empire  in  America;  but  the  colony, 
although  it  had  acquired  some  degree  of  strength, 
was  yet  in  a  feeble  state  to  resist  an  enemy  of  force 
and  enterprise.  From  its  situation  there  was  reason 
to  apprehend  that  the  French  and  Spaniards  would 
attack  it,  as  it  would  fall  an  easier  conquest  than 
the  more  populous  northern  settlements ;  and  before 
this  time  a  plan  had  been  concerted  at  the  Havanna 
for  invading  it.  Mons.  ie  Feboure,  captain  of  a 
French  frigate,  together  with  four  more  armed  sloops, 
encouraged  and  assisted  by  the  Spanish  governor  of 
that  island,  had  already  set  sail  for  Charlestown. 
To  facilitate  the  conquest  of  the  province,  he  had 
directions  to  touch  at  Augustine,  and  carry  from 
thence  such  a  force  as  he  judged  adequate,  to  the 
enterprise.  Upon  his  arrival  at  Augusfhie,  he  had 
intelligence  of  an  epidemical  distemper  wnich  raged 
at  Charlestown,  and  had  swept  off  a  vast  number  of 
inhabitants.  This  animated  him  to  proceed  with 
greater  expedition.  Imagining  the  town  to  be  in  a 
weak  and  defenceless  state,  and  that  the  militia  in 
the  country  would  be  averse  from  coming  nigh  it, 
through  fear  of  the  fatal  infection,  he  took  on  board 
a  considerable  number  of  forces  at  Augustine,  and 
made  all  the  sail  he  could  for  Carolina. 

Before  this  time,  a  Dutch  privateer,  formerly  be- 
longing to  New  York,  by  order  of  the  goveinor  of 

•  41 


HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Carolina,  had  been  refitted  at  Charlestowu  for  cruis- 
ing on  the  coast.  The  command  had  been  given  to 
Captain  Stool,  who  was  sent  out  on  purpose  to  in- 
tercept the  supplies  regularly  sent  to  Augustine 
from  the  Havauna.  After  being  out  a  few  days  he 
returned,  and  brought  advice  of  having  engaged  a 
French  sloop  off  the  bar  of  Augustine ;  but  upon 
seeing  four  more  ships  advancing,  made  all  the  sail 
he  could  for  Charlestown,  and  thus  narrowly  escaped 
falling  into  the  enemy's  hands.  Scarcely  had  he 
delivered  the  news,  when  nve  separate  smokes  ap- 
peared on  Sullivan's  island,  as  a  signal  to  the  town 
that  the  same  number  of  ships  were  observed  on  the 
coast. 

Sir  Nathaniel  Johnson  being  at  that  time  at  his 
plantation,  several  miles  from  town,  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  William  Rhett,  commanding-officer  of  the 
militia,  immediately  ordered  the  drums  to  beat,  and 
the  whole  inhabitants  to  be  put  under  arms.  A  mes- 
senger was  dispatched  with  the  ne.ws  to  the  governor, 
and  letters  to  all  the  captains  of  the  militia  in  the 
country,  to  fire  their  alarm-guns,  raise  their  compa- 
nies, and  with  all  possible  expedition  march  to  the 
assistance  of  the  town. 

In  the  evening  the  enemy's  fleet  came  the  length 
of  Charlestown  bar;  but  as  the  passage  was  intri- 
cate and  dangerous,  they  did  not  think  it  prudent 
to  venture  over  it  while  the  darkness  of  the  night 
approached,  and  therefore  hovered  on  the  coast  all 
night  within  sight  of  land.  Early  next  morning 
the  watchmen  stationed  on  Sullivan's  island  observed 
them  a  little  to  the  southward  of  the  bar,  manning 
their  galleys  and  boats,  as  if  they  intended  to  land 
on  James's  island ;  but  there  having  come  to  an 
anchor,  they  employed  their  boats  aU  that  day  in 
sounding  the  south  bar :  which  delay  was  of  great 
service  to  the  Carolineans,  as  it  afforded  time  for 
the  militia  in  the  country  to  march  to  town. 

The  same  day  Sir  Nathaniel  Johnson,  the  gorer- 
nor,  came  to  Charlestown,  and  found  the  inhabitants 
in  great  consternation ;  but  he  inspired  them  with 
fresh  confidence  and  resolution.  Martial  law  was 
proclaimed  at  the  head  of  the  militia ;  and  the  ne- 
cessary orders  were  sent  to  the  Indian  tribes  in  al- 
liance with  the  colony,  which  brought  a  number  of 
them  to  his  assistance.  As  a  contagious  distemper 
raged  in  Charlestown,  the  governor  judged  it  im- 
prudent to  expose  his  men  to  the  infection,'  and 
therefore  held  his  head-quarters  about  half  a  mile 
distant  from  town.  In  the  evening  a  troop  of 
horse,  commanded  by  Captain  George  Logan,  and 
two  companies  of  foot,  under  the  command  of  Major 
George  Broughton,  reached  the  capital,  and  kept 
diligent  watch  during  the  night.  The  next  morning 
a  company  from  James's  island,  under  the  command 
of  Captain  Drake,  another  from  Wando,  under  Cap- 
tain Fenwick,  and  five  more  commanded  by  Cap- 
tains Cantey,  Lynch,  Hearn,  Longbois,  and  Sea- 
brook,  joined  the  militia  of  the  town ;  so  that  the 
whole  force  of  the  province,  with  the  governor  at 
their  head,  was  now  collected  together  in  one  place. 

The  day  following,  the  enemy's  four  ships  and  a 
galley  came  over  the  bar,  with  all  their  boats  out  for 
landing  their  men,  and  stood  directly  for  the  town, 
having  the  advantages  of  a  fair  wind  and  strong  tide. 
When  they  had  advanced  so  far  up  the  river  as  to 
discover  the  fortifications,  they  cast  anchor  a  little 
above  Sullivan's  island.  The  governor,  observing 
the  enemy  approaching  towards  the  town,  marched 
his  men  into  it  to  receive  them ;  but  finding  they 
had  stopt  by  the  way,  he  had  time  to  call  a  council  of 
WM,  m  whiofi  it  was  agreed  to  put  some  great  guns  on 


board  of  such  ships  as  wen-  in  the  harbour,  and  em- 
ploy the  sailors  in  their  own  way,  for  the  bettor  <i  — 
fence  of  the  town.  William  Rhett,  a  man  poss 
of  considerable  conduct  and  spirit,  received  a  coin- 
mission  to  be  vice-admiral  of  this  little  fleet,  and 
hoisted  his  flag  on  board  of  the  Crown  galley. 

The  enemy  observing  them  employed  in  making  all 
possible  preparations  for  resistance,  sent  up  a  flag  of 
truce  to  the  governor,  to  summon  him  to  surrender. 
George  Evans,  who  commanded  Granville  bastion, 
received  their  messenger  at  his  landing  from  the 
boat,  and  conducted  him  blindfolded  into  the  fort, 
until  the  governor  was  in  readiness  to  receive  him. 
In  the  meantime  the  governor,  having  drawn  up 
his  men  in  such  a  manner  as  to  make  them  appear 
to  the  greatest  advantage,  received  the  French  officer 
at  their  head;  and  having  first  shown  him  one  fort 
full  of  men,  he  then  conducted  him  by  a  different 
route  to  another,  giving  the  same  men  time  to  go 
by  a  shorter  way,  and  be  drawn  up  beforehand  : 
and  there,  having  given  him  a  view  of  his  strength, 
he  demanded  the  purport  of  his  message.  The  offi- 
cer told  him,  that  he  was  sent  by  Mons.  le  Feboure, 
admiral  of  the  French  fleet,  to  demand  a  surrender 
of  the  town  and  country,  and  their  persons  prison- 
ers of  war ;  and  that  his  orders  allowed  him  no  more 
than  one  hour  for  an  answer.  Governor  Johnson 
replied,  that  there  was  no  occasion  for  one  minute 
to  answer  that  message :  he  told  him,  he  held  the 
town  and  country  for  the  queen  of  England ;  that 
he  could  depend  on  his  men,  who  would  sooner  die 
than  surrender  themselves  prisoners  of  war;  that 
be  was  resolved  to  defend  the  country  to  the  last 
drop  of  his  blood  against  the  boldest  invader,  and 
he  might  go  when  he  pleased,  and  acquaint  Mons.  le 
Feboure  with  his  resolution. 

The  day  following,  a  party  ofHhe  enemy  went 
ashore  on  James's  island,  and  burnt  ihe  houses  on 
a  plantation  by  the  river  side.  Another  party, 
consisting  of  160  men,  landed  on  the\  opposite 
side  of  the  river,  and  burnt  two  vessels  i)n  Dears- 
by's  creek,  and  set  fire  to  his  storehouse/  Sir  Na- 
thaniel Johnson,  from  such  beginnings/perceiving 
that  they  were  determined  to  carry'fire  and  sword 
wherever  they  went,  doubled  his  diligence  for  the 
defence  of  the  town.  He  ordered  Captain  Drake 
and  his  company,  with  a  small  party  of  Indians,  to 
James's  island,  to  defend  their  properties  on  that 
side.  Drake  marched  against  them,  but  before  he 
could  bring  up  his  men,  the  Indians,  whom  he  could 
keep  under  no  control,  and  who  ran  through  the 
woods  with  their  usual  impetuosity,  had  driven  the 
invaders  to  their  boats.  Then  advice  was  brought 
to  town,  that  the  party  who  landed  on  Wando  Neck 
had  killed  a  number  of  hogs  and  cattle,  and  were 
feasting  on  the  plunder.  To  prevent  their  further 
progress  into  the  country,  and  give  them  a  check  if 
possible,  Captain  Cantey,  with  100  chosen  men 
was  ordered  to  pass  the  river  privately  in  the  night 
and  watch  their  motions.  Before  break  of  day  the 
captain  came  up  with  them,  and  finding  them  in  a 
state  of  security,  with  fires  lighted  around  them, 
surrounded  and  surprised  them  with  a  sharp  fire 
from  every  quarter;  in  consequence  c'  vhich  they 
were  put  in  confusion  and  fled,  and  a  Considerable 
part  being  killed,  wounded,  and  drowned,  the  re- 
mainder surrendered  prisoners  of  war. 

Having  by  this  blow  considerably  weakened  the 
force  of  the  enemy,  and  being  encouraged  and  ani- 
mated by  their  success  at  land,  the  Carolineans  de- 
termined also  to  try  their  fortune  by  sea.  Accord- 
ingly William  Rhett  set  sail  with  his  fleet  of  six 


UNITED  STATES. 


931 


small  ships,  and  proceeded  down  the  river  to  the  place 
where  the  enemy  rode  at  anchor;  but  the  French 
perceiving  this  fleet  standing  towards  them,  in  great 
haste  weighed  anchor,  and  sailed  over  the  bar.  For 
some  days  nothing  more  was  heard  of  them ;  but,  to 
make  sure,  the  governor  ordered  Captain  Watson, 
of  the  Sea  Flower,  out  to  sea,  to  examine  whether 
or  not  the  coast  was  clear.  The  captain  returned 
without  seeing  the  enemy,  but  observing  some  men 
on  shore  whom  they  had  left  behind,  he  took  them 
on  board  and  brought  them  to  town.  These  men 
assured  the  governor  that  the  French  were  gone. 
In  consequence  of  which,  orders  were  given  for  the 
martial  law  to  cease,  and  the  inhabitants  began  to 
rejoice  at  their  happy  deliverance. 

However,  before  night,  certain  advice  was  brought 
that  a  ship  of  force  was  seen  in  Sewee  bay,  and 
that  a  number  of  armed  men  had  landed  from  her  at 
that  place.  Upon  examination  of  the  prisoners  the 
governor  found  that  the  French  expected  a  ship  of 
war,  with  Mons.  Arbuset  their  general,  and  about 
200  men  more  to  their  assistance.  The  governor 
ordered  Captain  Fenwick  to  pass  the  river,  and 
march  against  them  by  land ;  while  Rhett,  with  the 
Dutch  privateer  and  a  Bermuda  sloop  armed,  sailed 
round  by  sea,  with  orders  to  meet  him  at  Sewee  bay. 
Captain  Fenwick  came  up  with  the  enemy,  and 
briskly  charged  them,  who,  though  advantageously 
posted,  after  a  few  volleys  gave  way,  and  retreated 
to  their  ship ;  and  soon  after  Rhett  coming  to  his  as 
sistance,  the  French  ship  struck  without  tiring  a  shot. 
Rhett,  being  obliged  by  contrary  winds  to  remain 
all  that  day  in  Sewee  bay,  dispatched  John  Barnwell, 
a  volunteer,  to  the  governor,  with  an  account  of  their 
success;  and  next  morning,  the  wind  changing,  he 
returned  to  Charlestown  with  his  prize,  and  about 
90  prisoners. 

Thus  ended  Mous.  le  Feboure's  invasion  of  Caro- 
Lna,  little  to  his  own  honour  as  a  commander,  or  to 
the  credit  and  courage  of  his  men.  It  is  probable  he 
expected  to  find  the  province  in  a  defenceless  situa- 
tion, and  that  the  governor  would  instantly  surrender 
on  his  appearance  before  the  town.  But  the  gover- 
nor was  a  man  of  approved  courage  and  conduct; 
the  militia  acted  with  the  spirit  of  men  who  had  not 
only  the  honour  of  the  province,  but  also  their  whole 
properties  at  stake,  and  amazing  success  crowned 
their  endeavours.  Out  of  800  men  who  came  against 
this  little  colony,  near  300  were  killed  and  taken 
prisoners ;  among  the  latter  were  Mons.  Arbuset, 
their  Commander-in-chief  by  land,  with  several  sea- 
officers,  who  together  offered  10,000  pieces  of  eight 
for  their  ransom.  On  the  other  hand,  the  loss  sus- 
tained by  the  provincial  militia  was  incredibly  small. 
The  governor  publicly  thanked  them  for  the  unani- 
mity and  courage  they  had  shown  in  repelling  the 
invaders  :  and  received  from  the  proprietors  soon 
after  the  following  letter.  "  We  heartily  congratu- 
late you  on  your  great  and  happy  success  against  the 
French  and  Spaniards  ;  and  for  your  eminent  cou- 
rage and  conduct  in  the  defence  and  preservation  of 
our  province,  we  return  you  our  thanks,  and  assure 
you,  that  we  shall  always  retain  a  just  sense  of  your 
merit,  and  will  take  all  opportunities  to  reward  your 
signal  services." 

About  this  time  the  long-projected  union  between 
England  and  Scotland  took  place  in  Britain.  Among 
the  number  of  articles  which  composed  this  impor- 
tant and  beneficial  treaty,  it  was  agreed,  "  That  all 
the  subjects  of  the  united  kingdom  of  Great  Britain 
should  from,  and  after  this  union,  have  full  freedom 
and  intercourse  of  trade  and  navigation  to  and  from 


any  port  or  place  in  the  said  united  kingdom,  and 
the  dominions  and  plantations  thereunto  belonging ; 
and  that  there  should  be  a  communication  of  all 
rights,  privileges,  and  advantages  which  do  or  may 
belong  to  the  subjects  of  either  kingdom,  except 
where  it  is  otherwise  expressly  agreed  in  these  arti- 
cles." Unfortunately,  however,  two  modes  of  reli- 
gious worship  were  established  in  the  nation,  which 
served  to  perpetuate  differences  among  the  more  stiff 
and  rigid  partisans  of  both  the  episcopalian  and 
presbyterian  churches.  In  respect  to  the  essential 
principles  and  doctrines  of  religion,  they  are  the 
same  in  both  churches,  and  the  difference  between 
them  lies  in  the  modes  of  worship  and  government, 
in  usages,  vestments,  forms,  and  ceremonies,  matters 
of  little  consequence.  As  the  greatest  part  of  the  emi- 
grants to  America  carried  along  with  them  prejudices 
against  the  established  modes,  and  discovered  a  ten- 
dency towards  a  republican  form  of  church  govern- 
ment, they  in  process  of  time  acquired  so  much 
strength,  that  the  various  colonial  governments, 
when  engaged  in  support  of  the  established  church, 
were  often  weakened  by  it,  and  rendered  unable 
to  answer  the  ends  of  their  appointment. 

About  this  time  the  society  incorporated  by  King 
William,  having  received  large  benefactions  for  the 
purpose  of  propagating  the  Gospel,  began  to  exert 
themselves  for  sending  over.,  and  maintaining  mis- 
sionaries in  the  plantations.  As  some  colonies  were 
totally  destitute  of  the  means  of  instruction,  and 
others  ill  provided  with  ministers,  and  unable  to  sup- 
port them,  the  society  considered  the  British  sub- 
jects as  the  primary  objects  of  their  charity.  To 
prevent  the  influence  of  Roman-catholic  mission- 
aries among  the  heathens  was  a  secondary  end  in 
view  with  this  charitable  corporation,  who  were  also 
to  improve  every  favourable  opportunity  for  the  in- 
struction and  conversion  of  negroes  and  Indians. 
While  a  number  of  missionaries  were  ordained  for 
the  northern  colonies,  Samuel  Thomas  was  sent  out 
to  Carolina  for  the  instruction  of  the  Yamassee  In- 
dians ;  and  to  supply  the  different  parishes,  several 
more  missionaries  were  on  the  passage  to  the  pro- 
vince. The  society  had  written  to  Sir  Nathaniel 
Johnson,  expressing  their  zeal  for  the  interest  of  re- 
ligion, and  earnest  desire  for  spreading  the  know- 
ledge of  the  Gospel  among  the  inhabitants  of  the 
British  colonies,  and  their  hopes  of  his  concurrence 
towards  the  accomplishment  of  their  excellent  de- 
sign. Upon  the  receipt  of  which  the  governor  sum- 
moned a  meeting  of  his  council,  and  sent  an  answer 
to  the  corporation  in  the  following  words:  "  We 
could  not  omit  this  opportunity  of  testifying  the 
grateful  sense  we  have  of  your  most  noble  Christian 
charity  to  our  poor  infant  church  in  this  province, 
expressed  by  the  generous  encouragement  you  have 
been  pleased  to  give  to  those  who  are  coming  as  mis- 
sionaries, the  account  of  which  we  have  just  now  re- 
ceived by  our  worthy  friend  and  minister  Mr.  Tho- 
mas, who,  to  our  great  satisfaction,  is  now  arrived. 
The  extraordinary  hurry  we  are  in,  occasioned  by 
the  late  invasion  attempted  by  the  French  and  Spa- 
niards, from  whom  God  hath  miraculously  delivered 
us,  hath  prevented  our  receiving  a  particular  ac- 
count from  Mr.  Thomas  of  your  bounty,  and  also 
hath  not  given  us  leisure  to  view  your  missionaries' 
instructions,  either  in  regard  to  what  relates  to  them 
or  to  ourselves :  but  we  shall  take  speedy  care  to 
give  them  all  due  encouragement,  and  the  venera- 
ble society  the  utmost  satisfaction.  There  is  nothing 
so  dear  to  us  as  our  holy  religion,  and  the  interest 
of  the  established  church,  in  which  we  have  been. 

412 


932 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


happily  educated;  we  therefore  devoutly  adore  God:s 
providence   in   bringing,    and   heartily   thank  your 
society  in  encouraging,  so  many  missionaries  to  come 
among  us.  We  promise  your  honourable  society  it  shall 
be  our  daily  study  to  encourage  their  pious  labours, 
to  protect  their  persons,  to  revere  their  authority,  to  I 
improve  by  their  ministerial  instructions,  and,  -is  soon 
as  possible,  to  enlarge  their  annual  salaries.     When 
we  have  placed   your  missionaries  in  their  several 
parishes  according  to  your  directions,  and  received  ! 
from  them  an  account  of  your  noble  benefaction  of  I 
books  for  each  parish,  we  shall  then  write  more  oar4-  j 
iicular  and  full.     In  the  mean  time,  we  beg  youi  I 
honourable  society  to  accept  of  our  hearty  gratitude,  • 
and  be  assured  of  our  sincere  endeavour  to  concur 
with  you  in  the  noble  design  of  propagating  Christ's 
holy  religion." 

Soon  after  the  missionaries  arrived,  and  were  set- 
tled in  their  respective  parishes,  Edward  Marston, 
minister  at  Charlestown,  died,  and  Mr.  Thomas, 
whom  the  governor  intended  for  his  successor,  did 
not  long  survive  him:  in  consequence  of  whose 
death,  the  governor  and  council  applied  by  letters 
to  the  society,  requesting  further  supplies,  particu- 
larly a  learned  and  prudent  man,  to  take  the  charge 
of  the  capital.  The  archbishop  of  Dublin  recom- 
mended Gideon  Johnston  to  them  as  a  person  for 
whose  diligence  and  ability  he  dared  to  be  answer- 
able, and  doubted  not  but  he  would  execute  the 
duty  required  in  such  a  manner  as  to  merit  the  ap- 
probation of  every  one 'with  whom  he  should  be 
concerned.  Accordingly,  Mr.  Johnston  being  made 
commissary  to  the  bishop  of  London  for  the  province 
of  Carolina,  and  having  fifty  pounds  a-year  settled 
on  him  from  the  society,  embarked  for  Ciiarlestown. 
On  his  arrival  he  had  almost  lost,  his  life  in  going 
ashore  :  the  ship  in  which  he  sailed  being  obliged  to 
come  to  an  anchor  off  the  bar  to  wait  the  return  of 
the  tide,  and  Mr.  Johnston,  with  several  more  pas- 
sengers, being  impatient  to  get  to  land,  went  on 
board  of  the  small  boat  to  go  up  to  the  town ;  but  a 
sudden  gust  of  wind  arising,  drove  the  boat  upon  a 
sand-bank,  where  they  lay  two  days,  almost  perish- 
ing with  hunger  and  thirst,  when  some  persons  ac- 
cidentally discovered  and  relieved  them. 

Mr.  Johnston  was  not  the  only  pe-rson  that  shared 
of  the  charitable  fund;  for  live  more  ministers  were 
settled  in  the  country,  to  each  of  whom  an  allowance 
of  50£.  a-year,  besides  their  provincial  salary,  was 
given  by  this  incorporated  society.  Two  thousand 
volumes  of  books  were  also  sent  to  be  distributed 
among  the  people  by  these  missionaries,  for  their 
private  use  and  instruction.  As  the  church  of  Eng- 
land, however,  continued  to  be  considered  as  the 
established  religion  of  the  province ;  and  as  all  the 
ministers  sent  out  by  this  society  were  of  that  per- 
suasion, the  dissenters  concluded  that  the  society 
intended  more  the  propagation  of  episcopacy  than 
of  Christianity. 

About  the  close  of  the  year  1707,  Lord  Graaville, 
the  palatine,  died,  and  was  succeeded  in  that  high 
dignity  by  William,  Lord  Craven.  The  death  of 
that  nobleman,  by  whose  instruction  and  encourage 
meat  the  several  violent  stops  tor  the  establishment 
and  support  of  the  church  of  England  in  Carol i 
had  been  taken,  was  now  likely  to  produce  some 
change  in  the  future  state  of  public  affairs.  Though 
the  governor  and  his  friends  still  maintained  a  ma- 
.  jority  in  the  house  of  assembly,  yet,  from  the  num- 
ber and  temper  of  the  dissenters,  they  were  not 
without  some  suspicions  of  seeing  (he  fabric,  which 
they  had  with  such  uncommon  iudustry  been  erect- 


ing, totally  overturned.  While  many  episcopalians 
in  England  were  terrified  with  the  prospects  of  dan- 
ger to  their  church,  the  Carolineans  took  the  alarm, 
and  passed  an  act  for  its  security  in  that  province. 
The  preamble  of  which  was  to  the  following  effect: 
"  Whereas  the  church  of  England  has  of  late  been 
so  happily  established  among  us.  fearing  that  by  the 
succession  of  a  new  governor  this  church  may  be 
either  undermined  or  wholly  subverted,  to  prevent 
which  calamity  falling  upon  us,  be  it  enacted,  That 
this  present  assembly  shall  continue  to  sit  two  years, 
and  for  the  time  and  term  of  eighteen  months,  after 
the  cnange  of  government,  whether  by  the  death  of 
the  present  governor,  or  the  succession  of  another 
n  his  time." 

About  the  end  of  the  year  1708,  Colonel  Edward 
Tynte  received  a  commission  from  Lord  Craven,  in- 
vesting him  with  the  government  of  the  colony. 
About  the  same  time  Charlc-s  Craven,  brother  to  the 
palatine,  was  made  secretary  to  the  province.  Du- 
ring the  time  Sir  Nathankl  Johnson  had  governed 
the  country,  it  had  not  only  been,  threatened  with  a 
formidable  invasion,  but  also  torn  to  pieces  with 
factions  and  divisions,  which  bad  much  retarded  its 
progress  and  improvement.  Great  confusion  among- 
he  people  had  been  occasioned  by  the  violent  stretch 
if  power  in  favour  of  an  ecclesiastical  establishment. 
The  new  palatine,  sensible  of  those  things,  instructed 
Governor  Tynte  to  adopt  such  healing  measures  as 
would  be  most  conducive  to  the  welfare  of  the  settle- 
ment. Soon  after  his  arrival  he  received  a  letter 
from  the  proprietors  to  the  following  effect :  "  We 
hope  by  this  time  you  have  entered  upon  your  go- 
vernment of  our  province  of  Carolina,  and  therefore 
we  earnestly  require  your  endeavours  to  reconcile 
the  minds  of  the  inhabitants  to^ach  other,  that  the 
name  of  parties,  if  any  yet  remains  among  them, 
may  be  utterly  extinguished:  for  we  can  by  no 
means  doubt,  but  their  unanimous  concurrence  with 
our  endeavours  for  their  prosperity,  will  most  ef- 
fectually render  Carolina  as  flourishing/a  colony  as 
any  in  America."  The  kite  palatineytrom  a  mix- 
ture of  spiritual  and  political  pwde^^fespised  all  dis- 
senters, as  the  enemies  of  both  the  hierarchy  and 
monarchy,  and  believed  the  state  could  only  be  se- 
cure, while  the  civil  authority  was  lodged  in  the 
hands  of  high-church  men.  Lord  Craven  possessed 
not  the  same  intolerant  spirit,  and  thought  those 
Carolineans,  who  maintained  liberty  of  conscience, 
merited  greater  indulgences  from  them  ;  and,  though 
a  friend  to  the  church  of  England,  he  always  was 
doubtful  whether  the  minds  of  the  people  were  ripe 
for  the  introduction  of  that  establishment;  and  he 
therefore  urged  lenity  and  toleration. 

The  expenses  incurred  by  the  French  invasion, 
though  it  terminated  much  to  the  honour  of  the  Ca- 
rolineans, fell  heavy  on  the  colony,  still  in  a  poor 
and  languishing  condition.  No  taxes  as  yet  had 
been  laid  on  real  or  personal  estates :  the  revenues 
of  the  colony  were  all  raised  by  duties  laid  on  spiri- 
tuous liquors,  sugar,  molasses,  and  a  few  other  ar- 
ticles imported ;  and  on  deer-skins  and  furs  exported. 
The  amount  of  these  several  duties  was  applied  to- 
wards defraying  the  charges  of  government,  such 
as  raising  and  repairing  fortifications,  paying  the 
governor's  salary,  maintaining  garrisons,  providing 
military  stores,  and  salaries  to  ten  ministers  of  the 
church  of  England,  and  sinking  bills  of  credit 
stamped  for  answering  the  extraordinary  expenses 
of  the  province.  Eight  thousand  pounds  had  been 
issued  for  defraying  the  public  expenses  occasioned, 
by  the  French  invasion  ;  aud  the  act  laying  an  ina- 


UNITED  STATES. 


933 


Position  on  furs,  skins,  and  liquors,  was  continued, 
for  the  purpose  of  cancelling  these  bills  of  credit. 
From  this  time  forward  there  was  a  gradual  rise  in 
exchange  and  produce,  owing,  as  many  thought,  to 
the  emission  and  establishment  of  paper  currem-y 
in  the  province.  Before  this  period,  French  and 
Spanish  gold  and  silver,  brought  into  the  country 
by  pirates,  privateers,  and  the  over-balance  of  trade 
with  the  West  Indies,  answered  all  the  purposes  of 
internal  commerce,  and  very  little  English  coin  was 
circulating  in  the  country.  However,  soon  after 
this  emission,  50  per  cent,  advance  was  given  by 
the  merchants  for  what  English  money  there  was ; 
that  is  to  say,  for  1002.  English  coin,  they  gave  150/. 
paper  currency  of  Carolina. 

A  fierce  war  still  continued  between  England  and 
France  in  Europe,  and  the  success  which  had  at- 
tended an  expedition  against  Acadia,  had  encou- 
raged the  British  administration  to  enter  on  bolder 
undertakings  in  America.  The  French  in  Canada 
were  numerous  and  strong ;  and  Lord  Godolphin, 
convinced  of  the  necessity  of  maintaining  a  superi- 
ority over  them,  formed  the  design  of  attacking 
Quebec,  of  which  a  sufficient  account  has  already 
been  given. 

In  the  year  following  the  French  planted  a  co- 
lony at  the  mouth  of  the  great  river  Mississippi. 
Louis  XIV.  thought  proper  to  grant  a  territory  of 
vast  extent  in  that  quarter  to  Secretary  Crozat,  by 
which  he  evidently  encroached  on  lands  belonging 
to  the  proprietors  of  South  Carolina.  Though  the 
Carolineans  had  not  a  little  to  fear  from  a  settlement 
in  such  a  situation,  yet  Crozat  was  allowed  to  take 
peaceable  possession,  without  any  complaints  from 
the  proprietors,  or  opposition  from  the  British  go- 
vernment. From  this  period  a  new  competitor  for 
the  affection  and  interest  of  Indian  nations  arose, 
more  active  and  enterprising  than  the  Spaniards, 
•whose  motions  the  Carolineans  had  good  reason  to 
watch  with  a  jealous  and  vigilant  eye. 

About  the  same  time  application  was  made  to  the 
proprietors  for  lands  in  Carolina,  by  a  number  of 
Palatines  harassed  in  Germany  by  the  calamities 
of  a  tedious  war,  and  reduced  to  circumstances  of 
great  indigence  and  misery.  The  proprietors  wisely 
judging,  that  by  such  acquisitions  the  vaiue  of  their 
lands  would  increase,  and  the  strength  of  their  set- 
tlement would  be  promoted,  determined  to  give 
every  possible  encouragement  to  such  emigrants. 
Ships  were  provided  for  their  transportation.  In- 
structions were  sent  to  Govenor  Tynte  to  allow  100 
acres  of  land  for  every  man,  woman,  and  child,  free 
of  quit-rents  for  the  first  ten  years;  but,  at  the  ex- 
piration of  that  term,  to  pay  one  penny  per  acre 
annual  rent  for  ever,  according  to  the  usages  and 
customs  of  the  province.  Upon  their  arrival  Go- 
vernor Tynte  granted  them  lands  in  North  Carolina, 
where  they  settled,  and  flattered  themselves  with 
having  found  in  the  dreary  wilderness  a  happy  re- 
treat from  the  storms  and  desolations  of  war  raging 
in  Europe. 

However,  like  many  others,  Governor  Tynte  had 
scarcely  time  to  learn  the  real  state  of  the  country, 
in  order  to  establish  proper  regulations  in  it,  before 
he  died.  After  his  death,  a  competition  arose  in  the 
council  about  the  succession.  One  party  declared 
for  Robert  Gibbes,  and  another  for  Thomas  Brough- 
toii.  Gibbes,  however,  carried  his  election,  and  for 
a  little  while  stood  at  the  head  of  the  colony.  Du- 
ring his  time,  we  know  nothing  remarkable  that 
happened.  An  act  of  assembly  passed  ior  appoint- 
ing commissioners,  empowering  them  to  take  sub- 


scriptions and  collect  public  contributions  for  build- 
ing a  church  at  Charlestown.  Water  passages  were 
carried  southward  to  Port- royal,  for  the  ease  and 
convenience  of  passengers  by  sea,  and  money  was 
provided  for  building  public  bridges,  and  establish- 
ing ferries,  for  the  accommodation  of  travellers  by 
land. 

But  as  it  appeared  to  the  proprietors,  that  bri- 
bery and  corruption  had  been  used  by  Robert  Gibbes 
to  gain  his  election  to  the  government,  he  was  not 
permitted  to  continue  long  in  that  oiiice ;  they  for- 
bade their  receiver-general  to  pay  him  any  salary, 
and  ordered  the '  money  due  to  be  transmitted  to 
Richard  Shelton  their  secretary  in  England.  A 
commission  was  sent  out  to  Charles  Graven,  a  man 
of  great  knowledge-,  courage,  and  integrity,  by  his 
brother,  investing  him  with  the  government  of  the 
colony.  His  council  was  compo^'d  of  Thomas 
Broughton,  Ralph  Izard,  Charles  Hart,  Samuel 
Eveleigh,  Arthur  Midtiltnon,  &c.  ;  all  men  of  con- 
siderable property  and  experience  in  provincial 
affairs.  The  assembly  in  his  time  was  not  elected, 
as  formerly,  in  a  riotous  and  tumultuary  mannf-r, 
but  with  the  utmost  quietness  and  regularity,  and 
procee.-led  to  their  deliberations  with  great  temper 
and  mutual  friendship.  The  governor  had  instruc- 
tions to  defend  the  province  against  the  French  and 
Spaniard?,  and  for  that  purpose  to  form  and  culti- 
vate the  firmest  friendship  and  alliance  with  the 
Indians ;  to  promote  fisheries  and  manufactures, 
which  was  certainly  an  absurd  and  ridiculous  in- 
struction ;  for  while  they  had  so  much  land,  agri- 
culture was  evidently  more  profitable  and  beneficial 
to  both  the  possessors  and  proprietors  of  the  pro- 
vince. He  was  required  to  overlook  the  courts,  and 
take  special  care  dhat  justice  be  equitably  adminis- 
tered, and  that  no  interruptions  or  delays  attend  the 
execution  of  the  laws :  he  was  ordered  to  employ 
eight  men  to  sound  Port-royal  river  for  the  benefit 
of  navigation,  and  to  fix  on  the  most  convenient 
spot  for  building  a  town,  with  a  harbour  nigh  it; 
and  to  transmit  all  acts  of  assembly  made  from  time 
to  time  to  England,  for  the  proprietors'  approbation 
or  disapprobation,  and  sucn  other  public  matters  as 
appeared  to  him  of  general  concern  and  utility,  he 
was  required  carefully  to  study  and  promote. 

In  the  year  1712,  after  Governor  Craven  had  as- 
sumed the  management  of  the  colony,  a  dangerous 
conspiracy  was  formed  by  the  Indians  of  North 
Carolina  against  the  poor  settlers  in  that  quarter. 
The  cause  of  the  quarrel  we  have  not  been  able 
clearly  to  find  out;  probably  they  were  offended  at 
the  encroachments  made  on  their  hunting  lands. 
The  powerful  tribes  of  Indians  called  Corees,  Tus- 
cororas,  and  several  more,  united,  and  determined 
to  murder  or  expel  the  European  invaders.  As 
usual,  they  carried  on  their  bloody  design  with  amaz- 
ing cunning  and  profound  secrecy.  Their  chief  town 
they  had,  in  the  first  place,  surrounded  with  a 
wooden  breast-work,  for  the  security  of  their  own 
families.  Here  the  different  tribes  met  together  to 
the  number  of  1,200  bowmen,  and  formed  their  hor- 
rid plot.  From  this  place  9f  rendezvous  they  sent 
out  small  parties,  who  entered  the  settlements,  un- 
der the  mask  of  friendship,  by  different  roads.  At 
the  change  of  the  full  moon  all  of  them  had  agreed 
to  begin  their  murderous  operations,  on  the  saaie 
night.  When  that  night  came,  they  entered  the 
planters"  houses,  demanded  provisions,  and  mur- 
iered  men, women,  and  children,  without  mercy  or 
distinction.  To  prevent  the  alarm  spreading  through 
the  settlement,  they  raa  from  house  to  house,  spread- 


934 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


ing  slaughter  among  the  scattered  families  wherever 
they  went.  None  of  the  colonists,  during  the  fatal 
night,  knew  what  had  befallen  their  neighbours, 
until  the  barbarians  had  reached  their  own  doors. 
About  Roanock  137  settlers  fell  a  sacrifice  to  their 
savage  fury  the  first  night;  among  whom  were  a 
Swiss  baron,  and  almost  all  the  poor  Palatines  who 
had  lately  come  into  the  country.  Some,  however, 
who  had  hid  themselves  in  the  woods,  having  escaped, 
next  morning  gave  the  alarm  to  their  neighbours, 
and  prerented  the  total  destruction  of  that  colony. 
Every  family  had  orders  speedily  to  assemble  at  one 
place,  and  the  militia,  under  arms,  kept  watch  day 
and  night  around  them,  until  the  news  of  the  sad 
disaster  reached  the  province  of  South  Carolina. 

Happy  was  it  for  the  distressed  North  Carolineans 
that  Govenor  Craven  lost  no  time  in  collecting  and 
dispatching  a  force  to  their  assistance  and  relief. 
The  assembly  voted  40002.  for  the  service  of  the  war. 
A  body  of  militia,  consisting  of  600  men,  under  the 
command  of  Colonel  Barnwell,  marched  against  the 
savages.  Two  hundred  and  eighteen  Cherokees, 
under  the  command  of  Captains  Harford  and  Turs- 
tons;  79  Creeks,  under  Captain  Hastings;  41  Ca- 
tabaws,  under  Captain  Cantey ;  and  28  Yamassees, 
under  Captain  Pierce,  being  furnished  with  arms, 
joined  the  Carolineans  in  this  expedition.  The  way 
was  dreadful,  at  this  time,  in  the  wilderness  through 
which  Colonel  Barnwell  had  to  march.  It  was  not 
possible  for  his  men  to  carry  a  sufficient  quantity  of 
provisions,  together  with  arms  and  ammunition, 
along  with  them,  or  to  have  these  things  provided 
at  different  stages  by  the  way.  There  was  no  road 
through  the  woods  upon  which  either  horses  or  car- 
riages could  conveniently  pass ;  and  his  little  army 
had  every  kind  of  hardship  and  danger  to  encounter. 
In  spite  of  every  difficulty,  Barnwell,  however,  ad- 
vanced against  them,  employing  his  Indian  allies 
to  hunt  for  provisions  to  his  men  by  the  way.  At 
length,  having  come  up  with  the  savages,  he  at- 
tacked them,  and  being  much  better  supplied  with 
arms  and  ammunition  than  his  enemy,  he  did  great 
execution  among  them.  In  the  first  battle  he  killed 
300  Indians,  and  took  about  100  prisoners.  After 
which  the  Tuscororas  retreated  to  their  town,  within 
a  wooden  breast-work  ;  there  Barnwell  surrounded 
them,  and  having  killed  a  considerable  number, 
forced  the  remainder  to  sue  for  peace  :  some  of  his 
men  being  wounded,  and  others  having  suffered 
much  by  constant  watching,  and  much  hunger  and 
fatigue,  the  savages  the  more  easily  obtained  their 
request.  In  this  expedition  it  was  computed  that 
Barnwell  killed,  wounded,  and  captured  near  1000 
Tuscororas.  The  remainder,  who  escaped,  soon 
after  this  heavy  chastisement,  abandoned  their  coun- 
try, and  joined  a  northern  tribe  of  Indians  on  the 
Ohio  river.  Of  Barnwell's  party  five  Carolineans 
were  killed,  and  several  wounded  :  of  his  Indians, 
36  were  killed,  and  between  60  and  70  wounded. 
In  justice  to  this  officer  it  must  be  owned,  never  had 
any  expedition  against  the  savages  in  Carolina  been 
attended  with  such  hazards  and  difficulties,  nor  had 
the  conquest  of  any  tribe  of  them  ever  been  more 
general  and  complete. 

Although  the  expedition  to  North  Carolina  was 
well  conducted,  and  proved  as  successful  as  the  most 
sanguine  could  have  expected,  yet  the  expense  the 
public  had  incurred  by  it  fell  heavy  on  the  province, 
the  revenues  of  which  were  inconsiderable,  and  not 
at  all  adapted  for  such  important  and  extensive  en- 
terprises. But  as  great  good  feeling  at  this  time 
subsisted  between  the  governor  arid  assembly, 


they  were  well  disposed  to  concur  with  him  ia 
every  measure  for  the  public  safety  and  relief. 
The  stamping  of  bills  of  credit  had  been  used  as  the 
easiest  method  of  defraying  these  expenses  incurred 
for  the  public  defence  :  however,  at  this  time,  the 
legislature  thought  proper  to  establish  a  public  bank, 
and  issued  48,000/.  in  bills  of  credit,  called  bank- 
bills,  for  answering  the  exigencies  of  government, 
and  for  the  convenience  of  domestic  commerce.  This 
money  was  to  be  lent  out  at  interest,  on  landed  or 
personal  security ;  and,  according  to  the  tenour  of 
the  act  for  issuing  the  same,  it  was  to  be  sunk  gra- 
dually, by  4000/.  a  year ;  which  sum  was  ordered  to  be 
paid  annually  by  the  borrowers,  into  the  hands  of 
commissioners  appointed  for  that  purpose.  After 
the  emission  of  these  bank-bills,  the  rate  of  exchange 
and  the  price  of  produce  quickly  rose,  and  in  the  first 
year  advanced  to  150,  in  the  second  to  200  per  cent. 

With  respect  to  the  utility  of  this  paper  money, 
the  planters  and  merchants,  according  to  their  dif- 
ferent views  and  interests,  were  divided  in  opinion. 
The  former,  who,  for  the  most  part,  stood  indebted 
to  the  latter,  found  that  this  provincial  currency 
was  not  only  necessary  to  answer  the  exigencies  of 
government,  but  also  very  useful  and  convenient  in 
the  payment  of  private  debts.  This  money  being 
local,  in  proportion  as  it  increased  in  quantity,  it 
raised  the  nominal  price  of  provincial  commodities  : 
and  became  of  course  prejudicial  to  creditors,  in  pro- 
portion as  it  was  profitable  to  debtors  ;  for  though  it 
depreciated  50  per  cent,  in  a  year,  during  which 
time  the  planters  stood  indebted  to  the  merchants, 
the  next  year  such  creditors  were  obliged  to  take  it 
in  payment,  or  produce,  which  had  advanced  in  price, 
according  to  the  quantity  of  money  in  circulation. 
By  the  acts  of  assembly  which  established  these  bills 
of  credit,  the  currency  was  securfed,  and  made  a 
tender  in  law  in  all  payments ;  so  thatif  the  creditor 
refused  this  money  before  witnesses  offered  to  him, 
the  debt  was  discharged  from  the  minutje  of  his  re- 
fusal. Besides,  the  planters  knew,  that  in  a  trad- 
ing country  gold  and  silvery  by  varJtius  channels, 
would  make  their  way  out  of  itf-^hen  they  answer 
the  purposes  of  remittance  better  than  produce  : 
paper-money  served  to  remedy  this  inconvenience, 
and  to  keep  up  the  price  of  provincial  commodities, 
as  it  could  not  leave  the  colony,  and  answered  the 
purpose  for  paying  private  debts  as  well,or  rather  bet- 
ter, than  gold  and  silver.  As  the  trade  of  the  countrv 
increased,  no  doubt  a  certain  quantity  of  money  was 
necessary  to  carry  it  on  with  ease  and  freedom ;  but 
when  paper  bills  are  permitted  to  increase  beyond 
what  are  necessary  for  commercial  ease  and  utilitv, 
they  sink  in  value  ;  and  in  such  a  case  creditors  lose 
in  proportion  to  their  depreciation. 

In  Carolina,  as  well  as  in  the  other  British  colonies 
in  America,  the  greatest  part  of  the  gold  and  silver 
current  was  foreign  coin,  and  the  different  assemblies 
settled  their  value  from  time  to  time,  by  laws  pecu- 
liar to  each  province.  To  remedy  the  inconve- 
niences arising  from  the  different  rates  at  which  the 
same  species  of  foreign  coin  passed  in  the  several 
colonies  and  plantations,  Queen  Anne,  in  the  sixth 
year  of  her  reign,  had  thought  fit,  by  her  royal  pro- 
clamation, to  settle  and  ascertain  the  current  rate  of 
foreign  coin  in  all  her  colonies.  The  standard  at 
which  currency  was  fixed  by  this  proclamation,  was 
at  133/.  6s.  Sd.  per  cent. ;  but  this  regulation,  how 
ever  convenient  and  advantageous  to  trade,  was  af- 
terwards little  regarded  in  these  provinces,  and  the 
confusion  of  current  money  continued  and  prevailed. 

After  the  emission  of  this  great  quantity  of  bank- 


UNITED  STATES. 


Carolina,  and  speedy  rise  of  the  price  of  pro- 
duce m  consequence  of  it,  the  merchants  of  London, 
to  whom  the  colony  stood  indebted,  judging  it  pre 
judicial  to  trade,  complained  of  it  to  the  proprietors. 
They  perceived  that  the  trade  of  the  country,  by  this 
means,  would  be  carried  on  entirely  without  silver 
or  gold  ;  and  although  their  factors  in  Carolina  might 
raise  the  price  of  British  commodities  and  manufac- 
tures, equal  to  the  advanced  price  of  the  produce, 
yet  it  might  be  for  their  interest  sometimes  to  take 
gold  and  silver  rather  than  produce  in  return  fo 
their  British  goods.  They  considered  the  issuing  of 
such  bank-notes  as  a  violation  of  the  laws  of  En- 
gland, and  prevailed  on  the  proprietors  to  write  Go- 
vernor Craven  a  letter  to  the  following  effect :  "  We 
have  heard  complaints  from  several  hands  of  an  act 
you  have  passed,  called  the  Bank  Act.  We  do  re 
commend  to  you  to  consider  of  some  expedient  for 
preventing  the  mischievous  consequences  of  that  act, 
lest,  upon  further  complaints,  we  be  forced  to  repeal 
it.  The  act  is  exclaimed  against  by  our  London 
merchants  as  injurious  to  trade,  as  an  infringement 
and  violation  of  the  laws  of  Great  Britain,  and  made 
almost  in  opposition  to  the  act  of  the  sixth  of  Queen 
Anne.  Therefore  we  expect,  for  preventing  such 
complaints  for  the  future,  that  you  will  endeavour, 
as  much  as  in  you  lies,  to  reduce  that  paper  credit, 
pretended  to  be  established  in  your  bank  act,  and 
that  you  will  strictly  put  in  execution  the  aforesaid 
act  of  Queen  Anne." 

As  the  trade  of  the  colony  had  of  late  years  con- 
siderably increased,  and  was  almost  entirely  carried 
on  in  British  ships,  its  protection  was  an  object 
which  demanded  the  attention  either  of  the  proprie- 
tors or  the  British  administration.  The  war  in 
Europe  had  engrossed  the  care  of  the  latter,  and  the 
former  were  either  unable  or  unwilling  to  bear  the 
expense  of  its  protection.  They  had  leased  their 
property  in  the  Bahama  islands  to  a  company  of 
merchants,  which,  turning  out  to  little  account,  the 
Island  of  Providence  became  a  receptacle  for  vaga- 
bonds and  villains  of  all  nations.  From  this  place 
of  rendezvous  a  crew  of  desperate  pirates  had  been 
accustomed  to  push  out  to  sea,  and,  in  defiance  of 
the  laws  of  nations,  to  obstruct  navigation.  The 
trade  of  Carolina  and  that  of  the  West  Indies  suf- 
fered greatly  from  their  depredations.  For  five 
years  after  this  period  those  lawless  robbers  reigned 
as  the  masters  of  the  Gulf  of  Florida,  plundering 
and  taking  ships  of  every  nation.  North  Carolina, 
by  the  conquest  of  its  maritime  tribes  of  Indians, 
had  also  become  a  refuge  for  those  rogues,  who  car- 
ried their  prizes  into  Cape  Fear  river,  or  Providence, 
as  best  suited  their  convenience  or  interest.  Their 
success  induced  bold  and  rapacious  spirits  to  join 
them,  and  in  time  they  became  so  formidable,  that 
no  inconsiderable  force  was  requisite  to  suppress 
them. 

After  a  long  and  expensive  war,  a  treaty  of  peace 
and  commerce  was  concluded  between  Britain, 
France  and  Spain  in  Europe  ;  and  orders  were  sent 
to  all  the  colonies  to  desist  from  acts  of  hostility.  Go- 
vernor Craven,  deeply  interested  in  the  prosperity 
of  Carolina,  now  turned  his  attention  to  improve  the 
blessings  of  peace,  and  to  diffuse  a  spirit  of  industry 
and  agriculture  throughout  the  settlement.  The 
lands  in  Granville  county  were  found  upon  trial  rich 
and  fertile,  and  the  planters  were  encouraged  to  im- 
prove them.  Accordingly  a  number  of  plantations 
were  settled  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Indian  nations, 
with  whom  the  Governor  studied  to  cultivate  afriendly 
correspondence.  For  the  purposes  of  trade  some  men 


took  up  their  residence  in  their  towns,  and  furnished 
them  with  clothes,  arms,  and  ammunition,  in  ex- 
change for  their  furs  and  deer-skins.  An  agent  was 
appointed  to  superintend  the  affairs  of  Indian  tribes, 
and  to  conciliate  by  all  possible  means  their  friend- 
ship  and  esteem.  Several  interior  regulations,  con- 
ducive to  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  the  colony, 
were  also  established.  The  colonists,  as  an  eminent 
writer  has  observed,  in  general  carry  with  them  so 
much  of  the  English  law  as  is  applicable  to  their 
local  circumstances  and  situation  ;  such  as,  the  ge- 
neral rules  of  inheritance,  and  of  protection  from 
personal  injuries.  What  may  be  proper  to  be  ad- 
mitted, and  what  are  necessary  to  be  rejected,  is 
judged  and  determined,  in  the  first  instance,  by  the 
provincial  judicature,  then  subject  to  the  approba- 
tion or  disapprobation  of  the  proprietors;  and  s<* 
far  of  the  British  parliament,  that  nothing  may  b... 
attempted  by  them  derogatory  to  the  sovereignty 
and  supreme  jurisdiction  of  the  mother  country.  At 
this  time  Governor  Craven  obtained  the  assent  of 
the  general  assembly,  to  make  several  English  sta- 
tutes of  the  same  force  in  Carolina  as  if  they  had 
been  enacted  in  it.  The  people  regarded  him  as  a 
wise  and  indulgent  parent,  and  wished  to  copy  the 
spirit  of  their  laws  from  the  English  original,  although 
they  received  their  obligation  and  authoritative  force 
from  their  being  the  laws  of  the  colony. 

About  this  time  Nicholas  Trott,  the  chief  justice 
of  the  colony,  returned  from  England,  where  he  had 
been  for  some  time  engaged  in  the  settlement  of  pri- 
vate affairs.  During  his  stay  in  Britain  he  had  en- 
grossed the  favour  of  the  proprietors,  who  finding 
him  to  be  a  man  of  great  abilities,  professed  a  high 
respect  for  him,  and  afterwards  desired  his  assistance 
and  advice  in  every  case  respecting  the  future  ma- 
nagement of  their  colony.  They  advanced  his  salary 
to  1002.  a  year,  and  he  agreed  to  carry  on  a  regular 
correspondence  with  their  secretary,  and  to  give 
them  the  best  intelligence  with  respect  to  their  pro- 
vincial affairs.  Trott  having  thus  secured  the  con- 
fidence of  the  proprietors  in  England,  soon  after  he 
came  to  Carolina,  began  to  plume  himself  on  his 
advantageous  circumstances,  and  to  treat  his  former 
friends  in  the  colony  with  great  arrogance.  On  the 
other  hand,  they  watched  his  conduct  with  an  envi- 
)us  and  malignant  eye,  and  seemed  to  desire  nothing 
more  than  to  humble  his  pride  and  destroy  his  influ- 
ence. To  this  fatal  difference  may  be  ascribed  se- 
veral future  jealousies  and  disturbances  with  which 
the  colonists  were  harassed,  and  which  terminated 
in  the  total  subversion  of  the  proprietary  govern- 
ment. 

Intention  of  government  towards  the  colonies — Indian 
war — Application  to  the  crown  for  relief— Harsh 
conduct  of  the  proprietors — Robert  Daniel,  deputy- 
governor  —  Lord  Carteret,  Palatine — Disaffection 
towards  the  proprietors — Robert  Johnson,  governor— 
The  depredations  of  the  pirates — Their  extirpation 
— Difficulties  arising  from  a  paper  currency — In- 
dians inimical — Complaints  ayainst  Chief  Justice 
Trott — The  consequences  .of  it — Invasion  by  the 
Spaniards — An  association  formed  against  the  pro- 
prietors. 

During  the  reign  of  Anne,  the  lords  commis- 
ioners  of  trade  and  plantations,  from  the  contentions 
that  prevailed  in  some  of  the  colonies,  had  taken 
occasion  to  look  more  narrowly  than  formerly  into 
the  state  of  proprietary  governments  in  America,  in 
order  to  form  a  plan  for  purchasing  and  uniting 
t^iem  more  closely  to  the  crown.  They  easily  per- 


936 


THE  HISTORY  UF  AMERICA. 


eeived  the  advantage  of  beginning  this  negotiatio 
as  soon  as  possible,  for  the  sooner  the  purchase  wa 
made,  the  easier  it  would  be  obtained.  Accordingly 
they  wrote  to  the  proprietors  of  each  colony,  ac 
quainting  them,  it  was  her  majesty's  pleasure  an 
command,  that  all  governors  of  her  foreign  planta 
tions  do  transmit  to  them  frequent  and  full  informa 
tion  of  the  state  of  their  respective  colonies,  as  we] 
in  respect  to  the  administration  of  government  an 
justice,  as  to  their  progress  in  trade  and  improve 
ments.  The  queen,  though  no  friend  to  non-con 
formists,  had  also  afforded  relief  to  the  distressec 
dissenters  of  Carolina,  and  publicly  disapproved  o 
some  oppressive  acts  to  which  they  had  been  sub 
jected.  This  served  to  encourage  a  spirit  of  dis 
content  among  the  Carolineans  at  the  proprietar) 
government,  and  induced  them  to  turn  to  the  crown 
at  every  future  period,  when  they  thought  themselves 
aggrieved. 

During  the  same  year  in  which  Britain  was  oc 
cupied  by  a  civil  contest,  the  colony  of  Carolina 
was  visited  with  a  terrible  Indian  war,  which  threat 
ened  its  total  extirpation.  The  numerous  and  pow. 
erful  tribe  of  Indians  called  Yamassees,  probably  al 
the  instigation  of  the  Spaniards  at  Augustine,  were 
the  most  active  in  promoting  this  conspiracy  against 
the  settlement,  though  every  tribe  around  was  more  or 
less  concerned  in  it.  The  Yamassees  possessed  alarge 
territory  lying  backward  from  Port-royal  island,  on 
the  north-east  side  of  Savanna  river,  which  is  called 
Indian  Land.  By  the  Carolineans  this  tribe  had 
long  been  esteemed  as  friends  and  allies,  who  had 
admitted  a  number  of  traders  into  their  towns,  and 
several  times  assisted  the  settlers  in  their  warlike 
enterprises.  Of  all  other  Indians  they  were  believed 
to  harbour  in  their  minds  the  most  irreconcileable 
enmity  to  Spaniards.  For  many  years  they  had  been 
accustomed  to  make  incursions  into  the  Spanish 
territories,  and  to  wage  war  with  the  Indians  within 
their  bounds.  In  their  return  from  these  southern 
expeditions,  it  had  been  a  common  practice  with 
them  to  lurk  in  the  woods  round  Augustine,  until 
they  surprised  some  Spanish  prisoners,  on  whom 
they  exercised  the  most  wanton  barbarities;  some- 
times cutting  them  to  pieces  slowly,  joint  by  joint, 
with  knives  and  tomahawks  ;  at  other  times  burying 
them  up  to  the  neck  under  ground,  then  standing 
at  a  distance,  and  marking  at  their  heads  with  their 
pointed  arrows ;  and,  at  other  times,  binding  them 
to  a  tree,  and  piercing  the  tenderest  parts  of  their 
bodies  with  sharp-pointed  sticks  of  burning  wood, 
which  last,  because  the  most  painful  and  excruci- 
ating method  of  torture,  was  the  most  common 
among  them. 

To  prevent  such  barbarities,  the  legislature  of  Ca- 
rolina passed  a  law,  offering  a  reward  of  5/.  for  every 
Spanish  prisoner  these  Indians  should  bring  alive  to 
Charlestown;  which  law,  though  it  evidently  pro- 
ceeded from  motives  of  humanity,  yet,  in  the  event,  it 
proved  very  inconsistent  with  good  policy :  for,  in 
consequence  of  this  act,  the  Yamassees  brought  seve- 
ral Spaniards,  at  different  times,  to  Charlestown, 
where  they  claimed  the  reward  for  their  prisoners, 
and  delivered  them  up  to  the  governor.  Charles 
Craven,  who  was  no  less  distinguished  for  humanity 
than  valour,  used  to  send  back  such  prisoners  to  Au- 
gustine, charging  the  Spanish  government  with  the 
expenses  of  their  passage,  and  the  reward  to  the 
Yamassees. 

For  twelve  months  before  the  war  broke  out,  the 
traders  among  the  Yamassees  observed  that  their 
chief  warriors  went  frequently  to  Augustine,  and  re- 


turned loaded  with  presents;  but  were  not  appre- 
hensive of  any  ill  consequence  from  such  generosity. 
John  Fraser,  an  honest  Scotch  Highlander,  who 
lived  among  the  Yamassees,  and  traded  with  them, 
had  often  heard  these  warriors  tell  with  what  kind- 
ness they  had  been  treated  at  Augustine.  One  had 
received  a  hat,  another  a  jacket,  and  a  third  a  coat, 
all  trimmed  with  silver  lace.  Some  got  hatchets, 
others  great  knives,  and  almost  all  of  them  guns 
and  ammunition,  to  prepare  them  for  striking  some 
great  and  important  blow.  These  warriors  told 
Fraser,  that  they  had  dined  with  the  governor  at 
Augustine,  and  washed  his  face,  (a  ceremony  used 
by  Indians  as  a  token  of  friendship),  and  that  now 
the  Spanish  governor  was  their  king,  and  not  the 
governor  of  Carolina.  Still,  however,  the  Caroli- 
neans remained  secure,  and,  having  such  confidence 
in  the  Indians,  dreaded  no  ill  consequences  from 
this  new  intercourse.  They  knew  the  antipathy  of 
the  Yamassees  to  the  Spaniards,  and  their  fondness 
for  presents,  but  suspected  no  plot  against  the  set- 
tlement by  their  allies. 

It    was   a   common  thing  for   the    traders  who 
resided  among  these  savages  to  single  out  a  war- 
rior of  authority,  and  to  court  his  favour  with  tri- 
fling presents.     Among  the  Yamassees  one  named 
Sanute  was  Fraser's  friend,  who,  with  his  fellow- 
warriors,  had  also  been  at  Florida,  and  shared  the 
Spaniards  insidious  liberality.     During  his  absence, 
Mr.  Fraser  had  married  a  fine  woman  ;  and  Sanute, 
who  had  a  great  regard  for  him,  after  his  return  home 
came  to  his  house,  and  brought  along  with  him  some 
sweet  herbs,   to  show  the  lady  a  mark  of  respect, 
agreeably  to  an  Indian  custom.     So  soon  as  he  en- 
tered the  habitation  of  his  friend,  he  called  for  a 
basin  of  water,  in  which  he  braufed  the  herbs,  and 
first  washed  Mrs.  Fraser's  face  and  hands,  and  then 
putting  his  own  hands  upon  his  breast,  told  her, 
that,  for  the  future,  he  would  communicate  to  her  all 
be  knew  in  his  heart.     She,  in  return/thanked  him, 
and  made  him  some  present.^  Accordingly,  about  nine 
days  before  hostilities  commemJecl;  Sanute  came  to 
Mrs.  Fraser's  house,  and  told  her,  that  the  English 
were  all  wicked  heretics,  and  would  go  to  hell,  and 
that  the  Yamassees  would  also  follow  them,  if  they 
suffered  them  to  live  in  their  country ;  that  now  the 
governor  of  Augustine  was  their  king;  that  there 
would  be  a  terrible  war  with  the  English,  and  they 
mly  waited  for  the  bloody  stick  to  be  returned  from 
be  Creeks  before  they  began  it.     He  told  them, 
hat  the  Yamassees,  the  Creeks,  the  Cherokees,  and 
many  other  nations,  together  with  the  Spaniards, 
were  all  to  engage  in  it ;  and  advised  them  to  'fly  to 
"harlestown  with  all  they  had,  and  if  their  own  boat 
vas  not  large  enough  to  carry  them,  he  would  lend 
hem  his  canoe.     He   added,  that  the   Spanish  go- 
vernor told  him  that  there  would   soon  be  a  war 
again  with  the  English,  and  that  while  they  attacked 
he  Carolineans  by  land,  he  would  send  to   Spain 
or  a  fleet  of  ships  to  block  up  the  harbour,  so  that 
not  a  man  or  woman  of  them  should  escape.     He 
,lso  stated  that,  if  they  were  determined  to  stay, 
nd  run  all  hazards,  he,  to  prevent  torture,  would 
laim  the  privilege  of  performing  the  last  friendly 
iffice  to  them,  which  was  to  kill  them  with  his  own 
lands.     Fraser  still  entertained  some  doubts,  but 
is  wife  being  terrified,  he  resolved  at  all  events  to 
et  out  of  the  way,  and  accordingly,  without  delay, 
ut  his  wife,  his  child,   and  most  valuable  effects, 
nto  his  boat,  and  made  his  escape  to  Charlestown. 
While  the  time  drew  nigh  in  which  this  plot  was 
o  be  put  in  execution,  Captain  Nairn,  agent  for 


UNITED  STATES. 


937 


Indian  affairs,  and  many  traders,  resided  at  Pocota- 
ligo,  the  largest  town  belonging  to  the  Yamassees. 
Fraser,  probably  either  discrediting  what  he  had 
heard,  or  from  the  hurry  and  confusion  which  the 
alarm  occasioned,  unfortunately  had  not  taken  time 
to  communicate  the  intelligence  he  had  received  to  his 
friends,  who  remained  in  a  state  of  false  security  in 
the  midst  of  their  enemies.  The  case  of  the  scattered 
settlers  on  the  frontiers  was  equally  lamentable,  who 
were  living  under  no  suspicions  of  danger.  However, 
on  the  day  before  the  Yamassees  began  their  bloody 
operations,  Captain  Nairn  and  some  of  the  traders 
observing  an  unusual  gloom  on  their  savage  coun- 
tenances, and  apparently  great  agitations  of  spirit, 
which  to  them  prognosticated  approaching  mischief, 
went  to  their  chief  men,  begging  to  know  the  cause 
of  their  uneasiness,  and  promising,  if  any  injury 
had  been  done  them,  to  give  them  satisfaction. 
The  chiefs  replied,  they  had  no  complaints  to  make 
against  any  one,  but  intended  to  go  hunting,  early 
the  next  morning.  Captain  Nairn  accordingly  went 
to  sleep,  ami  the  traders  retired  to  their  huts,  and 
passed  the  night  in  seeming  friendship  and  tranquil- 
lity. But  next  morning,  about  the  break  of  day, 
being  the  J5th  day  of  April,  1715,  all  were  alarmed 
with  the  cries  of  war.  The  leaders  were  all  out  un- 
der arms,  calling  upon  their  followers,  and  proclaim- 
ing aloud  designs  of  vengeance.  The  young  men 
flew  to  their  arms,  and,  in  a  few  hours,  massacred 
above  90  persons  in  Pocotaligo  town  and  the  neigh- 
bouring plantations ;  and  many  more  must  have 
fallen  a  sacrifice  on  Port-royal  Island,  had  they  not 
been  warned  of  their  danger.  Mr.  Burrows,  a  cap- 
lain  of  the  militia,  after  receiving  two  wounds,  by 
swimming  one  mile  and  running  ten,  escaped  to 
Port-royal  and  alarmed  the  town.  A  vessel  hap- 
pening fortunately  to  be  in  the  harbour,  the  inhabi- 
tants in  great  hurry  repaired  on  board,  and  sailed 
for  Charlestosvn ;  only  a  few  families  of  planters  on 
that  island,  not  having  timely  notice,  fell  into  their 
hands,  some  of  whom  they  murdered,  and  others 
they  made  prisoners  of  war. 

While  the  Yamassees,  with  whom  the  Creeks  and 
Apallachians  had  joined,  were  advancing  against 
the  southern  frontiers,  and  spreading  desolation  and 
slaughter  through  the  province  ;  the  Indians  on  the 
northern  borders  also  came  down  among  the  settle- 
ments in  formidable  parties.  The  Carolineans  had 
foolishly  entertained  hopes  of  the  friendship  of  the 
Congarees,  the  Catawbas  and  Cherokees  ;  but  they 
soon  found  that  they  had  also  joined  in  the  conspi- 
racy, and  declared  for  war.  It  was  computed  that 
the  southern  division  of  the  enemy  consisted  of 
above  6000  bowmen,  and  the  northern  of  between 
fiOO  and  1000.  Indeed  every  Indian  tribe,  from 
Florida  to  Cape  Fear  river,  had  joined  in  this  con- 
federacy for  the  destruction  of  the  settlement. 
The  planters  scattered  here  and  there  had  no  time 
to  gather  together  in  a  body,  sufficiently  strong  to 
withstand  such  numbers ;  but  each  consulting  his 
safety,  in  great  hurry  and  consternation  fled  to  the 
capital.  Every  one  who  came  in  brought  the  go- 
venior  different  accounts  of  the  number  and  strength 
of  the  savages,  insomuch  that  even  the  inhabitants 
of  Charlestown  were  doubtful  of  their  safety,  and  en- 
tertained the  most  discouraging  apprehensions  of 
their  inability  to  repel  a  force  so  great  and  for- 
midable. In  the  muster-roll  there  were  no  more 
than  1200  men  fit  to  bear  arms,  but  as  the  town 
had  several  forts  into  which  the  inhabitants  might 
retreat,  the  governor,  with  this  small  force,  resolved 
iti  inarch  into  the  woods  against  the  enemy.  He 


j  proclaimed  martial  law,  and  laid  an  embargo  on  all 
'  ships,  to  prevent  either  men  or  provisions  from  leav- 
ing the  country.  He  obtained  an  act  of  assembly, 
empowering  him  to  impress  men,  and  seize  arms, 
ammunition,  and  stores,  wherever  they  were  to  be 
found,  to  arm  such  trusty  negroes  as  might  be  ser- 
viceable at  a  juncture  so  critical,  and  to  prosecute 
the  war  with  the  utmost  vigour.  Agents  were  sent 
to  Virginia  and  England,  to  solicit  assistance  ;  bills 
were  stamped  for  the  payment  of  the  army,  and 
other  necessary  expenses ;  Robert  Daniel  was  ap- 
pointed deputy-governor  in  town,  and  Charles  Cra- 
ven, at  the  head  of  the  militia,  marched  to  the  coun- 
try against  the  largest  body  of  savages. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  Indians  on  the  northern 
quarter  had  made  an  inroad  as  far  as  a  plantation 
belonging  to  John  Hearne,  about  50  miles  from 
town,  and  entered  his  house  in  a  seemingly  peace- 
able and  friendly  manner;  but  afterwards  pretend- 
ing  to  be  displeased  with  the  provisions  given  them, 
murdered  him  and  every  person  in  it.  Thomas 
Barker,  a  captain  of  militia,  having  intelligence  of 
the  approach  of  these  Indians,  collected  a  party, 
consisting  of  90  horsemen,  and  advanced  against 
them  :  but  by  the  treachery  of  an  Indian,  whom 
he  unluckily  trusted,  he  was  led  into  a  dangerous 
ambuscade  in  a  thicket,  where  a  large  party  of  In- 
dians lay  concealed  on  the  ground.  Barker  having 
advanced  into  the  middle  of  them  before  he  was 
aware  of  his  danger,  the  Indians  sprung  from  their 
concealments,  and  fired  upon  his  men  on  every  side. 
The  captain  and  several  more  fell  at  the  first  onset, 
and  the  remainder  in  confusion  were  obliged  to  re- 
treat. After  this  advantage,  a  party  of  400  Indians 
came  down  as  far  as  Goose  Creek.  Every  family 
there  had  fled  to  town,  except  in  one  place,  where 
70  white  men  and  40  negroes  had  surrounded  them- 
selves with  a  breast-work,  and  resolved  to  remain 
and  defend  themselves  in  the  best  manner  they  could. 
When  the  Indians  attacked  them  they  were  dis- 
couraged, and  rashly  agreed  to  terms  of  poace ;  and, 
baving  admitted  the  enemy  within  their  works,  this 
poor  garrison  were  barbarously  butchered:  after 
which  the  Indians  advanced  still  nigher  to  town  ; 
but  at  length  meeting  with  Captain  Chicken  and  the 
whole  Goose  Creek  militia,  they  were  repulsed,  and 
obliged  to  retreat  into  the  wilderness. 

By  this  time  the  Yamassees,  with  their  confede- 
rates, had  spread  destruction  through  the  parish  of 
St.  Bartholomew,  and  advancing  downwards  as  far 
as  Stono,  they  burned  the  church  at  that  place,  to- 
gether with  every  house  on  the  plantations  by  the 
way.  John  Cochran,  his  wife,  and  four  children ; 
Mr.  Bray,  his  wife,  and  two  children  ;  and  six  more 
men  and  women,  having  found  some  friends  among 
;hem,  were  spared  for  some  days ;  but,  while  at- 
;empting  to  make  their  escape  from  them,  they  were 
retaken  and  put  to  death.  Such  as  had  no  friends 
among  them  were  tortured  in  the  most  shocking 
manner,  the  Indians  seeming  to  neglect  their  pro- 
gress towards  conquest  on  purpose  to  assist  in  tor- 
menting their  enemies.  We  forbear  to  mention  the 
various  tortures  inflicted  on  such  as  fell  into  their 
merciless  fangs :  none  can  be  pleased  with  the  re- 
ation  of  such  horrid  cruelties,  but  the  man  who, 
with  a  smile  of  satisfaction,  can  be  the  spectator  of 
a  Spanish  auto  de  fe,  or  such  savage  hearts  as  are 
steeled  against  every  emotion  of  humanity  and 
compassion. 

By  this  time  Governor  Craven,  being  no  stranger 
o  the  ferocious  temper  of  his  enemies,  and  their 
horrid  cruelly  to  prisoners,  was  advancing  against 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


them  by  slow  and  cautious  steps,  always  keeping 
the  strictest  guard  round  his  army.  He  knew  well 
under  what  advantages  they  fought  among  their 
native  thickets,  and  the  various  wiles  and  strata- 
gems they  made  use  of  in  conducting  their  wars  ; 
and  therefore  was  watchful  above  all  things  against 
sudden  surprises,  which  might  throw  his  followers 
into  disorder,  and  defeat  the  end  of  his  enterprise. 
The  fate  of  the  whole  province  depended  on  the  suc- 
cess of  his  arms,  and  his  men  had  no  other  alterna- 
tive left  but  to  conquer  or  die  a  painful  death.  As 
he  advanced  the  straggling  parties  fled  before  him, 
until  he  reached  Saltcatchers,  where  they  had  pitched 
their  great  camp.  Here  a  sharp  and  bloody  battle 
ensued  from  behind  trees  and  bushes,  the  Indians 
hooping,  hallooing,  and  giving  way  one  while,  and 
then  again  and  again  returning  with  double  fury  to 
the  charge.  But  the  governor,  notwithstanding 
their  superior  number,  drove  them  before  him  like 
a  flock  of  wolves.  He  expelled  them  from  their 
settlement  at  Indian-land,  pursued  them  over  Sa- 
vanna river,  and  rid  the  province  entirely  of  this 
formidable  tribe  of  savages.  What  number  of  his 
army  he  lost,  or  of  the  enemy  he  killed,  we  have 
not  been  able  particularly  to  learn  ;  but  in  this  In- 
dian war  near  400  innocent  inhabitants  of  Carolina 
were  murdered  by  these  wild  barbarians. 

The  Yamassees,  after  their  defeat  and  expulsion, 
went  directly  to  the  Spanish  territories  in  Florida, 
where  they  were  received  with  bells  ringing  and 
guns  firing,  as  if  they  had  come  victoriously  from 
the  field ;  from  which  circumstance,  together  with 
the  encouragement  afterwards  given  them  to  settle 
in  Florida,  there  is  too  good  reason  to  believe,  that 
this  horrid  massacre  was  contrived  by  Spaniards, 
and  carried  on  by  their  encouragement  and  assis- 
tance. Two  prisoners,  whom  they  had  saved  and 
carried  to  Augustine  along  with  them,  Mrs.  Sisson 
and  Mrs.  Macartey,  afterwards  reported  to  the  Ca- 
rolineaus  the  news  of  this  kind  reception  the  In- 
dians met  with  from  the  Spaniards.  On  the  other 
hand,  though  the  province  of  Carolina  suffered 
much  at  this  time,  yet  the  governor  had  the  good  for- 
tune to  prevent  its  total  destruction.  From  the 
lowest  state  of  despondency,  Charlestown,  on  the 
governor's  return  to  it,  was  raised  to  the  highest 
pitch  of  joy.  He  entered  it  with  some  degree  of 
triumph,  receiving  from  all  such  applauses  as  his 
wise  conduct  and  unexpected  success  justly  merited. 
Indeed  his  prosperous  expedition  had  not  only  dis- 
concerted the  most  formidable  conspiracy  ever 
formed  against  the  colony,  but  also  placed  the  in- 
habitants in  general,  however  much  exposed  indi- 
viduals might  be  to  small  scalping  parties,  in  a  state 
of  greater  security  and  tranquillity  than  they  had 
hitherto  enjoyed. 

However,  from  that  period  in  which  the  Yamas- 
see  Indians  were  compelled  to  take  up  their  resi- 
dence in  Florida,  they  harboured  in  their  breasts  the 
most  inveterate  ill-will  and  rancour  to  all  Caroli- 
ueans,  and  watched  every  opportunity  of  pouring 
their  vengeance  on  them.  Being  furnished  with 
arms  and  ammunition  from  the  Spaniards,  they 
often  broke  out  on  small  scalping  parties,  and  in- 
fested the  frontiers  of  the  British  settlement.  A 
party  of  them  caught  one  William  Hooper,  and  killed 
him  by  torture,  by  cutting  off  one  joint  of  his  body 
after  another,  until  he  expired  ;  and  another  party 
surprised  Henry  Quinton,  Thomas  Simmons,  and 
Thomas  Parmenter,  and  also  tortured  them  to 
death.  Dr.  Rose  afterwards  fell  also  into  their 
hands,  whom  they  cut  across  his  uose  with  their 


tomahawk,  and  having  scalped  him  left  him  on  the 
spot  for  dead ;  but  he  happily  recovered  of  his  wounds. 
In  short,  the  emissaries  of  St.  Augustine,  disap- 
pointed in  their  sanguinary  design  of  suddenly  de- 
stroying the  settlers  in  Carolina,  had  now  no  other 
resource  left  but  to  employ  the  vindictive  spirit  of 
the  Yamassees  against  the*  defenceless  frontiers  of 
the  province.  In  these  excursions,  it  must  be  con- 
fessed, they  were  too  successful,  for  many  poor  set- 
tlers at  different  times  fell  a  sacrifice  to  their  insati- 
able revenge. 

During  the  time  of  this  hard  struggle  with  In- 
dians, the  legislature  of  Carolina  had  made  applica- 
tion to  the  proprietors,  representing  to  them  the 
weak  state  of  the  province,  the  deplorable  dangers 
which  hung  over  it,  and  begging  their  paternal  help 
and  protection;  but  being  doubtful  whether  the 
proprietors  would  be  inclined  to  involve  their  En- 
glish estates  in  debt  for  supporting  their  property 
in  Carolina,  in  so  precarious  a  situation,  they  in- 
structed their  agent,  in  case  he  failed  of  success  from 
them,  to  apply  to  the  king  for  relief.  The  mer- 
chants entered  cordially  into  the  measure  for  making 
application  to  the  crown,  and  considered  it  as  the 
most  effectual  expedient  for  retrieving  their  credit 
in  England,  lost  by  the  dangers  which  threatened 
the  country,  and  the  pirates  that  infested  the  coast. 
They  perceived  at  once  the  many  advantages  which 
would  accrue  to  them  from  being  taken  under  the 
immediate  care  and  protection  of  the  crown.  Ships 
of  war  would  soon  clear  the  coast  of  sea-robbers,  and 
give  free  scope  to  trade  and  navigation.  Forces  by 
land  would  overawe  the  warlike  Indians,  prevent 
such  dreadful  attempts  for  the  future,  and  they  would 
reap  the  happy  fruits  of  public  peace  and  security. 
The  inhabitants  in  general  were  much  dissatisfied 
with  living  under  a  government  uiiable  to  protect 
them,  and  what  rendered  their  case]  still  more  la- 
mentable, prevented  the  interposition  of  the  crown 
for  their  defence,  and  th^refore^were  very  unani- 
mous in  the  proposed  application  to  the  crown. 

About  the  middle  of  the  year  1715  the  agent  for 
Carolina  waited  on  the  proprietors,  with  a  represen- 
tation of  the  heavy  calamities  under  which  their  co- 
lony laboured  from  the  ravages  of  barbarous  enemies, 
and  the  depredations  of  lawless  pirates.  He  ac- 
quainted them,  that  the  Yamassees,  by  the  influ- 
ence of  Spanish  emissaries,  had  claimed  the  whole 
lands  of  the  country  as  their  ancient  possessions, 
and  conspired  with  many  other  tribes  to  assert  their 
right  by  force  of  arms,  and  therefore  urged  the  ne- 
cessity of  sending  immediate  relief  to  the  colony.  But 
not  being  satisfied  with  the  answer  he  received,  he  pe- 
titioned the  house  of  commons  in  behalf  of  the  dis- 
tressed Carolineans.  The  commons  addressed  the 
king,  praying  for  his  kind  interposition  and  immediate 
assistance  to  the  colony.  The  king  referred  the  matter 
to  the  lords  commissioners  of  trade  and  plantations. 
The  lords  of  trade  made  an  objection,  that  the  pro- 
vince of  Carolina  was  one  of  the  proprietary  govern- 
ments, and  were  of  opinion,  that,  if  the  nation 
should  be  at  the  expense  of  its  protection,  the  go- 
vernment ought  to  be  vested  in  the  crown.  Upon 
which  Lord  Carteret  wrote  them  a  letter  to  the  fol- 
lowing effect  :"  We  the  proprietors  of  Carolina 
having  met  on  this  melancholy  occasion,  to  our 
reat  grief  find,  that  we  are  utterly  unable  of  our- 
selves to  afford  our  colony  suitable  assistance  in  this 
conjuncture,  and  unless  his  majesty  will  graciously 
please  to  interpose,  we  can  foresee  nothing  but  the 
utter  destruction  of  his  majesty's  faithful  subjects  in 
those  parts."  The  lords  of  trade  asked  Lord  Carteret 


UNITED  STATES. 


933 


what  sum  might  be  necessary  for  that  service,  and 
wnether  the  government  of  the  colony  should  nol 
devolve  on  the  crown,  if  Great  Britain  should  agree 
to  bear  the  expense  of  its  defence.  To  which  Lord 
Carteret  replied,  "  The  proprietors  humbly  sub- 
mitted to  his  majesty's  great  wisdom,  what  sum  ol 
money  he  should  be  pleased  to  grant  for  their  assist- 
ance ;  and  in  case  the  money  advanced  for  this  pur- 
pose should  not  be  in  a  reasonable  time  repaid,  they 
humbly  conceived  that  then  his  majesty  would  have 
an  equitable  right  to  take  the  government  under 
his  immediate  care  and  protection." 

The  same  year  a  bill  was  brought  into  the  house 
of  commons  in  England,  for  the  better  regulation 
of  the  charter  and  proprietary  governments  in  Ame- 
rica, and  of  his  majesty's  plantations  there;  the 
chief  design  of  which  was,  to  reduce  all  charter  and 
proprietary  governments  into  regal  ones.  Men  of 
obseryation  had  long  foreseen  the  rapid  increase  of 
American  colonies,  and  wisely  judged,  that  it  would 
be  for  the  interest  of  the  kingdom  to  purchase  them 
for  the  crown  as  soon  as  possible.  At  different  times 
the  government,  in  the  reigns  of  King  William  and 
Queen  Anne,  held  treaties  with  the  proprietors  for 
this  purpose  :  but  some  obstacles  always  came  in  the 
\vay,  or  some  accidents  occurred,  which  prevented 
a  tinal  agreement,  and  at  this  time  the  other  colo- 
nies being  at  variance  as  to  the  same  proposal,  the 
design  was  for  the  present  abandoned. 

It  is  remarkable,  that  the  proprietors  of  Carolina, 
at  the  time  they  obtained  their  charter,  as  is  expressly 
mentioned  in  it,  were  excited  to  form  that  settle- 
ment by  their  zeal  for  the  propagation  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith  among  the  Indians  of  America  :  yet,  to 
their  shame  it  must  be  confessed,  that  they  never 
used  any  endeavours  for  this  laudable  purpose,  or 
they  had  been  utterly  fruitless  and  ineffectual.  At 
this  time,  indeed,  the  society  incorporated  for  pro- 
pagating the  Gospel  maintained  several  missionaries 
in  Carolina,  as  well  as  in  the  northern  provinces. 
The  parishes  of  St.  Helen's,  St.  Paul's,  Christchurch, 
St.  Andrew's,  St.  James's,  and  St.  John's,  were  all 
supplied  with  ministers  from  this  charitable  corpora- 
tion, who  were  instructed  to  use  their  best  endeavours 
for  spreading  the  Gospel  among  the  heathens  in 
their  neighbourhood,  and  received  an  annual  allow- 
ance from  the  society  for  that  purpose  ;  yet  we  have 
not.  been  able  to  learn  that  these  heathens  ever 
reaped  the  smallest  advantage  from  them  The 
Spaniards,  though  they  have  often  made  use  of  the 
more  severe  and  rough  means  jf  conversion,  and 
erected  the  standard  of  the  cross  in  a  field  of  blood, 
yet  they  have  also  been  exceedingly  diligent  and 
assiduous  in  teaching  heathens  the  principles  of  the 
Catholic  religion.  In  point  of  policy,  this  zeal  was 
more  praise-worthy  than  English  negligence  :  for 
such  barbarians  would  certainly  have  been  much 
easier  tamed  and  civilized  by  mild  instruction  than 
by  force  of  arms.  The  Tumican  and  Apallachian 
Indians,  before  Governor  Moore's  inroads  among 
them,  had  made  some  advances  towards  civilization, 
and  paid,  by  means  of'instruction  from  Roman  Ca- 
tholic missionaries,  strict  obedience  to  the  Spanish 
government  at  Augustine.  Had  the  proprietors  of 
Carolina  erected  schools,  for  the  instruction  of  young 
Indians  in  the  language,  manners  and  religion  of 
the  English  nation,  such  an  institution  might  have 
been  attended  with  the  most  beneficial  effects.  For 
while  the  children  of  such  savages  were  living  among 
the  colonists,  they  would  have  been  like  so  many 
hostages  to  secure  the  good-will  and  peaceable  be- 
haviour of  their  parents ;  and  when  they  returned 


*o  the  nation  to  which  they  belonged,  their  know. 
Wge  of  the  English  language  and  customs  would, 
W  the  future,  have  rendered  all  commercial  treaties 
and  transactions  between  them  easy  and  practicable. 
Besides,  they  would  have  had  all  the  prejudices  of  edu- 
cation in  favour  of  the  English  manners  and  govern- 
ment, which  would  have  helped  both  to  fortify  them 
against  the  fatal  influence  of  Spanish  rivals,  and  to 
render  them  more  firm  and  steady  to  the  British 
interest. 

Although  the  Yamassee  war  had  terminated  much 
to  the  honour  of  the  Carolineans,  yet  the  fatal  effects 
of  it  were  long  and  heavily  felt  by  the  colony.  Many 
of  the  planters  had  no  negroes  to  assist  them  in  rais- 
ing provisions  for  their  families,  and  those  persons 
who  had  negroes,  could  not  be  spared  to  overlook 
them,  so  that  the  plantations  were  left  uncultivated, 
and  the  produce  of  the  year  was  very  inconsiderable. 
The  men  being  more  solicitous  about  the  safety  of 
their  families  than  the  increase  of  their  fortunes, 
purchased  bills  of  exchange  at  any  price,  to  send 
with  them  to  the  northern  provinces,  in  order  to 
procure  for  them  there  the  necessaries  of  life.  The 
provincial  merchants  being  much  indebted  to  those 
in  London,  the  latter  were  alarmed  at  the  dangers 
which  hung  over  the  colony,  and  pressed  them  much 
for  remittances.  The  Indians,  •  who  stood  indebted 
to  the  merchants  of  Carolina  for  10,000^.,  instead  of 
paying  their  debts,  had  cancelled  them,  by  murder- 
ing the  traders,  and  abandoning  the  province.  No 
remittances  could  be  made,  but  in  such  commodities 
as  the  country  produced,  and  all  hands  being  en- 
gaged in  war,  rendered  them  very  scarce,  and  con- 
sequently extremely  dear.  To  answer  the  public 
exigences  of  the  province,  large  emissions  of  paper 
currency  were  also  requisite.  Hence  the  rate  of 
exchange  arose  to  an  extravagant  height.  The  pro- 
vince was  indebted  no  less  than  80,000/.,  and  at  the 
same  time  obliged  to  maintain  garrisons  on  the  fron- 
tiers for  the  public  defence,  which  served  to  increase 
the  debt.  While  struggling  amidst  these  hardships, 
the  merchants  of  London  complained  to  the  proprie- 
tors of  the  increase  of  paper  money,  as  injurious  to 
trade  ;  in  consequence  of  which  they  strictly  ordered 
their  governor  to  reduce  it.  All  which  served  to 
aggravate  the  distress  of  the  poor  colonists,  and 
caused  them  to  murmur  against  their  landlords  for 
want  of  cempassion,  and  to  become  not  a  little  disaf- 
fected to  their  government. 

The  next  step  taken  by  the  legislature  of  Carolina, 
served  to  widen  the  difference.  The  Yamassees 
being  expelled  from  Indian  land,  the  assembly  passed 
two  acts  to  appropriate  those  lands  gained  by  con- 
quest for  the  use  and  encouragement  of  such  of  his 
majesty's  subjects  as  should  come  over  and  settle 
upon  them.  Extracts  of  these  acts  being  sent  to 
England  and  Ireland,  and  published  among  the  peo- 
ple, 500  men  from  Ireland  transported  themselves 
to  Carolina,  to  take  the  benefit  of  them ;  which  in- 
flux was  a  great  acquisition  at  this  juncture,  and 
served  to  strengthen  these  frontiers  against  future 
incursions  from  barbarians.  But  the  beneficial  con- 


posing  of  them  as  they  thought  fit.  Not  long  after- 
wards, to  the  utter  ruin  of  the  Irish  emigrants,  and 
in  breach  of  the  provincial  faith  to  them,  the  pro- 
prietors ordered  the  Indian  lands  to  be  surveyed  for 
their  own  use,  and  run  out  in  large  baronies ;  by 
which  harsh  usage  the  old  settlers,  having  lost  the 
protection  of  the  new  comers,  deserted  their  planta- 


940 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


tions,  and  again  left  the  frontiers  open  to  the  enemy  ;  they  took  care  to  send  to  England  such  representa- 
as  for  the  unfortunate  Irish  emigrants,  having  spent  tions  of  them  as  could  not  fail  to  render  them  the 
the  little  money  they  had,  many  of  them  reduced  to  objects  of  the  proprietors'  disapprobation.  Indeed 
misery,  perished,  and  the  remainder  moved  to  the  the  act  respecting  elections  had  broke  in  upon  a 
northern  colonies.  former  law,  which  had  been  ratified  in  England, 

About  this  time  Governor  Craven,  having  re-  and  never  repealed  by  the  same  authority.  The 
ceived  advice  from  England  of  Sir  Antony  Craven's  consequence  was,  both  those  bills  in  a  little  time 
death,  intimated  to  the  proprietors,  that  the  affairs  were  sent  back  repealed,  by  an  instrument  under 
of  his  family  required  his  presence,  and  obtained  the  proprietors'  hands  and  seals.  The  colonists,  far 
their  leave  to  return  to  Britain.  No  governor  had  from  being  pleased  with  the  former  conduct  of  their 
ever  gained  more  general  and  deserved  regard  from  landlords,  now  became  outrageous,  and  spoke  boldly 
the  Carolineans,  nor  had  any  man  ever  left  the  pro-  of  their  tyranny,  bad  policy,  and  want  of  compas- 
vince  whose  departure  was  more  universally  re-  sion  for  distressed  freemen.  Being  still  exposed  to 
gretted.  Having  appointed  Robert  Daniel  deputy-  incursions  from  the  sanguinary  and  vindictive  Ya- 
governor,  he  embarked  for  England  about  the  end  massees,  furnished  with  arms  and  ammunition  from 
of  April,  1716.  While  the  man-of-war  rode  at  the  Spaniards,  they  were  obliged  to  maintain  a  corn- 
anchor  near  the  bar,  Mr.  Gideon  Johnston,  with  pany  of  rangers,  to  protect  the  frontiers  against 
about  30  more  gentlemen,  went  into  a  sloop  to  take  them.  Three  small  forts  were  erected  at  Congarees, 
leave  of  their  much-esteemed  governor,  and  sailed  Savanna,  and  Apalachicola, for  the  public  defence,  and 
with  him  over  the  bar.  On  their  return  a  storm  money  was  required  for  the  payment  of  garrisons, 
arose,  the  sloop  was  overset,  and  Mr.  Johnston,  Presents  of  considerable  value  were  also  necessary, 
being  lame  of  the  gout  and  in  the  hold,  was  drowned,  to  preserve  the  friendship  of  other  Indian  tribes. 
The  other  gentlemen,  who  were  upon  deck,  saved  These  public  expenses  eat  up  all  the  fruits  of  the 
themselves  by  swimming  to  the  land.  poor  planter's  industry.  The  law  appropriating  the 

Before  Governor  Craven  arrived  in  England,  profits  of  the  Indian  trade  for  the  public  protection 
John,  Lord  Carteret,  had  succeeded  to  the  dignity  had  been  repealed ;  the  public  credit  was  at  so  low 
of  Palatine.  Nicholas  Trott,  who  was  chief  justice  Ian  ebb,  that  no  man  would  trust  his  money  in  the 
of  Carolina,  received  a  warrant  from  this  nobleman,  provincial  treasury.  None  would  risk  their  lives  in 
empowering  him  to  sit  also  as  judge  of  the  provincial  defence  of  the  colony  without  pay,  and  the  province, 
court  of  vice-admiralty.  William  Rhett,  who  was  oppressed  with  a  load  of  debt,  was  utterly  unable  to 
Trott's  brother-in-law,  and  receiver-general,  was  furnish  the  necessary  supplies.  The  people  com- 
likewise  made  comptroller  of  his  majesty's  customs  plained  of  the  insufficiency  of  that  government  which 
in  Carolina  and  Bahama  Islands.  The  many  offices  could  not  protect  them,  and  at  the  same  time  pro- 
of trust  and  emolument  which  these  two  men  held,  vented  the  interposition  of  the\crown  for  this  pur- 
together  with  their  natural  abilities,  gave  them  great  pose.  Governor  Daniel  himself  joined  them  in 
weight  and  influence  in  the  province,  especially  at  their  complaints,  and  every  one  seemed  ardently  to 
the  election  of  members  to  serve  in  assembly.  When  I  wish  for  those  advantages  which /other  colonies  en- 
the  provincial  assembly  met,  a  bill  was  brought  into  joyed,  under  the  immediate  carg  and  protection  of  a 
the  house  for  the  better  regulation  of  the  Indian  I  powerful  sovereign. 

trade,  nominating  commissioners,  and  empowering  I  In  this  discontented  and  unhappy  state  Robert 
them  to  apply  the  profits  arising  from  it  to  the  public  Johnson  found  the  Carolineans,  when  he  arrived  with  a 
benefit  and  defence,  and  passed  with  little  opposi-  commission  from  Lord  Carteret,  bearing  date  April 
tion.  As  the  colonists  had  been  accustomed  to  30,  1717,  investing  him  with  the  government  of  the 
choose  all  their  members  of  assembly  atCharlestown,  province  :  to  which  office  a  salary  of  4001.  sterling 
at  which  election  great  riots  and  tumults  had  often  was  now  annexed.  He  was  son  to  Sir  Nathaniel  John- 
happened  ;  to  remedy  this  disorder,  another  bill  was  I  son,  who  formerly  held  the  same  office,  and  who  had 
brought  into  assembly  for  regulating  elections  ;  in  left  him  an  estate  in  Carolina.  This  new  governor  was 
which,  among  other  things,  it  was  enacted,  "  That  a  man  of  sense  and  integrity  ;  but  came  out  with  such 
every  parish  should  send  a  certain  number  of  repre-  instructions  as  were  ill  adapted  to  the  circumstances 
sentatives,  in  all  not  exceeding  36  ;  that  they  should  and  situation  of  the  colony.  Soon  after  his  arrival 
be  balloted  for  at  the  different  parish  churches,  or  he  perceived  the  disaffection  of  the  people  to  the  pro- 
some  other  convenient  place,  on  a  day  to  be  men-  prietary  government,  and  the  many  difficulties  with 
tioned  in  the  writs,  which  were  to  be  directed  to  the  which  he  should  have  to  struggle  in  the  faithful  dis- 
church- wardens,  who  were  required  to  make  returns  charge  of  his  duty.  His  council  consisted  of  Tho- 
of  the  members  elected."  This  was  a  popular  act,  mas  Broughton,  Alexander  Skene,  Nicholas  Trott, 
as  the  inhabitants  found  it  not  only  allowed  them  Charles  Hart,  James  Kinloch,  Francis  Yonge,  &c., 
greater  freedom,  but  was  more  conformable  to  the  some  of  whom  were  highly  dissatisfied  with  the  harsh 
practice  in  England,  and  more  convenient  for  the  I  treatment  of  the  proprietors.  After  calling  an  as- 
settlers  than  their  former  custom  of  electing  all  I  sembly,  the  governor,  as  usual,  signified  to  them 
members  in  town.  his  esteem  for  the  people,  his  love  to  the  province, 

By  this  time  the  struggle  between  the  proprietors  and  his  resolutions  of  pursuing  such  measures  as 
and  possessors  of  the  soil,  which  had  long  subsisted,  might  be  judged  most  conducive  to  its  peace  and 
and  in  which  the  officers  intrusted  with  supporting  prosperity.  The  assembly,  in  answer,  expressed 
their  lordships'  power  and  prerogative  always  found  great  satisfaction  with  appointing  a  man  of  so  good 
themselves  deeply  interested,  was  become  more  se-  a  character  to  that  high  office ;  but,  at  the  same 
rious.  Those  popular  acts,  but  particularly  the  lat-  time,  were  not  insensible  of  the  oppression  of  their 
ter,  gave  great  offence  to  some  members  of  the  landlords,  nor  of  the  many  hardships  they  had  to 
council,  who  plainly  perceived  its  tendency  to  ruin  expect  under  their  weak  and  contemptible' govern- 
their  influence  at  elections,  and  of  course  the  power  ment. 

of  the  proprietors.  Among  others,  Trott  and  Rhett  About  this  time  some  merchants  and  masters  of 
strenuously  opposed  the  bills.  Though  they  were  ships,  trading  to  America  and  the  West  Indies, 
not  able  to  prevent  their  passing  in  Carolina,  yet  |  having  suffered  much  from  the  deoredations  of  pi> 


UNITED  STATES. 


941 


rates,  complained  to  the  king  in  council  of  the  heavy 
losses  the  trade  of  the  nation  had  sustained  from 
them.  In  consequence  of  which  the  king  issued  a 
proclamation,  promising  a  pardon  to  all  pirates 
who  should  surrender  themselves  in  the  space  of 
twelve  months,  and  at  the  same  time  ordered  to  sea 
a  force  for  suppressing  them.  As  they  had  made 
the  island  of  Providence  their  common  place  of  re- 
sidence. Captain  Woodes  Rogers  sailed  against  this 
island,  with  a  few  ships  of  war,  and  took  possession 
of  it  for  the  crown.  Except  one  Vane,  who,  with 
about  90  more,  made  their  escape  in  a  sloop,  all  the 
pirates  took  the  benefit  of  the  king's  proclamation, 
and  surrendered.  Captain  Rogers  having  made 
himself  master  of  the  island,  formed  a  council  in  it, 
and  appointed  officers,  civil  and  military,  for  the 
better  government  of  its  inhabitants.  He  built  some 
forts  for  its  security  and  defence,  and  so  ordered 
matters,  that,  for  the  future,  the  trade  of  the  West 
Indies  was  well  protected  against  this  lawless  crew. 
.  Though  the  pirates  on  the  island  of  Providence 
were  crushed,  those  of  North  Carolina  still  remained, 
and  were  equally  insolent  and  troublesome.  Vane, 
who  escaped  from  Captain  Rogers,  had  taken  two 
ships  bound  from  Charlestown  to  London.  A  pirate 
sloop  of  ten  guns,  commanded  by  Steed  Bonnet, 
and  another  commanded  by  Richard  Worley,  had 
taken  possession  of  the  mouth  of  Cape  Fear  river. 
which  place  was  now  the  principal  refuge  left  for 
these  robbers.  Their  station  there  was  so  conve- 
nient for  blocking  up  the  harbour  of  Charlestown, 
that  thr  trade  of  the  colony  was  greatly  obstructed 
by  them.  No  sooner  had  one  crew  left  the  coast 
than  another  appeared,  so  that  scarcely  one  ship 
coming  in  or  going  out  escaped  them.  Governor 
Johnson  resolving  to  check  their  insolence,  fitted 
out  a  ship  of  force,  gave  the  command  of  it  to  Wil- 
liam Rhett,  and  sent  him  out  to  sea  for  the  protec- 
tion of  trade.  Rhett  had  scarcely  got  over  the  bar, 
when  Stee4  Bonnet  perceived  him,  but  finding  he 
was  more  than  match  for  him,  made  all  the  sail  he 
could  for  his  refuge  in  Cape  Fear  river.  Thither 
Rhett  followed  him,  took  the  sloop,  and  brought 
the  commander,  and  about  30  men  with  him,  to 
Charlestown.  Soon  after  this  Governor  Johnson 
himself  embarked,  and  sailed  in  pursuit  of  the  other 
sloop  of  six  guns,  commanded  by  Richard  Worley, 
which,  after  a  desperate  engagement  off  the  bar  of 
Charlestown,  was  also  taken.  The  pirates  fought 
ferociously,  until  they  were  all  killed  or  wounded, 
excepting  Worley  and  another  man,  who  were  like- 
wise dangerously  wounded.  These  two  men,  together 
with  their  sloop,  the  governor  brought  into  Charles- 
town,  where  they  were  instantly  tried,  condemned, 
and  executed,  to  prevent  their  dying  of  their  wounds. 
Steed  Bonnet  and  his  crew  were  also  tried,  and  all, 
except  one  man,  hanged,  and  buried  on  White  Point, 
below  high-water  mark. 

Governor  Johnson,  formerly  a  popular  man,  was 
now  become  much  more  so,  by  his  courage,  and  the 
success  attending  his  expedition  against  the  pirates. 
This  check,  together  with  that  they  received  among 
the  islands,  served  to  extirpate  these  buccaniers, 
who  had  declared  war  against  all  mankind;  and 
had  reduced  themselves  to  a  savage  state  of  society. 
But  these  two  expeditions  from  Carolina,  though 
crowned  with  success,  cost  the  province  upwards  of 
10,000/.,  an  additional  burden  which,  at  this  junc- 
ture, it  was  ill  qualified  to  support. 

At  the  same  time,  Governor  Johnson  had  instruc- 
tions to  reduce  the  paper  currency  circulating  in 
the  province,  of  which  the  mercantile  interest  loudly 


complained,  as  injurious  to  trade.  He  recommended 
to  the  assembly  to  consider  of  means  for  sinking  it, 
and  told  them  they  were  bound  in  honour  and  jus- 
tice to  make  it  good.  The  Indian  war  had  occa- 
sioned a  scarcity  of  provisions ;  by  the  large  emis- 
sions of  paper-money  it  sunk  in  value,  and  the  price 
of  produce  arose  to  an  exorbitant  height.  As  the 
value  of  every  commodity  is  what  it  will  bring  at 
market,  so  the  value  of  paper-money  is  according 
to  the  quantity  of  commodities  it  will  purchase. 
Both  rice  and  naval  stores,  however  high,  by  dou- 
bling the  quantity  of  paper-money,  though  the  com- 
modities remained  the  same  as  formerly,  became  still 
much  higher.  The  merchants  and  money-lenders 
were  losers  by  those  large  emissions  ;  and  the  plant- 
ers indebted  to  them,  on  the  other  hand,  were  gain- 
ers by  them.  Hence  great  debates  arose  in  the 
assembly  about  paper-money,  between  the  planting 
and  mercantile  interests.  At  this  time  the  governor, 
however,  had  so  much  influence  as  to  prevail  with 
the  assembly  to  pass  a  law  for  sinking  and  paying 
off  their  paper-credit  in  three  years,  by  a  tax  on 
lands  and  negroes.  This  act,  on  its  arrival  in  Eng- 
land, gave  great  satisfaction  both  to  the  proprie- 
tors and  people  concerned  in  trade,  and  the  gover- 
nor received  their  thanks  for  his  attention  to  the 
commercial  interests  of  the  country. 

This  compliance  of  the  assembly  with  the  gover- 
nor's instructions  from  England,  and  the  good  hu- 
mour in  which  they  at  present  appeared  to  be,  gave 
him  some  faint  hopes  of  reconciling  them  by  degrees 
to  the  supreme  jurisdiction  of  the  proprietors.  But 
their  good  temper  was  of  short  duration,  and  the 
next  advices  from  England  destroyed  all  his  hope* 
of  future  agreement.  The  planters  finding  that  the 
tax-act  fell  heavy  on  them,  began  to  complain  of 
its  injustice,  and  to  contrive  means  for  eluding  it, 
by  scamping  more  bills  of  credit.  The  proprietors 
having  information  of  this,  and  also  of  a  design 
formed  by  the  assembly  to  set  a  price  on  country 
commodities,  and  make  them  at  such  a  price  a  good 
tender  in  law  for  the  payment  of  all  debts,  they 
strictly  enjoined  their  governor  not  to  give  his  as- 
sent to  any  bill  framed  by  the  assembly,  nor  to  ren- 
der it  of  any  force  in  the  colony,  before  a  copy  of 
the  same  should  be  laid  before  them.  About  the 
same  time  the  king,  by  his  order  in  council,  signi- 
fied to  the  proprietors,  that  they  should  repeal  an 
act  passed  in  Carolina,  of  pernicious  consequence 
to  the  trade  of  the  mother  country,  by  which  a  duty 
of  ten  per  cent,  was  laid  on  all  goods  of  British  ma- 
nufacture imported  into  that  province.  Accordingly 
this  act,  together  with  that  for  regulating  elections, 
and  another  for  declaring  the  right  of  assembly  for 
the  time  being  to  nominate  a  public  receiver,  were 
all  repealed,  and  sent  to  Governor  Johnson  in  a  let- 
ter, which  enjoined  him  instantly  to  dissolve  the 
present  assembly  and  call  another,  to  be  chosen  in, 
Charlestown,  according  to  the  ancient  usage  and 
customs  of  the  province.  The  proprietors  con- 
sidered themselves  as  the  head  of  the  legislative 
body,  who  had  not  only  power  to  put  a  negative  on 
all  laws  made  in  the  colony  of  which  they  disap- 
proved, but  also  to  repeal  such  as  they  deemed  of 
pernicious  consequence. 

Governor  Johnson,  sensible  of  the  discontent 
which  prevailed  among  the  people  at  the  proprietary 
government,  and  the  ill  consequences  that  would 
attend  the  immediate  execution  of  his  orders,  sum- 
moned his  council,  to  whom  he  communicated  his 
orders  and  instructions  from  England.  They  were 
most  of  them  much  surprised  at  them,  but  Trolt 


942 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


probably  knew  from  what  they  derived  their  origin, 
and  to  whose  influence  the  repeal  of  those  laws 
ought  to  be  ascribed.  But  as  the  assembly  were  at 
that  time  deliberating  about  the  means  of  paying 
the  provincial  debt  contracted  by  the  expedition 
against  the  pirates,  and  other  contingent  charges 
of  government,  it  was  agreed  to  postpone  the  disso- 
lution of  the  house  until  the  business  then  before 
them  should  be  finished.  However,  the  repeal  of 
the  duty-law  being  occasioned  by  an  order  from  the 
king  iu  council,  they  resolved  to  acquaint  the  assem- 
bly immediately  with  the  royal  displeasure  at  that 
clause  of  the  law  laying  a  duty  on  all  goods  manu- 
factured in  Great  Britain,  and  recommended  it  to 
them  to  make  a  new  act,  leaving  out  that  clause 
which  had  given  offence.  Meanwhile,  though  great 
pains  were  taken  to  conceal  the  governor's  instruc- 
tions from  the  people,  yet  by  some  means  they  were 
divulged,  and  kindled  violent  flames  among  them. 
The  assembly  entered  into  a  warm  debate  about  the 
proprietors'  right  of  repealing  laws  passed  with  the 
assent  of  their  deputies.  Many  alleged,  that  the 
deputation  given  to  them  was  like  a  power  of  attor- 
ney sent  to  persons  at  a  distance,  authorizing  them 
to  act  in  their  stead ;  and  insisted,  that,  according 
to  the  charter,  they  were  bound  by  their  assent  to 
acts,  as  much  as  if  the  proprietors  themselves  had 
been  present,  and  ratified  and  confirmed  them. 

While  the  colony  was  thus  harassed  by  rigorous 
landlords,  to  enhance  their  misery,  their  savage 
neighbours  were  again  making  incursions  into  theijr 
settlements.  At  this  time  a  scalping  party  pene- 
trated as  far  as  the  Euhah  lands,  where  having  sur- 
prised John  Levit  and  two  of  his  neighbours,  they 
knocked  out  their  brains  with  their  tomahawks. 
They  then  seized  Mrs.  Borrows  and  one  of  her  chil- 
dren, and  carried  them  off  with  them.  The  child, 
by  the  way,  finding  himself  in  barbarous  hands,  be- 
gan to  cry,  upon  which  they  put  him  to  death.  The 
distressed  mother,  being  unable  to  refrain  from  tears 
while  her  child  was  murdered  before  her  eyes,  was 
given  to  understand,  that  she  must  not  weep,  if  she 
desired  not  to  share  the  same  fate.  Upon  her  arri- 
val at  Augustine  she  would  have  been  immediately 
sent  to  prison,  but  one  of  the  Yamassee  kings  de- 
clared he  knew  her  from  her  infancy  to  be  a  good 
woman,  interceded  for  her  liberty,  and  begged  she 
might  be  sent  home  to  her  husband.  This  favour, 
however,  the  Spanish  governor  refused  to  grant, 
and  the  garrison  seemed  te  triumph  with  the  Indi- 
ans in  the  number  of  their  scalps.  When  Mr.  Bor- 
rows went  to  Augustine  to  procure  the  release  of  his 
wife,  he  also  was  imprisoned  along  with  her,  where 
he  soon  after  died :  but  she  survived  all  these  hard- 
ships to  give  a  relation  of  her  barbarous  treatment. 
After  her  return  to  Carolina,  she  reported  to  Gover- 
nor Johnson,  that  the  Huspah  king,  who  had  taken 
her  prisoner  and  carried  her  off,  informed  her,  he 
had  orders  from  the  Spanish  governor  to  spare  no 
white  man,  but  to  bring  every  negro  alive  to  Au- 
gustine ;  and  that  rewards  were  given  to  Indians 
for  their  prisoners,  to  encourage  them  to  engage  in 
such  rapacious  and  murderous  enterprises. 

The  Chief  Justice  Trott  being  suspected  of  hold- 
ing a  private  correspondence  with  the  proprietors, 
to  the  prejudice  of  the  Carolineans,  had  incurred 
their  dislike.  Richard  Allein,  Whitaker,  and  other 
practitioners  of  the  law,  charged  him  with  many  ini- 
quitous practices.  No  less  than  31  articles  of  com- 
plaint against  him  were  presented  to  the  assembly, 
setting  forth,  among  other  things,  "  That  he  had 
been  guilty  of  many  partial  judgments  ;  that  he  had 


contrived  many  ways  to  multiply  and  increase  his 
fees,  to  the  great  grievance  of  the  subject,  and  con- 
trary to  acts  of  assembly ;  that  he  had  contrived  a 
fee  for  continuing  causes  from  one  term  to  another, 
and  put  off  the  hearing  of  them  for  years;  that  he 
took  upon  him  to  give  advice  in  causes  depending 
in  his  courts,  and  did  not  only  act  as  counsellor  in 
that  particular,  but  also  had  drawn  deeds  between 
party  and  party,  some  of  which  had  been  contested 
before  him  as  chief-justice,  and  in  determining  of 
which  he  had  shewn  great  partialities ;  with  many 
more  particulars  ;  and,  lastly,  complaining,  that  the 
whole  judicial  power  of  the  province  was  lodged  in 
his  hands  alone,  of  which  it  was  evident  he  had 
made  a  very  ill  use,  he  being  at  the  same  time  sole 
judge  of  the  courts  of  Common  Pleas,  King's  Bench, 
and  Vice-Admiralty;  so  that  no  prohibition  could 
be  lodged  against  the  proceedings  of  the  court,  he 
being  obliged,  in  such  a  case,  to  grant  a  prohibition 
against  himself;  he  was  also,  at  the  same  time,  a 
member  of  the  council,  and  of  consequence  a  judge 
of  the  court  of  Chancery." 

These  articles  of  complaint,  though  they  took  their 
rise  from  the  bar,  were  well  grounded,  and  were 
supported  by  strong  evidence  before  the  assembly. 
But  as  the  judge  held  his  commission  from  the  pro- 
prietors, he  denied  that  he  was  accountable  to  the 
assembly  for  any  part  of  his  conduct  in  his  judicial 
capacity ;  and  declared  that  he  would  be  answer- 
able no  where  but  in  England.  The  assembly, 
however,  sensible  that  he  held  his  commission  only 
during  good  behaviour,  sent  a  message  to  the  go- 
vernor and  council,  requesting  they  would  join  them 
in  representing  his  partial  anS  unjust  conduct  in  his 
office  to  the  proprietors,  praying  them  either  to  re- 
move him  from  his  seat  in  thV  courts  of  justice,  or 
at  least  to  grant  him  onlypne  jurisdiction,  and  the 
people  liberty  of  appeat"ffom  his  judgments.  The 
governor  and  major  part  of  the  council,  convinced 
of  the  mal-administration  of  the  judge,  agreed  to 
join  the  commons  in  their  representation.  But 
being  sensible  of  the  great  interest  the  chief-justice 
had  with  their  lordships,  they  judged  it  most  pru- 
dent to  send  one  of  their  counsellors  to  England 
with  their  memorial,  that  it  might  find  greater 
credit  and  weight,  and  the  more  certainly  procure 
redress ;  and  Francis  Yonge,  a  man  of  considerable 
abilities,  who  had  been  present  at  all  their  debates, 
was  selected,  who  set  sail  for  England,  and  arrived 
in  London  early  in  the  year  1719. 

Soon  after  his  arrival,  he  waited  on  Lord  Carteret, 
the  Palatine  ;  but  as  his  lordship  was  preparing  to 
set  out  on  an  embassy  to  the  court  of  Sweden,  he 
referred  him  to  the  other  proprietors  for  an  answer 
to  his  representations.  When  the  proprietors  met, 
Yonge  presented  to  them  a  memorial,  setting  forth, 
"  That  he  had  been  appointed  by  the  governor  and 
council  of  South  Carolina,  to  lay  before  them,  not 
only  several  acts  of  assembly  passed  there  during 
their  last  sessions  for  their  approbation,  but  also  to 
inform  them  of  the  reasons  that  induced  the  gover- 
nor and  council  to  defer  the  dissolution  of  the  as- 
sembly, in  consequence  of  their  lordships'  com- 
mands ;  that  he  was  instructed  to  shew  their  lord- 
ships the  arguments  between  the  upper  and  lower 
houses  of  assembly,  touching  their  lordships'  right 
of  repealing  laws  ratified  and  confirmed  by  their  de- 
puties ;  and  presented  to  them  a  speech  made  by 
Chief-Justice  Trott  at  a  general  conference  of  both 
houses,  together  with  the  answer  of  the  commons  to 
it,  and  the  several  messages  that  passed  between 
them,  which  he  hoped  would  shew  their  lordships, 


UNITED  STATES. 


that,  no  arguments  or  endeavours  were  wanting  on 
tneir  part  to  assert  the  right  the  proprietors  had  of 
repealing  laws  not  ratified  by  them. 

"  At  the  same  time,  he  was  desired  to  request 
their  lordships  to  augment  their  secretary's  salary, 
to  allow  the  members  of  the  council  so  much  money 
for  the  time  and  expense  of  attending  the  council 
on  their  service ;  to  establish  custom-house  officers 
at  Beaufort ;  to  grant  6000  acres  of  land  to  the  three 
garrisons  at  Congarees,  Savanna  Town,  and  Apala- 
chicola;  and  liberty  of  appealing  from  erroneous 
judgments  in  law,  which  at  that  time  the  people  had 
not,  the  whole  judicial  power  in  all  the  provincial 
courts  being  lodged  in  the  hands  of  one  man."  He 
then  delivered  to  them  a  letter  from  Governor  John- 
son, the  articles  of  complaint  against  Chief  Justice 
Trott,  and  the  joint  address  of  the  governor,  council, 
and  assembly,  praying  to  have  him  removed  entirely 
from  the  bench,  or  confined  to  a  single  jurisdiction. 

This  memorial,  however,  was  far  from  satisfying 
the  proprietors,  some  of  whom  inferred  from  it,  that 
the  people  were  solicitous  to  search  for  causes  of  dis- 
satisfaction, with  a  view  to  shake  off  the  proprietary 
authority.  Their  letters  from  Trott  served  to  con- 
firm the  truth,  which  intimated  that  Yonge,  though 
an  officer  of  the  proprietors,  by  chicanery  had  as- 
sisted the  people  in  forming  plausible  pretences  for 
that  purpose.  For  three  months  Youge  attended 
the  Palatine's  court,  to  give  the  board  all  possible 
information  about  the  state  of  affairs  in  their  colony, 
and  to  accomplish  the  ends  of  his  appointment;  but, 
after  all,  he  was  given  to  understand,  that  the  busi- 
ness on  which  he  was  sent  was  extremely  disagree- 
able to  them;  that  the  trouble  he  had  taken,  and 
the  office  he  had  accepted  as  agent  for  the  people, 
were  inconsistent  with  his  duty  as  one  of  their  de- 
puties. They  declared  their  displeasure  with  the 
members  of  the  council  who  had  joined  the  lower 
house  in  their  complaints  against  Trott,  and  re- 
moved them  from  the  board,  appointing  others  in 
their  place,  and  increasing  the  number  of  members; 
and  told  Yonge,  that  he  also  would  have  been  de- 
prived of  his  seat  but  for  the  high  respect  they  had 
for  Lord  Carteret,  the  absent  Palatine,  whose  de- 
puty he  was.  With  respect  to  Chief  Justice  Trott, 
they  had  too  much  confidence  in  his  fidelity  and  ca- " 
pacity  to  remove  him  from  his  office.  On  the  con- 
trary, they  sent  him  a  letter,  thanking  him  for  his 
excellent  speech  in  defence  of  their  right  of  repeal- 
ing all  laws  made  in  the  colony ;  together  with  a 
copy  of  the  articles  of  complaint  brought  against 
him,  on  purpose  to  give  him  an  opportunity  of  vin- 
dicating himself;  at  the  same  time  acquainting  him, 
that  it  was  their  opinion  and  order,  that  he  should 
withdraw  from  the  council-board  whenever  appeals 
from  his  judgments  in  the  inferior  courts  shall  be 
brought  before  the  governor  and  council  as  a  court 
of  chancery. 

How  far  Governor  Johnson,  in  their  opinion,  had 
deviated  from  his  duty,  in  joining  the  other  branches 
of  the  legislature  in  their  representation,  may  be 
learned  from  the  following  letter  from  the  proprie- 
tors, brought  over  to  him  by  Yonge  :  "  Sir,  we  have 
received  and  perused  your  letters  and  all  your  pa- 
pers, delivered  us  by  your  agent  Mr.  Vfonge;  and 
though  we  are  favourably  inclined  in  all  our  thoughts 
relating  to  our  governor,  yet  we  must  tell  you,  we 
think  you  have  not  obeyed  the  orders  and  directions 
given  you  to  dissolve  that  assembly,  and  call  another 
forthwith,  according  to  the  ancient  usage  and  custom 
of  the  province,  and  to  publish  our  repeals  of  the 
acts  of  assembly  immediately  upon  the  receipt  of 


our  orders  aforesaid ;  but  we  shall  say  no  more  or 
that  subject  now,  not  doubting  but  our  governo 
will  pay  more  punctual  obedience  to  our  orders  fo» 
the  future. 

"  The  lords  proprietors'  right  of  confirming  an<5 
repealing  laws  was  so  particular  a  privilege  granted 
them  by  the  charter,  that  we  can  never  recede  from 
it;  and  we  do  assure  you  we  are  not  a  little  sur- 
prised that  you  have  suffered  that  prerogative  of 
ours  to  be  disputed. 

"  We  have  sent  you  herewith  an  instruction  under 
our  hands  and  seals,  nominating  such  persons  as  we 
think  fit  to  be  of  the  council  with  you,  six  of  whom 
and  yourself,  and  no  less  number,  to  be  a  quorum.1 
Upon  your  receipt  of  this  we  hereby  require  you  to 
summon  the  said  council,  that  they  may  qualify 
themselves  according  to  law,  and  immediately  sit 
upon  the  despatch  of  business.  We  also  send  you 
the  repeal  of  the  acts  of  assembly,  which  we  order 
you  to  publish  immediately  upon  the  receipt  of  this. 
We  do  assure  Mr.  Johnson,  that  we  will  stand  by 
him  in  all  things  that  relate  to  the  just  execution  of 
his  office,  and  we  are  confident  that  he  will  perform 
his  duty  to  us,  and  support  our  power  and  preroga- 
tive to  the  best  of  his  abilities.  If  the  assembly 
chosen  according  to  your  pretended  late  act  is  not 
dissolved,  as  we  formerly  ordered;  and  a  new  assem- 
bly elected,  pursuant  to  the  act  formerly  confirmed 
by  the  proprietors,  you  are  forthwith  commanded  to 
dissolve  that  assembly,  and  to  call  another,  accord- 
ing to  the  above-mentioned  act ;  arid  so  we  bid  you 
heartily  farewell." 

Such  was  the  result  of  Yonge's  negotiation  in 
England.  Governor  Johnson,  who  was  well  ac* 
quainted  with  the  prevailing  temper  and  discontented 
spirit  of  the  people,  plainly  perceived,  upon  receiv- 
ing these  new  orders  and  instructions,  what  difficul- 
ties would  attend  the  execution  of  them.  The  flame 
was  already  kindled,  and  nothing  could  be  imagined 
more  likely  to  add  fuel  to  it  than  such  rigour  and 
oppression.  The  governor  indeed  had  received  in- 
structions, but  had  not  sufficient  power  to  enforce 
them.  Determined,  however,  to  comply  with  their 
commands,  he  summoned  his  council  of  twelve  men 
whom  the  proprietors  had  nominated,  who  were 
William  Bull,  Ralph  Izard,  Nicholas  Trott,  Charles 
Hart,  Samuel  Wragg,  Benjamin  de  la  Consiliere, 
Peter  St.  Julien,  William  Gibbons,  Hugh  Butler, 
Francis  Yonge,  Jacob  Satur,  and  Jonathan  Skrine, 
some  of  whom  refused,  and  others  qualified  them- 
selves to  serve.  Alexander  Skene,  Thomas  Brough- 
ton,  and  James  Kinloch,  members  of  the  former 
council,  being  now  left  out  of  the  new  appoint- 
ment, were  disgustdd,  and  joined  the  people.  The 
present  assembly  was  dissolved,  and  writs  were 
issued  for  electing  another  in  Charlestown.  The 
duty-act,  from  which  the  clergy  were  paid,  the  gar- 
risons maintained,  and  the  public  debts  in  general 
were  defrayed,  was  repealed ;  as  was  the  law  re- 
specting the  freedom  of  election,  by  which  the  colo- 
nists were  obliged  to  have  recourse  to  the  old,  in- 
convenient, and  tumultuous  manner  of  elections  in 
Charlestown ;  and  also  the  act  declaring  the  right 
of  the  commons  to  nominate  a  public  receiver,  was 
declared  to  be  contrary  to  the  usage  and  custom  of 
Great  Britain.  All  laws  respecting  the  trade  and 
shipping  of  Great  Britain,  which  any  future  assembly 
might  pass,  the  governor  had  instructions  to  refuse  bis 
assent  to,  till  approved  by  the  proprietors.  The  pro- 
vincial debts  incurred  by  the  Indian  war,  and  the 
expedition  against  pirates,  not  only  remained  un- 
paid, but  no  more  bills  of  credit  were  allowed  to  be 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


stamped.  This  council  of  twelve,  instead  of  seven 
men,  which  was  appointed,  the  colonists  considered 
as  an  innovation  in  the  proprietary  government  ex- 
ceeding the  power  granted  their  lordships  by  their 
charter,  and  therefore  subjecting  them  to  a  juris- 
diction foreign  to  the  constitution  of  the  province. 
The  complaints  of  the  whole  legislature  against  Chief 
Justice  Trott  were  not  only  disregarded,  but  that 
mail,  whom  they  considered  as  an  enemy  to  the 
country,  was  privately  caressed  and  publicly  ap- 
plauded. All  these  things  the  colonists  considered 
as  aggravated  grievances,  and  what  rendered  them 
the  more  intolerable  was  the  circumstance  of  being 
deprived  of  all  hopes  of  redress. 

It  may  be  thought  somewhat  unaccountable  and 
astonishing,  that  the  proprietors  should  have  per- 
sisted in  measures  so  disagreeable  and  oppressive  of 
themselves,  and  so  manifestly  subversive  of  their 
authority  and  power.  Many  were  the  hardships 
from  the  climate,  and  the  danger  from  savages,  with 
which  the  poor  colonists  had  to  struggle;  yet  their 
landlords,  instead  of  rendering  their  circumstances 
as  easy  and  comfortable  as  possible,  seemed  rather 
bent  on  crossing  their  humours  and  doubling  their 
distress.  The  people  could  now  no  longer  regard 
them  as  concerned  for  the  welfare  of  their  colony, 
but  as  tyrannical  legislators.  But,  perhaps  the 
miseries  the  colonists  suffered  ought  to  be  ascribed 
to  their  lordships'  shameful  inattention  to  provincial 
affairs,  rather  than  to  their  tyrannical  disposition. 
Lord  Carteret,  the  Palatine,  held  high  offices  of 
trust  under  the  crown,  which  occupied  his  chief 
study  and  attention.  Some  of  the  proprietors  were 
minors,  others  possessed  estates  in  England,  the  im- 
provement of  which  engrossed  their  whole  care  and 
delight.  Having  reaped  little  or  nothing  from  their 
American  possessions,  and  finding  them  every  year 
becoming  more  troublesome  and  expensive,  it  is  pro- 
bable they  trusted  the  affairs  of  their  colony  to  sub- 
ordinates who  were  no  ways  interested  in  their  pros- 
perity and  success.  With  these  Chief  Justice  Trott 
had  established  a  correspondence,  of  whose  wisdom 
and  abilities  the  proprietors  entertained  the  highest 
opinion,  and  in  whose  integrity  and  fidelity  they 
placed  unlimited  confidence.  He  held  of  them  many 
offices  of  trust  and  emolument,  which,  together  with 
his  haughty  and  overbearing  conduct,  rendered  him 
the  object  of  popular  envy  and  clamour.  The  colo- 
nists needed  indulgence  from  their  circumstances 
and  situation  ;  Trott,  being  totally  dependent  on 
the  proprietors,  for  the  tenure  of  his  office  and  the 
payment  of  his  salary,  strongly  supported  their  power 
and  prerogative ;  and  hence  arose  those  struggles 
between  the  proprietors  and  people,  which  were 
daily  growing  more  serious  and  violent. 

About  this  time  a  rupture  having  taken  place  be- 
tween the  courts  of  Great  Britain  and  Spain,  a  pro- 
ject for  attacking  South  Carolina  and  the  island  of 
Providence  was  formed  at  the  Havanna,  and  pre- 
parations were  making  there  for  the  expedition. 
Governor  Johnson,  having  received  advice  from 
England  of  this  design,  resolved  immediately  to  put 
the  province  in  a  posture  of  defence.  For  this  pur- 
pose he  summoned  a  meeting  of  council,  and  pro- 
posed a  voluntary  subscription,  beginning  with  a 
generous  offer  himself,  as  an  example  to  others.  He 
declared  that  one  day's  delay  might  prove  fatal  to 
the  province ;  and  recommended  unanimity  and 
dispatch.  The  assembly  replied,  that  a  subscription 
was  needless,  as  the  income  of  the  duties  would  be 
sufficient  to  answer  the  purpose  intended.  The  Go- 
vernor objected,  that  the  duty-law  had  been  repealed, 


and  none  other  yet  framed  in  its  place.  To  which  tne 
assembly  answered,  they  had  resolved  to  pay  no  re- 
gard to  those  repeals,  and  that  the  public  receiver 
had  orders  from  them  to  sue  every  man  that  should 
refuse  to  pay  as  that  law  directed.  Chief  Justice 
Trott  told  them,  if  any  action  or  suit  should  be 
brought  into  his  courts  on  that  law,  he  would  give 
judgment  for  the  defendant.  In  short,  the  contest 
between  the  two  houses  at  this  meeting  was  so 
warm,  that  the  conference  broke  up  before  any 
thing  was  concluded  with  regard  to  the  public  safety. 
The  assembly  were  obstinate,  and  seemed  deter- 
mined to  hazard  the  loss  of  the  province  to  the  Spa- 
niards, rather  than  yield  to  the  council,  and  ac- 
knowledge the  proprietors'  right  of  repealing  their 
laws. 

Governor  Johnson,  however,  at  such  a  juncture 
judging  it  prudent  to  be  always  in  the  best  posture 
of  defence,  for  uniting  the  strength  of  the  province 
called  a  meeting  of  the  field-officers  of  the  militia, 
ordered  them  to  review  their  regiments,  and  fixed  a 
place  of  general  rendezvous.  Indeed  such  was  the 
uneasy  and  distracted  state  of  the  colony,  that  the 
Spaniards  could  scarcely  have  attacked  it  at  a  time 
more  seasonable  for  obtaining  an  easy  conquest. 
At  this  meeting  the  field-officers  of  the  militia  re- 
ceived their  orders  with  their  usual  submission,  and 
called  together  the  different  regiments,  on  pretence 
of  training  the  men  to  expert  use  of  arms.  But  be- 
fore this  time  the  members  chosen  to  serve  in  as- 
sembly, though  they  had  not  met  in  their  usual  and 
regular  way  at  Charle^town,  had  nevertheless  held 
several  private  meeting^  in  the  country,  to  concert 
measures  for  revolting  fro.m  their  allegiance.  They 
had  drawn  up  a  form  of  an  association  for  uniting 
the  whole  province  in  opposition  to  the  proprietary 
government,  which  was  proposed  to  the  people  at 
this  public  meetmgrof  the  militia,  as  an  opportunity 
the  most  favourable  forprocuring  a  general  subscrip- 
tion. The  people,  oppressed  and  discontented,  with 
eagerness  embraced  the  proposal,  and,  almost  to  a 
man,  subscribed  the  association,  promising  to  stand 
by  each  other 'in  defence  of  their  rights  and  privi- 
leges, against  the  tyranny  of  the  proprietors  and 
their  officers.  This  confederacy  was  formed  with 
such  secrecy  and  dispatch,  that  before  it  reached 
the  governor's  ears,  almost,  the  whole  inhabitants 
were  concerned  in  it.  The  assembly,  after  having 
thus  brought  the  people  in  general  to  back  them, 
had  then  nothing  to  do  but  to  proceed,  in  taking 
such  bold  and  vigorous  steps  as  seemed  best  calcu- 
lated for  accomplishing  their  end. 

The  people's  encouragement  to  revolt — Proceedings  of 
the  convention — The  assembly  dissolved — Proceed- 
ings of  the  people — James  Moore,  governor — The 
declaration  of  the  convention — The  invasion  from 
Spain  defeated — Francis  Nicolso?i,  governor — 
George  I.  recognised  as  sovereign — The  regulation 
of  Indian  affairs — The  trial  of  the  family  of  Du- 
tartre — Progress  of  the  colony — Arthur  Middleton, 
president — A  dispute  concerning  the  boundaries — 
Reprisals  on  the  Spaniards — Encroachment  of  the 
French  in  Louisiana — The  province  purchased  for 
the  crown. 

At  the  election  of  assembly  in  Charlestown,  Trott 
and  Rhett,  who  formerly  had  such  influence,  were 
now  become  so  obnoxious  that  they  could  not  bring 
one  man  into  the  house.  Alexander  Skene,  for- 
merly excluded  from  the  council,  was  elected  a 
member  of  this  new  assembly,  which  was  chosen  on 
purpose  to  oppose  the  civil  officers,  considering  him- 


UNITED  STATES. 


•elf  as  ill-used  by  the  proprietors,  became  zealous 
against  the  government.  This  man,  together  with 
several  other  members  of  assembly,  held  frequent 
meetings,  to  consider  their  grievances,  and  flattered 
themselves  with  the  hopes,  that  the  king  would  take 
the  colony  under  his  care  as  soon  as  they  renounced 
allegiance  to  the  proprietors.  And  as  the  time  drew 
near  in  which  they  expected  an  attack  from  a  power- 
ful nation,  they  concluded  that  the  province  needed 
assistance  of  the  crown  at  the  present,  more  than 
ar  any  former  time.  They  had  convinced  the  peo- 
ple of  the  many  advantages  of  the  British  constitu- 
tion, and  the  great  happiness  of  those  colonies  which 
were  under  the  immediate  care  and  protection  of  the 
crown,  insomuch  that  they  now  eagerly  desired  to 
enjoy  the  same  privileges. 

To  these  secret  meetings  Governor  Johnson,  who 
lived  at  his  plantation  several  miles  from  Charles- 
town,  was  an  entire  stranger,  until  he  received  the 
following  letter,  bearing  date  November  28,  1719, 
and  signed  by  Alexander  Skene,  George  Logan, 
and  William  Blakeway.  "  Sir,  we  doubt  not  but 
you  have  heard  of  the  whole  province  entering  into 
an  association  to  stand  by  their  rights  and  privileges, 
and  to  get  rid  of  the  oppression  and  arbitrary  deal- 
ings of  the  lords  proprietors.  As  we  always  bore 
you  the  greatest  deference  and  respect  imaginable, 
we  take  this  opportunity  to  let  you  know,  that  the 
committee  of  the  people's  representatives  were  last 
night  appointed  to  wait  on  you  this  morning,  to  ac- 
quaint you,  that  they  have  come  to  a  resolution  to 
have  no  regard  to  the  proprietors'  officers,  nor  their 
administration  :  and  withal  to  beg,  that  your  honour 
will  hold  the  reins  of  government  for  the  king,  till 
his  majesty's  pleasure  be  known.  The  great  value 
the  whole  country  express  for  your  honour's  person, 
makes  them  desirous  to  have  nobody  but  yourself  to 
govern  them ;  and  as  you  must  be  convinced,  that 
no  persons  can  be  more  passionately  fond  of  your  go- 
vernment than  ourselves,  we  hope  you  will  not  take 
amiss  any  advice  given  by  faithful  and  affectionate 
friends  ;  and  therefore  we  take  the  liberty  to  tell 
you  freely,  we  are  of  opinion  that  your  honour  may 
take  the  government  upon  you,  upon  the  offer  of 
the  people,  for  the  king,  and  represent  to  the  pro- 
prietors, that  rather  than  the  whole  country  should 
be  in  confusion,  and  want  a  governing  power,  you 
Leld  it  for  their  lordships,  though  you  were  obliged 
to  comply  with  the  colonists,  who  were  unanimously 
of  opinion  they  would  have  no  proprietors'  govern- 
ment. We  could  wish  for  a  longer  and  better  op- 
portunity to  explain  this  matter  to  you ;  but  it  is 
impossible,  for  the  gentlemen  will  be  with  you  in 
two  hours  at  farthest.  We  heartily  wish  your  honour 
the  utmost  success,  let  it  go  which  way  it  will ;  but 
beg  leave  to  observe,  that  your  compliance  will  not 
only  be  the  greatest  satisfaction  to  the  province  in 
general,  but  also  to  your  humble  servants." 

This  letter,  though  fraught  with  the  highest  pro- 
fessions of  respect  to  the  governor,  he  nevertheless 
considered  as  an  insult;  but  especially  the  advice, 
which  he  deemed  both  highly  derogatory  to  his  in- 
tegrity as  a  man,  and  his  fidelity  as  a  governor. 
The  letter,  however,  served  to  give  him  notice  of 
the  association,  and  the  resolution  of  the  people, 
which  it  was  his  duty  by  all  means  possible  to  defeat. 
For  this  purpose  he  hastened  to  town,  and  sum- 
moned his  council,  to  take  their  advice  in  a  case  so 
unexpected andalarming.  Meeting  accidentally  with 
Alexander  Skene,  he  informed  him  that  the  com- 
mittee who  were  appointed  to  wait  on  him  had 
changed  their  minds,  and  were  gone  to  their  respec- 

Hrsx,  OF  AMER.— Nos.  119  &  120. 


tive  places  of  abode.  The  Governor,  nevertheless, 
informed  his  council  of  the  association,  and  required 
their  advice  and  assistance  about  the  most  effectual 
methods  of  breaking  it  up,  and  supporting  the  pro- 
prietary government.  He  perceived  that,  although 
he  was  called  governor,  yet  Trott  ruled  the  province, 
and  therefore  resolved  to  (^o  nothing  without  his  ad 
vice,  that  he  might  be  equally  responsible  with  the 
rest  for  the  ill  consequences  which  he  was  apprehen- 
.  sive  would  attend  their  future  proceedings.  The 
council  were  not  a  little  perplexed  what  step  to  take  ; 
.  but  as  the  committee  had  Altered  their  intention  of 
•  waiting  on  the  governor,  they  were  of  opinion  that 
no  notice  should  betaken  of  their  proceedings,  until 
the  assembly  should  meet  in  a  legal  manner,  and 
bring  it  regularly  before  them  ;  hoping  that  the  peo- 
ple might  drop  their  dangerous  resolution. 

In  the  mean  time  the  members  of  assembly  were 
using  their  utmost  diligence  among  the  people  of 
the  province  to  keep  them  firm  to  their  purpose, 
having  got  almost  every  person,  except  the  officers 
of  the  proprietors  and  a  few  of  their  friends,  to  sign 
the  association.  All  agreed  to  support  whatever  their 
representatives  should  do  for  disengaging  the  colony 
from  the  yoke  of,  the  proprietors,  and  putting  it 
under  the  government  of  the  king.     Having  thus 
fortified  themselves  by  the  union  of  the  inhabitants, 
the  assembly  met  on  purpose  to  take  more  decisive 
steps;  and  being  apprehensive  that  the  governor 
would  dissolve  them,  so  soon  as  their  proceedings 
reached  his  ears,  they  instantly  came  to  the  follow- 
ing resolutions :  "  First,  That  the  several  laws  pre- 
tended to  be  repealed  are  still  in  force  within  the 
province,  and  could  not  be  repealed  and  made  void 
and  null  but  by  the  general  assembly  of  this  pro- 
vince, and  that  all  public  officers  and  others  do  pay 
due  regard  to  the  same  accordingly.  Secondly,  That 
the  writs,    whereby  the  representatives   here  met 
were  elected,  are  illegal,  because   they  are  signed 
by  such  a  council  as  we  conceive   the  proprietors 
have  not  a  power  to  appoint;  for  that  this  council 
does  consist  of  a  greater  number  of  members  than 
that  of  the  proprietors  themselves,  which  we  believe 
is  contrary  to  the  design  and  original  intent  of  their 
charter,  and  approaching  too  near  the  method  taken 
by  his  majesty  and  his  predecessors  in  his   planta- 
tions, whom  they  ought  not  to  pretend  to  imitate  or 
follow,  his  majesty  not  being  confined  to  any  num- 
ber of  counsellors,  but  as  he  thinks  fit*;  but  the  pro- 
prietors as  subjects,  we  believe,  are  bound  by  their 
charter.     Thirdly,  That  we  the  representatives  can- 
not act  as  an  assembly,  but  as  a  convention  dele- 
gated by  the  people,  to  prevent  the  utter  ruin  of  this 
government,  if  not  the  loss  of  the  province,  till  his 
majesty's  pleasure  be  known ;  and,  lastly,  That  the 
lords  proprietors  have  by  such  proceedings  unhinged 
the  frame  of  their  government,  and  forfeited  their 
right  to  the  same  ;  and  that  an  address  be  prepared, 
to  desire  the  honourable  Robert  Johnson,  our  pre- 
sent governor,  to  take  the  government  upon  him  in 
the  king's  name,  and  to  continue  the  administra- 
tion thereof  until  his  majesty's  pleasure  be  known." 
Agreeably  to  the  last  resolution,  an  address  was 
drawn  up,  signed  by  Arthur  Middleton  as  president, 
and  22  members  of  the  convention.     The  governor 
having  sent  them  a  message,  acquainting  them  ihat 
he  was  ready  with  his  council  to  receive  and  order 
them  to  choose  a  speaker,    they  came  to  the  upper 
house  in  a  body,  and  Arthur  Middleton  addressed 
the  governor  in  the   following  manner :   "  I  am  or- 
dered by  the  representatives  of  the  people  here  pre- 
sent to  tell  you,  that,  according  to  your  honour's 

4K 


THE  HISTORf  OF  AMERICA. 


order,  we  are  come  jo  w3i£'.  on  you  :  I  am  further  or- 
dered to  acquaint  you,  that  we  own  your  honour  as 
our  governor,  you  being  approved  by  the  king  ;  and 
as  there  was  once  in  this  province  a  legal  council, 
representing  the  proprietors  as  their  deputies,  which 
being  now  altered,  we  do  not  look  on  the  gentlemen 
present  to  be  a  legal  council ;  so  I  am  ordered  to 
tell  you,  that  the  representatives  of  the  people  do 
disown  them  as  such,  and  will  not  act  with  them  on 
any  account." 

The  governor  and  council,  struck  with  astonish- 
ment at  the  boldness  of  the  convention,  and  sus- 
pecting that  they  were  supported  by  the  voice  of 
the  people,  were  greatly  puzzled  what  measures 
they  should  take  to  recall  them  to  the  obedience  of 
legal  authority.  Some  were  for  violent  measures  ; 
but  others  were  of  opinion,  that  the  defection  was 
too  general  to  admit  of  such  a  remedy,  and  that 
gentle  expostulations  would  have  more  effec,.  But, 
the  only  fund  for  repairing  the  fortifications  being 
lost  by  the  repeal  of  the  general  duty-law,  money 
must  be  provided  for  the  public  protection.  If  t-he 
governor  dissolved  the  house,  how  could  the  pro- 
vince be  put  in  a  posture  of  defence  against  a  Spa- 
nish invasion,  with  which  it  was  threatened.  If  he 
should  suffer  them  to  sit  while  they  had  resolved  that 
the  proprietors  had  forfeited  their  right  to  the  go- 
vernment, and  refused  on  any  account  to  act  with 
his  council,  he  might  be  chargeable  with  a  breach 
of  his  trust.  The  result  of  their  deliberations  was, 
a  message  from  the  governor  and  council,  desiring 
a  conference  with  the  house  of  assembly.  To  which 
they  returned  for  answer,  that  they  would  not  re- 
ceive any  message  or  paper  from  the  governor  in 
conjunction  with  these  gentlemen  he  was  pleased 
to  call  his  council.  Finding  them  thus  inflexible 
and  resolute,  the  governor  was  obliged  to  give  way 
to  the  current,  and  therefore,  in  two  days  afterwards, 
sent  for  them  in  his  own  name,  and  spoke  to  them 
to  the  following  effect : — 

"  When  I  sent  for  you  the  other  day,  I  intended 
to  have  desired  you  to  have  chosen  your  speaker, 
to  be  presented  to  me  as  usual,  and  then  I  proposed 
to  have  spoke  to  you  in  the  following  manner : — 

"  Your  being  met  together  at  a  time  when  there 
was  never  more  occasion  for  a  ready  dispatch  of 
public  business,  and  a  good  harmony  betwixt  the 
upper  and  louver  house,  I  must  recommend  that  to 
you;  and  nothing  will  be  wanting  on  my  part  to 
promote  a  good  understanding  betwixt  the  lords 
proprietors  and  the  people,  at  present  (to  my  great 
affliction)  I  fear  too  much  interrupted :  I  must, 
therefore,  in  the  first  place,  recommend  to  you,  that 
you  will,  without  delay,  or  other  matter  intervening, 
fall  upon  proper  methods  for  raising  money  for 
finishing  the  repairs  of  the  fortifications,  and  pro- 
riding  stores  of  war,  which  are  much  wanted.  The 
intelligence  which  I  have  of  the  designs  of  our  ene- 
mies, which  makes  this  work  so  necessary,  shall  be 
laid  before  you. 

"  I  am  sorry  the  lords  proprietors  have  been  in- 
duced (by  a  necessity,  to  defend  and  support  their 
just  prerogatives)  at  this  juncture  to  disannul  some 
of  your  laws ;  if  they  had  not  thought  the  letting 
those  acts  subsist  might  have  rendered  their  right 
of  repeal  precarious,  they  would  have  suffered  them 
still  to  continue.  I  hope  from  you,  therefore,  a  re- 
spectful behaviour  towards  them,  that  we  may  not 
feel  any  more  their  displeasure  in  so  sensible  a  man- 
ner, as  the  loss  (in  ibis  time  of  need)  of  our  duty- 
Jaw,  and  whi  -h  has  also  occasioned  an  injunction 
to  me  and  th?  council,  from  acting  with  an  assembly 


who  shall  dispute  their  lorpships'  undoubted  right 
of  repealing  laws,  and  appointing  officers  civil  aud 
military. 

"  I  find  some  are  jealous  and  uneasy  on  account 
of  rumours  spread,  that  you  design  to  alter  the  tax- 
act,  for  sinking  your  paper  currency.  Public  credit 
ought  to  be  sacred,  and  it  is  a  stand'ing  maxim,  That 
no  state  can  subsist  longer  than  their  credit  is  main- 
tained :  I  hope  therefore  you  have  no  such  inten- 
tions, which  would  put  me  under  a  necessity  of  do- 
ing what  I  have  never  yet  done;  I  mean,  disagree- 
ing with  you.  I  expect  therefore  you  will  make 
good  what  the  public  is  answerable  for,  and  proceed 
to  such  farther  methods  for  paying  our  debts,  as 
shall  be  both  honourable  and  proper,  and  best  adapt- 
ed to  our  circumstances. 

"  The  alaim  from  the  soutnward,  about  five  months 
since,  obliged  me  to  be  in  a  posture  of  defence,  and 
occasioned  some  charges,  the  accounts  of  which 
shall  be  laid  before  you ;  and  I  desire  you  will  pro- 
vide for  the  discharge  of  them  :  I  think  also  the  mi- 
litia-acts want  some  amendments,  and  that  you 
should  contrive  to  keep  a  good  watch  in  Charlestown. 

"  This  is  what  I  intended  to  have  recommended 
to  you  :  but  Mr.  Middleton's  telling  me,  in  the 
name  of  the  rest,  that  you  would  not  act  with,  and 
your  surprising  message  since,  that  you  will  not  re- 
ceive  anything  from  me,  in  conjunction  with  my 
council,  has  made  it  necessary  for  me  to  take  this 
occasion  of  talking  with  that  plainness  and  freedom 
so  extraordinary^  proceeding  of  yours  requires. 
And,  first,  I  must  lake  notice  of  your  message, 
wherein  you  say,  ybu  own  me  as  governor,  be- 
cause I  am  approved] of  by  the  king  ;  but  that  you 
disown  the  council/to  be  a  legal  one,  nor  will  act 
with  themx«n_ajjy'/account  whatsoever  ;  and  this  is 
subscribed  by  all  your  members  :  but,  upon  examin- 
ing, I  find  it  to  be  pretty  dark  and  evasive,  and 
seems  as  if  you  would  avoid  expressing  in  plain 
terms,  what  I  have  too  much  cause  to  fear  is  your 
design,  I  mean,  to  renounce  all  obedience  to  the 
lords  proprietors :  and  this  I  cannot  but  think  you 
propose  from  all  your  words  and  actions.  You  s'ay, 
you  acknowledge  me,  because  I  am  approved  of  by 
the  king ;  but  you  take  no  notice  of  my  commission 
from  the  proprietors,  which  is  what  makes  me  go- 
vernor. The  confirmation  of  the  king  only  signifies 
his  majesty's  approbation  of  the  person  the  lords 
proprietors  have  constituted ;  but  it  is  my  commis- 
sion and  instruction  from  them,  that  not  only  grants, 
but  limits  my  power,  and  contains  the  rules  by  which 
I  must  act,  and  are  to  warrant  and  vouch  my  ac- 
tions ;  therefore,  to  avoid  declaring  in  express  terms 
your  renouncing  the  lords'  power,  and  at  the  same 
time  doing  it  in  effect,  is  to  create  perpetual  doubts 
and  disputes,  and  is  not  acting  with  that  sincerity 
and  plainness  which  ought  to  be  used  in  all  public 
debates,  and  especially  in  matters  of  so  great  con- 
cern as  this  is,  and  upon  which  so  great  conse- 
quences depend. 

"  I  do  require  and  demand  of  you,  therefore,  and 
expect  you  will  answer  me  in  plain  and  positive 
terms,  whether  you  own  the  authority  of  the  lords 
proprietors  as  lords  of  this  province,  and  having 
authority  to  administer  or  authorise  others  to  admi- 
nister the  government  thereof;  saving  the  allegi- 
ance of  them  and  the  people  to  his  most  sacred  ma- 
jesty King  George  ?  Or,  whether  you  absolutely 
renounce  all  obedience  to  them,  and  those  commis- 
sioned and  authorised  by  them  ?  Or,  whether  you 
admit  their  general  power,  and  only  dispute  that 
particular  branch  of  their  authority,  in  constituting 


UNITED  STATES. 


947 


a  council  after  the  manner  they  have  now  done  ? 
If  you  deny  their  general  power  and  authority  in 
this  province,  and  say,  that  their  lordships  have 
forfeited  their  charter,  as  Mr.  Berrisford  asserted, 
and  you  all  acquiesced  in ;  then  I  demand  of  you, 
that  you  signify  wherein  the  lords  have  forfeited 
their  charter,  and  what  particular  branch  thereof 
they  have  broken  :  and  I  demand  of  you,  that  sup- 
posing (not  granting)  they  have  made  a  forfeiture 
of  their  charter,  by  what  power  do  you  presume  to 
renounce  their  authority,  and  to  model  a  govern- 
ment out  of  your  own  heads,  before  such  time  as 
that,  by  a  court  having  lawful  jurisdiction  of  the 
same,  it  shall  be  adjudged  that  the  lords  have  made 
a,  forfeiture  of  their  charter,  and  that  the  powers 
granted  them  are  null  and  void  ?  If  the  king  is  of 
opinion,  that  any  corporation  or  society  have  made 
a  forfeiture  of  the  rights  and  powers  granted  by 
their  charter,  although  his  majesty  may  have  the  ad- 
vice of  his  attorney  and  solicitor-general,  and  his 
judges  and  council  learned  in  the  law,  that  such  a 
forfeiture  has  been  made  (and  this  he  may  more 
reasonably  depend  on  than  any  advice  or  assurance 
you  can  have) ;  yet,  notwithstanding  this,  and  his 
supreme  authority  as  king,  he  never  dispossessed 
the  persons  of  the  powers  granted  them,  before  a 
quo  warranto  or  some  other  process  had  been  brought, 
and  judgment  obtained  against  the  same.  And  if 
the  king  doth  not  assume  such  a  power,  by  what 
authority  do  you  assume  it  ? 

"  I  desire  you  farther  to  consider  the  consequence 
that  attends  that  assertion,  Of  the  charter  being  for- 
feited, before  judgment  is  given  upon  the  same. 
For  if  it  be  so,  then  the  forfeiture  must  be  from  the 
time  that  the  fact  was  committed  that  caused  the 
forfeiture  ;  and  then  you  must  remember,  that,  by 
the  charter,  the  lords  have  granted  to  them,  not 
only  the  power  of  ordering  the  government,  but 
also  the  lands  are  granted  to  them  by  the  said 
charter ;  so  that  if  there  is  a  forfeiture  of  the  rights 
and  prerogatives  of  the  government,  there  is  also 
a  forfeiture  of  their  rights  to  the  lands ;  and  so  all 
grants  made  by  their  authority  of  any  lands,  since 
the  fact  committed  that  caused  the  forfeiture,  ac- 
cording to  your  own  doctrine  and  assertion,  must 
be  null  and  void ;  and  therefore,  how  many  persons' 
titles  to  their  lands  will  become  void,  I  leave  you 
to  consider.  And  though,  it  may  be,  you  will  as- 
sign some  new  late  fact,  that  you  say  will  cause 
such  a  forfeiture,  by  which  you  may  think  to  avoid 
the  ill  consequence  that  attends  the  titles  to  the 
lands ;  yet  know,  that  the  facts  that  you  assign  may 
not  be  the  only  ones  that  may  be  thought  to  have 
made  the  forfeiture  of  their  charter.  And  if  your 
present  assertion  is  true,  that  they  may  be  dispos- 
sessed before  a  judgment ;  it  may  be,  other  persons 
may  assign  other  causes  of  the  forfeiture,  besides 
those  which  you  assign,  which  may  have  been  com- 
mitted many  years  ago  :  for  you  cannot  but  know 
there  have  been  persons  in  the  province,  that,  for 
several  years  past,  have  publicly  asserted,  that  the 
lords  have  done  facts,  for  which  their  charter  was 
become  forfeited.  Which  if  so,  I  leave  you  to  con- 
sider what  a  gate  you  will  leave  open  to  call  in 
question,  nay,  utterly  destroy,  several  hundreds  of 
people's  titles  to  their  lands.  And  though  you  have 
most  unjustly  and  untruly  suggested  to  the  people, 
to  create  a  prejudice  in  them  to  the  lords  proprie- 
tors, that  their  lordships  designed  to  dispute  their 
titles  to  their  lands  ;  yet,  by  this  assertion  and  prac- 
tice, you  are  the  persons  that  will  not  only  call  in 
question,  but  effectually  destroy  their  titles. 


"  And  if  you  persist  in  disowning  the  council  as 
now  authorised,  then  I  desire  you  further  to  con- 
sider, in  what  capacity  I  can  act  with  you,  and  to 
what  purpose  you  pretend  to  sit  and  transact  the 
public  business  of  the  province.  You  know  very 
well  I  am  not  able  to  join  with  you  in  passing  anv 
law  without  the  consent  of  my  council ;  and  surely 
you  cannot  pretend  to  pass  laws  without  me  :  and 
what  an  absolute  occasion  there  is  now  to  pass  some 
laws,  that  the  province  may  be  put  in  a  posture  of 
defence,  and  the  contingent  charges  thereof  de- 
frayed, I  leave  you  seriously  to  consider,  and  hone 
you  will  not  lose  the  whole  province  to  the  enemy, 
for  your  own  humours. 

"  But  I  am  further  to  tell  you,  that,  in  case  you 
continue  to  deny  the  authority  of  the  council,  you 
cannot  properly  style  yourselves  the  representatives 
of  the  people  ;  for  you  know  very  well  you  were  cho- 
sen members  of  assembly,  pursuant  to,  and  by  vir- 
tue of,  the  writs  signed  by  myself  and  council ;  for 
it  is  not  the  people's  voting  for  you  that  makes  you 
become  their  representatives;  the  liege  people  of 
this,  or  any  other  province,  have  no  power  to  con- 
rene  and  clause  their  representatives,  without  being 
authorised  so  to  do  by  some  writ  or  order  coming 
from  authority  lawfully  impowered.  And  if  you 
pretend  that  the  writs  signed  by  me,  as  governor, 
were  sufficient :  to  that  I  answer,  that  I  do  not  pre- 
tend to  any  such  authority,  but  jointly,  and  with 
the  consent  of  my  council,  it  being  the  express 
words  of  my  commission ;  nor  did  I  sign  the  writs 
in  any  other  capacity  than  in  conjunction  with  my 
council,  who  also  signed  the  same.  But  if  my  sign- 
ing the  writs  were  sufficient  authority  for  the  people 
to  chuse  you,  then  you  must  allow,  that  as  the 
power  lies  solely  in  me  to  call  you,  it  lies  also  solely 
in  me  to  dissolve  you  ;  and  therefore,  if  by  your  ac- 
tions you  will  force  me  to  make  use  of  that  power, 
I  do  hereby  publicly  protest  and  declare,  you  only 
must  be  answerable  for  the  ill  consequences  thai 
may  attend  such  a  dissolution,  and  for  the  loss  o-? 
the  lives  and  estates  of  the  king's  subjects  in  this 
province  by  any  attack  that  may  be  made  upon 
them  by  our  public  enemies,  the  Spaniards,  or  from, 
the  Indians,  by  reason  of  the  province's  not  being 
put  into  such  a  posture  of  defence  as  it  ought,  and 
would,  if  you  proceeded  to  transact  the  public  busi- 
ness under  a  lawful  authority;  and  this  I  would 
have  you  seriously  to  consider  of. 

"  Notwithstanding  stories  that  have  been  indus- 
triously spread  to  prepossess  the  people,  that  you  are 
the  only  persons  who  stand  up  for  their  rights  and 
privileges ;  by  which,  it  may  be,  you  have  so  far 
engaged  them  in  your  favour,  that  you  may  have 
their  assistance  to  enable  you  to  commit  any  act  of 
force  or  violence  upon  the  government,  and  the  au- 
thority of  the  lords  proprietors ;  yet  know,  and  b« 
assured,  that  the  matters  in  dispute  are  of  that  cou 
sequence,  that  they  must  and  will  be  decided  by  an 
authority  in  England,  having  lawful  jurisdiction  of 
the  same ;  and  that  there  it  must  be  law  and  right 
that  must  justify  your  claims,  and  not  the  consent  and 
approbation  of  the  people  of  Carolina,  who  will  have 
no  weight  there,  but  the  right  and  merit  of  the  cause. 

"  I  must  farther  mention  to  you,  that  it  is  noto- 
riously known,  you  have  promoted  two  forms  of  as- 
sociations, and  have  persuaded  the  people  to  sign 
them.  How  far  you  can  be  justified  at  home,  be- 
hoves you  to  consider :  but  as  I  am  satisfied  no  mat- 
ter of  such  public  concern  ought  to  be  carried  on 
without  my  knowledge,  so  I  do  hereby  require  and 
demand  of  vou,  an  attested  copv  of  both  associa 
'  4K2 


948 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


tious ;  and  though  it  may  not  concern  me  to  have 
the  names  of  every  individual  person  that  has  signed 
them,  yet  1  do  insist  upon  it,  that  you  do  acquaint 
me  which  of  your  own  members  have  signed  both, 
or  either  of  them,  as  also  the  names  of  such  persons 
who  have  commissions,  or  hold  any  places  civil  or 
military  under  their  lordships,  or  of  sach  persons 
who  practise  the  law  in  their  lordships'  courts,  and 
have  signed  them. 

"  To  what  is  here  demanded  of  you  I  do  require 
your  plain  and  positive  answer  in  express  terms, 
and  that  you  do  in  writing  give  me  the  same  in  a 
body,  and  under  your  hands." 

This  long  and  elaborate  speech,  which  was  also 
given  them  in  writing,  they  were  not  long  in  con- 
sidering, but  returned  with  the  following  message  : 
"  We  have  already  acquainted  you,  that  we  would 
not  receive  any  message  or  paper  from  your  honour, 
in  conjunction  with  the  gentlemen  you  are  pleased 
to  call  your  council ;  therefore  we  must  now  again 
repeat  the  same,  and  beg  leave  to  tell  you,  that  the 
paper  your  honour  read  and  delivered  to  us,  we  take 
no  notice  of,  nor  shall  we  give  any  farther  answer 
to  it  but  in  Great  Britain." 

Immediately  after  this  they  came  with  the  follow- 
ing address  to  the  governor,  publicly  avowing  their 
resolution  to  cast  off  all  obedience  to  the  proprietary 
government,  and  urging  and  entreating  him  to  comply 
with  their  desire,  and  take  upon  him  the  government 
of  the  province  m  the  name  of  the  king.  "  It  is 
with  no  small  concern  that  we  find  ourselves  obliged 
to  address  your  nonour,  in  a  matter  which  nothing 
but  the  absolute  necessity  of  self-preservation  could 
at  this  juncture  have  prevailed  on  us  to  do.  The 
reasons  are  already  by  us  made  known  to  your  ho- 
nour and  the  world,  therefore  we  forbear  to  rehearse 
them  ;  but  proceed  to  take  leave  to  assure  you,  that 
it  is  the  greatest  satisfaction  imaginable  to  us,  to 
find  throughout  the  whole  country  that  universal 
affection,  deference,  and  respect,  the  inhabitants 
bear  to  your  honour's  person,  and  with  what  pas- 
sionate desire  they  wish  for  a  continuance  of  your 
gentle  and  good  administration ;  and  since  we,  who 
are  intrusted  with,  and  are  the  assertors  of  their 
rights  and  liberties,  are  unanimously  of  opinion, 
that  no  person  is  fitter  to  govern  so  loyal  and  obe- 
dient a  people  to  his  sacred  majesty  King  George, 
so  we  most  earnestly  desire  and  iulreat  your  honour, 
to  take  upon  you  the  government  of  -this  province, 
in  his  majesty's  name,  till  his  pleasure  shall  be 
known ;  by  which  means  we  are  convinced,  that 
this  (at  p.vsent)  unfortunate  colony  may  flourish, 
as  well  as  those  who  feel  the  happy  influence  of  his 
majesty's  immediate  care. 

•'  As  the  \  ell-being  and  preservation  of  this  pro- 
vince depe..  s  greatly  on  your  honour's  complying 
with  our  requests,  so  we  flatter  ourselves,  that  you 
who  have  expressed  so  tender  a  regard  for  it  on  ali 
occasions,  and  particularly  in  hazarding  your  own 
person  in  an  expedition  against  the  pirates,  for  its 
defence,  an  example  seldom  found  in  governors ;  so 
we  hope,  Sir,  that  you  will  exert  yourself  at  this 
juncture  for  its  support;  and  we  promise  your  ho- 
nour, on  our  parts,  the  most  faithful  assistance  o 
persons  duly  sensible  of  your  honour's  great  good- 
ness, and  big  with  the  hopes  and  expectation  of  his 
majesty's  countenance  and  protection.  And  we 
farther  beg  leave  to  assure  your  honour  that  we 
will,  in  the  most  dutiful  manner,  address  his  mosl 
sacred  majesty  King  George,  for  the  continuance  o 
your  government  over  us,  under  whom  we  doubt  no 
to  b*  a  happj  people." 


To  this  flattering  address  the  governor  returned 
he  following  answer:  "  I  am  obliged  to  you  for 
four  good  opinion  of  me  :  but  I  hold  my  commission 
rom  the  true  and  absolute  lords  and  proprietors  of 
,his  province,  who  recommended  me  to  his  majesty, 
and  I  have  his  approbation ;  it  is  by  that  commission 
and  power  I  act,  and  I  know  of  no  power  or  autho- 
rity can  dispossess  me  of  the  same,  but  those  only 
who  gave  me  those  authorities.  In  subordination  to 
hem  I  shall  always  act,  and  to  my  utmost  maintain 
heir  lordships5  just  power  and  prerogatives,  without 
encroaching  on  the  people's  rights  and  privileges. 
:  do  not  expect  or  desire  any  favour  from  you,  only 
hat  of  seriously  taking  into  ypur  consideration  the 
approaching  danger  of  a  foreign  enemy,  and  the 
steps  you  are  taking  to  involve  yourselves  and  this 
>rovince  in  anarchy  and  confusion." 

The  representatives  having  now  fully  declared 
heir  intentions,  and  finding  it  impossible  by  all  their 
address  to  win  over  the  governor  to  a  compliance 
with  their  measures,  began  to  treat  him  with  neglect. 
He,  on  the  other«haud,  perceiving  that  neither  harsh 
nor  gentle  means  could  recall  them  to  their  allegi- 
ance to  the  proprietors,  issued  a  proclamation  for 
dissolving  the  house,  and  retired  to  the  country. 
The  representatives  ordered  his  proclamation  to  be 
torn  from  the  marshal's  hands,  and  proceeded  next 
to  avowed  usurpation.  They  met  upon  their  own 
authority,  and  in  direct  opposition  to  that  of  the 
proprietors,  and  cho^e  Colonel  James  Moore  their 
governor;  who  was  a\ man  of  a  bold  and  turbulent 
disposition,  and  excellently  qualified  for  being  A 
popular  leader.  To /Governor  Johnson  he  was  no 
friend,  having  beep-lby  him  removed  from  his  com- 
mand of  the  ^niima,  for  espousing  the  cause  of  the 
people :  to  the  proprietors  he  was  an  inveterate 
enemy.  In  every  new  enterprise  he  had  been  a 
Tolunteer,  and  in  whatever  he  engaged  he  conti 
nued  to  his  purpose  steady  and  inflexible.  A  day 
was  fixed  by  the  convention  for  proclaiming  him,  in 
name  of  the  king,  governor  of  the  province,  and  or- 
ders were  issued  for  directing  all  officers,  civil  and 
military,  to  continue  in  their  different  places  and  em- 
ployments, till  they  should  hear  further  from  them 
Governor  Johnson,  some  time  before  this,  had  ap- 
pointed a  day  for  a  general  review  of  the  provincial 
militia;  and  the  convention,  that  they  might  have 
the  opportunity  of  the  people  being  under  arms,  and 
ready  to  forward  their  scheme,  fixed  on  the  same 
day  for  publicly  proclaiming  Moore.  The  governor, 
however,  having  intelligence  of  their  design,  sent 
orders  to  Colonel  Parris,  the  commander  of  the  mi- 
litia, to  postpone  the  review  to  a  future  day.  Parris,, 
though  a  zealous  friend  to  the  revolution,  assured 
him  his  orders  should  be  obeyed.  Notwithstanding 
this  assurance,  on  the  day  fixed,  when  Governor 
Johnson  came  to  town,  he  found  to  his  surprise  the 
militia  drawn  up  in  the  market-square,  the  colours 
flying  at  the  forts,  and  on  board  all  the  ships  in  the 
harbour,  and  great  preparations  making  for  the 
proclamation.  Exasperated  at  the  insults  offered  to 
his  person  and  authority,  he  could  scarcely  command 
his  temper.  Some  he  threatened  to  chastise  for 
flying  in  the  face  of  government,  to  which  they  had 
sworn  allegiance  and  fidelity ;  with  others  he  rea- 
soned, and  endeavoured  to  recall  them  by  represent- 
ing the  fatal  consequences  that  would  certainly  at- 
tend such  rash  proceedings.  But  advancing  to  Par- 
ris, who  had  betrayed  him,  he  asked  him  how  he 
durst  appear  in  arms  contrary  to  his  orders  ?  and 
commanded  him,  in  the  king's  name,  instantly  to 
disperse  his  men.  Colonel  Parris  replied,  he  'was 


UNITED  STATUS. 


949 


obeying  the  orders  of  the  convention  ;  and  the  go- 
vernor, in  great  rage,  walked  up  towards  him ;  upon 
which  Parris  iminediately  commanded  his  men  to 
present,  and  bid  him  at  the  peril  of  life  advance  no 
nearer.  The  governor  expected,  during  this  strug- 
gle, that  some  friends  would  have  adhered  to  him, 
especially  such  as  held  offices  of  profit  and  trust 
uuder  the  proprietors,  or  that  the  militia  would  have 
laid  down  their  arms  at  his  command :  but  he  was 
disappointed ;  for  all  either  stood  silent,  or  kept  firm 
to  the  standard  of  the  convention.  However,  to 
amuse  him,  and  prevent  his  taking  any  rash  step 
in  the  heat  of  passion,  John  Lloyd,  one  of  their 
party,  was  sent,  out  of  pretence  of  friendship,  to  walk 
and  converse  with  the  governor.  Vain  indeed  were 
the  efforts  of  a  single  arm,  in  so  general  a  defection. 
Even  Trott  and  Rhett,  in  this  extremity,  forsook  him, 
and  kept  at  a  distance  the  silent  and  inactive  spec- 
tators of  their  masters'  ruined  authority. 

Alter  this  the  members  of  convention  attended, 
and,  escorted  by  the  militia,  publicly  marched  to  the 
fort,  and  there  declared  James  Moore  governor  of 
the  province,  in  the  name  of  the  king,  which  was 
followed  by  the  loudest  acclamations  of  the  populace. 
Upon  their  return,  they  next  proceeded  to  the  elec- 
tion of  twelve  counsellors,  of  whom  Sir  Hoveuden 
Walker  was  made  president ;  so  that  they  had  now 
a  governor,  council  and  convention  of  their  own 
election.  In  consequence  of  which  the  delegates 
met,  and  published  their  declaration  to  the  follow- 
ing effect :  "  Whereas  the  proprietors  of  this  pro- 
vince have  of  late  assumed  to  themselves  an  arbi- 
trary and  illegal  power,  of  repealing  such  laws  as 
the  general  assembly  of  this  settlement  have  thought 
fit  to  make  for  the  preservation  and  defence  thereof, 
and  acred  in  many  other  things  contrary  to  the  laws 
of  England,  and  the  charter  to  them  and  us,  free- 
men, granved;  whereby  we  are  deprived  of  those 
measures  we  had  taken  for  the  defence  of  the  settle- 
ment, being  the  south-west  frontier  of  his  majesty's 
territories  in  America,  and  thereby  left  naked  to  the 
attacks  of  our  inveterate  enemies  and  next-door 
neignbours  the  Spaniards,  from  whom,  through  the 
Divine  Providence,  we  have  had  a  miraculous  de- 
liverance, and  daily  expect  to  be  invaded  by  them, 
according  to  the  repeated  advices  we  have  from  time 
to  time  received  from  several  places  :  and  whereas, 
pursuant  to  the  instructions  and  authorities  to  us 
given,  a«id  trust  in  us  reposed  by  the  inhabitants  of 
this  settlement,  and  in  execution  of  the  resolutions 
by  us  made,  we  did  in  due  form  apply  ourselves  in 
a  whole  body,  by  an  address,  to  the  honourable 
Robert  Johnson,  appointed  governor  of  this  province 
by  the  lords  proprietors,  and  desired  him,  in  name 
of  the  inhabitants  of  this  province,  to  take  upon  him 
the  government  of  the  same,  and  in  behalf  of  his 
majesty  the  king  of  Great  Britain,  France,  and  Ire- 
land, until  his  majesty's  pleasure  had  been  known, 
which  the  said  governor  refusing  to  do,  exclusive 
of  the  pretended  power  of  the  lords  proprietors  over 
the  settlement,  has  put  us  under  the  necessity  of  ap- 
plying to  some  other  person,  to  take  upon  him,  as 
governor,  the  administration  of  all  the  affairs  civil 
and  military  within  the  settlement,  in  the  name  and 
for  the  service  of  his  most  sacred  majesty,  as  well  as 
making  treaties,  alliances  and  leagues  with  any 
nation  of  Indians,  until  his  majesty's  pleasure  herein 
be  further  known  :  and  whereas  James  Moore,  a  per- 
son well  affected  to  his  present  majesty,  and  also  zea- 
lous for  the  interest  of  the  settlement,  now  in  a  sink- 
ing condition,  has  been  prevailed  with,  pursuant  to 
•ucb  our  application,  to  take  upon  him,  in  the  king's 


name,  and  for  the  king's  service  and  satV-tv  of  the 
settlement,  the  above-mentioned  charge  and  trust : 
we  therefore,  whose  names  are  hereunto  subscribed, 
the  representatives  and  delegates  of  his  majesty's 
lipge  people  and  free-born  subjects  of  the  said  settle- 
ment, now  met  in  convention  at  Charlestown,  in 
their  names,  and  in  behalf  of  his  sacred  majesty 
George,  by  the  grace  of  God  king  of  Great  Britain, 
France,  and  Ireland,  in  consideration  of  his  former 
and  many  great  services,  having  great  confidence 
in  his  firm  loyalty  to  our  most  gracious  King  George, 
as  well  as  in  his  conduct,  courage,  and  other  great 
abilities;  do  hereby  declare  the  said  James  Moore, 
his  majesty's  governor  of  this  settlement,  invested 
with  all  the  powers  and  authorities  belonging  and 
appertaining  to  any  of  his  majesty's  governors  in 
America,  till  his  majesty's  pleasure  herein  shall  be 
further  known.  And  we  do  hereby  for  ourselves,  in 
the  name  and  on  the  behalf  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
said  settlement,  as  their  representatives  and  dele- 
gates, promise  and  oblige  ourselves  most  solemnly 
to  obey,  maintain,  assist  and  support  the  said  James 
Moore,  in  the  administration  of  all  affairs  civil  and 
military  within  this  settlement,  as  well  as  in  the  ex- 
ecution of  all  his  functions  aforesaid,  as  governor  for 
his'sacred  majesty  King  George.  And  further,  we 
do  expect  and  command,  'that  all  officers,  both  civil 
and  military  within  the  settlement,  do  pay  him  all 
duty  and  obedience  as  his  majesty's  governor,  as 
they  shall  answer  to  the  contrary  at  their  utmost 
peril.  Given  under  our  hand,  at  the  convention, 
this  2lstday  of  December,  1719." 

Governor  Johnson,  after  this  public  and  solemn 
declaration,  perceiving  his  power  totally  overthrown, 
and  the  current  too  violent  and  strong  for  him  to 
withstand,  had  little  hopes  of  recalling  them  to  the 
obedience  of  proprietary  authority.  Still,  however, 
he  flattered  himself,  that  they  would  not  long  re- 
main in  a  state  of  union  among  themselves.  The 
first  unpopular  step  of  their  governor  might  create 
disturbance  and  disaffection ;  the  first  difference 
among  the  leading  men  might  divide  them  into 
parties  :  he  determined  to  wait  for  such  occurrences, 
and  to  improve  them  towards  recovering  his  power 
and  command.  In  the  mean  time  he  called  together 
the  civil  officers  of  the  proprietors,  and  ordered  them, 
to  secure  the  public  records,  and  shut  up  all  offices 
against  the  revolters  and  their  adherents. 

•  That  the  proprietors  in  England  might  have  notice 
of  what  had  happened  through  a  proper  channel, 
Governor  Johnson  drew  up  a  state  of  the  whole  pro- 
ceedings, and  transmitted  it  them.  To  the  same 
purpose  he  wrote  to  the  lords  commissioners  of  trade 
and  plantations,  who  were  no  friends  to  the  proprie- 
tary governments  in  America,  and  waited  for  such 
a  favourable  season  as  now  offered  in  Carolina  to 
purchase  every  one  of  them  for  the  crown. 

In  the  mean  time  the  members  of  the  popular  le- 
gislature were  proceeding  with  all  diligence  in  re- 
gulating the  public  affairs.  The  representatives  of 
the  people  took  a  dislike  to  the  name  of  a  convention, 
as  different  from  that  of  the  other  regal  governments 
in  America,  and  therefore  voted  themselves  an  as- 
sembly, and  assumed  the  power  of  appointing  all 
public  officers.  In  place  of  Nicholas  Trott,  they 
made  Richard  Allein  chief  justice.  Another  per- 
son was  appointed  provincial  secretary,  in  the  room 
of  Charles  Hart.  But  William  Rhett  and  Francis 
Yonge,  by  being  obsequious  to  the  revolters,  secured 
to  themselves  the  same  offices  they  held  from  the 
proprietors.  Colonel  Barnwell  was  chosen  agent  for 
the  province,  and  embarked  for  England,  with  in* 


950 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


structions  and  orders  to  apply  only  to  the  king,  to 
lay  a  state  of  their  public  proceedings  before  him, 
praying  him  to  take  the  province  under  his  immedi- 
ate care  and  protection.  A  new  duty-law  and  others 
for  raising  money  to  defray  the  various  expenses  of 
government  were  passed.  The  fortifications  at 
Charlestown  they  ordered  to  be  immediately  re- 
paired, and  William  Rhett,  whom  every  one  es- 
teemed a  friend  to  the  revolution,  was  nominated 
inspector-general  of  the  repairs.  To  their  new  go- 
vernor they  voted  2500J.,  and  to  their  chief-justice 
8001.  current  money,  as  yearly  salaries.  To  their 
agent  in  England  100QL  sterling  was  transmitted  ; 
and  to  defray  those  and  the  other  expenses  of  govern- 
ment, a  law  was  passed  for  laying  a  tax  on  lands 
and  negroes,  to  raise  30,OOOZ.  Carolina  money,  for 
the  service  of  the  current  year.  In  short,  this  po- 
pular assembly  imposed  such  burthens  on  their  con- 
stituents, as  under  the  proprietary  government  would 
have  been  deemed  intolerable  grievances. 

In  consequence  of  the  tax-act,  when  they  began 
to  levy  those  heavy  taxes,  Governor  Johnson  and 
some  of  his  party  refused  to  pay,  giving  for  reason, 
that  the  act  was  not  made  by  lawful  authority.  On 
account  of  his  particular  circumstances,  Mr.  Johnson 
was  exempted;  but  they  resolved  to  compel  every 
other  person  to  submit  to  their  jurisdiction,  and  yield 
implicit  obedience  to  their  laws.  They  forcibly  seized 
the  effects  or  negroes  of  such  as  refused,  sold  them 
at  public  auction,  and  applied  the  money  for  the 
payment  of  their  taxes.  Thus,  in  spite  of  all  op- 
position, they  established  themselves  in  the  full  pos- 
session of  government,  both  in  their  legislative  and 
executive  capacities. 

Governor  Johnson,  though  obliged  to'stand  at  a 
distance,  carefully  observed'their  progress,  and  was 
not  a  little  mortified  by  their  great  success.  He 
however  still  persisted  in  throwing  every  obstacle 
in  their  way  :  he  wrote  to  William  Rhett,  who  was 
not  ,only  the  proprietors'  receiver -general,  but  also 
comptroller  of  the  customs,  a  letter ;  informing  him, 
that,  "  as  the  people  had  found  means  to  hinder  all 
masters  of  ships  from  coming  to  him  as  the  governor 
for  clearances,  and  from  clearing  in  the  lawful  se- 
cretary's offices,  notwithstanding  the  laws  of  trade 
made  such  neglects  the  forfeiture  of  ship  and  cargo, 
and  the  naral  officer,  by  his  orders,  did  all  he  could 
to  induce  them  to  act  according  to  law  :  and  as  he 
was  sensible  that  the  defection  was  so  general,  and 
his  authority  so  depressed,  that  he  had  no  power  left 
to  punish  them  for  disobedience  ;  he  therefore  could 
think  of  no  other  way  to  oblige  them  to  their  duty 
but  by  stopping  their  obtaining  clearances  from  the 
custom-house  officers,  until  they  paid  their  duty  to 
him  as  the  lawful  governor  of  the  province.  He 
therefore  desired  Mr.  Rhett  would  consult  his  powers 
and  instructions  as  surveyor  and  comptroller  of  the 
customs,  and  act  in  this  affair  as  he  should  think 
agreeable  to  them,  to  the  laws  of  trade,  and  to  the 
service  of  his  majesty,  and  of  the  lords  proprietors." 
Indeed  it  must  be  acknowledged,  had  Rhett  so  far 
consulted  the  interest  of  the  proprietors,  as  to  have 
commanded  the  officers  of  the  customs  to  do  their 
duty,  according  to  the  governor's  project,  it  would 
have  given  the  revolters  no  small  trouble.  They 
would  have  had  the  mortification  to  see  the  masters 
of  ships  disowning  their  authority,  and  going  only 
to  that  office  where  they  could  obtain  authentic  and 
legal  clearances ;  and  the  fees  due  to  the  governor 
and  secretary  would  also  have  gone  in  their  usual 
channel.  But  Rhett's  enmity  to  the  governor,  and 
his  prospects  of  profit  from  the  prevailing  party, 


induced  him  to  neglect  the  duties  of  his  station.  He 
had  already  joined,  or  at  least  seemed  to  join,  the 
revolters,  being  determined  to  retain  at  all  events 
his  places  of  profit  and  emolument.  The  counte- 
nance and  encouragement  he  had  given  the  people, 
they  considered  as  a  justification  of  their  measures  ; 
and  though  they  had  passed  a  vote,  that  no  person 
who  held  an  office  under  the  proprietors  should  be 
permited  to  continue  in  it,  yet,  as  they  found  Rhett 
so  obsequious  to  their  views,  they  thought  proper  to 
dispense  with  it  for  an  acquisition  of  such  impor- 
tance. They  not  only  allowed  him  to  continue  in 
his  former  offices,  but  also  made  him  lieutenant- 
general  of  the  militia,  and  overseer  to  the  works  in 
repairing  the  fortifications.  So  that,  instead  of  giving 
assistance  to  Governor  Johnson  for  supporting  the 
interest  and  power  of  the  proprietary  government, 
he  deserted  him. 

Rhett,  nevertheless,  to  the  astonishment  of  every 
one,  still  maintained  his  credit  with  the  proprietors, 
and  had  the  art  to  persuade  them  he  had  done  all 
out  of  zeal  for  the  service  of  his  majesty,  and  for  the 
good  of  the  province.  He  wrote  them  two  letters, 
giving  them  an  account  of  all  that  had  happened, 
and  assuring  them  he  had  accepted  of  a  commission 
from  Mr.  Moore,  in  order  the  more  effectually  to 
promote  their  interest,v  by  giving  him  an  opportu- 
nity of  conversing  freely  with  the  people,  and  per- 
suading them  to  return  to  their  duty  and  allegiance. 
He  represented  the  inflexibility  of  Governor  Johnson 
as  one  source  of  the  discontent  and  defection  of  the 
people,  and  \utterly  inconsistent  with  good  policy. 
The  proprietdiss^belieyjea  him,  and  such  was  their 
confidence  in  his  Tionour  and  fidelity,  that  they  sent 
him  the  following  letter  expressing  their  approba- 
tion of  his  conduct :  "  We  have  received  your  let- 
ters, wherein  you  give  us  a  melancholy  account  of 
the  present  confused  government  of  our  province, 
and  of  the  great  consternation  of  the  inhabitants, 
from  the  dreadful  apprehension  they  have  of  a  fo- 
reign invasion.  But  since  they  have  been  so  un- 
fortunate as  to  bring  themselves  into  so  much  con- 
fusion, we  are  not  a  little  pleased  that  your  zeal  for 
the  service  of  his  majesty,  and  the  safety  of  the 
province,  has  engaged  you  to  take  upon  you  the 
command  of  the  forces;  for  as,  by  your  command  of 
the  said  forces,  you  formerly  defended  and  saved  the 
country  from  the  insults  of  an  invading  enemy,  so 
we  doubt  not  but  you  will  again  use  your  utmost 
skill  to  free  your  same  fellow-subjects  from  the  im- 
minent danger  they  at  present  labour  under.  And 
since  you  have  taken  upon  you  the  same  command, 
we  earnestly  entreat  you,  that,  with  the  greatest  ap- 
plication, you  will  continue  your  endeavours  in  that 
command  for  the  safety  and  preservation  of  the  pro- 
vince, until  you  shall  hear  farther  from  us:  we  wish 
you  all  imaginable  success,  and  bid  you  heartily 
farewell." 

In  the  mean  time  Governor  Johnson  received  cer- 
tain advice,  that  the  Spaniards  had  sailed  from  the 
Havanna  with  a  fleet  of  fourteen  ships,  and  a  force 
consisting  of  1200  men,  against  South  Carolina  and 
Providence  Island,  and  it  was  uncertain  which  of 
the  two  they  would  first  attack.  At  this  time  of  im- 
minent danger  the  governor  again  attempted  to  re- 
call the  people  to  subjection  and  obedience,  and  sent 
the  following  letter  to  the  convention: — "  I  flatter 
myself  that  the  invasion  which  at  present  threatens 
the  province,  has  awakene'd  a  thought  in  you  of  the 
necessity  there  is  of  the  forces  acting  under  lawful 
authority  and  commission.  The  inconveniences  and 
confusion  of  not  admitting  it  are  so  oovious,  Z  need 


UNITED  STATES. 


95, 


net  mention  them.  I  have  hitherto  borne  the  in- 
dignities put  upon  me,  and  the  loss  I  sustain  by 
being  out  of  my  government,  with  as  much  temper 
as  the  nature  of  the  thing  will  admit  of,  till  such 
time  as  his  majesty's  pleasure  shall  be  known.  But 
to  have  another  man  to  assume  my  authority  when 
danger  threatens  the  province,  and  action  is  ex- 
pected, and  to  be  deprived  of  the  opportunity  of 
serving  the  public  in  my  station,  as  I  am  indispen- 
sably bound  to  do  upon  such  occasions,  I  being  an- 
swerable to  the  king  for  any  neglect  regarding  the 
welfare  of  the  province,  is  what  I  cannot  patiently 
endure.  I  am  willing  with  my  council  to  consult 
and  advise  with  you  for  the  good  and  safety  of  the 
country  in  this  time  of  imminent  danger,  as  a  con- 
vention of  the  people,  as  you  first  called  yourselves ; 
nor  do  I  see,  in  this  present  juncture  of  affairs,  any 
occasion  for  formality  in  our  proceedings,  or  that  I 
explain  by  whose  authority  I  act  in  grants  of  com- 
missions or  other  public  orders.  Mr.  Moore's  com- 
mission you  have  given  him  does  not  pretend  to  say 
that  it  is  derived  from  the  king.  You  have  already 
confessed  I  am  invested  with  some  authority  of  which 
you  approve,  and  that  is  enough.  What  I  insist 
upon  is,  to  be  allowed  to  act  as  governor,  because  I 
have  been  approved  of  by  the  king.  I  do  not  ap- 
prehend there  is  any  necessity  of  doing  any  thing  at 
present  but  what  relates  to  military  affairs;  and  I 
do  believe  people  will  be  better  satisfied,  more  ready 
to  advance  necessaries,  to  trust  the  public,  and  obey 
my  commands,  by  virtue  of  the  king's  authority 
which  I  have,  if  left  to  their  libertj,  than  the  orders 
of  any  other  person  in  the  province ;  and  in  a  short 
time  we  may  expect  his  majesty's  pleasure  will  be 
known.  If  my  reasons  have  not  the  weight  with 
you  I  expect  they  should,  you  ought  at  least  to  put 
it  to  the  vote,  that,  if  a  majority  should  be  against 
it,  I  may  have  that  to  justify  myself  to  the  king  and 
the  world,  who  ought  to  be  satisfied  that  I  have  done 
all  I  can  for  serving  the  country,  and  discharging 
the  duty  of  my  station." 

By  this  letter  Governor  Johnson  thought  to  alarm 
and  terrify  the  people,  by  representing  the  dange- 
rous consequences  of  military  operations  under  un- 
lawful authority;  but  they  remained  firm  to  their 
purpose,  and  the  convention,  without  taking  any 
notice  of  it,  continued  to  do  business  with  Mr.  Moore 
as  they  had  begun.  Sir  Hovenden  Walker,  the 
president  of  their  council,  being  disgusted  at  their 
proceedings,  left  them,  and  retired  to  his  plantation; 
but  they  chose  Richard  Allein  in  his  stead,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  concert  measures  for  the  public  defence. 
They  proclaimed  martial  law,  and  ordered  all  the 
inhabitants  of  the  province  to  Charlestown  for  its 
defence.  All  the  officers  of  the  militia  accepted 
their  commissions  from  Mr.  Moore,  and  engaged  to 
stand  by  him  against  all  foreign  enemies.  For  two 
weeks  the  provincial  militia  were  kept  under  arms 
at  Charlestown  every  day,  expecting  the  appearance 
of  the  Spanish  fleet;  which  they,  were  informed  had 
sailed  from  the  Havanna.  Happily  for  them,  to  acquire 
possession  of  both  sides  of  the  gulf  of  Florida,  and  se- 
cure the  navigation  through  this  stream,  the  Spaniards 
had  resolved  first  to  attack  Providence,  and  then 
to  proceed  against  Carolina :  but  by  the  conduct 
and  courage  of  Captain  Rogers,  at  that  time  gover- 
nor of  the  island,  they  met  with  a  sharp  repulse  at 
Providence,  and  soon  after  they  lost  the  greatest  part 
of  their  fleet  in  a  storm. 

The  Spanish  expedition  having  thus  proved  abor- 
tive, the  Flamborough  man  of  war,  commanded  by 
Captain  Hildesley,  returned  to  her  station  at  Charles- 


town  from  Providence  island.  About  the  same 
time  his  majesty's  ship  Phoenix,  commanded  by 
Captain  Pierce,  arrived  from  a  cruise.  The  com- 
manders of  these  two  men-of-war  were  caressed  by 
both  parties,  but  they  publicly  declared  for  Governor 
Johnson,  as  the  magistrate  invested  with  legal  au- 
thority. Charles  Hart,  secretary  of  the  province,  by 
orders  from  the  governor  and  council,  had  secreted 
and  secured  the  public  records,  so  that  the  revolters 
could  not  obtain  possession  of  them.  The  clergy 
refused  to  marry  without  a  licence  from  Governor 
Johnson,  as  the  only  legal  ordinary  of  the  province. 
These  inconveniences  having  begun  to  operate,  ren- 
dered several  of  the  people  more  cool  in  their  affec- 
tion for  the  popular  government.  At  this  juncture 
Governor  Johnson,  with  the  assistance  of  the  cap- 
tains and  crews  of  the  ships  of  war,  made  his  last 
and  boldest  effort  for  subjecting  the  colonists  to  his 
authority.  He  brought  up  the  ships  of  war  in  front 
of  Charlestown,  and  threatened  their  capital  with 
immediate  destruction,  if  they  any  longer  refused 
obedience  to  legal  authority.  But  the  people  having 
both  arms  in  their  hands  for  defence,  and  forts  in 
their  possession  to  which  they  could  retreat,  bid  de- 
fiance to  his  power,  and  showed  him  plainly  that 
they  were  neither  to  be  won  by  flattery,  nor  terrified 
by  threats,  to  submit  their  necks  any  more  to  the 
proprietary  yoke ;  and  therefore,  for  the  future, 
Governor  Johnson  dropt  all  thoughts  of  making  any 
more  attempts  for  that  purpose. 

Nicholas  Trott  now  observing  the  frame  of  the 
proprietary  government  totally  destroyed,  and  a 
rival  judge  planted  in  his  room,  resolved  to  return 
to  England.  But  before  he  embarked  he  wrote  to 
Governor  Johnson,  acquainting  him  with  his  resolu- 
tion, and  promising,  if  he  would  contribute  towards 
defraying  his  expenses,  he  would  give  the  proprie- 
tors such  a  favourable  account  of  his  conduct  and 
services,  as  would  ensure  to  him  the  continuance  of 
his  office.  But  the  governor  being  no  stranger  to 
the  character  of  the  judge,  and  being  convinced  that 
both  the  revolt  of  the  people,  and  subversion  of  go- 
vernment, were  in  a  great  measure  to  be  ascribed  to 
his  pernicious  policy  and  secret  correspondence 
with  his  friend  the  secretary  to  the  proprietors,  dis- 
dainfully rejected  his  interest  and  friendship.  To 
which  disrespect  for  the  judge,  however,  Mr.  John- 
son attributed  many  of  the  injurious  suspicions  the 
proprietors  entertained  of  his  honour  and  fidelity, 
and  that  shameful  neglect  with  which  he  was  after- 
wards treated  by  them.  They  had  written  him  no 
answer  to  his  letters  respecting  the  violent  steps  the 
people  had  taken,  or  ever  informed  him  whether 
his  conduct  during  those  popular  commotions  had 
met  with  their  approbation  or  disapprobation.  Some 
of  them  even  alleged  that  he  was  privy  to  the  do- 
signs  of  the  malcontents  ;  and  gave  them  too  much 
countenance  and  indulgence;  but  every  principle 
of  honour,  duty,  and  interest  forbade  such  a  con- 
nivance, and  the  upright  and  respectable  character 
he  maintained  rendered  such  suspicions  unmerited. 
That  he  should  join  with  a  disaffected  multitude  in 
schemes  of  opposition,  to  divest  himself  of  his  go- 
vernment, was  a  thing  scarcely  to  be  supposed. 
That  he  should  first  connive  at  the  subversion  of 
the  proprietary  government,  and  afterwards  refuse 
to  govern  them  for  the  king,  when  solicited  so  to  do 
by  the  representatives  and  whole  body  of  the  people 
was  a  thing  very  improbable.  When  he  arrived  in 
the  province,  he  found  the  inhabitants  discontented 
and  unhappy,  but  little  suspected  they  had  any 
views  of  renouncing  their  allegiance  to  the  proprie- 


95* 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


tors ;  and  the  various  arts  the  people  used  to  con- 
ceal from  him  their  designs,  were  proofs  they  had 
every  thing  to  fear,  and  nothing  to  hope  for  from 
their  governor.  The  many  attempts  made  to  defeat 
their  measures  were  also  evidences  of  his  fidelity  to 
their  lordships,  and  firmness  in  support  of  their  go- 
vernment. He  indeed  differed  with  Trott  and  Rhett, 
the  two  favourites  of  the  proprietors,  and  perhaps 
to  this,  among  other  causes,  the  neglect  with  which 
he  was  treated  by  their  lordships  may  be  ascribed. 
For  as  they  discovered  on  all  occasions  such  a  par- 
tial regard  to  these  men,  and  placed  such  unlimited 
confidence  in  them,  the  person  who  differed  from 
them,  however  fair  and  unblemished  his  character, 
however  firmly  attached  to  their  interest,  was  not 
likely,  in  such  circumstances  of  difficulty,  to  escape 
all  injurious  suspicions. 

In  the  mean  time  the  agent  &>r  Carolina  had  pro- 
cured a  hearing  from  the  lords  of  the  regency  and 
council  in  England,  the  king  being  at  that  time 
in  Hanover;  who  gave  it  as  their  opinion,  that 
the  proprietors  had  forfeited  their  charter,  and  or- 
dered the  attorney-general  to  take  out  a  scire  facias 
against  it  In  consequence  of  which,  in  September 
1720,  they  appointed  General  Francis  Nicolson 
provisional  governor  of  the  province,  with  a  com- 
mission from  the  king.  Nicolson  was  a  man  pos- 
sessed of  honourable  principles  ;  and  was  generous, 
bold,  and  resolute.  He  had  been  governor  of 
several  different  colonies,  and  it  was  thought  his 
knowledge  and  experience  in  provincial  affairs  would 
render  him  well  qualified  for  the  important  trust. 
He  knew  his  duty  as  commander  and  chief,  and  was 
afraid  of  neither  dangers  nor  difficulties  in  the  exe- 
cution of  it;  a  warm  friend  to  the  king,  and  deeply 
concerned  for  the  prosperity  of  his  country. 

About  the  beginning  of  the  year  1721,  Francis 
Nicolson  arrived  in  Carolina,  and  having  the  sane 
tion  of  the  British  government  for  his  appointment, 
Mr.  Johnson  acquiesced  in  his  authority,  and  made 
no  more  efforts  in  behalf  of  the  lords  proprietors 
The  people  in  general  congratulated  one  another 
on  the  happy  change,  and  received  General  Nicol 
son  with  the  most  uncommon  and  extravagant  de- 
monstrations of  joy.  The  voice  of  murmur  and 
discontent,  together  with  the  fears  of  danger  and 
oppression,  were  now  banished  from  the  province. 
Happy  under  the  royal  care,  they  resolved  to  forge! 
all  former  animosities,  and  divisions,  and  bury  al 
past  offences  in  eternal  oblivion.  From  a  confused 
and  distracted  state  they  now  looked  upon  them- 
selves as  happily  delivered,  and  anticipated  in  ima- 
gination all  the  blessings  of  freedom  and  security, 
followed  by  industry  and  plenty,  approaching,  anc 
as  it  were  ready  to  diffuse  their  happy  influence  over 
the  country 

Soon  after  his  arrival,  Governor  Nicolson  issuec 
writs  for  the  election  of  a  new  assembly,  who  now 
entered  with  great  temper  and  cheerfulness  on  thi 
regulation  of  provincial  affairs.  They  chose  Jame 
Moore,  their  late  popular  governor,  speaker  of  the 
house,  of  whom  the  governor  declared  his  entire  ap 
probation.  The  first  business  they  engaged  in,  wa 
to  make  an  act,  declaring  they  recognised  and  ac 
knowledged  his  sacred  majesty  King  George,  to  bi 
the  rightful  sovereign  of  Great  Britain,  France,  anc 
Ireland,  and  of  all  the  dominions  and  provinces  be 
longing  to  the  empire,  and  in  particular  his  un 
doubted  right  to  the  province  of  Carolina.  All  ac 
tions  and  suits  at  law  commenced  on  account  of  th 
late  administration  of  James  Moore  by  particula 
gersons,  creating  misunderstandings  and  animosi 


es  among  the  people,  were  declared  void  and  null, 
ill  his  majesty's  pleasure  touching  such  adminis- 
ration  shall  be  known  ;  but  all  judicial  proceedings 
inder  the  same  administration  were  confirmed ; 
shich  acts  were  at  this  time  judged  proper  and  ne- 
essary  for  establishing  harmony  and  tranquillity 
.mong  the  inhabitants.  The  two  parties  formerly 
ubsisting,  the  one  composed  of  a  few  adherents  to 
governor  Johnson,  and  the  other  of  the  followers  of 
Fames  Moore,  Nicolson  had  the  good  fortune  to 
unite,  and,  by  the  wisdom  and  equity  of  his  admi- 
nistration, to  render  both  equally  happy  and  con- 
ented  under  the  royal  government  and  protection. 

Before  Governor  Nicolson  left  England,. a  sus- 
pension of  arms  between  Great  Britain  and  Spain 
lad  been  published,  and,  by  the  treaty  of  peace 
which  afterwards  took  place,  it  was  stipulated  that 
all  subjects  and  Indians  living  under  their  different 
urisdictions  should  cease  from  acts  of  hostility. 
Orders  were  sent  out  to  Don  Antonie-N-ayidez,  go- 
vernor of  Florida,  to  forbear  molesting  the\Caroli- 
neans;  and  the  British  govej>nor  had  also  iWruc- 
;ionsto  cultivate  the  friendship  and  good-will Jof  the 
Spanish  subjects  and  Indians  of  Florida.  In/conse- 
quence of  which,  Governor  Nicolson,  who  was  no 
stranger  to  the  manners  of  savages,  resolved  to  ap- 
ply himself  with  great  zeal  and  spirit  to  the  regula- 
:ion  of  Indian  affairs,  and  to  enter  into  treaties  of 
friendship  and  alliance  with  the  different  tribes 
around  the  settlement.  As  most  of  their  troubles 
from  Indians  had  been  occasioned  by  Europeans 
aking  possession  of  lands  claimed  by  them,  without 
their  permission  or  consent ;  the  first  object  that 
demanded  his  attention  was  to  fix  the  limits  and  ex- 
tent of  their  territories,  and  then  to  forbid  encroach- 
ments on  their  hunting-grounds.  With  these  views 
be  sent  a  message  to  the  Cherokees,  (a  powerful 
nation,  computed  at  this  time  to  consist  of  no  less 
than  6000  bowmen,)  acquainting  them,  that  he  had 
presents  to  make  them,  and  would  meet  them  at  the 
borders  of  their  territories,  to  hold  a  general  con- 
gress with  them,  in  order  to  treat  of  mutual  friend- 
ship and  commerce.  They  were  rejoiced  at  the  pro- 
posal, and  immediately  the  chiefs  of  37  different 
towns  set  out  to  meet  him. 

At  this  congress  the  governor  having  made  them 
several  presents,  and  smoked  the  pipe  of  peace  with 
them,  marked  the  boundaiies  of  the  lands  between 
them  and  the  English  settlers.  He  regulated  all 
weights  and  measures,  that  justice  might  be  done 
them  in  the  way  of  traffic.  He  appointed  an  agent 
to  superintend  their  affairs,  and,  to  unite  them  under 
a  common  head,  proposed  to  nominate  one  warrior 
as  commander  and  chief  of  the  whole  nation,  before 
whom  all  complaints  were  to  be  laid,  and  who  was 
to  acquaint  the  governor  with  every  injury  done 
them.  With  the  consent  of  all  present  a  leader  of 
the  name  of  Wrosetasatow  was  declared  chief  war- 
rior of  the  Cherokee  nation,  with  full  power  to  punish 
all  guilty  of  depredations  and  murders,  and  to  ob- 
tain satisfaction  for  every  injury  done  to  Indians 
from  the  British  settlers.  After  which  the  Indians 
returned  to  their  towns,  highly  pleased  with  their 
new  ally.  The  governor  then  proceeded  to  conclude 
another  treaty  with  the  Creeks,  who  were  also  a 
numerous  and  formidable  nation.  He  likewise  ap- 
pointed an  agent  to  reside  among  them,  whese  busi- 
ness was  to  regulate  Indian  affairs  in  a  friendly  and 
equitable  manner,  and  fixed  on  Savanna  river  as 
the  boundary  of  their  hunting-lands,  beyond  which 
no  settlements  were  to  extend. 

Having  now  secured  the  province  as  well  as  pos- 


UNITED  STATES. 


953 


sible  against  the  external  foes,  Governor  Nicolson 
turned  his  attention  next  to  internal  regulations, 
particularly  to  such  as  respected  the  religious  in- 
struction of  the  people.  For  though  he  was  bred  a 
soldier,  and  was  profane  and  passionate  himself,  yet 
he  was  not  insensible  of  the  great  advantage  of  reli- 
gion to  government  and  society.  The  number  of 
inhabitants  in  each  parish  being  considerably  in- 
creased, it  was  found  necessary  to  enlarge  several 
churches  for  their  accommodation.  The  inhabitants 
of  St.  Paul's  parish,  many  of  whom  had  their  houses 
burnt,  and  who  had  otherwise  suffered  heavy  losses  in 
the  Yamassee  war,  were  obliged  to  apply  to  the 
public  for  assistance  in  this  laudable  design.  The 
parish  of  St.  George  was  separated  from  that  of  St. 
Andrews  by  an  act  of  assembly,  and  a  new  church 
was  built  at  a  small  village  called  Dorchester,  by 
public  allowance  and  private  contributions.  The 
inhabitants  in  and  about  Georgetown,  who  had  long 
lived  without  the  benefit  of  public  worship,  insomuch 
that  the  appearance  of  religion  among  them  had 
almost  entirely  vanished,  claimed  particular  atten- 
tion. To  erect  a  church  in  this  quarter  the  governor 
proposed  a  private  subscription,  and  set  the  exam- 
ple by  largely  contributing  towards  -the  public  insti- 
tution. He  made  application  to  the  society  in  En- 
gland for  propagating  the  Gospel,  and  they  supplied 
the  province  with  clergymen,  giving  each  of  them 
a  yearly  allowance  over  and  above  the  provincial 
salary.  As  no  public  schools  had  yet  been  instituted 
the  governor  urged  also  the  necessity  of  such  es- 
tablishments. It  was  alleged,  that  the  want  of 
early  instruction  was  one  of  the  chief  sources  of  im- 
piety and  immorality,  and  if  they  continued  any 
longer  to  neglect  the  rising  generation,  they  would 
soon  have  a  race  of  white  people  in  the  country 
equally  ignorant  as  the  red  Indians.  Animated  by 
the  example,  and  assisted  by  the  generosity  of  their 
governor,  the  colonists  therefore  earnestly  engaged 
in  providing  seminaries  for  the  religious  education 
of  youth.  Besides  general  contributions,  several 
particular  legacies  were  also  left  for  this  purpose. 
Mr.  Whitmarsh  left  500J.  tc  St.  Paul's  parish,  for 
founding  a  free- school  in  it.  Mr.  Ludlam,  the  so- 
ciety's missionary  at  Goose-creek,  bequeathed  all 
his  estate,  which'was  computed  to  amount  to  2000/. 
Carolina  currency,  for  the  same  purpose.  Richard 
Beresfords,  by  his  will,  bequeathed  the  annual  pro- 
fits of  his  estate  to  be  paid  to  the  vestry  of  St. 
Thomas  parish  in  trust,  until  his  son,  then  eight 
years  of  age,  should  arrive  at  the  age  of  21  years  ; 
directing  them  to  apply  one-third  of  the  yearly  pro- 
fits of  this  estate  for  the  support  of  one  or  more 
schoolmasters,  who  should  teach  reading,  accounts, 
mathematics,  and  other  liberal  learning;  and  the 
other  two-thirds  for  the  support,  maintenance,  and 
education  of  the  poor  of  that  parish.  The  vestry 
accordingly  received  from  this  estate  6500J.  Caro- 
lina money,  for  promoting  those  pious  and  charita- 
ble purposes.  The  society  in  England  sent  out 
teachers,  money  and  books,  and  assisted  greatly, 
by  their  zeal  and  bounty,  towards  the  religious  in- 
struction of  the  people ;  and  in  Charlestown,  and 
in  several  other  parishes  in  the  country,  public 
schools  were  built  and  endowed. 

We  have  now  to  relate  an  instance  of  the  torce 
of  enthusiasm,  which,  like  the  Antinomian  schism, 
and  the  belief  in  witchcraft,  which  disturbed  Bos- 
ton, a  few  years  before,  may  be  traced  to  the  frenzy 
that  the  study  of  abstruse  theological  doctrines  very 
often  led  the  early  dissenters  into.  We  give  it  in 
the  words  of  a  cotemporary  writer  :— 


"  The  family  of  Dutartres  consisting  of  four  sons 
and  four  daughters,  were  descendants  of  French 
refugees,  who  came  into  Carolina  after  the  revo- 
cation of  the  edict  of  Nantz.  They  lived  in  Orange- 
quarter,  and  though  in  low  circumstances  always 
maintained  an  honest  character,  and  were  esteemed 
by  their  neighbours,  persons  of  blameless  and  irre- 
proachable lives.  But  at  this  time  a  strolling  Mora- 
vian preacher  happening  to  come  to  that  quarter 
where  they  lived,  insinuated  himself  into  their  family, 
and  partly  by  conversation,  and  partly  by  the  wri- 
tings of  Jacob  Behmen,  which  he  put  into  their 
hands,  filled  their  heads  with  wild  and  fantastic  ideas. 
Unhappily  for  the  poor  family  those  strange  notions 
gained  ground  on  them,  insomuch  that  in  one  year 
they  began  to  withdraw  themselves  from  the  ordi- 
nances of  public  worship,  and  all  conversation  with 
the  world  around  them,  and  strongly  to  imagine  they 
were  the  only  family  upon  earth  who  had  the  know- 
ledge of  the  true  God,  and  whom  he  vouchsafed  to 
instruct,  either  by  the  immediate  impulses  of  his 
Spirit,  or  by  signs  and  tokens  from  heaven.  At 
length  it  came  to  open  visions  and  revelations.  God 
raised  up  a  prophet  among  them,  like  unto  Moses, 
to  whom  he  taught  them  to  hearken.  This  prophet 
was  Peter  Rombert,  who  had  married  the  eldest 
daughter  of  the  family  when  a  widow.  To  this  man 
the  author  and  governor  of  the  world  deigned  to  re- 
veal, in  the  plainest  manner,  that  the  wickedness 
of  man  was  again  so  great  in  the  world,  that  as  in 
the  days  of  Noah  he  was  determined  to  destroy  all 
men  from  off  the  face  of  it,  except  one  family  whom 
he  would  save  for  raising  up  a  godly  seed  upon  earth. 
This  revelation  Peter  Rombert  was  sure  of,  and  felt 
it  as  plain  as  the  wind  blowing  on  his  body,  and  the 
rest  of  the  family,  with  equal  confidence  and  pre- 
sumption, firmly  believed  it. 

"  A  few  days  after  this,  God  was  pleased  to  reveal 
himself  a  second  time  to  the  prophet,  saying,  Put 
away  the  woman  whom  thou  hast  for  thy  wife,  and 
when  I  have  destroyed  this  wicked  generation,  I 
will  raise  up  her  first  husband  from  the  dead,  and 
they  shall  be  man  and  wife  as  before,  and  go  thou 
and  take  to  wife  her  youngest  sister,  who  is  a  virgin, 
so  shall  the  chosen  family  be  restored  entire,  and  the 
holy  seed  preserved  pure  and  undefiled  in  it.  At 
first  the  father,  when  he  heard  of  this  revelation, 
was  staggered  at  so  extraordinary  a  command  from, 
heaven  ;  but  the  prophet  as-sured  him  that  God  would 
give  him  a  sign,  which  accordingly  happened ;  upon 
which  the  old  man  took  his  youngest  daughter  by 
the  hand,  and  gave  her  to  the  wise  prophet  immedi- 
ately for  his  wife,  who  without  further  ceremony 
took  the  damsel  to  his  bed.  Thus  for  some  time 
they  continued  in  acts  of  incest  and  adultery,  until 
that  period  which  made  the  fatal  discovery,  and  in- 
troduced the  bloody  scene  of  blind  fanaticism  and 
madness. 

'  Those  deluded  wretches  were  so  far  possessed 
with  the  false  conceit  of  their  own  righteousness  and 
loliness,  and  of  the  horrid  wickedness  of  all  others, 
that  they  refused  obedience  to  the  civil  magistrate, 
and  all  laws  and  ordinances  of  men.  Upon  pretence 
that  God  commanded  them  to  bear  no  arms,  they 
not  only  refused  to  comply  with  the  militia  law,  but 
ilso  the  law  for  repairing  the  high-ways.  After  long 
brbearance,  Mr.  Simmons,  a  worthy  magistrate, 
and  the  officer  of  the  militia  in  that  quarter,  found 
t  necessary  to  issue  his  warrants  for  levying  the 
penalty  of  the  laws  upon  them.  But  by  this  time 
Judith  Dutartre,  the  wife  t-he  prophet  obtained  by 
revelation,  proving  with  child,  another  warrant  was 


954 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


issued  for  bringing  her  before  the  justice  to  be  exa- 
mined, and  bound  over  to  the  general  sessions,  in 
consequence  of  a  law  of  the  province,  framed  for 
preventing  bastardy.  The  constable  having  received 
his  warrants,  and  being  jealous  of  meeting  with  no 
good  usage  in  the  execution  of  his  office,  prevailed 
on  two  or  three  of  his  neighbours  to  go  along  with 
him.  The  family  observing  the  constable  coming, 
and  being  apprised  of  his  errand,  consulted  their 
prophet,  who  soon  told  them  that  God  commanded 
them  to  arm,  and  defend  themselves  against  perse- 
cution, and  their  substance  against  the  robberies  of 
ungodly  men ;  assuring  them  at  the  same  time  that 
no  weapon  formed  against  them  should  prosper. 
Accordingly  they  did  so,  and  laying  hold  of  their 
arms,  fired  on  the  con-stable  and  his  followers,  and 
drove  them  out  of  their  plantation.  Such  behaviour 
was  not  to  be  tolerated,  and  therefore  Captain  Sim- 
mons gathered  a  party  of  militia,  and  went  to  pro- 
tect the  constable  in  the  execution  of  his  office. 
When  the  deluded  family  saw  the  justice  and  his 
party  approaching,  they  shut  themselves  up  in  their 
house,  and  firing  from  it  like  furies,  shot  Captain 
Simmons  dead  on  the  spot,  and  wounded  several  of 
his  party.  The  militia  returned  the  fire,  killed  one 
woman  within  the  house,  and  afterwards  forcibly  en- 
tering it,  took  the  rest' prisoners  siy  i-u  number  and 
brought  them  to  Charlestown. 

"  At  the  court  of  general  sessions,  held  in  Sep- 
tember 1724,  three  of  them  were  brought  to  trial, 
found  guilty  and  condemned.  Alas!  miserable 
creatures,  what  amazing  infatuation  possessed  them! 
They  pretended  they  had  the  Spirit  of  God  leading 
them  to  all  truth,  they  knew  it  and  felt  it :  but  this 
spirit,  instead  of  influencing  them  to  obedience,  pu- 
rity, and  peace,  commanded  them  to  commit  rebel- 
lion, incest,  and  murder.  What  is  still  more  asto- 
nishing, the  principal  persons  among  them,  I  mean 
the  prophet,  the  father  of  the  family,  and  Michael 
Boneau,  never  were  convinced  of  their  delusion,  but 
persisted  in  it  until  their  last  breath.  During  their 
trial  they  appeared  altogether  unconcerned  and  se- 
cure, affirming  that  God  was  on  their  side,  and 
therefore  they  feared  not  what  man  could  do  unto 
them.  They  freely  told  the  incestuous  story  in  open 
court  in  all  its  circumstances  and  aggravations,  with 
a  good  countenance,  and  very  readily  confessed  the 
facts  respecting  their  rebellion  and  murder,  with 
which  they  stood  charged,  but  pled  their  authority 
from  God  in  vendication  of  themselves,  and  insisted 
they  had  done  nothing  in  either  case  but  by  his  ex- 
press command. 

"  As  it  is  commonly  the  duty  of  clergymen  to  visit 
persons  under  sentence  of  death,  both  to  convince 
them  of  their  error  and  danger,  and  prepare  them 
for  death  by  bring  them  to  a  penitent  disposition ; 
Alexander  Garden,  the  episcopal  minister  of  Charles- 
town,  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  this  account,  at- 
tended those  condemned  persons  with  great  dili- 
gence and  concern.  What  they  had  affirmed  in 
the  court  of  justice,  they  repeated  and  confessed  to 
him  in  like  manner  in  the  prison.  When  he  began 
to  reason  with  them,  and  to  explain  the  heinous 
nature  of  their  crimes,  they  treated  him  with  disdain. 
Their  motto  was,  Answer  him  not  a  word ;  who  is  he 
that  should  presume  to  teach  them,  who  had  the 
Spirit  of  God  speaking  inwardly  to  their  souls.  In 
all  they  had  done,  they  said  they  had  obeyed  the 
voice  of  God,  and  were  now  about  to  suffer  martyr- 
dom for  his  religion.  But  God  had  assured  them, 
that  he  would  either  work  a  deliverance  for  them, 
or  raise  them  up  from  the  dead  on  the  third  day. 


These  things  the  three  men  continued  confidently  to 
believe,  and  notwithstanding  all  the  means  used  to 
convince  them  of  their  mistake,  persisted  in  the 
same  belief  until  the  moment  they  expired.  At  their 
execution  they  told  the  spectators  with  seeming  tri- 
umph, they  should  soon  see  them  again,  for  they 
were  certain  they  should  rise  from  the  dead  on  the 
third  day. 

"  With  respect  to  the  other  three,  the  daughter 
Judith  being  with  child,  was  not  tried,  and  the  two 
sous,  David  and  John  Dutartre,  about  eighteen  and 
twenty  years  of  age,  having  been  also  tried  and 
condemned,  continued  sullen  and  reserved,  in  hopes 
of  seeing  those  that  were  executed  rise  from  the 
dead,  but  being  disappointed,  they  became,  or  at 
least  seemed  to  become,  sensible  of  their  error,  and 
were  both  'pardoned.  Yet  not  long  afterwards  one 
of  them  relapsed  into  the  same  snare,  and  murdered 
an  innocent  person,  without  either  provocation  or 
previous  quarrel,  and  for  no/tftlierr&ason,  as  he 
confessed,  but  that  God  had/commanded\  him  so  to 
do.  Being  a  second  time/brought  to  trial,  he  was 
found  guilty  of  murder,  and  condemned.  /Mr.  Gar- 
den attended  him  again  under  the  secontt  sentence, 
and  acknowledged,  with  great  appearance  of  success. 
No  man  could  appear  more  deeply  sensible  of  his 
error  and  delusion,  or  could  die  a  more  sincere  and 
hearty  penitent  on  account  of  his  horrid  crimes. 
With  great  attention  he  listened  to  Mr.  Garden, 
while  he  explained  to  him  the  terms  of  pardon  and 
salvation  proposed  in  the  Gospel,  and  seemed  to  die 
in  the  humble  hopes  of  mercy,  through  the  all-suffi- 
cient merits  of  a  Redeemer." 

Thus  ended  this  wretched  scene  of  fanaticism,  ia 
which  seven  persons  lost  their  lives  :  one  being  killed, 
two  murdered,  and  four  executed  for  the  murders  ; 
— a  signal  and  melancholy  instance  of  the  extrava- 
gance and  madness  to  which  an  inflamed  imagina- 
tion will  excite  weak  minds. 

About  this  time  the  number  of  white  inhabitants, 
including  men,  women,  and  children,  was  computed 
to  amount  to  14,000,  an  increase,  in  the  space  of  54 
years  after  the  arrival  of  the  first  colony,  very  in- 
considerable, and  occasioned,  no  doubt,  both  by  the 
unhealthiness  of  the  climate,  and  by  the  discourage- 
ments and  difficulties  which  prevailed  during  the 
proprietary  government.  The  province  now  fur- 
nished the  inhabitants  with  provisions  in  abundance, 
and  exported  what  it  could  spare  to  the  West  Indies. 
The  white  inhabitants  lived  frugally,  as  luxury  had 
not  yet  crept  in  among  them,  and,  except  a  little 
rum  and  sugar,  tea  and  coffee,  were  contented  with 
what  their  plantations  afforded.  Maize  and  Indian 
peas  seemed  congenial  with  the  soil  and  climate  : 
and  as  they  had  been  cultivated  by  the  savages  for 
provision,  they  were  found  also  to  be  excellent  food 
for  European  labourers,  and  more  wholesome  and 
nourishing  than  rice.  Maize  does  not  thrive  on  a 
watery  soil,  but  on  dry  and  loose  land.  As  the  use 
of  the  plough  could  not  be  introduced  until  the  lands 
were  cleared  of  the  roots  of  trees,  to  prepare  a  field 
for  planting  it  required  great  labour.  Ridges  were 
commonly  made  with  the  hoe  about  five  feet  asunder, 
upon  the  top  of  which  the  seed  was  planted  three 
inches  deep.  One  gallon  of  maize  will  sow  an  acre, 
which,  with  skilful  management  on  good  lands,  will 
yield  in  favourable  seasons  from  30  to  50  bushels. 
While  it  grows  it  requires  to  be  frequently  weeded, 
and  the  earth  carefully  thrown  up  about  the  root  of 
the  plant,  to  facilitate  its  progress.  As  it  rises  high, 
at  the  root  of  it  the  Indian  peas  are  usually  planted, 
which  climb  up  its  stalk  like  a  vine,  so*  that  the 


UNITED  STATES. 


955 


lands  yield  a  double  crop.  From  the  stem  of  maize 
large  blades  spring,  which  the  planters  carefully 
gather,  and  which,  when  properly  cured,  the  horses 
or  cattle  will  prefer  before  the  finest  hay.  These 
two  articles,  maize  and  Indian  peas,  together  with 
the  Spanish  potatoes,  were  the  chief  subsistence  of 
their  unhappy  slaves,  consisting  chiefly  of  negroes 
and  a  few  Indians,  and  who,  at  this  time,  men,  wo- 
men, and  children,  amounted  to  between  16,000 
and  20,000. 

In  the  year  1724,  439  slaves,  and  also  British 
goods  and  manufactures  of  different  kinds,  to  the 
amount  of  between  50,000  and  60,OOOJ.  sterling, 
were  imported  into  the  province.  In  exchange  for 
these  slaves  and  commodities,  18,000  barrels  of  rice, 
and  about  52,000  barrels  of  pitch,  tar  and  turpen- 
tine, together  with  deer-skins,  furs,  and  raw  silk, 
were  exported  to  England.  This  trade  was  carried 
on  almost  entirely  in  British  ships,  and  employed 
a  number  of  hands.  The  Carolineans  also  traded  to 
the  West  Indies,  and  several  small  ships  and  sloops 
were  employed  in  carrying  provisions,  lumber,  staves 
and  naval  stores  to  these  islands,  which  they  bar- 
tered for  sugar,  rum,  molasses,  coffee,  cotton,  and 
Spanish  gold  and  silver.  To  New  England,  New 
York,  and  Pennsylvania,  they  sent  some  rice,  hides, 
deer-skins,  tar  and  pitch,  and  had  in  exchange,  flour, 
salt  fish,  fruit,  beer,  and  cider. 

All  the  gold  and  silver  that  came  into  the  pro- 
vince from  the  West  Indies  was  commonly  sent  into 
Britain,  to  answer  the  merchants'  demands  there  ; 
and  bills  of  credit  continued  increasing  and  circu- 
lating, for  the  convenience  of  domestic  commerce  : 
40,000/.  were  issued  during  Nicolson's  government, 
over  and  above  former  emissions,  by  which  increase 
the  exchange  with  Britain,  and  the  price  of  produce 
arose  in  one  year  from  500  to  600  per  cent.  This 
has  never  failed  to  be  the  consequence  of  issuing 
large  quantities  of  paper-money  in  Carolina :  for 
whenever  this  currency  was  permitted  to  increase 
beyond  what  was  necessary  for  the  purposes  of  com- 
merce, it  sunk  in  value,  and  proportionably  in- 
creased the  nominal  price  of  provisions  and  labour  ; 
and  of  course  shouldit  by  any  accident  be  diminished, 
the  price  would  again  fall.  Besides  this,  when  the 
imports  happened  to  exceed  the  exports,  the  great 
demand  for  bills  of  exchange  raised  the  price  of 
them,  and  helped  to  increase  the  depreciation  of  the 
current  money  of  the  province. 

Among  other  traders,  at  this  time  Othneal  Beale 
commanded  a  ship  in  the  Carolina  trade  ;  and  while 
sailing  from  Charlestown  to  London,  not  being  pro- 
vided with  a  Mediterranean  pass,  he  was  taken  by 
an  Algerine  rover,  who  determined  to  carry  him  to 
Barbary,  and  for  this  purpose  took  the  English 
sailors  on  board,. and  manned  Captain  Beale's  ship 
with  Algerines,  giving  them  orders  to  follow  him  to 
the  Mediterranean  sea.  Soon  after,  a  storm  arising 
in  the  night  separated  the  two  ships,  and  Captain 
Beale  being  the  only  person  on  board  that  under- 
stood navigation,  resolved  to  avail  himself  of  the  ad- 
vantage, and  accordingly,  instead  of  sailing  for 
Africa,  steered  directly  for  England.  Upon  his  ar- 
rival the  Algerine  sailors  were  surpiised,  but  not  at 
all  displeased  ;  they  even  confessed  to  their  ambas- 
sador the  kind  usage  they  had  received ;  upon  which 
Captain  Beale  had  all  he  lost  returned  by  agreement, 
together  with  thanks  for  his  humanity.  This  bold 
adventure  likewise  procured  the  captain  the  honour 
of  an  introduction  to  the  king,  who  expressed  a  de- 
sire of  seeing  him,  and  ordered  Lord  Carteret,  then 
secretary  of  state,  to  make  him  a  handsome  present 


on  the  occasion.  This  memorable  anecdote  being 
published,  served  to  mark  him  for  a  man  of  address 
and  courage  in  Carolina,  where  he  afterwards  took 
up  his  Besidence,  and  in  time  arrived  at  the  chief 
command  of  the  militia,  was  made  a  member  of  his 
majesty's  council,  and  died  at  the  age  of  85,  a  rare 
instance  of  longevity  in  that  country. 

In  the  year  1725,  Governor  Nicolson  having  ob- 
tained leave  from  the  king,  returned  to  Great  Britain, 
and  the  government  devolved  on  Arthur  Middleton, 
president  of  the  council ;  who  though  of  a  reserved 
and  mercenary  disposition,  was  a  sensible  man,  and 
by  no  means  ill  qualified  for  governing  the  province. 
But  having  succeeded  a  man  who  liberally  spent  all 
his  salary  and  perquisites  of  office  in  promoting  the 
public  good,  he  was  neither  so  much  distinguished 
nor  respected  among  the  colonists.  Being  possessed 
of  a  moderate  fortune,  his  chief  study  was  to  improve 
it,  and  he  seemed  to  aspire  after  the  character  of  a 
rich  man  in  private  life,  rather  than  that  of  a  popu- 
lar governor  and  generous  benefactor.  As  he  had 
taken  an  active  part  against  the  proprietary  govern- 
ment, he  was  not  insensible  of  the  advantages  now 
gained  from  the  countenance  given  the  colony  by  the 
crown,  and  was  equally  careful  to  promote  loyalty 
to  the  king  as  the  freedom  and  safety  of  his  fellow- 
subjects. 

At  this  time  the  boundaries  between  the  provinces 
of  Carolina  and  Florida  were  neither  clearly  marked 
nor  well  understood,  as  they  had  never  been  settled 
by  any  public  agreement  or  treaty  between  En- 
;land  and  Spain.  To  prevent  negroes  escaping  to 
he  Spanish  territories,  and  overawe  the  Indians 
under  the  Spanish  jurisdiction,  the  Carolineans  had 
built  a  fort  on  the  forks  of  the  river  Alatamaha,  and 
supported  a  small  garrison  in  it.  This  gave  um- 
brage to  the  governor  of  Augustine,  who  complained 
of  it  to  the  court  of  Madrid,  representing  it  as  an 
encroachment  on  the  dominions  of  Spain,  and  as  an 
attempt  to  seduce  the  Indians  from  their  allegiance 
to  his  Catholic  majesty.  The  Spanish  ambassador 
at  London  lodged  the  complaint  before  the  court  of 
Britain,  and  demanded  that  orders  should  be  sent 
out  to  Carolina  immediately  to  demolish  it.  To  pre- 
vent any  interruption  of  the  good  correspondence 
then  subsisting  between  the  two  courts,  it  was  agreed 
to  send  orders  to  both  governors  in  America  to  meet 
in  an  amicable  manner,  and  settle  the  respective 
boundaries  between  the  British  and  Spanish  do 
minions  in  that  quarter.  Accordingly  soon  after 
Don  Francisco  Menandez,  and  Don  Joseph  de  Ra- 
biero,  came  to  Charlestown,  to  hold  a  conference 
with  the  president  and  council  of  Carolina  about  this 
matter.  At  their  meeting,  Mr.  Middleton  showed 
those  deputies,  that  this  fort  was  built  within  the 
bounds  of  the  charter  granted  to  the  proprietors, 
and  that  the  pretensions  of  Spain  to  such  lands  were 
groundless.  At  the  same  time  he  told  them,  that 
the  fort  on  the  river  Alatamaha  was  erected  for  de- 
fending themselves  and  their  property  against  the 
depredations  of  Indians  living  under  the  jurisdiction 
of  Spain.  Then  he  begged  to  know  from  them  their 
reasons  for  protecting  felons  and  debtors  that  fled 
from  Carolina  to  them,  and  for  encouraging  negroes 
to  leave  their  masters  and  take  refuge  at  Augustine, 
while  peace  subsisted  between  the  two  crowns  ?  The 
deputies  replied,  That  the  governor  of  Florida  would 
deliver  up  all  felons  and  debtors ;  but  had  express 
orders  for  twenty  years  past,  to  detain  all  slaves  who 
should  fly  to  Augustine  for  liberty  and  protection. 
Middleton  declared  he  looked  on  such  injurious  or- 
ders as  a  breach  of  national  honour  and  faith,  espe- 


956 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


cially  as  negroes  were  ico,i  property,  as  much  as  houses 
and  lands,  in  Carolina;  a  speech  which  cannot  but 
make  one  shudder.  The  deputies  answered,  That 
the  design  of  the  king  of  Spain  was  not  to  injure 
private  men,  having  ordered  compensation  to  be 
made  to  the  masters  of  such  slaves  in  money  ;  but 
that  his  humanity  and  religion  enjoined  him  to  issue 
such  orders  for  the  sake  of  converting  slaves  to  the 
Christian  faith.  The  conference  ended  to  the  satis- 
faction of  neither  party,  and  matters  remained  as 
they  were;  but  soon  after,  the  English  fort,  built  of 
wood,  was  burned  to  the  ground,  and  the  southern 
frontiers  of  Carolina  were  again  left  naked  and  de- 
fenceless. 

As  no  final  agreement,  with  respect  to  the  limits 
of  the  two  provinces  had  been  concluded,  the  Indians 
in  alliance  with  Spain  continued  to  harass  the  Bri- 
tish settlements :  particularly  the  Yamassees,  who 
penetrated  into  Carolina  in  scalping  parties  ;  killing 
all  the  white  men,  and  carrying  off  every  negro 
they  could.  Though  the  owners  of  slaves  had  been 
allowed  from  the  Spanish  government  a  compensa- 
tion in  money  for  their  losses,  yet  few  of  them  ever 
received  it,  and  at  last  Colone'l  Palmer  resolved  to 
make  reprisals  on  those  plunderers,  since  no  ade- 
quate recompense  could  otherwise  be  obtained.  For 
this  purpose  he  gathered  together  a  party  of  militia 
and  friendly  Indians,  consisting  in  all  of  about  300 
men,  and  entered  Florida,  with  a  resolution  of 
spreading  desolation  throughout  the  province.  He 
carried  his  arms  as  far  as  the  gates  of  Augustine, 
and  compelled  the  inhabitants  to  take  refuge  iu  their 
castle.  Scarce  a  house  or  hut  in  the  colony  escaped 
the  flames.  He  destroyed  their  provisions  in  the 
fields,  and  drove  off  their  cattle,  hogs  and  horses. 
Some  Indians  he  killed,  and  others  he  made  pri- 
soners. In  short,  he  left  the  people  of  Florida  little 
property,  except  what  was  protected  by  the  guns  of 
their  fort,  and  by  this  expedition  convinced  the 
Spaniards  of  their  weakness,  and  the  bad  policy 
of  encouraging  Indians  to  molest  the  subjects  o 
Britain.  But  such  a  state  of  society  is  shocking  to 
reflect  on,  and  bespeaks  either  some  great  defect  on 
the  part  of  the  early  legislators,  or  great  demorali 
zation  on  that  of  the  settlers. 

By  this  time  the  Spaniards  were  not  the  only 
neighbours  that  annoyed  the  Carolineans.  Th* 
French  settled  in  Louisiana  were  also  advancin 
nearer  them,  and  using  all  their  address  for  gaining 
an  influence  with  these  savage  nations.  They  erectec 
a  strong  hold,  called  Fort  Alabama,  high  up  on 
Mobile  river,  which  was  excellently  situated  fo 
opening  and  carrying  on  a  correspondence  with  th 
most  powerful  nations  around  the  British  settlement 
The  Carolineans  had  good  reason  to  be  on  thei 
guard  against  the  influence  of  these  insinuating 
and  enterprising  neighbours.  The  tribes  of  Uppe 
Creeks,  whose  hunting-lands  extended  to  their  fort 
were  soon  won  over  by  promises  and  largesses  to  an 
alliance  with  them.  The  Cherokees  indeed  lived  a 
a  greater  distance  from  them,  and  yet  by  means  c 
Creeks  and  other  emissaries,  whom  they  sent  amoni 
them,  they  endeavoured  also  to  bring  them  over  t 
their  interest.  The  river  Mississippi  being  navigabl 
a  great  way  from  its  mouth,  opened  a  communicatio: 
with  the  Choctaws,  Chikesaws,  and  other  nation 
residing  near  it.  So  that  the  French  had  many  ex 
cellent  opportunities  of  seducing  Indians  from  the 
alliance  with  Britain.  The  president  of  Carolin 
employed  Captain  Tobias  Fitch  among  the  Creek 
and  Colonel  George  Chicken  among  the  Cherokee! 
to  keep  these  tribes  steady  and  firm  to  the  Britis 


terest.  These  agents,  however,  during  the  whole 
me  Mr.  Middleton  presided  over  the  colony,  found 
o  small  difficulty  in  counteracting  the  influence  of 
rench  policy,  and  preventing  their  union  and  alli- 
nce  with  these  enemies.  From  this  period  the 
ritish  and  French  settlers  in  America  became  com- 
etitors  for  power  and  influence  over  the  Indian  na- 
ons,  the  one  or  the  other  of  whom  were  always  ex- 
osed  to  danger  and  trouble  from  them,  in  propor 
on  to  the  success  of  their  rivals;  and  the  Caroli- 
eans  were  further  from  peace  and  safety  than  ever, 
"he  French  supplied  these  savages  with  tomahawks, 
tuskets,  and  ammunition,  by  which  means  they 
aid  aside  the  bow  and  arrow,  and  became  more 
angerous  and  formidable  enemies  than  they  had 
een  in  any  former  period. 

During  the  summer  of  172£rtte~weather  i"  Caro- 
na  was  observed  to  be  uncommonly  hot,  by  which 
ic  earth  was  parched, /the  pools  of"  standing  water 
ned  up,  and  the  cattle  were  reduced  to  great  dis- 
ress.  After  such  a  long  and  general/ drought  the 
nhabitants  having  usually  observed-hurricanes  and 
ornadoes  to  follow  in  autumn,  began  to  expect  one 
s  that  season  of  the  year  approached;  and  their 
ears  were  fulfilled  by  a  dreadful  tornado  which  oc- 
urred  in  the  end  of  August,  and  occasioned  an  iu- 
mdation,  that  over  flowed  the  town  aud  the  lowlands, 
ind  did  incredible  damage  to  the  fortifications,  houses, 
wharfs,  shipping,  and  corn-fields.  The  streets  of 
3harlestown  were  covered  with  boats  and  boards, 
and  the  inhabitants  were  obliged  to  take  refuge  in 
he  higher  stores  of  their  dwelling-houses.  Tweuty- 
hree  ships  were  driven  ashore,  most  of  which  were 
;ither  greatly  damaged,  or  dashed  to  pieces;  and 
he  Fox  and  Garland  men-of-war,  stationed  there 
'or  the  protection  of  trade,  were  the  only  ships  that 
rode  out  the  storm.  This  hurricane,  though  it  le- 
velled many  thousand  trees  in  the  maritime  parts, 
vet  so  thick  was  the  forest,  that  it  was  scarcely  per- 
ceived 100  miles  from  the  shore.  But  as  such  vio- 
ent  storms  are  probably  occasioned  by  the  rarefac- 
ion  of  the  air,  with  excessive  heat,  they  are  seldom 
>f  long  duration,  for  having  restored  the  equipoise 
n  the  atmosphere,  the  wind  commonly  shifts,  and 
the  tempest  ceases. 

The  same  year  an  infectious  and  pestilential  dis- 
Lemper,  commonly  called  the  Yellow  Fever,  broke 
out  in  Charlestown,  and  swept  off  multitudes  of  the 
nhabitants,  both  white  and  black.  Although  the 
town  depended  entirely  on  the  country  for  fresh  pro- 
visions, the  planters  would  suffer  no  person  to  carry 
supplies  to  it,  for  fear  of  catchiug  the  infection,  and 
bringing  it  to  the  country.  The  physicians  knew 
not  how  to  treat  the  then  almost  unknown  disorder 
which  was  so  suddenly  caught,  and  proved  so  quickly 
fatal ;  and  the  calamity  was  so  general,  that  few 
could  grant  assistance  to  their  distressed  neighbours. 
So  many  funerals  happening  every  day,  while  so 
many  lay  sick,  sufficient  white  persons  for  burying 
the  dead  were  scarcely  to  be  found;  and  though 
they  were  ofteu  interred  on  the  same  day  they  died, 
so  quick  was  the  putrefaction,  so  offensive  and  in- 
fectious were  the  corpses,  that  even  the  nearest  re- 
lations seemed  averse  from  the  necessary  duty. 

But  notwithstanding  these  calamities,  one  memo- 
rable event  distinguished  this  year,  which  was  at- 
tended with  many  beneficial  consequences  to  the 
province.  An  act  of  parliament  passed  in  Britain 
for  establishing  an  agreement  with  seven  of  the 
proprietors  for  a  surrender  of  their  right  and  in- 
terest, not  only  in  the  government,  but  also  in  the 
soil  aud  lauds  of  the  province,  to  toe  king.  The 


UNITED  STATES. 


$67 


purchase  was  made  for  17,5(XH.  sterling,  to  be  paid 
before  the  end  of  September  1729,  free  of  all  de- 
ductions; after  which  payment,  the  province  was  to 
be  vested  in  the  crown  of  Great  Britain.  At  the 
same  time  seven-eighth  parts  of  the  arrears  of  quit- 
rents,  due  from  the  colonists  to  the  proprietors, 
amounting  to  somewhat  more  than  9000/.  sterling, 
were  also  purchased  for  the  crown  for  5000/. ;  so  that 
seven-eighth  parts  of  this  vast  territory  cost  no  more 
than  22,500/.  But  in  this  act  of  parliament  there 
was  a  clause,  reserving  to  Lord  John  Carteret  the 
remaining  eighth  share  of  the  property  and  arrears 
of  quit-rents,  which  continues  legally  vested  in  his 
representatives;  but  the  whole  of  his  share  in  the 
government  he  surrendered  to  the  crown.  The  pro- 
prietors who  sold  their  shares  at  this  time,  were 
Henry,  duke  of  Beaufort,  William,  Lord  Craven, 
James  Bertie,  Dodington  Greville,  Henry  Bertie, 
Mary  Danson,  Elizabeth  More,  Sir  John  Colleton, 
John  Cotton,  and  Joseph  Blake,  who  before  the  sur- 
render were  possessed,  either  in  their  own  right  or 
in  trust,  of  seven-eighth  parts  of  the  government  and 
property  of  the  province.  This  surrender  was  made 
to  Edward  Bertie,  Samuel  Horsey,  Henry  Smith, 
and  Alexis  Clayton,  in  trust  for  the  crown;  and  in 
consequence  of  the  powers  granted  to  the  king  by 
this  act  of  parliament,  he  claimed  the  prerogative  of 
appointing  governors  to  both  South  and  North  Ca- 
rolina, and  a  council  similar  to  the  other  regal  go- 
vernments in  America. 

Sir  Alexander  Gumming  treats  with  the  Indians— 'Se- 
ven Ctierokees  taken  to  England — Robert  Johnson, 
governor— James  Oglethorpe  settles  a  colony  in  Ge- 
orgia— A  colony  of  Switzers  arrives  in  Carolina — 
Eleven  townships  marked  oat-^A  struggle  about 
lands — State  of  the  colony — The  regulations  of  the 
trustees — Settlement  of  two  colonies  of  Highlanders 
and  Germans — Thomas  Broiighton,  lieut.-governor — 
Oglethorpe  fortifies  Georgia — The  Chickesaws  defeat 
the  French — Religious  state  of  the  colony — The  as- 
sociation of  Presbyterians — Remarks  on  paper  cur- 
rency— Small  progress  of  Georgia — Hardships  of 
thejirst  settlers — An  Irish  colony  planted. 

From  that  period  in  which  the  right  and  title  to 
the  lands  of  Carolina  were  surrendered  to  the  king, 
and  he  assumed  the  immediate  care  and  government 
of  the  province,  a  new  era  commences  in  the  annals 
of  this  country,  which  may  be  called  the  era  of  its 
security  and  happiness.  The  Carolineans.  who  had 
long  laboured  under  innumerable  hardships  and 
troubles,  from  a  weak  proprietary  establishment,  at 
last  obtained  the  great  object  of  their  desires,  a  royal 
government,  the  congtitution  of  which  depended  on 
commissions  issued  by  the  crowu  to  the  governor, 
and  the  instructions  which  attended  those  commis- 
sions. The  form  of  all  provincial  governments  was 
borrowed  from  that  of  their  mother  country ;  and 
the  government  of  Carolina  now  assumed  a  form 
like  the  other  regal  ones,  and  was  composed  of  three 
branches :  namely,  a  governor,  a  council,  and  an 
assembly.  The  crown  having  the  appointment  of 
the  governor,  delegated  to  him  its  constitutional 
powers,  civil  and  military,  the  power  of  legislation 
as  far  as  the  king  possesses  it,  and  its  judicial  and 
executive  powers,  together  with  those  of  chancery 
and  admiralty  jurisdiction,  and  also  those  of  supreme 
ordinary :  all  these  powers,  as  they  exist  in  the 
crown,  were  intrusted  to  the  colonial  governors,  and 
were  declared  and  defined  !>y  their  commissions  pa- 
tent. The  council,  though  differing  in  many  re- 
snects  from  the  house  oi  peers,  was  intended  to  re- 


present that  house,  and  the  members  were  appointed 
by  the  king  during  pleasure,  for  supporting  the  pre- 
rogatives of  the  crown  in  the  province.  The  assem- 
bly consisted  of  the  representatives  of  the  people, 
and  were  elected  by  them  as  the  house  of  commons 
in  Great  Britain,  to  be  the  guardians  of  their  liber- 
ties and  properties.  Here  also  the  constitution  con- 
fided in  the  good  behaviour  of  the  representatives ; 
for  should  they  betray  their  trust,  it  gave  the  people 
more  frequent  opportunities  than  even  in  Britain,  of 
choosing  others  in  their  stead.  The  governor  con- 
vened, prorogued,  and  dissolved  these  assemblies, 
and  had  a  negative  on  the  bills  of  both  houses. 
After  bills  had  received  his  assent,  they  were  sent 
to  Great  Britain  for  the  royal  approbation,  which, 
when  they  received,  they  had  the  force  of  laws  in  the 
province.  By  the  instructions  which  the  governor 
received  from  time  to  time  from  England,  his  power 
was  occasionally  greatly  circumscribed. 

After  the  purchase  of  the  province,  the  tirst  object 
of  the  royal  concern  was,  to  establish  the  peace  of 
the  colony  on  the  firmest  foundation ;  and  for  this 
purpose  treaties  of  alliance  with  the  Indian  nations 
were  judged  to  be  essentially  necessary.  Domestic 
security  being  first  established,  the  colonists  might 
then  apply  themselves  to  industry  with  vigour  and 
success,  and  while  they  enriched  themselves,  they 
would  at  the  same  time  enlarge  the  commerce  and 
trade  of  the  mother  country.  For  this  purpose  Sir 
Alexander  Gumming  was  appointed,  and  sent  out 
to  conclude  a  treaty  of  alliance  with  the  Cherokees, 
at  this  time  a  formidable  nation  of  savages.  These 
Indians  occupied  the  lands  about  the  head  of  Sa- 
vanna river,  and  backwards  among  the  Apalachiau 
mountains.  The  country  they  claimed  as  their  hunt- 
ing-grounds was  of  immense  extent;  and  its  boun- 
daries had  never  been  clearly  ascertained.  The 
inhabitants  of  their  different  towns  were  computed 
to  amount  to  more  than  20,000,  6000  of  whom  were 
warriors,  fit  on  any  emergency  to  take  the  field. 
An  alliance  with  such  a  nation  was  an  object  of  the 
highest  consequence  to  Carolina,  and  likewise  to  the 
mother  country,  now  engaged  for  its  defence  and 
protection. 

About  the  beginning  of  the  year  1730,  Sir  Alex- 
ander arrived  in  Carolina,  and  made  preparations 
for  his  journey  to  the  distant  hills.  For  his  guides 
he  procured  some  Indian  traders,  well  acquainted 
with  the  woods,  and  an  interpreter,  who  understood 
the  Cherokee  language,  to  assist  him  in  his  negotia- 
tions. When  he  reached  Keowee,  about  300  miles 
from  Charlestown,  the  chiefs  of  the  lower  towns  there 
met  him,  and  received  him  with  marks  of  great 
friendship  and  esteem.  He  immediately  dispatched 
messengers  to  the  middle,  the  valley,  and  over-hill 
settlements,  and  summoned  a  general  meeting  of  all 
their  chiefs,  to  hold  a  congress  with  him  at  Nequas- 
see.  Accordingly,  in  the  month  of  April  the  chief 
warriors  of  all  the  Cherokee  towns  assembled  at  the 
place  appointed.  After  the  various  Indian  ceremo- 
nies were  over,  Sir  Alexander  made  a  speech  to 
them,  acquainting  them  by  whose  authority  he  was 
sent,  and  representing  the  great  power  and  goodness 
of  his  sovereign,  King  George ;  how  he,  and  all  his 
other  subjects,  paid  a  cheerful  obedience  to  his  laws, 
and  of  course  were  protected  by  him  from  all  harm  : 
that  he  had  come  a  great  way  to  demand  of  Moytoy, 
and  all  the  chieftains  of  the  nation,  to  acknowledge 
themselves  the  subjects  of  his  king,  and  to  promise 
obedience  to  his  authority ;  and  as  he  loved  them, 
and  was  answerable  to  his  sovereign  for  their  good 
and  peaceable  behaviour,  he  hoped  they  would  agree 


958 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


to  what  he  should  now  require  of  them.  Upon  which 
the  chiefs,  falling  on  their  knees,  solemnly  promised 
fidelity  and  obedience,  calling  upon  all  that  was 
terrible  to  fall  upon  them  if  they  violated  their  pro- 
mise. Sir  Alexander  then,  by  their  unanimous  con- 
sent, nominated  Moytoy  commander  and  chief  of  the 
Cherokee  nation,  and  enjoined  all  the  warriors  of  the 
different  tribes  to  acknowledge  him  for  their  king, 
to  whom  they  were  to  be  accountable  for  their  con- 
duct. To  this  they  also  agreed,  provided  Moytoy 
should  be  made  answerable  to  Sir  Alexander  for  his 
behaviour  to  them.  After  which,  many  useful  pre- 
sents were  made  them,  and  the  congress  ended  to  the 
great  satisfaction  of  both  parties.  The  crown  was 
brought  from  Tenassee,  their  chief  town,  which,  with 
five  eagle  tails  and  four  scalps  of  their  enemies, 
Moytoy  presented  to  Sir  Alexander,  requesting  him 
on  his  arrival  at  Britain,  to  lay  them  at  his  majesty's 
feet.  But  Sir  Alexander  proposed  to  Moytoy  that  he 
should  depute  some  of  their  chiefs  to  accompany  him 
to  England,  there  to  do  homage  in  person  to  the 
great  king.  Accordingly  six  of  them  agreed,  and 
accompanied  Sir  Alexander  to  Charlestown,  where, 
being  joined  by  another,  they  embarked  for  England 
in  the  Fox  man-of-war,  and  arrived  at  Dover  in  June 
1730. 

We  shall  not  pretend  to  describe  their  behaviour 
at  the  sight  of  the  vast  effects  of  civilization.  Being 
admitted  into  the  presence  of  the  king,  they,  in  the 
name  of  their  nation,  promised  to  continue  for  ever 
his  majesty's  faithful  and  obedient  subjects  ;  and  a 
treaty  was  accordingly  drawn  up,  and  signed  by 
Alured  Popple,  secretary  to  the  lords  commissioners 
of  trade  and  plantations  on  one  side,  and  by  the 
marks  of  the  six  chiefs  on  the  other.  The  preamble 
to  this  treaty  recites,  "  That  whereas  the  six  chiefs, 
with  the  consent  of  the  whole  nation  of  Cherokees, 
at  a  general  meeting  of  their,  nation  at  Nequassee. 
were  deputed  by  Moytoy,  their  chief  warrior,  to 
attend  Sir  Alexander  Gumming  to  Great  Britain, 
where  they  had  seen  the  great  King  George  :  and 
Sir  Alexander,  by  authority  from  Moytoy  and  all 
the  Cherokees,  had  laid  the  crown  of  their  nation, 
with  the  scalps  of  their  enemies  and  feathers  of 
glory,  at  his  majesty's  feet,  as  a  pledge  of  their 
loyalty :  and  whereas  the  great  king  had  com- 
manded the  lords  commissioners  of  trade  and  plan- 
tations to  inform  the  Indians  that  the  English  on  all 
sides  of  the  mountains  and  lakes  were  his  people, 
their  friends  his  friends,  and  their  enemies  his  ene- 
mies ;  that  he  took  it  kindly  the  great  nation  of 
Cherokees  had  sent  them  so  far  to  brighten  the  chain 
of  friendship  between  him  and  them,  and  between 
his  people  and  their  people  ;  that  the  chain  of  friend- 
ship between  him  and  the  Cherokees  is  now  like  the 
sun,  which  shines  both  in  Britain  and  also  upon  the 
great  mountains  where  they  live,  and  equally  warms 
the  hearts  of  Indians  and  Englishmen  ;  that  as  there 
are  no  spots  or  blackness  in  the  sun,  so  neither  is 
there  any  rust  or  foulness  on  this  chain.  And  as  the 
king  had  fastened  one  end  to  his  breast,  he  desired 
them  to  carry  the  other  end  of  the  chain  and  fasten 
it  to  the  breast  of  Moytoy  of  Telliquo.  and  to  the 
breasts  of  all  their  old  wise  men,  their  captains,  and 
people,  never  more  to  be  made  loose  or  broken. 

"  The  great  king  and  the  Cherokees  being  thus 
fastened  together  by  a  chain  of  friendship,  he  has 
ordered,  and  it  is  agreed,  that  his  children  in  Caro- 
lina do  trade  with  the  Indians,  and  furnish  them 
with  all  manner  of  goods  they  want,  and  to  make 
haste  to  build  houses  and  plant  corn  from  Charles- 
towards  the  towns  of  Cherokees  behind  the 


great  mountains  :  that  he  desires  the  English  and 
Indians  may  live  together  as  children  of  one  family  , 
that  the  Cherokees  be  always  ready  to  fight  against 
any  nation,  whether  white  men  or  Indians,  who  shall 
dare  to  molest  or  hurt  the  English  ;  that  the  nation 
of  Cherokees  shall,  on  their  part,  take  care  to  keep 
the  trading  path  clean,  that  there  be  no  blood  on  the 
path  where  the  English  tread,  even  though  they 
should  be  accompanied  with  other  people  with  whom 
the  Cherokees  may  be  at  war :  that  the  Cherokees 
shall  not  suffer  their  people  to  trade  with  white  men 
of  any  other  nation  but  the  English,  nor  permit 
white  men  of  any  other  nation  to  build  any  forts  or 
cabins,  or  plant  any  corn  among  them,  upon  lands 
which  belong  to  the  great  king :  and  if  any  such 
attempt  shall  be  made,  th*rCh<!?okees  must  acquaint 
the  English  governor  therewith,  and  do  whatever  he 
directs,  in  order  to/maintain  and  dWend  the  great 
king's  right  to  the  country  of  Carolina  :  that  if  any 
negroes  shall  run  away  into  the  sfoods  from  their 
English  masters,  the  Cherokegs/shall  endeavour  to 
apprehend  them,  and  bring  them  to  the  plantation 
from  whence  they  run  away,  or  to  the  governor,  and 
for  every  slave  so  apprehended  and  brought  back, 
the  Indian  that  brings  him  shall  receive  a  gun  and 
a  watch-coat :  and  if  by  any  accident  it  shall  happen 
that  an  Englishman  shall  kill  a  Cherokee,  the  king 
or  chief  of  the  nation  shall  first  complain  to  the 
English  governor,  and  the  man  who  did  the  harm 
shall  be  punished  by  the  English  laws  as  if  he  had 
killed  an  Englishman ;  and  in  like  manner,  if  any 
Indian  happens  to  kill  an  Englishman,  the  Indian 
sh*all  be  delivered  up  to  the  governor,  to  be  punished 
by  the  same  English  laws  as  if  he  were  an  English- 
man." 

This  \vas  the  substance  of  the  firs*  treaty  between 
the  king  and  the  Chorokees,  every  article  of  whiiii 
was  accompanied  with  presents  of  different  kinds, 
such  as  cloth,  guns,  shot,  vermilion,  flints,  hatchets, 
knives,  &c.  The  Indians  were  given  to  understand, 
"  That  these  were  the  words  of  the  great  king,  whom 
they  had  seen,  and  as  a  token  that  his  heart  was 
open  and  true  to  his  children  the  Cherokees,  and  to 
all  their  people,  a  belt  was  given  the  warriors,  which 
they  were  told  the  king  desired  them  to  keep,  and 
shew  to  all  their  people,  to  their  children,  and  chil- 
dren's children,  to  confirm  what  was  now  spoken, 
and  to  bind  this  agreement  of  peace  and  friendship 
between  the  English  and  Cherokees,  as  long  as  the 
rivers  shall  run,  the  mountains  shall  last,  or  the  sun 
shall  shine." 

This  treaty,  that  it  might  be  the  easier  under- 
stood, was  drawn  up  in  language  as  similar  as  possi- 
ble to  that  of  the  Indians,  which  at  this  time  was 
very  little  known  in  England,  and  given  to  them, 
certified  and  approved  by  Sir  Alexander  Cumming. 
In  answer  to  which,  Skijagustah,  in  name  of  the 
rest,  made  a  speech  to  the  following  effect : — "  We 
are  come  hither  from  a  mountainous  place,  where 
nothing  but  darkness  is  to  be  found ;  but  we  are  now 
in  a  place  where  there  is  light.  There  was  a  person 
in  our  country,  he  gave  us  a  yellow  token  of  war- 
like honour,  which  is  left  with  Moytoy  of  Telliquo, 
and  as  warriors  we  received  it.  He  came  to  us  like 
a  warrior  from  you.  A  man  he  is  ;  his  talk  is  up- 
right, and  the  token  he  left  preserves  his  memory 
among  us.  We  look  upon  you  as  if  the  great  king 
were  present ;  we  love  you  as  representing  the  great 
king  :  we  shall  die  in  the  same  way  of  thinking. 
The  crown  of  our  nation  is  different  from  that  which 
the  great  King  George  wears,  and  from  that  we  saw 
in  the  tower.  But  to  us  it  is  all  one.  The  chain  of 


UNITED  STATES. 


S59 


friendship  shall  be  carried  to  our  people.  We  look 
upon  the  great  King  George  as  the  sun,  and  as  our 
father,  and  upon  ourselves  as  his  children.  For 
though  we  are  red  and  you  are  white,  yet  our  hands 
and  hearts  are  joined  together.  When  we  shall  have 
acquainted  our  people  with  what  we  have  seen,  our 
children  from  generation  to  generation  will  always 
remember  it.  In  war  we  shall  always  be  one  with 
vou.  The  enemies  of  the  great  king  shall  be  our 
enemies;  his  people  and  ours  shall  be  one,  and  shall 
die  together.  We  came  hither  naked  and  poor  as 
the  worms  of  the  earth,  but  you  have  every  thing ; 
and  we  that  have  nothing  must  love  you,  and  will 
never  break  the  chain  of  friendship  which  is  between 
us.  Here  stands  the  governor  of  Carolina,  whom 
we  know.  This  small  rope  we  show  you  is  all  that 
we  have  to  bind  our  slaves  with,  and  it  may  be 
broken.  But  you  have  iron  chains  for  yours.  How- 
ever, if  we  catch  your  slaves,  we  will  bind  them  as 
well  as  we  can,  and  deliver  them  to  our  friends,  and 
take  no  pay  for  it.  We  have  looked  round  for  the 
person  that  was  in  our  country — he  is  not  here ;  how- 
ever, we  must  say  that  he  talked  uprightly  to  us, 
and  we  shall  never  forget  him.  Your  white  people 
may  very  safely  build  houses  near  us  ;  we  shall  hurt 
nothing  that  belongs  to  them,  for  we  are  children  of 
one  father,  the  great  king,  and  shall  live  and  die 
together."  Then  laying  down  his  feathers  upon  the 
table,  he  added,  "  This  is  our  way  of  talking,  which 
is  the  same  thing  to  us  as  your  letters  in  the  book 
are  to  you;  and  to  you,  beloved  men,  we  deliver 
these  feathers  in  confirmation  of  all  we  have  said." 

The  Cherokees,  however  barbarous,  were  a  free 
and  independent  people  ;  and  this  method  of  obtain- 
ing a  share  of  their  lands  by  the  general  consent, 
was  honourable  in  itself,  and  beneficial  in  its  effects  ; 
for  the  Cherokees,  in  consequence  of  this  treaty,  for 
many  years  remained  in  a  state  of  peace  with  the 
colonists,  who  followed  their  various  employments 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  those  Indians  without  the 
least  fear  or  molestation. 

About  the  beginning  of  the  year  1731,  Robert 
Johnson,  who  had  been  governor  of  Carolina  while 
in  the  possession  of  the  lords  proprietors,  having 
received  a  commission  from  the  king,  investing  him 
•with  the  same  office  and  authority,  arrived  in  the 
province.  He  brought  back  these  Indian  chiefs, 
possessed  with  the  highest  ideas  of  the  power  and 
greatness  of  the  English  nation,  and  not  a  little 
pleased  with  the  treatment  they  had  received.  The 
Carolineans,  who  had  always  entertained  the  highest 
esteem  for  this  gentleman,  even  in  the  time  of  their 
greatest  confusion,  having  now  obtained  him  in  the 
character  of  king's  governor,  a  thing  they  formerly 
had  so  much  desired,  received  him  with  the  greatest 
demonstrations  of  joy.  Sensible  of  his  ability,  and 
ids  strong  attachment  to  the  colony,  they  promised 
themselves  much  prosperity  and  happiness  under  his 
gentle  administration. 

This  new  governor,  from  his  knowledge  of  the 
province,  and  the  dispositions  of  the  people,  was  not 
only  well  qualified  for  his  high  office,  but  he  had  a 
council  to  assist  him,  composed  of  the  most  respect- 
able inhabitants.  Thomas  Broughton  was  appointed 
lieutenant-governor,  and  Robert  Wright  chief  jus- 
tice. The  other  members  of  the  council  were,  Wil- 
liam Bull,  James  Kinloch,  Alexander  Skene,  John 
Fen  wick,  Arthur  Middleton,  Joseph  Wragg,  Francis 
Yonge,  John  Hamerton,  and  Thomas  Waring.  At 
the  first  meeting  of  assembly,  the  governor  recom- 
mended to  both  houses  to  embrace  the  earliest  op- 
portunity of  testifying  their  gratitude  to  his  majesty 


for  taking  the  colony  under  his  particular  care  ;  he 
enjoined  them  to  put  the  laws  in  execution  against 
impiety  and  immorality,  and  as  the  most  effectual 
means  of  discouraging  vice,  to  attend  carefully  to 
the  education  of  youth.  He  acquainted  them  of  the 
treaty  which  had  been  concluded  in  England  with 
the  Cherokees,  which  he  hoped  would  be  attended 
with  beneficial  and  happy  consequences  ;  and  re- 
commended the  payment  of  public  debts,  the  esta- 
blishment of  public  credit,  and  peace  and  unanimity 
among  themselves  as  the  chief  objects  of  their  at- 
tention. They  in  return  presented  to  him  the  most 
loyal  and  affectionate  addresses,  and  entered  on 
their  public  deliberations  with  uncommon  harmonv 
and  great  satisfaction. 

For  the  encouragement  of  the  people,  now  con- 
nected with  the  mother  country  both  by  mutual  af- 
fectkm  and  the  mutual  benefits  of  commerce,  several 
favours  and  indulgences  were  granted  them.  The 
restraint  upon  rice,  an  enumerated  commodity,  was 
partly  taken  off ;  and,  that  it  might  arrive  more  sea- 
sonably and  in  better  condition  at  the  market,  the 
colonists  were  permitted  to  send  it  to  any  port  south- 
ward of  Cape  Finisterre.  A  discount  upon  hemp 
was  also  allowed  by  parliament.  The  arrears  of  quit- 
rents  bought  from  the  proprietors  were  remitted  by 
a  bounty  from  the  crown.  For'  the  benefit  and  en- 
largement of  trade  their  bills  of  credit  were  con- 
tinued, and  77,000^.  were  stamped  and  issued  by 
virtue  of  an  act  of  the  legislature,  called  the  Appro- 
priation Law.  Seventy  pieces  of  cannon  were  sent 
out  by  the  king,  and  the  governor  had  instructions 
to  build  one  fort  at  Port-royal,  and  another  on  the 
liver  Alatamaha.  An  independent  company  of  foot 
was  allowed  for  their  defence  by  land,  and  ships  of 
war  were  stationed  there  for  the  protection  of  trade. 
These  and  many  more  favours  flowed  to  the  colony, 
now  emerging  from  the  depths  of  poverty  and  op- 
pression, and  arising  to  a  state  of  freedom,  ease,  and 
affluence. 

As  a  natural  consequence  of  its  domestic  security, 
the  credit  of  the  province  in  England  increased. 
The  merchants  of  London,  Bristol,  and  Liverpool, 
turned  their  eyes  to  Carolina,  as  a  new  and  promis- 
ing channel  of  trade,  and  established  houses  in 
Charlestown  for  conducting  their  business  with  the 
greater  ease  and  success.  They  poured  in  slaves 
from  Africa  for  cultivating  their  lands,  and  manu- 
factures of  Britain  for  supplying  the  plantations ; 
by  which  means  the  planters  obtained  great  credit, 
and  goods  at  a  much  cheaper  rate  than  they  could 
be  obtained  from  ai:y  other  nation.  In  consequence 
of  which,  the  planters  having  greater  strength,  turned 
their  whole  attention  to  cultivation,  and  cleared  the 
lands  with  greater  facility  and  success.  The  lands 
arose  in  value,  and  men  of  foresight  and  judgment 
began  to  look  out  and  secure  the  richest  spots  foi 
themselves,  with  that  ardour  and  keenness  which 
the  prospect  of  riches  naturally  inspires.  The  pro- 
duce of  the  province  in  a  few  years  was  doubled. 
During  this  year  above  39,000  barrels  of  rice  were 
exported,  besides  deer-skins,  furs,  naval  stores,  and 
provisions ;  and  above  1500  negroes  were  imported 
into  it.  From  this  period  its  exports  kept  pace  with 
its  imports,  and  secured  its  credit  in  England.  The 
rate  of  exchange  had  now  arisen  to  700  per  cent., 
i.  e.  700  Carolina  money  was  given  for  a  bill  of 
IQQl.  sterling  on  England ;  at  which  rate  it  after- 
wards continued,  with  little  variation,  for  upwards 
of  40  years. 

Hitherto  the  progress  in  cultivation  Carolina  had 
made  was  very  inconsiderable,  and  the  face  of  the 


300 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


country  appeared  like  a  desert,  with  small  spots 
acre  and  there  cleared,  scarcely  discernible  amidst 
the  immense  forest.  The  colonists  were  slovenly 
farmers,  owing  to  the  vast  quantities  of  lands,  and 
the  easy  and  cheap  terms  of  obtaining  them ;  and 
for  a  good  crop  they  were  more  indebted  to  the  great 
power  of  vegetation,  and  natural  richness  of  the 
soil,  than  to  their  own  culture  and  management. 
They  had  abundance  of  the  necessaries,  and  several 
of  the  conveniencies  of  life.  But  their  habitations 
were  clumsy  and  miserable  huts,  and  having  no  car- 
riages, all  travellers  were  exposed  in  open  boats,  or 
on  horseback,  to  the  violent  heat  of  the  climate. 
Their  houses  were  constructed  of  wood,  by  erecting 
first  a  wooden  frame,  and  then  covering  it  with  clap- 
boards without,  and  plastering  it  with  lime  within, 
of  which  they  had  plenty  made  from  oyster-shells. 
Charlestown,  at  this  time,  consisted  of  between  500 
and  600  houses,  mostly  built  of  timber,  and  neither 
well  constructed  nor  comfortable,  plain  indications 
of  the  wretchedness  and  poverty  of  the  people. 
However,  from  this  period  the  province  improved  in 
building  as  well  as  in  many  ether  respects ;  many 
ingenious  artificers  and  tradesmen  of  different  kinds 
found  encouragement  in  it,  and  introduced  a  taste 
for  brick  buildings,  and  more  neat  and  pleasant  ha- 
bitations. In  process  of  time  as  the  colony  increased 
in  numbers,  the  face  of  the  country  changed,  and 
exhibited  an  appearance  of  industry  and  plenty. 
The  planters  made  a  rapid  progress  towards  wealth 
and  independence,  and  the  trade  being  well  pro- 
tected, yearly  increased  and  flourished. 

At  the  same  time,  for  the  relief  of  the  poor  and 
indigent  people  of  Great  Biitain  and  Ireland,  and 
for  the  further  security  of  Carolina,  the  settlement 
of  a  new  colony  between  the  rivers  Alatamaha  and 
Savann-a  was  projected  in  England.  This  large 
territory,  situated  on  the  south-west  of  Carolina,  yet 
lay  waste,  without  an  inhabitant,  except  its  original 
savages.  Private  compassion  and  public  spirit  con- 
spired tow-ards  promoting  the  excellent  design.  Se- 
veral persons  of  humanity  and  opulence  having  ob- 
served many  families  and  valuable  subjects  oppressed 
with  the  miseries  of  poverty  at  home,  united,  and 
formed  a  plan  for  raising  money,  and  transporting 
them  to  this  part  of  America.  For  this  purpose 
they  applied  to  the  king,  obtained  from  him  letters- 
patent,  bearing  date  June  9th,  1732,  for  legally  car- 
rying into  execution  what  they  had  generously  pro- 
jected. They  called  the  new  province  Georgia,  in 
honour  of  the  king,  who  likewise  greatly  encouraged 
the  undertaking.  A  corporation,  consisting  of  21 
persons,  was  constituted,  by  the  name  of  trustees, 
for  settling  and  establishing  the  colony  of  Georgia ; 
which  was  separated  from  Carolina  by  the  river  Sa- 
vanna. The  trustees  having  first  set  an  example 
themselves,  by  largely  contributing  towards  the 
scheme,  undertook  also  to  solicit  benefactions  from 
others,  and  to  apply  the  money  towards  clothing, 
arming,  purchasing  utensils  for  cultivation,  and 
transporting  such  poor  people  as  should  consent  to 
go  over  and  begin  a  settlement.  They,  however, 
confined  not  their  views  to  the  subjects  of  Britain 
alone,  but  wisely  opened  a  door  also  for  oppressed 
and  indigent  Protestants  from  other  nations.  To 
prevent  any  misapplication  or  abuse  of  charitable 
donations,  they  agreed  to  deposit  the  money  in  the 
Bank  of  England,  and  to  enter  in  a  book  the  names 
of  all  the  charitable  benefactors,  together  with  the 
sums  contributed  by  each  of  them;  and  to  bind 
hemselves  and  their  successors  in  office,  to  lay  an 
account  of  t'ne  money  received  and  expended  before 


;he  lord  chancellor  of  England,  the  lord  chief  justice  of 
the  King's  Bench  and  Common  Pleas,  the  master  of 
the  Rolls,  and  the  lord  chief  baron  of  the  Exchequer. 

The  benevolent  founders  of  the  colony  of  Georgia 
perhaps  may  challenge  the  annals  of  any  nation  to 
produce  a  design  more  generous  and  praise-worthy 
than  that  they  had  undertaken.  They  voluntarily 
offered  their  money,  their  labour,  and  time,  for  pro- 
moting what  appeared  to  them  the  good  of  others, 
having  no  other  reward  but  the  satisfaction  of  doing 
good.  Among  other  great  ends  they  had  also  in 
view  the  conversion  and  civilization  of  Indian  sa- 
vages. If  their  public  regulations  were  afterwards 
found  improper  and  impracticable ;  if  their  plan  of 
settlement  proved  too/narrow  and  circumscribed; 
praise,  nevertheless,/*?  due  to  them.  Human  policy 
at  best  is  imperfecf ;  but,  when  the  design  appears 
so  evidently  disinterested,  the  Aandid  will  make 
many  allowances  for  them,  considering  their  igno- 
rance of  the  country,  and  the^many  defects  that  ad- 
here to  all  codes  of  laws,  even  when  framed  by  the 
wisest  legislators. 

About  the  middle  of  July  1732,  the  trustees  for 
Georgia  held  their  first  general  meeting,  when  Lord 
Percival  was  chosen  president  of  the  corporation. 
After  all  the  members  had  qualified  themselves, 
agreeably  to  the  charter,  for  the  faithful  discharge 
of  the  trust,  a  common  seal  was  ordered  to  be  made. 
The  device  was,  on  one  side,  two  figures  resting 
upon  urns,  representing  the  rivers  Alatamaha  and 
Savanna,  the  boundaries  of  the  province;  between 
them  the  genius  of  the  colony  seated,  with  a  cap  of 
liberty  on  his  head,  a  spear  in  one  hand,  and  a  cor- 
nucopia in  the  other,  with  the  inscription,  "  Colonia 
Georgia  Aug. :"  on  the  other  side  was  a  representa- 
tion of  silk-worms,  some  beginning,  and  others  hav- 
ing finished  their  web,  with  the  motto,  "  Non  Sibi 
sed  Aliis;"  a  very  proper  emblem,  signifying  that 
the  nature  of  the  establishment  was  such,  that  neither 
the  first  trustees  nor  their  successors  could  have  any 
views  of  interest,  it  being  entirely  designed  for  the 
benefit  and  happiness  of  others. 

In  November  following,  116  settlers  embarked 
from  England  at  Gravesend  for  Georgia,  having 
their  passage  paid,  and  every  thing  requisite  for 
building  and  cultivation  furnished  them  by  the  cor- 
poration. They  could  not  properly  be  called  adven- 
turers, as  they  ran  no  risk  but  what  arose  from  the 
change  of  climate,  and  as  they  were  to  be  main- 
tained until  by  their  industry  they  were  able  to  sup- 
port themselves.  James  Oglethorpe,  one  of  the 
trustees,  embarked  along  with  them,  and  proved  a 
zealous  and  active  promoter  of  the  settlement.  In 
the  beginning  of  the  year  following,  Oglethorpe  ar- 
rived in  Charlestown,  where  he  was  received  by  the 
governor  and  council  in  the  kindest  manner,  and 
treated  with  every  mark  of  civility  and  respect. 
Governor  Johnson,  sensible  of  the  great  advantage 
that  must  accrue  to  Carolina  from  this  new  colony, 
gave  all  the  encouragement  and  assistance  in  his 
power  to  forward  the  settlement.  Many  of  the  Ca- 
rolineans  sent  them  provisions  and  hogs,  and  cows, 
to  begin  their  stock.  William  Bull,  a  man  of  know- 
ledge and  experience,  agreed  to  accompany  Mr. 
Oglethorpe,  and  the  rangers  and  scout-boats  were 
ordered  to  attend  him  to  Georgia.  After  their  arri- 
val at  Yamacraw,  Oglethorpe  and  Bull  explored 
the  country,  and  having  found  a  high  and  pleasant 
spot  of  ground,  situated  on  a  navigable  river,  they 
fixed  on  this  place  as  the  most  convenient  and  healthy 
situation  for  the  settlers.  On  this  hill  they  marked 
out  a  town,  and  from  the  Indian  name  of  the  river 


UNITED  STATES. 


%1 


which  ran  past  it,  called  it  Savanna.  A  small  fort 
was  erected  on  the  banks  of  it  as  a  place  of  refuge, 
and  some  guns  were  mounted  on  it  for  the  defence 
of  the  colony.  The  people  were  set  to  work  in  fell- 
ing trees  and  building  huts  for  themselves,  and  Ogle- 
thorpe  animated  and  encouraged  them,  by  exposing 
himself  to  all  the  hardships  which  the  poor  objects 
of  his  compassion  endured.  He  formed  them  into  a 
company  of  militia,  appointed  officers  from  among 
themselves,  and  furnished  them  with  arms  and  am- 
munition. To  show  the  Indians  how  expert  they 
were  at  the  use  tf  arms,  he  frequently  exercised 
them  ;  and  as  they  had  been  trained  beforehand  by 
the  Serjeants  of  the  guards  in  London,  they  per- 
formed their  various  parts  in  a  manner  little  inferior 
to  regular  troops. 

Having  thus  put  his  colony  in  as  good  a  situation 
as  possible,  the  next  object  of  his  attention  was  to 
treat  with  the  Indians  for  a  share  of  their  posses- 
sions. The  principal  tribes  that  at  this  time  occupied 
the  territory  were  the  Upper  and  Lower  Creeks; 
the  former  "were  numerous  and  strong,  the  latter, 
by  diseases  and  war,  had  been  reduced  to  a  smaller 
number:  both  tribes  together  were  computed  to 
amount  to  about  25,000  men,  women  and  children. 
These  Indians,  according  to  a  treaty  formerly  made 
with  Governor  Nicolson,  laid  claim  to  the  lands 
lying  south-west  of  Savanna  river,  and,  to  procure 
their  friendship  for  this  infant  colony,  was  an  ob- 
ject of  the  highest  consequence.  But  as  the  tribe  of 
Indians  settled  at  Yamacraw  was  inconsiderable, 
Oglethorpe  judged  it  necessary  to  have  the  other 
tribes  also  to  join  with  them  in  the  treaty.  To  ac- 
complish this  union  he  found  an  Indian  woman 
named  Mary,  who  had  married  a  trader  from  Caro- 
lina, and  who  could  speak  both  the  English  and 
•Creek  languages  ;  and  perceiving  that  she  had  great 
influence  among  Indians,  and  might  be  made  useful 
as  an  interpreter  in  forming  treaties  of  alliance  with 
them ;  he  therefore  first  purchased  her  friendship 
with  presents,  and  afterwards  settled  100J.  yearly  on 
her,  as  a  reward  for  her  services.  By  her  assist- 
ance he  summoned  a  general  meeting  of  the  chiefs, 
to  hold  a  congress  with  him  at  Savanna,  in  order 
to  procure  their  consent  to  the  peaceable  settlement 
of  his  colony.  At  this  congress  50  chieftains  were 
present,  when  Oglethorpe  of  course  represented  to 
them  the  great  power,  wisdom  and  wealth  of  the  En- 
glish nation,  and  the  many  advantages  that  would 
accrue  to  Indians  in  general  from  a  connexion  and 
friendship  with  them  ;  and  after  having  distributed 
some  presents,  an  agreement  was  made,  and  then 
Tomochichi,  in  the  name  of  the  Creek  warriors,  ad- 
dressed him,  and,  giving  him  a  buffalo's-skin, 
adorned  on  the  inside  with  the  head  and  feathers  of 
an  eagle,  desired  him  to  accept  it,  because  the  eagle, 
was  an  emblem  of  speed,  and  the  buffalo  of  strength. 
He  told  him,  that  the  English  were  as  swift  as  the 
bird  and  as  strong  as  the  beast,  since  like  the  for- 
mer, they  flew  over  vast  seas  to  the  uttermost  parts 
of  the  earth  ;  and,  like  the  latter,  they  were  so 
strong  that  nothing  could  withstand  them.  He  said, 
the  feathers  of  the  eagle  were  soft,  and  signified 
love;  the  buffalo's-skin  was  warm,  and  signified  pro- 
tection ;  and  therefore  he  hoped  the  English  would 
love  and  protect  their  little  families.  Oglethorpe 
accordingly  accepted  the  present,  and  after  having 
concluded  this  treaty  of  friendship  with  Indians,  and 
placed  his  colony  in  the  best  posture  of  defence,  he 
returned  to  Britain,  carrying  with  him  Tomochichi, 
his  queen,  and  some  more  Indians. 

On  their  arrival  in  London,  these  Indian  chiefs 
HIST.  OF  AMER.  -Nos.  121  &  122. 


were  introduced  to  his  majesty,  while  many  of  the 
nobility  were  present ;  when  Tomochichi,  over- 
powered with  astonishment,  addressed  the  king  in 
the  following  words  :  "  This  day  I  see  the  majesty 
of  your  face,  the  greatness  of  your  house,  and  the 
number  of  your  people ;  I  am  come  in  my  old  days, 
though  I  cannot  expect  to  see  any  advantage  to  my- 
self; I  am  come  for  the  good  of  the  children  of  all 
the  nations  of  the  Lower  and  Upper  Creeks,  that  they 
may  be  instructed  in  the  knowledge  of  the  English. 
These  are  feathers  of  the  eagle,  which  is  the  swiftest 
of  birds,  and  which  flieth  round  our  nations.  These 
feathers  are  a  sign  of  peace  in  our  land,  and  have 
been  carried  from  town  to  town  there.  We  have 
brought  them  over  to  leave  them  with  you,  O  great 
king,  as  a  token  of  everlasting  peace.  0  great  king, 
whatever  words  you  shall  say  unto  me,  I  will  faith- 
fully tell  them  to  all  the  kings  of  the  Creek  nations." 
To  which  his  majesty  replied  :  "  I  am  glad  of  this 
opportunity  of  assuring  you  of  my  regard  for  the  peo- 
ple from  whom  you  came  ;  and  I  am  extremely  well 
pleased  with  the  assurances  you  have  brought  me 
from  them,  and  accept  very  gratefully  of  this  pre- 
sent, an  indication  of  their  good  dispositions  to  me 
and  my  people.  I  shall  always  be  ready  to  cultivate 
a  good  correspondence  between  the  Creeks  and  my 
subjects ;  and  shall  be  glad  on  any  occasion  to  show 
you  a  mark  of  my  particular  friendship." 

During  the  whole  time  these  Indians  were  in  En- 
gland, nothing  was  neglected  that  might  serve  to  en- 
gage their  affections,  and  fill  them  with  just  notions  of 
the  greatness  and  power  of  the  British  nation.  The 
nobility,  curious  to  see  them,  and  observe  their  man- 
ners, entertained  them  magnificently  at  their  tables. 
Wherever  they  went,  multitudes  flocked  around 
them,  shaking  hands  with  the  rude  warriors  of  the 
forest,  giving  them  little  presents,  and  treating  them 
with  every  mark  of  friendship  and  civility.  Twenty 
pounds  a  week  were  allowed  them  by  the  crown 
while  they  remained  in  England,  and  when  they 
returned,  it  was  computed  they  carried  presents  with 
them  to  the  value  of  400/.  After  staying  four 
months,  they  were  carried  to  Gravesend  in  one  of 
his  majesty's  carriages,  where  they  embarked  for 
Georgia,  highly  pleased  with  the  generosity  of  the 
nation,  and  promising  perpetual  fidelity  to  its  in- 
terest. 

It  is  said  that  James  Oglethorpe,  when  he  came 
out  to  settle  this  colony  in  Georgia,  brought  along 
with  him  Sir  Walter  Raleigh's  manuscript  journals ; 
and  by  the  latitude  of  the  place,  and  the  traditions 
of  the  Indians,  it  appeared  to  him  that  Sir  Walter 
had  landed  at  the  mouth  of  Savanna  river.  Indeed 
during  his  wild  and  chimerical  attempts  for  finding 
out  a  golden  country,  it  is  not  improbable  that  he 
visited  many  different  places.  The  Indians  acknow- 
ledged that  their  fathers  once  held  a  conference 
with  a  warrior  who  came  over  the  great  waters ;  and 
at  a  little  distance  from  Savanna,  there  is  a  high 
mount  of  earth,  under  which  they  said  the  Indian 
king  was  interred,  who  talked  with  the  English 
warrior,  and  that  he  desired  to  be  buried  in  the  same 
place  where  this  conference  was  held.  But  having 
little  authority  with  respect  to  this  matter,  we  can- 
not vouch  for  its  correctness. 

While  the  security  of  Carolina,  against  external 
enemies,  by  this  settlement  of  Georgia,  engaged  the 
attention  of  the  British  government,  the  means  of 
its  internal  improvement  and  population  at  the  same 
time  were  not  neglected.  John  Peter  Pury,  a  na- 
tive of  Nenfchatel  in  Switzerland,  having  formed  a 
design  of  leaving  his  native  country,  paid  a  visit  to 

4L 


96S 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Carolina,  in  order  to  inform  himself  of  the  circum- 
stances, and  situation  of  the  province.  After  view- 
ing the  lands  there,  and  procuring  all  the  informa- 
tion he  could,  with  respect  to  the  terms  of  obtaining 
them,  he  returned  to  Britain.  The  government 
entered  into  a  contract  with  him,  and,  for  the  en- 
couragement of  the  people,  agreed  to  give  lands  and 
400/.  sterling  for  every  100  effective  men  he  should 
transport  from  Switzerland  to  Carolina.  Pury,  while 
in  Carolina,  having  furnished  himself  with  a  flatter- 
ing account  of  the  soil  and  climate,  and  of  the  ex- 
cellence and  freedom  of  the  provincial  government, 
returned  to  Switzerland,  and  published  it  among 
the  people.  Immediately  170  poor  Switzers  agreed 
to  follow  him,  and  were  transported  to  the  fertile 
and  delightful  province  as  he  described  it;  and  not 
long  afterwards  200  more  arrived,  and  joined  them. 
The  governor  allotted  40,000  acres  of  land  for  the 
use  of  the  Swiss  settlement  on  the  north-east  side 
of  Savanna  river  ;  anu  a  town  was  marked  out  for 
their  accommodation,  which  he  called  Purisburgh, 
from  the  name  of  the  principal  promoter  of  the  set- 
tlement. Mr.  Bignion,  a  Swiss  minister,  whom  they 
had  engaged  to  go  with  them,  having  received  epis- 
copal ordination  from  the  bishop  of  London,  settled 
among  them  for  their  religious  instruction.  On  the 
one  hand  the  governor  ~and  council,  happy  in  the 
acquisition  of  such  a  force,  allotted  each  of  them  his 
separate  tract  of  land,  and  gave  every  encourage- 
ment in  their  power  to  the  people  :  on  the  other, 
the  poor  Swiss  emigrants  began  their  labours  with 
uncommon  zeal  and  courage.  However,  in  a  short 
time  they  felt  the  many  inconveniences  attending  a 
change  of  climate.  Several  of  them  sickened  and 
died,  and  others  found  all  the  hardships  of  the  first 
state  of  colonization  falling  heavily  upon  them. 
They  became  discontented  with  the  provisions  al- 
lowed them,  and  complained  to  government  of  the 
persons  employed  to  distribute  them  ;  and,  to  double 
their  distress,  the  period  for  receiving  the  bounty 
expired  before  they  had  made  such  progress  in  cul- 
tivation as  to  raise  sufficient  provisions  for  them- 
selves and  families.  The  spirit  of  discontent  crept 
into  the  poor  Swiss  settlement,  and  the  people  find- 
ing themselves  oppressed  with  indigence  and  dis- 
tress, could  consider  their  situation  in  no  other  light 
than  a  state  of  banishment,  and  not  only  blamed 
Pury  for  deceiving  them,  but  also  hearlily  repented 
their  leaving  their  native  country. 

According  to  the  new  plan  adopted  in  England 
for  the  more  speedy  population  and  settlement  of 
the  province  ;  the  governor  had  instructions  to  mark 
out  eleven  townships,  in  square  plats,  on  the  sides 
of  rivers,  consisting  each  of  20,000  acres,  and  to 
divide  the  lands  within  them  into  shares  of  50  acres 
for  each  man,  woman,  and  child,  that  should  come 
over  to  occupy  and  improve  them.  Each  township 
was  to  form  a  parish,  and  all  the  inhabitants  were 
to  have  an  equal  right  to  the  river.  So  soon  as  the 
parish  should  increase  to  the  number  of  100  families, 
they  were  to  have  a  right  to  send  two  members  of  their 
own  election  to  the  assembly,  and  to  enjoy  the  same 
privileges  as  the  other  parishes  already  established. 
Each  settler  was  to  pay  four  shillings  a  year  for 
every  100  acres  of  land,  excepting  the  first  ten 
years,  during  which  term  they  were  to  be  rent  free. 
Governor  Johnson  issued  a  warrant  to  St.  John, 


Accordingly  eleven  townships  were  marked  out  by 
them  in  the  following  situations;  two  on  river  Ala- 
tamaha,  two  on  Savanna,  two  on  Santee,  one  oa 
Wacamaw,  one  on  Wateree,  and  one  on  Black 
rivers. 

The  old  planters  now  acquiring  every  year  greater 
strength  of  hands,  by  the  large  importation  of  ne- 
groes, and  extensive  credit  from  England,  began 
to  turn  their  attention  more  closely  than  ever  to  the 
lands  of  the  province.  A  spirit  of  emulation  broke 
out  among  them  for  securing  tracts  of  the  richest 
ground,  but  especially  such  as  were  most  conveni- 
ently situated  for  n a vigatirm.  Complaints  were  made 
to  the  assembljy^nat  all  the\valuable  lands  on  na- 
vigable rivers  pmd  creeks  adjacent  to  Port-royal  had 
been  run  out  in  exorbitant  traits,  under  colour  of 
patents  granted  by  the  proprietors  to  Cassiques  and 
Landgraves,  by  which  the  "complainants,  who  had, 
at  the  hazard  of  their  li^es,  defended  the  country, 
were  hindered  from  obtaining  such  lands  as  could 
be  useful  and  beneficial,  at  the  established  quit- 
rents,  though  the  attorney  and  solicitor-general  of 
England  had  declared  such  patents  void.  Among 
others,  Job  Rothmaller  and  Thomas  Cooper,  having 
been  accused  of  some  illegal  practices  with  respect 
to  this  matter,  a  petition  was  presented  to  the  as- 
sembly by  39  inhabitants  of  Granville  county  in 
their  vindication.  When  the  assembly  examined 
into  the  matter,  they  ordered  their  messenger  forth- 
with to  take  into  custody  Job  Rothmaller  andThomas 
Cooper,  for  aiding,  assisting,  and  superintending 
the  deputy-surveyor  in  marking  out  tracts  of  land 
already  surveyed,  contrary  to  the  quit-rent  act.  But 
Cooper,  being  taken  into  custody,  applied  to  Chief 
Justice  Wright  for  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  which  was 
granted.  The  assembly,  however,  sensible  of  the 
ill  consequences  that  would  attend  such  illegal  prac- 
tices, determined  to  put  a  stop  to  them  by  an  act 
made  on  purpose.  They  complained  to  the  gover- 
nor and  council  against  the  surveyor-general,  for 
encouraging  land-jobbers,  and  allowing  such  liber- 
ties as  tended  to  create  litigious  disputes  in  the  pro- 
vince, and  to  involve  it  in  great  confusion.  In  con- 
sequence of  which,  the  governor,  to  give  an  effectual 
check  to  such  practices,  prohibited  St.  John  to  sur- 
vey lands  to  any  person  without  an  express  warrant 
from  him.  The  surveyor-general,  however,  deter- 
mined to  make  the  most  of  his  otlice,  and  having  a 
consideiable  number  to  support  him,  represented 
both  governor  and  council  as  persons  disaffected  to 
his  majesty's  government,  and  enemies  to  the  inte 
rest  of  the  country.  Being  highly  offended  at  the 
assembly,  he  began  to  take  great  liberties  without- 
doors,  and  to  turn  some  of  their  speeches  into  ridi- 
cule. Upon  which  an  order  was  issued  to  take  St. 
John  also  into  custody ;  and  then  the  commons 
came  to  the  following  spirited  resolution  :  "  That  it 
is  the  undeniable  privilege  of  this  assembly  to  com- 
mit such  persons  they  may  judge  to  deserve  it :  that 
the  freedom  of  spee'ch  and  debate  ought  not  to  be 
impeached  or  questioned  in  any  court  or  place  out 
of  that  house  :  that  it  is  a  contempt  and  violation  of 
the  privileges  of  that  house,  to  call  in  question  any 
of  their  commitments  :  that  no  writ  of  habeas  corpus 
lies  in  favour  of  any  person  committed  by  that  house, 
and  that  the  messenger  attending  do  yield  no  obedi- 
ence to  such  ;  and  that  the  chief  justice  be  made 


surveyor-general  of  the  province,  empowering  him  acquainted  with  these  resolutions."  In  consequence 
to  go  and  mark  out  those  townships.  But  he  having  of  which,  Wright  complained  before  the  governor 
demanded  an  exorbitant  sum  of  money  for  his  trou-  and  council  of  these  resolutions,  as  tending  to  the 
ble,  the  members  of  the  council  agreed  among  them-  dissolution  of  all  government,  and  charged  the  lower 
selves  to  do  this  piece  of  service  for  their  country,  j  house  with  disallowing  his  majesty's  undoubted  pro- 


UNITED  STATES. 


963 


rogative,  and  with  renouncing  obedience  to  his  writ 
of  habeas  corpus.  But  the  council  in  general  ap 
proved  of  their  conduct,  and  were  of  opinion,  tha 
the  assembly  of  Carolina  had  that  same  privileg 
there,  that  the  house  of  commons  had  in  Englanc 
This  affair  created  some  dissension  in  the  colony 
for  while  a  strong  party,  from  motives  of  privata  in 
terest,  supported  the  chief  justice  ;  the  assembly  re 
solved,  "  That  he  appeared  to  be  prejudiced  agains 
the  people,  and  was  therefore  unworthy  of  the  nffic 
he  held,  and  that  it  would  tend  to  the  tranquillity  o 
the  province  immediately  to  suspend  him." 

This  was  the  situation  of  the  colony  about  the 
end  of  the  year  1733.  Each  planter,  eager  in  the 
pursuit  of  large  possessions  of  land,  which  were  for 
merly  neglected,  because  of  little  value,  strenuousl) 
vied  with  his  neighbour  for  a  superiority  of  fortune 
and  seemed  impatient  of  every  circumstance  that  re 
strained  him.  Many  favours  and  indulgencies  hac 
already  been  granted  them  from  the  crown,  for  pro 
moting  their  success  and  prosperity,  and  for  securing 
the  province  against  external  enemies.  What  fur- 
ther favours  they  expected,  we  may  learn  from  the 
following  memorial  and  representation  of  the  state 
of  Carolina,  transmitted  to  the  king,  dated  April  9, 
1734,  and  signed  by  the  governor,  the  president  ol 
the  council,  and  the  speaker  of  the  commons  house 
of  assembly, 

"  Your  majesty's  most  dutiful  subjects  of  this 
province,  having  often  felt,  with  hearts  full  of  gra- 
titude, the  many  signal  instances  of  your  majesty's 
peculiar  favour  and  protection  to  those  distant  parts 
of  your  dominions,  and  especially  those  late  proofs 
of  your  majesty's  most  gracious  and  benign  care,  so 
wisely  calculated  for  the  preservation  of  this  your 
majesty's  frontier  province  on  the  continent  of 
America,  by  your  royal  charter  to  the  trustees  for 
establishing  the  colony  of  Georgia,  and  your  great 
goodness  so  timely  applied,  for  the  promoting  the 
settlement  of  the  Swiss  at  Purisburgh  ;  encouraged 
by  such  views  of  your  majesty's  wise  and  paternal 
care,  extended  to  your  remotest  subjects,  and  ex- 
cited by  the  duty  we  owe  to  your  most  sacred  ma- 
jesty, to  be  always  watchful  for  the  support  and 
security  of  your  majesty's  interest,  especially  at 
this  very  critical  conjuncture,  when  the  flame  of  a 
war  breaking  out  in  Europe  may  very  speedily  be 
lighted  here,  in  this  your  majesty's  frontier  pro- 
vince, which,  in  situation,  is  known  to  be  of  the 
utmost  importance  to  the  general  trade  and  traffic 
in  America  :  we,  therefore,  your  majesty's  most 
faithful  governor,  council,  and  commons,  convened 
in  your  majesty's  province  of  South  Carolina,  crave 
leave  with  great  humility  to  represent  to  your  ma- 
jesty the  present  state  and  condition  of  this  your 
province,  and  how  greatly  it  stands  in  need  of  your 
majesty's  gracious  and  timely  succour  in  case  of  a 
war,  to  assist  our  defence  against  the  French  and 
Spaniards,  or  any  other  enemies  to  your  majesty's 
dominions,  as  well  as  against  the  many  nations  of 
savages  which  so  nearly  threaten  the  safety  of  your 
majesty's  subjects. 

"  The  province  of  South  Carolina,  and  the  new 
colony  of  Georgia,  are  the  southern  frontiers  of  all 
your  majesty's  dominions  on  the  continent  of  Ame- 
rica ;  to  the  south  and  south-west  of  which  is  situa- 
ted the  strong  castle  of  St.  Augustine,  garrisoned 
by  400  Spaniards,  who  have  several  nations  of 
Indians  under  their  subjection,  besides  several  other 
small  settlements  and  garrisons,  some  of  which  are 
not  80  miles  distant  from  the  colony  of  Georgia. 
To  the  south-west  and  west  of  us  the  French  hav? 


erected  a  considerable  town,  near  fort  Thoulouse, 
on  the  Moville  river,  and  several  other  forts  and 
garrisons,  some  not  above  300  miles  distant  from 
our  settlements ;  and  at  New  Orleans,  on  the  Mis- 
sissippi river,  since  her  late  majesty  Queen  Anne's 
war,  they  have  exceedingly  increased  their  strength 
and  traffic,  and  have  now  many  forts  and  garrisons 
on  both  sides  of  that  great  river  for  several  hundred 
miles  up  the  same ;  and  since  his  most  Christian 
majesty  has  taken  out  of  the  Mississippi  Company 
the  government  of  that  country  into  his  own  hands, 
the  French  natives  in  Canada  come  daily  down  in 
shoals  to  settle  all  along  that  river,  where  many  re- 
gular forces  have  of  late  been  sent  over  by  the  king 
to  strengthen  the  garrisons  in  those  places,  and, 
according  to  our  best  and  latest  advices,  they  have 
500  men  in  pay,  constantly  employed  as  wood- 
rangers,  to  keep  their  neighbouring  Indians  in  sub- 
jection, and  to  prevent  the  distant  ones  from  dis- 
turbing the  settlements  ;  which  management  of  the 
French  has  so  well  succeeded,  that  we  are  very  well 
assured  they  have  now  wholly  in  their  possession, 
and  under  their  influence,  the  several  numerous 
nations  of  Indians  that  are  situated  near  the  Missis- 
sippi river,  one  of  which,  called  the  Choctaws,  by 
estimation  consists  of  about  5000  fighting  men,  and 
who  were  always  deemed  a  very  warlike  nation,  lies 
on  this  side  the  river,  not  above  400  miles  distant 
rom  our  out-settlements,  among  whom,  as  well  as 
several  other  nations  of  Indians,  many  French  Eu- 
ropeans have  been  sent  to  settle,  whom  the  priests 
and  missionaries  among  them  encourage  to  take 
Indian  wives,  and  use  divers  other  alluring  methods 
o  attach  the  Indians  the  better  to  the  French  alli- 
ance, by  which  means  the  French  are  become  tho- 
oughly  acquainted  with  the  Indian  way,  warring 
and  living  in  the  woods,  and  have  now  a  great  num- 
ier  of  white  men  among  them,  able  to  perform  a 
ong  march  with  an  army  of  Indians  upon  any  ex- 
pedition. 

"  We  further  beg  leave  to  inform  your  majesty, 

hat  if  the  measures  of  France  should  provoke  your 

majesty  to  a  state  of  hostility  against  it  in  Europe, 

we  have  great  reason  to  expect  an  invasion  will  be 

ere   made   upon   your   majesty's  subjects  by  the 

Drench  and  Indians  from  the  Mississippi  settlements. 

They  have  already  paved  a  way  for  a  design  of  that 

nature,  by  erecting  a  fort  called  the  Albama  fort, 

alias  Fort  Lewis,  in  the  middle  of  the  upper  Creek 

ndians,  upon  a  navigable  river  leading  to  Mobile, 

rhich  they  have  kept  well  garrisoned  and  mounted 

dth  fourteen  pieces  of  cannon,  and  have  lately  been 

revented  from  erecting  a  second  nearer  to  us  on 

hat  quarter.     The  Upper  Creeks  are  a  nation  very 

bold,  active  and  daring,  consisting  of  about  2500 

ghting  men  (and  not  above  150  miles  distant  from 

he  Choctaws),  whom,   though  we  heretofore  have 

raded  with,   claimed  and  held  in  our  alliance,   yet 

be  French,  on  account  of  that  fort,  and  a  superior 

bility  to  make  them  liberal  presents,  have  been  for 

ome  time  striving  to  draw  them  over  to  their  in 

erest,  and  have  succeeded  with  some  of  the  town 

f  the  Creeks  ;  which,  if  they  can  be  secured  in  your 

majesty's  interest,  are  the  only  nation,  which  your 

majesty's  subjects  here  can  depend  upon  as  the  best 

arrier  against  any  attempts  either  of  the  French 

r  their  confederate  Indians. 

"  We  most  humbly  beg  leave  farther  to  inform 

our  majesty,  that  the  French  at  Mobile,  perceiving 

hat  they  could  not  gain  the  Indians  to  their  interest 

without  buying  their  deer-skins  (which  is  the  only 

ommedity  the    Indians  have  to  purchase   neces 

4  Li 


964 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA, 


saries  with),  and  the  French  not  being  able  to  dis- 
pose of  those  skins  by  reason  of  their  having  no  vent 
tor  them  in  Old  Fiance,  they  have  found  means  to 
encourage  vessels  from  hence,  New  York,  and  other 
places,  (which  are  not  prohibited  by  the  acts  of 
trade,)  to  truck  those  skins  with  them  for  Indian 
trading  good^  especially  the  British  woollon  manu- 
factures, which  the  French  dispose  of  to  the  Creeks 
and  Choctaws,  and  other  Indians,  by  which  means 
the  Indians  are  much  more  alienated  from  our  in- 
terest, and  on  every  occasion  object  to  us  that  the 
French  can  supply  them  with  strouds  and  blankets 
as  well  as  the  English,  which  would  have  the  con- 
trary effect  if  they  were  wholly  supplied  with  those 
commodities  by  your  majesty's  subjects  trading  with 
them.  If  a  stop  were  therefore  put  to  that  perni- 
cious trade  with  the  French,  the  chief  dependence  of 
the  Creek  Indians  would  be  on  this  government, 
and  that  of  Georgia,  to  supply  them  with  goods ;  by 
which  means  great  part  of  the  Choctaws,  living  next 
the  Creeks,  would  see  the  advantage  the  Creek  In- 
dians enjoyed  by  having  British  woollen  manufac- 
tures wholly  from  your  majesty's  subjects,  and  thereby 
be  invited  in  a  short  time  to  enter  into  a  treaty  of 
commerce  with  us,  which  they  have  lately  made  some 
offers  for,  and  which,  if  effected,  will  soon  lessen  the 
interest  of  the  French  with  those  Indians,  and  by- 
degrees  attach  them  to  that  of  your  majesty. 

"  The  only  expedient  we  can  propose  to  recover 
and  confirm  that  nation  to  your  majesty's  interest, 
is  by  speedily  making  them  presents  to  withdraw 
them  from  the  French  alliance,  and  by  building  some 
forts  among  them  your  majesty  may  be  put  in  such 
a  situation,  that  on  the  first  notice  of  hostilities  with 
the  French,  your  majesty  may  be  able  at  once  to 
reduce  the  Albania  fort,  and  we  may  then  stand 
against  the  French  and  their  Indians,  which,  if  not 
timely  prepared  for  before  a  war  breaks  out,  we  have 
too  much  reason  to  fear  we  may  be  soon  over-run 
by  the  united  strength  of  the  French,  the  Creeks, 
and  Choctaws,  with  many  other  nations  of  their 
Indian  allies:  for,  should  the  Creeks  become  wholly 
enemies,  who  are  well  acquainted  with  all  our  set- 
tlements, we  probably  should  also  be  soon  deserted 
by  the  Cherokees,  and  a  few  others,  small  tribes  of 
Indians,  who,  for  the  sake  of  our  booty,  would  rea- 
dily join  to  make  us  a  prey  to  the  French  and  sa- 
vages. Ever  since  the  late  Indian  war,  the  offences 
given  us  then  by  the  Creeks  have  made  that  nation 
very  jealous  Of  your  majesty's  subjects  of  this  pro- 
vince. We  have  therefore  concerted  measures  with 
the  honourable  James  Oglethorpe,  Esq. ;  who,  being 
at  the  head  of  a  new  colony,  will  (we  hope)  be  suc- 
cessful for  your  majesty's  interest  among  that  peo- 
ple. He  has  already  by  presents  attached  the  lower 
creeks  to  your  majesty,  and  has  laudably  undertaken 
to  endeavour  the  fixing  a  garrison  among  the  upper 
creeks,  the  expense  of  which  is  already  in  part  pro- 
vided for  in  this  session  of  the  general  assembly  of 
this  province.  We  hope,  therefore,  to  prevent  the 
French  from  encroaching  farther  on  your  majesty's 
territories,  until  your  majesty  is  graciously  pleased 
further  to  strengthen  and  secure  the  same. 

"  We  find  the  Cherokee  nation  has  lately  become 
very  insolent  to  your  majesty's  subjects  trading 
among  them,  notwithstanding  the  many  favours  the 
chiefs  of  that  nation  received  from  your  majesty  in 
Great  Britain,  besides  a  considerable  expense  which 
your  majesty's  subjects  of  this  province  have  been 
at  in  making  them  presents,  which  inclines  us  to 
believe  that  the  French,  by  their  Indians,  have  been 
tampering  with  them.  We  therefore  Leg  leave  to 


inform  your  majesty,  that  the  building  and  mount 
ing  some  forts  likewise  among  the  Cherokees,  agud 
making  them  presents  will  be  highly  necessary  to 
keep  them  steady  in  their  duty  to  your  majesty,  lest 
the  French  may  prevail  in  seducing  that  nation, 
which  they  may  the  more  readily  be  inclined  to  from 
the  prospect  of  getting  considerable  plunder  in  slaves, 
cattle,  &c.,  commodities  which  they  very  well  know 
we  have  among  us,  and  that  several  other  forta  will  be 
indispensably  necessary,  to  be  a  cover  to  your  ma- 
jesty's subjects  settled  backwards  in  this  province, 
as  also  to  those  of-thircelpny  of  Georgia,  both  which 
in  length  are/very  extensive;  for  though  the  trus- 
tees for  establishing  the  yolony  of  Georgia,  by  a 
particular  scheme  of  good)  management,  painfully 
conducted  by  the  gentlenWn  engaged  here  in  that 
charitable  enterprise,  have  put  that  small  part  of  the 
colony,  which  he  has  not  yet  been  able  to  establish, 
in  a  tenable  condition,  against  the  Spaniards  of 
Florida  which  lie  to  the  southward  ;  yet  the  back 
exposition  of  those  colonies  to  the  vast  number  of 
French  and  Indians  which  border  on  the  westward, 
must,  in  case  of  a  war,  cry  greatly  aloud  for  your 
majesty's  gracious  and  timely  succour.  The  ex- 
pense of  our  safety  on  such  an  occasion  we  must,, 
with  all  humility,  acquaint  your  majesty,  either  for 
men  or  money,  can  never  be  effected  by  your  ma- 
jesty's subjects  of  this  province,  who,  in  conjunction 
with  Georgia,  do  not  in  the  whole  amount  to  more 
than  3500  men,  which  compose  the  militia,  and  wholly 
consist  of  planters,  tradesmen,  and  other  men  of  bu- 
siness. 

"  Besides  the  many  dangers  which  by  land  we 
are  exposed  to  from  so  many  enemies  that  lie  on  the 
back  of  us ;  we  further  beg  leave  to  represent  to 
your  majesty  the  defenceless  condition  of  our  ports 
and  harbours,  where  any  enemies  of  your  majesty's 
dominions  may  very  easily  by  sea  invade  us,  there 
being  no  fortifications  capable  of  making  much  resist- 
ance. Those  in  Charlestown  harbour  are  now  in  a 
very  shattered  condition,  occasioned  by  the  late  vio- 
lent storms  and  hurricanes,  which  already  cost  this 
country  a  great  deal  of  money,  and  it  now  requires 
several  thousands  of  pounds  to  repair  the  old  and 
build  new  ones,  to  mount  the  ordnance  which  your 
majesty  was  graciously  pleased  to  send  us,  which, 
with  great  concern,  we  must  inform  your  majesty 
we  have  not  yet  been  able  to  accomplish,  being 
lately  obliged,  for  the  defence  and  support  of  this 
your  majesty's  province  and  government,  to  raise, 
by  a  tax  on  the  inhabitants,  a  supply  of  above  40,000/. 
paper  currency  per  annum,  which  is  a  considerable 
deal  more  than  a  third  part  of  all  the  currency  among 
us;  a  charge  which  your  majesty's  subjects  of  this 
province  are  but  barely  able  to  sustain.  Since  your 
majesty's  royal  instruction  to  your  majesty's  gover- 
nor here,  an  entire  stop  has  been  put  to  the  duties 
which  before  accrued  from  European  goods  imported; 
and  if  a  war  should  happen,  or  any  thing  extraordi- 
nary, to  be  farther  expensive  here,  we  should  be 
under  the  utmost  difficulties  to  provide  additionally 
for  the  same,  lest  an  increase  of  taxes,  with  an  ap- 
prehension of  danger,  should  drive  away  many  of 
our  present  inhabitants,  as  well  as  discourage  others 
from  coming  here  to  settle  for  the  defence  and  im- 
provement of  your  majesty's  province,  there  being 
several  daily  moving  with  their  families  and  effects 
to  North  Carolina,  where  there  are  no  such  fears 
and  burdens. 

"  We  must  therefore  beg  leave  to  inform  your 
majesty,  that,  amidst  our  other  perilous  circum- 
stances, we  are  subject  to  many  intestine  dangers 


UNITED  STATES. 


965 


Prom  the  great  number  of  negroes  that  are  now  among 
us,  who  amount  at  least  to  22,000  persons,  and  are 
three  to  one  of  all  your  majesty's  white  subjects  in 
this  province.  Insurrections  against  us  have  been 
often  attempted,  and  would  at  any  time  prove  very 
fatal  if  the  French  should  instigate  them,  by  artfulb 
giving  them  an  expectation  of  freedom.  In  such  a 
situation  we  most  humbly  crave  leave  to  acquain 
your  majesty,  that  even  the  present  ordinary  ex 
penses  necessary  for  the  care  and  support  of  this  youi 
majesty's  province  and  government,  cannot  be  pro 
vided  for  by  your  majesty's  subjects  of  this  province 
without  your  majesty's  gracious  pleasure  to  continu( 
those  laws  for  establishing  the  duty  on  negroes  am 
other  duty  for  seven  years,  and  for  appropriating 
the  same,  which  now  lie  before  your  majesty  for 
your  royal  assent  and  approbation  ;  and  the  further 
expenses  that  will  be  requisite  for  the  erecting  some 
forts,  and  f  stablishing  garrisons  in  the  several  ne 
cessary  places,  so  as  to  form  a  barrier  for  the  secu 
rity  of  this  your  majesty's  province,  we  most  humbly 
submit  to  your  majesty. 

"  Your  majesty's  subjects  of  this  province,  with 
fulness  of  zeal,  duty,  and  affection  to  your  mosl 
gracious  and  sacred  majesty,  are  so  highly  sensible  o 
the  great  importance  of  this  province  to  the  French, 
that  we  must  conceive  it  more  than  probable,  if  a 
war  should  happen,  they  will  use  all  endeavours 
to  bring  this  country  under  their  subjection;  they 
would  be  thereby  enabled  to  support  their  sugar 
islands  with  all  sorts  of  provisions  and  lumber  by 
an  easy  navigation,  which,  to  our  great  advantage, 
is  not  so  practicable  from  the  present  French  colo- 
nies, besides  the  facility  of  gaining  then  to  their  in- 
terest most  of  the  Indian  trade  on  the  northern 
continent;  they  might  then  easily  unite  the  Cana 
dees  and  Choctaws,  with  the  many  other  nations  of 
Indians  which  are  now  in  their  interest.  And  the 
several  ports  and  harbours  of  Carolina  and  Georgia, 
which  now  enable  your  majesty  to  be  absolute  mas- 
ter of  the  passage  through  the  Gulf  of  Florida,  and 
to  impede,  at  your  pleasure,  the  transportation  home 
of  the  Spanish  treasure,  would  then  prove  so  many 
convenient  harbours  for  your  majesty's  enemies,  by 
their  privateers  or  ships  of  war  to  annoy  a  great  part 
of  the  British  trade  to  America,  as  well  as  that  which 
is  carried  on  through  the  gulf  from  Jamaica ;  be- 
sides the  loss  which  Great  Britain  must  feel  in  so 
considerable  a  part  of  its  navigation,  as  well  as  the 
exports  of  masts,  pitch,  tar,  and  turpentine,  which, 
without  any  dependence  on  the  northern  parts  of 
Europe,  are  from  hence  plentifully  supplied  for  the 
use  of  the  British  shipping. 

"  This  is  the  present  state  and  condition  of  your 
majesty's-pvovince  of  South  Carolina,  utterly  inca- 
pable of  finding  funds  sufficient  for  the  defence  of 
this  wide  frontier,  and  so  destitute  of  white  men, 
that  even  money  itself  cannot  here  raise  a  sufficient 
body  of  them. 

"  With  all  humility  we  therefore  beg  leave  to  lay 
ourselves  at  the  feet  of  your  majesty,  humbly  im- 
ploring your  majesty's  most  gracious  care  in  the  ex- 
tremities we  should  be  reduced  to  on  the  breaking 
out  of  a  war;  and  that  your  majesty  would  be  gra- 
ciously pleased  to  extend  your  protection  to  us,  as 
your  majesty,  in  vour  great  wisdom,  should  think 
proper." 

In  the  meantime  the  trustees  for  Georgia  had  been 
employed  in  framing  a  plan  of  settlement,  and  esta- 
blishing such  public  regulations  as  they  judged  most 
proper  for  answering  the  great  end  of  the  corpora- 
tion. In  this  general  plan  they  considered  each  in- 


habitant both  as  a  planter  and  a  soldier,  who  must  be 
provided  with  arms  and  ammunition  for  defence,  as 
well  as  with  tools  and  utensils  for  cultivation.  As  the 
strength  of  the  province  was  their  chief  object,  they 
agreed  to  establish  such  tenures  for  holding  lands 
in  it  as  they  judged  most  favourable  for  a  military 
establishment.  Each  tract  of  land  granted  was  con- 
sidered as  a  military  fief,  for  which  the  possessor 
was  to  appear  in  arms,  and  take  the  field,  when  called 
upon  for  the  public  defence.  To  prerent  large  tracts 
from  falling  into  one  hand,  they  agreed  to  grant 
their  lands  in  tail-male  in  preference  to  tail-general. 
On  the  termination  of  the  estate  in  tail-male,  the 
lands  were  to  revert  to  the  trust;  and  such  lands 
thus  reverting  were  to  be  granted  again  to  such 
persons  as  the  common  council  of  the  trust  should 
judge  most  advantageous  for  the  colony;  only  the 
trustees  in  such  a  ease  were  to  pay  special  regard  to 
the  daughters  of  such  persons  as  had  made  improve- 
ments on  their  lots,  especially  when  not  already  pro- 
vided for  by  marriage.  The  wives  of  such  persons 
as  should  survive  them,  were  to  be  during  their  lives 
entitled  to  the  mansion-house,  and  one-half  of  the 
lands  improved  by  their  husbands.  No  man  was  to 
be  permitted  to  depart  the  province  without  licence. 
If  any  part  of  the  lands  granted  by  the  trustees 
should  not  be  cultivated,  cleared,  and  fenced  with  a 
worm-fence,  or  pales,  six  feet  high,  within  eighteen 
years  from  the  date  of  the  grant,  such  part  was  to 
revert  to  the  trust,  and  the  grant  with  respect  to  it 
to  be  void.  All  forfeitures  for  non-residence,  high- 
treason,  felonies,  &c.  were  to  the  trustees  for  the  use 
and  benefit  of  the  colony.  The  use  of  negroes  was 
to  be  absolutely  prohibited,  and  also  the  importation 
of  rum.  None  of  the  colonists  were  to  be  permitted 
to  trade  with  Indians,  but  such  as  should  obtain  a 
special  licence  for  that  purpose. 

These  were  some  of  the  fundamental  regulations 
established  by  the  trustees  of  Georgia,  and  perhaps 
the  imagination  of  man  could  scarcely  have  framed 
a  system  of  rules  worse  adapted  to  the  circumstances 
and  situation  of  the  poor  settlers,  and  of  more  perni- 
cious consequence  to  the  prosperity  of  the  province. 
Yet,  although  the  trustees  were  greatly  mistaken, 
with  respect  to  their  plan  of  settlement,  it  must  be 
acknowledged  their  views  were  generous.  As  the 
people  sent  out  by  them  were  the  poor  and  unfortu- 
nate, who  were  to  be  provided  with  necessaries  at 
:heir  public  store,  they  received  their  lands  upon 
condition  of  cultivation,  and  by  their  personal  resi- 
dence, of  defence.  Silk  and  wine  being  the  chief 
articles  intended  to  be  raised,  they  judged  negroes 
were  not  requisite  to  these  purposes.  As  the  colony 
was  designed  to  be  a  barrier  to  South  Carolina, 
against  the  Spanish  settlement  at  Augustine,  they 
magined  that  negroes  would  rather  weaken  than 
strengthen  it,  and  that  such  poor  colonists  wcultf. 
•un  into  debt,  and  ruin  themselves  by  purchasing 
hem.  Rum  was  judged  pernicious  to  health,  and 
•uinous  to  the  infant  settlement.  A  free  trade  with 
Indians  was  considered  as  a  thing  that  might  have  a 
endency  to  involve  the  people  in  quarrels  and  trou- 
>les  with  the  powerful  savages,  and  expose  them  to 
[anger  and  destruction.  Such  were  probably  the 
motives  which  induced  those  humane  and  generous 
>ersons  to  impose  such  foolish  and  ridiculous  re- 
trictions  on  their  colony.  For  by  granting  their 
mall  estates  in  tail-male,  they  drove  the  settlers 
rorn  Georgia,  who  soon  found  that  abundance  of 
ands  could  be  obtained  in  America  upon  a  larger 
cale,  and  on  much  better  terms.  By  their  dis- 
harging  a  trade  with  the  We,st  Indies,  they  not  ouly 


966 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


deprived  the  colonists  of  an  excellent  and  conveni- 
ent market  for  their  lumber,  of  which  they  had 
abundance  on  their  lands,  but  also  of  rum,  which, 
when  mixed  with  a  sufficient  quantity  of  water,  has 
been  found  by  experience  the  cheapest,  the  most  re- 
freshing, and  nourishing  drink  for  workmen  in  such 
a  foggy  and  burning  climate.  The  trustees,  like 
other  distant  legislators,  who  framed  their  regula- 
tions upon  principles  of  speculation,  were  liable  to 
icany  errors  and  mistakes,  and  however  good  their 
design,  their  rules  were  found  improper  and  imprac- 
ticable. The  Carolineans  plainly  perceived,  that 
they  would  prove  insurmountable  obstacles  to  the 
progress  and  prosperity  of  the  colony,  and  therefore 
from  motives  of  pity  began  to  invite  the  poor  Geor- 
gians to  come  over  Savanna  river,  and  settle  in  Ca- 
rolina, being  convinced  that  they  could  never  succeed 
under  such  impolitic  and  oppressive  restrictions. 

Besides  the  large  sums  of  money  which  the  trus- 
tees had  expended  for  the  settlement  of  Georgia, 
the  parliament  had  also  granted  during  the  two  past 
years  36,000/.  towards  carrying  into  execution  the 
humane  purpose  of  the  corporation.  But  after  the 
representation  and  memorial  from  the  legislature  of 
Carolina  reached  Britain,  the  nation  considered 
Georgia  to  be  of  the  utmost  importance  to  the  Bri- 
tish settlements  in  America,  and  began  to  make  still 
more  vigorous  efforts  for  its  speedy  population.  The 
first  embarkations  of  poor  people  from  England, 
being  collected  from  towns  and  cities,  were  found 
equally  idle  and  useless  members  of  society  abroad, 
as  they  had  been  at  home.  A  hardy  and  bold  race 
of  men,  inured  to  rural  labour  and  fatigue,  they  were 
persuaded  would  be  much  better  adapted  both  for 
cultivation  and  defence.  To  find  men  possessed  of 
these  qualifications,  the  trustees  turned  their  eyes  to 
Germany  and  the  Highlands  of  Scotland,  and  re- 
solved to  send  over  a  number  of  Scotch  and  German 
labourers  to  their  infant  province.  When  they  pub- 
lished their  terms  at  Inverness,  130  Highlanders 
immediately  accepted  them,  and  were  transported 
to  Georgia.  A  town -ship  on  the  river  Alatamaha, 
which  was  considered  as  the  boundary  between  the 
British  and  Spanish  territories,  was  allotted  for  the 
Highlanders,  in  which  dangerous  situation  they  set- 
tled, and  built  a  town,  which  they  called  New  In- 
verness. About  the  same  time  170  Germans  em- 
barked with  James  Oglethorp,  and  were  fixed  in  an- 
other quarter ;  so  that,  in  the  space  of  three  years, 
Georgia  received  above  400  British  subjects,  and 
about  170  foreigners.  Afterwards  several  adven- 
turers, both  from  Scotland  and  Germany,  followed 
their  countrymen,  and  added  further  strength  to  the 
province,  and  the  trustees  flattered  themselves  with 
the  hopes  of  soon  seeing  it  in  a  promising  condition. 

The  same  year  Carolina  lost  Robert  Johnson,  her 
favourite  governor,  whose  death  was  as  much  la- 
mented by  the  people,  as  during  his  life  he  had  been 
beloved  and  respected.  The  province  having  been 
»uch  indebted  to  his  courage  and  abilities,  to  perpe- 
tuate his  memory  among  them,  and,  in  testimony 
of  their  esteem,  a  monument  was  erected  in  their 
church  at  the  public  expense.  After  his  decease  the 
government  devolved  onThomasBroughton, an  honest 
man,  but  little  distinguished  either  for  his  knowledge 
or  enterprise.  At  this  time  many  of  the  leading 
men  of  the  colony  scrupled  not  to  practise  imposi- 
tions, and  being  eagerly  bent  on  engrossing  lands, 
the  lieutenant-governor  freely  granted  them  war- 
rants; and  the  planters,  provided  they  acquired 
large  possessions,  were  not  very  scrupulous  as  to 
the  manner  in  which  they  were  obtained. 


James  Oglethorpe  having  brought  a  number  of 
great  guns  with  him  from  England,  now  began  to 
fortify  Georgia,  by  erecting  strong-holds  on  its  fron- 
tiers, where  he  judged  they  might  be  useful  for  its 
safety  and  protection.  At  one  place,  which  he 
called  Augusta,  a  fort  was  erected  on  the  banks  of 
Savanna  river,  which  was  excellently  situated  for 
protecting  the  Indian  trade,  and  holding  treaties  of 
commerce  and  alliance  with  several  of  the  savage 
nations.  At  anothfir_p|ace,  called  Frederica,  on  an 
island  near  the/fnouth  oi  the  river  Aiatainaha,  an- 
other fort,  with  four  regular  bastions,  was  erected, 
and  several  pieces  of  cannjon  were  mounted  on  it. 
Ten  miles  nearer  the  sea  a^/battery  was  raised,  com- 
manding the  entrance  into  the  sound,  through  which 
all  ships  of  force  mttst  come  that  might  be  seut 
against  Frederica.  To  keep  little  garrisons  in  these 
forts,  to  help  the  trustees  to  defray  the  expenses  of 
such  public  works,  10,000/.  were  granted  by  tho 
parliament  of  Great  Britain. 

While  James  Oglethorpe  was  thus  employed  in 
strengthening  Georgia,  he  received  a  message  from 
the  Governor  of  Augustine,  acquainting  him  that  a 
Spanish  commissioner  from  the  Havanna  had  ar- 
rived there,  in  order  to  make  certain  demands  of 
him,  and  would  meet  him  at  Frederica  for  that  pur- 
pose. At  the  same  time  he  had  advice,  that  three 
companies  of  foot  had  accompanied  him  to  that  Spa- 
nish settlement.  A  few  days  afterwards  this  com- 
missioner came  to  Georgia  by  sea,  and  Oglethorpe, 
unwilling  to  permit  him  to  come  to  Frederica,  dis- 
patched a  sloop  to  bring  him  into  Jekyl  Sound, 
where  he  intended  to  hold  a  conference  with  him. 
Here  the  commissioner  had  the  modesty  to  demand, 
that  Oglethorpe  and  his  people  should  immediately 
evacuate  all  the  territories  to  the  southward  of  St. 
Helena  Sound,  as  they  belonged  to  the  king  of 
Spain,  who  was  determined  to  maintain  his  right 
to  them ;  and  if  he  refused  to  comply  with  his  de- 
mand, he  had  orders  to  proceed  to  Charlestown  and 
lay  the  same  before  the  governor  and  council  of  that 
province.  Oglethorpe  endeavoured  to  convince  him 
that  his  Catholic  majesty  had  been  misinformed  with 
respect  to  those  territories,  but  to  no  purpose ;  his 
instructions  were  peremptory,  and  the  conference 
broke  up  without  coming  to  any  agreement.  After 
which  Oglethorpe  embarked  with  all  possible  expe- 
dition, and  sailed  for  England. 

During  his  absence  the  strict  law  of  the  trustees,  re- 
specting the  rum  trade,  had  like  to  have  created  a 
quarrel  between  the  Carolineans  and  Georgians.  The 
fortification  at  Augusta  had  induced  some  traders  of 
Carolina  to  open  stores  at  that  place,  so  conveniently 
situated  for  commerce  with  Indian  nations.  For  this 
purpose,  land-carriage  being  expensive,  they  in- 
tended to  force  their  way  by  water  with  loaded  boats 
up  Savanna  river  to  their  stores  at  Augusta.  But  as 
they  passed  the  town  of  Savanna,  the  magistrates 
rashly  ordered  the  boats  to  be  stopt,  the  packages  to 
be  opened,  the  casks  of  rum  to  be  staved,  and  the 
people  to  be  confined.  Such  injurious  treatment  was 
not  to  be  suffered;  the  Carolineans  determined  to 
ive  a  check  to  their  insolence,  and  for  that  purpose 
deputed  two  persons,  one  from  the  council  and  an- 
other from  the  assembly,  to  demand  of  the  Georgians 
by  what  authority  they  presumed  to  seize  and  de- 
stroy the  effects  of  their  traders,  or  to  compel  them 
to  submit  to  the ir  code  of  laws.  The  magistrates  of 
Georgia,  sensible  of  their  error,  made  great  conces- 
sions to  the  deputies,  and  treated  them  with  the  ut- 
most civility  and  respect.  The  goods  were  instantly 
ordered  to  be  returned,  the  people  to  be  set  at  liberty, 


UNITED  STATES. 


967 


and  all  manner  of  satisfaction  was  given  to  the  de- 
puties they  could  have  expected.  Strict  orders  were 
sent  to  the  agents  of  Georgia  among  Indians  not  to 
molest  the  traders  from  Carolina,  but  to  give  them 
all  the  assistance  and  protection  in  their  power. 
The  Carolineans,  on  the  other  hand,  engaged  not  to 
smuggle  any  strong  liquors  among  the  settlers  ol 
Georgia,  and  the  navigation  on  the  river  Savanna 
was  declared  equally  open  and  free  to  both  provinces. 
About  the  same  time  the  French  took  the  field 
against  the  emperor;  and  the  flames  of  war  kin- 
dung  between  such  powerful  potentates,  would,  it  was 
thought,  inevitably  spread,  and  involve  all  Europe 
in  the  quarrel.  In  case  Great  Britain  should  inter- 
fere in  this  matter,  and  declare  in  favour  of  the  em- 
peror, orders  were  sent  out  to  the  governors  of  Que- 
bec and  New  Orleans  to  invade  the  weakest  fron- 
tiers of  the  British  settlements  of  America.  For 
this  purpose  an  army  was  formed  in  New  France, 
and  preparations  were  made  for  uniting  the  force  of 
Canada  and  Louisiana  to  attack  Carolina.  But  be- 
fore this  design  was  put  in  execution,  advice  came, 
that  the  clouds  of  war  which  threatened  Europe  were 
dispersed,  and  a  general  peace  was  restored,  by  the 
mediation  of  Britain  and  Holland.  This  put  a  stop 
to  the  motions  of  the  main  body  in  Canada;  how- 
ever, a  detachment  of  200  French,  and  400  Indians 
were  sent  down  the  Mississippi,  to  meet  a  party 
from  New  Orleans  to  cut  off  the  Chickesaw  Indians. 
This  tribe  were  the  firm  allies  of  Britain,  and  the 
bravest  nation  of  savages  on  the  continent,  but  con- 
sisted only  of  between  600  and  800  gun-men.  The 
French  having  encroached  on  their  lands,  and  built 
some  forts  near  them,  had  on  that  account  drawn 
upon  themselves  their  invincible  enmity  and  resent- 
ment. The  Chickesaws  had  long  obstinately  op- 
posed their  progress  up  the  river  Mississippi,  and 
were  now  the  chief  obstacle  that  prevented  a  regular 
communication  between  Louisiana  and  Canada.  The 


French  determined  to  remove  it,  by  extirpating 
this  troublesome  nation,  and  for  this  purpose  fell 
down  the  river  in  boats  to  the  place  where  they  ex- 
pected to  meet  their  friends  from  New  Orleans. 
But  the  party  from  the  southward  not  coming  up  at 
the  time  appointed,  and  the  Canadians  thinking 
themselves  strong  enough  for  the  enterprise,  began 
the  war  by  attacking  the  Chickesaw  towns.  Upon 
which  the  savages  gathered  together  above  300  war- 
riors, gave  the  French  battle  in  an  open  field,  and, 
though  with  considerable  loss,  completely  defeated 
them.  Above  40  Frenchmen  and  eight  Indians  were 
killed  on  the  spot,  and  the  rest  were  taken  prison- 
ers, among  whom  was  their  commander,  and  chief, 
brother  to  Mons.  Bienville,  governor  of  Now  Or- 
leans. Another  party  of  French  from  Mobile,  in 
the  same  year,  advanced  against  the  Creeks,  who 
were  also  unsuccessful,  and  obliged  to  retreat  with 
considerable  loss.  Carolina  rejoiced  at  those  dis- 
asters, and  began  now  more  than  ever  to  court  the 
friendship  and  interest  of  these  rude  nations  in  their 
neighbourhood,  considering  them  as  the  best  barrier 
against  their  natural  enemies. 

By  this  time  the  episcopalian  form  of  divine  wor- 
ship had  gained  ground  in  Carolina,  and  was  more 
countenanced  by  the  people  than  any  other.  That 
zeal  for  the  right  of  private  judgment  had  much 
abated,  and  those  prejudices  against  the  hierarchy, 
which  the  first  emigrants  tarried  from  England  with 
them,  were  now  almost  entirely  worn  off'  from  th<; 
succeeding  generation.  To  bring  about  this  change, 
no  doubt  the  well-timed  zeal  and  extensive  bounty 
of  the  society,  incorporated  for  the  propagation  of 


the  Gospel,  had  greatly  contributed.  At  this  time 
the  corporation  had  no  less  than  twelve  missionaries 
in  Carolina,  each  of  whom  shared  of  their  bounty. 
Spacious  churches  had  been  erected  in  the  province, 
which  were  pretty  well  supplied  with  clergymen, 
who  were  paid  from  the  public  treasury,  and  counte- 
nanced by  the  civil  authority,  all  which  favoured  the 
established  church.  The  dissenters  of  Carolina  were 
not  only  obliged  to  erect  and  uphold  their  churches, 
and  maintain  their  clergy  by  private  contributions, 
but  also  to  contribute  taxes  equally  with  their  neigh- 
bours, towards  the  maintenance  of  the  poor,  and  the 
support  of  the  establishment.  This  indeed  many  of 
them  considered  as  a  grievance,  but  having  but  few 
friends  in  the  provincial  assembly,  no  redress  could 
be  obtained  for  them.  Besides,  the  establishment 
gave  its  adherents  many  advantageous  privileges  in 
point  of  power  and  authority  over  persons  of  other  de- 
nominations. It  gave  them  the  best  chance  for  being 
elected  members  of  the  legislature,  and  of  course  of 
being  appointed  to  offices,  both  civil  and  military,  in 
their  respective  districts;  and  these  privileges  drew 
over  many  of  the  dissenters,  especially  the  younger 
part. 

However,  the  emigrants  from   Scotland  and  Ire- 
land, most  of  whom  were  Presbyterians,   still  com- 
posed a  considerable  part  of  the  province,  and  kept 
up  the  Presbyterian  form  of  worship.     Archibald 
Stobo,  by  great  diligence  and  ability,  still  preserved 
a  number  of  followers ;  and  an  association  had  been 
formed  in  favour  of  this  mode  of  religious  worship, 
by  him  and  Fisher,  and  Witherspoon,  ministers  of 
the  church  of  Scotland,  together  with  Joseph  Stan- 
yarn,  and  Joseph  Blake,  men  of  respectable  charac- 
ters and  considerable  fortunes.     The  Presbyterians 
had  already  erected  churches  at  Charlestown,  Wil- 
town,  and  in  three  of  the  maritime  islands,  for  the 
use  of  the  people  adhering  to  that  form  of  religious 
worship.      As    the    inhabitants   multiplied,    several 
more  in  different  parts  of  the  province  afterwards 
joined   them,    and   built  churches,    particularly    at 
Jacksonburgh,  Indian  Town,  Port-royal,  and  Wii- 
liamsburgh.     The  first  clergymen  having  received 
their  ordination  in  the  church  of  Scotland,  the  fun- 
damental rules  of  the  association  were  framed  ac- 
cording to  the  doctrines  and  discipline  of  that  esta- 
blishment, to  which  they  agreed  to  conform  as  closely 
as  their   local  circumstances  would   admit.     These 
ministers  adopted  this  mode  of  religious   worship, 
not  only  from  a  persuasion  of  its  conformity  to  the 
primitive  apostolic  form,  but  also  from  a  conviction 
of  its   being,  of  all  others,  the  most  favourable  to 
civil  liberty  and  independence.     Sensible   that  not 
only  natural  endowments,  but  also  a  competent  mea- 
sure of  learning  and  acquired  knowledge  were  ne- 
cessary to  qualify  men  for  the  sacred  function,  and 
enable  them  to  discharge  the  duties  of  it  with  honour 
and  success,  they  associated  on  purpose  to  prevent 
deluded  mechanics,  and  illiterate  novices  from  creep- 
ing into  the  pulpit,  to  the  disgrace  of  the  character, 
and  the  injury  of  religion.     In  different  parts  of  the 
province,  persons  oMhis  stamp  had  appeared,  who 
decried  all  establishments,  both  civil  and  religious, 
and  seduced  weak  minds  from  the  duties  of  allegi- 
ance, and   all  that  the  Presbytery  could  do  was  to 
•>revent  them  from  teaching  under  the  sanction  01 
;heir  authority.     But  this  association  of  Presbyte 
rians  having  little   countenance  from  government, 
aid  no  name  or  authority  in  law,  their  success  de 
tended  wholly  on  the  superior  knowledge,  populat 
alents  and  exemplary  life  of  their  ministers.    From 
ime  to  time  clergymen  were  afterwards  sent  out  at 


968 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  request  of  the  people  from  Scotland  and  Ireland  ; 
and  the  colonists  contributed  to  maintain  them,  till 
iit  length  funds  were  established  in  trust  by  private 
legacies  and  donations,  to  be  appropriated  for  the 
support  of  Presbyterian  ministers,  and  the  encou- 
ragement of  that  mode  of  religious  worship  and  go- 
vernment. 

We  have  several  times,  in  the  histories  of  all  the 
colonies,  had  occasion  to  make  remarks  on  paper 
currency;  which  the  planters  were  generally  for  in- 
creasing, and  the  merchants  and  money-lenders  for 
sinking.  The  exchange  of  London,  like  a  commer- 
cial thermometer,  served  to  measure  the  rise  or  fall 
of  paper  credit  in  Carolina;  and  the  price  of  bills  of 
exchange  commonly  ascertained  the  value  of  their 
current  money.  The  permanent  riches  of  the  coun- 
try consisted  in  lands,  houses,  and  negroes  ;  and  the 
produce  of  the  lands,  improved  by  negroes,  raw  ma- 
terials, provisions,  and  naval  stores,  were  exchanged 
for  what  the  province  wanted  from  other  countries. 
The  attention  of  the  mercantile  part  was  chiefly  em- 
ployed about  staple  commodities ;  and  as  their  great 
object  was  present  profit,  it  was  natural  for  them  to 
be  governed  by  that  great  axiom  in  trade,  whoever 
brings  commodities  cheapest  and  in.  the  best  order 
to  market,  must  always  meet  with  the  greatest  en- 
couragement and  success.  The  planters,  on  the 
other  hand,  attended  to  the  balance  of  trade,  which 
was  turned  in  their  favour,  and  concluded,  that 
when  the  exports  of  any  province  exceeded  its  im- 
ports, whatever  losses  private  persons  might  now 
and  then  sustain,  yet  that  province  upon  the  whole 
was  growing  rich.  Let  us  suppose,  what  was  indeed 
far  from  being  the  case,  that  Georgia  so  far  advanced 
in  improvement  as  to  rival  Carolina  in  raw  mate- 
rials and  exchangeable  commodities,  and  to  under- 
sell her  at  the  markets  in  Europe :  this  advantage 
could  only  arise  from  the  superior  quality  of  her 
lands,  the  cheapness  of  her  labour,  or  her  landed 
men  being  contented  with  smaller  profits.  In  such 
a  case  it  was  the  business  of  the  Carolina  merchants 
to  lower  the  price  of  her  commodities,  in  order  to 
reap  the  same  advantages  with  her  neighbours ;  and 
this  could  only  be  done  by  reducing  the  quantity  of 
paper  money  in  circulation.  If  gold  and  silver  only 
past  current  in  Georgia,  which  by  general  consent 
was  the  medium  of  commerce  throughout  the  world, 
if  it  had  a  sufficient  quantity  to  answer  the  pur- 
poses of  trade,  and  no  paper  currency  had  been  per- 
mitted to  circulate ;  in  such  case  its  commodities 
would  bring  their  full  value  at  the  provincial  market, 
and  no  more,  according  to  the  general  standard  of 
money  in  Europe.  Supposing  also  that  Carolina 
had  a  quantity  of  gold  and  silver  in  circulation,  suf- 
ficient for  the  purposes  of  commerce,  and  that  the 
planters,  in  order  to  raise  the  value  of  their  produce, 
should  issue  paper  money  equal  to  the  quantity  of 
gold  and  silver  in  circulation,  the  consequence  would 
be,  the  price  of  labour,  and  of  all  articles  of  ex- 
portation, would  be  doubled.  But  as  the  markets  of 
Europe  remained  the  same,  and  its  commodities 
being  of  the  same  kind  and  quality  with  those  of 
Georgia,  they  would  not  bring  a  higher  price.  Some 
persons  must  be  losers,  and  in  the  first  instance  this 
loss  must  fall  on  the  mercantile  interest  and  monied 
men.  Therefore  this  superabundance  of  paper  credit, 
on  whose  foundation  the  deluded  province  built  its 
visionary  fabric  of  great  wealth,  was  not  only  use- 
less, but  prejudicial  with  respect  to  the  community. 
Taper  money  in  such  large  quantities  is  the  bane  of 
comme»-cs,  a  kind  of  fictitious  wealth,  making  men 
by  high-sounding  language  imagine  they  are  worth 


thousands  and  millions,  while  a  ship's  load  of  it 
would  not  procure  for  the  country  a  regiment  of  aux- 
iliary troops  in  time  of  war,  nor  a  suit  of  clothes  at 
an  European  market  in  time  of  peace.  Had  Ame- 
rica, from  its  first  settlement,  prohibited  paper 
money  altogether,  its  staple  commodities  must  have 
brought  her,  in  the  course  of  commerce,  vast  sums 
of  gold/etui  sltver,  which  would  have  circulated 
through  the  continent,  and  answered  all  the  purposes 
of  trade  both  foreign  and  domestic.  It  is  true,  the 
value  of  gold  and  Isilver  is  equally  nominal,  and 
rises  and  falls  li)re  the  value  of  other  articles  of 
commerce,  iiupfbportion  to  the  quantity  in  circula- 
tion ;  but  as  nations  in  general  have  fixed  on  these 
metals  as  the  medium  of  trade,  this  has  served  to 
stamp  a  value  on  them,  and  render  them  the  means 
not  only  of  procuring  every  where  the  necessaries  of 
life,  but  by  supporting  public  credit,  the  chief  means 
also  of  national  protection. 

However,  some  distinction  in  point  of  policy 
should  perhaps  be  made  between  a  colony  in  its  in- 
fancy, and  a  nation  already  possessed  of  wealth,  and 
in  an  advanced  state  of  agriculture  and  commerce, 
especially  while  the  former  is  united  to,  and  under 
the  protection  of  the  latter.  To  a  growing  colony 
such  as  Carolina,  paper  credit,  under  certain  limi- 
tations, was  useful  in  several  respects  ;  especially  as 
the  gold  and  silver  always  left  the  country,  when  it 
answered  the  purpose  of  the  merchant  for  remittance 
better  than  produce.  This  credit  served  to  procure 
the  planter  strength  of  hands  to  clear  and  cultivate 
his  fields,  from  which  the  real  wealth  of  the  province 
arose.  Adventurous  planters  in  Carolina,  eager  to 
obtain  a  number  of  negroes,  always  stretched  their 
credit  with  the  traders  to  its  utmost  pitch  ;  for  as 
negroes  on  good  lands  cleared  themselves  in  a  few 
years,  they  by  this  means  made  an  annual  addition 
to  their  capital  stock.  After  obtaining  this  credit, 
it  then  became  their  interest  to  maintain  their  su 
periority  in  assembly,  and  discharge  their  debt  to 
the  merchants  in  the  easiest  manner  they  could. 
The  increase  of  paper  money  always  proved  to  them 
a  considerable  assistance,  as  it  advanced  the  price 
of  those  commodities  they  brought  to  the  market,  by 
which  they  cancelled  their  debts  with  the  mer- 
chants ;  so  that,  however  much  this  currency  might 
depreciate,  the  loss  occasioned  by  it  from  time  to 
time  fell  not  on  the  adventurous  planters,  but  on 
the  merchants  and  money-lenders,  who  were  obliged 
to  take  it  in  payment  of  debts  or  produce,  which 
always  arose  in  price  in  proportion  to  its  depre- 
ciation. 

In  excuse  for  increasing  provincial  paper  money, 
the  planters  always  pleaded  the  exigencies  of  the 
public,  such  as  warlike  expeditions,  raising  fortifi- 
cations, providing  military  stores,  and  maintaining 
garrisons  ;  those  no  doubt  rendered  the  measure 
sometimes  necessary,  and  often  reasonable,  but 
private  interest  had  also  considerable  weight  in 
adopting  it,  and  carrying  it  into  execution.  In  the 
year  1737,  a  bill  of  exchange  on  London  for  100/. 
sterling,  sold  for  750J.  Carolina  currency.  Of  this 
the  merchants  might  complain,  but  from  this  period 
they  had  too  little  weight  in  the  public  councils  to 
obtain  any  redress.  The  only  resource  left  for  them 
was  to  raise  the  price  of  negroes  and  British  arti- 
cles of  importation,  according  to  the  advanced  price 
of  produce  and  bills  of  exchange.  However,  the  ex- 
hange  again  fell  to  700/.  per  cent.,  at  which  stand- 
aid  it  afterwards  remained. 

By  this  time  the  colonists  of  Georgia,  after  a  suf- 
icient  experience,  had  become  fully  convinced  of 


UNITED  STATES. 


the  impropriety  and  folly  of  that  plan  of  settlement 
framed  by  the  trustees,  which,  however  well  in- 
tended, was  ill  adapted  to  their  circumstances,  and 
ruinous  to  the  settlement.  In  the  province  of  Caro- 
lina, which  lay  adjacent,  the  colonists  discovered 
that  there  they  could  obtain  lands  not  only  on  better 
terms,  but  also  liberty  to  purchase  negroes  to  assist 
in  clearing  and  cultivating  them.  They  found  la- 
bour in  the  burning  climate  intolerable,  and  the 
dangers  and  hardships  to  which  they  were  subjected 
insurmountable.  Instead  of  raising  commodities 
for  exportation,  the  Georgians,  by  the  labour  of 
several  years,  were  not  yet  able  to  raise  provisions 
sufficient  to  support  themselves  and  families.  Under 
such  discouragements,  numbers  retired  to  the  Caro- 
lina side  of  the  river,  where  they  had  better  pros- 
pects of  success,  and  the  magistrates  observed  the 
infant  colony  sinking  into  ruin,  and  likely  to  be 
totally  deserted.  The  freeholders  iu  and  round  Sa- 
vanna assembled  together,  and  drew  up  a  state  of 
their  deplorable  circumstances,  and  transmitted  it 
to  the  trustees,  in  which  they  represented  their  suc- 
cess in  Georgia  as  a  thing  absolutely  impossible, 
without  the  enjoyment  of  the  same  liberties  and  pri- 
vileges with  their  neighbours  in  Carolina.  In  two 
respects  they  implored  relief  from  the  trustees  ;  they 
desired  a  fee-simple  or  free  title  to  their  lands,  and 
liberty  to  import  negroes  under  certain  limitations, 
without  which  they  declared  they  had  neither  en- 
couragement to  labour,  nor  ability  to  provide  for 
their  posterity.  But  the  colony  of  Highlanders,  in- 
stead of  joiuing  in  this  application,  most  sensibly 
and  nobly  remonstrated  against  the  introduction  of 
slaves.  As  they  lay  contiguous  to  the  Spanish  do- 
minions, they  were  apprehensive  that  these  enemies 
would  entice  their  slaves  from  them  in  time  of  peace, 
and  in  time  of  war  instigate  them  to  rise  against 
their  masters.  Besides,  they  considered  perpetual 
slavery  as  shocking  to  human  nature,  and  deemed 
the  permission  of  it  as  a  grievance,  and  which  in 
some  future  day  might  also  prove  a  scourge,  and 
make  many  feel  the  misery  of  that  oppression  they 
so  earnestly  desired  to  introduce. 

Few  persons  who  arc  acquainted  with  the  country 
will  wonder  at  the  complaints  of  the  early  settlers  in 
Georgia;  for  if  we  consider  the  climate  to  which  they 
were  sent,  and  the  labours  and  hardships  they  had  to 
undergo,  we  may  rather  be  astonished  that  any  of 
them  survived  the  first  year  after  their  arrival.  When 
James  Oglethorpe  took  possession  of  this  wilderness, 
the  whole  was  a  thick  forest,  excepting  savannas, 
which  are  natural  plains  whure  no  trees  grow,  and 
a  few  Indian  fields,  where  the  savages  planted  maize 
for  their  subsistence.  In  the  province  there  were 
the  same  wild  animals,  fish,  reptiles  and  insects, 
which  were  found  in  Carolina.  The  country  in  the 
maritime  parts  was  likewise  a  spacious  plain,  covered 
with  pine  trees,  where  the  lands  were  barren  and 
sandy ;  and  with  narrow  slips  of  oaks,  hickory,  cy- 
press, cane,  &c.,  where  the  lands  were  of  a  better 
quality.  Rains,  thunder-storms,  hurricanes,  and 
whirlwinds,  were  equally  frequent  in  the  one  pro- 
vince as  in  the  other.  Little  difference  could  be 
perceived  in  the  soil,  which  in  both  was  barren  or 
swampy ;  and  the  same  diseases  were  common  to 
both.  The  lands  being  covered  with  wood,  through 
which  the  sea-breezes  could  not  penetrate,  there  was 
little  agitation  in  the  air,  which  at  some  seasons  was 
thick,  heavy  and  foggy,  and  at  others  clear,  close, 
and  suffocating,  both  which  were  most  pernicious 
to  health.  The  air  of  the  swampy  land  was  preg- 
nant with  innumerable  noxious  qualities,  insomuch 


that  a  more  unwholesome  climate  was  not  perhaps 
to  be  found  in  the  universe.  The  poor  settlers  con- 
sidered this  wilderness  to  which  they  were  brought, 
to  have  been  designed  by  nature  rather  for  the  habi- 
tation of  wild  beasts  than  human  creatures.  They 
found  that  diseases,  or  even  misfortunes  were  in 
effect  equally  fatal :  for  though  neither  of  them  might 
prove  suddenly  mortal,  yet  either  would  reduce  them 
to  a  state  in  which  they  might  more  properly  be 
said  to  perish  than  to  die. 

Nothing  retarded  the  progress  and  improvement 
of  these  southern  settlements  more  than  the  inat- 
tention shown  to  the  natural  productions  of  the  soil, 
and  the  preference  which  has  commonly  been  given 
to  articles  transplanted  from  Europe.  As  Georgia 
lay  so  convenient  for  supplying  the  West  Indies  with 
maize,  Indian  peas,  and  potatoes,  for  which  the  de- 
mand was  very  great,  perhaps  the  first  planters  could 
scarcely  have  turned  their  attention  to  more  profita- 
ble articles,  but  without  strength  of  hands  little  ad- 
vantage could  be  reaped  from  them.  It  is  true  the 
West  Indian  Islands  would  produce  such  articles,  yet 
the  planters  would  never  cultivate  them,  while  they 
could  obtain  them  by  purchase :  the  lands  there 
suited  other  productions  more  valuable  ard  advan- 
tageous. Abundance  of  stock,  particularly  hogs  and 
black  cattle,  might  have  been  raised  in  Georgia  for 
the  same  market.  Lumber  was  also  in  demand,  and 
might  have  been  rendered  profitable  to  the  province, 
but  nothing  could  succeed  there  under  the  foolish 
restrictions  of  the  trustees.  European  grain,  such 
as  wheat,  oats,  barley,  and  rye,  thrived  very  ill  on 
the  maritime  parts ;  and  even  silk  and  wine  were 
found  upon  trial  by  no  means  to  answer  tbeir  expec- 
tations. The  bounties  given  for  raising  the  latter 
were  an  encouragement  to  the  settlers,  but  either 
no  pains  were  taken  to  instruct  the  people  in  the 
proper  methods  of  raising  them,  or  the  soil  and  cli- 
mate were  ill  adapted  for  the  purpose.  The  poor 
and  ignorant  planters  applied  themselves  to  those 
articles  of  husbandry  to  which  probably  they  had 
been  formerly  accustomed,  but  which  poorly  re- 
warded them  and  left  them,  after  all  their  toil,  in  a 
starved  and  miserable  condition. 

The  complaints  of  the  Georgians,  however  ignorant 
they  might  be,  ought  not  to  have  been  entirely  dis- 
regarded by  the  trustees.  Experience  suggested 
those  inconveniences  and  troubles  from  which  they 
implored  relief.  The  hints  they  gave  certainly  ought 
to  have  been  improved  towards  correcting  errors  in 
the  first  plan  of  settlement,  and  framing  another 
more  favourable  and  advantageous.  The  honour  of 
the  trustees  depended  on  the  success  and  happiness 
of  the  settlers,  and  it  was  impossible  for  the  people 
to  succeed  and  be  happy  without  those  encourage- 
ments, and  privileges  absolutely  necessary  to  the 
first  state  of  colonization. 

It  must  be  acknowledged,  for  the  credit  of  the 
benevolent  trustees,  that  they  sent  oui  these  emi- 
grants to  Georgia  under  several  very  favourable  cir. 
cumstances.  They  paid  the  expenses  of  their  pas- 
sage, and  furnished  them  with  clothes,  arms,  ammu- 
nition, and  instruments  of  husbandry.  They  gave 
them  lands,  and  bought  for  some  of  them  cows  and 
hogs  to  begin  their  stock.  They  maintained  their 
families  during  the  first  year  of  their  occupancy,  or 
until  they  should  receive  some  return  from  their 
lands.  So  that  if  the  planters  were  exposed  to  ha- 
zards from  the  climate,  and  obliged  to  undergo  la- 
bour, they  certainly  entered  on  their  task  with  se- 
veral advantages.  The  taxes  demanded,  compara- 
tively speaking,  were  a  mere  trifle  ;  and  for  their 


970 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


encouragement  they  laboured  entirely  for  themselves, 
and  for  some  time  were  favoured  with  a  free  and  ge- 
nerous maintenance. 

By  this  time  an  account  of  the  great  privileges  and 
indulgencies  granted  by  the  crown  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  emigration  to  Carolina,  had  been  published 
through  Britain  and  Ireland,  and  many  industrious 
people  in  different  parts  had  resolved  to  emigrate. 
Multitudes  oHabourers  and  husbandmen  in  Ireland, 
oppressed  by  landlords  and  bishops,  and  unable  by 
their  utmost  diligence  to  procure  a  comfortable  sub- 
sistence for  their  families,  embarked  for  Carolina. 
The  first  colony  of  Irish  people  had  lands  granted 
them  near  Santee  river,  and  formed  the  settlement 
called  Williamsburgh  township.  But  notwithstand- 
ing the  bounty  of  the  crown,  these  poor  emigrants 
remained  for  several  years  in  low  and  miserable  cir- 
cumstances. The  rigours  of  the  climate,  joined  to 
the  want  of  precaution,  so  common  to  strangers, 
proved  fatal  to  numbers  of  them.  Having  but  scanty 
provisions  in  the  first  stage  of  cultivation,  vast  num- 
bers, by  their  heavy  labour,  being  both  debilitated 
in  body,  and  dejected  in  spirit,  sickened  and  died  in 
the  woods.  But  as  this  township  received  frequent 
supplies  from  the  same  quarter,  the  Irish  settlement, 
amidst  every  hardship,  increased  in  number;  and 
at  length  they  applied  to  the  merchants  for  negroes, 
who  intrusted  them  with  a  few,  by  which  means 
they  were  relieved  from  the  severest  part  of  the 
labour,  then,  by  their  great  diligence  and  industry, 
spots  of  land  were  gradually  cleared,  which  in  the 
first  place  yielded  them  provisions,  and  in  process 
of  time  became  moderate  and  fruitful  estates. 

Trade  obstructed  by  the  Spaniards  of  Mexico— William 
Bull  lieutenant-governor  —  Oglethorpe's  regiment 
tent  to  Georgia — The  Spaniards  try  to  seduce  the 
Creeks— "Mutiny  in  Oglethorpe's  camp^A  negro  in- 
turrection  in  Carolina— A  war  with  Spain — A  pro- 
ject for  invading  Florida  —  General  Oglethorpe 
marches  against  Florida — Invests  Augustine — Raises 
the  siege— A  great  fire  at  Charlestown — A  petition 
in  favour  of  the  rice  trade — James  Glen  governor — 
Lord  Carteret's  property  divided  from  that  of  the 
crown — The  Spaniards  invade  Georgia — III  treat- 
ment of  General  Oglethorpe — Petition  for  three  in- 
dependent companies. 

For  several  years  before  an  open  rupture  took 
place  between  Great  Britain  and  Spain,  no  good 
understanding  subsisted  between  those  two  different 
courts,  neither  with  respect  to  the  privileges  of  na- 
vigation on  the  Mexican  seas,  nor  to  the  limits  be- 
tween the  provinces  of  Georgia  and  Florida.  On 
one  hand,  the  Spaniards  pretended  that  they  had  an 
exclusive  right  to  some  latitudes  in  the  bay  of  Mex- 
ico ;  and,  on  the  other,  though  the  matter  had  never 
been  clearly  ascertained  by  treaty,  the  British  mer- 
chants claimed  the  privilege  of  cutting  logwood  on 
the  bay  of  Campeachy.  This  liberty  indeed  had 
been  tolerated  on  the  part  of  Spain  for  several  years, 
and  the  British  merchants,  from  avaricious  motives, 
had  begun  a  traffic  with  the  Spaniards,  and  supplied 
them  with  goods  of  English  manufacture.  To  pre- 
vent this  illicit  trade,  the  Spaniards  doubled  the 
number  of  ships  stationed  in  Mexico  for  guarding 
the  coast,  giving  them  orders  to  board  and  search 
every  English  vessel  found  in  those  seas,  to  seize  on 
all  that  carried  contraband  commodities,  and  con- 
fine the  sailors.  At  length  not  only  smugglers,  but 
fair  traders  were  searched  and  detained,  so  that  all 
commerce  in  those  seas  was  entirely  obstructed.  The 
British  merchants  complained  to  the  ministry  of 


depredations  committed,  and  damages  sustained; 
which  produced  one  remonstrance  after  another  to 
the  Spanish  court ;  all  which  were  answered  only 
by  evasive  promises  and  delays.  The  Spaniards 
flattered  4h«-British  minister,  by  telling  him,  they 
wouM  inquire\nto  the  occasion  of  suchr  grievances, 
aiid  settle  all  differences  by  way  of  negotiation.  Sir 
Robert  Walpole,  fond  of  pacific  measures,  arid  trust- 
ing to  such  proposals  of  accommodation,  for  several 
years  suffered  the  grievances  of  the  merchants  ti> 
remain  unredressed,  and  the  trade  of  the  nation  to 
suffer  great  losses. 

In  the  year  1 738,  Samuel  Horsley  was  appointed 
governor  of  South  Carolina,  but  he  dying  before  he 
left  England,  the  charge  of  the  province  devolved 
on  William  Bull,  a  man  of  good  natural  abilities, 
and  well  acquainted  with  the  state  of  the  province. 
The  garrison  at  Augustine  having  receired  a  consi- 
derable reinforcement,  it  became  the  business  of  the 
people  of  Carolina,  as  well  as  those  of  Georgia,  to 
watch  the  motions  of  their  neighbours.  As  the  Spa- 
niards pretended  a  right  to  that  province,  they  were 
pouring  in  troops  into  Augustine,  which  gave  the 
British  colonists  some  reason  to  apprehend  they  had 
resolved  to  assert  their  right  by  force  of  arms. 
William  Bull  dispatched  advice  to  England  of  the 
growing  power  of  Spain  in  East  Florida,  and  at  the 
same  time  acquainted  the  trustees,  that  such  prepa- 
rations were  making  there  as  evidently  portended 
approaching  hostilities.  The  British  ministers  were 
well  acquainted  with  the  state  of  Carolina,  from  a 
late  representation  transmitted  by  its  provincial  le- 
gislature. The  trustees  for  Georgia  presented  a  me- 
morial to  the  king,  giving  an  account  of  the  Spanish 
preparations,  and  the  feeble  and  defenceless  condi- 
tion of  Georgia,  and  imploring  assistance.  In  con- 
sequence of  which,  a  regiment  of  600  effective  men 
was  ordered  to  be  raised,  with  a  view  of  sendiu«- 
them  to  Georgia.  And  James  Oglethorpe  being  ap" 
pointed  major-general  of  all  the  forces  of  the  two 
provinces,  had  the  command  of  this  regiment. 

About  the  middle  of  the  same  year,  the  Hector, 
and  Blandford  ships  of  war  sailed,  to  convoy  the 
transports  which  carried  General  Oglethorpe  and  his 
regiment  to  that  province.  Forty  supernumeraries 
followed  the  general  to  supply  the  place  of  such 
officers  or  soldiers  as  might  suffer  by  the  change  of 
the  climate.  Upon  the  arrival  of  this  regiment,  the 
people  of  Carolina  and  Georgia  testified  their  grate- 
ful sense  of  his  majesty's  paternal  care  in  the  strong- 
est terms.  The  Georgians,  who  had  been  for  some 
time  harassed  with  frequent  alarms,  now  found 
themselves  happily  relieved,  and  placed  in  such  cir- 
cumstances as  enabled  them  to  bid  defiance  to  the 
Spanish  power.  Parties  of  the  regiment  were  sent 
to  the  different  garrisons,  and  the  expense  the  trus- 
tees had  formerly  been  at  in  maintaining  them  of 
course  ceased.  The  general  held  his  head-quarters 
at  Frederica,  but  raised  forts  on  some  other  islands 
lying  nearer  the  Spaniards,  particularly  in  Cumber- 
land and  Jekyl  islands,  in  which  he  also  kept  gar- 
risons to  watch  the  motions  of  his  enemies. 

While  these  hostile  preparations  were  going  on, 
it  behoved  General  Oglethorpe  to  cultivate  the  firm- 
est friendship  with  the  Indian  nations,  that  they 
might  be  ready  on  every  emergency  to  assist  him. 
During  his  absence  the  Spaniards  had  made  several 
attempts  to  seduce  the  Creeks,  who  were  much  at- 
tached to  Oglethorpe  by  telling  them  he  was  at  Au- 
gustine, and  promised  them  large  presents  in  case 
they  would  pay  him  a  visit  at  that  place.  Accord- 
ingly some  of  their  leaders  went  down  there,  but  cot 


UNITED  STATES. 


971 


finding  him,  they  were  highly  offended,  and  resolved 
immediately  to  return  to  their  nation.  The  Spanish 
governor,  in  order  to  cover  the?  fraud,  or  probably 
with  a  design  of  conveying  those  leaders  out  of  the 
way,  that  they  might  the  more  easily  corrupt  their 
nation,  told  them  that  the  general  lay  sick  on  board 
of  a  ship  in  the  harbour,  where  he  would  be  ex- 
tremely glad  to  see  them;  but  the  savages  were  sus- 
picious of  some  evil  design,  and  refused  to  go,  and 
even  rejected  their  presents  and  offers  of  alliance. 
When  they  returned  to  their  nation,  they  found  an 
invitation  from  General  Oglethorpe  to  all  the  chief- 
tains to  meet  him  at  Frederica,  which  plainly  dis- 
covered to  them  the  insidious  designs  of  the  Spa- 
niards, and  helped  not  a  little  to  increase  his  power 
and  influence  among  them.  A  number  of  their 
chief  warriors  immediately  set  out  to  meet  him  at 
the  place  appointed,  where  the  general  thanked  them 
for  their  fidelity,  made  them  many  valuable  presents, 
and  renewed  the  treaty  of  friendship  and  alliance 
with  them.  At  this  congress  the  Creeks  seemed 
better  satisfied  than  usual,  and  agreed  to  march 
1000  men  to  the  general's  assistance  whenever  he 
should  demand  them,  and  invited  him  up  to  see  their 
towns.  But  as  he  was  then  busy,  he  excused  him- 
self, by  promising  to  visit  them  next  summer,  and 
accordingly  dismissed  them  no  less  pleased  with  his 
kindness,  than  incensed  against  the  Spaniards  for 
their  falsehood  and  deceit. 

By  this  time  England  had  resolved  to  maintain 
the  right  of  the  territories  in  Georgia,  together  with 
the  freedom  of  commerce  and  navigation  in  the 
Mexican  seas.  The  pacific  system  of  Sir  Robert 
Walpole  had  drawn  upon  him  the  displeasure  of  the 
nation,  particularly  of  the  mercantile  part ;  and  that 
amazing  power  and  authority  he  had  long  maintained 
began  to  decline.  The  spirit  of  the  nation  was 
roused,  insomuch  that  the  administration  could  no 
longer  connive  at  the  depredations  and  cruelties  of 
Spain.  Instructions  were  sent  to  the  British  am- 
bassador at  the  court  of  Madrid,  to  demand  in  the 
most  absolute  terms  a  compensation  for  the  injuries 
of  trade,  which  upon  calculation  amounted  to  200,000*. 
sterling ;  and  at  the  same  time  a  squadron  of  ten 
ships  of  the  line,  under  the  command  of  Admiral 
Haddock,  were  sent  to  the  Mediterranean  sea.  This 
produced  an  order  from  the  Spanish  court  to  their 
ambassador,  to  allow  the  accounts  of  the  British 
merchants,  upon  condition  that  the  Spanish  demand 
on  the  South  Sea  Company  be  deducted:  and  that 
Oglethorpe  be  recalled  from  Georgia,  and  no  more 
employed  in  that  quarter,  as  he  had  there  made 
great  encroachments  on  his  Catholic  majesty's  do- 
minions. These  conditions  were  received  at  the 
court  of  Britain  with  that  indignation  which  might 
have  been  expected  from  an  injured  and  incensed 
nation.  lu  answer  to  which  the  Spanish  ambassa- 
dor was  given  to  understand,  that  the  king  of  Great 
Britain  was  determined  never  to  relinquish  his  right 
to  a  single  foot  of  land  in  the  province  of  Georgia; 
and  that  he  must  allow  his  subjects  to  make  repri- 
sals, since  satisfaction  for  their  losses  in  trade  could 
in  no  other  way  be  obtained ;  and  in  this  unsettled 
situation  matters  remained  for  a  time. 

In  the  meanwhile  preparations  were  making  both 
in  Georgia  and  Florida,  by  raising  fortifications  on 
the.  borders  of  the  two  provinces,  to  hold  each  other 
at  defiance.  The  British  soldiers  finding  themselves 
subjected  to  a  number  of  hardships  in  Georgia,  to 
•which  they  had  not  been  accustomed  in  Britain,  se- 
veral of  them  were  discontented  and  ungovernable. 
At  length  a  plot  was  discovered  in  the  camp  for  as- 


sassinating their  general.  Two  companies  of  the 
regiment  had  been  drawn  from  Gibraltar,  some  of 
whom  could  speak  the  Spanish  language.  While 
stationed  on  Cumberland  island,  the  Spanish  out- 
posts on  the  other  side  could  approach  so  near  as  to 
converse  with  the  British  soldiers,  one  of  whom  had 
even  been  in  the  Spanish  service,  and  not  only  un- 
derstood their  language,  but  also  had  so  much  of  a 
Roman  Catholic  spirit  as  to  harbour  an  aversion  to 
Protestant  heretics.  The  Spaniards  had  found  means 
to  corrupt  this  villain,  who  debauched  the  minds  of 
several  of  his  neighbours,  insomuch  that  they  united 
and  formed  a  design  first  to  murder  General  Ogle- 
thorpe, and  then  make  their  escape  to  Augustine. 
Accordingly,  on  a  certain  day  a  number  of  soldiers 
under  arms  came  up  to  the  general,  and  made  som« 
extraordinary  demands ;  which  being  refused,  they 
instantly  set  up  a  shout,  and  one  of  them  discharged 
his  piece  at  him ;  and  being  only  at  the  distance  of 
a  few  paces,  the  ball  whizzed  over  his  shoulder,  but 
the  powder  singed  his  clothes,  and  burnt  his  face. 
Another  presented  his  piece,  which  flashed  in  the 
pan;  a  third  drew  his  hanger,  and  attempted  to 
stab  him,  but  the  general  parrying  it  off,  an  officer 
standing  by  ran  the  ruffian  through  the  body,  and 
killed  him  on  the  spot.  Upon  which  the  mutineers 
fled,  but  were  caught  and  laid  in 'irons.  A  court- 
martial  was  called  to  try  the  ringleaders  of  this  des- 
perate conspiracy,  some  of  whom  were  found  guilty, 
and  were  shot. 

Nor  was  this  the  only  concealed  effort  of  Spanish 
policy  ;  another  of  a  more  dangerous  nature  soon 
followed  in  Carolina,  which  might  have  been  at- 
tended with  much  more  bloody  and  fatal  effects. 
At  this  time  there  were  above  40,000  negroes  in  the 
province,  a  fierce  and  strong  race,  whose  constitu- 
tions were  adapted  to  the  warm  climate,  whose  nerves 
were  braced  with  constant  labour,  and  who  could 
not  be  expected  to  be  contented  with  the  oppression, 
under  which  they  groaned.  For  a  long  time  liberty 
and  protection  had  been  promised  to  them  by  the 
Spaniards  at  Augustine,  and  at  different  times  Spa- 
nish emissaries  had  been  found  secretly  tampering 
with  them,  and  persuading  them  to  fly  from  slavery 
to  Florida,  and  several  had  made  their  escape  to 
that  settlement.  Of  these  negro-refugees  the  gover- 
nor of  Florida  had  formed  a  regiment,  appointing 
officers  from  among  themselves,  allowing  them  the 
same  pay  and  clothing  as  the  regular  Spanish  sol 
diers.  The  most  sensible  part  of  the  slaves  in  Ca- 
rolina were  not  ignorant  of  this  Spanish  regiment, 
for  whenever  they  ran  away  from  their  masters, 
they  constantly  directed  their  course  to  this  quarter. 
To  no  place  could  negro  serjeauts  be  sent  for  enlist- 
ing  men  where  they  could  have  a  better  prospect  of 
success.  Two  Spaniards  were  caught  in  Georgia, 
and  committed  to  gaol  for  enticing  slaves  to  leave 
Carolina  and  join  this  regiment ;  and  five  negroes, 
who  were  cattle-hunters  at  Indian  Land,  some  of 
whom  belonged  to  Captain  M'Pherson,  after  wound- 
ing his  son.  and  killing  another  man,  made  their 
escape.  Several  more  attempting  to  get  away  were 
taken,  tried,  and  hanged  at  Charlestown. 

While  Carolina  was  kept  in  a  state  of  constant 
fear  and  agitation  from  this  quarter,  an  insurrec- 
tion openly  broke  out  in  the  heart  of  the  settlement, 
which  alarmed  the  whole  province.  A  number  of 
negroes  having  assembled  together  at  Scono,  first 
surprised  and  killed  two  young  men  in  a  warehouse, 
and  then  plundered  it  of  guns  and  ammunition. 
Being  thus  provided  with  arms,  they  elected  one  of 
their  number  captain,  and  agreed  to  follow  him 


972 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


inarching  towards  the  south-west  with  colours  flying 
and  drums  beating,  like  a  disciplined  company. 
They  forcibly  entered  the  house  of  Mr.  Godfrey,  and 
having  murdered  him,  his  wife,  and  children,  they 
took  all  the  arms  he  had  in  it,  set  fire  to  the  house, 
and  then  proceeded  towards  Jacksonburgh.  In  their 
way  they  plundered  and  burnt  every  house,  among 
which  were  those  of  Sacheveral,  Nash,  and  Spry, 
killing  every  white  person  they  found  in  them,  and 
compelling  the  negroes  to  join  them.  Goveinor 
Bull  returning  to  Charlestown  from  the  southward, 
met  them,  and  observing  them  armed,  quickly  rode 
out  of  their  way.  He  spread  the  alarm,  which  soon 
reached  the  Presbyterian  church  at  Wiltown,  where 
Archibald  Stobo  was  preaching  to  a  numerous  con- 
gregation of  planters  in  that  quarter.  By  a  law  of 
the  province  all  planters  were  obliged  to  carry  their 
arms  to  church,  which  at  this  critical  juncture  proved 
a  very  useful  and  necessary  regulation.  The  women 
were  left  in  church  trembling  with  fear,  while  the 
militia,  under  the  command  of  Captain  Bee,  marched 
In  quest  of  the  negroes,  who  by  this  time  had  become 
formidable  from  the  number  that  joined  them.  They 
had  marched  above  twelve  miles,  and  spread  deso- 
lation through  all  the  plantations  in  their  way. 
Having  found  rum  in  some  houses,  and  drank  freely 
of  it,  they  halted  in  an  open  field,  and  began  to  sing 
and  dance,  by  way  of  triumph ;  but  during  these 
ill-timed  rejoicings  the  militia  discovered  them,  anc 
stationed  themselves  in  different  places  around  them 
to  prevent  them  from  making  their  escape.  The 
intoxication  of  several  of  the  slaves  favoured  the  as- 
sailants. One  party  advanced  into  the  open  field 
and  attacked  them,  and,  having  killed  some  negroes 
the  remainder  took  to  the  woods,  and  were  dispersed 
Many  ran  back  to  their  plantations,  in  hopes  of  es 
caping  suspicion  from  the  absence  of  their  masters 
but  the  greater  part  were  taken  and  tried ;  and  such 
as  had  been  compelled  to  join  them  contrary  to  thei 
inclination  were  pardoned,  but  all  the  chosen  leaders 
and  first  insurgents  suffered  death. 

All  Carolina  was  struck  with  terror  by  this  insur 
rection,  in  which  above  twenty  persons  were  mur 
dered ;  and  to  which,  if  it  had  become  general,  th 
whole  colony  must  have  fallen  a  sacrifice.  It  wa 
commonly  believed,  and  not  without  reason,  that  th 
Spaniards  were  deeply  concerned  in  promoting  th 
mischief,  and  by  their  secret  influence  and  intrigue 
with  slaves,  had  instigated  them  to  this  rising 
Having  already  four  companies  of  negroes  in  thei 
service,  by  penetrating  into  Carolina,  and  puttin; 
the  province  into  confusion,  they  might  no  doub 
have  raised  many  more.  But,  to  prevent  furthe 
attempts,  Governor  Bull  sent  an  express  to  Genera 
Oglethorpe,  with  advice  of  the  insurrection,  desirin 
him  to  double  his  vigilance  in  Georgia,  and  seize  a' 
straggling  Spaniards  and  negroes :  in  consequenc 
of  which  a  proclamation  was  issued  to  stop  all  slave 
found  in  that  province,  offering  a  reward  for  ever 
one  they  might  catch  attempting  to  escape.  At  th 
same  time  a  company  of  rangers  were  employed  t 
patrol  the  frontiers,  and  block  up  all  the  passage 
by  which  they  might  enter  Florida. 

In  the  mean  time  matters  were  hastening  to 
rupture  in  Europe,  and  a  war  between  England  an 
Spain  was  thought  unavoidable.     The  plenipoten 
tiaries  appointed  for  settling  the  boundaries  betwee 
Georgia  and  Florida,  and  other  differences  and  mi 
understandings  subsisting  between  the  two  crown 
had  met  at  Pardo  in  convention,  where  preliminar 
articles  were  drawn  up ;  but  the  conference  ended 
the  satisfaction  of  neither  uarty.     Indeed  the  pr 


osal  of  a  negotiation,  and  the  appointment  of  pie  - 
ipotentiaries,  gave  universal  offence  to  the  people 
:  Britain.  The  merchants  had  lost  all  patience 
nder  their  sufferings,  and  became  clamorous  for 
tters-  of  reprisal,  which  at  length  they  obtained, 
•ublic  credit  arose,  and  forwarded  hostile  prepara- 
ons.  All  officers  of  the  navy  and  army  weie  or- 
ered  to) their  stations,  and  with  the  unanimous 
oice  ofthe  nation  war  was  declared  against  Spain 
n  th§/23rd  of  October,  1739. 

While  Admiral  Vernon  was  sent  to  take  the  com- 
mand of  a  squadron  in  the  West  India  station,  with 
rders  to  act  offensively  against  the   Spanish  do- 
minions in  that  quarter,  to  divide  their  force,  Gene- 
al  Oglethorpe  was  ordered  also  to  annoy  the  sub- 
sets of  Spain  in  Florida,  by  every  method  in  his 
ower.     In  consequence  of  which,  the  general  im- 
mediately projected  an  expedition  against  the  Spa- 
lish  settlement  at  Augustine.     He  communicated 
lis  design  by  letter  to  Lieutenant-Governor  Bull, 
equesting  the  support  of  Carolina.     Mr.  Bull  laid 
lis  letter  before   the  provincial  assembly,   recom- 
mending to  them  to  raise  a  regiment,  and  give  him 
ill  possible  assistance  in  an  enterprise  of  such  in- 
cresting  consequence.     The  assembly,  sensible  of 
he  vast  advantages  that  must  accrue  to  them  from 
jetting  rid  of  such  troublesome  neighbours,  resolved 
,hat  so  soon  as  the  general  should  communicate  to 
them  his  plan  of  operations,  together  with  a  state 
of  the  assistance  requisite,  at  the  same  time  making 
it  appear  that  there  was  a  probability  of  success, 
;hey  would  most  cheerfully  assist  him.     The  Caro- 
"ineans,  however,  were  apprehensive,   that  as  that 
arrison  had  proved  such  a  painful  thorn  in  their 
side  in   time  of  peace,  they  would  have  more  to 
dread  from  it  in  time  of  war ;  and  although  the 
colony  had  been  much  distressed  by  the  small-pox 
and  the  yellow  fever  for  two  years  past,  which  had 
cut  off  the  hopes  of  many  flourishing  families  ;  the 
people,  nevertheless,  lent  a  very  favourable  ear  to  the 
proposal,  and  earnestly  wished  to  give  all  the  assist- 
ance in  their  power  towards  dislodging  an  enemy  so 
malicious  and  cruel. 

In  the  mean  time,  General  Oglethorpe  was  indus- 
trious in  picking  up  all  the  intelligence  he  could 
respecting  the  situation  and  strength  of  the  garri- 
son, and  finding  it  in  great  straits  for  want  of  pro- 
visions, he  urged  the  speedy  execution  of  his  project, 
with  a  view  to  surprise  his  enemy  before  a  supply 
should  arrive.  To  concert  measures  with  the  greater 
secrecy  and  expedition,  he  went  to  Charlestown 
himself,  and  laid  before  the  legislature  of  Carolina 
an  estimate  of  the  force,  arms,  ammunition,  and 
provisions,  which  he  judged  might  be  requisite 
for  the  expedition ;  and  in  consequence,  the  assem- 
bly voted  1 20,000/.  Carolina  money,  for  the  service 
of  the  war.  A  regiment,  consisting  of  400  men, 
was  raised,  partly  in  Virginia  and  partly  in  North 
and  South  Carolina,  with  the  greatest  expedition, 
and  the  command  was  given  to  Colonel  Vanderdus- 
sen.  Indians  were  sent  for  from  the  different  tribes 
in  alliance  with  Britain.  Vincent  Price,  com- 
mander of  the  ships  of  war  on  that  station,  agreed 
to  assist  with  a  naval  force  consisting  of  four  ships 
of  twenty  guns  each,  and  two  sloops,  which  proved 
a  great  encouragement  to  the  Carolineans,  and 
induced  them  to  enter  with  double  vigour  on  mili- 
tary preparations.  General  Oglethorpe  appointed 
the  mouth  of  St.  John's  river,  on  the  Florida  shore, 
for  the  place  of  rendezvous,  and  having  finished  hi» 
preparations  in  Carolina,  set  out  for  Georgia  to  join 
his  regiment,  and  make  all  ready  for  the  expedition 


UNITED  STATES. 


973 


On  the  9th  of  May  1740,  the  general  passed  over 
to  Florida  with  400  select  men  of  his  regiment,  and 
a  considerable  party  of  Indians ;  and  on  the  day 
following  invested  Diego,  a  small  fort  about  '25 
miles  from  Augustine,  which  after  a  short  resistance 
surrendered  by  capitulation.  In  this  fort  he  left  a 
garrison  of  GO  men,  under  the  command  of  Lieu- 
tenant Dunbar,  and  returned  to  the  place  of  gene- 
ral rendezvous,  where  he  was  joined  by  Colonel 
Vanderdussen,  with  the  Carolina  regiment  and  a 
company  of  Highlanders,  under  the  command  of 
Captain  M'Intosh.  But  by  this  time  six  Spanish 
half-galleys,  with  long  brass  nine  pounders,  and 
two  sloops  loaded  with  provisions,  had  got  into  the 
harbour  at  Augustine ;  and  a  few  days  afterwards, 
the  general  marched  with  his  whole  force,  consisting 
of  above  2000  men,  regulars,  provincials,  and  In- 
dians, to  Fort  Moosa,  situated  within  two  miles  of 
Augustine,  which  on  his  approach  the  Spanish  gar- 
rison evacuated,  and  retired  into  the  town.  He  im- 
mediately ordered  the  gates  of  this  fort  to  be  burnt, 
three  breaches  to  be  made  in  its  walls,  and  then 
proceeded  to  reconnoitre  the  town  and  castle. 

Notwithstanding  the  dispatch  of  the  British  army, 
the  Spaniards,  during  their  stay  at  Fort  Diego,  had 
collected  all  the  cattle  in  the  woods  around  them, 
and  driven  them  into  the  town  ;  and  the  general 
found,  both  from  a  view  of  the  works  and  the  intel- 
ligence he  "had  received  from  prisoners,  that  more 
difficulty  would  attend  this  enterprise  than  he  at 
first  expected.  Indeed,  if  he  intended  a  surprise, 
he  ought  not  to  have  stopped  at  Fort  Diego,  for  by 
that  delay  the  enemy  had  notice  of  his  approach, 
and  time  to  gather  their  whole  force,  and  put  them- 
selves in  a  posture  of 'defence.  The  castle  was  built 
of  soft  stone,  with  four  bastions ;  the  curtain  was  60 
yards  in  length,  the  parapet  nine  feet  thick ;  the 
rampart  twenty  feet  high,  casemated  underneath 
for  lodgings,  arched  over,  and  newly  made  bomb- 
proof. Fifty  pieces  of  cannon  were  mounted,  several 
of  which  were  24-pounders.  Besides  the  castle,  the 
town  was  intrenched  with  ten  salient  angles,  on 
each  of  which  some  small  cannon  were  mounted. 
The  garrison  consisted  of  700  regulars,  two  troops 
of  horse,  four  companies  of  armed  negroes,  besides 
the  militia  of  the  province,  and  Indians. 

The  general  now  plainly  perceived  that  an  attack 
by  land  upon  the  town,  and  an  attempt  to  take  the 
castle  by  storm,  would  cost  him  too  much,  and 
therefore  changed  his  plan  of  operations.  With 
the  assistance  of  the  ships  of  war,  which  were  now 
lying  at  anchor  off  Augustine-bar,  he  resolved  to 
turn  the  siege  into  a  blockade,  and  try  to  shut  up 
every  channel  by  which  provisions  could  be  con- 
veyed to  the  garrison.  For  this  purpose  he  left 
Colonel  Palmer  with  95  Highlanders  and  42  Indians 
at  Fort  Moosa,  with  orders  to  scour  the  woods  around 
the  town,  and  intercept  all  supplies  of  cattle  from  the 
country  by  land  ;  and,  for  the  safety  of  his  men,  he 
at  the  same  time  ordered  him  to  encamp  every  night 
in  a  different  place,  to  keep  strict  watch  around  his 
camp,  and  by  all  means  avoid  coming  to  any  ac- 
tion. This  small  party  was  the  whole  force  the 
general  left  for  guarding  the  land  side.  He  then 
sent  Colonel  Vanderdussen  with  the  Carolina  regi- 
ment over  a  small  creek,  to  take  possession  of  a 
neck  of  land  called  Point  Quartel,  above  a  mile  dis- 
tant from  the  castle,  with  orders  to  erect  a  battery 
upon  it ;  while  he  himself,  with  his  regiment,  and 
the  greatest  part  of  the  Indians,  embarked  in  boats, 
and  landed  on  the  island  of  Anastatia.  In  this 
island  the  Spaniards  had  a  small  party  of  men  sta- 


tioned for  a  guard,  who  immediately  fled,  and  as  it 
lay  opposite  to  the  castle  from  this  place,  the  gene- 
ral resolved  to  bombard  the  town.  Captain  Pierce 
stationed  one  of  his  ships  to  guard  the  passage  by 
way  of  the  Motanzas,  and  with  the  others  blocked 
up  the  mouth  of  the  harbour,  so  that  the  Spaniards 
were  cut  off  from  all  supplies  by  sea.  On  the  island 
of  Anastatia  batteries  were  soon  erected,  and  several 
cannon  mounted  by  the  assistance  of  the  active  and 
enterprising  sailors.  Having  made  these  disposi- 
tions, General  Oglethorpe  then  summoned  the  Spa- 
nish governor  to  a  surrender  ;  but  the  haughty  Spa- 
niard, secure  in  his  strong  hold,  sent  him  for 
answer,  that  he  would  be  glad  to  shake  hands  with 
him  in  his  castle. 

The  opportunity  of  surprising  the  place  being  now 
lost,  the  English  general  had  no  other  methofl  left 
but  to  attack  it  at  a  distance  :  for  which  purpose  he 
opened  his  batteries  against  the  castle,  and  at  the 
same  time  threw  a  number  of  shells  into  the  town. 
The  fire  was  returned  with  equal  spirit  both  from 
the  Spanish  fort  and  from  six  haif-galleys  in  the 
harbour,  but  so  great  was  the  distance,  that  though 
they  continued  the  cannonade  for  several  days,  little 
execution  was  done  on  either  side.  Captain  Warren, 
a  brave  naval  officer,  perceiving  that  all  efforts  in 
this  way  for  demolishing  the  castle  were  ineffectual, 
proposed  to  destroy  the  Spanish  galleys  in  the  har- 
bour by  an  attack  in  the  night,  and  offered  to  go 
himself  and  head  the  attempt.  A  council  of  war  wag 
held  to  consider  of  and  concert  a  plan  for  that  ser- 
vice ;  but  upon  sounding  the  bar,  it  was  found  it 
would  admit  no  large  ship  to  the  attack,  and  with 
small  ones  it  was  judged  rash  and  impracticable, 
the  galleys  being  covered  by  the  cannon  of  the 
castle,  and  therefore  that  design  was  dropt. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  Spanish  commander  ob- 
serving the  besiegers  embarrassed,  and  their  opera- 
tions beginning  to  relax,  sent  out  a  detachment  of 
300  men  against  Colonel  Palmer,  who  surprised  him 
at  Fort  Moosa,  and  while  most  of  his  party  lay 
asleep,  cut  them  almost  entirely  to  pieces.  A  few 
that  accidentally  escaped  went  over  in  a  small  boat 
to  the  Carolina  regiment  at  Point  Quartel.  Some 
of  the  Chickesaw  Indians  coming  from  that  fort 
having  met  with  a  Spaniard,  cut  off  his  head,  agree- 
ably to  their  savage  manner  of  waging  war,  and 
presented  it  to  the  general  in  his  camp  :  but  he  re- 
jected it  with  abhorrence,  denouncing  them  as  bar- 
barous, and  bidding  them  begone.  At  this  disdainful 
behaviour,  however,  the  Chickesaws  were  offended, 
declaring,  that  if  they  had  carried  the  head  of  an 
Englishman  to  the  French,  they  would  not  have 
treated  them  so  :  and  perhaps  the  general  discovered 
more  humanity  than  good  policy  by  it,  for  those 
Indians,  who  knew  none  of  the  European  customs 
and  refinements  in  war,  soon  after  deserted  him. 
About  the  same  time  the  vessel  stationed  at  the 
Metanzas  being  ordered  off,  some  small  ships  from 
the  Havannah  with  provisions,  and  a  reinforcement 
of  men,  got  into  Augustine  by  that  narrow  channei, 
to  the  relief  of  the  garrison.  A  party  of  Creeks 
having  surprised  one  of  their  small  boats,  brought 
four  Spanish  prisoners  to  the  general,  who  informed 
him  that  the  garrison  had  received  700  men  and  a 
large  supply  of  provisions  ;  by  which,  all  prospects 
of  starving  the  enemy  being  lost,  the  army  began 
to  despair  of  forcing  the  place  to  surrender;  and 
the  Carolinean  troops,  enfeebled  by  the  heat,  dis- 
pirited by  sickness,  and  fatigued  by  fruitless  efforts, 
marched  away  in  large  bodies.  The  navy  being 
short  of  provisions,  and  the  usual  season  of  hurri- 


974 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


canes  approaching,  the  commander  judged  it  im- 
prudent to  hazard  the  ships  by  remaining  longer  on 
that  coast;  and  last  of  all,  the  general  himself,  sick 
of  a  fever,  and  his  regiment  worn  out  with  fatigue, 
and  rendered  unfit  for  action  by  a  flux,  with  sjofrow 
and  regret  followed,  and  reached  Frederica  about 
the  10th  of  July  1740. 

Thus  ended  the  unsuccessful  expedition  against 
Augustine,  to  the  great  disappointment  of  both 
Georgia  and  Carolina.  Many  reflections  were  after- 
wards thrown  out  against  General  Oglethorpe  for 
his  conduct  during  the  whole  enterprise ;  and  per- 
haps the  only  chance  of  success  he  had  from  the 
beginning  was  by  surprising  this  garrison  by  some 
sudden  attempt.  He  was  blamed  for  remaining  so 
long  at  Fort  Diego,  by  which  means  the  enemy  had 
full  intelligence  of  his  approach,  and  time  to  pre- 
pare for  receiving  him.  He  was  charged  with  timi- 
dity afterwards,  in  making  no  bold  attempt  on  the 
town.  He  indeed  used  great  caution  to  save  his 
men,  for  excepting  those  who  fell  by  the  sword  in 
Fort  Moosa,  he  lost  more  men  by  sickness  than  by 
the  hands  of  the  enemy.  Though  the  disaster  of 
Colonel  Palmer,  in  which  many  brave  Highlanders 
were  massacred,  was  perhaps  occasioned  chiefly  by 
want  of  vigilance  and  a  disobedience  of  orders  ;  yet 
many  were  of  opinion  that  it  was  too  hazardous  to 
have  left  so  small  a  party  on  the  main  land,  exposed 
to  sallies  from  a  superior  enemy,  and  entirely  cut 
off  from  all  possibility  of  support  and  assistance 
from  the  main  body.  The  general,  on  the  other 
hand,  declared  he  had  no  confidence  in  the  firmness 
and  courage  of  the  provincials ;  for  that  they  re- 
fused obedience  to  his  orders,  and  at  last  abandonee 
his  camp,  and  retreated.  The  truth  was,  the  place 
was  so  strongly  fortified  both  by  nature  and  art,  tha1 
probably  the  attempt  must  have  failed,  though  il 
had  been  conducted  by  the  ablest  officer,  and  exe 
cuted  by  the  best  disciplined  troops.  The  miscar 
riage,  however,  was  particularly  ruinous  to  Carolina 
having  not  only  subjected  the  province  to  a  grea 
expense,  but  also  left  it  in  a  worse  situation  than  i 
was  previous  to  the  attempt. 

The  same  year  stands  distinguished  in  the  annal; 
of  Carolina,  not  only  for  this  unsuccessful  expedition 
against  the  Spaniards,  but  also  for  a  desolating  con 
flagration,  which  in  November  following  broke  ou 
in  the  capital,  and  laid  half  of  it  in  ruins.  Thi 
fire  began  about  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  an< 
burnt  with  unquenchable  violence  until  eight  a 
night;  and  the  houses  being  built  of  wood,  an< 
the  wind  blowing  hard  at  north-west,  the  flame 
spread  with  astonishing  rapidity.  From  Broad-street 
where  the  fire  kindled,  to  Granville's  Bastion,  almos 
every  house  was  at  one  time  in  flames,  and  the  vas 
quantities  of  deer-skins,  rum,  pitch,  tar,  turpentine 
and  powder  in  the  different  stores,  very  much  in 
creased  it.  Amidst  the  cries  and  shrieks  of  women 
and  children,  and  the  bursting  forth  of  flames  i 
different  quarters,  occasioned  by  the  violent  wind 
which  carried  the  burning  shingles  to  a  great  dis 
tance,  the  men  were  put  into  confusion,  and  s 
anxious  were  they  about  the  safety  of  their  families 
that  they  could  not  be  prevailed  upon  to  unite  thei 
efforts  for  extinguishing  the  fire.  The  sailors  from 
the  men  of  war,  and  ships  in  the  harbour  were  th 
most  active  and  adventurous  hands  engaged  in  th 
service.  But  such  was  the  violence  of  the  flame 
that  it  baffled  all  the  art  and  power  of  man,  an 
burnt  until  the  calmness  of  the  evening  closed  th 
dreadful  scene.  Three  hundred  of  the  best  and  mos 

convenient  buildings  in  the  town  were  consumet 


hich,  together  with  loss  of  goods,  and  provincial 
nnmodities,  amounted  to  a  prodigious  sum.  Hap- 
ily  few  lives  were  lost,  but  the  lamentations  of 
uined  families  were  heard  in  every  quarter.  In 
lort,  from  a  flourishing  condition  the  town  was  re- 
uced  in  the  space  of  six  hours  to  the  lowest  and 
lost  deplorable  state ;  and  all  those  inhabitants  whose 
ouses/escaped  the  flames,  went  round  and  kindly 
ivrted  their  unfortunate  neighbours  to  them,  so  that 
wo  and  three  families  were  lodged  in  places  built 
nly  for  the  accommodation  of  one.  After  the  le- 
islature  met,  to  take  the  miserable  state  of  the 
eople  under  consideration,  they  agreed  to  make 
pplication  to  England  for  relief;  and  the  British 
arliament  voted  20,OOOJ.  sterling  to  be  distributed 
mong  the  sufferers  at  Charlestown. 

While  the  war  between  Great  Britain  and  Spain 
ontinued,  a  bill  was  brought  into  parliament  to  pre- 
ent  the  exportation  of  rice,  among  other  articles  of 
revision,  to  France  or  Spain,  with  a  view  to  distress 
bese  enemies  as  much  as  possible.  In  consequence 
f  which,  a  representation  to  the  following  effect,  in 
ehalf  of  the  province  of  Carolina,  and  the  mer- 
hants  concerned  in  that  trade,  was  presented  to  the 
touse  of  commons : — "  The  inhabitants  of  South  Ca- 
olina  have  not  any  manufactures  of  their  own,  but 
re  supplied  from  Great  Britain  with  all  their  cloth- 
ng,  and  the  other  manufactures  by  them  consumed, 
o  the  amount  of  150,000/.  sterling  a-year.  The 
jnly  commodity  of  consequence  produced  in  South 
Carolina  is  rice,  and  they  reckon  it  as  much  their 
taple  commodity  as  sugar  is  to  Barbadoes  and  Ja- 
maica, or  tobacco  to  Virginia  and  Maryland;  so 
hat  if  any  stop  be  put  to  the  exportation  of  rice 
rom  South  Carolina  to  Europe,  it  will  not  only 
render  the  planters  there  incapable  of  paying  their 
debts,  but  also  reduce  the  government  of  that  pro- 
vince to  such  difficulties  for  want  of  money,  as  at  this 
>resent  precarious  time  may  render  the  whole  colony 
an  easy  prey  to  their  neighbours  the  Indians  and 
Spaniards,  and  also  to  those  yet  more  dangerous 
enemies  their  own  negroes,  who  are  ready  to  revolt 
>n  the  first  opportunity,  and  are  eight  times  as  many 
n  number  as  there  are  white  men  able  to  bear  arms, 
and  the  danger  in  this  respect  is  greater  since  the 
unhappy  expedition  to  Augustine. 

"  From  the  year  1729,  when  his  majesty  pur- 
chased South  Carolina,  the  trade  of  it  hath  so  in- 
creased, that  their  annual  exports  and  imports  of 
ate  have  been  double  the  value  of  what  they  were 
n  the  said  year  ;  and  their  exports  of  rice  in  parti- 
cular have  increased  in  a  greater  proportion:  for, 
from  the  year  1720  to  1729,  being  ten  years,  both  in- 
cluded, the  whole  export  of  rice  was  264,488  barrels, 
making  44,081  tons.  From  the  year  1730  to  1739, 
being  also  ten  years,  the  whole  export  of  rice  was 
499,525  barrels,  making  99,905  tons ;  so  that  the 
export  of  the  latter  ten  years  exceeded  the  former  by 
235,037  barrels,  or  55,824  tons:  and  of  the  vast 
quantities  of  rice  thus  exported,  scarcely  one-fifteenth 
part  is  consumed  either  in  Great  Britain  or  in  any 
part  of  the  British  dominions;  so  that  the  produce 
of  the  other  fourteen  parts  is  clear  gain  to  the  na- 
tion ;  whereas  almost  all  the  sugar,  and  one-fourth 
part  of  the  tobacco,  exported  from  the  British  colo- 
nies, are  consumed  by  the  people  of  Great  Britain, 
or  by  British  subjects ;  from  whence  it  is  evident, 
that  the  national  gain  arising  from  rice  is  several 
times  as  great  in  proportion,  as  the  national  gain 
arising  from  either  sugar  or  tobacco. 

"  This  year,  viz.  1740,  in  particular,  we  shall  ex- 
port from  South  Carolina  above  90,000  barrels  of 


UNITED  STATES. 


975 


rice,  of  which  quantity  there  will  not  be  3000  barrels 
used  here,  so  that  the  clear  national  gain  upon  that 
export  will  be  very  great;  for  at  the  lowest  compu- 
tation, of  25s.  sterling  per  barrel,  the  87,000  barrels 
exported  will  amount,  in  value  to  108,750Z.  at  the 
first  hand ;  whereto  there  must  be  added  the  charge 
of  freight,  &c.  from  South  Carolina  to  Europe,  which 
amount  to  more  than  the  first  cost  of  the  rice,  and 
are  also  gain  to  Great  Britain ;  so  that  the  least 
gain  upon  this  article  for  the  present  year  will  be 
220,000/.,  over  and  above  the  naval  advantage  of  annu- 
ally employing  more  than  160  ships,  of  100  tons  each. 

"  Rice  being  an  enumerated  commodity,  it  can- 
not be  exported  from  South  Carolina  without  giving 
bond  for  double  the  value  that  the  same  shall  be 
landed  in  Great  Britain,  or  in  some  of  the  British 
plantations,  excepting  to  the  southward  of  Cape 
Finisterre,  which  last  was  permitted  by  a  law  made 
in  the 'year  1729;  and  the  motive  for  such  permis- 
sion was,  that  the  rice  might  arrive  more  sea- 
sonably, and  in  better  condition  at  market.  We 
have  hereunto  added  an  account  of  the  several  quan- 
tities of  rice  which  have  been  exported  from  South 
Carolina  to  the  different  European  markets  since 
the  said  law  was  made;  and  it  will  thereby  appear, 
that  we  have  not  in  those  ten  years  been  able  to 
find  sale  for  any  considerable  quantity  of  rice  in 
Spain  ;  for  in  all  that  time  we  have  not  sold  above 
3570  barrels  to  the  Spaniards,  making  only  357 
barrels  annually  upon  a  medium  ;  nor  can  we  in  the 
time  to  come  expect  any  alteration  in  favour  of  our 
rice  trade  there,  because  the  Spaniards  are  supplied 
with  an  inferior  sort  of  rice  from  Turkey,  &c.  equally 
agreeable  to  them,  and  a  great  deal  cheaper  than 
ours,  the  truth  whereof  appears  by  the  rice  taken 
in  a  ship  called  the  Baltic  Merchant,  and  carried 
into  St.  Sebastians,  where  it  was  sold  at  a  price  so 
much  under  the  market  rate  here,  or  in  Holland5  as 
to  encourage  the  sending  of  it  thence  to  Holland 
and  Hamburgh. 

"  In  France  the  importation  of  Carolina  rice 
without  licence  is  prohibited;  and  though  during 
the  last  and  present  years  there  hath,  by  permission, 
been  some  consumption  of  it  there,  yet  the  whole 
did  not  exceed  9000  barrels,  and  they  have  received 
from  Turkey  so  much  rice  of  the  present  year's 
growth,  as  to  make  that  commodity  five  shillings 
per  lOOlb.  cheaper  at  Marseilles  than  here,  and  even 
at  Dunkirk  it  is  one  shilling  and  sixpence  per  100If». 
cheaper  than  here;  so  that  there  is  not  any  prospect 
of  a  demand  for  Carolina  rice  in  France,  even  if 
liberty  could  be  obtained  for  sending  the  same  to 
any  port  of  that  kingdom. 

"  Germany  and  Holland  are  the  countries  where 
we  find  the  best  market  for  our  rice,  and  there  the 
greater  part  of  it  is  consumed ;  so  that  the  present 
intended  embargo,  or  prohibitory  law,  cannot  have 
any  other  effect,  in  relation  to  rice,  than  that  of 
preventing  our  allies  from  using  what  our  enemies 
do  not  want,  nor  we  ourselves  consume  more  than 
a  twentieth  part  of,  and  which  is  of  so  perishable  a 
nature,  that  even  in  a  cold  climate  it  doth  not  keep 
above  a  year  without  decaying,  and  in  a  warm  cli- 
mate it  perishes  entirely.  The  great  consumption 
of  rice  in  Germany  and  Holland  is  during  the  winter 
season,  when  peas  and  all  kinds  of  pulse,  &c.  are 
scarce;  and  the  rice  intended  for  those  markets 
ought  to  be  brought  there  before  the  frost  begins, 
time  enough  to  be  carried  up  the  rivers ;  so  that 
preventing  the  exportation  only  a  few  days  may  be 
attended  with  this  bad  consequence,  that  by  the 
frost  the  winter  sale  may  be  lost. 


"  And  as  we  have  now,  viz.  since  November  llth, 
above  10,000  barrels  of  old  rice  arrived,  so  we  may 
in  a  few  weeks  expect  double  that  quantity,  besides 
the  new  crop  now  shipping  off  from  Carolina ;  the 
stopping  of  all  which,  in  a  country  where  there  is 
not  any  sale  for  it,  instead  of  permitting  the  same 
to  be  carried  to  the  only  places  of  consumption, 
must  soon  reduce  the  price  thereof  to  so  low  a  rate, 
that  the  merchants  who  have  purchased  that  rice 
will  not  be  able  to  sell  it  for  the  prime  cost,  much 
less  will  they  be  able  to  recover  the  money  they 
have  paid  for  duty,  freight,  and  other  charges  thereon, 
which  amount  to  double  the  first  cost :  for  the  rice 
that  1001.  sterling  will  purchase  in  South  Carolina, 
costs  the  importer  2001.  more  in  British  duties, 
freight,  and  other  charges. 

"  Thus  it  appears,  that  by  prohibiting  the  expor . 
tation  of  rice  from  this  kingdom,  the  merchants  who 
have  purchased  the  vast  quantities  before  mentioned 
will  not  only  lose  the  money  it  cost  them,  but  twice 
as  much  more  in  duties,  freight,  and  other  charges, 
by  their  having  a  perishable  commodity  embargoed 
in  a  country  where  it  is  not  used.  Or  if,  instead  of 
laying  the  prohibition  here,  it  be  laid  in  South  Ca- 
rolina; that  province,  the  planters  there,  and  the 
merchants  who  deal  with  them,  must  all  be  involved 
in  ruin ;  the  province,  for  want  of  means  to  support 
the  expense  of  government;  the  planters,  for  want 
of  the  means  to  pay  their  debts  and  provide  future 
supplies;  and  the  merchants,  by  not  only  losing 
those  debts,  but  twice  as  much  more  in  the  freight, 
duties,  and  other  charges  upon  rice  which  they  can- 
not sell.  So  that,  in  either  case,  a  very  profitable 
colony,  and  the  merchants  concerned  in  the  trade 
of  it,  would  be  ruined  for  the  present,  if  not  totally 
lost  to  this  kingdom,  by  prohibiting  the  exportation 
of  rice;  and  all  this  without  doing  any  national 
good  in  another  way,  for  such  prohibition  could  not 
in  any  shape  distress  our  enemies.  It  is  therefore 
humbly  hoped,  that  rice  will  be  excepted  out  of  the 
bill  now  before  the  honourable  house  of  commons." 
As  this  representation  contains  a  distinct  account 
of  the  produce  and  trade  of  the  province,  and  shows 
its  usefulness  and  importance  to  Great  Britain,  we 
judged  it  worthy  of  the  particular  attention  of  our 
readers,  and  therefore  have  inserted  it. 

The  following  is  an  account  of  the  rice  exported 
in  the  first  ten  years,  after  the  province  was  pur- 
chased for  the  king : — 

Barrels. 

To  Portugal 83,379 

To  Gibraltar 958 

To  Spain 3,570 

To  France    9,500 

To  Great  Britain,  Ireland,  and  the  Bri- 
tish plantations  30,000 

To  Holland,  Hamburgh,  and  Bremen, 
including  7000  barrels  to  Sweden  and 
Denmark 372,118 

Total  quantity  exported  in  the  ten  years  499,525 
About  this  time  James  Glen  received  a  commis- 
sion from  his  majesty,  investing  him  with  the  go- 
vernment of  South  Carolina,  and  at  the  same  time 
was  appointed  colonel  of  a  new  regiment  of  foot,  to 
be  raised  in  the  province.  He  was  a  man  of  consi- 
derable knowledge,  and  of  very  courteous  manners; 
but  exceedingly  fond  of  military  parade,  which  com- 
monly has  great  force  on  ordinary  minds,  and  by 
these  means  he  maintained  his  dignity  and  impor- 
tance in  the  eyes  of  the  people.  His  council,  con- 
sisting of  twelve  men,  were  appointed  also  by  tb« 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


king,  under  his  sign  manual ;  and  the  assembly  of 
representatives  consisted  of  44  members,  and  were 
elected  every  third  year  by  the  freeholders  of  sixteen 
parishes.  The  court  of  chancery  was  composed  of 
the  governor  and  council,  to  which  court  belonged 
a  master  of  chancery  and  a  register.  There  was 
also  a  court  of  vice-admiralty,  the  judge,  register  and 
marshal  of  which  were  appointed  by  the  lords  com- 
missioners of  the  admiralty  in  England.  The  court 
of  King's  Bench  consisted  of  a  chief-justice  ap- 
pointed by  the  king,  who  sat  with  some  assistant 
justices  of  the  province  ;  and  the  same  judges  con- 
stituted the  court  of  Common  Pleas.  There  were 
likewise  an  attorney-general,  a  clerk,  and  provost- 
marshal.  The  secretary  of  the  province,  who  was 
also  register,  the  surveyor-general  of  the  lands,  and 
the  receiver-general  of  the  quit-rents  were  all  ap- 
pointed by  the  crown.  The  comptroller  of  the  cus- 
toms, and  three  collectors,  at  the  ports  of  Charles- 
towu,  Port-royal,  and  George-town,  were  appointed 
by  the  commissioners  of  the  customs  in  England. 
The  provincial  treasurer  was  appointed  by  the  gene- 
ral assembly.  The  clergy  were  elected  by  the  free- 
holders of  the  parish.  All  justices  of  the  peace,  and 
otiirers  of  the  militia,  were  appointed  by  the  gover- 
nor in  council.  Such  at  this  time  was  the  nature  of 
the  provincial  government  and  constitution. 

About  the  same  time  John,  Lord  Carteret  (then 
earl  of  Granville,)  applied  by  petition  to  his  majesty, 
praying  that  the  eighth  part  of  the  lands  and  soil 
granted  by  King  Charles,  and  reserved  to  him  by 
the  act  of  parliament  establishing  an  agreement 
with  the  other  seven  lords  proprietors  for  the  sur- 
render of  their  title  and  interest  to  his  majesty,  might 
be  set  apart  and  allotted  to  him  and  his  heirs  for 
ever,  and  proposing  to  appoint  persons  to  divide  the 
same ;  at  the  same  time  offering  to  resign  to  the 
king  his  share  of,  and  interest  in  the  government, 
and  to  release  and  confirm  to  his  majesty,  and  his 
heirs,  the  other  seven  parts  of  the  province.  This 
petition  being  referred  to  the  lords  commissioners  of 
trade  and  plantations,  they  reported,  that  it  would 
be  for  his  majesty's  service  that  Lord  Carteret's  pro- 
perty should  be  separated  from  that  of  his  majesty, 
and  that  the  method  proposed  by  his  lordship  would 
be  the  most  proper  and  effectual  for  the  purpose. 
Accordingly  five  commissioners  were  appointed  on 
the  part  of  the  king,  and  five  on  that  of  Lord  Car- 
teret, for  separating  his  lordship's  share,  and  mak- 
ing it  one  entire  district  by  itself.  The  territory 
allotted  him  was  divided  on  the  north-east  by  the 
line  which  separated  North  Carolina  from  Virginia; 
on  the  east  by  the  Atlantic  ocean  ;  on  the  south  by 
a  point  on  the  sea-shore,  in  latitude  35  degrees  and 
34  minutes  ;  and,  agreeable  to  the  charter,  westward 
from  these  points  on  the  sea-shore  it  extended,  in  a 
line  parallel  to  the  boundary  line  of  Virginia,  to  the 
Pacific  Ocean.  Not  long  afterwards,  a  grant  of  the 
eighth  part  of  Carolina,  together  with  all  yearly 
rents  and  profits  arising  from  it,  passed  the  great 
seal,  to  John,  Lord  Carteret  and  his  heirs.  But  the 
power  of  making  laws,  calling  and  holding  assem- 
blies, erecting  courts  of  justice,  appointing  judges 
and  justices,  pardoning  criminals,  granting  titles 
of  honour,  making  ports  and  havens,  taking  customs 
.or  duties  on  goods,  executing  the  martial  law,  exer- 
cising the  royal  rights  of  a  county  Palatine,  or  any 
other  prerogatives  relating  to  the  administrations  of 
government,  were  all  excepted  out  of  the  grant. 
Lord  Carteret  was  to  hold  this  estate  upon  condition 
of  yielding  and  paying  to  his  majesty,  and  his  heirs 
and  successors,  the  annual  rent  of  II.  13*.  4d.,  on  the 


feast  of  All  Saints,  for  ever,  and  also  one-fourth 
:>art  of  all  the  gold  and  silver  ore  found  within  thia 
jighth  part  of  the  territory  so  separated  and  granted 
lira. 

As  Carolina  abounds  with  navigable  rivers,  while 
t  enjoys  many  advantages  for  commerce  and  trade, 
t  is  also  much  exposed  to  foreign  invasions.  The 
tide  on  that  coast  flows  from  six  to  ten  feet  perpen- 
dicular, and  makes  its  way  up  into  the  Hat  country 
ay  a  variety  of  channels.  'All  vessels  that  draw  no't 
above  seventeen  feet  water,  may  safely  pass  over  the 
jar  of  Charlestown,  which  at  spring-tides  will  admit 
ships  that  draw  eighteen  feet.  This  bar  lies  in  32 
degrees  and  40  minutes  north  latitude,  and  78  de- 
rees  and  45  minutes  west  longitude  from  London. 
Its  situation  is  variable,  owing  to  a  sandy  foundation 
and  the  rapid  flux  and  reflux  of  the  sea.  The  channel 
leading  to  George-town  is  twelve  or  thirteenJeetdeep, 
and  likewise  those  of  North  and  South  Edisto  rivers, 
and  will  admit  all  ships  that  draw  not  above  ten  or 
eleven  feet  of  water.  At  Stono  there  is  also  a  large 
creek,  which  admits  vessels  of  the  same  draught  of 
waler;  but  Sewee  and  Sautee  rivers,  and  many 
others  of  less  note,  are  for  smaller  craft,  which  draw 
seven,  eight,  or  nine  feet.  The  channel  up  to  Port- 
royal  harbour  is  deep  enough  for  the  largest  ships 
hat  sail  on  the  sea  ;  and  the  whole  royal  navy  of 
England  might  ride  with  safety  in  it ;  and  it  is  ad- 
mirably ordained  for  trade  and  commerce. 

Several  leagues  to  the  southward  of  Port-royal, 
Savanna  river  empties  itself  into  the  ocean,  which 
is  also  navigable  for  ships  that  draw  not  above  four- 
teen feet  water.  At  the  southern  boundary  of  Georgia 
the  great  river  Alatamaha  falls  into  the  Atlantic  sea, 
about  sixteen  leagues  north-east  of  Augustine,  which 
lies  in  29  degrees  50  minutes.  This  river  admits 
ships  of  large  burden  as  far  as  Frederica,  a  small 
town  built  by  General  Oglethorpe,  on  an  eminence 
in  Simon's  island.  The  island  on  the  west  end  is 
washed  by  a  branch  of  the  river  Alatamaha,  before 
it  empties  itself  into  the  sea  at  Jekyl  sound.  At 
Frederica  the  river  forms  a  kind  of  bay.  The  fort 
General  Oglethorpe  erected  here  for  the  defence  of 
Georgia  had  several  eighteen-pounders  mouu  ted  on  it, 
and  commanded  the  river  both  upwards  and  down- 
wards. It  was  built  with  four  bastions,  surrounded 
by  a  quadrangular  rampart,  and  a  palisadoed  ditch, 
which  included  also  the  king's  stores,  and  two  large 
buildings  of  brick  and  timber.  The  town  was  sur- 
rounded with  a  rampart,  in  the  form  of  a  pentagon, 
with  flankers  of  the  same  thickness  with  that  at  the 
fort,  and  a  dry  ditch.  On  this  rampart  several  pieces 
of  ordnance  were  also  mounted.  In  this  situation 
General  Oglethorpe  had  pitched  his  camp,  which 
was  divided  into  streets,  distinguished  by  the  names 
of  the  several  captains  of  his  regiment.  Their  little 
huts  were  built  of  wood,  and  constructed  for  holding 
each  four  or  five  men.  At  some  distance  from  Fre- 
derica was  the  colony  of  Highlanders,  situated  on 
the  same  river,  a  wild  and  intrepid  race,  living  in 
a  state  of  rural  freedom  and  independence.  Their 
settlement  being  near  the  frontiers,  afforded  them 
abundance  of  scope  for  the  exercise  of  their  warlike 
temper ;  and  having  received  one  severe  blow  from 
the  garrison  at  Augustine,  they  seemed  to  long  for 
an  opportunity  of  revenging  the  massacre  of  their 
friends. 

The  time  was  fast  approaching  for  giving  them 
what  they  desired.  For  although  the  territory 
granted  by  the  second  charter  to  the  proprietors  at 
Carolina  extended  far  to  the  south-west  of  the  river 
Alatamaha,  the  Spaniards  had  never  relinquished 


UNITED  STATES 


their  pretended  claim  to  the  province  of  Georgia 
Their  ambassador  at  the  British  court  had  even  de 
clared  that  his  Catholic  majesty  would  as  soon  pan 
with  Madrid  as  his  claim  *to  that  territory.  The 
squadron  commanded  by  Admiral  Vernon  had  foi 
•some  time  occupied  their  attention  in  the  West  In 
dies  so  much,  that  they  could  spare  none  of  tbei 
forces  to  maintain  their  supposed  right ;  but  n< 
sooner  had  the  greatest  part  of  the  British  fleet  lef 
those  seas,  and  returned  to  England,  than  they  im- 
mediately turned  their  eyes  to  Georgia,  and  began 
to  make  preparations  for  dislodging  the  English  set- 
tlers in  that  province.  Finding  that  threats  coulc 
not  terrify  General  Oglethorpe  to  a  compliance  with 
their  demands,  an  armament  was  prepared  at  the 
Havanna  to  go  against  him,  and  expel  him  by  force 
of  arms  from  their  frontiers.  With  this  view  2000 
forces,  commanded  by  Don  Antonio  de  Rodondc 
embarked  at  the  Havanna,  under  the  convoy  of  a 
strong  squadron,  and  arrived  at  Augustine  in  May 
1742. 

But  before  this  formidable  fleet  and  armament  hac 
reached  Augustine,  they  were  observed  by  Captain 
Haymer,  of  the  Flamborough  man-of-war,  who  was 
cruising  on  that  coast ;  and  advice  was  immediately 
sent  to  General  Oglethorpe  of  their  arrival  in  Flo- 
rida. Georgia  now  began  to  tremble  in  her  turn. 
The  general  sent  intelligence  to  Governor  Glen  at 
Carolina,  requesting  him  to  collect  all  the  forces  he 
could  with  the  greatest  expedition,  and  send  them 
to  his  assistance  ;  and  at  the  same  time  to  dispatch 
a  sloop  to  the  West  Indies,  to  acquaint  Admiral 
Vernon  with  the  intended  invasion. 

Carolina  by  this  time  had  found  great  advantage 
from  the  settlement  of  Georgia,  which  had  proved 
an  excellent  barrier  to  that  province,  against  the 
incursions  of  Spaniards  and  Spanish  Indians.  The 
southern  parts  being  rendered  secure  by  the  regi- 
ment of  General  Oglethorpe  in  Georgia,  the  lands 
backward  of  Port-royal  had  become  much  in  demand, 
and  rose  to  four  times  their  former  value.  But  though 
the  Carolineans  were  equally  interested  with  their 
neighbours  in  the  defence  of  Georgia,  having  little 
confidence  in  General  Oglethorpe's  military  abilities, 
since  his  unsuccessful  expedition  against  Augustine  ; 
the  planters,  struck  with  terror,  especially  those 
on  the  southern  parts,  deserted  their  habitations, 
and  flocked  to  Charlestown  with  their  families  and 
effects.  Many  of  the  inhabitants  of  Charlestown, 
being  prejudiced  against  the  general,  declared 
against  sending  him  any  assistance,  and  determined 
rather  to  fortify  their  town,  and  stand  upon  their 
own  grounds  in  a  posture  of  defence. 

In  the  mean  time  General  Oglethorpe  was  making 
all  possible  preparations  at  Frederica  for  a  vigorous 
defence.  Message  after  message  was  sent  to  his 
Indian  allies,  who  were  greatly  attached  to  him, 
and  crowded  to  his  camp.  A  company  of  High- 
landers joined  him  on  the  first  notice,  and  seemed 
joyful  at  the  opportunity  of  retorting  Spanish  ven- 
geance on  their  own  heads.  With  his  regiment  and 
a  few  rangers,  Highlanders,  and  Indians,  the  gene- 
ral fixed  his  head-quarters  at  Frederica,  never  doubt- 
ing a  reinforcement  from  Carolina,  and  expecting 
their  arrival  every  day  ;  but  in  the  mean  time  de- 
termined, in  case*  he  should  be  attacked,  to  sell  his 
life  as  dear  as  possible  in  defence  of  the  province. 

About  the  end  of  June  1742,  the  Spanish  fleet, 
amounting  to  32  sail,  and  carrying  above  3000  men, 
under  the  command  of  Don  Manuel  de  Monteano, 
came  to  anchor  off  Simons's  bar.  Here  they  con- 
tinued for  some  time  sounding  the  channel,  and  after 
HIST.  OF  AMER.-—NOS.  123  &  124. 


finding  a  depth  of  water  sufficient  to  admit  their 
ships,  they  came  in  with  the  tide  of  flood  into  Jekyl 
sound.  General  Oglathorpe,  who  was  at  Simons's 
fort,  fired  at  them  as  they  passed  the  sound,  which 
the  Spaniards  returned  from  their  ships,  and  pro- 
ceeded up  the  river  Alatamaha,  out  of  the  reach  of 
his  guns.  There  the  enemy,  having  hoisted  a  red 
flag  at  the  mizen  top-mast  head  of  the  largest  ship, 
landed  their  forces  upon  the  island,  and  erected  a 
battery,  with  twenty  eighteen-pounders  mounted  on 
it.  Among  their  land-forces  they  had  a  fine  com- 
pany of  artillery,  under  the  command  of  Don  An- 
tonio de  Rodondo,  and  a  regiment  of  negroes.  The 
negro  commanders  were  clothed  in  lace,  bore  the 
same  rank  with  white  officers,  and  with  equal  free- 
dom and  familiarity  walked  and  conversed  with  their 
commander  and  chief.  Such  an  example  might 
justly  have  alarmed  Carolina.  For  should  the  enemy 
penetrate  into  that  province,  where  there  were  such 
numbers  of  negroes,  they  would  soon  have  acquired 
such  a  force  as  must  have  rendered  all  opposition 
fruitless  and  ineffectual. 

General  Oglethorpe  having  found  that  he  could 
not  stop  the  progress  of  the  enemy  up  the  river,  and 
judging  his  situation  at  Fort  Simons  too  dangerous, 
nailed  up  the  guns,  burst  the  bombs  and  cohorns, 
destroyed  the  stores,  and  retreated  to  his  head- 
quarters at  Frederica.  So  great  was  the  force  of 
the  enemy,  that  he  resolved  to  act  only  on  the  de- 
fensive. On  all  sides  he  sent  out  scouting  parties  to 
watch  the  motions  of  the  Spaniards,  while  the  main 
body  were  employed  in  working  at  the  fortifications, 
making  them  as  strong  as  circumstances  would 
admit.  Day  and  night  he  kept  his  Indian  allies 
ranging  through  the  woods,  to  harass  the  outposts 
of  the  enemy,  who  at  length  brought  in  five  Spa- 
nish prisoners,  who  informed  him  of  their  number 
and  force,  and  that  the  govennor  of  Augustine  was 
commander-in-chief  of  the  expedition.  The  general, 
still  expecting  a  reinforcement  from  Carolina,  used 
all  his  address  in  planning  measures  for  gaining 
time,  and  preventing  the  garrison  from  sinking  into 
despair.  For  this  purpose  ha  sent  out  the  Highland 
company  also  to  assist  the  Indians,  and  obstruct  as 
much  as  possible  the  approach  of  the  enemy  till  he 
should  obtain  assistance  and  relief.  His  provisions 
for  the  garrison  were  neither  good  nor  plentiful, 
and  his  great  distance  from  all  settlements,  together 
with  the  enemy  keeping  the  command  of  the  river, 
cut  off  entirely  all  prospects  of  a  supply.  To  pro- 
long the  defence,  however,  he  concealed  every  dis- 
couraging circumstance  from  his  little  army,  which, 
besides  Indians,  did  not  amount  to  more  than  700 
men ;  and  to  animate  them  to  perseverance,  exposed 
himself  to  the  same  hardships  and  fatigues  with  the 
meanest  soldier  in  his  garrison. 

While  Oglethorpe  remained  in  this  situation,  the 
enemy  made  several  attempts  to  pierce  through  the 
woods,  with  a  view  to  attack  the  fort ;  but  met  with 
such  opposition  from  the  morasses  and  thickets, 
ivhich  were  lined  with  fierce  Indians  and  wild  High- 
anders,  that  they  honestly  confessed  that  the  devil 
limself  could  not  pass  through  them  to  Frederica. 
Don  Manuel  de  Monteano,  however,  had  no  other 
irospect  left,  and  these  difficulties  must  either  be 
surmounted,  or  the  design  dropt;  and  therefore  one 
>arty  after  another  was  sent  out  to  explore  the 
hickets,  and  to  take  possession  of  every  advan- 
ageous  post  to  be  found  in  them.  In  two  skirmishes 
with  the  Highlanders  and  Indians,  the  enemy  had 
ne  captain  and  two  lieutenants  killed,  with  above 
00  men  taken  prisoners.  After  which  the  Spanish 

4M 


978 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


commander  changed  his  plan  of  operations,  and 
keeping  his  men  under  cover  of  his  cannon,  pro- 
ceeded with  some  galleys  up  the  river  with  the  tide 
of  flood,  to  reconnoitre  the  fort  and  draw  the  gene- 
ral's attention  to  another  quarter.  To  this  place 
Oglethorpe  sent  a  party  of  Indians,  with  orders  to 
lie  in  ambuscade  in  the  woods,  and  endeavour  to 
pro"ent  their  landing.  About  the  same  time  an 
English  prisoner  escaped  from  the  Spanish  camp, 
and  brought  advice  to  General  Oglethorpe  of  a  dif- 
ference subsisting  in  it,  in  so  much  that  the  forces 
from  Cuba,  and  those  from  Augustine  encamped  in 
separate  places.  Upon  which  the  general  resolved 
to  attempt  a  surprise  on  one  of  the  Spanish  camps, 
and  taking  the  advantage  of  his  knowledge  of  the 
woods,  marched  out  in  the  night  with  300  chosen 
men,  the  Highland  company,  and  some  rangers. 
Having  advanced  within  two  miles  of  the  enemy's 
camp  he  halted,  and  went  forward  with  a  small 
party  to  take  a  view  of  the  posture  of  the  enemy. 
But  while  he  wanted  above  all  things  to  conceal  his 
approach,  a  Frenchman  fired  his  musket,  ran  off, 
and  alarmed  the  enemy.  Upon  which,  Oglethorpe 
finding  his  design  defeated,  retreated  to  Frederica, 
and  being  apprehensive  that  the  deserter  would 
discover  his  weakness,  began  to  study  by  what  de- 
vice he  might  most  effectually  defeat  the  credit  of 
his  informations.  For  this  purpose  he  wrote  a  letter, 
addressing  it  to  the  deserter,  in  which  he  desired 
him  to  acquaint  the  Spaniards  with  the  defenceless 
state  of  Frederica,  and  how  easy  and  practicable  it 
would  be  to  cut  him  and  his  small  garrison  to  pieces. 
He  begged  him,  as  his  spy,  to  bring  them  forward 
to  the  attack,  and  assure  them  of  success  ;  but  if  he 
could  not  prevail  with  them  to  make  that  attempt, 
to  use  all  his  art  and  influence  to  persuade  them  to 
stay  at  least  three  days  more  at  Fort.  Simons,  for 
within  that  time,  according  to  the  advice  he  had 
just  received  from  Carolina,  he  would  have  a  rein- 
forcement of  2000  land-forces,  and  six  British  ships 
of  war,  with  which  he  doubted  not  he  would  be  able 
to  give  a  good  account  of  the  Spanish  invaders.  He 
entreated  the  deserter  to  urge  them  to  stay,  and 
above  all  things  cautioned  him  against  mentioning 
a  single  word  of  Vernou  coming  against  Augustine, 
assuring  him  that  for  such  services  he  should  be 
amply  rewarded  by  his  Britannic  majesty.  This 
letter  he  gave  to  one  of  the  Spanish  prisoners,  who 
for  the  sake  of  liberty  and  a  small  reward,  promised 
to  deliver  it  to  the  French  deserter ;  but  instead  of 
that,  as  Oglethorpe  expected,  he  delivered  it  to  the 
commander-in-chief  of  the  Spanish  army. 

Various  were  the  speculations  and  conjectures 
which  this  letter  occasioned  in  the  Spanish  camp, 
and  the^coinmander,  among  others,  was  not  a  little 
perplexed  what  to  infer  from  it..  In  the  first  place 
he  ordered  the  French  deserter  to  be  put  in  irons 
to  prevent  his  escape,  and  then  called  a  council  of 
war,  to  consider  what  was  most  proper  to  be  done 
in  consequence  of  intelligence  so  puzzling  and 
alarming.  Some  officers  were  of  opinion  that  the 
letter  was  intended  to  deceive,  and  to  prevent  them 
from  attacking  Frederica ;  others  thought  that  the 
things  mentioned  in  it  appeared  so  feasible,  that 
there  were  good  grounds  to  believe  the  English 
general  wished  them  to  take  place,  and  therefore 
gave  their  voice  for  consulting  the  safety  of  Augus- 
tine, and  dropping  a  plan  of  conquest  attended  with 
so  many  difficulties,  and  which,  in  the  issue,  might 
perhaps  hazard  the  loss  of  both  army  and  fleet,  if 
not  of  the  whole  province  of  Florida.  While  the 
Spanish  leaders  were  employed  in  these  delibera- 


tions, and  much  embarrassed,  fortunately  three  ships 
of  force  which  the  governor  of  South  Carolina  hud 
sent  out,  appeared  at  some  distance  on  the  coast. 
This  corresponding  with  the  letter,  convinced  the 
Spanish  commander  of  its  real  intent,  and  struck 
such  a  panic  into  the  army,  that  they  immediately 
set  fire  to  their  fort,  and  in  great  hurry  and  con- 
fusion embarked,  leaving  behind  them  several  can- 
non,  and  a  quantity  of  provisions  and  military 
stores.  The  wind  being  contrary,  the  English  ships 
could  not,  during  that  day,  beat  up  to  the  mouth  of 
the  river,  and  before  next  morning  the  invaders  got 
past  them,  and  escaped  to  Augustine. 

In  this  manner  was  the  province  of  Georgia  de- 
livered, when  brought  to  the  very  brink  of  destruc- 
tion by  a  formidable  enemy.  Fifteen  days  had  Don 
Manuel  de  Monteano  been  on  the  small  island  on 
which  Frederica  was  situated,  without  gaining  the 
smallest  advantage  over  a  handful  of  men,  and  in 
different  skirmishes  lost  some  of  his  bravest  troops. 
What  number  of  men  Oglethorpe  lost  we  have  not 
been  able  to  learn,  but  it  must  have  been  very  in- 
considerable. In  this  resolute  defence  of  the  country 
he  displayed  both  military  skill  and  personal  cou- 
rage, and  an  equal  degree  of  praise  was  due  to  him 
from  the  Carolineans  as  from  the  Georgians.  It  is 
not  improbable  that  the  Spaniards  had  Carolina 
chiefly  in  thei;  eye,  and  had  meditated  an  attack 
where  rich  plunder  could  have  been  obtained,  and 
where,  by  an  accession  of  slaves,  they  might  have 
increased  their  force  in  proportion  to  their  progress. 
Never  did  the  Carolineans  make  so  bad  a  figure  in 
defence  of  their  country.  When  union,  activity, 
and  dispatch  were  so  requisite,  they  ingloriously 
btood  at  a  distance,  and  suffering  private  pique  to 
prevail  over  public  spirit,  seemed  determined  to  risk 
the  safety  of  their  country,  rather  than  General 
Oglethorpe,  by  their  help,  should  gain  the  smallest 
degree  of  honour  and  reputation.  Money,  indeed, 
they  voted  for  the  service,  and  at  length  sent  some 
ships,  but  by  coming  so  late,  they  proved  useful 
rather  from  the  fortunate  co-operation  of  an  acci- 
dental cause,  than  from  the  zeal  and  public  spirit  of 
the  people.  The  Georgians  with  justice  blamed 
their  more  powerful  neighbours,  who,  by  keeping 
at  a  distance  in  the  day  of  danger,  had  almos: 
hazarded  the  loss  of  both  provinces.  Had  the  enern  •; 
pursued  their  operations  with  vigour  and  courage, 
the  province  of  Georgia  must  have  fallen  a  prey  t> 
the  invaders,  and  Carolina  had  every  thing  to  drea  1 
in  consequence  of  the  conquest.  Upon  the  retun 
of  the  Spanish  troops  to  the  Havannah,  the  com- 
mander was  imprisoned,  and  ordered  to  take  his  trial 
for  his  conduct  during  this  expedition,  the  result 
of  which  proved  so  shameful  and  ignominious  to 
the  Spanish  arms.  Though  the  enemy  threatened 
to  renew  the  invasion,  yet  we  do»not  find  that  after 
this  repulse  they  made  any  attempts  by  force  of  arms 
to  gain  possession  of  Georgia. 

The  Carolineans  having  had  little  or  no  share  of 
the  glory  gained  by  this  brave  defence,  were  also 
divided  in  their  opinions  with  respect  to  the  conduct 
of  General  Oglethorpe.  While  one  party  acknow- 
ledged his  signal  services,  and  poured  out  the  highest 
encomiums  on  his  wisdom  and  courage,  another 
shamefully  censured  his  conduct,  and  meanly  de- 
tracted from  his  merit;  and  no  one  took  any  public 
notice  of  his  services,  except  the  inhabitants  iu  and 
about  Port-royal,  who  presented  him  with  a  congra- 
tulatory address. 

But  at  the  same  time  reports  were  circulating 
in  Charlestown  to  his  prejudice-,  insomuch  that  botii 


UNITED  STATES. 


979 


his  honour  and  honesty  were  called  in  question 
Such  malicious  rumours  had  even  reached  London 
and  occasioned  some  of  his  bills  to  return  to  Ame 
rica  protested.  Lieutenant-Colonel  William  Cook 
•who  owed  his  preferment  to  the  general's  particula: 
friendship  and  generosity,  and  who,  on  pretence  o 
sickness,  had  left  Georgia  before  this  invasion,  hac 
filed  no  less  than  nineteen  articles  of  complain; 
against  him,  summoning  several  officers  and  soldiers 
from  Georgia  to  prove  the  charge.  As  the  genera 
had,  in  fact,  stretched  his  credit,  exhausted  his 
strength,  and  risked  his  life  for  the  defence  of  Caro- 
lina in  its  frontier  colony,  such  a  recompense  must 
have  been  equally  mortifying  as  it  was  unmerited 
The  charges  brought  by  envy  and  malice  he  might 
have  treated  with  contempt ;  but  to  vindicate  him- 
self against  the  attacks  of  an  inferior  officer,  he 
thought  himself  bound  in  honour  to  return  to  Eng- 
land. 

Soon  after  his  arrival  there,  a  court-martial  ol 
general  officers  was  called,  who  sat  two  days  at  the 
Horse  Guards,  and  after  the  most  mature  delibera- 
tion, the  board  adjudged  the  charge  to  be  false, 
malicious,  and  groundless,  and  reported  the  same  to 
his  majesty.  In  consequence  of  which,  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Cook  was  dismissed  from  the  service,  and 
declared  incapable  of  serving  his  majesty  in  any 
military  capacity  whatever. 

After  this  period  General  Oglethorpe  never  re 
turned  to  the  province  of  Georgia,  but  upon  all  oc- 
casions discovered  in  England  an  uncommon  zeal 
for  its  prosperity  and  improvement.  From  its  first 
settlement  the  colony  had  hitherto  been  under  a 
military  government,  executed  by  the  general  and 
such  officers  as  he  thought  proper  to  nominate  and 
appoint.  But  now  the  trustees  established  a  kind  of 
civil  government,  and  committed  the  charge  of  it  to 
a  president  and  four  assistants,  who  were  to  act  by 
certain  instructions  which  they  should  receive  from 
them,  and  to  be  accountable  to  that  corporation  for 
their  public  conduct.  William  Stephens  was  made 
chief  magistrate,  and  Thomas  Jones,  Henry  Parker, 
John  Fallowfield,  and  Samuel  Mercer,  were  ap- 
pointed assistants.  They  were  instructed  to  hold 
four  general  courts  at  Savanna  every  year,  for  re- 
gulating public  affairs,  and  determining  all  differ- 
ences relating  to  private  property.  No  public  money 
could  be  disposed  of  but  by  a  warrant  under  the 
seal  of  the  president  and  major  part  of  the  assistants 
in  council  assembled,  who  were  enjoined  to  send 
monthly  accounts  to  England  of  money  expended, 
and  of  the  particular  services  to  which  it  was  ap- 
plied. All  officers  of  militia  were  continued,  for  the 
purpose  of  holding  musters,  and  keeping  the  men 
properly  trained  for  military  services ;  and  Ogle- 
thorpe's  regiment  "was  left  in  the  colony  for  its 
defence. 

By  this  time  the  trustees  had  transported  to  Geor- 
gia, at  different  times,  above  1500  men,  women,  and 
children.  As  the  colony  was  intended  as  a  barrier 
to  Carolina,  by  their  charter  the  trustees  were  at 
first  laid  under  several  restraints  with  respect  to  the 
method  of  granting  lands,  as  well  as  the  settlers 
with  respect  to  the  terms  of  holding  and  disposing 
of  them.  But  it  was  now  found  expedient  to  relieve 
both  the  former  and  latter  from  these  impolitic  re- 
strictions. Under  the  care  of  General  Oglethorpe 
the  infant  province  had  surmounted  many  difficul- 
ties, yet  still  it  promised  a  poor  recompense  to 
Britain  for  the  vast  sums  of  money  expended  for  its 
protection.  The  indigent  emigrants,  especially  those 
from  England,  baring  little  acquaintance  with  hus- 


bandry, and  less  inclination  to  labour,  made  bad 
settlers;  and  as  greater  privileges  were  allowed 
them  on  the  Carolina  side  of  the  river,  they  were 
easily  decoyed  away  to  that  colony.  The  High- 
landers and  Germans  indeed,  being  more  frugal  and 
industrious,  succeeded  better,  but  hitherto  had  made 
very  small  progress,  owing  partly  to  wars  with  the 
Spaniards,  and  to  severe  hardships  attending  all 
kinds  of  culture  in  such  an  unhealthy  climate  and 
woody  country.  The  staple  commodities  intended 
to  be  raised  in  Georgia  were  silk  and  wine,  which 
were  indeed  very  profitable  articles;  but  so  small 
was  the  improvement  made  in  them,  that  they  had 
hitherto  turned  out  to  little  account*  The  most  in- 
dustrious and  successful  settlers  could  as  yet  scarcely 
provide  for  their  families,  and  the  unfortunate,  the 
sick,  and  indolent  part,  remained  in  a  destitute 
condition.  ...  .^ 

Soon  afterrthe  departure  of  General  Oglethorpe, 
the  Carolineans  petitioned  the  king,  praying  that 
three  independent  companies,  consisting  each  of 
100  men,  might  be  raised  in  the  colonies,  paid  by 
Great  Britain,  and  stationed  in  Carolina,  to  be  en- 
tirely under  the  command  of  the  governor  and  coun- 
cil of  that  province.  This  petition  was  referred  to 
the  lords  of  his  majesty's  privy-council,  and  a  time 
appointed  for  considering  whether  the  present  state 
of  Carolina  was  such  as  rendered  this  additional 
charge  to  the  nation  proper  and  necessary.  Two 
reasons  were  assigned  by  the  colonists  for  the  ne- 
cessity of  this  military  force :  the  first  was,  to  pre- 
serve peace  and  security  at  home;  the  second,  to 
protect  the  colony  against  foreign  invasions.  They 
alleged,  that  as  the  country  was  overstocked  with 
negroes,  such  a  military  force  was  requisite  to  sub- 
ject them  and  prevent  insurrections;  and  as  the 
coast  was  so  extensive,  and  the  ports  lay  exposed  to 
every  French  and  Spanish  plunderer  that  might  at 
any  time  invade  the  province,  their  security  against 
such  attempts  was  of  the  highest  consequence  to  the 
nation.  But  though  they  afterwards  obtained  some 
ndependent  companies,  the  privy-council  at  that 
;ime  denied  their  request,  declaring  that  it  belonged 
;o  the  provincial  legislature  to  make  proper  laws  for 
imiting  the  importation  of  negroes,  and  regulating 
and  restraining  them  when  imported  ;  rather  than 
)ut  the  mother-country  to  the  expense  of  keeping  a 
tanding  force  in  the  province  to  overawe  them : 
hat  Georgia,  and  the  Indians  on  the  Apalachian 
lills,  were  a  barrier  against  foreign  enemies  on  the 
western  frontiers ;  that  Fort  Johnson,  and  the  for- 
ifications  in  Charlestown,  were  a  sufficient  protec- 
ion  for  that  port;  besides,  that  as  the  entrance  over 
he  bar  was  so  difficult  to  strangers,  before  a  foreign 
enemy  could  land  500  meo  in  that  town,  half  the 
militia  in  the  province  might  be  collected  for  its 
defence.  George-town  and  Port-royal  indeed  were 
exposed,  but  the  inhabitants  being  both  few  in 
number  and  poor,  it  could  not  be  worth  the  pains 
and  risk  of  a  single  privateer  to  look  into  those 
larbours.  For  which  reasons  it  was  judged  that 
Carolina  could  be  in  little  danger  till  a  foreign 
enemy  had  possession  of  Georgia;  and  therefore  it 
was  agreed  to  maintain  Oglethorpe's  regiment  in 
that  settlement  complete ;  and  give  orders  to  the 
commandant  to  send  detachments  to  the  forts  in 
James's  Island,  Port-royal,  and  such  other  places 
where  their  service  might  be  thought  useful  and 
necessary  to  the  provincial  safety  and  defence. 

The  plan  of  settling  townships,  especially  as  it 
ame  accompanied  with  the  royal  bounty,  had  proved 
icneficial  to  the  colony  iu  many  respects.  It  eu. 

4M2 


980 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA 


eouraged  multitudes  of  poor  people  to  emigrate  from 
Ireland,  Holland,  and  Germany,  by  which  means 
the  province  received  a  number  of  frugal  and  in- 
dustrious settlers.  As  many  of  them  came  from 
manufacturing  towns  in  Europe,  it  might  have  been 
expected  that  they  would  naturally  have  pursued 
those  occupations  to  which  they  had  been  bred,  and 
in  which  their  chief  skill  consisted ;  but  this  was 
not  the  case  ;  for  excepting  a  few  of  them  that  took 
up  their  residence  in  Charlestown,  they  procured 
lands,  applied  to  pasturage  and  agriculture,  and  by 
raising  hemp,  wheat,  and  maize,  in  the  interior 
parts  of  the  country,  and  curing  hams,  bacon,  and 
beef,  they  supplied  the  market  with  abundance  of 
provision,  while  at  the  same  time  they  found  that 
they  had  taken  the  shortest  way  of  arriving  at  easy 
and  independent  circumstances. 

Indeed,  while  such  vast  territories  in  Carolina 
remained  unoccupied,  it  was  neither  for  the  interest 
of  the  province,  nor  that  of  the  mother-country,  to 
employ  any  hands  in  manufactures.  So  long  as 
labour  bestowed  on  lands  was  most  profitable,  no 
prudent  colonist  would  direct  his  attention  or  strength 
to  any  other  employment,  especially  as  the  mother- 
country  could  supply  him  with  all  kinds  of  manu- 
factures at  a  much  cheaper  rate  than  he  could  make 
them.  The  surplus  part  of  British  commodities  and 
manufactures  for  which  there  was  no  vent  in  Bri- 
tain, found  in  Carolina  a  good  market,  and  in  return 
brought  the  English  merchant  such  articles  as  were 
in  demand  at  home,  by  which  means  the  advantages 
were  mutual  and  reciprocal.  In  the  year  1744, 
230  vessels  were  loaded  at  the  port  of  Charlestown, 
so  that  the  national  value  of  the  province  was  not 
only  considerable  as  to  the  large  quantity  of  goods 
it  consumed,  but  also  as  to  the  naval  strength  it 
promoted.  Fifteen  hundred  seamen  at  least  found 
employment  in  the  trade  of  this  province,  and  besides 
other  advantages,  the  profits  of  freight  must  make  a 
considerable  addition  to  the  account  in  favour  of 
Britain 

Influx  of  Scotch  settlers — Climate  and  diseases — Cul- 
tivation of  indiyo — State  of  Georyia — Dissensions 
excited  by  Bosomworth — Georgia  made  a  royal  yo- 
vernnent — Whitfield  in  Carolina — Conference  with 
the  Indians —  Great  hurricane  at  Charlestown — 
State  of  commerce. 

After  the  rebellion  in  England  of  1745  had  been 
subdued,  the  Highlanders  were  induced  by  the  go- 
vernment to  emigrate;  and  indeed  many  were  al- 
lowed the  choice  of  trial  or  voluntary  banishment ; 
and  among  the  other  settlements  in  America,  the 
southern  provinces  had  a  great  share  of  these  bold 
and  hardy  men,  who  afterwards  proved  excellent 
and  industrious  settlers. 

As  every  family  of  labourers  is  an  acquisition  to 
a  growing  colony,  such  as  Carolina,  where  lands  are 
plenty,  and  hands  only  wanted  to  improve  them ;  to 
encourage  emigration,  a  door  was  opened  there  to 
Protestants  of  every  nation.  The  poor  and  distressed 
subjects  of  the  British  dominions,  and  those  of  Ger- 
many and  Holland,  were  easily  induced  to  leave  op- 
pression, and  transport  themselves  and  families  to 
that  province.  Lands  free  of  quit-rents,  for  the  first 
ten  years,  were  allotted  to  men,  women,  and  children. 
Utensils  for  cultivation,  and  hogs  and  cows  to  begin 
their  stock,  they  purchased  with  their  bounty-money. 
The  like  bounty  was  allowed  to  all  servants  after  the 
expiration  of  the  term  of  their  servitude.  From  this 
period  Carolina  was  found  to  be  an  excellent  refuge 
to  the  poor,  the  unfortunate,  and  oppressed.  The 


population  and  prosperity  of  her  colonies  engrossed 
the  attention  of  the  mother-country.  His  majesty's 
bounty  served  to  alleviate  the  hardships  inseparable 
from  the  first  years  of  cultivation,  and  landed  pro- 
perty  animated  the  poor  emigrants  to  industry  and 
perseverance.  The  different  townships  yearly  in- 
creased in  numbers.  Every  one  upon  his  arrival  ob- 
tained his  grant  of  land,  and  sat  down  on  his  free- 
hold with  no  taxes,  or  very  trifling  ones,  no  tithes, 
no  poor  rates,  with  full  liberty  of  hunting  and  fish- 
ing, and  many  other  advantages  and  privileges  he 
never  knew  in  Europe.  It  is  true  the  unhealthiness 
of  the  climate  was  a  great  bar  to  his  progress,  and 
proved  fatal  to  many  of  these  first  settlers ;  but  to 
such  as  surmounted  this  obstacle,  every  year  brought 
new  profits,  and  opened  more  advantageous  prospects. 
All  who  escaped  the  dangers  of  the  climate,  if  they 
could  not  be  called  rich  during  their  own  life,  by 
improving  their  little  freeholds,  yet  commonly  left 
their  children  in  easy  or  opulent  circumstances. 
Even  in  the  first  age  being  free,  contented,  and  ac- 
countable to  no  man  for  their  labour  and  management, 
their  condition  in  many  respects  was  preferable  to 
that  of  the  poorest  class  of  labourers  in  Europe.  In 
all  improved  countries,  where  commerce  and  manu- 
factures have  been  long  established,  and  luxury 
prevails,  the  poorest  ranks  of  citizens  are  always 
oppressed  and  miserable.  Indeed  this  must  neces- 
sarily be  the  case,  otherwise  trade  and  manufactures, 
which  flourish  principally  by  the  low  price  of  labour 
and  provisions,  must  decay.  In  Carolina,  though 
exposed  to  more  troubles  and  hardships  for  a  few 
years,  such  industrious  people  had  better  opportuni- 
ties than  in  Europe  for  advancing  to  an  easy  and 
independent  state.  Hence  it  happened  that  few 
emigrants  ever  returned  to  their  native  country ;  on 
the  contrary,  the  success  and  prosperity  of  the  most 
fortunate,  brought  many  adventurers  and  relations 
after  them.  Their  love  to  their  former  friends,  and 
their  natural  partiality  for  their  countrymen,  in- 
duced the  old  planters  to  receive  the  new  settlers 
joyfully,  and  even  to  assist  and  relieve  them. 

It  has  been  observed,  that  in  proportion  as  the 
lands  have  been  cleared  and  improved,  and  scope 
given  for  a  more  free  circulation  of  air,  the  climate 
likewise  became  more  salubrious  and  pleasant.  This 
change  was  more  remarkable  in  the  heart  of  the 
country  than  in  the  maritime  parts,  where  the  best 
plantations  of  rice  are,  and  where  water  is  carefully 
preserved  to  overflow  the  fields  ;  yet  even  in  those 
places  cultivation  has  been  attended  with  salutary 
effects.  Time  and  experience  had  now  taught  the 
planters,  that,  during  the  autumnal  months,  their 
living  among  the  low  rice  plantations  subjected  them 
to  many  disorders,  from  which  the  inhabitants  of 
the  capital  were  entirely  exempted.  This  induced 
the  richer  part  to  retreat  to  town  during  this  un- 
healthy season.  Those  who  were  less  able  to  bear 
the  expenses  of  this  retreat,  and  had  learned  to 
guard  against  the  inconveniences  of  the  climate, 
sometimes  escaped ;  but  laborious  strangers  suffered 
much  during  these  autumnal  months.  Accustomed 
as  they  were  in  Europe  to  toil  through  the  heat  of 
the  day,  and  expose  themselves  in  all  weathers,  they 
followed  the  same  practices  in  Carolina,  where  the 
climate  would  by  no  means  admit  of  such  liberties. 

In  the  months  of  July,  August,  and  September, 
the  heat  in  the  shaded  air,  from  noon  to  three  o'clock, 
is  often  between  90  and  100  degrees ;  and  as  such 
extreme  heat  is  of  short  duration,  being  commonly 
productive  of  thunder-showers,  it  becomes  on  that 
account  the  more  dangerous.  Fahrenheit's  thermo- 


UNITED  STATES. 


981 


meter  has  been  seen  to  arise  in  the  shade  to  96  in 
the  hottest,  and  fall  to  sixteen  in  the  coolest  season 
of  the  year;  and  occasionally  even  as  high  as  100, 
and  as  low  as  ten.  The  mean  diurnal  heat  of  the 
different  seasons  has  been,  upon  the  most  careful 
observation,  fixed  at  64  in  spring,  and  79  in  sum- 
mer, 72  in  autumn,  and  52  in  winter ;  and  the  mean 
nocturnal  heat  in  those  seasons  at  56  degrees  in 
spring,  75  in  summer,  68  in  autumn,  and  46  in 
winter. 

Intermittent,  nervous,  putrid  and  bilious  fevers 
are  common  in  the  country,  and  prove  fatal  to  many 
of  its  inhabitants.  Young  children  are  very  subject 
to  the  worm-fever,  which  destroys  numbers  of  them. 
The  dry  colic,  which  is  a  dreadful  disorder,  is  no 
stranger  to  the  climate  ;  and  an  irruption,  com- 
monly called  the  prickly  heat,  often  breaks  out  dur- 
ing the  summer,  which  is  attended  with  troublesome 
itching  and  stinging  pains;  but  this  disease  being 
common,  and  not  dangerous,  is  little  regarded ;  and 
if  proper  caution  be  used  to  prevent  it  from  striking 
suddenly  inward,  is  thought  to  be  attended  even  with 
salutary  effects.  In  the  spring  and  winter,  pleuri- 
sies and  peripneumonies  are  common,  and  often  ob- 
stinate, and  frequently  fatal.  So  changeable  is  the 
weather,  that  the  thermometer  will  often  rise  or  fall 
20,  25,  and  30  degrees,  in  the  space  of  24  hours, 
and  in  autumn  there  is  sometimes  a  difference  of  20 
degrees  between  the  heat  of  the  day  and  that  of  the 
night,  and  in  winter  a  greater  difference  between 
the  heat  of  the  morning  and  that  of  noon-day.  Not 
only  man,  but  every  animal,  is  strongly  affected  by 
the  sultry  heat  of  summer.  Horses  and  cows  retire 
to  the  shade,  and  there,  though  harassed  with  insects, 
they  stand  and  profusely  sweat  through  the  violence 
of  the  day.  Hogs  and  dogs  are  also  much  distressed 
with  it ;  as  are  poultry  and  wild  fowls.  The  planter 
who  consults  his  health  is  not  only  cautious  in  his 
dress  and  diet,  but  rises  early  for  the  business  of  the 
field,  and  transacts  it  before  ten  o'clock,  and  then 
retreats  to  the  house  for  shade  during  the  violent 
heat  of  the  day,  until  the  coolness  of  the  evening 
again  invites  him  to  the  field  ;  and  such  is  the  feeble- 
ness and  langour  at  noon,  that  the  greatest  pleasure 
of  life  consists  in  being  entirely  at  rest. 

This  kind  of  climate,  however,  is  favourable  to 
the  culture  of  indigo;  and  about  the  year  1745  a 
fortunate  discovery  was  made,  that  this  plant  grew 
spontaneously  in  the  province,  and  was  found  almost 
every  where  among  the  wild  weeds  of  the  forest. 
Some  seed  of  a  better  kind  was  immediately  im- 
ported from  the  French  West  Indies,  where  it  had 
been  cultivated  with  great  success,  and  yielded  the 
planters  immense  profit ;  and  in  consequence  of  the 
success  which  attended  various  experiments,  several 
planters  turned  their  attention  to  its  culture,  and 
studied  the  art  of  extracting  the  dye  from  it.  Every 
trial  gave  them  fresh  encouragement;  and  in  the 
year  1747  a  considerable  quantity  of  it  was  sent  to 
England,  which  induced  the  merchants  trading  to 
Carolina  to  petition  parliament  for  a  bounty  on  Ca- 
rolina indigo.  The  parliament,  upon  examination, 
found  that  it  was  one  of  the  most  beneficial  articles 
of  French  commerce,  that  their  West  Indian  islands 
supplied  all  the  markets  of  Europe  ;  and  that  Britain 
alone  consumed  annually  600,000  weight  of  French 
indigo,  which,  at  five  shillings  a  pound,  cost  the 
nation  150,OOOZ.  sterling.  This  petition  of  the  mer- 
chants was  soon  followed  by  another  from  the  planters 
and  inhabitants  of  Carolina,  and  others  to  the  same 
effect  from  the  clothiers,  dyers,  and  traders  of  dif- 
ferent towns  in  Britain ;  aud  it  was  proved,  that  the 


demand  for  indigo  annually  increased,  and  it  could 
never  be  expected  that  the  planters  in  the  West  In- 
dies would  turn  their  hands  to  it,  while  the  culture 
of  sugar-canes  proved  more  profitable.  Accordingly, 
an  act  of  parliament  passed,  about  the  beginning  of 
the  year  1748,  for  allowing  a  bounty  of  six-pence  a 
pound  on  all  indigo  raised  in  the  British  American 
plantations,  and  imported  directly  into  Britain  from 
the  place  of  its  growth.  In  consequence  of  which 
act  the  planters  applied  themselves  with  double  vi- 
gour and  spirit  to  its  cultivation.  Some  years  in- 
deed elapsed  before  they  learned  the  art  of  preparing 
it  as  well  as  the  French,  whose  long  practice  and 
experience  had  brought  it  to  perfection ;  but  every 
year  they  acquired  greater  skill  and  knowledge  in 
preparing  it.  Many  of  the  cultivators  doubled  their 
capital  every  three  or  four  years,  and  in  time  brought 
it  to  such  a  degree  of  perfection,  as  not  only  to  sup- 
ply the  mother-country,  but  also  to  undersell  the 
French  at  several  European  markets. 

As  it  was  long  the  staple  commodity  of  this  colony, 
the  following  account,  as  given  by  an  early  colonist 
of  its  mode  of  culture,  may  serve  to  illustrate  the 
manners  and  circumstances  of  the  inhabitants.  "  As 
both  the  quantity  and  quality  of  indigo  greatly  de- 
pend on  the  cultivation  of  the  plant,  it  is  proper  to 
observe,  that  it  seems  to  thrive  best  in  a  rich,  light 
soil,  unmixed  with  clay  or  sand.  The  ground  to  be 
planted  should  be  ploughed,  or  turned  up  with  hoes, 
some  time  in  December,  that  the  frost  may  render 
it  rich  and  mellow.  It  must  also  be  well  harrowed, 
and  cleansed  from  all  grass,  roots,  and  stumps  of 
trees,  to  facilitate  the  hoeing  after  the  weed  appears 
above  ground.  The  next  thing  to  be  considered  is 
the  choice  of  the  seed,  in  which  the  planters  should 
be  very  nice  ;  there  is  great  variety  of  it,  and  from 
every  sort  good  indigo  may  be  made  ;  but  none  an- 
swers so  well  in  this  colony  as  the  true  Guatimala, 
which  if  good  is  a  small  oblong  black  seed,  very 
bright  and  full,  and  when  rubbed  in  the  hand  will 
appear  as  if  finely  polished. 

"  In  Carolina  we  generally  begin  to  plant  about 
the  beginning  of  April,  in  the  following  manner : 
the  ground  being  well  prepared,  furrows  are  made 
with  a  drill-plough,  or  hoe,  two  inches  deep,  and 
eighteen  inches  distant  from  each  other,  to  receive 
the  seed,  which  is  sown  regularly,  and  not  very  thick, 
after  which  it  is  lightly  covered  with  earth.  A  bushel 
of  seed  will  sow  four  English  acres.  If  the  weather 
proves  warm  and  serene,  the  plant  will  appear  above 
ground  in  ten  or  fourteen  days.  After  the  plant 
appears,  the  ground,  though  not  grassy,  should  be 
hoed  to  loosen  the  earth  about  it,  which  otherwise 
would  much  hinder  its  growth.  In  good  seasons  it 
grows  very  fast,  and  must  all  the  while  be  kept  per- 
fectly clean  of  weeds  Whenever  the  plant  is  in 
full  bloom  it  must  be  cut  down,  without  paying  any 
regard  to  its  height,  as  its  leaves  are  then  thick  and 
full  of  juice,  and  this  commonly  happens  in  about 
four  months  after  planting.  But,  previous  to  the 
season  for  cutting,  a  complete  set  of  vats  of  the  fol- 
lowing dimensions,  for  every  twenty  acres  of  weed, 
must  be  provided,  and  kept  in  good  order.  The 
steeper  or  vat  in  which  the  weed  is  first  put  to  fer- 
ment, must  be  sixteen  feet  square  in  the  clear,  and 
two  and  a  half  feet  deep ;  the  second  vat  or  battery 
twelve  feet  long,  ten  feet  wide,  and  four  and  a  half 
"eet  deep  from  the  top  of  the  plate.  These  vats 
ihould  be  made  of  the  best  cypress  or  yellow-pine 
slank,  two  and  a  half  inches  thick,  well  fastened  to 
;he  joints  and  studs  with  seven-inch  spikes,  aud  then 
raulked,  to  prevent  their  leaking.  Vats  thus  made 


982 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


will  last  in  Carolina,  notwithstanding  the  excessive 
heat,  at  least  seven  years.  When  every  thing  is 
ready,  the  weed  must  be  cut  and  laid  regularly  in 
the  steeper  with  the  stalk  upward,  which  will  hasten 
the  fermentation ;  then  long  rails  must  be  laid  the 
length  of  the  vat,  at  eighteen  inches  distance  from 
one  another,  and  wedged  down  to  the  weed,  to  pre- 
vent its  buoying  up  when  the  water  is  pumped  into 
the  steeper.  For  this  purpose  the  softest  water  an- 
swers best,  and  the  quantity  of  it  necessary  must  be 
just  sufficient  to  cover  »U  the  weed.  In  this  situa- 
tion it  is  left  to  ferment,  which  will  begin  sooner  or 
later  in  proportion  to  the  heat  of  the  weather,  and 
the  ripeness  of  the  plant,  but  for  the  most  part  takes 
twelve  or  fifteen  hours.  After  the  water  is  loaded 
•with  the  salts  and  substance  of  the  weed,  it  must  be 
let  out  of  the  steeper  into  the  battery,  there  to  be 
beat;  in  order  to  perform  which  operation,  many 
different  machines  have  been  invented :  but  for  this 
purpose  any  instrument  that  will  agitate  the  water 
with  great  violence  may  be  used.  When  the  water 
has  been  violently  agitated  for  fifteen  or  twenty  mi- 
nutes in  the  battery,  by  taking  a  little  of  the  liquor 
up  in  a  plate  it  will  appear  full  of  small  grain  or 
curdled;  then  you  are  to  let  in  a  quantity  of  lime- 
water  kept  in  a  vat  for  the  purpose,  to  augment  and 
precipitate  the  faeculae,  still  continuing  to  stir  and 
beat  vehemently  the  indigo  water,  till  it  becomes  of 
a  strong  purple  colour,  and  the  grain  hardly  per- 
ceptible. Then  it  must  be  left  to  settle,  which  it 
will  do  in  eight  or  ten  hours.  After  which  the 
water  must  be  gently  drawn  out  of  the  battery  through 
plug-holes  contrived  for  that  purpose,  so  that  the 
faeculae  may  remain  at  the  bottom  of  the  vat.  It 
must  then  be  taken  up,  and  carefully  strained  through 
a  horse-hair  sieve,  to  render  the  indigo  perfectly 
clean,  and  put  into  bags  made  of  Osnaburghs,  eigh- 
teen inches  long,  and  twelve  wide,  and  suspended 
for  six  hours,  to  drain  the  water  out  of  it.  After 
which  the  mouths  of  these  bags  being  well  fastened, 
it  must  be  put  into  a  press  to  be  entirely  freed  from 
any  remains  of  water,  which  would  otherwise  greatly 
hurt  the  quality  of  the  indigo.  The  press  commonly 
used  for  this  purpose  is  a  box  of  five  feet  in  length, 
two  and  a  half  wide,  and  two  deep,  with  holes  at 
one  end  to  let  out  the  water.  In  this  box  the  bags 
must  be  laid,  one  upon  another,  until  it  is  full,  upon 
which  a  plank  must  be  laid,  fitted  to  go  within  the 
box,  and  upon  all  a  sufficient  number  of  weights  to 
squeeze  out  the  water  entirely  by  a  constant  and 
gradual  pressure,  so  that  the  indigo  may  become  a 
fine  stiff  paste ;  which  is  then  taken  out  and  cut  into 
small  pieces,  each  about  two  inches  square,  and  laid 
out  to  dry.  A  house  made  of  logs  must  be  prepared 
on  purpose  for  drying  it,  and  so  constructed  that  it 
may  receive  all  the  advantages  of  an  open  and  free 
air,  without  being  exposed  to  the  sun,  which  is  very 
pernicious  to  the  dye.  For  here  indigo  placed  in 
the  sun,  in  a  few  hours  will  be  burnt  up  to  a  perfect 
cinder.  While  the  indigo  remains  in  the  drying 
house,  it  must  be  carefully  turned  three  or  four 
times  a  day,  to  prevent  its  rotting.  Flies  should 
likewise  be  carefully  kept  from  it,  which  at  this  sea- 
son of  the  year  are  hatched  in  millions,  and  infest 
an  indigo  plantation  like  a  plague.  After  all,  great 
care  must  also  be  taken,  that  the  indigo  be  sufficiently 
dry  before  it  is  packed,  lest  after  it  is  headed  up  in 
barrels  it  should  sweat,  which  will  certainly  spoil 
and  rot  it." 

The  province  of  Georgia,  notwithstanding  all  that 
Britain  had  done  for  its  population  and  improve- 
ment, still  remained  in  a  poor  and  languishing  con- 


dition. After  the  peace  Oglethorpe's  regiment  being 
disbanded,  a  number  of  soldiers  accepted  the  en- 
couragement offered  them  by  government,  and  took 
up  their  residence  in  Georgia.  All  those  adventu- 
rers who  had  brought  some  substance  along  with 
them,  having  by  this  time  exhausted  their  small  stock 
in  fruitless  experiments,  were  reduced  to  indigence,  so 
that  emigrants  from  Britain,  foreigners,  and  soldier?, 
were  all  on  a  level  in  point  of  povei 
politic  restrictions  of  the  trustees, 


From  the  im- 
ese  settlers  had 


no  prospects  during  life  but  those  of  hardship  and 
poverty.  Nor  was  the  trade  of  the  province  in  a 
better  situation  than  its  agriculture.  The  want  of 
credit  was  an  insurmountable  obstacle  to  its  progress 
in  every  respect.  Formerly  the  inhabitants  in  and 
about  Savanna  had  transmitted  to  the  trustees  a  re- 
presentation of  their  grievous  circumstances,  and 
obtained  from  them  some  partial  relief.  But  now, 
chagrined  with  disappointments,  and  dispirited  by 
the  severities  of  the  climate,  they  could  view  the 
design  of  the  trustees  in  no  other  light  than  that  of 
having  decoyed  them  into  misery.  Even  though 
they  had  been  favoured  with  credit,  and  had  proved 
successful,  which  was  far  from  being  their  case ;  as 
the  tenure  of  their  freehold  was  restricted  to  heirs 
male,  their  eldest  son  could  only  reap  the  benefit  of 
their  toil.  They  considered  their  younger  children 
and  daughters  as  equally  entitled  to  their  regard, 
and  could  not  brook  their  holding  lands  under  such 
a  tenure,  as  excluded  them  from  the  rights  and  pri- 
vileges of  other  colonists.  They  saw  numbers  daily 
leaving  the  province  through  mere  necessity,  and 
declared  to  the  trustees,  that  nothing  could  prevent 
it  from  being  totally  deserted,  but  the  same  encou- 
ragements with  their  more  fortunate  neighbours  in 
Carolina. 

They  complained  that  the  landholders  in  Georgia 
were  prohibited  from  selling  or  leasing  their  pos- 
sessions; that  a  tract,  containing  50  acres  of  the. 
best  lands  was  too  small  an  allowance  for  the  main- 
tenance of  a  family,  and  much  more  so  when  they 
were  refused  the  freedom  to  choose  it ;  that  a  much 
higher  quit -rent  was  exacted  from  them  than  was 
paid  for  the  best  lands  in  America;  that  the  impor- 
tation of  negroes  was  prohibited,  and  white  people 
were  utterly  unequal  to  the  labours  requisite ;  that 
the  public  money  granted  yearly  by  parliament,  for 
the  relief  of  settlers  and  the  improvement  of  the  pro- 
vince, was  misapplied,  and  therefore  the  wise  pur- 
poses for  which  it  was  granted  were  by  no  means 
answered.  That  these  inconveniences  and  hardships 
kept  them  in  a  state  of  poverty  and  misery,  and 
that  the  chief  cause  of  all  their  calamities  was  the 
strict  adherence  of  the  trustees  to  their  chimerical 
and  impracticable  scheme  of  settlement,  by  which 
the  people  were  refused  the  obvious  means  of  sub- 
sistence, and  cut  off  from  all  prospects  of  success. 

We  have  already  observed,  that  the  laws  and  re- 
gulations even  of  the  wisest  men,  founded  on  theo- 
retical principles,  have  often  proved  to  be  impracti- 
cable ;  and  the  trustees  had  an  example  of  this  in 
the  fundamental  constitutions  of  John  Locke.  The 
lands  in  Georgia,  especially  such  as  were  first  occu- 
pied, were  sandy  and  barren;  the  hardships  of 
clearing  and  cultivating  them  were  great,  the  cli 
mate  was  unfavourable  for  labourers,  and  dangeroua 
to  European  constitutions. 

Hitherto  Georgia  had  made  but  small  improve- 
ment in  agriculture  and  trade,  and  her  government 
was  feeble  and  contemptible;  and  at  this  time,  by 
-    the  avarice  and  ambition  of  a  single  family,  the  wholo 
- 1  colony  was  brought  to  the  very  brink  of  destruction 


UNITED  STATES. 


983 


During  the  time  General  Oglethorpe  had  the  di- 
rection of  public  affairs  in  Georgia,  he  had,  from 
maxims  of  policy,  treated  an  Indian  woman,  called 
Mary,  with  particular  kindness  and  generosity.  Find- 
ing that  she  had  great  influence  among  the  Creeks, 
and  understood  their  language,  he  made  use  of  her 
as  an  interpreter,  in  order  the  more  easily  to  form 
treaties  of  alliance  with  them,  allowing  her,  as  al- 
ready stated,  for  her  services,  IOOJ.  sterling  a-year. 
This  woman,  Thomas  Bosomworth,  who  was  chap- 
lain to  Oglethorpe's  regiment,  had  married,  and 
among  the  rest,  had  accepted  a  portion  of  land  from 
the  crown,  and  settled  in  the  province.  '  Finding 
that  his  wife  laid  claim  to  some  islands  on  the  sea- 
coast,  which,  by  treaty,  had  been  allotted  the  In- 
dians as  part  of  their  hunting-lands ;  to  stock  them  he 
had  purchased  cattle  from  the  planters  of  Carolina, 
from  whom  he  obtained  credit  to  a  considerable 
amount.  However,  this  plan  not  proving  so  suc- 
cessful as  he  expected,  he  resolved  on  a  bold  mode 
of  supporting  his  credit,  and  acquiring  a  fortune. 
His  wife  pretended  to  be  descended  in  a  maternal 
line  from  an  Indian  king,  who  held  from  nature 
the  territories  of  the  Creeks,  and  Bosomworth  now 
persuaded  her  to  assert  her  right  to  them,  as  superior 
not  only  to  that  of  the  trustees,  but  also  to  that  of  the 
king.  Accordingly  Mary  immediately  assumed  the 
title  of  an  independent  empress,  disavowing  all  sub- 
jection or  allegiance  to  the  king  of  Great  Britain, 
otherwise  than  by  way  of  treaty  and  alliance,  such 
as  one  independent  sovereign  might  make  with 
another.  A  meeting  of  all  the  Creeks  was  sum- 
moned, to  whom  Mary  made  a  speech,  setting  forth 
the  justice  of  her  claim,  and  the  great  injury  done 
to  her  and  them,  by  taking  possession  of  their  an- 
cient territories ;  and  excited  them  to  defend  their 
property  by  force  of  arms.  The  Indians  immediately 
declared  they  would  adhere  to  her,  and  in  conse- 
quence Mary,  with  a  large  body  of  savages,  set  out 
for  Savanna,  to  demand  a  formal  surrender  of  them 
from  the  president  of  the  province.  A  messenger 
was  dispatched  before  hand,  to  acquaint  him  that 
Mary  had  assumed  her  right  of  sovereignty  over  the 
whole  territories  of  the  upper  and  lower  Creeks,  and 
to  demand  that  all  lands  belonging  to  them  be  in- 
stantly relinquished;  for  as  she  was  the  hereditary 
and  rightful  queen  of  both  nations,  and  could  com- 
mand every  man  of  them  to  follow  her,  in  case  of 
refusal,  she  had  determined  to  extirpate  the  settle- 
ment. 

The  president  and  council,  alarmed  at  her  pre- 
tensions and  bold  threats,  and  sensible  of  her  influ- 
ence with  the  savages,  were  not  a  little  embarrassed 
what  steps  to  take.  They  determined  to  use  gentle 
measures  until  an  .opportunity  might  offer  of  pri- 
vately laying  hold  of  her,  and  shipping  her  off  to 
England.  But,  in  the  mean  time,  orders  were  sent 
to  all  the  captains  of  the  militia,  to  hold  themselves 
in  readiness  to  march  to  Savanna  at  an  hour's  warn- 
."'ag.  The  town  was  put  in  the  best  posture  of  de- 
fence, but  the  whole  militia  in  it  amounted  to  no 
more  than  170  men.  A  messenger  was  sent  to  Mary, 
who  was  at  the  head  of  the  Creeks,  several  miles 
distant  from  town,  to  know  whether  she  was  serious 
in  such  wild  pretensions,  and  to  try  to  persuade  her 
to  dismiss  her  followers,  and  drop  her  design.  But 
finding  her  inflexible  and  resolute,  the  president  re- 
solved to  receive  the  savages  with  firmness.  The 
militia  was  ordered  under  arms,  to  overawe  them  as 
much  as  possible,  and  as  the  Indians  entered  the 
town,  Captain  Jones,  at  the  head  of  his  company  of 
horse,  stopped  them,  and  demanded  whether  they 


came  with  hostile  or  friendly  intentions  ?  But  re- 
ceiving no  satisfactory  answer,  he  told  them  they 
must  there  ground  their  arms,  for  he  had  orders  not 
to  suffer  a  man  of  them  armed  to  set  his  foot  within 
the  town.  The  savages,  with  great  reluctance,  sub- 
mitted, and  accordingly  Thomas  Bosomworth,  in  his 
canonical  robes,  with  his  queen  by  his  side,  followed 
by  the  various  chiefs  according  to  their  rank,  marched 
into  town,  making  a  formidable  appearance.  When 
they  advanced  to  the  parade,  they  found  the  militia 
drawn  up  under  arms  to  receive  them,  who  saluted 
them  with  fifteen  cannon,  and  conducted  them  to 
the  president's  house.  There  Thomas  and  Adam 
Bosomworth  being  ordered  to  withdraw,  the  Indian 
chiefs,  in  a  friendly  manner,  were  called  upon  to 
declare  their  intention  of  visiting  the  town  in  so 
large  a  body,  without  being  sent  for  by  any  person 
in  lawful  authority.  The  warriors,  as  they  had  been 
previously  instructed,  answered,  that  Mary  was  to 
speak  for  them,  and  that  they  would  abide  by  her 
words.  They  had  heard,  they  said,  that  she  was  to 
be  sent  like  a  captive  over  the  great  waters,  and 
they  were  come  to  know  on  what  account  they  were 
to  lose  their  queen.  They  assured  the  president 
they  intended  no  harm,  and  begged  their  arms  might 
be  restored ;  and,  after  consulting  with  Bosomworth 
and  his  wife,  they  would  return  and  settle  all  pub- 
lic affairs,  To  please  them  their  muskets  were  ac- 
cordingly given  back,  but  strict  orders  were  issued 
to  allow  them  no  ammunition,  until  the  council 
should  see  more  clearly  into  their  designs. 

On  the  day  following,  the  Indians  having  had 
some  private  conferences  with  their  queen,  began  to 
be  very  outrageous,  and  to  run  in  a  tumultuous 
manner  up  and  down  the  streets.  All  the  men  being 
obliged  to  mount  guard,  the  women  were  terrified  to 
remain  by  themselves  in  their  houses,  expecting 
every  moment  to  be  murdered  or  scalped ;  and  du- 
ring this  confusion,  a  false  rumour  was  spread,  that 
they  had  cut  off  the  president's  head  with  a  toma- 
hawk, which  so  exasperated  the  inhabitants,  that  it 
was  with  difficulty  the  officers  could  prevent  them 
from  firing  on  the  savages. 

Orders  were  given  to  the  militia  to  seize  Bosom- 
worth,  and  to  convey  him  into  close  confinement. 
Upon  which  Mary  became  outrageous,  and  insolently 
threatened  vengeance  against  the  magistrates  and 
whole  colony;  ordered  every  man  to  depart  from 
her  territories ;  cursed  General  Oglethorpe  and  his 
fraudulent  treaties,  and  furiously  stamping  with  her 
feet  upon  the  ground,  swore  by  her  Maker  that  the 
whole  earth  on  which  she  trode  was  her  own.  To 
prevent  bribery,  which  she  knew  to  have  great 
weight  with  her  warriors,  she  kept  the  leading  men 
constantly  in  her  eye,  and  would  not  suffer  them  to 
speak  a  word  respecting  public  affairs  but  in  her 
presence. 

The  president  finding  that  no  peaceable  agree- 
ment could  be  made  with  the  Indians  while  under 
the  influence  of  their  pretended  queen,  privately 
laid  hold  of  her,  and  put  her  under  confinement  with 
her  husband ;  and  having  thus  secured  the  chief 
promoters  of  the  conspiracy,  he  then  employed  men 
acquainted  with  the  Indian  language  to  entertain 
the  warriors  in  the  most  friendly  and  hospitable 
manner,  and  explain  to  them  the  wicked  designs  of 
Bosomworth  and  his  wife.  Accordingly  a  feast  was 
prepared  for  all  the  chief  leaders;  at  which  they 
were  informed  that  Mr.  Bosomworth  had  involved 
himself  in  debt,  and  wanted  not  only  their  lands, 
but  also  a  large  share  of  the  royal  bounty,  to  satisfy 
his  creditors  in  Carolina ;  that  the  king's  presents 


984 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


were  only  intended  for  Indians,  on  account  of  their 
useful  services  and  firm  attachment  to  him  during 
the  former  wars ;  that  the  lands  adjoining  the  town 
were  reserved  for  them  to  encamp  upon  when  they 
should  come  to  visit  their  beloved  friends  at  Sa- 
vanna, and  the  three  maritime  islands  to  hunt  upon 
when  they  should  come  to  bathe  in  the  salt  waters  ; 
that  neither  Mary  nor  her  husband  had  any  right  to 
those  lands,  which  were  the  common  property  of 
the  Creek  nations  ;  that  the  great  king  had  ordered 
the  president  to  defend  their  right  to  them,  and  ex- 
pected that  all  his  subjects,  both  white  and  red, 
would  live  together  like  brethren  ;  in  short,  that  he 
would  suffer  no  man  or  woman  to  molest  or  injure 
them,  and  had  ordered  these  words  to  be  left  on 
record,  that  their  children  might  know  them  when 
they  were  dead  and  gone. 

This  conduct  produced  the  desired  effect,  and 
many  of  the  chieftains  being  convinced  that  Bosom- 
worth  had  deceived  them,  declared  they  would  trust 
him  no  more.  Even  Malatchee,  the  leader  of  the 
Lower  Creeks,  and  a  relation  to  their  pretended 
empress,  seemed  satisfied,  and  was  not  a  little  pleased 
to  hear  that  the  great  king  had  sent  them  some  valu- 
able presents.  Being  asked  why  he  acknowledged 
Mary  as  the  empress  of  the  great  nation  of  Creeks, 
and  resigned  his  power  and  possessions  to  a  despi- 
cable old  woman,  while  all  Georgia  owned  him  as 
chief  of  the  nation,  and  the  president  and  council 
were  now  to  give  him  many  rich  clothes  and  medals 
for  his  services  ?  He  replied,  that  the  whole  nation 
.Jcknowledged  her  as  their  queen,  and  none  could 
distribute  the  royal  presents  but  one  of  her  family. 
The  president  by  this  answer  perceiving  more  clearly 
the  design  of  the  family  of  Bosomworth,  to  lessen 
their  influence,  and  show  the  Indians  that  he  had 
power  to  divide  the  royal  bounty  among  the  chiefs, 
determined  to  do  it  immediately,  and  dismiss  them, 
on  account  of  the  growing  expenses  to  the  colony, 
and  the  hardships  the  inhabitants  underwent,  in  keep- 
ing guard  night  and  day  for  the  defence  of  the 
town. 

In  the  mean  time  Malatchee,  whom  the  Indians 
compared  to  the  wind,  because  of  his  fickle  and 
variable  temper,  having  at  his  own  request  obtained 
access  to  Bosomworth  and  his  wife,  was  again  se- 
duced and  drawn  over  to  support  their  chimerical 
claim.  While  the  Indians  were  gathered  together 
to  receive  their  respective  shares  of  the  royal  bounty, 
he  stood  up  in  the  midst  of  them,  and  with  a  frown- 
ing countenance,  and  in  violent  agitation  of  spirit, 
delivered  a  speech  fraught  with  the  most  dangerous 
insinuations,  he  protested  that  Mary  possessed  that 
country  before  General  Oglethorpe ;  and  that  all  the 
lands  belonged  to  her  as  queen,  and  head  of  the 
Creeks;  that  it  v,as  oy  her  permission  English- 
men were  at  first  allowed  to  set  their  foot  on  them  ; 
that  they  still  held  them  of  her  as  the  original  pro- 
prietor ;  that  her  words  were  the  voice  of  the  whole 
nation,  consisting  of  above  3000  warriors,  and  at  her 
command  every  one  of  them  would  take  up  the 
hatchet  in  defence  of  her  right;  and  then  pulling 
out  a  paper  out  of  his  pocket,  he  delivered  it  to  the 
president  in  confirmation  of  what  he  bad  said.  This 
was  evidently  the  production  of  Bosomworth,  and 
served  to  discover  in  the  plainest  manner  his  am- 
bitious views  and  wicked  intrigues.  The  preamble 
was  filled  with  the  names  t)f  Indians  called  kings, 
>f  all  the  towns  of  the  Upper  and  Lower  Creeks, 
none  of  whom,  however,  were  present,  excepting 
two.  The  substance  of  it  corresponded  with  Ma- 
latchee's  speech ;  styling  Mary  the  rightful  princess 


and  chief  of  their  nation,  descended  in  a  maternal 
line  from  the  emperor,  and  invested  with  full  power 
and  authority  from  them  to  settle  and  finally  deter- 
mine all  public  affairs  and  causes,  relating  to  lands 
and  other  things,  with  King  George  and  his  beloved 
men  on  both  sides  of  the  sea,  and  whatever  should 
be  said  or  done  by  her  they  would  abide  by,  as  if 
said  or  done  by  themselves. 

After  reading  this  paper  in  council,  the  whole 
board  were  struck  with  astonishment ;  and  Malat- 
chee, perceiving  their  uneasiness,  begged  to  have 
it  again,  declaring  he  did  not  know  it  to  be  "  a  bad 
talk,"  and  promising  he  would  return  it  immediately 
to  the  person  from  whom  he  had  received  it.  To 
remove  all  impression  made  on  the  minds  of  the  In- 
dians by  Malatcbee's  speech,  and  convince  them  of 
the  deceitful  and  dangerous  tendency  of  this  con- 
federacy into  which  Bosomworth  and  his  wife  had 
betrayed  them,  had  now  become  a  matter  of  the 
highest  consequence  :  happy  was  it  for  the  province 
this  was  a  thing  neither  difficult  nor  impracticable  ; 
for  as  ignorant  savages  are  easily  misled  on  the  one 
hand,  so,  on  the  other,  it  was  equally  easy  to  con- 
vince them  of  their  error.  Accordingly,  having  ga- 
thered the  Indians  together  for  this  purpose,  the 
president  addressed  them  to  the  following  effect  :— 
"  Friends  and  brothers,  when  Mr.  Oglethorpe  and 
his  people  first  arrived  in  Georgia,  they  found  Mary, 
then  the  wife  of  John  Musgrove,  living  in  a  small 
hut  at  Yamacraw,  having  a  licence  from  the  go- 
vernor of  South  Carolina  to  trade  with  Indians. 
She  then  appeared  to  be  in  a  poor  ragged  condi- 
tion, and  was  neglected  and  despised  by  the  Creeks. 
But  Mr.  Oglethorpe  finding  that  she  could  speak 
both  the  English  and  Creek  languages,  employed 
her  as  an  interpreter,  richly  clothed  her,  and  made 
her  the  woman  of  the  consequence  she  now  appears. 
The  people  of  Georgia  always  respected  her  until 
she  married  Thomas  Bosomworth,  but  from  that 
time  she  has  proved  a  liar  and  a  deceiver.  In  fact, 
she  was  no  relation  of  Malatchee,  but  the  daughter 
of  an  Indian  woman  of  no  note,  by  a  white  man. 
General  Oglethorpe  did  not  treat  with  her  for  the 
lands  of  Georgia,  she  having  none  of  her  own,  but 
with  the  old  and  wise  leaders  of  the  Creek  nation, 
who  voluntarily  surrendered  their  territories  to  the 
king.  The  Indians  at  that  time  having  much  waste 
land  that  was  useless  to  themselves,  parted  with  a 
share  of  it  to  their  friends,  and  were  glad  that  white 
people  had  settled  among  them  to  supply  their  wants. 
He  told  them  that  the  present  bad  humour  of  the 
Creeks  had  been  artfully  infused  into  them  by  Mary, 
at  the  instigation  of  her  husband,  who  owed  400/. 
sterling  in  Carolina  for  cattle  ;  that  he  demanded  a 
third  part  of  the  royal  bounty,  in  order  to  rob  the 
naked  Indians  of  their  right ;  that  he  had  quarrelled 
with  the  president  and  council  of  Georgia  for  re- 
fusing to  answer  his  exorbitant  demands,  and  there- 
fore had  filled  the  heads  of  Indians  with  wild  fancies 
and  groundless  jealousies,  in  order  to  breed  mischief, 
and  induce  them  to  break  their  alliances  with  their 
best  friends,  who  alone  were  able  to  supply  their 
wants,  and  defend  them  against  all  their  enemies." 
Here  the  Indians  desired  him  to  stop  and  put  an 
end  to  the  contest,  declaring  that  their  eyes  were  now 
opened,  and  they  saw  through  his  insidious  design. 
But  though  he  intended  to  break  the  chain  of  friend- 
ship, they  were  determined  to  hold  it  fast,  and  there- 
fore begged  that  all  might  immediately  smoke  the 
pipe  of  peace.  Accordingly  pipes  and  rum  were 
brought,  and  the  whole  congress,  joining  hand  in 
hand,  drank  and  smoked  together  in  friendship. 


UNITED  STATES. 


985 


Then  all  the  royal  presents,  except  ammunition, 
with  which  it  was  judged  imprudent  to  trust  them 
until  they  were  at  some  distance  from,  town,  were 
brought  and  distributed  among  them.  The  most 
disaffected  were  purchased  with  the  largest  presents; 
and  even  Malatchee  himself  seemed  fully  contented 
•with  his  share ;  and  the  savages  in  general  perceiv- 
ing the  poverty  and  insignificancy  of  the  family  of 
Bosomworth,  and  their  total  inability  to  supply  their 
wants,  determined  to  break  off  all  connexion  with 
them  for  ever. 

While  the  president  and  council  flattered  them- 
selves that  all  differences  were  amicably  compro- 
mised, and  were  rejoicing  in  the  re-establishment 
of  their  former  friendly  intercourse  with  the  Creeks, 
Mary,  drunk  with  liquor,  and  disappointed  in  her 
views,  came  rushing  in  among  them  like  a  fury,  and 
told  the  president  that  these  were  her  people,  that 
he  had  no  business  with  them,  and  he  should  soon 
be  convinced  of  it  to  his  cost.  The  president  calmly 
advised  her  to  keep  to  her  lodgings,  and  forbear  to 
poison  the  minds  of  Indians,  otherwise  he  would 
order  her  again  into  close  confinement.  Upon 
which,  turning  about  to  Malatchee  in  great  rage, 
she  told  him  what  the  president  had  said,  who  in- 
stantly started  from  his  seat,  laid  hold  of  his  arms, 
and  then  calling  upon  the  rest  to  follow  his  ex- 
ample, dared  any  man  to  touch  his  queen.  The 
whole  house  was  filled  in  a  moment  with  tumult  and 
uproar;  and  every  Indian  having  his  tomahawk  in 
his  hand,  the  president  and  council  expected  no- 
thing but  a  massacre  ;  but  Captain  Jones,  who  com- 
manded the  guard,  very  seasonably  interposed,  and 
ordered  the  Indians  immediately  to  deliver  up  their 
arms.  The  Indians  submitted,  though  with  reluct- 
ance, and  Mary  was  conveyed  to  a  private  room, 
where  a  guard  was  set  over  her,  and  all  further  in- 
tercourse with  savages  denied  her  during  their  stay 
in  Savanna.  Her  husband  was  sent  for,  in  order 
to  convince  him  of  the  folly  of  his  chimerical  pre- 
tensions, and  of  the  dangerous  consequences  which 
must  result  from  persisting  in  them.  But  in  spite 
of  every  argument,  he  remained  obstinate  and  con- 
tumacious, and  protested  he  would  stand  forth  in 
vindication  of  his  wife's  right  to  the  last  extremity, 
and  that  the  province  of  Georgia  should  soon  feel 
the  weight  of  her  vengeance.  Finding  that  gentle 
means  were  ineffectual,  the  council  determined  to 
remove  him  also  out  of  the  way  of  the  savages,  and 
afterwards  to  deal  with  him.  They  first  persuaded 
the  Indians  to  retire,  and  a  young  warrior  who  had 
discovered  to  his  tribe  the  base  intrigues  of  Bosom- 
wcrth,  set  out  among  the  first ;  and  the  rest  followed 
him  in  different  parties,  and  the  inhabitants,  wearied 
out  with  constant  watching,  and  harassed  with  fre- 
quent alarms,  were  at  length  happily  relieved. 

By  this  time  Adam  Bosomworth,  another  brother 
of  the  family,  who  was  agent  for  Indian  affairs  in 
Carolina,  had  arrived  from  that  province,  and  being 
made  acquainted  with  what  had  passed  in  Georgia, 
was  filled  with  shame  and  indignation ;  he  exerted 
himself  to  his  utmost,  and  ultimately  induced  his 
brother,  Thomas  Bosomworth,  to  repent  of  his  folly, 
and  to  ask  pardon  of  the  magistrates  and  people. 
The  latter  wrote  to  the  president,  acquainting  him 
that  he  was  now  deeply  sensible  of  his  duty  as  a  sub- 
ject, and  the  respect  he  owed  to  civil  authority,  and 
could  no  longer  justify  the  conduct  of*his  wife  ;  but 
hoped  that  her  present  remorse,  and  past  services  to 
the  province,  would  entirely  blot  out  the  remem- 
brance of  her  unguarded  expressions  and  rash  de- 
sign. He  appealed  to  the  letters  of  General  Ogle- 


thorpe  for  her  former  irreproachable  conduct,  and 
steady  friendship  to  the  settlement,  and  hoped  her 
good  behaviour  for  the  future  would  atone  for  her 
past  offences,  and  reinstate  her  in  the  public  favour. 
For  his  own  part,  he  acknowledged  her  title  to  be 
groundless,  and  for  ever  relinquished  all  claim  to 
the  lands  of  the  province.  The  colonists  generously 
forgave  all  that  had  past ;  and  public  tranquillity 
being  re-established,  new  settlers  applied  for  lands 
as  usual,  without  meeting  any  more  obstacles  from 
the  idle  claims  of  Indian  queens  and  chieftains. 

The  trustees  of  Georgia  finding  that  the  province 
languished  under  their  care,  and  weary  of  the  com- 
plaints of  the  people,  in  the  year  1752  surrendered 
their  charter  to  the  king,  and  it  was  made  a  royal 
government.  In  consequence  of  which,  his  majesty 
appointed  John  Reynolds,  an  officer  of  the  navy, 
governor  of  the  province,  with  a  legislature  similar 
to  that  of  the  other  royal  governments  in  America. 
Although  the  expense  which  the  mother-country  had 
already  incurred,  besides  private  benefactions,  for 
supporting  this  colony  had  been  very  great,  yet  the 
returns  had  been  very  small.  The  vestiges  of  cul- 
tivation were  scarcely  perceptible  in  the  forest,  and 
in  England  all  commerce  with  it  was  neglected  and 
despised.  At  this  time  the  whole  annual  exports  of 
Georgia  did  not  amount  to  10,0002.  sterling;  and 
although  the  people  were  now  -favoured  with  the 
same  privileges  enjoyed  by  their  neighbours  under 
the  royal  care,  yet  several  years  elapsed  before  the 
value  of  the  lands  in  Georgia  was  known,  and  that 
spirit  of  industry  broke  out  in  it  which  afterward 
diffused  its  happy  influence  over  the  country. 

In  the  annals  of  Georgia  the  famous  George  Whit- 
field  may  not  be  unworthy  of  some  notice,  especi- 
ally as  the  Orphan-house  built  by  him  there  has 
been  so  celebrated.  Actuated  by  religious  motives, 
Whitfield  several  times  passed  the  Atlantic  to  con- 
vert the  Americans,  whom  he  addressed  in  such  a 
manner  as  if  they  had  been  all  equal  strangers  to 
the  privileges  and  benefits  of  religion  with  the  ori- 
ginal inhabitants  of  the  forest.  However,  his  zeal 
never  led  him  beyond  the  maritime  parts  of  Ame- 
rica, through  which  he  travelled,  spreading  what  he 
called  the  true  evangelical  faith  among  the  most 
populous  towns  and  villages.  It  might  have  been 
expected  that  the  heathens,  or  at  least  those  who 
were  most  destitute  of  the  means  of  instruction, 
would  have  been  the  chief  objects  of  his  zeal  and 
compassion  ;  but  this  was  far  from  being  the  case. 
However,  wherever  he  went  in  America,  as  in  Bri- 
tain, he  had  multitudes  of  followers.  When  he  first 
visited  Charlestown.  Alexander  Garden,  a  man  of 
some  sense  and  erudition,  who  was  the  episcopal 
clergyman  of  that  place,  to  put  the  people  upon 
their  guard,  took  occasion  to  point  out  to  them  the 
pernicious  tendency  of  Whitfield's  wild  doctrines  and 
irregular  manner  of  life.  He  represented  him  as  a 
religious  imposter  or  quack,  who  had  an  excellent 
knack  of  setting  off  to  advantage  his  poisonous  tenets. 
On  the  other  hand,  Whitfield,  who  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  bear  reproach  and  face  opposition,  recri- 
minated with  double  acrimony  and  greater  success. 
While  Alexander  Garden,  to  keep  his  flock  from 
straying  after  this  strange  pastor,  expatiated  on  the 
words  of  Scripture,  "Those  that  have -turned  the 
world  upside  down  are  come  hither  also."  Whitfield, 
with  all  the  force  of  humour  and  wit  for  which  he 
was  so  much  distinguished,  by  way  of  reply,  en- 
larged on  these  words,  "  Alexander  the  coppersmith 
hath  done  me  much  evil,  the  Lord  reward  him  ac 
I  cording  to  his  works."  In  short,  the  pulpit  was  per- 


986 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


verted  by  both  into  the  mean  purposes  of  personal 
controversy,  and  every  one  catching  a  share  of  the 
infection,  spoke  of  the  clergymen  as  they  were  dif- 
ferently affected. 

In  Georgia,  Whitfield  having  obtained  a  tract  of 
land  from  the  trustees,  erected  a  wooden-house  two 
stories  high,  the  dimensions  of  which  were  70  feet 
by  40,  upon  a  sandy  beach  near  the  sea-shore.  This 
house,  which  he  called  the  Orphan-house,  he  began 
to  build  about  the  year  1740,  and  afterwards  finished 
it  at  a  great  expense.  It  was  intended  to  be  a  lodg- 
ing for  poor  children,  where  they  were  to  be  clothed 
and  fed  by  charitable  contributions,  and  trained  up 
in  the  knowledge  and  practice  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion. The  design,  beyond  doubt,  was  humane  and 
laudable ;  but,  perhaps,  had  he  travelled  over  the 
•whole  earth,  he  could  scarcely  have  found  out  a  spot 
of  ground  upon  it  more  improper  for  the  purpose. 
The  whole  province  of  Georgia  could  not  furnish 
him  with  land  of  the  same  extent  more  barren  and 
unprofitable.  To  this  house  poor  children  were  to 
be  sent  from  at  least  a  healthy  country,  to  be  sup- 
ported partly  by  charity,  and  partly  by  the  produce 
of  this  land  cultivated  by  negroes.  Nor  was  the 
climate  better  suited  to  the  purpose  than  the  soil,  for 
it  is  certain,  before  the  unwholesome  marshes  around 
the  house  were  fertilized,  the  influences  of  both  air 
and  water  must  have  conspired  to  the  children's 
destruction. 

However,  Whitfield  having  formed  his  chimerical 
project,  determined  to  accomplish  it,  and  instead 
of  being  discouraged  by  obstacles  and  difficulties, 
gloried  in  despising  them.  He  travelled  through 
the  British  empire,  persuaded  the  ignorant  and  cre- 
dulous part  of  the  world  of  the  excellence  of  his 
design,  and  obtained  from  them  money,  clothes,  and 
books,  to  forward  his  undertaking,  and  supply  his 
poor  orphans  in  Georgia.  About  30  years  after  this 
wooden  house  was  finished  it  was  burned  to  the 
ground  ;  without,  according  to  all  accounts,  having 
repaid  its  benevolent,  though  eccentric  founder,  for 
his  anxiety  and  labours.  After  his  death  he  was 
brought  from  New  England,  above  800  miles,  and 
buried  at  this  Orphan-house.  Lady  Huntingdon 
became  his  executrix,  and  the  funds  of  the  land, 
negroes,  &c.,  were  appropriated  to  the  support  ol 


dissenting  ministers. 
About  the  year  1752 


war  broke  out  among  some 


Indian  nations,  which  threatened  to  involve  the  pro- 
vince of  Carolina.  The  Creeks  having  quarrelled 
with  their  neighbours  for  permitting  some  Indians 
to  pass  through  their  country  to  wage  war  against 
them,  by  way  of  revenge  had  killed  some  Cherokees 
near  the  gales  of  Charlestown.  A  British  trader  to 
the  Chickesaw  nation  had  likewise  been  scalpedby  a 
party  of  warriors  belonging  to  the  same  nation ;  anc 
Governor  Glen  sent  a  messenger  to  the  Creeks  to 
demand  satisfaction  for  these  outrages,  and  to  re 
quest  a  conference  at  Charlestown  with  their  leading 
men.  The  Creeks  returned  for  answer,  that  they 
were  willing  to  meet  him,  but  as  the  path  had  not 
been  open  and  safe  for  some  time,  they  could  nol 
enter  the  settlement  without  a  guard  to  escort  them 
Upon  which  the  governor  sent  50  horsemen,  who 
met  them  at  the  confines  of  their  territories,  and  con 
voyed  Malatchee,  with  above  100  of  his  warriors,  to 
Charlestown. 

As  they  arrived  on  Sunday  the  governor  did  no 
summon  his  council  until  the  day  following,  to  hold 


When  they  entered  the  council-chamber  the  gover- 
nor arose  and  took  them  by  the  hand,  signifying  that 
he  was  glad  to  see  them,  and  then  addressed  them 
;o  the  following  effect :  "  Being  tied  together  by  the 
most  solemn  treaties,  I  call  you  by  the  beloved 
names  of  friends  and  brothers.  In  the  name  of  the 
jreat  King  George  I  have  sent  for  you,  on  business 
f  the  greatest  consequence  to  your'nation.  I  would 
lave  received  you  yesterday  on  your  arrival,  but  it 
was  a  beloved  day,  dedicated  to  repose  and  the  con- 
cerns of  a  future  life.  I  am  sorry  to  hear  that  you 
lave  taken  up  the  hatchet,  which  I  flattered  my sel 
lad  been  for  ever  buried.  It  is  my  desire  to  have 
the  chain  brightened  and  renewed,  not  only  between 
you  and  the  English,  but  also  between  you  and 
other  Indian  nations.  You  are  all  our  friends,  and 
I  could  wish  that  all  Indians  in  friendship  with  us 
were  also  friends  one  with  another.  You  have  com- 
plained tome  of  the  Cherokees  permitting  the  nor- 
thern Indians  to  come  through  their  country  to  war 
against  you,  and  supplying  them  with  provisions 
and  ammunition  for  that  purpose.  The  Cherokees, 
>n  the  other  hand,  allege,  that  it  is  not  in  their 
power  to  prevent  them,  and  declare,  that  while  their 
people  happen  to  be  out  hunting,  those  northern  In- 
dians come  in  to  their  town  well  armed,  and  in  such 
numbers  that  they  are  not  able  to  resist  them. 

"  I  propose  that  a  treaty  of  friendship  and  peace 
be  conclude^ first  with  the  English,  and  then  with 
the  Cherokees,  in  such  a  manner  as  may  render  it 
durable.  Some  of  your  people  have  fro'm  smaller 
crimes  proceeded  to  greater.  First,  they  waylaid 
the  Cherokees,  and  killed  one  of  them  in'the  midst 
of  our  settlements;  then  they  came  to  Charlestown, 
where  some  Cherokees  at  the  same  time  happened 
to  be,  and  though  I  cautioned  them,  and  they  pro- 
mised to  do  no  mischief,  yet  the  next  day  they  as- 
saulted and  murdered  several  of  them  nigh'  the  gates 
of  this  town.  For  these  outrages  I  have  sent  for 
you,  to  demand  satisfaction  ;  and  also  for  the  mur- 
der committed  in  one  of  your  towns,  for  which  satis- 
faction was  made  by  the  death  of  another  person, 
and  not  of  the  murderer.  For  the  future,  I  acquaint 
you,  that  nothing  will  be  deemed  as  satisfaction  for 
the  lives  of  our  people,  but  the  lives  of  those  persons 
themselves  who  shall  be  guilty  of  the  murder.  The 
English  never  make  treaties  of  friendship  but  with 
the  greatest  deliberation,  and  when  made  observe 
them  with  the  strictest  punctuality.  They  are,  at 
the  same  time  vigilant,  and  will  not  suffer  other  na 
tions  to  infringe  the  smallest  article  of  such  treaties 
It  would  tend  to  the  happiness  of  your  people,  were 
you  equally  careful  to  watch  against  the  beginnings 
of  evil ;  for  sometimes  a  small  spark,  if  not  attended 
to,  may  kindle  a  great  fire;  and  a  slight  sore,  if 
suffered  to  spread,  may  endanger  the  whole  body. 
Therefore,  I  have  sent  for  you  to  prevent  farther 
mischief,  and  I  hope  you  come  disposed  to  give  satis- 
faction for  the  outrages  already  committed,  and  to 
promise  and  agree  to  maintain  peace  and  friendship 
with  your  neighbours  for  the  future." 

This  speech  delivered  to  the  Indians  was  inter- 
preted by  Lachlan  M'Gilvray,  an  Indian  trader,  who 
understood  their  language.  After  which  Malatchee, 
the  king  of  the  Lower  Creek  nation,  stood  forth, 
and  in  a  solemn  and  dignified  manner  addressed  the 
governor  to  the  following  effect :  "  I  never  had  the 
honour  to  see  the  great  King  George,  nor  to  hear 
his  talk, — but  you  are  in  his  place;  I  have  heard 


a  congress  with  them.  At  this  meeting  a  number  of  yours,  and  I  like  it  well.  Your  sentiments  ar« 
gentlemen  were  present,  whom  curiosity  had  drawn  agreeable  to  my  own  ;  the  great  king  wisely  judged, 
together  to  see  the  warriors  and  hear  their  speeches,  that  the  best  way  of  maintaining  friendship  between 


UNITED  STATES. 


987 


white  and  red  people  was  by  trade  and  commerce. 
He  knew  we  are  poor,  and  want  many  things,  and 
that  skins  are  all  we  have  to  give  in  exchange  for 
what  we  want.  I  have  ordered  my  people  to  bring 
you  some  as  a  present,  and,  in  the  name  of  our  na- 
tion, I  lay  them  at  your  excellency's  feet.  You  have 
sent  for  us  ;  we  are  come  to  hear  what  you  have  to 
say  ;  but  I  did  not  expect  to  hear  our  whole  nation 
accused  for  the  faults  of  a  few  private  men.  Our 
head  men  neither  knew  nor  approved  of  the  mischief 
done.  We  imagined  our  young  men  had  gone  a 
hunting  as  usual.  When  we  heard  what  had  hap- 
pened at  Charlestown,  I  knew  you  would  send  and 
demand  satisfaction.  When  your  agent  came  and 
iold  me  what  satisfaction  you  required,  I  owned  the 
justice  of  it;  but  it  was  not  advisable  forme  alone  to 
grant  it.  It  was  prudent  to  consult  with  our  beloved 
men,  and  have  their  advice  in  a  matter  of  such  import- 
ance. We  met ;  we  found  that  the  behaviour  of  some 
of  our  people  had  been  bad;  we  found  that  blood 
had  been  spilt  at  your  gates.  We  thought  it  just  that 
satisfaction  should  be  made  ;  we  turned  our  thoughts 
to  find  out  the  chief  persons  concerned  (for  a  man 
will  sometimes  employ  another  to  commit  a  crime 
he  does  not  choose  to  be  guilty  of  himself).  We  found 
the  Acorn  Whistler  was  the  chief  contriver  and  pro- 
moter of  the  mischief ;  we  agreed  that  he  was  the 
man  that  ought  to  suffer.  Some  of  his  relations,  who 
are  here  present,  then  said  he  deserved  death,  and 
voted  for  it ;  accordingly  he  was  put  to  death.  He 
was  a  very  great  warrior,  and  had  many  friends  and 
relations  in  different  parts  of  the  country.  We  thought 
it  prudent  to  conceal  for  some  time  the  true  reason 
of  his  death,  which  was  known  only  to  the  head 
men  that  concerted  it ;  we  did  this  for  fear  some  of 
his  friends  in  the  heat  of  fury  would  take  revenge  on 
some  of  your  traders.  At  a  general  meeting  all  mat- 
ters were  explained  ;  the  reasons  of  his  death  were 
made  known ;  his  relations  approved  of  all  that  was 
done.  Satisfaction  being  made,  I  say  no  more  about 
that  matter.  I  hope  our  friendship  with  the  En- 
glish will  continue  as  heretofore. 

"  As  to  the  injuries  done  to  the  Cherokees,  which 
you  spoke  of,  we  are  sorry  for  them.  We  acknow- 
ledge our  young  men  do  many  things  they  ought 
not  to  do,  and  very  often  act  like  madmen ;  but  it 
is  well  known  I  and  the  other  head  warriors  did  all 
we  could  to  oblige  them  to  make  restitution.  I  rode 
from  town  to  town  with  Mr.  Bosomworth  and  his 
wife  to  assist  them  in  this  matter.  Most  of  the  things 
taken  have  been  restored.  When  this  was  over,  an- 
other accident  happened  which  created  fresh  troubles. 
A  Chickesaw,  who  lived  in  our  nation,  in  a  drunken 
fit  shot  a  white  man.  I  knew  you  would  demand 
satisfaction.  I  thought  it  best  to  give  it  before  it  was 
asked.  The  murder  was  committed  at  a  great  dis- 
tance from  me.  I  mounted  my  horse  and  rode 
through  the  towns  with  your  agent.  I  took  the  head 
men  of  every  town  along  with  me.  We  went  to  the 
place  and  demanded  satisfaction ;  it  was  given ;  the 
blood  of  the  Indian  was  spilt  for  the  blood  of  a  white 
man.  The  uncle  of  the  murderer  purchased  his  life, 
and  voluntarily  killed  himself  in  his  stead.  Now  I 
have  done.  I  am  glad  to  see  you  face  to  face  to  settle 
those  matters ;  it  is  good  to  renew  treaties  of  friend- 
ship. I  shall  always  be  glad  to  call  you  friends  and 
brothers." 

This  speech  throws  no  small  light  on  the  judicial 
proceedings  of  barbarous  nations,  and  shows  that 
human  nature  in  its  rudest  state  possesses  a  strong 
sense  of  right  and  wrong.  Although  Indians  have 
little  property,  yet  here  we  behold  their  chief  ma- 


gistrate protecting  what  they  have,  and,  in  cases  of 
robbery,  acknowledging  the  necessity  of  making 
restitution.  They  indeed  chiefly  injure  one  another 
in  their  persons  or  reputations,  and  in  all  cases  of 
murder  the  guilty  are  brought  to  trial  and  condemned 
to  death  by  the  general  consent  of  the  nation.  Even 
the  friends  and  relations  of  the  murderer  here  voted 
for  his  death.  But,  what  is  more  remarkable,  they 
gave  us  an  instance  of  an  atonement  made,  and  jus- 
tice satisfied,  by  the  substitution  of  an  innocent  man 
in  place  of  the  guilty.  An  uncle  voluntarily  and 
generously  offers  to  die  in  the  place  of  his  nephew, 
the  savages  accept  of  the  offer,  and  in  consequence 
of  his  death  declare  that  satisfaction  is  made.  Next 
to  personal  defence,  the  Indian  guards  his  character 
and  reputation ;  for  as  it  is  only  from  the  general 
opinion  his  nation  entertains  of  his  wisdom,  justice 
and  valour,  that  he  can  expect  to  arrive  at  rank  and 
distinction,  he  is  exceedingly  watchful  against  doinsj 
any  thing  for  which  he  may  incur  public  blame  or 
disgrace ;  and  in  this  answer  Malatchee  discovers 
considerable  talents  as  a  public  speaker,  and  appears 
to  be  insensible  neither  to  his  own  dignity  and  free- 
dom, nor  to  the  honour  and  independence  of  his 
nation. 

^During  the  months  of  June,  July,  and  August, 
1752,  the  weather  in  Carolina  was  warmer  than  any 
of  the  inhabitants  then  alive 'had  ever  felt  it,  and 
the  mercury  in  the  shade  often  arose  above  the 
90th,  and  at  one  time  was  observed  at  the  101  st 
*ree  of  the  thermometer ;  and,  at  the  same 
time,  when  exposed  to  the  sun,  and  suspended  at 
the  distance  of  five  feet  from  the  ground,  it  rose 
to  120.  By  this  excessive  heat  the  air  becomes 
greatly  rarefied,  and  a  violent  hurricane  commonly 
restore*  the  balance  in  the  atmosphere.  In  such 
a  case  the  wind  usually  proceeds  from  the  north- 
east, directly  opposite  to  the  point  from  which  it  had 
long  blown  before.  These  storms  indeed  seldom 
happen  except  in  seasons  when  there  has  been  little 
thunder,  when  the  weather  has  been  for  a  long  time 
exceedingly  dry  and  intolerably  hot,  and  though 
they  occasion  damages  to  some  individuals,  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  they  are  productive  upon  the 
whole  of  salutary  effects ;  and  the  want  of  them  for 
many  years  together  has  been  deemed  a  great  mis- 
fortune by  the  inhabitants ;  especially  such  as  are 
exposed  to  the  noon-day  heat,  or  to  the  heavy  fogs 
that  fall  every  morning  and  evening. 

It  is  not  improbable  that  the  maritime  parts  of 
Carolina  have  been  forsaken  by  the  sea,  for  on  dig- 
ging however  deep  no  stones  or  rocks  are  found,  but 
every  where  sand  or  beds  of  shells.  As  a  small  de- 
crease of  water  will  leave  so  flat  a  country  entirely 
bare,  so  a  small  increase  will  again  cover  it ;  and  the 
coast  is  not  only  very  level,  but  the  dangerous  hur- 
ricanes commonly  proceed  from  the  north-east ;  and 
as  the  stream  of  the  Gulf  of  Florida  flows  rapidly  to- 
wards the  same  point,  this  large  body  of  water,  when 
obstructed  by  the  tempest,  recurs  upon  the  shore,, 
and  overflows  the  country. 

As  had  been  fully  expected  owing  to  the  previous 
weather,  a  dreadful  hurricane  visited  Charlestown  in 
the  month  of  September,  1752.  It  was  observed  on 
the  night  before  by  the  inhabitants  that  the  wind  at 
north-east  began  to  blow  hard,  and  continued  in- 
creasing in  violence  till  next  morning ;  when  the  sky 
appeared  wild  and  cloudy,  and  it  began  to  drizzle 
and  rain.  About  nine  o'clock  the  flood  came  rolling 
in  with  great  impetuosity,  and  in  a  little  time  rose 
ten  feet  above  high-water  mark  at  the  highest  tides. 
As  usual  in  such  cases,  the  town  was  overflown,  aud 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  streets  were  covered  with  boats,  boards,  and 
wrecks  of  houses  and  ships.  Before  eleven  all  the 
ships  in  the  harbour  were  driven  ashore,  and  sloops 
and  schooners  were  dashing  against  the  houses  of 
Bay-street,  in  which  great  quantities  of  goods  were 
damaged  and  destroyed.  Except  the  Hornet  man- 
of-war,  which  by  cutting  away  har  masts,  rode  out 
the  storm,  no  vessel  escaped  being  damaged  or 
wrecked.  The  consternation  which  seized  the  in- 
habitants may  be  more  easily  conceived  than  ex- 
pressed. Finding  themselves  in  the  midst  of  a  tem- 
pestuous sea,  and  expecting  the  tide  to  flow  till  one 
o'clock,  its  usual  hour,  at  eleven  they  retired  to  the 
upper  stories  of  their  houses,  and  there  remained 
despairing  of  life ;  but  providentially  soon  after 
eleven  the  wind  shifted,  in  consequence  of  which 
the  waters  fell  five  feet  in  the  space  of  ten  minutes. 
By  this  happy  change  the  gulf-stream,  stemmed  by 
the  violent  blast,  had  freedom  to  run  in  its  usual 
course,  and  the  town  was  saved  from  destruction. 
Had  the  water  continued  to  rise,  and  the  tide  to 
flow  until  its  usual  hour,  every  inhabitant  of  Charles- 
town  must  have  perished.  As  it  was,  almost  all  the 
tiled  and  slated  houses  were  uncovered,  several  per- 
sons were  hurt,  and  some  were  drowned.  The  fortifi- 
cations and  wharfs  were  almost  entirely  demolished  : 
the  provisions  in  the  field,  in  the  maritime  parts, 
were  destroyed,  and  numbers  of  cattle  and  hogs 
perished  in  the  waters.  The  pest-house  in  Sulli- 
van's island,  built  of  wood,  with  fifteen  persons  in 
it,  was  carried  several  miles  up  Cooper  river,  and 
nine  out  of  the  fifteen  were  drowned. 

To  form  a  right  judgment  of  the  progress  of  the 
colony,  and  the  mutual  advantages  resulting  from 
its  political  and  commercial  connexion  with  Britain, 
we  need  only  attend  to  its  annual  imports  and  ex- 
ports. We  cannot  exactly  say  what  its  imports 
amounted  to  at  this  time ;  but  if  they  amounted  to 
above  150,000/.  sterling  in  the  year  1740,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  they  must  have  arisen  at  least  to 
200,000/.  sterling  in  1754,  The  quantities  of  rice 
exported  in  that  year  were  104,682  barrels;  of  in- 
digo, 216,024  pounds  weight,  which,  together  with 
naval  stores,  provisions,  skins,  lumber,  &c.  amounted 
in  value  to  242,529/.  sterling. 

/,  dispute  about  the  limits  of  British  and  French  ter- 
ritories—  War  with  the  French—Governor  Glen  holds 
a  congress  with  the  Cherokees — Forts  built — The 
Cherokee  war —  The  Highlanders  return  to  Carolina- 
Peace  with  the  Cherokees — Storm  at  Charlestown. 

Although  the  peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  extended 
to  the  subjects  of  both  Britain  and  France  residing  in 
America,  yet  the  boundaries  of  the  respective  territo- 
ries there  were  by  no  means  so  determinate  as  to  pre- 
clude grounds  of  future  dispute;  and  consequently  a 
war  broke  out  with  the  French,  commonly  called  the 
French  war  of  1756;  of  which,  as  we  have  already, 
in  the  histories  of  the  northern  colonies,  given  a 
sufficient  account,  it  will  be  sufficient  to  say  here, 
that  while  hostilities  were  openly  carrying  on  in 
those  parts  of  America,  it  was  judged  prudent  to 
consult  the  safety  of  the  provinces  to  the  south,  and 
put  them  in  the  best  posture  of  defence ;  and  to  pre- 
vent the  fatal  influence  of  French  emissaries  among 
the  Indian  tribes,  it  was  thought  necessary  to  build 
some  small  forts  in  the  heart  of  their  country.  A 
message  was  also  sent  to  Governor  Glen  from  the 
chief  warrior  of  the  over-hill  settlements,  acquaint- 
ing him  that  it  would  be  necessary  to  hold  a  gene- 
ral congress  with  the  nation,  and  renew  their  for- 
mer treaties  tf  friendship. 


It  may  be  remarked,  that  the  Cherokees  differ 
in  some  respects  from  other  Indian  nations  that 
have  wandered  often  from  place  to  place,  and  fixed 
their  habitations  on  separate  districts.  From  time 
immemorial  they  have  had  possession  of  the  same 
territory  which  at  present  they  occupy.  They  affirm, 
that  their  forefathers  sprung  from  that  ground,  or 
descended  from  the  clouds  upon  those  hills.  These 
lands  of  their  ancestors  they  value  above  all  .hings 
in  the  world.  They  venerate  the  places  wh«ue  their 
bones  lie  interred,  and  esteem  it  disgracef  <i  in  the 
highest  degree  to  relinquish  these  sacred  reposito- 
ries. The  man  that  would  refuse  to  take  the  field 
in  defence  of  these  hereditary  possessions,  is  regarded 
by  them  as  a  coward,  and  treated  as  an  outcast  from 
their  nation.  To  the  over-hill  villages  the  French 
had  an  easy  access  by  means  of  rivers  that  emptied 
themselves  into  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi ;  but  their 
middle  settlements  and  towns  in  the  valley  lay  more 
convenient  for  trading  with  the  Carolineans.  Hitherto 
they  despised  the  French,  whom  they  called  light  as 
a  feather,  fickle  as  the  wind,  and  deceitful  as  ser- 
pents ;  and,  being  naturally  of  a  very  grave  cast,  they 
considered  the  levity  of  that  people  as  an  unpardon- 
able insult.  They  looked  upon  themselves  as  a  great 
and  powerful  nation,  and  though  their  number  was 
much  diminished,  yet  they  could  bring  from  their 
different  towns  about  3000  men  to  the  field.  At  this 
time  they  had  neither  arms  nor  ammunition  to  de- 
fend themselves  against  their  enemy,  and  the  gover- 
nor of  Carolina  wanted  liberty  to  build  two  forts  on 
their  lands,  in  order  to  secure  their  friendship  and 
trade. 

Governor  Glen  met  the  Cherokee  warriors  in  their 
own  country,  with  a  view  to  purchase  some  lands 
from  them  ;  and,  after  the  usual  ceremonies  previous 
to  such  treaties,  a  territory  of  prodigious  extent  was 
ceded  and  surrendered  to  the  king;  containing  not 
only  a  fertile  district,  but  one  where  the  air  was 
more  serene,  and  the  climate  more  healthy,  than  ia 
the  maritime  parts. 

Soon  after  the  cession  of  these  lands,  Governor 
Glen  built  a  fort  about  300  miles  from  Charlestown, 
afterwards  called  Fort  Prince  George,  which  was 
situated  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Savanna,  and 
within  gun-shot  of  an  Indian  town  called  Keowee. 
This  fort  was  made  in  the  form  of  a  square,  and  had 
an  earthen  rampart  about  six  feet  high,  on  which 
stockades  were  fixed,  with  a  ditch,  a  natural  glacis 
on  two  sides,  and  bastions  at  the  angles,  on  each  of 
which  four  small  cannon  were  mounted.  It  con- 
tained barracks  for  100  men,  and  was  designed 
for  a  defence  to  the  western  frontiers  of  the  pro- 
vince. About  170  miles  further  down  there  was 
another  strong  hold,  called  Fort  Moore,  in  a  beau- 
tiful commanding  situation  on  the  banks  of  the 
same  river.  In  the  year  following  another  fort  was 
erected,  called  Fort  London,  among  the  Upper  Che- 
rokees, situated  on  Tennessee  river,  upwards  of  500 
miles  distant  from  Charlestown  ;  to  which  place  it 
was  very  difficult  at  all  times,  but,  in  case  of  a  war 
with  the  Cherokees,  utterly  impracticable  to  con- 
vey necessary  supplies.  These  strong  holds,  toge- 
ther with  those  of  Frederica  and  Augusta  in  Geor- 
gia, were  garrisoned  by  the  king's  independent 
companies  of  foot,  stationed  there  for  the  protection 
of  the  two  provinces. 

After  having  fortified  these  frontiers,  the  settlers 
of  Carolina  began  to  stretch  backward,  and  occu- 
pied lands  above  150  miles  from  the  shore.  New 
emigrants  from  Ireland,  Germany,  and  the  northern 
colonies  obtained  grants  in  these  interior  parts,  and 


UNITED  STATES. 


9S9 


introduced  the  cultivation  of  wheat,  hemp,  flax,  and 
tobacco,  for  which  the  soil  answered  better  there 
than  in  the  low-lands  nearer  the  sea.  The  cattle, 
sheep,  hogs,  and  horses  multiplied  fast,  and  having 
a  country  of  vast  extent  to  range  over,  they  found 
plenty  of  provisions  in  it  through  the  whole  year. 
From  different  parts  new  settlers  were  invited  to 
those  hilly  and  more  healthy  parts  of  Carolina,  where 
they  laboured  with  greater  safety  than  among  the 
swamps,  and  success  crowned  their  industry.  By 
degrees  public  roads  were  made,  and  they  conveyed 
their  produce  in  waggons  to  the  capital,  where  they 
found  an  excellent  market  for  all  their  productions, 
but  especially  the  provisions  which  they  raised.  And 
now  many  of  the  vegetables,  herbs,  and  fruits  com- 
mon to  English  gardens  were  introduced. 

The  province  of  Georgia  at  this  time,  with  respect 
to  improvement,  still  remained  little  better  than  a 
wilderness,  and  the  vast  expense  it  had  cost  the 
mother-country  might  perhaps  have  been  laid  out  to 
greater  advantage  in  other  parts  of  the  continent. 
In  the  government  of  that  colony,  John  Ellis,  a 
fellow  of  the  Royal  Society,  succeeded  Captain  John 
Reynolds.  The  rich  swamps  on  the  sides  of  the 
rivers  lay  uncultivated ;  and  the  planters  had  not 
yet  found  their  way  into  the  interior  parts  of  the 
country,  which  were  more  fertile  and  healthy.  Ex- 
cepting vagabonds  and  fraudulent  debtors,  who  fled 
to  them  from  Carolina,  few  of  the  Georgians  had 
any  negroes  to  assist  them  in  cultivation;  so  that, 
in  1756,  the  whole  exports  of  the  country  were  2997 
barrels  of  rice,  93351b.  of  indigo,  268ife.  of  raw 
silk,  which,  together  with  skins,  furs,  lumber,  and 
provisions,  amounted  only  to  16,776£.  sterling. 

Although  the  hostilities  which  had  commenced 
between  Great  Britain  and  France  still  continued, 
yet  both  countries  remained  averse  from  an  open 
declaration  of  war.  William  Lyttleton,  now  Lord 
Westcot,  being  appointed  governor  of  South  Caro- 
lina, in  his  way  through  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  was  in- 
tercepted by  a  French  squadron  under  the  command 
of  Count  de  Guay,  and  carried  into  France  ;  but  an 
order  from  the  French  court  came  to  release  the 
ship,  and  permit  the  governor  to  return  to  England. 
The  British  commanders  at  sea,  indeed,  had  orders 
to  seize  all  French  ships  and  bring  them  into  port, 
yet  as  some  hopes  of  an  accommodation  still  re- 
mained,  the  crews  were  only  confined,  and  the 
caigwes  remained  entire.  But  so  soon  as  the  news 
of  the  invasions  of  the  English  dominions  in  the 
Mediterranean,  joined  with  the  many  encroachments 
in  America,  had  reached  the  British  court,  all  pros- 
pects of  an  accommodation  vanished  at  once,  and 
war  was  publicly  declared  against  France  on  the 
17th  of  May,  1756. 

When  General  Abercrombie  succeeded  Lord  Lou- 
don  as  commander-in-chief  in  America,  the  British 
force  being  considerably  augmented,  bolder  enter- 
prises were  undertaken.  It  was  agreed  to  attack 
the  French  settlements  in  different  places  ;  and  the 
French  having  determined  to  abandon  Fort  Du- 
quesne,  it  was  taken  possession  of  by  the  British ; 
and  no  sooner  was  their  flag  erected  there,  than  the 
numerous  tribes  of  Indians  came  in  and  made  their 
submission  ;  and  from  a  conviction  of  the  superior 
valour  and  strength  of  the  British  army,  joined  the 
conquerors. 

The  flight  of  this  French  garrison  to  the  south 
promised  little  good  to  Carolina.  The  scene  of  ac- 
tion was  changed  only  from  one  place  to  another, 
and  the  baleful  influence  of  those  active  and  enter- 
prising enemies  soon  appeared  among  the  upper  j  at  that  time. 


tribes  of  Cherokees.  An  unfortunate  quarrel  with 
the  Virginians  helped  to  forward  their  designs,  by 
opening  to  them  an  easier  access  into  the  towns  o'f 
the  savages.  In  the  different  expeditions  against 
Fort  Duquesne,  the  Cherokees,  agreeable  to  treaty, 
had  sent  considerable  parties  of  warriors  to  the  as- 
sistance of  the  British  army.  As  the  horses  in  those 
parts  run  wild  in  the  woods,  it  was  customary,  both 
among  Indians  and  white  people  on  the  frontiers,  to 
lay  hold  of  them  and  appropriate  them  to  their  own 
purposes ;  but  while  the  savages  were  returning 
home  through  the  back  parts  of  Virginia,  many  of 
them  having  lost  their  horses,  laid  hold  of  such  as 
came  in  their  way,  never  imagining  that  they  be- 
longed to  any  individual  in  the  province.  The  Vir- 
ginians, however,  instead  of  asserting  their  right  in 
a  legal  way,  resented  the  injury  by  force  of  arms, 
and  killed  twelve  or  fourteen  of  the  unsuspicious 
warriors,  and  took  several  more  prisoners.  The 
Cherokees,  with  reason,  were  highly  provoked  at 
such  ungrateful  usage  from  allies,  whose  frontiers 
they  had  helped  to  change  from  a  field  of  blood  into 
peaceful  habitations,  and  when  they  came  home  told 
what  had  happened  to  their  nation.  The  flame  soon, 
spread  through  the  upper  towns,  and  those  who  had 
lost  their  friends  and  relations  were  implacable,  and 
breathed  nothing  but  fury  and  vengeance  against 
such  perfidious  friends.  In  vain  did  the  chieftains 
interpose  their  authority,  nothing  could  restrain  the 
furious  spirits  of  the  young  men,  who  were  deter- 
mined to  take  satisfaction  for  the  loss  of  their  rela- 
tions. The  emissaries  of  France  among  them  insti- 
gated them  to  bloodshed,  and  for  that  purpose  fur- 
nished them  with  arms  and  ammunition ;  and  the 
scattered  families  on  the  frontiers  of  Carolina  lay 
much  exposed  to  scalping  parties  of  these  savages. 

The  garrison  of  Fort  Loudon,  consisting  of  about 
200  men,  under  the  command  of  Captains  Demere 
and  Stuart,  first  discovered  the  ill-humour  in  which 
the  Cherokee  warriors  returned  from  the  northern 
expedition.  The  soldiers,  as  usual,  making  excur- 
sions into  the  woods  to  hunt  for  fresh  provisions, 
were  attacked  by  them,  and  some  of  them  were 
killed.  From  this  time  such  dangers  threatened 
the  garrison,  that  every  one  was  confined  within 
the  small  boundaries  of  the  fort;  and  all  communi- 
cation with  the  distant  settlement  from  which  they 
received  supplies  being  cut  off,  and  the  soldiers  being 
but  poorly  provided,  had  no  other  prospects  left  but 
those  of  famine  or  death.  Parties  of  young  Indians 
took  the  field,  and  rushing  down  among  the  settle- 
ments, murdered  and  scalped  a  number  of  people 
on  the  frontiers. 

The  commanding  officer  at  Fort  Prince  George 
having  received  intelligence  of  these  acts  of  hostility, 
dispatched  a  messenger  to  Charlestown  to  inform 
Governor  Lyttleton  that  the  Cherokees  had  com- 
menced hostilities.  In  consequence  of  which,  parties 
of  the  independent  companies  were  brought  to 
Charlestown ;  and  the  militia  of  the  country  had 
orders  to  rendezvous  at  Congarees,  where  the  go- 
vernor, with  such  a  force  as  he  could  procure  from 
the  lower  parts,  resolved  to  join  them,  and  march  to 
the  relief  of  the  frontier  settlements. 

No  sooner  had  the  Cherokees  heard  of  these  war- 
like preparations  at  Charlestown,  than  32  of  their 
chiefs  set  out  for  that  place,  in  order  to  settle  all 
differences,  and  prevent  if  possible  a  war ;  but  the 
governor  notwithstanding  determined  that  nothing 
should  prevent  his  military  expedition,  although 
Lieutenant-Governor  Bull  urged  the  danger  of  a  war 


990 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


A  few  days  after  holding  this  conference  with  the 
chieftains,  the  governor  set  out  for  Congarees,  the 
place  of  general  rendezvous  for  the  militia,  and 
about  140  miles  distant  from  Charlestown,  where  he 
mustered  in  all  about  1400  men.  To  this  place  the 
Cherokees  marched  along  with  the  army,  and  were 
to  all  appearance  contented,  but  in  reality  burning 
with  resentment.  V/hen  the  army  moved  from  the 
Congarees,  the  chieftains,  very  unexpectedly,  were 
all  made  prisoners ;  and  to  prevent  their  escape  to 
the  nation,  a  captain's  guard  was  mounted  over 
them,  and  in  this  manner  they  were  obliged  to 
mirch  to  Fort  Prince  George.  And  these  32  In- 
dians, upon  the  arrival  of  the  army  at  Fort  Prince 
George,  were  all  shut  up  in  a  hut  scarcely  sufficient 
for  the  accommodation  of  six  soldiers,  where  they 
very  naturally  concerted  plots  for  obtaining  their 
liberty. 

Governor  Lyttleton' s  little  army  being  not  only 
ill  armed  and  disciplined,  but  also  discontented 
and  mutinous,  he  judged  it  dangerous  to  proceed 
further  into  the  enemy's  country.  Having  before- 
hand sent  for  Attakullakulla,  who  was  esteemed  both 
the  wisest  man  of  the  Creek  nation  and  the  most 
steady  friend  of  the  English,  to  meet  him  at  Fort 
Prince  George,  this  warrior  hastened  to  his  camp 
from  an  excursion  against  the  French,  in  which  he 
had  taken  some  prisoners,  one  of  whom  he  pre- 
sented to  the  governor.  Mr.  Lyttleton  knew  that 
for  obtaining  a  re-establishment  of  peace  there  was 
not  a  man  in  the  whole  nation  better  disposed  to 
assist  him  than  this  old  warrior,  though  it  was  ob- 
served that  he  cautiously  avoided  making  any  offer 
of  satisfaction.  But  so  small  was  his  influence 
among  the  Cherokees  at  this  time,  that  they  con- 
sidered him  as  no  better  than  an  old  woman,  on  ac- 
count of  his  attachment  to  their  English  enemies, 
and  his  aversion  from  going  to  war  against  them. 

About  the  18th  of  December  1759,  the  governor 
held  a  congress  with  this  warrior,  and  ultimately 
agreed  to  a  treaty  of  peace,  drawn  up  and  signed 
by  the  governor  and  six  of  the  head  men  ;  in  which 
it  was  agreed  that  the  32  chieftains  of  the  Cherokees 
(who  had  been  taken  prisoners)  should  be  kept  as 
hostages  confined  in  the  fort,  until  the  same  number 
of  Indians  guilty  of  murder  should  be  delivered  up 
to  the  commander-in-chief  of  the  province;  that 
trade  should  be  opened  and  carried  on  as  usual ;  that 
the  Cherokees  should  kill,  or  take  every  Frenchman 
prisoner,  who  should  presume  to  come  into  their 
nation  during  the  continuance  of  the  war ;  and  that 
they  should  hold  no  intercourse  with  the  enemies  of 
Great  Britain,  but  should  apprehend  every  person, 
white  or  red,  found  among  them,  that  might  be  en- 
deavouring to  set  the  English  and  Cherokees  at 
variance,  and  interrupt  the  friendship  and  peace 
established  between  them. 

After  having  concluded  this  treaty  with  the  Che- 
rokees, the  governor  resolved  to  return  to  Charles- 
town.  But  whether  the  Indians  who  put  their  mark 
to  it  understood  the  articles  of  agreement  or  not,  we 
cannot  pretend  to  affirm ;  one  thing  is  certain,  that 
few  or  none  of  the  nation  afterward  paid  the  small- 
est regard  to  it.  The  treacherous  act  of  confining 
their  chiefs,  against  whom  no  charge  could  be 
brought,  and  who  had  travelled  several  hundred 
miles  in  order  to  obtain  peace  for  their  nation,  had 
made  a  strong  impression  on  their  minds,  but  par- 
ticularly on  that  of  Occouostota,  who  breathed  no- 
thing but  vengeance  against  such  false  friends. 

Scarcely  had  Governor  Lyttleton  concluded  the 
treaty  of  Fort  Prince  George,  when  the  small-pox, 


which  was  raging  in  an  adjacent  Indian  town,  broke 
out  in  his  camp  ;  and  as  few  of  his  little  army  had 
ever  gone  through  that  distemper,  and  as  the  sur- 
geons were  totally  unprovided  for  such  an  accident, 
his  men  were  struck  with  terror,  and  in  great  haste 
returned  to  the  settlements,  cautiously  avoiding  all 
intercourse  one  with  another,  and  suffering  much 
from  hunger  and  fatigue  by  the  way.  The  governor 
followed  them,  and  arrived  in  Charlestown  about 
the  beginning  of  the  year  17GO.  Though  not  a  drop 
of  blood  had  been  spilt  during  the  expedition,  he 
was  received  like  a  conqueror,  with  the  greatest 
demonstrations  of  joy  ;  and  the  most  flattering  ad- 
dresses were  presented  to  him  by  the  different  so- 
cieties and  professions,  and  bon-fires  and  illumina- 
tions testified  the  high  sense  the  inhabitants  enter- 
tained of  his  merit  and  services,  and  the  happy  con- 
sequences which  they  believed  would  result  from  his 
expedition. 

However,  those  rejoicings  on  account  of  the  peace 
were  scarcely  over,  when  the  news  arrived  that 
fresh  hostilities  had  been  committed,  and  the  go- 
vernor was  informed  that  the  Cherokees  had  killed 
fourteen  men  within  a  mile  of  Fort  Prince  George. 
The  Indians  had  contracted  an  invincible  antipathy 
to  Capt.  Coytmore,  the  officer  whom  Mr.  Lyttleton 
had  left  commander  of  that  fort ;  and  the  treatment 
they  had  received  at  Charlestown,  but  especially  the 
imprisonment  of  their  chiefs,  had  now  converted 
their  former  desire  of  peace  into  the  bitterest  rage 
for  war.  Occonostota,  a  chieftain  of  great  influence, 
had  become  a  most  implacable  and  vindictive  enemy 
to  Carolina,  and  determined  to  repay  treachery  with 
treachery.  Having  gathered  a  strong  party  of  Che- 
rokees, he  surrounded  Fort  Prince  George,  and 
compelled  the  garrison  to  keep  within  their  works ; 
but  finding  that  he  could  make  no  impression  on  the 
fort,  nor  oblige  the  commander  to  surrender,  he 
contrived  the  following  stratagem  for  the  relief  of 
his  countrymen  confined  in  it. 

As  that  country  was  every  where  covered  with 
woods,  he  placed  a  party  of  savages  in  a  dark  thicket 
by  the  river  side,  and  then  sent  an  Indian  woman, 
whom  he  knew  to  be  always  welcome  at  the  fort,  to 
inform  the  commander  that  he  had  something  of 
consequence  to  communicate  to  him,  and  would  be 
glad  to  speak  with  him  at  the  river  side.  Captain 
Coytmore  imprudently  consented,  and  without  any 
suspicion  of  danger  walked  down  towards  the  river, 
accompanied  by  Lieutenants  Bell  and  Foster;  when 
Occonostota  appearing  on  the  opposite  side,  told 
him  he  was  going  to  Charlestown  to  procure  a  re- 
lease of  the  prisoners,  and  would  be  glad  of  a  white 
man  to  accompany  him  as  a  safeguard  ;  and  the  better 
to  cover  his  dark  design,  had  a  bridle  in  his  hand, 
and  added,  he  would  go  and  hunt  for  a  horse  to  him. 
The  captain  replied,  that  he  should  have  a  guard, 
and  wished  he  might  find  a  horse,  as  the  journey 
was  very  long.  Upon  which  the  Indian,  turning 
quickly  about,  swung  the  bridle  thrice  round  his 
head,  as  a  signal  to  the  savages  placed  in  ambush, 
who  instantly  fired  on  the  officers,  shot  the  captain 
dead  on  the  spot,  and  wounded  the  other  two.  In 
consequence  of  which,  orders  were  given  to  put  the 
hostages  in  irons,  to  prevent  any  further  danger 
from  them ;  but  while  the  soldiers  were  attempting 
to  execute  their  orders,  the  Indians  stabbed  the  first 
man  who  laid  hold  of  them  with  a  knife,  and  wounded 
two  more  ;  upon  which  the  garrison,  exasperated  to 
the  highest  degree,  fell  on  the  unfortunate  hostages, 
and  butchered  them  in  a  manner  too  shocking  to 
relate. 


UNITED  STATES. 


991 


There  were  few  men  in  the  Cherokee  nation  that 
did  not  lose  a  friend  or  a.  relation  by  this  massacre, 
and  therefore  with  one  voice  all  immediately  de- 
clared for  war.  The  leaders  in  every  town  seized 
the  hatchet,  telling  their  followers  that  the  spirits  of 
their  murdered  brothers  were  flying  around  them, 
and  calling  for  vengeance.  From  the  different  towns 
large  parties  of  warriors  took  the  field,  painted  in 
the  most  formidable  manner,  and  singing  the  war 
song,  rushed  down  among  the  defenceless  families 
on  the  frontiers  of  Carolina,  where  men,  women  and 
children,  without  distinction,  fell  a  sacrifice  to  their 
merciless  fury.  Such  as  fled  to  the  woods,  and  es- 
caped the  scalping-knife,  perished  with  hunger;  and 
those  whom  they  made  prisoners  were  carried  into 
the  wilderness,  where  they  suffered  inexpressible 
hardships  ;  and  every  day  brought  fresh  accounts  to 
the  capital  of  their  ravages,  murders  and  desolations. 
But  while  the  back  settlers  impatiently  looked  to 
their  governor  for  relief,  the  small-pox  raged  to  such 
a  degree  in  town,  that  few  of  the  militia  could  be 
prevailed  on  to  leave  their  distressed  families  to 
serve  the  public.  In  this  extremity  an  express  was 
sent  to  General  Ainherst,  the  commander-in-chief 
in  America,  acquainting  him  with  the  deplorable 
situation  of  the  province,  and  imploring  his  assist- 
ance in  the  most  pressing  terms.  Accordingly  a 
battalion  of  Highlanders,  and  four  companies  of  the 
lloyal  Scots,  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Mont- 
gomery, afterwards  earl  of  Eglinton,  were  ordered 
immediately  to  embark,  and  sail  for  the  relief  of 
Carolina. 

In  the  mean  time  William  Lyttleton  being  trans- 
ferred to  the  government  of  Jamaica,  the  charge  of 
the  province  devolved  on  William  Bull,  a  man  of 
great  integrity  and  erudition.  Application  was  made 
to  the  inhabitants  of  North  Carolina  and  Virginia 
for  relief,  and  seven  troops  of  rangers  were  raised 
to  patrol  the  frontiers,  and  prevent  the  savages  from 
penetrating  further  down  among  the  settlements. 
A  considerable  sum  was  voted  for  presents  to  such 
of  the  Creeks,  Chickesaws  and  Catabaws  as  should 
join  the  province,  and  go  to  war  against  the  Chero- 
kees  ;  and  provisions  were  sent  to  the  families  that 
had  escaped  to  Augusta  and  Fort  Moore,  and  the 
best  preparations  possible  made  for  chastising  their 
enemy,  so  soon  as  the  regulars  coming  from  New 
York  should  arrive  in  the  province. 

Before  the  end  of  April,  1760,  Colonel  Mont- 
gomery landed  in  Carolina,  and  encamped  at  Monk's 
Corner  ;  but  as  the  conquest  of  Canada  was  the 
grand  object  of  this  year's  campaign  in  America,  he 
had  orders  to  strike  a  sudden  blow  for  the  relief  of 
Carolina,  and  return  to  head-quarters  at  Albany 
without  loss  of  time.  Nothing  was  therefore  omitted 
that  was  judged  necessary  to  forward  the  expedition. 
Several  gentlemen  of  fortune,  excited  by  a  laudable 
zeal,  formed  themselves  into  a  company  of  volun- 
teers, and  joined  the  army.  The  whole  force  of  the 
province  was  collected,  and  ordered  to  rendezvous 
at  Congarees  ;  and  waggons,  carts  and  horses  were 
impressed. 

A  few  weeks  after  his  arrival  Colonel  Montgomery 
marched  to  the  Congarees,  where  he  was  joined  by 
the  internal  strength  of  the  province,  and  immedi- 
ately set  out  for  the  Cherokee  country.  He  was 
provided  with  a  half-blooded  Indian,  for  a  guide, 
who  was  well  acquainted  with  the  roads  through  the 
woods,  and  the  passages  through  the  rivers.  Having 
little  time  allowed  him,  his  maich  was  spirited  and 
expeditious.  After  reaching  a  place  called  Twelve- 
mile  River,  he  encamped  on  an  advantageous  ground, 


and  marched  with  a  party  of  his  men  in  the  night  to 
surprise  Estatoe,  an  Indian  town  about  20  miles 
from  his  camp.  The  first  noise  he  heard  by  the 
way  was  the  barking  of  a  dog  before  his  men,  where 
he  was  informed  there  was  an  Indian  town  called 
Little  Keowee,  which  he  ordered  the  light  infantry 
to  surround,  and,  except  women  and  children,  to 
put  every  Indian  in  it  to  the  sword.  He  next  pro- 
ceeded to  Estatoe,  which  he  found  abandoned  by  all 
the  savages,  excepting  a  few  who  had  not  had  time 
to  make  their  escape;  and  this  town,  which  con- 
sisted of  at  least  200  houses,  and  was  well  provided 
with  corn,  hogs,  poultry,  and  ammunition,  he  re- 
duced to  ashes ;  and  Sugar  Town,  and  every  other 
settlement  in  the  lower  nation,  afterwards  shared 
the  same  fate.  In  these  lower  towns  about  60  In- 
dians were  killed  and  40  made  prisoners,  and  the  rest 
were  driven  to  seek  for  shelter  among  the  mountains. 
He  then  marched  to  the  relief  of  Fort  Prince  George, 
which  had  been  for  some  time  invested  by  savages, 
insomuch  that  no  soldier  durst  venture  beyond  the 
bounds  of  the  fort,  and  where  the  garrison  was  in 
distress,  not  for  the  want  of  provisions,  but  of  fuel  to 
prepare  them. 

While  the  army  rested  at  Fort  Prince  George, 
Edmund  Atkin,  agent  for  Indian  affairs,  dispatched 
two  Indian  chiefs  to  the  middle  settlements,  to  in- 
form the  Cherokees  that  by  suing  for  peace  they 
might  obtain  it,  as  the  former  friends  and  allies  of 
Britain  ;  and  at  the  same  time  he  sent  a  messenger 
to  Fort  Loudon,  requesting  Captains  Demere  and 
Stuart,  the  commanding  officers  at  that  place,  to 
use  their  best  endeavours  for  obtaining  peace  with 
the  Cherokees  in  the  upper  towns.  Colonel  Mont- 
gomery finding  that  the  savages  were  as  yet  dis- 
posed to  listen  to  no  terms  of  accommodation,  de- 
termined to  carry  the  chastisement  a  little  further. 
While  he  was  piercing  through  the  thick  forest  he 
had  numberless  difficulties  to  surmount,  particularly 
from  rivers  fordable  only  at  one  place,  and  over- 
looked by  high  banks  on  each  side,  where  an  enemy 
might  attack  him  with  advantage,  and  retreat  with 
safety.  When  he  had  advanced  within  five  miles 
of  Etchoe,  the  nearest  town  in  the  middle  settle- 
ments, he  found  there  a  low  valley,  covered  so 
thickly  with  bushes  that  the  soldiers  could  scarcely 
see  three  yards  before  them,  and  in  the  middle  of 
which  there  was  a  muddy  river,  with  steep  clay 
banks.  Through  this  dark  place,  where  it  was  im- 
possible for  any  number  of  men  to  act  together,  the 
array  must  necessarily  march  ;  and  therefore  Cap- 
tain Morison,  who  commanded  a  company  of  rangers 
well  acquainted  with  the  woods,  had  orders  to  ad- 
vance and  scour  the  thicket.  He  had  scarcely  en- 
tered it,  when  a  number  of  savages  sprung  from 
their  lurking  den,  and  firing  on  them,  killed  the 
captain  and  wounded  several  of  his  party.  Upon 
which  the  light-infantry  and  grenadiers  were  or- 
dered to  advance  and  charge  the  enemy,  which  they 
did  with  great  courage  and  alacrity.  A  heavy  fire 
then  began  on  both  sides,  and  during  some  time  the 
soldiers  could  only  discover  the  places  where  the 
savages  were  hid  by  the  report  of  their  guns.  Colonel 
Montgomery  finding  that  the  number  of  Indians 
that  guarded  this  place  was  great,  and  that  they 
were  determined  obstinately  to  dispute  it,  ordered 
the  Royal  Scots,  who  were  in  the  rear,  to  advance 
between  the  savages  and  a  rising  ground  on  the 
right,  while  the  Highlanders  marched  towards  the 
left  to  sustain  the  light-infantry  and  grenadiers. 
The  woods  now  resounded  with  the  horrible  shouts 
I  and  yells  of  the  savages,  but  these,  instead  of  inti 


992 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


midating  the  troops,  seemed  rather  to  inspire  them 
with  double  firmness  and  resolution.  At  length  the 
savages  gave  way,  and  in  their  retreat  falling  in  with 
the  Royal  Scots,  suffered  considerably  before  they 
got  out  of  their  reach.  By  this  time  the  Royals 
being  in  the  front  and  the  Highlanders  in  the  rear, 
the  enemy  stretched  away  and  took  possession  of  a 
hill,  seemingly  disposed  to  keep  at  a  distance,  and 
always  retreating  as  the  army  advanced ;  and  Co- 
lonel Montgomery  perceiving  that  they  kept  aloof, 
gave  orders  to  the  line  to  face  about,  and  march 
directly  for  the  town  of  Etchoe ;  but  the  enemy  no 
sooner  observed  this  movement,  than  they  got  be- 
hind the  hill,  and  ran  to  alarm  their  wives  and  chil- 
dren. During  the  action,  which  lasted  above  an 
hour,  Colonel  Montgomery,  who  made  several  nar- 
row escapes,  had  20  men  killed,  and  76  wounded. 
What  number  the  enemy  lost  is  uncertain,  but  some 
places  were  discovered  into  which  they  had  thrown 
several  of  their  slain,  from  which  it  was  conjectured 
that  they  must  have  lost  a  great  number,  as  it  is  a 
custom  among  them  to  carry  their  dead  off  the  field. 
Upon  viewing  the  ground,  all  were  astonished  to  see 
with  what  judgment  and  skill  they  had  chosen  it ; 
for  the  most  experienced  European  officer  could  not 
have  fixed  upon  a  spot  more  advantageous  for  way- 
laying and  attacking  an  enemy,  according  to  the 
method  of  fighting  practised  among  the  Indian  na- 
tions. 

This  action,  though  it  terminated  much  in  favour 
of  the  British  troops,  had  nevertheless  reduced  them 
to  such  a  situation  as  made  it  very  imprudent,  if  not 
altogether  impracticable,  to  penetrate  further  into 
those  woods.  The  repulse  was  far  from  being  de- 
cisive, for  the  enemy  had  only  retired  from  one  to 
another  advantageous  situation  in  order  to  renew 
their  attack  when  the  army  should  again  advance. 
Humanity  would  not  suffer  the  commander  to  leave 
so  many  wounded  men  exposed  to  the  vengeance  of 
savages,  without  any  strong  hold  in  which  he  might 
lodge  them,  or  some  detachment,  which  he  could 
not  spare,  to  protect  them  ;  and  should  he  proceed 
further,  he  saw  plainly  that  he  must  expect  frequent 
skirmishes,  which  would  increase  the  number,  and 
the  burning  of  so  many  Indian  towns  would  be  a 
poor  compensation  for  the  great  risk,  and  perhaps 
wanton  sacrifice  of  so  many  valuable  lives.  To 
furnish  horses  for  the  men  already  wounded  obliged 
him  to  throw  many  bags  of  flour  into  the  river,  and 
what  remained  was  no  more  than  sufficient  for  his 
army  during  their  return  to  Fort  Prince  George. 
Orders  were  therefore  given  for  a  retreat,  which  was 
made  with  great  regularity,  although  the  enemy  con- 
tinued hovering  around  them,  and  annoying  them  to 
the  utmost  of  their  power.  A  large  train  of  wounded 
men  was  brought  above  60  miles  through  a  hazardous 
country  in  safety,  for  which  no  small  share  of  honour 
and  praise  was  due  to  the  officer  that  conducted  the 
retreat. 

After  Colonel  Montgomery  had  returned  to  the 
settlements,  and  was  preparing  to  embark  for  New 
York,  agreeable  to  his  orders  from  General  Ainherst, 
the  Carolineans  were  again  thrown  under  the  most 
dreadful  apprehensions  from  the  dangers  which  still 
hung  over  the  province  ;  and  prevailed  on  the  co- 
lonel to  leave  four  companies  of  the  royal  regiment, 
under  the  command  of  Major  Frederick  Hamilton, 
for  covering  the  frontiers,  while  he  embarked  with 
the  battalion  of  Highlanders,  and  sailed  for  New 
York. 

In  the  mean  time  the  distant  garrison  of  Fort  Lou- 
acn,  consisting  of  200  men,  was  reduced  to  the 


dreadful  alternative  of  perishing  by  hunger  or  sub 
mittingto  the  mercy  of  the  enraged  Cherokees.  The 
governor  having  information  that  the  Virginians 
had  undertaken  to  relieve  it,  for  a  while  seemed 
satisfied,  and  anxiously  waited  to  hear  the  news  of 
that  happy  event;  but  the  Virginians  were  equally 
ill  qualified  with  their  neighbours  of  Carolina  to  send 
them  any  assistance.  So  remote  was  the  fort  from 
every  settlement,  and  so  difficult  was  it  to  march  an 
army  through  the  barren  wilderness,  where  the  va- 
rious thickets  were  lined  with  enemies,  and  to  carry 
at  the  same  time  sufficient  supplies  along  with  them, 
that  the  Virginians  had  dropped  all  thoughts  of  the 
attempt.  Provisions  being  entirely  exhausted  at 
Fort  London,  the  garrison  was  reduced  to  the  most 
deplorable  situation ;  and  for  a  whole  month  they 
had  no  other  subsistence  but  the  flesh  of  lean  horses 
and  dogs,  and  a  small  supply  of  Indian  beans,  which 
some  friendly  Cherokee  women  procured  for  them 
by  stealth.  Long  had  the  officers  endeavoured  to 
animate  and  encourage  the  men  with  the  hopes  of 
relief;  but  now  being  blockaded  night  and  day  by 
the  enemy,  and  having  no  resource  left,  they  threa- 
tened to  leave  the  fort,  and  die  at  once  by  the  hands 
of  savages,  rather  than  perish  slowly  by'famine.  In 
this  extremity  the  commander  was  obliged  to  call  a 
council  of  war,  to  consider  what  was  proper  to  be 
done ;  when  the  officers  were  all  of  opinion  that  it 
was  impossible  to  hold  out  any  longer,  and  therefore 
agreed  to  surrender  the  fort  to  the  Cherokees  on  the 
best  terms  that  could  be  obtained  from  them.  For 
this  purpose  Captain  Stuart,  an  officer  of  great  saga- 
city and  address,  and  much  beloved  by  all  the  In- 
dians that  remaiaed.  in  the  British  interest,  procured 
leave  to  go  to  Chote,  one  of  the  principal  towns  in 
the  neighbourhood,  where  he  obtained  the  following 
terms  of  capitulation,  which  were  signed  by  the  com- 
manding officer  and  two  of  the  Cherokee  chiefs. 
"  That  the  garrison  of  Fort  London  march  out  with 
their  arms  and  drums,  each  soldier  having  as  much 
powder  and  ball  as  their  officer  shall  think  necessary 
for  their  march,  and  all  the  baggage  they  may  choose 
to  carry :  that  the  garrison  be  permitted  to  march 
to  Virginia,  or  Fort  Prince  George,  as  the  com- 
manding officer  shall  think  proper,  unmolested  ;  and 
that  a  number  of  Indians  be  appointed  to  escort 
them,  and  hunt  for  provisions  during  their  march : 
that  such  soldiers  as  are  lame,  or  by  sickness  dis- 
abled from  marching,  be  received  into  the  Indian 
towns,  and  kindly  used  until  they  recover,  and  then 
be  allowed  to  return  to  Fort  Prince  George :  that 
the  Indians  do  provide  for  the  garrison  as  many 
horses  as.  they  conveniently  can  for  their  march, 
agreeing  with  the  officers  and  soldiers  for  payment : 
that  the  fort,  great  guns,  powder,  ball,  and  spare 
arms,  be  delivered  to  the  Indians  without  fraud  or 
further  delay,  on  the  day  appointed  for  the  march 
of  the  troops." 

On  these  terms  the  garrison  delivered  up  the  forf, 
and  marched  out  with  their  arms,  accompanied  by 
Occonostota.  Judd's  friend,  the  chief  of  Chote,  and 
several  other  Indians,  and  that  day  went  fifteen 
miles  on  their  way  to  Fort  Prince  George.  At  night 
they  encamped  on  a  plain  about  two  miles  from  Ta- 
liquo,  an  Indian  town,  when  all  their  attendants, 
upon  one  pretence  or  another,  left  them ;  which  the 
officers  considered  as  no  good  sign,  and  therefore 
placed  a  strict  guard  round  their  camp.  During 
the  night  they  remained  unmolested,  but  next  morn- 
ing about  break  of  day  a  soldier  from  an  out-post 
came  running  in,  and  informed  them  that  he  saw  a 
vast  number  of  Indians,  armed,  and  painted  in  the 


UNITED  STATES. 


993 


mosi  dreadful  manner,  creeping  among  the  bushes, 
and  advancing  in  order  to  surround  them.  Scarcely 
had  the  officer  time  to  order  his  men  to  stand  to  their 
arms,  when  the  savages  poured  in  upon  them  a  heavy 
fire  from  different  quarters,  accompanied  with  the 
most  hideous  yells,  whick  struck  a  panic  into  the 
soldiers,  who  were  so  much  enfeebled  and  dispirited 
that  they  were  incapable  of  making  any  effectual 
resistance.  Captain  Demere,  with  three  other  officers, 
and  about  26  private  men,  fell  at  the  first  onset. 
Some  fled  into  the  woods,  and  were  afterwards  taken 
prisoners  and  confined  among  the  towns  in  the  val- 
ley. Captain  Stuart,  and  those  that  remained,  were 
seized,  pinioned,  and  brought  back  to  Fort  Loudon. 
No  sooner  had  Attakullakulla  heard  that  his  friend 
Mr.  Stuart  had  escaped,  than  he  hastened  to  the 
fort,  and  purchased  him  from  the  Indian  that  took 
him,  giving  him  his  rifle,  clothes,  and  all  he  could 
command,  by  way  of  ransom.  He  then  took  pos- 
session of  Captain  Demere's  house,  where  he  kept 
his  prisoner  as  one  of  his  family,  and  freely  shared 
with  him  the  little  provisions  his  table  afforded,  until 
a  fair  opportunity  should  offer  for  rescuing  him  from 
their  hands;  but  the  poor  soldiers  were  kept  in  a 
miserable  state  of  captivity  for  some  time,  and  then 
redeemed  by  the  province  at  a  great  expense. 

During  the  time  these  prisoners  were  confined  at 
Fort  Loudon,  Occonostota  formed  a  design  of  at- 
tacking Fort  Prince  George,  and  for  this  purpose 
dispatched  a  messenger  to  the  settlements  in  the 
valley,  requesting  all  the  warriors  there  to  join  him 
at  Stiekoey  old  town.  By  accident  a  discovery  was 
made  of  ten  bags  of  powder,  and  ball  in  proportion, 
which  the  officers  had  secretly  buried  in  the  fort,  to 
prevent  their  falling  into  the  enemy's  hands.  This 
discovery  had  nearly  proved  fatal  to  Captain  Stuart, 
and  would  certainly  have  cost  him  his  life,  had  not 
the  interpreter  had  so  much  presence  of  mind  as  to 
assure  the  enemy  that  these  warlike  stores  had  been 
concealed  without  his  knowledge  or  consent.  The 
Indians  having  now  abundance  of  ammunition  for 
the  siege,  a  council  was  called  at  Chote,  to  which 
the  captain  was  brought,  and  put  in  mind  of  the 
obligations  he  lay  under  to  them  for  sparing  his  life  ; 
and  as  they  had  resolved  to  carry  six  cannon  and 
two  cohoros  with  them  against  Fort  Prince  George, 
to  he  managed  by  men  under  his  command,  they  told 
him  he  must  go  and  write  such  letters  to  the  com- 
mandant as  they  should  dictate  to  him.  They  in- 
formed him  at  the  same  time,  that  if  that  officer 
should  refuse  to  surrender,  they  were  determined  to 
burn  the  prisoners  one  after  another  before  his  face, 
und  try  if  he  could  ba  so  obstinate  as  to  hold  out 
while  he  saw  his  friends  expiring  in  the  flames. 
Captain  Stuart  was  much  alarmed  at  his  situation, 
and  from  that  moment  resolved  to  make  his  escape,  or 
perish  in  the  attempt.  His  design  he  privately  commu- 
nicated to  Attakullakulla,  and  told  him  how  uneasy 
he  was  at  the  thoughts  of  being  compelled  to  bear 
arms  against  his  countrymen.  He  acknowledged  that 
he  had  always  been  a  brother,  and  hoped  he  would 
assist  him  to  get  out  of  his  present  perilous  circum- 
stances. The  old  warrior,  taking  him  by  the  hand,  told 
him  he  was  his  friend,  he  had  already  given  one  proof 
of  his  regard,  and  intended  to  give  another  so  soon 
as  his  brother  should  return  and  help  him  to  concert 
the  measure.  He  said  he  was  well  apprised  of  the 
ill  designs  of  his  countrymen,  and  should  he  go  and 
persuade  the  garrison  of  Fort  Prince  George  to  do 
as  he  had  done,  what  could  he  expect  but  that  they 
should  share  the  same  dismal  fate.  Strong  and  un- 
cultivated minds  carry  their  friendship,  as  well  as 

HIST.  OF  AMER.—NOS.  125  &  126. 


their  enmity,to  an  astonishing  pitch.  Among  savages 
family  friendship  is  a  national  virtue,  and  civilized 
men  may  blush  when  they  consider  how  much  barba- 
rians have  often  surpassed  them  in  the  practice  of  it. 

Attakullakulla  claimed  Captain  Stuart  as  his  pri- 
soner, and  had  resolved  to  deliver  him  from  danger, 
and  for  this  purpose  there  was  no  time  to  be  lost. 
Accordingly  he  gave  out  among  his  countrymen 
that  he  intended  to  hunt  for  a  few  days,  arid  carry 
his  prisoner  along  with  him  to  eat  venison,  of  which 
he  declared  he  was  exceedingly  fond.  At  the  same 
time  the  captain  went  among  his  soldiers,  telling 
them  that  they  could  never  expect  to  be  ransomed 
by  the  province,  if  they  gave  the  smallest  assistance 
to  the  Indians  against  Fort  Prince  George.  Having 
settled  all  matters,  they  set  out  on  their  journey, 
accompanied  by  the  warrior's  wife,  his  brother,  and 
two  soldiers,  who  were  the  only  persons  in  the  gar- 
rison that  knew  how  to  convey  great  guns  through 
the  woods.  For  provisions  they  depended  on  what 
they  might  kill  by  the  way;  but  the  distance  to 
the  frontier  settlements  was  great,  and  the  utmost 
expedition  was  necessary  to  prevent  any  surprise 
from  Indians  pursuing  them.  Nine  days  and  nights 
did  they  travel  through  a  dreary  wilderness,  shaping 
their  course  by  the  sun  and  moon  towards  Virginia, 
and  traversing  many  hills,  valleys,  and  paths,  that 
had  never  been  crossed  before  but  by  savages  and 
wild  beasts.  On  the  tenth  they  arrived  at  the  banks 
of  Holston's  river,  where  they  fortunately  fell  in 
with  a  party  of  300  men,  sent  out  by  Colonel  Bird 
for  the  relief  of  such  soldiers  as  might  make  their 
escape  that  way  from  Fort  Loudon.  On  the  four- 
teenth day  the  Captain  reached  Colonel  Bird's  camp 
on  the  frontiers  of  Virginia,  where  having  loaded 
his  faithful  friend  with  presents  and  provisions,  he 
sent  him  back  to  protect  the  unhappy  prisoners  till 
they  should  be  ransomed,  and  to  exert  his  influence 
among  the  Cherokees  for  the  restoration  of  peace. 

No  sooner  had  Captain  Stuart  made  his  escape 
from  the  hands  of  the  savages,  than  he  immediately 
began  to  concert  ways  and  means  for  the  relief  of 
his  garrison.  An  express  was  dispatched  to  Lieu- 
tenant-governor Bull,  informing  him  of  the  disaster 
that  had  happened  to  the  garrison  of  Fort  Loudon, 
and  of  the  designs  of  the  enemy  against  Fort  Prince 
George.  In  consequence  of  which  orders  were  given 
to  Major  Thomson,  who  commanded  the  militia  on. 
the  frontiers,  to  throw  in  provisions  for  ten  weeks 
into  that  fort,  and  warn  the  commanding  officer  of 
his  danger.  At  the  same  time  a  messenger  was 
sent  to  Attakullakulla,  desiring  him  to  inform  the 
Cherokees  that  Fort  George  was  impregnable,  having 
vast  quantities  of  powder  buried  underground  every 
where  around  it,  to  blow  up  all  enemies  that  should 
attempt  to  come  near  it.  Presents  of  considerable 
value  were  sent  to  redeem  the  prisoners  at  Fort 
Loudon,  a  few  of  whom  had  by  this  time  made  their 
escape ;  and  afterwards  not  only  those  that  were 
confined  among  the  towns  in  the  valley,  but  also 
all  that  had  survived  the  hardships  of  hunger,  dis- 
ease, and  captivity  in  the  upper  towns  were  released, 
and  delivered  up  to  the  commanding  officer  at  Fort 
Prince  George. 

It  might  now  have  been  expected  that  the  vin- 
dictive spirit  of  the  savages  would  be  satisfied,  and 
that  they  would  be  disposed  to  listen  to  some  terms 
of  accommodation.  This  treacherous  conduct  to  the 
soldiers  at  Fort  Loudon,  they  intended  as  a  satis- 
faction for  the  harsh  treatment  their  relations  had 
met  with  at  Fort  Prince  George;  and  dearly  had 
the  province  paid  for  the  base  imprisonment  and 

4  N 


994 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


massacre  of  the  chiefs  at  that  place.  Still,  however, 
a  great  majority  of  the  nation  spurned  at  every  offer 
of  peace.  The  lower  towns  had  all  been  destroyed 
by  Colonel  Montgomery;  the  warriors  in  the  middle 
settlements  had  lost  many  friends  and  relations ; 
and  several  Frenchmen  had  crept  in  among  the 
upper  towns,  and  helped  to  foment  their  ill  humour 
against  Carolina.  Lewis  Lat.inac,  a  French  officer, 
was  among  them,  and  proved  an  indefatigable  insti- 
gator to  mischief.  He  persuaded  the  Indians  that 
the  English  had  nothing  less  in  view  than  to  exter- 
minate them  from  the  face  of  the  earth;  and,  fur- 
nishing them  with  arms  and  ammunition,  urged 
them  on  to  war.  At  a  great  meeting  of  the  nation 
he  pulled  out  his  hatchet,  and  striking  it  into  a  log 
of  wood,  called  out,  Who  is  the  man  that  will  take 
this  up  for  the  king  of  France  ?  Saloue,  the  young 
warrior  of  Estatoe,  instantly  laid  hold  of  it,  and 
cried  out,  "  I  am  for  war.  The  spirits  of  our  brothers 
who  have  been  slain  still  call  upon  us  to  avenge 
their  death.  He  is  no  better  than  a  woman  that 
refuses  to  follow  me."  Many  others  seized  the  to- 
mahawk, yet  dyed  in  British  blood,  and  burned  with 
impatience  for  the  field. 

Under  the  flattering  appearance  of  a  calm  were 
these  clouds  again  gathering  :  however,  Lieutenant- 
governor  Bull,  who  well  knew  how  little  Indians 
were  to  be  trusted  on  any  occasion,  kept  the  royal 
Scots  and  militia  on  the  frontiers  in  a  posture  of 
defence.  But  rinding  the  province  still  under  the 
most  dreadful  apprehensions  from  their  savage 
neighbours,  who  continued  insolent  and  vindictive, 
and  ready  to  renew  their  ravages  and  murders,  he 
made  application  a  second  time  to  General  Amherst 
for  assistance.  Canada  being  now  reduced,  the 
commander-in-chief  could  the  more  easily  spare  a 
force  adequate  to  the  purpose  intended  ;  and  Colonel 
Montgomery,  who  conducted  the  former  expedition, 
having  by  this  time  embarked  for  England,  the 
command  of  the  Highlanders  devolved  on  Lieute- 
nant-Colonel James  Grant,  who  received  orders  to 
return  to  the  relief  of  Carolina.  Early  in  the  year 
1761  he  landed  at  Charlestown,  where  he  took  up 
his  winter-quarters,  until  the  proper  season  should 
approach  for  taking  the  field;  but,  unfortunately, 
during  this  time  many  of-the  soldiers,  by  drinking 
brackish  water,  were  taken  sick,  which  afforded  the 
inhabitants  an  opportunity  of  showing  their  kindness 
and  humanity.  They  considered  themselves  under 
the  strongest  obligations  to  treat  men  with  tender- 
ness, who  came  to  protect  them  against  their  ene 
mies,  and  therefore  they  brought  the  sick  soldiers 
into  their  houses,  and  nursed  them  with  the  greatest 
care  and  attention. 

In  this  campaign  the  province  determined  to  ex- 
ert itself  to  the  utmost,  that,  in  conjunction  with 
the  regular  forces,  a  severe  correction  might  be  given 
to  those  troublesome  savages.  For  this  purpose  a 
provincial  regiment  was  raised,  and  the  cornmanc 
of  it  given  to  Colonel  Middleton.  Presents  were 
provided  for  the  Indian  allies,  and  several  of  the 
Chickesaws  and  Catabaws  engaged  to  assist  them 
against  the  Cherokees.  But  the  Creeks,  whose  help 
was  also  strongly  solicited,  played  an  artful  game 
between  the  English  and  the  French,  and  gave  th 
one  or  the  other  encouragement,  according  to  th 
advantages  they  reaped  from  them.  All  possibl 
preparations  were  made  for  supplying  the  army  with 
provisions  at  different  stages,  and  with  such  cart 
and  horses  as  wt-re  thought  necessary  to  the  expe 
dition. 

As  all  white  men  in  the  province,  of  the  military 


age,  were  soldiers  as  well  as  citizens,  anu  trained  iu 
some  measure  to  the  use  of  arms,  it  was  no  difficult 
matter  to  complete  the  provincial  regiment.     Their 
names  being  registered  in  the  list  of  militia;  on  every 
emergency  they  were  obliged  to  be  ready  for  defence, 
not    only    against   the    incursions  of  Indians,    but 
also   against  the   insurrection  of  negroes ;  and  al- 
though the  same  prompt  obedience  to  orders  could 
not  be  expected  from  them  that  is  necessary  in  a  re- 
gular army,  yet  the  provincials  had  other  advantage.'* 
.vhich  compensated  for  that  defect.     They  were  bet- 
er  acquainted  than  strangers  with  the  woods,  and 
he  nature  of  that  country  in  which  their  military 
ervice  was  required.     They  were  seasoned  to  the 
limate,    and   had    learned    from    experience    what 
lothes,  meat,  and  drink  were  most  proper  to  enable 
hem  to  do  their  duty.     In  common  occasions,  when 
he  militia  was  called  out,  the  men  received  no  pay, 
>ut  when  employed,  as  in  this  Cherokee  war,   for 
he  public  defence,  they  were  allowed  the  same  pay 
with  the  king's  forces. 

As  soon  as  the  Highlanders  had  recovered  from 
heir  sickness,  and  were  in  a  condition  to  take  the 
ield,  Colonel  Grant  began  his  march  for  the  Cherokee 
erritories ;  and  after  being  joined  by  the  provincial 
regiment  and  Indian  allies,  he  mustered  in  all  about 
2600  men.  Having  served  some  years  in  America, 
and  been  in  several  engagements  with  Indians,  he 
was  now  no  stranger  to  their  methods  of  making  war. 
On  the  27th  of  May,  1761,  Colonel  Grant  arrived 
at  Fort  Prince  George,  and  Attakullakulla  having 
information  that  he  was  advancing  against  his 
nation  with  a  formidable  army,  hastened  to  his  camp, 
o  signify  his  earnest  desire  of  peace.  He  told  the 
colonel  that  he  always  had  been,  and  ever  would 
continue  to  be,  a  firm  friend  to  the  English;  that  the 
outrages  of  his  countrymen  covered  him  with  shame, 
and  filled  his  heart  with  grief;  yet  nevertheless  he 
would  gladly  interpose  in  their  behalf,  in  order  to 
bring  about  an  accommodation.  Often,  he  said,  had 
be  been  called  an  old  woman  by  the  mad  young  men 
of  his  nation,  who  delighted  in  war,  and  despised  his 
counsels.  Often  had  he  endeavoured  to  get  the 
hatchet  buried,  and  the  former  good  correspondence 
with  the  Carolineans  established ;  but  now  he  was 
determined  to  set  out  for  the  Cherokee  towns,  to  per- 
suade them  to  consult  their  safety,  and  speedily  agree 
to  terms  of  peace,  and  again  and  again  begged  the 
colonel  to  proceed  no  further  until  he  returned. 

Colonel  Grant,  however,  gave  him  no  encourage- 
ment to  expect  that  his  request  could  be  granted; 
but,  on  the  7th  of  June,  began  his  march  from  Fort 
Prince  George,  carrying  with  him  provisions  to  the 
army  for  30  days.  A  party  of  90  Indians,  and  30 
woodmen  painted  like  Indians,  under  the  command 
of  Captain  Quintine  Kennedy,  had  orders  to  march 
in  front  and  scour  the  woods.  After  them  the  light- 
infantry,  and  about  50  rangers,  consisting  in  all  of 
about  200  men,  followed,  by  whose  vigilance  and 
activity  the  commander  imagined  that  the  main 
body  of  the  army  might  be  kept  tolerably  quiet  and 
secure.  For  three  days  he  made  forced  marches,  in 
order  to  get  over  two  narrow  and  dangerous  defiles, 
which  he  accomplished  withoutashotfrom the  enemy, 
but  which  might  have  cost  him  dear,  had  they  been 
properly  guarded  and  warmly  disputed.  On  the  day 
following  he  found  suspicious  ground  on  all  hands, 
and  therefore  orders  were  given  for  the  first  time  to 
load  and  prepare  for  action,  and  the  guards  to 
march  slowly  forward,  doubling  their  vigilance  and 
circumspection.  As  they  frequently  spied  Indians 
around  them,  all  were  convinced  that  they  should 


UNITED  STATES. 


995 


that  day  have  an  engagement.     At  length,  havio 
advanced  near  to  the  place  where  Colonel  Montgc 
mery  was  attacked  the  year  before,  the  Indian  allie 
in  the  van-guard,  about  eight  in  the  morning,  ob 
served  a  large  body  of  Cherokees  posted  upon  a  hi! 
on  the  right  flank  of  the  array,  and  gave  the  alarm 
Immediately  the  savages,  rushing  down,  began  t 
fire  on  the  advanced  guard,  which  being  supported 
the  enemy  were  repulsed,  and  recovered  their  heights 
Under  this  hill  the  line  was  obliged  to  march  a  con 
siderable  way.     On  the  left  there  was  a  river,  from 
the  opposite  banks  of  which  a  large  party  of  Indian 
fired  briskly  on  the  troops  as  they  advanced.     Co 
lonel  Grant  ordered  a  party  to  march  up  the  hill 
and  drive  the   enemy  from  the  heights,  while  the 
line  faced  about,  and  gave  their  whole  charge  to  the 
Indians  who   annoyed  them  from  the  side  of  th 
river.     The  engagement  became  general,  and  the 
savages  seemed  determined  obstinately  to  dispute 
the  lower  grounds,  while  those  on  the  hill  were  dis- 
lodged only  to  return  with  redoubled  ardour  to  the 
charge.     The  situation  of  the  troops  was  in  severa! 
respects  deplorable;  fatigued  by  a  tedious  march, 
in  rainy  weather,  surrounded  with  woods,  so  thai 
they   could  not  discern  the  enemy,  galled   by  the 
scattered  fire  of  savages,  who  when  pressed  alway 
kept  aloof,  but  rallied  again  and  again,  and  returned 
to  the  ground.     No  sooner  did  the  army  gain  an 
advantage  over  them  in  one  quarter,  than  they  ap- 
peared in  another.     While  the  attention  of  the  com- 
mander was  occupied   in  driving  the  enemy   from 
their  lurking-place  on  the  river's  side,  the  rear  was 
attacked,   and   so  vigorous  an  effort  made  for  the 
Hour  and  cattle,  that  he  was  obliged  to  order  a  party 
back  for  the   relief  of  the  rear-guard.     From  eight 
o'clock  in  the  morning  until  eleven  the  savages  con- 
tinued to  keep  up  an  irregular  and  incessant  fire, 
sometimes   from   one  place,    and    sometimes   from 
another,   while  the  woods  resounded  with  hideous 
shouts  and  yells,  to  intimidate  the  troops.     At  length 
the  Cherokees  gave  way,  and  being  pursued  for 
some  time,  random  shots  continued  till  two  o'clock, 
when  they  disappeared.     What  loss  the  enemy  sus- 
tained in  this  action  we  have  not  been  able  to  learn, 
but  of  Colonel  Grant's  army  there  were  between  50 
and  60  men  killed  and  wounded ;  and  it  is  probable 
the  loss  of  the  savages  could  not  be  much  greater, 
and  perhaps  not  so  great,  owing  to  their  manner  of 
fighting.     Orders  were  given  not  to  bury  the  slain, 
but.  to  sink  them  in  the  river,  to  prevent  their  being 
dug  up  from  their  graves  and  scalped.     To  provide 
horses  for  those  that  were  wounded,  several  bags  of 
flour  were  thrown  into  the  river.     After  which  they 
proceeded  to  Etchoe,  a  pretty  large  Indian  town, 
which   they  reached  about  midnight,  and  next  day 
reduced  to  ashes.     Every  other  town  in  the  middle 
settlements,  fourteen   in  number,  shared  the  same 
fate;  and  their  magazines  and  corn  fields  were  like- 
wise  destroyed,  and  those  miserable  savages,  with 
their  families,  were  driven  to  seek  for  shelter  and 
provisions  among  the  lower  mountains. 

Colonel  Grant  continued  30  days  in  the  heart  of 
the  Cherokee  territories,  and,  upon  his  return  to 
Fort  Prince  George,  the  feet  and  legs  of  many  of 
his  army  were  so  torn  and  bruised,  and  their  strength 
and  spirits  so  much  exhausted,  that  they  were  ut- 
terly unable  to  march  further.  He  resolved  there- 
fore to  encamp  at  that  place,  both  to  refresh  his 
men,  and  wait  the  resolutions  of  the  Cherokees,  in 
consequence  of  the  heavy  chastisement  which  they 
had  received.  Besides  the  numberless  advantage* 
their  country  afforded  for  defence,  it  was  supposed 


that  some  French  officers  had  been  among  them,  and 
given  them  all  the  assistance  in  their  power.  It  is 
true  the  savages  supported  their  attack  for  some 
hours  with  considerable  spirit;  but  being  driven 
from  their  advantageous  posts  and  thickets  they  were 
wholly  disconcerted,  and  though  the  repulse  was  far 
from  being  decisive,  yet  after  this  engagement  they 
returned  no  more  to  the  attack. 

Such  engagements  in  Europe  would  be  considered 
as  trifling  skirmishes,  scarcely  worthy  of  relation, 
but  in  America  a  great  deal  is  often  determined  by 
them.  It  is  no  easy  matter  to  describe  the  distress 
to  which  the  savages  were  reduced  by  this  severe 
correction;  even  in  time  of  peace  they  are  in  a  great 
measure  destitute  of  that  foresight,  which  provides 
for  future  events ;  but  in  time  of  war,  when  their 
villages  are  destroyed,  and  their  fields  laid  desolate, 
they  /are  reduced  to  extreme  want.  Being  driven  to 
the  barren  mountains,  the  hunters  furnished  with 
ammunition  might  indeed  make  some  small  provi- 
sion for  themselves;  but  women,  children,  and  old 
men,  must  perish,  being  deprived  of  the  means  of 
subsistence. 

A  few  days  after  Colonel  Grant's  arrival  at  Fort 
Prince  George,  Attakullakulla,  attended  by  several 
chieftains,  came  to  his  camp,  and  expressed  a  desire 
of  peace.  Severely  had  they 'suffered  for  breaking 
their  alliance  with  Britain;  and  convinced  at  last 
of  the  weakness  and  perfidy  of  the  French,  who  were 
neither  able  to  assist  them  in  time  of  war,  nor  sup- 
)ly  their  wants  in  time  of  peace,  they  resolved  to 
enounce  ail  connexion  with  them  for  ever.  Ac- 
;ordingly  terms  of  peace  were  drawn  up  and  pro- 
>osed,  which  were  no  less  honourable  to  Colonel 
jrant  than  advantageous  to  the  province.  The  dif- 
erent  articles  being  read  and  interpreted,  Attakulla- 
julla  agreed  to  them  all  excepting  one,  by  which  it 
*-as  demanded,  "  That  four  Cherokee  Indians  be  de- 
ivered  up  to  Colonel  Grant  at  Fort  Prince  George, 
o  be  put  to  death  in  the  front  of  his  camp  ;  or  four 
jreen  scalps  be  brought  to  him  in  the  space  of 
welve  nights."  The  warrior  having  no  authority 
rom  his  nation,  declared  he  could  not  agree  to  this 
irticle,  and  therefore  the  Colonel  sent  him  to  Charles- 
own,  to  see  whether  the  lieutenant-governor  would 
onsent  to  mitigate  the  rigour  of  it. 

Accordingly  Attakullakulla,  and  the  other  chief- 
ains,  being  furnished  with  a  safeguard,  set  out  for 
Chaiiestown,  to  hold  a  conference  with  Mr.  Bull, 
nd  a  peace  was  formally  ratified  and  confirmed  by 
oth  parties. 

Thus  ended  the  Cherokee  war,  which  was  amonf 
he  last  humbling  strokes  given  to  the  expiring 
owei  of  France  in  North  America,  and  Colonel 
Sfrant  returned  to  Charlestown  to  wait  further  orders. 
5ut  no  sooner  was  peace  concluded,  and  the  pro- 
ince  secured  against  external  enemies,  than  an 
nhappy  difference  broke  out  between  the  two  prin- 
ipal  commanders  of  the  regular  and  provincial 
srces.  Colonel  Grant,  a  native  of  Scotland,  was 
aturally  of  a  high  spirit,  to  which  he  added  that 
ride  of  rank  which  he  held  among  those  British  sol- 
iers  who  had  carried  their  arms  triumphant  through 
le  continent.  During  this  expedition  it  is  proba- 
le  that  he  scorned  to  ask  the  advice  of  a  provincial 
fficer,  whom  he  deemed  an  improper  judge  of  mill - 
ary  operations,  and  claimed  the  chief  glory  of  hav- 
ng  restored  peace  to  the  province.  Colonel  Mid- 
letoa  was  equally  warm  and  proud,  and  consider- 
ng  such  neglect  as  an  affront,  resented  it,  and  while 
ome  reflections  were  cast  upon  the  provincial  troops, 

ing  the  chief  in  command,  he  thought  himself 
4  N  2 


995 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


bound  to  stand  forth  as  a  champion  for  the  honour 
of  the  province.  This  discontent,  which  appeared 
between  the  officers  on  their  return  to  Charlestown, 
was  encouraged  and  fomented  by  persons  delighting 
in  mischief,  who,  by  malicious  surmises  and  reports, 
helped  to  widen  the  difference.  The  dispute  became 
serious,  and  was  carried  on  for  some  time  in  the 
public  papers  by  mutual  charges  of  misconduct,  and 
at  length  ended  in  a  duel ;  which,  however,  happily 
terminated  without  bloodshed. 

This  year  one  of  the  most  violent  and  dreadful 
hurricanes  that  had  ever  been  known,  passed  Charles- 
town  in  the  month  of  May.  It  appeared  at  first 
to  the  west  of  the  town,  like  a  large  column  of 
smoke,  approaching  fast  in  an  irregular  direction ; 
and  the  vapour  of  which  it  was  composed  resembled 
clouds  rolling  one  over  another  in  violent  tumult 
and  agitation,  assuming  at  one  time  a  dark,  at 
another  a  bright  flaming  colour.  Its  motion  was 
exceedingly  swift  and  crooked ;  and,  as  it  approached, 
the  inhabitants  were  greatly  alarmed  with  an  unu- 
sual sound,  like  the  continual  roaring  of  distant 
thunder,  or  the  noise  made  by  a  stormy  sea  beating 
upon  the  shore,  which  brought  numbers  of  people  to 
witness  the  dreadful  phenomenon.  While  it  passed 
down  Ashley  river,  such  was  its  incredible  velocity 
and  force,  that  it  ploughed  the  waters  to  the  bottom, 
and  laid  the  channel  bare.  The  town  narrowly  and 
providentially  escaped,  but  it  threatened  destruction 
to  a  fleet  consisting  of  no  less  than  40  sail  of  loaded 
ships,  lying  at  anchor  in  Rebellion  Road,  about  four 
miles  below  the  town,  and  waiting  a  fair  wind  to  sail 
for  England.  When  it  reached  the  fleet,  five  ves- 
sels were  sunk  in  an  instant  by  it,  and  a  British  ship 
of  war,  the  Dolphin,  with  eleven  others,  were  dis- 
masted. Such  was  the  situation  of  the  fleet,  and  so 
rapid  was  the  motion  of  the  whirlwind,  that  though 
the  seamen  observed  it  approaching,  it  was  impossi- 
ble to  provide  against  it.  In  its  oblique  course  it 
struck  only  a  part  of  the  fleet,  and  the  damage, 
though  computed  at  20,000/.  sterling,  was  by  no 
means  so  great  as  might  have  been  expected.  Nor 
were  many  lives  lost,  for  the  channel  of  the  river 
not  being  very  deep,  while  the  ships  sat  down  in  the 
mud,  and  were  covered  by'  the  waves,  the  sailors 
saved  themselves  by  running  up  the  shrouds.  The 
whirlwind  passed  the  town  a  little  before  three  o'clock, 
and  before  four  the  sky  was  so  clear  and  serene,  that 
it  could  scarcely  have  been  believed  that  such  a  dread- 
ful scene  had  been  exhibited,  had  it  not  left  many 
striking  proofs  behind  it.  Its  route  was  not  only 
marked  in  the  woods,  having  levelled  the  loftiest 
trees,  or  swept  them  away  before  it  like  chaff,  but  its 
effects  were  visible  in  the  fleet,  by  the  number  of 
vessels  sunk  and  dismasted. 

The  climate  of  Georgia,  like  that  of  Carolina,  is 
more  mild  and  pleasant  in  the  inland  than  maritime 
parts.  Governor  Ellis  has  left  us  the  following  ac- 
count of  the  heat  of  the  summer  at  Savanna.  In  the 
7th  of  July,  while  he  was  writing  in  his  piazza, 
which  was  open  at  each  end,  he  says  the  mercury  in 
liahrenheit's  thermometer  stood  at  102  in  the  shade. 
Twice  had  it  risen  to  that  height  during  the  summer, 
several  times  to  100,  and  for  many  days  together  to 
98;  and  in  the  night  did  not  sink  below  89.  He 
thought  it  highly  probable,  that  the  inhabitants  of 
savanna  breathed  hotter  air  than  any  other  people 
upon  earth.  The  town  being  situated  on  a  sandy 
eminence,  the  reflection  from  the  dry  sand,  when 
there  is  little  or  no  agitation  in  the  air,  greatly  in- 
creases the  heat;  for  by  walking  100  yards  from  his 
house  upon  the  sand,  under  his  umbrella,  with  the 


thermometer  suspended  by  a  thread  to  the  height  of 
his  nostrils,  the  mercury  rose  to  105.  The  same 
thermometer  he  had  with  him  in  the  equatorial  parts 
of  Africa,  in  Jamaica,  and  in  the  Leeward  Islands  ; 
yet  by  his  journals  he  found  that  it  had  never  in  any 
of  these  places  risen  so  high.  Its  general  station 
was  between  79  and  86.  He  acknowledges,  how- 
ever, that  he  felt  these  degrees  of  heat  in  a  moist 
air  more  disagreeable  than  at  Savanna,  when  the 
thermometer  stood  at  81  in  his  cellar,  at  102  in  the 
story  above  it,  and  in  the  upper  story  of  his  house 
at  105.  On  the  10th  of  December  the  mercury  was 
up  at  86,  on  the  1 1th  down  as  low  as  38,  on  the 
same  instrument.  Such  sudden  and  violent  changes, 
especially  when  they  happen  frequently,  must  seri- 
ously injure  the  human  constitution;  yet  he  asserts 
that  few  people  die  at  Savanna  out  of  the  ordinary 
course,  though  many  were  working  in  the  open  air, 
exposed  to  the  sun  during  this  extreme  heat.  As 
this  governor  was  a  man  of  sense  and  erudition,  and 
no  doubt  made  his  observations  with  great  accu- 
racy, we  shall  not  presume  to  call  in  question  the 
facts  he  relates ;  but  it  is  very  unusual  for  the  mer- 
cury to  rise  so  high  in  the  shade  at  Charlestown,  and 
we  believe  it  very  seldom  happens  to  do  so  in  Georgia. 
It  may  be  added,  that  the  situation  of  Savanna, 
surrounded  with  low  and  marshy  lands,  and  liable 
to  sudden  and  great  changes  in  the  weather,  as  in 
Carolina,  is  very  bad;  and  the  maritime  parts  of 
both  provinces  must,  be  ranked  among  the  most  un- 
healthy climates  in  the  world. 

The  peace  with  France — Boundaries  of  East  and  West 
Florida — The  southern  provinces  left  secure — En- 
couragement given  to  reduced  officers  and  soldiers — 
Georgia  begins  to  flourish — Emigrations  to  Caro- 
lina—  Regulations  relative  to  the  Indians — John 
Stuart,  superintendant for  Indian  affairs — Decrease 
of  Indians,  and  the  causes  of  it — Population  and 
trade  of  the  province. 

The  peace  of  Paris,  though  condemned  by  many 
unquestionably  placed  America  in  the  most  advan- 
tageous situation.  As  the  war  there  arose  from  a  con- 
test about  the  limits  of  the  British  and  French  terri- 
tories, by  the  seventh  article  of  this  treaty  it  was 
agreed,  "  That,  for  the  future,  the  confines  between 
the  dominions  of  his  Britannic  majesty  and  those 
of  his  most  Christian  majesty  in  that  part  of  the 
world  should  be  fixed  irrevocably,  by  a  line  drawn 
along  the  middle  of  the  river  Mississippi,  from  its 
source  to  the  river  Iberville,  and  from  thence  by  a 
line  drawn  along  the  middle  of  the  river  and  the 
lakes  Maurepas  and  Pontchartrain  tc  the  sea  " 
And  by  the  twentieth  article,  "  His  Catholic  ma- 
jesty ceded  and  guaranteed  in  full  right  to  his  Bri- 
tannic majesty,  Florida,  with  Fort  Augustine  and 
the  bay  of  Pensacola,  as  well  as  all  that  Spain  pos- 
sessed on  the  continent  of  North  America,  to  the 
east  or  south-east  of  the  river  Mississippi,  and  in 
general  every  thing  depending  on  the  said  countries 
and  lands,  with  the  sovereignty,  property,  posses- 
sion, and  all  rights  acquired  by  treaties  or  otherwise, 
which  the  Catholic  king  and  the  crown  of  Spain 
have  had  till  now  over  the  said  countries,  lands, 
places,  and  other  inhabitants."  By  these  articles 
the  southern  provinces  were  rendered  perfectly  se- 
cure, and,  considering  the  nature  of  the  country,  no 
frontiers  could  be  more  distinctly  defined. 

Great  pains  were  taken  to  acquire  an  exact  know- 
ledge of  the  new  acquisitions,  which  were  divided 
into  three  separate  independent  governments,  under 
officers  \vho  had  distinguished  themselves  during  the 


UNITED  STATES. 


997 


war.  The  government  of  East  Florida  was  bounded 
to  the  westward  by  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the  river 
Apalachicola;  to  the  north  by  a  line  drawn  from 
that  part  of  the  above-mentioned  river  where  the  Ca- 
tabouchee  and  Flint  rivers  meet,  to  the  source  of 
St.  Mary's  river,  and  by  the  course  of  the  same  river 
to  the  Atlantic  Ocean ;  and  to  the  east  and  south  by 
the  Atlantic  Ocean  and  the  Gulf  of  Florida,  includ- 
ing all  islands  within  six  leagues  of  the  sea-coast. 
The  government  of  West  Florida  was  bounded  to 
the  southward  by  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  including  all 
islands  within  six  leagues  of  the  sea-coast,  from 
the  river  Apalachicola  to  Lake  Pontehartrain  ;  to 
the  westward  by  the  said  lake,  the  lake  Maurepas, 
and  the  river  Mississippi;  to  the  north  by  a  line 
drawn  due  east  from  that  part  of  the  river  Missis- 
sippi which  lies  in  31  degrees  of  north  latitude,  to 
the  river  Apalachicola,  or  Catabouchee  ;  aud  to  the 
east  by  the  said  river.  All  the  lands  lying  between 
the  rivers  Alatamaha  and  St.  Mary:s  were  annexed 
to  the  province  of  Georgia. 

The  possession  of  these  two  provinces  of  East  and 
West  Florida,  though  of  themselves  little  better  than 
an  immense  waste,  was  of  great  importance  to  the 
neighbouring  provinces  of  Georgia  and  Carolina. 
It  deprived  the  Spaniards  of  a  strong  hold  from 
which  they  could  send  out  an  armed  force  and  harass 
these  provinces,  and  of  an  easy  avenue  through 
which  they  had  often  invaded  them.  It  removed 
troublesome  neighbours  out  of  their  way,  who  had 
often  instigated  the  savages  against  them,  and  made 
Augustine  an  asylum  for  fugitive  slaves.  It  opened 
some  convenient  ports  for  trade  with  Britain  and  the 
West  Indies,  and  for  annoying  French  and  Spanish 
ships  coming  through  the  Gulf  of  Florida,  in  case  ot 
any  future  rupture.  It  formed  a  strong  frontier  to 
the  British  dominions  in  that  quarter,  and  furnished 
an  immense  track  of  improvable  land  for  reduced 
officers,  soldiers,  and  others,  to  settle  and  cultivate. 

Grants  were  made  to  officers  and  soldiers  who  had 
served  during  the  late  war,  and  orders  were  given  to 
the  governors  on  the  continent,  to  grant,  without 
fee  or  reward,  5000  acres  to  every  field-officer  who 
had  served  in  America,  3000  to  every  captain,  2000 
to  every  subaltern,  200  to  every  non-commiasioned 
officer,  and  50  to  every  private  man  ;  free  of  quit- 
rents  for  ten  years,  but  subject,  at  the  expiration  of 
that  term,  to  the  same  moderate  quit-rents  as  the 
lands  in  the  other  provinces,  and  to  the  same  con- 
ditions of  cultivation  and  improvement.  In  the  new 
colonies,  for  the  encouragement  of  the  people,  they 
were  to  be  allowed  civil  establishments,  similar  to 
those  of  the  other  royal  governments  on  the  conti- 
nent, so  soon  as  their  circumstances  would  admit. 

No  province  on  the  continent  felt  the  happy 
effects  of  this  public  security  sooner  than  the  pro- 
vince of  Georgia,  which  had  long  struggled  under 
many  difficulties,  arising  from  the  want  of  credit 
from  friends,  and  the  frequent  molestations  of 
enemies.  During  the  late  war  the  government  had 
been  given  to  James  Wright,  who  governed  the 
province  with  justice  and  equity  ;  and  discovered 
the  excellence  of  its  low  lands  and  river  swamps,  by 
the  proper  management  and  cultivation  of  which  he 
acquired  in  a  few  years  a  plentiful  fortune.  His  ex- 
ample and  success  gave  vigour  to  industry,  and  pro- 
moted a  spirit  of  emulation  among  the  planters  for 
improvement.  The  rich  lands  were  sought  for  with 
ardour,  and  the  British  merchants  observing  the 
province  safe,  and  advancing  to  a  hopeful  and  flou- 
rishing state,  were  no  longer  backward  in  extend- 
ing credit  to  it,  but  supplied  it  with  negroes,  and 


goods  of  British  manufacture,  with  equal  freedom 
as  the  other  provinces  on  that  continent.  The  trade 
of  the  province  kept  pace  with  its  progress  in  culti- 
vation. The  rich  swamps  attracted  the  attention 
not  only  of  strangers,  but  even  of  the  planters  of 
Carolina,  who  had  been  accustomed  to  treat  their 
poor  neighbours  with  the  utmost  contempt,  se- 
veral of  whom  sold  their  estates  in  that  colony, 
and  moved  with  their  families  and  effects  to  Georgia. 
Many  settlements  were  made  by  Carolineans  about 
Sunbury,  and  upon  the  great  river  Alatamaha.  The 
price  of  produce  at  Savanna  arose  as  the  quantity 
increased,  a  circumstance  which  contributed  much 
to  the  improvement  of  the  country.  The  planters 
situated  on  the  opposite  side  of  Savanna  river  found 
in  the  capital  of  Georgia  a  convenient  and  excellent 
market  for  their  staple  commodities.  In  short,  from 
this  period  the  rice,  indigo  and  naval  stores  of  Georgia 
arrived  at  the  markets  in  Europe  in  equal  excellence 
and  perfection,  and,  iu  proportion  to  its  strength,  in 
equal  quantities  with  those  of  its  more  powerful  and 
opulent  neighbours  in  Carolina.  To  form  a  judg- 
ment of  the  progress  of  the  colony,  we  need  only 
attend  to  its  exports.  In  the  year  1763,  the  exports 
of  Georgia  consisted  of  7500  barrels  of  rice,  96331t>s. 
of  indigo,  1250  bushels  of  Indian  corn,  which,  to- 
gether with  deer  and  beaver-skins,  naval  stores, 
provisions,  timber,  &c.  amounted  to  no  more  than 
27,02R  sterling  ;  but  afterwards  the  colony  thrived 
and  increased  in  a  manner  so  rapid,  that,  in  the 
year  1773,  it  exported  staple  commodities  to  the 
value  of  121,6772.  sterling. 

No  less  favourable  were  the  blessings  of  peace  and 
security  to  their  neighbours  of  Carolina;  for  never 
did  any  country  flourish  and  prospei  in  a  more  as- 
tonishing degree  than  this  province  did  subsequently 
to  the  late  mentioned  war.  The  government  had 
been  given  to  Thomas  Boone,  who  was  not  only  a 
native  of  the  province,  but  had  a  considerable  estate 
in  it,  which  naturally  rendered  him  deeply  inte- 
rested in  its  prosperity.  The  assembly  appropriated 
a  large  fund  for  bounties  to  foreign  Protestants,  and 
such  industrious  poor  people  of  Britain  and  Ireland 
as  should  resort  to  the  province  within  three  years, 
and  settle  on  the  inland  parts.  Two  townships,  each 
containing  48,000  acres,  were  laid  out;  one  on  the 
river  Savanna,  called  Mecklenburgh,  and  the  other 
on  the  waters  of  Santee  at  Long  Canes,  called  Lon- 
donderry ;  to  be  divided  among  emigrants,  allowing 
100  acres  for  every  man,  and  50  for  every  woman 
and  child,  that  should  come  and  settle  in  the  back 
woods.  The  face  of  the  country  in  those  interior 
parts  is  variable  and  beautiful,  and  being  composed 
of  hills  and  valleys,  rocks  and  rivers,  there  is  not 
that  stagnation  in  the  air,  which  is  so  exceedingly 
injurious  in  the  flat  marshy  parts  of  the  province. 
In  consequence  of  the  encouragement  offered,  it  was 
hoped  that  multitudes  would  resort  to  Carolina,  and 
settle  those  extensive  and  fruitful  territories  in  the 
back  woods,  by  which  means  the  frontiers  of  the 
province  would  be  strengthened,  its  produce  in- 
creased, and  its  trade  enlarged. 

Not  long  after  this  a  remarkable  circumstance  oc- 
curred in  Germany,  by  which  Carolina  received  a 
great  acquisition.  One  Stumpel,  who  had  been  an 
officer  in  the  king  of  Prussia's  service,  being  re- 
duced at  the  peace,  applied  to  the  British  ministry 
for  a  tract  of  land  in  America,  and  having  got  some 
encouragement  returned  to  Germany,  where,  by  de- 
ceitful promises,  he  seduced  between  500  and  600 
ignorant  people  from  their  native  country.  When 
these  poor  Palatines  arrived  in  England,  the  officer 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


finding  himself  unable  to  perform  his  promises,  fled, 
leaving  them  in  a  strange  land,  without  money, 
without  friends,  exposed  in  the  open  fields,  and  ready 
to  perish  through  want.  While  they  were  in  this 
starving  condition,  and  knew  no  person  to  whom 
they  could  apply  for  relief,  a  humane  clergyman, 
who  came  from  the  same  country,  took  compassion 
on  them,  and  published  their  deplorable  case  in  the 
newspapers.  A  bounty  of  300Z.  was  allowed  them 
by  government ;  tents  were  ordered  from  the  Tower 
for  the  accommodation  of  such  as  had  paid  their 
passage  and  been  permitted  to  come  ashore ;  and 
money  was  sent  for  the  relief  of  those  that  were  con- 
fined on  board.  The  liberal  citizens  of  London 
formed  a  committee  on  purpose  to  raise  money  for 
the  relief  of  these  poor  Palatines.  A  physician,  a 
surgeon,  and  man-midwife,  generously  undertook  to 
attend  the  sick  gratis;  and  from  different  quarters 
benefactions  were  sent  to  the  committee,  and  in  a 
few  days  these  unfortunate  strangers,  from  the  depth 
of  indigence  and  distress,  were  raised  to  comforta- 
ble circumstances.  The  committee  finding  the  money 
received  more  than  sufficient  to  relieve  their  present 
distress,  applied  to  the  government  for  advice,  which 
sensible  that  Carolina  had  not  its  proportion  of  white 
inhabitants,  signified  its  desire  of  transporting  them 
thither.  Another  motive  for  sending  them  to  Caro- 
lina was  the  bounty  allowed  to  foreign  Protestants 
by  the  provincial  assembly,  so  that  when  their  source 
of  relief  from  England  should  be  exhausted,  another 
would  open  after  their  arrival  in  that  province, 
which  would  help  them  to  surmount  the  difficulties 
attending  the  first  state  of  cultivation.  They  were 
highly  delighted  at  this  arrangement ;  and  two 
$hips,  of  200  tons  each,  were  provided  for  their  ac- 
commodation, with  provisions  of  all  kinds  ;  and  150 
stand  of  arms  from  the  Tower,  were  given  them  for 
their  defence  after  their  arrival  in  America.  Every 
thing  being  thus  arranged  for  their  embarkation,  the 
Palatines  broke  up  their  camp  in  the  fields  behind 
Whitechapel,  and  proceeded  to  the  ships  attended 
by  several  of  their  benefactors  ;  of  whom  they  took 
their  leave  with  songs  of  praise  to  God  in  their 
mouths  and  tears  of  gratitude. 

In  the  month  of  April  1764,  they  arrived  at 
Charlestown,  and  presented  a  letter  from  the  lords 
commissioners  for  trade  and  plantations  to  Governor 
Boone,  desiring  that  as  many  of  them  as  were  versed 
in  the  culture  of  silks  and  vines,  should  have  settle- 
ments provided  in  the  situations  most  proper  for 
those  purposes.  Though  their  settlement  met  with 
some  obstructions  from  a  dispute  subsisting  at  that 
time  between  the  governor  and  assembly  about  cer- 
tain privileges  of  the  house  ;  yet  the  latter  could  not 
help  considering  themselves  as  laid  under  the  strong- 
est obligations  to  make  provision  for  so  many  useful 
settlers;  and  accordingly,  in  imitation  of  the  noble 
example  set  before  them  in  London,  they  voted 
500/.  sterling  to  be  distributed  among  the  Palatines, 
according  to  the  directions  of  the  lieutenant-gover- 
nor, and  iheir  necessities.  That  they  might  be  set- 
tled in  a  body,  one  of  the  two  townships,  called  Lon- 
donderry, was  allotted  for  them,  and  divided  in  the 
most  equitable  manner  into  small  tracts,  for  the 
accommodation  of  each  family.  Captain  Calhoun, 
with  a  detachment  of  the  rangers,  had  orders  to 
meet  them  by  the  way,  and  conduct  them  to  the 
place  where  their  town  was  to  be  built,  and  all  pos- 
sible assistance  was  given  towards  promoting  their 
sjitedy  and  comfortable  settlement. 

Besides  foreign  Protestants,  several  persons  from 
England  and  Scotland  resorted  to  Carolina  after  (he 


peace.  But  of  all  other  countries  none  has  furnished 
the  province  with  so  many  inhabitants  as  Ireland . 
In  the  northern  counties  of  that  kingdom  the  spirit 
of  emigration  seized  the  people  to  such  a  degree, 
that  it  threatened  almost  a  total  depopulation.  Such 
multitudes  of  husbandmen,  labourers  and  manufac- 
turers flocked  over  the  Atlantic,  that  the  landlords 
began  to  be  alarmed,  and  to  concert  means  for  pre- 
venting the  growing  evil.  Scarcely  a  ship  sailed 
for  any  of  the  plantations  that  was  not  crowded  with 
men,  women  and  children.  But  the  bounty  allowed 
new  settlers  in  Carolina  proved  a  great  encourage- 
ment, and  induced  numbers  of  these  people,  not- 
withstanding the  unhealthiness  of  the  climate,  to  re- 
sort to  that  province.  The  merchants  finding  this 
bounty  equivalent  to  the  expenses  of  the  passage, 
from  avaricious  motives  persuaded  the  people  to  em- 
bark for  Carolina,  and  often  crammed  such  numbers 
of  them  into  their  ships  that  they  were  in  danger  of 
being  stifled  during  the  passage,  and  sometimes 
were  landed  in  such  a  starved  and  sickly  condition, 
that  numbers  of  them  died  before  they  left  Charles- 
town.  Many  causes  maybe  assigned  for  this  spirit 
of  emigration  that  prevailed  so  much  in  Ireland  : 
but  of  all  other  causes  oppression  at  home  was  the 
most  powerful ;  which  was  of  such  a  kind  that  many 
preferred  the  unwholesome  climate  of  Carolina,  to 
that  of  their  mother-country.  The  success  that  at- 
tended some  friends  who  had  gone  before  them 
being  also  industriously  published  in  Ireland,  and 
with  all  the  exaggerations  of  travellers,  gavti  vigour 
to  tha  spirit  of  adventure,  and  induced  multitudes 
to  follow  their  countrymen,  and  run  all  hazards 
abroad,  rather  than  starve  at  home.  Government 
connived  at  these  emigrations,  and  every  year 
brought  fresh  strength  to  Carolina,  insomuch  "that 
the  lands  in  Ireland  were  in  danger  of  lyiug  waste 
for  want  of  labourers,  and  the  manufactures  of 
dwindling  into  nothing. 

Nor  were  these  the  only  sources  from  which  Ca- 
rolina, at  this  time,  derived  strength  and  an  increase 
of  population.  For,  notwithstanding  the  vast  ex- 
tent of  territory  which  the  provinces  of  Yirginiaand 
Pennsylvania  contained,  yet  such  was  the  nature  of 
the  country,  that  a  scarcity  of  improveable  lands 
began  to  be  felt  in  these  colonies,  and  poor  people 
could  not  find  spots  in  them  unoccupied  equal  to 
their  expectations.  Most  of  the  richest  valleys  in 
these  more  populous  provinces  lying  to  the  east  of 
the  Alleghany  mountains  were  either  under  patent 
or  occupied,  and,  by  the  royal  proclamation  at  the 
peace,  no  settlements  were  allowed  to  extend  be- 
yond the  sources  of  the  rivers  which  empty  them- 
selves into  the  Atlantic.  In  Carolina  the  case  was 
different,  for  there  large  tracks  of  the  best  lands  as 
yet  lay  waste,  which  proved  a  great  temptation  to 
the  northern  colonists  to  migrate  to  the  south.  Ac- 
cordingly, about  this  time  above  1000  families,  with 
their  effects,  in  the  space  of  one  year  resorted  to  Ca- 
rolina, driving  their  cattle,  hogs  and  horses  over 
land  before  them.  Lands  were  allotted  them  on  the 
frontiers,  and  most  of  them  being  only  entitled  to 
small  tracts,  such  as  one,  two  or  300  acres,  the 
back  settlements  by  this  means  soon  became  the 
most  populous  parts  of  the  province.  The  frontiers 
were  not  only  strengthened  and  secured  by  new  set 
tiers,  but  the  old  ones  on  the  maritime  parts  began 
also  to  stretch  backward  and  spread  their  branches, 
in  consequence  of  which  the  demand  for  lands  in  the 
interior  parts  every  year  increased.  The  governor 
and  council  met  once  a-month  for  the  purpose  of 
granting  lands  and  signing  patents,  and  it  is  incre- 


UNITED  STATES. 


999 


dible  what  numbers  of  people  attended  those  meet- 
ings in  order  to  obtain  them ;  so  that,  from  the 
time  in  which  America  was  secured  by  the  peace, 
Carolina  made  a  most  sudden  rapid  progress  in  po- 
pulation, wealth  and  trade. 

In  proportion  as  the  province  increased  in  the 
number  of  white  inhabitants,  its  danger  from  the 
savage  tribes  grew  less  alarming.  But  to  prevent 
any  molestation  from  the  Indians,  and  establish  the 
peace  of  the  colonies  on  the  most  lasting  foundation, 
the  English  government,  by  royal  proclamations 
after  the  peace,  took  care  to  fix  the  boundaries  of 
their  hunting-lands,  in  as  clear  a  manner  as  the 
nature  of  the  country  would  admit.  No  settlements 
were  allowed  to  extend  any  further  backward  upon 
the  Indian  territories,  than  the  sources  of  those  great 
rivers  which  i'all  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and  all 
British  subjects  who  had  settled  beyond  those  limits 
were  ordered  to  remove.  In  this  restriction  a  dis- 
tinction was  evidently  made  between  the  rights 
of  sovereignty  and  those  of  property ;  the  gover- 
nors being  excluded  from  all  manner  of  jurisdiction 
over  those  lands  which  were  not  specified  within  the 
limits  of  their  respective  provinces.  All  private  sub- 
jects were  prohibited  from  purchasing  lands  from 
Indians  ;  but  if  the  latter  should  at  any  time  be  in- 
clined to  dispose  of  their  property,  it  must  for  the 
future  be  done  to  the  king,  by  the  general  consent 
of  their  nation,  and  at  a  public  assembly  held  by 
British  governors  for  that  purpose.  All  traders  were 
obliged  to  take  out  licences  from  their  respective 
governors  for  carrying  on  commerce  with  Indian 
nations. 

Such  regulations  were  in  many  respects  useful 
and  necessary  ;  for  the  French  and  Spaniards  being 
excluded,  it  only  remained  to  guard  the  provinces 
against  the  danger  arising  from  Indians.  And  as 
they  were  liable  to  much  abuse  and  oppression  from 
private  traders,  it  was  thought  necessary  that  the 
office  of  a  superintendant  should  be  continued  for 
the  southern  as  well  as  the  northern  district  of  Ame- 
rica. Accordingly  this  office  was  given  to  Captain 
John  Stuart,  who  was  in  every  respect  well  qualified 
for  the  trust.  Attakullakulla  had  signified  to  the 
governor  and  council,  after  the  Cherokee  war,  that 
the  province  would  receive  no  molestation  from  In- 
dians were  this  officer  appointed  to  reside  among 
them,  and  to  advise  and  direct  them.  The  assembly 
had  not  only  thanked  him  for  his  good  conduct  and 
great  perseverance  at  Fort  Loudon,  and  rewarded 
him  with  1501M.  currency,  but  also  recommended 
him  to  the  governor  as  a  person  worthy  of  prefer- 
ment in  the  service  of  the  province.  After  his  com- 
mission arrived  from  the  king,  the  Carolineans  re- 
joiced, and  promised  themselves  for  the  future  great 
tranquillity  and  happiness.  Plans  of  lenity  were 
likewise  adopted  by  government  with  respect  to 
those  Indian  tribes,  and  every  possible  precaution 
was  taken  to  guard  them  against  oppression,  and 
prevent  any  rupture  with  them.  Experience  had 
shown  that  rigorous  measures,  such  as  humbling 
them  by  force  of  arms,  were  not  only  very  expen- 
sive and  bloody,  but  was  repugnant  to  humanity, 
and  seldom  accompanied  with  any  good  effects. 

It  has  been  remarked,  that  the  Indians  who  were  at 
the  time  of  its  discovery  a  numerous  and  formidable 
people,  have  since  that  period  been  constantly  de- 
creasing. For  this  rapid  depopulation  many  reasons 
have  been  assigned.  It  is  well  known  that  popula- 
tion every  where  keeps  pace  with  the  means  of  sub- 
sistence. The  Indians  being  driven  from  their  pos- 
sessions near  the  sea  as  the  settlements  multiplied, 


were  robbed  of  many  necessaries  of  life,  particu- 
larly of  oysters,  crabs,  and  fish,  with  which  the  ma- 
ritime parts  furnished  them  in  great  abundance,  and 
on  which  they  must  have  nearly  subsisted,  as  is  ap- 
parent from  a  view  of  their  camps,  still  remaining 
near  the  sea-shore. 

But  famine  and  war,  from  which  they  suffered  so 
much,  were  not  the  only  causes  of  their  rapid  decay. 
The  small-pox  having  broken  out  among  them,  proved 
exceedingly  fatal,  both  on  account  of  the  contagious 
nature  of  the  distemper,  and  their  harsh  and  injudi- 
cious attempts  to  cure  it  by  plunging  themselves  into 
cold  rivers  during  its  most  violent  stages.  The 
pestilence  also  appeared  among  some  nations,  par- 
ticularly among  the  Pemblicos  in  North  Carolina, 
and  almost  swept  away  the  whole  tribe.  The 
practice  of  entrapping  them,  which  was  encou- 
raged by  the  first  settlers  in  Carolina,  and  selling 
them  for  slaves  to  the  West  Indian  planters,  helped 
greatly  to  thin  their  nations.  But  of  all  other  causes, 
the  introduction  of  spirituous  liquors  among  them, 
for  which  they  discovered  an  amazing  fondness,  has 
proved  the  most  destructive.  Excess  and  intemper- 
ance not  only  undermined  their  constitution,  but 
also  created  many  quarrels,  and  subjected  them  to 
a  numerous  list  of  fatal  diseases,  to  which  in  former 
times  they  were  entire  strangers.  Besides  those 
Europeans  engaged  in  commercial  business  with 
them,  generally  speaking,  have  been  so  far  from  re- 
forming them,  by  examples  of  virtue  and  purity  of 
manners,  that  they  rather  corrupted  their  morals,  and 
rendered  them  more  treacherous,  distrustful,  base 
and  debauched  than  they  were  before  this  intercourse 
commenced.  In  short,  European  avarice  and  am- 
bition have  not  only  debased  the  original  nature  and 
stern  virtue  of  that  savage  race,  so  that  those  few 
Indians  that  now  remain  have  lost  in  a  great  mea- 
sure their  primitive  character ;  but  European  vice 
and  European  diseases,  the  consequences  of  vice, 
have  reduced  this  unhappy  people  so  much  that 
many  nations  formerly  populous  are  totally  extinct. 

The  principal  tribes  around  Carolina  that  remain 
are,  the  Cherokees,  the  Catabaws,  the  Creeks,  the 
Chickesaws,  and  Choctaws,  and  a  few  others,  that 
scarcely  deserve  to  be  mentioned.  In  1765  the 
Cherokees,  who  inhabited  the  mountains  to  the  north 
of  Charlestown,  could  scarcely  bring  2000  men  to 
the  field.  The  Catabaws  had  fifteen  miles  square 
allotted  them  for  hunting-lands,  about  '200  miles 
north  of  Charlestown,  with  British  settlements  all 
around  them ;  but  they  were  so  much  reduced  by  a 
long  war  with  the  Five  Nations,  that  they  could  not 
muster  150  warriors.  The  Creeks  inhabit  a  fine 
country  on  the  south-west,  between  400  and  500 
miles  distant  from  Charlestown,  and  the  number  of 
both  the  upper  and  lower  nations  does  not  exceed 
2000  gun-men.  The  Chickesaw  towns  lie  about  600 
miles  due  west  from  Charlestown,  but  the  nation 
annot  send  300  warriors  to  the  field,  owing  to  the 
incessant  wars  which  they  have  carried  on  against 
the  French,  by  which  their  number  has  been  greatly 
diminished.  The  Choctaws  are  at  least  7UO  miles 
west-south-west  from  Charlestown,  and  had  be- 
tween 3,000  and  4,000  gun-men.  It  is  the  geueial 
opinion,  however  much  humanity  may  deplore  it, 
that  the  Red  man  must  fall  before  the  White;  these 
wild,  and,  in  many  respects,  noble  savages  seem, 
from  their  best  characteristics,  to  be  rendered  inca- 
pable of  assimilating  to  the  intruders  of  their  native 
soil.  Their  fierce  disdain,  and  erroneous  pride, 
gradually  drives  them  further  from  the  advances  of 
civilization.  Their  means  of  subsistence  lessen;  they 


1000 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


are  exasperated  into  hostilities ;  and  thus  they  are 
gradually  vanishing  from  the  immense  regions  which 
they  once  solely  possessed. 

Having  now  brought  the  history  of  this  State 
down  to  the  period  of  the  great  war,  we  shall  con- 
clude our  separate  account  of  it  with  the  following 
statement  of  its  then  existent  state,  as  regards  po- 
pulation and  trade.  In  1765  the  number  of  white 
inhabitants  in  Charlestown  amounted  to  between 
5000  and  6000,  and  the  number  of  negroes  to  be- 
tween 7000  and  8000.  With  respect  to  the  number 
of  white  inhabitants  in  the  province  we  cannot  be 
certain,  but  we  may  form  some  conjecture  from  the 
militia  roll ;  for  as  all  male  persons,  from  sixteen  to 
60,  are  obliged  by  law  to  bear  arms,  and  muster 
in  the  regiments,  and  as  the  whole  militia  formed  a 
body  of  between  7000  and  8000,  reckoning  the  fifth 
person  fit  for  military  duty,  the  whole  inhabitants 
in  the  province  might  amount  to  near  40,000.  But 
the  number  of  negroes  was  not  less  than  80,000  or 
90,000.  As  no  exact  register  of  the  births  and  fune- 
rals had  been  kept  at  Charlestown  for  several  years, 
•we  cannot  ascertain  the  proportion  between  them. 
Previously,  when  bills  of  mortality  were  annually 
printed,  the  common  computation  was,  that,  while 
no  contagious  disorder  prevailed  in  town,  one  out 
of  35  died  yearly,  or  one  out  of  each  family  in  the 
space  of  seven  years.  However,  the  list  of  deaths 
is  often  increased  by  the  sailors  and  transient  per- 
sons that  die  in  the  town,  and  by  malignant  distem- 
pers imported  into  it. 

The  merchants  in  Carolina  are  a  respectable  body 
of  men,  industrious  and  indefatigable  in  business, 
free,  open,  and  generous,  in  their  manner  of  con- 
ducting it.  The  whole  warehouses  in  Charls.stown 
were  like  one  common  store,  to  which  every  trader 
had  access  for  supplying  his  customers  with  those 
kinds  of  goods  and  manufactures  which  they  wanted. 


The  merchants  of  England,  after  the  peace  with 
France,  in  1763,  observing  the  colonies  perfectly  se- 
cure, and  depending  on  the  strength  of  the  British 
navy  for  the  protection  of  trade,  vied  with  each  other 
for  customers  in  America,  and  stretched  their  credit 
to  its  utmost  extent  lor  supplying  the  provinces. 
Hence  every  one  of  them  were  well  furnibhed  with 
all  kinds  of  merchandise.  And  as  the  staples  of  Ca- 
rolina were  valuable,  and  in  much  demand,  credit 
was  extended  to  that  province  almost  without  limita- 
tion, and  vast  multitudes  of  negroes,  and  goods  of 
all  kinds,  were  yearly  sent  to  it.  In  proportion  as 
the  merchants  of  Charlestown  received  credit  from 
England,  they  were  enabled  to  extend  it  to  the 
planters  in  the  country,  who  purchased  slaves  with 
great  eagerness,  and  enlarged  their  culture.  Though 
the  number  of  planters  had  much  increased,  yet 
they  bore  no  proportion  to  the  vast  extent  of  terri- 
tory, and  lands  were  still  easily  procured,  either  by 
patent  or  by  purchase.  According  to  the  number 
of  hands  employed  in  labour,  agriculture  prospered, 
and  trade  was  enlarged.  An  uncommon  circum- 
stance also  attended  this  rapid  progress,  which  was 
favourable  to  the  planting  interest,  and  proved  an 
additional  incentive  to  industry.  The  price  of  staple 
commodities  arose  as  the  quantity  brought  to  market 
increased.  In  1761  rice  sold  at  40*.  per  barrel,  and  in- 
digo at  two  shillings  per  lf» ;  but  in  1771  in  so  flourish- 
ing a  state  was  commerce  that  rice  brought  at  market 
3J.  10s.  per  barrel,  and  indigo  three  shillings  per  ft>. 
At  the  same  time  the  quantity  increased  so  much,  that 
the  exports  of  Carolina  amounted,  upon  an  average, 
of  three  years  after  the  peace  of  1763,  to  395,666J. 
13s.  4d. ;  but  in  1771,  the  exports  in  that  year  alone 
arose  to  a  sum  not  less  than  756,000/.  sterling.  But 
the  imports  must  have  been  very  great,  as  the  pro- 
vince, notwithstanding  this  amazing  increase,  still 
remained  in  debt  to  the  mother-country. 


LOUISIANA  AND  FLORIDA. 


[ALTHOUGH these  States  were  not  incorporated  with  i 
the  United  States  until  long  after  the  revolutionary  ' 
war,  it  will  be  necessary  to  give  some  historical  ac- 
count of  them;  as  they  were  early  peopled  by  Euro- 
peans, in  this  respect  differing  from  the  other  States 
of  Tennessee,  Ohio,  &c.,  which,  until  taken  posses- 
sion of  by  the  States'  Government,  were  only  tran- 
siently occupied  by  wandering  Indians. 

Our  notice  of  Florida  can  only  be  incidental,  for 
its  history  contains  little  but  what  has  already  been 
narrated  in  the  account  of  Carolina.  In  1830  the 
population  was  only  34,723,  of  whom  15,510  were 
slaves.] 

Discovery — Vasquez's  piratical  visit — Expedition  of 
Narvaez — also  of  Soto — Moscoso  succeeds  him — Ad- 
ventures of  Ribaut — Fort  Carolina  built — Further 
discoveries — Distress  of  the  colony — Spaniards  in 
Florida — Fort  Carolina  taken  by  them — Merciless 
contests  between  the  French  and  Spaniards — Ac- 
count of,  and  war  with,  the  Indian* — La  Sale's 
progress,  and  death — Adventures  of  Joutd— Disco- 


very of  the  Mississippi — State  of  Louisiana — Ad- 
ventures vf  St.  Denys — Peace  of  1763 — Account 
of  the  Indians. 

Louisiana  is  chiefly  that  country  lying  upon  the 
river  Mississippi,  which  the  French  settled  in  the 
latter  end  of  the  17th  century;  but  it  also  comprises 
a  part  of  Florida,  of  which  the  Spaniards  pretend  to 
be  the  first  discoverers. 

(A.D.  1512.)  John  Ponce  de  Leon,  sailing  from 
the  island  of  Puerto  Rico  with  three  ships,  on  the 
3rd  of  March,  and  steering  north-west,  made  land  on 
the  3rd  of  April  following,  in  the  latitude  of  30  de- 
grees and  8  minutes  north.  As  the  Spaniards  of 
those  days  thought  themselves  sufficiently  warranted, 
by  the  pope's  grants,  to  take  possession  of  the  lands 
in  America,  he  went  through  that  ceremony,  ami 
named  the  country  where  he  landed  Florida,  because 
he  discovered  it  upon  Easter-day,  or  what  the  Spa- 
niards call  Pasqua  des  Fiores.  He  then  sailed  to- 
wards the  south,  coasting  along  the  shore,  but  could 
not,  for  some  time,  discover  any  of  its  natives;  at 


UNITED  STATES. 


1001 


last,  seeing  some  savages,  he  ventured  to  land,  and 
they  attempting  to  rob  him  of  his  boat,  a  skirmish 
ensued,  in  which  two  Spaniards  were  wounded.  He 
afterwards,  in  going  to  water,  made  prisoner  one  of 
the  natives,  who  served  him  as  a  guide  and  interpreter, 
and  erected  a  cross,  with  an  inscription,  upon  the 
banks  of  a  river,  which  is  from  thence  called  Rio  de 
la  Cruz.  All  this  while  Ponce  imagined  Florida  to 
be  an  island,  and.  in  that  persuasion,  returned  through 
the  Lucaya  islands  to  Porto  Rico. 

That  Florida  was  discovered  long  before  this,  ap- 
pears from  Sebastian  Cabot's  own  words  in  1496. 
"  But  after  certain  days,  I  found  that  the  land  ran 
towards  the  north,  which  was  to  me  a  great  displea- 
sure. Nevertheless,  sailing  along  by  the  coast,  to 
see  if  I  could  find  any  gulf  that  turned,  I  found  the 
land  still  continent  to  the  56th  degree  under  our 
pole  ;  and  seeing  that  there  the  coast  turned  toward 
the  east,  despairing  to  find  the  passage,  I  turned 
back  again,  and  sailed  down  by  the  coast  of  that 
land  toward  the  equinoctial  (ever  with  an  intent  to 
find  the  said  passage  to  India),  and  came  to  that 
part  of  this  firm  land  which  is  now  called  Florida, 
where  my  victuals  failing,  I  departed  from  thence, 
and  returned  into  England." 

No  further  attempts  seem  to  have  been  made  after 
that  of  Leon  for  eight  years  by  the  Spaniards  to 
pursue  this  discovery;  and  if  we  are  to  credit  the 
French  writers,  their  Canadians  at  that  time  actu- 
ally traded  with  the  savages  of  Florida.  In  the 
year  1520,  Luke  Vasquez  of  Aylon,  with  some  asso- 
ciates, formed  the  inhuman  project  of  stealing  some 
natives  from  the  neighbouring  islands,  to  supply  the 
scarcity  of  hands  in  working  the  Spanish  mines. 
Fitting  out  two  ships,  he  sailed  from  the  harbour  of 
Plata  in  Hispaniolai  to  the  Lucaya  islands,  and  from 
thence  proceeded  to  that  part  of  Florida  now  called 
St.  Helena,  lying  in  the  32nd  degree  of  north  lati- 
tude. The  natives,  mistaking  his  ships  for  two 
monstrous  fishes  driving  towards  the  shore,  ran  in 
crowds  to  view  them ;  but,  seeing  them  land,  they 
were  so  struck  with  the  clothing  and  appearance 
of  the  Spaniards,  that  they  fled  in  the  utmost  con- 
sternation. Two  of  them,  however,  were  taken  pri- 
soners, and  the  Spaniards  carrying  them  on  board, 
gave  them  food  and  drink,  and  sent  them  back  on 
shore  clothed  in  Spanish  dresses.  This  insidious 
kindness  had  its  desired  effect  with  the  unsuspecting 
savages.  The  king  of  the  country  admired  the 
dresses,  and  the  Spanish  hospitality*  so  much,  that 
he  sent  50  of  his  subjects  to  the  ships  with  fruit  and 
provisions ;  ordered  his  people  to  attend  the  Spani- 
ards whenever  they  had  a  mind  to  visit  the  country ; 
and  made  them  rich  presents  of  gold,  plates  of  silver, 
and  pearls.  The  Spaniards,  having  learned  all  they 
could  concerning  the  country,  watered,  and  re-vic- 
tualled their  ships,  and  invited  a  great  number  of  the 
Indians  on  board,  where  they  plied  them  with  strong 
liquor,  and  weighing  anchor,  carried  them  oft  in  a 
state  of  intoxication.  This  villany,  however,  had 
not  all  the  success  its  perpetrators  expected.  Most 
of  the  unhappy  savages  either  pined  to  death,  or 
were  wrecked  in  one  of  the  ships  that  foundered  at 
sea;  and  only  a  very  few  suffered  a  fate  worse  than 
death,  that  of  being  carried  into  Spanish  slavery. 
This  infamous  treachery  obtained  to  Vasquez  from 
his  Catholic  Majesty,  the  reward  of  a  discoverer  of 


ships  was  wrecked  near  cape  St.  Helen.  These 
losses,  and  his  perceiving  that  the  advantages  arising 
from  his  discoveries  were  but  inconsiderable,  induced 
him  to  return  to  Hispaniola,  where  the  disappoint- 
ment is  said  to  have  broken  his  heart. 

The  next  adventurer  in  the  discovery  of  Florida 
was  Pamphilo  Narvaez,  who  obtained  from  Charles  V. 
a  grant  of  all  the  lands  lying  from  the  river  Palms 
to  the  boundaries  of  Florida,  a  space  of  territory  so 
indefinite,  that  it  reached  as  far  as  the  adventurers 
pleased  to  extend  it  on  a  map.  In  1528  he  sailed 
from  Cuba  with  400  foot,  and  twenty  horse,  and  ar- 
rived at  Florida  on  the  12th  of  April.  His  anchor- 
ing-place  was  so  near  the  land,  that  he  could  discover 
the  huts  of  the  savages  from  his  ships,  and  going  on 
shore,  he  found  a  utensil  made  of  gold,  which  they 
had  left  behind  them  in  their  flight ;  a  circumstance 
from  which  he  concluded  that  all  their  other  utensils 
were  of  the  same  metal ;  and,  landing  his  troops,  he 
again  took  possession  of  the  country  for  the  king  of 
Spain.  The  Indians  seemed  displeased  at  this  ce- 
remony;  but  such  was  the  innate  benevolence  of  the 
people,  that  many  of  them  came  and  supplied  him 
and  his  soldiers  with  maize.  Proceeding  up  the 
country,  he  discovered  four  wooden  boxes,  contain- 
ing bodies  wrapped  up  in  painted  skins,  and  upon 
them  lay  some  pieces  of  stuffs,  both  linen  and  woollen, 
with  some  gold,  which  increased  his  sanguine  ex- 
pectations as  to  the  richness  of  the  country.  He 
ordered  his  troops  to  march  by  land,  and  his  ships  to 
attend  him  by  sea,  and  the  scene  of  his  adventures 
seems  to  have  lain  towards  the  north  coast  of  the 
gulf  of  Mexico.  On  the  1st  of  May  he  began  his 
long,  painful,  and  romantic  march,  against  the  re- 
monstrances of  his  treasurer.  The  fatigues  his  men 
underwent  were  very  great ;  but  the  few  inhabitants 
they  met  with  were  humane  and  hospitable.  An 
Indian  prince,  clothed  in  a  stag's  hide  elegantly 
painted,  with  attendants,  who  blew  horns,  treated 
them  in  his  towns  with  maize  and  venison. 

Rude  as  those  nations  were,  they  knew  that  gold 
was  the  great  motive  of  the  Spanish  invasions,  and 
their  constant  custom  was  to  shift,  upon  more  distant 
nations,  the  crime  of  possessing  that  mischievous 
metal.  The  natives,  where  Narvaez  landed,  pre- 
tended they  had  it  from  the  Apalaches,  and  their 
report  engaged  him  in  that  laborious  march.  At 
last,  on  the  25th  of  June,  he  reached  to  the  village 
of  Apalache,  which  consisted  of  no  more  than  40 
cottages;  but  those  constructed  with  all  the  conve- 
niences, and  furnished  with  all  the  comforts  of  savage 
elegance,  all  which  he  plundered,  many  of  the  un- 
suspecting natives  flying  to  their  marshes,  but  their 
cazique,  or  prince,  fell  into  his  hands.  Narvaez  re- 
mained at  Apalache  25  days,  but  could  make  no 
discoveries.  After  a  march  of  nine  days  southwards, 
during  which  they  were  harassed  by  the  savages 
they  came  to  Aute,  a  village  situated  in  a  country 
abounding  with  corn  and  all  the  necessaries  of  life. 
The  opposition  which  those  Indians  made  to  their 
entering  the  town,  brought  on  a  sharp  engagement, 
wherein  several  Spaniards  were  killed;  but  Nar- 
vaez at  last  made  good  his  quarters,  and  became 
master  of  large  quantities  of  maize,  peas,  gourds, 
and  other  vegetables.  Notwithstanding  this  sea- 
sonable relief,  his  army  was  in  so  miserable  a  con- 
dition, and  the  country  round  was  so  unpromising, 


new  lands.  In  1524  he  sent  over  more  ships  to  that  he  was  forced  to  direct  his  march  towards  the 
Florida,  and  next  year  went  thither  in  person  with  sea,  his  ships  being  now  the  only  refuge  his  soldiers 
three  vessels.  No  commodity  in  America  was  so  could  have  to  save  them  from  perishing.  It  was 
precious  as  men  :  Vasquez  lost  200  of  his,  who  were  with  great  difficulty  they  could  provide  a  kind  of 
landed,  and  cut  off  by  the  natives,  and  one  of  his  ,  boat  to  cross  the  rivers  in  their  way.  Their  ropes 


1002 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


were  made  of  horse-hair,  and  their  sails  of  the  sol- 
diers' shirts,  and  the  savages  took  advantage  of  their 
distress  to  cut  off  ten  of  their  people.  According 
to  their  computation,  from  the  bay  of  Santa  Cruz, 
where  they  landed,  to  the  place  of  embarkation,  they 
had  marched  above  800  miles.  After  they  were 
embarked,  they  had  numberless  dangers  and  diffi- 
culties to  encounter.  They  were  embayed  among 
shoals  and  currents,  distressed  for  want  of  water,  and 
never  landed  without  being  attacked  by  the  natives; 
so  that  many  of  them  were  cut  off  by  the  Indians, 
who  at  last  wounded  the  governor,  and  had  almost 
destroyed  the  whole  army.  His  treasurer,  Cabeca 
de  Vaca,  was  one  of  the  few  that  escaped ;  and  to 
him  we  owe  the  history  of  this  expedition.  When 
they  were  reduced  to  as  much  misery  as  human  na- 
ture could  sustain,  they  touched  upon  a  part  of  the 
coast  inhabited  by  people  who  were  tender-hearted 
and  humane.  Those  few  who  could  land  were  hos- 
pitably relieved  by  the  natives ;  the  rest  were  obliged 
to  devour  one  another.  Of  eighty,  fifteen  only  re- 
mained alive;  and  four  of  them,  after  having  endured 
inexpressible  miseries,  arrived  at  Mexico ;  but  Nar- 
vaez  himself  was  never  heard  of  afterwards. 

(A.  D.  1539.)  Notwithstanding  the  unfortunate 
events  attending  the  above  three  expeditions  to  Flo- 
rida, Ferdinand  de  Soto,  who  was  governor  of  Cuba, 
received  from  Charles  V.  the  title  of  marquis  of 
Florida,  or,  more  properly,  of  the  lands  he  should 
conquer  in  that  country.  This  adventurer  was  brave, 
enterprising,  and  persevering,  from  no  principle  but 
that  of  avarice.  On  the  12th  of  May,  1539,  he  em- 
barked, on  board  nine  ships,  350  horse,  and  900  foot. 
This  was  the  most  formidable  armament,  of  Europe- 
ans that,  till  then,  had  appeared  in  North  America; 
for  his  number  of  sailors  was  proportionable,  and  he 
carried  with  him  all  kinds  of  necessaries.  On  the 
25th  of  the  same  month  he  came  to  anchor  in 
the  bay  of  Spiritu  Sancto,  and  there  disembarked, 
while  the  natives,  at  sight  of  his  ships,  gave  alarms 
by  fires  all  over  the  country.  Moscoso,  who  seems 
to  have  been  the  first  in  command  under  Soto,  drew 
up  the  army,  and,  without  resistance,  took  posses- 
sion of  a  small  village,  where  was  a  temple,  which 
served  as  a  lodgment ;  and  here  the  army  was  can- 
toned; but  the  Spaniards  met  with  an  irreparable 
loss  by  the  desertion  of  two  Floridan  interpreters; 
and  the  country  round  was  so  marshy,  that  they 
could,  at  first,  lay  bold  of  none  oFthe  natives.  Soto's 
soldiers  at  last  took  four  of  them,  but  they  were  res- 
cued by  their  countrymen,  who  furiously  attacked, 
and  drove  the  Spanish  detachment  back  to  their 
head-quarters.  Another  party  fell  upon  ten  or  twelve 
Indians,  amongst  whom  was  John  Ortiz,  a  noble 
Spaniard,  who  could  not  be  distinguished  from  a 
native  of  the  country.  He  had  served  under  Nar- 
vaez,  and  been  taken  prisoner,  but  his  life  was 
spared  by  the  Floridans.  He  surrendered  himself 
to  his  countrymen,  and  persuaded  the  Indians  to  go 
along  with  the  detachment  to  the  Spanish  camp, 
where  they  were  received  with  great  e-xultation. 
Ortiz,  it  seems,  owed  his  life  to  the  interposition  of 
a  female,  daughter  of  the  chief  by  whom  he  was 
taken.  Humanity  alone  was  her  motive,  without 
any  amorous  inclination ;  for  she  advised  Ortiz  to 
fly  to  a  neighbouring  chief,  who  she  knew  would 
receive  him  favourably,  and  showed  him  in  person 
part  of  his  way.  Moc'oso  (for  that  was  the  name  of 
the  chief,)  received  him  kindly,  and  favoured  him 
with  his  particular  protection  above  twelve  years. 
When  he  heard  of  the  landing  of  the  Spaniards,  he 
counselled  him  to  join  his  countrymen,  and  gave 


him,  for  that  purpose,  the  escort  which  the  Spa- 
niards carried  to  their  camp.  Ortiz,  being  equipped 
as  a  Spanish  officer  of  horse,  informed  Soto,  that  at 
the  distance  of  30  leagues,  lay  a  plentiful  country, 
governed  by  Paracoxi,  one  of  the  most  powerful 
princes  on  that  continent.  Mocoso  afterwards  paid 
a  friendly  visit  to  the  Spanish  general,  who  made 
him  a  few  presents,  and  dismissed  him ;  then  Soto 
dispatched  Balthazar  de  Gallegos  to  reconnoitre  the 
country  of  Paracoxi  with  about  30  men  :  that  chief 
hearing  of  the  Spaniards  approach,  left  his  capital, 
but  sent  a  deputation  to  know  what  they  demanded, 
and  whether  he  could  be  of  service  to  them,  but,  at 
the  same  time,  on  pretence  of  an  indisposition,  de- 
clined paying  the  Spaniards  a  visit.  Gallegos  de- 
manded of  the  messenger,  whether  any  country 
thereabouts  produced  gold  and  silver,  and  they  di- 
rected them  to  a  province  called  Cale ;  upon  which 
Gallegos  put  them  in  irons,  that  they  might  be  use- 
ful in  the  march  ;  but  they  found  the  town  deserted. 
The  army  being  at  this  time  half-famished,  were  re- 
freshed by  the  maize  they  found  at  Cale,  the  only 
commodity  it  produced.  The  natives,  willing  to  get 
rid  of  their  rapacious  guests,  directed  the  general  to 
another  plentiful  province,  called  Palache ;  and 
thither  he  marched  against  the  advice  of  all  his  offi- 
cers, carrying  along  with  him,  prisoner,  the  cazique 
of  Caliquieu,  a  province  through  which  he  passed. 
The  Indians  several  times  applied  with  great  humi- 
lity for  the  deliverance  of  their  chief,  but  that  favour 
being  denied  them,  Ortiz,  who  understood  their  lan- 
guage perfectly  well,  learned  from  a  native,  that 
the  cazique's  subjects  and  friends  had  assembled,  to 
the  number  of  400  men,  in  a  neighbouring  wood,  to 
deliver  him  by  force.  Nevertheless,  they  very  ci- 
villy sent  two  messengers  to  intercede  with  the  ge- 
neral for  their  cazique's  deliverance;  but  knowing 
where  the  main  body  was  posted,  he  ordered  his 
soldiers  to  fall  upon  them,  and  40  were  put  to  the 
sword,  while  the  rest,  leaping  into  the  water,  were 
surrounded  by  the  Spanish  horse  in  such  a  manner, 
that  all  of  them  but  twelve,  who  resolved  to  die  ra- 
ther than  become  slaves,  were  obliged  to  surrender. 
Their  slavery  was  so  dreadful,  that  they  rose  upon 
the  Spaniards,  and,  though  armed  with  clubs  only, 
killed  many  of  them  ;  but  at  last  they  were  subdued, 
bound  to  stakes,  and  shot  by  the  Paracoxi  Indians, 
many  of  whom  attended  the  Spanish  camp.  Soto 
pursued  his  march  to  Palache,  through  various 
places  and  provinces,  the  names  of  which  are  now 
lost  ;  all  the  way  chaining  together  the  miserable 
natives  who  fell  into  his  hands,  and  forcing  them  to 
carry  the  baggage  of  his  soldiers.  Upon  his  arrival 
he  quartered  his  army  round  the  residence  of  that 
cazique,  and  was  plentifully  supplied  with  maize, 
beans,  cucumbers,  and  a  sort  of  wild  plums,  more- 
delicious  than  any  to  be  found  in  Europe.  Palache, 
lying  within  ten  leagues  of  the  sea,  Soto  detached 
one  of  his  officers,  Maldonado,  to  reconnoitre,  and  to 
try  whether  he  could  discover  any  country  producing 
gold,  or  a  good  harbour.  Maldouado  discovered  an 
excellent  harbour,  and  was  sent  by  the  general  to 
the  Havannah,  to  procure  a  supply  of  arms  and 
utensils.  A  young  Indian  prisoner  being  brought 
before  Soto,  gave  him  an  account,  that  far  off  "to- 
wards the  east,  lay  a  province  called  Yupaha,  which 
produced  abundance  of  gold ;  and  he  described  the 
manner  of  melting  and  refining  it  with  so  much  ac- 
curacy, that  the  Spaniards  thought  it  impossible 
they  should  be  deceived.  Leaving  Palache.  there- 
fore, they  began  a  most  arduous,  difficult,  and  dan- 
gerous march  to  Yupaha,  in  which  most  of  their 


UNITED  STATES. 


1003 


Indian  prisoners  perished  through  fatigue.  The 
first  place  they  arrived  at  was  Capachiqui,  from 
whence  they  proceeded  to  Toalli.  where  they  found 
the  natives  living  in  a  convenient  comfortable  man- 
ner, far  beyond  all  the  Floridans  they  had  seen. 
The  next  town  m  their  route  was  Achese,  where 
Soto  impudently  pretended  to  the  cazique,  who  hos- 
pitably came  to  visit  him,  that  he  was  the  son  of  the 
Sun,  and  set  at  liberty  all  the  cazique's  subjects  whom 
he  had  taken  prisoners.  On  the  24th  of  April,  the 
army  arrived  at  Altaraca ;  and  from  thence  advanced 
to  Ocute,  where  the  cazique  sent  2000  men  with  pre- 
sents to  the  general,  and  gave  him  400  of  his  sub- 
jects for  service.  The  Spaniards  afterwards  visited 
Cosaqui,  and  Patofa ;  the  country  all  the  way  for 
f)f)  miles  presenting  a  most  beautiful  appearance. 
The  Patofans  said  they  knew  of  no  such  country  as 
Yupaha;  but  Soto  still  pursued  his  march  to  the 
eastward,  though  the  Patofans  directed  him  to  a 
fertile  province  lying  to  the  north-west.  The  march 
proved  so  tedious,  that  the  general  threatened  to 
throw  the  young  Indian  who  had  deceived  him  to 
the  dogs  ;  but  he  was  saved  by  the  interposition  of 
Ortiz.  Soto,  in  vain,  sent  out  parties  to  make  dis- 
coveries, and  his  army  must  have  perished  for  want 
of  provisions,  had  it  not  been  for  some  swine  he  had 
brought  to  Florida,  and  carried  along  \vith  him, 
and  which  had  multiplied  extremely.  At  last  Dan- 
husco,  one  of  his  officers,  who  had  been  sent  out  on 
a  reconnoitring  party,  returned  with  an  account  of 
his  having  discovered  a  town,  at  the  distance  of 
about  36  miles;  a  report  which  revived  the  spirits 
of  the  army  ;  but  they  were  obliged  to  dismiss  the 
Patofans,  who  had  served  the  Spaniards  with  great 
fidelity  and  affection.  On  the  2Gth  of  April  the 
general  took  possession  of  this  town,  and  understood 
that  near  it  lay  another  nation,  called  Catifachiqui, 
which  was  governed  by  a  woman.  Soto  sent  his  com- 
pliments to  that  princess,  who  returned  her's  by  her 
sister;  and  soon  after  she  herself  appeared  in  a 
canoe,  attended  by  many  others,  with  all  the  state 
of  her  country.  She  was  received  with  great  solem- 
nity by  Soto,  whom  she  presented  with  a  fine  pearl 
necklace,  and  supplied  his  army  with  provision. 
Her  country  was  pleasant,  and  her  people  more  . 
civilized  than  Soto  had  met  with  in  Florida,  wearing 
clothes  and  drawers.  Here  the  Spaniards  found  a 
very  advantageous  port  for  the  ships  from  New  Spain, 
Peru,  St.  Martha,  and  the  main  ;  and  most  of  them 
wanted  to  settle  on  the  spot;  but  gold  being  the  sole 
view  of  the  general,  he  rejected  all  their  applica- 
tions, and,  pretending  that  Maldonado  was  to  wait 
for  them  at  Ochuse,  prepared  to  set  out  for  Catifa- 
chiqui. 

The  Spaniards  had  behaved  with  such  rudeness 
and  barbarity  to  the  attendants  of  the  female  cazique, 
that  she  had  formed  a  design  of  escaping  from  them, 
but  was  most  infamously  put  under  arrest  by  Soto, 
notwithstanding  the  generous  manner  in  which  she 
had  received  him,  and  obliged  to  attend  his  army 
on  foot  as  a  prisoner  for  seven  days'  march  through 
a  desert  country,  until  they  reached  Chalagne.  Thus 
basely  betrayed  into  slavery,  she  discovered  no  sign 
of  reluctance  or  discontent ;  but  ordered  her  subjects 
to  carry  the  Spanish  baggage,  and  dissembled  so 
well,  that  on  their  march  to  Xualla,  she  found  means 
to  escape,  carrying  oft'  with  her  a  casket  of  very 
valuable  pearls.  This  elopement  was  a  great  morti- 
fication and  disappointment  to  Soto,  who  intended 
to  have  kept  her  as  a  pledge  for  his  own  security, 
in  traversing  tha  extended  dominions  she  possessed, 
many  of  the  neighbouring  caziques  being  her  tribu- 


taries. In  the  mean  time,  he  sent  a  messenger  to 
the  cazique  of  Chiaha,  desiring  him  to  provide  maize 
for  his  army,  as  he  intended  to  reside  for  some  days 
in  his  dominions.  The  country  from  Catifachiqui 
was  beautiful  and  fertile,  and  "naturally  produced 
fruit  as  delicious  as  any  to  be  found  in  the  best  Eu- 
ropean gardens.  After  five  days'  march,  the  army 
approached  Chiaha,  where  the  general  met  with  a 
most  hospitable  reception  from  the  cazique;  the 
Spaniards  here  found  lard  made  of  bears'  fat,  and 
likewise  honey,  the  first  they  had  seen  in  Florida. 
This  country  presented  them  with  the  face  of  tran- 
quillity ;  the  people  were  generous  and  peaceable ; 
and  the  soil  so  fertile,  that  the  Spanish  horses  soon 
grew  fat  in  grazing  in  the  neighbouring  meadows. 
In  short,  the  situation  of  the  Spaniards  here,  after 
the  vast  fatigue  they  had  undergone,  was  so  agree- 
able, that  Soto  did  not  resume  his  march  for  30  days  : 
he  then  demanded  of  the  cazique  30  of  his  subje'cts 
to  carry  his  baggage  ;  and  obtained  his  request,  with 
some  difficulty  ;  for  those  princes  are  obliged  on  such 
occasions  to  consult  their  people. 

Soto's  appetite  for  gold  and  silver  still  prevailed  ; 
and  the  cazique  of  Acoste,  who  came  to  pay  him  his 
compliments,  informed  him,  that  the  province  of 
Chisca,  towards  the  north,  produced  copper,  with 
other  metals  of  a  more  lively  appearance.  This  in- 
formation was  sufficient  to  add  wings  to  his  expedi- 
tion. On  the  12th  of  July,  he  arrived  at  Acoste, 
where  he  was  received  with  great  hospitality  by  the 
cazique  ;  but  his  soldiers  beginning  to  rans'ack  and 
plunder  the  town,  the  Indians  fell  upon  them,  and 
the  general's  person  being  in  the  hands  of  the  sa- 
agps,  he  must  have  lost  his  life,  had  he  not,  with 
great  presence  of  mind,  joined  in  chastising  the  pil- 
lagers. This  act  of  justice  reconciled  the  cazique  to 
him  so  effectually,  that  he  found  means  to  draw  him 
with  some  of  his  principal  attendants  to  bis  camp, 
where  he  put  them  all  under  arrest ;  and  declared 
that  they  should  not  regain  their  liberty  till  they 
hould  have  furnished  guides  for  his  soldiers.  Hav- 
ing complied  with  these  terms,  he  was  n-leased  ;  the 
Spaniards  proceeded  to  Tali ;  and  on  the  16th  of 
July  arrived  at  Cosa,  where  the  cazique  of  the  place 
metthem  in  great  state,  before  they  entered  the  town. 
He  was  clothed  in  a  robe  of  martens'-skins  ;  he  wore 
on  his  head  a  feather  diadem ;  and  the  litter  on 
which  he  sat  was  carried  on  the  shoulders  of  his  no- 
bles ;  his  other  subjects  played  round  it  with  instru- 
ments of  music.  The  reception  the  Spaniards  met 
with  in  this  delightful  country,  which  was  well  peo- 
pled, well  cultivated,  and  abounded  with  all  the 
beauties  of  nature,  was  the  most  hospitable  that  can 
b«  conceived  ;  for  the  inhabitants  resigned  even  their 
own  houses  for  the  accommodation  of  the  Spaniards. 
But  when  Soto,  according  to  custom,  put  their  ca- 
zique under  arrest,  the  inhabitants  fled  to  the  woods, 
from  whence  they  could  not  be  drawn,  but  by  the 
entreaties  of  the  cazique  himself,  to  carry  the  bag- 
gage of  the  Spaniards. 

On  the  20th  of  August,  Soto  continued  his  march 
to  Tallimachuse,  Ilava,  Ulliballi,  Toasi,  andTallise, 
a  large  town  lying  in  the  midst  of  a  well  cultivated 
country ;  where  he  dismissed  the  cazique  of  Cosa, 
whom,  till  then,  he  had  most  ungratefully  and  un- 
generously detained  in  captivity.  From  thence  he 
marched  to  Tascaluca,  the  residence  of  a  powerful 
prince,  who  reigned  over  well  cultivated  and  popu- 
lous countries.  This  cazique  received  Soto  sitting 
in  a  balcony,  with  great  state ;  but  the  Spaniard 
seating  himself  by  him,  whispered  in  his  car,  that 
he  was  his  prisoner,  an;i  he  was  obliged  to  attend  hint 


1004 


THE  1IISTOR5T  OF  AMERICA. 


accordingly,  in  his  march  to  Piache;  but  he  found 
means  to  make  his  escape,  and  never  more  would 
maintain  the  least  correspondence  with  the  Spani- 
ards, whom  he  very  justly  considered  as  a  cruel,  ra- 
pacious, and  perfidious  race.  Soto  now  wanted  to 
treat  with  this  Indian  whom  he  had  so  lately  at- 
tempted to  enslave  ;  but  his  advances  were  treated 
with  silent  disdain.  One  of  the  savage  chiefs  being 
wantonly  wounded  by  a  Spaniard,  the  natives  ran 
to  arms,  wounded  and  drove  Soto  out  of  their  town, 
killed  five  of  his  attendants,  and  made  prize  ot  all 
his  valuable  baggage,  with  a  great  quantity  of  arms. 
Soto  regaining  his  camp,  charged  the  savages  at  the 
head  of  his  cavalry,  and  drove  them  behind  the  pali- 
sade, and  then,  bringing  all  his  army  up,  he  at- 
tempted to  storm  the  town.  The  savages  had  sent 
off  their  cazique.  with  the  most  valuable  baggage 
they  had  taken  from  the  Spaniards,  to  a  place  of 
safety,  and  resolved  to  defend  themselves  to  the  last 
extremity ;  but  as  they  were,  in  a  manner  naked, 
the  Spaniards  forced  their  way  into  the  town,  and 
slaughtered  the  inhabitants  to  the  number  of  2500. 
Such  are  the  infamous  acts  of  inhumanity,  that  have 
marked  the  progress  of  the  Spaniards  in  all  their 
American  conquests. 

On  the  18th  of  November,  Soto  resumed  his  march, 
and  after  various  adventures,  arrived  at  Chicocha, 
where  he  resolved  to  pass  the  winter  ;  the  country 
being  pleasant  and  fertile.  He  was  well  received 
by  the  cazique  ;  but  in  the  course  of  the  winter  the 
Spaniards  behaved  so  little  to  the  satisfaction  of  the 
natives,  that  in  March,  when  Soto  was  about  to  move 
his  army,  he  could  not  obtain  a  supply  of  Indians 
for  his  service.  At  last,  the  natives  rose,  and  at- 
tacked the  Spaniards  in  the  night,  setting  fire  to 
the  town  where  they  wore  quartered.  In  all  proba- 
bility, the  whole  body  would  have  been  destroyed, 
had  not  the  horses,  breaking  loose,  intimidated  the 
savages,  who  retired  with  precipitation  after  having 
burned  the  town  and  all  the  Spanish  effects  it 
contained.  Twelve  Spaniards  were  killed,  many 
wounded  or  scorched  by  the  flames;  but  50  horses 
were  burnt,  together  with  400  pigs,  an  animal  which 
the  Spaniards  had  imported  into  Florida,  where  it 
throve  prodigiously,  and  the  Indians  were  so  fond  of 
its  flesh,  that  many  quarrels  happened  on  that  ac- 
count between  them  and  the  Spaniards.  The  latter 
had  now  no  shelter  against  the  inclemency  of  the 
weather,  till  a  soldier  invented  a  robe,  woven  of  dry 
grass,  which  served  as  a  kind  of  clothing  to  the 
•whole  army.  Had  the  Indians  attacked  them  in  this 
distress,  they  might  have  been  ruined  ;  but  they  de- 
layed giving  them  any  molestation  till  the  15th  of 
March,  when  the  Spaniards  were  so  well  provided 
to  receive  them,  that  they  were  repulsed  with  the 
loss  of  40  men. 

Soto  then  pursued  his  march  ;  but  was  opposed  at 
Alimama,  by  the  Indians,  who  had  intrenched  them- 
selves behind  a  palisade,  and  for  some  time  fought 
them  very  bravely,  till  being  obliged  by  the  Spanish 
fire-arms  to  retire,  they  threw  themselves  into  a  river 
which  they  crossed  by  swimming.  After  a  fatiguing 
inarch  of  seven  days,  the  Spaniards  surprised  Quiz- 
quiz,  and  made  the  cazique's  mother  a  prisoner. 
Soto  intended  to  keep  her  as  a  pledge  for  her  son's 
friendship,  but  offered  to  set  her  at  liberty,  provided 
the  cazique  would  come  to  his  camp.  The  savage 
refused  to  trust  him,  till  his  mother  and  all  the  other 
prisoners  were  delivered  up,  a  condition  with  which 
Soto,  whose  army  was  upon  the  point  of  perishing, 
was  obliged  to  comply.  All  that  this  compliance 
gained  him,  was  liberty  to  proceed  unmolested  to 


Rio  Grande.  Here  he  found  a  station  that  afforded 
maize,  and  wood  for  building  boats,  and  he  was  vi- 
sited in  great  state  by  the  « azique  of  the  place,  who 
was  very  powerful,  attended  by  200  canoes.  After 
some  conference,  the  cazique  made  a  seasonable 
present  of  fish,  and  a  sort  of  cakes,  of  plum  paste  ; 
but  he  could  not  be  persuaded  to  land:  and  it  was 
thought  he  would  have  attacked  the  Spaniards,  had 
he  found  them  off  their  guard.  Our  adventurers 
then  crossed  the  river,  which  was  the  largest  in  Flo- 
rida, but  were  all  the  while  exposed  to  the  arrows 
of  the  savages.  Traversing  the  province  of  Quixo, 
they  entered  that  of  Pacha,  and  proceeded  to  Cas- 
qui,  the  cazique  of  which  being  at  war  with  him  of 
Pacaha,  through  whose  territories  Solo's  march  lav, 
entertained  him  and  his  attendants  very  hospitably. 
The  arrogant  Spaniard  pretending  to  be  son  of  the 
Sun,  the  cazique  brought  him  two  blind  men  to  be 
cured,  as  a  proof  of  his  divine  extraction,  which 
however  he  could  not  authenticate  in  this  manner. 
Here  his  army  passin*  the  river,  upon  a  bridge  most 
ingeniously  constructed  by  the  savages,  and  falling 
into  the  province  of  Pacaha,  he  was  followed  by  the 
cazique  of  Casqui,  and  his  army.  The  cazique  of 
Pacaha,  at  first,  stood  upon  the  "defensive  in  a  little 
island,  from  whence  being  driven,  a  considerable 
booty  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Casquiaris,  who,  find- 
ing that  the  Spaniards  were  strongly  inclined  to 
claim  it,  separated  from  their  army ;  a  secession 
which  obliged  Soto  to  take  the  Pacahan  cazique  into 
his  friendship,  and,  at  last,  to  reconcile  the  two 
chiefs  together.  He  remained  40  days  in  this  station  ; 
but,  not  being  able  to  discover  any  road  to  Chisca, 
the  fancied  land  of  gold  and  silver,  he  returned  to 
Casqui,  and,  on  the  4th  of  August,  arrived  at  Qui- 
gate,  the  largest  town  the  Spaniards  had  seen  in 
Florida.  Great  part  of  it  was  burnt  by  way  of  pre- 
caution by  Soto,  and  its  cazique  being  made  pri- 
soner, he  was  by  him  directed  to  the  province  of 
Coligors  to  which  they  marched  through  a  road  so 
very  marshy,  that  they  were  sometimes  obliged  to 
sleep  in  the  water.  Having  travelled  about  40 
leagues  in  this  uncomfortable  manner,  they  pro- 
ceeded to  Paliseme,  and  from  thence  to  Tafulicoya, 
where  the  cazique  furnished  them  with  a  guide  to 
Cayas,  where  the  army  remained  a  whole  month. 
Here  the  natives  manufactured  salt,  a  commodity 
which  the  Spaniards  had  not  before  seen  in  Florida, 
and  the  grass  fattened  their  horses  to  an  amazing 
degree.  Soto,  as  usual,  made  the  cazique  his  pri- 
soner, and  demanded  a  guide  to  Tulla,  which  lay  a 
clay  and  a  halfs  journey  to  the  southward;  but,  he 
having  been  long  at  war  with  that  people,  no  inter- 

rcter  could  be  procured. 

Nevertheless  Soto  set  out  with  a  party  of  horse 
and  foot;  but  was  soon  oblige i  to  return,  the  na- 
tives having  fallen  upon  the  army  he  hai  left.  The 
people  of  Tulla  at  first  made  resistance,  but  Soto  cut 
off  the  right  hands  and  noses  of  six  individuals,  and 
sent  them  in  that  condition  to  their  cazique,  threa- 
tening that,  unless  he  submitted,  he  would  treat 
himself  and  all  his  subjects  in  the  same  manner. 
This  menace  had  the  desired  effect ;  and  amongst 
other  presents  he  received,  were  a  great  many  cow- 
skins  covered  with  wool,  as  soft  as  that  of  sheep, 
which  in  that  cold  country  was  of  infinite  seivice  to 
the  Spaniards.  Upon  inquiry,  he  found  that  he  was 
within  80  leagues  of  Autiamque  ;  which  was  de- 
scribed as  a  plentiful  populous  country,  situated  near 
a  great  lake,  which  he  thought  might  be  an  arm  of 
he  sea.  There  he  resolved  to  establish  his  winter- 
quarters,  in  hopes  of  being  able  to  open  a  commu- 


UNITED  STATES. 


1 005 


nicatio-n  with  Cuba.  This  was  the  more  accessary 
as  he  had  now  lost  above  250  of  his  men  :  and 
consequently  needed  a  reinforcement.  Having 
marched  through  the  towns  of  Annouxi  and  Cata- 
maya,  he  arrived  at  Autiamque.  and  fortified  his 
camp  with  a  wooden  palisade.  The  caziques  sent 
him  presents,  but  would  not  visit  him  in  person  :  and 
perceiving  from  Soto's  evasive  manner,  that  he-  in- 
tended to  remain  some  time  in  his  country,  he  at- 
tempted to  force  him  away  ;  but  Soto  kept  his  people 
so  alert,  that  his  camp  was  not  to  be  surprised,  and 
the  Indians  could  not  attack  him  in  any  other  man- 
ner. While  he  lay  in  this  situation,  his  army  had 
great  plenty  of  provisions,  and  particularly  of  fine 
large  rabbits. 

<A.D.  1542.)  On  the  Gth  of  March,  Scto  marched 
from  Autiamque  with  his  army,  which  was  now  re- 
duced to  300  men,  and  40  horses,  several  of  them 
lame  ;  amongst  others,  John  Ortiz  died  at  Autiamque 
to  the  inexpressible  loss  of  Soto  ;  whose  design  was 
to  reach  Nilco,  from  whence  he  hoped  to  have  a  pas- 
sage to  the  sea.  After  a  fatiguing  march,  through 
a  marshy  country,  he  arrived  at  Tutelpina,  and  in 
three  days  advanced  to  Tianto,  in  the  province  of 
Nilco,  which,  excepting  Palache  and  Cosa,  appeared 
to  be  the  most  fertile  and  best  peopled  of  any  they 
had  seen  in  Florida.  He  proceeded  to  Guachoya, 
the  cazique  of  which  fled  at  his  approach;  but,  after- 
wards made  apologies  for  his  retreat,  and  diiected 
him  to  the  dominions  of  one  Quigaltan,  which  lay 
three  days'  journey  down  the  river  on  the  opposite 
shore.  The  difficulties  which  occurred  to  the  scout- 
ing parties,  who  were  sent  out  to  know  whether 
Quigaltan's  country  lay  near  the  sea,  were  so  great 
that  the  vexation  they  occasioned  threw  Soto  into  a 
fever.  Nevertheless,  such  was  his  pride  and  arro- 
gance, that  he  sent  a  message  to  the  cazique  of  Qui- 
galtan commanding  him  to  come  and  pay  him  ho- 
mage iii  person.  The  cazique  returned  an  answer  full 
of  scorn  and  indignation,  setting  the  .Spaniard  at 
defiance.  Soto  exasperated  at  this  affront,  sent  a 
detachment,  which,  in  conjunction  with  the  natives 
of  Guachoya,  committed  a  most  horrible  and  un- 
provoked massacre  upon  the  inhabitants  of  Nilco, 
while  he  himself,  confined  to  his  death-bed,  piously 
poured  out  his  soul  in  acknowledgments  to  God  for 
having  enabled  him  to  shed  such  torrents  of  innocent 
blood,  and  in  exhorting  his  followers  to  tread  in  his 
most  Christian  footsteps;  for  which  purpose  he  no- 
minated as  his  successor,  his  lieutenant-general, 
Lewis  Moscoso  d'Alvarado,  to  whom  the  Spaniards 
immediately  swore  obedience. 

Moscoso  took  great  care  to  conceal  Soto's  death 
from  the  savages,  whom  he  endeavoured  to  persuade, 
that  he  was  only  gone  to  heaven  for  a  short  excur- 
sion according  to  custom ;  but  they  suspected  the 
truth,  and  the  cazique  of  Guachoya  sent  Moscoso 
two  very  handsome  young  Indians  to  accompany  the 
general  to  the  other  world.  Moscoso  then  deliber- 
ated about  the  course  they  were  to  pursue,  whether 
to  make  the  best  of  their  way  by  land  to  the  Spanish 
settlements,  or  endeavour  to  reach  Cuba  by  sea  :  the 
former  scheme  was  adopted  ;  and  on  the  5th  of  June 
the  Spaniards  quitted  Guachoya.  After  six  days' 
march  through  a  desert,  they  reached  Chauguate, 
in  which  province  they  remained  two  days.  On  the 
4th  of  July  they  arrived  at  Aguacay ;  from  whence 
they  proceeded  to  the  province  of  Maye.  and  thence 
to  Naguata.  Here  they  were  attacked  by  the  sa- 
vages, but  hunger  and  despair  rendering  them  invin- 
cible, they  forced  their  passage  across  a  river,  where 
1he  cacique's  habitation  lay,  and  entered  a  most  plcn 


tiful  country.  The  cazique  made  his  submission, 
throwing  the  blame  of  all  that  had  happened  upon 
his  brother,  who  had  been  killed  by  the  Spaniards 
in  the  attack,  and  he  was  taken  into  particular  fa- 
vour by  Moscoco.  The  swelling  of  rivers,  though 
no  rain  had  fallen,  detained  him  eight  days  in  this 
province;  but  in  three  days  more  he  reached  Miso- 
bone,  and  Lacane,  both  of  them  lying  in  the  midst 
of  wild  deserts.  He  advanced  to  Mondaca,  proceeded 
to  Soacatino,  and  penetrating  through  the  province 
of  Aays,  where  they  were  dreadfully  harassed  by  the 
natives,  reached  Nagiscosa,  after  having  sustained 
incredible  hardships  and  fatigue.  By  this  time  they 
were  become  a  band  of  wretched  outcasts,  and  wan- 
dered they  scarcely  knew  whither.  Surrounded  as 
they  were  by  wilds  and  deserts  they  had  no  object  oa 
which  they  could  exercise  their  courage,  nor  could 
they  exert  any  virtue  bnt  patience.  After  consul- 
tation they  resolved  to  return  to  Nilco,  hoping  from 
thence  to  effect  a  passage  to  Cuba.  In  measuring 
back  the  route  they  had  followed,  they  were  not  a 
little  surprised  to  see  that  the  industry  and  activity 
of  the  savages  had  repaired  all  the  horrible  ravages 
which  they  themselves  had  committed.  The  town 
of  Naguata,  which  they  had  destroyed,  was  rebuilt, 
and  the  natives  were  employed  in  a  manufacture  of 
earthen  dishes,  resembling  those  of  Spain  and  Hol- 
land. Upon  their  arrival  at  Nilco,  they  found  the 
inhabitants  not  yet  recovered  from  the  consterna- 
tion into  which  the  Spaniards  had  thrown  them,  and 
their  country  was  void  of  all  the  means  of  subsist- 
ence. But  in  the  neighbouring  province  of  Minoya, 
they  met  with  prodigious  quantities  of  maize,  and 
wood  fit  for  ship-building.  Through  incredible  in- 
dustry and  application,  seven  brigar.tines  were  built, 
and  upon  the  sudden  swelling  of  the  waters  at  the 
increase  of  the  moon,  they  were  floated.  On  the 
2nd  of  July,l543,  the  Spaniards  embarked,  and  sailed 
down  the  river  amidst  clouds  of  Indian  airows,  which 
poured  on  every  side,  and  killed  a  great  many  of 
their  men.  After  a  most  uncomfortable  passage  of 
52  days,  the  survivors  arrived  at  Panico  on  the 
continent  of  Mexico  on  the  10th  of  September, 
1543.  Thus  ended  the  expedition  of  Ferdinand 
de  Soto  and  Moscoso,  in  disappointment,  ruin,  and 
disgrace ;  and  it  is  a  great  misfortune  to  the  inte- 
rests of  humanity  that  they  ever  met  with  bettersuc- 
cess  in  any  of  their  American  expeditions.  We 
hear  nothing  more  of  Florida  till  the  celebrated 
Admiral  Coligny  obtained  permission  of  Charles  IX. 
to  transplant  thither  a  colony  of  French  huguenots, 
whom  he  was  glad  to  be  rid  of. 

This  last  circumstance  suggested  to  the  famous 
Admiral  de  Coligny  the  idea  of  transplanting  to 
Florida  a  colony  of  French.  Coligny  committed  the 
execution  of  this  project  to  one  Ribaut,  a  native  o* 
Dieppe,  an  experienced  sailor,  and  a  zealous  reli- 
gionist. On  the  18th  of  February,  1562.  Ribaut 
sailed  from  Dieppe,  with  two  ships  Avell  equipped,  the 
crews  consisting  of  excellent  sailors,  with  a  body  of 
land  forces,  amongst  whom  were  several  gentlemen- 
volunteers.  To  the  first  land  which  he  discovered, 
which  was  woody,  though  low,  he  gave  the  name  of 
Cape  Francois.  Turning  to  the  right,  he  disco- 
vered the  river  Dauphin,  without  entering  it ;  then 
sailed  to  the  river  May,  so  called  from  his  enter- 
ing it  on  the  first  day  of  that  month.  Here  he  was 
welcomed  by  great  numbers  of  the  natives,  and  he 
erected  a  kind  of  stone  column,  on  which  the  arms 
of  France  were  engraved.  This  ceremony  being 
performed,  he  visited  the  cazique  of  the  savages,  and 
made  him  some  presents.  He  afterwards  steered  for 


1006 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  river  Jourdain,  which  had  been  discovered  by 
Vasquez,  and  coasted,  still  keeping  sight  of  the  land, 
all  along  the  shore  of  what  is  now  known  as  Caro- 
lina. Arriving  at  the  river  of  St.  Croix,  he  built 
a  fort  which  he  called  Charles  fort,  in  the  midst  of 
a  most  delightful  country  ;  the  neighbouring  rivers 
abounding  with  fish,  and  the  savages  being  extremely 
friendly  :  but  he  could  not  prevail  with  any  of 
them  to  follow  him  to  France,  where  he  intended  to 
present  them  to  his  court,  and  his  patron,  the  ad- 
miral. «» 

Ribaut,  having  made  a  settlement  round  his  new- 
built  fort,  left  one  of  his  officers,  named  Albert,  to 
command  it,  and  he  himself  returned  to  Dieppe, 
where  he  arrived  on  the  20th  of  July.  During  his 
absence,  Albert  made  excursions,  in  order  to  ex- 
tend his  discoveries,  and  visited  several  chiefs,  whom 
they  termed  Paraousties:  but  he  fell  into  the  com- 
mon fault  of  all  adventurers.  Instead  of  sowing 
grounds,  and  rearing  stock  for  the  subsistence  of  the 
colony,  he  roved  about  the  country  in  quest  of  gold 
and  silver  mines.  In  a  short  time  his  provisions 
failed  ;  his  powder  and  ball  were  expended  :  the  In- 
dians could  no  longer  supply  his  infant  colony;  his 
colony  could  no  longer  bear  his  tyranny ;  therefore 
they  cut  his  throat,  and  chose  for  his  successor  one 
Barre,  a  prudent,  moderate  man ;  but  Ribaut  not 
returning  according  to  his  promise,  the  colony  pre- 
cariously depended  upon  the  savages  for  subsistence, 
till  they  came  to  have  nothing  before  their  eyes  but 
detlh  by  famine.  In  this  extremity,  there  was  scarce 
an  artisan  or  sailor  amongst  them ;  but  they  made 
shift  to  build  and  rig  out  a  vessel,  by  an  effort  of  in- 
dustry, the  half  of  which,  if  exerted  in  cultivating 
their  lands,  would  have  enabled  them  to  live  com- 
fortably. Putting  to  sea,  in  this  ill-constructed 
vessel,  they  were  driven  about  by  the  waves,  till 
their  water  and  provision  being  quite  consumed,  they 
killed  and  devoured  a  soldier  called  Luchau,  who 
offered  himself  as  a  \ictim  to  appease  their  hunger: 
but  before  they  had  occasion  to  repeat  the  sacrifice, 
they  were  taken  up  by  an  English  ship,  on  board  of 
which  was  a  Frenchman,  who  told  them  that  the 
civil  wars  of  France  had  prevented  their  being  re- 
lieved. 

When  Charles  IX.  and  Coligny  were,  to  appear- 
ance, reconciled,  that  admiral  strongly  solicited  re- 
inforcements for  his  colony ;  and  he  obtained  three 
ships  well  manned  and  victualled  for  succouring 
Charles  fort,  under  the  command  of  one  Rene  de 
Laudonniere,  a  good  officer,  who  had  before  served 
in  that  country  under  Ribaut.  He  carried  along 
with  him  a  number  of  soldiers,  amongst  whom  were 
incorporated  several  gentlemen-volunteers,  who 
served  at  their  own  expense,  with  a  body  of  excellent 
artisans,  all  of  whom  were  Protestants.  The  king 
furnished  Laudonniere  with  50,000  crowns  in  ready 
money ;  and  he  sailed  with  his  three  ships  from 
Havre  de  Grace,  the  22nd  of  April,  1564.  On  the 
22nd  of  June  he  arrived  at  Florida,  where  he  landed, 
and  where  he  was  almost  worshipped  by  one  of  the 
Floridan  princes,  whom  the  French  writers  name 
Paraousti  Saturiova.  This  chief  was  excessively 
fond  of  the  French,  and  brought  to  Laudonniere  his 
two  sons ;  the  eldest  of  whom  was  a  most  amiable 
prince.  At  the  same  time  he  instructed  him  in  the 
state  of  the  country,  of  his  friends,  his  enemies,,  and 
of  every  thing  he  had  either  to  hope  or  fear.  Lau- 
donniere, without  regarding  Charles  fort,  fixed  his 
residence  on  the  banks  of  the  river  May,  and  en- 
gaged the  paraousti  to  make  an  excursion  with  him 
up  that  river.  Having  proceeded  a  little  way.  he 


ordered  his  tent  to  be  pitched,  and  sent  two  of  his 
officers  Ottigny  and  D'Erlac  to  make  discoveries 
higher  up.  In  their  journey  they  met  with  savages, 
entirely  independent  of  Saturu/  va,  who  recovering 
from  the  fright  into  which  the  sight  of  the  French 
had  at  first  thrown  them,  brought  them  to  a  para- 
ousti, said  to  be  250  years  of  ago,  who  received  thorn 
with  great  hospitality.  As  the  finding  mines  of  gold 
and  silver  was  the  great  motive  that  brought  the  co- 
lonists to  America,  they  applied  themselves  entirely 
to  that  object,  without  minding  the  culture  of  the 
lands,  which  were  very  fertile  and  inviting.  Lau- 
donniere was  infected  with  the  same  infatuation, 
and  became  the  dupe  of  the  savage  Saturiova.  That 
sagacious  American  told  him,  that  his  own  country 
afforded  no  silver,  but  that  it  was  the  product  of  a 
distant  land,  governed  by  one  Timagoa,  who  was 
his  mortal  enemy.  Laudonniere  offered  to  assist 
him  in  subduing  this  enemy  ;  and  the  paraousti  eon- 
eluded  a  treaty  with  him  for  that  purpose. 

Laudonniere  either  repented  his  having  pro- 
mised to  engage  in  a  war  that  might  prove  ruinous 
to  an  infant  colony,  or  willing  to  find  out  the  mines 
without  the  assistance  of  the  savages,  decamped,  and 
without  taking  Saturiova  along  with  him,  sailed  up 
another  river,  where  he  met  with  the  paraousti  of 
the  province,  his  wife,  and  four  daughters,  and  was 
hospitably  entertained.  Amongst  other  presents  he 
received  from  this  cazique,  was  one  of  a  small  silver 
bullet.  This  confirmed  Laudonniere  in  his  opinion, 
that  there  was  precious  metal  in  the  neighbourhood. 
Assembling  his  people,  it  was  unanimously  agreed 
to  settle  near  the  mouth  of  the  May,  which  would 
afford  the  shortest  passage  to  the  country  of  the 
mines.  Next  day  their  little  squadron  was'  ordered 
to  repair  to  the  mouth  of  that  river  ;  and,  about 
two  miles  within  land,  fort  Caroline  was  built,  of  a 
triangular  form,  strong  enough  to  withstand  any 
hostile  attack  of  the  Indians.  According  to  Lau- 
donniere's  relation,  Saturiova  was  so  well  pleated 
with  the  company  of  the  French,  that  he  ordered 
his  people  to  assist  in  building  the  fort.  Other  re- 
lations say  with  greater  probability,  that  all  the 
friendship  he  showed  them,  proceeded  entirely  from 
his  fear,  and  that  he  could  not  bear  the  thoughts  of 
their  making  a  settlement  upon  his  territory.  Ilis 
dissimulation  went  so  far  that  he  not  only  furnished 
the  French  with  abundance  of  provisions  of  every 
kind,  but  his  subjects  made  them  presents  of  gold, 
silver  and  pearls,  which  Laudonnitire  ordered  to  be 
deposited  in  one  common  stock. 

As  soon  as  fort  Caroline  was  finished,  he  dis- 
patched one  of  his  vessels  to  France  for  recruits  to 
his  colony,  and  sent  Ottigny  to  improve  his  disco- 
veries in  the  country  of  Timagoa,  particularly  to 
learn  where  the  mines  lay.  Ottigny  was  indefati- 
gable in  his  researches,  and  one  of  his  soldiers  ac- 
tually brought  him  some  pounds  of  silver  ;  but,  in 
fact,  the  French  were  outwitted  by  the  savages. 
They  did  not  agree  amongst  themselves  concerning 
the  places  where  the  mines  were,  though  all  of  them 
pretended  they  were  very  distant,  that  they  might 
remove  the  French  further  off.  Sometimes  they  said 
that  towards  the  Apalachian  mountains  there  was 
found  yellow  iron,  which  the  settlers  immediately 
concluded  to  be  gold,  but  in  reality,  it  was  only  cop- 
per, though  bits  of  gold  were  sometimes  found  washed 
down  the  banks  of  the  rivers  by  torrents.  In  short, 
those  Indians  behaved  so  artfully,  that  they  soon 
stripped  the  French  of  most  of  their  merchandise, 
and  paid  them  only  in  promises.  At  length  Satu- 
riova put  Laudonniere  in  remembrance  of  his  pro- 


UNITED  STATES. 


1007 


mise  to  be  the  friend  of  his  friends,  and  the  enemy 
of  his  enemies,  and  asked  whether  he  was  ready 
to  accompany  him  in  an  expedition  he  was  about  to 
undertake  against  Timagoa.  Laudonniere  pre- 
tended that  his  presence  was  still  necessary  amongst 
the  French  ;  and  that  he  had  not  made  provision  for 
so  long  an  expedition ;  nor  could  he  be  ready  to 
set  out  in  less  than  two  moons.  This  evasion  was 
very  disagreeable  to  Saturiova,  whose  army  was  as- 
sembled to  the  number  of  500  men ;  but  at  that  time 
he  shewed  no  resentment.  Before  he  set  out,  he 
performed  a  kind  of  baptismal  ceremony  amongst 
his  followers,  whom  he  sprinkled  with  water,  and  he 
himself  continued  for  some  time  under  strong  agita- 
tions in  prayer  for  victory  over  his  enemies. 

Then  beginning  his  march,  in  two  days  he  reached 
the  borders  of  Timagoa's  dominions.  Here  it  was 
resolved  that  the  army  should  separate,  one  half  to 
proceed  by  land,  and  the  other  by  water,  towards 
the  town  which  they  were  to  attack,  and  matters 
were  ordered  so  well,  that  both  divisions  arrived  at 
the  same  instant.  All  who  ventured  to  oppose  them 
were  put  to  the  sword,  and  Saturiova  returned  with 
about  24  prisoners,  women  and  children ;  thirteen 
of  whom  fell  to  his  own  share.  Next  day,  Laudon- 
niere sent  his  congratulations  to  him  upon  his  victory, 
and  begged  him  to  send  him  two  of  his  prisoners. 
His  intention  was  to  make  a  friend  of  Timagoa,  by 
sending  him  back  his  prisoners  without  ransom;  but 
Saturiova  flatly  refused  to  comply  with  his  demand. 
The  irsolent  Frenchman,  upon  this  refusal,  taking 
along  with  him  40  of  his  soldiers  completely  armed, 
thrust  himself  into  Saturiova's  cabin,  and  without 
paying  him  any  civility,  demanded  to  see  his  pri- 
soners. At  first  Saturiova,  who  had  added  some  re- 
proaches to  his  denial  of  Laudonniere's  request, 
pretended  that  the  prisoners  had,  upon  seeing  the 
French,  lied  into  the  woods ;  but  perceiving  him- 
self to  be  in  danger,  ordered  them  to  appear,  and 
Laudonniere  committed  them  to  the  care  of  D'Erlac 
and  Le  Vasseur,  to  carry  them  to  their  own  country, 
informing  Saturiova  at  the  same  time,  that  he  took 
this  step  in  order  to  establish  peace  between  him 
and  Timagoa.  The  two  deputies  were  strongly  en- 
joined to  gain  over  Timagoa,  and  to  repair  to  the 
country  of  one  Outina,  a  very  powerful  prince,  and 
endeavour  to  form  an  alliance  between  him  and  the 
French  colony. 

On  the  21st  of  August,  the  most  dreadful  hurri- 
cane happened  that  ever  had  been  seen  in  those 
parts;  attended  with  lightning,  thunder,  and  earth- 
quakes. The  Indians  ascribed  it  to  the  artillery  of 
the  Europeans,  while  the  French  imagined  that  the 
burning  of  the  forests  proceeded  from  the  savages, 
who  wanted  to  force  them  out  of  their  country.  One 
of  Saturiova's  vassals,  who  had  refused  to  give  up 
his  prisoners  to  Laudonniere,  now  sent  him  a  very 
humble  message,  requesting  he  would  cause  the 
storm  to  cease.  The  Frenchman  answered  that  the 
storm  was  owing  to  the  Indian's  obstinacy,  and 
threatened  to  burn  him  in  his  cabin  if  he  did  not 
instantly  deliver  up  the  prisoners.  The  savage 
punctually  complied  with  this  demand  ;  but  was  so 
frightened,  that  he  fled  to  a  considerable  distance, 
and  it  was  two  months  before  he  appeared  again  in 
his  own  dominions. 

On  the  10th  of  September  D'Erlac  and  Vasseur 
set  out  with  the  captives,  under  an  escort  often  men 
and  a  serjeant;  and  having  delivered  up  their 
charge  to  Timagoa,  proceeded  from  Outina's  resi- 
dence, which  lay  at  the  distance  of  127  miles  from 
Fort  Caroline.  They  wore  joyfully  received  by  this 


chief,  who  was  preparing  to  set  out  on  an  expedition 
against  a  neighbouring  prince,  called  Potanou.  He 
invited  D'Erlac  to  accompany  him,  and  he  consented 
to  go  with  half  his  escort,  sending  the  other  half 
back  to  Fort  Caroline  for  fresh  instructions  how  to 
behave  towards  Outina.  This  paraousti  began  his 
march  with  a  small  army ;  but  was  terribly  discon- 
certed, when  he  saw  his  enemy  inarching  against 
him  at  the  head  of  all  his  forces.  He  was,  however, 
encouraged  by  D'Erlac,  who,  in  the  beginning  of  the 
fray,  shot  Potanou  dead ;  upon  which  all  his  army 
lost  heart,  and  took  to  their  heels.  They  were  pur- 
sued by  Outina  and  D'Erlac,  who  made  a  great  num- 
ber of  prisoners,  and  the  paraousti  nobly  rewarded 
the  Frenchman  for  his  service.  Upon  their  return, 
they  found  a  boat  from  Laudonniere,  which  he  had 
dispatched  to  recall  D'Erlac  to  Fort  Caroline,  on 
account  of  some  discontent  which  began  to  appear 
among  the  French  adventurers. 

The  volunteers,  who  were  gentlemen,  complained 
that  they  were  treated  as  hardly  as  the  meanest  ar- 
tisans. Great  dissatisfaction  was  occasioned  by  their 
want  of  a  clergyman  to  perform  divine  service:  but 
their  greatest  grievance  was  a  dearth  of  provision, 
and  a  near  prospect,  of  famine.  Their  discontents 
arose  to  such  a  height,  that  at  last  a  conspiracy  was 
formed  against  the  governor's' life.  Laudonniere 
behaved  on  this  occasion  with  wonderful  prudence 
and  intrepidity.  He  hanged  a  fellow  who  had  be- 
trayed bis  confidence  to  the  conspirators,  and  sent 
off  to  France  in  a  ship  that  happened  to  be  then  in 
the  river,  some  of  the  most  dangerous  amongst  the 
mutineers.  Perceiving  that  many  malcontents  still 
remained,  he  detached  them  under  the  conduct  of 
one  Roche  Ferriere  to  complete  the  discovery  of  Ou- 
tina's canton,  and  kept  Outigny  and  D'Erlac  about 
his  own  person,  being  assured  of  their  fidelity.  Of 
the  two  barks  which  he  employed  for  bringing  pro- 
visions to  the  colony,  one  was  carried  off  by  thirteen 
of  his  people,  and  the  other  by  two  carpenters,  who 
never  were  heard  of  more.  One  Stephen,  a  Gene- 
vois,  and  two  Frenchmen,  called  Des  Fourneaux 
and  La  Croix,  seduced  above  60  men  into  a  scheme 
of  cruising  upon  the  Spaniards,  and  these  were  af- 
terwards joined  by  a  greater  number.  While  Lau- 
donniere was  confined  to  his  bed  by  sickness,  the 
conspirators  entered  his  cabin  in  arms,  and  conveyed 
him  on  board  of  a  vessel  lying  in  the  river.  They 
not  only  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  all  his  remonstrances 
and  entreaties,  but  also  plundered  him  of  his  effects  ; 
and  forced  him,  with  a  dagger  at  his  throat,  to  sign 
a  commission  for  trnir  cruising  upon  the  Spaniards 
in  the  gulf  of  Mexico.  They  then  embarked  on 
board  the  two  new  vessels,  and  set  sail  on  the  8th  of 
December,  with  intention  to  plunder  Yaguana. 

Before  they  left  the  river  May,  they  disputed 
amongst  themselves,  and  the  two  vessels  separated, 
the  one  steering  for  the  isle  of  Cuba,  and  the  other, 
which  was  never  heard  of  again,  for  the  Lucayan 
islands.  The  former  was  commanded  by  D'Oranger, 
who  took  a  Spanish  brigantine,  laden  with  wine  and 
cassava ;  and  then  bore  towards  the  western  part  of 
Hispaniola,  where,  in  a  harbour  near  Yaguana,  they 
careened  their  prize,  which  was  leaky.  They  after- 
wards steered  to  Baracoa,  in  the  island  of  Cuba, 
where  they  made  themselves  masters  of  a  caravel 
between  50  and  60  tons  burthen ;  and  holding  to- 
wards Hispaniola,  took,  near  Cape  Tiberone,  a  pa- 
tache  richly  laden,  on  board  of  which  was  the  go- 
vernor of  Jamaica,  then  in  possession  of  the  Spa- 
niards, and  his  two  sons,  whom  they  detained  pri- 
soners. With  these  they  stood  over  to  Jamaica; 


1008 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


but  were  outwitted  by  the  governor,  from  whom 
they  expected  a  large  ransom.  He  pretended  to 
write  to  his  wife  a  letter,  which  he  showed  to  D'O- 
ranger,  enjoining  her  to  send  by  the  bearer  his  own 
son,  the  sum  which  the  pirates  demanded  for  his 
ransom ;  but  he  slipt  into  the  youth's  hands  another 
letter  of  very  different  contents.  Next  morning 
the  pirates  saw  their  two  ships  beset  by  three  Spa- 
nish vessels  of  superior  burthen,  which  took  the 
largest,  wherein  were  D'Oranger  and  the  governor; 
but  the  other,  on  board  of  wh.ch  were  25  men,  slipt 
her  cables,  and  bore  away  for  the  north  coast  of  Cuba. 

Trenchant,  the  pilot,  who  had  been  forced  into 
the  service,  in  concert  with  others  of  the  crew,  who 
did  not  relish  this  profession,  conducted  the  ship  by 
the  Bahama  islands,  to  the  river  May,  in  Florida. 
Laudonniere  had  timely  notice  of  her  ai  rival,  and 
appearing  at  the  head  of  30  well-armed  soldiers, 
made  them  all  prisoners.  Four  of  the  most  muti- 
nous, comprehending  the  Genevois,  Le  Croix,  and 
Des  Fourneaux,  were  instantly  condemned  to  be 
hanged ;  but  Laudonniere,  at  the  earnest  request  of 
his  own  men,  permitted  them  to  be  shot  to  death. 

Mean  while  La  Roche  Ferriere  proceeded  with 
success  in  his  discoveries.  He  had  visited  the  In- 
dians lying  near  the  Apalachian  mountains ;  with 
whom  he  made  alliances,  which  excited  the  jealousy 
of  Outina.  Then  he  returned  to  Laudonniere  with 
abundance  of  fine  presents  from  the  new  friends  of 
the  French,  consisting  of  little  plates  of  gold  and 
silver,  curious  quivers,  furs,  arrows  ornamented  with 
gold,  hangings  made  of  beautiful  feathers,  hatchets, 
and  other  utensils.  A  paraousti,  called  Onathaca, 
having  in  his  possession  two  Europeans,  upon  Lau- 
donniere's  promising  to  pay  their  ransom,  they  were 
sent  to  fort  Caroline.  They  proved  to  be  Spaniards, 
who  had  been  long  in  slavery  ;  and  one  of  them  had 
a  piece  of  gold  worth  25  crowns.  They  reported, 
that  Onathaca  reigned  over  the  eastern  part  of  Flo- 
rida; but  that  towards  the  west  reigned  another 
prince  called  Callos,  who  was  master  of  all  the  gold 
and  silver  mines  that  Florida  contained;  but  that 
a  great  number  of  European  vessels  had  been 
wrecked  upon  his  coast,  which  was  very  dangerous 
for  shipping.  They  affirmed  that  this  savage  prince 
had  a  ditch,  six  feet  deep  and  three  wide,  filled  with 
riches;  that  he  detained  in  his  town  four  or  five 
European  women  of  rank,  with  their  children,  who 
had  been  shipwrecked  upon  his  coast  fifteen  years 
before  ;  he  persuaded  his  subjects  the  fertility  of  the 
earth  was  owing  to  him;  for  which  reason  they  sa- 
crificed to  him  every  year  about  the  time  of  harvest 
an  unhappy  captive.  Finally,  they  counselled  Lau- 
donniere not  to  trust  the  Florida'ns,  who  were  the 
most  dangerous  when  they  made  the  greatest  ex- 
pressions of  friendship;  and  they  offered,  with  100 
men,  to  put  the  French  in  possession  of  Callos,  and 
to  make  many  other  discoveries. 

The  account  given  by  the  Spaniards  of  the  riches 
of  this  country  received  some  countenance  from  an 
affidavit,  made  by  one  Sagean  before  the  regent  of 
France,  about  th«  time  he  projected  the  Mississippi 
company,  and  which  about  80  years  ago  was  trans- 
lated into  English,  and  published. 

Laudonniere,  instead  of  espousing  the  interest  of 
any  particular  paraousti,  employed  all  his  influence 
and  address  to  reconcile  the  natives  to  each  other, 
and  formed  alliances  with  many  of  their  chiefs,  to 
which  he  intended  to  have  recourse  in  case  of  new 
disturbances  amongst  his  colonists.  He  then  applied 
himself  to  the  storing  his  magazines,  in  giving  employ- 
ment to  his  people,  and  in  dispatching  Ottigny  upon  I 


new  discoveries.  That  officer  returnea  with  an 
account  of  a  great  lake  he  had  discovered,  probably 
the  same  that  was  known  to  Ferdinand  de  Soto,  in 
his  journey  to  the  Apalachian  mountains;  and  it 
was  pretended  that  the  sands  upon  the  borders  of 
this  lake  were  mingled  with  grains  of  silver.  In 
returning  to  fort  Caroline,  he  visited  Outina,  with 
whom,  at  his  earnest  request,  he  left  some  of  his 
companions. 

Outina  finding  himself  involved  in  a  fresh  war 
with  Patanou,  desired  of  Laudonniere  a  small  rein- 
forcement of  men,  and  Ottigny  was  sent  to  him  with 
30  auxiliaries,  who  no  sooner  arrived,  than  he  took 
the  field.  Having  marched  two  days,  he  was  not  a 
little  disconcerted  to  learn  that  the  enemy  had  pre- 
pared for  his  reception  ;  and  his  juggler  advised 
him  to  retire,  assuring  him,  that  Potanou  was  waiting 
for  him  at  the  head  of  2000  men  with  cords  to  bind 
him  and  his  subjects.  This  intelligence  discouraged 
Outina,  and  he  was  upon  the  point  of  turning  his 
back,  when  Ottigny  made  him  ashamed  of  his  coward- 
ice. He  accordingly  continued  to  advance,  and 
came  up  with  Potanou,  who,  as  the  juggler  had  said, 
was  at  the  head  of  2000  men.  Ottigny  immediately 
attacked  them,  and  his  musketry  made  such  havoc 
amongst  their  foremost  ranks,  that  their  whole  army 
was  in  an  instant  put  to  flight.  Immediately  after 
this  action,  his  French  auxiliary  left  him  twelve  of 
his  men,  and  made  the  best  of  his  way  with  the  rest 
back  to  fort  Caroline.  There  he  found  Laudonn it-re 
and  the  colony  in  the  utmost  distress,  in  consequence 
of  having  been  disappointed  of  the  reinforcements 
and  provisions  they  expected  from  France.  The 
barbarians  saw  the  difficulties  they  were  under,  and 
having  now  abated  in  their  passion  for  European 
trinkets,  they  forced  the  French  to  pay  exorbitantly 
for  every  thing  they  sold,  and  when  they  had  nothing 
more  to  dispose  of,  they  withdrew  to  a  distance. 
To  complete  the  misfortunes  of  the  colony,  the 
fish  in  the  river  disappeared,  as  the  game  did 
from  the  woods  and  mountains;  so  that  they  were 
obliged  at  first  to  feed  upon  acorns,  and  then  upon 
wild  roots  and  herbs,  which  they  found  in  the 
fields.  This  extremity  of  misery  was  attended  by 
insults  on  the  part  of  the  barbarians,  who  robbed 
and  murdered  one  of  the  settlers.  Laudonniere, 
weak  as  he  was,  gave  orders  to  set  fire  to  the  village 
where  this  savage  lived ;  but  the  assassins  and  all 
the  inhabitants  ded  to  their  fastnesses,  where  they 
were  secure. 

The  colony  being  now  reduced  to  a  state  of  de- 
spair, and  its  best  and  bravest  members  carried  off 
by  diseases,  the  survivors  pressed  Laudonniere  to 
arrest  Outina,  and  force  him  to  furnish  them  with 
some  means  of  subsistence.  Laudonniere  held  out 
a  long  time  against  this  proposal ;  but  he  was  at  last 
obliged  to  give  way  to  famine.  Outina  was  made  a 
prisoner,  but  all  his  subjects  took  arms  for  his  res- 
cue, and  the  unhappy  settlers  found  themselves 
plunged  in  a  war,  whijh  they  were  in  no  condition 
to  support.  A  negotiation  succeeded,  and  Outina 
bought  his  liberty  for  a  trifle,  which  was  paid  in 
provisions;  but  they  were  retaken  by  his  subjects, 
before  they  reached  fort  Caroline,  and  two  French- 
men were  killed,  and  about  twenty  wounded  in  this 
rencounter.  After  all,  it  was  owing  to  the  courage 
and  authority  of  Ottigny  and  D'Erlach,  that  Lau- 
donniere regained  Ibrt  Caroline.  He  afterwards 
received  a  supply  of  millet  by  a  French  ship;  and 
then  formed  the  resolution  of  returning  to  OH 
France,  when  he  discovered  four  vessels  in  the  offing. 
He  and  his  people  at  first  believed  them  to  i-« 


UNITED  STATES. 


1009 


French,  and  their  joy  was  excessive.  But  he  soon 
perceived  them  to  be  English.  They  were  com- 
manded by  Captain  John  Hawkins,  and  were  obliged 
to  put  into  the  river  to  water;  but  not  before  the 
captain  had  asked  the  French  commandant's  leave 
for  that  purpose.  This  generous  Englishman  un- 
derstanding to  what  a  miserable  condition  the  French 
were  reduced,  relieved  them  with  great  humanity. 
He  came  on  shore  unattended  and  unarmed.  Lau- 
donniere treated  him  with  some  wild  fowl,  which  he 
happened  to  have  by  him,  and  Hawkins  furnished 
bread  and  wine,  which  neither  the  French  com- 
mandant, nor  any  of  his  people  had  tasted  of  for  six 
or  seven  months  before.  The  savages,  imagining 
the  English  and  French  to  be  but  one  nation,  soon 
became  more  tractable  towards  the  colony,  and 
brought  provisions  from  all  quarters.  Hawkins 
furnished  them  with  every  thing  they  stood  in  need 
of;  and  offered  to  carry  them  to  France;  but  they 
unaccountably  refused  his  kindness,  though  their 
own  ship  was  in  no  condition  to  bear  the  sea.  At 
last,  Laudonniere  purchased  one  of  his  vessels,  the 
settlers  loudly  declaring,  that  they  were  determined 
to  leave  a  country  where  the  prospect  of  famine  was 
every  moment  be  lore  their  eyes.  This  spirit  of  de- 
spair arose  from  tho  bad  principles  upon  which  these 
colonists  had  started.  They  had  no  idea  of  the 
habits  of  industry,  and  had  formed  to  themselves 
the  hopes  of  becoming  rich  all  at  once,  by  dropping 
into  mines  of  gold  and  silver,  the  searching  after 
which  cost  them  more  time  and  labour  than  the 
clearing,  improving,  and  sowing  the  grounds  could 
possibly  have  done,  by  which  they  might  have  lived 
with  comfort  and  in  plenty. 

Hawkins  leaving  one  of  his  ships  with  Laudon- 
niere, took  leave  of  him,  and,  by  the  15th  of  August, 
the  settlers  were  ready  to  sail,  but  the  wind  did  not 
prove  fair  till  the  28th.  As  they  were  weighing 
anchor  several  ships  came  in  view,  and  Laudonniere 
sent  out  a  boat  to  speak  with  them ;  but  to  his  great 
surprise,  it  did  not  return,  upon  which,  he  shut 
himself  up  in  his  fort,  where  he  was  determined  to 
stand  upon  his  defence.  Next  morning  he  perceived 
seven  chaloupes  i'ull  of  armed  people  proceeding  up 
the  river,  in  profound  silence,  till  they  came  oppo- 
site to  the  fort,  from  whence  some  muskets  were 
discharged,  but  at  too  great  a  distance  to  do  any 
execution.  The  garrison  at  last  threatened  to  fire 
upon  them  with  cannon;  and  then  they  understood 
that  the  ships  were  under  the  command  of  Ribaut. 
Upon  his  landing  he  very  fairly  laid  before  Laudon- 
niere all  that  had  been  said  to  his  disadvantage  to 
ruin  him  both  with  the  king,  and  his  patron,  the  Ad- 
miral Coligni.  The  chief  heads  of  the  accusation 
imported  that  he  had  behaved  in  a  tyrannical  and 
rebellious  manner;  and  that  there  was  no  other  way 
of  preserving  any  interest  in  that  country,  but  by 
obliging  him  to  resign  the  command'  In  conse- 
quence of  this  representation,  the  French  king  had 
sent  Ribaut  with  these  seven  ships,  on  board  of 
which  were  many  catholics ;  and  their  passage  had 
been  long  and  tedious ;  Ribaut  having  spent  some 
time  after  he  came  upon  the  coast,  in  treating  with 
the  savages.  Laudonniere  soon  convinced  this  offi- 
cer of  his  innocence  so  thoroughly,  that  he  pressed 
him  to  retain  his  command,  and  offered  to  settle 
himself  elsewhere.  Laudonniere  persisted  in  his 
resolution  to  vindicate  his  conduct  at  court  in  per- 
son, and  then  Ribaut  put  into  his  hands  a  letter 
from  Admiral  Coligni,  desiring  him  to  return  to 
France,  that  he  might  advise  with  the  king  and  his 
ministry  concerning  the  good  of  the  colony. 
HIST.  OF  AMKR.— Nos.  127  &  128. 


Laudonniere  was  preparing  to  depart,  the  savages 
resorted  to  Ribaut  in  great  numbers  with  presents, 
amongst  which  was  a  large  piece  of  go  Wen  ore, 
which  they  said  they  had  from  a  mine  in  the  Apa- 
lachian  mountains,  and  they  offered  to  conduct  him 
to  the  place.  Ribaut,  probably,  by  this  time,  was 
tired  of  mine-hunting,  and  applied  himself  to  re- 
pairing the  fort;  but  perceived  that  there  was  not 
water  enough  upon  the  bar  of  the  river  to  carry  his 
four  largest  ships  over  it,  and  therefore  he  was 
obliged  to  let  them  remain  in  the  road. 

Matters  were  in  this  situation  on  the  4th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1565,  when  six  Spanish  ships  cast  anchor  in 
the  same  road  near  the  four  French  vessels.  Those 
Spaniards  were  commanded  by  Don  Pedro  Menen- 
dez de  Avilez,  a  wild,  fanatic  devotee,  in  whose 
heart  the  fury  of  bigoted  zeal  had  stifled  every 
sentiment  of  humanity.  Philip  II.  gave  him  the 
command  of  a  fleet  and  army,  with  very  full  powers 
to  drive  the  huguenots  out  of  Florida,  and  to  settle 
it  with  good  Catholics.  He  likewise  bestowed  upon 
him  the  title  of  hereditary  adelantado  of  Florida, 
with  considerable  appointments.  The  king  fur- 
nished only  one  ship,  the  St.  Pelagic,  of  1000  tons 
burthen,  with  about  300  soldiers,  and  100  mariners ; 
but  the  whole  of  his  armament  consisted  of  above 
2600  men.  On  the  29th  of  June  it  left  Gales ;  and 
it  was  so  rudely  treated  on  the  voyage  by  the 
weather,  that  several  of  his  ships  parted  from  him, 
so  that  when  he  landed  at  Porto  Rico,  on  the  9th 
of  August,  he  had  not  with  him  above  the  third  part 
of  his  force.  His  soldiers  were  without  experience ; 
but  he  could  depend  upon  his  officers,  who,  like 
himself,  were  all  of  them  bigots,  and  considered  the 
expedition  they  were  engaged  in  as  a  holy  war;  it 
being  given  out  in  Spain,  not  without  some  appear- 
ance of  truth,  that  it  was  secretly  encouraged  by  the 
French  king  himself  in  hatred  to  the  huguenots. 

Menendez,  notwithstanding  the  diminution  of  his 
force,  bore  away  for  Florida,  which  he  discovered 
the  28th  of  August,  and,  coming  upon  that  coast, 
understood,  with  a  good  deal  of  difficulty,  from  some 
Indians,  that  he  was  about  twenty  leagues  to  the 
northward  of  the  French  settlement.  At  the  same 
time,  he  gave  the  name  of  St.  Augustine  to  the 
river  Dauphin,  which  he  discovered  on  that  saint's 
day.  Approaching  the  four  French  ships  that  lay 
in  the  road  of  fort  Caroline,  he  hailed  Ribaut,  as- 
suring him  that  be  had  nothing  to  apprehend,  but 
all  of  a  sudden,  he  bore  up  to  his  ships,  and  they 
had  but  just  time  to  cut  their  cables,  and  to  make 
oft'.  The  Spanish  historian  says,  the  French  fired 
in  the  night  upon  Menendez,  who,  in  the  morning, 
declared  who  he  was,  and  demanded  of  the  French 
to  know  whether  they  were  Huguenots  or  Catholics. 
Being  answered  that  they  were  Protestants,  he  told 
them  he  had  strict  charge  from  his  master  to  put 
every  man  of  them  to  death,  which  he  would  most 
punctually  execute;  but  that,  if  any  Catholics  were 
amongst  them,  he  would  give  them  quarter:  then 
proceeding  to  attack  the  French  ships,  they  gave 
him  the  slip  and  escaped.  Returning  to  the  mouth 
of  the  May,  he  saw  the  smaller  French  ships  drawn 
up  under  the  fort,  and  the  beach  lined  with  soldiers ; 
upon  which  he  bore  away  for  the  river  of  St.  Au- 
gustine. Meanwhile,  the  four  French  ships  re- 
turned to  their  anchoring  place,  and  Cossel,  who 
commanded  them,  informed  Ribaut  of  what  had 
happened.  The  latter  immediately  called  a  council 
of  war,  where  the  general  opinion  was,  that  they 
ought  to  complete  the  works  of  Fort  Caroline;  and 
that  a  strong  detachment  should  pass  by  land  to  fall 

40 


1110 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


upon  the  Spaniards,  as  they  were  disembarking. 
Ribaut,  upon  this  occasion,  produced  a  letter  from 
Coligni,  advising  him  of  Menendez'  expedition,  and 
enjoining  him  to  suffer  the  Spaniards  to  undertake 
nothing  prejudicial  to  the  crown  of  France  in  Flo- 
rida, and  gave  his  opinion  for  attacking  the  Spa- 
niards by  sea.  All  the  council  opposed  this  resolu- 
tion, on  account  of  the  approaching  hurricanes  ;  but 
Ribaut  persisted  in  it  so  obstinately,  that  he  obliged 
Laudonnirre,  to  whom  he  had  intrusted  the  charge 
of  fort  Caroline,  to  give  him  the  greatest  part  of  his 
garrison,  and  almost  all  his  provisions,  and  then  he 
went  on  board  of  one  of  the  four  French  ships  in 
quest  of  the  Spaniards.  Laudonniere  was  left  in 
the  fort,  with  about  50  men,  besides  women  and 
children  ;  but  he  himself  was  confined  to  his  bed,  and 
the  rest  of  his  garrison  was  so  sickly,  that  not  above 
twenty  of  them,  were  in  a  condition  to  do  service. 

In  the  mean  time,  Menendez  had  planned  out  his 
new  fort  of  St.  Augustine ;  and  understanding  about 
the  10th  of  September,  that  he  was  about  to  be  at- 
tacked by  the  French  under  Ribaat,  he  prepared  to 
stand  on  the  defensive  within  the  bar  of  the  river. 
It  is  probable,  however,  that  he  must  have  been 
taken  or  destroyed,  had  not,  at  the  very  moment  of 
the  charge  a  most  dreadful  hurricane  arisen,  which 
drove  Ribaut  and  his  ships  to  sea.  Menendez  then 
called  a  council  of  war,  and  declaring  that  the  late 
hurricane  was  a  divine  judgment  upon  the  heretics, 
proposed  that  they  should  directly  attack  fort 
Caroline  by  land,  and  give  no  quarter  to  any  one  of 
the  garrison.  The  council  having  assented  to  this 
proposal,  he  put  himself  at  the  head  of  500  men. 
and  began  his  march,  leaving  the  charge  of  his  new 
town  to  his  brother,  and  of  his  navy  and  artillery  to 
his  vice-admiral.  It  was  with  great  difficulty  he 
could  prevent  his  troops  from  mutinying,  in  the 
course  of  a  severe  march  across  a  wild  country, 
under  the  inconvenience  of  excessive  rain ;  but  he 
persisted  with  great  obstinacy  till  they  arrived,  when 
the  whole  army  was  in  so  distressed  a  condition, 
that  the  officers  upbraided  him  with  leading  them 
like  so  many  beasts  to  be  slaughtered.  Menendez 
bore  these  reproaches  with  invincible  patience  ;  and, 
pretending  that  he  had  divine  assurances  of  success, 
instantly  marched  towards  the  place,  which  was 
easily  surprised,  the  garrison  having  retired  to  rest, 
little  imagining,  in  so  dreadful  a  night,  that  their 
enemies  were  so  near.  At  first,  they  butchered  all 
the  sick,  the  women  and  children,  who  fell  into 
their  hands,  and  Laudonniere,  after  having  made  a 
very  brave  resistance,  was  obliged  to  retire  to  the 
woods.  The  Spaniards  being  now  masters  of  the 
place,  Menendez  published  an  order,  that  all  the 
women,  and  the  children  under  fifteen  years  of 
age,  should  receive  quarter ;  but  all  the  others  were 
put  to  the  sword. 

The  three  French  ships  were  still  in  the  river,  and 
the  adelantado  summoned  the  crews  to  surrender, 
offering  to  suffer  them  to  transport  themselves  in 
any  one  of  their  ships  they  should  choose;  but  he 
threatened,  at  the  same  time,  if  they  did  not  com- 
ply, to  put  them  all  to  the  sword.  This  summons 
was  rejected  by  young  Ribaut ;  and  the  Spaniards 
beginning  to  play  upon  the  ships  from  the  fort,  they 
were  obliged  to  retire  beyond  cannon-shot.  Lau- 
donniere, who  had  been  joined  by  about  a  dozen  of 
his  garrison,  suffered  inexpressible  miseries  in  the 
woods ;  but,  at  last,  he  gained  the  French  ships  in 
the  river,  and  proposed  to  young  Ribaut  that  he 
should  go  in  search  of  his  father.  Ribaut,  whose 
conduct  on  this  occasion  was  greatly  blamed,  an- 


swered that  he  was  determined  to  sail  directly  for 
France,  a  declaration  which  provoked  Laudonniere 
so  much,  that  he  went  on  board  another  ship  :  as 
one  of  their  vessels  was  destitute  of  men,  Laudon- 
niere ordered  h';r  to  be  sunk  that  she  might  not  fall 
into  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  then  he  set  sail  for 
Europe,  and  vas  driven  by  stress  of  weather  into 
England,  whe;e  he  was  long  detained  by  sickness; 
and  when  he  went  to  his  own  country,  notwith- 
standing all  his  services,  he  met  with  a  cold  re- 
ception from  the-  French  king,  who  was  then  more 
embroiled  than  ever  with  Coligni.  Laudonniere, 
before  his  departure,  had  not  been  able  to  persuade 
all  the  French  to  follow  him.  Some  of  them  fled  to 
the  savages,  and  others  surrendered  to  the  Spaniards, 
who  chained  them  together  ;  and  all  of  them  were 
hanged  upon  a  tree,  on  which  was  fixed  an  inscrip- 
tion to  this  effect:  "  These  persons  are  not  treated 
in  this  manner,  because  they  are  Frenchmen,  but 
because  they  are  heretics,  and  enemies  of  God." 
This  was  the  fate  of  all  the  French  who  were  taken 
in  the  fort,  or  surrendered  voluntarily,  or  were 
given  up  by  the  Indians  among  whom  they  had  fled 
for  shelter.  About  twenty  more,  who  still  remained 
in  the  woods,  were  pursued  and  shot  like  so  many 
wild  beasts  by  the  Spaniards.  This  was  an  exploit 
in  the  true  Spanish  style,  inspired  by  superstition 
and  executed  by  cruelty.  No  man  of  sentiment  will 
be  able  to  read  it  without  horror  and  indignation. 
Fort  Caroline  now  lost  its  name,  being  changed  by 
Menendez  into  that  of  St.  Mattheo,  on  whose  day  it 
was  reduced; 

This  brutal  zealot  having  laid  out  ground  for  a 
church,  and  appointed  Gonzalo  de  Villareal  to  be 
governor  of  St.  Mattheo,  with  a  garrison  of  300  men, 
returned  with  30  soldiers  to  St.  Augustine,  which 
he  was  afraid  might  be  visited  by  Ribaut,  who  still 
kept  the  sea.  He  was  received  in  vast  triumph  by 
the  garrison  ;  and  notwithstanding  his  barbarities, 
he  is  still  extolled  by  his  countrymen,  as  a  perfect 
hero,  statesman,  and  Christian.  He  had,  upon  his 
arrival  in  Florida,  taken  some  French  prisoners, 
whom  he  sent  on  board  the  St.  Pelagius  to  be  carried 
to  Hispaniola.  In  the  voyage,  the  prisoners  mas- 
tered the  Spanish  crew,  put  the  officers  to  death, 
and  carried  the  galleon  to  Denmark.  The  hurricane 
which  had  driven  Ribaut  from  his  intended  attack 
of  the  Spaniards,  carried  him  into  the  straits  of 
Bahama,  where  all  his  ships  were  wrecked  on  the 
rocks.  The  crews  and  soldiers  saved  themselves, 
and  arrived  on  the  coast  without  arms  or  provisions. 
As  they  were  entirely  unacquainted  with  the  country, 
and  had  only  the  sun  and  stars  to  direct  them  in 
their  return  to  fort  Caroline,  their  miseries  were  in- 
expressible. At  last,  they  discovered  an  empty 
sloop  that  was  driving  along,  and  Ribaut  gave  the 
command  of  it  to  Vasseur,  with  orders  to  look  into 
the  river  May.  Vasseur  immediately  returned  with 
an  account,  that  he  saw  the  Spanish  colours  flying 
on  the  fort.  Upon  this  report,  it  was  agreed  that 
two  of  the  French  officers  should  repair  to  the  fort, 
and  learn  what  terms  they  were  to  expect  from  the 
Spanish  commandant.  They  were  accordingly  car- 
ried before  him,  and  he  told  them,  that  Laudonniere 
and  his  garrison  had  been  sent  in  a  good  ship  to 
France ;  and  that,  if  Ribaut  and  his  party  would 
surrender,  he  would  grant  them  the  same  terms. 
Upon  the  return  of  the  two  officers,  the  French  were 
divided  in  their  opinions,  and  being  sensible  how 
meritorious  the  Spaniards  held  it  not  to  keep  any 
faith  with  heretics,  they  sent  one  of  their  officers 
back,  and  he  obtained  an  oath  from  the  command 


UNITED  STATES. 


1011 


ant.  who  proved  to  be  Menendez  himself,  that,  if 
the  French  would  surrender,  they  should  be  fur- 
nished with  a  good  ship,  and  every  thing  necessary, 
to  carry  them  to  France.  They  were  obliged  to  trust 
to  this  solemn  engagement,  and  chaloupes  were 
sent  to  carry  them  across  the  river,  when  they  were 
immediately  bound  with  cords.  Ribaut  and  Ottigny 
endeavoured  to  expostulate  with  the  Spaniards,  but 
could  not  obtain  a  sight  of.  the  commandant.  A 
Spanish  soldier  coming  up,  gravely  asked  Ribaut, 
whether  he  did  not  expect  that  the  French  soldiers 
under  him  were  to  obey  his  orders  ?  "  Without 
doubt,"  answered  Ribaut.  "  Then,"  replied  the 
soldier,  "  you  are  not  to  be  surprised,  if  I  obey  my 
general's  order  likewise."  So  saying,  he  plunged 
a  dagger  into  Ribaut's  heart.  Ottigny  shared  the 
same  fate,  and  in  an  instant  the  throats  of  all  the 
French  v/ere  cut,  excepting  those  of  some  workmen, 
who  were  employed  upon  the  fortifications  at  St. 
Augustine. 

Such  is  the  relation  the  French  have  given  us  of 
this  horrible  massacre.  The  Spanish  accounts  lay 
the  scene  of  it  at  St.  Augustine ;  and  tell  us,  that 
Meneudez  never  promised  or  swore  to  show  them 
any  mercy,  and  rejected  the  offer  of  a  large  ransom. 
That  the  French  were  divided  into  two  parties  ;  the 
first  was  of  200,  whom  he  brought  across  the  river 
in  boats;  and,  finding  that  eight  of  them  were  Ca- 
tholics, he  spared  them,  but  gave  orders  that  the  rest 
should  be  instantly  put  to  the  sword.  Next  day,  the 
other  party  of  the  French,consisting  of  350  souls,being 
discovered  upon  a  raft,  Menendez  informed  the  of- 
ficer, who  came  to  treat  with  him,  how  he  had  served 
his  countrymen  ;  and  even  carried  him  to  the  place 
where  their  dead  bodies  lay.  Two  hundred  threw 
themselves  on  shore,  but  the  other  150,  with  Ribaut 
at  their  head,  surrendered,  and  were  all  put  to  death, 
excepting  four  Catholics  Menendez,  understanding 
that  the  200  French,  who  had  fled,  had  begun  to 
build  a  fort  far  up  the  river,  surprised  them  with  a 
party  of  Spaniards  on  the  1st  of  November  :  upon 
their  flying  to  a  neighbouring  mountain,  he  invited 
them  to  surrender,  upon  promise  of  pardon,  and 'of 
being  treated  as  his  own  soldiers.  They  submitted 
accordingly,  and  he  punctually  performed  his  en- 
gagements ;  but  we  are  told,  at  the  same  time,  that 
many  of  them  turned  Roman  Catholics. 

Whatever  partiality  Charlevoix  may  show  in 
favour  of  this  Spanish  relation,  it  carries  upon  its 
face  the  most  palpable  marks  of  forgery.  Is  it  to  be 
imagined,  that  a  brave  man,  like  Ribaut,  at  the 
head  of  a  force,  equal,  at  least,  to  that  of  his  ene- 
mies, with  arms  in  their  hands,  would  have  tamely 
given  up  their  throats  to  be  cut,  after  having  been 
refused  quarter;  and  after  having  seen  how  punc- 
tually cruel  the  Spaniards  had  been  to  their  compa- 
nions ?  He  and  his  companions  in  martyrdom  must 
have  been  the  worst  of  fools  and  enthusiasts,  to  have 
gone  to  death  so  tamely  ;  and  to  have  discovered  (as 
the  Spanish  writer  said  they  did)  that  they  had 
100,000  crowns  in  their  possession,  which  they  of- 
fered for  their  ransom. 

Upon  the  whole,  Menendez  seems  to  have  acted 
in  concert  with  the  court  of  France,  who  considered 
the  Huguenots  of  Florida  as  the  very  worst  of  rebels 
and  traitors,  though  they  had  been  settled  under  the 
charter,  and  by  the  authority  of  the  French  king, 
Charles  IX. ;  who  acted  in  the  same  manner  to- 
wards his  Protestant  subjects  in  France,  as  Menen- 
dez did  by  those  of  Florida  All  Europe  was  amazed, 
that,  in  whatever  light  he  might  view  the  Floridan 
Huguenots,  he  did  not  resent  the  insult  done  to  his 


own  dignity  ;  and  all  that  has  been  said  in  vindica- 
tion of  his  tameness,  is,  that  his  connexions  at  that 
time  did  not  admit  of  his  coming  to  a  rupture  with 
Spain.  The  cause  of  his  slaughtered  subjects  was 
avenged,  however,  in  a  very  extraordinary  manner 
by  a  Catholic  gentleman,  the  chevalier  de  Gourgues, 
a  soldier  of  fortune,  of  a  good  family  in  Gascony. 
He  had  served  with  reputation  against  the  Spaniards 
in  Italy ;  and  being  taken  prisoner,  was  chained  to 
a  galley,  and  obliged  to  work  as  a  slave.  This  galley 
was  taken  by  the  Turks,  and  afterwards  retaken 
by  the  Maltese,  by  which  means  de  Gourgues  re- 
covered his  liberty.  He  afterwards  made  some  voy- 
ages to  Africa,  Brazil,  and  other  places ;  and,  upon 
his  return  to  France,  he  was  looked  upon  to  be  one 
of  the  ablest  navigators  in  Europe.  This  adven- 
turer hearing  of  the  massacre  of  his  countrymen  in. 
Florida,  immediately  laid  a  plan  for  revenging  their 
deaths,  and  for  driving  their  murderers  out  of  that 
fine  country. 

For  this  purpose,  he  converted  all  he  had  into 
ready  money,  and  likewise  took  up  large  sums  upon 
credit.  With  these  funds,  he  built  three  frigates, 
on  board  of  which  he  put  150  soldiers  and  volunteers, 
most  of  them  gentlemen,  and  80  sailors.  His  ships 
drew  very  little  water,  and  were  constructed  so, 
that  they  could  be  worked  in  a  calm  by  oars ;  and 
by  that  means  enter  the  mouths  of  rivers. 

With  this  armament,  he  sailed  from  France,  in 
the  month  of  August,  1568.  He  had,  hitherto,  kept 
his  main  intention  a  secret  from  all  the  world;  and 
had  obtained  from  M.  de  Montluc,  the  French  king's 
lieutenant  in  Gascony,  a  commission  for  going  to 
the  coast  of  Africa,  upon  a  slaving  voyage.  Having 
traded,  or  pretended  to  trade,  there  for  some  time, 
be,  all  of  a  sudden,  bore  away  for  the  coast  of  Ame- 
rica. He  first  fell  in  with  the  little  Antilles  islands, 
and  beat  up  to  Porto  Rico,  and  from  thence  to  the 
small  island  of  Mona,  where  he  is  said  to  have  vic- 
tualled and  watered.  He  was  afterwards  obliged  to 
put  into  St.  Nicholas  harbour,  on  the  east  side  of 
Hispaniola,  by  a  storm,  which  damaged  great  part 
of  his  bread ;  but  the  Spaniards  refused  to  supply 
him  with  any  more.  Sailing  from  thence,  he  met 
with  another  storm;  and  it  was  with  great  difficulty, 
that  he  reached  Cape  St.  Antony,  on  the  west  of 
Cuba.  Here,  for  the  first  time,  he  opened  his  real 
intention  to  his  company ;  and  painted  the  cruelty 
of  the  Spaniards  towards  his  countrymen  in  so  af- 
fecting a  manner  that  they  entered  into  his  measures 
with  a  degree  of  enthusiasm.  Sailing  through  the 
straits  of  Bahama,  he  came  upon  the  coast  of  Flo- 
rida, where  the  Spaniards  thought  themselves  so 
secure  against  any  attack,  that  they  took  his  ships 
for  those  of  their  own  countrymen,  and  saluted  them 
accordingly.  They  were  duly  answered  by  De 
Gourgues,  who  next  night  entered  the  river  Taca- 
tacouron,  called  by  the  French  the  Seine,  fifteen 
miles  from  the  river  May. 

The  Spaniards,  by  this  time,  had  rendered  them- 
selves so  odious  to  the  natives,  that,  taking  de  Gour- 
gues' squadron  to  be  Spanish,  they  prepared  to  op- 
pose his  landing.  But  De  Gourgues,  suspecting 
their  mistake,  immediately  sent  ashore  his  trum- 
peter, who,  having  served  under  Laudonniere,  was 
master  of  their  language,  and  knew  Saturiova,  whom 
he  met  by  accident,  along  with  the  paraousti  of  the 
country.  The  trumpeter  informed  them,  that  the 
French  were  come  back  to  renew  their  alliance  with 
them  ;  and,  next  day,  Saturiova  had  an  interview 
in  person  with  De  Gourgues,  who  found  him  exas- 
perated as  much  as  he  could  wish  against  the  Spa- 

402 


iOll 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


niards.  He  complained  of  their  pride  and  cruelty ; 
and  offered,  if  the  French  would  attack  them,  "to 
support  him  with  all  his  force,  and  that  of  his  allies 
and  dependents.  De  Gourgues  pretended,  at  first, 
that  he  had  not  come  with  any  intention  to  make 
war,  but  to  pay  them  a  friendly  visit,  and  to  renew 
the  former  leagues  between  the  French  and  them ; 
and  that  he  intended,  if  he  found  they  suffered  any 
grievances  from  the  Spaniards,  to  return  to  France, 
and  bring  to  their  assistance  a  larger  force.  He 
added,  however,  that  he  had  now  changed  his  reso- 
lution, and  was  ready  to  second  them  with  the  few 
soldiers  he  had  on  board  his  ships.  His  answer  won 
Saturiova's  heart;  and,  amongst  other  presents  he 
made  De  Gourgues,  he  put  into  his  hands  Peter  de 
Bray,  a  young  Frenchman,  whom  he  had  preserved 
from  the  fury  of  the  Spaniards,  and  treated  as  his 
own  son.  All  the  paraousties,  who  were  either  allies 
or  vassals  of  Saturiova,  being  assembled,  to  delibe- 
rate concerning  their  future  operations,  it  was  re- 
solved, that  D'Estampes,  a  Frenchman,  and  Olaca- 
tora,  a  brave  Indian,  nephew  to  Saturiova,  should 
reconnoitre  fort  St.  Mattheo.  They  returned  in 
three  days,  with  an  account  that  the  Spaniards  had 
built  two  additional  forts,  one  on  each  side  of  the 
river;  that  all  three  were  in  good  condition,  and 
garrisoned  by  400  men  ;  but  that  they  lived  in  per- 
fect security. 

From  this  report,  De  Gourgues  concluded  he  had 
no  chance  for  success  but  from  secrecy  and  surprise ; 
and  ordered  a  general  rendezvous  of  all  his  allies 
upon  the  river  Somine,  called  by  the  savages  Su- 
raba.  They  attended  punctually;  and  after  having 
entered  into  solemn  engagements  never  to  abandon 
the  French,  set  out  on  their  march  ;  but  such  heavy 
rains  had  fallen,  that  their  expedition  was  in  danger 
of  being  defeated.  At  last,  a  savage  undertook  to 
conduct  them  by  a  safe  way.  though  somewhat  round 
about.  He  kept  his  promise,  but  with  great  diffi- 
culty ;  and  in  the  morning,  De  Gourgues  found  him- 
self so  near  the  fort,  that  he  could  reconnoitre  it  at 
leisure.  At  first,  he  was  a  little  startled  at  seeing 
the  people  in  motion  ;  but  he  afterwards  understood 
that  this  hurry  was  occasioned  by  their  being  busied 
in  repairing  a  fountain.  About  ten  o'clock  the 
French  passed  the  river;  and  so  thorough  was  the 
hatred  of  the  savages  towards  the  Spaniards,  that 
the  latter,  till  the  very  moment  of  the  attack,  knew 
nothing  of  their  being  in  Florida;  an  uncommon 
instance  of  secrecy  in  those  barbarians.  De  Gour- 
gues divided  his  little  army  into  two  parties,  giving 
the  command  of  one  to  his  Lieutenant  Casenove, 
and  himself  marching  at  the  head  of  the  other.  He 
had  advanced  so  near  the  platform  of  the  fort,  that 
a  Spanish  engineer  discovered  him,  and  fired  two 
culverins  upon  his  party.  This  alarm  might  have 
been  fatal  to  the  French,  had  not  the  brave  Oloco- 
tora,  creeping  near  the  platform,  mounted  it  at 
once,  and  laid  the  Spanish  engineer  dead  with  his 
lance.  So  daring  an  action  discouraged  the  Spa- 
niards so  much,  that  they  forthwith  abandoned  the 
fort;  and  happened  to  take  the  way  by  which  the 
other  division  of  the  French,  under  Casenove,  was 
advancing.  Thus,  being  put  between  two  tires,  all 
the  garrison,  consisting  of  60  people,  were  cut  in 
pieces,  excepting  a  few,  who  were  taken  and  re- 
served to  be  hanged. 

Mean  while,  the  second  fort  was  incessantly  firing 
upon  the  French ;  but  De  Gourgues  drawing  out  the 
artilWy  of  the  first  Fort,  played  upon  the  Spaniard 
so  effectually,  ana  the  savages  seconded  him  so 
vigorously,  that  the  Spaniards  betook  themselves  to 


the  woods,  where  all  of  them  were  taken  prisoners, 
or  put  to  death.  The  main  fort  of  Caroline  remained 
still  to  be  reduced.  This  being  a  matter  of  some  diffi- 
ulty,  De  Gourgues  obliged  an  old  Spanish  sergeant, 
who  was  his  prisoner,  to  give  him  information  as  to 
he  strength  of  the  place  ;  and  he  quickly  perceived, 
,hat  he  had  no  means  of  succeeding  against  it  but 
jy  a  scalade.  The  two  following  days  were  passed 
n  preparatives  for  thaj  purpose ;,  during  which  time, 
De  Gourgues  planted  such  a  number  of  Indians 
around  the  fort,  that  it  was  impossible  for  the  Spa- 
niards to  come  at  any  knowledge  of  his  real  strength. 
A  Spaniard,  however,  disguising  himself  like  an 
Indian,  mingled  with  the  besiegers,  but  was  disco- 
vered by  Olocotora,  and,  upon  examination,  proved 
to  be  a  spy.  He  was  destined  to  the  gallows :  but 
*reat  part  of  the  success  of  De  Gourgues  was  owing 
to  the  information  which  this  man  communicated. 
When  every  thing  was  ready  for  the  'attack,  De 
Gourgues  made  such  dispositions  of  his  Indians  as 
rendered  it  extremely  difficult  for  any  of  the  Spa- 
niards to  escape,  wheu  the  fort  should  be  taken.  He 
then  advanced  to  the  attack,  under  the  direction  of 
the  Spanish  sergeant  and  the  spy,  who  led  him  to  the 
top  of  a  little  hill,  from  whence  he  had  a  full  view 
of  the  strength  and  weakness  of  the  fort.  His  in- 
tention  was  to  have  delayed  the  attack  till  the  next 
morning;  but  the  besieged  made  a  sally  with  four- 
teen musketeers,  who,  by  the  disposition  De  Gour- 
gues had  made,  weie  completely  surrounded,  and 
every  man  of  them  put  to  death,  though  they  fought 
very  bravely.  This  slaughter  being  made  under  the 
eye  of  the  besieged,  they  lost  all  heart ;  and,  with- 
out minding  any  orders,  ran  out  of  the  fort  towards 
the  woods,  where  the  savages  in  ambu&h  gave  them 
no  quarter.  They  then  endeavoured  to  escape  an- 
other way ;  but  were  met  full  in  the  front  by  De 
Gourgues,  who  laid  most  of  them  dead  on  the  spot. 
To  complete  his  revenge,  he  saved  the  rest  from 
the  hands  of  the  savages,  that  he  might  resign  them 
to  those  of  the  executioner.  He  then  reproached 
them  with  their  cruelty,  their  perfidy,  and  violated 
faith;  and  ordered  every  one  of  them  to  be  haaged 
upon  a  tree,  on  which  was  the  following  inscription, 
in  imitation  of  that  of  Menendez :  "  I  do  not  hang 
these  people  as  Spaniards,  nor  as  the  spawn  of  in- 
fidels ;  but  as  traitors,  robbers,  and  murderers." 
Nothing  but  the  detestable  example  of  the  like 
cruelty,  set  by  the  Spaniards  themselves,  could  have 
excused  this  barbarity ;  which  indeed  has  been  va- 
riously censured.  Indeed,  if  it  had  been  retaliated 
upon  the  very  individuals  who  had  given  the  provo- 
cation, it  was  certainly  an  act  of  eternal  justice, 
though  unformal  and  unauthorized  ;  for  it  is  certain, 
thatDe  Gourgues  was  not  legally  entitled  to  sail  upon 
the  coast  of  Florida,  far  less  to  make  such  reprisals. 
It  must,  however,  be  acknowledged,  that  he  under- 
took this  expedition  from  very  disinterested  motives  ; 
for,  before  he  entered  upon  it,  he  knew  that  he  had 
neither  men  to  keep  the  forts,  nor  money  to  pay  his 
men,  and  that  it  was  impossible  to  procure  them 
subsistence,  even  for  money. 

De  Gourgues,  satisfied  with  the  glory  of  reveng- 
ing the  massacre  of  his  countrymen  upon  a  bar- 
barous enemy,  prepared  to  return  to  Europe; 
having  demolished  the  three  forts,  and  shipped  their 
artillery  on  board  his  vessels.  The  savages  seemed 
to  be  sorry  to  part  with  him.  but  he  knew  he  could 
not  depend  upon  their  friendship  ;  and  they  loaded 
him  with  the  most  extravagant  praises  for  an  action, 
which  was  fco  much  in  their  own  manner,  but  far 
exceeded  their  abilities  to  have  performed.  On  the 


UNITED  STATES. 


1013 


3rd  of  May  he  set  sail  from  Florida ;  and,  on  the  6th 
of  June,  arrived  at  Rochelle,  having  suffered  a  great 
deal  on  his  voyage  by  storm  and  famine ;  but  all 
his  loss,  otherwise,  consisted  only  of  a  few  soldiers, 
and  five  volunteers.  Before  his  arrival  in  France, 
the  court  of  Spain  had  received  intelligence  of  his 
expedition,  and  fitted  out  a  squadron  to  intercept 
him*,  from  which  he  very  narrowly  escaped.  Upon 
his  landing,  his  old  friend,  the  Marshal  De  Montluc, 
highly  extolled  his  valour  and  conduct,  and  advised 
him  to  go  to  court.  It  happened,  fortunately  for 
him,  that  the  Protestant  party  was  then  so  powerful 
in  France,  that  the  government  durst  not  provoke 
it,  by  inflicting  upon  him  any  unseasonable  severity ; 
and  the  French,  in  general,  Catholics  as  well  as 
Protestants,  applauded  what  he  had  done.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  friendship  of  Spain  happened,  at 
this  time,  to  be  necessary  to  the  French  king,  and 
the  Catholic  part  of  his  government;  and  a  sum  had 
been  set  upon  De  Gourgues's  head  at  the  court  of 
Madrid,  as  a  pirate  and  a  murderer.  When  he  re- 
paired to  court,  he  was  very  ill  received,  and  had 
secret  intimations  given  him  to  withdraw,  to  avoid 
the  fury  of  the  queen-mother,  and  the  Spanish  fac- 
tion, who  had  pressed  the  king  to  consent  that  he 
should  be  tried.  De  Gourgues,  therefore,  was 
obliged  to  fly  to  Rouen,  where  he  was  concealed  by 
the  president,  De  Marigny ;  and  so  reduced,  at  tha't 
time,  were  his  circumstances,  that  he  owed  his  daily 
subsistence  to  that  magistrate's  generosity.  This 
persecution  served  only  to  increase  his  fame  ;  which, 
at  last,  made  such  an  impression  upon  the  French 
king,  that  he  restored  him  to  his  favour.  His  coun- 
trymen pretend,  but  we  cannot  say  upon  what  au- 
thority, that  Queen  Elizabeth  offered  him  a  consi- 
derable post  in  her  service,  which  he  declined.  We 
much  question  the  truth  of  this  report,  as  he  always 
professed  himself  a  strict  Roman  Catholic.  It  is 
certain,  however,  that  Don  Antonio  offered  him  the 
command  of  the  fleet  he  was  then  fitting  out,  to^re- 
cover  the  crown  of  Portugal  from  Philip  II.  of  Spain. 
But  while  De  Gourgues  was  going  to  take  possession 
of  that  honourable  commission  he  fell  sick,  and  died 
ut  Tours. 

The  Spaniards,  by  the  evacuation  of  De  Gourgues, 
for  some  years,  had  no  competitors  in  Florida,  and 
applied  themselves  to  the  fortifying  and  improving 
their  new  settlement  at  St.  Augustine.  As  to  that 
ut  St.  Mattheo,  it  was  suffered  to  go  to  decay;  and 
afterwards  subsisted  under  the  name  of  St.  Juan, 
the  name  which  the  Spaniards  had  given  the  river 
on  which  it  stands.  Upon  Queen  Elizabeth's  going 
to  war  with  the  Spaniards,  she  was  advised  to  at- 
tack them  in  America.  In  consequence  of  this 
scheme,  some  private  adventurers  in  England,  in 
1585,  fitted  out  a  fleet,  consisting  of  twenty  sail  of 
ships  and  pinnaces,  with  the  number  of  2300  sailors 
and  landmen  on  board.  The  admiral  in  chief  of 
this  fleet  was  the  famous  Sir  Francis  Drake ;  his 
vice-admiral  was  Martin  Frobisher;  Francis  Knolles 
was  his  rear-admiral;  and  Lieutenant-general  Car- 
lisle commanded  the  land  forces.  He  attacked  Fort 
St.  Mattheo,  which  being  very  weak,  was  abandoned 
by  the  Spaniards;  and  Drake  found  in  it  fourteen 
pieces  of  brass  cannon,  with  about  2000Z.  in  money. 
These  seem  to  have  been  all  the  fruits  of  this  at- 
tempt upon  Florida. 

But  we  must  now  turn  our  attention  to  that  part 
of  it,  particularly  distinguished  by  the  name  of 
Louisiana,  lying  on  the  river  "Mississippi,  the  mouth 
and  navigation  of  which  the  French  pretend  to  have 
discovered. 


In  the  year  1684,  when  La  Sale  was  at  the  French 
court,  on  the  subject  of  his  discoveries,  he  not  only 
won  the  esteem  of  de  Seignelay,  the  minister,  but 
brought  him  to  agree,  that  he  should  prosecute  his 
discoveries,  and  attempt  to  enter  the  mouth  of  the 
Mississippi  by  sea,  in  order  to  form  a  settlement. 
All  the  winter  was  spent  in  making  preparations  for 
his  expedition.  By  his  commission,  he  was  to  com- 
mand all  the  French  and  savages  that  lay  between 
fort  Lewis,  which  he  had  already  built  upon  the 
river  Illinois,  to  that  part  of  Florida  called  New- 
Biscay;  and  the  French  commodore,  who  was  to 
carry  him  to  America,  was  enjoined  to  give  him  all 
the  assistance  in  his  power. 

Four  vessels  were  built  at  Rochfort ;  on  board  of 
which  were  embarked  100  soldiers,  a  Canadian  fa- 
mily, 30  volunteers,  some  of  whom  were  gentlemen, 
a  few  ladies,  and  workmen.  Three  ecclesiastics, 
with  four  others,  amongst  whom  was  Father  Zenobe, 
composed  the  rest  of  the  company,  together  with  a 
citizen  of  Rouen,  one  Joutel,  who  was  a  man  of 
some  capacity,  and  intended  as  a  kind  of  an  assist- 
ant to  La  Sale.  The  ships  destined  for  this  disco- 
very were  the  Joli,  of  40  guns,  commanded  by 
M.  de  Beaujeu;  another  vessel,  of  six  guns,  which 
the  French  king  made  a  present  of  to  La  Sale  ;  the 
Amiable,  a  merchant  ship  of  about  300  tons  burden, 
which  carried  La  Sale's  baggage  and  implements; 
and  a  ketch,  of  30  guns,  freighted  with  ammunition, 
and  merchandise.  This  little  squadron  had  scarce 
cleared  the  land,  when  the  main-mast  of  the  Joli 
broke,  and  all  the  four  ships  returned  to  Rochelle ; 
from  whence  they  again  set  sail  on  the  1st  of  August, 
and  on  the  16th  day  were  in  sight  of  the  Ma- 
deiras. By  this  time,  La  Sale  and  Beaujeu  had 
quarrelled.  The  latter  proposed  to  put  into  Ma- 
deira, to  take  in  water  and  provisions ;  but  as  the 
success  of  the  expedition  depended  on  its  being  kept 
a  secret  from  the  Spaniards,  La  Sale  resolutely  op- 
posed their  stopping;  and  this  circumstance  in- 
creased their  animosity.  When  they  arrived  in 
Hispaniola,  Beaujeu  came  to  anchor  at  Petit  Guaves, 
on  the  west  end  of  the  island,  though  La  Sale  had 
business  of  great  importance,  trusted  to  him  by  the 
minister,  with  M.  de  Cussi,  the  French  governor, 
who  lived  on  the  north  side;  so  that  Cussi,  with 
two  other  French  officers,  was  obliged  to  repair  to 
Petit  Guaves,  where  be  found  La  Sale  greatly  in- 
disposed, chiefly  through  vexation,  two  Spanish 
peruagas  having  taken  his  ketch  off  the  island.  ' 
The  growing  discontents  between  La  Sale  and 
Beaujeu  made  all  the  adventurers  despair  of  success 
in  their  undertaking ;  but,  at  last,  La  Sale  recovered  ; 
and,  having  dispatched  his  business  at  Petit  Guaves, 
set  sail  from  thence  the  25th  of  November,  more 
embroiled  than  ever  with  Beaujeu.  About  the  12th 
of  December,  they  entered  the  gulf  of  Mexico  ;  but 
were  obliged,  by  contrary  winds,  to  lie  by  till  the 
18th.  On  the  28th,  La  Sale  discovered  the  conti- 
nent of  Florida;  and,  having  been  informed  that 
the  currents  in  the  gulf  set  strongly  in  for  the  east, 
he  did  not  doubt  that  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi 
lay  a  great  way  to  the  west :  upon  which  he  bore 
westward.  The  10th  of  January,  1685,  he  was  near 
the  object  of  his  search,  without  knowing  it,  and 
passed  it,  without  sending  any  of  his  people  ashore. 
Some  days  after,  beginning  to  be  sensible  of  his 
mistake,  he  wanted  to  return ;  but  Beaujeu  refused 
to  obey  him,  and  La  Sale  acquiesced,  though  he 
had  been  extremely  obstinate  in  all  their  differences 
of  minor  consequence.  Still  holding  to  the  west, 
they  at  last  arrived,  without  knowing  where  they 


1014 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


were,  at  the  bay  of  St.  Bernard,  10U  leagues  to  the 
west  of  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi.  Here  La  Sale 
,  discovered  a  river,  which  he  mistook  for  the  Missis- 
sippi; and  here  he  resolved  to  land  his  people.  On 
the  2Uth  of  February  he  sent  orders  to  the  com- 
mander of  the  Amiable,  the  merchant  ship,  to  lighten 
her,  that  she  might  sail  up  the  river,  and  ordered 
one  Le  Belle  to  command  her;  but  the  captain  of 
the  vessel  refused  to  receive  him.  Meanwhile,  some 
of  La  Sale's  company,  who  had  landed,  were  car- 
ried off  by  the  savages  ;  and  as  he  himself  was  run- 
ning to  disengage  them,  the  Amiable  was  run  ashore, 
designedly,  as  it  was  thought,  by  the  commander. 
The  crew  was  saved,  and  some  part  of  the  cargo ; 
the  whole  of  which  might  have  been  retrieved,  had 
not  the  vessel's  long  boat  been  destroyed  on  purpose. 
Next  morning  the  Amiable  bulged  ;  so  that  no  more 
was  got  on  shore  than  30  casks  of  wine  and  brandy, 
and  some  barrels  of  flour,  and  salted  meat.  A  bundle 
of  blankets,  and  several  other  things,  being  driven 
from  the  wreck  to  the  shore,  were  seized  by  the  sa- 
vages ;  and  re-demanded  by  La  Sale  and  his  people 
with  so  much  roughness,  that  the  Indians  resolved 
to  be  revenged,  and  refused  to  give  up  their  prey. 
La  Sale  seized  their  canoes,  which  they  had  left 
-ishore ;  an  outrage  by  which  they  were  greatly  ex- 
asperated. Advancing  in  the  night  to  his  camp, 
they  killed  some  of  his  men,  and  wounded  others, 
amongst  whom  was  Moranger,  his  own  nephew. 

It  appears,  from  all  accounts,  that  La  Sale  was 
obstinate,  proud,  and  passionate,  to  the  last  degree; 
qualities  but  ill  suited  to  such  an  undertaking. 
Beaujeu,  who  considered  his  station  of  commander  ot 
a  royal  ship,  as  superior  to  that  of  La  Sale,  to  whose 
orders  he  was  subjected,  could  not  bear  with  his 
peevish  tyrannical  humour,  and  took  all  opportuni- 
ties to  thwart  him  in  his  projects.  All  the  sensible 
and  independent  part  of  the  adventurers,  some  of 
whom  had  risked  large  sums  in  the  undertaking, 
were  disgusted  for  the  same  reason.  They  com- 
plained, that  all  their  hardships  were  owing  to  La 
Sale's  headstrong  humour,  in  his  disdaining  to  ad- 
vise with  any  one;  and  some  of  the  most  consider- 
able amongst  them  proposed  returning  to  France 
with  M.  Beaujeu,  who  was  making  ready  for  his 
voyage.  La  Sale  applied  to  him  for  the  cannon 
and  bullets,  which  he  had  on  board;  but  Beaujeu 
answered,  the  season  was  so  far  advanced,  that  he 
could  not  spare  time,  as  they  were  in  the  bottom  of 
the  hold,  for  putting  them  ashore.  This  was  not 
the  only  mortification  La  Sale  met  with  at  this  time; 
for  though  the  captain  of  the  Amiable  was  convicted 
of  running  his  vessel  ashore  with  design,  yet  Beaujeu 
received  him  and  his  crew  on  board ;  and,  setting 
sail,  he  left  La  Sale  with  no  more  than  ten  field- 
pieces  a-shore,  and  almost  quite  destitute  of  balls 
and  ammunition.  These  untowardly  circumstances 
were  far  from  daunting  La  Sale.  He  set  about  erect- 
ing a  store-house,  which  he  intrenched  and  fortified 
as  well  as  he  could;  and  Beaujeu  having  sailed 
about  the  middle  of  March,  a  fort  was  begun,  though 
Hennepin  says,  that  it  was  almost  finished  before 
he  sailed.  While  it  was  building,  La  Sale  gave 
the  charge  of  it  to  Joutel,  and  left  about  120 
persons  with  him ;  and,  with  the  remainder,  which 
did  not  exceed  50,  he  proceeded  in  his  own  frigate 
up  the  stream,  still  of  opinion  that  it  either  was  the 
Mississippi,  or  a  branch  of  that  river.  He  had  not 
made  great  progress,  when,  hearing  some  discharges 
made  by  Joutel  against  the  savages,  who  were  mo- 
iesting  the  store-house,  or  fort  as  it  is  called,  he 
returned  with  five  or  si:;  of  his  company,  and  in- 


formed Joutel,  that,  having  found  a  most  commo- 
dious situation,  he  had  begun  to  build  a  fort  further 
up  the  river.  He  then  took  leave  of  Joutel,  and 
returned  to  his  newly-founded  fort,  where  he  soou 
perceived  that  the  savages  had  robbed  his  workmen 
of  their  tools  and  utensils ;  and  that  even  when 
they  were  supplied  by  others,  they  knew  not  how  to 
use  them;  so  that  the  work  went  on  very  heavily. 
In  the  beginning  of  June,  La  Sale  sent  an  order  to 
his  nephew  Moranger,  to  bring  all  the  people  from 
the  old  to  the  new  fort,  excepting  30,  who  were  to 
be  left  with  Joutel  and  the  store-keeper.  Scarce 
was  the  main  body  gone,  when  two  ruffians  entered 
into  a  conspiracy  to  murder  these  two  officers,  and 
desert  with  their  spoils.  This  plot  was  discovered 
by  a  third  soldier,  whom  the  conspirators  wanted  to 
make  an  accomplice ;  and  Joutel  put  them  both  in 
irons.  On  the  14th  of  July  a  fresh  order  came 
from  La  Sale,  for  Joutel  entirely  to  abandon  the 
first  fort,  and  to  repair  to  him  with  all  his  peo- 
ple ;  which  he  accordingly  obeyed ;  but  found  La 
Sale,  and  his  new  settlement,  in  a  wretched  condition. 
The  fort  was  but  little  advanced ;  for  scarce  any 
part  of  it,  except  a  small  magazine,  was  covered 
over  head.  They  had  planted  and  sowed,  but  little 
came  up;  and  even  that  little  had  been  destroyed 
by  the  wild  animals.  Several  of  the  most  considerable 
adventurers  were  dead,  and  maladies  were  every  day 
increasing  amongst  the  living.  All  these  mortifying 
circumstances  greatly  affected  La  Sale ;  but  he  dis- 
sembled his  chagrin,  and  continued  to  behave  with 
incredible  spirit  and  industry.  No  sooner  were  all 
his  people  re-united,  than  he  set  them  the  example, 
by  working  at  the  fort  with  his  own  hands,  which 
would  have  had  an  excellent  effect  by  raising  an 
emulation  amongst  the  men,  had  he  not  destroyed  it 
by  his  excessive  cruelty  and  severity.  He  gave  them 
no  respite  from  labour;  he  could  not  bestow  on  any 
one  a  civil  expression;  he  punished  every  fault 
with  the  utmost  rigour;  and  misery,  which  com- 
monly renders  other  men  sociable,  seemed  only  to 
exasperate  him  into  inhumanity.  At  the  same  time, 
despair  and  want  of  wholesome  food  threw  his  men 
into  a  kind  of  languor,  which  carried  off  numbers. 
To  crown  those  misfortunes,  the  imprudence  of  some 
of  his  people  had  rendered  the  inhabitants  of  the 
place  irreconcileable  enemies  to  the  new  settlement. 

The  natives  were  called  Clamcoets,  a  cruel,  per- 
fidious people,  but  remarkable  for  covering  their 
revenge  and  deceit  under  the  appearances  of  buf- 
foonery and  gaiety.  They  had  strong  liquors  of 
their  own  making,  and  were  extremely  addicted  to 
drinking.  Both  men  and  women  went  almost  naked; 
and  they  had  other  barbarous  customs  peculiar  to 
themselves. 

These  savages,  notwithstanding  their  degradation, 
have  all  the  advantages  of  climate  and  soil.  The  river, 
on  which  the  new  fort  was  built,  was  called  that  of 
Cows,  from  the  great  number  of  those  animals 
found  on  its  borders ;  which  abounded  likewise  with 
deer  and  kids.  Smaller  game  swarms  all  over  the 
country,  and  the  rivers  and  lakes  abound  with  fish. 
Their  plains,  though  level,  are  extensive,  but  beau- 
tifully diversified  with  wood  and  water;  but  to  coun- 
terbalance these  blessings  of  nature,  their  rivers 
are  pestered  with  sharks,  and  their  plains  with  rat- 
tle-snakes. Their  woods  are  full  of  most  of  the  trees 
known  in  Europe,  and  many  to  which  we  are 
strangers.  They  are  fruitful  in  vines,  which  bear 
both  black  and  white  grapes.  Nuts  of  various  kinds, 
and  some  of  them  very  large,  mulberries,  figs,  and 
bananas,  grow  every  where;  and  a  fruit  which  the 


UNITED  STATES. 


1015 


Spaniards  call  Tsonnos,  of  the  figure  of  an  egg,  but 
delicious  and  refreshing,  is  peculiar  to  this  country. 
Notwithstanding  the  soil  is  extremely  fertile,  it  sel- 
dom rains  in  this  country  ;  and  the  natives  are  fur- 
nished with  plenty  of  salt,  which  the  sun  makes  on 
the  sea-shore,  and  the  banks  of  the  lakes.  The 
people  who  lay  next  to  the  Clamcoets,  but  further 
up  the  country,  were  little  known  to  Europeans ; 
but  were  said  to  be  pretty  much  of  the  same  dis- 
position, and  to  live  in  the  same  manner  with  their 
neighbours. 

About  100  leagues  towards  the  north  live  the 
Cenis,  or  Assinais,  a  more  humanized  people.  They 
settle  in  communities,  cultivate  the  earth,  raise 
maize,  beans,  citrons,  water-melons,  and  various 
other  vegetables,  together  with  tobacco,  and  breed 
great  numbers  of  horses  to  bring  home  what  they 
kill  in  their  hunting.  The  Cenis  make  war  very 
differently  from  all  the  other  American  savages  ;  for 
they  take  the  field  on  horseback,  armed  with  bows 
and  quivers  full  of  arrows,  and  bucklers  made  of  a 
bull's  hide,  which  they  hang  on  the  left  arm.  Their 
bridles  are  made  of  horse-hair,  as  are  their  stirrup 
straps;  the  stirrups  themselves  being  composed  of 
boards,  and  their  saddles  of  folded  deer-skin.  If  a 
prisoner  can  find  means  to  escape,  so  as  to  enter 
one  of  their  cabins,  he  is  free,  and  becomes  one  of 
the  nation,  otherwise  they  put  him  to  a  most  ex- 
cruciating death,  and  afterwards  his  body  is  roasted 
and  eaten.  The  Cenis,  according  to  Joutel,  could 
not  send  to  the  field  above  100  men  capable  of  bear- 
ing arms.  Their  cabins  are  round,  in  the  form  of  a 
hay-rick  ;  but  commonly  very  large,  some  of  them 
being  60  feet  in  diameter ;  and  each  family  has  a 
piece  of  ground  lying  round  its  habitation.  Besides 
their  dwelling-places,  they  have  other  cabins  curi- 
ously constructed,  that  serve  for  their  public  meet- 
ings. Their  furniture  consists  of  hides  and  skins 
well-dressed,  mats,  and  earthenware,  besides  wicker- 
baskets  for  holding  their  pulse  and  fruits,  and  their 
beds  are  made  of  woven  canes,  raised  three  feet 
from  the  ground,  spread  with  skins  handsomely 
dressed.  When  seed-time  comes,  the  men  and 
women  labour  equally,  but  in  separate  bodies.  Their 
tools  are  of  wood,  with  which  they  just  remove  the 
surface  of  the  earth ;  but  the  women  have  all  the 
labour  of  the  harvest.  Their  habit  is  much  like  that 
of  the  Clamcoets,  and  though  they  seem  to  have  no 
notion  of  religious  worship,  yet  certain  faint  ideas 
of  a  Deity  are  discernible  in  some  of  their  cere- 
monies. 

At  last  La  Sale  finished  his  fort,  which  he  called 
St.  Lewis,  and  he  gave  the  same  name  to  the  bay 
of  St.  Bernard,  into  which  he  still  believed  the  Mis- 
sissippi discharged  itself,  and  therefore  he  resolved 
to  make  an  accurate  survey  of  it  in  his  frigate.  He 
covered  the  roof  of  his  fort  with  green  turf,  to  pre- 
vent its  being  set  on  fire  by  the  arrows,  which  the 
savages  used  to  discharge  with  lighted  matches  tied 
to  them.  It  happened  luckilly  for  La  Sale  and  his 
adventurers,  that  those  barbarians  were  cowardly  to 
a  ridiculous  degree;  and  two  or  three  Frenchmen 
often  put  as  many  dozens  of  them  to  flight,  but  they 
never  failed  to  destroy  the  French,  when  they  could 
do  it  by  stealth.  La  Sale  finding  he  could  not  re- 
claim, endeavoured  to  subdue  them,  and  he  had 
many  skirmishes  with  them,  in  which  he  was  always 
conqueror;  yet  he  never  could  bring  them  to  give 
him  information  concerning  the  country,  or  lend 
him  their  peruaguas,  which  were  so  necessary  for 
him  in  his  intended  voyage.  So  far,  however,  he 
prevailed,  that,  being  intimidated,  they  removed  to 


a  convenient  distance  from  the  fort,  and  gave  the 
new  settlers  time  for  cultivating  their  lands,  and 
raising  their  stock.  These  measures  they  took  with 
amazing  success,  and  even  found  time  to  build  ca- 
noes, which  proved  of  the  greatest  utility  to  the  un- 
dertaking. At  last,  in  the  month  of  October,  La 
Sale,  with  the  bulk  of  his  people,  went  on  board 
his  frigate,  leaving  Joutel,  with  34  persons  under 
his  command,  at  fort  Lewis,  and  strictly  enjoining 
him,  that  he  should  admit  none  of  those  who  at- 
tended him  into  the  fort,  without  a  particular  order 
signed  by  himself.  About  the  middle  of  January, 
(A.D.  1686,)  Duhaut,  one  of  the  adventurers,  whose 
younger  brother,  Dominique,  had  been  left  in  the 
fort,  came  back  to  it  alone  in  a  canoe,  and  Joutel 
thought  he  had  so  little  to  apprehend  from  him,  that 
he  received  him  into  the  fort  without  a  particular 
order  for  admission  from  La  Sale.  This  man  re- 
ported that  La  Sale's  pilot  had  orders  to  sound  the 
mouth  of  the  river,  but  that  going  ashore  with  five 
men,  they  were  all  murdered,  while  they  were 
asleep,  by  the  savages  ;  and  La  Sale  next  morning 
found  the  remains  of  their  bodies,  which  had  been 
devoured  by  the  wild  beasts.  Although  the  death 
of  this  pilot  was  an  irreparable  loss  to  La  Sale, 
he  ordered  the  frigate  to  advance  up  the  bay,  while 
he  himself  crossed  it  with  two  canoes,  then  proceeded 
by  land,  attended  by  about  twenty  persons,  till  he 
reached  the  banks  of  a  fine  river,  where  Duhaut  pre- 
tended he  accidentally  lost  them,  and  that  in  search- 
ing for  them,  he  was  insensibly  carried  back  to  fort 
Lewis.  About  the  middle  of  March,  La  Sale  re- 
turned in  a  very  miserable  condition  with  his  bro- 
ther M.  Cavalier,  an  ecclesiastic,  who  had  attended 
him,  and  five  or  six  persons.  The  rest  of  his  at- 
tendants, amongst  whom  was  his  youngest  nephew, 
a  youth  about  fifteen  years  of  age,  whose  name  was 
likewise  Cavalier,  he  had  detached  in  search  of  his 
frigate,  on  board  of  which  were  his  linen,  baggage, 
and  most  valuable  effects. 

To  keep  up  the  spirits  of  his  people,  he  pretended 
to  be  wonderfully  pleased  with  the  discoveries  he 
had  made,  and  seemed  even  to  forgive  Duhaut  for 
returning  to  the  fort  without  his  leave.  Next  morn- 
ing young  Cavalier  and  the  rest  of  his  companions 
returned,  but  brought  no  accounts  of  the  frigate,  to 
the  great  mortification  of  La  Sale,  who  had  pro- 
posed first  to  send  it  to  the  French  American  islands 
for  supplies,  and  then  to  have  coasted  all  the  gulf  of 
Mexico  in  prosecuting  his  discoveries. 

About  the  beginning  of  May,  a  few  days  after  La 
Sale  himself  had  set  out  in  quest  of  the  frigate,  an. 
account  arrived  of  its  being  wrecked  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  bay.  The  crew,  who  had  reached  the 
shore,  set  about  building  a  raft ;  but  it  was  so  badly- 
executed,  that  all  those  who  ventured  on  it  were 
drowned.  The  survivors  made  another  with  better 
success,  on  which  they  put  all  they  could  save  out 
of  the  wreck,  and  they  happily  passed  on  it  into 
the  river  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  bay,  where  it 
was  useless,  because  it  could  not  carry  them  up  to 
the  fort ;  nor  durst  they  travel  by  land  for  fear  of 
the  savages.  At  last,  meeting  with  an  old  canoe, 
they  refitted  it  as  well  as  they  could,  and  it  brought 
them  to  fort  Lewis. 

La  Sale  had  then  been  two  months  gone,  and  it 
is  not  at  all  to  be  wondered  at,  if  the  settlement  be  left 
behind  him  was  full  of  discontent  and  murmurings 
at  what  they  suffered  from  his  unaccountable  conduct. 
Many  of  them,  who  could  not  remain  shut  up  in  the 
walls  of  the  fort,  were  murdered  by  the  savages,  as 
they  went  hunting.  The  more  sedentary,  being  the 


1016 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


most  valuable  part  of  the  settlement,  were  carried 
off  by  diseases ;  and  many  of  them  ventured  even 
to  throw  themselves  upon  the  barbarians,  who  gave 
them  liberty  to  live  in  the  Indian  manner,  whUe 
those  who  remained  entered  into  a  conspiracy,  at 
the  head  of  which  was  Duhaut,  whose  younger  bro- 
ther was  with  La  Sale.  Joutel,  the  commandant  of 
the  fort,  gaining  a  knowledge  of  these  cabals,  acted 
with  so  much  prudence  and  resolution,  that  he  kept 
the  conspirators  in  awe  till  the  return  of  La  Sale, 
which  was  about  the  month  of  August.  During  this 
last  ramble,  he  had  visited  the  country  of  the  Cenis, 
with  whom  he  made  an  alliance,  and  they  fur- 
nished him  with  five  horses  laden  with  provisions, 
but  he  had  learned  nothing  of  t^ie  main  object  of  his 
search;  and  of  twenty  men  he  carried  out  with  him, 
he  brought  no  more  than  eight  back.  Amongst  the 
missing  was  Duhaut's  brother;  but  La  Sale  pre- 
tended that  he  had  given  him,  and  several  others, 
leave  to  return  to  the  fort.  These  new  losses  aug- 
mented the  discontent  of  the  settlers,  whom  La 
Sale's  presence,  however,  overawed ;  and  as  the 
Clamcoets  had  begun  to  renew*  their  incursions,  he 
communicated  to  Joutel  a  design  he  had  formed  of 
transferring  his  settlement  to  the  country  of  the  Illi- 
nois, with  which  he  was  well  acquainted.  In  the 
mean  time  he  declared  he  would  undertake  a  third 
journey  to  visit  that  people. 

As  he  was  preparing  to  set  out,  he  was  attacked 
by  a  fever,  which  confined  him  to  the  end  of  De- 
cember, when  being  recovered,  he  renewed  his  pre- 
parations for  his  journey  ;  and  having  given  Joutel 
leave  to  attend  him,  he  nominated  another  in  his 
room  to  command  the  fort,  the  works  of  which  had 
of  late  been  much  strengthened,  and  it  was  stored 
with  a  sufficiency  of  provisions  for  all  who  were  to 
be  left  in  it,  who  did  not  exceed  twenty  persons, 
seven  of  whom  were  women.  About  the  beginning 
of  January  1687,  he  set  out,  attended  by  sixteen 
men,  including  his  brother  Cavalier,  and  his  two 
nephews.  Father  Anastase,  Joutel,  and  Duhaut ;  the 
rest  of  his  company  we  shall  have  often  occasion  to 
mention.  For  the  conveniency  of  travelling,  La  Sale 
ordered  the  five  horses,  which  he  had  brought  from 
the  Cenis,  to  be  loaded  with  provisions.  This  third 
ramble  seems  to  have  been  dictated  by  necessity ; 
for,  in  fact,  he  could  remain  no  longer  amongst  the 
Clamcoets,  and  he  missed  the  end  he  had  proposed, 
which  he  pretended  to  be  the  discovery  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, but  which  in  fact  was  to  render  himself  master 
of  the  Spanish  mine  of  St.  Barbe  ;  a  more  romantic 
enterprise  than  the  other.  Having  travelled  a  little 
way  he  met  with  some  bodies  of  savages,  whom  he 
knew  so  well  how  to  humour,  that  they  parted  in  an 
amicable  manner.  He  then  crossed  many  rivers, 
but  they  increased  so  fast,  and  were  sometimes  so 
swollen  by  rains,  that  he  resolved  to  build  a  large 
canoe  for  crossing  them,  to  be  carried  over  land 
upon  poles  ;  and  this  proved  of  singular  use.  The 
countries  through  which  he  passed  were  extremely 
pleasant,  and  some  of  them  populous.  Three  great 
villages  particularly  are  named,  Taraba,  Tyakap- 
pon,  and  Palonna.  The  course  by  which  he  tra- 
velled was  north-east;  and  at  last  he  arrived  at  the 
country  of  the  Palaquessens,  who,  he  was  told,  were 
in  alliance  with  the  Spaniards.  Amongst  his  at- 
tendants was  one  Hiens,  whose  true  name  was  James, 
an  English  soldier,  one  Larcheveque,  and  a  surgeon 
called  Liotot.  As  it  was  impossible  for  our  travellers 
to  carry  with  them  a  sufficiency  of  provision  to 
maintain  them  during  the  whole  journey,  they  had 
recourse  to  hunting,  the  country  through  which  they 


travelled  being  full  of  excellent  game,  and  they  di- 
vided themselves  into  small  parties  for  that  purpose. 
Moranget,  La  Sale's  valet,  and  one  Nika,  an  In. 
dian,  but  a  most  admirable  hunter,  formed  one  of 
those  parties,  and,  as  is  reported,  fell  in  with  Duhaut, 
Hiens,  and  Liotot.  A  quarrel  ensued,  in  which 
Moranget  is  said  to  have  abused  Duhaut,  whose 
younger  brother  was  suspected  to  have  been  put  to 
death  by  La  Sale's  own  hand.  It  is  probable  that 
the  tyranny  and  insolence  of  La  Sale  determined 
those  men  to  dispatch  him ;  but  that  they  did  not 
think  themselves  safe  without  first  murdering  Mo- 
ranget, the  valet,  and  the  hunter;'  a  scheme  which 
they  accordingly  executed,  when  they  were  asleep, 
in  a  most  inhuman  manner,  Larcheveque  and  the 
pilot  Tessier  being  their  accomplices.  Despair,  rage, 
and  misery  prompted  them  to  cross  a  river  which 
lay  between  them  and  La  Sale,  to  murder  him  like- 
wise ;  but  they  were  detained  two  days  by  the  swell- 
ing of  the  waters.  By  this  time  La  Sale  became 
excessively  uneasy,  because  Moranget  and  his  two 
servants  had  not  returned,  and  resolved  to  go  in 
quest  of  them,  taking  with  him  Father  Anastase  and 
an  Indian,  and  recommending  the  care  of  his  little 
encampment  to  Joutel.  Having  travelled  a  little 
way,  he  fired  his  gun  at  some  eagles  that  were  ho- 
vering in  the  air,  which  in  those  parts  is  a  sure  sign 
of  carrioD  being  near,  and  the  discharge  informed 
the  assassins  where  he  was.  Two  of  them,  Duhaut 
and  Larcheveque,  passed  the  river;  and  the  former 
concealing  himself  behind  the  bushes,  instantly  shot 
La  Sale  dead.  Father  Anastase  expected  the  same 
fate,  but  was  informed  by  the  assassins  that  he  was 
safe.  Charlevoix  and  Hennepin  have  bestowed 
great  encomiums  upon  La  Sale's  vast  abilities,  per- 
severance, spirit,  and  courage.  But,  admitting  all 
they  say  to  be  true,  every  man  of  sense  who  reads 
his  history  must  consider  him  as  no  better  than  a 
madman,  with  lucid  intervals.  The  manner  of  his 
death  was,  however,  deplorable,  and  perhaps  a  loss 
to  the  public.  That  he  had  made  great  discoveries 
of  nations  lying  upon  the  Mississippi  can  scarcely 
be  doubted  ;  but  his  austere  reserved  humour,  joined 
to  his  pride  and  ambition  (which  seem  to  have  been 
unbounded,)  prevented  his  opening  himself  to  any 
confident  on  that  subject.  The  French  court,  long 
after  his  death,  availed  itself  even  of  the  manner  of 
it,  by  pretending,  in  their  memorials,  that  his  dis- 
coveries comprehended  the  whole  extent  of  the 
country  to  the  Mississippi,  and  even  to  the  west  of 
that  river. 

Cavalier  was  informed  of  his  brother's  death  by 
Father  Anastase  and  the  assassins,  who,  after  the 
murder  of  La  Sale,  returned  to  the  encampment,  and 
assured  both  him  and  Joutel  that  they  had  nothing  to 
fear ;  which  is  a  further  proof,  that  personal  resent- 
ment alone  prompted  the  murders  that  had  been 
committed.  Duhaut,  however,  took  possession  of 
the  command  instead  of  Joutel,  and  he  and  Larche- 
veque shared  betwixt  them  La  Sale's  effects,  which 
they  say  amounted  in  money,  plate,  and  merchan- 
dise, to  50,000  franks.  Next  day,  which  was  the 
21st  of  May,  the  assassins,  with  the  other  French, 
were  prevented  by  the  badness  of  the  weather  from 
going  to  a  village  of  the  Cenis  for  provisions;  and 
they  could  not  set  out  till  the  29th,  when  they  met 
three  savages  on  horseback,  one  of  them  habited 
like  a  Spaniard,  but  the  other  two  stark  naked. 
From  them  Joutel  understood,  that  some  Spaniards 
lived  not  far  off.  The  savage  in  the  Spanish  dress 
informed  him,  that  he  had  lately  been  amongst  these 
Spaniards,  and,  to  confirm  what  he  said,  he  pro- 


UNITED  STATES. 


1017 


duced  a  printed  paper  of  indulgences  from  the  Holy 
See  to  the  New  Mexican  missionaries.  This  man 
remained  with  the  French  ail  night,  and  next  morn- 
ing led  them  to  the  village,  where  they  were  hos- 
pitably received  by  the  elders,  who  presented  them 
with  pipes  of  tobacco,  and  here  they  met  with  a 
Frenchman,  who  lived  with  the  savages,  and  could 
not  be  distinguished  from  one  of  them,  and  who  had 
deserted  from  La  Sale  during  his  first  voyage. 
Through  his  interest  they  were  entertained  with 
all  the  luxury  of  the  Indians,  and  exchanged  some 
trinkets  for  provisions ;  but  the  village  not  contain- 
ing a  sufficiency  for  the  French,  Jouiel  remained 
in  it  to  complete  their  cargo,  while  his  companions 
returned  to  their  encampment.  His  chief  motive 
for  staying  was,  that  he  might  have  an  opportunity 
of  conversing  with  two  other  French  deserters,  who, 
as  he  understood,  were  in  those  parts,  and  who,  he 
thought,  could  give  him  some  light  with  regard  to 
the  Mississippi  river,  and  the  route  they  were  to 
take  towards  the  Illinois.  Joutel  had  the  good  for- 
tune to  meet  with  one  of  those  deserters,  who  was 
quite  naked,  painted,  and\marked  like  a  savage; 
nor  were  his  manners  different,  for  he  was  in  all  re- 
spects a  complete  barbarian.  He  could  give  no  in- 
formation as  to  the  Mississippi,  other  than  that 
there  was  a  great  river  at  the  distance  of  40 
leagues  northward;  and  Joutel  took  it  for  granted 
that  this  must  be  the  Mississippi.  Being  extremely 
desirous  to  get  rid  of  the  company  of  the  murderers, 
he  engaged  the  savage  Frenchman  to  go  in  search 
of  another  French  deserter,  who  lived  in  the  same 
manner  amongst  the  Ceuis,  and  to  accompany  him 
in  his  journey  towards  the  river.  The  man  soon 
found  out,  and  brought  his  companion,  who  was  not 
quite  so  barbarously  dressed  as  his  countryman. 
He  confirmed  all  the  other  had  said  with  regard  to 
the  great  river,  which  he  informed  him  lay  to  the 
north-east:  he  added,  that  Europeans  were  often  seen 
near  it;  and  those  two  deserters,  who  were  called 
Ruter  and  Grollet,  offered  to  accompany  him  thither. 
Joutel,  with  joy,  accepted  of  their  attendance; 
then  leaving  him  for  that  time,  in  two  days  they 
brought  a  horse  to  carry  their  provisions  on  the 
road,  and  thus  they  rejoined  their  companions  on  the 
10th  of  April. 

While  Joutel  was  absent,  La  Sale's  murderers 
had  conspired  amongst  themselves  to  return  to  fort 
St.  Lewis,  where  they  were  to  build  a  bark  to  carry 
them  to  the  French  American  islands.  Their  com- 
panions, who  were  innocent  of  the  murder,  pre- 
pared, at  the  same  time,  to  set  out  for  the  country 
of  the  Illinois.  Cavalier,  La  Sale's  brother,  was  at 
the  head  of  the  innocent  party  ;  and,  understanding 
that  Duhaut  and  his  companions  were  preparing  to 
set  out  for  the  Cenis  country,  where  they  were  to 
purchase  horses  to  carry  them  to  fort  St.  Lewis,  he 
begged  of  them  some  powder  and  shot,  and  a  few 
hatchets.  He  pretended,  that  he  and  his  compa- 
nions being  too  much  fatigued  to  proceed,  were  de- 
termined to  stop  at  the  first  village  of  the  Cenis ; 
and  he  offered  to  give  them  a  draught  ,for  the  value 
of  all  he  received  at  Duhaut's  own  price.  After 
some  consultation  with  his  companions,  Duhaut  told 
Cavalier  that  he  and  his  friends  were  welcome  to 
half  the  merchandise  that  was  in  the  storehouse ; 
and  that  if  he  and  his  companions  should  not  suc- 
ceed in  building  a  vessel  at  fort  St.  Lewis,  they 
would  return  to  Cavalier's  party,  and  all  of  them 
should  share  the  same  fortune.  Some  days  after 
this  agreement  the  assassins  split  amongst  thern- 
eelves ;  Duhaut  was  for  returning  to  Cavalier,  and 


going  with  him  to  the  country  of  the  Illinois,  while 
the  others  insisted  upon  returning  to  fort  St.  Lewis, 
or  on  having  their  dividends  of  La  Sale's  effects. 
The  dispute  growing  hot,  Hiens  shot  Duhaut  through 
the  head,  and  Ruter  slew  Liotot,  the  surgeon ;  and 
thus  the  murderers  of  La  Sale  and  Moranget  were 
justly  punished  by  one  another's  hands.  According 
to  Hennepin,  Hiens  had  taken  the  part  of  the  de- 
ceased, La  Sale,  and  now  pretended  that  he  killed 
Duhaut  because  he  was  his  murderer.  Joutel,  who 
was  by  this  time  returned,  and  an  eye-witness  to 
the  tragical  scene,  seems  to  confirm  the  innocence 
of  Hiens,  for  he  told  him  he  had  nothing  to  fear. 
Joutel  was  then  at  great  pains  to  inform  the  savages 
who  attended  him,  and  who  beheld  what  had  hap- 
pened with  marks  of  horror,  that  the  two  wretches 
who  had  been  killed,  deserved  their  fate,  because 
they  had  been  guilty  of  murdering  their  officer,  and 
plundering  his  effects.  Larcheveque  was  abroad, 
hunting,  during  this  scene  of  murder,  and  Hiens 
declared  he  would  serve  him  upon  his  return,  as  he 
had  done  Duhaut,  but  was  dissuaded  from  it  by  the 
elder  Cavalier,  and  Father  Anastase,  while  Joutel 
went  and  acquainted  Larcheveque  of  his  danger, 
and,  upon  his  arrival  at  his  encampment,  Hiens  and 
he  were  made  friends.  They  then  consulted  what 
they  were  to  do  next,  when  Hiens  said,  that  having 
promised  the  Cenis  to  assist  them  in  their  next  cam- 
paign, he  was  resolved  to  be  as  good  as  his  word; 
and  that  if  the  company  would  attend  him  thither, 
they  might  then  determine  what  they  had  to  do. 
As  Hiens  and  his  confederates  still  remained  mas- 
ters of  the  company's  effects,  they  were  obliged  to 
acquiesce  in  his  proposal.  Upon  their  arrival  at  the 
Cenis  village,  Hiens  took  the  field  with  the  suvages, 
and  six  Frenchmen,  all  on  horseback,  while  the 
rest  of  the  French  remained  in  the  village.  In  a 
few  days,  the  women  of  the  village,  bedaubed  with 
earth,  entering  their  cabins  early  in  the  morning, 
danced  round  them  for  three  hours.  The  dance 
being  ended,  the  master  of  the  cabin  presented  each 
of  the  ladies  with  a  piece  of  their  country  tobacco, 
which  has  a  smaller  leaf  than  that  raised  in  the 
French  plantations. 

The  occasion  of  this  festivity  was  a  complete  vic- 
tory, which  had  been  gained  by  the  Cenis  over 
their  enemies  the  Cannohatinnos,  a  fierce  people, 
who,  according  to  Father  Hennepin,  always  boil  in. 
caldrons,  and  eat  their  prisoners.  Hearing  of  the 
French  and  their  fire-arms,  and  that  they  were  on 
the  side  of  the  Cenis,  they  durst  not  stand  a  charge, 
but  fled ;  and  the  Cenis,  in  the  pursuit,  killed  about 
48  men  and  women.  They  returned  in  triumph 
with  the  scalps  of  the  dead  to  their  village,  where 
they  immediately  put  all  their  prisoners  to  death, 
excepting  two  boys  and  two  women.  One  of  the 
women  was  scalped,  and  dispatched,  with  a  charge 
of  powder  and  shot,  to  her  countrymen,  to  inform 
them,  that  the  Cenis  intended,  in  a  short  time,  to 
pay  them  another  visit.  The  other  was  conveyed  to 
a  lone  place,  where  she  was  tortured  to  death  by  a 
number  of  her  own  sex,  armed  with  sharp-pointed 
stakes ;  then  her  body  was  cut  in  pieces,  and  given 
for  food  to  their  slaves.  Next  day  was  dedicated  to 
rejoicings.  The  cabin  of  their  chief  was  cleaned 
out,  and  spread  with  mats,  upon  which  their  elders 
and  the  French  were  seated;  and  the  company  was 
harangued  by  the  village  orator,  upon  the  glorious 
victory  they  had  obtained,  chiefly  by  means  of  the 
strangers.  His  speech  being  finished,  a  woman 
appeared,  with  a  large  reed  or  cane  in  her  hand ; 
she  was  followed  by  the  warriors,  each  preceded  by 


1018 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


his  wives,  carrying  the  scalps  of  the  enemies  they 
had  killed,  and  every  warrior  having  in  his  hand  a 
how  and  two  arrows.  The  procession  was  closed  by 
the  two  young  prisoners,  one  of  whom,  being 
wounded,  was  on  horseback. 

Each  warrior,  as  he  passed  by  the  orator,  presented 
him  with  the  scalps,  which  he  took  out  of  his  wife's 
hand.  The  orator  received  them,  and  having  turned 
round  to  each  quarter  of  the  world,  laid  them  on  the 
ground.  This  ceremony  being  ended,  sagamet  (the 
common  food  of  the  Indians,  made  of  maize  or  In- 
dian corn,)  was  served  up  in  large  platters;  but  be- 
fore any  of  the  company  touched  it,  the  orator  filled 
out  some  into  a  capacious  dish,  and  placed  it  by 
way  of  offering  before  the  scalps ;  then  he  lighted  a 
pipe  of  tobacco,  and  perfumed  it  with  its  smoke. 
Besides  the  sagamet,  the  tongues  of  their  enemies, 
who  had  been  killed,  composed  part  of  the  banquet; 
and  the  two  young  prisoners  were  obliged  to  eat 
slices  of  the  flesh  of  the  woman  who  had  been  sacri- 
ficed to  the  fury  of  her  sex.  The  like  ceremonies 
were  performed  in  other  cabins ;  and  the  festival 
was  concluded  with  singing  and  dancing.  After 
this  solemnity,  the  French  resumed  their  consulta- 
tions upon  the  course  they  were  to  hold.  Hiens 
said,  he  neither  could  agree  to  the  journey  to  the 
Illinois,  nor  would  he  be  publicly  executed  in  France. 
The  innocent  part  of  the  company  made  no  reply 
to  this  declaration,  but  persisted  in  their  resolution 
of  travelling  towards  the  Illinois  country.  The  sa- 
yages  did  all  they  could  to  persuade  them  to  remain 
where  they  were,  by  painting  in  frightful  colours 
the  length,  the  difficulties,  and  dangers  of  the  jour- 
ney they  were  about  to  undertake ;  but,  finding 
they  were  determined  in  their  resolution,  they  rea- 
dily gave  them  two  of  their  best  guides.  Hiens, 
who  was  still  in  possession  of  La  Sale's  effects,  and 
wore  his  scarlet  clothes  laced  with  gold,  a  circum- 
stance of  no  mean  importance  amongst  the  barba- 
rians, offered  to  accommodate  Cavalier  and  his  party 
with  whatever  was  in  his  power ;  but  he  forced  him 
at  the  same  time,  to  give  him  under  his  hand  a 
Latin  attestation  of  his  being  entirely  innocent  ol 
his  brother  La  Sale's  death. 

The  number  of  the  party  which  travelled  to  the 
Illinois  country  were  seven;  the  two  Cavaliers 
uncle  and  nephew,  Father  Anastase,  Joutel,  one 
Marie,  a  young  Parisian  called  Bartholemy,  anc 
Tessier  the  pilot.  Larcheveque,  Munier,  and  Ruter. 
had  promised  to  accompany  them ;  but  the  libertine 
habits  they  had  contracted  detained  them  amongst 
the  Cenis.  According  to  Hennepin,  in  all  the 
countries  through  which  they  passed,  the  inhabitants 
entertained  them  with  complaints  of  the  cruelties  o 
the  Spaniards,  against  whom  they  said  twenty  o 
their  nations  were  confederated,  and  the  nation  o 
the  Nasonis  were  extremely  importunate  with  the 
French,  because  of  their  fire-arms,  to  join  in  the 
association;  but  this  they  declined.  Their  guide 
led  them  northwards  and  north-east,  through  thi 
most  delightful  countries  in  the  universe,  inhabitec 
by  different  nations.  They  crossed  four  great  rivers 
passed  through  the  country  of  the  Nabiri,  or  Neansi 
and  entered  that  to  the  Cadodacchos.  The  inhabi 
tants  of  this  nation  met  them  a  league  from  the  vil 
lage,  received  them  with  the  calumet,  or  pipe  o 
peace,  entertained  them  with  tobacco,  and  led  thei 
horses  in  triumph  to  their  habitation.  These  peopl 
lived  so  far  within  the  country,  that  they  had  neve 
before  seen  a  European;  and  they  called  th 
French  spirits  come  from  the  other  world.  When  ou 
adventurers  arrived  at  the  village,  where  they  foun 


11  the  inhabitants  assembled,  the   women  washed 
leir  heads  and  feet  with   warm  water,  and  the  rest 
f  the  uight,  as   well  as  day,  passed  in  rejoicings, 
lie  Cadodacchos  seemed  to  have  some  notion  of  a 
eity,    by  the  worship   they  paid   to   the   sun ;   two 
gures  of  which  luminary  were  painted  ou  their  ce- 
emonial  habits.     On  the  24th  of  June,  Marie,  one 
f  the  Frenchmen,  in  bathing  himself,  was  sucked 
nto  a  whirlpool,  and  drowned.     His  body  being  af- 
erwards  found,  was  carried  to  the  house  of  the  chief, 
vhere  his  wife  wrapped  it  decently  up  in  a  handsome 
mat;  and  the  young  men  having  dug  a  grave,   it 
as  interred  by  Father  Anastase  with  all  the  cere- 
monies of  the  Romish  religion,  to  the  great  adinira- 
on  of  the  savages. 

It  was  the  beginning  of  July  before  they  left  this 
lospitable  people,  and  proceeded  to  the  territories  of 
he  Natches,  the  most  gentle  of  all  the  savages  of 
he  American  continent.  They  worshipped  fire, 
which  they  never  suffered  to  be  extinguished;  and 
t  is  probable,  from. some  traditions  they  had  amongst 
hemselves,  that  their  forefathers  carne  from  a  roun- 
ry  on  the  borders  of  Peru.  These,  and  all  the 
ther  nations  they  passed  through,  received  the 
Drench  with  the  most  unbounded  hospitality.  The 
urther  they  advanced  northward,  they  found  the 
greater  plenty  of  beavers  and  otters.  At  last  they 
cached  the  Ouidiches,  where  they  met  with  three 
warriors  of  two  nations,  called  the  Cahinnio  and  the 
Mentous,  who  dwelt  25  leagues  further  east-north- 
east, and  had  seen  some  Frenchmen.  They  offered 
o  conduct  them  to  their  countrymen;  and  this  offer 
vas  accepted.  In  their  journey  they  passed  several 
rivers  and  brooks,  and  were  still  treated  with  the 
same  affection  and  hospitality.  Some  of  those  tribes 
mentioned  a  captain  with  one  hand  (De  Tonti),  who 
'nformed  them  that  a  greater  captain  than  he,  mean- 
ng  La  Sale,  would  soon  visit  their  country.  On 
the  20th  of  July  they  arrived  amongst  the  Akansai, 
where  they  met  with  two  of  their  countrymen.  De- 
lounay  and  Couture,  a  carpenter,  who  had  been  sent 
by  De  Tonti  into  those  parts  to  meet  La  Sale ;  but 
despairing  of  his  return,  they  had  settled  among  the 
Indians.  These  people  turned  their  own  families 
put  of  their  cabins,  that  they  might  accommodate 
the  strangers,  and  called  them  envoys  from  the  sun, 
who  came  to  defend  them  from  their  enemies  with 
thunderbolts,  meaning  their  muskets,  weapons  whicl. 
they  had  never  seen  before.  Upon  their  departure, 
the  savages  would  have  loaded  their  horses  with  otter 
and  beaver  skins,  which  they  had  in  such  plenty,  as 
to  be  thought  of  no  value;  but  the  French  declined 
the  present,  and  travelled  for  some  days  along  the 
beautiful  banks  of  the  Akansa,  being  visited  by  de- 
puties from  all  the  neighbouring  countries.  When 
they  drew  near  the  place  where  they  were  told  the 
two  Frenchmen  lived,  they  tired  their  guns ;  upon 
which  their  countrymen  appeared.  After  some  con- 
versation, Couture  charged  them  not  to  mention  the 
death  of  La  Sale  in  public,  because  his  very  name 
had  kept  all  the  neighbouring  savages  in  awe,  and 
had  supplied  them  with  canoes,  guides,  and  every 
thing  they  wanted. 

Cavalier  persuaded  Couture  to  intimate  to  the 
heads  of  the  savages,  that  La  Sale  had  made  a  fine 
settlement  upon  the  gulf  of  Mexico ;  that  they  were 
then  travelling  to  Canada ;  that  they  would  soon  re- 
turn with  a  good  number  of  French  to  make  a  set- 
tlement in  their  country,  in  order  to  defend  them 
from  their  enemies,  to  make  them  happy  by  the  fruits 
of  an  established  commerce ;  and  that  they  hoped 
at  the  same  time  to  obtain  from  them  the  same  assist- 


UNITED  STATES. 


1019 


ance  and  marks  of  friendship  they  had  experienced 
from  the  nations  through  which  they  had  travelled. 
The  Akansas  emitted  no  circumstance  of  honour  or 
accommodation  for  the  entertainment  of  their  guests, 
and  assembled  together,  that  they  might  consult 
upon  their  proposals.  Some  difficulty  was  raised 
with  regard  to  guides ;  for,  amongst  them,  all  were 
equally  reckoned  children  of  the  public ;  but  even 
that  difficulty  was  got  over  by  promises  and  presents, 
to  which  the  most  generous  of  the  savages  are  not 
insensible,  though  we  must  do  them  the  justice  to 
say,  that  all  goes  into  the  public  stock  ;  so  that  pri- 
vate avarice  amongst  them  in  fact,  becomes  a  public 
virtue.  The  young  Parisian  not  being  able  to  travel 
any  further,  remained  amongst  the  Akansas,  while 
the  others,  attended  for  some  time  by  Couture,  pro- 
ceeded on  their  journey.  On  the  27th  of  July,  1687, 
they  embarked  on  board  a  peruaga,  rowed  by  four 
savages,  one  from  each  nation  they  were  then  treat- 
ing with,  the  better  to  express  their  friendship  with 
the  French.  Falling  down  the  river  Akansa  they 
reached,  the  same  day,  the  village  of  Toriman,  where 
they  had  the  first  view  of  the  Mississippi,  which  they 
crossed  on  the  29th ;  in  the  evening  they  reached 
the  village  of  Kappas.  On  the  3d  of  September 
they  entered  the  river  of  the  Illinois,  at  a  place  100 
leagues  distant  from  fort  Crevecoeur ;  and  on  the  14th 
arrived  at  fort  St.  Lewis,  where  an  officer,  one  Bel- 
lefontaine,  commanded  in  the  absence  of  Tonti,  who 
was  then  serving  in  Canada  under  Denonville  in 
his  expedition  against  the  Tsonnonthouans.  There 
being  questioned  about  La  Sale,  they  pretended  they 
had  left  him  about  40  leagues  on  the  other  side  of 
the  Cenis's  country,  fearing,  that  if  the  savages  in 
the  neighbourhood  should  hear  of  his  death,  they 
would  find  it  impossible  to  procure  accommodations 
for  their  journey  to  Canada,  which  was  extremely 
fc.azardous  on  account  of  the  war  then  raging  with 
the  Iroquois.  It  happened  that  Tonti's  commissary, 
De  Boiscondet,  was  setting  out  at  the  same  time  for 
Canada,  and  all  of  them  embarked  together :  but 
the  severity  of  the  weather  obliged  them  to  put  back 
to  the  fort,  and  extinguished  all  hope  of  reaching 
France  that  year,  or  sending  from  thence  any  suc- 
cours to  their  friends,  whom  they  had  left  at  the 
Louisianian  fort  of  St.  Lewis  near  the  bay  of  St. 
Bernard. 

On  the  27th  of  October,  De  Tonti  arriving  at  the 
fort,  Cavalier  informed  him  of  his  brother's  death 
from  whom  he  had  received  a  letter  of  credit  for 
4000  franks  or  value,  which  Tonti  immediately 
paid  him  in  furs.  It  was  the  21st  of  March,  before 
they  again  set  out ;  and,  on  the  10th  of  May,  they 
arrived  at  Michillimakinac,  from  whence  they  re 
paired  to  Montreal.  There  they  pretended  to  De 
nonville  and  Champigny  the  intendant,  that  thej 
were  obliged  to  sail  directly  for  France,  that  the} 
might  from  thence  send  supplies  to  La  Sale,  anc 
the  governor  and  intendant  believed  their  assertions 
But  we  can  by  no  means  see  the  use  or  expediency 
of  this  imposition,  as  they  had  already  acquaintec 
several  of  the  French  officers  with  La  Sale's  death 
They  made  the  best  of  their  way  to  Rochelle,  am 
Charlevoix  often  saw,  and  conversed  with  Joutel 
When  they  arrived  at  Paris,  and  began  to  solici 
for  supplies  for  the  settlement  at  St.  Bernard's  Bay 
it  was  judged  too  late  to  risk  any ;  and  that  appre 
hension  proved  but  too  true.  No  sooner  were  the 
Clamcoets  informed  of  La  Sale's  death,  and  the  dis 
persion  of  his  company,  than  they  surprised  the  in 
habitants  of  St.  Lewis's  fall,  and  murdered  all  o 
them,  excepting  three  sons  of  one  Talon,  Eustace 


)e  Breman,  and  an  Italian,  all  of  whom  they  carried 
o  their  village.  This  Italian,  who  had  performed 
iy  land  this  stupendous  journey  between  Canada 
,nd  St.  Bernard's  Bay  to  join  La  Sale,  to  whom  he 
ertainly  would  have  been  of  infinite  service,  saved 
limself  by  a  very  extraordinary  stratagem.  When 
hey  were  about  to  kill  him,  he  told  them  they  did 
lim  injustice,  because  be  carried  them  all  in  his 
teart ;  and  that  if  they  would  spare  him  till  next 
morning,  he  would  convince  them  that  what  he  had 
aid  was  true.  The  strangeness  of  the  proposal, 
and  the  air  of  confidence  with  which  the  Italian 
poke,  startled  the  barbarians,  who,  without  hesi- 
ation,  granted  his  request.  Next  morning,  when 
,he  trial  came  on,  he  boldly  advanced  towards  the 
savages,  and  opening  his  breast,  to  which  he  had 
aeatly  fixed  a  small  looking-glass,  in  which  each  of 
them  saw  himself,  they  were  so  amazed  that  they 
spared  his  life. 

(A.D.  1688.)  By  this  time,  the  Spaniards  of  New 
Mexico  hearing  of  La  Sale's  expedition,  were  so 
much  alarmed,  that  they  sent  500  men  into  the 
country  of  the  Cenis,  where  they  made  Larcheveque 
and  Grollet  prisoners.  Some  time  after  this  event, 
another  body  of  200  Spaniards  arrived  at  the  same 
place,  having  upon  their  march  seized  Munier  and 
Peter  Talon,  the  brother  of  those  we  have  men- 
tioned above.  The  design  of  the  Spaniards  was  to 
have  settled  two  Franciscan  missionaries  amongst 
those  savages  ;  and  understanding  that  Talon  and 
bis  companions  were  perfectly  well  acquainted  with 
the  language  of  the  natives,  they  treated  them  with 
great  civility,  that  they  might  induce  them  to  remain 
with  the  missionaries.  Talon  informed  them  that 
he  had  three  brothers  and  a  sister  in  slavery  amongst 
the  Clamcoets,  and  the  Spaniards  immediately  sent 
a  detachment  to  find  them  out.  It  was  with  great 
difficulty  that  this  detachment  brought  off  two  of 
Talon's  brothers,  their  sister,  and  the  Italian,  the 
barbarians  having  conceived  a  great  affection  for 
them  all.  Next  year,  a  detachment  of  250  Spa- 
niards came  to  the  village  of  the  Clamcoets,  where 
the  third  brother  of  the  Talons  remained  still  in 
servitude,  as  did  the  Italian.  Both  of  them  were 
seized  and  conducted  to  St.  Louis  du  Potosi,  a  city 
of  New  Mexico.  From  thence  they  were  carried 
to  Mexico  itself,  where  they  were  admitted  into  the 
service  of  the  viceroy.  As  to  Larcheveque  and 
Grollet,  they  were  sent  to  Old  Spain,  and  from 
thence  back  to  Mexico,  probably  to  work  in  the 
mines  :  and  a  similar  fate  seems  to  have  attended 
Eustace  De  Breman.  Their  examples  furnish  us 
with  a  strong  proof  of  the  unrelenting  jealousy  of 
the  Spanish  government  with  regard  to  its  posses- 
sions in  America.  The  clemency  shown  towards 
the  Talons  and  Eustace  De  Breman,  was  probably 
owing  to  their  youth  and  inexperience,  which  ren- 
dered them  less  obnoxious  to  the  Spaniards.  It  is 
plain,  however,  that  none  of  them  were  suffered  to 
return  to  France,  for  fear  of  their  giving  informa- 
tion of  the  mines,  commerce,  and  country.  Eight 
years  after  this  transaction,  the  three  brothers,  the 
Talons  being  grown  up,  were  sent  to  serve  on  board 
the  Spanish  vice-admiral's  ship,  which,  being  taken 
by  a  French  ship,  they  obtained  their  liberty,  and 
returned  to  France,  where  they  related  the  above 
particulars,  which  otherwise  never  could  have  been 
known.  As  to  the  youngest  brother  of  all,  and  his 
sister,  they  were  carried  to  Old  Spain  by  the  viceroy 
when  he  was  relieved  from  his  government. 

Thus  ended  the  mighty  projects  of  the  French 
court  under  the  direction  of  M.  De  La  Sale,  to  ob- 


1020 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


tain  a  settlement  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi, 
which  might  overawe  both  the  English  and  the  Spa- 
niards in  America ;  for  both  of  them  were  then  at 
war  with  France.  The  reader  has  been  sufficiently 
informed  of  La  Sale's  character,  and  his  adventures. 
His  reserved  severe  temper,  and  his  numerous  ram- 
blings,  called  voyages  and  discoveries,  together  with 
his  sudden  and  tragical  death,  left  his  countrymen 
impressed  with  notions  that  he  had  discovered  mines 
and  countries  richer  than  those  of  Peru  and  Mexico  ; 
and  that  a  little  spirit  and  perseverance  alone  were 
wanting  to  make  the  French  rival  the  Spaniards  in 
riches  upon  the  continent  of  America.  The  truth 
is,  La  Sale's  real  object  was  to  get  possession  of 
the  mines  of  St.  Barbe;  and  yet  we  know  of  no  re- 
gular plan,  and  no  feasible  attempt  he  made  to  be- 
come master  of  them.  It  is  possible,  that  the  perpe- 
tual wars  in  which  his  court  was  engaged  in  Eu- 
rope, prevented  it  from  sending  the  necessary  assist- 
ance for  his  undertaking  to  St.  Domingo,  from 
whence  he  seems  to  have  expected  them  ;  but  had 
they  arrived,  his  romantic,  disagreeable  humour 
rendered  him  the  most  unfit  man  in  the  world  for 
carrying  on  a  regular  plan  of  operations.  After  his 
death  his  court  resumed  his  chimerical  projects,  and 
entered  into  intrigues  with  a  Spaniard,  the  Conde 
De  Pinalossa,  for  realizing  them;  but  this  bubble 
likewise  burst,and  the  accession  of  the  duke  of  Anjou 
to  the  crown  of  Spain  united  the  interests  of  that 
monarch  with  those  of  France. 

Notwithstanding  all  we  have  said  of  La  Sale's 
chimerical  projects,  it  is  certain  that  his  voyages 
and  intercourse  with  the  Indians  on  the  Mississippi, 
made  the  French  better  acquainted  with  that  country 
than  they  had  ever  been  before  ;  and  it  was  he  that 
distinguished  it  by  the  name  of  Louisiana,  which 
it  still  retains.  After  the  death  of  La  Sale,  his  pro- 
jects appeared  for  some  time  to  have  been  dropt  by 
the  French  ministry;  but  Iberville,  after  his  suc- 
cessful expedition  to  Hudson's  Bay,  revived  them, 
by  undertaking  to  Pontchartrain  the  discovery  of 
the  mouth  of  the  river  Mississippi,  where  he  pro- 
posed to  build  a  fort  and  make  a  settlement.  His 
known  capacity,  both  as  a  seaman  and  officer,  and 
the  reputation  he  had  acquired  in  both  services  by 
his  prudence  and  address,  prevailed  with  the  mi- 
nister to  order  two  ships  on  this  expedition,  La  Fran- 
c,ois  and  La  Renommee  to  be  commanded  by  the 
Marquis  De  Chateaumorand,  and  M.  D'Iberville. 
Setting  sail  on  the  17th  of  October,  1698,  they  cast 
anchor  at  Cape  Francois  in  St.  Domingo.  From 
thence  they  proceeded  to  Leogane,  where  they  had 
a  conference  with  the  famous  M.  Ducasse,  then  go- 
vernor of  St.  Domingo,  who  made  a  most  favour- 
able report  to  the  minister  of  Iberville's  great  abi- 
lities for  carrying  into  execution  what  he  had  under- 
taken. On  the  last  day  of  the  year  the  two  captains 
proceeded  on  their  voyage;  and  on  the  27th  of  Ja- 
nuary, 1699,  they  discovered  Florida.  Sending  an 
officer  ashore  for  wood  and  water,  they  understood 
that  they  were  opposite  to  Pensacola  Bay,  upon 
which  300  Spaniards  had  been  settled  for  some  time, 
in  order  to  be  beforehand  with  the  French,  whom 
they  expected  in  those  parts.  Lescalette,  the  French 
officer,  who  had  been  sent  ashore,  entered  the  har- 
bour of  Pensacola,  and  demanded  permission  of  the 
governor  to  take  in  wood  and  water.  The  governor 
understanding  from  whom  he  came,  sent  his  major 
with  his  compliments  to  the  two  French  captains 
(for  France  and  Spain  were  then  at  peace  by  the 
treaty  of  Ryswick)  with  a  letter,  importing  that  his 
most  Christian  majesty's  two  ships  were  welcome 


to  take  in  wood  and  water,  and  to  come  as  near  as 
they  pleased  to  the  shore,  but  that  he  was  expressly 
ordered  to  admit  no  foreign  ship  into  the  harbour ; 
yet,  that  he  would  send  his  pilot  to  conduct  them 
into  the  bay,  if  they  should  be  forced  to  take  shelter 
through  bad  weather.  On  the  31st  the  two  French 
captains,  upon  reflection,  not  thinking  proper  to 
force  an  entn  into  the  harbour,  stood  out  from  the 
bay  into  which  they  had  been  driven  by  stress  of 
weather;  and  Iberville,  who  was  foremost,  anchored 
at  the  south-east  point  of  the  river  Mobile,  famous 
for  the  bloody  victory  which  the  Spanish  General 
Fernando  De  Soto  obtained  there  over  the  savages. 
On  the  2nd  of  July,  he  went  ashore  on  an  island 
about  four  leagues  in  circumference,  with  a  toler- 
able good  harbour,  when  clear  of  the  sands,  which 
sometimes  choke  it  after  tempestuous  weather.  He 
gave  this  island  the  name  of  Massacre,  on  account 
of  the  skulls  and  bones  of  about  60  people,  who  had 
been  newly  devoured,  and  were  scattered  along  the 
shore;  but  this  term  was  afterwards  changed  for 
that  of  the  isle  of  Dauphin.  From  this  isle  Iberville 
passed  to  the  main  land,  where  he  discovered  the 
river  Pascagoulas,  on  which  he  met  with  a  great 
number  of  savages.  All  these  discoveries,  however, 
together  with  that  he  afterwards  made  cf  the  mouth 
of  the  Mississippi,  were  far  from  being  new,  either 
to  the  English  or  the  Spaniards  ;  but  they  served  to 
the  French  as  pretexts  for  arrogating  to  themselves 
the  property  of  the  country.  The  informations  which 
Iberville  received  of  the  Pascagoulas  left  him  no 
room  to  doubt,  that  he  would  soon  discover  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  which  the  savages  called 
Malbouchia,  and  the  Spaniards  La  Palisade,  on 
account  of  the  vast  number  of  trees  which  are  car- 
ried down  by  the  force  of  the  tide,  and  stick  in  the 
mud  at  the  mouth  of  the  river.  On  the  2nd  of  March 
he  entered  it,  and  being  well  satisfied  as  to  the 
reality  of  his  discovery,  he  communicated  it  to  Cha- 
teaumorand, who  was  sailing  gently  after  him,  and 
who,  according  to  orders,  immediately  returned  in 
the  Francois  to  St.  Domingo.  Iberville,  when  he 
made  the  discovery,  was  attended  by  his  ensign 
De  Sauvole,  his  brother  De  Bienville,  and  about 
48  men  on  board  of  twenty  small  sloops.  The  fur- 
ther he  proceeded  up  the  river,  the  more  he  found 
fault  with  the  informations  that  had  been  given  him 
concerning  it  by  De  Tonti  and  Hennipin;  but  this 
circumstance,  which  is  related  by  Charlevoix,  who 
had  in  his  hands  Iberville's  letters  to  the  minister 
on  that  head,  is  of  no  great  weight,  as  it  was  na- 
tural for  Iberville  to  be  fond  of  having  the  honour 
to  be  the  first  discoverer.  When  he  arrived  at  the 
villages  of  Bayagoulas,  he  went  ashore,  and  the 
chief  of  the  savages  there  conducted  him  to  a  temple 
of  a  most  curious  construction.  The  roof  was  adorned 
with  the  figures  of  many  animals,  and,  amongst 
others,  of  a  red  cock.  The  entrance  was  by  a  kind 
of  portico,  which  was  eight  feet  broad  and  eleven 
long,  supported  by  two  large  pillars,  fastened  to  a 
beam  running  across  the  roof  of  the  portico  Both 
sides  of  the  entrance  were  adorned  with  the  figures 
of  bears,  wolves,  and  several  birds,  and  at  the  head 
of  them  all  was  a  chouchouacha,  or  opossum.  The 
door  of  this  temple  was  but  three  feet  high,  and  two 
broad,  and  the  savage  chief  ordering  it  to  be  opened, 
introduced  Iberville.  The  inside  was  formed  like 
other  cabins  in  the  manner  of  a  cupola,  about  30 
feet  in  diameter.  In  the  middle  of  it  stood  two  fag- 
gots of  dried  wood,  which  were  placed  on  end,  and 
burning,  and  filled  the  temple  with  smoke.  A  scaf- 
fold was  raised  from  the  floor,  heaped  with  a  great 


UNITED  STATES. 


1021 


many  bundles  of  the  skins  of  kids,  boars,  and  bul- 
locks, which  had  been  sacrificed  to  Chouchouacha, 
whose  figure  was  represented  in  several  parts  of  the 
temple  in  black  and  red,  and  was  the  deity  of  Baya 
goulas.  The  village  itself  consisted  of  700  cabins 
each  containing  a  family,  but  without  any  other  day- 
light than  what  came  in  at  the  door,  and  a  hole 
about  two  feet  in  diameter  in  the  middle  of  the  room 
or  roof. 

From  thence  Iberville  proceeded  to  the  Oumas 
where  he  was  received  with  great  affection  by  the 
inhabitants.  Though  he  met  at  Bayagoulas  with 
some  evidences  of  De  Tonti's  having  been  there,  yet 
he  began  to  entertain  some  suspicions  as  to  the 
identity  of  the  Mississippi,  on  account  of  its  appear- 
ance, which  was  very  different  from  the  description 
given  of  it  by  De  Tonti.  At  last  a  letter,  presented 
to  De  Bienville  by  a  savage  chief,  removed  his  un- 
certainty. It  was  written  by  the  Chevalier  De 
Tonti,  and  directed  to  La  Sale,  who  is  there  styled 
governor  of  Louisiana ;  dated  from  the  village  of 
Quinipissas  (the  same  as  Bayagoulas),  the  20th  of 
April,  1695.  In  this  letter  Tonti  informs  La  Sale, 
that  having  found  the  standard  with  the  French 
arms,  which  he  had  erected,  thrown  down  by  the 
violence  of  the  tide,  he  had  set  up  another  about 
seven  leagues  from  the  sea,  and  had  there  left  a  let- 
ter in  a  tree.  He  says  that  all  the  nations  through 
which  he  passed,  sung  him  the  calumet,  and  that 
they  were  much  afraid  of  the  French,  ever  since 
La  Sale  had  left  that  village.  "  I  shall  conclude," 
continues  he,  "  in  acquainting  you  with  the  very 
great  trouble  it  gives  me,  that  we  are  obliged  to  re- 
turn with  the  misfortune  of  not  having  met  with  you 
after  two  canoes  had  skirted  the  coast  of  Mexico 
for  30  leagues,  and  those  of  Florida  for  25." 

D' Iberville,  being  now  satisfied  of  his  having  en- 
tered the  real  river,  returned  to  the  bay  of  Biloxi, 
situated  between  the  mouths  of  the  Mississippi  and 
the  Mobile,  where  he  built  a  fort  three  leagues  from 
the  river  Pascagoulas,  of  which  he  made  a  Sauvole 
commandant,  and  De  Bienville  lieutenant;  then  he 
sailed  back  to  France,  where  he  entirely  satisfied 
that  court  a-:;  to  the  reality  of  his  discovery;  but  re- 
mained there  a  very  short  time,  and  on  the  8th  of 
January,  1700,  he  was  again  at  Biloxi.  He  there 
understood,  that,  during  the  preceding  September, 
an  English  vessel  of  twelve  guns  had  entered  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  and  was  met  by  De  Bien- 
ville, as  he  was  sailing  to  take  soundings  25  leagues 
from  the  sea.  De  Bienville  acquainted  the  English 
commander  that  he  had  no  business  there,  and  ad- 
vised him  to  be  gone,  otherwise  he  would  employ 
force  to  drive  him  away.  The  Englishman  pleaded 
pre-occupancy  on  the  part  of  his  countrymen,  who, 
he  said,  had  a  better  right  to  that  river  than  the 
French  ;  but  finding  it  to  no  purpose  to  discuss  the 
matter  further  at  that  time,  he  retired,  threatening 
to  return  with  force.  Iberville,  at  the  same  time, 
understood,  that  other  English  from  Carolina  were 
amonst  the  Chicachas,  where  they  traded  in  furs 
and  slaves  ;  and  where,  he  pretended,  they  had  in- 
stigated the  Tonicas  to  massacre  an  ecclesiastic. 
This  incident,  with  the  declarations  of  the  English, 
that  they  had  discovered  the  mouth  of  the  Missis- 
sippi 50  years  before,  determined  Iberville  to  renew 
the  possession,  which  had  been  taken  formerly  by 
M.  De  La  Sale,  of  that  river,  and  the  lands  about 
it,  as  if  that  empty  ceremony  could  defeat  a  prior 
possession,  which  most  undoubtedly  was  in  the  En- 
glish. At  the  same  time  Iberville  erected  on  the 
bank  of  the  river  another  little  fort  mounting  four 


pieces  of  cannon,  and  gave  the  government  of  it  to 
his  brother  Bienville;  but  this  fort,  which  stood  to- 
wards the  east  of  the  river's  mouth,  was  soon  aban- 
doned. While  Iberville  was  busied  in  giving  di- 
rections about  it,  De  Tonti  arrived  with  about  twenty 
Canadians,  who  had  been  settled  amongst  the  Illi- 
nois. By  this  time  a  pamphlet  had  been  published 
upon  the  discovery  of  Louisiana,  and  the  Missis- 
sippi, under  Tonti's  name;  but  when  Iberville,  who 
found  great  fault  with  it,  mentioned  it  to  Tonti,  he 
disowned  it,  and  threw  the  blame  of  its  publication 
upon  a  Parisian,  who  had  undertaken  it  for  lucra- 
tive views.  Charlevoix,  therefore,  casts  the  blame 
of  the  English  endeavouring  to  disturb  the  settle- 
ment upon  Hennepin  ;  whose  book  was  published 
long  before  this  time.  But  there  can  be  no  doubt, 
that  this  river,  and  the  adjacent  country  was  known 
long  before  to  the  English,  under  the  name  of  Ca- 
rolina, and  that  it  was  comprehended  in  a  grant 
made  by  King  Charles  I.  on  the  30th  of  October, 
in  the  fifth  year  of  his  reign,  to  Sir  Robert  Heath, 
his  attorney-general. 

It  is  therefore  idle,  and  contradictory  to  a  thou- 
sand evidences,  to  suppose  the  English  to  have  had 
no  information  of  this  country  but  from  Hennepin, 
whose  first  discoveries  were  made  at  the  expense  of 
the  French  king.  Callieres,  in  his  letters  to  Pont- 
chartrain  affects  to  be  of  that  opinion ;  but  the  facts, 
with  many  others  too  tedious  to  introduce  here  in 
favour  of  the  English,  are  so  evident,  it  would  be 
superfluous  to  insist  upon  them.  King  William 
himself  was  so  much  convinced  of  the  right  his  sub- 
jects had  to  this  country,  that  about  the  year  1698 
he  had  some  thoughts  of  planting  it  with  a  colony 
of  French  Protestants.  It  happened,  however,  un- 
fortunately for  the  English  claims,  that  the  people 
of  New  York  likewise  advanced  a  title  to  Louisiana: 
and  twenty  of  them  actually  set  out  from  thence  to 
treat  with  the  Illinois,  on  pretence  that  it  had  been 
ceded  to  them  by  the  Iroquois,  who  had  conquered 
it  by  force  of  arms.  Be  this  as  it  will,  it  is  certain, 
that  three  ships  were  sent  from  England  to  take  pos- 
session of  the  Mississippi  at  the  same  time  the  New 
York  people  were  treating  with  the  Illinois,  in  the 
month  of  October  1698.  These  vessels  stopt  at  Ca- 
rolina ;  but  two  of  them  proceeded  to  the  gulf  of 
Mexico,  and  holding  always  towards  the  east,  the 
smaller  ship  actually  entered  the  Mississippi,  and 
was  that  which  had  been  met  with  by  Bieuville, 
while  the  other  sailed  westward  to  the  province  of 
Panuco  in  New  Spain,  there  to  concert  measures 
for  driving  the  French  from  the  Mississippi. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  the  interest  of  the  Spa- 
niards and  the  French,  with  regard  to  this  new  set- 
tlement, were,  at  this  time,  strangely  entangled. 
The  Spaniards  disliked  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
French  on  the  gulf  of  Mexico  ;  but  they  could  get 
rid  of  them  only  by  the  English,  whose  neighbour- 
hood was  still  more  formidable.  King  William  on 
the  other  hand,  who,  on  all  occasions,  was,  perhaps, 
too  tender  of  the  interest  of  Spain  in  America,  had 
the  setttlement  of  the  French  Protestants  on  the 
Mississippi  greatly  at  heart  But  though  the  Spa- 
niards would  willingly  have  joined  him  in  driving 
away  the  French,  they  could  not  bear  the  thoughts 
of  the  English  succeeding  them,  or  rather  the  French 
under  the  English  protection.  King  William  be- 
came sensible  of  this  objection,  and  gradually  re- 
tracted his  intentions  as  to  the  French  Protestant 
establishment.  Great  numbers  of  the  latter  had,  by 
this  time,  transported  themselves  to  Carolina,  where 
their  presence  was  not  very  agreeable  to  the  colony ; 


1022 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


but  they  had  heard  so  much  of  the  beauty  arid  fer- 
tility of  the  new  settlement,  that  finding  themselves 
in  danger  of  being  disappointed,  they  privately  ap- 
plied to  the  French  king  for  leave  to  settle  there 
under  his  protection,  where  they  promised  to  live  as 
loyal  subjects,  and,  undertook  without  asking  for 
any  thing  more  than  liberty  of  conscience,  to  repair 
thither  in  such  numbers,  as  soon  to  render  Louisi- 
ana a  great  and  flourishing  province. 

None  but  a  thorough  bigot,  like  Lewis  XIV.,  could 
have  rejected  a  proposal  so  evidently  for  the  inte- 
rest of  his  crown  and  people.  But  the  Jesuits  urged 
the  impiety  of  suffering  heretics  to  enjoy  liberty 
of  conscience;  and  this  was  the  sole  reason  why 
their  proposal  was  rejected,  though  it  was  sup- 
ported by  the  ablest  ministers  he  had,  who  were  not 
under  the  same  delusion.  On  the  defeat  of  this 
application,  the  Spaniards,  rather  than  call  in 
English  to  their  assistance,  very  politicly  took  mea- 
sures for  rendering  the  French  weary  of  their  new 
settlement.  All  the  trade  the  latter  carried  on 
was  between  the  bay  of  Pensacola  and  the  east  side 
of  the  Mississippi,  where  all  the  coast,  as  well  as 
the  isle  of  Dauphin,  was  barren  sand;  and  upon 
the  river  Mobile,  which  was  of  very  little  conse- 
quence. Iberville  has  been  blamed  for  not  having 
forced  a  trade  at  this  time :  but  it  was  not  in  his 
power;  and  had  his  force  been  triple  what  it  was 
he  could  not  possibly  have  got  the  better  of  that 
innate  aversion,  which  the  Spaniards  had  ever  ex- 
pressed for  all  who  pretended  to  interfere  with  them 
in  America.  Iberville,  having  finished  his  fort  upon 
the  Mississippi,  sailed  up  that  river  as  far  as  the 
country  of  the  Natches,  where  he  had  intended  t( 
build  a  town  under  the  name  of  Rosalia.  It  wai 
probably  on  this  occasion  that  he  took  an  English 
man,  whom  he  sent  prisoner  to  Quebec,  for  trading 
with  the  natives ;  and,  indeed,  it  appears  as  if  the 
chief  design  of  his  voyage  had  been  to  clear  the 
country  of  Englishmen,  for  we  know  of  nothing  he 
did  till  he  returned  back  to  the  bay  of  Biloxi,  wher 
he  had  established  the  head-quarters  of  his  ne\ 
colony.  Charlevoix,  on  this  occasion,  notwithstand 
ing  his  prepossession  in  favour  of  Iberville,  seem 
to  think  that  he  was  out-witted  by  the  Spaniards 
who,  without  opposing  him,  confined  him  to  a  verj 
insignificant  compass  of  trade. 

It  appears  very  plain,  that  the  court  of  Franc 
itself,  rather  than"  Iberville,  was  out-witted  by  th 
Spaniards.  At  this  time,  the  connexions  between 
it  and  that  of  Madrid  were  very  strong,  on  accoun 
of  the  Spanish  succession;  so  that  it  was  easy  fo 
the  Spaniards,  by  their  agents,  to  put  the  Frenc 
ministry  upon  a  wrong  scent,  in  this  new  establish 
ment.  D'Iberville's  instructions  from  his  court  ra 
in  the  following  strain  :  "  One  of  the  great  object 
presented  to  the  king,  when  he  engaged  in  the  dis 
covery  of  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  was  the  ac 
vantage  arising  from  the  wool  of  the  beeves  of  tha 
country ;  for  which  reason  it  is  proper  to  tame  thos 
animals,  to  shut  them  up  in  parks,  and  to  sen 
them  young  to  France.  Though  the  pearls  pre 
sented  to  his  majesty  are  neither  of  a  good  wate 
nor  shape,  yet  the  search  for  them  must  be  cont 
nued,  because  more  valuable  ones  may  be  discovered 
and  his  majesty  desires  that  M.  Iberville  will  brin 
along  with  him  as  many  as  he  can  find ;  that  h 
will  make  sure  of  the  places  most  proper  for  the 
fishery,  and  that  it  be  performed  in  his  own  presence. 
As  to  the  pearl-fishing,  it  was  scon  known  to  b 
good  for  nothing ;  and,  notwithstanding  all  th 
precautions  taken  by  Iberville,  Old  France  nev 


aped  any  benefit  from  the  wool,  or,  what  is  more 
itraordiuary,    from  th$    hides   of  the  buffaloes  or 
eeves.    Nevertheless,  Louisiana  is  undoubtedly  one 
f  the  finest  countries  in  America,  and  the  most  ca- 
ble of  being  improved  for  the   purposes  both  of 
ulture  and   commerce.     The  Spaniards  knew  the 
ature  of  it,  and  took  care  to  misrepresent  it  to  the 
'rench;  and  Iberville  was  too  little  acquainted  with 
to  be  able  to  rectify  the  notions  of  his  court. 
After    his   return    to    the   bay    of  Biloxi,    which 
harlevoix  thinks  was  the  worst-judged  station  on 
11  that  coast,  to  be  the  head-quarters  of  the  colony, 
IB  Chevalier  de  Surgeres  demanded  liberty  of  the 
overuor  of   Pensacola  to   enter   that  port.     The 
paniard,  in  pursuance,  no  doubt,  of  his  orders  to 
dmit  as  Tew  French  as  possible,   replied,  that  he 
vas  commanded  not  to  suffer  the  English,  or  any 
radiug  company,  to  settle  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
be  Mississippi,  and  that  he  was  instructed  to  give 
dmittance  to  the  French  king's  ships;  but  he  in- 
isted  upon  Surgeres  producing  sufficient  evidences 
o  him,  that  he  was  in  the  service  of  his  most  Chris- 
ian  majesty,  and  not  of  any  of  his  subjects.     When 
berville  gave  an  account  of  this  interview  to  Pont- 
hartrain,  he  told  him,   that  they  who  understood 
American  affairs  best,  were  of  opinion  that  the  set- 
lement  of  Louisiana  never  could  succeed,  unless 
every  merchant  of  France  had  a  liberty  of  trading 
,o  it.     But  while  the  French  king  continued  to  be 
beset  by  Jesuits  and  bigots,  more  care  was  taken 
or   the  propagation  of  popery  than  of  commerce, 
[berville  had  been  obliged  to  introduce  into  the 
new  colony  two  or  three  Jesuits ;  but  their  admis- 
sion being  prohibited,   unless  they   complied   with 
certain  terms,  by  the  bishop  of  Canada,  who  claimed 
Louisiana  as  part  of  his  diocese,  they  were  ordered 
by  their  superiors  to  withdraw,  and  not  to  co-operate 
with   the   other  French  missionaries   sent   by   the 
bishop. 

This  is  a  fresh  proof  of  the  ambition  and  avarice 
of  the  Jesuit  superiors,  as  they  could  have  no 
other  reason  for  not  co-operating  with  the  other  mis- 
sionaries, but  the  fear  lest  their  practices  should  be 
seen  through,  as  they  pretended  that  their  aim,  the 
conversion  of  the  savages,  was  the  same.  The  Je- 
suits, however,  still  kept  up  their  interest  amongst 
the  Illinois,  where  they  exercised  their  missions, 
exclusive  of  all  other  ecclesiastics.  They  boasted, 
that  they  had  rendered  the  Illinois  from  being  the 
most  worthless  and  irreclaimable  of  all  the  New 
France  savages,  the  most  tractable,  docile,  and  the 
most  attached  to  the  interests  of  France  of  any  but 
the  Abenaquais.  By  this  time,  the  sieur  Jachereau, 
a  Canadian  gentleman,  had  begun  a  settlement  at 
the  entry  of  the  river  Ouabache,  the  most  convenient 
of  any  for  the  French  in  North  America ;  because 
it  discharges  itself  into  the  Mississippi,  and  forms 
the  safest,  as  well  as  shortest,  communication  be- 
tween Canada  and  Louisiana.  Here  a  good  num- 
ber of  the  Mascoutin  savages  were  settled;  and  one 
of  the  Jesuit  missionaries  of  the  Illinois  repaired 
thither  to  convert  them.  His  success,  however,  was 
rery  indifferent :  he  found  them  entirely  under  the 
influence  of  their  jugglers,  and  devoted  to  the  wor- 
ship of  their  manitous.  A  manitou,  be  it  under- 
stood, is  any  object,  either  animate  or  inanimate, 
from  a  mountain  and  a  bull  to  a  mouse,  and  a  bit  of 
red  cloth,  that  these  whimsical  savages  worship  as 
tutelar  deities. 

A  severe  epidemical  distemper,  which  swept  off 
great  numbers  of  the  savages  in  the  settlement,  was 
of  no  service  to  the  Jesuit,  further  than  by  giving 


UNITED  STATES. 


1023 


him  an  opportunity  of  besprinkling  the  dying  wretches 
with  water,  which  the  Jesuits  called  converting  and 
baptizing.  The  survivors  redoubled  their  devotions 
to  the  manitous ;  but  they  came  at  last  to  be  of 
opinion,  that  the  manitous  of  the  Christians  were 
more  powerful  than  their  own ;  and  one  of  their 
chiefs,  making  choice  of  the  Jesuit  missionary  him- 
self for  his  manitou,  went  to  the  Christian  quarter, 
arid  implored  the  forgiveness  of  his  sins.  The  Jesuit 
promised  to  do  all  he  could  for  him  and  his  country- 
men ;  but  all  was  in  vain,  for  the  disease  continued 
to  spread,  till  it  swept  off  half  the  settlement;  and 
Jachereau  was  obliged  to  give  over  all  further  thoughts 
ofhis  project. 

(A.D.  1700.)  The  public  of  France  were  still  in 
expectation  that  Louisiana  contained  mines  :  and 
this  was  owing  to  some  discoveries,  lately  said  to 
have  been  made  by  La  Sale  and  Tonti.  The  French, 
before  that  notion  prevailed,  were  as  indifferent 
about  the  country  of  Louisiana  as  the  Spaniards  had 
been,  who  neglected  it,  because  they  thought  it  con- 
tained no  mines  ;  so  ignorant  were  both  those  people 
of  the  true  principles  of  national  prosperity.  In  April 
1700,  when  Iberville  returned  to  France,  all  the 
buildings  the  French  had  in  Louisiana  consisted  of 
a  few  straggling  houses,  belonging  to  some  French 
Canadians,  who  had  been  settled  amongst  the  Illi- 
nois ;  the  fort  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  ;  and 
another,  which  was  their  head-quarters,  on  the 
bay  of  Biioxi,  where  De  Sauvole  commanded.  Iber- 
ville had  left  the  care  of  the  fort,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Mississippi,  to  his  brother  Bienville,  Jachereau,  and 
the  sieur  De  St.  Denys,  his  wife's  uncle,  who  was 
a  man  of  enterprise,  understood  many  of  the  savage 
idioms,  and  seemed  to  inherit  all  the  spirit  of  La 
Sale.  About  this  time,  one  Le  Sueur,  another  re- 
lation of  Iberville,  discovered,  in  the  country  of 
the  Sieux,  a  copper-mine,  which,  by  Iberville's 
orders,  he  went  to  take  possession  of;  but,  though 
it  was  ouh  the  end  of  September  when  he  set  out,  he 
found  the  weather  so  severe,  that  he  was  obliged  to 
winter  in  a  fort,  which  he  built  upon  the  banks  of  a 
river  that  falls  into  that  of  St.  Peter.  Their  provi- 
sions falling  short,  they  were  obliged  to  hunt  buf- 
faloes ;  and,  after  they  were  killed,  for  want  of  salt., 
they  hung  up  pieces  of  their  flesh  in  the  air,  where 
it  was  soon  tainted.  This  food  was  at  first  so  un- 
wholesome that  it  threw  them  into  fluxes  and  fevers ; 
but,  by  degrees,  in  six  weeks,  they  were  so  well  re- 
conciled to  it,  that  their  appetites  returned,  and  in- 
creased even  to  voracity;  so  that  there  was  not  a 
sick  person  amongst  them,  and  all  of  them  grew  fat 
and  fleshy.  They  remained  here  till  the  beginning 
of  April,  during  a  most  severe  winter ;  and  arriving 
at  the  mine,  worked  it  to  such  purpose,  that  in  22 
days,  they  dug  from  it  above  30,0001fes.  weight  of 
real  copper,  of  which  they  sent  about  4000Ifos.  weight 
to  France.  This  mine  lay  at  the  opening  of  a  moun- 
tain, ten  leagues  long,  on  the  side  of  a  river,  where 
not  a  tree  grows,  and  which  is  continually  exposed 
to  tempests,  and  thunder-showers.  Notwithstanding 
those  promising  appearances,  Le  Sueur  was  soon 
obliged  to  give  over  his  undertaking.  Next  year, 
Iberville  returned,  for  a  third  time,  to  Louisiana, 
and  begun  a  settlement  upon  the  Mobile,  of  which 
Bienville  was  commandant;  and  he  abandoned  the 
post  at  Biioxi,  carrying  to  the  new  settlement  all 
its  inhabitants. 

In  this  languishing  state  were  the  affairs  of  Lou- 
isiana, during  the  remainder  of  the  year  1702.  In 
vain  did  Iberville  go  back  to  France  this  year,  for 
the  fourth  time.  The  people,  being  as  yet  in  no 


expectation  of  mines  equal  to  those  of  Peru  and 
Mexico,  looked  coldly  upon  his  project;  but  he  ac- 
quired some  patrons  at  court,  whom  he  convinced 
of  its  utility ;  so  that,  upon  his  return  to  America, 
he  was  enabled  to  build  magazines  on  the  isle  of 
Dauphin,  as  being  far  more  convenient  than  the 
fort  at  Mobile  was  for  landing  goods  from  France. 
A  fort  was  built  there  with  additional  storehouses  ; 
and,  at  last,  it  became  the  head-quarters  of  the  co- 
lony. All  this  while,  no  trade  was  carried  on  for 
the  profit,  no  lands  were  cleared  for  the  subsistence 
of  the  inhabitants,  who  enjoyed  only  the  small  spot 
on  which  they  dwelt.  They  subsisted  upon  preca- 
rious supplies  from  France  ;  but  the  Apalache  sa- 
vages, fortunately  for  them,  preferred  their  neigh- 
bourhood to  that  of  the  Spaniards,  and  cultivated 
some  lands  upon  the  Mobile,  which  contributed 
greatly  to  their  subsistence.  No  care,  however, 
was  taken  to  associate  them  with  the  colony,  or  to 
conrert  them  to  Christianity.  Matters  still  continued 
in  this  languid  state,  owing  undoubtedly  to  the  dis- 
tresses of  France  in  Europe,  till  the  year  1708, 
when  M.  Diron  D'Artaguette  arrived  in  quality  of 
regulating  commissary.  His  first  care  was  the  cul- 
tivation of  the  lands  upon  the  Mobile,  which  rescued 
the  settlers  from  the  necessity  of  associating  them- 
selves with  the  savages  in  their  hunting,  when  any 
accident  retarded  their  supplies  from  France.  The 
cares  of  this  magistrate  did  not  succeed.  The  lands 
upon  the  Mobile  were  unfavourable  for  grain  ;  and 
the  little  which  they  produced  was  apt  to  be  damaged 
by  storms,  which  rendered  it  musty.  To  compensate 
for  this  inconvenience,  the  settlers  applied  them- 
selves to  the  cultivation  of  tobacco,  which,  upon  the 
Mobile,  was  found  to  be  superior  to  that  of  Virginia. 
However  inconsiderable  this  colony  was,  the  rest  of 
Europe,  at  this  time,  conceived  the  highest  ideas  of 
it ;  and  perceiving  it  to  be  supported  by  the  French, 
amidst  all  their  distresses  in  Europe,  many  believed 
that  the  profits  of  it  enabled  them  to  carry  on  the 
war ;  so  that  an  English  privateer  invaded  the  isle 
of  Dauphin,  and,  as  D'Artaguette  pretended,  com- 
mitted great  cruel  ties  upon  the  inhabitants,  to  oblige 
them  to  discover  where  they  had  concealed  their 
riches.  The  damage  they  sustained  on  this  occasion, 
amounted  to  above  4000  franks.  D'Artaguette,whose 
chief  business  in  Louisiana  was  to  inform  himself  of 
the  nature  of  the  country,  and  the  situation  of  the 
settlement,  upon  his  return  to  France,  gave  the 
court  great  lights  as  to  both ;  and  notwithstanding 
the  distresses  of  the  kingdom,  a  resolution  was  taken 
to  improve  the  settlement  of  Louisiana  into  a  co- 
lony ;  a  measure  that,  in  other  countries,  has  always 
required  the  most  prosperous  state  to  effect.  A  proud 
court,  through  all  its  poverty,  preserves  its  forms 
and  titles.  De  Muys,  the  Canadian  officer,  was 
named  governor  of  Louisiana:  and,  upon  his  death, 
the  title  devolved  to  La  Motte  Cadillac.  The  sieur 
Crozat,  by  this  time,  had  obtained  his  most  Christian 
majesty's  letters  patent,  for  the  exclusive  privilege 
of  the  commerce  of  Louisiana  for  sixteen  years,  and 
the  perpetual  property,  for  him  and  his  heirs,  of 
all  its  mines  and  minerals  ;  on  condition  of  his  send- 
ing, by  every  ship  of  his  that  arrived  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Mississippi,  six  girls  or  boys  for  planting  the 
colony.  At  the  same  time,  to  give  it  the  greater 
credit  with  the  public,  the  sieur  Ducios  was  ap- 
pointed regulating  commissary  ;  and  the  governor 
and  he  were  placed  at  the  head  of  a  superior  council, 
whose  powers  were  to  last  for  three  years,  and  who 
were  to  be  judges  in  all  affairs  civil  and  criminal. 
La  Motte  Cadillac  had  been  recommended  by  Crozat 


1024 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


for  governor  on  account  of  his  being  so  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  Indians,  the  Illinois  in  particular, 
from  whom  great  things  were  expected  for  the  in- 
terest of  the  colony,  particularly  in  the  discovery  of 
mines,  which,  after  the  most  sanguine  expectations 
had  been  raised,  not  only  in  America,  but  all  over 
Europe,  came  to  nothing.  The  other  great  object 
which  Crozat,  who  associated  Cadillac  in  his  patent, 
had  in  view,  was  a  trade  with  New  Mexico.  It  is 
true,  that  by  this  time,  Spanish  America  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  house  of  Bourbon ;  but  the  Spaniards 
understood  their  own  interest  too  well  to  forego  its 
great  palladium,  by  suffering  any  foreign  nation  to 
interfere  in  their  commerce.  When  Cadillac  came 
to  the  isle  of  Dauphin,  he  sent  a  ship  commanded 
by  Jonquaire  to  trade  at  Vera  Cruz,  where  the  go- 
vernor furnished  him  with  some  provisions,  but, 
without  suffering  him  to  sell  his  cargo,  obliged  him 
instantly  to  depart.  Crozat  was  as  unsuccessful  after- 
wards in  attempting  to  carry  on  a  trade  by  land. 

The  sieur  St.  Denys  was  employed  in  this  com- 
merce, and  furnished  with  10,000  franks  worth  of 
merchandise,  in  order  to  deal  with  the  Natchitoches, 
a  people  who  lived  upon  the  Red  River.  By  means 
of  Penicaut,  a  ship-carpenter,  who  understood  their 
language,  and  had  accompanied  Le  Sueur  to  the 
copper-mines,  some  of  them  had  been  prevailed 
upon  to  settle  amongst  the  Colapissas,  a  race  of 
savages  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Mobile.  It  was 
natural  for  St.  Denys,  when  going  to  the  country 
of  the  Natchitoches,  to  carry  along  with  him  those 
who  had  been  settled  amongst  the  Colapissas ;  and 
they  were  so  very  fond  of  attending  him  to  their 
mother-country,  that  they  set  out  on  their  march 
without  taking  leave  of  their  hospitable  landlords, 
the  Colapissas.  The  latter  were  so  affronted  at  this 
neglect,  that  they  ran  to  arms,  pursued  their  guests, 
killed  seventeen  of  them  and  brought  back  pri- 
soners a  number  of  their  women.  Those  who  es- 
caped joined  St.  Denys  at  Biloxi ;  and  in  passing 
by  the  village  of  the  Tonicas,  he  engaged  the  head 
man  of  it,  with  fifteen  of  his  best  hunters,  to  attend 
him  upon  his  journey.  Arriving  at  the  township  of 
the  Natchitoches,  which  lies  in  an  isle  of  the  Red 
River,  about  40  miles  above  the  place  where  it  dis- 
charges itself  into  the  Mississippi,  he  built  some 
houses  for  the  French  he  intended  to  leave  there; 
and,  prevailing  with  some  savages  to  associate  them- 
selves with  the  Natchitoches,  he  gave  them  all  kinds 
of  utensils  proper  for  agriculture,  and  seed-corn  to 
sow.  He  then  left  the  Red  River,  which  was  na- 
vigable no  higher,  attended  with  twelve  French  and 
some  savages,  and,  Iravelling  west,  arrived  at  the 
country  of  the  Cenis ;  but  he  could  find  none  of 
them  who  had  the  least  idea  of  a  European,  ex- 
cepting the  Spaniards,  whose  manner  and  appear- 
ance are  the  same  with  their  own.  They  furnished 
guides  to  St.  Denys,  who  travelled  to  the  south-west 
50  leagues  before  "he  reached  the  first  Spanish  set- 
tlement, which  was  a  fort  situated  on  a  large  river, 
called  the  North  Garrison.  ,  He  and  his  attendants 
were  very  courteously  received  by  Don  Pedro  De 
Vilescas,  who  accommodated  them  all  with  lodgings; 
and,  in  a  few  days,  St.  Denys  opened  the  purport 
of  his  journey,  which  was  to  establish  a  trade  be- 
tween the  Spaniards  and  Louisiana,  assuring  Don 
Pedro,  that  the  terms  should  be  of  his  own  making 
Don  Pedro  directly  dispatched  an  express  to  his 
superior,  the  governor  of  Caouis,  which  lay  at  the 
distance  of  60  leagues.  This  governor  sent  25 
horsemen,  who,  next  year,  conducted  St.  Denys, 
and  his  surgeon  Jalot,  first  to  Caouis,  from  whence 


je  wrote  to  the  attendants  he  had  left  at  the  North 
iarrison,  ordering  them  to  return  to  Natchitoches. 
St.  Deuys  then  travelled  150  miles  before  he  reached 
Mexico,  where,  without  any  examination,  he  was 
nstantly  committed  to  prison  by  the  viceroy,  where 
le  lay  for  three  months,  when  he  was  released  at 
;he  intercession  of  some  officers,  who  knew  his  family 
and  connexions  with  the  governor  of  Louisiana. 
Upon  his  deliverance,  the  viceroy  of  Mexico  con- 
ceived so  high  an  opinion  of  his  abilities,  that  he 
did  all  he  could  to  engage  him  in  the  service  of 
Spain  ;  but,  though  poor,  be  was  proof  against  all 
his  tempting  offers.  According  to  St.  Denys's  own 
report,  the  viceroy  made  him  first  a  present  of  300 
dollars,  and  offered  to  second  him  in  his  courtship 
f  Donna  Maria,  daughter  to  Don  Pedro  De  Vi- 
lescas, with  whom  he  was  in  love  ;  but  finding  him 
immoveable,  even  by  this  temptation,  his  excellency 
made  him  a  second  present  of  1000  piastres,  to  de- 
fray, as  he  said,  the  expenses  of  his  nuptials ;  but 
told  him  he  had  nothing  to  hope  for  with  regard  to 
the  trade  proposed  between  Louisiana  and  Mexico. 
Next  day,  the  viceroy  gave  him  a  fine  horse,  and 
appointed  him  a  convoy  to  Caouis,  which  he  reached. 
Here  he  found  Don  Pedro  in  great  perplexity  about 
four  townships  of  savages,  who  supplied  his  garrison 
with  necessaries,  but  were  ready  to  depart  from  it, 
on  account  of  the  insults  they  had  suffered  from  the 
Spaniards.  St.  Denys  undertook  to  bring  them 
back,  though  they  were  already  upon  their  journey, 
and  acted  with  so  much  address,  that  he  returned 
with  them  to  their  ancient  habitations. 

This  important  service  immediately  made  St. 
Denys  the  husband  of  his  mistress,  and  after  six 
months'  cohabitation,  he  set  out  along  with  the  uncle 
of  his  wife,  whom  he  left  with  child,  on  his  return 
to  the  Mobile.  Cadillac,  by  this  time,  had  dispatched 
the  sieur  De  La  Loire  with  some  merchandise  to 
make  a  settlement  amongst  the  Natches.  Here  he 
found  some  English  traders  from  Carolina,  who,  ac- 
cording to  Charlevoix,  had  not  only  spirited  up  a 
war  amongst  the  savages,  but  had  entered  into  prac- 
tices against  the  interest  of  the  French.  La  Loire 
therefore  arrested  the  English  officer,  who  remained 
alone  amongst  the  Natches,  and  sent  him  prisoner 
to  the  Mobile,  where  Bienville,  who  commanded  in 
the  absence  of  Cadillac,  treated  him  for  three  days 
with  great  civility,  and  then  set  him  at  liberty.  The 
officer,  on  his  return,  took  Pensacola  in  his  way, 
where  he  likewise  met  with  a  favourable  reception 
from  the  governor ;  but  travelling  afterwards  towards 
Carolina,  by  the  Alabamons,  he  fell  in  with  a  hunt- 
ing party  of  the  Tomez,  who  murdered  him;  so  in- 
veterate had  the  French. practices,  at  that  time,  ren- 
dered all  the  savages  towards  the  English.  The 
latter  had  a  storehouse  in  a  village  of  the  Choctaws, 
which  those  barbarians  plundered,  after  having  mur- 
dered the  people.  This  cruelty  was  a  kind  of  watch- 
word for  the  Alibamons,  and  the  neighbouring  sa- 
vages, to  confederate  against  the  English,  and  they 
made  an  irruption  into  Carolina,  from  whence  they 
carried  off  a  great  number  of  prisoners.  France  at 
this  time  was  at  peace  with  Great  Britain,  and  her 
governors,  therefore,  durst  not  avow  the  infamous 
practices  made  use  of  to  excite  those  violences.  The 
prisoners  were  carried  to  the  Mobile,  where,  under 
the  stale  pretext  of  redeeming  them,  the  French 
commandant  gave  them  an  intimation  of  what  they 
were  to  expect,  if  they  should  continue  to  trade  with 
the  natives  ;  and  after  this  caution  they  were  dis- 
missed. Cadillac  was  at  this  time  amongst  the  111 
nois,  and  upon  his  return  to  the  Mobile,  it  was 


UNITED  STATES. 


1025 


given  out,  that  he  had  discovered  a  silver  mine  in 
tliU!  country  ;  a  report  which  had  a  most  wonderfu 
effect  ail  over  Europe,  and  was  undoubtedly  en 
couraged  for  the  purposes  that  were  hatching  in  th< 
Frencu  councils.  Upon  his  return  to  the  Mobile, 
he  was  waited  upon  by  a  savage  deputy  of  greai 
credit,  and  authority  on  the  part  of  several  Indian 
nations  round,  particularly  of  the  Alibamons,  who 
till  that  time,  had  always  been  declared  enemies  o 
the  French,  but  now  offered,  at  their  own  expense 
to  build  in  their  village  a  fort  for  their  service.  This 
offer  was  accepted  of,  the  fort  was  built,  and  a  gar- 
rison placed  in  it  under  the  command  of  M.  De  La 
Tour. 

La  Loire  was  all  this  while  continuing  his  nego- 
tiations with  the  Natches,  but  soon  discovered 
amongst  them  symptoms  extremely  unfavourable  to 
tha  French  interest.  Four  Frenchmen  had  been 
murdered,  while  they  were  travelling  in  their  country, 
and  La  Loire  with  his  brother  were  threatened  with 
the  same  fate.  The  elder  La  Loire  had  set  out  for 
the  country  of  the  Illinois,  attended  by  some  of  those 
savages,  one  of  whom  put  him  upon  his  guard.  From 
the  romantic  manner  in  which  the  French  have  re- 
lated this  conspiracy  of  the  Natches,  the  truth  of 
it  appears  doubtful.  They  tell  us,  that  the  elder 
La  Loire,  being  thus  cautioned,  examined  the  sa- 
vages, who  were  with  him,  separately,  and  that  all 
of  them  confessed  that  they  had  an  intention  to 
murder  him  at  a  certain  place.  Upon  this  informa- 
tion, La  Loire,  who  suspected  that  the  conspiracy- 
was  general  amongst  all  the  Natches,  returned  to 
advertise  his  brother  of  his  danger.  The  difficulty 
was  how  to  get  access  to  him,  but  this  Penicaut 
undertook  to  remove.  When  the  company  reached 
the  landing-place  of  the  Natches,  Penicaut  went 
ashore,  but  told  La  Loire,  that,  if  he  did  not  see 
him  by  midnight,  he  might  conclude  him  dead,  and 
that  he  must  pursue  his  voyage.  Penicaut  then, 
armed  only  with  his  fusil,  made  the  best  of  his  way 
towards  young  Loire's  habitation ;  and  the  latter, 
being  advertised  by  some  Natches  of  his  approach, 
came  out  to  meet  him,  and  asked  him  news  of  his 
brother.  Penicaut  pretended  that  he  was  fallen  ill; 
but  afterwards  desired  him  to  send  for  the  chief 
Natche,  to  whom  he  told,  that  six  out  of  the  eight 
Natches  who  had  attended  him.  and  La  Loire,  being 
sick,  they  had  been  obliged  to  put  back  to  the  land- 
ing-place, and  he  begged  that,  early  next  morning, 
the  chief  would  send  30  of  his  savages  to  unload  the 
grand  canoe,  and  carry  the  merchandise  to  the  store- 
house ;  a  request  which  the  chief  accordingly  pro- 
mised should  be  complied  with  ;  expressing,  at  the 
same  time,  the  great  apprehensions  he  had  been 
under,  lest  the  elder  La  Loire  should  have  fallen 
into  the  hands  of  the  Yasous,  a  perfidious  people, 
who  were  enemies  to  the  French.  Penicaut,  with- 
out making  any  answer,  expressed  his  satisfaction 
with  the  chief's  behaviour ;  but,  on  his  departure, 
let  La  Loire  into  the  real  secret  of  his  journey,  and 
showed  him  that  he  had  not  a  single  moment  to  lose 
in  making  his  escape.  Three  of  the  natives  slept  in 
his  room,  but  the  exigency  being  pressing,  they 
opened  the  door  while  the  savages  were  asleep,  and 
made  the  best  of  their  way  to  the  landing-place, 
where  they  met  with  the  elder  La  Loire,  and,  hav- 
ing made  handsome  presents  to  the  eight  Natches, 
they  discharged  them,  and  proceeded  on  their 
voyage. 

The  first  place  they  stopt  at  was  a  township  be- 
longing to  the  Tonicas,  where  they  found  three 
Natches.  These  had  been  dispatched  by  their  grand 

HIST.  OF  AMER.— Nos.  129  &  130. 


chief,  who,  finding  himself  outwitted,  h:i;i  sent  them 
to  persuade  the  ctiief  of  the  Tonicas  to  murder  all 
the  French  who  should  fall  into  his  hands.  This 
chief,  who  was  a  friend  to  the  French,  was  so  much 
offended  by  the  inhumanity  of  this  proposal,  that  he 
would  have  put  the  messengers  to  death,  had  he  not 
been  dissuaded  from  it  by  a  messenger  residing  in  his 
village.  Upon  the  arrival  of  the  two  La  Loires  at 
Mobile,  and  relating  their  story  to  Cadillac,  the  latter 
immediately  raised  a  party  of  100  men,  who  set  out 
to  chastise  the  Natches.  In  their  voyage,  perceiv- 
ing a  pocket  hanging  on  a  tree,  they  searched,  and 
found  in  it  a  letter  from  the  Tonica  missionary,  in- 
forming them  of  a  French  trader  who  had  been 
robbed  and  murdered  by  the  Natches.  This  letter 
cured  Bienville,  who  commanded  the  partv.  of  some 
doubts  as  to  the  reality  of  La  Loire's  danger.  But 
not  conceiving  himself  strong  enough  to  proceed 
against  the  Natches,  he  stopt  in  the  bay  of  the  To- 
nicas, where  he  built  a  fort,  and  dispatched  from 
thence  an  officer  with  twenty  men  to  the  grand  chief 
of  the  Natches,  desiring  an  interview  with  him  at 
the  fort.  The  officer  returned,  and  said  that  the 
chief  was  following  him ;  but  this  report  proved  not 
to  be  true,  for,  without  leaving  his  village,  he  only 
sent  some  of  his  subaltern  chiefs,  with  about  25  men. 
Bienville  received  them  with  great  state ;  but,  upon 
their  entering  the  fort,  he  demanded  satisfaction, 
for  the  death  of  live  Frenchmen,  who  had  been  mur- 
dered by  their  nation,  and  that  their  murderers 
should  be  delivered  up.  The  savages  pleaded  that 
their  grand  chief  alone  could  give  him  the  satisfac- 
tion he  required;  and  some  of  them  offered  to  wait 
upon  him  for  that  purpose,  while  the  rest  of  them 
were  to  remain  prisoners  in  the  fort,  till  the  chief5.-- 
answer  should  arrive.  This  proposal  was  accepte 
of,  and.  in  a  short  time,  messengers  returned  wit,., 
the  head  of  a  man,  whom  the  grand  chief  had  put 
to  death,  but  who  was  innocent  of  the  murders. 
Bienville  expressed  some  resentment  at  this  attempt 
to  impose  upon  him,  and  demanded  that  the  real 
murderer  should  be  produced,  and  particularly  a 
chief,  whom  he  named.  The  messengers  replied, 
that  the  said  chief  was  the  nephew  of  the  Sun,  the 
bravest  of  all  their  countrymen,  who  would  rather 
see  Iheir  village  destroyed  than  give  him  up.  They 
added,  that,  the  four  murderers  were  amongst  the 
prisoners,  whom  they  had  left  behind  in  the  fort, 
and  that  they  might  inflict  upon  them  what  punish- 
ment he  should  think  proper.  Bienville  immedi- 
ately ordered  them  to  appear,  and,  though  they  de- 
nied the  fact,  the  brains  of  all  of  them  were  beaten 
out  with  clubs  upon  the  spot.  Amongst  them  was 
a  chief  so  obnoxious  for  his  cruelties  that  his  death 
bad  been  long  wished  for  by  the  neighbouring 
nations. 

After  this  catastrophe,  the  French,  at  the  Tonica 
fort,  reflecting  that  it  was  in  the  power  of  the  Natches 
to  interrupt  all  communication  by  water  between 
;he  Mobile  and  the  Illinois  country,  resolved  to  avail 
:hemselves  of  the  panic  struck  into  the  Natches  by 
:he  late  executions,  and  proposed  to  them  the  fol- 
owing  terms  of  peace.  That  they  should  build,  at 
heir  own  expense,  upon  a  certain  spot  to  be  pointed 
>ut  to  them  in  their  largest  township,  a  fort  and 
storehouses,  with  proper  accommodations  for  a 
French  garrison  and  a  commissary  ;  that  they  should 
restore  all  the  effects  they  had  taken  from  the  French, 
and  indemnify  them  for  all  the  other  losses  they  had 
uffered  in  their  country ;  and  that  the  nephew  of 
heir  grand  chief,  of  whom  the  French  complained, 
hould  not  stir  out  of  the  village  on  pain  of  having 

4P 


1026 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


his  brains  beat  out.  The  deputies  approved  of  those 
articles  which  were  read  to  them,  and  De  Pailloux, 
a  French  officer,  W5<5  dispatched  with  twenty  men 
to  get  them  ratified  by  the  grand  chief  of  the  Natches. 
He  entered  their  village  with  drums  beating  and 
colours  flying,  and  was  received  with  great  cordi- 
ality by  all  the  inhabitants,  who  were  friends  to  the 
French.  Being  introduced  to  the  cabin  of  the  Sun, 
where  the  grand  Natche  resided,  the  latter  approved 
of  the  terms,  and  said  that  he  only  waited  for  M. 
De  Bienville's  orders  to  set  about  the  construction  of 
the  fort.  Bieuville  being  apprised  of  this  under- 
taking, immediately  set  out  from  the  Tonica  village, 
at  the  head  of  50  men,  and  was  received  by  the 
Sun,  or  grand  chief  of  the  Natches,  with  great  ce- 
remony. The  spot  on  which  the  fort  was  to  be 
erected  was  immediately  marked  out,  and  De  Pail- 
loux was  appointed  to  superintend  the  building. 
It  was  completely  finished  in  six  weeks,  and  Bien- 
ville,  who  had  returned  to  the  Tonica  village,  set 
out  from  thence,  and  took  possession  of  it  under  the 
name  of  Fort  Rosalie.  The  Natches  appearing  to 
be  quite  reconciled  to  the  French,  Bienville  passed 
all  the  year  1714  at  this  fort;  and,  upon  his  return 
to  the  Mobile,  he  left  De  Pailloux  to  command  it, 
and  one  Du  Tisne  for  his  lieutenant. 

La  Motte  Cadillac  concluded,  from  the  answer 
sent  him  by  St.  Denys  from  the  viceroy  of  New 
Spain,  that  it  was  in  vain  to  hope  to  open  a  trade 
between  Mexico  and  Louisiana;  but,  to  prevent 
any  interruption  from  the  Spaniards,  he  charged 
Du  Tisne  to  build  a  fort  in  the  isle  of  the  Natchi- 
toches.  Scarcely  was  it  finished,  when  Du  Tisne 
\vas  informed  that  the  Spaniards  had  made  a  settle- 
ment among  the  Assinais  or  Cenis,  which  they  were 
endeavouring  to  extend  to  the  Mississippi :  and  this 
intelligence  determined  Cadillac  to  reinforce  the 
garrison  of  the  Natchitoches  fort :  but  all  the  pre- 
cautions of  this  governor  were  in  vain,  as  the  whole 
establishment  of  the  colony  was  founded  upon  wrong 
principles,  which  were  equally  prejudicial  to  the 
patentee  as  to  the  province.  Tn  the  year  1712,  no 
more  than  24  French  families  were  settled  in  Louisi- 
ana ;  one  half  of  whom  were  traders  or  workmen,  who 
did  not  attempt  the  clearing  or  cultivating  the  lands. 
All  the  commerce  of  the  province  was  then  carried 
on  about  the  Mobile,  and  the  isle  of  Dauphin,  and 
consisted  only  in  timber,  or  what  it  called  lumber 
and  peltries.  The  Canadian  rangers  trafficked  with 
the  savages,  by  exchanging  French  commodities  for 
their  furs  and  slaves,  by  whom  we  are  to  understand 
their  prisoners  made  in  war,  both  which  they  sold  to 
the  French  inhabitants  of  Louisiana.  The  latter 
disposed  of  the  peltries,  either  to  French  ships,  or 
to  the  Spaniards  of  Pensacola,  but  employed  the 
slaves  in  clearing  their  lands  or  in  sawing  deals, 
which  they  sent  sometimes  to  Pensacola,  but  oftener 
to  the  French  islands ;  from  whence  they  returned 
with  sugars,  tobacco,  cacao,  and  French  commodi- 
ties. They  likewise  carried  to  Pensacola,  where 
the  Spaniards  were  too  idle  and  too  lazy  to  cultivate 
the  grounds,  or  to  practise  the  habits  of  industry, 
pulse  of  all  kinds,  maize,  wild  fowl,  and  other  fruits 
of  their  own  labour,  all  which  were  paid  for  in 
ready  money,  which  enabled  the  Louisianians  to  live 
comfortably,  though  not  in  affluence.  They  were 
not  insensible  that  their  country  was  proper  for 
producing  tobacco,  indigo,  and  silk;  but  they  had 
not  hands  for  rearing  them,  and  not  a  person  of  the 
colony  knew  in  what  manner  they  were  to  be  cul- 
tivated. 

In  a  word,   Crozat  managed  matters  so  impru- 


dently, that  Louisiana  produced  nothing  to  him  but 
care  and  vexation.  He  made  complaints  and  re- 
monstrances to  the  French  ministry,  and  these  being 
neglected,  he  fairly  surrendered  his  patent  to  his 
moist  Christian  majesty.  This  surrender  gave  birth 
to  the  famous  Mississippi  scheme,  projected  by  Mr. 
Law,  a  native  of  North  Britain,  the  history  of  which 
does  not  fall  within  the  plan  of  this  work.  'The  river 
Mississippi  was  now  the  boundary  of  the  English 
territories  on  that  side  of  America ;  and  the  other 
French  settlements  were  given  up  to  the  Spaniards, 
by  an  express  convention  betwixt  the  courts  of  Ver- 
sailles and  Madrid. 

Although  it  is  anticipating  our  history,  it  may  be 
as  well  to  mention  here,  that  the  portion  of  this  re- 
gion, left  by  the  treaty  of  1763  to  Spain,  was  again 
restored  by  treaty  to  F* ranee  in  1800,  and  was  pur- 
chased by  the  United  States,  for  15,000,000  dollars, 
in  1803.  Florida  was  obtained  by  the  United  States 
in  1821. 

Of  the  various  tribes  of  Indians  once  inhabiting 
this  entensive  region,  but  few  now  remain.  The 
Natches  were  once  the  most  powerful  of  these  savage 
races;  but  are  now  nearly  exterminated.  In  the 
year  1720,  they  were  situated  upon  the  little  river 
which  bears  their  name  ;  and  their  chief  village, 
which  was  the  residence  of  their  grand  "  Sun,"  lay 
upon  the  river,  within  a  mile  of  the  demolished  fort 
of  Rosalie.  Amongst  the  Natches  lived  a  foreign 
nation,  called  the  Grisgras,  so  named  by  the  French, 
from  their  frequent  repetition  of  the  letter  R,  and 
likewise  the  remains  of  the  Thioux.  once  a  powerful 
people,  but  almost  exterminated  by  the  Chicacaws, 
with  whom  they  were  perpetually  at  war.  Accord- 
ing to  tradition  the  Natches  were  formerly  by  far 
the  most  powerful  people  in  all  North  America,  ac- 
knowledged by  all  the  other  nations  of  it,  as  their 
superiors  and  directors.  They  occupied  all  the  ter- 
ritory from  Manchac,  within  50  leagues  of  the  sea, 
to  the  river  Ouabache,  an  immense  tract  of  country, 
part  of  that  river  lying  about  460  leagues  from  the 
sea:  they  had  no  fewer  than  500  Suns,  or  princes, 
each  of  whom  was  despotic.  A  grand  Sun  never 
died  but  he  was  attended  to  his  tomb  by  great  num- 
bers of  his  subjects,  who  were  murdered,  and  the 
same  funeral  rites  were  paid  upon  the  decease,  even 
of  a  common  Sun,  or  the  son  of  the  great  Sun.  Such 
was  the  infatuation  of  the  people,  that  they  sought 
death  on  those  occasions,  as  the  sure  means  of  eternal 
happiness.  This  barbarous  fanaticism,  had  there 
been  no  other  cause,  was  sufficient  to  have  thinned 
the  most  populous  nation  ;  but  the  calamity  was  in- 
creased by  war.  Their  chiefs  being  independent, 
often  quarrelled,  and  their  power  was  so  absolute, 
that  a  word  or  a  sign  was  sufficient  to  doom  any  num- 
ber of  their  subjects  to  death,  which  was  instantly 
inflicted  by  their  allouez,  or  guards.  But  the  most 
extraordinary  circumstance  of  this  remarkable  peo- 
ple, was,  that  fundamentally  their  government  was 
female. 

The  grand  chief  of  the  Natches,  says  Du  Pratz, 
bears  the  name  of  Sun,  and,  as  among  the  Hurons, 
the  son  of  his  nearest  female  relation  always  suc- 
ceeds him.  This  person  has  the  quality  of  woman- 
chief,  and  great  honours  are  paid  her,  though  she 
seldom  meddles  in  affairs  of  government.  She  has, 
as  well  as  the  chief  himself,  the  power  of  life  and 
death,  and  it  is  a  usual  thing  for  them  to  order  their 
guards,  whom  they  call  allouez,  to  dispatch  any 
one  who  has  the  misfortune  to  be  obnoxious  to  either. 
Go  rid  me  of  this  dog,  say  they  ;  and  they  are  in- 
stantly obeyed.  Their  iubjects  and  even  their  chiefs 


UNITED  STATES. 


1027 


of  their  villages,  never  come  into  their  presence 
without  saluting  them  thrice,  and  raising  a  cry,  or 
rather  a  sort  of  howling.  They  do  the  same  thing 
when  they  withdraw,  and  always  retire  going  back- 
wards. When  they  meet  them  they  stop,  and  howl 
till  they  are  past.  They  are  likewise  obliged  to 
carry  them  the  best  of  their  harvest,  and  what  they 
acquire  by  their  hunting  and  fishing.  In  fine,  not 
even  their  nearest  relations,  and  those  who  compose 
their  nobility,  when  they  have  the  honour  to  eat 
with  them,  have  a  right  to  drink  out  of  the  same 
cup,  or  put  their  hands  into  the  same  dish. 

Every  morning,  at  sun-rise,  the  grand  chief  stands 
at  the  door  of  his  cabin,  turns  his  face  towards  the 
east,  and  howls  thrice,  prostrating  himself  to  the 
ground  at  the  same  time.  A  calumet  is  afterwards 
brought  him,  which  is  never  used  but  upon  this  oc- 
casion ;  he  smokes,  and  blows  the  tobacco  first  to- 
wards the  sun,  and  then  towards  the  other  three 
quarters  of  the  world.  He  acknowledges  no  master 
but  the  sun,  from  whom  he  pretends  he  derives  his 
origin.  He  exercises  an  absolute  power  over  his 
subjects,  whose  lives  and  goods  are  entirely  at  his 
disposal,  and  they  can  demand  no  payment  for  any 
labour  he  requires  of  them. 

When  the  grand  chief,  or  the  woman-chief,  dies, 
all  the  allouez  are  obliged  to  follow  them  to  the 
other  world,  nor  are  they  the  only  persons  who 
have  this  honour  which  is  greatly  coveted.  The 
death  of  a  chief  has  been  sometimes  known  to  cost 
the  lives  of  above  100  persons,  and  there  are  few 
Natches  of  any  note,  who  die  without  being  attended 
to  the  country  of  souls,  by  some  of  their  relations, 
friends,  or  servants. 

Garcilasso  de  la  Vega,  the  Spanish  historian,  men- 
tions the  Natches  as  being  in  his  time  (though  then 
they  were  greatly  reduced)  a  very  powerful  nation. 
In  the  beginning  of  the  last  century  they  could 
have  brought  5000  or  6000  warriors  into  the  field ;  but 
before  their  destruction  by  the  French,  they,  the 
Grisgras  and  the  Thioux,  we  are  told  by  Du  Pratz, 
could  not  muster  above  ]  200.  Notwithstanding  the 
barbarous,  stupid  attachment  of  those  people  to  their 
chiefs,  it  is  certain  that  many  of  their  Suns  were 
endowed  with  principles  of  moderation  and  huma- 
nity. Some  of  these  withdrew  from  their  commu- 
nity, and  are  now  to  be  found  dispersed  through 
different  parts  of  America  ;  but  are  easily  known  to 
be  the  offspring  of  Natches,  by  their  preserving  the 
eternal  fire,  and  other  customs  peculiar  to  their 
nation. 

We  can  only  enumerate  a  few  of  the  names  of  the 
other  tribes. 

To  the  north  of  the  Natches,  on  the  east  of  the 
Mississippi,  existed  the  river  and  country  of  the 
Yasous.  Adjacent  to  them  were  the  Corons,  Chaet- 
chi-Oumas,  Oufe-Oumas,  and  the  Tapoussas;  all  of 
them  inconsiderable  tribes,  who  after  the  extermina- 
tion of  the  Natches,  united  themselves  under  the 
Chicachas.  Northwards  of  the  river  Ouabacke,  were 
the  Illinois,  on  the  banks  of  the  river  which  carries 
their  name.  They  were  distinguished  into  the  Ta- 
maroas,  the  Caskaquias,  the  Caouquias,  the  Pimite- 
ouis,  and  several  other  tribes.  Near  the  Tamaroa 
village  was  a  settlement  of  French  Canadians,  and 
one  of  the  most  considerable  amongst  all  the  savage 
nations.  In  general  the  Illinois  were  always  at- 
tached to  the  French,  who  protected  them  against 
the  Sioux,  the  Iroquois,  aud  their  other  enemies; 
and,  though  far  from  being  destitute  of  courage, 
they  were  very  peaceably  disposed.  To  the  north 
of  the  Illinois  were  the  Eenards,  whom  the  French 


were  at  war  with  for  40  years.  Between  the  Re- 
nards  and  the  fall  of  St.  Anthony,  there  was  a  space 
of  almost  300  miles,  uninhabited  by  any  nation ; 
but  beyond  that  were  the  Sioux,  a  people  very  little 
known  in  Europe ;  but  who  were  dispersed  amongst 
a  vast  number  of  villages  both  towards  the  east  and 
the  west  of  Mississippi. 

The  inhabitants  on  the  west  of  that  river  remained 
a  long  time  unsubdued,  and  unconnected,  appa- 
rently, with  any  other  people.  The  first  were  the 
Tchaouachas  and  the  Ouachas,  different  tribes  of  the 
same  nation.  The  Tchitimachas  were  of  the  Natches 
nation,  and  formerly  a  considerable  people,  inhabit- 
ing the  borders  of  the  lakes  towards  the  north  of 
the  Tchacuachas.  They  are  described  as  extremely 
pacific,  and  so  contented  with  their  own  condi- 
tion, that  rather  than  have  their  tranquillity  broken, 
they  abandoned  all  the  advantages  they  could  have 
expected  from  the  protection  of  the  French.  One 
of  them  happened  to  kill  a  French  missionary,  for 
which  the  French  made  war  upon  them;  but  at  last, 
upon  the  Tchitimachas  sending  to  them  the  head  of 
the  murderer,  they  obtained  peace.  On  the  sea- 
side, towards  the  west,  were  the  Atac-Apas,  or  the 
Man-eaters,  so  called  from  their  being  said  to  be 
cannibals. 

The  Bayoue-Ogoulas  inhabited  a  country  which 
bore  their  name,  and  were  a  mixed  people.  The 
Oque  Loussas  were  only  known  to  the  French,  even, 
by  name,  and  were  so  termed  from  their  living  on 
the  borders  of  two  lakes,  the  waters  of  which  are 
black,  through  the  great  number  of  leaves  that 
lodge  in  them.  Between  the  Oque  Loussas  and 
the  Red  river,  no  people  were  to  be  found ;  but 
above  the  fall  of  that  river,  there  was  a  small  nation 
called  the  Avoyels,  remarkable  for  selling  to  the 
French,  who  were  settled  in  Louisiana,  horses, 
bullocks,  and  cows.  Those  cattle  were  purchased 
from  the  Spaniards  of  New  Mexico,  and  they  multi- 
plied prodigiously  in  the  hands  of  the  French  Loui- 
sianians.  About  50  leagues  up  the  Red  river  lived 
the  Natchicoches,  who  were  always  averse  to  the 
Spaniards,  but  friendly  to  the  French.  They  con- 
sisted of  about  200  families,  dispersed  up  and  down 
the  river.  About  100  leagues  above  the  mouth  of 
the  Red  river  was  the  once  great  nation  of  the  Ca- 
dodaquioux,  which  branched  out  into  a  vast  number 
of  tribes.  This  nation,  as  well  as  the  Natchitoches, 
had  a  particular  language,  or  dialect  of  their  own; 
and  yet,  in  all  their  villages,  people  were  found, 
who  spoke  the  Chicacha  language,  which  they  call 
their  common  tongue.  Upon  the  Black  river  were 
the  Ouachitas,  who  are  now  but  few  in  number, 
having  been  mostly  destroyed  by  the  Chicachas. 
The  Arkansas  inhabit  the  borders  of  a  river  that 
bears  their  name.  They  are  a  very  brave  people, 
and  excellent  hunters.  The  Chicachas  had  often, 
tried  their  valour,  but  were  always  worsted,  espe- 
cially after  the  Kappas,  part  of  the  Illinois,  and  the 
Mitchigamias  joined  them.  They  are  all  now  blended 
into  one  nation;  a  kind  of  coalition  which  often 
happens  among  the  American  savages.  If  a  weak 
people  should  be  at  war  with  another,  and  double 
their  force,  the  former  needs  but  to  take  refuge  un- 
der a  third,  with  whom  the  more  powerful  nation  is 
at  peace,  and  if  they  adopt  them,  they  are  safe. 
Near  the  Osage  river  there  is  still  a  considerable  na- 
tion called  the  Osages,  said  to  have  been  formerly 
numerous.  The  Missouris  give  name  to  the  great 
river  so  called;  and  the  French  once  had  a  post 
amongst  them,  which  was  commanded  by  the  Cheva- 
lier de  Bourgmont.  This  gentleman,  after  'having 


1028 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


restored  a  good  understanding  amongst  all  the  neigh- 
bouring savages,  who  before  were  perpetually  de- 
stroying one  another,  happened  to  leave  the  garri- 
son ;  and  soon  after  it  was  destroyed  by  the  natives 
so  completely,  that  not  a  Frenchman  was  left  alive 
to  give  the  least  account  of  the  catastrophe.  It  is 
surmised  that  the  Spaniards  had  projected  this  mas- 
sacre, in  order  to  settle  themselves  among  the  Mis- 
souris.  Their  real  design  was  to  exterminate  the 
Missouris  likewise ;  but,  finding  this  impracticable, 
they  gained  over,  by  the  force  of  presents,  the  Osages, 
whom  they  endeavoured  to  employ  in  the  destruction 
of  the  Missouris.  With  this  view,  they  formed  at 
Santa  Fe  a  kind  of  caravan,  or  rather  an  ark,  con- 
sisting of  men,  women,  and  soldiers.  Their  purser 
was  a  Jacobin,  and  their  commander-in-chief  an 
engineer ;  but  his  colony  was  furnished  with  cattle, 
and  beasts  of  carriage  of  all  kinds.  Unfortunately 
for  them,  they  knew  so  little  of  the  place  of  their 
destination,  that,  instead  of  the  country  of  the 
Osages,  they  landed  in  that  of  the  Missouris,  and 
their  interpreter,  not  doubting  their  being  amongst 
the  Osages,  told  them  they  came  to  make  an  alli- 
ance with  them,  in  order  to  exterminate  the  Mis- 
souris. The  grand  chief  of  the  Missouris,  to  whom 
this  discourse  was  addressed,  far  from  undeceiving 
the  Spaniards,  seemed  to  welcome  them,  and  to  pro- 
mise himself  and  his  nation  vast  benefits  from  their 
hopeful  intention.  He  dissembled  so  well,  that  he 
persuaded  his  guests  to  remain  with  him  for  some 
days,  till  he  could  assemble  his  warriors,  and  consult 
with  his  elders.  The  Spaniards  fixed  a  day  for 
their  departure  to  take  possession  of  their  new  con- 
quest; but,  the  night  before,  the  Missouris  cut  the 
throats  of  them  all,  excepting  the  Jacobin,  whom 
they  perceived  to  be  a  man  of  prayer,  and  no  war- 
rior. Him  they  kept  for  some  months  prisoner,  and 
diverted  themselves  by  making  him  in  fair  weather 
ride  on  horseback;  but  in  this  amusement  they  out- 
witted themselves,  for  the  Jacobin  one  day  mounted 
his  horse,  and  got  clear  off.  After  his  flight,  the 
Missouris  carried  the  ornaments  of  the  Jacobin's 
chapel,  which  he  had  brought  along  with  him,  to  sell 
in  the  French  Illinois,  and  each  as  they  entered  that 
country,  was  fantastically  adorned  with  some  piece 
of  plate  or  vestment  belonging  to  the  altar ;  but  all  of 
them  arrived  in  solemn  procession,  singing  the  ca- 
lumet, and  performing  the  dance  of  peace.  Bois- 
briand  was  then  commandant  of  the  Illinois  post, 
and,  hearing  of  the  procession,  he  was  at  first  much 
scandalized,  as  fearing,  that  the  savages  had  slaugh- 
tered and  robbed  some  French  settlement;  but, 
understanding  how  matters  went,  he  was  greatly 
pleased,  and  gave  the  savages  merchandise  for  the 
furniture  of  the  chapel,  which  he  sent  to  Bienville, 
the  then  French  governor  of  Louisiana. 

The  most  considerable  nations  inhabiting  the 
banks  of  the  Missouri  river,  besides  the  Missouris 
themselves,  are  the  Canchez,  the  Outhouez,  and  the 
Osages,  the  White  and  the  Black  Panis,  the  Pani- 
mahas,  the  Aiaouis,  and  the  Padoucas,  which  last 
are  the  most  numerous  of  them,  the  others  being  but 
inconsiderable.  To  the  north  of  all  these,  lie  the 
Sioux,  who  are  wandering  savages,  inhabiting  both 
sides  of  the  Mississippi. 

There  is  great  reason  to  believe  that  all  the  na- 
tions of  Louisiana  were  originally  the  same  people, 
and  that  they  extended  to  Florida  likewise.  Besides 
the  Natches,  the  Pachca  Ogoulas,  preserved  the 
sacred  fire,  and  their  languages  are,  for  the  most 
part,  radically  the  same,  though  disguised  by  dif- 
ferent articulations.  Nevertheless,  their  intercourse 


in  some  piaces  with  the  Europeans,  their  mixture 
with  the  savages  of  Canada,  Sioux,  New  Spain,  and 
the  Apalaches.  have  introduced  into  Louisiana  a 
vast  confluence  of  different  people  and  tribes  ;  some 
of  whom  are  very  inconsiderable,  diminishing  even 
to  single  families,  so  that  every  separate  nation  has 
some  rite,  custom,  or  character,  peculiar  to  itself. 
To  specify  all  these  particulars,  is  not  the  province 
of  general  history. 

These  Indians  are,  for  the  most  part,  very  well 
made  ;  their  height  is  seldom  under  five  feet  six 
inches  ;  but  they  often  are  much  taller.  The  men 
are  much  handsomer  than  the  women,  who  arc  of 
a  smaller  size,  but  none  of  either  sex  degenerating 
into  dwarfs.  Du  Pratz  says,  that  the  French  Creoles 
of  Louisiana,  by  which  is  meant  children  born  in  a 
distant  country,  but  of  parents  of  the  same  nation, 
are  remarkably  large,  well  made,  and  vigorous,  and 
that  those  qualities  amongst  the  native  Louisianians 
in  general  are  chiefly  owing  to  the  manner  in  which 
the  females  treat  their  children  in  their  infancy.  As 
soon  as  a  female  savage  is  brought  to  bed,  she  goes 
to  the  water-side,  where  she  washes  herself  and  her 
child  ;  then  she  returns  home,  and  lays  the  infant 
all  along  in  a  cradle  of  a  very  curious  construction, 
made  of  canes,  so  light  that  it  does  not  weigh  above 
two  pounds.  She  places  this  cradle  upon  her  bed, 
but  without  rocking  it  from  side  to  side,  and  the 
child  is  swaddled  up  so  as  to  leave  the  motion  of  its 
lungs  and  belly  always  free  ;  but  its  head  is  bound 
to  a  little  pillow,  stuffed  with  hair,  but  not  raised 
above  the  rest  of  its  bed,  a  circumstance  which 
renders  all  these  natives  flat-headed.  When  born, 
they  are  white.  Their  skin,  when  they  are  very 
young,  is  rubbed  over  with  oil,  and  other  materials", 
which  give  them  a  copper  colour,  their  hide  being 
in  a  manner  enamelled  with  them  by  the  heat  of  the 
sun.  This  unction  renders  their  joints  more  supple 
and  flexible,  and  prevents  the  flies  from  tormenting 
them.  The  boys  about  twelve  years  of  age  are 
taught  to  shoot  with  a  bow,  at  a  mark,  and  rewarded 
according  to  their  proficiency.  The  paternal  au- 
thority is  greatly  venerated  amongst  them.  The 
oldest  of  every  family  is,  Ey  all  his  descendants,  who 
are  sometimes  very  numerous,  termed  their  father, 
and  his  word  is  their  law.  Unless  they  are  cut  off 
in  war,  or  by  colds,  or  the  small-pox,  these  savages 
live  to  a  great  age,  insomuch  that  they  often  are 
unable  to  stir,  merely  through  natural  decay. 

The  fathers  educate  the  boys,  as  the  mothers  train 
up  the  girls ;  but  the  latter  toil  the  most.  The  rnea 
are  chiefly  occupied  in  hunting  or  fishing,  in  cutting 
wood,  or  preparing  land;  and  those  exercises  being 
over,  they  divert  themselves  with  others  less  labo- 
rious: but  the  women,  besides  the  care  of  their 
young  infants,  have  all  the  maize  to  prepare  for  the 
family,  fire-wood  to  provide,  and  a  vast  u umber  of 
utensils  to  make,  such  as  earthenware,  mats,  and 
many  other  particulars.  Children  of  both  sexes, 
when  about  ten  or  twelve  years  of  age,  are  accus- 
tomed to  carry  burthens,  which  are  gradually  in- 
creased as  they  grow  up,  so  that  they  are  sometimes 
capable  of  bearing  a  great  weight.  The  savages  of 
Louisiana,  however,  are  very  cautious  of  over- 
straining the  strength  of  their  children,  and  they 
seldom  suffer  them  to  marry  before  they  are  25 
years  of  age.  The  care  and  wisdom  with  which,  in 
other  respects,  parents  train  up  their  youth,  is  very 
surprising,  and  the  judgment  with  which  they  mo- 
derate their  exercises,  such  as  running,  leaping, 
swimming,  and  shooting,  lest  they  should  hurt  their 
tender  constitutions,  so  as  to  render  them  less  active 


UNITED  STATES. 


1029 


and  vigorous  in  their  manhood.  On  the  other  hand, 
they  are  equally  careful  to  keep  them  in  exercise, 
as  the  want  of  it  may  be  prejudicial  to  their  health. 
From  their  teuderest  years  they  bathe  every  morn- 
ing, winter  as  well  as  summer,  and  both  sexes  learn 
to  swim  even  from  their  infancy,  under  the  inspec- 
tion of  their  elders  and  mothers. 

As  they  have  no  knowledge  of  letters,  they  take 
great  care  to  preserve  and  communicate  their  tra- 
ditions pure  and  unmixed.  Most  part  of  the  Natcbes, 
though  they  had  a  peculiar  dialect  of  their  own, 
spoke  the  general  tongue.  According  to  Du  Pratz, 
their  nobility  had  one  language,  and  their  common 
people  another ;  and  the  manner  in  which  the  men 
speak,  is  full,  sonorous,  and  grave. 

All  the  Indian  nations  of  Louisiana  have  an  idea 
of  a  supreme  Being,  whom  they  call  the  Grand  Spi- 
rit, by  way  of  excellence,  and  whose  perfections  are 
as  much  superior  to  all  other  beings,  as  the  fire  of 
the  sun  is  to  elementary  fire.  The  Natches  believed 
in  an  omnipotent  God,  the  Maker  of  all  things,  either 
visible  or  invisible,  and  that  he  was  so  good,  that  he 
could  do  no  evil  to  any  one,  even  if  he  were  so  in- 
clined. That  though  he  created  all  things  by  his 
will,  yet  he  had  under  him  spirits  of  an  inferior 
order,  who,  by  his  power,  formed  the  beauties  of  the 
universe  ;  but,  that  man  was  the  work  of  the  Crea- 
tor's own  hands.  Those  spirits  are  termed  free  ser- 
vants or  agents;  but  at  the  same  time  they  are 
submissive  as  slaves.  They  are  constantly  in  the 
presence  of  God,  and  prompt  to  execute  his  will. 
The  air,  according  to  them,  is  full  of  other  spirits  of 
more  mischievous  dispositions,  and  these  have  a 
chief,  who  was  so  malignant,  that  God  Almighty 
was  obliged  to  confine  him,  and,  ever  since,  those 
aerial  spirits  do  not  commit  so  much  mischief  as 
they  did  before,  especially  if  they  are  entreated  to 
be  favourable.  For  this  reason  the  Indians  always 
invoke  them  when  they  want  either  rain  or  fair 
weather.  Their  fasts  are  very  long,  and  the  grand 
Sun  himself  has  been  known,  for  nine  days  succes- 
sively, to  abstain  from  women,  and  from  all  kind  of 
food,  excepting  a  little  maize  and  water.  They  be- 
lieve that  God  first  formed  a  little  man  of  clay,  and 
breathed  upon  his  work,  and  that  he  then  walked 
about,  grew  up,  and  became  a  perfect  man;  but  the 
"  ancient  word"  is  silent  as  to  the  formation  of  the 
woman.  We  cannot  enter  into  a  more  minute  de- 
tail of  their  religious  opinions;  concerning  which 
the  reader  may  consult  Du  Pratz'  history  of  Loui- 
siana. 

The    grand   Sun's  power   was   despotism   itself. 


Though  he  was  the  uncontrolled  master  of  the  lives 
and  properties  of  his  subjects,  yet  he  was  free  from 
the  evils  attending  arbitrary  government  in  other 
countries,  being  under  no  apprehensions  of  treason 
against  his  person,  or  insurrections  against  his  state. 
On  his  pronouncing  sentence  of  death,  the  criminal, 
though  he  could  make  his  escape,  never  attempted 
it,  but  quietly  submits  to  his  fate.  There  were  po- 
litical as  well  as  religious  feasts :  the  last  in  honour 
of  the  great  spirit,  to  thank  him  for  his  benefits,  and 
the  first  for  the  convenience  of  the  sovereign,  who 
on  those  occasions  gathered  in  his  revenues ;  for  he 
was  so  completely  absolute  as  to  have  no  stated  in- 
come ;  therefore  every  one  contributed  to  it,  as  their 
inclination  or  abilities  permitted,  and  no  furthe: 
questions  were  asked.  Their  year  consisted  o 
thirteen  moons,  and  at  the  end  of  every  moon  a  feus: 
was  made,  which  took  the  name  from  the  chief  fruit; 
of  the  ground,  which  the  preceding  moon  afforded, 
or  the  game  that  was  then  in  season.  The  first  feas 
of  the  year,  which  was  that  of  the  kids,  was  ven 
grand.  On  this  occasion  they  performed  a  kind  o* 
drama,  founded  on  one  of  the  chief  events  of  theii 
history.  The  most  solemn,  however,  of  all  their 
feasts  was  the  seventh,  which  is  termed  that  of  the 
I  maize  or  corn. 

The  ceremonies  of  these  savages  in  some  points, 
is  the  reverse  of  that  of  the  Europeans,  all  priority 
and  preference  being  given  to  the  men,  and  the 
women  being  considered  as  only  household  drudges. 
The  females,  however,  in  the  more  early  parts  of  their 
lives,  are  not  without  their  privileges.  As  soon  as 
the  two  sexes  are  judged  by  their  parents  to  be  of 
proper  years,  the  men  and  women  mix  together, 
without  the  ceremony  of  marriage ;  but  after  they 
are  married  all  amours  are  dropt  on  both  sides. 
Though  the  husbands  have  a  power  of  divorce,  yet  ex- 
amples of  that  kind  are  very  seldom  known  amongst 
the  Natches,  and  never  but  when  the  woman  is  of  an 
intolerable. disposition.  The  women,  owing  to  their 
vile  practice,  never  have  children  before  marriages, 
and  the  bridegroom  values  himself  upon  the  wealth 
his  bride  has  acquired  in  the  course  of  her  amours ; 
for  it  seems  the  females  there  are  far  from  being  void 
of  mercenary  views,  and  take  care  always  to  make  a 
previous  bargain  with  their  lovers. 

[We  shall  henceforward  give  a  collective  account 
of  the  various  States,  having,  in  pursuance  of  our 
plan,  now  brought  their  separate  histories  down  to 
the  commencement  of  :i  The  War  of  the  Independ- 
ence."] 


THE  WAR  OF  THE  INDEPENDENCE. 


Taxation  of  the  colonies — Stamp  act  proposed — Con- 
duct oj  the  colonies — Stamp  act  passed — Congress 
at  New  York — Stamp  act  repealed — Colonies  taxed 
by  duties — Associate  to  resist  oppression. 

WHEN  the  dominion  of  France,  in  America,  was 
relinquished,  it  occasioned  universal  joy  throughout 
the  colonies.  They  forgot  their  sufferings  and  dis- 
tress in  the  fair  prospect  which  peace  afforded.  But 
these  prospects  were  of  short  duration.  The  peace 
of  Paris  formed  a  new  era  in  the  views  and  conduct 
of  Great  Britain,  towards  her  colonies  in  America. 
In  the  previous  contest,  England  had  added  ex- 
tensive territories  to  her  empire ;  but  she  had  also 
added  320  millions  to  the  amount  of  her  debt.  To 
find  the  means  of  defraying  the  annual  charges  of 
this  debt,  and  her  other  increased  expenditures,  was 
the  first  and  most  difficult  task  of  her  legislature. 
Among  other  expedients,  the  British  ministry  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  taxing  the  American  colonies. 

The  origin  of  the  dispute  concerning  taxation 
may  be  traced  to  the  commencement  of  the  war 
with  France.  At  that  important  crisis,  when  the 
congress  at  Albany  was  convoked  to  concert  mea- 
sures for  common  safety,  the  British  ministry  pro- 
posed, as  has  been  stated,  that  the  governors  of 
the  colonies,  with  their  council,  should  assemble, 
and  concert,  measures  for  general  defence;  and 
draw  on  the  treasury  of  Great  Britain  for  the  sums 
that  should  be  wanted  :  but  that  the  treasury  should 
be  reimbursed  by  a  tax  on  the  colonies,  to  be  laid  by 
the  British  parliament.  The  provincial  assemblies 
rejected  their  plan,  and  the  question  was  smothered 
amidst  the  tumults  of  war.  But  peace  was  no  sooner 
concluded,  than  it  was  revived.  The  British  parlia- 
ment resumed  the  scheme  of  taxing  the  colonies,  and 
justified  the  measure,  by  declaring  the  money  to 
be  thus  raised,  should  be  appropriated  to  defray  the 
expenses  incurred  in  their  defence. 

Hitherto,  when  money  was  wanted  from  the  colo- 
nies, the  parliament  of  England  had  been  content 
to  ask  for  it  by  a  formal  requisition  upon  the  colo- 
nial legislatures ;  and  they  had  supplied  it  with  a 
willing  hand.  But  now  it  was  thought  that  a  shorter 
method  of  obtaining  it  might  be  resorted  to  with 
better  effect;  and  in  1764,  Mr.  Grenville,  in  the 
British  parliament,  proposed  a  measure,  the  avowed 
object  of  which  was  to  raise  a  revenue  in  America, 
the  entire  produce  of  which  was  to  go  into  the  ex- 
chequer of  Great  Britain.  Early  in  this  year,  the 
minister  proposed  several  resolutions,  as  a  sort  of 
prelude  to  this  grand  scheme ;  laying  additional 
duties  upon  imports  into  the  colonies  from  foreign 
countries ;  on  clayed  sugar,  indigo,  coffee,  &c. 

These  resolutions  were  passed  by  parliament, 
without  much  debate  or  notice ;  and  though  they 
awakened  some  fears  among  the  reflecting  politi- 
cians of  America,  they  were  quietly  acquiesced  in,  as 
a  commercial  regulation  of  Great  Britain. 

Amono-  the  resolutions  reported  by  Mr,  Grenville, 
was  one  imposing  "  certain  stamp  duties  on  the 


colonies:"  but  he  declared  to  the  house,  his  desire 
that  it  should  not  be  acted  upon  until  the  next  ses- 
sion of  parliament.  It  was  foreseen  that  the  law 
would  be  disregarded,  if  extraordinary  measures  were 
not  adopted  to  enforce  it;  and  provision  made  that 
penalties  for  violating  it,  and  all  other  revenue  laws, 
might  be  recovered  in  the  admiralty  courts.  The 
judges  of  these  courts  were  dependent  solely  on  the 
king,  and  decided  the  causes  brought  before  them 
without  the  intervention  of  a  jury. 

The  colonial  agents  in  London  sent  copies  of  the 
resolutions  to  their  respective  colonies.  As  soon  as 
the  intelligence  of  these  proceedings  reached  Ame- 
rica, they  were  considered  as  the  commencement  of 
a  system  of  oppression,  which  if  not  vigorously  re- 
sisted, would  eventually  deprive  them  of  the  liberty 
of  British  subjects.  The  general  court  of  Massa- 
chusetts, at  their  session  in  June,  took  this  law  into 
consideration.  The  house  of  representatives  s^nt 
instructions  to  their  agent  in  England,  in  which 
they  denied  the  right  of  parliament  to  impose  duties 
and  taxes  upon  those  who  were  not  represented  in 
the  house  of  Commons ;  and  directed  him  to  re- 
monstrate against  the  duties  imposed,  and  the  stamp 
act  in  contemplation.  They  acquainted  the  other 
colonies  with  the  instructions  they  had  given  to  their 
agent,  and  desired  their  concurrence.  When  their 
communication  was  received  in  the  house  of  bur- 
gesses in  Virginia,  a  committee  was  immediately 
appointed  to  prepare  an  address  to  the  king,  and 
two  houses  of  parliament,  expressing  their  sense  of 
the  consequences  of  such  a  measure  to  the  colonies. 
Every  argument  whivh  ingenuity  could  furnish,  or 
interest  could  enforce,  was  employed,  in  order  to 
prevent  the  passage  of  the  obnoxious  statutes ;  but 
all  without  effect.  Associations  were  formed  in  all 
the  provinces,  in  ordei  to  diminish  the  use  of  Bri- 
tish manufactures;  a  step  which,  besides  its  imme- 
diate effects,  rendered  the  merchants  of  England  a 
party  against  the  ministry,  and  increased  the  oppo- 
sition with  which  those  in  power  were  obliged  to 
contend. 

In  March  1765,  Mr.  Grenville,  not  deterred  by 
an  opposition  which  he  had  expected,  brought  into 
parliament  a  bill  for  imposing  duties  in  America. 
The  friends  of  the  administration  employed  much 
able  reasoning  in  support  of  the  bill.  Among  those 
who  distinguished  themselves  by  the  ability  and  elo- 
quence with  which  they  advocated  the  cause  of  the 
colonies,  was  Colonel  Barre.  He  stated  with  a  manly 
freedom,  that  the  same  spirit  which  had  actuated 
the  people  at  first,  still  continued  with  them.  He 
iasinuated,  in  a  way  that  could  not  be  mistaken, 
what  would  be  the  effect  of  the  measure  which  Eng- 
land was  about  to  adopt.  He  declared  that  he 
spoke  from  a  particular  acquaintance  with  the  cha- 
racter of  the  Americans,  and  expressed  his  belief, 
that  while  they  were  zealous  of  their  rights,  they 
were  loyal  to  their  king;  and,  finally,  he  entreated 
the  ministry  to  pause  before  they  ordained  that  the  pri- 
vileges of  Englishmen  were  to  beinvaded  ordeetroyed 


UNITED  STATES. 


1031 


Colonel  Barre,  immediately  rising,  indignantly 
and  eloquently  exclaimed:  "  Children  planted  by 
your  care!  No.  Your  oppressions  planted  them 
in  America.  They  fled  from  your  tyranny  into  a 
then  uncultivated  land,  where  they  were  exposed  to 
all  the  hardships  to  which  human  nature  is  liable ; 
and  among  others,  to  the  cruelties  of  a  savage  foe, 
the  most  subtle,  and  I  will  take  upon  me  to  say,  the 
most  terrible,  that  ever  inhabited  any  part  of  God's 
earth.  And  yet,  actuated  by  principles  of  true  En- 
glish liberty,  they  met  all  these  hardships  with  plea- 
sure, when  they  compared  them  with  those  they 
suffered  in  their  own  country,  from  men  who  should 
have  been  their  friends. 

"  They  nourished  by  your  indulgence !  No.  They 
grew  by  your  neglect.  When  you  began  to  care 
about  them,  that  care  was  exercised  in  sending  per- 
sons to  rule  over  them,  who  were  deputies  of  some 
deputy  sent  to  spy  out  their  liberty,  to  misrepresent 
their  actions,  and  to  prey  upon  them;  whose  beha- 
viour, on  many  occasions,  has  caused  the  blood  of 
those  sons  of  liberty  to  recoil  within  them ;  men 
promoted  to  the  highest  seats  of  justice,  some  of 
whom  were  glad,  by  going  to  a  foreign  country,  to 
escape  being  brought  to  the  bar  of  justice  in  their 
own. 

"  They  protected  by  your  arms  !  They  have  nobly 
taken  up  arms  in  your  defence.  They  have  exerted 
their  valour,  amidst  their  constant  and  laborious 
industry,  for  the  defence  of  a  country  which,  while 
its  frontier  was  drenched  in  blood,  has  yielded  all  its 
little  savings  to  your  emolument.  Believe  me,  and  re- 
member I  this  day  told  you  so,  the  same  spirit  which 
actuated  that  people  at  first,  still  continues  with 
them ;  but  prudence  forbids  me  to  explain  myself 
further. 

"  God  knows  I  do  not  at  this  time  speak  from  party 
heat.  However  superior  to  me  in  general  know- 
ledge and  experience,  any  one  here  may  be,  I  claim 
to  know  more  of  America,  having  been  conversant 
in  that  country.  The  people  there  are  as  truly 
loyal  as  any  subjects  the  king  has;  but  a  people 
jealous  of  their  liberties,  and  will  vindicate  them  if 
they  should  be  violated.  But  the  subject  is  delicate ; 
I  Will  say  no  more." 

Eloquence  and  argument,  however,availed  nothing. 
The  bill  almost  unanimously  passed  in  parliament ; 
and  received  the  sanction  of  the  crown.  The  night 
after  its  passage,  Dr.  Franklin,  then  in  England  as 
agent  for  Pennsylvania,  wrote  to  Charles  Thompson, 
his  friend,  in  America — "  The  sun  of  liberty  is  set ; 
you  must  light  up  the  candles  of  industry  and  eco- 
nomy." "  Be  assured,"  said  Mr.  Thompson  in 
reply,  "  we  shall  light  up  torches  of  quite  another 
sort ;" — thus  predicting  the  commotions  which  fol- 
lowed. The  act  provided  that  all  contracts  and  legal 
processes  should  be  written  on  stamped  paper,  which 
was  to  be  furnished  by  agents  of  the  British  govern- 
ment, at  exorbitant  prices. 

On  the  arrival  of  the  news  of  the  stamp  act  in 
America,  a  general  indignation  spread  throughout 
thecoldnies;  and  spirited  resolutions  were  passed. 
In  these  resolutions  Virginia  led  the  way.  On  the 
meeting  of  the  house  of  burgesses,  Patrick  Henry, 
a  young,  but  distinguished  member,  proposed  five 
resolutions  ;  the  four  first  asserted  the  various  rights 
and  privileges  claimed  by  the  colonists ;  and  the  fifth 
boldly  and  explicitly  denied  the  right  of  parliament 
to  tax  America.  These  he  defended  by  strong  rea- 
son and  irresistible  eloquence,  and  they  were  adopted 
by  a  majority  of  one.  The  next  day,  in  his  ab- 
sence, the  fifth  was  rescinded;  but  this  with  the  rest 


had  gone  forth  to  the  world.  They  formed  the  first 
public  opposition  to  the  stamp  act,  and  to  the 
schemes  of  taxing  America  by  the  British  parliament. 
Nearly  at  the  same  time,  and  before  the  proceed- 
ings of  Virginia  were  known  in  Massachusetts,  her 
general  court  had  also  adopted  measures  to  pro- 
duce a  combined  opposition.  Letters  were  ad- 
dressed to  the  other  assemblies,  proposing  a  con- 
gress of  deputies  from  each  colony,  to  consult  on  the 
common  interest.  The  knowledge  of  what  had  been 
done  in  Virginia  aroused  the  most  violent  feelings. 
The  resolutions  which  at  first  were  circulated  cau- 
tiously, were  at  length  openly  published  in  news- 
papers ;  and  one  general  feeling  of  indignation  per- 
vaded all  classes  of  society. 

On  the  first  Tuesday  of  October  1765,  the  day 
appointed  for  the  meeting  of  the  proposed  congress, 
the  delegates  assembled  at  New  York,  where  were 
present  members  from  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island, 
Connecticut,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware, 
Maryland,  and  South  Carolina.  A  committee  from 
six  of  the  provinces  drew  up  a  declaration  of  their 
rights  and  grievances.  They  declared  themselves 
entitled  to  all  the  rights  and  liberties  of  natural 
born  subjects  of  Great  Britain :  among  the  most 
essential  of  which,  were  the  exclusive  right  to  tax 
themselves,  and  the  privilege  of  trial  by  jury.  The 
first  of  these  they  regarded  as  infringed  by  the  stamp 
act;  the  last,  by  the  extension  of  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  courts  of  admiralty.  The  congress  also  agreed 
upon  a  petition  to  the  king,  and  a  memorial  to  both 
houses  of  parliament.  The  colonies  not  represented 
forwarded  to  England  similar  petitions. 

The  1st  of  November,  the  important  day  when 
the  stamp  act  was  to  take  effect,  at  length  ap- 
proached. Combinations  were  every  where  formed 
to  prevent  its  execution.  The  violence  of  the  po- 
pulace could  with  difficulty  be  restrained.  In  some 
places  the  day  was  ushered  in  with  the  tolling  of 
bells,  as  for  a  funeral  procession.  The  act  which 
was  the  object  of  their  aversion,  was  hawked  in  the 
streets  with  a  death's  head  attached  to  it.  It  was 
styled  the  "  Folly  of  England,  and  the  ruin  of  Ame- 
rica." The  stamps  were  destroyed  wherever  they 
could  be  found  by  the  enraged  multitude;  who,  with 
all  the  intemperance  of  popular  agitation,  burued 
and  plundered  the  houses  of  such  as  supported  the 
act.  So  general  was  the  opposition  to  the  law,  that 
the  stamp  officers  in  all  the  colonies  were  obliged  to 
resign.  Opposition  became  general,  systematic  and 
alarming.  Confederacies  were  every  where  form- 
ing. It  was  universally  agreed  that  no  articles  of 
British  manufacture  should  be  imported,  and  that 
those  which  were  prepared  in  the  colonies,  though 
both  dearer  and  of  worse  quality,  should  be  employed 
in  all  the  settlements.  The  women,  animated  with 
a  similar  spirit,  cheerfully  relinquished  every  species 
of  ornament  which  was  manufactured  in  England. 
The  proceedings  in  the  courts  of  justice  were  sus- 
pended, that  no  stamps  might  be  used ;  and  the  co- 
lonists were  earnestly  and  frequently  exhorted  by 
those  who  took  the  lead  on  this  occasion,  to  termi- 
nate their  disputes  by  reference. 

In  the  mean  time  an  entire  change  had  taken 
place  in  the  British  cabinet :  the  marquis  of  Ilock- 
ingham  became  first  lord  of  the  treasury ;  and  it 
was  perceived  that  they  must  either  repeal  the  ob- 
noxious statutes,  or  oblige  the  Americans  to  submit 
to  them  by  force  of  arms.  Each  of  these  measures 
had  its  advocates.  Among  the  foremost  to  vindicate 
che  colonies,  in  the  house  of  peers,  was  Lord  Cam- 
den.  "  My  position,"  said  he,  "  is  this  ;  I  repeat 


]032 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


it,  I  will  maintain  it  to  my  last  hour — taxation  and 
representation  are  inseparable.  This  position  is 
founded  on  the  laws  of  nature ;  it  is  more — it  is  it- 
self an  eternal  law  of  nature  :  for  whatever  is  a 
man's  own  is  absolutely  his  own  ;  no  man  has  a  right 
to  take  it  from  him  without  his  consent.  Whoever 
attempts  to  do  it,  attempts  an  injury  :  whoever  does 
it,  commits  a  robbery." 

In  the  house  of  commons,  Mr.  Pitt  entered  into 
the  views  of  the  colonists ;  and  maintained  with  all 
the  eloquence  for  which  he  was  conspicuous,  that 
taxation  is  no  part  of  the  governing  or  legislative 
power,  but  that  taxes  are  a  voluntary  gift  and  grant 
of  the  commons  alone :  and  concluded  his  speech 
with  a  motion,  "  that  the  stamp  act  be  repealed,  ab- 
solutely, totally,  and  immediately." 

(1766.)  About  this  time  Dr.  Franklin  was  exa- 
mined before  the  house  of  commons,  and  gave  it  as 
his  opinion,  that  the  tax  was  unprofitable  and  ruin- 
ous. He  asserted  that  it  had  alienated  the  affec- 
tions of  the  colonists  from  the  mother-country,  and 
made  them  regard  the  people  of  England  as  con- 
spiring against  their  liberties,  and  its  parliament  as 
desirous  to  oppress  rather  than  to  protect  them. 
A  petition  was  received  from  the  Congress  at  New- 
York  ;  and  some  change  having  taken  place  in  the 
cabinet,  the  existing  administration  agreed  with 
Mr.  Pitt,  and  the  stamp  act  was  repealed.  But  ac- 
companying the  repeal  of  the  stamp  act,  was  pub- 
lished another  act,  declaring,  "  that  parliament  have, 
and  of  right  ought  to  have  power  to  bind  the  colo- 
nies in  all  cases  whatsoever."  This  assertion  di- 
minished the  joy  which  the  repeal  of  the  stamp  act 
would  otherwise  have  occasioned.  It  was  considered 
by  the  Americans  as  a  foundation  on  which  any 
future  ministry  might  oppress  them,  under  the  sanc- 
tion of  parliamentary  authority ;  and  it  had  no  other 
effect  than  that  of  rendering  them  more  suspicious 
of  arbitrary  designs,  and  more  solicitous  to  mark 
with  a  jealous  eye  the  first  encroachments  of  power. 

An  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  this  spirit  was 
not  long  wanting.  Immediately  after  the  ratifica- 
tion of  the  treaty  of  peace  at  Paris,  the  intention  of 
the  ministers  to  quarter  troops  in  America,  and 
oblige  the  colonies  to  support  them,  was  announced 
in  the  English  papers.  The  maintaining  of  a  stand- 
ing army  was  connected  with  the  system  of  taxation, 
but  the  ministry  well  knew  it  would  be  opposed, 
and  they  calculated  that  an  army  sent  under  pre- 
tence of  protecting  the  colonies,  afforded  a  plausible 
pretext  for  taxing  them,  while  it  would  awe  them 
into  submission  to  the  mandates  of  the  British  go- 
vernment. An  act  had  been  passed  by  the  Rock- 
ingham  administration,  for  providing  the  soldiers 
which  had  been  quartered  in  the  colonies,  with  the 
necessaries  and  accommodations  which  their  circum- 
stances might  require,  at  the  expense  of  the  colony 
in  which  they  were  stationed.  The  assembly  of 
New  York  refused  obedience  to  this  law,  consider- 
ing it  an  indirect  mode  of  taxing  them  without  their 
consent.  The  assembly  at  Boston  not  only  followed 
the  example  of  that  of  New  York,  but  proceeded 
still  further;  and  resolved,  that  the  conduct  of  the 
governor,  in  issuing  money  from  the  treasury  in  order 
to  furnish  the  artillery  with  provisions,  was  uncon- 
stitutional and  unjust;  and  that  it  disabled  them  from 
granting  cheerfully  to  the  king  the  aids  which  his 
service  demanded.  These  resolutions  were  not  ap- 
proved in  England,  even  by  many  who  liad  hereto- 
fore espoused  the  interests  of  the  colonies.  The 
consequence  of  this  change  of  sentiment  was  per- 
ceptible by  a  change  of  measures  in  parliament.  A 


nil  was  introduced  by  Mr.  Townsend,  the  chancel- 
.or  of  the  exchequer,  imposing  a  duty  on  all  tea, 
ylass,  paper,  and  painters'  colours.  It  passed  Doth 
louses  without  much  opposition,  and  was  the  next 
year  sent  to  the  colonies. 

(1767.)  The  act  for  imposing  the  new  taxes  was 
received  with  greater  aversion  than  the  stamp  act 
itself.  Letters  were  sent  from  Massachusetts  to  all 
the  other  colonies,  inveighing  against  the  injustice 
and  tyranny  of  the  British  legislature.  Circulars 
were  sent  to  most  of  the  colonial  assemblies,  sug- 
gesting the  expediency  of  acting  in  concert  in  all 
endeavours  to  obtain  redress.  These  proceedings 
incensed  and  alarmed  the  ministry.  They  feared 
that  a  union  of  the  colonies  would  give  them  strength 
and  confidence ;  and  determined  if  possible  to  pre- 
vent it.  They  instructed  Sir  John  Bernard,  then 
governor  of  Massachusetts,  to  require  the  general 
court  to  rescind  the  vote  directing  the  circular  to  be 
sent;  and  in  case  of  refusal,  to  dissolve  it.  The 
governor  communicated  these  instructions  to  the 
house  of  representatives;  which,  by  a  vote  of  92  to 
seventeen,  refused  to  rescind,  and  was  accordingly 
dissolved. 

This  measure,  like  all  the  others  which  the  Bri- 
tish government  at  this  period  pursued,  with  the 
intention  -of  intimidating  the  colonies,  did  but  exas- 
perate and  arouse  them.  Frequent  meetings  of  the 
people  were  held  at  Boston,  and  the  different  pro- 
vinces; a  petition  was  made  to  the  governor,  in  which 
he  was  desired  to  remove  the  ships  of  war  from  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  town  ;  a  request  with  which  he 
was  neither  able  or  willing  to  comply. 

Convention  at  Boston — Consequent  conduct  of  colonies— 
Tea  cargoes  destroyed — Spread  of  revolutionary 
principles. 

At  the  opening  of  the  year  1768,  every  thing  ap- 
peared to  indicate  a  rupture  between  the  colonies 
and  the  parent  state.  The  agent  of  the  province 
was  refused  admission  to  the  presence  of  the  king. 
A  report  was  circulated  that  the  troops  had  been 
ordered  to  march  into  Boston,  a  dreadful  alarm  took 
place,  and  all  ranks  of  men  joined  in  beseeching  the 
governor  that  a  general  assembly  might  be  convoked 
The  answer  of  Governor  Bernard  was,  that  by  his 
last  instructions  from  England,  he  was  prevented 
from  complying  with  this  wish  of  the  people. 

On  this  refusal,  the  ^select  men  of  Boston  pro- 
posed to  the  several  towns  in  the  colony  to  hold  a 
convention,  which  was  accordingly  holden  in  that 
town  on  the  22nd  of  September.  In  this  convention 
it  was  resolved  that  they  would  defend  their  violated 
rights  at  the  peril  of  their  lives  and  fortunes,  and 
that  the  people  who  had  no  arms,  should  furnish 
themselves.  At  the  same  time,  they  thought  it 
proper  to  assure  the  government  of  their  pacific  in- 
tentions, and  requested  again  that  an  assembly  might 
be  called;  but  after  transmitting  to  England  an 
account  of  their  proceedings,  and  the  reasons  which 
had  induced  them  to  assemble,  they  were  again  re- 
fused, and  stigmatized  with  the  appellation  of  rebels. 

The  refractory  spirit  of  the  people  of  Boston  had 
been  so  often  displayed,  that  General  Gage,  who 
was  commander-in-chiefof  the  troops  in  the  colonies, 
was  ordered  to  station  a  regiment  in  that  town,  not 
only  to  overawe  the  citizens,  but  to  protect  the  offi- 
cers of  the  revenue  in  the  discharge  of  their  duty. 
Before  the  order  was  executed,  the  seizure  of  a  sloop 
belonging  to  Mr.  Hancock,  an  eminent  merchant, 
and  a  popular  leader,  occasioned  a  riot,  in  which 
those  officers  were  insulted  and  beaten. 


UNITED  STATES. 


1033 


On  tht;  28th  of  September,  two  regiments,  escorted 
by  seven  armed  vessels,  arrived  at  Boston  from 
Halifax.  The  landing  of  the  troops  was  protected 
by  the  fleet,  which  was  drawn  up  with  the  broad- 
sides of  the  vessels  opposite  the  town.  In  conse- 
quence of  their  formidable  appearance,  they  marched 
into  Boston  without  any  resistance  on  the  part  of  the 
inhabitants.  The  select  men  of  the  town  having 
refused  to  provide  them  with  quarters,  the  governor 
commanded  the  state  house  to  be  opened  for  their 
reception.  The  presence  of  the  soldiers  had  great 
influence  in  restraining  the  excesses  of  the  popula- 
tion ;  but  the  hatred  of  the  colonies  towards  Eng- 
land was  much  increased  by  this  highly  offensive 
measure. 

Early  in  1769,  news  reached  the  colonies  that 
both  houses  of  parliament,  in  a  joint  address  to  his 
majesty,  had  recommended  vigorous  measures  in 
order  to  enforce  their  obedience ;  and  had  even  gone 
so  far  as  to  beseech  the  king  to  direct  the  governor 
of  Massachusetts  bay  to  make  strict  inquiries  as  to 
all  treasons  committed  in  that  province  since  the 
year  1767,  in  order  that  the  persons  most  active  in 
committing  them  might  be  sent  to  England  for  trial. 
This  proposal  gave  great  offence  to  the  colonists. 

The  legislature  of  Massachusetts  was  not  in  ses- 
sion when  the  news  of  this  address  reached  America; 
but  the  house  of  burgesses  in  Virginia,  which  met  a 
few  days  afterwards,  were  not  tardy  in  expressing 
their  sense  of  it.  They  passed  several  spirited  re- 
solutions, declaring  their  exclusive  right  to  tax 
themselves,  and  denying  the  right  of  his  majesty  to 
remove  an  offender  out  of  the  colony  for  trial.  An 
address  to  his  majesty  was  also  agreed  on,  which 
stated,  in  a  style  of  loyalty  and  real  attachment  to 
the  crown,  the  deep  conviction  of  the  house  of  bur- 
gesses of  Virginia,  that  the  complaints  of  the  colo- 
nists were  well  founded.  When  the  intelligence  of 
these  proceedings  reached  the  governor,  he  suddenly 
dissolved  the  assembly.  But  the  current  of  opposi- 
tion was  too  strong  to  be  stayed.  The  members  as- 
sembled at  a  private  house,  elected  their  speaker, 
Peyton  Randolph,  Esq.,  moderator;  and  proceeded 
to  pass  resolutions  against  importing  British  goods. 
Their  example  was  followed  by  other  colonies ;  and 
non-importation  agreements,  which  had  before  been 
entered  into  by  Boston,  Salem,  the  city  of  New 
York,  and  the  colony  of  Connecticut,  now  became 
general. 

On  the  5th  of  March,  1770,  an  affray  took  place 
at  Boston  between  the  military  and  some  of  the  in- 
habitants, who  insulted  them  while  under  arms,  in 
which  four  persons  were  killed.  The  bells  were  in- 
stantly rung ;  the  people  rushed  from  the  country 
to  the  aid  of  the  citizens;  and  the  soldiers  were 
obliged  to  retire  to  Castle  William,  in  order  to  avoid 
the  fury  of  the  enraged  multitude.  A  trial  was  in- 
stituted :  the  soldiers  engaged  in  the  affray  were  all 
acquitted,  except  two,  who  were  found  guilty  of 
man-slaughter.  The  moderation  of  the  jury,  and 
the  ability  with  which  the  soldiers  were  defended  by 
two  of  the  leading  opposers  of  British  aggression, 
John  Adams  and  Josiah  Quincy,  were  honourable 
to  the  individuals  and  to  their  country.  This  event, 
however,  increased  the  detestation  "in  which  the 
soldiers  stationed  among  the  people  were  held. 

In  the  mean  time  the  parliament  of  Great  Britain 
showed,  that  it  had  neither  sufficient  vigour  to  com- 
pel the  Americans  to  submit,  nor  sufficient  liberality 
to  yield  to  their  remonstrances.  The  ministry  agreed 
to  take  off  all  the  duties  which  had  lately  been  im- 
posed, except  that  on  tea ;  but  it  was  predicted  by 


the  opposition  that  their  indulgence  would  have  no 
good  effect,  while  any  duty  remained  which  was  im- 
posed upon  the  Americans  without  their  consent. 
What  was  predicted  by  the  opposition,  was  in  the 
end  found  to  be  true.  It  was  resolved  that  the  tea 
should  not  be  landed,  but  sent  back  to  Europe  in  the 
same  vessels  that  had  brought  it;  for  it  was  obvious 
to  all,  that  it  would  be  extremely  difficult  to  hinder 
the  sale,  if  the  commodity  should  once  be  received 
on  shore.  The  people  assembled  in  great  numbers 
at  Boston,  and  forced  those  to  whom  it  had  been 
consigned  to  give  up  their  appointments,  and  to 
swear  that  they  would  abandon  them  for  ever.  Such 
as  refused  to  engage  in  this  opposition,  were  de- 
nounced as  the  enemies  of  their  country.  This  dis- 
position was  not  confined  to  Massachusetts  alone ; 
but  the  same  spirit  appeared  in  all  the  colonies. 

Such  was  the  situation  of  affairs,  when  three  ships 
laden  with  tea,  arrived  at  the  port  of  Boston.  The 
captains  of  these  vessels,  alarmed  at  the  menaces  of 
the  people,  offered  to  return  with  their  cargoes  to 
England,  provided  they  could  obtain  the  necessary 
discharges  from  the  merchants,  to  whom  the  teas 
had  been  consigned  ;  and  likewise  from  the  gover- 
nor, and  the  officers  of  the  custom-house.  But 
though  afraid  to  issue  orders  for  landing  the  tea, 
the  merchants  and  officers,  in  conjunction  with 
the  governor,  refused  to  grant  the  discharges,  and 
the  ships  were  obliged  to  remain  in  the  harbour. 
The  people,  however,  apprehensive  that  the  ob- 
noxious commodity  would  be  landed  in  small  quan- 
tities, if  the  vessels  should  continue  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  the  town,  resolved  to  destroy  it  at  once.  For 
this  purpose,  several  persons  disguised  themselves 
as  Indians,  boarded  the  ships  during  the  night,  and 
threw  their  cargoes  into  the  water,  without  making 
any  further  disturbance.  No  fewer  than  142  chests 
were  thus  broken  open,  and  their  contents  emptied 
into  the  sea. 

At  Philadelphia,  the  pilots  were  enjoined  not  to 
conduct  the  ships  into  the  river:  and  at  New  York, 
though  the  governor  ordered  some  of  the  tea  to  be 
landed  under  the  protection  of  a  man-of-war,  he 
was  obliged  to  deliver  it  into  the  custody  of  the  peo- 
ple, who  took  care  that  none  of  it  should  be  sold. 

The  parliament  of  England  resolved  not  to  change 
their  measures,  but  to  punish  the  inhabitants  of 
Boston  in  an  exemplary  manner,  by  imposing  a 
fine  upon  them,  equal  to  the  value  of  the  tea  which 
bad  been  destroyed.  The  port  of  Boston  was  shut 
by  an  armed  force  until  this  should  be  accomplished, 
and  their  refractory  rpirit  subdued. 

An  act  was  also  passed,  giving  to  the  crown  the 
appointment  of  counsellors  ;  whereas,  it  had  resided 
with  the  court.  The  custom-house  was  to  be  re- 
moved to  Salem  ;  and  General  Gage  was  made  go- 
vernor in  the  place  of  Hutchinson. 

Gage  removed  the  assembly  from  Boston,  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, to  Salem.  Having  met  at  that  place, 
;hey  declared  it  necessary  that  a  congress  of  dele- 
gates, from  all  the  provinces,  should  assemble,  to 
,ake  the  affairs  of  the  colonies  into  their  most  serious 
consideration.  And  they  nominated  James  Bow- 
doin,  Thomas  Gushing,  Samuel  Adams,  John  Adams, 
Robert  Treat  Paine,  men  celebrated  for  their  talents 
and  opposition  to  England,  as  the  representatives  to 
such  a  congress,  from  Massachusetts.  They  recom- 
mended to  the  whole  province  to  abandon  the  use 
of  tea ;  and  urged  the  necessity  of  giving  all  the 
encouragement  in  their  power  to  the  manufactures 
f  America. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  governor  having  learned 


10.14 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


their  proceedings,  sent  an  officer  to  dissolve  the  as- 
sembly in  the  king's  name  ;  but  he  finding  the  door 
shut  and  entrance  denied  him,  was  compelled  to 
read  the  order  of  dissolution  aloud  on  the  staircase. 

The  inhabitants  of  Salem,  which  had  now  become 
the  metropolis  of  the  country,  appear  to  have 
adopted  the  same  spirit  with  those  of  Boston.  They 
published  a  declaration  in  favour  of  the  latter ;  in 
which  they  asserted,  that  nature,  in  forming  their 
harbour,  had  prevented  their  becoming  rivals  in 
trade ;  and  that  even  if  that  were  otherwise,  they 
would  regard  themselves  lost  to  every  idea  of  justice 
and  all  feelings  of  humanity,  could  they  indulge  one 
thought  of  seizing  upon  the  wealth  of  their  neigh- 
bours, or  raising  their  fortunes  upon  the  ruins  of 
their  countrymen. 

The  cause  of  Boston  was  espoused  by  the  rest  of 
the  colonies.  The  1st  of  June,  the  day  on  which 
the  city  was  to  be  blockaded  by  the  king's  ships, 
was  observed  in  Virginia  as  a  day  of  fasting  and  hu- 
miliation ;  and  a  public  intercession  in  behalf  of  the 
American  people,  was  enjoined  throughout  the  pro- 
vince. The  style  of  prayer  was,  "  That  God  would 
give  them  one  heart  and  mind,  firmly  to  oppose 
every  invasion  of  American  rights."  Virginia  united 
with  Massachusetts  in  recommending  a  general  con- 
gress. They  declared  if  any  one  of  the  colonies  was 
taxed  without  its  consent,  the  rights  of  the  whole 
were  violated;  and  that  in  the  present  case,  they 
regarded  the  injury  done  to  the  inhabitants  of  Bos"- 
ton  as  done  to  themselves. 

The  proposal  for  a  general  congress  had  now 
been  discussed,  and  was  approved,  and  eleven  of  the 
colonies  had  elected  their  delegates.  Georgia  had 
not  determined  to  unite  her  fate  with  that  of  New 
England;  and  North  Carolina  was  later  than  the 
others  in  acceding  to  the  measure. 

The  members  of  this  congress  were  generally 
elected  by  the  authority  of  the  state  legislatures ; 
but,  in  some  instances,  a  different  system  had  been 
pursued.  In  New  Jersey,  and  Maryland,  the  elec- 
tions were  made  by  a  committee  chosen  in  the  several 
counties  for  that  particular  purpose ;  and,  in  New 
York,  where  the  royal  party  was  very  strong,  and 
where  it  is  probable  no  legislative  act,  authorizing 
an  election  of  members  to  represent  that  colony  in 
congress,  could  have  been  obtained,  the  people  them- 
selves assembled  in  those  places  where  the  spirit  of 
opposition  to  the  claims  of  parliament  prevailed, 
and  elected  deputies,  who  were  readily  received  into 
congress.  The  powers,  too,  with  which  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  several  colonies  were  invested, 
were  not  only  variously  expressed  but  of  various  ex- 
tent. The  names  of  the  delegates  were  as  follows, 
viz. :  New  Hampshire, — John  Sullivan,  Nathaniel 
Fulsom.  Massachusetts  Bay, — James  Boudoine, 
Thomas  Gushing,  Samuel  Adams,  John  Adams, 
Robert  Treat  Paine.  Rhode  Island  and  Providence 
Plantations, — StephenHopkins,  Samuel  Ward.  Con- 
necticut,— Eliphalet  Dyer,  Roger  Sherman,  Silas 
Deane.  From  the  city  and  county  of  New  York, 
and  other  counties  in  the  province  of  New  York, 
— James  Duane,  Henry  Wisner,  John  Jay,  Philip 
Livingston,  Isaac  Low,  John  Alsop.  From  the 
county  of  Suffolk,  in  the  province  of  New  York, — 
William  Floyd.  New  Jersey, — James  Kinsey,  Wil- 
liam Livingston,  John  Dehart,  Stephen  Crane, 
Richard  Smith.  Pennsylvania, — Joseph  Galloway, 
Charles  Humphreys,  Samuel  Rhoads,  George  Ross, 
John  Morton,  Thomas  Mifflin,  Edward  Biddle,  John 
Dickinson.  Newcastle,  Kent,  and  Sussex,  on  De- 
laware,— Caesar  Rodney,  Thomas  McKean,  George 


Read.  Maryland, — Robert  Goldsborough,  Thomai 
Johnson,  William  Paca,  Samuel  Chase,  Matthew 
Tilghman.  Virginia, — Peyton  Randolph,  Richard 
Henry  Lee,  George  Washington,  Patrick  Henry, 
Richard  Bland,  Benjamin  Harrison,  Edmund  Pen- 
dleton.  North  Carolina, — William  Hooper,  Joseph 
Hughes,  Richard  Caswell.  South  Carolina, — Henry 
Middleton,  John  Rutledge,  Thomas  Lynch,  Chris- 
topher Gadsden,  Edward  Rutledge. 

Congress  gives  one  vote  to  each  colony — Bill  of  rights 
— Petition  to  the  King — Address  to  the  people  of 
England — Boston  Neck  fortified — Battle  of  Lexing- 
ton— Militia — Fort  Ticonderoga  captured — Crown 
Point  surprised. 

At  length  on  the  4th  of  September,  1774,  the  first 
congress  of  the  American  States  assembled  at  Phila- 
delphia. This  was  the  most  important  deliberative 
body  which  had  ever  met  in  America.  Peyton  Ran- 
dolph, Esq.  of  Virginia,  was  chosen  president  by 
the  unanimous  suffrage  of  the  delegates.  To  this 
august  body  of  citizens,  who  were  met  for  the  highest 
purposes  which  can  affect  the  temporal  interests  of 
men,  the  eyes  of  the  people  of  America  were  turned 
with  anxious  concern.  The  officers  and  dependents 
of  the  crown  looked  also  to  their  measures  with  the 
deepest  interest,  and  alarmed  at  the  calm  determined 
spirit  which  they  manifested,  dreaded  the  conse- 
quences of  their  deliberations. 

These  delegates,  having  resolved  that  each  colony 
should  have  only  one  vote,  and  that  their  delibera- 
tions should  take  place  without  the  admission  of 
strangers,  proceeded  to  the  high  duty  which  their 
countrymen  had  imposed  on  them. 

They  first  expressed  their  approbation  of  what 
had  been  done  by  the  inhabitants  of  Massachusetts 
Bay  ;  warmly  exhorted  them  to  perseverance  in  the 
cause  of  freedom;  and  voted  that  contributions 
should  be  made  for  them  in  all  the  provinces,  and 
continued  so  long,  and  in  such  a  manner  as  their 
circumstances  might  require. 

They  next  addressed  a  letter  to  General  Gage,  in 
which  they  informed  him  of  their  unalterable  resolu- 
tion to  oppose  every  attempt  to  carry  the  British 
acts  of  parliament  into  effect;  and  entreated  him 
to  desist  from  military  operations,  lest  a  difference, 
altogether  irreconcileable,  should  take  place  be- 
tween the  colonies  and  parent  state.  The  next  step 
was  a  declaration  of  their  rights,  addressed  to  the 
people  in  the  shape  of  resolutions.  This  instrument 
is  commonly  quoted  by  the  title  of  the  bill  of  rights; 
and  is  as  follows  :— 

"  Whereas,  since  the  close  of  the  last  war,  the 
British  parliament,  claiming  a  power  of  right  to 
bind  the  people  of  America  by  statutes  in  all  cases 
whatsoever,  hath  in  some  acts  expressly  imposed 
taxes  on  them ;  and  in  others,  under  various  pre- 
tences, but  in  fact  for  the  purpose  of  raising  a  re- 
venue, hath  imposed  rates  and  duties  payable  in 
these  colonies,  established  a  board  of  commissioners 
with  unconstitutional  powers,  and  extended  the  juris- 
diction of  courts  of  admiralty,  not  only  for  collecting 
the  said  duties,  but  for  the  trial  of  causes  merely 
arising  within  the  body  of  a  county. 

"  And  whereas,  in  consequence  of  other  statutes, 
judges,  who  before  held  only  estates  at  will  in  their 
offices,  have  been  made  dependent  on  the  crown 
alone  for  their  salaries,  and  standing  armies  kept  in 
times  of  peace  :  and  whereas  it  has  lately  been  re- 
solved in  parliament,  that  by  force  of  a  statute  made 
in  the  35th  year  of  the  reign  of  HenryVIL,  colonists 
may  be  transported  to  England  and  tried  there,  upon 


UNITED  STATES. 


accusations  for  treason,  and  misprisions  and  con- 
cealment of  treasons  committed  in  the  colonies ; 
and  by  a  late  statute,  such  trials  have  been  directed 
in  cases  therein  mentioned. 

"  And  whereas  in  the  last  session  of  parliament 
three  statutes  were  made ;  one  entitled  '  An  act  to 
discontinue  in  such  manner  and  for  such  time  as  are 
therein  mentioned,  the  landing  and  discharging, 
lading  or  shipping  of  goods,  wares  and  merchandise; 
at  the  town  and  within  the  harbour  of  Boston,  i-n  the 
province  of  Massachusetts  Bay  in  North  America;' 
another,  entitled  '  An  act  for  the  better  regulating 
the  government  of  the  province  of  Massachusetts 
Bay  in  New  England  ;'  and  another  act,  entitled 
'  An  act  for  the  impartial  administration  of  justice 
in  the  cases  of  persons  questioned  for  any  act  done 
by  them  in  the  execution  of  the  law,  or  for  the  sup- 
pression of  riots  and  tumults  in  the  province  of  Mas- 
sachusetts Bay  in  New  England :'  and  another 
statute  was  then  made  for  making  more  effectual 
provision  for  the  government  of  the  province  of  Que- 
bec, &<:.  All  which  statutes  are  impolitic,  unjust 
and  cruel,  as  well  as  unconstitutional,  and  most 
dangerous  and  destructive  of  American  rights. 

"  Andwhereas. assemblies  have  been  frequently  dis- 
solved, contrary  to  the  rights  of  the  people,  when 
they  attempted  to  deliberate  on  grievances ;  and 
their  dutiful,  humble,  loyal  and  reasonable  petitions 
to  the  crown  for  redress,  have  been  repeatedly  treated 
with  contempt  by  his  majesty's  ministers  of  state  : 
the  good  people  of  the  several  colonies  of  New 
Hampshire,  Massachusetts  Bay,  Rhode  Island  and 
Providence  Plantations,  Connecticut,  New  York, 
New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Newcastle,  Kent  and 
Sussex  on  Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  North 
Carolina,  South  Carolina, — justly  alarmed  at  the 
arbitrary  proceedings  of  parliament  and  administra- 
tions, have  severally  elected,  constituted  and  ap- 
pointed deputies  to  meet  and  sit  in  general  congress, 
in  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  in  order  to  obtain  such 
establishment,  as  that  their  religion,  laws  and  liber- 
ties may  not  be  subverted  :  whereupon,  the  depu- 
ties so  appointed  being  now  assembled  in  a  full  and 
free  representation  of  these  colonies,  taking  into 
their  most  serious  consideration  the  best  means  of 
attaining  the  ends  aforesaid,  do  in  the  first  place, 
as  Englishmen  their  ancestors  in  like  cases  have 
usually  done  for  asserting  and  vindicating  their 
rights  and  liberties,  declare,  that  the  inhabitants  of 
the  English  colonies  in  North  America,  by  the  im- 
mutable laws  of  nature,  the  principles  of  the  En- 
glish constitution,  and  the  several  charters  or  com- 
pacts, have  the  following  rights  : — 

"  Resolved  unanimously, -— 1  st,  That  they  are 
entitled  to  life,  liberty  and  property  ;  and  they  have 
never  ceded  to  any  sovereign  whatsoever,  a  right  to 
dispose  of  either  without  their  consent. 

"  Resolved, — 2nd,  That  our  ancestors,  who  first 
settled  these  colonies,  were,  at  the  time  of  their  emi- 
gration from  the  mother- country,  entitled  to  all  the 
rights,  liberties  and  immunities  of  free  and  natural 
born  subjects  within  the  realm  of  England. 

"  Resolved, — 3rd,  That  by  such  emigration,  they 
by  no  means  forfeited,surrendered  or  lost  any  of  those 
rights,  but  that  they  were,  and  their  descendants 
now  are,  entitled  to  the  exercise  and  enjoyment  of 
all  such  of  them  as  their  local  and  other  circum- 
stances enabled  them  to  exercise  and  enjoy. 

"  Resolved, — 4th,  That  the  foundation  of  English 
liberty,  and  of  all  free  government,  is  a  right  in  the 
people  to  participate  in  their  legislative  councils  ; 
and  as  the  English  colonists  are  not  represented, 


and  from  their  local  and  other  circumstances,  can- 
not properly  be  represented  in  the  British  parlia- 
ment, they  are  entitled  to  a  free  and  exclusive  power 
of  legislation  in  their  several  provincial  legislatures, 
where  their  right  of  representation  can  alone  be  pre- 
served in  all  cases  of  taxation  and  internal  polity, 
subject  only  to  the  negative  of  their  sovereign  in 
such  manner  as  has  been  heretofore  used  and  ac- 
customed ;  but  from  the  necessity  of  the  case,  and 
a  regard  to  the  mutual  interests  of  both  countries, 
we  cheerfully  consent  to  the  operation  of  such  acts 
of  the  British  parliament  as  are  bona  fide  restrained 
to  the  regulation  of  our  external  commerce,  for  the 
purpose  of  securing  the  commercial  advantages  of 
the  whole  empire  to  the  mother-country,  and  the 
commercial  benefits  of  its  respective  members ;  ex- 
cluding every  idea  of  taxation,  external  or  internal, 
for  raising  a  revenue  on  the  subjects  of  America, 
without  their  consent. 

"  Resolved, — 5th,  That  the  respective  colonies  are 
entitled  to  the  common  law  of  England,  and  more 
especially  to  the  great  and  inestimable  privilege  of 
being  tried  by  their  peers  of  the  vicinage,  according 
to  the  course  of  that  law. 

"  Resolved, — Gth,  That  they  are  entitled  to  the 
benefit  of  such  of  the  English  statutes,  as  existed  at 
the  time  of  their  oolonization  ;  and  which  they  have, 
by  experience,  respectively  found  to  be  applicable 
to  their  several  local  and  other  circumstances. 

"  Resolved, — 7th,  That  these,  his  majesty's  colonies 
are  likewise  entitled  to  all  the  privileges  and  immu- 
nities granted  and  confirmed  to  them  by  royal  char- 
ters, or  secured  by  their  several  codes  of  provincial 
laws. 

"  Resolved, — 8th,  That  they  have  a  right  peaceably 
to  assemble,  consider  of  their  grievances,  and  peti- 
tion the  king  ;  and  that  all  prosecutions,  prohibitory 
proclamations,  and  commitments,  for  the  same,  are 
illegal. 

"  Resolved, — 9th,  That  the  keeping  a  standing 
army  in  these  colonies  in  times  of  peace,  without  the 
consent  of  the  legislature  of  that  colony  in  which 
such  army  is  kept,  is  against  law. 

"  Resolved, — 10th,  It  is  indispensably  necessary 
to  good  government,  and  rendered  essential  by  the 
English  constitution,  that  the  constituent  branches 
of  the  legislature  be  independent  of  each  other;  that, 
therefore,  the  exercise  of  legislative  power  in  several 
colonies,  by  a  council  appointed  during  pleasure  by 
the  crown,  is  unconstitutional,  dangerous,  and  de- 
structive to  the  freedom  of  American  legislation. 

"  All  and  each  of  which  the  aforesaid  deputies  in 
behalf  of  themselves  and  their  constituents,  do  claim, 
demand,  and  insist  on,  as  their  indubitable  rights 
and  liberties,  which  cannot  be  legally  taken  from 
them,  altered,  or  abridged  by  any  power  whatever, 
without  their  own  consent,  by  their  representatives 
in  their  several  provincial  legislatures.  In  the  course 
of  our  inquiry  we  find  many  infringements  and  vio- 
lations of  the  foregoing  rights,  which,  from  an  ardent 
desire  that  harmony  and  mutual  intercourse  of  affec- 
tion and  interest  may  be  restored,  we  pass  over  for 
the  present,  and  proceed  to  state  such  acts  and  mea- 
sures as  have  been  adopted  since  the  last  war/  which 
demonstrate  a  system  formed  to  enslave  America." 

A  committee  was  next  appointed,  who  drew  a 
petition  to  the  king,  stating  the  grievances  under 
which  they  had  laboured  ; — grievances,  which  they 
said  were  the  more  intolerable,  as  the  colonies  were 
born  the  heirs  of  freedom,  and  had  long  enjoyed  ii 
under  the  auspices  of  former  sovereigns  ;  and  stating 
also,  that  they  had  wished  for  no  diminution  of  the 


I03G 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


prerogative,  and  no  privileges  or  immunities,  except 
those  which  were  their  rightful  inheritance  as  the 
subjects  of  Great  Britain; — concluding  the  whole 
with  an  earnest  prayer,  that  his  majesty,  as  the 
father  of  his  people,  would  not  permit  the  ties  of 
blood,  of  law,  and  of  loyalty  to  be  broken,  in  ex- 
pectation of  consequences,  which,  if  they  ever  took 
place,  would  never  compensate  for  the  suffering  to 
which  they  must  give  rise. 

The  committee  who  brought  in  this  address,  were 
Mr.  Lee,  Mr.  John  Adams,  Mr.  Johnston,  Mr. 
Henry,  and  Mr.  Rutledge.  The  original  composi- 
tion has  been  generally  attributed  to  Mr.  Lee. 

The  petition  to  the  king  was  followed  by  an  ad- 
dress to  the  people  of  England,  conceived  with  great 
vigour,  and  expressed  in  the  most  energetic  language. 
"  Be  not  surprised,"  they  say,  "  that  we  who  are 
descended  from  the  same  common  ancestors, — that 
we,  whose  forefathers  participated  in  the  rights,  the 
liberties,  and  the  constitution  you  so  justly  boast  of, 
and  who  have  carefully  conveyed  the  same  fair  in- 
heritance to  us,  guarantied  by  the  plighted  faith  of 
government  and  the  most  solemn  compact  with 
British  sovereigns, — should  refuse  to  surrender  them 
to  meu,  who  found  their  claims  on  no  principles  of 
reason,  and  who  prosecute  them  with  a  design,  that 
by  having  their  lives  and  property  in  their  power, 
they  may  with  the  greater  facility  enslave  you.  Are 
not,"  they  ask,  "  the  proprietors  of  the  soil  of  Great 
Britain,  lords  of  their  own  property  ?  Can  it  be 
taken  from  them  without  their  consent  ?  Will  they 
yield  it  to  the  arbitrary  disposal  of  any  man,  or 
number  of  men,  whatever  ?  You  know  they  will 
not.  Why,  then,  are  the  proprietors  of  America 
less  lords  of  their  property  than  you  are  of  yours  ? 
or  why  should  they  submit  it  to  the  disposal  of  your 
parliament,  or  council,  or  any  other  parliament  in 
the  world,  not  of  their  own  election  ?  Can  the  in- 
tervention of  the  sea  that  divides  us,  cause  disparity 
of  rights  ?  or  can  any  reason  be  given,  why  English 
subjects  who  live  3000  miles  from  the  royal  palace, 
should  enjoy  less  liberty  than  those  who  are  300 
miles  from  it  ?" 

The  committee  who  prepared  this  eloquent  and 
manly  address,  were  Mr.  Lee,  Mr.  Livingston,  and 
Mr.  Jay,  who  also  prepared  the  memorial  to  their 
constituents ;  the  composition  has  generally  been 
attributed  to  Mr.  Jay. 

This  address  was  followed  by  a  memorial  to  their 
constituents.  They  applauded  them  for  the  spirit 
which  they  had  shown  in  defence  of  their  rights ; 
enjoined  them  to  persevere  in  abstaining  from  the 
use  of  every  thing  manufactured  or  prepared  in  Eng- 
land ;  and  hinted  at  the  necessity  of  looking  forward 
to  melancholy  events,  and  being  ready  for  any  con- 
tingency that  might  take  place. 

The  inclinations  of  the  people  were  in  exact  ac- 
cordance with  the  decision  of  the  congress.  The 
inhabitants  of  Boston  were  supplied  by  contributions 
from  all  quarters.  Even  those,  who  by  their  station 
seemed  likely  to  derive  advantage  from  the  cessa- 
tion of  their  trade,  were  most  forward  to  relieve 
them  in  their  distress.  The  people  of  Marblehead, 
a  town  at  no  great  distance,  generously  offered  them 
the  use  of  their  harbour,  their  wharfs,  and  ware- 
houses, free  of  all  expense.  Every  one  who  could 
procure  arms  was  diligent  in  learning  their  use. 

Complete  unanimity,  however,  did  not  exist.  Some 
of  the  late  emigrants,  on  whom  England  had  be- 
stowed offices,  and  many  who  feared  her  power, 
clung  to  her  authority,  and  declared  themselves  her 
adherents.  Whigs  and  Tories  were  the  distinguish- 


ing names  of  the  parties.  The  former  favoured  the 
cause  of  the  colonists;  the  latter  that  of  Great 
Britain. 

In  the  mean  time,  many  British  troops  having 
assembled  at  Boston,  General  Gage  thought  it  pru- 
dent to  fortify  the  neck  of  land  that  joins  that  city 
to  the  continent.  He  also  seized  the  magazines  of 
gunpowder,  ammunition,  and  military  stores  at 
Cambridge  and  Charlestown 

An  assembly  was  called,  and  its  sittings  immedi- 
ately countermanded  ;  but  the  representatives  met 
at  Salem,  notwithstanding  the  proclamation  of  the 
governor ;  and  after  waiting  a  day  for  his  arrival, 
they  voted  themselves  "  a  provincial  congress,"  and 
adjourned  to  Concord.  Mr.  Hancock  was  chosen, 
president :  and  the  delegates  resolved,  that  for  the 
defence  of  the  province,  a  military  force,  to  consist 
of  one-fourth  of  the  militia,  should  be  organized,  and 
stand  ready  to  march  at  a  minute's  warning ;  and 
that  money  should  be  raised  to  purchase  military 
stores.  They  appointed  a  committee  of  safety  to 
sit  during  the  recess. 

The  more  southern  provinces,  particularly  Penn- 
sylvania, Virginia  and  Maryland,  displayed  the 
same  determination  to  resist,  and  passed  resolutions 
designed  to  animate  those  who,  in  Massachusetts, 
stood  in  the  post  of  danger. 

General  Gage  having  received  intelligence  that  a 
number  of  field -pieces  were  collected  at  Salem,  dis- 
patched a  party  of  soldiers  to  take  possession  of 
them,  in  the  name  of  the  king.  The  people,  how- 
ever, assembling  in  great  numbers,  prevented  the 
military  from  advancing  to  the  town,  by  pulling  up 
a  draw-bridge,  which  it  was  necessary  for  them  to 
pass ;  and  they  returned  to  the  governor,  without 
accomplishing  their  purpose. 

The  next  attempt  was  followed  by  more  interesting 
consequences.  The  provincials  had  deposited  a  large 
quantity  of  ammunition  and  stores  at  Concord,  about 
twenty  miles  from  Boston ;  these  General  Gage 
resolved  to  seize  or  destroy;  and  with  that  view,  on 
the  18th  of  April,  1775,  he  sent  a  detachment  of 
800  men,  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Smith,  and 
Major  Pitcairn,  ordering  them  to  proceed  with  the 
utmost  expedition,  and  with  all  possible  secrecy. 

Notwithstanding  his  care,  and  the  alacrity  of  the 
soldiers,  the  provincials  had  notice  of  his  design ; 
and  when  the  British  troops  arrived  at  Lexington, 
within  five  miles  of  Concord,  the  militia  of  the  place 
were  drawn  up  on  the  parade,  and  ready  to  receive 
them.  The  advanced  body  of  the  regulars  approached 
within  musket-shot,  when  Major  Pitcairn,  riding 
forward,  exclaimed,  "  Disperse,  you  rebels  ! — throv 
down  your  arms  and  disperse."  Not  being  instantly 
obeyed,  he  discharged  his  pistol,  and  ordered  his 
men  to  fire.  They  fired  and  killed  eight  men.  The 
militia  dispersed,  but  the  firing  continued.  The 
detachment  then  proceeded  to  Concord,  destroyed 
and  took  possession  of  the  stores  which  were  there. 
Having  effected  their  purpose,  the  military  began 
to  retire  ;  but  the  colonists,  pressing  upon  them  on 
all  sides,  they  retreated  to  Lexington,  where  they 
met  Lord  Percy,  with  a  reinforcement  of  900  men. 
In  consequence  of  this,  they  quitted  Lexington,  and 
continued  their  march  towards  Boston,  which  they 
reached  the  day  after,  though  not  without  frequent 
interruption,  and  very  great  difficulty.  The  Ameri- 
cans being  acquainted  with  the  grounds,  while  the 
British  were  not,  possessed  a  great  advantage, 
which  they  improved  to  the  utmost  in  harassing 
their  retreat.  From  every  place  of  concealment, — 
a  stone  fence,  a  cluster  of  bushes,  or  a  barn,  the  con 


UNITED  STATES. 


IU37 


cealed  provincials  poured  upon  them  a  destructive 
Hre.  At  sun-set,  almost  overcome  with  fatigue,  they 
passed  Charlestown  Neck,  and  found  on  Bunker's 
Hill  a  place  of  security  and  repose.  There,  under 
the  protection  of  a  man-of-war,  they  passed  the  night, 
and  the  next  morning  went  to  Boston. 

The  affair  of  Lexington,  where  the  first  blood  was 
spilled,  has  justly  been  considered  as  the  commence- 
ment of  the  American  war.  In  the  retreat  from 
that  place,  the  British  lost  273  killed,  wounded,  and 
missing ;  and  the  provincials  88. 

The  intelligence  of  the  battle  of  Lexington  spread 
ing  rapidly  through  the  colonies,  caused  a  deep  sen- 
sation. Through  all  the  country  the  cry  was,  "  to 
arms."  An  army  of  20,000  men  soon  collected  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Boston.  General  Gage  had, 
however,  fortified  the  town  so  strongly,  that,  nume- 
rous as  they  were,  the  provincials  durst  not  attempt 
it  by  assault.  On  the  other  hand,  the  governor  was 
too  weak  to  contend  with  them  in  the  field. 

The  possession  of  Ticonderoga  and  Crown  Point, 
on  which  depended  the  command  of  lakes  George 
and  Champlain,was  an  object  of  essential  importance. 
Accordingly,  some  gentlemen  of  Connecticut  bor- 
rowed on  their  individual  credit  1,800  dollars  from 
the  legislature  of  the  colony,  tc  enable  them  to  un- 
dertake the  enterprise.  As  success  depended  on 
secrecy  and  dispatch,  they  resolved  not  to  wait  to 
receive  the  sanction  of  congress,  in  the  confidence 
that  the  number  of  men  necessary  for  the  expedition, 
might  be  raised  among  the  hardy  mountaineers,  in- 
habiting the  country  that  bordered  the  lakes.  About 
40  volunteers  set  out  from  Connecticut,  towards 
Benningtou,  where  the  authors  of  the  expedition 
proposed  meeting  with  Colonel  Ethan  Allen ;  and 
engaging  him  to  head  their  enterprise,  Colonel 
Allen  readily  entered  into  their  views,  and  met  them 
with  230  Vermont  volunteers,  at  Castleton.  The 
next  day,  he  was  joined  by  Benedict  Arnold,  of 
Connecticut,  who  upon  the  first  alarm  had  repaired 
to  Boston  ;  and  having  conceived  the  same  project, 
had  been  authorized  by  the  committee  of  safety  in 
Massachusetts,  to  undertake  it. 

They  reached  lake  Champlain,  opposite  Ticonde- 
roga, on  the  9th  of  May.  Arnold  and  Allen  em- 
barked with  the  first  body  of  troops,  consisting  of 
83  men,  landed  at  dawn  of  day,  and  completely  sur- 
prised the  fortress.  The  approach  of  a  hostile  force 
was  so  unexpected  to  De  la  Place,  the  commander, 
that  he  knew  not  from  what  quarter  they  were,  and 
when  summoned  to  surrender,  he  demanded  by  what 
authority.  "  In  the  name  of  the  great  Jehovah  and 
the  Continental  Congress,"  said  Allen.  De  la  Place 
was  incapable  of  making  any  resistance,  and  deli- 
vered up  the  garrison,  which  consisted  of  only  three 
officers  and  44  privates. 

The  remainder  of  the  troops  having  landed,  Co- 
lonel Seth  Warner  was  dispatched  with  a  small  party 
against  Crown  Point,  and  took  possession  of  it  with- 
out opposition.  Arnold,  having  manned  and  armed 
a  small  schooner,  found  in  South  Bay,  captured  a 
sloop-of-war  lying  at  the  outlet  of  the  lake.  The 
pass  of  Skeensborough  was  seized  at  the  same  time 
by  a  detachment  of  volunteers  from  Connecticut. 

Thus  were  obtained  without  bloodshed,  these  im- 
portant posts,  and  the  command  of  the  lakes  on 
which  they  stood,  together  with  100  pieces  of  can- 
non, and  other  munitions  of  war.  The  successes 
with  which  this  expedition  was  crowned,  greatly- 
tended  to  raise  the  confidence  which  the  Americans 
felt  in  themselves. 


Second  Meeting  of  Congress. — British  Troops  arrive. 
——Fortifications  on  Breed's  Hill. — Conflict  with  the 
British.— Washington  elected  Commander-in-chief. 
— Georgia  joins  the  Confederacy. — First  Line  of 
Posts. 

(1775.)  The  continental  congress  assembled  at 
Philadelphia  on  the  10th  of  May,  and  Mr.  Hand- 
cock  was  chosen  president.  Though  the  delegates 
were  all  animated  with  a  determined  spirit  of  oppo- 
sition to  parliamentary  taxation,  it  was  the  prevail- 
ing sentiment  in  the  middle  and  southern  colonies, 
that  a  reconciliation  with  England  might  still  be 
effected.  For  this  object  it  was  determined  to  ad- 
dress once  more  a  humble  and  dutiful  petition  to  the 
king;  but  as  no  great  confidence  could  be  placed  in 
its  success,  it  was  unanimously  determined  to  put 
the  country  in  a  state  of  defence  Bills  of  credit, 
drawn  upon  government,  and  not  payable  at  any 
definite  period,  to  the  amount  of  3,000,000  dollars, 
were  issued  for  defraying  the  expenses  of  the  war ; 
and  a  cessation  of  the  exportation  of  all  provisions  to 
those  colonies  which  had  not  deputed  members  to 
congress,  was  unanimously  determined  on. 

The  middle  and  southern  colonies,  though  not  as 
forward  as  the  northern,  were  every  where  preparing 
for  hostilities,  and  the  royal  government  was  in  all 
of  them  laid  aside. 

In  Virginia,  Lord  Dunmore,  the  governor,  seized 
by  night  some  powder  at  Williamsburg,  belonging 
to  the  colony,  and  conveyed  it  on  board  the  Fowey, 
a  British  ship-of-war,  in  James  river,  at  Yorktown. 
This  act  of  the  governor's  was  condemned  by  several 
counties,  and  Patrick  Henry,  at  the  head  of  the  in- 
dependent, companies  in  his  vicinity,  marched  to- 
wards the  seat  of  government,  with  the  avowed  pur- 
pose of  obtaining  by  force,  restitution  of  the  powder, 
or  an  equivalent  value.  He  was  met  by  a  messen- 
ger who  paid  him  the  value  of  the  powder,  when  he 
and  his  party  returned  to  their  homes. 

Lord  Dunmore  fortified  his  palace,  but  soon  after, 
apprehending  personal  danger,  he  retired  on  board 
the  Fowey,  then  lying  at  Yorktown,  from  which  he 
issued  his  proclamation,  making  charges  of  illegal 
practices  against  Henry  and  his  associates  in  the 
affair  of  the  powder,  which  highly  offended  the  peo- 
ple, with  whom  this  measure  of  their  favourite  leader 
was  particularly  popular. 

In  North  Carolina,  Governor  Martin  was  obliged 
to  take  refuge  on  board  a  ship-of-war  in  Cape  Fear 
river. 

South  Carolina  had  always  resisted  parliamentary 
taxation,  and  the  governor,  Lord  William  Campbell, 
sought  personal  safety  by  retiring  from  the  province. 
New  York  contained  many  advocates  for  freedom; 
yet  such  was  the  affection  of  some  for  the  royal 
cause,  that  they  declined  choosing  delegates  to  con- 
gress in  May  1775  ;  but  the  majority  were  actuated 
by  different  feelings.  Accordingly,  a  convention 
was  chosen  for  the  sole  purpose  of  electing  members, 
who  should  represent  that  province  in  the  grand 
council  of  the  colonies. 

About  the  latter  end  of  May,  the  British  army  in 
Boston,  receiving  a  powerful  reinforcement  from 
England,  under  Generals  Howe,  Clinton,  and  Bout- 
goyne,  martial  law  was  proclaimed,  and  pardoix 
offered  to  all  who  would  return  to  their  allegiance 
except  Samuel  Adams  and  John  Hancock  ;  but  this,' 
like  every  other  measure  designed  to  intimidate  or 
divide,  served  only  to  unite  the  Americans  in  one 
common  feeling  of  indignation,  and  consequently 
increase  their  courage  and  activity. 


1038 


THE  HISTORY  OF   AMERICA. 


The  movements  of  the  British  army  excited  an 
apprehension  that  General  Gage  intended  to  pene- 
trate into  the  country.  It  was  therefore  recom- 
mended by  the  provincial  Congress  to  the  council 
of  war,  to  take  effectual  measures  to  annoy  them  in 
their  present  situation. 

For  this  purpose  a  detachment  of  1000  men,  under 
Colonel  Prescott,  was  ordered  on  the  night  of  the 
16th  of  June,  1775,  to  throw  up  a  breastwork  on 
Bunker's  Hill,  near  Charlestown.  By  some  mis- 
take, the  troops  intrenched  themselves  on  Breed's 
Hill,  nearer  to  Boston.  They  proceeded  with  such 
silence  and  activity,  that  by  return  of  light  they  had 
nearly  completed  a  strong  redoubt,  without  being 
discovered.  At  the  dawn  of  the  morning,  however, 
the  British,  discovering  the  advance  of  the  Ameri- 
cans, commenced  a  severe  cannonade  from  the 
ships  in  the  river.  But  this  not  interrupting  the 
Americans,  a  body  of  about  3000  men  under  Gene- 
rals Howe  and  Pigot,  left  Boston  in  boats,  and 
landed  under  the  protection  of  the  shipping  in 
Charlestown,  at  the  extreme  point  of  the  peninsula, 
and  advanced  against  the  Americans.  Generals 
Clinton  and  Burgoyne  took  their  station  on  an  emi- 
nence in  Boston,  commanding  a  distinct  view  of  the 
hill.  The  spires  of  the  churches,  the  roofs  of  the 
houses,  and  every  height  which  commanded  a  view 
of  the  battle  ground,  were  covered  with  spectators, 
taking  deep  and  opposite  interests  in  the  conflict. 
The  Americans  waited  in  silence  the  approach  of 
their  enemy,  until  they  were  within  ten  rods  of  the 
redoubt.  Then  taking  a  steady  aim,  and  having 
advantage  of  the  ground,  they  poured  upon  them  a 
deadly  fire.  The  British  were  thrown  into  confu- 
sion, and  many  of  their  officers  were  killed.  They 
were  twice  repulsed,  yet  they  again  rallied,  and  ad- 
vanced towards  the  fortifications.  The  redoubt  was 
attacked  on  three  sides  at  once.  The  ammunition 
of  the  colonists  began  to  fail.  In  this  situation 
courage  was  no  longer  of  any  avail,  and  Colonel 
Prescott,  who  commanded  the  redoubt,  ordered  a 
retreat.  They  were  obliged  to  pass  Charlestown 
Neck,  where  they  were  exposed  to  a  galling  fire 
from  the  ships  in  the  harbour. 

During  the  engagement,  the  town  of  Charlestown, 
which  is  separated  from  Boston  by  a  narrow  sheet  of 
water,  was  set  on  fire,  and  the  houses  being  chiefly 
wood,  the  whole  town  was  soon  reduced  to  ashes. 

In  this  engagement,  3000  men,  composing  the 
flower  of  the  British  army,  were  engaged,  and  high 
encomiums  were  bestowed  on  the  resolution  they 
manifested.  Their  killed  and  wounded  amounted 
to  1054.  Notwithstanding  the  danger  of  their  re- 
treat over  Charlestown  Neck,  the  loss  of  the  Ameri- 
cans was  only  450  men.  Among  the  killed  was 
General  Joseph  Warren,  a  gentleman  greatly  be- 
loved and  regretted.  Although  the  ground  was  lost, 
the  Americans  claimed  the  victory ;  and  it  was  uni- 
versally asked  how  many  more  such  triumphs  the 
British  army  could  afford?  The  boldness  with 
which  the  undisciplined  troops  of  the  colonies  so 
long  withstood  the  charges  of  the  regulars,  increased 
their  confidencfl,  and  convinced  the  English  that 
they  had  to  contend  with  a  resolute  foe. 

In  the  midst  of  these  military  transactions,  the 
continental  congress  assembled  at  Philadelphia.  It 
comprised  delegates  from  twelve  colonies;  all  of 
whom  were  animated  with  a  determined  spirit  of 
opposition  to  parliamentary  taxation.  Mr.  Hancock, 
the  proscribed  patriot,  was  again  chosen  president. 
Congress  proceeded  to  the  choice  of  officers  to  com- 
mand their  united  forces.  The  northern  delegates 


determined  to  give  their  suffrages  for  commander- 
in-chief,  to  a  person  residing  in  the  southern  pro- 
vinces; in  orcier  to  interest  that  section  of  the  union 
more  warmly  in  the  cause  of  resistance.  On  the 
15th  of  June,  two  days  previous  to  the  battle  of 
Bunker's  Hill,  by  unanimous  vote  of  congress, 
George  Washington,  then  present  as  a  delegate  from 
Virginia,  was  elected  to  that  important  station. 

He  had  been  elected  a  member  of  the  first  grand 
congress  at  Philadelphia,  where  his  example  and 
influence  produced  very  considerable  effects ;  and 
now  that  the  situation  of  the  provincials  called  for 
a  man  of  tried  firmness  and  approved  judgment,  he 
was  unanimously  elected  "  general  and  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  army  of  the  united  colonies."  When 
his  appointment  was  intimated  to  him  by  the  presi- 
dent of  the  congress,  he  modestly  observed  that  he 
was  not  equal  to  the  duties  of  the  station  to  which 
their  partiality  had  raised  him ;  but  he  declared  at 
the  same  time,  that  he  was  ready  to  exert  whatever 
talent  he  might  have  in  the  service  of  his  country. 

Artemas  Ward  of  Massachusetts,  Colonel  Lee, 
formerly  a  British  officer,  Philip  Schuyler  of  New 
York,  and  Israel  Putnam,  then  before  Boston,  were 
at  the  same  time  appointed  to  the  rank  of  Major- 
generals;  and  Horatio  Gates  to  that  of  Adjutant- 
general. 

Soon  after  his  election,  Washington  set  out  for 
the  camp  at  Cambridge.  He  found  the  American 
army,  consisting  of  14,000  men,  posted  on  the  heights 
around  Boston,  forming  a  line  which  extended  from 
Roxbury  on  the  right,  to  the  river  Mystic  on  the 
left,  a  distance  of  twelve  miles.  The  British  forces 
occupied  Bunker's  and  Breed's  Hill,  and  Boston 
Neck.  This  disposition  of  the  troops  greatly  dis- 
tressed the  British,  who  were  confined  to  Boston, 
and  often  obliged  to  risk  their  lives  to  obtain  the 
means  of  sustenance. 

General  Washington  found  the  colonists  ani- 
mated with  great  zeal,  and  prepared  to  follow  him 
in  the  most  desperate  undertakings:  but  he  soon 
perceived  that  they  were  unacquainted  with  subor- 
dination, and  strangers  to  military  discipline.  The 
spirit  of  liberty  which  had  brought  them  together, 
showed  itself  in  all  their  actions.  In  the  province 
of  Massachusetts  the  officers  had  been  chosen  by  the 
votes  of  the  soldiers,  and  felt  themselves  in  no  de- 
gree superior  to  them.  The  congressional  and  co- 
lonial authorities  likewise  interfered  with  each  other. 
The  troops  were  scantily  supplied  with  arms  and 
ammunition,  and  all  their  operations  were  retarded 
by  the  want  of  engineers.  These  difficulties  were 
in  a  great  measure  overcome  by  the  talents  and 
perseverance  of  Washington.  He  formed  the  sol- 
diers into  brigades,  and  accustomed  them  to  obe- 
dience :  he  requested  the  congress  to  nominate  a 
commissary-general  and  paymaster-general,  which 
officers  they  had  neglected  to  appoint.  A  number 
of  the  most  active  men  were  constantly  employed  in 
learning  to  manage  the  artillery;  and  such  were 
the  efforts  of  the  commander-in-chief,  that  in  a  short 
time  the  army  was  organized,  and  fit  for  service. 

In  the  meantime  a  solemn,  dignified  declaration, 
in  the  form  of  a  manifesto,  setting  forth  the  causes 
and  necessity  of  the  war,  was  prepared  by  congress, 
to  be  published  to  the  world. 

In  July,  Georgia  entered  into  the  opposition 
made  to  the  claims  of  the  British  parliament  to  tax 
America,and  chose  delegates  to  congress ;  after  which, 
the  style  of  "  the  Thirteen  United  Colonies"  was  as- 
sumed, and,  by  that  title  the  English  provinces  con- 
federated and  in  arms,  were  thenceforth  designated. 


UNITED  STATES. 


1039 


During  this  session  of  congress  also,  the  first  line 
of  posts  for  the  communication  of  intelligence  through 
the  United  States,  was  established.  Benjamin 
Franklin  was  appointed,  by  an  unanimous  vote, 
postmaster-general,  with  power  to  appoint  as  many 
deputies  as  he  might  deem  proper  and  necessary, 
for  the  conveyance  of  the  mail  from  Falmouth,  in 
New  England,  to  Savannah,  in  Georgia. 

Americans  send  two  parties  against  Canada — Montgo- 
mery invests  St.  John's — Colonel  Allen  makes  an  at- 
tempt on  Montreal — He  is  taken  prisoner — Mont- 
gomery takes  St.  John's — And  Montreal — Proceeds 
to  Quebec — Arnold  arrives  at  Point  Lei'i — Attempts 
to  surprise  Quebec — Montgomery  arrives — Quebec 
assaulted — Montgomery  killed — Arnold  wounded — 
Part  of  the  assailants  surrender — Arnold  blockades 
Quebec. 

(1775.)  While  the  British  army  was  closely  block- 
aded in  Boston,  without  the  power  of  annoying  the 
surrounding  country,  congress  conceived  the  design 
of  sending  a  force  into  Canada  Two  expeditions 
were  accordingly  organized  and  dispatched,  one  by 
the  way  of  Champlain,  under  General  Schuyler  of 
New  York,  the  other  by  the  way  of  the  river  Ken- 
nebeck,  under  the  command  of  Arnold.  General 
Lee,  with  1200  volunteers  from  Connecticut,  was 
also  directed  to  repair  to  New  York,  and  with  the 
aid  of  the  inhabitants,  fortify  the  city,  and  the 
highlands  on  the  Hudson  river. 

In  pursuance  of  the  plan  of  guarding  the  northern 
frontier  by  taking  Canada,  Generals  Schuyler  and 
Montgomery,  with  two  regiments  of  New  York  mi- 
litia, and  a  body  of  New  England  men,  amounting 
in  the  whole  to  about  2000,  were  ordered  to  move 
towards  Ticonderoga,  which  had  remained  in  pos- 
session of  the  Americans  since  the  expedition  of 
Colonels  Arnold  and  Allen. 

Brigadier-general  Montgomery  was  ordered  to 
proceed  in  advance,  with  the  troops  then  in  readi- 
dess,  and  lay  siege  to  St.  John's,  the  first  British 
post  in  Canada,  about  150  miles  north  of  Ticonde- 
roga. General  Schuyler  soon  followed,  and  on 
arriving  at  the  Isle  aux  Noix,  twelve  miles  south  of 
St.  John's,  sent  circular  letters  to  the  Canadians, 
exhorting  them  to  arouse  and  assert  their  liberties, 
declaring  that  the  Americans  entered  their  country 
as  friends  and  protectors,  not  as  enemies.  The  in- 
telligence received  of  the  situation  of  St.  John's,  de- 
termined them  to  wait  at  the  Isle  aux  Noix,  for 
their  remaining-  troops  and  artillery.  Gen.  Schuyler 
returned  to  Albany  to  hasten  their  departure ;  and 
being  prevented  from  again  joining  the  army,  the 
chief  command  devolved  on  Montgomery.  On  re- 
ceiving the  reinforcement  he  invested  St.  John's ; 
but  being  almost  destitute  of  battering  cannon  and 
of  powder,  he  made  no  progress  in  the  siege. 

Colonel  Allen,  the  hero  of  Ticonderoga,  had  a 
command  under  General  Montgomery ;  and  was  sent 
by  him  with  about  80  men,  to  secure  a  party  of 
hostile  Indians.  Colonel  Allen  having  effected  his 
object,  was  returning  to  head-quarters,  when  he  was 
met  by  Major  Brown,  who,  with  a  party,  had  been 
on  a  tour  into  the  country,  to  observe  the  disposi- 
tions of  the  people,  and  attach  them,  if  possible,  to 
the  American  cause.  It  was  agreed  between  them 
to  make  a  descent  upon  Montreal.  They  divided 
into  two  parties,  intending  to  assail  the  city  at  two 
opposite  points.  Allen  crossed  the  river  in  the  night, 
as  had  been  proposed ;  but  by  some  means  Brown 
and  his  party  failed.  Instead  of  returning,  Allen 
with  great  rashnsss  determined  to  maintain  his 


ground.  In  the  morning  the  British  general,  Car- 
leton,  at  the  head  of  a  few  regulars  and  several 
hundred  militia,  marched  to  attack  him.  Allen, 
with  his  little  band  of  80,  fought  with  desperate 
courage  ;  but  he  was  compelled  to  yield,  and  he  and 
his  brave  associates  were  instantly  loaded  with  irons, 
and  in  that  condition  sent  to  England. 

On  the  13th  of  October,  a  small  fort  at  Charnblet, 
which  was  but  slightly  guarded,  was  taken.  Several 
pieces  of  artillery,  and  about  120  barrels  of  gun- 
powder, were  the  fruits  of  this  victory ;  which  en- 
abled General  Montgomery  to  proceed  with  vigour 
against  St.  John's.  In  defiance  of  the  continual 
fire  of  the  enemy,  the  Americans  erected  a  battery 
near  the  fort  St.  John's,  and  made  preparations  for 
a  severe  cannonade,  and  an  assault,  if  necessary. 

General  Carleton,  hearing  of  the  situation  o'f  St. 
John's,  raised  a  force  for  its  relief.  He  had  posted 
Colonel  McLean,  with  a  Scotch  regiment,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Sorel,  and  attempted  to  cross  at  Lon- 
gueil  for  the  purpose  of  forming  a  junction,  and 
marching  to  the  relief  of  St.  John's.  Colonel  Warner, 
who  was  stationed  at  Longueil  with  300  moun- 
taineers and  a  small  piece  of  artillery,  kept  up  so 
warm  a  fij-e  upon  their  boats,  that  they  were  com- 
pelled to  return  to  Montreal 

When  the  news  of  this  repulse  reached  Mont- 
gomery, he  sent  a  flag  to  Major  Preston,  who  com- 
manded the  besieged  fortress,  summoning  him  to 
surrender;  as  all  hope  of  relief  was  cut  off  by 
Carleton's  repulse,  and  further  resistance  could  only 
lead  to  useless  destruction  of  lives.  It  was  accord- 
ingly surrendered,  November  3,  and  soon  entered 
by  the  American  troops. 

General  Carleton  now  abandoned  Montreal  to  its 
fate,  and  made  his  escape  down  the  river  in  the  night 
in  a  small  canoe,  with  muffled  oars.  The  next  day 
General  Montgomery,  after  engaging  to  allow  the 
inhabitants  their  own  laws,  the  free  exercise  of 
their  religion,  and  the  privilege  of  governing  them- 
selves, entered  the  town.  His  benevolent  conduct 
induced  many  to  join  his  standard  :  yet  some  of  his 
own  army  deserted  from  severity  of  climate,  and 
many  whose  time  of  enlistment  had  nearly  expired, 
insisted  on  leturning  home. 

With  the  remnant  of  his  army,  consisting  of  300 
men,  he  began  his  march  towards  Quebec,  expect- 
ing to  meet  there  the  detachment  of  troops  under 
Arnold,  who  were  to  penetrate  by  the  way  of 
Maine. 

Arnold  commenced  his  march  with  1000  men, 
about  the  middle  of  September.  After  sustaining 
almost  incredible  hardships,  he  arrived  at  Point 
Lev',  opposite  Quebec,  on  the  9th  of  November. 
On  the  13th,  he  crossed  the  St.  Lawrence  in  the 
night,  and  ascending  the  precipice  which  Wolfe  had 
ascended  before  him,  formed  his  army,  which  from 
the  hardships  it  had  endured,  was  reduced  to  709 
men,  on  the  heights  near  the  memorable  plains  of 
Abraham.  He  then  marched  towards  Quebec,  in 
the  hope  of  surprising  it.  But,  being  convinced  by 
a  cannon-shot  from  the  walls,  that  the  garrison  were 
ready  to  receive  him,  he  was  obliged  to  retire ;  and 
on  the  18th  marched  to  Point  aux  Trembles,  to 
await  the  arrival  of  Montgomery. 

On  the  13th  of  October,  General  Arnold  had  in- 
trusted an  Indian  whom  he  met,  with  a  letter  for 
General  Schuyler,  giving  him  information  of  his 
progress,  which  the  Indian  delivered  to  General 
Cavleton ;  and  thus,  in  all  probability,  was  the 
enterprise  frustrated. 

General  Carleton,  who  had  escaped  the  vigilance 


1040 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


otihc  provincial  batteries  at  Montreal,  arrived  at 
Quebec,  immediately  after  Arnold  had  withdrawn 
his  troops,  and  began  to  prepare  for  a  vigorous  de- 
fence. His  garrison  consisted  of  1500  men. 

General  Montgomery  arrived  on  the  1st  of  De- 
cember. The  united  forces  of  the  Americans 
amounted  to  less  than  1000  effective  men.  On 
the  5th,  Montgomery  addressed  a  letter  to  the  go- 
vernor, and  sent  a  flag  with  a  summons  to  surrender. 
General  Carleton  ordered  his  troops  to  fire  upon  the 
bearer  of  the  flag,  and  forbade  all  communication. 
Montgomery  attempted  to  batter  the  walls,  and 
harass  the  city  by  repeated  attacks.  During  one 
night,  he  constructed  a  battery  of  ice,  where  he 
planted  his  cannon  ;  but  they  were  not  of  sufficient 
force  to  make  any  material  impressiou,  or  to  alarm 
the  garrison. 

Montgomery  now  found  himself  under  circum- 
stances much  more  delicate  and  embarrassing,  than 
those  which  had  sixteen  years  before  environed  Wolfe 
at  the  same  place.  Several  feet  of  snow  covered  the 
ground  :  and  his  troops  had  undergone  the  severest 
hardships  of  which  human  nature  is  capable.  Yet 
to  abandon  the  enterprise  was  to  relinquish  fame, 
and  disappoint  the  expectations,  however  unreason- 
able they  might  be,  of  his  too  sanguine  countrymen. 
He  therefore,  with  the  unanimous  approbation  of 
his  officers,  came  to  the  desperate  determination  of 
storming  the  city.  Just  at  the  dawn  of  day  on  the 
31st  of  December,  and  during  a  violent  snow-storm, 
the  troops  marched  from  the  camp,  in  four  divisions, 
commanded  by  Montgomery,  Arnold,  Brown,  and 
Livingston.  The  two  latter  were  to  make  feigned 
attacks ;  while  Arnold  and  Montgomery  were  to 
make  an  assault  at  opposite  points.  Montgomery, 
at  the  head  of  his  valiant  band,  was  obliged  to  ad- 
vance through  a  narrow  path,  leading  under  the 
projecting  rocks  of  a  precipice.  When  they  reached 
the  block-house  and  picket,  he  assisted  with  his  own 
hands  to  open  a  passage  for  his  troops,  encouraging 
by  his  voice  and  his  example  his  brave  companions. 
They  advanced  boldly  and  rapidly  to  force  the  bar- 
rier, when  a  single  and  accidental  discharge  from 
a  cannon,  proved  fatal  to  this  brave  and  excellent 
officer,  and  thus  destroyed  the  hopes  of  the  enter- 
prise. Several  of  Montgomery's  best  officers  shared 
his  fate  ;  and  Colonel  Campbell,  on  whom  the  com- 
mand devolved,  found  it  impossible  to  pursue  the 
advantages  already  gained. 

In  the  meantime,  Arnold,  at  the  head  of  his  de- 
tachment, was  advancing  with  the  utmost  intrepidity, 
when  he  received  a  musket-ball  in  the  leg,  and  was 
carried  off  the  field.  Colonel  Morgan,  who  suc- 
ceeded him,  led  on  the  troops  with  so  much  vigour, 
that  he  soon  made  himself  master  of  the  second  bar- 
rier. But  the  troops  of  the  garrison,  freed  from 
their  apprehensions  of  attack  at  any  other  point, 
were  now  enabled  to  turn  their  undivided  force  upon 
Colonel  Morgan  and  his  party.  In  order  to  cut  off 
his  retreat,  a  detachment,  with  several  field-pieces, 
attacked  him  in  the  rear,  while  in  front  he  had  to 
oppose  the  whole  remaining  garrison.  The  stand 
which  this  little  band  of  provincials  made  against 
three  times  their  number,  is  sufficient  evidence  that 
nothing  but  the  death  of  Montgomery,  and  the  sub- 
sequent retreat  of  the  party  on  the  opposite  side, 
could  have  prevented  the  fall  of  Quebec  and  the 
surrender  of  Carleton.  After  an  obstinate  defence 
of  three  hours,  they  were  compelled  to  surrender 
themselves  prisoners  of  war. 

On  the  part  of  the  Americans,  the  loss  was  about 
400 ;  that  of  the  enemy  was  inconsiderable.  The 


treatment  of  Carletou  to  his  prisoners  did  honour 
to  his  humanity.  Arnold,  wounded  as  he  was,  re- 
tired with  the  remainder  of  his  army,  to  the  dis- 
tance of  three  miles  below  Quebec  ;  where,  though 
inferior  in  numbers  to  the  garrison,  they  kept  it  in 
a  state  of  blockade,  and  in  the  course  of  the  winter 
reduced  it  to  great  distress  for  want  of  provisions. 

Falmouth  and  Boston  burned — Attention  of  Americans 
to  their  navy— British  attempt  to  yain  New  York — 
Are  defeated — Dunmore  burns  Norfolk — Penn  ex- 
amined before  the  peers — Parliament  of  Enyland 
prohibit  the  trade  of  the  colonies — And  hires  mer- 
cenaries from  Germany — Bad  s-tate  of  the  army — 
Washington  fortifies  Dorchester  heights — He  com- 
pels the  British  to  evacuate  Boston — Arnold's  diffi- 
cult situation  at  Quebec — General  Thomas  super- 
sedes him — Siege  of  Quebec  raised — Thomas  die* — 
Loss  of  the  Americans  at  the  Cedars — General 
Thompson  and  200  Americans  taken  prisoners  — 
British  Jleet  arrives  at  Charlestown — Attack  of  the. 
Briti-h  on  Sullivan's  island  —  Jasper's  etploil — 
British  sail  for  New  York — Independence  proposed 
in  congress — Independence  declared — State  of  the 
country — Eminent  men. 

(1775.)  While  these  events  were  transacting  in 
the  north,  the  royal  force,  both  by  sea  and  land, 
was  turned  against  New  England.  Orders  were 
given  to  the  British  officers  to  treat  the  Americans 
as  rebels,  and  to  lay  waste  and  destroy  all  such  sea- 
ports as  had  taken  part  in  the  rebellion.  In  conse- 
quence of  these  orders,  the  town  of  Bristol  in  Rhode 
Island,  and  Falmouth  in  Massachusetts,  wero 
burned  by  the  ordeis  of  Captain  Mowatt,  of  the 
British  navy. 

These  and  other  outrages  of  the  royalists  excited 
the  Americans  to  redouble  their  CxXertions  ;  they  put 
forth  all  their  efforts  to  collect  military  stores ;  they 
purchased  powder  in  all  foreign  ports  where  it  was 
practicable,  and  in  many  colonies  commenced  its 
manufacture.  They  also  began  more  seriously  to 
turn  their  attention  to  their  armed  vessels.  Massa- 
chusetts granted  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal. 
Congress  also  fitted  out  some  frigates,  and  caused 
two  battalions  of  marines  to  be  raised  for  the  service, 
and  framed  articles  of  war  for  the  government  of 
their  little  navy.  General  Washington  employed 
in  the  service  several  cruisers  to  intercept  the  store- 
ships  of  the  enemy.  Congress  at  the  same  time  es- 
tablished regular  courts  of  admiralty  for  the  adjudi- 
cation of  all  prizes.  These  measures  produced  a 
spirit  of  adventure,  and  the  American  coast  soon 
swarmed  with  privateers.  Alert  and  bold,  they  visited 
every  sea,  and  greatly  annoyed  the  British  com- 
merce. In  these  enterprises,  Captain  Manly,  of 
Marblehead,  greatly  distinguished  himself. 

Efforts  were  still  made  by  the  British  ministry  to 
retain  the  colony  of  New  York  under  their  own  in- 
fluence. They  restored  Tryon,  who  was  greatly 
beloved  by  the  people,  to  the  government  of  New 
York,  for  the  express  purpose  of  detaching,  if  pos- 
sible, this  colony  from  the  united  confederacy  ;  and 
they  empowered  him  to  make  use  of  every  measure 
to  corrupt  their  political  sentiments.  Congress, 
alarmed  for  the  safety  of  the  colony,  recommended 
that  "  all  persons  whose  going  at  large  would  en- 
danger the  liberty  of  America,  should  be  arrested 
and  secured."  In  consequence  of  this  intelligence, 
Governor  Tryon  was  obliged  to  take  refuge  on  board 
a  ship  in  the  harbour. 

In  November,  Lord  Dunmore  issued  a  proclama- 
tion offering  freedom  to  such  slaves,  as  would  leave 


UNITED  STATES. 


1041 


their  masters,  and  repair  to  the  royal  standard  at 
Yorktown.  Several  hundred  in  consequence  re- 
paired to  the  place.  A  body  of  militia  immediately 
assembled,  who,  while  posted  near  the  city,  were 
attacked  by  the  royalists,  regulars,  and  negroes. 
The  militia  repelled  the  attack,  and  gained  a  de- 
cisive victory.  Lord  Dunmore,  followed  by  his  black 
and  white  forces,  took  refuge  on  board  one  of  his 
majesty's  ships.  In  this  situation  he  sent  to  Norfolk, 
demanding  a  supply  of  provisions.  The  commander 
of  the  provincials  refused  to  comply  with  this  requi- 
sition, in  consequence  of  which,  he  set  fire  to  the 
town,  and  reduced  it  to  ashes. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  friends  of  America  were 
making  ineffectual  exertions  in  the  British  parlia- 
ment for  the  relief  of  the  colonies.  A  reluctant  vote 
of  the  peers  was  obtained  to  examine  Mr.  Penn,  who 
had  presented  the  last  petition  of  congress  to  the 
king,  emphatically  styled  by  its  framers,  the  olive 
branch.  He  affirmed  that  the  colonies  would  still 
allow  the  royal  authority  of  Great  Britain,  but  not 
its  system  of  taxation  ;  and  that  the  rejection  of  the 
present  offer  would  certainly  prove  an  insuperable 
bar  to  a  reconciliation  :  but  the  prevailing  wish  in 
America  still  was,  restoration  of  friendship  with 
(ireat  Britain.  He  was  informed  that  no  answer 
would  be  given  to  his  petition.  A  bill  was  passed 
in  parliament,  prohibiting  all  trade  and  intercourse 
with  the  revolted  colonies  ;  and  their  property,  whe- 
ther ships  or  goods,  was  declared  to  be  forfeited  to 
the  ships  or  crews,  who  might  be  their  captors. 
Treaties  were  made  with  the  landgrave  of  Hesse 
Cassel  and  other  German  princes,  hiring  of  them 
17,000  men,  to  be  employed  against  the  Americans ; 
and  it  was  determined  to  send  over  in  addition  to 
these,  25,000  English  troops.  When  the  intelligence 
of  the  "  Prohibitory  Act"  and  the  "  Treaty  for  the 
German  Troops"  reached  America,  such  indignant 
feelings  were  excited,  that  their  flag,  which  had 
hitherto  been  plain  red,  was  changed  to  thirteen 
stripes,  as  emblematical  of  the  union  of  the  colonies. 

At  the  close  of  the  year  1775,  the  American  army 
was  almost  destitute  of  the  necessary  supplies  for 
carrying  on  the  war.  The  terms  of  enlistment  with 
all  of  the  troops  had  expired  in  December,  and 
although  measures  had  been  taken  for  recruiting  the 
army,  yet  on  the  last  day  of  December,  when  the 
old  troops  were  to  be  disbanded,  there  were  but  9,650 
men  enlisted  for  the  ensuing  year.  General  Wash- 
ington proposed  to  congress  to  try  the  influence  of 
a  bounty,  but  his  proposal  was  not  acceded  to  until 
late  in  January,  and  it  was  not  until  the  middle  of 
February  that  the  regular  army  amounted  to  14,000 
men. 

(1776.)  General  Washington  had  continued  the 
blockade  of  Boston  during  the  winter  of  1775-76,  and 
at  last  resolved  to  bring  the  enemy  to  action,  or  to 
drive  them  from  the  town.  On  the  night  of  the  4th 
of  March,  a  detachment  under  the  command  of 
General  Thomas,  silently  crossed  the  neck  of  land 
which  separates  Dorchester  heights  from  the  town, 
and  constructed,  in  a  single  night,  a  redoubt  which 
gave  them  command  of  the  heights,  and  menaced 
the  British  shipping  with  destruction.  When  the 
light  of  the  morning  discovered  to  General  Howe 
the  advantage  the  Americans  had  gained,  he  per- 
ceived that  no  alternative  remained  for  him,  but  to 
dislodge  them  or  evacuate  the  town.  He  immedi- 
ately dispatched  a  few  regiments  to  attempt  the 
former,  but  a  violent  tempest  of  wind  and  rain 
rendered  their  efforts  ineffectual.  The  Americans  had 
continued  with  unremitting  industry  to  strengthen 

HlST.   OF  AM£ll. NOS.   131   &   13^. 


their  works,  until  they  were  now  too  secure  to  be 
easily  forced.  After  the  failure  of  this  attempt,  a 
council  of  war  was  held,  in  which  it  was  resolved  to 
evacuate  the  town.  Preparations  were  immediately 
made  for  the  embarkation  of  the  troops,  and  on  the 
morning  of  the  17th,  the  whole  British  force,  with 
such  of  the  loyalists  as  chose  to  follow  their  fortunes, 
set  sail  for  Halifax.  As  the  rear  of  the  British 
troops  were  embarking,  General  Washington  en- 
tered the  town  in  triumph. 

In  the  plans  for  the  campaign  of  1 776,  beside  the 
relief  of  Quebec,  and  the  recovery  of  Canada,  two 
expeditions  were  resolved  upon  by  the  British.  The 
object  of  the  one  was  to  reduce  the  southern  colo- 
nies ;  the  command  of  this  was  given  to  General 
Clinton  and  Sir  Peter  Parker  :  and  the  object  of 
the  other  was  to  gain  possession  of  New  York.  The 
command  of  this  was  given  to  Admiral  and  Sir 
William  Howe. 

Arnold  had  continued  the  siege  of  Quebec,  and 
had  greatly  annoyed  the  garrison  ;  but  he  found 
himself  oppressed  with  many  difficulties.  His  army 
had  suffered  extremely  from  the  inclemency  of  the 
season,  and  the  small-pox  had  made  its  way  into  the 
camp.  Notwithstanding  the  garrison  of  Montreal 
had  been  sent  to  reinforce  him,  he  had  at  this  time 
scarcely  1000  effective  men.  The  reinforcements 
which  had  been  ordered  by  congress  to  his  relief, 
were  slow  in  arriving,  and  when  they  reached  Que- 
bec, they  were  greatly  reduced  in  numbers  by  dis- 
ease. Added  to  this,  the  river  was  now  clear  of  ice, 
and  the  British  fleet  was  daily  expected  to  arrive. 

General  Thomas,  who  had  been  sent  by  congress, 
now  succeeded  Arnold  in  command.  He  was  un- 
willing to  raise  the  siege  of  Quebec  without  making 
another  effort  to  reduce  the  place.  With  the  view 
of  burning  the  vessels  of  the  governor,  a  fire-ship 
was  sent  down  the  river.  He  intended  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  the  disorder  which  would  ensue,  to  make 
an  assault  upon  the  town.  The  garrison,  when  they 
saw  the  ship,  immediately  commenced  firing,  and 
the  attempt  failed.  Having  now  nothing  further  to 
expect  from  a  siege,  and  seeing  his  troops  daily 
diminish,  both  in  numbers  and  courage,  General 
Thomas  resolved  to  abandon  the  enterprise.  On  the 
very  day  appointed  for  raising  the  siege,  several 
British  vessels  came  in  sight  of  Quebec,  bringing 
reinforcements  to  the  garrison.  These  ships  now 
had  the  command  of  the  river,  and  prevented  any 
communication  between  the  different  parts  of  the 
American  camp.  General  Thomas  found  it  neces- 
sary to  retreat  with  the  greatest  precipitation,  leav- 
ing behind  him  the  baggage,  artillery,  munitions, 
and  whatever  else  might  have  retarded  the  maich 
of  the  army.  Many  of  the  sick,  together  with  all 
the  military  stores,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy. 

Had  General  Carleton  vigorously  pursued  the 
Americans,  they  could  not,  probably,  have  effected 
their  retreat ;  but  he  seemed  only  desirous  of  driving 
the  besiegers  from  the  neighbourhood.  He  treated 
with  great  kindness  the  sick  and  other  prisoners 
who  fell  into  his  hands.  The  Americans  continued 
their  retreat  to  the  river  Sorel,  having  marched  the 
first  45  miles  without  halting.  Here  they  found  a 
reinforcement  of  several  regiments,  under  the  com- 
mand of  General  Thompson,  waiting  their  arrival. 
General  Thomas  was  now  seized  with  the  small- 
pox, of  which  he  died.  The  command  devolved 
upon  General  Sullivan. 

Adverse  fortune  seemed  in  every  part  of  Canada 
to  follow  thp  American  arms,  \V"hile  the  troops 
before  Quebec  were  compelled  to  retreat  by  a  supe- 

4Q 


1042 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


rior  force,  a  calamity,  resulting  from  cowardice,  was 
experienced  by  a  body  of  the  Americans,  in  another 
quarter.  A  garrison  of  400  men,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Colonel  Bedel,  was  stationed  at  the  Cedars, 
about  40  miles  above  Montreal,  at  the  head  of  one 
of  the  rapids.  Colonel  Bedel,  having  received  infor- 
mation that  Captain  Foster,  with  about  500  royalists 
and  Indians,  was  descending  the  river  to  attack  the 
post,  immediately  proceeded  to  Montreal,  to  obtain 
assistance;  leaving  the  command  with  a  subordi- 
nate officer.  They  invested  the  fort,  and  the  Ame- 
rican officer,  intimidated  by  the  threat  of  Captain 
•Foster,  that  if  any  of  the  Indians  were  killed,  a 
general  massacre  of  the  Americans  would  take  place, 
surrendered  the  post  without  resistance.  A  rein- 
forcement, under  the  command  of  Major  Sherburne, 
was  ordered  to  march  from  Montreal.  While  on 
his  way  thither,  ignorant  of  the  surrender  of  the 
fort,  Major  Sherburne  was  attacked  by  the  Indians, 
to  whom,  after  a  spirited  defence,  he  was  obliged  to 
surrender.  The  loss  of  the  Americans  at  this  place 
could  not  have  been  less  than  500.  The  British 
army  in  Canada  was  now  augmented  to  13,000  men ; 
and  although  they  were  scattered  along  the  banks 
of  the  St.  Lawrence,  yet  the  general  place  of  ren- 
dezvous was  at  Three  Rivers,  a  village  about  half 
way  from  Quebec  to  Montreal.  The  party  stationed 
at  this  place  was  under  the  command  of  General 
Frazer;  another,  under  General  Nesbit,  was  near 
them,  on  board  the  transports ;  one  greater  than 
cither,  with  Generals  Carleton,  Burgoyne,  Philips, 
and  the  German  Baron  Reidesel,  was  on  its  way  from 
Quebec.  General  Sullivan  detached  General  Thomp- 
son from  the  river  Sorel,  with  a  considerable  body 
of  troops,  to  attack  the  enemy  at  Three  Rivers. 

General  Thompson  dropped  down  the  river  by 
night,  with  an  intention  of  surprising  the  forces 
under  General  Frazer.  The  troops  passed  the  ships 
without  discovery  ;  but  arrived  at  Three  Rivers  an 
hour  later  than  had  been  intended ;  in  consequence 
of  which,  they  were  discovered,  and  an  alarm  was 
given  at  their  landing.  They  were  fired  on  by  the 
ships  in  the  river ;  to  avoid  which,  they  attempted 
to  puss  through  what  appeared  a  wood,  but  was  in 
reality  a  deep  morass ;  the  difficulties  of  which  were 
scarcely  surmounted,  when  a  tremendous  five  was 
opened  upon  them,  which  threw  the  whole  detach 
ment  into  confusion ;  and  each  man  took  the  best 
means  of  effecting  his  own  safety.  In  this  unfortu- 
nate enterprise,  General  Thompson  and  about  200 
men  were  made  prisoners. 

General  Sullivan  ivas  induced  by  the  unanimous 
opinion  of  his  officers,  to  abandon  the  post  at  Sorel, 
after  the  British  entered  it.  He  was  joined  at  St. 
John's  by  General  Arnold,  who  had  crossed  at  Lon- 
gucil,  just  in  time  to  save  the  garrison  from  falling 
into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  General  Sullivan,  at 
the  Isle  aux  Noix,  received  the  orders  of  General 
Schuyler  to  embark  on  the  lakes  for  Crown  Point ; 
which  post  they  reached  in  safety,  June  15th,  1776. 
On  the  Sorel  the  pursuit  stopped.  The  Americans 
had  the  command  of  the  lakes,  and  the  British  ge- 
neral deemed  it  prudent  to  wrest  it  from  them,  be 
fore  he  advanced  further.  Thus  ended  the  enterprise 
against  Canada.  It  was  a  bold,  though  unsuccessful, 
effort  to  annex  that  extensive  province  to  the  United 
Colonies.  It  had,  however,  in  its  commencement, 
been  attended  with  success  to  the  Americans,  and 
displayed  the  military  character  of  the  colonial  offi- 
cers, in  the  most  honourable  point  of  view. 

In  the  beginning  of  June,  the  British  fleet  under 
Sir  Peter  Parker  came  to  anchor  in  the  harbour  o* 


Charlestown,  where  it  was  joined  by  General  Clinton, 
vho  had  been  waiting  its  arrival  at  Cape  Fear. 
L'his  fleet  brought  the  expected  reinforcements,  with 
L,ord  Cornwallis,  General  Vaughan,  and  Colonel 
Sthan  Allen,  who  was  now  exchanged.  This  officer, 
vith  his  fellow-prisoners,  had  been  confined  in  Pen- 
dennis-castle,  in  Cornwall. 

Fortunately,  an  official  letter  had  been  intercepted 
early  in  the  year,  announcing  the  departure  of  this 
armament  from  England,  and  its  destination  against 
the  southern  states.  This  gave  the  colonists  an  op- 
)ortunity  to  be  prepared  for  its  reception.  Sulli- 
van's Island,  at  the  entrance  of  Charlestown  harbour, 
lad  been  strengthened;  and  a  fort  had  been  con- 
structed with  the  palmetto-tree,  which  resembles 
ery  much  the  cork.  On  learning  the  near  approach 
f  the  enemy,  the  militia  of  the  country  were  sum- 
moned to  defend  the  capital.  The  popularity  of 
General  Lee,  the  commander,  soon  collected  a  force 
of  5,000  or  0,000  men  ;  and  his  high  military  repu- 
tation gave  confidence  to  the  citi/cns  as  well  as 
soldiers.  Under  him  were  Colonels  Gadsdcn,  Moul- 
trie,  and  Thompson.  Colonel  Gadsdcn  commanded 
a  regiment  stationed  on  the  northern  extremity  of 
James  Island ;  two  regiments,  under  Colonels 
Moultrie  and  Thompson,  occupied  the  opposite  ex- 
tremities of  Sullivan's  Island.  The  remainder  of 
the  troops  were  posted  at  various  points.  General 
Clinton  lauded  a  number  of  his  troops  on  Long 
Island,  separated  fiom  Sullivan's  Island  on  the 
eastern  side,  by  a  small  creek.  The  fort  on  Sulli- 
van's Island  was  garrisoned  by  about  400  men, 
commanded  by  Colonel  Moultrie.  The  attack  on 
this  fort  commenced  on  the  morning  of  the  28th  of 
June.  The  ships  opened  their  several  broadsides 
upon  it;  and  a  detachment  was  landed  on  an  adjoin- 
ing isL  n  '  !  '  ~  "'">'  'irTe  the  sea 
was  fo 
charge 

but  Mo- i;      .. 
fire  witii       '     '. 
suffcrci        . 
in  thei 
to  aba 
about '. 
palmel 
defenc 
sunk  b 
hencei 

Dm 
occun 
the  fl.r 
the  A 
theB 

But  Beared  ;  ai:  . 

strip*  •  America  was  on 

to  thf  ;r  view.     The  staff  had  beei, 
a  sh       ;tnd  the  flag  bad  fallen  upon  the 
the  \ 
per, 
bulh 

It 

cent 
advf 
wou  ' 
Gre 
bef.'. 
had 

Isl.  d  New  York  : 

aft 
Liu 


UNITED  STATES. 


1043 


In  a  few  days  after  the  repulse  at  Charlestown, 
the  British  fleet,  with  the  troops  on  board,  set  sail 
for  the  vicinity  of  New  York,  where  the  whole 
British  force  had  been  ordered  to  assemble. 

On  the  7th  of  June,  Richard  Henry  Lee,  of  Vir- 
ginia, made  a  motion  in  congress,  for  declaring  the 
colonies  FREE  AND  INDEPENDENT  STATES. 

The  most  vigorous  exertions  had  been  made  by 
the  friends  of  independence  to  prepare  the  minds  ot 
the  people  for  the  necessity  and  advantage  of  such 
a  measure.  Among  the  numerous  writers  on  this 
momentous  question,  the  most  luminous  and  forci- 
ble was  Thomas  Paine.  His  pamphlet  entitled 
'•  Common  Sense,"  was  read  and  understood  by  all. 
While  it  demonstrated  the  necessity,  the  advantage, 
and  the  practicability,  of  independence,  it  treated 
kingly  government  and  hereditary  succession  with 
ridicule  and  opprobrium.  Two  years  before,  the 
inhabitants  of  the  colonies  were  the  loyal  subjects 
of  the  king  of  England,  and  wished  not  for  inde- 
pendence, but  for  constitutional  liberty.  But  the 
crown  of  England  had,  for  their  assertion  of  this 
right,  declared  them  out  of  its  protection  ;  rejected 
their  petitions  ;  shackled  their  commerce  ;  and  fi- 
nally employed  foreign  mercenaries  to  destroy  them. 
Such  were  the  excitements  which,  being  brought  up 
and  directed  by  the  master  spirits  of  the  times,  had, 
in  the  space  of  two  years,  changed  the  tide  of  public 
feeling  in  America,  and  throughout  her  extensive 
regions  produced  the  general  cry  of,—"  WE  WILL 

BE  FREE." 

Satisfied,  by  indubitable  signs,  that  such  was  the 
resolution  of  the  people,  congress  deliberately  and 
solemnly  decided  to  make  in  a  formal  manner,  this 
declaration  to  the  world, — "  America  is,  and  of 
rieht  ought  to  be,  a  free  and  independent  nation." 

The  declaration  of  independence  was  agreed  to 
in  congress,  on  the  4th  of  July,  1776. 

Thomas  Jefferson,  John  Adams,  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin, Roger  Sherman,  and  R.  R.  Livingston,  had 
been  appointed,  on  the  llth  of  June,  to  prepare  a 
declaration  of  independence.  It  was  agreed  by  this 
committee  that  each  one  should  draw  up  such  a  one 
as  his  judgment  and  feelings  should  dictate ;  and 
that  upon  comparing  them  together,  that  one  should 
be  chosen  as  the  report  of  the  committee,  which 
should  prove  most  conformable  to  the  wishes  of  the 
whole.  Mr.  Jefferson's  paper  was  the  first  read ; 
and  every  member  of  the  committee  determined, 
spontaneously,  to  suppress  his  own  production ;  ob- 
serving that  it  was  unworthy  to  bear  a  competition 
with  that  which  they  had  just  heard. 

This  important  document  is  as  follows  :•— 

The  declaration  of  independence  of  the  United  States 
of  America.  Signed  on  the  4th  of  July,  1776,  by  a 
congress  of  delegates,  assembled  at  Philadelphia, 
from  the  states  of  New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts, 
' Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  New  York,  Netv  Jersey, 
Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia, 
North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Georgia. 

"  When,  in  the  course  of  human  events,  it  be- 
comes necessary  for  one  people  to  dissolve  the  poli- 
tical bonds  which  have  connected  them  with  another, 
and  to  assume  among  the  powers  of  the  earth,  the 
separate  and  equal  station  to  which  the  laws  of 
nature  and  of  nature's  God  entitle  them,  a  decent 
respect  to  the  opinions  of  mankind,  requires  that 
they  should  declare  the  causes  which  impel  them  to 
the  separation. 

"  We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident — that 
all  men  are  created  equal ;  that  they  are  endowed  by 


their  Creator  with  certain  unalienable  rights.;  that 
among  these  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness.  That  to  secure  these  rights,  govern- 
ments are  instituted  among  men,  deriving  their 
just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed;  that 
whenever  any  form  of  government  becomes  destruc- 
tive to  these  ends,  it  is  the  right  of  the  people  to  alter  or 
to  abolish  it,  and  to  institute  a  new  government,  lay- 
ing its  foundation  on  such  principles,  and  organizing 
its  powers  in  such  form,  as  to  them  shall  seem  most 
likely  to  effect  their  safety  and  happiness.  Pru- 
dence, indeed,  will  dictate,  that  governments  long 
established,  should  not  be  changed  for  light  and 
transient  causes  ;  and,  accordingly,  all  experience 
hath  shown  that  mankind  are  more  disposed  to  suffer, 
while  evils  are  sufferable,  than  to  right  themselves 
by  abolishing  the  forms  to  which  they  are  accustomed. 
But  when  a  long  train  of  abuses  and  usurpations, 
pursuing  invariably  the  same  object,  evinces  a 
design  to  reduce  them  under  absolute  despotism, 
it  is  their  right,  it  is  their  duty,  to  throw  off  such  go- 
vernment, and  to  provide-new  guards  for  their  future 
security.  Such  has  been  the  patient  sufferance 
of  these  colonies  ;  and  such  is  now  the  necessity 
which  constrains  them  to  alter  their  former  systems 
of  government.  The  history  of  the  present  king  of 
Great  Britain,  is  a  history  of 'repeated  injuries  and 
usurpations,  all  having  in  direct  object  the  establish- 
ment of  an  absolute  tyranny  over  these  states.  To 
prove  this,  let  facts  be  submitted  to  a  candid  world. 

"  He  has  refused  his  assent  to  laws,  the  most  whole- 
some and  necessary  for  the  public  good. 

"He  has  forbidden  his  governors  to  pass  laws  of 
immediate  and  pressing  importance,  'unless  sus- 
pended in  their  operations  till  his  assent  should  be 
obtained ;  and,  when  so  suspended,  he  has  utterly 
neglected  to  attend  to  them. 

"  He  has  refused  to  pass  other  laws,  for  the  accom- 
modation of  large  districts  of  people,  unless  those 
people  would  relinquish  the  right  of  representation 
iu  the  legislature — a  right  inestimable  to  them,  and 
formidable  to  tyrants  only. 

"  He  has  called  together  legislative  bodies,  at  places 
unusual,  uncomfortable,  and  distant  from  the  depo- 
sitory of  their  public  records,  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
fatiguing  them  into  compliance  with  his  measures. 

"He  has  dissolved  representative  houses  repeatedly, 
for  opposing  with  manly  firmness  his  invasions  on 
the  rights  of  the  people. 

"  He  has  refused,  for  a  long  time  after  such  disso- 
lutions, to  cause  others  to  be  elected;  whereby  the 
legislative  powers,  incapable  of  annihilation,  have 
returned  to  the  people  at  large  for  their  exercise; 
the  state  remaining  in  the  meantime  exposed  to  all 
the  danger  of  invasion  from  without,  and  convul- 
sions within. 

"  He  has  endeavoured  to  prevent  the  population 
of  these  states ;  for  that  purpose  obstructing  the  laws 
for  naturalization  of  foreigners;  refusing  to  pass 
others  to  encourage  their  migration  hither,  and 
raising  the  conditions  of  new  appropriations  of  lands. 

"  He  has  obstructed  the  administration  of  justice, 
by  refusing  his  assent  to  laws,  for  establishing  judi- 
ciary powers. 

"  He  has  made  judges  dependent  on  his  will  alone 
for  the  tenure  of  their  offices,  and  the  amount  and 
payment  of  their  salaries. 

"  He  has  erected  a  multitude  of  new  offices,  and 
sent  hither  swarms  of  officers,  to  harass  our  people, 
and  eat  out  their  substance. 

"  He  has  kept  among  us,  in  times  of  peace,  stand- 
ing armies,  without  the  consent  of  our  legislature. 

4Q  2 


1044 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


"  He  has  affected  to  render  the  military  indepen- 
dent of,  and  superior  to,  the  civil  power. 

"  He  has  combined  with  others,  to  subject  us  to  a 
jurisdiction,  foreign  to  our  constitution,  and  unac- 
knowledged by  our  laws;  giving  his  assent  to  their 
acts  of  pretended  legislation, 

"  For  quartering  large  bodies  of  armed  troops 
among  us : 

"  For  protecting  them,  by  a  mock-trial,  from  pu- 
nishment for  any  murders  which  they  should  com- 
mit on  the  inhabitants  of  these  states : 

"  For  cutting  off  our  tiade  with  all  parts  of  the 
world : 

"  For  imposing  taxes  on  us  without  our  consent : 
"  For  depriving  us,  in  many  cases,  of  the  benefits 
of  trial  by  jury : 

"  For  transporting  us  beyond  seas,  to  be  tried  for 
pretended  offences : 

"  For  abolishing  the  free  system  of  English  laws 
in  a  neighbouring  province,  establishing  therein  an 
arbitrary  government,  and  enlarging  its  boundaries, 
so  as  to  render  it  at  once  an  example  and  fit  instru- 
ment, for  introducing  the  same  absolute  rule  into 
these  colonies : 

"  For  taking  away  our  charters,  abolishing  our 
most  valuable  laws,  and  altering  fundamentally  the 
forms  of  our  governments : 

"  For  suspending  our  own  legislatures,  and  de- 
daring  themselves  invested  with  power  to  legislate 
for  us  in  all  cases  whatsoever. 

"  He  has  abdicated  government  here,  by  declaring 

us  out  of  his  protection,  and  waging  war  against  us 

"  He  has  plundered  our  seas,  ravaged  our  coasts 

burnt  our  towns,  and  destroyed  the  lives  of  our 

people. 

"  He  is,  at  this  time,  transporting  large  armies  o 
foreign  mercenaries  to  complete  the  works  of  death 
desolation,  and  tyranny,  already  begun,  with  cir 
cumstances  of  cruelty  and  perfidy,  scarcely  parallelec 
in  the  most  barbarous  ages,  and  totally  unworth) 
the  head  of  a  civilized  nation. 

"  He  has  constrained  our  fellow-citizens,  taken 
captive  on  the  high  seas,  to  bear  arms  against  thei] 
country,  to  become  the  executioners  of  their  friend; 
and  brethren,  or  to  fall  themselves  by  their  hands. 
"  He  has  excited  domestic  insurrections  amongs 
us,  and  has  endeavoured  to  bring  on  the  inhabitant 
of  our  frontiers  the  merciless  Indian  savages,  whosi 
known  rule  of  warfare  is  an  undistinguished  destiue 
lion  of  all  ages,  sexes,  and  conditions. 

"  In  every  stage  of  these  oppressions  we  hav 
petitioned  for  redress  in  the  most  humble  terms 
our  repeated  petitions  have  been  answered  only  b 
repeated  injury.  A  prince,  whose  character  is  thu 
marked  by  every  act  which  may  define  a  tyrant,  i 
unfit  to  be  the  ruler  of  a  free  people. 

"  Nor  have  we  been  wanting  in  attention  to  ou 
British   brethren.     We   have  warned    them   from 
time  to  time,  of  attempts  made  by  their  legislatur 
to  extend  an  unwarrantable  jurisdiction  over  us 
We  have  reminded  them  of  the  circumstances  o 
our  emigration  and  settlement  here.     We  have  ap 
pealed  to  their  native  justice  and  magnanimity,  an 
we  have  conjured  them  by  the  ties  of  our  cemmo 
kindred  to  disavow  these  usurpations,  which  woul 
inevitably  interrupt  our  connexions  and  correspom 
ence.    They,  too,  have  been  deaf  to  the  voice  i 
justice   and   consanguinity.     We  must,   therefor 
acquiesce  in  the  necessity  which  denounces  our  se 
paration,  and  hold  them,   as  we  hold  the  rest 
mankind — enemies  in  war— in  peace,  friends. 
it        "  '  We,   therefore,   the    representatives  of  th 


nited  States  of  America,  in  congress  assembled, 
jpealing  to  the   Supreme  Judge  of  the  world   for 
»e  rectitude  of  our  intentions,  do,  in  the  name  and 
y  the  authority  of  the  good  people  of  these  colonies, 
olemnly  declare,  that  these  United  Colonies   are, 
nd   of  right  ought  to  be,  free  and   independent 
tates. — That  they  are  absolved  from  all  allegiance 
3  the  British  crown,  and  that  all  political  connexion 
etween  them  and  the  state  of  Great  Britain  is,  <ina 
ught  to  be,  totally  dissolved;  and  that  as  free  and 
ndependent  states,   they   have  full  power  to  levy 
war,  conclude  peace,  contract  alliances,   establish 
ommerce,  and  to  do  all  other  acts  and  things  which 
ndependent  states  may  of  right  do.     And  for  the 
ipport  of  this  Declaration,  with  a  firm  reliance  on 
be  protection  of  Divine  Providence,  we  mutually 
iledge  to  each  other  our  lives,  our  fortunes,  and 
ur  sacred  honour.'  " 

The  members  of  the  congress  of  1776,  who  signed 
bis  declaration,  were  as  follows  : — 

New  Hampshire.  —  Josiah  Bartlett,  William 
Whipple,  Matthew  Thornton. 

Massachusetts  Bay. — Samuel  Adams,  John  Adarts, 
iobert  Treat  Paine,  Elbridge  Gerry. 

Rhode  Island. — Stephen  Hopkins,  William  Elleiy. 

Connecticut. — Roger  Sherman,  Samuel  Hunting- 
on,  William  Williams,  Oliver  Wolcott. 

New  York. — William  Floyd,  Philip  Livingston 
^rancis  Lewis,  Lewis  Morris. 

New  Jersey. — Richard  Stockton,  John  Wither- 
poon,  Francis  Hopkinson,  John  Hart,  Abram  Clark. 

Pennsylvania. — Robert  Morris,  Benjamin  Rush, 
Benjamin  Franklin,  John  Morton,  George  Clymer^ 
James  Smith,  George  Taylor,  James  Wilson,  George 
[loss. 

Delaware. — Csesar  Rodney,  George  Read,  Thomas 
M.  Kean. 

Maryland. — Samuel  Chase,  William  Paca,Thomas 
Stone,  Charles  Carroll,  of  Carrolton. 

Virginia. — George  Wythe,  Richard  Henry  Lee, 
Thomas  Jefferson,  Benjamin  Harrison,  Thomas 
Nelson,  jun.,  Francis  Lightfoot  Lee,  Carter  Braxton. 

North  Carolina. — William  Hooper,  Joseph  Hughes, 
John  Penn. 

South  Carolina. — Edward  Rutledge,  Thomas  Hey- 
ward,jun.,  Thomas  Lynch,  jun.,  Arthur  Middleton. 

Georgia. — Button  Gwinuett,  Lyman  Hall,  George 
Walton. 

Geographical  notice  of  the  state  of  the  countn/.  from 
1763  to  1776. 

The  settlements  in  Vermont  had  extended,  from 
the  southern,  over  the  northern  part  of  the  state. 
Emigrants  from  the  eastern  states,  had  commenced 
the  settlement  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee. 
Population. 

Massachusetts 292,000 

Connecticut 197,856 

Rhode  Island 59,678 

New  York 168,000 

South  Carolina 40,000 

Louisiana 5,500 

New  Hampshire 52,000 

The  principal  towns  at  this  time  were, — New 
York,  Philadelphia,  Annapolis,  Boston,  Charlostown, 
South  Carolina,  Jamestown,  Newark,  Providence, 
Newport,  Hartford,  New  Haven,  New  London, 
and  Portland,  in  Maine. 

During  this  period  the  following  societies  were 
formed  :— 

1766.  The  Marine  Society  of  Salem. 

1769.  The  American  Philosophical  Society,  for 


UNITED  STATES 


J045 


the  promotion  of  useful  knowledge,  held  at  Phila- 
delphia. 

Catalogue  of  eminent  men  who  flourished  during  the 
same  period. 

Year  in  which 
they  died 

Zabdiel  Boylston,  F.R.S.,  an  eminent  phy- 
sician— the  first  who  introduced  the  inocula- 
tion of  the  small-pox  into  America.  1766 

Jonathan  Mayhew,  D.D.,  a  learned  divine. 

Thomas  Clap,  president  ef  Yale  College — 
constructed  the  first  orrery  or  planetarium, 
made  in  America.  1767 

George  Whitefield,  one  of  the  founders  of 
the  sect  of  the  Methodists.  1770 

William  Shirley,  governor  of  Massachusetts.  1771 

John  Clayton,  an  eminent  botanist  and 
physician — author  of  "  Flora  Virginica."  1773 

William  Johnson,  major-general  of  -the  mi- 
litia of  New  York,  and  distinguished  in  the 
last  French  war.  1774 

Richard  Montgomery,  a  major-general  in 
the  American  army.  1775 

Josiah  Quincy,  an  eminent  statesman  and 
patriot. 

Peyton  Randolph,  first  president  of  congress. 

Joseph  Warren,  a  major-general  in  the 
American  army,  and  a  distinguished  patriot. 

Howe  takes  possession  of  Staten  Island — Positions  of 

Washington's  army — British  land  on  Long  Island 

—Battle  of  Long  Island—'  The  Americans  defeated. 

Considered  as  a  step  in  the  great  march  of  human 

society,  perhaps  no  one  can  be  fixed  upon  of  more 

importance  than  the  solemn  promulgation  of  the 

writing,  which,  while  it  contained  a  catalogue  of  the 

grievances  of  America,  and  declared  her  freedom, 

embodied  also,  and  held  up  to  the  view  of  the  world, 

the  universal  wrongs  of  the  oppressed ;  sent  forth  a 

warning  voice  to  the  oppressor ;  and  declared  the 

common  rights  of  all  mankind. 

But  as  it  more  particularly  concerned  the  con- 
dition of  the  Americans,  the  signing  of  this  decla- 
ration by  the  American  congress,  was  a  momentous 
procedure.  That  firm  band  of  patriots  well  knew, 
that,  in  affixing  their  signatures,  they  were,  in  the 
eyes  of  England,  committing  the  very  fact  of  treason 
and  rebellion ;  and  that  in  case  of  her  ultimate  suc- 
cess, it  was  their  own  death-warrant  which  they 
signed.  Their  countrymen  felt  there  was  now  no 
receding  from  the  contest,  without  devoting  to  death 
these  their  political  fathers,  who  had  thus  fearlessly 
made  themselves  the  organs  of  declaring  what  was 
equally  the  determination  of  their  constituents,  that 
America  should  no  longer  be  subject  to  Britain. 
Thus  it  was  now  the  general  feeling,  that  the  die 
was  cast,  and  nothing  remained  but  liberty  or  death. 
Foreign  nations  also  now  regarded  the  contest  in  a 
different  light. 

"  The  Declaration  of  Independence,"  says  Allen, 
in  his  history  of  the  revolution,  "  once  published  to 
the  world  with  such  solemnity,  gave  a  new  character 
to  the  contest,  not  only  in  the  colonies,  but  in  Eu- 
rope. It  was  no  longer  the  unholy  struggle  of  sub- 
jects against  their  monarch;  of  children  against 
their  parents ;  but  it  became  under  the  awful  sanc- 
tion of  that  assembly,  the  temperate  and  determined 
stand  of  men  who  have  intrenched  themselves 
within  the  certain  and  thoroughly-understood  limits 
of  their  rights ;  of  men  who  had  counted  the  cost 
dispassionately,  and  measured  th«  event  without 
shrinking." 


The  troops  from  Halifax,  under  the  command  of 
General  Howe,  after  touching  at  Sandy  Hook,  took 
possession  of  Staten  Island  on  the  2nd  of  July  ; 
and  those  from  England,  commanded  by  Admiral 
Howe,  landed  at  the  same  place  on  the  12th  of  the 
same  month.  About  the  same  time  Clinton  arrived, 
with  the  troops  which  he  reconducted  from  the  ex- 
pedition against  Charlestowu.  Commodore  Hotham 
also  appeared  about  the  same  time,  with  the  expected 
reinforcements ;  so  that  the  army  amounted  in  the 
whole  to  24,000  of  English,  Hessians,  and  Walde- 
kers.  Several  Hessian  regiments  were  expected 
shortly,  when  the  army  would  consist  of  30,000  of 
the  best  troops  of  Europe. 

In  hopes  that  this  powerful  force  might  have 
awakened  the  fears  of  the  Americans,  and  thus  dis- 
posed them  to  submission,  Lord  Howe,  before  active 
operations,  made  an  attempt  at  pacification.  He 
had,  in  the  month  of  June,  announced  by  his  pro- 
clamations, which  the  government  wisely  caused  to 
be  printed,  that  he  was  empowered  to  grant  pardon 
to  any  person,  or  to  the  inhabitants  of  any  city  or 
province,  who  should  return  to  their  allegiance  : 
and  he  promised  large  recompense  to  any  who  should 
contribute  to  re-establish  the  royal  authority.  The 
declaration  of  independence  made  soon  after,  showed 
him  in  what  light  these  promises  were  regarded  by 
congress.  He  now  addressed  himself  to  the  com- 
mander-in-chief,  in  a  letter  directed  to  George 
Washington,  Esq.  With  a  spirit  which  the  whole 
nation  applauded,  Washington  returned  the  letter 
unopened ;  alleging  that  it  had  not  expressed  his 
public  station,  and  that  as  a  private  individual,  he 
neither  could  nor  would  hold  any  communication 
with  the  agents  of  the  king.  Howe,  not  yet  dis- 
couraged, sent  another  communication  by  Adjutant- 
General  Patterson.  To  the  smooth  and  conciliatory 
address  of  this  gentleman,  Washington  made  a  re- 
ply, which  was  an  expression  of  the  general  feeling 
of  his  countrymen,  the  true  source  of  a  union,  which 
both  the  threats  and  promises  of  Great  Britain  failed 
to  divide.  The  sentiment  it  contained  was,  that 
Great  Britain  did  not  offer  us  the  enjoyment  of  our 
rights  ;  she  offered  nothing  but  forgiveness  of  of- 
fences : — America  had  committed  no  offences,  and 
asked  no  forgiveness. 

The  officers  in  command,  General  and  Admiral 
Howe,  no  longer  hesitated  to  direct  their  efforts 
against  New  York.  The  submission  of  this  impor- 
tant port  would  give  the  English  a  firm  footing  in 
America,  from  which  the  English  army  could  turn 
to  the  right  and  carry  the  war  into  New  England, 
or  upon  the  left  to  scour  New  Jersey  and  menace 
Philadelphia.  From  New  York,  the  English  could 
infest  the  neighbouring  towns,  attack  and  combat 
the  Americans  with  success,  and  retreat  without 
danger.  Again,  if  Carleton  after  passing,  as  was 
hoped,  the  lakes  of  Canada,  could  penetrate  to  the 
Hudson,  and  descend  at  the  same  time  that  Howe 
should  ascend  it,  their  junction  would  intercept  all 
communications  between  the  provinces  of  New  Eng- 
land, and  of  the  middle  and  southern  colonies. 
Long  Island,  adjacent  to  New  York,  being  abun- 
dant in  grain  and  cattle,  offered  subsistence  *>r  the 
most  numerous  army.  While  Howe  expected  to 
have  been  seconded  in  his  invasion  of  New  York  by 
13,000  men  from  Canada,  under  Carleton,  Clinton 
was  to  operate  in  the  southern  provinces  and  attack 
Charlestown.  The  American  troops  being  thus  di- 
vided, their  generals  surprised  and  pressed  upon  so 
many  points  at  once,  it  was  not.  doubted  that  the 
British  arm*  would  soon  be  successful.  This  sue- 


1046 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


cess,  however,  was  dependent  upon  the  concurrence 
of  a  number  of  parts.  Admiral  Howe,  retarded  by 
contrary  winds,  did  not  arrive  until  the  expedition 
of  Charlestown  had  failed.  The  army  of  Canada  en- 
countered so  many  obstacles,  that  it  was  not  able 
to  make  its  way  this  year  tovthe  Hudson.  Hence, 
Washington  was  not  compelled  to  weaken  his  army 
upon  the  coast  to  send  succou-s  into  South  Carolina, 
or  towards  Canada. 

The  American  congress  had  ordered  the  con- 
struction of  gun-boats,  of  galleys,  and  floating  bat- 
teries to  defend  New  York  and  the  mouth  of  tho 
Hudson.  Thirteen  thousand  of  the  militia  were 
ordered  to  join  the  army  of  Washington.  This 
army  amounted  to  27,000;  but  a  fourth  of  these 
were  invalids,  and  another  fourth  were  poorly  pro- 
vided with  arms.  From  these  and  other  causes,  the 
force  fit  for  duty  did  not  exceed  10,000.  And  of 
this  number  the  greater  part  was  without  order  or 
discipline.  These  inconveniences  proceeded  in  part 
from  want  of  money,  which  prevented  congress  from 
paying  regular  troops  and  providing  for  their  equip- 
ments, and  partly  from  parsimonious  habits,  con- 
tracted during  peace,  which  withheld  them  from  in- 
curring with  promptitude  the  expenses  necessary  to 
a  state  of  war ;  while  their  jealousy  of  standing 
armies  inspired  the  hope  of  organizing  each  year 
an  army  sufficient  to  resist  the  enemy. 

The  American  army  occupied  the  island  of  New 
York.  Two  detachments  guarded  Governor's  Island 
and  Paulus  Hook.  The  militia  under  the  American 
Clinton  were  stationed  at  East  and  West  Chester 
and  New  Rochelle,  to  prevent  the  British  landing 
in  force  on  the  north  shore,  penetrating  to  Kings- 
bridge,  and  thus  enclosing  the  Americans  in  the 
island.  A  considerable  part  of  the  army,  under 
General  Putnam,  encamped  at  Brooklyn,  in  a  part 
of  Long  Island  which  forms  a  sort  of  peninsula. 
The  entrance  was  fortified  with  moats  and  intrench- 
ments.  Putnam's  left  wing  rested  upon  Wallabout 
Bay,  his  right  was  covered  by  a  marsh  adjacent  to 
Gowau's  Cove.  Behind  was  Governor's  Island  and 
the  arm  of  the  sea  between  Long  Island  and  New 
York,  which  gave  him  direct  communication  with 
the  city,  where  Washington  was  with  the  main 
army. 

On  the  22nd  of  August,  the  English  landed  with- 
out opposition,  between  the  villages  of  New  Utrecht 
and  Gravesend,  on  Long  Island.  They  extended 
themselves  to  Flatlands,  distant  four  miles  from  the 
Americans,  and  separated  from  them  by  a  range  of 
hills  called  the  heights  of  Gawanus,  which,  covered 
with  woods,  and  running  from  east  to  west,  divide 
the  island  into  two  parts.  These  hills  were  passable 
<pnly  in  three  places  ;  one,  the  road  near  the  Nar- 
rows, on  the  left  of  the  English ;  one,  the  road  lead- 
ing to  the  centre  by  Flatbush  ;  the  other  and  most 
eastern,  that  on  the  right  of  the  British  by  Flatlands. 
Upon  the  summits  of  these  hills  is  a  road  the  length 
of  the  range  from  Bedford  to  Jamaica,  intersected 
by  the  Flatlands  and  Flatbush  roads.  Washington, 
wishing  to  arrest  the  enemy  on  these  heights,  had 
guarded  them  with  his  best  troops,  and  had  made 
such  arrangements  as  with  proper  vigilance  would 
have  rendered  the  passage  one  of  extreme  difficulty 
and  danger. 

About  midnight  of  the  25th,  the  English,  under 
General  Grant,  attacked  the  Americans  from  the 
left,  thus  inducing  the  belief,  that  against  this  post 
the  main  strength  of  the  British  would  be  directed. 
At  day-break  on  the  26th,  the  Hessians  under  Ge- 
neral de  Heistcv  attacked  from  the  centre,  and  Ge- 


neral Sullivan,  who  commanded  the  forces  in  front 
of  the  camp,  led  them  to  repel  the  Hessians. 

At  the  same  time,  the  English  ships  commenced 
a  brisk  cannonade  upon  the  battery  at  Red  Hook. 
Colonel  Miles  was  to  guard  the  Flatlands  road,  and 
to  scour  that  and  the  Jamaica  road  continually,  in 
order  to  reconnoitre  the  movements  of  the  enemy.. 
This  service,  as  the  events  proved,  was  the  most 
important,  and  the  worst  performed,  of  any  on  the 
side  of  the  Americans.  It  was  here  that  the  British 
generals  made  their  grand  effort,  and  here  that  the 
Americans  suffered  a  surprise.  The  right  wing  of 
the  English,  which  was  the  most  numerous,  and  en- 
tirely composed  of  select  troops,  under  Generals 
Clinton,  Percy,  and  Cornwallis,  proceeded  by  Flat- 
lands,  and  were,  before  Miles  perceived  their  ap- 
proach, within  half  a  mile  of  the  Jamaica  road  upon 
the  heights.  Scouts  sent  by  Sullivan  were  cap- 
tured, and  he  was  ignorant  that  the  enemy  were 
approaching  until  his  flank  was  attacked  by  their 
infantry.  He  instantly  ordered  a  retreat ;  but  was 
intercepted  in  the  rear  by  the  English,  who  had 
occupied  the  plains  from  Bedford,  and  compelled 
the  Americans  to  throw  themselves  into  the  neigh- 
bouring woods.  There  they  were  met  by  the  Hes- 
sians, who  repulsed  them  upon  the  English.  Thus 
were  the  distressed  Americans  alternately  chased 
and  intercepted,  until  at  length  several  regiments 
cut  their  way  with  desperate  valour  through  the 
midst  of  the  enemy,  and  gained  the  camp  of  Put- 
nam ;  but  a  great  part  of  the  detachment  were  killed 
or  taken  prisoners.  The  left  wing  having  given 
way,  the  right  attempted  to  retreat,  but  they  were 
encountered  by  the  English  and  many  \vere  taken 
prisoners.  Lord  Sterling,  at  the  head  of  a  Mary- 
land company,  charged  a  superior  British  force  and 
kept  them  engaged,  while  a  considerable  body  of 
the  Americans  passed  them  and  retreated  to  Brook- 
lyn. The  loss  of  the  Americans  was  estimated  at 
nearly  2,000,  and  the  British  at  about  400. 

On  the  subject  of  the  loss  of  the  Americans  on 
this  unfortunate  day,  authorities  disagree.  Sir  Henry 
Clinton's  official  report  states  it  at  between  3,000  and 
4,000;  General  Washington's  at  upwards  of  1,000. 
When  the  disastrous  consequences  of  this  engage- 
ment are  considered,  it  does  not  seem  probable  that 
the  American  loss  could  have  been  less  than  2,000. 

In  the  height  of  the  engagement,  General  Wash- 
ington crossed  to  Brooklyn  from  New  York,  and 
seeing  so  many  of  his  best  troops  slaughtered  or 
taken  prisoners,  he  uttered,  it  is  said,  an  exclama- 
tion of  anguish.  He  might  at  this  moment  havo 
drawn  all  his  troops  from  the  encampment;  he 
might  have  called  over  all  the  forces  in  New  York 
to  take  part  in  the  battle  :  but  victory  having  de- 
clared in  favour  of  the  English,  the  courage  with 
which  it  inspired  them,  and  the  superiority  of  their 
discipline,  destroyed  all  hope  of  recovering  the  bat- 
tle. Great  praise  is  therefore  due  to  Washington 
for  having  preserved  himself  and  his  army  for  a  hap- 
pier future. 

Washington  withdraws  his  troops  from  Lony  Inland — 
British  enter  New  York — Situation  of  the  American 
army — Battle  of  West  Plains — Fort  Washington 
surrenders  —  Fort  Lee  evacuated  —  Washington 
retreats. 

On   the  night  of  the  28th   of  August,  General 
Washington,  with   great  skill  and  judgment,  suc- 
ceeded in  drawing  the  troops  from  Long  Island  to 
New  York ;  to  which  place  the  detachment  from 
Governor's  Island  also  retired.  Finding  it,  however 


UNITED  STATES. 


1047 


impossible  to  defend  the  city,  he  removed  his  forces 
to  the  heights  of  Harlaem. 

About  this  time  Captain  Hale,  a  highly  interest- 
ing young  officer  of  Connecticut,  learning  that 
Washington  wished  to  know  the  state  of  the  British 
army  on  Long  Island,  volunteered  in  the  dangerous 
service  of  a  spy.  He  entered  the  British  army  in 
disguise,  and  obtained  the  desired  information  ;  but 
being  apprehended  in  his  attempt  to  return,  he  was 
carried  before  Sir  William  Howe,  and  by  his  orders 
was  executed  the  next  morning.  At  the  place  of1 
execution,  he  exclaimed,  "  I  lament  that  I  have 
but  one  life  to  lay  down  for  my  country." 

On  the  15th  of  September,  the  British  army  en- 
tered and  took  possession  of  the  city  of  New  York. 
A  few  days  after,  a  tire  broke  out,  which  consumed 
nearly  one-fourth  part  of  the  buildings.  It  is  said 
that  the  fire  was  discovered  in  many  different  places 
at  once  ;  and  hence  many  persons  supposed  that  the 
city  was  set  on  fire,  as  Moscow  has  more  recently 
been,  to  deprive  its  enemies  of  its  hospitable  shelter. 

General  Howe,  not  yet  convinced  of  the  constancy 
of  the  American  character,  still  indulged  a  hope 
that  they  might  now  be  sufficiently  humbled  to  ac- 
cede to  the  terms  offered  September  llth  by  Eng- 
land, and  again  made  overtures  for  reconciliation. 
Benjamin  Franklin,  John  Hancock,  and  Edward 
Rutledge,  were  accordingly  appointed  to  meet  the 
British  commissioners  at  Staten  Island.  But  as 
they  utterly  refused  to  treat  on  any  other  basis  than 
the  acknowledgment  of  American  independence, 
nothing  was  effected. 

The  situation  in  which  the  American  commander 
now  saw  the  momentous  contest,  could  not  but  have 
filled  him  with  alarming  apprehensions  for  the  fate 
of  his  country.  Until  the  check  at  Brooklyn,  the 
Americans  had  flattered  themselves  that  Heaven 
would  constantly  favour  their  arms.  From  the  ex- 
cessive confidence  which  had  intoxicated  them  in 
prosperity,  they  now  fell  into  a  state  of  dejection. 
At  first  they  had  believed  that  courage  without  dis- 
cipline could  do  all ;  they  now  thought  it  could  Jo 
nothing :  at  every  moment  they  were  apprehensive 
of  some  new  surprise,  and  at  every  step  fearful  of 
falling  into  an  ambuscade. 

Thus  discouraged,  the  militia  abandoned  their 
colours  by  hundreds,  and  entire  regiments  deserted 
to  their  homes.  In  the  regular  army  also,  subor- 
dination diminished,  and  desertions  were  common. 

Their  engagements  were  but  for  a  year,  or  a  few 
weeks,  and  the  hope  of  soon  returning  to  their 
families  induced  them  to  avoid  dangers.  The  fidelity 
of  the  generals  was  not  suspected,  but  their  talents 
were  distrusted,  and  every  thing  appeared  to  threaten 
a  total  dissolution  of  the  army.  Washington  strove 
earnestly,  with  exhortation,  persuasions,  and  pro- 
mises, to  arrest  this  spirit  of  disorganization.  If  he 
did  not  succeed  according  to  his  designs,  he  obtained 
more  than  his  hopes.  To  congress  he  addressed  an 
energetic  picture  of  the  deplorable  state  of  the  forces, 
and  assured  them  that  he  must  despair  of  success, 
unless  furnished  with  an  army  that  should  stand  by 
him  till  the  conclusion  of  the  enterprise.  To  effect 
this,  a  beauty  of  twenty  dollars  was  offered  at  the 
time  of  engagement,  and  portions  of  unoccupied 
lands  were  promised  to  the  officers  and  soldiers. 

But  although  Washington  hoped  ultimately  to 
reap  the  benefit  of  these  arrangements,  yet  time 
must  intervene  ;  and  his  present  prospect  was  that 
of  a  handful  of  dispirited  and  ill-found  troops,  to 
contend  against  a  large  and  victorious  army.  In 
this  situation  he  adopted  the  same  policy  by  which 


Fabius  Maximus  had  2000  years  before  preserved 
Italy,  when  invaded  by  Hannibal,  and  like  him 
saved  his  country.  Hence  he  has  been  called  the 
American  Fabius.  This  policy  was  to  risk  no  gene- 
ral engagement,  but  to  harass  and  wear  out  the 
enemy  by  keeping  them  in  motion ;  while  by  skir- 
mishes, where  success  was  probable,  he  would  by- 
degrees  diminish  their  number  and  inspirit  his  own 
troops. 

On  the  16th  of  September,  the  day  after  the  Bri- 
tish took  possession  of  New  York,  a  considerable 
body  of  their  troops  appeared  in  the  plain  between 
the  two  armies.  Washington  ordered  Col.  Knowl- 
ton  and  Major  Leech,  with  a  detachment,  to  get  in 
their  rear,  while  he  amused  them  with  preparations 
to  attack  them  in  front.  The  plan  succeeded ;  and 
although  the  brave  Knowlton  was  killed,  the  ren- 
contre was  favourable  to  the  Americans ;  particu- 
larly as  it  served  in  some  degree  to  restore  that  con- 
fidence in  themselves  which  their  preceding  misfor- 
tunes had  destroyed. 

The  British  commander  manoeuvred  with  great 
address  to  bring  Washington  to  a  general  engage- 
ment ;  but  failing  of  this,  he  endeavoured  to  destroy 
his  communication  with  the  eastern  states,  and  pre- 
vent his  supply  of  provisions  from  that  quarter.  To 
effect  this,  it  was  necessary  to-  occupy  the  two  roads 
leading  east.  The  one  on  the  coast  they  secured 
with  little  difficulty ;  but  to  occupy  the  more  inland 
road,  it  was  necessary  to  get  possession  of  that  post 
of  the  highlands  called  White  Plains.  Washington, 
aware  of  their  object,  removed  his  own  force  to  that 
place,  where  on  the  28th  of  October  he  was  attacked 
by  the  British  and  Hessians,  under  Generals  Howe, 
Clinton,  Knyphausen,  and  De  Heistcr.  A  partial 
engagement  ensued,  in  which  the  loss  on  both  sides 
was  considerable.  Howe  could  not,  however,  draw 
Washington  from  his  position  ;  which  he  maintained 
until  a  strong  British  reinforcement  arrived  under 
Lord  Percy,  he  dared  not  any  longer  risk  his  army, 
but  on  the  night  of  the  30th  he  withdrew  his  forces 
to  North  Castle.  Leaving  here  a  body  of  men  under 
General  Lee,  he  crossed  the  Hudson,  and  took  post 
near  fort  Lee. 

General  Howe  next  turned  his  attention  towards 
the  forts  Washington  and  Lee,  which  had  been  gar- 
risoned with  the  hope  of  preserving  the  command  of 
the  Hudson  river.  General  Washington,  foreseeing 
their  danger,  had  written  to  General  Greene,  who 
commanded  in  that  quarter,  that  if  he  should  find 
fort  Washington  not  in  a  situation  to  sustain  an  as- 
sault, to  cause  it  instantly  to  be  evacuated.  General 
Greene,  believing  that  it  might  be  maintained,  left 
it  under  the  command  of  the  brave  Colonel  Magaw, 
with  a  force  of  2700  men.  On  the  16th  of  Novem- 
ber the  British  attacked  the  fort  in  four  different 
quarters.  The  Americans  repelled  them  with  surh 
bravery,  that  in  the  course  of  the  day  about  1200  of 
the  assailants  were  killed  or  wounded.  At  length, 
the  Americans  were  forced  to  capitulate  ;  but  not 
without  securing  to  themselves  honourable  terms. 
The  prisoners  taken  by  the  British  at  this  time, 
amounted  to  about  2000,  a  greater  :  amber  than  had, 
on  any  previous  occasion,  fallen  into  their  hands. 

The  British  army  immediately  crossed  the  Hudson 
to  attack  fort  Lee ;  but  the  garrison,  apprised  of 
their  approach,  evacuated  the  fort,  and  under  the 
guidance  of  General  Greene,  joined  the  main  army 
at  Newark. 

The  acquisition  of  these  two  forts,  and  the  dimi- 
nution of  the  American  army,  by  the  departure  of 
those  soldier?  whose  term  of  service  had  expired, 


1048 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


encouraged  the  British  to  hope  that  they  should  be 
able  to  annihilate,  with  ease,  the  remaining  force 
of  the  republicans.  Washington  still  pursued  the 
policy  of  avoiding  an  engagement,  as  the  only  hope 
of  preserving  his  little  army.  Finding  himself,  in 
the  post  which  he  had  taken  at  Newark,  too  near 
his  triumphant  foe,  he  removed  to  Brunswick.  The 
same  day,  Coinwallis,  with  a  part  of  the  British 
army,  entered  Newark.  Washington  again  retreated 
from  Brunswick  to  Princeton,  and  thence  to  Tren- 
ton. The  British  still  pursuing,  he  finally  crossed 
the  Delaware  into  Pennsylvania. 

General  Howe  appears,  on  this  occasion,  to  have 
manifested  himself  deficient  in  the  energy  and 
promptitude  of  the  military  character  ;  as,  with  an 
army  of  sixfold  numerical  force,  and  tenfold  efficient 
strength,  comprised  of  disciplined  troops,  iu  health 
and  vigour,  ably  commanded,  completely  found  in 
all  things,  and  elated  with  success,  he  did  not  com- 
mence the  pursuit  till  four  days  after  the  capture  of 
forts  Washington  and  Lee. 

On  the  28th  of  November,  as  the  American  rear- 
guard left  Newark  at  one  end  of  the  town,  the  Bri- 
tish van  entered  the  other  ;  and  at  any  time  after 
this,  till  Washington  crossed  the  Delaware,  by  a 
single  forced  march,  they  might  have  overtaken  and 
destroyed  his  army.  But  forced  marches  were  not 
ordered  by  General  Howe  ;  and  when  he  arrived  at 
the  Delaware,  vhere  he  had  hoped  to  overtake  the 
Americans,  the  last  boat  with  the  baggage  was 
crossing  the  river. 

The  British  general,  not  choosing,  however,  to 
take  the  trouble  of  constructing  flat-bottomed  boats, 
for  carrying  over  his  troops,  and  the  Americans 
having  been  careful  not  to  leave  theirs  for  his  ac- 
commodation, he  arranged  his  German  troops,  to 
the  number  of  4000,  along  the  Delaware,  from 
Holly  to  Trenton  ;  placed  a  strong  British  force  at 
Princeton  ;  stationed  his  main  army  at  Brunswick, 
and  retired  himself  to  New  York,  to  wait  for  the 
river  to  freeze,  and  that  they  might  be  furnished 
with  a  convenient  bridge;  not  doubting,  as  it  would 
seem,  but  that  the  Americans  would  quietly  wait 
until  he  was  ready  to  pass  over  and  destroy  them. 

Congress  at  this  period  manifested  their  sense  of 
the  talents  and  services  of  the  cominander-in-chief, 
by  resolving  that  he  should  be  possessed  of  full 
powers  to  order  and  direct  all  things  relative  to  the 
operations  of  the  war. 

Distress  of  Washington's  army  —  General  Lee  made 
prisoner  —  Washington  attacks  Cornwallis  —  Arnold 
defeated  —  British  blockade  Providence  —  Congress 
extraordinary  powers  to  Washington. 


Washington  showed  how  well  he  deserved  the 
confidence  reposed  in  him,  by  making  every  ex- 
ertion to  increase  his  army,  which,  feeble  as  it  was 
when  he  commenced  his  retreat,  had  hourly  dimi- 
nished. His  troops  were  unfed  amidst  fatigue; 
unshod,  while  their  bleeding  feet  were  forced  rapidly 
over  the  sharp  projections  of  frozen  ground;  and 
they  had  to  endure  the  keen  December  air,  almost 
without  clothes  or  tents.  In  such  a  situation,  the 
wonder  is  not,  that  many  died  and  many  deserted, 
but  that  enough  remained  to  keep  up  the  show  of 
opposition.  In  this  distressing  situation,  Washing- 
ton manifested  to  his  troops  all  the  firmness  of  a 
commander,  while  he  showed  all  the  tenderness  of  a 
father.  He  visited  the  sick,  paid  every  attention 
in  his  power  to  the  wants  of  the  army,  praised  their 
constancy,  and  represented  their  sufferings  to  con- 
gress. He  encouxuged  their  despairing  minds,  by 


holding  out  the  prospects  of  a  better  future  ;  and  thtf 
serene  and  benignant  countenance  with  which  he 
covered  his  aching  heart,  made  them  believe  that 
their  beloved  and  sagacious  commander  was  himself 
animated  with  the  prospects  he  portrayed  to  them. 

The  distresses  of  the  Americans  were  increased  by 
the  desertion  of  many  of  the  supposed  friends  of 
their  cause.  Howetak'ing  advantage  of  what  he  con- 
sidered their  vanquished  and  hopeless  condition, 
offered  free  pardon  to  all  who  should  now  declare 
for  the  royal  authority.  Of  the  extremes  of  society, 
the  very  rich  and  the  very  poor,  numbers  now  sued 
for  the  royal  clemency ;  but  few  of  the  middle  class 
deserted  their  country  in  her  hour  of  peril. 

General  Leo,  as  has  been  before  stated,  was,  by 
the  orders  of  Washington,  separated  from  the  main 
body  of  the  army,  soon  after  the  battle  of  White 
Plains.  He  was  sent  northerly,  to  be  at  hand  to 
succour  the  troops  which  were  opposed  to  Carletou, 
upon  the  lakes.  But  when  Washington  found  the 
main  army  in  danger  of  annihilation,  he  ordered 
Lee  to  join  him  with  all  possible  expedition.  Mercer, 
who  commanded  a  corps  of  light  infantry  at  Bergen, 
and  Gates,  who  commanded  on  the  northern  frontier, 
received  similar  orders,  and  promptly  obeyed  them. 
Washington  had  also  sent  in  various  directions  to 
arouse  the  militia.  General  Mifflin,  from  Pennsyl- 
vania, had  now  joined  him  with  a  body  of  1500. 

Lee's  army  was  also  united  to  the  main  army ; 
but  it  was  under  the  conduct  of  General  Sullivan. 
General  Lee  had  not  promptly  executed  the  orders  of 
Washington,  but  had  lingered  along  the  northern 
mountains  of  New  Jersey  ;  where,  having  taken  up 
his  quarters  at  a  house  d'isrant  from  the  main  body 
of  his  army,  he  was  surprised  and  carried  prisoner 
to  New  York,  by  a  party  of  British  cavalry.  Sulli- 
van immediately,  as  before  stated,  conducted  the 
army  to  Washington's  camp. 

With  these  reinforcements,  the  American  forces 
amounted  to  about  7000  effective  men.  A  few  days, 
however,  would  close  the  year,  and  the  period 'of 
enlistment  for  a  considerable  portion  of  the  soldiers, 
expired  with  it.  The  cause  of  America  demanded 
that  important  use  should  be  made  of  the  short  spare 
which  intervened.  At  this  critical  moment,  Wash- 
ington formed  the  bold  resolution  of  re-crossing  the 
Delaware,  and  attacking  the  British  at  Trenton. 
It  has  been  remarked,  that  the  British  force  ex- 
tended on  the  left  bank  of  the  Delaware,  from  Tren- 
ton to  Holly,  below  Burlington.  Washington  de- 
signed to  cross  his  army  over  the  river,  in  three 
divisions  ; — at  Makonkey's  ferry,  at  Trenton  ferry, 
and  at  Bristol,  in  order  to  attack  the  posts  at  Tren- 
ton and  Burlington.  The  forces  to  cross  at  the  two 
last  places,  commanded  by  Irwing  and  Cadwallader. 
were  unable,  owing  to  the 


quantity  of  ice,  to  pro- 
ler  Washington,  crossed 


ceed.  The  main  body,  under 
at  Makonkey's  ferry.  "  This  force  was  separated  Int 
two  divisions,  commanded  by  Sullivan  and  Greene  ; 
under  whom  were  Lord  Sterling,  Generals  Mercer 
and  St.  Clair.  One  division  taking  the  upper  road, 
the  other  the  Pennington  road,  they  arrived  at 
Trenton  at  the  same  moment.  The  Hessians  under 
Colonel  Rahl  were  surprised,  and  their  commander 
slain.  Prisoners  to  the  amount  of  1000  were  taken 
by  the  Americans,  who  immediately  re-crossed  the 
Delaware!  The  joy  caused  by  this  success  was 
great;  and  it  was  unalloyed  by  that  sorrow,  which 
even  victory  generally  brings.  The  Americans  had 
scarcely  lost  a  man. 

Lord"  Cornwallis  was  at  this  time  in  New  York, 
on   the    point    of  embarking  for  England ;  but   on 


UNITED  STATES. 


1049 


receiving  this  news,  he  returned  instantly  to  New 
Jersey.  The  success  of  Washington  at  Trenton 
induced  the  Americans  to  serve  six  weeks  longer  ; 
and  Washington  had  again  quartered  at  Trenton 
Cornwallis  immediately  proceeded  towards  Trenton 
with  the  intention  of  giving  battle  to  the  Americans ; 
and  arrived  with  his  van-guard,  on  the  1st  of  Ja- 
nuary, having  left  a  part  of  his  troops  at  Princeton 
Washington,  knowing  the  inferiority  of  his  force, 
sensible  too  that  flight  would  be  almost  as  fatal  as 
defeat,  conceived  the  project  of  marching  to  Prince- 
ton, and  attacking  those  who  were  left  in  that  place. 
About  midnight,  leaving  his  fires  burning  briskly, 
that  his  army  should  not  be  missed,  he  silently  de- 
camped, and  gained,  by  a  circuitous  route,  the  rear 
of  the  enemy.  At  sun  rise,  the  van  of  the  American 
forces  met  unexpectedly  two  British  regiments.  A 
conflict  ensued  ;  the  Americans  gave  way  : — all  was 
at  stake  :  and  Washington  himself,  at  this  decisive 
moment,  led  on  the  main  body.  The  enemy  were 
routed,  and  fled.  Instead  of  pursuing  them,  Wash- 
ington pressed  forward  towards  Princeton,  where 
one  regiment  yet  remained.  A  part  of  these  saved 
themselves  by  flight ;  the  remainder,  about  300  in 
uuinber,  were  made  prisoners.  The  loss  of  the  Bri- 
tish was  upwards  of  100;  thatof  the  Americans  was 
less;  but  in  the  number  was  the  brave  General 
Mercer,  with  several  other  valuable  officers. 

On  hearing  the  cannonade  from  Princeton,  Corn- 
wallis, apprehensive  for  the  safety  of  his  Brunswick 
stores,  immediately  put  his  army  ill  motion  for  that 
place.  Washington  on  the  approach  of  Cornwallis, 
retired  to  Morristown.  When  somewhat  refreshed, 
he  again  appeared  against  the  British;  and  having 
taken  possession  of  Newark,  Woodbridge,  Eli/a- 
bethtown,  and  indeed  of  all  the  enemy's  posts  in 
New  Jersey,  except  Brunswick  and  Amboy,  he  re- 
tired, on  the  6th  of  January,  to  secure  quarters  at 
Morristown.  In  order  to  give  a  connected  view  of 
the  important  operations  of  the  main  armies,  events 
have  been  omitted,  which,  had  the  order  of  time  been 
strictly  observed,  would  have  been  sooner  inserted. 

On  the  llth  of  October,  the  northern  American 
force  under  General  Arnold,  and  the  British  force 
under  Carleton,  met  on  lake  Champlain,  near  the 
island  of  Valcour.  The  American  armament  was 
entirely  destroyed  ;  and  General  Carleton,  after  pro- 
ceeding to  Crown  Point,  reconnoitred  the  posts  at 
Ticonderoga  and  Mount  Independence,  and  returned 
to  winter-quarters  in  Canada. 

On  the  same  day  that  General  Washington  re- 
treated over  the  Delaware,  the  British  took  posses- 
sion of  Rhode  Island,  and  blockaded  the  squadron 
of  Commodore  Hopkins,  together  with  a  number  of 
privateers,  at  Providence. 

On  the  4th  of  October,  congress  adopted  certain 
articles,  which  were  afterwards  approved  by  the 
several  state  governments,  by  which  they  agreed, 
that  on  the  first  Monday  of  November  in  each  year, 
a  general  congress  should  be  convoked,  of  deputies 
from  each  of  the  states,  and  invested  with  all  the 
powers  which  belong  to  the  sovereigns  of  other  na- 
tions. These  powers  were  set  forth,  and  the  limits 
between  the  authority  of  the  state  and  national  go- 
vernment as  clearly  defined,  as  was  at  that  time 
practicable.  These  articles  gave  to  the  nation  the 
style  of  the  "  United  States  of  America."  They 
were  called  the  articles  of  confederation,  and  formed 
the  basis  of  the  American  government,  until  the 
adoption  of  the  federal  constitution. 

Never  perhaps  was  a  firmer  or  a  wiser  band  of 
patriots,  than  that  which  composed  the  congress 


of  1776.  They  were  environed  with  difficulties  which 
would  have  utterly  discouraged  men  of  weaker  heads 
or  fainter  hearts.  They  were  without  any  power, 
except  the  power  to  recommend.  They  had  an  ex- 
hausted army  to  recruit,  amidst  a  discouraged  peo- 
ple, and  a  powerful  and  triumphant  foe ;  and  all 
fliis,  not  merely  without  money,  but  almost  without 
credit ;  for  the  bills  which  they  had  formerly  issued 
had  greatly  depreciated,  and  were  daily  depreci- 
ating :  yet  they  held  their  course  of  patriotic  ex- 
ertion, undismayed.  In  order  to  provide  pecuniary 
resources,  they  passed  a  law,  authorizing  a  loan  of 
5,000,000  dollars,  at  four  percent,  yearly.  They 
also  created  a  lottery  ;  intending  by  this  means  to 
raise  the  sum  of  1,500,000  dollars.  Aware  of  the 
importance  of  inducing  the  French  to  espouse  the 
American  cause,  they  appointed,  as  commissioners 
to  the  court  of  France,  Benjamin  Franklin,  Silas 
Deane,  and  Arthur  Lee.  They  instructed  them  to 
procure  arms  and  ammunition,  to  obtain  permission 
to  fit  out  American  vessels  in  the  ports  of  France, 
in  order  to  annoy  the  commerce  of  England.  They 
directed  them  to  solicit  a  loan  of  10,000,000  franks, 
and  to  endeavour,  by  every  means  in  their  power,  to 
prevail  upon  the  French  government  to  recognise 
the  independence  of  the  United  States. 

To  General  Washington  they'gave.for  six  months, 
powers  which  were  almost  dictatorial.  They  gave 
him  authority  to  levy  and  organize  sixteen  batta- 
lions of  infantry,  in  a'ddition  to  those  already  voted 
by  congress,  and  to  appoint  their  officers ;  to  raise 
and  equip  3000  light-horse,  three  regiments  of  ar- 
tillery, and  a  corps  of  engineers,  and  to  establish 
their  pay.  They  empowered  him  to  call  into  service 
the  militia  of  several  states ;  to  displace  and  appoint 
all  officers  under  the  rank  of  brigadier-general,  and 
to  fill  up  all  vacancies  in  every  department  of  the 
American  army.  They  also  authorized  him  to  take 
whatever  he  might  want  for  the  use  of  the  army, 
even  if  the  inhabitants  refused  to  sell  it,  establishing 
his  own  price  for  the  same  ;  and  to  arrest  and  con- 
fine persons  who  refused  to  take  the  continental 
money,  returning  their  names  and  the  nature  of 
their  offences,  to  the  states  of  which  they  were  citi- 
zens. This  confidence  in  the  good  faith  of  their 
defender,  entitled  them  to  find,  and  they  did  find, 
one  that  was  faithful. 

Campaign  of  1777 — Excesses  of  the  English  army  in 
New  Jersey — Revolt  of  the  loyalists  —  Governor 
Tryon  advances  to  Danbury — Exploit  of  Colonel 
Meiys  at  Sag  Harbour — La  Fayette  espouses  the 
American  cause — Cornwallis  defeats  Sterling. 

The  inhabitants  of  New  Jersey  were  so  exaspe- 
rated at  the  excesses  which  the  English  and  Hessians 
liad  committed,  that  these  troops  now  occupying 
Brunswick  and  Amboy,  could  not  venture  out  even 
o  forage,  without  extreme  danger.  General  DC 
Hfiister  had  not  attempted  to  suppress  his  licentious 
soldiery ;  and  the  English  soon  vied  with  the  Ger- 
mans in  all  scenes  of  violence,  outrage,  cruelty,  and 
plunder ;  and  New  Jersey  presented  only  scenes  of 
havoc  and  desolation.  The  complaints  of  America 
were  echoed  throughout  Europe,  and  it  was  every 
where  reproachfully  said,  that  "  England  had  re- 
vived in  America  the  fury  of  the  Goths,  and  the 
sarbarity  of  the  northern  hordes." 

At  this  period  the  loyalists  evinced  a  spirit  of  re- 
volt in  the  counties  of  Somerset  and  Worcester,  in 
Maryland;  of  Sussex  in  Delaware,  and  of  Albany 
n  New  York,  to  which  places  troops  were  sent  to 
overawe  them. 


1050 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


The  small-pox  which  had  made  such  ravages  in 
the  northern  army  during  the  last  year,  now  thrca 
tened  the  middle.  To  prevent  the  loss  of  lives  from 
this  source,  Washington  caused  his  army,  both  re 
gulars  and  militia,  to  be  inoculated ;  and  the  affai 
was  so  prudently  conducted,  that  no  opportunity 
was  in  consequence  offered  for  the  British  to  attack 
his  camp. 

The  first  attempts  of  the  British  during  the  cam 
paign  of  1777,  were  against  the  American  storei 
collected  at  Courtland  Manor,  in  New  York,  and  a 
Danbury,  in  Connecticut.  Peekskill,  the  port  of  th» 
Manor,  was  then  in  command  of  Colonel  McDougal 
The  23rd  of  March,  the  British,  under  Colonel  Bird 
attacked  this  post,  and  McDougal,  knowing  his  few 
men  could  not  defend  it,  destroyed  the  magazines 
and  retired  to  the  back  country.  The  loss,  though 
greater  than  the  Americans  would  acknowledge, 
was  less  than  Howe  anticipated. 

The  25th  of  April,  2000  men  under  Governor 
Tryon,  major  of  the  provincials  or  tories,  having 
past  the  sound,  landed  between  Fairfieid  and  Nor- 
walk.  The  next  day  proceeding  to  Danbury,  he 
compelled  the  garrison  under  Colonel  Huntington 
to  retire,  and  not  only  destroyed  the  stores,  but 
burned  the  town. 

Meantime,  800  militia  had  collected  to  annoy 
them  on  their  return  ;  of  whom  500,  under  Arnold, 
took  post  at  Ridgefield  to  attack  their  front,  while 
300,  under  General  Wooster,  fell  upon  their  rear. 
Both  parties  were  repulsed,  Wooster  slain,  and 
Arnold  retired  to  Saugatuck,  about  three  miles  east 
of  Norwalk.  The  enemy  having  spent  the  night  at 
Ridgefield,  set  fire  to  it,  still  retreating,  although 
continually  harassed  by  Arnold's  party,  now  in- 
creased to  1000 ;  until  they  at  length  arrived  at 
Compo,  between  Norwalk  and  Fairfieid,  and  took 
refuge  on  board  their  ships.  The  British  loss  was 
170,  the  American  100.  As  to  the  stores  taken, 
the  loss  of  tents  was  most  severely  felt  by  the  Ame- 
ricans. From  the  promptitude  with  which  the  inha- 
bitants rose  on  the  marauders,  who  expected  many 
to  join  them,  the  friends  of  liberty  had  their  hopes 
invigorated,  and  their  exertions  encouraged. 

The  same  effect  was  also  produced  by  another 
affair  which  occurred  soon  after.  The  British  had 
collected  at  Sag  Harbour,  on  Long  Island,  immense 
magazines  of  forage  and  grain.  Colonel  Meigs,  one 
of  the  intrepid  companions  of  Arnold  in  the  expedi- 
tion to  Canada,  with  130  men,  left  Guilford  on  the 
23rd  of  May,  destroyed  the  stores,  burned  a  dozen 
brigs  and  sloops,  killed  six  of  the  enemy,  took  90 
prisoners,  and  returned  without  loss. 

About  this  time  the  effects  of  the  mission  to 
France  began  to  appear.  Congress  had  with  great 
judgment  selected  Dr.  Franklin  as  one  of  the  com- 
missioners. A  profound  knowledge  of  human  na- 
ture, united  with  a  warm  and  cheerful  benevolence, 
had  given  to  this  philosopher  a  manner  possessing  a 
peculiar  charm,  attractive  to  all,  however  different 
their  taste  or  pursuits.  His  wit  and  gaiety  even 
at  70,  the  age  at  which  he  went  to  Paris,  had 
power  to  charm  the  young  beauty  from  her  lovers 
and  her  toilette  ;  while  his  wisdom  and  his  learning 
could  instruct  the  mechanic  in  his  own  trade,  or  the 
statesman  in  his  profoundest  calculations.  Perhaps 
it  is  equally  to  these  qualities  in  Franklin  as  to  the 
graver  wisdom  and  more  heroic  valour  of  Washing- 
ton that  America  owes  her  existence  as  a  nation ; 
for  it  must  ever  remain  problematical,  whether, 
without  the  aid  of  France,  she  could  have  achieved 
her  independence  ; — and  although  political  reasons 


might  have  operated  to  make  France  wish  evil  to 
England,  yet  without  the  interest  which  Franklin 
found  means  to  excite  for  America,  it  is  not  proba- 
ble the'government  would  have  effectually  interfered. 

This  interest  was  so  lively,  that  several  individuals 
of  distinction  took  the  generous  resolution  of  em- 
barking in  the  cause  of  America,  and  combating  in 
her  armies.  The  most  distinguished  of  these  was 
the  young  Marquis  de  la  Fayette.  With  every 
thing  to  attach  him  to  his  country,  rank,wealth,  a  de- 
serving and  beloved  bride,  he  was  yet  moved  by  com- 
passion to  the  suffering,  and  by  indignation  against 
oppression,  to  leave  all  that  was  individually  dear, 
to  expose  his  life  and  impair  his  fortune  in  the  cause 
of  American  liberty,  and  the  rights  of  man.  He 
had  early  communicated  his  resolution  to  the  com- 
missioners. After  hearing  of  the  disasters  which 
followed  the  battle  of  Long  Island,  they  felt  bound 
to  communicate  to  him  the  despairing  state  of  their 
country  ;  and  also  that  such  was  her  extreme  poverty 
that  they  could  not  even  provide  him  with  a  vessel 
for  his  conveyance.  "  Then,"  said  Fayette,  "  if 
your  country  is  indeed  reduced  to  this  extremity, 
this  is  the  moment  that  my  departure  to  join  her 
armies,  will  render  her  the  most  essential  service." 
His  arrival  caused  a  deep  sensation  of  joy  among 
the  people.  Congress  appointed  him  a  major-ge- 
neral in  the  army  ;  and  Washington  received  him 
into  his  family,  and  regarded  him  with  parental 
affection. 

The  American  commander,  in  forming  such  a 
probable  calculation  on  the  movements  of  his  enemy 
at  New  York,  as  would  enable  him  to  make  a  judi- 
cious disposition  of  his  own  army,  which  now 
amounted  to  18,000,  was  well  aware  that  there  were 
two  objects  of  surpassing  magnitude  to  the  British. 
The  one  was  to  get  possession  of  Philadelphia ;  and 
the  other  to  proceed  up  the  Hudson  and  form  a 
junction  with  the  northern  army,  and  thus  cut  off 
the  communication  between  the  eastern  and  south- 
ern states.  His  sagacious  mind  comprehended  that 
the  latter  was  the  most  important  enterprise ;  and 
tie  knew  that  it  best  coincided  with  the  orders  which 
Howe  had  received  from  England.  He  was  there- 
fore inclined  to  believe  that  such  would  be  his  course; 
but  he  also  knew  that  Howe  had,  the  preceding 
year,  manifested  a  disposition  to  follow  his  own 
plans,  rather  than  those  of  the  ministry ;  and  that 
t  was  a  favourite  project  with  him  to  draw  the  Ame- 
ricans into  a  general  engagement,  not  doubting  but 
,hat  it  would  issue  in  their  final  discomfiture. 
Washington  therefore  sought  to  make  such  a  dispo- 
sition of  his  forces  as  should  best  enable  him  to  con- 
centrate them  in  opposition  to  the  British  com- 
mander, whichever  way  he  should  turn.  He  re- 
moved the  main  army  from  Morristown  and  took  a 
trong  position  at  the  heights  of  Middlebrook.  He 
tationed  the  troops  raised  in  the  northern  provinces 
at  Peekskill  and  Ticonderoga,  and  those  from  the 
middle  and  southern  in  New  Jersey. 

Howe  commenced  his  operations  by  an  attempt, 
vhich  the  time  wasted  in  his  last  campaign  might 
lave  taught  him  would  be  fruitless ;  which  -fras  to 
Iraw  the  American  commander  into  a  general  en- 
gagement. For  this  purpose  he  crossed  the  Hudson, 
ind  marched  to  Middlebrook ;  but  finding  the  Ame- 
ican  camp  too  strong  to  attack,  he  remained  several 
lays  before  it,  vainly  offering  battle.  Finding  that 
Washington  could  not  be  thus  induced  to  leave  his 
ntrenchments,  he  made  a  feiut  to  induce  Washing- 
on  to  believe  that  he  was  going  to  attack  Philadel- 
*hia,  by  detaching  first  several  parlies,  ami  finally 


UNITED  STATES. 


1051 


his  whole  army  towards  the  Delaware.  But  failing 
in  these  attempts  to  draw  Washington  from  his 
camp,  as  though  nothing  further  could  be  effected, 
on  the  19th  of  June  he  ordered  a  precipitate  retreat 
from  Jersey.  Having  arrived  at  Amboy,  the  bridge 
designed  for  ,the  Delaware  was  thrown  hastily  over 
to  Staten  Island,  and  all  the  heavy  baggage  and 
many  of  the  troops  passed  it.  Even  Washington 
was  for  once  deceived.  He  ordered  his  army  to  the 
pursuit,  and  proceeded  himself  to  Quibbletown,  six 
miles  nearer  Amboy.  Howe  having  thus  at  length 
succeeded  in  drawing  Washington  from  his  camp, 
recalled  his  troops  during  the  night  of  the  25th  from 
the  island  to  the  continent ;  and  the  next  day  pro- 
ceeded against  the  Americans  in  two  parties — the 
right  or  eastern  under  Cornwallis,  to  proceed  by 
Woodbridge  to  Scotch  Plains — the  left  under  Howe, 
to  go  by  Metuckin.  Howe  was  to  attack  the  Ame- 
ricans at  Quibbletown;  Cornwallis  to  gain  the 
heights  at  Middlebrook. 

After  passing  Middlebrook,  Cornwallis  attacked 
and  defeated  700  Americans,  under  Stirling.  The 
noise  of  the  firing  instantly  convinced  Washington 
what  was  the  design  of  the  English.  He  with  cele- 
rity regained  his  camp  at  Middlebrook.  and  detached 
parties  which  secured  his  lefi  or  eastern  pass,  which 
Cornwallis  designed  to  take.  Washington  being 
again  within  his  strong  hold,  Howe  and  Cornwallis 
retired  to  Amboy,  and  passed  with  their  army  to 
Staten  Island. 

General  Prescott  captured — Burgoyne  arrives  at  Que- 
bec with  an  army— Fort  Stantvix  invested— Bur- 
goyne's army  move  to  Crown  Point — Americans 
low  1000  men — Schuyler  retreats — British  defeated 
at  Bennington — Battle  near  Saratoga — British  de- 
feated— Bouryoyne  surrenders — Garrison  of  Ticon- 
deroga  retreat — Kingston  is  burned, 

Great  preparations  were  now  made  by  the  English 
at  Staten  Island  and  New  York  ;  but  whether  their 
object  was  to  co-operate  by  the  Hudson  with  the 
Canadian  army,  or  to  conquer  Philadelphia,  was 
indeterminable. 

On  the  night  of  July  10th,  occurred  the  capture 
of  General  Prescott,  then  in  command  on  Rhode 
Island.  Colonel  Barton,  with  40  country  militia 
under  his  command,  proceeded  from  Warwick,  ton 
miles  in  their  whale  boats,  landed  between  Newport 
and  Bristol,  marched  a  mile  to  Prescott' s  quarters, 
took  the  general  from  his  bed,  and  conducted  him 
with  dispatch  to  a  place  of  safety  on  the  main  land. 

Mean  time  great  preparations  were  making  for  a 
descent  upon  the  United  States  from  Canada.  The 
plan  of  dividing  the  states,  by  effecting  a  junction 
of  the  British  army  through  lake  Champlain  and 
the  Hudson,  was  at  the  beginning  of  this  year 
looked  to  by  the  whole  British  nation  as  the  certain 
means  of  effecting  the  reduction  of  America.  This 
plan  had  gained  new  favour  in  England  by  the  re- 
presentations of  General  Burgoyne,  an  officer  who 
had  served  under  Carleton,  and  whose  knowledge  of 
American  affairs  was  therefore  undisputed.  Bur- 
goyne by  his  importunities  with  the  British  ministry, 
obtained  the  object  for  which  he  had  made  a  voyage 
to  England.  He  was  appointed  to  the  command  of 
all  the  troops  in  Canada,  to  the  prejudice  of  Gover- 
nor Carleton,  and  wtis  furnished  with  an  army  and 
military  stores.  With  these  he  arrived  at  Quebec 
in  May. 

General  Carleton,  exhibiting  an  honourable  ex- 
ample of  moderation  and  patriotism,  seconded  Bur- 
goyuc  iu  hit;  preparations  with  great  diligence  and 


energy.  To  increase  the  army  he  exerted  not  only 
bis  authority  as  governor,  but  also  his  influence 
among  his  numerous  friends  and  partisans.  Though 
himself  averse  to  employing  the  savages,  yet  such 
being  the  orders  of  the  British  government,  he  aided 
in  bringing  to  the  field  even  a  greater  number  than 
could  be  employed. 

Burgoyne's  army  was  provided  with  a  formidable 
train  of  artillery.  The  principal  officers  who  were 
to  accompany  him  were  General  Philips,  who  had 
distinguished  himself  in  the  German  wars,  Briga- 
diers Frazer  and  Powcl ;  the  Brunswick  Major- 
general  Baron  Reidesel,  and  Brigadier-general 
Sperht.  The  army  consisted  of  7173  British  and 
German  troops,  besides  several  thousands  of  Cana- 
dians and  Indians. 

Burgoyne's  plan  of  operation  was  that  Colonel 
St.  Leger  should  proceed  with  a  detachment  by  the 
St.  Lawrence,  Oswego,  and  Fort  Stanwix  to  Albany. 
Burgoyne  proceeding  by  Champlain  and  the  Hud- 
son, was  to  meet  St.  Leger  at  Albany,  and  both 
join  General  Clinton  at  New  York. 

His  preparations  completed,  Burgoyne  moved 
forward  with  his  army,  and  made  his  first  encamp- 
ment on  the  western  shore  of  lake  Champlain  at  the 
river  Boquet.  Here  in  two  instances  he  betrayed 
that  vanity  which  his  biographers  consider  the  cha- 
racteristic weakness  of  his  character.  He  made  a 
speech  to  his  Indian  allies,  in  which,  in  terms  of 
singular  energy  and  with  an  imposing  manner,  he 
endeavoured  to  persuade  them  to  change  their  sa- 
vage mode  of  warfare.  He  also  published  a  procla- 
mation, in  which,  by  arguments,  promises,  and 
threats,  (threats  of  savage  extermination !)  he 
seemed  to  expect  that  he  should  bring  the  republi- 
cans to  the  royal  standard  ;  as  if  the  words  which  he 
should  speak  could  change  the  natural  character, 
and  established  manners  of  a  nation;  or  those 
which  he  could  write  should  have  power  to  subvert 
the  purpose  of  men,  whom  all  the  previous  measures 
of  his  government  bad  failed  to  intimidate. 

Meanwhile  St.  Leger,  and  Sir  John  Jonson  who 
bad  united  with  him,  having  nearly  2,000  troops, 
including  savages,  invested  Fort  Stanwix  then  in 
command  of  Colonel  Gansevoort.  On  the  3rd  of 
May,  General  Herkimer  having  collected  the  militia, 
marched  to  the  velief  of  Gansevoort ;  but  he  fell  into 
an  English  ambuscade,  and  was  defeated  and  slain 
with  700  of  his  troops.  St.  Leger  wishing  to  profit 
by  his  victory,  pressed  upon  the  fort.  In  this  peril- 
ous moment,  Colonel  Willet  and  Lieutenant  Stock- 
ton escaped  from  the  fort,  made  their  way  through 
the  English  camp,  eluding  the  Indians,  arrived  at 
German  Flats,  and  proceeded  tc  Albany  to  alarm 
the  country  and  gain  assistance. 

General  Schuyler,  on  hearing  the  danger  of  the 
fort,  dispatched  "Arnold  to  its  relief.  *  On  his  ap- 
proach, the  Indians  having  previously  become  dis- 
satisfied, now  mutinied,  and  compelled  St.  Leger  to 
return  to  Montreal.  On  the  way.  they  committed 
such  depredations  on  tne  British  troops,  as  to  leave 
the  impression  that  they  were  no  less  dangerous  as 
allies  than  as  enemies. 

To  preserve  a  connected  view  of  the  expedition  of 
St.  Leger,  we  have  nearly  two  months,  forestalled 
the  operations,  of  Burgoyne.  On  the  30th  oi  June 
that  general  advanced  to  Crown  Point,  from  whence 
he  proceeded  to  invest  Ticouderoga,  which  -A  as 
garrisoned  by  3000  men,  under  the  command  of 
General  St..  Clair.  This  was  a  place  of  great  na- 
tural strength,  and  much  expense  aud  labour  had 
been  bcfrtovved  upon  its  ioi tin' cations  -}  but  up  to  this 


1052 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


period  a  circumstance  respecting  it  seems  to  have 
been  strangely  overlooked.  It  is  commanded  by  an 
eminence  in  its  neighbourhood  called  Mount  De- 
fiance. The  troops  of  Burgoyne  got  possession  of 
this  height  on  the  5th  of  July,  and  St.  Clair  finding 
the  post  no  longer  tenable,  evacuated  it  on  the  same 
night.  The  garrison,  separated  into  two  divisions, 
were  to  proceed  through  Hubbardton  to  Skeenes- 
borough.  The  first  division  under  St.  Clair,  left 
the  fort  in  the  night,  two  hours  earlier  than  the 
second  under  Colonel  Francis.  The  stores  and 
baggage,  placed  on  board  200  batteaux,  and  con- 
voyed by  five  armed  galleys,  were  to  meet  the  army 
at  Skeenesborough. 

General  Frazer,  with  850  of  the  British,  pursued 
and  attacked  the  division  at  Hubbardton,  under 
Colonel  Francis,  whose  rear  was  commanded  by 
Colonel  Warner.  The  Americans  made  a  brave 
resistance,  during  which  130  of  the  enemy  were 
killed;  but  the  British,  in  the  heat  of  the  action, 
receiving  a  reinforcement  under  Reidesel,  the  re- 
publicans were  forced  to  give  way.  They  fled  in 
every  direction,  spreading  through  the  country  the 
terror  of  the  British  arms.  In  this  unfortunate 
action  the  Americans  lost  in  killed,  wounded,  and 
prisoners,  nearly  1000  men.  Many  of  the  wounded 
perished  in  the  woods.  Colonel  Francis  was  among 
the  slain. 

A  part  of  the  stores  and  armed  galleys  which  had 
been  sent  up  the  lake,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
British.  St.  Clair,  on  hearing  of  these  disasters, 
did  not  pursue  his  intended  route,  but  struck  into 
the  woods  on  his  left.  At  Manchester  he  was 
joined  by  the  remnant  of  the  vanquished  division, 
conducted  by  General  Warner.  After  a  distressing 
march,  he  reached  the  camp  of  General  Schuyter, 
at  Port  Edward,  on  the  30th.  Warner  remained 
in  Manchester  with  a  detachment,  which  proved  of 
great  importance  in  the  affair  which  shortly  after 
occurred  at  Bennington. 

Burgoyne,  meanwhile,  took  possession  of  Skeenes- 
borough. The  American  army  under  Schuyler  re- 
tired as  he  approached,  successively,  to  Fort  Anne, 
to  Fort  Edward,  to  Saratoga,  and  finally,  on  the 
13th  of  August,  to  the  islands  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Mohawk. 

This  period  of  the  history  was  gloomy  to  America, 
and  triumphant  to  England.  When  the  news  of 
Burgoyne's  successes  reached  that  country,  the  mi- 
nisters were  every  where  felicitated  on  the  success 
of  their  plans;  and  rejoicings  were  made,  as  though 
their  object  was  already  attained.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Americans  saw  that  the  juncture  was 
critical  and  alarming ;  but  their  spirit  rose  with  the 
occasion,  and  they  breasted  themselves  to  the  shock. 

General  Schuyler,  before  leaving  the  northern 
positions,  obstructed  the  roads  by  breaking  the 
bridges,  and,  in  the  only  passable  defiles,  by  cutting 
immense  trees  on  both  sides  of  the  way,  to  fall  cross 
and  lengthwise.  These,  with  their  branches  inter- 
woven, presented  to  the  enemy  an  almost  insur- 
mountable barrier. 

Congress  were  aware  of  the  great  merits  and  ex- 
ertions of  General  Schuyler;  yet  they  found  that 
the  misfortunes  of  the  army  had,  though  undeservedly, 
made  him  unpopular;  and  therefore  it  was  neces- 
sary to  supersede  him,  in  order  to  make  way  for  a 
leader,  who  should  inspire  a  confidence  that  would 
draw  volunteers  to  the  service.  Accordingly  Gene- 
ral Gates  was  appointed  to  the  command.  Lincoln 
also  was  ordered  to  the  north,  as  were  Arnold  and 
Morgan,  whose  active  spirits  and  brilliant  achieve- 


ments, it  was  hoped,  would  reanimate  the  dispirited 
troops.  The  celebrated  patriot  of  Poland,  Kosci- 
usko,  was  also  in  the  army,  as  its  chief  engineer. 

Burgoyne,  having  with  great  expense  of  labour 
and  time  opened  a  way  for  his  army,  arrived  at  the 
Hudson  on  the  30th  of  July.  But  being  in  a  hostile 
country,  he  could  obtain  no  provisions  but  from  Ti- 
conderoga;  and  these  he  was  compelled  to  trans- 
port by  the  way  of  lake  George.  Learning  that 
there  was  a  large  depot  of  provisions  at  Bennington, 
he  sent  400  men  under  Lieutenant-colonel  Baum,  a 
brave  German  officer,  to  seize  them.  General  Stark, 
with  a  body  of  New  Hampshire  militia,  was  on  his 
march  to  join  General  Gates,  when  hearing  of 
Baum's  approach,  he  recruited  his  forces  from  the 
neighbouring  militia,  and  met  him  four  miles  from 
Bennington.  After  a  sharp  conflict,  Baum  was 
killed,  and  his  party  defeated.  The  militia  had  dis- 
persed to  seek  for  plunder,  when  a  British  rein- 
forcement under  Colonel  Breyman  arrived.  Fortu- 
nately for  the  Americans,  the  Green  Mountain 
Boys,  under  Colonel  Warner,  appeared  at  the  same 
time,  and  the  British  were  again  defeated,  and 
compelled  to  retreat.  Their  loss  was  700,  the 
greater  part  of  whom  were  taken  prisoners.  The 
republican  loss  was  inconsiderable. 

After  the  battle  of  Bennington,  the  Hessian  pri- 
soners were  carried  into  the  village,  and  distributed 
into  public  buildings  and  out-houses.  The  meeting 
house  was  filled  to  crowding.  The  next  day  an 
alarm  was  suddenly  given  to  the  women  of  the  vil- 
lage, to  take  their  children  and  flee.  The  Hessians, 
it  was  said,  were  rising  on  their  guard.  They  were 
rushing  in  all  directions  out  of  the  meeting-house. 
The  guard  fired,  and  killed  five  of  them.  But  the 
fears  of  the  inhabitants  were  suddenly  changed  to 
compassion.  The  galleries  were  giving  way.  In 
danger  of  being  crushed  to  death,  the  unfortunate 
men  rushed  out  and  met  the  fire  of  a  guard,  who 
could  not  understand,  from  their  foreign  speech, 
their  explanation  of  the  disoder. 

The  army  of  the  islands  having  been  reinforced, 
and  amounting  to  5000,  Gates  left  that  encampment 
the  8th  of  September,  and  proceeding  to  Stillwater, 
occupied  Behmus  heights. 

On  the  12th,  Burgoyne  crossed  the  Hudson,  and 
on  the  14th  encamped  at  Saratoga.  An  obstinate 
and  bloody  battle  occurred  at  Stillwater  on  the  19th. 
At  first  it  was  partial,  commencing  with  a  skirmish 
between  the  advanced  parties.  Each  party  kept 
reinforcing  their  own  combatants,  until  nearly  the 
whole  were  in  action.  The  American  combatants 
took  advantage  of  a  wood  which  lay  between  the 
two  camps,  and  poured  from  it  a  fire  too  deadly  to 
be  withstood.  The  British  lines  broke;  and  the 
Americans  rushing  from  their  coverts,  pursued  them 
to  an  eminence,  where  their  flanks  being  supported, 
they  rallied ;  charging  in  their  turn,  they  drove  the 
Americans  into  the  woods,  from  which  they  again 
poured  a  dreadful  fire,  and  again  the  British  fell 
back.  At  every  charge  the  British  artillery  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  Americans,  who  could  neither 
carry  it  off,  or  turn  it  on  the  enemy.  At  length 
night  came  on,  and  to  fight  longer,  would  be  to  at- 
tack indiscriminately  friends  and  foes. 

The  Americans  retired  to  their  camp,  having  lost 
between  300  and  400  men  :  the  loss  of  the  British 
was  500.  Both  sides  claimed  the  victory ;  but  the 
advantage  gained  was  clearly  on  the  side  of  the 
Americans. 

Skirmishes,  frequent  and  animated,  occurred  be- 
tween this  and  the  7th  of  October,  wh«n  a  general 


UNITED  STATES. 


1053 


battle  was  fought  at  Saratoga.  At  this  time  the 
right  wing  of  General  Gates  occupied  the  brow  of 
the  hill  near  the  river.  This  camp  was  in  the  form 
of  the  segment  of  a  great  circle,  the  convex  side 
towards  the  enemy. 

General  Burgoyne's  left  was  on  the  river,  his  right 
extending  at  right  angles  to  it  across  the  low  grounds, 
about  200  yards,  to  a  range  of  steep  heights,  occu- 
pied by  his  choicest  troops. 

The  guard  of  his  camp  upon  the  high  grounds  was 
given  to  Brigadiers  Hamilton  and  Sperht ;  that  of 
the  redoubts  and  plain  near  the  river,  to  Brigadier 
Gole.  Burgoyne  commanded  in  person  the  centre 
detachment  of  1800,  and  was  seconded  by  Philips, 
Reidesel,  and  Frazer.  His  left  flank,  composed  of 
grenadiers,  was  commanded  by  Major  Ackland; 
his  right,  consisting  of  infantry,  by  the  earl  of  Bal- 
carras. 

The  Americans,  undei  General  Poor,  attacked 
the  left  flank  and  front  of  the  British  ;  and  at  the 
same  time  Colonel  Morgan  attacked  their  right.  The 
action  became  general.  The  efforts  of  the  comba- 
tants were  desperate.  Burgoyne  and  his  officers 
fought  like  men  who  were  defending  at  the  last  cast 
iheir  military  reputation ;  Gates  and  his  army,  like 
those  who  were  deciding  whether  their  native  land 
should  become  the  prey  of  invaders. 

The  invading  army  gave  way  in  the  short  space 
of  52  minutes.  The  defenders  of  the  soil  pursued 
them  to  their  intrenchments,  forced  the  guard,  and 
killed  Colonel  Breyman,  its  commander.  Arnold, 
the  tiger  of  the  American  army,  whose  track  was 
marked  by  carnage,  headed  a  small  band — stormed 
their  works,  and  followed  them  into  their  camp. 
But  his  horse  was  killed  under  him;  he  was  himself 
wounded,  and  darkness  was  coming  on.  He  re- 
tired ;  and  thus  was  reserved  to  another  day,  the 
utter  ruin  of  the  British  army. 

The  loss  in  killed  and  wounded  was  great  on  both 
sides,  but  especially  on  the  part  of  the  British,  of 
whom  a  considerable  number  were  made  prisoners. 
General  Frazer,  whose  character  was  as  elevated  as 
his  rank,  received  a  mortal  wound. 

The  Americans  had  now  an  opening  into  the  Bri- 
tish camp.  They  rested  on  their  arms  the  night 
after  the  battle,  on  the  field  which  they  had  so 
bravely  won;  determined  to  pursue  their  victory 
with  returning  light.  But  Burgoyne,  aware  of  the 
advantage  which  they  had  gained,  effected,  with 
admirable  order,  a  change  of  his  ground.  The  ar- 
tillery, the  camp  and  its  appurtenances,  were  all 
removed  before  morning  to  the  heights.  The  British 
army,  in  this  position,  had  the  river  in  its  rear,  and 
its  two  wings  displayed  along  the  hills  upon,  its  right 
bank.  Gates  was  too  wise  to  attack  his  enemy  in 
this  position,  and  exposed  to  another  risk  what  now 
wanted  nothing  but  vigilance  to  make  certain.  He 
now  made  arrangements  to  enclose  his  enemy,  which 
Burgoyne  perceiving,  put  his  army  in  motion  at 
nine  o'clock  at  night,  and  removed  to  Saratoga,  six 
miles  up  the  river.  He  was  obliged  to  abandon  his 
hospital  with  300  sick  and  wounded,  to  the  humanity 
of  the  Americans. 

Burgoyne  now  made  efforts  in  various  directions 
to  effect  a  retreat,  but  in  every  way  he  had  been  an- 
ticipated. He  found  himself  in  a  hostile  and  foreign 
country,  hemmed  in  by  a  foe,  whose  army  con- 
stantly increasing,  already  amounted  to  four  times 
his  own  wasting  numbers.  The  boats  laden  with 
his  supplies  were  taken  and  his  provisions  were  fail- 
ing. He  had  early  communicated  with  Sir  Henry 
Clinton  at  New  York,  and  had  urged  his  co-opera- 


tion. More  recently,  when  his  fortune  began  to 
darken,  he  had  entreated  him  for  speedy  aid ;  stat- 
ing that  at  the  most,  his  army  could  not  hold  out 
beyond  the  12th.  The  12th  arrived  without  the  ex- 
pected succour.  His  army  was  in  the  utmost  dis- 
tress, and  Burgoyne  capitulated  on  the  17th. 

The  army  surrendered  amounted  to  5752,  which 
together  with  the  troops  lost  before  by  various  dis- 
asters, made  up  the  whole  British  loss  to  9213.  There 
also  fell  into  the  hands  of J  the  Americans  35  brass 
field-pieces,  and  5000  muskets.  It  was  stipulated 
that  the  British  should  pile  their  arms  at  the  word  of 
command,  given  by  their  own  officers,  march  out  of 
their  camp  with  the  honours  of  war,  and  have  free 
passage  across  the  Atlantic;  they  on  their  part 
agreeing  not  to  serve  again  in  North  America  dur- 
ing the  war.  They  were  treated  with  delicacy  by 
the  Americans.  Their  officers,  especially  their  com- 
mander, received  many  kind  attentions.  The  worthy 
General  Schuyler  hospitably  entertained  Burgoyne 
at  his  own  house ;  although  much  of  his  private  pro- 
perty, especially  an  elegant  villa,  was  destroyed  by 
command  of  that  officer. 

On  hearing  of  the  defeat  of  Burgoyne,  the  British 
garrison  at  Ticonderoga,  returned  to  Canada,  and 
not  a  foe  remained  in  the  northern  section  of  the 
union.  Thus  ended  an  expeditipn  from  which 
the  British  had  hoped,  and  the  Americans  had 
feared  so  much.  The  effects  of  their  success  were 
highly  propitious  to  the  cause  of  the  republicans. 
It  weakened  and  discouraged  their  enemy,  gave  them 
a  supply  of  artillery  and  stores,  and  what  was  still 
more  important,  raised  them  in  their  own  estima- 
tion, and  in  that  of  foreign  nations. 

Connected  in  some  degree  with  Burgoyne's  in- 
vasions, was  the  predatory  excursion  up  the  North 
river,  in  which  the  British  took  forts  Clinton  and 
Montgomery,  and  burned  the  village  of  Esopus, 
now  Kingston.  This  excursion,  commanded  by  Sir 
Henry  Clinton,  who  was  accompanied  by  Tryon  and 
Vaughan,  appears  to  have  had  the  double  object  of 
opening  a  free  navigation  for  the  British  vessels  up 
the  river  to  Albany,  and  of  making  a  division  of  the 
American  forces,  which  were  now  concentrated  in 
opposition  to  Burgoyne,  and  thus  giving  him  an 
opportunity  to  escape.  Had  Clinton  taken  this  step 
earlier,  he  might  possibly  have  effected  the  latter 
object.  As  it  was,  Burgoyne  had  notice  of  the  taking 
of  the  forts,  and  the  advance  of  Clinton,  just  after 
he  had  made  a  verbal  agreement  to  sign  the  articles 
of  capitulation ;  when  neither  his  honour  nor  his 
humanity  would  permit  him  longer  to  await  the  ex- 
pected succour. 

Clinton,  on  hearing  that  Burgoyne  had  surrendered, 
and  that  Gates  was  advancing  to  attack  him,  eva- 
cuated and  dismantled  the  forts  which  he  had  taken, 
and  retreated  to  New  York,  experiencing  no  other 
permanent  result  than  the  execrations  of  a  plun- 
dered people,  and  the  character  of  reviving  in  a 
civilized  age,  barbarian  atrocities. 

Battle  of  Brandy  wine — Americans  defeated — Wash- 
ington retreats  to  Chester  —  Congress  adjourn  to 
Lancaster — Cornwallis  enters  Philadelphia — Battle 
of  Germantown — Americans  defeated — Washing- 
ton returns  to  Schippack  creek — Attack  on  Redbank 
—American  crews  destroy  their  own  vessels —  Wash- 
ington retires  to  winter-quarters. 

Having  now  given  a  connected  view  of  the  momen- 
tous operations  in  the  north,  we  go  back  nearly  three 
months,  in  the  order  of  time,  to  take  a  brief  sketch 
of  the  less  decisive  transactions  of  the  middle  states. 


i054 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Admiral  and  General  Howe,  intent  on  the  cap- 
ture of  Philadelphia,  left  Sandy  Hook  on  the  23rd 
of  July.  Sailing  up  Chesapeake  Bay,  they  disem- 
barked their  troops,  amounting  to  18,000,  on  the 
25th  of  August,  at  the  head  of  the  Elk  river,  50  miles 
south-west  of  Philadelphia.  Washington,  apprised 
of  their  movements,  crossed  the  Delaware,  deter- 
mined to  oppose  them,  notwithstanding  his  army  was 
greatl)  diminished  by  the  powerful  detachments  he 
had  sent  to  check  the  alarming  progress  of  Burgoyne. 

Accompanied  by  Generals  Greene,  Sullivan. 
Wayne,  and  Stirling,  he  approached  the  enemy 
until  he  reached  Gray's  Hill,  in  front  of  the  British 
commanders,  with  whom  were  Generals  Knyphau- 
sen and  Cornwallis. 

He  encamped  on  the  rising  grounds  which  extend 
from  Chadsfoid,  in  the  direction  from  north-west 
to  south-east,  and  here,  (the  shallow  stream  of  the 
Brandywine  being  between  the  armies,)  he  awaited 
an  attack  from  (he  British;  well  knowing  that  nothing 
but  a  victory  could  now  save  Philadelphia.  Early 
in  the  morning,  on  the  llth  of  September,  the  Bri- 
tish army  being  drawn  up  in  two  divisions,  com- 
menced the  expected  assault.  Agreeable  to  the  plan 
of  Howe,  the  right  wing,  commanded  by  Knyphau- 
sen, made  a  feint  of  crossing  the  Brandywine,  at 
Chadsford;  while  the  left,  commanded  by  Corn- 
wallis, took  a  circuitous  route  up  the  Brandywine, 
and  crossed,  though  not  without  opposition,  at  the 
forks, 

Knyphausen,  with  some  fighting  and  much  noise, 
had  occupied  the  attention  of  the  Americans.  Wash- 
ington, learning  the  approach  of  Cornwallis,  deter- 
mined to  press  forward  in  the  centre  and  on  the  left; 
and  if  possible,  divide  the  army,  and  cut  off  Kny- 
phausen. The  false  intelligence,  that  Cornwallis  was 
not  approaching,  pi  evented  his  executing  this  bold 
design,  which  might  have  changed  the  fate  of  the 
day.  He  had  already  dispatched  some  of  his  officers, 
whom,  by  the  false  intelligence,  he  was  induced  to 
recall.  Thus  time  was  consumed,  and  Cornwallis 
fell  upon  the  Americans  while  they  were  in  some 
measure  unprepared  to  receive  him.  They  however 
defended  themselves  with  great  valour,  and  the  car- 
nage was  terrible.  But  they  at  length  were  forced 
to  give  way.  Washington  ordered  to  their  aid  the 
reserve,  commanded  by  Greene  ;  but  it  was  too  late, 
and  the  most  it  could  effect  was  to  cover  the  retreat 
of  the  fugitives.  Knyphausen  began  in  earnest 
effecting  his  passage  at  Chadsford.  The  Americans 
withstood  bravely  ;  but  finding  the  remainder  of  the 
army  vanquished,  they  fled  in  confusion,  and  aban- 
doned to  the  enemy  their  artillery  and  ammunition. 
These  fugitives  also  found  a  shelter  within  the  lines 
of  Greene,  who  was  last  to  quit  the  field  of  battle. 
The  Americans  lost  300  killed,  600  wounded,  and 
400  taken  prisoners.  The  British  loss  in  killed  and 
wounded  was  less  than  500.  This  battle  was  dis- 
tinguished by  the  exertions  of  foreign  officers.  The 
heroic  La  Fayette,  while  endeavouring  to  rally  the 
fugitives,  was  wounded  in  the  leg.  Another  French 
officer  of  distinction,  the  Baron  St.  Ovary,  was 
made  prisoner;  and  Count  Pulaski,a  celebrated  Po- 
lander,  displayed  a  courage  which  congress  after- 
wards rewarded  with  the  rank  of  brigadier-general. 

On  the  night  succeeding  the  battle,  the  Americans 
retreated  to  Chester ;  the  next  day,  through  Phila- 
delphia to  Germantown.  The  following  day,  a  de- 
tachment of  British  troops  proceeded  to  Wilmington, 
and  took  prisoner  the  governor  of  Delaware.  They 
seized  considerable  property,  public  and  private; 
among  which  was  a  quantity  of  coined  money. 


Not  disheartened  by  this  defeat,  Washington  de- 
termined to  risk  another  battle  for  the  defence  of 
the  capital,  and  accordingly,  re-passed  the  Schuyl- 
kill,  and  met  the  enemy  at  Goshcn  ;  but  a  violent 
shower  of  rain  wet  the  powder  in  the  ill-constructed 
cartridge-boxes  of  the  Americans,  and  compelled 
the  commander  to  defer  the  engagement.  The  re- 
publicans were  unfortunate  in  another  attempt  to 
annoy  the  enemy.  Washington  had  ordered  Wayne 
with  a  detachment  into  the  rear  of  the  British.  This 
detachment  was  surprised  ;  and  a  night  scene  of 
shocking  slaughter  ensued,  in  which  a  great  part 
of  the  Americans  were  cut  off. 

Howe  now  made  a  movement,  which  placed 
Washington  in  a  situation  where  he  could  not  in- 
terpose his  army  between  the  enemy  and  the  capital, 
without  exposing  to  destruction  the  extensive  maga- 
zine of  provisions  and  military  stores  which  had 
been  established  at  Reading.  Notwithstanding  the 
clamours  of  the  populace,  he  prudently  abandoned 
the  city,  rather  than  sacrifice  the  stores,  or  risk 
another  battle,  while  the  odds  were  so  much  against 
him. 

Congress,  finding  themselves  insecure  in  Phila- 
delphia, adjourned  to  Lancaster,  to  which  place  the 
public  archives  and  magazines  were  removed.  They 
again  invested  Washington  with  the  same  dictatorial 
powers  which  were  intrusted  him  after  the  reverses 
in  New  Jersey. 

On  the  2Gth,  o  detachment  of  the  British  army, 
under  Cornwallis,  entered  the  American  capital: 
the  main  body  remained  at  Germantown.  Within 
sixteen  miles  of  this  place,  at  Schippack  creek,  was 
encamped  the  American  army,  which  had  been  con- 
ducted by  Washington  along  the  left  bank  of  the 
Schuylkill. 

Lord  Howe  had  now  consummated  an  event  to 
which  he  had  looked  as  decisive  of  the  contest.  But 
far  from  being  subdued,  the  Americans  were  not 
even  disheartened.  They  knew  that  the  army  of 
Washington,  when  it  should  have  received  its  rein- 
forcements, could  cut  off  the  enemy's  supplies  on 
the  side  of  Pennsylvania.  If,  therefore,  they  could 
prevent  their  receiving  them  by  water,  they  would 
soon  be  compelled  to  evacuate  the  city.  For  this 
object,  they  had  created  batteries  on  Mud  Island, 
and  also  at  Red  Bank  and  Billing's  Point,  on  the 
Jersey  shore ;  along  which  places  they  had  sunk 
ranges  of  frames,  to  impede  the  navigation  of  the 
river.  The  British,  sensible  of  the  importance  of 
a  free  communication  with  the  sea,  by  means  of  the 
Delaware,  sent  Colonel  Stirling  with  a  detachment 
to  attack  Billing's  Point,  and  clear  away  the  ob- 
structions which  the  Americans  had  placed  in  the 
river ;  in  which  they  were  ultimately  successful. 

The  American  commander,  knowing  that  the 
army  of  Howe  was  weakened  by  the  detachments 
under  Cornwallis  and  Stirling,  determined  if  possi- 
ble, to  surprise  him.  He  accordingly  left  his  camp 
at  Schippack  creek,  at  seven  in  the  evening.  The 
approach  of  the  Americans  was  discovered  by  the 
British  patrols.  Washington's  army  commenced 
the  attack  about  sunrise.  Fortune  at  first  favoured 
the  arms  of  the  Americans,  and  the  British  were 
compelled  to  retreat.  But  Colonel  Musgrove  hav- 
ing thrown  several  companies  into  a  stone  house, 
they  so  annoyed  the  Americans,  that  the  pursuit 
was  delayed.  The  Pennsylvania  militia  did  not  all 
perform  the  duty  assigned  them.  A  thick  fog  com 
ing  on,  caused  confusion  in  the  American  ranks. 
The  British,  thus  enabled  to  recover  from  the  first 
attack,  aroused  to  fresh  exertions  ;  ami  the  Araeri- 


UNITED  STATES. 


1055 


cans  were  defeated.  Their  loss  was  200  killed ; 
among  whom  was  General  Nash  of  North  Carolina ; 
600  wounded,  and  400  taken  prisoners.  The  Bri- 
tish loss  was  500 ;  among  their  killed  were  Colonels 
Agnew  and  Bird. 

The  American  army,  with  all  its  artillery,  now 
retreated  twenty  miles  to  Perkiomy  creek,  and  from 
thence,  having  received  a  reinforcement  of  500  mili- 
tia, Washington  advanced  to  his  old  camp,  at  Schip- 
pack  creek.  Although  the  army  had  not  effected 
what  its  commander  had  hoped,  yet  so  much  skill 
and  bravery  had  been  displayed,  that  its  reputation 
was  enhanced. 

Congress  voted  their  thanks  to  the  commander, 
and  his  officers  and  soldiers,  except  General  Ste- 
phens, who  was  cashiered  for  misconduct  on  the 
retreat. 

A  few  days  after  the  battle,  the  royal  army  re- 
moved from  Germantown  to  Philadelphia.  Scarcity 
of  provisions  prevented  Howe  from  following  the 
Americans,  and  he  wished  to  co-operate  in  the  de- 
sign of  opening  ?the  navigation  of  the  Delaware. 
Indeed  this  measure  became  necessary  to  the  preser- 
vation of  his  army,  which  could  not  draw  subsis- 
tence from  the  adjacent  country  ;  so  effectually  did 
the  menacing  attitude  of  Washington's  army  ope- 
rate, and  also  the  edict  of  congress,  which  pro- 
nounced the  penalty  of  death  upon  any  citizen  who 
should  dai'C  to  afford  him  supplies.  Thus  situated, 
the  British  general  found,  in  the  language  of  a  wit 
of  the  times,  that  "  instead  of  taking  Philadelphia, 
Philadelphia  had  taken  him." 

To  succeed  in  opening  a  communication  with 
their  fleet,  it  was  necessary  that  the  British  should 
possess  themselves  of  Mud  Island,  which  was  de- 
fended by  Fort  Mifllin  and  Fort  Mercer  on  lied 
Bank.  Accordingly  a  body  of  Hessians,  under 
Colonel  Donop,  marched  down  the  Jersey  shore, 
and  attacked  Red  Bank  with  great  impetuosity. 
The  Americans  withdrew  within  the  fort,  and  made 
there  a  vigorous  defence.  The  Hessian  commander 
was  mortally  wounded,  and  they  were  repulsed  with 
the  loss  of  500  men.  The  remainder  returned  to 
Philadelphia.  Their  next  attack  was  upon  Mud 
Island,  and  made  by  their  shipping.  This  proved 
no  more  successful ;  and  the  British  lost  two  warlike 
vessels  in  the  attempt.  The  Americans  were,  how- 
ever, at  length  dislodged  by  an  attack  from  an  un- 
expected quarter.  The  British  found  means  to  erect 
a  battery  on  Province  Island  a  little  above  Mud 
Island,  which  commanded  fort  Mifflin.  Their  post 
thus  becoming  untenable,  the  Americans  withdrew 
in  the  night  from  Mud  Island  to  Fort  Mercer  on 
Red  Bank. 

To  attack  this  fort,  the  British  commander  dis- 
patched Cornwallis  with  a  strong  detachment.  In 
obedience  to  his  orders,  that  general  crossed  the 
Schuylkill,  followed  down  the  Delaware  to  Chester 
below  the  fort,  then  crossing  to  Billing's  Point,  and 
receiving  a  reinforcement  from  New  York,  he  thence 
ascended  the  river  to  attack  the  fort  in  the  rear. 
The  Americans  apprised  of  his  approach  evacuated 
the  fort,  which,  with  a  considerable  quantity  of  ar- 
tillery and  stores,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  royalists. 
The  American  shipping,  deprived  of  the  protection 
of  the  forts,  was  now  in  great  danger.  Some  vessels, 
under  cover  of  night,  passed  the  battery  of  Phila- 
delphia and  sought  safety  further  up  the  river ;  but 
the  English  taking  measures  to  render  the  escape 
of  the  remainder  impracticable,  the  crews  abandoned 
their  vessels  to  the  number  of  seventeen,  "and  con- 
sumed them  by  fire.  Lord  Howe  had  now  opened 


the  navigation  of  the  Delaware  so  that  he  could 
communicate  with  his  brother,  the  admiral.  In  the 
mean-while  the  victorious  troops  of  the  north  had 
reinforced  the  main  army  of  the  republicans ;  and 
Washington  advanced  within  fourteen  miles  of  Phi- 
ladelphia to  White  Marsh,  his  army  consisting  of 
12,000  regulars  and  3000  militia.  Howe  marched 
his  army  within  three  miles  of  his  lines,  and  ma- 
noeuvred to  draw  him  from  his  intrenchments,  but 
Washington,  though  he  did  not  shun  the  battle, 
chose  to  receive  it  within  his  lines.  Howe  finding 
him  too  cautious  to  be  drawn  out  of  his  camp,  and 
too  strong  to  be  attacked  in  it,  withdrew  his  army 
and  retired  to  winter-quarters  at  Philadelphia. 

Washington  on  the  11  th  of  December,  left  White 
Marsh,  and  retired  to  Valley  Forge.  Hardly  was 
the  army  established  in  their  winter-quarters,  when 
the  magazines  were  found  to  contain  scarce  a  single 
day's  provision.  As  to  their  clothing,  some  few  had 
one  shirt,  some  the  remnant  of  one,  the  greater  part 
none  at  all.  Barefooted  on  the  frozen  ground,  their 
feet  cut  by  ice,  they  left  their  tracks  in  blood.  A 
few  only  had  the  luxury  of  a  blanket  at  night. 
More  than  3000  were  excused  from  duty  on  account 
of  cold  and  nakedness.  Straw  could  not  be  obtained, 
and  the  soldiers,  who  during  the  day,  were  benumbed 
with  cold,  and  enfeebled  by  hunger,  had  at  night  no 
bed  in  their  huts,  but  that  of  the  humid  ground. 

Diseases  attacked  them,  and  the  hospitals  were 
replenished  as  rapidly  as  the  dead  were  carried  out. 
The  unsuitableness  of  the  buildings  and  the  multi- 
tude of  sick  that  crowded  them,  caused  an  insupport- 
able fetor.  Hospital  fever  ensued.  It  could  not  be 
remedied  by  change  of  linen,  for  none  could  be  had; 
nor  by  salubrious  diet,  as  even  the  coarsest  was  not 
attainable;  nor  by  medicines,  ^as  even  the  worst 
were  wholly  wanting.  The  hospitals  resembled 
more  receptacles  for  the  dying,  than  refuges  [Tor 
the  sick. 

The  patience  with  which  these  patriotic  votaries 
of  freedom  endured  such  complicated  evils,  is,  we 
believe,  without  a  parallel  in  history.  To  go  to 
battle,  cheered  by  the  trumpet  and  the  drum,  with 
victory  or  the  speedy  bed  of  honour  before  the 
soldier,  requires  a  heroic  effort ;  much  more  to 
starve,  to  freeze,  and  to  lie  down  and  die,  in  silent 
obscurity.  Sparta  knew  the  names  of  the  300  who 
fell  for  her  at  the  pass  of  Thermopylae  ;  but  America 
knows  not  the  names  of  the  hundreds  who  perished 
for  her  in  the  camp  of  Valley  Forge. 

Causes  of  the  distress  of  the  army — Intrigues  against 
Washington — Predatory  excursions  of  tJie  British 
—Massacre  at  the.bridyes  of  Quinton  and  Hancock 
—Policy  of  France  in  reference  to  America — France 
concludes  a  treaty  with  America — Arrival  of  British 
ministers. 

The  melancholy  state  to  which  the  army  was  re- 
duced, was  owing  to  several  causes.  The  bills  of 
credit  had  diminished  to  one-fourth  their  nominal 
value.  A  scarcity  of  linen  cloth  and  leather  pre- 
vailed throughout  the  country.  The  commissaries 
had  contracted  for  supplies  at  ten  per  cent,  above 
the  current  price.  This  proceeding  congress  re- 
fused to  sanction;  but  required  that  supplies  should 
be  furnished,  and  the  bills  received  as  specie.  The 
consequence  was,  that  these  articles  could  not  be 
procured.  The  officers,  too,  were  constantly  leaving 
the  army.  This  was  principally  owing  to  the  depre- 
ciation of  paper-money,  and  the  advanced  price  on 
all  articles  .of  consumption  ;  hence,  far  from  being 
able  to  live  as  became  their  rank,  the  officers  had 


1056 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


not  even  the  means  of  providing  for  their  subsistence. 
Many  had  already  expended  their  private  fortunes, 
to  maintain  a  respectable  appearance.  Those  who 
handed  in  their  resignations  were  not  the  worthless, 
but  the  bravest,  most  distinguished,and  most  spirited ; 
who,  disdaining  the  degraded  situation  in  which  they 
were  placed,  left  the  army  to  escape  it. 

This  example  of  defection  set  by  his  beloved  offi- 
cers, more  than  any  of  the  other  disasters  of  the 
army,  wounded  the  parental  heart  of  Washington. 
In  the  midst  of  these  anxieties,  that  great  man  was 
called  to  suffer  from  those  commonjbes  of  distin- 
guished merit, — envy  and  calumny.  Intrigues  were 
set  in  motion  against  him  ;  the  object  of  which  was 
tot  give  him  so  many  occasions  of  disgust,  that  he 
should  of  himself  retire  from  the  head  of  the  army  ; 
and  thus  make  room  for  the  promotion  of  Gates, 
whose  success  in  the  affair  of  Burgoyne,  had  raised 
his  reputation  to  the  highest  pitch. 

Among  the  leaders  of  this  combination,  was  Ge- 
neral Conway,  a  wily  and  restless  intriguer.  He 
besieged  all  the  members  of  congress  with  insinua- 
tions that  no  order  ^existed  in  the  American  camp. 
Congress,  at  length,  appointed  him  inspector-ge- 
neral. 

Pennsylvania  addressed  a  remonstrance  to  con- 
gress, censuring  thej.measures  of  the  commander-in- 
chief.  The  same  was  done  by  the  members  from 
Massachusetts,  among  whom  was  Samuel  Adams. 
They  were  not  pleased  that  the  whole  command  de- 
volved on  a  Virginian,  to  the  exclusion  of  their 
generals,  who  were,  in  their  opinion,  equal,  if  not 
superior,  to  Washington. 

A  board  of  war  was  created  under  Gates  and 
Mifflin,  both  of  whom  were  thought  to  be  among 
the  authors  of  the  machinations  against  Washington. 
With  the  advice  of  this  board,  congress  planned  an 
expedition  against  Canada.  Washington  was  not 
consulted ;  but  he  was  ordered  to  detach  La  Fayette, 
with  certain  regiments,  to  perform  the  service. 
This  order  was  promptly  obeyed;  but  what  he  did, 
was  all  that  was  done.  La  Fayette  was  recalled 
from  Albany,  and  the  expedition  was  abandoned. 

It  is  impossible  to  express,  with  what  indignation 
the  whole  army  and  the  best  citizens  were  filled,  on 
hearing  the.. machinations  that  were  in  agitation 
against  their  honoured  chief.  An  universal  cry 
arose  against  the  intriguers.  Conway  was  super- 
seded by  Baron  Steuben,  and  dared  not  show  him- 
self among  the  exasperated  soldiers.  Samuel  Adams 
also  deemed  it  prudent  to  keep  aloof  from  the  army. 

Congress,  thus  made  to  see  how  deeply  rooted 
was  the  commander  in  the  affections  of  the  army 
and  people,  and  knowing  also  that  he  ranked  high 
at  foreign  courts,  became  at  length  sensible  of  their 
error,  and  restored  to  Washington  a  confidence 
which  he  had  so  hardly  earned,  and  to  which  he'was 
so  justly  entitled. 

During  these  machinations,  Washington  never 
once  turned  from  his  high  career  of  suffering  virtue, 
to  notice  his  personal  enemies.  He  had  been  inde- 
fatigable in  urging  congress  to  stop  the  defection  of 
the  officers,  by  securing  to  them  some  reward  for 
their  services.  In  accordance  with  his  advice,  a  law 
was  passed,  allowing  them  half  pay  for  seven  years 
after  the  close  of  the  war.  He  also  urged  congress, 
and  the  different  state  governments,  to  make  such 
preparations  for  the  ensuing  campaign,  as  that  it 
might  be  commenced  early  in  the  spring,  before  the 
British  reinforcements  could  arrive.  But  delibera- 
tions are  of  necessity  tardily  made  in  popular  go- 
vernments ;  hence,  what  ought  to  have  been  ready 


in  the  beginning  of  spring,  was  but  scantily  pro- 
vided during  the  summer. 

These  delays  might  have  been  fatal  to  the  army, 
had  (he  British  been  in  a  condition  to  take  the  field 
early  in  the  season.  As  it  was,  they  contented 
themselves  with  sending  out  their  light  troops  to 
scour  the  country  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Philadel- 
phia.- .In  March,  a  party  of  their  soldiers  massa- 
cred in  cool  blood,  while  crying  for  quarter,  the  sol- 
diers who  were  stationed  at  the  bridges  of  Quinton 
and  Hancock. 

Near  the  same  time,  another  party  undertook  an 
expedition  up  the  Delaware.  They  destroyed  the 
magazines  at  Bordentown,  and  the  vessels  which 
the  Americans  had  drawn  up  the  river,  between 
Philadelphia  and  Trenton. 

In  May  2000  men,  under  La  Fayette,  were  posted 
at  Baron  Hill,  to  form  an  advance  guard  for  the 
main  army,  and  to  be  in  readiness  to  annoy  the 
British  rear,  in  case  they  attempted  a  retreat  to 
New  York.  A  detachment,  of  5000  men,  under 
General  Grant,  were  sent  to  surprise  and  destroy 
this  force.  In  the  beginning  of  the  engagement 
Grant  obtained  some  advantage,  but  at  length  the 
skill  and  activity  of  La  Fayette  baffled  his  exertions. 
He  returned  to  Philadelphia,  while  La  Fayette  re- 
moved to  Valley  Forge. 

The  Americans  were  no  where  more  successful 
than  in>;the  depredations  which  their  swift-sailing 
privateers  made  upon  the  British  commerce.  With 
these  they  infested  every  sea,  even  those  about  the 
British  islands,  and  often  performed  deeds  of  almost 
incredible  boldness.  Since  1776  they  had  already 
captured  500  of  the  British  vessels. 

Early  in  the  season,  Sir  Henry  Clinton  arrived  in 
Philadelphia  to  supersede  Howe  in  the  command  of 
the  British  forces  ;  that  generals-having  resigned  his 
commission,* and  returned  to  England. 

The  news  of  the  capture  of  Burgoyne  caused  a 
deep  sensation  throughout  Europe,  and  affected  the 
politics  of  several  of  its  cabinets.  It  produced, 
however,;its  chief  effectsf'in  England  ,  and;  France. 
The  former  nation  was,  astonished  and  afflicted; 
theirv,sanguine  calculations  were  defeated ;  their 
boastful  predictions  had  failed ;  and  they  were  mor- 
tified and  perplexed,  and  knew  not  what  course 
next  to  pursue.  The  generals  and  soldiers  who  had 
fought  in  America  .were  not  inferior  to  any  that 
England  or  Europe  could  produce.  These  the 
Americans  had  vanquished.  Of  what,  then,  might 
they  not  be  capable  in  future,  when  they  should  have 
derived  new  confidence  from  successes,  and  conso- 
lidated their  state  by'practice  and  experience  ?  The 
garrisons  of  Canada  were  weak,  and  the  Americans 
might  turn.their  victories  against  them:  the  Cana- 
dians following  the  example  of  the  Americans,  might 
also  revolt  from  Britain.  Enlistments,  both* in 
America  and  England,  became  daily  more  difficult, 
and  the  Germans;would  only  furnish  troops  to  fulfil 
the  engagement 'already  made.  And  for  the  few 
recruits  which  they  could  raise,  several  of  the  German 
princes  refused  a  passage  through  their  dominions. 

France  had  long,  by  secret  intrigues,  favoured 
the  cause  of  America ;  and  the  perplexities  of  the 
British  ministry  were  doubled,  by  the  belief  that  she 
would  soon J openly  disclose  herself;  and  thus  her 
ancient  and  inveterate  foe  be  joined  in  the  contest 
with  her  alienated  colonies. 

When  the  difficulties  of  America  commenced,  the 
finances  of  France  were  diminished  by  preceding 
wars,  and  her  marine  enfeebled  by  neglect.  The 
navy  of  England  was  powerful,  her  colonies  in  dif- 


UNITED  STATES. 


K)f,? 


fereut  quarters  numerous  and  wealthy,  aud  produc- 
tive of  an  immense  revenue.  France,  jealous  of  her 
rival,  viewed  the  discontents  in  America  with  plea- 
sure. She  did  not  at  first  espouse  the  quarrel, 
knowing  that,  at  the  moment  she  should  declare  her- 
self, the  British  ministry,  by  acquiescing  in  the  con- 
cessions demanded  by  the  Americans,  might  in- 
stantly disarm  them,  and  France  would  find  herself 
alone,'  burdened  with  a  war  without  motive  or  ob- 
ject. The  declaration  of  independence  removed  this 
objection;  yet  though  France  would  rather  see 
America  independent,  than  reconciled  with  her  pa- 
rent state,  she  relished  a  long  war  between  them, 
which  should  waste  both  England  and  her  colonies, 
better  than  cither. 

This  being  her  policy,  she  amused  the  British 
ministers  with  protestations  of  friendship.  She  en- 
couraged the  Americans  with  secret  succours,  but 
scanty  and  uncertain  ;  and  excited  their  hopes  by 
promises  of  future  co-operation.  These  promises 
were,  however,  vague  and  unofficial,  so  that  they 
might  have  been  disowned  by  the  government 

Wearied  out  and  disgusted,  the  agents  01  con- 
gress urged  the  cabinet  of  Versailles  to  come  to  a 
final  decision;  but  they  avoided  it,  alleging  a  va- 
riety of  excuses.  Unable  to  accomplish  their  views 
with  France,  and  discovering  no  other  prospect  of 
safety,  the  Americans  proposed  to  England  the  re- 
cognition of  their  independence.  This  point  con- 
ceded, they  would  have  yielded  in  all  others,  to  such 
conditions  as  should  tend  to  save  the  honour  of  the 
mother-country ;  but  this  proposition  was  rejected. 

The  capture  of  Burgoyne  gave  new  ardour  to 
these  patriots,  and  new  hopes  and  fears  to  France 
and  England.  The  American  negotiators  now  en- 
deavoured to  give  jealousy  to  the  French  cabinet, 
by  pretending  a  disposition  to  form  an  alliance  with 
England;  and  disquietude  to  the  English  ministry, 
by  the  appearance  of  courting  the  strictest  union 
with  France.  This  policy  induced  the  French 
ministers  to  declare  themselves  openly ;  and  they  well 
knew  that  they  should  be  warmly  seconded  in  this 
measure  by  every  class  of  the  French  citizens;  with 
whom  the  cause  of  America  was  exceedingly  popular. 
On  the  6th  of  February,  1778,  France  acknow- 
ledged the  independence  of  America  by  treaty  ;  and 
promised  to  support  it.  The  treaty  was  signed,  on 
behalf  of  France,  by  M.  Gerard ;  on  the  part  of  the 
United  States  by  Benjamin  Franklin,  Silas  Deane, 
and  Arthur  Lee.  On  the  20th  of  March,  the  Ame- 
rican commissioners  were  received  at.  the  court  of 
France,  as  the  representatives  of  a  sister  nation ; 
an  event  which  was  considered  in  Europe  as  the 
most  important  which  had  occurred  in  the  annals 
of  America,  since  its  discovery  by  Columbus. 

In  the  British  parliament,  a  proposal  was  brought 
forward  by  the  ministers,  to  send  commissioners  to 
America,  empowered  to  grant  all  that  her  colonies 
had  asked  before  the  war,  on  condition  of  their  re- 
turning to  their  former  allegiance.  This  measure 
was  warmly  opposed,  and  its  ill-success  foretold.  It 
is,  said  the  opposition,  either  too  little  or  too  much ; 
too  little,  if  we  wish  to  make  peace  in  earnest;  too 
much,  if  we  expect  to  continue  the  war.  If  the 
Americans  refused  any  other  conditions  than  inde- 
pendence, when  they  were  single-handed  and  de- 
pressed by  misfortunes,  surely  all  others  will  now  be 
rejected.  Why  not  at  once  concede  that  indepen- 
dence which  America  has  already  acquired,  and  is 
able  to  maintain.  She  will  then  doubtless  prefer 
our  alliance  to  that  of  France,  and  in  our  coming 
contest  with  that  wily  nation,  we  shall  have  he  as- 

HIST.  OF  A.MKR.--NOS.  133  &  131. 


sistance  instead  of  her  hostility.  Such  in  substance 
was  the  language  of  the  opposition  ;  but  the  councils 
of  the  ministry  prevailed.  The  earl  of  Carlisle,  Go- 
vernor Johnstone  and  William  Eden  were  appointed 
commissioners.  The  ministry,  as  the  result  suffici- 
ently proves,  had  other  than  the  ostensible  objects 
in  view,  in  sending  these  men  to  America.  They 
were  to  make  an  attempt  to  bribe,  corrupt  aud  di- 
vide the  people. 

The  British,  highly  exasperated  against  the  French, 
on  account  of  their  interference,  immediately  made 
preparations  to  attack  that  nation  at  sea.  To  the 
astonishment  of  England,  she  now  found  that  France 
was  able  to  cope  with  her  on  that  element.  When 
the  difficulties  in  America  commenced,  France  had 
directed  her  attention  to  the  maintenance  of  a  marine. 
To  provide  excellentofficers,  seamen  of  the  merchant 
shipping  were  employed  in  the  royal  navy. 

In  1772,  1775,  1776,  fleets,  as  schools  of  practice, 
were  sent  out  under  Counts  D'Orvilliers,  De  Gui- 
chen,  Duchffault ;  and  the  French  marine  was  now 
equal  to  the  English. 

On  the  2nd  of  May  arrived  the  long-expected  treaty 
with  France.  It  was  brought  over  by  the  French 
frigate  Le  .Sensible.  This  frigate  brought  also  Silas 
Deane,  who  had  been  recalled,  and  M.  Gerard,  the 
minister  from  France  to  the  United  States.  She 
left  Brest  the  8th  of  March,  aud  arrived  at  Casco 
Bay  on  the  2nd  of  May.  The  6th  of  August,  M. 
Gerard  was  received  publicly  by  congress  at  Phila- 
delphia. 

Carlisle,  Eden  and  Johnstone,  arrived  at  Phila- 
delphia on  the  9th  of  June.  The  concessions  offered 
were,  as  was  predicted  too  late,  and  congress  refused 
to  negotiate  on  any  other  terms  than  the  recognition 
of  their  independence,  and  the  removal  of  all  the 
British  forces. 

The  commissioners  next  resorted  to  the  expedient 
of  disseminating  in  the  country  a  multitude  of  wri- 
tings, in  which  they  censured  congress  as  requiring 
what  was  unjust,  and  injurious  to  America.  They 
represented  the  alliance  with  France  as  associated 
with  meanness,  while  they  extolled  th<;  generosity 
and  magnanimity  of  England. 

Johnstone  had  formerly  resided  in  the  colonies ; 
and  afterwards,  as  a  member  of  parliament,  he  es- 
poused the  American  cause.  Availing  himself  of  the 
influence  which  these  circumstances  had  given  him, 
he  approached  many  influential  republicans  ;  and 
while  he  flattered  them  for  their  abilities  and  conduct, 
he  adroitly  insinuated  that,  if  the  royal  authority 
could  again  be  established,  their  merits  would  be 
rewarded  by  wealth,  titles  and  honours. 

In  some  cases  attempts  at  direct  bribery  were  dis- 
covered : — a  lady  was  employed  by  Johnstone  to 
offer  to  General  Reed,  if  he  would  aid  the  royal 
cause,  10,000/.  sterling,  and  any  office  in  the  colo- 
nies within  the  king's  gift.  "  I  am  not,"  said  Reed, 
"  worth  purchasing ;  but  such  as  I  am,  the  king  of 
England  is  not  rich  enough  to  buy  me." 

In  some  instances,  Johnstone  had  the  indiscretion 
to  write.  The  indignant  patriots  brought  forward 
his  letters,  which  contained  the  evidence  of  his  base 
intrigues,  and  laid  them  before  congress.  That  body 
indignantly  forbade  all  further  communication  with 
the  commissioners.  The  popular  writers  of  the  times, 
among  whom  were  Dayton,  of  South  Carolina,  and 
Thomas  Paine,  met  and  confuted  their  insinuations. 
Public  opinion  overwhelmed  them  with  opprobrium  ; 
and  this  abortive  attempt,  like  former  similar  ones, 
served  only  to  show  to  the  British  ministry,  the  sta- 
bility of  that  union  which  they  endeavoured  to  shake. 


1058 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Battle  of  Monmouth — Clinton  removes  to  New  York — 
Washington  to  the  Hudson — French  fleet  arrives — 
Franklin  appointed  minister  to  France — Expedi- 
tion against  Rhode  hland — Siege  of  Newport — In- 
dian  atrocities  —  Attack  of  Wyoming— Savannah 
taken  by  the  Brit  [sit. 

Near  the  5th  of  June,  measures  were  taken  by 
the  British  to  evacuate  Philadelphia.  This  was 
done  the  morning  of  the  18th,  the  army  proceeding 
through  New  Jersey,  to  go  to  New  York. 

Washington  thought  it  wise  to  bring  the  British 
to  an  engagement  on  their  retreat;  but  this  opinion 
was  contrary  to  that  of  a  majority  of  officers.  He 
however  persisted,  and  brought  about  an  engagement 
at  Monmouth,  or  Freehold,  on  the  28th,  in  which 
the  Americans  had  the  advantage.  The  loss  of  the 
English  was  700,  that  of  the  Americans  much  less. 
Though  both  sides  claimed  the  victory,  yet  historians 
agree  in  awarding  it  to  the  republicans,  as  they 
remained  masters  of  the  field  of  battle. 

It  was  at  the  commencement  of  this  engagement, 
that  the  incident  occurred,  which  was  the  cause  of 
General  Lee's  being  censured,  and  suspended  one 
year  from  his  command.  By  his  own  request,  he 
had  been  associated  with  General  La  Fayette  in  the 
command  of  the  van.  After  he  had  attacked  the  Bri 
tish,  he  thought  the  ground  in  his  rear  more  favour- 
able to  the  formation  of  his  lines  ;  and  he  made,  in 
some  haste,  a  retrograde  motion.  Washington  met 
the  retreating  troops ;  and  finding  that  Lee  was 
abandoning  aground  which  he  had  commanded  him 
to  take,  and  endangering  the  army  by  an  appear- 
ance of  flight,  the  commander  inquired,  with  stern- 
ness, what  he  meant ;  and  himself  gave  orders  for 
forming  the  battalion. 

In  the  course  of  the  day  he  employed  Lee;  who, 
during  the  remainder  of  this  hard  fought  battle, 
displayed  such  courage  and  military  conduct,  that 
had  he  not  thought  proper  afterwards  to  write  to  the 
commander  a  disrespectful  letter  on  the  events  ol 
the  day,  Washington  would  have  taken  no  further 
notice  of  his  irregular  behaviour. 

Night  separated  the  combatants,  and  Washington 
and  his  soldiers  rested  upon  their  arms,  intending 
to  renew  the  conflict  the  succeeding  day;  but  Clin- 
ton moved  off  silently  in  the  night,  and  was  in  the 
morning  several  miles  distant.  He  moved  on  to 
Middletown,  from  thence  to  Sandy  Hook,  and  finall) 
crossed  over  to  New  York. 

On  the  1st  of  July,  the  American  commander 
leaving  Morgan's  dragoons  in  lower  Jersey,  pro 
ceeded  with  his  army  towards  the  Hudson. 

A  French  fleet  was  now  sent  to  the  aid  of  Ame 
rica,  commanded  by  the  Count  D'Estaigne.  Th« 
admiral  left  Toulon  on  the  18th  of  April,  with  th< 
intention  of  blockading  the  British  in  the  Delaware 
He  arrived  on  the  8th  of  June ;  and  finding  tha 
Admiral  Howe  had  left  Philadelphia  for  New  York 
he  proceeded  to  that  place,  designing  to  engag 
him  there;  but  the  size  of  his  ships  prevented  hi 
passing  the  bar  between  Sandy  Hook  and  LODJ 
Island. 

On  the  14th  of  September,  Benjamin  Franklin 
still  in  France,  was  invested  with  the  dignity  an 
powers  of  minister-plenipotentiary. 

Washington,  wishing  to  avail  himself  of  the  pre 
sence  of  the  French  fleet,  directed  an  expeditioi 
against  Rhode  Island,  for  which  he  detached  a  fore 
of  10,000  troops,  under  the  command  of  Genera 
Sullivan.  With  him  he  afterwards  associated  ge 
nerals  Greene  and  La  Fayette.  The  force  to  whic 


lis  army  was  opposed,  consisted  of  6000.  It  wai 
tationed  at  Newport,  and  commanded  by  General 
"igott. 

Sullivan  had,  with  the  advice  of  Washington, 
oncerted  a  plan  of  operations  with  the  French  ad- 
liral,  D'Estaigne.  Sullivan's  army  had  taken 
ost  near  Providence,  and  he  had  reasonable  ex- 
ectations,  that  with  the  aid  of  the  French,  he 
bould  be  able  to  make  himself  master  of  the  whole 
orce  under  Pigott.  The  fleet  was  to  enter  the 
arbour  of  Newport,  and  land  the  French  troops  on 
he  north  part  of  the  island  on  which  that  city  is 
ituated;  while  the  Americans  were  to  land  at  the 
ame  time,  under  cover  of  the  guns  of  a  frigate,  on 
he  opposite  coast.  On  the  8th  of  August,  General 
Sullivan  joined  General  Greene  at  Tiverton,  and 
he  descent  was  to  be  made  the  next  day.  The  fleet 
>resented  itself.  Some  militia  who  were  to  join  the 
irmy,  failed  to  come  at  the  expected  hour,  and  Sul- 
ivan  represented  to  the  French  admiral  the  neces- 
ity  of  a  short  delay.  In  the  meantime  the  fleet  of 
jord  Howe  appeared  in  sight.  D'Estaigne  left 
Sullivan  to  give  chase  to  the  British  admiral.  The 
•rafty  Howe  led  him  on,  and  both  fleets  were  soon 
>ut  of  sight.  On  the  morning  of  the  9th,  Sullivan 
crossed  the  east  passage,  and  landed  on  the  north 
end  of  Rhode  Island,  and  on  the  14th  commenced 
he  siege  of  Newport,  still  believing  that  he  should 
lave  the  promised  assistance  of  the  French  fleet, 
jreat  was  his  chagrin  and  disappointment,  when 
after  its  return,  it  having  been  shattered  in  a  storm 
at  sea,  no  entreaties  could  prevail  on  the  admiral 
,o  remain;  but  on  the  22nd  he  sailed  to  Boston  to 
refit.  Thus  deserted  by  his  allies,  one  half  of  his 
army,  which  consisted  of  militia,  refused  to  remaia 
,o  encounter  the  danger  he  was  now  in,  of  an  attack 
TOin  the  British  at  New  York. 

Thus  weakened,  he  raised  the  siege  of  Newport 
on  the  28th,  and  retired  to  a  commanding  situation 
on  the  north  part  of  the  island.  The  enemy  fol- 
lowed, and  on  the  29th  attacked  his  army.  After  a 
sharp  conflict,  in  which  Sullivan  lost  211  of  his 
troops,  and  Pigott  260,  the  British  were  compelled 
to  give  way.  They  retired  to  Quaker  HilJ,.  The 
next  day  a  letter  from  Washington  iuformed  him 
that  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  with  a  large  body  of  troops, 
had  put  out  to  sea  from  New  York. 

His  prospects  were  now  completely  reversed,  and 
instead  of  hoping  to  conquer  the  British  forces,  bis 
own  were  in  imminent  danger.  By  a  skill  that  has 
been  much  commended,  he  succeeded  in  drawing 
off  his  army  to  the  main  land.  The  very  next  day, 
Clinton,  who  had  been  detained  by  adverse  wind?, 
arrived  with  4000  men  at  the  island. 

This  affair  was  unhappy  in  its  effects.  D'Estaigne 
had  left  Sullivan  to  his  fate,  not  only  against  his 
entreaties,  but  against  the  warm  remonstrances  of 
Generals  Greene  and  La  Fayette.  The  resentment 
excited  in  the  breast  of  Sullivan,  and  the  disappro- 
bation of  many  others,  gave  to  Washington  the 
greatest  uneasiness,  and  called  forth  all  his  address 
to  sooth  their  ruffled  spirits,  and  prevent  an  open 
rupture  with  the  French  admiral. 

Sir  Henry  Clinton,  disappointed  of  his  expected 
prize,  bent  his  course  towards  New  York,  intending 
to  make  upon  his  way  a  descent  upon  New  London; 
but  the  winds  were  adverse.  He  therefore  pro- 
ceeded to  New  York ;  having  first  left  a  detach- 
ment under  General  Gray,  with  orders  to  destroy, 
if  possible,  the  American  privateers,  which  resorted 
to  Buzzard's  bay,  and  the  adjacent  rivers.  He  ar- 
rived there  with  some  transports,  and  succeeded  in 


UNITED  STATES. 


destroying  60  large  vessels,  and  some  small  craft. 
Proceeding  to  New  Bedford  and  Fair  Haven,  he 
destroyed  many  mills,  warehouses,  and  much  pri- 
vate property. 

In  the  campaign  of  this  year,  the  depredations 
committed  by  the  savages  were  more  frequent  and 
more  inhuman  than  ever.  The  ruthless  chiefs  who 
guided  them  in  these  sanguinary  expeditions  were 
Butler  and  Brandt ;  beings  capable  of  the  most 
horrid  deeds.  The  devastation  of  the  flourishing 
settlement  of  Wyoming,  by  a  baud  of  Indians  and 
lories,  was  marked  by  the  most  demoniac  cruelties. 
This  settlement  consisted  of  eight  towns  on  the 
banks  of  the  Susquehannab,  and  was  one  of  the 
most  flourishing  as  well  as  delightful  places  in 
America.  But  even  in  this  peaceful  spot,  the  in- 
habitants were  not  exempt  from  the  baneful  influ- 
ence of  party  spirit.  Although  the  majority  were 
devoted  to  the  cause  of  their  country,  yet  the  loyal- 
ists were  numerous.  Several  persons  had  been 
arrested  as  tories,  and  sent  to  the  proper  authori- 
ties for  trial.  This  excited  the  indignation  of  their 
party,  and  they  determined  upon  revenge.  They 
united  with  the  Indians,  and  resorting  to  artifice, 
pretended  a  desire  to  cultivate  peace  with  the  in- 
habitants of  Wyoming,  while  they  were  making 
every  preparation  for  their  meditated  vengeance. 
The  youth  of  Wyoming  were  at  this  time  with  the 
army,  and  but  500  men  capable  of  defending  the 
settlement  remained.  The  inhabitants  had  con- 
structed four  forts  for  their  security,  into  which 
these  men  were  distributed.  In  the  month  of  July. 
1600  Indians  and  tories,  under  the  command  of 
Butler  and  Brandt,  appeared  on  the  banks  of  the 
Susquehannah.  Two  of  the  forts  nearest  the  fron- 
tier immediately  surrendered  to  them.  The  savages 
spared  the  women  and  children,  but  butchered  the 
rest  of  their  prisoners  without  exception.  They  then 
surrounded  Kingston,  the  principal  fort,  and  to  dis- 
may the  garrison,  hurled  into  the  place  200  scalps, 
still  reeking  with  blood.  Colonel  Denison,  know- 
ing it  to  be  impossible  to  defend  the  fort,  demanded 
of  Butler  what  terms  would  be  allowed  the  garrison 
if  they  surrendered ;  he  answered,  "  the  hatchet." 
They  attempted  further  resistance,  but  were  soon 
compelled  to  surrender.  Enclosing  the  men,  wo- 
men, and  children,  in  houses  and  barracks,  they 
set  fire  to  these,  and  the  miserable  wretches  were 
all  consumed. 

The  fort  of  Wilksbarre  still  remained  in  the 
power  of  the  republicans :  but  this  garrison  learn- 
ing the  fate  of  the  others,  surrendered  without  re- 
sistance, hoping  in  this  way  to  obtain  mercy.  But 
submission  could  not  soften  the  hearts  of  these  un- 
feeling monsters,  and  their  atrocities  were  renewed. 
They  then  devastated  the  country,  burnt  their 
dwellings,  and  consigned  their  crops  to  the  flames. 
The  tories  appeared  to  surpass  even  the  savages  in 
barbarity.  The  nearest  ties  of  consanguinity  were 
disregarded ;  and  it  is  asserted,  that  a  mother  was 
murdered  by  the  hand  of  her  own  son.  None  es- 
caped but  a  few  women  and  children  ;  and  these, 
dispersed  and  wandering  in  the  forests,  without 
food  and  without  clothes,  were  not  the  least  worthy 
of  commiseration. 

Disputes  occurred  about  this  time,  between  the 
French  and  the  inhabitants  at  Boston,  and  also  at 
Charleston,  South  Carolina.  In  both  these  places 
some  of  the  French  were  killed.  At  Boston,  the 
Chevalier  de  St.  Sauverie  lost  his  life.  Congress 
attributed  these  unfortunate  affairs  to  British  ma- 
chiuations;  and  the  French  admiral  forbore  to  in- 


quire further.  The  Marquis  La  Fayette,  hoping  to 
serve  the  United  States  by  his  representations  in 
<" ranee,  requested  and  obtained  permission  to  repass 
the  Atlantic. 

Admiral  D'Estaigne  left  Boston  for  (he  West 
Indies  on  the  3rd  of  November.  The  same  day, 
Commodore  Hotham  left  Sandy  Hook,  having  on 
board  5000  land  troops,  commanded  by  Major  Ge- 
neral Grant.  Admiral  Byron,  who  had  superseded 
Admiral  Howe,  followed  him  the  1 4th  of  December. 
The  English  took  Martinico  from  the  French,  and 
the  French  St.  Lucie  from  the  English. 

In  planning  the  campaign  for  this  year,  the  Bri- 
tish had  placed  their  principal  hope  of  success  in 
conquering  the  southern  states.  It  was  not,  how- 
ever, until  this  late  period  of  the  campaign,  that 
Sir  Henry  Clinton  prepared  to  attempt  the  execu- 
tion of  their  design.  He  sent  to  Georgia,  under 
convoy  of  Admiral  Hyde  Parker,  2500  English, 
Hessians,  and  refugees.  This  corps  was  commanded 
by  Colonel  Campbell,  who  was  to  attack  by  sea, 
while  Prevost,  the  commander  in  Florida,  was  or- 
dered to  commence  attacks  along  the  Savannah 
river.  The  27th  of  December,  Campbell  arrived 
before  Savannah,  which  was  unprepared  for  defence. 
On  the  28th,  he  defeated  the  Americans  near  Sa- 
vannah, under  Major-general  Robert  Howe,  and 
killed  upwards  of  100  of  his  troops.  The  British 
took  immediate  possession  of  the  city.  Four  hun- 
dred and  fifty  American  troops,  and  a  large  quantity 
of  artillery  and  ammunition,  fell  into  their  hands. 

Late  in  the  autumn  of  1778,  Washington  took 
winter-quarters  at  Middlebrook. 

Campaign  of  1779 — Sunbury  taken  by  the  British—- 
Unsuccessful attempt  upon  Port  Royal — Colonel 
Pickens  defeats  a  party  of  Royalists — General  Pre- 
vost surprises  the  Americans — John  Rutledge  gover- 
nor of  South  Carolina—" British  defeat  General 
Moidtrie  near  Charlestown — Engagement  at  Stono 
Ferry — British  make  a  descent  on  Virginia—Gover- 
nor Tryon  makes  a  descent  on  Connecticut — Ameri- 
cans take  Stony  Point— British  land  at  Penobscot 
river— American  Flotilla  destroyed  —  Sullivan  de- 
feats the  Savages. 

The  plan  of  Sir  Henry  Clinton  was  to  subjugate 
at  the  outset  of  this  campaign,  the  whole  state  of 
Georgia  to  the  royal  authority.  The  capital  being 
already  in  possession  of  the  British,  they  soon  over- 
ran the  adjacent  country.  Sunbury  still  held  out 
for  congress.  General  Prevost,  (commander  of  the 
troops  at  St.  Augustine,)  pursuant  to  the  orders  of 
Clinton,  left  Florida ;  and  after  a  march  of  exces- 
sive fatigue  and  hardship,  attacked  the  garrison  at 
that  place.  They  made  a  show  of  resistance ;  but 
the  country  being  now  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy, 
they  were  compelled  to  surrender  at  discretion. 

Colonel  Campbell  had  undertaken  the  same  enter- 
prise. Joining  his  corps  to  that  of  Prevost,  they 
proceeded  together  to  Savannah,  where  Prevost  took 
the  command  of  all  the  British  forces  in  that  region. 
All  Georgia  was  now  under  the  authority  of  the 
royalists  ;  and  Clinton  had  accomplished  all  that 
he  had  expected  to  effect,  before  he  should  be  joined 
by  recruits  from  England.  He  did  not  consider 
himself  in  sufficient  force  to  attackCharlestown;  but 
aware  that  if  he  did  not  proceed  with  offensive  ope- 
rations, his  army  would  languish  and  his  enemy 
soon  put  him  on  the  defensive,  he  planned  an  expe- 
dition against  Port  Royal,  giving  the  command  to 
General  Gardner.  The  English  were,  however, 
so  valiantly  received  by  the  Carolinians,  that  they 

4R2 


1000 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


were  obliged  to  luiurn,  after  having  experienced  a 
severe  loss. 

One  of  the  motives  of  the  British  ministry  iu 
transferring  the  war  into  the  southern  states,  re- 
sulted from  an  opinion  that  a  great  proportion  were 
at  heart  in  favour  of  the  mother-country  ;  and  that 
if  an  opportunity  presented,  they  would  flock  to  her 
standard.  They  were  not  mistaken  in  the  belief 
that  there  were  royalists ;  but  they  were  deceived 
as  to  their  number  and  efficient  strength.  This  was 
clearly  shown  by  events  which  occurred  about  this 
period. 

Of  these  royalists  there  were  several  kinds.  Some 
of  the  least  violent,  concealing  their  sentiments,  re- 
sided in  the  midst  of  the  republicans ;  some  lived 
solitary  and  watched  a  favourable  opportunity  to 
declare  themselves  ;  and  some  were  so  rancorous  as 
even  to  unite  with  the  Indians ;  and  assisting  in 
their  nocturnal  massacres,  their  conduct  was  more 
barbarous  than  that  of  the  savages  themselves. 

To  support  and  encourage  these  friends  to  the 
royal  cause,  the  British  generals  moved  up  the  river 
to  Augusta.  They  sent  out  numerous  emissaries, 
who  represented  to  them  that  now  was  the  time  to 
join  the  royal  standard.  They  were  told  that  they 
wanted  nothing  but  to  unite  their  strength,  to  be- 
come incomparably  the  stronger  party,  and  to  be 
enabled  to  take  vengeance  on  those  who  had  so 
long  loaded  them  with  indignities,  and  to  entitle 
them  to  the  high  rewards  which  await  those  who  are 
found  faithful  among  the  faithless.  The  royalists 
rose  in  arms,  put  themselves  under  the  command  of 
Colonel  Boyd,  one  of  their  chiefs ;  and  moving 
towards  the  British  army,  pillaged,  burnt,  and 
murdered  on  their  way.  Meantime  the  Carolinians 
collected  a  force,  which,  under  the  command  of 
Colonel  Pickens,  met  them,  just  as  they  had  nearly 
reached  the  British  posts.  A  furious  conflict  ensued. 
The  republicans  killed  great  numbers,  and  totally 
defeated  the  party.  Seventy-six  of  the  most  guilty 
were  condemned  to  death  as  criminals ;  but  mercy 
was  extended  to  the  whole  number  of  the  condemned, 
except  five. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  preceding  year,  General 
Lincoln  was  appointed,  at  the  request  of  the  Caro- 
linians, to  take  the  command  of  the  southern  forces. 
He  arrived  on  the  4th  of  December,  at  Charlestown  ; 
and  on  the  17th  of  January,  took  post  at  Purysburg. 
As  the  enemy  extended  their  posts  up  the  Savannah, 
on  the  southern  side,  Lincoln  extended  his  on  the 
northern  bank.  He  fixed  one  encampment  at  Black 
Swamp,  and  another  nearly  opposite  to  Augusta ; 
intending,  as  soon  as  he  should  be  able  to  collect  a 
sufficient  force,  to  cross  the  Savannah,  and  oblige 
the  enemy  to  evacuate  the  upper  parts  of  Georgia. 
Meantime  Prevost  fell  down  the  river  to  Hudson's 
Ferry.  Lincoln,  whose  army  amounted  to  4000, 
intending  to  restrict  him  to  the  coast,  now  com- 
menced the  execution  of  his  design,  of  taking  pos- 
session of  the  upper  part  of  Georgia.  He  detached 
General  Ashe  with  2000  men  of  the  North  Carolina 
militia,  to  take  post  on  Briar  creek.  Finding  his 
position  a  strong  one,  and  trusting  too  much  to  its 
strength,  General  Ashe  was  not  careful  to  avoid  sur- 
prise. Prevost  took  measures  by  judicious  feints, 
to  keep  the  attention  of  Lincoln  diverted  from  Ashe, 
while  he  marched  to  surprise  that  general.  He 
was  so  completely  successful,  that  he  had  entered 
the  camp  of  the  Americans  before  they  were  aware 
of  his  approach.  Panic-struck,  the  militia  fled  with- 
out firing  a  shot ;  but  many  of  them  being  drowned 
in  the  river  and  swallowed  up  in  the  marches,  met 


with  a  death  which  they  might  possibly  have  escaped 
by  a  gallant  resistance. 

The  regular  troops  of  Carolina  and  Georgia  ani- 
mated by  the  example  of  their  commander,  the  brave 
General  Elbert,  made  a  gallant  resistance ;  but  de- 
serted by  their  friends,  and  outnumbered  by  their 
enemies,  they  were  compelled  to  yield.  By  this 
disastrous  affair,  General  Lincoln  must  have  been 
deprived  of  1600  of  his  troops,  as  only  400  returned 
to  his  camp. 

Again  the  British  were  masters  of  all  Georgia. 
They  had  free  communication  with  the  encouraged 
loyalists ;  not  only  in  the  back  parts  of  this  state, 
but  also  in  those  of  the  Carolinas  :  and  General 
Prevost  now  proceeded  to  organize  a  colonial  go- 
vernment. 

Alarmed  but  not  dismayed,  the  Carolinians  made 
the  most  vigorous  exertions  to  draw  out  their  militia. 
John  Rutledge,  in  whom  all  classes  confided,  was 
chosen  governor.  By  the  middle  of  April,  Lincoln 
found  himself  at  the  head  of  5000  fighting  men.  On 
the  23rd  he  resumed  his  intention  of  occupying 
Georgia ;  and  leaving  1000  of  his  troops  under  Ge- 
neral Moultrie,  to  garrison  Purysburg  and  Black 
Swamp,  he  marched  with  the  remainder  up  the  Sa- 
vannah. Meantime  the  army  of  Prevost,  which 
was  increased  by  the  royalists,  crossed  the  river  Sa- 
vannah near  its  mouth,  and  defeated  General  Moul- 
trie ;  who,  finding  Purysburg  and  Black  Swamp 
untenable,  had  retired  towards  Charlestown.  Hold- 
ing on  their  victorious  course,  the  llth  of  May  they 
appeared  before  Charlestown.  The  garrison  of  this 
city  was  small,  although  it  had  been  the  day  before 
reinforced  by  500  militia  under  Governor  Rutledge, 
and  by  the  "  American  Legion"  under  the  Count 
Pulaski.  Their  only  hope  of  relief  was  from  the 
hourly  expected  presence  of  Lincoln.  When,  there- 
fore, they  were,  on  the  morning  of  the  12th,  sum- 
moned to  surrender,  they  sent  out  commissioners  to 
negotiate,  who  contrived,  by  requiring  certain  con- 
ditions, to  bring  on  a  long  dispute.  In  the  mean- 
time they  were  making  vigorous  preparations  for 
real  defence,  and  a  great  show  as  if  well  prepared 
for  resistance. — The  fears  of  Prevost  began  to  ope- 
rate, and  he  drew  off"  his  troops  some  miks  from  the 
town.  While  he  hesitated,  and  delayed  to  attack 
the  city,  the  army  of  Lincoln  appeared. 

Prevost  now  retired  to  the  island  of  St.  James 
and  St.  John's  southward  of  Charlestown.  His  de- 
sign was  to  pass  along  the  fertile  islands  which  line 
the  coast.  Lincoln  followed  him  upon  (he  main 
land,  and  an  indecisive  engagement  of  some  regi- 
ments occurred  at  Stono  Ferry.  General  Prevost 
left  a  garrison  in  Beaufort  on  Port  Royal,  under 
command  of  Colonel  Maitlaud,  and  then  retired 
with  the  British  main  army  to  Savannah  ;  while 
General  Lincoln  with  the  American  forces  took  post 
at  Sheldon. 

In  May,  General  Clinton,  wishing  to  further  the 
designs  of  the  British  ministry  in  the  conquest  of 
the  southern  states,  sent  out  from  New  York  a  fleet 
under  the  command  of  Commodore  Collier,  with  a 
corps  of  2000  men  under  General  Matthews,  to 
make  a  descent  upon  Virginia,  and  by  devastating 
the  country,  to  keep  the  inhabitants  in  a  continual 
state  of  alarm.  He  had  hopes  that  by  the  aid  of  the 
loyalists,  this  force  would  be  able  to  overawe  and 
effect  a  revolt  of  the  state.  This  fleet  proceeded  to 
the  Chesapeake,  and  blocked  up  the  entrances  of 
James  river  and  Hampton  roads.  A  part  of  the 
troops  landed  on  the  banks  of 'Elizabeth  river  :  then 
proceeded  to  Portsmouth,  Norfolk,  Suffolk,  and 


UNITED  STATES. 


1061 


Gosport,  burned  those  places,  and  spread  devasta- 
tion through  the  country.  They  demolished  maga- 
zines, and  tooK  great  quantities  of  provisions,  which 
had  been  prepared  for  the  American  army,  and 
burned  or  removed  all  the  stores  and  shipping. 
Failing,  however,  in  the  grand  object  of  producing 
a  revolt,  Clinton  recalled  them  to  New  York. 

He  next  resolved  to  attack  the  American  works 
at  Stony  Point,  and  Verplank's  Neck ;  two  oppo- 
site projections  of  land  on  the  Hudson  river.  The 
Americans  had  constructed  these  works  at  great 
labour  and  expense.  They  were  important  to  them, 
as  they  commanded  the  pass  called  King's  Ferry, 
and  because  if  they  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Bri- 
tish, the  Americans  would  be  obliged  to  take  a  cir- 
cuit of  90  miles  up  the  river  to  communicate  be- 
tween the  northern  and  southern  provinces. 

General  Clinton,  commanding  this  expedition  in 
person,  left  New  York  on  the  31st  of  May.  He  first 
proceeded  against  Stony  Point.  The  Americans 
being  unprepared  for  defence,  evacuated  the  place. 
At  Verplank's  Point,  the  fort  named  La  Fayette 
had  just  been  completed.  Unfortunately,  however, 
this  fort  was  commanded  by  the  heights  of  Stony 
Point,  upon  which  the  British  had,  during  the  night, 
planted  a  battery  of  heavy  cannon,  and  another  of 
mortars.  Early  in  the  morning  this  artillery  was 
turned  against  Fort  La  Fayette ;  and  the  enemy 
having  invested  it,  all  probability  of  relief  was  cut 
off,  and  the  garrison  surrendered.  General  Clinton 
gave  orders  for  completing  the  works  of  Stony  Point. 
On  the  2nd  of  June  he  encamped  his  army  at  Phi- 
lipsburg,  half  way  between  Verplank's  Point  and 
New  York. 

At  this  period  the  commerce  of  the  British  in  the 
sound  was  nearly  destroyed  by  the  Connecticut  pri- 
vateers. They  intercepted  whatever  made  its  ap- 
pearance on  their  waters;  and  by  this  means  dis- 
tressed the  British  army  in  New  York,  which  had 
been  accustomed  to  receive  its  supplies  from  this 
quarter.  To  remedy  this  inconvenience,  Governor 
Tryon,  by  the  orders  of  Clinton,  embarked  with  a 
strong  detachment  for  Connecticut  He  proceeded 
to  New  Haven,  and  destroyed  all  the  shipping  which 
he  found  in  that  port.  He  then  advanced  to  Fair- 
field,  Norwalk,  and  Greenwich,  all  of  which  places 
he  barbarously  consigned  to  the  flames.  Besides 
the  loss  of  a  great  quantity  of  shipping  and  whale- 
boats,  the  destruction  of  other  property  was  immense. 

While  the  British  were  thus  desolating  the  coasts 
of  Connecticut,  the  Americans  undertook  the  reco- 
very of  Verplank's  and  Stony  Points.  The  stores 
at  Stony  Point,  in  particular,  were  abundant,  and 
it  was  supplied  with  a  numerous  and  select  corps  of 
troops.  Washington  charged  General  Wayne  with 
the  attack  of  Stony  Point,  and  General  Howe  with 
that  of  Verplank's.  The  troops  commanded  by  Ge- 
neral Wayne  arrived  under  the  walls  of  the  fort 
about  midnight.  The  Americans  were  divided  into 
two  columns,  and  attacked  the  fort  from  opposite 
points.  The  English  opened  a  tremendous  fire 
upon  them,  but  they  rushed  impetuously  onward, 
opening  their  way  with  the  bayonet.  They  scaled 
the  fort,  and  the  two  victorious  columns  met  in  the 
centre  of  the  works.  The  loss  of  the  British  in 
killed,  wounded,  and  prisoners,  amounted  to  600,  the 
Americans  lost  but  JOO.  The  attack  upon  Ver- 
plank's proved  unsuccessful. 

When  Clinton  received  intelligence  of  the  cap- 
ture of  Stony  Point,  he  determined  not  to  suffer  the 
Americans  to  remain  in  possession,  and  dispatched 
a  corps  of  troops  to  dislodge  them.  Washington, 


not  wishing  to  hazard  a  battle,  ordered  General 
Wayne  to  retire,  having  accomplished  his  object  in 
dismantling  the  fort,  and  removing  all  the  artillery 
and  stores. 

At  the  east,  the  British  obtained  some  advantages 
over  the  Americans.  Colonel  McLean  had  em- 
barked from  Halifax  with  a  strong  detachment  of 
troops,  and  landed  at  the  mouth  of  the  Penobscot 
river.  In  this  place  he  chose  an  advantageous  situa- 
tion and  proceeded  to  fortify  himself.  His  object 
was  to  annoy  the  eastern  frontier,  and  to  prevent 
the  inhabitants  of  Massachusetts  from  sending  rein- 
forcements to  the  army  of  Washington.  The  Bos- 
tonians  in  great  alarm  fitted  out  an  armament,  and 
gave  the  command  to  Commodore  Saltoustall.  With 
it  they  dispatched  a  portion  of  land  troops,  under 
the  command  of  Lovell.  On  their  arrival  at  the 
Penobscot,  instead  of  attacking  the  enemy  immedi- 
ately, which  would  have  insured  them  success,  they 
delayed  fifteen  days  in  order  to  intrench  themselves. 
On  the  day  of  the  intended  attack,  Commodore  Col- 
lier, whom  Clinton,  on  bearing  of  the  situation  of 
McLean,  had  sent  from  Sandy  Hook  to  his  relief, 
appeared  with  his  fleet  at  the  mouth  of  the  Penob- 
scot. The  Americans  re-embarked,  but  Collier  at- 
tacked the  flotilla,  and  entirely  destroyed  it.  The 
soldiers  and  sailors,  in  order  to  effect  their  escape, 
were  obliged  to  land  and  hide  themselves  in  the  fo- 
rests. The  failure  of  this  enterprise  was  a  severe 
mortification,  as  well  as  a  serious  loss  to  the  Boi- 
tonians. 

In  July,  congress  sent  General  Sullivan  with  2000 
troops,  to  repress  the  incursions  of  the  savages  at  the 
west.  He  proceeded  up  the  Susquehannah,  and  at 
Wyoming  was  joined  by  a  reinforcement  of  1600 
men,  under  the  command  of  James  Clinton. 

The  Indians  had  assembled  in  great  number*, 
under  the  command  of  their  ferocious  leaders,  John- 
son, Butler,  and  Brandt,  and  were  now  joined  by 
250  royalists.  Confident  in  their  strength,  they  had 
advanced  to  Newtown ;  and,  while  awaiting  Sulli- 
van's approach,  bad  thrown  up  an  extensive  intrench- 
ment,  strengthened  by  a  palisade  and  redoubts,  after 
the  European  manner.  General  Sullivan,  on  his 
arrival,  immediately  attacked  the  place.  The  Indi- 
ans, after  defending  it  two  hours,  fled  in  disorder. 
Few  were  killed,  and  none  taken  prisoners.  Ge- 
neral Sullivan  took  possession  of  Newtown,  from 
whence  he  made  incursions  into  the  other  parts  of 
their  country.  The  savages,  filled  with  terror,  made 
no  further  resistance,  but  escaped  to  the  forests. 
An  immense  quantity  of  grain  was  burned,  40 
villages  were  utterly  destroyed,  and  no  trace  of  ve- 
getation left  upon  the  surface  of  the  ground.  General 
Sullivan,  after  having  accomplished  this  enterprise, 
went  with  his  army  to  Easton,  in  Pennsylvania. 

Naval  affairs — D'Estaigne   arrives  off  the  coast  of 
Georgia — Savannah  invested  by  the  French — The 
siege  raised — Paul  Jones's  naval  engagement — In 
trigues  of  France  and  Spain. 

To  understand  the  history  of  the  war,  it  is  nece* 
sary  to  keep  in  view,  not  only  the  movements  of  the 
forces  of  America,  but  also  those  of  her  ally  and  her 
enemy,  the  commencement  of  the  present  year 
finds  the  Count  D'Estaigne  and  Lord  Byron,  with 
their  respective  fleets,  in  the  West  Indies.  The 
former  is  reinforced  by  a  squadron  under  the  Count 
De  Grasse,  and  the  latter  by  an  armament  under 
Commodore  Rowley. 

Their  fleets  were  now  nearly  equal,  and  the  Enfc 
lish  were  desirous  of  a  naval  battle  j  but  the  French 


1062 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


had  in  view  the  conquest  of  the  neighbouring  Eng- 
lish islands,  and  for  that  purpose  had  on  board  a 
considerable  land  force,  which  must  in  the  event  of 
a  battle  be  exposed,  and  could  afford  no  assistance. 
D'Estaigne  was  therefore  averse  to  an  engagement, 
and  lay  quietly  at  anchor  in  Port  Royal,  Martinico. 

Meantime,  Lord  Byron  sailed  towards  England 
to  convoy  a  fleet  of  merchantmen,  well  aware  that 
a  guard  of  no  ordinary  strength  could,  under  pre- 
sent circumstances,  protect  them.  No  sooner  had 
he  left  the  West  Indies,  than  the  French  admiral 
sent  a  detached  squadron  to  St.  Vincent,  which 
succeeded  in  capturing  that  valuable  island. 

On  the  30th  of  June,  D'Estaigne,  who  had  re- 
ceived a  reinforcement  from  France,  left  Martinico, 
his  fleet  consisting  of  25  sail  of  the  line,  and  on  the 
2nd  of  July  came  to  anchor  in  a  harbour  of  Grenada. 
On  this  island  he  landed  2500  men,  and  attacked 
and  carried,  by  a  bloody  and  destructive  assault, 
St.  George,  its  principal  fortress.  The  island,  of 
necessity,  submitted  to  France. 

Shortly  after  these  events,  D'Estaigne  received 
from  General  Lincoln,  President  Lowndes  and  Mr. 
Plombard,  letters,  from  which  he  learned  of  the  dis- 
satisfaction which  existed  in  America.  The  repub- 
licans complained,  that  the  alliance  with  France 
had  produced  nothing  upon  the  American  continent, 
which  corresponded  either  to  the  greatness  cf  their 
ally,  or  the  general  expectations  of  the  Americans. 
It  was  said  that  the  sums  expended  upon  Rhode 
Island  were  worse  than  fruitless,  and  that  the  zeal  with 
which  the  Bostonians  had  victualled  and  equipped 
the  French  fleet,  produced  no  better  effect  than  its 
immediate  desertion  of  their  coasts,  on  distant  ex- 
peditions. The  loss  of  Savannah  and  Georgia,  which 
opened  to  the  British  an  easy  entrance  to  the  Caro- 
linas,  was  attributed  to  the  desertion  of  the  French; 
and  finally,  it  was  said,  that  while  the  French  were 
enriching  themselves  in  distant  seas,  with  the  con- 
quests of  the  British  possessions,  they  left  the  Ame- 
ricans, contrary  to  the  stipulations  of  the  treaty,  to 
sustain  the  burden  of  the  war.  These  complaints 
were  followed  by  earnest  entreaties,  that  D'Estaigne 
would  immediately  restore  the  confidence  of  the 
Americans,  by  hastening  to  their  succour. 

Count  D'Estaigne  had  received  instructions  to 
return  immediately  to  Europe,  but  moved  by  the 
representations  of  the  Americans,  he  ventured  to 
disobey  the  summons  of  his  court.  Directing  his 
course  for  Georgia,  he  appeared  off  the  coast  on  the 
1st  of  September. 

He  saw  that  there  were  two  plans  which,  if  Ame- 
rica could  successfully  execute,  the  war  must  of  ne- 
cessity come  to  a  conclusion.  One  of  these  was  the 
destruction  of  the  forces  under  General  Prevost,  at 
Savannah;  and  the  other  and  more  difficult  was,  to 
attack  by  sea  and  land  conjointly  with  Washington, 
the  British  forces  in  the  city  of  New  York.  It  was 
determined  to  attempt  the  former;  and  the  Count 
D'Estaigne  and  General  Lincoln  lost  no  time  in 
commencing  their  joint  operations. 

The  French  admiral  had  sent  some  vessels  to 
Charlestown  with  the  joyful  news  of  his  arrival  in 
those  waters.  They  surprised  and  captured  some 
British  vessels  loaded  with  provisions.  General 
Prevost,  alarmed  at  his  danger,  sent  expresses  direct- 
ing the  forces  under  Maitland,  and  those  at  Sun- 
bury,  to  repair  with  speed  to  Savannah.  He  re- 
moved the  shipping  further  up  the  river,  destroyed 
tbe  batteries  at  the  island  of  Tybee,  and  pressed  the 
completion  of  the  fortifications  at  Savannah. 

Meantime,  General  Lincoln  marched  towards  Sa- 


vannah, leaving  orders  for  the  militia  to  collect  from 
all  quarters,  and  join  his  army. 

Before  he  had  arrived,  D'Estaigne  had  invested 
the  place,  and  demanded  of  Prevost  to  surrender  to 
the  arms  of  France; — a  measure  which  was  dis- 
pleasing to  the  republicans.  The  expected  rein 
forcements  of  Prevost  had  not  yet  arrived ;  and  he 
amused  the  French  admiral  by  a  protracted  negoti- 
ation. D'Estaigne  even  went  so  far  as  to  give  him 
a  truce  of  24  hours.  In  the  meantime,  Maitland 
arrived ,  and  there  was  then  no  further  talk  of  sur- 
rendering. Pulaski  with  his  legion,  and  Lincoln 
with  3000  troops,  had  arrived  before  Savannah. 
Works  were  erected,  and  a  regular  siege  was  com- 
menced on  the  24th  of  September. 

On  the  3d  of  October  the  trenches  were  completed, 
the  batteries  armed,  and  a  bombardment  com- 
menced. Forty-three  pieces  of  cannon  and  nine 
mortars  sent  an  incessant  shower  of  balls  and  shells. 
The  city  was  on  fire  in  many  places.  The  burning 
roofs  fell  upon  the  women  and  children,  and  the 
unarmed  multitude ;  and  every  where  were  seen  the 
crippled,  the  dying  and  the  dead.  Five  days  had 
this  firing  continued ;  which  although  so  dreadful 
to  the  town,  was  nearly  harmless  to  the  fort. 

Touched  with  the  sufferings  which  he  witnessed. 
Prevost  requested  permission  that  the  women  and 
children  should  be  sent  down  the  river,  on  board  of 
vessels  intrusted  to  the  care  of  the  French,  to  await 
there  the  issue  of  the  siege.  D'Estaigne,  fearing  to 
be  again  entrapped,  refused  this  humane  request. 
In  the  meantime,  the  French  fleet  would  be  exposed 
to  dangers,  and  himself  to  disgrace,  should  the  ad- 
miral longer  detain  it.  And  although  the  allies 
knew  that  they  were  putting  to  great  hazard  that 
which  delay  would  make  certain,  yet  the  exigency 
of  the  case  seemed  to  demand  it ;  and  it  was  resolved 
to  assault  the  town.  The  flower  of  the  combined 
armies  were  led  to  the  attack  by  the  two  command- 
ers, D'Estaigne  and  Lincoln.  They  met  with  many 
disasters  and  a  final  repulse.  The  number  of  the 
slain  and  the  wounded  shows  that  the  battle  must 
have  been  bloody.  The  French  loss  was  700 ;  the 
American  400.  The  Count  D'Estaigne  was  wounded, 
but  recovered;  the  Count  Pulaski,  while  bravely 
charging  at  the  head  of  200  horse,  received  a  wound 
which  caused  his  death,  and  deprived  America  of 
one  of  her  most  valiant  and  disinterested  defenders. 

On  the  18th,  the  allies  raised  the  siege  of  Savan- 
nah. Lincoln  crossed  the  river  with  his  regular 
troops ;  the  militia  disbanded  and  returned  to  their 
homes;  and  D'Estaigne  set  sail  for  Europe.  Sir 
Henry  Clinton,  fearing  an  attack  from  the  French, 
withdrew  his  troops  from  Rhode  Island  precipitately, 
with  the  loss  of  his  munitions ;  leaving  that  state  to 
revert  peaceably  to  the  union. 

Near  the  close  of  this  year  occurred  on  the  coast 
of  Scotland,  that  unexampled  sea-fight,  which  gave 
to  the  name  of  Paul  Jones  such  terrific  eclat.  This 
man  was  a  native  of  Scotland,  but  engaged  in  the 
service  of  the  United  States.  His  flotilla  was  composed 
of  the  Bonhomme  Richard,  of  40  guns,  the  Alliance, 
of  36,  (both  American  ships,)  the  Pallas,  a  French 
frigate  of  32,  in  the  pay  of  congress,  and  two  other 
smaller  vessels.  He  fell  in  with  a  British  merchant 
fleet,  on  its  return  from  the  Baltic,  convoyed  by 
Captain  Pearson,  with  tbe  frigate  Serapis,  of  44 
guns,  and  the  countess  of  Scarborough,  of  twenty. 

Pearson  had  no  sooner  perceived  Jones,  than  he 
bore  down  to  engage  him,  while  the  merchantmen 
endeavoured  to  gain  the  coast.  The  American 
flotilla  formed  to  receive  him.  The  \.  -  enemies 


UNITED  STATES. 


1063 


joined  battle  about  seven  in  the  evening.  The  Bri- 
tish having  the  advantage  of  cannon  of  a  longer 
reach,  Paul  Jones  resolved  to  fight  them  closer.  He 
brought  up  his  ships,  until  the  muzzles  of  his  guns 
came  in  contact  with  those  of  his  enemy.  Here  the 
phrensied  combatants  fought  from  seven  till  ten. 
Paul  Jones  now  found  that  his  vessel  was  so  shat- 
tered, that  only  three  effective  guns  remained. 
Trusting  no  longer  to  these,  he  assailed  his  enemy 
with  grenades ;  which  falling  into  the  Serapis,  set 
her  on  fire  in  several  places.  At  length  her  maga- 
zine blew  up  and  killed  all  near  it.  Pearson  en- 
raged at  his  officers,  who  wished  him  to  surrender, 
commanded  them  to  board.  Paul  Jones  at  the  head 
of  his  crew,  received  them  at  the  point  of  the  pike  ; 
and  they  retreated.  But  the  flames  of  the  Serapis 
had  communicated  to  her  enemy,  and  the  vessel  of 
Jones  was  on  fire.  Amidst  this  tremendous  night- 
scene,  the  American  frigate  Alliance  came  up,  and 
mistaking  her  partner  for  her  enemy,  fired  a  broad- 
side into  the  vessel  of  Jones.  By  the  broad  glare 
of  the  burning  ships  she  discovered  her  mistake,  and 
turned  her  guns  against  her  exhausted  foe.  Pear- 
son's crew  were  killed  or  wounded,  his  artillery  dis- 
mounted, and  his  vessel  on  fire ;  and  he  could  no 
longer  resist.  The  flames  of  the  Serapis  were,  how- 
ever arrested ;  but  the  leaks  of  the  Goodman  Richard 
could  not  be  stopped,  and  the  hulk  went  down  soon 
after  the  mangled  remains  of  the  crew  had  been  re- 
moved. Of  the  375  who  were  on  board  that  re- 
nowned vessel,  only  68  left  it  alive.  The  Pallas 
had  captured  the  Countess  of  Scarborough ;  and 
Jones,  after  this  horrible  victory,  wandered  with  his 
shattered,  unmanageable  vessels  for  some  time ;  and 
at  length,  on  the  6th  of  October,  had  the  good  for- 
tune to  find  his  way  to  the  waters  of  the  Texel. 

Having  now  brought  to  a  close  the  military  af- 
fairs of  the  campaign,  we  pause  to  take  some  note 
of  the  political  transactions. 

Notwithstanding  the  apparent  inutility  to  the  re- 
publicans of  the  French  fleet,  it  was  in  reality  of 
great  importance  to  their  cause,  as  it  kept  the  Bri- 
tish constantly  in  check.  But  the  alliance  with 
France  had  also  its  disadvantages.  The  public 
feeling,  so  long  strained  to  an  unnatural  elevation, 
was  now  predisposed  to  sink  to  apathy  ;  and  the 
Americans  were  led  to  believe  that  England  must, 
from  the  power  of  France,  soon  be  compelled  to 
yield,  although  they  should  remit  their  efforts. 

The  leading  republicans  saw  the  evil  with  alarm. 
Endeavouring  to  counteract  it,  they  called  on  the 
people  by  the  memory  of  their  past  exploits,  by  the 
necessity  of  preserving  the  respect  of  their  allies, 
by  the-peril's  which  still  impended,  and  by  the  power 
and  treacherous  policy  of  their  yet  unconquered  ad- 
versary, to  arouse  from  their  lethargy,  and  trust  not 
in  chance  or  in  strangers,  but  in  their  own  exertions, 
for  the  establishment  of  their  rights.  But  vain  was 
the  appeal ;  and  even  the  army  was  affected  by  the 
lethargic  torpor  of  the  public  mind. 

Another  evil  had  arisen.  There  had  been  pro- 
duced by  the  disorders  of  the  times,  a  race  of  men, 
who  seeking  solely  to  enrich  themselves,  made  a 
trade  of  the  public  distress.  What  did  they  care  if 
their  country  should  fall,  if  they  could  share  her 
spoils  ?  Freedom  for  them  might  perish,  so  they 
could  but  batten  on  her  corse.  Army  supplies  en- 
riched them,  as  they  afforded  them  pretences  for 
peculations;  and  the  state  often  paid  dearly  for 
what  it  never  received.  Such  wretches  are  ever  the 
loudest  to  chime  in  with  the  tune  of  the  times.  Hy- 
pocrites in  patriotism;  vociferous  in  talking  of  their 


country's  rights,  they  deceived  the  undiscerning, 
and  acquired  an  influence,  by  which  they  sought  to 
remove  from  office  all  who  obstructed  their  designs. 
By  their  intrigues,  the  appalling  cry  of  tory  was 
raised,  and  sometimes  not  in  vain,  against  the  up- 
right officer,  who  refused  to  connive  at  their  selfish 
rapacity. 

One  cause  of  this  alarming  degeneracy  in  morals, 
lay  in  the  depreciation  of  paper  currency.  At  the 
close  of  this  year,  a  dollar  in  specie  could  scarcely 
be  obtained  for  40  in  bills.  But,  the  paper  was 
fluctuating  in  its  value.  Hence  a  set  of  men  arose, 
who  preferred  speculating  on  this  currency,  to  honest 
industry ;  and  often  in  the  changes  which  occurred, 
the  worthless  amassed  sudden  wealth,  while  many 
deserving  persons  of  moderate  fortunes,  sunk  at 
once  to  poverty.  That  the  bills  should  have  depre- 
ciated, will  not  be  mysterious,  when  we  consider 
that  the  immense  sum  of  160,000,000  had  now  been 
issued  by  congress. 

The  honest  individual  of  private  life  will  be  sur- 
prised to  learn  another  reason  of  the  depreciation  of 
American  paper,  although  the  wily  politician  knows 
that  it  is  no  new  "  trick  of  state."  England  on  this 
occasion  turned  counterfeiter.  Her  ministers  sent 
over,  and  her  generals  distributed  whole  chests  of 
spurious  bills  so  perfectly  imitated  as  scarcely  to  be 
distinguished  from  the  true. 

In  the  meantime  America  was.  scarcely  less  in 
danger  from  her  friends  than  her  enemies.  Her 
congress  was  beset  by  the  intrigues  of  France  and 
Spain.  The  former  had  not  intended  to  declare  in 
her  favour,  until  far  greater  concessions  had  been 
obtained.  She  had  been  surprised  into  the  step  she 
had  taken,  by  the  unexpected  fortune  whieh  in  the 
case  of  Burgoyne,  the  Americans  had  single-handed 
won  for  thems'elves,  and  which  made  her  fear  that 
unless  she  then  declared  herself,  the  contest  would 
be  decided,  and  America  independent  without 
being  in  any  degree  indebted  to  her  or  inclined  to 
favour  her.  She  also  feared  that  she  should  lose  the 
opportunity  of  obtaining  a  powerful  and  efficient 
ally  in  a  war  which  she  wished,  on  her  own  account, 
to  wage  against  her  too  powerful  neighbour,  and 
hereditary  enemy.  Now  that  by  the  alliance,  these 
objects  were  secured,  she  wished  in  the  particulars 
which  yet  remained  to  be  settled,  to  drive  a  hard 
bargain  for  her  services ;  and  to  make  the  Ameri- 
cans think  meanly  of  themselves,  would  be  to  en- 
hance the  value  of  those  services.  M.  Gerard  in  his 
communications  to  congress,  endeavoured,  by  such 
means,  to  make  them  consent  to  abandon  to  France 
the  extensive  fisheries  of  Newfoundland,  and  to 
Spain  the  exclusive  navigation  of  the  Mississippi. 
The  alliance  of  Spain  was  also  to  be  thrown  into 
the  scale,  and  the  advantages  of  this  were  magni- 
fied. But  congress  were  not  deceived,  they  refused 
the  specious  bait;  and  Spain  having  precisely  the 
same  policy  as  France,  and  the  same  desire  to  hum- 
ble England,  declared  war  against  that  power,  to 
suit  her  own  purposes  ;  without  succeeding  in  making 
America  believe,  that  she  did  it  for  her  sake. 

The  British  ministry  had  in  the  spring  sent  out 
Admiral  Arbuthnot  with  a  reinforcement  for  the 
American  service.  He  was  however  delayed  by  the 
way,  and  did  not  arrive  until  August.  Undei  con- 
voy of  his  fleet,  Sir  Henry  Clinton  with  7,000  men 
sailed  in  October  from  New  York  for  the  south,  and 
after  a  tempestuous  and  protracted  voyage,  landed 
atTyber  Island  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Charlestown. 

General  Lincoln,  with  his  army,  was,  at  the  close 
of  this  year,  in  winter- quarters  at  Sheldon,  and 


1064 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


Washington  had  again  chosen  his  at  the  heights  of 
Movrissauia 

(Jam-paiyn  cf  1779 — Armed  neutrality — Clinton  be- 
iittges  Charlestown— That  city  capitulates — Tarleton 
surprises  BurJ'ord — Clinton  in  South  Carolina — He 
returns  to  New  York — Skirmish  at  Sprinyjield. 

Fresh  indications  of  hostility  towards  England 
were  manifested  by  the  European  powers.  She  had 
for  a  considerable  period  been  mistress  of  the  sea, 
and  she  had  borne  her  honours  haughtily.  She 
claimed  the  right  of  searching  the  vessels  of  neutral 
nations,  for  articles  contraband  of  war;  nor  would 
she  allow  their  national  flag  to  protect  them  from 
her  troublesome  and  insulting  scrutiny.  A  com- 
mon feeling  of  indignation  at  this  conduct  pervaded 
the  nations,  which,  by  the  policy  of  Catharine  II. 
of  Russia,  England  was  made  to  feel,  without  the 
power  of  resenting.  On  the  occasion  of  the  irrita- 
tion produced  by  the  search  and  seizure  of  a  number 
of  Dutch  vessels  sailing  under  the  convoy  of  the 
Count  de  Byland,  that  princess  proposed  to  the  na- 
tions to  unite  in  an  "  armed  neutrality,"  and  imme- 
diately the  kings  of  Denmark  and  Sweden  acceded 
to  the  proposal.  The  treaty  to  which  they  were 
mutually  bound,  and  which  constituted  the  basis  of 
this  confederacy,  stipulated  that  neutral  vessels 
might  freely  navigate  from  one  port  to  another, 
even  upcn  the  coast  of  belligerent  powers ; — that 
all  effects  become  free  so  soon  as  they  are  on  board 
a  neutral  vessel,  except  such  articles  as  by  a  former 
specified  treaty,  had  been  declared  contraband; — 
that  no  port  should  be  deemed  blockaded,  until  such 
an  actual  naval  force  had  invested  it,  as  to  make  its 
entrance  dangerous ; — that  when  any  vessel  had 
shown  by  its  papers,  that  it  was  not  the  carrier  of 
contraband  goods,  it  might  place  itself  under  the  es- 
cort of  ships  of  war,  which  should  prevent  its  being 
stopped ; — and  finally,  that  the  legality  of  prizes 
should  be  determined  by  these  rules.  In  order  to 
command  respect  for  this  confederation,  the  three 
allied  powers  agreed  that  each  should  keep  a  part 
of  its  navy  equipped,  and  make  common  cause  in 
protecting  their  common  trade.  These  articles  were 
communicated  to  the  courts  of  France,  Spain,  Hoi- 
laud,  England,  and  Portugal,  with  an  invitation  to 
join  the  confederacy.  The  two  former  expressed 
great  admiration  of  their  wisdom,  and  joy  in  their 
adoption  ;  and  not  only  acceded  to  them,  but  wished 
the  northern  powers  to  understand,  that  by  their 
directions  to  their  admirals,  they  had  already  antici- 
pated them.  Portugal,  fearful  of  offending  England, 
declined  the  alliance.  England  threatened  with 
vengeance  the  states  of  Holland,  if  they  departed 
from  the  old  system  of  neutrality ;  but  Holland, 
irritated  at  the  seizure  of  her  vessels,  and  partaking 
in  the  common  feeling  of  resentment  towards  Eng- 
land, disregarded  these  threats,  and  joined  the  armed 
neutrality.  The  British  ministry,  unwilling  to  come 
to  an  open  rupture  with  Russia,  but  determined  not 
to  admit  the  principles  of  the  confederacy,  dissem- 
bled for  the  present  their  displeasure,  and  replied 
to  the  invitation  in  a  vague  and  indecisive  manner. 
Surrounded  by  so  many  perils,  it  is  not  strange 
that  England  prosecuted  the  American  war  with 
less  energy  than  she  had  done  in  preceding  years. 
Yet  she  manifested  no  signs  of  fear  or  discourage- 
ment. The  only  change  which  took  place  in  her 
policy  respecting  the  American  contest,  was  that 
before  stated  ;  to  draw  all  her  troops  to  the  south, 
except  so  many  as  should  enable  her  to  keep  pos 
•essiou  of  tbe  pobtn  already  acquired  at  the  north. 


Sir  Henry  Clinton,  as  we  have  before  noticed, 
was  lying  in  the  vicinity  of  Charlestown,  with  an 
army  of  7000  men.  This  was  increased  by  the 
troops  from  Savannah,  under  General  Patterson. 
Not  doubting  but  that  Charlestown  would  be  at- 
tacked, General  Lincoln  removed  thither  with  his 
army  ;  and  in  conjunction  with  Governor  Rutledge, 
to  whom  the  state  had  confided  dictatorial  powers, 
tried  every  measure  to  put  the  city  in  a  posture  of 
defence.  But  they  had  great  difficulties  to  encounter. 
The  militia  had  been  disbanded ;  they  weie  dis- 
pirited, and  afraid  to  enter  Charlestown  on  account 
of  the  small-pox,  which  was  there  prevailing. 

Paper  currency  was  out  of  credit,  and  many  be- 
coming discouraged  as  to  the  final  success  of  the 
republican  cause,  took  advantage  of  the  amnesty 
which  had  been  offered  by  Prevost.  A  considerable 
force  was  however  collected,  and  great  diligence 
was  displayed  in  constructing  fortifications. 

The  siege  commenced  on  the  1st  of  April,  Gene- 
ral Lincoln  had  posted  General  Huger,  with  a  de- 
tachment, at  Monk's  Corner.  They  were  driven 
from  their  position  by  the  British  troops  under  Colo- 
nels Webster,  Tarleton,  and  Ferguson.  The  British 
had,  on  the  llth  of  April,  passed  Fort  Moultrie 
without  stopping  to  engage  it,  losing  by  its  guns 
only  27  men.  Colonel  Piuckney,  who  commanded 
this  fort,  surrendered  it  on  the  7th  of  May.  Charles- 
town,  thus  surrounded,  capitulated  on  the  12th,  and 
General  Lincoln,  with  his  army,  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  British.  Seven  general  officers,  ten  conti- 
nental regiments,  three  battalions,  400  pieces  of 
artillery,  and  four  frigates,  were  surrendered. 

The  "successful  operations  of  the  British  in  the 
siege  of  Charlestown,  and  in  the  defence  made  at 
tbe  close  of  the  last  year  at  Savannah,  are  by  his- 
torians attributed,  in  a  great  degree,  to  the  superior 
skill  of  their  chief  engineer,  Moncrieff. 

After  taking  possession  of  the  capital,  Clinton 
planned  three  expeditions,  all  of  which  proved  suc- 
cessful; one  against  Ninety-six,  one  towards  Sa- 
vannah, and  the  third  to  scour  the  country  between 
the  Cooper  and  Santee  rivers.  The  object  of  the 
last  was  to  disperse  a  body  of  republicans,  under  Colo- 
nel Burford,  who  were  retiring  by  forced  marches, 
in  hopes  to  meet  another  body  of  Americans  who 
were  on  the  march  from  Salisbury  to  Charlotte. 
Burford  continued  his  retreat  with  such  celerity, 
that  it  appeared  next  to  impossible  to  overtake  him. 
But  Colonel  Tarleton,  the  most  active  of  Clinton's 
officers,  commanded  the  pursuit,  and  after  marching 
105  miles  in  54  hours,  on  the  28th  of  May.  he  came 
up  with  Burford  at  Wacsaw.  The  English  victory 
was  complete,  but  it  was  stained  with  cruelty.  They 
massacred  many  of  those  who  offered  to  surrender, 
and  from  this  time  the  proverbial  mode  of  express- 
ing the  barbarous  act  of  killing  those  who  surrender, 
was  to  call  it  "  Tarleton's  quarter."  Thus  the 
cavalry  which  Clinton  had  brought  with  him  had 
proved  of  essential  service  to  his  arms ;  and  the 
alert,  yet  sanguinary  Tarleton,  at  that  period  seemed 
to  the  terrified  inhabitants  to  be  every  where  present. 

There  no  longer  remained  in  South  Carolina  a 
force  capable  of  withstanding  the  British.  The  in- 
habitants flocked  from  all  parts  to  meet  the  royal 
troops,  and  declare  their  desire  of  resuming  their 
ancient  allegiance.  Clinton  wrote  to  England,  that 
"  South  Carolina  was  English  again."  But  be  was 
aware  that  his  conquests  could  not  be  preserved,  but 
by  re-establishing  the  civil  administration,  lie  pub- 
lished a  full  pardon  to  all  who  should  immediately 
return  to  their  duty.  But  they  must  consider  them 


UNITED  STATES. 


1065 


•elves  established  in  the  duties  as  well  as  the  rights 
of  British  subjects;  that  is,  they  were  required  to 
take  up  arms  in  support  of  the  royal  government; 
those  who  had  families,  to  form  a  militia  for  home 
defence;  but  those  who  had  not,  to  serve  with  the 
royal  forces,  for  any  six  months  of  the  ensuing 
twelve.  Thus  citizens  became  armed  against  citi- 
zens, brothers  against  brothers  ;  and  the  same  indi- 
viduals who  had  been  soldiers  of  congress,  since  they 
had  been  comprehended  in  the  capitulation  as 
prisoners  of  war,  were  compelled  to  take  up  arms 
for  England. 

General  Clinton,  seeing  the  affairs  of  the  south 
in  apparent  tranquillity,  distributed  his  army  into 
the  most  important  garrisons;  and,  leaving  Lord 
Cornwallis  in  the  command  of  the  southern  forces, 
returned  to  New  York.  That  city  had  been  ex- 
posed to  danger.  The  garrison  was  weak  ;  and  such 
had  been  the  unparalleled  severity  of  the  winter, 
that  Washington  might  have  marched  his  army  with 
all  his  artillery  and  baggage,  across  any  of  its  sur- 
rounding and  now  solid  waters.  But  the  miserable 
condition  of  the  American  army  would  not  allow  the 
commander  to  take  advantage  of  this  unexpected 
circumstance. 

Previous  to  the  return  of  Clinton,  General  Knyp- 
hausen,  who  had  been  left  in  command,  had,  with 
5000  men,  made  an  excursion  into  New  Jersey,  and 
for  a  time  occupied  Elizabethtown.  He  had  ma- 
nwuvred  to  draw  Washington  from  the  heights  of 
Morristown,  intending  to  occupy  that  strong  post 
himself,  and  thus  force  the  American  army  into  the 
open  country  ;  but  his  plan  was  penetrated,  and  his 
expedition  proved  fruitless.  Before  his  return,  an 
affair  occurred  near  Springfield,  in  which  General 
Greene,  who  was  sent  by  Washington  to  watch  the 
motions  of  Knyphausen,  lost  about  80  men.  and  the 
British,  as  was  supposed,  somewhat  more.  Spring- 
field, which  consisted  of  50  houses,  was  set  on  fire. 
At  sight  of  the  flames  the  inhabitants  aroused.  The 
spirit  of  the  early  days  of  the  revolution  rekindled. 
They  collected  in  such  numbers,  and  pursued  the 
British  with  such  violence,  that  their  general  was 
glad  to  take  advantage  of  the  night  to  withdraw  his 
army  from  the  open  country  of  Jersey  to  the  de- 
fences of  New  York. 

Congress  sanction  the  depreciation  of  paper  currency- 
British  in  South  Carolina— Heroism  of  the  women 
in  South  Carolina — Society  of  ladies. 

Up  to  this  period,  congress  had  maintained  their 
bills  at  their  nominal  value,  and  had  often  declared, 
that  a  dollar  in  paper  should  always  be  given  and 
received  for  a  dollar  in  silver.  But  compelled  to 
yield  to  the  pressure  of  circumstances,  they  now  de- 
cided that  in  future  the  bills  should  pass,  not  at 
their  nominal,  but  at  their  conventional  value. 

The  government  which  Sir  Henry  Clinton  esta- 
blished in  South  Carolina  had  first  made  such  a  de- 
cree ;  and  had  caused  a  table  to  be  constructed, 
showing  what  had  been  the  rate  of  depreciation, 
and  the  actual  value  of  the  bills,  in  years,  and  even 
in  months  past.  The  object  of  this  calculation  was 
to  obtain  a  rule,  by  which  the  payment  of  debts 
might  be  regulated.  This  example  congress  found 
it  expedient  to  follow. 

In  Carolina  and  Georgia  the  British  saw,  with 
chagrin,  that  there  were  still  those  who  were  devoted 
to  the  cause  of  independence  ;  and  their  resentment 
dictated  measures  of  extraordinary  rigour.  Their 
possessions  were  sequestrated,  their  families  jealously 
watched,  and  subjected  as  rebels  to  continual  vexa- 


tions. Within  the  city,  they  were  refused  access  to 
the  tribunals  if  they  had  suits  to  bring  against  a 
debtor,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  they  were  aban- 
doned to  all  the  prosecutions  which  those  who  had 
or  pretended  to  have  claims  against  them,  chose  to 
institute. 

But  there  was  still  another  more  grievous  injury, 
and  one  which  stung  the  Carolineans  to  madness. 
This  was  the  proclamation  by  which  the  British 
commanders  had  absolved  the  prisoners  of  war  from 
their  parole,  and  restored  them  to  the  condition  of 
British  subjects,  in  order  to  compel  them  to  fight 
under  the  royal  banner.  Had  they  been  suffered 
to  remain  at  home,  they  would  by  degrees  have 
become  reconciled  to  what  they  could  not  but  feel 
to  be  the  degradation  of  their  country.  But  with 
the  requirement  to  take  up  arms,  their  wrath  re- 
kindled'. "  If  we  must  fight,"  said  they,  "  it  shall 
be  for  America  and  our  friends,  not  for  England 
and  strangers." 

The  heroism  of  the  women  of  Carolina  gives  them 
a  rank  with  the  noblest  patriots  of  the  revolution. 
They  gloried  in  being  called  "  rebel  ladies."  They 
refused  their  presence  at  every  scene  of  gaiety.  Like 
the  daughters  of  captive  Zion,  they  would  not,  ia 
their  captivity,  amuse  their  conquerors.  But  at 
every  hazard  they  honoured  with  their  attention 
the  brave  defenders  of  their  country.  They  sought 
out  and  relieved  the  suffering  soldiers,  visited  prison- 
ships,  and  descended  into  loathsome  dungeons. 
Sisters  encouraged  their  brothers  to  fight  the  op- 
pressor :  the  mother  gave  military  weapons  to  her 
son,  and  the  wife  to  her  husband ;  and  their  parting 
advice  was,  "  prefer  prisons  to  infamy,  and  death 
to  servitude." 

Where  important  national  affairs  are  concerned, 
there  is  a  certain  degree  of  warmth  and  animation, 
which,  pervading  the  public  mind,  marks  the  healthy 
state  of  a  nation.  When  this  has  risen  to  an  unna- 
tural heat,  a  period  of  lassitude  and  inertness  suc- 
ceeds, before  the  national  pulse  again  recovers  its 
healthful  beat.  Such  a  preternatural  state  of  public 
feeling  was  excited  in  America  by  the  apprehended 
wrongs  of  Britain,  and  produced  the  noble  efforts 
of  the  days  of  1776.  But  it  was  not  in  human  nature 
to  keep  long  strained  to  such  a  high  pitch  of  eleva- 
tion. The  period  of  lassitude  succeeded,  and  ia 
1779  the  nation  seemed  asleep.  But  her  sleep 
recruited  her  vital  energies.  Her  enemies  con- 
temning her  apparent  weakness,  had  applied  the 
scourge  of  a  barbarian  warfare.  Its  effects,  though 
cruel  to  individuals,  were  wholesome  to  the  body 
politic.  America  aroused  from  her  slumbers,  and 
awoke  to  better  deeds. 

The  leading  patriots  saw  with  delight  the  rising 
enthusiasm  of  the  people,  and  neglected  no  means 
which  could  cherish  and  propagate  it.  Congress 
sent  circular  letters  to  all  the  states,  earnestly  ex- 
horting them  to  complete  their  regiments,  and  raise 
and  send  recruits  to  the  army.  The  militia  obeyed 
the  call  with  alacrity.  The  capitalists  subscribed 
large  sums,  to  replenish  the  exhausted  treasury.  A 
bank  was  instituted  at  Philadelphia,  on  which  con- 
gress could  draw  for  the  necessities  of  the  army 
With  generous  patriotism,  commercial  houses,  and 
wealthy  individuals  stepped  forward  to  support  the 
public  credit,  by  their  personal  responsibility,  al- 
though the  situation  of  affairs  still  offered  too  many 
motives  of  doubt  and  distrust. 

Nor  was  this  patriotic  zeal  to  strengthen  the 
sinews  of  war  by  filling  the  public  chest,  and  pro- 
viding for  the  wants  of  the  soldiers  confined  to  the 


J066 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


men.  The  women  in  all  parts  of  the  country  dis- 
played great  zeal  and  activity,  particularly  in  pro- 
viding clothing  for  the  soldiers.  In  Philadelphia 
they  formed  a  society,  at  the  head  of  which  was 
Martha  Washington,  wife  of  the  commander-in- 
chief.  This  lady  was  as  prudent  in  private  affairs, 
as  her  husband  was  in  public.  She  alone  presided 
over  their  domestic  finances,  and  provided  for  their 
common  household.  Partaking  of  the  complacent 
dignity  and  calm  temperament  of  her  husband,  she 
had  no  caprices  to  disturb  his  affections,  in  that 
citadel  of  man's  happiness,  the  conjugal  relation. 
Thus  it  was  owing  to  the  talents  and  virtues  of  his 
wife,  that  Washington  could  give  himself  wholly  to 
the  dictates  of  that  patriotism,  which  this  virtuous 
pair  mutually  shared,  and  reciprocally  invigorated. 
Mrs.  Washington,  with  the  ladies  who  had  formed 
the  society,  themselves  subscribed  considerable  sums 
for  the  public;  and  having  exhausted  their  own 
means,  they  exerted  their  influence,  and  went  from 
house  to  house,  to  stimulate  the  liberality  of  others. 

Campaign  of  1780 — British  defeated  at  Hanging 
Rock — Baron  De  Kalb  enters  Norlk  Carolina — 
Battle  near  Camden — Death  of  De  Kalb — Tarleton 
turprises  Sumpter. 

At  this  period  La  Fayette  returned  with  the 
cheering  intelligence,  that  a  body  of  French  troops 
had,  at  the  time  of  his  departure,  embarked  for 
America,  and  that  the  ships  in  which  they  had  taken 
passage  were  on  the  point  of  setting  sail  from  France. 
His  exertions  in  that  country  had  accelerated  their 
departure,  and  he  had  again  come,  self-devoted  to 
the  generous  cause  of  freedom.  He  was  received 
by  all  classes  with  the  ardent  affection  which  his 
bland  manners  and  interesting  person  excited,  and 
which  his  services  and  talents  commanded. 

The  expected  succours  soon  arrived  at  Rhode 
Island.  They  consisted  of  a  squadron  of  seven  sail 
of  the  line,  five  frigates,  and  two  corvettes,  com- 
manded by  M.  De  Fernay.  This  fleet  convoyed  a 
number  of  transports,  bearing  6000  soldiers  under 
the  command  of  the  Count  De  Rochambeau.  An 
agreement  had  been  made  between  congress  and 
the  court  of  Versailles,  that  General  Washington 
should  be  the  commander-in-chief  of  all  the  forces 
both  French  and  American.  The  French  were 
welcomed  with  every  demonstration  of  gratitude, 
and  put  in  immediate  possession  of  the  forts  on 
Rhode  Island.  Washington,  in  order  to  cement 
more  firmly  the  union  between  the  two  nations, 
ordered  the  distinctive  colours  of  the  national  flags 
to  be  blended  in  the  banners  of  his  army. 

At  New  York,  Admiral  Arbuthnot,  whose  force 
had  consisted  of  four  ships  of  the  line,  was  now  re- 
inforced  by  the  arrival  of  six  ships  under  Admiral 
Greaves.  General  Clinton  determined  on  attacking 
the  French  at  Rhode  Island.  He  accordingly  em- 
barked on  board  the  squadron  of  Admiral  Greaves, 
with  6000  choice  troops,  and  sailed  for  Rhode 
Island.  Washington,  in  the  meanwhile,  having 
watched  the  movements  of  Clinton,  immediately 
marched  his  army  to  Kingsbridge,  with  the  inten- 
tion of  attacking  New  York,  which  was  now  left 
almost  defenceless.  But  Clinton  learning  this 
movement,  and  finding  also  that  the  French  were 
reinforced  at  Rhode  Island  by  the  New  England 
militia,  relinquished  the  expedition,  and  returned 
to  the  defence  of  New  York.  The  indecision  and 
timidity  manifested  by  the  British  on  this  occasion, 
infused  new  courage  into  the  Americans. 
•  While  these  events  were  transpiring  in  the  north, 


the  inhabitants  of  the  south  were  not  inactive.  The 
insolence  of  the  British  troops  had  become  insup- 
portable; and  the  inhabitants  of  North  and  South 
Carolina  had  assembled  in  numbers,  and  seized 
every  opportunity  of  harassing  them.  Among  the 
officers  who  headed  these  desultory  parties,  none 
rendered  such  distinguished  service  to  their  country, 
as  Colonels  Sumpter  and  Marion.  Sumpter  was  a 
native  of  South  Carolina,  and  possessed  an  extensive 
influence  with  his  fellow-citizens.  He  collected 
great  numbers  of  the  inhabitants ;  and  although  they 
were  compelled  to  trust  to  chance  for  their  means 
of  subsistence,  and  to  use  their  implements  of  hus- 
bandry for  weapons  of  war,  yet  they  menaced  the 
enemy  in  all  directions.  The  resources  of  these 
patriots  were  few.  In  some  instances  they  were 
known  to  encounter  the  enemy  with  but  three 
charges  of  ammunition  to  a  man.  Their  frequent 
skirmishes  with  the  British,  however,  soon  furnished 
them  with  muskets  and  cartridges;  and  when  thus 
equipped,  Colonel  Sumpter,  whose  numbers  now 
amounted  to  600  men,  determined  upon  attacking 
some  of  the  strong  posts  of  the  enemy.  His  first 
attempt  was  upon  Rocky  Mount,  where  he  was  re- 
pulsed ;  he  then  attacked  the  post  at  Hanging  Rock, 
and  destroyed  a  British  regiment  stationed  at  that 
place.  Perfectly  acquainted  with  every  part  of  the 
country,  he  was  enabled  to  elude  all  pursuit.  This 
partisan  warfare,  while  it  weakened  the  number  of 
the  English,  emboldened  the  Americans,and  strength- 
ened their  confidence  in  themselves. 

In  the  meantime  a  few  regular  troops  under  the 
command  of  the  Baron  De  Kalb,  had  been  sent  from 
Maryland  to  the  defence  of  Carolina.  Owing  to  the 
excessive  heat  of  the  season,  and  the  difficulty  of 
procuring  provisions,  they  necessarily  proceeded  by 
slow  marches.  On  their  way  however  they  were  re- 
inforced by  the  Virginia  militia,  and  the  troops  of 
North  Carolina,  commanded  by  General  Caswell. 
At  Deep  river  they  were  joined  by  General  Gates, 
who  had  been  appointed  to  the  command  of  the 
southern  army.  He  immediately  advanced  towards 
South  Carolina  with  a  force  amounting  to  about  4000 
men.  When  he  arrived  on  the  frontiers  of  the  state, 
he  issued  a  proclamation  inviting  the  inhabitants  to 
join  him,  and  promised  pardon  to  all,  from  whom 
oaths  had  been  extorted  by  the  English,  excepting 
those  who  had  committed  depredations  against  the 
persons  and  property  of  their  fellow  citizens.  His 
proclamation  had  the  desired  effect.  Multitudes 
flocked  to  him,  and  even  whole  companies,  which 
had  been  levied  in  the  provinces  for  the  service  of 
the  king,  deserted. 

Lord  Rawdon,  who  had  the  command  of  the  Bri- 
tish forces  on  the  frontiers  of  Carolina,  had  concen- 
trated them  at  Camden.  On  learning  the  approach 
of  Gates,  he  gave  immediate  notice  to  Cornwallis, 
who  soon  after  joined  him.  At  ten  on  the  night  of 
the  15th  of  August,  his  lordship  marched  from  Cam- 
den with  his  whole  force,  amounting  to  2000  men, 
with  the  intention  of  attacking  the  Americans  in  their 
camp  at  Clermont.  Gates  had  also  commenced  his 
march  from  Clermont  with  the  view  of  surprising 
the  British  camp.  About  two  in  the  morning,  the 
advanced  guards  of  the  two  armies  met  and  fired 
upon  each  other.  From  prisoners  made  on  both 
sides,  the  commanders  learned  each  other's  move- 
ments. The  two  generals  suspended  their  fire,  wait- 
ing for  the  light  of  day,  and  the  armies  having 
halted  were  formed  in  the  order  of  battle. 

The  ground  on  which  they  had  met  was  exceed- 
ingly unfavourable  to  Gates ;  he  could  not  advance 


UNITED  STATES. 


1067 


to  the  attack  but  through  a  narrow  way  bordered 
by  a  deep  swamp,  and  the  situation  rendered  the 
superiority  of  the  American  numbers  of  no  effect. 
In  the  morning  a  severe  and  general  action  was 
fought.  The  Virginia  and  North  Carolina  militia 
fled  in  the  commencement  of  the  battle,  and  General 
Gates  in  vain  attempted  to  rally  them.  The  con- 
tinentals were  thus  left  to  maintain  the  contest,  and 
though  they  defended  themselves  with  great  bravery, 
and  several  times  gained  ground,  yet  they  were 
unable  to  restore  the  fortune  of  the  day.  The  rout 
became  general,  the  Americans  fled  in  the  greatest 
disorder.  They  were  pursued  by  the  British  23 
miles.  The  whole  loss  of  the  Americans  in  killed, 
wounded  and  prisoners,  was  about  2000.  General 
Gregory  was  killed ;  the  Baron  De  Kalb,  who  was 
wounded,  and  General  Rutherford,  were  taken  pri- 
soners. All  the  artillery,  baggage  aud  stores,  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  The  loss  of  the  British 
amounted  to  only  324. 

Baron  De  Kalb,  who  had  been  wounded,  died 
three  days  after  the  battle.  General  Gates  retreated 
to  North  Carolina,  leaving  the  British  triumphant 
in  the  south. 

Colonel  Sumpter  continued  to  show  himself  on 
the  banks  of  the  Wateree ;  but  on  learning  the  de- 
feat of  Gates,  he  retired  with  1000  men  and  two 
field-pieces  to  North  Carolina.  Tarleton  with  his 
legion  was  sent  in  pursuit  of  him,  and  surprised  him 
on  the  banks  of  Fishing  creek.  Sumpter  with  a 
few  of  his  men  escaped  ;  the  most  of  them,  however, 
were  taken  by  Tarleton  and  put  to  the  sword. 

Colonel  Marion,  who  about  this  time  was  pro- 
moted to  the  rank  of  brigadier-general,  still  kept  the 
field.  Sheltering  himself  in  the  fastnesses  of  the 
mountain*,  he  occasionally  sallied  out  upon  the  Bri- 
tish and  tories,  and  seldom  failed  of  surprising  and 
capturing  such  small  parties,  as  with  his  small  force 
it. was  prudent  for  him  to  attack. 

Arnold's  treason—Execution  of  Andre  —  Cornwallis 
arrives  at  Charlotletown  —  Defeat  at  Ferguson- 
Descent  upon  Portsmouth,  Virginia—Gates  surprised 
by  Greene — Arnold  makes  a  descent  upon  Virginia. 

While  these  affairs  were  transacting  at  the  south, 
an  unexpected  event  occurred  at  the  north,  which 
arrested  the  general  attention.  A  design  which  had 
for  some  time  been  maturing  in  darkness,  was  now 
brought  to  light.  Arnold,  the  loudest  to  proclaim 
his  patriotism,  the  fiercest  to  fight  for  his  country, 
had  bargained  to  sell  that  country  for  gold !  and  he 
had  nearly  accomplished  his  wicked  purpose. 

Arnold  was  dear  to  the  American  people  ;  he  had 
been  valiant  in  their  service,  and  his  maimed  person 
bore  the  marks  of  the  field  of  Saratoga.  On  account 
of  his  wounds  he  was  obliged  to  retire  from  active 
service.  He  solicited  and  obtained  from  congress, 
the  post  of  commandant  of  Philadelphia. 

Here  Arnold  lived  in  princely  magnificence.  He 
inhabited,  it  is  said,  the  house  of  Penn.  If  so,  this 
mansion  of  simplicity  received  a  splendid  furnishing, 
and  became  a  scene  of  high  play,  sumptuous  ban- 
quets and  expensive  balls.  To"  support  this  pa- 
geantry, Arnold  resorted  to  commerce  and  privateer 
ing.  In  these  he  was  unfortunate,  and  his  next  re- 
source was  the  public  treasure,  to  which  as  an  officer 
of  the  government,  he  had  means  of  access.  He 
presented  accounts  unworthy  of  a  general.  C 
gress  were  indignant,  and  caused  them  to  be  inves- 
tigated. The  commissioners  which  they  appointed 
reduced  them  to  one-half.  Arnold  stormed,  and  ap- 
pealed to  congress,  A  committee  of  its  members 


re-investigated,  and  found  his  accounts  worse  than 
even  the  report  of  the  commissioners  had  stated 
them.  Arnold  now  wreaked  his  vengeance,  by  the 
most  shameless  invectives  against  congress.  The 
state  of  Pennsylvania  took  up  the  quarrel,  accused 
him  of  peculation,  and  brought  him  before  a  court- 
martial.  By  this  court  he  was  sentenced  to  be  re- 
primanded by  Washington. 

From  what  other  quarter  could  he  obtain  the 
money  to  support  his  extravagance,  since  the  last 
resource  had  failed?  The  coffers  of  England,  he 
knew  might  be  opened  to  supply  him.  Treason  bore 
with  her  a  high  price.  He  should  also  obtain  re- 
venge on  the  objects  of  his  wrath :  and  for  these 
motives  he  resolved  to  sell  himself  and  his  country. 
He  developed  his  intention  in  a  letter  which  he  ad- 
dressed to  Colonel  Robinson,  by  whom  it  was  com- 
municated to  Sir  Henry  Clinton.  Determined  to 
make  the  most  of  his  new  ally,  Clinton  revolved  in 
his  mind  what  was  the  most  important  service  which 
could  be  rendered  him,  while  Arnold's  treachery  re- 
mained concealed.  The  foe  within  the  fortress,  is 
employed  by  its  enemy  to  open  the  gate.  This  was 
the  nature  of  the  service,  which  Arnold  was  to  per- 
form for  the  enemies  of  his  country. 

As  Arnold  passed  up  the  river  to  assume  his  com- 
mand, those  guardian  mountains,  whose  rugged 
passes  had  so  often  sheltered  the  little  army  of  his 
country,  must  have  seemed  to  frown  upon  the  traitor 
who  was  about  to  deliver  it  up  to  the  enemy. 

His  first  measure  was  to  scatter  his  forces  at  dif- 
ferent points,  so  that  they  might  be  easily  cut  off  by 
the  British ;  all  was  ready,  and  a  few  days  would 
have  consummated  his  treason ;  but  a  providential 
disclosure  saved  America. 

Major  Andre,  the  aid-de-camp  of  General  Clinton, 
had  been  by  him  intrusted  with  the  negotiation. 
This  young  officer  is  represented  by  those  who  knew 
him  as  being  both  in  person  and  mind  one  of  the 
most  perfect  specimens  of  human  nature,  and  as 
concentrating  all  the  qualities  which  the  novel  writer 
is  fond  of  attributing  to  the  hero  of  the  tale.  He 
was  manly,  yet  graceful  and  elegant,  bold,  yet  tender, 
and  firm,  yet  ingenuous.  Sir  Henry  Clinton  loved 
him  as  a  son;  and  such  was  his  confidence  in  his 
talents,  that  he  intrusted  to  him  this  most  impor- 
tant, difficult  and  hazardous  service.  Probably, 
however,  the  partiality  of  Clinton  threw  a  false 
light  around  its  object ;  for  Andre  was  not  the  pro- 
per man  for  such  an  enterprise.  Had  he  been  more 
crafty  and  subtle,  he  might  have  conducted  the  plot 
to  its  consummation. 

Arnold  and  And.e  had  corresponded,  under  the 
feigned  names  of  Gustavus  and  Anderson.  As  the 
crisis  approached,  they  conceived  that  a  personal 
interview  was  necessary,  in  order  to  concert  the  last 
measures.  On  the  night  of  the  21st  of  September, 
Andre  lauded  from  the  British  sloop  of  war  Vulture, 
which  Clinton  had  stationed  near  West  Point  to 
facilitate  the  negotiation.  Arnold  and  Andre  spent 
the  whole  night  in  conference ;  and  when  the  day 
dawned,  their  dispositions  were  not  all  concluded. 

Andre  was  concealed  through  the  day,  and  at 
night  he  prepared  to  return.  By  the  entreaties  of 
Arnold,  he  was  prevailed  upon  to  change  his  uniform 
for  a  common  dress,  instead  of  concealing  it  as  he 
had  formerly  done  by  a  cloak.  He  took  a  horse 
from  Arnold,  and  a  passport  under  the  name  of  John 
Anderson.  He  had  safely  passed  the  American 
guard,  and  had  reached  Tarrytown  near  the  British 
posts,  when  three  soldiers  of  the  militia  crossed  his 
way,  and  he  passed  ou.  One  of  them  thought  the 


IOCS 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


traveller  had  something  peculiar  in  his  appearance, 
and  called  him  back.  Andre  inquired,  "  where  are 
you  from  ?"  "  From  below,"  (intending  to  be  un- 
derstood from  New  York,)  replied  the  soldier.  "  So 
am  I,"  said  the  self-betrayed  Andre.  The  soldiers 
arrested  him,  and  he  did  not  attempt  to  conceal  that 
he  was  a  British  officer.  He  offered  them  every 
bribe  which  he  thought  could  tempt  men  like  them. 
He  pleaded  with  all  the  energy  inspired  by  the  love 
of  life,  and  the  momentous  concerns  that  his  preser- 
vation then  involved,  to  his  country,  and  his  be- 
loved general.  But  the  humble  patriots  spurned  the 
bribe,  and  were  deaf  to  the  entreaty.  Their  names 
were  John  Paulding,  David  Williams  and  Isaac  Van 
Wart.  They  searched  his  person,  and  found  pa- 
pers in  his  boots,  in  the  hand-writing  of  Arnold, 
which  disclosed  the  treason.  They  immediately  con- 
ducted Andre  to  Colonel  Jameson,  the  officer  at 
West  Point,  who  commanded  the  advanced  guard. 
This  officer  hesitated.  He  could  not  be  persuaded 
that  his  general  would  betray  that  country  for  which 
he  had  shed  his  blood  ;  and  he  indiscreetly  per- 
mitted Andre  to  write.  Arnold  thus  learned  that 
Andre  was  arrested,  and  seizing  a  boat  escaped  on 
board  the  Vulture. 

Washington,  during  these  transactions,  had  been 
called  by  some  affairs  to  Hartford,  but  shocked  and 
alarmed  at  the  news,  he  hastened  to  his  camp.  His 
first  care  was  to  learn  whether  Arnold  had  accom- 
plices. Convinced  by  a  strict  scrutiny  that  none  of 
his  other  officers  were  guilty,  his  next  was  the  painful 
duty  of  bringing  to  trial  and  execution  the  inte- 
resting young  Andre. 

Although  from  the  usages  of  war  Washington 
might  have  given  his  prisoner,  found  as  he  was  in 
disguise,  the  same  hasty  execution  as  Howe  had 
some  years  before  given  to  the  equally  interesting 
young  Hale,  yet  he  was  aware  that  in  this  transac- 
tion the  eyes  of  Europe  and  America  would  be  upon 
him,  and  his  heart  inclined  him  to  mercy.  He  there- 
fore summoned  a  court-martial ;  and  was  careful  to 
appoint  a  tribunal  of  whom  none  could  complain, 
and  who  would  be  as  merciful  as  public  safety  would 
allow.  La  Fayette  and  Greene  were  among  its 
members ;  and  who  could  doubt,  if  such  men,  with 
all  the  kindness  of  their  nature,  gave  sentence  of 
death,  that  such  was  the  stern  dictate  of  their  mili- 
tary duty. 

From  this  fate,  Sir  Henry  Clinton  strove  with  all 
the  earnestness  of  a  tender  father  to  shield  his  favou- 
rite. He  wrote  to  Washington,  urging  that  what- 
ever Andre  had  done,  especially  his  change  of 
dress,  was  by  the  direction  of  Arnold,  an  American 
general ; — he  urged,  that  his  detention  was  a  viola- 
tion of  the  sanctity  of  flags  and  the  usages  of  nations. 
Arnold  also  wrote  in  his  favour,  endeavouring  to 
charge  himself  with  the  blame  of  the  transaction  : 
and  alleging,  that  in  his  character  as  an  American 
general,  he  had  a  right  to  grant  to  Andre  the  usual 
privilege  of  a  flag,  for  the  purpose  of  conferring  with 
him,  and  to  provide  for  his  safe  return  in  any  man- 
ner he  should  choose.  Andre  appeared  before  his 
judges  with  a  noble  frankness.  He  was  calm  and 
composed  as  to  his  own  fate,  but  anxious  to  screen 
his  friends,  especially  Sir  Henry  Clinton.  He  dis- 
guised no  fact,  and  resorted  to  no  subterfuge.  He 
ingenuously  disavowed  what  Clinton  and  Arnold  had 
mainly  urged  in  his  defence,  that  he  had  come 
under  the  protection  of  a  flag  ;  and  the  fact  was  un- 
questioned that  he  was  in  disguise.  Grieving  at 
the  sentence  they  were  compelled  to  pronounce,  his 
judges  condemned  him  to  death  us  a  spy. 


Clinton,  smitten  with  anguish,  again  sought  to 
negotiate  his  release;  and  Washington,  at  big  re- 
quest, sent  General  Greene  down  the  river  to  meet 
and  confer  with  General  Robinson.  This  friend  of 
Andre  exerted  all  the  powers  of  reasoning  to  con- 
vince General  Greene  that  the  sentence  was  unjust. 
Failing  in  that,  he  urged  his  release  on  the  score  of 
interest;  he  promised  that  any  American  charged 
with  whatever  crime,  should  be  exchanged  for  An- 
dre ;  and  he  hinted  that  the  sparing  of  his  favourite 
would  do  much  in  the  mind  of  the  British  commander 
in  favour  of  the  Americans.  Finding  all  these  efforts 
unavailing,  he  resorted  to  threats.  He  delivered  a 
letter  from  Arnold,  which  contained  the  declaration, 
that  if  Andre  was  executed,  the  rebels  of  Carolina, 
hitherto  spared  by  Clinton,  should  all  be  put  to  in- 
stant death. 

The  interference  of  Arnold  would  have  injured 
the  cause  it  designed  to  serve,  had  it  not  been  al- 
ready hopeless. 

Andre  prepared  to  meet  his  approaching  fate  as 
became  a  man.  Life  and  its  fair  prospects  he  could 
calmly  relinquish;  but  there  were  circumstances 
relating  to  his  domestic  affections,  and  his  honour, 
which  touched  his  heart.  His  widowed  mother  and 
his  sisters,  on  the  far  shore  of  an  intervening  ocean, 
were  watching  for  every  vessel  that  brought  them 
news  of  him.  One  would  reach  them  in  a  few 
weeks,  and  who  would  console  them  for  its  tidings  ! 
and  should  they  learn  not  only  that  he  was  dead,  but 
that  he  died  upon  the  gallows  !  There  was  the  bit- 
terness of  death;  and  he  besought  Washington  that 
he  might  be  allowed  to  die  by  the  musket,  and  not 
by  the  halter. 

The  cruel  rules  of  that  sanguinary  science,  which 
philanthropy  hopes  may  in  some  future  age  cease  to 
exist,  compelled  Washington  to  deny  even  this  poor 
request.  Andre  then  asked  permission  to  write  to 
Sir  Henry  Clinton,  which  was  granted ;  and  to  the 
care  of  this  general  he  commended  his  widowed 
mother,  and  afflicted  sisters. 

Brought  to  the  gallows,  he  said,  "  And  must  I 
die  thus  ?"  The  burst  of  grief  was  calmed  by  de- 
votion. After  a  few  minutes  spent  in  prayer,  he 
said  with  composure  to  those  around  him,  "bear 
me  witness  that  I  die  as  a  brave  man  should  die  :" 
and  the  scene  closed. 

Arnold  received  from  the  British  10,000/.,  and  the 
rank  of  brigadier-general.  For  this  he  bartered  his 
honour,  his  peace  and  his  fame  ;— changing  the 
high  esteem  of  the  public  into  general  detestation 
The  English,  although  they  stooped  to  purchase  the 
treason,  could  not  but  despise  the  traitor.  Even 
his  innocent  children  could  not  defend  their  little 
rights  among  their  playmates ;  but  the  finger  of 
scorn  was  pointed  at  them,  and  they  were  hissed 
with  "  Traitor,  traitor." 

The  three  captors  of  Andre  were  honoured  as 
benefactors  to  their  country.  They  received  the 
thanks  of  congress,  a  silver  medal,  and  a  pension 
for  life. 

Cornwallis,  after  the  battle  of  Camden,  directed 
his  attention  to  the  subjugation  of  North  Carolina; 
and  with  that  view,  commenced  his  march  from 
Camden  towards  Charlottetown.  But  in  order  to 
maintain  the  royal  cause  in  South  Carolina,  he  dis- 
tributed detachments  of  troops  upon  different  parts 
of  the  frontier.  He  arrived  at  Charlottetown  about 
the  last  of  September. 

In  the  meantime  Colonel  Ferguson,  who  had  been 
previously  sent  into  the  province  by  Lord  Corn- 
wallis, had  committed  acts  of  so  barbarous  a  nature, 


UNITED  STATES. 


«*  to  awaken  the  highest  indignation.  Whereve 
he  went  devastation  marked  his  progress,  and  th 
people  determined  no  longer  to  submit  to  his  atro 
cities.  The  mountaineers  collected  in  great  num 
bera  under  several  commanders,  the  principal  o 
whom  were  Campbell,  Shelby,  and  Cleveland  ;  an 
arming  themselves  with  such  weapons  as  could  mos 
ea»ily  be  obtained,  they  descended  to  the  plain  ii 
pursuit  of  Ferguson. 

They  found  him  posted  on  a  woody   emineuc 
called  King's  Mountain.    This  spot  commanded  th 
adjacent  plain,  and  the  road  leading  to  it  was  de 
fended  by  an  advanced  guard.     The   guard    were 
soon  compelled  to  fall  back,  and  the  mountaineer 
advanced  towards  the  summit.     After  a  vigorou 
contest  the  Americans  reached  the  brow  of  the  hill 
Ferguson  fell,  and  300  of  his  party  were  killed  an 
wounded.     Hia  successor  in  command  surrendered 
Thia  defeat  was  a  severe  blow  to  Cornwallis,  an 
rendered  his  situation  in  North  Carolina  dangerous 
The  loyalists   intimidated,    no  longer   evinced   an 
eagerness  to  join   his  cause.     The  republicans  as 
sembled  under  Colonels   Sumpter  and  Marion,  in 
whom  they  had  equal  confidence,  made  every  effor 
to  annoy  him ;  and  the  royal  troops  were  in  con- 
tinual danger  of  being  surprised  by  these  active 
leaders.     Under  these    circumstances   he  found  i 
most  prudent  to  retire  to  South  Carolina,  and  awai 
the  reinforcements  which  he  there  expected  to  re- 
ceive.    He  accordingly  repassed  the  Catawba,  anc 
stationed  his  army  at  Winnsborough,  where  he  could 
conveniently  hold  communication  with  the   forces 
at  Camden  and  Ninety-six. 

In  order  to  co-operate  with  Lord  Cornwallis,  Sir 
Henry  jClinton  had  detached  General  Leslie,  with 
a  corps  of  3000  men,  to  Virginia.  They  landed 
at  Portsmouth,  and  ravaged  the  adjacent  country. 
Cornwallis  now  ordered  General  Leslie  to  embark 
for  Charlestown. 

Colonel  Sumpter  continued  to  harass  the  British 
on  all  sides.  He  had  surprised  some  small  detach- 
ments, and  made  many  prisoners.  Tarleton  was  now 
sent  by  Cornwallis  to  surprise  this  formidable  officer. 
He  found  him  near  Tiger  river,  encamped  on  the 
bank  of  Mud  river.  Tarleton  commenced  the  attack 
with  great  impetuosity,  but  Sumpter  soon  compelled 
him  to  retreat.  Sumpter  was  however  dangerously 
wounded,  and  being  unable  to  retain  the  command 
of  his  forces,  they  were  disbanded. 

General  Gates  had,  during  the  period  of  these 
transactions,  exerted  himself  to  collect  new  troops, 
and  had  greatly  improved  the  condition  of  his  army. 
He  was,  however,  superseded  in  command  by  Ge- 
neral Greene.  This  officer  found  the  army  at  Char- 
lottetown,  and  notwithstanding  the  exertions  of 
Gates,  it  was  still  feeble,  and  unable  to  cope  with 
Cornwallis.  He  therefore  determined  not  to  hazard 
a  general  action,  but  to  harass,  if  possible,  the  Bri- 
tish army,  and  reduce  it  by  degrees. 

A  reinforcement  of  1500  men  now  joined  Corn- 
wallis at  Winnsborough.  This  accession  of  troops 
renewed  his  hopes  of  reducing  North  Carolina  and 
Virginia.  In  order  to  render  the  success  of  the  en- 
terprise more  certain,  and  to  prevent  the  \irginians 
from  sending  succours  to  Greene,  Arnold  had  been 
sent  to  the  Chesapeake  with  50  transports  and  1500 
men.  He  landed  his  troops  in  Virginia,  and  imme- 
diately commenced,  what  now  seemed  his  favourite 
occupation,  the  devastation  of  his  country. 

Ca,'»pc.ijn  of  1781 — Robert  Morris  treasurer — Frank- 
lin obtain-  money  from  France  and  Holland— Re- 


volt of  the  Pennsylvanian  line — New  Jersey  troopt 
revolt — Tarleton  attacks  Morton  at  the  Cowpens— 
Cornwallis  pursues  More/an — Colonel  Lee  defeatt 
Colonel  Hill— Battle  of  Guilford  Caurt-houie—The 
Americans  retreat — Cornwallis  sets  out  for  Virginia. 

England,  during  the  past  year,  had  shown  herself 
a  brave  and  powerful  nation.  Though  alone  against 
both  hemispheres  in  arms,  she  remained  unshaken. 
The  favourite  objects  of  Spain,  next  to  humbling  the 
maritime  power  of  England,  were  the  possession  of 
Gibraltar  and  Jamaica,  and  the  recovery  of  the  Flo- 
ridas.  She  had,  at  immense  expense,  laid  and  con- 
tinued the  siege  of  Gibraltar,  which  under  its  com- 
mander, Elliot,  made  the  most  obstinate  defence 
found  in  the  annals  of  modem  history.  She  had 
also  sent  out  immense  fleets,  which  uniting  with 
those  of  France  and  Holland,  had  twice  threatened 
England  with  invasion  ;  but  untoward  circumstances 
prevented  the  attempts.  The  naval  operations  of 
the  belligerent  powers  were,  duiing  these  years, 
of  astonishing  magnitude ;  and  neither  side  could 
at  this  period  claim  the  supremacy  of  the  ocean. 
Great  naval  battles  were  fought  in  the  West  Indian 
and  European  seas,  in  which  the  allies  and  the  En- 
glish were  each  alternately  the  conquerors  and  the 
conquered.  Each  also  took  from  .the  other,  on  vari- 
ous occasions,  large  fleets  of  merchant  vessels.  But 
n  these  captures  the  English  were  the  most  success- 
ful.  Several  of  the  West  India  islands  changed 
masters  during  these  contests.  Pensacola  was  in 
May  taken  by  the  Spaniards,  who  thence  extended 
"heir  conquests  over  the  whole  province  of  Florida. 

Amidst  these  contests,  neither  England  nor 
France  forgot  America.  France,  in  addition  to  the 
?orce  under  Rochambeau,  determined  to  send  out  a 
arge  fleet  under  the  Count  De  Grasse,  which,  after 
)erforming  certain  services  in  the  West  Indies,  was 
;o  repair  to  the  coast  of  America,  and  co-operate 
vith  the  Count  De  Rochambeau  and  General  Wash- 
ngton.  This  measure  proved  of  the  highest  impor- 
ance  to  America. 

The  English  exerted  an  extraordinary  activity 
n  equipping  a  fleet  which  was  to  carry  Lord  Corn- 
wallis a  reinforcement  of  several  regiments  of  En- 
glish troops,  besides  3000  Hessians.  They  hoped 
hat  this  addition  of  force  would  be  sufficient  to 
maintain  their  former  conquests,  and  extend  still 
urther  the  progress  of  their  arms. 

The  situation  of  America  had  in  reality  much  at 
this  period  to  give  hopes  to  her  enemies,  and  alarms 
o  her  friends.  The  efforts  made  during  the  preced- 
ng  year,  and  the  successes  experienced  in  the  south, 
ad  produced  the  happy  effect  of. reviving  public 
pirit.  But  although  temporary  relief  had  been 
fforded,  no  permanent  system  of  means  to  supply 
be  returning  and  increasing  wants  of  the  army  had 
een  established ;  and  from  this  cause  the  country 
eemed  standing  on  the  verge  of  ruin. 

It  is  scarcely  possible  to  conceive  a  situation  more 
rying  than  that  of  the  American  congress.  They 
vere  fighting,  not  for  conquest,  but  existence  ;  their 
owerful  foe  was  in  full  strength  in  the  heart  of 
aeir  country ;  they  had  great  military  operations 
o  carry  on,  but  were  almost  without  an  army,  and 
wholly  without  money.  Their  bilis  of  credit  had 
eased  to  be  of  any  worth ;  and  they  were  reduced 
3  the  mortifying  necessity  of  declaring  by  their  own 
cts,  that  this  was  the  fact;  as  they  no  longer  made 
lem  a  legal  tender,  or  received  them  in  payment 
f  taxes.  Without  money  of  some  kind,  an  army 
ould  neither  be  raised  nor  maintained.  But  tho 


1070 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


greater  the  exigency,  the  greater  were  the  exertions 
of  thii  determined  band  of  patriots.  They  directed 
their  agents  abroad  to  borrow,  if  possible,  from 
France,  Spain,  and  Holland.  They  resorted  to  tax- 
ation, although  they  knew  that  the  measure  would 
be  unpopular,  and  that  they  had  not  the  power  to 
enforce  their  decree.  The  tax  laid  they  apportioned 
among  the  several  state  governments,  by  whose 
authority  it  was  to  be  collected.  Perceiving  that 
there  was  great  disorder  and  waste,  or  peculation  in 
the  management  of  the  fiscal  concerns,  they  deter- 
mined on  introducing  a  thorough  reform  and  the 
strictest  economy.  They  accordingly  appointed  as 
treasurer  Robert  Morris,  of  Philadelphia ;  a  man 
whose  pure  morals,  ardent  patriotism,  and  great 
knowledge  of  financial  concerns,  eminently  fitted 
him  for  this  important  station.  The  zeal  and  genius 
of  Morris  soon  produced  the  most  favourable  results. 
By  a  national  bank,  to  which  he  obtained  the  ap- 
probation of  congress,  he  contrived  to  draw  out  the 
funds  of  wealthy  individuals.  By  borrowing  in  the 
name  of  the  government  from  this  bank,  and  pledg- 
ing for  payment  the  taxes  not  yet  collected,  he  was 
enabled  to  anticipate  them,  and  command  a  ready 
supply.  He  also  used  his  own  private  credit,  which 
was  good,  though  that  of  his  government  had  failed ; 
and  at  one  time,  bills  signed  by  him  individually, 
were  in  circulation  to  the  amount  of  581,000  dollars. 
While  America  thus  received  this  great  service  from 
the  zeal  and  ability  of  one  of  her  sons  at  home,  she 
owed  not  less  to  the  exertions  of  another  of  her  pa- 
triots abroad. 

Franklin,  at  the  court  of  France,  obtained  from 
Louis  XVI.  a  gift  of  6,000,000  of  livres ;  and  as  Hol- 
land refused  to  lend  to  the  United  States  on  their 
own  credit,  the  French  monarch  granted  to  the 
solicitations  of  the  minister  his  guarantee  to  the 
states-general;  who,  on  this  security,  lent  to  con- 
gress the  sum  of  10,000,000  of  livres.  Spain  refused 
to  furnish  money  to  the  United  States,  unless  they 
would  renounce  the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi. 
This  they  steadily  refused.  The  funds  thus  raised 
were  expended  with  the  utmost  prudence.  All  who 
furnished  supplies  were  paid  by  the  treasurer  with 
the  strictest  punctuality;  and  public  confidence  by 
degrees  sprang  up  in  the  place  of  distrust;  order 
arid  economy  in  the  room  of  confusion  and  waste. 

Before  these  measures  had  imparted  vigour  to  the 
fainting  republic,  an  event  occurred  which  threatened 
its  subversion.  In  fact,  it  was  one  of  the  causes 
which  led  to  the  reformation  in  the  finance,  and 
the  establishment  of  the  new  system.  The  whole 
Pennsylvania  line,  amounting  to  near  1500,  revolted. 
They  were  suffering  the  extremity  of  want.  They 
had  enlisted  for  three  years,  or  during  the  war ; 
and  as  the  three  years  expired  at  the  close  of  1780, 
they  contended  that  they  had  now  a  right  to  be  dis- 
charged, and  return  to  their  homes.  The  govern- 
ment, however,  maintained  that  they  were  bound  to 
serve  until  the  close  of  the  war. 

From  these  causes  a  violent  tumult  broke  out  on 
the  night  of  the  1st  of  January.  They  declared 
that  they  would  march  with  arms  in  their  hands  to 
the  hall  of  congress,  and  demand  justice.  It  was 
in  vain  that  their  officers  attempted  to  appease  them. 
Their  most  popular  leader,  La  Fayette,  and  others 
were  constrained  to  quit  the  camp.  General  Wayne 
presected  himself  boldly  among  them  with  a  pisto' 
in  his  hand ;  but  they  menaced  his  life,  and  pointed 
their  bayonets  as  if  to  execute  their  threat.  March 
ing  towards  Philadelphia,  they  had  already  advancec 
from  Middlebrook  to  Princeton,  when  they  were 


met  by  Generals  Reed  and  Sullivan,  who  were 
lonimissioners  appointed  by  congress  to  investigate 
'acts,  and  take  measures  for  the  restoration  of 
public  tranquillity. 

In  the  meantime,  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  informed  of 
hese  affairs,  made  every  disposition  to  draw  the 
mutineers  into  the  service  of  the  British.  He  rassed 
with  his  forces  into  Staten  Island,  and  sent  three 
American  loyalists  to  make  them  the  most  tempting 
iffers.  These  the  insurgents  declined.  Meanwhile, 
he  commissioners  of  congress  offered  to  grant  dis- 
:harges  to  those  who  had  enlisted  foi  three  years,  or 
during  the  war.  They  promised  remuneration  for 
what  they  had  lost  by  the  depreciation  of  paper 
ecurities,  the  earliest  possible  payment  of  arrears, 
m  immediate  supply  o'f  necessary  clothing,  and  an 
•blivion  of  their  past  conduct.  The  mutineers  ac- 
cepted the  proposals,  and  congress  in  due  time  ful- 
illed  the  conditions.  The  Pennsylvanians  then 
delivered  to  congress  the  emissaries  of  Clinton,  who 
were  immediately  hanged. 

A  few  days  after  this  affair,  the  troops  of  New 
Jersey  also  erected  the  standard  of  revolt.  Wash- 
ngton  instantly  marched  against  them  with  so  pow- 
erful a  force,  that  he  compelled  them  to  submit; 
and  chastising  their  leaders  with  severity,  the  army 
was  no  longer  disturbed  by  sedition. 

In  the  meantime  the  war  was  vigorously  carried 
on  at  the  south,  by  both  the  contending  parties. 
General  Greene,  as  has  been  related,  had  superseded 
Gates  in  command  of  the  southern  army,  then  at 

harlottetown.  This  army,  which  consisted  of  2000 
men,  he  separated  into  two  parts.  He  marched  at 
the  head  of  one  division  to  Hicks  Creek,  while 
Colonel  Morgan,  at  the  head  of  the  other,  moved  by 
his  direction  into  the  western  part  of  the  state. 

Cornwallis,  unwilling  to  advance  into  North  Ca- 
rolina while  Morgan  was  in  his  rear,  detached 
Tarleton  to  oppose  him  with  a  corps  of  1100  men, 
and  two  field-pieces.  Tarleton  found  Morgan  at  a 
place  called  the  Cowpens,  and  with  his  usual  impe- 
tuosity commenced  the  attack.  After  one  of  the 
severest  engagements  which  took  place  during  the 
whole  war,  the  British  were  defeated.  The  disparity 
of  loss  in  this  engagement  was  surprising ;  while 
that  of  the  British  was  300  killed  and  wounded, 
that  of  the  Americans  was  only  twelve  killed,  and 
60  wounded.  Colonel  Morgan  took  500  prisoners, 
and  all  the  artillery  and  baggage  of  the  enemy. 
Colonels  Washington,  Howard,  and  Pickens  dis- 
tinguished themselves  in  this  action.  Colonel  Mor- 
gan now  directed  his  march  towards  Virginia,  in 
order  to  join  General  Greene.  Cornwallis,  mor- 
tified at  the  defeat  of  his  favourite  officer,  immedi- 
ately prepared  to  pursue  him.  He  intended  to  in- 
tercept him  on  his  route,  retake  the  prisoners,  and 
prevent  his  junction  with  Greene.  He  then  de- 
signed to  proceed  to  the  sources  of  the  Yadkin,  be- 
fore Greene  could  have  crossed  that  river,  and  thus 
the  last  portion  of  the  divided  army  would  be  his. 
Both  Morgan  and  Cornwallis  now  proceeded  by 
forced  marches  towards  the  Catawba,  both  exerting 
themselves  to  reach  the  fords  before  the  other. 
Morgan  reached  the  Catawba,  and  had  crossed  it 
but  two  hours  before  the  British  appeared  on  the 
opposite  bank.  Night  coming  on,  Cornwallis  was 
obliged  to  delay  crossing  until  morning.  A  heavy 
rain  fell,  and  in  the  morning  the  ford  was  impass- 
able ;  and  three  days  was  the  impatient  Cornwallis 
obliged  to  wait,  before  the  subsiding  waters  allowed 
him  to  pass. 

In  the  meantime  Greene,  anxious  for  the  fate  of 


UNITED  STATES. 


1071 


the  pursued  troops,  had  left  his  army  under  the 
command  of  General  Huger,  to  make  their  way 
toward  the  sources  of  the  rivers,  where  they  were 
fordable,  and  had  himself  proceeded  with,  only  a  few 
attendants  to  join  Morgan.  It  was  at  this  juncture 
that  he  arrived  at  the  camp  of  Morgan,  and  took 
upon  himself  the  command.  Another  race  now 
commenced,  and  again  the  Americans  foiled  the 
British.  The  army  had  just  crossed  the  Yadkin, 
and  a  quantity  of  baggage  was  yet  remaining  on 
the  other  side,  when  the  British  arrived.  Again 
the  waters  suddenly  rose,  and  Cornwallis  was  once 
more  obliged  to  stop,  and  look  inactively  on,  while 
the  expected  fruit  of  his  plans  and  toilsome  marches 
was  iu  a  moment,  snatched  from  him.  And  it  was 
done  by  no  human  hand.  At  this  signal  deliverance 
every  pious  feeling  of  the  American  bosom  rose  in 
gratitude  to  Him  who  had  made  to  them,  as  to  his 
people  of  old,  a  way  through  the  waters,  while  he 
had  closed  it  to  their  enemies. 

General  Greene  now  directed  his  course  towards 
Guiltbrd  court-house,  where  he  was  to  be  joined  by 
General  Huger.  On  the  7th  of  February  the  two 
detachments  of  the  American  army  reached  Guilford, 
and  effected  their  junction  in  safety.  The  two  plans 
of  Cornwallis  were  thus  defeated.  He  resolved, 
now,  to  proceed  to  the  Dan  ;  intending,  by  reaching 
these  fords  before  the  Americans,  to  prevent  their 
communication  with  Virginia.  In  this  also  he  was 
disappointed,  the  Americans  on  the  1 1th  crossed  the 
Dan,  with  all  their  artillery,  baggage,  and  stores, 
leaving  the  British  yet  in  their  rear. 

Cornwallis,  thus  disappointed  in  all  his  schemes, 
was  compelled  to  relinquish  them.  He  now  deter- 
mined to  remain  in  North  Carolina,  and  to  collect 
the  loyalists  under  his  standard.  With  this  view  he 
repaired  to  Hillsborough,  and  endeavoured  to  pre- 
vail upon  the  inhabitants  to  espouse  the  royal  cause. 
His  efforts,  however,  were  not  crowned  with  the 
success  he  anticipated.  The  people  considered  the 
cause  of  congress  triumphant,  and  feared  to  mani- 
fest any  attachment  to  the  royal  interest.  In  some 
instances,  however,  the  British  general  prevailed 
upon  the  people  to  take  up  arms.  He  sent  Taiieton 
with  his  legion  to  the  district  between  the  Haw  and 
Deep  rivers,  to  encourage  the  rising  of  the  loyalists 
in  that  quarter. 

General  Greene  detached  Colonel  Lee  with  a 
body  of  cavalry  to  scour  the  country,  and  attack 
Tarleton.  Lee  soon  overtook  a  body  of  loyalists 
marching  to  Cornwallis,  under  the  command  of 
Colonel  Hill.  The  Americans  charged  them  with 
vigour,  and  the  tories.  supposing  them  to  be  Tarle- 
ton's  legion,  and  themselves  mistaken  for  republi- 
cans, declared  their  attachment  to  the  royal  cause, 
and  vociferated  the  cry,  "  long  live  the  king." 
Between  200  and  300  were  killed  by  their  enraged 
assailants,  and  the  survivors  compelled  to  surrender. 
Tarleton,  by  a  singular  coincidence,  soon  after  met 
another  small  body  of  royalists,  and  slaughtered 
them,  believing  them  to  be  republicans.  While 
advancing 'to  encounter  Lee,  Tarleton  was  called 
back  by  Cornwallis  to  Hillsborough. 

Greene  had  now  received  a  reinforcement  of  con- 
tinental troops,  and  several  bodies  of  militia.  These 
troops  augmented  his  army  to  6000,  and  he  no 
longer  wished  to  avoid  an  engagement  with  the 
British.  Making  every  possible  preparation  for  so 
important  an  event,  he  now  marched  toward  Corn- 
wallis, who  had  taken  post  at  Guilford  court-house. 
The  armies  met  on  the  15th  of  March.  Early  in 
the  battle  some  coinuanies  of  the  militia  fled,  and 


he  regulars  were  soon  left  to  maintain  the  conflict 
alone.  They  fought  for  an  hour  and  a  half  with 
rreat  bravery,  and  in  some  instances  forced  the 
3ritish  to  give  way.  They  were,  however,  at  length 
compelled  to  retreat,  but  it  was  only  step  by  step, 
nd  without  breaking  their  ranks.  The  loss  of  the 
Americans  in  this  engagement  was  estimated  at 
1300  men,  that  of  the  British  in  proportion  to  their 
number  was  more  considerable.  Greene  now  re- 
reated  to  Speedwell's  iron  works,  ten  miles  from 
he  field  of  battle.  Cornwallis,  although  he  had  the 
reputation  of  a  victor,  found  himself  in  consequence 
of  his  losses  obliged  to  retreat,  while  Greene  was  in 
a  condition  to  pursue,  thus  affording  the  singular 
spectacle  of  a  vanquished  army  pursuing  a  victorious 
one.  Cornwallis  retired  to  Bell's-mills,  and  after  a 
ew  days'  repose  marched  towards  Wilmington, 
jreene  having  collected  the  fugitives  of  his  army, 
followed  the  British,  and  with  his  light-infantry 
continually  infested  their  rear.  He  however  soon 
altered  his  course,  and  proceeded  by  forced  marches 
:owards  Camden  in  South  Carolina.  On  Cornwal- 
lis's  arrival  at  Wilmington,  he  was  undetermined 
whether  to  return  to  the  relief  of  South  Carolina,  or 
march  into  Virginia,  and  join  the  forces  under 
Arnold.  A  council  of  war  was  called,  which  decided 
upon  the  first  measure,  and  the  British  general,  after 
having  remained  in  Wilmington  a  few  days,  to 
refresh  his  troops,  proceeded  towards  Petersburg, 
leaving  the  command  of  the  forces  in  the  Carolinas 
to  Lord  Rawdon,  a  young  man  of  much  talent  ana 
military  ardour,  who  he  hoped  would  be  able  to  hold 
the  army  of  Greene  in  check,  keep  possession  of  the 
province,  and  establish  the  British  authority. 

Sumpter  and  Marion  annoy  the  British—- Americant 
defeated  at  Hobkirk's  Hill  —  Rawdon  evacuates 
Camden — British  forts  taken  by  the  Americans—* 
Greene  attacks  fort  Ninety-six. 

Lord  Rawdon  established  his  head-quarters  at 
Camden,  a  place  fortified  with  great  care.  The  other 
principal  posts  of  the  British  in  Carolina  were  the 
city  of  Charlestown,  Ninety-six  and  Augusta.  They 
had,  however,  garrisoned  several  others  of  minor 
importance,  so  that  their  forces  were  much  divided. 
The  disaffection  of  the  inhabitants  to  the  British 
cause,  compelled  them  thus  to  divide  their  troops, 
in  order  to  maintain  such  points  as  were  necessary 
to  their  subsistence,  and  their  communication  with 
each  other.  The  intelligence  of  the  retreat  of  Corn- 
wallis gave  the  republicans  new  hopes,  and  new  vi- 
gour. Sumpter  and  Marion  by  their  bold  but  pru- 
dent movements  were  continually  gaining  advan- 
tages over  the  royalists.  They  thus  made  them- 
selves regarded  as  leaders,  who  would  conduct  their 
followers  to  glory  and  success,  and  not  lead  them 
into  disgrace  or  danger;  and  hundreds  nocked  to 
their  standard,  who  were  organized  into  regular 
companies.  Thus  they  became  so  powerful,  that 
they  were  able  to  hold  "in  check  the  whole  of  lower 
Carolina,  while  Greene  with  his  army  faced  Lord 
Rawdon  in  the  Highlands.  That  officer,  finding  that 
his  position  was  becoming  dangerous,  strengthened 
his  army  by  calling  in  his  troops  from  places  not 
susceptible  of  defence. 

General  Greene  at  this  time  appeared  in  view  of 
Carnden,  at  the  head  of  his  army,  and  proceeded  to 
intrench  himself  within  a  mile's  distance,  at  Hob- 
kirk's  Hill.  Rawdon  would  have  retreated  towards 
Charlestown  ;  but  the  way  was  infested  by  the  light- 
troops  of  Sumpter  and  Marion.  He  perceived  that 
the  Americans  trusted  to  the  strength  of  their  post, 


1072 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


auci  guarded  it  with  negligence.  Arming  his  musi- 
cians, and  leaving  Camden  in  the  care  of  the  con- 
valescents, he  marched  with  every  being  in  his 
army  capable  of  carrying  a  firelock,  on  the  night 
of  the  25th  of  April ;  and  taking  a  circuitous  route, 
he  fell  by  surprise  on  the  left  flank  of  the  Americans. 
Greene  perceiving  that  the  British  moved  in  a  solid 
but  not  extended  column,  immediately  caused  them 
to  be  attacked  at  the  same  time  on  both  flanks  and 
in  front.  The  battle  became  general  and  fierce. 
The  royalists  gave  way.  Rawdon  pushed  forward 
his  reserve.  The  Americans  in  their  turn  retreated, 
and  the  efforts  of  Greene  and  his  officers  to  rally 
them  were  ineffectual.  The  loss  of  the  Americans 
in  killed,  wounded  and  missing,  was  2G8 ;  that  of 
the  British  nearly  equal. 

The  American  general  after  this  affair,  retired 
from  Hobkirk's  Hill,  (five  miles  from  Gun  Swamp,) 
to  re-organize  his  army.  Rawdon,  like  Cornwallis 
at  Guilford,  found  the  effects  of  the  battle  to  be 
rather  those  of  a  defeat  than  a  victory.  He  was  in- 
ferior to  his  enemy  in  cavalry,  and  could  not  pursue 
him.  His  army  was  weakened.  The  inhabitants 
in  every  direction  were  rising  against  him;  and 
he  had  reason  to  tremble  for  several  of  his  posts, 
which,  as  he  was  informed,  were  invested  by  the 
Americans. 

Thus  situated,  he  evacuated  Camden,  rased  its 
fortifications,  and  retreating  before  the  foe  which 
he  boasted  of  having  conquered,  made  his  way  to- 
wards Charleston.  On  the  13th  of  May,  he  arrived 
at  Nelson's  ferry ;  where  he  learned  that  the  forts 
which  the  Americans  had  invested  had  fallen  into 
their  power.  Fort  Watson  capitulated  to  Marion 
and  Lee ;  fort  Motte  to  Sumpter,  and  Georgetown 
to  Marion.  The  prisoners  taken  in  these  forts 
amounted  to  nearly  800  ;  and  in  fort  Motte  was 
a  considerable  quantity  of  military  stores.  From 
Nelson's  ferry,  Rawdon  moved  to  Eutaw  Springs. 

Greene  now  formed  the  design  of  reducing  Ninety- 
six  and  Augusta ;  the  only  two  posts  which  remained 
to  the  British  in  the  upper  country,  and  which  were 
already  invested  by  militia,  under  Colonels  Clarke 
and  Pickens.  He  first  marched  his  army  against 
Ninety-six,  which  was  the  strong  hold  of  the  royal- 
ists, and  could  be  overcome  only  by  a  regular  siege. 

Meantime,  Rawdon,  whose  army  had  been  rein- 
forced by  three  regiments  from  Ireland,  put  himself 
in  motion  to  oppose  the  American  commander  and 
preserve  his  fortresses,  particularly  that  of  Ninety- 
six.  On  his  march,  he  learned  the  capitulation  of 
Augusta,  to  the  American  militia,  commanded  by 
the  gallant  Colonel  Pickens. 

Greene  now  learned  that  the  enemy  approached 
with  fresh  forces  ;  and  he  knew  that  his  troops  were 
in  no  condition  to  contend  against  the  army  of  Raw- 
don, combined  with  the  garrison  of  Ninety-six.  Un- 
willing however  to  leave  the  place  without  an  effort 
which  should  at  least  vindicate  the  honour  of  the 
American  arms,  he  made  a  vigorous  assault  upon 
the  fort,  and  gained  a  considerable  advantage 
though  he  did  not  succeed  in  capturing  it.  He  then 
removed  his  army  beyond  the  Tigerand  Broad  rivers. 
Rawdon  approached,  and  made  some  unavailing  at- 
tempts to  draw  Greene  into  an  engagement.  After 
this,  he  entered  and  examined  Ninety-six ;  anc 
finding  the  place  not  capable  of  withstanding  a  re- 
gular attack,  he  abandoned  it,  and  directed  his 
march  towards  Orangeburg  ;  where,  on  the  12th, 
he  established  his  head-quarters.  Greene  followec 
him ;  but  finding  his  position  covered  by  the  wind 
ings  of  the  Edisto,  he  bent  his  march,  ou  the  16th 


o  the  heights  which  border  the  Santee.  The  season 
)roving  uncommonly  hot  and  sickly,  the  contend- 
ng  armies,  by  tacit  consent,  suspended  their  ope- 
•ations. 

During  this  period,  occurred  the  last  scene  of  the 
ragedy  of  Colonel  Hayne.  At  the  commencement 
>f  the  war,  few  men  co'uld  have  been  found  more  to 
be  envied  than  Isaac  Hayne.  Blessed  with  the  goods 
of  fortune,  eminently  endowed  with  tho.se  qualities 
which  gain  the  love  of  men,  possessing  all  the  finer 
sensibilities  which  ennoble  our  nature,  he  was  all 
that  is  estimable  as  a  man  and  a  patriot.  At  the 
commencement  of  the  war,  he  entered  with  ardour 
nto  the  views  of  the  republicans,  and  assisted  in 
person  at  the  defence  of  Charlestown.  On  the  sur- 
render of  that  city,  Hayne,  whose  consequence  as 
a  leader  was  appreciated  by  the  British,  was  offered 
the  alternative  of  becoming  a  British  subject,  or 
joing  into  rigorous  confinement.  For  himself,  he 
would  not  have  hesitated  a  moment  to  choose  cap- 
tivity. But  his  wife  and  children  were  at  his  plan- 
tation,  languishing  with  the  small-pox.  And  not 
only  did  he  feel  it  agony  at  such  a  time  to  be  sepa- 
rated from  them,  but  he  knew,  that  should  he  refuse 
the  offer  of  the  British,  a  lawless  soldiery  would 
violate  and  lay  waste  the  retreat  of  his  suffering 
family.  Torn  by  conflicting  duties,  who  could  blame 
him,  if  in  such  a  situation  the  husband  and  the  fa- 
ther triumphed  over  the  patriot.  He  consented  to 
invest  himself  with  the  condition  of  a  British  subject, 
on  the  solemn  assurances  of  the  British  general, 
Patterson,  that  he  should  not  be  called  on  to  bear 
arms  against  his  countrymen. 

Meanwhile  the  republicans  had  found  means  to 
change  the  fortune  of  the  war.  The  British,  obliged 
to  act  on  the  defensive,  no  longer  regarded  their 
sacred  engagements,  but  called  on  those  enrolled 
as  their  subjects,  to  take  up  arms  in  their  defence. 
Hayne,  among  others,  found  that  he  could  not  re- 
main peaceably  at  home.  His  home  too  was  deso- 
lated, by  the  loss  of  his  wife  and  two  children,  who 
had  died  with  the  small-pox.  Feeling  released  from 
an  obligation  which  the  British  themselves  had  vio- 
lated, he  once  more  took  arms  in  the  cause  which 
he  had  ever  held  dear.  Engaged  as  a  colonel,  com- 
manding a  corps  in  the  partisan  warfare,  he  was 
taken  prisoner  and  confined  in  a  deep  dungeon  in 
Charlestown.  Without  even  the  form  of  trial,  Lord 
Rawdon  with  Colonel  Balfour,  the  commandant  of 
Charlestown,  contrary  to  the  usages  of  war,  sen- 
tenced him  to  death.  The  royalists,  with  the  go- 
vernor  at  their  head,  petitioned  for  the  prisoner, 
and  pleaded  the  impolicy  of  the  act.  The  most  dis- 
tinguished women  of  Charlestown,  touched  with  his 
virtues,  pleaded  his  cause  with  all  the  feeling  and 
eloquence  of  their  sex.  But  more  than  all,  his 
children,  clad  in  mourning  for  their  mother,  ap- 
peared before  the  judges,  and  stretching  out  their 
little  hands,  pleaded  and  entreated  with  tears  for  the 
life  of  their  surviving  parent.  But  they  pleaded  in 
vain  ;  and  Hayne  was  led  to  execution. 

Amidst  the  execrations  which  Rawdou's  unrelent- 
ing cruelty  had  in  this  instance  drawn,  not  only 
upon  himself,  but  upon  the  cause  which  he  had 
thought  proper  to  use  such  means  in  vindicating, 
that  general  left  the  capital  of  Carolina,  and  re- 
turned to,  England.  The  command  of  the  army  de- 
volved on  Colonel  Stuart. 

Battle  of  Eutaw  Springs — Engagement  of  the  French 
and  English  fleets — Junction  of  the  British  armies 
—  Tarleton  surprises  Charlotte-villc  —  Cornwallit 


UNITED  STATES. 


1073 


enters  Yorktown — Washington  arrives  at  the  head 
of  the  Elk — De  Grasse  enters  the  Chesapeake — 
Action  between  the  French  and  English  fleets. 

General  Greene,  still  in  his  camp  at  the  high  hills 
of  the  Santee,  had  made  the  best  use  of  the  time 
allowed  him  by  the  suspension  of  arms.  It  was  now 
the  beginning  of  September,  the  sultriness  of  the 
season  had  abated,  and  Greene  determined,  if  possi- 
ble, to  dispossess  the  British  of  the  remaining  posts 
in  the  upper  country.  He  marched  to  the  upper 
Congaree,  passed  it  with  all  his  army,  and  descended 
along  its  right  bank,  intending  to  attack  Colonel 
Stewart,  who  at  this  time  occupied  the  post  of  Ma- 
cord's  Ferry.  The  royalists  fell  back  upon  Eutaw 
Springs ;  thither  General  Greene  pursued  them, 
and  on  the  8th  of  September  the  armies  engaged. 
The  battle  of  Eutaw  Springs  is  memorable  as  being 
one  of  the  most  bloody  and  valiantly  contested  fields 
of  the  war;  and  also  for  being  the  last  of  any  note 
that  occurred  at  the  south. 

In  this  battle  General  Greene  drew  up  his  forces 
with  great  skill,  and  made  the  attack.  The  troops 
on  both  sides  fought  with  great  bravery.  The  Ame- 
rican officers  remarked,  that  when  necessary,  their 
soldiers  resorted  promptly  to  the  use  of  the  bayonet, 
which  they  had  formerly  appeared  to  dread.  After 
a  severe  contest,  victory  seemed  to  declare  for  the 
republicans.  The  British  were  routed  and  fled  ;  but 
finding  in  their  flight  a  large  house  and  some  other 
objects  affording  shelter,  they  rallied  and  repulsed 
their  assailants  with  heavy  loss.  Greene  finding  it 
impossible  to  dislodge  them,  retreated  to  bis  cainp, 
bearing  500  prisoners.  The  whole  loss  of  the  British 
in  killed  and  wounded  was  about  1000,  that  of  the 
Americans  600.  Congress  voted  their  thanks  to 
General  Greene,  and  presented  him  with  a  con- 
quered standard  and  a  golden  medal.  Greene  was 
ably  seconded  by  his  officers,  among  whom  the  gal- 
lant Colonels  Lee  and  Washington  are  mentioned 
as  particularly  deserving.  The  latter  was  wounded 
and  taken  prisoner.  Greene's  army  having  being 
reinforced,  the  British  no  longer  dared  to  keep  the 
open  country,  but  retired  to  Charlestown.  Thus 
had  the  Americans  in  a  few  months  recovered  the 
whole  of  the  states  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia, 
except  their  capitals.  The  skill  and  valour  mani- 
fested by  Greene  in  their  defence,  has  given  him  a 
rank  among  the  heroes  of  the  revolution,  second  to 
none  but  to  Washington. 

While  the  war  at  the  south  was  progressing,  other 
important  operations  were  going  on  in  other  parts 
of  the  union,  and  we  now  go  back  several  months  in 
the  order  of  time,  to  give  an  account  of  their  pro- 
gress. It  will  be  recollected  that  we  left  both  Corn- 
wallis  and  the  traitor  Arnold  in  the  state  of  Vir- 
ginia. The  latter  had  landed  on  the  4th  of  January 
with  a  force  of  1700  men,  in  the  vicinity  of  Rich- 
mond. He  destroyed  the  public  stores  in  Richmond  ; 
and  sent  Colonel  Simcoe,  who  laid  waste  those  in 
Westham.  In  their  course  Arnold  and  his  officers 
committed  the  most  wanton  depredations  on  private 
property. 

Washington,  although  perplexed  with  the  recent 
mutiny  of  the  troops,  and  the  deranged  state  of  the 
finances,  concerted  measures  with  the  French,  by 
means  of  which,  he  hoped  to  relieve  Virginia,  and 
obtain  possession  of  the  traitor  and  his  force. 

La  Fayette,  at  the  head  of  1200  light-infantry, 
was  detached  towards  Virginia,  while  the  commander 
of  the  French  fleet  at  Rhode  Island  dispatched  a 
squadron  of  eight  sail  of  the  line  under  the  Chevalier 

HIST.  OF  AMER.— Nos.  135  &  136. 


Destouches,  to  cut  off  the  retreat  of  Arnold  from  the 
Chesapeake.  But  Clinton,  gaining  intelligence  of 
the  plan,  sent  Admiral  Arbuthnot  to  the  relief  of 
Arnold,  with  a  squadron  of  equal  force.  These  two 
fleets  met  and  fought  off  Cape  Henry,  on  the  16th 
of  March,  and  suffered  equal,  though  not  very  con- 
siderable loss.  But  the  French  were  constrained 
to  relinquish  their  design,  and  return  to  Rhode 
Island.  Upon  hearing  this,  La  Fayette,  who  had 
arrived  at  Annapolis,  marched  to  the  head  of  the  Elk. 

Clinton,  finding  how  narrowlyArnold  had  escaped, 
sent  to  his  assistance  General  Philips  with  2000 
men.  Thus  reinforced,  Arnold  resumed  the  work 
of  pillage  and  destruction.  La  Fayette  arrived  in 
time  to  save  Richmond ;  but  he  witnessed  from  that 
place  the  conflagration  of  Manchester,  on  the  oppo- 
site bank  of  the  James.  About  this  time  both  parlies 
learned  the  approach  of  Cornwallis  ;  and  it  became 
the  object  of  Philips  and  Arnold  to  form  a  junction 
with  him  at  Petersburg.  They  arrived  before  Corn- 
wallis. While  awaiting  his  arrival,  General  Philips 
sickened  and  died.  His  death  occurred  the  13th  of 
May,  and  on  the  20th  Cornwallis  reached  Petersburg. 

After  remaining  a  few  days  at  Petersburg,  Corn- 
wallis, now  in  command  of  the  combined  forces, 
directed  their  march  into  the  interior  of  Virginia, 
supposing,  as  was  the  fact,  that  the  Americans  were 
too  weak  and  too  much  dispersed,  to  offer  any  effec- 
tual opposition.  There  were,  however,  three  sepa- 
rate corps  of  republican  troops  in  Virginia ;  one 
under  General  La  Fayette,  another  and  a  smaller 
one  under  the  Baron  Steuben,  and  the  Pennsylvania 
troops  under  General  Wayne.  Had  they  been  united, 
they  were  by  no  means  a  match  lor  the  army  of 
Cornwallis.  But  La  Fayette,  who  had  the  chief 
command,  showed  how  well  he  had  profited  by  the 
lessons  of  Washington.  Prudent  and  brave,  under- 
standing far  better  than  the  British,  the  ground  over 
which  the  armies  moved,  he  harassed  his  foe  and 
restrained  his  motions ;  without  once  suffering  him- 
self to  be  led  into  a  snare,  or  his  army  to  be  en- 
dangered. When  Cornwallis  pursued,  he  retreated  ; 
when  intent  upon  some  other  object,  his  foe  held 
another  direction,  immediately  La  Fayette  pursued 
in  his  turn,  hanging  upon  his  rear,  and  preventing 
him  from  sending  out  straggling  parties.  This  con- 
duct kept  up  the  spirits  of  the  republicans,  and  pre- 
vented the  British  from  realizing  their  sanguine  ex- 
pectation, that  many  would  flock  to  their  standard. 

While  at  Westover,  Cornwallis  detached  Colonel 
Tarleton  to  Charlotte ville,  where  the  legislature  of 
Virginia  were  in  session,  and  at  the  same  time 
sent  Colonel  Simcoe  to  the  Point  of  Fork,  at  the 
junction  of  the  two  rivers  which  form  the  James,  to 
seize  some  stores  at  that  place.  Both  these  expedi- 
tions were  in  a  measure  successful ;  but  Tarleton 
was  disappointed  of  the  prize  on  which  he  most  cal- 
culated. This  was  the  capture  of  Governor  Jeffer- 
son, who  after  having  provided  for  the  safety  of  a 
considerable  quantity  of  arms  and  ammunition,  found 
means  to  elude  the  vigilance  of  his  pursuers. 

Cornwallis,  while  thus  ranging  the  interior  of  Vir- 
ginia, constantly  checked  however  by  La  Fayette, 
was  suddenly  recalled  to  the  sea-coast  by  an  order 
from  Sir  Henry  Clinton.  That  general,  appre- 
hensive that  the  Americans  and  French  meditated 
an  attack  on  New  York,  and  fearing  that  he  was 
not  in  sufficient  force  to  resist  them,  had  directed 
Cornwallis  to  embark  3000  of  his  troops  to  join  his 
garrison.  Intent  on  obeying  his  mandate,  Corn- 
wallis marched  with  his  army  to  Portsmouth,  where 
he  received  orders  to  retain  the  troops.  Clinton, 

4S 


1074 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


having  received  a  reinforcement  of  3000  Germans, 
now  believed  he  could  dispense  with  further  aid ; 
and  ordered  Cornwallis  to  proceed  to  Point  Comfort 
and  there  fortify,  in  order  to  have,  in  any  event,  a 
secure  retreat. 

Cornwallis  found  reasons  for  disliking  this  post, 
and  obtained  of  Clinton  permission  to  select  another. 
He  fixed  on  Yorktown,  a  village  which  is  situated 
on  the  right  bank  of  York  river.  Upon  the  opposite 
side  of  the  stream  upon  a  projecting  point,  which 
rrows  and  deepens  its  channel,  is  the  smaller 
village  of  Gloucester.  Cornwallis  entered  York- 
town,  August  23rd,  and  proceeded  to 'erect  forti- 
fications. 

We  have  already  seen  the  difficulties  which, 
from  an  exhausted  army  and  treasury,  at  the  com- 
mencement of  this  campaign,  environed  the  com- 
mander-in-chief.  For  Washington  was,  in  fact,  a 
main  spring  in  the  deliberations  and  decisions  of 
congress,  as  well  as  the  director  of  field  operations. 
He  had  learned  that  a  considerable  French  fleet, 
and  a  body  of  land  troops  was  soon  to  arrive  upon 
the  coast.  Anxious  to  avail  himself  of  the  naval 
superiority  which  this  force  would  give  him,  and  to 
strike  some  important  blow,  the  commander-in-chief, 
with  the  advice  of  Rochambeau,  whom  he  met  at 
Weathersfield,  determined  to  attack  New  York. 
Clinton,  apprised  of  the  plan,  determined,  as  we 
have  seen,  to  recall  a  part  of  the  forces  of  Corn- 
wallis, but  was  prevented  by  the  arrival  of  300C 
German  troops,  which  increased  his  garrison  to  up- 
wards of  10,000. 

In  the  meantime,  Washington  was  disappointed 
in  his  expected  recruits.  Instead  of  12,000  regular 
troops,  which  he  was  to  have  had,  he  could  hardly 
muster  5000,  a  number  by  no  means  adequate  to 
the  projected  siege.  He  learned  that  De  Grasse,  the 
expected  French  admiral,  could  not  remain  on  the 
American  coast  longer  than  October,  and  finally 
that  his  destination  was  the  Chesapeake.  From  thes< 
considerations,  Washington  suddenly  changed  hi: 
plan  of  operations,  and  bent  all  his  calculations  t( 
take  Cornwallis  in  the  snare  which  he  seemed  laying 
for  himself. 

Success  depended  upon  secrecy,  for  had  Sir  Henry 
Clinton  been  apprised  of  his  plan,  he  might  at  firs 
have  defeated  it.  But  it  may  reasonably  be  sup 
posed  that  few  at  this  time  were  in  the  counsels  o 
the  commander-in-chief,  for  never  was  a  secret  bet 
ter  kept,  or  an  enemy  more  completely  deceived 
Washington  made  every  show  of  a  preparation  t 
attack  New  York.  He  broke  up  his  camp  at  Nei 
Windsor,  and  advanced  down  the  river  to  Kings 
bridge.  The  French  army,  consisting  of  5000  unde 
Rochambeau,  had  marched  from  Rhode  Island  an 
joined  him.  They  appeared  daily  to  expect  the  ar 
rival  of  De  Grasse  at  New  York.  Suddenly  Wash 
ington  crossed  the  Hudson,  and  directed  the  rapi 
.march  of  the  continental  armies  across  New  Jersey 
But  he  had  caused  a  report  to  be  spread,  that  thi 
was  merely  a  feint  to  draw  Clinton  from  his  fortifica 
tions,  that  he  might  fight  him  in  the  open  fielc 
Clinton  deceived,  removed  within  his  fortress.  Wash 
ington,  now  learning  that  De  Grasse  was  near  th 
Chesapeake,  no  longer  delayed  crossing  the  Dela 
ware,  and  steering  direct  for  his  object,  well  satis 
fied  that  the  time  for  his  foe  to  prevent  its  accom 
plishment  was  past.  He  arrived  after  a  rapid  marc 
at  the  head  of  the  Elk,  the  northern  extremity  c 
the  Chesapeake,  on  the  25th  of  August ;  and  havin 
made  the  necessary  arrangements  for  the  transpo 
tation  of  his  army,  he  proceeded  in  person  to  Vi 


nia,  attended  by  the  Count  De  Rochambeau  ;  and 
i  the  14th  of  September,  he  joined  La  Fayette  at 
filliamsburg. 

The  Count  De  Grasse  with  25  sail  of  the  line, 
ntered  the  mouth  of  the  Chesapeake  only  one  hour 
efore  Washington  arrived  at  the  head  of  the  Elk, 
nd  immediately  performed  the  part  assigned  to  him, 
y  blocking  up  the  mouths  of  the  York  and  James 
vers,  thus  cutting  off  all  communication  between 
\e  British  at  Yorktown  and  New  York.  He  also 
pened  a  communication  with  La  Fayette.  When 
ornwallis  first  took  post  at  Yorktown,  this  general 
ad  occupied  a  position  high  up  the  river,  but  had 
ow  descended  as  far  as  Williamsburgh.  The  allies 
ad  a  fear  that  Cornwallis,  seeing  the  toils  into 
hich  he  was  falling,  would  turn  upon  La  Fayette, 
ho  was  inferior  in  force.  To  prevent  this,  3000 
ght  troops,  under  the  Marquis  de  St.  Simon,  were 
ent  up  the  river  in  boats,  to  join  him  at  Wiiliams- 
urgh. 

The  allies  needed  artillery,  and  other  prepara- 

ions  for  besieging,  as  Cornwallis  had  strengthened 

lis  works,  and  could  only  be  overcome  by  a  regular 

iege.     These    they  expected  from  Rhode   Island, 

o  be  brought  by  a  French  squadron,  commanded 

y  the  Count  De  Barras,  who  had  made  sail  three 

ays  before  the  arrival  of  De  Grasse  in  the  Chesa- 

)eake.     To  prevent  falling  in  \vith  the  British  fleet, 

Sarras  had  stood  far  out  to  sea.     While   expecting 

lim,  De  Grasse,  on  the  5th  of  September,  saw,  off 

he  capes,  a    British  fleet  of  nineteen   sail,  under 

Admiral  Greaves.  The  French  commander,  advised 

y  Washington,  behaved  with  admirable   skill    and 

irudencs.     He    engaged   the    British  partially,    to 

draw  them  from  their  anchorage  ground;  by  which 

means  the  Count  De   Barras,  as  he  expected,  was 

enabled  to  pass  by  them  into  the  bay ;  but  refused  a 

general  engagement,  which  would  have  been  putting 

o  hazard  a  game,  which  with  prudence  was  already 

n  the  hands  of  the  allies. 

Fort  Trumbull  taken — And  fort  Groswall  —  Arnold 
burns  New  London  —  Yorktown  besieyed  —  Corn- 
wallis capitulates — British  Land  forces  surrender  to 
the  American*,  and  the  Marine  to  the  French — 
Clinton  too  late  endeavours  to  preserve  Cornwallis — 
La  Fayette  returns  to  France. 

Cornwallis  had  now  no  hope  of  escape  but  from 
linton.  To  him  he  had  found  means  to  represent 
bis  situation,  and  closely  invested  as  he  was,  he  re- 
ceived an  answer  to  his  communication.  By  this 
he  was  informed  that  troops  would,  if  possible,  em- 
bark from  New  York  for  his  relief  by  the  5th  of 
October. 

Clinton,  hoping  to  draw  off  some  part  of  the  forces 
which  menaced  Cornwallis,  projected  an  expedition 
against  New  London  in  Connecticut,  the  command 
of  which  he  gave  to  the  traitor,  Arnold,  lately  re- 
turned from  Virginia.  The  access  to  the  port  of 
New  London,  was  guarded  by  forts  Trumbull  and 
Griswold,  erected  on  the  opposite  banks  of  the 
Thames.  Fort  Trumbull  was  taken  without  much 
effort.  The  garrison  of  fort  Griswold  was  composed 
of  militia,  many  of  whom  were  the  fathers  of  the 
families  in  the  vicinity,  hastily  collected,  and  under 
the  command  of  the  estimable  Colonel  Ledyard. 
They  made  a  resolute  defence,  and  killed  numbers 
of  the  assailants.  At  length,  however,  they  were 
overpowered,  and  ceased  to  resist.  As  the  British 
entered  the  fort,  an  officer  inquired  "  who  com- 
mands this  fort  ?"  "  I  did,"  said  Colonel  Ledyard, 
"  but  you  do  now,"  and  presented  his  sword. 


UNITED  STATES. 


1075 


The  monster  took  it  and  plunged  it  in  his  bosom. 
This  was  the  signal  for  slaughter.  Forty,  out  of 
160,  were  all  that  escaped.  Scarcely  was  there  a 
father  of  a  family  in  the  little  town  of  Groton,  but 
was  that  night  butchered,  and  almost  its  entire  popu- 
lation became  widows  and  orphans. 

New  London  was  next  laid  in  ashes,  and  a  great 
number  of  vessels  richly  laden,  fell  into  the  hands 
of  Arnold.  Washington  was  not  however  moved  to 
quit  his  post  at  the  south.  The  people  of  Connec- 
ticut showed  ominous  signs  of  resistance,  and  Arnold 
judged  it  prudent  to  return  to  New  York. 

Cornwallis,  in  the  belief  that  he  should  receive 
succour  from  Clinton,  abandoned  his  out-posts  and 
defences,  and  withdrew  entirely  within  the  fortifica- 
tions of  Yorktown.  Many  of  his  own  officers  con- 
sidered this  as  a  great  error.  They  had  urged  him 
to  attempt  crossing  the  river,  and  regaining  the 
open  country,  through  which  they  might,  as  they 
believed,  proceed  by  rapid  marches  to  New  York. 
While  he  delayed  and  deliberated,  the  small  chance 
that  was  left  him  of  escaping  in  this  way,  was  de- 
stroyed. The  besiegers  had  now  collected  in  the 
vicinity  of  Yorktown ;  their  whole  force  amounted 
to  16,000,  7000  of  whom  were  French.  Notwith- 
standing a  heavy  fire  from  the  fort,  they  made  rapid 
advances  in  their  works.  They  had  commenced 
them  on  the  night  of  the  6th  of  October.  On  the 
9th  several  batteries  were  completed,  and  a  heavy 
destructive  cannonade  commenced.  On  the  llth 
they  began  their  second  parallel,  which  was  only 
300  yards  from  the  fort.  In  order  to  complete  their 
trenches,  it  was  necessary  to  dislodge  the  English 
from  two  redoubts  which  were  in  advance  of  their 
main  works.  Washington  determined  on  carrying 
them  by  assault,  and  taking  advantage  of  the  emula- 
tion between  the  two  armies,  to  make  success  more 
certain,  he  assigned  to  the  French  under  Baron  De 
Viomesnil  the  taking  of  one,  while  to  the  Americans 
under  the  Marquis  La  Fayette  and  Colonel  Hamil- 
ton he  assigned  the  capture  of  the  other.  The  ardour 
and  eloquence  of  the  officers  stirred  up  their  troops 
to  the  highest  pitch  of  valour,  and  their  onset  was 
so  furious,  that  the  British,  though  they  bravely 
withstood,  could  not  long  resist  them.  Both  the  re 
doubts  were  taken,  not  without  loss  to  the  allies,  o 
which  the  French  parly  suffered  the  greatest  share. 

Nothing  now  remained  to  prevent  the  completion 
of  the  second  parallel ;  which  once  finished,  Corn 
wallis  had  no  alternative  before  him  but  death  or 
submission.  In  fact  his  walls  were  already  broken 
and  his  ditches  filled  up  by  their  falling  parts.  On 
the  night  of  the  16th,  the  British  under  General 
Abercrombie  made  a  rigorous  sortie,  took  two  bat 
teries  and  spiked  eleven  cannon.  They  were  chargec 
furiously  by  the  French  under  De  Noailles,  ant 
driven  back  to  their  encampments. 

Thus  situated,  Cornwallis  made  one  more  effort 
which  had  he,  as  advised,  sooner  attempted,  migh 
perhaps  have  saved  his  army.  This  was  to  cross  th» 
river  in  the  night,  to  Gloucester  Point,  where  a 
small  garrison  of  the  British,  commanded  by  Tarle 
ton,  were  watched  by  the  French  under  De 
Choise.  Leaving  his  baggage,  and  the  sick  am 
wounded,  whom  in  a  letter  to  Washington,  he  re 
commended  to  his  generosity,  his  army  were  tc 
embark  in  three  divisions.  A  part  had  already 
crossed  and  landed  at  Gloucester  Point ;  a  part  wer 
upon  the  river,  the  third  division  alone  had  not  em 
barked  ;  the  air  and  the  water  were  calm,  and  Corn 
wallis's  hopes  of  escape  were  high.  In  a  moment 
the  sky  was  overcast  and  a  tempest  arose,  the  ele 


ments  were  armed  against  him,  as  if  again  he  was 
hecked  by  that  invisible  power  which  seemed  to 
atch  over  the  destiny  of  the  American  people,  and 
hich  before  by  the  swelling  of  the  waters  had  saved 
iieir  army  from  his  grasp.  The  wind  and  rain  were 
iolent,  and  his  boats  were  driven  down  the  river, 
^he  day  appeared,  and  the  besiegers  discovering 
heir  situation,  opened  upon  his  scattered  and 
weakened  army,  a  destructive  fire  ;  and  they  were 
dad  when  the  abating  tempest  allowed  them  to  re- 
urn  to  their  almost  dismantled  fortifications. 

Seeing  now  no  hope  of  escape,  his  army  wasting 
y  the  irresistible  fire  of  the  American  works,  Corn- 
vallis  no  longer  delayed  to  treat  for  a  surrender. 
Jefore  noon  on  the  17th  he  sent  a  flag  to  Washing- 
on,  requesting  a  cessation  of  arms  for  24  hours,  and 
he  appointment  of  commissioners  to  settle  the  terms 
)f  surrender,  Washington  fearing  the  arrival  of 
British  troops,  refused  to  grant  a  truce  longer  than, 
wo  hours ;  and  signified  that  within  that  time  he 
ihould  expect  the  propositions  of  the  British  com- 
mander. Cornwallis  wished  to  obtain  liberty  for  the 
European  troops  to  return  to  their  homes  upon  their 
>arole  of  not  again  serving  in  the  American  war; 
and  he  also  wished  to  make  terms  for  the  Americans 
who  had  followed  his  fortunes.  Both  these  condi- 
ions  Washington  refused,  as  the  European  soldiers 
would  be  at  liberty  to  serve  in  garrisons  at  home, 
and  the  case  of  the  Americans  belonged  to  the  civil 
authority.  All  that  the  most  earnest  persuasion 
could  obtain  from  Washington  on  this  point,  was 
)ermission  for  a  sloop,  laden  with  such  persons  as 
Cornwallis  selected,  to  be  allowed  to  pass  without 
search  or  visit  to  New  York;  he  being  accountable 
for  the  number  of  persons  it  carried,  as  pr.soners 
of  war.  The  whole  remaining  British  force  to  be 
surrendered  to  the  allies;  the  land  army  with  its 
munitions  to  the  Americans,  the  marine  to  the 
French. 

Agreeable  to  the  articles  of  capitulation,  the  posts 
of  Yorktown  and  Gloucester  were  surrendered  on 
the  19th  of  October.  The  prisoners  exclusive  of 
seamen  amounted  to  more  than  7000,  of  whom  2000 
were  sick  or  wounded.  Five  hundred  and  fifty-two  of 
the  British  had  fallen  during  the  siege.  Sixty  pieces 
of  cannon  also  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Americars, 
principally  brass.  Two  frigates  and  twenty  trans- 
ports with  their  crews  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
French.  General  Lincoln,  who  had  suffered  at 
Charlestown  the  mortification  of  surrendering  an 
American  army,  was,  with  peculiar  delicacy,  selected 
by  the  commander-in-chief  to  receive  the  submis- 
sion of  the  British  army. 

The  French  and  Americans  added  on  this  occa- 
sion the  praise  of  generosity  and  humanity,  to  that 
of  wisdom  and  valour.  Their  leaders  vied  with 
each  other,  in  acts  of  kindness  to  the  conquered 
officers,  and  every  possible  attention  was  paid  to  the 
accommodation  of  the  soldiers. 

On  the  day  in  which  the  capitulation  was  signed, 
Clinton  passed  Sandy  Hook,  with  a  powerful  force, 
to  go  to  the  succour  of  Cornwallis  ;  he  appeared  oS 
the  capes  of  Virginia  on  the  24th,  where  learning 
the  surrender  of  the  army,  he  immediately  returned 
to  New  York. 

This  event  caused  a  burst  of  joy  and  exultation 
throughout  America.  Nor  did  the  people,  or  the 
civil  rulers,  amidst  the  honours  which  were  showered 
upon  the  American  and  French  commanders,  forget 
to  acknowledge  their  supreme  obligations  to  the  Great 
Commander  and  Ruler  of  armies  and  of  nations. 

Washington  would  gladly  have  detained  the  French 


1076 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


your  bosom,  because  you  who  have  already  felt  and 

suffered  so  much  will  be  able  to  sympathize  with  me." 

The  people  of  England,  who  felt  severely  the  ex- 


for  France,  leaving  deep  in  the  hearts  of  a  grateful    vernment,  nothing   remained  to  them  on  the   Ame 

people,    the   remembrance   of  his  virtues   and  his 

services. 


and 
ieton 


Poverty  of  the  American  government — Trials 
magnanimity  of  the  treasurer — Sir  Guy  Car 
supersedes  Clinton — Articles  of  peace  siyned 
Paris — Disturbance  amony  the  officers  of  the  army — 
Evacuation  of  New  York — Resignation  of  Wash- 
ington. 


fleet  to  co-operate  in  a  descent  upon  Charlestown; 
but  DC  Grasse  being  under  orders  from  the  French 
court,  to  be  in  the  West  Indies  on  a  certain  day, 

dared   not  hazard  the  detention  of  his  fleet;  and  I  penses  of  the  war,  on  hearing  the  disasters  which 
made  sail  for  those  islands  without  delay.  had  attended  their  armies,  particularly  that  of  Corn- 

General  La  Fayette,  who  had  sought  America  in    wallis,  no  longer  suppressed  their  discontent.     They 
her  adversity,  left  her  as  soon  as  prosperity  dawned    saw,   that   after  the  lives  and  property  which   had 
upon  her  fortunes.     He  embarked  about  this  time    been  expended,  after  all  the  intrigues  of  their  go- 
f  deep  in  the  hearts  of  a  grateful  | 

rican  shores  but  New  York,  Charlestown,  and  Savan- 
nah; and  these  posts  could  only  be  maintained  by 
strong  fleets  and  garrisons.  All  hope  of  reducing 
the  Americans  to  subjection  now  vanished.  Still 
the  king,  in  his  speech  at  the  opening  of  parliament, 
showed  his  unwillingness  to  relinquish  his  sway  over 
what  he  had  during  his  life  considered  his  patrimony; 
the  people,  however,  persisted  in  their  wishes  for 
peace,  and  loudly  demanded  the  removal  of  minis- 
The  poverty  of  the  United  States,  as  a  govern- 1  ters,  who  advised  the  king  to  measures  so  much 
ment,  was  again  almost  incredible.  The  great  effort  I  against  the  public  interest. 

made  by  congress  in  the  winter  of  1780-81  enabled  The  house  of  commons,  about  the  last  of  Febru- 
them  to  provide  for  the  campaign  of  the  ensuing  ary,  moved  by  the  general  feeling,  as  well  as  by  the 
season,  and  it  was  most  fortunate  for  America  that  eloquent  speeches  of  General  Conway  and  others, 
the  result  was  favourable;  for  it  seems  impossible  voted  "  that  they  should  consider  as  enemies  to  his 
that  another  active  and  expensive  campaign  could  majesty  and  their  country,  all  who  should  advise  or 
have  been  sustained.  There  was  no  fault  in  the  attempt  a  further  prosecution  of  offensive  war  on  the 
arrangements  of  congress,  or  remission  of  activity,  continent  of  America."  This  vote  was  followed  by 
prudence,  and  patriotism  on  the  part  of  the  treasurer,  the  resignation  of  the  office  of  prime-minister,  by 
On  the  contrary,  congress  had  made  the  most  judi-  Lord  North,  and  the  appointment  of  an  administra- 
cious  arrangements  early  in  the  winter  of  1781.  tion  favourable  to  peace. 

They  were  aided  in  their  deliberations  by  Washing-  Sir  Henry  Clinton  was  now  superseded  in  corn- 
ton,  who,  at  their  request,  had  stopped  at  Philadel-  mand  by  Sir  Guy  Carleton ;  whose  conciliating 
phia,  on  his  way  from  Yorktown,  to  his  accustomed  conduct  as  governor  of  Canada,  had  gained  him  the 
winter- quarters.  They  laid  taxes,  and  apportioned  esteem  of  the  Americans.  The  general  sentiment 
them  among  the  several  states ;  and  made  such  other  I  of  all  parties  was  now  favourable  to  peace ;  and  after 
regulations,  that  the  commander-in-chief  had  san-  this  there  were  no  hostile  operations,  except  a  few  of 
guine  hopes  that  every  thing  would  be  in  readiness  1  inconsiderable  importance  in  South  Carolina.  In 
for  an  early  campaign,  as  it  was  wisely  considered  one  of  these  fell  the  young  and  gallant  Colonel 
that  the  way  to  obtain  an  honourable  peace  was  to  Laurens,  lamented  by  Washington  and  the  whole 
be  in  readiness  for  war.  But  the  several  state  go- 1  army. 

vernments  wholly  failed  of  paying  their  quotas,  I  Admiral  Digby,  who  the  summer  before  had  ar- 
alleging  the  utter  inability  of  their  constituents  to  rived  in  New  York  with  reinforcements  for  Clinton, 
support  further  taxation.  Although  by  the  judicious  I  was  appointed  with  Carleton  by  the  British  ministry, 
arrangements  of  Morris  the  public  expenses  were  to  treat  with  the  Americans  for  peace,  on  the  ground 
much  diminished,  yet  they  were  necessarily  great,  I  of  acknowledging  their  independence;  but  congress 
and  must  so  continue,  although  the  means  of  meet- 1  finding  that  parliament  had  not  sanctioned  this  step 
ing  them  thus  unexpectedly  failed.  At  the  com- I  of  the  ministry,  refused  to  negotiate  with  their 
mencement  of  1782  not  a  dollar  remained  in  the  agents.  Whether  this  was  or  was  not,  as  many 
treasury.  "  Yet  to  the  financier,"  says  Marshall,  supposed,  a  snare  which  was  set  for  the  Americans, 
"  every  eye  was  turned ;  to  him  was  stretched  forth  congress  without  doubt  encountered  one,  which  had 
the  empty  hand  of  every  public  creditor,  and  against  for  its  object  to  destroy  their  alliance  with  France 
him,  instead  of  the  state  authorities,  w  ere  the  com-  I  and  Spain,  by  procuring  the  American  government 
plaints  and  imprecations  of  every  unsatisfied  claim-  to  treat  separately  from  her  allies;  but  this  congress 
ant  directed."  The  keen  sense  of  the  ingratitude  steadily  refused. 

of  his  country,  experienced  by  this  injured  patriot,  I  That  body,  careful  to  be  ready  for  the  first  ho- 
and  at  the  same  time  his  resolution  not  to  aban-  nourable  overtures  which  they  should  receive,  had 
don  the  cause  of  a  people  who  were  so  unjust  to  him,  appointed  John  Adams,  their  minister  at  the  Hague, 
were  thus  expressed  in  a  letter  to  the  commander-in-  I  as  a  commissioner  for  this  purpose  :  with  him  they 
chief: — "  With  such  gloomy  prospects  as  this  letter  I  now  associated  Benjamin  Franklin,  John  Jay,  and 
affords,  I  am  tied  here  to  be  baited  by  continual  1  John  Laurens.  The  latter,  while  crossing  the  ocean 
clamorous  demands ;  and  for  the  forfeiture  of  all  I  as  minister  to  Holland,  had  been  captured  and 
that  is  valuable  in  life,  and  which  I  hoped  at  this  I  confined  in  the  Tower  of  London, 
moment  to  enjoy,  I  am  to  be  paid  by  invective.  I  To  meet  these  commissioners  at  Paris,  the  court 
Scarce  a  day  passes,  in  which  I  am  not  tempted  to  I  of  St.  James  sent  Mr.  Fitz  Herbert  and  Mr.  Oswald, 
give  back  into  the  hands  of  congress  the  .power  On  the  20th  of  January,  1783,  preliminary  articles 
they  have  delegated,  and  to  lay  down  a  burden  I  of  peace  were  signed  at  Versailles.  The  definitive 
which  presses  me  to  the  earth.  Nothing  prevents  I  treaty  was  deferred  until  the  adjustment  of  affairs 
me  but  a  knowledge  of  the  difficulties  which  I  am  between  England  and  France,  and  was  not  signed 
obliged  to  struggle  under.  What  may  be  the  sue-  I  until  the  8rd  of  September,  1783.  The  terms  granted 
cess  of  my  efforts,  God  onlji  knows;  but  to  leave  I  to  America  by  this  treaty,  in  respect  to  extent  of 
my  post  at  present  would  I  know  be  ruinous.  This  I  territory  und  right  to  the  fisheries  of  New  England, 
candid  state  of  my  situation  and  feeiiugs  I  give  to  |  were  equal  to  the  most  sanguine  expectations  of  her 


UNITED  STATES. 


1077 


friends.  The  English  ministers  then  in  power, 
seemed  to  be  aware  of  the  policy  of  making  Ame- 
rica independent  in  fact,  as  well  as  in  name :  pro- 
bably the  more  so,  as  a  contrary  disposition  was 
manifested  by  France.  Both  powers  seemed  aware, 
that  if  she  remained  in  a  state  of  dependence,  it 
must,  from  the  posture  of  affairs,  be  a  dependence 
upon  France,  rather  fchan  upon  England.  The 
American  negotiators  were  men  of  great  ability  and 
ardent  patriotism,  and  well  knew  how  to  turn  this 
sta'e  of  things  to  the  advantage  of  their  country. 

But  in  the  general  pacification,  and  amidst  the 
protracted  negotiations  f  the  several  parties,  nothing 
was  stipulated  on  the  subject  of  neutral  rights,  which 
had  been  the  moving  cause  of  the  coalition  against 
England;  and  thus  a  door  was  left  open  for  future 
contention  and  bloodshed. 

The  situation  of  the  rising  republic  of  America 
was,  during  these  long  negotiations,  extremely  cri- 
tical. Had  congress  possessed  the  means  of  paying 
their  officers  and  soldiers,  there  would  have  been 
nothing  to  apprehend  from  the  disbanding  of  so 
patriotic  an  army.  But  the  officers,  aware  of  the 
poverty  of  the  treasury,  doubted  whether  it  would 
be  in  the  power  of  congress  to  fulfil  the  stipulation 
made  in  October,  1780,  granting  to  them  half  pay 
for  life. 

While  the  independence  of  their  country  was 
uncertain,  they  had  pressed  forward  to  the  attain- 
ment of  that  object;  and,  regardless  of  themselves, 
had  sacrificed  their  fortunes,  their  possessions,  and 
their  health.  Nowthatgreatobjectwas  attained,  they 
began  to  brood  over  their  own  situation  ;  and  fears 
arose  that  should  they  disband  before  their  country 
had  done  them  justice,  and  lose  their  consequence 
as  a  body,  themselves  and  their  services  might  be 
forgotten. 

Designing  persons  increased  their  discontent,  by 
insinuating  that  their  cause  was  not  advocated  with 
sufficient  zeal  by  their  commander. 

On  the  10th  of  March,  while  the  army  was  lying 
at  Newburgh,  an  anonymous  paper  was  circulated, 
which  embodied  in  the  most  glowing  language  the 
deep  feelings  of  many  hearts.  The  discontents  of 
the  army  exploded,  and  murmurs  rose  to  threats  and 
open  invective.  This  paper  proposed  a  meeting  of 
the  officers  on  the  ensuing  day. 

Washington,  aware  of  the  feelings  of  the  army, 
had  not  availed  himself  of  the  suspension  of  hostili- 
ties to  seek  the  pleasures  of  home,  but  had  remained 
in  the  camp.  He  now  saw  that  the  dreaded  crisis 
had  arrived.  Intent  on  guiding  deliberations  which 
he  could  not  suppress,  he  called  his  officers  to  a 
meeting  somewhat  later  than  the  one  appointed  in 
the  anonymous  appeal,  to  which,  in  his  orders,  he 
alluded  with  disapprobation.  In  the  interim  he 
prepared  a  written  address.  The  officers  met.  The 
father  of  his  country  rose,  to  read  the  manuscript 
which  he  held  in  his  hand.  Not  being  able  to  dis- 
tinguish its  characters,  he  took  off  his  spectacles  to 
wipe  them  with  his  handkerchief.  "  My  eyes," 
«aid  he,  "  have  grown  dim  in  the  service  of  my 
country,  but  I  never  doubted  her  justice."  This 
was  a  preface  worthy  of  the  paper  which  he  read. 
In  this  he  alluded  in  the  most  touching  manner  to 
the  sufferings  and  services  of  the  army,  in  which  he 
too  had  borne  his  share.  He  treated  with  becoming 
severity  the  proposition  to  seek,  by  unlawful  means, 
the  redress  of  their  injuries.  He  assured  them  that 
congress,  though  slow  in  their  deliberations,  were 
favourable  to  the  interests  of  the  army ;  and  he 
conjured  Athena  not  to  tarnish  the  renown  of  their 


brilliant  deeds,  by  an  irreparable  act  of  rashness 
and  folly ;  and  finally,  he  pledged  them  his  utmost 
exertions  to  assist  in  procuring  from  congress  the 
just  reward  of  their  meritorious  services. 

The  officers  listened  to  the  voice  which  they  had 
so  long  been  accustomed  to  respect  and  obey ;  and* 
the  storm  of  passion  was  hushed.  His  pledge  of 
using  his  influence  with  congress  in  behalf  of  the 
army,  was  performed  in  a  manner  which  showed 
how  deeply  he  had  their  cause  at  heart.  "  If,"  said 
he,  in  a  letter  to  that  body,  "  the  whole  army  have 
not  merited  whatever  a  grateful  people  can  bestow, 
then  I  have  been  beguiled  by  prejudice,  and  built 
opinion  on  the  basis  of  error.  If  this  country  should 
not,  in  the  event,  perform  every  thing  which  has 
been  requested  in  the  late  memorial  to  congress, 
then  will  my  belief  become  vain,  and  the  hope  that 
has  been  excited,  void  of  foundation.  And  if  (as  has 
been  suggested  for  the  purpose  of  inflaming  their 
passions,)  the  officers  of  the  army  are  to  be  the  only 
sufferers  by  this  revolution;  if  retiring  from  the 
field  they  are  to  grow  old  in  poverty,  wretchedness, 
and  contempt ;  if  they  are  to  wade  through  the  vile 
mire  of  dependency,  and  owe  the  miserable  remnant 
of  that  life  to  charity,  which  has  hitherto  been  spent 
in  honour,  then  shall  I  have  learned  what  ingratitude 
is  ;  then  shall  I  have  realized  a  tale  which  will  em- 
bitter every  moment  of  my  future  life. 

Moved  by  the  remonstrances  of  Washington,  and 
alarmed  lest  the  danger  they  had  so  narrowly  es- 
caped should  return,  congress  made  every  exertion 
in  their  power  to  do  justice  to  the  officers.  They 
commuted  the  half-pay  which  had  been  pledged  to 
them,  for  a  sum  equal  to  five  years  full  pay.  The 
army  was  disbanded  without  tumult,  in  November, 
17f/3.  They  mingled  with  their  fellow-citizens,  ever 
through  future  years  to  be  honoured  for  belonging 
to  that  patriotic  band. 

On  the  25th  of  November  the  British  troops  eva- 
cuated New  York,  and  a  detachment  from  the  Ame- 
rican army  entered  it. 

On  the  4th  of  December  the  separation  of  Wash- 
ington from  his  officers  took  place  at  New  York. 
The  long  and  eventful  period  which  they  had  passed 
together;  the  dangers  they  had  mutually  shared; 
the  reflection  that  they  parted  to  meet  no  more  ; 
and  above  all,  the  thought  that  they  might  never 
again  behold  the  face  of  their  beloved  commander, 
filled  their  hearts,  and  the  hardy  veterans  wept. 

From  New  York,  Washington  hastened  to  Anna- 
polis, where  congress  was  then  in  session.  He  im- 
mediately waited  on  them  for  the  purpose  of  re- 
signing his  commission.  A  public  audience  was 
appointed  for  that  purpose  on  the  23rd  of  December, 
when,  in  the  presence  of  a  large,  and  deeply  affected 
audience,  he  resigned  his  offices,  and  commended 
his  country  to  the  protection  of  God.  He  retired 
to  Mount  Vernon,  followed  by  the  benedictions  of 
America,  and  the  admiration  of  the  world. 

State  of  the  American  finances — Rebellion  in  Massa- 
chusetts— In  New  Hampshire — Defects  in  the  Ame- 
rican form  of  government— Delegates  meet  from 
five  states  — Constitution  framed  at  Philadelphia — 
Constitution — Adopted  by  eleven  statea — Geographi- 
cal notices,  Sfc. 

(1784.)  At  the  close  of  the  war,  the  United  Stat<s, 
although  they  bad  burst  the  bonds  of  European 
thraldom,  were  in  a  most  deplorable  condition.  A 
heavy  debt  encumbered  the  government;  and  a 
similar  burden  rested  upon  almost  every  corporation 
within  it.  Trade  and  manufactures  had  decayed 


1078 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


during  the  war,  and  many  of  the  inhabitants  were 
now  nearly  destitute  of  clothing  and  the  necessaries 
of  life.  Immediately  after  the  peace  was  announced, 
the  British  sent  over  an  immense  quantity  of  cloths 
of  an  inferior  quality,  which  were  sold  at  a  most 
exorbitant  price ;  and  thus  almost  all  the  money  of 
the  country  was  collected  and  carried  abroad.  The 
nation  being  in  debt,  and  destitute  of  the  means  of 
payment,  heavy  taxes  were  necessarily  imposed. 
This  increased  the  discontent  which  already  pre- 
vailed among  the  people  to  an  alarming  degree. 
The  state  governments  resorted  to  various  measures 
for  the  relief  of  their  citizens.  In  Rhode  Island 
the  government  issued  a  quantity  of  paper  money, 
redeemable  at  a  future  day;  this  measure  only  in- 
volved  them  in  all  the  difficulties  which  the  general 
government  had  experienced  from  the  same  cause ; — 
depreciation  of  their  bills,  and  loss  of  public  credit. 

In  Massachusetts  a  law  was  passed  for  making  real 
and  personal  estate  a  tender  in  the  discharge  of 
executions  and  actions  commenced  at  law.  Other 
laws  were  also  passed,  considered  oppressive ;  one 
for  collecting  former  taxes  not  paid  in  certain 
specified  articles;  and  another  for  rendering  pro- 
cesses of  law  less  expensive.  The  distress  which  pre- 
vailed in  the  country  at  length  produced  insurrec- 
tions. In  August,  nearly  1500  insurgents  assembled 
under  arms  at  Northampton,  and  took  possession  of 
the  court-house.  Their  object  was  to  prevent  the 
sittings  of  the  court  of  common  pleas,  and  of  course, 
the  issuing  of  executions  under  these  obnoxious 
laws.  The  governor  issued  a  proclamation,  calling 
on  the  citizens  to  suppress  such  treasonable  pro- 
ceedings; but  his  proclamation  was  utterly  disre- 
garded. In  the  next  month,  a  scene  similar  to  that 
at  Northampton  was  acted  at  Worcester.  A  body 
of  men,  exceeding  300,  assembled,  and  compelled 
the  court  there  sitting  to  adjourn. 

Nor  was  Massachusetts  the  only  state  where  a 
disposition  to  insurgency  manifested  itself.  In  New 
Hampshire  a  large  body  of  malcontents  assembled 
at  Exeter,  where  the  general  assembly  of  the  state 
was  convened,  and  surrounding  the  house  where 
they  were  in  session,  held  them  prisoners  for  several 
hours.  The  insurrection  here  was  soon  crushed  by 
the  energetic  measures  of  the  government.  The 
leader  of  the  malcontents  in  Massachusetts  was  Da- 
niel Shays.  At  the  head  of  300  men,  he  marched 
into  Springfield,  where  the  supreme  judicial  court 
was  in  session,  and  took  possession  of  the  court- 
house. He  then  appointed  a  committee,  who  waited 
on  the  court  with  an  order  couched  in  the  humble 
form  of  a  petition,  requesting  them  not  to  proceed  to 
business  ;  and  both  parties  retired.  The  number  of 
insurgents  increased;  the  posture  of  affairs  became 
alarming;  and  an  army  of  4000  men  was  at  length 
ordered  out  for  their  dispersion.  This  force  was 
placed  under  the  command  of  General  Lincoln. 
His  first  measure  was  to  march  to  Worcester;  and 
he  afforded  such  protection  to  the  court  at  that  place, 
that  it  resumed  and  executed  the  judicial  functions. 
Orders  were  given  to  General  Shepard  to  collect  a 
sufficient  force  to  secure  the  arsenal  at  Springfield. 
Accordingly,  he  raised  about  900  men,  which  were 
reinforced  by  300  militia  from  the  county  of  Hamp- 
shire. At  the  head  of  his  force  he  marched,  as 
directed,  to  Springfield. 

On  the  25th  of  January  Shays  approached  at  the 
liead  of  1 100  men.  Shepard  sent  out  one  of  his 
aids  to  know  the  intention  of  the  insurgents,  and  to 
warn  them  of  their  danger.  Their  answer  was,  that 
they  would  have  the  barracks,  and  they  proceeded 


to  within  a  few  hundred  yards  of  the  arsenal.  They 
were  then  informed  that  the  militia  were  posted  there 
by  order  of  the  governor;  and  that  they  would  be  fired 
upon  if  they  approached  nearer.  They  continued 
to  advance,  when  General  Shepard  ordered  his  men 
to  fire,  but  to  direct  their  fire  over  their  heads ;  even 
this  did  not  intimidate  them,  or  retard  their  move- 
ments. The  artillery  was  then  levelled  against  the 
centre  column,  and  the  whole  body  thrown  into 
confusion.  Shays  attempted  in  vain  to  rally  them. 
They  made  a  precipitate  retreat  to  Ludlow,  about 
ten  miles  from  Springfield.  Three  men  were  killed, 
and  one  wounded.  They  soon  after  retreated  to 
Petersham ;  but  General  Lincoln  pursuing  their  re- 
treat, they  finally  dispersed. 

Some  of  the  fugitives  retired  to  their  homes  ;  but 
many,  and  among  them  their  principal  officers, 
took  refuge  in  the  states  of  New  Hampshire,  Ver- 
mont and  New  York. 

Commissioners  were  appointed  by  the  government 
of  Massachusetts,  empowered  to  promise  pardon,  on 
certain  conditions,  to  all  concerned  in  the  rebellion. 
Several  hundreds  received  the  benefit  of  the  commis- 
sion. Fourteen  only  were  sentenced  to  death,  and 
these  were  afterwards  pardoned. 

A  proposal  was  this  year  made  to  amend  the  ar- 
ticles of  confederation.  The  present  frame  of  go- 
vernment, although  it  had  served  during  the  pres- 
sure of  danger  to  keep  the  several  parts  of  the  nation 
together,  was  now  found  inadequate  for  providing 
for  the  national  exigencies.  In  forming  the  articles 
of  confederation,  great  care  had  been  taken  to  with- 
hold any  delegation  of  power,  which  might  hereafter 
endanger  the  liberties  of  the  individual  states.  Con- 
gress had  no  authority  to  enforce  its  ordinances ; 
and  now  that  the  pressure  of  public  danger  was  re- 
moved, they  were  contemned  and  disregarded.  The 
treaties  which  the  general  government  had  formed 
with  foreign  nations,  had  been  violated  by  some  of 
the  states,  and  some  of  them  refused  to  adopt  a 
system  of  import,  which  was  devised  by  congress. 
It  became  evident  that  nothing  could  put  a  stop  to 
evils  of  this  description,  but  a  more  energetic  form 
of  government. 

In  1783,  John  Adams,  then  in  Europe,  suggested 
to  congress  the  expediency  of  strengthening  the 
general  government.  In  1786,  at  the  suggestion  of 
Mr.  Madison,  in  the  legislature  of  Virginia,  a  con- 
vention of  delegates  from  five  of  the  middle  states 
met  at  Annapolis,  who  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
nothing  short  of  a  thorough  reform  of  the  existing 
government,  would  be  effectual  for  the  welfare  of 
the  country.  Congress  approved  their  proceedings, 
and  passed  a  resolution,  recommending  a  convention 
of  delegates,  to  be  holden  at  Philadelphia. 

In  May  1787,  the  convention  met,  and  instead 
of  amending  the  articles  of  confederation,  they  pro- 
ceeded to  form  a  new  constitution.  Their  debates 
were  long  and  arduous.  A  momentous  political  ex- 
periment was  to  be  tried,  and  the  destinies  of  un- 
born millions  hung  upon  their  deliberation.  Re- 
specting many  articles  of  the  constitution,  much  dif- 
ference of  opinion  existed.  In  particular,  where  the 
strength  of  the  new  government  came  in  question, 
an  honest  diversity  of  opinion,  in  men  of  equal  pa- 
triotism, prevailed.  On  the  one  hand,  it  was  con- 
sidered, that  if  the  government  was  made  too  weak, 
a  state  of  anarchy  and  consequent  revolution  would 
ensue  ;  on  the  other,  that  if  it  were  made  too  strong, 
America  would  lose  the  blessings  of  liberty  which 
she  had  bled  at  every  pore  to  obtain,  and  only  make 
an  exchange  of  foreign  for  domestic  oppression. 


UNITED  STATES. 


1079 


which  it  now  commands.  It  made  the  government 
too  strong  to  please  one  party,  and  too  weak  to 
satisfy  the  other ;  and  while,  on  the  one  hand,  it 
was  believed,  that  it  would  in  its  operation  even- 
tually overturn  the  liberty  of  America,  on  the  other, 
it  was  pronounced  to  be  a  "  rope  of  sand,"  atid  the 
date  of  its  dissolution  was  augured  to  be  near. 

This  being  a  most  important  document,  we  incor- 
porate it  in  our  history. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  of  America, 
framed  during  the  year  1787,  by  a  Convention  of 
Delegates,  who  met  at  Philadelphia,  from  the  States 
of  Neiv  Hampshire,  Massachusetts,  Connecticut, 
New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware, 
Maryland,  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  South  Caro- 
lina, Georgia. 

"  We,  the  people  of  the  United  States,  in  order  to 
form  a  more  perfect  union,  establish  justice,  ensure 
domestic  tranquillity,  provide  for  the  common  de- 
fence, promote  the  general  welfare,  and  secure  the 
blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  posterity, 
do  ordain  and  establish  this  Constitution  for  the 
United  States  of  America. 

ARTICLE  I. — Section  1. 

"  All  legislative  powers  herein  granted  shall  be 
vested  in  a  congress  of  the  United  States,  which 
shall  consist  of  a  senate  and  house  of  representa- 
tives. 

Section  2. 

"  I.  The  house  of  representatives  shall  be  com- 
posed of  members  chosen  every  second  year  by  the 
people  of  the  several  states,  and  the  electors  in  each 
state  shall  have  the  qualifications  requisite  for  electors 
of  the  most  numerous  branch  of  the  state  legislature. 

"  II.  No  person  shall  be  a  representative  who 
shall  not  have  attained  the  age  of  25  years,  and 
aeen  seven  years  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  and 
who  shall  not,  when  elected,  be  an  inhabitant  of 
;hat  state  in  which  he  shall  be  chosen. 

"  III.  Representatives  and  direct  taxes  shall  be 
apportioned  among  the  several  states  which  may  be 
ncluded  within  this  union,  according  to  their  r«- 
pective  numbers,  which  shall  be  determined  by 
adding  to  the  whole  number  of  free  persons,  kiclud- 
ng  those  bound  to  service  for  a  term  of  years,  and 
excluding  Indians  not  taxed,  three-fifths  of  all  other 
>ersons.  The  actual  enumeration  shall  be  made 
within  three  years  after  the  first  meeting  of  the  con- 
gress of  the  United  States,  and  within  every  subse- 
jierit  term  of  ten  years,  in  such  manner  as  they 
hall  by  law  direct.  The  number  of  representatives 
hall  not  exceed  one  for  every  30,000,  but  each  state 
hall  have  at  least  one  representative;  and,  until 
uch  enumeration  shall  be  made,  the  state  of  New 
lampshire  shall  be  entitled  to  choose  three,  Mas- 
achusetts  eight,  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Plan- 
ations  one,  Connecticut  five,  New  York  six,  New 
ersey  four,  Pennsylvania  eight,  Delaware  one, 
Maryland  six,  Virginia  ten,  North  Carolina  five, 
South  Carolina  five,  and  Georgia  three. 

"  IV.  When  vacancies  happen  in  the  representa- 
ion  from  any  state,  the  executive  authority  thereof 
hall  issue  writs  of  election  to  fill  such  vacancies. 

"  V.  The  house   of  representatives  shall  choose 
heir  Speaker,  and  other  officers ;  and  shall  have 
be  sole  power  of  impeachment. 
Section  3. 

"  I.  The  senate  of  the  United  States  shall  be  com- 
osed  of  two  senators  from  each  state,  chosen  by 
tie  legislature  thereof,  fot  six  years  ;  and  each  se- 
ator  shall  have  one  vote. 


Some  of  these  politicians  thought  the  only  sal' 
mode  of  reasoning  was  from  the  experience  of  th 
past,  and  that  all  speculations  not  drawn  from  thi 
source,  should  be  condemned  as  impracticable,  spe 
culative,  and  visionary.  These  looked  for  an  ex 
ample  to  the  constitution  of  England,  as  containing 
the  best  form  of  government  actually  existing. 

Others  believed  that  as  the  circumstances  of  th 
times  changed,  governments  should  accommodat 
themselves  to  the  change.  That  the  present  state  o 
the  world,  and  the  situation  of  America  had  m 
parallels  in  history ; — and  that  therefore  the  track 
of  no  former  nation  could  serve  as  the  guide  to  thei 
voyage  :  but  like  the  discoverer  of  their  continent 
they  must  lay  their  course  through  the  untravellec 
way,  with  nothing  to  guide  them  but  the  light  o 
heaven,  and  their  own  observation. 

The  happy  medium  probably  lies  between  the  ex 
tremes  of  these  two  opinions ;  and  the  constitution 
framed,  being  a  compromise  between  them,  the  form 
of  government,  which  it  prescribes  is  probably,  on 
that  account,  more  perfect  than  if  either  side  hac 
wholly  prevailed. 

Connected  with  these  ideas  concerning  the  greater 
or  less  degree  of  strength  proper  to  give  to  the  new 
government,  was  the  subject  of  the  consolidation  or 
strict  independence  of  the  states.  Those  who  wished 
for  the  general  government  to  possess  great  strength 
were  charged  by  their  opponents  with  wishing  so  to 
arrange  it,  that  in  the  play  of  its  parts,  it  would  have 
broken  down  and  subjected  to  itself  the  state  govern 
ments.  Those,  on  the  other  hand,  who  feared  op- 
pression more  than  anarchy,  watched,  with  a  jealous 
eye,  every  infringement  of  state  rights. 

Those  in  favour  of  holding  the  states  strongly 
united,  were  called  at  this  time  federalists,  and  their 
opponents  anti-federalists. 

Other  points  of  dispute  arose  still  more  dangerous, 
because  they  divided  parties  by  geographical  lines. 
The  most  difficult  of  these,  regarded  the  represen- 
tation in  congress  of  the  slave-holding  states.  The 
non-slave-holders  contended  that  the  number  of 
representatives  sent  should  only  be  in  proportion  to 
the  number  of  free  white  inhabitants.  This  would 
bring  some  states  whose  whole  population  was 
great,  upon  a  level  with  others  where  the  number 
of  inhabitants  was  comparatively  small ;  and  mem- 
bers from  these  states  would  not  give  their  consent 
to  such  an  appointment.  This  difficulty,  like  many 
others  which  perplexed  the  convention,  was  com- 
promised ;  and  the  slaves  were  allowed  to  be 
reckoned,  in  settling  the  quota  of  representatives, 
as  equal  to  three-fifths  of  an  equal  number  of  free 
white  inhabitants. 

That  these  great  difficulties  were  compromised, 
holds  up  this  convention,  as  an  example  to  future 
times,  of  the  triumph  of  strong  patriotism  and  honest 
zeal  for  the  public  welfare,  over  party  feeling  and 
factious  prejudice.  If  the  time  shall  ever  come 
when  any  American  congress  or  convention  shall 
fail  to  compromise  amicably,  disputes  which  con- 
flicting interests  must  produce  in  this  extensive  re- 
public ;  then  will  the  day  of  its  degeneracy  have 
arrived,  and  its  downfal  be  at  hand :  then  will  be 
experienced  the  triumph  of  party  feeling  and  fac- 
tious interest  over  patriotism  and  public  zeal.  The 
finger  of  history  would  point  with  scorn  at  such  a 
body  of  men,  while  she  contrasted  them  with  the 
wise  and  honest  patriots  who  framed  the  constitution 
which  such  a  convention  would  have  destroyed. 

The  federal  constitution,  at  the  time  of  its  adop- 
tion, was  far  from  receiving  the  entire  confidence 


1080 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


"  II.  Immediately  after  they  shall  be  assembled, 
in  consequence  of  the  first  election,  they  shall  be 
divided  as  equally  as  may  be  into  three  classes.  The 
seats  of  the  senators  of  the  first  class  shall  be  vacated 
at  the  expiration  of  the  second  year,  of  the  second 
class  at  the  expiration  of  the  fourth  year,  and  of  the 
third  class  at  the  expiration  of  the  sixth  year,  so 
that  one-third  maybe  chosen  every  second  year; 
and  if  vacancies  happen  by  resignation,  or  other- 
wise, during  the  recess  of  the  legislature  of  any 
state,  the  executive  thereof  may  make  temporary 
appointments  until  the  next  meeting  of  the  legisla- 
ture, which  shall  then  fill  such  vacancies. 

"  III.  No  person  shall  be  a  senator  who  shall  not 
have  attained  the  age  of  30  years,  and  been  nine 
years  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  and  who  shall 
not,  when  elected,  be  an  inhabitant  of  that  state  for 
which  he  shall  be  chosen. 

"  IV.  The  vice-president  of  the  United  States 
shall  be  president  of  the  senate,  but  shall  have  no 
vote  unless  they  be  equally  divided. 

"  V.  The  senate  shall  choose  their  other  officers, 
and  also  a  president  pro  tempore  in  the  absence  of 
the  vice-president,  or  when  he  shall  exercise  the 
office  of  president  of  the  United  States. 

"  VI.  The  senate  shall  have  the  sole  power  to  try 
all  impeachments.  When  sitting  for  that  purpose, 
they  shall  be  on  oath  or  affirmation.  When  the 
president  of  the  United  States  is  tried,  the  chief 
justice  shall  preside  ;  and  no  person  shall  be  con- 
victed without  the  concurrence  of  two-thirds  of  the 
members  present. 

"  VII.  Judgment  in  cases  of  impeachment  shall 
not  extend  further  than  to  removal  from  office,  and 
disqualification  to  hold  and  enjoy  any  office  of 
honour,  trust  or  profit  under  the  United  States ; 
but  the  party  convicted  shall  nevertheless  be  liable 
and  subject  to  indictment,  trial,  judgment  and  pu- 
nishment according  to  law. 

Section  4. 

"  I.  The  times,  places  and  manner  of  holding 
elections  for  senators  and  representatives,  shall  be 
prescribed  in  each  state  by  the  legislature  thereof; 
but  the  congress  may  at  any  time  by  law  make  or 
alter  such  regulations,  except  as  to  the  places  of 
choosing  senators. 

"  II.  The  congress  shall  assemble  at  least  once 
in  every  year,  and  such  meeting  shall  be  on  the  first 
Monday  in  December,  unless  they  shall  by  law  ap- 
point a  different  day. 

Section  5. 

"  I.  Each  house  shall  be  the  judge  of  the  elections, 
returns  and  qualifications  of  its  own  members,  and  a 
majority  of  each  shall  constitute  a  quorum  to  do 
business;  but  a  smaller  number  may  adjourn  from 
day  to  day,  and  may  be  authorized  to  compel  the 
attendance  of  absent  members,  in  such  manner,  and 
under  such  penalties  as  each  house  may  provide. 

"  II.  Each  house  may  determine  the  rules  of  its 
proceedings,  punish  its  members  for  disorderly  be- 
haviour, and,  with  the  concurrence  of  two-thirds, 
expel  a  member. 

"  III.  Each  house  shall  keep  a  journal  of  its  pro- 
ceedings, and  from  time  to  time  publish  the  same, 
excepting  such  parts  as  may  in  their  judgment  re- 
quire secrecy  ;  and  the  yeas  and  nays  of  the  mem- 
bers of  either  house  on  any  question,  shall,  at  the 
desire  of  one-fifth  of  those  present,  be  entered  on 
the  journal. 

"  IV.  Neither  house,  during  the  session  of  con- 
gress, shall,  without  the  consent  of  the  other,  ad- 
journ for  more  than  three  days,  nor  to  any  other 


place  than  that  in  which  the  two  houses  shall  be 
sitting. 

Section  6. 

"  I.  The  senators  and  representatives  shall  re- 
ceive a  compensation  for  their  services,  to  be  ascer- 
tained by  law,  and  paid  out  of  the  treasury  of  the 
United  States.  They  shall  in  all  cases,  except  treason 
felony  and  breach  of  the  peace,  be  privileged  from 
arrest  during  their  attendance  at  the  session  of  their 
respective  houses,  and  in  going  to  and  returning 
from  the  same ;  and  for  any  speech  or  debate  in 
either  house,  they  shall  not  be  questioned  in  any 
other  place. 

"  II.  No  senator  or  representative  shall,  during 
the  time  for  which  he  was  elected,  be  appointed  to 
any  civil  office  under  the  authority  of  the  United 
States,  which  shall  have  been  created,  or  the  emo- 
luments whereof  shall  have  been  increased  during 
such  time  ;  and  no  person  holding  any  office  under 
the  United  States,  shall  be  a  member  of  either  house 
during  his  continuance  in  office. 
Section  7. 

"  I.  All  bills  for  raising  revenue  shall  originate 
in  the  house  of  representatives;  but  the  senate  may 
propose  or  concur  with  amendments  as  on  other 
bills. 

"  II.  Every  bill  which  shall  have  passed  the  house 
of  representatives  and  the  senate  shall,  before  it  be- 
comes a  law,  be  presented  to  the  president  of  the 
United  States;  if  he  approve,  he  shall  sign  it,  but 
if  not,  he  shall  return  it,  with  his  objections,  to  that 
house  in  which  it  shall  have  originated,  who  shall 
enter  the  objections  at  large  on  their  journal,  and 
proceed  to  reconsider  it.  If,  after  such  re-conside- 
ration, two-thirds  of  that  house  shall  agree  to  pass 
the  bill,  it  shall  be  sent,  together  with  the  objec- 
tions, to  the  other  house,  by  which  it  shall  likewise 
be  re-considered,  and  if  approved  by  two-thirds  of 
that  house  it  shall  become. a  law.  But  in  all  such 
cases  the  votes  of  both  houses  shall  be  determined 
by  yeas  and  nays,  and  the  names  of  the  persons 
voting  for  and  against  the  bill  shall  be  entered  on 
the  journal  of  each  house  respectively.  If  any  bill 
shall  not  be  returned  by  the  president  within  tea 
days  (Sundays  excepted),  after  it  shall  have  been 
presented  to  him,  the  same  shall  be  a  law,  in  lilce 
manner  as  if  he  had  signed  it,  unless  the  congress 
by  their  adjournment,  prevent  its  return,  in  which 
case  it  shall  not  be  a  law. 

"  III.  Every  order,  resolution,  or  vote,  to  which 
the  concurrence  of  the  senate  and  house  of  repre- 
sentatives may  be  necessary  (except  on  a  question 
of  adjournment)  shall  be  presented  to  the  president 
of  the  United  States  ;  and  before  the  same  shall  take 
effect,  shall  be  approved  by  him,  or,  being  disap- 
proved by  him,  shall  be  re-passed  by  two-thirds  of 
the  senate  and  house  of  representatives,  according 
to  the  rules  and  limitations  prescribed  in  the  case  of 
a  bill. 

Section  8. 

"  The  congress  shall  have  power — 

"  I.  To  lay  and  collect  taxes,  duties,  imposts  and 
excises  ;  to  pay  the  debts  and  provide  for  the  com- 
mon defence  and  general  welfare  of  the  United 
States  ;  but  all  duties,  imposts  and  excises  shall  be 
uniform  throughout  the  United  States. 

"  II.  To  borrow  money  on  the  credit  of  the  United 
States. 

"  III.  To  regulate  commerce  with  foreign  na- 
tions, and  among  the  several  states,  and  with  the 
Indian  tribes. 

'•  IV.  To   establish  a  uniform  rule  of  uaturaliz* 


UNITED  STATES. 


1081 


tion,  and  uniform  laws  on  the  subject  of  bankrupt- 
cies throughout  the  United  States. 

"  V.  To  coin  money,  regulate  the  value  thereof, 
and  of  foreign  coin,  and  fix  the  standard  of  weights 
and  measures. 

"  VI.  To  provide  for  the  punishment  of  counter- 
feiting the  securities  and  current  coin  of  the  United 
States. 

"  VII.  To    establish  post-offices  and  post-roads. 

"  VIII.  To  promote  the  progress  of  science  and 
useful  arts,  by  securing  for  limited  times,  to  authors 
and  inventors,  the  exclusire  right  to  their  respec- 
tive writings  and  discoveries. 

"  IX.  To  constitute  tribunals  inferior  to  the  su- 
preme court. 

"  X.  To  define  and  punish  piracies  and  felonies 
committed  on  the  high  seas,  and  offences  against 
the  law  of  nations. 

"  XI.  To  declare  war,  grant  letters  of  marque 
and  reprisal,  and  make  rules,  concerning  captures 
on  land  and  water. 

"  XII.  To  raise  and  support  armies  ;  but  no  ap- 
propriation of  money  to  that  use  shall  be  for  a  longer 
term  than  two  years. 

"  XIII.  To  provide  and  maintain  a  navy. 

"  XIV.  To  make  rules  for  the  government  and 
regulation  of  the  land  and  naval  forces. 

"  XV.  To  provide  for  calling  forth  the  militia  to 
execute  the  laws  of  the  union,  suppress  insurrections, 
and  repel  invasions. 

"XVI.  To  provide  for  organizing,  arming  and 
disciplining  the  militia,  and  for  governing  such  part 
of  them  as  may  be  employed  in  the  service  of  the 
United  States,  reserving  to  the  states  respectively 
the  appointment  of  the  officers,  and  the  autho- 
rity of  training  the  militia,  according  to  the  disci- 
pline prescribed  by  congress. 

"  XVII.  To  exercise  exclusive  legislation  in  all 
cases  whatsoever  over  such  district  (not  exceeding 
ten  miles  square)  as  may  by  cession  of  particular  states, 
and  the  acceptance  of  congress,  become  the  seat  of 
the  government  of  the  United  States,  and  to  exercise 
like  authority  over  all  places  purchased  by  the  consent 
of  the  legislature  of  the  state  in  which  the  same  shall 
be,  for  the  erection  of  forts,  magazines,  arsenals, 
dock-yards,  and  other  needful  buildings  : — and 

"  XVIII.  To  make  all  laws  which  shall  be  neces- 
sary and  proper  for  carrying  into  execution  the 
foregoing  powers,  and  all  other  powers  vested  by 
this  constitution  in  the  government  of  the  United 
States,  or  in  any  department  or  officer  thereof. 
Section  9. 

"  I.  The  migration  or  importation  of  such  persons 
as  any  of  the  states  now  existing  shall  think  proper 
to  admit,  shall  not  be  prohibited  by  the  congress 
prior  to  the  year  1808,  but  a  tax  or  duty  may  be 
imposed  on  such  importation,  not  exceeding  ten 
dollars  for  each  person. 

"  II.  The  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus 
shall  not  be  suspended,  unless  when  in  cases  of  re- 
bellion or  invasion  the  public  safety  may  require  it. 

"  III.  No  bill  of  attainder  or  ex  post  facto  law 
shall  be  passed. 

"  IV.  No  capitation,  or  other  direct  tax  shall  be 
laid,  unless  in  proportion  to  the  census  or  enumera- 
tion herein  before  directed  to  be  taken. 

"  V.  No  tax  or  duty  shall  be  laid  on  articles  ex- 
ported from  any  state.  No  preference  shall  be  given 
by  any  regulation  of  commerce  or  revenue  to  the 
ports  of  one  state  over  those  of  another ;  nor  shall 
vessels  bound  to  or  from  one  state,  be  obliged  to 
cuter  clear,  or  pay  duties  in  another. 


"  VI.  No  money  shall  be  drawn  from  the  treasury, 
but  in  consequence  of  appropriations  made  by  law  ; 
and  a  regular  statement  and  account  of  the  receipts 
and  expenditures  of  all  public  money  shall  be  pub- 
lished from  time  to  time. 

"  VII.  No  title  of  nobility  shall  be  granted  by  the 
United  States  ;  and  no  person  holding  any  office  of 
profit  or  trust  under  them,  shall,  without  the  consent 
of  congress,  accept  of  any  present,  emolument, 
office  or  title  of  any  kind  whatever,  from  any  king, 
prince  or  foreign  state. 

Section  10. 

"  I.  No  state  shall  enter  into  any  treaty,  alliance 
or  confederation ;  grant  letters  of  marque  and  re- 
prisal ;  coin  money ;  emit  bills  of  credit ;  make  any 
thing  but  gold  and  silver  coin  a  tender  in  payment 
of  debts ;  pass  any  bill  of  attainder,  ex  post  facto 
law,  or  law  impairing  the  obligation  of  contracts, 
or  grant  any  title  of  nobility. 

"  II.  No  state  shall,  without  the  consent  of  con- 
gress, lay  any  imposts  or  duties  on  imports  or  ex- 
ports, except  what  may  be  absolutely  necessary  for 
executing  its  inspection  laws;  and  the  net  produce 
of  all  duties  and  imposts  laid  by  any  state  on  imports 
or  exports,  shall  be  for  the  use  of  the  treasury  of  the 
United  States,  and  all  such  laws  shall  be  subject  to 
the  revision  and  control  of  congress.  No  state  shall, 
without  the  consent  of  congress,  lay  any  duty  on 
tonnage,  keep  troops,  or  ships  of  war,  in  time  of 
peace,  enter  into  any  agreement  or  compact  with 
another  state,  or  with  a  foreign  power,  or  engage  in 
war,  unless  actually  invaded,  or  in  such  imminent 
danger  as  will  not  admit  of  delay. 

ARTICLE  II. — Section  1. 

"  I.  The  executive  power  shall  be  vested  in  a 
president  of  the  United  States  of  America.  He 
shall  hold  his  office  during  the  term  of  four  years, 
and,  together  with  the  vice-president,  chosen  for 
the  same  term,  be  elected  as  follows : — 

"  II.  Each  state  shall  appoint,  in  such  manner 
as  the  legislature  thereof  ma/  direct,  a  number  of 
electors,  equal  to  the  whole  number  of  senators  and 
representatives  to  which  the  state  may  be  entitled 
in  the  congress;  but  no  senator  or  representative, 
or  person  holding  an  office  of  trust  or  profit  under 
the  United  States,  shall  be  appointed  an  elector. 

"  III.  The  electors  shall  meet  in  their  respective 
states,  and  vote  by  ballot  for  two  persons,  of  whom 
one  at  least  shall  not  be  an  inhabitant  of  the  same 
state  with  themselves.  And  they  shall  make  a  list 
of  all  the  persons  voted  for,  and  of  the  number  of 
votes  for  each ;  which  list  they  shall  sign  and  certify, 
and  transmit,  sealed,  to  the  seat  of  government  of 
the  United  States,  directed  to  the  president  of  the 
senate.  The  president  of  the  senate  shall,  in  the 
presence  of  the  senate  and  house  of  representatives, 
open  all  the  certificates,  and  the  votes  shall  then  be 
counted.  The  person  having  the  greatest  number 
of  votes  shall  be  the  president,  if  such  number  be  a 
majority  of  the  whole  number  of  electors  appointed ; 
and  if  there  be  more  than  one  who  have  such  ma- 
jority, and  have  an  equal  number  of  irotes,  then  the 
house  of  representatives  shall  immediately  choose, 
by  ballot,  one  of  them  for  president ;  and  if  no  per- 
son have  a  majority,  then  from  the  five  highest  on 
the  list,  the  said  bouse  shall  in  like  manner  choose 
the  president.  But  in  choosing  the  president,  the 
votes  shall  be  taken  by  states,  the  representation 
from  each  state  having  one  vote;  a  quorum  for  this 
purpose  shall  consist  of  a  member  or  members  from 
two-thirds  of  the  states,  and  a  majority  of  all  the 
stales  shall  be  necessary  to  a  choice.  In  every  case, 


1082 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


after  the  choice  of  the  president,  the  person  having 
the  greatest  number  of  votes  of  the  electors  shall  be 
the  vice-president.  But  if  there  should  remain  two 
or  more  who  have  equal  votes,  the  senate  shall 
choose  from  them  by  ballot  the  vice-president. 

"  IV.  The  congress  may  determine  the  time  of 
choosing  the  electors,  and  the  day  on  which  they 
shall  give  their  votes ;  which  day  shall  be  the  same 
throughout  the  United  States. 

"  V.  No  person,  except  a  natural  born  citizen,  or 
a  citizen  of  the  United  States  at  the  time  of  the 
adoption  of  this  constitution,  shall  be  eligible  to  the 
office  of  president,  neither  shall  any  person  be  eligi- 
ble to  that  office  who  shall  not  have  attained  to  the 
age  of  35  years,  and  been  fourteen  years  a  resident 
within  the  United  States. 

"  VI.  In  case  of  the  removal  of  the  president 
from  office,  or  of  his  death,  resignation,  or  inability 
to  discharge  the  powers  and  duties  of  the  said  office, 
the  same  shall  devolve  on  the  vice-president,  and 
the  congress  may  by  law  provide  for  the  case  of  re- 
moval,  death,  resignation,  or  inability,  both  of  the 
president  and  vice-president,  declaring  what  officer 
shall  then  act  as  president,  and  such  officer  shall  act 
accordingly,  until  the  disability  be  removed,  or  a 
president  shall  be  elected. 

"  VII.  The  president  shall,  at  stated  times,  re- 
ceive for  his  services  a  compensation,  which  shall 
neither  be  increased  or  diminished  during  the  period 
for  which  he  shall  have  been  elected,  and  he  shall 
not  receive  within  that  period  any  other  emolument 
from  the  United  States,  or  any  of  them. 

"  VIII.  Before  he  enter  on  the  execution  of  his 
office,  he  shall  take  the  following  oath  or  affirmation : 
— 'I  do  solemnly  swear  (or  affirm)  that  I  will  faithfully 
execute  the  office  of  president  of  the  United  States, 
and  will,  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  preserve,  protect, 
and  defend  the  constitution  of  the  United  States.' 
Section  2. 

"  I.  The  president  shall  be  commander-in-chief 
of  the  army  and  nafy  of  the  United  States,  and  of 
the  militia  of  the  several  states,  when  called  into 
the  actual  service  of  the  United  States ;  he  may  re- 
quire the  opinion,  in  writing,  of  the  principal  officer 
in  each  of  the  executive  departments,  upon  any 
subject  relating  to  the  duties  of  their  respeciive 
offices,  and  he  shall  have  power  to  grant  reprieves 
and  pardons  for  offences  against  the  United  States, 
except  in  cases  of  impeachment. 

"  II.  He  shall  have  power,  by  and  with  the  ad- 
vice and  consent  of  the  senate,  to  make  treaties, 
provided  two-thirds  of  the  senators  present  concur; 
and  he  shall  nominate,  and  by  and  with  the  advice 
and  consent  of  the  senate,  shall  appoint  ambassadors, 
other  public  ministers  and  consuls,  judges  of  the 
supreme  court,  and  all  other  officers  of  the  United 
States,  whose  appointments  are  not  herein  otherwise 
provided  for,  and  which  shall  be  established  by  law. 
But  the  congress  may  by  law  vest  the  appointment 
of  such  inferior  officers  as  they  think  proper  in  the 
president  alone,  in  the  courts  of  law,  or  in  the  heads 
of  departments. 

"  III.  The  president  shall  have  power  to  fill  up 
all  vacancies  that  may  happen  during  the  recess  of 
the  senate,  by  granting  commissions,   which  shall 
expire  at  the  end  of  their  next  session. 
Section  3. 

"  He  shall,  from  time  to  time,  give  to  the  con- 
gress information  of  th<*  state  of  the  union,  and  re- 
commend to  their  consideration  such  measures  as 
he  shall  judge  necessary  and  expedient;  he  may, 
on  extraordinary  occasions,  convene  both  houses,  or 


either  of  them,  and  in  case  of  disagreement  between 
them,  with  respect  to  the  time  of  adjournment,  he 
may  adjourn  them  to  such  time  as  he  shall  think 
proper;  he  shall  receive  ambassadors  and  other 
public  ministers ;  he  shall  take  care  that  the  laws 
be  faithfully  executed,  and  shall  commission  all  the 
officers  of  the  United  States. 

Section  4. 

"   The   president,    vice-president,   and    all  civil 
officers  of  the  United  States,  shall  be  removed  from 
office  on  impeachment  for,  and  conviction  of,  treason, 
bribery,  or  other  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors. 
ARTICLE  III. — Section  I. 

"  The  judicial  power  of  the  United  States  shall 
be  vested  in  one  supreme  court,  and  in  such  inferior 
courts  as  the  congress  may  from  time  to  time  ordain 
and  establish.  The  judges,  both  of  the  supreme 
and  inferior  courts,  shall  hold  their  offices  during 
good  behaviour,  and  shall,  at  stated  times,  receive 
for  their  services  a  compensation,  which  shall  not 
be  diminished  during  their  continuance  in  office. 
Section  2. 

"  I.  The  judicial  power  shall  extend  to  all  cases, 
in  law  and  equity,  arising  under  this  constitution, 
the  laws  of  the  United  States  and  treaties  made,  or 
which  shall  be  made,  under  their  authority ;  to  all 
cases  affecting  ambassadors,  other  public  ministers 
and  consuls ;  to  all  cases  of  admiralty  and  maritime 
jurisdiction;  to  controversies  to  which  the  United 
States  shall  be  a  party ;  to  controversies  between 
two  or  more  states,  between  a  state  and  citizens  of 
another  state,  between  citizens  of  different  states, 
between  citizens  of  the  same  state  claiming  lands 
under  grants  of  different  states,  and  between  a  state, 
or  the  citizens  thereof,  and  foreign  states,  citizens 
or  subjects. 

"  II.  In  ail  cases  affecting  ambassadors,  other 
public  ministers  and  consuls,  and  those  in  which  a 
state  shall  be  a  party,  the  supreme  court  shall  have 
original  jurisdiction.  In  all  other  cases  before 
mentioned,  the  supreme  court  shall  have  appellate 
jurisdiction,  both  as  to  law  and  fact,  with  such  ex- 
ceptions, and  under  such  regulations,  as  the  con- 
gress shall  make. 

"  III.  The  trial  of  all  crimes,  except  in  cases  of 
impeachment,  shall  be  by  jury ;  and  such  trials  shall 
be  held  in  the  state  where  the  said  crime  shall  have 
been  committed;  but  when  not  committed  within 
any  state,  the  trial  shall  be  at  such  place,  or  places 
as  the  congress  may  by  law  have  directed. 
Section  3. 

"  I.  Treason  against  the  United  States  shall  con- 
sist only  in  levying  war  against  them,  or  in  adhering 
to  their  enemies,  giving  them  aid  and  comfort.  No 
person  shall  be  convicted  of  treason,  unless  on  the 
testimony  of  two  witnesses  to  the  same  overt  act,  or 
on  confession  in  open  court. 

"  II.  The  congress  shall  have  power  to  declare 
the  punishment  of  treason,  but  no  attainder  of  trea- 
son shall  work  corruption  of  blood,  or  forfeiture,  ex- 
cept during  the  life  of  the  person  attainted. 
ARTICLE  IV. — Section  1. 

"  Full  faith  and  credit  shall  be  given  ia  each 
state  to  the  public  acts,  records,  and  judicial  pro- 
ceedings of  every  other  state.  And  the  congress 
may,  by  general  laws,  prescribe  the  manner  in 
which  such  acts,  records,  and  proceedings  shall  be 
proved,  and  the  effect  thereof. 
Section  2. 

"  I.  The  citizens  of  each  state  shall  be  entitled  to 
all  the  privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens  in  the 
several  slates. 


UNITED  STATES. 


1083 


"II.  A  person  charged  in  any  state  with  treason, 
felony,  or  other  crime,  who  shall  flee  from  justice, 
and  be  found  in  another  state,  shall,  on  demand  ol 
the  executive  authority  of  the  state  from  which  he 
fled,  be  delivered  up,  to  be  removed  to  the  state 
having  jurisdiction  of  the  crime. 

"  III.  No  person  held  to  service  or  labour  in  one 
state,  under  the  laws  thereof,  escaping  into  another, 
shall  in  consequence  of  any  law  or  regulation  therein, 
be  discharged  from  such  service  or  labour,  but  shall 
be  delivered  up  on  claim  of  the  party  to  whom  such 
service  or  labour  may  be  due. 
Section  3. 

"  I.  New  states  may  be  admitted  by  the  congress 
into  this  union,  but  no  new  state  shall  be  formed  or 
erected  within  the  jurisdiction  of  any  other  state ; 
nor  any  state  be  formed  by  the  junction  of  two  or 
more  states,  or  parts  of  states,  without  the  consent 
of  the  legislatures  of  the  states  concerned,  as  well  as 
of  the  congress. 

"  II.  The  congress  shall  have  power  to  dispose  of 
and  make  all  needful  rules  and  regulations  respect- 
ing the  territory  or  other  property  belonging  to  the 
United  States ;  and  nothing  in  this  constitution  shall 
be  so  construed  as  to  prejudice  any  claims  of  the 
United  States,  or  of  any  particular  state. 
Section  4. 

"  The  United  States  shall  guarantee  to  every 
state  in  this  union  a  republican  form  of  government, 
and  shall  protect  each  of  them  against  invasion ; 
and  on  application  of  the  legislature,  or  of  the  exe- 
cutive (when  the  legislature  cannot  be  convened) 
against  domestic  violence. 

ARTICLE  V, 

"  The  congress,  whenever  two-thirds  of  both 
houses  shall  deem  it  necessary,  shall  propose  amend- 
ments to  this  constitution,  or,  on  the  application  of 
the  legislatures  of  two-thirds  of  the  several  states, 
shall  call  a  convention  for  proposing  amendments, 
which,  in  either  case,  shall  be  valid  to  all  intents 
and  purposes,  as  part  of  this  constitution,  when  ra- 
tified by  the  legislatures  of  three-fourths  of  the  se- 
veral states,  or  by  conventions  in  three-fourths 
thereof,  as  the  one  or  the  other  mode  of  ratification 
may  be  proposed  by  the  congress:  provided,  that 
no  amendment  which  may  be  made  prior  to  ;he  year 
1808,  shall  in  any  manner  affect  the  first  and  fourth 
clauses  in  the  ninth  section  of  the  first  article;  and 
that  no  state,  without  its  consent,  shall  be  deprived 
of  its  equal  suffrage  in  the  senate. 
ARTICLE  VI. 

"  I.  All  debts  contracted,  and  engagements  en- 
tered into,  before  the  adoption  of  this  constitution, 
shall  be  as  valid  against  the  United  States  under 
this  constitution,  as  under  the  confederation. 

"  II.  This  constitution  and  the  laws  of  the  United 
States  which  shall  be  made  in  pursuance  thereof; 
and  all  treaties  made,  or  which  shall  be  made,  under 
the  authority  of  the  United  States,  shall  be  the  su- 
preme law  of  the  land  ;  and  the  judges  in  every  state 
shall  be  bound  thereby,  any  thing  in  tfce  constitu- 
tion or  laws  of  any  state  to  the  contrary  notwith- 
standing. 

"  III.  The  senators  and  representatives  before 
mentioned,  and  the  members  of  the  several  state 
legislatures,  and  all  executive  and  judicial  officers, 
both  of  the  United  States  and  of  the  several  states, 
shall  be  bound  by  oath  or  affirmation,  k>  support 
this  constitution ;  but  no  religious  test  shall  ever  be 
required,  as  a  qualification  to  any  office  or  public 
trust  under  the  United  States. 


ARTICLE  VII. 

"  The  ratification  of  the  conventions  of  nine  states, 
shall  be  sufficient  for  the  establishment  of  this  con- 
stitution between  the  states  so  ratifying  the  same. 

"  Done  in  Convention  by  the  unanimous  consent  of  the 
states  present,  the  seventeenth  day  of  September,  in 
the  year  of  our  Lord  1787,  and  of  the  Independence 
of  the  United  States  of  America,  the  twelfth.  In 
witness  whereof,  we  have  hereunto  subscribed  our 
names. 

"  The  constitution,  although  formed  in  1787,  was 
not  adopted  until  1789.  The  number  of  delegates 
chosen  to  this  convention  was  65,  of  whom  ten  did 
not  attend,  and  sixteen  refused  to  sign  the  consti- 
tution. The  following  39  signed  the  constitution  :— 

"  New  Hampshire.— John  Langdon,  Nicholas 
Gelman. 

"  Massachusetts. — Nathaniel  Gorham,RufusKing. 

"  Connecticut. — William  Samuel  Johnson,  Roger 
Sherman. 

"  New  York. — Alexander  Hamilton. 

"  New  Jersey.  —  William  Livingston,  David 
Brearley,  William  Paterson,  Jonathan  Dayton. 

"Pennsylvania. — Benjamin  Franklin,  Thomas 
Mifflin,  Robert  Morris,  George  Clymer,  Thomas 
Fitzsinaons,  Jared  Ingersoll,  James  Wilson,  Gou- 
verneur  Morris. 

"  Delaware. — George  Read,  Gunning  Bedford, 
jun.,  John  Dick-inson,  Richard  Bassett,  Jacob  Broom. 

"  Maryland. — James  McHenry,  Daniel  of  St. 
Thomas  Jenifer,  Daniel  Carroll. 

"  Virginia. — John  Blair,  James  Madison,  jun. 

"  North  Carolina.  —  William  Blount,  Richard 
Dobbs  Spaight,  Hugh  Williamson. 

"  South  Carolina. — John  Rutledge,  Charles  C. 
Pinkney,  Charles  Pinkney,  Pierce  Butler. 

"  Georgia. — William  Few,  Abraham  Baldwin. 
"  GEORGE  WASHINGTON,  President. 

'•'  WILLIAM  JACKSON,  Secretary." 


AMENDMENTS. 

The  following  articles  in  addition  to,  and  amendment 
of,  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  having 
been  ratified  by  the  leyislatures  of  nine  states,  are 
equally  obligatory  with  the  constitution  itself : — 

ARTICLE  I. 

"  After  the  first  enumeration  required  by  the  first 
article  of  the  constitution,  there  shall  be  one  repre- 
sentative for  every  30,000,  until  the  number  shall 
amount  to  100,  after  which  the  proportion  shall  be 
so  regulated  by  congress,  that  there  shall  be  not  less 
than  100  representatives,  nor  less  than  one  repre- 
sentative for  every  40,000  persons,  until  the  num- 
ber of  representatives  shall  amount  to  200,  after 
which  the  proportion  shall  be  so  regulated  by  con- 
gress, that  there  shall  not  be  less  than  200  repre- 
sentatives, nor  more  than  one  representative  for 
every  50,000  persons. 

ARTICLE  II. 

;<  No  law  varying  the  compensation  for  the  ser- 
vices of  the  senators  and  representatives  shall  take 
effect,  until  an  election  of  representatives  shall  have 
intervened. 

ARTICLE  III. 

"  Congress  shall  make  no  law  respecting  an  es- 
tablishment of  religion,  or  prohibiting  the  free  ex- 


1084 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


ercise  thereof;  or  abridging  the  freedom  of  speech, 
or  of  the  press  ;  or  the  right  of  the  people  peaceably 
to  assemble,  and  to  petition  the  government  for  a 
redress  of  grievances. 

ARTICLE  IV. 

"  A  well  regulated  militia  being  necessary  to  the 
security  of  a  free  state,  the  right  of  the  people  to 
keep  and  bear  arms,  shall  not  be  infringed. 
ARTICLE  V. 

"  No  soldier  shall  in  time  of  peace  be  quartered 
in  any  house  without  the  consent  of  the  owner,  nor 
in  time  of  war,  but  in  a  manner  to  be  prescribed 
by  law. 

ARTICLE  VI. 

"  The  right  of  the  people  to  be  secure  in  their 
persons,  houses,  papers  and  effects,  against  unrea- 
sonable searches  and  seizures,  shall  not  be  violated ; 
and  no  warrants  shall  issue,  but  upon  probable  cause, 
supported  by  oath  or  affirmation,  and  particularly 
describing  tne  place  to  be  searched,  and  the  persons 
or  things  to  be  seized. 

ARTICLE  VII. 

"  No  person  shall  be  held  to  answer  for  a  capital, 
or  otherwise  infamous  crime,  unless  on  a  present- 
ment or  indictment  of  a  grand  jury,  except  in  cases 
arising  in  the  land  or  naval  forces,  or  in  the  militia 
when  in  actual  service  in  time  of  war  or  public 
danger  ;  nor  shall  any  person  be  subject  for  the 
same  offence  to  be  twice  put  in  jeopardy  of  life  or 
limb ;  nor  shall  be  compelled  in  any  criminal  case 
to  be  a  witness  against  himself,  nor  be  deprived  of 
life  liberty  or  property,  without  due  process  of  law; 
nor  shall  private  property  be  taken  for  public  use 
without  just  compensation. 

ARTICLE  VIII. 

"  In  all  criminal  prosecutions  the  accused  shall 
enjoy  the  right  to  a  speedy  and  public  trial,  by  an 
impartial  jury  of  the  state  and  district  wherein  the 
crime  shall  have  been  committed,  which  district  shall 
have  been  previously  ascertained  by  law,  and  to  be 
informed  of  the  nature  and  cause  of  the  accusation  ; 
to  be  confronted  with  the  witnesses  against  him ; 
to  hare  compulsory  process  for  obtaining  witnesses 
in  his  favour,  and  to  have  the  assistance  of  counsel 
for  his  defence. 

ARTICLE   IX. 

"  In  suits  at  common  law,  where  the  value  in 
controversy  shall  exceed  twenty  dollars,  the  right  of 
trial  by  jury  shall  be  preserved,  and  no  fact,  tried 
by  a  jury,  shall  be  otherwise  re-examined  in  any 
court  of  the  United  States,  than  according  to  the 
rules  of  the  common  law. 

ARTICLE  X. 

"  Excessive  bail  shall  not  be  required,  nor  ex- 
cessive fines  imposed,  nor  cruel  and  unusual  pu- 
nishments inflicted. 

ARTICLE  XI. 

"  The  enumeration  in  the  constitution,  of  certain 
rights,  shall  not  be  construed  to  deny  or  disparage 
others  retained  by  the  people. 

ARTICLE  XII. 

"  The  powers  not  delegated  to  the  United  States 
"by  the  constitution,  nor  prohibited  by  it  to  the  states, 
are  reserved  to  the  states  respectively,  or  to  the 
people. 

ARTICLE  XIII. 
"  The  judicial  power  of  the  United  States  shall 
not  be  construed  to  extend  to  any  suit  in  law  or 
equity,  commenced  or  prosecuted  against  one  of  the 
United  States  by  citizens  of  another  state,  or  by 
citizens  or  subjects  of  any  foreign  state. 


ARTICLE  XIV. 

11  The  electors  shall  meet  in  their  respective  states, 
and  vote  by  ballot,  for  president  and  vice-president, 
one  of  whom  at  least,  shall  not  be  an  inhabitant  of 
the  same  state  with  thetnselves ;  they  shall  name,  in 
their  ballots,  the  person  voted  for  as  president,  and 
in  distinct  ballots,  the  person  voted  for  as  vice-pre- 
sident, and  they  shall  make  distinct  lists  of  all  persons 
voted  for  as  president,  and  of  all  persons  voted  for 
as  vice-president,  and  of  the  number  of  votes  for 
each,  which  lists  they  shall  sign  and  certify,  and 
transmit,  sealed,  to  the  seat  of  the  government  of 
the  United  States,  directed  to  the  president  of  the 
senate.  The  president  of  the  senate  shall,  in  the 
presence  of  the  senate  and  house  of  representatives, 
open  all  the  certificates,  and  the  votes  shall  then  be 
counted.  The  person  having  the  greatest  number 
of  votes  for  president,  shall  be  the  president,  if  such 
number  be  a  majority  of  the  whole  number  of  elec- 
tors appointed ;  and  if  no  person  have  such  a  ma- 
jority, then  from  the  persons  having  the  highest 
numbers,  not  exceeding  three  on  the  list  of  those 
voted  for  as  president,  the  house  of  representatives 
shall  choose  immediately  by  ballot,  the  president. 
But  in  choosing  the  president,  the  votes  shall  be 
taken  by  states,  the  representation  from  each  state 
having  one  vote ;  a  quorum  for  this  purpose  shall 
consist  of  a  member  or  members  from  two-thirds  of 
the  states,  and  a  majority  of  all  the  states  shall  be 
necessary  to  a  choice.  And  if  the  house  of  repre- 
sentatives shall  not  choose  a  president  whenever  the 
right  of  choice  shall  devolve  upon  them,  before  the 
fourth  day  of  March  next  following,  then  the  vice- 
president  shall  act  as  president,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  death  or  other  constitutional  disability  of  the 
president. 

"  The  person  having  tire  greatest  number  of  votes 
as  vice-president,  shall  be  the  vice-president,  if  such 
number  be  a  majority  of  the  whole  number  of  elec- 
tors appointed  ;  and  if  no  person  have  a  majority, 
then,  from  the  two  highest  numbers  on  the  list,  the 
senate  shall  choose  the  vice-president — a  quorum  for 
the  purpose  shall  consist  of  two-thirds  of  the  whole 
number  of  senators,  and  a  majority  of  the  whole 
number  shall  be  necessary  to  a  choice. 

"  But  no  person  constitutionally  ineligible  to  the 
office  of  president,  shall  be  eligible  to  that  of  vice- 
president  of  the  United  States. 
ARTICLE  XV. 

"  If  any  citizen  of  the  United  States  shall  accept, 
claim,  receive,  or  retain  any  title  of  nobility  or 
honour ;  or  shall  without  the  consent  of  congress, 
accept  and  retain  any  present,  pension,  office  or 
emolument  of  any  kind  whatever,  from  any  emperor, 
king,  prince,  or  foreign  power,  such  person  shall 
cease  to  be  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  and  shall 
be  incapable  of  holding  any  office  of  trust  or  profit 
under  them  or  either  of  them." 


It  was  not  without  a  struggle  that  the  new  con- 
stitution was  adopted.  Eleven  of  the  states  were, 
however,  early  in  the  year  1789,  brought  to  decide 
in  favour  of  its  ratification.  Rhode  Island,  who  had 
refused  to  send  members  to  the  convention  in  which 
it  was  framed,  now  refused  to  accept  it. 

The  first  president  under  the  new  constitution, 
was  Washington.  His  grateful  countrymen  were 
unanimous  in  bestowing  upon  him  this  high  office. 
The  first  vice-president  was  that  profound  and 
honest  statesman,  John  Adams. 


UNITED  STATES. 


1085 


Geographical  Nutic.es  of  the  Country  at  this  Period. 


Population. 

Maine 96.540 

New  Hampshire  141,885 

Vermont 85,589 

Massachusetts. .  373,324 
Rhode  Island.. 
Connecticut.. 

New  York 

New  Jersey.... 
Pennsylvania 
Delaware 


Population. 

Virginia 442,117 

Kentucky 61,133 

Tennessee 77,262 

North  Carolina    288,204 
South  Carolina  140,178 

Georgia «2,886 

Territory  south 

of  the  Ohio..     31,913 
Territory  north- 
west of  Ohio     15,000 


64,470 
232,374 
314,142 
169,954 
424,099 
46,310 
Maryland 319,649 

The  principal  towns  had  now  become  so  nume- 
rous, that  the  reader  is  referred  to  the  geographies 
of  the  present  time,  for  their  names  and  location. 

The  principal  exports  from  the  New  England 
states  were  provisions,  lumber,  and  pot  and  pearl 
ashes.  Wheat  was  the  staple  commodity  of  the 
middle  states ;  and  Indian  corn,  tobacco,  rice,  and 
cotton,  were  exported  from  the  southern  states.  The 
whole  amount  of  exports  from  the  United  States  in 
the  year  1789,  amounted  to  16,000,000  dollars. 

In  commerce  and  manufactures  ; — the  chief  ma- 
nufactories were  those  of  iron,  leather,  skins  and 
paper,  which  were  extensively  established  in  various 
parts  of  the  United  States.  Woollen  cloths  were 
also  manufactured  in  some  of  the  states ;  and  com- 
merce to  a  considerable  extent  was  carried  on  with 
Europe,  and  the  East  and  West  Indies. 

The  societies  formed  about  this  time  were  the 
following : — 

(1779.)  Massachusetts  Charitable  Society  was  in- 
corporated. 

(1780.)  The  American  Society  of  Arts  and  Sci- 
ences was  incorporated. 

(1783.)  The  Society  of  Cincinnati  instituted. 

(1784.)  The  Boston  Episcopal  Charitable  Society 
incorporated. 

(1785.)  The  Agricultural  Society  of  Philadelphia, 
the  Humane  Society  of  Massachusetts,  and  the 
Association  of  Manufacturers  and  Tradesmen  in 
Boston,  were  formed. 

(1786.)  The  Connecticut  Society  of  Arts  was  in- 
stituted. The  Scotch  Charitable  Society,  and  the 
Massachusetts  Congregational  Charitable  Society 
incorporated. 

(1788.)  The  Moravian  Society  for  thePropagation 
of  the  Gospel  among  the  Heathen,  was  incorporated 
by  the  government  of  Pennsylvania. 

The  following  is  a  Catalogue    of  Eminent  Men  who 
died  during  the  period  extending  from  1776  to  1789. 

(1776.)  Cadwallader  Golden,  an  eminent  physi- 
cian, botanist,  and  astronomer,  author  of  a  "  His- 
tory of  the  Five  Nations  of  Indians." 

(1777.)  John  Bartram,  a  celebrated  botanist,  who 
published  a  "  Description  of  East  Florida,"  and 
observations  on  the  inhabitants,  climate,  soil,  &c., 
»ade  in  his  travels  from  Pennsylvania  to  Onondego. 

(1778  )  Butler  Gwinett,  one' of  the  signers  of  the 
declaration  of  independence. 

Nicholas  Biddle,  captain  in  the  navy  of  the  United 
States. 

Philip  Livingston,  one  of  the  signers  of  the  de- 
claration of  independence. 

(1779.)  Francis  Bernard,  governor  of  Massachu- 
setts. 

Thomas  Lynch,  jun.,  one  of  the  signers  of  the 
declaration  of  independence. 

John  Winthrop,  LL  D.,  F.R.S.,  a  distinguished 
philosopher,  aud  astronomer. 


(1780.)  Thomas  Hutchinson,  governor  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, author  of  a  "  History  of  Massachusetts." 

(1781.)  Richard  Stockton,  one  of  the  signers  of 
the  declaration  of  independence. 

(1782.)  Charles  Lee,  major-general  in  the  Ame- 
rican army. 

Robert  Monckton,  governor  of  New  York. 

(1783.)  Samuel  Cooper,  D.D.,  an  eminent  divine. 

James  Otis,  a  distinguished  patriot  and  statesman, 
author  of  a  "  Dissertation  on  Letters, "  and  the  "  Power 
of  Harmony  in  poetic  and  prosaic  composition." 

(1784.)  Anthony  Benezet,  a  distinguished  phi- 
lanthropist. 

(1785.)  Jonathan  Trumbull,  a  distinguished  pa- 
triot, and  governor  of  Connecticut. 

William  Whipple,  one  of  the  signers  of  the  decla- 
ration of  independence. 

(1786.)  Nathaniel  Greene,  a  major-general  in 
the  American  army. 

(1787.)  Charles  Chauncey,  D.D.,  a  divine  emi- 
nent for  his  learning  and  piety — publications  nume- 
rous, chiefly  theological. 

Thomas  Gage,  the  last  governor  appointed  by 
the  king. 

(1788.)  Thomas  Gushing,  LL.D.,  a  distinguished 
patriot. 
Washington  elected  president — Hamilton's  report  on 

the  public  debts — Bill  for  duty  on  distilled  spirits — 

A  national  bank  established'— Vermont  admitted  into 

the  Union. 

The  4th  of  March,  1789,  was  the  day  upon  which 
the  new  government  was  to  commence  its  operations. 
But  from  necessary  delays,  the  inauguration  of  the 
president  did  not  take  pla'ce  until  the  30th  of  April. 

Washington,  since  his  resignation,  had  busied 
himself  in  the  peaceable  and  respectable  pursuits  of 
agriculture ;  and  he  was  upon  his  farm,  when  the 
official  intelligence  of  his  appointment  to  be  the 
head  of  the  nation  was  announced  to  him.  Wash- 
ington signified  his  willingness  to  comply.  He 
proceeded  without  delay  to  New  York,  where  con- 
gress first  convened.  In  his  progress  he  was  met 
by  numerous  bodies  of  the  people,  who  hailed  him 
as  the  father  of  his  country,  and  triumphal  arches 
were  erected  to  commemorate  his  achievements. 
He  approached  New  York  by  sea,  attended  by  a 
deputation  from  congress :  he  was  received  by  the 
governor,  as  he  landed,  amidst  the  firing  of  artillery 
and  the  acclamations  of  the  people. 

The  ceremony  of  his  inauguration  was  witnessed 
with  inexpressible  joy,  by  a  great  multitude  of 
spectators.  The  novelty  and  the  importance  of  the 
transaction,  the  benign  dignity  of  Washington's 
character  and  manners,  the  remembrance  of  the 
sufferings  by  which  America  had  won  the  right  to 
govern  herself,  and  which  with  a  father's  anxious 
solicitude  he  had  shared;  all  conspired  to  make  the 
pageant  inexpressibly  solemn  and  affecting. 

In  an  address  to  both  houses  of  congress,  he  modestly 
declared  his  incapacity  for  "  the  mighty  and  untried 
cares  before  him,"  and  offered  his  "fervent  supplica- 
tions to  that  Almighty  Being,  whose  providential  aid 
can  supply  every  human  defect,  that  his  benediction 
would  consecrate  to  the  liberties  and  happiness  of 
the  people  of  the  United  States,  a  government  in- 
stituted by  themselves  for  essential  purposes ;  and 
would  enable  every  instrument  employed  in  its  ad- 
ministration, to  execute  with  success  the  functions 
allotted  to  his  charge."  He  remarked,  that  "  the 
foundation  of  our  national  policy  should  be  laid  in 
the  pure  principles  of  private  morality ;  and  that  no 
truth  was  more  thoroughly  established,  than  that 


108G 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


there  exists  an  indissoluble  union  between  virtue 
and  happiness ;  between  duty  and  advantage ;  be- 
tween the  genuine  maxims  of  an  honest  and  mag- 
nanimous people,  and  the  solid  rewards  of  public 
prosperity  and  felicity."  An  attention  to  these  con- 
siderations, he  enforced  by  the  weighty  reasons, 
"  that  the  success  of  the  republican  form  of  govern- 
ment is  justly  considered  as  deeply,  perhaps  finally 
staked  on  the  experiment  entrusted  to  the  American 
people ;  and  that  the  propitious  smiles  of  Heaven 
could  never  be  expected  on  a  nation  that  disregarded 
the  eternal  rules  oforder  and  right,  which  Heaven 
itself  had  ordained." 

The  several  departments  of  government  were 
next  to  be  arranged  and  filled.  Mr.  Jefferson  was 
made  secretary  of  state  ;  Colonel  Hamilton  secre- 
tary of  the  treasury  ;  General  Knox  secretary  of 
war;  Edmund  Randolph  attorney-general,  and  John 
Jay  first  judge  of  the  supreme  judiciary. 

Congress  made  it  their  first  object  to  establish  a 
revenue  sufficient  for  the  support  of  government, 
and  for  the  discharge  of  the  debt  contracted  during 
the  revolutionary  war.  For  this  purpose,  they  laid 
duties  on  the  importation  of  merchandise,  and  on 
the  tonnage  of  vessels  ;  thus  drawing  into  the  public 
treasury  funds  which  had  before  been  collected  and 
appropriated  by  individual  states. 

During  this  session  of  congress,  a  proposition  was 
made  to  amend  the  constitution.  Congress,  after  a 
long  and  animated  discussion  of  the  subject,  agreed 
upon  twelve  new  articles.  These  were  submitted 
to  the  respective  state  legislatures ;  and  being  ap- 
proved by  three-fourths  of  these  bodies,  they  became 
a  part  of  the  constitution. 

On  the  29th  of  September,  the  first  session  of  con- 
gress closed ;  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  being 
previously  directed  to  prepare  a  plan  for  providing 
for  the  adequate  support  of  the  public  credit,  and  to 
report  the  same  at  the  next  meeting  of  congress. 

After  the  adjournment  of  congress,  the  president 
made  a  tour  through  New  England,  where  he  was 
received  by  the  inhabitants  with  demonstrations  of 
the  most  filial  affection.  They  crowded  around  him. 
They  vied  with  each  other  in  the  display  of  hospi- 
table attentions.  Parents  brought  their  children, 
that  they  might  view  in  him  the  living  model  of  ex- 
cellence, and  that  they  might  have  in  after-life,  the 
satisfaction  of  reflecting  that  they  had,  with  their 
own  eyes,  beheld  the  man  whom  the  history  of  their 
country  ranked  as  the  first  of  her  citizens. 

The  second  session  of  the  first  congress  began  the 
6th  of  January,  1790.  At  this  session,  Mr.  Hamil- 
ton made  his  celebrated  report  with  respect  to  the 
discharge  of  public  debts  contracted  during  the  war 
of  the  revolution.  With  regard  to  the  foreign  debt, 
he  remarked  that  no  difference  of  opinion  existed; 
all  agreed  that  provision  should  be  made  for  its  dis- 
charge according  to  the  terms  of  the  contract ;  but 
with  respect  to  the  domestic  debt,  opinions  were 
entirely  opposite  ; — some  advocating  a  discrimina- 
tion between  the  present  holders  of  public  securities, 
and  those  to  whom  the  debt  was  originally  due. 
This  subject  opened  a  field  of  debate,  which  shook 
the  government  to  its  foundation,  and  may  fairly 
be  said  to  be  the  origin  of  that  division  of  sentiment 
and  feeling,  which  agitated  so  long  and  so  violently 
the  national  councils,  and  which  gave  rise  to  the 
two  great  political  parties,  which,  under  the  names 
of  federalists  and  republicans,  for  30  years  arrayed 
one  part  of  the  American  community  against  the 
other.  The  question  was,  shall  the  present  holders 
of  public  securities,  who  have  given  but  two  or 


three  shillings  on  the  pound,  receive  the  full  value 
of  what  appears  on  the  face  of  the  obligations,  or 
only  the  amount  which  they  gave  ?  After  much  de- 
bate, Mr.  Madison  proposed  that  the  present  holder 
of  assignable  paper  should  receive  the  highest  price 
such  paper  had  borne  in  market,  and  the  original 
holder  receive  the  residue.  These  propositions  were 
finally  rejected. 

During  the  war,  the  states  had  frequently  exerted 
their  resources  under  their  own  authority,  independ- 
ent of  congress.  Some  had  funded  their  debts; 
some  had  paid  the  interest,  and  some  had  done 
neither.  All  looked  forward  to  the  new  congress  to 
assume  their  debts.  Mr.  Hamilton  recommended 
this  assumption  of  the  state  debts ;  and  also,  that 
provision  should  be  made  for  paying  the  interest,  by 
imposing  taxes  on  certain  articles  of  luxury,  and  on 
spirits  distilled  within  the  country.  These  recom- 
mendations again  opened  a  torrent  of  debate  in  con- 
gress. The  republican  party,  who  existed  chiefly 
in  the  southern  states,  possessing  an  ardent  attach- 
ment to  the  equal  rights  of  man,  warmly  opposed 
Mr.  Hamilton.  They  remembered  him  when  a 
member  of  the  convention,  as  being  suspected  of 
monarchical  views.  They  feared  that  the  assumption 
of  these  debts  would  render  the  government  stronger, 
as  its  creditors  would  support  it  from  interest,  and 
that  it  would  have  a  tendency  to  destroy  the  state 
governments.  The  federal  party,  existing  princi- 
pally in  the  northern  states,  supported  with  great 
ability  the  plans  of  the  secretary;  but  they  were  re- 
jected by  a  majority  of  two. 

Disputes  had  taken  place  with  respect  to  the  tem- 
porary, as  well  as  the  permanent  seat  of  govern- 
ment. It  was  understood  that  should  it  be  fixed  for 
ten  years  at  Philadelphia,  and  afterwards  at  a  place 
to  be  selected  on  the  Potomac ;  and  that  some  of  the 
members  of  the  house  of  representatives,  from  the 
Potomac,  would  withdraw  their  opposition  to  Mr. 
Hamilton.  This  was  accordingly  done,  and  his 
plans  were  adopted. 

The  debt  funded  amounted  to  a  little  more  than 
75,000.000  of  dollars,  upon  a  part  of  which  an  in- 
terest of  three  per  cent,  was  paid,  and  on  the  re- 
mainder six  per  cent. 

In  May  1790,  Rhode  Island  acceded  to  the  new 
constitution. 

Soon  after  the  commencement  of  the  third  session 
of  congress  a  bill  was  introduced  for  laying  the  taxes 
which  the  secretary  had  proposed  for  the  payment 
of  the  interest  on  the  assumed  debt  of  the  states. 
That  for  laying  duties  on  distilled  spirits  was  urged 
on  the  ground  that  the  inhabitants  beyond  the 
Alleghany  mountains,  where  no  other  spirits  were 
consumed,  would  not  otherwise  bear  an  equal  burden 
with  those  on  the  sea-coast,  who  consumed  most  of 
the  articles  on  which  an  import  duty  was  laid.  The 
bill  after  much  debate  was  carried. 

In  1790  a  termination  was  put  to  the  war,  which 
had  for  several  years  raged  between  the  Creek  In- 
dians and  the  state  of  Georgia. 

During  the  third  session  of  congress,  an  act  was 
passed  accepting  the  cession  of  the  claims  of  North 
Carolina  to  a  district  west  of  that  state,  and  a  ter- 
ritorial government  was  established  by  congress 
under  the  title  of  "  The  Territory  of  the  United 
States  south  of  the  Ohio." 

This  year  the  states  of  Pennsylvania  and  North 
Carolina  established  their  present  constitution. 

This  year  also  Kentucky  was  erected  into  an  in- 
dependent  state,  receiving  its  name  from  its  prin- 
cipal river. 


UNITED  STATES. 


1087 


A  national  bank  was  during  this  session  recom- 
mended by  the  secretary.  It  met  with  a  violent  op- 
position from  the  republican  party.  They  consi- 
dered all  banking  institutions  as  useless,  the  pre- 
sent bill  defective,  and  the  power  of  establishing  a 
bank  not  granted  to  congress.  The  supporters  of 
the  bill  considered  it  as  constitutional;  and  a  na- 
tional bank  not  only  useful,  but  necessary  for  the 
operations  of  government.  The  president  required 
the  opinions  of  the  cabinet  in  writing.  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son and  Mr.  Randolph  opposed,  while  Mr.  Hamilton 
sanctioned  the  bill.  After  deliberate  investigation, 
the  president  was  convinced  of  its  constitutionality 
and  utility,  and  gave  it  his  signature. 

In  1791  Vermont  adopted  the  federal  constitution, 
and  applied  to  congress  to  be  admitted  into  the  union. 
New  Hampshire  and  New  York  had  both  laid  claim 
to  the  territory  of  this  state,  and  both  had  made 
grants  of  land  within  its  limits.  In  1777  the  inha- 
bitants refusing  to  submit  to  either,  declared  them- 
selves independent.  At  the  request  of  her  citizens, 
Vermont  was  this  year  admitted  a  member  of  the 
union. 

In  1791  the  first  census,  or  enumeration  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  United  States,  was  completed. 
They  amounted  to  3,921,326.  The  revenue  amounted 
to  4,771,000  dollars,  the  exports  to  19,000,000,  and 
the  imports  to  about  20,000,000. 

In  October  the  second  congress  commenced  its 
first  session.  One  of  its  first  acts  was  that  of  appor- 
tioning the  number  of  representatives  according  to 
the  census.  After  much  disagreement  a  bill  passed 
fixing  the  ratio  at  one  for  every  33,000. 

Indian  war  in  Ohio  —  Harmer  defeated  — Also  St. 
Clair — Proclamation  of  Neutrality — Randolph  sue* 
ceeds  Jefferson  as  secretary  of  state. 

While  congress  was  agitated  by  party  strife,  and 
conflicting  interests,  an  Indian  war  was  opening  in 
the  north-western  frontiers  of  the  states.  Pacific 
arrangements  had  been  attempted  by  the  president 
with  the  hostile  tribes  in  Ohio,  but  without  effect. 
On  their  failure  General  Harmer  was  sent  with  a 
force  amounting  to  1400  to  reduce  them  to  terms. 
He  was  successful  in  destroying  their  villages,  and 
the  produce  of  their  fields ;  but  in  an  engagement 
near  Chilocothe  he  was  defeated  with  considerable 
loss.  Upon  the  failure  of  General  Harmer,  Major- 
general  St.  Clair  was  appointed  to  succeed  him.  He 
hastened  to  protect  with  his  army  the  unfortunate 
inhabitants  who  were  now  left  without  defence,  to 
suffer  all  the  midnight  horrors  of  Indian  warfare. 
With  a  force  amounting  to  nearly  2000  men,  St. 
Clair  marched  into  the  wilderness  in  the  month  of 
October.  On  the  3rd  of  November  he  encamped 
within  a  few  miles  of  the  Miami  villages,  with  his 
army,  which  was  reduced  by  desertion  and  detach- 
ment to  1400.  Here  he  intended  to  remain  until 
reinforced.  Notwithstanding  the  many  melancholy 
examples  of  similar  disasters  in  the  armies  of  his 
country,  St.  Clair  suffered  himself  to  be  surprised. 
The  militia  who  were  posted  in  front,  were  driven 
in  great  disorder  upon  the  regulars.  In  rain  did 
St.  Clair  attempt  to  rally  the  flying  militia  and  re- 
pulse the  savages.  They  appeared  on  all  sides  oi 
the  American  army,  and  poured  in  such  a  deadly 
fire  from  the  surrounding  thickets,  as  strewed  the 
field  with  the  wounded,  the  dying  and  the  dead. 
After  a  contest  of  three  hours,  General  St.  Clair, 
disabled  by  indisposition  from  the  active  duties  oi 
commander,  ordered  a  retreat,  which  was  effected, 
and  the  remnant  of  his  army  saved  from  total  ruin 


The  victorious  Indians  pursued  closely  about  four 
miles,  when  they  returned  to  share  the  spoils  of  the 
camp.  General  St.  Clair  retreated  to  fort  Jefferson 
and  afterwards  to  fort  Washington.  In  this  dis- 
astrous engagement,  the  numbers  on  each  side  were 
nearly  equal.  The  loss  of  the  Indians  is  not  known  ; 
but  that  of  the  Americans  was  630  killed  and  miss- 
ng,  and  260  were  wounded ;  a  slaughter  almost  un- 
paralleled. The  whole  American  camp  and  artillery 
"ell  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy. 

On  receiving  information  of  this  disaster,  con- 
gress resolved  to  prosecute  the  war  with  increased 
vigour,  to  augment  the  army  by  enlistment,  and  to 
put  the  frontiers  in  a  state  of  defence. 

In  pursuance  of  the  resolutions  of  congress,  Wash- 
ington endeavoured  to  put  on  foot  an  army  sufficient 
for  a  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war  wi'th  the  In- 
dians ;  but  the  defeats  of  Harmer  and  St.  Clair  pro- 
duced  such  a  dread  of  the  Indians,  that  a  sufficient 
number  of  recruits  could  not  be  raised  to  authorize 
an  expedition  against  them.  There  was  a  violent 
clamour  against  the  war;  and  the  president  deemed 
t  advisable  to  make  another  effort  at  negotiation 
with  the  unfriendly  Indians.  The  charge  of  this 
business  was  committed  to  Colonel  Harden  and 
Major  Freeman,  who  were  both  murdered  by  the 
savages. 

Kentucky  was  this  year  admitted  to  the  union. 
Soon  after  the  opening  of  the  next  session  of 
congress,  a  motion  was  made  to  reduce  the  military 
establishment,  but  it  did  not  prevail. 

In  1  792,  a  mint  was  established  by  congress,  and 
the  division  and  value  of  the  money  to  be  used 
throughout  the  country,  regulated  by  statute. 

General  Washington  was  again  elected  president, 
and  in  March  1793,  was  inaugurated.  Mr.  Adams 
was  also  re-elected  vice-president. 

The  president,  intent  on  terminating  the  war  with 
the  Indians,  had  obtained  the  intervention  of  the 
Six  Nations.  Through  their  friendly  agency,  a 
treaty  of  peace  had  been  negotiated  with  the  Indians 
on  the  Wabash  ;  and  the  Miamis  had  consented  to  a 
conference  the  ensuing  spring. 

About  this  time  the  French  revolution,  which  had 
commenced  in  1789,  began  seriously  to  affect  the 
politics  of  the  United  States.  A  new  government 
was  at  first  established  in  France,  which  had  for  its 
fundamental  principle,  the  universal  equality  of 
man.  Hopes  were  entertained,  that  France  would 
now  enjoy  the  blessings  of  a  free  government;  but 
the  leaders  of  the  revolution  were  selfish  and  un- 
principled men,  and  their  sanguinary  measures  soon 
blasted  these  hopes.  Louis  XVI.  was  executed,  his 
family  murdered  or  imprisoned,  and  all  who  were 
suspected  as  being  hostile  to  their  views,  particularly 
the  nobility,  suffered  decapitation  by  the  guillotine. 
The  parties  which  had  agitated  the  union  were 
now  raging  with  increased  violence.  The  demo- 
cratic or  republican  party  beheld  with  pleasure  tho 
downfal  of  kings,  and  the  dissemination  of  what  they 
regarded  as  their  own  peculiar  principles ;  and  though 
they  contemplated  with  horror  the  proceedings  of 
those  sanguinary  leaders,  Marat  and  Robespierre, 
they  trusted  that  when  the  first  commotions  were 
assuaged,  a  republic  of  the  most  perfect  kind  would 
be  established,  and  would  remain  as  a  proof  to  the 
world  of  the  compatibility  of  good  order  with  li- 
berty. The  federalists,  regarding  their  country  as 
connected  with  Britain  by  identity  of  origin,  and 
the  various  ties  of  commercial  interest,  by  resem- 
blance of  institutions — by  similarity  of  language,  of 
literature  and  of  religion,  shocked  with  the  crimes 


1088 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


of  the  French  rulers,  and  alarmed  at  the  system  of 
disorganization  which  they  had  introduced,  became 
more  inveterate  in  their  animosity  to  the  democratic 
or  republican  party,  whom  they  charged  with  foster- 
ing this  spirit.  Their  public  prints  teemed  with 
the  most  terrific  visions  of  the  future  condition  of 
the  country,  should  the  republican  party  gain  the 
ascendancy.  Law,  religion,  and  good  order,  they 
foretold,  would  all  be  subverted ;  the  churches  sa- 
crilegiously demolished,  and  the  written  word  of 
God  committed  to  the  flames.  The  republican  prints 
retorted  with  equal  asperity,  charging  their  political 
opponents  with  hostility  to  the  republican  institu- 
tions of  their  country,  a«d  with  mean  subserviency 
to  the  policy  of  Great  Britain. 

In  April,  1793,  information  was  received  of  the 
declaration  of  war  by  France  against  Great  Britain 
and  Holland.  Washington  was  an  American,  and 
he  did  not  choose  to  involve  his  country  in  the  con- 
tests of  Europe.  He  accordingly,  with  the  unani- 
mous advice  of  his  cabinet,  consisting  of  Messrs. 
Jefferson,  Hamilton,  Knox,  and  Randolph,  issued  a 
proclamation  of  neutrality.  This  measure  contri- 
buted in  a  great  degree  to  the  prosperity  of  Ame- 
rica. Its  adoption  was  the  more  honourable  to  the 
president,  as  the  general  sympathy  was  in  favour  of 
the  sister  republic,  against  whom  it  was  said  Great 
Britain  had  commenced  a  war  for  the  sole  purpose 
of  imposing  upon  her  a  monarchical  form  of  govern- 
ment :  but  he  preferred  the  welfare  of  his  country 
to  the  popular  applause. 

M.  Gerard,  the  French  minister,  who  had  been 
appointed  by  the  king,  was  about  this  time  recalled, 
and  in  April,  Mr.  Genet,  who  was  appointed  by  the 
republic,  arrived  at  Charlestown,  South  Carolina. 
The  flattering  reception  he  met  with,  induced  him 
to  believe  that  he  could  easily  persuade  the  Ameri- 
can people  to  embark  in  the  cause  of  France,  what- 
ever might  be  the  determination  of  government. 
This  opinion  of  his  was  followed  by  the  presump- 
tuous procedure  of  fitting  out  privateers  from  the  port 
of  Charlestown,  to  cruise  against  the  vessels  of  the 
enemies  of  France,  nations,  however,  at  peace  with 
the  United  States. 

Notwithstanding  these  illegal  assumptions  of 
power,  he  was  welcomed  at  Philadelphia  by  the  most 
extravagant  marks  of  joy.  Mr.  Hammond,  the 
British  minister,  complained  of  these  proceedings. 
The  cabinet  unanimously  disapproved  of  them,  and 
determined  to  enforce  the  laws  against  those  citizens 
who  had  committed  the  offence.  Genet  accused  the 
executive  of  acting  in  opposition  to  the  wishes  of 
the  people,  and  even  threatened  an  appeal  from  the 
government  to  the  people.  This  threat  turned  many 
against  him,  who  had  before  been  his  advocates 
When  congress  met  in  December,  the  proclamation 
of  neutrality  was  approved,  as  well  as  the  conduct 
of  the  administration  towards  Mr.  Genet.  France 
at  the  request  of  the  president,  annulled  his  powers 
and  he  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  Fauchet. 

On  the  1st  of  January,  1794,  Mr.  Jefferson  re 
signed  his  office  of  secretary  of  state,  and  was  sue 
ceeded  by  Mr.  Randolph.  The  office  of  attorney 
general  was  filled  by  Mr.  William  Bradford 

Insurrection  in  Pennsylvania— Wayne  defeats  th< 
Indians — Jay's  treaty — Treaty  with  Algiers — Will 
Spain — Mr.  Monroe  sent  to  France — And  recalled — 
Washington' s  farewell  address  to  the  people. 

An  insurrection  of  the  western  counties  of  Penn 
sylvania  took  place  about  this  time.  Great  dissatis 
faction  had  arisen  from  the  laws  of  congress  layin 


uties  on  distilled  spirits.  A  sheriff  was  killed  in 
be  execution  of  his  duty.  A  meeting  of  the  mal- 
ontents  was  held  at  Pittsburg,  correspondencies 
were  established  among  them,  and  an  armed  force, 
alculated  to  amount  to  7000  men,  was  organized. 

General  Washington,after  having  vainly  attempted 
>ersuasive  measures,  found  himself  compelled  to  re- 
ort  to  force.  An  army  of  15,000  men  was  raised, 
nd  placed  under  the  command  of  General  (formerly 
Colonel)  Lee.  This  powerful  force  had  the  intended 
ffect, — inspiring  such  salutary  terror  that  no  op- 
>osition  was  attempted.  Sixteen  of  the  most  active 
eaders  were  seized,  tried,  and  convicted  of  treason, 
iut  afterwards  pardoned. 

At  this  session  of  congress  an  act  was  passed  to 

aise  a  naval  force,  consisting  of  six  frigates,  for  the 

mrpose    of    protecting    the    American    commerce 

against  Algftrine  corsairs.     Eleven  merchant  ves- 

els,  and  upwards  of  100  citizens,  had  been  captured 

y  these  corsairs,  and  further  preparations,  it  was 

understood,  were  making  for  a  renewed  attack  upon 

he  unprotected  commerce  of  the  United  States. 

A  war  with  Great  Britain  was  at  this  time  appre- 
lended.  Since  the  peace  of  1783,  mutual  complaints 
were  made  by  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain, 
or  violating  the  stipulations  contained  in  the  treaty. 
The  former  were  accused  of  preventing  the  loyalists 
'rom  regaining  possession  of  their  estates,  and  Bri- 
,ish  subjects  from  recovering  debts  contracted  before 
.he  commencement  of  hostilities.  The  Americans 
complained,  that  certain  military  posts  situated  in 
he  western  wilderness,  within  the  limits  of  the 
United  States,  were  still  retained,  that  the  Indians 
were  incited  to  make  incursions  upon  the  frontier 
settlements,  and  that  injurious  commercial  restric- 
;ions  had  been  imposed.  By  these  restrictions, 
American  vessels  trading  to  the  ports  of  France 
might  be  seized  by  English  cruisers,  carried  into 
England,  and  there  condemned.  A  bill  passed, 
aying  an  embargo  for  30  days,  one  for  erecting 
fortifications,  one  for  raising  a  provincial  army,  and 
another  for  organizing  the  militia.  To  avert,  how- 
ever, if  possible,  the  calamity  of  another  war,  Mr. 
Jay  was  sent  to  England  for  the  purpose  of  nego- 
tiating with  the  British  government. 

The  Indians  still  continuing  hostile,  .General 
Wayne  had  been  appointed  to  succeed  General  St. 
Clair.  Wayne  having  in  vain  attempted  to  nego- 
tiate with  the  savages,  marched  against  them,  at  the 
head  of  3000  men,  and  a  battle  was  fought  near  the 
Miami  of  the  Lakes.  The  Indians  were  totally 
routed,  a  vast  number  killed,  and  their  whole  coun- 
try laid  waste.  This  decisive  victory  disposed  them 
to  peace,  and  had  a  salutary  effect  on  all  the  tribes 
north-west  of  the  Ohio,  as  well  as  upon  the  Six 
Nations. 

January  1st,  Mr.  Hamilton  resigned  his  office  of 
secretary  of  treasury,  and  was  succeeded  by  Oliver 
Wolcott  from  Connecticut.  At  the  close  of  this 
session,  General  Knox  also  resigned  his  office  of 
secretary  of  war,  and  was  succeeded  by  Timothy 
Pickering. 

In  the  spring  of  1795  Mr.  Jay  having  negotiated 
a  treaty  with  Great  Britain,  returned  to  America. 
This  treaty  having  been  laid  before  the  senate,  was, 
after  considerable  debate,  ratified  by  that  body. 
This  treaty  provided  that  the  posts  which  the  British 
had  retained  should  be  given  up  to  the  Americans, 
and  compensation  made  for  illegal  captures,  and  that 
the  American  government  should  pay  to  the  British 
600,000  pounds  in  trust  for  the  subjects  of  Great 
Britain  to  whom  American  citizens  were  indebted 


UNITED  STATES. 


1089 


But  it  did  not  piohibit  the  right  of  searching  mer- 
chant vessels  claimed  by  the  British;  and  was  thus 
an  abandonment  of  the  favourite  principle  of  the 
Americans,  that  "  free  ships  make  free  trade." 
Meantime,  while  the  senate  were  debating  the  sub- 
ject with  closed  doors,  a  member  had  given  an  incor- 
rect copy  of  it  to  a  printer.  It  was  circulated  with 
rapidity,  and  produced  much  irritation.  The  presi- 
dent received  addresses  from  every  part  of  the  union, 
praying  him  to  withhold  his  signature ;  but  Wash- 
ington believing  the  treaty  to  be  the  best  which, 
under  existing  circumstances,  could  be  obtained, 
signed  it  in  defiance  of  popular  clamour:  at  the 
next  session  of  congress  an  attempt  was  made  by 
the  republican  party  to  hinder  the  treaty  from  going 
into  effect,  by  refusing  to  vote  for  the  necessary 
supplies  of  money.  After  a  long  debate,  in  which 
several  members,  particularly  Fisher  Ames  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, displayed  much  eloquence,  and  the  parties 
generally  much  heat  and  irritation,  the  appropria- 
tion was  carried  by  a  majority  of  three,  and  the 
treaty  went  into  effect.  The  republican  party,  al- 
though in  general  confiding  in  their  beloved  presi- 
dent, considered  that  his  sanction  to  this  instrument 
was  a  proof  that  his  judgment  partook  in  some  small 
degree  of  human  fallibility.  They  believed  the 
peace  which  it  purchased,  while  the  odious  right  of 
search  was  granted  to  England,  would  be  short-lived 
and  inglorious.  Washington  probably  thought  it 
was  better  than  war,  and  that  should  war  ultimately 
arise  from  the  insulting  and  injurious  exercise  of 
that  power,  it  were  better  deferred  until  the  state 
had  gained  the  strength  and  vigour  of  a  few  more 
years*  consolidation. 

A  treaty  was  also  made  this  season  with  Algiers, 
the  commerce  of  the  Mediterranean  was  opened,  and 
the  American  captives  were  restored. 

A  treaty  was  also  concluded  with  the  Indians  in 
the  west ;  thus  securing  the  frontiers  from  savage 
invasion. 

A  treaty  with  Spain  soon  after  followed.  Spain 
had  endeavoured  to  cause  the  western  boundary  of 
the  new  republic  to  be  fixed  300  miles  east  of  the 
Mississippi.  She  denied  the  inhabitants  beyond 
the  Alleghany  mountains  access  to  the  ocean  through 
that  river,  the  mouth  of  which  was  in  her  province 
of  Louisiana.  To  adjust  these  differences,  Thomas 
Pinkney  was  appointed  envoy-extraordinary  to  the 
court  of  Madrid.  In  October  a  treaty  was  signed, 
allowing  the  claims  of  the  republic,  as  to  the  west- 
ern boundary ;  securing  to  the  United  States  the  free 
navigation  of  the  Mississippi  to  the  ocean,  and  the 
privilege  of  landing  and  depositing  cargoes  at  New 
Orleans. 

In  1796  Tennessee  was  admitted  to  the  union. 

The  treaties  of  the  last  year  met  with  no  opposi- 
tion in  congress.  The  conduct  of  France  still  con- 
tinued to  be  a  source  of  disquiet  to  the  American 
republic.  Mr.  Fauchet,  ardently  attached  to  his 
nation,  and  believing  himself  supported  by  a  nu- 
merous party  in  America,  gradually  assumed  an 
authoritative  manner.  He  accused  the  administra- 
tion of  partiality  to  their  former  foes,  enmity  to  their 
friends,  and  cold  indifference  to  the  cause  of  liberty. 
Mr.  Morris,  who  had  been  sent  minister  to  France, 
failing  to  secure  the  confidence  of  those  in  power, 
was  at  their  request  recalled.  Mr.  Monroe  suc- 
ceeded him.  This  gentleman  possessed  the  ardour 
for  liberty  and  the  rights  of  man  common  to  the  re- 
publican party ;  and,  with  them,  hoped  that  the 
French  revolution  would  eventually  lead  to  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  free  government,  in  the  room  of  the 

HIST.  OF  AMEK — Nos.  137  &  138, 


ancient  despotism  of  that  country.  He  was  received 
in  the  most  flattering  manner  by  the  convention, 
who  decreed  that  the  flags  of  the  two  republics, 
entwined,  should  be  suspended  in  the  legislative 
hall  as  a  symbol  of  their  friendship  and  union. 

Mr.  Adet  soon  after  succeeded  Mr.  Fauchet,  and 
brought  with  him  the  colours  of  France,  which  with 
much  ceremony  were  deposited  with  those  archives 
of  the  United  States,  which  are  at  oiice  the  memo- 
rials of  their  freedom  and  independence,  and  an 
honourable  testimony  of  the  existing  sympathies 
and  affections  of  the  sister  republics. 

Notwithstanding  the  professions  of  friendship  be- 
tween the  governments,  France  still  wished  to  in- 
volve America  in  her  European  wars ;  but  finding 
her  maintaining  a  steady  system  of  neutrality,  she 
adopted  measures  highly  injurious  to  American  com- 
merce. Her  cruisers  were  allowed  in  certain  cases 
to  capture  vessels  of  the  United  States,  and  while 
prosecuting  a  lawful  trade,  many  hundreds  were 
taken  and  confiscated. 

Mr.  Monroe,  at  this  time,  was  suspected  by  the 
president  of  not  asserting  and  vindicating  the  rights 
of  the  nation  with  proper  energy.  These  suspicions 
were  attributed  by  the  republican  party  to  the  false 
insinuations  of  his  political  opponents.  The  pre- 
sident however  recalled  him,  and  appointed  Charles 
C.  Pinkney,  of  South  Carolina,'  in  his  stead. 

As  the  period  for  a  new  election  of  the  president 
of  the  United  States  approached,  General  Wash- 
ington determined  to  retire  into  private  life.  And 
he  published  the  following  farewell  address  on  this 
interesting  occasion. 

"  FRIENDS  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS,— 

"  The  period  for  a  new  election  of  a  citizen  to 
administer  the  executive  government  of  the  United 
States,  being  not  far  distant,  and  the  time  actually 
arrived,  when  your  thoughts  must  be  employed  in 
designating  the  person  who  is  to  be  clothed  with 
that  important  trust,  it  appears  to  me  proper,  especi- 
ally as  it  may  conduce  to  a  more  distinct  expression 
of  the  public  voice,  that  I  should  now  apprise  you 
of  the  resolution  I  have  formed,  to  decline  being 
considered  among  the  number  of  those  out  of  whom 
a  choice  is  to  be  made. 

"  I  beg  you,  at  the  same  time,  to  do  me  the  justice 
to  be  assured,  that  this  resolution  has  not  been  taken 
without  a  strict  regard  to  all  the  considerations  ap- 
pertaining to  the  relation  which  binds  a  dutiful  citi- 
zen to  his  country ;  and  that,  in  withdrawing  the 
tender  of  service,  which  silence,  in  my  situation 
might  imply,  I  am  influenced  by  no  diminution  of 
zeal  for  your  future  :nterest;  no  deficiency  of  grate- 
ful respect  for  your  past  kindness  ;  but  am  sup- 
ported by  a  full  conviction  that  the  step  is  compatible 
with  both. 

"  The  acceptance  of,  and  continuance  hitherto 
in  the  office  to  which  your  suffrages  have  twice  called 
me,  have  been  a  uniform  sacrifice  of  inclination  to 
the  opinion  of  duty,  and  to  a  deference  for  what  ap- 
peared to  be  your  desire.  I  constantly  hoped  that 
it  would  have  been  much  earlier  in  my  power,  con- 
sistently with  motives  which  1  was  not  at  liberty  to 
disregard,  to  return  to  that  retirement  from  which 
I  had  been  reluctantly  drawn.  The  strength  of  my 
inclination  to  do  this,  previous  to  the  last  election, 
had  even  led  to  the  preparation  of  an  address  to  de- 
clare it  to  you;  but  mature  reflection  on  the  then 
perplexed  and  critical  posture  of  our  affairs  with 
foreign  nations,  and  the  unanimous  advice  of  per- 
sons entitled  to  my  confidence,  impelled  me  to 
abandon  the  idea. 

4  T 


1090 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


"  I  rejoice  that  the  state  of  your  concerns,  external 
as  well  as  internal,  nc  longer  renders  the  pursuit  of 
inclination  incompatible  with  the  sentiment  of  duty 
or  propriety;  and  am  persuaded,  whatever  partiality 
may  be  retained  for  my  services,  that  in  the  present 
circumstances  of  our  country,  you  will  not  disap- 
prove my  determination  to  retire. 

"  The  impressions  with  which  I  first  undertook 
the  arduous  trust,  were  explained  on  the  proper 
occasion.  In  the  discharge  of  this  trust,  I  will  only 
say,  that  I  have  with  good  intentions  contributed 
towards  the  organization  and  administration  of  the 
government,  the  best  exertions  of  which  a  very  fal- 
lible judgment  was  capable.  Not  unconscious  in 
the  outset,  of  the  inferiority  of  my  qualifications, 
experience  in  my  own  eyes,  perhaps  still  more  in 
the  eyes  of  others,  has  strengthened  the  motives  to 
diffidence  of  myself;  and  every  day  the  increasing 
weight  of  years  admonishes  me  more  and  more,  that 
the  shade  of  retirement  is  as  necessary  to  me  as  it 
will  be  welcome.  Satisfied  that  if  any  circumstances 
have  given  peculiar  value  to  my  services,  they  were 
temporary,  I  have  the  consolation  to  believe,  that 
while  choice  and  prudence  invite  me  to  quit  the  po- 
litical scene,  patriotism  does  not  forbid  it. 

"  In  looking  forward  to  the  moment  which  is  in- 
tended to  terminate  the  career  of  my  public  life,  my 
feelings  do  not  permit  me  to  suspend  the  deep  ac- 
knowledgment of  that  debt  of  gratitude  which  I  owe 
to  my  beloved  country,  for  the  many  honours  it  has 
conferred  upon  me  ;  still  more  for  the  steadfast  con- 
fidence with  which  it  has  supported  me  ;  and  for  the 
opportunities  I  have  thence  enjoyed,  of  manifesting 
my  inviolable  attachment,  by  services  faithful  and 
persevering,  though  in  usefulness  unequal  to  my 
zeal.  If  benefits  have  resulted  to  our  country  from 
these  services,  let  it  always  be  remembered  to  your 
praise,  and  as  an  instructive  example  in  our  annals, 
that,  under  circumstances  in  which  the  passions, 
agitated  in  every  direction,  were  liable  to  mislead, 
amidst  appearances  sometimes  dubious,  vicissitudes 
of  fortune,  often  discouraging  in  situations  in  which 
not  unfrequently  want  of  success  has  countenanced 
the  spirit  of  criticism,  the  constancy  of  your  support 
was  the  essential  prop  of  the  efforts,  and  a  guarantee 
of  the  plans  by  which  they  were  effected.  Pro- 
foundly penetrated  with  this  idea,  I  shall  carry  it 
with  me  to  my  grave,  as  a  strong  incitement  to  un- 
ceasing vows,  that  Heaven  may  continue  to  you  the 
choicest  tokens  of  its  beneficence  ;  that  your  union 
and  brotherly  affection  may  be  perpetual ;  that  the 
free  constitution,  which  is  the  work  of  your  hands, 
may  be  sacredly  maintained ;  that  its  administra- 
tion, in  every  department,  may  be  stamped  with 
wisdom  and  virtue ;  that,  in  fine,  the  happiness  of 
the  people  of  these  states,  under  the  auspices  of 
liberty,  may  be  made  complete,  by  so  careful  a 
preservation,  and  so  prudent  a  use  of  this  blessing, 
as  will  acquire  to  them  the  glory  of  recommending 
it  to  the  applause,  the  affection,  and  the  adoption 
of  every  nation  which  is  yet  a  stranger  to  it. 

"  Here,  perhaps,  I  ought  to  stop  :  but  a  solicitude 
for  your  welfare,  which  cannot  end  but  with  my  life, 
and  the  apprehension  of  danger  natural  to  that  soli- 
citude, urge  mo,  on  an  occasion  like  the  present, 
to  offer  to  your  solemn  contemplation,  and  to  re- 
commend to  your  frequent  review,  some  sentiments 
which  are  the  result  of  much  reflection,  of  no  in 
considerable  observation,  and  which  appear  to  me 
all  important  to  the  permanency  of  your  felicity  as 
a  people.  These  will  be  afforded  to  you  with  the 
more  freedom,  as  you  can  only  see  in  them  the  dis- 


nterested  warnings  of  a  parting  frit-nd,  who  can 
possibly  have  no  personal  motive  to  bias  his  coun- 
sel;  nor  can  I  forget,  as  an  encouragement  to  it, 
your  indulgent  reception  of  my  sentiments  on  a  for- 
mer and  not  dissimilar  occasion. 

"  Interwoven  as  is  the  love  of  liberty  with  every 
ligament  of  your  hearts,  no  recommendation  of  mine 
is  necessary  to  fortify  or  confirm  the  attachment. 

"  The  unity  of  government,  which  constitutes  you 
one  people,  is  also  now  dear  to  you.  It  is  justly  so  ; 
for  it  is  a  main  pillar  in  the  edifice  of  your  real  in- 
dependence ;  the  support  of  your  tranquillity  at  home, 
your  peace  abroad ;  of  your  safety ;  of  your  pros- 
perity ;  of  that  very  liberty  which  you  so  highly 
prize.  But  as  it  is  easy  to  foresee,  that  from  dif- 
ferent causes  and  from  different  quarters,  much 
pains  will  be  taken,  many  artifices  employed  to 
weaken,  in  your  minds,  the  conviction  of  this  truth  ; 
as  this  is  the  point  in  your  political  fortress  against 
which  the  batteries  of  internal  and  external  enemies 
will  be  most  constantly  and  actively  (though  often, 
covertly  and  insidiously)  directed,  it  is  of  infinite 
moment  that  you  should  properly  estimate  the  im- 
mense value  of  your  national  union,  to  your  collec- 
tive and  individual  happiness ;  that  you  should 
cherish  a  cordial,  habitual,  and  immoveable  attach- 
ment to  it ;  accustoming  yourselves  to  think  and 
speak  of  it  as  of  the  palladium  of  your  political  safety 
and  prosperity ;  watching  for  its  preservation  with 
jealous  anxiety;  discountenancing  whatever  may 
suggest  even  a  suspicion  that  it  can  in  any  event 
be  abandoned;  and  indignantly  frowning  upon  the 
first  dawning  of  every  attempt  to  alienate  any  por- 
tion of  our  country  from  the  rest,  or  to  enfeeble  the 
sacred  ties  which  now  link  together  the  various  parts. 

*;  For  this  you  have  every  inducement  of  sym- 
pathy and  interest.  Citizens  by  birth  or  choice,  of 
a  common  country,  that  country  has  a  right  to  con- 
centrate your  affections.  The  name  of  American, 
which  belongs  to  you  in  your  national  capacity,  must 
always  exalt  the  just  pride  of  patriotism,  more  than 
any  appellation  derived  from  local  discriminations. 
With  slight  shades  of  difference,  you  have  the  same 
religion,  manners,  habits,  and  political  principles. 
You  have,  in  a  common  cause,  fought  and  triumphed 
together  :  the  independence  and  liberty  you  possess, 
are  the  work  of  joint  councils  and  joint  efforts,  of 
common  dangers,  sufferings  and  successes. 

"  But  these  considerations,  however  powerfully 
they  address  themselves  to  your  sensibility,  are 
greatly  outweighed  by  those  which  apply  more  im- 
mediately to  your  interest :  here  every  portion  of 
our  country  finds  the  most  commanding  motives  for 
carefully  guarding  and  preserving  the  union  of  the 
whole. 

"  The  north,  in  an  unrestrained  intercourse  with 
the  south,  protected  by  the  equal  laws  of  a  common 
government,  finds  in  the  productions  of  the  latter, 
great  additional  resources  of  maritime  and  commer- 
cial enterprise,  and  precious  materials  of  manufac- 
turing industry.  The  south  in  the  same  intercourse, 
benefitting  by  the  agency  of  the  north,  sees  its  agr/ 
culture  grow,  and  its  commerce  expand.  Turning 
partly  into  its  own  channels  the  seamen  of  che  north, 
it  finds  its  particular  navigation  invigorated :  and 
while  it  contributes,  in  different  ways,  to  nourish 
and  increase  the  general  mass  of  the  national  navi 
gation,  it  looks  forward  to  the  protection  of  a  man" 
time  strength,  to  which  itself  is  unequally  adopted 
The  east,  in  like  intercourse  with  the  west,  already 
finds,  and  in  the  progressive  improvement  of  inte- 
rior communication,  by  land  and  water,  w.ttl  more 


UNITED  STATES. 


1091 


and  more  find  a  valuable  vent  for  the  commodities 
which  it  brings  from  abroad,  or  manufactures  at 
home.  The  west  derives  from  the  east  supplies  re- 
quisite to  its  growth  and  comfort ;  and  what  is  per- 
haps of  still  greater  consequence,  it  must,  of  neces- 
sity, owe  the  secure  enjoyment  of  indispensable 
outlets  for  its  own  productions,  to  the  weight,  in- 
fluence, and  the  future  maritime  strength  of  the 
Atlantic  side  of  the  union,  directed  by  an  indis- 
soluble community  of  interest  as  one  nation.  Any 
other  tenure  by  which  the  west  can  hold  this  essen- 
tial advantage,  whether  derived  from  its  own  sepa- 
rate strength,  or  from  an  apostate  and  unnatural 
connexion  with  any  foreign  power,  must  be  intrin- 
sically precarious. 

"  While,  then,  every  part  of  our  country  thus 
feels  an  immediate  and  particular  interest  in  union, 
all  the  parties  combined  cannot  fail  to  find,  in  the 
united  mass  of  means  and  efforts,  greater  strength, 
greater  resource,  proportionably  greater  security 
from  external  danger,  a  less  frequent  interruption 
of  their  peace  by  foreign  nations ;  and  what  is  of 
inestimable  value,  they  must  derive  from  union  an 
exemption  from  those  broils  and  wars  between  them- 
selves, which  so  frequently  afflict  neighbouring 
countries,  not  tied  together  by  the  same  govern- 
ment;  which  their  own  rivalships  alone  would  be 
sufficient  to  produce,  but  which  opposite  foreign  al- 
liances, attachments  and  intrigues,  would  stimulate 
and  imbitter.  Hence,  likewise,  they  will  avoid 
the  necessity  of  those  overgrown  military  establish- 
ments, which,  under  any  form  of  government,  are 
inauspicious  to  liberty,  and  which  are  to  be  re- 
garded as  particularly  hostile  to  republican  liberty ; 
in  this  sense  it  is,  that  your  union  ought  to  be  con- 
sidered as  a  main  prop  of  your  liberty,  and  that  the 
love  of  the  one  ought  to  endear  to  you  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  other. 

"  These  considerations  speak  a  persuasive  lan- 
guage to  every  reflecting  and  virtuous  mind,  and 
exhibit  the  continuance  of  the  union  as  a  primary 
object  of  patriotic  desire.  Is  there  a  doubt,  whether 
a  common  government  can  embrace  so  large  a 
sphere  ? — Let  experience  solve  it.  To  listen  to 
mere  speculation  in  such  a  case  were  criminal.  We 
are  authorized  to  hope,  that  a  proper  organization 
of  the  whole,  with  the  auxiliary  agency  of  govern- 
ments for  the  respective  subdivisions,  will  afford  a 
happy  issue  to  the  experiment.  It  is  well  worth  a 
fair  and  full  experiment.  With  such  powerful  and 
obvious  motives  to  union,  affecting  all  parts  of  our 
country,  while  experience  shall  not  have  demon- 
strated its  impracticability,  there  will  always  be 
reason  to  distrust  the  patriotism  of  those,  who  in  any 
quarter  may  endeavour  to  weaken  its  bands. 

"  In  contemplating  the  causes  which  may  disturb 
our  union,  it  occurs  as  a  matter  of  serious  concern, 
that  any  ground  should  have  been  furnished  for 
characterizing  parties  by  geographical  discrimina- 
tions;— northern  and  southern; — atlantic  and  west- 
ern :  whence  designing  men  may  endeavour  to  ex- 
cite a  belief  that  there  is  a  real  difference  of  local 
interests  and  views.  One  of  the  expedients  of  party 
to  acquire  influence  within  particular  districts  is,  to 
misrepresent  the  opinions  and  aims  of  other  districts. 
You  cannot  shield  yourselves  too  much  against  the 
jealousies  and  heart-burnings  which  spring  from 
these  misrepresentations  :  they  tend  to  render  alien 
to  each  other  those  who  ought  to  be  bound  together 
by  fraternal  affection.  The  inhabitants  of  our  west- 
ern country  have  lately  had  a  useful  lesson  on  this 
head ;  they  have  seen  in  the  negotiation  by  the , 


executive,  and  in  the  unanimous  ratification  by  the 
senate,  of  the  treaty  with  Spain,  and  in  the  univer- 
sal satisfaction  at  that  event  throughout  the  United 
States,  a  decisive  proof  how  unfounded  were  the 
suspicions  propagated  among  them,  of  a  policy  in 
the  general  government,  and  in  the  Atlantic  states, 
unfriendly  to  their  interests,  in  regard  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi :  they  have  been  witnesses  to  the  formation 
of  two  treaties;  that  with  Great  Britain,  and  that 
with  Spain,  which  secure  to  them  every  thing  they 
could  desire,  in  respect  to  our  foreign  relations  to- 
wards confirming  their  prosperity.  Will  it  not  be 
their  wisdom  to  rely  for  the  preservation  of  these 
advantages  on  the  union  by  which  they  were  pro- 
cured? Will  they  not  henceforth  be  deaf  to  those 
advisers,  if  such  there  are,  who  would  sever  them 
from  their  brethren,  and  connect  them  with  aliens  ? 

"  To  the  efficacy  and  permanency  of  your  union, 
a  government  for  the  whole  is  indispensable.  No  al- 
liance, however  strict  between  the  parts,  can  be  an 
adequate  substitute  ;  they  must  inevitably  experience 
the  infractions  and  interruptions  which  all  alliances 
in  all  times  have  experienced.  Sensible  of  this 
momentous  truth,  you  have  improved  upon  your 
first  essay,  by  the  adoption  of  a  constitution  of  go- 
vernment better  calculated  than  your  former,  for  an 
intimate  union,  and  for  the  efficacious  management 
of  your  common  concerns.  This  government,  the 
offspring  of  our  own  choice,  uninfluenced  and  unawed, 
adopted  upon  full  investigation  and  mature  delibe- 
ration, completely  free  in  its  principles,  in  the  dis- 
tribution of  its  powers,  uniting  security  with  energy, 
and  containing  within  itself  a  provision  for  its  own 
amendment,  has  a  just  claim  to  your  confidence  and 
your  support.  Respect  for  its  authority,  compliance 
with  its  laws,' acquiescence  in  its  measures,  are  du- 
ties enjoined  by  the  fundamental  maxims  of  true 
liberty.  The  basis  of  our  political  systems  is  the 
right  of  the  people  to  make  and  to  alter  their  con- 
stitutions of  government :  but,  the  constitution  which 
at  any  time  exists,  till  changed  by  an  explicit  and 
authentic  act  of  the  whole  people,  is  sacredly  obliga- 
tory upon  all.  The  very  idea  of  the  power  and  the 
right  of  the  people  to  establish  government,  presup- 
poses the  duty  of  every  individual  to  obey  the  esta- 
blished government. 

"  All  obstructions  to  the  execution  of  the  laws,  all 
combinations  and  associations,  under  whatever  plau- 
sible character,  with  the  real  design  to  direct,  control, 
counteract,  or  awe  the  regular  deliberation  and  ac- 
tion of  the  constituted  authorities,  are  destructive  of 
this  fundamental  principle,  and  of  fatal  tendency. 
They  serve  to  organize  faction,  to  give  it  an  artificial 
and  extraordinary  force,  to  put  in  the  place  of  the 
delegated  will  of  the  nation,  the  will  of  a  party,  often 
a  small  but  artful  and  enterprising  minority  of  the 
community :  and, according  to  the  alternate  triumphs 
of  different  parties,  to  make  the  public  administra- 
tion the  mirror  of  the  ill-concerted  and  incongruous 
projects  of  faction,  rather  than  the  organ  of  con- 
sistent and  wholesome  plans,  digested  by  common 
councils,  and  modified  by  mutual  interests. 

"  However  combinations  or  associations  of  the  above 
description  may  now  and  then  answer  popular  ends, 
they  are  likely,  in  the  course  of  time  and  things,  te 
become  potent  engines,  by  which  cunning,  ambitious, 
and  unprincipled  men  will  be  enabled  to  subvert  the 
power  of  the  people,  and  to  usurp  for  themselves  the 
reins  of  government;  destroying,  afterwards,  the 
very  engines  which  had  lifted  them  to  unjust  do- 
minion. 

"  Towards  the  preservation  of  your  government, 

4  T  '2 


1092 


TIIF.  II I. STORY  OF  AMERICA. 


and  the  permanency  of  your  present  happy  state, 
it  is  requisite,  not  only  that  you  speedily  discounte- 
nance irregular  oppositions  to -its  acknowledged  au- 
thority, but  also  that  you  resibt  with  care  the  spirit 
of  innovation  upon  its  principles,  however  specious 
the  pretexts.  One  method  of  assault  may  be  to 
effect,  in  the  forms  of  the  constitution,  alterations 
which  will  impair  the  energy  of  the  system,  and 
thus  to  undermine  what  cannot  be  directly  over- 
thrown. In  all  the  changes  to  which  you  may  be 
invited,  remember  that  time  and  habit  are  at  least  as 
necessary  to  fix  the  true  character  of  governments, 
as  of  other  human  institutions ;  that  experience  is 
the  surest  standard,  by  which  to  test  the  real  ten- 
dency of  the  existing  constitution  of  a  country; 
that  facility  in  changes,  upon  the  credit  of  mere 
hypothesis  and  opinion,  exposes  to  perpetual  change, 
from  the  endless  variety  of  hypothesis  and  opinion ; 
and  remember,  especially,  that  for  the  efficient  ma- 
nagement of  your  common  interests,  in  a  country 
so  extensive  as  ours,  a  government  of  as  much  vi- 
gour as  is  consistent  with  the  perfect  security  of  li- 
berty, is  indispensable.  Liberty  itself  will  find  in 
such  a  government,  with  powers  properly  distributed 
and  adjusted,  its  surest  guardian.  It  is,  indeed, 
little  else  than  a  name,  where  the  government  is  too 
feeble  to  withstand  the  enterprises  of  faction,  to  con- 
fine each  member  of  the  society  within  the  limits 
prescribed  by  the  laws,  and  to  maintain  all  in  the 
secure  and  tranquil  enjoyment  of  the  rights  of  person 
and  property. 

"  I  have  already  intimated  to  you  the  danger  of 
parties  in  the  state,  with  particular  reference  to 
the  founding  of  them  on  geographical  discrimi- 
nations. Let  me  now  take  a  more  comprehensive 
view,  and  warn  you,  in  the  most  solemn  manner, 
against  the  baneful  effects  of  the  spirit  of  party  ge- 
nerally. 

"  This  spirit,  unfortunately,  is  inseparable  from 
our  nature,  having  its  root  in  the  strongest  passions  of 
the  human  miad.  It  exists  under  different  shapes 
in  all  governments,  more  or  less  stifled,  controlled, 
or  repressed ;  but  in  those  of  the  pupular  form  it  is 
seen  in  its  greatest  rankness,  and  is  truly  their  worst 
enemy. 

"  The  alternate  domination  of  one  faction  over 
another,  sharpened  by  the  spirit  of  revenge,  natural 
to  party  dissension,  "which,  in  different  ages  and 
countries,  has  perpetrated  the  most  horrid  enormi- 
ties, is  itself  a  frightful  despotism.  But  this  leads, 
at  length,  to  a  more  formal  and  permanent  despo- 
tism. The  disorders  aud  miseries  which  result, 
gradually  incline  the  minds  of  men  to  seek  security 
and  repose  in  the  absolute  power  of  an  individual, 
and,  sooner  or  later,  the  chief  of  some  prevailing 
faction,  more  able  or  more  fortunate  than  his  com- 
petitors, turns  this  disposition  to  the  purposes  of  his 
own  elevation,  on  the  ruins  of  public  liberty. 

"  Without  looking  forward  to  an  extremity  of  this 
kind  (which  nevertheless  ought  not  to  be  entirely 
out  of  sight),  the  common  and  continual  mischiefs  of 
the  spirit  of  party  are  sufficient  to  make  it  the  in 
terest  and  duty  of  a  wise  people  to  discourage  and 
restrain  it. 

"  It  serves  always  to  distract  the  public  councils 
and  enfeeble  the  public  administration.  It  agitates 
the  community  with  ill-founded  jealousies  and  false 
alarms;  kindles  the  animosity  of  one  part  against 
another;  foments  occasionally,  riot  and  insurrection. 
It  opens  the  door  to  foreign  influence  and  corrup- 
tion, which  find  a  facilitated  access  to  the  govern- 
ment itself,  through  the  channels  of  party  passions. 


Thus  the  policy  and  the  will  of  one  country  are  buh- 
jected  to  the  policy  and  will  of  another. 

There  is  an  opinion,  that  parties,  in  free  countries, 
are  useful  checks  upon  the  administration  of  the 
government,  and  serve  to  keep  alive  the  spirit  of 
liberty.  This,  within  certain  limits,  is  probably  true; 
and  in  governments  of  a  monarchical  cast,  patriot- 
ism may  look  with  indulgence,  if  not  with  favour 
upon  the  spirit  of  party.  But  in  those  of  the  po- 
pular character,  in  governments  purely  elective,  it 
is  a  spirit  not  to  be  encouraged.  From  their  natu- 
ral tendency,  it  is  certain  there  will  always  be 
enough  of  that  spirit  for  every  salutary  purpose. 
And  there  being  constant  danger  of  excess,  the  ef- 
fort ought  to  be,  by  force  of  public  opinion,  to  miti- 
gate and  assuage  it.  A  fire  not  to  be  quenched, — it 
demands  a  uniform  vigilance  to  prevent  its  bursting 
into  a  flame,  lest  instead  of  warming  it  should  con- 
sume. 

"  It  is  important  likewise  that  the  habits  of  think- 
ing, in  a  free  country,  should  inspire  caution  in  those 
intrusted  with  its  administration,  to  confine  them- 
selves within  their  respective  constitutional  spheres, 
avoiding,  in  the  exercise  of  the  powers  of  one  de- 
partment, to  encroach  upon  another.  The  spirit  of 
encroachment  tends  to  consolidate  the  powers  of  all 
the  departments  in  one,  and  thus  to  create,  whatever 
the  form  of  government,  a  real  despotism.  A  just 
estimate  of  that  love  of  power,  and  proneness  to 
abuse  it,  which  predominates  in  the  human  heart,  is 
sufficient  to  satisfy  us  of  the  truth  of  this  position. 
The  necessity  of  reciprocal  checks  in  the  exercise 
of  political  power  by  dividing  and  distributing  it 
into  different  depositories,  and  constituting  each  the 
guardian  of  the  public  weal,  against  invasions  by 
the  others,  has  been  evinced  by  experiments  ancient 
and  modern:  some  of  them  in  our  own  country,  and 
under  our  own  eyes.  To  preserve  them  must  be  as 
necessary  as  to  institute  them.  If,  in  the  opinion 
of  the  people,  the  distribution  or  modification  of  the 
constitutional  powers,  be  in  any  particular  wrong, 
let  it  be  corrected  by  an  amendment  in  the  way 
which  the  constitution  designates.  But  let  there  be 
no  change  by  usurpation ;  for  though  this,  in  one 
instance,  may  be  the  instrument  of  good,  it  is  the 
customary  weapon  by  which  free  governments  are 
destroyed.  The  precedent  must  always  greatly  over- 
balance, in  permanent  evil,  any  partial  or  transient 
benefit  which  the  use  can  at  any  time  yield. 

"  Of  all  the  dispositions  and  habits  which  lead  to 
political  prosperity,  religion  and  morality  are  indis- 
pensable supports.  In  vain  would  that  man  claim 
the  tribute  of  patriotism,  who  should  labour  to  sub- 
vert these  great  pillars  of  human  happiness,  these 
firmest  props  of  the  duties  of  men  and  citizens. 
The  politician,  equally  with  the  pious  man,  ought 
to  respect  and  to  cherish  them.  A  volume  could 
not  trace  all  their  connexions  with  private  and 
public  felicity.  Let  it  simply  be  asked,  where  is 
the  security  for  property,  for  reputation,  for  life,  if 
the  sense  of  religious  obligation  desert  the  oaths, 
which  are  the  instruments  of  investigation  in  courts 
of  justice  ?  And  let  us  with  caution  indulge  the 
supposition,  that  morality  can  be  maintained  without 
religion.  Whatever  may  be  conceded  to  the  influ- 
ence of  refined  education  on  minds  of  peculiar  struc- 
ture, reason  and  experience  both  forbid  us  to  expect 
that  national  moi'ality  can  prevail  in  exclusion  of 
religious  principle. 

"  It  is  substantially  true,  that  virtue  or  morality 
is  a  necessary  spring  of  popular  government.  The 
rule  indeed  extends  with  more  or  less  force  to  every 


UNITED  STATES. 


1093 


species  of  free  government.  Who,  that  is  a  sincere 
friend  to  it,  can  look  with  indifference  upon  attempts 
to  shake  the  foundation  of  the  fabric. 

"  Promote  then,  as  an  object  of  primary  import- 
ance, institutions  for  the  general  diffusion  of  know- 
ledge. In  proportion  as  the  structure  of  a  govern- 
ment gives  force  to  public  opinion,  it  is  essential 
that  public  opinion  should  be  enlightened. 

"  As  a  very  important  source  of  strength  and  se- 
curity, cherish  public  credit.  One  method  of  pre- 
serving it  is  to  use  it  as  sparingly  as  possible : 
avoiding  occasions  of  expense  by  cultivating  peace, 
but  remembering  also  that  timely  disbursements  to 
prepare  for  danger,  frequently  prevent  much  greater 
disoursements  to  repel  it;  avoiding,  likewise,  the 
accumulation  of  debt,  not  only  by  shunning  occa- 
sions of  expense,  but  by  vigorous  exertions  in  time 
of  peace,  to  discharge  the  debts  which  unavoidable 
wars  may  have  occasioned,  not  ungenerously  throw- 
ing upon  posterity  the  burthen  which  we  ourselves 
ought  to  bear.  The  execution  of  these  maxims  be- 
longs to  your  representatives,  but  it  is  necessary  that 
public  opinion  should  co-operate.  To  facilitate  to 
them  the  performance  of  their  duty,  it  is  essential 
that  you  should  practically  bear  in  mind,  that,  to- 
wards the  payment  of  debts  there  must  be  revenue ; 
that  to  have  revenue  there  must  be  taxes ;  that  no 
taxes  can  be  devised  which  are  not  more  or  less  in- 
convenient and  unpleasant;  that  the  intrinsic  em- 
barrassment, inseparable  from  the  selection  of  the 
proper  objects  (which  is  always  a  choice  of  difficul- 
ties,) ought  to  be  a  decisive  motive  for  a  candid 
construction  of  the  conduct  of  the  government  in 
making  it,  and  for  a  spirit  of  acquiescence  in  the 
measures  for  obtaining  revenue  which  the  public  ex- 
igencies may  at  any  time  dictate. 

"  Observe  good  fa'ith  and  justice  towards  all  nations, 
cultivate  peace  and  harmony  with  all;  religion  and 
morality  enjoin  this  conduct ;  and  can  it  be  that 
good  policy  does  not  equally  enjoin  it  ?  It  will  be 
worthy  of  a  free,  enlightened,  and,  at  no  distant 
period,  a  great  nation,  to  give  to  mankind  the  mag- 
nanimous and  too  novel  example  of  a  people  always 
guided  by  an  exalted  justice  and  benevolence.  Who 
can  doubt  that,  in  the  course  of  time  and  things, 
the  fruits  of  such  a  plan  would  richly  repay  any  tem- 
porary advantages  which  might  be  lost  by  a  steady 
adherence  to  it  ?  Can  it  be,  that  Providence  has 
not  connected  thi  permanent  felicity  of  a  nation 
with  its  virtue  ?  The  experiment,  at  least,  is  re- 
commended by  every  sentiment  which  ennobles 
human  nature.  Alas  !  is  it  rendered  impossible  by 
its  vices  ? 

"  In  the  execution  of  such  a  plan,  nothing  is  more 
essential  than  that  permanent  inveterate  antipathies 
against  particular  nations,  and  passionate  attach- 
ments for  others  should  be  excluded ;  and  that,  in 
place  of  them,  just  and  amicable  feelings  towards 
all  should  be  cultivated.  The  nation  which  indulges 
towards  another  an  habitual  hatred,  or  an  habitual 
fondness,  is,  in  some  degree,  a  slave.  It  is  a  slave 
to  its  animosity  or  to  its  affection,  either  of  which 
is  sufficient  to  lead  it  astray  from  its  duty  and  its  in- 
terest. Antipathy  in  one  nation  against  another, 
disposes  each  more  readily  to  offer  insult  and  in- 
jury, to  lay  hold  of  slight  causes  of  umbrage,  and  to 
be  haughty  and  intractable,  when  accidental  or 
trifling  occasions  of  dispute  occur.  Hence  frequent 
collisions,  obstinate,  envenomed,  and  bloody  con- 
tests. The  nation,  prompted  by  ill-will  and  resent- 
ment, sometimes  impels  to  war  the  goternment,  con- 
trary to  the  best  calculations  of  policy.  The  govern- 


ment sometimes  participates  in  the  national  propen- 
sity, and  adopts,  through  passion,  what  reason 
would  reject;  at  other  times,  it  makes  the  animosity 
of  the  nation  subservient  to  projects  of  hostility  in- 
stigated by  pride,  ambition,  and  other  sinister  and 
pernicious  motives.  The  peace  often,  sometimes 
perhaps  the  liberty,  of  nations  has  been  the  victim. 

"  So,  likewise,  a  passionate  attachment  of  one  na- 
tion to  another  produces  a  variety  of  evils.  Sym- 
pathy for  the  favourite  nation,  facilitating  the  illusion 
of  an  imaginary  common  interest,  in  cases  where 
no  real  common  interest  exists,  and  infusing  into 
one  the  enmities  of  the  other,  betrays  the  former 
into  a  participation  in  the  quarrels  and  wars  of  the 
latter,  without  adequate  inducement  or  justification. 
It  leads  also  to  concessions  to  the  favourite  nation 
of  privileges  denied  to  others,  which  is  apt  doubly 
to  injure  the  nation  making  the  concessions ;  by 
unnecessarily  parting  with  what  ought  to  have  been 
retained,  and  by  exciting  jealousy,  ill-will,  and  a 
disposition  to  retaliate,  in  the  parties  from  whom 
equal  privileges  are  withheld :  and  it  gives  to  ambi- 
tious, corrupted,  or  deluded  citizens  (who  devote 
themselves  to  the  favourite  nation)  facility  to  betray, 
or  sacrifice  the  interests  of  their  own  country,  with- 
out odium,  sometimes  even  with  popularity ;  gilding 
with  the  appearances  of  a  virtuous  sense  of  obliga- 
tion, a  commendable  deference  for  public  opinion, 
or  a  laudable  zeal  for  public  good,  the  base  or  foolish 
compliances  of  ambition,  corruption  or  infatuation, 

"  As  avenues  to  foreign  influence  in  innumerable 
ways,  such  attachments  are  particularly  alarming  to 
the  truly  enlightened  and  independent  patriot.  How 
many  opportunities  do  they  afford  to  tamper  with 
domestic  factions,  to  practise  the  art  of  seduction, 
to  mislead  public  opinion,  to  influence  or  awe  the 
public  councils  !  Such  an  attachment  of  a  small  or 
weak,  towards  a  great  and  powerful  nation,  dooms 
the  former  to  be  the  satellite  of  the  latter. 

"  Against  the  insidious  wiles  of  foreign  influence 
(I  conjure  you  to  believe  me,  fellow-citizens),  the 
jealousy  of  a  free  people  ought  to  be  constantly 
awake ;  since  history  and  experience  prove  that 
foreign  influence  is  one  of  the  most  baneful  foes  of 
republican  government.  But  that  jealousy,  to  be 
useful,  must  be  impartial ;  else  it  becomes  the  in- 
strument of  the  very  influence  to  be  avoided,  instead 
of  a  defence  against  it.  Excessive  partiality  for 
one  foreign  nation,  and  excessive  dislike  of  another, 
cause  those  whom  they  actuate  to  see  danger  only 
on  one  side,  and  serve  to  veil  and  even  second  the 
arts  of  influence  on  the  other.  Real  patriots,  who 
may  resist  the  intrigues  of  the  favourite,  are  liable 
to  become  suspected  and  odious ;  while  its  tools  and 
dupes  usurp  the  applause  and  confidence  of  the  peo- 
ple, to  surrender  their  interests. 

"  The  great  rule  of  conduct  for  us,  in  regard  to 
foreign  nations  is,  in  extending  our  commercial  re- 
lations, to  have  with  them  as  little  political  connexion 
as  possible.  So  far  as  we  have  already  formed  en- 
gagements,  let  them  be  fulfilled  with  perfect  good 
faith. — Here  let  us  stop. 

"  Europe  has  a  set  of  primary  interests,  which  to 
us  have  none,  or  a  very  remote  relation.  Hence 
she  must  be  engaged  in  frequent  controversies,  the 
causes  of  which  are  essentially  foreign  to  our  con- 
cerns. Hence,  therefore,  it  must  be  unwise  in  us 
to  implicate  ourselves,  by  artificial  ties,  in  the  or- 
dinary vicissitudes  of  her  politics,  or  the  ordinary 
combinations  and  collisions  of  her  friendships  or 
enmities. 

"  Our  detached  and  distant  situation  invites  and 


1094 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


enables  us  to  pursue  a  different  course.  If  we  re- 
main one  people,  under  an  efficient  government, 
the  period  is  not  far  off  when  we  may  defy  material 
injury  from  external  annoyance ;  when  we  may 
take  such  an  attitude  as  will  cause  the  neutrality  we 
may  at  any  time  resolve  upon,  to  be  scrupulously 
respected ;  when  belligerent  nations,  under  the  im- 
possibility of  making  acquisitions  upon  us,  will  not 
lightly  hazard  the  giving  us  provocation ;  when  we 
may  choose  peace  or  war,  as  our  interest,  guided  by 
justice,  shall  counsel. 

"  Why  forego  the  advantages  of  so  peculiar  a 
situation  ?  Why  quit  our  own  to  stand  upon  foreign 
ground  ?  Why,  by  interweaving  our  destiny  with 
that  of  any  part  of  Europe,  entangle  our  peace  and 
prosperity  in  the  toils  of  European  ambition,  rival- 
ship,  interest,  humour,  or  caprice  ? 

"  'Tis  our  true  policy  to  steer  clear  of  permanent 
alliances  with  any  portion  of  the  foreign  world  ;  so 
far,  I  mean,  as  we  are  now  at  liberty  to  do  it ;  for 
let  me  not  be  understood  as  capable  of  patronizing 
infidelity  to  existing  engagements.  I  hold  the 
maxim  no  less  applicable  to  public  than  to  private 
affairs,  that  honesty  is  always  the  best  policy.  I 
repeat  it,  therefore,  let  those  engagements  be  ob- 
served in  their  genuine  sense.  But,  in  my  opinion,  it 
is  unnecessary,  and  would  be  unwise  to  extend  them. 

"  Taking  care  always  to  keep  ourselves,  by  suit- 
able establishments  on  a  respectable  defensive  pos- 
ture, we  may  safely  trust  to  temporary  alliances  for 
extraordinary  emergencies. 

"  Harmony,  and  a  liberal  intercourse  with  all 
nations,  are  recommended  by  policy,  humanity,  and 
interest.  But  even  our  commercial  policy  should 
hold  an  equal  and  impartial  hand  ;  neither  seeking 
nor  granting  exclusive  favours  or  preferences  ;  con- 
sulting the  natural  course  of  things;  diffusing  and 
diversifying,  by  gentle  means,  the  streams  of  com- 
merce, but  forcing  nothing;  establishing,  with  powers 
so  disposed,  in  order  to  give  trade  a  stable  course, 
to  define  the  rights  of  our  merchants,  and  to  enable 
the  government  to  support  them,  conventional  rules 
of  intercourse,  the  best  that  present  circumstances 
and  mutual  opinion  will  permit,  but  temporary,  and 
liable  to  be,  from  time  to  time,  abandoned  or  varied, 
as  experience  and  circumstances  shall  dictate  ;  con- 
stantly keeping  in  view,  that  'tis  folly  in  one  nation 
to  look  for  disinterested  favours  from  another;  that 
it  must  pay  with  a  portion  of  its  independence  for 
•whatever  it  may  accept  under  that  character;  that 
by  such  acceptance  it  may  place  itself  in  the  con- 
dition of  having  given  equivalents  for  nominal 
favours,  and  yet  of  being  reproached  with  ingrati- 
tude for  not  giving  more.  There  can  be  no  greater 
error  than  to  expect,  or  calculate  upon  real  favours 
from  nation  to  nation.  It  is  all  illusion,  which  ex- 
perience must  cure,  which  a  just  pride  ought  to 
discard. 

"  In  offering  to  you,  my  countrymen,  these  coun- 
sels of  an  old  and  affectionate  friend,  I  dare  not 
hope  they  will  make  the  strong  and  lasting  impres- 
sion I  could  wish ;  that  they  will  control  the  usual 
current  of  the  passions,  or  prevent  our  nation  from 
running  the  course  which  has  hitherto  marked  the 
destiny  of  nations  ;  but  if  I  may  even  flatter  myself, 
that  they  may  be  productive  of  some  partial  benefit, 
some  occasional  good ;  that  they  may  now  and  then 
recur  to  moderate  the  fury  of  party  spirit,  to  warn 
against  the  mischiefs  of  foreign  intrigues,  to  guard 
against  the  impostures  of  pretended  patriotism  ;  this 
hope  will  be  a  full  recompense  for  the  solicitude  for 
your  welfare  by  which  they  have  been  dictated. 


"  How  far,  in  the  discharge  of  my  official  duties, 
I  have  been  guided  by  the  principles  which  have 
been  delineated,  the  public  records,  and  other  evi- 
dences of  my  conduct,  must  witness  to  you  and  to  the 
world.  To  myself,  the  assurance  of  my  own  con- 
science is,  that  I  have  at  least  believed  myself  to  be 
guided  by  them. 

"  In  relation  to  the  still  subsisting  war  in  Europe, 
my  proclamation  of  the  22nd  of  April,  1793,  is  the 
index  to  my  plan.  Sanctioned  by  your  approving 
voice,  and  by  that  of  your  representatives  in  both 
houses  of  congress,  the  spirit  of  that  measure  has 
continually  governed  me,  uninfluenced  by  any  at- 
tempts to  deter  or  divert  me  from  it. 

"  After  deliberate  examination,  with  the  aid  of 
the  best  lights  I  could  obtain,  I  was  well  satisfied 
that  our  country,  under  all  the  circumstances  of  the 
case,  had  a  right  to  take,  and  was  bound  in  duty 
and  interest  to  take  a  neutral  position.  Having 
taken  it,  I  determined,  as  far  as  should  depend  upon 
me,  to  maintain  it  with  moderation,  perseverance, 
and  firmness. 

"  The  considerations  which  respect  the  right  to 
hold  this  conduct,  it  is  not  necessary  on  this  occa- 
sion to  detail.  I  will  only  observe,  that,  according 
to  my  understanding  of  the  matter,  that  right,  so 
far  from  being  denied  by  any  of  the  belligerent 
powers,  has  been  virtually  admitted  by  all. 

"  The  duty  of  holding  a  neutral  conduct  may  be 
inferred,  without  any  thing  more,  from  the  obliga- 
tion which  justice  and  humanity  impose  on  every 
nation,  in  cases  in  which  it  is  free  to  act,  to  main- 
tain inviolate  the  relations  of  peace  and  amity  to- 
wards other  nations. 

"  The  inducements  of  interest,  for  observing  that 
conduct,  will  best  be  referred  to  your  own  reflexions 
and  experience.  With  me,  a  predominant  motive  has 
been  to  endeavour  to  gain  time  to  our  country  to  settle 
and  mature  its  yet  recent  institutions,  and  to  progress, 
without  interruption,  to  that  degree  of  strength  and 
consistency,  which  is  necessary  to  give  it,  humanly 
speaking,  the  command  of  its  own  fortunes. 

"  Though  in  reviewing  the  incidents  of  my  admi- 
nistration, I  am  unconscious  of  intentional  error; 
I  am  nevertheless  too  sensible  of  my  defects,  not  lo 
think  it  probable  that  I  may  have  committed  many 
errors.  Whatever  they  may  be,  I  fervently  beseech 
the  Almighty  to  avert  or  mitigate  the  evils  to  which 
they  may  tend.  I  shall  also  carry  with  me  the  hope 
that  my  country  will  never  cease  to  view  them  with 
indulgence ;  and  that,  after  45  years  of  my  life  de- 
dicated to  its  service,  with  an  upright  zeal,  the  faults 
of  incompetent  abilities  will  be  consigned  to  obli- 
vion, as  myself  must  soon  be  to  the  mansions  of  rest. 

"  Relying  on  its  kindness  in  this  as  in  other 
things,  a'nd  actuated  by  that  fervent  love  towards  it 
which  is  so  natural  to  a  man,  who  views  in  it  the 
native  soil  of  himself  and  his  progenitors  for  several 
generations  ;  I  anticipate  with  pleasing  expectation 
that  retreat,  in  which  I  promise  myself  to  realize, 
without  alloy,  the  sweet  enjoyment  of  partaking,  in 
the  midst  of  my  fellow-citizens,  the  benign  influence 
of  good  laws  under  a  free  government — the  ever 
favourite  object  of  my  heart,  and  the  happy  reward, 
as  I  trust,  of  our  mutual  cares,  labours,  and  dangers. 
"  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

"  United  States,  }7th  September,  1796." 

Mr.  Adams  elected  president — X   Y  Sf  Z  mission — 
Capture  of  the  L'  Insurgents — Death  of  Washington. 
To  fill  the  station  which  Washington  had  so  emi- 
nently dignified,  the  two  great  political  parties  pre- 


UNITED  STATES. 


1095 


sented  their  leaders.  The  federalists  claiming  to  b 
the  sole  adherents  of  the  policy  of  Washington,  an 
charging  the  opposite  party  with  being  under  Frenc 
influence,  and  having  imbibed  French  principles 
zealously  endeavoured  to  elect  John  Adams.  Th 
republicans  setting  themselves  up  as  the  exclusiv 
friends  of  liberty,  and  accusing  their  opponents  wit 
undue  attachment  to  Britain  and  her  institutions 
exerted  their  influence  for  Jefferson. 

In  February,  1797,  the  votes  for  president  an 
vice-president  were  opened.     Mr.  Adams  had  th 
majority  of  suffrages  for  president,  and  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  for  vice-president,  for  the  four  succeeding  years 
Immediately  on  succeeding  to  the  presidency,  Mr 
Adams  received  intelligence  of  an  open  indignity  or 
the  part  of  the  French  directors  towards  the  Unitec 
States.    They  had  refused  to  accept  Mr.  Pinkney  in 
exchange  for  Mr.  Monroe,  and  declared  their  de 
termination  not  to  receive  another  minister,   unti 
the  United  States  had  complied  with  their  demands 
Mr.  Pinkney  further  communicated  to  the  president 
that  he  had  received  a  written  mandate,  directing 
him   to    quit   France.     Congress   was    immediate!) 
convened,  and  the  dispatches  containing  this  intel 
ligence    submitted    to    their    consideration.     They 
passed  laws,  increasing  the  navy,   augmenting  the 
revenue,  and  authorizing  the  president  to  detach,  a 
his  discretion,   80,000   men  from   the   militia.     T< 
prevent  war,  however,  and  manifest  his  sincere  de 
sire  of  peace,  Mr.   Adams  appointed  three  envoy: 
extraordinary  to  the  French  republic,  General  Pink 
ney,  Mr.  Marshall,  and  Mr.  Gerry.     These  also  th< 
directory  refused  to  receive ;  but  an  indirect  inter, 
course  was    held  with  them  by  the  minister  through 
the  medium  of  unofficial  persons,  who  were  instructec 
by  Talleyrand,  the  minister  of  foreign  relations,  to 
make   them  proposals.     These  persons  demanded 
before  any  negotiation  could  be  opened  with  the 
directory,   that   a   considerable   amount   of  money 
should  be  given  to  Talleyrand.     This  insulting  pro- 
posal was  indignantly  rejected.     It  was,  however, 
repeated,  and  letters  were  received  upon  the   sub- 
ject, signed  X  Y  &  Z.     Hence  this  has  been  called 
the  X  Y  &  Z  mission.     The  envoys  at  length  suc- 
ceeded in  putting  an  end  to  such  a  degrading  inter- 
course.    After  spending  several    months  at  Paris. 
Mr.   Marshall  and  Mr.   Pinkney  were  ordered  to 
leave  France,  while  Mr.  Gerry  was  permitted  to  re 
main,  and  repeatedly  importuned  singly  to  enter 
into  a  negotiation. 

This  he  declined,  and  was  soon  after  recalled  by 
his  government.  This  treatment  of  the  envoys  in- 
duced Mr.  Adams  to  declare,  that "  he  would  make 
no  further  overtures,  until  assured  that  his  envoys 
would  be  received  in  a  manner  suited  to  the  dignity 
of  a  great  and  independent  nation." 

These  events  were  followed  by  depredations  on 
American  commerce,  by  the  citizens  of  France ;  which 
excited  general  indignation  throughout  the  United 
States.  Civil  discord  appeared  extinct;  and  this 
was  the  general  motto: — "  Millions  for  defence,  not 
a  cent,  for  tribute."  The  treaty  of  alliance  with 
France  was  considered  by  congress  as  no  longer  in 
force ;  and  further  measures  were  adopted  by  con- 
gress, for  retaliation  and  defence.  A  regular  provi- 
sional army  was  established,  taxes  were  raised,  and 
additional  internal  duties  laid.  General  Washington, 
at  the  call  of  congress,  left  his  peaceful  abode,  to 
command  the  armies  of  the  United  States,  while 
General  Hamilton  was  made  second  in  command. 
The  navy  was  increased,  and  reprisals  were  made 
on  the  water.  At  sea,  the  French  frigate  L'lnsur- 


geute,  of  40  guns,  was  captured  after  a  desperate 
action,  by  the  frigate  Constitution,  of  38  guns,  com- 
manded by  Commodore  Truxton.  The  same  officer 
compelled  another  frigate  of  50  guns  to  strike  her 
colours;  but  she  afterwards  escaped  in  the  night. 

On  hearing  of  these  vigorous  preparations,  the 
French  government  indirectly  made  overtures  for  a 
renewal  of  the  negotiations.  Mr.  Adams  promptly 
met  these  overtures,  and  appointed  Oliver  Ellsworth, 
chief  justice  of  the  United  States,  Patrick  Henry, 
late  governor  of  Virginia,  and  William  Van  Murray, 
minister  at  the  Hague,  envoys  to  Paris,  for  con- 
cluding an  honourable  peace.  They  found  the  di- 
rectory overthrown,  and  the  government  in  the 
hands  of  Napoleon  Buonaparte,  who  had  not  par- 
taken of  the  transactions  which  had  embroiled  the 
two  countries.  With  him  negotiations  were  opened, 
which  terminated  in  an  amicable  adjustment  of  all 
disputes.  The  provisional  army  was  soon  after  dis- 
banded by  order  of  congress. 

America  was  now  called  to  mourn  for  the  death 
of  Washington.  He  calmly  and  peacefully  expired 
at  Mount  Vernon,  after  an  illness  of  24  hours.  The 
blackened  newspaper  announced  to  the  people,  "  the 
father  of  his  country  is  no  more  !"  The  bells  of  the 
nation  tolled  forth  his  requiem,  and  one  general 
burst  of  grief  broke  from  the  filial  hearts  of  the 
American  people.  Clad  in  bjack,  they  assembled  in 
their  churches  to  hear  his  funeral  praises  from  the 
orator,  and  from  the  minister  of  God.  The  poet 
wrote  his  elegy,  and  the  choir  sung  the  solemn  and 
pathetic  dirge.  The  government  mourned  as  was  be- 
coming, with  more  of  the  parade  of  grief,  and  with 
an  equal  share  of  its  sincerity.  The  senate  addressed 
a  letter  to  the  president,  expressing  in  dignified,  but 
pathetic  language,  their  deepsense  of  the  magnitude 
of  their  common  loss,  and  of  the  resignation  with 
which  it  became  them  to  bow  before  the  bereaving 
stroke  of  "  Him  who  maketh  darkness  his  pavilion." 
The  house  of  representatives  resolved  that  the  speak- 
er's chair  should  be  shrouded  in  black;  that  the 
members  should  be  clad  in  the  vestments  of  sorrow, 
and  that  a  joint  committee  of  both  houses  should  be 
appointed,  to  devise  the  most  proper  manner  of  paying 
'lonour  to  the  memory  of  "  the  man  first  in  war,  first 
n  peace,  and  first  in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen." 
The  committee  reported  a  plan  of  funeral  honours, 
y  which  Washington  was  mourned  by  the  whole 
government,  with  a  solemn  and  august  pageantry. 

Washington  died  on  the  14th  of  December,  1799, 
n  the  68th  year  of  his  age.  His  history  is  the  his- 
ory  of  his  country,  during  the  period  of  his  public 
ervices.  Commanding  her  armies,  and  presiding 
n  her  councils  during  the  most  interesting  period  of 
ler  existence,  her  history  can  never  be  delineated, 
ut  he  must  stand  the  most  prominent  figure  on  the 
jreground.  What  may  be  said  of  many  of  the 
rorthies  of  the  revolution,  may  be  eminently  said  of 
im.  In  no  instance  has  he  rendered  his  country  a 
more  important  service,  than  in  leaving  to  her  fu- 
ure  sons  his  great  and  good  example. 

Other  heroes  have  been  praised  for  their  love  of 
lory.     The  true,  distinguishing  praise  of  Washing- 
on  is,  that  he  was  above  the  love  of  glory.     In  no 
nstance  did  he  rashly   adventure  the  cause  con- 
ded  to  his  care,  lest  he  should  suffer  in  his  personal 
eputation.     To  assert  that  in  no  case  did  he  corn- 
it  an  inadvertent  error,  or  manifest  the  most  trifling 
railty,  would  be  giving  him  that,  praise  which  be- 
ngs  not  to  man;  but  judging  from  the  general 
nour  of  his  conduct,  we  shall  be  justified  in  pro- 
ouncing,  that  his  was  the  soul  which  was  above  all 


1096 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


other  approbation    and  all  other  fear,   but   that  of 
God. 

His  mortal  remains  repose  at  Mount  Vernon, 
near  the  scene  of  his  domestic  enjoyments.  To  that 
spot  will  every  true  son  of  America,  in  all  future 
ages,  be  attracted,  in  mournful,  filial  pilgrimage; 
and  thither  from  every  clime,  will  the  votary  of  the 
rights  of  man  repair,  to  renew  his  vow  of  devotion, 
and  to  draw  fresh  inspiration  in  the  sacred  cause. 

Seat  of  government  transferred  to  Washington — Elec- 
tion of  Jefferson  and  Burr — Inauguration  ofJeffer- 
son—Right  of  deposit  at  New  Orleans — Louisiana 
purchased— 'Geographical  and  other  notices. 

During  the  year  1800,  the  seat  of  government, 
agreeably  to  a  law  passed  by  congress  in  ]  790,  was 
transferred  from  Philadelphia  to  the  city  of  Wash- 
ington.  A  territory  ten  miles  square,  in  which  the 
permanent  seat  of  government  was  located,  had 
been  ceded  to  the  general  government  by  the  states 
of  Virginia  and  Maryland.  It  was  situated  on  both 
sides  of  the  Potomac,  a  lew  miles  from  Mount  Ver- 
non. Public  buildings  had  been  erected,  and  in 
November  of  this  year,  congress  for  the  tirst  time 
held  their  session  in  that  place. 

Indiana  was  this  year  constituted  a  state ;  and 
Mississippi  was  erected  into  a  territorial  government. 

The  time  had  now  arrived  for  electing  a  president. 
It  was  about  this  period  that  the  feuds  and  animo- 
sities of  the  federal  and  republican  parties  were  at 
their  greatest  height.  When  Mr.  Adams  was  first 
made  the  opposing  candidate  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  he 
was  by  no  means  obnoxious  to  the  great  body  of  the 
republican  party,  who  voted  against  him.  They  re- 
cognised in  him  a  patriot  of  the  revolution,  and  they 
liked  him  well,  although  they  liked  Mr.  Jefferson 
better.  It  was  Mr.  Hamilton,  not  Mr.  Adams,  who 
was  the  chief  object  of  party  aversion  ;  and  although 
a  clamour  was  raised  to  serve  party  purposes,  ac- 
cusing Mr.  Adams  of  being  too  much  in  favour  of 
the  British  form  of  government ;  yet  the  real  cause 
of  dissatisfaction  was,  that  he  was  supported  by 
those,  who  they  were  persuaded  had  monarchical 
views.  After  the  lapse  of  four  years,  when  Mr. 
Adams  was  again  to  be  a  candidate  for  the  presi- 
dency, he  was  opposed  with  far  more  bitterness. 

In  some  of  his  measures  he  had  been  unfortunate, 
and  the  vigilant  spirit  of  party  was  awake  to  make 
the  most  of  the  real  or  supposed  errors  of  the  nomi- 
nal head  of  their  opponents.  In  the  early  part  of 
his  administration  the  acts  by  which  the  army  and 
navy  were  strengthened,  and  80,000  of  the  militia 
subjected  to  his  order,  were  represented  by  the  re- 
publicans as  proofs,  that  however  he  might  have 
been  a  friend  to  the  constitution  of  his  country,  he 
now  either  wished  to  subvert  it,  or  was  led  blindfold 
into  the  views  of  those  who  did.  The  republicans 
scrupled  the  policy  of  a  war  with  France,  and  de- 
nied the  necessity,  even  in  case  of  such  a  war  of  a 
great  land  force  against  an  enemy  totally  unassail- 
able except  by  water.  They  believed  that  spirits 
were  at  work  to  produce  this  war,  or  to  make  the 
most  of  the  prospect  of  a  disturbance  in  order  to  lull 
the  people,  while  they  raised  an  army  which  they  in- 
tended as  the  instrument  of  subverting  the  repub- 
lican, and  establishing  a  monarchical  government. 
The  president  was  stung  by  the  clamours  of  the 
opposition,  who  imputed  to  him  intentions  which  he 
never  had.  Attributing  the  evil  to  French  emis- 
saries; and  moreover  ascribing  to  too  much  liberty 
the  horrible  excesses  of  the  French  revolution,  he 
gave  his  signature  to  two  acts,  which  were  con- 


sidered by  the  body  of  the  people  as  dangerous  to, 
f  not  subversive  of,  the  constitutional  liberty  of 
America.  One  of  these,  called  the  alien  law,  au- 
horized  the  president  to  order  any  alien  whom  he 
should  judge  dangerous  to  the  peace  and  liberty  of 
.he  country,  to  depart  from  the  United  States  on 
lain  of  imprisonment.  The  other,  called  the  sedi- 
ion  law,  had  for  its  avowed  object  to  punish  the 
abuse  of  speech  and  of  the  press ;  and  imposed  a 
icavy  fine  and  imprisonment  for  years  upon  such  as 
hould  "combine  or  conspire  together  to  oppose  any 
measure  of  the  government ;"  upon  such  as  should 
'  write,  print,  utter,  publish,  &c.  any  false,  scan- 
dalous, and  malicious  writing  against  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  or  either  house  of  the 
congress  of  the  United  States,  or  the  president,  &c." 

Under  the  sedition  law  several  persons  were  ac- 
tually imprisoned.  The  sympathies  of  the  people 
were  awakened  in  their  behalf,  and  their  indigna- 
tion was  aroused  against  those,  by  whose  means  they 
were  confined.  These  were  the  principal  causes 
why  Mr.  Adams  was  at  this  period  unpopular,  and 
hat  the  federal  party,  as  appeared  by  the  election, 
aad  become  the  minority. 

Immediately  preceding  his  retirement  from  office, 
Mr.  Adams  appointed  in  pursuance  of  a  law  made 
by  congress  twelve  new  judges:  these  were  called 
bis  midnight  judiciary,  from  the  alleged  fact  that 
they  were  appointed  at  twelve  o'clock  on  the  last 
night  of  his  presidential  authority. 

From  the  constitution  as  it  existed  at  that  period, 
each  elector  voted  for  two  men,  without  designating 
which  was  to  be  president ;  and  he  who  was  found 
to  hare  the  greatest  number  of  votes  was  to  be  pre- 
sident, and  the  second  on  the  list  vice-president.  An 
unlooked-for  case  now  occurred.  The  republican 
electors,  who  had  a  very  considerable  majority  over 
the  federal,  gave  their  votes  to  a  man  for  Thomas 
Jefferson,  and  Aaron  Burr,  intending  that  Jefferson, 
the  leader  of  the  party,  should  be  president,  and 
Buir  vice-president.  These  two  men  had  an  equal 
number  of  votes ;  the  election  must,  according  to  the 
constitution,  be  decided  by  the  house  of  representa- 
tives. The  federal  party,  defeated  themselves,  con- 
sidered that  they  might  still  defeat  their  opponents  ; 
and  probably  believing  that  they  might  find  a  grate- 
ful friend  in  Colonel  Burr,  while  they  knew  ihat 
they  had  nothing  to  expect  from  Mr.  Jefferson,  they 
determined  if  possible  to  raise  him  to  the  presiden- 
tial chair.  On  counting  the  votes  in  the  house  of 
representatives  another  singular  event  occurred, 
Mr.  Jefferson  and  Mr.  Burr  had  an  equal  number 
of  votes.  Again  and  again  the  voting  went  round, 
and  the  votes  remained  the  same. 

The  time  had  now  nearly  arrived  when  by  the 
constitution  the  president  must  be  elected.  Other- 
wise the  machine  of  government  was  run  down,  and 
the  constitution  contained  no  machinery  by  which 
to  wind  it  up.  News  of  what  was  passing  in  con- 
gress spread  through  the  country,  and  the  people 
became  alarmed.  Men  armed  and  disguised  entered 
the  capital.  Members  way-laid  in  the  dark,  were 
accosted  with  a  grasp  of  the  arm  and  an  imperative, 
"  Give  us  a  President."  This  fact  has  been  as- 
serted by  those  who  well  knew  the  transactions  of 
those  times  ;  although,  as  it  did  not  happen  to  many, 
it  is  not  generally  corroborated.  At  length  after  the 
members  had  voted  35  times,  it  was  found  on  the  36th 
balloting  that  Mr.  Jefferson  had  amajority  of  one  state. 

This  transaction  must  go  down  to  posterity  as  a 
dark  passage  in  the  American  history.  Whether  or 
not  the  republicans  would  have  continued  to  vote 


UNITED  STATES. 


1097 


until  the  constitution  was  destroyed  rather  than  yield 
to  their  opponents  a  short-lived  triumph,  and  take 
for  four  years  as  president  the  man  themselves  had 
selected  as  vice-president,  can  never  be  known ; 
but  if  such  had  been  the  fact,  posterity  would  have 
had  cause  to  execrate  their  memories.  Had  such  a 
catastrophe  ensued,  still  less  would  America  have 
had  occasion  of  gratitude  to  the  other  party.  The 
republicans  might  allege  that  they  voted  in  obedi- 
ence to  the  will  of  the  people  ;  but  no  one  pretended 
that  any  freemen  in  voting  for  an  elector,  or  any 
elector  in  voting  for  Mr.  Burr,  expected  or  wished 
that  he  should  be  president. 

On  the  4th  of  March,  1801,  Mr.  Jefferson  was 
inaugurated.  On  his  accession  to  office  he  departed 
from  the  example  of  his  predecessors,  and  instead 
of  a  speech,  delivered  to  the  two  houses  of  congress 
in  person,  he  sent  to  them  a  written  message,  which 
was  first  read  by  the  senate,  and  then  transmitted  to 
the  house  of  representatives,  The  practice  has  been 
followed  and  sanctioned  by  his  successors. 

The  message  of  Mr.  Jefferson  was  worthy  of  the 
writer  of  the  declaration  of  independence.  Tt  is 
preserved  among  the  most  precious  relics  of  the 
Americans  ;  and  like  the  farewell  address  of  Wash- 
ington, must  serve,  according  as  the  future  course 
of  America  may  be,  for  a  light  to  guide  her  in  the 
way  to  happiness  and  glory,  or  to  discover  the 
shame  of  her  degradation. 

The  principal  offices  of  the  government  were  now 
transferred  to  the  republican  party.  Mr.  Madison 
was  appointed  to  the  department  of  state. 

A  bill  was  passed  by  congress,  in  accordance  with 
the  recommendation  of  the  president,  reorganizing 
the  judiciary  department,  by  means  of  which  the 
twelve  judges  appointed  during  the  last  days  of  Mr. 
Adams's  administration,  were  deprived  of  their  offices. 
Another  bill  was  passed  enlarging  the  rights  of  na- 
turalization. 

The  present  constitution  of  Kentucky  was  adopted 
this  year. 

A  second  census  of  the  United  States  was  also 
completed;  giving  a  population  of  5,319,762,  an  in- 
crease of  1,400,000  in  ten  years.  In  the  same  time 
the  exports  increased  from  nineteen  to  94,000,000, 
and  the  revenue  from  4,771,000  to  12,945,000  dol- 
lars. This  rapid  advance  in  the  career  of  prospe- 
rity, is  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  nations ;  and 
it  is  to  be  attributed  to  the  industrious  habits  of  the 
people,  and  their  excellent  political  institutions. 

During  this  year  congress  declared  war  against 
Tripoli. 

In  1802,  Ohio  was  admitted  as  an  independent 
state  into  the  union.  The  territory  of  this  state  was 
originally  claimed  by  Virginia  and  Connecticut,  and 
was  ceded  by  them  to  the  United  States,  at  different 
times  after  the  year  1781.  From  this  extensive 
and  fertile  tract  of  country  slavery  was  entirely 
excluded. 

In  1802,  the  port  of  New  Orleans  was  closed 
against  the  United  States.  The  king  of  Spain  hav- 
ing ceded  Louisiana  to  the  French,  the  Spanish 
intendant  was  commanded  to  make  arrangements  to 
deliver  the  country  to  the  French  commissioners 
In  consequence  of  this  order,  the  intendant  an- 
nounced that  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  should 
no  longer  be  permitted  to  deposit  their  merchan- 
dises and  effects  in  the  port  of  New  Orleans.  By 
this  prohibition,  the  western  states  were  in  dangei 
of  suffering  the  ruin  of  their  commerce,  and  greai 
agitation  was  excited  in  the  public  mind.  In  con 
gress,  a  proposition  was  made  to  take  the  whole 


country  by  force ;  but  reposing  just  confidence  in 
the  good  faith  of  the  government  whose  officers  had 
committed  the  wrong,  that  body  caused  friendly  and 
reasonable  representations  of  the  grievances  sus- 
tained, to  be  made  to  the  court  of  Spain,  and  the 
right  of  deposit  was  restored. 

Aware  of  the  danger  to  which  the  United  States 
would  be  perpetually  exposed,  while  Louisiana  re- 
mained in  the  possession  of  a  foreign  power,  pro- 
positions had  been  made  for  procuring  it  by  pur- 
chase. This  was  a  subject  of  much  discussion  and 

eeling.  But  by  a  treaty  concluded  at  Paris  in  1803, 
Louisiana,  comprising  all  that  immense  region  of 
country  extending  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Pa- 
cific ocean,  was  acquired  by  the  United  States,  as 
well  as  the  free  and  exclusive  navigation  of  the 
river.  The  sum  of  15,000,000  dollars  was  the  price 
of  these  newly  acquired  rights.  The  minority  were 

pposed  to  a  ratification  of  the  treaty,  contending 
that  the  sum  was  exorbitantly  large,  and  that  the 
navigation  of  the  river  could  have  been  secured  with- 
out such  heavy  pecuniary  sacrifices.  Mr.  Jefferson 
and  the  majority  of  congress  viewed  the  subject  in 
a  very  different  light.  They  considered  that  com- 
pared with  the  importance  of  the  object  attained, 
the  purchase  money  was  trifling.  That  the  pi'ospe- 
rity  of  all  the  western  states  was  dependent  on  the 
free  and  uninterrupted  navigation  of  the  waters  of 
the  Mississippi,  and  a  safe  depot  at  New  Orleans ; 
that  by  this  treaty  the  western  frontier  would  be 
protected  and  preserved  from  collisions  with  a  foreign 
power,  and  that  such  was  the  happy  organization  of 
the  American  government,  that,  it  was  fully  adequate 
for  the  security  and  protection  of  its  territories, 
however  extensive  they  might  be. 

Geographical  Notices  of  the  Country  in  1803. 

Population.  Population. 

Maine 150,896     New  York  . .     586,050 


New  Jersey..  211,149 

Pennsylvania  602,545 

Delaware....  64,273 

Ohio 76,000 


New  Hampshire    183,858 

Vermont 154,397 

Massachusetts..  422,630 
Rhode  Island..  69,122 
Connecticut..  251,002 

Indiana  territory  had  now  become  settled,  and  the 
number  of  its  inhabitants  was  ....  4,875 

Michigan 3,206 

Maryland    349,692 

Virginia. . . .     534,396  whites,  and  345,796  blacks 

Kentucky....     220,959   —   138,296 

Tennessee...        92,018    —      13,584 

South  Carolina  345,591    —     59,699 

Mississippi  ter- 
ritory      8,850 

Louisiana....     42,375 

Washington,  in  the  district  of  Columbia,  now 
made  the  capital  of  the  United  States,  contained  but 
4354  inhabitants.  For  the  principal  towns,  see 
geographies  of  the  present  day. 

The  following  colleges  were  existing  at  this  time : — 
Harvard,  Yale,  William  and  Mary's,  Columbia, 
Nassau  Hall,  Rhode  Island-college,  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania,  Washington-college  in  Chester- 
town,  Maryland,  Dickinson-college  in  Carlisle,  St. 
John's  in  Annapolis,  Cokesbury-college,  Franklin- 
college  in  Lancaster,  Pa.,  and  the  Roman  Catholic- 
college  in  Georgetown,  University  of  North  Caro- 
lina, Burlington-college,  Williams-college,  Union- 
college  at  Schenectady,  Grenville-college  at  Ten- 
nessee, Beaufort  and  Winsborough-colleges  in 
South  Carolina,  Bowdoin-college  in  the  district  of 
Maine,  the  Transylvania  University  at  Lexington, 
and  Middlebury-college. 


1098 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


The  following  Societies  were  all  formed  during 
this  period. 
(1790.)  The  Connecticut  Society  for  the  Abolition 

of  Slavery. 

The  Middlesex  Medical  Society,  (Mass.) 
(1791.)  The  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Agricul- 
ture, Arts,  and  Sciences,  at  New  York. 
(1792.)  The  Massachusetts  Agricultural  Society. 
(1793.)   The   Marine   Society  of  South  Carolina. 
(1794.)  The  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  and 

the  Boston  Library  Society. 
A  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Christian 

Knowledge,  at  New  York. 
A  Medical  Society  in  Vermont. 
(1796.)  The  New  York  Missionary  Society. 
(1799.)  The  East  India  Marine  Society  of  Salem. 
The  Missionary  Society  of  Massachusetts. 
The  North  Carolina  Medical  Society. 
(1801.)  The    Connecticut    Academy   of  Arts    and 

Sciences. 

(1802.)  The  Massachusetts  Baptist  Missionary  So- 
ciety. 

(1803.)  The  Massachusetts  Society  for  the  Promo- 
tion of  Christian  knowledge. 

Catalogue  of  Eminent  Men  who  died  during  the 
period  extending  from  1789  to  1803. 

(1789.)  Ethan  Allen,  a  brigadier-general  in  the 
American  army. 

John  Ledyard,  an  enterprising  traveller. 

John    Morgan,    M.D.,    F.R.S.,   a   learned 

physician. 

(1790.)  Joseph  Belamy,  D.D.,  a  learned  divine — 
author  of  a  treatise  entitled  "  True  Re- 
ligion Delineated." 

James  Bowdoin,  LL.D.,  a  distinguished 
philosopher  and  statesman,  and  first  pre- 
sident of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts 
and  Sciences. 

David  Br early,  distinguished  as  a  lawyer 
and  a  statesman. 

Benjamin  Franklin,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.,  a  ce- 
lebrated philosopher  and  statesman. 

William  Livingston,  author  of  a  poem  called 
"  Philosophical  Solitude,"  "  Miscella- 
neous pieces  in  prose  and  verse,"  &c. 

Israel  Putnam,  a  major-general  in  the  Ame- 
rican army. 

(1791.)  Lyman  Hall,  one  of  the  signers  of  the  de- 
claration of  independence. 

Francis  Hopkinson,  one  of  the  signers  of 
the  declaration  of  independence. 

John  Wesley,  the  great  founder  of  Metho- 
dism. 

(1792.)  Henry  Laurens,  president  of  congress,  and 
a  distinguished  patriot. 

Arthur  Lee,  M.D.,  a  distinguished  states- 
man, 

John  Paul  Jones,  a  captain  in  the  American 

navy. 

(1793.)  John  Hancock,  president  of  congress,  and 
a  distinguished  patriot. 

Roger    Sherman,   a  distinguished   patriot, 
and  one  of  the  signers  of  the  declaration 
of  independence. 
(1794.)  Richard  Henry  Lee,  president  of  congress. 

Frederic  William  Steuben,  major-general 
in  the  army  of  the  American  revolution. 

John  Witherspoon,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  one  of 
the  signers  of  the  declaration  of  inde- 
pendence, and  president  of  Princeton- 
college. 


(1795.)  Josiah  Bartlett,  M.D,  one  of  the  signers  of 
the  declaration  of  independence. 

William  Bradford,  attorney-general  of  the 
United  States. 

Ezra  Stiles,  D.D.,  president  of  Yale-col- 
lege. 

John   Sullivan,    LL.D.,  major-general    of 

the  American  army. 
(1796.)  Samuel  Huntington,  one  of  the  signers  of 
the  declaration  of  independence. 

David  Rittenhouse,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.,  a  dis- 
tinguished philosopher  and  astronomer. 

Anthony  Wayne,  major-general  in  the  army 

of  the  United  States. 
(1797  )  Daniel  Morgan,   brigadier-general  in    the 
army  of  the  United  States. 

Oliver  Wolcott,  LL.D.,  one  of  the  signers 

of  the  declaration  of  independence. 
(1798.)  Jeffrey  Amherst,  a  celebrated  English  ge- 
neral. 

Jeremy  Belknap,  D.D.,  eminent  as  a  divine 
and  historian — author  of  a  "  History  of 
New  Hampshire,"  "  American  Biogra- 
phy," &c. 

George  Read,  one  of  the  signers  of  the  de- 
claration of  independence. 
(1799.)  Patrick  Henry,  a  distinguished  patriot  and 
statesman. 

George  Washington. 

(1800.)  Thomas  MinHin,  major-general  in  the  army 
of  the  United  States. 

Edward  Rutledge,  one  of  the  signers  of  the 
declaration  of  independence. 

John  Rutledge,  a  celebrated  patriot,  gover- 
nor of  South  Carolina,  and  invested  by 
that  state  with  dictatorial  powers. 

Artemas  Ward,  first  major-general  in  the 

American  army. 

(1801.)  Benedict  Arnold,  in  the  early  part  of  his 
life  was  distinguished  for  bravery,  and 
was  a  major-general  of  the  American 
army ;  but  afterwards  deserted  the  cause 
of  his  country. 

Jonathan  Edwards,  president  of  Union-col- 
lege, Schenectady,  N.  Y. 

(1 802.)  George  Richards  Minot,  an  historian  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, author  of  a  "  History  of  Mas- 
sachusetts Bay." 

War  with  Tripoli — Possession  taken  of  Derne — A 
peace  concluded — General  Hamilton  killed  in  a 
duel — Jefferson  again  elected  president — Dispute 
with  Enyland — Colonel  Burr's  projects — His  trial 
and  acquittal. 

In  the  meantime,  the  semi-barbarous  nations  which 
inhabit  the  southern  shores  of  the  Mediterranean, 
had  commenced  depredations  on  the  American  com- 
merce. Tripoli,  in  particular,  had  intimated  to  the 
government  that  the  only  method  of  securing  their 
commerce,  was  the  payment  of  tribute.  This  led  to 
a  war  between  that  power  and  the  United  States. 

In  prosecution  of  this  war,  the  United  States  had, 
during  the  year  1801,  sent  out  Commodore  Dale, 
with  a  squadron  of  two  frigates  and  a  sloop  of  war. 
By  blockading  the  harbour  of  Tripoli,  he  prevented 
the  piratical  cruisers  from  leaving  it,  and  thus  af- 
forded protection  to  the  American  commerce. 

Early  in  the  year  1803,  congress,  bent  on  more 
efficient  operations  against  their  barbarian  enemy, 
sent  out  Commodore  Preble,  with  a  squadron  of 
seven  sail.  In  October,  one  of  his  ships,  the  frigate 
Philadelphia,  Captain  Bainbridge,  was  sent  into  the 


UNITED  STATES. 


1099 


harbour  of  Tripoli  to  reconnoitre;  and  while  in  pur- 
suit of  a  small  vessel,  he  unfortunately  proceeded 
so  far  that  the  Philadelphia  was  grounded,  and  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  The  officers  were 
considered  as  prisoners,  and  the  crew  treated  as 
slaves. 

As  soon  as  the  news  of  the  capture  of  the  Phila- 
delphia reached  the  squadron,  Stephen  Decatur,  who 
held  a  lieutenancy  under  Commodore  Preble,  con- 
ceived the  design  of  recapturing  or  destroying  it. 
Having  obtained  the  consent  of  the  commodore,  he 
armed  a  small  ketch,  the  Intrepid,  and  sailed  from 
Syracuse,  February  1804,  with  seventy  men.  He 
entered  the  harbour  of  Tripoli  undiscovered,  and  ad- 
vancing boMly,  took  a  station  along-side  of  the 
frigate,  which  was  moored  within  gun-shot  of  the 
bashaw's  castle  and  of  the  principal  battery.  Two 
of  the  enemy's  cruisers  lay  within  two  cables'  length, 
and  all  the  guns  of  the  frigate  were  mounted  and 
loaded.  Decatur  sprang  on  board,  and  his  intrepid 
crew  rushed,  sword  in  hand,  upon  the  astonished 
and  terrified  Tripolitans  ;  killed  and  drove  them  into 
the  sea  and  were  soon  masters  of  the  frigate.  The 
situation  of  Decatur  and  his  crew  became  perilous 
from  the  artillery  of  the  battery  which  now  began  to 
be  poured  in  upon  them.  The  corsairs  in  the  har- 
bour were  approaching,  and  they  had  no  time  to 
lose  in  making  their  escape.  They  set  fire  to  the 
Philadelphia,  left  her,  and  were  soon  out  of  the 
reach  of  their  pursuers,  having  accomplished  this 
daring  enterprise  without  the  loss  of  a  single  man. 

In  the  month  of  August,  Commodore  Preble  went 
three  times  into  the  harbour  of  Tripoli,  and  opened 
the  broadsides  of  his  fleet  upon  the  shipping  and 
the  batteries  of  the  city.  Although  the  Americans 
destroyed  some  of  the  Tripolitan  shipping,  yet  they 
failed  of  making  any  material  impression  upon  the 
fortifications.  Meantime,  the  barbarians  treatec 
the  American  prisoners  with  every  degree  of  in- 
dignity and  cruelty.  Captain  Bainbridge,  who,  with 
bis  crew,  had  remained  in  captivity  since  the  capture 
of  the  Philadelphia,  vainly  endeavoured  to  obtain 
some  mitigation  of  their  sufferings.  Their  country 
deeply  commiserated  their  distresses,  and  congress 
was  ready  to  listen  to  any  proposition  which  affordet 
a  reasonable  prospect  of  their  relief. 

In  1803,  Captain  William  Eaton,  on  his  return 
from  Tunis,  where  he  had  been  consul,  representec 
to  the  government,  that  his  joint  operation  with  ar 
elder  and  expelled  brother  of  the  reigning  bashaw  o 
Tripoli,  might  be  useful.  Permission  was  given 
him  to  undertake  the  enterprise,  and  such  supplies 
granted  as  could  be  afforded,  and  the  co-operation  o 
the  fleet  recommended.  In  1801,  Eaton  was  ap 
pointed  navy  agent  of  the  United  States,  for  th 
Barbary  powers.  After  reaching  Malta,  he  left  the 
American  fleet,  and  proceeded  to  Cairo  and  Alex 
andria,  where  he  formed  a  convention  with  Hamet 
who  hoped,  by  attacking  the  usurper  in  his  domi 
nions,  to  regain  his  throne.  For  this  purpose,  an 
army  was  to  be  raised  in  Egypt,  where  Hamet  hac 
been  kindly  received,  and  presented  with  a  militar 
command  by  the  Mameluke  Bey.  Early  in  1805 
Eaton  was  appointed  general  of  Hamet's  forces 
From  Egypt,  he  marched  with  a  few  hundred  troops 
principally  Arabs,  across  a  desert  1000  miles  in  ex 
tent,  to  Derne,  a  Tripolitan  city  on  the  Mediter 
ranean.  In  this  harbour  he  found  a  part  of  th 
American  fleet,  which  was  destined  to  assist  him 
He  learned,  also,  that  the  usurper,  with  a  consider 
able  force,  was  within  a  few  days'  march  of  the  city 
The  next  morning,  he  summoned  the  governor  ( 


)erne  to  surrender,  who  returned  for  answer,  "  my 
ead  or  yours."  He  then  commenced  an  assault 
pon  the  city,  and,  after  a  contest  of  two  hours  and 
half,  took  possession  of  it.  General  Eaton  was 
ounded,  and  his  army  suffered  severely,  but 
mmediate  exertions  were,  notwithstanding,  made 

fortify  the  city.  On  the  8th  of  May,  it  was 
ttacked  by  the  Tripolitan  army.  Although  the  as- 
ailants  were  ten  times  more  numerous  than  Eaton's 
and,  yet,  after  persisting  four  hours  in  the  at- 
empt,  they  were  compelled  to  retire.  On  the  ]0th 
t  June,  another  battle  was  fought,  in  which  Eaton 
,-as  again  victorious.  The  next  day,  the  American 
rigate  Constitution  arrived  in  the  harbour,  and  the 
^ripolitans  fled  precipitately  to  the  desert.  While 
he  impression  resulting  from  the  bravery  displayed 
at  Derne,  operated  at  Tripoli,  and  an  attack  upon 
hat  city  was  daily  expected  from  the  United  Stales' 
quadron,  Colonel  Lear,  the  consul  at  Tripoli, 
bought  it  the  best  moment  to  listen  to  the  terms  of 
)eace  offered  by  the  bashaw.  He  did  so,  and  it  was 
tipulated,  that  a  mutual  delivery  of  prisoners  should 
,ake  place;  among  whom  were  Captain  Bainbridge, 
vith  the  officers  and  crew  of  the  Philadelphia ;  and, 
is  the  bashaw  had  a  balance  of  more  than  200  pri- 
;oners  in  his  favour,  he  was  to  receive  60,000  dollars 
or  them.  It  was  also  understood,  that  all  support 
rom  Hamet  was  to  be  withdrawn,  and  hostilities 
were  to  cease.  It  was,  however,  stipulated,  that  on 
Hamet's  retiring  from  the  territory,  his  wife  and 
children,  then  in  the  power  of  the  reigning  bashaw, 
should  be  given  up  to  him.  Thus  ended  the  war 
u  the  Mediterranean. 

In  July,  1804,  occurred  the  death  of  General 
Alexander  Hamilton.  He  died  in  a  duel  fought 
with  Aaron  Burr,  vice-president  of  the  United 
States.  Colonel  Burr  had  addressed  a  letter  to 
General  Hamilton,  requiring  his  denial  or  acknow- 
ledgment of  certain  offensive  expressions  contained 
in  a  public  journal.  Hamilton  declining  to  give 
either,  Colonel  Burr  sent  him  a  challenge.  They 
met,  and  Hamilton  fell  at  the  first  fire.  His  death 
caused  a  deep  sensation  throughout  the  union.  The 
city  of  New  York  paid  extraordinary  honours  to  his 
remains.  General  Hamilton  was  so  much  the  idol 
of  one  of  the  great  political  parties,  and  the  aversion 
of  the  other,  and  in  such  opposite  terms  is  his  poli- 
tical character  delineated  by  the  writings  and  men 
of  his  time,  that  impartial  history  scarcely  dares  as 
yet,  to  pronounce  the  estimate  of  his  merits  as  a  po- 
litician. As  a  man  of  great  talents,  of  powerful 
eloquence,  as  a  scholar,  and  as  a  gentleman,  Ha- 
milton stood  pre-eminent. 

In  the  meantime,  Mr.  Jefferson  received  his  se- 
cond presidential  election  ;  and  such  was  his  popu- 
larity, that  out  of  176  votes,  he  received  162.  George 
Clinton  of  New  York  was  chosen  vice-president. 
They  were  sworn  into  office  on  the  4th  of  March, 
1805. 

Mr.  Jefferson  on  entering  upon  the  discharge  of 
the  duties  of  the  second  term  of  his  administration, 
although  a  decided  majority  in  both  houses  of  con- 
gress were  friendly  to  the  principles  of  government 
by  which  he  was  actuated,  perceived  himself  to  be 
placed  in  a  more  critical  situation  than  at  any  former 
period  of  his  public  life.  The  manner  in  which  Eu- 
ropean wars  were  conducted,  created  apprehensions 
in  the  minds  of  the  American  citizens,  that  their 
rights  and  liberties  would  not  only  be  endangered, 
but  sacrificed. 

The  wise  policy  of  America  had  been  eminently 
conspicuous  in  maintaining  a  steady  system  of  neu- 


1100 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


trality,  during  the  whole  of  those  wars  which  broke 
out  in  consequence  of  the  French  revolution.  Her 
neutrality  enabled  her  to  profit  by  the  colonial  com- 
merce of  France  and  Spain,  as  also  the  whole  branch 
of  European  trade,  which,  in  consequence  of  the 
general  war,  could  not  be  transported  with  native 
ships.  France,  in  the  meantime,  had  become  a  na- 
tion of  soldiers.  She  had  repelled  her  invaders,  and 
placed  at  the  head  of  her  republic  a  man  whose 
vast  mental  powers  and  resources  had  acquired  con- 
trol  over  most  of  the  European  kingdoms.  Buona- 
parte had  made  a  stand  against  the  maritime  pre- 
dominance of  Britain,  while  that  nation,  with  equal 
vigour,  resisted  his  usurpations  on  land. 

On  two  subjects  Britain  and  America  were  also 
at  issue.  One  was  respecting  what  the  former  power 
denominated  "  the  right  of  search  ;"  by  which,  on 
various  pretences,  she  assumed  and  exercised  an 
authority  to  search  the  vessels  of  other  nations.  An- 
other subject  in  dispute  was,  that  of  expatriation. 
England  maintained  that  a  man  once  a  subject,  was 
always  a  subject ;  and  that  no  act  of  his  could 
change  his  allegiance  to  the  government  under  which 
he  was  born. 

This  difference  in  principles  on  the  subjects  of 
the  right  of  search,  and  that  of  expatriation,  pro- 
duced the  difficulties  between  the  two  nations,  on 
the  subject  of  the  impressment  of  American  seamen. 
Officers  of  British  ships,  in  the  exercise  of  the 
pretended  right  of  search,  entered  American  vessels, 
and  impressed  from  thence  certain  seamen,  whom 
they  claimed  as  British  subjects,  because  they  were 
born  in  Great  Britain  ;  while  the  same  men,  having 
become  naturalized  in  America,  were  regarded  by 
that  power  as  her  citizens.  The  practice  of  impress- 
ment thus  begun,  did  not  end  here,  but  proceeded 
to  extremes  that  the  Americans  considered  unjusti- 
fiable on  any  principles. 

America,  'thus  situated,  was  meditating  measures 
for  the  defence  of  her  commerce,  when  she  received 
from  both  the  belligerents  fresh  cause  of  provocation. 
Great  Britain,  under  the  administration  of  Fox,  is- 
sued a  proclamation,  May  J806,  blockading  the 
coast  of  the  continent,  from  Elbe  to  Brest.  The 
French  government,  exasperated  at  this  measure, 
retaliated  by  the  decree  issued  at  Berlin,  November 
21st,  declaring  the  British  Isles  in  a  state  of  block- 
ade. Thus  each  nation  declared  in  effect,  that  no 
neutral  power  should  trade  with  the  other. 

In  1807,  the  public  attention  was  again  directed 
to  Colonel  Burr.  He  had  lost  the  confidence  of  the 
republican  party,  by  his  supposed  intrigues  against 
Mr.  Jefferson,  for  the  office  of  president,  and  exci- 
ted the  indignation  of  the  whole  federal  party  by  his 
encounter  with  Hamilton.  Thus  situated,  he  had 
retired  as  a  private  citizen  into  the  western  states. 
It  was  at  length  understood,  that  he  was  at  the  head 
of  a  great  number  of  individuals,  who  were  arming 
and  organizing  themselves  ;  purchasing  and  build- 
ing boats  on  the  Ohio.  Their  ostensible  object  was 
peaceful  and  agricultural.  It  was  to  form  a  settle- 
ment on  the  banks  of  the  Washita,  in  Louisiana. 
Their  boats,  it  was  said,  were  calculated  to  accom- 
modate families  who  were  removing  to  their  settle- 
ments. But  the  vigilant  eye  of  government  was 
upon  their  leader ;  and,  as  the  nature  and  designs 
of  his  movements  were  suspected,  he  was  closely 
scrutinized  ;  prosecutions  were  instituted  against  him 
in  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  and  in  the  Mississippi  ter- 
ritory, from  which,  as  proof  of  guilt  was  wanting, 
he  was  discharged.  At  length,  these  suspicions 
gaining  strength,  he  was  apprehended  on  the  Toin- 


bigbee  river,  in  Missouri  territory,  in  February 
1807,  brought  to  Richmond  under  military  escort, 
and  committed  in  order  to  take  his  trial  upon  two 
charges  exhibited  against  him  on  the  part  of  the 
United  States.  First,  for  a  high  misdemeanor,  in 
setting  on  j,foot  withitTthe  United  States  a  military 
expedition  against  the  king  of  Spain,  with  whom 
the  Uuited  States  were  at  peace;  second,  for  treason 
in  assembling  an  armed  force,  with  a  design  to  seize 
the  city  of  New  Orleans,  to  revolutionize  the  terri- 
tory attached  to  it,  and  to  separate  the  Atlantic 
states  from  the  western.  It  was  supposed  that  he 
intended  to  make  New  Orleans  the  seat  of  his  do- 
minions, and  the  capital  of  his  empire.  In  August, 
after  a  trial  before  Judge  Marshall,  the  chief  justice 
of  the  United  States,  evidence  of  his  guilt  not  being 
presented,  he  was  acquitted  by  the  jury. 

The  Chesapeake  searched^Mr.  Madison  elected  presi 
sident — Erskine's  treaty — Indians  commence  hostiti' 
ties — Battle  of  Tippecanoe — Henry's  secret  mission 

In  June  of  this  year  (1807),  an  alleged  outrage 
was  committed  upon  the  United  States'  frigate,  the 
Chesapeake,  by  the  British  ship  of  war  Leopard, 
which  produced  throughout  the  country  a  general 
burst  of  indignation.  The  Chesapeake,  commanded 
by  Commodore  Barron,  having  been  ordered  on  a 
cruise  in  the  Mediterranean,  sailed  from  Hampton 
Roads  on  the  22nd  of  June.  She  had  proceeded  but 
a  few  leagues  from  the  coast,  when  she  was  over- 
taken by  the  Leopard.  A  British  officer  came  on 
board,  with  an  order  from  Vice-admiral  Berkely,  to 
take  from  the  Chesapeake  three  men,  alleged  to  be 
deserters  from  the  Melampus  frigate.  These  men, 
it  appears,  were  American  citizens,  who  had  been 
impressed  by  the  British,  but  had  deserted,  and  en- 
listed in  the  American  service.  Commodore  Barron 
replied  to  the  British  officer  in  terms  of  politeness, 
but  refused  to  have  his  crew  mustered  for  examina- 
tion, by  any  officers  but  his  own.  Commodore 
Barron  was  unprepared  for  an  attack,  not  contem- 
plating the  possibility  of  meeting  an  enemy  so  near 
the  Capes;  but,  during  this  interview,  he  noticed 
preparations  on  board  the  Leopard,  indicative  of  u 
hostile  disposition,  and  he  immediately  gave  orders  to 
prepare  for  action.  But  before  any  efficient  prepa- 
rations could  be  made,  the  Leopard  opened  a  broad- 
side upon  the  Chesapeake.  After  receiving  her  fire 
about  30  minutes,  during  which  time  the  Americans 
had  t'oree  men  killed,  and  eighteen  wounded,  Com- 
modore Barron  ordered  the  colours  to  be  struck.  An 
officer  from  the  Leopard  came  on  board,  and  took 
four  men,  the  three  who  had  been  previously  de- 
manded, and  another,  who,  they  affirmed,  had  de- 
serted from  a  merchant  vessel.  Commodore  Barron 
observed,  that  he  considered  the  Chesapeake  a  prize 
of  the  Leopard.  The  officer  replied,  "  No,"  he  had 
obeyed  his  orders  in  taking  out  the  men,  and  had 
nothing  further  to  do  with  her.  This  event  produced 
great  excitement.  That  rancour  of  party  which  had 
so  long  embittered  all  the  intercourse  of  social  life, 
was  lost  in  the  general  desire  to  avenge  a  common 
wrong.  The  president,  by  proclamation,  commanded 
all  British  armed  vessels  within  the  harbours  or 
waters  of  the  United  States,  to  depart  from  the  same 
without  delay,  and  prohibited  others  from  entering. 
Mr.  Monroe,  the  American  minister  in  London,  was 
instructed  to  demand  reparation  ;  and  a  special  con- 
gress was  called. 

In  November,  Britain  issued  her  orders  in  council, 
a  measure  declared  to  be  in  retaliation  of  the  French 
decree  of  November  1806.  These  orders  in  council 


UNITED  STATES. 


1101 


prohibited  all  neutral  nations  from  trading  with 
France,  or  her  allies,  except  upon  the  condition  of 
paying  tribute  to  England.  This  was  immediately 
followed  by  a  decree  of  Buonaparte,  at  Milan,  which 
declared  that  every  vessel  which  should  submit  to  be 
searched  or  pay  tribute  to  the  English,  should  be 
confiscated  if  found  within  his  ports. 

Thus  was  the  commerce  of  America  subjected  to 
utter  ruin,  as  almost  all  her  vessels  were,  on  some 
of  these  pretences,  liable  to  capture.  The  Ameri- 
can government,  after  much  discussion,  resorted  to 
an  embargo  on  their  own  vessels,  as  a  measure  best 
fitted  to  the  crisis.  This  would  effectually  secure 
the  mercantile  property,  and  the  mariners  now  at 
home,  and  also  those  who  were  daily  arriving;  and, 
at  the  same  time,  it  would  not  be  a  measure  of  war, 
or  a  just  cause  of  hostility. 

Mr.  Monroe  was  instructed  not  only  to  demand 
satisfaction  for  the  Chesapeake,  but  to  obtain  se- 
curity against  future  impressment!  from  American 
ships.  But  Mr.  Canning,  the  British  minister,  ob- 
jected to  uniting  these  subjects,  and  Mr.  Monroe 
was  not  authorized  to  treat  them  separately.  Mr. 
Rose  was  sent  envoy-extraordinary  to  the  United 
States,  to  adjust  the  difficulty  which  had  arisen  on 
account  of  the  Chesapeake.  In  1808,  Commodore 
Barron  was  tried  for  prematurely  surrendering  that 
frigate. 

In  1809,  Mr.  Jefferson's  second  term  of  office 
having  expired,  he  declared  his  wish  to  retire  from 
public  life,  and  Mr.  Madison  who  had  during  Mr. 
Jefferson's  administration  held  the  important  office 
of  secretary  of  state,  was  elected  president.  Mr. 
George  Clinton  of  New  York  was  re-elected  vice- 
president. 

While  all  the  citizens  of  America  were  indignant 
at  the  treatment  of  their  country  by  the  belligerent 
powers,  a  diversity  of  opinion  prevailed  with  regard 
to  the  method  adopted  by  government  to  prevent 
further  aggression.  The  embargo  convulsed  the 
whole  nation,  and  produced  the  most  violent  oppo- 
sition. The  commercial  states  inveighed  against  it 
as  ruinous  ;  bringing  in  its  train  poverty  and  dis- 
tress. Individuals  throughout  the  nation  seized  op- 
portunities of  infringing  it,  and  its  restrictions  could 
tiot  be  enforced  in  the  eastern  states  without  the  aid 
of  a  military  force.  Thus  circumstanced,  the  go- 
vernment repealed  the  embargo,  and  substituted  an- 
other law,  prohibiting  for  one  year  all  intercourse 
with  France  or  Great  Britain.  A  provision  was 
made  in  this  law,  that  should  either  of  the  hostile 
nations  revoke  her  edict,  so  that  the  neutral  com- 
merce of  the  United  States  should  be  no  longer 
violated,  the  president  should  immediately  make  it 
known  by  proclamation,  and  from  that  time  the  non- 
intercourse  law  should  cease  to  be  enforced  as  it  re- 
garded that  nation. 

On  pretence  of  retaliating  upon  America  for  sub- 
mitting to  the  outrages  of  England,  Buonaparte 
issued  his  decree  of  Rambouillet,  which  authorized 
the  seizure  and  confiscation  of  American  vessels 
which  were  then  in  the  ports  of  France,  or  mighl 
afterwards  enter,  excepting  those  charged  with  dis- 
patches to  the  government. 

In  April  a  treaty  was  concluded  with  Mr.  Erskine 
the  British  minister  at  Washington,  which  engager 
on  the  part  of  Great  Britain,  that  the  orders  in 
council  so  far  as  they  affected  the  United  States 
should  be  withdrawn.'  The  British  ministry,  how- 
ever, refused  to  ratify  this  treaty;  they  denied  th< 
authority  of  that  minister  to  make  such  a  treaty, 
and  immediately  recalled  him.  His  successor,  Mr 


rackson,  insinuated  in  a  correspondence  with  the 
ecretary  of  state,  that  the  American  government, 
cnew  that  Mr.  Erskine  was  not  authorized  to  make 
he  arrangement.  This  was  distinctly  denied  by 
he  secretary,  but  was  repeated  by  Mr.  Jackson, 
rhe  president  then  declined  receiving  any  further 
communications  from  him.  In  May  1810,  the  non- 
ntercourse  law  expired,  and  government  made  pro- 
msals  to  both  the  belligerent  powers,  that  if  either 
would  revoke  its  hostile  edicts,  this  law  should  only 

revived  and  enforced  against  the  other  nation.  It 
lad  ever  been  the  policy  of  America,  to  avoid  be- 
coming a  party  in  the  European  wars,  and  to  regard 
;ach  belligerent  as  standing  on  equal  ground.  The 
aw  was  applicable  to  both,  and  if  it  made  a  distinc- 
ion  in  its  operation  between  the  belligerents,  it 
must  necessarily  result  from  a  compliance  of  one, 
with  an  offer  made  to  both,  but  which  would  still  be 
open  to  the  acceptance  of  the  other.  France  re- 
pealed her  decrees,  and  the  president  issued  a  pro- 
clamation on  the  2nd  of  November,  in  which  he 
declared  that  all  the  restrictions  imposed  by  the  non- 
ctercourse  law  should  cease  in  relation  to  France 
and  her  dependencies.  Great  Britain  was  now 
called  on  to  fulfil  her  engagement,  by  revoking  her 
orders  in  council.  She  refused  on  pretence  that  the 
revocation  of  the  French  decrees  had  not  actually 
taken  effect. 

The  population  of  the  United  States  by  the  third 
census  of  1810,  was  7,239,903. 

Among  the  occurrences  produced  by  British  ships 
hovering  off  America,  was  an  encounter  near  Cape 
Charles,  between  the  American  frigate  President, 
commanded  by  Commodore  Rogers,  and  the  British 
sloop  of  war,  Little  Belt,  commanded  by  Captain 
Bingham.  The  attack  was  commenced  by  the  Little 
Belt,  but  she  was  soon  disabled,  and  thirty-two  of 
her  men  killed  and  wounded. 

Menacing  pi-eparations,  and  the  appearance  of  a 
combination  had  been  discovered  among  the  Indians 
on  the  western  frontier,  who  watching  the  hostile 
feelings  existing  between  the  United  States  and 
Great  Britain,  considered  this  a  favourable  oppor- 
tunity for  them  to  commence  their  depredations. 
They  accordingly  collected  on  the  Wabash,  and 
under  the  influence  of  a  fanatic  of  the  Shawanese 
tribe,  who  styled  himself  a  prophet,  and  of  his  bro- 
ther, the  famous  chief  Tecumseh,  they  committed 
the  usual  atrocities  of  their  barbarian  warfare. 

Governor  Harrison  of  the  Indiana  territory,  was 
directed  to  march  against  them  with  a  force  consist- 
ing of  regulars  and  the  militia  of  the  territory.  On 
the  16th  of  November,  Governor  Harrison  met 
a  number  of  Indian  messengers  at  Tippecanoe,  their 
principal  town,  and  a  suspension  of  hostilities  was 
agreed  upon  until  next  day,  when  an  interview  was 
to  be  had  with  the  prophet  and  his  chiefs. 

On  the  meeting  of  General  Harrison  with  the 
chiefs,  occurred  a  noble  flash  of  aboriginal  elo- 
quence. Tecumseh  was  not  present  when  the 
council  assembled.  As  he  entered  he  was  told  that 
his  father  (meaning  General  Harrison)  had  reserved 
a  seat  for  him  next  himself.  "  My  father,"  said  Te- 
cumseh, "  the  Great  Spirit  is  my  father, — the  earth 
is  my  mother,  and  upon  her  breast  will  1  recline  !" 

In  Tecumseh,  we  find  much  to  remind  us  of 
Philip,  of  Mount  Hope.  Like  Philip,  he  possessed 
in  addition  to  the  general  characteristics  of  the 
American  savage,  a  comprehensive  mind  capable  of 
forming  and  persevering  in  a  great  and  complicated 
plan  ;  and,  as  with  Philip,  the  love  of  country  and 
the  love  of  right,  appear  to  have  been  blended  in 


1102 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


his  mind,  with  the  thirst  for  human  blood.  The  plan 
of  Tecumsch,  like  that  of  Philip,  was  to  unite  the 
scattered  tribes  of  his  countrymen  against  the  whites; 
and  for  this  purpose,  he  visited  and  stirred  up  the 
Indians  to  war,  by  his  savage  and  powerful  eloquence. 

Warned  by  the  fate  of  so  many  American  armies 
surprised  and  cut  off  by  the  savages,  General  Har- 
rison formed  his  men  in  order  of  battle;  and  thus 
they  reposed  upon  their  arms.  Just  before  day,  the 
faithless  savages  rushed  upon  the  Americans.  But 
their  war-whoop  was  not  unexpected.  The  Ameri- 
cans stood,  repelled  the  shock,  and  repulsed  the 
assailants.  Their  loss  was  however  severe,  being 
about  180  in  killed  and  wounded.  That  of  the 
Indians  was  170  killed,  and  100  wounded. 

Mr.  Foster,  who  succeeded  Mr.  Jackson,  as  minis- 
ter from  England,  arrived  at  Washington  this  sum- 
mer. The  controversy  respecting  the  Chesapeake 
and  President  was  finally  adjusted.  The  British 
government  agreeing  to  make  provision  for  those 
seamen  who  were  disabled  in  the  engagement,  and 
for  the  families  of  those  who  were  killed.  The  two 
surviving  sailors  who  were  taken  from  the  Chesa- 
peake, were  to  be  restored.  But  no  change  of 
policy  was  exhibited  by  the  British  government. 
Their  right  to  search  American  vessels,  and  to  im- 
press American  seamen,  if  native-born  Britons,  was 
still  maintained ;  and  the  orders  in  coucil  were  en- 
forced with  the  greatest  rigour.  British  vessels 
were  for  this  purpose  stationed  before  many  of  the 
principal  harbours  in  the  United  States. 

In  consequence  of  the  French  decrees  being 
annulled,  commerce  with  France  had  again  com- 
menced. American  vessels  bound  for  French  ports, 
and  richly  laden,  were  captured  by  the  British. 
Not  less  "than  900  had  thus  fallen  into  their  hands 
since  the  year  1803. 

It  was  evident  that  Great  Britain  now  considered 
the  United  States  as  an  unwarlike  nation,  and  know- 
ing the  commercial  spirit  of  the  people,  expected 
that  restrictions  equivalent  to  their  own  would  be 
the  only  method  of  defence  to  which  the  govern- 
ment would  resort.  Forbearance  under  these  re- 
peated injuries  was  no  longer  a  virtue,  and  served 
only  to  invite  further  aggression. 

When  congress  assembled  in  November,  the  pre- 
sident laid  before  them  the  state  of  foreign  relations, 
and  recommended  that  the  United  States  should  be 
placed  in  an  attitude  of  defence.  The  representa- 
tives of  the  people  acted  in  accordance  with  their 
views.  Provision  was  made  for  the  increase  of  the 
regular  army  to  35,000  men,  and  for  the  enlargement 
of  the  navy.  A  law  was  enacted,  empowering  the 
president  to  borrow  eleven  millions  of  dollars  ;  the 
duties  on  imported  goods  were  doubled,  and  taxes 
were  subsequently  laid  on  domestic  manufactures, 
and  nearly  all  descriptions  of  property. 

On  the  25th  of  February,  1812,  Mr  Madison  laid 
before  congress  copies  of  certain  documents,  which 
proved  that  on  the  6th  of  February,  1809,  the 
British  government,  by  its  agent  Sir  James  Craig, 
governor  of  Canada,  had  sent  John  Henry  as  an 
emissary  into  the  United  States,  for  the  express  pur- 
pose of  insidiously  destroying  its  government,  by 
effecting,  if  possible,  the  disunion  of  its  parts.  The 
service  for  which  Henry  was  employed,  was  to  in- 
trigue with  the  leading  members  of  the  federal  party, 
draw  them  into  direct  communication  with  the  go- 
vernor of  Canada,  and  lead  them,  if  possible,  to 
form  the  eastern  part  of  the  union  into  a  nation  or 
province  dependent  on  Great  Britain. 

Henry   proceeded   through    Vermont   and   New 


Hampshire  to  Boston,  which  was  his  ultimate  desti- 
nation ;  but  he  returned  without  effecting  in  any 
degree  his  purpose.  This  failure  he  attributed 
solely  to  the  readiness  which  Mr.  Madison  had 
manifested  to  meet  the  conciliating  propositions  of 
Mr.  Erskine,  which  took  from  his  opponents  the 
power  of  making  him  and  his  administration  odious 
to  the  people,  by  representing  to  them  that  he  was 
in  the  interest  of  France.  Henry  having  vainly 
sought  from  Great  Britain  remuneration  for  this  dis- 
honourable service,  disclosed  the  whole  transaction 
to  the  American  government,  for  which  he  was  paid 
50,000  dollars  out  of  the  contingent  fund  for  foreign 
intercourse.  This  treacherous  attempt  made  by 
England  in  time  of  peace,  was  regarded  with  ab- 
horrence by  the  majority  of  both  parties,  and  was 
among  the  causes  which  led  to  the  war  which  soon 
ensued. 

War  declared — An  act  of  congress  to  raise  25,000  men 
——State  of  the  revenue — General  Dearborn  com-' 
mander-in-chief — Proceedings  of  the  army  of  the 
north-west — Hull's  operations — Hit  proclamation — 
Affair  at  the  river  Aux  Canards — Van  Horn  de- 
feated at  Brownstou-n — -Mackinaw,  surrendered — 
Dearborn's  armistice — Hull  abandons  Maiden — 
Battle  of  Maguaga — Captain  Heald  defeated — 
Hull  capitulates  —  /*  exchanged  —  Hit  trial  and 
sentence. 

In  April  1812,  congress  laid  an  embargo  for  90 
days,  upon  all  vessels  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
United  States.  Although  the  government  was  con- 
tinually making  preparation  for  war,  a  hope  was  yet 
cherished,  that  some  change  of  policy  would  take 
place  in  the  British  cabinet,  which  would  render  it 
unnecessary.  But  at  length,  finding  no  prospect  of 
such  a  change,  on  the  18th  of  June,  1812,  an  act 
was  passed,  declaring  war  with  Great  Britain.  In 
the  manifesto  of  the  president,  the  reasons  of  the  war 
were  stated  to  be,  "the  impressment  of  American 
seamen  by  the  British  ;  the  blockade  of  her  enemies' 
ports,  supported  by  no  adequate  force,  in  conse- 
quence of  which  the  American  commerce  had  been 
plundered  in  every  sea;  and  the  British  orders  in 
council."  Against  this  declaration,  the  represen- 
tatives of  the  federal  party,  constituting  a  small  mi- 
nority in  congress,  entered  their  solemn  protest. 

Thus  had  England  again  compelled  America  to 
resort  to  arms.  The  circumstances  of  the  country 
at  the  commencement  of  the  present  war,  were, 
however,  far  different  from  those  which  attended 
the  war  of  the  revolution.  A  government  had  been 
established,  which,  unlike  the  congress  of  that  pe- 
riod, could  not  only  recommend,  but  enforce.  The 
number  of  inhabitants  had  increased  from  about 
three  millions  to  nearly  eight  millions  ;  and  the  pe- 
cuniary resources  of  the  republic  had  advanced  in 
a  ratio  yet  greater  than  that  of  its  population.  These 
were  the  advantages  which  America  in  1812  pos- 
sessed over  America  in  1775;  but  there  were  points 
in  which  the  originators  of  the  revolution  were  in  a 
much  more  advantageous  situation  for  war,  than  that 
in  which  their  descendants,  37  years  afterwards, 
found  themselves  placed.  In  1775,  the  Ameri- 
cans were  comparatively  a  warlike  people.  They 
had  been  obliged  to  be  constantly  on  the  alert, 
to  defend  themselves  from  their  savage  foes.  A  con- 
test had  just  passed,  which  had  given  practical  ex- 
perience of  the  difficulties  and  hardships  of  war,  and 
consequently,  the  ability  to  face  its  dangers  and  en- 
dure its  fatigues.  This  war  was  also  eminently  cal- 
culated, both  by  its  misfortunes  and  successes,  to  im- 


UNITED  STATES. 


1103 


part  sound  maxims  in  the  military  art.  The  shame- 
ful inertness  and  disasters  of  the  first  campaign  of 
the  French  war,  the  energy  and  brilliant  successes  of 
the  last,  the  disgrace  of  Braddock,  and  the  glory  of 
Wolfe,  were  fresh  in  men's  minds ;  and  it  was  amidst 
these  scenes  that  the  military  character  of  the  leader 
of  the  revolutionary  army,  and  that  of  many  of  his 
officers,  was  formed. 

On  the  contrary,  in  1812,  a  season  of  30  years 
of  peace  and  prosperity  had  enervated  the  nation. 
Most  of  the  officers  of  the  revolution  slept  in 
honoured  graves.  There  were,  however,  a  few 
veterans  of  that  noble  band  remaining;  but  they 
were  not  of  those  who  had  stood  in  its  foremost  rank, 
and  they  had  already  passed  the  vigour  of  manhood; 
whose  best  energies  are  required  for  the  momentous 
duties  of  a  high  military  command.  Thus,  for  the 
army  to  be  raised  in  1812,  there  were  no  officers  in 
whom  entire  confidence  could  be  placed.  But  with 
the  best  of  officers,  very  great  difficulties  must  have 
been  encountered,  from  the  condition  of  the  troops. 

During  Mr.  Jefferson's  administration,  economy 
was  the  order  of  the  day.  Every  possible  retrench- 
ment of  national  expenditure  was  adopted;  and 
among  other  measures  of  this  nature,  was  the  cur- 
tailing of  the  army  and  navy.  Although  a  spirit  of 
prudence  in  money  affairs  is  highly  commendable, 
and  though  it  was  at  that  period  popular,  and  in 
many  respects  useful  to  the  country,  yet  it  may  now 
be  doubted,  whether  in  this  instance  it  did  not  dege- 
nerate into  that  penny-wisdom  and  pound  foolish- 
ness, which  is  as  little  consistent  with  the  best  in- 
terests of  a  nation,  as  with  those  of  an  individual. 
The  national  debt,  it  is  true,  was  by  these  measures 
reduced  from  75,463,467  dollars,  to  36,656,932  dol- 
lars ;  but  by  the  increased  expenditures  of  the  war 
of  1812,  1813  and  1814,  it  amounted  in  1816  to 
123,016,375  dollars;  a  sura  exceeding  by  47,552,908, 
its  original  amount.  It  is  probable  that  many  o: 
the  misfortunes  of  the  country  might  have  been 
spared,  by  maintaining  during  peace  a  better  state 
of  preparation  for  war,  and  a  sum  of  money  even 
tually  saved,  far  greater  than  the  amount  of  the  re 
treuchment. 

In  1808,  the  regular  army  consisted  of  onlj 
3,000  men.  During  that  year,  the  government 
alarmed  by  the  increasing  aggressions  of  the  Euro 
pean  powers,  increased  it  to  9000.  In  January 
1812,  congress  voted  to  raise  an  additional  fore* 
of  25,000.  This  act  was,  however,  passed  so  shor 
a  time  previous  to  the  declaration  of  war,  that  no 
more  than  one-fourth  of  the  number  were  enlisted  a 
that  time ;  and  those  were  of  course  raw  and  undis 
ciplined. 

In  addition  to  the  regular  army,  the  presiden 
was  authorized  to  call  on  the  governors  of  the  state 
for  detachments  of  militia,  to  an  amount  not  exceed 
ing  100,000,  and  to  accept  the  services  of?  any  num 
ber  of  volunteers,  not  exceeding  50,000.  Thi 
species  of  force,  although  of  great  use  in  defence 
has  been  found  not  efficient  in  offensive  field  opera 
tions.  Thus  the  actual  efficient  force  at  the  com 
mencement  of  the  war  in  1812  was  small,  and  th 
troops  were  wholly  inexperienced. 

Nor  had  the  army  that  high  tone  of  public  feeling 
which  animated  the  soldiers  of  the  revolution.     Th 
occasion,  though  important,  was  not  so  overpowe 
ingly  momentous.     Indeed,    the  administration  r 
luctant  to  change  its  pacific  and  economical  policy 
had  suffered  the  highest  state  of  public  excitemen 
for  the  injuries  of  Britain  to  pass  away,  before  th 
declaration  of  war.    This  was  the  period  immediate 


ucceeding  the  outrage  upon  the  Chesapeake;  for 
hich  Britain  had  now  made  satisfaction.  The  na- 
on  felt  itself  so  keenly  wounded  by  that  insult,  that 
would  then  have  moved  simultaneously  to  the  vin- 
cation  of  its  rights.  But  while  the  government 
;layed  and  temporized,  the  warmth  of  public  feel- 
ig  in  a  measure  abated.  That  money-loving  spirit 
hich  the  administration  had  formerly  too  much 
ourted,  was  now  offended  by  the  operation  of  its  re- 
trictive  system  ;  and  its  political  enemies  had  taken 
dvantage  of  every  subject  of  discontent,  to  excite 
pposition  to  its  measures. 

The  state  of  the  revenue,  in  1812,  was  far  from 
eing  favourable  to  the  prosecution  of  an  expensive 
var.  Derived  almost  solely  from  duties  on  merchan- 
ise  imported,  it  was  abundant  in  a  state  of  com- 
mercial prosperity  ;  but  in  time  of  war  and  trouble, 
tie  aggressions  of  foreign  nations,  which  in  their 
peration  produced  an  increase  of  public  expendi- 
ure,  almost  destroyed  the  means  of  defraying  it. 
n  this  emergency,  congress  in  1812  authorized  a 
oan  of  11,000,000  of  dollars,  and  increased  one 
undred  per  cent,  the  duties  on  imported  goods  and 
he  tonnage  of  vessels. 

The  condition  of  the  navy  was  in  some  material 
espects  better  than  that  of  the  army.  The  situa- 
ion  of  the  United  States,  as  a  maritime  and  com- 
mercial nation,  keeps  her  provided  with  seamen, 
who  in  time  of  war,  being  transferred  from  mer- 
chant to  warlike  vessels,  are  already  disciplined  to 
naval  operations. 

The  recent  contest  with  the  Barbary  states  had 
given  to  the  officers  and  men  of  the  little  American 
lavy,  experience  in  war ;  and  their  successes  had 
uspired  them  with  confidence  in  themselves  and  in 
each  other.  Many  enterprising  individuals  of  the 
•epublic  converted  their  merchant  ships  into  priva- 
,eers  ;  but  the  vessels  belonging  to  the  government 
it  the  commencement  of  the  war  consisted  of  only 
en  frigates,  ten  sloops,  and  165  gun-boats.  This 
was  all  the  public  force  which  America  could  oppose 
,o  the  thousand  ships  of  the  proud  mistress  of  the 
ocean. 

Commodore  Preble  is  regarded  by  some  as  the 
main  spring  of  the  prosperity  of  the  American  navy. 
tt  is  said  that  the  officers  who  gained  so  much  fame 
'or  themselves  and  for  their  country,  were  almost  all 
formed  under  his  instructions. 

Among  the  few  survivors  of  the  revolutionary  war, 
was  Henry  Dearborn  of  Massachusetts,  who  was  ap- 
pointed major-general  and  commander-in-chief  of  the 
American  army.  His  head-quarters  were  at  Green- 
bush,  on  the  Hudson  river,  opposite  Albany.  Forces 
acting  under  his  direction,  mostly  composed  of  New 
York  militia,  were  stationed  at  Plattsburgh,  and  on 
the  Niagara  frontier :  those  at  the  latter  place  were, 
at  the  commencement  of  the  war,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Generals  Porter  and  Hall. 

About  a  year  before  the  declaration  of  war, 
William  Hull,  governor  of  the  Michigan  territory, 
had,  in  his  letters  to  the  government,  given  a  vie'w 
of  the  situation  of  the  country  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
upper  lakes.  He  reminded  the  administration  that 
they  possessed  in  that  region  three  military  posts, 
viz.,  Michilimakinack,  (usually  called  Mackinau,) 
Chicago,  and  Detroit.  He  asserted  that  the  British 
forces  at  Amherstburg,  (otherwise  called  Maiden,) 
and  at  St.  Joseph's,  were  about  equal  to  those  of  the 
United  States  at  the  three  stations  mentioned,  and 
that  should  the  militia  of  Upper  Canada  in  case  of 
war,  take  a  part,  they  were  twenty  to  one  superior 
to  those  of  Michigan,  the  province  containing 


1104 


HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


100,000,  the  territory  only  5000  inhabitants.  The 
adjacent  states,  he  said,  were  thinly  inhabited, 
and  needed  their  forces  for  their  own  defence. 
In  addition  to  the  superiority  in  population  on 
the  British  side,  General  Hull  warned  the  govern- 
ment that  they  must  expect  that  the  numerous 
Indian  tribes,  of  whose  services  the  humane  oplicy 
of  America  forbade  her  acceptance,  would,  in  the 
event  of  war,  (which  was  the  state  in  which  they 
most  delighted,)  unite  with  her  foe.  He  urged  the 
importance  of  Detroit,  as  being  the  key  of  the  north- 
ern country,  and  the  only  spot  from  which  the  In- 
dians could  be  kept  in  check.  He  stated  that  a 
wilderness  nearly  200  miles  in  extent,  and  in- 
fested by  savages,  separated  it  from  any  point 
from  which  it  could  draw  supplies,  and  advised  the 
administration  to  prepare  a  naval  force  on  Lake 
Erie,  superior  to  the  British,  and  sufficient  to  pre- 
serve their  communication.  If  the  government 
should  not  think  proper  to  listen  to  this  advice, 
Governor  Hull  suggested  as  the  next  most  expedient 
measure,  immediately  on  the  declaration  of  war,  to 
invade  Upper  Canada  by  a  powerful  army  from  Nia- 
gara, which  should  co-operate  with  a  force  from 
Detroit;  and  thus  take  possession  of  the  whole  pro- 
vince. And  he  gave  it  as  his  opinion,  that  unless 
one  or  the  other  of  these  measures  should  be  adopted, 
the  posts  of  Detroit,  Mackiuau,  and  Chicago,  must 
inevitably  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  To 
these  suggestions  of  Hull  may  in  part  be  traced  the 
plan  of  the  campaign  which  was  formed  at  Wash- 
ington, and  which  seems  to  have  had  the  conquest 
of  Montreal  for  its  "ultimate  object.  But  instead  of 
concentrating  the  force  and  moving  directly  to  this 
point,  the  American  troops  were  scattered  along  the 
extensive  northern  frontier.  It  was  intended  to  in- 
vade simultaneously  at  Detroit  and  Niagara,  with 
the  expectation  that  the  armies  from  these  places 
would  move  in  the  direction  of  Montreal,  and  be 
joined  on  the  way  by  the  force  stationed  at  Platts- 
burg. 

The  army,  destined  for  Detroit,  was  collected  at 
Dayton,  in  Ohio,  some  time  before  the  declaration 
of  war.  The  president  of  the  United  States  had 
made  a  requisition  of  1200  men  on  the  governor  of 
that  state.  This  number  was  immediately  filled 
by  volunteers,  who  were  divided  in  to  three  regiments, 
commanded  by  Colonels  M ' Arthur,  Cass,  and  Find- 
lay.  These  troops  were  joined  by  the  fourth  regi- 
ment of  infantry,  and  a  few  other  regulars,  amount- 
ing in  the  whole  to  about  300,  under  the  direction  of 
Colonel  Miller.  These,  together  with  a  few  strag- 
gling volunteers,  who  followed  the  army,  and  were 
included  in  the  return,  composed  the  whole  of  this 
force,  the  command  of  which  was  given  to  Governor 
Hull,  who  had  served  with  reputation  in  the  army  of 
Washington,  and  who  had  been  for  several  years 
the  governor  of  Michigan.  But  although  he  had 
been  a  brave  man  in  his  youth,  age  had  now  para- 
lyzed his  energies ;  nor  is  it  probable,  that  nature 
ever  gave  to  him  the  firmness,  decision,  and  activity, 
necessary  to  the  military  commander;  who  must 
often  in  war  reverse  the  maxims  of  peace,  as  he  often 
finds  himself  in  situations,  where,  to  be  long  in  de- 
liberation, and  slow  in  action,  is  a  i'atal  imprudence. 

The  general,  having  been  ordered  by  the  govern- 
ment to  proceed  to  Detroit,  and  there  to  wait  for 
further  orders,  the  army  left  Dayton  about  the  mid- 
dle of  June,  and,  passing  through  Stanton,  and  Ur- 
banna,  traversed  the  uncultivated  region  between 
the  latter  place,  and  the  rapids  of  the  Maumee,  or 
Miami  of  tl\e  lakes.  The  army  had  been  obliged  to 


remove  obstructions,  and  make  their  own  road. 
They  had  built  four  block-houses,  and  garrisoned 
them  with  the  disabled.  They  reached  the  Rapids 
on  the  30th  of  June.  On  the  26th,  four  days  pre- 
vious, General  Hull  had  received  by  express,  a 
letter  from  Mr.  Eustis,  the  secretary  of  war,  written 
on  the  morning  of  the  day  in  which  war  was  de- 
clared. This  letter  merely  reiterated  former  orders, 
and  contained  expressions  which  indicated  that  war 
would  soon  be  declared.  Expecting  to  be  informed, 
by  express,  when  the  declaration  actually  occurred, 
and  not  dreaming  that  the  British  could  be  in  pos- 
session of  such  important  intelligence  from  the  Ame- 
rican government  earlier  than  himself;  Hull,  for 
the  purpose  of  disencumbering  his  army,  and  facili- 
tating their  march,  hired  a  vessel,  which  had  sailed 
as  a  packet,  to  convey  to  Detroit  his  sick,  his  hospi- 
tal stores,  and  a  considerable  part  of  his  baggage. 
This  vessel,  which  sailed  on  the  first  of  July,  felf  into 
the  hands  of  the  British  near  Maiden,  who  had  been 
two  or  three  days  in  possession  of  the  information 
that  war  was  declared.  With  Hull's  private  bag- 
gage, his  aid-de-camp  unfortunately  had  placed  on 
board  the  vessel  a  trunk  of  public  papers,  by  means 
of  which  the  enemy  became  possessed  of  his  corre- 
spondence with  the  government  and  the  returns  of 
his  officers,  showing  the  number  and  condition  of 
his  troops. 

The  intelligence  of  the  declaration  of  war,  Gene- 
ral Hull  received  on  2nd  of  July,  in  a  second  letter 
from  Mr.  Eustis,  of  June  18th,  which  was  not  sent 
by  express,  but  by  mail. 

The  fortress  of  Maiden  or  Amherstburg,  garrisoned 
by  600  men,  and  commanded  by  Colonel  St.  George, 
was  the  strong  hold  of  the  British,  and  their  IndTan 
allies  for  the  province  of  Upper  Canada.  It  is  si- 
tuated on  the  Detroit  river,  near  its  entrance  into 
Lake  Erie.  On  the  opposite  American  bank,  is  the 
Indian  village  of  Brownstown,  through  which  passes 
the  road  from  Ohio  to  Detroit;  a  communication  on 
which  Hull,  in  the  event  of  the  British  keeping  pos- 
session of  the  lake,  must  depend  for  the  supplies  of 
his  army.  But  they  would  be  liable  to  be  cut  off,  as 
the  British,  having  command  of  the  waters,  could, 
at  any  time,  land  detachments  on  the  opposite  side. 
Thus,  for  Hull  to  proceed  from  the  Rapids  to  De- 
troit, was  to  advance  and  leave  an  enemy's  fortress 
in  his  rear.  The  orders  of  the  secretary  of  war  were, 
however,  explicit,  nor  do  we  learn  that  at  the  time 
the  American  general  remonstrated  with  the  govern- 
ment, although  he  afterwards  considered  this  as  the 
fatal  order  which  caused  his  misfortunes.  Pursuant 
to  this  mandate,  he  continued  his  march,  and  reached 
Detroit  on  the  5th  of  July.  Here  he  permitted  his 
army  to  rest  for  a  few  days,  from  their  toilsome 
march  through  the  wilderness,  the  fatigues  of  which 
they  had  borne  with  exemplary  patience.  The  Ame- 
ricans were  here  employed  in  cleaning  and  repairing 
their  arms,  which  were  at  the  commencement  of  the 
march  in  a  bad  condition,  especially  those  of  the 
Ohio  militia.  An  impatience  prevailed  to  cross  the 
river,  and  invade  Canada  immediately.  General 
Hull,  on  the  9th,  called  a  council  of  his  officers,  in 
which  he  explained  to  them,  that  his  directions  from 
the  government  were  to  remain  at  Detroit,  and 
await  further  orders,  and,  on  that  account,  he  could 
not  then  invade  Canada.  They,  however,  thought 
he  ought,  notwithstanding,  to  take  immediate  pos- 
session of  the  opposite  bank  of  the  river. 

On  the  same  day,  soon  after  the  breaking  up  of  the 
council,  General  Hull  received  a  letter  from  Mr. 
Eustis,  authorizing  him  to  commence  offensive  opera- 


UNITED  STATES. 


i!05 


tious,  and  saying,  that  "  should  the  force  under 
your  command  be  equal  to  the  enterprise,  and  con- 
sistent with  the  safety  of  your  own  posts,  you  will 
take  possession  of  Maiden,  and  extend  your  con- 
quests as  circumstances  will  allow."  General  Hull 
in  his  answer  on  the  same  day  states  to  the  secretary, 
that  he  did  not  think  his  force  equal  to  the  reduction 
of  Maiden ;  that  the  British  commanded  the  water 
and  the  savages;  yet  he  said  he  should  pass  the 
river  in  a  few  days.  On  the  10th,  he  agafn  wrote 
to  the  government,  saying,  "  the  communication 
must  be  secured,  or  this  army  will  be  without  provi- 
sions. This  must  not  be  neglected.  If  it  is,  this 
army  will  perish  by  hunger."  On  the  1 1th  he  wrote 
to  Governor  Meigs  of  Ohio  a  similar  communication. 
From  this  statement  of  General  Hull,  and  from  the 
tenour  of  his  former  communications,  the  govern- 
ment ought  to  have  considered  this  army  in  a  pe- 
rilous situation,  and  to  have  taken  measures  for  its 
preservation;  at  the  same  time,  so  long  as  Hull  had 
no  assurances  of  reinforcements,  his  order  being  to 
invade  if  he  considered  his  own  force  sufficient ;  and 
as  he  had  no  pledge  from  the  government,  that  any 
provision  was  making  to  relieve  him  by  taking  pos- 
session of  the  lakes  or  keeping  open  the  communi- 
cation to  Ohio;  it  would  seem  that  he  should  not 
have  acted  in  so  momentous  a  concern,  on  the  pre- 
sumption that  on  account  of  his  former  advice,  these 
things  would  have  been  done.  Consistently  with  his 
own  expressed  opinions,  he  should  have  made  use  of 
the  discretion  granted  him  to  remain  on  the  defen- 
sive, until  he  had  sufficient  reason  to  believe  that 
those  measures  which  he  had  stated  to  the  govern- 
ment as  being  essential  to  the  safety  of  the  post,  were 
in  a  state  of  actual  accomplishment ;  in  the  mean 
time  taking  all  due  pains  to  keep  the  sentiments  of 
the  army  in  his  favour,  and  warmly  soliciting  the 
aid  of  his  government.  Had  he  pursued  this  course, 
consequences  could  not  have  followed  so  wounding 
to  the  honour  of  his  country,  as  those  which  accrued. 
Another  course  of  bolder  policy  also  presented  itself 
in  accordance  with  the  views  of  most  of  his  officers. 
This  supposed,  that  the  army  of  Hull  was  of  itself 
competent  to  the  reduction  of  the  enemy's  country, 
and  that  prompt  and  vigorous  measures  would  place 
at  his  command  the  fortress  of  Maiden,  the  key  of 
Upper  Canada,  and  the  great  obstruction  in  the  way 
of  his  own  supplies.  Had  this  policy  been  con- 
sistently pursued,  its  result,  though  it  might  not 
have  been  successful,  would  certainly  have  been 
honourable.  Hull  appears  to  have  vacillated  between 
the  two,  and  thus  he  failed  of  securing  the  advan- 
tage of  either. 

General  Hull  crossed  into  Canada  on  the  12th  of 
July,  and  directing  his  march  southerly,  took  post  at 
Sandwich,  and  issued  from  that  place  his  famous 
proclamation.  This  was  a  bold  and  imposing  com- 
position, and  backed  by  the  presence  of  an  in- 
vading army,  had  all  the  effeet  which  the  Americans 
could  have  desired.  The  Indians  were  awed  into 
neutrality,  and  the  Canadians  favourable  to  the  Ame- 
rican cause,  either  remained  quietly  at  home,  or 
joined  their  ranks.  In  it,  he  placed  before  the  in- 
habitants of  Canada  the  advantages  of  uniting  with 
the  United  States  rather  than  remaining  as  an  ap- 
pendage of  Britain ;  and  promised,  in  the  name  of 
his  country,  protection  to  their  persons,  property  and 
rights,  if  they  remained  quietly  at  home ;  but  on 
the  contrary,  if  they  united  with  the  savages  against 
America,  he  threatened  them  with  a  war  of  exter- 
mination. "  Had  I,"  continues  the  proclamation, 
"  any  doubt  of  ultimate  success,  I  should  ask  your 

HIST.  OF  AMER.— Nos.  139  &  140. 


assistance-;  but  I  come  prepared  for  every  contin 
gence.  I  have  a  force  which  will  break  down  al1 
opposition,  and  that  force  is  but  the  van-guard  of 
a  much  greater ;"  alluding  here  to  the  expected  in- 
vasion from  Niagara.  If  Hull  intended  this  pro- 
clamation as  a  stratagem  of  war,  in  the  commence- 
ment of  a  set  of  desperate  measures,  entire  success 
might  have  justified  it ;  to  ensure  which,  his  sword 
should  have  been  as  prompt  as  his  pen,  and  his 
military  manoeuvres  as  energetic  as  his  language. 
To  rise  so  high  as  the  tone  of  this  proclamation,  so 
soon  to  sink  to  the  degrading  surrender  of  a  whole 
army,  without  a  sword  drawn,  was  a  mortification  to 
which  he  should  not  have  subjected  his  country. 
Knowing,  as  appears  by  his  memoirs  of  this  cam- 

Eaign,  how  many  causes  existed  which  might  have 
id  him  to  fear  that  he  should  ultimately  be  over- 
powered,  he  ought  to  have  considered  the  effect  of 
this  proclamation,  in  raising  false  hopes  and  expec- 
tations in  the  minds  of  his  own  army,  and  the  people 
of  the  United  States.  Dissatisfaction  that  the  ex- 
pected achievements  had  not  been  performed,  would 
naturally  arise,  and  the  blame  fall  on  the  command- 
ing general.  Neither  the  government  nor  General 
Dearborn  could,  without  some  secret  explanation, 
have  regarded  it  as  the  language  of  an  officer  who 
considered  his  army  already  in  the  desperate  predi- 
cament of  a  "severed  limb,''  requiring  their  utmost 
care  to  assist  in  uniting  it  to  the  body. 

Some  of  the  officers  were  ardent  to  proceed  imme- 
diately to  the  attack  of  Maiden,  but  General  Hull 
deemed  it  expedient  to  wait  for  his  heavy  artillery, 
which  was  preparing  at  Detroit ;  and  in  this  opinion 
he  was  supported  by  the  majority  of  a  council  of 
war,  which  he  called  on  the  14th  of  July. 

The  army  continued  at  Sandwich,  while  occa- 
sional parties  scoured  the  adjacent  country,  and  col- 
lected some  provisions.  On  the  15th,  Colonel  Cass, 
with  a  detachment  of  280  men,  left  the  camp,  having 
obtained  the  general's  permission  to  reconnoitre  the 
ground  between  Sandwich  and  Maiden.  Within 
four  miles  of  Maiden,  the  river  Aux  Canards  pre- 
sented an  obstruction  to  the  approach  of  the  Ame- 
rican troops  to  the  British  fortress.  Colonel  Cass 
attacked  the  party  stationed  as  a  guard,  and  after 
killing  ten  of  their  number,  took  possession  of  the 
bridge.  This  attack  was  made  without  orders  from 
the  commander.  Colonel  Miller,  who  accompanied 
Cass,  agreeing  with  him  that  this  pass  was  import- 
tant  to  the  Americans,  they  sent  to  ask  of  the  gene- 
ral to  make  provision  for  guarding  and  retaining  it ; 
but  in  his  opinion,  an  attempt  to  maintain  the  con- 
quered position  would  bring  on  a  general  action, 
which  he  thought  would  be  unwise,  as  Colonel 
M'Arthur  was  then  absent  with  a  considerable  de- 
tachment, and  it  had  been  determined  to  wait  for 
artillery.  He  sent  orders,  not  positive,  however, 
but  discretionary,  to  abandon  the  bridge  and  return 
to  the  camp,  which  the  party  accordingly  did. 

Governor  Meigs,  of  Ohio,  to  whom  General  Hull 
had  sent  for  supplies,  had  dispatched  Captain  Brush, 
with  a  quantity  of  provisions.  Early  in  August,  Hull 
had  been  informed  that  this  detachment  had  pro- 
ceeded to  the  river  Raisin,  and  that  a  party  of 
British  and  Indians  had  been  sent  from  Maiden  to 
Brownstown,  to  intercept  it.  On  the  4th  of  August, 
General  Hull,  at  the  request  of  the  Ohio  officers, 
detached  about  200  men  under  Major  Van  Horn  to 
open  the  communication,  and  escort  Captain  Brush 
to  the  camp.  The  detachment  arrived  at  Browns- 
town  on  the  8th,  and  although  warned  of  their  danger, 
they  suffered  themselves  to  be  surprised  by  an  Indian 

4U 


HOG 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


ambuscade.  Being  fired  upon,  the  Americans  at 
first  returned  the  fire,  but  soon  after  fled  in  disorder 
to  Detroit,  leaving  eighteen  dead  upon  the  field,  and 
having  twelve  wounded. 

About  the  1st  of  August,  General  Hull  received 
the  unwelcome  intelligence  of  the  fall  of  Mackinau. 
It  had  been  attacked  on  the  17th  of  July,  by  a  party 
of  British  and  Indians,  principally  the  latter, 
amounting  in  the  whole  to  1024.  Lieutenant 
Hawks,  who  commanded  at  this  fort,  had  only  57 
men  under  his  command;  nor  had  he  been  informed 
of  the  declaration  of  war  when  he  received  the 
summons  to  surrender.  On  learning  the  strength 
of  the  enemy,  he  capitulated,  by  the  unanimous  ad- 
vice of  his  officers;  stipulating,  however,  that  his 
garrison  should  march  out  of  the  fort  with  the  ho- 
nours of  war.  This  event  filled  Hull  with  surprise 
and  consternation.  He  had  nothing  now  to  ex- 
pect, but  that  these  hordes  of  northern  savages  would 
come  down  upon  him. 

This  alarm  was  increased  by  an  intercepted  letter 
from  a  gentleman  belonging  to  the  British  North 
West  Company,  at  Fort  William,  from  which  he 
received  the  intelligence,  that  this  enterprising  as- 
sociation, by  whose  means  Mackinau  had  been 
taken,  were  still  employed  with  great  activity  and 
success  in  inciting  the  Indians  against  the  Ameri- 
cans, and  that  several  thousands  in  those  regions 
were  already  in  arms.  The  Indian  tribes  in  his 
more  immediate  vicinity,  he  found  were  also  rising 
against  him.  Of  these  the  Wyandots  were  the 
most  formidable ;  as  his  supplies  from  Ohio  must 
pass  through  their  country. 

By  the  defeat  of  Van  Horn,  he  found  himself 
already  cut  off  from  his  supplies.  On  the  5th  of 
August,  he  again  called  a  council  of  officers,  to  de- 
liberate on  the  expediency  of  proceeding  to  the 
attack  of  Maiden  without  the  artillery,  which  had 
not  been  made  ready,  but  was  expected  in  two  days. 
After  deliberation,  it  was  agreed  to  wait  two  days, 
and  if  not  then  ready,  to  attack  without  it. 

Accordingly,  the  8th  was  the  day  fixed  on  for  the 
assault ;  but  intelligence  received  between  the  5th 
and  8th,  induced  the  general  to  alter  his  plan. 
Letters  were  received  from  Generals  Porter  and 
Hall,  who  commanded  on  the  Niagara  frontier, 
informing  him  that  the  enemy  were  leaving  their 
posts  in  that  direction,  and  were  bending  all  their 
forces  against  him ;  and  that  he  had  nothing  to 
expect  from  a  diversion  at  Niagara.  He  was  fur- 
ther informed,  that  a  considerable  number  of  these 
troops  had  already  reinforced  the  garrison  at  Maiden. 

General  Dearborn,  the  commander-in-chief,  had 
been  directed  by  the  government  to  invade  Canada 
1'rom  Niagara,  and  co-operate  with  Hull.  While 
tardily  engaged  in  preparations  to  execute  this  or- 
d«r,  Colonel  Baynes  was  sent  from  Montreal  by  Sir 
George  Prevost,  the  governor-general  of  Canada, 
with  a  flag  to  the  American  commander  at  Green- 
bush.  He  carried  dispatches  to  the  government, 
which  contained  the  repeal  of  the  British  orders  in 
council.  But  the  main  object  of  Prevost  appears 
to  have  been,  to  procure  (under  pretence  that  this 
would  probably  produce  a  peace,)  the  consent  of 
General  Dearborn  to  an  armistice,  in  which  Hull 
should  not  be  included,  that  thus  he  might  be  able  to 
turn  his  whole  force  against  the  only  invader  of  the 
British  territory.  In  this  he  was  successful. 

The  partial  armistice  was  to  take  place  on  the 
8th  of  August.  It  was,  however,  stipulated  by  Gene- 
ral Dearborn,  that  if  the  president  of  the  United 
States  should  disapprove  it,  hostilities  should  com- 


mence after  four  days'  notice.  But  the  transmis- 
sion of  the  dispatches  to  and  from  Washington,  and 
the  stipulated  notice,  would  give  to  the  governor  of 
Canada  all  the  time  which  he  wished.  The  presi- 
dent did  disapprove  the  armistice,  but  before  the 
commencement  of  hostilities,  the  objects  of  Sir 
George  Prevost  were  effected. 

General  Hull  had  no  intimation  of  tne  armistice, 
although  he  experienced  its  effects.  The  letters  which 
he  had  received  from.  Generals  Porter  and  Hall,  de- 
stroyed the  reasonable  confidence  which  he  had  en- 
tertained of  co-operation  from  General  Dearborn, 
and  also  the  unauthorized  expectation  that  some- 
thing would  be  done  by  the  American  government 
to  obtain  possession  of  the  lake.  He  felt  the  neces- 
sity of  opening  a  communication  with  his  supplies 
by  the  way  of  Ohio.  It  had  been  urged  in  the 
council  held  on  the  5th,  that  to  take  Maiden  would 
be  the  most  certain  measure  to  effect  this  ;  as  Mai- 
den, the  defence  of  the  British  forces  and  the  refuge 
of  the  Indians,  was  itself  the  source  of  its  obstruc- 
tion. This  view  of  the  subject  was  overruled  by  the 
consideration,  that  as  the  British  commanded  the 
waters  between  Maiden  and  the  Ohio  road,  the 
Americans,  although  in  possession  of  that  fortress, 
would  still  be  cut  off  from  their  desired  communica- 
tion. He  believed  that  amidst  so  many  savage  foes, 
a  defeat  would  prove  the  destruction  of  his  whole 
army.  As  the  governor  of  the  territory,  he  had 
long  been  accustomed  to  watch  for  the  safety  of  the 
people,  and  to  guard  them  from  Indian  outrages,  to 
which  the  destruction  of  the  army  would  leave  them 
exposed  without  defence :  and  the  idea  of  their 
burning  habitations,  their  murdered  women,  perhaps 
his  own  daughter,  and  their  mangled  children,  rose 
to  his  imagination,  and  the  father  and  civil  go- 
vernor triumphed  in  his  bosom  over  the  military 
commander;  and  although  he  had  pledged  himself 
to  lead  his  army  to  the  attack, — although  his  long 
delayed  artillery  was  now  ready  for  the  expected 
assault, — he  gave,  on  the  afternoon  of  the  7th,  the 
positive  order  for  his  army  to  return  to  Detroit. 

Whether  the  views  which  induced  the  retreat  of 
Hull  from  Maiden  were  correct  or  not,  can  never  be 
ascertained ;  because  the  issue  of  a  battle  was  not 
tried :  but  posterity  will  not  doubt  that  he  acted  from 
the  best  dictates  of  his  judgment,  although  it  was  a 
judgment  warped  by  womanly  tenderness,  and  the 
too  cautious  fears  of  age.  The  man  and  the 
warrior  should  have  stirred  within  him  at  the  thought 
of  the  glory  he  might  have  acquired  for  himself  and 
his  country  ; — the  disgrace  which  would  attend  his 
retreat,  and  his  desertion  of  those  Canadians,  who 
allured  by  his  high  promises,  had  trusted  to  his 
protection. 

If  Hull  intended  a  contest  with  the  enemy,  with 
the  force  under  his  command,  it  would  seem  that 
every  reason  was  in  favour  of  his  encountering  it  at 
Maiden,  rather  than  going  to  await  it  at  Detroit; 
for,  with  his  views  of  the  numerous  force  which  was 
gathering  against  him,  he  ought  to  have  calculated 
that  he  should  be  followed,  and  have  the  war  brought 
to  his  own  door.  The  delay  gave  the  British  time 
to  concentrate  their  forces,  which,  not  being  yet 
united,  he  might  have  defeated  in  detail.  The  va- 
riance of  his  views  with  those  of  his  officers,  has 
already  been  noticed.  Neither  party  adopting  those 
of  the  other,  discontent  and  dissatisfaction  arose 
between  them.  This  was  manifested  on  the  part  of 
Hull,  who  probably  felt  that  he  had  been  drawn  by 
their  advice  into  his  present  situation,  by  taking  the 
resolution  to  retreat  from  Maiden  without  consulting 


UNITED  STATES. 


1107 


them;  and,  ou  their  part,  not  only  by  the  murmur- 
ing and  reluctance  with  which  they  obeyed  his 
orders,  but  by  a  plan  which  was  in  agitation  to  de- 
prive him  of  the  command,  and  choose  a  more  ener- 
getic leader.  The  soldiers  were  as  little  satisfied  as 
their  officers.  Having  understood  from  their  gene- 
ral's proclamations,  that  they  were  a  force  which 
could  "  breakdown  all  opposition,"  having  expected 
the  attack  on  Maiden,  with  all  the  confidence  of 
success,  it  is  not  surprising  that  this  uiiexpected  or- 
der of  their  commander  should  fill  them  with  dis- 
appointment and  chagrin. 

It  was  on  the  8th  of  August,  that  the  American 
army  re-crossed  the  river,  and  once  more  took  post 
at  Detroit.  On  the  same  day.  General  Hull  dis- 
patched the  flower  of  his  army,  amounting  to  600 
mm,  under  Colonel  Miller,  to  open  the  ccmmu- 
nicaiion  to  the  river  Raisin,  the  service  which 
had  been  vainly  attempted  by  Van  Horn.  At  Ma- 
guaga,  near  Brownstown,  Colonel  Miller  met,  on 
the  9th,  a  body  of  troops,  consisting  of  British, 
Canadians,  and  Indians,  who,  having  received  infor- 
mation of  bis  approach,  had  crossed  over  from  Mai- 
den, and  were  drawn  up  in  the  woods  in  regular  order 
of  battle.  After  a  severe  contest,  the  enemy  were 
compelled  to  retreat.  Colonel  Miller  pursued  them 
about  two  miles.  They  embarked  under  cover  of 
their  armed  vessels,  and  returned  to  Maiden.  In 
this  engagement,  Tecumseh,  the  celebrated  Shawa- 
nese  chief,  was  the  hero  of  the  British  force.  He, 
with  his  Indians,  kept  his  ground,  while  the  regular 
troops  gave  way.  He  was  wounded  in  the  battle, 
and  about  40  of  his  Indians  were  found  dead 
upon  the  field.  The  American  loss,  in  killed  and 
wounded,  was  about  80.  As  soon  as  General 
Hull  had  received  a  communication  from  Colonel 
Miller,  he  sent  to  that  officer  a  reinforcement  of 
100  men,  under  Colonel  M'Arthur,  with  a  supply 
of  provisions.  A  severe  storm  of  rain  intervening, 
to  which  the  troops  were  exposed  without  covering, 
General  Hull  was  induced  to  order  the  return  of 
both  parties  to  Detroit.  Arrangements  were  now 
made  to  open  a  communication  where  they  would 
be  less  exposed  to  incursions  from  Maiden.  To 
this  measure  he  was  led  by  a  letter  from  Captain 
Brush,  who  informed  him,  that  he  should  endeavour 
to  reach  Detroit  by  a  circuitous  route.  Colonels 
M'Arthur  and  Cass  volunteered  for  this  service,  and 
were  directed  by  Hull  to  select  the  choicest  troops 
of  their  regiments.  They  took  about  350  men,  and 
left  the  fort  on  the  13th  of  August. 

On  the  return  of  Hull  to  Detroit,  he  manifested, 
by  his  measures,  his  fears  for  the  safety  of  his  post. 
He  sent,  on  the  9th,  an  order  to  Captain  Heald,  the 
commander  at  Chicago,  to  evacuate  that  place,  and 
conduct  the  garrison  to  Detroit.  Accordingly,  on 
the  morning  of  the  15th,  he  set  out  with  about  70 
Americans,  and  50  friendly  Indians,  escorting 
several  women  and  children.  At  a  small  distance 
from  the  fort,  they  were  attacked  by  a  party  of  be- 
tween 400  and  500  savages.  The  little  band  made 
a  desperate  resistance,  but  being  overpowered 
by  numbers,  36  of  the  men,  two  women,  and 
twelve  children,  being  slain  in  the  engagement, 
they  at  length  surrendered,  under  promise  of  pro- 
tection from  "  Black-bird,"  an  Indian  chief  of  the 
Pottowattamie  nation. 

After  Colonel  Miller's  return,  and  before  the  de- 
tachment under  Cass  and  M'Arthur  left  Detroit, 
Jlull  suggested  to  his  officers  the  propriety  of  remov- 
ing his  army  to  some  place  near  the  Rapids  of  the 
Miami.  His  reasons  were,  that  the  whole  force  from 


Niagara  east,  from  the  upper  lakes,  and  from  Mi- 
chigan, wore  collecting  at  Maiden  ;  that  lake  Erie 
was  closed  against  the  Americans  ;  that  the  road 
from  Ohio  was  obstructed  by  hostile  Indians  ;  that 
their  country  had  not,  as  he'could  learn,  any  force 
prepared  for  their  relief;  that  their  provisions  were 
nearly  exhausted,  and  that  isolated  as  they  were 
they  could  wot  procure  a  supply.  This  measure 
which  his  own  judgment  dictated,  he  failed  of  car- 
rying into  effect,  because  his  officers  did  not  ap- 
prove it;  and  he  was  told  that  the  Ohio  militia 
would  desert  if  he  attempted  it. 

On  the  13th,  five  days  after  the  armistice  on  the 
Niagara  frontier  was  to  take  effect,  and  about  the 
same  hour  that  Colonel  Cass  and  M'Arthur  marched, 
General  Brock,  the  most  active  and  able  of  the  Bri- 
tish commanders  in  Canada,  arrived  to  take  the 
command  of  the  British  forces.  Prveious  to  his  ar- 
rival, a  party  of  the  British  under  Colonel  Proctor, 
who  had  succeeded  Colonel  St.  George  in  the  com- 
mand at  Maiden,  had  taken  a  position  on  the  river 
opposite  Detroit,  and  proceeded  to  fortify  the  bank, 
without  interruption  from  the  Americans.  On  the 
14th,  General  Brock  arrived  at  Sandwich,  and  on 
the  15th  he  sent  a  flag,  bearing  a  summons  to  the 
American  general  to  surrender.  "  It  is  far  from, 
my  intention  (this  is  the  language.of  General  Brock's 
note,)  to  join  in  a  war  of  extermination,  but  you 
must  be  aware  that  the  numerous  body  of  Indians 
who  have  attached  themselves  to  my  troops  will  be 
beyond  my  control  the  moment  the  contest  com- 
mences." To  this  General  Hull  answered,  "  I  have 
no  other  reply  to  make,  than  that  I  am  prepared  to 
meet  any  force  which  may  be  at  your  disposal,  &c." 
General  Brock  immediately  opened  his  batteries 
upon  the  town  and  fort,  and  several  persons  within 
the  fort  were  killed.  The  fire  was  returned  by  the 
Americans  with  some  effect.  General  Hull,  greatly 
alarmed,  sent  out  an  express,  commanding  the  im- 
mediate ret'Ji'u  of  the  detarhm&nt  under  M'Arthur 
and  Cass. 

Early  in  the  morning  of  the  16th,  the  British 
landed  under  cover  of  their  warlike  vessels,  at  Spring 
Wells,  three  miles  below  Detroit.  Between  six  and 
seven  o'clock,  they  had  effected  their  landing  and 
were  marching  towards  the  fort.  Hull  was  per- 
plexed and  agitated.  He  believed  that  the  territory 
was  invaded  by  a  force  which  it  would  be  in  vain  to 
resist,  that  victory  itself  would  be  but  a  temporary 
advantage,  whose  ultimate  result  would  be  to  deliver 
the  inhabitants  to  the  undistinguishing  barbarities 
of  an  Indian  massacre.  Yet  he  was  not  insensible 
to  the  disgrace  of  surrendering  without  an  effort, 
and  even  at  this  critical  moment  he  was  wavering 
and  indecisive  in  his  operations,  neither  pursuing 
with  consistency  the  policy  of  bravely  defending  his 
post,  nor  that  of  prudently  putting  his  army  in  the 
best  posture  of  defence,  and  then  making  honour- 
able terms  of  capitulation.  At  first  his  army  were 
drawn  up  in  order  of  battle  without  the  fort,  his 
artillery  was  advantageously  planted,  and  his  army 
waited'the  approach  of  the'British  full  of  the  con- 
fidence of  victory.  The  latter  were  within  500 
yards  of  their  lines,  when  suddenly  an  order  from 
General  Hull  was  received,  directing  his  forces 
to  retire  to  the  fort.  The  indignation  of  the  Ame- 
ricans broke  forth,  and  all  subordination  ceased. 
They  crowded  into  the  fort,  and  without  any  order 
from  the  general,  stacked  their  arms,  some  dashing 
them  with  violence  upon  the  ground.  Many  of  the 
soldiers  wept.  Even  the  spirit  of  the  women  rosa 
iadigaant  at  this  unexpected  disgrace,  and  they  de- 

4  U  2 


1108 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


clared  in  the  violence  of  their  impotent  wrath,  that 
the  fort  should  not  be  surrendered.  Hull,  perceiv- 
ing that  he  had  no  longer  any  authority  in  his  own 
army,  and  believing  that  the  Indians  were  without 
in  large  numbers  ready  to  fall  upon  the  inhabitants, 
was  anxious  to  put  the  place  under  the  protection  of 
the  British.  A  white  flag  was  hung  out  upon  the 
walls  of  the  fort.  Two  British  officers  rode  up. 
Negotiations  were  immediately  commenced  ;  and  a 
capitulation  was  concluded  by  Hull  with  the  most 
unbecoming  haste.  His  officers  were  not  consulted ; 
nor  did  he  make  any  stipulations  for  the  honours  of 
war  for  his  army,  or  any  provision  for  the  safety  of 
his  Canadian  allies.  All  the  public  property  was 
given  up ;  the  regular  troops  were  surrendered  as 
prisoners  of  war ;  the  militia  were  to  return  to  their 
homes,  and  not  to  serve  again  during  the  war,  un- 
less exchanged. 

One  of  the  reasons  stated  by  Hull  for  his  precipi- 
tate measures,  was  the  absence  of  the  detachment 
under  M 'Arthur  and  Cass,  which  weakened  his 
army,  as  they  constituted  one  full  quarter  of  his 
effective  force,  and  their  situation  exposed  them  to 
be  entirely  cut  off.  At  his  particular  request,  they 
were  included  in  the  capitulation  ;  as  was  also  the 
party  with  provisions  under  Captain  Brush. 

Cass  and  M 'Arthur  arrived  immediately  after  the 
capitulation,  and  surrendered  agreeably  to  its  con- 
ditions. Captain  Brush,  having  learned  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  surrender  from  some  Ohio  militia, 
took  the  resolution  not  to  regard  its  stipulations  ;  and 
accordingly  marched  his  party  back  to  Ohio. 

The  number  of  effective  men  at  Detroit,  at  the 
time  of  its  surrender,  is  stated  by  General  Hull  in 
his  official  report,  not  to  have  exceeded  800 ;  while 
the  force  of  the  enemy  is  said  to  have  been  at  least 
double  the  number.  General  Brock  in  his  report  to 
Sir  George  Prevost,  states  his  force  to  have  been 
1300.  of  whom  700  were  Indians. 

General  Hull  being  exchanged,  was  prosecuted 
by  the  government  of  the  United  States,  and  ar- 
raigned before  a  tribunal,  of  which  General  Dear- 
born was  president.  He  was  by  this  tribunal 
acquitted  of  treason,  but  sentenced  to  death  for 
cowardice  and  unofficer-like  conduct.  The  criminal 
under  sentence  of  death  was  not,  however,  impri- 
soned, but  sent  without  a  guard  from  Albany,  where 
the  court-martial  assembled,  to  his  residence  in  the 
vicinity  of  Boston,  to  await  there  the  decision  of  the 
president  of  the  United  States ;  to  whose  mercy  the 
court,  in  consequence  of  his  revolutionary  services, 
recommended  him.  The  president  remitted  the 
punishment  of  death,  but  deprived  him  of  all  mili- 
tary command. 

Successes  of  the  Americans  at  sea — Situation  of  the 
forces  on  the  New  York  frontier — Affair  of  Queens- 
town—Harrison  takes  command  of  the  north- western 
army — Hopkins'  expedition— The  Americans  invade 
Canada — The  capture  of  the  Frolic — And  other 
vessels. 

On  the  19th  of  August,  three  days  after  the  dis- 
graceful surrender  of  Detroit,  an  event  occurred, 
which,  in  a  measure,  healed  the  wounded  pride  of 
the  Americans.  This  was  the  capture  of  the  British 
frigate  Guerriere,  under  the  command  of  Captain 
Dacres,  by  the  American  frigate  Constitution,  com- 
manded by  Captain  Hull.  The  captain  of  the  Bri- 
tish frigate,  previous  to  the  rencontre,  had  chal 
lenged  any  American  vessel  of  her  class,  and  the 
officers,  in  various  ways,  manifested  their  contempt 
Of  "  the  Yankees."  On  the  approach  of  the  Gure- 


rit're,  Captain  Hull  gave  orders  to  receive  her  oc- 
casional broadsides  without  returning  the  fire,  and 
bis  crew  calmly  obeyed  his  orders,  although  some 
of  their  companions  were  falling  at  their  guns.  Hav- 
ing his  enemy  near,  and  his  position  favourable, 
Hull  commanded  his  men  to  fire  broadside  after 
broadside,  in  quick  succession.  This  was  done,  and 
with  such  precision  and  effect,  that  in  30  minutes 
the  Guerriere  had  her  masts  and  rigging  shot  away, 
and  her  hull  so  injured,  that  she  was  in  danger  of 
sinking.  Sixty-five  of  her  men  were  killed,  and  63 
wounded.  Knowing  that  a  few  more  broadsides 
would  carry  his  ship  to  the  bottom,  Captain  Dacres 
struck  his  colours.  The  Constitution  sustained  but 
little  injury.  Her  loss  was  seven  killed  and  seven 
wounded.  The  American  frigate  had  a  small  su- 
periority in  the  number  of  her  guns,  yet  by  no 
means  in  proportion  to  the  superior  advantage  she 
obtained.  The  captured  vessel  was  so  much  injured, 
that  she  could  not  be  got  into  port,  and  was  burned. 
Every  mark  of  honour  and  distinction  was  paid  to 
the  gallant  rrew  by  their  grateful  countrymen. 
Several  of  the  officers  were  promoted  by  congress, 
and  50,000  dollars  were  distributed  among  the  crew 
as  a  recompense  for  the  loss  of  the  prize. 

Soon  after,  another  naval  victory  was  announced. 
On  the  7th  of  September,  Capta'in  Porter,  of  th  > 
United  States  frigate  Essex,  entered  the  Delaware, 
after  a  successful  cruise,  in  which,  among  other 
prizes,  he  had  captured  a  British  sloop  of  war.  This 
was  the  Alert,  commanded  by  Captain  Laugharne, 
which  was  encountered  off  the  Grand  Bank  of  New- 
foundland, and  taken  after  an  action  of  eight 
minutes,  the  British  having  three  men  wounded. 

The  operations  of  the  frontier  of  New  York  were, 
as  has  been  remarked,  under  the  direction  of  Gene- 
ral Dearborn,  the  commander-in-chief,  whose  head- 
quarters were  still  at  Greenbush.  Brigadier-general 
Bloomfield  commanded  the  force  at  Plattsburg;  and 
Brigadier-general  Smyth  was  now  in  command  at 
Buflaloe.  The  militia  of  the  state  of  New  York, 
then  in  the  service  of  the  United  States,  amounting 
to  about  5000  men,  under  General  Van  Rensselaer, 
were  mostly  stationed  on  the  Niagara  frontier. 
Bodies  of  regulars  and  militia  were  also  stationed 
at  Black  Rock,  Sackett's  Harbour  and  Ogdensburg. 

General  Van  Renssalaer  made  his  head-quarters 
at  Lewiston,  on  the  Niagara  river.  The  militia  de- 
manded to  be  led  against  the  enemy,  and  the  ge- 
neral determined  to  gratify  them  by  attacking 
Queenstown,  a  fortified  post  of  the  British,  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  river.  On  the  llth  of  October, 
he  attempted  to  cross  the  Niagara,  but  the  weathei 
being  tempestuous  the  attempt  was  defeated.  In  the 
evening  of  the  12th,  the  army  was  reinforced  by 
300  regulars,  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Christie. 
On  the  morning  of  the  13th,  the  attempt  was  again 
made  to  cross  the  Niagara,  and  succeeded.  One 
division  of  the  troops  was  commanded  by  Colonel 
Solomon  Van  Rensselaer  :  the  other  was  the  divi- 
sion of  Colonel  Christie,  and  consisted  of  the  same 
number  of  regulars.  These  were  to  be  followed  by 
Colonel  Fenwick's  artillery,  and  the  residue  of  the 
army.  The  first  party  which  effected  a  landing, 
was  that  of  Colonels  Van  Rensselaer  and  Christie, 
which  had  crossed  about  four  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing, just  before  the  dawn  of  day.  As  soon  as  the 
detachments  landed,  they  were  formed  by  order  of 
Colonel  Van  Rensselaer,  (Colonel  Christie  not.  hav- 
ing crossed  with  his  men,)  for  the  purpose  of  storm- 
ing the  heights  of  Queenstown. 

While  waiting  for  orders  to  ascend  the  heights, 


ON1TED  STATES. 


1109 


the  American  troops  were  attacked  bythe  enemy  on 
either  flank.  They  were  however  met  and  repulsed ; 
but  they  still  kept  up  a  fire  which  enfiladed  the 
ranks  of  the  Americans,  of  whom  a  considerable 
number  were  killed  and  wounded.  The  brave  Co- 
lonel Van  Rensselaer  was  wounded  severely  ;  it  was 
then  supposed  mortally. 

Captain  Wool,  on  whom,  as  senior  officer  of  the 
regular  troops,  the  command  devolved,  was  also 
wounded  by  a  ball,  which  striking  him  sideways, 
passed  between  his  thighs.  Seeking  the  disabled 
Rensselaer,  Wool  represented  to  him  the  criti- 
cal situation  of  the  troops ;  and,  notwithstanding 
his  wound,  volunteered  for  any  service  which  might 
relieve  them.  Colonel  Van  Rensselaer  directed,  as 
the  only  effectual  measure,  the  one  first  proposed, 
that  of  storming  the  British  battery  upon  the 
heights.  Wool  conducted  his  force  silently  and  cir- 
cuitously,  leaving  the  battery  to  his  right,  until  he 
had  passed  it  and  attained  an  eminence  which  com- 
manded it.  The  British  finding  that  resistance 
would  be  in  vain,  left  it  to  the  Americans,  and  re- 
treated down  the  heights  to  Queenstown. 

Elated  with  their  success,  the  Americans  had 
fallen  into  disorder,  when  they  again  beheld  their 
foe  advancing.  The  intrepid  Brock  was  at  their 
head,  with  a  reinforcement  of  about  300  men  from 
fort  George.  An  officer  raised  a  white  flag,  in  token 
of  surrender :  Wool  indignantly  pulled  it  down. 
To  keep  the  British  at  bay  until  he  could  form  his 
men,  he  dispatched  a  body  of  60  men,  who  ad- 
vanced, but  retreated  without  firing  a  gun.  The 
British  followed,  and  drove  the  Americans  to  the 
brink  of  the  precipice.  One  soldier  was  about  to 
descend:  Wool  ordered  him  to  be  shot;  but  as  the 
musket  was  levelled,  he  returned. 

Thus  prohibiting  either  surrender  or  retreat,  and 
being  ably  seconded  by  his  officers,  Wool  rallied 
and  led  on  his  troops  to  the  attack.  The  British  in 
their  turn  gave  way,  and  retreated  down  the  hill. 
Brock  attempted  to  rally  them  amidst  a  galling  fire 
from  the  Americans  ;  but  in  the  attempt  this  brave 
and  gallant  officer  was  mortally  wounded.  His  party 
no  longer  attempted  resistence,  but  fled  in  disorder. 

Soon  after,  General  Van  Rensselaer,  Colonel 
Christie  and  the  other  officers  who  had  been  expected, 
joined  their  forces  to  the  gallant  band  under  Captain 
Wool.  That  officer,  faint  with  the  loss  of  blood 
from  his  wound,  crossed  the  river.  Several  others 
who  were  wounded,  and  also  some  prisoners  taken 
in  the  battle,  were  carried  over.  The  Americans 
on  the  heights  considered  the  day  as  their  own,  when 
they  were  attacked  by  a  body  of  British  and  Indians, 
probably  amounting  to  1000,  under  General  Sheaffe, 
who  had  followed  the  energetic  Brock  at  a  slower 
pace,  from  fort  George.  The  battle  becoming  warm, 
and  the  Americans  being  hard  pressed,  General  Van 
Rensselaer  recrossed  the  Niagara,  for  the  purpose 
of  bringing  over  the  militia,  who  were  on  the  op- 
posite bank. 

But  those  who  in  the  morning  had  evinced  so 
much  courage  and  ardour  in  the  prospect  of  a  bat- 
tle, having  looked  upon  the  blood  of  their  wounded 
companions  who  had  been  brought  over,  now  be- 
came utterly  regardless  of  the  commands,  nay,  even 
the  most  urgent  entreaties  of  their  general,  to  go  to 
the  relief  of  their  brethren. 

Two  thousand  five  hundred  of  the  militia  remained 
idle  spectators  of -the  combat ;  and  to  their  cowardice 
may  be  attributed  the  defeat  which  ensued.  For  their 
conduct  they  had  since  morning  found  an  excuse 
by  declaring  it  to  be  unconstitutional  to  oblige  the 


militia  to  make  offensive  war  ;  and  they  now  fancied 
it  would  be  wrong  for  them  to  cross  the  national 
boundary. 

The  troops  already  on  the  Canadian  shore  de- 
fended themselves  bravely,  but  were  at  length  over- 
powered and  obliged  to  surrender.  Sixty  of  the 
Americans  were  killed,  100  wounded,  and  700  sur- 
rendered themselves  prisoners  of  war. 

Ohio  and  Kentucky,  particularly  the  latter,  had 
aroused  at  the  call  of  Hull  for  assistance,  and  an 
army  on  its  march  for  Detroit  was  in  the  southern 
part  of  Ohio,  when  the  news  met  them  of  the  sur- 
render of  that  post.  This  news  rather  stimulated 
than  repressed  the  ardour  of  the  brave  and  patriotic 
inhabitants  of  the  west.  They  continued  their  efforts 
in  raising  troops,  until  Kentucky  is  said  to  have 
put  on  foot  7000,  and  Ohio  nearly  half  that  number. 
These  had  volunteered ;  nor  were  they  all  who  had 
stepped  forward,  and  offered  their  blood  and  toil  for 
the  honour  of  their  country.  Pennsylvania  and 
Virginia  also  sent  their  bodies  of  volunteers  to  the 
aid  of  their  brethren  in  the  west.  But  the  experi- 
ence and  skill  of  the  officers,  the  discipline  and 
subordination  of  the  troops,  were  not  equal  to  their 
zeal  and  courage. 

On  the  24th  of  September,  William  Henry 
Harrison,  governor  of  the  Indiana  territory,  and 
brigadier-general  in  the  army,  'who  possessed  more 
than  any  other  man  the  confidence  of  the  western 
citizens,  was  appointed  by  congress  to  the  command 
of  the  whole  of  these  forces.  They  had  already  ad- 
vanced to  the  north-western  part  of  Ohio  ;  their  ge- 
neral plan  of  operation  being  to  protect  the  country 
against  the  incursions  of  hostile  savages,  and  to  re- 
gain the  ground  lost  by  Hull's  surrender. 

The  main  division,  consisting  of  3000,  com- 
manded by  Harrison  in  person,  was  at  this  time  at 
the  river  St.  Mary's.  Another  division,  under 
General  Winchester,  consisting  of  2000,  had  pene- 
trated as  far  as  fort  Defiance;  but  they  were  in 
want  of  provisions,  and  had  sent  to  Harrison  for  re- 
lief. That  general  immediately  marched  with  a  con- 
siderable part  of  his  troops,  and  on  the  3rd  of  Octo- 
ber joined  General  Winchester  at  fort  Defiance. 
He  returned  the  next  day  to  St.  Mary's,  having  pre- 
viously ordered  General  Tupper,  with  1000  of  the 
Ohio  militia,  to  proceed  to  the  rapids  of  the  Miami, 
to  dislodge  the  enemy,  and  take  possession  of  that 
place.  A  want  of  experience  on  the  part  of  the  offi- 
cers, and  of  proper  subordination  on  that  of  the 
troops,  produced  a  failure  in  this,  and  another  at- 
tempt made  by  the  same  officer ;  and  the  British 
still  retained  possession  of  that  post. 

The  Indians  in  the  Indiana  territory  were,  in  the 
meantime,  manifesting  a  hostile  spirit.  On  the  4th 
of  September,  fort  Harrison,  on  the  Wabash,  was 
attacked  by  several  hundred  of  these  savage  foes. 
Captain  Taylor,  with  a  garrison  of  50  men,  only  fif- 
teen of  whom  were  effective,  it  being  a  time  of  sick- 
ness, repelled  the  assailants  with  great  intrepidity, 
killing  a  considerable  number,  while  he  lost  only 
three  of  his  own  men.  The  savages,  irritated  at  this 
defeat,  surprised  and  massacred  a  settlement  consist- 
ing of  21  persons,  men,  women,  and  children,  at  the 
mouth  of  White  river. 

Governor  Shelby,  of  Kentucky,  issued  an  address, 
calling  for  an  additional  number  of  mounted  volun- 
teers, for  the  defence  of  the  territories  of  Indiana  and 
Illinois.  On  the  2nd  of  October,  more  than  2000  had 
assembled  at  Vincennes.  This  body  was  placed  un- 
der the  command  of  General  Hopkins  On  the  10th 
they  arrived  at  fort  Harrison.  Here  th  destruc- 


1110 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


lion  of  the  Kickapoo  and  Peoria  towns  was  pro- 
posed, and  the  plan  meeting  with  general  approbation, 
the  troops  set  forward  for  its  execution.  On  the 
fourth  day  of  the  march,  the  army  being  in  an  ex- 
tensive prairie  of  dried  grass,  perceived  suddenly 
alarming  volleys  of  smoke  and  flame  advancing  with 
the  wind.  The  Indians  had  set  fire  to  the  long  thick 
grass  of  the  prairie.  The  Americans  immediately 
resorted  to  the  only  expedient  which  could  save  the 
army.  They  set  fire  to  the  grass  in  an  opposite  di- 
rection, whose  flames  the  wind  carried  from  them, 
and  then  marched  on  to  the  ground  thus  cleared  of 
combustibles.  This  operation  is  called  setting  aback 
fire,  and  is  frequently  necessary.  The  Indians  often 
resort  to  this  measure  to  distress  an  enemy. 

The  militia  became  mutinous,  and  a  major,  named 
Singleton,  apparently  wishing  to  bring  on  a  quarrel 
with  the  general,  rode  up  to  him  as  the  troops  were 
resting,  and  ordered  him,  in  a  peremptory  manner, 
to  take  up  his  line  of  march,  or  his  battalion  would 
instantly  leave  him.  Hopkins  called  a  council  of 
the  officers,  who  agreed  to  take  the  sense  of  the  army 
as  to  the  propriety  of  returning.  The  majority  were 
in  favour  of  that  measure ;  but  Hopkins,  who  en- 
tirely disapproved  the  measure,  notwithstanding  the 
vote  of  the  army,  put  himself  at  their  head,  and  com- 
manded them  to  follow  him,  promising  to  lead  them 
in  one  day  more  to  the  accomplishment  of  their  ob- 
ject. But  they  turned  their  faces  in  the  opposite  di- 
rection, and  marched  towards  home,  the  general  fol- 
lowing in  the  rear.  Thus,  in  consequence  of  in- 
subordination, this  expedition,  which  commenced 
with  so  much  individual  patriotism,  produced  nothing 
in  the  event  but  public  disgrace. 

Another  expedition,  for  a  similar  object,  conducted 
with  better  success,  by  the  same  officer,  was  under- 
taken. With  a  force  of  1000  men,  mostly  regulars 
and  militia,  he  left  fort  Harrison,  and,  on  the  19th 
of  November,  destroyed  the  Prophet's  town,  and  a 
Kickapoo  village,  four  miles  distant;  these  places 
having  been  previously  evacuated  by  the  inhabitants. 
A  skirmish  took  place  between  a  party  of  the  militia 
and  an  ambuscade  of  Indians,  in  which  eighteen  of 
the  militia  were  killed.  General  Hopkins  endea- 
voured to  draw  on  a  general  action,  but  failing  in 
this,  he  returned  to  Vincennes. 

Colonel  Russell,  in  a  similar  incursion,  with  300 
regulars,  surprised  and  destroyed  a  town  called  the 
Pimertams.  He  drove  the  Indians  into  a  swamp, 
killed  twenty  of  thorn,  and  brought  off  80  horses. 

About  the  same  time,  another  expedition  was  un- 
dertaken by  Colonel  Campbell,  of  the  regular  army, 
with  600  men.  On  the  17th  of  November,  he  marched 
against  the  towns  of  the  Mississenema,  succeeded  in 
destroying  them,  and  overawing  the  Indians. 

No  operations  of  very  great  importance  were  un- 
dertaken by  the  northern  army,  during  this  cam- 
paign. In  September,  a  detachment  of  militia  from 
Ogdensburg,  attacked  a  party  of  the  British,  who 
were  moving  down  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  defeated 
them.  They  were  reinforced,  and,  in  their  turn, 
compelled  the  militia  to  retire.  In  retaliation,  the 
British  attempted  the  destruction  of  Ogdensburg,  on 
the  2nd  of  October ;  but  they  were  repulsed  by  Gene- 
ral Brown,  the  energetic  commander  at  that  sta- 
tion. 

On  the  22nd  of  October,  Major  Young,  who  com- 
manded a  detachment  of  the  New  York  militia,  at 
French  Mills,  made  an  attack  upon  the  British  at  the 
Indian  village  of  St.  Regis.  The  Americans,  with- 
out the  loss  of  a  man,  killed  five  of  the  British,  and 
took  40  prisoners. 


On  the  16th  of  November,  the  army  at  Plattsburjj 
moved  towards  the  Canada  frontier,  and  encamped 
at  Champlain.  On  the  18th,  General  Dearborn  took 
the  command.  Soon  after,  Colonel  Pike,  with  hi* 
regiment,  made  an  incursion  into  the  territory  of  the 
enetny,  surprised  a  party  of  British  and  Indians,  and 
destroyed  a  considerable  quantity  of  public  stores. 

It  had  been  expected  that  the  army  in  this  direc- 
tion would  invade  Canada,  but  the  failures  on  the 
Niagara  frontier  and  at  Detroit,  prevented  the  co 
operation  of  these  armies ;  and,  on  the  23rd,  the  troopi 
at  Plattsburgh  went  into  winter-quarters. 

On  the  12th  of  November,  General  Alexander 
Smyth,  who  succeeded  General  Van  Reusselaer,  in 
the  command  of  the  army  of  the  Centre,  issued  an 
inflated  address  to  "  The  Men  of  New  York,"  assur- 
ing them  that,  in  a  few  days,  he  should  plant  the 
American  standard  in  Canada,  and  inviting  them  to 
"come  on,"  and  share  the  glory  of  the  enterprise. 
A  considerable  number  volunteered,  probably  how- 
ever, more  from  their  confidence  in  the  character  of 
General  Porter,  who  was  to  be  associated  with  Smyth, 
and  who  was  to  command  the  volunteers,  than  from 
the  effect  of  that  general's  ridiculous  and  bombastic 
appeal.  Preparatory  to  crossing  the  army,  General 
Stnyth  sent  two  parties,  on  the  night  of  the  27th  of 
November,  one  under  Colonel  Bcerstler,  and  the  other 
under  Captain  King,  who  was  accompanied  by  Lieu- 
tenant Angus,  of  the  navy,  with  a  small  but  valiant 
band  of  marines;  the  whole  under  the  direction  of 
General  Winder.  The  party  under  Boerstler  whose 
object  was  to  destroy  a  bridge,  went  several  miles 
down  the  river,  dispersed  the  enemy,  made  several 
prisoners,  but  returned  without  having  accomplished 
their  object.  That  under  King,  who  were  ordered 
to  attack  the  batteries  opposite  Black  Rock,  per- 
formed the  service  in  a  most  gallant  manner.  Nine 
out  of  twelve  of  the  naval  officers  who  embarked  in 
the  affair,  and  half  the  seamen,  were  either  killed  or 
wounded.  They  had  dispersed  the  enemy,  rendered 
useless  their  arnllery,  and  prepared  the  way  for  the 
safe  landing  of  the  army  who  had  been  ordered  to 
embark  at  lleveiile;  but  delays  occurred,  and  they 
were  not  embarked  till  noon.  General  Smyth,  at 
this  time,  ordered  them  to  disembark  to  dine.  It  was 
then  found  that  there  were  not  sufficient  boats  to 
carry  over  3000  men  at  once,  as  had  been  the  order* 
of  the  secretary  of  war;  and  the  General,  amidst  the 
murmurings  of  the  army,  concluded  to  postpone  the 
invasion.  Most  of  the  brave  men  who  crossed,  suc- 
ceeded in  returning  ;  but  some  were  made  prisoners, 
among  whom  was  Captain  King.  Not  finding  boats 
enough  to  cross  over  bis  whole  party,  he  sent  all  his 
officers  and  part  of  his  men,  but  would  not  desert  the 
remainder,  and  was  captured  with  them. 

On  the  30th  of  November,  General  Smyth  again 
ordered  the  troops  to  embark  the  next  morning,  for 
the  purpose  of  fulfilling  his  pledge  of  planting  the 
standard  of  America  on  the  shores  of  her  enemy. 
They  did  not  go  on  board  the  boats  as  early  as  was 
expected,  and  again  the  general  failed  of  embarking 
three  thousand  at  once.  The  fate  of  the  day  at 
Queeustown,  (honourable  to  America  in  comparison 
with  this,)  seems  to  have  been  in  his  mind,  and  he 
had  no  confidence  that  those  who  remained  behind 
would  cross  at  all,  it'  those  who  went  over  should  b<- 
in  danger.  Ho,  therefore,  disgracefully  abandoned, 
without  an  effort,  the  enterprise  hn  had  so  boast- 
ingly  pledged  himself  to  perform  ;  ordered  his  troops 
to  d'isembark,  the  regulars  to  go  into  winter-quar- 
ters, and  t.he  volunteers  to  return  to  their  homo.  A 
scene  of  not  and  confusion  cutued.  Four  thousand 


UNITED  STATES. 


1111 


men,  indignant,  and  perfectly  uncontrolled,  were 
discharging  their  muskets  in  every  direction,  made 
this  a  more  dangerous  field  than  they  would  proba- 
bly have  formed  on  the  territory  of  the  enemy. 

On  the  18th  of  October,  the  American  sloop  of 
war,  Wasp,  commanded  by  Captain  Jones,  encoun- 
tered the  British  sloop  of  war,  Frolic,  under  the  di- 
rection of  Captain  Whinyates,  off  the  island  of  Ber- 
muda. Both  vessels  had  suffered  injuries  from  a  re- 
cent storm,  but  the  British  was  superior  in  weight  of 
metal.  The  American  at  first  received  the  fire  of 
her  enemy,  at  the  distance  of  50  or  60  yards,  but  gra- 
dually lessening  this  distance,  she  fired  her  last  broad- 
side so  near,  that  her  rammers,  while  loading,  were 
shoved  against  the  side  of  the  Frolic.  Captain  Jones 
then  boarded  her,  but  he  trod  her  deck  amidst  the 
dead  and  dying,  without  finding  a  private  in  arms  to 
oppose  him.  Three  officers  and  the  seamen  at  the 
wheel  were  all  that  were  found  alive  on  deck.  Of 
the  whole  crew,  consisting  originally  of  120,  all,  ex- 
cept twenty,  were  either  killed  or  wounded.  The 
Americans  had  five  killed  and  five  wounded.  Cap- 
tain Jones  did  not  long  enjoy  his  bloody  triumph. 
Two  hours  after  the  battle,  a  British  74,  the  Poic- 
tiers,  took  both  the  Victor  and  his  prize,  and  carried 
them  both  into  Bermuda.  On  the  return  of  Cap- 
tain Jones  and  his  officers,  they  were  hailed  by  their 
countrymen  with  the  most  distinguishing  marks  of 
honour.  His  crew  received  25,000  dollars,  and 
himself  the  command  of  a  frigate,  the  captured  Ma- 
cedonian. 

On  the  25th  of  October,  the  frigate  United  States, 
commanded  by  Decatur,  whose  conduct  in  the  Me- 
diterranean had  already  made  him  regarded  as  one 
of  the  first  officers  of  the  American  navy,  captured 
the  British  frigate  Macedonian,  commanded  by  Cap- 
tain Garden.  The  engagement  took  place,  where 
the  29th  of  north  latitude  intersects  the  29|  degrees 
of  west  longitude,  and  continued  an  hour  and  a  half. 
The  Macedonian  being  to  the  windward,  had  the 
advantage  of  choosing  her  own  distance,  which,  for 
the  first  half  hour,  was  so  great,  that  the  carronades 
of  the  American  frigate  were  useless.  When  the 
Macedonian  came  to  close  action,  the  rapid  and  well- 
directed  fire  of  the  United  States  proved  fatal  to  her 
men,  swept  her  masts  and  spars,  and  left  her  an 
"  unmanageable  log  ;"  and  the  British  captain  re- 
luctantly ordered  the  broad  flag  of  his  nation  to  be 
furled.  When  he  offered  his  sword  to  Decatur,  that 
officer  refused  to  take  it  "  from  one  who  knew  so 
well  how  to  use  it,"  but  asked  instead,  to  receive  the 
friendly  grasp  of  his  hand.  The  loss  in  killed  and 
wounded,  on  the  side  of  the  Americans,  was  only 
twelve,  while  that  of  the  British  was  104. 

The  naval  campaign  of  this  year  closed  with 
another  American  victory,  equal  in  brilliancy  to  any 
which  had  preceded.  On  the  29th  of  December, 
the  fortunate  Constitution,  now  commanded  by  Com- 
modore Bainbridge,  descried  off  the  coast  of  Brazil, 
the  British  frigate  Java,  of  49  guns,  and  400  men, 
commanded  by  Captain  Lambert.  The  action  con- 
tinued nearly  two  hours.  The  Constitution  had  nine- 
teen men  killed,  and  25  wounded,  but  she  had  shot 
away  the  masts  of  the  Java,  killed  60  of  her  men, 
and'wounded  101.  The  British  colours,  which,  after 
every  spar  was  gone,  had  been  nailed  to  the  stump  of 
a  mast,  were  at  length  torn  down. 

Nor  were  these  successes  confined  to  armed  ves- 
sels. The  swift  sailing  privateers,  which  issued  from 
every  American  port,  succeeded  in  capturing  vessels 
of  a  superior  force,  and  in  harassing  and  destroying 
the  English  commerce.  Nearly  250  British  vessels 


were  captured,  and  3000  prisoners  were  taken,  while 
but  comparatively  few  of  the  American  privateer* 
fell  into  the  hands  of  their  opponents. 

In  reviewing  the  results  of  the  campaign  of  1812, 
we  find  on  land  a  series  of  disgraceful  failures  on  the 
part  of  the  Americans.  This  disgrace  is  however  re- 
lieved by  occasional  flashes  of  valour,  the  most  re- 
markable of  which  was  that  exhibited  by  Captain 
Wool,  upon  the  heights  of  Queenstown.  These 
failures  were  the  more  mortifying  to  the  Americans, 
because  their  superiority  in  numbers,  over  the  small 
British  force  in  Canada,  was  known  to  be  great ; 
and  they  confidently  expected,  that  at  least  all 
Upper  Canada,  would  fall  into  their  hands  during 
the  first  campaign. 

But  the  ill  success  of  the  Americans  on  land  was 
counterbalanced  by  a  series  of  naval  triumphs, 
equally  unexpected,  and  more  injurious  to  their  op- 
ponents, than  even  their  land  defeats  were  to  the 
United  States. 

America  makes  overtures  of  peace — Connecticut  and 
Massachusetts  refuse  to  furnish  tooops — Congress 
assembles — Acts  passed-— Madison  re-elected  presi- 
dent—Plan of  the  campaic/n — Massacre  at  French. 
Toum — Fort  Meigs  besieged — The  Six  nations  de- 
clare war  against  Canada — Fort  Stephenson  be- 
sieged—  Proctor  repulsed. 

In  the  civil  and  political  transactions  of  bellige- 
rent powers,  we  find  the  causes  of  their  military 
movements. 

On  the  23rd  of  June,  five  days  after  the  declara- 
tion of  war,  the  British  government  repealed  the 
orders  in  council. 

No  sooner  had  the  United  States  declared  war 
against  Great  Britain,  than  Mr.  Monroe,  secretary 
of  state,  in  his  letter  of  June  26th,  directed  Mr. 
Russell,  charge  d'  affaires  at  the  court  of  St.  James, 
to  state  to  the  British  government,  that  America  had 
entered  upon  this  contest  with  reluctance,  and  was 
ready  to  make  peace  as  soon  as  the  wrongs  of  which 
she  justly  complained  were  redressed.  Mr.  Russell 
was  authorized  to  negotiate  an  armistice  by  sea  and 
land,  on  the  condition,  that  the  orders  in  council 
should  be  repealed ;  the  impressment  of  American 
seamen  discontinued,  and  those  already  impressed 
restored :  and  as  an  inducement  to  discontinue  their 
practice  of  impressment,  the  American  government 
pledged  themselves  to  pass  a  law,  prohibiting  the 
employment  of  British  seamen,  either  in  the  public 
or  commercial  service  of  the  United  States. 

These  propositions  being  made  by  Mr.  Russell, 
Lord  Castlereagh,  the  British  minister,  on  the  29th 
of  August,  communicated  to  him  their  rejection  by 
his  government ;  at  the  same  time,  informing  him 
that  measures  had  been  taken  to  authorize  Sir  John 
Borlase  Warren,  the  British  admiral  on  the  Ameri- 
can station,  to  propose  to  the  United  States  an 
immediate  and  reciprocal  cessation  of  hostilities  ; 
and  in  that  event,  to  assure  them  that  full  effect 
should  be  given  to  the  provisions  for  repealing  the 
orders  in  council.  On  the  subject  of  impressment, 
Lord  Castlereagh  said  the  British  government  were 
ready,  as  heretofore,  to  receive  from  the  government 
of  the  United  States  any  proposition  which  might 
check  the  abuse  of  the  practice,  but  they  could  not 
consent  to  suspend  the  exercise  of  a  right,  upon 
which  the  naval  strength  of  the  empire  materially 
depended,  until  they  were  fully  convinced  other 
means  could  be  devised  and  adopted,  by  which  the 
object  to  be  obtained  by  impressment  could  be  se- 
cured. 


1112 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


While  this  correspondence  was  going  on  in  Eng- 
land, negotiations  were  also  carried  on  in  America. 
The  advantage  which  was  taken  by  Sir  George  Pre- 
vost,  of  the  arrival  of  the  intelligence  that  the  Bri- 
tish had  repealed  their  orders  in  council,  in  procur- 
ing from  General  Dearborn  the  partial  and  tempo- 
rary armistice  of  the  8th  of  August,  has  already 
been  noticed  in  treating  of  the  causes  of  the  misfor- 
tune and  disgrace  of  General  Hull. 

General  Dearborn  doubtless  supposed,  that  the 
object  of  the  British  was  "  to  seek  peace  in  the 
spirit  of  peace,"  not  gain  an  advantage  in  carrying 
on  the  war.  This  appears  from  his  letter  to  the  se- 
cretary of  war,  of  which  the  following  is  an 
extract : — 

"  SIR  : — Colonel  Baynes,  adjutant-general  of  the 
British  army  in  Canada,  has  this  day  arrived  at  this 
place,  in  the  character  of  a  flag  of  truce,  with  dis- 
patches from  the  British  government,  through  Mr. 
Foster,  which  I  have  enclosed  to  the  secretary. 
Colonel  Baynes  was  likewise  bearer  of  dispatches 
from  Sir  George  Prevost,  which  are  herewith  en- 
closed. Although  I  do  not  feel  myself  authorized 
to  agree  to  a  cessation  of  arms,  I  concluded  that  I 
might  with  perfect  safety  agree  that  our  troops  should 
act  merely  on  the  defensive,  until  I  could  receive 
directions  from  my  government;  but  as  I  could  not 
include  General  Hull  in  such  an  arrangement,  he 
having  received  his  orders  directly  from  the  depart- 
ment of  war,  I  agreed  to  write  to  him,  and  state  the 
proposition  made  to  me,  and  have  proposed  his  con- 
fining himself  to  defensive  measures,  if  his  orders 
and  the  circumstances  of  affairs  with  him  would 
justify  it.  Colonel  Baynes  has  written  similar 
orders  to  the  British  officers  in  Upper  Canada,  and  I 
have  forwarded  them  to  our  commanders  of  posts,  to 
be  by  them  transmitted  to  the  British  commanders." 

From  this  it  appears  that  the  views  of  the  gene- 
ral were  truly  pacific ;  but  it  also  shows,  in  con- 
nexion with  the  events  of  the  history,  that  he  was 
doubly  deceived.  He  himself  sent  the  orders  of 
Colonel  Baynes  to  the  British  officers  in  Upper 
Canada  ;  orders  which  gave  them  the  information 
that  they  had  no  enemy  to  fear  on  the  New  York 
frontier,  but  were  at  liberty  to  bend  their  whole 
force  against  Hull. 

On  the  30th  of  September,  Sir  John  Borlase  War- 
ren, then  on  the  Halifax  station,  addressed  a  letter 
to  Mr.  Monroe,  apprising  him  of  the  revocation  of 
the  orders  in  council,  proposing  a  cessation  of  hos- 
tilities, and  threatening  in  case  of  a  refusal,  that  the 
obnoxious  orders  should  be  revived.  The  American 
government  had,  in  the  mean  time,  been  made  ac- 
quainted with  the  failure  of  Mr.  Russell's  negotia- 
tion ;  and  Mr.  Monroe  replied  to  Sir  J.  B.  Warren, 
that  America  could  not  hope  for  a  durable  peace, 
until  the  question  of  impressment  was  settled.  "  The 
claim  of  the  British  government,"  says  Mr.  Monroe, 
"  is  to  take  from  the  merchant  vessels  of  other 
countries  British  subjects.  In  the  practice,  the 
commanders  of  the  British  ships  of  war  often  take 
from  the  merchant  vessels  of  the  United  States, 
American  citizens.  If  the  United  States  forbid  the 
employment  of  British  subjects  in  their  service,  and 
enforce  the  prohibition  by  suitable  regulations  and 
penalties,  the  motive  for  the  practice  is  taken  away. 
It  is  in  this  mode  that  the  president  is  willing  to 
accommodate  this  important  controversy  with  the 
British  government,  and  it  cannot  be  conceived  on 
what  ground  the  arrangement  can  be  refused.  He 
».s  willing  that  great  Britain  should  be  secured 
against  the  evils  of  which  she  complains ;  but  he 


seeks,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  citizens  of  the 
United  States  should  be  protected  against  a  prac- 
tice, which,  while  it  degrades  the  nation,  deprives 
them  of  their  rights  as  freemen,  takes  them  by  force 
from  their  families  and  country  into  a  foreign  ser- 
vice, to  fight  the  battles  of  a  foreign  power,  perhaps 
against  their  own  kindred  and  country." 

The  British  admiral  having  no  powers  to  enter  on 
the  question  of  impressment,  nothing  further  re- 
mained to  America,  but  to  exchange  the  pen  for  the 
sword. 

The  warmth  of  party  feeling  had  increased 
throughout  the  Union.  Notwithstanding  much 
bravery  had  been  exhibited  by  individual  officers  and 
soldiers,  still  the  army  had  failed  in  the  accomplish- 
ment of  any  important  object.  The  enemies  of  the 
administration  declared,  that  the  ill  success  of  the 
war  was  owing  to  the  inefficient  measures  of  the 
government  in  providing  means  for  its  prosecution  ; 
while  its  friends  attributed  the  failure  to  the  inter- 
ference of  the  opposite  party.  Both  were  right  in 
degree ;  as  the  government,  wholly  inexperienced 
in  providing  for  the  exigencies  of  war,  probably 
failed  in  many  respects  of  making  judicious  and 
seasonable  provisions ;  and  all  its  difficulties  were  in- 
creased by  the  ungenerous  and  almost  treasonable 
opposition  which  it  encountered.  But  had  the  ex- 
pectations which,  previous  to  the  war,  were  enter- 
tained with  regard  to  the  efficiency  of  the  militia 
system,  been  realized,  and  had  the  affairs  of  the 
army  been  managed  well  by  the  agents  of  govern- 
ment, its  provisions,  notwithstanding  the  inveteracy 
of  its  opponents,  would  have  been  sufficient  to  pro- 
duce very  different  results  from  those  which  were 
actually  experienced.  It  ought  to  have  been  re- 
membered, that  the  United  States  were  uudergoing 
the  trial  of  a  great  political  experiment.  Their 
constitution,  which  had  succeeded  in  peace,  had  not 
been  tested  in  war ;  and  many  had  predicted  that  it 
would  then  be  found  inadequate  for  public  safety, 
and  that  the  unwieldy  mass  of  its  incongruous  parts 
would  fall  asunder. 

The  government,  in  respect  to  the  efficiency  of 
the  militia,  were  in  nowise  to  blame  for  expecting 
what  the  wisest  of  the  American  patriots,  and  the 
great  body  of  the  people  did  expect  before  the  war, 
the  events  of  which  have  given  rise  to  the  general 
impression,  which  has  since  prevailed,  that  the  mili- 
tia, although  they  may  be  useful  for  defence,  and 
annoy  an  enemy  in  desultory  warfare,  are  not  calcu- 
lated for  offensive  operations  or  field  engagements. 
But  before  we  too  much  depreciate  the  militia  sys- 
tem, we  should  consider  that  an  army  organized  on 
any  plan,  totally  undisciplined,  and  both  officers  and 
men  wholly  inexperienced,  could  not  be  expected  to 
stand  their  ground  at  first,  or  operate  successfully 
against  experienced  officers  and  veteran  troops. 

The  most  alarming  opposition  to  the  national  go- 
vernment, was  not,  however,  that  arising  from  mere 
individual  clamour. 

The  states  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  had 
been  officially  requested  by  the  president,  to  furnish 
detatchments  of  their  militia,  and  place  them  under 
General  Dearborn,  for  the  defence  of  the  maritime 
frontier.  The  constitution  gives  to  congress  power 
to  demand  the  services  of  the  militia,  "  for  the  exe- 
cution of  the  laws,  the  suppression  of  insurrections, 
and  the  repelling  of  invasions;"  and  also  declares, 
"  that  the  president  shall  be  commander-in-chief  of 
the  militia  of  the  several  states,  when  called  into  the 
service  of  the  United  States."  These  states  re- 
fused to  furnish  the  required  detachments,  on  the 


ONITED  STATES. 


1113 


ground  that  the  state  governments  ought  to  deter- 
mine when  the  exigencies  of  the  nation  require  the 
services  of  their  militia.  They  also  decided  that  it 
was  unconstitutional  for  the  president  to  delegate  his 
power  to  any  officer  not  of  the  militia,  and  who  was 
not  chosen  by  the  respective  states.  This  construc- 
tion of  the  constitution  was  favoured  by  the  deci- 
sion of  the  supreme  court  of  Massachusetts  ;  and  as, 
in  their  opinion,  exigencies  did  not  exist  which  re- 
quired the  service  of  the  militia,  they  refused  to 
obey  the  call  of  the  president.  The  sea-coast  of 
these  states,  and,  also,  of  Rhode  Island,  which  state 
subsequently  adopted  the  same  views,  was  thus  de- 
prived of  an  important  means  of  defence ;  and 
public  feeling  was  agitated  with  apprehensions  of  a 
civil,  as  well  as  a  foreign  war. 

It  was  probably  owing  to  this  feeling,  more  than 
to  any  other  cause,  that,  notwithstanding  the  ill 
success  of  the  army,  the  result  of  the  election  of 
president  was  not  only  favourable  to  Mr.  Madison, 
but  showed  a  diminution  of  the  federal,  and  an  in- 
crease of  the  republican  party. 

Congress  assembled  on  the  4th  of  November,  after 
an  unusually  short  recess. 

The  increase  of  the  army  and  navy  early  occu- 
pied their  attention.  As  a  greater  inducement  to 
enlist,  an  act  was  passed  on  the  21st  of  November, 
by  which  an  addition  of  two  dollars  per  month  was 
made  to  the  pay  of  the  non-commissioned  officers 
and  privates  ;  by  which,  also,  they  were  exempted 
from  arrest  for  debts  contracted  either  before  or 
after  enlistment.  By  another  act,  25  dollars  were 
given  in  addition  to  the  existing  bounty,  to  each  re- 
cruit who  would  enlist  for  five  years. 

On  the  30th  of  November,  a  bill  was  reported 
to  the  senate,  and  soon  after  passed  that  body,  au- 
thorizing the  construction  of  four  ships,  carrying 
each  74  guns,  and  six  frigates,  each  of  44  guns. 
This  species  of  armed  vessels  was  strongly  recom- 
mended by  Captains  Hull,  Stewart,  and  Morris. 
Subsequently  on  the  22nd  of  February,  a  supplemen- 
tary act  was  passed,  authorizing  the  increase  of  the 
navy  on  the  lakes. 

(1813.)  On  the  14th  of  January,  abill  passed,  author- 
izing the  president  to  increase  the  military  force,  by 
ing  such  a  number  of  regiments  of  infantry,  not  ex- 
ceeding twenty,  as  the  service  might  require.  As 
but  little  benefit  had  resulted  from  the  employment 
of  volunteers,  the  law  was  repealed  which  autho- 
rized the  acceptance  of  their  services.  By  the  same 
act,  the  force  was  increased  for  the  protection  of 
the  frontier. 

On  the  26th,  a  bill  passed,  authorizing  a  loan  of 
16,000,000  dollars,  for  the  year  1813,  and,  the  fol- 
lowing day,  another  was  passed,  giving  to  the  pre- 
sident power  to  issue  treasury  notes  to  an  amount 
not  exceeding  5,000,000  dollars. 

On  the  29th,  congress  passed  a  law,  declaring, 
that  no  seaman  should  be  employed  in  American 
vessels  but  native  citizens  of  the  United  States,  or 
those  who  had  become  naturalized.  This  law  was 
to  be  carried  into  effect  at  the  close  of  the  war. 

The  regular  force  of  the  United  States  now 
amounted  to  nearly  55,000  men.  An  act  was  passed 
on  the  13th  of  February,  by  which,  in  addition  to 
the  officers  of  an  inferior  grade,  six  major-generals 
and  six  brigadiers  were  appointed. 

On  counting  the  votes,  it  was  found  that  James 
Madison  had  been  re-elected  president,  and  Eltridge 
Gerry  chosen  vice-president,  for  the  ensuing  term 
of  four  years ;  and  they  were  accordingly,  on  the 
4th  of  March,  inaugurated  into  office. 


The  scene  of  military  operations  during  the  year 
1813,  comprehended  the  whole  extensive  northern 
frontier  of  the  United  States.  At  the  opening  of 
the  campaign,  the  army  of  the  west,  under  General 
Harrison,  was  placed  near  the  head  of  lake  Erie ; 
the  army  of  the  centre,  under  General  Dearborn, 
between  the  lakes  Ontario  and  Erie ;  while  the  army 
of  the  north,  under  General  Hampton,  occupied  the 
shores  of  lake  Champlain.  The  invasion  of  Canada 
was  still  the  object  of  the  American  armies ;  and  the 
force  which  Sir  George  Prevost,  the  viceroy  of  Ca- 
nada, could  bring  to  oppose  them,  was  comparatively 
small.  The  defence  of  the  upper  provinces  was 
committed  to  Colonels  Proctor  and  Vincent,  while 
the  command  of  the  troops  of  Lower  Canada  was 
given  to  General  Sheaffe,  who  was,  however,  to  act 
under  the  more  immediate  direction  of  the  governor 
himself. 

The  head-quarters  of  General  Harrison  were  at 
this  time  at  Franklinton,  in  Ohio.  General  Win- 
chester had  proceeded  in  advance  of  the  main  army, 
and  hearing  that  a  party  of  British  were  stationed 
at  Frenchtown,  he  attacked  and  dispersed  them. 
He  remained  at  Frenchtown  with  apart  of  his  troops 
encamped  in  the  open  field,  the  remainder  being 
behind  a  breastwork.  On  the  morning  of  the  22nd 
of  January,  he  was  surprised  by  a  combined  force 
of  British  and  Indians,  under  the  command  of  Co- 
lonel Proctor,  and  the  Indian  chiefs  Roundhead 
and  Split-log.  That  part  of  the  American  force 
which  encamped  in  the'open  field,  were  soon  thrown 
into  disorder.  General  Winchester  and  the  other 
officers  in  vain  attempted  to  rally.  Many  of  them, 
unable  to  make  their  escape,  were  killed  by  the 
Indians.  General  Winchester  and  Colonel  Lewis 
were  taken  prisoners.  The  American  troops,  how- 
ever, continued  fighting  with  great  intrepidity,  until 
they  received  General  Winchester's  order  to  sur- 
render. That  general  had  sent  this  mandate,  on 
being  assured  by  Colonel  Proctor,  that  if  the  Ame- 
ricans would  surrender,  they  should  be  protected; 
otherwise  he  should  not  be  responsible  for  the  con- 
duct of  the  Indians.  The  promised  protection  was 
not,  however,  granted.  Colonel  Proctor  marched 
for  Maiden,  leaving  behind  him  and  without  a 
guard,  the  wounded  prisoners.  The  merciless  sa- 
vages soon  returned,  set  fire  to  the  town,  dragged 
the  wounded  from  the  houses,  scalped  them  in  the 
streets,  and  left  their  mangled  bodies  in  the  highway. 

In  this  melancholy  affair  the  Americans  lost  in 
killed  and  wounded  about  500  ;  a  number  equal  to 
the  slaughtered  were  made  prisoners  of  war.  They 
were  principally  volunteers  from  the  most  respect- 
able families  of  Kentucky  ;  and  this  bloody  day 
clothed  that  state  in  mourning. 

The  loss  of  the  British,  as  stated  by  Colonel 
Proctor,  was  24  killed,  and  158  wounded. 

General  Harrison  now  removed  his  head-quarters 
from  Franklinton,  to  a  fort  which  he  had  built  at 
the  rapids  of  the  Miami,  named  in  honour  of  the 
governor  of  Ohio,  fort  Meigs.  He  was  here  be- 
sieged on  the  1st  of  May,  by  Colonel,  now  General 
Proctor,  with  a  force  of  1000  regulars  and  militia, 
and  1200  Indians.  The  American  army,  occupying 
a  commanding  position  and  strongly  intrenched, 
resisted  the  efforts  of  the  besieging  army.  Their 
fate,  however,  hung  in  suspense,  when  on  the 
morning  of  the  5th,  an  officer  arriving  at  the  fort, 
announced  the  intelligence  that  General  Clay, 
from  whom  he  came,  was  with  1200  Kentuckians, 
descending  the  Miami,  and  at  that  moment  was  but 
a  few  miles  distant.  Conceiving  that  the  British 


1114 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


army  was  now  in  his  power,  Harrison  sent  orders 
to  land  one  half  of  the  advancing  force  on  the  side 
of  the  river  opposite  to  the  fort,  to  co-operate  with 
him  in  forcing  the  British  batteries.  Colonel  Dud- 
ley, with  a  party  of  800,  was  charged  with  this 
service ;  and  he  performed  it  with  so  much  spirit, 
that  in  a  few  minutes  he  was  in  possession  of  the 
batteries  of  the  besiegers,  and  had  taken  several 
prisoners ;  but  his  troops,  unduly  elated,  pursued 
the  British  until  they  were  drawn  into  an  ambus- 
cade prepared  for  them  by  the  Indian  Tecumseh. 
The  whole  party,  with  the  exception  of  150,  were 
cut  off.  Dudley  strove  in  vain  to  rescue  his  troops  ; 
and  when  mortally  wounded,  he  still  continuedHhe 
contest,  and  killed  an  Indian  warrior  before  he  fell 
himself. 

In  the  mean  time  a  sortie  from  the  fort,  under 
Colonel  John  Miller,  brought  on  a  general  engag 
ment,  in  which  the  British  were  defeated.  The 
Indian  warriors,  either  displeased  at  their  want  of 
success,  or  desirous  to  display  their  trophies  to  their 
several  tribes,  and  to  gratify  their  thirst  for  blood 
by  the  immolation  of  a  portion  of  their  captives,  now 
withdrew  from  the  army  of  Proctor,  notwithstanding 
the  entreaties  of  Tecumseh,  who  was  himself  ever 
faithful  to  the  cause  which  he  espoused.  Thus  situ 
ated,  Proctor,  on  the  9th  of  May,  raised  the  siege 
of  fort  Meigs  and  retreated  to  Maiden.  General 
Harrison  returned  to  Ohio,  leaving  General  Clay 
in  command. 

In  July,  the  Six  Nations  declared  war  against 
the  Canadas.  About  the  same  time,  the  United 
States  accepted  the  services  of  some  of  the  other 
tribes.  The  American  government  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  war,  deprecating  the  policy  of  employ- 
ing savage  allies,  and  considering  the  power  which 
employed  them  as  responsible  for  their  known  bar- 
barities, had  refused  the  services  of  such  as  had 
offered,  and  had  uniformly  advised  them  to  remain 
neutral.  This  advice  had  in  many  cases  given  of- 
fence to  the  savages,  being  construed  as  implying  a 
disrespect  of  their  valour.  It  had  been  found  that 
such  was  their  fondness  for  war,  that  the  only  alter- 
native for  the  administration  was  to  receive  their 
hostile  efforts  upon  the  heads  of  their  own  inhabi- 
tants, or  turn  them  upon  their  enemy;  and  from 
these  reasons,  the  Americans  at  length  consented 
that  they  should  "  take  hold  of  the  same  tomahawk," 
and  make  common  cause  with  them. 

On  the  20th  of  July,  Proctor,  having  again  col- 
lected about  500  of  his  Indian  allies,  with  about  as 
many  regulars,  marched  against  fort  Stephenson, 
on  the  Sandusky  river.  On  the  2nd  of  August  he 
invested  it,  and  demanded  a  surrender.  Major 
Croghan,  a  gallant  youth  of  21,  with  a  garrison  of 
160,  took  the  resolution  of  defending  the  fort  to  the 
last  extremity,  notwithstanding  the  threat,  which 
in  former  instances  had  been  found  so  potent,  that 
after  the  contest  had  commenced,  the  Indians  could 
not  be  restrained.  By  his  judicious  measures,  and 
the  courage  and  promptness  of  the  officers  and  men, 
Proctor  was  repulsed  with  a  loss  of  150  ;  the  Ame- 
ricans losing  only  one  killed  and  seven  wounded ; 
and  the  English  general  returned  to  Maiden ;  and 
no  military  operation  of  consequence  was  under- 
taken, until  the  Americans,  having  command  of  the 
lakes,  were  able  to  act  offensively. 

Attack  on  Oydensburg — Chauncey  prepares  a  fleet  on 
lake  Ontario — York  attacked  by  the  Americans — 
General  Pike  killed — York  surrenders — Chandler 
and  Winder  captured — Perry's  victory  on  lake  Erie 


—Battle  of  the  Thames — Delaware  and  Chesapeake 
bays  in  a  state  of  blockade — Admiral  Cockburn  car- 
ries on  a  predatory  warfare— New  York  and  New 
London  harbours  blockaded. 

We  now  go  back  several  months  to  give  a  view  of 
the  operations  of  the  contending  armies  on  the  New 
York  frontier. 

Early  in  February,  Major  Forsyth,  an  enterpris- 
ing partisan  officer,  who  commanded  some  American 
troops  stationed  at  Ogdensburg,  crossed  the  St. 
Lawrence  with  a  party  of  his  riflemen  and  some  vo- 
lunteers, surprised  the  guard  at  Elizabethtown,  and 
took  52  prisoners,  together  with  a  quantity  of  arms 
and  ammunition. 

On  the  22nd  of  February,  (1812,)  Sir  George 
Prevost,  who  had  recently  arrived  at  Prescott,  di- 
rected an  attack  upon  Ogdensburg,  which  was  made 
on  the  same  night  by  a  corps  of  500  regulars  and 
militia,  under  Major  Macdonnal.  The  Americans 
refused  to  surrender  at  their  summons,  and  notwith- 
standing they  were  much  inferior  in  numbers,  they 
fought  with  great  bravery  for  an  hour,  when  they 
were  compelled  to  retire,  and  abandon  their  artillery 
and  stores  to  the  British.  Two  schooners,  two  gun- 
boats, together  with  the  barracks,  were  committed 
to  the  flames. 

Pursuant  to  the  law  passed  by  congress,  early 
efforts  were  made  to  build  and  equip  fleets  upon  the 
lakes.  The  preceding  year  the  Americans  did  not 
possess  a  single  armed  vessel  on  lake  Erie,  and  none 
on  lake  Ontario  save  the  brig  Oneida,  of  sixteen  guns. 
On  the  8th  of  October,  1812,  the  gallant  Captain 
Elliot,  with  100  men,  embarked  in  two  boats,  crossed 
the  Niagara  from  Black  Rock,  and  took  two  British 
brigs  from  under  the  guns  of  fort  Erie,  from  which  a 
heavy  fire  was  kept  up  upon  his  party.  One  of 
these  brigs,  called  the  Detroit,  was  burned;  the  other, 
the  Caledonia,  was  added  to  the  American  naval  force. 

It  was  in  1812  that  Commodore  Chauncey  was 
sent  by  the  government  to  take  the  command  on  the 
lakes.  He  arrived  at  Sackett's  Harbour  on  the  6th 
of  October.  By  great  exertions  he  had  succeeded 
in  preparing  a  flotilla  to  aid  in  the  operations  of  the 
ensuing  campaign.  Its  first  important  service  was 
that  of  transporting  General  Dearborn  from  Sackett's 
Harbour  to  York,  the  capital  of  Upper  Canada, 
which  that  general,  by  the  advice  of  General  Pike, 
a  much  valued  officer,  had  determined  to  attack. 
He  embarked  with  1700  men,  and  on  the  27th  of 
April  arrived  before  York.  The  force  of  the  enemy 
consisted  of  700  regulars  and  militia,  and  100  In- 
dians, under  General  Sheaffe.  These  troops  had 
collected  near  the  place  of  debarkation,  which  was 
nearly  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  fort.  Major 
Forsyth  was  the  first  who  landed.  General  Pike,  to 
whom  the  command  of  the  attack  had  been  given, 
soon  followed  with  the  remainder  of  the  troops. 
After  a  severe  contest  of  half  an  hour,  the  British  re- 
peated to  their  works.  The  Americans  formed,  ad- 
vancing in  columns.  They  had  destroyed  one  of 
the  batteries,  and  were  within  60  yards  of  their 
main  works,  when  the  tremendous  explosion  of  a 
magazine,  at  200  yards'  distance,  filled  the  air  in 
every  direction  with  huge  stones  and  fragments  of 
wood,  which  falling,  caused  a  dreadful  havoc  among 
;he  troops.  One  hundred  of  the  Americans  and  40 
>f  the  British  were  killed.  General  Pike  fell  mor- 
ally wounded.  Finding  resistance  unavailing,  Ge- 
leral  Sheaffe  with  the  regulars  retreated  towards 
Kingston,  leaving  the  commanding  officer  of  the  mi- 
"itia  to  make  the  best  terms  in  his  power.  Th» 


UNITED  STATES. 


Americans  soon  recovered  from  the  shock  produced 
by  the  explosion,  and  proceeded  under  Colonel 
Pearce  to  take  possession  of  the  enemy's  barracks. 
The  outlines  of  a  capitulation  were  soon  agreed  on, 
and  the  Americans  took  possession  of  the  town.  Ge- 
neral Pike  survived  his  wounds  but  a  few  hours ;  and 
General  Dearborn  in  person  now  took  the  command 
of  the  troops.  The  loss  of  the  British  was  90  killed, 
200  wounded,  and  300  prisoners,  besides  500  militia 
released  upon  parole.  A  great  quantity  of  stores 
was  likewise  found  here,  as  York  was  the  naval  and 
military  depot  for  all  Upper  Canada.  General 
Sheaffe's  baggage  and  papers  fell  into  the  hands  of 
the  Americans. 

On  the  8th  of  May,  General  Dearborn  evacuated 
the  capital  of  Upper  Canada,  and  having  crossed  the 
lake  for  the  purpose  of  leaving  the  wounded  at  Sack- 
ett's  Harbour,  again  set  sail  and  disembarked  his 
troops  at  Niagara. 

The  army  at  Niagara  having  been  reinforced,  Ge- 
neral Dearborn  re-embarked,  and  on  the  morning  of 
the  27th  of  May  proceeded  to  attack  fort  George. 
The  landing  was  warmly  disputed  by  the  British  un- 
der Colonel  Vincent,  but  the  coolness  and  intre- 
pidity which  the  American  troops  displayed,  led  on 
and  encouraged  by  General  Boyd,  soon  compelled 
the  enemy  to  give  way  in  every  direction.  Com- 
modore Chauncey  had  made  the  most  judicious  ar- 
rangements for  silencing  their  batteries  near  the 
point  of  landing.  Colonel  Vincent,  perceiving  that 
the  fort  would  soon  become  untenable,  set  fire  to  his 
magazine,  spiked  his  guns,  and  abandoned  the  place; 
not,  however,  until  he  had  sustained  a  loss  of  300 
men.  The  loss  of  the  Americans  was  seventeen  killed 
and  45  wounded. 

The  capture  of  fort  Erie  speedily  followed  that  of 
fort  George.  Lieutenant-colonel  Preston  took  pos- 
session of  this  fort  on  the  28th,  it  having  been  pre- 
viously abandoned  by  the  British,  and  the  magazine 
blown  up. 

The  British  governor  had  not  been  an  idle  spec- 
tator of  these  successes.  Having  arranged  his  plan 
of  operation  with  Commodore  Yeo,  the  commander 
of  the  British  fleet  on  lake  Ontario,  he  embarked  at 
Kingston  on  the  27th  of  May,  appeared  before 
Sackett's  Harbour  on  the  28th,  and  landed  1200  men. 
General  Brown  immediately  rallied  the  militia,  and 
compelled  Sir  George  to  abandon  the  enterprise  and 
return  to  Canada. 

After  the  fall  of  fort  George  and  fort  Erie,  Colonel 
St.  Vincent  had  retired  with  his  army  to  Burlington 
Heights,  near  the  head  of  lake  Ontario.  He  was 
pursued  by  a  force  which  General  Dearborn  had  de- 
tached for  the  .purpose,  under  Generals  Chandler 
and  Winder.  Colonel  St.  Vincent  having  recon- 
noitred their  position,  formed  his  plan  of  attack.  At 
the  dead  of  night  he  stole  unperceived  upon  the 
Americans,  drove  in  the  pickets,  and  with  the  roar 
of  artillery  and  the  dreadful  yell  of  the  Indians, 
rushed  upon  the  camp.  A  scene  of  confusion  and 
carnage  ensued.  The  Americans  could  not  distin- 
guish friend  from  foe.  General  Chandler  noticing  a 
party  of  men  in  apparent  confusion,  approached  and 
attempted  to  rally  them.  They  were  British  troops, 
and  immediately  secured  him  as  their  prisoner.  Ge- 
neral Winder  shared,  by  a  like  mistake,  a  similar  fate. 
The  Americans  however  maintained  their  post,  and 
forced  the  British  to  retire.  The  loss  of  the  latter 
was  supposed  to  exceed  that  of  the  Americans,  and 
was  probably  between  200  and  300  in  killed  and 
wounded.  Colonel  Burns,  on  whom  the  command 
of  the  American  force  now  devolved,  finding  him- 


self in  an  embarrassing  situation,  from  the  capture  of 
the  two  generals  and  the  failure  of  ammunition,  re- 
treated from  Stony  Creek,  the  place  of  the  battle,  to 
Forty  Mile  Creek,  the  former  position  of  this 
force. 

The  last  operation  on  this  scene  of  hostility,  pre- 
vious to  the  retreat  of  the  Americans,  was  the  affair 
at  Beaver  Dams.  •  On  the  23rd  of  June,  Colonel 
Bcestler  was  ordered  by  General  Dearborn  to  march 
from  fort  George,  and  disperse  a  body  of  the  enemy, 
which  had  collected  at  this  place.  The  Americans 
were  attacked  within  two  miles  of  the  Beaver  Dams, 
and  after  an  action,  Colonel  Bcestler's  ammunition 
being  exhausted,  he  surrendered  his  whole  detach- 
ment, which  consisted  of  570  men.  Soon  after,  Ge- 
neral Dearborn  received  orders  to  retire,  and  the 
command  of  the  army  at  fort  George  devolved  on 
General  Boyd. 

Commodore  Chauncey  left  Sackett's  Harbour  on 
the  27th  of  July,  to  cruise  upon  the  lake.  On  ar- 
riving off  Niagara,  he  learned  that  the  British  had 
a  considerable  quantity  of  stores  at  Burlingtonbay. 
Colonel  Scott  volunteered  his  services  to  aid  in  their 
destruction.  They  set  sail  with  about  200  infantry, 
but  finding  a  force  double  their  own  strongly  in- 
trenched and  defended  by  eight  pieces  of  cannon, 
they  abandoned  the  attempt.  They  proceeded  to 
York,  took  a  few  prisoners,  and  destroyed  or  carried 
away  five  pieces  of  cannon,  eleven  boats,  and  a  con- 
siderable quantity  of  ammunition. 

The  autumn  of  this  year  witnessed  the  novel  scene 
of  a  naval  battle  on  one  of  those  inland  seas  which 
separated  the  possessions  of  the  contending  parties. 
The  American  fleet,  which  had  been  wholly  formed 
during  the  last  summer,  was  under  the  command  of 
Commodore  Oliver  Hazard  Perry.  It  now  consisted 
of  the  Niagara  and  Lawrence,  each  mounting  25 
guns,  and  several  smaller  vessels,  carrying  on  an 
average  two  guns  each.  The  British  fleet  was  con- 
sidered of  equal  force.  Commodore  Barclay,  the 
commander  of  the  latter  squadron,  was  a  veteran, 
officer.  The  conflict  commenced  on  the  part  of  the 
Americans  about  twelve  o'clock,  and  soon  became 
general  and  desperate.  Commodore  Perry's  flag- 
ship, the  Lawrence,  being  disabled,  he  embarked 
in  an  open  boat,  and  amidst  a  shower  of  bullets,  car- 
ried the  ensign  of  command  on  board  the  Niagara, 
and  once  more  bore  down  upon  his  enemy  with  the 
remainder  of  his  fleet.  The  action  was  severe;  and 
at  four  o'clock,  the  whole  British  squadron,  consist- 
ing of  six  vessels,  carrying  in  all  63  guns,  surren- 
dered to  the  Americans. 

This  success  on  lake  Erie  opened  a  passage  to  the 
territory  which  had  been  surrendered  by  General 
Hull;  and  General  Harrison  lost  no  time  in  trans- 
porting the  war  thither.  On  the  23rd  of  September 
be  landed  his  troops  near  fort  Maiden,  but  to  his  sur- 
prise, instead  of  an  armed  force,  he  met  at  the  en- 
trance of  the  town,  the  matrons  aud  maids  of  Atn- 
ierstburg,  who,  in  their  best  attire,  had  come  forth 
to  solicit  the  protection  of  the  Americans. 

General  Proctor  had  previously  evacuated  the 
;own,  and  burned  the  public  storehouses  and  fort. 
The  next  day  the  Americans  marched  in  pursuit  of 
Proctor  and  his  troops,  and  on  the  29th  entered  and 
;ook  possession  of  Detroit. 

General  Proctor  had  retired  to  the  Moravian 
illage  on  the  Thames,  about  80  miles  from  Detroit, 
is  force  at  this  time  consisting  of  2000  men,  inclini- 
ng Indians,  who  composed  more  than  half  his  army. 
He  was  overtaken  by  the  American  general  o"n 
be  5th  of  of  October.  The  British  army,  although 


1116 


HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


inferior  in  numbers,  had  the  advantage  of  choosing 
their  ground,  and  were  strongly  posted,  their  left 
resting  on  the  Thames,  and  defended  by  artillery  ; 
the  right  extended  to  a  swamp  which  run  parallel  to 
the  river,  and  was  supported  by  the  brave  Tecumseh 
and  his  warriors,  who  were  stationed  in  a  thick 
wood  which  skirted  the  morass.  General  Harrison, 
placing  great  reliance.on  Colonel  Johnson's  mounted 
regiment,  ordered  them  to  charge  the  British  centre , 
with  the  intention  of  penetrating  their  lines,  and 
getting  into  their  rear.  The  Kentuckians  advanced 
valiantly  to  the  charge,  and  so  far  succeeded  as  to 
throw  the  British  into  confusion  ;  but  their  horses 
were  unused  to  such  perilous  service,  and  they 
failed  to  penetrate  the  lines.  In  this  situation  they 
did  not  suffer  themselves  to  be  thrown  back  upon 
the  advancing  army,  but  wheeled  to  the  right  and 
left,  fell  upon  the  enemy's  flanks  and  poured  upon 
them  a  destructive  fire.  The  venerable  Governor 
Shelby  led  on  his  militia,  and  was  found  in  the  hot- 
test of  the  fray.  Colonel  Johnson  with  his  battalion 
was  encountered  by  the  Indians  under  Tecumseh  ; 
and  these  two  heroes  of  the  contending  armies,  by  a 
chance  which  often  happens  in  romance,  but  seldom 
in  real  warfare,  met  each  other  in  a  strife  which, 
from  the  character  of  both,  must  be  deadly  to  one. 
Johnson,  perceiving  in  a  certain  part  of  the  field 
that  the  battle  was  hot  and  the  troops  hard  pressed, 
turned  the  steps  of  his  conspicuous  white  horse  thi- 
ther. The  Indians  saw  in  him  an  officer  of  dis- 
tinguished rank,  and  a  shower  of  bullets  met  him  as 
he  approached.  Five  of  them  pierced  his  body. 
His  noble  charger  reeled  to  his  fall.  Tecumseh, 
himself  wounded,  drew  up  his  majestic  figure,  raised 
his  bloody  tomahawk,  but  stood  one  moment  as  if  in 
pity  to  his  victim.  The  Kentuckian  drew  a  pistol 
from  his  holster,  and  ere  the  uplifted  arm  fell, 
fired,  and  Tecumseh  lay  dead  at  his  feet.  Johnson 
fell  also,  but  his  wounds  were  not.  mortal.  The 
defeat  of  the  mighty  savage  was  the  defeat  of  the 
army. 

This  celebrated  aboriginal  warrior  fell  in  the 
forty-fourth  year  of  his  age.  In  person  he  was 
above  the  middle  size ;  extremely  active,  and  capa- 
ble of  sustaining  fatigue  in  an  extraordinary  degree 
His  carriage  was  erect  and  lofty — his  motions  quick 
— his  eye  penetrating — his  visage  stern — with  an  air 
of  hauteur  in  his  countenance,  arising  from  an  ele- 
vated though  savage  pride.  His  rule  of  war  was  neither 
to  give  nor  accept  quarter.  He  had  been  in  almos 
every  battle  with  the  Americans ;  and  received  seve 
ral  wounds,  and  always  sought  the  hottest  of  the  fire 
His  ruling  passion  was  glory ;  wealth  was  beneath 
his  ambition,  and  although  his  plunderings  and  sub- 
sidies must  have  amounted  to  a  large  sum,  he  diec 
poor.  The  Americans  had  a  kind  of  ferocious  plea 
sure  in  contemplating  the  contour  of  his  features 
which  was  majestic  even  in  death. 

Proctor  perceiving  that  all  was  lost,  fled  from  the 
field  with  200  dragoons.  The  remainder  of  his 
army  immediately  surrendered.  Nineteen  regulars 
were  killed,  50  wounded,  and  600  made  prisoners 
The  Indians  left  120  on  the  field.  The  American 
loss  in  killed  and  wounded,  was  upwards  of  50 
Among  the  trophies  of  the  field,  were  six  brass  field 
pieces,  which  had  been  surrendered  by  Hull;  on 
two  of  which  were  inscribed  the  words  "  Surren 
tiered  by  Burgoyne,  at  Saratoga."  Several  of  th< 
Indian  tribes  now  sent  deputations  to  General  Har 
rison,  and  the  Ottowas,  Chippewas,  Miami*,  an 
Potowattatnies,  made  treaties  of  alliance,  agreein 
"  t«>  take  hold  of  the  same  tomahawk  with  the  Ame 


icans,  and  strike  at  all  the  enemies  of  the  United 
States,  whether  they  be  British  or  Indian." 

General  Harrison,  having  witnessed  the  accom- 
ilishment  of  his  objects  in  Michigan  and  Upper 
Canada,  left  General  Cass  in  command  at  Detroit, 
nd  embarked  for  Buffalo.  The  Kentucky  infantry, 
n  their  march  homeward,  collected  the  bleaching 
>ones  of  their  countrymen,  massacred  at  French- 
own,  and  deposited  them  in  one  common  grave. 

In  the  early  part  of  this  year,  the  bays  of  Chesa- 

jeake  and  Delaware  were  declared  by  the  British 

government  to  be  in  a  state  of  blockade  ;  and  to  en- 

orce  this  edict,  Admiral  Warren  was  stationed  off  the 

American  coast,  and  Rear-admiral  Cockburn  was 

ent  up  the  Chesapeake,  to  make  the  inhabitants  and 

he  government  sensible  of  the  danger  of  arousing 

.he  British  nation.     A   squadron,    under   Admiral 

5eresford,  also  entered  the  Delaware,  and,  on  the 

!0th  of  April,  proceeded  to  Lewistown.     The  Bri- 

ish  demanded  provisions  of  the  inhabitants,  which 

)eing  refused,  they  commenced  an  attack  upon  the 

illage.     After  a  bombardment  of  several  days,  they 

were  at  last   compelled  to  retire.     Other  attempts 

ere  made  by  them  to  land  their  troops,  but  they 

always  met  with  a  successful  opposition.     After  de- 

troying  some  of  the  smaller  American  vessels,  the 

squadron   sailed  for  the  Bermudas,  where  Admiral 

Warren  was,  with  his  fleet,  preparing  for  an  attack 

upon  the  sea-coast  during  the  summer. 

Admiral  Cockburn  was,  in  the  mean  time,  prose 
cuting  a  most  relentless  warfare  in  the  Chesapeake, 
tie  took  possession  of  several  small  islands  in  the 
say,  and  from  these  made  descents  upon  the  neigh- 
aouring  shores,  whenever,  and  wherever  there  was  a 
probability  of  finding  the  inhabitants  unprepared 
and  defenceless.  The  militia  were  hastily  collected, 
and  stationed  along  the  coast,  and  though  they  often 
repulsed  the  enemy,  yet  their  opposition  was  but  of 
little  avail  against  hundreds  of  these  marauders. 

Their  first  attacks  were  upon  the  small  villages  of 
Frenchtown  and  Havre  de  Grace.  They  took  pos- 
session of  these  towns,  and  the  stores  in  them  which 
could  not  be  removed,  were  destroyed*  They  then 
proceeded  to  lay  waste  the  adjacent  country  ;  and 
their  route  was  marked  by  devastation.  On  the 
16th  of  May,  they  returned  to  the  fleet. 

Their  next  descent  was  upon  Fredericktown  and 
Georgetown,  situated  nearly  opposite  to  each  other, 
on  the  Sassafras  river ;  and  in  these  places  great 
excesses  were  committed. 

Not  long  after,  Admiral  Warren  appeared  in  the 
bay,  with  his  fleet  reinforced  and  carrying  2000 
troops,  under  Sir  Sydney  Beckwith.  This  force 
excited  the  fears  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  cities  and 
larger  towns.  On  receiving  this  intelligence,  Com- 
modore Cassin  made  arrangements  for  opposing 
them.  A  frigate  was  stationed  at  the  mouth  of 
Elizabeth  river,  on  which  Norfolk  is  situated,  and 
10,000  Virginia  militia  were  collected  near  this 
place. 

On  the  22nd  of  June,  an  attempt  was  made  by 
4000  British  troops  on  Craney's  island,  which  was 
the  only  obstacle  to  a  direct  attack  on  Norfolk.  An- 
other party  attempted  to  land  on  the  main  shore ; 
but  here  they  were  met  by  the  Virginia  militia, 
while  their  landing  on  the  island  was  opposed  by 
the  officers  of  the  frigate;  and  thus  they  were  forced 
to  abandon  the  attempt. 

On  the  25th,  Cockburn  and  Beckwith  directed 
their  forces,  amounting  to  2500,  against  the  village 
of  Hampton.  At  first  they  were  compelled  to  with- 
draw, by  the  exertions  of  400  militia,  who  were 


UNITED  STATES. 


1117 


stationed  at  the  place ;  but  another  effort  was  made, 
and  they  gained  possession  of  the  town.  Their 
troops  were  chiefly  of  the  vilest  description,  being 
prisoners  taken  from  the.  French  armies  in  Spain, 
and  they  committed  great  outrages. 

To  the  north  of  the  Chesapeake  these  excesses 
were  not  committed,  though  the  effects  of  the  war 
were  felt  in  the  strict  blockade  which  was  kept  up  at 
New  York.  Three  ships  of  war  on  leaving  that  port 
in  May,  were  chased  into  New  London  harbour,  and 
there  blockaded  for  several  months,  by  the  British 
fleet  under  Commodore  Hardy. 

Chauncey  captures  a  British  squadron — Battle  of 
Williamsburg  —  Affair  of  Chateaugay  —  Newark 
burnt — The  British  take  possession  of  fort  Niagara 
— Naval  engagements — The  Hornet  and  the  Pea- 
cock— Chesapeake  and  the  Shannon — The  Argus 
and  the  Pelican — The  enterprise  captures  the  Boxer 
— Creek  war. 

Although  Commodore  Chauncey  had  not  been  in- 
active on  lake  Ontario,  still  he  had  failed  to  bring 
Sir  James  Yeo  to  a  decisive  engagement.  This  he 
successfully  manoeuvred  to  avoid,  his  squadron  being 
inferior  in  force  but  superior  in  sailing  to  that  of  his 
antagonist.  On  the  5th  of  October,  however,  Com- 
modore Chauncey  encountered  a  fleet  of  seven  sail, 
which  was  bound  for  Kingston,  with  troops  and 
provisions.  Five  of  these  he  captured,  one  of  them 
was  burned,  and  the  remaining  vessel  escaped. 

General  Wilkinson,  who  had  commanded  the  army 
en  the  Mississippi,  was  this  year  appointed  to  the 
command  of  the  army  of  the  centre,  and  arrived  at 
Sackett's  harbour  on  the  20th  of  August.  The  chief 
object  of  his  instructions  from  the  government,  was 
the  taking  of  Kingston  ;  yet  the  reduction  of  Ca- 
nada, by  attacking  Montreal,  appears  to  have  been 
the  object  of  the  remainder  of  the  campaign. 

The  forces  on  which  Wilkinson  depended  for  the 
accomplishment  of  this  object,  were  an  army  of 
5000,  at  fort  George ;  a  force  of  2000  under  General 
Lewis,  at  Sackett's  harbour ;  and  the  victorious 
troops  of  General  Harrison,  whom  General  Wilkin- 
son expected  would  unite  with  his  army,  and  pro- 
ceed with  him  down  the  St.  Lawrence.  General 
Hampton,  who  had  been  appointed  to  command  the 
northern  army,  was  to  penetrate  by  the  way  of 
Champlain,  and  form  a  junction  at  some  place  on 
that  river.  To  aid  in  this  project,  General  Arm- 
strong, who  had  lately  been  appointed  secretary  of 
war,  arrived  at  Sackett's  harbour  on  the  5th  of  Sep- 
tember. General  Wilkinson  waited  on  him  for 
orders ;  and  notwithstanding  his  former  instructions, 
jhe  now  favoured  that  general's  proceeding  imme- 
diately to  Montreal,  without  attacking  Kingston. 
Grenadier  island,  near  the  northern  outlet  of  lake 
Ontario,  was  fixed  upon  as  the  place  of  rendezvous. 
Owing  to  tempestuous  weather,  the  troops  did  not 
arrive  before  the  last  of  October ;  and  on  the  30th 
they  set  sail. 

On  the  6th  of  November,  they  arrived  within  a 
few  miles  of  Prescott.  The  stores  were  landed  on 
the  Canadian  side,  and  the  troops  under  General 
Boyd  disembarked,  to  proceed  by  land  in  order  to 
avoid  the  fire  of  the  British  batteries.  The  flotilla 
under  General  Brown,  sustained  a  heaty  cannonade 
on  passing  the  fortress. 

The  British  governor  had  anticipated  the  designs 
of  the  American  government  in  sending  this  force 
against  Canada,  and  had  ordered  a  corps  of  obser- 
vation from  Kingston  to  follow  the  movements  of 
General  Wilkinson's  army.  With  this  force  they 


continually  menaced  his  rear.  Colonel  Macomb, 
wilh  an  elite  corps  of  about  1200  men,  was  detached 
to  disperse  the  militia  who  were  collected  on  the 
shores.  On  the  8th,  he  was  reinforced  by  General 
Brown.  On  the  10th,  having  arrived  at  a  long  and 
dangerous  rapid,  the  troops,  excepting  a  sufficient 
numbef  to  navigate  the  boats,  were  ordered  to 
march  under  General  Boyd,  while  General  Brown 
was  detached  still  further  down  the  river.  Generals 
Wilkinson  and  Lewis  were  both  confined  to  the 
boats  by  indisposition. 

On  the  llth,  the  troops  arrived  at  Williamsburg, 
and  were  about  to  re-embark,  when  the  British  were 
discovered  in  their  rear.  General  Boyd,  who  was 
joined  by  Generals  Covington  and  Swartout  with 
their  brigades,  marched  upon  them  in  three  columns, 
and  commenced  an  attack.  The  action  was  sus- 
tained for  more  than  three  hours  with  great  bravery, 
the  adverse  lines  alternately  yielding  and  advancing, 
when  by  a  movement  of  the  British,  the  American 
infantry,  who  had  been  left  to  cover  their  retreat, 
were  dislodged,  and  the  former  gained  the  victory. 
The  loss  of  the  Americans  was  339 ;  that  of  the 
British  180.  The  American  force  engaged  did  not 
exceed  1200,  while  that  of  the  British  was  certainlv 
more. 

The  next  day  communications  were  received  from 
General  Hampton,  in  which  he  declined  joining  his 
forces  to  those  of  General  Wilkinson,  stating  that 
his  stock  of  provisions  was  not  sufficient  for  both 
armies;  he  intimated,  however,  that  he  should 
retire  to  the  Plattsburg  road,  and  would  join  him 
lower  down  the  river.  A  council  of  war  was  now 
called  by  Wilkinson,  who  decided  to  abandon  the 
attack  on  Montreal,  and  to  go  into  winter-quarters 
at  French  Mills. 

In  the  meantime,  General  Hampton  with  an 
army  4000  strong  encamped  at  Plattsburg.  He  re- 
ceived orders  for  invading  the  British  territory  by 
the  way  of  Champlain,  and  took  post  at  that  place 
on  the  25th  of  September.  Here  he  met  an  order 
to  proceed  to  Chateaugay,  and  penetrate  to  Mon- 
treal by  the  way  of  Chateaugay  river.  Leaving  his 
encampment  at  Chateaugay  Four  Corners  on  the 
21st  of  October,  he  crossed  the  line,  and  proceeded 
down  the  river  to  Ormstown.  Here  he  ascertained 
that  the  British,  about  600  strong,  occupied  a  posi- 
tion six  miles  below  him,  on  his  route  to  Montreal. 
For  the  purpose  of  destroying  it,  he  detached  Co- 
lonel Purdy  on  the  night  of  the  25th,  with  2000  of 
his  forces.  For  the  want  of  proper  guides  Purdy 
was  unable  to  accomplish  his  object.  A  little  after 
sunrise  on  the  morning  of  the  26th,  within  one  mile 
of  the  position  of  the  enemy,  the  other  division  of 
the  army  under  Hampton  overtook  Purdy,  being, 
however,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river.  General 
Hampton  placed  the  greater  part  of  his  force  under 
General  Izard  with  orders  to  attack  the  British  im- 
mediately, which  he  accordingly  did,  and  after  some 
unsuccessful  attempts  to  dislodge  them,  he  treated 
from  the  field  of  battle.  During  this  attack  upon 
the  left  bank,  Colonel  Purdy  remained  on  the  right 
bank,  without  any  exertions  on  his  part  to  aid  Ge- 
neral Izard,  his  men  being  exhausted  by  the  last 
night's  march.  The  British  discovering  them,  sup- 
posed them  to  be  only  a  small  detachment  sent  over 
for  guarding  the  bank  of  the  river,  and  sent  a  few 
troops  for  the  purpose  of  capturing  them.  Without 
being  observed,  they  had  gained  his  rear  and  com- 
menced an  attack,  when  his  whole  division  without 
firing  a  musket  fled  to  the  river  in  the  greatest  con- 
fusion. The  British  finding  their  force  greater  than 


1118 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


they  had  expected,  retreated.  The  American  army 
encamped  on  the  night  of  the  26th,  and  remained 
until  the  28th,  when  they  returned  to  Four  Corners, 
where  Hampton  dispatched  to  General  Wilkinson 
the  letter  which  has  been  mentioned.  Receiving 
the  intelligence  that  the  attack  on  Montreal  was 
abandoned,  he  took  up  his  line  of  march  for  Platts- 
burg,  where  he  established  his  winter-quarters.  He 
soon  resigned  his  commission,  and  was  succeeded 
in  command  by  General  Izard. 

General  Harrison  did  not  arrive  at  Buffalo  until 
the  24th  of  October,  and  was  not  ready  to  join  Ge- 
neral Wilkinson  until  he  had  gone  into  winter-quar- 
ters. He  then  proceeded  to  Sackett's  harbour, 
leaving  the  Niagara  frontier  defenceless,  except 
that  a  few  militia  remained  under  General  M'Clure, 
who  commanded  at  fort  George.  Sir  George  Pre- 
vost,  being  relieved  from  his  apprehensions  of  an 
attack  on  Montreal,  ordered  his  forces  under  Gene- 
neral  Vincent  and  General  Drummond  to  proceed 
to  Niagara.  General  M'Clure  fearing  their  ap- 

E roach,  and  misunderstanding  the  orders  which  he 
ad  received  from  government,  on  the  10th  of  De- 
cember caused  the  village  of  Newark  to  be  burned. 
This  act  was  subsequently  disavowed  by  the  Ame- 
rican government,  but  the  British  had  commenced 
measures  for  its  retaliation.  On  the  19th  of  De- 
cember 400  troops  under  Colonel  Murray  crossed  at 
Niagara,  and  surprising  the  sentries  of  the  fort  ob- 
tained immediate  possession.  The  garrison,  con- 
sisting of  300,  were  mostly  put  to  the  sword.  The 
commander,  Captain  Leonard,  was  absent  at  his 
farm  about  two  miles  distant,  and  was  consequently 
accused  of  treachery ;  but  a  court-martial  acquitted 
him  of  this  charge. 

Th»  British  now  increased  their  forces,  and  under 
•General  Rial  proceeded  to  Lewistown.  Here  they 
were  opposed  by  the  militia  under  Major  Young, 
who  after  maintaining  his  ground  for  some  time  was 
at  last  compelled  to  retreat.  Major  Mallory,  from 
Schlosser,  with  40  Canadian  volunteers,  made  a 
gallant  resistance.  But  the  exertions  of  a  few  scat- 
tered troops  were  ineffectual  against  a  large  body 
•of  British  regulars  and  700  Indians.  They  laid 
waste  Lewistown,  Manchester,  and  the  Tuscarora 
villages. 

General  Hall  advanced  from  Batavia  with  all  the 
forces  which  he  could  collect,  for  the  defence  of  the 
frontier.  On  the  night  of  the  29th  of  December, 
the  British  under  General  Rial  crossed  at  Black 
rock.  Owing  to  the  darkness  of  the  night,  the  mi- 
litia were  unable  to  repulse  their  attacks.  General 
Hall  arrived  from  Buffalo  early  on  the  morning  of 
the  30th ;  at  the  same  time  a  large  division  of  Bri- 
tish and  Indians  were  crossing  the  river.  The  Ame- 
ricans poured  a  destructive  fire  upon  them  in  their 
boats,  but  they  repulsed  them  and  effected  a  land- 
ing. They  commenced  a  spirited  attack  upon  the 
Americans  under  General  Hall,  who  was  driven 
from  his  batteries  and  pursued  to  Buffalo,  a  distance 
of  two  miles.  Here  Hall  attempted  again  to  face 
them;  when  of  2000  militia,  only  600  could  be 
prevailed  upon  to  stand  their  ground.  They  fled  to 
the  woods,  and  many  of  them  were  cut  off  in  the 
pursuit.  The  villages  of  Buffalo  and  Black  Rock 
were  set  on  fire  the  same  day,  and  the  British  pro- 
ceeded into  the  interior,  laying  waste  the  whole  of 
the  country  on  the  American  side  of  the  Niagara 
for  several  miles.  "  The  concluding  scenes  of  the 
campaign  of  the  present  year,"  says  Baines,  "  as- 
sumed the  character  of  a  war  of  extermination; 
a  species  of  contest  abhorrent  to  every  civilized 


mind,  and  fit  only  for  the  savage  auxiliaries  of  the 
two  exasperated  belligerents." 

Having  given  a  sketch  of  the  military  operation* 
of  the  campaign,  and  as  connected  with  these  the 
naval  affairs  of  the  inland  seas;  a  view  of  the  en- 
gagements which  occurred  on  the  ocean  during 
1813,  next  follows.  The  first  affair  of  this  kind 
was  that  between  the  Peacock  and  Hornet,  and  it 
was  in  its  termination  the  sixth  successive  naval 
victory  by  which  America  manifested  her  rising  in- 
fluence in  maritime  warfare. 

On  the  29th  of  February,  as  the  United  States  ship 
Hornet,  Captain  Lawrence,  was  returning  from  a 
cruise  off  the  coast  of  Brazil,  she  fell  in  with  and 
captured  the  British  sloop  of  war  Peacock,  com- 
manded by  Captain  Peake.  The  action  lasted  but 
fifteen  minutes.  The  loss  of  the  British  in  killed 
and  wounded  was  about  40,  that  of  the  Americans 
five.  The  Peacock  unfortunately  sunk  with  thir- 
teen of  her  crew,  while  engaged  in  removing  the 
wounded.  She  had  on  board  three  impressed  Ame- 
rican seamen,  who,  notwithstanding  their  earnest 
solicitations,  had  been  compelled  to  fight  against  their 
country.  One  was  killed  in  the  engagement,  and 
two  were  found  among  the  prisoners. 

In  the  career  of  naval  triumph  the  Americans  now 
suffered  a  severe  check.  On  the  1st  of  June,  as  the 
United  States  frigate  Chesapeake  was  lying  in  Bos- 
tou  harbour,  the  British  frigate  Shannon  appeared 
in  full  sight  off  the  harbour,  inviting  her  to  a  con- 
test. Captain  Lawrence,  who  for  his  gallant  ser- 
vices in  the  affair  of  the  Peacock  had  been  promoted 
to  the  command  of  the  Chesapeake,  felt  himself  bound 
in  honour  to  accept  the  challenge.  His  officers  and 
crew  were  strangers  to  him,  and  the  seamen  were  in 
a  state  of  dissatisfaction  on  account  of  not  having  re- 
ceived  their  pay.  Lawrence,  however,  put  to  sea, 
and  prepared  for  action.  A  furious  engagement  en- 
sued, and  in  a  few  minutes  every  officer  on  board 
the  Chesapeake  capable  of  taking  the  command,  was 
either  killed  or  wounded.  Captain  Lawrence  re- 
ceived a  mortal  wound,  and  the  Chesapeake  being 
much  disabled,  he  was  asked  "  if  the  colours 
should  be  struck  ;"  he  replied,  "  No,  they  shall  wave 
while  I  live."  Becoming  delirious,  he  continually 
cried,  "  Don:t  give  up  the  ship."  At  the  moment 
of  his  being  carried  below,  Captain  Broke  boarded 
the  Chesapeake,  and  the  British  lowered  the  Shan- 
non's colours.  They  did  not,  however,  achieve  this 
victory  without  loss".  They  had  24  killed  and  56 
wounded.  The  loss  of  the  Americans  was  70  killed 
and  63  wounded.  The  defeat  was  unexpected,  and 
the  greatest  grief  prevailed  for  the  fate  of  the  heroic 
Lawrence.  He  survived  four  days.  The  Shannon 
had  carried  her  prize  into  Halifax,  and  there  he  was 
interred  with  every  mark  of  honourable  distinction; 
and  the  oldest  captains  in  the  British  navybore  his  pall. 

Another  naval  disaster  to  the  Americans  soon  fol- 
lowed the  loss  of  the  Chesapeake.  On  the  14th  of 
August  the  United  States  sloop  of  war  Argus,  com- 
manded by  Lieutenant  Allen,  was  captured  after  an 
action  of  nearly  an  hour,  in  St.  George's  channel,  by 
the  British  sloop  of  war  Pelican,  commanded  by  Cap- 
tain Maples.  The  loss  of  the  Americans  was  40,  that 
of  the  British  only  eight.  Lieutenant  Allen  died 
in  England.  He  was  treated  with  every  degree  of 
attention  by  the  English,  who  buried  him  as  they 
would  have  buried  a  brave  officer  of  their  own 
nation. 

On  the  4th  of  September  the  American  seamen 
were  victorious.  The  brig  Enterprise,  sailing  from 
Portland  harbour,  fell  in  the  same  day  with  the  Bri- 


UNITED  STATES. 


1119 


tish  brig  Boxer.  Captaiu  Blyth,  the  commander, 
when  he  descried  the  American,  fired  a  shot  as  a 
challenge,  and  raised  three  British  ensigns,  which  he 
caused  to  be  nailed  to  the  mast.  Soon  after  the  ac- 
tion commenced,  Lieutenant  Burrows,  who  com- 
manded the  American  brig,  was  mortally  wounded, 
but  he  refused  to  be  carried  below.  In  his  last  ago- 
nies he  raised  his  head,  and  requested  that  his  flag 
might  never  be  struck.  Lieutenant  M'Call,  on  whom 
the  command  devolved,  gave  orders  to  board  the 
enemy:  but  Captain  Blyth  had  fallen,  and  the  Bri- 
tish brig  had  become  unmanageable,  and  the  crew 
surrendered.  The  bodies  of  the  British  and  Ame- 
rican commanders  were  received  at  Portland  with 
tokens  of  the  highest  respect :  masters  of  vessels 
rowed  them  ashore  with  the  funeral  stroke  of  the  oar, 
while  minute  guns  were  fired  by  the  vessels  in  the 
harbour  ;  and  their  last  obsequies  were  performed 
by  the  civil  and  military  authorities  of  the  place. 

On  the  26th  of  September  Commodore  Rodgers 
returned  to  America  from  a  long  cruise,  in  which  he 
circumnavigated  the  British  isles,  and  explored  the 
Atlantic.  He  did  not  gain  any  signal  victory,  but 
rendered  essential  service  to  his  country  by  harass- 
ing the  British  commerce.  He  captured  twelve 
merchant  vessels  and  took  many  prisoners. 

The  lands  of  the  Creeks  lying  within  the  territory 
of  the  United  States,  about  this  time  were  secured  to 
them  by  the  American  government.  Great  exertions 
had  been  made  by  benevolent  individuals,'  ;as  well 
as  by  the  government,  to  instruct  them  in  thfe  arts  of  ci- 
vilized life.  These  exertions  had  been  attended  with 
considerable  success;  and  they  were  advancing  to  a 
more  refined  state  of  society.  Their  early  habits 
and  prejudices  were  not  however  entirely  rooted  out; 
and  some  of  them  wished  to  return  to  their  former 
state.  A  visit  from  Tecumseh,  in  1812,  tended  to 
increase  this  disposition.  This  highly  gii'ted  savage 
used  all  the  powers  of  his  eloquence  to  persuade 
them  to  shake  off  the  oppressions  of  civilized  life, 
and  return  to  their  former  condition  of  wild  and 
fearless  independence.  A  civil  war  raged  among 
them.  The  party  hostile  to  the  United  States  in- 
creased, and  they  commenced  a  harassing  and  vex- 
atious warfare  against  the  whites.  Alarmed  at  the 
threatening  aspect  of  affairs,  the  settlers  in  the 
most  exposed  situations  had  taken  refuge  in  forts 
which  were  erected  for  their  security.  No  event  of 
any  importance  however,  occurred,  until  the  sum- 
mer of  1813. 

(1813.)  Fort  Mims  had  been  erected  in  the  Ten- 
sau  settlement,  nearly  opposite  to  Fort  Stoddert. 
This  fort  was  now  filled  with  the  inhabitants  of  the 
surrounding  settlements.  Major  Beaseiy,  the  com- 
mander, had  received  repeated  warnings  of  an  in- 
tended attack  on  the  fort  by  the  Indians,  but  had 
delayed  to  make  preparations  for  its  security. 
On  the  30th  of  August,  at  noon-day,  the  garrison 
was  surprised  by  about  600  Indians.  At  first  they 
stood  their  ground  and  repulsed  the  savages ;  but 
again  they  returned,  drovS  the  besieged  into  the 
houses,  and  set  fire  to  them.  A  dreadful  massacre 
followed.  Only  seventeen  escaped  out  of  300  men, 
•women  and  children,  to  bear  the  sorrowful  tidings 
to  the  surrounding  inhabitants. 

A  desire  of  revenge  spread  through  the  neigh- 
bouring states.  Two  thousand  men  from  Tennessee, 
under  General  Jackson,  and  500  under  General 
Coffee,  joined  their  forces  on  the  12th  of  October, 
and  marched  to  the  Ten  Islands  in  the  Coosa  river, 
where  General  Jackson,  who  took  the  command, 
established  his  head  quarters.  On  the  2nd  of  No- 


vember, he  detached  General  Coffee,  with  900 
cavalry  and  mounted  riflemen,  to  destroy  a  body  of 
the  Creeks  at  Tallushatches.  A  desperate  engage- 
ment ensued,  which  ended  in  victory  to  the  Ameri- 
cans. Two  hundred  savages  were  found  dead,  and 
84  women  and  children  were  taken  prisoners.  Not 
one  escaped.  General  Coffee's  loss  in  killed  and 
wounded  was  46. 

On  the  7th  General  Jackson  hearing  that  a  party 
of  friendly  Creeks  at  Talladega  were  surrounded 
and  in  danger  of  being  destroyed,  marched  with 
1200  men  to  their  relief.  Having  made  the  most 
judicious  arrangements  for  surrounding  the  enemy, 
he  advanced  and  commenced  an  attack.  A  bloody 
battle  followed,  in  which  290  of  the  Indian  warriors 
were  slain.  Fifteen  whites  were  killed,  and  85 
wounded. 

The  militia  from  Tennessee  under  General  Cocke 
were  encamped  at  fort  Armstrong.  On  the  llth  of 
November,  he  detached  General  White  with  a  por- 
tion of  his  army,  against  the  Hillabee  towns.  After 
burning  two  Indian  villages  on  their  route,  they 
entered  the  towns  at  daylight,  on  the  morning  of 
the  eighteenth.  Here  were  about  three  hundred 
inhabitants ;  60  warriors  were  killed,  and  the  re- 
mainder made  prisoners. 

-  The  last  of  November,  the  governor  of  Georgia 
sent  General  Floyd  to  protect  the  frontiers  of  that 
state.  With  250  militia,  and  nearly  400  friendly 
Indians,  he  marched  into  the  most  flourishing  part 
of  the  Creek  country.  On  the  29th,  his  troops  were 
drawn  up  for  battle  at  Autossee,  their  sacred  ground, 
to  approach  which,  the  superstitious  natives  consi- 
dered as  inevitable  destruction  to  any  white  man. 
The  Indians  were  collected  from  eight  towns  for  its 
defence,  and  fought  with  desperate  bravery;  but 
they  were  defeated,  and  their  towns,  consisting  of 
400  houses,  were  burned.  Two  hundred  of  their 
warriors  were  killed,  among  whom  were  the  Autossee 
and  Tallasee  kings.  The  loss  of  the  Americans  wa» 
50  in  killed  and  wounded;  and  among  the  latter 
was  General  Floyd. 

On  the  23rd  of  December,  General  Claiborne, 
who  commanded  the  Mississipi  volunteers,  gained 
an  important  victory  over  the  Creeks,  under  their 
famous  prophet  Weatherford,  at  Eccanachaca  or 
holy  ground,  on  the  Alabama  river. 

The  term  of  service  for  the  Tennessee  militia  had 
now  expired,  and  becoming  mutinous,  they  were 
disbanded  and  ordered  to  march  for  their  homes. 

On  the  14th  of  January,  General  Jackson  was 
reinforced  by  eight  hundred  volunteers.  Their  term 
of  service  was  only  60  days ;  and  as  fort  Armstrong 
was  threatened  with  an  attack,  and  General  Floyd 
was  about  to  enter  the  enemy's  country,  he  deter- 
mined to  make  a  diversion  in  their  favour,  by  march- 
ing against  a  considerable  force  who  were  collected 
near  the  mouth  of  Emucfau  creek.  On  the  17th, 
he  took  up  his  line  of  march,  and  on(the  18th, 
was  joined  at  Talladega  by  between  300  and  400 
friendly  Indians.  On  the  21st,  as  appearances  in- 
dicated their  approach  to  an  Indian  settlement,  he 
formed  his  men  at  night  in  order  of  battle,  as  he  ex- 
pected ar>  attack.  At  dawn  on  the  morning  of  the 
22nd,  he  was  assaulted  on  the  left  flank ;  but  after 
a  severe  contest  of  half  an  hour,  the  Indians  were 
repulsed.  General  Jackson  then  acted  on  the  offen- 
sive. A  general  charge  was  made  with  great  vigour 
upon  the  enemy's  lines.  General  Coffee  attacked 
their  left,  while  200  friendly  Indians  co-operated  with 
him  on  the  right.  The  savages  were  unable  to  re- 
sist, and  they  fled  to  their  post.  About  50  of  them 


1120 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


were  slain.  On  the  23rd,  General  Jackson  com 
menced  his  return  to  fort  Strother.  On  the  same 
night  he  encamped  at  Enotachopco  ;  and  the  nexl 
day,  his  army  were  attacked  in  a  narrow  defile  by 
the  Indians,  whom  they  repulsed  after  a  severe  con- 
test. Tne  loss  of  the  Americans  in  these  several  en- 
gagements was  twenty  killed,  and  75  wounded. 

On  the  27th  of  January,  General  Floyd  was  as- 
sailed in  his  camp,  west  of  the  Chatahoucie,  by  a  nu- 
merous body  of  savages  ;  but  a  steady  and  incessant 
fire  from  the  artillery  and  riflemen,  compelled  them 
to  retire.  General  Floyd  was  severely  wounded,  and 
many  of  his  soldiers  killed. 

The  hostile  spirit  of  the  Creeks,  notwithstanding 
their  numerous  defeats,  still  remained  unsubdued. 
Determined  to  make  a  desperate  effort  to  prevent 
the  destruction  of  their  tribe,  they  strongly  fortified 
the  bend  of  the  Tallapoosa,  called  by  the  Indians 
Tohopeka,  and  by  the  whites  Horse-shoe-bend.  Na- 
ture and  art  had  rendered  this  a  place  of  great  se 
curity.  They  had  erected  a  breastwork,  from  five  to 
eight  feet  high,  across  the  peninsula,  thus  enclosing 
nearly  100  acres  of  ground.  This  could  not  be  ap- 
proached, without  being  exposed  to  a  double  and 
cross  fire  from  the  Indians  who  lay  behind.  About 
1000  warriors  had  collected  on  this  spot.  Here  Ge- 
neral Jackson  determined  to  attack  them.  On  the 
26th  of  March  he  encamped  within  six  miles  of  the 
place,  and  having  learned  the  shore  was  lined  with 
canoes,  he  sent  General  Coffee  to  the  opposite  side 
of  the  river  to  surround  the  Bend  in  such  a  manner 
that  none  could  escape  by  crossing  the  river.  With 
the  remainder  of  his  force,  he  attacked  their  fortifi- 
cations in  front.  A  brisk  fire  was  kept  up  for  two 
hours,  when  General  Coffee  crossed  to  the  peninsula 
to  his  aid,  and  commenced  a  spirited  tire  upon  the 
enemy,  who  lay  behind  the  breastwork ;  but  they 
were  still  unsubdued.  General  Jackson  determined 
to  storm  their  fortifications.  The  regulars,  led  on 
by  Colonel  Williams  and  Major  Montgomery,  ad- 
vanced to  the  charge.  An  obstinate  contest  ensued ; 
in  which  the  combatants  fought  through  the  port- 
holes, musket  to  musket.  At  this  time,  Major  Mont- 
gomery, leaping  on  the  wall,  called  to  his  men  to 
mount,  and  follow  him.  Scarcely  had  he  spoken, 
when  a  ball  struck  him  on  the  head,  and  he  fell  life- 
less to  the  ground.  Yet  the  Americans  obeyed  his 
command,  and,  following  his  example,  soon'gaiued 
the  opposite  side  of  the  works.  Though  the  Creeks 
fought  with  a  bravery  which  their  desperate  situation 
alone  could  have  inspired,  yet  they  were  entirely  de- 
feated, and  cut  to  pieces.  Five  hundred  and  fifty 
were  ;killed  on  the  peninsula,  and  many  were 
drowned  or  shot  in  attempting  to  cross  the  river. 
General  Jackson's  loss,  including  the  friendly  In- 
dians, was  54  killed,  and  156  wounded.  This  de- 
cisive victory  ended  in  the  submission  of  the  remain- 
ing warriors,  and  terminated  the  Creek  war.  Among 
those  who  threw  themselves  upon  the  mercy  of  their 
victors,  was  Weatherford,  who  was  equally  distin- 
guished for  his  talents  and  cruelty.  "  I  am  in  your 
power,"  said  he,  "  do  with  me  what  you  please.  I 
have  done  the  white  people  all  the  harm  I  could.  I 
have  fought  them,  and  fought  them  bravely.  There 
was  a  time  when  I  had  a  choice.  I  have  none  now; 
every  hope  is  ended.  Once  I  could  animate  my  war- 
riors to  battle ;  but  I  cannot  animate  the  dead.  They 
can  no  longer  hear  my  voice ;  their  bones  are  at 
Tallushatches,  Talladega,  Emucfau,  and  Tohopeka. 
While  there  was  a  chance  of  success,  I  never  sup- 
plicated peace  ;  but  my  people  are  gone,  and  I  now 
ask  it  for  my  nation  and  myself." 


During  the  summer,  a  treaty  of  peace  was  con- 
cluded with  the  conquered  Creeks,  on  conditions  ad- 
vantageous to  the  United  States.  General  Jackson 
returned  to  Tenessee,  and  was  soon  after  appointed 
to  succeed  General  Wilkinson  in  the  command  of 
the  forces  at  New-Orleans. 

Mediations  of  peace — Extra  session  of  congress — Em- 
baryo  and  non-importation  act — Unsuccessful  attempt 
at  La  Colle — Attack  on  Oswego — Expedition  tu  the 
river  Thames — British  ascend  Connecticut  river. 
During  the  spring  of  1813,  the  Emperor  of  Russia 
offered  his  mediation  in  the  quarrel  between  the 
United  States  and  Great  Britain.  On  the  part  of  the 
republic,  the  offer  was  promptly  met,  and  three  among 
the  most  highly  honoured  of  her  citizens,  John  Quincy 
Adams,  Albert  Gallatin,  and  James  A.  Bayard,  were 
despatched  to  Russia,  to  meet  and  negotiate  with 
such  commissioners  as  Great  Britain  might  choose 
to  appoint.  England,  however,  had  declined  the  me- 
diation of  Alexander,  but  offered  to  treat  for  peace 
directly  with  the  United  States.  In  pursuance  of 
this  proposition,  to  which  the  American  government 
acceded,  Messrs.  Adams,  Gallatin,  and  Bayard,  in 
the  month  of  August,  proceeded  to  Ghent,  the  place 
of  meeting  agreed  on,  and  there  met  Lord  Gambier, 
Henry  Golbourn,  and  William  Adams,  commission- 
ers on  the  part  of  Great  Britain.  On  the  part  of 
America,  Henry  Clay  and  Jonathan  Russell  were 
added  to  the  gentlemen  already  mentioned. 

"  After  the  fall  of  Napoleon,  it  was  held  in  this 
country,  (England,)"  says  Baines,  "  withalament- 
able  ignorance  of  the  real  state  of  the  feelings  and 
energies  of  the  United  States,  that  Britain,  so  long 
the  undisputed  mistress  of  the  ocean,  would  soon  be 
able  to  sweep  from  the  seas  the  ships  of  America ; 
and  that  those  troops,  which  had  acquired  so  much 
glory  when  contending  with  the  veteran  armies  of 
Europe,  would  no  sooner  show  themselves  OQ  the 
western  side  of  the  Atlantic,  than  the  panic-struck 
soldiers  of  the  United  States  would  be  driven  far 
within  their  own  frontiers.  These  pleasing  illusions 
were  heightened  by  the  hope,  that  England  would 
soon  be  able  to  dictate  peace  in  the  capital  of  the 
republic;  or  at  least,  that  the  splendour  of  British 
triumphs,  and  thejpressure  of  American  embarrass- 
ments, would  induce  and  encourage  the  inhabitants 
of  the  northern  states  to  form  a  separate  government 
under  the  protection  of  the  crown  of  Great  Britain, 
if  not  actually  under  the  sway  of  her  sceptre. 

"  During  the  early  part  of  the  year  1814,  the  war 
with  America  was]suffered  to  languish ;  but  no  sooner 
was  Europe  restored  to  peace,  by  the  dethronement 
of  Buonaparte,  than  the  British  government  resolved 
to  prosecute  the  contest  with  increased  vigour,  and 
to  obtain  in  the  field  a  recognition  of  those  mari- 
time rights,  which  had  hitherto  been  so  strenu- 
ously resisted  in  the  cabinet.  Two  distinct  modes  of 
prosecuting  the  war  seemed  to  have  been  determined 
on  by  the  British  ministry :  first  an  invasion  of  the 
coast  of  the  United  States,  and,  second,  after  the 
protection  of  Canada  had  been  secured,  the  con- 
quest of  so  much  of  the  adjoining  territory  as  might, 
in  the  event  of  a  future  war,  effectually  guard  that 
province  from  all  danger.  The  peace  of  Paris  was 
scarcely  ratified  before  14,000  c  f  those  troops,  which 
tiad  gained  so  much  renown  under  the  Duke  of  Wel- 
iington,  were  embarked  at  Bordeaux  for  Canada ; 
and  about  the  same  time  a  strong  naval  force,  with 
an  adequate  number  of  troops,  were  collected,  and 
dispatched  for  invading  different  parts  of  the  ooas»t 
of  the  United  States." 


UNITED  STATES. 


1121 


On  account  of  the  critical  state  of  the  country,  the 
American  congress  had  deemed  it  expedient  to  hold 
an  extra  session ;  and  had,  accordingly,  met  on  the 
24th  of  May,  1813.  Their  most  urgent  business 
was  to  provide  means  of  replenishing  the  exhausted 
treasury ;  and,  notwithstanding  the  clamours  of  the 
party  opposed  to  the  war,  they  proceeded  with  firm- 
ness and  decision  in  the  execution  of  their  duty. 
After  considerable  debate,  they  agreed  on  a  system 
of  internal  duties,  and  laws  were  passed  laying  taxes 
on  lands  and  houses,  distilled  liquors,  refined  sugars, 
»-jtailers'  licences,  carriages,  sales  at  auction,  and 
oank  notes.  By  these  means,  it  was  expected  to 
raise  a  revenue  of  5,500,000  dollars,  and  a  loan  of 
7,500,000  was  authorized.  Congress  adjourned  on 
the  2nd  of  August. 

On  the  2nd  of  December  they  convened  again,  as 
usual.  Among  other  important  subjects  embraced 
in  the  President's  message,  was  that  concerning  the 
right  of  expatriation,  on  which  Great  Britain  and 
America  had  been  so  long  at  issue,  and  from  which 
the  most  tragical  consequences  were  at  that  period 
apprehended.  Forty  persons,  natives  of  Britain,  but 
who  by  a  long  residence  had  become  naturalized  in 
America,  had  been  taken  in  arms  against  the  Bri- 
tish nation,  and  were  sent  to  Great  Britain  to  un- 
dergo a  trial  for  treason  against  their  country.  The 
American  government,  feeling  itself  bound  to  pro- 
tect them,  had  put  in  close  confinement  an  equal 
number  of  British  soldiers,  with  a  notification  that 
if  violence  was  done,  the  same  in  kind  and  degree 
should  be  inflicted  in  return.  In  retaliation  for  this 
step,  the  British  government  put  in  confinement, 
with  a  similar  threat,  double  the  number  of  American 
officers  of  the  lower  grades.  This  measure  had  also 
been  retaliated,  and  an  equal  number  of  British  offi- 
cers selected.  In  this  alarming  position  did  this  affair 
stand  at  the  delivery  of  the  president's  message.  The 
subject  was  however  adjusted  by  the  exchange  of  all 
prisoners,  except  the  first  sent  for  trial ;  and  on  pro- 
ceedings having  been  instituted  against  them,  the 
American  government  reserved  a  right  to  retaliate,  in 
case  any  violence  should  hereafter  be  done  them. 

Another  message  was  soon  after  received  from  the 
president,  recommending  an  embargo  upon  exports; 
with  a  view  to  deprive  the  British  of  supplies  from 
the  ports ;  and  with  a  design  to  proteet  the  American 
commerce,  a  more  complete  prohibition  of  British 
manufactures  was  enforced.  These  measures,  which 
after  the  most  spirited  debates  were  adopted  by  con- 
gress, were  considered  by  the  opposition  as  measures 
of  greater  annoyance  to  America  than  to  her  foe,  and 
condemned  as  unconstitutional  and  oppressive. 
These  commercial  restrictions  were  not  however  of 
long  continuance.  Mighty  changes  were  taking 
place  in  Europe,  with  which  was  changed  the  policy 
of  America.  Her  measures  had  been  taken  with  a 
view  to  withdraw  her  commerce  from  both  bellige- 
rents, and  threaten  them  with  offensive  operations, 
in  case  her  rights  were  not  regarded.  The  result  of 
this  was,  as  we  have  seen,  peace  with  France  and 
war  with  England.  America  had  continued  her  re- 
strictions with  Britain,  because  the  power  of  Buo- 
naparte closed  from  her  commerce  so  many  of  the 
Sorts  of  Europe,  that  it  was  detrimental  to  her  to  be 
eprived  of  that  of  America  also.  But  Buonaparte 
was  now  a  powerless  exile  at  Elba;  and  the  ports  of 
Europe  were  now  open  to  England.  Under  these 
circumstances,  the  American  government  judged  it 
expedient  to  repeal  their  restrictive  laws;  and  ac- 
cordingly, in  the  month  of  April,  the  embargo  and 
non-importation  act  were  both  discontinued. 

HIST.  OF  AMKR.—NOS.  141  &  142. 


The  condition  of  the  army  required  and  received 
the  attention  of  congress.  A  bill  was  passed  early 
in  the  session,  giving  to  those  who  should  enlist  for 
fire  years,  or  during  the  war,  the  unprecedented 
bounty  of  124  dollars;  and  to  any  person  who  should 
procure  an  able-bodied  recruit,  was  given  further  the 
sum  of  eight  dollars.  Little  addition  was,  during 
this  session,  made  to  the  naval  force.  An  appropria- 
tion of  500,000  dollars  was  however  made,  for  the 
building  of  one  or  more  floating  batteries,  to  be  pro- 
pelled by  steam. 

General  Wilkinson  had  remained  inactive  at 
French  Mills,  until  early  in  February  1814 ;  when 
having  received  orders  from  the  secretary  of  war,  he 
detached  General  Brown,  with  2000  troops,  to  the 
Niagara  frontier;  and  having  destroyed  his  bar- 
racks, he  retired  to  Plattsburg.  The  enemy  taking 
advantage  of  this  movement,  on  the  21st  of  Febru- 
ary, made  an  incursion  as  far  as  Malone,  and  de- 
stroyed the  arsenal  and  public  stores  kept  there, 
which  had  belonged  to  the  cantonment  of  French 
Mills. 

Movements  of  General  Wilkinson,  which  had  the 
appearance  of  an  attempt  again  to  invade  Canada, 
induced  2000  of  the  British  under  Major  Hancock, 
to  fortify  themselves  at  La  Colle  Mill,  near  the  river 
Sorel.  General  Wilkinson  advanced  on  the  30th 
day  of  March,  for  the  purpose  of  dislodging  them. 
Having  dispersed  skirmishing  parties  of  the  British, 
he  arrived  at  La  Colle,  and  so  arranged  his  troops, 
as  to  cover  the  guns  of  a  small  battery,  and  cut  off 
the  retreat  of  his  enemy.  A  cannonade  followed ; 
during  which,  a  sortie  was  made  from  the  building, 
but  it  ended  in  the  repulse  of  the  assailants.  Find- 
ing this  battery  insufficient  to  penetrate  the  thick 
stone  walls  of  the  mill,  Wilkinson  retired  with  his 
forces,  having  lost  100  in  killed  and  wounded,  Such 
a  succession  of  unsuccessful  measures  brought  public 
censure  upon  this  general.  He  was  tried  before  a 
court-martial  at  Troy,  but  nominally  acquitted  of  the 
charges  brought  against  him. 

The  whole  force  of  Lower  Canada  now  withdrew 
from  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  were  stationed  near  St. 
John's,  for  securing  the  entrance  of  their  fleet  into 
lake  Champlain. 

During  the  autumn  and  winter,  Commodore  Mac- 
donough  had  laboured  with  great  industry  to  pro- 
vide a  naval  force  on  lake  Champlain,  equal  to  that 
of  the  British.  The  flotilla  was  lying  in  the  Otter 
river,  at  Vergennes;  and  it  was  the  object  of  the 
British  to  destroy  it,  before  it  should  make  its  appear- 
ance on  the  lake.  Apprised  of  this,  Commodore 
Macdonough  caused  a  battery  to  be  erected  at  the 
mouth  of  the  rivei  On  the  ]  2th  of  May,  the  Bri- 
tish fleet  entered  the  lake,  and  were  repulsed  in  an 
attack  upon  this  battery  by  water.  They  were  also 
unsuccessful  in  attempting  to  gain  the  rear  of  the 
battery  by  land,  being  driven  off  by  a  detachment  of 
Vermont  militia.  Thus  repulsed,  they  abandoned 
their  object,  and  moved  down  the  lake. 

On  lake  Ontario,  both  the  Americans  and  British 
were  actively  employed  in  constructing  large  ships, 
before  again  contending  on  its  waters  for  supremacy, 
which  however  at  this  time  leaned  to  the  side  of  the 
British.  They  attacked  several  places  on  the  Ame- 
rican shore,  and  made  attempts  which  were  gene- 
rally unsuccessful,  to  destroy  the  unfinished  ships, 
and  the  stores  which  were  to  furnish  them.  Oswego 
was  a  deposit  for  naval  stores-  It  was  defended  by 
a  fort,  which  mounted  only  five  guns,  and  was  gar- 
risoned by  500  men,  under  Colonel  Mitchell.  To 
destroy  this  place,  was  the  first  attempt  of  the  Bri< 

4  X. 


1122 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


tish.  On  the  5th  of  May,  their  whole  fleet  with 
1500  troops  under  General  Drummond,  appeared  be- 
fore it,  hut  could  not  effect  a  landing.  On  the  6th, 
they  renewed  the  attempt,  and  landed  their  men. 
Colonel  Mitchell,  after  maintaining  his  ground  for 
half  an  hour,  retired  to  the  falls  of  Oswego,  about 
twelve  miles  distant,  to  which  place  he  had  caused 
the  stores  to  be  removed.  Destroying  the  bridge  in 
his  rear,  the  British  were  cut  off  from  their  object, 
and  evacuated  the  town.  The  fleet  returned  to  Kings- 
ton, leaving  only  a  few  gun-boats  on  the  lake. 

Shortly  after,  Major  Appling  and  Captain  Wool- 
sey  were  appointed  to  convey  the  naval  stores  from 
Oswego  to  Sackett's  Harbour.  On  the  28th  of  May, 
when  off  Sandy  Creek,  sixteen  miles  south-west  of 
Sackett's  Harbour,  perceiving  themselves  covered 
by  the  British  boats,  they  entered  the  creek.  Here 
they  landed,  and  formed  an  ambuscade.  The  Bri- 
tish followed,  were  completely  surprised,  and  sur- 
rendered after  an  action  of  ten  minutes. 

The  Americans  had  now  completed  the  Superior, 
a  vessel  capable  of  mounting  64  guns.  Commodore 
Chauncey  soon  after  fitted  her  out,  and  sailed  in  view 
of  Kingston  ;  but  Sir  James  did  not  choose  to  hazard 
an  engagement  until  his  own  vessel  of  equal  size 
should  be  completed. 

(1814.)  At  the  commencement  of  this  year,  the 
Americans  were  in  possession  of  all  their  former  terri- 
tory at  the  west,  except  fort  Mackinaw. 

On  the  21st  of  February.  Captain  Holmes  was  de- 
tached from  Detroit  with  180  men,  to  dislodge  a 
party  of  British  who  were  stationed  on  the  river 
Thames,  about  two  days'  march  from  that  place. 
When  within  fifteen  miles  of  their  position,  he  re- 
ceived intelligence  that  about  300  of  the  English  were 
within  one  hour's  march  of  him.  He  immediately 
retired  five  miles,  to  a  more  favourable  position,  and 
sent  forward  a  small  body  of  rangers  to  discover  their 
strength ;  but  they  returned,  followed  by  the  British. 
Wishing  to  draw  Captain  Holmes  from  his  position, 
they  feigned  an  attack,  and  then  retreated.  He  fol- 
lowed for  five  miles,  when  he  found  the  main 
army  preparing  for  action.  He  hastened  back  to  his 
former  position,  and  being  attacked  on  all  sides,  a 
severe  contest  followed.  The  Americans  gallantly 
defended  themselves  for  an  hour,  when  the  British 
ordered  a  retreat.  The  loss  of  the  Americans  was 
only  six  killed  and  wounded,  while  that  of  their 
enemy  was  69. 

The  idea  had  hitherto  prevailed  among  the  Bri- 
tish, that  the  northern  states  might  easily  be  induced 
to  break  off  their  alliance  with  the  other  states,  and 
again  become  a  part  of  their  empire ;  while  they  con- 
sidered the  southern  states  as  being  more  firmly  at- 
tached to  the  government,  and  consequently  more 
difficult  to  subdue.  Hence  the  northern  sea-coast 
experienced  little  molestation  until  the  spring  of 
1814.  The  British  then  commenced  their  attacks 
by  ascending  the  Connecticut  river  to  Pettipaug, 
otherwise  called  Essex,  where  they  destroyed  ship- 
ping to  the  value  of  200,000  dollars.  The  coasting 
trade  suffered  severely  from  the  Liverpool  Packet,  a 
British  privateer.  Commodore  Lewis  succeeded  in 
chasing  her  off.  Taking  under  his  convoy  about50 
vessels,  which  he  found  lying  at  Saybrook,  he  passed 
the  squadron  blockading  New  London,  and  escorted 
them  safely  to  sea. 


General  Brown  crosses  the  Niagara — Battle  of  Chip- 
pewa — Battle  of  Bridgewater — General  Riall  cap- 
tured—'Fort  Erie  besieged— Colonel  Drummond 


killed — British   works   destroyed — Unruccessfui   at- 
tempt to  re-take  Mackinau. 

General  Brown,  as  has  been  related,  conducted 
2000  of  the  army  of  General  Wilkinson  from  French 
Mills  to  Sackett's  Harbour.  His  force  consisted  of 
two  brigades,  the  first  under  General  Scott,  tha 
second  under  General  Ripley.  These  able  officers 
were  diligently  occupied  during  the  first  part  of  the 
campaign  in  disciplining  their  troops,  and  prepar- 
ing them  for  action. 

General  Brown  marched  his  army  to  Buffalo,  ex- 
pecting to  invade  Canada.  Here  were  added  to  his 
army  Towson's  artillery,  and  a  corps  of  volunteers 
commanded  by  General  Porter,  making  in  the  whole 
about  3500  men.  On  the  2nd  and  3rd  of  July,  they 
crossed  the  Niagara,  and  immediately  invested  fort 
Erie,  where  the  garrison,  amounting  to  100  men, 
surrendered  without  resistance. 

On  the  4th,  the  brigade  under  General  Scott,  with 
Towson's  artillery,  advanced  from  fort  Erie  along 
the  bank  of  the  Niagara,  to  where  it  is  intersected 
by  a  small  brook,  called  Street's  Creek,  which  falls 
into  the  river  from  the  south-west.  Here,  being 
within  a  mile  and  a  half  of  the  British,  he  halted. 
General  Brown,  with  the  remaining  brigade,  arrived 
at  the  same  place  at  midnight,  and  General  Porter, 
with  the  volunteers,  at  sunrise.  The  British  occu- 
pied a  strong  position  at  the  mouth  of  the  Chippewa. 
They  were  3000  strong,  commanded  by  General 
Riall.  They  consisted  of  a  portion  of  those  troops 
which,  since  the  pacification  of  Europe,  Great  Bri 
tain  had  sent  to  conquer  America.  The  camp  of  the 
Americans  being  annoyed  by  flying  parties  of  the 
enemy,  General  Porter,  with  800  volunteers  and  In- 
dians, and  80  regulars  under  Captain  M1  Donald,  by 
the  orders  of  General  Brown,  advanced  from  the 
rear,  and  taking  a  southerly  direction  along  the 
Creek,  surprised  and  attacked  a  body  of  Indians 
about  two  miles  from  the  American  camp.  The  In- 
dians retreated  skirmishing  towards  the  British  in- 
trenchment.  The  noise  of  the  firing  brought  a  large 
reinforcement  to  the  Indians;  and  the  enemy,  ill 
their  turn,  obliged  General  Porter,  after  a  warm  en 
gagement,  to  retire. 

It  was  now  found  that  the  main  body  of  the  Bri- 
tish were  advancing,  and  General  Brown  put  his 
whole  camp  in  motion.  General  Ripley  was  sent 
to  the  left  to  the  aid  of  General  Porter,  while  Gene- 
ral Scott,  crossing  the  creek,  drew  up  his  brigade 
in  order  of  battle,  to  receive  the  charge  of  the  king's 
regiment,  and  that  of  the  royal  Scots.  They  out 
numbered  the  republican  troops  more  than  one-third  ; 
and  they  were  the  veterans  who  had  fought  by  the 
side  of  Wellington,  and  conquered  the  conqueror 
of  Europe  ;  and  of  whom  many  of  the  English  had 
predicted,  that  they  would  recolonize  America. 
The  officers  and  soldiers  of  the  republic  had,  at  the 
most,  but  two  years'  experience  ;  and  many  of  them 
had  never  before  been  in  battle.  Here  then  they 
met  in  fair  and  open  fight. 

General  Scott  led  on  his  men,  while  his  officers 
nobly  seconded  his  heroic  exertions.  The  conflict 
was  bloody — but  the  genius  of  America  prevailed. 
The  yeterans  gave  way,  and  retreated ;  Scott  pur- 
sued, defeating  them  at  every  point,  until  at  length 
their  retreat  being  changed  to  a  disorderly  rout, 
they  sought  the  shelter  of  their  intrenchments.  So 
decisive  had  been  the  movements  of  General  Scott, 
that  the  British  were  totally  defeated  before  the  bri- 
gade of  General  Ripley  was  brought  into  action. 
General  Brown  now  ordered  up  the  artillery  to  batter 


UNITED  STATES. 


1123 


their  works ;  but  the  day  was  spent,  and  their  bat- 
teries appeared  so  strongly  fortified,  that  he  desisted 
from  the  attempt,  drew  off  his  forces,  and  returned 
to  his  camp. 

In  this  engagement,  Colonel  Gordon,  of  the  royal 
Scots,  and  Colonel  the  marquis  of  Tweedale,  late 
aid-de-camp  to  the  duke  of  Wellington,  were  both 
severely  wounded.  The  loss  of  the  enemy  in  killed, 
wounded,  and  prisoners,  was  514 ;  that  of  the  Ame- 
ricans, 328. 

In  the  mean  time,  a  large  body  of  British  troops, 
commanded  by  General  Drummond,  were  situated 
at  the  head  of  lake  Ontario,  near  Burlington  Heights, 
and  at  York.  Soon  after  the  battle  of  Chippewa, 
General  Riall  fell  back  to  fort  George.  On  the  10th 
of  July,  the  American  camp  was  removed  from 
Street's  Creek  to  Queenstown,  and  from  thence  Ge- 
neral Brown  marched  to  invest  fort  George ;  but 
finding  unexpected  difficulties,  he  retired  from  that 
position,  and,  on  the  23rd,  took  post  at  Chippewa. 
He  had,  however,  previously  sent  his  wounded  and 
heavy  baggage  across  the  strait  to  Schlosser,  near 
the  Falls,  intending,  at  the  time,  to  advance  upon 
the  enemy  at  Burlington  Heights.  The  British, 
stung  by  their  defeat  at  Chippewa,  were  making  vi- 
gorous exertions  to  retrieve  the  fortune  of  the  war  ; 
and  General  Drummond,  with  all  the  forces  from 
Burlington  and  York,  had  marched  to  fort  George. 
Kingston  and  Prescott  bad  also  sent  their  forces 
across  lake  Ontario  to  the  same  point.  An  army  of 
about  5000,  including  1500  militia  and  Indians,  was 
thus  collected  to  oppose  the  force  of  General  Brown, 
which,  instead  of  augmenting,  had  been  lessened  by 
the  desertion  of  the  Indians.  The  army,  under  Ge- 
neral Drummond,  advanced,  and  on  the  morning  of 
the  25th,  General  Brown  received  information  from 
General  Swift,  who  had  the  care  of  the  wounded, 
that  they  were  at  Queenstown,  and  that  a  detach- 
ment threatened  his  stores  at  Schlosser.  At  this  in- 
telligence, General  Brown  sent  General  Scott  with 
his  brigade  and  Captain  Towson's  artillery  to  make 
a  movement  on  the  Queenstown  road,  as  if  to  attack 
the  enemy,  and  thus  divert  their  attention  from  his 
stores.  General  Scott  left  the  camp  at  four  in  the 
afternoon,  moved  along  the  river,  and  passed  the 
grand  cataract,  in  ignorance  that  the  enemy  were 
near.  Having  proceeded  a  short  distance  beyond 
the  falls,  he  learned  that  the  British  army,  in  great 
force,  were  encamped  behind  a  wood,  about  300 
yards  to  the  north,  and  that  they  intended  to  attack 
the  Americans  the  next  day.  Scott  immediately 
transmitted  this  intelligence  to  his  commander,  and 
moved  rapidly  forward  through  the  wood,  till  he  per- 
ceived the  British  strongly  posted  on  an  eminence 
defended  by  nine  pieces  of  artillery.  He  halted, 
and  drew  up  his  men  in  order  of  battle,  on  a  level 
ground  near  Lundy's  lane,  and  in  front  of  the  Bri- 
tish position.  The  artillery  under  Towson  com- 
menced a  brisk  cannonade,  which  was  returned  by 
the  British  battery  ;  and  a  warm  engagement  com- 
menced. The  British  general,  probably  ignorant  of 
their  real  situation,  did  not  put  forth  his  strength,  or 
he  might  have  surrounded  and  crushed  the  Ameri- 
cans. In  this  case,  a  heavy  censure  would  have 
fallen  on  their  commander  for  his  temerity  in  bring- 
ing on  the  action.  As  it  is,  he  has  been  charged 
with  wasting  the  blood  of  his  countrymen  ;  but  that 
blood  was  not  wasted,  which  served  to  make  the 
rights  of  his  country  respected,  by  obliterating  the 
stain  of  cowardice,  with  which  too  many  of  the  early 
transactions  of  this  war  had  tarnished  it.  It  was 
late  in  the  afternoon  when  this  engagement  com- 


menced. The  sun  had  now  gone  down,  and  dark- 
ness came  on.  No  reinforcement  appeared  to  the 
Americans,  but  they  still  maintained  the  battle,  al- 
though an  officer  reminded  the  general  that  the  rule 
for  retiring  was  accomplished,  more  than  one-fourth 
being  killed  or  wounded.  Many  of  his  officers  were 
among  the  number.  The  brave  Colonel  Brady  had 
been  the  first  to  form  his  regiment,  and  on  that  the 
loss  fell  heaviest.  Himself  twice  wounded,  he  was 
entreated  by  those  who  observed  him  pale  from  the 
loss  of  bloofl,  to  quit  the  field ;  "  Not  while  I  can 
stand,"  was  his  reply.  At  that  critical  moment  a 
reinforcement  appeared.  General  Ripley  had  been, 
ordered  to  form  his  brigade  on  the  skirt  of  a  wood  to 
the  right  of  General  Scott.  But,  finding  that  this 
position  was  not  favourable  for  annoying  his  enemy, 
he  took  the  responsibility  of  moving  nearer  to  them 
before  he  formed.  For  this  purpose,  he  was  about 
to  pass  the  brigade  of  Scott,  but  coming  between  him 
and  the  British,  he  found  that  he  was  suffering  se- 
verely from  their  battery,  and  then  truly  conceived 
what  must  be  his  situation.  Ripley  then  conceived  the 
bold  thought  of  storming  the  formidable  battery.  "  Co- 
lonel Miller,"  said  he, "  will  you  take  yonder  battery  ?" 
"  I'll  try,"  said  the  latter :  and,  at  the  head  of  tho 
21st  regiment,  he  calmly  took  his  course,  and  bay- 
oneted the  men  while  firing,  and  possessed  himself 
of  their  guns.  Ripley  had  moved  at  the  same  time, 
at  the  head  of  the  23rd  regiment,  to  the  attack  of  the 
infantry,  and  drove  them  from  the  eminence  which 
was  the  key  of  their  position.  Here  Ripley  formed 
his  brigade.  General  Porter,  with  his  volunteers, 
was  on  the  right,  and  the  artillery  of  Towson  in  the 
centre.  The  British,  mortified  and  enraged,  rallied 
and  advanced  to  regain  their  position  and  artillery. 
The  Americans  perceived  that  they  were  coming  on, 
but  could  not  distinctly  ascertain  from  what  point.  The 
moon  had  risen,  but  there  were  dark  clouds,  and  the 
light  was  fitful.  Sounds  came  indistinctly  mingled 
from  every  quarter.  The  roaring  of  the  cataract, 
the  shrieks  and  groans  of  the  wounded  and  dying, 
the  discharge  of  artillery,  were  all  heard,  as  well  as 
the  rush  of  the  enemy's  attack.  In  this  situation, 
Ripley  gave  his  troops  the  order  to  wait  till  the 
enemy's  bayonets  touched  their  own,  and  take  aim 
by  the  light  from  the  discharge  of  their  muskets. 
The  aim  of  the  Americans  was  good.  Numbers  of 
their  brave  enemy  fell.  They  closed  up  their  ranks, 
and  came  on  with  the  bayonets.  The  republicans 
stood  the  charge,  and  sturdily  pushed  back  the  thrust. 
For  twenty  minutes  this  deadly  strife  continued,  when 
the  veterans  of  Wellington  retreated  in  disorder. 
Three  times,  in  the  course  of  that  bloody  night,  the 
same  scene  was  repeated.  Four  times  were  the  Bri- 
tish met  with  the  bayonet,  and  repulsed  by  the  Ame- 
ricans. At  length,  about  midnight,  they  relin- 
quished the  conflict,  leaving  their  position  and  ar- 
tillery to  the  Americans. 

Although  the  brunt  of  battle  was  on  the  eminence, 
other  efforts  were  making  in  different  parfs  of  the 
field.  The  brigade  of  General  Scott,  shattered  as  it 
was,  having  formed  anew,  was  not  content  to  look 
idly  on,  while  their  brethren,  who  had  stepped  be- 
tween them  and  death,  were  now  bleeding  in  their 
turn.  General  Scott  charged  at  their  head,  through 
an  opening  in  Ripley's  line  ;  but  in  the  confusion 
and  darkness  of  the  scene,  he  passed  between  the 
fires  of  the  combatants.  He  afterwards  engaged  in 
the  battle,  taking  his  post  on  General  Ripley's  left. 
In  another  quarter,  Colonel  Jessup,  with  only  200 
men,  advanced  upon  the  enemy,  brought  them  to 
close  action,  drove  them  from  their  ground,  and  cap- 

4X2 


1124 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


'jured  General  Riall,  with  other  officers  and  soldiers, 
lo  an  amount  almost  equal  to  his  own. 

In  this  sanguinary  contest,  the  total  loss  of  the 
British  was  878.  Generals  Drummond  and  Riall 
were  among  the  wounded.  The  Americans  lost  in 
tilled,  wounded,  and  missing,  860.  Of  these,  eleven 
•fficers  were  killed,  among  whom  were  Major  M'Far- 
land  and  Captain  Ritchie.  Fifty-six  officers  were 
wounded,  among  whom  were  Generals  Brown  and 
Scott ;  it  was  not  however  until  towards  the  close  of 
the  action  that  the  two  generals  highest  in  command 
were  disabled.  General  Brown,  on  receiving  his 
wound,  gave  notice  to  General  Ripley  that  he  was 
left  in  (command,  but  ordered  him  to  collect  the 
wounded,  remove  the  artillery,  and  retire  to  the 
camp  at  Chippewa.  The  Americans  lost  the  ad- 
vantage of  removing  the  captured  artillery,  as  they 
had  no  means  of  conveying  it  away ;  and  General 
Ripley  was  obliged  to  leave  it  upon  the  field  of  bat- 
tle. The  British,  on  learning  that  the  Americans 
had  abandoned  the  field,  re-occupied  it  immediately. 
Both  sides  claimed  the  victory. 

The  American  army  now  reduced  to  1600,  retired 
to  fort  Erie,  and  proceeded  to  intrench  themselves 
strongly  in  that  position.  The  enemy  to  the  num- 
ber of  5000  followed  them;  and  on  the  4th  of  Au- 
gust commenced  a  regular  siege.  On  the  5th,  Ge- 
neral Gaines  arrived  at  Erie  from  Sackett's  Harbour, 
and  took  the  command.  Anticipating  an  attack, 
the  Americans  prepared  themselves  to  receive  it. 
On  the  morning  of  the  15th,  the  enemy  advanced 
in  three  columns,  commanded  by  Colonels  Drum- 
mond, Fischer,  and  Scott;  the  columns  to  the  right 
and  left  repeatedly  attacked,  and  were  as  often  re- 
pulsed. The  centre  column  under  Drummond, 
after  a  sanguinary  conflict,  succeeded  in  scaling  the 
walls,  and  taking  possession  of  a  bastion.  While 
Drummond  was  denying  quarter  to  the  conquered 
Americans,  from  some  cause  not  well  understood 
a  barrel  of  powder  beneath  him  was  ignited 
There  was  a  sudden  crash,  and  bastion,  assailants 
and  assailed,  were  blown  together  into  the  air 
Those  of  the  British  who  survived,  fled  in  dismay 
but  their  numbers  were  thinned  as  they  passed  the 
American  artillery.  According  to  the  British  officia 
report,  their  loss  on  this  day  was  57  killed,  amongs 
whom  were  Colonels  Scott  and  Drummond,  315 
wounded,  and  539  missing.  The  total  loss  of  the 
Americans  was  but  84 ;  but  among  their  killed  were 
Captain  Williams  and  Lieutenant  Macdonough 
both  officers  of  great  merit. 

After  this  repulse,  both  armies  remained  in 
state  of  inactivity  for  some  time.  General  Gaine 
had  been  wounded  by  the  bursting  of  a  shell,  am 
the  command  again  devolved  on  General  Ripley 
but  was  exercised  but  a  short  time,  as  Genera 
Brown,  now  recovered  from  his  wounds,  entered  th 
fort  and  resumed  his  functions. 

The  American  public  had  become  anxious  for  th 
fate  of  their  army,  and  General  Izard,  by  the  order  o 
the  .  acretary  of  war,  abandoning  a  post  which,  from 
the  arrival  of  the  British  troops  at  Montreal,  it  wa 
hazardous  to  leave,  marched  from  Plattsburg  wit 
5000  men,  for  their  relief.  The  British  were  dail 
receiving  Reinforcements,  and  their  works,  upo 
which  they  laboured  with  great  assiduity,  gre1 
more  and  more  formidable.  General  Brown,  learn 
ing  that  of  the  three  parts  into  which  the  Britis 
army  was  divided,  two  were  kept  at  the  camp,  whi] 
the  third  manned  the  batteries,  determined  to  mak 
a  sortie,  with  a  view  of  destroying  the  batteries,  an 
cutting  off  the  brigade  on  duty. 


On  the  17th  of  September,  at  12  o'clock,  General 
orter  was  ordered  to  move  at  the  head  of  his  de- 
ichment,  by  a  passage  through  the  wood,  penetrate 
3  the  rear  of  the  British,  and  fall  by  surprise  upon 
leir  right,  General  Miller  was  at  the  same  time 
reeled  to  advance  a  short  distance,  and  then  con- 
eal  his  party  in  a  ravine  between  the  fort  and  the 
ritish  camp,  until  General  Porter  had  commenced 
te  attack.  General  Ripley  was  posted  with  a 
orps  of  reserved,  between  the  bastions  of  the  fort, 
jeneral  Porter  with  his  men  trod  silently  and  cir- 
uitously  along  their  perilous  way,  when,  arriving  at 
heir  destined  point,  they  rushed  upon  the  British, 
vhom  they  completely  surprised.  In  30  minutes, 
ley  had  taken  a  block-house  and  two  bastions, 
piked  their  guns,  blown  up  their  magazine,  and 
made  prisoners  of  their  garrison ;  but  Colonels  Gib- 
on  and  Wood  had  fallen  at  the  head  of  their  co- 
umns.  At  the  moment  of  the  explosion  of  the  ma- 
azine,  General  Miller  came  up.  He  had  been 
/arned  by  the  firing,  that  Porter  had  met  the 
nemy.  His  division  was  equally  brave  and  suc- 
essful.  In  his  attack,  General  Davis,  of  the  New 
fork  militia,  was  killed.  General  Ripley  arrived 
with  the  reserve,  in  season  to  share  the  danger  and 
he  honour  of  this  well-planned  and  well  conducted 
nterprise. 

Thus  in  a  few  hours  were  the  British  deprived  of 
he  fruit  of  47  days'  labour,  of  a  great  quantity  of 
artillery  and  ammunition,  and  of  lOOO  men,  which 
was  their  number  of  killed,  wounded  and  prisoners. 
General  Miller,  on  whom  the  command  devolved, 
ecured  the  prisoners  and  the  trophies  of  the  victory, 
and  reconducted  the  army  to  the  fort  in  perfect 
order.  Eighty-three  were  killed,  216  wounded,  and 
as  many  missing ;  amounting  in  the  whole  to  not 
much  less  than  one-third  of  their  whole  number. 

After  the  destruction  of  his  works  before  fort  Erie, 
General  Drummond  broke  up  his  camp  and  retired 
on  the  night  of  the  21st,  to  his  intrenchments  be- 
lind  Chippewa.  Soon  after  this,  the  arrival  of 
General  Izard  placed  the  Americans  on  a  footing 
again  to  commence  offensive  operations ;  and  leav- 
ing Erie  in  command  of  Colonel  Hindman,  General 
Brown  again  advanced  towards  Chippewa.  Near 
this  place  an  affair  occurred  on  the  20th  of  October, 
in  which  Colonel  Bissell,  with  a  detachment  of  1000 
men,  obtained  an  advantage  over  the  marquis  of 
Tweedale,  who  commanded  a  corps  of  1200;  took 
from  him  a  fieldpiece,  and  obliged  him  to  retire  with 
considerable  loss,  having  himself  experienced  a  loss 
of  67  men. 

During  the  summer  of  this  year,  an  expedition 
was  undertaken  for  the  purpose  of  recovering  Mack- 
inau.  A  part  of  the  squadron  on  lake  Erie,  had 
for  this  object  been  extended  into  lake  Huron, 
under  the  command  of  Commodore  Sinclair.  Major 
Croghan,  accompanied  by  Captain  Holmes,  left 
Detroit  on  the  5th  of  July.  Co-operating  with 
Commodore  Sinclair,  they  succeeded  in  destroying 
the  British  establishments  at  St.  Joseph's  and"  the 
Sault  de  St.  Marie,  and  then  proceeded  to  Mack- 
inau.  Croghan  landed  his  troops,  but  his  force 
was  not  sufficient  to  reduce  the  fortress.  The  at- 
tempt was  attended  with  the  loss  of  many  brave 
officers,  among  whom  was  Captain  Holmes;  Two 
vessels,  which  were  left  by  the  Americans  to  pre- 
vent supplies  arriving  at  the  fort,  were  blown  up  by 
the  British.  Commodore  Sinclair,  however,  sue- 
ceeded  in  capturing  the  last  of  their  vessels  on  the 
upper  lakes. 
On  the  22ud  of  October,  General  M' Arthur  left 


UNITED  STATES. 


1125 


Detroit  with  700  men,  and  inarched  in  the  direction 
of  the  river  Thames.  He  destroyed  the  British 
stores  at  different  places,  and  took  150  prisoners 
without  any  loss  to  his  own  party.  He  returned  to 
Detroit  on  the  27th  of  November. 

Peace  cf  Paris — Preparations  to  defend  Washington 
— British  land  and  ascend  the  Patuxent—  Pro- 
ceedings of  both  armies — Alexandria  capitulate 
Battle  near  Baltimore — Various  rencontres. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  year  1814,  Admiral 
Cockburn  confined  his  operations  to  a  predatory  war- 
fare upon  the  shores  of  the  Chesapeake.  The  only 
protection  of  the  inhabitants  was  a  fleet  of  gun- 
boats and  smaller  vessels,  commanded  by  Captain 
Barney.  Early  in  June,  several  skirmishes  took 
place  between  this  flotilla,  and  a  part  of  the  enemy's 
vessels ;  but  the  American  commander  not  being 
able  to  cope  with  the  superior  force  of  the  British, 
took  refuge  in  the  Patuxent,  and  was  there  block- 
aded by  the  British  admiral. 

About  the  middle  of  June,  news  was  received  of 
the  peace  of  Paris,  which  leaving  unemployed  a 
large  veteran  land  force,  and  an  immense  navy  at 
the  disposal  of  England,  there  was  every  reason  to 
expect  that  she  would  use  it  to  the  annoyance  of 
America.  America  ought  to  have  been  as  much  as 
possible  prepared  in  all  her  vulnerable  points  :  and 
especially  ought  her  government  to  have  made  a  rea- 
sonable provision  for  the  safety  of  her  capital.  Not 
that  Washington,  like  the  great  metropolis  of  a  Eu- 
ropean kingdom,  contained  the  strength  and  wealth 
of  the  empire,  to  invite  great  exertions  on  the  part 
of  an  enemy  ;  but  from  common  opinion,  to  pos- 
sess the  capital  of  a  country,  as  the  flag  of  a  ship  is 
the  point  of  honour. 

The  administration  were  not  however  inattentive. 
They  took  measures  in  reference  to  the  object  of  de- 
fending Washington,  and  the  adjacent  city  of  Balti- 
more, but  their  measures  were  inefficient.  The  na- 
tional territory  had  been  previously  divided  into 
nine  military  districts.  A  tenth  was  now  formed, 
embracing  Maryland,  the  district  of  Columbia,  and 
a  part  of  Virginia.  On  the  4th  of  July,  a  requisi- 
tion was  made  by  the  president  upon  the  governors 
of  these  states  for  93,000  militia.  Of  these,  15,000 
were  within  the  limits  of  the  new  military  district. 
One  thousand  regulars  were  also  to  be  added,  and 
thus  there  was  numerically  a  force  of  16,000  men  at 
the  disposal  of  General  Winder,  who  was  appointed 
to  the  command. 

But  it  was  only  a  fortnight  previous  to  the  invasion 
which  terminated  in  the  capture  of  Washington,  that 
the  order,  authorizing  General  Winder  to  call  for 
these  forces  on  the  respective  states  which  were  to 
furnish  them,  was  received.  Time  is  necessarily  con- 
sumed in  the  tardy  operations  of  republican  govern- 
ments, unused  to  war  ;  and  when  on  the  20th  of  Au- 
gust news  arrived  that  the  enemy  had  landed  at  Be- 
nedict, on  the  Patuxent,  General  Winder  had  not 
collected  more  than  3000  men,  and  these  were  un- 
acquainted with  each  other,  and  mostly  unaccus- 
tomed to  move  with  regularity,  or  to  act  in  concert. 

On  the  J7th  of  August  the  British  fleet  in  the 
Chesapeake  was  greatly  augmented  by  the  arrival 
of  Admiral  Cochrane,  who  had  been  sent  out  with  a 
large  land  force  commanded  by  Major  Ross,  in  pur- 
suance of  the  resolution  which  had?;been  taken  by 
the  British  government  "  to  destroy  and  lay  waste 
such  towns  and  districts  upon  the  coast  as  might  be 
found  assailable."  This  formidable  fleet  was  di- 


vided into  three  parts,  one  of  which  carrying  Gene- 
ral Ross,  and  commanded  by  Admiral  Cochrane, 
proceeded  up^the  Patuxent;  one  under  Captain  Gor- 
don ascended  the  Potomac ;  and  the  third  under  Sir 
Peter  Parker,  went  further  up  the  Chesapeake,  as  if 
to  threaten  Baltimore. 

On  the  19th  General  Ross  landed  at  Benedict 
with  5000  infantry  ;  on  the  20th  he  commenced  his 
march,  keeping  along  the  right  bank  of  the  Patux- 
ent. His  object  was  in  the  first  instance  to  co-ope- 
rate with  Admiral  Cockburn  in  the  destruction  of 
Commodore  Barney's  squadron,  which  that  Admiral 
had  for  some  time  been  blockading.  On  the  22nd 
the  expedition  reached  Pig  Point,  and  descried  the 
broad  pendant  of  the  American  flotilla.  They  in- 
stantly advanced  to  the  attack;  but  on  their  ap- 
proach the  Americans  abandoned  their  fleet,  and 
sixteen  out  of  the  seventeen  boats  of  which  it  was 
composed,  were  blown  into  the  air.  Commodore 
Barney,  no  longer  able  to  secure  them,  thus  pre- 
vented their  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  British, 
who  were  now  distant  only  sixteen  miles  from  Wash- 
ington. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  20th  of  August,  when  Ge- 
neral Winder  was  apprised  of  the  danger  of  the  ca- 
pital, he  left  it  with  his  force  and  advanced  towards 
the  enemy.  On  the  22nd  the  main  body  of  his  army 
being  encamped  about  half  way  from  Marlborough 
to  Washington,  a  detachment  under  Major  Peter 
met  and  annoyed  the  British  at  Marlborough.  On 
this  day,  Commodore  Barney  united  his  marines 
with  the  army.  On  the  night  of  the  23rd,  the  Bri- 
tish rested  only  five  miles  from  the  American  camp. 
The  president  of  the  United  States,  the  secretary  of 
war,  and  some  of  the  other  heads  of  department,  here 
visited  General  Winder,  and  it  was  resolved  to  fall 
back  nearer  to  the  capital  for  the  purpose  of  Jcon- 
centrating  the  American  force,  and  as  is  suggested 
by  some,  from  fear  of  a  night,attack.  The  same  re- 
treating policy  was  pursued  until  General  Winder 
tiad  recrossed  the  eastern  branch  of  the  Potomac. 
Here  he  made  provisions  for  guarding  the  bridge,  it 
being  supposed  the  enemy  would  attempt  the  capital 
from  this  point.  In  the  mean  time,  the  militia  from 
Baltimore,  under  General  Stansbury,  advanced  to 
;he  relief  of  Washington.  These,  to  the  number  of 
2200,  including  a  company  of  artillery,  rested  on  the 
night  of  the  23rd,  near  Bladensburgh.  Being  un- 
der orders  to  join  General  Winder,  they  commenced 
their  march  onfthe  morning  of  the  24th.  But  it  was 
now  discovered  that  although  General  Winder,  or 
those  under  whose  direction;he  acted,  hadjfcarefully 
set  a  trap  at  the  great  bridge,on  the  east  branch,  the 
British  commander  did  not  choose  to  fall  into  it,  but 
lad  taken  for  safety  a  more  circuitous  route,  and 
was  marching  past  Washington,  to  gain  the  Bla- 
densburgh road  on  the  north.  On  his  march  for 
Washington,  General  Stansbury  met  the  order  of 
eneral  Winder  to  retrace  his  steps  to  Bladensburg, 
and  there  give  battle  to  the  enemy.  Almost  ex- 
lausted  by  fatigue  and  the  heat  of  the  season,  he 
abeyed  the  order.  On  his  march  he  was  met  by 
Colonel  Monroe,  secretary  of  state,  who  had  been 
scouring  the  adjacent  country  for  volunteers.  He 
>roposed  to  Stansbury  his  making  a  movement  to  get 
n  the  enemy's  rear ;  but  that  general  being  under 
>rders  to  the  contrary,  did  not  feel  at  liberty  to  fol- 
ow  this  judicious  counsel.  About  noon  he  met  the 
memy  near  Bladensburg.  General  Winder  soon 
came  up  with  the  main  body.  The  president-  and 
heads  of  department  were  on  the  field,  but  left  it 
'except  Colonel  Monroe,  jivho  was  active  in  forming 


1126 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA 


and  bringing  forward  the  cavalry  of  General  Stana- 
bury)  about  the  time  the  action  commenced ;  pro- 
bably having  documents  of  great  importance  to  se- 
cure, as  the  event  of  the  day  was  doubtful.  Here  en- 
sued  a  contest  in  which,  as  might  have  been  ex- 
pected from  the  condition  of  the  American  troops, 
the  British  were  victorious.  Commodore  Barney, 
with  his  little  band  of  marines,  fought  valiantly,  and 
for  some  time  held  the  British  in  check ;  but  he  was 
at  length  wounded  and  made  prisoner.  The  regu- 
lars and  militia  of  the  district  of  Columbia  stood  their 
ground  for  a  time,  but  at  length  left  the  field  and  re- 
treated towards  Washington.  They  were  now  joined 
by  fresh  militia  from  Virginia,  and  upon  the  heights 
they  formed  again,  and  once  more  interposed  a  bar- 
rier between  the  seat  of  their  country's  government 
and  the  British.  But  on  surveying  their  numbers, 
wasted  by  the  flight  ol  many  timid,  and  the  fall  of  a 
few  brave  men,  they  were  found  inadequate  to  the 
task  of  its  defence ;  and  with  sorrow  they  heard  the 
order  to  retire,  and  leave  the  capital  of  their 
country  to  the  mercy  of  her  enemies. 

General  Ross  entered  Washington  at  eight  in  the 
evening,  and  with  a  Goth-like  barbarism,  disgraced 
himself  and  his  country,  by  destroying  the  monu- 
ments of  taste  and  literature,  with  which  the  young 
republic  had  embellished  her  chosen  seat.  The 
British  commenced  with  destroying  the  capitol, 
which  was  in  an  unfinished  state,  the  extensive  li- 
brary, public  records,  and  whatever  else  of  value  it 
contained.  The  public  offices  and  the  president's 
house,  were  wantonly  sacrificed,  together  with  many 
private  dwellings.  The  public  stores  at  the  navy- 
yard,  and  the  vessels  on  the  stocks,  were  burned  by 
order  of  the  president,  to  prevent  their  falling  into 
the  hands  of  the  invaders.  The  elegant  bridge 
across  the  Potomac  was  also  destroyed.  The  loss 
of  public  property  alone  amounted  to  1,000,000 
of  dollars.  They  left  Washington  on  the  even- 
ing of  the  25th,  arid  proceeded  without  any  opposi- 
tion to  their  ships,  which  they  reached  on  the  evening 
of  the  27th. 

The  loss  of  the  Americans  in  the  battle  of  Bla- 
densburg,  was  30  killed  and  50  wounded  ;  that  of 
the  enemy,  249  in  killed  and  wounded.  Their  loss 
during  this  expedition,  amounted  to  400  killed  and 
wounded,  besides  500  who  were  taken  prisoners  or 
deserted. 

Had  the  British  confined  themselves  to  the  cap- 
ture and  destruction  of  public  property  appropriated 
to  warlike  purposes,  their  conquest  would  have  been 
untarnished.  The  Americans  would  have  felt  deeply 
their  humiliation,  and  the  resentment  of  the  nation 
might,  as  was  expected  in  England,  have  fallen  hea- 
vily upon  the  public  servants ;  but  the  manner  in 
which  the  advantage  was  used,  produced  in  the  minds 
of  the  people  a  stern  vindictive  feeling  against  the 
conquerors,  which  swallowed  up  all  minor  resent- 
ments, and  united  the  nation,  not  in  a  wish  for  peace, 
but  in  firm  resolves  fer  war. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  squadron  under  Captain 
Gordon  passed  up  the  Potomac  without  opposition, 
and  appeared  before  Alexandria  on  the  27th  of  Au- 
gust. The  inhabitants  entered  into  a  capitulation, 
by  which  they  delivered  up  their  merchandise  and 
shipping  to  the  British,  who,  laden  with  a  rich  booty, 
returned  to  the  ocean,  though  not  without  being 
much  annoyed  from  the  shore  as  they  passed. 

The  squadron,  which  had  sailed  up  the  Chesa- 
peake under  Sir  Peter  Parker,  landed  about  250 
marines  for  the  purpose  of  surprising  200  militia, 
who  were  encamped  near  Bellair  under  Colonel 


Reed.  They  were  repulsed  with  the  loss  of  41 
killed  and  wounded.  Sir  Peter  Parker  was  mortally 
wounded. 

Admiral  Cochrane  having  received  on  board  hi» 
fleet  the  conquerors  of  Washington,  the  combined 
land  and  sea  forces  moved  in  the  confidence  of  vic- 
tory to  the  attack  of  Baltimore.  After  passing 
down  the  Patuxent,  they  ascended  the  Chesapeake, 
and  on  the  llth  of  September  appeared  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Patapsco,  fourteen  miles  from  Baltimore.  On 
the  morning  of  the  12th,  General  Ross,  with  an  army 
amounting  to  about  5000,  debarked  at  North  Point, 
and  commenced  his  inarch  towards  the  city. 

General  Smith  commanded  the  whole  force  of  the 
defenders.  Watching  the  movements  of  the  enemy, 
he  dispatched  about  2300  men  under  General 
Strieker,  who  on  the  llth  marched  towards  North 
Point.  They  halted  at  night  seven  miles  from  the 
city.  On  the  morning  of  the  12th,  information  was 
received  of  the  landing  of  the  British,  and  General 
Strieker  advanced  to  meet  him.  A  skirmish  between 
the  advanced  parties  ensued,  in  which  General  Ross 
was  killed.  The  command  then  devolved  on  Colonel 
Brooke,  who  having  the  instructions  of  General 
Ross,  continued  to  move  forward.  An  action  com- 
menced at  about  half  past  three,  by  a  discharge  of 
cannon  on  both  sides.  After  maintaining  the  con- 
test for  some  time,  the  Americans  gave  way,  and 
General  Strieker  retired  behind  the  entrenchments 
on  the  heights,  where  General  Smith  was  stationed 
with  the  main  army. 

On  the  morning  of  the  13th,  the  British  army  ad- 
vanced within  a  mile  and  a  half  of  the  intrench- 
ments,  and  made  several  manoeuvres  to  draw  forth 
the  Americans,  which  were  so  met  by  General  Smith, 
that  they  could  not  obtain  their  object ;  but  on  the 
contrary,  the  republicans  maintained  the  advantage 
of  ground  and  position.  Colonel  Brooke  was  aware 
that  they  were  superior  to  him  in  numbers  as  well 
as  position;  he  therefore  made  no  attempt  upon 
them  during  the  day,  but  disposed  his  troops  for  a 
night  attack.  In  the  evening  he  received  a  commu- 
nication from  Admiral  Cochrane,  the  commander  of 
the  naval  forces,  informing  him  that  fort  M'Heury 
had  resisted  all  his  efforts,  and  that  the  entrance  of 
the  harbour  was  blocked  up  by  vessels  sunk  for  that 
purpose,  and  that  a  naval  co-operation  against  the 
town  and  camp  was  impracticable.  Colonel  Brooke 
resolved  therefore  not  to  hazard  an  attack,  but  moved 
off  in  the  night,  and  on  the  15th  re-embarked  at 
North  Point. 

Great  was  the  joy  of  the  inhabitants  of  Baltimore, 
at  the  success  of  their  efforts  for  the  preservation  of 
their  city ;  and  the  warmest  gratitude  was  mani- 
fested to  those  whose  vigorous  exertions  had  saved 
them  from  the  dreaded  invasion.  Among  these,  tho 
defenders  of  fort  M'Henry  were  particularly  re- 
membered. 

The  harbours  of  New  York,  New  London  and 
Boston,  continued  to  be  closely  blockaded.  The 
humanity  of  Commodore  Hardy,  in  his  incursions 
into  the  interior,  affords  a  striking  contrast  to  the 
brutality  of  Admiral  Cockburn,  and  the  squadron 
in  the  Chesapeake.  In  some  cases,  however,  but 
contrary  to  his  orders,  private  property  was  de- 
stroyed by  parties  of  officers  and  marines. 

On  the  llth  of  July,  Commodore  Hardy  with 
eight  ships  and  2000  men,  made  a  descent  upon 
the  coast  of  Maine,  and,  without  resistance,  took 
possession  of  Eastport  and  all  the  towns  on  the 
west  side  of  Passamaquoddy  Bay.  Many  of  the 
inhabitants  remained,  but  it  was  on  the  condition  « 


UNITED  STATES. 


1127 


acknowledging  themselves  the  subjects  of  Great 
Britain. 

In  August,  the  governor  of  New  Brunswick,  with 
the  aid  of  Admiral  Griffith,  undertook  an  expedition 
to  the  Penobscot  river.  They  took  possession  of 
Castine,  which  was  previously  evacuated,  and  pro- 
ceeded up  the  river  to  Hamden,  where  the  frigate 
John  Adams  had  been  placed  for  preservation.  The 
militia  who  had  been  stationed  for  its  defence,  fled 
on  their  approach,  and  the  frigate  was  blown  up,  to 
prevent  its  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  British.  A 
proclamation  was  issued  by  the  council  of  New- 
Brunswick,  declaring  the  country  east  of  the  Pe- 
nobscot in  possession  of  the  king  of  Great  Britain ; 
and  a  direct  communication  was  opened  between 
New  Brunswick  and  Canada.  The  British  con- 
tinued to  occupy  this  section  of  Maine  until  the  close 
of  the  war. 

Early  in  August,  the  enemy's  ships  under  Com- 
modore Hardy,  appeared  before  Stonington,  in 
Connecticnt,  and  threatened  the  destruction  of  the 
town.  They  commenced  a  severe  attack,  but  were 
repulsed  by  a  battery  of  two  eighteen-pounders  ani 
a  small  band  of  militia.  They  then  proceeded  to 
another  part  of  the  town,  which  they  expected  to 
find  defenceless ;  but  here  the  well  directed  fire  of 
a  six-pounder,  forced  them  to  retire  to  their  ships. 
They  bombarded  the  place  during  the  night,  and  in 
the  morning  renewed  the  attack  ;  but-'  finding  the 
place  so  gallantly  defended,  at  the  end  of  three  days 
the  Commodore  retired. 

British  force  in  Canada  increased — Sir  George  Pre~ 
r>ost  advances  to  Plattsburg — Engagement  in  the 
bay  of  Plattsburg — Americans  annoy  the  British 
merchant-vessels — Naval  engagements — Difficulties 
of  the  Americans — Convention  at  Hartford. 

During  the  months  of  July  and  August,  the  Bri- 
tish army  in  Ca«ada  was  augmented  by  another 
considerable  body  of  those  troops,  who  had,  under 
Lord  Wellington,  acquired  experience  and  reputa- 
tion in  the  war  of  the  Spanish  peninsula.  With 
these  troops,  Sir  George  Prevost  determined  to  in- 
vade America,  by  the  same  route  that  Burgoyne 
had  formerly  pursued.  Like  that  general,  his  hopes 
were  sanguine,  that  if  he  appeared  in  force  in  the 
country,  the  inhabitants  would  join  him;  and  like 
Burgoyne,  it  is  said  that  a  .part  of  his  baggage  con- 
sisted of  arms  and  clothing  for  those  who  he  ex- 
pected would  flock  to  his  standard.  The  American 
smugglers,  wishing  to  court  the  favour  of  the  Bri- 
tish, had  encouraged  these  hopes,  which  the  republi- 
can party  accused  the  federalists  of  exciting.  Pre- 
vost's  -plan  of  operations  is  supposed  by  some  to  have 
resembled  that  of  Burgoyne  in  another  respect,  and 
that  he  had  hopes  of  being  able  to  penetrate,  by  the 
way  of  lake  Champlain  and  the  Hudson  river,  to 
New  York. 

The  army  at  Plattsburg  had  been  reduced  by  the 
departure  of  General  Izard  for  fort  Erie.  Sir  George 
Prevost  seized  this  opportunity  for  making  the 
projected  invasion.  Having  concentrated  his  force 
on  the  frontier  of  Canada,  he  entered  the  American 
territory  on  the  3rd  of  September.  From  Champlain, 
he  issued  a  proclamation,  assuring  the  inhabitants 
that  his  arms  would  only  be  directed  against  the  go- 
vernment, and  those  who  supported  it;  while  'no 
injury  should  be  done  to  the  peaceful  and  unoffend- 
ing. The  fire  of  genuine  patriotism  kindled  in  the 
breasts  of  the  Americans,  at  the  news  that  the  foot 
of  an  invader  pressed  the  soil  of  their  country.  The 
inhabitants  of  the  northern  part  of  New  York, 


and  the  hardy  sons  of  the  green  mountains,  rose  in 
arms  without  distinction  of  party,  and  hastened  to- 
wards the  scene  of  action. 

A  different  disposition,  however,  prevailed  among 
a  few  individuals  of  the  federal  party,  in  Vermont; 
and  among  these  was  the  governor,  who  belonged 
to  the  federal  party, — a  well  meaning  man,  but  too 
much  under  the  influence  of  others.  Stationing  him- 
self at  Burlington,  he  endeavoured  to  dissuade  the 
volunteers  from  crossing  to  Plattsburg,  stating  that 
General  Macomb  did  not  need  their  services.  In 
consequence,  some  were  actually  returning.  At 
the  solicitation  of  Colonel  Fasset,  of  the  regular 
army,  a  special  messenger  crossed  to  Plattsburg,  to 
obtain  a  written  request  for  their  services  from  Ge- 
neral Macomb.  General  Strong,  a  federalist,  and 
a  highly  respectable  farmer  and  country  gentleman, 
and  who,  on  his  arrival  at  Plattsburg,  was  chosen 
to  command  the  volunteers,  was  earnestly  urged  by 
the  governor  and  his  friends,  not  to  embark  in  the 
enterprise.  The  political  obloquy  which  these  mea- 
sures cast  upon  the  party,  and  particularly  on  the 
individuals  concerned,  will  remain  a  salutary  warn- 
ing to  others  under  similar  circumstances. 

Sir  George  Prevost  advanced  at  the  head  of 
14,000  troops,  in  two  columns,  upon  Plattsburg. 
One  column,  with  all  the  baggage  and  artillery, 
proceeded  by  the  lake  road,  and  the  other,  under 
the  command  of  General  Brisbane,  by  Beekman- 
town.  Major  Appling,  with  his  corps  of  riflemen, 
and  Major  Sproul,  with  a  detachment  of  the  13th 
regiment  of  infantry,  were  ordered  on  the  Lake 
road,  to  check  the  advance  of  the  enemy  ;  which 
they  endeavoured  to  do,  by  destroying  bridges  and 
felling  trees  in  the  road.  On  the  4th  and  5th  of 
September,  the  British  advanced  on  both  roads,  and 
the  column  under  General  Brisbane  encamped  on 
the  Beekmantown  road,  eight  miles  from  Plattsburg, 
and  two  miles  from  General  Mooers,  who  had  700 
militia  under  his  command.  On  the  night  of  the 
5th  and  6th,  General  Macomb  ordered  Major  Wool, 
with  230  regulars,  to  join  General  Mooers,  and  to 
give  support  to  the  militia,  in  retarding  the  advance 
of  the  enemy.  At  the  dawn  of  day,  General  Bris- 
bane broke  up  his  encampment,  and  resumed  his 
line  of  march  for  Plattsburg.  He  was  met  by  Major 
Wool,  about  seven  miles  from  the  latter  place.  A 
skirmish  ensued,  but  in  consequence  of  the  superior 
force  of  the  British,  he  was  compelled  to  retreat, 
not,  however,  without  disputing  every  inch  of  ground 
to  Plattsburg,  killing  and  wounding  120;  among 
whom  was  Lieut.-colonel  Wellington.  Major  Wool 
lost  45,^  killed  and  wounded.  Sir  George  arrived 
in  the  course  of  the  morning,  with  the  main  column, 
and  encamped  his  whole  army  before  Plattsburg. 

The  situation  of  General  Macomb  was  critical  in 
the 'extreme.  His  whole  regular  force  did  not  ex- 
ceed 2000,  and  his  fortifications  were  merely  a  show 
of  defence.  Had  Sir  George  pursued  Major  Wool 
across  the  Saranac,  on  the  morning  of  the  6th,  he 
no  doubt  could  have  taken  with  ease  the  forts  occu- 
pied by  General  Macomb  and  his  army.  Prevost 
has  been  censured  for  this  delay,  which  gave  his 
enemy  time  to  increase  his  force ;  but  the  British 
commander,  expecting  that  a  part  of  the  inhabitants 
would  unite  with  him,  calculated  that  his  own  force 
would  also  be  augmented.  Preferring  to  wait  until 
the  two  fleets  should  have  settled  the  question  of  the 
supremacy  of  the  lake,  he  contented  himself  with 
doing  little  else  than  to  erect  seven  batteries  to  assist 
in  that  which  he  considered  certain, — the  capture  of 
General  Macomb  and  his  army. 


1128 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


On  the  morning  of  the  llth  of  September,  Sir 
George  formed  his  army  in  two  columns,  prepara- 
tory to  an  assault.  Accordingly,  one  column  passed 
the  Saranac,  and  placed  itself  in  rear  of  the  Ame- 
rican position.  The  other  column  was  in  the  village 
in  front,  ready  to  advance  whenever  the  order  might 
be  given,  or  circumstances  might  justify.  Such 
was  the  position  of  the  British  army,  when  the  Bri- 
tish fleet  made  its  appearance  in  the  Bay  of  Platts- 
burg.  It  was  commanded  by  Commodore  Downie, 
and  composed  of  the  Confiance,  a  frigate  of  39  guns, 
a  brig  of  sixteen,  two  sloops  of  eleven,  and  several 
galleys,  mounting  in  the  whole,  95  guns,  and  hav- 
ing 1000  men.  The  American  squadron,  under 
Commodore  Macdonough,  was  anchored  in  the  bay. 
It  mounted  86  guns,  and  had  only  820  men.  It 
consisted  of  the  Saratoga,  carrying  26  guns,  the 
Eagle  of  20  guns,  the  Ticonderoga,  of  seventeen, 
the  Preble,  of  seven,  and  ten  galleys. 

The  British  having  the  advantage  of  choice  of 
position,  anchored  within  300  yards  of  the  Ameri- 
can line,  and  at  9  o'clock,  commenced  the  action. 
The  Confiance  was  opposed  to  the  Saratoga,  the 
enemy's  brig  to  the  Eagle ;  one  sloop  assisting  their 
brig  and  ship,  while  the  Saratoga  and  Eagle  were 
supported  by  one  division  of  the  gallis,  the  remain- 
ing division  being  opposed  to  the  schooner,  sloop, 
and  thirteen  galleys  of  the  enemy. 

The  surface  of  the  lake  was  unruffled,  and  for  one 
hour  and  a  half,  the  Saratoga  and  Confiance  pourec 
upon  each  other  a  most  destructive  fire,  while  the 
smaller  vessels  commenced  a  close  and  spiritec 
action.  The  Eagle  then  cut  her  cable,  and  passing 
between  the  Ticonderoga  and  Saratoga,  increased  the 
danger  of  the  American  commodore,  by  leaving  hin 
exposed  to  a  heavy  fire  from  the  enemy's  brig.  Hii 
guns  were  dismounted,  or  had  become  unmanageable 
•when  by  the  skilful  manoeuvre  of  winding  his  ship 
(in  which  Commodore  Downie  was  unsuccessful, 
he  brought  a  fresh  broadside  to  bear  upon  the  Con 
fiance  ;  and  she  surrendered.  A  broadside  was  then 
poured  upon  the  brig,  which  in  fifteen  minutes  sur 
rendered.  The  sloop  opposed  to  the  Eagle,  as  alsc 
that  engaged  with  the  galleys,  struck  some  time  be 
fore.  Three  of  the  galleys  were  sunk,  and  the  re 
mainder  escaped  in  a  shattered  condition.  A  frigate 
brig,  and  two  sloops  of  war  were  the  trophies  of  th 
victory.  The  action  lasted  two  hours  and  a  hali 
and  the  shattered  appearance  of  both  squadrons  bor 
witness  to  the  severity  of  the  conflict.  Commodor 
Downie  was  slain,  with  84  men.  One  hundred  an 
ten  men  were  wounded.  The  loss  of  the  American 
was  52  killed,  and  58  wounded. 

At  the  moment  of  the  engagement  between  th 
fleets,  the  British  opened  their  land  batteries  upo 
the  American  works,  but  with  little  effect.  The 
ceased  however  with  the  victory  on  the  lake,  whe 
Sir  George  recalled  his  columns  from  the  contem 
plated  assault,  and  commenced  his  retreat  towarc 
Canada,  leaving  behind  large  quantities  of  ammu 
nition  and  military  stores.  The  column  placed  i 
the  rear  of  the  Americans,  was  pursued  by  Genera 
Strong,  with  his  militia,  when  the  soldiers  of  on 
company  were  either  killed,  wounded  or  captured. 
Affairs  interesting  to  the  belligerents  were  als 
transacted  on  the  ocean. 

During  the  month  of  April,  Commodore  Porte 
returned  from  his  cruise  in  the  Pacific  ocean.  H 
had  sailed  from  the  Delaware  in  the  autumn  of  1815 
and  after  cruising  off  the  eastern  coast  of  Sout 
America  for  some  time,  he  steered  for  the  Pacif 
ocean,  and  arrived  at  Valparaiso  in  March  18K 


e  proceeded  to  Lima.  From  thence  he  went  to 
;e  Gallipagos  Islands,  and  cruised  among  them 
atil  October.  Here  he  greatly  annoyed  the  British 
mimerce,  particularly  the  whale  fishery.  He  cap- 
ured  twelve  armed  whale  ships,  whose  aggregate 
rce  amounted  to  107  guns,  and  302  men. 

Of  these  prizes,  the  Atlantic  was  equipped  with 
wenty  guns,  intended  chiefly  as  a  store  ship,  and 
ith  the  name  of  Essex  Junior,  given  in  command  to 
jieutenant  Downs.  With  this  vessel,  Downs  con- 
ucted  the  prizes  made  by  Porter,  to  the  neutral 
ort  of  Valparaiso. 

Alarmed  by  the  successes  of  the  Essex,  the  British 
dmiralty  had  sent  out  Commodore  Hillyar  with  the 
Dehbe  frigate,  carrying  53  guns,  and  a  complement 
f  320  men,  accompanied  by  Captain  Tucker,  with 
ic  Cherub  sloop  of  war,  mounting  28  guns,  and 
aving  180  men,  making  his  whole  force  81  guns 
nd  500  men. 

On  learning  the  vicinity  of  this  force,  by  the  re- 
urn  of  Lieutenant  Downs,  Commodore  Porter 
teered  for  the  island  of  Noaheevah,  for  the  purpose 
f  refitting  his  vessel.  He  took  possession  of  the 
sland  in  the  name  of  the  American  government, 
named  it  in  honour  of  the  president,  Madison's 
sland,  and  established  a  friendly  intercourse  among 
he.  natives,  whom  he  had  found  in  a  state  of  hosti- 
ity.  Leaving  three  of  his  vessels  under  the  charge 
)f  Lieutenant  Gamble,  he  proceeded  to  Valparaiso, 
and  there,  as  he  expected,  met  with  Commodore 
ilillyar,  who  had  been  seeking  him  for  five  months. 
The  Essex  mounted  46  guns,  but  her  crew  at  this 
ime  consisted  of  only  250  men  ;  the^Essex  Junior 
was  manned  by  60.  Finding  to  his  regret  that  his 
'orce  was  greatly  inferior  to  that  of  his  adversary, 
Uommodore  Porter  remained  blockaded  in  the  port 
or  six  weeks. 

Determined  to  attempt  an  escape,  the  wind  being 
favourable,  he  set  sail  on  the  28th  of  March,  1814. 
On  rounding  the  point  at  the  entrance  of  the  bay  a 
sudden  squall  carried  away  his  main  topmast.  The 
British  gave  him  chase  with  both  their  ships.  In 
his  disabled  state  he  anchored  in  a.small  bay,  within 
pistol  shot  of  the  Ashore,  hoping  that  Commodore 
Hillyar  would  respect  the  neutrality  of  the  place. 
Perceiving  that  they  continued  to  approach,  Porter 
made  every  preparation  in  his  power  to  meet  them, 
and  sustain  the  honour  of  his  flag.  The  British 
vessels  commenced  the  attack,  but  so  vigorously 
was  it  met,  that  in  the  course  of  half  an  hour  the 
Phebe  and  Cherub  were  so  much  disabled  as  to  re- 
tire for  repairing  damages.  The  crew  of  the  Essex 
had  suffered  severely  from  the  hot  raking  fire  of  the 
British  ;  but  they  still  showed  a  spirit  of  brave  and 
determined  resistance.  A  tremendous  firing  was 
soon  renewed.  The  Phebe  being  enabled  to  choose 
her  distance,  took  a  station  out  of  the  reach  of  the 
guns  of  the  Essex,  while  with  her  long  guns  she 
poured  upon  the  American  frigate  a  destructive 
tire  ;  many  of  the  guns  had  all  their  men  destroyed, 
and  one  was  manned  three  times  during  the  action. 
Porter  next  endeavoured  to  board  his  antagonist, 
but  his  masts  and  rigging  were  shot  away,  and  his 
ship  became  unmanageable.  He  next  determined 
to  run  his  vessel  on  shore,  land  his  men,  and  de- 
stroy her;  but  the  wind  shifting,  he  was  blown  into 
a  situation  to  receive  the  raking  fire  of  the  British. 
His  ship  caught  fire.  The  flames  burst  in  all  direc- 
tions, and  the  brave  men  were  threatened  with  in- 
stant death  from  the  explosion  of  the  magazine, 
near  which  the  fire  had  taken.  The  boats  had  been 

cut  to  pieces,  and  the  sailors  received  permission  to 


UNITED  STATES. 


1129 


swim  for  the  shore,  but  most  of  them  preferred  re- 
maining with  the  commander  to  share  the  fate  of 
the  ship;  the  enemy  still  firing  upon  them.  The 
sailors  succeeded  in  extinguishing  the  flames  of  the 
Essex,  not  however  until  a  considerable  quantity  of 
powder  was  exploded.  With  a  desperate  resolution 
they  again  went  to  their  guns. 

Commodore  Porter  now  determined  to  consult  his 
officers  on  the  expediency  of  surrendering,  when,  to 
his  surprise,  Lieutenant  M' Knight  was  the  only  re- 
maining officer  to  be  consulted.  The  commodore 
then  gave  his  orders  to  strike  the  colours  ;  only  75 
of  the  crew  of  the  Essex  remaining,  the  rest  being 
killed  or  wounded.  The  loss  of  the  enemy  was  also 
severe.  Both  vessels  were  in  a  sinking  state. 

Commodore .  Porter  was  sent  on  parole,  in  the 
Essex  Junior,  to  the  United  States,  where  he  was  re- 
ceived at  New  York  with  distinguished  honours. 

On  the  21st  of  April  the  United  States'  sloop  of 
war,  Frolic,  commanded  by  Commodore  Bainbridge, 
was  captured  by  the  Orpheus  frigate.  On  the  29th 
of  the  same  month,  the  United  sloop,  the  Peacock, 
of  which  Captain  Warrington  was  the  commander, 
captured  the  British  brig  Epervier,  commanded  by 
Captain  Wales.  The  action  took  place  in  latitude 
27  degrees,  47  minutes,  north,  and  longitude  30  de- 
grees, 9  minutes.  During  its  continuance,  which 
was  45  minutes,  the  Epervier  had  eight  men  killec 
and  fifteen  wounded,  while  the  Peacock  escapee 
without  a  man  killed,  and  two  slightly  wounded. 

The  Wasp,  commanded  by  Captain  Blakely,  lefi 
Portsmouth,  (New  Hampshire,)  on  the  18th  of  May 
On  the  28th  of  June,  near  the  entrance  to  St 
George's  Channel,  she  fell  in  with  the  English  brig 
Reindeer,  commanded  by  Captain  Manners.  After 
an  action  of  nineteen  minutes  the  Reindeer  having 
lost  her  commander  and  purser,  and  27  men  kille 
and  42  wounded,  and  having  made  two  unsuccessfu 
attempts  to  board  the  Wasp,  was  herself  boarded  by 
the  American  vessel  and  forced  to  strike  her  colours 
She  was  so  much  injured  during  the  engagement 
that  the  next  day  she  was  burned.  The  American 
lost  in  the  action  26  killed  and  wounded. 

The  Wasp  continued  her  cruise,  and  after  making 
several  captures,    put  into  the  port  of  L'Orient,    in 
France,  on  the  8th  of  July.     She  remained  there  un 
til  the  27th  of  August,  and  when  four  days  at  sea  sh 
met  the  brig  Avon,  commanded  by  Captain  Arbuth 
not.     After  a  severe  action  of  45  minutes,  and  afte 
orders  were  given  to  board  her,  three  British  vessel 
appeared  in  sight,   and  Captain  Blakely  was  com 
pelled  to  abandon  his  prize.     The  Avon  sunk  soon 
after  he  left  her.  During  the  remainder  of  the  cruise 
Captain  Blakely  captured  fifteen  merchant  vessels 
but  he  never  returned  to  port ;  nor  is  it  known  wha 
was  the  fate  of  the  vessel  and  her  gallant  crew. 

The  last  naval  battle,  ended  in  the  loss  of  th 
American  frigate  President,  then  under  the  com 
mand  of  Commodore  Decatur.  Four  British  vessel 
were  off  Sandy  Hook,  blockading  the  harbour  o 
New  York ;  the  Pomone,  the  Tenedos,  the  Majesti 
andthe  Endymion.  Commodore  Decatur  attempte 
to  put  to  sea  on  the  15th  of  January,  1815 ;  whe 
they  gave  chase,  and  after  eighteen  hours  he  wa 
brought  to  an  engagement  with  the  Endymion 
For  two  hours  and  a  half  the  action  continued,  an 
Decatur  had  silenced  the  guns  of  his  adversary 
when  the  whole  fleet  appeared.  Having  one-fifth 
his  crew  killed  or  wounded,  and  being  opposed  b 
a  force  greatly  superior  to  his  own,  he  no  longe 
hesitated  to  surrender. 

In  October,  communications  were  received  fro 


e  American  commissioners  in  Europe.  Great 
ritain  demanded  such  terms  as  extinguished  the 
opes  of  a  speedy  reconciliation.  The  situation  of 
flairs  in  the  United  States  was  such  as  to  alarm  the 
iends  of  their  country.  The  expenditure  of  the  na- 
on  greatly  exceeded  its  income,  its  credit  was  low, 
s  finances  disordered,  and  a  most  bitter  opposition 
as  manifested  to  every  measure  of  the  administra- 
on ;  yet  its  congress  did  not  shrink  from  the  du- 
es which  the  crisis  imposed.  New  loans  were  au- 
lorized,  taxes  augmented,  and  every  preparation 
ade  for  prosecuting  the  war  with  increased  vigour. 
VIr.  Munroe  was  appointed  secretary  of  war,  in  kthe 
lace  of  General  Armstrong. 

The  opposition  had  at  this  time  assumed  a  bold 
ttitude ;  some  of  the  New  England  states,  as  has 
een  related,  refused  to  call  out  their  militia,  and 
Massachusetts  even  proposed  to  withhold  the  re- 
enue  of  the  state  from  the  general  government.  A 
onventlon  of  delegates  from  the  New  England 
tates  was  proposed,  the  object  of  which  was,  to 
ake  into  consideration  the  situation  of  the  country, 
md'to  decide  upon  such  measures  as  might  lead 
o  a  redress  of  supposed  grievances.  Members  were 
appointed  by  the  legislatures  of  Massachusetts,  Con- 
necticut, and  Rhode'  Island.  Two  members  from 
Hampshire  and  one  from  Vermont  were  ap- 
>ointed  at  county  meetings.  The  convention  met 
it  Hartford,  in  Connecticut,  on  the  15th  of  Decem- 
ber, 1814,  and  sat  nearly  three  weeks  with  closed 
doors.  After  their  adjournment  they  published  an 
address,  charging  the  national  government  with 
pursuing  measures  hostile  to  the  interests  of  New 
England,  and  recommending  amendments  of  the 
'ederal  constitution.  Among  these  amendments,  it 
was  proposed  that  congress  should  have  no  power  to 
"ay  an  embargo  for  more  than  60  days,  that  they 
ihould  not  interdict  commercial  intercourse,  or  de- 
'lare  war,  without  the  concurrence  of  two-thirds  of 
both  houses  ;  that  no  person,  who  should  be  thereafter 
naturalized,  should  be  eligible  to  a  seat  in  the  senate, 
or  house  of  representatives,  or  hold  any  civil  office 
under  the  government  of  the  United  States  ;  and  that 
the  same  person  should  not  be  twice  elected  to  the 
office  of  president  of  the  United  States,  nor  the  pre- 
sident elected  from  the  same  state  for  two  successive 
terms.  A  resolution  was  passed,  providing  for  the 
calling  of  another  convention,  if  the  United  States 

should  refuse  their-,  consent  to  arrangements 
whereby  the  New  England  states,  separately  or  in 
concert,  might  be  empowered  to  assume  upon  them- 
selves the  defence  of  their  territory  against  the 
enemy,  and  appropriate  therefore  such  part  of  the 
revenue  raised  in  those  states  as  might  be  neces- 
sary." The  committee  appointed  [by  the  conven- 
tion to  communicate  these  resolves  to  the  govern- 
ment of  the  union,  subsequently  met  at  Washing- 
ton the  news  of  peace. 

The  proposed  alterations  of  the  constitution  were 
submitted  to  the  several  states,  and  rejected  by  all 
except  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  and  Connec- 
ticut. Probably  there  had  been  no  measure  taken 
since  America  was  a  nation,  soiodious  to  the  great 
bulk  of  the  people  of  the  United  States,  as*  this  con- 
vention, or  which  subjected  the  agents  to  such  se- 
vere personal  as  well  as  political  censure.  It  is  but 
right  to  give  however  the  following  defence  made  by 
one  of  the  leading  members  of  that  body.  "  The 
Hartford  Convention,  far  from  being  the  original 
contrivance  of  a  cabal,  for  anypurpose  of  faction  or 
disunion,  was  a  result,  growing  by  natural  conse- 
quences out  of  existing  circumstances.  More  than 


1130 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


a  year  previous  to  its  institution,  a  convention  was 
simultaneously  culled  for  by  the  people,  in  their 
town  meetings,  in  all  parts  of  Massachusetts.  Pe- 
titions to  that  effect  were  accumulated  on  the  tables 
of  the  legislative  chamber.  They  were  postponed 
for  twelve  months  by  the  influence  of  those  who 
now  sustain  the  odium  of  the  measure.  The  adop- 
tion of  it  was  the  consequence,  not  the  source  of  a 
popular  sentiment ;  and  it  was  intended,  by  those 
who  voted  for  it,  as  a  safety-valve  by  which  the 
steam,  arising  from  the  fermentation  of  the  times, 
mifht  escape,  not  as  a  boiler  in  which  it  should  be 
generated.  Whether  good  or  ill,  it  was  a  measure 
of  the  people,  of  states,  of  legislatures.  How  unjust 
to  brand  the  unwilling  agents,  the  mere  committee 
of  legislative  bodies,  with  the  stigma  of  acts  which 
were  first  authorized,  and  then  sanctioned  by  their 
constituted  assemblies." 

Proceedings  in  the  south— La  Fitte's  disclosures— 
Pensacola  surrenders  to  the  Americans — General 
Jackson's  preparations  at  New  Orleans— Capture  of 
the  American  flotilla — Contests  between  the  armies 

Sir  E.  Packenham  arrives  with   the  main  body  of 

the  British — Jackson's  Proceedings  with  the  legisla- 
ture of  Louisiana— Battle  of  New  Orleans— Sir  E. 
Packenham  killed — Subsequent  rencontres — British 
abandon  the  expedition— Fort  Bowyer  surrenders- 
Peace  proclaimed. 

After  the  peace  with  the  Creeks,  and  about  the  first 
of  August,  General  Jackson  fixed  his  head-quarters 
at  Mobile.  Here  he  learned  that  three  British 
shins  had  entered  the  harbo'ir  of  Pensaco la,  and 
landed  about.'SOO  men,  under  Colonel  Nicholls,  and 
a  large  quantity  of  guns  and  ammunition,  for  the 
purpose  of 'arming  the  Indians. .  General  Jackson 
also  heard  that  the  British  meditated  a  descent, 
with  a  large  force,  upon  the  southern  shores  of  the 
United  States.  He  immediately  made.a  call  for  the 
militia  of  Tennessee,  and  was  promptly  furnished 
with  2000  men  by  that  patriotic  state 

Colouel  Nicholls  issued  from  Mobile  a  proclama- 
tion which  was  addressed  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Louisiana,  Kentucky,  or  Tennessee  ^inviting  them 
to  return  to  their  allegiance,  and  help  to  restore  the 
country  to  its  rightful., owner.  This  proclamation 
produced  no  other  effect  but^contempt.  If  this  at- 
tempt manifested  Nicholls  a  weak  man  another 
brought  him  greater  odium.  West  of  the  mouth 
of  the  Mississippi,  the  island  of  Barrataria  was 
the  resort  of  a  band  of  marauders,  who,  by  their 
darinor  courage,' and  the  celerity  and  mysterious  se- 
crecy of  their  movements,  kept  the  country  in  a 
state  of  perpetual  alarm;  now  appearing,  to  strike 
some  unexpected  blow  of  robbery  perhaps  of  mur- 
der, sometimes  by  sea,  sometimes  by  and,  then  sud- 
denly disapppearing,  and  constantly  eluding  pursuit 
Their  numbers  were  formidable,  amounting  to  500 
or  600.  Their  leader,  La  Fitte,  was  subtle  and 
courageous  ;  possessing  traits  of  magnanimity,  yet 
unprincipled,  as  the  chieftain  of  such  a  band  must 
of*course  be.  They  had  made  a  pretence  of  sailing 
under  the  Carthagenian  flag,  as  privateers,  but 
their  prizes  were  condemned  in  their  own  ports.  In 
short,  they  were  by  land,  robbers  ;  by  sea,  pirates. 
The  American  authorities,  by  whom  they  were.out- 
lawed,  having  endeavoured  to  root  them  out,  applied 
to  thetBritish  to  lend  their  assistance.  Instead  of 
this,  Nicholls,  disclosing  to  La  Fitte  that  a  powerful 
attempt  was  to  be  made  on  New  Orleans,  offered 
him  a  large  reward,  if,  by  his  knowledge  of  the 


passes,  he  would  aid  the  British  in  their  approach  to 
the  threatened  city. 

La  Fitte  drew  from  him  important  facts,  and  then 
dismissing  his  propositions  with  disdain,  disclosed 
the  whole  to  Claiborne,  governor  of  Louisiana. 
Struck  with  this  act  of  the  pirate's  generosity  to  a 
country  which  had  set  a  price  upon  his  head,  and  per- 
ceiving how  valuable  would  be  the  services  of  the 
Barratarians  in  the  crisis  which  was  approaching, 
Governor  Claiborne,  by  a  proclamation,  offered  par- 
don to  the  whole  band,  if  they  would  come  forward 
in  the  present  crisis  in  defence  of  the  country.  They 
joyfully  accepted  the  proposition,  and  afterwards 
rendered  essential  services. 

m  General  Jackson  had  represented  to  the  govern- 
ment, that  the  Spanish  were  not  performing  the  part 
of  a  neutral  nation,  but  were  suffering  the  British  to 
use  the  port  of  Pensacola  for  the  purpose  of --an- 
noyance to  the  Americans,  and  he  therefore  urged 
the  propriety  of  taking  it  into  possession  during  the 
war.  Not  having  received  an  answer,  he  deter- 
mined to  hazard  the  responsibility  of  taking  pos- 
session of  the  port  without  the  orders  of  the  go 
vernmenL  Having  received  his  reinforcements, 
about  the  30th  of  October  he  marched  from  Mobile, 
at  the  head  of  nearly  2000  men.  Having  arrived 
in  th«  neighbourhood  of  Pensacola,  on  the  6th 
of  November  he  sent  a  flag  to  the  governor,  for 
the  purpose  of  conference,  but  his  messenger  was 
fired  upon.  On  the  7th,  he  entered  the  town, 
at  a  place  where  he  had  not  been  prepared  for,  or 
expected.  A  battery  was  however  formed  in  the 
street;  but  this  was  soon  carried  at  the  point  of  the 
bayonet,  and  the  governor  capitulated.  The  British 
troops  destroyed  the  forts  at  the  entrance  of  the  har- 
bour, and  with  their  shipping  evacuated  the  bay. 
Jackson  now  returned  to  Mobile.  He  had  received 
information  that  Admiral  Cochrane  had  been  rein- 
forced at  Bermuda,  and  that  thirteen  ships  of  the 
line,  with  transports  and  an  army  of  10,000  men, 
were  advancing.  Believing  New  Orleans  to  be 
the  place  of  their  destination,  he  marched  for  that 
place,  and  reached  it  on  the  1st  of  December. 

Early  in  the  month  of  September,  the  inhabitants 
of  Louisiana  were  impressed  with  the  belief  that 
the  British  were  about  to  invade  them  with  a  power- 
ful force,  and  their  principal  citizens,  among  whom 
were  Governor  Claiborne,  and  Mr.  Edward  Living- 
ston, beheld  the  prospect  with  well-grounded  alarm. 
This  portion  of  the  union  having  been  but  recently 
annexed,  its  yeomanry  felt  not  the  same-;  pride  of 
country  as  those  of  the  older  states.  New  «Orleans 
being  assailable  from  so  many  points,  it  was  diffi- 
cult to  secure  it  in  all.  Yet,  far  from  being  dis- 
couraged by  difficulties,  these  patriotic  citizens  felt 
them  only  as  stimulants  to  greater  exertions.  Go- 
vernor Claiborne  issued  his  proclamation,  calling 
on  the  people 'to  arouse  for  the  defence  of  their  coun- 
try and  their  homes.  Mr.  Livingston,  at  a  meeting 
of  the  citizens  who  convened  on  the  16th  of  Sep- 
tember to  devise  measures  in  -co-operation  with  the 
government  of  the  state,  made  an  eloquent  and 
moving  appeal,  calling  on  the  inhabitants  to  prove 
the  assertion  a  slander, that  they  were  not  attached 
to  the  American  government.  The  people  aroused ; 
defences  were  commenced,  guarding  the  principal 
passes,  and  volunteer  corps  were  organized.  In  the 
mean  time.  General  Jackson  arrived,  and  all  classes 
concurred  in  putting  him  at  the  head  of  affairs. 
His  powerful  talents  and  invariable  success  in  war, 
lad  already  made  him  regarded,  particularly  near 
the  seat  of  his  victories,  as  invincible ;  and  believing 


UNITED  STATES. 


that  he  could  and  would  preserve  them  in  safety,  or 
lead  them  to  victory,  the  inhabitants  were  content 
to  put  all  their  strength,  pecuniary  and  physical,  at 
his  disposal.  Confident  in  his  own  energies,  he 
took,  with  a  firm  and  unwavering  step,  the  perilous 
post  assigned  him ;  satisfied  that  his  own  breast 
should  be  the  first  to  meet  the  shock  which  menaced 
his  country. 

It  was  ascertained  that  the  British  with  60  sail  of 
the  line,  were  off  Ship  Island.  Jackson  neglected 
no  measure  which  might  increase  his  military  force, 
or  make  it  more  effective,  or  that  would  put  at  his 
disposal  more  labouring  hands,  in  the  building  of 
defences.  The  motley  populati-m  of  New  Orleans, 
the  slaves,  the  free  people  of  colour,  Frenchmen, 
Spaniards  and  Americans,  all  were  employed. 

The  British  had  passed  into  lake  Borgne.  A 
naval  force  consisting  of  several  small  vessels,  under 
Lieutenant  Jones,  met  them  at  one  of  the  straits 
which  connect  that  lake  with  the  Ponchartrain. 
The  British,  being  provided  with  a  great  number  of 
boats,  sent  43,  with  1200  men,  against  the  American 
flotilla,  which  was  manned  with  only  180  men. 
After  a  gallant  defence,  in  which  Lieutenant  Jones 
sunk  several  of  their  barges,  he  was  compelled  to 
surrender  his  fleet  to  the  superior  force  of  the  as- 
sailants. The  loss  of  this  fleet,  which  had  been  sup- 
posed adequate  to  defend  the  passes,  placed  New 
Orleans  in  still  greater  danger.  Having  reason 
to  believe  that  there  were  persons  in  the  city  who 
carried  intelligence  to  the  British,  an  embargo  was 
laid  for  three  days.  That  not  an  idle  hand  might 
be  found,  the  prisons  were  cleared,  on  condition  that 
the  prisoners  should  labour  in  the  ranks.  La  Fitte 
and  the  Barratarians  arrived,  and  were  employed. 
To  keep  in  order  and  direct  the  energies  of  such  a 
mass,  General  Jackson  judged  that  the  strong  arm 
of  military  control  only  could  be  effectual.  The 
danger  of  the  times  was  extreme ;  it  was  a  case  of 
preservation  or  destruction,  which  a  few  days  must 
decide,  and  the  general  took  the  daring  responsibi- 
lity of  proclaiming  martial  law. 

On  the  morning  of  the  22nd  of  December,  3000 
British  troops,  under  General  Kean,  landed  at  the 
head  of  lake  Borgne,  and  at  two  o'clock,  after  mak- 
ing prisoners  of  a  small  advanced  party  of  Ameri- 
cans, they  posted  themselves  about  nine  miles  be- 
low New  Orleans.  General  Jackson  lost  no  time 
in  preparing  to  meet  them.  Apprehending  that  they 
would  pass  the  strait  from  lake  Borgne  to  lake  Pon- 
chartrain, and  thus  make  a  double  attack,  he  posted 
part  of  his  force  under  General  Carroll,  on  the 
Gentilly  road,  so  as  to  intercept  their  approach  in 
that  direction.  At  five  on  the  afternoon  of  the 
23rd,  General  Jackson,  accompanied  by  General 
Coffee,  having  the  co-operation  of  the  Caroline,  an 
armed  vessel,  attacked  the  enemy  in  their  position 
on  the  bank  of  the  river.  The  charge  of  the  Ame- 
ricans was  bravely  made,  but  the  British  troops 
maintained  their  position.  A  thick  fog  coming  on, 
General  Jackson,  whose  men  were  now  for  the  first 
time  acting  in  concert,  deemed  it  prudent  to  draw 
off  his  army.  Having  rested  on  the  field,  he  with- 
drew on  the  morning  of  the  24th,  to  a  stronger 
position,  two  miles  nearer  the  city.  The  loss  of 
the  Americans  was  about  100,  in  killed,  wounded, 
and  missing  ;  that  of  the  British,  224  killed,  besides 
a  large  number  wounded. 

In  the  discretion  with  which  General  Jackson  now 
took  his  position,  and  the  diligence,  care  and 
activity  with  which  he  fortified  it,  consists  much  of 
the  merit  of  his  defence  of  New  Orleans.  His 


camp  occupied  both  banks  of  the  Mississippi.  On 
the  left  was  a  parapet  of  a  thousand  yards  in  length, 
in  the  construction  of  which  bags  of  cotton  were 
used,  with  a  ditch  in  front,  containing  five  feet  of 
water.  The  right  wing  of  the  division  here  posted, 
rested  on  a  river,  and  the  left  on  a  wood  which  na- 
ture and  art  had  rendered  impervious.  On  the 
right  bank  of  the  river,  a  heavy  battery  enfiladed 
the  whole  front  of  the  position  on  the  left.  The 
entire  army  were  vigorously  occupied  in  strength- 
ing  these  lines. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  British  who  had  been 
greatly  annoyed  by  the  fire  of  the  Caroline,  con- 
structed a  battery,  which  by  means  of  hot  shot,  set 
fire  to  the  vessel,  and  blew  her  up ;  she  having 
been  one  hour  before  abandoned  by  her  crew. 

On  the  25th  Sir  Edward  Packenham,  the  com- 
mander-in-chief  of  the  British  force,  accompanied 
by  Major-general  Gibbs,  arrived  at  the  British  en- 
campment with  the  main  army,  and  a  large  body  of 
artillery.  On  the  28th,  Sir  Edward  advanced  with 
his  army  and  artillery,  intending  to  force  Jackson 
from  his  position.  At  the  distance  of  half  a  mile 
from  the  American  camp,  he  opened  upon  their  yet 
unfinished  works  a  heavy  cannonade.  This  was 
met  on  the  part  of  the  Americans,  by  the  broadsides 
of  the  Louisiana,  then  lying  in  the  river,  and  by 
the  fire  of  their  batteries.  Aftej  maintaining  the 
contest  for  seven  hours,  the  British  commander  re- 
tired with  the  loss  of  120  men.  The  loss  of  the 
Americans  was  inconsiderable,  being  only  six  killed 
and  twelve  wounded. 

While  engaged  in  the  conflict  of  the  28th,  Ge- 
neral Jackson  was  informed  that  plans  were  forming 
in  the  legislature  of  Louisiana,  then  in  session,  for 
entering  into  negotiations  with  the  British.  In  the 
moment  of  irritation,  he  sent  an  order  to  Governor 
Claiborne,  to  watch  their  conduct,  and  if  such  a 
project  was  disclosed,  to  place  a  military  guard  at 
the  door,  and  confine  them  to  their  chamber.  Go- 
vernor Claiborn,  misconstrued  the  order,  and  placed 
a  guard  which  prevented  their  assembling. 

Eaton  in  his  life  of  General  Jackson,  says,  "  My 
object  in  this,  remarked  the  general,  was  that  then 
they  would  be  able  to  proceed  with  their  business, 
without  producing  the  slightest  injury;  whatever 
schemes  they  might  entertain  would  remain  with 
themselves,  without  the  power  of  circulating  them 
to  the  prejudice  of  any  other  interest  than  their  own. 
I  had  intended  to  have  had  them  well  treated,  and 
kindly  dealt  by ;  and  thus  obstructed  from  every  thing 
passing  without  doors,  a  better  opportunity  would 
have  been  afforded  them  to  enact  good  and  whole- 
some laws.  But  Governor  Claiborne  mistook  my 
order,  and  instead  of  shutting  them  in-doors,  con- 
trary to  my  wishes  and  expectations,  turned  them 
out." 

(1815.)  On  the  morning  of  the  1st  of  January, 
the  British  having  constructed  batteries  near  the 
American  lines,  immediately  opened  a  heavy  fire 
upon  them,  and  at  the  same  time  made  an  attempt 
to  turn  their  left  flank.  They  were  repulsed,  and 
in  the  evening  abandoned  their  position.  The  loss 
of  the  Americans  on  this  occasion,  was  six  killed 
and  24  wounded.  The  British  were  supposed  to 
have  had  120  men  killed. 

On  the  4th  of  January,  General  Jackson  received 
a  reinforcement  of  2500  Kentucky  militia,  under 
General  Adair.  On  the  6th,  the  British  army  was 
augmented  by  4000  troops  under  General  Lambert. 
Their  army  amounted  at  this  time  to  14,000,  while 
that  of  General  Jackson  did  not  exceed  6000. 


1132 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


On  the  7th,  the  British  commanders  were  making 
the  most  vigorous  preparations  for  a  meditated  at- 
tack. At  immense  labour  they  had  widened  and 
deepened  the  canal  from  lake  Borgne  to  the  Missis- 
sippi, so  that,  on  the  night  of  the  seventh,  they  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  their  boats  from  the  lake  to  the 
river.  Early  on  the  morning  of  the  8th,  the  Ame- 
rican army  was  assailed  by  a  shower  of  bullets  and 
Congreve  rockets.  The  British  army  marched  in 
two  divisions  under  General  Gibbs  and  General 
Kean,  the  whole  commanded  by  Sir  Edward  Pack- 
kenham,  to  storm  the  American  intrenchments. 
The  American  batteries  opened  a  brisk  fire  upon 
them,  but  the  soldiers  advanced  slowly,  though 
firmly,  carrying  fascines  and  scaling-ladders.  The 
keen  and  practised  eyes  of  the  western  marksmen 
were,  as  they  advanced,  selecting  their  men.  When 
the  British  were  within  reach  of  their  rifles,  the 
advanced  line  fired,  and  each  brought  down  his 
man.  Those  behind  handed  a  second  loaded  rifle 
as  soon  as  the  first  was  discharged.  The  plain  was 
strewed  with  the  dead,  and  the  British  faltered  and 
retreated  in  confusion.  Sir  Edward  appeared 
among  them,  encouraging  them  to  renew  the  assault. 
Two  balls  struck  him,  and  he  fell,  mortally  wounded. 
A  second  time  the  British  columns  advanced,  and  a 
second  time  retreated  before  the  deadly  fire  of  the 
Americans.  Again  their  thinned  ranks  were  closed, 
and  they  moved  forward  with  desperate  resolution. 
Generals  Kean  and  Gibbs  were  now  both  wounded, 
and  carried  from  the  field.  Their  troops  fell  back. 
At  this  time  General  Lambert,  who  commanded  the 
reserve,  attempted  to  bring  them  up,  but  the  day 
was  irretrievably  lost.  The  retreating  columns  had 
fallen  back  in  disorder  upon  the  reserve,  and  all 
his  attempts  to  rally  were  vain. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  battle  was  raging  upon  the 
opposite  side  of  the  river.  Gen.  Jackson  had  there 
placed  the  Kentucky  militia,  to  guard  his  battery 
and  annoy  the  British.  Previous  to  the  commence- 
ment of  the  action,  Sir  Edward  Packenham  had 
sent  Colonel  Thornton,  with  a  strong  detachment 
to  make  an  attack  upon  these  batteries,  simultaneous 
with  his  own.  Thornton  was  completely  successful. 
The  Kentucky  militia,  after  having  spiked  the  can- 
non, ingloriously  fled,  and  left  to  the  enemy  the 
strong  position  which  they  occupied.  General 
Lambert,  now  in  command,  and  defeated  on  the 
left  bank  of  the  river,  learning  the  success  of  Thorn- 
ton, sent  an  artillery-officer  to  examine  the  position, 
who,  giving  it  as  his  opinion  that  the  post  could  not 
be  securely  held  without  2000  men,  'he  concluded 
to  abandon  it,  and  accordingly  ordered  Colonel 
Thornton  to  rejoin  the  main  army.  The  disparity 
of  loss  on  this  occasion  is  utterly  astonishing.;  that 
of  the  British  was  2600,  while  that  of  the  Americans 
was  but  seven  killed  and  six  wounded !  On  the 
9th,  both  armies  returned  to  their  former  position. 
From  this  period  until  the  18th,  a  bombardment 
was  kept  up  by  the  British  fleet  at<fort  St.  Philips, 
while  General  Jackson  continued  to  annoy  the 
troops  with  his  artillery.  On  the  night  of  the  18th, 
the  British  retreated,  leaving  behind  them  their 
wounded  and  artillery. 

On  the  7th  of  February,  fort  Bowyer,  commanded 
by  Major  Lawrence,  with  a  garrison  amounting  to 
370,  was  invested  by'a  British  force,  6000  strong. 
Resistance  against  so  superior  a  force  must  of  ne- 
cessity be  unavailing,  and  Major  Lawrence  sur- 
rendered his  garrison  as  prisoners  of  war. 

On  the  17th  of  February,  while  the  (Americans 
were  yet  rejoicing  for  thetvictory  at  New  Orleans, 


a  special  messenger  arrived  from  Europe,  bringing: 
a  treaty  of  peace,  which  the  commissioners  had  con- 
cluded in  the  month  of  December,  at  Ghent.  This 
treaty,  which  was  immediately  ratified  by  the  pre- 
sident ana  senate,  stipulated  that  all  places  taken 
dating  the  war,  should  be  restored,  and  the  boun- 
daries between  the  American  and  British  dominions 
revised.  Yet  it  contained  no  express  provision 
against  those  maritime  outrages  on  the  part  of  Great 
Britain,  which  were  the  chief  causes  of  the  war 
But  as  the  orders  in  council  had  been  repealed,  and 
the  motives  for  the  impressment  of  seamen  had 
ceased  with  the  wars  in  Europe,  these  causes  no 
longer  existed  in  fact ;  although  America  had  failed, 
as  Europe,  combined  under  the  name  of  the  armed 
neutrality,  had  formerly  done,  to  compel  England 
to  the  formal  relinquishment  of  the  principles  on 
which  she  founds  her  claims. 

After  the  promulgation  of  peace,  news  was  re- 
ceived of  the  further  success  of  the  American  navv 
On  the  20th  of  February,  the  Constitution,  the'ti 
under  the  command  of  Captain  Stewart,  when  off 
the  island  of  Madeira,  fell  in  with  and  captured  the 
Cyane  and  Levant,  after  a  severe  action  of  40 
minutes.  The  total  number  of  killed  and  wounded 
on  board  the  Constitution,  was  fifteen ;  that  of  the 
enemy,  38. 

On  the  23rd  of  March,  an  engagement  took  place 
off  the  coast  of  Brazil,  between  the  United  States 
sloop  Hornet,  Captain  Biddle  commander,  and  the 
British  brig  Penguin,  which  had  sailed  from  En- 
gland in  September,  for  the  purpose  of  capturing 
the  Wasp.  After  22  minutes,  the  Penguin  sur- 
rendered. Her  loss  was  fourteen  killed  and  28 
wounded. 

War  with  Algiers — Decatur  and  Bainbridge  sent  to 
the  Mediterranean — Piratical  powers  make  peace — 
Treaties  with  the  Indians — National  bank — Mr. 
Monroe  president — Mississippi  admitted  to  the  union 
— The  illicit  trade  destroyed — Proceedings  of  the 
congress — Commencement  of  the  Seminole  war — Ge- 
neral Jackson  tmarches  against  them  —  Trial  of 
Arbuthnot — And  of  Ambn'ster — Treaties  uith  Great 
Britain  and  Sweden — Indian  affairs — Cession  of 
Florida. 

Soon  after  the  ratification  of  peace  with  Great 
Britain,  the  United  States  declared  war  against 
Algiers.  The  Algerine  government  had  violated 
the  treaty  of  1795.  In  1812,  under  pretence  that 
the  cargo  of  the  ship  Alleghany,  which  had  just  ar- 
rived with  naval  stores,  for  the  payment  of  tribute, 
did  not  contain  such  an  assortment  of  articles  as  he 
had  a  right  to  expect,  the  dey, of  Algiers  demanded 
additional  tribute  to  be  paid  in  money.  After  several 
ineffectual  attempts  to  negotiate,  Colonel  Lear,  the 
American  consul,  made  arrangements  for  paying 
the  demand,  and  sailed  for  the  United  States.  Im- 
mediately after  his  departure,  the  dey  commenced 
hostilities  upon  the  commerce  of  the  United  States, 
in  the,  Mediterranean.  These  outrages  were  not 
chastised  at  the  time,  on  account  of  the  war  with 
Great  Britain.  War  having  been  declared  with 
Algiers,  two  squadrons  were  fitted  ont,  under  Com- 
modores Decatur  and  Bainbridge.  Commodore 
Decatur  sailed  from  New  York  in  May,  and  pro- 
ceeding up  the  Mediterranean,  captured  on  the  17th 
of  June,  an  Algerine  frigate,  and  on  the  19th,  off 
Cape  Palos,  an  Algerine  brig,  carrying  22  guns. 
From  Palos,  Decatur  sailed  for  Algiers.  The  dey, 
intimidated,  signed  a*treaty  of  peace,  which  was 
highly  honourable  and  advantageous  to  the  Ame- 


UNITED  STATES. 


1133 


ricans.      Decatur   then   proceeded  to   Tunis   and 
Tripoli,  where  he  obtained  "H.fertirm 


additional  force,  made  his  appearance  eore  Algiers, 
Tunis,  and  Tripoli,  but  seeing  no  Disposition  to 
violate  the  treaties,  he  returned  to  the  Unite. 

St  WiSth  a  view  to  the  tranquillity  of  the  western  and 
north-western  frontiers,  measures  .were  taken  to  ob- 
tain a  peace  with  several  tribes  of  Indians  who  had 
been  hostile  to  the  United  States.  Several  of  their 
chiefs  met  at  Detroit,  on  the  6th  of  September,  and 
readily  acceded  to  a  renewal  of  their  former  treaties 

°f  AUhfcte  of  the  war,  the  regular  army  of  the 
United  States  was  reduced  to  10,000  men  For  the 
better  protection  of  the  country  in  case  of  another 
war,  congress  appropriated  a  large  sum  for  fortify- 
ing the  sefa-coast  and  inland  frontiers,  and  for  the 

1BC(18160  In6  April  an  act  was  passed  by  congress 
to  establish  a  national  bank,  with  a  capital  of 


,  which  was  occu- 

pied by  mnaway  negroes  and  hostile  Indians,  was 
destroyed  by  a  detachment  of  American  troops. 
More  than  100  were  killed,  and  the  remainder  were 


In  September  General  Jackson  held  a  treaty  with 
theChickasaws,  Choctaws,  and  Cherokee..  Hemade 
purchases  of  their  lands,  particularly  favourable  to 
the  wishes  and  security  of  the  frontier  settlements 
The  tranquillity  which  was  restored  among  0 
Indians  themselves,  contributed  to  favour  the  re- 
sumption of  the  work  of  civilization,  which  previous 
to  the  war  had  made  considerable  progress. 

In  December  the  Indiana  territory  was  admitted 


,  establishments  forspin 

ning  cotton,    and  for  ^^SSSSS. 
cloths,  were  attempted  in  the  state  of  Rhode  Island 
They  were  at  first  on  a  small  scale ;  but  as  the  cloths 
found  a  ready  market,  the  number  and  extent ^of 
these  manufactories  gradually  increased      The  em- 
barrassments to  which  commerce  was  subjected  jme 
years  previous  to  the  war,  increased  the  demand  t 
American  goods,  and  led  the  people  to  reflect  upon 
th?  importance  of  rendering  themselves   indepen- 
dent of  the  manufactures  of  foreign  nations. 
S  the  war    large  capitals  were  vested  m  manu- 
Tcfulg  es^ablisLenL,  from  which  the  capitalists 
reaped  a  handsome  profit.     But  at  the  close  of  the 
war    the  English  having  made  great  improvements 
£  manufacturing,  and  being  able  to  sell  their  goods 
at  Tmuch  lower  rate  than  the  American  manufac- 
tured could  afford,  the  country  was  immediately 
Sled  by  importations  from  England      The  Ameri- 
can manufactures  being  in  their  infancy    could  not 
resist  the   shock;  and  many  large  establishments 
failed      The  manufacturers  then  petitioned  govern- 
ment'for  protection,  to  enable  them  to  withstand 
the  competition;  and  in  consequence  of  this  peti- 
tion, theF  committee  on  commerce  and  manufactures 
in    1816    recommended   that  an   additional    duty 
should  be  laid  on  imported  goods      A  new  tariff  was 
accordingly  formed,  by  which  the  double  war  im- 
posts being  removed,  a  small  increase  of  duty  was 


laid  upon  some  fabrics,  such  as  coarse  cotton  goods. 
The  opposition  to  the  tariff  from  the  commercial  in- 
teresL&nd  in  some  sections  of  the  country  from  the 
agricultural,  was  so  great,  that  nothing  effectual  was 
at  that  time  done  for  the  encouragement  of  manu- 
factures. , 

A  society  for  colonizing  the  free  blacks 'of  the 
United  States,  was  first  proposed  in  1816,  and  was 
soon  formed.  This  society  was  not  under  the  direc- 
tion of  government,  but  was  patronized  by  many  ot 
the  first  men  in  all  parts  of  the  Union.  The  society 
purchased  land  in  Africa,  where  they  yearly  re- 
moved considerable  numbers  of  the  free  blacks  from 
America.  The  object  of  the  society  was,  by  remov- 
ine  the  free  negroes,  to  diminish  the  black  popula- 
tion of  the  United  States;  and  by  establishing  a  co- 
lony in  Africa,  to  prevent  the  traffic  in  slaves  which 
then  existed.  It  would  also  give  those  owners  of 
slaves  who  were  desirous  of  liberating  them,  an  op- 
portunity of  doing  so,  without  exposing  the  country 
to  the  dangers  apprehended  from  a  numerous  free 
black  population. 

(1817  S  Mr.  Madison's  second  term  of  office  hav- 
ing expired,  he  followed  the  examples  of  his  prede- 
cessors and  declined  a  re-election.  James  Monroe 
and  Daniel  D.  Tompkins  were  elected  president  and 
vice-president,  and  entered  upon  their  official  duties 
March  4,  1817.  During  the  summer  of  1817,  Mr. 
Monroe  visited  all  the  northern  and  eastern  states, 
and  was  received  with  every  demonstration  of  affe< 
tion  and  respect.  .  . 

This  year  a  treaty  was  concluded  by  commission- 
ers appointed  by  the  president  of  the  United  States 
and  the  chiefs  of  the  Wyandot,  Delaware,  fchawa- 
noe,  Seneca,  Ottoway,  Chippewa,  and  Potowat tamie 
tribes  of  Indians,  by  which  these  tribes  ceded  to  the 
United  States  all  lands  which  they  claimed  within 
the  limits  of  Ohio.  The  Indians  were,  at  their  op- 
tion, to  remain  on  the  ceded  lands  subject  to  the  laws 
of  the  United  States. 

The  territory  of  Mississippi  was  this  year  admitted 
into  the  union  of  the  states. 

A  band  of  adventurers,  who  pretended  to  act  un- 
der the  authority  of  the  South  American  states,  took 
po  session  of  Amelia  Island,  near  the  boundary  of 
Georgia,  with  the  avowed  design  of  invading  Florida. 
As  this  island  had  been  the  subject  of  negotiation 
with  the  government  of  Spain,  as  an  indemnity  for 
osses ^spoliations,  or  in  exchange  for  lands  of 
equal  value  beyond  the  Mississippi   the  measure  ex- 
cited a  sentiment  of  surprise  and  disapprobation; 
which  was  increased  when  it  was  found  that  the 
md  was  made  a  channel  for  the  illicit  mtroduc- 
on  of  sl^s  fromwVfrica  into  the  United  Statesman 
asylum  for  fugitive  slaves   from  the  neighbouring 
states  and  a  port  for  smuggling  of  every  kind      An 
establishmentPof  a  similar  nature   had  previously 
been  formed  on  an  island  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico    on 
the  coa  t  of  Texas.  *This  island  was  also  a  rendez- 
vous for  smugglers ;  and  privateers  were  equipped, 
who  -ave  grett  annoyance  to  the  commerce  ot  the 
Un°ted  States.     These  enterprises,  however  proved 
to  bemerely  private  adventures,  unauthorized  by  any 
gove^ment.P  The  United  States  sent  out  a  force, 
which  took  possession  of  the  islands,  and  put  a  stop 


•i-ne  puuu«»  «-~  which  had,  since  the  revolu- 
tion occasioned  so  much  animosity,  were  now  gra- 
i  dually  subsiding  ;  and  it  was  an  object  wrth  the  ad- 
ministration toSemove  old  party  prejudices ^  and 
promote  union  among  the  people  A  spirit  of  i 
provement  was  spreading  over  the  country :- roads 


1134 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


and  canals  were  constructed  in  almost  all  parts  of 
the  union,  and  the  facilities  for  travelling  and  for 
conveying  merchandise  and  produce  were  conti- 
nually increasing.  The  subject  of  education  re- 
ceived great  attention,  particularly  in  its  primary 
departments.  These  improvements  were,  however, 
made  by  the  state  governments ;  among  which,  the 
wealthy  state  of  New  York,  at  whose  head  was  the 
illustrious  De  Witt  Clinton,  took  the  lead.  Con- 
gress caught  the  spirit  of  the  times,  and  manifested 
a  desire  to  employ  the  resources  of  the  nation  for 
these  objects ;  and  though  no  doubt  arose  as  to  the 
expediency  of  such  a  course,  yet  the  power  of  that 
body  for  carrying  on  such  a  system  of  internal  im- 
provement, was  questioned  and  debated.  It  was 
the  opinion  of  President  Monroe,  that  the  general 
government  had  not  this  power,  and  could  not  ob- 
tain it  except  by  an  amendment  of  the  constitution, 
which  he  recommended  to  the  states.  Military 
roads  had  been  opened  in  the  late  war,  but  it  was  by 
order  of  the  war  department.  One  of  these  extend- 
ed from  Plattsburg  to  Sackett's  Harbour,  another 
from  Detroit  to  the  foot  of  the  Miami  rapids.  The 
extra  pay  to  the  soldiers  engaged  in  these  works, 
was  provided  for  by  congress  in  a  specific  appropria- 
tion. Congiess  had,  however,  caused  to  be  made 
the  great  Cumberland  road,  connecting  through  tho 
seat  of  government,  the  eastern  with  the  western 
states,  and  passing  over  some  of  the  highest  moun- 
tains in  the  union.  This  undertaking,  however,  was 
not  decisive  of  the  great  question  respecting  the 
right  of  congress  ;  but  it  was  made  under  peculiar 
circumstances.  An  article  of  pact  between  the 
United  States  and  the  state  of  Ohio,  under  which 
that  state  came  into  the  union,  provided  that  such  a 
road  should  be  made ;  the  expense  being  defrayed 
by  money  arising  from  the  sale  of  public  lands  with- 
in that  state.  As  the  road  passed  through  Mary- 
land, Pennsylvania,  and  Virginia,  it  was  thought 
necessary  to  obtain  the  sanction  of  those  several 
states.  Accordingly,  the  subject  was  brought  be- 
fore their  legislatures,  and  an  act  passed,  approving 
the  route,  and  providing  for  the  purchase  of  the  land. 
The  final  decision  of  congress  was,  that  the  consti- 
tution in  its  present  state  did  not  grant  to  them  the 
power  of  expending  the  revenue,  for  internal  im- 
provements. Under  several  of  the  state  govern- 
ments, however,  roads  and  canals  were  constructed; 
the  most  extensive  of  which  were  two  in  the  state  of 
New  York ;  one  leading  from  lake  Erie,  and  the 
other  from  lake  Champlain,  to  the  Hudson  river. 
The  expense  of  these  canals  was  defrayed  entirely 
by  the  state  of  New  York. 

In  the  first  year  of  Mr.  Monroe's  administration, 
an  arrangement  was  concluded  with  the  British  go- 
vernment for  the  reduction  of  the  naval  force  of 
Great  Britain  and  the  United  States,  on  the  lakes ; 
and  it  was  provided  that  neither  party  should  keep 
in  service  on  lake  Ontario  or  Champlain  more  than 
one  armed  vessel,  and  on  lake  Erie,  or  any  of  the 
upper  lakes,  more  than  two,  to  be  armed  with  one 
gun  only. 

For  the  security  of  the  inland  frontiers  of  the 
United  States,  military  posts  were  established  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Yellow  Stone  river,  on  the  Mis- 
souri, about  1800  miles  above  its  junction  with  the 
Mississippi,  and  at  the  mouth  of  St.  Peters,  on  the 
Mississippi. 

(1818.)  During  this  year,  the  United  States  be- 
came engaged  in  a  war  with  the  Seminole  Indians, 
who  occupied  the  lands  lying  on  the  confines  of  the 
United  States,  and  Florida ;  the  greater  part,  how- 


ever, lying  within  the  dominions  of  the  king  of 
Spain.  Outlaws  from  the  Creek  nation,  negroes 
who  had  fled  from  their  masters  in  the  United 
States,  and  the  Seminole  Indians,  had  united  in 
committing  depredations  upon  the  lives  and  propeity 
of  the  citizens  of  the  United  States.  For  many 
months,  the  southern  frontier  was  exposed  to  savage 
and  bloody  incursions  ;  the  most  horrid  massacres 
had  become  so  frequent,  that  the  inhabitants  were 
obliged  to  flee  from  their  homes  for  security.  The 
hostile  spirit  of  the  Indians  was  strengthened  by 
Arbuthnot  and  Ambrister,  two  English  emissaries, 
who  had  taken  up  their  residence  among  them,  for 
the  purposes  of  trade.  They  were  also  incited  by 
one  Francis,  whom  they  regarded  as  a  prophet.  In 
December  1817,  a  detachment  of  40  men,  under  the 
command  of  Lieutenant  Scott,  was  sent  to  the 
mouth  of  the  river  Appalachicola,  to  assist  in  re- 
moving some  military  stores  to  fort  Scott.  The 
party  m  returning,  were  fired  upon  by  a  body  of 
Indians  who  lay  in  ambush  upon  the  bank  of "the 
river,  and  six  only  escaped.  Lieutenant  Scott  was 
one  of  the  first  who  fell.  Notwithstanding  the 
offenders  were  demanded  by  General  Gaincs,  the 
commanding  officer  on  that  frontier,  the  chiefs  re- 
fused to  deliver  them  up  to  punishment.  General 
Jackson,  with  a  body  of  Tennesseans,  was  now  or- 
dered to  the  protection  of  the  southern  frontier.  In 
.everal  skirmishes  with  the  Indians,  he  defeated 
and  dispersed  them ;  and  persuaded  that  the  Spa- 
niards were  active  in  fomenting  the  Seminole  war, 
and  furnishing  the  Indians  with  supplies,  he  entered 
Florida,  and  took  possession  of  fort  St.  Marks  and 
Pensacola.  He  took  as  prisoners,  Arbuthnot,  Arn- 
mster,  and  the  Indian  prophet  Francis.  A  court- 
nartial  was  called,  at  which  General  Gaines  pre- 
sided, for  the  trial  of  Arbuthnot  and  Ambrister. 
Arbuthnot  was  tried  on  the  three  following  charges ; 
— first,  "  for  exciting  and  stirring  up  the  Creek  In- 
dians to  war  against  the  United  States  and  her 
citizens,  he  being  a  subject  of  Great  Britain,  with 
whom  the  United  States  are  at  peace."  Second, 
'  for  acting  as  a  spy,  aiding,  abetting,  and  com- 
brting  the  enemy,  and  supplying  them  with  tho 
means  of  war."  Third,  "  for  exciting  the  Indians  to 
murder  and  destroy  William  Hambly  and  Edmund 
Doyle,  confiscate  their  property,  and  causing  their 
arrest,  with  a  view  to  their  condemnation  to  death, 
and  the  seizure  of  their  property,  they  being  citizens 
of  Spain  ;  on  account  of  their  active  aud  zealous 
exertions  to  maintain  peace  between  Spain,  the 
United  States,  and  the  Indians."  He  was  found 
guilty  of  the  first  and  second  charge,  omitting  the 
words  "  acting  as  a  spy,"  and  sentenced  to  be 
hung. 

Ambrister  was  tried  on  the  following  charges  : — 
First,  "  Aiding,  abetting,  and  comforting  the  enemy, 
and  supplying  them  with  the  means  of  war,  he 
being  a  subject  of  Great  Britain,  who  was  at  peace 
with  the  United  States,  and  late  an  officer  in  the 
British  colonial  marines."  Second,  "  Leading  and 
commanding  the  Lower  Creek  Indians,  in  carrying 
on  war  against  the  United  States."  The  court-martial 
found  him  guilty  of  both  charges,  and  sentenced 
him  to  be  shot. 

The  treaty  between  the  United  States  and  Spain 
stipulated,  that  the  Spanish  should  keep  such  forces 
as  would  enable  them  to  restrain  the  hostilities  of 
the  Indians  inhabiting  their  respective  colonies.  It 
was  the  refusal  of  Spain  to  do  this,  which  produced 
the  necessity  of  carrying  the  war  into  her  provinces. 
The  massacres  committed  by  the  savages,  left  no 


UNITED  STATES. 


1135 


alternative  but  to  suffer  the  frontier  settlements  of 
Georgia  to  remain  exposed  to  the  mercy  of  those 
6arbarians,  or  to  carry  the  war  into  Florida.  Pen- 
sacola  and  St.  Marks  were  restored  to  Spain,  by 
order  of  the  president. 

In  April  of  this  year,  the  governor  of  Georgia  re- 
ceived information  that  the  Phlelemm.es  and  Hop- 
^pones,  tribes  of  Indians,  had  shown  indications  of 
a  hostile  disposition,  and  that  several  murders  had 
been  committed  by  them.  He  accordingly  ordered 
Captain  Wright,  with  a  company  of  militia,  to  go 
to  the  reliei  of  the  inhabitants  in  that  part  of  the 
country.  The  Creeks  were  at  this  time  friendly, 
and  many  of  them  assisted  General  Jackson  in  the 
Seminole  war.  Notwithstanding  this,  Capt.  Wright, 
instead  of  defending  the  frontier  from  the  Phlelem- 
mes,  attacked  the  Cheraw  village,  which  belonged 
to  the  Creeks.  Their  warriors  being  with  General 
Jackson,  they  were  unable  to  defend  the  town,  and 
Captain  Wright  took  possession  of  it,  murdered 
many  of  the  Indians,  some  of  their  women,  and  re- 
duced their  dwellings  to  ashes.  This  treatment 
enraged  the  Creeks,  and  it  was  expected  that  they 
would  immediately  retaliate.  Measures  were  how- 
ever taken  by  government,  to  redress  the  injuries 
inflicted  upon  them,  and  they  became  satisfied.  It 
seemed  doubtful  whether  Captain  Wright's  proceed- 
ings arose  from  a  misapprehension  of  the  point  of 
attack,  or  not.  He  was  arrested  by  government, 
but  escaped  from  prison. 

The  congress  of  this  year  passed  a  bill  to  admit 
Illinois  territory  into  the  union,  by  the  name  of  the 
state  of  Illinois. 

Treaties  of  commerce  were  concluded  with  Great 
Britain  and  Sweden.  In  the  treaty  with  the  former, 
the  northern  boundary  of  the  United  States,  from 
the  lake  of  the  Woods  to  the  Stony  Mountains,  was 
fixed. 

Congress  also  passed  a  law  abolishing  internal 
duties.  They  passed  an  act  providing  for  the  indi- 
gent officers  and  soldiers  of  the  revolution,  by  whioh 
every  officer  who  had  served  nine  months  at  any 
period  of  the  revolutionary  war,  and  whose  annual 
income  did  not  exceed  100  dollars,  received  a  pen- 
sion of  twenty  dollars  a  month  ;  and  every  needy 
private  soldier  who  had  served  that  length  of  time, 
.•eceived  eight. 

This  year,  the  Chickasaws  ceded  to  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States,  all  lands  west  of  the 
Tennessee  river  in  the  states  of  Kentucky  and 
Tennessee. 

(1819.)  The  condition  of  those  tribes  living  within 
the  territories  of  the  United  States,  now  attracted 
the  attention  of  the  government,  and  a  most  humane 
policy  dictated  its  measures  with  regard  to  them. 
The  sum  of  10,000  dollars  annually,  was  appropri- 
ated by  congress  for  the  purpose  of  establishing 
schools"  among  them,  and  to  promote  in  other  ways, 
their  civilization.  By  means  of  the  missionary  so- 
cieties already  established  in  the  United  States, 
missionaries  were  supported  among  the  Indians, 
and  success  in  many  instances  crowned  their  efforts. 

On  the  '23rd  of  February,  1819,  a  treaty  was  ne- 
gotiated at  Washington,  between  the  secretary  of 
state  and  the  Spanish  minister,  by  which  Spain 
ceded  to  the  United  States,  East  and  West  Florida, 
and  the  adjacent  islands.  The  government  of  the 
United  States  was  to  exonerate  Spain  from  the 
claims  which  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  had 
against  that  nation,  on  account  of  injuries  and  spo- 
liations, and  congress  was  to  satisfy  these  claims  to 
an  amount  not  exceeding  5,000,000  of  dollars. 


Three  commissioners  were  to  be  appointed  by  the 
president  with  the  advice  of  the  senate,  to  examine 
and  decide  upon  the  amount  and  validity  of  all 
claims  included  by  the  treaty.  The  contracting 
parties  renounced  all  claims  to  indemnities  for  any 
of  the  recent  acts  of  their  respective  officers  in  Flo- 
rida. This  treaty  was  ratified  by  the  president  and 
senate  of  the  United  States,  and  sent  to  Spain, 
when  th<j  king  very  unexpectedly  refused  to  sanction 
it.  Don  Onis,  the  Spanish  minister,  was  recalled. 
Another  minister  was  sent  to  the  United  States,  to 
make  complaints  of  unfriendly  policy  on  the  part  of 
the  American  government,  and  to  demand  expla- 
nations respecting  the  imputed  system  of  hostility 
on  the  part  of  thV  American  citizens,  against  the 
subjects  and  dominion  of  the  king  of  Spain.  Ex- 
planations were  made,  and  it  was  satisfactorily 
shown,  that  there  had  been  no  system  of  hostility 
pursued  by  the  citizens  of  the  United  States. 

Alabama  admitted  to  the  union — The  Missouri  question 
— Mr,  Monroe  re-elected — Treaty  with  France — In- 
crease of  piracy — Recognition  of  South  American 
slates — The  tariff' question  again  agitated. 

In  October,  1820,  Ferdinand  ratified  the  treaty 
between  France  and  Spain,  but  did  not  give  posses- 
sion of  Florida  until  July  1821. 

Alabama  territory  was  this  year  (1820)  admitted 
into  the  union  of  the  states.  The  territory  of  Mis- 
souri was  separated,  and  another,  called  the  Arkan- 
saw  territory,  formed. 

A  petition  was  presented  to  congress  this  year 
from  the  territory  of  Missouri,  praying  for  authority 
to  form  a  state  government,  and  to  be  admitted  into 
the  union.  A  bill  was  accordingly  introduced  for 
that  purpose.  This,  with  an  amendment,  prohibit- 
ing slavery  within  the  new  state,  passed  the  house 
of  representatives,  but  was  arrested  in  the  senate. 

The  district  of  Maine  also  presented  a  memorial 
to  congress,  praying  to  be  separated  from  Massachu- 
setts, to  be  authorized  to  form  its  own  constitution, 
and  to  be  admitted  into  the  union  on  an  equal  foot- 
ing with  the  other  states.  The  two  bills  for  the  ad- 
mission of  Maine  and  Missouri  were  joined,  but  not 
without  much  opposition  from  the  advocates  of  the 
restriction  in  the  Missouri  bill.  Upon  this  subject, 
the  members  of  congress  were  divided  into  two  par- 
ties ;  those  from  the  non-slaveholding  states  were  in 
favour  of  the  restriction,  while  those  from  the  south 
warmly  opposed  it.  Much  debate  took  place,  and 
at  no  time  had  the  parties  in  the  congress  of  the 
United  States  been  so  marked  by  a  geographical  di- 
vision, or  so  much  actuated  by  feelings  dangerous  to 
the  union  of  the  states,  as  at  this  time.  Nor  was 
the  seat  of  government  the  only  place  where  this 
subject  was  discussed;  in  all  parts  of  the  union  it  at- 
tracted the  attention  of  the  people.  Many  of  the 
northern  states  called  meetings,  and  published  spi- 
rited resolutions,  expressive  of  their  fears  of  perpe- 
tuating slavery,  and  their  approbation  of  the  restric- 
tion. 

The  members  from  the  south  opposed  the  restric- 
tion partly  on  the  ground  of  self-defence.  They  did 
not  consider  that  the  admission  of  Missouri,  without 
any  restriction,  would  tend  in  any  degree  to  per- 
petuate slavery.  It  would  not  be  the  means  of  in- 
creasing the  number  of  slaves  within  the  states,  but 
of  removing  some  of  those  that  already  existed  from 
one  state  to  another.  They  maintained  that  it 
would  be  a  dangerous  and  despotic  measure  of  the 
general  government,  and  one  that  would  infringe 
upon  the  sovereignties  of  the  states  ;  'that  such  are- 


1136 


HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


striction  was  inconsistent  with  the  treaty  by  which 
the  territory  was  ceded  to  the  United  States ;  and 
finally  they  insinuated  the  danger  of  a  dissolution  of 
the  union,  if  the  friends  of  the  restriction  persisted 
in  it. 

The  advocates  of  the  restriction  maintained  that 
the  constitution  gave  to  congress  the  right  of  admit- 
ting states  with  or  without  restrictions,  and* that  no 
state  had  ever  yet  been  admitted  without  any.  That 
the  ordinance  of  1787  established  this  right.  In 
proof  of  this  it  was  urged  that  when  North  Carolina 
ceded  to  the  United  States  that  part  ofTier  territory 
which  now  includes  the  state  of  Georgia,  she  made 
the  grant  upon  the,  express  condition  that  congress 
should  make  no  regulation  tending  to  the  emanci- 
pation of  slaves.  When  Georgia  ceded  to  the  United 
States  the  Mississippi  territory,  the  articles  of  agree- 
ment which  provided  for  its  admission  as  a  state  on 
the  conditions  of  the  ordinance  of  1787,  expressly 
excepted  that  article  which  forbidsislavery.  They 
also  maintained  that  to  strike  out  the  restriction 
from  this  bill,  would  inevitably  tend  to  perpetuate 
slavery,  and  to  entail  this  greatest  evil  upon  the  new 
state,  besides  increasing  to  the  union  the  mischiefs 
arising  from  unequal  representation.  After  much 
discussion  a  compromise  was  effected,  and  a  bill 
passed  for  the  admission  of  Missouri  without  any  re- 
striction, but  with  the  inhibition  of  slavery  through- 
out the  territories  of  the  United  States,  north  of  36 
degrees,  30  minutes,  north  latitude.  Thus  was  the 
most  dangerous  question  ever  agitated  in  congress 
disposed  of  in  an  amicable  manner. 

The  bill  for  the  admission  of  Maine  passed  with- 
out restriction  or  amendment ;  and,  in  1820,  Maine 
became  independent  of  Massachusetts,  and  assumed 
her  proper  rank  as  one  of  the  United  Stales. 

(1821.)  Missouri  -was  not  declared  independent 
until  August  1821.  Previously  to  the  passage  of 
the  bill  for  its  admission,  the  people  of  Missouri 
formed  a  state  constitution ;  a  provision  of  which 
required  the  legislature  to  pass  a  law  "  to  prevent 
free  negroes  and  mulattoes  from  coming  to  and  set- 
tling in  the  state."  When  the  constitution  was  pre- 
sented to  congress,  this  provision  was  strenuously  op- 
posed. .*,  The  contest  occupied  a  great  part  of  the  ses- 
sion, but  Missouri  was  finally  admitted  on  the  con- 
dition that  no  laws  shouldtbe  passed,  by  which  any 
free  citizens  of  the  United  States  should  be  pre- 
vented from  enjoying  those  rights  within  that  state, 
to  which  they  were  entitled  by  the  constitution  of  the 
United  States. 

This  year  Mr.  Monroe  entered  upon  his  second 
term  of  office,  having  been  re-elected  to  the  presi- 
dency by  nearly  a  unanimous  vote. 

(1822.)  A  territorial  government  was  established 
in  Florida  in  1822. 

In  June  a  convention  of  navigation.*  and  com- 
merce, on  terms  of  reciprocal  and  equal  advantage, 
was  concluded  between  France  and  the  United 
States.  The  ports  of  the  West  India  islands  were 
opened  to  the  United  States  by  an  act  of  the  British 
parliament. 

The  American  commerce  had  for  several  years 
suffered  severely  in  consequence  of  the  depreda- 
tions committed  by  pirates.  The  West  Indian  seas 
were  infested  by  these  marauders,  and  transactions 
of  the  most  flagrant  and  outrageous  character  had 
become  frequent.  Great  quantities  of  property  were 
seized  by  them,  and  their  captives  were  often  mur- 
dered in  the  most  inhuman  manner.  They  respected 
no  law,  and  the  flag  of  no  nation.  An  event  oc-  i 
curred  this  year  which  excited  general  attention,  | 


and  showed  that  the  evil  had  become  so  alarming  as 
to  call  loudly  for  the  strong  arm  of  government  to 
interpose  for  the  protection  of  its  citizens.  The 
Alligator,  United  States  schooner,  was  about  enter- 
ing the  harbour  of  Matanzas,  when  information  was 
received  that  two  American  vessels,  which  the  pi- 
rates had  just  captured,  were  lying  a  short  dis- 
tance from  that  place.  The  Alligator  was  imme- 
diately ordered  to  their  relief.  An  engagement  with 
the  pirates  ensued,  in  which  the  Americans  were 
victorious.  They  recaptured  five  American  vessels 
which  were  in  possession  of  the  pirates,  and  took  one 
piratical  schooner.  But  Allen,  the  commander  of 
the  Alligator,  was  wounded  in  the  engagement,  and 
died  in  a  few  hours.  His  death  excited  much  feel- 
ing throughout  the  United  States. 

The  pirates  made  the  island  of  Cuba  their  gene- 
ral place  of  rendezvous,  and  they  carried  their  de- 
predations to  such  an  extent  that  it  was  extremely 
dangerous  for  vessels  to  enter  or  leave  the  port  of  Ha- 
vanna.  Congress^at  length  passed  a  law  appropriating 
a  sum  of  money  to  fit  out  an  expedition  for  the  sup- 
pression of  piracy.  Commodore  Porter,  to  whom 
was  given  the  command  of  this  expedition,. sailed 
for  the  West  Indies,  and  after  touching  at  Porto 
Rico,  arrived  at  Matanzas  with  a  squadron  consist- 
ing of  a  steam  frigate,  eight  schooners,  and  five 
barges.  No  captures  were  made  by  this  squadron, 
as  the  pirates  had  obtained  knowledge  of  their  move- 
ments ;  but  the  object  of  their  going  out  was  ac- 
complished in  the  protection  afforded  to  commerce. 
The  American  squadron  remained  near  the  islands, 
and  afforded  convoys  to  merchant  vessels ;  and  in 
consequence  of  this  protection  of  the  sea,  the  pirates 
were  compelled  to  remain  upon  the  islands,  where 
they  committed  depredations  upon  the  inhabitants. 
But  one  vessel  was  taken  from  the  Americans  du- 
ring this  time,  and  that  was  recaptured  by  Commo- 
dore Porter. 

In  the  message  which  President  Monroe  this  year 
sent  to  congress,  he  invited  their  attention  to  the 
expediency  of  recognising  the  independence  of  the 
South  American  republics.  He  stated,  that 
throughout  the  contest  between  those  colonies  and 
the  parent  country,  the  United  States  had  remained 
neutral,  and  had  fulfilled,  with  the  utmost  impar- 
tiality, all  the  obligations  incident  to  that  character. 
Some  time  had  elapsed  since  the  provinces  had  de- 
clared themselves  independent  nations,  and  had 
enjoyed  that  independence  free  from  invasion.  For 
three  years  Spain  had  not  sent  a  single  corps  of 
troops  into  any  part  of  that  country.  The  delays 
which  had  been  observed  in  making  a  decision 
on  this  important  subject,  would  afford  an  unequi- 
vocal proof  of  the  respect  entertained  by  the  United 
States  for  Spain,  and  of  their  determination  not  to 
interfere  with  her  rights.  Mr.  Monroe  remarked, 
that  "  in  proposing  this  measure,  it  is  not  contem- 
plated to  change  thereby  in  the  slightest  manner, 
:he  friendly  relations  with  either  of  the  parties,  but 
to  observe  in  all  respects  as  heretofore,  should  the 
war  be  continued,  the  most  perfect  neutrality  be- 
tween them."  The  committee  on  foreign  relations, 
to  whom  this  question  was  referred,  reported  in  fa- 
vour of  this  measure,  and  recommended  that  a  sum 
should  be  appropriated  to  enable  the  president  to 
*ive  due  effect  to  such  recognition.  Ministers-pleni- 
potentiary were  appointed  to  Mexico,  Buenos  Ayres, 
Columbia,  and  Chili. 

(1824.)  Ever  since  the  year  1816,  the  tariff  had 
attracted  the  attention  of  the  people  throughout  the 
union,  and  from  time  to  time  the  subject  had  beeu 


UNITED  STATES. 


ua; 


brought  before  congress ;  but  with  the  exception  of 
the  small  protection  afforded  to  coarse  cotton  cloths, 
nothing  had  yet  been  done  for  the  encouragement 
of  American  'manufactures.  Notwithstanding  the 
pressure  of  the  times,  and  the  many  disadvantages 
under  which  they  laboured,  the  manufactures  of  cot- 
ton, after  they  recovered  from  the  first  shock,  had 
proved  successful.  Excepting  fine  fabrics,  which 
were  not  manufactured  to  any  extent  in  America, 
domestic  cottons  almost  supplied  the  country,  and 
considerable  quantities  were  exported  to  South  Ame- 
rica. Establishments  for  printing  calicoes  had  been 
erected  in  a  few  places,  and  in  some  instances  the 
manufacture  of  lace  had  been  attempted. 

In  the  support  of  these  establishments,  indepen- 
dent of  the  protection  of  government,  and  in  de- 
fiance of  the  obstacles  which  opposed  them,  indivi- 
duals and  manufacturing  companies  displayed  great 
energy  and  perseverance.  During  this  period,  the 
friends  of  manufactures  had  increased  in  numbers, 
and  in  zeal  for  the  cause.  This  year  the  subject  of 
a  new  tariff  was  again  brought  before  congress,  but 
wa«  vehemently  opposed.  The  grounds  of  the  op- 
position to  the  bill  were,  that  it  would  injure  the 
commerce  and  agriculture  of  the  country,  and  by 
lessening  the  public  revenue,  compel  a  resort  to  a 
system  of  excise  and  taxation.  That  it  would  di- 
minish the  exports  of  the  United  Stales,  as  other 
nations  would  not  purchase  articles  of  any  kind 
unless  the  produce  of  their  industry  was  received 
in  exchange.  That  the  country  was  not  prepared 
for  the  successful  establishment  of  manufactures,  on 
account  of  the  high  price  of  labour ;  and  that 
manufactures  would,  under  a  favourable  concur- 
rence of  circumstances,  flourish  without  the  protec- 
tion of  government. 

The  friends  of  a  new  tariff  replied,  that  a  depen- 
dence upon  the  internal  resources  of  the  country 
was  the  only  true  policy  of  the  government;  and 
that  the  protection  desired  for  manufactures,  far 
from  injuring,  would  prove  beneficial  to  both  com- 
merce and  agriculture.  It  would  create  a  home 
market,  without  which  the  agriculturist  would  not 
receive  the  just  reward  of  his  labours.  It  would 
create  a  new  and  extensive  business,  by  which 
thousands  of  persons  now  out  of  employment  might 
add  greatly  to  the  wealth  of  the  nation,and  thus  keep 
its  resources  at  home.  That  it  would  not  diminish 
the  exportations  of  the  country  unless  to  Europe, 
where  little  besides  the  raw  materials  are  carried; 
and  by  the  applications  of  industry,  new  articles  of 
exportation  might  be  multiplied,  more  valuable 
than  the  raw  materials,  and  by  which  the  country 
would  be  indemnified  for  any  losses.  They  con- 
sidered it  by  no  means  certain  that  it  would  lessen 
the  public  revenue;  the  augmentation  of  duty 
would  compensate  for  the  diminution  in  the  quantity 
of  goods  imported.  Experience  proved  that  manu- 
factures needed  protection,  and  that  such  had  ever 
been  the  policy  of  those  governments  where  th 
manufacturing  interest  flourished ;  and  in  proof  of 
this,  they  pointed  to  the  steady  course  of  the  Eng- 
lish government.  Many  of  the  friends  of  the  tariff, 
however,  conceded,  that  if  all  nations  would  unite 
in  a  system  of  free,  unshackled  trade,  it  would 
probably  produce  the  best  possible  state  of  things ; 
but  the  commercial  world  contended,  that  as  the 
United  States  must  suffer  from  laws  made  by  other 
governments  to  protect  and  favour  their  own  manu- 
factures, it  was  but  just  that  the  citizens  of  the 
United  States  should  receive  a  like  protection  and 
preference  from  their  own  government.  After  much 
HIST.  OP  AMER.— Nos.  143  &  144. 


discussion,  the  bill,  with  some  amendments,  passed  ; 
and  it  proved  effectual  in  affording  the  desired  pro- 
tection to  cotton  goods. 

La  Fayette  visits  America — His  reception — Returns 
to  France — Mr.  Adams  elected  President — Treaty 
with  Columbia — Representatives  sent  to  the  Con- 
gress at  Panama — Fiftieth  anniversary  of  Inde- 
pendence— Military  stations— Eminent  men — Con- 
cludiwf  remarks — Retrospect  and  present  stato— 
Future  prospects — Conclusion. 

On  the  15th  of  August,  1824,  General  La  Fayette, 
the  friend  of  America,  arrived  in  the  harbour  of 
New  York.  He  did  not  stop  at  the  city,  but  pro- 
ceeded to  the  residence  of  the  vice-president,  at 
Staten  Island.  Congress,  participating  in  the  warm 
feeling  of  esteem  and  gratitude  which  pervaded  the 
whole  nation,  had  given  him  an  invitation  to  visit 
America,  and  had  proposed  sending  a  national  ship 
for  his  conveyance.  He  accepted  the  invitation, 
although  he  declined  the  offer  of  a  national  vessel. 
When  information  was  received  in  the  city  of  New 
York  of  his  arrival,  a  committee  of  the  corpora- 
tion and  a  great  number  of  distinguished  citizens 
immediately  proceeded  to  Staten  Island,  to  behold 
and  welcome  the  former  benefactor  of  their  country, 
now  her  illustrious  guest.  Arrangements  were 
made  by  the  committee  for  his  visit  to  New  York, 
which  was  to  take  place  the  following  day.  A 
splendid  escort  of  steam-boats  gaily  decorated  with 
the  flags  of  every  nation,  and  bearing  thousands  of 
citizens,  brought  the  popular  La  Fayette  to  the  view 
of  the  assembled  crowds  at  New  York.  The  feel- 
ings of  Fayette,  at  revisiting  again  in  prosperity 
the  country  which  he  had  sought  and  made  his  own 
in  the  period  of  her  adversity,  were  at  times  over- 
powering. 

The  thousands  assembled  to  meet  him  at  New 
York,  manifested  their  joy  at  beholding  him,  in  the 
most  vehement  and  sincere  manner.  He  rode  un- 
covered from  the  battery  to  the  City  Hall,  receiving 
and  returning  the  affectionate  gratulations  of  the 
multitude.  At  the  City  Hall,  the  officers  of  the 
city,  and  many  citizens,  were  presented  to  him,  and 
he 'was  welcomed  by  an  address  from  the  mayor. 
His  meeting  with  a  few  grey-headed  veterans  of 
the  revolution,  his  old  companions  in  arms,  was  an 
interesting  scene.  The  deep  affection  they  evinced, 
their  constant  recurrence  to  the  time  when  they 
fought  together,  few  could  witness  without  tears. 

Deputations  from  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  New- 
Haven,  and  many  oiher  cities,  arrived  in  New- 
York,  with  invitations  for  him  to  honour  those  places 
with  his  presence.  After  remaining  a  few  days  in 
New  York,  he  proceeded  through  New  Haven  and 
Providence  on  his  way  to  Boston.  A  deputation, 
from  Boston  met  him  on  his  entrance  into  Massa- 
chusetts, and  accompanied  him  to  the  seat  of  the 
governor,  in  Roxbury.  There  they  received  an 
escort  of  800  citizens  from  Boston;  the  mayor  and 
corporation  awaiting  his  arrival  at  the  city  lines. 
The  pupils  of  the  public  schools,  both  male  and 
female,  were  arranged  in  two  lines  on  the  side  of 
the  common  adjoining  the  mall,  under  the  care  of 
their  respective  teachers,  and  through  these  lines 
the  procession  passed. 

From  Boston  he  proceeded  to  Portsmouth,  to  visit 
the  navy-yard.  Orders  had  been  issued  by  the 
president  to  all  the  military  posts,  to  receive  him 
with  the  honour  due  to  the  highest  officer  in  the 
American  service.  He  returned  to  Boston,  and 
from  thence  to  New  York,  through  Worcester  and 

4  Y 


JJ.J3 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMKKTCA. 


Hartford.  On  his  return  to  New  York,  a  splendid 
fele  was  given  at  Castle  Garden,  and  every  demon- 
stration of  joy  continued  to  be  shown.  From  New 
York,  the  general  proceeded  to  Albany  and  Troy, 
calling  at  West  Point,  and  several  other  places  on 
the , river.  He  next  passed  through  New  Jersey, 
and  visited  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Washington, 
Yorktown,  and  Richmond.  These  places  vied  with 
New  York  and  Boston  in  the  splendour  with  which 
they  received  the  esteemed  defender  of  their  country. 
He  returned  to  Washington  during  the  session  of 
congress,  and  remained  there  several  weeks.  Con- 
gress voted  him  the  sum  of  200,000  dollars,  aud  a 
township  of  land  which  was  located  in  Florida,  as 
a  remuneration,  in  part,  of  his  services  during  the 
revolutionary  war,  and  as  a  testimony  of  their  gra- 
titude. 

(1825.)  The  last  of  February,  La  Fayette  com- 
menced  his  tour  through  the  southern  aud  western 
states.  From  Washington  he  went  to  Richmond, 
passed  through  North  and  South  Carolina,  taking  in 
his  route,  Raleigh,  Fayetteville,  and  Charlestown,  to 
Savannah.  He  travelled  through  Georgia,  Alaba- 
ma, and  Mississippi,  to  New  Orleans ;  and  from 
thence  proceeded  up  the  Mississippi  as  far  as  St. 
Louis,  visiting  the  principal  places  on  both  sides  of 
the  river.  He  returned  to  the  Ohio,  passed  through 
Nashville;  Louisville,  Frankfort,  and  Lexington 
in  Kentucky ;  Cincinnati,  and  other  towns  in 
Ohio;  Wheeling  and  Pittsburg,  in  Pennsylvania, 
to  Buffalo  ;  through  the  state  of  New  York  to  Al- 
bany ;  and  from  thence,  across  Massachusetts,  to 
Boston.  He  arrived  in  season  to  participate  in  the 
ceremony  of  laying  the  corner  stone  of  a  monument 
which  was  to  commemorate  the  battle  of  Bunker's 
Hill.  Leaving  Boston,  he  proceeded  to  Portland, 
in  Maine ;  from  thence,  through  Concord  in  New 
Hampshire,  Windsor,  and  Montpelier,  to  Burling- 
ton, in  Vermont.  From  Burlington  he  crossed  to 
Plattsburg ;  and  passing  down  lake  Champlain  and 
the  Hudson,  arrived  again  in  New  York,  where  he 
united  in  the  celebration  of  the  anniversary  of 
American  independence.  Then  taking  his  leave  of 
the  eastern  and  northern  states,  he  returned  to 
Washington,  where  he  remained  until  his  departure 
from  the  continent.  A  more  interesting  scene  can 
hardly  be  imagined,  than  was  presented  in  his  visit 
to  Mount  Vernon,  to  the  tomb  of  his  departed 
friend,  of  him  whose  name  is  dear  to  the  heart  of 
every  friend  of  America.  He  was  accompanied  by 
several  gentlemen,  relatives  of  Judge  Washington's 
family.  When  he  arrived  at  the  tomb,  Mr.  Custis,  the 
adopted  child  of  Washington,  presented  him  with  a 
ring  containing  a  portion  of  the  locks  from  that 
great  champion  of  American  independence.  On 
retiring  from  the  tomb,  he  was  overcome  with  emo- 
tions; and,  according  to  an  eye-witness,  "  Not  a 
soul  intruded  upon  the  privacy  of  the  visit  to  the 
tomb.  Nothing  occurred  to  disturb  its  reverential 
solemnity.  Not  a  murmur  was  heard,  save  the 
strains  of  solemn  music,  and  the  deep  and  measured 
sound  of  artillery,  which  awoke  the  echoes  around 
the  hallowed  heights  of  Mount  Vernon." 

On  the  departure,  of  General  La  Fayette  from 
Washington,  the  president  expressed  to  him  the 
happiness  the  nation  had  experienced  in  receiving 
such  a  guest ;  its  attachment  to  him  ;  the  grateful 
remembrance  of  his  valuable  services ;  and  in  be- 
half of  the  nation,  he  bade  him  an  affectionate  adieu. 
A  new  frigate,  named  the  Brandywine,  in  memory 
of  the  battle  in  which  General  La  Fayette  was 
wounded,  was  deputed  by  government  to  convey 


him  to  his  native  land,  where  be  was  followed  U 
the  benedictions  of  thousands,  who  would  gladly 
have  detained  him  in  America. 

The  administration  of  Mr.  Monroe  was  during  a 
time  of  profound  peace.  In  this  period,  00,000.000 
dollars  of  the  national  debt  were  discharged. 
The  Floridas  were  peaceably  acquired,  and  th<; 
boundaries  of  the  United  States  extended  to  the  Pa- 
cific ocean.  The  internal  taxes  were  repealed,  the 
military  establishment  reduced  to  its  narrowest 
limits  of  efficiency,  the  organization  of  the  army  im- 
proved, the  independence  of  the  South  American 
nations  recognised,  progress  made  in  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  slave  trade,  and  the  civilization  of  the 
Indians  advanced. 

Mr.  Monroe's  second  term  of  office  having  ex- 
pired, John  Quincy  Adams  was  elected  president. 
Four  among  the  principal  citizens  of  the  republic 
had  been  candidates  for  the  office,  and  voted  for  by 
the  electoral  college.  These  were  John  Quincy 
Adams,  Andrew  Jackson,  Henry  Clay,  and  William 
H.  Crawford.  The  electors  were  divided,  and  no 
choice  being  made  by  them,  a  president,  according 
to  the  constitution,  was  to  be  chosen  by  the  house 
of  representatives,  from  the  three  candidates  whose 
number  of  rotes  stood  highest ;  who  were  Messrs. 
Adams,  Jackson,  and  Crawford.  Mr.  Adams  was 
chosen.  His  was  the  first  election  by  the  house  of 
representatives.  Many  fears  had  been  expressed, 
that  whenever  such  a  case  should  occur,  it  would 
be  attended  with  unpleasant  circumstances;  but 
the  result  was  far  different.  That  an  event,  such 
as  had  torn  asunder  the  most  powerful  kingdoms, 
should  have  taken  place  in  the  congress  of  the 
United  States,  without  the  least  commotion,  showed 
the  respect  which  that  body  felt  for  its  own  dignity, 
and  their  sense  of  the  solemnity  of  the  obligation 
which  bound  them  to  preserve  inviolate  the  consti- 
tution of  their  country. 

Mr.  Adams  was  inaugurated  March  4th,  1825. 
In  his  inaugural  address,  he  declared  the  course  he 
should  pursue  was  that  marked  out  by  his  prede- 
cessor. He  observed  that  there  remained  one  effort 
of  magnanimity  to  be  made  by  the  individuals 
throughout  the  nation,  who  had  heretofore  followed 
the  standards  of  the  political  party ; — it  was  that  of 
discarding  every  remnant  of  rancour  against  each 
other,  of  embracing  as  countrymen  and  friends, 
and  of  yielding  to  talents  and  virtue  alone,  that 
confidence  which  in  times  of  contention  for  princi- 
ple, was  bestowed  only  upon  those  who  bore  the 
badge  of  party  communion. 

A  treaty  of  commerce  and  navigation,  with  the 
republic  of  Colombia,  was  ratified  in  1825.  "  The 
basis  of  this  treaty  was  laid  in  the  principle  of  entire 
and  unqualified  reciprocity,  and  the  mutual  obli- 
gation of  the  parties  to  place  each  other  on  the  foot- 
ing of  the  most  favoured  nation." 

In  the  first  message  of  President  Adams  to  con- 
gress, he  announced  the  invitation  which  had  been 
received  by  the  government  of  the  United  States 
from  the  South  American  republics,  to  send  repre- 
sentatives to  the  congress  which  they  had  called  at 
Panama.  This  invitation  had  been  accepted  by 
the  president,  on  condition  that  the  nomination  of 
commissioners  should  be  approved  by  the  senate. 
The  congress  of  Panama  was  to  be  merely  an  as- 
sembly of  diplomatic  agents,  vested  with  no  powers, 
except  to  negotiate  and  discuss ;  they  were  to  be 
deputed  by  governments,  whose  constitutions  re- 
quire that  all  foreign  contracts  and  treaties  shall 
receive  ratification  fiom  the  organic  body  at  home, 


UNITED  STATES. 


1139 


before  they  can  go  into  effect.  The  relations  which 
the  United  States  held  with  the  South  American 
nations,  were  very  different  from  those  which  ex- 
isted with  the  European  powers.  They  were  united 
by  a  similarity  in  the  forms  of  their  governments  : 
the  new  republics  looked  upon  the  United  States  as 
having  led  the  way  in  1  he  cause  of  freedom,  and  ex- 
pected from  her  friendship  in  their  cause.  At  the 
same  time,  they  desired  nothing  of  her  which  would 
violate  her  strict  neutrality,  or  give  just  cause  of 
umbrage  to  any  other  power.  The  commercial  re- 
lations existing  between  the  United  States  and 
those  nations,  were  even  now  important ;  and  the 
interest  of  them  to  that  country,  would  be  conti- 
nually increasing.  Subjects  in  which  the  United 
States  were  deeply  interested,  were  to  be  discussed  at 
Panama,  and  it  was  highly  necessary  that  their 
wishes  should  be  made  known  there. 

Some  of  the  objects  which  it  was  hoped  might  be 
accomplished  by  the  attendance  of  ministers  at  Pa- 
nama were,  the  preservation  of  the  tranquillity  of 
the  islands  of  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico,  the  invasion 
of  which,  by  the  united  forces  of  Mexico  and  Co- 
lombia, was  among  the  objects  to  be  matured  by 
the  belligerent  states  at  Panama  ;  and  the  abolition 
of  private  war  upon  the  ocean,  by  a  general  agree- 
ment among  the  South  American  nations,  as  far 
as  they  were  concerned.  They  would  also  take 
into  consideration  the  means  of  making  effectual 
the  assertion  of  the  principle,  that  the  European 
nations  have  no  right  to  colonize  further  in  Ame- 
rica, and  that  with  the  exception  of  the  existing 
colonies,  the  whole  of  the  continent  of  America  be- 
longs to  the  independent  governments  established 
upon  it.  They  would  concert  measures  for  the 
more  effectual  abolition  of  the  slave  trade,  and  if 
possible,  prevail  upon  the  South  American  nations, 
to  consent  to  religious  toleration. 

The  mission  was  warmly  opposed  in  congress,  on 
the  ground  that  it  would  be  a  departure  from  the 
neutral  character  the  United  States  professed  to 
maintain,  and  contrary  to  the  advice  of  Washing- 
ton, which  was,  in  extending  the  commercial  rela- 
tions with  other  countries,  to  have  as  little  political 
connexion  with  them  as  possible.  After  much  dis- 
cussion, the  nominations  of  the  president  were  ap- 
proved by  the  senate,  and  two  ministers  were  ap- 
pointed to  represent  the  United  States  at  Panama. 

The  intercourse  of  the  United  States  with  the  na- 
tions of  Europe,  has,  since  the  close  of  the  war  with 
Great  Britain,  been  friendly.  With  many  of  them, 
commercial  treaties  highly  advantageous  to  the 
United  States,  have  been  formed. 

We  now  draw  to  the  close  of  our  history  of  this 
great  republic,  and  cannot  conclude  it  better,  than 
at  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  its  independence.  This 
epoch,  which  occurred  on  the  4th  July,  1826,  was 
commemorated  with  a  universal  enthusiasm,  which 
was  alone  subdued  by  the  simultaneous  death  of  the 
two  great  champions  of  American  freedom,  John 
Adams  and  Thomas  Jefferson,  that  with  a  me- 
lancholy singularity  occurred  on  this  day. 

List  of  the  Military  Stations  in  the  United  States, 
in  1826. 

Fort  Sullivan,  at  Eastport,  Maine. 

Fort  Preble,  at  Portland,  Maine. 

Fort  Constitution,  at  Portsmouth,  New  Hamp- 
shire. 

Fort  Independence,  at  Boston,  Mass. 

Fort  Adams  and  Wolcott,  at  Newport,  Rhode 
Island. 

Fort  Trumbull,  at  New  London,  Connecticut. 


Forts  Columbus,  Wood,  Gibson,  and  La  Fayette, 
at  New  York. 

Fort  McHenry,  at  Baltimore,  Maryland. 

Fort  at  Annapolis,  Maryland. 

Fort  Washington,  on  the  Potomac,  four  miles 
below  Alexandria. 

Fortress  Monroe  and  Calhoun,  near  Hampton 
Roads. 

Fort  Johnson,  at  Smithfield,  North  Carolina. 

Fort  Moultrie,  at  Charlestown,  South  Carolina. 

Fort  Jackbon,  at  Savannah,  Georgia. 

Fort  Marion,  at  St.  Augustine,  Florida. 

Fort  Barancas,  near  the  entrance  of  the  harbour, 
and  Cantonment  Clinch,  above  the  town,  Pensacola. 

Forts  Jackson  and  Philips,  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Mississippi  river. 

Fortified  Arsenal,  at  Baton  Rouge. 

Cantonment  Jessup,  at  Natchitoches. 

Cantonment  Towson,  at  Kirmitia  river. 

Fort  Atkinson,  at  Council  Bluffs. 

Fort  Armstrong,  on  Rock  Island,  in  the  Missis- 
sippi river. 

Fort  Crawford,  at  the  Prairie  du  Chien. 

Fort  Luelling,  near  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony. 

Fort  Howard,  at  Green  Bay. 

Fort  Brady,  at  the  Sault  de  St.  Marie. 

Fort  Mackinaw,  near  the  Straits  of  Michilima- 
cinack. 

Madison  Barracks,  at  Sackett's  Harbour. 

Fort  Niagara,  near  the  mouth  of  Niagara  river. 

Fort  at  West  Point. 

There  are  arsenals  at  Watertown,  near  Boston  ; 
Gibbonsville,  opposite  Troy,  New  York  ;  Rome,  Do. ; 
Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania;  Pittsburg,  Do. ;  Pikes- 
ville,  near  Baltimore;  Washington  City;  Bellona 
arsenal,  near  Richmond,  Virginia ;  and  at  Charles- 
town,  South  Carolina. 

Armories  at  Springfield,  and  at  Pittsburg,  Penn- 
sylvania. 

A  military  academy  was  founded  at  West  Point, 
by  the  government  of  the  United  States,  in  1802, 
during  the  administration  of  Mr.  Jefferson.  This 
institution,  when  first  organized,  consisted  only  of 
the  commandant,  and  a  few  other  officers  of  the 
corps  of  engineers,  together  with  fifteen  or  twenty 
cadets,  who  were  attached  to  that  corps.  Congress 
appropriated  25,000  dollars,  for  erecting  buildings, 
and  purchasing  apparatus.  By  an  act  of  congress 
in  1812,  the  plan  was  much  extended,  as  to  the 
course  of  education,  and  the  number  of  cadets.  This 
act  increased  the  number  of  cadets  to  250,  and  pro- 
vided for  a  professor  and  assistant  professor  in  na- 
tural and  experimental  philosophy;  a  professor  and 
assistant  professor  in  engineering ;  a  professor  and 
assistant  professor  of  mathematics ;  a  professor  of 
the  French  language;  a  professor  of  drawing;  an 
instructor  of  tactics ;  an  instructor  in  artillery ;  a 
surgeon  of  the  army,  to  act  as  professor  of  chemistry 
and  mineralogy  ;  and  a  swords-master.  By  an  act 
of  congress  in  1818,  a  chaplain  was  appointed,  who 
is  also  professor  of  rhetoric  and  moral  philosophy. 
The  secretary  of  war  is  authorized  to  appoint,  in 
addition  to  the  above,  as  many  lieutenants  from  the 
army,  as  the  service  of  the  academy  may  require, 
who  are  to  act  as  assistant  professors.  The  library 
contains  about  700  volumes,  principally  on  scientific 
subjects.  The  course  of  instruction  is  finished  in 
four  years.  HafiCTcft  Ofc 

Catalogue  of  Eminent  Man  who  died  during  the  Period 

extending  from  18U3  to  1826. 
(1803.)  Samuel  Adams,  a  distinguished  statesman 
and  patriot. 


1140 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


(1803.)  Samuel  Hopkins,  D.D.,  an  eminent  divine 
—author  of  a  System  of  Doctrines,  to 
which  is  added  a  Treatise  on  the  Mil- 
lenium. 

William  Vans  Murray,  a  distinguished 
statesman. 

Matthew  Thornton,  one  of  the  signers  of 

the  declaration  of  independence. 
( 1 804.)  Alexander  Hamilton,  a  distinguished  states- 
man, and  first  secretary  of  the  treasury 
of  the  United  States. 

John  Blair  Linn,  D.D.,  a  poet,  and  an 
eminent  divine — author  of  "  The  Powers 
of  Genius,"  &c. 

Philip  Schuyler,  a  major-general  in  the 
revolutionary  army. 

George  Walton,  one  of  the  signers  of  the 

declaration  of  independence. 

(1805.)  Arthur  Brown,  LL.D.,  a  distinguished 
scholar  and  eminent  barrister — author 
of  a  "  Compend  of  Civil  Law,"  "Miscel- 
laneous Sketches,"  &c. 

William  Moultrie,  governor  of  South  Ca- 
rolina, and  a  major-general  in  the  Ame- 
rican war. 

(1806.)  Isaac  Backus,  a  learned  divine  and  his- 
torian—author of  a  "  Church  History  of 
New  England." 

Horatio  Gates,  a  major-general  in  the  army 
of  the  United  States. 

Henry  Knox,  LL.D.,  a  major-general  in 
the  army  of  the  United  States. 

Robert  Morris,  one  of  the  signers  of  the 
declaration  of  independence. 

George  Wythe,  chancellor  of  Virginia,  and 
one  of  the  signers  of  the  declaration  of 
independence. 

(1807.)  Abraham  Baldwin,  a  distinguished  states- 
man. 

Oliver  Ellsworth,  chief  justice  of  the  United 
States,  and  a  distinguished  statesman. 

Edward  Preble,  commodore  in  the  navy 
of  the  United  States. 

Samuel  West,  D.D.  an  eminent  divine, 
metaphysical,  theological,  and  contro- 
versial writer — author  of  "  Essays  oa 
Liberty  and  Necessity." 

(1808.)  Fisher  Ames,  a  distinguished  statesman 
and  scholar. 

John  Dickinson,  a  distinguished  political 
writer. 

John  Redman,  M.D.,  first  president  of  the 
College  of  Physicians  in  Philadelphia. 

William  Shippen,  M.D.,  F.R.S.,  a  learned 
physician  and  anatomist. 

James  Sullivan,  a  distinguished  civilian — 
author  of  a  "  History  of  the  District  of 
Maine,"  "  History  of  the  Penobscot  In- 
dians," &c. 

(1809.)  Thomas  Heyward,  one  of  the  signers  of  the 
declaration  of  independence. 

Meriwether  Lewis,  governor  of  Louisiana. 

Thomas  Paine,  a  political  and  deistical 
writer — author  of  the  "Age  of  Reason," 
"  Rights  of  Man,"  &c. 

(1810.)  Charles  Brockden  Brown,  a  distinguished 
writer,  principally  of  novels — author  of 
"  Wieland,"  "  Ormond,  or  the  Secret 
Witness,"  &c. 

Benjamin  Lincoln,  a  major-general  in  the 

American  army. 
(1811.)  Robert  Treat  Paine,  a  popular  poet. 


(1811.)  William  Williams,  one  of  the  signers  of  the 

declaration  of  independence. 

(1812.)  Joel  Barlow,  LL.D.,  a  distinguished  poet 
— author  of  the  "  Vision  of  Columbus," 
since  entitled  the  "  Columbiad." 

George  Clinton,  fourth  vice-president  of  the 
United  States. 

David  Ramsay,   a  celebrated  historian — 
author  of  the  "  Life  of  Washington," 
"  American  Revolution,"  &c. 
(1813.)  George  Clymer,  one  of  the  signers  of  the 
declaration  of  independence. 

Robert  R.  Livingston,  one  of  the  signers  of 
the  declaration  of  independence,  and  a 
distinguished  patriot  and  statesman. 

Theophilus  Parsons,  an  eminent  statesman 
and  lawyer. 

Zebulon  Montgomery  Pike,  a  brigadier- 
general  in  the  army  of  the  United  States. 

Benjamin  Rush,  M.D.,  a  celebrated  phy- 
sician, and  one  of  the  signers  of  the  de- 
claration of  independence. 

Alexander  Wilson,  a  celebrated  naturalist. 
(1814.)  William   Heath,    a  major-general  in  the 
American  army. 

Robert  Treat  Paine,  a  distinguished  patriot, 
and  one  of  the  signers  of  the  declaration 
of  independence. 

(1815.)  James  A.  Bayard,  a  distinguished  states- 
man. 

John  Carroll,  D.D.,  first  archbishop  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  church  in  America.  * 

Benjamin  Smith  Barton,  M.D.,  a  learned 
physician. 

Hubert  Fulton,  a  celebrated  civil  engineer. 
(1817.)  James  Alexander  Dallas,  secretary  of  the 
treasury  of  the  United  States. 

Timothy  Dwight,  S.T.D.,  LL.D.,  presi- 
dent and  professor  of  divinity  of  Vale- 
college. 

(1818.)  Caspar  Wistar,  M.D..  a  learned  physician 
and  celebrated  anatomist — author  of  a 
"  System  of  Anatomy." 
(1819.)  Hcnry'Kollock,  D.D.,  an  eminent  divine. 

Samuel  Stanhope  Smith,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  pre- 
sident of  Princeton-college.  * 

Hugh  Williamson,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  author 
of  the  "  History  of  North  Carolina," 
"  Change  of  the  climate  of  the  United 
States,"  &c. 

(1820.)  Daniel  Boone,  the  first  settler  of  the  state 
of  Kentucky. 

Stephen  Decatur,  commodore  in  the  navy 
of  the  United  States. 

Oliver  Hazard  Perry,  commodore  in  the 
navy  of  the  United  States. 

Benjamin  West,    a  celebrated  historical 

painter. 

(1821.)  Samuel  Bard,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  an  eminent 
physician,  and  president  of  the  College  of 
Physicians  and  Surgeons  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  New  York. 

William  Floyd,  one  of  the  signers  of  the 

declaration  of  independence. 

(1822.)  William  Pinkney,  an  eminent  lawyer  and 
statesman. 

John  Stark,  a  brigadier-general  in  the 
American  army  during  the  revolutionary 
war. 

(1823.)  William  Bartram,  F.R.S.,  an  eminent  bo- 
tanist— author  of  Travels  through  the 
Carolinas,  Georgia,  and  the  Florida*. 


UNITED  STATES. 


1141 


(1826.)  John  Adams,  L.L.D.,  eminent  as  a  states- 
man and  a  lawyer,  and  second  president 
of  the  United  States. 
Thomas  Jefferson,   LL.D.,  third  president 

of  the  United  States. 
Kufus  King,  a  distinguished  statesman. 

Concluding  Remarks. 

We  cannot  better  conclude  our  history  than  with 
the  following  general  review  of  the  history  and  pros- 
pects of  the  United  States,  by  an  able  American 
author. 

The  English  colonies  of  North  America  were  set- 
tled under  the  most  favourable  auspices.  The  mind 
of  man  had  just  burst  from  thraldom,  and  begun  to 
delight  in  the  free  and  vigorous  exercise  of  its  powers. 
Religion  and  government  had  become  themes  of  ani- 
mated discussion.  The  people  had  boldly  questioned 
the  divine  right  of  their  rulers  to  control  their  ac- 
tions, and  of  their  priests  to  prescribe  to  them  ar- 
ticles of  faith.  They  had  assumed  a  higher  rank  and 
bolder  attitude  ;  and,  conscious  of  their  own  power, 
had  begun  to  feel  less  dependence  upon  others. 

From  that  country,  where  the  advancement  of 
knowledge  had  been  greatest,  came  those  who  peopled 
this  western  wilderness.  They  belonged  principally 
to  a  class,  so  high  as  to  have  participated  largely  in 
the  advantages  which  knowledge  imparts,  and  yet 
not  so  high  as  to  be  above  the  power  of  the  oppressor. 
The  persecutions  they  had  endured  rendered  the 
principles  of  civil  and  religious  liberty  more  dear  to 
their  hearts ;  and  led  to  inquiries  and  reflections, 
which  fixed  a  conviction  of  their  truth  more  firmly  in 
their  understandings. 

No  occasion  could  be  more  fortunate,  no  men 
could  be  better  fitted  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  su- 
perstructure entirely  new.  Their  knowledge  enabled 
them  to  discern  the  good  and  the  evil  of  the  political 
institutions  which  had  existed  in  the  world ;  and 
their  feelings,  chastened  by  their  sufferings,  or  ele- 
vated by  their  favourable  view  of  human  nature,  led 
them  to  reject  those  provisions  which  sacrificed  the 
happiness  of  many  to  the  splendour  of  a  few  ;  and  to 
adopt  such  only  as  gave  equal  rights  and  privileges 
to  all. 

In  every  nation  of  Europe  ecclesiastical  establish- 
ments existed,  almost  co-ordinate  with  the  civil  au- 
thority. The  officers  of  these  establishments  were 
numerous,  and  their  privileges  extensive.  For  their 
support,  in  early  times,  a  tenth  part  of  the  income 
of  the  laity  was  appropriated.  Possessing  wealth, 
and  rank,  and  learning,  their  influence  was  great, 
and  was  constantly  exerted  to  acquire  and  preserve 
dominion  over  the  minds  and  consciences  of  men. 
Their  success  was  equal  to  the  means  which  they  em- 
ployed. They  continued  to  add  to  their  wealth  and 
power,  until,  corrupted  by  luxury  and  idleness,  they 
forgot  their  duties  to  God  and  to  man ;  and  encum- 
bered society  with  a  useless  and  oppressive  weight. 

No  part  of  these  establishments  have  been  trans- 
ferred to  America.  The  first  settlers  of  most  of  the 
colonies  were  too  proud  of  their  attainments,  in  spi- 
ritual knowledge,  to  submit  to  dictation  in  matters 
of  faith ;  and  too  independent  in  feeling  to  acknow- 
ledge a  superior  on  earth.  Here  man  resumed  his 
natural  and  dignified  station ;  and  the  ministers  of 
the  Gospel,  maintaining  an  apostolical  simplicity  of 
character  and  manners,  have  seldom  sought  to  ob- 
tain, and  possess  not  the  means  of  obtaining,  any 
greater  influence  than  that  which  superior  virtue 
and  piety  confer. 


The  doctrine  ot  hereditary  right  prevailed  also 
throughout  Europe.  By  the  fundamental  regula- 
tions of  nearly  every  kingdom,  the  monarch  and 
nobles  transmitted  to  their  eldest  sons,  even  though 
destitute  of  talents  and  virtue,  their  authority,  pri- 
vileges, and  rank.  The  people  often  saw  on  the 
throne  men,  who  were  guilty  of  the  most  atrocious 
wickedness,  and  whose  conduct  involved  commu- 
nities and  nations  in  misery ;  but  no  attempt  could 
be  made  to  remove  or  punish  them  without  incur- 
ring the  penalty  of  rebellion.  They  saw  also,  in 
other  exalted  stations,  men  equally  wicked  and 
equally  beyond  their  control. 

The  law  of  primogeniture  existed  as  a  part  of  the 
hereditary  system.  The  eldest  son  inherited,  not 
the  title  only,  but  also  all  the  lands  of  the  father. 
By  this  unjust,  and  unnatural  law,  the  younger  sons 
and  daughters  were  doomed  to  comparative  poverty. 
One  portion  of  the  people  was  made  rich,  and  an- 
other poor.  Few  were  placed  in  that  happy  medium 
between  wealth  and  poverty,  which  is  most  favour- 
able to  virtue,  to  happiness,  and  to  the  improvement 
of  the  human  faculties. 

The  principle,  that  power  could  be  inherited,  was 
at  once  rejected  by  the  first  emigrants  to  America. 
They  had  witnessed,  in  Europe,  the  pernicious 
operation  of  this  principle ;  they  were  convinced  of 
its  absurdity ;  and  even  had  not  such  been  the  case, 
that  equality  of  rank  and  condition,  which  existed 
among  them,  would  have  prevented  any  one  from 
claiming  such  a  privilege  for  his  family,  and  all 
others  from  submitting  to  it. 

The  law  of  primogeniture  fell  of  course  into  dis- 
use, or  was  abolished.  That  equality  of  rights  and 
of  rank,  which  prevailed  at  first,  has  continued  to 
prevail ;  and  though  in  some  of  the  colonies,  the 
extravagant  grants  of  land,  which  were  made  by 
capricious  governors  to  their  favourites,  introduced 
great  inequality  of  fortune,  yet  the  salutary  opera- 
tion of  various  laws  is  continually  diminishing  this 
inequality,  dividing  and  distributing  among  many 
that  wealth  which,  in  the  hands  of  a  few,  is  less  be- 
neficial to  the  public,  and  productive  of  less  indivi- 
dual enjoyment. 

The  systems  of  government  established  in  the  co- 
lonies were  also  departures  from  European  prece- 
dents, and  were  in  perfect  harmony  with  their  social 
institutions.  Most  of  the  provisions  of  the  early 
charters  were  doubtless  suggested  by  the  first  emi- 
grants, and  of  course  accorded  with  their  liberal  po- 
litical principles.  The  kings  who  granted  them 
conceded  many  privileges,  to  encourage  the  settle- 
ment of  colonies  in  America,  entertaining  no  suspi- 
cion that  their  successors  would  ever  have  occasion 
to  regret  their  concessions.  These  charters  made 
but  little  distinction  in  the  rights  and  privileges  of 
the  colonists.  Every  man  could  regard  those  around 
him  as  his  equals.  The  state  of  individual  depen- 
dence being  hardly  known,  all  sense  of  dependence 
on  the  mother-country  was  gradually  lost ;  and  the 
transition  from  a  colonial  to  an  independent  condi- 
tion was  natural  and  unavoidable. 

In  nothing  is  the  contrast  between  the  two  sys- 
tems of  government  greater  than  in  the  requisitions 
which  they  make  of  the  people  for  their  support  and 
defence.  That  of  Great  Britain  may  be  taken  as  a 
favourable  example  of  the  European  governments. 
The  people  of  that  kingdom  pay  annually,  for  the 
support  of  their  sovereign  and  his  relatives,  above 
2,500,000  dollars,  while  the  compensation  of  the  pre- 
sident of  the  United  States  is  but  25,000.  In  the 
salaries  of  the  subordinate  officers  of  government, 


1112 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  disproportion  is  not  so  great,  but  is  generally, 
nevertheless,  as  four  or  five  to  one. 

The  military  peace  establishment  of  Great  Bri- 
tain costs  annually  34,000,000  dollars;  that  of  the 
United  States  but  little  more  than  5,000,000.  The 
naval  establishment  of  the  former  costs  22,000,000  ; 
that  of  the  latter  less  than  2,500,000.  British  sub- 
jects pay  in  taxes,  raised  exclusively  for  national 
purposes,  at  the  rate  of  fifteen  dollars  yearly  for  each 
individual;  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  pay,  in 
national  and  state  taxes,  at  the  rate  of  but  two  dol- 
lars. And  as  the  whole  population  of  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland  is  included  in  the  estimate,  the  indivi- 
dual wealth  of  the  subjects  of  the  united  kingdom 
and  of  the  citizens  of  the  American  republic  may,  on 
an  average,  be  considered  nearly  equal. 

With  burdens  thus  light,  not  embarrassed  by  too 
much  regulation,  nor  restricted  by  monopolies,  but 
left  at  liberty  to  pursue  their  own  interests  as  indi- 
vidual judgment  may  dictate,  the  citizens  of  the  re- 
public have  boldly  embarked  in  all  the  ordinary  pur- 
suits of  man ;  and  in  all  have  met  with  a  degree  of 
success  which  exhibits  a  favourable  and  forcible 
commentary  upon  their  free  institutions,  and  proves 
that  no  other  people  surpass  them  in  activity  or  en- 
terprise. 

In  the  pursuits  of  AGRICULTURE,  by  far  the  greatest 
portion  of  the  inhabitants  are  engaged;  and  for  that 
employment  the  country  is  most  favourably  situated. 
It  embraces  every  desirable  variety  of  climate.  The 
soil  is  generally  good ;  in  many  parts  of  the  union 
it  is  exceedingly  fertile  ;  and  it  produces,  or  may  be 
made  to  produce,  almost  every  vegetable  which  can 
be  made  the  food  of  man,  or  as  the  material  of  ma- 
nufactures. The  northern  states  produce  Indian 
corn,  rye,  wheat,  flax,  hemp,  oats,  potatoes ;  and 
their  pastures  feed  and  fatten  large  numbers  of 
cattle  and  sheep.  The  middle  and  western  states 
produce  tobacco,  and  the  same  articles  as  the  nor- 
thern, but  wheat  in  much  greater  abundance.  In 
the  southern  states  cotton  is  principally  cultivated, 
but  considerable  quantities  of  rice  and  sugar  are 
produced. 

In  1820  the  number  of  persons  engaged  in  agri- 
culture was  2,070,646.  The  value  of  all  its  products 
exported  during  the  year  ending  the  30th  of  Septem- 
ber 1823  was  37,646,000  dollars.  The  principal  ar- 
ticles were,  cotton  to  the  value  of  20,445,000  dollars; 
tobacco  to  [the  value  of  4,852,000  dollars ;  flour  to 
the  value  of  4,962,000  dollars  ;  and  rice  to  the  value 
of  1,821 ,000  dollars.  The  value  of  provisions  of  all 
kinds  exported  was  13,460,000  dollars,  and  it  has  in 
many  years  been  at  a  greater  average.  A  people 
able  to  spar*  such  an  amount  of  the  necessaries  of 
life,  can  never  be  in  danger  of  suffering  from  want. 

The  agricultural  class  is  conspicuous  for  industry, 
morality,  and  general  intelligence ;  but  has  less  pro- 
fessional knowledge  than  the  same  class  in  Europe. 
Land  having  hitherto  been  cheap,  and  not  exhausted 
by  cultivation,  agriculturists  have  hitherto  not  been 
eager,  and  it  has  not  been  necessary,  to  make  prac- 
tical application  of  the  discoveries  of  science ;  but  a 
change  in  these  respects  having  taken  place,especially 
in  the  Atlantic  states,  many  now  study  their  profes- 
sion as  a  science ;  and  as  all  professions  are  estimated 
according  to  the  skill  and  intelligence  required  to  at- 
tain eminence  in  them,  they  are  raising  their  own 
i; carer  to  that  rank  in  society,  to  which  its  utility 
and  importance  entitle  it.  More  taste  and  neatness 
are  now  displayed  in  cultivation,  and  the  appear- 
ance of  the  country  is  rapidly  improving. 
/fire  COMMERCE  of  the  United  States  has  yielded 


a  rich  harvest  of  wealth.  Various  circumstances 
have  directed  the  attention  of  a  large  portion  of  the 
population  to  this  pursuit,  and  have  contributed  to 
give  them  success  in  it.  For  2000  miles  the  republic 
bounds  upon  the  sea,  and  in  that  space  has  many  ex- 
cellent harbours.  The  finest  timber  for  ship  build- 
ing is  abundant,  and  easily  procured.  Near  the 
shores  of  the  northern  states,  and  on  the  adjacent 
banks  of  Newfoundland,  are  fishing  stations,  unsur- 
passed by  any  in  the  world.  Fishing  is  consequently 
a  lucrative  employment,  in  proportion  to  the  capital 
invested,  and  attracts  to  it  a  large  number  of  the  na- 
tives of  those  sta.es.  These,  havingbecome  accustomed 
to  a  seafaring  life,  and  acquired  the  requisite  quali- 
fications, soon  pass  into  larger  vessels,  destined  for 
more  distant  and  perilous  voyages. 

The  state  of  the  world,  for  several  years  subse- 
quent to  the  commencement  of  the  French  revolu- 
tion, offered  great  encouragement  to  the  commercial 
enterprise  of  the  country.  While  almost  every  other 
power  was  engaged  in  war,  the  United  States  were 
neutral;  their  vessels  navigated  the  ocean  in  safety, 
and  were  employed  to  carry,  from  port  to  port,  the 
commodities  of  the  belligerent  nations.  In  fifteen 
years,  beginning  with  1793,  these  favourable  cir- 
cumstances increased  the  amount  of  American  ton- 
nage from  491,000  to  1,242,000  tons,  and  the  re- 
venue arising  from  commerce,  from  4,399,000  to 
]  6,363,000  dollars. 

In  1820,  the  number  of  persons  engaged  in  com- 
merce was  72,493.  In  1823  the  whole  amount  of 
exports  was  74,799,000  dollars  ;  the  amount  of  im- 
ports was  77,579,009  dollars,  the  balance,  in  favour 
of  the  United  States,  being  about  3,000,000  of  dol- 
lars. As  the  imports,  however,  are  always  under- 
valued at  the  custom-house,  the  accession  of  wealth 
which,  in  that  year,  accrued  to  the  nation  from  com- 
merce, was  undoubtedly  greater. 

In  other  years  the  commerce  of  the  country  has 
flourished  more.  In  1807  the  exports  amounted  to 
108,343,000,  and  the  imports  to  138,574,000  dollars. 
The  principal  causes  of  the  decline  which  has  taken 
place  have  been  the  restoration  of  peace  in  Europe, 
and  the  increase  of  the  product  of  domestic  manu- 
factures. The  former  has  permitted  all  other  nations 
to  become  competitors  ;  the  latter  has  rendered  it 
unnecessary  to  resort  to  Europe  for  most  of  the  con- 
veniences and  many  of  the  luxuries  of  life  ;  but  a 
proof  that  the  depression  is  fast  decreasing,  is  that  in 
1831  the  exports  were  estimated  at  81,310,583  dol- 
lars; and  the  imports  at  103,191,124  dollars;  and 
the  independence  of  the  South  American  republic 
has  opened  a  wide  field  for  the  enterprise  of  Ameri 
can  merchants. 

The  COD-FISHERY  on  the  north-eastern  coast  of 
America  attracted  at  an  early  period  the  attention  of 
the  world.  In  1583  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  found  36 
vessels  fishing  in  the  harbour  of  St.  John,  in  N  ew- 
foundland.  They  were  principally  from  Biscay,  in 
Spain,  and  Brittany,  in  France,  and  for  many  years 
the  French  retained  almost  a  monopoly  of  this  source 
of  wealth.  In  1744  they  employed,  in  this  fishery, 
414  large  ships,  navigated  by  about  24,000  seamen, 
and  the  quantity  of  fish  taken  amounted  to  1,149,000 
quintals. 

The  war  of  1756  expelling  the  French  from  the 
continent,  transferred  the  privileges  which  they  had 
enjoyed  to  Great  Britain.  The  English'  colonies, 
from  their  vicinity,  participated  largely  in  them.  In 
the  year  1760,  660  vessels,  navigated  by  4400  sea- 
men, were  fitted  outfrom  the  ports  of  New  England. 
During  the  revolutionary  war,  the  Americans  were 


UNITED  STATES. 


1143 


compelled  to  relinquish  the  profitable  pursuit;  arid 
it  required  all  the  iiimness  and  address  of  the  nego- 
tiators of  the  peace  of  1783  to  secure  to  these  states 
those  advantages  which  nature  seems  to  have  in- 
tended for  them,  and  which  they  had  enjoyed  as  a 
component  part  of  the  British  empire.  They  were 
at  length,  however,  notwithstanding  the  covert  oppo- 
sition of  France,  conceded  by  the  mother-country. 

From  that  period  till  1807  the  number  of  vessels 
and  men  employed  in  this  pursuit  continued  to  in- 
crease. An  estimate  has  been  made  that,  from 
1790  to  1810,  1200  vessels  of  all  kinds,  navigated 
by  10,500  men  and  boys,  were,  on  an  average,  yearly 
employed  in  the  Bank  bay  and  Labrador  fisheries ; 
1,150, 000  quintals  of  fish  were  caught  and  cured; 
and  37,000  barrels  of  oil  were  made.  The  annual 
value  of  the  product  of  these  fisheries  could  not  have 
been  less  than  3,500,000  dollars.  They  were  inter- 
rupted by  the  last  war  with  Great  Britain,  and  have 
not  since  regained  their  former  activity.  As  nurse- 
ries of  seamen,  they  are  important  to  the  nation  ;  and 
as  such  have  received  the  particular  attention  and 
encouragement  of  government.  A  bounty,  amount- 
ing in  some  years  to  200,000  dollars,  is  paid  to  the 
owners  and  crews  of  the  vessels  employed. 

The  WHALE-FISHERY  of  the  United  States  ought 
not  to  be  passed  over  unnoticed.  Its  successful  pro- 
secution requires  uncommon  hardihood  and  skill. 
As  early  as  1690,  the  inhabitants  of  Nantucket  en- 
gaged in  this  pursuit,  and  were  soon  after  joined  by 
their  brethren  of  the  town  of  New  Bedford.  In  a 
few  years  these  monsters  of  the  deep  were  driven 
from  the  American  coasts ;  but  were  pursued  with 
ardour  into  seas  more  remote.  In  1715,  228  tons; 
in  1771,  27,000  tons;  in  1815,  42,000  tons  of  ship- 
ping were  employed  in  this  business.  The  product 
of  this  fishery  exported  in  1807,  consisting  of  com- 
mon and  spermaceti  oil  and  whale-bone,  was  valued 
at  606,000 dollars ;  in  1831  at  741,808  dollars;  not 
including  spermaceti  candles,  which  amounted  to 
217,830  dollars  additional. 

An  extract  from  the  speech  of  Mr.  Burke,  de- 
livered in  the  British  parliament,  in  1775,  presents 
in  eloquent  language,  a  correct  idea  of  the  import- 
ance of  this  fishery,  and  of  the  enterprise  and  dex- 
terity of  those  engaged  in  it.  "  As  to  the  wealth 
which  the  colonies  have  drawn  from  the  sea  by 
their  fisheries,  you  bad  all  that  matter  fully  opened 
at  your  bar.  You  surely  thought  those  acquisitions 
of  value ;  for  they  seemed  even  to  excite  your  envy ; 
and  yet  the  spirit  by  which  that  enterprising  em- 
ployment has  been  exercised,  ought  rather,  in  my 
opinion,  to  have  raised  your  esteem  and  admira- 
tion. 

"  And  pray,  Sir,  what  in  the  world  is  equal  to 
it  ?  Pass  by  the  other  parts,  and  look  at  the  man- 
ner in  which  the  people  of  New  England  have  of 
late  carried  on  the  whale  fishery.  While  we  follow 
them  among  the  tumbling  mountains  of  ice,  and 
behold  them  penetrating  into  the  deepest  frozen  re- 
cesses of  Hudson's  bay  and  Davis's  straits;  whilst 
we  are  looking  for  them  beneath  the  arctic  circle, 
we  hear  that  they  have  pierced  into  the  opposite  re- 
gion of  polar  cold ;  that  they  are  at  the  Antipodes, 
and  engaged  under  the  frozen  serpent  of  the  south. 
Falkland  Island,  which  seemed  too  remote  and  ro- 
mantic an  object  for  the  grasp  of  national  ambition, 
is  but  a  stage  and  resting-place  in  the  progress  of 
their  victorious  industry. 

l<  Nor  is  the  equinoctial  heat  more  discouraging 
to  them  than  the  accumulated  winter  of  both  poles. 
We  know  that  while  some  of  them  draw  the  line  and 


strike  the  harpoon  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  other* 
run  the  longitude  and  pursue  the  gigantic  game 
along  the  coast  of  Brazil.  No  sea  but  what  is  vexed 
by  their  fisheries.  No  climate  that  is  not  witness 
to  their  toils.  Neither  the  perseverance  of  Holland, 
nor  the  activity  of  France,  nor  the  dexterous  and 
firm  sagacity  of  English  entei prise,  ever  carried 
this  most  perilous  mode  of  hardy  industry  to  the  ex- 
tent to  which  it  has  been  pushed  by  this  recent 
people ;  a  people  who  are  still,  as  it  were,  but  in 
the  gristle,  and  not  yet  hardened  into  the  bone  of 
manhood. 

"  When  I  contemplate  these  things ;  when  I 
know  that  the  colonies  owe  little  or  nothing  to  any 
care  of  ours,  and  that  they  are  not  squeezed  into 
this  happy  form  by  the  Constraints  of  watchful  aud 
suspicious  government,  but  that,  through  a  wise 
and  salutary  neglect,  a  generous  nature  has  been 
suffered  to  take  its  own  way  to  perfection ;  when  I 
reflect  upon  these  effects,  when  I  see  how  profitable 
they  have  been  to  us,  I  feel  all  the  pride  of  power 
sink,  and  all  presumption  in  the  wisdom  of  human 
contrivances  melt  and  die  away  within  me.  My 
rigour  relents.  I  pardon  something  to  the  spirit  of 
liberty." 

MANUFACTURES. — While  the  United  States  were 
colonies,  the  mother-country  endeavoured  to  prevent 
the  inhabitants  from  manufacturing  any  article 
whatever,  even  for  their  own  use.  The  erection  of 
slitting-mills  was  prohibited,  and  hatters  were  for- 
bidden to  take  any  apprentice  for  less  than  seven 
years,  or  to  employ  more  than  two  at  a  time.  In 
addition  to  these  and  other  legislative  enactments, 
the  wages  of  labour  were  high,  and  neither  skill 
nor  surplus  capital  existed  in  the  country.  But  lit- 
tle attention  was  of  course  given  to  manufactures, 
and  the  inhabitants  received  their  supplies  from  the 
artisans  of  England. 

Some  attempts  were  indeed  made,  a  few  years 
previous  to  the  commencement  of  the  revolutionary 
war,  to  introduce  manufactures.  Such  was  in  part 
the  intention  of  the  non-importation  agreements ; 
and  some  of  the  colonial  legislatures,  to  encourage 
the  production  of  wool,  and  the  manufacture  of 
cloths,  exempted  sheep  from  taxation.  But  at  no 
time,  previous  to  the  adoption  of  the  constitution, 
did  manufacturers  exist  in  the  country  in  sufficient 
number  to  be  considered  a  class  of  the  population. 

And  indeed  it  was  not  until  the  imposition  of  the 
embargo,  in  1807,  that  any  considerable  impulse 
was  given  to  this  branch  of  industry.  Prevented 
by  this  interruption  of  commerce  from  exchanging 
their  products  for  foreign  articles,  the  inhabitants 
then  attempted  to  fabricate  them  for  themselves. 
From  the  want  of  experience  and  skill,  many  of  the 
first  attempts  were  unsuccessful ;  but  in  a  very  short 
time  these  deficiencies  were  supplied,  and  at  the 
close  of  the  war  the  amount  of  the  products  of  ma- 
nufactures was  astonishingly  great.  Forming  an  es- 
timate from  the  amount  in  1810,  which  was  near 
170,000,000,  it  could  not  have  been  less,  for  1814, 
than  200,000,000  dollars. 

Peace,  by  affording  to  foreigners  an  opportunity 
of  introducing  the  goods  which  had  accumulated  in 
their  warehouses,  checked  for  a  few  years  the  im- 
pulse which  the  restrictive  measures  and  the  war 
bad  given.  In  each  of  the  three  years  following 
1815,  the  value  of  articles  manufactured  was  pro- 
Dably  less  than  in  any  one  of  the  preceding  six  years. 
From  the  year  1818,  the  amount  has  gradually  in- 
creased, and  in  1821  and  1822  it  was  probably 
greater  than  it  had  ever  before  been.  It  will  here . 


1144 


THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


after  continue  to  increase,  and  the  navigation  of  the 
country  will  be  employed,  not  so  much  in  bringing 
home  the  manufactures  of  other  nations,  as  in  car- 
rying abroad  those  of  the  United  States.  In  this 
way,  domestic  manufactures  will  repay  to  commerce 
the  capital  they  have  lately  drawn  from  it. 

The  states  in  which  the  greatest  attention  is  de- 
voted to  this  branch  of  industry,  are  Rhode  Island, 
Pennsylvania,  Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  and 
Connecticut.  The  principal  manufactures  are  those 
of  cotton  and  of  woollen  cloths,  of  iron,  and  of  lea- 
ther. In  1820,  the  number  of  inhabitants  engaged 
in  manufactures  was  349,506. 

The  question,  whether  agriculture,  commerce  or 
manufactures  is  most  productive  of  national  wealth, 
and  to  which  the  government  ought,  in  preference, 
to  extend  its  protection  and  encouragement,  has 
lately  been  warmly  discussed  bv  the  politicians  and 
writers  on  political  economy  in  America  and  in 
Europe.  Each  interest  has  its  advocates.  The  de- 
cision of  the  impartial  statesman  would  probably  be, 
that  neither  should  be  encouraged  to  the  neglect  of 
the  others :  that  if  either  is,  in  any  degree,  to  be 
preferred,  it  is  that  which  is,  at  the  time,  the  most 
depressed  ;  or  that  which  supplies  most  of  the  means 
of  national  defence,  and  most  of  the  necessaries 
and  conveniences  of  life. 

DEBT,  REVEN  UE  AND  EXPENDITURES. — When  in 
1 790,  the  public  debt  was  first  funded,  it  amounted  to 
about  75,000,000  dollars.  In  1803,  by  the  purchase 
of  Louisiana,  it  was  augmented  to  about  85,500,000. 
In  the  eight  years  which  followed,  a  large  amount 
was  paid,  leaving  due,  in  1S12,  but  little  more  than 
45,000,000.  To  defray  the  expenses  of  the  war  which 
was  declared  in  that  year,  more  than  80,000,000  of 
new  debt  was  contracted.  A  large  portion  has  since 
peen  paid,  and  the  remainder  is  so  small  as  not  to 
deserve  notice. 

'  The  present  revenue  of  the  republic  is  derived 
principally  from  commerce,  and  from  the  sale  of 
public  lands.  In  1822,  there  accrued  from  the  for- 
mer source,  the  sum  of  20,500,775  dollars;  from 
the  latter  source,  1,803,581  ;  and  from  other  sources, 
839,084.  The  amount  however  which  was  actually 
received,  during  the  year,  was  but  20,232,427. 

The  expenditures,  during  the  same  year,  were 
as  follow : — Civil,  diplomatic,  and  miscellaneous, 
1,967,996;  for  the  pay  and  support  of  the  army, 
the  construction  of  forts,  the  supply  of  arms,  the 
payment  of  pensious,  and  the  various  expenses  of 
the  Indian  department,  5,635,188;  for  the  support 
and  increase  of  the  navy,  2,224,458 ;  for  the  pay- 
ment of  the  interest,  and'for  the  redemption  of  that 
portion  of  the  principal  of  the  debt  which  became 
due  within  the  year,  7,848,949:  amounting  in  the 
whole  to  17,676,591,  and  leaving  an  excess  of  re- 
venue over  expenditure  of  2,555,836  dollars. 

EDUCATION. — In  the  kingdoms  of  Europe,  large 
sums  have  been  appropriated,  by  the  governments, 
for  the  purpose  of  education.  Nearly  all,  however, 
has  been  expended  in  founding  or  endowing  uni- 
versities. To  these  the  sons  of  the  nobles  and  the 
rich  could  alone  gain  access  ;  and  the  intention 
and  effect  of  the  expenditure  has  always  been,  to 
produce  erudite  scholars,  and  able  orators,  and  to 
perpetuate  and  widen  the  separation  between  the 
higher  and  lower  classes  of  the  population. 

The  people  of  the  United  States  have  had  a  dif- 
ferent object  in  view,  and  one  more  congenial  with 
their  political  institutions.  Desirous  that  none 
should  be  ignorant,  their  first  and  principal  care  has 
been,  to  impart  the  advantages  of  instruction  to  the 


whole  mass  of  the  population.  With  this  vif«w,  the 
legislatures  of  many  of  the  states  have  ordained  that 
schools,  for  the  education  of  all  the  youth  in  reading, 
writing,  and  arithmetic,  shall  be  kept  and  supported 
by  a  public  and  general  tax. 

This  system  was  adopted  in  Massachusetts  as 
early  as  1647.  A  law  was  then  passed  by  that  co- 
lony, providing  that  a  school  should  be  kept  in 
every  township  having  50  householders,  in  which 
all  the  children  who  might  resort  to  it  should  be 
taught  to  read  and  write.  As  the  number  of  inha- 
bitants increased,  the  townships  were  divided  into 
small  districts,  and  a  school  supported  in  each. 
Thus  the  means  of  education  were  provided  at  the 
public  expense,  and  the  opportunity  of  acquiring  it 
placed  within  the  power  of  all. 

Immediately  after  their  first  settlement,  the  same 
system  was  adopted  by  the  other  colonies  of  New- 
England  ;  and  it  has,  bv  all  of  them,  been  preserved 
and  cherished  to  the  present  time.  Connecticut, 
having  a  large  tract  of  land  in  Ohio,  which  was  sold 
for  1,200,000  dollars,  appropriated  the  whole  sum 
to  the  support  of  common  or  primary  schools.  The 
sum  has  since  been  augmented  to  1,700,000  dollars, 
and  the  interest  is  annually  distributed  to  the  seve- 
ral school  districts,  according  to  the  number  of 
scholars  taught  in  each.  No  district,  however,  is 
entitled  to  any  aid  from  this  fund  unless  it  had  in 
the  preceding  year  expended,  for  the  same  purpose, 
a  certain  amount  derived  from  its  own  resources. 

The  effect  of  this  system  has  been,  to  render  the 
great  body  of  the  people  of  these  states  the  most 
enlightened  in  the  world.  All  can  read  and  write, 
and  rarely  can  one  be  found  not  qualified  by  educa- 
tion to  transact  the  common  concerns  of  life.  To 
educate  his  children  is  the  first  object,  and  the  chief 
glory  of  the  parent ;  their  ignorance  is  to  him  and 
to  them  disgraceful.  In  these  schools,  the  human 
mind  receives  its  first  impulse  in  the  career  of  learn- 
ing; an  impulse  which  carries  many  forward  to 
high  stations  of  honour  and  of  usefulness. 

The  great  state  of  New  York,  distinguished  for 
magnificent  projects  of  internal  improvement,  and 
for  liberal  patronage  of  literature  and  the  arts,  has 
lately  adopted  a  system  nearly  similar  to  that  of 
Connecticut.  From  various  sources  it  has  accumu- 
lated a  fund,  the  income  of  which  is  to  be  applied 
annually  to  the  support  of  common  schools.  This 
fund  in  1820,  amounted  to  1,215,000  dollars.  Since 
that  year  all  the  unsold  and  unappropriated  lands, 
which,  when  disposed  of,  will  probably  produce  2  or 
3,000,000  more,  have  been  permanently  devoted  to 
the  same  object.  The  annual  interest  of  this  fund 
is  distributed,  according  to  population,  among  the 
several  townships,  on  their  raising,  for  the  same 
purpose,  an  additional  sum  equal  to  that  which  they 
receive  from  the  state.  In  1821,  333,000  children 
were  taught  in  the  several  district  schools  ;  a  num- 
ber nearly  equal  to  that  of  all  the  children  in  the 
state  between  five  and  fifteen  years  of  age.  In  1823, 
the  number  taught  was  400,000. 

Virginia  has  also  a  literary  fund,  the  interest  of 
a  part  of  which  is  appropriated  for  the  support  of 
common  schools.  This  fund  is  of  recent  origin,  and 
its  income  is  yet  small.  The  advantages  of  educa- 
tion are,  however,  so  highly  appreciated  in  that 
state,  by  its  enlightened  citizens,  that  most  of  the 
rising  generation  are  instructed  in  private  schools, 
or  by  domestic  teachers.  The  same  remark  will 
apply  to  most  of  the  middle  and  southern  states ; 
yet,  in  these,  too  many  of  the  children  of  the  poor 
will  remain  in  ignorance  until  effectual  provision 


UNITED  STATES. 


1145 


is  made  by  the  respective  governments,   for  the  in- 
struction of  all. 

The  national  government  has  not  been  unmindful 
of  the  importance  of  universal  education.  Before 
the  adoption  of  the  constitution,  it  acquired,  by  the 
cession  of  the  states  claiming  it,  the  property  of 
nearly  all  the  unappropriated  land  within  the  na- 
tional boundaries.  In  offering  this  land  for  sale,  it 
has  reserved  in  every  township  one  section,  compris 
ing  640  acres,  for  the  use  of  schools.  As  the  popu- 
lation of  the  new  states  becomes  more  dense,  these 
lands  will  constitute  a  valuable  and  productive  fund, 
and  the  system  of  free  schools,  thus  planted  in  the 
western,  will  there  produce  the  same  benefits  as  in 
the  eastern  portion  of  the  union. 

Schools  of  a  higher  order,  to  which  the  name  of 
academies  has  been  applied,  are  numerous  in  all  the 
states,  especially  in  those  of  New  England.  Many 
are  incorporated,  and  some  possess  considerable 
funds.  That  at  Exeter,  in  New  Hampshire,  holds 
the  highest  rank;  its  funds  amount  to  80,000  dol- 
lars ;  it  has  a  library  containing  700  volumes,  and  a 
handsome  philosophical  apparatus.  In  these  schools 
are  taught  English  grammar,  composition,  history, 
geography,  mathematics,  the  Latin  and  Greek  lan- 
guages. Many  young  men  resort,  to  them  to  acquire 
an  education  superior  to  that  which  can  be  obtained 
at  the  primary  schools,  and  many  to  prepare  them 
selves  to  enter  some  college  or  university.  They  are 
principally  taught  by  those  who  have  just  received 
degree  in  the  arts,  and  who  are  unable,  from  the 
want  of  property,  to  engage  immediately  in  the  study 
of  the  professions  which  they  intend  to  pursue. 

Of  colleges  and  universities  there  is  also  a  large 
number  in  the  United  States.  (Of  the  chief,  Har- 
vard-college, and  Yale-college,  vrehave  already  given 
an  account,  in  the  history  of  their  respective  states.) 
In  addition  to  these,  there  are  in  the  union  about  50 
colleges  and  universities  authorized  to  confer  de- 
grees. In  all  of  these  are  taught  the  English.  Latin, 
and  Greek  languages,  rhetoric,  mathematics,  na- 
tural philosophy,  logic,  chymistry,  astronomy,  his- 
tory, and  geography.  In  some  of  them  are  also 
taught  the  Hebrew,  Oriental,  and  modern  European 
languages,  anatomy,  surgery,  medicine,  botany,  po- 
lite literature,  divinity,  ethics,  natural  and  municipal 
law,  politics,  and  elocution. 

LITERATURE. — The  remark  has  often  been  made, 
that  the  United  States  have  produced  no  eminent, 
scholars;  and  that  the  national  character  has  not 
been  illustrated  by  literary  and  scientific  perform- 
ances of  distinguished  merit.  This  remark  is  doubt- 
less just.  Compared  with  those  of  the  old  world, 
their  writers  have  not  exhibited  the  same  laboured 
polish  of  style,  nor  their  men  of  science  the  same 
perseverance  and  extent  of  investigation.  Their 
historians  are  not  equal  to  Hume  or  Robertson  ; 
their  poets  to  Milton  or  Pope  ;  their  chymists  to  La- 
voisier or  Davy  ;  nor  their  metaphysicians  to  Locke, 
Berkeley,  or  Reid. 

But  this  fact  implies  no  deficiency  of  mental  vi- 
gour in  the  people.  The  mind  of  the  nation  has  re- 
ceived from  circumstances  a  different  direction. 
Those  who  are  endued  with  extraordinary  talent, 
wha-tever  may  have  been  their  original  propensities, 
have  been  called  from  the  closet  to  labour  in  the  le- 
gislative hall,  or  the  cabinet;  to  vindicate  the  cause 
or  defend  the  ir'.erests  of  their  country  abroad;  to 
dispense  justice  irom  the  bench,  or  to  support  and 
defend  at  the  bar  the  claims  and  the  rights  of  their 
fellow-citizens. 

To  perform,  these  duties,  certainly  not  less  ho- 


nourable nor  less  difficult  than  any  thing  which  the 
maera  scholar  can  perform,  a  greater  variety  of  ta- 
lents, and  greater  intellectual  labour  have  been  re- 
quired in  this  than  in  any  other  country.  Here  in 
comparatively  a  short  period  the  foundations  have 
been  laid,  and  the  superstructures  erected,  of  new 
political  institutions.  Many  governments  have  been, 
established  over  communities  differing  from  each 
other,  and  from  those  of  Europe  ;  and  over  these  a 
paramount  government  with  extensive  and  import- 
ant powers.  For  each  of  these  communities,  a  new 
system  of  law  has  been  required,  and  each  govern- 
ment has  a  separate  executive,  legislative,  and  ju- 
dicial department.  The  population  of  no  country 
has  been  called  upon  to  supply  such  a  number  of  le- 
gislators, of  judges  and  of  lawyers;  nor,  it  may  b  . 
added,  of  instructors  of  youth.  And  while  their  nun* 
her  accounts  for  the  comparative  neglect  of  litera- 
ture and  the  fine  arts,  the  talents  they  have  dis- 
played sufficiently  vindicate  the  republic  from  the 
reproach  of  intellectual  inferiority. 

But  not  in  these  modes  alone  have  the  people  of 
these  states  proved  that  in  original  powers  of  mind 
they  may  assert  an  equality,  at  least,  with  those  of 
any  other  nation.  None  has  made  more  important 
discoveries  in  the  useful  arts.  England  boasts  of 
her  Arkwright,  who  invented  the  spinning  machine  ; 
of  her  Worcester,  Newcomm,  and  Watt,  by  whose 
ingenuity  and  labours  the  powers'  of  steam  were  sub- 
stituted for  the  uncertain  aid  of  wind  and  water  in 
moving  the  machinery  of  manufactories. 

America  may  boast  of  her  Godfrey,  whose  quad- 
rant has  been  almost  as  serviceable  as  the  compass 
to  navigation  ;  of  her  Franklin,  who  has  made  our 
dwellings  comfortable  within,  and  protected  them 
from  the  lightning  of  heaven  ;  of  Whitney,  whose 
cotton  gin  has  added  to  the  annual  product  of  that 
article  at  least  100,000,000  of  pounds  ;  of  her  Whit- 
temore,  the  inventor  of  the  wonderful  machine  for 
making  cards;  of  her  Perkins,  the  inventor  of  the 
nail  machine  ;  and  of  her  Fulton,  who  has  rendered 
the  power  of  steam  subservient  to  the  purposes  of 
navigation. 

But  the  United  States  have  produced  authors  who 
would  do  honour  even  to  any  other  nation.  The 
style  of  Franklin  is  perspicuous  and  pure ;  and  few 
men  of  any  age  or  country  have  contributed  more 
by  their  writings  to  enlighten  and  to  benefit  man- 
kind. The  histories  of  Marshall,  Ramsay,  Belknap, 
Williams,  and  the  Annals  of  Holmes,  are  works  of 
sterling  merit,  interesting  and  instructive.  Among 
theological  writers,  Edwards,  Hopkins,  Dwight, 
Lethrop,  Davies,  Kollock,  and  Buckminister  are 
deservedly  eminent.  And,  as  novelists,  Brown,  Coo- 
per, and  Irving,  are  very  distinguished. 

Many  of  the  political  writers  of  this  country  have 
displayed  great  vigour  of  thought  and  force  of  ex- 
pression. The  pamphlets  and  state  papers  to  which 
the  revolutionary  struggle  gave  existence ;  the  num- 
bers of  the  Federalist ;  the  official  letters  of  Mr.  Jef- 
ferson, as  secretary  of  state,  and  of  the  American  mi- 
nisters at  Ghent,  not  only  display  intellectual  powers, 
but  possess  literary  merit  of  the  highest  order.  The 
best  writers  of  this  republic  have  not  been  authors  of 
books. 

To  the  fine  arts  still  less  attention  has  been  paid 
than  to  literature  ;  but  the  neglect  is  to  be  attributed 
rather  to  the  deficiency  of  patronage  than  to  the  want 
of  capacity  to  excel.  Benjamin  West,  a  native  of 
Pennsylvania,  presided  for  many  years  over  the 
Royal  Academy,  comprising  the  most  eminent  pain- 
ters of  Great  Britain.  In  portrait  painting,  Copley 


1146 


HISTORY  OF  AMERICA. 


and  Stuart  have  acquired  a  high  reputation  ;  and  in 
historical  painting,  Trumbull  excels.  The  United 
States  claim  only  the  honour  of  their  birth ;  England 
and  Italy  that  of  patronizing  and  instructing  them. 

RELIGION. — The  consequences  resulting  from  the 
enjoyment  of  religious  liberty  have  been  highly 
favourable.  Free  discussion  has  enlightened  the 
ignorant,  disarmed  superstition  of  its  dreadful 
powers,  and  consigned  to  oblivion  many  erroneous 
and  fantastic  creeds.  Religious  oppression,  and  the 
vindictive  feelings  it  arouses,  are  hardly  known. 
Catholics  and  Protestants  live  together  in  harmony  ; 
and  Protestants  who  disagree,  employ  in  defending 
their  own  doctrines,  and  in  assailing  those  of  their 
antagonists,  the  weapons  only  of  reason  and  elo- 
quence. 

In  the  New  England  states,  the  Independents  or 
Congregationalists  constitute  the  most  numerous 
denomination  ;  in  the  middle  states,  the  Presby- 
terians ;  and  in  the  southern,  the  Methodists.  Bap- 
tists, Episcopalians,  and  Roman  Catholics  are  found 
in  all  the  states ;  but  in  Maryland  and  Louisiana, 
the  Catholics  are  more  numerous  than  elsewhere. 
Each  of  these  sects  has  one  or  more  seminaries  of 
learning,  in  which  its  peculiar  doctrines  are  taught, 
and  young  men  are  educated  for  the  ministry.  Many 
other  sects  exist,  but  reason,  less  tolerant  than  the 
laws,  is  gradually  diminishing  the  number. 

CHARACTER  AND  MANNERS. — Foreigners  have  as- 
serted that  the  Americans  possess  no  national  cha- 
racter. If  at  any  period  this  assertion  has  been 
true,  it  was  then  no  reproach.  In  its  youth,  a  na- 
tion can  have  no  established  character.  The  inha- 
bitants of  this  republic,  coming  from  every  quarter 
of  the  world,  speaking  many  different  languages, 
dispersed  over  a  vast  extent  of  territory,  could  not 
immediately  assimilate  and  exhibit  those  few  pro- 
minent traits,  which  nations  as  well  as  individuals, 
in  their  maturity,  display. 

But  the  germ  of  national  character  has  always 
existed.  It  has  grown  with  the  growth  of  the  nation, 
and  is  gradually  throwing  into  the  shade  those  un- 
favourable and  discordant  traits,  which  have  disfi- 
gured and  partly  concealed  it  from  view.  Who 
that  has  read  the  history  oi'  these  states,  has  not  per- 
ceived in  the  inhabitants  an  energy  of  purpose  ca- 
pable of  surmounting  all  obstacles  ;  a  spirit  of  enter- 
prise, that  leaves  nothing  useful  unattempted ;  a 
proud  sense  of  personal  dignity  and  independence; 
a  decided  preference  of  utility  before  show ;  and  a 
love  of  knowledge  that  has  dispelled  ignorance  from 
the  land?  They  may  have  been  too  much  devoted 
to  the  pursuit  of  gain  ;  too  much  addicted  to  habits 
of  intemperance ;  too  much  inflated  with  national 
vanity  ;  bigoted  and  superstitious  :  but  these  traits 
are  now  less  apparent ;  they  are  constantly  melting 
away,  and  those  more  noble  appearing  in  bolder 
relief. 

Those  whose  wealth  or  talents  place  them  in  the 
first  rank  in  society,  are,  in  their  manners,  free 
from  awkwardness,  formality,  haughtiness,  and  os- 
tentation ;  but  they  do  not  display  the  elegance  or 
refinement  of  the  same  class  in  Europe.  The  mass 
of  the  people  are  serious,  shrewd,  inquisitive,  manly, 
and  generally  respectful,  but  they  know  little,  and 


practise  less,  of  the  ceremonies  of  formal  politeness. 
To  foreigners,  accustomed  to  the  servility  of  the 
lower  classes  in  Europe,  they  doubtless  often  ap- 
pear rough  and  uiicourtly ;  and  many  fashionable 
tourists  may  have  had  their  feelings  needlessly 
wounded,  and  their  delicacy  shocked  ;  but  when 
respectfully  treated,  they  display  native  politeness, 
and  generosity  of  sentiment.  Time  will  remove  the 
grosser  defects  ;  but  may  it  never,  by  polishing  too 
deeply,  impair  that  strength  of  character,  which  is 
essential  to  the  permanence  of  repuolican  institu- 
tions. 


A  review  of  the  rapid  progress  of.  the  United 
States  in  population,  wealth,  and  power ;  a  survey 
of  their  present  physical  and  moral  condition  ;  and 
a  comparison  of  them,  in  either  respect,  with  other 
nations,  cannot  fail  to  give  to  an  American  citizen 
an  elevated  conception  of  his  own  country,  and  to 
justify  the  loftiest  anticipation  for  the  future. 

In  a  period  of  30  years,  ending  with  1820,  the 
population  of  the  republic  increased  from  3,893,835, 
to  9,642,150;  it  consequently  doubles  in  less  than 
25  years.  In  Great  Britain,  the  population  does 
not  double  in  less  than  80  years ;  and  in  that 
country  the  increase  is  nearly,  if  not  quite,  as  rapid 
as  in  any  other  country  in  Europe. 

The  augmentation  of  wealth  and  power  cannot 
be  so  easily  ascertained.  It  is  the  opinion  of  many, 
well  qualified  to  judge,  that  it  has  been  still  more 
rapid ;  and  when  the  increase  of  the  exports,  which 
in  the  same  period  advanced  from  19  to  65,000,000  ; 
when  the  growth  of  the  cities  and  villages  ;  the  in- 
crease of  the  manufacturing  establishments,  of  the 
national  and  mercantile  navy,  of  the  fortifications 
and  other  means  of  defence ;  the  extent  of  the  in- 
ternal improvements ;  and  beyond  all,  the  extensive 
territories  reclaimed  from  a  state  of  nature,  and  made 
productive,  and  valuable,  are  adverted  to,  that  opi- 
nion will  not  appear  unfounded  nor  extravagant. 

Although  now  inferior  to  the  principal  nations  of 
the  old  world,  yet  but  a  short  period  will  elapse 
before  the  United  States,  should  their  progress  here- 
after be  the  same  that  it  has  been,  will  overtake  and 
pass  them.  Their  great  natural  advantages  will 
continue  to  urge  them  forward.  Extensive  tracts 
of  fertile  land  yet  remain  vacant  of  inhabitants ; 
the  portions  already  settled  are  capable  of  support- 
ing a  much  more  numerous  population  ;  new  roads 
and  new  canals  will  give  greater  activity  to  internal 
commerce,  and  open  new  fields  to  the  untiring  in- 
dustry and  enterprise  of  man  ;  and  a  small  partonly 
being  required  by  the  government,  nearly  the  whole 
annual  income  will  be  added  to  the  general  capital, 
augmenting  it  in  a  compound  ratio. 

That  these  splendid  anticipations  are  not  the  sug- 
gestions of  national  vanity,  the  history  of  the  past 
sufficiently  proves.  Yet  their  fulfilment  depends  in 
a  great  degree  upon  the  future  conduct  of  the  peo- 
ple themselves  ;  upon  their  adherence  to  the  princi- 
ples of  their  fathers  ;  upon  the  preservation  of  free 
political  institutions,  of  industrious,  frugal,  and 
moral  habits;  and  above  all,  upon  the  universal 
diffusion  of  knowledge. 


THE  END. 


Priuted  by  Mayhevv,  Isaac,  aud  Co.,  14,  Henrietta  Street.  Coveot  Garden. 


INDEX. 


A. 


Page 


ABYSSINIA.  An  embassy  sent  to  that  coun- 
try by  John  II.,  king  of  Porttigal  .  16 

Acapulco.  The  nature  of  the  trade  carried  on 
from  thence  to  Manila  .  .  202 

Amount  of  the  treasure  on  board  the   ship 
taken  by  Lord  Anson  .  .278 

Aeosta.  His  method  of  accounting  for  the  dif- 
ferent degrees  of  heat  in  the  old  and  new 
continents  .  .  .  244 

Adair.  His  account  of  the  revengeful  temper 
of  the  native  Americans  .  .  254 

Adanson.  His  justification  of  Hanno's  account 
of  the  African  seas.  .  .  236 

Africa.  The  western  coast  first  explored  by  order 
of  John  I.,  king  of  Portugal  .  .  13 

Discovered  from  Cape  Non  to  Bojador  ib. 

Cape  Bojador  doubled  .  .  .14 

The  countries  southward  of  the  river  Sene- 
gal discovered  .  .  16 
Cape  of  Good  Hope  seen  by  Bartholomew 

Dias  .  .     ib. 

Causes  of  the  extreme  heat  of  the  climate 

there  .  .  .63 

Ignorance  of  the  ancient  astronomers  con- 
cerning Africa          .  .  .237 
Expedition  to  the  coast         .                 .  207 

Agriculture.     State  of  the  art  among  the  na- 
tive Americans  .  .  .80 
Two  principal  causes  of  its  defects         .  81 

Aguado.  Sent  to  Hispaniola,  as  a  commis- 
sioner to  inspect  the  conduct  of  Columbus  .  34 

Ayuilar,  Jerome  de.  Relieved  from  a  long  cap- 
tivity among  the  Indians  at  Cozumel,  by  Fer- 
nando Cortes  .  .  .103 

Albuquerque,  Rodrigo.  Barbarous  treatment  by 
him  of  the  Indians  of  Hispaniola  .  54 

Alcavala.  A  term  in  the  Spanish  customs; 
explained  .  .  279 

Alexander  the  Great.  His  political  character.  7 
Motives  in  founding  the  city  of  Alexandria  ib. 
Discoveries  in  India.  .  .  ib. 

Alexander  VI.  (Pope).  Grants  to  Ferdinand 
and  Isabella  of  Castile  the  right  of  all  their 
western  discoveries  .  -  30 

Sends  missionaries   with  Columbus  on  his 
second  voyage  .  .  .     ib. 

Almagro,  Diego  de.  His  birth  and  character  136 
Associates  with  Pizarro,  and  De  Luque,  in  a 

voyage  of  discovery  .  .  .  137 

His  unsuccessful  attempts      .  .  ib. 


Page 

Neglected  by  Pizarro  in  his  Spanish  Nego- 
tiation       .  .  .  .138 
Reconciled  to  him                 .                .  139 
Brings  reinforcements  to  Pizarro  at  Peru      .  143 
Beginning  of  dissensions  betwixt  him  and 

Pizarro  .  .  .146 

Invades  Chili  .  .  .147 

Created  governor  of  Chili,  and  marches  to 

Cuzco  .  .  .148 

Seizes  Cuzco  out  of  the  hands  of  Pizarro  .  ib. 
Defeats  Alvarado,  and  takes  him  prisoner  149 
Deceived  by  the  artful  negotiations  of  Fran- 
cis Pizarro  .  .  .  ib. 
Defeated  by  the  Pizarros  .  .  150 
Taken  prisoner  .  „  ib. 
Tried  and  condemned  .  .  .  ib. 
Put  to  death  .  .  .  ib. 

Almagro  (the  son).  Affords  refuge  to  his  father's 
followers  at  Lima  .  .  .152 

His  character ;  heads  a  conspiracy  against 

Francis  Pizarro  .  .  .  ib. 

Pizarro  assassinated  .  .  153 

Acknowledged  as  his  successor  .  ib. 

His  precarious  situation  *  .     ib. 

Defeated  by  Vaca  de  Castro  .  154 

Betrayed  and  executed  .  .     ib. 

Almajorifasgo.  The  amount  in  the  Spanish 
American  customs  .  .  239 

Alvarado,  Alonzo,   is  sent  from  Lima  by  Fran- 
cis Pizarro,  with  a  body  of  Spaniards  to  re- 
lieve his  brothers  at  Cuzco  .  .  149 
Is  taken  a  prisoner  by  Almagro             .  ib. 
His  escape     .                 .                 .                 .     ib. 

Alvarado,  Pedro  de.  Is  left  by  Cortes  to  com- 
mand at  Mexico,  while  he  marches  against 
Narvaez  .  .  .  120 

Besieged  by  the  Mexicans  .  .  121 

His  imprudent  conduct          .  .  ib. 

His  expedition  to  Quito,  in  Peru  .  .  146 

Amazons.  A  community  said  to  exist  in  South 
America  by  Francis  Orellana  .  152 

America.     Discovered  by  Christopher  Columbus  36 
How  it  obtained  this  name  .  .     39 

Ferdinand  of  Castile  nominates  two  governments  48 
The  propositions  offered  to  the  natives  .     ib. 

Ill  reception  of  Ojeda  and  Nicuessa  among 

them   .  .  .  .49 

The  South  sea  discovered  by  Balboa  .     51 

Rio  de  Plata  discovered          .  .53 

The   natives  injuriously  treated  by  the  Spa- 
niards    .  .  .  .58 
The  vast  extent     .  61 


INDEX. 


Page 

The  grand  objects  it  presented  to  view          .     61 

Circumstances  favourable  for  commerce  and 
civilization  .  .  .62 

Climates         .  .  .     ib. 

Various  causes  of  the  peculiarity  of  its  cli- 
mates .  .  .  .63 

Its  rude  and  uncultivated  state  when  first 
discovered.  ,  .  .  ib. 

Its  animals  .  .  .64 

Its  insects  and  reptiles  .  .     ib. 

Birds      ...  ib. 

General  account  of  its  soil  .  .     65 

Inquiry  into  its  first  population  .  ib. 

Improbable  that  it  was  peopled  by  civilized 
nations  .  .  .  .66 

Its  northern  extremity  contiguous  to  Asia        67 

Probably  peopled  by  Asiatics        .  .     69 

Condition  and  character  of  the  native  inha- 
bitants inquired  into  .  ib. 

They  were  more  rude  than  the  natives  of  any 
other  known  parts  of  the  earth  .  .  ib. 

The  Peruvians  and  Mexicans  excepted  70 

The  first  discoverers  incapable  of  a  judicious 
speculative  examination  .  .  ib. 

The  various  systems  of  philosophers  respect- 
ing the  natives  .  .  .  ib. 

Method  observed  in  the  present  reviews  of 
their  bodily  constitution  and  circumstances  71 

The  venereal  disease  derived  from  this  part 
of  the  world  .  .  .75 

Why  so  thinly  inhabited 

The  country  depopulated  by  continual  wars       89 

Cause  of  the  extreme  coldness  toward  its 
southern  extremity  .  .  245 

The  natural  uncultivated  state  of  the  country 
described  .  .  .  .  246 

Bones  of  large  extinct  species  of  animals  dis- 
covered under-ground  near  the  banks  of 
the  Ohio  .  .  ib. 

Why  European  animals  degenerate  there      .     ib. 

Supposed  to  have  undergone  convulsive  sepa- 
ration from  Asia  .  .  217 

The  vicinity  of  the  two  continents  of  Asia 
and  America  clearly  ascertained  .  248 

Causes  of  its  depopulation  traced  .  183 

This  depopulation  not  the  result  of  any  inten- 
tional system  of  policy  .  .  ib. 

Nor  the  result  of  religion       .  .  184 

Number  of  Indian  natives  still  remaining  in 
Mexico  and  Peru  .  .  ib. 

All  the  Spanish  dominions  there  subjected  to 
two  viceroys  .  .  .  185 

Its  third  viceroyalty  lately  established  .     ib. 

(See  Mexico,  Peru,  Cortes,  Pizarro,  Cabot,  &c.) 
America,  North.     Project  of  settling  there  208 

Failure  of  the  first  expedition        .  .  209 

A  second  expedition  ends  disastrously  ib. 

Plan  of  settling  there  resumed  without  effect     ib. 

The  coast  divided  into  two  parts  .  212 

Charters  granted  to  two  companies  for  set- 
tling colonies  .  .  .  ib. 

Emigrations  from  England   .  .          230 

(See  Colonies,  New  England,  Virginia,  &c.) 
Americans,  Native.     In  Spanish  America,  their 

bodily  constitution  and  complexion  .     71 

Their  strength  and  abilities   .  .  ib. 

Their  insensibility  with  regard  to  their  women     72 

No  deformities  in  their  frame        .  .     73 

This  circumstance  accounted  for  .  ib. 

Uniformity  of  their  colour  .  .     ib. 

A  peculiar  race  described       .  .  74 


The  Esquimaux      .                 .                 .  74 

Patagonians  .                 .                 .                 .  ib. 

The  existence  of  Patagonian  giants  yet  re- 
maining to  be  decided  .  .  75 

Their  diseases                 .                 .                 .  ib. 

The  venereal  disease  peculiarly  theirs  .  ib. 

The  powers  and  qualities  of  their  minds        .  76 

Only  solicitous  to  supply  immediate  wants  ib. 

The  art  of  computation  scarcely  known  to 

them  .  .  .  .  ib. 

They  have  no  abstract  ideas                  .  ib. 

The  North  Americans  much  more  intelligent 
than  those  of  the  South  .  .77 

Their  aversion  to  labour        .                .  ib. 

Their  social  state  .  .  .78 

Domestic  union      .                .  ib. 

The  women   .                 .                 .  ib. 

Their  women  not  prolific      .                 .  79. 

Their  parental  affection  and  filial  duty           ,  ib. 

Their  modes  of  subsistence     .  ib. 

Fishing          .                 .                 .  ib. 

Hunting  .  .  .80 

Agriculture    .                                                    .  ib. 

The  various  objects  of  their  culture        .  ib. 

Two  principal  causes  of  the  defects  of  thei: 
agriculture  .  .  .81 

Their  want  of  tame  animals  .                 .  ib 

Their  want  of  useful  metals             .                 .  82 

Their  political  institutions     .                 .  ib. 

Were  divided  into  small  independent  commu- 
nities .  .  .  .  ib. 

Unacquainted  with  the  idea  of  property  ib. 

Their  high  sense  of  equality  and  independence  83 

Their  ideas  of  subordination  imperfect          .  ib. 

To  what  tribes  these  descriptions  apply  ib. 

Some  exceptions           .                .                 .  ib. 

Florida  .  .  .  .84 

The  Natchez                  .                .                .  ib. 

The  islands            .                .  ib. 

In  Bogota      .                .                .                .  ib. 

Inquiry  into  the  causes  of  these  irregularities  ib. 

Their  art  of  war  .  .  .85 

Their  motives  to  hostility       .                 .  ib. 

Causes  of  their  ferocity     .                 .             .  ib. 

Perpetuity  of  their  animosities               .  86 

Their  modes  of  conducting  war     .                 .  ib. 

Are  not  destitute  of  courage  and  fortitude  ib. 

Incapable  of  military  discipline     .                .  87 

Their  treatment  of  prisoners                 .  ib. 

Their  fortitude  under  torture         .                 .  ib. 

Never  eat  human  flesh  but  to  gratify  revenge  88 

How  the  South  Americans  treated  their  pri- 
soners .  .  ib. 

Their  military  education        .                 .  ib. 

Strange  method  of  choosing  a  captain  among 

the  Indians  on  the  banks  of  the  Orinoco  .  ib. 

Their  numbers  wasted  by  continual  wars  89 

Their  tribes  now  recruit  their  numbers  by 

adopting  prisoners  .  .  .  ib. 

Are  never  formidable  in  war  to  more  polished 

nations  .  .  .  ib. 

Their  arts,  dress,  and  ornaments  .                 .  90 

Their  habitations   .                .  ib. 

Their  arms     .                 .                 .                 .  ib. 

Their  domestic  utensils           .                 .  91 

Construction  of  their  canoes          .                 .  ib. 

The  listlessness  with  which  they  apply  to 

labour  .  .  .  jb- 

Their  religion  .  .  .92 

Some  tribes  altogether  destitute  of  any  re. 

Remarkable  diversity  in  their  religious  notion*  93 


INDEX. 


Their  ideas  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul 

Their  modes  of  burial    . 

Why  their  physicians  pretend  to  be  conjurors 

Their  love  of  dancing    . 

Their  immoderate  passion  for  gaming    . 

Are  extremely  addicted  to  drunkenness 

Pr«t  their  aged  and  incurable  to  death  . 

General  estimate  of  their  character 

Their  intellectual  powers 

Their  political  talents    . 

Powers  of  affection 

Hardness  of  heart 

Their  insensibility 

Taciturnity    . 

Their  cunning        .  .   V, 

Their  virtues 


Page 

94 
,  ib. 

ib. 

95 

96 

ib. 

97 

ib. 

ib. 

ib. 

98 

ib. 

ib. 

ib. 

99 

ib. 

ib. 

ib. 

ib. 
100 

ib. 

ib. 
'249 

ib. 


Their  spirit  of  independence 
Attachment  to  their  community  . 
Their  satisfaction  with  their  own  condition 
General  caution  with  respect  to  this  inquiry 
Two  distinguishable  classes  . 
Exceptions  as  to  their  character  . 
Their  characteristic  features  described 
Instances  of  their  persevering  speed 
An  antipathy  industriously  encouraged  be- 
tween them  and  the  negroes  in  America  by 
the  Spaniards  .  .  .  188 

Their  present  condition  .  .     ib. 

How  taxed     ,  .  ib. 

Slated  services  demanded  from  them  .  189 

Mode  of  exacting  these  services  .  ib. 

How  governed  .  .  .     ib. 

Protector-of  the  Indians  ; — his  function  ib. 

Reasons  why  so  small  a  progress  is  made  in 
their  conversion         .  .  .  191 

Amerigo  Vespucci.  Publishes  the  first  writ- 
ten account  of  the  New  World,  and  hence 
gave  name  to  America  .  .  39 

His  claim  as  a  discoverer  examined  .  242 

Anacoana.  A  female  cazique  of  Hispaniola, 
cruelly  treated  by  the  Spaniards  .  .  46 

Andes.  Stupendous  height  and  extent  of  that 
range  of  mountains  .  .  62 

Their  height  compared   with  other    moun- 
tains .  .  .  .244 
Gonzalo    Pizarro's    remarkable    expedition 
over   them          .                 .  ib. 

Animals.  Few  of  any  size  found  in  America, 
at  its  first  discovery  .  .  .64 

Ancients.  Cause  of  the  imperfection  of  the  art 
of  navigation  among  them  .  .  4 

Their    geographical    knowledge    extremely 
confined     ....  237 

AraHans.  Their  peculiar  attachment  to  the 
study  of  geography  .  .  10 

Argonauts.  Why  their  expedition  was  so  fa- 
mous among  the  Greeks  .  .  6 

Arithmetic.  This  art  hardly  known  to  the  na- 
tive Americans  .  .  .76 

Ascclino,  Father.  Engaged  in  an  extraordinary 
mission  to  the  prince  of  the  Tartars  .  11 

Asia.  Discoveries  made  in  that  continent  by 
the  Russians  .  .  67 

Axtiento.     The  nature  of  this  trade  explained     197 
The  frauds  practised  in   it,    and  how   they 
were  put  an  end  to     .  .  .  198 

Atahualpa.    Left  by  his  father  Huascar  his  suc- 
cessor in  the  kingdom  of  Quito  .  140 
Defeats  his  brother  Huascar,  and  usurps  the 

empire  of  Peru  .  .  .   141 

Sends  presents  to  Fizario      .  ib. 


Page 

Visits  Pizarro  .  .  .  142 

Is  perfidiously  seized  by  him  .  143 

Agrees  with  Pizarro  on  a  ransom  .     ib. 

Is  refused  his  liberty  .  .  144 

His  behaviour  during  his  confinement          .     ib. 
A  form  of  trial  bestowed  on  him  .  ib. 

Is  put  to  death  .  .  .145 

Comparison  of  authorities  relating  to  his 
transactions  with,  and  treatment  by,  Pi- 
zarro .  .  '.  264 

Audience,  Board  of.  Established  in  New  Spain 
by  the  Emperor  Charles  V.  .  .135 

Courts  and  jurisdiction  .  .  185 

Averia.  A  Spanish  tax  for  convoy  to  and 
from  America ; — when  first  imposed  .  279 

Its  rate  .  .  .  ib. 

Azores.     Discovered  by  the  Portuguese  .     15 

B. 

Bacon,  Nathaniel.  Heads  an  insurrection  in 
Virginia  .  .  .  223 

Forces   the  governor  and   council   there  to 

fly  ....     il>. 

They  apply  to  England  for  succour        .  224 

His  death  terminates  the  rebellion  .     ib. 

Balboa,  Vasco  Nunez  de.  Settles  a  colony  at 
Santa  Maria,  in  the  gulf  of  Darien  .  49 

Receives  intelligence  of  the  rich  country  of 

Peru  .  .  .  .     50 

His  character         .  .  ,51 

Marches  across  the  isthmus  .  .     ib. 

Discovers  the  Southern  Ocean  .  ib. 

His  return     .  .  .  .52 

Superseded  in  his  command  by  the  appoint- 
ment of  Pedrarias  Davila  .  ib. 
Tried  by  Pedrarias  for  former  transactions        jb. 
Appointed  lieutenant-governor  of  the  coun- 
tries on  the  South  sea,  and  marries  Pedra- 
rias's  daughter            .                  .                  .53 
Arrested  and  put  to  death  by  Pedrarias  ib. 

Bark.     A  production  peculiar  to  Peru  .  194 

Barrere.  His  description  of  the  construction 
of  Indian  houses  .  .  .  255 

Behaim,  Martin.  The  honour  of  having  disco- 
rered  America  is  falsely  ascribed  to  him  by 
some  German  authors  .  .  240 

Account  of  him  and  his  family      .  .     ib. 

Behring  and  Tschirikow.  Russian  navigators, 
thought  to  have  discovered  the  north-west 
extremity  of  America  from  the  eastward  68 

Uncertainty  of  their  accounts  .  247 

Benalcazar.  A  governor  of  St.  Michael,  who 
reduced  the  kingdom  of  Quito  .  .146 

Is  deprived  of  his  command  by  Pizarro  151 

Benjamin  (the  Jew  of  Tudela).  His  extraor- 
dinary travels  .  .  .11 

Bernald'o.  Instance  of  the  bravery  of  the 
Caribbees  mentioned  by  him  .  257 

Bethencourt,  John  de.  A  Norman  baron,  who 
conquered  and  retained  possession  of  the 
Canary  Islands  .  .  .12 

Birds.     An  account  of  those  natural  to  America    64 
Their  flights  often  stretch  to  an  immense  dis- 
tance from  land          .  .  •  239 

Bogota  (In  America).  Some  account  of  its 
inhabitants  .  .  84 

Causes   of     their   tame    submission    to    the 

Spaniards  .  .  .85 

Their  religious  doctrines  and  rites         .  94 

Bojador,  Cape.     Its  first  discovery     .  .13 


INDEX. 


Page 
Doubled  by  the  Portuguese  discoverers  14 

Possu.     His  account  of  the  American  war-song  254 

Bovadilla,  Francis  de.  Sent  to  Hispaniola  to 
inquire  into  the  conduct  of  Columbus  .  40 

Sends  Columbus  home  in  irons     .  .     ib. 

Is  degraded  .  .  .41 

Bougainville.  His  defence  of  the  Periplus  of 
Hanno  ....  236 

Bouguer,  M.  His  character  of  the  native  Pe- 
ruvians .  .  .  .  250 

Brazil.  The  coast  discovered  by  Alvarez  Ca- 
bral  .  .  .  .39 

Remarks  on  the  climate         .  «  245 

Bridges.     Those  of  Peru  described  .  .176 

Buenos  Ayres.  A  short  account  of  that  pro- 
vince ....  180 

Bulls  (papal).  Of  no  force  in  Spanish  Ame- 
rica, until  examined  and  approved  of  by  the 
royal  council  of  the  Indies  .  .  190 

Burial.  Mode  of  performing  that  ceremony  in 
America  .  .  .  .94 

C. 

Cabot,  Giovanni.     Appointed  to  command  the 
first  expedition  to  explore  unknown  countries  205 
Embarks  with  his  son  at  Bristol  .  .     ib. 

Discovers  Newfoundland       .  .  ib. 

Returns  to  England       .  .  .     ib. 

No  advantage  is  derived  from  his  discoveries     ib. 
The  scheme  is  abandoned      .  .  ib. 

He  is  appointed  governor  of  a  company  of 
merchant  adventurers,  for  whom  he  ob- 
tains a  charter  .  .  .  206 
Cabot   Sebastian.     Sails  on   an  expedition   to 
South  America       .                .                 .  206 
Visits  Brazil,  and  touches  at  Hispaniola  and 
Puerto   Rico. — His   voyage   extends   the 
sphere  of  English  navigation,   and  proves 
the  means  of  opening  an  intercourse  with 
the  Archipelago,  and  some  towns  on  the 
coast  of  Syria            .                .                .     ib. 
Cabral,    Alvarez.     A   Portuguese  commander, 

who  discovers  the  coast  of  Brazil  .  39 

Cacao.  The  best  in  quality,  produced  in  the 
Spanish  American  colonies  .  .  194 

The   preparation  of  chocolate  from  it   de- 
rived from  the  Mexicans    .  .  198 
Cadiz.     The  galleons  and  flota  removed  thither 

from  Seville   .  .  .  .196 

California.  Discovered  by  Fernando  Cortes  136 
The  true  state  of  this  country  long  unknown  179 
Why  depreciated  by  the  Jesuits  .  ib. 

Favourable  account  given  of  it  by  Don  Jo- 
seph Galvez  .  .  .     ib. 
California™.     Their  character  by  P.  Venegas     251 
Compeachy.      Discovered  by  Cordova,   who  is 

repulsed  by  the  natives  .  .  60 

Campomanes,  Don  Pedro  Rodriguez.  Character 
of  his  political  and  commercial  writings  278 

His  account  of  the  produce  of  the   Spanish 

American  mines         .  .  .  280 

Canary  Islands.  Erected  into  a  kingdom  by 
Pope  Clement  VI. — Conquered  by  John  de 
Bethencourt  .  .  .12 

Cannibals.     No  people  ever  found  to  eat  human 
flesh   for  subsistence,  though  often   for  re- 
venge .  .  88,254 
Canoes.     Their  construction  described  .     91 
Caraccas.     Establishment  of  the  company  tra- 
ding to  that  coast                                    '  .         199 


Growth  of  the  trade  .  .  2/7 

Caribbee  Islands.  Discovered  by  Columbus  in 
his  second  voyage  .  .  .30 

Caribbees.     Their  spirit  peculiarly  tierce  100 

Their  character  by  M.  de  Chanvalon  .  251 

Probable  conjecture  as  to  the  distinction  in 
character  between  them  and  the  natives  of 
the  larger  islands  .  .  257 

Carpini.  His  extraordinary  mission  to  the 
prince  of  the  Tartars  .  .  .11 

Carthagena.  The  harbour,  the  safest  and  best 
fortified  of  any  in  all  the  Spanish  American 
dominions  .  .  .  181 

Carthaginians.     State  of  commerce  and  naviga- 
tion among  them  .  .  f: 
The  famous  voyages  of  Hanno  and  Himlico    ib. 

Carvajal,  Francisco  de.     Contributes  to   Vaca 
de  Castro's  victory  over  young  Almagro       .  154 
Encourages  Gonzalo  Pizarro  to  assume  the 

sovereignty  of  the  country  .  .  158 

Seized  by  Gasca,  and  executed      .  .  162 

Castillo,  Bernal  Diaz  del.  Character  of  his  His- 
toria  Verdadera  de  la  Couquista  de  la  Neuva 
Espagna  .  257-8 

Centeno,  Diego.  Revolt  from  Gonzalo  Pizarro 
to  the  viceroy  of  Peru  .  .  .158 

Defeated  by  Carvajal,  and  secretes  himself  in 

a -cave    "  .  .  ib. 

Sallies  out  and  seizes  Cuzco          .  .161 

Reduced  by  Pizarro  .  .  ib. 

Employed  by  Gasca  to  make  discoveries  in 

the  regions  about  the  river  Plata  .  163 

Chancelour,  Richard.     Sails  in  search  of  a  north- 
west passage. — The  fleet  is   scattered  in  a 
storm.— He  enters  the  White  Sea,  and-winters 
at  Archangel.— Visits  Moscow,  a  distance  of 
1200  miles,  and  delivers  a  letter  to  the  czar    206 
The  means  of  opening  a  trade  with  Russia  .  207 
Empowered  by  Queen  Elizabeth  to  negotiate 
with  the  czar  in  her  name  .  ib. 

Chanvalon,  M.  de.  His  character  of  the  native 
Caribbees  ,  .  .  .251 

Chapetones.  Who  thus  distinguished  in  the 
Spanish  American  colonies  .  187 

Charles  HI.  (king  of  Spain).    Establishes  packet- 
boats  between  Spain  and  the  colonies  =,  199 
Allows  free  trade  to  the  windward  islands          ib 
Grants  the  colonies   a  free  trade  with  each 
other           .                 .                 .                 .200 

Charles  V.  (Emperor).     Sends  Roderigo  de  Fi- 
gueroa  to  Hispaniola  as  chief  judge,  to  regu- 
late the  treatment  of  the  Indians  .  56 
Causes  this  subject  to  be  debated  before  him     58 
Equips  a  squadron  at  the  solicitation  o*  i*  cr- 

dinand  Magellan  .  .  J32 

Resigns   his  claim  on  the  Moluccas  to  tie 

Portuguese  .  .  .  133 

Appoints  Cortes  governor  of  New  Spain          134 
Rewards  him  on  coming  home       .  .  135 

Establishes  a  board  called  the  Audience  of 

New  Spain         .  .  ib. 

His  consultations  on  American  affairs  .  154 

Establishes  new  regulations   .  ,  155 

'hesapeake.     See  Virginia. 

Chili.     Invaded  by  Almagro  .  .   147 

How  subjected  by  the  Spaniards  .  180 

Excellence  of  its  climate  and  soil  .     ib. 

Cause  of  its  being  neglected.  .  ib. 

Prospect  of  its  improvement          .  ib 

Chiquitos.  Political  state  of  the  people,  from 
Fernandez  .  .  2o3 


INDEX. 


Page 

Chocolate.     Its  use  derived  from  the  Mexicans  198 
Clwtula  (Mexico).    Arrival  of  Cortes  there,  with 
some  account  of  the  town  .  .112 

\.  conspiracy  against  Cortes  discovered,  and 

the  inhabitants  destroyed  .  .  ib. 

Church.     Sentiments  respecting  church-govern- 
ment at  the  reformation  .  .  225 
Religious  persecution  in  the  reigns  of  Queen 

Mary  and  Queen  Elizabeth  226 

Intolerant  spirit  of  the  church      .  .     ib. 

Separation  of  the  Puritans  from  the  church     227 
They  are  reduced  into  an  ecclesiastical  sys- 
tem by   Robert   Brown,     a    popular   de- 
clainier,  and  adopt  the  name  of  Brownists     ib. 
Take  refuge  in  Holland         .  .  ib. 

Remove  thence  to  America  .  .     ib. 

Church-government  is  established  in  Massa- 
chusetts' bay       .  .  .229 
Its  intolerance                .                 .  .     ib. 
The  intolerance  of  Laud  increases  the  emi- 
grations from  England       .                .          230 
Cicero.     Instance  of  his  ignorance  in  geography  237 
Cinaloa.     Political  state  of  the  people  there        253 
Their  mode  of  living     .                .  .  255 
Their  utter  want  of  religion  .                .          256 
Extraordinary  large  grain  of  gold  found  there  270 
Cineguilla    (in  the  province  of  Sonora).      Late 
discoveries  of  rich  mines  made  there  by  the 
Spaniards               .                 .                .179 
Probable  effects  of  these  discoveries              .     ib, 
Clavlgero,  M.      Several  of  his  objections  an- 
swered   .                 .  275 
Clement  VI.  (Pope).     Erects  the  Canary  islands 

into  a  kingdom  .  .12 

Climates.     Influenced  by  a  variety  of  causes         62 
Their  operation  on  mankind  .  100 

Inquiry  into  the  cause  of  their  different  de- 
grees of  heat      .  244 
Cochineal.      An  important  production,   almost 

peculiar  to  New  Spain  .  .  194 

Cold.     Extraordinary  predominance  of  cold  in 
the  climate  of  America  .  .  62 

Causes  of  this  peculiarity  .  .     63 

Colonies.      Project    of   settling     the    English 
American  colonies  .  .  208 

Two  expeditions  sail  .  .  209 

The  first  colony  established  in  Virginia  ib. 

In  danger  of  perishing  by  famine  ;  it  returns 

to  England  .  .  .     il». 

A  second  attempt  made  to  settle  there,  but 

the  colony  perishes  by  famine  .  210 

The  scheme  of  settling  there  is  abandoned. 
—Circumstances  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth 
unfavourable  to  colonization  .  .  ib. 

The  reign  of  James  favourable  to  the  esta- 
blishment of  colonies          .  211 
James  divides  the  coast  of  America  into  two 
parts;  the  one  called  the   first,  or  south 
colony  of  Virginia;  the  other,   the  second 
or  north  colony          .                 .                •  '212 
He  grants  charters  to  two  companies  for  the 
government  of  them.     Tenour  and  defects 
of  those  charters                  .  ib. 
Under  these  charters  the  settlement  of  the 
English   in    Virginia  and   New  England 
were  established         .                                   '     ib. 
Captain  Newport  sails  from  England  for  Vir- 
ginia, and  discovers  the  Chesapeake            213 
Sails  up  James'  river,   and  founds  a  settle- 
ment in  James' town.  Its  bad  administration   ib. 
It  is  annoyed  by  the  Indians,  and  suffers 


Page 

from  scarcity  and  the  unhealthiness  of  the 
climate  .  .  213 

Seasonable  succours  are  sent  from  England      ib. 

A  survey  of  the  country  is  undertaken  214 

The  colony  depends  for  subsistence  chiefly 
on  supplies  from  the  natives  .  .  ib. 

A  change  is  made  in  the  constitution  of  the 
company,  and  a  new  charter  is  granted 
with  more  ample  privileges  .  ib. 

Lord  Delaware  is  appointed  governor  of  tbe 
colony  .  .  .  .  ib. 

Anarchy  prevails  there  .  .  ib. 

It  is  almost  reduced  by  famine       .  .     ib. 

Lord  Delaware  arrives,  and  by  his  wise  ad- 
ministration restores  order  and  discipline  215 

His  health  obliges  him  to  return  to  England, 
and  he  is  superseded  by  Sir  Thomas  Dale, 
who  establishes  martial  law  .  .  ib. 

A  new  charter  is  issued  to  the  colony,  and 
new  privileges  are  granted  .  216 

Cultivation  of  the  land  is  promoted,  and  a 
treaty  entered  into  with  the  natives  .  ib. 

The  land  in  Virginia  becomes  property  .  ib. 

The  culture  of  tobacco  is  introduced,  and  its 
pernicious  consequences  .  .  ib. 

The  company  in  England  send  out  a  number 
of  young  women  to  induce  the  colonists  to 
form  more  extensive  plans  of  industry.  Ne- 
groes are  first  introduced  .  .  217 

A  new  constitution  is  given  to  the  colony     .     ib. 

A  general  massacre  of  the  English  is  planned 
by  the  Indians,  and  executed  in  most  of 
the  settlements  .  .  .218 

A  bloody  war  is  commenced  with  the  Indians, 
and  neither  old  nor  young  are  spared  .  ib. 

The  settlements  extend,  and  industry  revives    ib. 

Defects  in  the  first  constitution  of  the  co- 
lonies .  .  .  .  219 

King  Charles's  arbitrary  government  of  them  220 

He  grants  them  new  privileges      .  .  2*2 1 

They  flourish  under  the  new  government          ib. 

The  colonists  remain  attached  to  the  royal 
cause,  and  parliament  makes  war  on  Vir- 
ginia, which  is  obliged  to  acknowledge  the 
commonwealth  .  .  .  ib. 

Restraints  are  laid  on  the  trade  of  the  co- 
lonies .  .  222 

The  colonists  are  dissatisfied  with  these  re- 
straints .  .  .  .  ib. 

Are  the  first  to  acknowledge  Charles  II.,  but 
their  loyalty  is  ill  rewarded  .  ib. 

Restraint  on  their  commerce  further  ex- 
tended by  the  navigation  act  .  .  ib. 

Effects  of  the  act   .  .  .  223 

Colonists  remonstrate  against  it     .  .     ib. 

The  colony  of  Virginia  is  attacked  by  the 
Indians  .  .  ib. 

Discontents  are  produced  by  the  grants  of 
land  by  the  crown  .  .  .  ib. 

A  colony  is  established  at  New  Plymouth,  in 
New  England,  Plan  of  its  government  228 

A  grand  council  is  appointed         .  .     ib 

A  new  colony  is  projected      .  .  ib. 

Settles  at  Massachusetts  bay         .  .  229 

The  chapter  of  the  company  in  England 
being  transferred  to  the  colonies,  they  ex- 
tend in  consequence  of  it  .  ib. 

The  colonists  increase    .  .  .231 

New  settlers  arrive  ...  ib. 

Sectaries  settle  iu  Providence  and  Rhode 
Island  .  232 


INDEX. 


Page 
Theological  contests  give  rise  to  a  colony  at 

Connecticut        .  .  232 

Emigrants    from    Massachusets'    bay    settle 

there  .  .  .  233 

Settlements  are   formed  in  the  provinces  of 

New  Hampshire  and  Maine  .  ib. 

State  of  the  colonies  at  the  revolution          .  235 
Are  exempted  from  certain  duties          .  ib. 

Enter  into  a  league  of  confederacy  .     ib. 

Assume  the  right  of  coining  .  ib. 

Are  patronized  by  Cromwell,  who  proposes 

to  transport  them  to  Jamaica    *  .  236 

They  decline  his  offer  .  .  ib. 

(See  New  England,,  Virginia,  &c.) 
Colonies  (Spanish  American).     View   of   their 
policy  and  trade  .  .  .182 

Depopulation  the  first  effect  of  them    .  ib. 

Causes  of  this  depopulation  .  .     ib. 

The  small-pox  very  fatal  to  them 
General  idea  of  the  Spanish  policy  .  184 

Early  interposition  of  the  royal  authority          ib. 
An  exclusive  trade  their  first  object  .  186 

Compared  with  those  of  ancient  Greece  and 

Rome  .  .  ib. 

The  great  restrictions  to  which  they  are  sub- 
jected .  .  .  ib. 
Slow  progress  of  their  population  from  Eu- 
rope          .                                .                .187 
Are  discouraged  by  the  state  of  property  ib. 
Also  by  the  nature  of  their  ecclesiastical  po- 
licy            .                 .                  .                 .     ib. 
Various  classes  of  people       .                .            ib. 
Their  ecclesiastical  constitution    .                ,  190 
Form  and  endowments  of  the  church  there        ib. 
Pernicious   effects   of  monastic  institutions 

there  .  .  .  ib. 

Character  of  their  ecclesiastics     .  ,     ib. 

Productions  .  .  .192 

Mines  .  .  .  .     ib. 

Those  of  Potosi  and  Sacotecas  .  193 

The  spirit  with  which  they  are  worked          .     ib. 
Fatal  effects  of  this  ardour  .  ib. 

Other  commodities  composing  their  commerce  194 
Amazing  increase  of  horned  cattle         .  ib. 

Advantages    which  Spain  formerly  derived 

from  them  .  .  .     ib. 

Why  the  same  advantages  are  not  still  re- 
ceived .  ib. 
Guarda  costas  employed  to  check  the  contra- 
band trade  .  .  198 
The  use  of  register  ships  introduced  .  ib. 
Galleons  laid  aside  .  .  ib. 
Company  of  the  Caraccas  instituted  .  199 
Establishment  of  regular  packet-boats  .  ib. 
Free  trade  permitted  between  them  .  2(X] 
New  regulations  in  their  government  .  ib 
Reformation  of  the  courts  of  justice  .  ib 
New  distribution  of  governments  .  201 
A  fourth  viceroyalty  established  .  .  ib 
Attempts  to  reform  domestic  policy  .  ib 
Trade  with  the  Philippine  islands  .  202 
Revenue  derived  from  them  by  Spain  .  202 
Expense  of  administration  there  .  .  ib, 
State  of  the  population  .  .  271 
The  number  of  monasteries  there  .  .  274 
(See  Mexico,  Peru,  &c.) 

Columbus,  Bartholomew.  Sent  by  his  brother 
Christopher  to  negotiate  with  Henry  VfL, 
king  of  England  .  .  .20 

The  misfortunes  of  his  voyage  .  ib 

Follows  his  brother  to  Hispaniola  .     32 


Is  vested  with  the  administration  of  affairs 
theie  by  his  brother  on  his  return  to  Spain 
Founds  the  town  of  St.  Domingo  . 
'olumbus,  Christopher.     H is  birth  and  education 

His  early  voyages  . 

Marries  and  settles  at  Lisbon 

His  geographical  reflections 
Conceives  the  idea  of  making  discoveries  to 
the  westward 

Offers  his  services  to  the  Genoese  senate 
Cause  of  his  overtures  being  rejected  in  Por- 
tugal 

Applies  to  the  courts  of  Castile  and  England 

His  proposal,  how  treated  by  the  Spanish 
geographers 

Is  patronized  by  Juan  Perez 

His  proposals  again  rejected 

Is  invited  by  Isabella,  and  engaged  in  the 
Spanish  service 

Preparations  for  his  voyage  . 

The  amount  of  his  equipment 

Sails  from  Spain 

His  vigilant  attention  to  all  circumstances 
during  his  voyage 

Apprehensions  of  his  crew    . 

His  address  in  quieting  their  cabals 

Indications  of  their  approaching  land    . 

An  island  discovered     . 

He  lands 

His  interview  with  the  natives 

Names  the  island  San  Salvadore 

Prosecutes  his  discoveries  southward 

Discovers,  and  lands  on,  the  island  of  Cuba 

Discovers  Hispaniola    . 

Suffers  shipwreck,  but  is  saved  by  the  Indians 

Builds  a  fort 

Returns  to  Europe 

His  expedient  to  preserve  the  memory  of  his 
discoveries  during  a  storm 

Touches  at  the  Azores  . 

Arrives  at  Lisbon  . 

His  reception  in  Spain 

His  audience  with  Ferdinand  and  Isabella 

His  equipment  for  a  second  voyage 

Discovers  the  Caribbee  islands 

Finds  his  colony  on  Hispaniola  destroyed     . 

Builds  a  city  which  he  calls  Isabella     . 

Visits  the  interior  parts  of  the  country 

His  men  discontented  and  factious 

Discovers  the  island  of  Jamaica  . 

Meets  his  brother  Bartholomew  at  Isabella 

The  natives  ill  used  by  his  men,  and  begin  to 
be  alarmed 

He  defeats  the  Indians 

Exacts  tribute  from  them 

Returns  to  Spain  to  justify  his  conduct 

Is  furnished  with  a  more  regular  plan  for 
colonisation 

His  third  voyage    . 

Discovers  the  island  of  Trinidad 

Discovers  the  continent  of  America 

State  of  Hispaniola  on  his  arrival 

Composes  the   mutiny   of   Roldan  and   his 
adherents    .... 

Is  distressed  by  the  factious  behaviour  of  his 
men    .  .  . 

Complaints  carried  to  Spain  against  him 

Is  sent  home  in  irons 

Clears  his  conduct,  but  is  not  restored  to  his 
authority    . 

His  solicitations  neglected 


Page 


INDEX. 


vii 


Page 

Forms  new  schemes  of  discovery  .  .     42 

Engages  in  a  fourth  voyage  .  .  ib. 

His  treatment  at  Hispaniola          .  .     ib. 

Searches  after  a  passage  to  the  Indian  ocean  43 
Is  shipwrecked  on  the  coast  of  Jamaica  .  ib. 
His  artifice  to  secure  the  friendship  of  the 

Indians  .  .  .44 

Is  delivered,  and  arrives  at  Hispaniola  .  ib. 
Returns  to  Spain  .  .  ib. 

His  death       .  .  .  .45 

His  right  to  the  original  discovery  of  America 

defended     .  .  .  .240 

The  spirit  of  adventure  raised  in  England  by 

his  discoveries  .  .  .  204 

Is  checked  by  the  want  of  skill  in  naviga- 
tion ....  205 
His  system  of  opening  a  passage  to  India,  by 
steering  a  westein  course,  is  adopted  by 
Cabot         .  .  .  .     ib. 
Columbut,  Don  Dieyo.     Sues  out  his  claim  to 

his  father's  privileges          .  .  48 

Marries  and  goes  over  to  Hispaniola  .     ib. 

Establishes  a  pearl-fishery  at  Cubagua  ib. 

Projects  the  conquest  of  Cuba        .  .     49 

His  measures  thwarted  by  Ferdinand     .  54 

Returns  to  Spain  .  .  .     ib. 

Commerce.     The  era  from  which  its  commence- 
ment is  to  be  dated  .  .  4 
Motives   to   an   intercourse   among  distant 

nations        .  .     ib. 

Flourishing  state  of  commerce  in  the  Eastern 

empire  after  the  subversion  of  the  Western       9 
Revival  of  commerce  in  Europe  .  10 

Compass,  Mariner's.  Navigation  extendedmore 
by  the  invention  of  this  instrument,  than  by 
all  the  efforts  of  preceding  ages  .  .  12 

By  whom  invented  .  .  ib. 

Condamine,  M.     His  account  of  the  country  at 
the  foot  of  the  Andes  in  South  America         .  246 
His  remarks  on  the  character  of  the  native 

Americans        .  .  .  251 

Congo.     Discovered  by  the  Portuguese  .     16 

Constantinople.  The  consequence  of  removing 
the  seat  cf  the  Roman  empire  to  this  city  9 

Continued  a  commercial  city  after  the  extinc- 
tion of  the  Western  empire         .  .     ib. 
Become  the  chief  mart  of  Italy               .  10 
Cordova,  Francisco  Hernandez.     Discovers  Yu- 
catan             .                .                .                .59 
Is  repulsed  at  Campeachy,  and  returns  to 

Cuba  .  .  .  .60 

Corita,  Alonzo.     His  observations  on  the  contra- 
band trade  of  the  Spanish  colonies        .  202 
Character  of  his  American  memoirs             .     266 
Cortes,  Fernando.     His  birth,  education,   and 

character    .  .  .  .101 

Appointed  by  Velasquez  commander  of  the 
armament  fitted  out  by  him  against  New 
Spain  .  .  102 

Velasquez  becomes  jealous  of  him  .     ib. 

Velasquez  sends  orders  to  deprive  him  of  his 

commission,  and  lay  him  under  an  arrest      ib. 
Is  protected  by  his  troops  .  •  103 

The  amount  of  his  forces        .  . 

Reduces  the  Indians  at  Tabasco    .  . 

Arrives  at  St.  Juan  de  Ulna  . 

His  interview  with  two  Mexican  commanders  104 
Sends  presents  to  Montezuma 
Receives  others  in  return 
His  schemes  .  .  • 

Establishes  a  farm  of  civil  government         .  107 


Page 
Resigns  his  commission  under  Velasquez,  and 

assumes  the  command  in  the  king's  name  107 
His  friendship  courted  by  the  Zempoallans  .  ib. 
Builds  a  fort  .  .  .108 

Concludes   a   formal   alliance    with   several 

caziques     .  .  .  .     ib. 

Discovers  a  conspiracy  among  his  men,  and 

destroys  his  ships  .  109 

Advances  into  the  country  .  .     ib. 

Is  opposed  by  the  Tlascalans  110 

Concludes  a  peace  with  them       .  .111 

His  rash  zeal          .  .  .  ib. 

Proceeds  to  Cholula       .  .  .112 

Discovers  a  conspiracy  against  him  here, 

and  destroys  the  inhabitants  .  ib. 

Approaches  in  sight  of  the  capital  city    of 

Mexico  .  .  .  113 

His  first  interview  with  Montezuma  .     ib. 

His  anxiety  at  his  situation  iu  the   city  of 

Mexico  .  .  .  114 

Seizes  Montezuma          .  .  .115 

Orders  him  to  be  fettered      .  .  116 

Reasons  of  his  conduct  .  .     ib. 

Prevails  on  Montezuma  to  own   himself   a 

vassal  to  the  Spanish  crown  .  117 

Amount  and  division  of  his  treasure  .     ib. 

Enrages  the  Mexicans  by  his  imprudent  zeal  118 
An  armament  sent  by  Velasquez  to  supersede 

him  .  .  ib. 

His  deliberations  on  this  event    .  .119 

Advances  to  meet  Narvaez    .  .  120 

Defeats  Narvaez  and  takes  him  prisoner  121 
Gains  over  the  Spanish  soldiers  to  his  in- 
terest .  .  .  .  ib. 
Returns  to  Mexico  .  .  122 
His  improper  conduct  on  his  arrival  .  ib. 
Is  resolutely  attacked  by  the  Mexicans  ib. 
Attacks  them  in  return  without  success  .  ib. 
Death  of  Montezuma  .  123 
His  extraordinary  escape  from  death  .  ib. 
Abandons  the  city  of  Mexico  .  ib. 
Is  attacked  by  the  Mexicans  .  .  ib. 
His  great  hopes  in  the  encounter  .  124 
Difficulties  of  his  retreat  .  .  ib. 
Battle  of  Otumba 

Defeats  the  Mexicans    .  .  •  125 

Mutinous  spirit  of  his  troops  .  ib. 

Reduces  the  Tepeacans  .  .  126 

Is  strengthened  by  several  reinforcements          ib. 
Returns  to  Mexico  .  .  ib. 

Establishes  his  head-quarters  at  Tezeuco         127 
Reduces  or  conciliates  the  surrounding  coun- 
try .  .  •     »b. 
Cabals  among  his  troops 

His  prudence  in  suppressing  them  .  128 

Builds  and  launches  a  fleet  of  brigantines 

on  the  lake          .  .  .  ib. 

Besieges  Mexico  .  .  .     ib. 

Makes  a  grand  assault  to  take  the  city  by 

storm,  but  is  repulsed 

Evades  the  Mexican  prophecy      .  .  130 

Takes  Guatimozin  prisoner    . 
Gains  possession  of  the  city  .  .     ib. 

And  of  the  whole  empire 
Defeats  another  attempt  to  supersede  him  in 

his  command  .  •  •  133 

Is  appointed  governor  of  New  Spain    .  134 

His  schemes  and  arrangements     .  .     ib. 

Cruel  treatment  of  the  natives  .  ib. 

His  conduct  subjected  to  inquiry  .  .  135 

Returns  to  Spain  to  justify  himself       .  ib, 


INDEX. 


Page 

Is  rewarded  by  the  Emperor  Charles  V.  .  135 
Goes  back  to  Mexico  with  limited  powers  ib 
Discovers  California  .  .  .  136 

Returns  to  Spain  and  dies     .  .  ib, 

Inquiry  into  the  nature  of  his  letters  to  the 

Emperor  Charles  V.  .  .257 

Authors  who  wrote  of  his  conquest  of  New 

Spain  .  .  ib, 

Council  of  the  Indies.     Its  power       .  .185 

Creoles.     Character  of   those  in  the   Spanish 

American  colonies  .  .  187 

Croglan,  Colonel  George.  His  account  of  the 
discovery  of  the  bones  of  a  large  extinct 
species  of  animals  in  North  America  .  246 

Crusades.     The  great  political  advantages  de- 
rived from  them  by  the  European  nations          10 
Cruzado  (Bulls  of}.     Published  regularly  every 
two  years  in  the  Spanish  colonies          .  203 

Their  prices  and  amount  of  the  sale  at  the 

last  publication          .  .  .  278 

Cuba.     Discovered  by  Christopher  Columbus         26 
Is  sailed  round  by  Ocampo    .  .  47 

The  conquest  undertaken  by  Diego  Velas- 
quez .  .  .  .49 
Cruel  treatment  of  the  cazique  Hatuey,  and 

his  repartee  to  a  friar         .  .  50 

Columbus's  enthusiastic  description  of  a  har- 
bour in  this  island      .  .  239 
The  tobacco  produced  there  the  finest  in  all 

America  .  .  .194 

Cubayua.     A  pearl-fishery  established  there    .    .48 
Cumano.     The  natives  revenge  their  ill  treat- 
ment by  the  Spaniards  .  .  58 
The  country  desolated  by  Diego  Ocampo      .     59 
Cusco.     The  capital  of   the  Peruvian  empire, 
founded  by  Manco  Capac      .                .           140 
Seized  by  Pizarro          .                 .                 .  145 
Besieged  by  the  Peruvians     .                 .           148 
Surprised  by  Almagro  .                 .                 .     ib. 
Recovered  and  pillaged  by  the  Pizarros          150 
The  only  place  entitled  to  the  uamu  of  city 
in  all'Peru                                  .                .177 

D. 

Dancing.  A  favourite  amusement  among  the 
Americans  .  .  .95 

Darien.     This  isthmus  described       .  .51 

The  increase  of  settlement  there,  obstructed 
by  the  noxiousness  of  the  climate     .  181 

Delaware,  Lord.     Appointed  governor  of  Vir- 
ginia ....  214 
His  wise  administration  there  .  215 
Obliged  to  return  to  England  on  account  of 
his  health  .                 .                 .                 .     ib. 

De  Solis.  His  unfortunate  expedition  up  the 
river  Plata  .  .  .  53 

De  Solis,  Antonio.  Character  of  his  Historia  de 
la  Conquista  de  Mexico  .  .  258 

D'Esguilache,  Prince.  His  rigorous  measures 
for  restraining  the  excesses  of  the  regular 
clergy  there  .  .  .  191 

Rendered  ineffectual     .  .  .     ib. 

DiaZj  Bartholomew  Discovers  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope  .  .16 

Discoveries.  The  difference  of  tnose  made  by 
land  and  those  made  by  sea  .  .  237 

Dodvtell.  His  objections  to  the  Peri  plus  of 
Hanno  exploded  .  .  236 

Domingo,  St.,  on  the  island  of  Hispanic!*, 
founded  by  Bartholomew  Columbus  36 


Dominicans.  Those  in  Hispaniola  publicly  re- 
monstrate against  the  cruel  treatment  of  the 
Indians  .  .  .  .54 

(See  Las  Casas.) 

Drake,  Sir  Francis.     Sails  round  the  world      .  208 
Drunkenness.     Strong  propensity  of  the  Ame- 
ricans to  indulge  in  this  vice  90 

E. 

Earth.     How  divided  into  zones  by  the  ancients      9 

Egyptians.  The  ancient  commerce  and  naviga- 
tion among  them  .  .  .4 

El  Dorado.  Wonderful  reports  of  Orellana 
concerning  a  country  so  called  .  15:> 

Elephant.  An  animal  peculiar  to  the  torrid 
zones  .  .  .  .  210 

Elizabeth.     Her  reign  auspicious  to  discovery      207 
She  encourages  commerce,  and  secures  the 

trade  of  Russia  .  .  .     ib. 

Circumstances  in  her  reign  unfavourable  to 

colonization         .  .  .  210 

Her  high  idea  of  her  superior  skill  in  theo- 
logy .  .  .  226 

Escurial.  Mr.  Waddilove  discovers  a  curious 
calendar  in  the  library  there  .  .  268 

Description  of  that  valuable  monument  of 
Mexican  art  .  .     ib. 

Esquimaux  Indians.  Their  resemblance  to  the 
Grcenlauders  .  .  .69 

Some  account  of  them   .  .  .  2!V» 

Eugene  IV.  (Pope).  Grants  to  the  Portuguese 
an  exclusive  right  to  all  the  countries  they 
should  discover,  from  Cape  Non  to  the  con- 
tinent of  India  .  .  .15 

Europe.     How  affected  by  the  dismemberment 
of  the  Roman  empire  by  the  barbarous  nations       9 
Revival  of  commerce  and  navigation  .     10 

Political  advantages  derived  from  the  crusades     ib 

F. 

Ferdinand  (king  of  Castile).    Turns  his  affection 
towards  the  regulation  of  American  affairs         40 
Don  Diego  de  Columbus  sues  out  his  father's 

claims  against  him     .  .  .47 

Erects  two  governments  on  the  continent  of 

America  .  .  ,48 

Sends  a  fleet  to  Darien  and  supersedes  Balboa    52 
Appoints  Balboa  lieutenant-governor  of  the 

countries  on  the  South  Sea         .  .     53 

Sends  Diaz  de  Solis  to  discover  a  western 

passage  to  the  Moluccas     .  .  ib. 

Thwarts  the  measures  of  Diego  de  Columbus    54 
His  decree  concerning  the  treatment  of  the 

Indians       .  .  .  .     ib. 

Fernandez,  Don  Diego.     Character  of  his  His- 
toria del  Peru         .  .  .  263 
Fernandez,  P.     His  description  of  the  political 

state  of  the  Chiquitos     .  .  .  254 

Figueroa,  Roderigo  de.  Appointed  chief  judge 
of  Hispaniola,  with  a  commission  to  examine 
into  the  treatment  of  the  Indian  natives  56 

Makes  an  experiment  to  determine  the  capa- 
city of  the  Indians     .  .     59 
Florida.     Discovered  by  Juan  Ponce  de  Leon      50 
The  chiefs  there  hereditary            .                  .     ib. 
Account    from    Alvar    Nuignez  Cabeca  de 

Vaca  .  252 

Flota,  Spanish.     Its  course  .  .   196 

tseca,  bishoo  of  Badajos,  and  minister  for 


INDEX. 


Page 

Indian  affairs,  obstructs  the  plans  for  coloni- 
zation and  discovery  formed  by  Columbus    34,  36 
Patronizes  the  expedition  formed  by  Alonzo 

deOjeda  .  .  '38 

Frvbisher,  Martin.  Makes  three  unsuccessful 
attempts  to  discover  a  north-east  passage  to 
India  .  208 

G. 

Galleons,  Spanish.  The  nature  and  purpose  of 
these  vessels  .  .  .196 

Arrangement  of  their  voyage        .  .     ib. 

Galoez,  Don  Joseph.  Sent  to  discover  the  true 
state  of  California  .  .  179 

Mama,  Vasco  de.     His  voyage  for  discovery      .     38 
Doubles  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  .  ib. 

Anchors  before  the  city  of  Melinda  .     ib. 

Arrives  at  Calicut,  in  Malabar  .  ib. 

Gaming.  Strange  propensity  of  the  Americans 
to  this  vice  .  .  .  .96 

Ganyes.  Erroneous  ideas  of  the  ancients  as  to 
the  position  of  that  river  .  .  237 

Gasca,  Pedro  de  la.  Sent  to  Peru  as  president 
of  the  Court  of  Audience,  in  Lima  .  159 

His  character  and  moderation  .  ib. 

The  powers  he  was  vested  with     .  .  160 

Arrives  at  Panama  .  .  162 

Acquires  possession   of   Panama    with   the 

fleet  and  forces  there  .  .     ib. 

Advances  towards  Cuzco        .  .  161 

Pizarro's  troops  desert  to  him       •  .  162 

His  moderate  use  of  the  victory  .  ib. 

Devises  employment  for  his  soldiers  .  163 

His  division  of  the  country  among  his  followers    ib. 
The  discontents  it  occasions          .  .     ib. 

Restores  order  and  government  .  ib. 

His  reception  on  his  return  to  Spain  .     ib. 

Geminus.     Instance  of  his  ignorance  in  geo- 
graphy .  .  .237 

Geography.      The  knowledge  extremely    con- 
fined among  the  ancients  .  .       8 
Becomes  a  favourite  study  among  the  Ara- 
bians                   ...  10 

Giants.  Recent  discoveries  do  not  confirm  the 
accounts  given  of  them  by  early  travellers  11,  250 

Gilbert,  Sir  Humphrey.     The   first  colony  con- 
ducted by  him  to  North  America  .  208 
A  charter  granted  to  him  and  his  heirs          .     ib. 
Conducts  another    expedition,    which   ends 
disastrously,  and  in  which  he  perishes  209 

Gii>''a,  Flavio.  The  inventor  of  the  mariner's 
compass  .  .  .12 

Globe.     Its  division  into  zones  by  the  ancients        8 

Cold.     Why  the  first  metal  with  which  man 

was  acquainted  .  .  82 

Extraordinary   large    grain    found    in    the 
mines  of  Cinaloa       .  .  .  270 

Gornaro.  Character  of  his  Chronica  de  la  Nuova 
Efepagna  .  .  .  257 

Good  Hope,  Cape  of,  discovered  by  Bartholo- 
mew Diaz  .  .  .16 

Gosnold,  Bartholomew.  The  first  who  attempts 
to  steer  a  direct  course  from  England  to  North 
America  .  .  .211 

Descries  Massachusett's-bay,  and  returns  to 

England     .  .  .  .     ib. 

The  consequences  of  his  voyage  .  ib. 

Government.     No  visible  form  of  government 
established  among  the  native  Americans      .     S3 
Exceptions  .  .  .  ib. 


Page 

Gran  Chaco.  Lorano's  account  of  the  method 
of  making  war  among  the  natives  .  254 

Granada.      By    whom   this   new   kingdom    in 
America  was  reduced  to  the  Spanish  dominion  182 
Its  climate  and  produce  .  '.     ib. 

A  viceroy  lately  established  there          .  ib. 

Greeks.  Progress  of  navigation  and  discovery 
among  the  ancient  Greeks  .  .  6 

Their  commercial  intercourse  with  other  na- 
tions very  limited  .  .  ib. 

Greenland.     Its  vicinity  to  North  America      .     68 . 

Greenville,  Sir  Richard.     Establishes  a  colony 
in  Virginia,  which  being  in  danger  of  perish- 
ing by  famine,  is  obliged  to  return  to  Eng- 
land       .  .  .  .209 
Appears  off  the  coast  soon  after  the  depar- 
ture of  the  colony,  and  lands  fifteen  of  his 
crew  to  keep  possession  of  the  island,  who 
are  destroyed  by  the  savages      .  .  210 

Grijalua,  Juan  de.  Sets  out  from  Cuba  on  a 
voyage  of  discovery  .  .  60 

Discovers  and  gives  name  to  New  Spain      .     ib. 
His  reasons  for  not  planting  a  colony  in  his 
newly  discovered  lands       .  .  61 

Guarda,  Costas.  Employed  by  Spain  to  check 
illicit  trade  in  the  American  colonies  .  198 

Guatimala.  The  indigo  there 'superior  to  any 
in  America  .  .  .  194 

Guatimozin.     This  nephew   and  son-in-law  of 
Montezuma  succeeds  Quetlavaca  in  the  king- 
dom of  Mexico  .  .  .  127 
Repulses  the  attacks  of  the   Spaniards  in 

storming  the  city  of  Mexico  .  130 

Taken  prisoner  by  Cortes  .  .  131 

Tortured  to  discover  his  treasure  .  ib. 

Is  hanged      ....  134 

Guiana,  Dutch.  Cause  of  the  excessive  ferti- 
lity of  the  soil  .  .  .  247 

H. 

Hakluyt.  Improves  the  naval  and  commercial 
skill  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived  .  .  211 

Empowered  to  settle  any  part  of  the  South 
colony  of  Virginia  .  .          212 

Hanno.  His  Periplus  defended,  with  an  account 
of  his  voyage  .  .  .  236 

Hatuey  (a  cazique  of  Cuba} .  His  cruel  treat- 
ment and  memorable  repartee  to  a  Franciscan 
friar  .  .  .  .50 

Hawkesu-orth's  Voyages.  Account  of  New  Hol- 
land and  the  inhabitants 

Heat.  The  different  degrees  of,  in  the  Old  and 
New  continents,  accounted  for  .  .  244 

Estimated  .  .  247 

Henry  (prince  of  Portugal).  His  character  and 
studies  .  .  .  .13 

Expeditions  formed  by  his  order    .  .     14 

Applies  for  a  papal  grant  for  his  new  dis- 
coveries .  .  .15 
His  death       .                 .                 .  .     ib. 

Herrada,  Juan  de.  Assassinates  Francis  Pi- 
zarro  ....  153 

Dies        .  .  .  .154 

Herrera.     The  best  historian  of  New  Spain      .  258 
His  account  of  Orellana's  voyage          .  265 

Hispaniola.     The  island  discovered  by  Christo- 
pher Columbus  .  .  .26 
The  transactions  of  Columbus  with  the  natives    ib. 
Columbus  leaves  a  colony  there     .                .27 
The  colony  destroyed             .                .  28 


INDEX. 


Page 

A  city  built  by  Columbus,  called  Isabella  .  31 
The  natives  from  ill  usage  begin  to  be 

alarmed  .  .  .33 

They  are  defeated  by  the  Spaniards  .     ib. 

A  tribute  exacted  from  them  .  34 

They  scheme  to  starve  the  Spaniards  .     ib. 

Bartholomew  Columbus  founds  St.  Domingo  36 
Columbus  sent  home  in  irons  by  Bovadilla  .  40 
Nicholas  de  Ovando  appointed  governor  41 

View  of  the  conduct  of  the  Spaniards  towards 

the  natives  .  .  .45 

Unhappy  fate  of  Anacoana    .  .  46 

Great  produce  from  the  mines       .  .     ib. 

Diminution  of  the  inhabitants  .  47 

The  Spaniards  recruit  them  by  trepanning 

the  natives  of  Lucayas  .  .     ib. 

Arrival  of  Don  Diego  de  Columbus      .  48 

The  natives  almost  extirpated  by  slavery  49,  54 
Controversy  concerning  the  treatment  of  them  54 
Columbus's  account  of  the  humane  treatment 

he  received  from  the  natives  .  239 

Curious  instance  of  superstition  in  the  Spa- 
nish planters  .  .  .  246 

Holyuin,  Pedro  Alvarez.  Erects  the  royal 
standard  in  Peru,  in  opposition  to  the  younger 
Almagro  .  .  .154 

Vaca  de  Castro  arrives  and  assumes  the  com- 
mand         .  .  .  .     ib. 

Homer.  His  account  of  the  navigation  of  the 
ancient  Greeks  ...  6 

Honduras.  The  value  of  that  country  owing  to 
its  production  of  the  logwood-tree  .  179 

Horned  cattle.  The  amazing  increase  of  them 
in  Spanish  America  .  .  194 

Horses.  Astonishment  and  mistakes  of  the 
Mexicans  at  the  first  sight  of  them  .  259 

Expedient  of  the  Peruvians  to  render  them 
incapable  of  action  .  .  265 

Huana,  Capac  (inca  of  Peru).  His  character 
and  family  .  .  .  .140 

Huascar,  Capac  {inca  of  Peru).  Disputes  his 
brother  Atahualpa' s  succession  to  Quito  .  ib. 

Defeated  and  taken  prisoner  by  Atahualpa  .  141 
Solicits  the  assistance  of  Pizarro  against  his 

brother  .  .  ib. 

Put  to  death  by  order  of  Atahualpa  .  143 

Hutchinson,  Mrs.     Heads   a  sect  of  religious 
women  in  New  England,  who  are  denomi- 
nated Antinomians  .  .          232 
Her  doctrines  are  condemned  by  a  general 
synod                  .                .                .  ib. 


Jamaica.     Discovered  by  Christopher  Columbus     32 
Jerome,    St.      Cardinal   Ximenes  sends   three 

monks  of  that  order  to  regulate  the  treatment 

of  the  Indians         .  .  .55 

Their  conduct  under  this  commission  .     ib. 

They  are  recalled  .  .  56 

Jesuits.     Acquire  an  absolute  dominion  over 

California      .  .  .  .179 

Their  motives  for  depreciating  the  country        ib. 
Jews.     Their  ancient  state  of  commerce  and 

navigation 
Incas  of  Peru.     Received  origin  of  their  empire  140 

Their  empire  founded  both  in  religion  and 
•policy         ....  173 

(See  Pern.) 
India.     The  motives  of  Alexander  the  Great  in 

his  expedition         ...  6 


Page 
How  the  commerce  was  carried  on  in  ancient 

times  with  that  country  .  .       8 

When  the  arts  began  to  revive  in  Europe          10 
The  first  voyage  was  made  round  the  Cape 

of  Good  Hope  .  .  .38 

Attempts  to  discover  a  north-west  passage 

unsuccessful        .  .  .  206 

An  attempt  made  by  the  north-east  .     ib. 

A  company  of  merchants  in  England  is  in- 
corporated to  prosecute  discoveries    .  ib. 
A  communication  attempted  by  land             .  207 
Queen  Elizabeth  encourages  the  design             ib. 

Indians  (in  Spanish  America).     See  Americans. 

Indies  (West).  Why  Columbus's  discoveries 
were  so  named  .  .  .30 

Innocent  IV.  (Pope).  His  extraordinary  mis- 
sion to  the  prince  of  the  Tartars  .  1 1 

Inquisition  (Court  of  the).  When  and  by  whom 
first  introduced  into  Portugal  .  .  238 

Insects  and  Reptiles.  Why  so  numerous  and 
noxious  in  America  .  .  64 

John  I.  (king  of  Portugal).  The  first  who 
sent  ships  to  explore  the  western  coasts  of 
Africa  .  .  .  .13 

His  son,  Prince  Henry,   engages  in  these 
attempts     .  .  .  .     ib. 

John  II.  (king  of  Portugal).     Patronizes  all  at- 
tempts towards  discoveries     .  .  16 
Sends  an  embassy  to  Abyssinia     .                 .     ib. 
His  ungenerous  treatment  of  Columbus              ib. 

Iron.  The  reason  why  savage  nations  were  un- 
acquainted with  this  metal  .  .  82 

Isabella  (queen  of  Castile).  Applied  to  by  Juan 
Perez  in  behalf  of  Columbus  .  21 

Again  applied  to  by  Quintanilla  and  San- 

tangel         .  .  .  .     ib. 

Prevailed  on  to  equip  him     .  .  22 

Dies  .  .  .  .45 

Her  real  motive  for  encouraging  discoveries 

in  America         .  .  .  183 

Isabella  (the  City  of).  Built  by  Columbus  in 
Hispaniola  .  .  .  .31 

Italy.  The  first  country  in  Europe  where  civi- 
lization and  arts  revived  after  the  overthrow 
of  the  Roman  empire  .  .  10 

The  commercial  spirit,    active   and   enter- 
prising       .  .  .  .     ib. 


Ladrone  Islands.     Discovered  by   Ferdinand 

Magellan  .  .133 

Lakes.     Their  amazing  size  in  North  America     62 
Las  Casast  Bartholomew.     Returns  from  Hispa- 
niola to  solicit  the  cause  of  the  enslaved  In- 
dians at  the  court  of  Spain  .  .    55 
Sent  back  with  powers  by  Cardinal  Ximenes     ib. 
Returns  dissatisfied                 .                 .  56 
Procures  a  new  commission  to  be  sent  over 

on  this  subject  .  .  .     ib. 

Recommends  the  scheme  of  supplying  the 

colonies  with  Negroes         .  .  57 

Undertakes  a  new  colony  .  .     ib. 

His  conference  with  the  bishop  of  Darien 

before  the  Emperor  Charles  V.          .  58 

Goes  to  America  to  carry  his  schemes  into 

execution    .  .  .  ib. 

Circumstances  unfavourable  to  him       .  ib. 

His  final  miscarriage     .  .  .59 

Revives  his  representations  in  favour  of  the 

Indians,  at  the  desire  of  the  emperor  155 


INDEX. 


Page 
Composes  a  treatise  on   the  destruction  of 

America      ....  155 
Leon,  Pedro  Cuza  de.     Character  of  his  Chro- 

nica  del  Peru      .  .  .  263 

Lery.     His  description  of  the  courage  and  fero- 
city of  the  Toupinambos  .  .     254 
Lima.     The  city  in  Peru  founded  by  Pizarro     147 
Logwood.     The   commodity   which   gives   im- 
portance to  the  provinces  of  Honduras  and 
Yucatan         .                .  .179 
Policy  of  the  Spaniards  to  defeat  the  English 

trade  in  those  provinces     .  .  ib. 

Louis,  St.  (king  of  France).     His  embassy  to 

the  khan  of  the  Tartars  .  .11 

Lozano.     His  account  of  the  method  of  making 

war  among  the  natives  of  Gran  Chaco  .  254 

Luque,  Hernando  de.  This  priest  associates 
with  Pizarro  in  his  Peruvian  expedition  .  136 

M. 

Madeira.     The  island  first  discovered       .  14 

Madoc  (prince  of  North  Wales).  Story  of  his 
voyage  and  discovery  of  North  America  exa- 
mined ....  241 

Magellan,  Ferdinand.  His  account  of  the 
gigantic  size  of  the  Patagonians  .  .  75 

The  existence  of  this  gigantic  race  yet  to  be 

decided  .  .  .75,  250 

His  introduction  to  the  court  of  Castile         .  132 
Equipped  with  a  squadron  for  a  voyage  of 

discovery  .  .  .  ib. 

Sails  through  the  famous  strait  that  bears  his 

name  .  .  .  .     ib. 

Discovers  the  Ladrone  and  Philippine  islands  133 
Is  killed  .  .  ib. 

Maynet.    Its  properties  of  attracting  iron  known 
to  the  ancients,  but  not  its  polar  inclination       4 
Extraordinary  advantages  resulting  from  this 
discovery     .  .  .  .12 

Malo,  Si.  Account  of  its  commerce  with  Spa- 
nish America  .  .  .  197 

Manco,  Capac.  Founder  of  the  Peruvian  em- 
pire ....  140,  173 

Mandeville,  Sir  John.  His  eastern  travels,  and 
character  of  his  writings  .  .11 

Manila.  The  colony  established  by  Philip  II. 
of  Spain  .  .  .  202 

Trade  between  the  colony  and  South  America    ib. 

Mankind.  Their  disposition  and  manners  formed 
by  their  situation  .  .  .66 

Resemblances  therefore  to  be  traced  in  very 

distant  places  without  communication  ib. 

Have  uniformly  attained  the  greatest  perfec- 
tion of  their  nature  in  temperate  regions  .  100 

Marco  Polo  (the  Venetian).  His  extraordinary 
travels  in  the  East  .  .  11 

Marest,  Gabriel.  His  account  of  the  country 
between  the  Illinois  and  Machilimakinac  .  253 

Marina,  Donna.     A  Mexican  slave 

Marinus,  Tyrius.  His  erroneous  position  of  China  238 

Martyr,  Peter.  His  sentiments  on  the  first  dis- 
covery of  America  „  .  241 

Maryland.     See  Virginia. 

Massachusetts'  Bay.  See  America,  New  Eng- 
land, &c. 

Merchants  (English).     The  right  of  property  in 
the  North  American  colonies  vested  in  a 
company  of  merchants  resident  in  London  .  212 
Charters  granted  to  two  companies  to  make 
settlements  in  America  .  ib. 


Page 

Tenour  and  defects  of  these  charters  .  212 

A  new  charter  granted  to  them  with  more 

ample  privileges  .  .  214 

They  are  divided  by  factions          .  .  218 

An  inquiry  instituted  into  their  conduct  219 

They  are  required  to  surrender  their  charter, 
which  they  refuse  .  .  .     ib. 

A  writ  of  quo  warranto  is  issued  against  them    ib. 
They  are  tried  in  the  court  of  King's  Bench, 

and  the  company  is  dissolved  .  ib. 

Their  charter  transferred  to  the  colonists      .  230 
Mestizos.     Distinction  between  them  and  mu- 

lattoes     .  .  .  .188 

Metals.     The  original  natives  of  America  totally 

unacquainted  with  useful  metals   .  .     81 

Mexicans.     Their  account  of  their  own  origin 
compared  with  later  discoveries  .  69 

Their  paintings  few  in  number,  and  of  am- 
biguous meaning        .  .  .165 
Description  of  their  historical  pictures  .  267 
Various  exaggerated  accounts  of  the  number 

of  human  victims  sacrificed  bv  them  .  269 

Their  language  furnished  with  respectful  ter- 
minations for  all  its  words  .  .          266 
How  they  contributed  to  the  support  of  go- 
vernment .                 .                 .  .     ib. 
Mexico.     Arrival  of  Fernando'  Cortes  on  the 

coast   .  .  .  .103 

His  interview  with  two  Mexican  officers        .  104 
Information  sent  to  Montezuma,  with  some 

Spanish  presents  .  .  ib. 

Montezuma  sends  presents  to  Cortes,  with 

orders  not  to  approach  his  capital  .  105 

State  of  the  empire  at  that  time  .  ib. 

The   Zempoallans    court  the  friendship   of 

Cortes         .  .  .  .107 

Several   caziques  enter  into   alliance   with 

Cortes         .  .  .  .108 

Character  of  the  natives  of  Tlascala      .  109 

The  Tlascalans  reduced  to  sue  for  peace        .  Ill 
Arrival  of  Cortes  at  the  capital  city       .  113 

The  city  described  .  .  114 

Montezuma  acknowledges  himself  a  vassal  to 

the  Spanish  crown     .  .  .117 

Amount  of  the  treasure  collected  by  Cortes      ib. 
Reasons  of  gold  being  found  in  such  small 

quantities  .  .  .  .     ib. 

The   Mexicans  enraged  by  the  imprudent 

zeal  of  Cortes     .  .118 

Attack  Alvarado    during    the    absence    of 

Cortes        .  .  .  .121 

Their  resolute  attack  on  Cortes  when  he  re- 
turned .  .  .122 
Death  of  Montezuma  .  .  .  123 
The  city  abandoned  by  Cortes  .  124 
Battle  of  Otumba  .  .  .  125 
The  Tepcacans  reduced  .  .  126, 
Preparations  of  the  Mexicans  against  the  re- 
turn of  Cortes  .  .  .  ib. 
Cortes  besieges  the  city  with  a  fleet  on  the  lake  129 
The  Spaniards  repulsed  in  storming  the  city  130 
Guatimozin  taken  prisoner  .  .  131 
Cortes  appointed  governor  .  .  134 
His  schemes  and  arrangements  .  .  ib. 
Inhuman  treatment  of  the  natives  .  ib. 
Reception  of  the  new  regulations  there  .  156 
A  retrospect  into  the  form  of  government, 

policy,  and  arts  .  .164 

Our  information  of  the  Mexican  monarchy 

very  imperfect  .  ,  .165 

Origin  of  the  monarchy          .  .  ib. 


xii 


INDEX. 


Page 

Number  and  greatness  of  the  cities  .   166 

Mechanical  professions   there  distinguished 

from  each  other  .  .  ib. 

Distinction  of  ranks      .  .  .     ib. 

Political  institutions  .  .  167 

Power  and  splendour  of  their  monarchs  .  168 
Order  of  government  .  .  ib. 

Provision  for  the  support  of  it  .     ib. 

The  police  of  the  Mexican  government  ib. 

The  progress  of  the  Mexicans  in  various  arts  ib. 
Their  paintings  .  .  .  ib. 

Their  method  of  computing  time    .  .169 

Their  wars  continual  and  ferocious        .  ib. 

Their  funeral  rites         .  .  .170 

Imperfection  of  their  agriculture  .  ib. 

Doubts  concerning  the  extent  of  the  empire  ib. 
Little  intercourse  among  its  several  provinces  ib. 
Ignorance  of  money  .  .  .171 

State  of  their  cities  .  .  ib. 

Temples  and  other  public  buildings  .     ib. 

Religion,  priests,  &c.  .  ib. 

Causes  of  the  depopulation  of  this  country  .  182 
The  small-pox  very  fatal  there  .  183 

Number  of  Indian  natives  remaining  there  .  184 
List  and  character  of  those  authors  who  wrote 

accounts  of  the  conquest  of  Mexico    .  257 

Description  of  the  aqueduct  for  the  supply  of 

the  capital  city  .  .  .  266 

(See  Colonies.) 

Michael,  St.  Balboa  discovers  and  names  this 
gulf,  in  the  South  Sea  .  .  .51 

The  colony  established  by  Pizarro         .  140 

Migrations  of  mankind.  Why  first  made  by 
land  .  .  .  .4 

Mind  (human).  Its  effects  proportioned  to  the 
wants  of  the  body  .  .  .76 

Mines  of  South  America.     The   great  induce- 
ment to  population  .  .          178 
Their  produce                .  .  193 
The  spirit  with  which  they  are  worked  ib. 
Fatal  effects  of  this  ardour            .                .     ib. 
Evidence  of  the  pernicious  effects  of  labour- 
ing in  them         .                .                .          273 
Total  produce  of  the  Mexican  mines  to  the 
Spanish  revenue        .                .                .  279 

Molucca  Islands.  The  Spanish  claims  sold  by 
the  Emperor  Charles  V.  to  the  Portuguese  133 

Monastic  institutions.  Their  pernicious  effects 
in  the  Spanish  American  colonies  .  190 

Number  of  convents  in  those  colonies    .  274 

Monsoon*.  When  their  periodical  course  was 
discovered  by  navigators 

Montesena  (a  Dominican  preacher  at  St.  Do- 
mingo). Publicly  remonstrates  against  the 
cruel  treatment  of  the  Indians  .  54 

Montezuma.  The  first  intelligence  received  by 
the  Spaniards  of  this  prince  .  .  61 

Receives  intelligence  of  the  arrival  of  Fer- 
nando Cortes  in  iiis  dominions  .  104 
His  presents  to  Cortes  .  .  .  105 
Forbids  him  to  approach  his  capital  .  ib, 
State  of  his  empire  at  this  time  .  .  ib 
His  character  .  .  ib 
His  perplexity  at  the  arrival  of  the  Spaniards  ib 
His  timid  negotiations  with  Cortes  .  ib 
His  scheme  for  destroying  Cortes  at  Cholula 

discovered  .  .  .  .112 

His  irresolute  conduct  .  .  11 

His  first  interview  with  Cortes      .  .     ib 

Seized  by  Cortes  and  confined  to  the  Spanish 
quarters  -  .  .  .          11 


Is  fettered      .  .  .  .116 

Acknowledges  himself  a  vassal  to  the  Spanish 

crown  .  .  117 

Remains  inflexible  with  regard  to  religion    .   118 
Circumstances  of  his  death    .  .  123 

Account  of  a  gold  cup  of  his  in  England       .  267 
Mulattoes.     Explanation  of  this  distinction  in 
the  Spanish  American  colonies  .  188 

N. 

Narvaez,  Pamphilo.     Sent  by  Velasques  with  an 
armament  to  Mexico  to  supersede  Cortes      .  119 
Takes  possession  of  Zempoalla  .  120 

Defeated  and  taken  prisoner  by  Cortes        .  1 21 
How  he  carried  on  his  correspondence  with 

Montezuma         .  .  .          260 

Natchez  (an  American  nation).     Their  political 
institutions     .  .  .  .84 

Causes  of  their  tame  submission  to  the  Spa- 
niards .  .  .  85 
Their  religious  doctrines                .                 .     ib. 
Navigation.     The  art  very  slowly  improved  by 
mankind                 ...  3 
The  knowledge  of  the  art  prior  to  commercial 

intercourse  .  .  ...     4 

The  imperfections  of  it  among  the  ancients      ib. 
More  improved  by  the  invention  of  the  mari- 
ner's compass  than  by  all  the  efforts  of 
preceding  ages    .  .  .12 

The  first  naval  discoveries  undertaken   by 

Portugal    .  .  .  .     ib. 

Negroes.     Their  peculiar  station  under  the  Spa- 
nish dominion  in  America  .  .  188 
First  introduced  into  Virginia               .          217 
New  England.     The   first  attempts   to   settle 
herein  unsuccessful        .                 .  .  225 
Religious  disputes  give  rise   to  the  colony 

there   .  .  .  ib. 

A  settlement  is  formed  at  New  Plymouth  in 

Massachusetts'  Bay    .  .  .  228 

Plan  of  its  government          .  .  ib. 

All  property  is  thrown  into  a  common  stock     ib. 
A  grand  council  is  appointed         .  .     ib. 

A  new  colony  is  projected  at  Massachusetts' 
Bay,  and  a  charter  granted  for  its  establish- 
ment ....          228 
Its  settlement  there        .  .  .  229 

A  new  church  instituted  there  .  ib. 

Its  intolerance  .  .  ib, 

Charter  of  the  English  company  of  merchants 

in  London  transferred  to  the  colonies  230 
The  colony  of  Massachusetts'  Bay  extends  .  ib. 
None  but  members  of  the  church  are  admitted 

as  freemen  there  .  .          230 

Bad  consequences  of  this  regulation  .  231 

The  settlement  increases,  and  the  assembly 
is  restricted  to  the  representatives  of  free- 
men   .  ,  .  ib. 
Extent  of  political  liberty  assumed  by  the 

assembly    .  .  .  .     ib. 

Spirit  of  fanaticism  spreads  in  the  colony  ib. 

New  settlers  arrive,  and  the  doctrine  of  the 
Antinomians  are  condemned  by  a  general 
synod  .  .  .  .  ib. 

Sectaries  settle  in  Providence  and  Rhode 

Island  .  .  232 

Theological  contests  give  rise  to  the  colony 

of  Connecticut  .  .  .     ib, 

Emigrants  from  Massachusetts'  Bay  settle  in 
Connecticut  .  .  .  233 


INDEX. 


Page 

The  Dutch,  who  had  established  a  few  trading 
towns  on  the  river  there,  peaceably  with- 
draw .  .  .  .233 
Settlements  are  formed  in  the  provinces  of 

N«w  Hampshire  and  Maine  .  ib, 

Further  encroachments  of  the  English  re- 
sisted by  the  natives  .  .  .     ib, 
War  with  the  Pequod  tribes  commenced  ib, 
Purification  of  the  army         .                 .             ib, 
The  Indians  defeated         .                 .                 .  234 
Cruelties  exercised  against  them                   .  234 
Emigration  from  England  to  the  colonies  pro- 
hibited by  proclamation      .                 .             ib 
Colony  of  Massachusetts'  Bay  is  sued  at  law, 

and  found  to  have  forfeited  its  rights         .     ib. 

Confederacy  of  the  States     .  .  235 

Newfoundland.     Its  situation  described  .  244 

Discovered  by  Cabot  .  .  205 

New  Holland.     Account  of  the  country  and  its 

inhabitants  .  .  .  253 

New  Plymouth.     Settlement       .  .  228 

(See  Colonies,  New  England.") 
New  Spain.     Discovered   and  named  by  Juan 
de  Grijalva  .  .  .CO 

(See  Mexico.) 

Nigno,  Alonzo.     His  voyages  to  America  39 

Norwegians.  In  ancient  times  this  people 
might  have  migrated  to,  and  colonized  Ame- 
rica. .  .  .  .69 
Nugnez  Vela,  Blasco.  Appointed  viceroy  of 
Peru,  to  enforce  the  new  regulations  15G 
His  character  .  .  .  157 
Commits  Vaca  de  Castro  to  prison  .  ib. 
Dissensions  between  him  and  the  court  of 

audience     .  .  .  .     ib. 

Is  confined  .  .  ib. 

Recovers  his  liberty       .  .  .  158 

Resumes  his  command  .  .  ib. 

Pursued  by  Gonzalo  Pizarro          .  .     ib. 

Defeated  and  killed  by  Pizarro  .  ib. 

O. 

Ocampo,  Diego.  Sent  with  a  squadron  from 
Hispaniola  to  desolate  the  country  of  Cu- 

*   mana  .  .  58 

Ocampo,  Sebastian  de.  Sails  round  Cuba  and 
discovers  it  to  be  an  island  .  .  47 

Ocean.  Continues  long  a  formidable  barrier 
to  the  intercourse  between  distant  countries 
although  adapted  to  facilitate  it  .  .3 

(See  Compass,  Navigation.) 

Ojeda,  Alonzo  de.     His  private  expedition  to  the 
'  West  Indies  ...  38 

His  second  voyage         .  .  .41 

Obtains  a  government  on  the  continent  48 

Olmedo,  Father  Bartholomew  de.     Checks    the 
rash  zeal  of  Cortes  at  Tlascala  in  Mexico        112 
Sent  by  Cortes  to  negotiate  with  Narvaez       120 

Orellana,  Francis.  Appointed  to  the  command 
of  a  bark  built  by  Gonzalo  Pizarro,  and 
deserts  him  .  •  .  .  152 

Sails  down  the  Maragnon  .  .     ib. 

Returns  to  Spain  with  a  report  of  wonderful 

discoveries  .  .  ib. 

Herrea's  account  of  his  voyage     .  .  265 

Orgognez.  Commands  Almagro's  party  against 
the  Pizarros,  and  is  defeated  by  them  .  150 

inoco.     This  great  river  discovered  by  Chris- 
topher Columbus  .  .  .36 
The  great  plenty  of  fish  in  this  river  252 


Page 
Strange  method  of  choosing  a  captain  among 

the  Indian  tribes  on  the  banks  of  this  river  68 
Otaheite.     The  inhabitants  ignorant  of  the  art 
of  boiling  water 


Sent  governor  to  His- 


25* 
12 

41 
ib 

4'. 


Otumba.    Battle  beween  Cortes  and  the  Mexi- 
cans .... 
Ovando,   Nicholas  de. 
paniola   . 

His  prudent  regulations 
Refuses  admission  to  Columbus  on  his  fourth 

voyage 
His  ungenerous  behaviour  to  Columbus  on 

his  shipwreck  .  .  .43 

Receives  him  at  length,  and  sends  him  home    44 
Engages  in  a  war  with  the  Indians        .  45 

His  cruel  treatment  of  them         .  .     ib. 

Encourages  cultivation  and  manufactures        4C 
His  method  of  trepanning  the  natives  of  the 

Lucayos      .  .  .  .45 

Is  recalled  .  .45 

P. 

Pacific  Ocean.     Why,  and  by  whom,  so  named  133 

Packet-boats.  Their  first  estsblishment  between 
Spain  and  her  American  colonies  .  199 

Panama.'.    Settled  by  Pedrarias  Davila  .     53 

Parmenides.  The  first  person  who  divided  the 
earth  by  zones  .  .  .  238 

Patagonians.     Account  of  them         .  .     75 

The  reality  of   their  gigantic  size  to  be  de- 
cided .  .  .75,  253 

Pedrarias  Davila.  Sent  with  a  fleet  to  super- 
sede Balboa  in  his  government  of  Santa 
Maria,  on  the  isthmus  of  Darieii  .  .  52 

Treats  Balboa  ill  .  .  ib. 

Rapacious  conduct  of  his  men     .  .     ib. 

Is  reconciled  to  Balboa,  and  gives  him  his 

daughter     .  .  .  .53 

Puts  Balboa  to  death  .  .  ib. 

Removes  his  settlement  from  Santa  Maria  to 
Panama      .  .  .  .     ib. 

Penguin.  The  name  of  that  bird  not  derived 
from  the  Welsh  language  .  .  241 

Perez,  Juan.  Columbus  patronized  by  him  at 
the  court  of  Castile  .  .  .21 

His  solemn  invocation  for  the  success  of  Co- 
lumbus's  voyage  .  .  23 

Periplus  of  Hanno.  The  authenticity  of  that 
work  justified  .  .  .  236 

Peru.     The  first  intelligence   concerning  this 
country  received  by  Vasco  Nugnez  de  Balboa    50 
The  coast  discovered  by  Pizarro  .  138 

Pizarro's  second  arrival  .  .  139 

His  hostile  proceedings  against  the  natives        ib. 
The  colony  of  St.  Michael  established  .  140 

State  of  the  empire  at  the  time  of  this  invasion     ib. 
The  kingdom  divided  between  Huascar  and 

Atahualpa  .  .  .  ib. 

Atahualpa  usurps  the  goverment  .  -141 

Huascar  solicits  assistance  from  Pizarro  ib. 

Atahualpa  visits  Pizarro         .  .  142 

Is  seized  by  Pizarro       .  .  .  143 

Agreement  for  his  ransom      .  .  ib. 

Is  refused  his  liberty     .  .  .144 

Cruelly  put  to  death  .  .145 

Confusion  of  the  empire  on  this  event  .  ib. 

Quito  reduced  by  Beualcazar         .  .  146 

The  city  of  Lima  founded  by  Pizarro  .          147 
Chili  invaded  by  Almagro  .  .     ib. 

Insurrection  of  the  Peruvians  .  ib. 

Almagro  put  to  death  by  Pizarro  .  150 


XIV 


INDEX. 


Page 

Pizarro  divides  the  country  among  his  fol- 
lowers       .  .  .151 
Progress  of  the  Spanish  arms  there      .  ib. 
Francis  Pizarro  assassinated          .                .153 
Reception  of  the  new  regulations  there          156 
The  viceroy  confined  by  the  court  of  au- 
dience        .                .                .                .157 
The  viceroy  defeated  and  killed  by  Gonzalo 

Pizarro  .  .  .158 

Arrival  of  Pedro  de  la  Gasca        .  .  160 

Reduction  and  death  of  Gonzalo  Pizarro          162 
The  civil  wars  there  not  carried  on  with  mer- 
cenary soldiers  .  .  ib. 
Gratified  with  immense  rewards    .                 .     ib. 
Their  profusion  and  luxury    .                .            ib. 
Ferocity  of  their  contests               .                .     ib. 
Their  want  of  faith                 .                .           163 
Instances       .                .                .                .    ib 
Division  of  the  country  by  Gasca  among  his 

followers  .  .  ib 

A  retrospect  into  the  original  government, 
arts,  and  manners  of  the  natives  . 

The  high  antiquity  they  pretend  to        .  17< 

Their  records  .  .  .     ib 

Origin  of  their  civil  policy     .  .  ib 

This  founded  on  religion  .  .     ib 

The  authority  of  the  Incas  absolute  and  un- 
limited .  .  .17 
All  crimes  were  punished  capitally  .  ib 
Mild  genius  of  their  religion  .  ib 
Its  influence  on  their  civil  policy  .  ib 
And  on  their  military  system  .  175 
Peculiar  state  of  property  there  .  .  ib 
Distinction  of  ranks  .  .  ib. 
State  of  the  arts  .  .  .  ib. 
Improved  state  of  agriculture  .  ib. 
Their  buildings  .  .  .  176 
Their  public  roads  .  .  ib. 
Their  bridges  ...  ib. 
Their  mode  of  refining  silver  ore  .  177 
Works  of  elegance  ,  .  .  ib. 
Their  civilization  but  imperfect  .  ib. 
Cuzco  the  only  place  that  had  the  appear 
ance  of  a  city 


No  perfect  separation  of  professions 
tie  commercial  intercourse 


ib. 
ib. 
ib. 
178 
ib. 


Litt 

Their  unwarlike  spirit 

Eat  their  flesh  and  fish  raw 

Brief  account  of  other  provinces  under  the 

viceroy  of  New  Spain         .  .  ib. 

Causes  of  the  depopulation  of  this  country    .  183 
The  small-pox  very  fatal  there  .  ib. 

Writers  who  gave  accounts  of  the  conquests 

of  Peru      .  .  .  .262 

Their  method  of  building       .  270 

The  revenue  derived  from  Peru  by  Spain     .  278 

Peter  I.  (czar  of  Russia).     His  extensive  views 
in  prosecuting  Asiatic  discoveries          .  67 

Phenidans  (Ancient).     The  state  of  commerce 
and  navigation  among  them  .  .       5 

Their  trade,  how  conducted    .  .  236 

Philip  II.  (of  Spain).     His  turbulent  disposition 
aided  by  his  American  treasures    .  .  195 

Establishes  the  colony  of  Manila  .          202 

Philip  III.     Exhausts  his  country  by  inconsi- 
derate bigotry 


195 

Philippine  Islands.     Discovered  by  Ferdinand 
Magellan  .  .  .133 

A  colony  established  there  by  Philip  II.  of 

Spain         .  .  .  .202 

Trade  with  America  ib. 


Phytic.     Why  the  art  is  connected  with  divina- 
tion in  America  .  .  .94 
Pinta  (Chevalier).     Description  of  the  charac- 
teristic features  of  the  native  Americans          249 
Pinzon,    Vincent   Yanez.      Commands   a  vessel 
under  Columbus  in  his  first  voyage  of  dis- 
covery           .                                                 .22 
Sails  to  America  on  a  private  adventure  with 

four  ships  .  .  39 

Discovers  Yucatan        .  .  .47 

Pizarro,  Ferdinand.    Besieged  by  the  Peruvians 
in  Cuzco  .  .  .148 

Surprised  there  by  Almagro          .  .     ib. 

Escapes  with  Alvarado  .  .  ]49 

Defends  his  brother  at  the  court  of  Spain     .151 
Is  committed  to  prison  .  .  ib. 

Pizarro,  Francisco.     Attends  Balboa  in  his  set- 
tlement on  the  isthmus  of  Darien  .  .     49 
Marches  under  him  across  the  isthmus,  where 

they  discover  the  South  Sea  .  51 

His  birth,  education,  and  character  .  136 

Associates  with  Almagro  and  De  Luque  in  a 

voyage  of  discovery  .  .  137 

His  ill  success  .  .  .     ib. 

Is  recalled,  and  deserted  by  most  of  his  fol- 
lowers .  .  .  ib. 
Remains  on  the  island  of  Gorgona  for  supplies  138 
Discovers  the  coast  of  Peru  .  .  ib. 
Returns  to  Panama  .  .  ib. 
Goes  to  Spain  to  solicit  reinforcements  ib. 
Procures  the  supreme  command  for  himself  .  139 
Is  assisted  with  money  by  Cortes  .  ib. 
Lands  again  in  Peru  .  .  .  ib. 
His  hostile  proceedings  against  the  natives  ib. 
Establishes  the  colony  of  St.  Michael  .  140 
State  of  the  Peruvian  empire  at  this  time  ib. 
Cause  of  his  easy  penetration  into  the  country  141 
Is  applied  to  by  Huascar  for  assistance 

against  his  victorious  brother  Atahualpa        ib. 
State  of  his  forces  .  .  .     ib. 

Arrives  at  Caxamalca  .  .  ib. 

Visited  by  the  Inca         .  .  .  142 

His  perfidious  seizure  of  him  .  143 

Agrees  to  Atahualpa's  offer  for  his  ransom  .  ib. 
Division  of  their  plunder  .  .  ib. 

Refuses  Atahualpa  his  liberty        .  .144 

His  ignorance  exposed  to  Atahualpa     ,  ib. 

Bestows  a  form  of  trial  on  the  Inca  .     ib. 

Puts  him  to  death          .  .  .145 

Advances  to  Cuzco  .  .  ib. 

Honours  conferred  on  him  by  the  Spanish 

court  .  .  .  .146 

Beginning  of  dissensions  between  him  and 

Almagro  ' .  .  .  ib. 

His  civil  regulations      .  .  .147 

Founds  the  city  of  Lima        .  .  ib. 

Insurrection  of  the  Peruvians        .  .     ib. 

Cuzco  seized  by  Almagro       .  .  148 

Deludes  Almagro  by  negotiations  .  149 

Defeats  Almagro  and  takes  him  prisoner  150 
Puts  Almagro  to  death  .  .  .  ib. 

Divides  the  country  among  his  followers  151 
The  impolitic  partiality  of  his  allotments  .  ib. 
Makes  his  brother  Gonzalo  governor  of  Quito  ib. 
Assassinated  by  Juan  de  Herrada  .  153 

Pizarro,  Gonzalo.     His  brother  Francis  makes 
him  governor  of  Quito  .  .  151 

His  expedition  over  the  Andes     .  .     ib. 

Deserted  by  Orellana  .  .  152 

His  distress  on  this  event  .  .     ib. 

His  disastrous  return  to  Quito  .  ib 


INDEX. 


Page 
Encouraged  by  the  people  to  oppose  Nugnez 

Vela,  the  new  viceroy  .  .  157 

Assumes  the  government  of  Peru          .  158 

Marches  against  the  viceroy  .  .  ib. 

Defeats  and  kills  him    .  .  .    ib. 

Advised  by  Carvajal  to  negotiate  with  the 

court  of  Spain     .  ,  .  ib. 

Consultations  of  the  court  on  his  conduct     .  159 
His  violent  resolutions  on  the  arrival  of  Pedro 

de  la  Gasca         .  .  .160 

Resolves  to  oppose  him  by  violence  .  161 

Marches  to  reduce  Centeno  at  Cuzco    .  ib. 

Defeats  him  .  .  .  ib. 

Is  deserted  by  his  troops  on  the  approach  of 

Gasca  .  .  .162 

Surrenders  and  is  executed  .  .     ib. 

His  adherents  men  of  no  principle        .  163 

Plata  (Rio  de}.     Discovered  by  Dias  de  Solis    53 
Its  amazing  width  .  .  .          244 

Playfair  (Professor).  The  result  of  his  compa- 
rison of  the  narrative  and  charts  given  in 
Captain  Cook's  voyages,  published  in  1780, 
and  Mr.  Coxe's  account  of  the  Russian  dis- 
coveries printed  in  the  same  year,  in  which 
the  vicinity  of  the  two  continents  of  Asia  and 
America  is  clearly  ascertained  .  .  .  248 

Pliny  (the  naturalist).  An  instance  of  his  igno- 
rance in  geography  .  .  237 

Ponce  de  Leon,  Juan.     Discovers  Florida          .     50 
Romantic  motive  of  his  voyage  .  ib. 

Population  of  the  earth.     Slow  progress  .      3 

Porto  Bella.  Discovered  and  named  by  Chris- 
topher Columbus  .  .  .43 

Porto  Rico.  Settled  and  subjected  by  Juan 
Ponce  de  Leon  .  .  .47 

Porto  Santo.     Its  first  discovery  .  14 

Portugal.  When  and  by  whom  the  court  of 
inquisition  was  first  introduced  into  that 
country  .  .  .  238 

Portuguese.  View  of  the  circumstances  that 
induced  them  to  undertake  the  discovery  of 
unknown  countries  .  .  13 

Their  first  African  discoveries        .  .     ib. 

Madeira  discovered  .  .  14 

They  double  Cape  Bojador  .  .     ib. 

Obtain  a  papal  grant  of  all  the  countries  they 

should  discover   .  .  .15 

Cape  Verd  Islands  and  the  Azores  discovered    ib. 
Voyage  to  the  East  Indies  by  Vasco  de  Gama    37 

Potosi.     The  discovery  of  the  rich  silver  mines  193 
The  mines  greatly  exhausted  and  scarcely 
worth  working    .  .  .          236 

Prisoners  of  war.  How  treated  by  the  native 
Americans  .  .  .  .87 

Property.  The  idea  unknown  to  the  native 
Americans  .  .  .82 

Notions  of  the  Brazilians  concerning  it        .  253 

Protector.  The  functions  of  the  protector  of 
the  Indians  in  Spanish  America  .  189 

Ptolemy.  This  philosopher's  geographical  de- 
scription is  more  ample  and  exact  than  that 
of  his  predecessors  .  .  .9 

His  geography  translated  by  the  Arabians         10 
His  erroneous  position  of  the  Ganges  ;  237 


Quetlavaca  (brother  of  Montezuma).     Succeeds 
him  as  king  of  Mexico  .  .          126 

Conducts  in  person  the  fierce  attacks  which 
obliged  Cortes  to  abandon  his  capital        .    ib. 


Page 
Dies  of  the  small-pox  .  127 

Quevedo  (bishop  of  Darieri),  His  conference 
with  Las  Casas  on  the  treatment  of  the 
Indians  in  the  presence  of  the  Emperor 
Charles  V.  .  '  .  .58 

Quicksilver.     The  property  of  the  famous  mines 
at  Guancabelica  reserved  by  the  crown  of 
Spain      ....          276 
Why  the  price  is  reduced  .  .     ib. 

Quinquina  (or  Jesuits'  Bark).  This  production 
peculiar  to  Peru  .  .  .  194 

Quipos.  Some  account  of  the  historic  cords  of 
the  Peruvians  .  .  .  173 

Quito.  This  kingdom  overcome  by  Huana 
Capac,  inca  of  Peru  .  .  140 

Leaves  it  to  his  son,  Atahualpa    .  .  141 

Atahualpa's  general  revolts  after  his  death    •  145 
Reduced  by  the  Spaniards  under  Benalcazar  146 
Benalcazar   deposed,  and  Gonzalo  Pizarro 
made  governor  .  .  .  151 

R. 

Raleigh.  Resumes  the  plan  of  settling  colonies 
in  North  America .  '  .  .  209 

Dispatches  Amadas  and  Barlow  to  examine 
the  intended  settlements,  who  discover  Vir- 
ginia and  return  to  England      .  .     ib. 
Establishes  a  colony  in  Virginia,  and  obliged 

by  famine  to  return  to  England         .  ib. 

Makes  a  second  attempt  to  settle  a  colony 

there,  which  perishes  by  famine  .  210 

Abandons  the  design  .  .  ib. 

Ramusio.  His  defence  of  Hanno's  account  of 
the  coast  of  Africa  .  .  .  236 

Register-ships.  Why  introduced  in  the  trade 
between  Spain  and  her  colonies  .  '198 

Supersede  the  use  of  the  galleons  .     ib. 

Religion.  An  inquiry  into  the  religion  of  the 
native  Americans  .  .  .92 

Ribus.  His  account  of  the  political  state  of  the 
people  of  Cinaloa  .  .  .  253 

Their  want  of  religion  .  .          256 

Rio  de  la  Plata.  Account  of  this  province  and 
that  of  Tucuman  .  .  .181 

Rivers.    Their  amazing  size  in  America  .  62 

Robison  (Professor).  His  remarks  on  the  tem- 
perature of  various  climates  .  .  244 

Roldan,  Francis.     Columbus  leaves  him  chief- 
justice  in  Hispar»iola     . 
Becomes  the  ring-leader  of  a  mutiny     . 
Submits         .  .  .    ib. 

Romans.    Their  progress  in  navigation  and  dis- 
covery   . 
Their  military  spirit  averse  to  mechanical 

arts  and  commerce    .  .  .     ib. 

Navigation  and  trade  favoured  in  the  pro- 
vinces under  their  government  .  8 
Their  extensive  discoveries  by  land               .    ib. 
Their  empire  and  the  sciences  destroyed  to- 
gether                  .                 .  9 

Rubruquis  (Father) .  His  embassy  from  France 
to  the  khan  of  the  Tartars  .  .11 

Russia.  A  trade  opened  to  this  empire  by  the 
English  .  .  .  .207 

Restricted  to  a  company  of  British  mer- 
chants .  .  ib. 
The  connexion  with  the  Russian  empire  by 
Queen  Elizabeth       .                .     '           .    ib. 

Russians.    Their  discoveries  in  Asia         .  67 

Uncertainty  of  those  discoveries  .  .  247 


INDEX. 


S. 


Page 


Sacotecas.     Rich  silver  mines  discovered  .  193 

San  Salvador.  Discovered  and  named  by  Chris- 
topher Columbus  .  .  .25 

Sancho,  Don  Pedro.  Account  of  his  history  of 
the  conquest  of  Peru  .  .  262 

Sandoval.  The  shocking  barbarity  executed  by 
him,  in  Mexico  .  .134 

Sandoval,  Francisco  Tello  de.  Sent  by  the  Em- 
peror Charles  V.  to  Mexico  as  visitador  of 
America  .  .  •  156 

His  moderation  and  prudence      .  .     ib. 

Savage  Life.     A  general  estimate  .  97 

Scalps.  Motive  of  the  native  Americans  for 
taking  them  from  their  enemies  .  .  254 

Serralvo,  Marquis  de.  His  extraordinary  gains 
during  his  viceroyalty  in  America  .  280 

Seville.   -Extraordinary  increase  of  its  manu- 
factures by  the  American  trade    «  .  277 
Its  trade  greatly  reduced 
The  American  trade  removed  to  Cadiz          .  196 

Silver  ore.    The  Peruvian  method  of  refining  it  177 

Small-pox.  Indian  territories  depopulated  by 
this  distemper  .  •  231 

Son  or  a.  Late  discoveries  of  rich  mines  by  the 
Spaniards  .  .  .179 

Soul.     American  ideas  of  its  immortality  94 

South-Sea.  First  discovered  by  Vasco  Nugnez 
de  Balboa  .... 

Spain.     General  idea  of  the  policy  of  Spain 
with  regard  to  the  American  colonies 
Its  dominions  in  America  subjected  to  two 

viceroys 

A  third  viceroyalty  lately  established 
The  colonies  compared  with  those  of  Greece 

and  Rome 

Advantages  she  derived  from  her  colonies 
Why  she  does  not  still  derive  the  same 
Rapid  decline  of  trade 
This  decline  increased  by  the  mode  of  regu- 
lating the  intercourse  with  America 


51 
184 

ib. 
ib. 


ISO 
194 
ib. 
195 

ib. 


Employs  Guarda  Costas  to  check  illicit  trade  198 
The  use  of  register-ships  introduced       .  ib. 

The  company  of  Caraccas  established          .  199 
Commercial  ideas  enlarged  there  .  ib. 

Free  trade  permitted  to  several  provinces    .     ib. 
Revenue  derived  from  America  .  203 

Specification  .  278 

Spaniards.  Their  curious  form  of  taking  pos- 
session of  newly  discovered  countries  .  242 

Strabo.     A  citation  from  his  works  proving  the 
great  geographical  ignorance  of  the  ancients  237 
His  own  want  of  geographical  knowledge      238 

Superstition.  Always  connected  with  a  desire 
of  penetrating  into  the  secrets  of  futurity  94 

T. 

Tapia,  Christoval  de.  Sent  from  Spain  to 
Mexico,  to  supersede  Cortes  in  the  command, 
but  fails  in  the  attempt  .  133 

Tartars.  The  possibility  of  their  migrating  to 
America  .  .  .68 

Tlascala,  in  Mexico.     Character  of  the  natives  109 
Oppose  the  passage  of  the  Spaniards  .  110 

Reduced  to  sue  for  peace       .  .  Ill 

Tobacco.  That  of  Cuba,  the  best  flavoured  of 
any  in  all  America  .  .  .194 

Introduced  into  England 
Consequences  of  its  culture  in  Virginia        .  216 


Page 

Its  exportation  thence  is  annually  increased    !2t  / 
Trade  for  it  opened  with  Holland          .  ib. 

Grants  and  monopoly    .  .  .  220 

Toupinambos.  Account  of  their  ferocious  courage 
from  Lery  .  .  .          254 

Trade.     No  efforts  made  in  England  to  extend 
it  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VII.  or  his  imme- 
diate successors  .  .  .  205 
To  what  causes  that  neglect  was  owing  206 

Trade*  (Free).      Opened  between   Spain  and 
her  colonies  .  .          200 

Increase  of  the  Spanish  customs  from  this 
measure      ....  278 

Trade  Winds.     Their  periodical  course,  when 
discovered  by  navigators        .  .  8 

Travellers  (Ancient').  Character  of  their  writings    11 

Trinidad.    This  island  discovered  by  Christo- 
pher Columbus  on  his  third  voyage  .     36 

Tucuman.     Account  of  this  province ;  also  that 
of  Rio  de  la  Plata  .  .          180 

Tyre.     How  (he  commerce  of  this  city  is  con- 
ducted .  .  .  .236 

Tithes  of  Spanish  America.      How  applied  by 
the  court  of  Spain  .  .          279 


V. 


Vaca  de  Castro,  Christoval.     Sent  from  Spain 

to  regulate  the  government  of  Peru 

Arrives  at  Quito     . 

Assumes  the  supreme  authority    . 

Defeats  young  Almagro 

Prevents  an  insurrection  concerted  to  oppose 
the  new  regulations    . 

Imprisoned  by  the  new  viceroy 
Valverde,  Father  Vincent.  Curious  harangue  to 

Atahualpa,  Inca  of  Peru 

Gives  his  sanction  to  the  trial  and  condem- 
nation of  Atahualpa 

Vega,  Garcilasso  de  la.      Character  of  his  com- 
mentary on  the  Spanish  writers  concerning 

Peru 
Vegetables.     Their  natural  tendency  to  fertilize 

the  soil  where  they  grow 
Velasquez,  Diego  de.     Conquers  the  island  of 

Cuba 

His  preparations  for  invading  New  Spain 

His  difficulty  in  choosing  a  commander  for 
the  expedition 

Appoints  Fernando  Cortes     . 

His  motives  to  this  choice 

Becomes  suspicious  of  Cortes 

Orders  Cortes  to  be  deprived  of  his  commis- 
sion and  arrested 

Sends  an  armament  to  Mexico  after  Cortes 
Senegas,  P.        His  character  of    the   native 

Californians  . 
Venereal  Disease.      Originally  brought   from 

America 

Appears  to  be  wearing  out 

Its  first  rapid  progress 
Venezuela.     History  of  that  settlement 
Venice.     Its  origin  as  a  maritime  state      . 

Travels  of  Marco  Polo  . 
Verd  Islands.     Discovered  by  the  Portuguese 
Viceroys.     The  Spanish  dominions  in  America 

subjected  to  two  viceroys 

A  third  lately  established 

Their  powers 

A  fourth  established 


151 

153 

ib. 

154 

156 

157 

142 
145 


263 
65 

49 
101 

ib. 
ib. 
102 

ib. 

ib. 
118 

251 

75 

76 

250 

181 

10 

ib. 

15 

1S5 
ib. 
ib. 

201 


INDEX. 


Page 

Villa  Segnor.    His  account  of  the  state  of  popu- 
lation in  New  Spain      .  .  272 
His  detail  of  the  Spanish  American  revenue  278 
Villefagna,  Antonio.     Foments  a  mutiny  among 
Cortes'  troops                 .                 .  .127 
Discovered  by  Cortes  and  hanged        .  128 
Virginia.     Its  first  discovery              .                 .  209 
Attempts  to  settle  there  unsuccessful     .  ib. 
Second  attempt  to  settle  there,  when  the  co- 
lony perishes  by  famine              .                 .  210 
The  scheme  of  settling  there  abandoned          21 1 
Divided  into  two  colonies               .                 .  212 
Charters  granted  to  two  companies  to  make 

settlements  there  .  .  ib. 

Captain  Newport  sails  from  England  to  Vir- 
ginia and  discovers  the  Chesapeake  .  213 
He  proceeds  up  James  river,  and  founds  a  co- 
lony in  Jamestown             .                 .  ib. 
Its  bad  administration    .                 .                 .     ib. 
Captain  Smith  is  excluded  from  his  seat  at 

the  council-board  .  .  ib. 

The  colony  is  annoyed  by  the  Indians,  and 
suffers  from  scarcity  and  the  unhealthiness 
of  the  climate  .  .  .  ib. 

Smith  is  recalled,  and  the  prosperity  of  the 

colony  restored  .  .  ib. 

He  is  taken  prisoner  by  the  Indians,  his  life 
is  spared,  and  his  liberty  obtained  through 
the  intercession  of  a  favourite  daughter  of 
an  Indian  chief  .  .  .  ib. 

Returns  to  James-town,  and  finds  the  colony 

in  distress  .  .  ib. 

The  colonists  are  deceived  by  the  appearance 

of  gold        .  .  .  .214 

A  survey  of  the  country  is  undertaken  by 

Smith  .  .  ib. 

The  company  obtains  a  new  charter  with 

more  ample  privileges  .  .     ib. 

The  jurisdiction  of  the  council  in  the  colony 
abolished,  and  the  government  vested  in  a 
council  resident  in  London  ib. 

Lord  Delaware  appointed  governor  and  cap- 
tain-general of  the  colony,  and  Sir  Thomas 
Gates  and  Sir  George  Summers  vested  with 
the  command  till  his  arrival  .  .  ib. 

The  vessel  in  which  they  embark  stranded  on 

the  coast  of  Bermudas        .  .  ib 

Smith  returns  to  England,  and  anarchy  pre- 
vails in  the  colony      .  .  .  215 
The  Indians  withhold  supplies,  and  the  colony 

reduced  by  famine  .  .          -  ib 

Gates  and  Summers  arrive  from  Bermudas, 
and  find  the  colony  in  a  desperate  situa- 
tion    .  .  .  ib 
They  are  about  to  return  to  England  when 

Lord  Delaware  arrives  .  .     ib 

He  reconciles  all  differences,  and  perfectly 

restores  subordination         .  .  ib 

Obliged  to  resign  the  government  and  return 

to  England  on  account  of  bis  health          .     ib 
Superseded  by  Sir  Thomas  Dale,  who  esta- 
blishes martial  law  .  *  ib 
Another  charter  granted  to  the  colony  with 
new  privileges            .                  .                 • 
The  land  is  cultivated,  and  a  treaty  concluded 

with  the  Indians  .  •  ib 

Rolfe,  a  man  of  rank  in  the  colony,  marries 

the  daughter  of  an  Indian  chief  .     ib 

The  land  first  becomes  property  .  ib 

Culture  of  tobacco  introduced        .  .     ib 

The  quantity  exported  increases  every  year      ib 


Page 

Negroes  are  first  introduced          .  .  217 

A  general  assembly  of  the  representatives  is 
formed  .  .  .  ib. 

A  new  constitution  given  to  the  colony,  and 
a  trade  for  tobacco  opened  with  Holland  .  ib. 

The  necessary  precautions  for  the  defence  of 
the  colony  being  neglected,  a  general  mas- 
sacre of  the  English  is  planned  by  the  In- 
dians, and  executed  in  most  of  the  settle- 
ments .  .  .  218 

A  bloody  war  commenced  with  the  Indians      ib. 

Their  plantations  are  attacked,  and  the  owners 
murdered  .  .  .  .  ib. 

A  few  escape  to  the  woods,  where  they  perish 
with  hunger  .  .  .  ib. 

The  settlements  extend,  and  industry  revives    ib. 

The  strength  of  the  colony  is  considerably 
weakened  .  .  .  220 

A  temporary  council  is  appointed  for  its  go- 
vernment .  .  .  .  ib. 

The  arbitrary  government  of  the  colonies  on 
the  accession  of  Charles  I.  .  .  ib. 

The  colonists  seize  Sir  John  Harvey,  governor, 
and  send  him  prisoner  to  England  .  ib, 

He  is  released  by  the  king,'  and  reinstated  in 
his  government  .  .  .  221 

Succeeded  by  Sir  John  Berkeley,  whose  wise 
administration  is  productive  of  the  best 
effects  .  .  .  .  ib. 

New  privileges  granted  to  the  colony,  which 
flourishes  under  the  new  government  ib. 

It  is  attacked  by  the  Indians         .  .  223 

Discontents  are  produced  by  grants  of  land 
from  the  crown  .  .  .  ib. 

An  insurrection  breaks  out,  and  the  governor 
and  council  forced  to  fly  .  .  ib. 

They  apply  to  England  for  succour       .          224 

The  rebellion  is  terminated  by  the  death  of 
Nathaniel  Bacon  .  .  .  ib. 

The  governor  is  reinstated,  and  an  assembly 
is  called  .  .  .  ib. 

The  moderation  of  its  proceedings  .     ib. 

General  state  of  the  colony  till  the  vear 
1688  ib. 

(See  Colonies.} 
Ulloa,  Don  Antonio  de.     His  description  ox  the 

characteristic  features  of  the  native  Ameri- 
cans       ....          249 

His  reasons  for  the  Americans  not  being  so 
sensible  of  pain  as  the  rest  of  mankind  .  255 

His  account  of  the  goods  exported  from  Spain 

to  America,  with  the  duty  on  them     .          280 
Volcanoes.     The  remarkable  number  of  them  in 

the  northern  parts  of  the  globe  discovered  by 

the  Russians  ....  247 

W. 

Wafer,  Lionel.     His  account  of  a  peculiar  race 
of  diminutive  Americans   . 

Compared  with  similar  productions  in  Africa    ib. 
War-sony.     Its  terms  and  sentiments   among 

the  native  Americans  .  .  254 

Willoughby,  Sir  Hugh.     Sails  in   search  of  a 
north-east  passage  to  India  „  .  206 

Steers  along  the  coast  of  Norway  and  doubles 

the  North  Cape  .  ib. 

His  squadron  is  separated  in  a  storm,  and 
his  ship  driven  into  an  obscure  harbour  in 
Russian  Lapland,  where  he  and  all  his 
companions  are  frozen  to  death  .  ib. 


INDEX. 


Page 

Women.  Their  condition  among  the  native 
Americans  .  .  .78 

Are  not  prolific  .  .  .79 

Not    permitted    to  join    in   their    drunken 

feasts  .  .  .  .97 

Not  suffered  to  wear  ornaments     .  .  255 

X. 

Xeres,  Francisco  de.  This  secretary  of  Pizarro 
the  earliest  writer  on  his  Peruvian  expedi- 
tion .  .  .  .262 

Ximenes  (Cardinal).     His  regulations  for  the 
treatment  of  the  Indians  in  the  Spanish  colo- 
nies .  .  .  .55 
Patronizes  the  attempt  of  Ferdinand  Ma- 
gellan                .               .                .132 


V. 


Page 


Yucatan.  This  province  discovered  by  Pinzon 
and  Dias  de  Solis  .  .  .47 

Described       ....  243 
From  whence  it  derives  its  value  .  179 

Policy  of  the  court  of  Spain  respecting  it      .     ib. 

Z. 

Zarate,  Don.  Augustine.  Character  of  his  His- 
tory of  the  Conquest  of  Peru  .  .  2G3 

Zones.  How  the  earth  is  divided  into  zones  by 
the  geography  of  the  ancients  .  .  9 

By  whom  first  so  divided        .  .  238 

Zummaraga,  Juan  de.  The  first  bishop  of 
Mexico,  and  destroyer  of  all  the  ancient  re- 
cords of  the  Mexican  empire  .  .  165 


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